Impermanence and Death: a Teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

Precious human birth does not mean everyone who is born as a human being.  It doesn’t mean that.  There is precious human birth and ordinary human birth.  Those who don’t do any kind of practice, those who don’t even try to go to church on weekends, those involved in New Age groups or modern ways of belief, or those who enter into some kind of entertainment and waste their lives in that manner—that is just an ordinary human birth.  You really must have accumulated some merit in your previous lifetime.  You must have done some kind of purification in your previous lifetime.  You must have made some kind of connection with the Dharma and your lamas. That is why you are here.  Otherwise there is no possibility.  That would never, ever happen.  So since you have a precious human rebirth, you must immediately think,  “I should not waste it.  I have to get some advantage from this opportunity.”

Then how can one do it?  You must then think that all phenomena which are composed of cause and condition are impermanent.  Impermanence does not just mean that everything comes to an end.  Impermanence means that each and every moment is impermanent. Each and every moment of our lives we are becoming older and older; we are getting nearer and nearer to death.  If you waste even one hour, you are one hour closer to death.  If you spend your weekend enjoying yourself, still you are getting nearer to death.  Whenever you sit idle, still you are getting nearer to death.  Even if you do practice, still you are getting nearer to death.  Even if you don’t do anything, still you are getting nearer to death.  You are always getting nearer and nearer and nearer.  Every sentient being who is born is subject to death.

At the same time, death is uncertain.  You can see many examples.  Someone will say, “Just yesterday he was talking with me, and then last night he had an accident.”  Or somebody shot him or killed him or whatever.  There are so many conditions that may bring death.  If I cannot do actual practice and if I do not have something I can carry with me, then tonight if something happens, what can I do?  What are you really going to carry with you?  You cannot pack up like when you get divorced or when you get mad at your friends and you say you’re going to leave and you take your suitcase and pack all your clothes and everything and whatever money and credit cards you have and you leave and go some other place.  When death comes, you cannot do that.  There is no way that one could do that.  Up until now in this world, even the great popes, even Milarepa, even Shakyamuni Buddha, even His Holiness Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, they left all their belongings behind.  Even His Holiness Karmapa left his black hat behind, even his body.  Never mind about an ordinary sentient being who cannot carry all those things.  Even the great Christian popes who passed away, could not carry anything.  All the great ones and not so great ones—when death came, nobody could pack anything, nobody could carry anything along.  You could not even make a phone call.  “I’m coming very soon, so could you please reserve a place for me?”  There is no way that one can do that.  You say, “Oh please, you save a better place for me since I am coming very soon.”  Or you want to make a phone call to heaven.  “Oh God, please save a place for me.”  So you have to realize that life is like that.

In one sense, life is very long.  You can experience lots of things.  In another sense, life is gone like that.  When death comes, what one can carry is just whatever accumulation of merit or whatever negativity one has done.  That is the only thing that comes with you.  Even if you don’t want it, it is stuck there and will be coming with you.  So you have to realize that life is uncertain and death is uncertain.  At any moment it can come.  When you really consider that, you really get scared, goose bumpy.  Then you really get motivated to do practice.  Then your sleepy way of thinking and laziness and everything is gone just like that.  You cannot feel so tired if death is coming like that.  Then you can make yourself so alert. You can generate so much courage in yourself.  “Why can’t I do 100,000 prostrations in a month?  Why can’t I do that?”  Then you can have that kind of courage within yourself.  Otherwise you say, “Other people are out enjoying the weekend and going here and there and I am stuck here doing prostrations. I get pain in my legs and my knees and pain there. When can all this be finished?”  Then it feels really difficult.  When you really see that death is coming, then you can bear it.  If you think about that, then that will really help you to apply yourself into practice with full energy and with full courage.

Contemplating this Precious Opportunity by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

The Four Thoughts that turn the mind from samsara are very important.  Our minds are distracted by this world.  We practice a little bit, and then get distracted, thinking life is good — eating pizza in the restaurant, going to the beach on weekends, and enjoying ourselves.  It is really nice.  One could have a very happy life with one’s family, and eating, and experiencing all those happy experiences.  At the end of life, if one could not have the continuation of that kind of happiness in the next lifetime and many future lifetimes, one may get a little upset and think, “I should have done something.  I have just been going to the beach, the mountains, camping, bungee jumping, and all that.  I’ve spent my time doing all that, but I really didn’t do anything.”  Then all one’s karma ripens.  Whether you believe in karma or not, understand it or not, it doesn’t matter.  Whether you are a Christian or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jew or a Muslim, in cyclic existence, karma is the life process.  It is the nature of cyclic existence itself.  So that nature ripens to everybody.  Everyone experiences that.  After death, if one has to bear all different kinds of suffering, then one may experience some regret.

This is how one has a very happy life.  You can have entertainment, but at the same time have a kind of entertainment which really makes sense, which you can carry with you.  On weekends, you could come here and participate in a tsog offering or a puja or some kind of a practice.  While you are doing the practice, you may experience some minor problems with your knees or sitting or doing prostrations, but still you are bearing some karma and having some purification.  After all, you could have something you can really carry with you after death.  It is as the Buddha, who is fully enlightened, has explained.  Jetsunma has also explained all this a number of times.  The important thing to realize here is that this precious human birth is one in which one could really become involved in practice, in which one could become involved with the Dharma teachings, in which one could really become involved in Dharma activities.  If one could really have some time to apply to practice, then this becomes a precious human birth.

Cause and Effect: Examining Circumstances

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso on Ngondro, given at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

There is not one single sentient being who wishes to suffer.  That is very obvious.  Even scary animals, ghosts, and evil spirits don’t really mean to harm anybody.  They are in search of some kind of happiness.  They are looking for some kind of peace.  An evil spirit or consciousness wanders here and there and creates some kind of problem for someone.  Then that person becomes possessed by the evil spirit and there are lots of disturbances, all due to the search for happiness, but without knowing what the actual cause of happiness is.  How can one really have actual happiness?  How can one really have a peaceful life?  How can one have a happier life?  One has to understand the actual cause.  Due to ignorance, all sentient beings do not know that. Each and every sentient being wishes for happiness, but not knowing the cause of happiness, all kinds of karma, actions, thoughts, and afflicted mind, arise and worldly things are done which result in problems and suffering.

I think that Americans really don’t like to hear about suffering in the teachings.  You like to hear only about having a happy and prosperous life, about enjoyment.  You are always trying to find some kind of modern technology, some different way of doing things, because you are really trying to find happiness.  Maybe if I climb a mountain, I can enjoy life more.  Or no, maybe I’ll go bungee jumping!  That may be more enjoyable and will bring some happiness.  In that way, everybody is trying each and every thing just to experience happiness, just to experience some kind of peaceful mind. There are so many religions, so many masters, so many yogis who have appeared. When a Hindu teacher comes, then everybody goes there and listens to the yogi teaching about prana, some kind of breathing, some kind of meditation, because they think,  “If I go to this teacher, maybe I can get some kind of solution so that I can be happier.  Maybe I can have some kind of path.  Maybe I can really get something so that I can maintain a happier life.”

So everyone does whatever we do 24 hours a day. And whatever we are doing, whatever we talk to people about, it’s all in search of peace and happiness.  Not knowing the actual cause of happiness, one thinks something else may help, so one creates all kinds of karma, causing problems which ripen for oneself.  It is like a reflection, or an echo when you shout in a cave.  The same ego shouts back to you.  When you look in the mirror and make a face, the image makes the same face back at you.  In the same way, the actions one has done to other sentient beings, ripen back.  This is the cause of samsara, or cyclic existence.  Whatever peace or happiness is attained is very temporary and limited.  While worldly peace and happiness is temporary and of short duration, at the same time, one experiences lots and lots of difficulties, lots and lots of problems. One experiences suffering and struggles very hard before one can have a little bit of peace and happiness.

So experience one’s own life and others’ lives.  Sit aside and watch the universe, watch sentient beings. Watch how all these sentient beings fare.  Everything is the result of one’s own karma or whatever action one has done.  In this way, when one thinks about the suffering of sentient beings, then one could think, “How can I really apply some kind of method or practice so that I can become fully perfected, so that I may not have any more suffering—no miserable life, no birth, no death, no sickness, no old age?  How can I get rid of all this?”  There is a teaching which explains how one can really enter into a very strong practice, a practice which would produce results very fast, a practice which may have a very special skill, a special technique, so that one can have realization in this lifetime.  If one could really generate Bodhicitta or Awakening Mind, then one would feel like he really needs to get enlightened.

Generating the Motivation

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

Motherly sentient beings are spread throughout this universe.  As much as space has expanded, so sentient beings are extended throughout space.  We cannot perceive the edge of space, and in the same way, we cannot perceive the numbers of sentient beings.  Visualize the countless sentient beings that exist in this universe, and in the thousands and millions of other universes, which are also filled up with thousands and millions, countless, sentient beings.  Visualize and understand all sentient beings as one’s mother. And taking them as one’s mother, then generate compassion, realizing and experiencing the suffering of all sentient beings—all the different kinds of suffering, all the different kinds of obstacles, all the miserable lives.  Experience all these for oneself.  If one really tries to experience that, there is no way that one cannot generate compassion. You must generate compassion for all motherly sentient beings.  When you have compassion, then you really want to know how to help all these sentient beings. “How can I benefit these sentient beings?  I need some kind of energy, some kind of power.  I need all the qualities whereby I can benefit all sentient beings so that they can be liberated from cyclic existence, from the suffering of samsara.

When one has this strong desire to benefit sentient beings, then there is a way, a possibility, that one can give rise to the Bodhicitta, or the Awakening Mind. One thinks, “Now I need to get some kind of realization.  I really need some kind of power or energy or noble qualities or omniscient mind.  I really need to get enlightenment.  Otherwise how can I benefit all these sentient beings?  How can I help them?  How can I liberate them from cyclic existence?”

Four Contemplations That Turn the Mind to Dharma

From: “Great Perfection Buddha In the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practices Ngondro” as revealed by Vidydhara Terton Migyur Dorje

PAL KUNTUZANGPO LA CHAG TSHAL LO

I prostrate to the glorious Samantabhadra.

DAL JOR DI NI SHIN TU NYED PAR KA

This precious human birth is extremely difficult to obtain.

CHI DANG CHI LA KYE KYANG MI TAG CHI

All things born are impermanent and must die.

GE WA CHÖ LA BED NA SANGYE GYU

If one perseveres in virtuous Dharma, this is the cause for becoming Buddha.

DIG PA GANG CHE DE TA’I RIG DRUG KHYAM

Whatever negativity is produced will cause one to wander in the six realms.

YI DAG TRE KOM DÜD DRO LÜN PO DANG

Hungry spirits suffer from hunger and thirst, animals from stupidity,

NYAL WA TSHA DRANG MI KYE GE NA CHI

Hell beings from heat and cold, humans from birth, old age, sickness and death,

LHA MIN THAB TSÖD LHA YI DUG NGAL YÖD

Jealous gods from warfare, and even gods (Devas) also have their own particular suffering.

Contemplation on the Precious Human Rebirth

NYAL WA YI DAG DÜD DRO DANG

Birth in the hell, hungry spirit and animal realms, and

LA LO TSHE RING LHA DANG NI

As a Titan and Long-Life God,

LOG TA SANGYE KYI TONG PA

With incorrect view, in a dark eon,

KUG PA DI DAG MI KHOM GYED

Or in an incapacitated state, are the eight states of non-freedom.

MI NYID Ü KYE WANG PO TSHANG

Birth as a human being, in a land where the Dharma is flourishing, and with all faculties complete,

LE THA MA LOG NE LA DED

Without reversed karma, and with faith in the Three Jewels of Refuge

DI NGA RANG GI JOR PA YIN

Are the five personal endowments, which I possess.

SANGYE JÖN DANG DE CHÖ SUNG

Birth during the presence of the Buddha, the presence of the Buddha’s Teaching (Dharma),

TEN PA NE DANG DE JE JUG

The presence of the Doctrine and its pure followers in the world,

ZHEN CHIR NYING NE TSE WA-O

And in the presence of those who lovingly care for others from their hearts, are the five circumstantial endowments.

KYE BU TSHÜL THRIM KANG PA CHAG GYUR NA

If it occurs that the continuity of one’s moral discipline is interrupted,

JIN PE LONG CHÖD DEN YANG NGEN DROR TUNG

Then, even though one may possess material endowments, one will fall to the Lower Realms.

GYATSHO CHER YENG NYA SHING GI

On a turbulent ocean, although a yoke is being tossed about,

BU GAR RU BAL DRIN CHÜD TAR

The chances of an ocean turtle surfacing through the yoke’s center

MI NYID SHIN TU NYED KAR SUNG

Are as unlikely as the extreme difficulties of finding a precious human rebirth.

NGEN SONG SUM NI SA YI DÜL TSAM LA

In the three lower realms, beings are equal in number to the particles of dust on the earth.

MIR KYE WA NI SEN MO’I DÜL TSAM MO

The beings who have a human rebirth are equal to the number of particles on one’s thumbnail.

DAL JOR DI NI NYED PAR SHIN TU KA

This precious human rebirth is extremely difficult to obtain.

KYE BU’I DÖN DRUB THOB PAR GYUR PA LA

Since this accomplishes what is meaningful for man,

GAL TE DI LA PHEN PA MA DRUB NA

If I do not take advantage of this now,

CHI NE YANG DAG JOR PA GA LA GYUR

How will such a perfect opportunity come about again?

Contemplation on Impermanence

SID SUM MI TAG TÖN KA’I TRIN DANG DRA

The three states of transmigratory existence are impermanent like clouds in the autumn sky.

DRO WA’I KYE CHI GAR LA TA DANG TSHUNG

Sentient beings are born and die like the whirl of a dance.

KYE BU’I TSHE DRO NAM KHA’I LOG DRA TE

The lifespan of beings is like a lightning flash in space,

RI ZAR BAB CHU ZHIN DU NYUR GYOG DRO

Or like a waterfall quickly rushing down a steep mountain.

SAG PA KÜN GYI THA DZED CHING

All accumulations become exhausted.

THÖN PO NAM NI MAR TUNG GYUR

All those who are elevated eventually fall down.

THRED PA’I THA NI DREL WA TE

At the end of meeting comes separation;

SÖN PO’I THA NI CHI WA YIN

At the end of life comes death.

SÖD PAR THRID PA’I TSÖN ZHIN DU

Like a prisoner being led to execution,

GOM RE BOR ZHIN CHI DANG NYE

Each step that he takes leads closer to death.

KYE WA YÖD NA CHI WA YÖD

If there is birth, there is death.

DAR WA YÖD NA GÜD PA YÖD

If there is expansion, there is regression.

LANG TSHO DE YANG MI TAG TE

Youth is also impermanent

DAR WA’I DOG KYANG NED KYI THROG

For even illness can steal the dexterity of youth.

TSHO WA’I TSHE YANG CHI WE THROG

The happiness of life is robbed by death.

TAG PA’I CHÖ NI GANG YANG MED

There is nothing of this world that is permanent.

GANG DU NE KYANG CHI WE MI TSHUG PA’I

No matter where one stays, there is no escape from death.

SA CHOG DE NI GANG DU-ANG YÖD MIN TE

There is no direction where death does not exist.

BAR NANG NA MED GYATSHO’I DENG NA-ANG MED

There is no escape in the atmosphere nor in the depths

of the ocean,

RI WO NAM KYI DRAG NA-ANG YÖD MA YIN

Nor is there any escape inside, over the crest of the mountains.

Contemplation on Cause and Effect

LE NAM KYANG NI NA TSHOG LE

All karma is the culmination of various activities.

DE YI DRO DI NA TSHOG JE

Therefore sentient beings possess various types of karma.

LE KYI GYU DRE MED PAR GANG DÖD PA

Whosoever believes that one’s actions do not produce specific causes and results

DE NI MU TEG CHED PAR TA WA YIN

Maintains a nihilistic, atheistic view.

SHI MA THAG TU NAR MED NYAL WAR KYE

At the moment of death, rebirth will be taken in the lowest hell realm.

DE YI RANG PHUNG ZHEN YANG LAG PAR CHED

Such a view is self-destructive and detrimental to others.

ME NI DRANG WAR GYUR YANG SID

It is possible for fire to become cold.

LUNG NI ZHAG PE JIN YANG SID

It is possible to catch wind with a lasso.

NYI DA THANG LA LHUNG YANG SID

It is also possible for the sun and moon to fall to the earth.

LE KYI NAM MIN LU MI SID

It is never possible for the maturation of karma to be deceptive.

KHYÖD KYI DRAM ZE GELONG LHA DANG NI

If for the sake of Rishis (holy men), fully ordained monks,

gods and

DRÖN DANG YAB YUM DAG DANG TSÜN MO DANG

Your guests, the Guru, the consort and royalty,

KHOR GYI LED DU DIG PA MI CHA TE

If you accumulate negative karma in order to serve them,

NYAL WA’I NAM MIN KAL NÖD GA MA CHI

This is also a small cause which produces the ripening result of rebirth in the hells.

DIG PA’I LE NAM CHÖD PA GA YANG NI

Whatever negative karma one accumulates

DE YI MÖD LA TSHÖN ZHIN MI CHÖD DE

Does not ripen instantaneously like being pierced by a weapon.

CHI WA’I DÜ LA BAB NA DIG PA YI

When the time of death arrives, one’s negative karma will

LE KYI DRE BU GANG LAG NGÖN SUM GYUR

Produce the result of exactly whatever was caused.

Contemplation on the Benefits of Virtue

YI GE DRI CHÖD CHIN PA DANG

Composition, offering, generosity and

NYEN DANG LOG DANG DZIN PA DANG

Attentiveness, recitation, memorization and

CHED DANG KHA TÖN CHA WA DANG

Teaching, praying,

DE SEM PA DANG GOM PA TE

Contemplation and meditation

CHÖD PA DI CHU’I DAG NYID NI

Are the ten activities which

SÖD NAM PHUNG PO PAG MED THOB

Generate an immeasurable abundance of merit.

DÜ SU JIN PA JIN CHED NA

If the practice of generosity is consistently performed,

SHI YANG DE NI SHI MA YIN

Such a person may seemingly die, but not an ordinary death,

GYAG ZANG WA YI DRÖN PO ZHIN

Like a traveler who is fully prepared for whatever occurs.

SANGYE CHÖ DANG GENDUN LA

If, for the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

PÖ SAM MAR ME CHIG TSAM MAM

Incense or one simple butter lamp,

ME TOG CHIG TSAM CHÖD CHE NA

A flower or anything is consistently offered,

MI YO’I ZHING DER KYE WAR GYUR

Rebirth is taken in the Realm of unmovable Samadhi.

Contemplation on the Faults of Non-Virtue

CHAG DANG ZHE DANG TI MUG DANG

From attachment, hatred and delusion

DE KYED LE NI MI GE WA

Non-virtuous karma is generated.

MI GE WA LE DUG NGAL KÜN

All suffering arises from non-virtuous karma,

DE ZHIN NGEN DRO THAM CHED DO

And likewise, it causes all beings to be reborn in lower realms.

ZHE DANG GI NI NYAL WAR PHEN

Due to hatred one is thrown into the hell realm.

CHAG PE YI DAG JIG TEN DRO

Due to attachment one enters the world of hungry spirits.

MONG PE PHEL CHER DÜD DROR DRO

The usual result of delusion is rebirth as an animal.

DOG PA LHA DANG MI NYID DO

The opposite is rebirth as a god or human being.

Contemplation on the Faults of Cyclic Existence

YI DAG NA YANG DÖD PE PHONG PA YI

Because hungry spirits are so obsessed by desire,

KYED PA’I DUG NGAL GYÜN CHAG MI ZÖD PA

They generate continual, unbearable suffering.

TRE KOM DRANG DANG DRO DANG JIG PA YI

Due to their fear of hunger, thirst, heat and cold,

KYED PA SHIN TU MI ZED TEN TSHAL LO

They manifest these experiences and extreme, unbearable suffering ensues.

YI DAG NAM LA SÖ KA’I DÜ SU NI

During the summer months, all hungry spirits

DA WA TSHA LA GÜN NI NYI MA-ANG DRANG

Experience the moon to be hot and the sun to be cold.

JÖN SHING DRE BU MED GYUR DE DAG GI

Fruit-bearing trees disappear before them, and

TE PA TSAM GYI LUNG YANG KAM PAR GYUR

As soon as they see a great body of water, it evaporates.

KHA CHIG KHA NI KHAB KYI MIG TSAM LA

Some hungry spirits’ mouths are no larger than a needle,

TO WA RI RAB TÖ TSAM TRE PE NYEN

Yet they suffer from the hunger produced by their empty stomachs, the size of Mt. Meru.

MI TSANG GYI NA BOR WA CHUNG NGU YANG

Even though the unclean things we discard are small in comparison,

TSAL WA’I THU DANG NÜ PA MA CHI SO

Hungry spirits do not even have the strength or power to

find them.

DÜD DRO’I KYE NE NA YANG SÖD PA DANG

Animals from birth are raised to be killed,

CHING DANG DEG SOG DUG NGAL NA TSHOG DANG

Undergoing various types of suffering, such as being tied up, whipped, beaten, and so forth.

ZHI GYUR GE WA PONG WA NAM LA NI

All those beings who ignored the peaceful causes of virtue

CHIG LA CHIG ZA DUG NGAL MI ZED PA

Kill and eat one another, experiencing suffering impossible

to bear.

KHA CHIG MU TIG BAL DANG RÜ PA DANG

Some are killed for the pearl they produce, wool, tusk, bone, and

SHA DANG PAG PA’I CHED DU CHI WAR GYUR

Some must lose their life because of their own flesh and skin.

WANG MED ZHEN DAG TSHÖN CHA NÖN PO DANG

Powerless, they are poked by others who possess sharp weapons,

CHAG DANG CHAG KYÜ TAB TE DEG TE KÖL

Whipped and hooked to be put to work by others.

SEM CHEN NYE PA’I LE LA CHÖD PA NAM

All beings who have accrued the karma of harming others

MANG PÖ THIG NAG RAB TU TSHA WA NAM

Will be reborn in the extreme heat of the Black Line Hell Realm,

DÜ JOM NGU BÖD NAR MED LA SOG PA

Wailing in the Hell Realm of Continuous Destruction, or the lowest Hell Realm of all,

NYAL WA NAM SU RAB TU DUG NGAL GYUR

All those in hell will certainly experience extreme discomfort.

DI NA MI CHIG DUNG THUNG SUM GYA YI

For instance, if a man were pierced just now three hundred times with a spear,

RAB TU DRAG TAB DUG NGAL GANG LAG PA

Knowing how incredibly intense the pain would be,

DE NI NYAL WA’I DUG NGAL CHUNG NGU LA

This pain is nothing compared to the suffering in the realms

of hell.

Ö YANG MA YIN CHAR YANG MI PHÖD DO

In fact, it is not possible to try to measure any comparison.

NYAL WA DRI PA THONG DANG THÖ PA DANG

We have seen drawings depicting the hell realms and have heard about them as well.

DREN NAM LAG GAM ZUG SU GYI PE KYANG

Even if we try to contemplate upon them, read or draw an image,

DUG NGAL KYE WAR GYUR NA MI ZED PA’I

The suffering that is felt, in itself, is unbearable.

NAM MIN NYAM SU NYONG NA MÖ CHI GÖ

Is there any question about what it would be like if we were actually experiencing the results of such karma?

DE TAR DUG NGAL SHIN TU MI ZED LO

Thus this kind of suffering is truly beyond our ability to bear.

CHE WA THRAG GYAR NYAM SU NYONG YANG NI

Even if one must experience this for one hundred million years,

JI SID MI GE DE ZED MA GYUR PAR

Until the karma that one previously accumulated is fully exhausted,

DE SID SOG DANG DREL WAR MI GYUR RO

It is simply not possible to end one’s life in that realm!

MI NAM TSHO WA THUNG WE NYAM

The shortness of human life is degenerating.

LHA MIN THAB CHING TSÖD PE NYAM

The quarreling and aggression of Titans (jealous gods) is degenerating.

LHA NAM BAG MED PA YI NYAM

The unconscientious manner of Devas (long-life gods) is degenerating.

KHOR WA KHAB KYI TSE TSAM NA

In cyclic existence there is not even a needle’s worth of happiness,

DE WA NAM YANG YÖD MA YIN

And there never will be.

KHOR WA’I NYE MIG THONG WA NA

When one sees the faults of the state of cyclic existence,

KYO WA’I SEM NI RAB TU KYED

Intense sorrow wells up from within.

KHAM SUM TSÖN RA JIG PE NA

This terrifying jail of the three realms,

TSÖN PA’I SEM KYI PANG WAR CHA

I shall completely abandon with enthusiastic persistence!

(While reciting this, carefully consider the meaning.)

Incense Offering

From: “Great Perfection Buddha In the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practices Ngondro” as revealed by Vidydhara Terton Migyur Dorje

TSHÜL THRIM DRI DEN PÖ CHOG DAM PA DI

This pure, supreme incense, which bears the scent of pure discipline,

TING DZIN NGAG DANG CHAG GYA’I CHIN LAB KYI

By the blessing of mantra, mudra and samadhi,

SANGYE ZHING DU PÖ DRI NGED DANG WA

Is offered to the Realm of the Buddhas.  May this aromatic incense

GYAL WA GYATSHO’I TSHOG NAM NYE GYUR CHIG

Completely please and satisfy the ocean-like assembly of Buddhas!

NAMA SARWA TATHAGATHA BENZAR DHUPE PRATITSA PUDZA MEGHA SAMUDRA SAPHA RA NA SAMAYE AH HUNG

Pride and Ego: Dangers on the Path

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

All karma is the culmination of various activities. Therefore sentient beings possess various types of karma. Whosoever believes that one’s actions do not produce specific causes and results maintains a nihilistic, atheistic view. At the moment of death rebirth will be taken in the lowest hell realm. Such a view is self-destructive and detrimental to others.  ~ The Great Perfection: Buddha in the Palm of the Hand – Nam Cho Ngondro

In this view, one is unable to discern what to accept or what to reject, which is a necessity in practicing the path purely and with comprehension.

It is never possible for the maturation of karma to be deceptive. Whatever negative karma one accumulates does not ripen instantaneously like being pierced by a weapon. When the time of death arrives one’s negative karma will produce the result of whatever was caused.  ~ The Great Perfection: Buddha in the Palm of the Hand – Nam Cho Ngondro

What is amazing in these times is that no one believes in cause and result. Not really. Even some Dharma students don’t grasp it. We all continue to revolve in the cycle of birth and death, yet do not ask why we cannot be free from this endless wandering. We think, I suppose, that enlightenment is instant, a piece of cake. And therefore one is no longer susceptible to these irrefutable laws.  One is above it all. So it is the ego and pride that defeat one’s efforts. One simply does not have the power to walk the path of Dharma as it is.

Having failed that, then one makes up one’s own path and cannot see that there is a difference. Therefore, without the proper path one fails to attain, and lives under the delusion that one has already attained. This is the method for the destruction of the Dharma. And this is the destruction of purity and method. This will end the potency of the method eventually.

Do not abandon wholesome, pure Dharma! If one abandons pure Dharma, one will harm oneself, and be of no benefit whatsoever.

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