THE FOUNDATION OF ALL GOOD QUALITIES BY LAMA TSONG
KHAPA
Please let me see that proper devotion to my Guru, who
is foundation of all the good qualities, forms the root of the Path and let
me strive with effort and great devotion to him - please inspire me.
Please let me understand that this rare, precious body, endowed with
freedom is found only once, and may I cultivate both day and night unceasing
the mind that grasps its essence - please inspire me.
Please let me realize that my unstable body quickly decays and dies like
water bubbles. Convinced that after death - like shadows follow bodies
black and white karma ripens - please inspire me.
Please let my actions be guided by karmic insight avoiding even smallest
wrongful actions and working to complete accumulating merit with
mindfulness and caution - please inspire me.
Please let me understand that seeking worldly pleasures will never
satisfy; they can't be trusted! Aware of all these faults may I attain the
wish to strive for liberation - please inspire me.
Please let these pure thoughts give rise to the greatest caution, may
mindfulness and watchfulness increase. May I act in accordance with
pratimoksha vows; the root of Dharma teachings - please inspire me.
Please let me see that all my mother sentient beings are in samsara's
ocean just like me, and take upon myself to free all transmigrators with
supreme Bodhicitta - please inspire me.
Please let me clearly see that with just Bodhicitta, without the practice
of the threefold ethics, I will not be enlightened thus practice with strong
effort the Bodhisattva vows - please inspire me.
Please let me pacify distractions to wrong objects, and analyze correct
reality's meaning. Thus quickly generating the unifying path of insight
and samadhi - please inspire me.
Please let me have the fortune trained in the common path to be a vessel,
pure enough to enter the holy entrance of the hightest of all yanas, the
supreme Vajra Path - please inspire me.
Please let me clearly see that keeping all my pledges is the foundation
of the two attainments thus may I keep my vows and all commitments purely,
even risking my life - please inspire me.
Please let me recognize the heart of tantric practice and grasp the
importance of both the stages. Then practice enthusiastic four-session
meditation and realize Guru's teachings - please inspire me.
Please may the virt'ous Guides who show the Noble Path and Dharma friends
who practice all have long lives and may all hindrances, internal and
external, be pacified completely - please inspire me.
May I throughout all lives not part from perfect teachers and enjoy all
the Buddha's Noble Teachings. Stages and paths completed may I quickly
achieve the state of Vajradhara - please inspire me.
THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF THE PATH BY LAMA ZONG
KHAPA
I bow down to the venerable Spiritual Masters. I will explain, as well as
I am able, the essence of all the teachings of the Conqueror, the Path praised
by the Conquerors and their spiritual children, the entrance for the fortunate
ones who desire liberation. Listen with clear minds, you fortunate ones who
direct your minds to the Path pleasing to the Buddha and strive to make good use
of leisure and opportunity without being attached to the joys of cyclic
existence.
For you, embodied beings bound by the craving for existence: without the pure
determination to be free from the ocean of existence, you cannot pacify the
attractions to its pleasurable effects. Thus from the outset, strive to
generate the determination to be free. By contemplating the leisure and
endowments so difficult to find and the fleeting nature of your life, reverse
the clinging to this life. By repeatedly contemplating the infallible
effects of karma and the miseries of cyclic existence, reverse the clinging to
future lives. By contemplating in this way, do not generate even for an
instant the wish for the pleasures of cyclic existence. When you have the
mind aspiring for liberation day and night unceasingly, then you have generated
the determination to be free.
However, if your determination to be free is not sustained by the pure
dedicated heart, it does not become the cause for the perfect bliss of
unsurpassed Enlightenment. Therefore, the intelligent ones generate the
supreme enlightenment thought. Swept by the current of the four power
rivers, tied by the strong bonds of karma which are so hard to undo, caught in
the iron net of self-grasping egoism, completely enveloped by the darkness of
ignorance, born and reborn in boundless cyclic existence, unceasingly tormented
by the three miseries - by thinking of all mother sentient beings in this
condition, generate the supreme altruistic aspiration.
Even if you meditate upon the determination to be free and Bodhicitta,
without the wisdom realizing the ultimate nature, you cannot cut the root of
samsara. Therefore, strive for the means to realize dependent arising.
One who sees the infallible cause and effect of all phenomena in cyclic
existence and beyond, and destroys all false perceptions [of their inherent
exist- ence], has entered the Path which pleases the Buddha. Appearances are
infallible dependent arisings; emptiness is free of assertions [of inherent
existence or non-existence]. As long as these two understandings are seen as
separate, one has not yet realized the intent of the Buddha. When these two
realizations are simultaneous and concurrent, from the mere sight of infallible
dependent arising comes definite knowledge which completely destroys all modes
of mental grasping. At that time, the analysis of the profound view is
complete. In addition, appearances clear away the extreme of [inherent]
existence; emptiness clears away the extreme of non-existence. When you
understand the arising of cause and effect from the viewpoint of emptiness, you
are not captivated by either of the extreme views.
In this way, when you have realized the exact points of the three principal
aspects of the path, by depending on solitude, generate the power of joyous
effort and quickly accomplish the final goal, my child!
EIGHT VERSES FOR TRAINING THE MIND - by Geshe
Langri Tangpa
By thinking of all sentient beings as even better than the
wish-granting gem, for accomplishing the highest aim, may I always
consider them precious.
Wherever I go, with whomever I go, may I see myself as less
than all others, and from the depth of my heart may I consider them
supremely precious.
May I examine my mind in all actions and as soon as a
negative state occurs, since it endangers myself and others, may I firmly
face and avert it.
When I see beings of a negative disposition or those
oppressed by negativity or pain, may I, as if finding a treasure, consider
them precious, for they are rarely met.
Whenever others, due to their jealousy, revile and treat me
in unjust ways, may I accept this defeat myself, and offer the victory to
others.
When someone whom I have helped or in whom I have placed
great hope harms me with great injustice, may I see that one as a sacred
friend.
In short, may I offer, both directly and indirectly, all joy
and benefit to all beings, my mothers, and may I myself secretly take on
all their hurt and suffering.
May they not be defiled by the concepts of the eight
mundane concerns, and aware that all things are illusory, may they,
ungrasping, be free from bondage.
(For a free booklet with a commentary on this text by His Holiness
the 14th Dalai Lama, visit the website of Wisdom Publications, see under 'Dalai
Lama'.)
This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness
and who knows the path of peace: Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech, Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied, Unburdened with duties and frugal in
their ways. Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful, Not proud and
demanding in nature. Let them not do the slightest thing That the wise
would later reprove.
Wishing: in gladness and in safety may all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be, Whether they are weak or strong,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small, The seen and the
unseen, Those living near and far away, Those born and to be born,
omitting none, May all beings be at ease.
Let none deceive another or despise any being in any state.
Let none, through anger of ill-will wish harm upon another.
Like a mother protects her child, her only child with her life,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.
Radiating kindness over the entire world: Spreading upwards to the skies
and downwards to the depths, Outwards and unbounded, free from hatred and
ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down Free from
drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection. This is said to be the
sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views, The pure-hearted one, having
clarity of vision, Being freed from all sense desires, Is not born again
into this world.
