His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – October 24, 2021

His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche ascended the Dharma throne, and expounded on “Scroll 18, ‘Amitayus Tathagata Assembly’ (Chapter 5, Section 2)” of the Ratnakuta Sutra.

“Sutra: ‘If one has not practiced on gaining good fortune and merits at the beginning, one will not listen to this subtle, wonderful Dharma after all.’

Many people think that taking refuge, eating vegetarian, participating in pujas or making prostrations to the Buddha are ways of doing practices. Good fortune and merits are mentioned here; they echo what is stated in the Amitabha Sutra that ‘good men and women must have no lack of good fortune, merits, causes and conditions.’ There are two types of good fortune, and they are good fortune with deficiencies and the one without deficiencies. Doing good deeds are what people should do. The reason that, in this life, you have gotten a human body with no physical flaws is because you had practiced the Ten Meritorious Acts in your past lifetimes. That is why you have the sense of doing good deeds in this life. However, even if you have such a sense, whether or not there are opportunities for you to do good acts are different matters. There are deficiencies in good fortune that people have gained from what they have done in the mundane world. Such good fortune will produce good karma. As it is still karma, the process of reincarnation will still occur. It is just that these people will not fall into the Three Evil Realms. They are to be reincarnated back to this world to enjoy the good karmic retribution that they have created in this life. If people are to enjoy good karmic retribution in a future life, they will have either power or wealth. Then such people definitely will not learn Buddhism and practice the Dharma. This is not a good thing either.

The good fortune of the supramundane is different. This is not saying that in order to learn Buddhism, one does not need to create the good fortune of the mundane world. If there are causes, conditions or opportunities, one still needs to do things to gain good fortune. Nevertheless, if one really wants to learn the Dharma, one should create good fortune with practices of the Dharma. Simply speaking, how does one accumulate ‘good fortune of the Dharma’? It is done by making offerings to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and one’s guru, and by giving alms to all sentient beings in the Six Realms. It is not by placing fruits on an offering-table, reciting a certain sutra, burning an incense, lighting a lamp or saying, ‘I am making an offering to the Buddha’. It is not by your releasing captive, living creatures because of having seen some people doing the act, and following the same act, doing it together with them; that is not helping sentient beings. It is not by reciting some sutras, dedicating to sentient beings either. These activities are only for a kind of causal origination on practices of gaining good fortune. If you really want to accumulate the good fortune of the supramundane, you need to do your practices every day unceasingly. If your good fortune of learning Buddhism and practicing the Dharma is not produced, then the Dharma is irrelevant to you.

Recently, some of my disciples had come to implore me for the transmission of the Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices. I did not transmit the Practices to most of them. That was because when I asked them the reason of their imploration, they all said that the purposes were for them to eliminate hindrances and to understand the Dharma. Before one attains Buddhahood, how can one comprehend 100% of the Dharma? In the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center, it is to propagate the Bodhisattva Path. All the things that have been done here are for letting you gain good fortune to learn the Bodhisattva Path, not for making you attain enlightenment. I have said it to you many times, and it is mentioned many times as well in the Ratnakuta Sutra. In that sutra, it is even indicated that in order to practice the Bodhisattva Path, one needs to abandon meditation and nirvana. Here you go again. You think, ‘I want to understand; I want to comprehend the Dharma; I want to eliminate my hindrances; in these ways I will do my practices even better.’ No matter how much I have taught you, you have still not listened.

Although there are some Buddhist centers in Taiwan transmitting very easily the Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices, the requirements are different from here. In some centers, organizers there think that because the laity usually have many things to handle, laymen do not need to make the required grand prostrations in the Practices for 110,000 times; instead, doing 10,000 times will be fine. However, making such prostrations for a full set of 110,000 times is a tradition that has been passed down from ancient times. Why is it for 110,000 times? I will not explain it here today; if I do, you will not understand it anyway.

How are ‘merits’ to be gained? They are gained from observing precepts, entering into states of meditation and unlocking wisdom. The definition of ‘entering into states of meditation’ is not what you have imagined that one sits there without thinking anything or having any thoughts. ‘A state of meditation’ means the mind is completely in a condition without any other thoughts except the Dharma; the mind is in a meditative state on the Dharma. To ask you to do this is impossible. You will be already awesome if you can be in a meditative state on the Dharma for only one second. Do not think you have done attentively on your own self-examination. Your behaviors are just like what have been described in the Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s Fundamental Vows that ‘All our thoughts generate karma and vices.’ If you have not practiced on gaining good fortune and merits, you cannot have listened to this kind of the Dharma, let alone learning Tantra. Why has Tantra been gradually lost, not been passed down, as time goes by? It is because there have been fewer and fewer people possessing good fortune; there is even no such a person existing anymore. Do not think that having wealth or having power and influences mean having good fortune; also, do not assume that having a head shaved and wearing a kasaya (a monk’s robe) are having good fortune either. The Buddha’s definition of having good fortune is that you have a very large database (meaning resources) and are able to learn the extremely profound Dharma; such Dharma definitely cannot be understood from the words it shows.

It is like the Infinite Life Sutra that I have expounded. Many monastics present read it before; then, why did they not understand it? Now, after it has been expounded through me, a little practitioner who is not one learning sutras and sastras to start the practices, you can understand it, or make connections in mind a little. How has this happened? It is because you have gained a little good fortune from your practices, and encountered a guru who has expounded the sutra to you, getting many of your doubts or sensibility of doubt solved. These two sentences in this sutra quote make it very clearly that ‘if one has not practiced on gaining good fortune and merits’, ‘one will not listen to….subtle, wonderful Dharma’ forever. It is not that when you implore for a Dharma method, it will be transmitted to you. Actually, no matter how you have implored for it you cannot get it. If I do not want to speak about a method, I will not. Especially at higher-level practices of Tantra, I will be more so – not speaking about them.

I asked a disciple a question the other day, who knows Tibetan and she translates Tibetan into Chinese. I asked her that when she translated the Dharma texts, whether or not she understood their contents. She said no; she did not. This is because in Dharma texts, there are many kinds of citta (essence of the Dharma) that have not been written down; only gurus know about them. A citta is transmitted, one-on-one, to a disciple, and it is never transmitted in ways of one-on-two. Even if I tell her how to practice a Dharma method, she will not be able to do it because she does not have sufficient good fortune and merits. This is particularly so when one’s Tantra practices have reached the level of Highest Yoga Tantra. Everyone here knows Chinese characters, and none of you is an illiterate. Why is there no one who understands the contents of the Ratnakuta Sutra?

The Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices are methods in preparation for the learning of the Bodhisattva Path in the future. You still think of yourself, or do things just for yourself, all day long, therefore, the Bodhisattva Path is irrelevant to you. This is mentioned very clearly in Tibetan Buddhism: when the Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices have been accomplished to a perfect completion, there must be auspicious signs appearing in the practitioners. I am an example. There are many persons who are present and have completed these practices but why are there no auspicious signs appearing in them? The reason is very simple and it is this: they have practiced for themselves and for their own good. They have thought, ‘I have completed the Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices. Now I should be taught the next step so that I can learn more and become more amazing.’ The Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices are for accumulating the resources of good fortune and wisdom, and are not to let you understand more of the Dharma or become more marvelous. The practices to accumulating such resources are for the purpose to ‘listen to this subtle, wonderful Dharma’. Hence, such an aim is still just listening to the Dharma.

Many people think that Amitabha is in Exoteric Buddhism, so thoughts or teachings about Amitabha are quite simple. This thinking is wrong. Why is this chapter called the Infinite Life Sutra, and why is it not called the Amitabha Sutra directly? Amitabha is the mantra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. What you recite every day as ‘Amitabha’ is the mantra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. Mantras have long ones and short ones. When the Amitabha Dharma for Transferring Consciousness is performed, the mantra chanted is a long one, which is not usually chanted. The mantra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life is ‘ami dewa shri’. When it had been spread to ‘middle earth’ – China – it had become ‘Namo Amitabha’. Actually, it should have been ‘ami dewa shri’. This is also why there are fewer and fewer people ‘going’ to the Pure Land.

Some people think that the Amitabha Sutra is about Amitabha. Contrarily, this chapter is about the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. This Buddha has many names for a Buddha, and is not necessarily called the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. There are other names for a Buddha on this Buddha, too. In the Infinite Life Sutra, there is no mention of Amitabha. The Great Six-Syllable Mantra we chant is the mantra of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Many people think that chanting the Great Compassion Mantra will take longer time because it is relatively long, and in the translated version, it is mentioned that there are some kinds of heavenly deities and protectors, et cetera. In Tibet, there is also a long version of the Great Compassion Mantra. Why do we chant only the Great Six-Syllable Mantra? It is because these six syllables encompass benefiting all sentient beings in the Six Realms; also, all Buddhas’ wisdom and merits are included in these syllables. The 100 syllables in the Hundred-Syllable Mantra represent the mantras of 100,000 Buddhas. Many people want to learn methods of Vajrasattva, thinking that their karmic hindrances can be thusly eliminated. Vajrasattva is Buddha’s Sambhogakaya (reward-body). If you are not prepared to practice the Bodhisattva Path, vowing to attain the fruition level of a Bodhisattva so as to benefit all sentient beings, what are your hopes based on that you want to learn methods of Vajrasattva? Vajrasattva is not in Exoteric Buddhism. This type of Buddhism focuses on studies of sutras and sastras, and is still in the land of ordinary people. Then again, you cannot understand the importance of Vajrasattva, like its being needed when the Phowa being performed.

Why can Vajrasattva eliminate our karmic hindrances? We had created so much good and negative karma in our accumulated past lifetimes. As such karma has hindered our learning of Buddhism, of course, we need a very powerful yidam to help us. If a yidam that one has found is not a Buddha’s reward-body, how can this yidam help the person, who is prepared to become a Bodhisattva, do the practices? Everyone knows that Vajrasattva is my yidam. Vajrasattva has blessed you, and you have become better. However, when you come to me imploring for the Dharma methods, you still talk nonsense. Many people think that if they have implored successfully for, and practiced on, the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, all their karmic hindrances will be eliminated; then they will become amazing, be even better or get better health, et cetera. Thus, I am ‘lazy’ to transmit this mantra to them. Do you think that you will be all set after having chanted fully 100,000 times of it? I don’t know how many times I have chanted it.

At the time when His Holiness wanted to transmit the Mahamudra to me, I worried that there had been too much good and negative karma in me, which would have made me not understand the transmission, or not have good fortune to listen to it. Hence, I supplicated His Holiness to let me chant fully 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra first, and after that, I would receive the transmission of this Dharma method. I spent a dozen days to fully chanted the mantra; I did it fiercely, almost without sleep, and with disregard of my life. This is called being courageous and vigorous. What do you say? Had my way of doing the chanting made me being attuned to Vajrasattva? Of course, I was.

‘If one has not practiced on gaining good fortune and merits at the beginning….’. Do not think that you have practiced on gaining good fortune and merits now. You have not. Are making a little of offerings counted as having done such practices? Why do we need to recite the Sevenfold Offering Prayer before the start of each puja? It is to practice on gaining good fortune. When you recite it, you just implore for getting good things for yourself or for attaining enlightenment. Then what kinds of relevance do they have with the Sevenfold Offering Prayer? Is this mentioned in the Prayer, ‘Because I am now reciting the Sevenfold Offering Prayer, will I be enlightened soon?’? No, this is not mentioned. Since it is not, with a mindset like yours, your good fortune will not be arisen. These two sentences in this sutra quote are very important to all Buddhist practitioners. Shakyamuni Buddha went out of His way to warn all Buddhist practitioners that if they have not mastered the practices of gaining their good fortune and merits, when they die and then are in reincarnations for many lifetimes, they ‘will not listen to….subtle, wonderful Dharma’.

Sutra: ‘Being brave and vigorous can make one obtain many good benefits, and one should be able to listen to such an extremely profound sutra.’

If you have not behaved reaching the level of ‘being brave and vigorous’, how can you obtain all good benefits? You can only get some little benefits of the Human and Heaven Realms. All of you rely on me, or depend on me. If this is all right, I would have relied on His Holiness very early on. Even when His Holiness had personally told me to come out of the retreat room so that he would transmit the Mahamudra to me, I implored him to let me chant fully 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra first, and only after that was completed, dared I to receive this Dharma method. His Holiness still accepted my supplication because he thought that this disciple (I) was different for having achieved the trait of ‘being brave and vigorous’. I only went there to conduct a retreat for one month; how could I have had time to chant that mantra? I was doing it without regard to my life. I am not like you; you cherish yourself so much. If you were in this case, when His Holiness wanted to transmit a Dharma method to you, you would have said, ‘Okay’, and you would then have received the transmission. You would not have thought of other things at that time. Why had I done that? Because I was, and have been, humble, not haughty and arrogant. I have always felt that, in the aspects of the Dharma, I have not learned or practiced well or right. If I have mastered my learnings or practices on the Dharma, I would have attained Buddhahood. As I have not, how do I dare to talk about my own thoughts with ease and confidence?

In the puja of last week, I talked about that pair of disciples of mine who are mother and daughter. The daughter had seen a ghost in the family’s bathroom; I said to them that the ghost should be on the side of her (the mother’s) husband’s family. After they went home and asked for more information, it turned out that the husband’s grandmother (on his mother’s side) had appeared imploring for being liberated. I told this mother that her husband and the son need to eat vegetarian for the rest of their lives. The result was that she came back and reported to me, saying both her husband and their son had been eating vegetarian for two days, but their look became unhealthy, so they could not continue eating such food.

Why did the ghost let her daughter see it? It was because if the daughter saw it, the whole family would become nervous. Why was it in the bathroom that she saw the ghost? The reason was that in the family’s home, there were Dharma photos of me and Dharma Protector Achi, so a ghost did not dare to go over to the area where such photos being exhibited, and could only hide in the bathroom. Their bathroom is for the whole family to use. As her husband and their son still eat meats, and as a ghost likes the odor of meats discharged through stools, it will come to the bathroom. You are all like this that you yourself eat vegetarian but you let your family members eat whatever they like; then you think that will be fine as long as they don’t bother you on things. This shows that this disciple has not made vows to me and to Dharma Protector Achi. She has only wished that I will bless and protect her family so that there are no issues occurring, thinking that it will be all right for them that she and her daughter can just recite sutras or the Buddha’s name, or chant mantras every day.

Yesterday, that pair of mother and daughter, at the end of the session of the audience with me, did not implore me for liberating that ghost. This also means she, the mother, has not practiced on gaining good fortune and merits; she has thought that the ghost is from her husband’s family, and is irrelevant to her. This ghost wanted to get liberated. It was like the death of the uncle of one of my disciples in mainland China. The uncle lived in the region of northeastern China, and he might have created good karma while alive. He had ‘said’ to his wife, the aunt of my disciple, ‘Your nephew has taken refuge in a Rinpoche in Taiwan; this Rinpoche can help me.’ However, for that grandmother we just talked about, ‘her’ ghost did not ‘say’ so. Perhaps it is because there is no such a term as ‘Rinpoche’ in Taiwanese! It can only be stated that this ghost had no good fortune.

‘….one should be able to listen to such an extremely profound sutra.’ This means one can listen to this sutra only when that happens. The required condition of ‘being brave and vigorous’ does not refer to your being so; it refers to my trait that I am ‘brave and vigorous’. You were only in this state when you implored for taking refuge; you then took refuge in me. That was all. There were no other occasions to show you in that state. At the time when you took refuge in me, you acted very impulsively. That was the only time you were ‘brave and vigorous.’

Sutra: ‘That person has seen World Honored Ones and is able to irradiate a great light to save the world with turbidities.’

Such a person must have seen all the Buddhas in the past lifetimes, so after having listened to this sutra and practiced what have been instructed in it, like a Bodhisattva, he or she can irradiate a great, bright light to save sentient beings in the evil time of the Five Turbidities.

Sutra: ‘Having listened more to dharani, being the hold of the Dharma and its meanings, like a vast, deep ocean, that person will get saints’ and sages’ sense of joy and affection.’

‘Having listened more’ does not mean going all over places to listen to sutras explained, or turning on TV every day to see what have been talked about on sutras. The main point is that your listening to sutras expounded is not for your own affairs; you represent sentient beings in the listening.

After you have listened attentively to the ‘subtle, wonderful Dharma’, you will know there is dharani in it. In Esoteric Buddhism, there is a primordial Buddha called Vajradhara. When we do grand prostrations, this yidam is in front of us. This means in sutras, dharani of all the Dharma is in them. It is like what have been discussed earlier in this sutra about how to practice the Bodhisattva Path; on that, in other sutras, there are not many mentions on such practices.

If you have done it – listening to the Dharma this way – you will definitely get Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ sense of joy and protection. Saints and sages here refer to those who have already mastered their practices to be able to get liberated from birth and death. This does not mean calling people ‘saints’ if they can do good deeds in the mundane world.

Sutra: ‘Those who slack off, have false views and are inferior do not believe in this Right Dharma of Tathagata.’

For those who slack off, are lazy or unwilling to move, have false views or inferior root-capacity, or are inferior, even if we talk to them about it, they will not believe in this Dharma that can rightly help us get liberated from birth and death.

Sutra: ‘If having planted roots of virtue under the Buddha’s teachings, that person can then practice the deeds of saving the world.’

If one has ever planted all roots of virtue on Dharma methods under the Buddha’s teachings, and if one is able to save sentient beings of the world, then one can practice the methods. If you have not planted roots of virtue in all aspects of the Dharma, you are not qualified to liberate sentient beings. These sentences in the quote are to let you know the processes of doing practices. If you do not have good fortune and merits, you cannot listen to the Dharma; if you are not brave and vigorous enough, you cannot accomplish deeds to provide good benefits to others, and you cannot read this sutra either. If you had not seen the Buddha before, you will definitely not be able to practice the Bodhisattva Path in this life. If you had not continuously listened to the Dharma in your past lifetimes, you cannot get the Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ sense of joy and protection.

For people ‘who slack off, have false views and are inferior’, they will not believe in the Dharma even if they have listened to it. If you can plant all roots of virtue under the Buddha’s teachings, and even if it was not the Buddha Himself who had taught you, but through the teachings of a Buddha’s Nirmanakaya (emanation-body), you are then qualified to master the practices on the Dharma methods of renouncing reincarnation of the mundane world.

For example, the acts of consciousness-transfer absolutely cannot be done by reciting sutras alone. Getting sentient beings liberated cannot be achieved by reading something. Only when the conditions mentioned earlier have been met, can one accomplish doing consciousness-transfer. Without complying with those conditions, can ‘that person…then practice the deeds of saving the world’? This part of the quote is about Tantra. As you have not mastered the practices described earlier, do you still want to learn Tantra? You are even disrespectful to your guru, and you have lots of your own thoughts. For things your guru wishes you to do, you, on the contrary, don’t do them; whatever matter your guru is handling, you, contrarily, will not get involved; when your guru reminds you to do things that you have not done yet, you will still not act on them. Although you have taken refuge in me, you are still believers, not disciples, because you are unwilling to do all things I have instructed.

Many people often think that learning Buddhism is something so troublesome, and sometimes they will still mention about making offerings. As you live in this mundane world, besides utilizing making offerings so as to accumulate some good fortune for you, do you have other abilities in gaining good fortune? Can you get good fortune, or get sentient beings liberated, by chanting mantras alone? No, you cannot. Since the answer is a No, in order to let you gradually gain good fortune through your practices, your guru can only use one method; there are no other ways. When your good fortune and merits have been arisen, you will naturally be brave and vigorous, and will gradually accomplish things. You ‘can then practice the deeds of saving the world.’

The Buddha had already mentioned the conditions required for your learning the Dharma. When you go back to your home, think if you have complied with such conditions. Why can someone like me, who does not speak Mandarin well and does not understand Tibetan either, now propagate the Dharma and get sentient beings liberated? It is because I have done what are required in those conditions previously mentioned. Before, I have not read this part of the sutra, however, I have been able to accomplish what have been described in it because I had done those acts in my past lifetimes. You cannot master them because you had not done them in your past lifetimes. Then in this life, you do not listen either; you still live a life based on your own methods, so of course, you have nothing. You can only wait for your death. When that time comes, if there are not enough of causes and conditions, I cannot get you liberated either.

A disciple of mine, whose younger brother had passed away, came to seek an audience with me, imploring me to get his brother liberated. I instructed him to make 500 grand prostrations every day. It did not mean that I didn’t want to help his brother; it was because, from the perspective of science, their genes were similar, so he could help his brother. This younger brother of his had never seen me while he was living, and he had a heavy karma of killing, and a bad temper, too. If I had called him forth (as a deceased), he would have run to me angrily and said, ‘What do you want?’. As long as he had become angry, he would have fallen into an evil realm. Then, wouldn’t that have harmed him?

It is like the story that a disciple had shared with everyone before the puja started today. In a dream, her dead child was telling her that he had been waiting to get liberated. There are many of the deceased having been unable to get liberated like that child had been. You certainly will ask, ‘As Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is very compassionate, why are there still so many people getting sick or having died?’ It is not that Avalokiteshvara is ineffective; it is just that there are no affinities existing between Avalokiteshvara and those people! Let’s just look at Taipei City. There are so many people who die here every day. How many of them are there who can get liberated by methods of the Dharma? Only a few. Why? Because there are no causal conditions for most of them and they do not have good fortune.

How do you accumulate your good fortune? The guru will create opportunities for you, and you need to follow the instructions. For example, I have told you to eat good food which will make you healthy, but to you, this advice has gone in one ear and out the other. I do not dare to say that you have false views; in my opinions, you are slacking off and are too lazy to move.

Sutra: ‘It is like the blind who are forever in places of darkness. They cannot develop directions to other roads.’

If you have not accomplished all the things mentioned earlier, you will be ‘like the blind who are forever in places of darkness’, and you will be unable to find another road that can be walked on.

Sutra: ‘Sravakas have the Buddha’s wisdom, not to mention that the rest of sentient beings are enlightened and have understood. The Buddha Himself knows the merits of Tathagata. Only the World Honored One can expound them.’

Even if the wisdom of Sravakas and Pratyekabuddhas are the same as that of the Buddha, and if some sentient beings might have attained enlightenment or be able to expound the Dharma, only ‘the Buddha Himself knows the merits of Tathagata. Only the World Honored One can expound them.’ This means if the Dharma explained by someone is not the Dharma taught by the Buddha, the World Honored One, and if this person has suddenly said that he is being a Buddha, there are problems then. For example, for what kinds of levels on practices I can attain, I know, but can I tell you? (I cannot.) Even if I tell you, you will not understand anyway. Today, I can expound sutras on behalf of the Buddha and that does not mean I were the Buddha. I have listened to the teachings of my guru and the Buddha, and, in accordance with what have been mentioned in sutras, have been doing my practices in step-by-step processes, with one step at a time. In these ways of learning and practicing, of course, I can represent the Buddha to expound the Dharma. If, after having conducted a retreat for a month, you say that you are enlightened, can see some special things, have become very amazing, or are omnipotent, being able to ‘fly or go into a burrow’ with ease, there are problems on all these attitudes. The few sentences in this quote also let us know that we should not be on wrong paths.

Sutra: ‘Devas, nagas and yaksas are inferior to the Buddha. In the Two Vehicles, practitioners themselves terminate the opportunities of being in famous sayings.’

Devas, nagas and yaksas cannot be compared with the Buddha. The Two Vehicles refer to Sravaka and Pratyekabuddha. Their practitioners are already much more amazing than us ordinary people, and can master their practices to break away from reincarnation. However, they still cannot be compared with the Buddha.

Sutra: ‘If sentient beings want to be Buddhas, they will do their deeds to surpass those done by Samantabhadra, and then they can disembark and tread on the opposite shore.’

For all those sentient beings who want to attain Buddhahood in the future, all the deeds they do should surpass those done by Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra has practiced very bravely and vigorously. On your deeds of practices, besides learning from Samantabhadra, they should surpass even more than what Samantabhadra has done. Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is already a Bodhisattva’s Dharmakaya (Dharma-body), and it can be said that Samantabhadra has already attained Buddhahood. ‘Surpassing’ here does not mean we are more amazing than this Bodhisattva; rather, our deeds of practices that have been taught by Samantabhadra cannot be inferior to, or less than, what Samantabhadra has done. We should be even more brave and vigorous so that we ‘can disembark and tread on the opposite shore’ to get to the land of a Buddha.

Sutra: ‘For speaking of and explaining a Buddha’s merits, it will take the time exceeding many unfathomable kalpas. In the midst of this time, the body reached nirvana. A Buddha’s auspicious wisdom cannot be measured.’

‘For speaking of and explaining a Buddha’s merits’, even if many kalpas have passed, such merits cannot be completely finished in explanation. In its processes and the passages of time, the conditions of our bodies’ being extinct and being ‘re-existing’ have been continuously in reincarnation. However, ‘a Buddha’s auspicious wisdom cannot be measured’ by anything in the mundane world.

Sutra: ‘Thus, one is to possess enough of faith, to listen and to receive the embraces of good friends.’

We Buddhist practitioners should possess all the full faith to listen to the Dharma. It is mentioned in Dharma texts that a good friend is your guru; your closest friend is your guru. Through your guru’s embraces of you, you can listen to the Dharma. The so-called embracing is whether he or she can accept your taking refuge in him or her, or help you to learn many methods of learning Buddhism. Your guru will use various ways or forms to embrace you to learn Buddhism.

Sutra: ‘Being able to listen to such profound, wonderful Dharma. Will be getting the affection and respect of Sacred Honored Ones. The auspicious wisdom of Tathagata is all over the void. On the right words that have been spoken of, only the Buddha can be enlightened.’

When you have obtained the embracing of your guru and the teachings of ‘profound, wonderful Dharma’ from him or her, you will also get the respect, affection and protection of Buddhas. The ‘auspicious wisdom of Tathagata is all over the void.’ On all the spoken languages with profound meanings ‘that have been spoken of, only the Buddha can’ attain realization and ‘be enlightened’.

Sutra: ‘Thus, wise men who have broadly listened should believe that what I have taught are true words. It is very difficult to attain the interesting human form. It is also difficult to meet Tathagata who has appeared.’

All scholars who wish to listen more and to practice on wisdom should believe what ‘I’, (the Buddha), have taught ‘you’ (the scholars) are all real, and the verbal teachings are true with no empty words. Attaining a human form is very difficult, and it is even harder to meet a Buddha who has come into the world.

Sutra: ‘Only if one believes in wisdom for a long time, can one achieve attainment. Thus, practitioners should do their practices diligently.’

Only if one believes completely in wisdom and practices continuously on it for a very long time, can one obtain methods of becoming a Bodhisattva or attaining Buddhahood. The mundane affairs, including illnesses, are not discussed in sutras, therefore, those who practice any Dharma methods should do them very diligently.

Sutra: ‘As one has already listened to such wonderful Dharma, one often thinks of Buddhas and gives rise to joy. That person was my true friend in the past, and has been very capable to learn from the Buddha happily and to attain bodhicitta.’

After you have already listened to such good Dharma, you should know that all Buddhas give rise to the sense of joy towards you because of your listening to such Dharma. Such persons and I were perhaps friends in the past. They are very joyful in their hearts and know that the Dharma is good. They can get the learnings from the Buddha’s teachings and attain bodhicitta.

Sutra: ‘At that time, after the World Honored One had expounded this sutra, in the worlds of Heaven and Human Realms, there were twelve thousand nayuta of hundreds of millions of sentient beings staying far away from dust and defiling elements, and obtaining the pure Dharma eye.’

Having the ‘Dharma eye’ does not mean there is really an additional eye being possessed. ‘The pure Dharma eye’ means one’s understanding of the Dharma has been pure. You are now close by ‘dust’ and near ‘defiling elements.’ If you do not leave them while learning Buddhism, you cannot obtain ‘the pure Dharma eye’. Because you have not left dust and defiled things, you are not capable to distinguish or understand the purity and the meanings of the Dharma. The guru has been teaching you that you need to stay ‘far away from dust and defiling elements.’

Sutra: ‘Two billion sentient beings had attained the fruition of anagamin. Six thousand and eight hundred bhikkhus had the eradication of afflictions and their minds had been freed.’

The fruition of anagamin is the third level of fruitions for arhats. There were 6,800 bhikkhus who had eradicated their afflictions and ‘their minds had been freed.’

Sutra: ‘Four billion Bodhisattvas, with their supreme bodhicitta, abided by the state of non-retrogression. They were covered by great armor of mails and helmets and will attain right awareness. There were 2.5 billion sentient beings who had obtained the non-retrogression on forbearance.’

A Bodhisattva with supreme bodhicitta is a Bodhisattva’s Dharmakaya (Dharma-body). ‘Great armor of mails and helmets’ is used to protect the Dharma-body, and such a Bodhisattva will definitely attain the fruition of a Buddha. The ‘non-retrogression on forbearance’ means the non-retrogression on forbearance of non-arising of Dharmas.

Sutra: ‘There are four trillion nayuta of hundreds of thousands of sentient beings. On supreme bodhicitta, they had never aspired to attain it. Now they had started giving rise, for the first time, to the planting of roots of virtue.’

They had never given rise to gain bodhicitta before. Today, because they had listened to the Buddha’s teachings, they had started aspiring to plant various kinds of roots of virtue.

Sutra: ‘For those wishing to be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss and to see Amitabha, they should be reborn in that land of Tathagata. They will individually, in sequential order, attain Buddhahood in different places, and will have the same name with a wonderful sound.’

After one is in the Pure Land of Amitabha, one will also be in other places in the future. The person will separately, in sequential order, have the same name of a Buddha.

Sutra: ‘There are eight trillion nayuta of sentient beings who have received the assurance of the forbearance of the Dharma and attained supreme bodhicitta.’

This quote means there are many ‘sentient beings who have received the assurance of the forbearance’ of non-arising of Dharmas and ‘attained supreme bodhicitta.’

Sutra: ‘When that Buddha of Immeasurable Life had practiced the Bodhisattva Path before, that Buddha had matured sentient beings, making them fully developed. They should all be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss and keep in remembrance of their thoughts and vows arisen in the past that all these will be accomplished in perfect completion.’

When the Buddha of Immeasurable Life had practiced the Bodhisattva Path, ‘that Buddha had matured’ many ‘sentient beings, making them fully developed’. They should also ‘be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss.’

Sutra: ‘At that time, there were six kinds of shocks in the trichiliocosm. Also, there had been various kinds of rare and supernatural changes appearing, and they radiated the great, bright light, illuminating universally the world. There were countless nayuta of hundreds of thousands of heavenly beings. At the same time, music was sounded without drumming. It rained the heavenly mandarava flowers that were covering knees. Even in the Heaven of Akaniṣṭha, there were various kinds of auspicious and wonderful offerings made.’

The ‘six kinds of shocks’ mentioned in the quote does not refer to earthquake.” Rinpoche instructed monastics present to find out what these six shocks are.

(Rinpoche continued the teachings.)

“Sutra: ‘The Buddha had finished expounding the sutra. Bodhisattva Maitreya, others, the Venerable Ananda and everyone present, had listened to what the Buddha had spoken of, and were all joyful.’

The Infinite Life Sutra has now been expounded to a perfect completion. In this sutra, there are conditions mentioned about practicing the Bodhisattva Path and being reborn in the Pure Land. All of you should know very clearly whether you have started doing those practices or not. Whether or not you have met such conditions is not important; rather, it makes a difference if you have started doing the practices and amending yourself. If you have not, then what have been taught in the sutra are not relevant to you. Do not think that those teachings will be useful to you if you have listened to them. Having listened to them is just giving you opportunities to learn this Dharma method. After listening to the teachings, if you don’t practice the method, it will not be useful to you.

The next scroll of the Ratnakuta Sutra is about Immovable Tathagata. The Dharma methods taught by Immovable Tathagata have been rarely practiced on in Exoteric Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism, many yidams of Vajrayana have worn on them a ‘head set’ showing Immovable Tathagata. The definition of Immovable Tathagata is that the Tathagata’s aspiration of attaining Buddhahood has never changed or moved. No matter what kinds of various matters of the mundane world that Tathagata has encountered, including those of Tathagata’s own affairs, Tathagata’s aspiration of becoming a Buddha has never been changed or moved. I have not read this sutra before. Next time, if I have time, I will expound it to you.”

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Updated on August 26, 2022