His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – July 18, 2021

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche presided over the auspicious Chod Puja, and bestowed precious Dharma teachings at the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei.

Rinpoche started performing the Dharma, liberating the deceased who were suffering in their deaths. In the meditative state of Mahamudra, Rinpoche performed the auspicious Chod, and with ultimate bodhicitta, visualized that all of his blood, flesh, bones had completely been made offerings to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and been given alms to all sentient beings in the Six Realms, with nothing remaining in his own body. The guru also chanted the Great Six-Syllable Mantra for a long time, and his compassionate Dharma voice permeated the ten directions.

The Dharma performance came to a perfect completion. Rinpoche then bestowed the teachings.

“The time for the puja next week will be changed from Sunday to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Dharma to be performed will be about offerings to Dragon King. It is necessary to perform this Dharma on a special day, and there is only one, or another, certain day that it is appropriate to perform this particular Dharma. Many people’s illnesses are relevant to dragons. It is mentioned in sutras that although dragons are born in the Animal Realm, their good fortune is not small; they possess supernatural powers. They have heavy sense of hatred though. As long as dragons angrily glare at you, you will get ill. According to what are indicated in sutras, nowadays, some diseases which cannot be cured, like cancer, skin diseases and some indescribable diseases, are all relevant to dragons. The earth environment we live now has continuously been destroyed so there are no places for dragons to live in, therefore, they ‘come out’ to harm sentient beings. This Dharma cannot be performed by ordinary people; there are many rituals in it that have not been there in the past.

Some people still do not understand the effects of chanting mantras. There are differences in concepts regarding chanting mantras in Buddhism and those in non-Buddhist religions. In Buddhism, a mantra is a densely concentrated combination of all merits, activities, compassion and vows of the yidam of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, and the combination forms into a short mantra. Such a mantra is a spoken language used universally. Some people say that they know how to talk in ‘heaven language’ but there is no such a language recorded in sutras. Chanting a mantra is emitting a sound wave, which is the energy of a sound. Because the existence of the universe is related to sound, through the energy of a sound, the karma of humans’ bodies and other issues can also be changed. People who chant mantras must eat vegetarian. As the Buddha and Bodhisattvas are compassionate, how can they possibly harm sentient beings by eating their flesh? If one does not eat vegetarian, one’s chanting of mantras is useless no matter how much chanting this person has done. If one does not observe the Five Precepts and the Ten Meritorious Acts, one’s chanting of mantras will not be attuned to the mantras either. Only when the Five Precepts and the Ten Meritorious Acts have been observed, can one be attuned to the energy of mantras of the yidams of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It is not to be attuned quickly to the yidams themselves.

In Tantra, mantras need to be through empowerments as required; it means granting an authorization – you are authorized to learn or chant this mantra. Thus, strictly speaking, mantras have patents. It is not that anyone who casually chants mantras will get the effectiveness of the chanting. If your guru does not explain to you the profound wonderfulness or secrets of the mantras, you really will not understand why continuous chanting of mantras will have effects arisen.

When Drubwang Rinpoche was at an old age, he did not speak of the Dharma or bestow empowerments; he just taught people to chant the Great Six-Syllable Mantra and he did not transmit any Dharmas at all. This was because that people, at the Age of Dharma Decline, do not have enough of root capacity. Sometimes if they have been transmitted the Dharma, and if they cannot accomplish their practices, they will say that the Dharma is not effective or is not good, and they will even slander the Buddha. Hence, the elderly gentleman told everyone to chant the mantra; he did not explain about the effects either. The benefits are these: if a person continuously chants mantras, the thoughts of this person will gradually be transformed into good ones; there will be more good thoughts, and then there will be fewer negative thoughts.

Many people who have learned Buddhism hope they can know or understand clearly what they have been learning, thinking whatever they do they will get something. This thought is not right, either. Although in sutras, it is often mentioned that if you do certain things, what will happen to you in the future, it means you must follow what have been taught; you cannot have your own thoughts or your ways of doing those things, and only then you can obtain effects described. However, people do not listen to this; they wish using their own methods to handle things, thinking that whatever they do are correct. On all the things that are mentioned in sutras, people have not gotten those things through their heads. Out there, they have heard some hearsay or heterodoxies, distorting the truth, like in a Chinese saying, ‘accumulating the wrong and making them become the right’; they have thought those things are right, but actually, those things are wrong. In learning Buddhism, the things or thoughts are all wrong if they are not from what are indicated in sutras. If Buddhism has been talking about but the talks are not by practitioners who speak through their learning of the Dharma and through their experiences in their own practices, such talks by some people are wrong, too.

For example, many people wish that they can see some things. However, if one has not achieved attainment of the fruition level of a Bodhisattva and has not opened the five kinds of eyes, what one sees are all the functions of consciousness, and are memories of what one has seen, heard or thought. When the magnetic fields of phenomena are attuned to what have been remained in one’s consciousness, one will feel that he or she has seen some things. Actually, what have been seen are not seen by one’s consciousness, not thought of by one’s brain and not seen by one’s eyes either. If using a ‘heavenly eye’, the Dharma eye, or the eye of wisdom, to see things in the universe, they will be seen. Simply speaking, it is like such a situation that there is a TV set in front of you, and when you turn the TV on, you will see images in it. You do not close your eyes or frown to ‘see’ those images, and if you think you can ‘see’ things in this way, it is a wrong concept.

Nowadays, people who have been learning Buddhism all hope that they will get responses from what they have learned. This is also wrong. Such responses are not correct as they are the functions of consciousness. Thus, in the Diamond Sutra, we have been taught that we should not have this kind of false views. Do not think that if you feel you get responses, you have mastered your practices so you are different from others in that you are having some kinds of missions you want to accomplish. If you have this type of thoughts, there will be danger for you later on. The danger will appear when you die. If you are used to such responses, and if they are different at your death, you will not follow Amitabha to the Pure Land because you have your own thoughts. If you continuously emphasize in your mindset that you wish to have responses from your learning of Buddhism or to be able to see things, in the long run, such thoughts will not be good for you. If you have this type of realization (getting responses) occasionally, there is nothing to say against it but do not make such an experience as your attainment that you have achieved from your practices.

Also, it does not mean your physique is different from other people’s; this is full of nonsense. Every one’s bodily structure is the same; it is just that each person’s karma and root capacity are different, and there are no special physiques in people. There are too many such unaccountable Buddhist terms that have appeared, which are not mentioned in sutras. Such terms, not indicated in sutras, are all wrong. Since you are learning Buddhism, of course you will learn in accordance with what are mentioned in sutras. Do not think that what modernists talk about are different from what were said by the ancients. Many things that are mentioned in sutras can only be seen, nowadays, through instruments. For example, in the Ratnakuta Sutra, it is recorded that the Buddha had said that starting from the conception of a pregnant woman, in every seven days, there is a change of the fetus in the body of the woman (the mother). These changes have been described very clearly in the sutra. They cannot be seen without a ‘heavenly eye’, the Dharma eye, or the eye of wisdom. In the Buddha’s era, there were no anatomies. Why could have such changes been seen so distinctly? They are the same as what have been shown in modern medicine.

It is mentioned in sutras that when humans are born, there are parasites in their bodies; in their necks or eyebrows, there are such parasites. In science, it has also proved that parasites indeed exist but they do not harm us. They eat the fats, excreted from our bodies, and our dead dander. For parasites in our necks, they will still be there even if we use soaps and hot water to clean the necks really hard; there will be even more of these parasites there because they multiply.

There are many things that are already recorded in sutras. In them, it is indicated what the world will become today. Hence, there are no needs for us to create some terms that we think it will be fun to have them. Since we have been learning Buddhism, we should use every word, phrase or sentence, that is relevant to the Dharma and to our practices, with the terms shown in the Dharma. We cannot go by the ways of playing jokes about terms; this will not be right. If we use such joking manners to create some terms ourselves, what we do is the equivalent to making a false speech or breaking away from precepts. This is especially so when learning Tantra in that such learning focuses in chanting mantras. Whatever you say must be pure; only when the words are pure, can the mantras of your chanting be pure.

Why are there some people who do not chant mantras fast? If one does not chant mantras fast, it is nothing to do with whether or not this person has enough of qi (flow of energy) in the body. The reason is that his or her verbal karma is still very heavy. If you are such a person, this means in your past life times or in this one, you have broken away from the precept of ‘refrain from making a false speech’; you have said things, mixing ‘there is’ and ‘there is not’, or talked about matters being specious. Thus, there will be ‘knots’ in the movements of your chanting of mantras, and you cannot continue it, like your tongue being heavy. It is obvious that you usually speak very fast, nevertheless, you do not chant mantras fast. When chanting mantras, the sound must be emitted; one cannot chant them just by one’s mind without the sound coming out. We often talk about body, speech and mind. Only if you are a heavenly being, can you – as a heavenly being on Earth – communicate with others by mind. However, you are a human being on Earth, and as you have not mastered your practices to be a heavenly being or a fairy deity, you cannot communicate with sentient beings just by mind, unless the communications are through practices. In Tantra, there are some Dharma methods that can be used to communicate with animals. Such communications are exactly communications by mind. An empowerment is for body, speech and mind. After your body, speech and mind are purified, you can then receive the good fortune and wisdom of the empowerment so as to practice this yidam. If your verbal karma has not been purified, your chanting of mantras will be useless. If you usually like to scold people or talk something specious, these acts will be hindrances to your chanting of mantras.

Some people will get tired when they chant mantras. Besides your health situations, the reason is that your tongue makes you tired. When I chant mantras, you can see that my mouth does not move but my tongue does, continuously. Every single syllable and every single sound have been chanted and emitted very clearly. When a tongue can constantly move, it means verbal karma has been unceasingly purified; the sound of chanting will naturally appear. I have instructed to you that you are to chant mantras every day. It is not because chanting mantras will make you become good immediately; rather, it is to train you to get your speeches purified, and once they are, your mind will naturally become pure.

When you chant mantras, you should sit up straight. Do not lean back against, say, a chair; also, do not sit cross-legged; do not chant while your eyes are on TV, watching programs. One must chant mantras with respect. Even if you cannot do the posture of ‘sitting in meditation’, do not tilt your body this way and slant it that way. Do not find something to lean on, thinking that such a support (to your back) will make your chanting more comfortable. You cannot bend down your waist and hunch either because if your body is not straightened up, your bodily channels will not be straight, and then your qi-channels will not have a good flow of energy; the result is that you feel tired easily. If you sit up straight, your qi-channels will have a good flow of energy. Of course, you are not required to sit there without any movements at all. When you sit there for a long time, it is all right to adjust your posture or move a little but do not always twist or turn your body. In your body, speech and mind, if there is no respect shown from your physical form, your body will not be pure, and then your mind will not be pure, leading to your speech not being pure. If one chants the Great Six-Syllable Mantra effectively, one’s health will definitely be helped. If you have chanted mantras a lot and often but you cannot master your practices, the reasons are that the methods of your chanting are wrong, your mindset is not right and your karma has not yet been purified. It is not that by relying on chanting of mantras your karma can immediately be purified. The most important thing is whether you have listened or not. If not, it will be useless that you chant mantras every day.”

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Updated on October 17, 2022