Two ways of growing

Thirty Pieces of Sincere Advice

by

Longchenpa

From the infinite sky of your pristine awareness, the totality of experience, and the great clouds of your aspirations and prayers  warm rays of compassion and showers of elixir stream down, ripening the three forms (1) in the fields, your students’ minds.  I bow to you, my teacher, my protector, supreme among the Three Jewels.  With stronger aspirations I might have joined the practice lineage.  I didn’t make the effort and now enter the twilight of a meaningless life.

I intended to follow the ancient masters, but I’ve given up and I see others like me. 

So, I’ll outline these thirty pieces of sincere advice to evoke some determination in me:

Too bad!  You’ve built up a large following, one way or another.
You look after a large institution where all the right conditions are present.
But it’s all just a basis for conflict and ideas like “This is mine.”
Live alone – that’s my sincere advice.

In public ceremonies you heal children or subdue demons.
You give your capabilities away to the crowd.
Because you really want food and money, your own needs cloud your judgment.
Tame your own mind – that’s my sincere advice.

You collect a lot of pledges from the poor
And use them to build big monuments, help the needy, and so on.
The good works you do cause others to live badly.
Goodness must be in your mind – that’s my sincere advice.

You’ve taught the Dharma to others because you wanted to be famous.
You cleverly keep a large circle of admirers around you.
To take these to be real is the seed of pride.
Limit your projects – that’s my sincere advice.

You earn money by trading, charging interest, cheating or other dishonest ways.
Although you make large offerings with your accumulated wealth,
Good actions based on greed lead to the eight conventional concerns (2).
Cultivate non-attachment – that’s my sincere advice.

Although you think you’re serving the welfare of beings
By acting as a guarantor, witness or advocate to help settle others’ disputes,
Your own opinions will inevitably assert themselves.
Don’t be concerned – that’s my sincere advice.

Your political power, wealth, connections, good fortune and reputation
May spread all over the world.
When you die, these things will not help you at all.
Work at your practice – that’s my sincere advice.

Managers, assistants, directors, and such
Provide the infrastructure for both communities and religious institutions.
But your involvement in such matters gives rise to worry and concern.
Limit your business – that’s my sincere advice.

You take what you need, images, offerings,
Books, cooking gear, whatever, and stay in solitude.
Right now you have it all together but later difficulties and disputes arise.
Don’t need anything – that’s my sincere advice.

In these difficult times you may feel that it is helpful
To be sharp and critical with aggressive people around you.
This approach will just be a source of distress and confusion for you.
Speak calmly – that’s my sincere advice.

Intending to be helpful and without personal investment,
You tell your friends what is really wrong with them.
You may have been honest but your words gnaw at their heart.
Speak pleasantly – that’s my sincere advice.

You engage in discussions, defending your views and refuting others’
Thinking that you are clarifying the teachings.
But this just gives rise to emotional posturing.
Keep quiet – that’s my sincere advice.

You feel that you are being loyal
By being partial to your teacher, lineage or philosophical tradition.
Boosting yourself and putting down others just cause hard feelings.
Have nothing to do with all this – that’s my sincere advice.

As you carefully go over the teachings you’ve studied
You may think that picking out others’ mistakes is real understanding.
You will just build up a lot of negative fixations.
Keep your perception clear – that’s my sincere advice.

Mindless talk of emptiness ignores causation.
You may think the ultimate teaching is that there is nothing to do,
But when you stop the two ways of growing (3), your practice will wither.
Cultivate these two together – that’s my sincere advice.

You think that you will enhance your practice by taking a partner
And transforming sexual energy in the context of the third empowerment,
But the path of non-retention has snared many great meditators.
Keep to the natural path – that’s my sincere advice.

Giving empowerments to those who aren’t ready,
Or even distributing sacred materials in large gatherings,
Leads to abuse and causes commitments to be broken.
Be precise – that’s my sincere advice.

You may think that you practice deliberate behavior (4)
By going naked in public and shocking people in other ways.
Such actions just cause ordinary people not to trust the Dharma.
Be impeccable – that’s my sincere advice.

You work at being ethical, learned, and noble
So that you will be the best person in your district.
But from this peak you can only fall to a lower status.
Be moderate – that’s my sincere advice.

Wherever you live, in towns, spiritual communities or in isolation,
Don’t seek out special friends.
Don’t be close or at odds with anyone, no matter who is around.
Be independent – that’s my sincere advice.

Maybe you appear deferential and appreciative
To your faithful supporters who provide you with your livelihood,
But in deceiving others you only entangle yourself.
Treat everyone equally – that’s my sincere advice.

Countless books on divination, astrology, medicine and other subjects
Describe ways to read signs. They do add to your learning,
But they generate new thoughts and your stable attention breaks up.
Cut down on this kind of knowledge – that’s my sincere advice.

You stop arranging your usual living space,
But make everything just right for your retreat.
This makes little sense and just wastes time.
Forget all this – that’s my sincere advice.

You make an effort at practice and become a good and knowledgeable person.
You may even master some particular capabilities.
But whatever you attach to will tie you up.
Be unbiased and know how to let things be – that’s my sincere advice.

You may think awakened activity means to subdue skeptics
By using sorcery, directing or warding off hail or lightning, for example.
But to burn the minds of others will lead you to lower states.
Keep a low profile – that’s my sincere advice.

Maybe you collect a lot of important writings,
Major texts, personal instructions, private notes, whatever.
If you haven’t practiced, books won’t help you when you die.
Look at the mind – that’s my sincere advice.

When you focus on practice, to compare understandings and experience,
Write books or poetry, to compose songs about your experience
Are all expressions of your creativity. But they just give rise to thinking.
Keep yourself free from intellectualization – that’s my sincere advice.

When a thought arises, the key is to look right at it.
When you know about mind, the key is to be right there.
Although there isn’t anything to cultivate, the key is to keep cultivating.
Keep yourself free of distraction – that’s my sincere advice.

Act from emptiness knowing the effects of your actions.
When you understand not doing, observe the three vows (5).
With non-referential compassion work to help beings
Keep the two ways of growing inseparable – that’s my sincere advice.

I’ve studied with many learned and masterful teachers and received their profound instruction.
I’ve read some profound sutras and tantras and understood a little of them.
But I don’t practice what I know. It’s too bad. I just fool myself.
So, for me and those like me I offer these thirty pieces (6) of sincere advice.

May the good from writing these verses with this attitude of determination
Guide all beings out of the desolation of existence and bring them great joy.
May we follow the way of the buddhas of the three times, their followers and the ancient masters, And become their great and powerful offspring as well.

Thirty Pieces of Sincere Advice was written by Tsultrim Lodru out of some slight feelings of determination. Ken McLeod translated this work because it spoke to him.

Footnotes

1. The three forms (three kayas) are the form of what is (dharmakaya), the form of enrichment (sambhogakaya) and the form of manifestation (nirmanakaya).
2. Pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and obscurity.
3. The two ways of growing are through goodness and through pristine awareness.
4. A discipline in vajrayana in which you directly test the depth of your understanding.
5. The vows associated with individual liberation (the five precepts and monastic ordination), the bodhisattva vow, and the vajrayana vows.
6. There are actually only twenty-nine verses of advice. I don’t know whether this is due to a corrupt Tibetan text or, as is often the case, the whole work is counted as one, too.

Wish Fulfilling Dharani

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva then said to the Buddha: “Bhagavan, I remember that countless billions of kalpas ago, a Buddha, whose name was Thousand Rays King Stillness Thus Come One, appeared in the world. Because of his mercy and mindfulness towards me and all living beings, that Buddha, the World Honored One spoke this Vast, Perfect, Unimpeded, Great Compassionate Heart Dharani, rubbed my crown with his golden hand and said: ‘Virtuous man, you should hold this heart-mantra to give great benefit and happiness to all living beings in the future evil age.’ At that time I was just at the first Bhumi (stage of Bodhisattva), right after hearing this mantra, I exceeded the eighth Bhumi. At that time, as my heart was joyful, I vowed: ‘If I will be able to give benefit and happiness to all living beings in the future, let me have one thousand hands and one thousand eyes immediately.’ Instantly after the vow, I got fully one thousand hands and one thousand eyes on my body, then, the grounds of the worlds of the ten directions quaked in six ways, thousands of Buddhas of the ten directions emitted their light to my body and illuminated boundless worlds of the ten directions.

Wish-Fulfilling Dharani can be found in the Great Compassion Dharani Sutra.

This Mantra has been spoken by previous 9.9 billion Ganges-river-sands Buddhas. Recite this Dharani mantra five times or more in a day, to remove from the body the weighty sins of births and deaths accumulated in hundreds of thousands of billions of kalpas. The Dharani is:

NAMO RATNA-TRAYAYA NAMO ARIYA-VALOKITE –SHVA-RAYA
BODHI-SATTVAYA MAHA-SATTVAYA MAHA-KARUNI-KAYA
OM SARVA-RABHA-YE SUDHANA-DASYA NAMO SKRITVA-IMAM
ARYA-VALOKITE-SHVA-RA RAM-DAVA NAMO NARA-KINDI-HRIH
MAHA-VADHA-SVAME SARVA AR-THA-TO SHUB-HAM AJE-YAM
SARVA-SATA NAMO-VASAT NAMO-VAKA-MAVI-TA-TO
TADYATHA OM AVALOKI-LOKATE KARATE-E HRI
MAHA-BODHISATTVA SARVA SARVA MALA MALA MAHI MAHI
RIDAYAM KURU KURU KAR-MAM DHURU DHURU
VIJAYATE MAHA-VIJAYATI DHARA DHARA DHRI-NI
SHVA-RA-YA CALA CALA MAMA VIMALA MUKTELE
EHI-EHI SHINA SHINA ARSAM PRASARI VISHVA-VISHVAM
PRASAYA HULU-HULU MARA HULU-HULU HRI SARA-SARA
SIRI-SIRI SURU-SURU BODHIYA-BODHIYA BODHAYA-BODHAYA
MAITREYA NARA-KINDI-DHRISH NINA-BHAYA-MANA SVAHA
SIDDHAYA-SVAHA MAHA SIDDHAYA-SVAHA SIDDHA-YOGE
SHVARAYA-SVAHA NARAKINDI-SVAHA MARANARA-SVAHA
SHIRA-SIMHA MUKHAYA-SVAHA SARVA MAHA-ASIDDHAYA-SVAHA
CAKRA ASIDDHAYA-SVAHA PADMA KASTAYA-SVAHA
NARAKINDI-VAGALAYA-SVAHA MAVARI-SHANKARAYA-SVAHA
NAMO RATNA-TRAYAYA NAMO ARYA-VALOKITE-SHVARAYA-SVAHA
OM-SIDHY-ANTU MANTRA-PADAYA-SVAHA

People and gods who recite and hold the Great Compassionate Heart Dharani will obtain fifteen kinds of good birth and will not suffer fifteen kinds of bad death:

1. They will not die of starvation or poverty
2. They will not die from having been yoked, imprisoned, caned or otherwise beaten
3. They will not die at the hands of hostile enemies
4. They will not be killed in military battle
5. They will not be killed by tigers, wolves, or other fierce beasts
6. They will not die from the venom of poisonous snakes, black serpents, or scorpions
7. They will not drown or be burned to death
8. They will not be poisoned to death
9. They will not be killed by mediumistic insects
10. They will not die of madness or insanity
11. They will not be killed by landslides or falling trees
12. They will not die of nightmares sent by evil people
13. They will not be killed by deviant spirits or evil ghosts
14. They will not die of evil illnesses that bind the body
15. They will not commit suicide

Those who recite and hold the Great Compassion Holy Mantra will not suffer any of these fifteen kinds of bad death and will obtain the following fifteen kinds of good birth:

1. Their place of birth will always have a good king
2. They will always be born in a good country
3. They will always be born at a good time
4. They will always meet virtuous friends
5. The organs of their body will always be complete
6. Their hearts of Way (Bodhi) will be pure and mature
7. They will not violate the prohibitive precepts
8. All their relatives will be kind and harmonious
9. They will always have the necessary wealth and goods in abundance
10. They will always obtain the respect and help of others
11. Their possessions will not be plundered
12. They will obtain everything they seek
13. Dragons, gods, and good spirits will always protect them
14. In the place where they are born they will see the Buddha and hear the Dharma
15. They will awaken to the profound meaning of that Proper Dharma which they hear

Those Buddhas spoke this Mantra for the practitioners who practice the six Perfections (Paramita) but have not yet fulfilled them, to make them succeed quickly; For those who have not yet aroused Bodhi-Heart, to make them arouse their Bodhi-Heart quickly; For Sravakas who have not yet achieved fruitions, to make them achieve fruitions quickly; For all gods and supernatural persons in the three-thousand-great-thousand worlds, who have not yet aroused the unsurpassed Bodhi-Heart, to make them arouse the Bodhi-Heart quickly; For all living beings who have not yet gained the root of faith in Mahayana, with the mighty holy power of this Dharani, their seeds of Mahayana and Dharma-buds will grow quickly; with the power of my expedients, mercy and compassion, all of their needs will be supplied.

For those living beings of the three evil paths, who live in the gloomy regions of the three-thousand-great-thousand worlds, when they hear this Mantra, they will all be free from suffering;

For Bodhisattvas who have not yet achieved the first Bhumi, to make them achieve quickly, and make them achieve even up to the tenth Bhumi, and even up to the Buddhahood, with the thirty-two marks and the eighty minor marks achieved naturally.

If a Voice-Hearer (Sravaka) once hears this Dharani pass by his ears, if he practices and writes this Dharani, and if he settles down with straightforward heart in accord with Dharma, then he will naturally achieve the four Sramana-fruits even if he does not seek for the fruitions.

UPDATE: To listen how to pronounce the words click these YouTube videos:

1. Sanskrit version – Mahakaruna Dharani (long)
2. Tibetan song – Heart Dharani (short)
3. Vietnamese song – Mahakaruna Dharani (short)

The meaning of 108

I always smile when MH, the Barefoot Herbalist, keeps asking others, “What is the meaning of the number 108?”  Mysteriously it keeps being revealed to him in various ways in his daily life.  He believes no one will ever know the answer.  However, with a little help the meaning can be known.

In the mystical world, especially to Buddhists, the number 108 is a metaphor for the number of steps required in order to completely “graduate” from this earth plane.  The mind’s labyrinth is deep and complex.  To accomplish this path, first one must discern the 8 consciousnesses and the 10 bhumis.  Putting them together equals 108.

The aspirant is required to develop the mind by sharpening the practice of concentration (shamatha) and insight (vipashana) meditation.

Along with learning, reflecting and meditating one is able to progress through all of these stages of practice.  This is the real meaning of Ascension.

According to the Hinayana path, the Arhat (hearer) and Pratyekabuddha (solitary realizer) have four stages of enlightenment:

1. stream-enterer
2. once-returner
3. non-returner
4. fruition (arhant)

However, according to the Mahayana path, the Bodhisattva (enlightening being or hero) ascends through the grounds (bhumis) to achieve the goal of complete enlightenment with the compassionate intention to reduce the suffering of all sentient beings.

The structure of the stupa represents the enlightened mind of the Buddha. The one above is exactly 108 feet tall.  It is an architectural representation of the entire Buddhist path.  Click the image to learn more about the symbolism of the stupa.  The body, speech, and mind of enlightenment is contained therein.  The Avatamsaka Sutra explains the first part of the number 108 in relation to each of the ten bhūmis:

TEN BHUMIS

1. The first bhumi – the Very Joyous. In which one rejoices at realizing a partial aspect of the truth
2. The second bhumi – the Stainless. In which one is free from all defilement
3. The third bhumi – the Luminous. In which one radiates the light of wisdom
4. The fourth bhumi – the Radiant. In which the radiant flame of wisdom burns away earthly desires
5. The fifth bhumi – the Difficult to Cultivate. In which one surmounts the illusions of darkness, or ignorance as the Middle Way
6. The sixth bhumi – the Manifest. In which supreme wisdom begins to manifest
7. The seventh bhumi – the Gone Afar. In which one rises above the states of the Two vehicles
8. The eighth bhumi – the Immovable. In which one dwells firmly in the truth of the Middle Way and cannot be perturbed by anything
9. The ninth bhumi – the Good Intelligence. In which one preaches the Law freely and without restriction
10. The tenth bhumi – the Cloud of Doctrine. In which one benefits all sentient beings with the Law (Dharma), just as a cloud sends down rain impartially on all things

The second part of the mystical number 108 explains the following eight consciousnesses  in depth:

EIGHT CONSCIOUSNESSES

1. First consciousness: “Eye-consciousness”; seeing apprehended by the visual sense organs
2. Second consciousness: “Ear-consciousness”; hearing apprehended by the auditory sense organs
3. Third consciousness: “Nose-consciousness”; smelling apprehended through the olfactory organs
4. Fourth consciousness: “Tongue-consciousness”; tasting perceived through the gustatory organs
5. Fifth consciousness: “Body-consciousness”; tactile feeling apprehended through skin contact, touch
6. Sixth consciousness: “Ideation-consciousness”; mano vijnana, the aspect of mind known in Sanskrit as the “mind monkey”; the consciousness of ideation
7. Seventh consciousness: “Obscuration-consciousness”; manas vijnana, “obscuration”, “poison”, “enemy”, “ideation”, “moving mind”, “monkey mind” (volition); a consciousness which through apprehension, gathers the hindrances, the poisons, the karmic formations
8. Eighth consciousness: “store-house consciousness”; alaya vijnana, also seed consciousness (bija vijnana); “the consciousness which is the basis of the other seven”. The seven prior consciousnesses are based and founded upon the eighth. It is the aggregate which administers and yields rebirth; this idea may in some respects be compared to the usage of the word “citta” in the agamas. In the early texts the sankhara-khandha plays some of the roles ascribed to the store-house consciousness by later Yogacara thinkers.

While practicing serious meditation and then going through all the dhyanas, samapattis, and samadhis one slowly purifies all their negative karmas, afflictive emotions, and cognitive obscurations which enable one to rises through the 10 levels.  At the 11th Bhumi one becomes a super-man, a fully realized being called a Buddha – the fully Awakened One.

Good Luck!
Neo