This is transcript of the talk given by Rinpoche on Pranidanaraja, under the title, king of aspiration prayers. The original video can be found in the below links, Part 1 and Part 2. If anyone would like to edit this talk to make it more clearer, please drop me a mail here

DAY 1

I shall remind myself to expound this with a motivation of benefiting as many sentient beans beings as possible. Likewise I also request you to listen this so that you will benefit as many sentient beings as possible. I shall also invoke the blessings of all the Buddha’s of the past, present and the future to be present here now. I shall specially invoke Samantabhadra Bodhisattva to bless this occasion. Where ever he may be, whether it is in the Tushita heaven or whether he could be somewhere in Sichuan. He can arrive here in a metro or he could arrive here riding an elephant. But we invoke him, we invoke his presence for now. And this is because we are going to talk about the most important element of the Bodhisattva path. I say this is the most important because aspiration is something that beings like you and me can and be able to do. Now and then we can talk about profound subjects such as sunyata. We may even try to meditate on sunyata. We may try to not to dwell on the past, not to dwell on the future and to be present and be here but we also know that this is not easy because of our addiction to go to the past and the future is so strong that to remain in the present is almost impossible. But there is something that beings like you and I, we know what, there is something that we do which is, we wish. We human beings specially, we are full of wishes. Hoping, wishing, expectation are almost like our second nature. So this habit of wishing, expecting and aspiring, let us use this habit into something profound, meaningful, something that is meaningful not just for myself but for all sentient beings.

We know that sometimes we can benefit people practically giving food shelter, even a simple hug. But to give shelter and food to so many sentient beings, I mean to even hundred people let alone all the sentient beings is difficult and we may never be able to hug every sentient being. We just don’t have that kind of appetite anyway. Some of them really have bad smell. So to really practically do something, applying action is still very difficult for young aspiring Bodhisattvas like us. Again, aspiration is something we can do. Love, compassion, kindness are very very wholesome source and yes we must have, but to have love and compassion continuously is difficult because sentient beings are difficult to be pleased. Even one sentient being, you can please in the morning but by afternoon this same sentient being can be annoyed with you. And to please one or two sentient beings may be easy but to please many and everyone is difficult. At this stage, trying to please everyone will end up making ourselves suffer. So here again, aspiring to love, have compassion, to be kind is something that we can do. Aspiration is economical and it doesn’t require team work which is a very good thing. Aspiration is humbling. It creates humility and that’s really really important for a human being because humility is the key to the dignity confidence, beauty, magnetizing majestic quality, all of these come from humility. So, here again aspiration brings this humility. Because when you pray, when you aspire, you are acknowledging that what you are praying for, you don’t have it yet.

So these are some of the many many reasons why aspiration is the most important, profound, most vast subject that can be talked, contemplated and have. You know we have heard incredible power of wisdom of Manjushri. We have heard incredible quality of compassion of Avalokiteshvara. We have often heard of the power and strength of Vajrapani. After hearing the greatness of aspiration, I hope we will begin to appreciate Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Actually not many people really want to have wisdom but lot of people want their wish to be fulfilled. So, in a way the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva should be more popular than the Manjushree because it is Samantabhadra bodhisattva that helps us fulfill wishes. You know just his grace, his elegance as he arrives silently riding the giant elephant, all our wishes will be fulfilled and specially, there is something great about the Samantabhadra bodhisattva is, even if you wish something so mundane, stupid and mediocre, he has a way to somehow turn this into something profound. If you wish for a long life which is very mundane and a very mediocre thing to wish for, he will make sure that you live long but somehow in your course of your longevity, you will then begin to practice the Dharma and benefit the sentient beings. Wishes for wealth, success, victory, everything one way or another, bodhisattva Samantabhadra transforms them something into meaningful. It’s partly because of his own wish when many many eons before when he was just beginning to be the Bodhisattva, his wish is never ever to be enlightened until all sentient beings are enlightened. How selfless can one get?

So I consider that I’m fortunate to have this opportunity to share Samantabhadra prayer tonight and tomorrow. So since we only have tonight, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to cover this aspiration not in order. I’m going to shuffle it a little bit. First I’m going to talk about the benefit of this aspiration. This is what a Samantabhadra has to say, if someone adorning the whole the earth with precious jewels and offer this to the tathagatas, there must be so much of merit. But someone else, upon hearing this aspiration and then through the hearing of this aspiration if they even have a glimpse of enthusiasm towards the Bodhisattva path, the power of virtue is far far more than offering tathagatas with jewel filled earth. And you should never think that this is just a poetic statement. In fact due to the human language, limitation of human language, I would say this is understatement. The merit of doing the aspiration such as this is, it just doesn’t fit in our small mind. I hope, we can cover this in later part but briefly now, the reason is because the aspiration is based on grandest view and the grandest motivation. That is why the merit of this aspiration is just infinite. If someone actually have this aspiration, according to the Pranidhana Raja, this person actually abandons all the lower realms. I actually believe this. Almost to the extent that sometimes I become lazy. But then again, it’s not really laziness too. I really believe that because I’ve prayed and I’ve also heard the Pranidhanaraja, I’ll be OK, this life and next life and in my dying time, I’ll be OK.

I’m sure some of you know, intellectuals we see, they might think I’m just going through some very blind tripping. So I’ll die much more peacefully than him and this is a blessing of the Buddha.

If you are a follower of the Mahayana buddhism and you are a regular visitor of mount Emei Shan for instance, you should also feel happy. Furthermore he says those who does this aspiration, they will abandon, they will separate from non-virtuous friends. Because non virtuous friends, the reason why they are non-virtuous is they don’t have this kind of aspiration. If your aspiration is big, the moment you have this kind of attitude, automatically you have abandoned the small minded, petty minded non virtuous friend and soon you will see Amitabha. I believe this totally. You know, believe is all we can do and non-believer believes in his own beliefs not to believe. Non-believers blindly believes in their reason and if I happen to believe in grand vision, grand aspiration, I think it’s much much better and much more rewarding. The one who have such aspiration will live well. Why? Because you have a grand vision. A little bit of scratch here, a little bit of breaking there, dent here and there doesn’t bother you anymore. I mean I believe this but I haven’t sort of managed to completely not worry about when things gets dented and this is because, I know my aspiration is still not on the practical level. When you have grand view, grand vision, grand plan, a little bit of failure here and there is nothing. So you sleep well, this is why you live well. If you don’t have the grand vision, if you are thinking very limited things, then you have so many things to worry about and we all know we have done quite a lot of worrying business and it’s not going to end. But the moment you put more emphasis on this grand aspiration then others are not that important.

The next one is a big statement, the force of karma is really really strong. Usually to manipulate, ideally even to cancel out a force of karma is difficult but here Pranidhanaraja says if you have grand aspiration, no matter what kind of negative karma you have created, all will be dispelled. Again karma is fundamentally a mental phenomenon. This is what the Buddha said, everything is cause and condition and of the cause and condition it is the motivation that is more powerful. So it is a mental phenomenon. So generating a grand aspiration immediately manipulates the past, present and the future karma. Aspiring for mundane things such as fame, prosperity, relationship can be achieved through mediocre aspiration, mediocre hope and mediocre wishes but a bodhisattva is not just looking for these kind of mundane achievement. Bodhisattva is aiming for wisdom of all wisdoms. Bodhisattva is aiming for a perfect form so that it can benefit so many sentient beings. Perfect, you know like beauty or the perfect marks. Bodhisattva is aiming to be or belong to a perfect race or perfect family. Bodhisattva is aspiring to have a perfect color because bodhisattvas aim to benefit sentient beings. Bodhisattva needs different color, different shape, different form, and all these different manifestations that can be used appropriately in different times and situations and with different people. That can be achieved through the Pranidhanaraja and the bodhisattva will not be defeated by any other obstacles, demons or other kind of philosophical systems if the bodhisattva is practicing such aspiration because again, grand aspiration. This bodhisattva is worthy to be venerated by three worlds and this bodhisattva will soon go to bodhi tree and upon going to the bodhi tree the bodhisattva will sit under the bodhi tree and after sitting the bodhisattva will actualize the Buddhahood and after actualizing the Buddhahood he will then turn the wheel of the Dharma and will vanquish the maras including the mara’s entourage. There are so many stories about this, actually the maras, the demons they are most afraid of somebody who has the grandest aspiration. So if you have a really really grand aspiration, for the obstacle makers it is more scary. If your aspiration is small, limited, then there is room to trick you. To be precise, I mean forget doing the aspiration, actually reading and contemplating on it, but even if you have the text or booklet in your bag or in your pocket and casually sort of flipping through the pages or reading it without concentrating much, the merit of infinite. Do not doubt these words because we are talking about an act or a mental act based on grand aspiration. So these are few of the benefits of doing this aspiration that I have extracted.

Now the actual aspiration. This has two parts, one is preparing for the aspiration and the other is actual aspiration. But before that, one may wonder for how long should we aspire for? As infinite as the sky, there are infinite sentient beings. As infinite as the sentient beings there are also infinite number of emotions. A bodhisattvas aspiration will also be infinite. So as you can see this is a long term project. Actually long is not the right word, forever project. We should really give up on the idea of getting enlightenment. We should just pray that forever and ever you will be a practitioner of Pranidhanaraja. This is the only thing you will do. That should be our aspiration.

Now preparing for the aspiration, it suggests, first to offer our homage with body, speech and mind to all the tathagatas of the past, present, future and the ten directions and then again here he says because of the power of aspiration, it takes no time to gather all the tathagatas of the 10 directions and three times. The moment you want to aspire, they are all there, ready to be your witness, ready to be your support. And I guess amidst all the hundreds and thousands and thousands of the Buddhas you should not forget Shamantabadra bodhisattva silently riding this giant elephant. I always like to visualize hundreds of elephants, walking slowly, you know, I don’t know whether you have seen elephants. They are very silent. They are the biggest animal but when they walk you don’t know and also they have the most beautiful eyes. They have beautiful way of looking at you. They see you but they always make you feel that they are not looking at you, so thousands and thousands is good. It is an auspicious thing and there are many other related stories with this elephant thing but maybe we should just go through the text.

As many atoms in the world that many Tatagathas exists on each atom. We offer our homage to them. We sing songs of their praise. We remember their qualities. We announce or declare their glory and greatness to the three worlds and then we offer what we human beings can think of as good and worthy to be offered. For instance flowers, garland, music, perfume and lamps. You know each of this is very romantic, you understand, it’s amazing. Think about 2500 years before India, there is no electricity, so it is such a beautiful gift to give somebody a lamp, like somebody giving an iPhone charger nowadays, already ready-made with oil, wick, its such a beautiful gift and especially to the sublime beings. Incense, robes, all kinds of food, bath soaps, bath robes, toothpaste, whatever comes to your mind basically. Offering substances are not limited to our human perception of what can be offered but are infinite.

We offer this with a motivation or attitude of joy to the bodhisattva activity. We are in front of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, we confess all the misdeeds we committed in the past, misdeeds coming from desire, anger, jealousy, all kinds. From the depth of our hearts we confess, we don’t hide. We expose and then we rejoice and get excited about the quality of the Buddhas. You know rejoice is the most mundane way of putting it. It’s really like getting so excited about someone having good time and good qualities, incredible qualities of Buddhas, bodhisattvas and pratyekabuddhas and not only them, all other beings who have sublime and ordinary virtue. We rejoice and we are really happy that such qualities exists. We are not envious, we are not jealous, we don’t feel competitive. We almost feel relief that there are these guys, they exists with such great qualities, maybe we could relax a bit, because there is somebody who could take care of us. There are somebody who knows what they are doing. The world is not that lost, so we create this kind of joy and then we supplicate to all these Buddhas, who are really the eliminator of the darkness that filled this world. To these Buddhas we request them to turn the wheel of the dharma, to teach us, to point us out our mistakes and request them to lead us to right path, answer our questions, clear our doubts, increase our enthusiasm, generate our confidence to spiritual path and if there are Buddhas and bodhisattvas who may be wishing to conclude their display of benefitting the sentient beings, in other words those who pass into parinirvana, in haste, urgently tell them not to do that. Yes we are slow, yes we are stupid, we don’t learn right away, have compassion and bear us. Please live long. If it is necessary live for eons and eons. After that dedicating all the merit you’ve acquired through prostrations and making offerings to sentient beings. This is the standard Mahayana’s painless, incredible and powerful technique to accumulate merit. And through this we set up foundation for aspiration. You have merit, merit is an ability, it’s a power. If you have merit, you have ability to do things and since you have just accumulated the merit, you have the ability to aspire. So then we begin to aspire accordingly to Samanthabadra.

The aspiration of a bodhi sattva is grand as I keep on repeating, so therefore some of them are probably, especially for the new comers, it’s hard to sort of understand. Pranidhanaraja is kind of important text, there are so many many commentaries. I mean there are commentaries from very big shots. Nagarjuna has a commentary, Dingnaga has a commentary, Vasubandhu has a commentary and later in Tibet there are hundreds of commentaries and this time I’m going to use Dingnaga’s, since I’m addressing mainly to the Chinese community. I thought Chinese are more cozy with Asanga department. Nagarjuna and company may be not that much familiar. And Asanga is very important. He is one of main teachers who actually upheld the teachings of Pramana, which is Buddhist logic. He also has several commentaries. One of them is actually a synopsis of the aspiration, short synopsis of each stanza. That is what we are going to use since we only have two nights.

Now the first is to aspire, to have the Buddhas of the past present and the future, all feeling this existence and not only their presence but have their wish fulfilled right away. Now this is a very big one. Aspiring the Buddhas presence and not just one or two, inviting everyone. This is like inviting everyone to your party. Having that aspiration. I don’t know if we are even managing to fathom the implication of this stanza. If you understand even a little bit, it should give you goose bumps. Aspiring the presence of every tatagatha, right here, this moment.

The next aspiration is yet again another grand aspiration of the bodhisattva. Let me think of an example here, I don’t know if this works with our small mind but let me try. Let’s say I walk into a room and asking someone that, this is going to my bed room, this is going to be the toilet basically planning on this room as I own this territory, making all the blue print already. The next stanza is making the blueprint of the Buddha field, you the bodhisattva is already saying, everything, all this belongs to me (gesturing to the auditorium Rinpoche is speaking in)and that all this will be Buddha field and of course there will be Bodhi trees and underneath all the bodhi trees there will be Buddhas. I’m already planning this, this is aspiration, we are already planning this, no one cares about all these rows for people to sit, we don’t even think of this, here is going to be hundreds of thousands of bodhi trees and there will be billions of bodhisattvas receiving teachings of Prajnaparamita. It’s actually connected to lot of Mahayana teachings. In Mahayana teachings they say when a bodhisattva looks at a sentient beings, he sees them as theirs, like they belong to them, like they are their children, like they need to take care of them. The parents, they also plan for their children, my daughter will have this house, son will have that house, it’s sort of like this. All the sentient beings are mine and they need to be somewhere. This is sort of realistic planning, actually it is a big planning. May the earth be filled by Bodhisattvas. Anyways as I said this is according to synopsis of Dingnaga

Then the aspiration of being able to pacify ailments and problems of all sentient beings. May I be able to fulfill the wishes of sentient beings according to the dharma.

And then the aspiration of perfecting the antidote and being able to apply the antidote, the bodhisattva techniques such as the six paramitas or the ten paramitas.

Being able to remember the past lives and foresee the future lives and then aspiring to have the power so that we will not be stained and overpowered by emotions. May we be able to remember the past lives and upon remembering the past lives may we be able to have a perfect renunciation mind and therefore renounce futile samsaric life and emulate all the tatagathas of the past, present and the future and complete the act of kindness and apply the perfect discipline of the bodhisattva.

After renouncing the samsaric life and perfecting the discipline, may we be able to benefit sentient beings in all manners and manifestations. For example, may I be able to teach in different languages such as of gods, nagas and yakshakas. May I be able to interpret the dharma in different languages, different nuances and different symbols.

May I be able to perfect my diligence in Practice of the paramitas and let others also have the diligence in practicing the paramitas.

May I be able to never forget the bodhi mind and by not forgetting the Bodhi mind, may I be able to purify obscurations, obstacles and hindrances to the bodhi mind.

May I be able to overcome the karma of the past, the emotions of past and present and addiction to all the destructions.

From here we are talking about something quite important so I will stop here tonight and will let you ask questions if you have any.

Audience 1: You say when we have thoughts no matter good or bad we just watch them, you also say something like we should really try to protect our virtuous thoughts so that we have more virtuous thoughts. So what should we do after we are first aware of our thought, do we try to cultivate good thoughts or we just watch our thoughts?

Rinpoche: Both are correct techniques. I think not changing and not altering is more when we talk about meditation such as Samatha and Vipasana but altering, changing, trying to actually transform is also important especially during the Lojong for instance.

Audience 2: Hello Rinpoche, I have a question about aspiration. I feel that even when I say any aspiration prayer I’m never really sincere and even when I think that I’m sincere and if I feel very sincere, I still think in reality I’m not really sincere. Can you give us your thoughts like what you think about this sincerity issue?

Rinpoche: This is quite an important question, so today I’m going to dwell on this question and may be after answering this we will finish. The issue of sincerity or not really comes from having the full picture or not, so to speak. This is difficult, you are right, first thing I’ll tell you, the practical stuff which is, even myself many times I don’t feel sincere but if I keep on repeating, if I keep on faking and sometimes once in a blue moon when it is sincere, hopefully this sincere state slowly takes over, this is what I aspire. You know the real issue of sincerity, the problem is because we end up seeing things in context to past, present and future. We always separate these. So the past is gone, it’s never going to come back, future is a wild guess, well you can have an educated wild guess but still we never really know, we never really are certain and most of the times even the present is controlled by cause and condition. So this sort of alienation of three times really if the cause of sincerity issue you are talking about. In the sutras there is an expression. If you put a goose berry on your palm and the Arahats when they look at it they see the entire world. That’s how they see the world. The separation of past present and future is less, much less for the Arahats. So past is now, future is now, now is now, so it’s much less guessing and you have to reach that level to really generate the sincerity. So for us, since we are still bound by time and space there is lot of guessing and where ever there is guessing, it is understandable that sincerity is difficult. This is why we stopped here, this is why we need to hear about grand view because most of the reasons why you are not sincere is very very limited. Mostly it has to do with not being able to have the bird’s eye view of everything. So again going back to the practical thing, if you wish that somebody be happy, sometimes you feel you have wished sincerely, other times it is almost like an obligation and also when you wish somebody be happy you may also immediately contradict yourself by thinking that this is just a wish, it doesn’t necessarily mean that somebody is going to be happy just because you wish him happy and this kind of doubt is endless. Even if somebody did experience happiness after your wish, you may still doubt that this has got nothing to do with your wish. Now here we need to learn the vast phenomena of mind and also how karma works so to speak. As I said earlier a big part of karma is wish, motivation. Your intention to wishing good for this person is actually because this person has good karma to have you wishing well. I don’t know how you are understanding this, what I’m basically saying is that world is lacking so much of people who are having good wishes. If we can have even one good wish a day, if lot of people like a whole nation decide that every morning 9’o clock we all consciously wish good for others, if we can actually do that, the society or the group of people will definitely experience the effect of this good wish. We know that our action is secondary, action is followed by motivation. But the reason why most of good wish even if there are few are rooted to self-cherishing and self-clinging. We are just not experiencing this ultimate kindness enough. We will be talking about this root tomorrow more.

Just before we go, to answer this, to give a conclusion, when you really wish a good wish to all sentient beings or to all of Taiwan right now, instead of worrying about whether this wish will come true or not, an young bodhisattva, if he learns that the very moment of a sincere good wish, that will come true and if we can acknowledge that, that is the seed for sincerity. I don’t know if I’m explaining it clearly but sometimes we do have a good wish and if we can acknowledge that usually it is the seed of what the question is taking about, sincerity.

You will lose it though, you will lose it very soon, this sincerity because the next thought is, “well it’s just a wish, and it’s not going to happen”, all that judgment. The critical mind, what it does is, it dampens the sort of freshness. This is quite an important question actually related to some of the things that are actually within the Pranidhanaraja. Tomorrow we will discuss more and for tonight we will end it here.

DAY 2

The term Mahayana is not an arbitrary label or term. The word Maha in Sanskrit means grand. There is a reason why there is this term Maha. In fact Mahayana is almost too vast for ordinary minds like ours, in many different ways actually. Sharvakayana on the other hand is designed for those who can’t really chew and swallow grand teachings such as Mahayana and this is not at all a comment or statement to look down upon Sharvakayana. In a way we appreciate Sharvakayana for their accessibility, closer to the human thinking so to speak. For instance even when we talk about the story of the Buddha, a Sharvakayana would say Siddhartha was an ordinary man. I mean he was not a sublime being. Yes he is a very special Bodhisattva but still has not yet vanquished the samsara and only after six years of penance near by the banks of Niranjana river and finally coming to a very decisive conclusion under the bodhi tree, he then vanquished all the cause and conditions and traces of samsara and went to the zone of sublime being and not only that, from Sharvakayana point of view, even after enlightenment under the bodhi tree, Buddha was subject to sickness. He coughed for instance, He got thirsty. So until he passed into parinirvana in Kushinagar he was still subject of the aggregates. So this is how a Sharvakayana, even when they talk about the life of Buddha, this is how they explain, very humanely acceptable so to speak. Now when we talk about Mahayana even the so called story of the Buddha, the twelve deeds of the Buddha is just a show, it was all staged. From the time he was in the heaven, making decisions of who is going to be his parents, what race he will choose to be born in, the location such as Lumbini and being born in the palace, seeing old age and sickness and death, renouncing the palace life, penance by the banks of Niranjana river, even the enlightenment under bodhi tree is absolutely staged and the reason why he had to stage is, he want to show ordinary beings that ordinary beings can reach such a state. So even to tell the life of a Buddha between Sharvakayana and Mahayana, there is quite a big difference because Mahayana view is grand. We have to be careful here, every time I use the word grand, it is not to look down upon Sharvakayana’s view as something small or less and incomplete. The Sharvakayana path is actually, I’m repeating here, is catering for the mass. Mahayana on the other hand is supposedly for those who have grand view. Sometimes I’m puzzled why throughout Chinese history, majority of Buddhism that prevailed is Mahayana Buddhism. It really means a lot, in one way, it really means the Chinese belong to this exclusive audience who can actually think grand. So we are going to talk a little bit about this today.

Remember, I’m shuffling the stanzas quite a bit because since we only have tonight to actually summarize the aspiration, to make it more easy to access the aspiration, I feel it’s necessary to shuffle, for instance there are stanzas where it says “may I have no limit in my action, may I have no limit to my qualities and by obtaining limitless actions and limitless qualities, may I benefit limitless sentient beings” and there is a stanza where it says “may I perfect ocean like Buddha field”, we were talking about perfecting the Buddha field, this is very peculiar Mahayana concept. There is something like each Bodhisattva will actually bless a certain field as their own, like the Amithaba realm, the Sukhavati is considered as the Buddha field that was blessed or arranged or aspired by the Amithaba Buddha when he was a Bodhisattva. His aspiration was, whoever hears the name Sukhavati, the Western Buddha land, may they be born in that Western Buddha field which then becomes an important and very big foundation of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea and also in Tibet. I believe it’s called pure land school or something like that and this is such an important path, the pure land path. It has need to be really nurtured and maintained in China, this pure land path. Really it’s not as simplistic as wishing to be born in heaven etc,

Likewise there are many many other Buddha fields that are specially arranged and aspired and designed by the Bhodhisattvas of past. According to some sutras, some of the sizes of the Buddha fields are as small as a piece of an atom cracked into 1000 pieces. I will tell you the reason why the field is important. To begin with, when you deal with deluded beings, you need a premise, you need some sort of location where you can perform your act of Bodhisattva and it’s quite interesting some of the Buddha fields are aspired by group of Bodhisattva, like two Bhodhisattvas aspiring for one Buddha field or even 100 Bodhisattvas or thousand.

Whether you believe it or not, the Buddha field that we are at the moment, sitting, taking shower whatever, this earth, Jambudvipa is in the Buddha field called fearlessness. This is a Buddha field arranged, aspired, designed and aimed by 1000 Bodhisattvas and this is most interesting Buddha field, I don’t know how to begin, this is so interesting, this Buddha field. I was talking to a lady in a restaurant and she was talking about her sadness, she said she feels very sad. The Bhodhisattvas of the past, this 1000 Bodhisattvas, when they designed this Buddha field one of the things they aspired for is, may this sentient beings have sadness because sadness is such a valuable thing, sadness leads you to go searching for higher truth. The Buddhists, they are afraid to go to hell of course but you know they are also afraid to go to heaven. Remember when we talk about precious human body one thing we don’t want to do is, we really don’t want to be born in heaven, in fact a sober, more smart Buddhist would prefer to go a lower hell realm than the highest heaven because in heaven you really don’t have this sadness until last minute and last minute sadness is not really productive. So this constant sadness, dissatisfaction is one of the criteria of this Buddha field. Anyways there are grand stories of this 1000 Bodhisattvas aspiring for this territory by the way.

In any way I should just continue with the stanzas. Here the aspiration is, May I perfect ocean like Buddha fields and may I aspire to have eons of such Buddha fields. May I aspire to have ocean like Dharma in the Buddha fields from ocean like Buddhas. These are some of the stanzas I’m quoting to really talk about grand vision, I’m slowly coming to grand vision.

And then little bit later, there is also another set of stanzas where Pranidanaraja says , perfecting ocean like Buddha fields, may I liberate ocean like sentient beings, may I make ocean like sentient beings understand ocean like truth. May I make ocean like sentient beings achieve ocean like wisdom and perfect ocean like activities and accomplish ocean like aspirations and please ocean like Buddhas and tirelessly perform the Bodhisattva activity for ocean like eons.

Another stanza where the grand view is explained is, on top of one single atom there are as many Buddha fields as the atoms in this earth and in each of the Buddha fields, Buddha surrounded by his entourage of Bodhisattvas and arahants, turn the wheel of Dharma constantly performing ocean like Buddha activity all the time and may I be able to witness without missing one single one of them.

May I be able to listen and contemplate and understand ocean like teachings given by all these Buddhas in a single moment. These are the stanzas that indicate something else, something which if view. It is very important to know, in the Mahayana, the path of Mahayana, I mean generally the path of all the Buddha dharma is Union of wisdom and method. This is important you know, fundamentally if a path is missing one of them then it’s a faulty path. For instance like the wisdom of selflessness that is thought in the Sharvakayana. When we talk about wisdom we talk about understanding the fact, the truth. The truth of matter is there is no such thing as me, self, truly existing. It is just a label, it is a label that is given by our self and we get habituated in thinking that this self truly exists, beyond that there is not a single solid reason to say that there is something called self, knowing this is wisdom. But how do you know this view, you have to know this view otherwise the habit of thinking that there is a self truly existing is still strong. So the technique of working with habit is called method. So for instance even in Sharvakayana, vipasana is fundamentally where selflessness is gradually taught. When we meditate, usually the method involves sitting straight and breathing normally, concentrating on a specific object like breath or stone or whatever, this is called a method. So this method should always be in align with wisdom as I was just speaking. Similarly wisdom must also be aligned with method otherwise the wisdom is useless. Without this Union you don’t have the path. So the wisdom can be formless and method can have form. Wisdom might not have any color, symbol or shape but method might have plenty of those color, shape, symbol, discipline and action. Similarly in Mahayana wisdom and method should be in union. For instance, Pranidanaraja is obviously a method but the Mahayana method of aspiration must be in align with Mahayana wisdom. Sunyata, the form is not other than emptiness and emptiness is not other than form. This is the Mahayana’s grand view. So our aspiration must be in align with that view.

So if you continue where we left from yesterday, I have used some of the latest stanzas but for instance, “may I be able to teach in different languages” and then “may I be able to roam in the samsara to benefit sentient beings”. As the Bodhisattva roams around stained and defiled samsara to benefit sentient beings and may I do this like a lotus, may I bloom like a lotus, beautiful, serene, and stainless even though the lotus is born in the mud. So the Bodhisattvas can manifest as prostitutes, hunters, robbers, politicians, gangsters but they are not stained by any of these worldly defilements or stains.

Without any delay or obstructions or intrusions as I roam around in the samsara to benefit sentient beings, may I illuminate the darkness of the world like the sun and moon. This particular stanza had another side to it. It’s taking about the sun and moon doesn’t have a motivation to illuminate a certain spot on earth or not illuminate a certain spot. The sun rises and illuminates where its light reaches. Likewise may the sentient beings receive the Bodhisattva’s illumination or activity as the sun and Moon rises, even though the Bodhisattva may not have any kind of partiality.

And then similarly, May I be able to dispel the suffering of sentient beings, may I be able to give sentient beings happiness and causes of happiness. May I be able to benefit sentient beings appropriately with whatever they require and gradually may I able to make sentient beings perfect their Bodhisattva act.

The next is such a beautiful stanza, “may I also act according to sentient beings behavior, attitude and custom and tradition”. You can get the sense that the Bodhisattvas don’t want to be this thorny teacher, always correcting that you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that but a Bodhisattva is really aspiring to be a friend rather than an inspector or a corrector. And then, may I be able to have the opportunity to accompany other Bodhisattvas who share my view, my strategy, and my wish. I think this is like aspiration for master also. I think master is not right word. Actually in Buddhism master is very human language, it’s not appropriate. Probably for kungfu it is appropriate. Because in Sanskrit the word is Kalyanamitra meaning spiritual friend, virtuous friend. The so called guru or master actually in the sutras, it’s always the virtuous friend. May I have that friend, may I have the opportunity to be accompanied by such a virtuous friend. May I and this virtuous friend together aspire for one goal. I’m emphasizing together here, body, mind and speech together, may we together aspire for one goal which is to benefit sentient beings. Again and again and again may I encounter this kind of virtuous friend. People talk about finding the guru and stuff like that, do the Pranidanaraja prayers then you will find the teacher. Big part of Pranidanaraja is finding the right friend. May I encounter this virtuous friend at all times and at all occasions. For instance just like when we feel like misbehaving may he turn up from a corner. Of course it’s kind of annoying but that’s your virtuous friend. It’s his job to save you from getting into trouble.

May I never ever dishearten my virtuous friend, may I never break their heart and by the power of not breaking his heart, may I then be able to see ocean like the Buddhas teaching his another ocean like entourage, turning the wheel of Dharma. May I be able to see this with my very own eyes and flesh. The Vajrayana people, they love this because Vajrayana always says if you want to see the Buddha, you want to really have the guru’s blessing, it’s connected to these things. If you really want to see ocean like Buddhas you don’t want to break the heart of virtuous friend, it says. And it doesn’t matter where we roam in this Samara, higher birth, lower birth, wherever we roam in this cyclic existence, may my merit and wisdom be inexhaustible and may I never lose my treasure of my wisdom, method and Samadhi or concentration and may I be able to have the power to understand the desires, expectations, assumptions, wishes of hundreds and thousands of ocean like samsaric beings.

Actually first to begin with may I be able to know that each and every sentient beings have different wishes and different moods and different assumptions and knowing it may I be able to fulfill and correspond to each and every wish and expectation and assumptions. Likewise by the power of this aspiration, may I have the power to enter into the infinite different subjects and teachings of different Buddhas. By the power of this aspiration, may I understand the teachings of the Buddhas of not only the past and present but may I be able to visit the future. By sitting here right now, may I be able to listen to the teachings the Buddhas of the future that they hasn’t given yet. And when the ocean like the Buddhas manifest in many many forms and activities, by the power of this aspiration may I be able to witness them all, may I be able to visit all the Buddhas of the past, present and the future missing not even one and acquire infinite power. Power to perform miracles, power of understanding different vehicles and different methods. Power to act according to the teachings and according to the wishes of the sentient beings.

May I be able to have the power to love all sentient beings. May I have the ability to accumulate virtuous deeds and merit. May I be able to have power of never getting distracted or attached to any kind of dualistic phenomenon. By perfecting the power of wisdom and method and samadhi, may I be able to accomplish all the Bodhisattva activities and may I be able to have the power to extinguish, dismantle, destroy the consequences of karma and defeat the power of emotions, defeat the four Maras. The Maras of aggregates, Maras of emotion, Maras of death and Maras of pride.

In short, now we are concluding this prayer. May I be able to follow or emulate Samanthabadra bhodhisattva’s view and action. Like the Bodhisattva Samanthabadra, may my body, speech and mind be pure. May my Buddha field and my dedication be perfect. Also in order to perfect a Bodhisattva activity, I shall aspire just as how Lord Manjushri aspired. So this is sort of the main body of Pranidanaraja as condensed in form of short synopsis by Dingnaga. Last time when I thought the Pranidanaraja I was using a different commentary. So if you are comparing these two, maybe there will be some differences. I thought this time we will be more practical rather than being more intellectual or academical. So concentrating more on the stanzas of Pranidanaraja, just as how Dingnaga put it fundamentally, I would like to remind you that it’s important to unite wisdom and method and this is the principle of aspiration. If these two get separated, as last night a lady asked, this is where we also get into the trouble of being sincere or not. For a moment we can understand the view, the emptiness and the method, the aspiration as something to be united, then all these seemingly impossible and seemingly unreachable, all can be reachable. I like to repeat this again, aspiration is something that beings like us can do. It’s measurable so to speak. It’s something you can judge yourself with whether you are doing it or not. Beyond that most of the spiritual path is very subtle and kind of difficult to measure.

The actual explanation of the body of Pranidanaraja will wrap it here. I’ll let you ask some questions and then I thought to make the evening more fruitful, we will chant the aspiration prayer once in Chinese. So if you have questions please.

Question 1: In the stanzas there is one prayer where the Samanthabadra says that when he passes away, may he be born in Amithaba’s Sukhavati pure realm and we should also aspire to be born in Sukhavati but when I listen to most of your teachings online, it doesn’t seem that you encourage people to be reborn in Sukhavati. Can you tell more on that and about Samanthabadra prayer of aspiration and Sukhavati relation.

Answer: It looks like these Bodhisattva’s when they aspire, they specifically choose some sort of point or a value. I’ll try to explain this a little difficult, For instance, like Avalokadeswara, supposedly he blessed his name, he aspired to have his name to be the most popular and who ever hear this will have some sort of connotation or link with love and compassion and it looks like it is true because, I would say Avalokadeswara is probably the most well-known, from Sri Lanka, all the way to China, all the way to Japan, everywhere there is Avalokadeswara invoking. Likewise it is believed that, there was this monk, I forgot the name, this was eons and eons before and his aspiration was to bless a specific place called Sukhavati where everyone will be attracted to go. It’s almost like Sukhavati is more famous than Amithaba himself, you understand what I mean. For instance, how many of you wish to be reborn in, how do I translate this, land of pony tails? OK let’s call it ponytails. I don’t think you have even heard of it. Isn’t it. That’s the place of the Vajrapani. I haven’t heard any of you rushing towards being born in land of ponytails. Actually ponytails is not the right word, it’s called land of long hair. And how many of you wish to go to land of turquoise leaves, that’s where Tara is. If there is some Nyingmapas here, probably some of you guys wish to go to copper colored mountain. To me the most attractive place is Kechara. That’s where Vajrayogini is, it’s in the Sakya tradition. To me that’s the most attractive land. From a very young age, I was attracted to this idea of letters made with corals and I like the idea such as, if I really really just wholeheartedly devote to Vajrayogini, even as I am about to enter into donkeys womb for instance, this beautiful 16 year old girl with Sindoor will grab my wrist and pull me up, I like this. And I think there are Sakyapas sitting here, Sakyapas, they pray to the Amithaba realm, the reason is of course it is Amithaba but the other reason is there are also other sakyapa lamas there and they want to go where the sakyapa lamas are. But anyway among these pure realms, Amithaba realm is in top list. And also the Amithaba realm also seems to have lot of chances, even if you are not that good but if you are really really wholeheartedly devote to Amithaba, you will be reborn in the Amithaba realm in inside a lotus, the lotus might not blossom but it’s OK, one of these days it’s going to be blossomed. Any way as I speak these, I talk like as if it’s some sort of theistic religious concept of heaven but it’s not like that in Buddhism. Because Amithaba realm comes in many different levels. As it is stated in the Amithaba sutras the moment you close your eyes you are already there in the Amithaba realm meaning Amithaba realm is here and now. But for those who can’t understand this profound teachings, yes there are mentions such as towards the West where the sun sets there is the Amithaba realm so on and so forth. Because Pranidanaraja is an aspiration to benefit sentient beings in every way while we are aspiring to enter into ocean like Buddha field, Amithaba realm being the most popular and easy to access, I guess it’s included here specifically. Actually Manjushri’s land is not certain also. In many sutras, sometimes it’s refereed as land of sound of drum but most importantly it’s believed that Manjushri land is actually earthly bound, it exists on this earth. I think it’s 5 hour drive from Beijing(smiling). I’m serious, this I’m not making up. It’s supposedly Earthly bound.

Question 2: Rinpoche, actually I have several questions but which one you want to answer and which one is more important is your decision. So first is, the reason why we want to have enlightenment is sometimes we want to finally have some rest and I don’t know why we should have to pray and do so many troublesome and tiring work and what is the strong motive to do that, this is the first question. And the second one is, how to really combine wisdom and skillful method and the third one is, we actually want to uproot all of our suffering but also many of our sufferings really helps, so how to balance these two thinkings. Thank you Rinpoche.

Answer: I will try to combine them all. Uniting the wisdom and method might take some time. The practitioners always find it difficult. And there is a reason why it is difficult is because these two also many times they contradict. For instance even when we talk about the aspiration we have to talk about wisdom that talks about no self, meaning no one who does the aspiration. And when we talk about wisdom we talk about no numbers and then when we talk about accumulation of merit we do talk about numbers such as the seven branch prayers but this is why the Pranidanaraja is quite special because even though there are numbers, the numbers are all kind of gearing towards infinite wisdom, such as ocean like, you know ocean like Buddhas, ocean like sentient beings, ocean like teachings, so it’s already breaking this limitations. I would suggest our main motivation to do the aspiration is to understand the truth so that we can benefit sentient beings even though it may not be so strong yet, I think we should try to educate ourselves to think that way.

Transcribed by: budpad