Advanced Books

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Who and What Should We Rely On?

Nowadays, there is a strong tendency to believe without the slightest hesitation every word spoken by someone of high reputation, whereas a humble practitioner giving perfect and accurate teachings is often neither appreciated nor believed. Buddha Shakyamuni cautioned his disciples against adopting such a mistaken attitude:

Do not accept my teachings simply because I am called Buddha.

Time and time again, he reminded his disciples not to accept his teachings out of blind faith, but to test them as thoroughly as they would assay gold. It is only on the basis of valid reasons and personal experience that we should accept the teachings of anyone, including Buddha himself.

In the teachings on the four reliances, Buddha gives further guidelines for arriving at an unmistaken understanding of the teachings. He says:

Do not rely upon the person, but upon the Dharma.

Do not rely upon the words, but upon the meaning.

Do not rely upon the interpretative meaning, but upon the definitive meaning.

Do not rely upon consciousness, but upon wisdom.

The meaning of these lines is as follows:

(1) When deciding which doctrine to rely upon, we should not be satisfied with the fame or reputation of a particular Teacher, but instead should examine what he or she teaches. If, upon investigation, we find the teachings reasonable and faultless, we should accept them, but if they lack these qualities we should reject them, no matter how famous or charismatic their expounder might be.

(2) We should not be influenced merely by the poetic or rhetorical style of a particular teaching, but should accept it only if the actual meaning of the words is reasonable.

(3) We should not be satisfied merely with an interpretative meaning of conventional truth, but should rely upon and accept the definitive meaning of the ultimate truth of emptiness. In other words, because the method teachings on bodhichitta and the wisdom teachings on emptiness and so forth are companions, we should not be satisfied with only one or the other but should practise both together.

(4) We should not be satisfied with impure, deceptive states of consciousness, but should place our reliance upon the wisdom of meditative equipoise of Superior beings.

If we understand these four reliances and use them to evaluate the truth of the teachings we receive, we will be following an unmistaken path. There will be no danger of our adopting false views or falling under the influence of misleading Teachers. We will be able to discriminate correctly between what is to be accepted and what is to be rejected, and we will thereby be protected against faults such as sectarianism.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition

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Tantric Practice – The Essential Meaning of Human Life

To encourage ourself to train in the stages of the path to enlightenment, we should continually recall the three special characteristics of our human life: its freedom and endowment, its rarity, and its great meaning.

Due to the limitations of their body and mind, those who have taken rebirth as animals, for example, have no opportunity to understand or practise the path to liberation. Only humans are free from such hindrances and have all the necessary conditions, known as ‘endowments’, to engage in spiritual paths, which alone lead to everlasting happiness. This freedom and endowment is the first special characteristic that makes our human life so precious.

The second special characteristic of our human life is its rarity. Although there are many humans in this world, each one of us has only one life. One person may own many cars and houses, but even the richest person in the world cannot possess more than one life, and, when that is drawing to an end, he or she cannot buy, borrow, or manufacture another. When we lose this life, it will be very difficult to find another similarly qualified life in the future. Our human life is therefore very rare.

The third special characteristic of our human life is its great meaning. If we use our human life to accomplish spiritual realizations, our life is immensely meaningful. By using it in this way, we actualize our full potential and progress from the state of an ordinary, deluded being to that of a fully enlightened being, the highest of all beings; and when we have done this we shall have the power to benefit all living beings without exception. Thus, by using our human life for spiritual development we can solve all our human problems and fulfil all our own and others’ wishes. What could be more meaningful than this?

Through contemplating these three characteristics we arrive at the determination:

I will not waste my human life because it is so precious, so rare, and so meaningful. Instead, I will use it in the most beneficial way.

We hold this determination as our object of meditation without forgetting it, and meditate on it single-pointedly for as long as possible.

Having developed this deep desire to make our life meaningful, we then ask ourself, ‘What is the essential meaning of a human life?’ Finding good external conditions cannot be its essential meaning, for even animals can do this. Many animals are very skilled at finding food, protecting their families, destroying their enemies, and so forth; these abilities are not exclusively human.

However, it is only humans who have the opportunity to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. This is the real meaning of our human life. With this understanding, we can extract the full meaning of our human life by receiving the empowerment and commentary to Heruka body mandala and then putting the instructions into practice.

In general, Vajrayana is the actual quick path to enlightenment, but whether or not we attain enlightenment quickly through Vajrayana practice depends upon our faith, motivation, and understanding. In particular, gaining the realizations of Heruka body mandala – the very essence of Vajrayana – depends upon our having strong faith in the instructions and a clear understanding of their meaning.

Then, with a pure motivation, free from selfish intention, we should practise these instructions sincerely and continually until we attain our final goal.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition

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All schools of Buddhism agree that the practice of Guru yoga, or relying upon a Spiritual Guide, is the root of the spiritual path and the foundation of all spiritual attainments. We can understand this from our ordinary experiences. For example, if we want to acquire special skills, become proficient at a particular sport, or learn to play a musical instrument well, we naturally seek a qualified teacher to instruct us. By following our teacher’s example and sincerely applying his or her instructions, eventually we accomplish our aim and become just like our teacher. If reliance upon a qualified teacher is necessary for mundane achievements such as these, how much more necessary is it for spiritual attainments such as liberation or enlightenment?

There are two main streams within Buddhism: the Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle, and the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle; and the practice of relying upon a Spiritual Guide is fundamental to both. According to the Hinayana, we should regard our Spiritual Guide as being like a Buddha and, with a mind of faith and devotion, offer gifts and service to him and repay his kindness by following his advice and practising his instructions. According to the Mahayana, however, we should regard our Spiritual Guide as an actual Buddha and, with a mind of faith, rely upon him sincerely in both thought and deed.

The ultimate goal of a Hinayana practitioner is the attainment of liberation. This depends upon practising the three higher trainings, and this in turn depends upon first developing the motivation of renunciation. All these attainments depend upon the kindness of a qualified Spiritual Guide. For example, the motivation of renunciation does not arise automatically in our mind but has to be cultivated using special methods. First we have to understand the unsatisfactory nature of samsara and develop a wish to escape from it. This depends upon having a clear understanding of impermanence, rebirth, karma, refuge, and the four noble truths. Without a Spiritual Guide to instruct us in these practices and to encourage us to train in them we will never gain these experiences.

Once we have developed renunciation we engage in the three higher trainings: training in higher moral discipline, training in higher concentration, and training in higher wisdom. To practise higher moral discipline we first need to receive vows from a qualified Spiritual Guide who then helps us to practise pure moral discipline by teaching us what is to be practised and what is to be avoided; and by setting an immaculate example for us to follow.

On the basis of our training in higher moral discipline we practise higher concentration by training in tranquil abiding. This entails overcoming the five obstacles by applying the eight antidotes. Without receiving instructions from a qualified Spiritual Guide we do not even know what these obstacles and antidotes are, let alone what to do about them. Thus it is only by relying upon a Spiritual Guide who gives instructions and guidance based on his own experience that we are able to progress through the nine mental abidings and eventually attain tranquil abiding.

Once we have attained tranquil abiding, if we then train in higher wisdom by placing our mind in single-pointed concentration on emptiness we will soon attain superior seeing, and with this we will eventually be able to eradicate our self-grasping and attain liberation from samsara. However, emptiness is a profound object, and it is impossible to gain a realization of it without the skilled instructions and guidance of a qualified Spiritual Guide. Therefore, all the stages of the Hinayana path to liberation, from initially generating renunciation through to the abandonment of self-grasping and the attainment of liberation, are accomplished only through the kindness of a qualified Spiritual Guide.

Just as reliance upon a qualified Spiritual Guide is essential for completing the Hinayana path, it is also essential for training on the Mahayana path. All the stages of the Mahayana path, from generating equanimity and great compassion through to the final attainment of Buddhahood, are accomplished only through the guidance and blessings of a Mahayana Spiritual Guide. To enter into the Mahayana path we must first generate the motivation of bodhichitta. Like renunciation, this motivation does not arise naturally but has to be cultivated using special methods such as the sevenfold cause and effect and equalizing and exchanging self with others. Without receiving instructions and guidance from a Mahayana Spiritual Guide we could never gain these precious realizations. Once we generate bodhichitta we need to receive Bodhisattva vows from a Mahayana Spiritual Guide, who then instructs us in the practice of the six perfections and guides us on the five Mahayana paths and the ten Bodhisattva grounds until we attain the Mahayana Path of No More Learning, or Buddhahood. Without the inspiration of our Spiritual Guide’s pure example, his unmistaken instructions, and his constant blessings, we would never complete this training.

If training in the Sutra stages of the path is impossible without relying upon a Spiritual Guide, it is completely unthinkable to enter into Tantric practices without relying upon a Tantric Master. Buddha’s Tantric teachings are very difficult to understand and they are scattered throughout many scriptures without any clear indication as to the correct sequence in which they are to be practised. If we try to practise Tantra without relying upon a qualified Tantric Master we will only increase our confusion. In the scriptures it says that no matter how long we churn water we will never produce butter and, in the same way, no matter how long we try to practise Tantra without relying upon a qualified Spiritual Guide, we will never attain Tantric realizations. If, on the other hand, we find a fully-qualified Tantric Spiritual Guide, receive empowerments from him, rely upon him with deep faith, keep our vows and commitments purely, and practise sincerely the instructions on generation stage and completion stage, we can easily attain enlightenment within one short human life.

We can see therefore that all spiritual training, whether Hinayana or Mahayana, Sutra or Tantra, depends upon the guidance and blessings of a qualified Spiritual Guide.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition

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The Pure Land of Vajrayogini

Outer Pure Dakini Land is beyond the world of ordinary experience. It is the Pure Land of Buddha Vajrayogini and Buddha Heruka. A Pure Land is a world that is free from true sufferings. Nowhere in samsara is without true sufferings, because the samsaric environment itself acts as a condition to experience suffering. Ordinary beings are born in samsara without choice and continually have to experience dissatisfaction and misery. However, if we purify our mind we purify our experience of the world and thereby attain a Pure Land free from all suffering.

There are different Pure Lands associated with different Buddhas. Pure Dakini Land is similar to the Pure Lands of Tushita and Sukhavati, except that Heruka and Vajrayogini’s Pure Land is the only one in which beings can receive teachings on Highest Yoga Tantra and put them into practice.

When through Vajrayogini’s guidance those who are very old and infirm reach her Pure Land they will no longer experience the sufferings of old age and sickness. All signs of their old age will disappear and they will be transformed into sixteen-year-olds of great beauty and vitality, enjoying an endless life span.

All the enjoyments they desire will appear spontaneously. They will never be reborn in samsara again, unless they choose to for compassionate reasons. Everyone who reaches this Pure Land will receive teachings on Highest Yoga Tantra directly from Heruka and Vajrayogini and thereby attain enlightenment quickly.

Outer Pure Dakini Land can also be explained in terms of an individual practitioner’s personal experience. From this point of view we attain outer Pure Dakini Land by completing the practices of the generation stage of Vajrayogini.

During our training in generation stage meditation we visualize our body as the pure body of Buddha Vajrayogini, our immediate surroundings as the mandala of Vajrayogini, and our world as Pure Dakini Land. If we engage in generation stage practice continuously, the ordinary, impure appearances to our mind will gradually diminish and finally cease altogether. Once we have gained a firm realization of generation stage we shall experience only pure appearances and our world will be transformed into Pure Dakini Land. The great Teacher Tenpa Rabgyä said that Pure Dakini Land is not some faraway place, nor is it necessary to disappear from this world to reach it.

Pure appearances are experienced only by realized practitioners. It is generally accepted in both Sutra and Tantra that the world appears to our mind as faulty, imperfect, and unsatisfactory because our mind is impure – polluted by the delusions and their imprints. In Ornament for Clear Realization Venerable Maitreya says that when the minds of sentient beings become completely pure, their environment becomes a Buddha’s Pure Land.

A Pure Land can be attained only by purifying the mind. Even when we have attained outer Pure Dakini Land through a firm realization of generation stage we shall still appear to others as an ordinary, impure being. Ordinary people can-not recognize that another person is in a Pure Land because they cannot perceive that person’s Pure Land and cannot share their experience of it. Someone once asked Milarepa in which Pure Land he had attained enlightenment and Milarepa pointed to his cave. The questioner could see only a cold, empty cave, but for Milarepa that cave was a Pure Land.

Because the minds of ordinary beings are impure, whatever appears to them is seen as ordinary. As ordinary beings with ordinary appearance we cannot experience anything as totally pure and perfect. Even an emanation of Buddha appears to us to have faults. It is because we have ordinary appearance that we view ourself and others as imperfect – subject to faults such as sickness and ageing.

According to Sutra teachings the root of samsara is self-grasping and the delusions that arise from it. However, according to Secret Mantra teachings the root of samsara is ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. The self-grasping recognized by Sutra practitioners is only a gross ordinary conception.

In this context, any being who is not a Buddha, and any environment, enjoyment, or body that is not a Buddha’s, is ordinary. Perceptions of these objects as ordinary due to impure minds are ordinary appearances, and the minds that conceive of objects in this way are ordinary conceptions. According to Secret Mantra teachings, ordinary appearances are obstructions to omniscience and ordinary conceptions are obstructions to liberation. Both ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions have many levels of subtlety.

One of the main purposes of practising generation stage meditation is to overcome ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions. We can overcome ordinary appearances by developing clear appearance of being Vajrayogini, and we can overcome ordinary conceptions by developing divine pride of being Vajrayogini.

Because of our ordinary appearances and ordinary conceptions we experience an endless cycle of ordinary death, ordinary intermediate state, and ordinary rebirth.

This endless cycle, known as ‘samsara’, must be broken. Through generation and completion stage practice we can purify the three ordinary states of death, intermediate state, and rebirth, and thereby attain the three bodies of a Buddha.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition

These books are available in multiple formats.

How Everything is Merely Imputed by the Mind

Chandrakirti, in his commentary to Aryadeva’s Four Hundred, and Je Tsongkhapa, in Clear Illumination of the Intention, use the analogy of an imagined snake to show how all phenomena are merely imputed by thought.

A man walking through a field at dusk comes across a coil of speckled rope in the grass and, mistaking it for a snake, develops fear. Even though a snake appears vividly to his mind, that snake does not exist from its own side. It is merely a projection of his mind, imputed by conceptual thought in dependence upon the rope. Other than this, no snake can be found because neither the coil of rope as a whole nor any part of it is a snake.

In just the same way, all phenomena are merely imputed by conceptual thought. For example, the I does not exist from its own side. It is merely a projection of the mind imputed by conceptual thought in dependence upon the aggregates.

If we try to find an I other than the mere conceptual imputation ‘I’ we shall not succeed because neither the collection of the aggregates nor any individual aggregate is the I. Existing phenomena such as the I differ from the imagined snake in that they are valid imputations; but there is no difference from the point of view of their being merely imputed by conceptual thought.

In the analogy, because the man sees the rope in the twilight he mistakenly apprehends a snake and develops fear. To remove this fear he must remove the mind apprehending a snake by realizing that there is no snake. Even then, if the rope is left in the same place there is a danger that the same mistake will be made in the future. The only way to remove this danger is to remove the rope.

Similarly, sentient beings observing their aggregates in the darkness of their ignorance mistakenly apprehend an inherently existent I. This mind grasping at an inherently existent I is the root of samsara and the source of all fear. To remove the fears of samsara we must remove this mind by realizing that there is no inherently existent I.

Even then, there will be a danger of the mind grasping at an inherently existent I recurring if we continue to grasp at inherently existent aggregates. Therefore, the only way to remove the fears of samsara entirely is first to realize the lack of inherent existence of the I, and then to realize the lack of inherent existence of the aggregates.

Again, we can use other analogies such as seeing a spider on a wall where there is only a mark, seeing a person in the distance where there is only a pile of stones, or generating fear during a film. By contemplating these analogies we can understand how all phenomena are merely imputed by thought.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition

These books are available in multiple formats.

What is an Authentic Tantric Practice? Because living beings have varying inclinations and mental capacities, Buddha Shakyamuni taught three vehicles: the Hinayana, the Paramitayana, and the Vajrayana.

To suit those of limited aspiration who are mainly concerned with their own release from suffering, Buddha taught the Hinayana. Hinayanists are very aware of the faults of attachment and regard attachment as their main object to be abandoned. For this reason, the Hinayana is sometimes known as the ‘Separation from Attachment Vehicle’.

To abandon attachment temporarily, Hinayanists renounce their families, homes, and so forth, retire to an isolated place, and meditate on unattractiveness; and to abandon attachment completely they meditate on emptiness.

For those who are attracted to the vast path, Buddha expounded the Paramitayana, in which he taught the six perfections and the ten Bodhisattva grounds. The main objects to be abandoned by Bodhisattvas are the obstructions to omniscience.

Bodhisattvas are not afraid of attachment, because they know how to transform it into the spiritual path. Just as farmers use impure substances such as manure to fertilize their soil, so Superior Bodhisattvas use delusions such as attachment as aids to attaining Buddhahood, having rendered them harmless through the strength of their wisdom and compassion.

For those who are attracted to profound Dharma, Buddha taught the third vehicle, the Vajrayana. The Vajrayana, or Secret Mantra Vehicle, is sometimes called the ‘Attachment Vehicle’ because, instead of trying to abandon attachment immediately, practitioners of this vehicle use attachment as an aid to generating spontaneous great bliss, with which they then meditate on emptiness.

Furthermore, when they finally attain enlightenment, even though they have no desirous attachment they nevertheless display the aspect of having attachment by appearing as Tantric Buddhas in the aspect of Father and Mother in sexual embrace.

Although we can transform attachment into the spiritual path by practising Secret Mantra, we need great skill to be able to do this because normally, when attachment develops strongly, it automatically disturbs our peaceful mind.

The main reason why most Buddhas will not expound Secret Mantra is that there is a danger that unqualified practitioners will use it for the sake of worldly pleasure; and qualified practitioners among disciples are very rare. Buddha Shakyamuni, however, is an exception. Through the power of his previous prayers and special determination, his disciples have special karma to practise Secret Mantra.

There is a prophecy that when the Dharma of Buddha Shakyamuni is about to end, the practice of Secret Mantra will briefly flourish very widely in this world, as a candle flame flickers brightly just before it finally burns out. It appears that nowadays there are many books about Tantra, many Teachers teaching Tantra, and many students trying to practise Tantra. However, not all these books and teachings are pure and authentic. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to discriminate between authentic Tantric teachings and those that have been mixed with non- Buddhist teachings.

We are extremely fortunate to have met the completely pure Tantric teachings that have been passed down from Buddha Shakyamuni through Je Tsongkhapa and many realized Teachers of the New Kadampa Tradition. Je Tsongkhapa, who was an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri, clarified many aspects of Tantric practice that had frequently been misunderstood in the past. In particular, he showed how it is possible, and indeed essential, to practise the union of Sutra and Tantra.

Before Je Tsongkhapa appeared, many people thought that Secret Mantra and Vinaya moral discipline were contradictory, and that one person could not practise both; but Je Tsongkhapa showed how, rather than being contradictory with the Vinaya, the practice of Secret Mantra is the supremely skillful means for keeping the Vinaya discipline purely.

I feel extremely fortunate to be able to pass on the pure Tantric teachings of Je Tsongkhapa, and the reader too should feel fortunate to have the opportunity to study them.

© Geshe Kelsang Gyatso & New Kadampa Tradition