Listen to Guru Rinpoche's "Supplication That All Thoughts Be Self-Liberated" Download
Tashi Delek! I hope that for you everything is filled with
auspiciousness, happiness, and excellence. To meet you all here makes
me very happy. Gyatrul Rinpoche is a great friend of mine and I have heard
a lot about his monastery here. Today, to actually come and be able to
see it, to see what a secluded and beautiful place it is, makes me very
happy.
I would like to explain to you a supplication that was composed by Guru
Rinpoche, a supplication that all thoughts be self-liberated. Guru Rinpoche
composed seven chapters of supplications for students to recite to him,
and this one comes from a chapter that he taught to the monk whose name
was Namkha'i Nyingpo.
Before listening to this teaching, please give rise to the supreme motivation
of bodhichitta. When we give rise to bodhichitta, it means that for the
benefit of all sentient beings, limitless in number as the sky is vast
in its extent, we aim to bring our love and compassion to their ultimate
perfection, and to bring our wisdom realizing emptiness to its ultimate
perfection. We know that in order to do this we must listen to, reflect
upon and meditate on the teachings of the genuine Dharma with all the
enthusiasm we can muster in our hearts.
The first verse of the supplication1 is:
All these forms that appear to eyes that see,
All things on the outside and the inside,
The environment and its inhabitants
Appear, but let them rest where no self's found;
Perceiver and perceived when purified
Are the body of the deity, clear emptiness—
To the guru for whom desire frees itself,
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate.
What appears to the eyes are forms, which are made up of shapes and colors.
Everything that is a shape and color is included in the source of consciousness
(Sanskrit: ayatana) that is called form. The shapes and colors
that appear to the eyes are found in all of the aspects of the environment
in which we live, as well as in all of the sentient beings who inhabit
this environment. What is the true nature of the appearances of shapes
and colors of the environment and sentient beings? It is that they are
dependently arisen mere appearances, which do not exist in essence. The
forms that appear do not truly exist. In the abiding nature of reality,
their nature is emptiness. They appear while being empty; while empty,
they appear. They are appearance-emptiness like rainbows, water-moons,
and reflections. All of the objects that appear to the eyes are appearance-emptiness
undifferentiable.
As the protector Nagarjuna writes in his Fundamental Wisdom of the
Middle Way2:
Like a dream, like an illusion
Like a city of gandharvas,
That's how birth, and that's how living,
That's how dying are taught to be.
The meaning of this verse and the one from Guru Rinpoche's supplication
are exactly the same.
This is the actual way forms are. They are appearance-emptiness undifferentiable,
but sentient beings do not see this because they think things truly exist,
and their thoughts that cling to the true existence of appearances obscure
the appearance-emptiness that is their true nature. That is why we practice
the Dharma—to cleanse ourselves of this clinging to appearances
as truly existent so that we can realize appearances' true nature is appearance-emptiness
undifferentiable.
It is like when you dream and you do not know that you are dreaming. The
appearances in the dream are appearance-emptiness, but your thought that
they truly exist prevents you from seeing that. Even though the dream
appearances are appearance-emptiness and have no inherent nature, they
seem to be real when you do not know that you are dreaming. You think
that they are real and you have experiences that seem to confirm your
belief that they are real.
But however much you cling to the appearances in a dream, that does not
change what the appearances are from their own side. The essential nature
of these appearances is unchanging appearance-emptiness. It never moves
from being just that. When you dream and you know you are dreaming, you
are free of the thoughts that fixate on the appearances as being truly
existent. You are free from that obscuration so you can experience the
appearances just as they are: as appearance-emptiness. That enables you
to do wonderful things like fly in the sky, move unobstructedly through
rock mountains, and travel to pure realms. All that is possible when you
recognize a dream for what it is, and in that way, not be blocked by thinking
that the appearances truly exist.
In our waking life, even though the environment and sentient beings appear
to us, the supplication says "let them rest where no self's found."
The environment and sentient beings appear, but let them rest without
clinging to them as truly existent. Let them rest in their natural state
of appearance-emptiness without fixating on them as being real. When we
let the appearances rest without fixating on them as being real, all of
the thoughts of there being an actual object out there to perceive and
an actual distinct subject perceiving it just dissolve. The thoughts that
take the duality of perceived object and perceiving subject to be real
dissolve. They are purified.
When that happens, everything shines as luminous emptiness, clarity-emptiness.
At this point, you are ready to meditate on the deity, because the deity's
enlightened body is also appearance-emptiness. It appears while it is
empty; it is empty while it appears—it is like a rainbow. When you
meditate on the deity, everything appears as the body of the deity—appearance-emptiness.
When all of the appearances of the physical environment shine as the appearance-emptiness
immeasurable palace of the deity, and all the sentient beings in the environment
shine as the appearance-emptiness enlightened bodies of the deities themselves,
then all desire is free in its own place. It is self-liberated. Thoughts
of desire do not come from anywhere and they do not go anywhere. They
do not arise, so they do not cease. Since they are free from coming and
going, and free from arising and ceasing, thoughts of desire are self-liberated.
For this reason the verse says, "To the guru for whom desire frees
itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay, I supplicate."
The second verse of the supplication is:
All these sounds that appear for ears that hear,
Taken as agreeable or not,
Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness
Past all thought, beyond imagination;
Sounds are empty, unarisen and unceasing,
These are what make up the Victor's teaching—
To the teachings of the Victor, sound and emptiness,
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate.
What appear to the ears are sounds. What is the nature of this source
of consciousness that is sound? In fact, the sounds we hear are like sounds
in a dream. Their basic nature is that they are always appearance-emptiness—they
appear while being empty, and while being empty they appear.
The two main kinds of sounds we hear are those that we find pleasing and
those we do not. Both kinds of sounds, however, are equally appearance-emptiness,
sound-emptiness, just as the sounds in a dream are sound-emptiness. If
we know this and meditate on the mandala of the deities, then all sounds
manifest as the natural sounds of the deity's mantra: sound and emptiness.
From among the eight worldly dharmas,3 four of them are related
to sound—sounds that are pleasing, sounds that are displeasing,
sounds of praise, and sounds of criticism. We need to give up attachment
to the eight worldly dharmas—the four that we like and the four
that we do not. To do that, we can see that we need to realize that sounds
are sound-emptiness. Then we will not be attached to sounds that are pleasant
and sounds of praise, and we will not be averse to sounds of criticism
and unpleasant sounds.
In a dream, all sounds of praise and all sounds of criticism, all sounds
we like and all sounds we do not, are equally sound-emptiness. They have
no inherent nature at all. But when we do not know that we are dreaming,
we think these sounds truly exist, and we have experiences of happiness
and suffering based on sounds of praise and blame, sounds that we like,
and sounds that we do not; all because we do not recognize sounds' basic
nature is sound-emptiness. Guru Rinpoche instructs: "Let them rest
in the realm of sound and emptiness/Past all thought, beyond imagination."
This is an instruction to rest free of clinging to sounds as being truly
existent, free of clinging to them as being real. In their basic nature
that is sound and emptiness, just let go and relax. Settle into your own
basic nature within the nature of sound that is sound and emptiness.
Since the enlightened body of the Buddha is appearance-emptiness, then
the sound of the Buddha's speech is also emptiness. It is sound-emptiness
undifferentiable. When you know that all sound lacks inherent nature in
the same way, then all sound is like the sound of the Buddha's teachings
and all sound manifests as the resonance-emptiness sound of the Buddha's
speech. The last line of the supplication reads, "To Orgyen Pema
Jungnay I supplicate." Here Orgyen Pema Jungnay represents the Buddha's
speech that is the sound-emptiness abiding reality of all the sound there
is. To this Orgyen Pema Jungnay, we supplicate.
At the beginning of this twenty-first century, everywhere we go there
are radios playing, tape recorders playing, the sound of movies and televisions—the
world is filled with sound. At this time, then, it is quite important
to know that all sounds have no inherent nature. They are sound-emptiness.
These days, moment by moment, sounds can be carried across the globe and
change so many people's feelings all at once—from happiness to suffering,
from suffering to happiness. Just on the basis of hearing a few sounds,
millions of people's feelings can change. Also these days it is easy to
realize that sounds are sound-emptiness, because if you pick up the phone
in America at noon and you call somebody in another country, then for
some people it will be midnight, and for some people in other countries
it will be morning. So at what time is this sound really being made? In
this way, we can easily recognize sound-emptiness. If somebody in America
calls someone in India and talks to them on the phone, in America it is
noon, in India it is midnight. A daytime mouth is talking to a nighttime
ear—at the same time! If sounds were truly existent, that would
be impossible. It would be a contradiction for sound made during the day
to be heard simultaneously at night. But it is not a contradiction when
we know that it is just sound-emptiness. Thinking about things in this
way, during these times it is much easier to understand how sound is sound-emptiness.
Also, these days a famous person can give a speech that is broadcast all
over the world. The people who like that person will hear that speech
as something very pleasant and beautiful. The people who do not like that
person will find it repulsive to listen to. The people who have no opinion
do not have any reaction to that sound one way or the other. If we ask,
"What is that sound, really? Is it good or bad?" again we see
that the true nature of sound is inexpressible. These days, sounds beam
down from empty space. They come from empty buildings and even empty cars.
It is important for us to be able to examine these sounds and their sources
to see that they are sound-emptiness, because most of the suffering we
experience comes from hearing sounds. We need to train in the understanding
of sound as it is taught in the Middle Way, which is that in genuine reality,
sounds are empty of any essence. In apparent reality, they are dependently
arisen mere appearances.
As the glorious Chandrakirti wrote,
Things do not arise causelessly, nor from Ishvara,
Nor from self, nor other, nor both;
Therefore, it is clear that things arise
Perfectly in dependence upon their causes and conditions.
Things do not arise from any of the four possible extremes: from self,
other, both or without cause, and there's no fifth possibility. Therefore,
things do not truly arise—they do not come into existence; they
do not actually happen. Then what is the appearance of them happening?
It is just like the appearance of things happening in a dream; like the
appearance of a moon shining on a pool of water; and like the appearance
of an illusion. It is dependently arisen mere appearance. In this way,
since sounds do not exist in genuine reality, and since in relative reality
they are just dependently arisen mere appearances, all sounds are simply
sound-emptiness. When you recite mantras, then mantras are also sound-emptiness.
We supplicate Guru Rinpoche at the end of the verse, because even though
we know that sounds are sound and emptiness, we are obscured from realizing
that directly by our thoughts that cling to sounds as being truly existent.
We supplicate for Guru Rinpoche's blessing so that these thoughts that
sounds truly exist may dissolve, and when they dissolve, that we will
recognize the true nature of sound is sound-emptiness.
The third verse of the supplication is:
All these movements of mind towards its objects,
These thoughts that make five poisons and afflictions,
Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances,
Do not review the past nor guess the future;
If you let such movement rest in its own place,
It liberates into the dharmakaya—
To the guru for whom awareness frees itself,
To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate.
For ordinary beings, mind is discursive. It moves. It moves towards objects.
It moves towards the three times. It is constantly thinking about one
thing or another. Mind is moved by thoughts of the five poisons. When
mind encounters an object it likes, it moves towards that object with
thoughts of attachment. When mind encounters an object it does not like,
it moves towards that object with thoughts of aversion, thoughts of anger.
When mind judges something incorrectly, it moves towards that object with
bewilderment. When one's mind believes that one has qualities that one
does not have, it moves towards oneself with thoughts of arrogance. When
mind looks at somebody else and sees things that it does not have, it
moves towards that person with thoughts of jealously. In this way, thoughts
of the five poisons constantly move the mind. "Leave thinking mind
to rest without contrivances." When thoughts of the five poisons
are moving the mind, just let mind rest without trying to fix anything,
without trying to change anything, without reviewing the past kleshas (disturbing mental states) or wondering what happened to them; and without
anticipating what types of disturbing states of mind one might experience
in the future. Do not review the past, do not guess the future. Just let
mind relax as it is right now.
We do not need to try to prevent thoughts of desire from arising. We do
not need to try to stop thoughts of anger or jealously once they have
arisen. Do not try to prevent anything; do not try to stop or change anything;
just simply do not take any of those movements of mind to be truly existent.
That is the instruction because we could not stop the thoughts of the
five poisons from arising, even if we wanted to! We could not do that,
but we do not have to. All we have to do is recognize that these thoughts
lack any essence.
How do we do this? Whatever thought arises, look straight at it with your
eye of wisdom and settle into its basic nature. When you do that, all
thoughts and all disturbing states of mind are liberated within the dharmakaya.
They are self-liberated. The whole collection of thoughts is free just
as it is. This is awareness, and this awareness is awareness-emptiness.
Since this awareness-emptiness is pure in nature, whatever obscurations
there may be have no essence. Awareness itself is self-liberated. It is
free just as it is.
Then we supplicate the guru whose awareness is self-liberated. This is
Guru Rinpoche. For Guru Rinpoche, awareness frees itself. We supplicate
you Orgyen Pema Jungnay for your blessings so that we may realize, as
you do, the self-liberation of awareness.
The Lord of Yogis Milarepa sang in his vajra song of realization called
"The Three Nails"4:
To describe the nails of meditation, the three
All thoughts in being dharmakaya are free
Awareness is luminous, in its depths is bliss
And resting without contrivance is equipoise
All thoughts are dharmakaya in their nature. Thoughts are free all by
themselves, without having to do anything to them, stop them, or change
them in any way. They are naturally dharmakaya. What is dharmakaya like?
It is luminous. It is awareness. It is bliss. How do we experience this
dharmakaya in meditation? Rest without contrivance. Rest without artifice.
This is equipoise. This is the experience of dharmakaya. The verses of
Milarepa and Guru Rinpoche have the same meaning.
What is awareness-emptiness like? Milarepa described it in the following
way in the song "The Ten Things it is Like"5:
When you know the true nature of everything to be known
The wisdom that's aware of the true nature's like a cloud-free sky
With these two lines, Milarepa tells us the emptiness aspect of awareness
is like the sky completely free of clouds. Then he sings:
When the mud settles down and mind's river is crystal clear
Self-arisen awareness is like a polished mirror's shine
Milarepa illustrates the luminous, bright, vivid aspect of awareness with
the example of a perfectly polished mirror's sparkling shine. In this
way, we see what emptiness is like, we see what awareness is like, and
then we can understand that the two are undifferentiable.
The great pandit Shakya Chokden described the noble Asanga's explanation
of genuine reality as follows:
Clarity-emptiness, mere awareness, empty of the duality of perceived
and
perceiver is all phenomena's abiding reality.
Knowing this and combining it with a limitless accumulation of merit,
the
spontaneously present three kayas will manifest.
This is Asanga's tradition.
In this way, Asanga presents the true nature of reality of all phenomena
as nondual luminous emptiness, nondual awareness-emptiness. The explanation
that the true nature of reality is emptiness beyond all concept of what
it might be is the presentation of the Middle Way Consequence School (Prasangika
Madhyamaka). The presentation of the true nature of reality as awareness-emptiness,
luminous clarity, is the presentation of the Shentong Madhyamaka,
the Empty of Other Middle Way School, and also the presentation of the
Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions. What does the term "empty of other"
or shentong mean? This is described in the text called the Gyu
Lama, the Treatise on Buddha Nature:
The element is empty of that which is separable from it, all fleeting
stains.
But it is not empty of that which is inseparable from it, its own unsurpassable
qualities.
"Empty of other" means that the buddha nature, the true nature
of mind, luminous clarity, awareness, is empty of that which is different
from it: stains and flaws. It is empty of those. But it is not empty of
the spontaneously present qualities, the naturally present qualities of
enlightenment. These unsurpassable qualities are totally inseparable from
the true nature of mind.
In short, this supplication is a supplication that we will manifest our
own basic nature. We supplicate the guru to bless us so that we can manifest
the awareness-emptiness that is the true nature of mind. It is a supplication
that all appearances will be self-liberated as the enlightened body of
the deity, all sounds will be self-liberated as the enlightened speech
of the deity, and all thoughts will be self-liberated as essential reality
itself.
The last verse of the supplication sums it all up:
Grant your blessing that purifies appearance
Of objects perceived as being outside;
Grant your blessing that liberates perceiving mind,
The mental operation seeming inside;
Grant your blessing that between the two of these
Clear light will come to recognize its own face;
In your compassion, sugatas of all three times,
Please bless me that a mind like mine be freed.
Grant your blessings that all clinging to objects on the outside as truly
existent will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that all thoughts
on the inside will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that in between,
luminous clarity, Dzogchen, will recognize its own face. In your compassion,
realized buddhas of all three times, grant your blessings that I and all
sentient beings may be freed from clinging to characteristics. Grant your
blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from the bondage
of samsara. Grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be
freed from the bondage of believing that duality truly exists. Grant your
blessing that all of our concepts of duality will be self-liberated.
My departing prayer is that Gyatrul Rinpoche be healthy, that he live
a long life, and that his activity for the benefit of all sentient beings
flourish. And I pray that all of you, his students, bring your activities
of listening to, reflecting on and meditating on the teachings of the
genuine Dharma to their perfection and that, through this, you are of
great benefit to all of the limitless number of sentient beings. And especially
here at Tashi Chöling may the teachings of the practice and explanation
lineages flourish and bring great benefit to all of the beings of this
land.
Translated by Ari Goldfield.
1 The Guru Rinpoche Prayer is translated by Jim Scott.
2 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield.
3 The eight worldly dharmas are what worldly beings strive to attain or
avoid. The four not explicitly mentioned in this paragraph are happiness,
pain, gain, and loss.
4 Translated by Jim Scott.
5 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield.