This guide provides readers with essential background information for studying and practicing with Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher—the text that has, for more than a century, served as the reliable sourcebook to the spiritual practices common to all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. By offering chapter-by-chapter commentary on this renowned work, Khenpo Pelzang provides a fresh perspective on the role of the teacher; the stages of the path; the view of the Three Jewels; Madhyamika, the basis of transcendent wisdom; and much more.
This guide provides readers with essential background information for studying and practicing with Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher—the text that has, for more than a century, served as the reliable sourcebook to the spiritual practices common to all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. By offering chapter-by-chapter commentary on this renowned work, Khenpo Pelzang provides a fresh perspective on the role of the teacher; the stages of the path; the view of the Three Jewels; Madhyamika, the basis of transcendent wisdom; and much more.
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Overview
This guide provides readers with essential background information for studying and practicing with Patrul Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher—the text that has, for more than a century, served as the reliable sourcebook to the spiritual practices common to all the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. By offering chapter-by-chapter commentary on this renowned work, Khenpo Pelzang provides a fresh perspective on the role of the teacher; the stages of the path; the view of the Three Jewels; Madhyamika, the basis of transcendent wisdom; and much more.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780834824218 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Shambhala |
| Publication date: | 06/22/2004 |
| Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 336 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
From
Introduction
HOMAGE
TO THE VENERABLE MASTER endowed with the great compassion free from concepts.
Collect all your thoughts
And listen with excellent motivation.
To a forgetful mind the blessings of Vajrasattva
And the other Buddhas of the three times will never come.
As this quotation from the Vajra Pinnacle tantra shows, whether we are listening to the holy Dharma, explaining it, or practicing it, we should first turn our thoughts inward and examine our own minds.
There are just three types of thoughts that one can have as a human being: negative thoughts related to attachment, aversion, or bewilderment; neutral thoughts;
and positive thoughts of faith, determination to be free, and bodhichitta. If you have a negative thought, you should feel ashamed of yourself and quash it as it arises. As the saying goes:
Clean the lamp while it is warm,
Hit the pig on the snout with a pestle.
In this manner, you should avoid negative thoughts, transform your neutral thoughts, and listen, teach, and practice with especially positive thoughts.
Otherwise, if you only modify your outward conduct in the things you do and say, you will be a hypocrite, for as we find in the Collection of Deliberate
Sayings:
It is not with the hair, neither is it with the staff.
The
Buddha said:
Bring your own mind under control.
That is the Buddha's teaching.
He did not say:
Change the appearance of your body and speech.
That is the Buddha's teaching.
This is why we read in the sutras:
When the mind is pure, the body will be pure;
But purifying the body will not purify the mind.
Accordingly,
since people go to monks for spiritual protection and often summon them to help the dead, monks should cure the sickness in their own minds. That which cures the mind's sickness, the disease of karma and negative emotions, is the sacred
Dharma. Of the ten things that are called "dharma," this is the "sacred
Dharma," or Dharma that is qualified as sacred. Its definition is as follows:
just as medicine cures an illness, the Dharma transforms the mind, turning it away from the wrong path of nonvirtue. In this sense "Dharma," "cure," and
"transformation" mean the same thing. You should have confidence in this cure,
the Dharma. Once you know that the holy Dharma protects you from all the fears of samsara and the lower realms and is the source of benefit and happiness in this and future lives, and that the teachings of the sacred Dharma will therefore never let you down in this life, in future lives, or in the intermediate state, you have to have faith in it. It has been said:
Day and night, apply the precious wheel of faith
To the path of virtue.
and
Faith comes before all else, like a mother it gives birth to all;
The root of all Dharma is faith.
Who was it who taught this doctrine of the holy Dharma? It was:
The unsurpassable teacher, the precious Buddha.
—that is, the unsurpassable teacher, the incomparable, peerless King of the Shakyas.
He is the Lion of the Shakyas who as the
dharmakaya
is Samanta-bhadra, as the
sambhogakaya
is the great Vajradhara, and in his
nirmanakaya
form is Shakyamuni the protector of beings.
Just as the Teacher is beyond compare, so was his aspiration as the brahmin minister's son Ocean Dust, and so is his incomparable Teaching.
As we find in the Seven Chapters:
From the inconceivable, marvelous doctrine of the Buddhas
The supremely noble teaching will appear three times.
The
Secret Mantra Vajrayana appeared more than ten million kalpas ago when the
Buddha Once Come King taught, during the kalpa called Complete Array. In the future kalpa Strewn Flowers, when the Buddha known as Manjushri will teach, the
Secret Mantra will appear on a vast scale. At present, while the doctrine of the Buddha Shakyamuni endures, the Secret Mantra Vajrayana is taught extensively. These are the only three Ulpas in which beings are suitable vessels for receiving the teachings of the Secret Mantrayana.
What then is meant by the following passage from the Magical Net of Manjushri?
The teachings of the past Buddhas
Will also be taught by future ones.
It refers to the Secret Mantrayana, which will not be proclaimed on a wide scale.
The realm of the present Buddha Shakyamuni, the one thousand million-fold Saha world, is called the "world of no fear" not because it is very good. Rather, it is so called for its great evil. Sentient beings here are not afraid of desire,
they are not frightened by anger and they have no fear of ignorance, which is why it is called the realm of the Saha world. That incomparable Teacher taught
The unsurpassable protection, the precious sacred Dharma .
. .
—that is, the 84,000 elements of the Dharma. When these are all put together they constitute the Twelve Branches of Excellent Speech, which again together constitute the Three Pitakas. The Tripitaka is what is called the Conqueror's precious doctrine of transmission and realization. The Tripitaka itself is known as the Dharma of transmission because, just as we use handles to carry an earthen pot or leather bag, we use words to make the Dharma of realization unfold. The subject of the Tripitaka is the path of the superior threefold training, which is the Dharma of realization.
As to why this "path of superior training" is superior: non-Buddhist traditions have their own meditative concentrations and include ascetic practices in which one acts like a dog or an ox, but it is not possible to attain liberation and omniscience by such paths. Through the Buddha's path of the superior training,
Buddhists do attain the state of liberation and omniscience, which is why it is called the superior training.
There are no teachings belonging to the Sutrayana or Mantrayana that are not included in the Tripitaka and the threefold training. In the Basic Vehicle the subjects that are taught in the Three Pitakas—Vinaya, Sutras, and Abhidharma—are the three trainings: respectively, discipline, concentration, and wisdom.
In the Bodhisattva path, all the precepts that explain the root downfalls belong to the Vinaya Pitaka, and its whole subject is the training in discipline. All the sutras that teach the methods for developing concentration belong to the
Sutra Pitaka; and its whole subject, the meditation on how difficult it is to find the freedoms and advantages and so forth, is the training in concentration. All the explanations of the sixteen or twenty kinds of emptiness belong to the Abhidharma Pitaka; and its whole subject is the training in wisdom.
The descriptions of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana samayas belong to the Vinaya
Pitaka, and its subject is the training in discipline. The explanations of the common generation and perfection phases belong to the Sutra Pitaka, and its subject is the training in concentration. The explanations on the Great
Perfection belong to the Abhidharma Pitaka, and its subject is the training in wisdom.
To summarize, there are no texts and subjects belonging to these different vehicles that are not included in the Tripitaka and the threefold training.
Now,
who is the holder of the Conqueror's precious doctrine of transmission and realization? It is:
The unsurpassable guide, the precious Sangha . . .
—that is to say, the doctrine is held exclusively by the members of the Sangha and not by beings such as gods, demons, Brahma, or the Lord of the Universe.
The holders are the sublime members of the Sangha, and to hold the doctrine, they have to hold the Dharma of transmission by listening and explaining, and to hold the Dharma of realization by practice and accomplishment.
We should not look down like a dog, but look up like a bird, counting ourselves as members of the Sangha. If we look down and behave like ordinary men and women,
they will call us "corrupt monk, rotten monk!" A rotten monk is someone with shameful discipline, poor concentration, and a lack of wisdom. So instead we should look up and follow the Three Jewels: our teacher is the Buddha, the
Bhagavan. That which shows us the path that leads to the state of liberation and omniscience is the sacred Dharma, the Conqueror's Dharma of transmission and realization. Those who accompany us on the way to the state of liberation and omniscience are the noble Manjushri and the spiritual friends attending this present teaching, whose conduct is equally pure. Since we count ourselves as members of the Sangha, we should hold the Dharma of transmission and realization and never be driven to demeaning it. This is what we mean by
"members of the guiding Sangha."
Sangha,
or "yearning for virtue," refers exclusively to those who yearn for the path of the superior threefold training. It does not refer to those who are fond of negative actions, of business, disputes, or fights.
"Guiding"
means, having first been shown the path for liberating oneself and having attained liberation, showing ordinary lay people the path to liberation and guiding them on the path to liberation and omniscience as if leading them by the hand. This is why it is called the guiding Sangha.
Ordinary people have kings as their leaders, negative actions as their path, and people who act negatively as their companions—businessmen, thieves, hunters, friends whose mouths are full of empty oaths and lies, and those who destroy any virtue one might have. For this reason, you should think, "It is not right for me to follow such a path, so I shall never do so, for now I know the advantages of the Dharma and disadvantages of worldly paths."
These then are what we call the Three Jewels:
The unsurpassable teacher, the precious Buddha
The unsurpassable refuge, the precious sacred Dharma
The unsurpassable guide, the precious Sangha
—that is, the Three Rare and Supreme Ones. In this world precious things such as gold, silver, and wish-fulfilling gems are not all that rare. Sometimes old people with great merit find a precious wish-fulfilling gem. It is also possible that King Indrabhuti obtained one. But a wish-fulfilling gem can only be a source of food, clothes, somewhere to live, and possessions in this life;
it does not dispel all the fears and sufferings of this and future lives. The
Three Rare and Supreme Jewels remove all the fears and sufferings of this and future lives and give rise to all the benefits and happiness of this and future lives. Therefore, because the Three Rare and Supreme Ones are very rare in the world, they are called rare and supreme and not "abundant and supreme." You should understand that you need to have a thorough knowledge of the Three Rare and Supreme Jewels, so that whenever you listen to the holy Dharma, explain it,
or practice it, you will never leave their protection.
Of these Three Jewels, the Buddha is the one who shows us the path to liberation and omniscience. As the Buddha said:
I have shown you the methods that lead to liberation,
But liberation depends on you, so exert yourselves.
The
Dharma is what protects us, and nothing else can do so. Even the Buddha cannot protect us. When Devadatta seized the Tathagata's big toe and cried out in anguish, "Gautama, I burn, I am ablaze, I am consumed by fire!'" the Buddha could do no more than teach him the Dharma, saying:
Devadatta, from the depth of your heart recite:
"I go for refuge to the Buddha,
I go for refuge to the Dharma, I go for refuge to the
Sangha."
The
Buddha is not a catapult that can shoot stones up to the level of liberation;
no one can propel you to liberation if you do not practice the Dharma yourself.
Those who hold the Dharma are the members of the Sangha, and the Dharma they hold comprises 84,000 elements. Put together, these constitute the Twelve Branches of Excellent Speech, which in turn can be compiled as the Three Pitakas. The
Three Pitakas together constitute the Buddha's two precious doctrines of transmission and realization.
If we divide the Dharma into vehicles, there are what we call the worldly vehicle,
or vehicle of gods and humans, and the transcendent vehicle, or vehicle of complete liberation.
The worldly vehicle takes one from existence in the three lower realms to the level of gods and humans in the higher realms, and this is why it is called the worldly vehicle.
The transcendent vehicle comprises two vehicles: the Basic Vehicle, known as the
Vehicle of Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas, so called because it takes one to nirvana, the state of the Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas; and the Great Vehicle,
so called because it takes one to perfect buddhahood beyond the two extremes.
The texts that indicate these graded paths are the Buddha's own teachings and the shastras of his followers. These exist in the form of the vast Buddhist canon,
a very large number of transmissions and widely dispersed with instructions, so the subject matter is infinite, and in this decadent age when the span of life is short it is impossible to learn it all, let alone practice it. As Saraha said:
Drink the cool, soothing nectar
Of your master's instructions until you are replete,
Else die exhausted in the plain of misery,
Still thirsting for the teachings in a myriad shastras.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
xvii
Foreword by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche
xix
Translator's
Introduction
xxi
Introduction
3
Part
One: The Ordinary or Outer Preliminaries
13
Chapter
One: The Difficulty of Finding the Freedoms and Advantages
17
I.
The Proper Way to Listen to Spiritual Teaching 18
1.
Attitude18
2.
Conduct 35
II.
The Teaching Itself 39
1.
Reflecting on the Nature of Freedom 44
2.
Reflecting on the Ten Particular Advantages Related to Dharma 47
3.
Reflecting on Images That Show How Difficult It Is to Find the Freedoms and
Advantages 50
Chapter
Two: The Impermanence of Life
55
I.
The Impermanence of the Outer Universe in which Beings Live 55
II.
The Impermanence of Beings Living in the Universe 57
III.
The Uncertainty of the Circumstances of Death 58
IV.
Intense Awareness of Impermanence 61
Chapter
Three: The Defects of Samsara
62
I.
The Defects Of Samsara In General 64
II.
The Particular Sufferings Experienced by the Beings of Each of the Six Realms 64
Chapter
Four: Actions: The Principle of Cause and Effect
67
I.
Negative Actions to Be Abandoned 74
1.
Explanation of the Negative Actions to be Abandoned 74
2.
Explanation of Their Effects 74
II.
Positive Actions to Be Adopted 75
III.
The All-Determining Quality of Actions 75
Chapter
Five: The Benefits of Liberation
83
Chapter
Six: How to Follow a Spiritual Friend
87
I.
Examining the Teacher 87
II.
Following the Teacher 89
III.
Emulating the Teacher's Realization and Actions 89
Part
Two: The Extraordinary or Inner Preliminaries
91
Chapter
One: Taking Refuge, the Foundation Stone of All Paths
93
I.
Approaches to Taking Refuge 95
II.
How to Take Refuge 99
III.
Precepts and Benefits of Taking Refuge 128
1.
The Precepts of Taking Refuge 128
2.
The Benefits of Taking Refuge 130
Chapter
Two: Arousing Bodhichitta, the Root of the Great Vehicle
133
I.
Training The Mind in the Four Boundless Qualities 134
1.
Impartiality 137
2.
Love 145
3.
Compassion 148
4.
Sympathetic Joy 150
II.
Arousing Bodhichitta, The Mind of Supreme Enlightenment 151
III.
Training in the Bodhichitta Precepts 162
1.
Training in the Precepts of the Bodhichitta of Aspiration 162
2.
Training in the Precepts of the Bodhichitta of Application 181
Chapter
Three: Meditating on the Teacher as Vajrasattva and Reciting His Mantra so as to Cleanse All Adverse Circumstances, Negative Actions, and Obscurations
221
I.
How Negative Actions Can Be Purified Through Confession 221
II.
How to Confess Negative Actions 226
III.
The Actual Meditation and Recitation on Vajrasattva 227
Chapter
Four: Offering the Mandala to Accumulate Merit and Wisdom
233
I.
The Need for the Two Accumulations 233
II.
The Accomplishment Mandala 239
III.
The Offering Mandala 240
Chapter
Five: The Kusali's Accumulation: Destroying the Four Demons at a Single Stroke
244
I.
Giving One's Body 245
II.
The Meaning Of Chö 246
III.
The Actual Practice of Offering the Body 249
Chapter
Six: The Profound Guru Yoga, the Ultimate Method for Arousing the Wisdom of
Realization in One's Mind
253
I.
The Reason For Guru Yoga: A Comparison of the Role of the Teacher In the Nine
Yanas 253
II.
How to Practice Guru Yoga 265
1.
Visualizing the Field of Merit 266
2.
Offering the Seven Branches 267
3.
Praying with Resolute Trust 274
4.
Taking the Four Empowerments 277
Part
Three: The Swift Path of Transference
281
I.
The Five Kinds of Transference 282
1.
Superior Transference to the Dharmakaya through the Seal of the View 282
2.
Middling Transference to the Sambhogakaya through the Union of the Generation and Perfection Phases 283
3.
Lower Transference to the Nirmanakaya through Immeasurable Compassion 283
4.
Ordinary Transference Using Three Images 283
5.
Transference Performed for the Dead 284
II.
The Practice of Transference Using Three Images 284
1.
Training for Transference 284
2.
Actual Transference 284
Concluding
Instructions
287
Prayers
289
Notes
295
Glossary
319
The
Three Worlds
327
The
Five Bodhisattva Paths and the Thirty-seven Elements Leading to Enlightenment
329
Comparative
Glossary
331
Bibliography
341
Index
347