World Religions

 

Four audio podcasts accompanying this course are available to download at http://cslsrpodcasts.blogspot.com.

 

The same content is also available as “Buddhist Meditation,”

a CD Audio Set available at Stepping Stones Books & Gifts.

Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

Spiritual Enrichment Course

Written by Rev. Kim Kaiser

 

A great Indian master once said, “Wisdom tells me I am nothing; love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.”

—Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das

 

Go to http://www.dhamma.org/en/bycountry/na/ca.us.shtml for information on free vipassana retreat

 

The term TANTRA refers to systems of practice and meditation derived from esoteric texts emphasizing cognitive transformation through visualization, symbols, and ritual. These in turn gave rise to a vast commentarial literature, as well as oral traditions, and tantric practices, ideas, and images today permeate all aspects of Tibetan Buddhism The root texts of this system are generally called “tantras”; most of these highlight a particular Buddha who is the focus of ritual and meditative practices…

Tantric Buddhism is often referred to by its adherents as the Vajra Vehicle (Vajrayana).  The vajra (Tibetan dorje) is an important symbol in the tantras: it is described as the hardest substance, something that is pure and unbreakable, like the omniscient wisdom of a Buddha.

Unlike ascetic traditions that seek to find satisfaction through difficult or painful meditative practices, Vajrayana cultivates blissful mental states.  In tantra, one actualizes progressively deeper understanding of the nature of reality through experiencing pleasurable cognitions, gaining control over physical and mental energies, and conjoining blissful consciousnesses with realization of the nature of reality.

Tantra, however, is not concerned merely with the cultivation of pleasure, nor is its purview restricted to actions and practices that are traditionally associated with “religion.” Tantra proposes to incorporate all actions, all thoughts all emotions into the path. Nothing in itself is pure or impure, good or bad, mundane or transcendent; things only appear to us in these ways because of preconceived ideas. In the Vajrayana systems, any action – even walking, eating, defecating, or sleeping – can be an element of the spiritual path. Tantric practitioners seek to overcome the pervasive sense of ordinariness that covers our perceptions of daily life.

Initiation is required, from a teacher, only to qualified aspirants, and all is to be kept completely secret.

To practice Tantra, you must train (like a jet pilot does) to be able to handle this “fast track” to enlightenment in this lifetime.

Mandalas – external and internal images of Buddhas and their realms. Mantras – central to Vajrayana path, therefore it is also called the “Mantra Vehicle” —

Sadhanas – meditational rituals – in which one combines prayers, visualizations, hand gestures, and bodily movements that represent the awakened aspects of the mind of a particular Buddha…Sadhanas describe the qualities of the (Buddha) and its retinue, contain recitations of mantras and prayers, and they are connected with visualization of the deity’s mandala.

…meditators view themselves as inseparable from the deity and as possessing all the attributes of a fully awakened Buddha. Thus they are not simply praising someone else’s good qualities but are using the mediation to develop the same attributes themselves.

The Buddha is viewed as responding  positively to one’s prayers and bestowing blessings…one may imagine that all sentient beings are also participating in the practice and deriving merit from it…in the next phase one visualizes the Buddha being dissolved into emptiness and one abides in nonconceptual contemplation of suchness. The concluding part of the ritual involves dedication of the merit generated by it to all sentient beings and hoping that they benefit from one’s practice.

This practice enables meditators to reconstruct the world in accordance with the meditation. Those who become adepts know that they are no longer bound by the fetters of ordinariness; their surroundings become the environment of a Buddha. Their companions are viewed as Buddha’s retinue and their actions are the compassionate activities of a Buddha.

…for one who attains advanced levels of meditation, painful cognitions no longer occur, no matter what external experience one encounters. All of one’s cognitions are a union of bliss and emptiness. One recognizes that nothing is inherently what it appears to be.

Tantric texts stress that such bodhisattvas are not creating a delusional system in order to hide from the harsher aspects of reality. Rather, they are transforming reality, making it conform to an ideal archetype.

Since all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they have no fixed nature…all we ever experience are our cognitions of objects, which are overlaid with conceptions about them. All our perceptions are ideas about things, and not real things. These ideas are also empty, arising from nothingness and immediately dissolving again into nothingness, leaving nothing behind. Tantric adepts develop the ability to reconstitute “reality,” which is completely malleable for those who train in yogas involving blissful consciousnesses realizing emptiness. The sense of bliss pervades all their cognitions, and their understanding of emptiness allows them to generate minds that are manifestations of bliss and emptiness.

Four Types of Tantras

Action tantras are primarily taught for meditators who require external activities. The special trainees of action tantras are people who lack the capacity for profound meditation on emptiness but are able to engage enthusiastically in external rituals and activities.

Action tantra trainees engage in activities in which symbolic representations of aspects of the path are created or acted out. For example, one may make or buy a painting of the deity, place it in a special spot and make offerings to it, imagining that the deity is actually present there. Other activities include ritual bathing in which one envisions the external activity of washing as purifying mental afflictions. The activities of action tantra are designed for those who are not adept at internal visualization and who can benefit from having physical symbols as focal points for their meditation.

Practitioners of action tantra understands it in reality all phenomena are an undifferentiable union of appearance and emptiness, but on the conventional level of practice they perceive themselves and the meditational deity as separate entities. They view the deity as a master or lord and themselves as servants, performing acts of devotion in stylized ritual dramas involving activities of body and speech.

Performance tantras equally emphasize external activities and internal yoga. The main practices of performance tantra involved mentally creating an image of oneself as an awakened being and also generating the form of the deity in front of oneself as a template. One views oneself in the deity as companions or friends, and one strives to emulate it. One also chants the mantra of the deity and endeavors to perform one’s ability to visualize it without mental fluctuation.

In the yoga tantra one visualizes oneself as an actual Buddha, and not merely as a devotee or companion of a Buddha. Yoga tantras emphasize internal yoga. One visualizes oneself and the archetypal deity as separate beings, and then one causes the deity to enter oneself. In new tantra one first generates a vivid image of the deity, together with its Retin-A, contemplating both its wondrous forms and exalted attributes, and then one absorbs the deity into oneself, imagining that one becomes merged with it.

In highest yoga tantra one develops a profound awareness of one’s body as being composed of subtle energies… one then generates oneself as a fully awakened Buddha composed entirely of the subtle energies and possessing a Buddhas wisdom consciousness…. One transforms oneself into an actual deity possessing the exalted form and awakened mind of a Buddha.

—Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers

Dhyani Buddhas — Five Buddha Families

http://ngalsohealingart.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/006-5-diani-buddha.jpg

Five personality types are described and identified as impure modes of five aspects of Buddha Mind. These are called the Five Buddha Families (Sanskrit: Buddha-kula, home, nest, or cell of Buddha). Five Buddhas are arranged in a mandala.

The central Buddha is Vairochana (or another of the Cosmic Buddhas) who is pure mind, pure light, or pure space. His color is white, or rather, a kind of translucent luminosity, impossible to achieve on the physical plane, that is both crystalline clear, as if it had no solidity, and radiating like flawless alabaster lit from within. He is the hypostasis of basic, spacelike Buddha Wisdom.

The other four Buddhas encircle the Cosmic Buddha:

Amoghasiddhi to the north, who is green and whose symbol is the sword; Akshobhya to the east, who is blue and whose symbol is the vajra; Ratnasambhava to the south, who is yellow and whose symbol is the

brilliant, fiery chintamani (wishing-jewel); and

Amitabha to the west, who is red and whose symbol is the lotus.

Each Buddha is associated with a certain quality of mind, and manifests it in its pure mode. The Buddhas at the four cardinal points are hypostases of the four wisdoms, which, according to the Yogachara system, are produced by the transformation of the defiled consciousnesses. The Cosmic Buddha is the hypostasis of the foundation or source of the four wisdoms. Unliberated beings manifest the same five qualities, but impurely, and are therefore assigned to one or the other Buddha as their Buddha Family, as follows:

1. Vairochana or “Buddha” Family: The basic quality is spaciousness. In impure mode, it manifests as sloth, isolation, a spaced-out indifference to events. In pure mode, it is the complete openness of the Wisdom of All-Encompassing Space. (skandha of form, rupa)

2. Amoghasiddhi or “Karma” (action) Family: The basic quality is activity. In impure mode, it manifests as busyness, perfectionism, and irritation at messiness. In pure mode, it becomes the Wisdom of Perfect Activity, always meeting events appropriately, neither doing too much nor too little. (skandha of samskara (impulses)

3. Akshobhya or “Vajra” (method) Family: The basic quality is brilliance. In impure mode it manifests as criticism, self-justification and fixed ideas. In pure mode it becomes the clarity and openness of nonjudgmental Mirror Wisdom. (skandha of vijnana, consciousness)

4. Ratnasambhava or “Ratna” (jewel) Family: The basic quality is expansive richness. In impure mode it manifests as greediness and self-indulgence. In pure mode it becomes the Wisdom of Non-Duality, which gives universally and impartially of its own richness. (skandha of vedana, feeling)

5. Amitabha or “Padma” (lotus) Family: Its basic quality is attraction. In impure mode it manifests as seduction and possessiveness, especially sexual possessiveness. In pure mode it becomes the Wisdom of Proper Comprehension, which clearly distinguishes the variety of delightful things and becomes itself attractive rather than seeking to attract. (skandha of samjna, perception)

 

—The Vision of Buddhism by Roger Corless

 

 

…(The Tibetan teacher) Chekawa recommended using obstacles as stepping stones to realization. In Vajrayana, obstacles are seen as non-dual with liberation.

Another aspect of Tantra which has been commonly misunderstood is the presence of so-called “terrifying deities.” Sometimes these entities are represented as copulating with each other, thus increasing the scandalized fascination of the uninitiated observer. This is, once again, an expression of the embodiment of the non-duality of samsara and nirvana. The Tantric entities in sexual union embody the non-duality of attachment or lust (raga) and compassion (karuna). The horrific entities embody the non-duality of aversion or hate (dvesha) and skillful means. Skillful means, or compassion in action, is energy directed towards the liberation of all sentient beings. Hate, in Vajrayana perspective, is the same energy perverted to selfish and harmful ends. But hate, we may have noticed, is often the stronger form of the energy. If we are trying to be helpful to someone (i.e., to use our skillful means), we may become discouraged and give up when our efforts seem to be unavailing. Hate, however, can carry us, our families, and whole countries along in vendettas, blood feuds, and wars. We do not really have to work at being hateful. Hate more or less presents itself. It has the same self-generating quality as Tantric spontaneity. Therefore, many entities who are known as calm, loving, and helpful Bodhisattvas at the Mahayana level appear as wrathful beings, regarded as more powerful forms, at the Vajrayana level. The peaceful Avalokiteshvara, for example, manifests as the bloodthirsty Mahakala. The blood that Mahakala drinks, however, is the blood of demons. Expressed psychologically, Avalokiteshvara encourages our positive emotions while Mahakala destroys our negativities. A certain lama who had come to the west and discovered American television very much enjoyed watching The Incredible Hulk. It is, indeed, very Tantric. David (known as Bruce in the comic strip version) is an open-faced, gentle, and helpful young man who, when angry, changes into a terrifying green monster, always opposed to evil, never allied with it. David wants to be kind and generous, but his normal strength is no more than human and is inadequate against numerous or very powerful foes. When his real energy is aroused, however, he can tear concrete blocks apart and do whatever is necessary to obliterate harmful forces. His job finished, he changes back into a mild-mannered human (always finding, through the fortunate fruiting of karma, a new set of clothes which fits him perfectly). The non-duality of David and the Hulk is quite close to the non-duality of Avalokiteshvara and Mahakala. Avalokiteshvara is white, smiling, and fully clothed, as David is human, good-looking, and conventionally dressed. Mahakala is black, growling, and practically naked, as the Hulk is green, growling, and wearing only shorts (the trouser legs having split off during the transformation, although the waist has held). Just as ordinary people are helped by David, Avalokiteshvara helps ordinary practitioners slowly and gently cultivate compassion. For a frontal attack on the forces of evil, the Hulk must manifest, and for a direct attack on negativities as non-dual with virtues, Mahakala must be invoked.

—The Vision of Buddhism by Roger Corless

 

Visualization and Concentration

Many people are drawn to Tibetan Buddhism by its colorful esoteric iconography and the creative visualization practices associated with it. Visualization is a powerful and profound way to use the mind and its brilliant beacon light of awareness. These practices help us transcend our limited self-concepts and identity. We learn to transform ourselves into Buddhas and Bodhisattvas living in the most splendid Buddha world mandala that we could ever imagine. We thereby loosen up the hold our own karmically conditioned, present-lifetime world has over us.

Through visualization practice we see how we continuously project—every single day—the current visualization or self-concepts we maintain of ourselves and our experiences. This practice helps us develop a greater perspective on how we could just as easily reshape our perceptions and our entire life in any number of fulfilling and meaningful ways. Visualization helps us learn that we are not necessarily stuck with who or what we think we are; we could be almost anyone or anything. Therefore, why not exercise our power of choice and the intrinsic wisdom of awareness by manifesting oneself as a radiant, empowering, and protective female Buddha Tara, or as a gentle forgiving Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of love and compassion? Wouldn’t this prove far more satisfying than any negative self-images we may currently hold?

These visualizations are primarily meditations on identity and its transformation—how we create ourselves and our self-image; how we create and recreate our karma and our world…

…it is less important to be able to visualize or graphically imagine the forms and attributes of the deity than it is to viscerally “feel” the presence of the invoked meditational deity, embodying the universal qualities we are learning to cultivate. There are no deities per se in Buddhism. Instead these numinous forms are archetypes embodying the most noble and sublime qualities we can aspire to achieve—mere personifications of spiritual principles like wisdom, compassion, healing power, and so on. People often ask me if these deities exist outside and independent of our own minds. One might just as well wonder whether we too exist in such a way. As I often reply, they are as real, or unreal, as we are.

—Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das

 

Visualization and Science of Mind

Ernest Holmes encouraged us to look at reality with the expectation of seeing the Divine.

He said that we must not let appearances tell us what is real,

but must turn to the One Mind within us to “relight the torch of our imagination by “fire caught from heaven.” p. 218.3 SOM

 

We need to imaginatively dwell in the Divine Presence. Never limit your view of life by any past experience. The possibility of life is inherent within the capacity to imagine what life is, backed by the power to produce this imagery, or Divine Imagination. It is not a question of failing or succeeding. It is simply a question of sticking to an idea until it becomes a tangible reality. The illusion is in the way we look at things. We have looked at poverty, degradation and misery until they have assumed gigantic proportions. Now we must look at harmony, happiness, plenty, prosperity, peace and right action, until they appear.

p. 187.1 SOM

 

Here is a description of a Tibetan practice of visualization:

 

An entity of purified mind, such as a Buddha or bodhisattva, is seen as present, and the meditator interacts with the entity.

Seated in the proper posture, we might visualize such a being as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara appearing before us. He will be crystal clear white in color, a handsome young man, about 16 years old, smiling graciously at us, richly clothed, sitting crosslegged on a lotus throne, his hands in the particular gestures which signify compassion and purity. We try to see him as clearly as we can, and feel his compassionate presence. Then we commune with him, offering him gifts and praying to him for ourselves and all sentient beings, according to the directions of whatever sutra we are following. When we are finished, we dismiss the visualization by dissolving it into light, and then into space.

—The Vision of Buddhism by Roger Corless

Seeing the Buddha in All: The Practice of Pure Perception

You are not the only unawakened Buddha or amnesiac saint on the block. Seeing others as Buddhas is taught in Vajrayana practices as the cultivation of pure perception or sacred outlook. Pure perception is about inner vision. As an example, all you pet lovers might want to think about a dog that you know. The mailman may see that dog as an unholy terror; an allergic relative may see it as a dirty dust ball; a child may see it as a best friend; its owner may see it as an angelic blessing and an oasis of unconditional loyalty and win/win mutuality in his life. The Dharma teaches us that all beings have Buddha-nature, including that dog. Can you look at that dog and perceive its Buddha-nature? Can you look in the eyes of someone you love and see Buddha-nature? Can you look at someone you fear or someone who has been unkind to you and see Buddha-nature? The question is how far can any of us extend ourselves toward including one and all in our unconditional loving hearts? Can we love and respect even those whose actions or personalities we don’t happen to like? How far can we genuinely extend ourselves to include all in our wishes, thoughts, prayers, and hearts? Can we forgive others and forgive ourselves too? Seeing the Buddha in all is a challenge, but it’s also a mirror for clearly seeing into your own heart and soul. This sacred outlook and penetrating spiritual gaze could prove extraordinarily revealing.

— Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das

 

My living Dzogchen teacher Nyoshul Khenpo often points out that the primary distinction between the deluded mind and the enlightened mind is mainly a difference of narrowness and openness, being narrow-minded versus open-minded. The more constricted and narrow your attitude, the more ego-centered you are. The more open your attitude, the more conscious you are of everyone’s well-being. Thus the entire path from an ordinary sentient being to Buddhahood is the gradual opening of heart and mind.

— Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das

 

Typically the first Tibetan mantra that Westerners hear or learn about is Chenresig’s mantra “Om Mani Pedmé Hung.” This mantra literally translates as “The jewel is in the lotus.” What it means is that wisdom and compassion—the jewels that we all seek—are inherently within us all, like pure seeds blossoming and unfolding within our own tender unguarded hearts. What we seek, we are. “Om Mani Pedmé Hung,” commonly called the six-syllable mantra, can legitimately be referred to as the national mantra of Tibet. Always on the lips of Tibetans, the six syllables create a constant background sound wherever one travels. Lay people, adults and children, holding their malas and twirling prayer wheels, mutter it while doing daily chores, while lamas, nuns, and monks chant it prayerfully as part of their meditative and contemplative practices and visualizations.

 

The Six-syllable Mantra Meditation: Om Mani Pedmé Hung

To yourself enter into that sacred dimension of the sound of loving-kindness, you only need to stop for a moment. Right now, take a break; take a breath. Visualize the most genuinely exalted loving image of unconditional love and compassion you can imagine. It might be Buddha, Padmasambhava, Tara, Jesus, Mary, a personal saint or archangel, or your own spiritual teacher or guide. Toward this image, cultivate thoughts of gratitude, devotion, trust, faith, and appreciation. With that thought or image in your mind, chant Om Mani Pedmé Hung softly, regularly. Use this mantra of love and compassion to soften, to ease and gentle your mind, energy, and spirit. Use it to dissolve any hardness or constriction around your heart, to warm up and loosen your gut. Chant it again and again, awakening to the presence of that exalted being, that sacred reality or spiritual dimension. Sense where you are, what you are, and who you are and can be. Let everything dissolve into that purring, stream, that songlike repetitive sound of Great Compassion’s mantra.

Om Mani Pedmé Hung … Om Mani Pedmé Hung … Om Mani Pedmé Hung

Now think of someone you truly love—a spouse, a child, a parent, a friend, a pet, and extend unconditional love and empathy to them … then to a few more people. Keep reaching out with radiant, visualized light rays of your love. How far can you go? Keep going.

 

Loving-Kindness Is the Heart of the Dharma

The Buddha once described the spiritual path that leads to nirvana or perfect freedom as “the liberation of the heart and mind, which is love.” Learning to love life in all its forms, and to love unconditionally is the way of Dharma.

— Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das

 

 

Taking Refuge

“How do I start?” Isn’t that always the major issue for most seekers, particularly here in the Western Hemisphere? It can feel very frustrating and lonely trying to initiate and develop a spiritual path in the context of a busy contemporary life. Learned teachers, lamas, or gurus are not always readily available; spiritual role models and mentors are hard to come by; and as appealing as the notion of checking oneself into a monastery filled with other men and women on similar spiritual quests may often seem, for most people such a choice simply isn’t a viable option. So how do you start? It may be reassuring to know that the first steps today are the same as they were 2,500 years ago.

 

Taking the First Step

Acknowledge that enlightenment is a real possibility. The Buddha was an actual historical person. Although he is among the leaders of the world’s great religions, he did not claim that he was, in any way, divine or otherworldly. Buddhism teaches that the Buddha was born a man, not a god. Because of his inquiry into the nature of reality, of self and the world, he achieved enlightenment. This enlightenment did not come about through the intervention of outside, mystical, or otherworldly forces. The Buddha Way is the way of clear-seeing rationality; it is the way of reality; it is the way of critical examination and sustained inquiry into the nature of life. The Buddha himself taught that blind faith and devotion alone do not lead to freedom and enlightenment, useful as they might be at a certain stage. When the Buddha was living in his palace, he was a good person, kind to his wife, family, and servants. The potential for enlightenment may have been present for all to see, but it was the arduous inner work the Buddha did on himself after he left the palace that led to his perfect enlightenment.

The Buddha was born a human being not so very different from you or me. Through his own efforts, he was able to reach perfect awareness and self-knowledge; through his own efforts, he was able to know all things knowable. The implications of this are extraordinary: If the Buddha could achieve enlightenment, then we can all achieve enlightenment. If the Buddha could know the truth of things as they are, then we—you and me—can know the truth of things as they are. “What? Me?” you ask. Yes, you! Never forget the revolutionary gospel, the good news, of Buddhism: Each of us is fully endowed with luminous Buddha-nature, the potential for awakened enlightenment. Tibetans firmly believe that there have been and still are many enlightened beings who walk among us. In fact, there are yogis living anonymously everywhere without calling attention to themselves. Spiritual giants are universally accepted as heros in Tibet where the names that are remembered aren’t those of sports figures, politicians, or movie stars. Ask any Tibetan about Milarepa, the eleventh-century cave-dwelling yogi-sage. As Tibet’s most beloved poet, Milarepa gained enlightenment in a single lifetime, and every child has heard his spontaneous songs of joyous wisdom. Just as a child in the West grows up believing that it’s possible to become president or an actor or sports figure, children in Tibet grow up believing in the possibility of enlightenment. The secret wisdom of Tibet pronounces that any one of us is capable of purifying our negativities and obscurations, perfecting our understanding, and practicing universal compassion. Actualize your Buddha-nature, your innate perfection, and you too will achieve enlightenment.

Make a Commitment to Awakening

The Buddha cannot, and would not, force you to walk the way of truth and liberation. The Buddha cannot, and would not, force you to walk the path of compassion and self-purification. The Buddha cannot, and would not, force you to follow the liberating heart-opening lessons of the Dharma. Buddhism teaches that no one else controls your destiny. It’s all in your hands—the Buddha in the palm of your hands. The potential for self-perfection is yours right now. Innate Buddha-nature expresses itself through human nature. Make a commitment to awakening and enlightenment, and the Dharma gate and the path to enlightenment will open for you, just as it has opened for countless others. In Buddhism, when you make a commitment to awakening, it is known as “taking refuge” or “going for refuge.”

Going for Refuge

In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the first things a new Dharma student does is to make a commitment to wakefulness by taking part in a rite known as the Refuge Ceremony. Taking refuge imples finding a reliable spiritual sanctuary, a place to safely rest your heart and mind. The Refuge Ceremony and the recitation of the Refuge Prayer formalizes one’s commitment to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha or spiritual community. The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are known as the Three Jewels of Buddhism, or the triple-faceted gem.

Take refuge in yourselves, not in anything else. In you are Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Don’t look for things that are far away. Everything is in your own heart. Be an island unto yourself.

—The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

 

The Refuge Prayer

I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way this life.

I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and of love.

I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness.

Dwelling in the refuge of Buddha, I see clearly the path of light and beauty in the world.

Dwelling in the refuge of Dharma, I learned to open many doors on the path of transformation.

Dwelling in the refuge of Sangha, I am supported by its shining light that keeps my practice free of obstacles.

Taking refuge in the Buddha in myself, I aspire to help all people recognize their own awakened nature and realize the mind of love.

Taking refuge in the Dharma in myself, I aspire to help all people grasp the way of practice and walked together on the path of liberation.

Taking refuge in the Sangha in myself, I aspire to help all people build spiritual community and encourage the transformation of all beings.

 

—The Heart of Buddhism by Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Heart Sutra

Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita

perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty

and was saved from all suffering and distress.

Oh Shariputra , form does not differ from emptiness;

emptiness does not differ from form.

that which is form is emptiness;

that which is emptiness, form.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.

Oh Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

they do not appear nor disappear,

are not tainted nor pure,

do not increase nor decrease.

Therefore in emptiness, no form,

no feelings, no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness;

no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;

no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind;

no realm of eyes until no realm of mind consciousness;

no ignorance and also no extinction of it

until no old age and death and also no extinction of it;

no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path;

no cognition, also no attainment.

With nothing to attain

the Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita

and his mind is no hindrance.

Without any hindrance no fears exist;

far apart from every perverted view he dwells in Nirvana.

In the three worlds all Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita

and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment.

Therefore know the Prajna Paramita

is the great transcendent mantra

is the great bright mantra

is the utmost mantra

is the supreme mantra

which is able to relieve all suffering,

and is true, not false.

So proclaim the prajna paramita mantra

proclaim the mantra that says:

Gate, Gate, paragate, parasamgate!

Bodhi! Svaha!

 

 

By this effort, may all sentient beings be free of suffering.

May their minds be filled with the nectar of virtue. 

In this way may all causes resulting in suffering be extinguished,

And only the light of compassion shine throughout all realms. 

—Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/1007/transfer-of-merit

 

 

 

 

 

My Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

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