Freedoms and Advantages: The Freedom to Practice Dharma

Well then, as it is said:

At this time, (1) hell, (2) hungry ghosts, (3) animals,

(4) long-lived gods, (5) barbarous people, (6) people with wrong views,

(7) a world in which no Buddha has appeared, and (8) stupid people

I have gained freedom by being liberated from these eight kinds of bondage.

The Outer preliminaries are enumerated by the four thoughts that turn the mind towards dharma.  Without a deep and penetrating understanding of these four thoughts, progress cannot be made.   They are the foundation upon which refuge is laid; and refuge is the very door to enter into the dharma.

By penetrating understanding I do not mean a sophisticated intellectual analysis.  Penetrating here means allowing the four thoughts to penetrate into the fabric of my life.  Reflecting upon my own life, I think this is a mistake I make repeatedly; sometimes I feel like a dharma practitioner in name only considering how little I truly reflect upon these four thoughts.  Were I to allow these thoughts to penetrate me I would not have a practice as inconsistent as mine happens to be at this time.  Again; the reason I write this is as an aid to my budding reflections. If these reflections aid you as well noble reader, this is a good thing; help others reflect the same way so that we may increase our collective reflection. 

The first of the four thoughts that turn the mind towards Dharma is a Reflection on the Freedoms and Advantages.  The Freedoms are said to be eight in number.  Freedom can be understood as "Freedom from" or "Freedom to".  One can understand this as the Freedom to practice dharma; however, the list of eight don't sound like states of freedom.  Rather, Freedom here seems aptly understood as "Freedom From"; i.e., the freedom from those conditions in which one would be unable to practice dharma.   

Sentient beings are said to cycle through rounds of birth in different realms based upon the dominance of five states of mental delusion, the five posions:  ignorance, anger, desire, pride and jealousy.  Each of these is projected outward into a realm we find ourselves born into:

Five Poisons                     Realm

Ignorance                        Animal

Anger                              Hell

Desire                             Hungary Ghost

Pride                               Gods

Jelousy                             Demigods

The realm of human beings is said to be a mixture of all these.  Looking at the eight Freedoms, it appears that the gods and demigods are closely related; both are long lived with the difference between the two being a difference of degree.  The demigods,  having less than the gods are intensely jealous and wage constant war to overthrow them; the picture in my mind is Clash of the Titans.   However, the gods and demigods appear together under the term "long-lived gods".  So four of the states of rebirth freedom from which it is necessary to possess are being born as an animal, in a hell realm, hungry ghost, or as a long lived god.  This is because these states are so infused with the correspoinding posionous emotion that we simply do no think of dharma, or have exposure to it.  Even the gods for the most part are dominated by the good life of pleasure wealth and health.  

Of the other four, one is being born in an eon in which a Buddha has not come.  It is said that Buddha's come in alternating eons.  We could be born a multitude of times in such an era without the possible of finding the dharma simply because a Buddha had not come into being in such an eon.    The other three are births as a human being but without the proper intellectual or sensory faculties to apprehend the dharma, birth in a borderland where dharma is simply not taught (imagine a warzone); and the last is having wrong views.

May I strive daily to reduce the five poisons in my mindstream and cherish the teachings of great masters who come for the benefit of myself and all other sentient beings.  May I aspire to there example until I too may lead all parent sentient beings to a state of liberation from all suffering.  

The Four Thoughts that Change the Mind

LAMA KYEN! LAMA KYEN! LAMA KYEN!

O Lama! O Lama! O Lama!

From the blossoming lotus of faith at the center of my heart,

sole protector, gracious Lama, arise.

From the torment of harsh karma and defilements,

for my protection against miserable circumstances,

Dwell as the ornament of the Chakra of Great Bliss on the crown of my head.

Let there arise in me all recollection and mindfulness.

FOUR THOUGHTS THAT CHANGE THE MIND

1. Fortunate Human Life Difficult to Obtain

At this time, (1) hell, (2) hungry ghosts, (3) animals,

(4) long-lived gods, (5) barbarous people, (6) people with wrong views,

(7) a world in which no Buddha has appeared, and (8) stupid people

I have gained freedom by being liberated from these eight kinds of bondage.

(1) Being born as a human being, (2) possessing all the faculties, (3) born in a central land,

(4) not reverting to wrong-living, (5) having faith in Buddha’s doctrine:

I possess the five personal endowments. (1) The Buddha has appeared,

(2) He expounded the Dharma, (3) it is remaining, and (4) I have entered it,

(5) I have been accepted by a holy teacher: the five circumstantial endowments.

I have gained the opportunity of possessing all these factors.

But many uncertain circumstances will waste this life,

and I shall reach the next world (take rebirth).

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.1. The Difficulty of Obtaining Fortunate Human Birth

At this time if I do not take advantage of this fortunate life,

afterwards I will not regain the basis for achieving liberation.

If I exhaust my merits in this life of happy beings,

after death I will wander in the lower realms as an inferior being.

I will not know what is virtue and what is evil, and will not hear the sound of the Dharma.

I will not meet a virtuous friend, and this is a great disaster.

If you think about the different numbers of sentient beings

(You can see that) to obtain human life is just barely possible.

Also we can see human beings doing evil, unreligious acts.

Those who act according to religion are (as numerous) as stars (seen) during the day.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.2. Eight Conditions of Bondage

Even if I obtain the jewel-island of the human body,

a good birth with an evil mind

is not a proper basis for earning liberation,

especially (1) to be caught by harmful influences, and (2) the arousing of the five poisons,

(3) disaster brought by bad Karma, and (4) distraction by laziness,

(5) being enslaved by others, (6) Dharma practice for mere protection from danger, (7) pretending to practice the Dharma,

(8) being foolish: the eight kinds of bondage from adventitious circumstances.

When these obstructions of Dharma occur to me,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong path and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.3. Eight Kinds of Mental Bondage

(1) Having little revulsion, (2) lacking the jewel of faith,

(3) being bound by the lasso of desire and craving, (4) crude behavior,

(5) not refraining from sinful acts, (6) living by wrongful means,

(7) the precepts damaged, (8) the vows torn apart:

The eight kinds of mental bondage.

When these obstructions of Dharma occur to me,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

2. Impermanence of Life 

At present I am not tormented by suffering and illness,

I have not come under the control of others, such as being a slave.

So while I have this opportunity of independence,

if I waste this fortunate human life by idleness,

no question of retinue, wealth, or relations,

but this very body which I cherished

will be removed from bed and taken to a deserted place,

to be eaten by foxes, vultures and dogs. At that time

in the Bardo I will feel terrible fear.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

3. Karma: The Cause and Result of Action

The result of evil and virtuous karma will follow after me.

4. The Suffering of Samsara

4.1. The Suffering of Hell Beings

Especially if I am born in the realm of hell,

(1) on a ground of burning iron, (2) my body and head will be cut by instruments,

(3) split by saws and (4) crushed by burning hammers.

(5) I will cry for help, suffocating in a doorless (burning) iron house.

(6) Pierced by burning spears and (7) boiled in molten iron.

(8) I will burn in extremely hot fire: the eight (hot hells).

Amid snow mountains and freezing cold water,

in a place of terrible distress and fear, I will be blasted by blizzards,

beaten by very cold winds, my flesh will have

(1) blisters, (2) glaring wounds.

(3) I will bewail without ceasing, and

(4) by these feelings of unbearable suffering,

like a sick and dying man whose strength is exhausted,

(5) I will experience gasping, clenching of teeth, and (6) the cracking of the skin,

(7) flesh emerging from the wounds, (8) broad cracks of the skin: the eight (cold hells).

Likewise I shall experience being cut on a field of razors,

my body cut to pieces in a forest of swords;

trapped in disgusting mud; suffering in an expanse of unfordable hot ashes:

The sub-Hells and the changing Hells.

Trapped in doors, pillars, stoves, ropes, etc

always used and exploited: the scattered Hells.

When the cause of these eighteen hells,

powerful angry thoughts, arises,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

4.2. The Suffering of the Hungry Ghosts

In a poor and unpleasant land

where the names of wealth, food, and drink have never been known,

food and drink cannot be found for months and years. The bodies of hungry ghosts

are very feeble, and they are too exhausted to stand up: the three types of Hungry Ghosts.

The cause of their arising is miserliness.

4.3. The Suffering of Animals

In great fear of dying by being eaten by one another.

Exhausted by servitude and ignorant of what is good and bad to do.

Being tormented by endless sufferings,

of which the seed is the darkness of ignorance in which I am wandering.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

RECOGNIZING ONE'S OWN FAULTS

I have entered the path of Dharma but do not restrain my wrong conduct.

I have entered the door of the Mahayana, but lack the thought of the benefit of others.

I have received the Four Empowerments but am not practicing the Developing and Perfecting Stages.

O Lama, protect me from this errant path.

Though the view is not realized, one acts in a crazy manner.

Though meditation wavers, clinging to hearsay;

Though one's conduct is wrong, ignoring one's faults;

O Lama, protect me from indifference to Dharma.

Even if death comes tomorrow, hankering after house, clothes and wealth.

Even though youth has long since passed away, lacking renunciation and revulsion.

Although little Dharma has been studied, boasting about one's scholarship.

O Lama, protect me from this ignorance.

Although they lead me into (harmful) circumstances, wishing for entertainments and pilgrimages.

Although staying in solitary places, the ordinary mind remains rigid like a tree.

Talking about discipline but not eradicating desire and hatred.

O Lama, protect me from these eight worldly dharmas.

Let me awaken quickly from this thick sleep.

Swiftly pull me out of this dark prison.

The Three Defects of the Pot

    In the first chapter of Words of My Perfect Teacher, Patrul Rinpoche begins the chapter entitled "The Difficulty in Finding the Freedoms and Advantages" with an aside:  Before launching into the topic the first section is how one properly listens to the teachings.  
   
     It's striking when I reflect that in the years of my schooling, from elementary school through College, I can't remember anywhere being taught something like this.  One usually begins with the subject at hand.  When is the subject at hand the act of learning?
   
     And yet that is how Rinpoche begins.  Of course there is nothing particularly novel to his presentation:  In his words he is merely recollecting his own master's teachings, his perfect words.  And they are perfect because they are absolutely unerring.  And they are unerring because they begin at the beginning.  
   
    How does one listen to the teachings?  The presentation  discusses the attitude and the conduct, that which to avoid and that which to adopt.Regarding the attitude the single focus of all the Buddhas teachings is to bring all beings to a state of unsurpassed enlightenment, beyond suffering or obscuration.  This is the attitude of all traditions included in the Mahayana.  For a Vajrayana practitioner, this is combined with the vast skillful means where one intends to perfect the methods by which numberless sentient beings may be brought onto the path of liberation.  


    With these kept in mind, one listens in a manner that  avoids the three defects of the pot.  It is so common in these teachings (indeed in all teachings of antiquity) to use metaphors to communicate the essence of the dharma.  And here the image of the pot is used.  


The three wrong ways of listening to the dharma are akin to the three wrong ways to drink water from a pot (or a cup).  The first way is with a pot that is turned over.  One may try to pour water into it but in doing so water splashes all over the place because the pot is turned over and cannot receive any water.  Likewise is the individual whose mind is absolutely closed off to a new perspective.  One may debate until the end of the day and that person will remain unmoved.  The mind is dead set against receiving anything new and will absolutely not here the sound of reason. Perhaps this brings to mind any one of countless political debates in which the debate opponents do not actually respond to each others reasonings, but responds with an entirely different line of reasoning or ad hominem attack. 


    The second defect of the pot is the pot pot that is right side up yet when one attempts to fill it, realizes the water spills out because there are holes in the pot.  This is akin to the kind of listener who receives teachings "in one ear and out the other".  The teachings are heard but make absolutely no dent in one's view or conduct and are quickly forgotten.  Perhaps this is like a parent telling a child that they've got to do there homework with the child's response being " I know!  You told me five times already.  I'll do it- just leave me a lone."  And then forgets to do it.  


    The third defect of the pot is the rightly turned pot that has no holes in it.  One pours water into it and lo and behold!  There are no holes and the pot retains the water.  But when one gets close to drink, one is repelled by the stench of refuse, excrement and bodily fluids as this is a chamber pot.  One cannot drink the water because the water is impure.  This is akin to the listener who listens to the teachings and tries to make the teachings fit into the context of their egoic disposition.  An example may be a wealthy investor who hears the teachings of compassion and says to himself, "yes; in order to be compassionate I must generate as much wealth as possible as only then will I be able to give of my wealth. "  He subsequently does generate more wealth but doesn't realize that he has taken the teachings to aggrandize his own earnings and has not actually contributed to the welfare of others.  Another example is the Westerner who encounters some of the Tantric teachings and says"  since the truth is beyond good and evil, this means that everything is permissible."  


    The teachings are meant to transform the mind and shed light on areas of darkness and resistance   If   we try to make the teachings conform to our immediate disposition, we have perhaps a convenient palliative to make us feel good, but not a teaching that can transform our mind and eradicate suffering.  


    This is why this teaching comes first at the beginning:  No amount of reflection, meditation, prostration,mantra recitation, mandala offering or dedication of merit will have an impact on the mind that refuses to listen to the teachings, or the mind that quickly forgets what it has just learned, or mixes the teachings with the poisons of Ignorance, Desire, Hatred, Jealousy and Pride.  May I take these truths and apply them to my mind, may they not remain as dry exposition but retain the warmth of a teaching that is lived!  May all beings find rest in the expanse in which phenomena rest. 

    The Ngondro teachings are practiced in stages, as are all teachings of the dharma.  Each stage builds upon the understanding gained from studying, contemplating, meditating and applying the teachings that were taught previously.  Without having taken the time to integrate these teachings, the dharma becomes something of a conversation piece rather than something that has visceral power to change one's life.  Ngondro, which can be translated as foundation or as preliminaries,  although some commentators caution that understanding Ngondro as preliminary practices is misleading as it might suggest that  they have lesser value than later practices.  This is universally considered a mistake: His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche says:  

Therefore, for the ultimate truth of the Great Perfection to appear in your mind depends upon the preliminary practices.  This is what Drikungpa meant when he said:  "Other spiritual teachings regard the main practice as being profound.  We regard the preliminary practices as being profound."

It is just as he said.

    However I do think it is useful to think of the Ngondro as those practices that come before in the same way that the foundation must be built before erecting the building.  And as the translators of Words of My Perfect Teacher have elected to use "Preliminaries", that suites me as well.

    Accordingly, Patrul Rinpoche presents the Ngondro in two stages:  the Outer Preliminaries and the Inner Preliminaries.  The Outer preliminaries include:

1. The preciousness of a human birth.
2. Impermanence
3. The Principle of Causality.
4. The suffering of cyclic existence.

    Without understanding well these four principles, one will not really be able to set out on the path free from suffering.  It is said that the thing that makes one a Buddhist, regardless of which tradition one practices or where one has been born, is the taking of Refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha.  Refuge is shared by Burmese Theravada, Chinese Chan, Japanese Nichiren and Tibetan Vajrayana.   And yet one will not take refuge authentically without fully understanding the four thoughts that turn the mind to the dharma, the four thoughts one begins the Ngondro with in the outer preliminaries.  

Homage to all Lineage Masters

Venerable teachers whose compassion is infinite and unconditional, I prostrate myself before you all.

Conquerors of the mind lineage; Vidyadharas of the symbol lineage;

Most fortunate of ordinary beings who,

Guided by the enlightened ones, have attained the two-fold goal- 

Teachers of the three lineages, I prostrate myself before you.  

In the expanse where all phenomena come to exhaustion, you encountered the wisdom of dharmakaya; 

In the clear light of empty space you saw sambhogakaya Buddhafields appear; 

To work for beings' benefit you appeared to them in nirmanakaya form.

Omniscient Sovereign of Dharma, I prostrate myself before you.

In your wisdom you saw the true nature of whatever can be known;

The light f your love beamed benefit upon all beings; 

You elucidated the teachings of the profound path, summit of all vehicles.

Ridgzin Jigme Lingpa, I prostrate myself before you.

You were Lord Avalokitesvara himself in the form of a spiritual friend;

whoever heard you speak was established on the path to freedom;

To fulfill all beings' needs your activity was infinite;

Gracious root teacher, I prostrate myself before you.

The writings of Omniscient Longchenpa and his lineage contain the Buddha's entire teachings;

The quintessential pith instructions that bring Buddhahood in a single lifetime,

The ordinary, outer, and the inner preliminaries of the path

And the additional advice on the swift path of transference.

May the Buddhas and the teachers bless me

That I may explain definitively as I have remembered them,

Wonderfully profound, yet clear and easy to understand-

The unerring words of my perfect teacher.

_________________________________________________________________________________

     With these words the Great Patrul Rinpoche makes homage to the lineage which he inherited from his Master Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu at the opening of his practice manual, "The Words of my Perfect Teacher".  This lineage, the Longchen Nyingthik (The Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse) was revealed to the Terton Jigme Lingpa in a vision by the 14th century master, Longchen Rabjam.  Jigme Lingpa passed this lineage down to his disciple, Jigme Gyalwai Nyugu who in turn passed it to Patrul Rinpoche.  

     Patrul Rinpoche composed this work to benefit the numberless beings who would have the great fortune of receiving them from a qualified Lama into the distant future.  I am one such being of exceedingly good fortune as I have had the opportunity to receive the Buddhadharma from many masters.  And of the great treasures I have been fortunate enough to receive, perhaps the greatest gift has been the oral transmission for the Longchen Nyingthik Ngondro.  Lama Drimed Lodo, has been kind enough to give this transmission to me so that I can begin practicing under his guidance.  For this I am deeply grateful and to his long life and continued efforts to turn the wheel of dharma do I dedicate this blog.