Enlightened Journey: Buddhist Practice as Daily Life

290 Pages·2001·12.62 MB·English

by  Tulku Thondup

ENLIGHTENED
JOURNEY
Buddhist Practice
as Daily Life
TULKU THONDUP
Edited by Harold Talbott
*
SHAMBHALA
Boston & London
2001
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.sbambbala.com
© 1995 by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche
Buddhayana Series: V
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
Printed in the United States of America
® This edition is printed on acid~free paper that meets the
American National Standards Institute Z39.48 Standard.
Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc.,
and in Canada by Random House of Canada Ltd
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thondup, Tulku.
Enlightened journey: Buddhist practice as daily life I
Tulku Thondup; edited by Harold Talbott.
- 1st ed. p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57062-021-0
I. Spirituallife-Rfiiri.-ma-pa (Sect) 2. Rdzogs-chen
(Riiiri.-ma-pa) I. Talbott, Harold. II. Title
BQ7662.6.T56 1994 94-36154
294.3' 444-dc20 CIP
CONTENTS
Prifact ix
Acknowledgments xxi
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION
I. USING DAILY LIFE AS THE PRACTICE OF DHARMA 3
2. OPENING THE HEART WITH COMPASSION 10
Enlightened Mind 12
Conceptual Mind 15
Compassion 21
3. A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN A TURBULENT LIFE 27
4. BUDDHIST ARTIFACTS AS THE SUPPORT OF
SPIRITUAL REALIZATION 32
5. TIBETAN BUDDHIST THANGKAS AND THEIR
RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE 37
The Historical Tradition of Thangkas: The Pictorial
Scrolls of Tibet 38
Varieties of Thangkas 41
The Religious Significance of Thangkas 43
6. PREPARING FOR THE BARDO: THE STAGES OF
DYING AND AFTER DEATH 5I
The Bardo of Life 53
The Bardo of Dying 55
The Bardo of Ultimate Nature 62
The Bardo of Becoming 68
PART TWO. MEDITATION ON NGCNDRQ:
THE ESSENTIAL TRAINING
7. THE NYINGMA ScHooL OF TIBETAN BuDDHISM 8 1
Contribution of Nyingma to Tibetan History and
Culture 82
Unique Nyingma Lineage Teachings 8 5
Longchen Nyingthig Lineage 8 8
VI o Contents
8. THE TERMA TRADITION OF THE NYINGMA ScHooL 93
Transmission of Ter 97
Two Major Categories of Ter 98
Earth Tei: 98
Mind Ter 103
9. THE EMPOWERMENTS AND PRECEPTS OF
EsoTERic TRAINING 106
Empowerments 106
Qualities of the Tantric Teacher 108
The Nature of the Mal)gala 110
Qualities of the Disciple Ill
Ca~egorization of Empowerments 112
Effects of Empowerment 114
The Two Causes and Four Conditions of
Empowerment II 5
The Actual Empowerment 116
Preliminary Section 116
Main Section 117
The Five Common Empowerments of the Five
Buddha Families 118
The Four Uncommon Empowerments 119
Precepts 119
Three Divisions of Precepts 120
Time of Taking the Precepts 120
Precepts Common to Both Old and New Tantric
Traditions 121
The Fourteen Root Infractions 121
The Eight Gross Infractions· 123
The Uncommon Precepts of Dzogpa Chenpo 123
General Precepts of Dzogpa Chenpo 124
Special Precepts of Dzogpa Chenpo 127
Two Precepts of Thregcho 128
Two Precepts of Thogal 128
Conclusion 129
Restoring Broken Precepts 131
10. THE MEDITATION ON NGONDRO: THE EssENTIAL
TRAINING OF THE LONGCHEN NYINGTHIG
TRADITION 134
Prayers to the Lineage Masters I 3 5
Contents 0 vii
The Four Preliminary Practices 138
Difficulties of Obtaining a Precious Human Life 138
Impermanence 139
Karma: Cause and Effect 140
The Suffering Character of Sa111sara 142
The Four Essential Trainings 144
Going for Refuge 144
Developing Bodhichitta 148
Purification: Yajrasattva Recitation 152
Mal)c;iala Offering 156
The Main Practice: Guru Yoga 157
The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer 160
The Seven Aspects of Devotional Practice 160
Devotional Prayers 161
Mantra of Guru Rinpoche 162
Four Empowerments 163
Unification 163
Conclusion 164
II. THE MEANING OF THE VAJRA SEVEN-LINE PRAYER
TO GURU RINPOCHE 166
Structure of the Text 167
History of The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer 169
The Common Meaning 170
The Path of the Hidden Meaning 174
The Path of Liberation 174
The Path of Skillful Means :(.78
According to the Perfection Stage 178
According to the Nyingthig of Dzogpa Chenpo:
The Direct Realization of the,Spontaneous
Presence 182
The Accomplishment of the Result 185
Conclusion of the Practices 188
12. RECEIVING THE FOUR EMPOWERMENTS OF
NGCNDRO MEDITATION 191
Eleven Divisions of Receiving the Four
Empowerments 194
The Three (or Four) Syllables 194
The Three (or Four) Vajras 198
V Ill 0 Contents
Blessing Lights 200
The Four (or Three) Centers of the Body 204
The Four Karmas 204
The Four Obscurations 207
The Four Vajra Blessings 213
The Four Tantric Practices 214
The Four Stages of Attainment 218
The Four Buddha Bodies 221
The Four Empowerments 223
13. A BRIEF MEDITATION ON GURU RINPOCHE,
PADMASAMBHAVA 231
Relaxation 231
Preliminary 231
Main Practice 231
Some Details of the Visualization and Their Meaning 232
Conclusion 237
The Prayer Mantra of Guru Rinpoche 238
The Meaning 238
Recollection of the Qualities of Guru Rinpoche 239
Praying to Bestow the Wishes and Attainments 240
In Brief 241
A Short Meditation 241
14. EVALUATING THE PROGRESS OF DHARMA PRACTICE 242
15. A PRAYER SONG TO THE ABSOLUTE LAMA 256
Notes 259
Key to Abbreviations of Works Cited 265
PREFACE
T
HE MOST ESSENTIAL TRAINING in Buddhism, and for
that matter in any spiritual path, is the "skillful means"
that enables the trainees to transmute every aspect of their
daily life into spiritual training. Spiritual training is the exer
cises that release the intensity of our mental grasping and the
driving force of our craving. Spiritual training eases the pain
and suffering created by our narrow, rigid views and our
burning, confusing emotions.
Spiritual training is crucial to the realization and experi
ence of openness, peace, joy, love, and wisdom. If our mind is
filled with peace, love, and wisdom, our mental and spiritual
energies will be strengthened. If our mental and spiritual
energies are strengthened, the physical elements of our body
become healthy and the events in our life become positive. By
1
the same token, if our mental energy is strong, our body will
be healthy and our life positive; our mind will be n;~turally
more peaceful and joyful. The days of our entire life will
flow in a cycle of true happiness. As the third Dodrupchen
Rinpoche writes:'
When your mind is not disturbed, your energy will not be
disturbed, and thereby other elements of the body will also
x 0 Preface
not be disturbed. Because of this, your mind will not be
disturbed, and so the wheel of joy will keep revolving.
There are two important ways to transmute daily life into
training. First, if you have realized the wisdom that tran
scends mental conceptions, or even if you have not yet tran
scended mental conceptions but have powerful spiritual expe
riences such as compassion, devotion, or contemplation, then
you can unite or transform all appearances and experiences
into a support for the energy of realized wisdom and spiritual
expenence.
For great adepts, every phenomenal appearance becomes
che expression of their inner wisdom itself. All appearances
become the power of realization, like the rays of the sun that
coax the flowers of happiness to blossom in the hearts of all
those around.
Second, for ordinary people like ourselves, whose minds
are conceptual, emotional, and. unrealized, it is essential to
rely on any skillful means-positive and spiritual images,
signs, sounds, or sources of power-as the means of generat
ing spiritual energy. If we could see the objects that surround
us as a source of inspiration and peace, they will generate
peace and joy within us because of the power of our own
mental p~rceptions.
In the same vein, we cannot transform negative situations
into positive ones if we see them as negative and react to
them with negative emotions. As long as we hold on·to nega
tive perceptions, viewing our circumstances through dark
shades, the whole world will appear negative, and all our ef
forts will be one never-ending struggle. So we should lay the
foundation of true peace and joy in our own minds by devel-