After a week of a break, we’re continuing with our study of this Letter of Practical Advice on Sutra and Tantra written by Tsongkhapa (the actual title in Tibetan is A Brief Indication of the Graded Pathway Minds). This is a letter that Tsongkhapa wrote to his friend and both teacher and disciple, the meditator Konchog-tsultrim, and in it he responds to the request to write some practical advice.
Review of Previous Sessions
Reliance on a Qualified Spiritual Mentor
In it — just to review very quickly — Tsongkhapa starts out by saying we’ve found the excellent working basis of a precious human rebirth and met with the teachings and have great teachers, and we have the power of mind to discern between what’s to be practiced and what’s to be rejected. We have to take advantage of that by engaging ourselves with the Buddha’s teachings, which means to really get involved with it. To do that we have to rely on the guidance of a spiritual teacher, and one who is qualified, especially that they know what are the types of minds that we need to develop, what are the ones that we need to get rid of or not develop, and to not add anything, not leave anything out, and know the graded order of how to develop them and apply them to each of us. That teacher has to have gained certainty about this by having been guided through this process, this learning process, himself or herself by their own spiritual teacher and in a way which is in accordance with the great Buddhist classics.
The Motivating Mental Framework
We need to begin our practice by taming our minds, and the important point for that is our motivating mental framework (that’s the framework for all the practices). For this we build it up through levels, graded levels, as in the lam-rim (the graded stages of the path or graded pathway minds): initially we need to turn our interests from just this life to thinking in terms of future lives, and then we need to turn our interest from future lives to liberation, and then turn our minds from thinking of just liberation of ourselves to liberation of all beings. (Obviously there’s more detail for that, but that’s just a quick summary.)
How To Meditate
We need to develop these motivating mental frameworks in an uncontrived manner and not just at the beginning of our sessions, but we need to meditate (build it up as a habit) so that we have it all the time throughout our sessions and throughout the entire day.
Then, as for how to meditate — in other words, how to build these up and how to build up any beneficial state of mind — we have to know all the details of how to do that, which means to know what to focus on, how our mind takes that, what are the states of mind that you need to develop before it to support it, what are the things that you have to get rid of that would be detrimental to it, and so on. This helps us very much to know how to meditate, how to build up a beneficial state of mind. In between sessions we need to supplement this by looking at the actual texts, the Buddhist texts by Buddha and the great masters, and try to build up some more positive force by acting positively, helping others, etc., and cleanse away obstacles.
The Ethical Self-Discipline of Keeping Vows
Then we need to go further, and if we wish to enter into the practice of tantra, then the basis for that, in addition to the motivating mental framework, is our ethical self-discipline. We need to keep the discipline of each of the various sets of vows, as Tsongkhapa writes here:
In general, whenever we enter the doorway of any (Buddhist) vehicle of mind, we need to set as its basis the ethical discipline of its own (set of vows). And especially when we enter secret mantra, then, as previously explained, since bodhichitta is the ultimate essential point for all the Mahayana pathway minds, it is very important for that to be firm (with the bodhisattva vows).
Therefore, concerning the close bonds and (tantric) vows that we have acquired at the time when we receive perfectly pure empowerments from a qualified spiritual master, if we never give them up by means of the causes for giving them up and never let them weaken by means of the causes for them to weaken, that would be excellent.
Obviously, there are a lot of points that are rolled up into this, these last two sentences.
We have covered the basic level of pratimoksha (Skt. prātimokṣa) vows, the vows for individual liberation that are the foundation for the bodhisattva vows. We covered the laypersons’ vows. We’ve covered the bodhisattva vows, both the root and secondary vows. And we’ve covered the tantric vows, both the root and secondary tantric vows.
Tsongkhapa also mentions here the close bonds as well as the tantric vows, and then, further on in the sentence — we’ll get to it — receive empowerments (we’ll need to explain what empowerments are), and then “never give up these vows by means of the causes for giving them up or the causes for them to weaken” (we’ll cover that as well). But we need to first complete our discussion of the vows by also going through a little bit concerning the close bonds. That’s what we’ll try to do today.
What Is a Close-Bonding Practice?
The word close bond is the Sanskrit word samaya, and that’s translated into Tibetan as damtsig (dam-tshig). It is something which will bond us closely to some positive thing that we are trying to develop. What is different — although not absolutely in every single case, but in most cases — between a close-bonding practice and a vow (sdom-pa) is that a vow is literally a restraint. The word for it in Tibetan means “to tie.” It’s a restraint from something, and so they’re almost always expressed in terms of detrimental practices of body or speech — that the vow is something that holds us back, or restrains us, from committing that type of action, such as praising ourselves and putting down others because of wanting to get personal gain and so on. We would refrain from that, as the first of the root bodhisattva vows, because it would prevent us from being of best help to others (we’re just trying to aggrandize ourselves).
A close-bonding practice in most cases, but not all cases, is stated as a positive action that we want to do in order to create a close connection with — usually it’s either one of the Buddha-families specifically, individually, or with all the Buddha-families. We need to explain that. Also, we use the word close bond in colloquial Tibetan for a — and it’s not just colloquial Tibetan actually (it’s in classical as well) — for a close bond with a spiritual teacher. It’s a close connection that you have. You can also have a close connection with a protector, a protector spirit; the word is used there as well (in a variant). There are various offering substances which also create a close bond, and again there is a use of this terminology there.
We have these close-bonding practices and they are, as I said, to bond us closely, in most cases, with either an individual Buddha-family or all the Buddha-families together. When we talk about a Buddha-family (rigs), then, what we are speaking about is a family trait or characteristic (this is the meaning of the word here), and these are different aspects of what is often discussed with a very general term of Buddha-nature. In other words, we’re talking about what it is that enables us to be part of the family of those who can become a Buddha, which means everybody. That’s what we mean by a family trait. It’s the family to be a Buddha. Then within that there are various castes, actually. I mean, the same word as is used for caste, in the Indian sense, is there although without the connotation that some are higher than others.
When we talk about the different Buddha-families, we’re talking about different aspects of the mental continuum — the clear-light mind (’od-gsal), if we want to speak on that level — which are factors that can be transformed or which are there as a basis but need to be purified (depends on which way it’s being explained) that will enable us to become a Buddha. We can speak of this in terms of five aspects. There are these family traits in terms of bodily characteristics, speech characteristics, mind characteristics, activity type of characteristics, and just general good qualities type of characteristics.
We have these five dimensions, as it were, and that then needs to be factored together with five families, as it were. These families are represented on a physical level with what’s called the dhyani Buddhas. That actually is a term that I don’t know if it really actually appears in Sanskrit, and it doesn’t appear in Tibetan either, but it was a phrase that, as far as I know, was coined by some Western scholar to speak in terms of Vairochana (Skt. Vairocana), Ratnasambhava (Skt. Ratnasaṃbhava), Amitabha (Skt. Amitābha), Amoghasiddhi, and Akshobhya (Skt. Akṣobhya), these Buddha-figures. These are bodily representations of these five modes, let’s say, of body (appearance), way of speaking, a mental factor, a good quality, and a way of acting.
The Five Types of Deep Awareness
Now the thing that I think makes it... The main aspect here is the mind aspect. When we talk about the mind aspect, then, we’re talking about the five types of deep awareness (ye-shes lnga), the so-called Buddha-wisdoms (but Buddha-wisdom is never a good term for that, because everybody has this.) We’re talking about basic factors that everybody has regardless of what life form they happen to be born in, because that’s what we’re talking about, a characteristic of the clear-light mind. How does mind function? How do appearances arise from it? How does it communicate? How does it act? What are various qualities that it could have? We have to always think in terms of these aspects, that it would be possible for it to manifest when a mental continuum takes on the bodily form of an insect — not only a human being but any of these states.
The five types of deep awareness are the basic way that the mind works. There are various interpretations of some of these according to different Buddhist — Tibetan Buddhist — schools, going back to different Indian sources. We won’t go into that type of variation as well. Let’s just use the Gelug interpretation of it.
Mirror-Like Deep Awareness
We have mirror-like deep awareness (me-long lta-bu’i ye-shes) which is basically like a… mirror is perhaps not the best word, although that’s the word that’s used in both Sanskrit and Tibetan. But it’s basically talking about taking in the information, so I often use the analogy of a camera or a microphone. We’re not just speaking in terms of visual information; we’re talking about information on all sense channels. This is one way that the mind works. It’s able to take in information.
Equalizing Deep Awareness
Then there’s equalizing deep awareness (mnyam-nyid ye-shes), which is able to see things, different types of information, as equally belonging to different categories. It’s on the basis of that that we can make sense of what we perceive: you see two instances of the color red, or two apples, and you put them together — they’re equally apple. These things, of course, can be accurate or not so accurate. One of the more beneficial aspects of it is equally seeing that everybody wants to be happy and not to be unhappy; it’s the basis for having equal love toward everybody and so on.
Individualizing Deep Awareness
Then there’s the individualizing awareness (sor-rtog ye-shes), and the individualizing awareness is what can see the individuality of things. That allows us to recognize, identify, to discern this from that, and it’s on the basis of that that a Buddha can help each individual being as an individual, not just see them as general beings.
Accomplishing Deep Awareness
Then there is the accomplishing awareness (bya-grub ye-shes), deep awareness, and this is the ability to relate, to accomplish, to bring about something. It’s with this that, when it’s perfected, a Buddha is able to know how to help others and work effectively with others.
Deep Awareness of Reality
Then there’s the what’s called in Sanskrit dharmadhatu (Skt. dharmadhātu) deep awareness (chos-dbyings ye-shes, deep awareness of reality). Dharmadhatu means the “sphere of reality,” reality type of awareness, which is the awareness of conventional truth or relative truth (what things are) and, on another level, the deepest truth of how they exist.
We have these five, and the mind works like this. They can be covered with obscuration — fleeting stains (glo-bur-gyi dri-ma) — and then each of them gets transformed or overlaid with an appropriate disturbing attitude. For instance, the individualizing deep awareness, which is specifying this individual as opposed to that individual — when it gets overlaid with grasping for true existence and so on, then we get attachment and longing desire: “I want this one (not another one),” and “I’m not going to let go of this one (as opposed to something else).” We make that object into something very special, exaggerate the qualities of it, and then we want it if we don’t have it, or we don’t want to let go if we do have it.
The Nineteen Close-Bonding Practices
There’s big, big discussion of these Buddha-families, and each of them correlates with one of the five aggregates. Like this individualizing deep awareness would be the aggregate of discerning — sometimes called recognition, but it’s discerning (we’re able to discern this from that, etc.).
OK. We have a big, big, wide discussion of these five Buddha-family traits, and they’re represented by these five Buddha-figures. There are certain practices, bonding practices, that we promise to do with an empowerment. Specifically, there are nineteen that we promise with the highest class of tantra empowerment (or initiation), anuttarayoga, which are going to bond us closely with these — like four for Akshobhya, etc., four for Ratnasambhava,… There’s a group like that that are going to bond us closely with each of these Buddha-family traits. In other words, if we do this practice and we promise to do it six times a day (which means to be mindful of it and try to actually do these things), then it is going to build up a strong connection with all the various characteristics of each of these Buddha-families. This is a very essential part of tantra practice. When we speak in terms of the tantric vows in general, these are in connection with all the Buddha-families in general. But we have these nineteen close bonding practices.
Participant: It’s not clear to me what we want to do with bonding. Does it mean that we will have these characteristics without disturbing emotions? Or like we have different life forms and they probably have different levels of manifestation of this, either a lot of discerning or...
Dr. Berzin: OK. This is an interesting question. There’s a lot behind that question. He’s saying: When we practice these things, is it that we’re trying to develop a way of manifesting them without disturbing emotions, or is it that in one lifetime we’ll emphasize one or the other?
Participant: If we go too far and it becomes unbalanced.
Dr. Berzin: We go too far and we become unbalanced and so on. First of all, we certainly want to try to overcome the disturbing distortion of these. By doing the various practices, it could help us. Although…
Let’s give an example. The equalizing deep awareness… Or we were speaking of individualizing already, so let’s stay with individualizing. Individualizing, when it is overlaid with grasping for truly established existence, then you get attachment. What are the practices that will make a close bond with this family is to uphold the various types of teachings — and these are specified in different groups (the sutra, and the tantra, the vehicle of shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, each of the different classes of tantra, etc.) — to uphold them individually. If we do that then we are not emphasizing one over the other, but we are upholding each of them individually while respecting their individuality, so we overcome our attachment to one as being more special than the others. In a sense, that is helping us to overcome attachment.
Will that help us to overcome attachment to ice cream or our loved one? Don’t know. Perhaps, if we go deeply enough into that. Could we go overboard with that? I think going overboard and becoming unbalanced would be if we only do that and ignore the others. But we are keeping the nineteen close-bonding practices, so we’re keeping the corresponding practices for each of them, not just one of them.
The question comes (I don’t know if this was behind your question): What happens during an empowerment initiation, in which there’s a part in which there’s a mandala (Skt. maṇḍala), which is a representation of these five Buddha-family traits… A mandala is the palace — it’s a three-dimensional building in which the Buddha-figure lives — and each part of it is representing a different aspect of enlightenment, and it’s usually divided into five colors on the floor, with walls, etc. Buddha-figures have rainbow-colored light (so the five-colored light around them). That’s all for these five Buddha-family traits.
And you have a stick. It’s a neem stick. Neem stick. That’s very nice. Neem is a Sanskrit word — it’s also used in Hindi — and it is a type of stick which grows from a shrub… I think it’s a shrub. I’m not quite sure. Do you know the neem?
Participant: It’s a tree. A big one.
Dr. Berzin: It’s a tree? It’s an actual tree, a big tree. OK. I didn’t know that. It is the traditional toothbrush in India. You break off a little stick from this and use it to clean your teeth. It has the connotation of purification to it. Like kusha grass, which is also used in many ceremonies. Kusha grass is what traditionally in India you make a broom out of to clean (they tie it all together).
Participant: We don’t have it in Mauritius.
Dr. Berzin: You don’t have that in Mauritius? In India you do.
These things have connotations of purification. You toss the neem stick to purify whatever, and it falls in one direction or another in the mandala, which is basically like a board which is colored with these five colors — there’s two diagonals, connecting the corners, and so that divides it into four colors, but in the middle there’s a circle with the fifth color (so the different directions and the center). If you toss the thing there, it tells which... In one aspect it is which Buddha-family do you have a special connection with. Actually, it’s thrown twice. Once is the stick, and once is when a flower is thrown into it. One is for getting your Buddha-family name and your secret name in tantra, and the other is for what type of powerful attainment, or actual attainment, will be the main one.
I mean, this is where your question comes in. Does this mean that you’re going to emphasize these types of practices of upholding the individual different types of teachings? Or let’s say it’s Ratnasambhava. That’s the equalizing awareness. If it’s distorted then it becomes miserliness (you don’t want to share), and pride, arrogance (“I’m better than others”). And so that’s if you relax that everybody’s equal. How do you develop that? By being generous, by giving equally to everybody. If I practice generosity a lot, is that going to throw me out of balance? I don’t know.
The way that I look at it is: First of all, almost everybody takes many, many empowerments and over and over again. Each time you get a connection, it indicates a connection with a different Buddha-family, a different aspect. You can’t say that one is exclusively mine and this is what I need to emphasize in my practice. I look at it a little bit like the Yi Jing (I Ching, The Book of Changes). With the Yi Jing you toss coins or sticks, depending on how elaborately you want to cast the hexagram, and that indicates sort of what’s going on at that time. Maybe it gives some indication, but I don’t know of anybody that actually gets unbalanced because they’re only practicing one aspect of this or that. That I’ve never come across in all my years.
Participant: People could get unbalanced from doing just shamatha (Skt. śamatha), no?
Dr. Berzin: Pardon?
Participant: From overemphasizing shamatha.
Dr. Berzin: Overemphasizing trying to attain shamatha and ignoring practices on love and compassion — that can make you unbalanced, but that is not really associated with these Buddha-family traits. That’s something else.
Participant: What happens if you see the stick is standing up?
Dr. Berzin: If the stick is standing then that means the center.
Participant: Have you seen that?
Dr. Berzin: Have I seen that? I’m trying to recall. I think I have. Usually what they say is: if it points to the guru then that’s the center. But I think I have seen it. It depends on how thick the stick is. If the stick is really thick and they hold it perfectly straight and it just drops, sometimes it does that. Hasn’t this ever happened to you? I mean with the coins — you throw the coins for the Yi Jing, and if it’s on a flat surface then sometimes it stays standing up. That’s happened to me. I don’t know.
These Buddha-family traits. We have, in the Gelug tradition, coming from the first Panchen Lama, who was the tutor of the Fourth and Fifth Dalai Lamas — particularly the fifth is the one that he’s noted for, but he was also the tutor of the fourth — he wrote the Six-Session Yoga (Thun-drug rnal-’byor), sometimes called the “Six-Session Guru-Yoga,” but it’s not; it’s actually called the Six-Session Yoga. That is a way of reminding us of these nineteen practices. This is something which is recited (there are various lengths of it). And the commitment, usually, from taking an anuttarayoga empowerment in the Gelug tradition, is that you’re going to recite this thing six times a day for the rest of your life. It can be as short as one verse, although that is an emergency measure, not recommended at all as our daily practice. But there’s another version, which is… I forget the number of verses, but something like eight verses. It’s no big deal to recite it three times in the morning and three times in the evening. It could take you up to about one minute to recite it if you are very familiar with the verse. Obviously, it helps if you are mindful of what you’re saying and mindful of what the close-bonding practices are, but it’s not as though it’s a huge imposition of your time to take this commitment.
What’s more important is not just to recite this thing but to actually put into practice what it is reminding us of. Just to recite, for instance, “I take safe direction. I go for refuge,” doesn’t mean that you actually take safe direction. It just means that you recite words. The point is to actually put that direction in your life. Similarly, just to say, “I will be generous,” doesn’t necessarily mean that you practice generosity. One needs to try to actually put these things into practice every day.
In the other traditions, Tibetan Buddhist traditions, we also have these nineteen. It’s not that they are exclusive to the Gelug tradition. It’s just that they don’t have a specific recitation practice that helps them to be mindful of them each day.
What are these?
Practices for Bonding with Vairochana
We start with Vairochana. Vairochana, as I said — well, I didn’t say — he is the head of this family trait, the body aspect of the family trait for creating a close bond with the deep awareness that’s like a mirror. For this we have six practices:
Taking Refuge or Safe Direction
We take safe direction
- from the Buddhas,
- from the Dharma,
- and from the Sangha.
That makes three. Each day we want to actually do that, is to put that into our lives.
Practicing Ethical Self-Discipline
Then the next three are to practice the three types of ethical self-discipline. This is
- the discipline of refraining from destructive behavior, destructive actions,
- the discipline of involving ourselves in constructive ones, such as study and meditation, in order to develop good qualities,
- the third one is the discipline that involves us in actually working to benefit others.
These are the six practices to bond us closely with this deep awareness that is like a mirror. There are variants on this, but I don’t think that it’s necessary to go into the variants. We’ll get confused by that. This is enough.
Practices for Bonding with Ratnasambhava
Then the next family is Ratnasambhava. Ratnasambhava is the Buddha-figure that represents this family trait, and on the level of mind it’s the deep awareness of the equality of things. For this we have the four types of generosity.
Giving Material Objects or Wealth
We have the generosity of giving, or always being willing to give, material objects or wealth. This is something that we can practice in terms of… there’s so many things. If you are conscious of it, even watering your plants is giving something to something else. Feeding your house pet. And of course, giving whatever loose change we might have to the various homeless people and so on that we meet in the streets or on the public transport here in Berlin. Of course, there can be much greater forms of material charity as well. That’s not just giving money. It’s also giving material things. It can be giving food to others, as I was mentioning with feeding our animals, and so on.
Giving Dharma Teachings or Advice
Then the second type of generosity is the generosity of giving the Dharma teachings or advice to others (advice that is in accord with the Dharma), answering questions, this type of thing, and being generous with our time to help others with questions that they might have.
Giving Protection from Fear
The third one is called protection from fear. In the sutra explanations of this it is usually spoken in terms of actually helping others who are in a situation in which they are very afraid. Someone could be very afraid of something, and you sort of comfort them. It can be taking insects out of the swimming pool that are drowning. It can be helping somebody who’s in a fight — break up a fight. These type of situations. But we might not encounter that every day.
The other way of explaining it, which is emphasized in tantra, is giving equanimity. If we give equanimity to others and openness to others, then they have no fear from us. They’re not afraid of us. Here equanimity is the first type of equanimity of the two types that are explained in the bodhichitta (Skt. bodhicitta) teachings. That’s the equanimity that’s free from attraction, aversion, or ignoring others. If we cling to others, or we’re trying to get something from others, then that puts people off — they’re afraid of us. If we reject others, that also makes people very afraid.
Actually, it’s more in terms of: when you get into a relationship with somebody, or you are in a relationship with somebody, you’re afraid that they’re going to cling and be demanding on you, you are afraid that they are going to reject you, or the third one is that you’re afraid that they’re going to ignore you. If we have the equanimity toward others, that “You have nothing to be afraid of from me. I’m not going to cling. I’m not going to reject you. I’m not going to ignore you. I am just totally open to you” — it’s on that basis of having love and compassion and so on — then they have nothing to be afraid of in being in a relationship with us, whether as a teacher or a friend or whatever.
This is a very important form of generosity that we can practice with all the people that we know and a great gift that you can give to anybody. I must say, not a very easy one, because most of us are very strongly into one or another or all of these three modes of interacting with others at one time or another. We cling, we become attached, sometimes we get angry, and we reject somebody or scold them for something very minor, and we often ignore others: “I’m too busy. I’m too tired,” or whatever, this type of interaction. I mean, I think we can know that from our own relations with others, that we feel insecure that somebody is going to reject me: “They didn’t call me. They don’t love me anymore. They’re ignoring me,” this type of problem. Or “This person is too demanding on me. They’re clinging to me,” and so we are afraid; we don’t even want to meet them, because they’re going to ask us to do something. This type of thing is a great form of generosity.
Giving Love
The fourth type of generosity is the giving of love, which is the wish for others to be happy and to have the causes for happiness.
These are going to bond us with the family of Ratnasambhava.
Practices for Bonding with Amitabha
Then we have the family of Amitabha. There are three practices that bond us closely with that and the deep awareness of individuality of things.
Upholding the Teachings of the Three Sutra Vehicles
These are upholding, first of all, the three sutra vehicles. That’s the first one. These are the vehicles of mind, meaning the teachings of the shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas.
We might ask, of course, “What are the teachings of the pratyekabuddhas? What are the teachings of the shravakas? How in the world can I uphold them? What are they?” Although these can be explained on many different levels, one way of understanding them is looking at the type of tenet systems that they tend to favor. The shravakas would favor the Vaibhashika (Skt. Vaibhāṣika) and Sautrantika (Skt. Sautrāntika) systems (in other words, the Hinayana (Skt. Hīnayāna) systems). The pratyekabuddhas would be the Mind-Only (Chittamatra) type of approach. And the bodhisattvas would be Madhyamaka (Skt. Mādhyamaka). We could also understand the teachings that way. Of course, pratyekabuddha is Chittamatra (Skt. Cittamātra), so it’s not exactly accurate to look at them that way (because Chittamatra is Mahayana), but nevertheless it helps us to get a little bit of an idea of what that means.
Also it means, in a sense — even if we’re not thinking specifically of teachings that correspond here — we can also think in terms of the modes of practice. It’s important not to just think in terms of “I’m only going to do bodhisattva practices.” When we uphold these, this means to try to put them into practice.
The shravaka (Skt. śrāvaka) teachings are primarily... When His Holiness speaks of Tibetan Buddhism as upholding the Hinayana and the Mahayana (Skt. Mahāyāna) sutra and Mahayana tantra, he’s saying from Hinayana the main thing are the vows, the discipline. We’re upholding the shravaka tradition by upholding these vows, particularly the vows for individual liberation.
Pratyekabuddhas — what are they doing? Pratyekabuddhas are the ones that are practicing during the dark ages in between the times when a Buddha’s teachings are available. If we think in terms of beginningless and endless mental continuum, then although it is the case that there will always be some place in some universe where the Buddha teachings are available where we could be reborn, chances are we might be reborn in places and times when they’re not available. If we were in that situation, then how wonderful it would be to have such strong instincts from previous life practice that we are able to, just on the basis of our instincts, practice the Dharma and meditate and follow the general principles of the Buddha’s teachings. That aspect, the pratyekabuddha aspect, is important to uphold.
I think that when we approach topics such as upholding the teachings of shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas it is important to look at them as possibilities of our own mental continuums. Of course, if we become a bodhisattva, if we take the bodhisattva vows, we take the bodhisattva vows from now until enlightenment, so they are part of our mental continuum all the way to enlightenment. Does that mean in every lifetime we’re going to be able to uphold the bodhisattva vows? Does it? No. Why not, Mark?
Participant: Take my case, for example. Probably I won’t remember in the next lifetime when I’m born that I took the bodhisattva vows.
Dr. Berzin: Right. You won’t remember next lifetime when you’re born, that you won’t remember the bodhisattva vows.
Let’s try to formulate our answer in a more logical way. If you have the bodhisattva vows, is it pervasive that every lifetime after that you will have a precious human rebirth — that you will no longer have the possibility of falling to a lower rebirth? No. It’s not pervasive. It’s only when you have the applying pathway mind (sbyor-lam). Is it the applying pathway mind? I think so. The third of the four stages of applying pathway mind, the path of preparation. I think it’s at that point that there’s no longer the danger of falling to a lower rebirth.
Participant: I think it’s some stage of the first.
Dr. Berzin: Is it on the first? The middle of it? I don’t remember. What was it that you attain at the patience state of the path of preparation? I don’t remember. I’m sorry. I didn’t prepare that point.
But in any case, when you take the bodhisattva vows, doesn’t mean that you have the first of the five pathway minds either. There’s no guarantee that you will not be reborn as a dog or a cockroach if you take the bodhisattva vows. You have to uphold them so strongly that bodhichitta becomes automatic, uncontrived, before you achieve the first of these five pathway minds, the pathway mind of building up or accumulation (tshogs-lam). In any case there’s no guarantee that even if we take the bodhisattva vows, we’re always going to be able to practice as a bodhisattva. Similarly, just as we could be born as a chicken and not be able to uphold the vows, we could be reborn as a human being and not be able to uphold and follow the bodhisattva practice. You’d be a pratyekabuddha.
Pratyekabuddha… Actually, if I think of it further, Tsongkhapa differentiates between having a shravaka — or a Mahayana he says, is the example that he used — there’s a Mahayana mind and then there’s a Mahayana way of practice. Likewise, there’s a shravaka mind and a shravaka way of practice, or a pratyekabuddha mind and way of practice. In other words, motivation. I can have a Mahayana motivation but I’m practicing in the style of a pratyekabuddha, because here I am in a dark age. There is the Mahayana motivation but there’s no point in teaching anybody, because they will only either not understand or they will burn me at the stake or something like that. Everybody’s unreceptive. There’s no point in trying to actually teach or help others — they don’t want it.
I’m just discussing here, thinking out loud, of how we could interpret and understand these close-bonding practices so that we would actually not just say, “Blah blah blah,” as a way of upholding it. I think it has to do with respect, respecting these types of practices.
That’s the first of the three close bonds for this Buddha-family, Amitabha — upholding the three types of sutra vehicles: shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva.
Upholding the Teachings of the External Vehicles of the Lower Classes of Tantra
The second is upholding the external vehicles of the two lower classes of tantra (kriya and charya).
Upholding the Teachings of the Two Confidential Vehicles of Tantra
The third is upholding the two confidential (or secret) vehicles of tantra. That’s referring to the yoga and anuttarayoga classes of tantra.
What we want to develop is a deep appreciation for all of these. In one short text that Tsongkhapa wrote about his own personal experience in studying Buddhism and practicing Buddhism, he writes that — I’m just paraphrasing here — but he writes that everybody says that anuttarayoga tantra, the highest class of tantra, is so much superior to the three lower classes of tantra. But he says, “How can you be sure of that if you haven’t studied and practiced and know the three lower classes of tantra? Therefore, I studied and practiced them. If you want to follow in my footsteps, that’s what you need to do as well.” This type of thing. Obviously, that requires quite an extraordinary practitioner with a scope of someone like His Holiness the Dalai Lama — or my own teacher, Serkong Rinpoche, was famous for being quite an expert in all four classes of tantra — to be able to actually do that. Difficult enough to do even one of these practices. But in any case, there’s always that aspiration, and we need at least some appreciation of what these four classes are about.
Practices for Bonding with Amoghasiddha
Then the close-bonding practices of Amoghasiddhi. There are two of these. That’s to create a close bond with the deep awareness to accomplish things.
Safeguarding Our Vows
First is safeguarding our vows. Whatever vows we’ve kept, to actually guard them well, which means to integrate them into actions, into our behavior.
Making Offerings
The second is to actually make offerings. It’s a type of practice that we can actually do. These offerings are of many different types, many different levels. We have outer (phyi’i mchod-pa), inner (nang-mchod), secret (gsang-mchod), and thusness (de-kho-na-nyid mchod-pa) type of offerings. It becomes a very, very extensive topic of making offerings. But we’re referring to here actually doing something. At least make the offering of a water bowl, if not seven water bowls, each day. This type of thing. Or a candle or a stick of incense. Something. It’s important to do.
Practices for Bonding with Akshobhya
Then the last Buddha-family here is Akshobhya, and there are four practices to create a close bond with Akshobhya — that’s the deep awareness of the sphere of reality.
Keeping a Vajra
Here the first of these is to keep a vajra, a dorje (rdo rje). This represents blissful awareness. To try to keep blissful awareness as our method.
Keeping a Bell
The second is keeping a bell, and the discriminating awareness of voidness that it represents, as our wisdom.
When we practice the highest class of tantra, we always use as our hand implements a dorje and a bell, a vajra and a bell (vajra is the Sanskrit word; dorje is the Tibetan translation of it). It’s like a little wand or something like that, which has a very special shape, and this represents a blissful awareness. The bell represents voidness. There are big discussions of all the different parts of the vajra and all the different parts of the bell and what they represent and so on. It gets very elaborate, the teaching, but the main point is that our mind, when doing any of these practices, needs to take hold of the practices in a blissful state, in a mind which is blissfully aware of voidness. To represent that, you hold in your hands something that represents a blissful awareness and voidness. To just hold it in your hands and play with a bell, like some people might do, and think how cool this is, this is not really upholding the practice. The point is to use it to help us to be mindful of the state of mind that we want to have throughout our practices.
Does this mean that every time that we practice we have to have a vajra and a bell? I don’t think, necessarily. In theory, yes. In actual practice, I find it… First of all, if you travel, like I do, on an overnight train or an overnight plane, that’s pretty awkward. You certainly wouldn’t take out your vajra and bell on the plane. Also, you’re supposed to keep them hidden, because you don’t want strangers and people to ask you “What are you holding that for? What is that?” or to make fun of it, or anything like that, or for the baby to play with it and stick it in their mouth and whatever. They’re supposed to be kept private.
This is the whole meaning of the word secret (gsang-ba), why everything is called secret in tantra. It’s not that “Ooh!” we have to be ashamed of it. The connotation is to “keep it private,” to “keep it confidential,” so that other people don’t ask obnoxious questions or make fun of it, taunt us, tease us, and so on. It’s supposed to be kept private. The more private you keep it, the more holy it becomes to you. This is a very important aspect of tantra. It should be something which is very special. Here, although holy is a word that comes from another religious tradition, I think that it gives a little bit of a flavor of what we mean. It should be something that really we respect, and it’s not something that you want the baby to stick in their mouth or your aunt or somebody to say, “What are you having that for?” and so on. What usually people might do is, then, in their wallet or something like that, have a little picture of a vajra and bell, just as a reminder, so that they have that with them at all times (if you carry a wallet).
But the important thing is not so much the actual physical implement. The important thing is the state of mind. That is what is going to create this close-bonding practice. A blissful understanding of voidness. Doesn’t have to be the definitive level of blissful awareness. That’s something that we’re not going to attain till way, way on the complete stage of practice. But at least try to have a happy state of mind when we think of voidness, at whatever level we’re able to think of it. This is important. The happy state of mind — the blissful state of mind — helps to get the mind more refined.
Those are the first two.
Maintaining the Mudra of Visualizing Ourselves as a Buddha-Figure Couple in Union
The third one is the seal of the mudra (phyag-rgya). Mudra here is referring to visualizing ourselves as a Buddha-figure couple in union (yab-yum), representing the inseparable union of method and wisdom. In the tantra practice when we visualize ourselves — visualize here is not just visual, it’s not the best word for translating what we are talking about (imagine is much better because it covers all the senses, and not just sensory but the state of actually being this) — we imagine that we are a couple.
That does not mean that we imagine that we are the male and we’re holding somebody else, or we’re the female and we’re holding from the other side. It certainly doesn’t mean that. You imagine that you are both together, a completeness. And don’t start thinking of this like Carl Jung — the archetypes of the union of masculine and feminine. It has nothing to do with that. The Tibetan words are mother (yum) and father (yab). It’s not a masculine and feminine or male and female union, but a union of method and wisdom. That can be understood on many levels: compassion and discriminating awareness of voidness, blissful awareness and the understanding of voidness, and so on. We have this imagination that we are complete, that we have the total aspects of the path. In this sense, Jung was on the right track, because of the idea of it being completeness. But it’s not talking about these masculine and feminine qualities in the Indian and Tibetan context, or Chinese context for that matter.
Committing Ourselves Properly to a Tantric Master
The fourth one, then, is committing ourselves properly to a tantric master, and that means that we follow the instructions of our teacher. As I mentioned, we might not have a personal closeness — closeness isn’t the right word — we might not have the opportunity to get personal, individual instructions from our tantric master (if we receive an empowerment from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for instance, along with 10,000 or 100,000 other people, as in the case of Kalachakra initiations, that we’re going to get individual instruction from His Holiness). But there are ways of upholding this close bond with the teacher in terms of our attitude, in terms of our behavior toward the teacher, and in terms of following the general instruction and advice that they give, such as “Every day, do this six-session practice,” this type of thing. That creates the close-bonding practice.
In guru-yoga, which is one of the preliminaries of tantra, we’re thinking of the guru in terms of a Buddha in terms of Buddha-nature — the good qualities of body, speech, and mind — that we want to integrate (yoga means to “integrate”), make a close connection with the actual thing (that’s the connotation of the word yoga). We try to emulate good qualities of physical (how we behave), verbal (how we communicate), and mental (how we think, and emotions and stuff like that) in a way which accords with what a Buddha would be, as represented by the spiritual teacher. Obviously, we need a spiritual teacher, a tantric master who, for the most part, incorporates these types of qualities.
We make the close bond with the Buddha-family of Akshobhya that way.
Participants and Answers
These are the five Buddha-families and the nineteen close-bonding practices that we have with them. Are there any questions on that?
Participant: It’s more on the five family traits in general. You said that there were different aspects associated with each of these five, like the five aggregates, and body, speech, mind, activity, and good qualities…
Dr. Berzin: And the disturbing emotions and all of that.
Participant: Types of awareness and stuff like that.
Dr. Berzin: Different Tibetan traditions make the associations differently, but...
Participant: But is there any cross connection between the state of awareness and body, for example, and then these close-bonding practices?
Dr. Berzin: Yes. Is there a connection between the state of mind and the body aspect and the way of interacting and so on and the close-bonding practices? Yes, but they are not spelled out in the texts, and so that is something that we need to put together.
But I did a course once — and actually it’s on my website — in which there were practical exercises for these different traits. Actually, I’m not quite sure who had developed it. But anyway, I had heard about it, and I used this in a course that somebody helped me to develop. They were very successful actually, because what we did was… There are the five types of activity, for example — gentle or peaceful and loving, equalizing, and individualizing (very intellectual), and accomplishing (so very strong type of… active), and very sharp for the reality one. There are different exercises of how you would walk in each of these different modes, how you would give directions to someone to get to the train station in each of these modes, not just the way of thinking. Actually, it was very, very interesting for people to see that you can speak to somebody in a very gentle way, or in a very forceful type of way, or in a very loving and open type of way. There are many different ways of communicating, and each of these are ways in which our facility of speech (which is communication) can work, and each one is useful in a different type of situation. Or the way in which we move. These type of things.
So yes, they are all interrelated. As I gave an example with the individualizing awareness or the equalizing awareness, it’s fairly obvious that with these the association that if we are generous, it helps us to overcome miserliness and arrogance (that “I’m better so I don’t want to share with you.”), and it helps us to develop the equalizing awareness, then, of everybody is equal, which would then be the basis for the good quality of love — to have equal love, equal wish for everybody to be happy and not to be... And compassion, not to have suffering. We can put it together in many ways, and that would be the aggregate of feeling. That’s talking about happiness, the level of happiness or unhappiness. You have an equal feeling of… Either we can understand it on a level of equanimity or a level of blissful awareness in all situations.
One can really play with all of these. There are different colors associated with them, but then again, different tantra systems will have different colors for each of these families and they’ll have... I mean, there’s a lot of variation here. There’s a lot of room for working with these, and it can be very interesting. It also could be just an intellectual game that one finds just fascinating. It could be just a game.
Participant: There are so many categories of five items, so of course you can make lots of connections.
Dr. Berzin: Right. We can make a lot of connections, but the point is to make connections that are helpful and beneficial.
Participant: Yeah, exactly. I mean, that was why I was asking.
Dr. Berzin: Yes, certainly if we are miserly and don’t like to share, obviously the practicing of generosity and giving to others (and giving to others fairly equally) helps.
Participant: I mean, what has the color got to do with it?
Dr. Berzin: No, the color and these things… I don’t know. You have this thing that Trungpa Rinpoche developed in which you have, for each of these Buddha-families… Now, he just uses one system though. I was explaining the Gelug tradition; he was explaining from a different system. But in that, with each of these Buddha-family traits, there is a color and there’s a shape and an element as well. He developed something in which you actually go inside a room which would be, let’s say, triangular and red for the fire element, which is the individualizing — I don’t recall if in his system it’s individualizing awareness — and you wear red clothing, and you sit in this room and you do meditation on that type of deep awareness and try to cultivate it. Supposedly, then, the color and the shape of the room and so on helps in developing that. I have no experience with that and no idea how effective it is. But there are systems like that. I have no idea how traditional that is or if that’s an innovation. That was an innovation of his. I would tend to think it was an innovation of his. I can’t imagine in Tibet that people built red, triangular chambers, but I have no idea.
Participant: But Vairochana is…
Dr. Berzin: Vairochana is body and Akshobhya is mind in some systems. In other systems, it’s the other way around. Kagyu and Nyingma tend to have Vairochana as mind, Akshobhya as body. But that has to do with... I mean, that fits in with the rest of their system. You have to understand the system. It has to do with their cognition theory, it has to do with their way of explaining voidness (voidness beyond words and so on), these sorts of things.
It’s important when looking at the variations that we find in the different Tibetan Buddhist traditions to have an understanding, at least roughly, of their entire system, because any variant in one factor of their system arises dependently on all the other aspects in that system and doesn’t exist independently by itself. One really needs to have a broad understanding of each of these traditions — Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug — before we really can appreciate why they explain certain things differently. That’s not so easy, because these are very complex systems.
However, as time progresses, more and more of the teachings from these traditions are becoming well known. Take for instance Drigung Kagyu. A number of years ago, not so long ago, people might have heard of Karma Kagyu, but they never heard of Drigung Kagyu, and they assumed that’s Karma Kagyu. But now, because of the efforts of the head of the Drigung sect and various sponsors and projects, more and more of their teachings are becoming translated and available.
When I first started Tibetan Buddhism, almost nothing was translated. We had Evans-Wentz, Alexandra David-Neel, Lama Govinda and that was it. No idea of even what Gelugpa was about. No idea even of the extent of what was available in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. No idea. Never heard of lojong. Never heard of any of these things.
As time progresses and more and more becomes available in our Western languages, then it will be easier to get an overview. There will undoubtedly be some very kind scholars who will organize material in such a way that we can get an overview, because that’s what a Western mind likes. This is something that will be a development in Western Buddhism and a contribution that the Western mind can give to Buddhism, is to present material, organize not just in terms of individualizing deep awareness, which is what the Tibetans are very good at, giving all the details of this system and all the details of that system, and very, very good at specifying things… You have all these categories and lists — although you had that already in India, but Tibetans developed it much more — and outlines and so on. What the West is very good at is equalizing awareness, seeing the pattern, the general pattern, and being able to organize in a grander way: how does this system compare with that system? That’s what a Western mind can do.
Tibetan minds deal with specific details. This you learn when you start to really question a Tibetan geshe and try to get information out of the Tibetan geshe. They don’t understand. “How did this idea develop over the various authors and so on?” They don’t think that way. They can’t put it together that way. You have to ask them a very specific question, then they give you unbelievable detail, but it has to be specific. This is something that will come in the future — it already is coming — that Western learned practitioners are making the larger picture. That’s good.
That brings us to the end of our class, so it brings us to the end of these bonding practices. Next week we can discuss empowerments and then the... Well, actually empowerment, although it comes next in the sentence, that really wouldn’t be the way to explain this. I think the next thing to explain is the various things that will weaken these vows, cause us to lose the vows, this type of stuff. We’ll present that next week.
That’s a very interesting discussion actually, of what does it take in order to actually lose these vows. We always think in terms of the word break — break these vows. That’s not a very good way of explaining it that accords with tradition. Either you weaken them or you completely lose them. But to transgress them, which is to break them… We transgress them all the time. How badly do you have to transgress them to actually lose the vows, or is it just weakening the vows? This is important, to know the distinction and what are the factors which are necessary that constitute one level or another.
We’ll discuss that next week. OK? Good. I think the following week, if I remember correctly, I will be away. I have to go to a conference in America for a few days. We won’t have a class the last week of September. OK?
Let’s end with the dedication. We think whatever positive force, whatever understanding has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper and act as a cause for reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all.