SIX BARDOs TEACHING (Part 2)

(A brief teaching by H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche, Nov.1982 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

2. Bardo of Dream

Here the principle of this bardo is explaining that which makes us able to understand whole universe, whole life, whole experience as a dream. The principle here is 3, the samsaric dream, the life dream, the sleeping dream, three of them. From beginningless time until the realization of ultimate, which is Buddhahood, this is the dream of samsara.

No matter which realm we belong to, no matter what kind of individual we are, anyway we are dreaming.  The all aspect of trips of ego even we are an animal still we have “I”.   Even if we are a human being, still we have "I". Even if we are a deva still we have "I". We can be rich one; we can be poor one; we can be people of different nation and different culture, always we have "I".  This “I”.... we wake up from it when we achieve the enlightenment. That is the only time when we are free from this "I" totally and that is the samsara dream.

The second dream is the life dream. Life dream is known as dream of Karma.  According to our individual we experience the dream of Karma. Even about the same thing, sometimes we are happy about it, sometimes we hate it; sometimes it helps us, sometimes it bothers us. Nothing is certain; nothing is real, always fixed, as true existence.... everything change. About the same thing, various people have various aspects of way of looking at it, affect by this. This is the life dream.  It starts when we are born.  It ends when we die, but another one will start. This is the life dream.

Now the sleeping dream. The sleeping dream is dream of sub-conscious.

According to what kind of sub-conscious we have, we will dream that.  Sometimes we dream about the future. Sometimes we dream about the past, but will not dream anything which has nothing to do with us. Whatever we dream has something to do with us. May be we imagine that way. May be we have this experience before. May be we have karma to experience that in future. Because of that sometimes dreams come true. This is the sleeping dream. We wake up from this when we wake up in the morning. And now in this teaching the practice is first to realize the unrealness and the illusion of the sleeping dream. You have awareness so that your dream cannot fool you anymore. You can control your dream instead of dream controls you - and since you have this freedom completely, then you will have certain amount of freedom in the life. This life dream cannot control you anymore. You can control your life dream. The miracles of great realized beings also come in this point.

Here I want to make a little comment under miracle and the magic. People, it is very simple, but still people make mistake between the miracle and the magic. The miracle is ultimate quality that is ultimate freedom. The magic is relative kind of performance.

You know how to do things by learning the material tricks, or the important powerful substance, or the special words or the strong imagination can make things happen, but that is not always happened when we do. That is involved with hope and fear. Hope that “I want to do it”; “I want to do it successfully”, and fear that “May be I will not succeed this time”, and this is always involved with the "I" the ego. That is why there is hope and fear. It is interesting - interesting things to watch, but there is not really a quality which benefits you ultimately. Even the magicians themselves have full of suffering, full of desire, anger, ignorance, everything but their greatness is that they know the trick. They know the key. But we can learn one thing from the magic. It proves us, all the samsara is illusion. Because of this illusion, magic can also be performed. If it isn't illusion, nothing can happen behind of what is there. 

And the miracle, miracle is freedom. It has nothing to do with hope, nothing to do with fear. It has nothing to do with ego. How less your ego is, that profound your miracle is. People see miracle. People experienced miracle but they don't recognize it.  The miracle, simple miracle of profound teaching of Buddha - this can change life of a being who is suffering one, who is evil one, into life of the most kind being, just by moment of right understanding. This miracle of the simple basic Dharma can change whole world into peace. Simply people know one of the very simple first step - understanding - the basic loving kindness and compassion to each other as a brother and sister. Then, how the violence, all kind of wars, and how those things can happen, not possible. And one simple basic point of Dharma, this miracle changes whole world into peace. If being are capable of learning this and accepting this, and more than that the performance of the miracle, you know, how the past great yogis -- have been done, those things are also freedom. For example, they are having the freedom of the life dream. Same as we can have the freedom of the sleeping dream quite easily.   In your dream you see a fire. You know you are dreaming. You know you are in your little room - there is no fire. You see your hands in your dream but your hand is dreaming hands; not really physical hands. You put your dream hand on your dream fire for 5 hours, it will not burn your finger. It will not burn your hand but this is not magic! This is miracle. The miracle of the great master of the past are performed that way. They have the freedom because they have realized the ultimate. Because of that, nothing makes any different for them. That is the way how the miracle is performed.  Miracles are not limited. All the time it is limitless - and then, since one have the freedom of the life dream, then that is the beginning of the freedom of the samsara dream. The total development of the freedom and the awakening of the samsara dream are known as realization of the Buddhahood. And this is the principle of the Bardo of dream.

Briefly about H.E. Tai Situpa and Karma Kagyu Lineage

H.E.12^th Tai Situ Rinpoche (born on 15^th Feburualy1954) founded the Palpung – Sherabling Monastery in Northern India in the Himalayan Regions. He is the Root Guru of the present 17^th Gyalwa Karmapa.

The 11^th Tai Situ Rinpoche was the Root Guru of 16^th Gyalwa  Karmapa and the 16^th Gyalwa Karmapa was the Root Guru of 12^th Tai Situpa. By tracing back to the past, the two of them took turn to be Guru in one life and became the disciple in the next life. This is the way how the lineage is kept unbroken from Guru to disciple in the Karma Kagyu 

This lineage was founded by Vajra Dhara (Dorje Chang), sambhogakaya form of Buddha Sakyamuni, who taught Tilopa , an Indian Mahasidha. And this lineage from India continued to Tibet unbroken until the present 12^th Tai Situ Rinpoche who is the only holder of the Special Oral Transmission Lineage of the Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism. When a person receives this Special Oral Transmission, he or she will get immediate good experience in his or her meditation practice. According to Rinpoche, to receive this Special Oral Transmission Blessings, the devotee’s Karma must be ripe at that time. This blessing is powerful because it comes from the whole Karma Kagyu Lineage.

2. How to obtain a good life - Luck?

Everybody wants to have a good life. However, until today, how many of us have really achieved this? For those who are already past their sixties, ask frankly to yourself, have you lived the way you wanted?

Many of us may not have lived the way we wanted. Why is this so? There are of course many reasons to this. My many years of searching for the answers has led to me the conclusion that many people believe that they would be able to live the way they wanted if they had better "luck" in their early days.

“LUCK” is what many people believe in. They believe that luck plays an important role in life. They believe that besides being hardworking, honest, the academic qualifications and etc., “luck” is still necessary to make things happened. They quote examples after examples. Some even quoted to me the famous film show “My Fair Lady” in which the song, titled “With a little bit of luck" to justify their claims!

What do you think? Is there such a thing as “luck”? Do you believe in luck?
Here I would like to share with you some of my findings from my travels to many places during these last 10 years of my life. I met people from different parts of the world and from different walks of life. I realize that most people are not sure of what they mean when they say by "being lucky”. Some believe that "luck" just happen by chance. I find that Japanese can interpret the word" luck" with clearer expression.

The Japanese word for “luck” is ”運”(pronounce as “wun”). ”運” can be good or bad. But ”運” is customary followed by another word ”気” (pronounced as “qi”) which means energy. Let me quote here what a Japanese had said to me,"When “運気” goes up, you can attract good luck or fortune. When the “運気” comes down, you'll attract bad luck." This is similar to the Chinese belief that when one’s essence of positive energy “福” becomes strong, life is good. Things go smoothly. Everything is fine. Most Japanese think this way too. Hence, we need to create the causes and conditions for “福” or "運気" to take place in one’s life.

Buddhists believe that we have sown the seeds of both good and bad Karma in our countless past lives. If the seeds of good Karma manifest in this life in abundance, we will have a good life, no doubt about this. But if we lack the “福” in this life, we shall have obstacles. However, we can remove these obstacles. We do this by prayers and merit accumulations.
Buddha has taught many ways to increase our “福” (merit accumulations). Thailand is a Buddhist country. They take the advice of Buddha very seriously. They go to “taan bun” (merit accumulations) whenever and wherever they can.

On 21st Feb. was an important day for the Thais. The day was known as "Makha Bucha" Day. It was the 15th of 1st Lunar Month, a full moon day. It is an auspicious day for both Thais and Chinese. Traditionally, it is the last day to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Makha Bucha Day is for merit accumulations. On that day, the Thai Buddhists circled around temples or holy stupas with candles in the evening. (Enclosed here are some of the pictures taken in Wat Phra Sri, Bangkok. Wat Phra Sri is only 20 minutes of walking distance from where I live.) The Makha Bucha Day is a public holiday in Thailand. Millions of Buddhists all over Thailand go to monasteries in the evening to do "wian tian" (candle circling), which is one of the important events in Thai Buddhism.

When we do merit accumulations in this life, it may help to kindle the seeds of merits sown in our past lives. We don't know exactly which kind of good deeds we have done in this life that would help to kindle the seeds of good Karma done in the past lives. Therefore, try to do as many different types of good deeds and as much as possible. There is no such thing as we have done enough good deeds in this life already. If you have such a thought, it boils down to the same thing by saying that "I have enough money already!". I have never heard people saying that they had enough money already. But I always heard people saying, "I have done enough merit accumulations already!"

This is the mistake many people made. Like money, Hock （福）is being used up moment to moment in our life. We transform our Hock （福）in life energy in order to carry on living and dying and living daily, moment to moment in our life. Hock （福） is being destroyed at the moment our defilement (e.g. pride, jealousy, greed, etc... ) appear in our mind. Hock （福）can be decreased and increased moment to moment in our life. So, it's very important to keep on increasing our Hock（福）. Spending some money or efforts to do good deeds are similar to investing in blue chip stocks. There will definitely be good returns in the future.

Merits （福）are accumulated from generosity practices with right motivation (i.e. compassion and loving kindness) . The merits--Hock（福）-- gathered in this way would definitely help to kindle further seeds of merit planted in the past. When abundant seeds of merits ripen in this life, we would definitely have our wishes come true.
For certain, a good and wonderful life is attainable. Some people may think this is just "lucky".

In conclusion, "luck" does not happen by chance or at random. "Luck" is dependent on its own causes and conditions to bloom. We can plant the seeds of these causes and conditions for it to blossom through accumulation of merits--Hock （福）.

1.Chinese New Year Message - To have good life

Hi,
恭喜发财 （ Gong Xi Fatt Chai ） !!!!!!!

And a very Happy Chinese New Year to you!

Buddha says: Life lingers on from moment to moment; life after life. He taught this in the Abhidharma (The Higher Teaching). We can experience the well-being, moment to moment, life after life, is due to our Merit accumulations.

Our present lifestyles on this Earth are possible because of our collective merit accumulations. Different countries or societies will experience different lifestyles because each country or society’s collective merit accumulations is different. Merit accumulations can be gained through positive actions and lost or destroyed through negative actions moment to moment in our lives.

During this festive season, you'll notice that the Chinese word "福 (Fu)" is being displayed in every Chinese house. The ancient Chinese Sages discovered this principle before Buddhism had arrived in China. Throughout the ages, the Chinese Sages emphasized that "福" is very closely woven in our lives. "福" has to do with all the good things we wish to have in our lives. And they are not wrong about this idea because Buddha taught about this too.

Buddhism emphasizes Merit Accumulations, which is a similar concept to the Chinese Sages’ concept about "福". Nowadays, Buddhist devotees are constantly reminded by monks, nuns, lamas and Rinpoches that Merit Accumulations are important for their well-being including to progress in their Dharma practices. Therefore, there are many methods in Buddhist practice for merit accumulations.

In Thailand, to accumulate "福" is to “taan bun”. The Thais are very happy when they visit monasteries to “taan bun”. There are four special days in a month (called “wan phra” – Buddha’s day) where Thais crowd the monasteries to “taan bun”. They rejoice very much after they have “taan bun”, because they believe that “taan bun” will help their lives to become better. You can see this in their faces after they have completed the ceremony of "taan bun".

"福" appears as an Essence of positive energy in our mind stream. This Essence can be transformed into anything through right combination with right timing. In Tibetan Buddhism, there are various skillful methods of transforming this Essence of positive energy. Our creative ideas sprung from this Essence in our mind stream.

Unknowingly, we can destroy our ”福” too. This is done through body, speech and mind. We do this by having negative actions moment to moment in our daily life. What are the negative actions that destroy “福”? Both the Chinese Sages and Buddha agrees that “福” or Merit Accumulations are destroyed through negative emotions such as jealousy, anger, hatred, pride, stinginess and uncontrolled desires arising in our mind from moment to moment. However, all these negative emotions can be corrected through practicing the Teachings taught by Buddha.

Buddhism emphasized Mental Development Activities commonly known as Meditation. Through this method, we can develop healthier minds, which can reduce negative emotions slowly but steadily. As a result, we are able to save ourselves from destroying this precious Essence of positive energy in our mind streams.

Most people can't have their wishes come true because they are lacking the “福”.I notice that most of us have destroyed more “福” than gaining it. Hence, when we lack merit accumulations (福), obstacles are sure to appear on our way to achieve our goals and our wishes may not come true.

In my opinion, if we wish to materialize our dreams in careers or businesses, our “福” (Merit Accumulations) need to be increased and activated so that it can be transformed into monetary terms or prosperities, opportunity to practice Dharma without obstacles in order to gain joy, happiness, peace of mind and etc. We can have good lives through constantly accumulating the “福” wherever and whenever we can.

WE NEED MERIT ACCUMULATIONS ( 福 ) FOR EVERYTHING WE DO , OR HAVE OR ACHIEVE OR WHATEVER!

In my next message, I shall write about methods of accumulating “福”.

May this New Year Message benefit you.

With Best of regards.
Achan Lama Hui Guo