Secret Mantra

What is the sign that someone has received the teachings of the supreme Dharma and is practicing them?

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

What is the sign that someone has received the teachings of the supreme Dharma and is practicing them? Whoever has heard and absorbed the teachings becomes serene and self-possessed.

Ours is not a tradition that inculcates anger and encourages us to fight; it does not encourage us to get involved with our defiled emotions. On the contrary, the Buddha has taught us to get rid of our defilements as much as possible. The point is that, having received the Dharma teachings, we should find when we examine ourselves, that, even though we may not have been able to eradicate our defilements totally, our anger has at least diminished a little.

We should find that, even if we do get angry, we are less involved and are able to keep ourselves in check. This is the sort of sign we should be looking for. The sign that we are assimilating the teachings is an increase in serenity and self-control.

It is said that if practitioners do not examine themselves frequently, and if they fail to practice correctly, the Dharma itself will lead them to the lower realms. Some people claim to have received the teachings, but they don’t practice them. On the other hand, it is obviously impossible to eradicate defiled emotion just by listening to the teachings.

We have been in samsara from beginningless time and are immersed in the habits of defilement. These cannot be whisked away by the mere act of listening to something. So turn inward and examine your minds. You should at least have a glimmer of understanding!

In addition, we have all entered the Vajrayana. We have received profound empowerments and instructions of the Secret Mantra. This is said to be very beneficial but it is also very dangerous. Even if we are unable to bring our practice to accomplishment, if we keep our samaya unbroken, it is said that liberation will be achieved in seven lifetimes.

After crossing the threshold of the Secret Mantra, however, if we ruin our samaya by displeasing the Lama, causing havoc among our fellow Dharma practitioners and so on, the only possible destiny for us is the vajra hell.

The saying goes that practitioners of Secret Mantra either attain buddhahood or go to hell. There is no third alternative. It’s like a snake inside a cane: it must go either up or down. There’s no way out halfway! Think carefully about the benefits and hazards of samaya, and observe it purely and perfectly. To do this, it is crucial to keep a close watch on your mind, a practice in which all the essential points of the teachings are condensed.

It is vital to examine and watch your mind. You have all received instructions through the kindness of your teachers. This is what your Dharma practice should be like.

~ Dudjom Rinpoche, Counsels From My Heart

Faults and Downfalls in the Secret Mantra Vehicle

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

 

There is not one of us who has not entered the door of the Secret Mantra Vehicle. And once we have done so, if we do not subsequently keep the commitments, we will go to hell; if we do keep them, we will attain Buddhahood. There is no other destination than these two.

The Secret Mantra Vehicle commitments are very subtle, numerous, and difficult to keep. Even Lord Atisha said that after he had entered the Mantra Vehicle, he committed fault after fault in rapid succession.

So for us who have few antidotes, weak mindfulness, and no vigilance (we do not even know the different categories of vows, nor the point at which we break the precepts), there can be no doubt that breaches of our vows are falling on us like rain.

We should therefore do the practice of Vajrasattva every day and recite the hundred syllables twenty-one times. By doing so, our downfalls will be blessed and their fully ripened effect will be prevented from growing greater. And by reciting the hundred-syllable mantra one hundred thousand times, all our downfalls will be eradicated, as the Ornament of the Essence says:

Clearly visualize Vajrasattva
Enthroned on a white lotus and moon:
By reciting twenty-one times
The hundred syllables according to the ritual,
Downfalls and the like will be blessed
And therefore not grow greater.

Thus the greatest accomplished beings have taught,
So do this practice constantly.
If you recite it one hundred thousand times,
You will become the very embodiment of total purity.

Even if, for your own part, you have managed — through your stability in the generation and perfection phases, your mindfulness and vigilance, and so forth — to keep faultless commitments, there are others who may have broken the root commitments, and by mixing with them in conversation, joining with them in the same activities, and even drinking the water from the same valley as they, you will get the faults of transgression by association and of incidental transgression. As the tantra says,

I have kept the company of transgressors, fulfilled their wishes,
Given teachings to them and to those unsuitable.
I have thought nothing of those who’ve broken the commitments
And have in turn been tainted by their defilements and faults.

It is also said:

Like one drop of sour milk
That turns all the milk sour,
One degenerate practitioner
Spoils all the other practitioners.

Breaches of Mantra-Vehicle commitments are easy to purify if we part from them properly. The teachings say that if a single root downfall of the vows of individual liberation occurs and is concealed, it is impossible to repair, like a shattered earthen pot. Root downfalls of the Bodhisattva vow are like broken objects made of a precious metal: they can be repaired with the help of someone else, namely a spiritual friend.

Faults and downfalls in the Secret Mantra Vehicle are like slight dents in a precious metal object: one can completely purify them oneself, using the deity, mantra, and concentration as supports. As long as one parts from them immediately, they are easy to purify, but the longer one waits, the more the fault grows, and the harder it becomes to part from it. After three years, they cannot be purified, even if one attempts to part from them.

Dudjom Rinpoche –
A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom

The Ultimate Goal of the Secret Mantra Vehicle

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Buddha Shakyamuni Life Story Thangka

When the Buddha Shakyamuni attained the great enlightenment, the support he had was as the Lord of Mankind in our world of Jambudvipa, the excellent support of a body with the freedoms and advantages, and it was therefore called “better than the gods.” The Sutra of Manifest Enlightenment explains:

He did not attain enlightenment in the realms of the gods because gods are proud of their abode and therefore do not clearly realize the truth. Having seen that only the human state has the perfect qualities of the freedoms and advantages, he departed for Kapilavastu.

It has been taught that the ultimate goal of the Secret Mantra Vehicle too is swiftly accomplished through a human support, as we find in a tantra: Humans who are diligent In this marvelous kinglike Secret Mantra Vehicle Will attain its accomplishment in this very life, Not to mention the other powers achieved through the practice.

-~ Dudjom Rinpoche
A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom
Shambhala Publications

Happy Saga Dawa Duchen !

Join in celebration of the Enlightenment and Parinirvana of Buddha Shakyamuni on Full Moon Day, June 14th for Trochung, the Concise Troma Nagmo Sadhana and Tsok. The practice is scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm (Pacific time) and you may join online for free with this link and  make auspicious connections with offerings for Tsok, Butter Lamps or Smoke Offerings