Khenpo Samdup Rinpoche
When we start practice, after taking refuge, we have loving-kindness and Bodhichitta. Simply, this means to wish everyone to have happiness. It is like the feeling of wishing our own mother to have happiness. We do this from our heart. Then we extend this wish and feeling to every being.
In the meditation, we need to apply this feeling of love — wishing for all beings to be happy — even for our enemies. Then the meditation is going to go in the right direction and we can attain accomplishments.
Many Bodhisattvas are perfect in their meditation, but once out of meditation, they may have some feelings of enmity. For a good practitioner, these negative feelings of anger may arise, but they don’t hold on to it for a long time. I have seen many who are recognised as Bodhisattvas but momentarily you can make them angry too. (Khenpo laughs) But they don’t hold on to it. It arises and dissolves. Ordinary people hold on to it for a long time.
In meditation, you can genuinely and 100% wish for your enemies to have happiness. If you can do that, you are a good practitioner. Post-meditation, this is very hard to do. You can’t find many Bodhisattvas who are able to do this. In the teachings, we concentrate first on wishing happiness for our enemies. That’s our wish, but in reality, to do it is not easy.
In meditation, you can release the anger or unhappiness easily. With meditation on love, compassion can arise very easily. Without love, compassion can’t arise. Compassion means to wish all beings are free from suffering. Love means that you think of all beings as like your mother and see that they do not want suffering.
(Loving-kindness means wishing that all beings are happy. Compassion means wishing all beings to be free of suffering.)
Many people think that as long as my mother is okay, it is okay if I suffer. In Dharma practice, you must have this feeling arising in your mind and then extend it to all other beings.
Loving-kindness and compassion are very important during Tara practice. Tara is the embodiment of love, compassion and Bodhichitta. If you don’t generate these qualities in yourself, you can't connect with Tara’s loving kindness. If you cultivate loving-kindness in yourself and then at the same time you are thinking of Tara, you see a Tara statue or thangka etc, you feel a very strong connection and you feel happy, joyful and blessed.
When we practice compassion, we need to think of suffering beings. We think of the hospitals and many patients, and how they are suffering from sickness and their physical sufferings, then you give rise to compassion for them.
Buddha’s teaching talks a lot about suffering in samsara, in the hell realms, hungry ghosts realms, animal realms, human realms and so forth. All these talk about suffering is for us to generate compassion. As long as we want to have compassion, we need to look at the sufferings of sentient beings.
If compassion is arising in our mind, we purify a lot of negative karma. That’s why we meditate on the suffering in the hell realms, then we generate compassion, and that compassion purifies our karma to be reborn in the hell realm.
Buddha cannot take away our karma. Buddha teaches us how to purify our karma, that’s why Buddha taught a lot about the suffering in the hell realms. Then we meditate on that. Compassion arises from our meditation and purifies our hell-realm karma.
When compassion arises in our mind through thinking of the hell realm beings, it not only purifies our karma, but it connects us to them, then through the chanting of mantra, it can truly benefit them. Compassion connects us to the suffering of the lower realm beings. Devotion connects us to the enlightened beings.
Without compassion, we cannot connect to the beings of the six realms. It is just like we can connect to the rest of the sangha no matter where they are with Wifi. With compassion, we can connect to all beings.
Without compassion, we can’t truly help other beings. As long as your compassion connects to other beings, whatever you do through body, speech and mind benefits them.
Think of the hungry ghost realms, we should think of their sufferings if you don’t want to take rebirth in that realm. We generate compassion, do practice and dedicate to them. This benefits them. There is a nyungnay fasting retreat when we stop taking food and stop talking. We do that and experience a little hunger and thirst —the suffering of the hungry ghosts — then we can generate compassion.
To generate compassion, we need some experience of our own, or else we can’t really have the real compassion. Some people say that they don’t feel much hunger during the Nyungnay fasting, so I think it is less purification for them (Khenpo laughs). If you really feel hunger and thirst, you want to eat everything and drink the whole ocean. You need that kind of desire. That desire arises and you recognize what is the suffering of hungry ghosts.
Hungry ghosts go for years and years with no food or drink. We don’t get it for one day and look how hard it is. Then you think of this suffering of hungry ghosts and feel compassion for them, this purifies your hungry ghost karma. Then any practice we do for them through body, speech or mind and dedicate to them will truly benefit them.
During the Nyungnay fasting, we cannot talk. That helps us understand the experience of animals who cannot communicate. Human beings kill and eat millions of animals everyday. The animal cannot say, “Please don’t kill me! Please don’t eat me!” They can’t say that. Silence during the retreat is a purification of the animal-realm karma.
Due to our fixation and grasping, thinking of “me” and “I”, we do not recognise the sufferings of other beings and what they experience. That’s why the hardship of Nyungnay fasting retreat helps to remind us of what they suffer. Even if they lose their lives, animals cannot speak. Then we can generate compassion for them.
When compassion is arising for animals, we purify our animal realm karma. Then any prayer we do, mantras etc, truly benefits them.
Therefore, compassion is to recognize that our mothers are suffering and how we should help them. We need to think that all the hell realm beings used to be my mothers. When they were my mother, they protected me from heat and cold.
Children need to be protected by their mother from heat and cold or else they cannot survive, right? Now, my mothers are suffering from heat and cold, we have responsibility to protect them. How to protect them? We have to generate compassion and do practice, that is how to help mother sentient beings.
Someone whom you know may be physically handicapped. You generate compassion to that person but you can’t help much. On one level, we are handicapped too. We see the suffering and we can’t do anything to help physically. That’s why we need the yidam deity.
When we see this handicapped person, we give rise to compassion and chant Tara’s mantra. Thinking of Tara, we have the ability to help that person purify karma. Otherwise, you have love and compassion, but what can you do?
People think I can’t do anything, then people cry, that’s the only thing they can do. But truly when love and compassion arises for others, then we need the yidam deity.
You visualize Tara and chant the mantra, it is effective for countering the causes of suffering. Our dedication affects their causes of suffering.
When we see a handicapped person, we give rise to compassion and practice Tara, then that person’s karma for being handicapped is purified and in future, they will not be handicapped. Our own karma for being handicapped in the future is also purified. So we are liberating each other, supporting each other, helping each other.
We call this a win-win situation, right? That’s why the suffering beings are actually the ones liberating us. The problem is that we don’t open our mind. Every single phenomenon is enlightened activity. For example, you see a beautiful flower and if you are mindful and know what to do, you offer it in your mind to Tara and chant some offering verse, that flower is liberating us.
When enlightened activity appears to us, it is presenting us with objects of compassion. But we ignore them. Maybe very suffering people appears to you, then usually we don’t know how to connect to them, we ignore or don’t recognize them. This happens to us daily —there are so many beings in the cities liberating us daily but we don’t take the opportunity.
Many spiritual teachers face great challenges and difficulties. One teacher is Atisha. He met a person who was dying of hunger. Atisha wanted to give him food, but there was no food available. If Atisha went to get food from elsewhere, it would be too late and this person will die. The only choice was to give up his own body, and when Atisha was about to do that, Chenrezig appeared to him. Chenrezig gave Atisha instructions about Dzambhala (wealth-deity) practice.
Usually, we practice Dzambhala in the wrong way, contrary to the reality of Dzambhala. When you give up everything, then Dzambhala is truly arising. When you are trying to get something, you receive very small blessings.
Usually, people are struggling and they have many desires, they chase Dzambhala to the exclusion of all other deities. When there is Dzambhala empowerment, many people come because they want money. Of course, you can get some blessings, but you can’t open up to immeasurable blessings because you are coming to Dzambhala through desire and wanting.
True Dzambala is dropping your fixation, it is the perfection of generosity. That is the real Dzambhala. When you open up and let go of everything, naturally you get everything. It is the other way round, opposite to how people usually think.
Buddha knew how to create the karma of Dzambhala in people. Buddha went to poor families and asked them for offerings. Buddha did not need it for himself but to create the merit for poor people, he went there. The poor woman gave him something and for the rest of her life, she became okay (wealth-wise). Not only for that life, but in future lives, she was okay. Some people are poor in this life and they remain poor in future lives. The same karma repeats due to not accumulating merits. True Dzambala is generosity. Momentarily, we think that we lose something when we give it away, but actually, it is an investment for the future.
We have so many opportunities for creating causes for enlightenment but we don’t use them. Dharma method is totally opposite from samsaric energy. In samsara, the more fixation or attachment you have, the more you hold on to stuff, the more power and success you gain. But in terms of Dharma, the more you let go of everything, let go of selfishness and generate loving-kindness and compassion, practice generosity then everything comes to you naturally.
In a samsaric sense, we think we are helping others, but actually, they are helping us. If you see someone suffering, hungry and thirsty, if you have compassion and give them food and drink, who do you think gets more benefit? (Khenpo pauses to get some response from the audience)
(A reply from the audience: “The person who gives.”)
If you truly give without agenda, out of true compassion, you are freed from the karma of hungry ghosts. That person really liberates us from the hungry ghost realm.
Presently, our situation is deeply connected with the animal realms. We will easily take rebirth in the animal realm. We are using a lot of their bodies and taking their lives. Just for food, we take thousands and thousands of lives — chickens, cows, fishes etc. Even if some people say they are vegetarian, they still take eggs. We use so many products from animals like in shoes and clothings. We have so much karma with them. But we can have a win-win situation or we can be losers. It is up to us. Dharma helps us to recognize the reality that is going on first. Then we generate compassion, we chant Mani mantra and dedicate merits.
All of Buddha’s teachings are in these six syllables of the Mani mantra which liberates all sentient beings. When we create these karma like eating animals, we first recognize the situation, generate compassion, chant the mantra, supplicate and dedicate merits, then we avoid the karma and these beings we eat also receive some benefit in return. That’s why we need the yidam deity. We need Tara or Chenrezig for protecting ourselves and helping others.
As long as we have love and compassion, Bodhichitta naturally comes. Bodhichitta is wanting to reach Buddhahood to liberate all beings. In the prayer it says, “I will help liberate beings to the state of Tara.” Enlightened beings are the embodiment of Bodhichitta.
When Bodhichitta arises in our mindstream, we are always happy and not suffering. There are two Bodhicittas — aspiring Bodhicitta and engaging Bodhicitta. Your good intention “I want to liberate others” is aspiring Bodhicitta. Like today, before joining this teaching, you have the aspiring Bodhicitta. While you are in the teaching, you have engaging Bodhicitta.
Engaging Bodhicitta consists of the six paramitas — generosity, morality, patience. The first three paramitas are more for lay persons. Laypeople can practice them. The last two paramitas - meditation and wisdom -are more for monastics. The fourth paramita “joyful effort” is for both laypeople and monastics. Laypeople have to take care of their families, they can practice the first three paramitas easily. Monastic have to practice them too but they also have to meditate and give rise to wisdom.
All our actions and Buddha’s teachings are within these 6 paramitas. The power of Chenrezig is condensed in the 6 syllables, OM MANI PADME HUNG. Chanting Mani mantra is practicing all 6 paramitas and all of Buddha’s teachings too. When you see beings suffering and compassion is arising, you can chant Mani mantra for them; then we are not handicapped, we have some way to benefit others.
We have to visualize Chenrezig and Tara and chant mantra because we can’t generate compassion easily. These deities are the embodiment of compassion and we need them as a support. Sometimes, we can’t warm up someone who is frozen and cold except by using a supportive condition such as raising a fire. Similarly, the deity practices are used to help others.
Some people wonder why we need to practice yidam deity. “Why can’t we just meditate on loving kindness and compassion and practice the six paramitas? Why must we practice deities? I don’t even know whether Tara exists or not?” Many have this kind of conceptual thoughts.
These are the conceptions of ordinary people who do not understand spiritual energy. Tara is the embodiment of love. Chenrezig is the embodiment of compassion. As long as you believe in love and compassion, these deities exist. All enlightened beings manifest their form bodies due to love and compassion. Through loving-kindness, compassion and devotion, we pray to Buddhas then we can benefit others, otherwise we have no ability of our own.
When we do the practice of Tara, through our devotion, we feel the blessings of Tara, we feel always happy because we know we are protected. We also feel that I have Tara and I am not going to be stuck in samsara suffering because Tara will help me. And I can help others because I have Tara. You feel confidence arising in yourself due to your practice.
When we do these Vajrayana practices, we need the Guru, yidam deity and protectors. With them, we can feel very happy in samsara. Without them, we don’t have a father or a mother, then it is only suffering. Guru is same as father, deity is same as mother and we are like their children. Who takes care of us — our parents.
That’s why practicing yidam deity, becoming more connected to Tara, you feel more blessings, devotion arises and you get more confident. When you do anything, you feel "I can depend on Tara".
Before practice, we need loving-kindness and compassion. Or else when we practice Chenrezig or Tara, we feel empty inside. As long as you have loving-kindness, when you think of Tara, your love expands naturally. We have a very tiny fire of love but we are joining it to a huge fire of Tara’s love. We have a small cup of water or love but we pour it into the ocean of Tara’s love. It is similar to this. Our love joins to the infinite love of enlightened beings and we always feel happy.
As long as love and compassion are in your mind, when you think of Tara, even if you do not chant anything, you feel very blessed and joyful. You feel your whole body becoming same as Tara’s form body. You naturally connect to Tara’s energy, you can feel that energy arising in your body, all kinds of positive feelings.
When you have this experience, you give rise to strong devotion. Tears come to your eyes. You feel Tara is very huge and infinite, you feel yourself as Tara. Absolutely amazing experiences can come, you are freed from obstacles and you feel bliss and joy. When you look at Tara’s thangka, it feels different, it feels alive. Seeing the thangka and statue of Tara, you forget “I” and “self” for a moment, you feel some energy in the body and you say this is a very special object.
When you are momentarily thinking of Tara’s form body, or looking at her thangka, or statue, your compassion and devotion arise, all afflictions and conceptual thoughts dissolve. Very powerful blessings are received; we can get more experience ourselves. We can’t really explain it to others. We cannot say this is the experience of non-duality, but through devotion, yidam deity's blessings is experienced, you can dissolve many negative energies. Naturally, devotion and loving-kindness arise. You feel strong connection when you see Tara’s image. You become always happy. We can say Tara’s thangka is liberation by seeing.
When you feel sad and you look at the Tara’s thangka, sadness is naturally liberated. You feel very happy because Tara’s form body is the embodiment of love and wisdom. Tara’s image always has this power but due to our fixations we don’t recognise it. Even if you don’t do any chanting or prayers, it naturally connects with your heart.
