Explanation of Selected Bodhisattva and Tantric Vows

There are four binding factors that make one lose the bodhisattva vows. If we break the pratimoksha vows, we don’t lose the bodhisattva vows. However, if we break the bodhichitta vows with all four factors complete, we lose the vows. There is great, intermediate and small contamination; that goes with respect to the root tantric vows as well. 

Now we have to recognize what are the four binding factors: 

1. The first is wanting to continue to act according to a faulty way. 
2. The second is not having any shame or consideration. The difference between shame is keeping moral discipline. If we don’t keep it, it is being shameless. Thinking of our gurus, Buddhas, who we took our vows from, thinking of them, “I’m not going to commit any non-virtue.”
3. The third is being happy at the fault we have done, thinking it is OK what we have done.
4. The fourth is not seeing what we have done as wrong. 

If we have any of the three: not wishing to do it again, being shameless or inconsiderate and taking pleasure in it, if we have any one of those, then it is a small contamination. If we don’t see it as a mistake and if we have that either alone or on top of them one of those or two of those others, that is an intermediate contamination. If we have all four complete, then it is a great contamination, which is an equivalent of a downfall, and we lose the vows. If we have a downfall, we lose all bodhichitta vows.

Each of these is divided into three: small, intermediate and great. We are talking about the first three binding factors. If we have just one of them, it is small of the small. If we have two of them, it is intermediate of the small. If we have all three of them, it is great of the small. The intermediate is also divided into small, intermediate and great. If we are not seeing it as wrong, then it is the small of the intermediate, and if we have in addition another one of the others, then it is the intermediate of the intermediate. If we have, in addition, two others, it is the great of the intermediate. If we have all three in addition to that, the four binding factors, that is a great contamination, which is a downfall.

If we hold distorted views or give up bodhichitta – that is two of the root vows – it is not concerning the binding factors, but just having those anyway, we lose the vows. In other words, for distorted views and giving up bodhicitta, we don’t need the four binding factors, but for the rest of them, we do. 

These only refer to the root vows and not to the 46 faulty actions.

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Generosity

(5) Not accepting when invited as a guest.

The fifth faulty action with respect to generosity: someone invites us as a guest and we are not accepting it, referring to mostly meals in someone’s house. We shouldn’t discriminate between a poor or rich house; we should go. If someone asks us to go to a very nice house, of course, we go. 

(6) Not accepting material gifts.

The fifth and sixth faulty actions with respect to generosity are not accepting invitations and not accepting money, this is especially if we are bodhisattva. If we don’t accept, we prevent the other person from collecting merit. We should accept.

If we are not a bodhisattva, it doesn’t matter that much. However, we should check with the person that they are not going to get angry if we don’t accept the invitation, then we should accept. But if they are not going to get angry, and by accepting we will have a lot of attachment, then it’s OK not to accept. We have to check each situation. 

(7) Not giving the Dharma to those who wish to learn.

The seventh one, with respect to generosity, is not giving the Dharma to those who wish for the Dharma teachings. It would be a root downfall if we did it because of miserliness. It would be a secondary downfall if we do it out of anger or wishing to harm others, jealousy or out of laziness. The root vow, the downfall that comes from not teaching the Dharma out of miserliness, is thinking that if we teach someone else, they will get better than us and become more famous than us; they will get more offerings and money.

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Ethical Self-Discipline

(1) Ignoring those with shattered ethics.

The first is to give up on somebody who has broken ethical discipline, anybody who has done the five heinous crimes or broken any of the root bodhichitta vows, giving up on them and saying they are no good. This is a faulty action. Out of the power of laziness and anger, we shouldn’t be angry at them, saying we can’t help them anymore or, because we are lazy, to give up on them. We should say, “What you have done in the past is the past, in the future try not to kill again,” or whatever it is they have done. 

(2) Not upholding moral training for the sake of others’ faith.

The next faulty action is not acting according to the training in order to generate faith in others. What that is referring to is that if we don’t act like a shravaka, following all the Hinayana rules, it’s bad because it will make others not have faith. We shouldn’t say, “I’m a Mahayana practitioner. I don’t have to follow Hinayana.” In order for others to have faith in the Buddha Dharma, we should act like the Hinayana practitioners and follow the rules. 

(3) Being petty when it concerns the welfare of others.

The next one is the fault of being petty with our actions in terms of benefiting others. Before we said we are supposed to keep the rules of the Hinayana, especially if we are a monk. One of them is that we are supposed to have our robes where we sleep, and if we don’t, we lose the blessings of the robes. If we go to a place with a bad disease, and people ask us to stay there to help them, and it is useful to stay, but we haven’t brought the other robes, we can’t give the excuse that “I will lose the blessing of the robes if I stay with you.” We shouldn’t be petty about these actions. 

(4) Not committing a destructive action when love and compassion call for it.

The next is the fault of not having great compassion in life. This is referring to if there is somebody who is going to do great harm, and if we don’t take the life of that person, then it’s a fault. We should have compassion and love for the other people and this person. If we don’t take their life and prevent them from harming others, it is a mistake. 

(6) Becoming excited and flying off to some frivolous activity.

The sixth fault in terms of discipline is engaging in frivolous activities. This is that we shouldn’t act in a very boisterous or playful way in the sense that we shouldn’t sing or dance, go to the movies, watch TV out of attachment or swimming and playing ball out of attachment and fun for ourselves. To watch the news to see what it’s like, that is OK, but if we watch it out of attachment, that it is breaking this vow. Sometimes we want to watch TV when we are very tired, that is different, but we don’t do it just because of mental wondering, just to look at it because it’s there.

It is more out of dissatisfaction. It is out of desire and dissatisfaction that we go and become distracted. We are already happy and staying in a nice house like this, and that is not enough for us. We have to go out and walk in the field, that is unnecessary. But if we are tired or depressed, like somebody died or you’ve been studied for too long and your shoulders hurt or you have lung, then it’s OK to go for relaxation. Just because we are attached to it and enjoy frivolous activity or causing others to do it, to go with us, it is a faulty action. So, it’s doing it ourselves and causing others to do it. 

(7) Intending only to wander in samsara.

This is the fault of having the mind to wish to free from samsara just by ourselves. In other words, thinking that it is too difficult to collect merit over three countless eons, so “Just forget about it, I will just work for liberation.” 

There is a difference between leaving ourselves out of samsara alone or just the root vow of giving up bodhichitta. The faulty action of the intention to free only ourselves from samsara is not only referring to thinking about it. If we really felt and thought that way, that’s giving up bodhichitta, which is a root downfall. This is referring to only saying it, or saying to someone else that they should do this, or saying it in a joking way about ourselves, “Oh, it’s too hard to practice bodhisattva vow to free myself.” Just saying it is the faulty action. 

If we think we will give up bodhichitta in our mind, it’s a root downfall. For bodhisattvas, it is to practice sometimes not to abandon delusions, but to use them as an auxiliary for being able to help others. Bodhisattvas can use desire; for instance, one bodhisattva can take a thousand wives, have a thousand children, and half of them could practice the Dharma, and half of them will be able to teach the worldly ways to help people in the world. This is an actual action that a bodhisattva might use, not abandoning desire, but working in this way to benefit others. Like using fertilizer for the field, fertilizer in itself is dirt and excrement, but can be used for helpful purposes. Another example would be a bodhisattva getting angry with someone in order to make them stop being lazy or help them. Having thoughts to get ourselves alone out of samsara, we can either just say this or think this, but it’s not a root downfall which is to finally make a decision to do it.

(8) Not ridding ourselves of behavior that causes us to fall to ill-repute.

Not giving up something which would give us a bad reputation. In other words, if Rinpoche was keeping a lady as a disciple or attendant, even if she was doing nothing naughty, but still other people would say bad things. If he says, “It doesn’t matter,” if Rinpoche as a monk goes with a lot of people who drink alcohol, even if he doesn’t drink alcohol, it doesn’t matter, he would get a bad reputation as people would think he drinks alcohol. If he didn’t stop going with these people, it would be a fault. 

(9) Not redressing those who act with disturbing emotions and attitudes.

The next one is not enforcing the rules for someone who has delusions. It’s as if we have the power to enforce some rules, then if somebody has committed a fault, if we don’t enforce them, then it’s a big fault. Like Maitripa, he was a great practitioner, but he used to take the alcohol from the offering; we are not supposed to do that. Atisha was the disciplinarian, and so he kicked him out of the monastery for that. If he were to say, “Oh he is a friend,” and not enforce the rules when he had the power to enforce the rules, it would have been a mistake. Even though it has the word “delusion” in the name of it, it doesn’t mean that is referring to only delusions. It is talking about someone who has committed a destructive action of body or speech. 

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Patience

In terms of patience, we are talking about four actions.

(1) Discarding the four positive trainings.

The first is when we are abused or criticized, when someone is angry with us, or hitting us, or speaking about our faults, and if we get angry and criticize them back and someone says, “Please stop,” and we don’t stop.

There is a root vow of not forgiving others or hitting them if under the influence of anger. If we get angry with someone even our own child and hit them, this is the third downfall. And if they apologize or someone else tells us to stop, and we don’t listen, that is a downfall as well. For the second case, with apologizing, it doesn’t have to be only hitting, it can be in terms of getting angry with someone or abusing them, and someone says sorry, and we don’t listen, that is a downfall.  

This faulty action here is retaliating. It is the faulty action of being separated from the four virtuous trainings. The four virtuous trainings are when (a) somebody verbally abuses us, (b) someone hits us, (c) somebody gets angry with us or (d) somebody exposes our faults, meaning he points out the bad things we might have done in the past against ourselves or others, in front of other people, if we retaliate and do the same thing back, call them a bad name, get angry with them back, giving a dirty look, hitting them back or if we expose their faults back to them, this is faulty action. 

The root downfall is hitting someone when we get angry, and the second part is that if we are angry with someone, hitting them or abusing them, and that person or someone else says, “Please stop,” and we don’t listen to them, that is a downfall. 

(2) Ignoring those who are angry with us.

The next one is ignoring someone who is angry with us. There are two situations. Either we get angry with somebody, or there is somebody who is about to hurt us or they get angry with us. If we avoid them, or neglect them out of anger or out of laziness, then it is a mistake. If we get angry, what we should do is to apologize afterward, we shouldn’t just try to avoid this person because we are still angry with them or because we are too lazy to apologize. Or if someone is angry with us, if we don’t try to cool them down and just say, “To hell with them, I’m not gonna bother,” if we don’t try to smooth things out with them because we are angry with them or we are lazy and because we can’t be bothered, that is a faulty action. 

(3) Refusing others’ apologies.

The next one is the fault of refusing someone’s apology even after they have apologized. The difference between this and the third root downfall was on the actual occasion if we are angry with someone and that person says, “Please stop,” and we don’t stop, it’s a downfall. Here the faulty action is later, if somebody has done something wrong in the past, and we hold a grudge against them, if later they apologize and we don’t accept the apology and continue to hold a grudge, this is a faulty action. 

(4) Dwelling on anger.

The last one is continuing to keep an angry mind. If we are angry with someone in the past, and we hold a grudge and continue being angry with them, this is a fault. If we were angry with someone, we should just forget it, we should not continue to be angry and hold a grudge.

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Perseverance

There are three with respect to enthusiastic perseverance. 

(1) Gathering a circle of followers because of desiring veneration and respect.

There are the three Tibetan words that are used here. The first one, “nyen,” means for others to make offerings to us, either food, money, clothes or things like that. The second one, “kur,” is for others to show us respect like putting a high throne. The third one, “sishu,” means for others to serve as our attendant, like washing our feet. The first faulty action is to gather a group of disciples because of our desire to receive any of these things: respect, material gain or service. 

(2) Not doing anything, out of laziness, and so on.

This one is not eliminating our laziness. This is referring to sitting around and doing nothing all the time. Or out of laziness, sleeping during the day or sleeping at the very early or very late part of the night. We should sleep in the middle of the night. Or we sit, relax and do nothing, or staying in bed, just having the pleasure of staying in bed, these types of laziness we should eliminate and abandon. If we are sick or exhausted, we can rest for a while. 

(3) Resorting to passing time with stories, out of attachment.

The next is the fault of desire or attachment. Telling pointless stories. We can tell stories if they’re going to help somebody, but don’t tell stories out of attachment.

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Mental Stability

There are three in connection with concentration. 

(1) Not seeking the means for gaining absorbed concentration.

The first is not seeking the means of attaining single-minded concentration out of laziness. For instance, if someone is giving teachings on how to achieve single-minded concentration and we don’t feel like going. 

(2) Not ridding ourselves of the obstacles preventing mental stability.

The second one is not eliminating the obstacles to concentration. There are five obstacles. 

1. The first is having mental agitation when our mind wanders around due to attachment and having regret. 
2. The second one is having harmful intent, ill will. 
3. The third is sleepiness and being foggy-minded. 
4. The fourth is having the intention towards sense objects, when our mind is always thinking about them and liking them. 
5. The fifth is having doubts.

We should eliminate these five obstacles. If you continue to act like this, it’s a fault. 

(3) Regarding the taste of bliss from gaining mental stability as its main advantage.

Looking at the taste of bliss of single-minded concentration, it’s being attached to it, in other words, the faulty actions in connection to meditative concentration is to try to get it in order to experience this bliss. These are the three faulty actions in connection with meditative concentration.

Faulty Actions Detrimental to Training in Far-Reaching Discriminating Awareness

Now there are eight in connection to wisdom, discriminative awareness.

(1) Forsaking the shravaka (listener) vehicle.

Concerning wisdom, the first one is abandoning the shravaka teachings. The root downfall came when abandoning any of the Dharma of the three vehicles, so it is to say that the Hinayana teachings are not the teachings of the Buddha. That’s a root downfall. Here it is saying that the Hinayana teachings are only for the shravakas and not for the bodhisattvas. This is the first faulty action under wisdom. 

(2) Exerting effort in them while having our own methods.

The second one is putting our principle effort in the Hinayana teachings, ignoring our own Mahayana efforts. We shouldn’t say that we shouldn’t learn about the Hinayana methods at all. It says that we shouldn’t put major effort into the Hinayana. 

(3) Exerting effort in studying non-Buddhist texts when it is not to be done.

The third one is putting effort into studying non-Buddhist teachings. We shouldn’t make an effort in studying non-Buddhist teachings. 

(4) Even if able to exert effort on them, becoming infatuated.

The fourth is, if however, in order to refute them, in order to know about them, we should have to study them, it is necessary. But when we study them, we shouldn’t favor them and find them nice. 

(5) Forsaking the Mahayana vehicle.

The fifth one under wisdom is giving up the Mahayana teachings; this is referring not to the root vow of saying this is not the teachings of the Buddha, but this is saying that any teachings of Mahayana, the words are not very nice, the person who practices it is not very good, and if we practice it, it is not going to help others and can’t bring us enlightenment. This is a fault. When we had the root downfall, it was saying that the root Mahayana teaching is not the words of the Buddha, which is completely rejecting it. But here, we are just criticizing. This is a difference.

(6) Praising ourselves and/or belittling others.

The next is praising oneself and belittling others. The root downfall of praising ourselves and belittling others was due to attachment and desire. Here, the faulty action of praising ourselves and belittling others is due to pride or anger. Before due to attachment and desire, we use it to receive offerings and respect. 

(7) Not going for the sake of Dharma.

The faulty action of refusing to go and teach the Dharma. For instance, if someone asked us to teach and we don’t go out of laziness or pride, then this is a mistake. For instance, the root downfall is out of miserliness, not giving the Dharma to others. If somebody requests teachings and we say we are not confident about how to teach them, that is not a fault; this is just a way to test the person. But if we completely refuse to go, it’s a downfall.     

This faulty action is referring to if somebody asks us to teach and we are not going out of laziness or pride, or to a puja or not going to do a shabten, a special ceremony, if we don’t go, it is a fault. If they ask us to do a puja for a protector who is not our protector, and if we don’t go out of laziness or pride, that is a fault. If we excuse ourselves and not go, not out of laziness, that is OK, but if they really insist, if it’s going to hurt them if we don’t go, then it’s all right to go. 

(8) Relying on language to deride a teacher.

We have a guru who teaches us, and we are supposed to recognize him as a Buddha, if we don’t, in terms of when the guru teaches and we don’t really pay attention to the meaning to what he says, and we criticize his words, “He doesn’t speak nice words, he doesn’t use proper grammar, his pronunciation is bad,” this is a faulty action. Even if he explains it well, we are not really concerned; we just criticize the way he speaks. That is eight, with respect to wisdom. 

Faulty Actions That Contradict Working to Benefit Others

There are three types of morality: refraining from doing negative actions, doing positive actions and helping others. 

(1) Not going to help those in need.

There are eight cases when someone needs help. 

1. The first need is when others need help in reaching a decision about some virtuous act. People deciding about not going to meetings when others need us to make a decision. Like a Dharma center, they need us to decide what the policies will be, and if we don’t go to that, that is a fault. 
2. The second is helping someone go somewhere on the road. 
3. The third is teaching someone a language.
4. If someone asks us to do any work, that is without any fault. If they ask us to kill somebody, of course, we don’t do that, but if they ask us to do something that doesn’t have any fault, we should do it.  
5. If somebody asks us to come and keep watch over their possessions, in their house or temple, that is the next one. 
6. The next one is not going when someone asks us to help stop a fight or reconcile people who are arguing. If we are asked, we should definitely go. 
7. The next one is going to celebrations. If they are going to present a meal to an official or high lama or there is a wedding and they are inviting us, we should go.
8. Not helping others who are doing something meritorious. For example, they are passing out tsok in a puja, and we are not helping when we are asked to help. 

(2) Neglecting to serve the sick.

The second is not taking care, not helping someone who is sick. 

(3) Not alleviating suffering.

The downfall of not working to alleviate the suffering of others. There are seven types of suffering. 

1. The first would be like with blind people. Not helping to lead them or for them to get an operation. 
2. The second is somebody’s death. 
3. The third are people who are missing a limb, paraplegics. 
4. A traveler who has lost the path. Someone who is very tired. 
5. Those who have any of the five obstacles. Some of them have harmful thoughts. 
6. The sixth one is helping those who have ill will or a lot of bad prejudices and superstitions. 
7. The next is those who have fallen to low positions, or someone falling from a high position. If we don’t help these people who have fallen and we say, “Oh well, it doesn’t matter, don’t worry, it will pass,” and we don’t try to help them in this way, that is a fault. 

(4) Not teaching the reckless in accordance with their character.

The fourth one is in terms of the vows of helping others. It’s to not teach those who are reckless in accordance with their class or character. This is referring to if there is somebody who doesn’t work for the future lives and is acting in a non-dharmic, reckless way, we should teach them in a proper way. If someone is a butcher, slaughtering animals, we shouldn’t just go up to them and say, “Stop doing this, you are going to hell.” It is not very skillful. What we have to say, “It is very good you are providing meat for people, it’s good what you are doing.” That way we gain his confidence and become friendly with him, and once we become friendly with him, we can tell him to do it a little less and eventually have him cut it out, show him the disadvantages. We work in a way that will be in accordance with his character. If somebody is into gambling and wasting time, we shouldn’t say, “It’s terrible, you shouldn’t do that.” What we should do is go with them and maybe play with them and gain their confidence and slowly tell them to do less and less and then cut it out.

If people are drinking or smoking dope, and if we have vows against that, we wouldn’t just go and drink with them or smoke with them. But we would stay with them while they were doing it and not put them down. We can excuse ourselves, “I would love to have a drink with you, but I can’t.” Eventually, we can tell them, “I used to drink a lot, but it affected my health very badly,” and point out the disadvantages. This way, gradually introduce them to abandoning it, instead of saying, “You are going to hell.” We have to be skillful. The point is that if we are a teacher and we are trying to teach someone like that, if we tell something that will upset them, then they will say bad things about us, which would accumulate far more negative actions than the actual thing they are doing. If they are playing games, it is better that we don’t just go away, but even if we don’t participate in the games, we just watch and say, “Very nice,” so they don’t get upset and put us down as a teacher. 

(5) Not paying back help received.

This is not helping others who have helped us. If someone says something nice to us, then we should say something nice back to them. If we don’t, it’s a fault. 

(6) Not alleviating the mental grief of others.

This is not working to eliminate the depression of others when they are depressed or upset. If we don’t try to help them and ignore them, it is not good. 

(7) Not giving to those in need of charity.

The seventh is not being generous to those who need wealth. This is out of laziness or anger. If we do it out of miserliness, it is a root downfall. 

(8) Not taking care of the needs of our circle.

The next is not taking care of the needs. Those who are in our entourage or the disciples, not working for their purposes, not doing what they need. 

(9) Not going along with the preferences of others.

Not acting in accordance with other people’s wishes. If other people ask us to stay and we don’t stay, and we offend them, it’s not good; this refers to positive actions, not something negative. 

(10) Not speaking in praise of others’ talents or good qualities.

The next one is not praising others, not talking about others’ good qualities. If somebody has good qualities, we should say so, but we shouldn’t praise others in front of them. 

(11) Not enforcing punishment in accordance with circumstances.

This one is the fault of not stopping someone in accordance with looking at the circumstances. This is if somebody is acting in a bad way, we should put them down and take them out of their high position or kick them out of the place in order to bring about harmony among the people. If we don’t do it out of laziness, this is a downfall. 

If we have a large group and if we have someone in a high position who is doing some bad things and it brings about a lot of harm to this group, if we don’t demote him to a lower position or kick him out, if we don’t do that, it would be something, which would hurt the good of people, then he should be removed.

The last one under moral discipline was similar to this of not enforcing the rule. If someone has very strong delusions and is doing something negative, that one was referring to where it harms the moral discipline. In other words, if we are in a group of monks at a puja and someone is talking and playing around, we should stop them from doing that. The fault comes if it’s a friend of ours, and we don’t want to enforce the discipline, so we just look aside because it’s our friend, then it is a fault. We should enforce it, where it’s going to hurt the discipline. This is referring to if we are a master of discipline. It can refer to our own children as well if they do something bad, if what they are doing is harmful to them.

Thus, there is a difference between these two. One is in terms of the negative action that hurts the general moral discipline, and the latter is when bad action hurts the general good. 

(12) Not using such things as extraphysical powers or the ability to cast spells.

This is the last one, the twelfth. It is not using various magical powers that we have. This is referring to if someone with faith offers something to the Sangha, like money or khata or brocade and if someone who doesn’t have vows takes it for himself, like the Chinese robbing the monasteries, if we have magic powers and we don’t use them to make him stop by scaring him, so he will give it back or that he will gain faith in us, it is a fault.

[See: Secondary Bodhisattva Vows]

(6) Deriding our own or others’ tenets.

The sixth tantric root vow of putting down any philosophical position, of one’s own or of others, is referring to putting down Gelug, Nyingma or Christian. It is similar to the bodhisattva root vow of not abandoning the Dharma, which is referring to the three vehicles of shravakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas. It’s putting down all three saying they are not the words of the Buddha. The bodhisattva root vow of abandoning the Dharma is referring to the three vehicles. Whereas here, it is any part of the Dharma, sect or even other traditions. 

These are the same. This one of “You shouldn’t put down the tenets for yourself and others,” this is referring to tantric vows, but it is saying these are not the words of the Buddha, saying that anything in the three vehicles are not the words of the Buddha. This is the same as one abandoning the Dharma that we have in the bodhichitta vows. 

(10) Being loving toward malevolent people.

We should always abandon being friendly towards those who are bad. This is referring to if somebody is destroying the teachings or killing others, then we shouldn’t be friendly toward them. We shouldn’t abandon compassion and love for them. We should feel that we should try to stop this person from committing more harm. If there is no other method to stop them and the only way left is to kill them – like when a terrorist is shooting children in a school – and we have the possibility and opportunity to shoot them ourselves and thus to prevent them from killing more, then it is wrong if we don’t at least try to kill them. If we don’t succeed in killing them, there is no fault. 

It’s like the army official, and he sends out a soldier to kill an enemy who is slaughtering innocent people, if the soldier doesn’t succeed in killing him, it is not his fault. He should have in his mind to get rid of this enemy before he kills more. Likewise, the Buddha killing the person who is about to kill 500 people, it is like that. So, if it’s the only recourse left and it is possible, and we have the opportunity, and the circumstance is there to kill this person, then it’s OK. It’s not like we make this our life purpose to kill him, but if we have the opportunity to do it, then we should make him stop doing these things. The main point, however, is that when we meet these people, we shouldn’t be happy meeting them or be friendly and intimate with them. However, we shouldn’t abandon love and compassion for them. 

When we kill or do something like this, it is a negative action, and we do collect karmic debt, and suffering comes from that, but if we have high realizations, it’s not such a great suffering. Besides, we have given up self-cherishing and are willing to take on suffering to help others. We should think in terms of that, if we are willing to accept the suffering of it. 

These days we don’t go out and hunt and kill these people, but we do the various wrathful pujas, like the one where we have Dharma cakes with 60 cuts in them. It’s a ceremony in which we visualize smashing the enemy into all sorts of things. It doesn’t actually kill them, but we think that. Even though we get some suffering from this, we accumulate a tremendous amount of merit because we are giving up our own thoughts of our own benefit to benefit others. The result of that noble thought is that we collect a tremendous amount of merit, but the actual action is a negative action. It’s like when we are a farmer and have a storehouse filled with grain, and we plant it all, at the moment our storehouse is empty, but the whole point is that it is going to bring us a lot more food in the future. So, it is only temporary that the storehouse is empty. If we are a merchant, we have to spend our capital on some investment and our purse becomes empty, but we get more back. It’s the same thing when we do things for others; we empty out in the sense that we collect non-virtuous action from the non-virtues that we do, but we get back huge merit.

(11) Not meditating on voidness continually.

The next one is, “I shall never hold a limit with respect to the Dharma.” Even if we have a realization of voidness, we shouldn’t feel that we have reached the limit, and we don’t have to meditate anymore. Even if we have a realization, we should continue to meditate on it three times in the morning and three times in the evening. We should never set a limit to our Dharma training, thinking that once we get a realization, we don’t have to do anymore. 

(12) Deterring those with faith.

We should never deceive someone with faith. If someone wishes to practice tantra, we shouldn’t tell, “It is no good.” It’s like if somebody wishes to practice tantra and have faith in it, and we turn them off telling them, “You can’t get any realizations from tantra, it is no good,” and that they should forget about it. It is just with respect to tantra. 

(13) Not relying properly on the substances that bond us closely to tantric practice.

The next is “I shall always rely on the substances,” referring that in pujas to say that tantric substances (dam-rdzas) like alcohol and meat are dirty, and “It’s no good for vegetarians and I won’t eat that,” or to say that when we have had the third initiation and when we imagine eat transformed excrement, piss and semen, “It is no good.” The vow is to rely on close-bond substances.

We should examine what is tantric and what is craziness practice. Be careful to differentiate between the two. For instance, if we see someone eat excrement, and if we think excrement is very precious and they’re a high practitioner, then the pigs and dogs who eat excrement are also high practitioners. We should examine if someone is crazy or actually a highly realized tantric practitioner. Serkong Dorje Chang from Nepal was a highly realized and accomplished being, and he used to take the excrement out of the toilet and eat it or spread it on the wall, but he was a highly realized being. He never washed, and yet his body never smelled bad. Some of those highly realized beings are special ones, but it is not the same when somebody acts like this trying to imitate this very precious high person. 

If everybody is praising this person as being a credible practitioner, then probably he is, but if everybody says he is a very weird person, we should check it out. Serkong Dorje Chang from Nepal, everybody considered him very precious. 

(14) Deriding women.

The next is to never put down women or to say they are not good or speak of their faults. 

[See: Common Root Tantric Vows]

(1) Appropriating discriminating awareness by force.

The first of these is that we should have a consort who has received initiation in tantric practice, so like this, we shouldn’t have a consort who is just anybody. I asked Rinpoche about the person we are married to. He said it is a slightly different circumstance. This is referring to the completing stage practice. Of course, if our wife from the beginning is doing tantric practice, that is the best. The name of this downfall is just “taking the power of wisdom.” This is what the words mean. 

If we were to translate this downfall, it would not make any sense. It’s as if we have “my name is Alex,” it is stupid to ask what Alex means, and further, what is “a” and “e,” so there is no point in translating it. It means when we take a consort in the completing stage practice, she should have an initiation and all the teachings, and she should be in the completing stage. 

(2) Appropriating her nectar by force.

The next downfall, if we translate it, also comes out slightly strange. This downfall is the downfall of the power of the nectar, referring to the fact that when we are in union with a consort, and it should be any time after we have taken initiation with our wife, we are supposed to be visualizing ourselves as a deity anyway all the time. We should have the three recognitions, and organs are transformed with the letters of the various visualizations of the mind, recognizing voidness. This is something dangerous for a householder. As a householder, we should still have these recognitions, and if we are practicing tantra, we should visualize ourselves as a deity all the time anyway.

Whenever we are in union, we should have the blessings of the organs, the same as in the Guhyasamaja sadhana. From the state of voidness, our secret place from HUM changes into a blue vajra with five spokes and on the tip of that is a jewel marked with an OM, and the tip of that is blocked with a yellow PE. As for the consort, from voidness and from AH comes a red eight-petaled lotus, and the tip of it is marked with PE. 

(3) Showing confidential objects to improper vessels.

The next one is the downfall of showing secret things to others. What this is referring to is that we shouldn’t show the tantric substances to other people, like our vajra, bell and rosary and the pictures of our yidam. We shouldn’t have them in our room; we can have them in the other room where our meditation is and where nobody can go in. We can have a picture of the Buddha or regular thangkas, that is OK. Even if we don’t practice intensely the Kalachakra, we shouldn’t have a big thangka with that for everybody to see. 

If we keep all of the tantric vows really pure for 12 or 16 lifetimes, even if we don’t do any meditation, we can attain Buddhahood. 

[See: Secondary Tantric Vows]