An Aspiration For the New Tibetan Year

I would like to share with you a prayer which I find very moving. It is an aspiration prayer by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, who is the main figure of the Jonang lineage.

“May I, throughout my each and every life,

Illumine buddha's teachings, make them bright.

Yet, if I cannot so elucidate,

Then may I shoulder dharma's mighty weight.

Yet, if the load is more than I can bear,

May I at least feel deep concern and care.

And, worrying about dharma's decline,

Stand guard and keep an ever watchful eye.”

It starts with the prayer that, throughout each and every life, may he be able to elucidate the dharma – the dharma of scripture and the dharma of realisation. In brief, he’s making the prayer to be able to propagate the teachings of scripture and realisation.

And then he continues, “If I am unable to illuminate the buddha dharma, then may I be able to take responsibility for it. And even if I cannot carry the burden of the teachings, of the buddha dharma, then may I at least feel deep concern for the teachings, may I worry about their decline, if I see them declining.”

So he starts by praying that he may become somebody who is a holder of the teachings. That’s not to say he is praying to become a high lama. That’s not the point. Instead, he is praying that he may be able to bring the buddha dharma into people’s minds and hearts, and therefore benefit sentient beings.

When it comes to being a holder of the buddha dharma, on the one hand it can be seen to be an extremely difficult thing. But on the other hand, it needn’t be all that difficult at all. For example, if we diligently study the dharma, we become somebody who is a holder of the teachings, a holder of the buddha dharma.

The dharma of scripture is propagated through the dharma being taught and received, so if you listen to the teachings very attentively, then you are upholding the teachings, maintaining the dharma. If you know how to listen, that is. If nobody is listening to the teachings, then the teachings disappear.

So from that perspective, it’s not so difficult to become a holder of the teachings. We tend to think somebody who is teaching the dharma is an upholder of the teachings, yet we don’t tend to think that those who are listening to the teachings are upholders of the teachings. But they are! The teachings are not going to be propagated by teachers teaching to empty halls. So when a teacher and a student come together and the student listens to the teachings very carefully, the teachings are maintained and propagated.

How are the teachings of realisation propagated? Through practice. We have to exert ourselves in the practice of the dharma. As we always say, the dharma of realisation is the practice of the three trainings (discipline, concentration and intelligence). And the dharma of scripture is the teaching and study of the three baskets (the discourses, the metaphysics and the discipline). So by practising as well as we can, we are somebody who is upholding the buddha dharma, a holder of the teachings.

We tend not to think that if we are staying in retreat that we are an upholder of the teachings, somebody who holds the dharma. But if we know how to practice, then we certainly are!

“Yet, if I cannot so elucidate,

Then may I shoulder dharma's mighty weight.”

So even if we are not able to uphold the teachings of scripture and realisation in this way, we can aspire to be somebody who is able to shoulder responsibility for them, to really apply themselves for the sake of the buddha dharma with a sense of responsibility. But of course this requires that we have correctly identified what is meant by ‘buddha dharma’; which is to say that when we think of the buddha dharma it is scripture and realisation that come to mind.

So the second part of the prayer is to be somebody who gives all their efforts to the buddha dharma and not direct them externally.

And then if we can’t be like that then, at the very least, to be somebody who is worried and concerned about the buddha dharma.

“Yet, if the load is more than I can bear,

May I at least feel deep concern and care.

And, worried that it may be in decline,

May I maintain an ever watchful eye.”

When I think about myself in relation to this prayer, I am not somebody who is able to elucidate or illuminate the buddha dharma. Nor am I really somebody who is able to shoulder the burden of responsibility for the dharma. But I am somebody who thinks how wonderful it would be if the buddha’s teachings were to propagate and spread throughout the world. I am also somebody who worries about the buddha dharma. Maybe not so much anymore but just in causal daydreams I used to always think about setting up shedras and the like, thinking about what sort of khenpos should I invite to teach, what treatises should be taught, etc. It was just fanciful daydreaming, I have no such ability in reality. It was just like Dawa Drakpa’s father as we see at the beginning of 'Words of my Perfect Teacher'. I would also think about what sort of environment is needed to have a decent place to practise and to meditate, what sort of setting it takes in order to become a decent practitioner. And for yourselves, I often think about how wonderful it would be if you could become excellent meditators, practitioners, real dharma people. It's not like there’s anything in it for me, it’s not like I would be benefited by you becoming decent practitioners with a good view and what have you.

For example, even in my dreams at night I worry about you who come to rely on me for the dharma. I dream about what would be the best course of action for you in order to become decent Buddhists and so on. And if I see you making mistakes or making bad choices even in my dreams, it causes me concern. So therefore I think maybe I do fall into the category of this latter type, the type who is worried or concerned about the buddha dharma. I am concerned about you being able to see the path through to completion.

I honestly find this prayer very moving. (Rinpoche reads the prayer again)

When we look at the current situation, it seems that there are very few people these days who are concerned about the buddha dharma. When I think about it, it seems that most people are happy as long as they get the money and the renown they seek, and whatever happens to the buddha dharma in the meantime is forgotten or disregarded. As I see it, we're all tied up and deceived by name, status, money and position. So what people are concerned about is the world, just getting on in the world. I don’t know if my way of seeing things is exactly as it is, but maybe there is something to it.

10th January 2021, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal

བདག་ནི་སྐྱེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ། །

བསྟན་པ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་གྱུར་ཅིག །

བསྟན་པ་གསལ་བར་མ་ནུས་ནའང༌། །

བསྟན་པའི་ཁུར་ཆེན་འཁུར་བར་ཤོག །

ཁུར་ཆེན་བཀུར་བར་མ་ནུས་ནའང༌། །

བསྟན་པའི་སེམས་ཁྲལ་བྱེད་པ་དང༌། །

བསྟན་པ་ཉམས་ཀྱིས་དོགས་པ་ཡི། །

བྱ་ར་ཙམ་ཡང་བྱེད་པར་ཤོག །