Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Geshe Sonam Rinchen guides practitioners through a detailed visualization-based refuge practice, centered on constructing an elaborate field of objects of refuge. The session walks through the precise spatial arrangement: Buddha Śākyamūni at the center surrounded by five groups of gurus on thrones, then concentric circles containing meditational deities, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, solitary realizers, hearers, dakas and dakinis, and Dharma protectors. Geshe-la emphasizes that the essential practice is to feel the presence of these beings rather than see every individual figure. He then explains the three-stage refuge recitation using colored light and nectar visualizations: white light for purification when taking refuge in the guru, then white followed by yellow when taking refuge in the Buddha, and the same for Sangha, each phase targeting specific negative actions to be purified. The teaching concludes with generating altruistic motivation and transforming into a Buddha who emanates to liberate all beings. Pitched at practitioners beginning Buddhist practice and meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 CtM.mp3
UUID: 8d8857a6-893e-4e62-a543-6de2b7d1d700
Teacher: Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Collection: Calming of the Mind (Geshe Sonam Rinchen)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 46.1 minutes
Words: ~3,606
These are the five groups of Gurus around these different thrones. You’ve got the Buddha in the middle and then you’ve got the four thrones with the gurus round and the whole thing is called the five sets of gurus. There isn’t actually anybody around the central throne. All this is set on the big throne, on the big spacious throne and there’s still a whole lot of room on it. You have to imagine it real big because there’s still quite a lot of things to fit onto it.
These thrones that were in the cardinal directions, they’re not right out by the edge. They’re sort of in towards the center around the Buddha’s throne because now all around the outside of that, in a circle around the outside of that on the big spacious throne are all the meditational deities. You know, all the tantric deities. So whatever practice you do, some people do Tārā practice, other people do Chenrezig practice, vajra, Yoginī, Yamāntaka, all these deities are around there. All these meditational deities are around the outside.
So these are now all in concentric circles. You have four groups of tantra from the highest yoga tantra down to the action tantra. So those are all in concentric circles and then around the outside of those are all different Buddhas, enlightened beings like the medicinal Buddhas and so on. So there are lots of different Buddhas around the outside. And then another concentric circle of Bodhisattvas all appearing as celestial beings.
Then you have the Pratyekabuddha and Shravakas. The Pratyekabuddha are the solitary realizer Buddhas. They have a little bump like the Buddha, like this Buddha on their heads and they are wearing the three robes of a fully ordained monk, those saffron robes. The hearers, hearers, you know like listen and hear, heroes, they have no bump and also are wearing the yellow robes. And then around the outside of that you have the dakas and dakinis, you know, the heroes and heroines.
You can imagine them all dancing. So they’re all in different postures of dance. And then around those, there’s another circle now which is protectors, Dharma protectors. So the protectors of the Dharma. So you’ve got a big crowd there.
Visualize the the field of refuge, it means that big crowd which is a bit difficult. Geshe-la says it’s not difficult. He says if you practice properly for a time, then you can do it. Just just think of the Australian parliament. He says, you don’t need to I said, well, could you be able to, you know, visualize each person in parliament?
And he said that’s not necessary. Just sort of evoke a general picture of them all there. So the most important thing, the most essential part of it is to actually feel that they are there rather than actually seeing each individual figure in it. You have to feel that they are all present. So it’s good for us to practice in this way and when we actually find ourselves in a crisis then we have something to imagine, something to turn to.
If we don’t even begin to practice now, then when we really need to imagine the field of refuge or the field of protection, then we won’t have anything to work with at that time if we haven’t begun now. Then having set up that visualization, that pictures that were, that visualization in front of you, then you should think about yourself. So you should think that you are surrounded by all living creatures. Form. Then you should think that you all have a feeling of great admiration for the field of refuge which you’ve visualized.
The field of refuge refuge at the same time is not just out there and has no connection with you but they are looking at you with great love and affection that there is actually a feeling coming from them that they’re not just out there and static. Then you should think about the two factors which are leading you to seek protection that we were talking about earlier. Yeah. Yeah. And then in according to the Tibetan tradition, you always take refuge in the guru first.
Right? So as you think, I take refuge in the guru, you particularly focus on all those gurus, the Buddha Śākyamūni in the middle and then the four groups around him of the gurus. Those all count as the gurus in that context. So one is not saying that the Guru is more important than the Buddha but one is just acknowledging the Guru’s kindness by putting him first. One is just reminding oneself and acknowledging the Guru’s great kindness. And when you say I take refuge in the guru and you’re concentrating on the five thrones at the center and all the gurus that are there, then you imagine So imagine light and nectar coming from all objects of refuge, from that whole refuge field, from everything that you imagined.
But particularly from those five thrones from the gurus on those five thrones and around those five thrones. You imagine white light. So there are rainbow lights coming, right? Five colored lights coming but white light and white nectar predominate. So from everything there is light coming out and especially from the five thrones at the center and from the gurus who surround them.
It’s five colored light, it’s rainbow light but predominating in that is white light and white nectar coming towards you. You imagine this white light and nectar and the other light as well, but particularly the white light and nectar entering the crown of your head completely filling up your body. And then you imagine that that white light and nectar is purifying all your negative past deeds and the imprints of those deeds and all limitations and obscurations and particularly the negative energy created by disobeying your guru, by lack of respect and faith in your guru. So then the way that people do this traditionally is to recite, I take refuge in the Guru, I take refuge in the Guru. So you don’t go through the other jewels at this point.
You just go through, I take refuge in the Guru and whatever formula you use, whether you use the Tibetan or the Sanskrit or the English. If say you’re doing a whole round of the mantra, if you’re doing a whole round of your beads, then that would be a hundred or something. So for the first fifty, you imagine this white light, white light and nectar coming. And then you do exactly the same thing you imagine, the five colored lights coming and then yellow light and nectar predominate in the next lot. Yellow light and nectar and you go on still saying the same thing.
Imagine again that it fills your body completely and you think that your life force has been increased, your lifespan as well, longevity and that your positive energy and your knowledge and qualities and so on, that these have all been increased. And now you’ve finished one mala round, one round of your beads because that would be the next fifty. And now you go on to taking refuge in the Buddha. And when you are taking refuge in the Buddha, who do you specifically focus on? When we were setting up the visualization, we had the meditational deities in the first concentric circle nearest those five thrones in the innermost one.
And then on the next one, the next one was all kinds of Buddhas, you know, medicinal Buddhas and so on. So you focus So you focus on the meditational deities and on those Buddhas when you say I take refuge in the Buddha or Buddhas and then you imagine those lights coming again. It’s exactly the same thing and now primarily white light and white nectar first. So white is always for purification. You imagine that you’re being purified again in the same way as before and now specifically that you’re being purified of having been disrespectful to images or representations of the Buddhas.
Of course that will include the meditation deities who are also aspects of enlightened beings. So they’re also enlightened beings. So having been disrespectful they’re disrespectful to statues, having bought and sold them, and having criticized them, having criticized them. So all these things. Now you may not have done very much of that in this life, but we may have done it in other lives.
Yeah. And then you imagine yourself completely purified and So you imagine yourself completely purified of all these faults and their imprints and then you imagine the yellow nectar and light and imagine yourself filled with the with waves of inspiring blessings from the from the Buddhas. So something we forgot to imagine was that each of those gurus that we imagined around the thrones, each of those gurus had his works that he had written. The books that he had composed. The books that he had written piled up in front of him.
Actually, these texts that are in front of them represent the limitations that they’ve overcome and the insights that they’ve gained. So that’s what they actually represent. So then you imagine all these volumes, I mean the volume, not all of the Gurus of course wrote things down but they gave teachings and so on. You imagine embodying their teachings, the texts embodying the teachings they gave, the insights that they have and the limitations that they’ve overcome. So you imagine all these texts giving off radiant light and first the white light and nectar, removing all obstacles and limitations and then yellow light and nectar increasing all the positive factors of your personality.
And then specifically what’s being purified there, well there are all sorts of things that we’ve done which are disrespectful actually of the actual texts which contain the teaching. Things like putting them on the ground and walking over them and putting them on the place where you sit and in general not treating them in a respectful way. They should be treated in a respectful way because of what they represent. Anything that we’ve done of that kind is purified by the white light and nectar. And also even more serious than those things, actual discrimination that we make between the different kinds of teachings there are.
For example, disparaging the Theravāda Buddhism and being biased towards Mahāyāna or being biased against Mahāyāna. And saying that Theravāda practices better and Tantric Buddhism having prejudice against that and saying no, no, that’s not the way and this is the way. Of that kind, which is really not good to do. Next, when we take refuge in the spiritual community, in the Sangha, then in our concentric circles, right, we think about the Yeah. Yeah.
We think about the bodhisattvas. We focus specifically on the bodhisattvas, on the Bodhisattvas, on the solitary realizer and hearers. Those are practitioners of the lower vehicle as opposed to the Mahāyāna, the great vehicle. So the hearers and solitary realizers and then we think about the focus on the dakas and dakinis and on the dharma protectors. So they all belong to the spiritual community and we focus on them.
And you then visualize exactly the same process with the white nectar and light purifying and the yellow nectar and light increasing the good aspects of your personality. What are we specifically purifying there? Any kind of bias that we have shown against part of the spiritual community? For example, I mean if we’re sectarian or if we prefer certain, know, monks of a certain tradition against those of another, anything like that or causing division among members of the spiritual community, causing them to become hostile to one another or making them more hostile if there is already some kind of rift. I mean anything like that, trouble within the spiritual community.
So if we do this practice, then it’s a way of completely removing the negative imprints that we have from negative actions that we’ve performed in the past and a way to remove our various obstacles. So when you’ve done the when you’ve taken refuge in this way, sought protection in this way, then the next thing you should do is to generate the altruistic attitude which we do. I mean when we say that little prayer at the beginning, those four lines. So what we’re doing is taking refuge first, seeking protection, and then after that we generate the altruistic attitude. Then what you can do is generate the altruistic attitude by imagining yourself as the result.
So when you think about the positive energy that you’ve created by acts of generosity, by keeping to an ethical code of behavior and by many other ways by making offerings and so on. Many different ways of creating positive energy. When you dedicate that positive energy and wish that it will be a cause for all sentient beings to attain highest happiness. You wish to attain enlightenment that that positive energy may become a cause for you to attain enlightenment so as to help all sentient beings or living creatures to attain lasting and stable happiness, then that wish is the aspiring altruistic attitude. In other words, it’s an altruistic attitude based on aspiration.
And when you when you think, I want to lead all living creatures to enlightenment, to lasting happiness and in order to do that I am actually going to practice the deeds of a bodhisattva. I am actually going to try and perform the deeds, the actions of a bodhisattva, then that’s the altruistic attitude which is to do with engaging in action. So when you generate both these kinds of altruistic attitude, the aspiration as well as the commitment to actually involve yourself in action, when you generate that attitude, you imagine that the Buddha Śākyamūni at the center of your field of refuge is tremendously pleased that he’s really delighted and there’s a little duplicate, a duplicate Śākyamūni Buddha comes out from him. He’s so delighted that he sends out this duplicate and the duplicate Buddha Śākyamūni lands on the crown of your head and merges into you. Then you imagine yourself at that moment transforming into a Buddha.
So you transform into exactly the same kind of Buddha and imagine yourself as such. And then you need to completely identify with that. You need to identify with that and sort of feel proud of being a Buddha. Know, you imagine that you become a Buddha, you take pride in that and identify with that. Then remember you’ve got all those living creatures still around you in the form of human beings.
So now you emanate countless Buddhas. So They’re all the same. You emanate all these countless Buddhas and they go to each of these sentient beings in exactly the way the one that landed on your head then entered you and you suddenly were transformed into a Buddha. The same thing happens with the living creatures around you. The Buddhas enter them and they transform into Buddhas too.
So if we are capable of doing this, of imagining all this, this is a very productive practice. So first of all, we need to recall how all, precious human life is and then we need to remind ourselves of our own mortality. Then we have to take account of, recognize the suffering and problems that this kind of existence that we have now, this cyclic existence that we have involves and particularly difficulties and suffering that have to be encountered in the lower states of the unfortunate states of rebirth. And if we feel really frightened and fed up with all that suffering and all those problems, if we feel frightened of them and fed up with them, then it will impel us to seek protection. It naturally leads to taking refuge, to seeking protection in the Three Jewels.
And then when we take our direction from the Three Jewels, we need to take stock of the law of causation. We have to try to understand that the law of cause and effect actually does function in a certain way. If we do all these things, right, all these different practices that we’ve just talked about now, we complete the practices of the person of limited scope in Buddhism like the three scopes of activity. The first area of focus is included within all those stages that we’ve described now. These practices, all these things that have been described like from realizing how precious human life is right through to understanding that the law of causation actually does function in certain way, gaining some understanding of that.
These practices are extremely important. We have to try and gain insights and understanding of these aspects of Buddhism because these are the most important things for us who are beginners. And if you have trouble thinking of such an enormous visualization, then you can think just of the Buddha Śākyamūni. You can imagine just the Buddha Śākyamūni before you and imagine that he is the embodiment of all those other objects of refuge that we imagined before. So you imagine the Buddha Śākyamūni.
Yeah. Yeah. You imagine the Buddha Śākyamūni on a throne and then with the lotus and the moon cushion and he’s sitting on that. And then at his heart is a moon disc and on the moon disc is his mantra. It has the syllables of his mantra around it and they stand in a clockwise direction around the edge of the moon disk.
That is Śākyamūni. Anyway, the mantra stands in a clockwise direction around the moon disk. So it doesn’t move, right? It just the syllables stand around the edge of the moon disc. Yeah.
Yeah. There is a lady called Lorraine and her father died yesterday and she asked to see Geshe-la this morning. So she came here this morning to see him and now she’s gone off to Melbourne. Talking to Geshe-la He died very, very suddenly. She was talking to Geshe-la about him and then she asked whether there was anything she could do for him.
She said, Yen Rinpoche told her that the best thing she could do was to create some positive energy, to try and create some positive energy because of very close connection between her and her father. So it was good to try and create some positive energy. Then Geshe-la told her that it would be good for her to say mantras like Om Mani Padme Hum and to make prayers for her father should find a good rebirth, you know, to do things like that. And then he also said to her that she should make a small offering to Buddha House. He he said actually that even one dollar would be enough because just as a symbol, as a material symbol and that we would say prayers this evening, we would spend a few minutes saying prayers this evening that her father should find a good rebirth.
So she offered twenty dollars actually. So Geshe-la was given this money and he says he wants to offer that money for certain prayers that have to be put inside the statue of the Buddha. So there are certain prayers and mantras that have to be put inside. A very big statue so it’s going to take a lot. There’s going to have to be a lot of paper put inside there.
Other things as well have to be put inside. Geshe-la would like that money to be used for that purpose. And I think this is a good thing to do with it because it’s absolutely without question that if the money is used for something positive like that, it will create good energy, positive potential. Since it’s somebody who is connected with him, very close to him, who has offered the money, there is a definite bond and it will affect him. In Tibet, it was tradition that if one of your parents died or your husband or wife died, you used to have a thangka painted, one of these religious paintings painted, or you would have a statue made.
And he said that’s why you find so many statues in Tibet because this was a tradition that when somebody died, this is one of the things that you did with some of the money that belonged to that person, with your own money, if you had a close connection with that person. For the purpose of their finding a good rebirth and to counterbalance any negative energy, any negative imprints. So now we just set up a visualization of the Buddha Śākyamūni, you know, on the throne and the lotus on the lotus and the moon cushion. And then at his heart is the mantra, So Geshe-la is going to recite it and we can recite it with him. And we should imagine just wait a minute.
We should imagine that there’s that from the mantra from the Buddha Śākyamūni and from the mantra that we’re visualizing, all this white light and nectar comes out and then we should imagine Lorraine’s father, I mean, it doesn’t matter how we imagine him, but we should just imagine that he’s there and that this white light and nectar flows into him and completely purifies him. So this is what we should try to imagine while we’re saying the mantra. Yeah, so we should recite this with Gam Rinpoche