A Selection of Teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

(From a teaching on buddha nature by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, Tampa (FL) 2009. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Ann G. Shaffer, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All right reserved.)

We are afflicted by a serious illness called samsara [ed: cyclic existense]. Like any serious illness, it requires a strong and effective remedy. The most effective remedy for the illness of samsara is bodhichitta [ed: mind of awakening].

We can say that the illness of samsara is serious because throughout beginningless time, in spite of the innumerable lifetimes we have undergone, we have up to now failed to achieve any state of true freedom.

We are like horses tethered to a stake driven into the ground. No matter how strong the horse may be, if a horse is tethered to a stake, the horse can go anywhere within the circumference determined by the length of the tether, but it cannot ever go outside that area. On the other hand, if the tether is cut, then the horse can escape and go anywhere it wants. We are just like that.

In our case, the stake that determines the center of the area we can go is our fixation on a self. The tether, which binds us to that stake are our kleshas [ed: afflicted emotions]. So we can move about quite a bit within that limited area. We can do good things and therefore achieve a higher rebirth as humans or devas, and we can do bad things and achieve a lower rebirth as a hell being, a preta [ed: hungry ghost], or an animal. But we cannot do anymore than that as long as we are tethered to the stake of our own self-fixation.

Whatever type of rebirth we undergo, it is still samsara. The revelation of buddha nature, the full discovery of one’s own buddha nature, is like cutting that tether. And through cutting that tether one can really escape samsara and reach non-abiding nirvana. That nirvana is the perfect accomplishment of one’s own good as one has abandoned everything that is to be abandoned and realized everything there is to be realized. But it is also the perfect accomplishment of the potential good for others because one becomes able to show the path to others and to show them that which is overcome on the path.

Through the full recognition of buddha nature, we can become the same as the Buddha; we can have all the compassion, all the wisdom, and all the power to benefit others that he demonstrated. The cause of all of these qualities—wisdom, compassion, and power—is completely present within us already and it is our fundamental nature.

What we need to do is to create the conditions for it to be revealed. For example, the cause of a plant is a seed. But the seed alone, while necessary, is insufficient for the growth of the plant. In addition to the seed you need several conditions; you need the right type of soil, the right amount of water, the right amount of sunlight and shade, the right temperature, and so on. The seed alone is not enough.

Because of ignorance, we misapprehend buddha nature as a self. And because of that self-fixation, we have kleshas. We therefore need a remedy that is more powerful that ignorance that is the fundamental cause of samara, and the only remedy that is more powerful than this is bodhichitta.

Once one generates bodhichitta, as long as that intention remains, even when you are asleep, even when you are not thinking about bodhichitta, you still continue to accrue merit. Therefore whenever you listen to dharma, receive an empowerment, or engage in practice, always begin by clearly generating the motivation of bodhichitta. And this is why at the beginning of teaching and practice sessions we always chant the refuge and bodhichitta stanza.

Bodhichitta is the most powerful medicine to overcome the illness of samsara and to enable one’s innate buddha nature to be revealed.

(From a teaching on the Clear Guide for the Generation Stage given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche at Kunzang Palchen Ling in September 2010. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Linda Lee, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2010 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.)

I would like to clarify the issue of samaya. Nowadays, some people think that samaya is something that you should be afraid of, that it is some kind of threat that is hanging over our heads. Here [in the Clear Guide for the Generation Stage], samaya is explained as all included within the person of the guru, and it is divided into the guru’s body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities. Why do we say that samaya is all included within the body, speech, and mind of the guru? As it is said, “The guru is the buddha; the guru is the dharma, the lord; the guru is glorious Vajradhara, the creator of all.” The meaning of this is that the guru’s body is the sangha; the guru’s speech is the dharma; and the guru’s mind is the buddha. And that is why in vajrayana, we refer to the guru as the overlord of all mandalas.

While it is not that difficult to understand how samaya can all be referred to the guru, people still often develop a misunderstanding about what that means. Understanding only part of what samaya means—that it is the way that one relates to one’s guru—they misconstrue the bond of samaya as being something like a marriage contract, that when you undertake samaya with a teacher, it is as though you become married to them and they become married to you.

Marriage is a mundane, social contract. The contract of samaya is something entirely different. It is not primarily an obligation. It is an opportunity. It is more of an opportunity or gift than a restriction. The point of samaya is that a connection has been established between a guru and a disciple. The establishment of this connection gives the disciple the opportunity to cultivate faith and devotion for their guru. The establishment of the connection does not mean that the disciple is obligated to cultivate faith and devotion for their guru. It means that, without that connection, they do not really have the same opportunity. It is not the case that once samaya has been undertaken, that it is, henceforth, illegal for that disciple to fail to cultivate sufficient faith and devotion.

From the side of the guru, the establishment of samaya with a disciple gives that guru the ability to effectively care for that disciple, to guide them, instruct them, advise them, and so on, starting with the administration of the vow of refuge and up to that disciple’s achievement of omniscient buddhahood. So the idea of samaya is a long-lasting, continuous connection. And here, this is explained quite clearly in the text when it says, “The root samayas are all included in the nature of the guru vajracharya’s body, speech, and mind.”  But what does this mean?

The text says, “The samaya of body is to meditate upon one’s aggregates and elements as deity’s and to view all that appears and exist as the deity’s form.” The idea of this is that you maintain this connection by meditation on a deity. And, essentially, what this consists of is the growing recognition that your own aggregates and elements, as well as things in the external world, are of the nature of that deity; therefore, you also recite the deity’s mantra.

And it says, “The samaya of speech is to perform the vajra repetition taught in many tantras.” This means that as the speech aspects of practice, you recite that deity’s mantra. So whatever deity you are meditating on, whether it is peaceful, wrathful, or semi-wrathful, you recite that deity’s mantra. But this is not the idea that you are, henceforth, restricted to reciting that deity’s mantra, that you have an obligation to exclude all other forms of practice and so on.  Again, it is an opportunity, not an obligation.

So, therefore in our text, examples of different forms of mantra practice are given, “At the three times, repeat the three syllables, the five-, ten- or the twelve-syllable [mantra], and so forth, practicing the vajra repetition, and the particular repetitions such as the Totrengtsal mantra.” So, for example, you recite whichever mantra is associated with that deity and whichever other mantra practice you wish to do as well.

And then we come to the samaya of mind. Fundamentally, the samaya of mind is to cultivate bodhichitta. And we do this especially because we are practicing Mahayana; we are of mahayana family and we take the bodhisattva vow. We, therefore, need to train our minds in aspiration and implementation bodhichitta. The text says in addition to that, “The samaya of mind is to meditate upon self-awareness and to rest evenly, without strain from the liberation in their place of all conceptual characterizations such as I and mine, subject and object.” What this means is that we try as much as we can to let go of thinking me versus you, this versus that, and so on.

Then the text says, “The samaya of qualities is the generation mantra and completion of peaceful and wrathful yidams.” If it is the qualities of the guru, why are yidams specifically mentioned? Because all yidams are the embodiment of the qualities of the guru. So all yidams are included within the guru and are the display of the guru’s qualities; therefore, yidam practice is regarded as the samaya of qualities.

Then comes the samaya of activity. Activity is to help beings and support the dharma and the teachings. And we do this by relying upon dharmapalas (or dharma protectors) who remove conditions adverse to dharma; who support and protect our practice from obstacles both outwardly and inwardly. Therefore the samaya of activity is the presentation of prayer, offerings, praises, and so forth to dakinis and dharmapalas. The text says, “These things are accomplished continuously, supreme and common siddhis and the various activities will be spontaneously achieved by themselves without having to engage in any other means and without difficulty.”

So, understand that samaya is a term for those things that will enable you to practice and achieve awakening. If this is wrong, if this description of samaya is incorrect, then it is not my mistake; it is Guru Rinpoche’s mistake. Yeshe Tsogyal asked Guru Rinpoche what samaya was, and [this is what] he told her. So, it would be really good for you to understand this clearly.

(From a teaching by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given at Kunzang Palchen Ling in May 2010. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Alan McCoy, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2010 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.)

The commitments of the bodhisattva vow are divided into three categories: 1) the commitments of bodhichitta in general, and 2) the commitments particular to aspiration and 3) those particular to implementation bodhichitta.

The commitments of bodhichitta in general are: to respect teachers of the mahayana; to avoid the four negativities; and to never mentally abandon any sentient being. The four negativities are: to deceive the venerable or those worthy of veneration (it does not mean elderly); to cause another to regret an action that is not regrettable, so to cause someone unnecessary or inappropriate regret or guilt; to revile or denigrate the holy; and to deceive all beings. Deceiving all beings means to give up bodhichitta, because since you have promised to bring about the awakening of all beings, if you give it up, that is called deceiving all beings. Among the three commitments—respecting teachers of the mahayana, avoiding the four negativities, and never mentally abandoning any sentient being—the most important one is never mentally abandoning any sentient being.

The commitment particular to aspiration bodhichitta is to maintain the intention to achieve buddhahood for the benefit of others.

And the commitments particular to implementation bodhichitta are: to dedicate any virtuous deed you perform to perfect awakening for the benefit of others; and to avoid avoidable wrongdoing.

In addition to this summary of the commitments, it would be good if you would study the extensive treatises on the training of bodhichitta such as the Bodhicharyavatara, its commentaries, and other books.

There are two things that are most important for us to keep in mind regarding the generation and cultivation of bodhichitta. The first is what was mentioned as the most significant commitment of bodhichita in general, which is not mentally abandoning sentient beings. Not mentally abandoning sentient beings does not simply mean not generating the intention to never ever help any being whatsoever. No one generates that. It means not mentally abandoning any one sentient being. And we are in some danger of doing that especially when we become angry. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye in discussing the training of bodhichitta said that the greatest danger for practitioners is to become so resentful of someone else in a situation of conflict that they think, “Even if in the future I have a chance to help you, I will not do so.”

Simply getting angry does not constitute mentally abandoning beings, but when we form the resolution to never help them in the future, that is mentally abandoning them. When we experience conflict with others, we need to remember that there is a great deal of difference between dharma and practitioners of dharma. Dharma itself is pure and unafflicted. Whether we are thinking of dharma as tradition (the buddhas teachings) or dharma of realization, they are both free of affliction. So when someone acts inappropriately and we become outraged, or we think they are acting inappropriately and we become outraged, we first of all have to remember that they are acting in contravention of dharma, not in accordance with it. And if they are fellow practitioners, then this should inspire our compassion rather than our resentment, because they are acting against the course of what they have chosen to do with their life. If you can view it that way, then instead of feeling so much resentment towards the person, you will make the compassionate aspiration that you will be able to help them in the future. In that way a situation of potential conflict can become a source of great compassion that will fuel your bodhichitta.

So the first thing to keep in mind regarding bodhichitta is mentally to never abandon any sentient being even under circumstances of conflict. The second is to understand how a projection of faults works. We are all human beings. Maybe if we were buddhas, we would be different. I am saying that because if we look at the Buddha Shakyamuni’s life, there were plenty of people who did not like the Buddha, who thought that the Buddha was full of defects.

When we see a fault in someone else, whether that fault is there or not, we tend to obsess upon it. When we see a tiny fault in someone else, we fixate on it and give it the importance of a much greater fault. On the other hand we remain largely ignorant of our own faults because we are so clever at hiding our faults from ourselves and sometimes from others. About this Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye wrote in his Calling to the Gurus From Afar, “I conceal a mountain of faults within myself and yet obsess upon a sesame seed’s worth of fault in another.”

There is a connection between our ignorance of our own faults and our awareness of the faults of others. The more we conceal our own faults, and therefore allow them to remain undisturbed, the more aware of and the more irritated by others’ faults we will be. If we can reverse this, if we can start to pay attention to our own faults including our own kleshas [afflictive emotions] and not those of others, and if we can insure that we never mentally abandon any sentient being—although we are still going to have outbursts of mental affliction—we will be in far less danger of ever losing bodhichitta.

To become authentic practitioners we need to be fearless about samsara. In samsara, we are going to experience dissatisfaction and we need to be prepared for that. As is taught in all commentaries on the preliminary practices, it is simply the attribute of samsara that we are going to encounter enemies, be separated from friends, sometimes fail to get what we want, and sometimes lose what we have. An authentic practitioner in such a situation needs not to feel that they have somehow been singled out for persecution or victimization by the world; needs not to think, “Why is this happening to me?” We need to remember that this is simply the way it is, and in such situations, when we find ourselves dissatisfied, we should consider how much worse many others have it. And if in thinking of their plight, we can sincerely wish to remove their suffering and to prevent other beings from suffering, then we will succeed in transforming a situation of potential misery into one of great joy. It is the characteristic of samsara that the way people relate to one another is utterly uncertain. Someone who is your friend today might be your bitterest enemy tomorrow. Someone who is your enemy today might be your friend tomorrow. Really, the dealings between persons are like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, then going back behind another cloud, then coming out from behind the clouds, and so on. It is just not stable. We need to maintain the type of fearlessness that comes from the perspective of seeing beyond our temporary identification of people as friends and enemies. For example, the arhat Madgalyayana once saw a woman nursing her baby while eating some fish and trying to keep a dog away that was trying to get the fish. Seeing this, Madgalyayana laughed. He realized that the woman’s parents, whom she loved very much, had died. An enemy of her parents had also died. The enemy of her parents, whom she had hated during that enemy’s life, was reborn as her child whom she was now nursing and holding in her lap with great affection. Her father, whom she had loved very much, now became the fish that she was eating; and her mother was reborn as the dog that she was kicking trying to keep it from stealing the fish. And so he said, “She is eating her father’s flesh and driving her mother away, holding her worst enemy with great affection in her lap. Samsara makes me laugh.”

If we can develop this kind of perspective, then we will be able to develop stable bodhichitta. One instant of that kind of stable bodhichitta accumulates so much merit that, if it had physical form, it would be larger than all space in the universe. Furthermore this merit continues to accumulate even when we are not thinking about it, even when we are asleep, because the commitment to bodhichitta remains. For this to work, we have to actually take responsibility for the development of our bodhichitta and to train our minds. It is not enough simply to hear lamas talk about aspiration bodhichitta and implementation bodhichitta, and how great they are. Even if you hear hundreds of lamas extol the benefits of bodhichitta, even if you take the bodhisattva vow hundreds of times, if you do not take responsibility for training your own mind and training bodhichitta then you will have generated it, but it is not really going to develop. So I hope that you will train your minds and cultivate bodhichitta, and I offer you my best wishes.