His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche’s Puja Teachings – September 25, 2022

At the Glorious Jewel Buddhist Center in Taipei, His Eminence Rinchen Dorjee Rinpoche lit lamps as an offering to the Buddha, and then ascended the Dharma throne. He presided over the auspicious Vajrasattva Puja and bestowed the precious teachings.

“Today, I will perform the Dharma method of Vajrasattva. In Exoteric Buddhism, this yidam is not practiced; in Tantra, Vajrasattva is very important. Not to mention becoming a Bodhisattva, so long as one wants to practice the Bodhisattva Path smoothly and to attain the fruition of a Buddha, one needs the help of Vajrasattva. In the Phowa, Vajrasattva is also needed in the ritual. Vajrasattva is Buddha’s Sambhogakaya (reward-body) of Vairocana; hence, the Dharma appearance of Vajrasattva is in a form of Buddha’s reward-body.

Vajrasattva is a very important yidam, and his mantra is quite long – there are 100 words in the Hundred-Syllable Mantra. What is the importance of Vajrasattva? In our practices, there are usually many hindrances appearing. These hindrances are not given by other people, but have been the karma created from our own accumulated past lifetimes. Many people think that after their hindrances and karma have been eliminated, they will have a good health or what they wish for will be fulfilled. However, this will not be so. If one thinks this way, one misunderstands the Dharma. Many people thought if they had come here to participate in pujas, they would have obtained many things they had implored for. This is a thought from a non-Buddhist religion. The key point of the Dharma is that it is to help us get liberated from birth and death so that we will not reincarnate in the sea of suffering again. Therefore, Dharma methods for eliminating karmic hindrances are very important.

The so-called karmic hindrances might not be negative karma; good karma is also a hindrance. If there is too much of good karma, practicing the Dharma will be a very difficult matter. So, having good karma is a hindrance too. Vajrasattva, the yidam self, is to help us eliminate all our karmic hindrances in our practices. What does ‘eliminating karmic hindrances’ mean? If you have not made up your mind to be liberated from birth and death, have not determined to take refuge as a Buddhist, have not decided to practice the Bodhisattva Path, or have not made the decision to benefit sentient beings, then your being here today for the puja is just participating an activity. It will not help you at all.

Many people are superstitious, thinking that coming to pujas here is showing esteem towards me. I do not need that from you. Your esteem for me, from my point of view, is a burden to me. You yourself do not believe in the Dharma; on what the Buddha and Bodhisattvas have spoken of, you do not listen. Now, it is impossible for the Buddha and Bodhisattvas to speak of the Dharma directly to you. Their teachings are certainly expounded to you through your guru. What the guru speaks of are the representations of what the Buddha taught. You cannot even get what your guru says through your head. Then what have you come here for? Do not come; there have been no lack of believers and disciples in my place here. I am telling you this very plainly: I only make friends with the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, and my guru. I have already lived for 75 years of age. All sentient beings in the mundane world need my help and to get liberated.

Many people thought that I could make friends with them. As a matter of fact, I have limited the range of my daily activities to the minimum. I do not socialize, and I do not socialize with my peers either. It is like the occasions when people visit one another. On that, I also do not do. I only ‘make contact’ with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Has this been quite a lonely situation for me? It goes without saying that learning Buddhism is a very lonely endeavor. With such a learning, in the end, when the death happens, it is really a lonely occurrence too. When you stop breathing, that is truly a lonely moment. No one will pity you, sympathize with you or help you except the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, and your guru. You will think ‘Is it the situation now that as we live in this world, we will not acknowledge any of our relatives, and there is only the Dharma in our life?’ You cannot be like this before your affinities have come to an end – you still need to pay off the ‘debts’ you have owed. I am different though. Why am I? It is because I have already made up my mind to live my life by adapting to all kinds of rising conditions. When affinities appear, I will do my best to get them completed. If there are no affinities, it will be of no use even if I want to do something about certain things.

There was an earthquake here during the puja last Sunday. To us, who have been learning Tantra, after we have ascended the Dharma throne, if there is an earthquake, a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse, or a typhoon, that is the best happening. It is because as these occurrences appear they are the times when sentient beings need the Dharma the most. During an earthquake, when one is on the Dharma throne, staying on it and does not descend it, such an occasion, from the perspective of the Dharma, surely will bring a very auspicious future. Last time when an earthquake occurred while I was on the Dharma throne, it was 20 years ago. We were at our old Center at Minsheng Road, East. After that earthquake, our new, current Center had then been established. What will happen after this earthquake, the one appearing last week, I do not know now.

There are some of my disciples who are responsible to write down my teachings at the puja every week. It turned out that on last week’s earthquake, occurring during the puja, those disciples who were perhaps in shock from the earthquake, did not write all the various phenomena I had made that were shown. I threw their write-up back to them; they re-wrote the article and submitted it again. In it, they wrote that I had chanted a mantra and made a sound of ‘hung.’ With that, the earthquake stopped slowly. Did it stop slowly on that day? (The attendees replied, ‘It stopped immediately.’) I am really admiring these people. Why would they have written that the earthquake had stopped slowly? It was because they did not believe that the capabilities of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas are so great. These disciples thought the practitioner sitting on the Dharma throne was a human. Have you not watched TV news? Even the Meteorological Bureau reported to the public that there had never been an occurrence that an earthquake would have stopped suddenly. What did this mean? On that day, the earthquake intensity scale was 6.8, which had been impossible to stop immediately. It would have assuredly stopped slowly from the scale of 6.8. However, it had stopped right away. The people of the weather bureau mentioned on TV, saying publicly that such an event had never happened before.

I truly admire these disciples of mine. Other people will write down things that have not happened as being events having happened. On things I had done, contrarily, you did not write them. So, these people do not need to come to learn Buddhism from me. What do they learn? On that day, right then and there, I made you feel that once I had uttered a sound of ‘hung,’ the earthquake stopped immediately. However, you still wrote that it stopped slowly. As you do not believe in your guru, if you follow me in learning and doing things for 100 or 1,000 lifetimes, it will be of no use. Do not think that ‘I have come here to learn the Dharma.’ You have not learned anything. You have completely been in the great sea of merits of the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, the lineage gurus, and your guru. They have blessed and protected you so that you will not have issues occurring; they let you being able to learn Buddhism. Did you think that you had relied on yourself in your practices to achieve attainment? Do not think this either: ‘If I have come to participate in pujas, I will know the Dharma then.’ You have not known anything. Thus, it is a very toilsome work to liberate sentient beings in the Age of Dharma Decline. On the writing about the earthquake, even my disciples wrote that it had stopped slowly!

In the Universal Gate Chapter, there is a sentence, ‘The precepts from his compassionate body shake us like thunder.’ On that day of the earthquake, I performed an act to show you about this sentence. What does it mean? (A monastic, who has been ordained for 30 years, responded, ‘It means Rinpoche has achieved attainment in compassion, the Emptiness, and the mind to benefit sentient beings. Therefore, for the purpose of helping them not to be harmed by the earthquake, Rinpoche’s thoughts were attuned, and responsive, to the situation. He has always been amazing.’) I am not amazing at all. Once you have mastered your ‘compassionate body,’ and have observed the precepts, your acts will be like thunder shocks, shaking any phenomena to suppress them. Many people think that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas are amazing; however; it is not like that. They have totally relied on compassion too. If there is no compassion, there will be no Dharma. I have mentioned this many times.

On that day, I made a sound of ‘hung,’ and it suppressed all sentient beings’ affliction. When they had no affliction with them, then the earthquake stopped. Why are there earthquakes? Because the mind of arrogance of sentient beings is too heavy. For example, some people have come to attend pujas continuously but they are unwilling to take refuge in me. This is arrogance they show. They think that by coming here they ‘give me face’ – showing me respect. I do not need that. As my face is already big enough, do I need them to ‘give me face’? Those who do not want to take refuge will forever be outsiders on the Dharma. They think that ‘I do not want to be managed by him.’ However, who wants to control you?

On the quote ‘The precepts from his compassionate body shake us like thunder,’ all of you have not mastered your practices to this level. It is like that you recite it all day long, and have already recited it for many times. How is it to be used in life after all? On that day, I showed you how it was used. What does the sound come out when a thunder rumbles? It is a sound of ‘hung.’ When you make a sound of ‘hung,’ nothing happens, but once I utter a sound of it, it will change some situations. This is because I have accomplished the phrase ‘the precepts from his compassionate body’ in the quote. Why was the word ‘thunder’ written here? Because the sound of a thunder is one that you are most familiar with. Everyone has heard of the sound of a thunder rumbling. That is a sound of ‘hung’ and it will make you jump up entirely.

Why is the last syllable of the Great Six-Syllable Mantra ‘hung’? Why are there earthquakes? This is because the mind of affliction, the mind of fighting conflicts, or the mind of arrogance, of sentient beings is too heavy. In such a situation, there will be more earthquakes in that place. See, in recent two years, in Taiwan, there had been many fights about policies, ideas or conflicts; these fights were for domestic issues but seemed having not enough as fights continued externally with other countries. Then, external fights are not enough either; now some people fight with the guru. My disciples wrote the earthquake stopped slowly; that was a fight with their guru. They made it clear that they did not believe what had happened, and were afraid of writing it wrong in that others would think it was superstitious. There were a little over 900 people witnessing such an event: with a sound of ‘hung,’ the earthquake stopped. This was a coincidence that had no scientific evidence. Nevertheless, no matter how coincidental it was, an Agency of the government came out to acknowledge that there had never been an earthquake stopping immediately. They are still investigating why this happened. How is it to be investigated? I was in the northern Taiwan, and the place the earthquake occurred on that day was in Taitung, in southern Taiwan. There is no power source connected from Meteorological Bureau to here either. So, there is nothing to investigate about that earthquake.

Today, I have digressed to a side-subject, not related to the topic discussion. The purpose is to tell you why one needs to practice the Dharma methods of the yidam, Vajrasattva. Regardless of how you recite the Buddha’s name or sutras, how you chant mantras, or how you make prostrations, why are there no effects produced for you? Because your ‘precept body’ has been broken away from you, and because your karma has constantly been increasing, not decreasing. Some people think that chanting the Hundred-Syllable Mantra will eliminate karmic hindrances. However, it is of no use to you because your chanting is not in accordance with the Dharma principles.

It is like these situations. I just scolded two monastics. I had transmitted one Dharma to one of them, and he thought he got the learning already. For the other monastic, I instructed him to work on something but he was unwilling to do it. On the first monastic, I gave him the transmission of a method but I did not expound many key points in it because Tantra is not to be transmitted casually. If one does not achieve a practicing level to be someone who believes absolutely in Tantra, learning it will not get the person chances to use it.

I mentioned to you before that when I was conducting a retreat in India, and while in it about half a month, His Holiness instructed me suddenly to come out from my retreat room, saying he wanted to transmit the Mahamudra to me. Then I told him, ‘I implore the Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang for permission, allowing me to finish chanting 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra first, and only then dare I receive this Dharma method.’ Thus, I chanted 10,000 times a day and completed chanting the 100,000 times of this mantra in 10 days. Then I dared to receive this Dharma method. Other people would think, ‘Get out of the room to receive the method! This is to transmit it, and is instructed by your guru too.’ This was not resistance to one’s guru; rather, it was humbleness. What did my thinking base on that I could listen to such a method that is so good? Even if it would be transmitted by my guru, I would feel hesitant and fearful because I knew what attributes I had. What about you? Each one of you has been so proud of oneself. If you had heard that a method was to be transmitted, you would have implored for it. What would your supplication be based on? For chanting 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra in 10 days, which one of you could do it? I insisted upon doing it. Why? Because the Dharma of Mahamudra is too auspicious.

Although His Holiness transmitted me the pith instruction, he only spoke to me for less than five minutes. I then returned to my retreat room. You thought that ‘Did His Holiness read out a big sutra for you to listen to?’ No, he did not; he only spoke of a few sentences. Nevertheless, I had chanted 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra. Was I stupid? I do not know. I am just too modest and too humble. I have never considered myself having attributes. I have been practicing very toilsomely. I am not like you that you are so comfortable in your practices. This is your attitude: ‘Today, if I feel like coming to do prostrations, I will come; if I do not feel like coming, I will not do prostrations. If I am very busy, I will not come for making prostrations; if, today, I have time in coming, I will come then.’ How can you learn the Dharma these ways? If I were like you to practice like these, you could follow me doing the same too. However, I do not do my practices in such ways; I have achieved attainment through my toilsome practices. I will not mention to you about my other hardships. You can try this though when you get home: Chant 10,000 times a day of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, and see what will happen. The count of 100,000 times a day of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra for 10 days means there are one million words a day. When you are at home, not to mention chanting the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, pick up a book casually and read it for one million words a day; try it. I have mastered my practices this way. Why am I awesome in performing the Phowa? Because I have attained accomplishment in the Dharma method of Vajrasattva.

Today, the Dharma text of Vajrasattva that I am going to perform is more special, and it is a performance of combining three groups of Tantra, namely outer-, inner-, and secret-Tantra. In fact, the true Tantra of Vajrasattva is divided into these groups: outer-, inner-, secret-Tantra, and Highest Yoga Tantra. I will not use Highest Yoga Tantra in my performance today. The Vajrasattva of dual-body is to be performed, with a Mother Buddha being with Vajrasattva. What does this represent? It does not mean Vajrasattva is having passionate desires like those among humans. Rather, it represents that Vajrasattva uses wisdom and compassion together in operations to help sentient beings. It also refers to the fact that if there is no compassion, there will be no Dharma. Hence, at the beginning of your practices, you are transmitted the Vajrasattva of single-body. When you have reached a certain level of practices, and when your guru feels all right about your level, and only then will the guru teach you the Vajrasattva of dual-body. The term ‘dual-body’ is not what you imagine about matters on passionate desires. The term is not relevant to these at all. It is just an analogy, telling you that such a situation represents the dual operation of compassion and wisdom.

My help to you by performing this Dharma is hoping to reduce your hindrances in learning Buddhism. If you think that by participating in this puja you will be very amazing, your health will become better, or your businesses will be running smoothly, I beg you not to attend the puja. The reason is I will not be performing the Jambhala today. For this Dharma of Vajrasattva being performed, the most important thing is that participants need to have the mind of repentance. If you do not have it, and think you yourself have not done anything wrong, this Dharma is of no use to you either.

What is ‘repentance’? (Translator’s note: In Chinese, ‘repentance’ consists of two words, with the first one – pronounced as ‘chan’ – being ‘admitting one’s wrongdoings,’ and the second one – pronounced as ‘hui’ – being ‘not doing them again.’) ‘Chan’ is admitting and facing all things that one has done wrong. This means you cannot say that ‘because you made me angry, so….,’ ‘because you did not listen to me, so….,’ or ‘because this or because that….’ So long as there is the word ‘because’ appearing in what you say, it indicates exactly that you have not repented. The meaning of ‘hui’ is that one does not do those wrongdoings again forever. For example, some people like to use the same methods to insult others repeatedly, who are around such people, and mention that those who have been insulted should leave the place. Then, after a while, these people having made the insults will say sorry but they will do the same things again. They have not made a repentance as their ‘sorry’ expressed is just an apology. Why has such a person done the wrongdoings again and again? Because he or she does not have the mind of repentance. People who have such a mind will not do the wrong things repeatedly.

Why do you need to repent? Because if you do not, your good fortune of learning Buddhism will not arise. Your prostrations made to the Buddha just produce the good fortune of the Human and Heaven Realms. These prostrations are just for making exercises; your roots of virtue, causes and conditions of learning Buddhism will not be arisen. In this Dharma text, there is a sentence written very clearly that one needs to ‘make a public repentance,’ meaning speaking up a repentance. Many people think that they are not at fault and things with issues are all other people’s faults who are at opposite sides of the matters. The thinking is like this: ‘Because he had done that, I did this. So, the result came out this way.’ For all things we have done that are for our own benefits but they harm other people, we need to make repentances. This Dharma method is more special. In the latter parts of it, there are mentions that for the purpose of letting us thoroughly obtain the blessings of Vajrasattva, allowing us to be able to eliminate our karmic hindrances, besides receiving the blessings of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, the most important practices we are to use in spending our lives are using four forces. What are these forces?

The first one is the force of taking refuge. When you take refuge, the Refuge Precepts you have received and the forces of all precepts and rituals you have accepted will protect and bless you. They will give rise to your good fortune, making the hindrances of your learning Buddhism and of your passing away get eliminated. If you do not take refuge, it will be of no use even if you have come here for pujas for another 10 million times. You will say that you have taken refuge in your mind. However, if you have not gone through the Refuge Ritual, you have exactly not taken refuge.

The second force is counteracting. You need to know that all your own behaviors arise from greed, hatred, and ignorance. For those people who often lose their temper easily, and even hit others with their hands, they have very heavy thoughts of hatred. That bad-tempered person might say, ‘No, I did not do it on purpose; I just suddenly got outburst of my anger.’ Only animals cannot control their emotions. Nevertheless, if animals have been trained for a long time, they can control their emotions too as they know that they cannot act on such things. Otherwise, they will be punished. They can manage their feelings, let alone you, a human. If you say, ‘I flared up because I was ill in my mind,’ you were ill mentally. It was because you had too heavy a mind in greed, hatred, and ignorance. So, for those who know that they have heavy thoughts of greed, their methods of counteracting these thoughts are making offerings and almsgiving.

The making offerings and almsgiving do not refer to giving money or wealth. To me, for people who are at lower social positions than I, I am more polite to them. For example, at the building where one of Glorious Jewel cafes is at, there is an old lady who is hired by the building as a cleaning lady. Every time when she sees me approaching the cafe, she will call me loudly. It is the same with me that when I see her around there, I will call her loudly too. I am very polite to her. Other people will say, ‘She collects garbage; why do you bother with her?’ No, it is not like this. She is respectful of me; I will respect her even more, helping her have opportunities to plant the seeds of her good fortune. Some people will despise those who are at lower social positions than these people. People of such a type have heavy thoughts of hatred precisely. Then, what follows is that they do not believe in causes and effects. The term ‘ignorance’ is not believing in the Dharma, or not believing in causes and effects.

To counteract our thoughts of greed is by making offerings and almsgiving. To counteract our thoughts of hatred is by practicing forbearance, the second method of the Six Paramitas. The word ‘forbearance’ does not mean this: ‘When people take advantages of me, I will not react.’ The most difficult thing to forbear is when others say that you are a good person, making you feel with much delight. This kind of praise is quite hard to forbear, or very difficult not to feel delightful. By practicing forbearance, we can then see very clearly about the whole process of each matter. We will also know what methods we should use to handle and solve the issue; we are not to manage it with our own interests, gains, and losses. If you feel that you yourself do not believe in causes and effects or what your guru says, you need to make changes and you must listen to your guru. Otherwise, you will have a ‘share’ of the negative: greed, hatred, and ignorance. If you have such a ‘share,’ no matter what you do, whether in your practices or behaviors, you cannot produce a little power from the Dharma.

The third force is making vows, meaning you need to make vows what things you will not do forever. For example, when I perform or practice this Dharma method, the vow I make is ‘My body, speech, and mind will not create negative deeds forever. When the eradication of the void occurs, my vow will not be eradicated.’ Can the void be eradicated? No, it is impossible. This means so long as the void exists, my vow exists eternally. Even if I cannot be liberated from birth and death in this lifetime, as I have already made this vow, I will be like this through lifetime after lifetime as what my vow indicates. Then, what about you? You will just make vow for one thing, like this: ‘I implore Rinpoche for help. Because I have killed flesh of animals for food or money, I get sick. I have done wrong.’ You have not made vows.

The fourth force is repentance, which is the most important force in this Dharma method. If you do not make repentances, and only hope to receive the yidam’s blessings, letting your karma or your illnesses be eliminated, or making your life become better, this exactly means you have not made repentances. In this Dharma text, there is a sentence and the mention is ‘I repent my vices and hindrances wholeheartedly, and I will not break my vow until my life ends.’ For you, it just mentions this life. However, my vow is very massive in that so long as the void is not eradicated, my vow will not be eradicated. What this means is that your life is like this that you live it with these four forces. Such a living does not refer to the situation that you will have this kind of mindset as ‘When I recite the Buddha’s name, these four forces will only appear at that time. After I finish such a recitation, these forces are irrelevant to me.’

When the term ‘repentance’ was explained just a moment earlier, it was stated very clearly that the wrong things are not to be done again forever. If, on the one hand, you have spoken this to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, ‘Buddha and Bodhisattvas, I was wrong. I should not have hit people with my hands,’ then on the other hand, after two or three days later, you have said to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas again, ‘I was wrong once more.’ Then, later, you have done the wrong things again. Hence, on these four forces, there is one lacking. What follows is that there is no force of counteracting; the force of taking refuge has been broken too. On the vows made, of course, they also have been gone, absolutely. These four forces will be irrelevant to such a type of people no matter how many times they have recited the Buddha’s name or sutras and chanted mantras, or made prostrations to the Buddha. Many people have been practicing the Dharma methods of Vajrasattva, but there are only a handful of these people who can achieve attainment. Why? Because they have not made changes for getting these four forces becoming the most important elements in their lives. All of you do not treat this matter of change as a very important thing to do. Therefore, you have been scolded by me constantly. This is where my scoldings of you have come from.

Why did that disciple write that the earthquake stopped slowly? It was because, on that day when the earthquake stopped, he felt it was not relevant to him. Thus, he did not pay attention to this matter. The fact of not paying attention had gotten the result of the writing shown differently. It is like the things I have expounded on the Dharma throne, if you think that they are useful to you, you will listen to them. If they are not of use to you, they will be gone in one ear and out the other. So, no matter how many times I perform a Dharma or practice it, it will not produce any effects on you.

For those of you who want to practice Mahayana, this Dharma method of Vajrasattva is very important. If you have not mastered this method but still tell me how you will become, that will be cheating because you will not succeed. In our practice of the ‘Amitabha Sitting-Still Practice,’ it also includes the method of Vajrasattva. See, there is a reason why Vajrasattva is the main yidam on our mandala here. In the Buddhist Canon, Vajrasattva has been mentioned, but this Dharma method has not been. It is because at that time, Shakyamuni Buddha only expounded Exoteric Buddhism; He did not speak of the Dharma method of Vajrasattva.”

(Rinpoche started to perform the Dharma.)

“This section of the Dharma text mentions the process that the practitioner presided over the puja is to practice for oneself first. In the text, the vow made is that ‘I hope that beings in the Three Worlds and I will have all our causes of suffering, such as karmic hindrances or affliction, suffering of illnesses, demonic hindrances, and vices in karma get purified because of our repentances.’ The Three Worlds are the Heaven of Desires, the Heaven of Forms, and the Heaven of Formlessness. The phrase ‘get purified’ does not mean ‘get eliminated.’ I explained this before. It is exactly because we give rise to the mind of repentance, the essence of good and negative karma has been recovered to purity. The definition of ‘purity’ derives from the so-called the negative and the good from our discriminating mind. If such a mind is eliminated, the definitions of good karma and negative karma will no longer exist. After the essence of karma has become purified, even if a karmic retribution appears, it will become pure too as it will not harm you. However, such a retribution will still appear.

For example, a disciple had just come up to make repentances before the puja started. The account of her illness she shared with everyone was not a karmic retribution. It was still a karmic bloom, which meant the surgery was inevitable for her. Nevertheless, because I had instructed her to make grand prostrations to repent, the essence of this karmic bloom became pure. Even when the surgery was necessary, there would not have issues on it. Many people think that making repentances to get the essence of karma purified are to eliminate things. This is not possible unless one’s vices in karma are very slight. For heavy karma and fixed karma, it is impossible to eliminate them. Even though they cannot be eliminated, the person will still need to be helped so that when a certain karmic retribution of this person’s matures, the next cause of his or her causal condition will be a good one.

It is like that some people have fixed karma that their lifespans are short. However, a practitioner will help them in doing many things to let them get good causes appearing, and to assist them to ‘go’ to the Land of Amitabha. These helps are to give rise to the good causes for these people. The meaning of purity is not about whether a person’s karma is good or negative. Rather, it is to view how the person’s causes and conditions have been arisen, which are very complex too. After such causes and conditions have been purified, all the negative occurring later can then be stopped. This section I am going to start performing now is for myself first, and then I will bless you.”

Rinpoche started to chant Vajrasattva Mantra. After performing the Dharma for a while, the strength of his voice of the chanting gradually increased. Rinpoche showed his Dharma appearance with solemnity, and his whole body vibrated with a golden light emanating from it. Many people present clearly sensed the auspicious blessings of Rinpoche, and felt warm all over their bodies.

Then Rinpoche led the attendees compassionately to chant Vajrasattva Mantra together. His immense and compassionate vows shed light in the void of the ten directions of the Dharma Realm.

After the Dharma performance ended, Rinpoche entered a meditative state for a long time, and with a great, all-embracing power, calmed the minds of the attendees.

Upon the perfect completion of the Dharma performance, Rinpoche continued the teachings:

“At the time when I was conducting a retreat and chanted 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra, I remember by the fourth or fifth day of my chanting, I could not move my tongue because too much of the tongue muscle had been used – from chanting – and it had become tired. If it were you, you would have certainly taken a little break first. I was chanting with great efforts as if I was risking my life. Why have I been able to achieve attainment to be a Rinpoche, and you can never become one? Because you love your life too much. You are afraid of physical pain, death, or having been put at a disadvantage. You have only done a bit of things, and yet, you think you have been practicing and been amazing.

What I just read was that ‘because one “violates pure precepts to create serious vices”’. The quote in the double-quotation marks is what you do every day. Learning Buddhism is not what you imagine that once practitioners know how to talk about the Dharma, they can come out from their places to accept disciples. It is not about what you imagine either about a practitioner that ‘He is a little amazing.’ How does this awesomeness come from? It is from disregard for one’s life. If you have the capability, try this: speak a million words a day at home. Chanting a mantra is different from the way we talk normally. The pronunciation of a mantra is not in the same form as we talk, and chanting a mantra is less easy. You can find a book and read it out for a million words a day. Find out how many days you can do it.

Thus, there is no fluke in practicing. Also, one will not say that ‘I believe in my guru. So long as I practice a little, that will be all right. My guru needs to give me all things.’ There is no such a thing. You really need to work hard. It is fine that you are unwilling to work hard now, but you need to listen. Then, you do not listen either. What are you doing actually? I really cannot understand you. All of you hope to attain enlightenment and be reborn surely in the Western World of Utmost Bliss. Ask yourself what you have done after all. Do you think you can go to the Pure Land by just reciting the name of Amitabha every day? We can only go there with disregard for our lives. As you love your life so much, you will not go there, absolutely. Therefore, I am a person who can chant a million words a day. This means my tongue is very agile; no one can surpass me in speaking, and I speak very fast. It is also that because my experience of chanting that mantra had been set before as a foundation, only now I can ascend the Dharma throne to expound the Dharma for such a long time. All of you think this is very simple but it really needs training; you cannot obtain such a capability without putting in efforts. Or, you might ask if His Holiness has made a point of liking me and transmitting more of Dharma methods to me. He has never done that, and he has been the same to everyone.

Today, I have performed the Dharma method of Vajrasattva for all of you, helping you eliminate hindrances in your practices. Who are the ones giving you these hindrances? You have given them to yourselves. After you have been transmitted Dharmas, you will think of many things, trying to find good forms or methods which will be good for you to practice. Then, the hindrance has appeared – the hindrance of not listening to your guru. For example, when I transmitted the precepts to you, I instructed you that you are to refrain from killing. This precept includes not harming people. You feel nonchalant about it and think that ‘Were there issues when I just hit him a few times?’ When you hit him, it did not matter assuredly. However, after your bad behavior has been accumulated gradually, one day there will certainly be someone who will beat you to death as you have continuously accumulated the negative karma of beating people.

I have mentioned it many times that any things do not occur suddenly. They are all accumulated from small things. Hence, when you took refuge in me, I spoke of this many times: ‘Commit no negative acts, and do all good deeds.’ You cannot commit a little negative act at all. Do not think that ‘It will be fine. I will apologize to him, and he will forgive me.’ It will truly be fine, and he will certainly forgive you. The thing that will not be all right is that issues will happen to you. We cannot constantly accumulate negative energy but we can accumulate good force unceasingly. If you always create negative acts, thinking ‘This is who I am. This is my personality.’ Then, eventually, you will encounter someone with the same personality who will deal with you. This will happen sooner or later. This is because you have been continuously accumulating your own negative acts, which are your own doings. There is no one else harming you. As you get such acts accumulated incessantly, when your fixed karma matures, the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will be unable to help you, and it will be impossible for me to have the capabilities to transform your karma either.

You need to rely on yourself, but you do not listen. You have your own thoughts all day long. For example, there was a disciple who, at first, had implored me for allowing him to make grand prostrations. Then, he thought for a long time, and said, ‘Rinpoche, I want to come to the Center to make grand prostrations.’ I said to him, ‘Okay. That is good.’ Then, I asked him one more thing, “How many such prostrations you are going to make?’ He replied, ‘400 times.’ I asked him, ‘Why not 300 times or 500 times?’ It was because he felt that 300 would be too small a number but 500 would be too large a number that he was afraid he could not do that many of the prostrations. So, I told him, ‘Do not make grand prostrations.’ Why did I say that? He sounded that he had made a good plan and things had been well arranged that he thought ‘The 300 times of grand prostrations will be too few to make and I will be scolded by Rinpoche. The 500 times of grand prostrations will be too many for me that my body cannot endure the task. Then I will simply take this number in the middle between 300 and 500: 400. That will be just right.’ He must have practiced making grand prostrations at home. People of such a type are not Buddhist practitioners. Why are they not? Because they haggle over things and are afraid of having been put at a disadvantage. If they make more prostrations, say, 500 times, they worry that they will be at a disadvantage; if they do less prostrations, say, 300 times, they will be at a disadvantage too. Therefore, this is what they will think and plan: ‘I am going to choose a number that I will not be at a disadvantage.’

I just mentioned it very clearly that when His Holiness wanted to transmit a Dharma method to me, I immediately implored him for ‘letting me finish chanting 100,000 times of the Hundred-Syllable Mantra first, and then I will receive this Dharma method.’ It was not because I would become clever after chanting the mantra for 100,000 times; rather, the chanting was to eliminate my hindrances, and only then could I listen to the auspicious Dharma method. On that disciple, even for coming here to make grand prostrations, you still said various things and thought of different options. I can see that you will still consider about such things when you are in hells. Do not come here to learn Buddhism then. Did you think that this place is a governmental organization and you needed to write a project plan? Well, I did have the project plan for you. Did you still think you were a government official here?

Every one of you has said, every day, that ‘Wishing Rinpoche’s lineage will flourish forever.’ If you can keep the words on what I have scolded you to remain, it will already be amazing. How can you still get my lineage flourishing then? Even doing grand prostrations will make you feel afraid that you have been put at a disadvantage. The disciple in question thought ‘If I make less of grand prostrations, I will be in a disadvantage; if I make more of them, I will be in a disadvantage too. I am going to choose a number – to count the times of doing such prostrations.’ In this way, the disciple showed that he did not have a mind of repentance or compassion. He also considered, ‘I want to plan it well.’ I did not mean I would not let him plan. Nevertheless, once I heard him talking about grand prostrations he was going to make, I knew he did not want to be put at a disadvantage. In Dharma texts, there are mentions about how many times you need to recite a sutra or a Buddha’s name, or to chant a mantra. These are spoken of by the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. You only need to recite or chant a certain number of times as mentioned in Dharma texts; that will be enough. Then, you can practice other Dharma methods.

Learning Buddhism does not mean I will not allow you to have your own thoughts; however, you need to listen to what your guru says. It was like the disciple who just had a surgery. I told her to make 300 times of grand prostrations. She was rather incredible too in that she did not ask me if it was all right for her to do a little less of prostrations; she did not say she would do more of them either. As the number of 300 was instructed by me, it was 300 to her. Then there were no medical issues for her. A surgery was very dangerous but she did not die. This showed her obedience. Yet, that disciple who had a plan did not ask me, ‘Rinpoche, I implore you to tell me how many times I need to make grand prostrations so that I will be all right.’ He thought he was very clever that he did not want to bother me, and would tell me about his well-considered decision.

Yesterday, a believer came to implore me for help, and I told him I could not do what he had asked for. In the end, he said to me, ‘What can I do to help that person?’ I felt most delightful when he said this sort of talk. Then I told him, ‘Do 2,000 times of grand prostrations a day.’ I looked at his face, and saw him saying, ‘Yes, I can do that.’ I said, ‘Do not say okay yet. Go and do 300 grand prostrations first.’ After he made about 40 times of the prostrations, I could see that he could not continue doing them anymore. So, I instructed an ordained disciple to tell him that he was to stop when he finished 100 grand prostrations. You are just like him, thinking yourselves being amazing. All the various things happening to you in this mundane world have been obtained from your good fortune gained in your past lifetimes. These occurrences are not because of your being awesome. When you have used up your good fortune, issues will appear to you.

Learning Buddhism is not about mundane issues. It is not about whether you have a good brain or not, or if you are literate or illiterate. For example, Venerable Milarepa was an illiterate, but all the four main orders of Tibetan Buddhism have respected and worshipped him. The Sixth Patriarch, Huineng, was also an illiterate; he could not even write his own name. Let us not mention those who were in that distant eras. We will mention someone who was closer to modern time. The old monk Guang Qin was also an illiterate. Thus, if you think by relying on your own knowledge or your own social position to get a better learning of Buddhism, you are wrong. If you think because you are an illiterate and you cannot attain accomplishment, then you are also wrong. The learning of Buddhism is on the mind. What kind of the mind? The mind of repentance or the mind of listening to the guru. Do not make decisions for yourself without consulting others beforehand. If you decide things all by yourself, you cannot learn Buddhism and cannot achieve attainment.

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Updated on August 14, 2024