Oh! All sentient beings who have been one’s mothers, equal to the limits of space, to
rescue them from the great ocean of the suffering of samsara, and place them by all means
in the stage of the great precious unsurpassable enlightenment, for that purpose, one will
excellently receive the nectar of holy Dharma, and correctly practice in the levels of the
path. Thus thinking, please generate the mind of supreme enlightenement.
The proper way to Listen the Dharma has two parts: proper moral conduct and
proper attitude.
- Proper Moral Conduct of body, speech, and mind for Listening to Dharma
Teachings
In the Jataka it is said:
Sit on a very low seat,
Cultivate the virtue of self-control,
Look with joyful eyes,
And drink the words like nectar;
With a pure and unstained mind,
Listen like a patient to the doctor:
Make offerings and listen to the Dharma.
Accordingly you should listen properly, free of the three defects of the pot and the six
stains.
a) The Three Defects of the Pot
Whether or not you appear to be concentrating on the teaching, if you are dull and
sleepy, or playing around, or distracted with your mind on other things, you are like an
upside-down pot: not a drop of the rain of nectar pouring down will go inside.
If each time you listen to teachings, you do not familiarize yourself with them once
the teaching is over by repeatedly thinking of them, you will forget them and be like a pot
with a leaky bottom: even if the rainwater collects in it while it is on the ground, when it is
picked up the water will all leak out.
If you are influenced by afflictive emotions, and feel proud when you hear the
teachings again, you will be like a pot containing poison: it might stay filled to the brim with
rainwater, but it will be totally unfit for drinking.
Avoid these three and, as instructed in the Middle Sutra of Transcendent Wisdom,
Listen properly and well, and remember; then I will teach you.
or, in other words:
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Proper Way of the Moral Conduct and Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
Listen properly, without afflictive emotions;
Listen well, without the mouth turned upside down;
Remember, without the bottom leaking.
b) The Six Stains
In the Well-Explained Reasoning it is said:
It is a stain to listen with pride,
With lack of devotion, or without interest,
While distracted outwardly,
Introverted, or discouraged.
These six stains are: – to listen while feeling proud of some minor virtues one might have— one’s
ancestry, for instance; – to listen without sincere respect and devotion to the master and the teaching; – to listen without a genuine commitment to the path of Dharma; – to listen with the mind distracted by external factors; – to listen with the six senses excessively withdrawn so that one does not understand
the words or the meaning of what is being explained; – and to listen with a sad and weary mind.
Rid yourself of these and listen with the right kinds of qualities, as described in the
Sutra Requested by Subahu:
Consider the teacher proclaiming the Dharma as a priceless treasure.
Consider the teaching as a wish-fulfilling jewel.
Consider that to hear the teaching is extremely rare.
Consider that to hold the teaching and reflect on it is most precious and beneficial.
Consider that a discerning understanding of the Dharma is something you will not
find in a hundred lifetimes.
Consider that those who give up seeking the teachings have thrown away nectar and
can only enjoy poison.
Consider that those who listen and reflect will achieve their aims.
and so on. As it is said, maintain mindfulness on the perfect perception.
At this time, one has found the favourable human condition, met the perfect qualified
teacher, and has the opportuinity of listening the profound pith instructions. This is a great
joy. The fruit of accumulation of merit throught countless eons, today, listening the perfect,
profound holy Dharma, it is a one-time food of a hundred times a entire life. So, for the
sake of this Dharma, whatever happens, hardship, heat and cold, I should bear it, and listen
with joy.
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Proper Moral Conduct of body, speech, and mind for Listening to Dharma Teachings
c) The Five Wrong Ways of Remembering
Avoid remembering the words but forgetting the meaning,
Or remembering the meaning but forgetting the words.
Avoid remembering both but with no understanding,
Remembering them out of order, or remembering them incorrectly.
Do not attach undue importance to elegant turns of phrase without making any
attempt to analyze the profound meaning of the words, like a child gathering flowers. Words
alone are of no benefit for the mind.
On the other hand, do not disregard the way in which the teachings are expressed, as
being just the words and therefore dispensable. For then, even if you grasp the profound
meaning, you will no longer have the means through which to express it. Words and
meaning will have lost their connection.
If you remember the teaching without identifying the different levels – the expedient
meaning, the real meaning and the indirect meaning – you will be confused about what the
words refer to. This may lead you away from the true Dharma. If you remember it out of
order, you will mix up the proper sequence of the teaching, and every time you listen to it,
explain it, or meditate on it the confusion will be multiplied. If you remember incorrectly
what has been said, endless wrong ideas will proliferate. This will spoil your mind and
debase the teaching. Avoid all these errors and remember everything-the words, the
meaning and the order of the teachings-properly and without any mistake.
However long and difficult the teaching may be, do not feel disheartened and wonder
if it will ever end; persevere. And however short and simple it may be, do not undervalue it
as just elementary.
To remember both words and meaning perfectly, in the right order and with
everything properly linked together, is therefore indispensable.
d) Relying on the Four Perceptions
The Sutra Arranged like a Tree says:
Noble one, you should think of yourself as someone who is sick,
Of the Dharma as the remedy,
Of your spiritual friend as a skilful doctor
And of diligent practice as the way to recovery.
We are sick. From beginningless time, in this immense ocean of suffering that is
samsara, we have been tormented by the illness of the three poisons and their fruit, the three
kinds of suffering.
When people are seriously ill, they go to consult a good doctor. They follow the
doctor’s advice, take whatever medicine he prescribes, and do all they can to overcome the
disease and get well. In the same way, you should cure yourself of the diseases of karma,
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Proper Way of the Moral Conduct and Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
negative emotions and suffering by following the prescriptions of that experienced doctor,
the authentic teacher, and by taking the medicine of the Dharma.
Following a teacher without doing what he says is like disobeying your doctor, which
leaves him no chance of treating your illness. Not taking the medicine of the Dharma – that
is to say, not putting it into practice – is like having innumerable medications and
prescriptions beside your bed but never touching them. That will never cure your disease.
These days, people say full of optimism, “Lama, look on me with compassion!”
thinking that even if they have done many terrible things, they will never have to endure the
consequences. They reckon that the teacher, in his compassion, will toss them up into the
heavenly realms as if he were throwing a pebble. But when we speak of the teacher holding
us with his compassion, what this really means is that he has lovingly accepted us as
disciples, and that he gives us his profound instructions, opens our eyes to what to do and
what not to do and shows us the way to liberation taught by the Conqueror. What greater
compassion could there be? It is up to us whether or not we take advantage of this
compassion and actually pursue the path of liberation.
Now that we have this free and well-endowed human birth, now that we know what
we should and should not do, our decision at this juncture, when we have the freedom to
choose, marks the turning-point which will determine our fate, for better or worse, far into
the future. It is crucial that we choose between samsara and nirvana once and for all and put
the instructions of our teacher into practice.
Those who conduct village ceremonies will have you believe that on your death-bed
you can still go up or down, as if you were steering a horse by the reins. But by that time,
unless you have already mastered the path, the fierce wind of your past actions will be
chasing after you, while in front a terrifying black darkness rushes toward you as you are
driven helplessly down the long and perilous path of the intermediate state. The Lord of
Death’s countless henchmen will be pursuing you, crying, “Kill! Kill! Strike! Strike!” How
could such a moment-when there is no place to run to and nowhere to hide, no refuge and
no hope, when you are desperate and have no idea what to do-how could such a moment be
the turning point at which you control whether you go up or down? As the Great One of
Oddiyana says:
By the time empowerment is being given to the card marked with
your name,
it’s too late! Your consciousness, already wandering in the intermediate state like a
dazed dog, will find it very hard to even think of higher realms.
In fact the turning point, the only time that you really can direct yourself up or down
as if steering a horse with the reins, is right now, while you are still alive.
As a human being, your positive actions are more powerful than those of other kinds
of being. This gives you, on the one hand, an opportunity here and now in this very life to
cast rebirth aside once and for all. But your negative actions are more powerful too; thus
you are also quite capable of making sure, on the other hand, that you will never get free
from the depths of the lower realms. So now that you have met the teacher, the skilful
doctor, and the Dharma, the elixir that conquers death, this is the moment to apply the four
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Proper Moral Conduct of body, speech, and mind for Listening to Dharma Teachings
metaphors, putting the teachings you have heard into practice, and travelling the path of
liberation.
The Treasury of Precious Qualities describes four wrong notions that must be avoided,
which are the opposite of the four metaphors we have mentioned:
Shallow-tongued men with evil natures
Approach the teacher as if he were a musk-deer.
Having extracted the musk, the perfect Dharma,
Full of joy, they sneer at the samaya.
Such people behave as though their spiritual teacher were a musk-deer, the Dharma
were the musk, they themselves the hunters, and intense practice the way to kill the deer
with an arrow or a trap. They do not practise the teachings they have received and feel no
gratitude toward the teacher. They use Dharma to accumulate evil actions, which will drag
them down like a millstone to the lower realms.
e) Possessing the Six Transcendent Perfections
In the Tantra of Thorough Comprehension of the Instructions on all Dharma Practices, it says:
Make excellent offerings such as flowers and cushions,
Put the place in order and control your behaviour,
Do not harm any living being,
Have genuine faith in your teacher,
Listen to his instructions without distraction
And question him in order to dispel your doubts;
These are the six transcendent perfections of a listener.
A person listening to the teaching should practise the six transcendent perfections as
follows:
Prepare the teacher’s seat, arrange cushions upon it, offer a mandala, flowers and
other offerings. This is the practice of generosity.
Sweep clean the place or room after carefully settling the dust with water, and refrain
from all disrespectful conduct. This is the practice of discipline.
Avoid harm to living beings, even the smallest of insects, and bear heat, cold and all
other difficulties. This is the practice of patience.
Lay aside any wrong views concerning the teacher and the teaching and listen joyfully
with genuine faith. This is the practice of diligence.
Listen to the Lama’s instructions without distraction. This is the practice of
concentration.
Ask questions to clear up any hesitations and doubts. This is the practice of wisdom.
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Proper Way of the Moral Conduct and Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
f) Other Modes of Conduct
All forms of disrespectful behaviour should be avoided. The Vinaya says:
Do not teach those who have no respect,
Who cover their heads although in good health,
Who carry canes, weapons and parasols,
Or whose heads are swathed in turbans.
- Right Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
There are two parts: the vast intention of the bodhichita attitude, and the the vast methods
of the Secret Mantrayana.
A) The Vast Intention of the Bodhichita Attitude
There is not a single being in samsara, this immense ocean of suffering, who in the
course of time without beginning has never been our father or mother. When they were our
parents, these beings’ only thought was to raise us with the greatest possible kindness,
protecting us with great love and giving us the very best of their own food and clothing.
All of these beings, who have been so kind to us, want to be happy, and yet they have
no idea how to put into practice what brings about happiness, the ten positive actions. None
of them want to suffer, but they do not know how to give up the ten negative actions at the
root of all suffering. Their deepest wishes and what they actually do thus contradict each
other. Poor beings, lost and confused, like a blind man abandoned in the middle of an
empty plain! Tell yourself: “It is for their well-being that I am going to listen to the profound
Dharma and put it into practice. I will lead all these beings, my parents, tormented by the
miseries of the six realms of existence, to the state of omniscient Buddhahood, freeing them
from all the karmic phenomena, habitual patterns and sufferings of every one of the six
realms.” It is important to have this attitude each time you listen to teachings or practice
them.
Whenever you do something positive, whether of major or minor importance, it is
indispensable to enhance it with the three supreme methods. Before beginning, arouse the
bodhicitta as a skillful means to make sure that the action becomes a source of good for the
future. While carrying out the action, avoid getting involved in any conceptualization, so that
the merit cannot be destroyed by circumstances. At the end, seal the action properly by
dedicating the merit, which will ensure that it continually grows ever greater.
The way you listen to the Dharma is very important. But even more important is the
motivation with which you listen to it.
What makes an action good or bad?
Not how it looks, nor whether it is big or small,
But the good or evil motivation behind it.
No matter how many teachings you have heard, to be motivated by ordinary
concerns-such as a desire for greatness, fame or whatever-is not the way of the true
Dharma. So, first of all, it is most important to turn inwards and change your motivation. If
you can correct your attitude, skillful means will permeate your positive actions, and you will
have set out on the path of great beings. If you cannot, you might think that you are
studying and practicing the Dharma but it will be no more than a semblance of the real
thing. Therefore, whenever you listen to the teachings and whenever you practice, be it
meditating on a deity, doing prostrations and circumambulations, or reciting a mantra –even
a single mani– it is always essential to give rise to bodhicitta.
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Proper Way of the Moral Conduct and Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
B) Vast Methods: the Attitude of the Secret Mantrayana
Whether we are studying or practicing the Secret Mantra Vajrayana teachings it is very
important to have the Mantrayana attitude, and it is vital that from the start there be a sound
connection between teacher and disciple. As we find in the Torch of the Three Methods:
Though having one meaning, it has no ignorance,
many methods, no hardships,
according with sharp intelligence,
the Mantrayana is specially exalted.
To accomplish the ultimate goal of the stage of complete Buddhahood of both
Sutrayana and Mantrayana traditions has one meaning. But the method of the way of
accomplishing has the difference of view without ignorance, the difference of many
methods of meditation, the difference of conduct without hardships, and the difference of
the sharpness of the intelligence of the person.
First, the view of both Sutrayana and Mantrayana focuses on the absolute space, but
the two views differ in nature: one sees as if with blurred vision, the other clearly. While in
the Causal Vehicle of Characteristics the absolute truth, or absolute nature, is ascertained as
being the Great Emptiness free from the eight conceptual extremes, it is not possible to
realize the nature of the union of the absolute space and primal wisdom. When this
obscured aspect is eliminated, the nature of the union of the absolute space and primal
wisdom is ascertained and the view of the absolute nature is unobscured.
In the Causal Vehicle of Characteristics, substantial relative phenomena are
established as being interdependent, like magical illusions, but apart from this perception of
ordinary, impure phenomena as illusion, one does not ascertain them as the kayas and
wisdoms. It is this obscured aspect that becomes unobscured in the Secret Mantra
Vajrayana, where the display of the kayas and wisdoms is ascertained as the great superior
dharmakaya, the inseparability of the two truths, which is the meaning of the inseparability
from the very beginning of the absolute space and primal wisdom.
Second, the meditation of the Secret Mantrayana is superior because it contains the
generation phase, related to skillful means, and the perfection phase, related to wisdom.
Third, the action of the Secret Mantrayana is superior because it is without difficulty.
Whereas in the Causal Vehicle of Characteristics there is no path taught for accomplishing
enlightenment without giving up the five pleasures of the senses, in the Secret Mantrayana,
where the mind is easily and quickly protected, the five pleasures of the senses are not
rejected but used as the path, and it is possible to accomplish the level of the union
Vajradhara in one lifetime and one body.
Fourth, the Secret Mantrayana is superior because the individuals who practice it have
extremely sharp faculties. It is superior in general because these individuals possess the five
powers; in particular these extremely sharp individuals have the power of the wisdom that is
able to realize the profound view of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana, and the power of
confidence, having no fear of living as outcasts.
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Right Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
- THE FIVE PERFECTIONS
Whenever we study or practice this Secret Mantra Vajrayana, it is essential to keep in
mind the five perfections. As Jigme Lingpa said:
He who sees his teacher as a man
will rceive the very lowest accomplishment.
The teacher should perceive the disciples as Buddhas, and the disciples should
perceive the teacher as Buddha. Otherwise they are no less than samaya breakers, for in the
Secret Mantra Vajrayana the difference between someone who keeps the samaya and a
samaya breaker is that the former perceives phenomena as deities, whereas the samaya
breaker sees earth as earth, water as water, and so on.
Therefore, the first of the five perfections is to realize that the teacher is the Buddha.
There are two ways of establishing this: by scriptural authority and through natural
reasoning.
First, that the teacher is the Buddha is mentioned in countless passages in the
scriptures. Aryadeva, for example, says:
The genuinely accomplished Buddha,
The sole lord, the great deity
Gives the pith instructions directly.
For this reason the Vajra Master is supreme.
Elsewhere we find:
The teacher is the Buddha,
The teacher is the Dharma,
So too, the teacher is the Sangha.
The teacher is he who accomplishes everything,
The teacher is the glorious Vajradhara.
and again:
Master, Samantabhadra, think of me!
and:
Vajra master, glorious Buddha …
and so on.
That the teacher is the Buddha can also be established through reasoning. The
teacher’s vast wisdom mind is the dharmakaya. The expression of that primal wisdom is the
rupakaya, and the essence of the rupakaya is the harmakaya. The rupakaya is the expression
of the dharmakaya and is inseparable from it as the vajra body. His vast wisdom mind
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Proper Way of the Moral Conduct and Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
appearing as form is the vajra body, appearance and emptiness inseparable. The great
wisdom body resounding as speech is the vajra speech, sound and emptiness inseparable.
The thoughts emanating as his mind are the vajra mind. Since its nature is these three
vajras, his great wisdom mind appears as the rupakaya and the primal wisdom that is the
essence of the rupakaya. The inseparability of the rupakaya and the dharmakaya, the union
Vajradhara, essence of all refuges, is the teacher.
The entire assembly also, whether each one in it realizes it or not, is pervaded by the
Buddha nature, in the same way that sesame seeds are full of oil. They are Buddhas, as the
quotation in The Words of My Perfect Teacher from the Hevajra Tantra clearly shows:
All beings are Buddhas,
But this is concealed by adventitious stains.
When their stains are purified,
their buddhahood is revealed.
Their pure nature is the Buddha, their primordially pure essence is the Buddha, and
their spontaneous qualities are the Buddha. Nevertheless, their buddhahood is not effective,
for instead of being free of adventitious stains, they are obscured by them. But in truth they
are Buddhas and should therefore be visualized as the dakas and dakinis of whichever
Buddha family is appropriate.
Both the teacher and the assembly being Buddhas, their realm too is pure and should
be visualized as Akanishtha, “the Unexcelled,” or another buddhafield. The teaching is the
Radiant Great Perfection. The time is the ever-revolving wheel of eternity, in which the
teachings are transmitted from mouth to ear in an uninterrupted lineage from
Samantabhadra down to your present root teacher.
These five perfections are “visualized” as they are, and have been from the very
beginning: we are simply visualizing the Buddhas who dwell in the ground of appearance
and existence manifesting in the ground. We are not trying to say, for example, that a donkey
is a horse or that coal is gold.
The basis for these methods is the way we direct our aspirations:
Everything is circumstantial
And depends entirely on one’s aspiration.
Do not consider the place where the Dharma is being taught, the teacher, the
teachings and so on as ordinary and impure. As you listen, keep the five perfections clearly in
mind:
The perfect place is the citadel of the absolute expanse, called Akanistha, “the
Unexcelled.” The perfect teacher is Samantabhadra, the dharmakaya. The perfect assembly
consists of the male and female Bodhisattvas and deities of the mind lineage of the
Conquerors and of the symbol lineage of the Vidyadharas.
Or you can think that the place where the Dharma is being taught is the Lotus-Light
Palace of the Glorious Copper-coloured Mountain, the teacher who teaches is
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Right Attitude for Listening to Dharma Teachings
Padmasambhava of Oddiyana, and we, the audience, are the Eight Vidyadharas, the Twenty
five Disciples, and the dakas
and dakinis. Clearly visualize.
[…]
The perfect teaching is that of the Great Vehicle and the perfect time is the ever
revolving wheel of eternity.
These visualizations are to help us understand how things are in reality. It is not that
we are temporarily creating something that does not really exist.
The teacher embodies the essence of all Buddhas throughout the three times. He is
the union of the Three Jewels: his body is the Sangha, his speech the Dharma, his mind the
Buddha. He is the union of the Three Roots: his body is the teacher, his speech the yidam,
his mind the dakini. He is the union of the three kayas: his body is the nirmanakaya, his
speech the sambhogakaya, his mind the dharmakaya. He is the embodiment of all the
Buddhas of the past, source of all the Buddhas of the future and the representative of all the
Buddhas of the present. Since he takes as his disciples degenerate beings like us, whom none
of the thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa could help, his compassion and bounty exceed
that of all Buddhas.
Or meditate as follows: The place where we dwell is a pure land arrayed with the
ornaments of all the Buddhafields and endowed with boundless good qualities, and on this
ground is the building we are in—no ordinary building, but the Palace of Great Liberation,
bedecked with the “jewels of the Essence of Space,” a measureless palace formed from the
self-radiance of primal wisdom, utterly perfect in proportions and design. In its center,
seated on a jeweled throne of indestructibility and on the anthers of the king of lotuses, is
the teacher, in whom the compassion and activities of all the Buddhas of the past, present,
and future are combined; who embodies the net of the magical display of primordial
wisdom; whose activity is such that simply hearing the teacher’s name brings liberation from
cyclic existence and the lower realms; who is the sole glorious protector of samsara and
nirvana. Visualize him or her as the Universally Good Lake-Born Diamond Bearer in
person, with his consort. From his mouth the words of the teaching stream forth in the
form of rays of light with syllables made up of the vowels and consonants.
Visualize the men listening to the teaching as the reddish-yellow Tikshna-Mañjushri,
holding an utpala flower upon which are a sword and a volume of the teachings. Visualize
the women listening to the teaching as the goddess Tara, who is green and holds an ºutpala
flower. The ears of both male and female listeners are sixteen-petaled blue utpalas, through
which the words of the teaching enter, lightly dissolving into the lotuses in our hearts and
dispelling the darkness of our ignorance. Consider that the lotus of knowledge blooms and
that the meaning of the teaching is clearly understood and perfectly retained through the
power of unforgetting memory. Thus think and then please listen.