Understanding Cause and Result: an Introduction by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Today I’m going to give an overview of the preliminary practices and how to do them because there are many little children and maybe parents would like their children to learn some Dharma.  I would imagine you have that hope.  Otherwise, what else is there to do for the little naughty things that they should learn? I will speak about the preliminary practices also for those of you who are new. Those of you who have heard these teachings before, it’s no problem to listen again for however much we can hear the Dharma, it should help us and improve us.  So Dharma is not necessarily ever repetitive.

I’m not saying that I am learned.  I am just repeating what is found in the scriptures, in the Dharma books.

Initially it is very important to believe in the law of cause and result, which is referred to as karma, the truth of karma.  For as long as we are human beings, on the path of the vehicle of humans, that is the basic view—believing in the law of cause and result.  If one doesn’t believe in this, then what would that be like?  That would be like thinking there is no result based on what we caused, that there is no ripening of our actions or thoughts. To believe like this is considered to be an incorrect view, a mistaken view. So again, to reiterate a mistaken view would be thinking that if I do something good, the result will not necessarily follow in harmony with that cause.  If I do something bad, if I accumulate a non-virtue, the result will not be suffering—just not believing that this is how things work.  So that’s considered to be incorrect understanding or a mistaken view.  It’s very important to know that believing in the truth of cause and result to be infallible is the basic view of a human being.

A human being means an individual who has the capacity to think, to speak, to understand, to comprehend, to comprehend the meanings of words in a deeper sense. So, as long as we are born in this kind of body as a human, then if we believe in a religion or a spiritual pursuit, the basis is believing in the law of cause and result, which means believing that the seeds that you sow are what you will receive.  This seems to be the basic view for all religions, not just Buddhism.  Throughout the entire world, anyone who is following the path of righteousness, or that which is worthy of believing in, has to believe like this.  If not, I can’t imagine that that would be a religious pursuit.

Disbelieving in cause and result would be like becoming a communist.  A communist view is that, for the most part, this is not worth considering, although, even communists would tell us don’t steal, don’t lie. There are certain disciplines that were enforced that are also based on the notion of cause and result because they are saying if you do this, such and such negative thing will occur. So don’t do that based on that reason.  In other words, the idea is that through this particular cause that result will occur.  And so, that is actually cause and result, even though they claim that this is not a valid view.

I wonder what the children think this means.  This means, according to your level, following the truth of what it is your parents tell you not to do.  Like if your parents say don’t touch fire, the reason is because if you touch the fire, you’ll burn your finger.  So that’s why parents say don’t touch fire. Because according to cause and result, touching fire means burning your finger and suffering. Or if parents tell you don’t kill bugs or if they tell you don’t steal or don’t lie or don’t drink or don’t smoke, or go to school, then if you listen to your parent’s advice, then that means that you will be responsible, good and noble.  If you don’t, you will be irresponsible, ignoble and there will be problems.  Likewise for adults.  Keeping the rules of the government means that your life will be smooth.  Keeping the rules of the Dharma as a Dharma practitioner—the words of honor and the vows—means that your practice will go well.  But if there is no discipline to check in this way about the law of cause and result, following what is right and wrong carefully, then just thinking, “Well, I am just going to do things my way,” then that really is just becoming crazy, becoming silly or stupid and showing that you don’t have any qualities at all.  Someone who follows rules nicely is someone who develops wonderful qualities. The inability to be able to do that really comes from inflated ego or pride, which is just great self-cherishing based on delusion.  Of course, children don’t know this yet, so children need to be told and guided, but adults do know this and they should know how to guide themselves.

That is why there are always rules and guidelines in life in terms of a country, our area, our families, our school, the military, the church, the temple.  Human beings always have rules and guidelines and regulations to observe.  Even animals have their own rules and guidelines.  That’s why we must learn what these are and follow them.  In terms of Dharma practice, that means with seeing and contemplating and learning so that we can be able to identify and acknowledge mistaken directions.  So rather than that, just thinking, “I am so great, I know everything, I don’t need to learn anything,” is like a mountain sheep with big horns, really not so great.  Even if you are rich, even if you are a great scholar, if you have great pride in this way, you are just shaming yourself.

But please be careful.  It’s not enough to just know how to play.

That’s why it is so important to study and contemplate, especially if one does not know these things.  America is a very good country because in the schools children are taught how to be decent human beings.  They are given many amazing opportunities, inconceivable opportunities, to learn many different things.  That is not the case in other countries;  these opportunities don’t exist.  So we have to think about the possibilities of our environment and how fortunate we are and appreciate that and make the most of it.

According to the path of Buddhaist practice now, the subject of non-virtue involves ten specific non-virtues: three of the body, four of the speech and three of the mind.  These ten are meant to be abandoned. And then the opposite of that non-virtue is meant to be engaged which becomes the virtue—the ten virtues.  By abandoning and engaging, then, there are two steps and one is able to accumulate two good deeds.  In terms of the first non-virtue of the body—killing—by avoiding, abandoning killing, one has accumulated the good deed of that abandonment; and then by going on to save life, one is performing or engaging in the virtue, which is the opposite of killing. So there are two, not only just one, not just only abandoning killing, although that is one stage in the virtue; then protecting and saving life is the second, which completes that.  In the case of stealing, not only just abandoning stealing or taking that which is not given, but going on to express generosity, to be generous in various ways.  In the case of adultery, not just only abandoning adultery, but going on to practice discipline. So these are the three non-virtues of the body. And the corresponding virtues of the speech, of course, not just only abandoning lying, but always trying to tell the truth and so on like this.  Each non-virtue has its opposite, which is the virtue.

https://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/2011/09/ten-virtues-and-ten-non-virtues/

The Four Immeasurables by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

The following is an excerpt from a public talk given by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

What is the benefit of taking refuge in a great teacher such as Buddha? Why would we want to do that? Is it so we can become more worldly, have more worldly power and develop worldly qualities? Actually, it’s for just the opposite reason. If we take refuge in a great spiritual teacher and follow a true spiritual path, we will achieve happiness, and many obstacles in our life will be removed. But the most important point to consider is the way that refuge affects our mind and prepares us for future lifetimes. The duration of this life is a very short period of time. Rather than be concerned with this life alone, it is far more important to think about endless time and what happens after this life.

This is why we take refuge in a spiritual guide, and why we should do it without any doubt, with a mind that is single-pointedly aware of the qualities and accomplishments of that object of refuge. It is important to recognize what those qualities and accomplishments are, and to understand that exactly that is what we wish to actualize, and will actualize, if we follow the path our object of refuge presents to us. So, without a lazy, slothful attitude, and without any doubts, we must follow an object of refuge.

At the same time, we must consider that up until now, throughout all of our past lifetimes, we have tried to accomplish our own purpose, focusing only on our self, but we haven’t been able to accomplish even that. Wouldn’t it be wiser to exchange self for others and focus on how to be of benefit to others? If we think in this way, and exchange our self-cherishing attitude for the wish to benefit others, automatically we benefit our self. This is really the only way to benefit our self. By thinking of others, automatically we experience happiness.

To work for the welfare of others, we must first of all have the aspiration, the wish to do so. In this wishing, we must first develop a sense of the equality of all that lives; we must recognize that all beings are truly equal. Then we must develop love for them all equally, compassion for them all equally, and joy for them all equally. When we are able to develop these four qualities—equanimity, love, compassion, and joy—we can then engage in practices in our daily life to actually bring benefit to beings, practices such as generosity, patience, ethics, perseverance, concentration, wisdom, and so forth.

Compassion for others is developed by seeing that all living beings without exception, as long as they remain on the wheel of existence, exist in a state of suffering and discontent because they haven’t been able to realize the true nature of their own minds. Seeing them like this, suffering in all their different predicaments, we feel compassion for them. It is just how we would feel if our own child were to be thrown into prison and we would see him, or her, suffering there.

Love arises when we then develop the wish that these beings may be free from their suffering. For instance, we certainly feel compassion and pity for our child who is suffering in prison, but along with that we also have a strong desire that our child be liberated from that experience of suffering. That strong desire is love.

Then, the happiness we feel when we see others established in a state of permanent happiness or bliss is joy. We naturally feel joy when we see others happy and liberated from their suffering.

Finally, equanimity is the experience of compassion and love and joy for all living beings equally, without any partiality. For instance, if we have two children in jail, we feel the same about each of them, not loving one more than the other, not wanting one to be free of the condition of suffering more than the other. Exactly in this way, we must develop love and compassion equally for all living beings.

Compassion, love, joy, and equanimity are what is called “aspirational bodhichitta”, and because we have this for all living beings, which are limitless, these four qualities are called the “four immeasurables”. If we have them as a foundation, then any activity we engage in will be virtuous and positive. Actualizing our bodhichitta aspiration, putting it into action in our daily life, will produce powerful, positive results. But if we don’t have this foundation we won’t achieve the same results. Doing good things without compassion, love, joy, and equanimity simply doesn’t accomplish the same results at all. This point is extremely important.

 

Update on Prayers for Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

In March of this year,  Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo received word that Orgyen Dorje Den was organizing the accumulation of 1,000,000 Vajrakilaya mantras for Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche. She immediately had the request posted on her blog, and students at her center, Kunzang Palyul Choling, contributed to this effort. Today word was received that this auspicious aspiration has been accomplished by Rinpoche’s students and others world wide. In the message received, Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche states, “”Thank you so much. This was not just for my life, but for the removal of obstacles of everyone.” and when his students offered to continue accumulating, his response was, “”Sure, why not?  Why not do 100 million?” Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo has asked that her students join Rinpoche’s students in continuing the accumulations. Here is the email message from Orgyen Dorje Den:

Dear Sangha Friends,

We’ve done it!

With our September tally, our total is 10,174,615 Vajrakilaya Mantras!

Many thanks to all who, through faith and devotion to Gyatrul Rinpoche, have contributed to this collective effort.  How wonderful for all the various sanghas to work together for one purpose!

Rinpoche was very pleased to hear the news, and said “Thank you so much. This was not just for my life, but for the removal of obstacles of everyone.”

We would like to invite everyone to keep going with Vajrakilaya recitations, informally and without a monthly commitment, to continue to benefit our guru and ourselves.  To this, Rinpoche said, “Sure, why not?  Why not do 100 million?”

We couldn’t agree more!

Thanks again,
Scott Globus & Angela Zaragoza

While Ven. Yangthang Rinpoche was at ODD for the Rinchen Terzod in February 2011, he was consulted about what practices would be best to enhance and extend Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche’s life and general state of health. He indicated that if 10 million Vajrakilaya mantras were accumulated in the next year that that effort may have a significant effect on Rinpoche’s life span, removing obstacles to his health and well-being. Surely this is an outcome we all wish for and here is a proposed method that we can contribute to and help make it happen.

Gyatrul Rinpoche gave this outreach effort his support as it will involve many of the sangha and will help him as well as remove obstacles to all of our lives and practice. He said “Excellent. Go for it. This clears everyones obstacles–it’s a collective karma anyway, so go ahead and begin”.

Please feel free to forward to other practitioners.

Orgyen Dorje Den
2244 Santa Clara Ave
Alameda, CA 94501

www.orgyendorjeden.org

Introduction to Buddhism: An Overview by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

The following is from a public talk offered by the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

First of all, it’s important to understand that the term Buddhism means the inner pursuit, turning inside rather than outside. What we look at within ourselves is the nature of our own mind. We engage in the inner pursuit to root out the delusions and to actualize our highest potential. Once we have decided to engage in this inner pursuit, we may find we need guidance, that we need a teacher.

The teacher we choose should be one who has already realized the nature of his or her mind and is liberated from the round of cyclic existence. Otherwise, if we follow a teacher or teachings that arise from someone who is still in the world, still worldly, then, because such a person is no different from us, it is not possible for him to help us in a meaningful way. When we engage in the inner pursuit, which means the spiritual pursuit, we do so because we want to improve our inner self. So it’s important that the teacher we find has already accomplished the result that we want to achieve.

How do we know that a teacher is qualified in this way? According to the Buddhist path, it is an accepted fact that Lord Buddha Shakyamuni is such a teacher. Born Prince Siddhartha, and destined to be the most powerful king of India at that time, he renounced all of his worldly power and wealth because he saw that the nature of cyclic existence is suffering. Wishing to understand the true nature of life and the true nature of reality, he pursued the spiritual path until he attained the state of full enlightenment, the state of awakening, which is characterized by tremendous compassion and concern for all living beings and their awakening.

Biography of Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

Biography of Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab – Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche is Kunzang Sherab’s current incarnation.

Prayers for Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

We received the following communication from the sangha of Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche, one of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo’s root teachers. At Jetsunma’s request we are sharing this information with you:

Dear Students and Friends of Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche,

While Ven. Yangthang Rinpoche was at ODD, he was consulted about what practices would be best to enhance and extend Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche’s life and general state of health. He indicated that if 10 million Vajrakilaya mantras were accumulated in the next year that that effort may have a significant effect on Rinpoche’s life span, removing obstacles to his health and well-being. Surely this is an outcome we all wish for and here is a proposed method that we can contribute to and help make it happen.

While 10 million seems like a big number, if at least 40 people can accomplish 1000 mantras per day that would yield more than 25,000 per month, per person…or 1,000,000 per month for the group….and then in 10 months, 10 million can be accomplished. If one uses the short Dudjom Tersar daily practice of Vajrakilaya accumulation of 1000 mantras may require just 20-30 minutes per day. So consider that! But you can also do more or less according to your time.

Additionally, our sanghas can gather as a group at the centers, and prayers will be requested from monks & nuns in monasteries in Tibet, Nepal & India. But if we, the students, can collectively accomplish this, then we can be certain that we have fulfilled Yangthang Rinpoche’s guidance and anything more will serve to bolster our accumulation.

Gyatrul Rinpoche gave this outreach effort his support as it will involve many of the sangha and will help him as well as remove obstacles to all of our lives and practice. He said “Excellent. Go for it. This clears everyones obstacles–it’s a collective karma anyway, so go ahead and begin”.

Please reply to this email indicating what you can commit to accomplishing. If many of us can do 1000 per day that would result in a minimum of 25,000 per month. If you feel like you can do more, that is also fine, and of course, if you prefer to commit to a lower number, that is fine as well. Once a month we will send a reminder email out to which you can send in your monthly totals so we can keep track and keep you posted.

Please feel free to forward to other practitioners.

Orgyen Dorje Den

2244 Santa Clara Ave

Alameda, CA 94501

Email: [email protected]

For those who do not have the Vajrakilaya Empowerment but wish to offer prayers in support of the long life of Gyaltrul Rinpoche, Jetsunma has said the 7 Line Prayer may be accumulated. You may also see the Long Life Prayer for Gyaltrul Rinpoche.

Long Life Prayer for Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche

NGE PA DÖN GYI LUNG TOG TEN PA’I SOG

Ngedön Chökyi Nyima, you are the life of the teachings of scripture and realization,

SANG CHEN CHÖ KYI NYI MA’I ÖD ZER GYI

You are the sun’s radiance of the great secret Dharma.

DRO WA’I YID KYI MÜN PA RAB SEL WA

Clarifier of the darkness in the minds of sentient beings,

NA TSHOG RANG DRÖL ZHAB LA SÖL WA DEB

At the feet of Na-tsog Rang Drol I pray.

GANG GI NAM PAR THAR PA’I JE ZHUG TE

Fully Liberating whosoever follows you,

DRO PHEN TRIN LE DRUB LA NYER TSÖN PA

Particularly diligent in accomplishing miraculous activities that benefit all beings.

TSHÜNG ME SHED DRUB TEN PA’I GYAL TSEN GYI

Unequaled, you are the victory banner showing explanations for accomplishing the practice.

ZHAB PED TEN CHING DZED TRIN THAR JIN SHOG

Planting your lotus feet firmly, please complete your miraculous activity!

Composed by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

Meal Blessing

SHORT CHENREZIG MEAL BLESSING

THE BLESSING:

Visualize that the offerings are purified and increase.

OM AH HUNG

THE OFFERING PRAYER:

Remembering the Three Jewels, take refuge and offer the food visualized as a vast display.

TÖN PA LA MED SANGYE RINPOCHE

To the unsurpassed teacher, the precious Buddha,

KYOB PA LA MED DAM CHÖ RINPOCHE

To the unsurpassed refuge, the precious holy Dharma,

DREN PA LA MED GEN DÜN RINPOCHE

To the unsurpassed guide, the precious Sangha,

KYAB NE KÖN CHOG SUM LA CHÖD PA BÜL

This offering is made to the three supreme and rare Jewels of Refuge.

THE PRACTICE:

Visualize oneself as the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, white in color, with one face and four arms.  Two palms are pressed together at the heart and the outer two hands are holding a crystal mala in the right and a lotus in the left.  Adorned with jewels and silks, you are seated in the full lotus posture upon a lotus and moon seat.

JOWO KYÖN GYI MA GÖ KU DOG KAR

To the unstained Lord, whose body is white in color,

DZOG SANGYE KYI U LA GYEN

Whose head is adorned with a perfect Buddha,

THUG JE’I CHEN GYI DRO LA ZIG

Who views living beings with the eyes of compassion,

CHENREZIG LA SÖL WA DEB

To Avalokiteshvara I pray.

THE MANTRA RECITATION:

Recite the Mani Mantra as many times as possible.

OM MANI PEDME HUNG

While reciting the mantra, recall all sentient beings, who have passed away, especially those who lost their lives in the preparation of the meal, and generate compassion for them.  Expand your awareness to include even the insects that were harmed in the course of raising, transporting or cooking the vegetables and grains.  If one has received the empowerment of Avalokiteshvara, by this prayer and recitation one will maintain the samaya commitment.

THE DEDICATION:

Meditate that all beings attain the state of liberation through this prayer.

GEWA DI YI NYUR DU DAG

By the virtue of this practice, myself

CHENREZIG WANG DRUB GYUR NE

Accomplishing swiftly Lord Avalokiteshvara,

DRO WA CHIG KYANG MA LÜ PA

May all beings without exception

DE YI SA LA GÖD PAR SHOG

Be liberated to his level!

This concise food blessing was composed of various traditional Tibetan Buddhist prayers by the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche for his students.  May it be of benefit.

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