His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – May 2, 2021

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche ascended the Dharma throne, and led the attendees in chanting the Great Six-Syllable Mantra. He then expounded on “Scroll 17, ‘Amitayus Tathagata Assembly’ (Chapter 5, Section 1)” of the Ratnakuta Sutra.

“Sutra: ‘Being able to know very well, and to praise, all the merits of Tathagata. Also, praising other merits as those in the methods.’

In the Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s Fundamental Vows, it is indicated that Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha often praised Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that only by their blessings, Ksitigarbha had been able to benefit a great number of sentient beings. In the Universal Gate Chapter, it is described that a certain Bodhisattva made an offering of jewelry to Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and then Avalokiteshvara made offerings of the same jewelry to the Buddha and a stupa, praising the merits of the Buddha.

Praising is rejoicing. Having seen the virtuous Dharmas performed by the guru, the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, your praises of them and of the deeds are rejoicing. On all merits, the greatest one is rejoicing in the merits of others. ‘Rejoicing’ is not what your answer is when someone asks you what the amount of a monetary offering would be. (Here, the answer of ‘rejoicing’ means ‘any amount’.) That is ‘casualness’. (In Chinese, the word, ‘following’, is pronounced as ‘sui’. A word after ‘sui’ is usually a noun – a person, a thing, or an act. ‘Rejoicing’ then means ‘to follow joy’, and ‘casualness’ means ‘to follow casualness’.) Rejoicing is a Dharma method. If you have seen people who have done good deeds, you praise them and give rise to a sense of joy in your heart. You will then be in ‘rejoicing’, and be able to train yourself to decrease occurrences of negative thoughts. However, after having seen others doing good, if you feel a sense of jealousy or competitiveness, then you are not in a rejoicing state. Anyone who does not rejoice in the merits of others cannot practice effectively on any Dharma methods.

‘Also, praising other merits as those in the methods.’ For any matters, spoken languages, or methods, if they can help sentient beings get opportunities for being liberated from birth and death, there are merits in these things. All mundane ways only generate good effects without merits. When you see someone doing good deeds or helping others, you can say that this person is doing good, but such good acts are just those of the human world, not of what are described in the Dharma. For being volunteers, doing good things, donating money, reciting sutras, organizing carnivals, or selling goods for charities, all of these only produce good fortune; there are no merits in them. Merits need to be obtained from the practices of precepts, meditation and wisdom, observing the Five Precepts and following the Ten Meritorious Acts. Those who have received the Bodhisattva Precepts should observe them, and those who have learned the Vajrayana Buddhism should observe the precepts of Tantra. Only can the wisdom – developed from the Dharma practices – and all Buddhist activities be called merits, because both are able to be utilized to benefit sentient beings.

Before, the Emperor Wu of Liang had asked Bodhidharma this, ‘I have done so much for the Dharma, are there merits for me?’ Bodhidharma answered a No. For this, he did nine years of wall-facing meditation. Bodhidharma could have easily replied a Yes. Then, the Emperor Wu of Liang might have bestowed a palace or even a city to Bodhidharma. However, he was a practitioner observing the precepts, and would not do flatteries and enticement to others. Many people think that they have merits in them, but being compared with this Emperor, they have done many less activities as he did. The Emperor Wu of Liang had done a lot for the Dharma, like promulgating a rule that, in the nation, all monastics and people learning Buddhism needed to eat vegetarian; he also ordered many Buddhist monastery and stupas be built. Nevertheless, there were no merits in what he had done.

You all have heard of the Precious Penitential Rites of Emperor of Liang. Emperor Wu of Liang’s beloved concubine who was often jealous while alive became a big python after her death. She then appeared in this Emperor’s dream and told him that she was suffering very much. Hence, the Emperor Wu of Liang requested the then Imperial Preceptor, Master Bao Zhi, to compose a write-up of the Precious Penitential Rites of Emperor of Liang. Then, the Emperor Wu of Liang led the bhikkhus who had observed precepts to make prostrations of the Thousand Buddhas Repentance Ritual. In this way, that concubine got the chance of being reborn in the Heaven Realm. She did not immediately ‘go’ to the Amitabha’s Land though. Based on Exoteric Buddhism, Master Bao Zhi was the emanation of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and had done very well in his practices. However, the concubine of this Emperor could have only gone to the Heaven Realm because she had not made vows, while alive, to be reborn in the Land of Amitabha. Even if you have learned the Phowa, without making vows and without practicing according to the Dharma principles, you still cannot be reborn in the Pure Land.

‘….Merits as those in the methods.’ This means that you do not blindly praise people that they have immeasurable merits in them. You can praise them, like saying, ‘This person has done many good deeds, has been a volunteer in many occasions, is a good person for being willing to service a crowd of people.’ Yet, there are no merits in what such a person has done. Merits are obtained from practices, not from just making offerings and giving alms. His Holiness had once made a calculation for me about my donations. I have donated more than US$16 million to Drikung Kagyu Dharma lineage. Even with so much money donated as offerings, there are no merits ‘reaching’ the donor. If making lots of offerings will enable a person to become a guru, then this Rinpoche (the supposed guru) is a fake. The offerings I have made are for me to get the causes and conditions so as to learn the Dharma. Having said that, you have not made offerings to me at all.

For this year’s Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness, I will pay for the puja’s costs. (The Grand Puja to the public was cancelled later because of pandemic restrictions.) Then, there are some disciples who say, ‘Since Rinpoche will need to spend a lot of money for the puja, we should go to the Center and make offerings to him.’ Those disciples who came to the Center yesterday to make offerings to me were not really making offerings; it was just an occasion for them to meet one another. It was also like a situation that a ‘merchandise’ has come out, and its appearance let you want to make an offering. Does this mean that you normally do not make offerings? Making offerings are making offerings. Is there a need to come up with something first?

Making offerings is to let us get causes, conditions and good fortune to practice methods on merits. If there are not even offerings made, there will be no ways to practice such methods. Many of the deceased had never met me when they were alive. When their family members came to seek my help (for their loved ones who had passed away), I always wanted them to eat vegetarian in this life. This was to let them practice a little on a Dharma method that is close to having merits. In this way, the deceased could be helped to get liberated. It is not just relying on reciting sutras by some persons at the deceased’s side. If there was no good fortune at all for the deceased, how could they be helped to be liberated? If they could have been, Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha would not have said, ‘I vow that I will not attain Buddhahood unless and until all of the hells are empty.’ Why had Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha not completely liberated sentient beings in hells but would have waited for me, a Rinpoche who does not speak fluent Mandarin (but propagates the Dharma in a Mandarin-speaking area), to appear? From this, it has demonstrated that without good fortune, causes and conditions, even if Ksitigarbha ‘sits’ in hells every day, those sentient beings, who have no affinities with Ksitigarbha, will be afraid when they see, and will not dare to approach, Ksitigarbha.

Some people will feel afraid when they see me. When I ask them if there is anything the matter, they will say, ‘No. Nothing.’ If they had no problems, they were Buddhas then. I have many disciples who are not usually around; they cannot be seen (by me) because they are afraid of me. Why? Because they have no good fortune.

We should be clear about how merits have been produced; we should understand whether what have been done by practitioners, Buddhas and Bodhisattva are merits or the good fortune of the Human and Heaven Realms. This quote is very important. Many people who have practiced for decades do not know the differences between the good fortune, of the Human and Heaven Realms, and merits. The Emperor Wu of Liang had done so much but there were still no merits in these deeds; there was only good fortune for him. What you have done on almsgiving or making offerings are just in the practice range of ‘path of accumulation’. When this path has reached a perfect completion, one can then enter into the practices of ‘path of preparation’. It is like me. I have implored His Holiness for Dharmas, and once they are transmitted to me, I have diligently practiced them. After this ‘path of preparation’ has been mastered, I have then entered the ‘path of vision’, truly realizing the essence of the Buddha and Emptiness. After ‘path of vision’, the next level is ‘path of cultivation’, which is really the start of practicing the Dharma. Do not think that you have been practicing; you are still making your efforts in the practices of ‘path of accumulation’.

Why can ‘path of cultivation’ be practiced only after ‘path of vision’ has been mastered? Without attaining realization in Emptiness or without understanding the essence of the Buddha, the Mahayana (the Vehicle of Bodhisattvas) that the Buddha taught will be irrelevant to you. The core of thoughts in Mahayana is Emptiness. After the Buddha had entered into Nirvana, many people argued about whether there was a state of ‘being non-existent’ or ‘being existent’. Actually, in both the Ratnakuta Sutra and the Great Prajna Sutra, it is mentioned that in order to realize the essence of the Buddha, one must understand Emptiness. Without attaining realization in Emptiness, there are no merits in all things that one has done because there are flaws in such activities.

What will happen to the person who has attained realization in Emptiness? You can see myself as an example then. After I have helped sentient beings, I forget about these things, unless it is a special case, which I will remember. It is not remembering what that sentient being will be giving me afterwards in return for my help. Rather, it is for me to remember that I have accomplished something which was originally very difficult to do. I have not been attached to the thought that since I have helped different people, I should then receive various things in return from them. Many believers have come to implore for my help, and I have never collected a penny from them, nor have I requested them to come back to help me do things. Only by helping them in this way can merits be obtained. Otherwise, such assistances will become good fortune.

No matter what kind of a position you are at, whether you are a great Throne Holder (of a Tibetan Buddhism order) or a great monk, if you commercialize the Dharma, there will be no merits in the activities derived from such commercialization. For the past seventeen years, I had been very cautious in holding the yearly Grand Puja because merits had been needed to benefit a great number of sentient beings. I did not want money. If I did, I could have charged the minimum market price of NT$1,500 per name shown on the to-be-liberated list (presented in the Puja each year). Because of this fact, you disciples should not think anymore that you have made offerings to me; you have not. You, except for a dozen or twenty disciples who really care for me, are not concerned about me.

If we do not praise ‘….Merits as those in the methods’, we will not know when we have done wrong, and we will confuse merits with good fortune. If Shakyamuni Buddha thought that good fortune should be praised, He would have said so. Here, ‘….Merits as those in the methods’ had been mentioned particularly. If one cannot help or teach sentient beings to be liberated from the reincarnation of birth and death, there will be no merits in one’s methods then. They are mundane ways regardless what form that such a person appears in.

Why is it so strict at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center? It is because that for getting liberated from birth and death, it cannot be done by just relying on reciting sutras. Even if a set of the Buddhist Canon has been completely recited, there is only good fortune gained; it is impossible to be liberated from birth and death by the recitation itself.

When you read sutras, you should understand the ways the Buddha taught. He expounded the Dharma in a state of Emptiness, which was revealed naturally. It was not that He hoped that you would believe Him from the way He spoke. The Buddha was telling us about the real phenomena. We are to follow what he taught in our practices and actions, and will no longer think of using our own methods to do things. Why did Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha say, ‘Every thought produced by an ordinary person generates karma and vice.’? This is because of the fact that the thoughts of ordinary people are not related to the Dharma. Once a thought is arisen, it is either good or negative; as long as there is karma, whether good or negative, there will be a vice of being in reincarnation. This does not mean a vice of killing or cheating people, which will be sentenced in a court. The definition of ‘vice’ in the Dharma is based on what you have done. The acts are vices if they will get yourself, your family members or other sentient beings having opportunities to fall into the reincarnation’s sea of suffering. If one does not understand real merits, one will not even know when one is in wrong directions in one’s practices or is doing wrong things.

My talking like this has no advantages for me. There is a popular saying out there that ‘sending out small things, then getting large ones back.’ However, this is not mentioned in sutras. In them, on such a subject, we have only been taught that we should practice methods on merits. If there is such a cultivation, its foundation or the causal origination is making offerings, which, nevertheless, does not represent that its conclusion is gaining merits. I have been propagating the Dharma for decades, and have never said that making an offering can get something in return as an exchange, because, in sutras, it is never indicated that as you make offerings, you will obtain things.

I have constantly made offerings to His Holiness, my guru, and have never asked him to let me be a great Rinpoche. I have just continuously implored him for transmitting Dharmas to me, unceasingly practiced what I have been taught and always conducted retreats. In these ways, I am then able to help sentient beings. My understanding of the meanings contained in sutras is through my own practicing experiences and my learning of the teachings of my guru. I have then realized that what are described in sutras are the ways of the path in our practices. Nothing in sutras can be chosen or can be changed. If you want to change what are mentioned in sutras, you are not a Buddhist. The Buddha would not have taught us casually. Being one speaking of truth, what the Buddha had said is the truthfulness that will really help you get liberated from birth and death.

Practicing any Dharma methods needs making a dedication ritual, which is also part of cultivating merits. If you have not made such a dedication, and only dedicating your practices to your family members, like letting your daughter-in-law follow you to eat vegetarian, there are no merits for you, not even good fortune. In the Ratnakuta Sutra, it is indicated that no matter what Dharma methods you have practiced, as long as you dedicate all roots of virtue and merits, derived from your practices, to the Pure Land, and then make vows, you will definitely be reborn there even if you have not practiced the methods of Amitabha. So long as you have made your dedications to the Pure Land and Amitabha, it will be equivalent to your investing money there; when the time comes, you will ‘go’ to that land. Now, you have not made investments – not making dedications; once you have finished reciting the Dharma text, you close it up and then do other things.

In practicing each Dharma method, there are these three steps to go through: preliminary practice, main practice and making dedication; they are all very important. The preliminary practice is about one’s motivation or aspiration, meaning why one wants to do such a practice today. The main practice is starting cultivating this method formally. Then it is making dedication. None of the three steps can be missed. Do not think that if you make dedication, you will not have enough for yourself from your practices, therefore, the dedication does not need to be made for the time being. Then, one of the three steps has been missed.

Sutra: ‘Such Great Bodhisattvas, countless and boundless, all came to the assembly.’

These Great Bodhisattvas, who had performed all cultivation as described were countless and boundless; their number was incalculable. These Great Bodhisattvas had usually, and constantly, praised the Buddha’s merits, and had continuously mastered the methods that should have been done in the Bodhisattva Path. They had all come to participate in this assembly.

Sutra: ‘At that time, the Venerable Ananda rose from his seat, tidied up his clothes, uncovered his right shoulder, knelt upon his right knee, joined the palms of his hands together, and said to the Buddha.’

Why is it mentioned in sutras that when imploring for Dharmas be transmitted, one always needed to uncover one’s right shoulder and kneel upon one’s right knee? Why was it the right shoulder, not the left one, to be uncovered? This is related to the ’solar plexus and bindus’ system in our body. This custom of uncovering a shoulder was not entirely due to the hot summer weather in India as you think. Actually, it is quite cold in northern India. Such habitual clothes-wearing always gets the left shoulder covered and the right one exposed. The ‘sides’ will not be changed; you will not let your left shoulder be shown just because you are left-handed. When you took refuge, during the ritual, you were required to keel upon your right knee, too.

In Exoteric Buddhism, (from the position of our body,) the left side represents the mother, and the right side, the father. Also, the left side is regarded as compassion, and the right side, activities (Buddhist activities). When we implore for Dharmas, we want to learn about, and to understand, the Buddhist activities that had been done by the Buddha.

What are the systems, and how do they function, on the left and right sides of a human body?” A doctor-disciple of western medicine said, “In western medicine, there is no distinction between left side and right side of a human body. There are veins and arteries on both sides. The arteries send bodily gas and other nutrient substances to body’s structures. Veins send the waste in such structures and the elements lacking oxygen to the heart and lungs.” A doctor-disciple of Chinese medicine said, “The left side governs blood and the right side governs qi (flow of energy).”

Rinpoche continued his teachings. “From the aspect of ’solar plexus and bindus’ system in our body, veins discharge the poisonous elements produced from your karma, accumulated from past lifetimes and this life, out of your body. Arteries transform nutrients, including fresh oxygen or nutritious food, received from outside of your body into energy, and deliver it to organs. The doctor-disciple of Chinese medicine just said that the left side of the body controls blood and the right side, qi. This means that the right side is where the body’s capabilities are; they push forward, and receive, everything. Shakyamuni Buddha already understood very well two thousand years ago the structures of a human body; His understanding was even more thorough than the anatomy in western medicine. There are more veins on the left side and more arteries on the right side. You doctor-disciples, do some research then.

Through the basics of roots of compassion and receiving the teachings of the Dharma, our heart can be nourished; then we can help ourselves and sentient beings.

‘….Knelt upon his right knee’ is related to Tantra. As you have not learned it, I cannot explain this phrase to you. All the Dharma teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha had foundations.

The Buddha usually slept in an auspicious lying posture, lying on His right side. If a lying posture is on one’s left side, it is to break such a rule set up by the Buddha. Every single motion done by Him was nothing extra. In Hinayana Buddhism, it is more often to see a Buddha statue in lying posture. When the Buddha entered into Nirvana, He was in an auspicious lying posture, too. An auspicious lying posture is lying on the right side. The palm of the right hand is placed at the back of the right ear, not on it; the left leg is bent with the right leg straight. This is a posture that is very hard to sleep in.

These motions are relevant to our practices, death and rebirth. It is like a statue of Green Tara; on it, the leg that is stretched out is also a right leg.” At this moment, there were two disciples who turned their heads towards a statue of Green Tara, which is enshrined at the right side of the mandala in front of them. Rinpoche reprimanded them right then and there, saying, “They have usually chanted the mantra of Green Tara at the Center, and when they do that, they already have opportunities to see this statue. Now, after hearing what I just mentioned about Green Tara, they immediately turned to look at it. This demonstrated that these two disciples do not believe in their guru.” Rinpoche then instructed that these two disciples are not allowed to learn Tantra, and its Dharma texts, if having been transmitted to them, are required to be taken back.

(Rinpoche continued the teachings.)

”‘….Rose from his seat, tidied up his clothes.’ This is an important etiquette to conduct oneself. When you meet your guru or elders, you need to tidy up your looks. There were some people, who came here seeking an audience with me, wearing unkempt clothes. This was not good.

Sutra: ‘The Great Meritorious World Honored One, your bodily form and Sense-organs are all pure.’

Venerable Ananda was a great arhat and had a supernatural power of divine sight. The Buddha he saw was not a physical body of an ordinary person sitting there, but a bodily form as described in the quote, ‘bodily form and Sense-organs are all pure’. We can ‘see’ that Shakyamuni Buddha, from the look of Him, had eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness, but these Six Sense-organs are different from ours. The Buddha’s Six Sense-organs are all pure, which are used to help sentient beings do their practices. The other usage of these Sense-organs was to sustain His physical body without putting them into effects for pursuing desires.

Sutra: ‘Mighty light glowing abundantly as being harmonized with gold having been gathered.’

The light irradiated by the Buddha was very bright and was totally encompassed by a golden light; the Buddha was not a gilded one; rather, the light harmonized with a very bright color of gold. The Buddha’s light was not one in the Six Realms, but was a golden light.

It is mentioned in sutras that, at your death, your karmic creditors would transform themselves into many kinds of appearances of the people whom you liked when you were alive, as these creditors would want to take you to the Three Evil Realms. Some of them had practiced before, and they would even transform into forms of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, showing them to you. However, they definitely would not have golden light surrounding them. No matter what kinds of masters (of any Buddhist sects) they were, the most they showed were lights in colors of white, blue or green. Then, they were not real (that they were not as what they claimed).

You must firmly remember this: when I am no longer alive, and when you are dead and are in the intermediate state (after death and before one’s next birth), if you ‘see’ any Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, yidams or your guru appearing, with a golden light irradiating, then the situation is real. That light is so strong that you will be afraid of it. This is why you have been taught that you should get more involved in learning the Dharma while alive. If you are involved in it, and if you are reprimanded by your guru often enough, when you die, and ‘see’ such a light, you will not fear it.

It is recorded in sutras that in the intermediate state, when one faces the lights of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, one will move backward. I have seen the Buddha’s light, which is a very bright, golden light, and it will make people afraid. After I had just taken refuge in Exoteric Buddhism, but before having started practicing it, I had a dream. I dreamed that I was seeing a very bright, golden light irradiated by the Buddha; I really moved a step back then. In your intermediate state, if you see a light which dreads you, this light is the light of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. If you see a light that you are not afraid of, then it is a light of the Six Realms. Remember – absolutely do not forget – this: Those who, while living, remember how fierce I have been will definitely not fall into the Three Evil Realms. This is a very important concept. Remember it.

Some demon kings will also transform themselves into the form of Shakyamuni Buddha, showing such a form to us. However, they cannot cultivate a golden light even if they have a very bright light on them. When Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or your guru appear, you will certainly follow. If such an appearance is myself, but the light behind this semblance is white, then do not follow this ‘form’ (as it is a fake). (At this point, all attendees thanked Rinpoche in unison.) You don’t need to thank me; you should thank Venerable Ananda. It is because he spoke out these matters that now I am having a chance to explain them to you.

Sutra: ‘Also like a bright mirror, gazing concentratedly at, and reflecting, the mighty light.’

It is not that Shakyamuni Buddha looked like a bright mirror. It is like that some people have seen me being a little bit ‘transparent’; yet, it is not ‘transparent’ in my looks. This can be explained in this way: It is as if a mirror has embodied a light, which only the Buddha has; the usual gods or deities do not have it. If their energy is strong, you will see a whiff of smoke appearing, showing you some form or image, but there is no light in it that you can feel.

Sutra: ‘Since time began, I have never seen such a sight. I am delighted to make obeisance to it, and have given rise to the sense of this being rare.’

From the past until that day, Venerable Ananda had never seen such a sight. Because he now was experiencing such a situation which had never occurred to him before, he was filled with Dharma joy. He made obeisance to the sight and gave rise to a feeling that this occasion was very rare. There is no such a phenomenon in this world; only the Buddha has it. This means that it is very difficult to have a chance to see the Buddha’s light, no matter how many prostrations or how much offerings one has made. If one’s mind is not pure, one cannot see such a light.

Sutra: ‘World Honored One, you now have entered into the great, still state of meditation, and have made the deeds of Tathagata. All of these are in perfect completion.’

Venerable Ananda introduced Shakyamuni Buddha to us because Ananda was a disciple of the Buddha.

Although the Buddha spoke, He spoke in a state of meditation. This is what has been explained earlier that what the Buddha taught were revealed from His self-nature. If He had not taught through spoken languages, sentient beings would not have known about His teachings. Sentient beings do not have great supernatural powers to know the minds of others. It seems that, on the surface, Shakyamuni Buddha’s expounding of the Dharma were in words, but actually the teachings were from His self-nature. Then, these teachings produced the words in sentient beings’ languages which they could understand. It was not necessary that the Buddha needed to speak Hindi. How could those celestial beings in the Heaven Realm have understood Hindi? Besides, Shakyamuni Buddha was not born in India, but in Nepal. For those dialects spoken locally long time ago, who could have understood them? The Buddha was able to propagate the Dharma in all India without obstacles, and this was due to the appearances of His self-nature; the spoken languages that were used by Him were the ones sentient beings could understand.

As Shakyamuni Buddha was in the great, still state of meditation, His mind was motionless. Although He was expounding the Dharma, what He taught were all revealed from His self-nature. His consciousness was motionless. It was like a stream of spring water flowing naturally from the water source, which, with the flow of water, did not need to be found by special digging of the earth. If the Buddha did not expound the Dharma in a state of meditation, then such Dharma was from His thinking. You think of the Dharma very often but it does not ‘come’ out from what you think it is. Your thoughts on it have been based on your comparisons between the Dharma and what you have experienced, learned, known in life. You then call such thoughts ‘the Dharma’. This is not the way to learn it.

For example, when I expound the Dharma, it is not to show how much of it I have learned; it is from what have been produced in my self-nature. If one who is expounding the Dharma does not get his or her self-nature revealed, such a person is just explaining it from words themselves. It is like what is described in the quote, ‘as being harmonized with gold having been gathered.’ If I have not seen such a bright light, I would not have been able to speak about it. Because I have seen it, it is naturally produced in my self-nature; I then know that it is like that, and can explain it to you when expounding the sutra today.

This is the reason why you have been taught, since when you had taken refuge, that you are to praise your guru’s merits, and not to argue with him. If you have been angry or have argued with your guru, even when he appears in a golden light, showing it to you (at your death), you will think it is dark. You will be afraid of it. This is exactly because you have usually quarreled or argued with your guru, thinking that he has been wrong. Then, there is nothing that can be done to help you. Ordinarily, you need to train yourself on your mindset. Do not judge whether a person is right or wrong, based on desires in the world; do not compare them with that person’s behavior. Rather, your ‘evaluation’ of your guru should be on a basis that whether or not he or she has practiced methods on merits. If your guru has, there is no such an issue about being right or being wrong on what the guru has done. If you think that you guru is right on something but wrong on something else, it demonstrates that you still have desires in your heart as there are still greed, hatred and ignorance in you. Such an attitude makes you feel that your guru is wrong. To modernists, they interpret the Dharma not from the angle of merits but from that of good fortune. If you are one of such people, explaining the Dharma this way, when your guru has not done as you have thought or wished for, you feel that there is no good fortune in such acts; problems then ensue.

Sutra: ‘Very capable of establishing the deeds of real men.’

Because Tathagata had ‘entered the into the great, still state of meditation’, and all deeds made by Tathagata had been ‘in perfect completion’, He can establish the deeds of real men. This means that what the Buddha and Bodhisattvas have done cannot be acted by ordinary people, or by sentient beings in the Six Realms. Those actions are the deeds of real men who constantly, without fear or dread, move forward to benefit sentient beings.

Sutra: ‘Contemplating Buddhas of the past, the future and the present.’

To contemplate is not for you to think of the Buddha being right or being wrong. It is to think about deeds, done by Buddhas in the present and by Buddhas in the past, are the same. Such deeds have all been acted in order to help sentient beings leave reincarnation and attain Buddhahood. As these actions are the same, those who have done different deeds are not Buddhas. If your thoughts and behavior are different from what you have been taught by the Buddha, Bodhisattvas and your guru, you are wrong in learning Buddhism.

Shakyamuni Buddha did a self-examination very humbly to see whether what He had done at the present had been the same as the deeds acted by Buddhas of the past and of the present. If the deeds had been the same, then all are Buddhas. If not, Shakyamuni Buddha would do a self-review and find what areas He had not accomplished yet. You are in a similar situation now. As you are disciples of the Buddha or are monastics, you should do a self-review to see what you need to do at your positions of being disciples of the Buddha or being monastics. You are not to think what things that you can do. We were born in the Age of Dharma Decline. Before our time, there had been many practitioners, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and they had shown us their practicing experiences and processes. We should contemplate this: ‘Have I done what they had done?’ If you have not, do not tell others what you are (what positions you are at as Buddhists). Just chant obediently the Great Six-Syllable Mantra every day. Do not think that ‘Since I have taken refuge for ten years now, I can change so-and-sos.’ That is not possible.

Sutra: ‘World Honored One, why are you dwelling on this thought?’

Knowing what the Buddha was thinking, Venerable Ananda still asked, ‘Buddha, why do you have this thought?’

Sutra: ‘At that time, the Buddha spoke to Ananda, “How could you have known this? Were there heavenly beings coming to tell you? Or, because you had seen me, did you know it then on your own?” Ananda said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, I have seen the auspicious and rare light of Tathagata, and that is why I have given rise to this thought. It is not because of reasons related to heavens or others.”’

We can see from here the relationship between a guru and a disciple, namely, between Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciple, Venerable Ananda. Only with this kind of a disciple, is there such a guru. If disciples do not have enough attributes to learn the Dharma, they will not know what a guru is when they see one. If such a guru has not practiced enough methods, he or she will not know how to act either when seeing good disciples around. Without good disciples, or seeing one who is not good, in the latter case, this guru needs to have qualifications to help such a disciple find ways to change from one being not good to one as a good disciple. Why do you get scolded by me all the time? It is because that I hope all my disciples can continuously make their efforts toward good aspects in the learning of Buddhism and improve themselves through what they have been taught. This is why I pick on your faults often, and they are what sentient beings will have.

The Buddha asked Ananda first, ‘Who was it telling you this? Any heavenly beings? Or, was it because you had seen me and then knew it on your own?’

Venerable Ananda said that heavenly beings had not told him that, and he told the Buddha directly that it was because he had seen ‘the auspicious and rare light of Tathagata’, he knew what the Buddha was thinking at that time. All of you have heard that ‘the Buddha’s light illuminates all’. As such, why don’t you know it? It is for the reason that your minds are very contaminated; you have many problems. This is why you don’t know what, and where, the auspiciousness of the Buddha’s light is. Venerable Ananda was respectful to his guru, and saw an ‘auspicious and rare light’ appear from his guru; he gave rise to a sense of joy. Once his pure, original essence was unlocked, he knew the Buddha’s thought. The Buddha deliberately asked him the question.

Now, as an example, do you know what I am? You have seen me having a body of an ordinary person and I run businesses; I am about the same as you are. It is just that I have learned a lot about the Dharma and you have not. These are general views about me from ordinary people. If a disciple really respects his or her guru, like Venerable Ananda reverencing the Buddha, such a disciple, when seeing the guru, will feel that this guru is not an ordinary person, but one who has returned to this world. The disciple knows this because he or she has a purer mind.

This quote also means that Shakyamuni Buddha taught people in an opposite way. In that Venerable Ananda was pure so that he knew what kind of fruition level his guru had attained. Venerable Ananda was an attendant of the Buddha. After the Buddha had entered into Nirvana, there were 500 arhats gathering together in one place, writing down what the Buddha had expounded on the Dharma. At first, they looked down on Ananda so they didn’t allow him to go in and participate the write-up.

The Buddha made an annotation here first for Ananda. Later, those 500 arhats remembered the event described in the above-mentioned quote, so they let Ananda come in to the gathering. Still, they made things difficult for him. The door was refused to open, and he needed to think a way to get into the room. Then he revealed his supernatural power, transformed himself into a light and made his entrance through the keyhole. They scorned Ananda; they thought he had always attended Shakyamuni Buddha so how could he have had time to do practices or conduct retreats? Yet, Ananda had made offerings to the Buddha with his pure mind, therefore, his pure, original essence had been gradually unlocked. He had completely respected and accepted Shakyamuni Buddha, and had never implored for good fortune or positions; he had just been working silently on what he had been taught. This was why he could see the Buddha’s light.

Many years ago, my friends and I went to a place to make obeisance to the sarira (relics) of the Buddha. At that time, I had taken refuge in His Holiness but had not yet started my practices. At that place, I saw the relics continuously irradiated a very bright light, like that of a ruby. I asked my friends standing around me if they had seen anything else besides the relics; they had not. Right off, I dared not say what I had seen so as to avoid being criticized that I was showing off deliberately, which would cause others to slander the Buddha. At the time, I had gone there to pay my deep respect to the relics, not with a mindset of whether or not I would get good fortune, merits or blessings from my viewing of the relics. My attitude had been to be there to ‘see’ the Buddha. That was why I saw the light from the relics of the Buddha.

This quote also demonstrates that the Buddha knew that Ananda’s practices had reached to a level that he could communicate with heavenly beings. There are five supernatural powers in the Heaven Realm. Just think with whom can you communicate? You communicate with (not with ‘whom’ but with ‘things’) your own greed, hatred and ignorance. Heavenly beings like cleanliness very much, and if you are not clean, they will not be near you. It is like that some of you have unclean mandalas at home. Then, not to mention that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will not ‘appear’, a little member of the retinue of the Dharma protectors will not ‘come’ either. This doesn’t mean that these mandalas need to be spotlessly clean but things displayed there should at least be neatly arranged.

Sutra: ‘The Buddha said to Ananda, “Excellent! Excellent! Ask your questions quickly. You are quite capable in observing subtle eloquence that you can ask Tathagata such questions.”’

As there was such a cause, the Buddha gave Ananda an effect. Because this disciple praised his guru’s merits, the Buddha would answer any questions about the Dharma that the disciple would ask. The questions will not be like, when to get healthy or if it is okay to study abroad.

If, today, you want to ask for instructions about the Dharma, and if your mind is not pure, you will be unable to know how to ask. Many people had knelt in front of me. When I asked them what matters they would like to tell me. They would answer, ‘Nothing.’ Their minds were impure so naturally they couldn’t answer my question. Why were their minds impure? It was because they would think that it would be best that I could tell them everything. They even asked whether they should take a bus or a taxi to work the following day.

The Buddha knew that Venerable Ananda had pure thoughts that he could praise the Buddha’s merits; it was because of Venerable Ananda’s capability of observing them. ‘Subtle eloquence’ does not mean that he was good at debate; rather, he could speak out things that ordinary people cannot. For example, in earlier section of this teaching, it describes that Venerable Ananda said directly to the Buddha, ‘I have seen the auspicious and rare light of Tathagata.’ You wouldn’t have dared to say it, worrying that it would be cringeworthy. His pure mind saw the light. You have not seen it; if you were to talk about it, it will be from your thinking, not from your mind.

If nowadays you don’t have an observation-ability to details, you will be incapable asking good questions about the Dharma. Venerable Ananda was able to ask the inner meanings of the Buddha’s thoughts; ordinary people cannot ask such questions. Every Saturday I receive believers who seek an audience with me. They don’t ask the question on where they will ‘go’ after death. Their questions are concerned about their children, health (or their family members’ health) or houses. This is because they are not people who learn Buddhism; they think that once they kneel in front of me, they are learning Buddhism. As for you, you are just a little better than those who do not ordinarily make prostrations to the Buddha.

Yesterday, a disciple who has taken refuge for eighteen years came to seek an audience with me. Eighteen years ago, I saved her life. However, as her illness has recurred now, her whole family came to implore for my blessings to make an upcoming surgical operation satisfactory. Have I ever said to you before that I can only save you once? Moreover, after I have saved you, if you don’t practice diligently, your illness will come back to get you. Haven’t I said that too? (All of the attendees replied in unison: Yes.) I have also told you that meritorious mentors can help you step over your hindrances in your practices. At that time, when saving this disciple’s life, I had given her eighteen years to learn Buddhism, and helped her step across her obstacles first. I had hoped that she could have transformed her own karma through diligent practices. Only in this way could her illness be extirpated. As a result, she had not practiced diligently on what she had been taught on the Dharma. Thinking that she had become healthy, she had been busily taking care of her children and living a life of ordinary people. She didn’t listen to what her guru had said. In the past eighteen years, on the surface, she has only been someone who learns Buddhism, wanting to live a good life.

From a perspective view of ordinary people, there is nothing to say against taking care of children. However, this illness exists exactly because there is no good fortune for the person. Since good fortune is gone, such a person should work even harder on his or her practices! I have given you so many teachings on the Dharma, and in the Ratnakuta Sutra, it also teaches us that to people who learn Buddhism, they should consider that their family members are prison guards or are collecting debts from them. She is exactly like this now that she has not practiced and has not accumulated good fortune either. Then how can I bless her to have a good operation?” Rinpoche then asked a doctor-disciple of western medicine, “Are there guarantees from doctors that the operations they perform will definitely be going well?” (The answer: “No. There are no such guarantees. The doctors might just tell patients about the success rate of the operations and what kinds of complications or residual effects there will be.”)

At this moment, Rinpoche asked for Disciple Cai, a doctor-disciple of western medicine. Someone in the audience said that Doctor Cai took a day off from attending this puja so that she could attend a class out of town. Rinpoche then asked, “Where is this out-of-town place?” Disciple Zhu, who is the contact-person of Doctor Cai’s at the Center, said that she was not sure. Rinpoche reprimanded Disciple Zhu and instructed that she couldn’t be a contact-person anymore. The guru also said, “She does not have a good health. Why has a disciple who is not healthy been selected as a contact-person at the Center? Is this out-of-town place out of the country or out of Taipei? You do things perfunctorily. What does it matter if you care more for a Dharma brother?” (Rinpoche asked Disciple Zhu whether or not he took a penny from her when he had saved her life. She answered a No.) Then, Rinpoche made an instruction: “Someone is to tell Doctor-disciple Cai of western medicine that she can wait to come here when she has time! Actually, she doesn’t need to come anymore as she is too busy; also, there is no need for her to implore the guru for attending pujas. It is up to her.”

(Rinpoche continued the teachings.)

“I don’t understand why these disciples have come to force me all the time, asking me to bless them so as to get their operations going well. Even their doctors cannot guarantee the success, so why do they force me to do such a thing? When I helped her eighteen years ago, she didn’t even thank me. Now because she is having problems, she has then come to implore for my help again. For the sake of her husband, as he has done little things for the Center, I let them do grand prostrations, and will see how that comes out. There are no other ways for me to help her now; this is because that in the past eighteen years I have taught her so much of the Dharma, but she has not done anything according to my teachings. She has just been a disciple of the Buddha on the surface but in her heart, she does not believe in whatever she has been taught at all. Hence, being a guru in the Age of Dharma Decline is a very toilsome endeavor. Do not be a guru, really.

Sutra: ‘You have done this for all Tathagatas attuned to right equality and right awareness, and for the Great Man, as rare as udumbara flowers, appearing in the world, who abides by great compassion to benefit sentient beings.’

In modern terms, this quote means that Shakyamuni Buddha said to Venerable Ananda, ‘You have done this for all Tathagatas attuned to right equality and right awareness….’. The Tathagatas here refer to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have attained enlightenment and Buddhahood in right equality and right awareness. The mind of Shakyamuni Buddha abides by great compassion. Compassion means to help sentient beings reach the opposite shore (of the sea of reincarnation). It is not all right if there is only kindness but without compassion, nor is it all right the opposite way: there is just compassion but no kindness. Kindness and compassion are two different things; only when the two are combined, is it called ‘kindness-compassion’. (It is usually simplified as ‘compassion’ in Buddhist terms.) The attitude of kindness-compassion does not mean being kind to people, saying nice things to them, or not scolding them. Kindness is to exchange all good things that one has for those that are not good but are what sentient beings have. Compassion is to help sentient beings get liberated from the reincarnation’s sea of suffering and reach the opposite shore. Thus, Shakyamuni Buddha’s mind has always been abided by great compassion, namely, helping sentient beings be liberated from birth and death and be reborn in the lands of Buddhas. All Shakyamuni Buddha’s body, speech, and mind have functioned for this purpose, and for nothing else. He has never thought of other things to gain His own fame or reputation.

The udumbara flowers should be from a rare flower species, and such flowers are very difficult to be seen blossomed in the world. The ‘Great Man’ here is not to be explained as the ‘Great Man, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara’, but is explained as Shakyamuni Buddha. Although the Buddha has attained Buddhahood, He is like a rare flower having blossomed, and His performances of the deeds of Bodhisattvas have appeared in this world (including the Six Realms, not just the earth).

Sutra: ‘Thus, you ask for the meanings about these. Also, because you grieve and pity for sentient beings, and want to benefit and rejoice them, you are able to ask Tathagata such questions.’

This quote means that Venerable Ananda did not ask these questions for his own benefits; he asked only because he grieved and pitied sentient beings, and wanted to benefit and rejoice them. He knew that if there is no Dharma, sentient beings will not get any benefits; he also knew that if sentient beings don’t listen to the Dharma, or don’t receive the Dharma teachings, there is no happiness for them. Because of grievances and pities he felt for sentient beings, Ananda asked ‘Tathagata such questions.’ Such sorrowful feelings do not mean that they are directed to sentient beings’ falling into the Three Evil Realms or having accidents, et cetera; rather, the feelings exist because sentient beings are still in the reincarnation’s sea of suffering.

If sentient beings do not receive the help of the Dharma and do not practice it, there will be no such words as these two: ‘benefit’ and ‘rejoicing’. All the benefits and the rejoicings are not judged by the mundane basis. (Here are examples: Having a good health now is because of blessings from the Buddha; your child’s having passed examinations and entered into a university is due to the blessings and protection of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas; et cetera. These are not judged as benefits and rejoicings.) Benefits and rejoicings mean to benefit and rejoice sentient beings leaving the reincarnation’s sea of suffering. All happenings that occurred to all sentient beings are the results from their own karma and karmic retribution, and the occurrences are all from their own doings. However, no matter what kinds of benefits and rejoicings you think you have, they absolutely cannot help you to get liberated from birth and death. Only can the Buddha and your guru do that for you. Hence, because sentient beings have not obtained real benefits and rejoicings, for their sake, Venerable Ananda asked Tathagata ‘for the meanings about these’.

Sutra: ‘Ananda, Tathagata is attuned to right equality and right awareness, and is very capable to expound immeasurable knowledge and views.’

Tathagata has already achieved accomplishments in right equality and right awareness, and is a Buddha who has thoroughly attained realization and enlightenment. He is capable to expound immeasurable knowledge and views. How do these come about? It means that sentient beings have 84,000 kinds of afflictions, which are all created by their own knowledge and views. From such bases, the Buddha has expounded His knowledge and views in His teachings. The knowledge and views of the Buddha have not been spoken out by Him based on His own law of life-experience. What He has taught are to show how to help sentient beings get liberated from the reincarnation’s sea of suffering. This is why His expounding of the teachings is immeasurable; as the number of sentient beings is countless, the Buddha’s knowledge and views are immeasurable, too.

The so-called sentient beings are not just simply those in the Six Realms as you think. In Buddha’s eyes, sentient beings include those that are born from eggs, from wombs, from moisture, or by transformation. The Buddha liberates them all. Germs are also sentient beings. In our intestines, there are probiotics and other intestinal flora. These are called ‘worms’ in sutras. As soon as we are born, there are germs everywhere on our skin or in our body. The Buddha has said that when you have mastered the practices on compassion, even the worms in your intestines will get liberated.

Sutra: ‘Why is that? It is because there are no hindrances in Tathagata’s knowledge and views.’

This is what we have just explained (overall) that there are no hindrances in Tathagata’s knowledge and views; it means that there are impediments in ours. For example, if you think you are an expert, then, with your knowledge and views, you are just one in a specific field, within its special range; outside of this range, there will be impediments in what you know. However, in the Buddha’s knowledge and views, there are no obstacles; it is because He knows the causes, conditions and karmic effects of all sentient beings in the Six Realms. For example, when Venerable Maudgalyayana saw the sentient beings of the Hungry Ghost Realm on a riverside, he could, and did, tell them what kinds of causes that had made them a form of that realm. (Rinpoche then asked monastics present whether or not they had read this particular sutra describing the event, and monastics said they had not.)

‘There are no hindrances in Tathagata’s knowledge and views.’ The reason is that such knowledge and views are not of mundane world; they are supramundane, therefore, there are no impediments in them. In contrast, our knowledge and views are from the mundane path because they are produced from each sentient being’s karma, good fortune, causes and conditions. When such knowledge and views have been accumulated to a certain level, they will be like in a bottleneck, impeded by it and cannot get a breakthrough. Thus, there will be hindrances. Physicians and scientists will know this. When their work has reached a certain level, they will encounter bottleneck situations in that there are no breakthroughs and issues cannot be resolved. This means that they are having obstacles in their knowledge and views.
Hence, no matter how amazing you think you are as an expert, there are still hindrances for you. Only in Buddha’s knowledge and views are there no hindrances. It is because Buddha’s knowledge and views are not for Himself; they are all for sentient beings. As I have reached this stage of my practices now, my imploring the Buddha for His blessings is to enable me to know sentient beings’ karma and causes of their reincarnation so as to help them. It is not that I want to know what have happened to them in the past. For example, I often ask them what their prior job was. From this job, I will then know why this person is currently having such an illness. This means that there are no hindrances in my knowledge and views because what I have done are for them, not for myself. Some sentient beings are respectful to the guru. Once they kneel in front of me, I will know their problems. For those who don’t respect the guru, I will not know their issues (until they are asked to say something.)

Sutra: ‘Ananda, Tathagata is attuned to right equality and right awareness, and wants to rejoicefully dwell in the world.’

Tathagata is not full of desires in staying in this world, nor is He remaining very happily. The Buddha’s staying here is based on the achievements in right equality and right awareness which have been attained in His enlightenment. The power of these right equality and right awareness supports the Buddha so that He remains in this world, which has such heavy afflictions existing in it. It is like the situation that before Shakyamuni Buddha was born in and descended to the earth, Bodhisattvas had held a meeting to persuade Him not to go there because it will be very difficult to liberate sentient beings in the Saha World (this solar system). As there are more the negative than the good in all the phenomena in the Saha World, being there will be very painful for Him. Shakyamuni Buddha, however, said that it will not be so to Him because He ‘wants to rejoicefully dwell in the world’, therefore, if it is more painful in some places, He is even more willing to go there to help. This has the same meaning as that of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s being in hell, helping sentient beings there.

Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha does not suffer in the Hell Realm. It is just like Bodhisattvas helping sentient beings in the world, even when it is in reincarnation, Bodhisattvas do not feel pain. Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha ‘wants to rejoicefully’ help sentient beings in hell, therefore, even in the reincarnation of the Six Realms, there is no pain for Ksitigarbha, and no realization either about where pain is. Pain is indeed there, but in Ksitigarbha’s mind there is none. Shakyamuni Buddha, as noble as He is, is willing to dwell on the earth because He relies on the power of right equality and right awareness He has attained, and He wishes to pass down the Dharma and let it remain on this earth, helping sentient beings to gain eternal happiness.

Sutra: ‘Within a very short time of eating a meal, being capable to abide in countless and innumerable nayuta kalpas.’

In an instant of Buddha’s eating a meal, there is incalculable time for Him. A ‘kalpa’ can be a major kalpa, a medium kalpa or a minor kalpa. It refers to time. This quote means that when the Buddha liberates sentient beings, there are no limits for Him in terms of space or time.

Sutra: ‘If the numbers increase and exceed what are mentioned above, Tathagata’s bodily form and Sense-organs are without increases or decreases.’

The Buddha has dwelt in this world for such a long time, but Tathagata’s bodily form and His Sense-organs have not decreased. They are still the same. It seems to us that Shakyamuni Buddha entered into Nirvana in the world so His physical body no longer existed. However, there are no increases or decreases in His Dharmakaya (Dharma-body). It is not that because His physical body is not there, the number of His Six Sense-organs, for example, decreases to one, or increases to eight. There are still Six Sense-organs. It is just that we ordinary people do not see His physical body, but His Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya (reward-body) and Nirmanakaya (emanation-body) all exist. These ‘bodies’ have never left this world. They will be leaving only when the Buddha’s Dharma era has ended. However, such a leaving does not represent that these three ‘bodies’ of Buddha do not exist; they are just in other worlds to continue benefiting sentient beings there.

It is just like what are described in the Long Life Prayer that His Holiness has written and bestowed upon me. I will go to places where there are causal conditions existing (between sentient beings and myself). Nevertheless, this does not mean that my body will turn into several clones and appear in different places. What I have, and will have, is still this Dharmakaya, which does not increase or decrease. Every sentient being can possess a Dharmakaya; it is just that bodily karma is too heavy that it covers Dharmakaya so that its capability to benefit sentient beings cannot be revealed.

The meaning here is that there are no time, space and forms existing in Shakyamuni Buddha’s dwelling in this world. It is just like what is written in the Diamond Sutra about breaking free of these four forms: self, humanness, time and sentient beings. It is also mentioned in the Ratnakuta Sutra that to break free of these four forms one needs to practice methods on kindness, compassion, joy and giving. This is not written in other sutras. It is why many people, despite their having recited the Diamond Sutra for decades, do not know how to break free of the four forms.

At the beginning of the Dharma texts of Tantra, what has been recited is the Prayer of Four Immeasurables, and these are kindness, compassion, joy and giving. As long as you can practice them, you will understand what the Buddha said just now (in the quotes) that the concept of time and space does not exist. The Buddha will not change just because time changes in ways that people usually think. As written in the Heart Sutra, all things are in Emptiness, and there are no increases or decreases in them. This means that the Dharma, taught by the Buddha, will not be decreased or increased because of the differences in time and space. As long as the Buddha has attained enlightenment and is a Buddha, His merits are immeasurable and boundless, as boundless as the void.

There is a saying that ‘the mind encloses the void’. In 2007, after I had conducted my retreat, I discussed this line with His Holiness. I said to him that if ‘the mind encloses the void’, it means that there is a boundary to the mind. For example, say, today you want to wrap up a plate; the wrapper you use will have sides to wrap around the plate. This means that no matter how immense the void is, it can be wrapped up by the mind. Then, such ‘wrapping’ will indicate that there are limits on both the void and the mind.

In the Dharma, it is mentioned that the void is limitless, boundless and infinite. It has also been proved in sciences that the space is constantly expanding. On that occasion of the discussion with His Holiness, I, then, being a little bold, said to him that the saying of ‘the mind encloses the void’ should have been changed to ‘the mind embraces the void’, which means that no matter how immense the void is, so is the mind; there are no boundaries on either one of them. In this quote, it is indicated very clearly then why the Buddha will not change. This is because His mind will not be changed. For what is in His mind, there will be no increases, decreases and boundaries; His mind is also motionless, as there is nothing coming or going. These explanations are already related to what is indicated in the Heart Sutra. The Emptiness of the mind described in the Heart Sutra has been mentioned here by the Buddha.

If one is not magnanimous, just thinking about oneself, one’s children or family all day long, one is narrow-minded. Then, if one is more magnanimous, one is more fortunate. These two concepts are similar but they are in an opposite way. Originally, our minds can contain everything; contrarily, we ‘frame’ our minds, thinking that they have a certain ‘size’. If you think your mind is in a limited size, that size is what you have for your mind. Then you will not be able to accept the methods of the Dharma that are boundless and infinite. You will also trap yourself in a small place or with a limited mind, and because of that, it is impossible if you want to attain enlightenment.

Sutra: ‘Why is that? It is because Tathagata has attained samadhi at ease and reached the opposite shore. On all the Dharmas, He is at ease in the supreme state.’

Why could the Buddha have achieved the state that His ‘bodily form and Sense-organs are without increases or decreases’? This is because Tathagata has attained samadhi, which refers to precepts, meditation and wisdom. The Buddha has mastered these three practices to perfect completion. ‘Being at ease’ is not feeling comfortable, but it means ‘at ease’ with birth and death, and with coming and going in everything. According to Chinese’s interpretation, ‘being at ease’ means feeling comfortable without stresses. However, here, it refers to a state of being quite at ease because the Buddha does not give rise to the feeling of suffering from anything that can be hindered, stopped or prevented from occurring. It can be said that such a state of ‘being at ease’ comes very naturally because the Buddha ‘has attained samadhi at ease and reached the opposite shore’ of the reincarnation’s sea of suffering.

The opposite shore is the other shore. Only by taking a boat, can we get liberated from the reincarnation’s sea of suffering and reach the other shore. The other shore is the Buddha’s Pure Land where there will be no reincarnation. For you to cross this ocean or river, a boat must be needed. You cannot possibly swim across it because there are big waves in the great ocean of reincarnation; one wave will knock you back from the right course, therefore, you must need a boat. The Dharma is like a Dharma boat, and a guru is a helmsman; thus, such a guru is very important. When your guru brings you to the opposite shore, you need to go ashore on your own. When the Fifth Patriarch was taking the Sixth Patriarch across the river in a boat by rowing the oars, the Sixth Patriarch wanted to do the rowing but the Fifth Patriarch did not let him and said, ‘While you are confused, your guru will liberate you; when you are enlightened, you can liberate yourself.’

It means that you are all confused now, so I will help you get liberated. When you are enlightened and reborn in the Buddha’s Land, you will then need to liberate yourself. Hence, do not offend this helmsman. Otherwise, the boat might be paddled and sailed to another place.” Then Rinpoche asked a disciple who is the captain of a ship, “If a boat is off the course for five degrees, how far off will the sailing distance be?” The disciple answered, “Then I wouldn’t know where the boat will be going.”

(Rinpoche continued the teachings.)

“Listen to this carefully now: You will be in trouble if your helmsman is not qualified because you will not know where you will be taken to. If you let your helmsman’s hands go soft, you will not know where to go. This is why I taught you, when you took refuge in me, that you should not get angry with your guru. (We can look at this from another angle.) If you make your guru angry, once your guru turns his or her head, the direction of leading you on your learning or practicing might be off the course. Then you will not know where you are going.

It is stated very clearly here that the reason the Buddha is able to liberate Himself is because He has completely attained enlightenment in right equality and right awareness. Before you have achieved that, you must rely on this boat – the Dharma – and your guru – the helmsman – to lead you, crossing the river. It has to be done this way. There is no way that one can rely on one’s own practices to attain achievements. For monastics, do not think that because you have been ordained for a dozen years, you will be okay after having conducted retreats. I have seen many people of this type. After they had conducted their retreats for a dozen years, they had a big monastery built; after that, nothing has been known about them. According to what are mentioned in sutras, we must do our practices in step-by-step processes.

‘Being at ease’ is not feeling comfortable and free as you say in this mundane world. The term means leaving the reincarnation’s sea of suffering, and being able to be at ease with birth and death. Whatever I have taught and helped you are all for this purpose.

Sutra: ‘Thus, Ananda, listen closely and contemplate well about what I will say.’

The Buddha then told Ananda to listen, and after listening, Ananda should contemplate whether his own behaviors are consistent with what the Buddha is about to say; if they are not consistent, then Ananda needs to change them. ‘Contemplating’ means thinking on ideas. Since you say you are a disciple of the Buddha, your thoughts are things that are related to the Buddha; all other thoughts are about mundane affairs, which are coming and going and are unreal. No matter how hard you work in your endeavors to develop your children so as to send them to good places for studies, the efforts and results are all temporary. Many people say that they hope their next generation will do well. Every parent, including me, thinks like that. Nevertheless, it depends on their children’s own good fortune and karma as well.

If your children do not have good fortune and karma, and even if you send them to best schools, nonetheless they will graduate. However, if they do not have enough of good fortune, because you want them to do well in the future, your ‘forcing’ ways towards them might get them to live a short life, or even make them lose their lives. This is because you have used up their good fortune, and you are unwilling to let them do their studies or activities in natural, ‘at ease’ and step-by-step ways. All parents are superstitious. They think that if they send their children to best schools, there will be no worries for the children later in finding jobs and having careers. Yet, your guru only graduated from a high school, and has never studied in a university. Why have you all been obediently scolded by me? Many of you are professors, Ph.D.s or physicians. I have scolded you all except physicians. I cannot criticize them because if I do, they will say that I scold them. Nevertheless, it is not scolding; if I say something to them, I do it for their own good.

From this, all of you should understand clearly that we ‘contemplate well’ on whatever the Buddha has said to, or taught, us. Do not think that He has been dealing with me. It is like at times when I talked about, even criticized, you all, you thought that I was scolding or insinuating you individually for some particular reasons. How could I have insinuated you? If I have said something to you, it is for your own good; maybe you don’t feel it that way, thinking that it has obviously been a criticism. However, even Shakyamuni Buddha had been criticized. Anyone will have chances to be criticized. I have often been criticized, too. It is good that people criticize me; it not only helps me cleanse my karmic hindrances but also makes me see what I have not done well or not done right.

‘Contemplate well about what I will say.’ This means that you should not think with your own thoughts; the thinking should be on aspects of goodness. In saying this, are there advantages for the Buddha? If you think that the Buddha’s saying of these words is ‘definitely for my own good’, then the goodness has been arisen in your thoughts. If there is a purpose or demand for the Buddha saying this quote, then such a saying has negative aspects in it; negative things will naturally and definitely occur. If you think that even being scolded by someone is a matter for your own good, you certainly will not consider that person has scolded you. I have told you before how His Holiness used to ‘fix’ me, giving me troubles. The ‘fixing’ methods he used were not ones that you could (and can) endure. However, I will not say that His Holiness was ‘fixing’ me; rather, he was helping me cleanse my karmic hindrances and accumulate my good fortune.

Oftentimes there are people who say, ‘Rinpoche has scolded me.’ I have often said that those who are afraid of being scolded by me have more negative thoughts in them. This is exactly originated from sutras. If your perceptions of your guru are that the guru has taught you the Dharma, helped you get liberated from birth and death, with everything demonstrated by him and received by you being good, how can you have negative thoughts? If you still have such thoughts about your guru, simply speaking, it means that you still do not want to be liberated from birth and death, still have not made up your mind on your learning or practices, and your mind is still drifting around. As such, the power of negative thoughts will be arisen in you naturally. If you have made a resolution about learning Buddhism, you will realize its purpose is to get liberated from birth and death, and all other mundane affairs are coming and going (not everlasting). Think it this way: ‘If I have good fortune, things will naturally be good for me; they will not be so if I don’t have good fortune. These are not important though. What is important to me is whether or not I will be able to learn methods of getting liberated from birth and death. If I can learn that, then it is good for me.’

How did Venerable Marpa ‘fix’ Milarepa? How did Tilopa ‘fix’ Naropa? When Tilopa asked Naropa to jump off the cliff, Naropa jumped. Now, not to mention there being no way for me to ask you jumping like that, I don’t even dare to say such a thing. However, in ancient times, this was an example of how practitioners had been ‘fixed’ by their gurus, just as how His Holiness got me ‘fixed’. On the contrary, you don’t want people ‘amending’ you. You want them to say nice things to you, or to treat you preciously, like holding a jewel or treasure in their hands.

Although I treat you like a jewel or treasure in my heart, I cannot hold you like people holding it in their hands. Why are you like a jewel or treasure to me? It is because all sentient beings are future Buddhas. To help you become a Buddha in the future, naturally I treat you as a jewel or treasure, but I will not hold you as it is held preciously in people’s hands. You are like uncut jades that have not yet been polished; when they are being polished, it seems that the process is ‘painful’ to them. You have not been in those jade factories; in jade-polishing stage, there will be ear-piercing noise. Now, as your guru, I have not instructed you to get to that harsh and vital level yet but you have already started getting displeased.

The process of polishing is definitely very painful. You have lived for decades and suddenly a guru appears to get you ‘polished’. If I have not been doing that, how can the light of you, as a jewel or treasure, come out? Even while I treat you like a jewel or treasure in my heart, the problem is that you are not so yet; then I can only keep on ‘polishing’ you with the Dharma. The concept of the Dharma is that practitioners or gurus will not flatter you or fawn over you. I will not flatter you even if you give me mountains of gold or silver, not to mention that you have not done so! Now, I am giving you mountains of gold and silver because you don’t need to spend any money for this year’s Grand Puja; wouldn’t that kind of money be equivalent to mountains of gold and silver for you? (The Grand Puja to the public was cancelled later because of pandemic restrictions.)

Thus, do not say this again, ‘Since Rinpoche will need to spend lots of money to get the Grand Puja organized, let’s go to make offerings to him.’ Does that mean that you don’t need to make offerings if there is no Grand Puja? If it does mean that, then it is a buy-and-sale transaction. If you want to make offerings, just do so. Why do you have to find a cause first? Today, I have spoken of ‘contemplate well about what I will say.’ After you get home, think hard about it with thoughts of goodness. Remember the quote in your thoughts and don’t let it get out of your mind. What I have taught today are all related to the subjects of liberating from birth and death and of understanding clearly the essence of the Buddha. Don’t be careless or think that I have spoken casually. I have never said things casually. What I have taught are all based on the Ratnakuta Sutra and I have expounded it with great efforts.”

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Updated on December 11, 2021