Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta

Vast as the Heavens

Deep as the Sea

Vast as the Heavens

Deep as the Sea VERSES IN PRAISE OF BooHICITTA

Khunu Rinpoche

Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Wisdom Publications • Boston

WisDoM PuBLICATIONs

199 Elm Street Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 USA www. wisdompubs.org

© Gareth Sparham 1999 All righiS reserved. No pan of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, elecuonic or mechanical, including photography, recording. or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library ofCongms Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bstan-' dzin-rgyal-miShan, Khu-nu. [Byail chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron rna 7.es bya ba btugs so. English & Tibetan] Vast as the heavens, deep as the sea : verses in praise of bodhicitta I Khunu Rinpoche.

P·

em.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN o-86171-146-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.

Bodhicina (Buddhism)

BQ4398.s.B7713 2.94·3'42.2.-dc2.1

I. Tide.

1999

ISBN o-86171-146-7

Desipul by: Jennie Malcolm Covn- imagt: Khunu Rinpoche at Tso Padma (Rewalsar), India, 1976. Photo by Christopher Fynn. WISdom Publications' books are prinred on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for the permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Prinred in Canada.

TABLE oF

Publisher's Acknowledgment

VI

Translator's Acknowledgments

vu

Translator's Introduction

1

Foreword to the 1966 Edition by the Dalai Lama

CoNTENTS

20

(Tibetan and English)

The jewel Lamp: A Praise ofBodhicitta (Tibetan and English) Translator's Dedication 146 Notes

147

23

TRANSLATOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This small book has been in the ~aking for many years. Wendy Finster first suggested that I translate the verses into English in 1980. I would like to thank her for motivating me and keeping me going with her enthusiasm without any thought of personal gain. I would also like to thank Joyce Murdoch, that most admirable of women, who typed the original manuscript, and Patricia Donnelly and Sarah Thresher who were instrumental in originally causing the work to appear in English. I would also like to thank Ngawang Wangmo for painting a beautiful picture of a wish-fulfilling bodhicitta tree that I had hoped might be used as an illustration for the book. When I finished the translation in 1992, Lochen Rinpoche very kindly gave me a photocopy of the mDzad rnam and rNam thar thar pa'i them skas by Ngodup Gasha (Angrup Lahuli), which provided most of the information for Khunu Rinpoche's biography. I would like to thank Lochen Rinpoche for giving me the book and Ngodup Gasha for allowing me to make use of his work. The translation of the verses was thoroughly revised and corrected by Sara McClintock in 1997 and 1998. She also edited the introduction and supervised the writing of the essay on bodhicitta. Her effort goes far beyond usual editorial assistance and would be more accurately described as collaboration. That having been said, all remaining errors in the work are mine alone. I owe a debt of gratitude to Nick Ribush for initially accepting this work for publication and to Tim McNeill for patiently smoothing away bumps on the way to completion. Finally I would like to thank the Dalai Lama T enzin Gyatso for taking an interest in this work and encouraging its publication, Lobsang Gyatso (before his untimely death) for explaining impenetrable verses to me, and Nga-hua Yeo for supporting me as a monk. Thubten Thardo (Gareth Sparham)

Acknow/~d}(mmts

vii

TRANSLATOR's INTRODUCTION

TheAuthori Tenzin Gyaltsen was born the second of three sons to Kalan pur and Norki in 1894 or early 1895 in the village of Shunam in the Rupa region ofKinnaur, or Khu nu (as the local people call it), on the Indo-Tibetan border. His village lay in a relatively prosperous farming region, 2,000 to 2,500 meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains as high as 6,500 meters and drained by the upper reaches of the Sutlej River. The valleys in this region are extremely beautiful, covered with thick forests of mountain pine giving way at lower levels to orchards of apple and apricot trees fringing fields of mountain barley. Though not a rich area in the modern sense, its economy easily supported a traditional way of life that was based on the Tibetan Buddhism of south central Asia and strongly influenced by the accommodating syncretism of the north Indian plains people to the south. Amongst his own people, Tenzin Gyaltsen is better known by the honorific names Khunu Rinpoche ("precious one from Kinnaur") and Negi Lama. Negi is a clan or caste name used by almost all the people ofKinnaur except metal workers and weavers, and is said to derive from a term of respect given in earlier times to officials at the court at Rampur, an important town on the Sutlej River. In the case of Negi Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, Negi refers as well to his personal family name (Ne gi pang), which means the guru from the Negi family, or the guru from the people of the Negi caste. As a sign of respect, and foliowing the customs of his own people, I refer to him as Khunu Rinpoche, or Rinpoche for short. Khunu Rinpoche started his spiritual training at the age of seven under the guidance of his maternal uncle Rasvir Das, who lived in an adjoining village. Rasvir Das taught Khunu Rinpoche how to read and write Tibetan, and then, following the custom in those parts of the border area of Tibet, had him memorize the Diamond Cutter Sutra (Skt. Vajracchedikti Sutra)

Tntrndtutinn

and the Verse Summary ofPerfect Wisdom (Skt. Ratna-gu1}a-sa1J'lcaya-giitha). The Ne gi pang family were traditionally followers of the Drukpa Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, so at the age of thirteen Rinpoche went to Lib pa (an area north of Kinnaur where the southern school of Drukpa Kagyu flourished) to receive instruction in the spiritual exercises preliminary to the practice of the general precepts of Buddhism. He studied under Sonam Gyaltsen, a personal student of a famous teacher from Kham (southeastern Tibet) called T ogden Sakya-shri. In 1913, at the age of nineteen, Khunu Rinpoche set out for Tibet to continue his religious training. Although there are a number of passes leading directly into western Tibet from Kinnaur, Rinpoche, who at that time could not even afford a new pair of shoes, instead first went through the Kullu Valley, where he collected some interest owing on loans made by his older brother to Kinnauris settled in that region, and with that small amount as his travel money he made his way to the Kagyu monastery Rumtek in Sikkim. He stayed there for three years studying Tibetan grammar and poetry with Urgyen Tenzin. In 1916 or 1917, Khunu Rinpoche finally traveled to Tibet, where he first made a base for himself at the seat of the Panchen Lama at T ashi Lhunpo, the Gelugpa monastery in Shigatse. Subsequently, he traveled to Lhasa where he studied, not the traditional subjects of a monk in one of the large debating or tantric colleges, but _rather advanced subjects in grammar, poetry, and composition. He made an exhaustive study of these subjects, after which, as requested by the then Panchen Lama Chokyi Nyima, he returned to Shigatse and began teaching Tibetan aristocrats and other students from the Tsang region in a special school for Tibetan grammar and poetry. After some time Rinpoche resigned from his position and traveled to Derge in Kham. Rinpoche studied in Derge for five years, during which time he learned the thirteen volumes of the essential Buddhist scriptures. Khunu Rinpoche himself said that while in Kham he mastered the Tibetan tradition of Sanskrit grammar (the ·sarasvati, Candragomin, and Kalapa systems), but as he was unable to make headway in the Pal).inian tradition of Sanskrit grammar (which was pretty much absent from Tibet), he went to Varanasi in India in order to find someone to teach it to him. There he became a student of Pandit Dev Narayan Tripathi and studied with him for five years. The presence of Khunu Rinpoche in Varanasi at this time is

2

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HEAVENS

corroborated by the flamboyant traveler from Amdo (northeastern Tibet), Gendun Chophel. Eventually, Khunu Rinpoche returned to Kham, probably in the mid1930s, where he again taught and studied for many years. It was during this period, in the course of teaching grammar and poetry to the children of the Derge royal family, amongst others, that he wrote his widely used commentary on the Tibetan lexicon of the translator Palkhang called The Lamp for Learned Speech (Tib. Ngag sgron). Leaving Kham in the mid-1940s, Khunu Rinpoche returned to Lhasa where, as requested by the Tibetan government, he began teaching at the main Astrological and Medical Institute (the famed Mentsi Khang). He taught there for three years, after which time he resigned in order to return to India to continue his study of Sanskrit. In all, Khunu Rinpoche spent thirty-four years traveling and studying in various parts of Tibet and India. During that period his parents had passed away, as had his first teacher and uncle, Rasvir Das. It was probably sometime shortly after India's independence from Britain in 1947 that Khunu Rinpoche made the trip back to Kinnaur, where he intended to spend only a short time before returning to Varanasi. In fact, strongly urged by his remaining relatives and fellow Kinnauris to stay in his native place and teach, he spent nearly eight years there, during which time he composed a number of short works to help the mountain people learn the Tibetan alphabet.2 Mter teaching in Kinnaur, Khunu Rinpoche returned to Varanasi toward the end of the 1950s where he remained based until near the end of his life. By this time his learning had made him a well-known figure and he had a position teaching at the Sanskrit University. Nevertheless he retained essentially a lifestyle of renunciation, declining the salary that ordinarily would have come with the post and living in an unassuming part ofVaranasi with an old friend from the 1930s, Jobo Ganga-gire. This dear Hindu friend of Rinpoche had an old temple in Lakasa which he looked after. Rinpoche built a room on the top of that temple and would always, after his journeys to Bodh Gaya, or after spending the hot season away in Sik.kim where he was a personal guru to the royal family, return to live there. Khunu Rinpoche had a spontaneous kindness that extended to all equally, regardless of their sect, religion, or nationality. He saw the great hardship of Tibetan refugees arriving in north India in 1959. He saw that these

Introduction

Tibetans, who had admitted him to schools, taught him, and given him work, were now dazed by the loss of their country and their way of life, often nearly destitute, with little but the clothes on their backs. Khunu Rinpoche felt for these refugees deeply. He taught many of them, among them the Founeenth Dalai Lama. These students would, in later years, refer back to that time and recall the kindness that Khunu Rinpoche embodied. In addition to teaching the refugees through personal kindness and example, Khunu Rinpoche went to Mussoorie at the Dalai Lama's request to instruct the Tibetan refugees in grammar and poetry, remaining there for nearly a year. It was through this work in particular that Khunu Rinpoche became well known to the Tibetan refugees in India. Among the countless stories that illustrate Khunu Rinpoche's disinterested yet active meditative kindness is one of an American woman, Tubten Perno, who met Khunu Rinpoche some years before his death in the mid1970s in Kathmandu, Nepal. She and a number of other foreigners who had gone to Nepal to study Buddhism asked Rinpoche if there was anything he needed that they could supply. He said, "No. I have all I need because I have bodhicitta," and the next day, he sent an offering of one rupee (the equivalent of three or four cents) to each of the foreign students. Khunu Rinpoche spent the last months of his life in Lahaul, stopping on his way there at a monastery in Rewalsar, a place sacred to Padmasambhava, near Mandi. He arrived in Lahaul in August 1976, where he taught all-the gifted and the slow-by example, by personal advice, and by teaching gatherings of the faithful in the traditional way. He taught from Gampopa's J~el Ornament ofLiberation (Tib. Dwags po thar rgyan) and other important texts of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition as well as from his own composition. Some time before his death Rinpoche moved to the T ashi Shuling monastery (Shur Monastery in the local dialect) in a quiet pan of Lahaul. He stayed there with his longtime female companion, the Drikung Khandro. Each afternoon it was his custom to give a teaching for about two hours from the J~el Ornament ofLiberation. On February 20, 1977, while in the middle of teaching the wisdom chapter of that book, Rinpoche suddenly, and without any change in the kindly, peaceful expression on his face, died. His ashes have been enshrined in a number of reliquaries in the region straddling the Indo-Tibetan border in the state of Himachal Pradesh.

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The Original Manuscript-the I959 Diary The full Tibetan title of the text translated here is Byang chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron ma or The jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta. The idea behind this title is that the verses are like a heap of jewels in a glass vaseeach one emits a light that makes the subject clear. Khunu Rinpoche penned each of these three hundred and fifty-six verses as a thought-forthe-day in a diary. Beneath each verse is a record of the events of that day. He wrote all the verses in Tibetan, but some of the other entries in the diary are in Hindi and Sanskrit. Rinpoche had decided on the project some time previous to 1959, as a method to familiarize himself with bodhicitta. There are only two direct references to the project in the diary itself. On January 1, 1959, he writes, "Kay Jig-gon asked me to do this, I decided to do so, I am now involved in doing it"; and on January 17th he writes, "I have completed this far and some of the verses are okay and others are not." It is fortuitous that he chose the year 1959 to pen the verses because in the late spring of that year the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and arrived in India with nearly 10o,ooo of his people. Interspersed amongst entries recording his day-to-day affairs-lists of the names of his students and what he taught them; how much they gave him (usually a donation of one or two rupees); and the books he was reading-Khunu Rinpoche also records the fall ofTibet, the anxiety he felt for the safety of the refugees as they fled, and their arrival in India. The combination of the ordinary and the momentous inescapably reminds the reader of Samuel Pepys, whose diaries of life in London at the end of the seventeenth century record in passing the horrors of Cromwell and the British civil war. In 1998 I obtained the original diary from Thubten Kalden Negi Shastri, a teacher in the Government Secondary School in Sarahan, Simla District, India, and was able to make a photocopy of it. T.K. Negi joined the Tibetan monastery in Bodh Gaya in 1970 as a student of the chant master, and soon after enrolled as a student at the Tibetan Institute in V aranasi. During the 1970s he spent his holidays and other periods in Bodh Gaya. The diary, which came into his possession in 1978, was amongst the personal effects of Khunu Rinpoche left in his room at the Tibetan monastery in Bodh Gaya when he died in Lahaul in 1977· After Rinpoche's death, the chant master asked T.K Negi, who comes from a village in Kinnaur close

Introduction

to Rinpoche's birthplace, to deal with the belongings left in Rinpoche's room. There were about ten to fifteen diaries-all the same size as the diary for 1959-as well as a few clothes and a bank book. Most of the diaries had only personal remarks. T.K. Negi says he kept the diary for 1959 because it contained verses that he intended to study. The whereabouts of the remaining diaries is now unclear. Most entries in the diary have to do with Khunu Rinpoche's daily affairs, particularly financial matters and correspondence. They provide an authentic background to more momentous events and stand as a record of a religious figure's daily life in the mid-twentieth century. It is unlikely that the diary will ever be published in full or translated into English. The reader of Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea, however, may benefit from a general knowledge of its contents, so the following excerpts are presented to convey some sense of what the original diary is like. The first entries from the cold winter months record the visits of mountain people to the warmer pilgrimage sites of Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. "Norkhel, Badari and Namgyel from Sungnam came. Fifteen rupees. Food and tea to all three. Tsenam came but was not satisfied and left" Oanuary 3rd). There are references to his health: "I was sick to my stomach and went to the toilet twice" (August 14th). Many references are to teaching: "I explained the preliminary practices for Mahamudra to Sangye T enzin and twenty-one others and explained Padmakarpo's work to them. I read aloud to them my own summary of how a meditation session works and explained some prayers" (February roth); "I read the Sakyamuni practice out to visitors from Spiti and visitors from Ladakh and then explained refuge to them. They offered me twenty rupees" (November 24th). Many entries record the books that he was reading: "I finished a Hindi commentary on Patafijali's Yogasiitras today. I started on May 23rd so it took me ten days" Oune rst); "I have been given a copy of Pataiijali's Yogasiitras and Vyasa's Bh~a with the commentary Tattvavaifiiradi" Oune 6th); "I read the Tarkabh~a and quite a bit of the Sanskrit-Hindi commentary by Cidanandin" Quly 23rd). These entries are particularly interesting as a record of a traditionally educated Tibetan lama reading non-Buddhist works. Entries in the diary recording the fall of Tibet begin in March: "The newspapers are saying that there has been fighting between the Khampas and the Chinese. There are articles saying that His Holiness the Omniscient One is well ... is in prison.~." (March 23rd). "I read a newspaper article that 6

VAST AS THE HEAVENS

said Sera and Drepung have been demolished and the Norbulingka damaged. I did the hair-cutting ceremony for Munshi Bhastra Singh and gave him the name Guden Senge" (March 24th). "The newspapers are saying that fighting has died down in Lhasa. The Chinese are saying that His Holiness has fled. Some reports say he is probably making for Sikkim or Assam. Others say Lhokha. It seems the fighting is going on all around him" (March 27th). "The A} newspaper is saying that His Holiness is being secretly brought out on horseback by the Khampas and has fallen sick on the journey" (March 30th). "The newspapers says His Holiness has set foot on Indian soil" (April3rd). "The Omniscient One, the King, the Guide of Gods and Humans [the Dalai Lama] set foot in Sarnath, Varanasi today. He revealed his face. He prayed at the stiipa. He addressed those gathered there and then departed" (April 2oth). On August 29th Khunu Rinpoche records a telegram from the Dalai Lama asking him to visit, and notes that he sent the reply that he would do so when his health permitted. Rinpoche left for Mussoorie to visit the Dalai Lama nearly six weeks later: "I met the Dalai Lama today" (October 4th). "The Sakya Lama arrived; I lent the Bodhicaryiivatlira and Suh.rllekha" (October 8th). "Together with Tsultrim I began translating the Lamrim Dudon (Tib. Lam rim bsdus don)" (October 9th). "I met with the Dalai Lama and showed him the [Hindi] translation of the Lamrim Dudon" (October 14th). "Was honored to begin teaching the Senior Tutor Ling Rinpoche the Sum cu pa grammar" (October 16th). "Earlier I got back the Pramiitzaviirttika and Abhidharmakofa from His Holiness; today he returned the Bodhicaryiivatlira and the AbhisamayiilaTflkiira" (October 27th). "I offered my translation of Lamrim Dudon and the Vinaya summary to His Holiness today. He looked at them and gave me a present" (December 2nd). "I took leave of His Holiness today. He was working with Ling Rinpoche. I said goodbye to his mother" (December 5th). "I received back books that I lent to the Dalai Lama: the Madhyamakiivatiira, Abhidharmakofa. He gave me a chinten (a blessed pill) as a gift with a special silk ceremonial scarf.. .I left Mussoorie" (December 6th).

The I966 Published Edition The Tibetan text presented in this book is a reproduction of the first printed edition of the Tibetan text, published in Varanasi in 1966.3 This edition, as the Dalai Lama mentions in his foreword, was sponsored by his sister, lntrodur.tinn

..,

Tsering Dolma, and incorporates many changes and revisions to the version preserved in the 1959 diary. These changes have not been made to the original manuscript-the 1959 diary-but were probably made to an early printer's proof which is no longer extant. The changes and revisions are extensive, and many verses found in the 1959 diary are not even found in the 1966 edition. The changes and revisions improve the diary version in almost every instance and there is no reason to think that they were done by someone other than the original author, who was living in Varanasi at the time and was in close contact with the Dalai Lama and his family. In the absence of the printer's proofs on which Khunu Rinpoche made his changes and revisions, the 1966 printed edition becomes the document closest to the author's original final version. It is therefore not practical to use the 1959 diary to settle readings, although the diary remains very interesting as a document in its own right. The later editions mainly diverge only in minor spelling differences. Khunu Rinpoche does not appear to have been involved in the printing of his work after 1966. The only possible exception is the reading rkang in place of rkyang in verse 181 in the undated edition published by Hukam Sain Negi and Tsewang Norbu Vaid. This may reflect a communication between them and the author. The Tibetan edition of the text presented here has been carefully proofread to bring it in line with the 1966 edition, and incorporates the information given in the list of errata that accompanied that work. The translation is based on the 1966 Varanasi edition. Interesting variant readings found in the 1959 diary are given in the notes.

The Topic-Bodhicitta All three hundred and fifty-six verses in Khunu Rinpoche's The jewel Lamp are about bodhicitta, the spontaneous altruism, free from bias, that is distinctive to Buddhism. What better introduction, then, to this finest of all spiritual possessions than the verses themselves? Khunu Rinpoche writes from the perspective of a person who knows what bodhicitta is-he is writing from within the presence ofbodhicitta, so to speak, standing in the center of a region and describing it. Were a reader to persevere and recognize in Khunu Rinpoche's verses their own path from the perspective of the place it leads to, they would feel a confident understanding in the form of a natural feeling oflove for others. Those unfamiliar with the idea ofbodhi-

8

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citta may, however, become confused by such a perspective, so this short introduction to the topic is intended to provide the necessary background for an informed understanding of the verses. Bodhicitta is the thought to become enlightened for the sake of others. Having in mind what one wants for others, Khunu Rinpoche says: Supreme bodhicitta is the wish to remove every flaw from every living being and to bring about limitless good qualities in each of them. This is outstanding even amongst the outstanding! (The jewel Lamp, verse 21) The basis of this wish is great renunciation-the strong desire to be free from suffering. When focused on others, this becomes great compassionthe wish that others be free from suffering as well. From this stems bodhicitta-the determination to become enlightened in order to free others from suffering. To understand what this wish is and how it develops, it is helpful to begin with the story of Siddhartha, our historical Buddha, and his great renunciation. It allows us to consider what Buddhists mean by r) thought (citta) and 2) enlightenment (bodhi}, these being the two key elements in the compound Sanskrit word bodhicitta, the object of Khunu Rinpoche' s verses of praise.

Siddhiirtha s Great Renunciation According to the story of the Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, who later became Buddha, was born in Lumbini, north-central India, about 2,500 years ago. When he was born, seers prophesied that he would either rule the universe or become an enlightened being. Fearful that Siddhartha would renounce the world, his parents gave him every luxury and ensured that all signs of suffering were absent from the palaces in which he grew up. He married and had a beautiful child. While his child was still young, Siddhartha went with his charioteer for a journey outside the palace walls and saw suffering in the form of old age, sickness, and death. Beholding suffering all about him there arose in him the wish to be free from suffering. He left his family, rejected his political destiny, and went forth to homelessness. Siddhartha's wish or thought to be free from suffering is called his "great renunciation." It was that wish that made him the bodhisattva.4

Introduction

9

After going forth to homelessness Siddhartha spent many years amongst ascetics and philosophers searching for the path to freedom. Finally, rejecting asceticism without learning on the one hand, and mere scholarship without spiritual practice on the other, he traveled south from his birthplace into the present-day state of Bihar. There he sat in the shade of a tree on the banks of the Nirafijana River and found enlightenment. Afterwards, he went to Varanasi, where he "turned the wheel of the Dharma," teaching his distinctive doctrine of the four noble truths to his first followers, who became the core of a Buddhist community that soon grew and flourished. During the remaining years of his life, the Buddha continued to teach the four noble truths-the truth of suffering, the truth of its cause, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path to its attainment-and he instructed his followers how to live as a community in harmony. When, at age eighty, he died in Kl!Sanagar, a town not far from where he was born, his work was finally done. He entered into final nirva':la, and his physical remains-the last remnants of his suffering-were extinguished forever. He left behind a body of teachings and a community of monks, nuns, and lay followers who continued his work after his demise.

Thought (citta) When a successful businessman says, "I decided I was not going to be like my forebears. I worked and struggled to lift myself out of poverty," we .know that earlier on in his life he decided to reach a goal defined relative to what he saw as unbearable in the first place. Such a decision is what is meant in this context by "a thought." The unbearableness of poverty initiated his struggle, and it produced a thought to escape a life of poverty. That thought or determination (the word "wish" also conveys the same idea) drove him when he was poor, was there as he made his millions, and still affected him even after he became rich, stopping him from falling back into the poverty he saw as so unbearable at the start. Even though such a thought or determination in a person is not apparent to the senses, as is his voice or bearing, it is a real element in his story. In the story of the Buddha, Siddhartha's great renunciation when he came face to face with the suffering of life is a thought, a determination, or a wish in the same sense. His determination to be free from suffering might be characterized as the thought: "I, Siddhartha, cannot bear this suffering, and I am not going to rest until I am free and in the state of enlightenment."

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There is a difference between a thinking process (traditionally called analytic meditation) and a thought in the sense of a wish or determination (a meditated state). The first step in the thinking process that led Siddhartha to a great renunciation was thinking about suffering in depth. If one thinks, as Siddhartha thought, that "though I am not sick, old, or dead right now, still I am no different from those who are because I am caught within the flow of life," one is engaging in a process of thinking that will eventually lead to the meditated state that is a great renunciation. For as long as Siddhartha had to think about suffering (in the sense of coming to a decision about it), for as long as he was still not sure about it and was still investigating whether the suffering he saw was his own problem or just the problem of others, he was still involved in a thinking process. The more he thought about it and the more certain he became that the suffering that others faced was in fact his own problem-that his own state was one that had those problems built in-the more he became determined to get out of the problem he now clearly saw as his own. The thought to be free from suffering that welled up inside him from thinking deeply about suffering was his great renunciation. It motivated him to find freedom from suffering, as it will motivate others who think in the same way. This great renunciation motivates future buddhas, but according to the great vehicle or Mahayana scriptures, a buddha's enlightenment is not the result of that thought alone. One must also account for the return to the world after understanding the suffering of the beings in it. That return is motivated by bodhicitta-the Mahayana thought of enlightenment. The thinking process, an analytic meditation that leads beyond great renunciation specifically to bodhicitta, is different. It entails looking at suffering from a different perspective. Those who are to become bodhisattvas (and such a designation is not restricted in the Mahayana scriptures to Siddhartha alone, but applies to all who produce an authentic thought of enlightenment) consider how, though they are not sick, old, or dead right now, still they are no different from those who are because all are caught within the suffering intrinsic to the flow of life. They contemplate the sameness of themselves and others; becoming familiar with the idea that they share a problem with others, they recognize that the problems that others face are no different from their own. Such contemplation produces a feeling of intimate friendship. That in turn is heightened when these bodhisattvas-to-be go on to think about how Introduction

II

intimately connected they have been in the earliest stages of their lives with their mothers, and then contemplate how they have been the beneficiary of their mothers' ~odies. This way of thinking, extended to all, increases feelings of closeness and a sense of being the beneficiary of the help of countless others. Thinking about how they are a beneficiary leads to the thought that they owe something in return; reflecting on that again and again leads to love. Thinking about the depth and extent of others' suffering initiates a stream of empathy and an active, great compassion that cannot bear others' suffering any longer. This compassion gives rise to the first thought of enlightenment. Bringing to mind again and again their own suffering and reflecting on the fact that others must equally bear such suffering too, they produce a determination to free others from their suffering that is as strong as the determination to be free from their own. Moved by this great compassion, these bodhisattva5-to-be evaluate their capacity to free others from suffering and realize that they are at present incapable even of helping themselves, never mind others. They then ask themselves whether they are capable of removing their shortcomings and developing their talents sufficiently to allow them to help others and deliver them from suffering. In general, some have confidence in themselves right from the start, even though they do not see exactly how they are going to get where they feel they have to go; and some ascertain that their destination is reachable before they gain the confidence to set forth. Both have confidence; the first starts more quickly, the latter finishes with a burst. Amongst the bodhisattvas-to-be (the Mahayana scriptures discuss the spiritual paths of both) the latter do not fully commit themselves to the goal of enlightenment before t~ey ascertain for themselves that it is attainable. They consider the many and various Buddhist doctrines that are taught to a wide variety of living beings, and ponder whether a buddha's perfect wisdom, which is the wellspring of those doctrines, could ever be produced in an ordinary person. The ultimate nature-the emptiness--of all thoughts convinces them that Mahayana enlightenment is attainable, and then the thought of enlightenment, bodhicitta, arises within them. This is a true meditated state of mind, a wish so ingrained by the earlier thought processes that it now arises spontaneously. When this thought of enlightenment arises it has not one, but two aims. One aim of bodhicitta is the thinker's own enlightenment. The other aim

11

VAST AS THE HEAVENS

of bodhicitta is all others' freedom from suffering. This aim of freedom for others is not the immediate concern of bodhicitta-it does not appear in the forefront of the thought as what is needed-for that is only enlightenment. But, as an attainment, enlightenment for oneself only has value as a means to the second and more basic aim, just as a cup only has value as a means for quenching thirst. The basic thirst is for others to be in a state of freedom, and that thirst explains why one seeks the cup of enlightenment. The practice of the thought of enlightenment is familiarizing oneself with a particular way of thinking for a long time in order to produce a strong desire for others to be in a state of freedom. Why for a long time? Because our way of thinking about the world in which we live at present (so ingrained we take it to be natural) precludes even great renunciation-the thought of freedom from our own suffering. Only after feeling great renunciation can we feel a strong desire for others to be in a state of freedom. And only when that strong desire has arisen will the wish for the enlightenment that is the means for fulfilling that strong desire arise. To talk of the size of a thought is odd, perhaps, but to say that someone is thinking big thoughts is not without meaning. "I want you all to come to my birthday party" is a bigger thought than "I want only some of you to come." Bodhicitta is theoretically the biggest thought anyone can think because of the number of beings involved, what it wants them to have, ll:nd the length of time it must last before its motivating power dies out. Since the duration of a thought is a variable of the aim, in the sense that the actions motivated by a thought cease when the aim is attained, one can conceive of thoughts that last longer and longer. Bodhicitta necessarily lasts until the last living being reaches the state free of suffering, because it is only then that the aim is finally achieved. This explains the prayer of Samantabhadra at the end of the Ga1Jtfavyuha section of the Avatarrzsaka Sutra, which the Dalai Lama often invokes: "For as long as space endures may I remain to work for the benefit of living beings."

Enlightenment (bodhi) In Mahayana scriptures, the story of Buddha the man and the great renunciation that motivated Siddhartha's attainment are very important. Those who praise bodhicitta necessarily praise the analytic meditation that leads to great renunciation and the state of great renunciation as well and accord it

Introduction

13

a central place in spiritual life. But for Mahayana writers like Khunu Rinpoche, the great diversity within the state of a buddha that is accessible to others cannot be adequately accounted for by great renunciation alone; it is explained by bodhicitta. As renunciation explains freedom from suffering, as the thought to escape poverty explains wealth, bodhicitta explains the Mahayana enlightenment. According to the Mahayana scriptures, enlightenment consists of a body of truths (Skt. dharmakaya) and a body of forms (Skt. riipakiiya). The body of truths ("body" is used here in the sense of "body of knowledge") is a buddha's private knowledge and freedom. Since it consists of all the meditated states, it is also called the "knowledge of all modes of meditation" (Skt. sarviikarajfiiina). The body of forms is the non-private enlightenment accessible to others-primarily in the form of the Buddha's teachings. In a wider sense, the body of forms includes all "pure appearances," (our earlier "return to the world") which, when approached with a positive and healthy attitude, serve to strengthen the inner capacity of living beings to bear whatever situations they find themselves in, and beyond that to transform all situations into a path of benefit to others. Explaining this process, Khunu Rinpoche says: The good that is bodhicitta does not give fruit just once. Until the knowledge of all modes of meditation is reached it does not finish, but gets ever greater. When knowledge of all modes of meditation is reached, the rain of precious Dharma from the form-body cloud nourishes the shoots of the good that people do. (The jewel Lamp, verse 13) The principle that informs this Mahayana vision of enlightenment is compassion for living beings, particularly in the form of bodhicitta. The Mahayana scriptures not only understand enlightenment in a different way than is suggested by the Buddha's lifestory, they also understand great renunciation differently, saying that the force of great renunciation does not end in nirval)a, but rather begins there. Again, the consideration behind this position is pure appearances (the body of forms) and how to account for its connection with a buddha's private attainment of freedom and knowledge.

14

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HEAVENS

In the story of Buddha the man, Siddhartha's thought not to rest until he is free remains while he pursues the practices that lead to freedom, but stops when he attains nirva9a on the banks of the Nirafi.jana River. Nirvar:ta is enlightenment, according to this interpretation, and final nirvar:ta is attained when even the physical remnants of the Buddha's body dissolve at the end of his life. All thought-even great renunciation-ceases at nirva9a. The freedom Siddhartha gains (the third noble truth of cessation) is a stopping, not a coming into being; and in that state of freedom all thoughts and feelings cease, too. Only the body-the physical aggregateremains, and even that is finally extinguished in the great nirv:il)a in Kusanagar when "the whole heap of suffering" is no more. In the Mahayana scriptures, neither great renunciation nor bodhicitta exhausts itself in nirva9a. Still, in nirva9a, according to the Mahayana scriptures, there exist no thoughts at all, neither needy or selfish thoughts nor selfless aspirations to pure states. Since suffering in the deeper sense of being born to die is fueled by action born of such thoughts, it is axiomatic in all Buddhism that, though the fuel of thoughts is piled up ready, the state of freedom prevents it from burning. Even great renunciation and bodhicitta are not found in nirv:il)a in a manifest state. For Mahayana writers like Khunu Rinpoche, however, great renunciation continues to inform nirv:il)a in that it operates to block what remains of existence, just as tiredness left by overexertion blocks a person from waking up again. And bodhicitta continues to inform enlightenment in that it causes the teaching of doctrine and other pure appearances to issue forth "from the form-body cloud" for the benefit of others. When Mahayana scriptures say that there is no thought at all in nirva9a, they mean that the ultimate truth of all things is empty and beyond elaboration, not that nirvar:ta represents a total cessation at death. Similarly, when Mahayana scriptures say that great renunciation and the thought of enlightenment begin with nirvar:ta rather than end there, they mean that the ultimate truth of all things is nirv:il)a, and that nirvar:ta is no other than emptiness itself. This nirvar:ta is the utter absence of any truth or reality in what appears to ordinary folk as real; in particular it is the absence of any truth or reality in the facile projection of self-identity that ordinary people settle on and cling to as real. The Mahayana scriptures equate this absence or emptiness with nirviil).a because one contacts nirvar:ta-the sphere that is

Introduction

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6 For whom is the Dharma not a refuge, characterized as it is by the two truths and the eight special attributes3 such as being inconceivable, nondual, and so on?

7 For whom is the Noble Assembly not a refuge with its eight special realization and freedom attributes,4 free as it is from the obscurations of attachment, impediment, and a lesser [path], and with the realizations of how things are, what there is, and the inner? 8

I think that even with Sarasvati in one's throatS it would be hard to find an example of the great wish-fulfilling bodhicitta tree, which so easily accomplishes peoples' desires, flourishing in the ground of compassion and watered by love. 9 How could the wish to help that a mother, father, sage, or even Brahma has possibly extend to every living creature like supreme bodhicitta? 10

Just like the lotus among flowers is bodhicitta supreme among all virtuous thoughts. Since having it brings immediate and final happiness, one should make every effort to produce it. II

Since even knowledge of all modes of meditation6 has its origin in just this supreme bodhicitta, those who wish for freedom should certainly make it their work.

Th~ J~wel

Lamp: A Praiu of Bodhicitta

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If one investigates to find the supreme method for accomplishing the aims of oneself and others, it comes down to bodhicitta alone. Being cenain of chis, develop it with joy. 13 The good that is bodhicitta does not give fruit just once. Until the knowledge of all modes of meditation is reached it does not finish, but gees ever greater. When knowledge of all modes of meditation is reached, the rain of precious Dharma from the form-body7 cloud nourishes the shoots of the good that people do. 14

Inner knowledge amongst knowledges. The wish-fulfilling gem amongst all jewels. The stallion amongst the fleet-footed. Bodhicitta amongst thoughts.

15 The sun, the moon, a lamp, a lightning flashthey may illuminate, but they hardly clear away the inner murk. This bodhicitta is extolled by the holy as completely extirpating the darkness of living beings.

!6 Every benefit and joy originates in this bodhicitta of the Victor's children. a There is no way that a wish-fulfilling gem can ever compete with it.

Th~ J~w~/

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17 Once the plantain tree gives forth its fruit it is incapable of bearing fruit again. But even after bearing fruit, virtue influenced by bodhicitta increases without end.

18 Having gone to the base of the parijataka tree,9 if you make a wish, your desired aim will be fulfilled. So too bodhicitta has the power to fulfill the aims of living beings.

19 A tree, its branches, and the fully ripened fruit are all dependent on the earth drop. Every fine thing in s:upsara and nirvii.t).a is contingent on bodhicitta. 20

The holy ones explain that the sole Dharma to be embraced from now until the knowledge of all modes of meditation is reached is bodhicitta_, the ground from which come forth a hundred thousand benefits and happinesses. 21

Supreme bodhicitta is the wish to remove every flaw from every living being and to bring about limitless good qualities in each of them. This is outstanding even amongst the outstanding! 22

If one wants to benefit everyone, one needs bodhicitta. If one wants to befriend everyone, one needs bodhicitta. If one wants to gain the confidence of all, one needs bodhicitta. If one wants to be everyone's spiritual friend, one needs bodhicitta.

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28 The hundred light-rayed bodhicitta sun does not cause the hundred-petaled [lotus] to open, does not cause the white water lily to close, tO does not cause the marsh to dry.

29 From now until the heart of enlightenment, I pray to the Guru Triple Gem to have such an aspiration as "may I not be separated from bodhicitta," and to be blessed [to make such a prayer]. 30 A tired traveler sweltering from the heat is happy to find the leafy green shade of a tree. A wanderer, worn out traveling the paths ofexistence, is happy when precious bodhicitta grows.

31 The precious gem of bodhicitta does not discriminate between rich and poor, does not differentiate between wise and foolish; it benefits equally the high and the low. 32

Bodhicitta, the seed of a buddha, causes one to engage in beneficial thought and practice without discriminating the six kinds [of wandering beings], place, time, or occasion. 33 For raising your spirits when you are down, for removing arrogance when you are flush, nothing in the world compares with the non-deceiving friend that is bodhicitta.

The jewel Lamp: A Prai"st of Bodhicitta

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However many examples there are for its benefit, though they may capture certain modes of meditation, they cannot bear comparison with a portion of amazing bodhicitta, even in a dream.

35 Like gold that does not fluctuate relative to prosperity· and poverty, the supreme taste of bodhicitta puts even ambrosia to shame.

36 The supreme The supreme The supreme The supreme

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know is bodhicitta. learn is bodhicitta. practice is bodhicitta. meditate on is bodhicitta.

37

As a river to the sea, as the sea to clouds, as clouds to the land, so does bodhicitta beautify this world.

38 A jewel mine, a 'wish-fulfilling cow, a bench to stop and rest for those who tread the path, more excellent than the finest medicine, Bodhicitta is proclaimed supreme.

39 If you wish to proceed easily to the level of the knowledge of all modes of meditation, what other method is there if you do not rely upon the bodhicitta of the Victor's children?

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81 The fact that the more terrible the conditions become for the bodhisattva, the more they serve as an aid to their goodness is, I think, due to bodhicitta.

82 Bodhicitta is based on understanding that all have served as one's mother and on recollecting their kindness; bodhicitta is produced from repaying their kindness, and from love and compassion; and bodhicitta is produced from the surpassing intention; hence it is extremely important to work at these.

83 Even if a diamond is broken, it does not stop being called a diamond. Similarly, even flashes of bodhicitta do not stop being called bodhicitta. 84 Butchers are skilled in the secrets of life. Carpenters are skilled in the secrets of wood. Bodhisattvas who have the great surge of thought are skilled in the secrets of bodhicitta.

85 If you possess the wealth of bodhicitta it doesn't matter if you are attractive or not, it doesn't matter if you lack fame and honor, it doesn't matter if you have no other virtue.

Tht: ]t:wt:l Lamp: A Praist: of Bodhicitta

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