Homage to the teachers!
THE GLORIOUS VIRVAPA said:
To those who’ve nurtured you with affection,
these embodiments of kindness, contemplate them with compassion.
“This agent of harm, too, is my mother!
Though she has shown me kindness repeatedly in the past,
like an insane person, she today has no self-control.
Owing to her negative karma, she is suffering in the hell of Avīci.”
As you contemplate thus, you perfect
your compassion for all three realms of existence.
1. The yoga of unparalleled compassion
Compassion is the root of Mahayana teachings. If this is absent, regardless of whatever aspects of the path you might have—such as the six perfections and the generation and completion stages of your solemn pledges—you will fall into the ranks of the Lesser Vehicle. You need, therefore, to possess loving-kindness, compassion, and the awakening mind. Loving-kindness brings benefits, while compassion is cultivated by starting with those who harm you.
So, in a secluded place, adopt a balanced physical lifestyle; take refuge [in the Three Jewels] and generate the awakening mind. Imagine yourself as a meditation deity and visualize your teacher at the crown of your head. Then visualize in front of you an enemy who causes serious harm to you and to others. Then engage in the meditative practice of compassion by combining both its continuum and its rationale.166
First, while maintaining a vigilant posture, focus your mind single-pointedly on your enemy. Then verbally recite the following a hundred, fifty, or twenty-one times, as if it were an incantation: “Pitiable indeed is this enemy who causes me harm.” This is the meditation on the continuum.
The second [the meditation on its rationale] is as follows: (1) Reflecting, “This enemy is bound to have been my mother in the past. Ah, my poor mother!” cultivate compassion toward her repeatedly.167
(2) Why should you have compassion for her? “She has been my mother not just once or twice, but many times.” Reflecting thus, develop compassion toward her repeatedly.
(3) Why should you have compassion for her? “Every time she was my mother, she showed me immeasurable kindness.” Reflecting thus, develop compassion repeatedly.
(4) Why should you have compassion for her? “Mothers generally do only beneficial things, so why is this enemy causing harm? Although this enemy is indeed my mother, she has not mastered her consciousness and today is like an insane person. How sad! Not only does she harm other sentient beings, but she harms her own child as well!” Reflecting thus, develop compassion for her repeatedly.
(5) Why should you have compassion for her? “Due to her harmful actions, she will be reborn in the hell of Avīci and will be oppressed by intense suffering. Ah, my poor mother, this agent of harm!” Repeat this many times.
As you meditate in this way—combining the object, incantations, and the five rationales for developing compassion—you generate compassion in full accordance with the appearance of the following signs: Tears flow from your eyes, your hairs stand on end, the energy of your body and mind become tireless, and so on. Reflecting, “I will attain buddha-hood for the benefit of all beings, especially the agents of harm,” generate the awakening mind and imagine that all sentient beings, including those who harm you, attain the state of meditation deities. Place your mind for a long period in this wisdom free of conceptual elaboration. When conceptualization begins, perform the dedication.
When you have developed compassion toward one in this way, then extend it to others, such as medium and lesser agents of harm. Then extend it to your relatives, your fellow Tibetans, the people the earth, the four continents, and the trichilicosmic worlds, pervading the expanse of space. Your compassion will then become infinite. Because of this, your hatred and anger will naturally diminish; and such difficulties as leprosy and demon possessions will subside naturally of their own accord. Your mind will transform into affection for all beings, like a mother’s love for her only child. The extraordinary wisdom that is free of conceptual elaboration will arise as well.
2. The yoga of root cause
[Virvapa] said:
Assailed by inner and outer elaborations,
when your awareness is in turmoil,
recall this awakening mind
that exchanges self and others.
This will destroy the army of afflictions and māras
and transform them into wisdom free of elaboration.
As stated here, the awakening mind is the cause for attaining the state of omniscience. This is twofold—the conventional and ultimate awakening minds—of which the ultimate is the wisdom free of conceptual elaboration. Although the first, conventional awakening mind, has various forms, here we focus on the practice taught by our teacher of exchanging self and others, which is as follows:
When you are plagued by grave physical illness or a sorrowful heart, both of which are suffering, when you are assailed by enemies, demon possessions, or an imbalance of natural elements, or when forceful afflictions arise in you, take all these as ingredients of your path. For instance, when strong aversion arises, think, “Through the arising of this aversion may all the instances of aversion and its causes existing in the hearts of hostile beings ripen upon me.”
Also aspire, “May all the sufferings—which are the fruits of afflictions and are rooted in self-grasping—existing in the minds of sentient beings manifest upon me. In particular, may the specific sufferings—such as the experiences of being burned, inflamed, and so on of the hell beings; the hunger and thirst of the hungry ghosts; the killing and servitude of the animals; the quarrels and conflicts of the demigods; the human sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death, plus the illnesses of the sick, the poverty and deprivation of the poor, and the suffering of having defective organs—ripen upon my own suffering. May all the obstacles and conditions that obstruct my attainments—from a human existence of leisure and opportunity to the realization of the grounds and paths—mature upon this aversion of mine.”
In this way, concentrate your entire body, speech, and mind, and single-pointedly collect the sufferings of all sentient beings upon yourself. Meditate in this way for one, two, or three hours and so on while maintaining single-pointed focus. Meditate until the conceptual processes, such as the afflictions, are pacified. Turn these into aspects of your path until the suffering of illness ceases. Recite aloud, “May the sufferings of all beings fall upon me.”168
Then visualize that all your virtues—both their causes and their fruits—such as your two accumulations, emanate from your heart like the rays of a rising sun. Imagine that they touch the sentient beings, who are then led to the state of meditation deities, the nature of Buddha’s body and wisdom. As you then place your mind in the wisdom free of conceptual elaboration, an extraordinary wisdom dawns within. When conceptualization reappears, perform the dedication.
Those on the beginner’s level should practice in this manner. Once you gain greater familiarity, then whatever thoughts arise—gross or subtle conceptual processes, fear, suffering, and so on—assimilate them as before and focus on them single-pointedly. Recite aloud, “Through my virtues, may all beings attain happiness.”169
Imagine that your body, wealth, and positive karma ripen upon sentient beings and that they thus attain uncontaminated bliss. The difference here lies in the pace of the visualization. With respect to purpose, there is no difference [between beginning meditators and experienced ones]. As for the concluding practice, it is the same as the previous one [that is, to perform the dedication when conceptualization recurs].
The immediate benefits of the conventional awakening mind are that thought processes such as the afflictions subside, you gain release from sickness and demon possessions, you become beneficial to all beings, and you bring them under your sphere of influence. Ultimately, you attain the states of a buddha’s enjoyment body and emanation body and thus bring about the perfect welfare of others. Through the ultimate awakening mind you achieve the seed of dharmakāya and thus attain the great seal (mahāmudrā), which is the supreme attainment.
When such auspicious conditions are gathered, all kinds of signs associated with your body, speech, and mind emerge. In particular the mental states free of subject-object duality—tranquil abiding and penetrative insight—arise in your mental continuum. You then abide in what is known as the singular instance of reflexive awareness, which is an instance of cognition that embodies the five wisdoms: The empty, nonconceptual mind is dharma body; the self-cognition is the enjoyment body; while its luminosity is the emanation body. The indivisibility of these three is the self-nature body. (1) Since the mind itself is free from all conceptual elaborations, it is the wisdom of the ultimate expanse; (2) its cognition of itself as empty is the mirrorlike wisdom; (3) its self-cognition is the discriminative awareness; (4) its illumination of itself is the wisdom accomplishing all deeds; and (5) their indivisibility is the wisdom of equanimity.
Colophon
The lineage of the transmission of this guide by Lo Lotsāwa on the instruction of unparalleled compassion—the intention of the glorious Virvapa and the teaching of Darpaṇa Ācārya—is as follows: Vajradhāra, Virvapa, Jetsün ḍombipa, Jetsün Mathipa, the siddha Ṇikalava, Jetsün Ravaintapa, Chak Lotsāwa Chöjé Pal, Lama Dampa Shönu Gyaltsen, Vajradhāra Matiśrī, Lama Yeshé Shap, Sangpoi Pal. He passed the lineage to Buddharatna, he to Kīrtiśīla, he to Jayabhadra, he to Puṇyaratna, he to Shönu Gyalchok, and he to me.