Chapter 5. Practice Lojong with Tonglen
5. Practice Lojong with Tonglen
Tonglen is the Best Puja
Video 5: Tonglen is the Best Puja
(duration: 11 minutes)
(You can read the transcript of the video below. Alternatively, you can read the same transcript alongside the video by clicking here to download it or view it in a separate window.)
I should explain that although there are more details about tonglen, the essence is that by generating compassion for suffering sentient beings, you take their sufferings on yourself. But first you have to read and study the lamrim, especially all the detailed sufferings [explained in the context of] kyebu chungwa, [lower capable beings], otherwise you won’t have any idea of the sufferings of the lower realms. Then you take the oceans of suffering of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals on yourself. Then you take both causes of suffering, delusion and karma, on yourself. Then, you take all the sufferings of human beings, asuras, and suras and their causes on yourself. To do this you must also read the lamrim, the essence of the Buddhadharma, to understand the sufferings of suras, asuras, and human beings. Otherwise, you will have no idea of all their sufferings and there will be no way for you to develop compassion for them.
[Visualize] taking these sufferings in your heart. When America is fighting in Afghanistan or somewhere else, from far away they throw a missile right at a place marked with a cross where the enemy army is and, boom, destroy it into pieces. Like that, you receive the suffering and it destroys the self-cherishing thought. What didn’t allow you to achieve enlightenment from beginningless rebirth up to now, what didn’t allow you to achieve even nirvana, liberation from samsara, and has caused you to suffer in the six realms, and what also will not allow you to achieve enlightenment in the future and free the numberless sentient beings from samsara and enlighten them, is your selfish mind. The suffering hits that and destroys it totally. It also eliminates the real I, the object of ignorance, and then you see that the real I is nonexistent as it is nonexistent there, right there. So your ignorance, your root of your samsara, is eliminated. Meditate on that.
Then generate loving kindness for sentient beings and first dedicate your body to them. My root guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, said that you should not do the visualization that comes in the Chod practice,[1] where there is the white distribution and red distribution. The “red distribution” means that you visualize your body as mountains of skin, blood, and bones and invoke the spirits who eat it and that same minute it is gone. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche said that here in the lamrim you should visualize your body as a wish-granting jewel, such as the eight-sided wish-granting jewel, the Tibetan wish-granting jewel. You think of a wish-granting jewel, which becomes numberless wish-granting jewels filling the whole sky. Then offer these to the numberless hell beings. Each one receives skies of wish-granting jewels. Then do the same for the hungry ghosts; every hungry ghost receives the skies of wish-granting jewels that your body has become. Then every animal—those in the ocean, in the ground, and in the grass—receives your numberless bodies in the form of wish-granting jewels. Then the numberless human beings, numberless sura beings, numberless asura beings, and numberless intermediate state beings receive skies of wish-granting jewels.
They get whatever they think of and whatever they need, including enlightenment. They get everything—whatever they want and whatever they need. What they need is Dharma, a virtuous friend, and the realizations up to enlightenment, so they get these. They also get whatever they want, such as temporary happiness. Everyone—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, and suras—becomes enlightened.
That is just in short. In some of the lamrim teachings many more details are explained, but here, just in short, they become enlightened.
Then, make charity of your numberless wealth and numberless enjoyments—however many hats you have, however many trousers you have, however many coats you have (for wintertime, for summertime, and for springtime), however many shoes you have (for outside, for inside, and for parties), however much money you have in the bank—to every sentient being, the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, and suras. These also become wish-granting, so they receive whatever they want and whatever they need from them. Then, the numberless hell beings become enlightened, the numberless hungry ghosts become enlightened, the numberless animals become enlightened, the numberless human beings become enlightened, the numberless asuras become enlightened, and the numberless suras become enlightened.
Then, dedicate all your merits—the virtues collected in numberless samsaric rebirths, in the past from beginningless rebirths, those you are collecting now, and those you will collect in the future—to them. Dedicate all that merit, past, present, and future, to the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras, and intermediate state beings. From it they get whatever they want and whatever they need—this life’s happiness, next life’s happiness, ultimate happiness (freedom from samsara), and peerless happiness (the cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations). They get everything. The numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras, and intermediate state beings get everything up to enlightenment. It’s incredible. This is the best puja you can do in your life. It’s the best puja; you collect the highest merit and it is the greatest and most powerful purification. Each time you do tonglen, you become closer and closer to enlightenment. It’s like that. It’s amazing, amazing, amazing.