The Path of Compassion: A Biography of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche — Teachings — Chapter Four: Instructions

—Listening to the Dharma and practicing are like two legs; success is impossible if either is missing. Study and reflection without practice will not work, because they cannot transform at the root the habits we have carried since beginningless time. It is too late to contemplate impermanence and emptiness only when death arrives, so study, reflection, and practice must proceed together. The wisdom of hearing recognizes afflictions, the wisdom of reflection counteracts them, and the wisdom of meditation brings liberation.

—Food offered to the Dharma protectors may not later be used for fire offerings. It must be placed on a mountain that people do not regularly visit, put into the pure water of a river or lake, or left in another clean place. It is best to make protector offerings during group practice. If circumstances temporarily prevent this, it is permissible not to do so. After group practice ends, it is best to perform a smoke offering, and best of all to make smoke offerings regularly. Incense, substances for fire offerings, and similar articles must come from pure sources. Otherwise, the wisdom beings and Dharma protectors present after the shrine hall has been consecrated will depart, and nonhuman beings will also be angered.

—Worldly people regard the wealthy as possessing great merit, but this is actually only minor merit. For a Buddhist practitioner, money and wealth do not constitute great merit. Only following the guru and the Three Jewels in life after life to study and practice the Buddha’s Dharma is truly great merit.

—I think the internet and discs are helpful for study and reflection, but they do not help practice very much. Practice is becoming increasingly difficult for people today. Today they listen to Dzogchen, tomorrow they listen to the Five Preliminaries, and the day after tomorrow they hear a little Madhyamaka. Their study is not systematic. Some people listen without reflecting, and even fewer genuinely practice step by step.

—The most exceptional Dharma must be practiced within the mind. If it has not been practiced in the mind, one will not know where its excellence lies. Many people think that the higher the Dharma, the more exceptional it must be, but this is not necessarily so. Every Dharma is exceptional. If it does not accord with a person’s faculties, nothing can be done; it is too far removed from them.

—The first step toward liberation is renunciation. If one genuinely possesses renunciation, one will one hundred percent not return helplessly to the six realms of saṃsāra. Once one then genuinely possesses bodhicitta and wishes to enter the six realms to liberate beings, one has the ability and freedom to do so. Without such ability, I do not know when I will leave or to which realm I will go. Doing everything for one’s own fame and gain in this life is a sign of lacking renunciation.

—If one genuinely possesses renunciation, one will never be driven helplessly into the six realms of saṃsāra in any lifetime. I think that should be enough! We continually seek teachings that are too high; it will be troublesome if we then reenter saṃsāra. We continually seek the greatest Dharma, only to plunge straight into the hell or hungry-ghost realm in the next life. Could this happen? It certainly could, and it certainly happens to most people. The Buddha taught that for most beings in saṃsāra, obtaining a precious human body endowed with freedoms and advantages is extraordinarily difficult.

—A Kadampa geshe once said, “One continually seeks to study the highest Dharma, but as a result goes to the lowest place.” It is like running up a very tall building: if one runs poorly, one can easily fall all the way to the bottom. Without renunciation or bodhicitta, can one practice Dzogchen? The lowest places are the hell and hungry-ghost realms. If things go badly, that is where one will go.

—A great accomplished master of the Gelug tradition said that without renunciation and bodhicitta, even the practice of Guhyasamāja is not a particularly exceptional Dharma. If one possesses genuine renunciation and bodhicitta, even practicing refuge is an exceptional and profound Dharma.

—Motivation is very important. If one’s motivation is genuinely good, one will have merit in life after life. From now until liberation, merit will continue uninterrupted, and even sleep will be meritorious. The Bodhicaryāvatāra says that while walking, playing, and so forth, one will continually have merit. Suppose someone releases one million beings but lacks bodhicitta and thinks only of living a long life or of receiving protection so that his activities will flourish. He then has only a few decades of merit. It is fortunate if the act has an effect; if it does not, he will not live longer, and the merit disappears at once, exhausted in a single use.

—Tulku Oba said: “All Dharma begins with refuge. Refuge is like the ground, and motivation is like a door. Without the ground, a door cannot be built. One must therefore first have the ground and then make the door.” It is the same in Mahāyāna: refuge must come first, like the ground. To enter the door of Mahāyāna, one must possess bodhicitta. Without bodhicitta, whatever one practices remains outside the door, because one has not entered. For the Lesser Vehicle, refuge is the ground and renunciation is the door. Without renunciation, every meritorious or charitable act becomes only merit leading to human or celestial birth and belongs to the vehicle of gods and humans. One has not entered even the door of the Lesser Vehicle, but remains outside, and the act becomes worldly.

—If one does not practice but continually studies and reads scriptures, eventually one will feel no wish to study. Reading scriptures and listening to discs are very easy, so everyone remains interested. But when actual practice is mentioned, especially completing the five hundred thousand preliminary practices, one thinks, “Oh, this is too difficult and exhausting.” Making money is similar. Earning tens or hundreds is easy, but earning tens of millions must be very difficult, isn’t that so? Important things are all like this. Genuinely changing the mind is the most difficult task of all, and it also brings the greatest merit. Practice is most troublesome at the beginning; once one becomes accustomed to it, it improves.

—With arrogance, one obtains no merit at all. When Shakyamuni Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma for the second time and taught the Prajñāpāramitā, many celestial beings came. They thought, “Humans have no light, while we possess light,” and became very arrogant. Shakyamuni Buddha immediately radiated a still greater light, and the celestial beings’ arrogance vanished at once. Only then did he begin to teach.

—Without practice, knowing a little Dharma is useless. It is like being gravely ill, obtaining a prescription written by the finest physician, and carrying it continually without ever taking the medicine.

—A monk of Hor shul Monastery went to Five-Colored Lake every summer. For seven days, he removed all his clothing and meditated wherever ants and insects were most numerous, paying no attention to whatever bit him. In the end, his entire body swelled and was covered with bites and welts of every size. He went every year. The gift of Dharma brings the greatest benefit to beings; for oneself, giving one’s body is a powerful way to counteract self-clinging.

—Reciting the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva has immense power of blessing. Sometimes, when the young monks perform Dharma rites and recite scriptures, they need recite no other scripture; this text alone can accomplish many activities. It is best to recite it every day. Reciting it slowly is also fine, even a little each day. Bodhicitta and every other quality will arise.

—Many people today think, “The scriptural text The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva has great merit.” It certainly has merit, but whether that merit is supramundane or worldly is uncertain. One may recite it extensively every day, hundreds of times, thinking, “The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is a Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture, so it must be supramundane Dharma.” That is not necessarily so. If one’s motivation is inadequate, its merit remains worldly and it becomes worldly Dharma. Venerable Jigme Lingpa taught this.

—The difference between worldly and supramundane Dharma does not depend on how much money one offers, whether one remains in retreat, whether one practices Vajrayāna, how many beings one releases, or how great one’s meritorious deeds are. Master Āryadeva said that there is only one door, not two. The Lesser Vehicle has only one door: renunciation. Mahāyāna has only one door: bodhicitta. Liberation in the Lesser Vehicle begins only with renunciation. There is one door and no other route or highway. Without renunciation, there is no bodhicitta. When studying, everyone must proceed step by step.