412 Varja Yogini Teachings
The fourteen principles [Tib. de nyi chu shi]687
I want to mention to you the fourteen principles. Pabongka Rinpoche put the fourteen principles of Heruka into the Vajrayogini long sadhana. This Vajrayogini long sadhana has them as well as the eleven yogas. The medium sadhana has the eleven yogas, but the fourteen principles are not included.
If one practices this teaching with the fourteen principles, which are mentioned in the 51st chapter of the Heruka tantra, then even somebody who has committed all the five limitless non-virtues actions in the earlier life (that means in your youth) is bound to attain the ultimate enlightenment at the end of their lives. You will, by practicing this.
If you can say the long sadhana, it is good for you. But if your time does not permit it, you might as well say the medium or the short sadhana. Whenever you can, when you have additional time, like on weekends and holidays, when there is no additional work, try to do the long sadhana. It is very helpful. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche said that Dechen Nyingpo very often said.
If you do this and work hard on this, you will definitely develop outer and inner Vajrayoginihood
in this lifetime. If you are lazy or unlucky, you may not be able to develop it in this lifetime, but if
you constantly work, then at the point of death, the Dakas and Dakinis will receive you and
definitely take you to the pure land of the Dakinis and in that very life you will definitely obtain
enlightenment.
So when you have such a profitable and easy way of doing it, why not do it?
If you look into the Vajrayogini sadhana, though it was very easy to talk to you on the basis of eleven yogas, Tsongkhapa’s special way of doing it is on the basis of the fourteen suchnesses. It is quite difficult, you have to really know it well, but basically, according to the tantra itself, there are [fourteen] suchnesses. There fourteen suchnesses according to the completion stage, the inner completion stage, there are fourteen suchnesses in the outer development stage. The fourteen suchnesses in the outer development stage should correspond with the sadhana and there are little verses that you can recite. There’s a little tantra verse, that says688,
(1)Cloth, five mudras
(2)Wisdom branch, (3) dagger and tent,
(4) Sing with Ahli (5) Kahli,
(6) Cause empty- preliminary,
(7) Follows sound.
(8) As much as concluded, that much activity rises
(9) Satisfy with nectar; (10) obtain Nirvana.
(11) Offer hand, (12) initiation, (13) wear protection armor.
(14) Make mantra offerings
Therese are the fourteen ways.
These are the words from the tantra. When you look at it, it doesn’t [seem to] mean anything.
1.Cloth. When they say, “cloth, dress” what does that mean? I believe dress is originally in classical Sanskrit,
veerna; it can be translated into cloth, or base, or place where you stay. In this case when they say cloth or clothes, it doesn’t mean cloth, it means the place where you can meditate. That is how tantras work. When they say cloth, it means where you can meditate, so it refers to the quality of the place where you can practice any mother tantra practice, or anything.
Five mudras. Mudras means action, act, gestures, and also actor, performer. So that is talking about the quality of the practitioner.
687Also called ‘fourteen suchnesses’ or ‘fourteen essential topics’.
688For the Tibetan, see Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Subline path to kechara Paradise, pg. 10. For listing and the connection with the outer development stage also see Akhu Sherab, Sri Cakrasamvara. Ein Kommentar zur Praxis der Vorstellungssnufe nach der Luipa-tradition, pg. 27-28.
Preliminary 57
on clear light, and I am working for buddhahood, I am trying to achieve buddhahood. I am meditating’. You somehow have to recognize how this mind is thinking: ‘I am doing this. How is this thinking? Where am I, focusing and saying that I am meditating on clear light? What kind of me is perceiving? It is sort of in there, it is me who is doing it.’ If you work, you get these thoughts, you’ll see it.
When you begin to see what kind of me is observing, what me is meditating, don’t be modest, saying: ‘Who am I to do this?’ Don’t go that way, because then you run away. Have a little pride and say: ‘I am meditating, I am working for enlightenment.’ And when you have that little I, try to hold it. If you are too modest, that I escapes, and that is a problem. Don’t let it escape. Acknowledge: ‘I am meditating, I am practicing clear light here’.
But: ‘Who is that me? What is it? What is the objectme? And what are the aspects of that me? And what is the experience of that me?’ That are the questions you have to raise. When you raise those questions, you’ll probably see no aspects and no focus, from whatever angle you look. In our normal condition we sort of see it is there, the big I; normally we don’t see that it is not there.
When you begin to get hold of that I, which is in that condition, meditating on clear light and working for enlightenment, if you could catch it—rather than modify and run away—if you could have that ‘I am here working for enlightenment, it is me here’, you have an important point, one of the most important points, point number one: the recognition of the I. Actually this is the point which you have to refute; that is the point of refutation.
When you begin to find that I while focusing on clear light, you find what Changkya Rolpai Dorje calls: ‘a kind of huge lump’. In mahamudra they call it penbrün, something you really cannot catch, like a cloud or something. This is a point; we begin to find it, instead of merely playing with words like: ‘selflessness, I-lessness, emptiness’, which give you nothing to pinpoint to.
When you get that sort of ‘lump’ here, recognize it and leave it there. Be careful, it is very fragile, you don’t want to destroy it right now, because you have to know how it is not there. When you really search a lot, you’ll lose it; search for it tenderly. If you keep on looking for it, it is very hard to catch it. Here we talk about the meditating I, ‘I the meditator’.
Pabongka used this the other way round and tells in Liberation in the palm of your hand that when somebody says in the middle of thirty or forty people: ‘Hey, you thief!’ and you say: ‘Who me?!’ you catch the I, that me that cannot stand to be called a thief in public. Pabongka used that, but in this particular teaching they used the ‘I the meditator’. I think ‘I the thief’ is easier to catch than ‘I the meditator’, because the first one really hurts your ego badly.
Another method according to the tradition is being at the edge of a high cliff and think: ‘Oh, I am going to fall!’ That is another point where you can catch it. Normally the object of refutation is pervasive and you can’t really catch it. When you can’t catch it, you can’t do anything with it; being pervasive is its hiding place.
So, recognize the ‘I the meditator’. Once you have that ‘lump’ or ‘cloud’, once you see it, where are you pointing to? You can’t point outside, you have to point inside. Our identification is the physical appearance, the five skandhas. But when I see five skandhas, which one is me?
I heard a joke. One day some people came from Tibet to Dharamsala. Among them was a woman who went into trance all the time. One day in the trance she ran into His Holiness and His Holiness said: ‘Who are you?’ She said: ‘I am Trishana’, which means ‘five sisters’. And His Holiness said: ‘Yes, but out of Trishana which sister are you?’ As she had no idea she ‘whoop’, went off the trance and fell down. She was pretending. The point is, when you can’t pinpoint it, you disappear.
You have to pinpoint which one it is, but you cannot really. If it is the form, then the other skandhas are left out, so it is not the form. Besides that, the form will disappear, and are you going to disappear? No. Likewise each one of the skandhas has the separation of I and that skandha. You will see that clearly with your intelligent mind; no problem. So, if the I is not one with the form, is it then separate from the form? Then we are back to the same old beginning: ‘Where are you?’ That is again back to zero. If it is not oneness [with the skandhas], it must be separateness; if it is separateness, where are you? Get that?
Generating the Field of Merit 93
The western one is Chenmisang, Virupaksha; and the northern one is Namdösa, Vaisravana. Thus we have completed the field of merit.
2. Inviting and dissolving the wisdom beings193
de dak go sum dor je sum tsen hum yik ö zer chak kyu yi
rang zhin ne ne ye she pa nam chen drang yer me ten par gyur
st. 14. At their three doors the triple gem signs,
From HUM light hooks invite Wisdom Beings
From native abodes to be inseparably bound.
(Tibetian symbl.) Each one of the beings of the merit field has OM, AH, HUM, representing (Tibetian symbl.)
vajra-body, vajra-speech and vajra-mind.
You yourself are generated in the yidam-form or the lama-form, with a letter HUM at your heart-level. From the heart-level [of all the beingsin the merit field] light radiates and invites [the wisdom beings].
(Tibetian symbl)The light, özer, goes hook-shaped. Like you throw a hook to catch the fish, (Tibetian symbl)
you are going to ‘fish’ all those enlightened beings. Where are you inviting them from? From their natural place, their ‘natural abode’, rangzhin nene. That should be the actual dharmadhatu, rang-zhin choying. When you have first become enlightened, you become sort of part of a huge galaxy of all-knowing (Tibetian symbl.)consciousness, remember?194 I believe that this is referring to the natural(Tibetian symbl.)
abode, dharmadhatu. From there you manifest [in a form] suitable to the individual’s capability, understanding, need, requirements, willingness and wish.
Now you are going to invite the wisdom beings. What kind of wisdom beings are you inviting? As you have meditated, whatever you have meditated, whatever you have projected, all of those, everyone of them, you are going to invite.
If you find that Lama Dorjechang sitting on the throne is very inconvenient, you can invite him – I am quite sure – on a nice sofa-seat. Yeah true, why not? You can have the merit-field suited to the western culture. Instead of putting a bunch of thrones up there, you can put up a bunch of sofa-seats; everybody sitting on the sofa and talking to each other. Your field of merit you can have that way. I don’t see any reason why not. In reality it is the manifestation of the Lama; the Lama is part of them and they are part of the Lama; they are buddha, the buddha is them; they are the yidam, the yidam is them; they are dakas, dakinis, each one of them; there is no separation. So if you want to make a new tree with all sorts of different men, women, sitting on sofas, talking, it would be okay. Perhaps not smoking; maybe you can give them ‘grass’, that’s probably okay.
Audience: This merit field is it, except for the central figure, exactly the same as explained in Pabongka’s Lam Rim?
Rinpoche: Yes, Pabongka’s is the latest version of it. It differs slightly, but that is okay, it doesn’t matter. Pabongka has this southern tradition. So this is slightly different and also there is a place for you yourself to go. That is why there is an empty space195. The Lama Chöpa tree and the Lam Rim tree are almost the same; so it is okay.
chö nam rang zhin dro ong kün drel yang
na tsok dül jei sam pa ji dzin du
chir yang char wei kyen tsei trin le chen
193Literature: Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Great treasury of merit, pg. 107-113. Dalai Lama, The union of bliss and emptiness, pg 88-91.
194 See page 50
195 In the category of the lamas right and left is an empty space.
94 Nagrim: Lama Chopa Guru Yoga
Kyap gön dam pa kor che shuk su söl
St. 16 Though the nature of things is unchanging.
Your acts of love and wisdom dawn
To suit the many minds to be tamed.
Please come with O Holy Lord!
The invocation now. In the LTWA- translation the verse pünstok delek comes first. In the version we have provided you for this retreat, we have put the verse chönam rangzhin first. What we did is not new. It has been done by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and even before by Pabongka Rinpoche and Dagpo Lama Rinpoche. This is the southern business, so the Yankees may not like it. But that is how it goes. Also rabkar gesemand dechen nangle we switched, as you noticed earlier. It is the southern style and there are a lot of reasons to do so.
A translation of this verse says ‘Even though phenomena are by nature completely free of coming and going’. The nature of all phenomena is what? Emptiness. Therefore the question of coming and going does not rise. You know what the question of coming and going really means? When you yourself look at the mirror, you will see your reflection in the mirror. If you don’t think about it—and because we know it—it reflects immediately, right? If you would not know immediately how it reflects and looks like, you would have to go into the mirror and look out and you would have to get out of the mirror and look into it. If you do not know the reflecting business, that is the way you have to go to comprehend that. That is the coming and going business actually196.
So, in one way the nature of emptiness has nothing coming, nothing going; in another way it reflects as it is. You don’t have to put efforts in to get it shown there [in the mirror]. The usual example in buddhism is the reflection of the moon; the moon shines and every water on the earth has its reflection. [As moon] you don’t need to put in efforts to show in each river, in each lake, in each pond. When the moon comes, it automatically reflects. You don’t have to put in any efforts; you don’t have to come and you don’t have to go.
In other words they are giving you two points: the nature of phenomena has no talk of going or coming; therefore (a) it is there all the time and (b) it is automatic, effortless.
Audience: That doesn’t mean inherent existence, does it?
Rinpoche: No! Whatever is there, is dependent. If there is no water, you can’t see a reflection. There is no inherent existence, don’t worry about it. Just forget inherent, primordial, and all of them for a while.
The second line says: ‘However, to suit the needs of the individuals’. The needs rather then the moods. Sometimes our moods are so bad and it will never be right, so needs are more important than moods. Whatever their need is, may you manifest as it is, like reflections of the moon in all directions.
Chiryang charwei means as you have seen it. Kyen is the knowledge or wisdom part of it, tsei is the compassion part of it, trinle197 is the activity part of it. You manifest according to whatever the need of the individual is, by your kindness, by your wisdom, by your activity. That’s what it is.
You, the great protector, kyapgön, with your retinue, may you come here. So you are inviting them from the dharmakaya into the physical form198. That is why you bring this [verse] up first.
pün tsong de lek jung ne dü sum gyi
tsa gyü la ma yi dam kön chok sum
pa wo kan dro chö kyong sung tsok che
tuk jei wang gi dir shek ten par zhuk.
St.15 All time source of consummate blessedness,
O Root and Lineage triple gem Guru-Gods,
196 Also see page 14.
197 Part of Rinpoche’s name, there translated as virtuous conduct.
198Rupakaya.
148 Nagrim: Lama Chopa Guru Yoga
Within that [joy and happiness] we generate the bodhimind and particularly the special
bodhimind of this [practice]: actually visiting every realm, and emptying it276, not only re-
lieving the sufferings and pains of the beings therein, but also transforming their minds into
dharmakaya and their physical appearance into rupakaya. We totally purify every existence
and we achieve the wishes of the enlightened beings to permanently relieve the sufferings of
beings. Not only their suffering are relieved, but also they become pure beings, pure buddhas.
Within that joy and happiness we generate the field of merit as Lama Lozang Tubwang
Dorjechang.
Lama Lozang refers to Tsong Khapa, Je Rinpoche’s name Lozang Dragpa of which only the first part is picked up here. In the case of Je Rinpoche you pick up Lama Lozang, - the first part of the name - but for others you don’t. For example, for Pabongka Rinpoche you use [in the lineage payer] the name Kyabje Dechen Nyingpo or you say Trinley Gyatso. It is not right to say Pabongka Trinley Gyatso277.