H H the Dalia Lama's Chicago, 5/ 6/7 Teaching on Langri Thangpa Dorjee Singe's text...

Though I have recieved this teaching a couple of times before from other teachers. It is for the first time, I recieve it from His Holiness, so I was determined not to miss a single word of His Holiness on this text, and I went in for the Buddhistview International Inc.

Here in this, I have incorporated my own understanding of the Text based on previous teachings I recieved, I try to elucidtate it as much as I can for others.

These poetic, contemplative eight verses in Tibetan show the essence of Buddha's teaching (Sutra and Tantra) in a nutshell. For a practitioner of Buddhism, These are what it takes to become an enlightened being, a compassionate Buddhisatva. the author composed these as instructional verses for those aspireing to achieve Buddhahood. And therefore, in the original Tibetan text each verse ended with an imperative instructional command- verb Gom, meaing meditate.

But later on, these imperative command fro training the mind in altruism and compassion for all beings evolved into an aspirational or wish-expressing- prayer form, and the instructive verb, Gom is replaced by Shog, meaning May (I), making the verses a prayer, more wish expressing than instructions for practical purposes.

This could be because of degeneration in people's understanding of interdependent origination of things or it could be a lack of genuine determination on out part to meditate to generate compassionate mind for others, or could it be because people have become more selfish and less generous. Now a days, we recite these as prayer and while doing so we try to contemplate what is being said in these verses.

Thinking these verses in sitting meditation or in recitation sessions we are accumulating both Stogs - accumulations (accumulation of merit and wisdom). the first seven stanzas are for the accumulation of merits, which is method aspect of spiritual development, while the last stanza deals with accumulation of wisdom aspect for perfect understanding of the view of Shunyate - emptiness. Submission of our Ego is center theme that runs through these eight verses.

The first stanza clearly mentions, I will hold everyone as precious as jewel for achieving my cherished goal. In my translation below, leaving literal word for word tranlation aside, I have tried to convey the meaing of the stanzas. I used the word Courage in all the stanzas, because His Holiness stressed the need of couragei n surrendering our Ego for others. It is only with courage that we will humble ourselves before others.

Before getting into verses, a gleams of one practitioner's day, that I once heard, might be helpful for us. Here, the pratitioner was watching his mind, and was mindful of all that he did all the time. If any negative thoughts flickered in his mind, he would mark a black stroke and al white stroke for any positive thought. At the end of day, before going to bed he would count those strokes, separately black and white. If the white strokes were more, he would rejoice and dedicate the positive merits for all beings, and if the black strokes were more, he would regrets, and renounse those, and he would vow to do better, the next day. In the beginning he had more black strokes, but as time went by, his thought pattern improved, and he earned more white strokes. consequently he gained more confidence in hs ability cultivating altruism and peace. With thise piece in the background, we will see if we can practice what the verses say:

1. May I alwayshave the courage to hold,

All sentient beings sincerely in my thought,

as supremely precious as wish fulfilling jewel,

For accomplishing the highest goal in my life.

This stanza lays the foundation for developing/cultivating sacred outlook, holding the phenomenal world as sacred, in which everyone contributes toward enriching one's spirittual gorth and improvement and providing for our mental and physical well being. the point hereis, to switch our thought from I, Me, and My to others as valuable and precious as gem for achieving our cherished goal. We are all inter-connected, and interdependent on each other for anything and everything to achive and realize our goal.

From birth to death, we can not survive withought otheres. So many known or unknown individuals, beings are involved in generating, and making the food we eat, clothes we wear, and house we live in. For example, as simple as a slive of bread for breakfast is a product of all the elements and a lot of human energy. From farmer that worked on land and grown wheat to millers that make flour to cooks that baked thebread, and many others in between have worked hard for it to happen. We enjoy the fruit of their labor, finished product. the bread in our plate did not happen by itself without any causes and conditions. All those people are valuable and precious to us in one way or the other. Recognition. Then the second stanza:

2. May I have the courage from the core of my heart,

To view others more important(better) than me,

And consider them dearly precious,

Whenever and whereever I go.

This stanza goes deeper than just having sacred outlook. It tells us what to have in our mind while interacting and associating wiht otheres in our day to day life as we go around doing chores. While we engage in our activities, we need to submit our ego and develop humility before otheres and culivate the thought of others as more important then ourselves.

In a culture milieu where individual ego is always right in front, trying to push forward, with the self image of "I am somebody", it seemed absolutely opposite and ridiculous notion. A revolution in our thought pattern. However, for Buddhist practitioners, if we do not avandon our self image, our Ego and make enoght space to accomodate, respect and regard others as important and precious, we will not achieve anything.

Though, it's done in sitting meditations and many of us may not be doing it any time soon, but we could be mindful of what we do everyday. Therefore, we pray:

3. May I have the courage to watch my Ego and actions.

May I have the courage to face and avert defilements,

Aggressively as they occur in my mind,

As they endanger me and others.

This stanza goes still deeper, and in fact, it gets to the essence of Buddha's Teaching. It makes us recognize that afflictions/defilements -Klesha (Nyon-mong) are the root cause of all sufferings in our life. to save ourselves from being victims of any thought or action propelled by Nyon-mong - defilements like anger, attachment and ignorance etc. we need to combat and avert them instantly as they arise in our mind. We need to be mindful of wht we thinkg and what we do all the time lest we should harm ourselves.

If we look into the nature of these defilements, these negative emotions, they tend to subside and disappear. Instead, if we follow these emotions and act on them, they would further aggravate us and chain of negative actions and reactions would follow. So, be mindful of what we think and nib negative thoughts in the bud as they arise.

4. May I have the courage to consider beings with evil disposition

Or one oppressed by negative consequences and sufferings,

As precious treasure,

For thye are found rarely in life.

(For accumulating merits)

Here we are being challenged. We face an unusual situation, which needs our special attention as practitioners of Buddha's Teaching. Our response to people with negative disposition, who are prone to committing negative actions, determines the strength of our practice. Normally we would be tempted to act in like manner. But for a practitioner, we will be looking at the natiour of evilness, which is not the one with evil disposition. Likewise our response to people suffering from incurable diseases like AIDS, Leprosy also determines the strength of ur practice in the path of Buddha Dharma. OUr society has the tendency to avoid and shun those unfortunate ones infected by these diseases. but for practitioners, helping and caring them are like precious treasure for accumulating merits. We need tremendous courage to face these situations.

5. May I have the courage to offer victory to others,

Who revile and abuse me unjustly out of jealousy,

And accept the burden of defeat,

Upon myself for them.

For an ordinary people, from conventional point of view, it is an outrageous thing to say, that we be the looser and let otheres win over us. Who will accept that? It is an intolerable thing.

But for practitioners of Buddha's teaching, this is one small step to submit ourselves for otheres. Surrendering our ego, we save ourselves and the others from committing further negative actions and chain reactions. WE need tremendous courage in accepting this kind of defeat, where we are unjustly slandered and abused.

6. May I have the courage to see the one,

Whom I have helped or in whome I have much hope,

Hurts me unjustly instead,

As a sacred spiritual friend.

How can we think of anyone that hurts us as a friend, leave alone viewing him as a Sacred friend? Are we nuts to think that way?

ON conventional and ordinatry level we sure are nuts, but for practitioner, No, we are not. Here, we are given an opportunity to practice patience, tolerance and forgiveness. Therefore, we are told to regard the one, that harms us, instead of being grateful and repaying our kindness, not only as friend, but as perfect Shey-Nyen, Sacred spiritual friend. Facing such a person would be a test of our spiritual practice and achievement.

7. In short:

May I have the courage to offer and dedicate,

All joy and pleasure for all mother beings,

And take all their suffering and pain,

Secretly upon myself directly or indirectly.

This is for Tong-Len, Give-and-take Practice. Here, while we give away our accumulated merits, joy, pleasure and causes of joy and pleasure for all mother sentient beings, we take in all their suffering, pain, and the causes of suffering and pain mentally upon ourselves. It entails great sacrifice to give away what we have achieved. The way, we give away ourvirtues and take in others suffering, is not ostensibly, openly, but Secretly and Discreetly.

Here is an anecdote. About ten years ago, a Lama was visiting Chicago, and he was scheduled to give teachings on Tong-Len. One among the audience said, "I can not do Tong-Len, I am here to listen to you, because when I do Tong-Len practice, I really get sick." The Lama said, "It is Okay, you don't do it."

I thought, "so it really works".

Normally Tong-Len practice is for advanced practitioners and certainly not for beginners. And that is why, it is practiced secretly, lest we develop wrong view of the practice. And it shouldnt not become spiritual materialism also, instead of spiritual realization. Then the eighth stanza, cultivating Egolessness state:

8. May eight worldy concerns not defile these practices/thoughts,

And be free from the grasping bondage of attachment,

And always be aware of illusory nature,

Of everything as the ultimate truth.

The stanza instructs us not to concern ourselves with the eight worldy thoughts like fame and defame, flatter and abuse etc. They defile and pollute our motivation for spiritual developement, and instead they may provide fuel for spiritual materialism and spiritual show case. This is a warning against those pretending to be practitioners.

If we practice Dharmar to make named and fame or in other words, to inflate our Ego as Practitioner, we are absolutly on the wrong side of Dharma practice. We should always be aware of the thin line between genuine practitioner and a fake one.

Then it say further, that with the awareness of the everything as illusion, impermanent, with no substance to hold on to, like mirage and dream, we situate our mental focus on the reality of things as Shunyata - Emptiness. Everything appears interdependently, and not independently by itself. Interdependently appearing of things as they are is Emptiness and is the ulimate reality.

While we have eyes to see others,

We need mirror to see ourselves.

--A Tibetan proverb.