“If being a woman is an inspiration, use it. If it is an obstacle, try not to be bothered by it.” — Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche.

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“I feel that there could always be more female Buddhist role models and teachers,” said Lama Acharya Dr. Shannon Young when we asked her to comment on a Buddha Weekly poll that indicated 92.3 percent of respondents felt there were not enough female teachers. She added, “I am grateful for the strong women who have been the trailblazers in the western adoption of Buddhism, but I would like to see more women in leadership positions in traditionally Buddhist countries as well.” [FULL Interview with Lama Shannon Young inset below.]

One such trailblazer, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (Diane Perry) took Female Buddha Tara’s vow as her own: “I took the vow to attain enlightenment in a female body.” [5] She adds, “Even Tibetan masters are beginning to realize, if you want real devotion and focus, you have to look to the nuns.”

Does Buddhism Really Embrace the Female Divine?

Mahayana Buddhism embraces the Female Enlightened Manifestation (Is F.E.M. too cute an acronym?). Most Mahayana Buddhists revere Female Enlightened Manifestations — Guan Yin, Tara, Vajrayogini, Palden Lhamo, Yeshe Tsogyal, and many other aspects of divine wisdom. It’s safe to say Enlightened Goddess Tara became the most popular of these, in part because of her resounding promise to “always be born as a woman” and in part because she, like a mother, would do anything to protect her children. [4] (For more on Tara as the rescuer, and her activities in modern life, see this earlier BW feature>>)

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“Lord Buddha had prophesied that Arya Tara would manifest as a woman and would benefit living beings in this form,” explained Venerable Choje Lama Phunstock. “Actually, there is no difference between men and women, but there are less manifestations of women who engage in Bodhisattva activities than men.”

Venerable Phunstock may be right — there do seem to be correspondingly fewer women teachers. But, is this changing for the better? We decided to ask these questions of students (internet poll, results in this feature) and also the teachers —  including an interview with Lama Archarya Dr. Shannon Young (Biography at end of feature). [Watch for a full teacher profile interview of Lama Dr. Young in February..]

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Poll: 92.3 percent Say Not Enough Female Teachers

In a survey conducted by Buddha Weekly (February 2017, see note below), 88 percent of respondents said they practice a female Buddha, Bodhisattva or Yidam, while — amongst  the same respondents — 92.3 percent indicated that there weren’t enough female teachers. To be fair, 57.7 percent voted “No, but it’s getting better” — but it still begs the question: in Mahayana Buddhism, whose practitioners honor the Enlightened Feminine so overwhelmingly, why are there not enough female teachers? Or are there?

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When we asked Lama Dr. Shannon Young (of the Dzogchen lineage) this question, she diplomatically answered:

 “I think it does matter to have the diversity of leadership in today’s world. This is why I am very proud that four of the eight lamas that I was authorized with are women. Two of us are from the US and the other two are from Asia.”

Sangye Khandro, a well known teacher in Vajrayana Buddhism, supports this view. She said, “The notion that Vajrayana is male-oriented is mistaken.” [1]

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Long List of Great Female Teachers

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This seems to be confirmed by the long list list of famous female Buddhist teachers practicing today. According to one respondent to our poll, among the most famous female teachers are:

“Pema Chödrön, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Ven. Thubten Chödron, Sangye Khandro, Lama Yeshe Dechen Wangmo, Ven. Robina Courtin, Judith Lief, Jan Bays, Chozen Roshi,  Joan Halifax, Roshi Joko Beck,  Pat O’Hara,  Enkyo Roshi, Wendy Nakao, Roshi Geri Larkin, and many, many more whose faces I can see but whose names I can’t recall.”

Historically, perhaps the most famous female teacher was Machik Labdron, who founded an entire lineage based on precious Chod practices.

Today’s dynamic and precious teachers, such as Pema Chodron certainly represent great role models who embody the “wisdom” of the Female Enlightened. Just a quick look at her book titles provokes a deep thought, titles such as When Things Fall Apart, Start Where We Are, and Places that Scare You.

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In When Things Fall Apart she provokes the vastness of the wisdom voyage with:

“Embarking on the spiritual journey is like getting into a very small boat and setting out on the ocean to search for unknown lands.”

Scary stuff? Maybe. But it speaks to the depth of Buddhist Wisdom. It also evokes the “scary” wisdom of the wild Enlightened Dakini, iconic of the Divine Feminine in Buddhism.

Video of Pema Chodron: The Importance of Teachers:

Indeed, we do have many well-known, wise, and wonderful female teachers. Lama Shannon Young said that her teacher actively encouraged her to become a teacher:

“My teacher is Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche. He sincerely believes that the best way you can benefit beings is by teaching them the Dharma and he believes that people of different cultures should be taught by members of their own culture. From my first teachings with him, he was always encouraging every student to aspire to become a teacher.”

Poll: 88 percent Practice Female Manifestations

In Mahayana equal emphasis is placed on male and female aspects — representing compassion and wisdom, respectively. Both are vital and equal on the journey to Enlightened mind. Classically, Compassion is represented by Male manifestations (especially Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara), while Wisdom (understanding Emptiness) is symbolized in the Feminine (especially Tara or Prajnaparamita or the elusive Enlightened Dakini).

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Lama Dr. Shannon Young puts it this way:

“Female manifestations are important as they help transform a practitioners’ mind from narrow, ego-centric notions of self and identity to something more inclusive and powerful. We can then begin to realize our innate love, compassion, and wisdom.”

It would not be incorrect to say that practice is incomplete without both compassion and wisdom, male and female manifestations. In advanced practices, the manifestations are often visualized as consorts (both in union) to symbolize this profound truth — and both equally important.

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Tara and the “A List” Female Enlightened Manifestations

Before diving into the big topic of female teachers in Buddhism, it’s useful to point to those shining examples of Wisdom in female form. The Female Buddhas are “A list” manifestations, not supporting consorts.

“If Bodhicitta is the basis of both the Mahayana and Vajrayana path then the basis of cultivating Bodhicitta is remembering the kindness of a mother,” explains Lama Dr. Shannon Young. “Invoking the blessings, love, and compassion of Tara, being the great Mother, is essential as support for increasing one’s own intention of enlightened wisdom, which is Bodhicitta.”

For these reasons, Tara is called the Mother of All Buddhas. The same can be said of Prajnaparamita, Vajrayogini, and other Female Enlightened Manifestations. Since Wisdom realizing emptiness must be embraced to reach the lofty goal of Enlightenment, it can be said that the female manifestations, representing wisdom, are the Mothers of all the Buddhas and Bodhiasattvas. (For more on this, see this previous extensive feature on Tara>>)

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How important are the Female Enlightened Manifestations? “Arya Tara was the main Yidam of the great past sages and saints Nagarjuna, Atisha, and Chandragomin,” writes Venerable Lama Phunstock. “She was also one of the main Yidams of many most renowned Tibetan Lamas, specifically of the First Gyalwa Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa, who had five Yidams that accorded with the five aspects of enlightened activity. Arya Tara represents the aspect of speech and the elimination of obstacles. The First Karmapa’s other Yidams were Vajrayogini, Chakrasamvara, Gyalwa Gyatso who is Red Chenrezig, and Hayagriva. If we whole-heartedly supplicate Arya Tara and ask her to help us overcome our problems, then we will succeed and, until solved completely, our problems will not affect us as strongly.” Of the First Karmapa’s meditational deities, two of the most important were female — Tara and Vajrayogini.

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Lama Shannon Young punctuates the importance of all forms of the Enlightened: “Boundless love, compassion, and wisdom will always manifest in various forms in order to benefit beings.”

Mahayana and Vajrayana are Not Male Oriented?

If you equate gender equality to the importance of female Enlightened Buddhas and Yidams, you would have to conclude Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism are unbiased and inclusive. Without question, the majority of Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhists practice a Female Buddha — 88 percent in our poll — most notably beloved Mother Tara or Guan Yin, and for Highest Yoga Tantra practices, Vajrayogini or Vajravarahi, Palden Lhamo and others.

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So, is Buddhism sexist? A search online reveals many opinions that seem to affirm that label. Yet, it seems unlikely in the context of Shakyamuni Buddha’s trail-blazing, and the vast array of Female Enlightened Manifestations practiced.

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Shakyamuni Buddha “was the first religious Teacher who gave religious freedom to women,” writes Venerable K. Shri Dhammananda Maha Thera. “Before the Buddha… women were not even allowed to enter any temple or recite any religious scripture.”

Shakyamauni Buddha was also born as a woman many times in past lives according to the Jakarta Tales. Venerable Thera writes: “The Buddha Himself was born as a woman on several occasions during His previous births in Samsara.”

“I disagree with blaming sexism on Tibetan Buddhism,” said well-known teacher Sangye Khandro. “During my years among Tibetans, I have not been disadvantaged on account of being female — just the opposite. From the very beginning, I was given every opportunity to learn, sometimes even more so than men!”

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In our February 2017 poll, only 12 percent indicated their main teacher was female, while 31 percent  received teachings from female teachers occasionally, and 19 percent  received teachings “many times”. Only 3.8 percent  said the “never” received teachings from a female teacher. This does support accessibility of teachings from female teachers.

Enough Female Teachers in Buddhism?

Sangye Khandro spoke about sexism: “Your question about sexism makes me think of a visit I made to Larung Gar, Eastern Tibet, where there is a large, thriving practice community I certainly didn’t see any patriarchal Buddhism there. It has more Khenmos [female abbots] than Khenpos [male abbots]. The female practitioners run the show. The head lama for those tens of thousands of practitioners is Khandro-ma Ani Mumtso, a nun. She’s the one who gives the empowerments for all the transmissions. No one has a problem with that. It’s a given that women can teach men there.”

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In our poll we didn’t ask about sexism, and it was clear there were a lot of teaching opportunities with female lamas. What was equally clear was that the majority of respondents practice Female Enlightened Buddhas. An overwhelming 88 percent said they practice Female Buddhas regularly, and only 8 percent  said they did not. (Four percent  indicated they’d rather not say).

Full Interview with Lama Dr. Shannon Young

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BW:  From your perspective as a teacher, are there enough female Buddhist teachers? Does it matter? Why?

I feel that there could always be more female Buddhist role models and teachers. I am grateful for the strong women who have been the trailblazers in the western adoption of Buddhism, but I would like to see more women in leadership positions in traditionally Buddhist countries as well. I think it does matter to have the diversity of leadership in today’s world. This is why I am very proud that four of the eight lamas that I was authorized with are women. Two of us are from the US and the other two are from Asia.

BW: What inspired you to become a teacher?

My teacher is Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche. He sincerely believes that the best way you can benefit beings is by teaching them the Dharma and he believes that people of different cultures should be taught by members of their own culture. From my first teachings with him, he was always encouraging every student to aspire to become a teacher.

BW: Do you feel there are enough opportunities for women to become Buddhist teachers? If not, what can be done about it?

I definitely think there could be more, but I also think it depends on the lineage or program. Candidly I think that in my lineage there are plenty of opportunities. But I think in the public sphere, the notion of female Buddhist teachers and Lamas needs to be more widely embraced. Especially in terms of authority.

BW: What do the female Enlightened Deities represent?

Boundless love, compassion, and wisdom will always manifest in various forms in order to benefit beings.

BW: Why are Female manifestations important?

Female manifestations are important as they help transform a practitioners’ mind from narrow, ego-centric notions of self and identity to something more inclusive and powerful. We can then begin to realize our innate love, compassion, and wisdom.

BW: Tara is iconic of the Female Enlightened. What does She represent?

If Bodhicitta is the basis of both the Mahayana and Vajrayana path then the basis of cultivating Bodhicitta is remembering the kindness of a mother. Invoking the blessings, love, and compassion of Tara, being the great Mother, is essential as support for increasing one’s own intention of enlightened wisdom, which is Bodhicitta.

Lama Biography — Venerable Archarya Lama Shiwa Dr. Shannon Young

Venerable Archarya Lama Shiwa, Dr. Shannon Young, Pema Shiwa Tso, is an authorized Lama and Dharma Teacher in the Dzogchen Lineage of Buddhism. Shannon received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2001 and has been a practicing Pharmacist for over 16 years. She first studied with her root teacher His Eminence Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche in 2003 and for over 13 years has studied and practiced with Rinpoche while helping establish the Dzogchen Retreat Center, USA. and the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation.

Lama Shannon graduated from seven Dzogchen Lineage Internships along with many seasonal retreats. In 2014, Lama Shannon also received an advanced degree of Tantra Practitioner at the first Dzogchen Lineage Internship commencement ceremony at the Dzogchen Retreat Center USA. In the same year, Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche authorized Lama Shannon, along with eight other Lamas, as a Venerable Archarya Lama. The Lamas were selected through a dynamic process of divination, prayer, Rinpoche’s 10-year evaluation, and a majority vote of the 2014 Dzogchen Lineage Internship Sangha.

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Lama Shannon has taught many students in public teaching events, weekend workshops, and tutoring during Dzogchen Lineage Internships. Following her teacher’s aspirations, Lama Shannon has dedicated her life to practicing and teaching the Dharma, serving as a Director on the the Board of the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation, and recently, founding One Path Outreach, a humanitarian aid organization which just completed their second medical mission in remote villages of Tibet.

Lama Shannon  a devoted wife and mother who also helped establish the Dzogchen Children’s Association which supports Dzogchen Sangha parents to integrate a modern daily life that is centered on teaching Dharma and engaging in Dharma activities. Lama Shannon aspires to continue to fulfill her teacher’s aspirations to teach and heal others while establishing a stable Dharma system throughout the world that benefits all beings.

About the Buddha Weekly Poll

The Buddha Weekly poll consisted of four questions and was an unscientific internet poll kept live for one week in February 2017. Although the response rate was high, the nature of the questions and the media would not be considered as accurate as blind polls from marketing companies. Never-the-less, the results are reasonable and likely reflect the broader opinions of Mahayana Buddhists. Do you disagree? Comment below.

NOTE

[1] Dakini Power page on Sangye Khandro

[2] Tantra in the West, Tricycle article, interviewing Sangye Khandro

[3] Buddhism and Women, by Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera

[4] Noble Green Tara, Venerable Choje Lama Phunstock

[5] Ten Tibetan Buddhist Women You Need to Know, Elephant Journal

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Green Tara is almost certainly one of the most popular Englightened Buddhas in Vajrayana Buddhism. Tara’s mantra is chanted daily by many Buddhists around the world. Tara — the Liberator, the saviour, the healer — is the “Mother of all Buddhas. Please enjoy and benefit from this guided meditation video on Green Tara practice for both uninitiated and initiated practitioners, with animated visualizations of the Tam syllable, green light and Green Tara, by H.E. Zasep Rinpoche, author of Tara in the palm of your hand — the authoritative English commentary on Surya Gupta 21 Taras>>

Relax, sit straight, half close your eyes, and listen to H.E. Venerable Zasep Rinpoche guide you through visualizing Tara and chanting her mantra. Then, chant along with Yoko Dharma’s amazing voice at the end of the meditation — with yet more beautiful meditational images.

[Full transcript of the teaching below the video.] Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche has taught in the West for 40 years and is spiritual head of Gaden for the West centres in Canada, U.S. and Australia.

Full 25 minute guided visualization and mantra chanting, with animated visualizations and images:

 

 

View more teaching videos (and please subscribe) on our YouTube Channel>>

Transcript of teaching

Today I’m speaking about Tara practice visualization, healing practice, and recitation of the mantra of Tara. Tara is the liberator. Tara means, Tibetan word is Drolma. So there’s a different ways of practicing Tara Sadhana.

Those of you have not received Tara initiation, you can visualize Tara in front of you, and then visualize Seed syllables, mantras, and lights, and you recite the mantra of Tara for the purpose of receiving blessings, and inspirations, and healing, and then, at the end, Tara dissolving into you.

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Those of you have received Tara initiations, then you can visualize yourselves as a Tara.

I will explain Tara visualization and practice for those of you have not received Tara initiations.

So you first sit on a meditation cushion comfortably, relax your body, and try to have a calm abiding mind. If your mind is not very calm, and if your mind is not settled, then you could do mindfulness of breathing meditation for five minutes. Breathe in and breathe out, breathe in slowly for long one, breath out slowly, a long one. This way it will relax your body and mind.

Then, you visualize Tara in front of you, not too high, not too low, about the same level as your forehead, about five feet in front of you, and imagine a beautiful blue sky. In this sky you imagine, instantly, a green Tam syllable appeared. T-A-M, English letter, T-A-M you visualize. If you know how to visualize Tibetan syllable Tam, green one, that would be good, otherwise the English letter is fine. Visualize Tam syllable, green one, and a very beautiful Tam syllable with a nature of light and energy.

And then, after you visualize this tam syllable, and then imagine beautiful green light emanating from the Tam syllable. Then gradually, the Tam syllable transform into Green Tara.

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So now you have a Green Tara appeared, and she is sitting on the lotus and moon cushion, a beautiful lotus cushion. In other words, the cushion is made with lotus petals. Pink and white petals. And on the top of this lotus cushion, you visualize white moon disc horizontal. Then on top of this moon disc, visualize a green Tam letter again. A beautiful green Tam letter appeared spontaneously, you visualize.

And then light emanating from that green Tam syllable, more light emanating, and then instantly Tara herself appeared. And she had a beautiful green color like the color of emerald, precious stone. And she has one face, two hands, she’s sitting on the lotus and moon cushion. Her right foot is stretched, and left foot is bent, and in her hands she’s holding blue utpala flowers. Right hand is on the top of the right knee holding blue utpala flower with the petals open, and she’s holding the trunk of the utpala flower. Left hand she’s holding also the trunk of the utpala flower, and the petals open on your left side of the shoulder. And her fingers in the mudra representing the left hand is in the mudra of representing Buddhas of the three times. What that means is that Tara herself, embodiment of the Buddhas of the past, present, and future. So here’s three fingers up, that symbolizes she herself representing the three Buddhas of the three times.

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And then her thumb is meeting with the ring finger. This is symbol of meeting … How should you say … Meeting or merging of the two truths. Ultimate truth — and conventional truth. And also this symbolize love and compassion, and so forth. So there’s different ways of interpreting these mudras. They’re not always fixed, there different ways you can explain.

Her right hand is in a mudra of giving blessings, and giving realizations. She’s wearing beautiful silk dresses, upper garments and lower garments. She’s wearing her beautiful jewel ornaments, crown ornament, earrings, and necklaces, and bracelets, and so forth. She has long hair with a top knot, rest of hair hanging loose behind her body.

And also when you visualize, you imagine the deities divine body is always pure, always perfect, and transparent. A nature of clear light and bliss, and not solid material body.

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So now you visualize Tara in front of you. Then you visualize a small moon disc at Tara’s heart. In the middle of the moon disc you visualize Tam syllable standing upright at her heart. Now when I say her heart, means actually right in the middle of her chest between the two breasts. In middle, small moon disc.

Then visualize green Tam syllable standing upright. And this green tam syllable is surrounded by ten syllable Tara mantra, Om Tā re Tu ttā re Tu re Svā hā, ten syllables. These ten syllables standing clockwise, not counter clockwise. Some people think well it should be counterclockwise because it’s mother tantra, so forth. No, according to Tara teaching, it said that it should be clockwise.

The mantra is also green. And there also nature of light and energy, and also each syllable’s producing the sound of each syllable or the sound of the mantra producing self-sounding, Om Tā re Tu ttā re Tu re Svā hā. Self-sounding. Maybe you can hear the sound. This is a Holy sound, and divine sound of Tara mantra.

So now, it’s lot for some people who are new with Tibetan Buddhism and visualization, maybe a little bit complicated, but you have to try. We have to try, and we have to practice patience and perseverance. And then slowly, slowly it will happen. Nothing is easy, nothing is fast or instant, it isn’t how it work. You need to put great deal of effort and patience.

And now, when you start reciting the mantra, Om Tā re Tu ttā re Tu re Svā hā, you recite the mantra. When you reciting the mantra, you can also use beads, the mala, and you can use any kind of mala you like. And so you usually hold the mala in the left hand in case of mother tantra, or you can hold in right hand no problem.

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So if you have mala, if you like to use mala, then it is good. And holding mala is good, it feels good, and it helps to connect yourself, your heart, to the mantra. And at this point if you don’t have mala, that’s okay.

You recite the mantra, you say Om Tā re Tu ttā re Tu re Svā hā, and when you recite the mantra, you don’t recite too fast because you might miss one or two syllables. And when you recite too fast, you can’t pronounce the syllables. If you recite too slow, then your mind may start wandering. You may not be able to focus your mind onto the mantra, or onto the deity. That’s why you don’t say too slow or too fast, not too loud and not too quiet. Just quiet enough that you can hear Om Tā re Tu ttā re Tu re Svā hā.

So now, I like to explain a little a brief meaning of the mantra. Most mantras always begin with om syllable, AUM (OM). And the mantra ends with syllable Soha [sk. Svaha] or PET (pronounced Pay) and so on. Now here AUM, AUM is one syllable constructed three letters together. Au, oo, and ma. Au, oo, ma. Three. Put together you say AUM (OM). Instead of saying slowly, au, oo, ma, saying OM.

Au represents the divine body of all the Buddhas, and oo represents the speech of all the Buddhas, and ma represents the like mind of all the Buddhas. So in this case when you say Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha,  Om is representing the divine body, speech, and mind of Tara. So you’re invoking the divine blessings of the body, speech, and mind of Tara. Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha.

First when you say Om Tare, it’s liberating our temporary sufferings, physical sufferings, mental suffering, pain, aches, so on and so forth. And mental stress, anxiety, fear, and so forth. Liberating, freeing, Om Tare.

Okay, second one, Tuttare. Tuttare mean to purify the causes of suffering. There are many causes, right. External causes like chemicals, all kinds of problems in the world, in our environmental problems and so on, social problems, all kinds of external problems right. And also internal problems such as stress and disease, and cause of suffering. So Tuttare, to remove and to release, and liberate from those temporary causes. Om Tare Tuttare.

Ture Soha, the last part, is liberating ourselves completely from cause of suffering, cause of samsara, cycling existence, liberating, freeing ourselves from mental defilement such as ignorance, anger, attachment, and all the different kinds of delusions, and also freeing ourselves from karma, and then to obey enlightenment of Tara.

So this brief meaning of Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha. But also on top of that, as I said before, in your invoking and blessing, bringing the blessings of Tara’s divine body, speech and mind. OM Tare Tuttare Ture Soha. Soha means to establish these realizations and blessings within my own body, speech, and mind.

Okay, this is the brief explanation on how to visualization Tara in front of you, those who don’t have initiation.

Now I’m going to explain a little bit how to visualize Tara for those of you who have received initiation before. So now, first you do is meditate on emptiness. You say the Sanskrit term, Om Svabhava Shuddha Sarva Dharma Svabhava Shuddho Ham. [This means we ] do not have inherent nature, and never had in the past. Everything is empty of inherent existence. And that means including my own consciousness, my own being as a person, everything is inherently void.

So this point, you imagine your ordinary body form, feeling, perceptions, mental condition, and consciousness, are all dissolved into voidness, into Sunyata. This ordinary body dissolves.

Now instead of this body, you imagine first a syllable Pam appeares [Pam is syllable for Padma, which is lotus). Pam transforms into lotus cushion. On top of this Pam syllable then white letter Ah. Ah transforms into moon cushion. Then on top of the moon cushion, you imagine green Tam syllable appear [Tara’s seed syllable]. And imagine this green Tam syllable is your essence of your own consciousness. Then green light emanating from this Tam syllable, much light emanating, and then gradually you yourself appear as a Green Tara.

So now I will not explain all the details because I already explained earlier when you visualized Tara in front of you. So you visualize yourself as the Tara. Then you try to generate strong appearance of Tara, all the details if possible. And this generation, try to see yourself as a Tara clearly, is called self-generation, and divine physical appearance. And then you also generate divine pride of yourself. And you say to yourself, “I am Tara. I am a Buddha. I am a female Buddha. I am a mother of all the Buddhas.”

Okay, so this is called divine pride, and it is not ordinary pride, and driven by ego, like ordinary term, “I’m this, I’m that”, not that kind of I, because there is no I, because it already dissolved into sunyata. Wher is this ‘I’ anyway, when you look at I, you never find I. This is emptiness. [Empty of independent inherent existence./

So what you have here is Tara, you are Tara. You are enlightened one. You are here for the sake of all sentient beings. You are doing healing practice, visualization of Tara for the benefit of all sentient being.

So now, again, if you are a beginner, it’s a little bit difficult to visualize all these details I’m explaining, but what do when you don’t see all these images of yourself, my guru said to me, “If you can’t see yourself as a Tara, that’s okay. You just say to yourself, ‘I am a Tara. There’s a Tara in me. In my heart also I am Tara,’ and you have to trust yourself, you have to say to yourself, ‘I am Tara,’ then you can have it, because everything is your mind. Everything is mind. Everything is mental projection.

So, visualize yourself as your Tara. Then again, visualize moon disc at your heart, and then visualize tam syllable in the middle, then visualize the mantra around the tam at your heart.

So this time now, self-healing. What you do is, you imagine light shining from the Tam syllable from your heart, and light goes up to your crown, down to the bottom of your feet, all over your body, everywhere. Your entire body filled with green light, the divine light, the blessing of Tara. Imagine your entire body is purified, and healed, and transformed again yourself as a Tara. More like confirming yourself as a Tara.

This is how you visualize yourself a Tara, and do the healing of yourself, then you say the mantra again. So you say the mantra minimum 21 times each time, because 21 reciting the mantra represents the 21 Taras.

Okay, 21 is three times seven right. So seven is a magic number, and auspicious number, you say three time, it is more powerful. You say the mantra.

Now what about healing for other people? Yes, there’s endless healings. We have so many healing modalities, and I can speak about healing of Tara for weeks and weeks, different modalities, different level of Tara practice, like Green Tara, White Tara, Red Tara, Yellow Tara, and the Chittimani Tara, one of the highest Taras, and so forth. But we have to go step-by-step.

So here’s the simple, healing practice for others. So you visualize Tam syllable at your heart, and the ten syllable mantra at your heart, and emanate green light from your heart. Light goes out to all sentient beings, especially someone that you know that he or she is suffering and going through lots of difficult times, physically and mentally. Then you imagine that person the way that person is, you send a light from your heart, from the Tam syllable, the green light. And the light goes to that person, reaching that person, this light gives peace, gives comfort, gives support, gives encouragement, and imagine that person feels very calm and peaceful, very nourishing spiritually in his or her heart. Feel very grateful. And you keep sending the light and say the mantra. This will be very helpful, beneficial.

I think that’s all for now. Thank you very much.

[Filmed at Gaden Choling Toronto during H.E. Zasep Rinpoche’s December 2017 visit.]

About H.E. Zasep Rinpoche

Venerable Acharya Zasep Tulku Rinpoche is Spiritual Director of Gaden for the West, with meditation centers in Canada, Australia and the United States. Rinpoche is popularly known for his approachable teaching style, strong humor and teachings based on a long lineage of great lamas. His own gurus included the most celebrated of Gelug teachers: His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Venerable Geshe Thupten Wanggyel, His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Venerable Lati Rinpoche, Venerable Tara Tulku Rinpoche and Venerable Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche. Rinpoche is spiritual director of many temples, meditation centres and retreat centres in Australia, the United States and Canada. He was first invited to teach in Australia by Lama Thubten Yeshe in 1976.

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How many of us actually find time for even a weekend retreat in today’s hectic world? Many Buddhists — and non-Buddhists — aspire to the quiet energy of retreat, not just to de-stress, but to actually still the mind sufficiently to progress mindfully. As meditation teacher Theodore Tsaousidis puts it: “silence is so extraordinary.” [Full talk transcript below.]

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Yes, our daily practices and meditation are vital, but most Buddhist teachers from all traditions and schools, advise retreats at least once in a lifetime, and preferrably each year for serious students. After, all, human life is a precious, rare opportunity, and no matter how good our genes, we are all knocking on death’s door sometime in the near future. Time passes quickly, and opportunities are fleeting. Some of us are forced to engage in what is lightly called “working retreats” — where we continue our day job, but dedicate all non-work hours, for a certain period of weeks, to a few hours of meditative retreat. It may not have the same impact as a dedicated group retreat, but it’s a partial solution.

Still, as Theodore points out, ” it is extraordinarily rare to meditate together with other people.”

Of course, ultimately, the solitary closed retreat — iconically, the meditator alone in a cave on the mountain — is the highest aspiration in retreat. Finding time, let alone a mountain cave, is, needless-to-say, difficult. Finding time for group retreat is challenging enough for most of us.

At the opening of one of Theodore Tsaousidis’s retreat events, the “Touching Earth Retreat”, he spoke on “Why do we go to a meditation retreat?” With permission, we publish the transcription of his fascinating and insightful talk.

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Why Do We Go To a Meditation Retreat?

 

Transcribed from a talk at the TOUCHING EARTH RETREAT 2016, FRIDAY MAY 20.

On the first night of a multi-day retreat, there is generally an opening talk to remind us of the reasons why we are here and what we came to do –thus setting the tone for the retreat. So tonight I would like to address a few points that I hope will provide encouragement to all of you as you begin and as you move through the following days.

 

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The first point I would like to address is our actual presence at this retreat or any other meditation retreat for that matter.  Whether it is a work retreat, whether it is a healing or a metta/lovingkindness retreat, or another, doesn’t matter.  And whether it is a Buddhist or secular retreat doesn’t matter.  We need to ask ourselves not only why we’re here, but how is it out of millions of people in Ontario, we have chosen to be here today.  There are many meditation centers and temples in this province, but how many people actually take the opportunity to recognize the benefit and understand the privilege of actually being in places like this that exist only for your benefit and well-being? Why are you here and why are others not? You came in spite of all the logistical demands of work, family, health and life in general. You came in spite of knowing the challenges intrinsic to the meditation experience. Challenges which are basically all the struggles you have in life brought up close and personal by the work you have chosen to do here. You knew that retreats are as exacting as they are beneficial and you still made the choice to come

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Words cannot begin to describe when we start to feel this connection with all things; not just with other human beings, but with all beings and things in the world — bugs, trees, grasses, flowers, the sun, the moon, the air, the cushion you’re sitting on, the chair.  In this experience of non-separateness, you may try to write a poem about it or try to describe it, but you simply can’t.  There is nothing you can say that comes close to it but this experience is enough to transform your life.

And because of the experience of this One Mind/Body, when we sit, we sit together as one. When we stand, we stand together as one, we walk together as one, we eat together as one, and we work together as one.  When you have even a glimpse of this oneness, it shatters all illusions of separation, all illusions of aloneness.  It begins to wear away at that feeling of loneliness, of that confusion about what’s going on — Who am I? What is this?  Even that begins to be worn away.

So is a meditation retreat special? Is it something different from other things?  Absolutely yes! It’s probably the most important resource to recognizing and discovering oneself. I know this to be so in my own life.  To recognize or rediscover yourself – your true self, you actually have to drop that little self that is immersed in self-cherishing and constantly complaining.  By realizing that all of us here are really One Self, we begin to experience this One Body/One Mind that my teacher talks about.  So I don’t think it can be overstated that the rarest and most important thing in the universe is to sit in meditation with others, to work together — and be able to do this in spite of all our personal challenges.

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Thirdly, meditation retreats are not as many believe to achieve a state of bliss. Although a bliss state may occur, the recommendation is to move past it just as you do with the thinking mind. Retreats are in actual fact simple, but not easy, and unfinished business from the past may rear its head, as do our present struggles.   As mentioned previously, we all came to this retreat in spite of all our personal challenges, the demands of work, family, health and our general day to day struggles.    We all have different narratives from which we come – family culture, society, traumas, life experiences, and so on — and we all have different baggage which we bring. Meditation retreats also provide guidance and support through one to one teacher interviews, formal teachings and the very structure of the retreat itself.

The power and the strength that is generated in retreat by all of us creates an environment of healing, acceptance, safety and transformation. We have an opportunity to face whatever shows up and all we have to do is to keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other, not thinking or worrying about the next step or the next breath. With this group energy and with one to one guidance of the teacher, we begin to see into the truth (or not truth) of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs. This exploration happens on a deep level. There is nothing you need to do except just be with your practice and not resist anything that comes up.

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Venerable Robina Courtin known for her clarity and energetic teaching style, covers a broad range of important Buddhist topics in this short interview video with Buddha Weekly. [Full video and transcript below.] Here, she speaks about mind and happiness, karma and habits, and the importance of ethics, concentration and wisdom.

A Tibetan nun for over forty years, she was a close pupil of the great Lama Thubten Yeshe and remains a devoted student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. To attend one of her teachings is an experience not to be missed, especially for Western students looking to “punch through” the more obscure wisdom teachings. She says,

“I’m a Buddhist, so I’m buying into Buddhist views about reality and views about the mind. And even though we tend to think of Buddhism as spiritual, which is true, but actually Buddhist expertise is the mind. And that’s possibly surprising to us because we have these very mystical views about the Buddha, but actually, his expertise is the mind.”

Venerable Robina found 25 minutes in her busy schedule Buddha Weekly as she stoped over in Boston. We missed our opportunity when she was in Mexico, almost caught up to her in Nepal, and finally spoke to her in Boston. The interview was extraordinary — if marred by technical difficultes. We hope you’ll look past some sound diffulties — caused by internet noise from an ice/wind storm — and listen to this concise but profound interview with Venerable Robina Courtin.

[For more on Venerable Robina Courtin, visit her website>>]

Full interview on video [with full written transcript just below the video.] May all beings benefit:

Full Transcript

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BW: You’re recorded as saying, “Happiness is the mind that is free from junk: clear, blissful, happy, and stable.” My question is, is that an achievable goal in today’s world and how can we achieve it?

Venerable Robina: I mean that’s the Buddhist deal. I’m a Buddhist, so I’m buying into Buddhist views about reality and views about the mind. And even though we tend to think of Buddhism as spiritual, which is true, but actually Buddhist expertise is the mind. And that’s possibly surprising to us because we have these very mystical views about the Buddha, but actually, his expertise is the mind. He came out of this amazing Indian tradition, of these remarkable thinkers more than 3,000 years ago, who are the ones who actually mapped the mind on the basis of this extraordinary, skillful, psychological technique called single-pointed concentration, which the world vaguely knows as mindfulness.

And actually, Buddha’s deal, Buddha’s point, is we have this phenomenal potential to unpack and unravel the contents of our mind and reconfigure it. And that essentially means getting rid of the neurosis, and ego, and fears, and dramas, which we totally believe at the core of our being and to be able to develop wisdom, and clarity, and happiness, and all the rest.

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This works pretty simple. That’s exactly what Buddhist deal is. That comes down to what Buddhism is. So of course it’s possible, that’s the point.

BW: Wonderful. The other topic mentioned in the events is, “Undoing destructive habits through mind training”, that’s the theme of your first talk actually, ‘Staying sane in a crazy world’, which is very cool. Is that mind training, is that referring to Lojong?

Venerable Robina: It is actually. Yes, exactly. It’s, in fact, a more advanced level of Buddhist psychology. And I think this is something again too that might surprise us, Derek. We learn music and mathematics and botany, we know it’s a gradual process. You start at grade one, you increase your knowledge and then you graduate. So I think we get confused about spiritual and think it’s a bit of a hippy, trippy, mystical thing where you cross your fingers and have some kind of experience. But actually, the Tibetan Buddhist approach, the Buddhist approach in general, it’s a gradual incremental development about this amazing potential of our mind.

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Frame  from the video

So the more advanced level … The very first level, Buddhist entry-level junior school for the Buddha actually is forget the mind. He’s simply telling us to do what our grandmother says which is behave nicely and essentially, exhorts us not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, not to have bad behavior, not to harm others. But his crucial reason of not harming isn’t the same as Jesus’s or the usual creator religions, the usual reason to not harm others.

I have a Jesuit priest friend and I asked him, “By definition, what is a sin?” Well, he said, “By definition, it’s doing what God said not to do.” And I think that’s our view of morality in the world. My mother says don’t do that and I’m naughty because she said so, so whereas the Buddha’s view is more of a natural law.

He’s simply like a doctor who advises us because he found from his own experience, and this is a point now, that whatever we think and do and say kind of programs us and brings its own results. We’re like our own creators. That’s how the Dalai Lama put it.

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So then the very first level of practice, given Buddhist view that we’re driven by all these crazy delusions, we’re driven by ego grasping, attachment, anger, fears, jealousy, the stuff that we consider totally normal but what he says are really mental illness. Because we’re driven by that first, the very first level of practice for our own benefit is to not, at least, follow the crazy delusions. Our body and speech basically are like the servants of our crazy mind, so by first harnessing our physical and verbal energy, we start to develop some discipline and then some self-respect because these actions will cause us suffering, forget about how many others.

Then, we got ability to go to the next level of practice which is … Well, as one of my teachers puts it, become your own therapist, which is really the job of being a Buddhist. As we already indicated before, where you learn single-pointed concentration, you learn Buddhist psychology and you learn to unpack and unravel your own mind and reconfigure it, and that really is the job of being a Buddhist.

Then, the most advanced level is compassion wing, the Mahayana component and that’s where you continue to work on your mind. There’s no difference now, but the logic being you kind of harness your physical and verbal and mental levels so marvelously. You continue to work on your mind in relation to helping others but now you enter into the most sophisticated level of practice where they talk about actually using problems themselves and beginning to greet problems and delight in problems because they’re the challenge that’ll help you rip out ego, rip out all the delusions and all our neurosis, so you learn to see …

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As what Lama Zopa says, “You learn to like problems like you like ice cream.”

You begin to delight in problems. In the beginning stages, you got to avoid them because they make us crazy but now we’re so advanced, the logic is you attempt it where you greet problems with a happy mind and this puts atomic bombs under all the ridiculous delusions and makes us even a more marvelous, more courageous person. It’s something like that.

BW: Absolutely. Great answer. The second event you’re running is called, “Karma, the ultimate life hack.” I was really interested in the language.

Venerable Robina: The what? The karma of the what? What did they say?

BW: Karma, the ultimate life hack. Looks like you’re…

Venerable Robina: What?

BW: As in computer hacking.

Venerable Robina: Oh, okay.

BW: Oh, it wasn’t your language. Okay.

Venerable Robina:  I can imagine. But karma really … I think again so many times we make such clichés out of all these concepts because they’re ancient Indian and whatever, but it’s really if they’re valid tools, they should be very contemporary. So karma really is simply the Buddha’s own observation and indeed, it’s the observation of those before him, we mustn’t discount them, these geniuses that came before the Buddha. Due to their remarkable skill of developing their mind and single-pointed concentration, which implies access in the most subtle level of consciousness, and we don’t even posit as existing in our materialist models and this is why it’s such a very radically different view. With this subtle level of mind, we can get complete control over our minds, number one, and number two, to really do the job of achieving our own liberation. One of the consequences of this is much more wisdom. We see the past, we see the future. That’s the capability of the mind at the subtle level.

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So all these teachings about karma, they’re not revelation which is a typical view about religion. They’re not coming from on high somewhere, the whole teachings about karma is that Buddha has observed that this is a natural law that runs the universe. It’s not like some big stick that we use to beat ourselves up with. This is how we think of bad and good, as some kind of moralistic punishment, reward system.

There’s no punisher in Buddhism, there’s no rewarder in Buddhism. Buddha says we create our own happiness, our own suffering. And so, the moral of karma is this natural law that Buddha’s observed within which the universe runs. And so, he relates it to happiness and suffering and essentially he says that suffering is the result of past programming about our own mind of negativity and happiness is the result of past programming of positivity, speaking simply.

And so, it’s the law that a Buddhist — if they’re trying to be a decent Buddhist — you’re trying to abide by the laws of karma. Not kill, not lie, not steal, not create future suffering for yourself basically and then you become your own therapist and you learn to radically change your mind. That’s only creating virtuous karma, thus only creating your future happiness and eventually your own Nirvana. So it’s this natural law that’s the real point, that runs the universe.

And it’s a surprise to us because we tend to think life is a big surprise. In the materialist view certainly, we didn’t ask to get born, it’s not our fault, Mommy and Daddy made us. Life is good life and bad life, which is kind of very nihilistic really. The Christian view is, of course, God made the universe. He’s got the laws and he runs the show, and that’s okay too.

But the Buddhist one is we run it, so we better learn these laws so we can live according to them, so we can create happiness and stop suffering and therefore, help others.

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BW: When the topic of karma comes up, often rebirth is associated with it and that becomes a difficult topic for some Western students. How do you approach that topic?

Venerable Robina:  So I think the interesting point is, we’re so addicted to misery, as soon we hear about karma, we hear just punishment. We’ve got to analyze and we’ve got to be intelligent. We got to be grown up and open our minds to listen to Buddha’s views; he’s a very sophisticated thinker. We don’t think like that. And because we have an assumption of morality being someone else punishing us, we extrapolate and use that view but that’s no good, you’re mistaken. In Buddhism, there is no such concept of punishment and reward because there’s no creator. There’s no concept of a punisher and a rewarder, but we have to give some thinking to it so we can hear this intelligently instead of leaping in emotionally.

And the second point is … And I said whenever we hear about karma, we assume it’s about negativity only. I joke and I say, “I’m not joking, I’ve never ever heard a person ever ask me the question, ‘Robina, why do good things happen?'”

It’s only why do bad things happen because we tend to take the good for granted. We sort of see it out there as coming in its own side as good luck and bad luck where Buddhist says there’s a logic to it all and the logic starts in our own reality, because we’re not created by somebody else, we’re not someone else’s victim.

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So it takes a bit of thinking about it to unpack it but we’re intelligent, we can do, we just have to want to that’s all. Karma’s a natural law that runs the universe. It’s not like a thing or a big stick that you use. Happiness is the fruit of our past positive programming and suffering is a fruit of our past negative programming. So demand to take responsibility to hear this first. Whereas, we tend to think of suffering is something that somebody else causes and, “It’s not fair. I don’t deserve it.” But happiness is also something that we think someone else causes and we don’t care if we don’t deserve it, we just want more praise. So we’ve really got to look at our assumptions and really break it down very carefully. That’s what the Buddhist approach demands and we’re intelligent and we can do it but we have to try, if we want to.

BW In that talk, are you going to be talking about methods as well?  Methods to life hack, I guess you could say.

Venerable Robina:  Well, the methods are like all methods. If you want to study, if you want to play the piano, you just don’t leap onto the piano, do you? You’ve got to learn some theories first, don’t you? And if you want to learn mathematics, you just can’t start writing sums with your pencil, you’ve got to learn the theories. Well, surprisingly, Buddhism is the same.

It’s a vast world view actually, so the methods start with learning, comprehending Buddhist views about emptiness, about happiness, about suffering, about impermanence, about karma. Learning these things theoretically and then gradually, we can figure in our mind because the practice is in the mind. The theories are in the mind but so is the practice.

So we have to learn to reconfigure our way of understanding ourselves and the world, and then apply those in day-to-day life. That’s what practice is.

And then you can enhance that practice, the day-to-day practice, with learning single-pointed concentration so you can learn to focus your mind at a deeper level, so we can do that job of being our own therapist. As Lama Yeshe puts it, “In a much more powerful, sophisticated way.” That’s the function of meditation. Sometimes I think we seem to think that being a Buddhist means you sit down with your eyes closed and something mystical happens. I’m not being cynical but there’s far more to it than that. Do you know?

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BW: Well, speaking of practice, the big weekend for you is on the three higher trainings. Can you, for our readers and viewers, give us a high-level view of the three precious trainings and the summary of what you plan to cover?

Venerable Robina: Well, there’s a nice analogy in Buddhism that a bird needs two wings. It’s the Mahayana view. We need wisdom and we need compassion. So the compassion wing, if you like, is the point. That’s where you put your money where your mouth is and you help others. This is the bottom line. Whether you call yourself a Hinayanist, Mahayanist, I don’t care. The bottom line is if you want to help others with health, you learn your wisdom first, you learn acupuncture, you learn medicine, then you can help others. Well, here, the wisdom we use, putting together your own self based upon Buddhist view about karma and the mind and how it functions, which is the nuts and bolts of being a Buddhist.

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On the basis of this, you transform yourself into this marvelous person. Less neurotic, less miserable, more accountable, more kind and then you’re able to get out there and help others on the compassion wing.

Well, the three higher trainings is another way of presenting the wisdom wing really. The third is the insight into how things exist and this is Buddha’s fundamental deal. He went through this amazing system with all those Indians at that time and then he diverged in his own direction, in particular, in relation to his own findings, his own direct experiential findings about the nature of self that all these amazing Indians before him were investigating. Well, he suggested he went further so that’s where now Buddhism exists and it relates indirectly with his own particular findings about the nature of self. And this is where all the wisdom teachings about so called Emtiness and Dependent Arising come in.

That’s the result, that’s the third of the three higher trainings where in order to understand wisdom, you got to have the second one which is development of single-pointed concentration. This amazing technique, sophisticated psychological skill called single-pointed concentration. Samatha as we know, calm binding or the development of this marvelous samadhi, the single-pointed concentration, first developed by these amazing Indians more than 3,000 years ago. The Buddhists then used and still continues to use.

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But in order to have single-pointed concentration which is so extraordinary, you’ve got to have the first of the three which is the first stages of practice, which is essentially the practice of good ethics. Controlling your body, controlling your speech, controlling your mind. So in a way, the entire Buddhist path is one way of packaging the entire Buddhist path.

BW: It’s a workshop, so are you going to alternate between teachings and meditations?

Venerable Robina: The two way I tend to do, whether it’s a retreat, depends. But usually it’s talking about these things and then I open it up to discussion. We have lots of discussion and then we have some meditations as well, and then discussions after the class. I know when I first studied Buddhist philosophy and psychology with my philosophy teacher back in the late ’70s, he’d always say … This is based on the Tibetan Buddhist Monastic University system.

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He’d always say that 25% of what you get is when you listen but then 75% is what you get from what they call debate, which is really what we call discussion. Unpacking and unraveling it, working it out internally so that we can then go and really get to meditate on it, so it’s this gradual process.

Lama Tsongkhapa talks about the wisdom that comes from listening, the wisdom that comes from thinking and contemplating and then the wisdom that comes finally from meditating, so it’s this gradual process.

BW: The workshop’s open to anyone, isn’t it?

Venerable Robina: Yes, for sure.

BW: Okay, great.

Venerable Robina: Anybody. Also, I don’t mind, people can come for just the morning, just the afternoon, whatever they like. I’m very open to that.

BW: Oh, okay. Great. I guess the top line question for a lot of people is how did you end up becoming a Buddhist

VenerableRobina: Being Buddhist. Okay, sure, I’ll tell. Well, I’m Australian. I was born in 1944. So I was part of a Catholic family, many kids, Mom went to a Catholic Convent. And I think as this tiny kid, I loved going to mass, I thought it was my job to be the priest. I was very religious, also my childhood. But I never talked about it to my seven siblings, I just, sort of was my own private world. I read about the saints. But I wasn’t holy looking, I was really the naughtiest person among these kids you could find, but it was my internal world.

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I always want to understand the meaning of things and why happiness and why suffering. And then I think when I was 15, I remember it was kind of a cathartic moment when I … My mother was a classical musician and she never let us listen to rock and roll or anything. It was in the ’50s, I remember hearing some black American music and that kind of blew my mind and opened me up to kind of … My spiritual became more kind of social involving black music and that was just a way of opening my mind to the world and to suffering. Then, I was brought up in 1950s, white Melbourne.

And so then I think by the time I was 19, it was time to say hello boys and good-bye God and it was kind of hippy time. Then I went to London, sort of continued to study classical singing but I ended up giving that up and becoming this revolutionary. So I went through this process for about eight years, the first radical left hippy, then radical left politics, black politics and then feminist politics. And then I think it was this constant process of me trying to understand the world, about having a framework for seeing what the world is and why, the way it works. I never went the scientific way, it was always kind of the activist. So I think by the time I was about 30, 31, I then kind of exhausted all options of who to blame for the world, I sort of joke like that, and wanted something spiritual again.

And I got into martial arts and then in 1976, when I was about 31, 32, I then met Lama Thubten Yeshe, a Tibetan Lama who’d come to Australia to teach and that’s where I’ve been since. So it’s kind of internal evolution really and trying to find a way to frame the world

And I find particularly, the Tibetan Buddhist, while I like the philosophical approach but what I say, out of my life, I liked the devotion as well. And I find in this system, it suits me. It’s a combination of both the devotional, the heart and also the philosophical, the psychology, so I found it very appealing for me. So, that’s my job now to talk about it.

Part of the process, the last 40 years being a Buddhist, that I’d work with editing and publishing for about 10 years. I always worked with Wisdom Publications. And then teaching for 25 years now but also working 15 years running a non-profit, helping people in prison in America and Australia. That was a very moving experience. And we continue to edit books as well, that’s my job on the side. That’s the essence of it.

BW: And you’ve been a nun for how long? Since when?

Venerable Robina: 40 years. 40 years. I’m now 73 or 74 and since about … A bit more than 40 actually, must be 41 or 42 years now. I forget.

BW: And are you still involved with Wisdom Publications?

Venerable Robina:  Yeah, I edit books. I’ve just got a book of Lama Yeshe’s. Lama Zopa’s, I did a couple of years ago about how to help at the time of death, and one I just finished editing that Wisdom will put out in October is a book on Mahamudra. Beautiful teachings of Mahamudra by Lama Yeshe. Very delicious, very experiential, very sweet.

BW: When’s that coming out?

Venerable Robina: Coming out later in the year. October I think… It’s called, “Mahamudra, How To Discover Your True Nature.”

BW: thank you so much.

Venerable Robina: Happy to talk to you, Derek. Thank you so much.

BW: I’ll hopefully talk to you again. Thank you very much.

Venerable Robina: Thanks.

Part 1 of an important commentary on Heart Sutra, and especially on the true nature of Shunyata (Emptiness) — a concept often misinterpreted. Heart Sutra is the most important sutra teaching on Shyunyata. In part 1 of his 2-part teaching on the Heart Sutra, H.E. Zasep Tulku Rinpoche goes into detail on the first two Skandas (Form and Feeling):

Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is Form. Feelings are Emptiness; Emptiness is Feeling.

He explains the profound meaning — and why it is comforting to Buddhists. Rinpoche starts by explaining dependent-arising and how we do not exist independently. His discussion on Emptiness of Feeling is especially helpful for people who are going through difficult times. Watch for Part 2 of this series, where Rinpoche discusses the remaining three Skandas and helps us understanding the profound concepts of Shunyata.

• Part 2 of this commentary is now live here>>

Full video of part 1 of the commentary and teaching on the Heart Sutra plays below:

H.E. Zasep Tulku Rinpoche brings clarity for all levels of student on this difficult concept and delivers a wonderful commentary on this important sutra. The Heart Sutra or Essence Sutra presents the meaning of Shunyata in a very concise and penetrating way. It is the briefest of all the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. The full-length Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom has 100,000 verses. Then there is the middle length Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, which has 20,000 verses, and then a shorter version of 8,000 verses.

• Part 2 of this commentary is now live here>>

Full Biography of H.E. Zasep Rinpoche below Heart Sutra.

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Transcript of the Commentary on Heart Sutra part 1 from H.E. Zasep Rinpoche

The subject of the teaching today is a commentary on Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra is the essence of Prajnaparamita sutra. The reason why it is called heart, because it is the essence; also it’s like a physical heart of human body, it’s one of the most important organs of the human body. Like that, this is one of the most important teachings.

It starts with, “Thus have I heard.” So after Buddha entered Nirvana, his disciples, great disciples, Mahākāsyapa, Shariputra, Subhuti, Ananda, and so forth gathered together with the thousands other monks and practitioners and had a great council, and then they decided to record the teachings.

So one of the great disciples, Shariputra said, “Thus I have heard”. So they recorded the teachings in their mind, in their deep, profound samadhi and unforgetting samadhi. So then they start talking, and then wrote down on palm leaves, this is how it started.

The Heart Sutra was taught at Vulture’s Peak Mountain in Rajagriha in central India, Magadha Kingdom. And there is a mountain, and these rocks have shape like vultures, like they’re gathering. That’s why we call the Vulture’s Peak Mountain.

There’s another story that is before or during Buddha’s, during the teaching, the many enlightened ones and yogis and arhat who could fly like a bird in the gathering — and they flew like a bird, like vultures, and that’s why it’s called Vulture’s Peak Mountain, and so many of them gathered like flocks of birds. And so these are different ways of interpreting the word, “Vulture’s Peak Mountain.”

So many Bodhisattvas gathered and many arhats gathered, and at that time Buddha himself entered into deep, profound samadhi. And it’s called profound illuminations… entering profound samadhi.

The Heart Sutra is actually not a spoken word of the Buddha (it is the spoken word of Avalokiteshvara), and this sutra is endorsed by the Buddha and approved by the Buddha and blessed by the Buddha himself. And what happened here is that Buddha himself entered into this deep samadhi, then Bodhisattva, Avalokiteśvara, and Shariputra, who were sitting close to Buddha, perhaps on each side of the Buddha, and then there was so many listeners and Bodhisattvas and arhats, monks, and so forth.

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And at that time, Avalokiteshvara himself was looking at that deep meaning, true meaning of Prajnaparamita. And then Shariputra made a request to Avalokiteshvara, and Avalokiteshvara started teaching. Avalokiteshvara said,

“Five skandas, the nature of the five skandas are empty of true existence, or empty of inherent existence.”

And by the blessing of the Buddha, Shariputra was encouraged … to ask questions to Avalokiteshvara and he asked questions on the Perfection of Wisdom, and at that time then Avalokiteshvara said to Shariputra, “Those who wish to listen, who wish to practice and meditate on Prajnaparmita, and those sons or daughters or anyone who wish to listen and meditate and practice Prajnaparmita, then they should look deeply and concentrate and try to understand meaning of Prajnaparmita.”

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Prajnaparmita means “Perfection of Wisdom” or transcendental wisdom… So then Avalokiteshvara said,

“The five skandas are empty of inherent existence. The nature of five skandas are empty of inherent existence, and form is emptiness; and emptiness is also form. Likewise, feeling is emptiness; and emptiness is also feeling. Likewise, perception is emptiness; emptiness is also perception. And likewise mental formation is emptiness; emptiness is also mental formation. Likewise, consciousness is emptiness; emptiness is also consciousness.”

So all five skandas are emptiness, or empty of inherent existence. So what it means is that each of five skandas — they do not exist inherently, and they are independent. So when we hear, when we talk about form is emptiness, we’re not talking about the form doesn’t exist, there is no form, and we’re not negating the form or refuting the form. How could you do that? Not possible and not necessary.

And form is emptiness means the true meaning, deep meaning, at an ultimate level, the form doesn’t exist all by itself, and independently.

So if you look at, or when you look at, when you meditate, if you look at the body from meditate … If you do analytical meditation and look at from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, go slowly, do what we call “sweeping meditation,” it’s like you’re sweeping the floor with a broom from one end of the room to the other end of the room, and that’s sweeping, right, sweeping the floor. Like that, we can do sweeping meditation of the body. Our modern term, today’s term of technology, you could say, “scanning the body.” So you can do that, and you look through the body, outside the body, and outside this body, or inside the body, doesn’t exist independently, inherently.

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This body is high maintenance, as we all know. You have to eat good, you have to drink water, you need to sleep, you have to do exercise, and you need go for a walk, drink lots of water, and so on and so forth. And then you try to do some practice meditation, a mindfulness calm abiding meditation, you do mantras and so forth to release your stress and tension, mental health and happiness and so forth.

This body is high maintenance, so this body need a lot of things, and this body is dependent on so many things. And ever since the body is started, when the body was very small, and inside mother’s womb, and as you grow, as a baby, and then you have more maintenance. And as you get bigger and bigger, more food and more consumptions, require so many things.

So this body is interdependent, and what we call, “dependent-arising.” But at the same time, this body is empty of inherent existence. So the emptiness and dependent-arising, they are co-existent, like one side of the door is the entrance, the other side of the door is the exit. So it’s one door, without entrance there is no exit; without exit, there is no entrance.

Dependent-arising and Emptiness are One

Likewise, dependent-arising and emptiness are one. For example, when we say dependent-arising, it naturally means there is no independent, right? Nothing is independent exist. So that’s the same as when you say emptiness, emptiness of inherent existing, or independently existing. So this body doesn’t exist independently, it cannot live, support, and sustain independent.

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So therefore, we are saying here form is emptiness, the Avalokiteshvara said, “Form is emptiness.” And when you look at the form, you don’t find the independent existence, any part of form, or any kind of form, therefore the form is emptiness.

The emptiness of the form is a form because the emptiness of the form is based on form. Without the form, there is no emptiness of form. So emptiness of form is based on form, for that reason we say the form is emptiness; emptiness is also form. The emptiness of form is form.

Lama Tsonkhapa commentary

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So this is how we have to understand dependent-arising, emptiness are co-existent. This is what Lama Tsongkhapa advised or said in his commentaries, and one should not separate dependent-arising and emptiness

As long as you are separating, totally separating dependent-arising and the emptiness, then you don’t understand emptiness, because they are one. And this is the middle way, what we call Madhyamaka, so form is emptiness.

Why do we meditate on Emptiness?

Now, so why do we meditate on the emptiness of form, and why do we have to try to understand emptiness of form? Because this body, as I said, it has lots of many parts, and I mentioned that, right?

So also, we have attachment to this body, and we have aversion to this body, we have some form of aggression towards this body, or somebody else’s body, and lots of mental defilements: ignorance, attachment, and anger, and so on and so on, lots of mental defilements arising.

Craving food, alcohol, drugs, “I want, I want”

And due to this body, and for example, craving for food and drink and this and that, alcohol, cigarette, drugs, all these cravings, because your body says, “I want this, I want this, I need this.” Not just body, but mind too. It is all associated, all five skandas go together.

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So this is why we meditate on emptiness of form, [inaudible 00:16:37], so when you meditate on form, emptiness of form, then you begin to see the nature of this body is emptiness, right, and Shunyata, and doesn’t have inherently good or bad, and this and that.

And the meditation on emptiness of the form is remedy, and is antidote for defilements and attachment and craving, desire, and so forth that has to do with this body and arising from this body, coming and going and so forth.

For example, we have neurosis, we have attachment, and because of this body,

“Oh, I’m not beautiful anymore, I’m getting old, my body is changing, I look awful.” And this is fear, right? This is fear and also sorrow and sadness, and all this is happening because of the body and this form, and craving on this form.

This is why we will meditate on emptiness of form. It is very beneficial, we can overcome attachment, craving, and fear, and anxiety and so on and so forth. This is why we meditate on emptiness of form first.

The Second Skanda: Feelings

And then the next second skanda is the feeling, the Buddha said, “Feeling is emptiness; emptiness is also feeling.” So now, similarly we are, as human beings, living beings, here we have a feeling. We have usually three types of feelings: happy feeling, unhappy feeling, and neutral feelings.

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This is why we will meditate on emptiness of form. It is very beneficial, we can overcome attachment, craving, and fear, and anxiety and so on and so forth. This is why we meditate on emptiness of form first.

And then the next second skanda is the feeling, the Avalokiteshvara said, “Feeling is emptiness; emptiness is also feeling.” So now, similarly we are, as human beings, living beings, here we have a feeling. We have usually three types of feelings: happy feeling, unhappy feeling, and neutral feelings.

So the feelings go up and down and change. One day you’re happy, next you’re unhappy, and then this week you’re happy, next week you’re unhappy, or sometimes feeling changes within the day or within hours.

And then sometimes you neither feel happy nor feel sad, and you feel a kind of neutral feelings, or perhaps dull feelings, and gray kind of feeling, and also slowly, slowly kind of a depressing feeling. And that’s why people get depressions, and then very, very difficult. And once you’re going into depression, it can be very difficult. And then you have to take drugs and so forth, then side effects and so forth.

So there’s different kind of feelings, and the feelings are also cause of defilements, and some feelings are cause of grasping and excitement, whatever, and unbalanced, goes up too fast or goes down too fast, whatever, no equilibrium, no equanimity. So that’s why we meditate on feeling first, see what is feeling, and then how does the feeling exist? And does the feeling exist independently, permanently, or not? And you meditate and look at the unhappy feeling, and then meditate on anicca, the impermanence of feeling, and feeling changes.

So when you meditate on impermanence of feeling, then you feel, “Well, it’s not a big deal, my feelings change. Right now I feel a bit sad, alone, but I’ll be okay.

Tonight or tomorrow, I will be fine, especially if I meditate and practice mindfulness and breathing, or if I meditate on deity yoga and do practice, and so forth, I will feel better.

For an earlier transcript of a previous commentary on the Heart Sutra from H.E. Zasep Rinpoche, (2014), please see>>

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

(Ârya-bhagavatî-prajñâpâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra)

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass of Vultures Mountain in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called “Profound Perception.”

Also, at that time, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature.

Then, through the power of Buddha, the venerable Shariputra said this to the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara: “How should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom?”

He said that and the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the venerable Sharadvatiputra. “Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature.

“Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness are empty.

“Shariputra, likewise, all phenomena are emptiness; without characteristic; unproduced, unceased; stainless, not without stain; not deficient, not fulfilled.

“Shariputra, therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch, and no phenomenon. There is no eye element and so on up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so on up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation, and path; there is no exalted wisdom, no attainment, and also no non-attainment.

“Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, the mind without obscuration and without fear. Having completely passed beyond error, they reach the end-point of nirvana. All the buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom.

“Therefore, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies all suffering, should be known as truth since it is not false. The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared:

TADYATHA [OM] GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

“Shariputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that.”

Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara saying: “Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that. It is like that; one should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated; even the tathagatas rejoice.”

The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the venerable Sharadvatiputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara, those surrounding in their entirety along with the world of gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan.

(This completes the Ârya-bhagavatî-prajñâpâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra)

About H.E. Archarya Zasep Tulku Rinpoche

Rinpoche is popularly known for his approachable teaching style, strong humor and teachings based on a long lineage of great lamas. His own gurus included the most celebrated of Gelug teachers: His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Venerable Geshe Thupten Wanggyel, His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Venerable Lati Rinpoche, Venerable Tara Tulku Rinpoche and Venerable Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is spiritual director of many temples, meditation centers and retreat centers in Australia, the United States and Canada. He was first invited to teach in Australia by Lama Thubten Yeshe in 1976.

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In part 2 of this wonderfully clear commentary on the Heart Sutra, H.E. Zasep Tulku Rinpoche explains the Emptiness of Form, Feeling, Perception, Mental Formations and Consciousness.

• Part 1 of this commentary here>>

Rinpoche explains why the teaching of Heart Sutra is the ultimate teaching for Wisdom, the Perfection of Wisdom, and how it can help us overcome attachments, aversions and fear. Rinpoche gives a beautiful explanation of the Heart Sutra Mantra OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. Finishing off the teaching, Yoko Dharma beautifully sings the Heart Sutra Mantra.

We recommend watching part 1 first.

Full 36-minute video plays below, and full transcript after this video below. Also below is the full English translation of the Heart Sutra:

Full transcript of video commentary teaching

• (Note; The First Skanda, Form, is discussed in video one>>)

H.E. Zasep Rinpoche: “I would like to continue from where I stopped last time. So like the Buddha said, the feeling is emptiness. Perception is emptiness. Mental formations are emptiness. Consciousness is emptiness. So, now, feeling is emptiness does not mean that we don’t have feelings, or we should not feel, or we should freeze our feelings, or shut down our feelings. That’s not the meaning of emptiness of feeling, or that is not the aim or the meaning or message of talking about a feeling of emptiness, or emptiness of feeling.”

So now, the feeling is part of human being. Every creature, sentient being, has feeling. Actually, I should say a few words about sentient being. When we talk about sentient being, we pray for all sentient beings. We pray that we would like to become enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. We do our dedication, end of the meditation, or end of the sadhana practice, we dedicate our merit, good karma, for the enlightenment for all sentient being. So sentient being, what is sentient being?

Tibetan word for sentient being [translates as] the one who walks, or one who moves, and is one who has consciousness, and mind.

So the definition of sentient being is the creature that has mind, that has feelings, and that walk by itself, or move by itself. Like worms, or like insects, and small insects, tiny things move by themselves. And have got feelings. Even the earth worms have feeling. And when you digging earth, and the worms don’t like exposed, bright sun or heat, they try to get back into the dirt.

So feeling, we have lots of feelings. So generally, we have three kinds of feelings. A happy feeling, unhappy feeling, and a neural feeling, all mentally. Physically, we have pleasant feeling, unpleasant feeling, and neutral feeling. This is part of human nature. But it is not simple, like simple. Because the different feelings, emotions, creates lots of activities in our mind and body. It gives you lots of joy or happiness, and excitement, and pleasure. Or, at the same time, it can give us pain, suffering, and emotional … what do you call, destruction? Or makes unstable. And then, all sorts of defilements, mental defilements arise. Sorrow, sadness, nostalgic feelings about past, going back to the past, and so forth.

Second Skanda: defilements arising due to feelings

So lots of defilements, mental defilements arising due to the feelings. And we create lot of karma, and unwholesome karmas. And we can also create wholesome karmas, good karma, or virtuous karma, as well. But most of the time, generally speaking, sentient beings create more unwholesome karmas than wholesome karmas because they don’t know what is wholesome, and what is karma, even. They don’t know how to create wholesome karmas, or virtuous karmas. Negative karma, unwholesome karmas, are easy to create, and easy to commit.

So anyway, the feeling is very big part of our life. And for that reason, heart sutra, you can see in the heart sutra, the feeling is … Avalokitesvara said, “Feeling is emptiness.” Once you meditate on it, look at, first, whatever you feel. And first, you sit and meditate, or observe your feelings, right? You have to know your feelings. And once you know your feeling, that’s already start.

This is the beginning. And beginning of the path is the beginning of the solution. Once you know what it is, then you feel less fear, or less kind of like a panic. It’s like sickness. If you don’t know what is going on, it’s scary, you could panic, right? But that’s why you go to the doctor, or you do examination and check up. And once you know what it is, then you feel not so bad. Or what can I do? And there is a medication, and so on, and so forth. You know how to heal yourself. And beginning like that.

First you meditate, and observe the feeling. And then, you know what kind of feeling it is. Pleasant, or unpleasant, indifferent feeling. And then, if you relax yourself, looking at, observing the feeling, slowly, the feeling will subside itself. And there will be less and less feeling. Or at least, you are familiar with your feelings, so you don’t have to panic. And there’s no scared, you don’t get scared.

Mindfulness meditation important

So this is why meditation on awareness is very important. Mindfulness meditation is important. Mindfulness of feeling, awareness of feeling’s important. And not only that, awareness of emptiness of feeling is important. Because feelings that change all the time, they don’t stay all the time one way or the other. And like the clouds that come and go, and like the weather change. So if you are patient and just accept the way it is, the weather, it’s changing, is mother nature. There’s not much you can do. It’s better you practice patience. Like that, if you look at your feelings, then you feel better. And meditate on emptiness of feeling.

Third Skanda: Perceptions

Then, perception. The perception is emptiness. Emptiness is also perception. This is a, actually, very interesting here. Perception is emptiness when you look at the perception, and your perception change. You have a certain way of thinking, a certain way of seeing things. You have certain projections on certain type of people, a group of people. And now, your perception has changed. You don’t have a negative perception anymore. You have positive perception, right? Whatever. Perception has changed. Perception is impermanent. Perception is emptiness of inherent, and emptiness, it does not exist inherently, because you see your perceptions changing. And that’s why heart sutra indicating, or you see in the heart sutra, perception is emptiness.

Now, emptiness is also perception. So the emptiness of the perception is, and perception. Where does the emptiness of the perception come from? The emptiness of the perception comes from your perception. Your perception is labeling the emptiness of perception. Your perception is labeling, also, perception. Right? So therefore, perception is emptiness, and emptiness of perception.

Fourth Skanda: Mental Formations

And likewise, mental formation. Mental formation is a subtle perception. So there’s a little bit different between mental formation and perception. And third, skanda, and heart skanda. There are small differences, not a big difference.

As it’s said that perception is like you walking to the temple, you see inside the temple, there is statutes. There is a painting, thangkas, and so forth. That’s your perception. Then, you pay more attention, and more details about what kind of statue is this? What kind of thangka is this? Oh this thangka is Avalokitesvara. This thangka is Tara. This thangka is Manjushiri. And then, what kind of Manjushiri is this? Black Manjushiri? White Manjushiri? Or orange Manjushiri? And what kind of style of painting is this? Who paint it? Tibetan style? Or Nepalese style? Or maybe if it’s old, old, thangka, maybe it’s ancient Indian style, or Chinese style, right?

So details. That kind of subtle perception is called mental formation. That’s the fourth skanda.

Fifth Skanda: Consciousness

Fifth skanda is consciousness, the mind, okay. So then, now, you’re going into the mind. And mind is emptiness. And twin nature of the mind is emptiness. The Prajnaparamita sutra, another Prajnaparamita sutra, 8000 verses, and it states, two nature of the mind is empty, and two nature of the mind is clay-like. As I mentioned this before, the mind doesn’t exist within the mind. The two nature of the mind is clay-like.

So why do we say mind doesn’t exist within the mind? What does that mean? Well, this is the meaning. Mind doesn’t exist within mind, means that your mind is meditating on your mind. Your mind is the subject, your mind is the object. And usually, we say, the subject, the mind, is coarse mind. Object mind is subtle mind. So they are mind to mind. But, it is questionable. And actually, the subject/object mind, is the subtle mind, or not. Because your mind is jumping around, and you don’t really see subtleness of the mind. So I think if you are an advanced meditator, or yogi, you could see the object of your mind is subtle one, until that probably hard to see. Subtle one. Your mind is all over the place.

In any case, one thing for sure. Your mind is subject and object both, okay? So mind to mind. So when you meditate, subject mind meditating on object mind. So then you don’t find another mind, separate mind, subject mind. They’re not separate, okay? So this is why it says mind doesn’t exist within the mind. So something kind of like you have a box, then you put something else inside the box, different things. Not like that. Not separate thing. It’s mind, just mind. Mind to mind. Same mind. Okay. And mind doesn’t exist within the mind. And something separate mind, doesn’t exist within mind means something separate doesn’t exist.

And true nature of the mind is Clear Light. Clear Light and cognizer.

Or you could say recognizer if you are seeing second time, is a recognizer. And also, according Prajnaparamita, Buddhist philosophy, the definition of mind is … clear and knowing. Clear and knower. Selsing, clear, rigpa is knower. Clear and knower. That’s the definition of mind. Now, mind doesn’t exist inherently or independent. Sometimes, you might think mind does exist inherently because mind is subtle, and most subtle thing, no one really knows what mind is. Maybe, mind is inherent existence, and something.

Emtpiness of Mind is subtle

It’s easy to see the impermanence and emptiness of the form, and feeling, because they keep changing, perceptions. But mind is something very, very subtle. Then you might think, mind does exist inherently, independently. No. Mind doesn’t exist inherently, independently. Because if you meditate on the mind, you don’t find inherently existing mind, or independent existing mind. There is not one mind, or many mind, this or that. And what is mind? So mind is basically a collection of thoughts. Or you could say procession of thoughts. Like you see the people who have the parade, or traffic, one car after another car.

So like that, so many thoughts, coming and going. so mind doesn’t exist, inherently or independent. This is the meaning of emptiness of mind. And does not exist inherently, independent. But mind do, of course, exist. And on the relative level, and conventional level, the mind is the root of everything. Our mind is the cause of our happiness, our mind is the cause of our suffering. And this is the ordinary mind. And Gampopa, the great Tibetan Buddhist master, Gampopa, he was a Milerepa disciple. Gampopa said, the root of samsara is ordinary mind. And so, it actually means we don’t see the mind as a Buddha nature. We don’t see, there’s a Buddha nature within every mind, every sentient being. So this is an ordinary mind.

Mind that is ignorant and deluded. And that’s the root of samsara. Once you see the Buddha nature within you, and Tatathagharba, the potential of the Buddha. And then, is no longer ordinary. And once you experience emptiness of the mind, your mind is no longer ordinary mind, right? Because you have wisdom. Wisdom of shunyata. And is no longer empty, and no longer the root of samsara. Otherwise, it’s the root of samsara, ordinary mind, okay? So this is why you meditate on emptiness of consciousness. Emptiness of mind.

So now, “Shariputra, likewise, you should look, all phenomenon of emptiness. All phenomenon on emptiness, emptiness of definition, unborn, unceasing, unending, and undefiled, and so forth. There is no defilement. There is no emptiness of defilement. There is no beginning, there is no end, and so on, and so forth. Also, emptiness of sense consciousness. Here in the Heart Sutra, it states, sense consciousness are also empty of inherent existence. For example, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.

Death and sickness are just imputed labels

So all the senses, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind are emptiness. Likewise, the object of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind like form, sound, smell, taste, touch, touchable. All these things are emptiness, because they do not exist inherently. They have no inherent nature. They keep changing, all the time. They’re dependent on our eyes. And likewise, all the elements. And then, go on. For example, birth, death, old age, sickness, are all emptiness. Emptiness of inherent existence. They don’t last forever and ever. And when you look at what is birth? What is death? What is sickness? And so forth. These are the labels, impugning, right?

And for example, birth. Okay, we’re born here, in this world. And actually, the birth started at the first moment of the conception, inside the mother’s womb. When you’re born, when you come out, you’re already nine months old, nine months old. And old age already started, from the moment you are born. So where is the birth, and where is the old age? And birth is happening. Old age is happening. And death is happening. And all the time, what we call momentary old age, momentary death, is all happening. So all the time, it’s happening. And there’s not one pure, or another pure.

There is no, really, inherent existent birth. Or old age, or death. So if you meditate on emptiness of birth, old age, and death, if you understand meaning, deep meaning of emptiness of birth, old age, death, then you can overcome fear of old age and death.

One can overcome aversion to old age. Oh, I don’t like become old, and you know? I don’t look good, and so on, and so forth. I look strange, I look different, so on and so forth. All those aversions are gone. Instead, you feel how I feel, good. I’m old now, I feel … and accomplished a lot. I have done lots of things in life. I have accomplished so much. I like to celebrate my old age, instead of feeling aversion.

And also, look at death, likewise. If you’re dying with a natural cause, dying due to old age, then death is completion of life. And it’s time to celebrate. So these kinds of knowledge arise from understanding of emptiness, and interdependent of the birth, old age, and sickness.

This is why Heart Sutra is very precious. Very special. And it’s when you read, a short sutra, is sort of simple. And some people think it’s simple, because they don’t understand, right? And also, a bit confusing, and a bit negative, are the words. Like, eye, no eye, no ear, no tongue. But no attainment, no none attainment, that’s very confusing, right? If there’s no attainment, then why are we trying to attain something? Why do we meditate?

Emtiness of Four Noble Truths

So it is not a simple, and not so easy, either. And so, it is very precious teaching, practice.

Likewise here, the [Emptiness of the] Four Noble Truths, again, here. So no suffering. No cause of suffering. No cessation of suffering. No path through cessation of suffering. Four Noble Truths. So we’re not saying there’s no Four Noble Truths. Buddha taught For Noble Truths after his enlightenment. He enlightened in Bodh Gaya, then he walked over to Varanasi, crossed the Ganges River. He went to… Sarnath, deer park. And there, he taught Four Noble Truths.

The very first teaching of the Buddha is Four Noble Truths. Nobles Truths of suffering, Noble Truths of the cause of suffering, Noble Truth of cessation of suffering, Noble Truth of a path to cessation of suffering. So again, the Four Noble Truths are also emptiness, and suffering is emptiness. Cause of suffering is emptiness. Cessation of suffering is emptiness, path to cessation of suffering is emptiness.

To attain Enlightenment, practice Prajnaparamita

Now, I will wrap up the Heart Sutra. I won’t talk too much.

And those of you wish to attain enlightenment, and you should practice Prajnaparamita. And Prajnaparamita is called Mother of all the Buddhas, Prajnaparamita. We say, Great Mother and Perfection of Wisdom, and the Mother of all the Buddhas. So this is a kind of analogy, or example, right? So all the Buddhas of the past, Buddhas of the present time, and the Buddhas of the future, and all the enlightened beings of the past, present, and future, rely on perfection of wisdom. This is the way to become enlightened.

If you would like to become enlightened Buddha, you should practice perfection of wisdom. Meditate on emptiness. Meditate on shunyata. And then, one can [ultimately] become enlightened. For that reason, we call Prajnaparamita is Mother of all the Buddhas, perfection of wisdom. And Heart Sutra mention, all the Buddhas of the past and present, future, are dependent, rely on perfection of wisdom.

Dharani Mantra of Perfection of Wisdom

And now, there’s a Dharani, there’s a mantra here the mantra of perfection of wisdom. Which is

Om Gate Gate Paragate Para Samgate Bodhi Soha

[Pronounced Ohm gah tey gah tey para gah tey para sam gah tey boh dee soh ha.]

This mantra, or Dharani, is the mantra of perfection of wisdom. So the mantra, om gate gate paragate para samgate bodhi soha is the essence of the Heart Sutra. This is the first kind of mantra. And it says here, the mantra of Perfection of Wisdom. Mantra of Prajnaparamita. Mantra of great mind, great realization. mind… It’s a mantra of great consciousness. Maha Sita, Sanskrit word, maha sita.

So when you meditate on the meaning of Prajnaparamita, meaning of mantra, the gate mantra, then you will obtain realization of shunyata. And realization of perfection of wisdom. Then, your mind becomes the advanced mind, and you are getting closer, closer to enlightenment. And therefore, your mind is the great mind, great rigpa. [foreign language 00:29:08] so this mantra is also supreme mantra, unequal mantra, and uncommon mantra. This mantra is a supreme mantra, and a precious mantra. And a mantra is a protection of the mind, protection of the heart. And mantra is medicine for the mind. Remember, mantra is the medicine for the mind. And this mantra is the origin of mantra, one of the very first mantra’s. And we call it Dharani. Dharani is like mantra.

So just reciting this mantra is very powerful. It is healing our heart, healing our mind, and healing sorrow and suffering. Gate gate means going, going. Paragate para samgate bodhi soha, going beyond samsara, going beyond the cycling existence. And we go beyond birth, old age, sickness, and death. And going beyond suffering. Beyond blames and so forth. And then, one will become enlightened. And para samgate bodhi soha, going towards the enlightenment, reaching the enlightenment.

And then, at the end of the heart sutra, Buddha, himself, came out from profound samadhi of illumination. And the Buddha said, “Oh, good, good.” He rejoiced, rejoiced the dialogue that had, the dialogue between Avalokitesvara and Sariputta, he rejoiced, he give his blessing, he give a confirmation. “What you discussed is perfect, I rejoice.” And now, it becomes the sutra. It actually equivalent of the teaching of Buddha, because Buddha, himself, give blessings and confirmation. So yeah. So I think I will leave it here, now.

Thank you very much.   [End of transcript of commentary.]

The mantra follows the teaching, sung beautifully by Yoko Dharma:

Om Gate Gate Paragate Para Samgate Bodhi Soha

Om Gate Gate Paragate Para Samgate Bodhi Soha

Om Gate Gate Paragate Para Samgate Bodhi Soha

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

(Ârya-bhagavatî-prajñâpâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra)

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass of Vultures Mountain in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called “Profound Perception.”

Also, at that time, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature.

Then, through the power of Buddha, the venerable Shariputra said this to the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara: “How should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom?”

He said that and the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the venerable Sharadvatiputra. “Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature.

“Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness are empty.

“Shariputra, likewise, all phenomena are emptiness; without characteristic; unproduced, unceased; stainless, not without stain; not deficient, not fulfilled.

“Shariputra, therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch, and no phenomenon. There is no eye element and so on up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so on up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation, and path; there is no exalted wisdom, no attainment, and also no non-attainment.

“Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, the mind without obscuration and without fear. Having completely passed beyond error, they reach the end-point of nirvana. All the buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom.

“Therefore, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies all suffering, should be known as truth since it is not false. The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared:

TADYATHA [OM] GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

“Shariputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that.”

Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara saying: “Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that. It is like that; one should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated; even the tathagatas rejoice.”

The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the venerable Sharadvatiputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara, those surrounding in their entirety along with the world of gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan.

(This completes the Ârya-bhagavatî-prajñâpâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra)

About H.E. Archarya Zasep Tulku Rinpoche

Rinpoche is popularly known for his approachable teaching style, strong humor and teachings based on a long lineage of great lamas. His own gurus included the most celebrated of Gelug teachers: His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Venerable Geshe Thupten Wanggyel, His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Venerable Lati Rinpoche, Venerable Tara Tulku Rinpoche and Venerable Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is spiritual director of many temples, meditation centers and retreat centers in Australia, the United States and Canada. He was first invited to teach in Australia by Lama Thubten Yeshe in 1976.

Part 1 of a series featuring a full Medicine Buddha weekend retreat, suitable for anyone who wishes to meditate on healing.

Medicine Buddha practices are universally popular and very effective for self-healing. Millions of Buddhists around the world rely on Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru practices to support their healing journeys. Medicine Buddha is one of the most popular Buddhas in Mahayana Buddhism, famous for healing.

The video includes a full image visualisation with mantra beautifully chanted by Yoko Dharma at the end of the teaching — and an introduction to Medicine Buddha by Venerable Zasep Rinpoche — the opening of a full weekend retreat this year in beautiful Owen Sound, Canada, hosted by Theodore Tsaousidis.

In Part 1, approximately 30 minutes in length, Rinpoche describes the benefits of practice, how to visualize Medicine Buddha and leads an initial round of mantra chants. For an in-depth feature on Medicine Buddha, see the Buddha Weekly story “The First Doctor: Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru — Empowering You to Heal”

Full video teachings (part 1) plays here:

Medicine Buddha

Medicine Buddha is known as the Lapis Lazuli Healer or King of Healing. His mantra is very efficacious in healing — as a support for regular health care. It is also a practice that is reputed to keep you healthy, preventing illness. For a full feature story on Medicine Buddha, see>>

These teachings filmed with permission of H.E. Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, spiritual director of Gaden for the West worldwide meditation centres.

The teaching was hosted by noted teacher Theodore Tsaousidis in Owen Sound.

Full transcript below.

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H.E. Zasep Rinpoche: “I would like to welcome everyone here today. The subject of the teaching and meditation for today and tomorrow is healing practice of Medicine Buddha.

So first we go to this sadhana here, we do some chanting, and then I will give a talk and do meditation as well, including as in our tradition, we’ll do some chanting in the beginning.

[Sadhana is a written guided meditation with visualization and mantra recitation. In a later video in this series, when the Sadhana is recited, we will publish the full short text.]

And the purpose of chanting is to settle our mind in this place and to settle our body here and now, and also our chanting is very powerful, healing it generates peace in our minds, and calmness.

And also we receive inspirations by chanting, we’ll receive inspiration and blessings from all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and from the enlightened one.

So we do chanting to settle our minds and then once you settle your body-mind here and now, and then you can hear the teachings more profoundly, more deeply, and you can also open up your senses and sense a consciousness and you can understand more better. And one can also benefit more and one can also appreciate the teaching more.

For those reasons why we do chanting first, then we do the mantras. So please go to this folder here … so here in the dossier. Medicine Buddha Sadhana for non-initiates, which means you can do the Medicine Buddha practice without preliminary preparation initiation.

Medicine Buddha practice fine without initiation

If you have received initiation before that will be very good. Also, you can think about receiving the initiation of Medicine Buddha in the future, near future. So for now it’s okay if you don’t have initiation, you’re fine, because we are doing the healing practice for ourselves and also healing for all sentient beings with a pure moderation, good moderation.

But we also need to understand what is the pure motivation, and we generate the motivation here, reflect on our illness, pain, and illness and pain experienced by others and generate strong desire to be free of pain and suffering. And to help others to be free of their pain and suffering. So this is the motivation.

And also we do the Medicine Buddha practice not just only people here who have pain or suffering, but we also practice Medicine Buddha to prevent pain and suffering and disease, and to make ourselves more healthy and balance our body-mind, to make ourselves more stronger.

And you don’t have any symptoms or kind of physical problems or mental or weakness and so forth, confusions in some, but we make it more clear, more stronger, because we receive blessing, protection.

Also, Medicine Buddha practice is very important for balance of body and mind, hormones, and DNA, and neurons, and so and so forth. It balances them, so we can have a better, good health and it generate vitality, energy, and long life, and good health, and this is why we do Medicine Buddha practice.

Bodhichitta Motivation

And for that reason we do Medicine Buddha practice, and with that motivation we do Medicine Buddha practice here. As an effective means to do these, I will commit myself to invoking the healing force within me embodied in the Medicine Buddha, to the means of actualizing these forces and to those who are able to willing to support me in this process.

So we can receive the blessing and protections of Medicine Buddha anytime, any moment. Medicine Buddha is here in this world and beyond this world to guide and help all of us and all sentient beings, and we can receive blessings.

And we all have potential to receive blessings. We all have the potential to be healed. We all have the potential to become healers ourself, we can heal ourself. We can do healing for other people through the blessing, by the power of and blessing of Medicine Buddha. And so this is why we do the Medicine Buddha practice.

And so at this time what we do is we go to the mantras now. Next page is the mantra. There’s two mantras, and there’s a short mantra and a long mantra. First we do shorter one.

Tayata Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

Tayata Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

Tayata Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

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[Several minutes repeating.]

Visualize Buddha in front of you (if uninitiated)

Whichever is suitable for you. You can visualize Medicine Buddha right in front of you. He is up there facing you and you’re facing to him, roughly about three or four feet above you and in front of you. Or, you imagine Medicine Buddha sitting right above your head and facing the same direction. Either way is fine. Usually, it’s a little bit more comfortable to visualize in front of you because you can see Medicine Buddha’s face.

As I said, you visualize about three or four feet above you, in front of you, on this beautiful space. First, you visualize lotus cushion and moon cushion. Two cushions like we sit on our mattress and cushion like that. Medicine Buddha is sitting on a lotus cushion.

Lotus cushion symbol of renunciation

Lotus cushion is a symbol of renunciation, which means we recognize the situation in the world today. In today’s world, there is lots of problems and lots of suffering: war, famine, disease, population increasing, lots of stress and pressure, and lots of suffering, and that goes on and on. Kind of endless. So much suffering. But we are here in this world. We have to do something for survival for ourselves, our generations and children, our community, and protecting the land. We have to do something for the rest of the world. We can’t ignore and we cannot give up. We have to do something. This attitude, doing something for the world, is compassion.

The lotus flower is example for compassion. Why the lotus flower is example for compassion? The lotus flower only grows in mud. Lotus flower doesn’t grow in a big garden or botanical garden. It grows in the mud. It needs a certain kind of environment: mud, water, and there could be lots of insects, snakes, and so on and so forth. Not really comfortable or easy place to walk. But it’s a beautiful flower, grows in this kind of environment. They need this kind of environment.

So, the lotus is example for compassion. The pond or the swamp is example for samsara. We call an example of the world. The world is like that swamp, not a very comfortable place to walk. But the lotus flower is born in this swamp. So, compassion can be born within our heart and compassion arise when you see much so much misery and suffering. The more misery is there, suffering there, you can have more compassion. You will say to yourself, “How can I ignore, leave it like that? I have to do something.”

Many compassionate beings

Many, many, many compassionate being in this world today. There are so many enlightened ones. There is many Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, enlightened people, compassionate people in the world helping. Sometimes people don’t understand. People questioning, “Where are all the Buddhas? Where are all the Bodhisattvas? Where are the saints? Who’s doing who? Nobody cares.” That’s not the case. Just because there’s so much suffering, we don’t see it. The difference, we don’t see it.

But if you go out there, you see so many people doing voluntary work. Buddhists, Christians, and different people. Many people are not even religious. They are purely spiritual people, good people, doing so many work, tremendous work.

There are so many, what we call, Bodhisattvas. A Bodhisattva is a person who has no self, no sense of self or ego or me. No self-cherishing. They totally give up this concept of Self. Me, I’m here to serve the community, serve the world, serve Mother Earth, Father Sky, and everybody. There are lots of compassionate people and we should join them. We should follow them. We practice with them and as a Sangha in Buddhist term, spiritual community. This is why there is lotus flowers there in the sea, the cushion. You see in Hindu and Buddhist art, you see lots of lotus everywhere.

We even have a guru named Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava means lotus-born guru. The legend is that he was born in the lotus. It’s a miracle. He just showed up on a lotus, little baby. So, Medicine Buddha is sitting on a lotus cushion and then on top of the lotus cushion, there’s a moon cushion that’s horizontal.

Metta and Karuna — Love and Compassion

Moon is symbol of love. So, compassion and love. Love and kindness, Metta and Karuna in Pali and San scripture. Metta is love and Karuna is compassion. The moon is example of love. The moon is very beautiful. You look at the full moon. I think, last night or tonight is a full moon. I saw last night through the window. When you look at the moon, it is very calming and peaceful and beautiful. An example of beauty and so. So, love is sitting on the moon disc and that means that we need to cultivate compassion and love in order to do effective healing practice, Medicine Buddha practice. You visualize moon cushion, then we visualize Medicine Buddha, Lapiz Lazuli Light.

There are eight emanations. The principle of Medicine Buddha is Lapiz Lazuli Light. He has a blue color of lapiz. Lapiz is a mineral and it is a medicine. You can grind lapiz, put it in a herb. We mix it with other herbs. Also, you can use lapiz for painting color like painting of the thangkas and so forth. The blue color is the color of energy, and the color of healing. So we visualize Medicine Buddha above in front of us and we read the description here: “He is sitting on the lotus seat, on top of which is the moon cushion. He is radiant and translucent blue in color and alive and vibrant. His right hand is in a gesture of supreme generosity called an Arura or Myrobalan plant.”

Visualizing Buddha as Alive

So, when we visualize the Buddha deity, we have to imagine He’s alive, not like a statue. He’s alive and he’s a blue color and he’s sitting cross-legged with vajra asana. Right hand is in the mudra of supreme generosity or supreme healing. Right hand right above his right knee, holding Arura or Myrobalan, which is a herb and seed.

According to Ayurvedic medicine, it’s called Myrobalan arura and botanic, I think word is, indian gooseberry. It grows in the forest of the Himalayas. There’s actually three multiple herb seeds we call arura, tudora and parura, according to Ayurvedic medicine and Tibet medicine. These herbs have a lot of healing property, especially Myrobalan. It also helps against insect bites like malaria and so forth. So, he’s holding Arura Myrobalan plant in his right hand and always, meaning and giving supreme medicine.

Begging bowl with healing nectar

In the gesture of concentration, his left hand holds a bowl, a begging bowl. So, in the left hand is in the gesture of mudra of contemplation or meditation. Usually, this is the mudra of meditation. You see in Tibetan tradition. Right hand is on the left hand or right hand is on the left hand, depending on the tradition. It doesn’t matter. Same thing. Even the circle inside your hand, the circle is a symbol of unity and oneness. Circle, one, oneness, unity. So, you meet the right hand and left hand here, and also yin and yang, love and compassion, wisdom and compassion, and so forth. The male and female energy all together joined. This is a symbol, a mudra of meditative equipoise.

Here, his left hand is in the mudra of meditative equipoise and then he’s holding a bowl with medicine inside. Medicine Buddha is a monk. Buddhist monks, usually, they have a begging bowl. They hold a begging bowl and go outside begging. It means that they live a very simple life and they would eat whatever people offer them and then meditate most of the time. They spend their time meditation, studying, and doing some work.

So, here Medicine Buddha is holding a bowl, but it’s also not just a medicine bowl. He’s holding a bowl with a nectar inside and then he’s got the nectar or elixir. The Sanskrit term is Amrita. Amrita is similar to the Greek word elixir. So, he’s got this healing medicine. He can give it to us, give it to you, endless and multiply. He’s holding that bowl with nectar on the left hand and contains medicinal nectar, ambrosia of life. Life-sustaining medicine. Longevity medicine.

It says in the commentary, if you drink this medicine or herb, it will give you longevity. It will remove all your health problems. It will remove any defect in your body or weakness of the body. It will heal and balance what you have stagnated chi and so forth. It will remove and it will bring new chi, new energy. Chi is energy. So, this medicine has a lot of power. If you have some toxin chemical and poison, it will renew instantly so you regenerate and rejuvenate your body. Holding this beautiful nectar, and the many different purposes and minerals and so forth.

“He is the embodiment of all the powerful dormant force of healing within us. We can, if it is helpful, imagine the place where we are meditating as a beautiful scenic place in a way that is nurturing us.”

Now, we visualize Medicine Buddha. Please visualize in front of you. The height or size, about maybe two feet and twelve inches. Medicine Buddha, and imagine blue color sitting on a lotus cushion. The body of Medicine Buddha is the nature of light and energy and more or less transparent. He is the embodiment of all the Buddhas. He represents all the Buddhas of the past, the Buddhas of the present time, and the Buddhas of future time. He is here in front of us. We visualize Medicine Buddha. So, you close your eyes slightly.

Visualization: How to Do it

When we say visualization, what are we doing here? You are projecting. You’re creating the image in front of you. Creating by your mind. You have to create. Projecting is like you have a slideshow. You are projecting the image on a screen. You project in front of you, visualize. Then, sometimes the images sort of fade away and then come back again, and you have to refocus, like you focus in a projector. Then, images can be a little bit more clear. If it is not clear, keep concentrating, creating, and then slowly, it appears to us. It will come to us. We have to create by our mind. Everything is part of our mind, anyway, generally speaking. Our perception, we have to project. Please visualize Medicine Buddha in front of you.”

This is followed by meditational images of Medicine Buddha and beautiful chanting of Medicine Buddha Mantra by the incredible Yoko Dharma:

Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha

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Medicine Man and movie actor, Sean Walking Bear discusses humility, ego, prayer and beliefs in this short video discussion. We previously interviewed Walking Bear in Buddha Weekly in 2016, where he discussed native spirituality — and pointed out many of the parallels and commonalities between Buddhism and his path. In this video, he again reveals beliefs that sound almost “Buddhist,” especially when speaking on “ego.” From the video:

“…Your heart must be clear and your conscious must be clear. There must be a connection between the heart and the mind at all times, so you’re always speaking your heart, always speaking the truth… To live life in humility so that there’s no ego, no ego here… Without pride, without ego, your voice can reach the highest places. Some people live with busy minds. With anxiety. With stress. With ego and pride… Their minds are too busy to form sincere prayer.”

…People can talk all they want about what they saw in their imagination. In fact, I don’t call it the imagination. I’ll say it’s a sacred part of the mind. It’s where you dream. It’s where you live. It’s where you create the world inside so you can live in the world outside the same way.”

NOTE: Just to be clear, this is NOT a Buddhist teaching, but as with all spirituality, there are common truths that resonate with all beings.

With permission of Sean Walking Bear and video creator Adan Van Dam, we include this short video and a transcript:

Traditionally, there are also practices that are quite similar, between Native spirituality and Buddhism, and especially Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism. For example, Tibetan La Gug (vitality retrieval), smudging and purification practices, the use of drumming and sound in meditations. In our previous interview, Walking Bear described his path:

“The mind is where we build our life from the inside out. It’s where we invite the Creator to live within us — so keep it blessed and clean. It’s a sacred space. A sacred place. Its where we truly live.”

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Transcript of Video

What I do, hmm. Basically, a lot of things. I guess the shaman of the old days was like the doctors of the village. They have to know the medicine, the smudges, the prayers, the ceremony. Their whole life was walking the path. I think some people put on a cap and then that’s their time, and it ends when the healings over, the ceremony’s over.

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The shaman, or medicine man, walks that path full-time. Their whole life surrounds that. You have to remain connected at all times, meaning, your heart must be clear and your conscious must be clear. There must be a connection between the heart and the mind at all times, so you’re always speaking your heart, always speaking the truth, so that your relationship with the Creator is always clear, honest, and open. Wherever you go, the Creator is there watching.

That is the path he must live. He must always remain open with prayer. That’s the path of a shaman, to know this. To ask. To be humble. To live life in humility so that there’s no ego, no ego here.

Your prayer, when you pray for others, your pray is like a booming voice into the heavens.

Without pride, without ego, your voice can reach the highest places. Some people live with busy minds. With anxiety. With stress. With ego and pride.

We say when they pray their voice is like a whisper. They cannot speak, or they cannot form words. Their minds are too busy to form sincere prayer, or they don’t know how to pray. It’s the simplest things, and you find it when you ask them to pray at the dinner table. They get shy and most people don’t know what to say. They just kinda recite words that they remember that they heard before.

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The same thing goes with prayer. It’s all practice and remembering what your elders said, and meaning the words. I think when you reach a certain age those words become even deeper whereas you live your life you just repeat those words, and I think, yes, a sign of maturity spirituality is understanding what those words mean, and saying it sincerely.

That is the path I walk. I live so I can pray for others. We’re not perfect. I live my life according to the path I want to walk on. The path of, I say, spiritual practitioner.

In ceremony, there are so many types of ceremony. It’s one of the rites that you grew up with. There’s pipe ceremonies, night lodges, you can do it in the day and night, you can do it pitch black. You can have shaking tent, there’s so many. The type that I do here is more of a prayer ceremony. I put the pipe together and I explain the protocol to people, because not everybody knows.

In fact, it’s one of the visions I had when I agreed to help people outside my tribe or say non-Native American people … one of the visions I had was I was confronted by a council of elders, and they asked me why I wasn’t helping other people, that the path I walked, and the path they choose for me was a path to help many people.

They showed me the medicine wheel, and they said that all colours of the nation are represented on this medicine wheel. You have yellow, you have red, you have black, you have white. And so, to only choose to help your people, it’s very hypocritical of the balance, and unity, of that circle, which is why I decided … I accepted that and started helping others.

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In spite of the politics, and the beliefs, of other tribes. This is what I was told to do. That’s what it’s all about. Not every tribe is the same. Not every holy person is told to do the same thing. You do what you are told to do, how you’re supposed to do it because there are a hundred ways to do something. Part of what is missing I find is the supernatural component.

People can talk all they want about what they saw in their imagination. In fact, I don’t call it the imagination. I’ll say it’s a sacred part of the mind. It’s where you dream. It’s where you live. It’s where you create the world inside so you can live in the world outside the same way.

The imagination gives a notion that everything you think is fantasy, it cannot be real, it’s not happening. You dream something very sacred then your mind tells you it’s just your imagination. Your dreaming of fantasy things because you read a fantasy book, or you watched a movie with CGI, but that’s not true. This is a sacred place.

You have to teach yourself it’s a sacred place than you can make magic happen. In ceremony, we’re missing the supernatural part where things can happen that defy the mind, defy physics. This is the true magical part of ceremony that I think the most hardened spiritual person in this common western world would be so terrified to even experience, because the whole aspect of being a practitioner, or a healer, or a medicine man, is to face that supernatural part of this world.

That’s what’s missing. I go to so many different ceremonies, talk to different practitioners, and they will never experience that. They will never experience a rock move by itself and talk. They’ll never see a buffalo skull sing, or shake. They’ll never see tree’s shape by themselves. They’ll never see a conduit, a medicine man, speaking words in different voices, different animal spirits, different ancestors.

This is what would terrify them. This is what they wish would happen. If you can be alone in the dark, pitch black, and have all the things happen around you then I think you’re brave enough to be right here.

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There is something very special about the Buddhist Retreat. We all look forward to our first (or next) retreat, but hectic modern life makes it very difficult for many of us. Who can take six weeks or three months off work (and away from family!) to do intensive remote retreat in the mountains? How do you explain to your significant other that you need to be away from the family for a month to three months? If you are self employed, but not idly rich, it will never happen. If you are employed, you’d need a very understanding employer. Not to mention a husband or wife who is beyond very understanding.

Based on this it would seem that only the rich or retired could afford the luxury or a formal long-term retreat. Yet, it is said that even lay Buddhists should do one major retreat before they die.

From a previous feature in Buddha Weekly: “In Zen Buddhism, silent retreat is a very important practice. In Vajrayana Buddhist practice — where much of the practice is designed to help us transform “ordinary perceptions” — the extensive practice and mantra retreat is considered a must, at least once in a practitioner’s lifetime.”

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Problem is, in accordance with unpredictable impermanence, we could die anytime. If we wait until we retire, or wait until we can afford it, or wait for our families grow up (leaving us more time?) — it might be too late. And, all that stress might kill us.

There is a solution to our dilemma. Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, a teacher very in touch with Western lifestyle and needs, recommends a home working retreat. During a Vajrayogini weekend teaching, he suggested just how to do it.  Before discussing the how, it’s important to discuss the “why” it’s important.

Please also see our previous feature “Buddhist Home Retreat: What the Teachers Say”>>

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Why Retreat is Important

Most of the great masters — from Shakyamuni Buddha to Lama Tsongkhapa and Milarepa —developed realizations through meditation that involved withdrawing entirely from mundane life for a period of intense reflection; Shakyamuni, famously, under the Bodhi tree, Milarepa walled up in his cave, Lama Tsonkhapa performing a million mandalas while working his arm to bloody tatters (he was so poor, he used a stone as a mandala plate). In those days, often this was possible due to sponsors who supported renunciates and monks. That isn’t as likely in a modern, fast-paced world.

Still, without withdrawal from daily life for a period of intense reflection, the realizations are elusive. Some of us, the lucky ones, save holidays and money for those long three month (or even just six week) retreats. We also have to bank a lot of karma-points with our spouse and families to justify a phones-off retreat.

Home Retreat — The Need for “Time and Space”

Can’t get away from picking up the kids at school? Can’t take time off work? Can’t afford a couple thousand a week for retreat accommodations on a modern, formal retreat? Home Retreat might be the interim solution, allowing you the “time and space” needed to develop “limitless compassion and wisdom.”

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In a teaching in Spain in 1983, the Most Venerable Lama Thubten Yeshe said:

“Why is retreat important? In order for our spirituality, pure morality, wisdom, single-pointed concentration and insight into reality to grow, we need time and space. The normal twentieth-century environment does not give us this. It induces either distraction or sluggishness, and retreat can take us beyond both. As human beings, we have the potential for unlimited growth, for limitless compassion and wisdom, bodhicitta and the six perfections. So retreat is very important in expediting this.”

Home Retreat: A How To

Home retreat does not replace the teaching retreat or the remote retreat. Yet, according to the Venerable Zasep Rinpoche (asked by the author of this teacher during a teaching weekend), it is helpful to your practice. There are some basic guidelines that would apply to any home retreat. We should treat the home retreat the same way as we do a remote non-working retreat, meaning — when doing your practice you must do so with the full intensity of a “real retreat. When you have to go back “to work” and to the family, you basically hit a virtual pause button. On your next session (usually at least twice a day) you “unpause” and continue where you left off, trying to stay in full retreat frame of mind.

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Although Venerable Zasep Rinpoche is a teacher of the Vajrayana tradition, some core principals would probably apply to any school:

1. Time — You need to commit as much time as possible each day to a home retreat, ideally at least two long sessions per day, morning and evening. If you can’t manage three-five hours a day, by giving up TV and other activities, you aren’t ready for the commitment.
2. Consistency — You should practice at the same times each day, and for the same duration each day until it becomes a habit
3. Goal — You should have a goal, either time goal (six hours a day for three months), or, in the case of mantra retreat, by counting mantras. For example, 3 months silent contemplation, three hours morning, three hours, night. Or, for a 100,000 mantra retreat you keep going however many days it takes, also three hours a night.
4. To maintain the retreat, you can never miss a session. If you committed to three hours morning and three hours evening for three months, if you miss one day, you basically start again. Even if you are sick or tired, you try to push your way through, even half-heartedly. The key is not to miss a session.
5. Separate mundane and retreat: coach family and friends to not disturb you during your regular hours of retreat.
6. Even if you have spare time “left over” after your three hours of retreat (and after the kids are in bed and other obligations are met), spend your time only on Dharma activities: studying sutra, reading the Buddhist commentaries, watching Buddhist documentaries.
7. Create Importance: Make Dharma retreat time your one fundamental, unchangeable component of the day. Perform family and work obligations as necessary, but use all leisure time for Dharma study or activity (in other words, no TV, no night at the movies.) The goal is to bring the feeling of retreat into as much of your day as possible during the length of your retreat.
8. Format: Follow your teacher’s guidance on format. Usually Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels will begin most sessions, and Dedicating the Merit might finish each session. In Vajrayana there might be the mandatory long sadhana, followed by mantra counting. In other traditions, there might be silent meditation.
9. Exercise: Even in format retreats, the participants alternate some activity with contemplation. This is important for health reasons. During retreat time, however, try to make exercise Dharma practice. For example, walking mindfulness meditation.

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Recommendations specific to Vajrayana Practice

In addition to the above suggestions, a Vajrayana counting retreat might also add some additional recommendations:

1. Your retreat at home should be treated as seriously as a “remote” retreat. This means you set up a cushion (seat) in one place, always returning only to that seat when you resume your retreat. You never count time or mantras performed off the cushion. It’s good to do a mindfulness walking session, or mantras while bird watching, but you don’t count either of these to your committed session.
2. With Vajrayana you normally will perform the sadhana (guided meditation/visualization ) twice (one per session) plus your mantras. Normally, if there is a long version, you always use the long one.
3. Normally you must set up physical offerings (to reinforce the “visualized” offerings), which would consist of torma cakes, the eight sensory offerings, and for higher tantra the inner offering.
4. You normally set up an altar with an image of the meditational deity, ideally a Dharma book and offerings. The altar should not be moved until the retreat is finished.
5. Usually, for Vajrayana retreats you’d undertake the practice of your “Yidam” (heart meditation emanation of Enlightenment) but if you do not have initiations, you can undertake a Shakyamuni Buddha, Green Tara or Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) sadhana and mantra retreat. These three do not require initiation as long as you visualize the Yidam in front of you — instead of yourself as the Yidam.

As an example, please see the suggestions below for a retreat that does not require special permissions or initiations, for Green Tara, the “activity of compassion.”

Example Retreat: Green Tara Retreat — the Mother of All Retreats

Green Tara (Drolma in Tibetan), often described as the Mother of All Buddhas, is a suitable meditational deity for any retreat and for any person. Tara is accessible to everyone. You could say, a Tara Retreat is the Mother of All Retreats. (Sadhana below)

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“Tara is without a doubt the most beloved female deity in Tibetan Buddhism, revered for Her swiftness in helping those who rely on her,” writes the most Venerable Achayra Zasep Tulku Rinpoche in his recent book Tara in the Palm of Your Hand. “She has been described as a Buddha for our modern age, a sublime personification of compassion and wisdom in female form at a time when sorrow and suffering seem to be increasing everywhere.”

It is, perhaps, the fact that Tara represents enlightened activity that endears Her to Her endless followers.  “Tara represents enlightened activity,” Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron writes in How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator. “Tara is an emanation of bliss and emptiness… By appearing to us in this physical form of Tara, the wisdom of bliss and emptiness of all Buddhas inspires us to cultivate constructive attitudes and actions.”

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With Tara as our retreat inspiration, we are stimulated to right conduct, right speech and other “actions” that generate merits, and we find ourselves averse to actions that might generate negative karma. This is why, no matter how busy modern life becomes, a regular retreat in Green Tara can be a beneficial practice.

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For those unable to find formal retreat opportunities, a private weekend of solitary contemplation is still helpful, as is regular practice. Or, as described above, a longer retreat committing to two sessions a day. When the opportunity arises, try to attend teachings or actual retreat on Green Tara.

“Of all the Buddhas, Tara is the most accessible,” explained Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche in Tara in the Palm of Your Hand. The venerable teacher points out both temporal benefits and ultimate benefits in his commentary on Tara practice. “When you practice Tara you become closer to Her and can feel Her motherly love; you feel well-loved and nurtured by the most beautiful Mother of All Buddhas.”

Tara, the Mother of All Buddhas

Tara is often called the Mother of All Buddhas of all times. This can be understood in many ways. One way to understand the affectionate title of Mama Tara is in Her role as the embodiment of Wisdom Compassion Activity.  Tara is green, connoting wind and activity, because she is the “Swift One.” In the 21 Praises to Tara, She (in one of Her forms) is described as: “the Swift One, the Heroine, Whose eyes are like an instant flash of lightning…” In this way, the Swift One, The Rescuer Tara comes to the aid of those in need, like a mother protecting her children.

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“Tara can be understood on many different levels,” explained Thubten Chodron. She explained Tara can be understood at three levels:

• as a person who became an Enlightened Buddha
• as a manifestation of awakened qualities
• as our own Buddha Nature (Buddha Potential) in its future fully purified and evolved form.

“Her female form represents wisdom, the essential element needed to remove the ignorance that misconstrues reality and is the root of our suffering,” wrote Thubten Chodron in How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator. “Thus she is called ‘the mother of all Buddhas,’ for the wisdom realizing reality that she embodies gives birth to full enlightenment, the state of freedom from self-grasping ignorance and its attendant, self-centeredness.”

Like a Mother, Tara cares for us, and supports us. “Aspirations made in the presence of Green Tara may easily grow into results, and requests made to Her may be quickly actualized,” wrote Thubton Chodron. “We are energized to create the causes for happiness, and to eliminate interferences in our Dharma practice.

Below: Part 1 of a series of videos from Thubton Chodron on Tara (taped during a Tara Retreat).

Retreat and the Stages

“Dharma experiences come only when you put yourself in a Dharma situation,” said Lama Yeshe in a 1983 teaching in Spain. “The first stage of your spiritual growth occurs during your first retreat. The second stage happens in your second retreat; the third stage in your third…and so on. Spiritual growth is not an intellectual thing. It has to be organic. It is beyond the intellectual; it has to become your own experience.”

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Retreats are, by definition, Dharma situations, with minimal distractions, and they are certainly experiential rather than intellectual. Lama Yeshe had this advice for students in retreat: ” Successful retreat demands discipline. The fundamental discipline is living ethically in pure morality. On that basis you need to follow a strict schedule and avoid all outside activity. You should not meet with other people or talk nonsense. Best, of course, is to maintain silence for the duration of your retreat and not meet people at all.”

Green Tara’s Mantra

Like Tara Herself, Her mantra is accessible to everyone. Benefits of Tara practice and Tara’s mantra arise quickly. Those who find time for daily practice, and those with empowerment, benefit even more quickly.

Nearly every Tibetan grew up with a morning recitation of Tara’s 21 Praises and Her mantra is common. Tibetan Buddhists, even those without initiation into Tara, often chant Tara’s mantra, especially when they are afraid, or in need of protection.

“I myself have had many experiences of the power of Tara, starting from when I was a boy in Tibet,” wrote Zasep Tulku Rinpoche in Tara in the Palm of Your Hand. “I, along with my attendant, were riding on a mountain path. Suddenly, we came across a mother bear with three cubs. She turned on us as if to attack. My grandmother quickly recited Tara’s mantra. Instantly the bear turned her back on us and ambled off…”

Tara’s mantra is

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

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Retreat Sadhana

A sadhana is a “guided meditation” that ensures all elements of good meritorious practice are included. These are normally the “seven limbs” of practice.

Tara Visualization

The next step in visualization of Tara would be formal Vajrayana meditation—which actively uses our minds on a near epic scale, and has been proven to enhance intelligence and concentration. Research has proven the cognitive benefits of Vajrayana visualization. (Please see our feature: Science: Research Proves Vajrayana Meditation Techniques Improve Cognitive Performance.)

A guided video meditation visualization of Green Tara instructed by H.E. Zasep Rinpoche:

To benefit from visualization, while chanting the mantras, build more and more complex visualizations, beginning with Tara’s elegant beauty and important attributes, and progressively increasing the image in detail. The easiest approach is to study an image of Tara, preferably an ironically correct one—since very aspect of the visualization means something.

Your teacher, may give you a proper meditation, but if you have not yet formalized your practice you can think in these terms: Tara is a beautiful young deity, youthful, perhaps sixteen visually—certainly youthful and timeless—of emerald color. Her right hand is in the gesture of supreme generosity, hand open to give blessings, with thumb and index touching and the other three fingers outstretched. The touching fingers represent the union of Wisdom and Compassion. The three remaining fingers represent the three jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. In this hand She lightly holds the stem of an uptala flower, a blue Lotus.

Her left hand is at her heart, in the gesture of bestowing refuge in the three jewels. This mudra (hand gesture) also incorporates the gesture of protection, of fearlessness. This time Her thumb and ring finger are connecting in the Wisdom-Compassion loop. She is saying, “come, I’ll protect you.” In this hand, too, is the stem of an uptala flower. There are three blooms, one open, one half open, one just about to open, representing the Buddhas of the past, present and future.

She is adorned in the most precious ornaments, and seated in an aura of spectacular light. On Her head is a five-sided crown, depicting the five Dhani Buddhas. Above that, are ornaments, rainbow lights, wish-fulfilling gems. And surmounting all, is Her own Guru, Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, glowing red.

Her legs are Her most significant attributes. One is drawn in, showing her mastery and enlightenment. Her other is outstretched, in a gesture that appears to indicate She’s ready to leap up to our aid. She sits on a moon cushion, which arises on top of a Lotus.

In more advanced visualizations, at Her heart is her precious seed syllable, TAM (see below), radiating green light, sending out blessing energy to all beings in the universe.

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Basic Practice Without Empowerment

Tara can be practiced by anyone, any time. She is all-inclusive. Although empowerments and initiations help advance our progress with Tara, none is required.

A good basic daily practice, if you are not yet being instructed by a qualified teacher, would normally include:

• Taking refuge in the Three Jewels: Buddha (Enlightened one), Dharma (Enlightened teachings) and Sangha (the community supporting the Enlightened)
• An offering: water bowls, or just a mentally visualized offering, or more elaborate if preferred (provided physical offerings do not derive from theft, greed, or any negativitiy)
• Four immeasurables: wishes for all beings to be happy, not to suffer and dwell in equanimity
• Seven-limb practice: a seven limb prayer that re-affirms a good practice of praise, offering, declaration of non-virtues, request for Tara to remain as your teacher, request that Tara teach the Dharma, and a dedication of the merit to the cause for enlightenment.

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These basic practices, together, take five minutes, to which you might add the above visualization and mantra practices.

Here are some basic words/thoughts that frame the above practice:

Refuge

Until I reach enlightenment, I take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddhas, the Dharma and the Sangha. By the merit of practicing generosity and other perfections, may I attain Enlightement in order to benefit all beings.

Offerings

Mentally visualize seven or eight bowls of water. Or, actually fill up seven or eight bowls of water and offer them mentally. You can supplement the blessing by reciting Tara’s mantra, or, alternately, “Om Ah Hum”. For a more elaborate offering, you could add the meditation in our feature, “Water Bowl Offerings as an Antidote to Attachment”, where the bowls are visualized as the eight traditional sense offerings: water for drinking, water for washing, flowers for the eye senses, incense for the smell sense, butter lamps for illumination, perfume, food for the taste sense, and music for the sound sense. More here>>

Four Immeasurables 

May all beings have happiness and its causes,

May they never have suffering or its causes.

May they constantly dwell in joy transcending sorrow;

May they dwell in equal love for both near and far.

Seven Limbs

To You Venerable Arya Tara, with my body, speech and mind, I respectfully prostrate.

I offer flowers, incense, butter lamps, perfume, food, music and a vast collection of offerings, both actually set out and emanated through wisdom and imagination.

I declare all my non-virtuous acts since beginningless time.

I rejoice in the virtuous merit accumulated by Holy and ordinary beings.

I request You turn the wheel of Dharma.

I beseech You to remain until samsara ends. Please, with your boundless compassion, look upon all beings drowning in the ocean of suffering.

May whatever merit I have accumulated be transformed into the cause for Enlightenment so that I may help all sentient beings.

Mantra

Visualize Tara as described above — in front of you if you do not have initiation — and then focus mindfully on the spoken mantra, repeating it in a low voice, over and over. For a normal practice you might repeat 108 times. For a retreat, your goal is normally 100,000 total, in three months or so in a home retreat format (for example).

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

Pronounced

Ohm Tah-ray Tew-Tah-ray Tew-rey Svah-ha.

In Tibetan:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha

Final Dedication

If you have a formal practice from a teacher there will be more steps. Otherwise, close off with the all-important final dedication:

I dedicate the merit of this practice to the cause for enlightenment, for the benefit of all beings.

21 Praises

Optionally, include the 21 Praises to Tara. Around the world, many people begin and end their day with Tara’s twenty-one praises. This practice has been credited with many benefits, including protection from harm, prosperity, and swift progress on the path of enlightenment.

It can be beneficial to chant this in the world’s oldest known language—Sanskrit. The nuances of this practice, the originating sounds, is similar to mantra practice. In Sanskrit:

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Om namah spukasam namah Taraye mi Tara

1 Namas Tare Ture vire

kshanair dyuti nibhekshane

trailokya nat ha vaktrabja

vikasat kesharobhave

 

2 Namah shata sharac chandra

sampurna patalanane

Tara sahasra nikara

prahasat kira noj jvale

 

3 Namah kanaka nilabja

pani padma vibhu shite

dana virya tapah shanti

titik sha dhyana gochare

 

4 Namas tat hagatosh nisha

vijayananta charini

ashesha paramita prapta

jina putra nishevite

 

5 Namas Tuttara Hum kara

puritasha dig antare

sapta loka kramakranti

asheshak arshanak shame

 

6 Namah shakranala Brahma

marud vishvesh varachite

bhuta vetala gand harva

gana yaksha puras krte

 

7 Namas trad iti phat kara

para yantra pramardani

praty alid ha pada nyase

shik hi jvalakulek shane

 

8 Namas Ture maha ghore

mara vira vinashani

bhrku ti krta vaktrabja

sarva shatrum nishudani

 

9 Namas tri ratna mudranka

hrdyanguli vibhushite

bhu shitashesha dik chakra

nikara sva Karakule

 

10 Namah pramudita topa

muku ta kshipta malini

hasat prahasat Tuttare

mara loka vashamkari

 

11 Namah samanta bhu pala

patalakarshana kshame

chalat bhrku ti hum kara

sarvapada vimoch ani

 

12 Namah shikhanda kandendu

muku tabha ranojjvale

Amitabha jata bhara

bhasvare kirana dhruve

 

13 Namah kalpanta hutabhug

jvala malan Tara sthite

alidha muditabandha

ripu chakra vinashani

 

14 Namah kara talaghata

charana hata bhu tale

bhrkuti krta Hum kara

sapta patala bhedini

 

15 Namah shive shubhe shante

shanta nirvana gochare

svaha pranava samyukte

maha papaka na shani

 

16 Namah pramudi tabandha

ripu gatra vabhedini

dashakshara pada nyashe

vidya Hum kara dipite

 

17 Namas Ture pada ghata

Hum karakara bijite

meru mandara kailasa

bhuvana traya chalini

 

18 Namah sura sarakara

harinika karast hite

Tara dvir ukta Phat kara

ashesha visha nashani

 

19 Namah sura ganadh yaksha

sura kimnara sevite

abandha mudita bhoga

kali duhs vapna nashani

 

20 Namah chandrarka sampurna

nayana dyuti bhas vare

hara dvir ukta Tuttare

vishama jvara nashani

 

21 Namas tri tattva vinyasa

shiva shakti saman vite

graha vetala yakshaugha

nashani pravare Ture

 

21 Praises to Tara in English

The praises do lose some of the “mystery” and intensity and sheer sound-power in English, but the intention and praise is maintained. Many people chant the praise in English:

1 Homage to you, Tara, the swift heroine,

Whose eyes are like an instant flash of lightning,

Whose water-born face arises from the blooming lotus

Of Avalokiteshvara, protector of the three worlds.

 

2 Homage to you, Tara, whose face is like

One hundred full autumn moons gathered together,

Blazing with the expanding light

Of a thousand stars assembled.

 

3 Homage to you, Tara, born from a golden-blue lotus,

Whose hands are beautifully adorned with lotus flowers,

You who are the embodiment of giving, joyous effort, asceticism,

Pacification, patience, concentration, and all objects of practice.

 

4 Homage to you, Tara, the crown pinnacle of those thus gone,

Whose deeds overcome infinite evils,

Who have attained transcendent perfections without exception,

And upon whom the sons of the Victorious Ones rely.

 

5 Homage to you, Tara, who with the letters TUTTARA and HUM

Fill the (realms of) desire, direction, and space,

Whose feet trample on the seven worlds,

And who are able to draw all beings to you.

 

6 Homage to you, Tara, venerated by Indra,

Agni, Brahma, Vayu, and Ishvara,

And praised by the assembly of spirits,

raised corpses,
Gandharvas, and all yakshas.

 

7 Homage to you, Tara, whose TRAT and PHAT

Destroy entirely the magical wheels of others.

With your right leg bent and left outstretched and pressing,

You burn intensely within a whirl of fire.

 

8 Homage to you, Tara, the great fearful one,

Whose letter TURE destroys the mighty demons completely,

Who with a wrathful expression on your water-born face

Slay all enemies without an exception.

 

9 Homage to you, Tara, whose fingers adorn your heart

With the gesture of the sublime precious three;

Adorned with a wheel striking all directions without exception

With the totality of your own rays of light.

 

10 Homage to you, Tara, whose radiant crown ornament,

Joyful and magnificent, extends a garland of light,

And who, by your laughter of TUTTARA,

Conquer the demons and all of the worlds.

 

11 Homage to you, Tara, who are able to invoke

The entire assembly of local protectors,

Whose wrathful expression fiercely shakes,

Rescuing the impoverished through the letter HUM.

 

12 Homage to you, Tara, whose crown is adorned

With the crescent moon, wearing ornaments exceedingly bright;

From your hair knot the buddha Amitabha

Radiates eternally with great beams of light.

 

13 Homage to you, Tara, who dwell within a blazing garland

That resembles the fire at the end of this world age;

Surrounded by joy, you sit with your right leg extended

And left withdrawn, completely destroying all the masses of enemies.

 

14 Homage to you, Tara, with hand on the ground by your side,

Pressing your heel and stamping your foot on the earth;

With a wrathful glance from your eyes you subdue

All seven levels through the syllable HUM.

 

15 Homage to you, Tara, O happy, virtuous, and peaceful one,

The very object of practice, passed beyond sorrow.

You are perfectly endowed with SOHA and OM,

Overcoming completely all the great evils.

 

16 Homage to you, Tara, surrounded by the joyous ones,

You completely subdue the bodies of all enemies;

Your speech is adorned with the ten syllables,

And you rescue all through the knowledge-letter HUM.

 

17 Homage to you, Tara, stamping your feet and proclaiming TURE.

Your seed-syllable itself in the aspect of HUM

Causes Meru, Mandhara, and the Vindhya mountains

And all the three worlds to tremble and shake.

 

18 Homage to you, Tara, who hold in your hand

The hare-marked moon like the celestial ocean.

By uttering TARA twice and the letter PHAT

You dispel all poisons without an exception.

 

19 Homage to you, Tara, upon whom the kings of the assembled gods,

The gods themselves, and all kinnaras rely;

Whose magnificent armor gives joy to all,

You who dispel all disputes and bad dreams.

 

20 Homage to you, Tara, whose two eyes – the sun and the moon –

Radiate an excellent, illuminating light;

By uttering HARA twice and TUTTARA,

You dispel all violent epidemic disease.

 

21 Homage to you, Tara, adorned by the three suchnesses,

Perfectly endowed with the power of serenity,

You who destroy the host of evil spirits, raised corpses, and yakshas,

O TURE, most excellent and sublime!

 

The great Yogi Shabkar bridges modern times with the ancient masters, the likes of Milarepa, Marpa, Niropa, Tilopa, and the great Mahasiddhis. Shabkar Tsokdruk Randrol (Tib. ཞབས་དཀར་ཚོགས་དྲུག་རང་གྲོལ་, Wyl. zhabs dkar tshogs drug rang grol), who lived 1781-1851, is more than a “relatively” modern reflection of great Milarepa. Shabkar’s life stands as a shining exemplar of the Path, and his autobiography as a jewel of Dharma and practice advice.

Shabkar, considered an emanation of  Milarepa, also taught in songs and much of his life in solitude in the mountains. He is immediately relatable, as he received teachings and initiations from gurus of all schools of Buddhism, although his principal root guru was Chogyal Ngakgi Wangpo — who was not only a Mongolian king, but also the prized disciple of the First Doprupchen. One of his main Yidams was Hayagriva, a practice given by his root guru. [For a story on great Hayagriva, see>>]

Shabkar the scholar poet yogi

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The great Shabkar is known as a prolific writer, writing up to a hundred pages a day. Although he is best known for the Flight of the Garuda — a famous teaching on Dzogchen — (Tib. མཁའ་ལྡིང་གཤོག་རླབས་, Khading Shoklap; Wyl. mkha’ lding gshog rlabs), this feature focuses on some wonderful excepts from his autobiography.

Modern, relevant biography and teachings

The English translation of Shabkar’s Life, with a foreward from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and translated by the Matthieu Ricard, is a wonderful read, and a great learning experience. We learn at the feet of a great Yogi, with teachings given in lyrical songs. His Holiness the Dalai Lama explained Shabkar’s unique appeal:

“Regarded by many as the greatest yogi after Milarepa to gain enlightenment in one lifetime, he also lived the life of a wandering mendicant teaching by means of spiritual songs. Shabkar is particularly celebrated for the absolute purity of his approach to his lama and his personal practice, which freed him from the snare of sectarianism. He is also affectionately remembered for the kindness of his gently teasing humor.”

All beings are mother, homeland is Dharmakaya

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The autobiography is full of wisdom and teachings, but instantly relatable are his interactions with local lay people. For instance, when asked by a local follower if he thought of his family, mother and friends, his answer became a concise view of the Path:

Listen, wealthy and devoted lady,

I am a yogin of the luminous awareness that arises of itself.

My homeland is primordial purity, the dharmakaya.

My father—Samantabhadra

My mother—Samantabhadri,

My paternal uncle—Bodhicitta,

My priests—the Three Jewels,

My maternal uncles—deity and guru,

My wife—the lovely shunyata.

My children—meditation experiences, realization, and fine qualities.

My brothers—devotion and pure perception,

My fields—the ten white virtues,

My riches—the inexhaustible seven noble qualities,

My sister—pure samaya,

My neighbor—firm faith,

My cousin—great diligence. [3]

Naturally forgotten

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Later, another follower asked if he missed his family, mother and friends:

By the grace of the king of Dharma,

Since I, the renunciate Tsogdruk Rangdrol,

Have made my home again and again

On the safe ground of dharmakaya,

My homeland has been naturally forgotten.

Since I have contemplated again and again

That each being has once been my mother,

Attachment to only one mother

Has been naturally forgotten.

Since I have accumulated again and again

The seven noble riches,

Ordinary food and wealth

Have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have again and again befriended The absolute nature,

The friends from my childhood

Have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have again and again guarded

The samaya oaths,

Deceitfulness

Has been naturally forgotten.

Since I have again and again seen

The display of luminosity,

Worldly entertainments

Have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have again and again tamed

The enemy, the obscuring emotions,

My ordinary enemies

Have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have regarded again and again

All dharmas as illusory,

The eight worldly concerns

Have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have again and again experienced

The samadhi of simplicity,

Complexities have been naturally forgotten.

Since I have wandered in remote places

And in mountain solitudes,

This life has been naturally forgotten. [1]

The metaphor of the thangka

One time Shabkar met a monk who asked him: “You’re good at drawing. Are you a thangka painter, too?” To which he sang this song:

I bow down at the feet of the King of Dharma.

I, the yogin Tsogdruk Rangdrol,

Picked up a white canvas—noble intention

I stretched it on the frame of the four boundless thoughts,

And with pure discipline I primed it.

I applied gesso—changeless faith—

Smoothing it over and over

With an onyx stone—the ten virtues.

First I made the grid—learning.

Then I made a sketch—reflection.

Then I brushed in color—meditation.

Then I painted in the highlights—meditation experiences and realization.

E ma!

Isn’t that good art? [4]

A teaching on the Life of Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol from Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche at Padma Samye Ling:

NOTES

[1] Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol. The Life of Shabkar: Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin (Kindle Locations 5291-5298). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

[2] Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol. The Life of Shabkar: Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin (Kindle Locations 137-139). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

[3] Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol. The Life of Shabkar: Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin (Kindle Locations 5329-5345). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

[4] Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol. The Life of Shabkar: Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin (Kindle Locations 4728-4743). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.