The Great Chariot

by Longchenpa | 268,580 words

A Commentary on Great Perfection: The Nature of Mind, Easer of Weariness In Sanskrit the title is ‘Mahāsandhi-cittā-visranta-vṛtti-mahāratha-nāma’. In Tibetan ‘rDzogs pa chen po sems nyid ngal gso’i shing rta chen po shes bya ba ’...

3a.2) The seven-fold service

2.a) The main topic

2.a.i) Prostration

2.a.i.a) The main topic

First as for the limb of prostration:

Then we should join our palms just over the crowns of our heads,
Like a rising lotus beginning to bloom in a pleasant pond.
With melodious praises, emanating countless bodies,
We should perform prostrations with reverent devotion.

As for joining the palms like a lotus, the Great Liberation (thar pa chen po) says:

Like a lotus that is just beginning to blossom,
Join the palms of the hands over the crown of the head.
Prostrate to the buddhas of the ten directions

With measureless numbers of bodies, like a mass of clouds, The Good Action (bzang po spyod pa) says:

Having the power of aspiration for good action, Holding all the conquerors vividly in mind,
Bowing with bodies as many as the universe has atoms We prostrate without reservation to all the victorious ones.

2.a.i.b) The benefits

As for the merits of this:

The merits of this are as many as the atoms of the earth,
All that are to be found in its many oceans and mountains.
There are no merits like them within the three-fold world.
After having had bodies of universal monarchs,
As many as our bows or the atoms in Indra’s world,
We will finally gain the level of the highest peace.

What has merits equal to those of prostration for the sake of arousing bodhicitta? There is no such thing within the three worlds. This is because, if we prostrate, trying to do only good, so much merit is obtained. The Vinaya Scriptures say:

O monks, If you prostrate with faith to a stupa containing the Tathagata’s hair and nails, as for the ripening of that, as many actions as Brahma does without the arising of anger, as many as the atoms reaching up to the golden ground of Indra, that many times you will experience the happiness of a universal monarch, and go among gods and human beings.

2.a.ii) Offering

2.a.ii.a)) The brief teaching

As for the second limb we perform:

Material wealth and offerings emanated by mind,
We shall offer these offerings, unsurpassably vast.

2.a.ii.b) The extended explanation

2.a.ii.b.1) Real wealth

As for arranging real offerings:

Let there be flowers and incense, lamps and food and waters,
Canopies, tasseled umbrellas, and exquisite musical sounds,
Victory banners, yak tails, clay drums[1] and other things;

Body and wealth, and all the possessions we cannot part with,
All of these we offer the guru of sentient beings,
The highest teacher of beings, the Buddha jewel himself,
Along with his retinue, the children of the Buddha.

As for offering an immeasurable array of these, the Bodhicharyavatara says:

To the lord of sages, the highest object of offering,
We offer such pleasant flowers as the jasmine and lotus,
Utpala and others, all those of pleasant fragrance,
Pleasantly arranged in skillfully woven garlands.

The best of excellent incense, replete with a pleasing fragrance,
We offer billowing in fragrant offering clouds.
Foods accompanied by a variety of drinks,
Nourishment fit for the gods we offer to them now.

We offer rows of lamps, finely set with jewels,
Which have been arranged on golden lotus buds...

Also it says:

Precious parasols with handles made of gold,
Having edges that are pleasantly adorned,
Well-shaped and then well-carried by attractive bearers,
We will always offer to the kings of sages.

2.a.ii.b.2) Offerings emanated by mind

2.a.ii.b.2.a) The offering of divine articles

As for those emanated by mind, there are the enjoyments of the thirty-three gods and so forth:

We offer pleasant palaces, decked with nets of jewels,
All that there may be in the worlds of gods and elsewhere,
Where cymbals, dances, songs, and praises fall like rain,
Adorned with hundreds of the finest ornaments.

Visualizing all the divine palaces in all the world realms, filled with songs of praise, and a rain of flowers, we offer them to the holy objects of homage. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

Palaces of the gods with pleasant songs of praise,
With brilliant hangings embroidered in precious gems and pearls,
All these ornaments, as limitless as space,
We offer to those who have the nature of compassion.

2.a.ii.b.2.b) The five unowned offerings

2.a.ii.b.2.b.1) Pure mountains, forests and ponds Moreover, in completely pure world realms:

We offer precious mountains, forests, and lotus ponds,
Rippled by the paddling feet of mother swans.
Here fragrant airs arise, and medicinal incenses
Waft their ravishing fragrance from wish-fulfilling trees
That bow with myriad offerings of fruit and flowers.

The Bodhicharyavatara says:

As many delightful fruits and flowers as there may be,
And whatever kinds of health giving medicines,
As many precious jewels as there may be in the world,
And whatever refreshing clear and pleasant waters,

Likewise mountains made of precious substances,
Delightful groves and solitary peaceful places,
Adorned with ornaments of exquisite flowering trees,
And trees with branches bending down with excellent fruit...

2.a.ii.b.2.b.2) Lotuses

Moreover:

Holding bees in a thousand undulating petals,
As if they were a bracelet, white kumut water lilies
We offer with lovely blue and other lotuses,
Opened by sun and moon beams in a cloudless sky.[2]

2.a.ii.b.2.b.3) Ponds

And also:

With blissfully perfumed airs, scented with sandalwood,
Caressing the flower buds with cool and fragrant breezes,
By caves and rock-faced mountains, or meadows of healthful herbs,
We offer ponds that are full of fresh and cooling water.

Similarly, the Bodhicharyavatara says:

Lakes and ponds that are adorned by lotuses
With the beguiling music of the wild geese

Harvests that need no sowing nor effort of cultivation
And other ornaments for those that are worthy of worship.

2.a.ii.b.2.b.4) the moon and sun

And also:

We offer the ornaments of this world of four continents,
The white moon of an autumn night, with a rabbit’s image,278
Uneclipsed and garlanded by the stars of its path;[3]
And the sun, the shining splendor of the bringer of day,
With its blazing necklace of a thousand rays.

2.a.ii.b.2.b.5) all worlds and buddha fields

And also:

Thousands of millions of world realms, with their surrounding mountains,
With all their array of wealth of many desirable things;
All of the buddha fields throughout the ten directions,
Whose number is as many as all the sands of the oceans;
Having received them in mind, now we offer them all,
To all the lord buddha sages together with their children.

2.a.ii.b.3) offering things that are owned:

Wish fulfilling...

Magical vases and wish-fulfilling trees and cows,
The eight auspicious substances and seven royal treasures,
The seven personal treasures and so forth in great abundance,
We offer the objects of worship, the great compassionate ones.

As for these mental offerings that fill the whole of space, the seven royal treasures are the precious wheel, jewel, queen, minister, excellent steed, elephant, and general.

The eight auspicious substances are white mustard, durva grass, wood apple, vermilion, curds, the medicine bezoar, a mirror, and a conch shell coiling to the right.

The seven personal treasures are silken boots, cushion, carriage, bedding, throne sword, and a lamb- skin, used as a rug. All these are offered.

2.a.ii.b.4) Offering the ocean of samadhi 

2.a.ii.b.4.a) The visualization

As for the samadhi offerings, present good conduct and clouds of offerings and so forth, visualizing that they are immensely great:

Filling the space of the sky, with the mind of samadhi,
We offer the outer, inner, and secret offerings,
Great oceanic heaps of clouds of offerings.

2.a.ii.b.4.b) the three aspects

2.a.ii.b.4.b.1) The first, the ordinary outer offerings

As for the outer offerings and praises:

A blazing arbor like floating clouds of beautiful flowers,
Heaps of clouds of amrita, with medicinal herbs and incense,
Clouds of shining lamps, along with food and music,
We offer to the accompaniment of melodious praise.

As to how this is done, the Sutra of the Palm Tree of the Three Jewels says:

A canopy mostly made of various kinds of flowers,
Emitting rays of light from that mass of brilliant flowers
This with its array of various kinds of flowers,
We offer to the great beings and the buddha sons.

In the palms of our hands are offerings beyond thought
As we offer these to one of the conquerors,
We do the same to all of them without exception.
The rishis’ samadhi emanations are like that.

This is also like what is said in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Also the Good Action (bzang spyod) says:

With inexhaustible oceans of songs of praise
With an ocean of all the different kinds of song
We fully express the conquerors’ excellent virtues.
So we sing the praise of all sugatas.

2.a.ii.b.4.b.2) The two extraordinary inner and secret offerings

As for the inner and secret offerings, of mind, mentally:

As we emanate clouds of various offering goddesses
Of grace and garlands and gems, songs and dances and so on,
With the utterly limitless clouds of entering
May it please all the Victorious ones and all their children.

Visualize a host of the eight offering goddesses, the ladies of vajra form, sound, smell, taste, touch, garlands, Lady Producer-of-Appearance, and the goddess of flowers. Each has her respective offering. They make offerings filling the sky. That is the offering. This body which is held so dear is also offered up as a servant of the three jewels. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

Reaching to the limits of the vastness of space
All this, the property of nobody whatsoever,

Bringing it to the mind, to these best of beings, the sages,
Together with their children, if these have been well-offered,
May those holy objects of offering, with their great compassion,
Accept my offerings and look upon me kindly.

I possess no merit, utterly destitute.
I have no other wealth that I could offer you;
But Lords, as you intend the benefit of others,
For my benefit, I ask you to accept this.

To the victorious ones, to the buddhas and their sons,
I offer my bodies from every life I shall ever have.
May I be accepted by these excellent warriors....

2.a.iii) Confessing evil deeds

As for the three limbs, throughout our lives:

Let us confess all our evil deeds that caused samsara,
That rose from habitual patterns of karma and the kleshas,
That we have been accustomed to from beginningless time.

Here from the four aspects of confessing evil deeds, first there are six gates to what is to be abandoned, evil deeds. These are body, speech, mind, passion, aggression, and ignorance. With these, it has been our nature to do evil deeds toward our country, father and mother, preceptor, master and so forth, from beginningless time until the present. We have the nature of the ten unvirtuous actions and so forth. When these are renounced, to all these we have wronged we should subsequently give food and so forth. The Excellent Action says:

Whatever evil deeds we have committed
Due to passion, aggression, and ignorance,
Through body, speech, and likewise mind...

There are evil deeds we ourselves have done, those we have caused others to do, and those we did not do, but in which we rejoiced. In any case, evil deeds obscure the celestial realms and liberation, and so produce the sufferings of the lower realms.

The second method of application is the four powers of the antidote. First there is:

1. the power of complete remorse, which strongly repents the bad action.

2. When we have done something bad, by trying again there is the power of conduct, in which good conduct is an antidote.

3. Having accepted a vow, the power of control is what gains authority over doing evil deeds.

4. As, by relying on the three jewels and bodhicitta, evil deeds are exhausted and restrained, there is the power of support.

The Sutra Teaching the Four dharmas (chos bzhi bstan pa’i mdo) says:

Mañjushri, if bodhisattvas possesses these four dharmas, all the evil deeds which have been performed and accumulated will be overcome. What are these four? The conduct of complete remorse, the conduct of the antidote, the power of control, and the power of support.

As for the first, if we do a bad deed, we repent it greatly. Second, if we do a bad deed, we try very hard to do a good one. Third, if we genuinely receive a vow, we attain control over not doing evil deeds. Fourth, we go to refuge with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and do not give up our bodhicitta.

Third, within the way of application there are the preliminaries, the main topic, and what follows. In preparation we should think of the immeasurable buddhas and bodhisattvas and go to them for refuge. As the main topic, we should remember all our evil deeds, and, as we confess and repent of

them, all the evil deeds of ourselves and others, are visualized floating blackly above our tongues. From between the eyes of the buddhas and bodhisattvas light rays arise.

Visualize that the evil deeds are immediately purified. Then, after many light rays arise, and all evil deeds are purified, visualize that the body becomes like crystal. As for the words, the Bzang spyod or Bodhicharyavatara says:

Dwelling in all the quarters of the universe,
Complete and perfect buddhas and the bodhisattvas,
You who are possessors of the great compassion,
To you I join my palms and make this supplication.

Here within samsara, from beginningless time,
Within this life, and also in many other lives,
Even against my wishes, I have done evil deeds;
Or though I did not do them, I had them done by others.

Being confused by ignorance, I was overpowered;
Therefore I rejoiced in the deeds that I had done;
But now that I have seen that they were mistaken actions,
Sincerely I confess them to the protecting lords.

By me, to the three jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,
To my father and mother, as well as the guru, and others
Because of having the kleshas, I have done great harm,
By actions of body and speech, and also in my mind.

By a multitude of wrongs I have engendered faults.
The evil deeds that I, as an evil-doer, have done,
And which I could not keep from doing in spite of myself,
I confess them openly to the guides of the world.

After that, the essence of whatever evil deeds were recognized is purified by being brought into meditative equanimity like space. The Sutra of the Vastness of the Ten Directions (phyogs bcu rgyas pa’i mdo) says:

Whoever wants to repent and purify
Must be honest, seeing things as they are.
Those who are true will therefore view things truly.
Those who view things truly will be free.
That is supreme repentance and purification.

It is said that faults of evil deeds are perceived by the master. The students do prostrations and offerings. Hanging the upper robe over one shoulder, say. “We supplicate that evil deeds may be cleansed.” After that supplication, take refuge and arouse bodhicitta. Then, having mentally visualized our evil deeds above the tongue, we say,

“Whatever evil deeds we have done to the three jewels, to the master, our parents, or other sentient beings, by the power of passion, aggression and ignorance, we repent and purify all these.”

By our thinking this intensely, the bodhicitta in the five eyes of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas dwelling in the ten directions will completely grasp us. To attain the enlightenment of the buddhas, say three times,

“We confess these. From now on we shall try to control ourselves.”

After that, enter for a little while into emptiness meditation. Then, from the heart centers of the representations, white light rays arise. Visualize that body, speech, and mind are purified.

Then in the sight of the master, request the vow. Afterwards the students give thanks. At first say the liturgy with “I,” for oneself. Later say “we” in practice with others.

Fourth, as for producing knowledge of being able to train in these, the Sutra of the Great Lion’s Roar Requested by Mañjushri (byams pa seng ge sgra chen pos zhus pa’i mdo ) says:

The karma of evil deeds which have been done
Because of unawareness, should be confessed.
As for the capable confessing their faults,
They will not stay connected with that karma.

The Revelation of Instructions (lung rnam ’byed) says:

Those who produce bad karma through evil deeds,
By virtue can put an end to that bad karma.
Like the sun appearing out of the clouds,
Virtue will make its appearance in the world.

The Sutra of the Treasury of Buddhahood (sangs rgyas mdzod kyi mdo) says:

Even those who have murdered their parents or a pratyekabuddha, by meditating on emptiness are completely liberated.

The Revelation of Instructions says:

Those who have done intolerable deeds,
Those who are blocked by having disparaged me,[4]
By fully confessing and controlling themselves,
These thereafter will be completely released.

The Friendly Letter says:

Whoever was careless, but afterwards is careful,
Will be as splendid as the cloudless moon,
And as happy as Angulimala
Was made by attainment of the joy of seeing.[5]

2.a.iv) Rejoicing in virtue

As for the fourth limb:

May we always rejoice in the limitless stores of merit
That have been accumulated by sentient beings.

If we meditate, sincerely rejoicing in our natural virtue, we will attain the root of virtue, equanimity, and the merit will be immeasurable. The Prajñaparamitasañcayagatha says:

To weigh the Mount Merus of the third thousand worlds
And total up the measure is logically possible.
But this cannot be done with the goodness of rejoicing.

Sincerely rejoice like that, saying these words about the arising of good conduct:

In all the merits of beings within the ten directions
The once- and non-returners, and the pratyekabuddhas,
The buddha children as well as all the victorious ones
As many of these as they may be, we rejoice in them.

2.a.v) Urging to turn the wheel of Dharma

As for the fifth limb:

So that all beings without remainder may cross over
We ask that the unsurpassable wheel of Dharma be turned.

The Buddha Bhagavat, after becoming enlightened, did not teach the Dharma until Brahma offered a mandala and supplicated him. Similarly, visualizing that we are in the presence of the gurus, we supplicate them, saying:

All those who are the lights of the worlds of the ten directions,
Who have unobstructedly wakened, gaining enlightenment,
We urge those protectors, for the benefit of all beings,
To turn the unsurpassable wheel of holy Dharma

By that obscurations of abandoning Dharma are cleared away. From then on, from generation to generation, our being will always cleave inseparably to the holy Dharma.

2.a.vi) Requesting not to pass into nirvana

As for the sixth limb:

From now until the ocean of samsara is empty
We supplicate the buddhas and the buddhas’ children
Always to remain, not passing into nirvana.

Just as formerly Tsunda supplicated our teacher not to pass into nirvana, as many buddha Bhagavats as dwell in the world and any guru spiritual friends who in their last morning intend to pass into nirvana, we supplicate to remain until samsara is emptied:

You teachers who intend to pass into nirvana,
Having joined our palms, we supplicate you now,
To remain for kalpas as many as the universe has atoms
For the peace and welfare of all sentient beings.

By that, evil deeds that bring about short life, untimely death, and other dangers to life are purified, and immeasurable life is established.

2.a.vii) Dedicating the merit to enlightenment

As for the seventh limb:

By this merit may we, as well as all sentient beings,
One and all, without exception, be enlightened.

We dedicate the merit so that the virtuous roots of ourselves and others may possess the goal of complete enlightenment, and that transformation may be the cause of others arousing bodhicitta:

By having done prostrations, offerings, and confession, Rejoicing, requesting to teach, and asking to remain, Whatever trifle of virtue we have accumulated, We dedicate it all for the sake of enlightenment.

As for the cause of dedication, we are connected with all of the virtue of ourselves and others throughout the three times. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

All the virtue that sentient beings may have,
That was, will be, and now is being produced,
As for this goodness, for all upon the earth,
May that goodness go from each to each.

Dedicating the merit of this should be done only by buddhas. The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

Subhuti, these virtuous roots, are to be dedicated only by the buddhas. They are not to be dedicated by shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and those on other levels.

The purpose is so that all sentient beings may attain enlightenment. The same text says:

It is dedicated for the sake of all sentient beings, and not merely for one’s own complete attainment. This is because, by doing the latter, one would fall to the level of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas.

All dharmas are non-existent yet apparent, like dreams and illusions. In dedicating merit, we should know that merit too is like a dream or illusion. The same text says:

Subhuti, all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion. Merit too should be dedicated as being completely like a dream, like an illusion.

The Sutra Requested by Bhadra says:

Whoever does not perceive a gift that is given
As being a gift, or given by anyone,
By this same equality of giving,
Goodness becomes complete and is perfected.

If, on the contrary, through conception or attachment, we think of virtuous roots as real and truly existing, that is not good. The Prajñaparamitasañcayagatha says:

Just like eating good food that has been mixed with poison
Perception of the white Dharma is conquered, it is taught.

Also it says there:

Why so? When there are no characteristics, there can be dedication to enlightenment.
But when there are characteristics, there can be no dedication to enlightenment.

Therefore, be without conception or attachment. The Abhisamayalankara says:

When this has the aspect of having no characteristics,
Then it has the characteristic of being right.

As for the essence of dedication, by directing the virtuous roots to enlightenment, mind is transformed, and its power is controlled by particular words.

The Display of Qualities of the Field of Mañjushri (‘jam dpal zhing gi yon tan bkod pa) says:

All dharmas, in accord with these conditions,
By the dedicated roots are consecrated.
Whoever puts forth such an aspiration,
Such a one will be established in suchness.

As for the difference between dedication and aspiration, words and wishes placing a constraint on previously existing good causes are called dedications. Wishes that are merely good causes in themselves are aspirations.

Dedication transforms the mental aspiration of the giver and the power of the words into enlightenment and so forth. What teachers of today say is said from a viewpoint without certain knowledge.

Since they witness this from elsewhere, if gurus and the Sangha think according to their words, they will become people whose expressions accord with establishing partialities. When any words whatever are taught to be truly established after the first bhumi, it is not so. Do not follow those who do this.

Visualize that as witnesses of our establishing dedication, buddhas and bodhisattvas are heaped up in the sky in front heaps like of clouds. Becoming as kind as the Victorious Ones in former lives, when they gave their own flesh and blood to evil spirits, say as has been taught:

By the merit of this may all attain omniscience.
May its attainment defeat the enemy wrong-doing.
From stormy waves of birth, old-age, sickness, and death,
From the ocean of samsara may we free all beings.

Some say that after this we should expand into empty space, but this is completely inappropriate here. It may be asked, “But isn’t what has been done conceptionless?”

True, these phenomena appear without intellectual understanding. Merit is like a dream. The one who collects it is like a dream. The practitioner is also like a dream. Such non-attachment to the three spheres of action[6] as truly existing is called objectlessness.[7] However, literally empty meditation is nihilism without any merit at all. We should understand this to be a bad tradition and abandon it.

In general, whatever merit is produced, the preliminary preparation of authentic bodhicitta has been accomplished; the main basis, excellent prajña without conception or characteristics, has been accomplished; and the conclusion, the dream-like dedication, has been accomplished. When merit has a connection with these three excellences, it is called “goodness in accord with liberation.” In that case, the path of buddhahood is not made into a limited cause from below. If this[8] is not accomplished, “that which is in accord with merit,” after each action’s good fruition comes forth one time, should be known to be exhausted.

2.b) How our being is purified by this

As for the purpose of the aforementioned seven limbs, for example:

Just as, in a piece of cloth that is cleansed by washing,
The colors with which it is dyed shine out in clarity,
Within the mind that is cleansed by these preliminaries,
The supreme mind of the real will shine out in our being.

If defilements hinder the arising of genuine mind, it will not arise. If these hindrances are purified, it will. The purpose is like that of a launderer cleansing a filthy cloth whose colors are no longer apparent by washing it.

2.c) How those that have this foundation are immeasurable

As for those who produce these seven limbs:

And so the limitless fruit of this meritorious practice
Encompasses the whole of space like Dharmadhatu.

The Sutra Requested by Glorious Secret (dpal sbas gyis zhus pa’i mdo) says:

Those who, having visualized the buddhas
Of the ten directions, join the palms,
Prostrating, as well as making offerings,
Furthermore, rejoicing in the merits,

Making confession of their evil deeds,
Urging to teach, and asking to remain,
As for the heap of merits they will have,
It always arises filling the whole of space.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kettle -drum style.

[2]:

Some lotuses like the blue utpala are day-blooming, and some like the white kumut are night-blooming.

[3]:

rgyu skar, the lunar equivale nt of the solar zodiacal constellations.

[4]:

Ie. the Buddha.

[5]:

Attaining the first bhumi, supremely joyful.

[6]:

’khor gsum: Subject, action, and object of an action.

[7]:

dmigs med: Can also mean non-conceptuality, non-perception, imagelessness.

[8]:

Goodness in accord with liberation.

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