His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – August 14, 2022

At the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche lit lamps as an offering to the Buddha, and presided over the auspicious “Three-In-One Puja of Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, and Padmasambhava.” Rinpoche also bestowed the precious teachings.

“Today, the Dharma text of the ‘Three-In-One Puja of Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara, and Padmasambhava’ will be used for my performance. It is mentioned in the Amitabha Sutra that ‘good men and good women must have no lack of good fortune, merits, causes and conditions, and they have made vows to be reborn in the Pure Land.’ The phrase ‘must have no lack of’ means you need to do what you have been taught every day. However, how to accumulate your good fortune and merits in the quickest ways? Each day, you have been doing the so-called homework, and they are only assisting conditions to help you on your practices.

Yunga Rinpoche once said that there are three fastest methods to accumulate good fortune. The first one is holding a grand puja. The definition of ‘a grand puja’ is that there must be ‘fourfold assembly of Buddhists’ – two types of monastics and two types of the laity – attending such a puja. They are led by a Rinpoche to do their practices. In addition, these types of pujas are not held for the purposes of obtaining some kinds of benefits, fame, or profit. Such pujas are to accumulate participants’ good fortune and merits particularly fast.

The second method is to have prayer flags hung. All the people who have been in Tibet have seen that there are five-colored flags (prayer flags) fully hung in many places. Those flags have been filled with written sutras, mantras, and the vows of yidams. Does it mean there will be merits for those who have hung such flags? No, it does not mean that. These prayer flags must have been blessed by a guru and have been attuned to yidams. Only after these flags have been hung, can good fortune be accumulated very quickly.

The last method, which was mentioned in ancient times, was to carve the Buddhist Canon. Now, there is no need to carve it so toilfully as it can be published with printing. Nevertheless, one is not to make a point of finding or printing this sutra to gain good fortune. It is like there being a popular saying nowadays that what will happen by printing the Buddhist Canon. These are wrong concepts. All things need to be ‘going along with causes and conditions.’ It was like my assistance to the National Palace Museum on the publication of the Tibetan Dragan Sutra, which was published in the era of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty. This matter of help had not been found and handled deliberately. Rather, it could only have been done because all causes and conditions had been in existence at the time, getting the Buddhist Canon (called the Tibetan Dragan Sutra by people in that era,) which had not appeared in this mundane world for few hundred years, to be able to appear in the world.

If one has been doing these three things continuously, one can accumulate good fortune and merits in one’s practices very quickly. Many people think that good fortune is to make them have good health, strike it rich, have a happy family, run prosperous businesses, or get their children passing school examinations without difficulties. In fact, all these happenings were the results of good fortune gained from people’s practices in their past lifetimes. The good fortune that we have obtained from our practices of the Dharma in this life are to be used in three areas. One of them is to get your good fortune being able to arise in the processes of your practices, and only then, can your hindrances be reduced. The hindrances from the negative karma you had created in your accumulated past lifetimes had been very serious.

Yesterday, an ordained disciple came to seek an audience with me, making a repentance. The reason was that he had been here to see me last week because of there being some issue with his health. At that time, he had not said anything about his hand. However, When I had blessed him, I had ‘seen’ something having happened. I had said to him then, ‘This hand of yours had caught chickens before.’ I had not said that he had killed chickens; it had been catching them. This ordained disciple had already forgotten about this matter. Why had he? Yesterday, he said what was in his mind that ‘Because I had not learned Buddhism before, I did not know there would be causes and effects on things I had done.’ Hence, he had not repented. Why not? This has been mentioned in sutras: ‘On the negative karma we had committed through lifetime after lifetime, only the Buddha knows clearly how much there had been.’ We need to do repentance every day. We did not practice well in past lifetimes, and only then has our negative karma become manifest in this life.

It is like what I have often said about myself. Since I have started comprehending things and rules from childhood to this day, I have never cut a piece of meat or killed a fish with a knife in a kitchen. Cantonese love seafood the most; I have never done those kinds of food preparations. My first job was to serve as an apprentice in the kitchen of a five-star hotel. During that time, I had never held a knife to cut meat either. What kind of a concept is this? It means there is already the eradication of my karma resulting from killing in my past lifetimes. It is impossible then for me to encounter such things about killing in this life again. If there are opportunities for you to run into these things in this life, it demonstrates that the negative karma you had created in past lifetimes has still affected your current life. When you said that you did not know causes and effects before you learned Buddhism, and so long as you said that, it indicated that you did not have a mind of repentance.

This happens especially for monastics. When they attend penitential rites every day, they will recite a phrase ‘the negative karma I created in the past.’ If you have not made prostrations in the Precious Penitential Rites of Emperor of Liang, you will not have causes, conditions, and good fortune to come to my Center here. You have attended penitential rites, and have recited this phrase; you understand the meaning of ‘the negative karma I created in the past.’ Have you forgotten about it? You who are in this Center are all included in this kind of situation. You will ask, ‘Why am I so unlucky?’ Not to mention your past lifetimes, in this life, how much negative karma have you created? As you have done such negative karma, do you think you can pay it off after you have made prostrations to the Buddha? That monastic with health issue was lucky; he is ordained and is my disciple. I ‘saw’ what he had done before with his hand. If I had not seen it, he cannot, absolutely, be liberated from birth and death in this life because he will think that ‘I caught chickens for doing some things. I did not kill them. Will my catching them be so serious?’ Yes, it is exactly so serious.

Today, my performance of the Dharma to help you is not to let you become better, and it is not getting you being able to attain enlightenment or to understand immediately either. Rather, I am to help you accumulate, continuously, good fortune, merits, causes and conditions. Do not think that you have already done many things. Let us look at what is described in the Universal Gate Chapter. Bodhisattva Aksayamati is already a Bodhisattva, yet he wants to make an offering to Avalokiteshvara, and the offering item is the best of things – jewelry – too. You fail to do that, and it is all right. The gurus with Tantric practices are very compassionate in that they do not wish to see a sentient being falling into the Hell Realm. Thus, I will perform the Dharma to help everyone of you whenever there are opportunities.

The performances of the Dharma are not to change your destiny; rather, they are to accumulate or increase your good fortune, merits, causes and conditions. Such performances are for three things. One is to reduce the hindrances in your practicing processes. It is like this monastic. If I had not ‘seen’ that he had a problem with his hand, he would not have been able to get his negative karma eliminated in this life. The reason was that he thought nothing would have been the matter as he had not learned Buddhism at that time. No one had told him that there would be causes and effects on things he had done. After he has taken refuge in me and attended so many pujas, his good fortune has arisen so that his problem about his hand had been seen and ‘dug out’ by his guru. Do not think that if you do not come to see me, or if you are not scolded by me, things happening around you are none of your businesses. If this is the way you think, contrarily, there will be issues with you.

Secondly, what have we been practicing good fortune and merits for? Such practices are to let us have good fortune and merits to listen to, continuously, the Dharma that is more profound and abstruse. The phrase ‘profound and abstruse’ here does not mean ‘very deep.’ Instead, it means as you still have not given rise to aspirations, for the Dharma you still have no opportunities to learn, you will not be allowed to listen to it, absolutely. The third thing is the most important one. Before we pass away, if we do not have good fortune, we will die totally in ways very awful, very painful, and with many issues. However, if we have enough of good fortune, when we pass away, we will not go through much pain. Also, for people who have not practiced the Dharma in this life, after they pass away, they will at least not fall into Hell, Hungry Ghost, and Animal Realms. If one has enough of good fortune and obtains the help from his or her meritorious guru, one can be reborn in the Heaven Realm or the Human Realm. There is even an opportunity that the person will be in the Land of Amitabha. So, practicing or accumulating good fortune is for this purpose, and is not to let you become better.

Then again, speaking from the opposite angle on the same subject, when we have accumulated our profound good fortune continuously, and even if our negative karma becomes manifest, it can be held off or be transformed because we have enough of good fortune. If there is enough of good fortune for you, things will change. It is not because you have done well in making prostrations to the Buddha or in your practices. Rather, the reason is that you have been helped in accumulating great good fortune. Therefore, in our practices in this life, we absolutely need to accumulate good fortune.

In the past two years, I did not have the 10,000-participant Grand Puja held for each year. Besides the pandemic, this was the first and the most important reason that the Pujas had not been held: all the believers who had come to the Pujas before had not listened and had not eaten vegetarian. A situation happened again yesterday. A believer came and sought an audience with me. He told me that his parents had died in a car accident, and they had attended the Grand Puja before. His concept was that ‘As I had participated in the Grand Puja, you will need to get me liberated.’ When I presided over Grand Pujas, did I promise all the believers this: ‘As you have participated the Grand Puja, when you pass away, I will help you get liberated’? (All the attendees answered, ‘No. You did not.’) I only spoke one sentence to them, and it was ‘Today, I am helping you form affinities.’ Did I say that? (All the attendees answered, ‘Yes. You did.’) Secondly, I said to all participants that ‘If you do not listen, I will not have the Grand Puja held anymore.’ Did I say that? (All the attendees responded, ‘Yes. You did.’) At that time, I had not read what have been mentioned in the chapter of Immovable Tathagata in the Ratnakuta Sutra. It has been written very clearly in that chapter that if there are no believers wanting to learn Buddhism, wishing to listen to the Dharma, or being respectful of the Dharma, those who expound the Dharma will not expound it.

What does it mean one dies in a car accident? There are mentions in sutras that people with very heavy karma resulting from killing will encounter ‘calamities of swords and army.’ Now, there are no wars in Taiwan yet. Then, what is the ‘calamities of swords and army’? Car accidents are precisely such calamities. In car accidents, are people involved not like being killed by others with some things? No one believes this. Many people have the mindset that ‘I have come to participate the Grand Puja so you will need to help me solve whatever problems I have.’ If it were this simple, I would have been the first one to tell His Holiness – and I have often joked about this to you – that I would not have wanted to practice anymore. What do I want to do it for? I have already mastered my practices so well. This is not the concept. Since my vows now are wishing to help sentient beings not fall into the Three Evil Realms and to get them being able to attain the fruition of a Buddha, the Land of Amitabha is certainly the place where you need to ‘go.’ If you want to be there for escaping your karma, afflictions, or pains, you cannot go there. Going to the Land of Amitabha is not for the purpose of escaping responsibilities you should have taken for. Instead, it is for doing your practices. On Earth, there are no very good places for us to attain the fruition of a Buddha. It has already been not easy to be able to master the practices on the Bodhisattva Path on Earth; attaining Buddhahood in the same place is something that is impossible to occur. Only if one goes to a pure land (regardless of which pure land of a yidam’s or a Buddha’s), can one attain the fruition of a Buddha and benefit a great number of sentient beings.

Today, my performance of this Dharma is to help you increase your good fortune, merits, causes and conditions, letting you have enough of such possessions to go the Pure Land when you pass away. I will speak to you simply with words that you can understand. It is like that you are preparing to immigrate to any countries, you will need to get ready a sum of money. Going to the Land of Amitabha is not to get the money ready. Rather, you need to prepare having the resources of your good fortune and merits. When you are alive, your guru can help you, give you things, teach you, or transmit Dharma methods to you. However, at the second you stop breathing, that is your own business. This will be the situation unless when you are alive, you remember your guru very clearly, and surrender yourselves to the guru 100%, and then when you are at the second of your death, your guru will still help you.

Today, I am going to break a myth for all of you, and you are to remember it clearly. It has been mentioned very distinctly that ‘Only when you face the end of our life, will the Trinity of the Paradise with Amitabha come to receive you.’ It means when you are alive, what you see on the Amitabha’s coming is unreal, regardless of whether you see it in a dream, see it with your eyes closed, or with them open unless you are to die in the next second; you do not wish to die though. This is a case especially for the monastics here. They say all the time that they hope to see Amitabha appearing in front of them when they recite a Buddha’s name or sutras, or chant mantras. This is mentioned very surely in sutras: ‘when you face the end of your life….’ Are you, this group of monastics, going to die? I can see that you are not to die yet. My karmic hindrances are heavy indeed. I have still been entangled by you to this day. When you read or recite sutras, get the understanding distinctly. It is just like what Wu Zetian, an Empress, wrote that ‘May we understand Tathagata’s real and true meanings.’ It is not to use your brain to think about the contents of sutras.

In general, if Buddhist practitioners or people practicing the Dharma want to see Amitabha, it is at the time when they face the end of their lives. Why is ‘facing” mentioned? It means it is the moment when you face your death, and is the demonstration of your practicing level. In the chapter of Immovable Tathagata, this has also been written that if you do not see Amitabha before you stop breathing, and if you are a person with lower root-capacity, after you stop breathing, you will see Amitabha, absolutely. What do you worry about then? You do not need to if you believe in what are described in sutras. Why must one be alive before passing away to see Amitabha and only then can one’s mind be undisturbed to follow Amitabha going to the Pure Land? This has been mentioned very clearly in sutras. Do the monastics here remember it? (One answered, ‘Yes, we remember it.’) If you come to me and ask me again, ‘Rinpoche, can I see Amitabha by reciting the Buddha’s name or sutras, or chanting mantras?’ I will be ready to take a stick to knock you down.

This is mentioned very distinctly in sutras: ‘when you face the end of your life….’ One situation is when you stop breathing, you will see Amitabha. The other situation to see Amitabha is when you are in the intermediate state (‘bardo’ – after death and before one’s next birth). It has not been stated in sutras that you will see Amitabha when, in your practices, you have reached the level that you can fly unless Immovable Tathagata takes you up to see Amitabha. Have you practiced the Dharma methods of Immovable Tathagata in this life? If you have not, how can Immovable Tathagata take you up to see Amitabha? It has been mentioned very surely in sutras that only heavenly beings can be taken up. You, as ordinary people, have such a heavy form of body; how can you be taken up? For ordinary people, one is heavier than the other.

Today, before I begin my performance of the Dharma, I expounded briefly the related teaching to all of you first, letting you understand clearly the purpose of learning Buddhism. In the prayer I am going to recite in a moment, there is this first sentence written distinctly: ‘A meritorious guru leads the path of getting liberated.’ For you to be led and to walk on the path of getting liberated, you need a meritorious guru. There is no mention of Amitabha at this point, and Amitabha is only spoken of later in the prayer. Thus, if you are not respectful of your guru, you will not obtain the lead of your guru. It is because that you refuse the lead of the guru; it is not that the guru refuses to lead you. Do not think you can lead the path yourself and get yourself liberated. If you could, this sentence would not have been written. This Dharma text was not written by me; it was written a little over 1,000 years ago. What is the work of a guru? It is leading the path. A guru leads you to walk on the path of getting liberated. If you do not want to get liberated, what things your guru have done are irrelevant to you. So, you need to understand what have been mentioned in the Dharma.”

(Rinpoche started the Dharma performance of Amitabha.)

(In the progress of attendees’ practice of meditation led by Rinpoche, there were two disciples who were coughing continuously. Rinpoche instructed that they were to move to the back of the venue to sit there.)

(Rinpoche continued to perform the Dharma.)

During the progress of the Dharma performance, the Tsok Ritual and tea-offering ritual were occurring. Every person present received a share of offering items that had been blessed by Rinpoche, as well as the rare and auspicious causes and conditions to dine with the guru, the Buddha, and Bodhisattvas during the puja.

“I will now start the Dharma performance of Avalokiteshvara. In this Dharma text, there are a few sentences that I expounded to you before. I will speak of them again today. The practice of the Great Six-Syllable Mantra – the essence of Tantric mantras – should combine a generation stage and a completion stage to constrain the mandala of the Five Poisons, which are with confusion, distractions, and disturbances in the mind. Even if we chant mantras with our lips, it will be like when we use our hands, putting forth our strength, to remove some decorations on conches, the decorations cannot be removed. On the contrary, with auspiciousness of Vajrayana pith, one is to combine a generation stage and a completion stage to practice meditation, and to do actual practices diligently. Then, if one’s body, speech, and mind still cannot be liberated, it means Vajradhara tells a lie.

Which one is Vajradhara? From the perspective of the Drikung Kagyu Order, Vajradhara is a primordial Buddha, the first Buddha. Through pith instruction from our guru, we practice the Great Six-Syllable Mantra with a generation stage and a completion stage, and if our body, speech, and mind still cannot be liberated, then it is that Vajradhara has told us a lie. Hence, those with upper or medium root-capacity should practice the ‘path of completion.’ This means after they have practiced the ‘path of generation,’ they are to practice the ‘path of completion.’ The next recitation is about general, simple actual practices on ‘refuge aspiration.’ For those people with lower root-capacity, which is not so good, they need to understand, at least, giving rise to aspirations for their practices.

For those two disciples who were continuously coughing just now, if you do not go to see doctors and get well, do not come back here. If you do not have money to visit them, I will give it to you. Both of you are full of nonsense. You obviously knew that you were not well, but you have still come to this puja today; do you think you will feel better by coming to it? By our doing a meditation, you had been caught. Why did you keep on coughing? Because you felt unwell and your qi-channel did not have a good energy flow. Why, when there are almost 1,000 people here, are you the only two coughing? Because you did not listen to what I had scolded or said to you, and you implored me for blessings and protection. You thought you would not get sick if you participated in pujas. If you do not have money to treat your sickness, come to tell me. I will give you the money. It was a good thing for these disciples to be led by me in practicing a meditation for such a long time. They were practicing a meditation but you were coughing right there. You had not even gotten up and moved to the back of the venue. In ancient times, if you were in a meditation hall and had coughed so much, you would have been hit by others with a board long ago. You had taken advantage of me to such an extent.

The meaning of this section of the Dharma text is that if one wants to get liberated through the practices of Avalokiteshvara ritual, one must learn a generation stage. At least, if one has learned it, one’s body, speech, and mind can be liberated. If there are people who have upper or medium root-capacity, they should practice another stage – a completion stage. The ‘completion’ here means ‘all Dharmas (phenomena) are in Emptiness.’ We are to understand Emptiness, and only then can the Dharma be in perfect completion. Emptiness does not mean nothingness. I expounded Emptiness before so I will not speak more of it now. Today, on this simple Refuge Aspiration Prayer, I am going to lead you reciting it once. In the Dharma text, you can see that a guru is mentioned first, in front, and the Three Jewels are listed next, in a second place. This does not mean to differentiate these two terms as being at front, or at later part, of the text. The key point is to tell you this: without a guru’s transmissions and teachings, you will not learn the Dharma.”

(Rinpoche continued to perform the Dharma, and chanted the Great Six-Syllable Mantra.)

What do we chant this mantra for? It is to break away from the faults of the Six Realms, by chanting the mantra diligently and vigorously. In chanting, if the mind is restless, unquiet, and exhilarated with the voice of chanting becoming louder and louder, and if people who get very excited on things, they do not need to chant with a voice at first; they are to chant with their consciousness, meaning chanting in their minds. When one chants to a point of feeling sleepy, or to feel very tired with no strength, one can raise the tone a little higher to chant. In the progress of the chanting, we need to visualize that all phenomena in the mundane world have been transformed into light, which has been immersed in our own bodies and in the seed-syllable ‘shri’ in our minds. However, we have not obtained any of the so-called self-nature. We are to sit calmly following our abilities – sitting there peacefully in accordance with our abilities. Do not think of other things. Think that you are Avalokiteshvara, not that your physical body being the Bodhisattva; rather, your mind is Avalokiteshvara. Only if you chant with this method, can the goodness in your mind fulfill your and sentient beings’ wishes, and can the vices and hindrances in your mind-continuum be purified. A sacred person’s body, speech, and mind are not different from ‘Holy Dust.’ This means there are no differences between one’s own body, speech, and mind and those of yidam’s. About the sentence described in later part of the text, it is a state which is very difficult for you to attain. Hence, these few sentences have already been mentioned to you that when you chant very excitedly, do not chant with your mouth; think or chant with your consciousness. When you chant to a point of feeling sleepy, chant louder then.

I will now start the performance of the Simplified Version of Padmasambhava Ritual. Padmasambhava is very important to Tibetan Tantra. If Padmasambhava had not entered Tibet, there would not have been Tantra today. According to what is written in the biography of Padmasambhava, he was born in a place which is in Afghanistan now. His birth was a little bit legendary. One day, a king was on a royal progress and while he was passing by a lake, he saw that there was a baby boy on a very big lotus. The king then held the baby up and reared him. This baby boy was Padmasambhava. Thus, Padmasambhava’s full name is Master Padmasambhava. He was not born from a mother’s fetus. Was this possible? Yes, it was. This was not a myth, absolutely. The reason that Padmasambhava entered Tibet was that Venerable Atisha was propagating the Dharma there at that time and wanted to build the first monastery. Venerable Atisha went to Tibet from India, and Exoteric Buddhism was the focus of his practices. When he was building the monastery, the wooden pillars carried into the site during the day had all been moved away by demons at night. Such pillars disappeared every day. So, Venerable Atisha could not build the monastery continuously. In the end, he asked Padmasambhava coming to Tibet to get demons subdued. Then, this monastery had been able to be built.

At that time, on the Dharma in Tibet, a part of it had been spread from India, and the other part, from Tang Dynasty of China. Hence, the Dharma in Tibet then was mainly in the bases of Tang Tantra and Exoteric Buddhism. When Padmasambhava propagated the Dharma in Tibet, he achieved great renown. Therefore, the king of Tibet asked Padmasambhava and monastics from Tang Dynasty to start debates on the Dharma. As a result, Padmasambhava’s arguments and explanations were more auspicious. Thus, the king decided to let Padmasambhava stay in Tibet to propagate the Dharma. At the time of debates, if Padmasambhava had not argued and explained with so much auspiciousness, then Exoteric Buddhism should have been propagated in Tibet. Nevertheless, regardless of what the result had been, now, Exoteric Buddhism is still very important in Tibet. Without learning it for 10 years, it is impossible for one to learn Tantra.

Padmasambhava ‘brought in’ Tantra to Tibet. All the four main orders of Tibetan Buddhism are relevant to Padmasambhava. Many Dharmas have been passed down from Padmasambhava. For commemorating Padmasambhava’s bringing in Tantra, the Padmasambhava Ritual will be performed too in the Three-In-One Puja today. There are two yidams in this Ritual: one is peaceful yidam and the other one, wrathful yidam. We usually perform the Ritual with peaceful yidam. Padmasambhava had an appearance of a layman. There are many stories about him that have been remained to date. I also have a biography of Padmasambhava. The things that he said that I remember the most is this: ‘In the future, so long as humans start using things made of iron to fly in the sky as modes of transportation, humans will change. Men will become disloyal or unjust; women will become unfaithful; children will be unfilial. There will be wars continuously. Demons will come down to the earth. Pandemics will happen unceasingly, and natural disasters will occur incessantly.’

Now, what he said before have started been confirmed. So, that is why I have been coercing you urgently. There is not much of time remaining. Do not think that it is all right in that you will come back to this world in your next lifetime. When you return at that time, and if it just happens that wars with the most fierce fighting are going on, then you are done. Thus, there is a limited amount of time remaining. Of course, ‘limited amount of time’ is impossible to mean a day, say, tomorrow, and it is not possible to mean 10 years either. However, time is really limited.

The Dharmas I have performed, or will perform, for everyone today are not to let you live a good life; rather, I hope that after you end this life, you can be reborn in Amitabha’s Pure Land. Today, all of you have good fortune, merits, causes and conditions to attend this puja. It is not because of your fluke or luck. It is that because there had been great causes and conditions in your past lifetimes, absolutely, you are able to come here. By reason of your coming here, you can also help many of your family members and some sentient beings you cannot see. Such help does not have immediate effect, like in a Chinese saying, ‘setting up a pole and seeing its shadow.’ Rather, they will feel differently, gradually. These two disciples who were coughing just now, while we were practicing sitting-in meditation, stopped coughing when the meditation stopped. It indicated that they were undermining it. They knew obviously that they felt unwell but they still came here to make an annoyance. They did not expect there would be a sitting-in meditation suddenly.

Why do we practice sitting-in meditation? Because after the Dharma of Amitabha and the Amitabha Mantra have been performed, we need to learn ‘sitting still.’ I have already taught it to monastics here. In ‘sitting still,’ if one can master its practice to have every thought being Amitabha, one will go to the Pure Land assuredly! If you have trained yourself to a stage that you do not even have the thought of Amitabha – without any thoughts – in that you are in a meditative state, I guarantee you certainly will go to the Pure Land! This is to be trained ordinarily. You are not to rely on a shout of ‘Save me, Rinpoche!’ when the time comes. Sometimes, I might not be able to hear it or I might be asleep. The trainings are depended on that they are done usually and are accumulated slowly. For example, I held Great Indiscriminate Amitabha Puja for Transferring Consciousness for 17 years. In each of those years, before the date of Grand Puja, I needed to conduct a retreat. I recited the name of Amitabha at least 100,000 times with a total of 1.7 million times in 17 years. This number of counts does not include the times I recite ordinarily. Hence, I have practiced and propagated the Dharma about the Pure Land exclusively. It has not been enough by just leading you to recite a Buddha’s name as Amitabha. I must be in the inner practices, invite him to be present, and then practice or perform again, and only then can it be useful.”

(Rinpoche started the performance of Padmasambhava Ritual. When Rinpoche was chanting the mantra, he instructed the disciples not to follow him in the chanting.)

“Because you have not made vows yet to liberate sentient beings, your chanting of Padmasambhava Mantra was just for fun. It is better for me to chant on your behalf than for you to chant. Do not think that by chanting the mantra the chanting itself is useful. If you have not made vows or have not given rise to them in the mind, chanting this mantra is only like what I expounded earlier today on Avalokiteshvara ritual that you just move your mouth, talking something, and that is all. Many people think that chanting along with their guru is useful. It is not that I do not want you to chant. It is stated very clearly in this Dharma text that performing this Dharma is for the purpose of liberating sentient beings; you do not have such a thought. Even if you do, it is like the light emitted from a firefly; the light flashes once and is gone. In this way, there will be no blessings for you from this Dharma text. However, the guru’s mind is to liberate sentient beings. Therefore, your guru’s chanting of one verse is equivalent to your chanting of 1,000 verses. Listen quietly to my chanting, on the contrary, will be useful.

Do not think that you must recite the Buddha’s name or sutras or chant mantras along with your guru. Many people follow their gurus to recite sutras. What is the result then? It is that these people do not respect their gurus. So, the characteristics of Tantra is that disciples must need a guru to lead and guide their practices, the so-called leading the path by the guru. This is because that our mind gets very tenacious easily and is attached very strongly to things that are physically existent. Contrarily, in the Dharma, one cannot be attached to the thought of ‘actual existence.’ To you, this is quite a contradiction. Thus, situations have become that your guru helps you do things.

Here is the difference between Exoteric Buddhism and Tantra. In Exoteric Buddhism, a lead monastic will lead you to recite the Buddha’s name or sutras or to chant mantras. During the recitation or the chanting, how many times you can do it depends on your attributes. In Tantra, it is that a guru himself or herself has achieved attainment to be attuned to the yidam first. Then the guru takes you, leading and guiding you, to walk on the path of your practices. Hence, these types of gurus are very strict. Padmasambhava is very strict., On the mandala in front of you, everyone can see that on his statue, he is seeing you with open eyes. I have not glared at you yet, like what his look shows on the statue. Padmasambhava is very strict and it is not a joke. When you chanted Padmasambhava Mantra, you just did it for fun. That was why I told you not to follow me chanting the mantra. It did not mean your chanting broke the law; rather, when chanting the mantra, you would not understand why it is done this way. You are to simply listen to my chanting quietly, and the listening will be helpful to your Eighth Consciousness instead. It has been mentioned very clearly in the Dharma text that what you chant are just words, not Padmasambhava Mantra. There are many Dakas and Dakinis around Padmasambhava. If these Dakas and Dakinis hear that you chant the mantra wrong, they will get angry. The Dakas and Dakinis are the Dharma protectors of Padmasambhava. There are also ghosts as Dharma protectors for Padmasambhava. Therefore, performing the Padmasambhava Ritual is at another level. Do not think it is fun, and do not think if you chant more of the mantra, you will get more merits and good fortune. You will have them then by listening to your guru.”

After completing the Dharma Protector Achi ritual, Rinpoche mentioned the situations of the two disciples. “Those two disciples who were coughing had problems with their heart-channel in the body.” Rinpoche instructed a doctor-disciple of Chinese medicine to feel their pulse immediately for free. After this doctor-disciple had felt their pulse, he reported this: “One of them has insufficient heart-qi in his heart-channel. The other one has a chill in his heart-channel and it does not have a good energy flow there.” Then, to the doctor, Rinpoche said with a chuckle, “I could see, from this far distance, that they have health problems. You still needed to feel their pulse though!”

(Rinpoche continued the teaching.)

“I hope the merits you have gained from the Dharma performed today have been dedicated to all sentient beings in the ten directions of the Dharma Realm. You do not need to make your dedications specifically to some people. This is because all your family members are among the sentient beings of the ten directions of the Dharma Realm. Furthermore, your family members have many karmic creditors. If those karmic creditors do not obtain advantages, how will they let your family members go? So, when making dedications, you are not to be narrow-minded to make them particularly to certain persons. You need to make your dedications to all sentient beings in the ten directions of the Dharma Realm, and then to whom your dedications made will include your family members as well as all karmic creditors. This is the best method of making dedications. Do not be so selfish, thinking that making dedications to someone will let that person get well from illness. On the contrary, dedications made to all sentient beings in the ten directions of the Dharma Realm are the most auspicious dedications. It is because that in every Dharma text, there is no teaching about making dedications specifically to some persons unless it is to help someone especially. Otherwise, dedications made are usually for all sentient beings as all beings in the Six Realms are sentient beings.”

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Updated on May 18, 2024