Серия ежедневной практики, курс 01 — Мандала шагов к просветлению (1999, Реддинг), занятие 6

[Speaker 2]
Session six.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we'll do a short meditation, and go to that last room, Triangle Room. Death. What other great things?

Fire. While you're at the fire, you're supposed to do a karma review, of the four principles of karma, and then try to wipe out your old bad deeds. Okay?

What are the four principles of karma? In Tibetan, which is what? Good gives good, and bad gives bad, and never any other way.

Okay? So if something bad happens to you after you did something good, there's no connection. Okay?

LAS PA'I PHAL CHE BA Karma increases exponentially. Every twenty-four hours. Two power?

Yeah. Third one? LAS MA BYAS PA DANG MA BYAS PA If you don't do a karma, you won't get a result, so don't sit there hoping for a check if you didn't do any work.

And... LAS BYAS PA CHU MI TSAL Once you do it... Once you commit a karma, don't sit there hoping it's going to go away by itself.

Okay? So you're supposed to think about that while you watch the flame. And then, dump in your snakes, scorpions, bad deeds, tarantulas, etc., from the coffin, so you don't travel with them. And then, go over and do the... rhinestone...no, diamond robe. Okay?

Which is an act of refuge. Okay? Think of some act of refuge.

Like, someone gave you some bad news, and you just smile and say, Okay, how do we fix that? Alright? Something like that.

Do it for...we'll do about ten, fifteen minutes. Okay. Okay, we'll stop there.

Remember the function of that room is to keep you out of the lower realms. Okay? Not to die with those bugs in there.

Alright? Now we'll go to the second verse. Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Can I ask, what do you do with the text in your head as you go from room to room?

[Speaker 1]
What do you mean, the text in your head? Do you recite the text as you're going, as you're in the room? I would recite it...

You could do it either way. You could recite the whole thing before, or recite it and stop. Personally, I find it distracting.

You know? I would recite the whole thing first, maybe. And, because...

And you don't have any words at all, as you're... I think it's better, you know... Reciting was meant to facilitate that, and not vice versa.

You see what I mean? And it became corrupt a little bit, I think. People recite things and don't think about them anymore.

I'd rather people went to the rooms mentally and thought about the concepts, than I'm not so worried about whether they recited or not. You see what I mean? Because that's the whole point of the words.

And sometimes it gets the other way around, I think. In the monastery, they have these big reciting contests, and then nobody knows what it's about, you know? And it's strange.

It's a corruption. You know what I mean? So I'd say it's a blessing to recite the whole thing.

Recite it before, maybe. And then go through the rooms. Or you could stop in each one.

But I personally would find that that would break the continuity a little bit. You know, I'd rather close my eyes and go through each of the rooms in order, as a shargo, you know, as a review meditation. But it's very holy to recite Jatsangkapa's words, and that's important, too.

But if I had a choice, I'd do the... With the images, would you go to jego? Yeah, if you need one.

You see, jego means, like, you're not quite sure you're going to die, or that you're going to take your karma with you, and you stop and think about it. Yeah, that would be... You can shift in and out from a review meditation to an analysis meditation, yeah.

That's okay. Okay, number two. We'll recite it.

Page 36. Okay, one, two, three. Bless me first to realize that the excellent life of leisure I have found, just this once, is ever so hard to find and ever so valuable.

Grant me then to wish, never stop to wish, that I could take its essence night and day. Okay, so, what you see here is you open up the back of the triangle room, which is a point, right? And it's a double door.

I see it as a big double gate, and it leads out. And if you've ever seen the ghats in India that lead into the river, these steps that go down into the water, and see a big moat around the building, and there's a big river there, and the steps go down into the water, and see a boat. Like, I see like a small Viking rowboat.

I don't like wimpy little rowboats, you know. I like a 20-foot boat, you know. And this is a boat, how you get to the building, across the moat, okay?

And this comes from del-ngor duje mi ta-ten pa-yi pa-den ka-pa kyur-pa len-dey ki tung-be nu-ma rak-yi ku It's in your sadhana. But the boat represents this body and mind that you were born with. Okay?

The ten of del-ngor, meaning leisure and fortune. Okay? Eighteen leisures and fortunes.

And you can go through the standard list, and like that, and it's in the book. But, and the book only mentions leisures, and then he says why, and then he says you also have fortunes, and then he goes through them, and... But the main point is this, that the next lam-gyur-rim-pa, going backwards, the next step of the path is to, is to contemplate how precious your opportunity is.

You know, what a good chance you have. Len-jig-nye-pa-dey-way-den-chor-di means, you're only going to get it once. And then the text goes on to say, this is an exaggeration.

Actually, you can get it every billion years or so. You know? Okay?

More, actually, right? But the point is to, to be in a healthy body, to be able to think straight, to have any attraction for this stuff. I mean, you are one in a million already.

You know, people ask me, what should I do when I get depressed? You know, Pabongka Rinpoche said, just contemplate the fact that even though you're not capable of doing Dharma very well, at least you're interested in it. And that already makes you one in a million.

You know what I mean? There's not more than, than a few hundred serious Dharma students. Well, maybe a thousand in this country or something.

But anyway, you're already one in a million. To be healthy, to be thinking straight, to have met authentic Buddhism. You know, the authentic texts of ancient Buddhism, to be able to go to courses in them, to have friends who are interested in it.

You know, these are all like border on the impossible. And that's how they describe it. Like all the things that are going right in your life.

You have exposure to tantric teachings, which is the most incredible. You know, you have qualified teachers. You have authentic texts at your disposal.

You know, you have a healthy body. You have a place to stay. You have enough to eat.

You live in a country where you're not going to get beat up or hit on the head if you say you're a Buddhist. You know, all of these things are extraordinary. You live in a country where they think it's important to have religious freedom.

You know, this is extremely rare in the history of mankind. You are one in a billion if you look at the history of mankind. You know, you have time to practice Dharma.

You live in a country where food is plentiful enough that you can do all... I mean, everything about the chance you have right now is totally extraordinary. You know, totally, totally impossible.

What you have now, this moment in time for you, this window of opportunity is unbelievable. And no one in America has had that up till now. And here you are.

And you're on the border of it. I also think of it as fortunate that we are in the first generation of Buddhists. You see?

Because you don't have all the fairy tales that come with the second and third generation about, you know, St. Winston and... You know, you don't have all that. We don't have that baggage yet.

You see? We're in a fresh place where we can see it for what it is. And we can use it.

You know, it's all fresh. It's all accurate. We're not loaded down.

We don't have yet Dharma infighting. And, you know, it's all fresh now. And you get to be the first translator of such and such a text.

Or, you know, you get to be the first American who did this meditation. And I think in many ways we're very lucky. This is the golden times of Buddhism.

These are the Kadampas of America. And you're there. You're in on it at the opening.

And I think very exciting, very wonderful times. Have a very, very pure tradition coming from Tibet and being taught by very holy people. I mean, I once checked every word in the Abhidharmakosha to see if it matches Sanskrit.

And there was one word difference in 150 pages. And that's because the verse just wouldn't fit it. There's too many words, and they had to use an extra line.

And it's like that. The Tibetans kept it very purely, and they're giving it to us for free. And very rare.

So, think about all those things. When you see the boat, okay? So, you've been taken across this, the water.

And that gets you to the first door, which is the kye bu chung, beginning capacity, smaller capacity. By the way, the boat is considered a preliminary in this text, okay? So, it doesn't count as a room yet, all right?

It's just how you get to the first room, okay? From the outside. So, the fact that you have all these things working for you, okay, is the boat.

The boat represents that, okay? So, we'll do a tiny meditation on the boat, okay? And you can read the other ones, you know, you haven't been born as an animal, you haven't been born as a hungry ghost, you live in a place where the Dharma has reached, you know, things like that.

But the things I said to me are the most relevant things. Those freedoms relating to the environment you live in, are those what are mentioned later, like in the later verses, as the...

[Speaker 2]
If you didn't have them, would it be external obscurations?

[Speaker 1]
What are the internal and external obscurations? They divide them into freedoms that relate to yourself and freedoms that relate to others. And that would be, yeah, you're not handicapped, you're not retarded, you don't have a low Dharma IQ, you know, where somebody starts talking about Buddhism and you start yawning or something like that.

You see what I mean? Those are internal. And then external is, you know, there's no religious persecution to speak of in this country.

And things like that, those are external, okay? They're in the book, five external, five internal.

[Speaker 2]
But they're...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, they're at this section, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
What does the Essence refer to, that I could take as Essence?

[Speaker 1]
This is maybe not a very good translation of a Tibetan word, Nyingbo Lemba, which means, to get the most out of something. So, not to waste the opportunity. So, take the Essence in Tibetan means, you don't blow the opportunity.

Take the Essence means, you get the most out of the opportunity you have. We all have obstacles. And they are invisible and they are insidious.

I mean, the fact that you see a Lama do something and you think something bad or weird or something like that, is a reflection of your own mind. And we all have different obstacles like that. Like, somebody explains logic to you and you think it's the most boring thing you could ever think of, or something like that.

You know, everybody has... You hear about the controversy between Dalai Lama and somebody else about some thing and you believe it. And you start thinking, whose side should I take, or something like that.

And you don't realize that the whole event is taking place because of you. You see what I mean? Like, you have a...

There's all these increasingly higher obstacles that you have to jump over. And everybody has some. You know, all of us have some kind of blindness.

And it's very weird. You know, you can sit in a room with a Bodhisattva Arya and think that nothing interesting is going on, or something like that, because you just don't recognize what's going on. You see what I mean?

And you have a true... These are very nasty, spiritual, invisible blocks that you can't... Until you get over them, you can't progress.

So you have hundreds of them in your mind, and they're restricting your vision of things. And these are all... You've got most of them overcome, or you wouldn't be here.

And then the process of getting to the courtyard is to remove the other ones. And each time you go through a door, or each time you move on to a new room, it's because you get there because you've eliminated certain invisible, very nasty, spiritual obstacles that you're not even aware you have. You know what I mean?

You're looking at the world a certain way because of certain blinders you have. And the worst thing is you're not even aware of them. You think the world looks about that big.

You know what I mean? Because you always had them on. And the religious progress, spiritual progress, is removing them one by one.

And then suddenly you see all this thing that was around you all the time anyway. So, anyway, if you're in the boat, you're a long way there anyway. So, meditate on the boat, think about the obstacles you have.

Think about the chance you have now. The other thing about this chance is it doesn't last very long. Okay?

They say, namke loktan da. Means, it lasts... Relatively speaking, it's like lightning.

It lasts about as long as a strike of lightning. I've met many, many, many students. I've been with Kim Rinpoche for 25, 30 years.

I've seen them come and go. You know, some of them come fanatical, get disillusioned within six months. Some of them come not so fanatical, they build up, up, up, and then they have an event and they leave.

Some of them come not interested at all, then they get interested, and then they become great scholars, and then they become very good students. And I've seen every combination of it. And you don't know how long the karma you have in your mind to be interested will last.

So, you have to... you have to bulwark it up, you know? You have to take care of it and think about how lucky you are even to be interested.

The most sad thing, I think, is when people get... they orbit in close to the Dharma and then they go out again. So you've got to...

you've got to appreciate where you are. Very rare opportunity, you're very close to the source and take advantage of the opportunity now before your karma shifts a little bit. So, meditate on the boat, and then we've got one more to go before that.

Just a brief time. Okay. We're going to go now to the first verse.

All right. It's page 29. And we'll read it.

Ready? It's the first verse on line... verse number one on page 29.

Okay, one, two, three. The source of all my good is my kind Mama, my Lord. Bless me first to see that taking myself to Him in the proper way is the very good path.

And grant me again to serve and follow Him with all my strength and reverence. Okay, and this is the very first lamrim and the most important one, okay? And that's what the lamrim is named from.

Source of all my good. And I see this lama... by the way, him or her, right?

On the far side of the water, gets into the... like Beatrice for Dante and all that, you know? All right.

Who's the other one for Dante? Who? Virgil, yeah.

So personally I see him like Virgil, you know? And quiet, strong, robes something, and gets in the front of the boat and stands there, and the boat just mysteriously crosses over the water, and they get into the steps, and they go up into the building and into the first of the lamrims. So, you know, I see you meeting this being on the other side of the moat, on the other side of the river, and them helping you get into the boat and helping you get across.

And then I see them at your side through the whole trip through the building, okay? So, this is the idea. They're helping you get through the building, and they're guiding you, and they're always next to you.

And this is true of your lama. They have been near to you. If the texts are right, they've been following your progress for thousands of years.

They've been visible or invisible, known to you or unknown to you. They've been nudging you in different ways, getting you to move, appearing to you as different people throughout your life, and getting you to move at each stage along as far as you can, okay? And you have to imagine that function of this holy being who took a personal interest in you and has been guiding you, maybe unbeknownst to you, for many, many years, your whole life at least, you know, and trying to get you to move in a certain way and to get you to enlightenment.

So, imagine a being like that. Picture them as holy as you can. If you have a root lama, they say, don't picture all the wards and stuff, okay?

Physical or spiritual, okay? I mean, think of them as perfect, whether you see them that way or not, whether they are that way or not, you know. Think of them as absolutely perfect, physically absolutely beautiful, mentally absolutely pure, and imagine that this holy being is going to take you and guide you across the water and then be at your side through the whole trip, through the building, yeah.

Naturally, when I think of my Lama, I think of Lama Sudra and the teaching, and not being in a place where that's available all the time, where more than one Lama comes through in the Kundalini teachings, there's some confusion about who is being pictured there, and I just wondered if you could offer any guidance on that. Yeah, I think if you've had many Lamas or you're not sure, if you don't have like a fixed root Lama, I would pick personally the one that I'm most attracted to, you know, and keep in mind that they're representing the other ones also. So, I think it's inauspicious to think that they're all different.

You see, I mean, at one level they're all the same. Your mother, your first grade teacher, and the last three Lamas who came through Vermont are all the same being, actually, and think of them that way, and choose the physical form that's most attractive to you, you know, that looks most Lama-ish to you. I remember meeting Ken Rinpoche the first time, and first I met his attendant who's this tall, handsome Kamba, looks like his Dalai Lama, you know, and then I met Ken Rinpoche and he's sort of short, and he's got a big nose and big ears and a little tummy, and I was like, I was that disappointed, you know, like, you know, and it's a very American reaction, you know, like, to judge the Lama from the appearance of the Lama.

So, don't do that. But, I mean, do pick the vision that you have that's most attractive, you know, I think His Holiness is pretty easy, and, you know, and then perfect it, don't think of them with any flaws at all. Okay, yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Do you picture them in human form?

[Speaker 1]
It doesn't have to be a human form, it could be a dandy form, okay, no problem, no problem like that. They have the ability to appear as anything they want, that's what they do, that's their job, that's their mission statement, is, you know, appear to beings any way that helps them. They don't have a fixed form.

I mean, they have a form in the Buddha realm, but they don't have a fixed, you can't say, Tara has to have this kind of face, or this kind of hair, or, you know, when Tara comes to the United States to help Americans, she will look just like an American, you know, she'll look like whatever is most attractive to you, because that's what she does. And I think it's disrespecting Tara to think anything else, you know, to say that Tara can't look like Miss November or something, you know, is disrespecting Tara. I mean, Tara would definitely do that, or Baywatch or something, you know, just because her shtick is to be attractive to people and to lead them, you know, to trick them into going a certain way.

And that's what they do. That's their job. So, you know, you can visualize Je Tsongkapa looking like Virgil or something, and that's no problem.

You know, that's not a problem at all. Imagine that. Virgil probably was, so that you could visualize him that way.

You see what I mean? Things are working on a very cosmic level, you know, people are setting things up 2,000 years ago, so you'd visualize the right thing today. There's no big deal for them.

They work in infinity, you know. For them, a thousand years here and there is nothing. You know what I mean?

It's not at all weird to think that everything in your life was pretty much set up before you were born. Like, what's that show? The Truman Show.

Yeah, okay. That's a very good show, okay? And so visualize them in whatever way is most holy to you, and don't feel weird about it.

That's exactly what you're supposed to do, okay? Don't think it's somehow improper or inappropriate or, you know, they don't have the right color hat on or something like that. What they do is to emanate the most attractive and intelligent and helpful form that they can for you.

And they do, okay? That's what they do. All right.

Now I'm going to go through the whole thing, one time. All right. Lung Jun, which means what?

In the forward order, okay? We've been doing Lung Dok. I hope I can remember everything.

We'll see. Okay. If I blow it, just correct me, okay?

I'll take you to... I'll just mention the room and the main features. We're going to do it kind of fast.

I'm not going to, you know, dwell on it. But just so you know, I think it's auspicious to go through it one time, the whole thing, okay? So first do a breath meditation.

And then we'll start. I think in Dante it starts, he's wandering around the wilderness, he gets lost in a forest, right? And think of yourself coming out of a dark forest onto a bank of a moat or a river, and there's your root Lama.

And think of them as perfect, beautiful, and waiting for you, and happy to see you, and happy to guide you. And they lead you into the boat, and as you're crossing the river or the moat, think about that boat as being all the good conditions you have in your life, the health, intelligence, and all the outside conditions you have that make you a perfect candidate for tantric enlightenment in this life. Then the boat comes to the stairs at the side of the water, and you get out, your Lama is at your side, could be man or woman, guiding you up the stairs into the first room, and you're entering into the triangle, the tip of the triangle, and as you come in, you see the corpse first, the coffin, and you look down and see yourself.

And you think, am I doing today the thing I would most want to do if I knew I was going to die tonight, which is death meditation. And then you take, look down, there's some scorpions, spiders, ugly creatures there, bad deeds, and some jewels. I put the bad deeds on one side of the face, the right side of their face, and jewels on the left side of their face, and you want to get rid of the bad deeds, bad karma, so you take them out and walk over to the left side of the room, to the next point of the room, and there's a fire there, like an eternal flame type of fire, and you throw them there and they burn.

And then you think about the karmas you've done and that they are purifying, and that it's good they didn't have a chance to get bigger or to pass on with you before you died, when you died. Then you go over to the right side, the other point of the triangle, and you're going to take refuge by putting on this robe, diamond robe. The good deeds from the coffin and also your own knowledge protect you, and you think about being protected by your own knowledge and not responding to negative things negatively, which is protection.

All of these three are keeping you out of the lower realms. They are the activities for a person of lesser scope. You go to the middle of the two points that you've been at, and there's a yellow door and you pass through that, and you're now moving into the medium scope person's activities, and you're in a hallway with glass windows on each side, and outside you try to imagine some of the things in this life that you still think are pretty good, and you see them as they will be five, ten, fifteen years from now, and you'll be losing all of them. Just pick one thing that you feel pretty good about that's been created by dirty good karma and it's going to wear out, and you pass into a room of mirrors, which represents your understanding that all the negative things around you come from your own bad karma. There's not a single negative thing in your life or your world which you didn't create, and knowing that now you're going to be careful with your vows, your freedom vows, your Pratyamoksha vows, especially the ten good deeds.

Try to do them carefully. You're walking through a mirror room which represents your understanding that all of these things come from your own mind, your own karma. And then you're walking very carefully among the glass, small glass objects to represent your keeping your vows carefully, keeping mindful of your vows.

And this is how to get out of samsara for yourself, and that's the medium person's room and capacity. Then you come to the next door, it's blue, at the end of that room, and you open it, and it's a hexagonal room, six-sided. And in the middle you go, go first to the middle, and there's an incense burner on top of a small pillar, and you light it, you make sure the incense is burning nicely and spreading throughout the room.

This is understanding that it would be really strange to be enlightened, to get enlightened, to reach your own paradise, and to be aware that everyone else in the world was still suffering, hopelessly. Then you turn back, and on the left as you came in was a box, a gift, a present on a table. Inside, four different objects representing the four kinds of giving, perfection of giving.

Then across from them to the right as you came in is a small bonsai tree, and the roots, the roots, the trunk, and the limbs and flowers representing the three kinds of vows, freedom vows, bodhisattva vows, and tantric vows. Then back to the middle of the room on the left, and you see a small pool of water, very quiet pool, sit down next to it, think, look at it. I see like green moss and quiet, and this represents the ability not to get angry when the time comes.

Then cross to the right side of that room, and some happy face or something, maybe a window you look out, you see children playing or something, but something to represent being happy about doing good things, having a good time while you do Dharma. Then back to the left side, up towards the front of the room, a microscope with a label on it, use me one hour per day, which is your meditation. You must practice one hour a day meditating, or you won't see emptiness directly, it's impossible.

Then across the room, something to put under the microscope, a diamond, the object of the Perfection of Wisdom, emptiness. And just always remember, it represents about a 20 minute or a 30 minute experience that if you can reach it, gives you Deng, guarantee that you know the day of your enlightenment, guaranteed that you know how long, direct perception of the bodies of a Buddha, direct perception of how long it will take you, all in a very short amount of time. And this whole room, from the blue door up to the end of the room, which is a red door, has been the steps of the path, the lam rims for a person of great capacity, Mahayana, Bodhisattva.

You go through the red door, and there on the other side is this beautiful crystal mandala, diamond, sunlight pouring in from the sky. Like I see, what do you call it, skylights, and whole top, like a dome of glass, crystal, diamond. And your Lama comes up beside you and steps into the middle and becomes a Tantric deity.

And then they grant you the four empowerments, and they give you permission to study Tantra. And then, most importantly, they give you your vows, because these are the fuel, or the ammunition, that if you keep them, you will reach the other rooms and the courtyard, and if you don't keep them, you won't. And if you keep them half-heartedly, you won't either.

So they grant you, this is the big moment, they give you the raw material you need to get enlightened in this life. Teach you how to watch them six times a day, tun du, every two and a half hours, checking. And if you don't do it, it won't happen.

Then on to the hallway, a corridor going into the next room, and this is keeping those vows, watching those vows, keeping the book. Into the next room, this is a kirim room, stage of creation. You're studying your sadhana, you're studying the, if it's Vajrayogini initiation, that you had 11 yogas, the 11 practices of kirim.

You're trying to visualize, or pretend, or to see your world and the people in your world in a different way. And then towards the end of the room it becomes natural, and they start to look that way from their side, because you kept your vows. They step into the next corridor, and I see like four butter lamps or something, but each one represents one of your tantric retreats.

And I'm talking about a serious, strict retreat for at least four or five weeks, and completing each time the required number of mantras and practices. In a nice, relaxed, concentrated way. Then the final room before the courtyard, a dzogrim room, completion stage room, full of special practices to affect your channels and your inner spiritual body through external means, and then also through internal means.

So you're working on it from two sides. On one side you're striving to understand emptiness clearly and to gain correct tantric worldview, and then from the other side you're undertaking special practices to work on the winds and on your spiritual body through your physical body. And you come out into the courtyard, and you sit down.

I like on the tile, there's water there, it's like a fountain, and there's greenery, and there's pillars around the courtyard, and up above the sky, and the sun is shining down, very strong. And you sit down, and you face the... I see the fountain as the altar, and there's some kind of being there, and you pass into tantric enlightenment.

Your body changes into an exquisite and very, very ecstatic body of a tantric deity. Your mind is totally calm, totally happy, totally clean and pure. And then you're aware that all around you, outside in the whole world, in the whole universe, there are bodies, there are beings that are you, and you've created them, and they're appearing in every nook and cranny of the world and helping people spontaneously.

You don't even have to think about it. They're just there, helping people all over. They're coming from you.

And your lama is next to you, sitting next to you, and very happy, because now you're just like them. And we'll dedicate this virtue, and pray that it touches every other living being. There's some kind of repercussions from having a time like this, and it affects many other people, whether you notice it or not.

Pray for that. The last few verses, 13 and 14, are a prayer that your lamas live a long life, and that they keep teaching, and that you are always surrounded by the sweet Dharma friends that we have around us, and all the people who work so hard to set up our retreats for us, and cook, and wash. So, think about that.

That's the essence of the last two verses, and that you always have those people around you throughout your life. Okay, then we'll do a dedication prayer. Okay?

DEDICATION PRAYER Okay, thank you very much. It's like one of the most fun I ever had here. I don't know why.

But, it was really fun. I thank you for that. Now I can pay off my credit cards.

[Speaker 2]
Including the teachings to us, and being a perfect example of the teachings, and that we're making this offering with an understanding of emptiness, of kusum, and with bodhicitta, that everybody that come into our lives, we can benefit them in this life, and also in an ultimate way. Like that. For the what?

[Speaker 1]
For the whole thing? Inishagyamma? Somebody have a copy?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. How about in English? Little means you just sit there and listen, okay?

And, it's the oral blessing, blessing of the oral lineage, okay? I received this teaching from the matchless Karmapajita Geshe Losantarjuna, and you're getting it from that, okay? Lama, my lord, blessed me first to see that taking myself to him or her in the proper way is the very root of the path, and grant me then to serve and follow him or her with all my strength and reverence.

Blessed me first to realize that the excellent life of leisure I've found, just this once, is ever so hard to find, and ever so valuable. Grant me then to wish, and never stop to wish, that I could take its essence night and day. My body and the life in it are fleeting as the bubbles in the sea froth of a wave.

Bless me first thus to recall that death will destroy me soon, and help me find sure knowledge that after I have died, the things I've done, the white or black, and what these deeds will bring to me, follow always close behind, as certain as my shadow. Grant me then ever to be careful to stop the slightest wrongs of many wrongs we do, and try to carry out instead each and every good of the many that we may. Bless me to perceive all that's wrong with the seemingly good things of this life.

I can never get enough of them. They cannot be trusted. They are the door to every pain I have.

Grant me then to strive instead for the happiness of freedom. Grant that these pure thoughts may lead me to be watchful, and to recall what I should be doing. Grant me to give the greatest care to make the vows of morality the essence of my practice.

They are the root of the Buddha's teaching. I have slipped and fallen into the sea of this suffering life. Bless me to see that every living being, everyone my own mother, has fallen in too.

Grant me then to practice this highest wish for enlightenment, to take upon myself the task of freeing them all. Bless me to see clearly that the wish itself is not enough, for if I'm not well trained in the three moralities, I cannot become a Buddha. Grant me then a fierce resolve to master the vows for children of the victors.

Grant that I may quickly gain the path where quietude and insight join together, one which quiets my mind from being distracted to wrong objects, the other which analyzes the perfect meaning in the correct way. Grant that once I've practiced well, the paths shared and become a vessel that is worthy, I enter with perfect ease the way of the diamond, highest of all ways, holiest door to come inside for the fortunate and the good. Bless me to know with genuine certainty that when I've entered thus, the cause that gives me both the attainments is keeping my pledges and vows most pure.

Grant me then to always keep them, even if it costs my life. Bless me next to realize precisely the crucial points of both the stages, the essence of the secret ways. Grant me then to practice as the holy ones have spoken, putting all my effort in and never leaving off the practice of the four times, highest that there is.

Bless me, grant me that the spiritual guide who shows me this good road and all my true companions in this quest may live long and fruitful lives. Bless and grant me that the rain of obstacles, things within me and outside me that could stop me now, stop and end forever. In all my lives may I never live apart from my perfect Lamas.

May I bask in the glory of the Dharma. May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly the place where I become myself the keeper of the diamond. May I bask in the glory of the Dharma.

May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly the place where I become myself May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path the place where I become myself the keeper of the diamond. May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path May I fulfill perfectly of every level and path every good quality of every level and path May I fulfill perfectly of every level and path and reach then quickly the place where I become myself the keeper of the diamond. of every level and path and reach then quickly the keeper of the diamond.

May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly the keeper of the diamond. May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly the place where I become myself May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path and reach then quickly the place where I become myself the keeper of the diamond. May I fulfill perfectly every good quality of every level and path the keeper of the diamond.

May I fulfill perfectly the place where I become myself the keeper of the diamond. May I fulfill perfectly the place where I become myself May I fulfill perfectly May I fulfill perfectly the keeper of the diamond.

[Speaker 2]
This is the end of session 6. You have been listening to The Mandala of the Steps to Enlightenment Lamrim Meditation with Geshe Michael Roach To contact us on other courses available or for further information Check our website at www.world-view.org.