Buddha accepted this request and began to teach. As a result countless beings have attained liberation and full enlightenment and countless beings have the opportunity to practise Dharma. The kind requests of Brahma and Indra made it possible for us to find Dharma even in these degenerate times. In the same way, if we make requests to the holy beings, asking them to turn the Wheel of Dharma, we will accumulate merit and create the cause to receive Dharma in this and future lives. Indirectly, we will help all other living beings.
dedication
Dedication has six aspects: what we dedicate, the purpose of dedicating, the goal to which we dedicate, for whose benefit we dedicate, the manner of dedicating and the nature of dedication.
We dedicate our virtuous actions of body, speech and mind. The purpose of dedicating these actions is to prevent them from being destroyed or depleted and to ensure that we experience their good results. If we do not dedicate our virtue it can be destroyed by negative actions such as anger or holding wrong views. The final goal towards which we dedicate our virtuous actions is the goal of full enlightenment. We dedicate for the benefit of all living beings, thinking ‘Through the power of my virtuous deeds may I attain enlightenment for the sake of all.’ If we have realized emptiness, the manner of making our dedication is by recollecting that the three – the person making the dedication, the actions that are dedicated and the dedication itself – all lack inherent existence. If we have not realized emptiness, the manner of making our dedication is by considering that these three – dedicator, dedicated and dedication – all lack inherent existence. In the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras Buddha says that our manner of dedicating should unite method and wisdom. This practice is very profound because through this dedication both our merit and wisdom increase and we progress along spiritual paths. Dedication is by nature a virtuous mental factor; it is the virtuous intention that functions both to prevent accumulated virtue from degenerating and to cause its increase.
Whatever our wish may be, if we dedicate all our virtue to that end, our virtue will carry us to our goal. Our virtuous actions are said to be like a horse and our dedication like the reins. When we dedicate we are like a skilful rider who, by using the reins, can direct his horse wherever he wants to go. The Kadampa Teachers taught that whenever we perform virtuous actions there are two important things to remember: to begin with a virtuous motivation and to conclude with dedication.
offering the mandala
The word ‘mandala’ in this context means ‘universe’. When we offer a mandala to the holy beings we are offering everything – the whole universe with all its objects and all the beings who inhabit it. Since the merit we create when we make an offering accords with the nature of the offering, we mentally transform the whole universe into a Pure Land and imagine that all its inhabitants are pure beings and that all its objects are precious substances. We then imagine that we are offering this pure universe in our hands.
A child once filled a bowl with dust and offered it to Buddha Kashyapa, imagining that the dust was gold. As a result of this pure offering the child was reborn as the wealthy King Ashoka. Likewise, if we offer the world as a Pure Land filled with exquisite objects and precious symbols we will experience a result in accordance with the pure nature of our offering. If we wish for spiritual attainments we should offer a mandala every day.
requesting the field for accumulating merit in general and the lamrim lineage gurus in particular to bestow their blessings
Now we request blessings to attain three great purposes:
(1) To stop wrong thoughts and attitudes from arising in our minds
(2) To cultivate correct thoughts and attitudes
(3) To eliminate outer and inner obstacles to our Dharma practice
If we can perfectly accomplish these three aims we will attain enlightenment in this life. Although there are countless wrong thoughts and attitudes, there are sixteen in particular that we should know and strive to abandon because they directly prevent realizations of the stages of the path. They are:
(1) Disliking or having disrespect for our Spiritual Guide
(2) Not wishing to take the essence of our precious human life
(3) Not remembering death
(4) Being attached to the pleasures and happiness of this life alone
(5) Not fearing rebirth in the lower realms
(6) Not wishing to go for refuge to the Three Jewels
(7) Not having faith or conviction in the laws of karma
(8) Seeking to accumulate non-virtuous actions and not virtuous actions
(9) Regarding samsara as having the nature of happiness
(10) Wishing to increase delusions and contaminated actions
(11) Being uninterested in attaining liberation
(12) Not wanting to practise the three higher trainings, which are the causes of liberation
(13) Forsaking mother living beings
(14) Self-cherishing
(15) Self-grasping
(16) Disliking the practice of Secret Mantra
Corresponding to these there are sixteen correct thoughts and attitudes that we need to cultivate:
(1) Relying faithfully upon and having respect for our Spiritual Guide
(2) Wishing to take the essence of our precious human life
(3) Remembering death
(4) Not being attached to the pleasures and happiness of this life
(5) Fearing rebirth in the lower realms
(6) Wishing to go for refuge to the Three Jewels
(7) Having faith and conviction in the laws of karma
(8) Seeking to accumulate virtuous actions and not non-virtuous actions
(9) Regarding samsara as having the nature of suffering
(10) Wishing to abandon delusions and contaminated actions, which are the causes of samsaric rebirth
(11) Being determined to attain liberation
(12) Wanting to practise the three higher trainings
(13) Cherishing all mother living beings
(14) Forsaking self-cherishing
(15) Realizing selflessness
(16) Liking the practice of Secret Mantra
In addition to these sixteen correct thoughts and attitudes there are many other virtuous states of mind that we need to cultivate and for which we need to request blessings. For example, when we train our mind in the stages of the vast path of Sutra we cultivate special minds of great love, great compassion and bodhichitta; and based on these the determination to practise the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, mental stabilization and wisdom.
The realizations of the stages of the vast path of Secret Mantra – namely, the realizations of the generation stage practice of bringing the intermediate state into the path of the Enjoyment Body and the completion stage realization of the actual illusory body – are the essence of the stages of the vast path for which we need to request blessings. The resultant vajra body that is attained when we attain Buddhahood is the quintessence of all the stages of the vast path of Sutra and Tantra.
The realizations of the stages of the profound path of Secret Mantra – namely, the realizations of the generation stage practice of bringing death into the path to the Truth Body and the completion stage realizations of example clear light and meaning clear light – are the essence of the stages of the profound path for which we need to request blessings. The resultant Truth Body, or Dharmakaya, is the quintessence of all the stages of the profound path of Sutra and Tantra.