Previously published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Becoming Your Own Therapist, by Lama Yeshe Advice for Monks and Nuns, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Virtue and Reality, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Make Your Mind an Ocean, by Lama Yeshe Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism, by Lama Yeshe Making Life Meaningful, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings from the Mani Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Direct and Unmistaken Method, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Yoga of Offering Food, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind, by Lama Yeshe Teachings from Tibet, by various great lamas The Joy of Compassion, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche The Kindness of Others, by Geshe Jampa Tegchok Ego, Attachment and Liberation, by Lama Yeshe How Things Exist, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Universal Love, by Lama Yeshe The Heart of the Path, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Freedom Through Understanding, by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche For initiates only: A Chat about Heruka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche A Chat about Yamantaka, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche In association with TDL Archive, Los Angeles: Mirror of Wisdom, by Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama Lama Yeshe DVDs The Three Principal Aspects of the Path Introduction to Tantra Offering Tsok to Heruka Vajrasattva Anxiety in the Nuclear Age Bringing Dharma to the West Lama at Disneyland Freedom Through Understanding (with Lama Zopa Rinpoche) May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, or talks or thinks about these books never be reborn in unfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths in situations conducive to the perfect practice of Dharma, meet only perfectly qualified spiritual guides, quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
Edited by Ailsa Cameron
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive • Boston
www.LamaYeshe.com A non-profit charitable organization for the benefit of all sentient beings and an affiliate of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition www.fpmt.org
Editor’s Preface
1 Friday, October 26 Combined Jorchö and Lama Chöpa Puja
- Extensive offering practice - Renewing the bodhisattva and tantric vows - Samayavajra practice - Rejoicing - The Eight Verses - Dedications 2 Friday, October 26 Retreat Preparation
- Motivation: impermanence and death - Blessing of the seat - Blessing of the body, speech and mind 3 Saturday, October 27 Discourse Before Medicine Buddha Preparation
- The solution is lam-rim - A letter to President Bush - Four basic ways to help - Benefi ts of Medicine Buddha practice - Dedications for the retreat 4 Saturday, October 27 Preparation For Medicine Buddha Initiation
- Medicine Buddha preparation - The false I - How time exists - Analyzing body and mind - The root of samsara - The dangers of self-cherishing - Cherishing others - Medicine Buddha preparation - Dedications 5 Saturday, October 27 Medicine Buddha Session
- Simple visualization - The power of mantra - Counting mantras - The main point 6 Sunday, October 28 Discourse Before Medicine Buddha Initiation
- Geshe Lama KonchogÕs story - The root of samsara - Bodhicitta motivation - Dedications 7 Monday, October 29 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Thirty-fi ve Buddhas practice - Making requests to the Medicine Buddhas - Action Tantra mudras - Making off erings - Motivation for mantra recitation - End of mantra recitation - Tea off ering to the protectors - Dedications 8 Tuesday, October 30 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Thirty-five Buddhas practice - Dedication of session - Mudras with prostration verses - Making off erings - Seven-limb practice - Meditating on emptiness - Motivation for mantra recitation - Tea offering to the protectors - Dedications 9 Wednesday, October 31 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Meditating on emptiness - Motivation for mantra recitation - King of Prayers - Dedications - Benef ts of holy objects - Dedications - The Bendigo Stupa 10 Thursday, November 1 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Requesting prayer - Aspects of the Medicine Buddhas - The nature of omniscient mind - Benefits of holy objects - Meditating on emptiness - Motivation for mantra recitation - Protector prayers - Dedications 11 Friday, November 2 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- The power of compassion - The causes of abuse - The benefits of living in vows - Dedications - Using abuse to develop compassion 12 Saturday, November 3 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice - Multiplying mantras 13 Sunday, November 4 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Motivation for Thirty-fi ve Buddhas practice - General confession - Taking refuge - Meditating on emptiness - Form is empty - Motivation for mantra recitation - Divine pride and clear appearance - Visualization during mantra recitation - Meditations during mantra recitation - The meaning of retreat 14 Monday, November 5 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Palden Lhamo - Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice - Dedications 14 Tuesday, November 6 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Dangers of wrong views - The nature of mind - The views of the four schools - Dedications 16 Wednesday, November 7 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Motivation - How the mind exists - Teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom - The Diamond-Cutter Sutra - Life in Solu Khumbu - Benefits of Th e Diamond-Cutter Sutra - Dedications - Tasting tsog on precept days - Final dedications 17 Thursday, November 8 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Medicine BuddhaÕs prayers - Making extensive offerings - Medicine BuddhaÕs prayers - Dedications 18 Friday, November 9 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Combining lam-rim with sessions - How dharmakaya manifests - PieroÕs story - Wish-Fulfi lling Golden Sun - What makes an action virtuous or nonvirtuous? - Dedications 19 Saturday, November 10 Combined Jorchö and Lama Chöpa Puja
- Extensive off ering practice - Dedications 20 Saturday, November 10 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Bodhicitta motivation - Overcoming anger and ego - Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice - Tsog offering - Protector prayers - Dedications 21 Sunday, November 11 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Ceasing samsara - The problem of desire - Saving the lives of animals - Dharma is the only solution - Harming others - Taking Mahayana refuge - The four immeasurable thoughts - Dedications 22 Monday, November 12 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- New York air disaster - Identifying the object of ignorance - The problems of desire - Identifying the object of ignorance - Dedications 23 Wednesday, November 14 Final Medicine Buddha Session
- Bodhicitta motivation - Benefits of Medicine Buddha practice - Dedications - Break-time practices 24 Saturday, November 17 Combined Jorchö and Lama Chöpa Puja
- The importance of Lama Chšpa - Gomo RinpocheÕs wisdom mother - The importance of Lama Chšpa - Extensive off ering practice - Taking bodhisattva and tantric vows - Requesting prayer to the lineage lamas - RinpocheÕs name mantra - Dedications - Mani pills 25 Saturday, November 17 Final Session
- Geshe Jampa Gyatso - The protector issue - Fire puja - Benefits of Medicine Buddha retreat
Appendixes
1. An Open Letter to President Bush
2. Benefits of Reciting the Seven Medicine Buddhas’ Names
We are extremely grateful to our friends and supporters who have made it possible for the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive to both exist and function: to Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whose kindness is impossible to repay; to Peter and Nicole Kedge and Venerable Ailsa Cameron for their initial work on the Archive; to Venerable Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa’s tireless assistant, for his kindness and consideration; and to our sustaining supporters: Barry and Connie Hershey, Joan Halsall, Tony Steel, Vajrayana Institute, Claire Atkins, Thubten Yeshe, Roger and Claire AshWheeler, Richard Gere, Doren and Mary Harper, Tom and Suzanne Castles, Lily Chang Wu and Hawk Furman.
Once more we offer countless thanks to Ven Ailsa Cameron for her dedicated, meticulous and skillful editing of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s inexpressibly precious teachings.
We are also deeply grateful to all those who have become members of the Archive over the past few years. Details of our membership program may be found at the back of this book, and if you are not a member, please do consider joining up. Due to the kindness of those who have, we now have several editors working on our vast collection of teachings for the benefit of all. We have posted our list of individual and corporate members on our website, www.LamaYeshe.com.
In particular, we thank our anonymous benefactors for so kindly sponsoring the production of this book. Furthermore, we would like to express our appreciation for the kindness and compassion of all those other generous benefactors who have contributed funds to our work since we began publishing free books. Thankfully, you are too numerous to mention individually in this book, but we value highly each and every donation made to spreading the Dharma for the sake of the kind mother sentient beings and now pay tribute to you all on our website. Thank you so much.
Finally, I would like to thank the many other kind people who have asked that their donations be kept anonymous; my wife, Wendy Cook, for her constant help and support; our dedicated office staff, Jennifer Barlow and Ven. Ani Tenzin Desal; Ven. Ailsa Cameron for her decades of meticulous editing; Ven. Connie Miller, Gordon McDougall, Michelle Bernard and our other editors; Ven. Kunsang for his tireless work recording Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Ven. Thubten Labdron, Ven. Thubten Munsel and Dr. Su Hung for their help with transcribing; Sandy Smith, Kim Li and our team of volunteer web editors; Ven. Bob Alcorn for his incredible work on our Lama Yeshe DVDs; David Zinn for his digital imaging expertise; Jonathan Steyn for his help with our audio work; Mandala Books and Wisdom Books for their great help with our distribution in Australia and Europe; and everybody else who helps us in so many ways. Thank you all.
If you, dear reader, would like to join this noble group of open-hearted altruists by contributing to the production of more books by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or to any other aspect of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s work, please contact us to find out how.
—Dr. Nicholas Ribush
Special Dedication for Alice Alexander 21 March 1908–11 July 2009 For Alice, who, through her simple humanity, kindness and generosity, touched the lives of so many, most often children, disadvantaged through poverty, illness and discrimination; who was an example to all who knew her of our human ability to grow and change for the better even, and especially, through her eighties and nineties, right up to her last days – may she journey through the bardo and into a precious human rebirth; may she meet the perfect spiritual mentors for her to continue the growth and change begun in this life and reach complete awakening as quickly as possible. Through the merit of having contributed to the spread of the Buddha’s teachings for the sake of all sentient beings, may our benefactors and their families and friends have long and healthy lives, all happiness, and may all their Dharma wishes be instantly fulfilled.
Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche gave the teachings in this book during a Medicine Buddha retreat held at Land of Medicine Buddha in Soquel, California, from October 26 to November 17, 2001. Having himself recently completed a Medicine Buddha retreat, Rinpoche began by giving a Medicine Buddha great initiation on October 27 and 28. Rinpoche commuted from his nearby home in Aptos almost daily for the duration of the retreat, attending the final retreat session most days, with the teachings generally finishing in the early hours of the morning after recitation of various protector prayers and extensive dedications. The days began with Combined Jorchö and Lama Chöpa Puja, which Rinpoche attended three times.1
With the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and elsewhere still painfully fresh, Rinpoche emphasized the urgent need for and benefits of Medicine Buddha practice and the need for compassion for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, and shared the details of his open letter to President Bush about how to avert war and other disasters. There are numerous references to the war in Afghanistan, missiles and other weapons, and world economic problems. However, Rinpoche also gave detailed, invaluable teachings on emptiness, focusing especially on identifying the ignorance that is the root of samsara and of all suffering and on how to eliminate it. Rinpoche also covered a myriad of other subjects, including making extensive offerings, the nature of anger and desire, rejoicing, generating bodhicitta, the four immeasurable thoughts and ritual practice. As Rinpoche explains, “My stories are like a spider’s web, with one strand connected here and another one connected there.” There are strands that connect teachings, for example, to stories of the great yogis Serkong Dorje Chang, Gen Jampa Wangdu and Geshe Lama Konchog and of Rinpoche’s childhood in Solu Khumbu.
These are edited transcripts of the teachings given during the retreat. Unfortunately, since one audiotape was lost, most of the advice on preparing for the retreat is missing. Also, because the recording of sessions was not continuous, there are some gaps in the teachings and sudden jumps to new topics. In the eighteenth discourse, the replies in the discussion about what determines whether an action is virtuous or nonvirtuous were inaudible, but Rinpoche’s responses in the one-sided debate have been retained.
When talking about the benefits of Medicine Buddha practice, Rinpoche was usually translating directly from sutra sources, with the quotations from the sutras often hard to separate from Rinpoche’s commentary to them. It would be safest to regard the indented quotations as paraphrases rather than word-by-word translations of the sutra texts.
My heartfelt thanks to Rinpoche for his kindness and patience in giving the rich teachings in this book—and in the long wait for their publication; to all the LMB staff who organized and supported the re...
Sharmik