Transcript: How to Purify Your Karma in Kechara Forest Retreat

Karma is created by a self grasping mind. A self grasping mind is a mind that grasps that all things are real conjoined with oneself being the most important, and no one else matters. My life, my water, my happiness, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. So this type of mind who is always thinking about themselves, is always grasping at the self and at themselves, for themselves and about themselves, even if they sit still and do nothing, they collect negative karma.

So someone who has a very selfish mind, even if they do nothing, not eating, not sleeping, not killing something, not doing anything, not reading, nothing, they still collect negative karma. The negative karma is collected by the mind that exists in a type of attitude “me, me, me, me, me”. So just because we’re sleeping doesn’t mean we don’t collect negative karma. That kind of mind always collects negative karma and that kind of mind opens up previously created negative karma.

That kind of mind also creates more negative karma and that kind of mind will continuously be the main cause to take rebirth in the three lower realms or in samsara. So that type of mind will be the main cause for us to be born in samsara continuously without release, and when that mind is very strong, we will not only take rebirth in samsara, we will also see samsara as a place of great pleasure, great happiness, great beauty and great wonder, although we’ve been here so many times before.

You’re kind of like a goldfish. It is said that a goldfish in a bowl doesn’t get bored. I’m not sure but it’s said that, because the memory is just two or three seconds. So when it goes to this side of the bowl, it thinks it’s in a new place. Then when it turns around and goes to this side of the bowl two or three seconds later, it’s like it’s in a new place because it forgot this place. And then it turns around again and goes to this place and it’s thinking it’s in a new place. So theoretically, goldfish don’t get bored even though their goldfish bowl is very small because their memory is very short.

Similarly, some of us don’t get bored in samsara because our memory is very short. So although we’ve been everywhere in samsara, we’ve eaten everything, we’ve been everywhere, we’ve met everyone, we’ve done everything, we’ve been everything, we have done every single thing there is to do in samsara – really we have done everything, and probably many times over – we don’t remember it. So we think it’s something new, we think, “Oh, I’m young, I should go and enjoy. Oh, I’m old, I should go and enjoy. Oh, I’m free, I should go and enjoy. Oh, I’m sick, I should enjoy.” We always think like that because we’re kind of like a goldfish in a bowl.

Therefore, having that type of mind creates karma that will bring some sort of problem. Why? Because if we’re going to step into the middle of mud, if we’re going to step into the middle of a swamp, if we’re going to step into the middle of a forest, if we’re going to step into the middle of traffic, it’s trouble. If we’re in the forest and we’re unprotected, we might get Lyme Disease, we might get chills, we might get bitten. If we’re in the middle of a street, we might get run over. I mean, these are dangerous places if we stay in the middle. Samsara is like that whereby even if we are born in samsara in the safest place – in a small village, no earthquakes, no natural disasters, no hurricanes, nothing – even in the safest place, we will still get sick, we will still get old, we will still lose friends that we love, we will still be disappointed, we will still have people backstab us, we will still have people that are unreliable, and we will still have unfulfilled dreams. All that will happen because of the self grasping mind.

Therefore, wherever you are in samsara, you are going to create karma. There’s no way to avoid it. The secret is how much karma you create and how much karma you open up. So when we have a self grasping mind, we will open the karma. Do you know why? Because we look at everything, every situation, every person, every scenario through our self grasping attitude. So let’s say if someone who is very selfish sees Sharon, they will say, “Oh, how much money can I make off her? What can I get out of her? How can she help me? Oh, she can’t help me, I don’t need to be her friend. I don’t need her, maybe I’ll just be friends with her, maybe later she will be okay and then she can help me with something.” So if you have a self grasping mind, very “me, me, me”, when you look at Sharon, your thinking will always be, “Hmm, how can I somehow use her?”

Let’s say I’m someone whose self grasping mind is not as strong, not as lively. Then when I look at Sharon, I’ll say, “Oh, maybe she’s a nice lady. Maybe I can be friends with her. Maybe we can go out and eat sometimes. Maybe we can talk. Maybe we can share a hobby, maybe we can do painting, listen to some music. Maybe she has other friends she can introduce me to. I have friends I can introduce her to. We’ll be friends.”

So how you look at her is the state of your mind. And so therefore, a self-serving person, a person whose “I, I, I” is very strong, everything about them will be wrong, everything around them will be wrong, everybody will be wrong, everything that they encounter will be wrong, everything will always be wrong, and everybody will be wrong and they will be right. If everybody is wrong and you are right, that’s a clear indication of a very strong self-serving, self-grasping mind. That’s not labelling you good or bad, that’s an indication of a self-grasping mind. Why? Because you look at everything for your benefit. If it’s not to your benefit then it’s not good. It’s as simple as that.

Therefore when this karma is accumulated, if it’s through the body, the body karma will come back. If it’s through the mind, the mind karma will come back. If it’s the speech, the speech karma will come back. If we create speech karma or we open up speech karma, it will affect the mind and the body. If we open up body karma, it will affect the speech and the mind. If we open up mind karma, it will affect the speech and it will affect the body. So if we open up mind karma or create mind karma, then we are going to express our negative mind karma through our speech with negative speech. So if we are going to have negative mind, then we will act from negative mind, then we are going to open up negative body actions such as killing or beating or hurting or cheating, or all that stuff. So if we have negative body actions and we do negative body actions, it will affect our minds to become negative also. If we have speech actions, it will affect the other two. Body, speech and mind – these three are interrelated.

Therefore, when we do this over and over, over and over, what happens is we are like a windmill. It just keeps turning and the wind never stops. We are kind of like that with our minds. So what is very important is to break this cycle. But even to break this cycle requires a tremendous amount of energy. To learn the Dharma, we need to have a correct state of mind. To practise the Dharma, we need to have a correct state of mind. To practise the Dharma, we need to have merits. To practise the Dharma, we need to have a teacher. To practise the Dharma, we need the Dharma. To practise the Dharma, we need to have had a Buddha appear. To practise the Dharma, we need to have an environment and a place that is conducive for practice. To practise the Dharma, we need to not have a lot of disasters in our lives that prevent us from practising.

So there are a lot of factors that are necessary and for those factors to be present for us to practise the Dharma is very rare. For everything to be basically perfect or near perfect to practise is very rare. So those of us who are in the Dharma now have things pretty much perfect. This kind of opportunity doesn’t come again. Meeting the Dharma, meeting a Lama, meeting your guru, a time where the Buddha’s teachings have existed, where there are Dharma brothers and sisters to support, where there’s an institution, there’s a place, there are friends – this is very, very rare. For all this to come together is a powerful conjunction and opening of karma you created from previous lives to practise the Dharma.

So for this to continue, then we need to collect a lot of merit and purify a lot of negative karma. What is the process of purifying negative karma? The process of purifying negative karma is, the karma is dormant, the karma is there but the karma has not opened, and when the karma has not opened, you don’t experience it. So before that karma opens, you purify it. Once it opens, you can’t. If you’re going to have a car accident, but the car accident karma hasn’t opened, you won’t have a car accident, you won’t have the expensive bill, hurt your body, hurt other people around you or even hit someone or damage a property. So before that car accident karma opens, if you purify it you won’t experience it. So therefore the point is to purify that karma before it happens. We can purify that karma by doing actions of body, speech and mind.

We can purify that karma by relying on purification deities such as the Three Buddhas of Long Life – Namgyalma, Amitayus and White Tara. We can rely on deities such as Loma Gyonma, she’s a very powerful purifying deity. We can rely on deities such as Ucchusma or Dorje Namjom. We can rely on deities such as the 35 Confessional Buddhas. We can rely on specific manifestations of Buddhas such as Vajrasattva. We can rely on purification deities such as Black Manjushri, etc. Medicine Buddha is a very powerful purification deity, very very powerful. It purifies the karma to experience natural disasters, it purifies the karma to experience mental disasters, it purifies the karma to experience physical disasters. So Medicine Buddha is a very powerful object of refuge.

Now, what is important is this: people who do Dharma work think, “Oh I’m doing Dharma, I’m collecting merit, so I don’t have to do anything extra.” That may be so but your motivation has to be perfect. Your mind has to be very balanced and when you’re doing your work, it has to be in a state of constant good motivation. Because, if you’re doing Dharma work and you don’t do it correctly and you upset people, that’s not Dharma work. If you’re doing Dharma work and you don’t listen carefully and you do it wrong, that’s not Dharma work. If you’re doing Dharma work and you’re always late on your Dharma work and you torture other people by making them chase you for your work, that’s not Dharma work. If you’re doing Dharma work and your work is not up to par and you didn’t put your best energy into it, that’s not Dharma work. If you’re doing Dharma work and you’re angry at someone and you do the work with anger, that’s not Dharma work. So for us to do Dharma work and then rely on that as pure Dharma and collection of merit will be difficult.

Therefore it’s important to do supplementary practices. Supplementary practices are for example, circumambulations, prostrations, purification practices, recitations, doing meditations, doing cleaning of temples, service to the guru, cleaning of the guru’s residence, or cleaning the guru’s body. One of the most auspicious dreams we can have while we’re doing retreats is dreaming that we are washing our guru’s body, washing his feet, washing his clothes, or washing his house or room or residence, or dusting it. This is stated very clearly in the tantras, so that’s a very clear sign that our karma has cleared or is purifying when we have those kinds of dreams.

When I was staying in retreat in Ladakh many, many years ago, I had a few dreams. I was doing a Yamantaka retreat, a long one, 700,000 mantras. So I was doing that and it was four sessions a day. So I’d recite the long Yamantaka mantra four sessions a day with meditations and all that stuff. And I had a very auspicious dream that I was washing Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, that Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was in the prayer room in my home in New Jersey and I was in there, and I was undressing him and he was in his underclothes, and I had the honour to wash his body and to clean his body, and to offer him clothes. I had that kind of dream.

My root Guru Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and I

At that time, I didn’t realise it was auspicious. So I told a High Lama who was sponsoring my practice and my retreats in his house at that time, and he told me, “Oh that’s a very auspicious dream.” I said, “Why is that?” He said, “Because whatever you dream about washing, cleaning or anything to do with your lama is very auspicious. Your lama doesn’t have dirt but because your lama is the Buddha to you, by cleaning him, or cleaning his residence or cleaning his body, its meaning is representative that you’re cleaning the dirt from your mind.” So that’s when I realised, “Wow, that’s very good.” Because I didn’t know anything about that to even have that kind of a dream. So when I had that dream, I enquired, and that was what was told to me. So I’m just sharing with you what this Rinpoche had told me.

Therefore, there are many, many types of practices. The most powerful purification practice which we are not able to engage in at this time is the meditation on emptiness. So, if we study emptiness especially Nagarjuna’s view, if we study emptiness or we study any teachings on emptiness for example as taught by His Holiness Kyabje Pabongka Dorje Chang in the Lamrim Chenmo, if we study a little bit on emptiness and, whether we know it well or not, we meditate and we revere it and we think about it, it’s also very purifying.

A thangka of Nagarjuna. At the top right is Manjushri and at the bottom right is Dorje Shugden. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

Why? Emptiness and the teachings on emptiness are a direct counter to the self-grasping mind. Because it is a direct counter, it stops the source of your negative karma. It’s like putting water on fire. When you put water on fire, you are putting water on the source of what’s burning. So let’s say that you have a tent somewhere that’s burning and the tent is lighting up embers and the leaves around it, and you’re putting water on the leaves, that’s not going to help, you have to put it on the fire directly.

So, meditating on emptiness or studying emptiness or practising emptiness or reading on emptiness is very powerful purification. And let me tell you, for some of you who are Chinese-educated, there are beautiful books in the Chinese language that have been translated on Nagarjuna’s view on emptiness. You should obtain that and read that and let me tell you, when you read it, you’re going to be totally, totally, totally blown away because you’re not going to understand anything but that’s the whole point. The whole point is nothing you study you’ll understand so you’ll have to read it again and again and as you collect merit, you will understand.

In the monasteries, emptiness (uma) is the last class that you will study. Some of us fortunate people can study the classes earlier on, like six, seven, eight years before that. We’re just able to study it, we’re able to get the side teachings on it. But traditionally it’s the last class that you’ll study, and by that time you’re already 25 or 30 years old. Before you study the teachings on emptiness, e.g. let’s say that this year you finish the last class and next year you’re going to enter the teachings on emptiness, then this year many monks will go to Bodhgaya to do prostrations, 100,000 prostrations. Many monks will go to Bodhgaya to do Vajrasattva retreats, they’ll do Yamantaka retreats or they will do a lot of prostrations, they will do a lot of meditations, they will do a lot of retreats in the monastery itself or circumambulations.

Why is that? To prepare for Uma class. Because when you start with the lowest class for example, there can be about 50 – 60 monks per class. So these monks will study together every year, and as they reach Uma class maybe about four or five monks will be left. Some have disrobed and left, some cannot continue their studies and become sick, some cannot keep up with their studies or cannot understand, some get assigned other works, some get distracted – there are many reasons why they cannot reach that class. So many monks cannot reach that class and the High Lamas for example, my Guru Kensur Rinpoche, told me at that time that the reason is the merits needed for Uma class or emptiness class is very high and if we don’t prepare, we will not be successful.

There are many monks who don’t go on to become scholars and masters and great teachers, but they’re still very good monks. They are still very kind and very gentle and very helpful and very beautiful people, they still are. It’s just that they are not able to practise those teachings intensely because the merit is not there. So therefore, if they are monks and they live a life that is pure, free of negative karma collections as much as possible, and they still need a lot of merit to study Uma and to practise Uma or emptiness, imagine us? It’s going to be even more intense. So it is said to hear emptiness, to know about emptiness, to praise emptiness, to pray for emptiness or to understand emptiness is like a rain in the middle of a very hot desert, it cools everything off. The hot desert is our minds, the hot desert is our desires, is our anger, is our karma. The cool rain is like emptiness that brings release and relief.

Therefore what’s very important is this – since we have a Dharma centre, since we have put in so much money, time and effort, we have put in so much energy into creating a Dharma centre and having a beautiful place to practice then we might as well utilise it and not waste one single day. I have seen an increase among our Kechara Forest Retreat residents and people who work here who are going for more physical practice and I am very happy about that. I see more going for circumambulations. I see more on a regular basis, not once in a blue moon, going for circumambulations. I see more making candle offerings and cleaning and all that, that’s wonderful.

Light offerings to Green Tara at Kechara Forest Retreat. Click to enlarge.

So, each one of us in Kechara Forest Retreat should actually choose a place, choose a deity – Tara, Loma Gyoma, the 18-Armed Wrathful Manjushri, the Two-Armed Dream Manjushri, the Four-Armed Manjushri, Nageshvaraja. We should pick a Buddha, the Vajrayogini stupa, Tsongkhapa, etc. and make that our special practice to keep the place clean. This is not some fanciful thinking that, “Oh, why don’t we just keep it clean and it’s clean and beautiful for the public.” No, it is for ourselves.

As I have shared before, during the Buddha’s time, he had a student who was not very intelligent, an old monk. And when this old monk memorised the first word, when he got to the second word, he forgot the first word. When he went back to the first word, he forgot the second word. And he’d yo-yo back and forth like that. And he was very frustrated so he asked the Buddha what he could do because he was having such a hard time memorising and understanding the Dharma due to his very, very, very, poor memory. And so the Buddha said, “Visualise a temple, the shoes of the monks, the floor, the surrounding area, the garden, the trees and all that as your mind. And all the leaves that have fallen as your karma, and your kleshas, your obstructions, your obstacles. Think of all the dirt, think of all the dust, as your kleshas and your obstructions and your negative karma, and every day clean it. And recite this DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG, DÜ PUNG DRI MA PUNG. Remove my defilements, remove its leftovers. Remove my defilements, remove the leftovers, the stains.. So, to recite that every day carefully and to visualise it carefully and do that.”

And the monk did it. While the other monks went for teachings, while the other monks went for classes – some of the monks went for teachings with the Buddha himself, some went with the higher advanced students and Arhats such as Manjushri – and everybody was very busy, he just cleaned the temple. He cleaned the area where the monks lived, he cleaned the kitchen areas, and he cleaned the monks’ shoes. Some of the shoes belonged to monks who were Arhats who were already highly realised, so to clean their shoes would be a great amount of merit. So, he would clean the place where the Buddha taught or walked. Before the Buddha walked to the grove or the gardens, he would clean it and he’d visualise exactly what the Buddha said and recite the mantra. And in that lifetime, he was able to attain Arhatship.

What is Arhatship? An Arhat is someone who will return to samsara maybe once, maybe twice, maybe three times, then no more. Their karma will be exhausted. So within his lifetime, he was able to achieve arhatship, Lohan, due to that practice of purification. So, that purification practice was taught by Lord Buddha to him directly. This should be recorded in the Kangyur, the spoken words of the Buddha’s teachings. This was relayed to us by Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen in Los Angeles.

Therefore, realise that the power of purification is so incredible. We have objects that represent the Buddha’s body, we have objects that represent the Buddha’s speech, we have objects that represent the Buddha’s mind, we have objects that represent the Buddha’s body, speech and mind, all around us, surrounding us. So, instead of being like a tourist and driving by, looking at it and saying, “Wow, how nice”, we should do serious practice. We should do serious practice if we’re young because we don’t know if we are going to live till we’re old. We should do serious practice if we’re old because we don’t know how much time we have left. We should do serious practice if we’re sick because that’s a sign that the body is breaking down. We should do serious practice if we’re healthy because we don’t know when we are going to be seriously sick. We should do serious practice if we’re male or female, if we’re tall or short, if we’re black or white. We should do serious practice because all of us belong to a category called samsara beings. Samsara beings are abiding and existing due to karma and that comes from the self-grasping mind.

So therefore it is important to do these practices to purify our karma and not take it for granted. There are many practices that we can do. One of the most effective and one of my favourite practices is the 35 Confessional Buddhas. To memorise the 35 Confessional Buddhas’ names, some of you will take a week, some of you will take a month, some of you will take two months, it doesn’t matter. It’s good to recite their prayer – if you do it from memory, fine. And with each of their names, do a prostration. So you recite their sutra from the beginning and when you start with the first name, it’s Shakyamuni Buddha, and you do a prostration while reciting his name. Then you get up, recite the second name, prostrate. Third name, prostrate. Fourth name, prostrate. Fifth name, prostrate.

Buddha Nageshvaraja at Kechara Forest Retreat. Click to enlarge.

If you do the 35 Confessional Buddhas, you can prostrate to Nageshvaraja who is one of the 35 Confessional Buddhas. You can prostrate to the Vajrayogini Stupa. You can prostrate to Manjushri, you can prostrate to Tara, you can prostrate to Loma Gyonma. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s a Buddha, even a Dharma text, even a photo of your guru, even the Sangha, the Arya Sangha. So we can do our prostrations while reciting that. Do you have to point to the 35 Confessional Buddhas when you prostrate? No, because by reciting their names and thinking about them, you are purifying karma.

So everyday it will be very powerful if we can do the 35 Confessional Buddha sadhana. If we find it difficult to memorise or to do it while we’re prostrating, or we find it difficult to prostrate because we have physical impairments, maybe we’re too heavy, maybe we’re not healthy, maybe we have heart problems, for whatever reasons, then at least recite it at our desk. That will be very, very powerful to recite the 35 Confessional Buddhas. So the first thing we should do is we should do Refuge. After we do refuge we should always do the Four Immeasurables because that’s what we wish to achieve, the equilibrium. Then after doing the Four Immeasurables, it’s very powerful to recite the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation which is the most powerful, most beautiful, most effective teaching that we want to experience in samsara to counter anger and counter the self-grasping mind. And we might think we might just be reading it and we’re not actualising it, but to even read it, eventually we will actualise it because we are planting seeds.

A thangka of the 35 Confessional Buddhas. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

Then after reciting the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, everyday then we do the 35 Confessional Buddhas. And then you know what? You can even recite the 35 Confessional Buddhas while you are circumambulating or going for your Dharma walks every night. That’s absolutely beautiful. Why? Circumambulating or going for your Dharma walks is something like prostrations. You’re circumambulating around something to pay homage to the Buddhas. You’re not simply walking around the Buddha, you’re circumambulating. Yes, that’s an Indian tradition. Indians circumambulate their gurus when they first meet their gurus, they circumambulate three times, touch their gurus’ feet to their head and then sit down to receive Dharma. Or when they go to a temple or a statue, they circumambulate three times. So that is an Indian tradition that was adopted into Buddhism. Buddhism comes from India.

So to us non-Indian people, circumambulating has no meaning but when we circumambulate and we realise that that’s one way of paying homage to the Buddha, then it has meaning and we don’t have to be Indian to imbue it with meaning. So when we circumambulate around a Buddha, we are paying homage to the body, speech and mind of a Buddha and we are purifying the karma of our body, speech and mind. So while we are circumambulating, it is very good not to gossip and talk but to recite the 35 Confessional Buddhas. It will be good to even recite a part of it, even some of their names and eventually memorise it. Train your mind to memorise it.

If you have difficulty memorising it, then you can recite the 35 Confessional Buddhas before you go for your walk and during your walk you can perhaps recite Buddha Shakyamuni’s mantra. And you can visualise and believe that all the 35 Confessional Buddhas are Shakyamuni and Shakyamuni is them. And then you trust and believe in Shakyamuni Buddha 100%, then you recite Shakyamuni’s mantra. Short, long or medium, it’s up to you. Then you go for your walk.

A thangka of Vajrasattva along with Buddha Amitabha, Buddha Samantabhadra, Vajrakilaya and Dorje Shugden. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

You can also recite Vajrasattva’s mantra. Vajrasattva is all the Buddhas’ energy that has gathered together in order to purify our grasping mind, our attached mind. So you can recite Vajrasattva’s mantra. You can recite your Yidam’s mantra, Manjushri’s mantra, Tara’s mantra, Chenrezig’s mantra, you can recite Dorje Shugden’s mantra, you can recite the three Bodhisattvas’ mantra combined into one which is Migtsema. You can recite that. So every single day, what you should try to accomplish is a minimum of 35 prostrations and it should be some kind of a system. Maybe you do it then after that you go take a shower. You can have a system going because you know what? You’re going to sweat anyway, you’re going to have to wash anyway, you’re going to get dirty anyway, you’re going to get smelly anyway, so you might as well get smelly, get dirty, get oily, get sweaty doing something useful. Right? So what you should do every single day is to have a system of doing this practice. After you have finished then you do a dedication, then you do your normal sadhana.

What I’m giving you now is purification practice for you to go circumambulating. This is not your sadhana. Your sadhana is your sadhana. So, while you are circumambulating, this is the practice you do to give you extra energy, an extra boost and an extra push to purify. Purify you from what? From diseases, early death, premature death, fears, obstacles, anger, many things you want to purify yourself from. Think of all the things you have experienced in your life that were not pleasant, would you like to experience those again? I don’t. So while you’re here, you should think, “I am so lucky to be in a holy place.”

Remember, Kechara Forest Retreat being holy is not something I made up. It has been blessed by old senior monks such as Kensur Rinpoche. It has been blessed by an enlightened Dharma Protector such as Dorje Shugden. It has been blessed by his very powerful assistant, Kache Marpo. So this place is completely blessed. All the objects are blessed, so that’s not something we are imagining or just deluding ourselves with. It is blessed. It is holy. So therefore we should feel very fortunate.

A thangka of Lord Tsongkhapa with his two heart sons. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

All of us in Kechara Forest Retreat should pick a deity and that is our special cleaning purification deity. See, when you go to clean Tara, Tara can never get dirty. Her statue gets dirty because you have a vision of it being dirty, you have the karma to see it being dirty so you have karma to purify. If you have no karma, when you see Tara’s statue, it will be perfect, shining, green and illustrious like an emerald. But you and I have the karma to experience samsara, therefore when we see Tara’s statue, we will see it as dirty. Therefore when we clean it we are not cleaning Tara, we are not cleaning dirt off Tara, we are cleaning the dirt off our mind whose nature is Tara. Our nature is that of a Buddha. Our nature is Manjushri. Our nature is Nageshvaraja. Our nature is Tsongkhapa. So when we are cleaning the dirt and the soot and the dust and the leaves off the statues, we are cleaning off our natural state of mind that we will become. Tsongkhapa, Nageshvaraja, Tara can never get dirty. So that’s very powerful.

So, every single day, you should definitely go for your circumambulations. And if you’re very tired, you’re overwhelmed and you’ve got a lot of work and the slave master of Kechara is pushing you to get something out within five minutes, then what you do is you do a quickie. You know, we have quickie lunches, we have quickie honeymoons, we have quickie marriages, quickie divorces, we have everything quickie, don’t we? So we have quickie purification.

What you do is run to the Vajrayogini stupa, do a quickie circumambulation, and do a quickie three prostrations, do a quickie come back and go to sleep. The point of doing a quickie is you train your mind to be consistent. Better some than none. And if you have pets, if you have animals that you love, do take them with you. They have the karma to be with you, they have the karma to be in your lives, they have the karma to be near the Dharma so you should take them with you to circumambulate. If you can’t take them everyday, take them sometimes. Buy the strollers, buy whatever you need to circumambulate, and recite the mantras. It’s the best thing you can do for them.

The Vajrayogini stupa at Kechara Forest Retreat. Click to enlarge.

So every single day what we should do is we should do Refuge, Four Immeasurables, the 35 Confessional Buddhas. How many times should we recite that sutra? It’s up to you. It’s a beautiful, easy, flow-y wonderful sutra. And insert your name. I, whose name is blah blah blah, you can insert your name. Even if you forget to insert your name, the 35 Confessional Buddhas, one of them will figure out who you are. And then what happens is you recite the 35 Confessional Buddhas, then you dedicate.

So while you are reciting the 35 Confessional Buddhas, you can be prostrating or circumambulating or cleaning one of the Buddhas. That is very very powerful, so your body, your speech and your mind are purified. And if you can expand your thinking, you can think your mother is on your left, your father is on the right, all the people that bother you, that hurt you, that damage you are in the front, and all the people who have helped you and loved you are behind you. And all sentient beings including animals, hell beings, ghosts, gods, demons and spirits are all in human form. Why human form? Only in human form can they practise the highest form of Buddhism to become enlightened. So we visualise them doing the same thing with you. You don’t have to go, “Oh my god, there are so many people, how to fit?” You just think they are there, that’s all. Don’t make it complicated. The point of the meditation is that when you do that it isn’t actually all sentient beings are with you, it’s for you to remember to include others and focus out.

The 35 Confessional Buddhas. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

So in between the Four Immeasurables and the 35 Confessional Buddhas, if you have time you can insert the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation which is one of my favourite practices and teachings. Because you know what? It’s good for monks, it’s good for nuns, it’s good for lay people, it’s good for older people, it’s good for younger people. It’s just a beautiful practice. It’s the essence of compassion, it’s the essence of all religions. All religions’ purpose is to develop compassion. Where got religious person who’s not compassionate? I mean, what’s the point of being religious if you’re not compassionate? That’s the whole point, it’s to be compassionate. Right? So, not a pushover like they take it out on you and rob you, “Oh, OM MANI PADME HUM.” No, you report them to the police. Compassion doesn’t mean being a sucker, doesn’t mean being used and abused. No, that’s not compassion because they’re collecting negative karma too.

So everyday when we do our prostrations, when we do our circumambulations, we should do it seriously. We can go with a Dharma friend, we can go ourselves, but do it seriously. You can do the sadhana and the prayer before you go or you can do it while you go. What sadhana, what prayer? The 35 Confessional Buddhas. And have faith in them. What’s important is do some research, don’t wait to be spoon fed, do some research on who the 35 Confessional Buddhas are, in Chinese and English. Find out who they are, why they have the power to purify, what’s the source, what’s the origin. All the lineages practise it – Gelugpa, Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu all practise it. And the practice is not something from Tibet, it is from India. And the Chinese practise it. So it’s a beautiful sutra.

I personally love this sutra, it’s one of my favourites. So therefore you should do that, and if you can’t memorise it, carry it with you. And if it wears out, re-Xerox it, carry it with you. When you are at the stupa, recite it. Y’know, go around and recite it. So you circumambulate around the stupa, watch your step, and recite it. Or stand in front of the stupa, stand in front of Tara, stand in front of Manjushri and then recite it once, and then circumambulate. You know, find your own special way to do it; the important point is to do it. Since we are here, we might as well use the facilities to the best of our abilities and not waste any time. That’s very important. So therefore, this will be good for healing our bodies, this will be good for extending our lives, this will be good for clearing obstacles from our mind, this will be very good for developing good qualities in our mind that we wish to endeavour to practise, this will be good for all of that.

Dream Manjushri at Kechara Forest Retreat. Click to enlarge.

So my specific practice for people is what I have said – Refuge, Four Immeasurables, The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, the 35 Confessional Buddhas and dedication. And while you’re circumambulating or prostrating, you can do the 35 Confessional Buddhas sutra or just their names or Shakyamuni’s mantra or Vajrasattva’s mantra or any Buddha’s mantra, Dorje Namjom, Ucchusma’s mantra, you can do Black Manjushri’s mantra, you can do White Tara’s mantra, anything that has to do with purifying will be very very good. And last, apply the Four Opponent Powers. Do research on what the “Four Opponent Powers” are.

And then after you’ve finished your circumambulations, your prostrations, take full refuge in Shakyamuni Buddha, take full refuge in the Buddhas and trust them and dedicate, and be at peace and be happy. And that day if you were to die, that was the last thing you did. How wonderful. For some people, the last thing they do is have a drink, they go out, they go to a party, they hold their relative’s hands, that’s all kind of interesting, but won’t be very useful. The last thing you did was the 35 Confessional Buddhas. That’s not to say you’re going to die today or tomorrow, that’s to say that we get into the habit of preparing for our deaths with something positive and wonderful. And if there’s someone that you’re thinking of, you’re concerned about, you’re worried about, then on your voyage of circumambulations, bring some candles along and offer it at each place. It’s much better to spend our money on that than any other little frills and thrills that we may be spending our money on. Nothing is wasted if it’s offered to the Buddhas, nothing. Alright? So that’s very important.

A thangka of Buddha Shakyamuni. Above him are Guru Rinpoche and Lama Tsongkhapa, and below him are the Dharma Protectors Four-Faced Mahakala, Dorje Shugden, Palden Lhamo and Dorje Drolo. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

What I want everybody in KFR to do is to practise Dharma, to use this opportunity. We’ve put so much energy into this place, since we’re here, let’s do more Dharma. And it would be wonderful to take our children with us. Our children may not understand all this and if you teach them all this, they might not even accept. That’s okay. Walk around and spend time with them, when they’re older they will think back on what their mother and father or friend did for them. And then, they will reflect and maybe they will open up and understand more. Place that imprint in them. Take your animals, take your children, take yourselves. Try to do your best not to miss your practice. Try. Because you know what? You are worth it, it’s the best thing you can do for yourself. You have some karma to be here, why not? We don’t have to travel to Bodhgaya to collect merit although it’s a beautiful place and it’s powerful and one day we should go. We don’t have to travel to Wu Tai Shan or any of those holy places, we have our own holy place right here.

Milarepa’s student Rechungpa asked Milarepa’s permission if he could go to India to visit the four holy places associated with the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, giving teachings and death. And Milarepa said to him, “The holiest, the most holy place is the place where your guru abides. That’s the best pilgrimage for you, that’s the best place to prostrate to, that’s the best place to make offerings to, to clean and to put your effort into.” That’s what was told to him. Now that may not apply to everybody, not everybody has a teacher, not everybody is close to their teacher, not everybody has that relationship, so for some people maybe it is important for them to go to Bodhgaya. You know, we don’t discount that. Maybe for some people it is important to go to Manjushri’s holy place.

Milarepa. Click to enlarge or click here for more high resolution Buddha images.

We should share this teaching with all the residents of Kechara Forest Retreat and make sure they all understand it. We should share this teaching with everybody because this is what we should be practising and doing in Kechara Forest Retreat. Protector practices are minor. This is what we should be doing. This is what I like doing.

So this is something for Kent Kok but it will be perfect for the rest of us. And if Kent Kok were to ask what mantra he should focus on, in his case, Dorje Shugden on the elephant. If that is difficult for him, then Dorje Shugden because he has very strong faith. So therefore, Dorje Shugden is Manjushri, Manjushri is a very powerful healing Buddha, he has manifested in many healing forms, so that will be very powerful for him. That’s for him.

For the rest of you guys, you can choose – Shakyamuni’s mantra, Migtsema, Tara, Dorje Namjom, Ucchusma, White Tara, Namgyalma, Amitayus, up to you or whatever your teacher has assigned to you. The mantra is important but not as important as you understanding the benefits behind it and doing it continuously, consistently, and in the end dedicate it. I want to see all of us circumambulating all over. This is our little home, this is our community so let’s make the best of it.

Remember, share these teachings with anyone who stays here to get well who is not well. Be kind. Share Dharma with people tirelessly, even if they disappoint you. The reason they disappoint you is because their selfish mind, their self-grasping mind is very strong and then obviously you’re disappointed because your self-grasping mind is very strong. So nobody is innocent, isn’t it? Nobody is guilty, nobody is innocent. It’s all the same.

Wonderful. Have a nice evening.