TaiSitu Rinpoche on Mahamudra

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TaiSitu Rinpoche on Mahamudra

http://www.ncf.net/mahamudra.htm

Introduction to Mahamudra

H.E. the 12th Tai Situpa

Sherabling, India, October 2000

As I was requested, I am going to give teachings on mahamudra. Mahamudra, as ateaching, is presented in an enormous amount of texts, some of which might take a

very long time: some as much as a year, with daily teaching sessions. Then,

mahamudra introducing the nature of mind might not even take one hour. So there is

so much variety in the mahamudra teachings. Therefore, I am not going to teach from

just one particular mahamudra text. This will be very much like an introduction for

those who dont know anything about mahamudra, or for those who know very littleabout mahamudra. For those who know a lot about mahamudra, it will be a reminder,

because when you know a lot you might get a little bit mixed up. So this might sort

out some of the over lapping and some of the confusion, or what is unclear about the

mahamudra teachings in general. So for that purpose, I am teaching mahamudra hereas an introduction or clarification or general teaching.

First of all we have to define the terminology. Mahamudra is Sanskrit terminology, and it is

translated into Tibetan as chagya chenpo. So the terminology itself, or we can call it a title, even

though its not really appropriate to give a title to something that doesnt have anything to do

with a title. Its a little confusing, but we have to play dumb. We know mahamudra cannot beboxed into anything or packaged, but we have to play dumb and package it, and then put the title
http://www.ncf.net/mahamudra.htmhttp://www.ncf.net/mahamudra.htmhttp://www.ncf.net/mahamudra.htm


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mahamudra on it. We have to do that, otherwise we might get very confused, and even worse

we might get lost. It could be like a 1000 story building with 10,000 rooms which have no floornumbers and no room numbers: it would be very complicated to find anything. So we have to

conventionalise the ultimate, and give a title to something that cannot be restricted or limited by

a title.

Now the mahamudra word itself, chagya chenpo, somehow has to describe what the teaching is.

So here, the simplest way to define the mahamudra terminology is to say that everything whichis relative, from heaven to hell, is part and parcel of the most sacred, most ultimate and most

profound essence. So lets put it this way: the most undefiled and pure environment of a Buddha,

or pure land of a Buddha, and the most painful, negative environment of hell are connected.They are not un-connected. As long as something is there, it has to be connected with everything

else. For example, there is the most profound and pure being, a bodhisattva, and there is the most

neurotic and evil being, whoever it is. As long as they are in the universe, they have to move in

the same space, they have to breathe the same air, they have to influence the short wave, mediumwave and all kind of waves of the universe. So they are all interconnected. You cannot separate

anybody from anybody, and you cannot separate anything from anything. Everything isconnected. So that is the relative understanding of mahamudra. Now the ultimate potential of thatis that the worst being has the possibility and the potential to be the best person, and the chance

and potential to become Buddha. So when we see a bad person I dont know what it could bethat your definition of a bad person is, but I am sure that each one of us has a definition of a bad

person, the worst person in mahamudra understanding that is a Buddha who does not know

that they are Buddha. They misused their time and opportunity and got it wrong. So temporarilythey appear and manifest as a result of their own doing. Here, temporarily doesnt mean one

week: temporarily might mean ten billion centuries or ten centuries or three life times It

depends. But temporarily, as long as it is not forever, is temporary. So in that way, the definition

of mahamudra terminology is most comprehensive, and is the most ultimate aspect of description

of the teaching of Buddha.

Then we have the mahamudra lineage, and the practitioners of the mahamudra lineage. Thismeans the teachings of mahamudra, which are bestowed by the Buddha Shakyamuni, who in this

case we call Buddha Vajradhara. The Buddha Vajradharas teaching, which is the essence of all

the teachings, has continued from there until today, in an unbroken lineage of transmission. So

how does the lineage get broken? The lineage means the Buddhas wisdom. Buddha is theembodiment of wisdom, and Buddha is the embodiment of compassion. That compassion and

wisdom are received by the disciple, who is the embodiment of devotion. The devotion of thedisciple and the compassion of the Buddha connect, and then wisdom is transmitted. That is the

blessing; that is the transmission. If that connection is broken then the lineage is broken. But that

will never happen from the Buddhas side; that will happen from us, the followers side. So thatconnection, unbroken from Buddha up till now, is the mahamudra lineage. Anybody whocomprehends the mahamudra teaching, who implements the mahamudra teaching and who lives

according to the mahamudra view, practice and action, then that is a mahamudra practitioner.

Whoever manages that pretty well, then that is a mahamudra yogi. Whoever does not managethat very well, but tries, is a mahamudra follower. Whoever supports that is a mahamudra patron,and whoever admires that is a mahamudra devotee. So there are devotees, patrons, practitioners,

yogis and so on and so forth. So that is mahamudra: the lineage.


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Now there is a little, how do you say, unfinished business here, because mahamudra means

everything, but now here is the mahamudra lineage. One minute it is everything, and the nextminute it is somebody, but not everybody. How come? Well that is quite easy to understand and

comprehend. The mahamudra practitioners view, practice and meditation is about everything;

thats what it is. But its like when a person has very clear, good eyes and can see everything

clearly, but anotherperson doesnt have clear eyes and cant see everything clearly. Or a personwho has lost one eye and cannot see three dimensionally. If a person is sick with hepatitis they

see everything yellow. If a person has bronchitis they see everything as white and grey. In that

way the vision and the perception is limited. In this way, a person who practices mahamudra is

supposed to be able to see everything clearly, with mahamudra view, but we cant claim that wedo that all the time. Sometimes we might, but at other times we cant. Its like when we catch

cold or hepatitis: we have to put on eye glasses and so on. In this way we are not perfect, but wetry our best. So I think this much might give a very basic, very simple definition of the

terminology and the title mahamudra itself.

The Source of Mahamudra

When we say teaching of Buddha, it means sutra, abhidharma, vinaya and tantra. These are theteachings of the Buddha. But it is very interesting, because these days Buddhism has become so

popular, and everybody knows a little piece of Buddhism. Because it is so popular it becomes a

household language, but then it can become not so clear and sometimes even confused. Forexample, these days, if somebody sees a Buddhist person reading a book, they always say Ohhes reading a sutra. I even saw one book about a Buddhist printing press, and the title of the

book is Buddhist Sutra Printing Press. So that means that in that printing press there will be

only sutra. There will be no abhidharma, no vinaya and no tantra: only sutra. Anyway, theessence of the tantra, the vinaya, the abhidharma and the sutra is the mahamudra. Now out of all

of these, which particular teaching of Buddha says this? It is the tantra. The tantric teachings of

Lord Buddha cover everything. In the tantra you find the teaching of sutra, vinaya andabhidharma, but in the sutra , the abhidharma and the vinaya you will not find the teaching of

tantra. So the tantric teachings of the Lord Buddha are the essence of everything. This means that

the mahamudra teaching is the principle and the path that is given in the teaching of the tantra. In

the tantra itself, there are so many levels, and the highest of these is anuttarayoga tantra. So themahamudra teaching is the essence of the anuttarayoga tantra: the highest of all the tantras thatmanifest from Lord Buddha. These tantric teachings, such as Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara,

Hevajra, Kalachakra etc., are from the anuttarayoga tantra, and the mahamudra principle andteachings are the essence of that tantra.

The source of the mahamudra teachings is the Buddha. These days people use these words Lord

Buddhas words or Lord Buddhas teachings and thats fine, but as a mahamudra practitionerwe never think that Buddha was there and some crowd gathered, and he was in his room thinking

about what to tell them. Then he did some homework, sought through his mind, and said This is

what I am going to say, and then came out and talked about this particular thing and taught it.Our mahamudra idea of Buddha is never like that. Buddha manifested as a result of what made

him Buddha: his compassion manifested. So, to anybody who has devotion, Buddha will

manifest to them. According to the capacity of the being, the Buddhas teaching manifests. Theyhear him say things according to their own capacity: their level of maturity, their level of


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devotion, and according to their level of compassion for all sentient beings, which we should call

their motivation. According to that, the Buddhas teaching manifests. So although we have to say

the words such as Buddha spoke, Buddha taught, Buddha said that, and this is whatBuddha meant, we have to say these things, but we can never mean that. Because if Prince

Siddhartha was like that then he is not the kind of Buddha that we believe in. He is a very wise

person, a very intelligent person and a very clear minded person, but thats it. Thats not Buddha.Buddha is beyond all of that. Buddha is not within the perimeter of dualism; Buddha is beyond

dualism. Buddha is not limited by anything; Buddha is limitless. So in this way the tantric

teachings, such as the anuttarayoga tantra texts that I have mentioned, these tantras and Buddhaare inseparable. They are the embodiment of the Buddha. The teaching of Buddha is the

embodiment of the Buddha. It is not the thought of the Buddha, or the words of the Buddha; it is

the embodiment or manifestation of the Buddha. It manifests in the sound, and beings saw

Buddha speak. Actually, in the sutra, Buddha once said I did not say anything, but all sentient

beings heard it. So surely, from the mahamudra point of view, Buddha didnt even say that[laughter]. So you cant say that that was the only thing he spoke: he didnt even say that. There

was a need for that, so thats what manifested. Thats what those particular beings heard and

thats it. In this way thegyu, or the tantra, is the actual teachings of the Buddha, in which themahamudra aspect of teaching is taught. That is one source.

The second source of the mahamudra teachings is called gyazhung.Gyazhung actually means

those texts which were written by the great masters of India: the mahapanditas and mahasiddhas

of India. Those teachings were translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan and are called gyazhung.What defines a teaching rather than just a book is that it is the teaching of the lineage, and not

somebodys research and thesis or somebodys interest. For example, every year at the Frankfurt

book-fare in Germany there are tens of thousands of newly published books, and all of them we

would not consider this kind of text (but some of them might be). So gyazhung means theteachings about mahamudra. This is mahamudra gyazhung. Gyazhung can be about anything, so

mahamudra gyazhung is the teachings about mahamudra, written or spoken by great enlightened

masters of the lineage of mahamudra in India. All of these texts were translated, I think, morethan a thousand years ago. So they are not recent translations. They are old, or ancient,

translations. These teachings are numerous; there are so many. There are specific teachings, such

as the mahamudra doha.Doha is like inspirational sacred poetry, a little bit like a song. Forexample, theMahamudra Upadesha or Ganges Mahamudra, by Tilopa; so named because he

wrote it at the bank of the river Ganges. Then there are other texts like Naropas condensed text

of view, which includes the philosophy, the view and the perception. So that is another text.

Also, there are enormous numbers of teachings that are individual teachings: the 84

mahasiddhas teachings, their poems and their songs; the teachings of the 30 great enlightened

womenthe dakinistheir teachings, songs, poems and so forth. All of these kinds of

teachings that are translated into Tibetan are called gyazhung. They are another source.

The third source is mengak. Mengakmeans something like sacred instruction. It is not secret

instruction, but sacred always becomes secret, because sacred, by definition, means that if

somebody cannot comprehend it then it is not available. It is only available to those who cancomprehend it. So that is sacred. The transmission of sacred instructions from the great masters

of India and Tibet, as far as the lineage is concerned, is called mengak. Most mengakare written


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down on paper, but also a tremendous amount ofmengakis from person to person: from lips to

ear. So that is ear transmission. It is not written down.

But these days we have a tremendous amount of liberation, so even the sacred mengaktexts,

some of these are even translated, and many of them are printed. You can buy for just a few

dollars. Very cheap. These are available, but an old fashioned and backward person like medoesnt like it, because then it is not sacred anymore. It becomes, how do you say, accelerated

or short circuit, and so it will be spoiled that way. The lineage can be destroyed very easilyifmengaks do not remain as mengaks. So this is maybe a little bit off: a sign of this time of

degeneration, but of course not hopeless.

Anyway, there are a tremendous amount of all of these kinds of teachings, and in our lineage

there are three texts that somehow combine as one group of teachings. The first isNgedon

Gyamtsoor Mahamudra Ocean of Certainty.Thats an elaborate text which has 97 steps of

instruction, with each step having many steps of instruction within it. That is a tremendouslydetailed teaching about mahamudra practice. Then there is a secondary or medium size text,

which isMarig Munselor Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance

I think that is how it istranslated. That is the secondary text. The shortest text in this particular group of texts is Choku

Dzuptsuk,which means Pointing Out the Dharmakaya: you use your finger to point out thedharmakaya. That means the direct introduction to the nature of mind: the essence of our self; the

essence of everything. So those are three particular texts written by the Gyalwa Karmapa. But

then, of course, there are tremendous numbers of other instruction texts, and a tremendousamount of person to person transmission lineage of mahamudra instruction.

So gyu, gyazhung and mengakare the physical sources of the mahamudra teachings, which are

the essence of all the teachings of the Buddha. Thats where mahamudra comes from.

Ground, Path and Fruition

Now, since we have a basic understanding of the terminology of mahamudra and the source of

the mahamudra teachings, I think it is extremely important, not only for mahamudra practitioners

but any practitioner of dharma, to understand why we are practicing dharma. What for? You

know? When we say May I become Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings then we haveto know: why would becoming Buddha be beneficial for all other sentient beings? Why should

all sentient beings become Buddha? For what? What is the connection between Buddha and all

sentient beings? What are they trying to become when they say May I become Buddha? Wehave to understand all of these things, otherwise it becomes some kind of curiosity or hobby,

lets find out: sort of temporary entertainment, you know? It doesnt go further than that. So

therefore, we have to know as clearly as possible what all these things mean. What am I? What is

Buddha? What are all sentient beings? When I say may I become Buddha and For the benefitof all sentient beings what am I actually saying? What does it all really mean? We can

understand this through the very basic way of teaching dharma, which is through three things:ground, path and fruition. Through these three simple principles we can comprehend and have

some idea of what we are saying and what we are doing.

Ground means potential. Path means how to materialise, purify or develop our potential. How to

go about itthat is path. Fruition is exactly the same as potential, because potential and fruition


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are the same thing. When the potential is fully developed, then that is fruition. You cannot

achieve something that has nothing to do with you. What you will achieve at the end will beexactly what you are: what is in you or what is about you. So the potential and the fruition are

the same thing. Undeveloped potential is ground, fully developed potential is fruition, and how

to develop undeveloped potential into fully developed potential is path. So ground, path and

fruition. Through this we will then understand what mahamudra practice is, and what we aresaying in the mahamudra dedication when we say Because of this merit may I attain the full

realisation of mahamudra, and lead all sentient beings to the realisation of mahamudra. Its the

same thing as Because of this merit may I attain buddhahood and lead all sentient beings to the

realisation of buddhahood, but in the mahamudra prayer, sometimes we say that.

I have been teaching you about the general definition of mahamudra, and the source of

mahamudra teachings. Then I introduced to you the principle of ground, path and fruition. So

that is a sort of general outline which is very simple, but it can somehow unfold. Otherwise you

might call it complicated or a deep subject, but ground, path and fruition is easy to remember,and somehow clarifies so many things. Sometimes it is a little bit misunderstood, but when you

define it clearly then it is so simple. When you say I want to be Buddha, you must have aground for saying that. On what ground are you saying that? Your ground is that I am an

unenlightened Buddha, because I have the same potential as Buddha Shakyamuni equal.Every sentient being has the same potential as Buddha Shakyamuni, and is equal to Buddha

Shakyamuni in essence or in potential, but you should never mistake that for thinking you are

equal to Buddha right now (but I dont know, maybe there is some Buddha manifest here as an

ordinary person. In that case I dont have to confess, because Buddha purposely manifested likethat, and that is part of the Buddhas aspiration. If Buddha said before his enlightenment May I

appear as an ordinary person so that I can benefit all the sentient beings, especially those people

who call themselves teachers, and give them the privilege and opportunity to teach me.[laughter] Yes; why not? That is a very, very profound connection. That is a very great honour;

so that could be. In that case, I dont even have to apologise because I am just following theBuddhas will). Anyway, we are not enlightened, because of our own cause and condition, whichis created by ourself: with our own will, with our own decision, with our own effort. That is why

we are not Buddha.

Buddha Shakyamuni and three other Buddhas have already become Buddha on this planet, in

this galaxy and in this solar system. So four individuals have already become Buddha, with

Buddha Shakyamuni as the fourth. So those four were prophesied Buddhas. How many un-prophesied Buddhas were there? It would be countless. From the beginning of the human

evolution on this planet, we Tibetans believe that we are evolved from monkeys and ghosts.

Once, something like a ghost or a demon, which was female, came together with a male monkey,

and the offspring of that combination were Tibetans [laughter]. Its interesting, because I

sometimes think how come? [laughter] We are not like demons or monkeys; so, how can that bepossible? But some other times I am convinced [laughter], because if you look at Tibetan history:

if Guru Rinpoche did not come to Tibet and tame us, we would be impossible [laughter]. It took

somebody like Guru Rinpoche, who did not just teach and bless, but he performed miracles, youknow? He turned mountains upside down and boiled an enormous lake: he boiled it with his

spiritual power. But even by doing all of that sort of thing, it still took quite a bit of time and

effort to make us normal [laughter]. So I think maybe there is some truth in this combination or


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this genetic engineering. Anyway, by the blessing of the Buddha, by the blessing of Guru

Rinpoche and especially by the blessing of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who manifested inTibet in so many ways: great masters like His Holiness Dalai Lama and His Holiness Gyalwa

Karmapa are all manifestations of Avalokiteshvara. So with all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas

working so hard, and doing so many things to make us what we are, we are privileged. So what I

am talking about here is: that since the beginning of the human evolution on this planet

whichis relative of courseuntil now, the prophesied Buddhas are four, un-prophesied Buddhaswho knows? So many, but it cannot be countless. It can be countable, but we dont know.

By definition, in the entire universe, the sentient beings who attain buddhahood are countless.

That is countless. Buddha describes this when he says If there is one sentient being who attains

enlightenment, or buddhahood, in a period of time which is a period ofyuga then the equivalent

amount to the grains of sand in the river Ganges attain buddhahood. That means that if one

person attains enlightenment on one planet after such a long, long time, (yuga means a very long

time. Someyugas are described as from the creation of a universe until its destruction, and

someyugas are described as the cycles within that period. So there are different kinds

ofyugas) Buddha said that even though it is that rare, still, every moment countless sentientbeings have attained buddhahood. Because space has no end, you cannot count the universes. It

is so infinite that, even though buddhahood is so rare, every moment countless numbers ofsentient beings have attained buddhahood. Otherwise you end up with space having an end, and

with the universes having a number. But there is no end. It is infinite. Therefore infinite beings

have to be enlightened in every moment. So from the time when we began this session until now,

in this couple of minutes, countless sentient beings have already attained enlightenment. That isnot imagination; thats the facts. It has to be that way, otherwise nothing will make sense. So that

is the reality.

Now, the ground, by definition, is that all sentient beings have Buddha potential. Those who

made it are few, on our planet, but those who made it in the whole universe are countless. Whydid that happen? Because thats their potential. Thats their destiny. The destination of everysingle sentient being is absolute freedom with no limitation, and absolute freedom with no

limitation is described by the word buddhahood. Buddhahood means you are free with no

limitation whatsoever, and that can only be for the purpose of no limitation. So if you wish to be

free, without limitation, then it has to be for the purpose of freedom without limitation for allsentient beings. If you wanted to be free with no limitation just for yourself, it is impossible,

because that is the biggest limitation. It has to be for the limitless purpose; it has to be for the

limitless outcome, and it has to come from the foundation or the ground: the base of the limitlesspotential.

So that is ground mahamudra, and this is described as free from the extremes of eternalism andnihilism. Therefore, it is relative truth and absolute truth in union, which means the unity of

relative truth and absolute truth. Now, the extremes of eternalism and nihilism is what has tobe overcome to understand and define the ground mahamudra. The outcome of that is that

relative truth and absolute truth will be in unity. Okay, so that is ground mahamudra.

Now the path mahamudra. Why have so many beings attained buddhahood, and why have so

many of us still not yet attained buddhahood? Why? Its not because somebody made some kind


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of mistake somewhere, or that we lost our plane ticket, but it happened. We are still here, when

others have already got there. It is because of our own doing. It is not the fault of somebodysunfair play, and it is not because of some kind of corruption somewhere. It is our own unfair play

and our own corruption that made us stay behind and be left behind. You cant blame anybody.

(everyone is interconnected, of course, but that doesnt deserve blame).

Now, the path is described as free of assertion and free of denial. So you have to be free of

asserting. For example, its like you saw a mouse, but you say you saw a tiger. That is assertion.Denial is like you stepped on a cockroach, but you say you did not step on anything. That is

denial. So free of assertion and denial. In the path, or in the practice, when we do good things,

and we are attached to our good practice then that is assertion, and that is something we have toovercome. It is not something we have to, how do you say, abandon. We cannot, because as a

beginner practitioner we should be attached to our good practice. We should be upset when our

practice is not doing well, otherwise we will never practise, you know? So that is there, but it

cannot go further than that, and we have to do our best to overcome that, rather than increase it.So that is assertion. Denial is when you learn lots of things such as emptiness, non-duality,

primordial wisdom and so on and so forth. Then by learning those things you think youunderstand everything, but you dont, and you say I dont have to practice; doing good isemptiness; doing bad is emptiness; the potential of good and bad is the same. If you have toomuch of that kind of perception, and you act on it, then you have denial. You are a little bit like

the devil, because your good understanding becomes the obstacle for your progress. So these

ways of assertion and denial are both the obstacles one has to, very skilfully, overcome. Oncethat happens then the practice, or the path, is the accumulation of merit and wisdom in union: the

unity of the accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom.

How do you accumulate merit? By doing good things and by avoiding bad actions. By learning,

by doing prayers, by being generous and so on. That is accumulation of merit. The accumulation

of wisdom you cannot gain like that. The accumulation of wisdom occurs as a result of lettingyour inner potential or inner Buddha manifest. That is meditation, and the accumulation of

wisdom is through meditation. The accumulation of merit is through activity: physical, mental

and verbal activity. So, the path which is free of assertion and denial is the union of the

accumulation of merit and wisdom. That is the path.

Then, the fruition should be free from, or free of, samsaric end or passive end. Many times theword nirvana is used here, but it means peace or the passive end. Of course samsaric end is

something we should be free of, and between samsaric end and nirvana end we should chose the

nirvana end, but actually, as far as being an end, its the same. So what does that mean? If we go

on with worldly activities as a worldly person with a worldly motivation then we will end up in

the samsaric end just as usual. Thats very easy to understand, because we are in samsara: youare in samsara; I am in samsara; all of us are in samsara, and all of us are going in circles.

Sometimes my circle is a little bigger, so that I might not notice that I am going in a circle, and

sometimes your circle is a little smaller, so you might feel you are going in a

circle sometimes. But sometimes it could even be vice versa. Its not supposed to be, but Ithink it could be. Anyway, the end of the whole thing about samsara is that no matter how big or

small the circle you walk, at the end of the day you did not get anywhere. You can walk veryhard; you can be running, or you can be carrying things, but you end up in the same place. That


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is samsara. The nirvana end means that if we overcome all of that then we have no pain,

suffering or defilements, but we dont have the primordial wisdom awakened. So we will be verycomfortable, very happy and very peaceful, in something like paradise. The idea of paradise is

that everything is positive and nothing is negative. That is nirvana: the passive peace. That is

good, but its not buddhahood, which is free from, and a step beyond, both of those ends of

samsara and nirvana. It is the union of the two kayas; that is how it is described.

What are the two kayas? One is the dharmakaya, and the other is the form kayas. There are kayas

that have some limitation, and the kaya that doesnt have any limitation. Kaya means body. Thelimitless kaya is called dharmakaya, which is the mind of the Buddha, but the form kayas are

limited, and they are called the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya. Sambhogakaya has lesserlimitations than nirmanakaya, but the sambhogakaya still has limitations, because sambhogakaya

is not the dharmakaya. Sambhogakaya means how Buddha will be perceived by those who are

highly enlightened: those above the first bodhisattva level. How they perceive Buddha is called

sambhogakaya. Nirmanakaya is how ordinary beings, who do not have the realisation up to thefirst level bodhisattva, or are below the first level bodhisattva, perceive Buddha. When they are

in the presence of the Buddha, how they perceive the Buddha, how they see the Buddha, howthey hear the Buddha, that is the nirmanakaya. So sambhogakaya has less limitations than thenirmanakaya, but it still has limitations. The unity of dharmakaya and the form kaya means thatBuddha is limitless: he accomplished the dharmakaya and is the embodiment of the dharmakaya,

but, for the benefit of sentient beings, he spontaneously manifests as the sambhogakaya and the

nirmanakaya. In that way the fruition is the unity of the two kayas.

Now with this we have a little bit of elaboration of the ground, path and fruition I will try to

get this rightthe ground is free from the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. It is the unity ofthe absolute truth and the relative truth. The path is free from assertion and denial, and that willbe the unity of the merit and wisdom accumulation. The fruition is free from the extremes of

samsaric end and nirvana end, and that will be the unity of the dharmakaya and the form kayas.

So that is some detail about this, but some parts are missing so I want to add those. The ground

mahamudra is the basis of the mahamudra path, and mahamudra fruition is enlightenment itself.

Then the path itself is the ways through which that potential will be fully developed. The fruitionmeans the result of this path or the final fruition of the path, which is the fully maturing and fully

matured potential, and the total liberation of the potential. That is the fruition. So that somehow

makes the ground, path and fruition very personal, and related to each one of us individually.

For example, in the entire human realm you can also include animals, but lets say

humansdo you know anybody who achieved exactly what he or she wished to achieve,

absolutely? Any king, any president, prime minister, rich man, poor man, soldier, general,scholar or artist; you know? Anybody who said I achieved exactly what I wished to achieve,

ultimately. Of course people make decisions like Oh, I have done enough. Okay, now alright

you know? There is a lot of that. I also do that a lot. Many times; not only one time. Then I

start something again. But anyway, there isnt anybody, really! If you travel all over the world:

any place in the world. If you go to a high mountain not too high but manageable for human

beingsand you dig long enough, you will find some bricks there: some ruins of a house there,

you know? People worked very hard to build those things. They brought all those stones all the


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way up there, sometimes using slaves, and they built there. They may have said Oh yes, I will

build what I want to build, but then what happened? Most of the time we dont even know who

built those things; so it doesnt mean anything. In this way there is no end to the efforts and thedesire of samsara. Really: there is no end.

But why does everybody think there is an end? Why does everybody work so hard, as if therewere an end? In this world, everybody is busy doing something. Some people are doing

something physically, some people are talking I think I am included there right now andwhy do they do all of that? Because they want to achieve something. And what makes them think

that they want to achieve something? Because it is in them. They do not have any limitation, you

know? Everyone does not have any limitation in their potential. So we say Attachment is so

much so that it can never be fulfilled. Its very true. You have to stop somewhere. You have to

say to yourself enough is enough, because if you dont you will go on forever. You mightbecome the richest person in the neighbourhood, and then, from there, the most powerful person

in the neighbourhood. Next you might become the most healthy person in the neighbourhood,

and so on, and so forth. From there you want to achieve the same thing in the whole country, and

then in the whole world, you know? You might even become the king of the world (I personallydont think I want to have that, because that will be lots of trouble, lots of problems: you have to

take care of everybody). Anyway, if you become the king of the whole world, it is a guaranteedthing that within one week you will want to have something else. I guarantee it. The minute you

own the whole world then you are looking for owning the moon, maybe, or mars. We have tried

to conquer those things already, so it proves it. In that way, there is no end. That will never befulfilled if we dont stop somewhere. Why is that? Because our potential has no limitations.Therefore, our desire, which is the light or the manifestation of our potential, has no limitation.

When will our limitless desire be fulfilled? Lets put it this way for a minute make thenegative think positive.. So, how do we fulfil our limitless, un-fulfilable, impossible greed?

When we become free, with no limitation then it is fulfilled. So enlightenment is our destination,and our impossible greed proves it, you know? Greed is negative; of course it is bad, but there

must be a reason why it is there. It cannot be a bad accident. That greed cannot be fulfilled bysaying Instead of everybody else, I want to be happy. Instead of everybody else, I want to be

free.

I want to be free, with no limitation, for the benefit of all sentient beings to be free with no

limitation: that is bodhichitta, that is compassion, and that is the ground mahamudra. Thatground mahamudra, if nurtured and cultivated properly on the path, then, will be the fruition

mahamudra. Our impossible greed can never be fulfilled by eating everything that we like to eat,

or doing everything that we like to do. It will never be fulfilled. It will get worse. Defeating all

our enemies; helping all our friends; it cannot be fulfilled. It is impossible. It can only befulfilled if we become free for the sake of all sentient beings freedom. Then it is fulfilled. So this

is the fruition mahamudra: one attains the dharmakaya so that the sambhogakaya and the

nirmanakaya will manifest for the benefit of all sentient beings. That is the fruition. That is thedestination.

What I am explaining here is that once we understand the ground, path, and fruition

clearlyclear enough that we can believe in it then we have mahamudra view, mahamudra


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attitude and mahamudra perception. We shouldnt have a perception, but as long as we have one

we cant help then we must have a good one. So thats mahamudra perception, mahamudra view.Once we have mahamudra view, if we conduct ourselves according to the mahamudra view then

that is mahamudra action. Then we meditate according to the mahamudra meditation

instructions, and that is mahamudra meditation. So that is view, meditation and action. Without

having clear understanding of ground, path and fruition, we cannot have the view. Withouthaving the view, we cannot have the action and meditation, generally speaking. So, for that

reason, it is quite important to understand.

But there is another side: if you have faith in the Buddha, if you have faith in the Buddhas

teaching, and if you have faith in the practice of dharma then you dont have to know anything.

If you practice with faith then everything works. You dont have to know ground, path andfruition. Whether you know it or not, it is there. When you know, nothing new appears, and

when you dont know, nothing is disappearing. So you really dont have to know, but these days

it is important to know. Why? Because this is a degenerating time.

I am not a negative person. I dont consider myself a pessimistic person. Actually I considermyself having some weakness of optimism [laughter], you know? So maybe my problem isoptimism, not pessimism. But the fact of the matter is that this is a degenerating time; so, many

things are getting worse, and many things are getting better. But it is those things that make us

worse that are getting better, and those things that make us better that are getting worse. In that

way, its getting better for worse. Thats true, I think. I could be wrong; I have the right to be

wrong (right?), but I think thats true.

One thing that really proves this to me is that, these days, anything that is sacred and divine

needs a lot of explanation, and people dont believe it, but anything that is not sacred and not

divine doesnt need any explanation, and everybody believes it. For example, many wars are

being fought right now, all over the world, and most of the people that are fighting there dontknow why. Only the ones who instigated the wars know,but the other people dont know. Theyjust believe; so they follow and get themselves killed, or they kill other people and destroy so

many things. Then think about making money: its good that people make money, but lots of theways that people make money are really other peoples plans, and other peoples ideas that theyjust follow. Many people just follow, and sometimes they get lucky, and they make some money,

but many people are actually just donating a lot of money to those people who plan those things.

They lose money, but they just go on, one loss after another. So in that way, they really dontneed a lot of explanation. Also, with taking drugs, and all these kind of things: even if somebody

explains so hard they still dont believe that person. They can see themselves getting crazy. They

see themselves dying, and they see their brain becoming like a scrambled egg: its not working

anymore, not connected anymore, all separate, you know? One part of the brain doesnt functionwith another part; so two and two doesnt make four anymore Two and two is maybe five or

three or six. They see that they are confused, but still they go for it. They dont need explanation,

and they dont need clarification. Then also with politics: many of the politicians, I think, donteven know what they are doing. They just believe, and they go for it. Of course all politicians are

not bad; many of them are very good. If there was no policy, then of course, the world would be

in chaos, but what I am saying is that nothing requires more explanation than dharma. So when itcomes to dharma, everybody wants all the detailed explanations. Not only once, but two, three or


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four times, you know? But everything else doesnt need explanation, and people just follow. For

example, with fashion: today you see a funny hat, which I think is a terrible hat, but tomorrow somany people are buying it and going crazy for it. So that way, everybody believes in things

without having to know, except when it comes to something that is sacred and divine. This

proves that this is a degenerating time. If it was not a degenerating time it would be the other

way around, so that the things that are less meaningful, and even harmful, such as war, shouldneed more explanation. People would find it very difficult to accept and very hard to participate.

Something that is divine and profound, like dharma, would be easy for people to follow and easy

to believe. If that happens then it shows that it is not a degenerating time but a generating time ora good time. So in this degenerating time, the clear understanding of ground, path and fruition

will help us all, and will also equip us to help others. Because, after all, the basis of the

mahamudra is Mahayana, and the purpose of mahayana is to help sentient beings. This is thefoundation of all the highest teaching of Lord Buddha.

So, whatever we are learning here, we are learning so that we can benefit others. If we want tobenefit others, there are many ways, but the easiest way is to make people understand something

that is important and beneficial for them. If people come to us wanting to understand somethingabout dharma, and we are able to explain to them, in a simple way, the ground, path and fruitionthen it will help them. It will change their life. So in this way, I think explaining these simplethings is very important, and I hope my limited knowledge is beneficial for you. Because you all

have primordial wisdom, whatever information or teaching you receive here might help you, so

that your primordial wisdom can start to work.

Now, when we meditate and practice, what is really happening to us is that our primordial

wisdom is awakening. Thats what it is. When we meditate, what we are doing is allowing ourprimordial wisdom to awaken. Even in an ordinary, day to day situation, like when you are in a

terrible dilemma; if you are able to ask your friends to leave the room, and then you say to

yourself I am going to sit down and be quiet. If you do that for half an hour, then no matterwhat kind of terrible dilemma that you are in, you will see the situation very clearly. You will

have a perspective over your problem, and you might even find out, to your surprise, that there is

no problem at all. Maybe what you were calling a problem half an hour ago is actually a very

good thing. Maybe it is exactly what you need to get, for what you want to achieve. Otherwise, itmight be something that is a problem indeed, but there is more solution than problem itself, and I

can guarantee you one thing (this is my little experience through the blessing of the dharma): the

solution for the problem is in the problem. I guarantee you. Its always there. Its just like aquestion: when somebody asks a question, if that person breaks down that question for

themselves then that is the answer. The answer is in the question, you know? The solution is in

the problem, but its very hard to seeespecially if it is your problem. You can feel your

problem from the tip of your hair into the middle of your bones, and therefore you cannot havethe perspective easily, but if you can relax then you are able to see more clearly. Thats theprinciple of meditation. When you meditate with sacred methods of meditation then, through the

blessing of the lineage and so forth, that potential for seeing things clearlythe primordial

wisdomawakens. Even temporarily, it makes all the difference on earth, all the difference thatyou can think of. It will make a big difference, an enormous difference. So in that way, I thinkwhen people understand the ground, path and fruition, it will help. Why do people have all these


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problems, and why do they think that they want to be something? All of these things come from

the ground or the potential. OK. So I hope this is beneficial for you all.

So far, I have been teaching about mahamudra in a very general sort of way. You may call it an

introduction or summary of mahamudra. Now, I thought perhaps it will be beneficial for all of us

to learn about mahamudra practice, not just a general introduction but about practice. It will alsobe very much an introduction to, or a summary of, the practice. In principle, all the teachings of

Buddha are for practice; all the teachings of Buddha only give us the final or complete result ifwe practice them. Without practice, of course, we get benefits. For example, knowing something

is much better that not knowing, and knowing correctly is much better than knowing incorrectly.

So this way, knowing dharma is very, very beneficial. Just associating with dharma is also very,very beneficial. Associating with good things is much better than associating with bad things,

and associating with the right thing is much better than associating with the wrong things. So

association with the dharma and understanding of the dharma is all beneficial, but we only

achieve the total benefit if we practice.

The definition of practice is that our body, our speech and our mind has to be functioningaccording to the teaching of the dharma. We have to integrate the dharma into our physical,verbal and mental activity. So we think according to dharma, we speak according to dharma and

we act according to dharma. If we manage to do that well then we are a mature practitioner. If

we are not able to do that well then we are not a mature dharma practitioner, but we are trying.So in this way, at least, we have to try our best. We have to put effort into implementing the

dharma that we learn, in our physical, verbal and mental activity. Then we get the benefit.

Out of this, the most important is mind, because mind is the most important essence. For

example, we might physically do all the good things, never doing anything wrong, and verbally,

we might say all the good things and never say anything wrong, but in our mind, we think of all

the negative things. If we have a vested interest in our mind, for our positive physical and verbalactivity, then it is no good. It is like eating very good food, on a very good plate, with lots of

very good eating tools (eating weapons I call them), like chopsticks, spoons, knives, forks and all

kind of things: no matter whether we eat with gold, silver, or diamonds, if the food is poison thenwe are going to die right after the meal is completed. It will be our last meal. So it will be like

that if we have a negative motivation in our mind. Even if, externally, we act positively, it is like

poisoned food. So in this way, the most important thing is mind.

Now, the practice of meditation is actually directly involving the mind. You can pray with mind

and body together through your speech. You can pray, but still your mind can be negative. For

example, we have so many kinds of wildlife here, and one of them is the parrot: the green birdthat speaks human language if they are taught. You can teach this bird a very special and sacred

mantra, like OM MANI PEME HUNG for example, and this bird will say OM MANI PEME

HUNG. If there is a worm crawling in front of him, he may say OM MANI PEME HUNG, andthen eat the worm: the worm is moving and gets chopped into pieces, and the bird enjoys it. Then

the bird goes for another one. So, in that way, you can be verbally saying good things, but

mentally you are totally disconnected with what you are saying. That can happen. But with mindit cannot happen, because if your mind is purely aware and purely dedicated, and engaged with


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the practice of dharma, for example, with a good motivation such as devotion and compassion,

then that wouldnt happen. In this way the mind is the most important.

At the same time, according to the mahamudra teaching, everything that we see, hear and interact

with: nature and the universe, everything is the interdependent and interconnected manifestation

of everything that has to do with our mind. So there is no difference between our mind andeverything else. In essence, it is its reflection. Some reflections are very serious, so its solid.

Some reflections are not that serious, so they are not that solid. For example, some people likebig hats, some people like small hats, some people like blue hats, some people like purple hats

and most people like white hats. So there are different perceptions, you know? But some things

are very, very, very serious, and very much in common with everybody else. In this way, the

mind is the most important. Its like a king. Its like the heart or core of everything, and sopractice with the mind is actually the most important.

Out of all the aspects of practice then, the most important is meditation, because withoutmeditating one cannot attain buddhahood. It is impossible without meditating. This is because

what has to be enlightened is our mind, and our mind has the perfect essence in it, as theembodiment of it, and we have to let it manifest. And how can it manifest if we dont let itmanifest? So meditation is letting it manifest, and in this way, meditation is the most important

aspect of practice.

In itself, mahamudra practice has a tremendous amount of methods. At the same time,

mahamudra is about everything; so everything is mahamudra, in principle. I cant say we have

the method, but, in principle, if you are able to do anything correctly and ultimately then you willbecome Buddha, you will attain realisation of mahamudra. I will give you a very, very simple

example: we eat rice or bread every day, or we drink water or some form of liquid every day. So

anybody who knows how to drink a glass of water 100% perfectly and ultimately, that person is

Buddha. If we know or if we do anything perfectly, ultimately, then that is mahamudra practice.However, we dont have the methods for all of those things so I cant teach you. I can only talkabout it, but I cant instruct you how to drink a glass of water properly, so tha t you become

Buddha. We dont have that method, but it is our principle.

Our method, then, is those teachings that are transmitted by our masters, through the centuries,

continued from master to disciple for over 2,500 years. These are the methods that we have.These methods were compiled by many of our great masters, and then it became a systematic,

organised method that goes one after another, step by step. Out of all of them, as far as our

lineage is concerned, the most complete, most sacred and most implemented text is Mahamudra

Ocean of Certainty, by the Gyalwa Karmapa.

This text starts with the contemplation of precious human life and ends with the recognition ofthe nature of mind. It has teaching chapters and practice chapters: a total of 98 (or you can say

97, because the last one is final, so that doesnt count). These 97 chapters lead us from

appreciating what we are: the precious human life, to the realisation of who we really are, what

we really are, and what we have always been. They lead us to the recognition or the realisation ofthe nature of mind. So this is the most comprehensive text, as far as the mahamudra practice is

concerned, in our lineage.


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In this teaching there are two categories: the first is known as the preliminary practice, and the

second category is the main practice. Preliminary means preliminary for the main practice. Forinstance, if you put up a building, you have to prepare the ground, and you have to make the

foundations. You can still put up a very big building if you dont do this, but it will not work,

because you might not get to live in it. So the foundation is very important. The deeper or more

profound the foundation then the more your practice will be effective later, and there will also beless obstacles, less confusion and so forth. So the foundation, or the preliminary practice, is first.

The preliminary practices that are taught in theMahamudra Ocean of Certainty are twelve: the

first four are the four contemplations, the second four are purification and accumulation

practices, called the four foundations, and the last four are the four conditions; four conditionsbecause in order for your dharma practice to go well and to progress smoothly, effectively and

deeply, you have to have all the conditions for it. So those four are about the conditions. So

twelve foundations: four and four and four.

After that, the actual practice involved is: first, shinay or shamatha [tranquillity meditation], and

then lhaktong or vipashyana [insight meditation]. The reason for this is that first our mind has tobe as pure as possible and as calm as possible. Pure and calm in a sense that it is not influencedby all the things that occur in day-to-day life: the things outside and inside ourselves. We

shouldnt be affected by those things, not negatively at least. So, for that, shinay is the best

method, because shinay is letting yourself be calm from inside, and not trying to make yourselfcalm from outside. If you have good shinay you can be in the middle of a festival with singing,

dancing, music, food, the smell of food, people, and all kinds of things can be happening around

you, but you can still be calm. That can happen only from inside, not from outside.

To be calm from outside you have to isolate yourself. You have to go somewhere where nothing

is happening, where there are no people, and there you can become externally calm. Then, inside,

you can be alone on the whole planet but very much crowded inside. In that way, the means tomake you externally calm does not help us in the long term; it does not help us deeply. I will

give you some not very, how do you say, uplifting examples, some quite sad examples. Lots of

people take alcohol, lots of people take drugs and lots and lots of people smoke to makethemselves calm. However, that is external calm, and it doesnt help for that long, because youneed more. First you smoke three cigarettes a day, then after that ten, then thirty and so on. Then

you become a chain smoker, and you can get worse. If you take alcohol you can become analcoholic. First you cannot go to sleep so you take a little before you go to bed. After that you

have to increase it. Eventually, you have to take your drink right after you get up, and thats very

bad; you are already an alcoholic. With drugs, first you take the lightest form of drugs, but then

after that you need to take heavier drugs. You have to take drugs not only from smoking oreating, but you even have to inject them into your blood system, and that is bad. You are already

doomedalmost. If you are very strong, physically and mentally, you can come off it, but itsvery difficult. So, in this way, external means of calmness are not the solution. Internal means

are the solution, and that means shamatha or shinay meditation.

So next is the lhaktong practice, then introducing the nature of mind, and then dealing with every

aspect of the mental and emotional states which delude the mind. For example, when we areangry we are deluded in such a way that we see everything as ugly and everything as bad. When


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we are deluded by attachment we are so deluded that everything becomes totally shining and all

of that sort of thing: romanticising about everything. When we are jealous, everybodys

happiness becomes our sufferingwhat a terrible thingand when we are proud everybodys

suffering becomes our happiness what a terrible thing. This is how the defilements delude us.

They influence us and change everything.

The practice of mahamudra, step by step, is dealing with each one of those: going to the heart of

each one of those and transforming them one by one. This makes the Mahamudra Ocean of

Certainty a complete practice instruction for mahamudra.

The Four Contemplations

The first four preliminary practices are the four contemplations. I am not 100% sure in English

language what is the difference between contemplation and meditation, but, by asking lots of

questions of English speaking individuals, I came to a conclusion for myself. Still, I am not100% sure, because I am not a linguist, but contemplation means you have something to think

about or to analyse. That is contemplation. But in meditation you are not analysing anything.You are visualising, or you are just sitting, or you are following a particular text, but you are notanalysing anything or trying to confirm anything. That is meditation, and thats what Iunderstood is the difference. So I am using this terminology as if that were true, but I am not

sure. Anyway, the first four I call contemplations. In Tibetan we call them chi gom.Its agom, or

a meditation, but its achi gom:chipa means thinking or analysing. These first four are very

important, because it is described as lo duk. Lo dukmeans your mind, your motivation, your

perception, your wish or aspiration which is not towards worldly things but towards

enlightenment. Sometimes practitioners may misunderstand this and think that it means we haveto become, or we are becoming, anti-social, or that we are against samsara. We are not against

samsara. We are absolutely for samsara, you know? We try to attain buddhahood for the benefit

of everybody in samsara; so we are not against samsara. We are deciding to take the journeytowards enlightenment, which is a journey with goal, instead of continuing to journey insamsara, which is a journey without goal. We go, again and again, in a circle.

So that is the definition of lo duk. We are not saying samsara is bad or terrible, and that we are

against it. Definitely not. We are saying that samsara is samsara: it is going in a circle, and

samsaric activity will not get anywhere. We will keep on doing the same thing, again and again,

forever. Therefore we decide not to do that. Instead, we want to journey towards enlightenment,which is not going in a circle. So every single practice and every single activity will take us one

step further. It can be a baby step, or it can be a magnum step; it can be an elephant step, or it can

be a tortoise step, but it is a step towards enlightenment. So we decide to do that. For that reason,

these first four contemplations are extremely important.

The first contemplation is precious human life. Precious human life we all have, but if we

dont know it then we cant appreciate it. If we cant appreciate it then it is as good as, or as bad

as, if we didnt have it. One ofthe Gyalwa Karmapas says in a teaching I think it is the first

Karmapa, but I am not 100% sureIf you want to see this side of the mountain clearly, go tothe other side of the mountain. If you are here and you try to see what this really looks like, youcannot see it clearly. If you go over there and turn around this way then you will see this place


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very clearly. So we have the precious human life, but if we dont look at it, by putting ourself

over there, we cannot see what we have, and then we cannot appreciate it. If we dont appreciateourself then all the problems happen, you know? All of us, one way or another, have something

to complain about, or maybe a couple of things to complain about. We have a couple of things to

moan about and a couple of things to worry about, but if we are able to see ourself clearly, we

will know how fortunate and meritorious we are. For example, I consider myself very, very, veryfortunate, you know? But if I dont think about it then I have ten thousand things to com plain

and worry about. Really! So, in this way, the contemplation on precious human life is extremely

important. Thats number one.

Once we are able to have that appreciation then death/impermanence is very important. If we

dont have the understanding ofdeath/impermanence then the understanding of precious human

life doesnt really help. Death/impermanence we know very well. We dont have to use any

special effort, and it doesnt take a genius to discover this. If we look around, who is 100 years

old here? Nobody. And the newborn of today will also not be here after 100 years; that is almost

guaranteed almost. So in that way, we will not last very long. I came here for the first time 25

years ago, and even this project [the construction of Sherab Ling] is not finished. Three timesthat will be 75 years, and four of that will be 100 years. Its nothing. Human life is so short; its

really nothing. So if we dont use this life meaningfully then we will lose this for sure. Therefore, after learning to appreciate our precious human life, our existence, we have to realise

impermanence or death/impermanence.

After knowing death/impermanence, we have to understand karma or cause and condition. When

we die it is not just like a candle ran out and the flame goes o ff; its not like that. Its not like a

glass dropped on the floor and broke; its not like that either. We are here, and this is proof thatwe came from somewhere. Also, because we are here, this is the proof that we will go

somewhere. How can we be here without coming from somewhere? Impossible. How can today

exist without yesterday? How can today exist without tomorrow? So it is a very simple thing.This makes us aware that we are the result of our past, and our future will be the result of now. Itwill be. So karma, or cause and result, means that. If there is no karma then everybody will be

equal. Everybody will look the same, sound the same and think the same. The state of education,

state of power and state of economy will be precisely the same. As long as this is not so then it isthe karma that makes everything so different.

I know all kinds of people: some people are very educated, and some people are uneducated;some people are rich, some are poor; some are healthy, and some are unhealthy. There are so

many variations. I know people who are healthy, rich and powerful but very unhappy. I also

know people who are poor, with bad health; they are sick and have no power, but they are very

happy, and vice versa also. So many different things, why? Because each and every one has theirown cause and condition: thats karma. Also, theres another proof for that, which is that whenyou become Buddha, you are above and beyond karma. Therefore all the Buddhas are equal.

When you become Buddha and are beyond karma, you are liberated and purified of all karma:

cause, conditions, everything. So all the Buddhas are equal. Until then nobodys going to beequal, 100%. Of course, equal opportunities and equal rights are one thing, but exercising the

equal opportunity and equal rights is another thing, and achieving the equal opportunity and theequal rights is absolutely a different thing. So that is karma. We have to know that after we die


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its not just finished. It is the same thing. It continues. Therefore, when we li ve we have to live,

but we also have to appreciate our life. We have to use each moment as positively as possible, asmeaningfully as possible. So that is the third contemplation.

The last contemplation is the suffering of samsara. After knowing the first three, the suffering of

samsara is a very important thing to understand. If we dont understand that then we might be avery virtuous person, a very religious person, but we still end up in samsara. How? If we dont

understand the suffering of samsara then we may say Oh, I better not lie. Why? Because inmy future life nobody is going to believe me, even if I tell the truth, or I might be born as

somebody who cannot speak. So for that purpose you speak the truth. Then we want to be

generous and dont want to steal anything, because of the fear that in the next life we willbecome poor: that we will have nothing, if we steal in this life. Of course, those kinds of attitudes

are good. You dont want to be sick next life, so in this life you dont cause any injury to

anybody. You dont want to be poor in the next life, so this life you dont steal anything. In the

next life you want to be respected by everybody for what you say, so in this life you dont tell

lies. These things are very good, but thats stil l samsaric dharma: not for enlightenment, not for

buddhahood. Therefore, one has to understand the shortcomings of samsara.

In this way, the four contemplations: precious human life, death/impermanence, karma, or cause

and result and the suffering of samsara, all of these four contemplations, have their own very,

very important reason for that step. Those four stages have to be practiced as they are. Okay.

Purification & Accumulation

Now the second foundation, which is known as the four foundations, is actually a practice which

includes meditation, recitation and also physical practice. This begins with the refuge and

prostration practice, then Vajrasattva visualisation and recitation practice, and after that the

mandala offering and guru yoga. In principle, all of the practice of dharma is, in one way oranother, a form or purification and accumulation. Purification, I think, is the correct terminology,

but accumulation I have some problem with, because it also really means that what is negative

has to be purified, but what is positive has to be accumulated or developed. So maybe this

terminology of accumulation is not 100% correct, but lets use it as a working terminology.Purification and accumulation, in essence, are actually the same thing. You cannot say that this is

purification only, and that is accumulation only. For example, if you have dirty clothes, they aredirty clean clothes. It has to be, because the clothes have to be clean first, so that when you wash

out the dirt, they can become clean again. They were clean, and then something happened so that

they became dirty: paint or dust or whatever. When you wash the clothes to make them clean

again, what you are doing is purifying or cleaning the dirt, and accumulating, developing orrevealing the cleanness which is there when it is still dirty. So thats exactly how dharma practiceis: we are Buddha in our essence.

This is very interesting, because lots of people say I want to become Buddhist, or I am not

Buddhist, or I am Buddhist but they are not Buddhist. Well, officially and intentionally,

whether you say you are Buddhist or not is one thing, but in essence everybody is Buddha. Soactually, everybody is more than Buddhist: everybody is the embodiment of Buddha. Anyway,

that is what is clean or what is perfect. Through our countless lifetimes of wrong doings or right


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doings and all of those things, we became obscured, so now we do not look like a Buddha, we do

not sound like a Buddha, we do not think like a Buddha, and we definitely do not manifest like a

Buddha. That is what we have to purify. When we say purification then as we are purifying thepureness has to be revealed. Theres no such thing as just purifying without the pureness being

revealed. Its not two efforts; it is one effort. We clean then cleanness appears. So purification

and accumulation are the same thing, but these particular practices of the foundations are dividedinto two, with the first two being purification oriented practice, and the second two,

accumulation oriented practice.

The descriptions of vajrayana teaching are so many, but one of them is that there are plenty of

methods; never short of methods. In this way, all of these practices, such as the four foundations,are part of this variety, and these varieties are for a specific purpose. The first two are

purification, so prostration practice comes first and Vajrasattva practice comes second, and the

reason is very, very clear: prostration is first as a physically oriented practice, and Vajrasattva is

second as a mental and, specifically, verbally oriented practice. You have to recite theVajrasattva mantra, and then you have to visualise the purification. Now, with prostrations, you

have to recite the text, and you have to visualise, but, at the same time, the main part of the efforthere is the physical prostration. So, when you are prostrating, you know you are prostrating. Itsnot unnoticeable, you know. When you are doing Vajrasattva it can be unnoticed by you:whether you are reciting or not, or whether you are visualising or not. But when you do the

prostrations, you will never have that problem. However, for a meditator or practitioner to sit

down for hours and say mantras is very difficult, definitely for beginners. Of course, even forseasoned practitioners this can be a problem, because if you are doing well then you will fall

asleep, you know? If you fall asleep as soon as you do the meditation and prayer that means you

are doing well. You are able to relax; your practice doesnt cause you stress, and thats a very

good sign. If it happens that after you do the practice you cannot sleep, and even at night youhave problems sleeping, then you have a problem with your practice, because you are not doing

it right. Youre not able to relax; youre not able to ca lm down, and the practice causes you

stress. That is not right. Something is wrong. So although falling asleep is a good sign, it is alsoan enormous obstacle. However, vajrayana methods are such that when you are doing

prostrations its very difficult to fall asleep [laughter]. In that way it is very good practice for the

beginner; it is a very good practice for someone who starts.

Now what are we purifying? We are purifying our body, we are purifying our speech and we are

purifying our mind. So, with the body, what are we purifying? This body is nothing more andnothing less than the fruit of our karma; this is what it is. All of our karma is physically manifest

as however we manifest physically. Of course there is much more, but physically. Second is our

speech. Our speech is expression; we communicate through our speech. Some people

communicate with themselves through their speech, but most of us speak to other people. It iscommunication and expression of ourself, and that is actually the translation of our karmic cause

and conditions, all translated and communicated through our speech. So that is karmic fruit as

well. Next is our mind. Of course, when we say mind (we have so many Buddhist scholars andmasters here so I have to be very careful), mind has so many levels. So here, when I say mind I

mean the dualistic aspect of our mind. We call ourselves I and everybody else others, so this

is the kind of mind I am talking about. This mind is the fruit of our karma as well. We think in acertain way, certain things affect us in a certain way, and we react to certain things in a certain


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way. All of this is the result of our karma. So when we say purify then there has got to be

something pure in there, otherwise you cannot purify. For example, you cannot purify a bowl of

ink. Its impossible. No matter how much you wash it, its still black. It still comes out as ink.You wash, wash, wash, and you are finished with it. Theres nothing in there that you can clean,

because its all ink, but if it is a diamond that is covered with dirt then you can purify it, or you

can clean it. When you clean it, the dirt is gone, and the cleanness inside is revealed. So, like theclean clothes that became dirty, if you wash them then the cleanness is revealed. In that way,

when we say purification, there has got to be something pure in there, and that is our mind: the

essence of our mind. So we purify all of the temporary defilements, all of the temporaryoutcomes of our defilements, and all of the habits that are created through the defilements. These

things are what we purify. Now, the essence of our mind is incorruptible. It can never be

contaminated by anything, so it is always pure. Therefore the purification terminology becomesjustified.

Prostrations are physical purification. I wouldnt say it is hard practice, physically, because whenyou look at the workers at the construction sites or in a coal mine then that is hard work. But,

with prostrations, you are in a nice room, you have a clean floor and you are appropriatelydressed. You have a little pad for your knees, a little pad for your hands, and you have a beautifulBuddha image up there. You sit quietly and meditate first, and then do your prostrations and

counting, one by one. Thats not such hard work. Out of all the other practices that is, how do

you say, the most noticeable physical activity. In this way, it is physically oriented purification

practice, but it also involves visualisation, which is mind, and recitation, which is speech. So

thats first. In the tradition of our lineage we do 110,000 prostrations. 10,000 is to make up for

any mistakes we make in the counting. When you do something good and set a certain number,

less is not good, but more is no problem. So to make sure we do 100,000 prostrations we add

10,000.

After completing the prostration practice, next we do theDorje Sempa

practice, or in Sanskrit(which I am not very good at because I did not study) it will be something like Vajrasattva.

Tibetans will pronounce itBenza Sato, so the Dorje Sempa or Benza Sato recitation. This

recitation involves visualisation of a particular deity, and thats a very important part of it.

Buddha is two things: there is the historical Buddha of our time, Buddha Shakyamuni, and the

lineage of dharma comes from him. Another Buddha is all the Buddhas: not just PrinceSiddhartha but all the Buddhas. Earlier I said that all the Buddhas are equal, because they are

above and beyond anything that is dualistic, which includes karma. The Buddha that represents

that, the Buddha which represents all aspects of Buddha, is Buddha Vajradhara. Then we have

the five Buddha families, and the king of all five Buddha families is represented by BuddhaVajrasattva or Dorje Sempa. We recite the hundred-syllable mantra of Dorje Sempa and visualise

the purification, and in this way we purify all aspects of our karmic conditions, and the causes of

all the karmic conditions: the defilements themselves. The five Buddha families represent the

transformed aspects of the five defilements, and Dorje Sempa represents all of it. In this way, itis the highest kind of purification deity (if you like, you can call it a deity). Then we say the

purification mantra of that deity 110,000 times. As you see very clearly, prostrations are

physically oriented purification, and Dorje Sempa is verbally oriented purification, and both gowith the mind, because both physically and verbally oriented purification practices involve your


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mind. Mind is the key, of course. With these two practices the purification oriented practices are

complete. Then we start the accumulation oriented practice.

When we say accumulate, as I mentioned earlier, it means when we are accumulating merit and

when we are accumulating wisdom. Merit is necessary, because wisdom can only be contained if

we have merit. Wisdom cannot be contained if we dont have merit. I will give you a very stupidexample: not a wise one, not a divine one and not a spiritual one but a worldly one. So,

everybody knows that everyone wants to be rich not everyone but most people. Rich meansyou have a lot of money, but even for that one has to have merit. If a person who does not have

much merit is given a big amount of money, what will that person do? That person will not be

able to handle it. Instead, that person will get into so much trouble, and that money will destroy

them, but if that person has merit then they are able to use it and enjoy it; they are able to dogood things with it. In this way, even for worldly things we need merit, and for spiritual things,

of course. So we cannot contain wisdom if we dont have merit. In order to develop wisdom we

need merit, and for that we practise the accumulation of merit. Merit accumulation means doing

good things: physically, mentally and verbally good things, beneficial things that are meritorious.

Accumulation means you do lots of good things or lots of positive things, so that after some timeit becomes natural for you to do good things. When it becomes un-natural for you to do bad

things, that is a sign of merit. When it becomes easier for you to do positive, helpful and goodthings, rather than to be negative and harmful and all of that, then that means you have

developed some merit.

These days I have sensed (but I could be wrong) that many people think, when somebody is

doing something not so good, they will say Oh, its human nature. It is a widespread popular

concept that it is easier to do bad things than good things. It is kind of a natural concept. Thatswhat many people experience, which means a time of degeneration, or that we are not so

meritorious, if that is the case.

Through doing good things we accumulate merit, so here, in the practice of mandala offering, the

means of accumulating merit that we are using, or are taught, is the offering of the universe.

Giving to the poor, disadvantaged or needy, offering to Buddha or bodhisattvas, or for a good

cause are all giving. Here we are following the path of devotion to all the Buddhas, bodhisattvasand deities, and we are offering the universe. Of course our real offering here represents one

solar system: the sun, the moon and the continent etc., but then that is followed by an aspiration

of the whole universe.

The Buddha taught that our solar system is part of a third thousand universe system. That

means 1000 times 1000 times 1000, or one billion solar systems functioning together, and we are

part of it. So we are envisioning the offering of all of the universe. Of course Buddha also saysthat this third thousand universe system is just like one grain of sand in the river Ganges, and that

there are countless third thousand universes in endless space. They cannot be counted. When weare offering this, we are offering the whole universe represented by one solar system each time.

If we believe in it, and if we mean it then we are really offering the whole universe. The whole

universe belongs to us, because the whole universe is the manifestation of our karma. The

universe, as we perceive it, is the manifestation of our own karma, and so it belongs to us; webelong to it; we are part of it. In this way, we are truly offering one solar system representing the


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whole universe each time we make one mandala offering. One mandala offering, once you are

really practicing it, takes maybe 20 or 30 seconds. So each 20 or 30 seconds you are offering onewhole solar system representing all the universe. That can, and will, be meritorious. Giving one

apple to a beggar is meritorious; donating money to a good charitable organisation is

meritorious; helping somebody sick is meritorious, but offering the whole universe has to be

meritorious, because it will be so much of what we consider meritorious. In this way, it is atremendous vajrayana sacred method, that really gives the opportunity for everybody, rich or

poor, fortunate or unfortunate. Anybody can afford to do the mandala offering. Of course, if we

dont believe in it then thats another thing, but if you truly, truly mean to offer the wholeuniverse each time then it is meritorious. If you just follow the ritual and are not really feeling it

or believing in it then it will be meritorious, but thats not exactly what its meant for. So that is

one thing. Another thing is that when we are doing some small things, we can be quite non-dualistic about it, but when we are doing a little bit bigger things then we are very dualistic about

it, and we hold onto it. For example, when you give 5 rupees to a beggar, you will not think

about it, and you will be quite non-dualistic about it, but if you do a little bit more than that, it

comes into your mind, and you will think of it for several days Oh my goodness, I gave such

and such to that fellow, and Im a good person: that sort of self gratification. In the same way, ifwe offer something to a Buddha image or something then whenever we see the Buddha, we will

also remember what we have done before. Here we are offering such an enormous amount, but it

doesnt even occur to us that we have done it. Of course, for most of us, that may happenbecause we dont believe that we are offering a universe [laughter]. We think that we are just

offering a few grains of rice on a plate, you know? So thats why. However, if we really mean it,

its a tremendous way of accumulating merit. We practice this 110,000 times, and after that we

do the guru yoga.

The guru yoga is the accumulation of wisdom. Wisdom, of course, many of you know, and Ithink I also mentioned something about it earlier, but I will try to make it more clear. Here,

wisdom actually means the awakening of primordial wisdom. Its the same thing as purification:

we have wisdom; we are all Buddha in our essence right now; we all have primordial wisdomright now, but that primordial wisdom has to manifest. That primordial wisdom has to shine

forth. So, for that, we do the guru yoga.

Terminology wise, Guru yoga means the practice of the guru. But really, the meaning of guru

yoga is that from Buddha until now, for over 2500 years of the lineage, the transmission has

taken place from the guru, or master, to the disciple. In that way, the living blessing, the living

presence of Buddhas primordial wisdom, has continued, so that we can receive it. Then ourprimordial wisdom can start to manifest. It is like if you have a seed: you put water on it, and it

slowly starts to grow. So that is what blessing is; that is what guru yoga is.

As an example, you know that I am a guru, or everybody thinks that I am a guru. Thats fine, but

when I talked about guru yoga I used to feel a little bit paranoid. It sounded like I was telling

others how important I am, and how everybody should worship me, you know? That kind of fearwas there, sometime back. But that happened because I really didnt understand 100% (then I

would be Buddha). I didnt understand then as much as I understand now about what guru yoga

and guru devotion are, and what all of these things mean. So theres no reason for me to getparanoid, because it is the blessing of the lineage. It is not my blessing, alright? It is the blessing


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of the lineage. If it is my blessing that I have to give you then you would have to wait for quite

some time [laughter]. If I said that I am very ambitious, maybe 100 lifetimes, because if Iimprove by 1% each lifetime, I will be Buddha after 100 lifetimes, and so then you will have a

blessing: you will have my blessing, you know. But it is not like that. It is the blessing of the

Buddha that you are getting through the guru. It is like this light: the bulb is not giving the light,

the wire is not giving the light and the switch is not giving the light, but the powerhouse whichgives the current is way over there. You dont see it, and you dont hear it, but its over there. So

it is the Buddhas enlightenment, which is ever present, beyond time or any limitation, that

continues through the gurus of the lineage, but it can only continue if the samaya is not broken. If

the wire is broken the light wont come. The powerhouse can be a very big one, but the lightwont be here. Also, if the bulb is burned, no light will come. Similarly, if the lineage is not

broken somewhere, because of the broken samaya, then the blessing continues from Buddha to

the guru, and from the guru to the disciple. So thats how it works. Its very clear, I think.

Now, the mahamudra lineage guru yoga of the four foundations is such that you receiveabhisheka or empowerment. You receive the body empowerment, speech empowerment and

mind empowerment, in the form of absorption of the mandala of the refuge: the mandala of theguru, deity, Buddha, dharma, sangha and protector. From this mandala you are receiving theblessing, you are receiving the abhisheka. In this way, we do the first two practices as thepurification, then we accumulate merit so that we can contain the wisdom, and then we receive

the abhisheka. We do the guru yoga so that we receive the transmission of the blessing of the

Buddha, the blessing of the lineage. So that is how the four foundation practices are taught: withthat particular purpose.

Many times I have met with individuals who say that they have done this practice and that

practice, but they havent done that one or that one. Sometimes it appears that people

TaiSitu Rinpoche on Mahamudra

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