Leh, Ladakh, India - This morning His Holiness the Dalai Lama drove from his residence at the Shewatsel Phodrang to the pavilion at the other end of the teaching ground where he has given the Kalachakra Empowerment twice in the past. The ground was packed with an estimated 50,000 people. Children were debating in front of the stage as His Holiness arrived.
Prayers that were said after he had taken his seat included the ‘Prayer of the Three Continuums’, the ‘Heart Sutra’ and the following aspiration: ‘By whatever merit I may gain by listening to the teachings, May I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings’. Tea and sweet rice were distributed and a short mandala offering was made.
His Holiness began by recalling that he lost his own country, Tibet, but came into exile in India. Because he has since lived in the Himalayan Region, it’s a place close to his heart. He noted that the people of the region have a special link to Avalokiteshvara. He spoke of leaving the Norbulingka Palace, crossing the Kyichu river and ascending the pass out of the valley. I felt sad to be leaving but reflected that we are all the same as human beings. We all want to be happy and not to suffer. I felt that even if I had to go into exile, I’d still be able to share the teachings with others.
“Wherever I go in the Himalayan Region I find people to be faithful and devout—dedicated to spiritual practice. Although Tibetans have faced great difficulties and Chinese restrictions have become ever tighter, the peoples of the Himalayan Region have been our friends.
“As someone who has the blessings of Avalokitesvara and who cultivates bodhichitta and the correct view, I have been able to generate the awakening mind and insight into emptiness. This is something we all can do. We can develop these practices with enthusiasm. My main advice is to constantly remind yourselves of the awakening mind of bodhichitta and the view of emptiness. I do this myself every morning as soon as I wake up and I remain in meditation for some time on these principles. We’re talking about attaining enlightenment, the word for which in Tibetan is ‘jang-chub’. It consists of two syllables. The first, ‘jang’. means overcoming all faults and shortcomings, while ‘chub’ denotes becoming replete with every excellent attribute that can be attained.
“People are suffering all over the world. Regardless of whether we follow a religious practice or not, everybody wants to be happy and nobody wants to suffer. The root of suffering is two-fold: having a self-centred, self-cherishing attitude and misconceiving things as being independently existent. When I wake in the morning, I generate the awakening mind, the aspiration for enlightenment and by reflecting on certain lines from Chandrakirti’s ‘Entering into the Middle Way’, I meditate on emptiness. These two principles, the awakening mind and emptiness, are the core of the Buddha’s teaching.
“Not so long ago I had a vision of the Buddha before me. He looked up, saw me and beckoned me to him. He said a few words that invoked bodhichitta and emptiness, which made me very happy.
“As followers of the Buddha we should make cultivating the awakening mind and the view of emptiness our main practice. As devoted disciples you should remind yourselves of this on a day-to-day basis.”
His Holiness remarked that yesterday was Indian Independence Day. He expressed his admiration for India, suggesting that those of us who live here should be delighted at the freedom we enjoy here. We have the opportunity to make our lives meaningful, he added, by doing what we can to help other sentient beings. He noted that India is a land where many religious traditions flourish. It’s a place where harmony prevails. The essence of religious practice is to be kind and non-violent, doing no harm to others. Therefore, India should do what it can to establish peace in the world.
“A huge number of people have gathered here today,” His Holiness observed, “and I’d like to thank you all for coming. On my part, I was born near Kumbum in north-east Tibet but moved to Lhasa. I studied Buddhist philosophy with my tutors, which opened my eyes. I learned that everything in the world is like an illusion. Things appear to exist in a certain way, but that isn’t actually how they exist. I feel that I have made my life meaningful and what I’m saying to you is based on my own experience. Please keep in mind the importance of being warm-hearted and helping others.”
His Holiness turned to the ‘Eight Verses on Training the Mind” and read out the fourth verse: ‘When I see ill-natured people, overwhelmed by wrong deeds and pain, may I cherish them as something rare, as though I had found a treasure-trove.’ Geshé Langri Thangpa’s advice is that we should cherish other beings, even though they may be ill-natured, when we see them suffer.
The next verses say: ‘When someone out of envy does me wrong by insulting me and the like, may I accept defeat and offer the victory to them. Even if someone whom I have helped and in whom I have placed my hopes does great wrong by harming me, may I see them as an excellent spiritual friend.’ His Holiness clarified: “When other people criticize you, instead of being angry with them, you should check whether their criticism is valid. Check whether you have these faults or not. If you do, be grateful to them for pointing them out. Consider their criticism to be spiritual instruction.
The seventh verse reads: ‘In brief, directly or indirectly, may I give all help and joy to my mothers, and may I take all their harm and pain secretly and quietly upon myself.’
The final verse—‘May none of this ever be sullied by thoughts of the eight worldly concerns. May I see all things as illusions and, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage.’ His Holiness commented that the suffering we encounter in our lives is a result of our misconceptions. However, by seeing all things as illusions we can imagine our delusions dissolving into emptiness.
Next, His Holiness read through the ‘Song of the Four Mindfulnesses’. He listed the four mindfulnessess: mindfulness of the teacher, mindfulness of the altruistic aspiration to highest enlightenment, mindfulness of the body as a divine body and mindfulness of the view of emptiness.
In connection with the second mindfulness, he said we should understand that we face suffering because of our own unruly minds and the mental afflictions to which they give rise. We gain relief by reminding ourselves that our fathers and mothers, who protected us with kindness, are also suffering and bereft of happiness. ‘Forsaking desire and hatred, meditate on endearment and compassion, and, not letting your mind stray, place it within compassion.’ His Holiness declared that he consistently puts what this text advises into practice.
With regard to the fourth mindfulness—mindfulness of the view of emptiness—he said we need to understand that things appear to us as if they have some objective, independent existence, but they do not actually exist that way.
“In Tibet,” His Holiness continued, “we integrate the practice of Sutra with Tantra. In tantra we meditate on deity yoga, visualizing our body transformed into that of a deity. We also learn about the varying degrees of subtlety within our minds. We go beyond ordinary perception, which is based a coarse level of consciousness, to access and develop our more subtle mind—the luminous mind of clear light. This is the mind we employ to experience emptiness.
“The Buddhist tradition we preserved in Tibet was unique from a psychological point of view. In the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra we try to identify and use our subtle consciousness. Other traditions do not explain how to do this. Like them we cultivate the awakening mind and view of emptiness, but only in tantra do we cultivate the subtle and innate mind of clear light, transforming it into the path to enlightenment.
“If we can do that, the coarser levels of mind will subside and we can use the subtle mind to realize emptiness. This is something extraordinarily profound.
“I’m someone who was born in Amdo, who came to Lhasa and received teachings from my tutors. In addition to studying, I meditated on what I’d learned, so I was able to gain experience on the teachings.
“I’ve been able to come to this part of the Himalayan Region on this occasion and have been able to share the teachings with you who follow the same tradition as we do in Tibet. There have been many great masters in Tibet, extraordinary adepts—practise well and you may be able to become like them.
“We have an opportunity here and now to develop the awakening mind of bodhichitta and it would be good to do so. Think of becoming a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings across the expanse of space. Please recite these lines after me:
I seek refuge in the Three Jewels;
Each and every wrongdoing I confess.
I rejoice in the virtues of all beings.
I take to heart the state of Buddhahood.
I go for refuge until I am enlightened
To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly,
In order to fulfil the aims of myself and others
I develop the awakening mind.
Having developed the aspiration for highest enlightenment,
I invite all sentient beings as my guests,
I shall enact the delightful supreme enlightening practices.
May I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.”
His Holiness remarked that he had been able to give teachings about two texts of which he had received the transmission, as well as leading the ceremony for cultivating bodhichitta for which he has received the blessings that come from the lineage of lamas. He then gave an oral transmission of the mantras of Buddha Shakyamuni, Arya Tara, the Medicine Buddha, Manjushri, the Vajraguru, Jé Tsongkhapa and the Mig-tse-ma praise.
The event concluded with a thanksgiving mandala being offered to His Holiness and recitations of the ‘Prayer of the Words of Truth’ and the ‘King of Prayers’.
Smiling and waving, His Holiness saluted the gathering and returned to his residence.
