Recap
We’re looking at this text called Wheel of Sharp Weapons or Throwing Star Weapon, more literally. This text is speaking about overcoming our grasping for a “true self” – a solid “me,” an impossible “me” – which causes us to act in a selfish way, to think only of ourselves. It is speaking about the Bodhisattva path, which is to transform the various types of suffering and so on that come from grasping for a “true self” – to transform that into a path that’s going to help us to enlightenment. The analogy which is used for that is peacocks eating poison. Peacocks supposedly eat poisonous plants or plants that would be poisonous to other species, but they thrive on that; whereas if other animals, like the crow that they mention here, were to eat it, they would die. The poisonous plants are analogous then to the disturbing emotions. The actual transformation that they’re talking about in the text is the transformation that’s done with the practice of tonglen – giving and taking. In it, you take on the various sufferings and problems of others – for instance, their disturbing emotions – and imagine that in taking them on from others and adding it on to our own disturbing emotions and various problems, we deal with that problem; resolve it; find the antidote to it; and give that not just to ourselves but to everybody. That’s the basic idea here.
We’ve gone through the first part of the text. In the first part of the text, the actual practice of tonglen is given. The author goes through many different types of suffering situations that we might experience and points out the karmic cause for it. It’s very much a teaching about karma, about the type of negative or destructive behavior we have done that causes the various problems that we experience to happen on us. These is the throwing star weapon that we throw out ourselves and, like a boomerang, it comes back to us. These verses then instructs us that when we have this type of problem, and we understand what the cause is, what we want to do is to stop repeating the cause. This is the standard form of each of the verses. The meditation with it is that, first, we think to solve that problem in ourselves in terms of changing our basic behavioral patterns; and then we do this in the tonglen fashion of taking on the same problem from everybody and giving everybody the same solution.
Calling on Yamantaka to Destroy Self-Grasping
We are up to verse 51 in our discussion. As I said, this is a transition set of verses going from this tonglen practice to the next section, which is going to be speaking about various types of negative patterns of behavior that we have. The usual form of it is that instead of acting in a certain positive way, we act in a negative way, and it points out that all of this is due to the great enemy, which is a “true self.” In other words, we believe that we are a “true self,” an impossible self, that exists independent of everybody else, independent of causes and conditions. We believe that we are the most important one in the universe, and we need to always have our way, and nobody else really matters.
We use a very forceful image here of Yamantaka (Skt. Yamāntaka). Yamantaka is a Buddha figure: an emanation of the Buddhas which any Buddha can appear in. Specifically, it is the forceful form of Manjushri (Skt. Mañjuśrī). Manjushri is the representation of the wisdom of the Buddhas – in other words, the ability of a mind of a Buddha to be able to understand absolutely everything and to have perfect clarity and so on. Manjushri represents this clarity of the mind and the ability of the mind to understand and discriminate everything correctly. Manjushri himself is a rather peaceful form that we use just in ordinary situations. But sometimes when we are really under the influence of confusion and really strongly believe in this that we have this “true self,” “true me” – thinking, “I want to be really me,” “I’m not acting like the real me,” “I always have to find the real me, to search for the true me” – we need a very strong image of wisdom. We need Yamantaka to smash this way of thinking, to stop acting in such a selfish way, to stop acting in such a childish way, and to think in terms of others. This is why the image of Yamantaka is invoked here.
The verse that we’re up to is verse 51. The verses are numbered slightly different in the two versions that we’re using. We have the one that I had translated about 30 years ago – published by the library in Dharamsala (Skt. Dharamśālā) and called Wheel of Sharp Weapons – which is a very loose poetical translation of the text. It’s not at all a literal word-for-word translation; it incorporates into it a lot of commentary from Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, and that commentary is from the point of view of the Gelugpa school of understanding. Particularly later on, when it gets to the verses on voidness, it becomes quite clear. I also have a literal translation of the text. What we’ve been doing is reading the poetical version but then reading the literal version and working with the literal version as the one that we actually are studying. The way that these verses are broken down is slightly different: what the new verse 51 is in the new translation is actually the second half of 51 and 52 in the old translation. Let me read that in the poetical version:
With your powerful mantra of cherishing others, demolish this enemy lurking within! Frantically running through life’s tangled jungle, we are chased by sharp weapons of wrongs we have done returning upon us; we are out of control. This sly, deadly villain – the selfishness in us, deceiving ourselves and all others as well, capture him, capture him, fierce Yamantaka, summon this enemy, bring him forth now!”
As I say, the verses are broken slightly differently. Let’s just look at the new, literal translation:
O King of Pure Awareness Mantras that torment the enemy, draw out the spoiler of our spiritual bonds, who brings to ruin ourselves and others – that vicious savage, called “The Demon of Grasping at a ‘True Self’” – who, causing us to get struck by the sharp weapons of karma, has been making us run through the jungle of samsara, without any control.
Here we’re calling on Yamantaka as this Buddha figure, and Yamantaka is called the “King of Pure Awareness Mantras” – this is a special type of mantra. Mantras are certain sets of words or syllables – sometimes they are a set of Sanskrit words – and usually they have a certain meaning. But they can also be mixed with words that don’t seem to have any meaning from but have some hidden meaning that one has to learn about. The word “mantra” literally means “something to protect your mind” – from thinking or acting in a negative way. Pure awareness mantras – sometimes you see that translated as “knowledge mantras” – are mantras to actualize primarily the enlightening influence of a Buddha figure and the discriminating awareness of an enlightening mind. By repeating this mantra, it actually calls on the enlightening influence of the Buddhas and the various Buddha figures. In other words, it makes our mind open and receptive to receiving their influence, which is going to help us reach enlightenment.
This mantra helps us to do that and also to develop the clarity of mind, and the discriminating awareness – to discriminate between what’s correct and what’s incorrect; the way things actually exist and the way they don’t exist – which would be a great quality of an enlightening mind. Yamantaka is the king of the mantras that do this, which will call forth this enlightening influence and give us this wisdom of the mind of the Buddhas. These types of mantras torment the enemy: the belief in the “true self,” the “true me,” this impossible “me.” These mantras torment this true “me,” this false “me” – this thing that actually doesn’t exist at all – because they’re going to draw to us the opponent and they’re going to get rid of it. This is the image that’s given here by the epitaph – the respectful name that is being given to Yamantaka: “O King of Pure Awareness Mantras that torment the enemy.”
Now, what do we ask Yamantaka to do? We want to “draw out the spoiler of our spiritual bonds.” Spiritual bonds are close connections that we have to the teachers and the teachings that connect us closely. This is the word damtsig (dam-tshig) in Tibetan or samaya in Sanskrit, if you’re familiar with that. This true “me,” this ego, this impossible “me” – “I don’t want to do this” and, “I want to get my own way,” and so on – spoils those bonds. In other words, it makes those bonds weak and ruins them. It’s like when you spoil a cake, or you spoil a party by acting really quite terrible or getting sick and vomiting over the floor. “Spoiler of our spiritual bonds” – we ask Yamantaka to draw this out. In other words, we have this this concept of the true “me” deep in our minds and in our hearts, and we ask Yamantaka to draw it out like you draw out a poison dagger from our minds. (The language is very colorful; it’s very beautiful, actually, if you look at each of the words.) This spoiler – this true “me,” this belief in a true “me” – brings to “ruin ourselves and others.” It ruins us in the sense of it ruining it destroying our chances for happiness, liberation, and enlightenment. It destroys and ruins others as well: both through their own grasping for a true “me” as well as through our acting negatively and destructively to them.
Now the text identifies the spoiler: it’s “that vicious savage, called ‘The Demon of Grasping at a ‘True Self.’” It’s a demon – one of these little devil-like figures – that is our attitude of grasping at a “true self.” “Grasping” here means that we think of ourselves in that way. Our mind makes us appear in that way in which there is some true “me” talking inside in our head, which we’re worried about all the time. We grasp that in the sense that we believe in it, and we grasp for it to be real – for that to be really who I am. It’s a “vicious savage” – a savage is an uncivilized, destructive being that runs wild in jungles. What does this savage do to us? It causes us “to get struck by the sharp weapons of karma.” All these sharp weapons of karma that we were talking about in all the verses before – the negative consequences and suffering results of our negative actions – it’s this grasping at a true “me” that causes us to get hit by them. We actually threw the throwing star out by our actions, and it circled round back like a boomerang and hit us. This is what this vicious savage in the jungle has done; this grasping for the true “me,” this demon, has made us run through the jungle of samsara (Skt. saṃsāra). We’ve had to run wildly through the jungle of samsara without any control, with these star weapons that we’ve thrown following us. We don’t have any control over ourselves, we don’t have any control over what happens to us.
This is the verse:
O King of Pure Awareness Mantras that torment the enemy, draw out the spoiler of our spiritual bonds, who brings to ruin ourselves and others – that vicious savage, called “The Demon of Grasping at a ‘True Self’” – who, causing us to get struck by the sharp weapons of karma, has been making us run through the jungle of samsara, without any control.
It’s a strong verse and a very strong image. Yamantaka is this really super strong figure. It’s very wrathful-looking image with a buffalo head, and two horns; the full form has 34 arms, and 16 legs, and nine heads. It’s really quite an amazing-looking figure. Basically, what the whole image of Yamantaka is about – even if we’re not practicing tantra and are visualizing ourselves in this form – is cutting out acting like an idiot, cutting out acting selfishly, and straightening up. When we’re really acting selfishly and are into feeling sorry for ourselves and all these sorts of things – at such a time maybe it’s not the most effective thing to be gentle with ourselves. You have to sort of slap yourself in the face and say, “Come on, cut it out! Stop it! Stop being so selfish” – and that’s the image of Yamantaka. That I think is very helpful because sometimes you have to just smash it, which is the terminology that’ll be used here.
Why don’t we think about that, and think about how that might be helpful when we are whining and complaining: “Poor me, nobody loves me” and “Why don’t people pay more attention to me and give me what I want?” We have to be rather strong with ourselves. This doesn’t mean thinking, “Oh, I’m bad, I’m guilty, and I have to punish myself” and so on. Basically, it’s just like throwing cold water on yourself and saying, “Come on! Get out of it! Straight now!” Let’s think about that for a moment.
Then the next verse – verse 52 in the new version. I think this is mostly verse 53 in the old version.
Batter him, batter him, rip out the heart of our grasping for ego, our love for ourselves! Trample him, trample him, dance on the head of this treacherous concept of selfish concern! Tear out the heart of this self-centered butcher who slaughters our chance to gain final release!
That’s the poetical version; more literally, verse 52:
Draw him out! Draw him out! Forceful Yamantaka! Batter him! Batter him! Pierce the enemy, a “true self,” right in the heart! Crash, really crash down, right on the head of (this) ruinous concept! Deal the death blow to the heart of this butcher, a “true self,” our foe.
Again, a very strong verse. Actually, next two verses after that as well are going to be rather strong. Then this transition set of verses will be completed, and we get into the next section of the text.
Let’s go through this. “Draw him out! Draw him out! Forceful Yamantaka!” – this is asking Yamantaka, this strong understanding and strong mind, to pull out the poison that is the concept of a solid “me,” a true “me.” Yamantaka is very forceful, and he uses very strong force. “Batter him! Batter him!” Pierce the enemy, a ‘true self’” – a “true self” is our enemy here – “right in the heart!” You want to pierce through the hard shell of this strong feeling of a solid “me,” so I have to pierce through it – to pierce the enemy “right in the heart.”
The next two lines are going to be the refrain that’s going to repeat over and over again in the next many verses of the text in the next section. “Crash! Really crash down, right on the head of this ruinous concept!” – this concept of the “true self,” the solid “me,” which just ruins us, causes us so many problems. It’s a concept, that’s all it is: a false concept that we project onto – as we mentioned over and again – the conventional “me,” which actually does exist. It’s not that there is no “me” at all; there is the conventional “me” – I’m sitting here, I’m talking; but then there is this solid, true “me,” this “true self,” and if I project that, then I’m worried about myself and [think,] “What are the people going to think of me?” So, “Crash! Really crash down, right on the head of this ruinous concept! Deal the death blow to the heart of this butcher” –basically kill it, strike it to the point where you’re going to kill it.
“Deal the death blow to the heart of this butcher, a ‘true self,’ the enemy!” – the “true self” is the butcher. A butcher here is the slaughterer, actually, the one that kills the animals; and so, this enemy – a “true self” – basically kills our chances for liberation and enlightenment. This way of referring to the enemy is something which is quite common in Indian Buddhism. The arhats are sometimes translated as the “foe destroyers.” Shantideva himself, in Bodhicharyavatara (Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior) is always referring to the disturbing emotions as the real enemy. The external enemies are trivial, they’re going to die anyway, but the internal enemies – our disturbing emotions and this concept of the solid “me” – are not going to go away unless you really smash them. These are the ones that really cause us trouble.
In Geshe Dhargyey’s explanation of this, he referred to the enemy as the self-grasping attitude, our grasping for a “true me,” a “true self;” and the attendants of the enemy – the ones that help the enemy, the secondary ones – are the self-cherishing attitudes: the attitude with which we cherish and think only of ourselves and are selfish. That’s based on thinking of ourselves as a true “me,” and then, like an attendant serves a master, the self-cherishing attitude, this selfish attitude, tries to serve the so-called best interests of this true “me.” But actually, our selfishness, our selfish concern, just causes us more problems, because actually it’s what throws the throwing star weapon of karma, which then comes back at us.
Let’s think about that for a moment and then we can end for this evening.
Draw him out! Draw him out! Forceful Yamantaka! Batter him! Batter him! Pierce the enemy, a “true self,” right in the heart! Crash, really crash down, right on the head of (this) ruinous concept! Deal the death blow to the heart of this butcher, a “true self,” our foe.
Dedication
Let’s end then with the dedication. We think whatever understanding, whatever positive force has come from this, may it go deeper and deeper, and act as a cause for reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all.