Posts
Also see: On the Importance of Merits
Nafis shared:
Someone asked me about karmic purification and deity yoga a while back and I sent them a few relevant passages in a word document:
[text]
However it's necessary to have a karmic/energetic affinity to Vajrasattva/Vajrakilaya practice in order to derive the full benefits.
Text:
"
These two articles on the blog discuss manifestation and merits:
https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2024/02/tara-and-manifestation.html
https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2021/11/on-importance-of-merits.html
These two articles talk about mantras from the perspective of dependent origination/Tibetan sorcery:
https://perfumedskull.com/2017/06/14/some-dos-and-donts-of-mantric-or-tantric-healing/
https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2018/09/a-compilation-of-simpos-writings.html
Sim Pern Chong:
Hi,
I can remember some of my past lifes and can confidently say that certain things that happened (and how one respond to it) in life is due to what transpired in previous lifes.
Also, since we are at the topic of karma, will also like to share some opinions on Merit.
It may sound controversial, merit appears to be an influential factor regarding one's potential and level of 'smoothness' for gaining enlightenment.
...
Hi,
The definition of merits and how to acquire them are not difficult to find. So, will not write about them.
Basically, my understanding is that the Dharma Teaching is the mechanism for leading Beings out of suffering and the rebirth cycle. So activities that promotes its right understanding and peoples' contact with the Dharma benefits ones' right understanding and progress along the path.
Likewise, activities that obstruct or confuse others with regards to the Dharma, will result in obstruction and confusion on the path.
We don't have to go far to see this effect. Already there are people patronising this forum who are experiencing the effect of confusing others with regards to the teaching, leading to their own confusion.
Hi All,
Will like to recommend a nice article:
Vajrasattva Purification
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/advanced/tantra/level1_getting_started/vajrasattva_purification_basics.html
Originally posted by Dharmadhatu:
i have read that the 2 most profound ways to clear karma in the Vajrayana is to practise Vajrasattva and rest in nature of mind.
My friends have increased their intelligence, cured diseases, removed destructive patterns that were unconducive to practice, increased clarity & strength of mind etc etc etc. through this practice. It is a main way to clear obstacles on the path. As Vajrasattva is the quintessence of all deities. Simply to practice his mantra covers all the other Buddhas / Deities and Vajrasattva practice is also intimately connected to the bardo experiences.
Simpo:
Yes, I find Vajrasattva Purification to be very powerful. Incidentally, i have
only discovered this method not too long ago..in the beginning of the year.
It is through 'interesting' means... It started, when i was concerned that someone i know might be going towards negativity and thus falling into woeful state in future life. As people dun always believe what i say... i thought maybe i should get a 'qian' from Guan Yin at the Bugis temple... and use the 'qian' paper as a physical message. So i told the person that i will be going to Guan Yin temple to ask Guan Yin about 'what her future life condition will be'. As expected... the qian is a 'bad' one. But more importantly is the message of the qian. It says that there will be no reward/good result due to lack of merits or something like that. and that the conditions in life is determined by ones' merits.
With that, i gave the 'qian' paper to the
person. I went to search on the topic of 'merit' and chance upon Vajrasattva
Purification... Next i recommend the Vajrasattva Purification to others and
practice it myself. :)
What I have found is that with whatever practice, deep respect for the Teacher is very important whether you can see the Teacher or not. Without deep respect, there will be pride and no faith and thus understandings cannot be effectively transmitted.
Originally posted by "newbie":
What purification practice you do? The article didn't actually teach the purification practice and certain method needs initiation
Simpo: It is in the article. The article also gave a very detailed description of karmic dynamics.
Anyway a simpler article:
http://www.fpmt-osel.org/meditate/vjrstva.htm
Also... read the meaning of the texts first .. and see if this is what you aspire towards. Again as i have stressed... to be effective.. there must be deep respect.
Plus... you cannot replace this with the other essential practices entailing insight practices, concentration and morality.
Originally posted by StriveOn:
Sorry guys, but I want to put up some tough
questions here.
Did Buddha says we can purify our karma by reciting a mantra 100,000 times?
What did Buddha says about Karmic formations and what we should do?
Just want to keep on track...
Simpo: Actually.. i should not have bring up this practice as it raises too much confusion with certain people.
In a nutshell, the mantra and visualisation alone of course will have no power... one must understand the meaning. It is like a statement of intention and commitment.
Additionally, the world is not what you see as it is. For those who realises emptiness, one will also understand that space, time, distance and locations are just impressions. They don't exist in a solid and permanent sense. That means, the Enlightenment and Wisdom of Great Beings are still accessible as they are not restricted by space, time, distance and locations. The world/consciousness is really holographic.
No, these Being will not reduce your karma. IMO, it is more like by being attuned with Enlightened Being... and in the process one gets supported along the way. It is like as if an uncharged metal can be progressively magnetised when come in contact with a real magnet.
Me: Regarding deity yoga, the visualization is simply a means/energetic conduit tapping into the collective experience of practitioners across endless lifetimes imbuing meaning to the mantras/perception of the deity. This is a good article by Alexander Berzin on this topic, titled “Buddhist Deity or Mickey Mouse: What’s the Difference?”
Are these Buddha-figures actual beings or are they creations of the mind, for instance Avalokiteshvara being the manifestation of compassion.
This is a very complex question. According to tradition, some Buddha-figures, such as Avalokiteshvara and Tara, are actual living beings with their own mental continuums. Tara, for instance, was a bodhisattva who vowed always to appear in female form, all the way till becoming a Buddha, so as to inspire and encourage women that they can achieve enlightenment. A Buddha can, of course, manifest in any form that will benefit others, including the form of Tara. But that doesn’t mean that the mental continuum of that Buddha becomes the mental continuum of the individual being, Tara. Mental continuums always remain individual and never merge.
There are other figures that might not necessarily have had their own individual mental continuums, but that a Buddha can manifest as, like Kalachakra. There are no accounts of Kalachakra having ever been an individual living being, but Buddha manifested in this form to teach the Kalachakra Tantra. So that’s from the side of a Buddha.
From our side as practitioners, in anuttarayoga tantra, the highest class of tantra, we’re speaking about the subtlest level of mind and energy, which all beings have, including when they become enlightened. This subtlest energy can be shaped to appear in any form. When Buddhas are manifesting in all these forms of Buddha-figures, it’s out of their subtlest energy. On our level of practice, we can’t manifest our subtlest energy in any form, and even at very advanced levels when we can, we can’t maintain it all the time. Now, at our level, when we imagine ourselves in these forms, they’re merely representations of what we’ve not yet attained.
So the interesting question is, are these just imagination? What does it mean that they’re just imagination? If you’re familiar with tantra practice, we have within a sadhana – a sadhana is a meditation practice for actualizing ourselves as a Buddha-figure – a visualization of ourselves in what is called the “close-bonding figure,” sometimes translated as “commitment being,” with a close-bonding mandala around us. We then call forth what I call the “deep awareness being,” also called the “wisdom being,” to merge with it.
I always thought, and I guess many others too, that the close-bonding form was what you made a close bond with in order to actually attain the form. And I also always thought it was purely imaginary, while the deep awareness ones were the real ones coming from the Buddha-fields. But my teacher Serkong Rinpoche said that on a certain stage of the path, I think it’s the second, the path of application, you can actually receive teachings from a painting, a statue, and also from the close-bonding and deep awareness beings. So it’s not just our imagination; when you reach a certain level, it can function as an actual Buddha.
So, are these Buddha-figures imaginary, are they real? What do we mean by “real”? It becomes complicated! It’s like the statues and thangka scroll-paintings, for which we have what’s known as a “rabney” in Tibetan, which is sometimes translated as “consecration.” In this ritual, the deep awareness aspect is summoned and merged with the statues or paintings, and so prostrating and making offerings to them is the same as doing so to an actual Buddha. In Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior, the Indian master Shantideva wrote that you build up as much positive potential making offerings to a stupa (reliquary monument) of a Buddha as to the actual Buddha. Is it idol worship? Well, not really. One has to understand that one can receive teachings from anything – even from the wind – when you’re at an advanced level.
So on one level, the Buddha-figures represent what has not yet happened, but which can happen. On another, they are a different level at which our subtlest energy can manifest. On another level, we are imagining them. But yet on another level, we can even receive teachings from them as we would from a Buddha. And some are based on an actual living being with their own mental continuum, and some are not.
These are two books that go into further detail regarding vajrasattva/vajrakilaya:
https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Vajrasattva-Tantric-Path-Purification/dp/0861713893/
https://www.amazon.com/Vajrakilaya-Complete-Guide-Experiential-Instructions/dp/1611809053
The goal of the mantras/deity yoga visualization is to activate/purify our subtle body (from the book on Vajrakilaya):
Having become frustrated by slow progress, sometimes students say things like, “I have been practicing for five years now. Why can I not see the wisdom deities?” But one cannot expect to perceive the saṁbhogakāyas until self-grasping has been cleared away. Thus, one should understand that achieving the desired result depends more on a mind of altruism and immeasurable love than on visualization techniques.
The guru, yidam, and ḍākiṇī have taken on a samaya for the sake of sentient ones and, on that basis, have attained buddhahood. When, from the conventional perspective, one gives rise to vast love for sentient beings, it brings extreme delight to the field of accumulation, since their objective is also to benefit all beings. For example, it is said that in the past if someone offered a pot full of gold to the Bhagavan Buddha, he wouldn’t even look at it. However, if a person gave rise to just a bit of compassion for sentient ones, the Buddha would slightly smile. Thus, by generating immeasurable compassion for every sentient being, one pleases the enlightened ones. As the force of bodhicitta is born in one’s own mind, it stirs the wisdom deities’ hearts, causing them to bestow their blessings of body, speech, and mind. This is how the light rays, which are the nature of the deities’ own altruistic intent, “rouse the divine Three Roots’ samaya from its vital point.”
In return, their blessings of body, speech,
and mind are gathered together in a rainfall of OṀ, ĀḤ, and HŪ
syllables, which merge into one’s three
places. Thus, their blessing, the nature of bodhicitta, enriches the sādhaka’s
altruistic mind. In this way, the buddhas and deities support and give backing
to those who have the mind set on benefiting others. Since bodhicitta benefits
sentient ones and delights the deities, the two objectives of self and others
are simultaneously accomplished merely through cultivating love. One should
imagine that this rainfall of seed syllables descends upon all sentient ones according
to the visualization in the text. This example of rainfall has a great
connection with the actual meaning. At the basis, immature sentient ones are
like flower buds. When they are nourished by the rainfall, they will blossom
and the qualities of the fully matured flower will become evident.
As for the syllables OṀ ĀḤ HŪ “merging ceaselessly into” one’s “three
places,” in fact, all sentient ones possess the seeds of the buddhas’ body,
speech, and mind. At the very basis, their bodies are nirmāṇakāyas; their
speech, saṁbhogakāyas; and their minds, the dharmakāya. Since they are endowed
with the seeds of the three kāyas, if they make a connection with all the
buddhas through generating great love, the buddhas’ blessings dissolve into
them ceaselessly. That is, OṀ syllables dissolve uninterruptedly into the OṀ at
their crowns, ĀḤ syllables dissolve uninterruptedly into the ĀḤ at
their throats, and so forth. Like snowflakes falling on the surface of a lake,
they merge indivisibly on contact. Through this visualization, resplendent
blessings will enter and one’s mind will abide in comfort and ease. The mind
will be cleansed through abiding with single-pointed focus. This is an
extremely important point, which hearkens back to the need to continuously
receive empowerment as the antidote to dualistic self-grasping.
The text continues, “Further, I imagine all the blessings and potency of every victor’s compassion as Vajrakīla’s divine hosts in unfathomable great and small forms that gently fall and merge with me.” The heart-blessing of all the buddhas of the ten directions and three times thus descends in the forms of Vajrakīlas as large as Mount Meru to bless the entire worldly container. In addition, forms as tiny as atomic particles dissolve into the bodies, speech, and minds of the sentient contents. In this way, the entire universe is completely packed with wisdom deities’ bodies, vast and small. As they dissolve into one, their immeasurable love and compassion destroys one’s self-grasping, causing the four immeasurables to increase. Because the single intent of all the buddhas is nothing other than the welfare of sentient ones, they will endow with their strength whoever gives rise to the mind set on benefiting others. It is on this basis that the supreme siddhi is realized. When the ice of sentient ones’ self-grasping melts and merges with the vast ocean, that is buddhahood. Thus, one should understand the deities’ blessing to be love and compassion.
Furthermore, with regard to the benefits of the accomplishment retreat, when there have assembled at least four members of the sangha—those who have entered the path of Buddhist practice according to the systems of individual liberation, the Bodhisattva Vehicle, or Mantric Vehicle—that assembly is invested with great strength. It is suitable to refer to them as “an order of the sangha.” It is extremely efficacious for an order of the sangha to make aspirations. This is the reason why long-life prayers for eliminating obstacles are recited at the time of group accomplishment retreats. To make offerings to an order of the sangha is similarly powerful. This is why meals are often sponsored at such gatherings.
In particular, as beings of high, middling, and lesser faculties participate in such assemblies, whatever potency is present for those of highest faculties will be equally shared by each participant. For this reason, however vast the assembly, there is said to be a corresponding degree of potency. Thus, Guru Rinpoche taught that a seven-day group accomplishment retreat is more effective than an individual remaining in solitary retreat for seven years. Since these words are actually true for those who really practice, they help one to appreciate the great qualities of accomplishment retreats. Obtaining the buddhas’ blessings and potency should be understood in this way.
Finally, the visualization of the approach mantra concludes, “Like opened sesame pods are the body mandala’s gods and channel hubs’ divine couples. They and all in the mandala recite the mantra, resounding like a beehive broken open.” Just as during a secret accomplishment a temple houses many people who continuously chant the mantra, so too one’s own body is like a building full of countless, ever-present deities, the murmur of whose voices is constant. Many hundreds of thousands of deities abide within the channels of the subtle body and comprise the body mandala. Dwelling in the channel wheels at the crown, throat, heart, and so forth, the “channel hubs’ divine couples” can be roughly understood as the ten wrathful couples and the other deities named in the practice manual. However, if one considers them in finer and finer detail, manifestations of the five wisdoms appear in each cakra. As each of the five wisdoms is present in a single wisdom, each of those five can be further subdivided into five, making twenty-five. Expanding outward from those, the hundred families of the holy peaceful and wrathful ones manifest. In this way, innumerable emanations of the deity emerge, just as countless rays of light appear from one sun.
In addition to the principal divine couple and the deities of the outwardly manifest mandala, the many thousands of deities of the body mandala also simultaneously recite the mantra. In this way, one should imagine the mantra resounding.
If you look at non-Buddhist mantras such as OM or Western Occultism/Chaos Magick, the reason the techniques work is due to the underlying intent/belief behind it, our thoughts have the power to influence external reality depending on our vibrational frequency.
Dharma Master Dazhao: “As long as you give rise to a thought, this thought will act as a net in the Ten Realms and capture your entire Realm within it. When giving rise to a kind thought, the manifestation from your realm will be a kind Realm; give rise to an evil thought, the manifestation of your realm will be an evil Realm. We are ordinary and foolish, we are not aware that the thought born out our heart will have such an enormous impact on our Realm. But all the Buddhas in the ten directions, great virtuous founders of past dynasties, all friends on the same journey, those who are diligently forging ahead, those with a sensitive heart, all will immediately sense it. Just like wireless radio waves that are immediately received, intercepting your signal. As long as the mind moves, karma is born, there will be consequences. This consequence will then change our future direction and path. Every thought, as long as it is born, its signal will spread to the entire Realm. Even if you are alone in the room and feeling angry, very angry, smashing the cup onto the ground, you think that nobody is watching you in the room, in reality, all Buddhas in the ten directions as well as your own life reality, will manifest an angry and complete Realm, neglecting nothing. Every thought possesses this universality in the Ten Dharma Realms. In other words, the signal from our mind will at any time cover the entire world. The degree of this coverage is very high.”
From the book on Vajrasattva:
All life’s success—including success in such ordinary things as family and friendship, business, health, wealth, and power—depends upon both purifying negative karmic obstacles and not creating more negative karma. How do we create negative karma? When we engage in the ten negativities out of selfishness and delusion. The deluded minds are those of ignorance, attachment, and anger; the ten negativities are the three of body—killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct—the four of speech—lying, slander, harsh speech, and gossip—and the three of mind—covetousness, ill will, and wrong views. According to the natural law of karma, if you hurt others, you hurt yourself.
It works the other way, too. If you want others to love you, you must first love others. If you help or benefit others, naturally they will help or benefit you. The cause and effect of karma is as simple as this. As for the Vajrasattva purification practice, which is more powerful than negative karma, it can prevent you from experiencing problems that negative karma would otherwise have brought. Thus the practice of purification is one of the most important solutions to problems, and is extremely necessary, even for people who believe there is only one life.
Unfortunately, such people’s hearts are usually not open to learning new things about the reality of life or the nature of phenomena—new philosophies, new subjects. They won’t even analyze new possibilities. All this prevents them from experiencing both temporal and ultimate happiness. If you don’t want relationship problems, business failures, illness, notoriety, or the criticism of others, the practice of Vajrasattva is extremely important.
When it comes to spiritual growth, the Vajrasattva purification practice is even more important. As Mañjushri advised Lama Tsongkhapa, “The way to actualize the path to enlightenment quickly is to do three things: practice purification and the accumulation of merit, make single-pointed requests to the guru, and train the mind in the path to enlightenment.” The practice of Vajrasattva is common to all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism—Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk—where it is used to purify obstacles, obscurations, negative karma, and illness. The root tantra Dorje Gyän (Vajra Ornament) states that if you are always unconscious and careless, even small negativities cause great damage to your body, speech, and mind, just as the venom of a poisonous snake will spread rapidly throughout your body, getting worse and worse every day, endangering your life.
The great enlightened being Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo said that if you have killed even a tiny insect and have not purified that negativity by the end of the day with a practice such as the Vajrasattva purification, the weight of that karma will have doubled by the next day. On the third day it will have doubled again, and by fifteen days will have become as heavy as the karma of killing a human being. By eighteen days it will have increased 131,072 times. So you can see, as the weeks and months and years go by, one tiny little negative karma will have multiplied over and over until it has become like a mountain the size of this earth. When death arrives, the karma will have become incredibly heavy.
Here I am talking about just one small negative karma, but every day we accumulate many, many negative karmas of body, speech, and mind. The weight of each tiny negative karma created each day multiplies over and over again, becoming unimaginably heavy. And there’s no question that every day, besides those small negative karmas, we also create many gross negativities. Thus we have accumulated many heavy negative karmas in this life, and in all our beginningless previous lives as well. If you contemplate the continuous multiplication of all these karmas it is unimaginably unimaginable!
The Dorje Gyän states that if you recite the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra twenty-one times every day, negative karmas are prevented from multiplying. The great, sublime realized beings also explain that this is the way to purify whatever downfalls and transgressions you have accumulated. Furthermore, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, who is actually Heruka himself, has explained that if recited twenty-eight times each day, the short Vajrasattva mantra (OM VAJRASATTVA HUM) has incredible purifying power. It not only has the power to prevent any negative karma created that day from multiplying, but it can also completely purify all negativities you have ever created—in that day, in that life, and even since your beginningless rebirths.
These are some of the incredible benefits of practicing the Vajrasattva recitation and meditation. Moreover, it is taught that if you recite the long Vajrasattva mantra one hundred thousand times you can purify even broken root vows of highest yoga tantra. Thus there’s no question that you can purify broken root pratimoksha (individual liberation) and bodhisattva vows through this technique.
Experienced meditators have advised that, in general, it is more important to put your everyday life’s effort into the practice of purification—this is the way to attain spiritual realizations. The Kadampa Geshe Dolpa said that if you practice purification and the accumulation of merit continuously and turn your mind to the path, lamrim realizations that you thought would take one hundred years to achieve will come to you in just seven. Such is the inspiring testimony of the highly experienced meditators who have attained the various levels of the path to enlightenment. (…)
BEFORE YOU CAN PRACTICE the completion stage of highest yoga tantra, among other things, such as guru yoga, you must practice the Vajrasattva yoga method. The Panchen Lama said that in order to understand the reality of your mind, you have to do intensive purification and collect a vast amount of merit. Both are important.
Take, for example, our own experience. We are very enthusiastic and really want from the bottom of our hearts to enjoy deep meditation, but no matter how hard we try, we always encounter mental garbage, distractions, and the sluggish, sleepy mind. Without control, millions of concepts, negative thoughts, and superstitions gallop through our minds. That means something’s missing. And what is that? Purification. We need a lot of purification.
You can’t blame the practices you’ve been doing: “I’ve been meditating for two years, and I still haven’t achieved single-pointed concentration. What’s the point of meditating?” You can’t say that. Every day your superstitious mind takes you on an unbelievable trip. In one night it can take you around the whole world. Every trip leaves deep karmic imprints in your mind. It takes a long time to eradicate these. So you shouldn’t be arrogant: “I’m not particularly negative. I’m pretty pure. I’ve never killed anyone; I don’t lie; my parents take care of me, so I don’t have to fight and cheat for food and clothing. I don’t need purification.” That’s just an ego trip.
Impurity comes from the mind as well as the body. Check out the trips that your mind has been on from the time you were born until now. It’s unbelievable. If you look at those experiences in the light of the twelve links of dependent arising, you’ll practically drown in the ocean of superstition. That’s why we need a great deal of purification.
For example, it would be pretty hard to grow fine, delicate lettuce here in Dharamsala. The soil here is very rocky, and the weeds are out of control. The ground would need a lot of work. Similarly, our minds need a lot of purification to eradicate the gross superstitions that prevent our fine, most subtle consciousness from functioning.
Also, sometimes we might think we’re very capable of doing something, but deep inside, a subconscious voice keeps saying, “I’m incapable, I’m incapable; I’m not good at anything. I’ll never be liberated, never be enlightened, never be Vajrayogini.” Inside, that kind of stuff is going on all the time. Within your subconscious, a million chickens are clucking, “Not possible, not possible”; a million snakes are hissing, “Not possible, not possible”; a million pigs are grunting, “Not possible, not possible.” Your subconscious mind is deeply contaminated by billions of delusions like these.
You’d be surprised at how pervasive this contamination is. You truly believe at the intellectual level that “I can do it,” but deeply concealed, the billion voices of the pig-snake-chicken “can’t-do” mentality keep telling you that you can’t.
It’s a psychological thing. You might accept something intellectually—“I want to become Vajrayogini”—but simultaneously that voice keeps saying, “No, you don’t.” There is acceptance and rejection at the same time. You can’t understand it. You get really confused: “Do I want it, or don’t I? Do I want an apple or not?” You’re not sure, not sure, not sure.
That’s the dualistic mind. We always talk about the dualistic mind—that’s it; that’s how it works. The dualistic mind is always comparing two things. You want to achieve deep concentration and discover eternal liberation but at the same time you resist, you reject it. The human mind is very funny.
So you can see from the practical point of view that you do, in fact, need purification, because when you meditate there are so many hindrances. That is the logic, and it is based on your own experience. You definitely need purification. You can’t say, “I’m meditating, that’s enough.” It’s never enough. There’s a clear difference between meditation and purification. As Mañjushri told Lama Je Tsongkhapa, “Meditation is not enough. You also have to purify the hindrances and accumulate great merit. It is very important that these things be done simultaneously.”
Now you can see why Mañjushri advised Lama Je Tsongkhapa in this way: “Don’t just meditate all the time. Do some purification, too.” That also shows that Lama Je Tsongkhapa liked to meditate a lot. Many Western scholars think that Lama Je Tsongkhapa was just an intellectual—some sort of Tibetan Buddhist professor, not a meditator. But then Mañjushri told him, “You are doing too much meditation. That’s not enough. You also have to do purification and accumulate more merit.” Lama Je Tsongkhapa was an unbelievable yogi. You cannot imagine. Even as a ten-year-old boy he was a great meditator. And when he was doing Mañjushri meditation in retreat, a figure of Mañjushri appeared spontaneously on the wall of his cave. I think you can still see that in Tibet.
Purification is very important. It is the only way to get rid of those billions of subconscious animals that keep telling you, “Not possible, not possible.” (…)
If you want to practice the completion stage of tantra, you should first do one hundred thousand Vajrasattva mantras. Purification is important, because freedom from the dualistic mind is enlightenment. We talk about enlightened realizations, buddhahood. That’s freedom from the dualistic mind. Purification eradicates the dualistic mind.
When Atisha was making the long overland trip from India to Tibet more than a thousand years ago, he kept stopping the caravan and jumping down to do purification at the side of the road. Whenever he noticed the slightest negative thought or concept, he would purify it then and there. That shows he was a great yogi, a great bodhisattva. That shows he understood karma. We don’t understand karma; we just let it go. But he understood how negative karma multiplies in the mind, and so he made a point of purifying it right away.
It depends on how sensitive you are. If you are sensitive, you notice the effect of even the slightest negative karma. If you are immersed in an ocean of negative karma, you don’t feel it. The heavy blanket of negativity is always there.
Once there was a great lama who was so pure that he always had a vision of light in front of him. One day a Tibetan family invited him to do a puja at their house. But the money they had used to buy the food and tea they offered him had come from the sale of prajñaparamita texts, books on the perfection of wisdom. As you know, money from the sale of holy objects like books and statues should not be used to buy temporal needs.
When the lama got home that night he noticed that his vision of light had disappeared. That was because he had eaten impure food that day. If you are sensitive and your karma is light, you notice the effects of negativity quickly and easily, the result comes soon. Our karma must be very heavy, because whatever we do, we don’t notice it. Therefore, observing karma is very important.
I really hope that all my students will do at least one hundred thousand Vajrasattva mantras before they die. I truly believe that after doing a Vajrasattva retreat they cannot be reborn in the hell realms. No way! They can make a decision: “After the Vajrasattva retreat there’s no way I can be reborn in a miserable realm. I don’t care whether I live or die.” You get some sort of insurance. Vajrasattva retreat is insurance against being reborn in the lower realms. We need such insurance. Now I’m becoming an insurance salesman! That’s terrible, isn’t it! Still, I need your help to make my insurance company successful.
Whether we are believers or nonbelievers, we do need some confidence. We’re all impermanent. We don’t know when we’re going to die. We have all these shortcomings. But if you have indestructible insurance, who worries about death? Death is natural; worrying about it is a waste of time. Instead of feeling upset that your body is not as beautiful as it once was, look forward to being reborn with a better one. Anyway, I’m joking. My point is, however, that you need some kind of self-confidence, “I’m definitely going to die, but at least I’m guaranteed of not being reborn in the lower realms.” There is such a guarantee, because there definitely exists a level of mind that you can reach, from which you cannot descend to a lower rebirth.
When we talk about taking care of the various vows we have taken—the five precepts, our vows as monks and nuns, our bodhisattva vows—it all has to do with karma. We don’t take these ordinations to become prisoners. Therefore, purification is very, very useful.
To discover our inner nature, to have the inner realization of shunyata, we must begin by searching for the absolute nature of our own minds. When we have discovered reality within, it will be much easier to discover the reality of external phenomena. The principal means of realizing shunyata is not through intellectual exercises, such as studying the words of other teachers or engaging in logical debate. Through such methods alone we cannot discover shunyata. We also have to investigate our own minds to identify our wrong concepts and views and practice methods of purification.
Why have we not yet discovered the ultimate nature, shunyata, that lies within our minds, even though we may have studied it for years? Because the vibration of mental defilements and impurities prevents us from doing so. Therefore, to allow shunyata wisdom to grow within us, it is very important that while we study the teachings on shunyata and investigate our minds, we cleanse these hindering negativities through purifying methods, such as prostrations and the Vajrasattva yoga method. In other words, to make progress in understanding shunyata in order to fully realize it, we must do two things: develop our intellectual understanding of shunyata and purify our mental hindrances, including the wrong concepts and views we have discovered through analyzing our minds. The power of this combined approach will make it much easier for us to realize shunyata.
Once, the great Tibetan teacher Lama Tsongkhapa was studying and analyzing shunyata according to the teachings of the Madhyamaka school, when Mañjushri appeared to him and said, “At this point, nobody on earth can teach you shunyata.” So Lama Tsongkhapa went to an isolated place, made powerful purification, and meditated, and in that way finally received direct, nonconceptual knowledge of shunyata according to the view of Nagarjuna’s Middle Way philosophy. Thus the yoga method of Heruka Vajrasattva is not solely for purifying negativities but is also a method for making possible the quick discovery of the ultimate nature, shunyata, within our minds through its powerful destruction of wrong conceptions.
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