ATTENDING THE LAMA THOUGHTS UPON THE PASSING OF RIBUR RINPOCHE THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA. Ribur Rinpoche and his holy bones and relics.

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1 THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA ATTENDING THE LAMA THOUGHTS UPON THE PASSING OF RIBUR RINPOCHE Ribur Rinpoche and his holy bones and relics. The revered lama Kyabje Ribur Rinpoche passed away on January 15, 2006 at Sera Me monastery in southern India, at the age of 83. Rinpoche's long-time translator and attendant, Fabrizio Pallotti, recalls the passing of his perfect teacher. The morning of January 15, as I was readying to leave for India in order to visit my guru, Ribur Rinpoche, I received a surprising message: Rinpoche had passed away. In my terrible state of mind, I could only think: The sun has set forever. I met Rinpoche in Dharamsala in I was doing a retreat at Tushita and met up with a friend who wanted to do an initiation with a lama at Namgyal monastery [the monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama]. He asked me to come and translate. Initially, I said, "No, I don't have the time, and anyway, I have so many great teachers, I don't need to meet a new lama," but finally I agreed. "Okay, Okay," I said, "but I'll just come to translate and after that I'm going to split!" On the way to meet this lama, we saw off in the distance an old monk in yellow robes watching us; as soon as he saw April/May 2006 MANOALA 29

2 THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA Kyabje Ribur Rinpoche in the fourth day of clear light meditation. Lama Zopa Rinpoche in procession before the cremation. us, he disappeared. It turned out to be Rinpoche! When we went to his room, I made three prostrations, and I was very surprised that immediately I was taken with him, without a single word spoken. We sat down and Rinpoche started to talk to me, asking me who were my gurus, what practices I did, and so forth, and then I asked many questions of him. It was funny because my friend didn't understand any of this and he was the reason I was there! After my friend requested the initiation, Rinpoche looked at me and said, "Would you like to be my translator?" I couldn't say anything but, "Yes!" "Would you also like to take the initiation?" he asked. Our relationship really started from there. Since Rinpoche was in Dharamsala and I was in retreat at Tushita close by, I would come to visit him daily and I began to take many teachings and initiations from him. Due to his kindness I was able to have a close connection with him, like his child. One of the side benefits was that while I was in Dharamsala I could accompany him to many private teachings in the palace with His Holiness. What a dream come true it is to meet the perfect lama! Nothing in life can be more beneficial then this. I had been ordained since 1981, but there was one year when I went a little bit crazy and disrobed. I was doing well, working on a Tibet campaign, but after a while I got a call and it was Rinpoche. He said, "What are you doing? I'm at Vajrapani. Why don't you come over? It would make me happy." Even though I had set up many projects at work and it would be very difficult to leave everything, I immediately started packing. That was in 1997, and from then on I was always with Rinpoche. (One exception was a period in India when Rinpoche was in retreat during which time I helped develop the medical fund for the Gere Foundation India Trust, a project inspired by Rinpoche and supported by Richard Gere which now provides full medical care to more then 900 destitute monks and nuns.) We traveled all over the world together, and Rinpoche inspired many Western students with his teachings, most especially due to the outpouring of unbelievable love and compassion that emanated from his whole being. The last time I saw Rinpoche in Washington, D.C., where he had been undergoing cancer treatment, I spent a few days with him and took him to the airport. He said to me, "Look, do you want me to be here in a body like this, or do you prefer that a young body comes back?" At the time, I couldn't answer; I would choke up with tears. Now I realize that because Rinpoche had initiated so many incredible actions to develop world peace, to spread the Dharma, and to benefit sentient beings, he just wanted to take off and come back with a strong, young body to finish those actions. I have a few friends who went to visit Rinpoche a few days before he passed away, and they said that Rinpoche was totally strong, in an incredibly good mood, giving teachings, totally unconcerned for himself. At noon on the fifteenth, Rinpoche was relaxing downstairs at his house, when he suddenly asked the attendants to take him upstairs so that he could be in front of Lama 30 MANDALA April/May 2006

3 The cremation. Relics pile inside the cremation stupa. Relics are collected. Tsongkhapa. Many years ago Rinpoche had ordered this life-size image of Je Rinpoche, a very powerful statue that contains some of the holy bones of Je Rinpoche and Pabongkha Rinpoche. During periods when Rinpoche was heavily medicated (due to the cancer) he would sometimes say things that appeared quite disconnected. For instance, he would often say, "I need to go back to the monastery; he is waiting for me." At the time, we couldn't figure out to whom he was referring. I now believe that he was talking about Je Rinpoche; in fact, when I told this to Oser Rinpoche, he said to me that recently Rinpoche had told him, "All that I have done in this life has been offered to the holy mind of Je Rinpoche." When he passed away, it was during the full moon of the Kalachakra, which is very auspicious. The monastery was nearly empty at that time, with everyone at the Kalachakra initiation. It seems as if he wanted to be alone, as if he didn't want anybody to be around taking care of him. Two days after Rinpoche's passing, I arrived at Sera Me. (I had been having passport trouble, and it turned out I got my clearance the day before Rinpoche passed away.) When I arrived, my mind was totally in turmoil, in a very sad state. I went to Rinpoche's house, and even though his breath had stopped, he was still meditating, sitting up in front of his Lama Tsongkhapa statue, his holy body leaning slightly to the right and his head slightly to the left. After five or six days, Geshe Losang Choepel, the attendant of the late Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, was called upon because of his great knowledge of ritual and how to handle the passing away of a high lama. He determined that Rinpoche was no longer meditating, and many preparations were done to anoint the holy body in the perfect way. An ablution of saffron water was offered to the holy body; we wrapped Rinpoche in new robes and deity ornaments and left him in the same sitting position for one day while we made preparations for the cremation. Though it was quite hot, there was no decomposing, no smell, and no rigor mortis. His body was amazingly supple. Throughout this time, many lamas, geshes, and young monks visited Rinpoche, and many selfinitiations were performed on a daily basis: Heruka, Vajrayogini, Yamantaka, and many other practices. We were able to build the stupa crematorium very quickly, and since it is the main disciple who should offer the fire puja, the ritual was performed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. During the puja, the mood among the disciples was of total desperation. We all felt like our one holy father had just left us for good. After less than one hour, not even halfway through the puja, one of the highest lamas at Sera Me, Oser Rinpoche, looked inside the crematorium and said that the body wasn't there anymore. I looked inside and Rinpoche's holy body had vanished. At the back of my mind, I always knew that Rinpoche was going to pass away, but I couldn't face it directly. Now, facing directly the reality of my lama who had passed away, seeing his holy body under those circumstances, watching as the holy body is cremated, I think it was the most powerful teaching I ever received from Rinpoche. Not only as a recollection of impermanence, of course, but in terms of the April/May 2006 MANDALA 31

4 THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA kindness of his teachings, his love, his affection, the way that he took care of us, never showing the slightest concern for himself or this life. One of his greatest gifts was to inspire me through his example to pledge the specific practice of guru devotion called "like the best child"; you never engage in new actions without the permission of the guru. These recollections totally blew my mind. Also, I thought I already had incredible faith in Rinpoche, but this was different. I'd been with him for more than fifteen years, and I'd taken many teachings from him on what happens when you die, but seeing it directly at work in Rinpoche was like a consolidation of the truth of the teachings. All of the disciples that were there, the great lamas and geshes, many very accomplished beings, they also were amazed by their faith in Rinpoche during this time. After the cremation, we left the funeral pyre for one week before opening it. The first one to go inside was Khensur Rinpoche, the ex-abbot of Gyume Tantric College, who was one of Rinpoche's students and who had already been appointed by Rinpoche as the teacher of his reincarnation. We weren't expecting anything in particular because it isn't necessary that the lama leave anything behind. (This perhaps depends on the merits of the students.) Then suddenly, Oser Rinpoche called to me and said, "Fabrizio, look at this, look, look!' I looked inside and I could see a bunch of white, pearl-like pebbles: There were thousands of them. For me, and I think for most of us there, it was as if this was all happening in a dream. For the Western world what goes on at the monasteries, what the Tibetan lamas do, is almost like science fiction. Upon finding these holy relics, a ceremony was immediately done to purify and bless them, after which we did Lama Chopa, the offering puja to the guru. Rinpoche was among the last of his kind. He was in Tibet before the coming of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and experienced the golden age of Tibet. During the Cultural Revolution, he was able to do some of the most amazing actions for the benefit of the teachings and all sentient beings. He discovered the lost statue of Jowo Ramoche, one of three images made at the time of the Buddha and blessed by him; as well, Rinpoche reestablished the great reliquary of Ganden and the stupa of Je Rinpoche, along with countless other holy images that had disappeared from Tibet when the monasteries were looted. Incredibly holy images would cross Rinpoche's path with seemingly no effort. For instance, in Drepung Monastery a conch shell is preserved that was given to Lord Buddha by a child. It is said that the Buddha prophesized the child would be the future Je Rinpoche, a second Buddha to propagate the teachings. Monghallana, one of Lord Buddha's students, then flew to Tibet and buried the conch in the mountains where Tsongkhapa later unearthed it. On that spot he established Ganden monastery. Centuries later, this conch was stolen and was nowhere to be found for several years. Then one day when Rinpoche was in Dharamsala, an old Tibetan man knocked at Rinpoche's door and handed him the very conch that had been missing. When he first came to India, Rinpoche told me he wanted to go to the mountains, to be in solitary retreat for the rest of his life. He was in retreat for some time, just he and Kusho la, Rinpoche's nephew who was Rinpoche's teacher in his past life. He had only a couple of hundred rupees with which to survive in the old Tsecholing monastery, then uninhabited and in ruins. However, when His Holiness called upon him, Rinpoche offered his services to His Holiness for many years. When Rinpoche began to travel in the West, he turned the wheel of the dharma of sutra and tantra with extensive teachings, benefiting many sentient beings. The karma that we had so as to be exposed to such a holy being is no longer there. And so, we are preparing everything to be ready to look for his reincarnation when it is the time to do so. Before the Kalachakra, Oser Rinpoche went to visit Rinpoche and asked him, "Rinpoche, where should we search for your next incarnation? Should they look in the area of Makham where Rinpoche's monastery is?" Rinpoche said, "Yes, this area is nice, but Lhasa is good." This was one indication where he intended to be reborn. Looking back on Rinpoche's teachings, he most emphasized guru devotion and bodhichitta, and especially tong-len. Rinpoche relied on bodhichitta and tong-len like a panacea for all situations. He was the living embodiment of tong-len. Rinpoche taught everything, he taught the entire path sutra, tantra, initiations, and commentaries but guru devotion, bodhichitta, and tong-len were the main teachings he emphasized. That is the real indication of the perfection of the lama. * Fabrizio Pallotti 32 MANDALA April/May 2006

5 THE LOVE OF A STUDENT Massimo Corona Remembers Ribur Rinpoche Massimo Corona, the former Executive Director of FPM7; recollects his personal experience of the death of his teacher, Ribur Rinpoche. W. e arrived at Ribur Labrang, Sera Me Monastery, at around 7 P.M. Three days earlier, on January 15, nearing the end of the Kalachakra initiation in Amaravati, I received a phone call: Ribur Rinpoche had just passed away. Susanna, my wife, shouted "No!" and began crying. I had sent a message to Rinpoche only a few days before saying that we were due to arrive at his house on January 18. We missed him by only a few days. I did not cry for the entire trip from Amaravati up to Rinpoche's house at Sera. But as soon as I stepped down from the jeep and Yandron-la, Gehlek Rinpoche's sister, came toward me crying, I felt my repressed emotions surge like fire and my eyes filled with tears. We were rushed up to Rinpoche's room, and at first I couldn't see anything, maybe because of the tears. Then I saw the shape of his body, under a mountain of katas. I made three prostrations and offered a kata. When I knelt down and touched the bed with my forehead, I was sobbing. The only words I could say were: "Oh, my father." I prayed with all my heart that I'd put into practice all of his advice and teachings. When we left Rinpoche's room, Kusho Oser wanted to talk to us and he called over Fabrizio [Rinpoche's attendant. See page 29.] to translate. Kusho Oser is an incarnate lama, the head of the Tsawa Khamtsen of Sera Me, whose previous incarnations have had a relationship with the previous incarnations of Ribur Rinpoche for four generations. He had noticed, after I offered the kata, that it had fallen to the floor. He understood this to be a sign that Rinpoche offered back the kata to me, and that was very special. Over the next few days, I spent much of my time in Rinpoche's room, doing pujas with the other monks or by myself, feeling the presence of my kind guru and meditating on the clear light of death. I felt so blessed in his room, while many thoughts of him crossed my mind. I met Ribur Rinpoche in Italy in The day before our first meeting, someone showed me his picture and I burst into tears. It was something so unexpected and spontaneous and it had never happened to me before. I became very close to Rinpoche and he gave me so much. Beyond the many teachings and initiations, there was a special intimacy and closeness that made my relationship with him unique. He was really like my father, always ready to give advice on my everyday life. At times, it was as if my problems became his problems. Fabrizio told me that often Rinpoche was thinking about how to help me, even when I was far away. The day of the cremation opening, I called Fabrizio and he told me that they had collected, in the ashes, eight silver offering bowls full of relics. It was then that I recalled something Lama Zopa Rinpoche had said a few days earlier: "The Buddha must appear to us as a normal human being, with all the common human imperfections. It is the only way the Buddha can interact with us, because this is the only way we can perceive a buddha. This is why our guru is, in reality, a true emanation of Buddha, appearing as a common human being." This is such a difficult point of the practice. But somehow this truth came upon me after my guru's passing away. This also happened to me with the passing of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Only after his passing did I really see his actions as the true actions of a buddha. To me, Ribur Rinpoche really was Heruka-Chakrasamvara. 0 April/May 2006 MANDALA 33

6 THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA A LAMA'S ADVICE FOR FACING ILLNESS by Lorne Ladner From the summer of 2004 through the fall of 2005, Ribur Rinpoche stayed in the Washington, D.C., area with his family while receiving treatment for cancer. Just before returning to India, Rinpoche asked me to write something about his experiences related to his medical care in the hopes that it might be helpful to some people. Rinpoche mentioned that people might benefit from understanding how combining Western medical treatment with meditation and Buddhist practices could be particularly good in treating serious illnesses. During the summer of 2004, Rinpoche's health had been worsening, so extensive testing was done in the fall. It was discovered that in addition to Rinpoche's diabetes and lymphadema, he had cancer that had spread extensively to his bladder, skin, and lymph nodes, also forming a large tumor in his groin. I went with Rinpoche as he visited numerous doctors and specialists. All of them presented a very grim picture for the future it appeared likely that Rinpoche could pass away within days or months. A radiation oncology specialist said radiation couldn't be used, and feared that Rinpoche would either pass away quickly or more slowly with much pain. We went to another very kind oncologist specializing in chemotherapy. He also wasn't very hopeful, but he indicated that a trial of chemotherapy was worthwhile. Meanwhile, Lama Zopa Rinpoche had suggested some meditative practices for Rinpoche's students to do one in particular involved reciting the mantra of Black Garuda while visualizing eagle-like garudas swooping down to very precisely take away the cancer. As this was what we were hoping the chemotherapy would do, I visualized garudas inside the chemotherapy bags going into Rinpoche's body to take away the cancer. During the time when Rinpoche was taking chemotherapy, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and also Gehlek Rinpoche came and did extensive pujas for Ribur Rinpoche's long life. Pujas were also done by various lamas and monks in south India. After a few chemotherapy visits, the doctor was really shocked. During one visit, he told Ribur Rinpoche that he was very happily surprised by Rinpoche's positive response to the chemo and thought it was likely now that Rinpoche would show a full recovery from the cancer. Rinpoche smiled and said, "Thank you." The doctor suddenly blanched. He said that Rinpoche had smiled and responded in exactly the same way when he'd said that there was little hope of survival. He said that in all of his many years of treating 34 MANDALA April/May 2006

7 cancer patients, he'd never before met someone who reacted exactly the same when told they would die and then that they would live. An article in Mandala in March 1997 described how Rinpoche went through years of torture in Communist Chinese prisons in Tibet while, through practices of mind training, transforming those terribly difficult experiences "into nothing but pure joy" Rinpoche met the experiences of chemotherapy in just the same way. It wasn't that Rinpoche didn't experience pain or disorientation from the cancer and medications, it was that Rinpoche's basic joy and compassion completely overwhelmed those temporary difficulties. One day in the hospital a urologist came in to briefly check Rinpoche's prostate and bladder. After just a couple of minutes, he came out deeply moved, saying, "He's really a great, remarkable man." Another day, a nurse who'd only seen but never spoken with Rinpoche grabbed me in the hallway of the doctor's office with tears in her eyes, saying, "You're so lucky to know someone like him!" Other nurses who'd seen Rinpoche just once for a minor surgery came running out into the hallway when he returned for a checkup, saying, "Our favorite patient is back," each trying to be close to Rinpoche. Nearly every doctor and nurse who worked with Rinpoche over the course of more than a year reacted similarly, and none of them were Buddhist. One day I mentioned to Rinpoche that this must be a sign of the power of bodhichitta. Rinpoche smiled at that. I suppose I've always had an image of what a "holy person" should be or act like. One thing that was very striking about Ribur Rinpoche which made him so attractive to everyone who met him was that he made no effort at all to live up to any artificial image of holiness or compassion. Free from all artifice, his natural joy, wisdom, playfulness, affection, and genuine compassion could shine through even while preparing for a CAT scan or while receiving chemotherapy. Rinpoche had genuine respect for his doctors, and mentioned that he thought it was beneficial for people to use Western medical treatment. In addition to this, Rinpoche emphasized the benefits of viewing the suffering of illness as a ripening of past negative karmas; thus, one could rejoice in the experience of being sick as a powerful purification. Rinpoche also said that practicing taking and giving meditation (tong-len) on the basis of the suffering that one was experiencing made that suffering very meaningful, transforming it into a means for developing bodhichitta! In addition, Rinpoche mentioned that Pabongkha Dorje Chang had told him that in these degenerate times doing the practice of Medicine Buddha was especially powerful. Due to the Medicine Buddhas' vows, during degenerate times when other practices become less effective, Medicine Buddha practice becomes even more powerful. Rinpoche noted as well that Pabongkha Rinpoche had said that (for those with appropriate initiations) the practices of Chakrasamvara/Vajrayogini also became even more powerful and effective during these degenerate times. Rinpoche said that when facing the difficulties that inevitably arise during these degenerate times in samsara, if one can sincerely strive to engage in such practices each day, then there is nothing more beneficial than that. Lorne Ladner is a clinical psychologist and the director of FPMT's Guhyasamaja Center in Virginia, USA. He is the author of The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology (HoperSanFrancisco). It wasn't that Rinpoche didn't experience pain or disorientation from the cancer and medications, it was that Rinpoche's basic joy and compassion completely overwhelmed those temporary difficulties. April/May 2006 MANDALA 35

8 THE PASSING OF A GREAT LAMA by Ribur Rinpoche DHARMA IN DAILY LIFE If you take into account twenty-four hours of the day, sometimes almost half is spent resting and sleeping. Out of the remainder, if you check what goes into Dharma practice, the time that has really become Dharma practice, except for a few instances of virtuous mind that may arise, very little is spent on practice. So much time goes into gossiping, into just talking nonsense; there is lots of non-virtuous speech, lots of hanging around, lots of resting, lots of sleeping. If you check the twentyfour hours you have available each day, not much time is spent practicing Dharma. Therefore, it becomes indispensable to have a method to transform these twenty-four hours so they become as much as possible Dharma practice. First let's begin with the moment you wake up. As soon as you open your eyes, just before doing anything, that is the moment when you generate a strong intention. Intention is a very powerful mental factor, so you should think, "This morning I am still alive. It is like a miracle that I didn't die last night. It is due to the kindness of the Three Jewels. Therefore, as much time as is left of my life, this coming year, this month, this very day, I'm not going to waste a single moment." You should generate this intention as soon as you open your eyes. Bring it about again and again in your mind. Motivate very strongly: "I'm not going to waste my time." Make a strong intention, a strong decision that "whatever is left of my life, especially today, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to practice as much as I can." Think this again and again. (For those who are practicing Secret Mantra, the practice at this point is different but I am not going to explain that right now.) Then once you are out of bed, if you take a shower, then not only think you are washing your exterior, but also visualize that you are purifying and cleaning your mind of delusions. Use your time to think that you are not just washing the body. It would be very good if while you shower or wash, you visualize cleaning away the delusions and recite the mantra of OM HANA HANA HUM PHAT (pronounced om hana hana hoom pay). At this point you implement the advice of the practice of refuge: Before eating offer your food as a marvelous offering to the Three Jewels. Those practicing the Secret Mantra consider the aggregates as the supreme temple in which the secret channels and winds are residing, and the secret dakas and dakinis are continually offering nectar of transcendental great wisdom and bliss to the guru who is inseparable from the mind. As Milarepa said, "Sometimes I eat, and when I eat I practice. Sometimes I sleep, and when I sleep I practice," 36 MANDALA April/May 2006

9 and so forth. This is a complicated issue, and those who practice tantra should practice accordingly. You probably have to go to work, and you probably have to get into your car to go to work. I noticed in the West that often the driver has a friend in the car; the majority of time is spent doing a lot of talking. I think it would be better to talk less. Even if you have a friend in the car, try to set your mind in virtue. You don't have to talk much; you can recite mantras until you get to work. Again, establish your intention when you get to work. Establish your intention again and again. Establish the intention first established in the morning: "I am not going to waste my life, I am going to practice virtue as much as possible." When you arrive in places where you are liable to engage in conversation and activities, especially when you are with people, check what is going on in your mind before opening your mouth. "Is what I am going to say now beneficial or not? Will what I am going to say hurt the other person or not?" If this is the case, keep your mouth shut, otherwise you are bound to get into fights. Check your mind first, "Is what I am going to say beneficial, or is it just a waste of time? Is it just gossiping? Is the other person going to feel bad as a result of what I am going to say?" Check your mind. As the advice of the great Kadampa masters says, "When you are in public, check your speech. When you are alone, check your mind." It means when you are with others, you are bound to engage in conversation, so check if what you are about to say is harmful or not, and refrain from speech that harms others or is meaningless. When you are alone, check your mind. "What's my mind doing now? Is it engaging in non-virtuous activity? Is it entering into delusion?" Check your mind and change it if needed. Continuously checking our mind and our speech is very important. Now it's lunchtime. If you go home, you'll probably have a proper lunch. If not, maybe you'll have a hot dog or a sandwich. Whether you have a proper lunch or a club sandwich, you should think as at breakfast. You should practice the yoga of eating, by offering to the Three Jewels before eating. Then you have to return to work, so again renew your intention of the morning. In the evening when you return home, don't act like everyone else returning home, being very stressed and nervous and engaging in some argument with your spouse. Instead, be cool. Go back home and just keep quiet. Don't show yourself as very nervous. Actually, monks and nuns don't have much problem in this regard, but generally speaking if you are married or in a relationship, try as much as possible to be pacified. You may have in your house a special space where you can meditate, so sit there for a while and cool "When you breathe out, think that you are giving away all your possessions and roots of virtue to sentient beings. When you breathe in, visualize that you are taking upon yourself all the sufferings of sentient beings..." April/May 2006 MANDALA 37

10 down before taking dinner. Don't have this nervous outlook in which you are bound to cause fights in your family. Monks and nuns have no such problem. It is said that Dharma activities are extremely pacified whereas household activities are very unpacified. It means the more you are abiding in Dharma activities, the more you are pacified and everything is very smooth and cool and peaceful. Whereas if you are completely caught up in household activities, you are bound to get into quarrels, arguments, and so forth. This is just the general structure of life. It is just the difference of choosing an ordained life or a nonordained life. In the evening, again resume your meditation practice. Whatever your meditation practice Secret Mantra, deity yoga, six-session yoga, recitation of mantra, and so on sit down and meditate. For those of us who are followers of the teachings of the great Kadampas, there are two important activities: those at the beginning and those at the end. At the beginning the motivation and at the end the dedication. So before you begin the practice, whatever the meditation, make sure you generate the correct motivation, bodhichitta. When you finish your practice, make sure you dedicate properly. If you are engaged in some deity yoga practice, for those who have Secret Mantra practice, there is a great deal of mantra to recite. At this time it is extremely important not to let your mind become scattered, or to wander around, otherwise the majority of your mantra recitation becomes non-virtuous. Even if you recite mantra, this can become a non-virtuous activity. Therefore, at least keep your mind bound to the mantra by thinking that you are reciting the mantra as a request, seeking refuge, seeking to be cared for by the deity you practice. It is as is said in the very important teaching, Bodhisattvacharyatara (Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds), that no matter how much time you spend reciting mantra, the time spent with your mind wandering and not concentrated is wasted, is non-virtue. This is very important. Therefore, it is very important to have a very peaceful attitude in one's family, not to be prone to fighting. Live peacefully with your family. So then it's almost time to go to sleep, right? Don't underestimate that moment just before going to sleep. It is a very important moment. Stop to reflect on the day: "Has the day gone by in accordance with the intention I set when I woke up?" If the day went by in that way, rejoice: "Today I did very well, as my intention was; I kept it, and I did this and that." Rejoice and make another determination: "If I wake up, whatever time is left I will do as well as today." If something went wrong and you did not abide all the time with your intention, you should acknowledge this and say: "I did such and such, and this was not in accordance with my intention, therefore it was wrong." You should do some purification practice such as reciting Vajrasattva mantra, taking refuge, reciting the confession prayer with the thirty-five buddhas practice, and so forth. Do some practice to purify that, and make another determination: "Today I did this, and that was a mistake, but tomorrow I am not going to do it." There was a tradition amongst the Kadampa lamas, who usually decided to spend all their time practicing Dharma, to keep a collection of white and black stones. They would sit and watch their minds and whenever a virtuous thought such as bodhichitta or renunciation came, they would place a white stone. If a delusion would arise, they would place a black stone. At the end of the day they would check how much virtuous activities and how much non-virtuous activities and delusions were involved in their day. They would practice accordingly if the virtues were many, or do purification and confessions if the non-virtues were more numerous. I used to do this when I was young in Lhasa, but now that I am old I have degenerated the practice. If monks and nuns would practice in this way, it would be very good, wouldn't it? Immediately when you get upset you put down a black stone. It is helpful because then you find a challenge: "I better not get angry, otherwise I have to put down a black stone!" I'm just joking.. Now is the moment when you are about to go to sleep, so what should you do? For beginners, just before you go to sleep, just before drifting off, think that you are actually placing your head in Buddha Shakyamuni's lap instead of on your pillow. Your head is in Buddha Shakyamuni's lap, and you go to sleep with that thought, with that kind of appearance. If you go to sleep within this frame of mind, no matter how long you sleep, all of your sleeptime will be virtuous. This is the easiest way of practicing when you go to sleep. If you are practicing refuge, then go to sleep with the thought of the causes for refuge, the general and specific samsaric sufferings. Take refuge by thinking about the qualities of the Three Jewels and drift into sleep taking refuge. If you go to sleep like a rock as soon as you touch your pillow, then it is better that you just think about Buddha Shakyamuni because it is a quick thing. Just think about Buddha Shakyamuni and pass out in that way. If it takes time for you to fall asleep, then you have time to 38 MANDALA April/May 2006

11 think more elaborately, such as on refuge and so on. If you have actually received the teachings on thought transformation, on giving and taking, this is a very good moment to practice. When you go to sleep, concentrate on your breathing. When you breathe out, think that you are giving away all your possessions and roots of virtue to sentient beings. When you breathe in, visualize that you are taking upon yourself all the sufferings of sentient beings, along with the causes and so forth. In this way, it is a very powerful practice. If you do like this, going to sleep practicing tong-len, by doing this visualization until the time you wake up, all the time you spend sleeping goes into practicing tong-len. It becomes the practice of tong-len. This advice is for the general practitioner who is not engaged in twenty-four hours of intensive Dharma activity, such as the four sessions of meditation, break sessions, and so forth. This is how to conduct one's life on a daily basis so it becomes Dharma activity as much as possible, and virtuous activity as much as possible. It is quite simple and practical. For us it is very important to become habituated, very familiar with the three principles of the path. As I explained previously, if your job, your activity, is something manual that doesn't involve a lot of thinking, you can continuously during the day really place the attention of your mind on the Dharma teachings; you can continuously recollect that whatever appears as good in cyclic existence is completely deceptive and unreliable. Generate the thought of renunciation as much as possible and then think about bodhichitta, and how you alone must achieve the supreme enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings. Try to change your mind in that direction as much as you can, and habituate your mind as much as possible to the view that whatever appearances are there, not a single atom exists by its own nature but is merely labeled by thought. Again and again you should try to merge, try to mix your mind with this thought and train your mind in this way. Those who are really into developing the precious mind of bodhichitta and the understanding of emptiness should be aware that there are causes and conditions to acquire in order for the mind to grow into that aspect. It is not that these realizations just come about. You need a very powerful accumulation of merit, as well as purification of past non-virtues and negativities, especially in order to realize the perfect view of emptiness. It is said that it is extremely powerful even to just let your mind wonder about appearances and their way of existing. It is said that for those who have very few merits, merely having qualms about the way things exist shakes the root of cyclic existence. It is an extremely powerful reflection, but in order to progress into this practice and achieve results, you need to do a lot of practice to accumulate merit and purify negativities. To develop bodhichitta, the precious mind of enlightenment, it is indispensable to first of all have a very strong practice of refuge and also a very intense practice of confession and purification of negativities. As in the prayer of the bodhisattva vows, first you take refuge; then you confess and purify all the negative actions; third you rejoice in the virtues accumulated by yourself and others. Rejoicing serves as a practice for accumulating merits. Therefore, in order to generate the precious mind of enlightenment you need a very stable foundation that is made of a very powerful accumulation of merits and powerful purification, and the best foundation is created by taking refuge, purifying, and rejoicing. * From a teaching given by Ribur Rinpoche at Bodhgaya in To develop bodhichitta, the precious mind of enlightenment, it is indispensable to first of all have a very strong practice of refuge and also a very intense practice of confession and purification of negativities. April/May 2006 MANDALA 39

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