Details
A Treasury of Blessings – The Liturgy of Shakyamuni – teaching
Teachers:
Collection:
- Sadhanas and Prayers
Location:
- Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling
Translator:
- Catherine Dalton
Length:
- Medium Session (< 45 min)
Features:
- Subtitles ,
- Transcripts
Excerpt
An introductory teaching by Khenpo Pema Namgyal, offering guidance on how to practice the various steps of A Treasury of Blessings - The Liturgy of Shakyamuni.
Description
An introductory teaching by Khenpo Pema Namgyal, offering guidance on how to practice the various steps of A Treasury of Blessings – The Liturgy of Shakyamuni.
Related Course Info
- A Treasury of Blessings – The Liturgy of Shakyamuni A complete guide to practicing A Treasury of Blessings, featuring a chanted sadhana with Tibetan and English subtitles, introductory teachings by Khenpo Pema Namgyal, and a full series of in-depth teachings by Lama Tenzin Sangpo, culminating in a profound session with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche on the inseparability of compassion and emptiness.
Video
Audio
44:53
Please set your mind on awakening and
listen to these teachings of the Dharma.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
sönam diyi thamché sikpa nyi
thopné nyepai dranam phamjé né
kyega nachi balap trukpa yi
sipai tsolé drowa drölwar shok
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
sönam diyi thamché sikpa nyi
thopné nyepai dranam phamjé né
kyega nachi balap trukpa yi
sipai tsolé drowa drölwar shok
19:20
Please set your mind on awakening and
listen to these teachings of the Dharma.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
sönam diyi thamché sikpa nyi
thopné nyepai dranam phamjé né
kyega nachi balap trukpa yi
sipai tsolé drowa drölwar shok
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
sönam diyi thamché sikpa nyi
thopné nyepai dranam phamjé né
kyega nachi balap trukpa yi
sipai tsolé drowa drölwar shok
Video
Audio
33:09
Please set your mind on awakening and
listen to these teachings of the Dharma.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
17:28
Please set your mind on awakening and
listen to these teachings of the Dharma.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
Today our topic is using the sādhana of the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha
as a support for the training in samatha and vipassanā.
The title of the practice is a treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And from this we can understand that when we do the practice liturgy,
use the liturgy to do the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha,
then we receive the blessings, the blessings and compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
And these are vast like space, like the treasury of space.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini.
He awakened to perfect Buddhahood in Bodh Gaya at the Vajra seat
and then taught the Dharma in places such as Saranath and many other places.
He taught the Dharma in different ways in order to benefit all different kinds of sentient beings
and to free them from the pain of the afflictive emotions.
His compassion is tremendous, incredibly great.
The source of the Buddha Dharma, the place where it originated is India.
The Buddha first taught there,
but then Buddhism spread from India to many places all over the world.
And in all of these various places in the world where the Buddha's teachings
have spread, there have been countless, countless beings
who have achieved accomplishment through practicing the teachings that he taught.
And this is all due to his kindness
and compassion and blessings, the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When we do the practice of the meditation and recitation of the Buddha Shakyamuni,
before we get into the main part of the liturgy, we begin by taking refuge and bodhichitta.
And we find this at the first part of the sādhana practice.
Refuge is like the doorway or the gateway into Buddhist practice.
We take refuge with the motivation of faith, the sincere faith,
a faith of longing and confident faith in the three jewels.
Among those who taught the path, our teacher the Buddha
is particularly special in terms of his unique qualities.
And then he also taught something unique.
And what he taught, that unique thing that he taught, is the teaching of the Dharma.
The real root of the Buddha's teachings or heart of the Buddha's teachings
is the teaching on emptiness and dependent origination.
And that teaching on emptiness and dependent origination also comes out of
or has as its basis or foundation the teachings that all conditioned things are impermanent,
that all the afflictive emotions or all defiled phenomena are suffering,
and that all phenomena are empty and lack of self, nirvana is peace.
This is the foundation of those teachings.
We all have a mistaken way of perceiving things, fixating and grasping to things
as being real in an incorrect and mistaken way.
And all of the Buddha's teachings are actually simply a remedy
for that kind of mistaken apprehension, clinging and grasping.
Because of our grasping and fixation to reality, then our mindset is very limited.
It's very small.
We can't think in a very vast and extensive way.
But when we become free from that kind of fixation and grasping to reality,
that allows our mind to be much more relaxed, at ease and open.
And capable, actually, of engaging in a much more expansive way.
The real source of that grasping to things as being real, fixation on reality,
is actually our fixation that things are going to last.
And the remedy for that kind of fixation on the idea that things will last,
is actually the very first thing that the Buddha taught.
He said, all phenomena are impermanent as a remedy to that kind of fixation that we have.
So this teaching that the Buddha gave, we can subsume it within what are called
the Two Truths or the Four Seals of the Buddha's teaching.
And those who train in and practice that teaching are what we call the Sangha.
We should take refuge thinking of the Buddha as being like a physician,
a skilled physician, the Dharma as being like medicine, and the Sangha as being like the nurse
or assistant that helps us to take the medicine and heal from our illness.
And then we generate bodhichitta, which is the vast attitude of thinking,
generating the intention or the aspiration to free every single sentient being,
all of the limitless, countless beings from the state of suffering
and place each and every one of them in a state of perfect awakening.
That's the bodhichitta attitude.
And then part of the training in bodhichitta is what are called the four immeasurables
or the four boundless attitudes.
And the way that we do this is actually we can recite precisely, exactly the words
that we find in the text itself and contemplate those words as we recite them,
really think about them while reciting them to train in the four immeasurables.
May all beings possess happiness and the cause of happiness.
This is training in limitless love.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
That second line is about immeasurable compassion.
May they never be separated from the supreme happiness, devoid of suffering.
May they always have that kind of happiness.
This is immeasurable joy, training in immeasurable joy.
And then the thought bringing to mind the idea that may all sentient beings,
not thinking of some who are close to me or others as being far from me,
those who are near or far and so on, not having that kind of attitude at all,
but actually bringing to mind every sentient being without any exception
and making the wish that they are all free from suffering, that they all have happiness
in a way that's very equal without any kind of bias.
That's called limitless or boundless equanimity.
The power of taking refuge and cultivating bodhichitta
allows us to gain an incredible amount of merit.
And that purifies evil deeds, even strong ones.
And when we begin with taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, then what this does,
if we really contemplate those practices as we recite them,
then it brings our coarse negative emotions down.
It reduces them and makes our mind much more calm and at ease.
And so when we get to the main part of practice,
we're able to train in a way that's very much more calm and at ease
because of starting with refuge and bodhichitta.
This is something that Rinpoche mentions quite often, which is that a lot of our evil deeds
or negative deeds are accumulated on the basis of two different kinds of objects.
One which is the object, the three jewels who are, who have excellent qualities,
and without acknowledging those qualities or looking down on them in some particular way
we engage in or accumulate a lot of negativity.
And then the other object is sentient beings.
Sentient beings, without remembering their kindness actually,
without recalling the kindnesses sentient beings have extended to us
we have accumulate a lot of negative deeds with respect to them as well.
And so taking refuge allows us to purify those negative deeds
that we accumulate on the basis of or with reference to the three jewels.
Not bringing to mind the excellent qualities that they have.
And generating bodhichitta allows us to purify
the negative deeds that we have accumulated with respect to sentient beings.
And so, in this way, we are able to really purify quite a lot of negativity
simply by taking refuge and generating bodhichitta at the outset of our practice.
Even in the Bodhisattva's confession,
when we do the Bodhisattva confession practices,
then we bring to mind the negative deeds accumulated on the basis of the three jewels
and also the negative deeds accumulated with reference to our kind parents,
all sentient beings. This is mentioned again and again in the Bodhisattva's confessions.
So this is actually a Sūtric teaching to bring this to mind and to train in this way.
And if we take refuge in bodhichitta at the beginning of our practice, not only are we
purifying the negativity that we have accumulated in this way previously,
in the way that was just described, but also we are basically
making a commitment or a promise to stop engaging in that kind of negativity.
And so it actually also acts as a barrier or a block
for engaging in those kind of negative deeds in the future.
Both the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to the three jewels and
and also the negative deeds that we accumulate with reference to or on the basis of
sentient beings, our kind parents.
And so we make a commitment or a promise not to engage in that kind of negativity
in the future and bring to an end the continuity of such negativity.
What follows in the practice is that we visualize the Buddha in front of us,
in the space in front of us. It's a visualization.
Before we even visualize the Buddha, we should
first think that the Buddha is empty in essence.
We should bring about the idea of the emptiness of essence
and the aspect of dependent origination.
So we need to be able to think about this visualization in this way,
like a reflection in the mirror or like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water.
It's something that you can see.
You see it, so in that sense it's there.
But if you actually try and find the object,
then no matter how much you look, you don't find it.
So in that sense it appears and yet at the same time is empty.
To train in the visualization of Buddha Shakyamuni, we should have an image,
some kind of image, whether it's a drawing or a thangka, a painting,
and it should be something that is correctly painted, a good image drawn by a skilled painter
and also which is consecrated by a genuine teacher.
If this is something that you want to use for
your regular practice, it should be an image that is like that.
If we don't have such an image, then to have a photograph of the image of
the Buddha Shakyamuni from Bodh Gaya, from Vajrasana, this is actually really wonderful
because this is an extremely precious and old and blessed image.
So this is also really wonderful to use as a support for our practice.
So when we are visualizing Shakyamuni Buddha, the way that he sits
is with his hand in the earth-touching gesture.
So his right hand is fully outstretched in the earth-touching gesture and his
left hand holds an alms bowl in the gesture of equipoise.
In short, when we visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni, we should visualize him
in such a way that simply bringing him to mind,
we should think simply bringing him to mind actually reduces, clears away
the three negative emotions, the three poisons
which are the cause for being reborn again in samsara.
And it also causes us to give rise to the great compassion that prevents us from
falling into the extreme of remaining in the peace of nirvana.
So this kind of qualities we should bring to mind just through visualizing the Buddha.
If we think about the qualities of the Buddha, actually just through
bringing the Buddha to mind, just seeing the Buddha actually, the image of the Buddha,
this causes our negative emotions naturally to decrease just very naturally.
The course negative emotions fall away.
And also when we think about the Buddha and his qualities, we also remember that
there is no one that has that kind of compassion, basically the incredible
compassion that the Buddha has to have helped and benefited sentient beings so extensively.
And so given that quality of great compassion, then of course
just bringing the Buddha to mind also becomes a cause or a condition
for compassion to unfold within us as well.
The way to train in samatha
on the basis of the visualization of the Buddha Shakyamuni's form
is to start by actually looking at an image, looking at an image of the Buddha
and training in familiarizing ourselves with that.
And then after that image has become clear in our mind through looking at the image,
then we can train in visualizing the image, bringing it to mind
without looking at the image. So this is the process that we can use.
Once we have visualized the Buddha in front of us, in front of ourselves,
then we do a practice that is an extremely helpful method
for gathering a tremendous amount of merit and clearing away quite a lot of negativity,
purifying that negativity.
And that's the practice of what's called the seven branches, the seven branch practice.
We should bring to mind the Buddha's qualities.
We should think that in fact now in this time, in particular,
which is the time of the five degeneration’s,
during this time the Buddha's incredible tremendous compassion,
through his incredible tremendous compassion, he appeared in this realm
and carried out the twelve activities in order to tame, to benefit sentient beings,
and in particular for those of us who live now during this degenerate age,
the time when the lifespan of beings is around 100 years.
During this particular time, for us who live now in this time, the Buddha Shakyamuni
is more compassionate than any other Buddha because of having made the commitment
to be of benefit particularly for beings during our time.
And so without his appearance here, this world would be left in darkness.
We would be bereft of his guidance.
We wouldn't know how, what to do, what we should do, and what we should avoid.
And so from that perspective, we can bring to mind this thought that all of the virtue
that anyone engages in in the world and all of the practice of
avoiding negativity and evil deeds, all of that is due only to
the kindness and the compassion of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
So in this way, we should think about his kindness, his qualities, his compassion,
and with all of this in mind, we make prostrations or pay homage.
And then just like that, we can bring to mind all of our virtue,
all of the positive aspects, everything good that we have,
and offer that actually to the Buddha.
Then we can bring to mind all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in in the past,
everything up until now that we've done that's negative,
and really feel a sense of regret for those negative deeds
and confess them in front of the Buddha.
And then we bring to mind all of the good things, the virtue that has been engaged in
by beginning practitioners, ordinary beings, by noble beings, by the Buddhas,
all of that virtue we bring to mind and we rejoice in it.
And then we make the request or the prayer
that the Buddhas continue to turn the Dharma wheel,
to teach the vast and profound Dharma teachings at all times.
We make this kind of supplication.
And then we need to make the prayer,
the supplication to all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattva’s who enact awakened activity.
We make the prayer and supplication that they remain,
that they remain in this form, that they stay.
And then we need to make the dedication,
to dedicate all of the virtue that has been accumulated throughout the three times
to all sentient beings that they can become free from the state of suffering.
And through this practice of the seven branches,
we are able to purify our pride, to clear away our stinginess.
And also through the confession, we are able to purify
all of the negative deeds that we have accumulated previously up until now.
And the jealousy that's present in our minds, we purify this as well.
And then, our inability to make dedications,
to dedicate our merit and our fixation and clinging to that, this also is purified.
And just to make it easy to understand or to think about,
we can just think that all of the main afflictive emotions, right,
our attachment and aversion and ignorance or delusion, all of that that's present in our mind,
this is purified through the practice of the seven branches.
We should think like that.
The desire or attachment that we have
associated with the physical body, this is purified through our prostrations.
All of the attachment that we have to the good things that we've done and that we have,
this is purified through our offering, through the branch of offering
and through the branch of dedication.
And all of the negative deeds that we have engaged in and accumulated out of anger,
this is purified through our confession.
We need to clear away our ignorance, our delusion,
and to allow the light of wisdom to shine forth, don't we?
And so through making the request to the Buddhas to remain, to not pass into nirvana,
but to remain, and also not just to remain, but also making the request to them
or the prayer that they teach, that they continually teach,
this is a method for allowing the illumination, the brightness of wisdom to shine forth
and clearing away the darkness of our ignorance.
When we think about the five negative emotions, then we can also remember that
among the afflictive emotions, additionally, our pride is purified through prostrations
and our jealousy is purified through rejoicing in the virtue that others have engaged in.
So actually through the seven branches,
all of our main afflictive emotions are purified through this practice.
And then we, with devotion, real faith in devotion, we make this supplication to the Buddha
and then we recite the Buddha's name, the name mantra of the Buddha.
And then at the conclusion of reciting the mantra, if we recite perhaps one mala's worth,
one rosary's worth of mantras,
then at the end we imagine that from the body of the Buddha, light rays radiate out.
They touch myself and all sentient beings.
They clear away all of our negative deeds
and allow all of our positive qualities to perfectly unfold.
And having done this, then at this point in the practice,
we can train for some time in samatha or vipassanā.
And so at this point then, we remain without any kind of thought
with respect to the concepts, whether they are good thoughts,
positive thoughts, or negative thoughts related to negative deeds and so on.
We just can think all positive qualities have been fully perfected
and all negativity has been totally purified
and then just remain without holding on to either one of those things.
If we are training in samatha through the visualization of the Buddha,
then we can first just bring to mind the whole form, the entirety of the Buddha's form.
And so having done that, having gotten a rather clear,
brought to mind a clear visualization of the
whole form of the Buddha, then we should spend a little bit of time,
we can spend a little bit of time on different parts of the Buddha's body
focusing more on each of these different parts,
his hands and face and so on.
If we want to attain stability in the practice of samatha,
we can train in different ways to develop the stability of our samatha practice.
So one thing that we could do is sometimes visualize the Buddha really tiny,
just the size of a single letter,
and other times visualize the Buddha as being huge, the size of Mount Meru.
Sometimes we can visualize that a single Buddha emanates thousands and thousands of forms
of the Buddha and other times that all those thousands of Buddhas that are present
then dissolve into the form of a single form of the Buddha.
And so if we do this, if we train in visualizing in these different ways,
that allows us to develop the strength of the capacity to
visualize and to gain stability thereby in samatha practice.
And if we've gained some kind of stability, some kind of ability
within the practice of visualization in samatha, then we can train in vipassanā,
which is remaining in the state of suchness,
the state in which the mind is free from any type of conceptual fixation whatsoever.
And if we have received instruction pointing out from a qualified teacher,
then a genuine qualified teacher who has supreme realization,
then having received that kind of pointing out,
we can remain within the state of that recognition.
If we practice like that, it's very excellent.
And as for the time for this part of the meditation in our session,
we can do 5 minutes of practice, then maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and so on,
gradually increasing the time that we spend practicing in order to develop
our meditation further and further.
At the end of this part where we do meditation practice,
then we dedicate the merit of our session.
And so in this way, we should bring to mind, we bring to mind all of the Buddhas of the past,
and all of the Bodhisattva’s, and we think about the way in which they have been able to
benefit sentient beings through training, through the capacity of their wisdom,
their aspirations, their awakened activity, their wisdom, love and power.
We bring all of that to mind, and we think in the very same way that they have done this,
may I and all sentient beings also
gain the capacity to benefit others in the same way.
In short, we should think, may I and all sentient beings without any exception
become free from the afflictive emotions, and from being bound by the afflictive emotions,
and may we thereby arrive at the state of perfect awakening.
So this is just a very concise explanation of how to
go through the practice of the treasury of blessings, the liturgy of Shakyamuni.
And the way that I explained the visualization is really
from the perspective of beginning practitioner, but as one develops in the practice,
then we can make the visualization more elaborate, not just visualizing the Buddha,
but visualizing the retinue as well, the eight close sons, the sixteen elders, and so on.
And so as we develop that kind of strength in the visualization and move through
the practice, we can do in this way, do the visualization in more and more elaborate ways.
I'm very happy and want to say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Buddhist practice.
And so let's do a dedication together at the end.
