Being Pure: The Practice of Vajrasattva

Being Pure

THE PRACTICE OF VAJRASATTVA

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

Compiled & edited by Mary Heneghan

First Published in 2016 by

Bodhicharya Publications

Bodhicharya Publications is a Community Interest Company registered in the UK.

38 Moreland Avenue, Hereford, HR1 1BN, UK

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Ringu Tulku asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Please do not reproduce any part of this book without permission from the publisher.

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ISBN 978-1-915725-15-8

First Edition: March 2016

Compiled & edited by Mary Heneghan

Source: Vajrasattva retreat Bodhicharya Meditation Centre, Sikkim, India; November 2010. Recorded by Bernie Vorster. Transcribed and edited by Mary Heneghan.

Root text from: Brief Recitations for the Four Preliminary Practices by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. © 2006 His Holiness the Gyalwang 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje. English translation compiled and revised by Tyler Dewar based upon previous translations by Ari Goldfield and Karma Choephel, April 2008. Published by Nalandabodhi Publications and, previously, Tsurphu Labrang. Reproduced here with permission.

Bodhicharya Publications team for this book: Mary Heneghan; Martin Hird; Mariette van Lieshout; Rachel Moffitt; Paul O’Connor; Karma Wangmo.

Typesetting & Design by Paul O’Connor at Judo Design, Ireland.

Cover image: Huay Mae Khamin, Waterfall in Deep Forest of Thailand ©Adobe Stock

Inside colour image of Vajrasattva © R.D.Salga, Nepal: www.facebook.com/ExquisiteTibetanArt

Picture of Bell and Dorje: photography by Peter Budd.

Calligraphies of the hundred-syllable and six-syllable Vajrasattva mantras: by Tashi Mannox, Tibetan Calligraphy Artist © Tashi Mannox, see tashimannox.com.

Mantra garland designed by Paul O’Connor.

The Heart Wisdom Series

By Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

The Ngöndro

Foundation Practices of Mahamudra

From Milk to Yoghurt

A Recipe for Living and Dying

Like Dreams and Clouds

Emptiness and Interdependence, Mahamudra and Dzogchen

Dealing with Emotions

Scattering the Clouds

Journey from Head to Heart

Along a Buddhist Path

Riding Stormy Waves

Victory over the Maras

Being Pure

The practice of Vajrasattva

Radiance of the Heart

Kindness, Compassion, Bodhicitta

Meeting Challenges

Unshaken by Life’s Ups and Downs

‘There is nothing to get but the strongest heart gets it’ ¹

Editor’s Preface

The main text of this book comes from Ringu Tulku’s teachings given at a retreat for the practice of Vajrasattva, which was held at Bodhicharya Meditation Centre in Sikkim, India, in November 2010. Small additions come from the editor’s own notes made at the time of that retreat and later conversations with Ringu Tulku. Another minor source of additions were notes made during a talk Ringu Tulku gave in Nottingham in May 2008, as part of a series of teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who also gave the Vajrasattva empowerment at that time.

The practice of Vajrasattva is one of the skillful means taught within the Vajrayana, the vehicle of the Buddha's teachings which traditionally takes the result as the path and which is particularly concerned therefore with ‘pure view.’ As Ringu Tulku might say, ‘If you want to be a certain way, you have to practise being that way; you have to just do it.’ And so the practices outlined in this book give us a way in, to do just that: to see purely, to experience being pure. The Vajrayana provides these kind of direct and experiential methods of practice because something powerful is needed to cut through the heavy accumulation of habits that obscure our fundamentally pure, true nature.

The potency of these methods can only achieve good results, however, when practised in the correct context. So, the Vajrayana very much includes, and is built upon the foundation, of all the general Buddhist teachings. These set the practices in context, rooting them in the wider meaning of the Buddhadharma. This is key because we have to understand how any practice works, and the wider meanings it points to, to enable it to really work on us.

Ringu Tulku goes through the practice of Vajrasattva in detail here, including the initial practice of Taking Refuge. And he also gives us much to consider in terms of the wider context we undertake these practices in: What is our motivation? What do we need to work on to tame our mind? What really is purification? What does it mean to be wise? Or compassionate? How can we cultivate these qualities? Ringu Tulku shows how all our understanding of Dharma can be poured into a relatively simple practice, such as the one given here. And so it becomes a deep and profound practice. As he says, ‘Then, through the practice of Vajrasattva alone, you can become enlightened.’

A bonus, included in this book, is a short teaching by Ringu Tulku on the Bardos. This arose from a request by a student at the retreat and is included here because, as Ringu Tulku mentions, the Bardo teachings are connected with Vajrasattva. Rinpoche talks about the Four Bardos - of Life and Death, of Dharmata and Becoming - and shows how, at every step through the cycles of birth and death, we are given opportunities to awaken to our true nature and realise Vajrasattva, or realise ourselves as we really are.

In this way, we hope this book has something to offer for everyone: For people new to Dharma and to the Vajrayana, everything is described from a fresh start – some people on the initial retreat had never done Vajrayana practices before. This book also has plenty to offer long term practitioners, because Ringu Tulku has gone into these subtle and key topics of Dharma in a very clear way; he takes us right to their heart and brings the light of understanding there.

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While I was working on this book, I came across a couple of instances that really made an impression on me. I’d like to share them briefly because, even though I’m sure there are layers of understanding held within them that I have not grasped yet, maybe they will spark off some understanding of your own, or curiosity. And maybe you might contemplate such things as you go forward to read Rinpoche’s teachings here. My examples are both ‘teachings from nature,’ in a way; a quiet but universal kind of a teacher.

Firstly, I learned how diamonds are formed in nature. As you will know, the vajra of Vajrasattva’s name, is often translated as ‘diamond-like.’ [Ringu Tulku gives more on the meaning of vajra in the text. And sattva means ‘hero’ or ‘brave one.’] Apparently, diamonds are made deep beneath the earth’s crust, through intense heat and pressure acting upon carbon. This process results in the form of the diamond, the hardest substance on earth, able to cut through anything and unable to be destroyed. If you want to cut a diamond, you can only use another diamond. ‘So, what kind of process would parallel this in ourselves?’ I wondered, since we are part of nature too. What could bring out our utterly pure, and therefore indestructible, quality?

The vajra state of mind alludes to the kind of wisdom that is indestructible; it cannot be cut down or cut through by anything else, because it sees reality as it is, completely and untainted. It passes undeterred through life, and death. I found it interesting that, in nature, diamonds are formed under intense heat and pressure. Especially as we ourselves are made up of carbon compounds, as all organic life is. Maybe everything that matures and ripens us could be likened to the heat that forms the diamonds. And isn’t it true that it is often when we are under intense pressure in life that we really transform? – When we come up against ourselves in a seeming-impasse, that is when we have no choice but to transform, genuinely.

The other instance I came across was during a long sequence of pujas [or ritual chanting of prayers], I was attending in a temple some years back. As we were doing these hours and hours of puja recitation, my mind started to wander, in a spacious kind of way. I was watching the shrine activities as we recited mantras to call forth the guru and purify the water in the vase on the shrine. ‘Are our mantras really purifying this water?’ I thought to myself. So, I was pondering it a bit… until I realised, ‘But it is water! It is this amazing, beautiful, clear, wet, flowing stuff that has miraculously arisen - we don’t really know exactly how - and it sustains all of life.’ This water is already pure. This water is perfectly and utterly pure. It is just as it is. How could it be otherwise?

It may be worth noticing that I saw this while inside the practice we were doing. The shrine rituals and the practices, as I understand it, work with our perception. This is the pivot of samsara and nirvana. We get stuck in a clouded, mundane way of seeing things and we forget that vast expanse of miraculous life we are part of at every moment. The practice is to shift our view so we can connect with the innate purity of life: the innate purity of water, which is also the innate purity of ourselves.

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We would like to dedicate this book to the happy freedom of all; the quality of mind the Dharma can bring. And, in particular, I would like to dedicate my part in this work to my daughter Katie. Her name means ‘pure’ and she has taught me much about being in such a way. When she was a baby I used to get the funny feeling of ‘missing being with her,’ even though she was right there with me all day: a little bundle of purity being whisked along to shops and walks and swimming pools. Whatever the equivalents are in your own life, I think there may be something key being shown to us from such experiences.

So, through our practice, may we all learn to experience things in their complete purity. And have the courage and clarity to be purely who we really are. May all beings become free from the bondage of clouded and distorted views and dwell, instead, in the pristine awareness of Vajrasattva.

Mary Dechen Jinpa

On behalf of Bodhicharya Publications

Oxford, November 2015

Introduction

Vajrayana practice

From a general point of view, there are three vehicles of Buddhist teachings: First, Theravada Buddhism, or more correctly the Sravakayana, is based on the common and uncontroversial teachings of the Buddha. Then, Mahayana Buddhism includes all the Theravada teachings and also brings in the concept of a Bodhisattva, so the main focus is on Bodhicitta and compassion - the motivation of the Bodhisattva. The third vehicle, the Vajrayana, takes all these teachings as part of itself also. Vajrayana practice is not something separate – it needs the Theravada and Mahayana teachings as its basis and accepts all of them. So, therefore, if you are practising Vajrayana, you are practising all three vehicles.

A Vajrayana practitioner has to take core Buddhist principles, like Bodhicitta and the Six Paramitas, very much to heart. On top of that, they can also use special skilful means to transform and work on habitual tendencies. Anyone, at any level, can start on the Vajrayana path; it is not that you need to be a special kind of a person to take this path. But it can