日修闭关要诀

日修闭关要诀 日修闭关要诀 日修闭关要诀 The Essential Points In Daily Meditation Khenpo SoDargye Many of you are now practicing the outer or common preliminaries in The Words of My Perfect Teacher, a Guide to the Preliminaries for the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse from the Great Perfection. Before you embark on the actual practice, I’d like to describe briefly the essential points in Dharma practice. These points are applicable to the outer preliminaries as well as the inner ones. They are the essential teachings of Patrul Rinpoche and Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang and have been my own guidelines throughout the years. It is my hope that after receiving these teachings here you will all gain mastery in its practice and continue to follow them for the rest of your life. Some exercises that people practice these days, such as yoga or qigong for the purpose of gaining better health or curing illnesses, are very different from what we are talking about here. Try to stay away from them. In my case, ever since I was taken under the care of my kind teacher, His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, I have been following these instructions. May you also make a long-term commitment to practice the same way. The following clearly defines the practices one performs in a daily retreat, i.e., what one does from morning till night for Dharma practice, formal as well as informal. According to each 1 practitioner’s specific level, they can be divided into two, three, four, or six formal sessions. Even if you cannot find time for six formal sessions, you should strive to maintain at least one in the morning or one in the evening. One classmate I know of, who is a very busy, high-ranking official in the government, has continued to practice one session in the evening without interruption for six or seven years. You, too, certainly can find the time and place to practice Dharma, provided you have established your faith in it. Faith is important. With faith, even being incarcerated cannot stop one from attaining the rainbow body, as shown by many great practitioners of the past. These days, we often hear complaints such as: “You know, I just don’t have any freedom to practice, my family is uncooperative.” But no matter how meager your freedom is, it cannot be worse than that of a prisoner. If a prisoner can manage to practice Dharma, you should be able, too. So please, no matter how tight your schedule is, make every effort to devote time for one sitting at least; this minimal requirement also applies to the volunteers working in our school. If one cannot squeeze out thirty minutes for practice, one may as well have been reborn among the “Realms devoid of leisure” already. The following is a brief introduction of the daily practice. In general, the Longchen Nyingtik (The Heart-Essence of Vast Expanse) lineage places strong emphasis on formal meditation, which is carried out in three time periods: morning, daytime and evening. Early Morning Practice In the morning, visualize first that all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and lineage masters are playing vajra bells and damaru drums, awakening you from your slumber of ignorance and confusion. As you are waking up, immediately say “Lama chenno, Lama chenno,” calling your teacher’s kind attention to you, or recite the 2 Hundred Syllable mantra twenty-one times. Then sit up on the bed and reflect upon your dreams from overnight: Were they virtuous or non-virtuous? If you find you had non-virtuous dreams, reprimand yourself; if you had virtuous ones, rejoice and dedicate the merit. After getting up from the bed, prostrate at least three times before morning routines such as washing your face, brushing your teeth, going to the bathroom and so on. Then clean up the shrine room and offer water and incense, etc. to the Buddhas. Formal Session During Daytime This includes three parts: preliminaries, main practice and conclusion. I. Preliminaries Complete any necessary chores close the door and start practicing. According to A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher by Khenpo Pelzang, there are three essentials here: 1. The essential point for the body: Sit on a comfortable cushion, relax your body and mind, and rest. Assume the seven-point posture of the Vairochana: 1. Legs are crossed in the full vajra posture or half-vajra posture. 2. Hands are in the gesture of equanimity below the navel. The right hand is on top of the left, thumbs touching each other. 3. The spine should be straight and still, not tilting to the left or right, nor moving back and forth. It is said in the sutras that a straight body leads to a straight channel, a straight channel to an even mind and an even mind makes awareness arise spontaneously. 4. The neck is slightly bent; do not lean backward, 3 nor skewed to the left or to the right. 5. Shoulders are stretched apart and relaxed, rather than closed tight to the chest. 6. The eyes are slightly open, not too wide, gazing softly in the direction of the tip of the nose. 7. The tongue is touching the palate. 2. The essential point for the speech: Usually this term refers to chanting or recitation, but that’s not the case here. This point is about breathing—expelling the stale breath nine times. To expel the stale breath, make a vajra 1fist with your right hand and press your fist down on the great channel in your right thigh. With your left hand in the three-pronged vajra mudra, block your left nostril. Blow the stale air out from your right nostril, imagining that all karma from hatred that you and other sentient beings have accumulated throughout time without beginning turns into a white 2vapor that evaporates outside. Next make a vajra fist with your left hand and press your fist down on the great channel in your left thigh. With your right hand in the three-pronged vajra mudra, block your right nostril. Blow the stale air out from your left nostril, imagining that all karma from covetousness that you and other beings have accumulated throughout time without beginning turns into a red vapor that evaporates outside. Finally, make the vajra fists with both hands and press them 1 Vajra fist: Press the thumb onto the root of the ring finger, make a fist with other four fingers. 2 Do the breathing as it suits each individual, there’s no specific requirement on its length. 4 down on the great channels in the two thighs. Blow the stale air out from both your nostrils, imagining that all karma from ignorance that you and other sentient beings have accumulated throughout time without beginning turns into a black vapor that evaporates outside. This is the so-called expelling the stale breath nine times. In some instructions this is followed by the recitation of Sanskrit 345 vowels, Sanskrit consonants, and Heart of Dependent Arisingor, if you have difficulty reciting them, say Om Ah Hung instead, to 6purify the speech through the three vajra blessings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Expelling the stale air this way may seem nothing more than an ordinary yogic practice, but in fact, this process enables us to eject negative emotions of covetousness, hatred and ignorance from our mind. Just as we clean a bowl before we eat with it, or wash a pail before filling it with clean water, we too rinse off the dirt from our minds by expelling the stale air prior to meditation. 3. The essential point for the mind: This includes two aspects: the right attitude and praying to the teacher. i) The right attitude It is crucial to examine your attitude or motivation for doing the Dharma practice. 3 Sanskrit vowels: om a a i i u u ri ri li li e ai o au am ah 4 Sanskrit consonants: ka kha ga gha nga/ cha chha ja jha nya/ tra thra dra dhra nra/ ta tha da dha na/ pa pha ba bha ma/ ya ra la wa/ sha shha sa ha ksha soha 5 Mantra of Dependent Arising: om ye dharma haytu prabhava haytunte shan tatagato hyawadat teshan tsayo nirodha ewam wadi maha shramanaye soha 6 Three vajras: vajra body, vajra speech, vajra mind. 5 If the attitude is neutral, change it into a virtuous one. If it is non-virtuous, renounce it once and for all and prevent it from arising. There are two kinds of virtuous attitudes—worldly and transcendent. Worldly virtuous attitudes are those that seek protection from fear, with a desire to alleviate illness or harm from enemies, and that seek to better one’s lot, such as wishing for wealth, good health, beauty and fame. These are not proper attitudes for practicing the Dharma and should be abandoned. The transcendent virtuous attitudes include those at the levels of sravaka, pratyekabuddha and Bodhisattva. Among these, the attitudes of sravaka and pratyekabuddha are not to be followed, as they seek only personal liberation by achieving nirvana. What we should be solely aiming for is that of the Bodhisattva—wishing to benefit the limitless sentient beings to be free from suffering and its causes and eventually attain perfect Buddhahood. In short, cultivating a correct attitude means we give rise to genuine bodhichitta, completely renouncing harmful thoughts and even worldly virtuous attitudes. ii) Praying to the teacher Visualize in the space in front of you, about a foot above your head, a lion throne and a lotus with one thousand petals, in full bloom, on it sits your glorious root teacher. If you have very strong faith in him, visualize him as he appears, similar to the visualization of HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche as described in Guru Yoga for Bestowing Swift Blessings. Otherwise, visualize your teacher in the form of a deity such as Chenrezig, Buddha Shakyamuni or Padmasambhava. With intense devotion, pray single-mindedly: “Precious teacher, the wisdom embodiment of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, Guru who is the wish-fulfilling jewel, I pray to you from the very depth of my heart. Always hold me with your compassion, grant me your blessings! Bless me that my mind merges completely with the Dharma! May all my confusion and 6 obscuration be eradicated! May I accomplish my goals and attain supreme enlightenment!” Specifically, if you are at the stage of meditating on the preciousness of human existence, pray: “Precious teacher, whatever is your realization in the preciousness of human existence, may the same realization arise in my mind!” If you are meditating on impermanence, pray: “Precious teacher, whatever your realization in impermanence is, may it arise in my mind also, right now, at this sitting!” With utter respect and earnest devotion, pray continuously, and recite the teacher’s prayer for seven or twenty-one times. For our current practice, we ask you to do the prostrations as you are praying with intense faith. After you are done with prayer, visualize the teacher melts into light and dissolves into you, his wisdom merges completely with your mind. In this state, rest in equanimity as long as you can without following past thoughts, holding present thoughts or welcoming future thoughts. The description above identifies the essential points in body, speech and mind for the preliminary practices; please take them to heart and remember them. (In the essential point for the mind, praying to the teacher is in essence the practice of Guru Yoga.) Although Guru Yoga may be called a preliminary, it could definitely be performed as a main practice, during which we combine prostration with prayers to the teacher, and conclude it by dedication. If you do Guru Yoga as part of your preliminaries instead, you’ll start your main practice after finishing the Guru Yoga. II. The Main Practice What is the main practice? It includes the contemplation on the preciousness of human existence, impermanence and so on. Meditate on these, one by one, following each specific instruction. For instance, yesterday you reflected on the eight freedoms, and then today you will move on to the ten advantages. By doing so, the 7 conviction will rise in you that it is extremely fortunate to obtain a human birth, free from the sufferings in the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. We should devote our life solely to practicing true Dharma unceasingly until we attain complete enlightenment. These are the pith instructions of Khenpo Pelzang. In commentaries compiled by his students, including an eighty-year-old Nepalese, Sangye Dorje, it is advised that one should devote at least one hundred and forty six days to work on the meditations from “Precious human existence” to “Arousing bodhichitta.” If one practices along with the preliminaries in Finding Comfort and Ease in the Nature of Mind in the Great Perfection, at least one hundred days are required to complete the four common preliminaries, according to lineage master's tradition. This time I urge you to work on the preliminaries; it is not just a whim or a sudden impulse of mine. In all my life I have very much valued Finding Comfort and Ease in the Nature of Mind in the Great Perfection and The Words of My Perfect Teacher; for this reason I gave the teachings on The Meaning Instructions on Three Virtues of Relaxation in the Natural State of The Mind and The Words of My Perfect Teacher ten years ago. Today, I feel exactly the same way. There are people who switch from one to the other practices—changing teachers one after another, or even following tirthikas to learn their yoga. The result of their practice is a nondescript hodge-podge. It’s quite sad. It is my sincere wish that you will establish your fundamental practices, following them day and night. Here I am sharing with you my own practice experience; it may strike a chord with some of you, but may not for others. III. The Conclusion 8 After meditating on one instruction for half an hour or one to two hours, you want to dedicate to all beings the merit of your practice. Seal the dedication with the seal of non-conceptual wisdom. If that is not within your reach yet, simply think: “Just as all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Perfectly dedicated their merit, So likewise, I perfectly dedicate all merit.” Read the text of Samantabhadra’s Great Aspiration in full, if you have time. Otherwise, recite the following verses: “Emulating the hero Manjushri, Samantabhadra and all those with knowledge, I too make a perfect dedication Of all actions that are positive.” Practice at Bedtime In the evening, after you have completed your practice of up to four to six sessions and put away the offerings to the protectors, you should prostrate three times before you retire. Then sit on the bed and review thoroughly your practice for the day. Should you find you’ve done well, rejoice and dedicate the merit to all beings. Should you find you have fallen short, reprimand yourself, thinking: “Other people practice so well every day, yet I’m still doing so poorly even though I have received many pith instructions from the master. What a fool am I!” Punish yourself sharply, as Khenpo Pelzang said, by pinching yourself until it hurts. Then go to sleep. When you go to sleep, assume the lion’s posture or sit in meditation pose all night, as some practitioners do. Following the instructions from Longchen Nyingtik masters, we visualize a 7four-petaled lotus in our heart, onto which our teacher dissolves 7 The term “four-petaled lotus” has been mentioned in “The Innermost 9 into light; we then fall asleep basking in the infinite light emanating from our teacher. Or visualize the teacher’s brilliant light is illuminating the entire world, which dissolves into us, and then we ourselves dissolve into the teacher, and the teacher melts away in the Dharma realm. In this state free of conceptual thoughts, enter the dream of clear light. (If you have not received the teaching on dream yoga, just fall asleep in non-attachment.) Many older-generation practitioners would start the day by chanting the Hundred Syllable mantra or praying to their teachers upon waking. During the day, in all of their activities—sitting, walking, lying down and so forth—their minds never separate from recollecting their teachers and the Three Jewels. As night comes, they continue chanting: “Lama chenno, Lama chenno...” They fall asleep in the state of oneness blending the teacher’s wisdom and their own minds. Practitioners nowadays, however, are nowhere close. They don’t bother to do any contemplation when waking up, and spend all day in distraction. When going to sleep, they pass out as if a rock had been tossed onto the bed and immediately begin snoring in deep slumber, like a fat pig. Drifting aimlessly day after day, years can slip by in a wink; it’s really not the best way to live. Therefore, strive to be an authentic practitioner, making your practice of a single day the practice of your whole life. Pray always to the teacher and the Three Jewels. Pray that your mind will transform for the better. The Omniscient Longchenpa said, “Unless one has really practiced, even mastering all of the Tripitaka would not be helpful at the time of death.” Therefore, when we study the Dharma, we must practice very diligently! Addendum: Heart Drop of the Guru” and “The Fundamental Mind”. 1 0 Advice from Khenpo after the teachings I have just transmitted to you the pith instructions from Khenpo Pelzang combined with the teachings from HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, as well as the commentaries on Longchen Nyingtik. I have followed this path for many years. Having done it during the earlier part of my life, certainly I will continue on the same path in the later part of my life. Short of any great accomplishment myself, perhaps I should not say too much. But as you have started the actual practice this year and are likely to do so in the future, I feel I should share my experience with you. I do not consider it a secret, rather, it's a practical guide for spiritual advancement. I never imagine that when I wake up, I can fly here and there at will, and when I go to bed, I can immediately enter the dream of clear light. These are impractical things to think about, neither are they likely to happen. As a beginner, simply perform your practice in this order throughout the day. You may find some variations among teachings and thus wonder, for instance, why the color of expelled stale air is described as black in one text and multicolor in another. There’s no need to make a big deal out of minor differences. Each teacher interprets things in a slightly different way. I’ve followed the commentaries on Longchen Nyingtik and also incorporated pith instructions that I received from HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche. There is no need to worry about any contradictions. It is essential to begin your meditation on any one of the instructions by practicing Guru Yoga first. Our lineage masters taught that the perfection of all attainment arises from total devotion and earnest prayer to the teacher. Through Guru Yoga, we beseech blessings of our teacher that for whatever we are going to meditate 1 1 on, its meaning may enter our mind. If, on the other hand, you rush into meditation immediately after reciting the refuge prayers, you are veering away from the traditions of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage. I do not have a lot of my own practice instructions to impart to you. But ever since the day I followed my kind teacher twenty some years ago, I have been adhering to this practice and nothing else, as long as my health allows. Those profound or supreme practices in various books never enticed me into straying. Many lineage masters, as well as my own kind guru, have always stayed with one pith instruction all their lives. I, for one, am doing exactly the same. I hope you will follow the same way. The teaching given today is very, very important. Please carry it firmly in your mind! 1 2