Introduction to 37 Practices

Transcript

1. Saraha Nyingma Buddhist Institute
2. Welcome to Tibetan Class! We will be using the famous Tibetan text The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva by Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo as a vehicle for improving our Tibetan reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. Hopefully this will enable everyone to come to a better and deeper understanding of the Dharma.
4. Before you begin studying, please recite the prayer to Manjushri we worked on last fall and bring Bodhicitta to mind: ༄༅། །ༀ་བཀ་ཤཤས་མཤ་འགར་དཀཀན་མཆཀག་གསམ། །གང་ལས་བང་ཞཤང་འཕཀ་བའཤ་གནས། ། སབས་ཀཤ་དམ་པ་སབས་ས་འཀས། །འཇམ་དཔལ་དཔལ་དང་ལན་པའཤ་མཆཀག ། ཕཀགས་དས་འགཀ་བའཤ་སང་ངཀ་དང་། །མཐན་པར་ས་མའཤ་གར་མཛད་ཀང་། ། བརག་ན་ཤཤས་བ་གང་དའང་། །མཤ་གནས་ཁཀད་ལ་ཕག་འཚལ་ལཀ། ། ཞཤ་བའཤ་ནང་ན་ཞཤ་བ་སཤ། །འཇམ་དཔལ་ཟག་ར་མཤད་པའཤ་མཆཀག ། མཁའ་ཁབ་སཤང་རཤ་ཆཤན་པཀའཤ་ས། །གཞཀན་ནར་རཀལ་པ་ཁཀད་ཕག་འཚལ། །
5. ཁཀ་བཀའཤ་ནང་ན་ཁཀ་བཀ་སཤ། །ཐམས་ཅད་མཐར་བཤད་གཤཤན་རཤའཤ་གཤཤད། ། སཤད་ཞཤ་དབཤངས་ས་ཟ་བའཤ་ཞལ། །དས་ཀཤ་དག་ཆཤན་ཁཀད་ཕག་འཚལ། ། སང་སཀང་མཤ་བཤད་རཀ་རཤའཤ་ས། །མ་ལས་རལ་བའཤ་ཡཤ་ཤཤས་དངཀས། ། ཁབ་བདག་ཀན་ཏ་བཟང་པཀ་ནཤ། །འཇམ་པའཤ་རཀ་རཤ་ཁཀད་ཕག་འཚལ། ། ཁཀད་ལ་ཕག་འཚལ་བསཀད་བས་པའཤ། །དགཤ་བས་བང་ཆབ་སཤང་པཀའཤ་བར། ། འཇམ་པའཤ་དཔལ་གཤ་ཡཤ་ཤཤས་འཀད། །སཤང་གཤ་པདདཀར་སཤམ་གར་ཅཤག །
6. Or in English: OM, supremely glorious Manjushri, You are the source and manifestation Of the unchanging auspicious Triple Gem And the most worthy, sublime source of refuge In harmony with beings’ phenomena of time and place, You always perform your magic dance; Yet if really examined, nothing whatsoever exists— To you who never remains anywhere, I prostrate. The most peaceful in peace, Supreme, flawless Manjushri, Sky-pervading body of great compassion— Sustaining in youthfulness, I prostrate to you.
7. The most wrathful in wrath, All terminating slayer of the Lord of Death, Devouring samsara and enlightenment in stainless space— Great enemy of time, I prostrate to you. The vajrakaya of inseparable appearance-emptiness, Actual wisdom of every buddha, Sovereign lord Samantabhadra— To Manjuvajra, I prostrate. By the virtue of this homage and praise, From now until the heart of enlightenment, May the wisdom light of Manjushri Shine within the lotus of my heart. -By Mipham Rinpoche
8. དངལ་ཆ་ཐཀགས་མཤད་བཟང་པཀ Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo • Is the author of our text, renowned for his great compassion and erudition as a scholar. • At one point he was very poor. Others encouraged him to make some money. Instead, he wrote The Thirty-Seven Practices.
9. One Story of Many: Near the end of his life, when Ngulchu Thogme first showed signs of sickness, he said that no treatment was likely to help, but to calm everyone he took some medicine nonetheless, and let prayers and ceremonies be performed on his behalf. When someone asked him if there were any way to prolong his life, Thogme said, “‘If my being sick will benefit beings, may I be blessed with sickness! If my dying will benefit beings, may I be blessed with death! If my being well will benefit beings, may I be blessed with recovery!’ This is the prayer I make to the Three Jewels. Having complete certainty that whatever happens is the blessings of the Three Jewels, I am happy, and I shall take whatever happens on to the path without trying to change anything.” His close disciples begged him to consider whether medical treatment or anything else they could offer him would be of any benefit. But Thogme said, “I have reached the limit of my years and my sickness is severe. Even the attentions of highly skilled physicians with ambrosia-like medicine would be unlikely to contribute much.” And he added:
10. If this illusory body, which I cling to as mine, is sick—let it be sick! This sickness enables me to exhaust The bad karma I have accumulated in the past, And the spiritual deeds I can then perform Help me purify the two kinds of veils. If I am in good health, I am happy, Because when my body and mind are well I can enhance my spiritual practice, And give real meaning to human existence By turning my body, speech and mind to virtue. If I am poor, I am happy, Because I’ve no wealth to protect, And I know that all feuds and animosity Sprout from the seeds of greed and attachment.
11. If I am rich, I am happy, Because with my wealth I can do more positive actions, And both temporal and ultimate happiness Are the result of meritorious deeds. If I die soon, that’s excellent, Because, assisted by some good potential, I am confident that I shall enter the unmistaken path Before any obstacle can intervene. If I live long, I am happy, Because without parting from the warm beneficial rain of spiritual instructions I can, over a long time, fully ripen The crop of inner experiences. Therefore, whatever happens, I shall be happy!
12. And he continued, “I’ve been teaching these pith instructions to others, and I must practice them myself. As it is said, ‘What is called sickness has no true existence whatsoever, but within the display of delusory phenomena appears as the ineluctable result of wrong actions. Sickness is the teacher that points out the nature of samsara and shows us that phenomena, manifest though they may, have no more true existence than an illusion. Sickness provides us with the grounds for developing patience towards our own suffering, and compassion for the suffering of others. It is in such difficult circumstances that our spiritual practice is put to the test.’ If I die, I’ll be relieved of the pains of my sickness. I can’t recall any task that I’ve left undone, and what’s more I realize how rare an opportunity it is to be able to die as the perfect conclusion of my spiritual practice. That’s why I’m not hoping for any cure for my illness. Nevertheless, before I die, you may complete all your ceremonies.” One morning, at dawn, he asked his disciples to help him sit slightly more upright, and then said, “I feel extremely well like this, do not move my body at all.” From that morning until the next evening he remained seated in the lotus posture; his mind remained one-pointedly in equanimity, and within that state, he passed away and departed into bliss. From The Heart of Compassion, by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Shambhala Publications So by all accounts he was very happy and an amazing practitioner!