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Chapter List

From Words of my Perfect Teacher:

Chapter Three

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(*Before embarking on this practice of Vajrasattva one should have received the empowerment of Vajrasattva from a qualified holder of the lineage.)

Beyond being defiled by the two obscurations*, you purport to still be purifying them.
Having certainly reached the sublime path’s very end, you profess to still be learning.
Beyond the extremes of samsara and niruana, you manifest still in samsara.
Peerless Teacher, at your feet I bow.

(*The obscurations of negative emotions and conceptual obscurations. “Obscurations” means factors that cover and obscure our Buddha nature.)

I. HOW OBSCURATIONS CAN BE PURIFIED THROUGH CONFESSION

The main obstacles that prevent all the extraordinary experiences and realizations of the profound path from arising are negative actions, obscurations and habitual tendencies.* Just as it is important to clean the surface of a mirror if forms are to be reflected in it, so too it is important to eliminate our obscurations so that realization can appear like a reflection in the mirror of the Ground of All.** The Conqueror taught countless methods of purification for this purpose, but the best of them all is meditation and recitation related to the teacher as Vajrasattva.

(*Habitual patterns created by past actions.)

(**Alaya. The underlying consciousness in which karmic impressions are stored.)

There is no harmful act that cannot be purified by confession. As the great teachers of ancient times affirmed:

   There is nothing good about negative actions – except that they can be purified through confession.

Of all negative actions – be they external breaches of the pratimoksa vows, inner transgressions of the bodhicitta training, or secret violations of the tantric samayas-there is not one, however serious, that cannot be purified by confession.

   In the sutras, the Buddha tells several stories illustrating this point. For instance, there is the tale of the brahmin Atapa, who was known as Angulimala, “Garland of Fingers.” Angulimala killed nine hundred and
ninety-nine people*, but then cleansed himself of those actions through confession and attained the state of Arhat in that very lifetime. There is also the case of King Ajatasatru, who killed his father, but later repaired
his crime through confession and attained liberation, having experienced the sufferings of hell only for the time it takes a ball to bounce once.

(*Angulimala, who had been given a false teaching that he would gain liberation by killing one thousand people and collecting a finger from each, had already killed nine hundred and ninety-nine, and was on his way to complete the thousand by killing his mother when he met the Buddha, whom he tried to kill instead. Because of the Buddha’s powers, he was unable to attack him. Then the Buddha spoke to him and turned his
mind to the Dharma.)

The protector Nagarjuna says:

   Someone who has acted carelessly
   But later becomes careful and attentive
   Is as beautiful as the bright moon emerging from the clouds,
   Like Nanda, Angulimala, Darsaka and Sankara.*

(*Nanda is the example of someone with extreme attachment attaining liberation; Angulimala is the example of someone with extreme ignorance; Darsaka (another name for Ajatasatru) is the example of extreme aggression; Sankara is the example of someone with both extreme attachment and extreme anger. Nanda and Angulimala became Arhats, Darsaka became a Bodhisattva, and Sankara was reborn in a god realm and subsequently attained the path of seeing.)

However, purification only takes place when you confess sincerely in the right way, using the four powers as antidotes. The purification process will never work if your eyes and mouth are otherwise occupied, or if you are just mouthing the words, “I admit… I confess…” while your mind is busy pursuing other thoughts. And to think, “In future, even if I do wrong it won’t matter because I can just confess afterwards,” will stop the purification from working at all, even if you do confess.

Jetsun Mila says:

   You may doubt that confession can really purify negative actions,

   But if your thoughts have become positive, you are purified.

It is absolutely fundamental that any confession should include as antidotes all of the four powers.

II. THE FOUR POWERS

The four powers are the power of support, the power of regretting having done wrong, the power of resolution and the power of action as an antidote.

1. The power of support

In this context, the support is provided by taking refuge in Vajrasattva and cultivating the intention and application aspects of bodhicitta. In other cases, the support would be the particular object to which you
address your confession. When you recite the confession of the Sutra in Three Parts, for example, the power of support is provided by the Thirty-five Buddhas. It could also be a teacher, or a representation of the body, speech or mind of the Buddhas-in short, anyone or anything in whose presence you confess.*

(*An external support.)

Before any confession, arousing the bodhicitta of intention and application is indispensable. The Buddha taught that confessing your evil deeds and downfalls without arousing bodhicitta, even though you might apply the four powers, will reduce your faults but not purify them altogether. Sincerely giving rise to bodhicitta, however, will of itself purify all past misdeeds, whatever they might be.*

(*Taking refuge, generating bodhicitta, and especially compassion as the inner support.)

In The Way of the Bodhisattva, Santideva says of bodhicitta:

   As though they pass through perils guarded by a hero,
   Even those weighed down with dreadful wickedness
   Will instantly be freed through having bodhicitta.
   Who then would not place his trust in it?
   Just as by the fires at the end of time
   Great sins are utterly consumed by bodhicitta

2. The power of regretting having done wrong

The power of regretting having done wrong comes from a feeling of remorse for all the negative actions you have done in the past. There can be no purification if you do not see your misdeeds as something wrong and confess them with fierce regret, without concealing anything.*

(*There are six things to be contemplated for the practice of regret:

1) Time: regretting all the negative actions that one has done from time without beginning until now, during this life, in a particular month, or day, or moment, and so on.

2) Motivation: regretting all acts committed under the sway of desire, aversion and confusion.

3) Accumulation: regretting whatever negativity one has accumulated physically, verbally, or mentally.

4) The nature of the action: regretting both acts which are negative in themselves (such as the ten negative actions, the five acts with immediate retribution, etc.) and particular faults, transgressions of one’s vows and so on.

5) Object: regretting all wrong actions, whether directed towards samsara or nirvana.

6) Karma: regretting all harmful acts and downfalls which have earned one a short life, many illnesses, poverty, fear of enemies and endless wandering in the lower realms.)

We recite in the Sutra in Three Parts:

   I confess them all, without hiding or holding back anything.

The learned and accomplished Karma Chagme said:

   Confessing them without regret cannot purify them,
   For past misdeeds are like a poison within;
   So confess them with shame, trepidation and great remorse.

3. The power of resolution

The power of resolution means to remember the faults you have committed and to resolve never to commit them again from this very day on,
even at the cost of your dear life.

In the Sutra in Three Parts we recite:

   I vow to stop from now on.

And the Prayer of Sukhavati says:

   Without a vow for the future from now on, there is no purification,
   So I make the vow for the future from now on
   That even at the cost of my life I will do no negative action.

4. The power of action as an antidote

This power involves accomplishing as many positive actions as you can, as an antidote to your past negative actions. It refers particularly to activities such as prostrating to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, rejoicing in the merit of others, dedicating your sources of future good to enlightenment, cultivating the bodhicitta of intention and application and staying in the essence of the unaltered natural state.

   One day a meditator, a disciple of the peerless Dagpo Rinpoche, told his teacher that he felt regret when he remembered that he had once made his living from the sale of sacred books.

   “Print books, then,” the Master told him.*

(*The printing and distribution of sacred books is considered a powerful practice for accumulating merit and purifying obscurations, provided that it is done purely as an offering without any profit.)

   So he set to work, but found that this work got him involved in many distractions. Disillusioned, he went back to see his teacher.

   “Printing these texts brings up too many distractions,” he said. “Is it not true that no method of confession is more profound than remaining in the essential nature?”*

(Remaining in a state of recognition of the nature of the mind.)

   Dagpo Rinpoche was delighted and told him that he was perfectly right.
   “Even if you have committed negative actions as colossal as Mount Meru itself,” he said, “they are purified in one instant of seeing that nature.”

   There is indeed no deeper way to cleanse oneself of past misdeeds than to meditate on bodhicitta and to maintain the flow of the unaltered natural state. Keep these two things in mind as you go through the details of the meditation on Vajrasattva-purification by the stream of nectar, recitation of the hundred syllable mantra, and so on.

   To practise the actual meditation and recitation, proceed as follows, remembering all the time the specific pure meaning* of each element in the context of the four powers as antidotes.

(This Tibetan expression literally means “remembering the purity.” It refers to the fact that every element of visualization is not a mere image but has a particular meaning, and it is important to be aware of this significance as one does the practice. The precise way in which the elements of this practice relate to the four powers is explained a few paragraphs later. Although here we are only dealing with the preliminary practice, many points mentioned in this chapter are useful for the main practice of the generation and perfection phases.)

III. THE ACTUAL MEDITATION ON VAJRASATTVA

For the visualization that follows, see yourself as staying in your ordinary form.* Suspended in space an arrow’s length above your head, visualize an open white lotus with a thousand petals, and upon it the disc of a full moon. We say “a full moon” here not to indicate how big the disc should be, but to signify that it is perfectly round and regular and looks like the completely full moon on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. Upon this lunar disc, visualize a brilliant white syllable hum.** In other traditions the syllable emanates and reabsorbs rays of light, but that is not the case here.

(*In the main practice one often visualizes oneself in the form of a deity. Here we consider we are ordinary and impure at first, and through the practice we become pure. So at the outset we think of our body as being in its usual everyday form.)

   In an instant the hum is transformed into your glorious root teacher, that incomparable mine of compassion who in essence is the nature of all the Buddhas of past, present and future in one. He appears in the form of the sambhogakaya Buddha,* Vajrasattva, white in colour, like a snow peak lit up by a hundred thousand suns.

(*This common epithet of the Buddha literally means “revealer,” and signifies the teacher who taught the Dharma for the first time in our kalpa and world. Vajrasattva is the first teacher of many traditions of the Vajrayana in the same way as the Buddha Sakyamuni is the originator of the vehicle of characteristics.)

   He has one face and two arms. With his right hand, he holds before his heart the five-pronged vajra of awareness and emptiness. With his left, he rests the bell of appearance and emptiness at his left hip.*” His two legs are crossed in the vajra posture and he is adorned with the thirteen ornaments of the sambhogakaya – the five silken garments and eight jewels.

(*Here the vajra and bell symbolize skilful means and wisdom.)

   The five silken garments are: 1) a headband, 2) an upper garment, 3) a long scarf, 4) a belt and 5) a lower garment.

   The eight jewels are: 1) a crown, 2) earrings, 3) a short necklace, 4) armlets on each arm, 5) two long necklaces, one longer than the other;* 6) a bracelet on each wrist, 7) a ring on each hand and 8) an anklet on each foot.

(*The shorter of these necklaces comes down to the breast, the longer down to the navel.)

   Vajrasattva is seated above your head, facing in the same direction as you. He embraces in inseparable union* his consort, Vajratopa, who is also white. Their bodies are empty appearance, vividly present but without any substance of their own, like reflections of the moon in water or forms reflected in a mirror.

(*The female figure symbolizes wisdom, and the male figure skilful means; at another level the female symbolizes emptiness and the male appearance, or again they can symbolize absolute space and primal wisdom. Their sexual union symbolizes that in the state of enlightenment all these are experienced as inseparably one.)

   This visualization provides the power of support. It is not a flat image like a tangka or a fresco. Nor is it inert and inanimate like a clay or gold statue, which is solid and material. It appears: every detail appears clearly and distinctly, even the pupils and whites of the eyes. Yet it is empty: there is not one atom of solid substance to it, no flesh, no blood, no internal organs. It is like a rainbow appearing in space or an immaculate
crystal vase. And it is imbued with wisdom: Lord Vajrasattva is identical in nature with your own compassionate root teacher, and his mind reaches out to you and to all beings with great love.

   As the power of regret, in his presence call to mind all the negative actions you can think of that you have accumulated until now, in one samsaric existence after another since time without beginning: the ten negative actions of body, speech and mind, the five crimes with immediate retribution, the four serious faults, the eight perverse acts, all transgressions of the external vows of pratimoksa, the inner Bodhisattva precepts or the secret tantric samayas of the vidyadharas, all the ordinary promises that you have not kept, all the lies you have told and everything you have done that is shameful or dishonourable. Feel that you are confessing them
all in the teacher Vajrasattva’s presence, your whole body breaking out in gooseflesh with shame, fear and remorse. You can be sure that during all those infinite lives in samsara you have done many negative actions
that you cannot remember, so confess them all too, saying:

   “I am keeping nothing secret. I am hiding nothing. I confess openly and ask for forgiveness. Have compassion on me! Right away, at this very moment and in this very place, cleanse and purify me of all my negative actions and obscurations, so that not a single one remains!”

   As the power of resolve, think, “Until now I have accumulated those harmful negative actions because of my ignorance and confusion. But now, thanks to the compassion of my kind teacher, I know what is beneficial and what is harmful, and I will never commit them again, even if it costs me my life.”

   Keeping in mind the pure meaning of the visualization. recite the root text, starting from:

   Ah! I am in my ordinary form, and above my head …

down as far as the words:

   … Purify me until not a single one remains!

Then, in the heart of Vajrasattva, who is indivisibly united with his consort, visualize a lunar disc no bigger than a flattened mustard seed, and upon it a white hum, as fine as if it had been drawn with a single hair.
As you recite the hundred syllable mantra once, “Om Vajrasattva Samaya…” and so on, visualize its syllables arranged around the hum in a circle. None of them touch each other, like the horns of cattle when they stand close together.* Then recite the hundred syllables as a prayer, imagining at the same time that a nectar of compassion and wisdom drips down from each of the syllables, one glistening drop after another, like water dripping down from ice as it melts near a fire. Pouring down through the body of Vajrasattva, the nectar emerges from the point of union of the deity and consort, and, passing through the crown of your head, flows into you, and into all other sentient beings too.

(*That is, close together without being entangled.)

   Like particles of earth being washed away by a powerful stream, all your physical illnesses are flushed out in the form of rotten blood and pus. All negative forces are expelled in the form of spiders, scorpions, toads, fish,
snakes, tadpoles, lice and the like, and all harmful actions and obscurations as black liquid, dust, smoke, clouds and vapours. All this is carried away by the irresistible flood of nectar and pours out of your body as a black shower through the lower orifices, the sales of your feet and all the pores of your skin. The earth beneath you opens up and in the depths appears Death, personification of your past actions, surrounded by all the male and female beings to whom you owe karmic debts and all those who seek to venge themselves on your flesh. While you recite the hundred syllable mantra, visualize all those impurities pouring down into their open mouths and into the hands and arms they raise expectantly toward you.

   If you can, visualize the whole process simultaneously. Otherwise, you can alternate. As you recite the mantra, sometimes concentrate on the body of Vajrasattva, his face, hands and so on; sometimes on his ornaments and clothing; sometimes on the flow of nectar purifying illnesses, negative forces, evil actions and obscurations; and sometimes on your regret for what you have done and your resolve never to repeat it.

   At the end, imagine that Death, the embodiment of past actions, and all the others below the earth – every kind of karmic creditor and all those who seek vengeance on your flesh-are appeased and satisfied. Past scores have been settled, debts have been repaid and vengeance has been appeased. You are cleansed of all past negative actions and obscurations. Death closes his mouth and hands and lowers his arms. The earth closes again.

   Imagine that your body has now become transparent inside and out, a body of light. Running vertically down inside it, visualize the central channel, at four points along whose length are the four wheels* where channels** branch out radially like the spokes of an umbrella. At the level of your navel is the wheel of manifestation, with sixty-four radial channels turning upwards. At the level of your heart is the wheel of Dharma, with eight radial channels turning downwards. In your throat is the wheel of enjoyment, with sixteen radial channels turning upwards. In the crown of your head is the wheel of great bliss, with thirty-two radial channels turning downwards.

(*cakra)

(**These are not material channels but the subtle pathways in which the subtle energies of the body flow. The significance of these channels becomes clear when one practises the yogic exercises of the perfection phase of the main practice.)

   The nectar then starts to flow down again as before. Beginning with the wheel of great bliss at the crown of your head, it completely fills the central channel and each of the four wheels and then spreads outward, filling your entire body to the tips of your fingers and toes. Brimming with white nectar, you are like a crystal vase filled with milk.

   Think that you are receiving the four empowerments:* the vase empowerment, the secret empowerment, the wisdom empowerment and the precious word empowerment. You are also purified of the four kinds of obscurations: karmic obscurations, obscurations of negative emotions, conceptual obscurations and obscurations of habitual tendencies. The wisdom of the four joys arises in you: joy,supreme joy, extraordinary joy and innate joy. The levels of the four kayas are established in you: the nirmanakaya, the sambhogakaya, the dharmakaya and the svabhavikakaya.

(*As the nectar fills each wheel, one receives a corresponding blessing, as mentioned in each of the lists of four in this paragraph.)

   Then recite the prayer beginning:

      O Protector, in ignorance and confusion …

and ending:

   … I beg you, cleanse and purify me!

Imagine that the moment you recite these lines the teacher Vajrasattva is delighted, and smilingly grants your prayer with these words:

   Fortunate one, all your negative actions, obscurations, violations and breaches are purified.

He then melts into light and dissolves into you, so that you yourself are now transformed into Vajrasattva, just as you visualized him before.

Visualize in his heart a moon disc the size of a flattened mustard seed. In its centre stands a blue hum. In front of the hum is a white syllable ‘om’; to its left is the word ‘vajra’ in yellow; behind is ‘sa’ in red; and to its right
is ‘tva’ in green:

As you recite “Om Vajra Sattva Hum,” five rays of light, white, yellow, red, green, and blue, emanate from the respective syllables in an upward direction. At the end of these rays are the Lady of Beauty and the other offering goddesses. From their hands emanate innumerable offerings, such as the eight auspicious symbols and the seven royal attributes, fringed parasols, victory banners, canopies, thousand – spoked golden wheels,
white conch shells spiralling to the right and so on. These offerings delight all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the inconceivable, infinite pure fields of the ten directions, completing the accumulations and purifying your obscurations. All the Buddhas’ compassion and blessings come streaming back in the form of light-rays of different colours which dissolve into you. Think that as a result you attain the supreme and common accomplishments; the four levels of vidyadhara related to the path; and the ultimate result-the state beyond learning.* This visualization establishes the connections through which you will realize the dharmakaya and benefit yourself.

(*Literally, “the state of union beyond learning,” “union” referring to the union of the rupakaya and dharmakaya. In the five paths of the Bodhisattva, the path beyond learning is the fifth, and denotes the state of total Buddhahood.)

   Then, visualize that innumerable hundreds of thousands of multi-coloured light-rays shoot out downwards from the five syllables, touching all living beings dwelling in the six realms of the three worlds, and purifying all their negative actions, obscurations, sufferings and habitual tendencies just like the light of the rising sun dispelling darkness. The whole universe becomes the Buddhafield of Manifest Joy. All beings within it are transformed into white, yellow, red, green and blue Vajrasattvas.* Recite the mantra, imagining that all of them are pronouncing the mantra ,”Om Vajra Sattva Hum” too with an immense humming sound. This visualization establishes the connections through which you will attain the rupakaya** and benefit others.

(*These five colours represent the five Buddha families, each representing a particular aspect of wisdom.)

(**Rupakaya: the body of form)

   Concerning this type of visualization, The Dharma Practice that Spontaneously Liberates Habitual Clingings says:

   Bringing benefit to oneself and others by emanating and reabsorbing light, one is cleansed of conceptual    obscurations.

Using such visualization practices, the skilful means of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana enables one to accumulate inconceivable amounts of merit and wisdom in an instant, while simultaneously benefiting all living creatures throughout the universe.

Recite the mantra as many times as you can, and when the time comes to conclude the session visualize that the whole universe, which you have been perceiving as the Buddhafield of Manifest Joy, dissolves into the beings dwelling in it, the Vajrasattvas of the five families. These deities themselves then gradually melt into light and dissolve into you. Then you yourself melt into light from the outside inwards, and that light dissolves into the am in your heart. The ‘om’ dissolves into the ‘vajra’, the ‘vajra’ into the ‘sa’, the ‘sa’ into the ‘tva’, the ‘tva’ into the ‘shapkyu’ of the ‘hum’, the ‘shapkyu’ into the small ‘a’, the small a into the body of the ‘ha’, the body into the head, the head into the crescent moon, the crescent into the ‘bindu’ and the ‘bindu’ into the ‘nada’.

The nada, in turn, like a rainbow vanishing into space, dissolves into simplicity free from any concepts and elaborations. Remain relaxed in that state for a while.

   When thoughts start to arise, see clearly the whole universe and the beings it contains as the Buddhafield of Vajrasattva.

   Dedicate the merit with the words:

      By the merit of this practice may I quickly attain
      The level of Vajrasattva …

and so on, and say other prayers of aspiration.
   While practising any meditation and recitation, including this one on Vajrasattva, it is imperative not to let your mind be distracted from concentration on the practice, and not to interrupt the recitation with ordinary speech. It is said in the tantras:

   Reciting without concentration
   Is like soaking a rock in the depths of the sea;
   Even for a whole kalpa it will bring no result.*

(*However long the rock stays there, the water will never penetrate it.)

and also:

   Purity is a thousand times better than impurity.
   Concentration is a hundred thousand times better than no concentration.

Gold or silver, if they contain even small quantities of brass or copper, are considered “not real gold” or “false silver.” Likewise, mixing ordinary gossip with the recitation of mantras or the approach practice renders the
mantra impure. That is why the Great Master of Oddiyana said:

   A month’s recitation with no other speech
   Is better than a year of defiled recitation.

This being so, it is of primary importance that those who perform ceremonies in villages refrain from chatting within the ranks of the assembly while they are saying prayers and mantras. If such recitations are mixed with ordinary speech they lose all their meaning. In particular, when a ceremony is being performed for someone who has died, that being, in all the terror and suffering of the intermediate state, will rush to the sponsor, the invited monks and the officiating lama in the hope of obtaining help. Beings in the intermediate state know what is happening in others’ minds. If the people doing the ceremony are not clearly concentrated, if they have not kept their vows and samayas, or if what they say and think arises from attachment and hostility, the being in the intermediate state will feel hatred towards them or have negative views about them, and as a result will fall into lower realms. One would be better off without the services of such officiants as these.

   It is said of the rituals of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana that “to recite the visualization texts of the generation phase is to use words as a means of access.” The words of the visualization are there to call to mind the details of the generation phase.* But for people performing such ceremonies the proper subject of the visualization, which is the meaning of the generation and perfection phases, does not even cross their minds. They unthinkingly mouth the words of the ritual, like “visualize,” “meditate” and “concentrate,” using all sorts of ornate intonations, blaring their trumpets and banging away at their cymbals and drums. Finally the moment comes for what should be the most essential point, the approach practice, where the mantra is recited-at which point they just feel released of their duties. They no longer even make the effort to sit up straight. They start smoking tobacco, the source of hundreds of wrong actions,** and let loose a rich store of useless chatter, endlessly discussing all the local goings-on from the mountain tops to the valley floor, from the passes to the lowlands. Meanwhile they spend the time pushing the rosary through their fingers at top speed, as if they were making sausages. Towards evening, they glance up at the sky and, seeing the sun’s position, with a huge clattering of cymbals start chanting, “Vajra puspe dhupe …”*** and so on. This is not even a pale reflection of a proper ritual, nor even the reflection of a reflection. There can be little doubt that just reciting the Confession of Downfalls or the Prayer of Good Actions once, with perfectly pure motivation, would be far more worthwhile.

(*The description of the images to be visualized and the different processes of the meditation is recited before proceeding to the actual recitation of the mantra. This is the standard structure of the ritual texts used for the sadhana of any deity. Such texts are used not only for ceremonies in a group for particular purposes, but also for personal practice.)

(**The use of tobacco products pollutes the system of subtle channels and energies and
thus has a harmful effect on the mind at a deep level.)

(***The words of the offering section of the sadhana, which are repeated after the recitation
of the mantra and before the conclusion.)

   Lamas like these, whose impure recitation and travesties of rituals send the dead off to lower rebirths, will likewise do far more harm than good with their rituals for the living. Moreover, abusing people’s offerings in this way is exactly what is meant by “swallowing red hot metal balls.”*

(*This image indicates that the use of such offerings is karmically very dangerous and can lead to rebirth in the hells.)

Lamas and monks who profit from the offerings of the faithful and the possessions of the dead should have as the very soul of their practice something more than an evaluation of the quantity of meat, the thickness of cheese, and the quality of the offerings they are getting. Whether they are working for those who are sick or those already dead, the moment is crucial for those beings. For the latter have no refuge from their suffering. They need to be caught and secured by the love and compassion of the lamas’ bodhicitta, and the sincere desire to help. The lamas should make every effort to practise whatever they may know of the generation and perfection phases, sincerely and without any distraction. If they know nothing at all of these subjects, they should simply try to think of the meaning of the words they are saying. At the very least, they should focus
their body, speech and mind on love and compassion for the suffering being and confident faith in the unfailing power of the Three Jewels. If they also make sure that they perform the ritual properly by correctly
reciting the different texts and mantras, there is no doubt that through the compassion of the refuge, the Three Jewels, through the infallible power of the effect of actions and through the immeasurable benefits of bodhicitta, they can really help the sick or the dead. This is what they should make every effort to do, and as in the expression “dissolving your own obscurations on someone else’s cushion,”* they will complete the twofold accumulation both for themselves and for others at the same time. They will also establish all those who have contact with them on the path to liberation.

(*This means that any practice that is performed with the intention of helping another
being will benefit not only that being but also the person doing the practice.)

   These days, lamas and monks whom one might expect to be a little better than others, and who know about the principle of cause and effect, are so afraid of the defilements attached to offerings that they refuse even to give blessings or say dedication prayers for suffering beings who are sick or dead. In so doing they cut off the love and compassion of bodhicitta at the very root.

   The majority are extremely selfish. They take part in ceremonies at the request of their benefactors. But, instead of reciting what the families in question need, they pull out their own prayer-books, grimy and worn out from long use, and with the excuse that they must not interrupt the continuity of their own personal practice, they recite from that while everyone else is reciting the prayers.* Whenever they are reciting the least prayer for their own good, they are all extremely scrupulous and claim to be purifying their own obscurations or their abuse of offerings. But they treat prayers in large assemblies for the benefit of patrons as a tiresome chore. They look around all the time, say whatever they want, and never even give a thought for the dead or living person that they are supposed to be protecting. This cuts off the love and compassion of bodhicitta at the very root. Later on, should they ever try to purify themselves of this abuse of offerings, their evil and selfish attitude will make it very difficult to do so successfully.

(*When one has received an empowerment, the power of the practice should be maintained by a daily practice, even if this is brief. Here the lamas are doing such practices during the ceremony rather than in their own time.)

   Instead, take the love and compassion of bodhicitta as your basis from the very start. Never give up your wish to help others. Make a sincere effort to put everything you know about the generation and perfection phases into practice to the best of your ability. To meditate on the generation and perfection phases and recite mantras in other people’s houses will then be no different from doing it in your own. In either case, the need to be free of selfish thoughts and to care about helping others is the same. For these two attitudes are both indispensable.

   If you stay undistracted and do not mix your recitation with ordinary speech, to say the hundred syllable mantra one hundred and eight times without interruption will undoubtedly purify all your evil actions and obscurations, and all violations and breaches of vows and samayas. Such is Vajrasattva’s promise. The Tantra of Immaculate Confession says:

   The hundred syllable mantra is the quintessence of the mind of all the Sugatas. It purifies all violations, all      breaches, all conceptual obscurations.
   It is the supreme confession, and to recite it one hundred and eight times without interruption repairs all    violations and breaches and will save one from tumbling into the three lower realms.
   The Buddhas of past, present and future will look on the yogi who recites it as a daily practice as their most    excellent child, even in this very lifetime, and will watch over and protect him.
   At his death he will undoubtedly become the finest of all the Buddhas’ heirs.

Whatever violations and breaches of the root and branch samayas you may commit after setting out on the path of Secret Mantra Vajrayana, the daily repetition of the hundred syllable mantra twenty-one times every day while meditating on Vajrasattva constitutes what is called “the blessing of downfalls.” It will prevent the effects of those downfalls from developing or increasing. One hundred thousand recitations will completely purify all your downfalls. According to The Essential Ornament:

   To recite correctly twenty-one times
   The hundred syllable mantra,
   While clearly visualizing Vajrasattva
   Seated on a white lotus and moon,
   Constitutes the blessing of the downfalls,
   Which are thus kept from increasing.
   Thus the great siddhas have taught.
   So practise it always.
   If you recite it a hundred thousand times,
   You will become the very embodiment of utter purity.

In Tibet these days there cannot be a single lama, monk, layman or laywoman who has never received an empowerment and who has therefore not taken up the Secret Mantrayana. Now, once you have entered the Secret Mantrayana, if you fail to keep the samayas you go to hell, and if you keep them you attain perfect Buddhahood. There is no third alternative. Just as for a snake that has crawled inside a length of bamboo, it is said, there are only two ways out-straight up or straight down. The Treasury of Precious Qualities says:

   Once in the Secret Mantrayana, you can only go to lower realms
   Or attain Buddhahood; there is no third direction.

The tantric samayas are subtle, numerous and difficult to keep. Even a great master like Atisa said that, having taken up the path of the tantras, he committed fault after fault in rapid succession. As for us nowadays, the antidotes we have are few. Our mindfulness is weak and our vigilance is non-existent. We are not even really sure what the various downfalls are. Since there can be no doubt that those downfalls must be pouring down on us all the time like rain, it is vital that by way of remedy we make the meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva our daily practice, or at least recite the mantra twenty-one times a day without fail.

   Even for an expert in all the essential points of the generation and perfection phases who, through mindfulness, vigilance and so on, has avoided committing the fault of violating the samayas, it is still necessary to persevere in confession and purification. For in fact, any contact through word or deed with  someone who has violated the root samaya seven just drinking the water of the same valley – is enough to engender the faults known as “violation through contact” or “occasional violation.”
The tantras say:

   Having associated with transgressors or gratified their wishes,
   Having explained the Dharma to them or to those unfit to hear it,
   Having not avoided all transgressors, we know we too have been contaminated
   By the obscurations of those transgressions,
   Bringing adversity in this life and obscurations in the next.
   Full of regret, all these mistakes we expose and confess.

If just one person in an assembly has violated the samayas, the other hundred or thousand people who have all kept their own commitments will be contaminated to the point that they will receive no benefit from their practice. It is like a single drop of sour milk turning a whole pot of fresh milk sour, or one frog infested with sores infecting all the others around. As it is said:

   One drop of sour milk
   Turns all the milk sour.
   One degenerate yogi
   Spoils all the other yogis.

What is more, there is not a single teacher, even if he is a great lama or a siddha, who can escape this sort of contamination by samaya violations. The story of the great teacher Lingje Repa bears this out. While he was in the sacred place of Tsari, the dakini Shingkyong started to create obstacles for him. In the middle of the day, she brought down a darkness so profound that the stars came out and shone brightly in the sky. Yet nothing could stop him reaching the banks of the Dark Red Blood Lake, where he danced to a vajra song, leaving footprints in the solid rock that can still be seen today. Nonetheless, later in his life he was visited by a disciple who had broken the samaya-and even such an accomplished master could still be contaminated. He became delirious and lost the power of his speech.

Likewise we find in the vajra songs of the Siddha Urgyenpa:

   I, Rinchen Pel, the beggar from the Land of the Snows,
   Was defeated by no other enemy than contamination by samaya violation
   And was protected by no other friend than my teacher.

To break the samayas of the Vajrayana is a great fault, but to keep them is extremely difficult. It would be totally wrong to suppose, without checking carefully, that you are keeping them faithfully, and to feel proud about it.

   The tantras explain that to forget for a single instant to identify your body, speech and mind with the three mandalas* is to transgress the tantric samayas. Hence the difficulty of keeping them. In detail, there are said to be one hundred thousand samayas – a very large number.

(*The three mandalas of the teacher’s body, speech and mind.)

According to the tantras, to break them will bring the following evils upon us:

   The Vajra Ogre will drink your heart blood,*
   Your life will be short and diseased, your wealth will vanish, enemies will terrify you,
   In the extremely frightening Hell of Ultimate Torment
   You will undergo long and unbearable sufferings.

(*”Drinking your heart blood” means destroying your life force. The Secret Mantrayana puts us in touch with our true nature and our most fundamental energies. If we keep the samaya commitments it enables us to progress rapidly. But if we do not, we give rise to a powerful self destructive force. This is called the “vajra ogre” and is the opposite of the wisdom deities.)

To remedy all your visible and hidden violations, breaches, faults and downfalls, therefore, always do everything you can to practise the meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva and confess those faults with the hundred syllables. As the great teachers of old used to say:

   The best is not to be sullied by evil actions in the first place, but if it happens, it is important to confess.

Violations of the tantric samayas are easy to repair, since they can be purified by confession. In the sravakas’ tradition, to commit one complete root downfall* is like smashing an earthenware pot: there is simply no way to repair it. To break the Bodhisattva vows is more like breaking an object made of precious metal. Such an object can be repaired if entrusted to a skilful goldsmith. Likewise, the broken vow can be purified with the help of a spiritual friend. As for the tantric vows, committing downfalls is like slightly denting something made of precious metal. It is said that you can completely purify it yourself, simply by confessing it, using the support of the deity, the mantra and concentration. If the fault is confessed immediately, purification is easy. The longer you wait, however, the more powerful the fault grows, and the more difficult confession becomes. If you wait more than three years, the downfall is said to be beyond confession. Even if you confess it, no purification will take place.

(*To commit a complete root downfall is to break one of the basic vows of the monastic discipline, consciously, in a situation where it is not impossible to do otherwise.)

   There are some gifted people who can use the power and blessing of their speech to work both for their own and others’ benefit by providing protection, stopping frosts, preventing hail, halting epidemics, curing sick adults and children and so on. But even such people, to maintain that ability and those blessings, need to purify the obscurations of speech. There is no better means of doing so than reciting the hundred syllable mantra. It is important to recite it earnestly and unremittingly.

   My venerable teacher used to joke that those who protect others and make use of offerings should most definitely start to purify their obscurations of speech by completing ten million repetitions of the hundred syllables. In fact, many of his disciples actually recited it ten or even twenty million times, and there was not one of them who did not complete at least two or three hundred thousand recitations.

   The teacher Vajrasattva embodies the hundred deities in one. He is called “Vajrasattva, the single deity of the great secret.” Of the whole inconceivable infinity of peaceful and wrathful yidam deities, there is not one whom he does not embody. While you meditate on him, consider him as being one in essence with your own root teacher. This is the practice of Guru Yoga “in the manner of the jewel which includes all.

It is the ultimate, the most profound of all methods. Since, as I have already said, the hundred syllable mantra is superior to all other mantras, you must know that there is no more profound practice than this.

   I have heard the beneficial instructions, but have left them as words.
   I have practised them a little, but have been fooled by distraction.
   Bless me and all phantom beings like me
   That we may extract the essence of the generation and perfection phases.

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Santideva (7th-8th centuries)

Author of ‘The Way of the Bodhisattva’ (Bodhicaryavatara), the great classic of Indian Mahayana literature.

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Vajrasattva

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Chapter List