Dear everyone, students, members and friends,
I have been thinking of this for quite a while, and from all aspects. An initiation whether it is lower tantra or higher tantra, specifically plants the seed of enlightenment in the disciple’s mind-stream, so that when they do their practice, hold on to their vows, and keep on to their samaya, it will actualize its seeds in this or future lives. Actualize means to obtain the qualities of the deity of which they are being initiated into.
Therefore, I would say 99% of the people are not ready for something like that, because for actual initiation, for actual initiate, for the actual initiation to be received by the initiate, one needs very strong guru devotion, and the guru devotion must be that, whatever the Lama or Guru tells you to do, you actually do it with no excuses, with no ramifications, and no justifications, or not escaping and you do it, and not only you do it because you have been told, you do it happily, because you trust and you believe that the Lama is giving you something to benefit you. And that’s one. And the second thing is that if we can take refuge in the Lama, and we can take refuge in the Lama’s deity, and take vows from the Lama, we basically surrender our death and our future lives and our mind and our soul to the Lama.
So if we can surrender something so big, and we can offer up something so huge to the Lama, something smaller such as doing certain types of work, having or not having a relationship, doing this type of practice or that type of practice, one shouldn't have any doubt, so if the Lama give you assignments, many types, one shouldn't have any type of doubt and restraints, and one should do it happily all the way, believing and trusting. Therefore if we can surrender, if we can give up our souls to the Lama for something so big, something smaller we should definitely be able to do, unless we don’t have full confidence in future lives, and therefore surrendering it up is not really a big deal for us. And that would be a wrong way of viewing things.
Anyways, in order to be able to achieve the blessing or the seed that has been planted in our mind-stream by the Lama, one has to have a very strong guru devotion, one has to hold one’s vows, the samaya correctly, vows or promises or commitments to keep during the initiation. Samaya is the relationship we keep with our Lamas, and the other people who receive initiation with us, and to also do the actual practice. Those three are very very important for us to receive initiation. And if we have been in Dharma for more than three four years, we should be able to do that. If we are still not able to do that, carry out the instructions of the teacher, directly or indirectly, or we are wishy washy in our practice, or we are always thinking of quitting or not doing, or doing, or running, or going here, or going there, then something like this is not good for us to receive.
I weighed the pros and cons, and I would like to confer the initiation of Avalokiteshvara, or in Tibetan Chenrezig Ngesung Kundrol Tsokor Sum, which is the initiation that I have received from His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in the United States many many decades ago, and I have kept up the practice all these years.
This Chenrezig is one face, two arms, sitting in a posture of ease, with one hand on the back holding himself up, and one hand on the front holding a mala gently over his knee, and he has two assistants, one is the black powerful obstacle destroyer Goddess Ekajati, and the other one is the Buddha or the Goddess of Great Activities Green Tara herself, so this is called Chenrezig Ngesung Kundrol Tsokor Sum, which Tso is the main yidam Chenrezig, Kor is entourage means Ekajati and Tara, Sum means all three.
So this practice once we receive it we have to study the Bodhisattva vows, the 50 verses of Guru Devotion we have to study that very very well, before we receive this and after we receive this we have to hold that up very well, we have to have very strong guru devotion, and everyday, right upon waking, we need to recite Om Mani Padme Hum, one round on our rosary, every single day for life.
And the beautiful thing about this practice according to His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche is that if we have strong guru devotion which means we stick with our guru, we don’t run, we are very stable, we keep our mind still, and we hold on to our vows, we do the Om Mani Padme Hum, then whatever negativities we have committed, even if we are supposed to fall into the three lower realms, we will not fall into the three lower realms. It is impossible for us to go to the three lower realms. So for one lifetime, we are delayed to go to some place negative, and we are blessed to take rebirth in another good situation in our next life, in order that we can practise Dharma and delay and purify, giving ourselves another chance, delaying in going to the three lower realms for one lifetime. And that is like if you are supposed to go to jail, you don’t go to jail, you are given another chance to do good works, in order not to go to jail. So that is very very powerful.
In fact, Chenrezig is Avalokiteshvara or Kuan Yin, Ngesung is the three lower realms, Kundrol means something that takes you out of the three lower realms. So Chenrezig specifically emanated for people to not go to the three lower realms, if we do this practice very very well. And this practice is suitable for people who have, I list in order but not chronological order: committed a lot of negative karma, people who have killed, people who have created heinous crimes, people who have broken their samayas, people who have broken their vows, people who are too old to do intensive practice, for physical and mental reasons, people who are unable to do intensive or deep practice for whatever positive good reasons for example mental impairment or accidents or sickness, people who are dying or people who have very fatal diseases which are incurable, it is very good for people (no offence intended) who are not able to do very in-depth practices due to limited mental faculties, and it is good for people who are fearful of their next lives, it is very good for people basically maybe met Dharma too late, or people whose habituation and negativities are way way too strong for them to turn around and change, this can be old or young, but it will be dependent on those kind of factors that this practice will be very good for.
I would like to confer this initiation and whoever attends this initiation must have my direct permission because it is an initiation, and I am very strict with things like that. And I will assign the person in which they can go through in order to receive the permission to attend. Some will be invited automatically, and some must request to attend. And when you attend, you should not eat meat, you should not engage in alcohol or strong drinks, one should wear very clean clothes, one should not wear ornaments or makeup, one should come very simple and clean, and with the good motivation that for all sentient beings that you will become a fully enlightened being, you will gain the highest attainment through Avalokiteshvara Chenrezig practice in order to benefit others. And therefore once one has received this practice, guru devotion is utmost. Holding the vows of Bodhisattva. There is no Tantric vows, this is Bodhisattva vows and is utmost. Number three is to do Om Mani Padme Hum every single day.
For those who have more time and they prefer, there is a short sadhana, about 1½ - 2 pages, that is very short, that one can do every day to this deity to make a connection. And I have given this initiation twice before in Malaysia to people. One time it was to a group and another time it was to a nun, a Hinayana nun in Seremban who was being afflicted by spirits, and she can hear the spirits at night opening her door, closing her door, disturbing her and she’s done a lot of practices in her centre, she’s done a lot of ritual and couldn’t get rid of it. The divination came out this initiation is necessary. So when she received it, I heard that she started to practice and all the interferences had stopped. So I have given this initiation twice in Malaysia.
Before receiving this initiation I will assign people to give a class on the vows of a Bodhisattva and to act, and to understand and to know it very well, to familiarize and also the 50 verses of Guru Devotion must be very familiar and be able to hold it, otherwise no point. If you receive this initiation, you do Om Mani Padme Hum, a year later, two years later, three years later, you run away, you lose faith in your teacher, you don’t want to co-operate, you make excuses, then it is better not to receive this initiation now. Stability of the mind is most important for tantric practice because breaking the vows, breaking one’s commitments, instead of receiving the benefits, we receive the opposite which is rebirth in the lower realms and that is not a threat but that is what it says according to Shakyamuni in the tantric teachings.
The date, place and time of the initiation I will let people know because I have to prepare myself also and who can come I will let them know. And whoever is chosen to receive this initiation I request you not to run around telling people you are going to receive it, I request you not to tell people you are going to get it, you are going to go for it, don’t create unhappiness in people’s minds who cannot come, that is not Dharma. And for those of us who are not chosen, if you feel jealousy, or you feel lack of confidence or you feel angry or unhappy towards your teacher that is the very reason why you cannot receive it. So if you check your mind and you feel like that then you are not able to receive it.
But if you check your mind and say “oh I’m not chosen but Rinpoche must have his reasons, therefore I’m going to aspire to receive it in the future and I’m going to work harder, I’m going to do Dharma more, I’m going to be stable”, if you think like that you create the causes to receive it. That’s a good way of checking your mind.
So after the initiation I will give a commentary on the practice of this deity, in short forms, to people who are fortunate to receive it, fortunate because this is a great practice. These are my thoughts and I will request someone to write all this out when I’m taping, in just written English, not edited, but just the way I spoke, so this will be directly from me. Most likely I will post this on the KH Website and also my blog and I’ll have it spread around.
So therefore let me repeat this initiation is of Avalokiteshvara together with his assisting deities of Ekajati and Green Tara. And you must have very strong guru devotion, stable, firm, you must hold on to the Bodhisattva vows, strong, firm, and when you break them sometimes you must do the purification practice clearly, and you must do Om Mani Padme Hum minimal of one mala per day upon waking, so when you wake up you do it immediately. Om Mani Padme Hum , you think about Chenrezig and your Guru is one and do Om Mani Padme Hum immediately. And then whatever you want to do for the rest of the day that is fine. If you have time, you can do the sadhana, if not just one round Om Mani Padme Hum, that will be very good.
My motivation for giving this initiation is to be of benefit to my students and friends and special people who I would like to prevent them from entering into a lower realm or to have difficulties in their future life and also by reciting Om Mani Padme Hum to receive the benefits of planting the seeds of attaining great love, supreme compassion and ultimately Bodhichitta, or the selfless wish to benefit others. And Chenrezig’s practice is specifically to destroy selfishness and self grasping, self absorption and everything related to me, me, me, and the self, and the reason for that is all of our problems, insecurities, all of our failures, and all of us being not able to achieve more is due to our selfish mind, the mind that always grasp to itself. And the reason we’re not able to think more, or achieve more, or to be able to comprehend more again it is because of our narrow thinking, our fix thinking, our fixated thinking, our projected thinking and our thinking that is specifically related to our environmental upbringing which we are not able to let go and we are stuck on it and we replay it in our mind over and over and over again like a tape recorder, and therefore we act out of that and we create a lot of problems and sufferings for ourselves.
So Chenrezig is a very good opponent to that because Chenrezig teaches us to let go, Chenrezig asks us and blesses us, and plants the seed for us to have a bigger view and to surrender the selfish mind and to achieve a mind of peace, equanimity, and great compassion. And when we have equanimity from letting go of projections and we have peace from letting go of habituation due to selfishness, and when we have great compassion which is we forgive, then we feel a great sense of peace and happiness, and that is very important for inner peace and that is important for of course outer peace, because outer peace is dependent on inner peace. Therefore Chenrezig is a very good practice which can help us to achieve that.
My motivation is I hope people can achieve that, two fold, is to prevent rebirth into lower realm which most of us will be going, and to develop a great compassionate mind that can ultimately have great Bodhichitta. And that is my motivation for this and I will let the liaisons know about this first and I will disseminate it through the departments, and I will disseminate it through KH organization.
I wish everybody luck and I wish everybody happiness and I sincerely wish people to practise Dharma because the essence of life is not to eat, sleep, drink, procreate and have fun but the essence of life is to not waste the precious time which passes by so quickly and anytime our life can be taken away, anytime, by any causes, in any situation and it is beyond our control. So at the time of death, the most important is Dharma.
Tsem Tulku
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