A Torch Lighting the Way To Freedom

Specific Points on the Different Stages of Receiving Blessings ~ Part 1

~ DudjomTersarNgondro
HH Dudjom Rinpoche with Nyakpuwa Sonam Zangpo

2. Specific points on the different stages of receiving blessings: the approach and so forth

There are two sections.

a. IN GENERAL To approach an authentic teacher, who is the source of all perfection and virtue and the root of the Diamond Vehicle path, and to then please that teacher with great respect, physically, verbally, and mentally, and thereby properly receive the maturing empowerments and liberating instructions and acquire the treasure of the teacher’s mind, is the approach.

To one-pointedly put into practice the profound generation and perfection phases as instructed by the teacher and attain realization inseparable from the teacher’s mind is the accomplishment.

Having obtained accomplishment—realization of the innate natural state that is one’s own mind—to do whatever one can to benefit the doctrine and beings and especially to propagate the essential teaching of the Supreme Vehicleh is the activity.

It is by following these stages that one will fulfill the wishes of the knowledge holders of the past and hold their lineage; one will obtain accomplishment for oneself and benefit other beings, and by doing so one will join the ranks of the knowledge holders oneself.


~ Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom
Shambhala

Continues next week August 30th.

 

General Principles in making Devotion and Respect the Path

~ DudjomTersarNgondro


It is said in the writings of the great masters of the past that if you see your teachers as Buddhas, you will receive the blessings of the Buddhas.

If you see them as Bodhisattvas, you will receive the blessings of Bodhisattvas.

If you see them as accomplished beings, you will receive the blessings of accomplished beings.

If you see them as ordinary beings — simply as good spiritual friends — then that is the sort of blessing you will get.

While if you have no devotion at all, you will not receive any blessings at all.

For this reason, we should cultivate devotion, and there are four ways to do so. First, no other Buddha is greater than your own root teacher. The essence and embodiment of every one of the Three Jewels in the ten directions and three times is the teacher, and there is no end to the excellent qualities of the Three Jewels.

Consider that the sublime beings who are working at present for the welfare of beings everywhere, the sun and moon, medicines, and even boats and bridges are manifestations of the teacher; that empowerments, transmissions, and instructions you receive from others, occasions when you are writing, reading, and studying, and even circumstances in which you can perform positive actions are all the miraculous display of the teacher. In short, decide that the teacher is the Buddha in person.

Second, think of all the countless Buddhas there have been in the past, of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, teachers, yidam deities, and so on at present dwelling everywhere in the ten directions, and of the former knowledge holders who were learned and accomplished. You can marvel at these inconceivable and innumerable beings, at their clairvoyance, miraculous
powers, and other extraordinary qualities, and yet you do not have the good fortune to even meet them in a dream or hear them teach.

Moreover, even if you were to meet them, they could not do anything more for you than do your teachers. Your root teachers are the ones who give you the pith instructions that constitute an unmistaken, complete method for attaining
Buddhahood in a single body, in a single life. So even if they were to smash your body and vital force to dust, think that there is no way ever to repay their kindness.

Third, it will not do to think of your teachers when they are giving you teaching, offering you material gifts, and generally taking notice of you, but after a while to forget them. Nor merely when you are sick, in difficulty, or otherwise miserable, and not when you are comfortable and happy.

Instead, remember your teachers again and again, and think of nothing else, even when you are moving around, walking, lying down, or sitting, and whether you are happy or suffering.

Fourth, when you are thinking of your teachers, do not just say “I take refuge” or recite one or two prayers and reckon that that will do. Instead, you should feel intense yearning, with your hair standing on end and tears welling up in your eyes—the sort of longing that can suddenly transform your awareness, make ordinary perceptions cease, and cause experiences to
occur spontaneously.

When you have these four aspects together, you will have the sort of genuine devotion that allows blessings to penetrate your stream of being and is able to give rise to sudden realization.

Now there are four branches to applying devotion on the path. The first of these is never to think of anything as a fault in the teacher. If you see apparent faults in the teacher, you will be like Sangye Yeshe. Seeing Mañjushri as a lay practitioner with a wife and children, his faith wavered, and this acted as an obstacle to his attaining the supreme accomplishment.

It is your own impure mind that is responsible. How could there be a single fault in the Buddha? Let your teachers do what they are doing. Even if you see them doing such things as acting unchastely g or telling lies, train in thinking that these must be the best methods for benefiting beings. By using such skillful methods, they are certain to be maturing and liberating numerous beings, and they are therefore a hundred times, a thousand times
more to be marveled at than others who observe strict vows.

From the very fact that they are not doing it artfully or hypocritically, there can be no doubt that their conduct is that of a sublime being. In particular, if they should happen to scold you, it is to exhaust your evil deeds from the past; if they give you a beating, it is to drive out negative forces and obstacle makers.

Think how immensely kind they are being in treating you lovingly and not dishonestly, like fathers with their children. If they seem not to take any notice of you and to be displeased with you, realize that it is because of your impure actions and obscurations, and make every effort to purify your obscurations and to do anything that will please them by serving your teachers’ body, speech, and mind.

The second branch is to recognize that whatever your teachers do is a virtue, for as the accomplished beings of the past have said,

These precious, authentic teachers —
All that they do is excellent;
Whatever they do is a virtue.
Even if they are murderers or butchers,
Be content, it is perfect;
They surely hold beings with compassion.

Even if they appear to have loose sexual morals,
Good qualities are increasing, good qualities arise:
It is a sign that they are uniting skillful means and wisdom.
In fooling others with their lies,
They’re using a variety of gestures and means
To guide all beings on the path to liberation.

Even though they act as thieves, robbers, or gangsters,
They are transforming others’ property to accumulate merit
And reducing people’s poverty.
In truth, when teachers like these
Deliver a reprimand, it is a wrathful mantra:
It is sure to dispel bad circumstances and obstacles.

When they give a beating, it is a blessing:
It gives rise to all accomplishments.
Beings who have devotion, be glad!

The third branch is to decide that you have to put an end to all your hopes and doubts. Do not be concerned that by meditating with devotion on your teachers you will please or displease them in this life, let alone entertain the hope that you will attain the supreme accomplishment. No matter whether or not they hold you with their compassion, no matter whether or not you attain accomplishment, there is nothing else for you to do than to have
devotion.

The fourth branch is to always remain flexible and agreeable in your attitude to your teachers. Even in ordinary life, how much do respectable people put up with being polite and honest with their superiors, and that is only for this life, for a matter of months and years.

Your teachers are the sources of all happiness, excellence, and good qualities, major and minor, in this life, the next life, and all your lives until you reach enlightenment.

Therefore, you should be constantly adaptable in your wish to do everything you can, physically, verbally, and mentally, to serve them, including praying for their long life and the blossoming of their activities, for any Dharma qualities you obtain are entirely due to their kindness.

Use these four branches to train in developing devotion. For beginners it is difficult to give rise to uncontrived devotion right from the start and you have to create the foundation by deliberately arousing devotion. Later, develop the flow of devotion, getting used to it. Finally, when you gain the confidence of uncontrived devotion, you can be certain that your stream of being will inevitably be matured and liberated.

The Benefits of Bodhichitta

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

There are seven benefits: its superiority over other virtues, the fact that it is the root of the whole Dharma, the fact that it increases one’s merit, its vast qualities, and the facts that one becomes an object of the world’s reverence, that everything one undertakes is meaningful, and that all those with whom one is connected are linked to liberation.

1. The benefit that bodhichitta is oustandingly greater than other forms of virtue From the very moment we arouse bodhichitta, even the most terrible negative actions are instantly destroyed. No other positive act is as powerful as this, for as The Way of the Bodhisattva points out, Virtue, thus, is weak; and always Evil is of great and overwhelming strength. Except for perfect bodhichitta, What other virtue is there that can outshine it?

2. The benefit that it is the root of Dharma Bodhichitta is the seed of everything that is excellent. Even while one is circling in existence, it will result in much happiness; and it is the sole cause of nirvana, supreme enlightenment. We can read in the Sutra Requested by Brahma: Brahma, because the superior motivation, bodhichitta, is the root of the whole Dharma, it is like a seed. Why is this? Just as from a seed there comes the shoot, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, from the superior motivation there comes the experience of much happiness among gods and humans and, furthermore, the attainment of omniscience.

3. The benefit that one’s merit grows ever greater For those who have aroused bodhichitta and not let it degenerate, not only are wisdom and skillful means combined during formal meditation, when they are in a state of no-thought, but even in ordinary situations in which they are not thinking—when they are asleep or unconscious, for example—an unbroken stream of merit arises. We are not talking here about a source of good consistent with ordinary merit which, like the plantain tree, bears fruit once and then is spent, but rather of merit that produces the fruit of happiness until the essence of enlightenment is reached: it is inexhaustible, growing more and more, like a great wish-fulfilling tree. The Way of the Bodhisattva describes it thus: For when, with irreversible intent, The mind embraces bodhichitta, Willing to set free the endless multitudes of beings, At that instant, from that moment on, A great and unremitting stream, A strength of wholesome merit, Even during sleep and inattention, Rises equal to the vastness of the sky. and, All other virtues, like the plantain tree, Produce their fruit, but then their force is spent. Alone the marvelous tree of bodhichitta Constantly bears fruit and grows unceasingly.

4. The benefit that one has immeasurable qualities Arousing bodhichitta results in an immense profusion of excellent qualities, among them, holding the infinite teachings of the Buddhas, understanding numerous teachings, and being blessed by the Buddhas. And it is a supreme offering to the Buddhas. The Sutra of the Inconceivable Secrets says: If the merit of bodhichitta Were to take form It would fill the whole of space, And still there would be more. And in the Sutra of the Arborescent Array we read: In short, there is as much excellence and abundance of good qualities in arousing bodhichitta as all the excellence that the Victorious, Virtuous, Transcendent Buddhas possess: it is as vast as the firmament, as vast as the absolute space.

5. The benefit that one becomes an object of the world’s reverence Someone who possesses bodhichitta becomes an object of great reverence by the whole world, including the gods, as The Way of the Bodhisattva shows: Should bodhichitta come to birth In those who suffer, chained in prisons of samsara, In that instant they are called the children of the Blissful One, Revered by all the world, by gods and humankind.

6. The benefit that everything one undertakes is meaningful Everything someone who possesses bodhichitta does, whether neutral or positive, becomes a source of good consistent with liberation, for even if the act is not backed by the actual thought of bodhichitta at the time, once one has taken the vow of bodhichitta, provided one has not degenerated it, all one’s actions are permeated by bodhichitta. Everything such a person undertakes, therefore, is bound, ultimately, to be beneficial. We can read in the Sutra of the Arborescent Array: Child of good family, everything that someone who has aroused the supreme bodhichitta undertakes with his body, speech, and mind has meaning: it has a single flavor in that it is always and exclusively positive.

7. The benefit that all those with whom one is connected are linked to liberation Because Bodhisattvas are such important “fields,” people who, from lack of faith, get angry with them and do them harm will have to experience the lower realms, at least temporarily. But despite this, in the end, because of those Bodhisattvas’ compassion, they will definitely reach the end of cyclic existence and be liberated. As for those who do have faith in them, their merit will grow more and more powerful, and they will thereby swiftly attain enlightenment.

The Pagoda of Precious Jewels states:

Even those who do evil to a Bodhisattva, resulting in their going to the lower realms, will subsequently, because of that Bodhisattva’s great efforts, find freedom and be set in unsurpassable enlightenment.

And The Way of the Bodhisattva says:

I go for refuge to those springs of happiness Who bring their very enemies to perfect bliss.

To sum up, in the forty-fourth chapter of the Sutra of the Arborescent Array we find a description of how boundless the merit and other benefits of bodhichitta are. Having taken the vow of bodhichitta from Mañjushri, Sudhana wished to request the precepts, and in order to do so travelled south. He arrived in a southern land on the shores of the ocean, at the palace called “Endowed with the Essence Ornamented by Vairochana,” in which Maitreya was teaching the Dharma to a following of many hundreds of thousands of Bodhisattvas. Seeing him from a distance of five hundred leagues, Sudhana felt raptures of joy and prostrated to him. When Maitreya saw him, he placed his right hand on Sudhana’s head and delightedly sang his praises to the assembled Bodhisattvas: “Look, at Sudhana, he of pure intent, Born of enduring riches, Seeking the practice of supreme enlightenment, He has come before me, the wise one.” and, “Have you travelled well, you in whom compassion and love have arisen? Have you come to the vast mandala of Maitreya? Have you travelled well, you the sight of whom brings perfect peace? Have you not tired of performing the deeds of a Bodhisattva?” and so on.

Thereupon, Sudhana, with his hands folded, said to him: “Noble One, now that I am fully engaged in unsurpassable enlightenment, I beg you, since I do not know, to show me how to wholeheartedly undertake the activities of a Bodhisattva.”

To this Maitreya replied: “Fortunate child, you have been guided by a spiritual friend. Why is this? Fortunate child, bodhichitta is like the seed of all the Buddha’s teachings. In making everything that is virtuous in all beings grow, it is like a field. In consuming everything that is evil, it is like the fire at the end of the kalpa. In bringing to exhaustion all negative actions, it is like the underworld. In fulfilling all wishes, it is like the king of wish-fulfilling jewels. In drawing beings out of the river of cyclic existence, it is like a hook. It is like an offering tree in the world of gods, humankind, and demigods. It fulfills all aspirations, like the bounteous vase.”

And having actually described almost two hundred and fifty benefits, ending with the similes of elixirs and jewels, he concluded,

“Thus, bodhichitta possesses these and infinite other benefits.” For a detailed account you should consult the sutra itself.

A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom
Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
Padmakara Translatino Group
Shambhala Publishing