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Aspiration for the World Over the expanse of the treasured earth in this wide world, May benefit for beings appear like infinite moons’ reflections, Whose refreshing presence brings lasting welfare and happiness To open a lovely array of night-blooming lilies, signs of peace and joy. —The Seventeenth Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje S henpen Ö sel The Clear Light of the Buddha’s Teachings Which Benefits All Beings September 2000 Volume 4, Number 2

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Aspiration for the World

Over the expanse of the treasured earth in this wide world,May benefit for beings appear like infinite moons’ reflections,

Whose refreshing presence brings lasting welfare and happinessTo open a lovely array of night-blooming lilies, signs of peace and joy.

—The Seventeenth Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje

Shenpen ÖselThe Clear Light of the Buddha’s Teachings Which Benefits All Beings

September 2000Volume 4, Number 2

2 SHENPEN ÖSEL

The Clear Light of the Buddha’s Teachings Which Benefits All Beings

ContentsContentsContentsContentsContents

This issue of Shenpen Ösel is primarily devoted to a series of teachings on the Medicine BuddhaSutra given by the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche in the Cascade Mountains inWashington state in June of 1999. Copyright © 2000 Khenchen Thangu Rinpoche.

3 3 3 3 3 IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

44444 A Joyful Aspiration: Sweet Melody for Fortunate OnesA Joyful Aspiration: Sweet Melody for Fortunate OnesA Joyful Aspiration: Sweet Melody for Fortunate OnesA Joyful Aspiration: Sweet Melody for Fortunate OnesA Joyful Aspiration: Sweet Melody for Fortunate OnesBy the Seventeenth Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje

5 5 5 5 5 A Song A Song A Song A Song A Song By the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

7 7 7 7 7 The Medicine Buddha SutraThe Medicine Buddha SutraThe Medicine Buddha SutraThe Medicine Buddha SutraThe Medicine Buddha Sutra7 Twelve Extraordinary Aspirations for the Benefit of Sentient Beings

14 The Buddha Shakyamuni Taught This Sutra to Inspire Us to Practice23 Mudras, or Ritual Gestures, Help to Clarify the Visualization33 The Benefits of Hearing and Recollecting the Medicine Buddha’s Name39 Regular Supplication of the Medicine Buddha Brings Protection48 The Correct View Regarding Both Deities and Maras59 Somehow Our Buddha Nature Has Been Awakened, and We Are Very Fortunate Indeed

6 26 26 26 26 2 TTTTThe The The The The Twelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddhawelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddhawelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddhawelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddhawelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddha

6 56 56 56 56 5 WWWWWithout Concentration Tithout Concentration Tithout Concentration Tithout Concentration Tithout Concentration There Is No Spiritual Phere Is No Spiritual Phere Is No Spiritual Phere Is No Spiritual Phere Is No Spiritual Progrerogrerogrerogrerogress ss ss ss ss By Lama Tashi Namgyal

6 96 96 96 96 9 TTTTThe Sky-Dragon’s Phe Sky-Dragon’s Phe Sky-Dragon’s Phe Sky-Dragon’s Phe Sky-Dragon’s Profound Roarrofound Roarrofound Roarrofound Roarrofound Roar By Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Volume 4 Number 2

Editorial policyEditorial policyEditorial policyEditorial policyEditorial policyShenpen Ösel is a tri-annual publication of KagyuShenpen Ösel Chöling (KSOC), a center for thestudy and practice of Tibetan vajrayana Buddhismlocated in Seattle, Washington. The magazineseeks to present the teachings of recognized andfully qualified lamas and teachers, with anemphasis on the Karma Kagyu and the ShangpaKagyu lineages. The contents are derived in largepart from transcripts of teachings hosted by ourcenter. Shenpen Ösel is produced and mailedexclusively through volunteer labor and does notmake a profit. (Your subscriptions and donationsare greatly appreciated.) We publish with theaspiration to present the clear light of theBuddha’s teachings. May it bring benefit and mayall be auspicious. May all beings be inspired andassisted in uncovering their own true nature.

Photo creditPhoto creditPhoto creditPhoto creditPhoto credits this issue:s this issue:s this issue:s this issue:s this issue: Ryszard K. Frackiewicz, pages 7,23, 33, 39, 48, 59, 69, back cover.

StaffStaffStaffStaffStaff

EditorEditorEditorEditorEditorLama Tashi Namgyal

Copy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy editors, Transcribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,RecordersRecordersRecordersRecordersRecordersGlen Avantaggio, Alan Castle, Anita Castle,Kenn DeSure, Marcia Glover, Denise Glover,Judy Knapp, Donald Lashley, Linda Lewis,Chris Payne, Rose Peeps, Mark Suver,Elisabeth Talsky, Mark Voss

Database managerDatabase managerDatabase managerDatabase managerDatabase managerMarcia Glover

Mailing coordinatorMailing coordinatorMailing coordinatorMailing coordinatorMailing coordinatorMark Suver

Mailing crewMailing crewMailing crewMailing crewMailing crewMembers of the Seattle sangha

Shenpen Ösel

SHENPEN ÖSEL 3

IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

If you sow a thought, you reap a deed.If you sow a deed, you reap a habit.If you sow a habit, you reap a character.If you sow a character, you reap a destiny.

—Indian proverb

The last issue of Shenpen Ösel presented the stages of practice ofthe Medicine Buddha Sadhana. In this issue, the Very VenerableKhenchen Thrangu Rinpoche presents the teachings of the Medi-

cine Buddha Sutra, formally called The Twelve Great Aspirations of theMedicine Buddha by the Buddha Shakyamuni.

In these teachings, Rinpoche explains the twelve aspirations; thebenefits of hearing, recollecting, and reciting the name of the MedicineBuddha; the meaning of deity in vajrayana Buddhism; the nature of thefour maras and the transcendence of obstacles in the path; and the fourqualities of a good intention. In addition, Rinpoche describes and explainsthe mudras or ritual gestures employed in the sadhana.

In the third of these teachings, Rinpoche also gives a particularlylucid description of the five wisdoms associated with the five Buddhafamilies, describing them as five aspects of intrinsic awareness or as fiveaspects of the wisdom of a buddha.

❖❖❖

On the final day of his last teaching visit in Seattle, Khenpo TsultrimGyamto Rinpoche was asked to say a few words about his life. In re-sponse, Rinpoche, who in the past would give actual descriptions ofevents from his life, asked his translator, Ari Goldfield, to sing a mostbeautiful and haunting song, entitled, The Sky-Dragon’s Profound Roar,which we include here as the final selection of this issue.

Also included as the first two selections are A Joyful Aspiration:Sweet Melody for Fortunate Ones, a song composed by His Holiness theSeventeenth Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje, during his recent escapefrom Tibet, and A Song (ala thala thala) by the Sixteenth Karmapa,Rangjung Rigpe Dorje.

—Lama Tashi Namgyal

4 SHENPEN ÖSEL

A Joyful Aspiration:Sweet Melody for Fortunate Ones

By the Seventeenth Karmapa,Urgyen Trinley Dorje

Om Swasti. The right-turning conch of pure compassion in body, speech, and mindPours forth a stream of good intentions that never change.Thereby, may a sweet, resonant melody beyond compare, such music for the ears,Open the lotus petals of virtue, excellence, and goodness.

It has the supreme name of the Wish Fulfilling Tree, the ambrosial one.Musical tones of this stainless tree, granting every wish, are dulcet and pleasing.Throughout its branches the gems of lasting happiness nestle among their leaves.Sovereign in our realm, may the world be resplendent with the beauty of this tree.

Aspiration for Tibet

A chain of fragrant flowers, these snow mountains are tranquil and fresh.In a healing land where white incense rises sweet,May the gracious beauty of luminous moonbeams, light of the spiritual and

temporal worlds,Conquer all strife, the darkness of the shadow side.

Aspiration for the Dalai Lama

Inspiring festivals of merit in the Land of Snow,You are the Supreme One holding a pure white lotus.With the beauty of all good qualities, a treasure for eyes to behold,May your life be long, steadfast as a diamond vajra.

Aspiration for Culture and Knowledge

The most excellent virtue is the brilliant and calm flow of culture:Those with fine minds play in a clear lotus lake;Through this excellent path, a song line sweet like the pollen’s honey,May they sip the fragrant dew of glorious knowledge.

Aspiration for the World

Over the expanse of the treasured earth in this wide world,May benefit for beings appear like infinite moons’ reflections,Whose refreshing presence brings lasting welfare and happinessTo open a lovely array of night-blooming lilies, signs of peace and joy.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 5

Conclusion

Descending from a canopy of white clouds, the gathering of two accumulations,May these true words, like pearled drops of light or pouring rain,Falling in a lovely park where fortunate disciples are free of bias,Open the flowers of friendship so that well-being and joy blossom forth.

These words of aspiration, sprung from a sincere intention, were written down byUrgyen Trinley, the one who bears the noble name of the Karmapa, while he wasescaping from Tibet. One night in the illusory appearance of a dream, on a lake bathedin clear moonlight and rippled with blooming lotus flowers serving as seats, threeBrahmins appeared wearing pure white silk and playing a drum, guitar, flute, andother instruments. Created in pleasing and lyric tones, their melodious song came tomy ears, and so I composed this aspiration prayer with a one-pointed mind, filled withan intense and sincere intention to benefit all the people of Tibet. Within a beautiful andauspicious chain of mountains, this land of Tibet, may the sun rays of the supremeaspiration for awakening swiftly appear.

Translated under the guidance of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche by Michele Martin of New York ©February 2000; headings inserted based on commentary of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche; all rightsreserved.

A Song

By the Sixteenth Karmapa,Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

This song is ala thala thala,Ala is the way it arose.Thala is the way it is expressed in words.In a pure land, rich with turquoise leaves,

On a throne of brilliant, white shellIs the deity of long life, the mother Lady Tara.I pray to her from the depths of my heart.May there be no obstacles to long life.

If you do not recognize this place,It is the Retreat House of Palpung.If you do not recognize a person like me,There is the upper valley of delightful Shukra

6 SHENPEN ÖSEL

And the lower valley of delightful Shukra;In the place between the two Shukras1

Is a child who descends from Tshazhang Denma.2

If you call him by name, it is Thubten Gelek.3

Not now, but on a distant tomorrow it will be decided.Both the vulture and I know where to go.The vulture soars into the expanse of the sky;Our people do not stay, but go to India.4

In the springtime, a cuckoo comes as a guest.In the fall when the harvest ripens, it knows where to go:Its only thought is travel to the east of India.5

In the lofty land of Tibet, the inhabitants, high and low,

And in particular, you, Tai Situ, the Lord and Protector Maitreya,Who remains above the crown of our head,May your activities, like the sun and moon set in space,Be continuous, stable, and without hindrance.

I pray that we meet again and again.6

May the three roots—the lamas, yidams, and dakinis—Protect him from negative conditions and obstacles.Keep the precise meaning recorded here in the depth of your heart.

In the sixteenth rabjung’s [sixty year cycle’s] year of the iron dragon, the sixteenth incarnation of the Karmapas,Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, composed this song when he was seventeen years old at Palpung Chökhor Ling. May it beauspicious. Under the guidance of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, translated by Michele Martin of New York © April1994.

1This indicates the birthplace of the Sixteenth Karmapa, situated between the two Shukra valleyswith a river flowing across one end.

2He was one of the chief ministers of Gesar of Ling, the great Tibetan warrior and emanation ofGuru Rinpoche.

3Thubten Gelek is a childhood name of the Sixteenth Karmapa.

4Here the Karmapa is clearly predicting the future flight of the Tibetans to India.

5Following its pattern of migration, the cuckoo comes in the spring and leaves in the fall; in thissame natural way, the Karmapa knows when it is time to leave Tibet for the eastern part ofIndia, where he will take up residence in Rumtek, Sikkim.

6The Karmapa is alluding to the fact that Tai Situ Rinpoche will meet the Karmapa again when hereincarnates as the Seventeenth Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje. It is Tai Situ Rinpoche whodiscovered the Seventeenth Karmapa and takes responsibility for him; thus they meet again andagain.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 7

Medicine Buddha Sutra

Twelve Extraordinary Aspirations forthe Benefit of Sentient Beings

In the Cascade Mountains in Washington, in June of 1999, the Very Vener-able Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche led an eight-day retreat to teach theMedicine Buddha Sadhana and Medicine Buddha Sutra. The last issue ofShenpen Ösel published Rinpoche’s teachings on the sadhana. This issue isdevoted to Rinpoche’s teachings on the sutra. Rinpoche gave the teachingsin Tibetan; they were orally translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. The follow-ing is an edited transcript.

We have finished going through the practice of the MedicineBuddha—how to do it, what to meditate on, and what its mean-ing is. If you can do this full form of the practice regularly, that

will be extremely beneficial, because it bears great blessing. But even ifyou can do it only occasionally, there will still be great benefit from yourinvolvement in it. There is also a shorter form of the practice that you canuse when you do not have time to do the long form. It is found on the last

TTTTThe Vhe Vhe Vhe Vhe Very Very Very Very Very Venerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Thrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu Rinpocheinpocheinpocheinpocheinpoche

8 SHENPEN ÖSEL

Most of thebenefitsassociated withthe MedicineBuddha areconnected withthe twelveaspirations hemade at the timeof his initialgeneration ofbodhicitta

page in your chant book.* It is a short supplica-tion of the Medicine Buddha by name, whichserves as a vehicle for cultivatingfaith in and devotion to the Medi-cine Buddha. As is taught in thesutra of Amitabha and in thesutra of the Medicine Buddha,recollecting and reciting thename of the Medicine Buddha isof incalculable benefit. Most ofthe benefits associated with theMedicine Buddha are connectedwith the twelve aspirations hemade at the time of his initialgeneration of bodhicitta,** andmost of these aspirations areconnected in one way or anotherwith his name. Therefore, most ofthe benefits connected with theMedicine Buddha can be gainedby recollecting and reciting hisname.

There are three sutras prima-rily concerned with the Medicine Buddha. Onesets forth the twelve aspirations of the MedicineBuddha. Another sets forth the aspirations of the

seven other medicine buddhas. The third, anextremely short sutra, sets forth the darani or

mantras of the various medicinebuddhas. I am now going toexplain the main one, the sutrathat sets forth the twelve aspi-rations of the Medicine Buddha.Before I begin, you should knowsomething about the differencebetween sutras and shastras.Sutras are the Buddha’s teach-ings, and shastras are commen-taries on them. Shastras areconstructed in order to give asummary of the meaning; there-fore, they get right to thepoint—whereas sutras alwaysbegin with an introduction thatgives the setting for any particu-lar teaching of the Buddha. Asutra will tell you where theBuddha was living when he gavethat particular teaching, why he

happened to give it, who asked him to give it,who and how many were there when he gave it,and exactly what he said and what others saidthat caused him to say what he said. The Buddhawent just about everywhere in India. The settingfor this particular sutra was Vaisali, one of thesix major cities in India at that time. The retinuein the midst of which the Buddha taught thissutra was extremely large. It consisted of a greatmany monks and nuns and a great manybodhisattvas, both male and female; it consistedof monarchs, the ministers of these monarchs,and the common people from the kingdoms ofthese monarchs. There were also innumerablespirits and local divinities in attendance, all ofwhom had assembled in order to hear this teach-ing.

The foremost disciple in this gathering—infact, the person who specifically asked theBuddha to give this explanation, which latercame to be known as the Sutra of the MedicineBuddha—was the bodhisattva Manjushri. Thesutra begins with Manjushri taking a certainphysical posture and making the request. The

*Editor’s note: See page 70 of the last issue of Shenpen Ösel.

**Editor’s note: The generation of bodhicitta is based on thealtruistic wish to bring about the welfare, and ultimately thetotal liberation, of all sentient beings from all forms ofsuffering. What distinguishes bodhicitta from the ordinarycompassionate aspirations to benefit others shared by allpeople of good will is the recognition that one cannot ulti-mately fulfill these aspirations until one has attained thestate of mental purification and liberation of buddhahood,which is the source of all positive qualities, including theomniscience that can see, individual by individual, the causesof suffering and the causes and path of liberation fromsuffering. This understanding gives rise at some point to theinitial generation of the aspiration to attain the state ofbuddhahood in order to liberate all sentient beings fromsuffering and to establish them all in states of happiness.This is called aspiration bodhicitta, which must be followedby what is called the bodhicitta of entering or perseverancebodhicitta, which is the training in loving-kindness, compas-sion, the six paramitas or transcendent perfections, etc. whichlead to the attainment of buddhahood. Aspiration bodhicittaand perseverance bodhicitta are both included in the termrelative bodhicitta. Absolute bodhicitta is direct insight intothe ultimate nature. This state of primordial awareness iscompassion and loving-kindness and gives rise spontaneouslyand without preconception to compassionate activity.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 9

posture that Manjushri takes is the same physi-cal posture we take when we formally take thevow of refuge, when we take other forms ofpratimoksha ordination, and when we take thebodhisattva vow. Manjushri’s left knee is raised,his right knee is on the ground,* and his palmsare joined in a gesture of devotionin front of his heart. Manjushritakes this posture because it isthe posture that the Buddha’sdisciples always took wheneverthey addressed him. And thereason we take this posture informal ceremonies today is that they did it then.We do it in order to recollect the Buddha whenwe take refuge or any other ordination.

Facing the Buddha and taking that posture,Manjushri addresses the Buddha, asking him toteach about those buddhas who had made ex-traordinary aspirations for the benefit of be-ings—what their aspirations were, and what thebenefits of recollecting their names would be. Heasks him to explain these things for the benefitof beings in the future.

The Buddha’s first response to Manjushri’srequest is to praise him for making the requestin the first place. Addressing Manjushri, theBuddha says, “It is excellent and fitting that youhave made this request, because your motivationin doing so is compassion and a wish to bringabout the means of purification of obscurationsin general, and especially the means of eradicat-ing the sickness of beings in the future.”

While praising Manjushri for making thisrequest, the Buddha enjoins him to listen well tothe detailed explanation he was about to give.Commentators have explained that this injunc-tion has three specific meanings. The Buddhasays, “Manjushri, for that reason, listen well,listen fully, and hold this in your mind.” Each ofthese three points—listen well, listen fully, andhold this in your mind—has a particular mean-ing with respect to how to listen to the teach-ings. The first injunction—“Listen well”—means,

Listen well, listenfully, and holdthis in your mind

listen with an appropriate motivation. If youhave a good motivation for listening, then thedharma you hear will be contained in a pureform in your mind. On the other hand, if youlisten with an impure motivation—with attach-ment or aversion or the like—then your mind

will become like a container orcup that holds poison, whichthen turns whatever is pouredinto it into poison.

The second injunction of theBuddha—“Listen fully”—means, listen attentively. You

may have a good motivation for listening to theteachings, but if you are distracted—if you donot direct your mind to what is being said—thenlistening is of no use. Your mind will become likea cup that is turned upside-down; nothing can bepoured into it.

The Buddha’s third injunction is, “Hold it inyour mind.” Even if you have a good motivationand listen well, if you forget what is beingtaught, then it is lost from your mind. Your mindis then like a broken cup, which, no matter howmuch is poured into it, will allow it all to leakback out again.

Then the Buddha tells Manjushri that in theeastern direction, innumerable realms away—which means that if you pass beyond this par-ticular realm, the realm of the BuddhaShakyamuni, and go in the eastern directionpast a truly large number of other realms—youwill reach the buddha realm called the Light ofVaidhurya or the Light of Lapis Lazuli. In thatrealm there abides the Buddha BhaishajyaiGuru, the Medicine Buddha, also known as theLight of Lapis Lazuli or the Light of Vaidhurya,who teaches the dharma there. The Buddha tellsManjushri that because of the twelve extraordi-nary aspirations made by the BuddhaBhaishajyai Guru before he attained enlighten-ment, while he was still engaged in the practiceor conduct of a bodhisattva, there is tremendousbenefit in recollecting his name and tremendousblessing in supplicating him. In fact, the benefitsthat accrue from devotion to the Medicine Bud-dha are based primarily upon the aspirations he

*Editor’s note: The supplicant is generally also sitting on hisor her right heel.

10 SHENPEN ÖSEL

It is becauseof this firstaspiration of theMedicine Buddhathat there is somuch benefit inseeing anydepiction of him

made while still a bodhisattva.*The first of the twelve aspirations made by

the Medicine Buddha while still a bodhisattva is,“In the future, when I attain perfect awakeningand become a buddha, may my utterly luminousbody illuminate innumerable worlds, and may allthe beings who see it come to possess a body justlike that, adorned with the thirty-two marks andthe eighty signs of the body of a buddha.” Theessential aspiration here is to have, upon awak-ening, the extraordinarily luminous form of abuddha, and on the basis of that,to bring about the liberation intobuddhahood of any being whosees him. This does not meanthat, immediately upon seeingthe Medicine Buddha’s form, youbecome a buddha just like theMedicine Buddha. It means thatseeing the Medicine Buddha,even seeing a painted depictionof the Medicine Buddha, or evenjust hearing about the thirty-twomarks and eighty signs and soforth of the Medicine Buddha,instills a habit within your mind. How much of ahabit is instilled depends upon your attitudetowards what you see or encounter. If you havegreat faith in and devotion to the MedicineBuddha, then a very strong habit is instilled. Ifyou have some degree of devotion, then somedegree of habit is instilled. If you have a littledevotion a little habit is instilled. And if youhave only the slightest amount of devotion only

the slightest amount of habit is instilled. Regard-less of how much or how little, eventually thishabit will lead to your attainment of that sameform as the Medicine Buddha, as well as to theperfect accomplishment of what he has aspiredto.** If you have great faith in the MedicineBuddha, this will happen much more quickly,and if you have no faith whatsoever, it willhappen very slowly. But it will definitely stillhappen. It is because of this first aspiration ofthe Medicine Buddha that there is so much

benefit in seeing any depictionof him, whether you see it allthe time, or whether you see itoccasionally—it will do yougreat benefit.

The second aspiration of theMedicine Buddha, made as abodhisattva, is also connectedprimarily with his appearance.It is as follows: “In the future,when I attain perfect awakeningand become a buddha, may mybody be as brilliant and lustrousas the jewel of vaidhurya or

lapis lazuli. May it be stainless and luminous,vast, pleasing, glorious, majestic in every way.And may all who see it be benefited by it.” Theapparent and obvious result of this aspiration isthe form that the Medicine Buddha exhibits inhis pure realm, which form literally has thequalities of being luminous and lustrous andmajestic, and so on. But as an additional conse-quence of this aspiration the Medicine Buddhaexhibits his form indirectly even in the midst ofimpure realms, such as our own, so that beingswho are ignorant of what is to be accepted andwhat is to be rejected, of what is to be done andwhat is not to be done, can still be inspired by

*Editor’s note: It is sometimes said that buddhas have nodesire to benefit or liberate sentient beings in the ordinarydualistic sense of an “I” helping or liberating an “other”. Thisis not of course to suggest that a buddha does not care, ratherthat the natural and spontaneous activity of the totallypurified clear light nature of mind is to work spontaneouslyfor the benefit of sentient beings without preconceived ideas,without any sort of forced effort, and without habit-formingthoughts. This activity is conditioned, however, by the aspira-tions the buddha makes before he or she attains buddhahood,and particularly by those aspirations that the future buddhamakes after he or she enters the bodhisattva path of themahayana. Thus the great emphasis placed on the aspira-tions of the Medicine Buddha made when he was abodhisattva. The activity of a buddha is also conditioned bythe merit and aspirations of sentient beings.

**Editor’s note: One should not, of course, prevent oneselffrom generating great faith in the Medicine Buddha simplybecause, looking at the deep blue, male, monastic form of theMedicine Buddha, one feels disinclined towards a malemonastic lifestyle and feels that one would rather end uplooking like Vajrayogini, White Tara, or Guru Rinpoche. Theultimate state of buddhahood involves unlimited freedom ofmind, which means that a buddha can manifest at will inwhatever form he or she chooses.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 11

We may tend tothink sometimesthat the concernsand aspirationsof buddhas onlydo us good inthe long run . . .[This third]aspiration isdesigned tobring aboutimmediate help

seeing an image of the Medicine Buddha or byhearing his name. As a consequence, althoughthey may not be directly interested in hearingabout what is to be done andwhat is not to be done, a devotionto correct action will graduallygrow in their minds throughhaving seen these things orhaving heard these things.

The third aspiration of theMedicine Buddha as abodhisattva was that upon hisawakening (upon becoming abuddha) through prajna andupaya (knowledge and method)he be able to bring about prosper-ity for all beings. This aspirationis particularly concerned withalleviating a type of sufferingthat is very common in the hu-man realm, which manifests in itsmost extreme form as poverty.But even when we human beingsare not poor, we still think thatwe are poor. We have not only the suffering ofpoverty, but the suffering of unceasing ambi-tion—and also the suffering of constant struggleto secure ourselves, and to secure greater andgreater prosperity. The first two aspirationswere connected with bringing beings to ultimateliberation. This aspiration is more connectedwith benefiting beings, and especially humanbeings, in the short term. It is very importantbecause we may tend to think sometimes thatthe concerns and aspirations of buddhas only dous good in the long run—that they are onlyconcerned with our liberation and do us noimmediate good in this life. This aspirationindicates that this is not true. This aspiration isdesigned to bring about immediate help. Thismeans that, if you supplicate the MedicineBuddha, it can affect your prosperity in this life.This will not work as immediately as taking apill, but it can actually make a difference.

The fourth aspiration of the Medicine Bud-dha is that he be able to extricate beings whohave taken incorrect paths and place them on

paths that lead to liberation. All of us want to behappy, and we select various ways to lead ourlives that we think will make our lives happy.

For each of us that is our path.Unfortunately, while some of usactually select ways to makeourselves happy, many of us—thinking to make ourselveshappy—select ways that are infact merely causes of more andmore suffering. The primaryfocus of this aspiration is to beable to lead beings away fromthose counterproductive pathsor lifestyles and into paths thatlead to liberation. This is donethrough exhibiting the forms ofbuddhas, through the presenceof their speech in the form ofsutras and so on, through thedemonstrations of the activitiesof buddhas, and so on. Thesethings have occurred in our livesalready. In one way or another,

we have come into contact with some form ofdepiction of the form of the Buddha, we haveheard the sutras or the teachings of the Buddha,or we have been inspired by places connectedwith the Buddha’s life. In short, in whatever way,this activity of the buddhas has already causedus to change our course of action.

The second part of this fourth aspiration isthe wish also to establish those beings concernedonly with their own liberation* on a path thatleads to the full liberation of all beings—in short,on the mahayana path. This refers in part tosomething that is stated very clearly in textssuch as The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, whichstates that, after someone attains the state of anarhat or arhati—either as a shravaka or as apratyekabuddha—and has achieved full libera-tion for themselves from samsara, eventually—sometimes after a very long time—a buddha willreveal his or her form to the arhat or arhati,inspiring that being to enter the path ofmahayana and attain full buddhahood. Thesecond part of this fourth aspiration is an aspira-

12 SHENPEN ÖSEL

The seventhaspiration of theMedicine Buddhais that merelyhearing his namewould alleviatethe sufferings ofsickness andpoverty

tion to do just that—to exhibit his form in orderto cause beings who are immersed in pathsleading to personal liberation alone to engage inpaths that will lead to the liberation of allbeings, and by doing so, to inspire those beingsto increase their love, compassion, andbodhicitta.

The fifth aspiration of the Medicine Buddhais that subsequent to his awakening orbuddhahood he be able to inspire morality in allbeings. In the words of the sutra, what he sug-gests is the moral discipline of a monk or a nun.But by extension, this refers to the practice ofmorality in general, which is tosay, conducting yourself physi-cally, verbally, and mentally in away that is beneficial to and notharmful to others. The idea hereis that the inspiration of abuddha inspires one to behavemorally. Seeing the image of abuddha or hearing the teachingsof a buddha has caused us toenter the door of the dharma tobegin with, and to change ourphysical, verbal, and mentalconduct somewhat. Whetherupon beginning the practice ofdharma you practice with ex-traordinary diligence, which is wonderful, ornot, which is still okay, there will still be somekind of improvement in your conduct. Theprimary aspiration here of the Medicine Bud-dha is that, through his blessing, practitionersbe able to maintain morality without impair-ment. The secondary aspiration is that—sinceordinary beings will turn away from moralconduct from time to time, and thereby becomeconfused—the Medicine Buddha be able toprevent those who turn away from moralityfrom remaining in a state of inappropriateconduct, so that they will return to moral con-duct and avoid lower rebirths.

Part of the fifth aspiration is that for beingswho have mistaken the path, who have turnedaway from moral conduct, the positive habitsthat they created in the past when they first

adopted moral conduct again become foremost intheir minds, through the blessings of thebuddhas, thereby causing them to return to moralconduct.

The sixth aspiration concerns those who areborn with congenital physical problems. It is anaspiration by the Medicine Buddha to be able byhis blessing to heal anyone who is born with anycongenital physical problem or defect, such asimpaired senses, impaired limbs, or virulentdisease. From the point of view of ordinarythinking, you might think it impossible that thecondition of someone born with a congenital

physical problem could be allevi-ated. Yet it is quite possible thatsuch a person could benefitthrough intense supplication ofthe Medicine Buddha. And in thecases in which they are unable toameliorate their condition imme-diately, the supplication andrecollection of the name of theMedicine Buddha and the prac-tice of the sadhana would stillgenerate great lasting benefit.

The seventh aspiration of theMedicine Buddha is that merelyhearing his name would alleviatethe sufferings of sickness and

poverty that afflict those who find themselvesseriously ill with no help, no friends, and noresources; that merely by hearing or recollectinghis name or by seeing an image of him, beings inthat type of situation would be freed from boththe sicknesses they suffer and the poverty thatreinforces the sicknesses; and that furthermore,those beings, once having heard the MedicineBuddha’s name, would never again become illthroughout all of their lifetimes until their at-tainment of buddhahood. This sounds like anextremely vast and profound, even an extreme,aspiration. But it is by no means impossible thatit could be fulfilled, especially for someone whohas intense devotion to the Medicine Buddha,recollects his name, supplicates him, and so on.This aspiration is an instance of one of the par-ticular benefits of the recollection of the Medi-

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cine Buddha’s name.Often we find ourselves witnessing the death

of a small animal, an insect, a bird, or someother creature that is about to breathe its lastbreath. It is gasping away its last few momentsof life. Because we have buddha nature andbecause these beings also havebuddha nature, of course we feelempathy and compassion forthem. But the compassion some-times seems futile, because wesimply do not know what to do.Because of the blessings ofbuddhas and bodhisattvas, how-ever, there are things that we cando. One, for example, is to recitethe name of the Medicine Buddhain the hearing of that dying ani-mal. This is probably not going toheal its sickness immediately.Dying birds will not likely suddenly wake upand fly off. But what it will do is ultimately inthe long term better than that; it will establishthe basis for that being’s future liberation.

The eighth aspiration of the Medicine Bud-dha concerns freeing human beings in particular

from situations of discrimination. It refers tosituations like the caste system that was in placein India in the Buddha’s time. It often happens inhuman society that a certain class or group ofpeople will be isolated from the rest and consid-ered to be so far inferior that even their human-

ity is disputed, as has happenedat times to the class known asthe “untouchables” in India. Theidea here is that, if one of thesebeings sees an image of theMedicine Buddha or hears thename of the Medicine Buddha,they will generate enoughconfidence in their humanity,enough recognition of andconfidence in the fact that theyare just as much a fully fledgedhuman being as whoever isdiscriminating against them,

that they will be able to escape that situation.And it has happened many times that peopleborn in the lowest caste in societies like Indiacould escape their caste restrictions in variousways, which could be viewed as an instance ofthe blessings of buddhas.

The eighthaspiration of theMedicine Buddhaconcerns freeinghuman beings inparticular fromsituations ofdiscrimination

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Medicine Buddha Sutra

The Buddha Shakyamuni TaughtThis Sutra to Inspire Us to Practice

Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching onthe Medicine Buddha Sutra.

So far we have discussed the first eight of the twelve aspirationsof the Medicine Buddha presented in the Medicine BuddhaSutra. All of these vast aspirations are born of the Medicine

Buddha’s particular generation of bodhicitta at the beginning of his path.They are explained in the sutra so that we may understand how theblessings of the body, speech, and mind of the Medicine Buddha can enterinto us and what the benefits of their doing so will be. The BuddhaShakyamuni taught this sutra in order to inspire us to practice. The ideabeing conveyed here is that meditation on the Medicine Buddha, suppli-cation of the Medicine Buddha, and recollection of the name of the Medi-cine Buddha bring extraordinary benefits. By understanding that, youwill feel enthusiastic about the Medicine Buddha practice. This enthusi-

The Wheel of ExistenceThe Wheel of ExistenceThe Wheel of ExistenceThe Wheel of ExistenceThe Wheel of Existence

SHENPEN ÖSEL 15

asm will cause you to practice, which in turn willcause you to attain the result of practice. So nowwe will go on from where we left off, beginningwith the ninth aspiration.

The ninth aspiration of the Medicine Buddhais to free all beings from the noose or lasso ofmara. The lasso of mara refers to that whichobstructs liberation. In this case it means anycultivated view that is sufficiently incorrect thatit leads you down the wrong path, any view thatis actually leading you away from liberationrather than towards it. Now any kind of view—which is to say, any kind of consciously culti-vated or developed understanding of how thingsare—is produced through one’s own investiga-tion and analysis of phenomena, using one’s ownintellect or intelligence. This analysis can eitherbe correct, thereby producing a correct view, orit can be incorrect or faulty, thereby producingan incorrect view. Given ournative intelligence, we all havethe capacity to engage in thesekinds of analyses, and thereforewe are capable of coming toeither correct or incorrect con-clusions. If the view you take ofthings is basically correct, then itwill be a strong cause of yourliberation. And by causing yourliberation it will be an indirectcause of the liberation of others.In short, a correct view of howthings are produces all manner ofhappiness. On the other hand, ifyour view is sufficiently incorrectand actually becomes a pervertedor misguided use of your intelli-gence, then it will obstruct yourpath to liberation, thereby pre-venting you from liberatingothers and becoming an obstacle to happiness.

There are two types of misguided or malfunc-tioning intelligence. One is a strongly incorrectunderstanding of how things are, which actuallyleads you on the wrong path, and the other is ananalysis that causes you to doubt what is actu-ally true, and therefore causes you to be unable

to accept the truth. In either case, the aspirationof the Medicine Buddha here is to free beingsfrom those kinds of misconceptions or misunder-standings, and to establish them on the correctpath to liberation.

The other part of this ninth aspiration isconnected with the conduct of beings. If yourview is correct, then that will cause you toengage in appropriate conduct, which is theconduct of a bodhisattva. And if your view isincorrect, your conduct will follow suit; it willalso be incorrect. What is understood here bycorrect conduct is conduct that does not harmothers or yourself, but benefits others and your-self. This conduct naturally ensues from having acorrect understanding, a correct view, of howthings are. The aspiration of the Medicine Bud-dha here while still a bodhisattva is that theblessing and the activity of his teaching that will

ensue upon his attainingbuddhahood will lead beings to acorrect understanding and,therefore, to correct conductthat will cause them to attainliberation.

The tenth aspiration of theMedicine Buddha is to freebeings from persecution by theirrulers. As literally stated, thismeans, through the MedicineBuddha’s blessing, to free andprotect beings from imprison-ment, execution, and all theother hardships and crueltiesthat absolute monarchs imposeupon their subjects. But byextension, this also refers to allanalogous situations in whichsomething in the external worldinterferes with your well be-

ing—to sickness, to any kind of abuse or perse-cution by others—regardless of who they maybe—and to all the other sorts of dangers anddisasters that constantly threaten us. Becausethe nature of our existence in the world is im-permanence, we are constantly in some kind ofdanger and live in some kind of fear of one thing

The lasso ofmara refers tothat whichobstructsliberation. In thiscase it meansany cultivatedview that issufficientlyincorrect that itleads you downthe wrong path

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or another happening to us. The point of thisaspiration is that through the blessing of theMedicine Buddha beings be protected from thesedangers, and from the fear of the arising of thesedangers.

A very commonly displayed image of samsaracalled the Wheel of Existence shows at thecenter the three poisons* and outside of that thesix realms.** Outside the six realms, it showsthat this [entire wheel of trans-migratory existence], whichrepresents samsara, is beingheld between the teeth and thelap by a very wrathful figure.This wrathful figure representsthe basic danger and fear thatcharacterizes samsaric existence.As is shown in the painting,sometimes one is happy, andsometimes one is miserable. Butin either case, the basic nature ofone’s existence is change. Be-cause it is change, it is uncer-tainty, and because it is uncer-tainty, it is danger. And becauseit is danger, it is fear. And all ofthis uncertainty, danger, and fearis represented by this wrathfulfigure. During the Buddha’slifetime, his senior students and the shravakaswere frequently asked by many different peoplewhat his teachings were all about. They would beasked many different questions. And when theywent to the Buddha and explained that theywere not always able to answer all of thesequestions, he came up with the idea of paintingthis Wheel of Existence on the door of everyBuddhist temple to serve as a representation, inone image, of the buddhadharma.

The purpose of buddhadharma, of course, is

to free one from fear and danger. It is to that endthat the Buddha taught the dharma, includingthis sutra of the Medicine Buddha. We all havefears and anxieties. And these fears and anxi-eties really stem from the fact that samsaric orcyclic existence is fundamentally full of imper-manence, and therefore full of suffering. If youask, is there no way to transcend these fears andanxieties, the answer is, “Yes, there is a way. If

you practice dharma, and if, byso doing, you connect with theblessings, the compassion, andthe aspirations of buddhas suchas the Medicine Buddha, fearand anxiety can be transcended,”which is to say that, if you prac-tice with great diligence, you cantranscend all fear once and forall. But even if you do not prac-tice with that much diligence,even if you only practice a littlebit, or even if you merely havesome contact with the dharma,there will be some benefit. It willhelp to some extent. And ulti-mately, you will be liberated intoa state beyond all fear. So, in thistenth aspiration, the expresslystated aspiration to free beings

from the persecution of unjust monarchs reallyrefers to freeing beings from the sufferings ofsamsara altogether, which means freeing themfrom the grip of impermanence. And the point ofthis is that it is possible to transcend the fearand danger which impermanence otherwiseimposes upon us.

The eleventh and twelfth aspirations have incommon that they are connected with freeingbeings from the suffering of poverty. Specificallythe eleventh aspiration is to free beings from thesuffering of lacking the necessities of life—fromthe sufferings of hunger and thirst, and therelated suffering of constantly having to struggleto survive. This aspiration of the MedicineBuddha is to free beings from lack of food anddrink and from the need to struggle to acquirethem, and by extension, to extend to all beings

The basic natureof one’sexistence ischange. Becauseit is change, it isuncertainty, andbecause it isuncertainty, it isdanger. Andbecause it isdanger, it is fear

*Editor’s note: The three poisons are the three basic mentalafflictions—passion, aggression, and ignorance—representedby a cock, a snake, and a pig, from which all of samsara arises.

**Editor’s note: The six basic categories of samsaric exist-ence: the hell realms, the hungry ghost realms, the animalrealms, the human realms, the asura or jealous god realms,and the god realms.

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the experience of what is referred to by theBuddha as the delightful taste of dharma. Thismeans that the Medicine Buddha aspired notonly to give beings the physical means of sur-vival, physical nutrition, but also the spiritualnutrition of the dharma.

The delightful taste of dharma means hear-ing the dharma and tasting it in that way, andthen practicing it and, through practicing it,becoming truly happy. When one has practiceddharma to the point where one has attained atrue and stable state of happi-ness, one no longer needs toexperience the sufferings ofsamsara, which means that therewill no longer be physical suffer-ing, nor will there be mentalmisery. The benefit of dharma,and the way in which one tastesits delightful taste, can occur tovarious degrees and in variousways. Sometimes one is benefitedsimply by hearing the dharma.Sometimes one is benefited byreflecting upon its meaning;sometimes, by meditating uponit. And in some cases the degreeof benefit is limited to having aslight contact with it. But in anycase, all of these are ways inwhich, through the aspiration ofbuddhas, dharma benefits beingsand frees them from suffering.

The twelfth aspiration of theMedicine Buddha focuses on actual poverty andspecifically on the lack of things that give uscomfort. First the Medicine Buddha aspires tobe able to provide clothing for all those beingswho lack sufficient clothing and are thereforesubject to suffering from heat or cold, the ele-ments, and so on. Beyond that, he aspires toprovide ornamentation, which means things likejewelry and so forth, for those who lack them. Inthe same vein, he aspires to provide musicalinstruments and the sound and presence ofmusic in one’s life for those who lack them. Thisaspiration centers around fulfilling the wishes of

beings and giving beings what they want andwhat will make them happy in the short run.From one point of view, you might think thatthis means that simply by praying to the Medi-cine Buddha you can produce a shower of de-signer clothing from the sky or whatever musicalinstruments you might happen to want. So youmight actually try praying with those expecta-tions, and you might be very disappointed whenthey are not fulfilled. This does not mean, how-ever, that the Medicine Buddha’s aspiration was

pointless or ineffective. The waythis aspiration takes effect, andindeed the way they all takeeffect, is that through the aspira-tion and power of the MedicineBuddha beings come into contactwith dharma. Beings meetimages, representations, orother expressions of the activityof the Medicine Buddha or ofother buddhas. As a result, theyabandon the wrongdoing andwrong thinking that reinforcetheir obscurations, graduallyweakening or getting rid of theirobscurations altogether, andgradually gathering the accumu-lations of merit and wisdomthrough actions performedunder the inspiration of thedharma and the inspiration ofbuddhas. This changes theirsituation. Either in that life, or

in a future life, they start to acquire the thingsthat they want and have lacked to that point. Soit is not the case that this twelfth aspirationdoes not work simply because clothes do not raindown upon you immediately. It works, but itworks in a less direct and more gradual way.

So in the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, theBuddha Shakyamuni set forth these twelveaspirations that were made by the MedicineBuddha upon his initial generation of bodhicitta.Then, continuing to address Manjushri, who hadrequested this explanation, the Buddha pointsout that as a result of the Medicine Buddha’s

The way thisaspiration takeseffect, andindeed the waythey all takeeffect, is thatthrough theaspiration andpower of theMedicine Buddhabeings come intocontact withdharma

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A man or womanwho possessesfaith . . . shouldsupplicate theMedicineBuddha, shouldmeditate uponthe MedicineBuddha, andshould recollectthe name of theMedicine Buddha

aspirations, his qualities—both the qualities ofhis form and being, and the qualities of hisrealm, which have arisen from his aspirations—are unlimited. The Buddha Shakyamuni alsomentions that in his realm the Medicine Buddhahas two main disciples in his retinue,bodhisattvas referred to by the names LuminousLike The Sun and Luminous Like The Moon. Andthen, continuing to address Manjushri, theBuddha says that a man or woman who pos-sesses faith, and therefore diligence and insight,should supplicate the Medicine Buddha, shouldmeditate upon the MedicineBuddha, and should recollect thename of the Medicine Buddha.

Next the Buddha talks aboutfurther benefits of supplicatingthe Medicine Buddha. TheBuddha mentions that there arepeople so avaricious they cannotstand to give anything away. Hepoints out that when peoplecannot stand to give anythingaway, it is fundamentally be-cause they do not realize thereare benefits in doing so. Thislack of realization is what keepsthem so obsessed with holdingonto their possessions. Suchpeople never think of generosity.If they are forced by circum-stances to give something away,it makes them extremely un-happy, even if they have to giveit away to members of their own family. Theproblem with this is that if you have that degreeof avariciousness, you are likely to have a some-what unpleasant rebirth. The Buddha says atthis point that if even such an extremely avari-cious person hears the name of the MedicineBuddha and makes some kind of connection withhim—which basically means knowing somethingabout the Medicine Buddha’s qualities—thenthis will inspire in them an understanding of thevalue of generosity. And as they come to under-stand the value of generosity, they will actuallybecome generous. Becoming generous, they will

not have an unpleasant rebirth. And throughoutall their future lives, this momentum of generos-ity will be present, so that not only will theyalways be generous, but they will actually be-come a source of encouragement to others to begenerous as well.

That is the first benefit explained at thispoint in the sutra of recollecting the name of andsupplicating the Medicine Buddha. As for thesecond benefit, the Buddha again addressesManjushri saying that, similarly, there are somepeople who simply cannot behave themselves.

They have no interest whatso-ever in morality. They thinkmorality is pointless. The reasonthat they have no interest inmorality is that they do notunderstand its value. They donot understand the benefit ofbehaving morally, and they donot understand the problemsthat behaving immorally leads to.At the same time they have nointerest in dharma or spiritualityof any kind, because they do notunderstand its value. Not know-ing its value, of course, they haveno interest in it. But when aperson in even such an extremestate of mind as that hears thename of the Medicine Buddha,they will come to have respectfor and gradual interest in bothmorality and the practice of

dharma. As a result they will behave appropri-ately and they will study and practice dharma,which will cause them not only to be happy inthis life, but to come to have better and betterand happier and happier lives, life after life. Themomentum of their conduct and of their studyand practice will be maintained, and will in-crease as time goes on. We see this developmentin our own experience. Many of us start outknowing nothing about dharma and thereforenot having much respect for or faith in it, simplybecause we do not know what it is. And we mayhave had so many questions and doubts about

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Whether you arenew to thepractice ofdharma orcompletelyimmersed in it, ineither casesomething hashappened.This somethinghappening isexactly what isreferred to in thisbenefit of thehearing of theMedicineBuddha’s name

the notions of morality that we had heard aboutthat we really did not respect that either. But atsome point something inspired us. We sawsomething, such as an image of the Buddha, orwe heard something, such as anexplanation of dharma or thename of a buddha. Somethingcaught our attention, and causedus to entertain the idea ofdharma practice, which causedus to change our way of life tosome extent and to practicedharma. Whether you are new tothe practice of dharma or arecompletely immersed in it, ineither case something has hap-pened. This something happen-ing is exactly what is referred toin this benefit of the hearing ofthe Medicine Buddha’s name. Asit says in the sutras, a being suchas ourselves comes in contactwith some form of the activityand blessing of a buddha—animage of a buddha, the name of abuddha, or teachings that comefrom a buddha—and being in-spired by that, eventually wedevelop some degree of faith andcompassion for other beings[which leads to the developmentof other good qualities].

Of course, our faith indharma and our devotion todharma are not unfluctuating. There are timeswhen we apparently have strong faith and devo-tion, and other times when doubts arise thatseem to obstruct or impede our faith and devo-tion. In either situation, what is necessary is thesame: to supplicate or pray with all availablefaith and devotion, based on a fundamentalconfidence in the buddhas and in their teach-ings. If you supplicate in that way, when youhave faith, your faith will increase. And if yousupplicate in that way when you have doubts,your faith will increase and your doubts willlessen. So whether or not you are afflicted by

hesitation or doubt about dharma, you have to dothe same thing. As the Buddha points out at thispoint in the sutra, supplication of buddhas, withall the faith and devotion one can muster, is

always important.The Buddha Shakyamuni

states four benefits of recollect-ing or hearing the name of theMedicine Buddha, the first twoof which we have now discussed:the alleviation of avarice and thealleviation of immorality. Iwould like to stop here for thismorning, because there were anumber of people who werelined up yesterday to ask ques-tions* and did not get a chanceto do so. If you would still like toask your questions now, thenplease go ahead.

Question: Could you explain thevisualization for the short orcondensed practice of the Medi-cine Buddha?

Rinpoche: There are two waysyou can do this. One way is tomake the supplication, payinghomage the Medicine Buddhaand thinking that he is actuallypresent in front of you and tovisualize him by recollecting hisappearance, his color, what he is

holding, what he is wearing, and so on. Anotherequally valid way is to think that you are payinghomage to him wherever he is, in which case youdo not specifically have to visualize him at all.

Question: Rinpoche, I have a problem thatkeeps recurring in my visualization. The deity—Dorje Chang or the Medicine Buddha—is infront and I can see one side of it very clearly indetail and color, and the other side is practically

*Editor’s note: The previous session’s questions are includedin Shenpen Ösel, Volume 4, Number 1.

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If you supplicatethe MedicineBuddha, you getJambala’sassistanceautomatically

in the dark. It is muddy, in the shade; the color isvery indistinct, and when I get tired I can hardlysee anything at all on that side.

Rinpoche: Is it always the same side?

Question: It is pretty much the same side. It ismy left side, the deity’s right side, that is clear;the other side is not. Also, if I’m sitting, facingstraight ahead, and visualizing the deity right infront of me, and if my eyes are partially closed, itfeels like the deity is off at an angle. I keepshifting my body to get it in, but it is alreadystraight, but it feels like I’m sitting diagonallyand looking over there.

Rinpoche: This is happening spontaneously toyou; it is not something you are causing, so if youjust leave it alone, if you justcontinue with the practice, it willtake care of itself.

Question: Rinpoche, threequestions. In the descent of thebody, speech, and mind blessings,do they enter respectively intothe three centers specifically, ordo they enter generally into thebody? Secondly, could you give usa little more detail about thesequence of the practice in terms of the smallMedicine Buddha in a certain part of your body,or in others’ bodies? And can that be done out-side the formal practice? And lastly, is there aconnection between the Medicine Buddha andJambhala? If there is, what is the connection?And if there is a difference, what is the differ-ence? Is there a benefit to relating more to oneor to the other?

Rinpoche: As to your first question, in the caseof sadhana practice and the recitation of mantra,when you have the blessings of the three gates ofthe deity dissolving into yourself, you can thinkthat they dissolve generally into your wholebody, throughout your whole body without speci-fying that they dissolve into your head and so on.

In the case of an abhisheka [empowerment], thenthey would dissolve into the specific parts ofyour body. As to your second question, you can dothe application practice of visualizing a smallMedicine Buddha in a specific part of your bodyor someone else’s body, either during the formalpractice of the sadhana, while reciting the man-tra, or in post-meditation at anytime you want.As to the third question, there is a connectionbetween the Medicine Buddha and Jambhala.The connection is basically that the twelveyaksha chieftains, who are guardians of theSutra of the Medicine Buddha and his teaching,are of the same class or clan as the Jambhalas.Therefore, in a sense Jambhala is also a guardianof the Medicine Buddha’s teaching. I had anindication of this when I was practicing theMedicine Buddha sadhana extensively at a

Taiwanese monastery called ShiLung Si. Monastics at the monas-tery and the other participantswere also engaged in practicingthe Medicine Buddha inten-sively. One of the reasons theywere doing so, they said, wasthat whenever they engage inthe Medicine Buddha practicecommunally, things go well atthe monastery, which they felthad something to do with the

activity of Jambhala coming along automaticallywith the supplication and practice of the Medi-cine Buddha. Therefore, I would say that if youhave to choose just one of them to supplicate, thechoice should be the Medicine Buddha, since itseems that if you supplicate the Medicine Bud-dha you get Jambhala’s assistance automatically.

Question: Rinpoche, this practice seems sowonderful and complete that I’m having a hardtime understanding why we haven’t heard muchabout it until recently. I realize I haven’t beenpracticing that long, but I’m wondering what theplace of Medicine Buddha practice is. Is it some-thing that was done a lot in monasteries? Whyhas it been so long in coming?

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Do not forgetthat vajrayana isvery new in theWest. Basicallywe could say thatvajrayana hasonly beenpresent in thiscountry for thirtyyears

Rinpoche: As for the place that the MedicineBuddha practice is given in the monastic tradi-tion in Tibet, it varies quite a bit.In some monasteries a great dealof it is done, and in other monas-teries very little of it is done. Andjust about everything in between.There is no hard and fast rule. Asfor why you have not heard muchabout it until now, do not forgetthat vajrayana is very new in theWest. Basically we could say thatvajrayana has only been present inthis country for thirty years. Wehave to look at how the Buddhataught. When the Buddha taughtdharma, he started with what wecall the common vehicle. And thenhe gradually, gradually deepenedhis presentation as people becameprepared for it by their practice. In the same way,teachers have had to introduce and teach thedharma gradually in this country, simply because,as your practice progresses, your confidence andfaith and understanding increase accordingly. Forexample, most of the teachers who began teach-ing in the West started by teaching shamathapractice, which was something that did not in-volve a great deal of faith, because you wereworking directly with what you could immedi-ately experience in your own mind. The validityof it was obvious from the start. If they had begunby saying this is the fundamental practice of ourtradition, you are to visualize the MedicineBuddha and believe me he exists, he has tremen-dous blessing, and if you pray to him, his blessingwill enter you, you probably would not havebelieved it.

Question: Is this practice directly connected toTibetan medical practice?

Rinpoche: Yes, it is connected. Medicine Buddhapractices are used to consecrate the medicineswhile they are being prepared. Also the lineage ofthe medicine comes from a rishi called RigpeYeshe—“awareness wisdom”—who was an ema-

nation of the Medicine Buddha. And when welook at the history of Tibetan medicine, we see

that the foremost physicians ofTibet, including the greatsiddha Yönten Gonpo andothers, subsequent to havingvisions of the Medicine Buddhaor receiving his blessing, wereable to discover new modes ofdiagnosis, new preparations ofmedicine, and would composemedicinal textbooks.

Question: Thank you,Rinpoche, for your transmis-sion and your teaching. I havebeen taught up to this pointthat there are basically threeways to assist beings across theocean of samsara to the shore of

enlightenment: like a king, who would leadeveryone to liberation; like a ferryman, whowould put everyone in the same boat with himand cross over together with everyone, so tospeak. Or like a shepherd, who would makesure everyone is there safely before he goeshimself. I have confusion about being a shep-herd on the one hand and healing and enlight-ening myself first before allowing everyone elseto go in before me. Could you speak to thatplease?

Rinpoche: There are, as you indicated in yourquestion, three ways that bodhicitta can begenerated, according to the sutra tradition.These three different generations of bodhicitta,all of which are acceptable, correspond to howselfish you are. When someone is utterly unself-ish, completely and absolutely altruistic, thenwhen they generate bodhicitta, the attitudethey will have is, “I will not attain buddhahood,I refuse to attain buddhahood, until each andevery other being already has attained it.” Thisis what is called shepherd-like bodhicitta, asyou mentioned in your question. And that isconsidered the best style of bodhicitta genera-tion from the point of view of the sutras; the

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The vajrayanaattitude is simplyrealistic. If you donot attainbuddhahood, youcannot liberateother beings

best, because it is completely unselfish. Thesecond best is the thought, “Well, I want toattain buddhahood, they all want to attainbuddhahood, I hope we all attain buddhahoodtogether. I will bring myself and all beings tobuddhahood at the same time.” This style, calledthe boatman-like or ferryer-like bodhicitta, is alittle more selfish than the first,but it is still very unselfish. Thethird style, which really doeshave a little bit of selfishness init, is the thought, “I really wantto attain buddhahood. I reallywant to attain full awakening.But after I have attained it, I willnot abandon beings. I will alsoliberate all beings. But first ofall, I definitely want to attainbuddhahood.” That is king-likebodhicitta, which has someselfishness in it, but because it contains theaspiration to liberate all beings, it is still authen-tic bodhicitta.

The style of generation of bodhicitta in thevajrayana sounds a lot like the king-likebodhicitta, but is not meant to be the king-likebodhicitta. The vajrayana attitude is simplyrealistic. If you do not attain buddhahood, youcannot liberate other beings. This attitude is notselfish; it is realistic. It could become selfish. Youcould turn it into king-like bodhicitta, or use itas an excuse for king-like bodhicitta. But it is notreally meant to be generated in that spirit. Thebasic reasoning of vajrayana bodhicitta is, “All Iwant is to liberate all beings. I obviously cannotdo that right now. If I become a bodhisattva, withbodhisattva realization, I can do something, but Icannot liberate them completely, as a buddhacan. So, although what I want is to liberatebeings and not myself, in order to do that effec-tively, I am going to have to attain buddhahoodmyself first.”

Question: Is there a Medicine Buddha practicethat involves the laying on of hands?

Rinpoche: The laying on of hands could in someway be combined with the practice of visualizinga small form of the Medicine Buddha at theafflicted part of the ill person’s body.

Question: Rinpoche, I haveanother question about choosingbetween practices. In consider-ing tonglen practice, and Medi-cine Buddha, how would wedecide when to use either one,given that you have both trans-missions?

Rinpoche: Do you mean for yourown development, or in order tobenefit another person?

Question: Tonglen that we use for helpingothers, and it helps us as well. Also, PemaChödron has talked about a way to use tonglento help yourself.

Rinpoche: Both are equally beneficial in everyway, in and of themselves. What you shouldemphasize in your practice is based upon whatyou have the greatest confidence in, what youhave the greatest faith in, and what you have thegreatest natural inclination for. So if you havegreater confidence in tonglen, it will be moreeffective. If you have greater confidence in theMedicine Buddha practice, that will be moreeffective. Historically, we can see in the variouslineages that some teachers have emphasizedtonglen as their primary practice; other teachershave emphasized the Medicine Buddha or simi-lar practices as their primary practice. It reallydepends upon your personal inclination.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 23

Medicine Buddha Sutra

Mudras, or Ritual Gestures,Help to Clarify the Visualization

Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching onthe Medicine Buddha Sutra.

Some of you have inquired about the mudras, ritual gestures, forthis practice, so I will begin this morning’s session by explainingthem. As you know, the main element in our practice is medita-

tion, including visualization, which is mental in nature. But we use ourother faculties, body and speech, to clarify and reinforce this mentalprocess. We use speech, for example, to clarify visualizations by recitingthe liturgical descriptions and so on, and we use the body to clarifyvisualizations through physical postures and gestures called mudras. Themain point, of course, is the visualization practice itself. So it is accept-

24 SHENPEN ÖSEL

The first place inthis practicewhere a specificmudra is used isin the invitationof the deity

able, especially under certain conditions, to dothe practice entirely mentally, without the addi-tional use of mudras.

The first place in this practice where a spe-cific mudra is used is in the invitation of thedeity—when you have already visualized yourselfas the Medicine Buddha and have visualized theMedicine Buddha in front of you, and are request-ing the actual wisdom deity, the Medicine Bud-dha, to approach and finally dissolve into you asthe self-visualization and into thefront visualization.*

This and other places in thepractice are highlighted by theuse of the Sanskrit language aspart of the liturgy. The culmina-tion of the invitation, the culmi-nation of each section of offerings,as well as the essence mantrarepeated during the main body ofthe practice are all said in San-skrit. This is standard for all vajrayana practices.The reason for this is that the Buddha taught inSanskrit, and it is taught that all buddhas of thefuture, as well, will teach in Sanskrit. So one usesSanskrit for the highlights of the practice inorder to cultivate a habit or form a connectionwith that language.

At the conclusion of the invitation in theliturgy you say the Sanskrit mantra, NAMOMAHA BEKENDZE SAPARIWARA BENZASAMAYADZA DZA. What you are saying is,“Medicine Buddha, together with your retinue,please recollect your vajra samaya and approach.”At that point you visualize that the MedicineBuddha and his retinue appear in the sky in frontof you before dissolving into you and into thefront visualization. The mudra that accompaniesthis mantra is called the mudra of assembly, andis made by crossing your arms at the wrists facinginward in front of your chest with the right one infront and the left one closer to your body, andsnapping your fingers.

The significance of crossing your arms at the

*Editor’s note: See Shenpen Ösel, Volume 4, Number 1, page29 and/or page 61.

wrists represents the cohesiveness of unim-paired samaya, which brings the wisdom deities.The snapping of your fingers signifies immedi-ately, right now. This actually has the specificmeaning of referring to a unit of time called aninstant. An instant in this case refers to thesmallest division of time measured in any givensystem. For example, in the general system usedin India at the time of the Buddha, the day wasdivided into thirty periods, which in turn were

divided into thirty periods, andso on, until you got down to aperiod of time so small it isdifficult even to describe, andthat was designated as aninstant or a moment. In theKalachakra Tantra, the day isdivided into hours, which aredivided into subsections, whichare divided further and furtherand further until one gets a

period of time so small that in our perception ithas no duration, and therefore is something liketimelessness or emptiness. In any case, an in-stant refers to the shortest possible unit of timeimaginable. The snapping of fingers in ritual usesignifies or designates an instant. In the case ofthe invitation here, what you are saying bysnapping your fingers is, “Please appear hereand dissolve into me right now, without anydelay whatsoever.” During the offerings, whatyou are saying when you snap your fingers at theconclusion of the offering mudras is, “Pleaseaccept these offerings right now. May they beavailable to you and may you enjoy them rightnow, without having to wait.” In the case of anordination ceremony, such as the refuge cer-emony, the snapping of fingers serves to desig-nate the exact instant or moment in time atwhich you receive the vow.

Next one recites VAJRA SAMAYA TIKTRALEN, which means, “Through the power of yourrecollection of your vajra samaya, please remainstable.” During the previous mantra, when youinvited the wisdom deities, you invited them anddissolved them into yourself. When you reciteVAJRA SAMAYA TIKTRA LEN you dissolve

SHENPEN ÖSEL 25

them into the front visualization and requestthem to remain there stable as a field of offeringfor the accumulation of merit. The gesture hereis that your hands are turned over so that theyare palm up in front of your chest. It is verymuch like an elaborate or polite way of request-ing someone to be seated.

Next, we come to the empowerment. The firstfive syllables of the empowerment mantra, OMHUM TRAM HRI AH ABHIKENTSA HUM,*refer to the five male buddhas of the five fami-lies. This is an empowerment both of yourselfand of the front visualization. OM representsVairochana, HUM Akshobhya, TRAMRatnasambhava, HRI Amitabha,and AH Amogasiddhi.

These five buddhas of thefive families are sometimestaught as buddhas in five differ-ent pure realms external to you.And sometimes they are taughtas the five aspects of your innateor intrinsic wisdom. In the caseof their being the five aspects ofintrinsic wisdom, they corre-spond to the five wisdoms of abuddha. So, for example,Vairochana, who is of the buddhafamily, is the wisdom of thedharmadhatu. The wisdom of thedharmadhatu is the recognition of the unbornnature or emptiness of all things, which alsopervades the other wisdoms, which is why it hasthat particular name.

These wisdoms are not really separatethings. They are enumerated separately in orderto show the qualities of wisdom. Generallyspeaking, one can say that the wisdom of abuddha includes two aspects, two types of wis-dom, which are also not really separate. One ofthem is the wisdom that knows how things are,and that refers to the recognition of absolutetruth or the nature of things. This aspect ofwisdom is equivalent to the wisdom of the

dharmadhatu.** It is that wisdom that knowshow things are, or knows the nature of all things.

The other wisdom of a buddha is the wisdomthat knows what there is. The wisdom thatknows how things are knows the nature of allthings, or absolute truth. But at the same time, abuddha also knows what there is, which is to say,the distinct features of those relative truths orrelative things, of which the absolute truth is thenature. This means that, while buddhas recog-nize the unborn nature of each and every thing,the emptiness of each and every thing, theynevertheless see the manifestation or appear-ance of that thing clearly, without that clear

seeing producing any kind ofreification or illusion of solidity.Therefore, the way in whichbuddhas see relative truth is likeseeing something in a mirror.The image is seen extremelyclearly and vividly, but there isnothing really there in the mir-ror [other than mere appear-ance], and that is also known. Sothe perception or wisdom of abuddha, the recognition of rela-tive truth, is called the mirror-like wisdom, which is seeingthat, while things are unborn,they nevertheless have their

distinct appearances. Mirror-like wisdom is theBuddha Akshobhya.

The third wisdom of a buddha is called thewisdom of equality. This refers to the fact that,from the point of view of the mirror itself, re-gardless of what appears in it, while it appearsdistinctly and while the mirror has the capacityto display any image, there are no concepts onthe part of the mirror about what it displays.There is no division of the display into self andother. There is no division of the display orimage into good or bad, or into any other concep-tual framework. This fact that buddhas in theirwisdom, which recognizes this display, are free

These wisdomsare not reallyseparate things.They areenumeratedseparately inorder to showthe qualities ofwisdom

*Editor’s note: See Shenpen Ösel, Volume 4, Number 1, page34 and page 62.

**Editor’s note: Sometimes translated as the wisdom of all-encompassing space or the wisdom of all-pervasive space.

26 SHENPEN ÖSEL

The activity of abuddha neverfails toaccomplishits aim in atimely way

of all of these deluded concepts, is the wisdom ofequality, which is the Buddha Ratnasambhava.

The fourth buddha is Amitabha, who embod-ies the wisdom of discrimination. A buddha—we,when we have attained buddhahood, or anyother buddha—possesses thethree wisdoms, which have beenexplained: the dharmadhatuwisdom, the mirror-like wisdom,and the wisdom of equality. Thesebeing the characteristics of thewisdom of a buddha, it is clearthat they see or are aware with-out any kind of conceptualization.But because they are free ofconceptualization, you mightassume mistakenly that they are unable todistinguish between the characteristics ofthings. In other words, because buddhas are freeof the concepts of good and bad, does that meanthat they are unable to distinguish good frombad in relative truth? Because they are free ofthe concepts of red and white, does that meanthat they cannot distinguish a red thing from awhite thing? In fact, it does not. Buddhas areperfectly able to distinguish the distinct charac-teristics of relative things or relative phenom-ena. That wisdom is called the wisdom of dis-crimination, which is an aspect of the wisdomthat knows what there is—from the standpointof distinguishing the aspects of wisdom accord-ing to that which knows how things are and thatwhich knows what there is. This corresponds tothe Buddha Amitabha.

The fifth wisdom is the wisdom of accom-plishment, which is embodied by the BuddhaAmogasiddhi. This means that, because of thewisdom of a buddha—because a buddha pos-sesses, for example, the wisdom of equality andthe wisdom of discrimination—they are ablespontaneously to accomplish their activity with-out conceptualization or effort. Such activity isunceasing, and uninterrupted. The activity of abuddha never fails to accomplish its aim in atimely way. This is what is meant by the wisdomof accomplishment. So the empowerment thatyou receive at this point in the practice, while

repeating the syllables OM HUM TRAM HRIAH, internally is the empowerment of the fivewisdoms and externally is the empowerment ofthe five male buddhas.

There is a mudra that goes with each of thesesyllables. The mudra ofVairochana, which accompaniesthe saying of OM, is to claspyour hands, intertwining thefingers tightly so that the twohands make a fist, and thenextending the two middle fin-gers joined together. The mudraof Akshobhya, which accompa-nies the saying HUM, is to claspyour hands making a fist with

the two forefingers extended. The mudra ofRatnasambhava, which accompanies the syllableTRAM, is to clasp your hands making a fist withthe two ring fingers extended and joined. Themudra of Amitabha, which accompanies thesyllable HRI, is to clasp your hands making a fistwith the two thumbs extended and joined. Andfinally, the mudra of Amogasiddhi, which accom-panies the syllable AH, is to clasp your handsmaking a fist with the two little fingers ex-tended and joined.

These mudras are connected with the way inwhich the five buddhas are perceived—and thisis common to all tantras—as being present inthe external world. The Buddha Vairochana ofthe buddha family is said to inhabit a realm inthe center, called “densely arrayed.” The Bud-dha Akshobhya of the vajra family is said toinhabit a realm in the east, called “manifestlyjoyous.” The Buddha Ratnasambhava of theratna or jewel family is said to inhabit a realm inthe south, called “glorious.” The BuddhaAmitabha of the padma or lotus family is said toinhabit a realm in the west, called “blissful” orsukhavati. And the Buddha Amogasiddhi of thekarma or action family is said to inhabit a realmin the north, called “perfect” or “perfectly com-plete activity.” The central buddha, Vairochana,is seen as pervasive, pervading all of the otherbuddhas and pervading all of their activity. Eachof the other four buddhas is also connected with

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a specific style of activity, a specific way ofbenefiting beings. Akshobhya embodies pacifica-tion. Ratnasambhava embodies enrichment andexpansion. Amitabha embodies magnetizing. AndAmogasiddhi embodies forceful or direct activity.

When we talk of these five realms, we saythat they are in the east, the south, the west, thenorth, and the middle, but obviously these direc-tions are mere designations.They have no absolute reality orlocation. We cannot really saywhat east is, because a place thatis east of one place is going to bewest of another. It will be southof one and north of one. Is thatplace really east, or is it west?Maybe it is south, maybe it isnorth. You cannot say. So, the directions, ofcourse, are empty. They are valid in relativetruth. In a specific context that we have desig-nated, we can meaningfully say that some placeis east or west of another place. So they are validin relative truth, but they are only valid relativeto one another, and therefore have no absolutevalidity and are empty. So, we cannot really saywhere an eastern realm would be, except rela-tive to our own body. Therefore, in the Buddhisttradition, we call wherever you are facing east.

So for that reason—and now these mudrasare going to become a little more complicated—because east is identified as wherever you arefacing, it is understood in invitation liturgiesthat a buddha invited from the east—as, forexample, Akshobhya—will approach you fromthe front. A buddha invited from the south, likeRatnasambhava, will approach you from thedirection of your right ear. A buddha invitedfrom the west, like Amitabha, will approachbehind you towards the back of your head. And abuddha invited from the north, likeAmogasiddhi, will approach you from your left.So therefore, when you receive the empower-ment from these five buddhas and then visualizethat they dissolve into you, they dissolve intoyou from those directions. Therefore, themudras that were previously demonstrated aretouched to five points on your head. Because

Vairochana, represented by the middle finger, isin the middle, you touch your clasped hands,making a fist with the middle finger extended, tothe very center of the top of your head. BecauseAkshobhya, represented by the forefingers, isconnected with the front, then you touch theclasped hands with the forefingers extended, toyour forehead. Because Ratnasambhava, repre-

sented by the extended ringfingers, comes from the south,you touch the clasped handswith extended ring fingers,above your right ear. BecauseAmitabha, represented by theextended thumbs, approachesfrom the west, you touch your

clasped hands with the thumbs extended to theback of your head or as close as you can get.Finally, because Amogasiddhi, represented bythe extended little fingers, approaches from thenorth, you touch the clasped hands with theextended little fingers, to the left side of yourhead above your left ear. The making and touch-ing of these mudras is all coordinated with therecitation of the syllables.

When you are actually performing thesemudras, the first three are obvious. But whenyou get to HRI, representing Amitabha, thethumbs at the back of your head, you do not goover the head. You go around from the right asfar as you can get. Then you have AH on the left.

The performance of these five mudras whilereciting OM HUM TRAM HRIH AH accompaniesthe receiving of empowerment from these fivebuddhas, who then dissolve into you. When yousay the rest of the mantra, ABHIKENTSA HUM,in order to acknowledge that the five buddhashave dissolved into you, you extend your handspalm upward and then turn [or rotate] them intowards yourself until they are more or lesspalm downward, to represent the dissolution ofthe Buddhas into yourself.

Those are the mudras for the empowerment.Next we come to the mudras for the offerings.*

In the Buddhisttradition we callwherever you arefacing east

*Editor’s note: See Shenpen Ösel, Volume 4, Number 1, page34 and page 62.

28 SHENPEN ÖSEL

The first offering mudra here accompanies themantra word ARGHAM. ARGHAM refers to theoffering of drinking water. So the mudra ismaking the shape with your hands of a vessel orcontainer that could contain drinking water, andit is done in the way that Rinpoche just demon-strated [by joining the fingers at their tips andthe fingers and palms along the outside edge ofthe little fingers and the inner edge of the palmsas they face upward, with the thumbs resting onthe edge of the palms and forefingers].

The second offering, PADYAM, representswater for washing the feet. The custom duringthe time of the Buddha was that water would bepoured from a conch shell over your feet. So themudra done at this point is to grasp the end ofyour forefingers with the last joint of yourthumbs and extend the other fingers forwardpalms upward, which is the mudra of the conch,as Rinpoche demonstrated.

The third offering, PUPE, is the offering offlowers. The mudra depicts casting flower petalswith your hands [the nails of the four fingers ofboth hands, held palms upward in a light fistrestrained by the thumbs, suddenly released bythe restraining thumbs and extended forward].

DHUPE is the offering of incense, and there-fore the gesture or mudra with the hands repre-sents containers of finely scented incense pow-der [both hands held in fists, fingers arranged ontop of each other grasping the thumb, whichpoints downward].

The next offering, ALOKE, represents lampsor lights. The position of the hands with thethumbs extended upward represents a lamp andits burning wick [same mudra as for incense,except that the thumbs, now pointing upward,are free of the fist-clenched fingers].

The next offering, GENDHE, represents therubbing of perfumed water onto the body, and sothe gesture with the hands is like the gesture ofanointing or rubbing perfumed water ontosomeone’s body [both hands held, palms facingforward, perpendicular to the ground, fingerspointing upward, moving slightly].

The next offering, NAIVEDYE or NEWIDYE,is food, which is represented by the NAIVEDYE

torma, which is found in the appropriate bowl onthe shrine. The mudra here depicts that, withthe hands held palms up and the ring fingersextended upward to depict that torma which ison the shrine.

SHAPDA, which means “sound” the first timeit appears in this offering, is the offering ofmusic. The gesture here is like the way that theclay drum would be beaten with the fingers[thumbs of each hand grasping the ring and littlefingers, the middle finger and the pointing fingerextended straight forward with the pointingfinger on top, moving slightly up and down witha beating motion].

Following those eight offering are the remain-ing five offerings of this section, which as

you will remember, are offerings of the objects ofthe five senses. The first of these, RUPA, meansform, and here refers to beautiful form. Themudra that represents it is the mudra of themirror, with your right hand extended palmoutward, and your left hand in a fist with thethumb extended upward and touching the palmof the right hand at the base as though it werethe handle of a mirror. This represents the factthat forms are perceived like images or reflec-tions in a mirror.

The second mudra is SHAPDA, which hererefers to all sounds. The mudra, however, isalways something representing a musical instru-ment. Some people at this second SHAPDA dothe lute mudra, or guitar mudra, however, myown tradition is simply to repeat the previousdrumming mudra.

GENDHE, which represents beautiful scents,gets the same mudra as it did before when itspecifically represented perfume.

And RASA, which is the offering of tastes,gets the same mudra as ARGHAM, except in thiscase it is a container of food rather than a con-tainer of water.

And SAPARSHE, which represents tactilesensations, gets the mudra of holding aloft finefabric, which is done by revolving the hands untilthe palms are facing outward and thumb andring finger are touching.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 29

When you say TRATITSA, which meansindividually, then you turn your hands so thatthe palms are up and snap your fingers.

During the next offering sections—offeringthe eight auspicious substances, the eight auspi-cious signs, and the seven articles of royalty—you continue to hold your hands joined in angeli,the mudra of supplication or prayer, as you doduring all offerings sections. There is no specificmudra for these and no snapping of the fingers.

When we offer the mandala with the mantra,OM RATNA MANDALA HUM, there is the usualmandala mudra.

Translator: I guess there are a lot of peoplehere who do not know this mudra. Put yourhands more or less palm up. Interweave yourfingers, with both sets of fingers visible abovethe palms, not with the fingers behind the backsof the hands. Then with your thumbs grab theends of the little fingers of the opposite hands.And then with your forefingers, hook around thetop joint of the middle fingers of the oppositehands. Then un-interweave your ring fingers sothat they stick straight up back to back. That isthe simplest way I know to describe it. Andthere’s no finger snap.

Rinpoche: The remaining three sections ofoffering—ablution, drying, and dressing—haveno mudras otherthan the palmsbeing joined [inangeli, the mudraof supplication orprayer].

However, theway in which yourpalms are joinedin these practicesis quite specific. The hands are not pressedagainst one another so that the palms are flatagainst each other. There is space left betweenyour palms, so that the shape of your hands islike a budding flower. It is therefore called thelotus mudra, and represents a lotus flower thatis about to open. The lotus is a symbol of dharma

in general. It is born in mud or in a swamp, butwhen the flower emerges, it is stainless andbeautiful. So the lotus—and by extension themudra—represents the practice of dharma, andtherefore, in order to remind yourself of that,your palms are joined in these practices in thatway.

If you have questions, feel free to ask them.

Question: Rinpoche, you have said that in thefuture the dharma would be taught in Sanskritby other buddhas. Could you explain why thatwould be? Is there something about the Sanskritlanguage that connects us more closely with theenlightened state? Or will we in the future, aswe practice dharma, as we come closer, hope-fully, to the enlightened state, be able to under-stand and make these sounds more intelligibly?Or is this not a definitive teaching and thus to beinterpreted from the standpoint of the time ofthe Buddha when this teaching was given?

Rinpoche: First of all, as to whether or not thestatement that all buddhas of the future willteach in Sanskrit is a definitive statement or astatement with a hidden intention—which is tosay, one which does not mean what it literallysays, but means something that is indicated bywhat it literally says—is something I cannotresolve. I cannot say to you, “It is a definitive

statement to betaken literally,” or,“It is a symbolicstatement with ahidden meaning.” Icannot resolve thisquestion becausethe source of thisidea is theBadhrakalpa

Sutra, the Sutra of the Fortunate Eon, and inthat sutra the Buddha gives the names of theparents, the style of teaching, the length ofteaching, the number and qualities of the retinueattending the teachings, and so on, for each ofthe one thousand buddhas of this particularkalpa. This includes the three buddhas who

The mandala mudraThe mandala mudraThe mandala mudraThe mandala mudraThe mandala mudra

30 SHENPEN ÖSEL

By using Sanskritin liturgicalpractice, we feelthat we bringthe Buddha’sblessing, theblessing of theBuddha’s speech,into our practice

preceded him, and the others who will succeedhim. It is in this sutra that he states, for ex-ample, that Maitreya will be the fifth buddha ofthis kalpa and the Lion’s Roar will be the sixthbuddha. He discusses all of the thousandbuddhas up to the very last one, called Rochana.In the same place where the Buddha predictstheir coming, he says that theywill all teach in Sanskrit. Itwould be very difficult to try toascertain exactly what hisintention was in saying that.

The effect of using Sanskritin liturgical practices is basi-cally to establish the blessing [ofthe original words of the Bud-dha] in the most importantplaces in the sadhana—in themantras, which are repeated,*and in the areas of the practicethat are highlighted, such as theculmination of the invitation,the culmination individually ofthe various offerings, and so on.For this reason, then, even when these practiceswere undertaken outside of the Sanskrit-speak-ing world, these sections were left in the originallanguage and remain untranslated. Whether ornot as an implication of this we can considerSanskrit a fundamentally superior languagedepends not so much on the idea of its beingsuperior as its being sacred because we believethe Buddha taught in Sanskrit. There are someBuddhist traditions that maintain the view thatthe Buddha’s teachings were originally given inPali. But the vajrayana tradition maintains thathis original teachings for the most part weregiven in Sanskrit. Because of that, by usingSanskrit in liturgical practice, we feel that webring the Buddha’s blessing, the blessing of theBuddha’s speech, into our practice.

Question: So, does this prediction then still fall

under the teaching of impermanence?

Rinpoche: What do you mean?

Question: What I mean is, is this set in stone ordoes this also fall under the heading, as we’realways taught, that nothing is permanent?

Rinpoche: The impermanenceaspect of this is a fluctuation inthe use of Sanskrit in the world.In the Buddha’s time, people inthe society in which the Buddhawas living actually spoke San-skrit. Now nobody speaks San-skrit; it is considered a deadlanguage. But according to thesutra, it will come back, and inthat way Sanskrit will return touse, and then become a deadlanguage, and then return to useagain, and then become a deadlanguage again, and so on. That isan instance of impermanence.

Question: Rinpoche, I’d like to share the tapesof these teachings with KTC sangha, and I’d liketo know if that is an appropriate thing to do, andalso whether it would be appropriate to practicethe Medicine Buddha in a group including indi-viduals who have not received the empower-ment. And would it be appropriate to do theshort Mahakala practice in the chant book aloneat home?

Rinpoche: As for your first question, anyone canpractice the Medicine Buddha, whether theyhave the empowerment or not. As far as institut-ing its practice in a group, if it were part of aKTC activity, you would need first to receivepermission from the appropriate teachers.Secondly, if you have faith in the short Mahakalapractice, it is certainly okay to do it at home.

Question: Rinpoche, this question is not directlyrelated to the topic at hand, but since it involvesissues of faith and devotion, I thought it might be

*Editor’s note: The repetition of the main mantra or man-tras of a sadhana while performing various visualizationsusually comprises the main body of any sadhana practice.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 31

Anyone canpractice theMedicineBuddha, whetherthey have theempowermentor not

relevant and beneficial. This has to do with thenature and appearance of the GyalwangKarmapas in general. As you know I have beenpraying to Karmapa as part of my practice, andit is said in the Kagyu tradition that Karmapa isa tenth-level bodhisattva. I’ve definitely come tobelieve that, even though I’ve never had anydirect contact with Karmapa. But once, when Iwas having difficulty in my practice, I went toread the songs in the Kagyu Gurtso of the EighthGyalwang Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje. And thereMikyo Dorje refers to himself as an ordinaryindividual. My small mind cannot encompasshow such a high-level bodhisattva can think ofhimself as an ordinary individual. Rinpoche,would you please dispel my confusion?

Translator: Can I abbreviatethat a little bit?

Question: Oh, please.

Rinpoche: This type of state-ment, like the one you men-tioned by Gyalwang Mikyo Dorjein the Kagyu Gurtso, is typical ofgreat teachers, because theirprimary responsibility is toserve as a good example for theirstudents, which means that they have to displaya manner that is free of arrogance. So, althoughit is not literally true that they are ordinarybeings, they will nevertheless say things like, “Iam a completely ordinary person, full of kleshas,with no qualities whatsoever.” By saying that,they display the importance of being free ofarrogance. You should not take such statementsliterally.

Question: Rinpoche, is it still appropriate andbeneficial to practice the Medicine Buddhasadhana if I have not practiced any ngöndro?

Rinpoche: It makes no difference.

Question: I attend births and help womenduring their labor, and I was wondering if there

is something that I could do after the baby hasarrived to honor the new being and the mother.

Rinpoche: Something will come in thisafternoon’s teaching on the Medicine Buddhasutra that will answer that question.

Question: May I ask another question? I waswondering if you could talk about what would bea proper mode of conduct if you found yourselfbeing attacked by a sexual predator. If you wereable to defend yourself, what would be the rightthing to do?

Translator: You mean, how?

Question: Yes.

Translator: What to do to them?

Question: Would it be okay tohurt them?

Translator: How to hurt them orhow not to hurt them?

Question: What would be theright thing to do?

Translator: How to get out of it?

Rinpoche: I have to think about that one.

Question: Rinpoche, when I am here, it becomesvery clear to me that the best thing to do wouldbe to go home and organize my life so that I ampracticing many hours per day. What happenswhen I actually go back home is that the connec-tion to the teachings seems more distant, andwhat seems more immediate and real are theneeds around me. I begin to have the thoughtthat it is actually selfish or self-absorbed topractice a lot, and that it is more beneficial tohelp other people. I think this is a fault. Couldyou comment on that?

Rinpoche: Well actually both are correct. Nei-

32 SHENPEN ÖSEL

To wish topractice a greatdeal is correct,and to beattentive to theneeds of thosearound you, andto put them first,is also correct

ther is a fault. To wish to practice a great deal iscorrect, and to be attentive to the needs of thosearound you, and to put them first, is also correct.So you have to gauge the exact balance accordingto your particular situation, using your owninsight. The only rule of thumb is not to be tooextreme in either way. Not to be so extreme inthe amount of practice that you pay no attentionto those around you and their needs, or so ex-treme in limiting your practice for their benefitthat you do not practice very much at all.

Question: Rinpoche, I have someconfusion about the visualization.I think I understood you to saythat the Medicine Buddha visual-ization is a mirror of my owninnate Medicine Buddha. If he isa mirror, why do you say that heis bigger than mine? Doesn’t thatcreate some confusion?

Translator: Do you mean thatwhere your right hand is, is goingto be his left hand? Do you meanit literally, or do you mean justthat he is the same size?

Question: He portrayed the front visualizationas larger than the one that I am visualizing asmyself. And I thought that somewhere it wasalso being said that we are the same. So why amI portraying the front one as larger? That wouldcreate some insecurity in me that I am neverquite good enough.

Translator: Larger, do you mean that his body is

bigger? You are not just talking about the retinue?

Question: No. It kind of makes me feel like hehas got more power than I do.

Translator: He never said that the front visual-ization was larger.

Question: It is in the text, maybe.

Translator: Oh, that is where it is.

Rinpoche: Well, the author ofthe text must have had a specificreason for saying it at that time.

Question: I imagined it was togive me more confidence, but atsome point I guess I could visu-alize him to be the same size asthe self-visualization.

Rinpoche: You can visualizethem as the same size.

Question: Rinpoche, is samayaprimarily fulfilled by faith anddevotion, overriding possibly

completing a practice? Say, for instance, you aredoing some practices and then you encounter apractice like this one and decide you want to dothis one. Is it primarily the faith and devotion asopposed to the actual steps of completing anyparticular practice?

Rinpoche: Yes, basically samaya is maintainedby your faith and devotion.

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Medicine Buddha Sutra

The Benefits of Hearing and Recollectingthe Medicine Buddha’s Name

Continuing the VeryVenerable KhenchenThrangu Rinpoche’steaching on theMedicine BuddhaSutra.

The Sutra ofthe MedicineBuddha first

explains the twelveaspirations of theMedicine Buddha,after which the Buddha begins to talk about thebenefits of recollecting or even hearing theMedicine Buddha’s name. The first is that, ifeven those who are most avaricious hear thename of the MedicineBuddha, they will be freed from avarice and fromits results. The second is that, if those whobehave immorally hear the name of the MedicineBuddha, they will come to behave morally and

therefore will befreed from thekarmic result ofimmorality. Thethird benefit is forthose who are sointensely jealousand competitivethat they alwayspraise themselvesand try to maximizein appearance theirown qualities and

prestige and always deride others. Such personsdevote themselves to defeating and deridingothers, and to making others look bad. If theycontinue in this course of action, they will bereborn in one of the three lower states—theanimal realm, the preta realm, or the hellrealm—and will experience a great deal ofsuffering. But if they hear the name of the Medi-cine Buddha, through the blessing and inspira-

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tion of that hearing, they will become much lesscompetitive, will cease deriding others, and willthereby be freed from the karmic results of suchactions.

What will happen as a result of such persons’hearing the Medicine Buddha’s name is thattheir attitude will change. They will becomemore insightful, and through the development ofthat insight, they will become more skillful andappropriate in their choices of actions. At thesame time, their minds will start to calm downand become tranquil. They will eventually be-come diligent in virtue and will find themselvessurrounded by virtuous friends—friends thathave virtuous intentions and who also behaveappropriately. Without the inter-vening blessing of the MedicineBuddha attendant upon hearinghis name, given their previouscourse of action, they would bemost unlikely to be surrounded byvirtuous friends. The virtuousfriends by whom they find them-selves surrounded—includingteachers, but also just friends ingeneral—are one of the condi-tions that influence them andcause them to change their ways.When someone is intensely andruthlessly competitive and jeal-ous, they harm others and accu-mulate a great deal of negativekarma. This intense competitive-ness and its attendant lifestyle isreferred to as the lasso or nooseof mara [Tibetan: shakpa]. Thisnoose is cut when the personhears the name of the MedicineBuddha. Up to that point, thelimitation in their outlook, whichreinforces their active and ag-gressive competitiveness, is an obscuration orignorance that is like being stuck inside aneggshell. Unable to break out of the eggshell,they are unable to grow. Their innate capacityfor insight and wisdom is prevented from devel-oping. When they hear the name of the Medicine

Buddha, they break out of the eggshell, and thiscauses their innate capacity for insight andwisdom to develop. This insight dries up theirkleshas, especially the klesha of jealousy, whichis like a wild river. This river gradually dries up.Of course, this does not happen automatically orwithout effort. Through the blessing of hearingthe name of the Medicine Buddha, such peopleencounter teachers and other people who influ-ence them in a virtuous direction, while at thesame time their own insight is developing. As aresult, they engage actively in methods that willeradicate or dry up the kleshas.

That is the short term benefit. In the longterm, the person who hears the name of the

Medicine Buddha will be freedfrom the sufferings of birth,aging, and death. Birth, ofcourse, is the beginning ofaging, which always culminatesin death, so birth and death areall considered one process.While the sufferings of birth,aging, and death are normalevents in our lives, throughhearing the name of the Medi-cine Buddha, one is freed even-tually or ultimately from thesuffering associated with them.That is the third benefit.

The fourth benefit of hearingthe name of the Medicine Bud-dha is that it pacifies the dispu-tatious. There are some peoplewho just like to fight. Theydispute at any opportunity.They like to cause discord. Theylike to slander and harm otherpeople any way they can. Theyharm people physically, verbally,and sometimes by cursing them

magically. They are malevolent and can actuallyharm people. In this case, if either the malevo-lent person or the victim of that person’s malevo-lence hears the name of the Medicine Buddha,the whole situation will calm down. If the ma-levolent person, the curser, hears the name of

While thesufferings ofbirth, aging, anddeath are normalevents in ourlives, throughhearing thename of theMedicineBuddha, one isfreed eventuallyor ultimately fromthe sufferingassociated withthem

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Whoevervenerates theMedicine Buddhashould constructor acquire animage of theMedicine Buddha

the Medicine Buddha, then their malevolencewill decrease. They will lose their wish to goaround fighting with people and cursing them. Ifthe victim of their malevolence hears the nameof the Medicine Buddha, the malevolent personwill be unable to harm them. And if they haveenlisted local [demonic] spirits in the service oftheir malevolent aims and ambitions, the spiritswill be powerless to harm the intended object oftheir curse. This does not mean that through thepower of the Medicine Buddha these spirits willbe violently repelled. It means that the spiritswill become benevolent, and eventually theperson who hears the name of the MedicineBuddha and is the proposed object of the malevo-lence and the person acting malevolently—themagician or whatever—will also become benevo-lent.

To this point we have ex-plained the alleviation of thedefects, the negative conduct,and the negative results of ava-rice, immorality, jealousy, andmalevolence. Next, the sutrastates the direct benefits of thename itself, the qualities andvarious other benefits that thehearing and recollection of thename will bring. It says that anyman or woman with faith whorecollects the name of the Medi-cine Buddha, engages in the moral conduct of theeightfold renewal and purification commitmentsor vows for a month or a week or a few days—orotherwise behaves themselves properly withbody and speech, and aspires to rebirth in therealm of Sukavhati, the realm of Amitabha, willbe reborn there miraculously immediately aftertheir death. Those who do not wish to be rebornin Sukavhati will be reborn in the realms of thegods and enjoy the splendors and enjoyments ofthose realms. And—although normally when oneis born in a god realm, after the merit that hasproduced that rebirth is exhausted, one is thenreborn in a more unpleasant form of samsara—[those who recollect the name of the MedicineBuddha and conduct themselves appropriately]

will not suffer a lower rebirth. Their lifetimeswill continue to be pleasant. If they wish inparticular to be reborn human again, they will bereborn in the most fortunate and pleasant cir-cumstances within the human realm. They willbe healthy, courageous, intelligent, and benevo-lent, and because of their characteristics, theywill continue to behave in a positive way andinspire others to do so as well.

To this point in the sutra the Buddha hasstated five benefits of the recollection of thename—the alleviation of four defects and thedirect benefits. Next, Manjushri addresses theBuddha and the assembly who are listening tothe teaching and describes the importance of thesutra. He says that it is important to recollectthis sutra, to read the sutra, to write the sutra,to keep a copy of the sutra around you, to vener-

ate the sutra by offering flowersand incense and other offeringsto it, and to proclaim the mean-ing of the sutra to others. Ifthese things are done, he says,many benefits will accrue. Theentire region in which theseactivities are occurring will beblessed and will be protected bythe four great kings and otherdeities who are present in themandala.

In response to whatManjushri has said, the Buddha adds that who-ever venerates the Medicine Buddha shouldconstruct or acquire an image of the MedicineBuddha—a statue, a painting, or a depiction ofsome type—or should visualize the MedicineBuddha. Venerating that for a week or for what-ever period, they should intensely supplicate theMedicine Buddha, eating pure food—whichmeans food that is not gained through harmingothers—washing frequently, wearing cleanclothes, and so on, and in that way venerate thesutra and the image by making physical offeringsto them, including all sorts of things such asparasols and victory banners and so on.

For this veneration to be effective, the onewho is venerating has to have a good intention. A

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Some peoplewish forlongevity, andthey canaccomplishlongevity throughengaging inthese activities

good intention here is defined as having fourcharacteristics. The first is that the veneratingmind be stainless. Stainless here means free ofthe stain of selfishness or competitiveness. Yourintention in doing the practice must be notmerely to benefit yourself, but to benefit allbeings, and your intention must be free of com-petitiveness. The second quality of a good inten-tion is that it be unsullied. Unsullied here meansthat you have unsullied faith, faith withoutreservation, faith that is without a feeling ofantipathy towards the object of the faith, faiththat is without such crippling doubt that it doesnot function.

The third characteristic of agood intention is the absence ofmalevolence. Malevolence cantake many different forms. Thereis manifest anger, anger that isevident and will be acted onright away. There is resentment.Resentment is still malevolence,but it is something that you carryunder the surface and that waitsfor a future time to emerge.There is spitefulness, whichmakes you want to say or dosomething nasty. And then thereis wanting to harm people in a more organizedway than merely being spiteful. The absence ofall of these forms of malevolence is an attitudethat sincerely wishes that others be happy andthat they be free from suffering, which meansthat if you see a being that is happy, you delightin that and want that being to be even morehappy and to be free from whatever sufferingthey are still afflicted by. If you see a being thatis suffering, you want that being to be free fromall the suffering that they are undergoing and tobe completely happy.

The fourth characteristic of a good intentionis impartiality, an attitude that directs benevo-lence equally to all beings without exception.There is no preference for some beings, and lessconcern for others. The attitude is that all beingsare more or less fellow travelers on the sameroad.

With this kind of good intention, if the practi-tioner physically circumambulates the image ofthe Medicine Buddha, mentally recollects thetwelve aspirations of the Medicine Buddha, andeither recites the sutra of the Medicine Buddhaor at least recollects the benefits of the name ofthe Medicine Buddha as stated in the sutra, thenthey will accomplish their wishes.

The reason that it says that they will accom-plish their wishes is that people have differentwishes. Some people wish for longevity, and theycan accomplish longevity through engaging inthese activities—through supplicating the Medi-cine Buddha, through circumambulating the

image, through having faith inand devotion for the MedicineBuddha, and so on. Some peopledo not care much how long theylive; they are more interested inwealth, and so such a personwould wish to achieve wealthand could do so by this method.Some people are not concernedabout wealth either, but want tohave children. And they can havechildren through this method,although obviously not throughthis method exclusively.* Some

people wish for success in the secular world, inbusiness and so on, and they can achieve suchsuccess through this method. The significance ofthis is that you can achieve what you wishthrough doing the same secular or businessthings, but with much less effort.

In the same way, if someone is afflicted withnightmares or bad dreams, experiences inauspi-cious signs, sees things that they think areunlucky, or experiences things that disturb themand produce anxiety, if they make offerings tothe Medicine Buddha, pray to the MedicineBuddha, recollect the sutra and the MedicineBuddha’s twelve aspirations, and so forth, thenthe inauspicious signs and bad dreams and so onwill gradually disappear.

*Editor’s note: i.e. they can remove obstacles to havingchildren.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 37

And not only will inauspicious signs disap-pear, but if you are in a situation where you areendangered by such things as fire, water, poison,or weapons, by falling off a cliff, or falling victimto any other sort of accident, or by elephants,lions, tigers, bears, poisonous snakes, scorpions,or centipedes—if you are endangered by any ofthose things—then if you supplicate the Medi-cine Buddha, those dangers will disappear.

And also supplication to the Medicine Bud-dha will protect you from the dangers of war—being caught in the middle of a war—of robbery,and of banditry.

If someone who has faith inthe buddhadharma, and espe-cially in the Medicine Buddha,whether man or woman, takessome form of ordination—such asthe refuge vow, the vow of anupasaka or upasika [the vows of alay disciple], the bodhisattva vow,or monastic ordination—throughthe blessing of the MedicineBuddha they will be able in mostcases to maintain them. But ifsuch a person does not maintainthem, then they will becomedepressed. They will think, “Iundertook such and such a com-mitment and I was unable tokeep it. I am obviously someone who cannotaccomplish anything I set out to do. Things arenot going very well, terrible things are going tohappen to me in this life, and after I die I amdefinitely going to be reborn in the lowerrealms.” If this happens to you, then if yousupplicate the Medicine Buddha, make offeringsto the Medicine Buddha, and have devotion tothe Medicine Buddha, you will be freed from thedanger of those disasters and inferior rebirths.

The next thing mentioned in the sutra isactually the answer to a question that was askedearlier. It says in the sutra, when a women isgiving birth to a child, if she expects great diffi-culty—great agony and suffering in doing so—ifshe supplicates the Medicine Buddha withdevotion, then the birth will occur free from

extreme difficulty. The child will be born easily,without harm to the mother or the child, and thechild will be healthy, intelligent, and will bestrong from birth.

At this point the Buddha has stated a numberof extraordinary benefits of supplicating andmaking offerings to the Medicine Buddha. Nextthe Buddha addresses not Manjushri, butAnanda. He addresses Ananda because Ananda isnot at this point a great bodhisattva. He is ashravaka, a practitioner of the hinayana path.The Buddha has taught the sutra and explainedits benefits. He has talked about the extraordi-

nary qualities of the MedicineBuddha, his twelve aspirationsand their effects, the effects ofthe recollection of the name ofthe Medicine Buddha, and so on.So addressing Ananda, theBuddha says, “Ananda, do youbelieve what I have said? Do youhave faith in this, or do you havedoubt about it?”

In response to the Buddha’squestion, Ananda says, “I haveno doubt of the truth of what youhave said. I believe everythingyou have said. In fact, I believeeverything you have ever said,because I have witnessed the

qualities of your body, speech, and mind. I havewitnessed your miracles, and I have witnessedyour immersion in samadhi. So I know it isimpossible for you to mislead beings, and I haveno doubt of the validity of anything you say. But,there are some beings who will not believe this.There are some beings who, when they hear this,will want to think that all of this is impossible oruntrue. Will they not incur tremendously nega-tive karma through hearing about this buddhaand this sutra and having antipathy for them, ordisbelief?” So he ends by asking the Buddha aquestion.

The reason that Ananda asks this question isthat in theory there could be a problem in thissituation. Theoretically, if someone thinks un-true what a buddha has said about another

AddressingAnanda, theBuddha says,‘Ananda, do youbelieve what Ihave said? Doyou have faith inthis, or do youhave doubtabout it?’

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buddha and their benefits and blessings, thatcould become an obstacle to that being’s progresstowards awakening. But the Buddha answers asfollows: “Ananda, there is in fact no such dangerin this case. It is possible that a being mightinitially disbelieve these things, but since theyhave heard the name of the Medicine Buddha,then through the blessing of having heard thatname, it will be impossible for their disbelief andantipathy to last very long, which is an instanceof the qualities and power of this buddha. This issomething that is so profound only bodhisattvascan understand it.”* But ultimately it meansthat one’s initial disbelief will not become an

*Editor’s note: One of the characteristics of having reachedthe first bodhisattva bhumi or level is that, due to thebodhisattva’s understanding of emptiness and interdepen-dence, he or she begins to have and to develop the kind ofvision that enables them to understand all the variousapproaches to spiritual development, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, and to understand the various methods or varioussorts of spiritual technologies taught by the Buddha.

obstacle to one’s liberation, and will not causeone to accumulate such negative karma that onewill be reborn in the lower realms and so on. Ifsomeone has doubts, disbelief, or even antipathytowards this sutra, it is not going to be a bigproblem because of the blessing imparted by theBuddha in the way he taught the sutra andbecause of the aspirations of the Medicine Bud-dha himself.

This is important to know, because from timeto time, of course, we do have doubts. We readsomething in a sutra such as this and we think,“But that is just impossible.” And then we think,“Oh no, I have wrong views about the sutra;something terrible is going to happen to me.” Inany case, this is not going to be a problem here.

I am going to stop here for this afternoon. Ithas occurred to me that over the last few days Ihave been talking quite a lot, and I have notpracticed with you or sat with you at all. Aspeople often ask me to meditate with them, weare going to meditate now for a few minutes.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 39

Medicine Buddha Sutra

Regular Supplication ofthe Medicine Buddha Brings ProtectionContinuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching on theMedicine Buddha Sutra.

When you receive instruction in dharma, the motivation with whichyou do so is extremely important. Recognize that the instruc-tions you have received are a basis for your practice of dharma,

and that your practice of dharma is of great benefit. This benefit is notlimited to you alone or only to a few—yourself and a few others—but ulti-mately the benefit of your practice will be enjoyed by all beings who fillspace. Therefore, when you receive the teachings in the beginning, do itwith that recollection and with the motivation that by receiving these

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instructions, by meditating on and supplicatingthe Medicine Buddha, by studying his sutra, andso on, you will be able to do the practice so thatyou can bring about the liberation of all beings.

We concluded last time with the presentationof the benefits of the sutra and of recollectingthe name of the Medicine Buddha. The nextevent in the dialogue is that the greatBodhisattva Chagdrul, one of the sixteenbodhisattvas in the retinue of the MedicineBuddha and therefore present at this teachingby the Buddha Shakyamuni, arisesfrom his seat, adopts the posturethat Manjushri had adopted inorder to request this teaching, andaddresses the Buddha. In address-ing the Buddha and the entiregathering here, Chagdrul is notactually asking a question. He ishimself stating further benefits ofthe sutra. He begins by saying thatit was most kind of the Buddha toteach the sutra, to explain thetwelve aspirations of the MedicineBuddha and their effects, toexplain the benefits of the sutraand of the name, and so on. Thenhe says that he has something toadd, and says that through thepower of the Medicine Buddha, ifsomeone becomes extremelysick—so sick that they are inagony and are surrounded by theirfamily and their friends, and the family also isagonized by the sickness of the person—andeven if it gets to the point where the personappears to be dying—when their perception ofthis world is becoming more and more vague andthey seem to be starting to perceive the nextworld, the intermediate state—if even at thattime there is intense supplication to the Medi-cine Buddha, through the blessing of the Medi-cine Buddha that person may be revived.

Chagdrul continues, “Because such benefitsas these are possible—benefits both for this andfuture lives—men and women with faith shouldvenerate, worship, and supplicate the Medicine

Buddha. This is extremely important.”At that point Ananda addresses the

Bodhisattva Chagdrul, saying, “While you say itis important to make offerings to and to worshipthe Medicine Buddha, how should we do this?”In response Chagdrul says, “In order to freeoneself and others from sickness and suffering, itis important to recollect the name of the Medi-cine Buddha seven times during the day andseven times during the night.”

Now, when it says in the sutra that there willbe such and such benefits frommerely hearing, recollecting, orkeeping in mind the name ofthe Medicine Buddha, this doesliterally mean that to someextent there will be somebenefit from merely hearing,merely remembering, or merelykeeping the name in mind. Butmainly, when it says the recol-lection of the name, it meanssomething more than thesimple recollection of the nameper se. It means the recollec-tion of the qualities of theMedicine Buddha, the recollec-tion of the name in appreciationof the Medicine Buddha’s quali-ties, with an attitude of sincerefaith and great enthusiasm.Furthermore, it means notsimply the appreciation that

there is a buddha in a certain realm far awaywho has such and such qualities, but includes theactual wish to emulate the Medicine Buddha, thewish to achieve the same buddhahood, to enactthe same aspirations and benefits for beings, andtherefore the wish to diligently engage in thepath in order to attain that same state. To recol-lect the name really means to recollect and knowthe Medicine Buddha’s qualities and to actuallyengage enthusiastically in the path leading tothe attainment of those qualities. Now, it is notthe case that there are no benefits whatsoever tosimply hearing the name per se; there are. Butultimately the great benefits which arise from

To recollect thename reallymeans torecollect andknow theMedicineBuddha’squalities and toactually engageenthusiastically inthe path leadingto the attainmentof those qualities

SHENPEN ÖSEL 41

the blessing of the name of the Medicine Buddhaarise from practice based upon devotion to theMedicine Buddha, and not merely from simplyhearing his name.

Chagdrul continues to address Ananda,saying that if the practitioner venerates andprays to the Medicine Buddha, then “the mon-arch will be fully empowered.” This literallymeans that the monarch of the country in whichthis veneration is occurring will be properlyempowered as the monarch. But what it impliesor is saying is that the whole country in whichthe practice occurs will become happy, which issymbolized as the proper empowerment of thatcountry’s monarch. This means that through thepractitioner’s practice, sickness, warfare, theaction of malevolent spirit—such as the spirits connectedwith the various constellations,planets, and stars—disasterssuch as untimely wind, exces-sive rainfall, or drought, andepidemics and civil strife willall be averted. For these to beaverted the practitioner mustpray to and venerate the Medicine Buddha withgreat love and compassion.

In other words, through supplication of theMedicine Buddha disasters will be averted,sickness and the malevolent influence of spiritswill diminish, and other problems or upheavalsin the country in which the practice occurs willbe pacified. This means that while we practicedharma and, therefore, supplicate the MedicineBuddha for the benefit of all beings, by doing sowe also secure our own happiness and the ben-efit of the country and region in which we prac-tice.

Ananda then asks the Bodhisattva Chagdrulanother question. He asks, “How is it possiblethrough the supplication and blessing of theMedicine Buddha for someone who is almostdead to be awakened in the manner thatChagdrul has described?” And Chagdrul saysthat this is possible because the person’s life andvitality are not really exhausted. A conditionexists that has almost caused their death, and

that will cause their death if it is not removed.But it can be removed. He then lists nine differ-ent conditions of untimely death—untimely heremeaning unnecessary—and says that throughsupplication of the Medicine Buddha it is some-times possible to remove these conditions,thereby averting death and allowing the personto revive.

Then the twelve yaksha chieftains, who havebeen present throughout the Buddha’s teachingand have heard everything that has passed up tothis point, address the Buddha as a group. Theyexpress their appreciation for having heard thesutra. They say, “We are most fortunate in thisway to have heard the name of the MedicineBuddha and to have heard of his qualities and

benefits, because simply throughhaving heard this teaching we arefreed from the fear of falling intolower realms.” They say thisbecause they are mundane gods*at that point in time, and withouthaving heard the sutra would bein the same danger as ourselves offalling into a lower rebirth. But

they are confident that, having heard the nameand the benefits of the Medicine Buddha, theyare no longer in danger of being reborn in thethree lower realms. Therefore, they say, “We aredelighted by this and we all take refuge, there-fore, in the Buddha, in the dharma, and in thesangha.” Because they have been inspired byhearing the sutra, by hearing about the MedicineBuddha’s name, and so forth, they take refugeand commit themselves to being beneficial tosentient beings and to never harming them. Andso in a sense, they also generate bodhicitta andpromise to protect beings.

In addition, the twelve yaksha chieftains say,“Especially, we will protect any place wherethere is the sutra of the Medicine Buddha andwe will protect any persons and any place wherethere are persons who venerate the MedicineBuddha.” In that way the twelve yaksha chief-

The wholecountry in whichthe practiceoccurs willbecome happy

*Editor’s note: Worldly deities who are unenlightened andthus still bound in samsara.

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I did this veryMedicine Buddhapractice . . . onehundred times,and I think that iswhy I was notkilled in thataccident

tains—and also the four great kings—vow toprotect the sutra and its followers, and to freeall of these beings from harm.

In response, the Buddhaaddresses the twelve yakshachieftains and their followers,saying, “Excellent. As you say,having heard the name of theMedicine Buddha you are nowfree of the danger and fear offalling into lower states. Yourdelight and confidence in this,the gratitude you have ex-pressed, and especially yourcommitment to the welfare ofbeings and of the teachings thatthis has inspired in you are excellent.”

Now, for this reason, whether you regard itas the blessing of the Medicine Buddha himselfand of his name, or as the protection of thetwelve yaksha chieftains, if you regularly suppli-cate the Medicine Buddha, it will protect you. Ican speak of this from my own experience. Oncewhen I was living at Rumtek Monastery inSikkim, I needed to go into town. There was acar that regularly went from the monastery intotown, and I knew the driver and had expressedmy need to go that day. But for some reason hedidn’t wait for me. He left without me. So I foundanother car to go to town in, and as a result I amstill alive. The first car got into a terrible acci-dent, and while the driver survived, the passen-gers were all killed. Especially because I am sofat, I would definitely have been squished forsure. So I regard it as the blessing of the threejewels that my life was saved, because there wasno obvious reason why he should have left with-out me.

Now the reason that I connect this with theMedicine Buddha is that sometime before that Ihad gone into the presence of His Holiness SakyaTrizin Rinpoche* and had requested a divinationfrom him as to whether or not I was facing anyobstacles. He said, “If you will do the Medicine

Buddha practice one hundred times, then youwill be free from whatever obstacles might

otherwise affect you.” And so Idid this very Medicine Buddhapractice that we have beenstudying one hundred times, andI think that is why I was notkilled in that accident. So whenit says here that the MedicineBuddha practice will protect youfrom untimely death throughpoison and accidents, and so on, Ibelieve it.

At this point, the Buddha hasfinished teaching the main bodyof the sutra. The Bodhisattva

Chagdrul has made his remarks and the twelveyaksha chieftains have expressed their apprecia-tion and commitment. At that point Anandaarises once again and addresses the Buddha,thanking him for teaching the sutra and saying,“Now that you have given this teaching, whatshould we call it in the future? This teaching willhave to have a name.”

And the Buddha says, “You can call it eitherThe Twelve Great Aspirations of the MedicineBuddha, or you can call it The Vow and Commit-ment of the Twelve Yaksha Chieftains.”

Finally, after the Buddha has given the nameby which the sutra is to be known in the future,all of those receiving the teaching, foremostamong them Manjushri, Vajrapani, and the otherbodhisattvas, as well as the twelve yaksha chief-tains and so on, express their delight and rejoic-ing in the sutra’s having been taught and theirhaving heard it and say, “Excellent,” and so forth.

And then, at the very end of the sutra, it says,“That is the completion of the Sutra of the GreatAspirations of the Medicine Buddha.” That line ispresent at the end to show that the sutra iscomplete. It is entirely possible that one couldhave in hand only part of a sutra without the endof it. To show that it is complete and goes all theway to the end, those words are added.

That completes our discussion of the Medi-cine Buddha Sutra, so if you have any questions,we have some time this morning.

*Editor’s note: The head of the Sakya lineage, one of the fourprincipal lineages of vajrayana Buddhism.

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Question: Thank you Rinpoche. May I ask for adefinition of a yaksha? Is it a human being?What is the Tibetan?

Translator: Nöjin.

Question: Is it a human being, isit other than a human being?

Rinpoche: Yakshas are nothuman. They are nonhumanbeings who are most often per-ceived as gods of wealth.

Question: When they were attending this teach-ing of the Buddha Shakyamuni, would they havebeen seen by human beings who were there? Imean by ordinary human beings, not by greatbodhisattvas and so forth?

Rinpoche: The way it is put in the sutra, itsounds as though everybody could see them.

Question: And do they have flesh bodies or dothey have bodies of light?

Rinpoche: I do not know.

Question: And if they are worldly deities, havethey gotten enlightened in the meantime? And ifthey have not, why are we prostrating to them?

Rinpoche: Well, I do not know if they haveattained awakening, but because at that timethey promised to protect the Buddha’s teachings,they become dharmapalas, and we take refuge inthem as mundane dharmapalas.

Question: I see, but if they show up, do we haveto do what they tell us?

Rinpoche: You had probably better.

Question: Rinpoche, in the other Buddhistpractices, which many of us have done—shamatha, vipashyana, the various sadhanas,and so forth—I have great confidence. Even

though I may not be a good practitioner, I havegreat confidence that they lead to the ultimategoal. But I am wondering if they have any effect

on health as we conventionallyunderstand it, because manytimes it seems they do not. Or Ido not know. Sometimes I feelvery sick, so I am wondering ifRinpoche would comment onthat.

Translator: Which practices?Are you talking about all ofthem as a group or the

vajrayana practices in particular?

Question: Tonglen, shamatha, vipashyana, andthe various sadhanas and that sort of thing.

Rinpoche: Well, the main yidam sadhanas likeVajrayogini and Chakrasamvara are not particu-larly said to have much effect on sickness, butpractices such as shamatha can be very helpfulfor sickness.

Question: I know of many people who are nothere who would be very happy and grateful ifthey had been here. Of course, that is not pos-sible. But I am wondering about how to workwith this in the future. For instance, if we hadthe tapes of the teachings from this retreat,would it be acceptable in a center like ours inVictoria or in other places to have a class inwhich we would play the tapes with the ideathat Rinpoche would come sometime in thefuture to our center, maybe do a program, andgive the empowerment? Those people wouldhave to understand, they would either be Bud-dhist or take refuge as part of the empower-ment.

Rinpoche: Sure.

Question: Rinpoche, following up on that samequestion, as Rinpoche knows, in the Shambalacenters there has always been a great effortmade to protect the teachings, especially the

Yakshas arenonhumanbeings who aremost oftenperceived asgods of wealth

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You can makethis teaching asfreely available aspossible,because there isno possibility ofanyone gettinginto troublewith this

vajrayana teachings, and so this is sort of a newsituation for us in terms of the instruction thatthis can be made more available. And so thereare still issues going on about how to do thatproperly. I am just wondering if Rinpoche couldelaborate a little bit more on some other possi-bilities for presenting these teachings prop-erly—so that people actually receive properinstruction and understand what is going onwhile at the same time making them more avail-able.

Rinpoche: I think you can make it as freelyavailable as possible, because there is no possi-bility of anyone getting into trouble with this.This is connected with the part of the sutra inwhich Ananda addresses the Buddha, saying, “Isthere not a possibility that people hearing aboutthis and disbelieving it mightaccumulate negative karma andbe worse off than if they had notheard it in the first place?” Andin answer to that the Buddhasays, “No, even if they initiallyreact with disbelief or evenantipathy, the blessing of theMedicine Buddha itself will causetheir minds to change.”

Question: Is the front visualiza-tion a mirror image of the self-visualization or is it the otherway around?

Translator: By mirror image do you mean thatyour right hand is like that and that his left handwould be like that?

Question: Yes, mirror image.

Rinpoche: It is not literally a mirror image. Inother words, in both the self- and front visualiza-tions the right hand of the Medicine Buddha isextended holding the arura and the left hand inboth cases is holding a begging bowl on the lap.

Question: Rinpoche, there have been lots of

instructions for sadhana practitioners about howto visualize, and I would just like to hear yourinstructions to us about how to do the self-visualization properly, given that we have allthese attachments to our bodies and to ourselvesand that it is difficult to work with that situa-tion. I wanted to hear how you would instruct usto properly visualize the self as the deity.

Rinpoche: Well, here you are not trying to—andyou do not have to—first get rid of the fixationon your body. The idea is that you replace thefixation on your ordinary body by adding to thatthe fixation on your body as the body of theMedicine Buddha.

Question: Forgive me, Rinpoche, I feel verymuch like the person that Ananda was talking

about, though I want very muchto believe. When I was a littlegirl in my convent in London in1939, the nuns told me that if Iprayed with great devotion andsincerity to Jesus to makeHitler a good man, the warwould not happen; we would beable to prevent it and be pro-tected from it. So, of course Ifelt I didn’t have enough devo-tion, and I felt very bad about it.My heart really breaks to thinkof people in Tibet who are muchmore evolved than I was andhave much more devotion, who

are doing the Medicine Buddha practice and stillthey have war. Would you please shed some lighton this?

Rinpoche: Well, first of all, as I said, the resultof dharma practice is usually not immediate. Itusually does not manifest as an immediate anddramatic or miraculous transformation of thecircumstances. I mentioned for example that ifyou pray for wealth you are not immediatelygoing to have a shower of gold come from the sky.But there is always a benefit. The benefit mani-fests as an effect that emerges gradually over a

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long term and maybe as a transformation ofcircumstances, as in the storythat I told you. Now, for ex-ample, I would not say that yourprayers as a child just before theoutbreak of the Second WorldWar were wasted. For example,you were not killed in the Lon-don Blitz, but many other peoplewere.* And as for Tibet, ofcourse as everybody knows Tibetwas overcome by warfare. Andwe simply have to accept the factthat when a very large andpopulous country invades asmall one, they are going to win.It is very hard to escape fromthat. If we look at it from apolitical point of view, we wouldhave to say that Tibet was lost,but from a dharmic point of view, the dharmatradition of Tibet is far from lost. In fact it isdoing better than it was before. It used to be thatin Tibet, if someone actually travelled from Tibetas far as Kalimpong in northern India, that was

a real journey. That was really expanding, bring-ing the teachings across theworld. But now there is almostnowhere on this planet wherethere are not Tibetan Buddhistdharma centers, Tibetan stupas,retreats, and so on.

Question: Could you elaborateon what is in the small pictureyou gave us?

Rinpoche: On the top, the redseated figure is the BuddhaAmitayus, the buddha of longev-ity. On the bottom are the twobodhisattvas. The yellow one isManjushri and the white one isChagdrul.

Question: Is there an end to experience once weattain buddhahood?

Translator: From the point of view of thatbuddha?

If we look at itfrom a politicalpoint of view, wewould have tosay that Tibetwas lost, butfrom a dharmicpoint of view, thedharma traditionof Tibet is farfrom lost

*Editor’s note: Implicit in this answer is an understandingof what we might call the developmental aspect of karma. Ifone commits a negative act such as killing, and does notregret it, but in fact becomes first defensive about it and thenrationalizes it, then one is likely gradually to come to rejoicein it, saying, “I was right in this case to kill, and faced withsimilar circumstances, I would do it again.” Which leads ofcourse to the notion that who it was that was killed deservedto be killed, which can lead in turn to the notion that theyought to be killed, which can in turn lead to the notion that weought to organize a movement to kill such people. This leadsto the hardening of one’s attitude, and leads to an increasingsmall-mindedness that becomes more and more attached to amistaken notion of what one ought to do and thus to anincreasing stupidity. As this kind of development becomeswidespread, it leads to hatred between groups and to warfare.

On the other hand, if instantly upon killing, or at anylater time along the way in the aforesaid type of development,one recognizes the error of one’s ways, regrets it deeply, vowsnot to engage in such action again, and engages in some sort ofactivity to compensate for one’s negative actions, this processof the development of the negative effects of a negative actionis arrested. And if one continues to engage in compensatoryvirtuous actions, the negative karma will gradually bepurified. And though it is inescapable that a result of thatnegative karma will ultimately have to be experienced, theway in which it ripens can be mitigated so completely it willhardly even be experienced. Thus it is said that the Buddha

Shakyamuni in a previous life as a bodhisattva killed thebeing who later was reborn as Ananda because that being wasplanning to kill 500 arhats and rob them. The bodhisattva,realizing that he could not talk this person out of his plannedmass murder, killed him, thus preventing the deaths of the500 arhats, and preventing the prospective murderer frombeing born in a succession of hellish existences from which itwould be extremely difficult to extricate himself. Of course,the bodhisattva continued to be reborn again and again as abodhisattva, engaged in ever increasingly effective virtuousaction, and continued to develop love and compassion forsentient beings until, according to tradition, he was finallyreborn as the Buddha Shakyamuni. The prospective murdererwas also reborn at that time and became Ananda, a devoteddisciple of the Buddha and his personal attendant duringmuch of his life. According to the Pali Canon, the Buddha oncestepped on a sticker, and realized that that was the karmicconsequence of having killed the man who later becameAnanda. As a buddha, of course, he would not have sufferedfrom the experience.

Here Rinpoche is implying that the young girl’s prayers toGod on behalf of Hitler were a form of compensatory actionthat may have been responsible for changing the way her ownpersonal karma ripened to the extent that they actuallyprotected her, while others, who may have had the very sametype of karma, who did not pray or prayed too little too late,were killed in the bombing.

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Question: Well yes, I suppose. But also, onceeveryone in the mahayana view is liberated, isthere a cessation of experience? Or what hap-pens exactly?

Translator: So, are there two questions? Whenone person attains enlightenment, do they ceaseto experience, and when everybody attainsenlightenment, is everything going to be over?

Question: Or what happens? Yes.

Rinpoche: When someone attains full awaken-ing, buddhahood, they do notcease to experience. What theyexperience is by our standardsinconceivable, and all that can besaid about it is that it is utterlypure. All of the appearances theyundergo are pure, the environ-ment in which they experiencethemselves is a pure realm, andso on.

Implicit in your second ques-tion is the question, “Will thereever come a time when all beings will haveattained buddhahood?” This question has to beasked before you can ask what will happen then.And the answer is no. There will never come aspecific time when samsara will be over for allbeings. There will never come, it is taught, atime when all beings without a single exceptionwill have attained buddhahood, because beingsare infinite in number. And when we say, “Iresolve to do this and that until samsara iscompletely emptied,” we do so in order to gener-ate an open ended and unlimited aspiration andcommitment. We say that, not because we thinkthat there will come a specific time whensamsara will be emptied and our contract termi-nated, but because we do not want to have alimited aspiration. We do not want to have anaspiration that says, “I will perform benefit forbeings, but only for three years or only for thislong.”

Now, returning to your first question, thereare contexts in which it is taught, for example in

There will nevercome a specifictime whensamsara will beover for allbeings

the common Middle Way School presentation ofthe awakening of a buddha, that after awaken-ing, that buddha exists only in the perception ofothers, both pure and impure, and does notexperience himself or herself. But in thevajrayana that is not taught. In the vajrayana itis definitely taught that the real sambhogakayarealm, the true or perfect sambhogakaya, is infact self-experience; it is how a buddha experi-ences himself or herself.

Question: Rinpoche, you have gone into greatdetail about the sutra tradition and about how

the Medicine Buddha came to beknown in this world. Thatknowledge of the MedicineBuddha actually originated withthe Buddha Shakyamuni, andthat gives me great confidencein terms of the origin of thispractice, because I have confi-dence in the BuddhaShakyamuni himself. However, alarge part of the practice thatyou have given us is also tantric

in nature, and the very detailed visualizationsclearly come from somewhere else. Can you givesome details about their origins so that we canhave similar confidence in and knowledge abouttheir origins?

Rinpoche: This practice is a combination ofsutra and tantra. I have explained its sutraorigin. Basically it doesn’t have a tantric origingoing back to the Buddha Shakyamuni indepen-dent of its origin in the sutras. It is basically asutra practice connected with tantra. In otherwords, it is a practice according to the sutrasthat adopts and adapts the methods of thetantras, specifically some of the methods ofanuttarayoga tantra. This became a tantricpractice after the Buddha’s time through therealization and teachings of the bodhisattvaswho received it from the Buddha and the variousmahasiddhas who received it from them. In thatsense it is different from a primarily tantricpractice like Chakrasamvara or Kalachakra, the

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origins of which are one or more specific tantrastaught by the Buddha, belonging to a specificclass of tantra such as some form ofanuttarayoga and so on. And in that sense it isalso unlike the various lower tantras—the yoga,carya and kriya tantras—which also go backoriginally to the Buddha Shakyamuni. Here it isbasically a sutra practice that makes use of themethods of anuttarayoga tantra, and there is nospecific tantra that is a scriptural basis for it asis the sutra.

Question: What about all of the detail, all of therichness of the visualization. Is that contained inthe longer sutras? The palace and its variouscolors, etc. Is there a specific being even afterthe Buddha’s time from whom this originates?

Rinpoche: Well, the palace is based upon thedescription in the sutra of the Medicine Buddha,which says that the Medicine Buddha’s realm iscalled such and such, it is like this, and it hassuch and such a palace, and so on. The retinue isbased also upon the sutra. In the sutra all eightmedicine buddhas and the sixteen bodhisattvasare mentioned as being present at the teaching,and the twelve yaksha chieftains, the ten protec-tors of the directions, and the four great kingsare also described as being present at the teach-ing. By visualizing them surrounding thebuddhas and bodhisattvas, you insure the re-ceipt of their protection and blessing.

Question: For fear of totally beating a deadhorse, you know all of the lights and the medi-cine buddhas raining down, are these based onother tantric practices?

Rinpoche: Yes.

Question: Rinpoche, when I go home and talk tomy family and friends and say I have been at the

Medicine Buddha retreat and they ask me whoor what is the Medicine Buddha, I do not knowwhat to tell them. I want to create a definitionthat is going to bring them benefit, and althoughI know that hearing about the Medicine Buddhawill help them, I do not want to initially turnthem away. So could you give sort of a shortanswer in layman’s terms? I do not know if thatis possible. And also, we have a new cat and Iwant to expose him to the Medicine Buddha, buthe might not stay at the shrine with us when weare practicing. So, is it appropriate to put apicture of the Medicine Buddha near his foodbowls or by his bed? Or is that not appropriate?Will simply living with dharma practitioners behelpful for an animal when he hears us just sortof talking dharma?

Rinpoche: To answer your first question, prob-ably the most convenient thing to say to yourfamily is that you were taught and practiced aform of meditation designed to lead to physicalhealth and freedom from sickness, and leave itat that. As for putting an image of the MedicineBuddha near where your cat eats and sleeps,that is fine.

So the time is up. The rest of you could askyour questions this afternoon. I was asked aquestion yesterday about how to defend oneselfagainst sexual attack or rape, and I was asked togive an answer that is in accordance with thedharma. Basically, the dharmic answer to thiswould be prevention as much as possible, whichwould basically fall into two categories. First ofall, through mindfulness avoid situations whereyou are likely to be a victim of that kind ofattack. And the second approach is to discourageanyone who seems to be capable of that kind ofattack or behavior by being a little bit tough, sothat they do not ever get the idea that they canget that close to you.

So, we will dedicate the merit.

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Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching onthe Medicine Buddha Sutra.

Medicine Buddha Sutra

The Correct View RegardingBoth Deities and Maras

We have completed the explanation of the Medicine BuddhaSutra. There is another sutra connected to this, called theSutra of the Aspirations of the Eight Medicine Buddhas, which

refers to the principal Medicine Buddha of the Medicine Buddha Sutraand the other seven medicine buddhas in his retinue. These are distinctbuddhas, but their aspirations are fundamentally the same, so I am notgoing to explain that sutra separately.

In the sutra that we have been studying there is a great deal of

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This practice isnot really theworship of anexternal deity. Itis primarily a wayof gaining accessto your owninherent orinnate wisdom

presentation of the idea of veneration, evenworship of this deity, the Medicine Buddha, andthrough veneration and worship, achieving whatis called cutting the noose of mara. So we havethe idea of some sort of external mara that issomewhere down there and some sort of exter-nal deity that is somewhere up there. Given thistype of presentation we may come to the conclu-sion that the deity being supplicated, such as theMedicine Buddha, has the omnipotence and theexternal existence of a creator, as though he orshe actually causes us to experience the pleasantand unpleasant things that we undergo. It mayseem that since, if you pray to the MedicineBuddha, you will somehow receive the twoattainments—the common and supreme attain-ments—that if you do not pray to the MedicineBuddha, you will get intotrouble. But the vajrayana viewof the effect or effectiveness ofthe supplication of deities isfundamentally different fromthis idea. The idea in thevajrayana is that the blessingassociated with the deity, theattainment you gain through thistype of practice, is a result ofyour practice of the path.* Youraccomplishment of the path leadsto its result, which fundamen-tally is caused by your ownmeditative state or samadhi,cultivated by yourself withinyourself. The capacity you have to cultivate sucha samadhi and thereby attain these results isyour own fundamental nature, which is referredto as buddha nature. This potential is somethingthat each and every being has. It is usuallyobscured by the presence of temporary stains orobscurations. These stains are removed by thepractice of the path, by the practice of medita-tion, by the practice of the generation andcompletion stages. And when these obscurations

have been removed and the innate qualities ofthis buddha nature are revealed, that is theresult. So this practice is not really the worshipof an external deity. It is primarily a way ofgaining access to your own inherent or innatewisdom.

Because this is the view of the vajrayanawith regard to the nature of deities, the uncom-mon method of the vajrayana is to visualizeoneself as the deity. Thus, in this practice youvisualize yourself as the Medicine Buddha. Butin the common vehicle, the basic teachings of thebuddha, [the hinayana teachings], it appears asthough it is taught that the ultimate result of thepath is what is called arhat without remainder.There it is taught that when someone completesthe path—which means that they remove or

abandon all of the causes ofsamsara, all karma, and allkleshas—then they naturallyattain the result of that removal,which is the cessation of theresults of those causes, whichmeans the total cessation ofsamsaric existence for thatindividual. Since they haveabandoned the causes and there-fore experience the cessation ofthe results, according to thecommon vehicle, there is nothingwhatsoever left—which is calledarhat without remainder. Sofrom the point of view of the

common vehicle, one’s own liberation dependsentirely, without any exception whatsoever,upon one’s attainment through meditation, andthere is no point whatsoever in supplication orprayer to anyone or anything outside oneself,because there is simply no one to pray to.

The vajrayana view is different from that.According to the vajrayana, as according to themahayana, there have appeared innumerablebuddhas and bodhisattvas. All of them haveentered the path by generating bodhicitta, havetraversed [or are in the process of traversing]the path by gathering the accumulations of meritand wisdom for three periods of innumerable

*Editor’s note: i.e., not a reward arbitrarily bestowed by adeity pleased by one’s praises, promises, obedience, or othermeans of currying favor.

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The attainmentof buddhahoodis the supremeattainment. But ifyou think thatthis is the onlybenefit or onlyreason forpractice, that isnot entirely thecase

kalpas [according to the mahayana], and finallyhave completed [or will complete] the path byattaining full awakening or buddhahood. Havingattained buddhahood, they actually have thecapacity to grant their blessing, and it is for thatreason that we make offerings, that we performprostrations, that we supplicate, and so on. So inthe vajrayana we not only visualize ourselves asthe yidam, but we also visualize the yidam, suchas the Medicine Buddha, in front of us as well.Focusing on the front visualization, we makeofferings and so forth in order to gather theaccumulations, and we supplicate the deity andreceive its blessing. So from the vajrayana pointof view, there is in fact something to pray to, anddoing so does facilitate one’s attainment of theresult.

Connected with this is one’s understanding ofthe aim of practice. Sometimes, in the waydharma is presented, it seems as though the onlyacceptable goal of doing dharma practice is theattainment of perfect awakening in order toliberate others, and it seems to be said that it isutterly inappropriate to think of any benefit forthis life at all, which implies there exist nomethods in dharma for benefiting oneself in thislife. In fact, this is not the case. Especially in thevajrayana tradition we talk about the attainmentof the two siddhis or two attain-ments. One of them is the su-preme siddhi or supreme attain-ment. Through the practice ofmeditation—through the practiceof the generation and completionstages—you gradually removethe two obscurations—the men-tal/emotional afflictions and thecognitive obscurations—and youeventually attain buddhahood.The attainment of buddhahood isthe supreme attainment. But ifyou think that this is the onlybenefit or only reason for prac-tice, that is not entirely the case.In the vajrayana we also speak ofthe common siddhis or commonattainments. Through meditating

upon a yidam you can also attain longevity,freedom from sickness, wealth and so on, and itis because of this emphasis in vajrayana on thecommon attainments that there are so manydifferent deities. For example, in order to attainwealth you would practice a wealth deity such asJambhala. In order to attain physical well-beingand freedom from sickness you might practice adeity such as the Medicine Buddha. In order toincrease your insight into the meaning of theteachings you might practice Manjushri. Doingpractices for these reasons is not regarded asinappropriate in any way. Since these practicesexist, it is obviously not impossible to attainthese things by doing them.

That is the view with regard to the deitiesthat are meditated upon and supplicated. Thenthere is the other side of things, mara or themaras, which we might think of as being downthere, in the same way that deities might bethought of as being up there somewhere. Thereare two ways in which we generally think ofmara. One way is to think that mara refers toone’s own mental afflictions, one’s own kleshasalone, and not as any kind of external being thatis trying to tempt one or interfere with one’sspiritual progress. And sometimes we think thatmaras are completely external, and we think

that everything that goes wrongis caused by some kind of exter-nal malevolent force that isattempting to victimize us. Bothof these views are somewhatextreme.

Mara is most commonlypresented in the Buddhisttradition as four different typesof maras, called devaputramara,the mara that is the child of thegods; kleshamara, the mara thatis the mental afflictions;skandhamara, the mara that isthe aggregates; and finallymrtyumara, the mara that is thelord of death. These are prima-rily internal. The first of these,devaputramara, the mara that is

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Victory overthe four marasrequires thepractice ofdharma, thepractice ofmeditation.Specifically, itrequires therealization of theselflessness ofpersons and theselflessness oremptiness ofthings in general

the child of the gods, refers not to some kind ofexternal demonic force but primarily to yourown great attachment and greatcraving. Therefore, it is given thename of child of the gods, becausewhen this mara is depictediconographically—because it iscraving or wanting something somuch—it is not depicted assomething ugly and threatening,but as something attractive,because that is the feeling-tone ofattachment. It is liking things somuch that it interferes with yourdharma practice and your attain-ment of awakening. The secondmara, kleshamara, the mara thatis mental afflictions, is yourmental afflictions themselves.These become a mara because,due to the beginningless habit ofmaintaining and cultivatingthem, they keep on popping upagain and again. They are veryhard to abandon or even to sup-press, and when they are momen-tarily absent, they come up again,and in that way they interferewith your practice of dharma.

The third mara is skandamara, the mara ofthe aggregates. The aggregates here refer to thefive aggregates that make up samsaric exist-ence—forms, sensations, perceptions, thoughts,*and consciousness. Now, these aggregates arethemselves mara, because being aggregates orcomposite, they are impermanent. Being imper-manent they are constantly changing, and there-fore they are always a cause, directly or indi-rectly, of suffering. In order to attain permanenthappiness, in order to transcend the suffering ofsamsara, we must transcend the five aggregates.There is simply no way to attain a state of per-manent happiness within the bondage of theseaggregates.

The fourth of the four maras is death itself,which is depicted iconographically as wrathful

or unpleasant. Death, of course,is what we are most afraid of.Death is what comes with greatagony and fear and pain.

These four maras are funda-mentally internal; they are notexternal beings. Victory over thefour maras requires the practiceof dharma, the practice of medi-tation. Specifically, it requiresthe realization of the selfless-ness of persons and the selfless-ness or emptiness of things ingeneral. In order to realize thesetwo aspects of selflessness oremptiness, one meditates onemptiness, and, especiallyaccording to the vajrayanatradition, one meditates uponthe nature of one’s own mind,since this is an evident empti-ness, an obvious or directlyexperienceable emptiness.**Therefore, the practice ofshamatha and vipashyana,tranquillity and insight medita-

tion, that takes as its basis the recognition of thenature of one’s own mind, is a direct method thatleads to the realization of the emptiness of one’sown nature, and on the basis of that realization,one can gradually attain the ultimate fruition,final awakening, at which point one has con-quered all four maras once and for all. And thatis how one conquers the mara that is internal.

Vajrayana practice therefore includes thepractices of both shamatha and vipashyana. Butthe typical practices of the vajrayana are notlimited to those practices; they also include thetwo broad and inclusive categories of the genera-

*Editor’s note: Usually referred to as samskaras or mentalformations.

**Editor’s note: It is not difficult to establish through theuse of reason the lack of true—i.e., singular, uncompounded,permanent—existence of external physical things, but it isvery difficult to “see” or experience such lack of true existenceof things directly. See editor’s note, page 20, Shenpen Ösel,Volume 2, Number 2.

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tion stage and the completion stage. According tothe vajrayana, the four maras are considered tobe impure appearances, the projections of bewil-derment and the presence in one’s mind of thosetendencies—the kleshas and the cognitiveobscurations—that cause those projections. Thefour maras consist of impure appearances andthe reification of them, and thisincludes impure or negativekarma as well.* The attainmentof victory over the four marasaccording to the vajrayana tradi-tion comes about from transcend-ing these impure appearancesand coming to experience pureappearances. One attains theexperience of pure appearancesby meditating upon appearancesas pure, by meditating upon one’senvironment as a pure realm,one’s body as a pure form, and soforth. Now if this were a medita-tion upon things as other than what they truly orfundamentally are, it would never work. Butbecause our basic nature is buddha nature, andbecause the temporary obscurations that causeus to perceive things as impure are secondary tothat nature—and by temporary or secondary wemean that they can be removed, that they areempty, that they are not intrinsic to the nature—

because our basic or true nature is buddhanature and those obscurations that hide it arenot intrinsic to it and can be removed, therefore,just as our true nature is pure, appearances arealso fundamentally pure. It is in order to revealthis basic nature and reveal these pure appear-ances that we practice the generation stage.

Initially, generation stagepractice is extremely difficult,because it goes directly againstthe grain or the current of ourhabit of impure projections,which causes the impure ap-pearances we experience. Buteventually [with effort] the habitof regarding things as pure iscultivated to the point whereone generates a clear appear-ance or a clear perception ofthings as pure. From that pointonward, gradually, the actual,pure nature of phenomena or

appearances begins to be revealed, and it is forthat reason that we practice the generationstage meditation upon yidams. It is also in orderto reveal this pure nature of appearances thatwe regard things not as the ordinary solid thingsthat they appear to be—ordinary earth, ordinarystones and so on—but as the embodiment ofemptiness manifesting as vivid pure appear-ances. In this way, through practicing the gen-eration and completion stages, we attain theultimate result.**

Sometimes when we are practicing, weexperience adverse conditions, obstacles ofvarious kinds—such as physical illness or mentaldepression, or various external setbacks inwhatever we are trying to do. These come fromone of two causes—from previous actions orkarmas, or from present, suddenly arising condi-tions. Although normally we regard the matura-tion of our previous actions as something that,once it arises, is very difficult to change, never-

According to thevajrayana, thefour maras areconsidered tobe impureappearances, theprojections ofbewilderment

*Editor’s note: To reify is to regard something abstract asbeing material or concrete. This is another way of referring tothe phenomenon of solidification that Chögyam Trungpaintroduced into our vocabulary. To think of ourselves as beingsmall, insignificant, fundamentally flawed beings who arefundamentally angry, needy, or dimwitted is to reify or take asreal and solid and unchangeable that which is in fact merelythe ever-changing ripening and exhaustion of causes andconditions. And though this karmic process exists as mereappearance, it is empty in its essential nature. The manifes-tations of the ripening of karma appear, but are not truly realor solid. They have no true existence, and recognizing theiremptiness or lack of true existence liberates one from thesuffering associated with them. If one’s recognition of theessential empty nature of the ripening of karma is profoundand continuous enough, impure appearances cease, and theappearance of oneself as deity and one’s environment asbuddha realm spontaneously arises. This process is jump-started and fast-forwarded through the profound methods ofthe generation and completion stages, as Rinpoche continuesto explain.

**Editor’s note: In the end, the vision of everything thatarises as vivid pure appearance is the generation stage, andthe recognition of its emptiness is the completion stage.

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By pacifyingyour mind,because of theinterdependenceof mind andbody, these actsstart also topacify physicalillness

theless, if you supplicate the buddhas andbodhisattvas, make offerings, gather the accumu-lations, and so on, you can purify your karma.Purifying your karma also purifies some of yourkleshas at the same time.* We all have kleshasfor sure, but they can be defeated by the appro-priate remedies, if the remedies are sincerelyand consistently applied. With the application ofthe appropriate remedies—especially with theblessings of buddhas and bodhisattvas—one canalter one’s karma and reduce the power of one’skleshas, [thereby eliminating or reducing one’sobstacles and adverse conditions].

The other cause of obstacles is what is called“sudden conditions.” One type of sudden condi-tion is a karmic debt, a situation in which whatis happening is not the direct result of yourimmediately previous actions,but is being imposed upon youby another being because of anegative karmic connection youmade with that being [in aprevious life]—for example, abeing whom in previous livesyou have beaten up, killed, orstolen from, and so on. Some-times this is a human being whofor no apparent reason takessuch dislike to you that theystart persecuting you. Some-times it is a nonhuman being, aspirit with no apparent physicalform, who, because of yourhaving harmed it in a previous life, takes everyopportunity to cause you obstacles in this life.These things are quite possible; they happen tous. In such a situation, if you supplicate theMedicine Buddha, make offerings, make virtu-ous aspirations and so forth, this being’s aggres-sion will be pacified, and you can free yourselffrom the obstacle.

I am going to stop there for this afternoon.Some of you didn’t get a chance to ask your

questions this morning, so if you’d like to askthem now, please go ahead.

Question: Rinpoche, it seems as though in theWest many of the teachings that have beenprovided to us have put a great amount of em-phasis on our mental afflictions or kleshas, andthere has not really been much teaching onphysical afflictions, which is in a sense what wehave been talking about this week, some of theways of working with physical afflictions. Iwonder if Rinpoche would comment a little bitmore about the view to take—both from therelative and the absolute standpoint—whenphysical afflictions and physical difficulties andsicknesses occur, as well as ways of workingwith physical afflictions in the post-meditation

experience. That is part one of thequestion.

Rinpoche: Well, of course, physi-cal difficulties, physical suffering,and sickness are always happen-ing in one way or another for us.These are relative truths, relativephenomena. As relative phenom-ena they are interdependent,which is to say, each and everyaspect of these situations is in factthe coming together of manyconditions that depend on oneanother in order to appear aswhat they appear to be, as for

example sickness or physical pain. Therefore,because they are interdependent, because theyare not true [immutable] units, there is always aremedy of one kind or another. For example, inthe context of the Medicine Buddha practice,visualizing the body of the Medicine Buddha,reciting the mantra of the Medicine Buddha,requesting the blessing of the Medicine Bud-dha—all of which are primarily mental, prima-rily acts of meditation and visualization—ini-tially pacify your mind, but by pacifying yourmind, because of the interdependence of mindand body, these acts start also to pacify yourphysical illness. If you are ill, they will help to

*Editor’s note: The results of any particular action includenot simply the “payback,” but also the perpetuation andreinforcement in the mind of the klesha or kleshas thatexisted as the motivation for the action.

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pacify the illness. And if you are not ill, they willhelp to prevent the advent of illness.

At the same time, we also make use of physi-cal remedies, medicines, for sickness. But as weknow from experience, sometimes a medicinewill work and sometimes, for some reason that isnot necessarily apparent, something interfereswith the proper functioning of the medicine, andit does not effectively treat even an illness forwhich it is appropriately prescribed. Supplica-tion of the Medicine Buddha will help preventthat interference with or ineffectiveness ofmedicine, and will help the medicine take itsproper effect.

Question: May I continue? There are here thisweekend many health care practitioners and/oreducators who often work with people who arenot practitioners but who certainly have somequality of openness. Could Rinpoche comment abit on how we, as medical practi-tioners and as educators inmedical schools—as we begin topractice and study and under-stand the Medicine Buddha andwhat you have talked about—how we can apply all of this aswe work with our patients andwith our students in medicalschools?

Rinpoche: Well, the mostimportant thing to have inworking with a patient and tocommunicate in teaching physicians is that thefundamental ground of the alleviation of sick-ness, which must be common to all health carepractitioners, is the sincere and committed wishto help others, the sincere wish to remove suffer-ing and at least the proximate causes of suffer-ing. And so the four-fold unsullied and stainlessattitude that was described yesterday in thesutra is very important. Freedom from aggres-sion and the wish to benefit the patient are themost important things, and these need to becommunicated and to be present.

Question: Rinpoche, I want to confirm myunderstanding that it has been okayed byRinpoche to share the tapes from this week andthe practice text that we have used with others,and that those with whom we are sharing it donot have to have taken the refuge vow. Is thatcorrect? Because I have people waiting back inPortland and I just wanted to be absolutely sure.

Rinpoche: Yes.

Question: Thank you.

Question: I may just be asking Rinpoche torepeat himself, but I think I need to hear it. Thefirst question is about faith and devotion. Whenwe supplicate intensely, I am trying to under-stand better what exactly we’re supplicating.What have we faith in and what do we havedevotion to? Is it faith that the practice will

actually work or that the deityactually exists, or a combination?

Rinpoche: It is both. The point isthat faith and devotion bring theaccomplishment of whatever youare trying to do. If you have faith,you will accomplish whatever itis, and if you do not have faith,you won’t. This is simply howthings work. If you have faith,then you will do it. You will dosomething properly, and doing itproperly will cause it to work. You

will achieve the result. And if you do not havethat much faith in something, you will do ithalfheartedly or not at all, and therefore you willnot achieve the result. So having faith reallymeans fundamentally trusting and believing inthe process. With respect to the Medicine Bud-dha practice, it means believing first and fore-most that it will work. Trusting in the processwill automatically entail—and therefore pro-duce—faith in and devotion to the deities in-volved, the lama who taught you the practice,and so on.

The fundamentalground of thealleviation ofsickness . . . isthe sincere andcommitted wishto help others

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Question: And does devotion have to do withjust the recognition of the superior qualities ofwhatever it is you are devoted to?

Rinpoche: In Tibetan, the word that gets trans-lated as devotion is usually expressed in Englishin two words that have distinct meanings. Thefirst word means enthusiasm, and of courseenthusiasm is simply being really interested insomething. But this specific type of enthusiasm,as is indicated by the second word, which liter-ally means respect, is an enthusiasm foundedupon, as you indicated, a recognition of theextraordinary qualities of someone or some-thing.

Question: Could you talk about the relationshipbetween purification and blessing?

Rinpoche: These two—purifica-tion and receiving blessings—are distinct. They are not ex-actly the same. Purificationmeans that the obscurations—the cognitive obscuration, whichis ignorance, and the afflictiveobscurations, which are themental afflictions and thekarmic obscurations or thenegative karma that you haveaccumulated—are graduallypurified, which means removedfrom you. And receiving blessingmeans that through your suppli-cation of the buddha or of the dharma, youreceive their blessing. For example, when yousupplicate the Medicine Buddha, through thepower of your own supplication combined withthe power of the twelve aspirations made by theMedicine Buddha, something happens, and thatis called blessing. On the other hand, whilepurification and blessing are distinct, either onecan cause the other. The removal of obscurationsallows you to receive the blessings [more fully]and receiving blessings brings about the removalof obscurations.

Question: Thank you very much Rinpoche.

Question: I have two questions and one chal-lenge. But you may escape the challenge depend-ing on how you answer the first question. Thefirst question is, can you explain the differencebetween our buddha nature and a buddha inparticular with regard to the notions of omni-science and the inseparability of samsara andnirvana?

Translator: The question is, can you explain thedifference between our buddha nature and abuddha, someone who has attained buddhahood,and particularly in regard to the issue of omni-science and the inseparability of samsara andnirvana. Is that the question or the challenge?

Question: That is the question. There is anadjunct actually to that. How canone be realized without conscious-ness? I think they are connected,those two.

Translator: By consciousnesswhat do you mean?

Question: The aggregate that isimpure that you talked aboutbefore.

Rinpoche: The buddha naturethat is present in our nature asthe ground of being is like a bird

in its eggshell, a bird that has not yet emergedfrom the egg. And a buddha is like that birdflying in the sky, having broken out of the egg-shell. We each and everyone have the innatepotential that manifests as the qualities ofbuddhahood. But this potential, which is ouressence, is hidden by our obscurations, andtherefore, as long as it is hidden, we call it aseed. We use the term buddha to refer to some-one in whom this previously hidden essence hasbecome revealed. So there are basically twosituations: a being whose basic nature is stillhidden and a being whose basic nature has been

The buddhanature that ispresent in ournature is like abird in itseggshell . . . Anda buddha is likethat bird flying inthe sky

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revealed. When that basic nature is hidden, wecall it a potential, a kernel or seed, an essence,or buddha nature. And when that basic naturehas been revealed, then we call that being abuddha.

Question: You didn’t answer thequestion about how you can berealized without consciousness.

Translator: Oh yes, I am sorry.

Rinpoche: You do not “lose con-sciousness” when you attainbuddhahood. You transform con-sciousness. The function of con-sciousness is transformed intowisdom. In our present state,consciousness functions some-what haphazardly and imperfectly. Sometimesour consciousnesses are so intense that they areoverwhelming and sometimes they are so ob-scure or dim that they do not really functionproperly.

Question: This is quite quick. Is it within mara’sability to convince a person that they are arealized buddha when they are not, or that theyare a lineage holder or a bodhisattva when theyare not? And if it is, how does a person protecthimself or herself against that illusion, particu-larly given that to be a realized buddha and/orlineage holder and/or a bodhisattva is what oneaspires to be?

Rinpoche: It sounds possible.

Question: Well how do you protect yourselfagainst it?

Rinpoche: Basically by preserving a good moti-vation and cultivating a lot of love and compas-sion.

Question: I’ll leave my challenge for anothertime because there are so many people.

Question: Thank you, Rinpoche, and thank you,Lama, for your translations. My question isregarding sangha. Most of us do not have anytrouble taking refuge in the buddha or takingrefuge in the dharma, but when it comes to

taking refuge in the sangha, weroll our eyes and nervouslygiggle. Here this whole week, wehave been together as a sangha,all working cooperatively to-gether, but when we leave herewe’ll go to our different citiesand our different groups and getinto situations where we havecome from many differentschools—Nyingma, Kagyu,Geluk, Sakya, and others—andmany different teachers, manydifferent ways of doing things.

And what I have seen happen in Seattle is onegroup thinking that their way is the best, thisteacher over here is said to have some shadypast, some other teacher does not teach at all inTibetan, with all their various differences, andeven within individual groups, the variousconcepts: well, this person has taken refuge, sothey are sangha, even though maybe they do notpractice very often; this person practices all thetime, but has not taken refuge; that personpractices all the time but does not come to thecenter. So there are all these various ideas aboutwhat sangha is and how to behave towardssangha members, and I would like it if Rinpochecould address what sangha is, what a practitio-ner is, and what the correct view and behaviortowards those would be.

Rinpoche: Our attitude towards the sangha isindicated by the definition of taking refuge inthe sangha. Taking refuge in the sangha is ac-cepting the sangha or the community as compan-ions on the path. So the basic view you have ofother practitioners is that they are fellow travel-ers on the same path. That being the case, you donot particularly have to examine whether or notsomeone is what either you or someone elsemight consider a full-fledged bona fide member

Taking refuge inthe sanghais acceptingthe sangha orcommunity ascompanions onthe path

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of the sangha. You do not need to worry aboutwhat the criteria are for making that appraisal.It does not matter whether someone is of thesame particular lineage or not, whether theirapproach in practice is exactly the same as yoursor not, whether they have taken the vow ofrefuge or not. They are on the same path, tryingto reach the same goal. The fundamental func-tion of the sangha is—by being on the same pathand having the same goal—to encourage oneanother to practice dharma, to cause one an-other to remain involved and to become moreinvolved in dharma and its practice, rather thanto lead one another farther and farther awayfrom the path.

Question: In that respect then,Rinpoche, would one expectsangha to get larger rather thanto become more and more nar-row?

Translator: As a community youmean?

Question: Yes.

Rinpoche: Well, it is good if itdoes, because the greater thenumber, then the greater the momentum of thepractice of that specific sangha. And the greaterthe momentum, the more courage and the moredeeply involved people tend to get.

Question: Thank you, Rinpoche. My questionconcerns care of people who are terminally ill,people who are dying of something like cancer,and the relief of pain. I have been told that it isbetter not to relieve pain too much because it iskarma coming to fruition, that if you do not feelit now, you are going to feel it later, in the nextlife or whenever, which seems to me not themost compassionate view, particularly if theperson who is dying in pain is not a dharmapractitioner. Could you speak to that please?

Rinpoche: It is possible that the agony of a

dying person is a result of their previous karma,but your giving them medicine that reduces thatpain does not remove the working out of thatkarma. It affects how bad the pain is, but thekarma itself is still ripening. So by alleviatingthe pain of a dying person, you are not doomingthem to a worse fate later on. So by all meansthey should be given pain medication.

Question: Thank you.

Question: You have been talking a lot aboutimpure and pure perceptions. I am having a hardtime understanding or thinking what mightconstitute something that is pure in its percep-

tion. Is it bright or light? On theother hand what is an impure per-ception?

Rinpoche: It has more to do withthe mind that is perceiving than itdoes with the actual physical charac-teristics of what is perceived. Asimple example of this is that if thesame person looks at the same thingin two different emotional states,they will see them differently. Theeffect of what they see will be verydifferent. For example, if someone

looks at something while they are very angry,while they are feeling really spiteful and mean,they will see it as irritating or as unpleasant,and if the same person looks at the same thingwhen their emotional state is one of love andcompassion, something very positive, they willsee the same thing as having a positive nature orquality. That basically is what is meant by im-pure perception or appearances and pure per-ception or appearances, but the difference be-tween those two states—the same person inbasically two different moods—is very slight.While that is the principle on which it operates,it can go much further than that. If you canimagine a mind that is completely pure of anykind of negativity whatsoever, what that personwould experience is what we would call true,pure appearances. And a mind that is filled with

By alleviatingthe pain of adying person,you are notdooming themto a worse fatelater on

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various sorts of negativity experiences impureappearances.

Question: Thank you for the teachings,Rinpoche. I have a couple of questions. I amwondering, in the subtle level ofthe judging mind, when one isaware of judgments coming up—not when one is angry, but whenthese judgmental tendenciesarise—how can one work toantidote these in the presentmoment?

Rinpoche: Are you talking aboutmeditation or post-meditation?

Question: Post-meditation ininteraction with others or even insimple observation in daily life.

Rinpoche: The first step is torecognize the tendency. If you arein the habit of recognizing thesesorts of subtle judgmentalthoughts as what they are, then the habit ofrecognizing them and not wishing to invest inthem will accrue, and they will occur less andless often.

Question: So how is that really happening?

Rinpoche: If you are not interested in cultivat-ing those thoughts and you apply mindfulnessand alertness, they will automatically happenless and less and disappear.

Question: You mentioned the two mainbodhisattvas of the Medicine Buddha, LuminousLike The Sun and Luminous Like The Moon. Iwas wondering if you could expand on that some.

Rinpoche: I think that they are other names forManjushri and Chagdrul. Luminous Like TheSun would be Manjushri, and Luminous Like The

Moon would be Chagdrul.

Question: You spoke a little bit about spirits andnot wanting to get them angry or to offend them.I am increasing my faith in the Medicine Buddha

and I am sure that its practice isgreat, but I wonder if you havemore guidance for one who doeshealing work where actual spiritpossession may happen, andwhat perhaps to do or to focus onafter doing such a session?

Translator: Do you mean, if youare trying to heal someone who ispossessed by a spirit, or if youthe healer get attacked by thespirit?

Question: Well, both perhaps.You are working with somebody,and a spirit depossession hap-pens, and they kind of reclaimtheir body. Generally what I haveexperienced is just staying really

strong and clear, but sometimes there is fatigueor other things that may happen afterwards. Soboth.

Rinpoche: The most important thing in thatsituation is that the practitioner have compas-sion not only for the possessed person but for thepossessing spirit as well. Of course, we normallyhave compassion for the possessed, but we maynot have that much compassion for the pos-sessor. The possessed person deserves ourcompassion, because they are suffering. But thepossessor—equally or perhaps even more so—deserves our compassion, because they are doingwhat will become the cause of great suffering forthemselves in the future. If you have that atti-tude of compassion for the spirit, it will facilitatethe extrication of the spirit, and also will notleave that sort of staleness, and so forth, thatwill otherwise ensue.

The mostimportant thingin that situationis that thepractitioner havecompassion notonly for thepossessedperson but forthe possessingspirit as well

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All of you are no doubt extremely busy, but in spite of that, you alldecided to come here, and for that, in and of itself, I thank you.Beyond that, having come here, you have all practiced and listened

to the teachings with great diligence and attentiveness, and I thank youespecially for that as well. As it says in the Jewel Ornament of Liberation,“While all sentient beings without exception possess buddha nature, thisbuddha nature is hidden by our obscurations,” as in the analogy I gaveyesterday of a bird in an egg shell. There are different ways that buddha

Medicine Buddha Sutra

Somehow Our Buddha Nature Has BeenAwakened, and We Are Very Fortunate Indeed

Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching on theMedicine Buddha Sutra.

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nature can be present in a person. While it isequally present per se in everyone, it can eitheremerge and be somehow awakened, or not. Whenbuddha nature is dormant, when there is noevidence in the person’s life of the presence of it,that person has no immediate opportunity forliberation. On the other hand, when the qualitiesof buddha nature emerge, when it becomesawakened or aroused, then its qualities arerevealed and the person can begin to attainliberation. Now in the case of all of you, yourhaving decided to come here, your having doneso, and your having practiced diligently is ampleevidence of the awakening or emergence of yourbuddha nature, and I consider this evidencefurther that your practice of dharma will con-tinue to progress until you attainliberation. So that is why I thankyou for coming here and practic-ing.

While you have been here, youhave been listening to and practic-ing specifically the dharma con-nected with the Medicine Buddha,which in the long term will be acause of your complete liberationand in the short term a cause ofphysical and mental well-being.So you are extremely fortunate,because this practice is extremely beneficial.Now as you go on with your lives and attempt tointegrate practice into your daily life, you willfind that sometimes you will have what willseem like a more or less perfect opportunity. Itwill fit right into your life without any contradic-tion or problem, and there will not seem to beany impediments or obstacles that interfere withyour practice. And sometimes you will find thatthere will seem to be any number of obstaclesimpeding or obstructing your practice, timeconstraints and so forth, and it may get to thepoint that you feel you have no opportunity topractice, at least not as much as you would like.In such situations, do not be discouraged. Do notthink, “I have obstacles, I have real problems, Iam never going to be able to practice. No matterwhat I do, things always go wrong,” and so on.

Do not allow yourself to become depressed bythe temporary obstruction of your practice, andalways remember that even merely encounteringsuch dharma, even hearing it, is something thatis extremely fortunate, extremely beneficial inand of itself. Whatever contact you have madeand whatever practice of dharma you have donewill never be lost. The benefits of it can never bedestroyed or removed and will lead you sooneror later to complete liberation.

It says in the Jewel Ornament of Liberationthat in one of the sutras the Buddha discussesthe benefit of having less than complete faith.Now obviously there are some people who haveintense and complete, unquestioning faith in thethree jewels, and especially in the dharma, and

of course that is wonderful. Butthere are other people who haveless faith in the dharma, which isto say that they have some faithin it, but they also have somequestions and doubts. The imagethat the Buddha uses to describethese situations is that if someonehas complete faith, they are goingto join both palms together infront of their heart in a gesture ofutter devotion and trust. Butsomeone with less faith might just

put one hand up in front of their chest. So whatthe Buddha is describing is a situation in whichsomeone has what we could call “half faith.”They have faith but they also have a lot of doubt.And the Buddha poses the question, “Is theregoing to be any benefit, is there going to be anyresult to putting one hand up in a gesture of halffaith or half devotion?” And his answer is, “Yes,there will definitely be a great result; there willbe great benefit, and the benefit of this willnever be lost.” It will eventually lead to thatbeing’s perfect awakening. So in that way theBuddha praises an attitude of faith even if it iswhat we might consider half-hearted.

A second analogy the Buddha gives beginswith imagining a place of practice such as thisone. Initially, in order to come here, one gener-ates the intention to do so. So someone might

Whatever contactyou have madeand whateverpractice ofdharma you havedone will neverbe lost

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think, “I need to go to such and such place andpractice intensively.” Now obviously, if youactually get there and practice, there will begreat benefit, but suppose someone, havingdecided, “I want to go there and practice,” takesa few steps in order to get there, and aftermerely few steps something getsin their way, a situation comes upthat prevents them from actuallyever reaching the place andpracticing. And the Buddha asks,“In such a situation would therebe a result?” And the answer isyes, there would be a tremendousresult, great benefit; even havingtaken a few steps towards a placeof practice with the intention ofpracticing, even though you neverget there and never practice, willultimately still be a cause ofperfect happiness. So as you go onwith your lives and you go onwith the process that has in-cluded listening to dharma andpracticing dharma, sometimesyou will find that you are free ofimpediments and obstacles thatinterfere with your practice, and other times youwill find that things just get in the way of yourpractice. But when things get in the way, do notbe too discouraged; remember that all of this isalways beneficial, and that it is not an abnormalsituation for sometimes there to be the freedomto practice and other times not. So never thinkill of yourself when you experience impedi-ments.

That is the way this is explained in theteachings of the Buddha, as quoted and ex-pounded by Lord Gampopa. And if we simplythink about it ourselves, we can arrive at thesame conclusion. If we consider appearances,this world as we experience it, we normally

experience things as being very lustrous andcolorful and powerful and distracting, evenseductive. And our minds are very easily pulledaround, fooled, and seduced. Our minds are verynaive. Especially because we have lots ofthoughts about what we experience. We think

that things are going to stay thesame. We think that things arestable and so on. And we usuallyfool ourselves with all of thesethoughts based on appearances.But somehow we have all gener-ated the idea, the thought, thatpracticing dharma and specificallycoming here and participating inthis retreat would be worthwhile,that it would be important enoughto make room for it in our lives.Most beings simply do not comeup with this idea. Most beingswould not choose to come here.The reason we did is that some-how our buddha nature has be-come awakened a little bit, andthe blessings of buddhas andbodhisattvas have somehowentered into us and affected us. So

while obstacles will arise from time to time,these are not as important as they may seem atthe time. They are ultimately temporary andreally unimportant. The process that has begunwith the awakening of our buddha nature andour making the choices we have already made isunstoppable. Ultimately it will lead to our lib-eration. So we are really very fortunate indeed.When you can, when you have the necessaryconditions or resources to do so, by all meanspractice. And when you cannot, when things justget in the way of practice and make it impos-sible, then do not feel too sad, and recognize howextremely fortunate you are.

The process thathas begun withthe awakeningof our buddhanature and ourmaking thechoices we’vealready made isunstoppable.Ultimately, it willlead to ourliberation

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The Twelve Great Aspirations of the Medicine Buddha

Excerpted from the Mahayana Sutra:The Vast Attributes of the Previous Aspiration Prayers of the Noble Victor,

The Deity of Medicine, Light of Lapis Lazuli

The first great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, then may the light of my body makebrilliant, stable, and especially radiant the realms of this universe that are numberless,immeasurable, and beyond any count. May all sentient beings be adorned with the thirty-two marks and the eighty characteristics of a great, noble being. Thus, may all sentientbeings become just as I am.” So he prayed.

The second great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, may my body resemble precious lapislazuli, and be fully adorned with utter purity within and without, a radiant clarity free ofstains, a great agility in all things, blazing glory and brilliance, physical symmetry, and afiligree of light rays brighter than the sun and moon. For those born within this world andfor those who have gone their separate ways into the dark of the dead of night, may mylight come in all directions bringing happiness and contentment. May it also bring aboutvirtuous activity.” So he prayed.

The third great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, through my wisdom and immeasurableskillful means, may countless realms of sentient beings have inexhaustible wealth. May noone be deprived of anything.” So he prayed.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 63

The fourth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, I will place on the path to awakening anysentient being who has entered a negative path. All those who have entered the shravakapath or the pratyekabuddha path, I will guide into the mahayana.” So he prayed.

The fifth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, may any sentient being near to me maintaincelibacy.* Likewise, through my power, may other innumerable sentient beings beyondmeasure, having heard my name, hold their three vows and may their discipline not dete-riorate. May those whose discipline has been corrupted, not enter into the lower realms.” Sohe prayed.

The sixth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, may any sentient being who has an inferiorbody, incomplete faculties, an unpleasant color, a virulent, epidemic disease, impaired limbs,a hunchback, splotchy skin, may any being who is lame, blind, deaf, insane, or struck byillness, upon hearing my name, for each one, may their faculties become whole and theirlimbs be made perfect.” So he prayed.

The seventh great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, for any sentient being whose body is riddledwith the pain of various illnesses, who has no refuge nor protector, no material goods normedicine, no throng of relatives, and who is poor and suffering, when my name comes totheir ears, may all their diseases be pacified. Until awakening, may they be free of illnessand remain unharmed.” So he prayed.

*Editor’s note: The idea of praying to be reborn in arealm where everyone is celibate is inimical to mostWesterners, indeed, probably to most people, andthese people will be happy to know that celibacy doesnot figure in as a necessary feature in a great many ofthe realms of tantric deities. But the opportunity tobe reborn in a realm where celibacy is the norm isimportant to those whose obsession with sex is sogreat that it always involves them in perpetualemotional conflict and mental and social degenera-tion. Living and practicing in such a safe environmentgives them the much-needed chance to break throughthe cycle of emotional, physical, and social degenera-tion.

In addition, for individuals who have no other aimin life but the attainment of liberation or buddhahood,the pratimoksha vows of a monk or a nun, includingthe vow of celibacy, are considered the best—thoughnot the only—foundation for the path until one has

reached at least the first bodhisattva bhumi. (Acommitment to moral living that includes sexualfidelity is also considered a good foundation.) Underordinary circumstances, killing, stealing, lying,sexual intercourse, the use of intoxicants, etc., growout of the kleshas of passion, aggression, andignorance, which in turn are based on the verydualistic clinging that one is seeking to underminethrough one’s practice. Thus these actions reinforcethe kleshas and the confusion in one’s mind. Inaddition, sexual intercourse generally leads tofamilies, which then drastically reduce the amount oftime and energy that one can devote to formalmeditation, which is the backbone of the path. Undersuch circumstances, it is more difficult, if notimpossible, for beginners on the path to develop theprofound vipashyana insight—the view of empti-ness—which is the path to liberation andbuddhahood.

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The eighth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, if some people are intensely afflicted bythe faults of a negative birth, despised for having it, and wish to be free of that place ofbirth, may they be liberated from taking this negative birth again. Until they attain ulti-mate awakening, may a positive rebirth always arise for them.” So he prayed.

The ninth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, I will free all sentient beings from themaras’ noose. I will establish in the correct view all those in disharmony due to variousviews and the problems of discord. Ultimately, I will teach them the practice ofbodhisattvas.” So he prayed.

The tenth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, may the power of my merit completelyliberate [beings] from all harm: those who are terrorized by the fear of a ruler, who are inbondage and beaten, who have fallen into a trap, who are sentenced to death, who areunder the heel of deception, who are not successful, and whose body, speech, and mindare afflicted by suffering.” So he prayed.

The eleventh great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, for those who are burning with hungerand thirst, and who commit negative actions in their continuous efforts to search for food,may I satisfy them physically with food that has [a pleasing] color, smell, and taste. Later,I will bring them to the most blissful taste of the dharma.” So he prayed.

The twelfth great aspiration:

“At a future time when I have attained unsurpassable, ultimate, and perfectly completeenlightenment, having come to full awakening, for those who experience suffering dayand night, being naked with no clothes to wear, poor and miserable, [too] cold or hot,afflicted by flies and maggots, I will give generously whatever they can enjoy, [such as]clothes that have been dyed many colors. I will fulfill all their wishes just as they desirewith a variety of precious ornaments and decorations, necklaces, incense, ointments, thesound of music, musical instruments, and hand cymbals.” So he prayed.

Manjushri, these are the twelve aspirations made by the Victor, the Tathagata, the Arhant,the Perfect Buddha, the Lapis Lazuli Light of Medicine, when he was practicing theconduct of a bodhisattva.

Translated by Michele Martin © March 2000.

SHENPEN ÖSEL 65

This is an edited transcript of a teaching given by The Venerable LamaTashi Namgyal at Kagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling in August 2000.

Without concentration there can be no spiritual progress. Gaining the ability to concentrate—to meditate single-pointedlywithout distraction—is like sharpening a drill, and then learn-

ing to hold it in one place as you apply it. If you try to use a power drillwhile holding it loosely, it will bounce and skip wildly all over the place.In the same way, if you try to apply the powerful vehicle of tantra withoutthe ability to concentrate—or at least without an ongoing commitment toimproving your focus and concentration—then when you say mantrasyour mind will jump all over the place—here, there, and everywhere. Justlike a poorly held power drill, your mind will never get a grip, and then,just as a power drill without a steady grip will not produce a hole, noth-

TTTTThe Vhe Vhe Vhe Vhe Venerable Lenerable Lenerable Lenerable Lenerable Lama Tama Tama Tama Tama Tashi Namgyalashi Namgyalashi Namgyalashi Namgyalashi Namgyal

Without ConcentrationThere Is No Spiritual Progress

66 SHENPEN ÖSEL

ing much will happen in your meditation. Therewill be no penetrating insight. This is not to saythat there is utterly no virtue in practice donewith less than perfect concentration. But theability to penetrate into the nature of reality,which is what liberates from suffering andconfusion, requires sustained single-pointedconcentration.

Whether you learn to concentrate throughpracticing the methods of shamatha from thesutra and tantra traditions, or through practic-ing very scrupulously and carefully the stages ofcreation in tantric practice, you need to developunwavering concentration that you can eventu-ally sustain for hours at a time. Without concen-tration you have no chance of fruition.

If your motive for practicingconcentration is to develop per-sonal sanity, then you are practic-ing the hinayana path. If yourmotive also includes the aspirationto attain buddhahood in order toliberate beings from suffering, thenyou are practicing the mahayanapath. In either case, you must learnto concentrate. One must skillfullyundermine the wandering mindand learn to concentrate if onewants to develop penetratinginsight and primordial awareness.

Because you must work for aliving, you cannot devote yourselfexclusively to practicing concentra-tion and awareness. But if, in youreveryday life, you will see veryclearly where you are and what you are doing,and notice very clearly what you are experienc-ing, you can use your daily life to practice thesevalues. To see very clearly what you are doing isto practice concentration, and to see very clearlywhere you are while you are doing it and tonotice very clearly what you are experiencing isthe practice of awareness.

In order to do this you must slow down andrelax a bit. Mind and energy are inseparable. Ifyou slow down and relax a bit you will haveenergy to spare, which will automatically mani-

fest as greater awareness and a greater ability toconcentrate.

You may think that you are overworked andmay worry that slowing down and relaxing willmake you less efficient. But you will find thatthis is not the case. In the late fifties the fastestsprinter in the world was Ray Norton. When hefirst started training at San Jose State College,his coach took him out onto the track and hadhim run ten successive 220-yard dashes. Thefirst one he was told to run as fast as he could;the second one he was told to run at 5/6 speedand with his hands and jaw relaxed, so relaxedthat his lower lip would bounce up and down ashe ran. The third one he was told to run at fullspeed and the fourth one again at 5/6 speed. In

this way he alternated the tensprints. The coach timed andrecorded each sprint, and whenRay Norton had finished, all ofthe races he had run at “5/6speed” he had actually run fasterthan the ones he had run “fullspeed.” Thinking to slow downand relax a bit, the sprinteractually became more efficient.

Thus, if you slow down a bit,relax a bit, and make sure thatyou see very clearly where youare and what you are doing, yourconcentration and awarenesswill develop; you will cease tomake so many mistakes and falsestarts, and you will find that youactually become more efficient.

So please, in all of your activites, see veryclearly where you are and what you are doing,and notice very clearly—without suppressing oracting out—what you are experiencing. Whenyou walk, walk; when you eat, eat; when youclean house and wash the dishes, just concen-trate on those activities. You do not have to solvethe world’s problems at the same time, and youdo not have to waste your precious energy com-plaining about having to engage in such activi-ties or complaining to yourself about the way youare treated. Be simple and use your life to learn

If you slow downand relax a bityou will haveenergy to spare,which willautomaticallymanifest asgreaterawareness and agreater ability toconcentrate

SHENPEN ÖSEL 67

to concentrate. Without concentration there isno hope for spiritual progress.

If when you walk, you are not all there; if youare absorbed in day dreams and personal “cri-ses,” or if you are thinking “profound thoughts;”or if your mind is wandering, complaining aboutthis and complaining about that; if while you arewalking, your mind is constantly full of sturmund drang and melodramas of all kinds, thenthat is difficult, because you are lost andunconcentrated. If that is your situation, whatcan you do? Just concentrate on your walking.When you wash the dishes, concentrate onwashing the dishes. When you wash your body,concentrate on washing your body. Do thingsvery simply, straightforwardly,and with concentration andawareness. Be aware of thesturm und drang if it is there;you do not want to ignore it. Butconcentrate on what you aredoing, simply, straightforwardly,and precisely. And make your-self aware of the total environ-ment. See very clearly whereyou are and what you are doing,and remember that it is all likea dream.

Do not always wish to besomewhere other than whereyou are. Do not always wishyour situation to be other thanwhat it is. Your personal situa-tion is actually quite a marvel-ous training ground. You won’tbe able to apply the tremendousmental powers that are inherentin your mind anyway until all ofthe confusion in your mindsubsides. And that confusioncannot subside until you incor-porate concentration and aware-ness into your daily life—until you use yourdaily life in such a way that you develop a kindof peacefulness and contentment about beingwhere you are exactly in the situation in whichyou find yourself, until you see each situation as

your training ground, the school of your mind.Exactly where you are you have the opportunityto practice and attain awareness. You can actu-ally open up into your situation on the spot,right where you are. If you can develop thecontentment that arises out of seeing whateverhappens in whatever situation as an opportunityto practice, and then you practice mindfulness ofwhat you are doing and awareness of the envi-ronment in which you are doing it; then by sodoing you will be able to bring all the little tasksthat you have to perform in your life to the pathand utilize them.

Then you will see that there is the possibilityof practicing shamatha and vipashyana in every-

thing we do. When I am editing,and when I am typing, then beingmindful and focused on the move-ment of my fingers is shamatha; Iam practicing concentration.When one’s typing becomes a littlesloppy, as we have all noticed, ifwe simply slow down, relax, andconcentrate a little more carefully,we eliminate a great deal, if notall, of the error. Being aware ofthe environment in which theediting and typing is going on,remembering that it is like anillusion, or looking directly at theprocess to discover its nature isthe practice of awareness.

When you talk to your friend,there is always the possibility ofconcentration and awareness. Ifyou understand that, and if youthen develop mindful concentra-tion and a kind of spacious aware-ness in your daily life, then gradu-ally all of the mental perturbationthat typifies our minds will sub-side. And then it will be easy for

you to do formal practice. It will be easy for youto sit in formal situations. Which will in turnmake it increasingly easy for you to bringshamatha and vipashyana, mindfulness andawareness into your daily life. Which will then

Confusioncannot subsideuntil youincorporateconcentrationand awarenessinto your dailylife—until you useyour daily life insuch a way thatyou developa kind ofpeacefulness andcontentmentabout beingwhere you are

68 SHENPEN ÖSEL

opportunities and be able tosucceed in taking advantage ofthese opportunities because youhave concentration and aware-ness.

So the situation that onefinds oneself in is actually quiteuseful—if we are willing to seeit that way, if we are willing tochange the way we see it, if weare willing to see it as an oppor-tunity rather than as a drag or acurse.

The key point is to learn toconcentrate and be aware. Soplease do that. And rememberthat it is all just like a dream or

an illusion. That will help you to cut through theattachment that turns everything into such a bigdeal.

in turn make it easier for you to sitagain with even better concentra-tion. In this way you will graduallydevelop some kind of ability tofocus your mind and concentrate,and to do that with spacious aware-ness and openness.

And then, if you can do that, ifyou will do that, then seeing andtaking the next step on your pathwill always be easy. It will be easyto see how to intensify your prac-tice and how to take the next steptowards improving your situationin your world. Further opportuni-ties for more intensive practice willnaturally suggest themselves toyou. Opportunities will become apparent, andyou will be able to take advantage of these

Remember that itis all just like adream or anillusion. That willhelp you to cutthrough theattachment thatturns everythinginto such abig deal

SHENPEN ÖSEL 69

The Sky-Dragon’s Profound Roar

Up in the sky’s expanse, true being, unborn, forever pure,Beautiful is the world below me—how many colors do I see.But when I look, I can’t find anything that’s born or has a root.So the time has come to meditate on true reality, of ego-clinging free.

All my possessions, all that I enjoy, are like rainbows in the sky.Even their smallest parts have no essence—they don’t exist at all.So when I enjoy illusory pleasures, empty/appearing tea and beer,It’s time to rest in mind’s full moon—empty awareness, radiant clarity.

The stages of practice of the Tathagata’s view and meditationAre skillful methods that clear away ordinary thoughts.So I train in appearance and mind’s being without base or root—When sickness and death suddenly strike, I’ll be ready, without regret.

TTTTThe Vhe Vhe Vhe Vhe Very Very Very Very Very VenerableenerableenerableenerableenerableKhenpo TKhenpo TKhenpo TKhenpo TKhenpo Tsultrim Gsultrim Gsultrim Gsultrim Gsultrim Gyamtyamtyamtyamtyamtso Rso Rso Rso Rso Rinpocheinpocheinpocheinpocheinpoche

70 SHENPEN ÖSEL

In the pattern that this world and life’s appearances weave,Visions of parents, relatives, and friends are like illusions and dreams.Like morning mist, they are fleeting, and at the time they dissolve,That’s the time to search for unborn confused mind’s basic reality.

In the baseless, rootless, and empty confused appearances of lifeWe suffer from heat and from cold and from so many other things.But diligence in Secret Yana’s practices, so powerful,Makes fox-like cowardice be free all by itself—the time has come!

To what we beautify with hats and clothes, to this heap of elementsWe offer tasty food and many other things—whatever we may find pleasing.But the carelessness and craziness of this life will end one day.So be ready to be fearless of the judgment of the mighty Lord of Death.

From the country of great snow mountains, a realm of dharma,Having crossed many hills and valleys and now flying through the sky,I purify illusory flesh and blood into empty/appearing deity.Paths and bhumis’ realizations self-liberated—in this I train.

Ha Ha! Dechen Rangdrol’s* conduct that’s attachment-free.Ah Ho! It’s time to fly in the expanse of sky of spacious Mother.

This was spoken extemporaneously by Dechen Rangdrol while travelling in theexpanse of sky from Los Angeles to Honolulu. October 29, 1998, and was latertranslated by Ari Goldfield with the help of George Eudy.

*Editor’s note: Dechen Rangdrol, one of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s names, means“Great Bliss, Self-Liberating” or “The Great Bliss of Spontaneous Self-Liberation.”

SHENPEN ÖSEL 71

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‘If the view you take of things is basically correct, then it will be a strong cause‘If the view you take of things is basically correct, then it will be a strong cause‘If the view you take of things is basically correct, then it will be a strong cause‘If the view you take of things is basically correct, then it will be a strong cause‘If the view you take of things is basically correct, then it will be a strong causeof your liberation. And by causing your liberation it will be an indirect cause ofof your liberation. And by causing your liberation it will be an indirect cause ofof your liberation. And by causing your liberation it will be an indirect cause ofof your liberation. And by causing your liberation it will be an indirect cause ofof your liberation. And by causing your liberation it will be an indirect cause ofthe liberation of others. In short, a correct view of how things are produces allthe liberation of others. In short, a correct view of how things are produces allthe liberation of others. In short, a correct view of how things are produces allthe liberation of others. In short, a correct view of how things are produces allthe liberation of others. In short, a correct view of how things are produces allmanner of happiness. On the other hand, if your view is sufficiently incorrectmanner of happiness. On the other hand, if your view is sufficiently incorrectmanner of happiness. On the other hand, if your view is sufficiently incorrectmanner of happiness. On the other hand, if your view is sufficiently incorrectmanner of happiness. On the other hand, if your view is sufficiently incorrectand actually becomes a perverted or misguided use of your intelligence, then itand actually becomes a perverted or misguided use of your intelligence, then itand actually becomes a perverted or misguided use of your intelligence, then itand actually becomes a perverted or misguided use of your intelligence, then itand actually becomes a perverted or misguided use of your intelligence, then itwill obstruct your path to liberation, thereby preventing you from liberatingwill obstruct your path to liberation, thereby preventing you from liberatingwill obstruct your path to liberation, thereby preventing you from liberatingwill obstruct your path to liberation, thereby preventing you from liberatingwill obstruct your path to liberation, thereby preventing you from liberatingothers and becoming an obstothers and becoming an obstothers and becoming an obstothers and becoming an obstothers and becoming an obstacle to happineacle to happineacle to happineacle to happineacle to happiness.ss.ss.ss.ss.’’’’’

from Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachingfrom Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachingfrom Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachingfrom Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachingfrom Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachingon the Medicine Buddha Sutraon the Medicine Buddha Sutraon the Medicine Buddha Sutraon the Medicine Buddha Sutraon the Medicine Buddha Sutra