My OperaEaster 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 7:37:01 PM
Meditation: Guru Yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa’s (Daily Practice)
Transcript (From blog.tsemtulku.com)
Just now I’ve recited the Guru Yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa both in Tibetan and in English, sitting at this beach in eastern state of Kelantan, with a great view for everyone to see. And some soothing ocean sound.
I believe today’s way of practicing Dharma and doing Dharma is much different than in my teachers’ generation and their teachers’ generation and the generation of the past. I’m not here to say that our method would be better, or their method is better, or what is better. What I’m trying to say is what is actually necessary now
In today’s day and time, with the advent of technology, in the advent of many types of entertainment and places to go, easy travel, communication, Internet, conveniences, we find very little time for actual hard-core, sit-down-study-meditation spirituality. So I feel that it’s better to put something simple, it’s better to make something very simple. It’s better to make something easier for people to access and assess.
So I’ve received many practices and many sadhanas, and many teachings and many commentaries from my enlightened Gurus. And we’ve sat for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of teachings on specific practices, tantric practices, sutric practices, many types of practices. And I, every day, keep up a long type of sadhanic recitation, little bit of meditational practices from my teachers. But a lot of the things that I do every single day would not suit many people of this generation and the upcoming generation. It doesn’t mean that the people are worse or it doesn’t mean that the people are bad. It just means that the time has changed.
As time changes, the presentation of Dharma, the practice of Dharma, the meditation and the actual contemplation on Dharma must also change. The Dharma should not change. Our commitment and our whole fated practice of the Dharma should not change. But the method, the timing, the place, the length will have to change because if it doesn’t change on its own, it will decline and disappear. So therefore, for all my friends, students and people who I have met and will meet in the future, I make this video for you with the sole motivation of giving you a practice, a meditation that is simple, that is short, yet extremely effective. And that is the Guru Yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa-
Lama Tsongkhapa, from his side, is a Buddha. Although we label him ‘he’, Tsongkhapa, he is without form, taste, colour, gender, time, past, present and future. He is all-abiding, he is all around, he is within you, he is outside of you, he is everything that pervades in the universe. At the same he is everything that pervades inside your universe, that you will tap into as your potential for Buddhahood. So he is a she, she is a he; he is neither, he is both, he is all. Buddhahood cannot be defined by the words that we wish to narrow it down to. So to make it simple, Tsongkhapa is an all-pervasive mind, all-pervasive being. It is a Buddha.
Tsongkhapa is not Tibetan. Tsongkhapa is not Theravadan, Mahayana, Vajrayana. Tsongkhapa is not Gelug, is not Nyingma, is not Sakya, is not Kagyu. Tsongkhapa, from his side, is without any labels. Tsongkhapa is a Buddha. So whatever background you come from, whatever religious sect – such as Theravadan, Vajrayana – you come from, it doesn’t matter. Tsongkhapa and what he represents is only a label that we have forced him to be confined into, to conform into. But from the side of Lama Tsongkhapa, there is no school. There is no confinement, there is no borders. Tsongkhapa is Buddha. Tsongkhapa and Buddha are synonymous. Buddha and Tsongkhapa is synonymous. Synonymous.
So is Tsongkhapa a Buddha? Yes. He is a Buddha. Are all Buddhas Tsongkhapa? Not necessarily. Is Tsongkhapa a fully enlightened Being? Yes, he is a fully enlightened Being. Is all Buddhas Tsongkhapa? Not necessarily which means he can and cannot be. ‘Can’ meaning? All the Buddhas’ nature and mind are one. Their compassionate nature and their wisdom are one, but there are Tara Buddhas, Vajrayogini Buddhas, Tsongkhapa Buddhas, Heruka Buddhas, Manjushri Buddhas, Avalokiteshvara Buddhas. But Tsongkhapa is a fully enlightened Buddha without name, space, barriers, borders or constricted to any time and place. That one we must make sure.
So when we see an image of Tsongkhapa, if we have a teacher, if we are fortunate enough to have a teacher, as I have had, who teaches from a genuine heart, genuine thoughts and genuine, sincere, compassionate motivation to liberate you and to help you, then that is a qualified teacher. Qualification is subjective. What is qualified in Gelugpa may not be the same in Kagyu. What is qualified in Nyingma may not be the same as in Theravadan. What is qualified in Sakya may not be the same as in Mahayana. So a qualified Guru is subjective according to what tradition you wish to enter. If there is such a thing as ‘qualified’. Tradition.
Now since you have met a teacher who has knowledge and who teaches you out of compassion, kindness, care and a genuine wish to benefit you…because if you think carefully, do you have great wealth to give to your teacher? Do you have great properties to give to your teacher? Do you have great knowledge to give to your teacher? Do you have great material things to offer to your teacher? If you don’t have any of that, and yet your teacher keeps you close, takes care of you, scolds you, nurtures you, passes the Dharma to you, that is a sign of a sincere teacher. If the teacher basically can get nothing from you and you can give nothing much to the teacher, yet the teacher still teaches you, that is a sign the teacher is genuine.
Why? A qualified teacher is a teacher who has compassion. A qualified teacher is a teacher who cares. A qualified teacher is someone that takes care of you now, and takes care of your death to be, and your bardo and your future lives. He sets the wheel and the motion going that you will be all right now and in the future. If that’s not a qualified teacher, what do you think a qualified teacher is?
So if one has found such a qualified teacher, then one should at this time visualise and think that, “I cannot see Lama Tsongkhapa directly yet. I cannot see Buddha Tsongkhapa directly but I can see my teacher. My teacher teaches me with compassion, skill, love, in peaceful means, in wrathful means, in skilful means in order for my mind to turn around. How kind my teacher is.” So if we were to do a sadhana every single day, without commitments, without vows, without initiation, without elaborate ceremony…one can sit on the beach, one can sit in the comfort of one’s home, one can sit inside your car, one can sit on the porch, in the yard, one can sit inside a temple in front of a Buddha statue – anywhere. Or one can have a simple shrine with a Lama Tsongkhapa image on top, some flowers, some incense, some beautiful biscuits and cookies, some water, can be laid out from your heart. And the purpose is that Tsongkhapa does not need these offerings but if you offer these offerings up to Tsongkhapa, you will collect the necessary merit to overcome the attachments of your five aggregates. So when you make sensory offerings to the Buddhas – offerings of the senses – you collect the propensity, the karmic propensity to overcome the attachments of the five aggregates. Now, the aggregate of sight, sound, taste, touch, mind, etc. – the five aggregates.
Now, if we’re in a rush every day, we can recite through the Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga just as I have done for you just now. My pronunciation is not very good because my pronunciation is a mixture of Central Province Tibet and Kham Province of Tibet, because most of my teachers are Khampa. Then when we go to the monastery, the monks my age speak a mixture of Central dialect, which is Lhasa. So when I pronounce Gaden Lhagyama, my dialect is not pure, it’s not clean, it’s all mixed up. On top of that, I mix it in with an American accent. So I wouldn’t follow my pronunciation of Lama Tsongkhapa but if you choose to, recite it from your heart, it’s all the same.
You can recite it in English, you can recite it in Tibetan. You can recite it in Tibetan, stop at each paragraph and contemplate it in English. You can recite it in English, stop at each paragraph and contemplate. So today I’m going to do a very short explanation on the Guru Yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa. Something short and simple and easy. When you recite the first line GA-DEN HLA-JI NGON-JYI THUG-KA NEY so that’s the first line,
From the heart of the Protector of the hundreds of deities of the Land of Joy,
Comes a cloud that resembles a mass of fresh, white curd,
Omniscient Lo-zang Drag-pa, King of the Dharma, together with your sons,
I request you to come here now
What you visualise here, if you want to do the visualisation completely – although I’ll tell you in short – you visualise your mother on your left. Whether your mother and father is alive or passed away, it doesn’t matter – you visualise your mother on the left, you visualise your father on the right. You visualise your relatives, your brothers, your sisters, friends, sponsors, patrons and anyone who has been very kind to you, in a human form, behind you. Even your beloved pets such as your dogs, you visualise them in human form because it’s auspicious for them to be in a human form, to be able to practice the higher teachings. You visualise all those that love you behind you, that have helped you.
You visualise those that have hurt you, that have damaged you, that have done you any harm, you visualise them directly in front of you, looking in the same direction as you. Then all sentient beings in the oceans, on the land, in the mountains, in the skies, under the ground, in the universes, in the galaxies, on other planets, everywhere – the countless, countless, trang mey, without count – amount of sentient beings surrounding you completely. So if we look out into the vast ocean, we can visualise that every space on top of this ocean is filled with sentient beings. In the form of humans, youthful, beautiful, clean and looking at Lama Tsongkhapa with their hands folded, just like you. And in front of you, in the sky, is Lord Tsongkhapa…is Lord Tsongkhapa.
How do you visualise that? “From the heart of the Protector of the hundreds of deities of the Land of Joy…” – Ga-den. Ga wa gi den sa, ga wa gi den. “Ga wa” in Tibetan means happy, “den” means place or joyous abode. Happy place, joyous abode. That place is Tushita Heaven. In Sanskrit, Gaden is Tushita. In Tibetan, it’s called Gaden. And in English, we just say “Gaden”. So Gaden Monastery on earth is named after Gaden Paradise of Maitreya Buddha. So it’s Tushita.
