Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 47-minute commentary on Lama Chöpa, Kyabje Rinpoche takes apart the first limb of the seven-limb prayer—prostration—and reveals its five-layered structure. He shows how to offer homage at each level: to the lama as enjoyment body, emanation body, truth body, condensation of the three refuges, and emanation of all Buddhas. For each, he clarifies the distinction between enjoyment and emanation bodies using the five certainties: place, retinue, teachings, time, and physical marks. He then breaks down the truth body into abandonment (freedom from all obstructions) and realization (direct knowledge of all phenomena), showing how these generate all benefit and bliss. Pitched at practitioners already familiar with guru yoga practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-08-28 – 12A – KR.mp3
UUID: 68e0159f-3b92-4a48-a014-cf0fb323e68f
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Date: 1992-08-28
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,342
So in our explanation we’ve arrived at the section of the seven-limb prayer and the making offerings by means of the seven-limb prayer, and the first of which is limb of prostration. So in terms of prostration, there are five manners in which prostrations are made or that is a paying of homage. The first is in terms of praising the lama in term. The first is the offering of homage or prostration by means of praise in terms of enjoyment body. The second, the same in terms of emanation body.
The third, the same in terms of the truth body. And the fourth is the paying of homage in terms of the lama as the condensation condensation entity of the three refuges. Then the fifth is that the lama is the emanation of the Buddhas of all 10 directions. Phrase of homage is offered in those terms. So there is five levels, five categorizations of offering of homage or prostration.
So, we’re beginning from verse 18 and we’ve explained this first verse where it says, where it reads, we promise, we prostrate at your your lotus feet, Vajradhāra Gurus, your jewel like body through compassion bestows and even the supreme attainment of three bodies of bliss. So here the praise is offered to the lama in the aspect of an enjoyment body, and the enjoyment body is the Vajradhāra. The enjoyment body as was explained when we studied Ornament for Clear Realization, the Abhisamayālamkāra, is defined as a form body which possesses the five certainties is the definition of an enjoyment body whereas the emanation body is defined as the form body which does not possess the five certainties. So watch. That’s the mood which is associated with the recitation of this verse.
So the vajra is the samaya or the pledge of the mind of the three, heart, mind, body and speech. If you do in abbreviated style. And then the second line second set of lines, you ring the bell. This is this is the speech, the commitment of speech. Third third sentence, third line, you do this.
And the Mudra is the body commitment. Is The body commitment. Body, speech, mind, speech, and body commitment. And then the expression of homage, prostration. First line.
Second line. Third third line. I’m gonna just get that on my phone. Yes. Then the fourth line.
And then the rest are the same. First first line. We prostrate. Every every line has certain work that we have to do. So the rest are all the same.
Then the next verse, verse 19, is homage paid to the lama in the aspect of the emanation body and the emanation body would be for example, Śākyamūni Buddha whereas in previous verse, the enjoyment body was in the aspect of Vajradhāra. As we said, the definition of an enjoyment body is a form body which possesses the five certainties. So what are the five certainties? The first is the certainty of place. That is to say an enjoyment body resides only in the highest pure land, a Buddha field which is called highest pure land or The second is that the certainty of retinue, that is to say that the enjoyment body only has, is surrounded by bodhisattva superiors, that is to say only those of the universal vehicle, but even within those, those who are superiors, aryas, ārya bodhisattvas.
And the third is the certainty of teachings, that the enjoyment body only teaches the universal vehicle, does not teach the lesser vehicle or the individual vehicle. The fourth is the certainty of time that the enjoyment body will abide until the end of cyclic existence, as it say until there are sentient beings, there are no more sentient beings. And then the fifth is the certainty of body, that is the enjoyment body always displays or is adorned with the 32 major minor and 80 minor marks of a Buddha. So those are the five certainties. For example, Śākyamūni Buddha did not appear appear to be adorned with these major and minor marks, these thirty two and eighty marks.
Also he did not teach, he taught disciples of the lesser vehicle or the individual vehicle. Was a, Śākyamūni Buddha was an emanation body and not an enjoyment body. And as far as the certainty of time, the Śākyamūni Buddha only remained for eighty years whereas a enjoyment body will remain until cyclic existence is emptied of sentient beings. So both the enjoyment body and emanation body are beings, they are Buddhist, but they have these distinguishing differences. Within emanation bodies, the type of emanation body which is called a supreme emanation, manifests as a renunciate or a monk or a monk.
Nun. So verse 19, which is homage to the emanation aspect of the We prostrate at your feet, oh holy refuge protectors. You are the pristine awareness of all the infinite Buddhas playing the role of a saffron-robed monk as a supreme show of means to appear in whichever way suits your disciples. So this nineteenth verse begins with the lines of here it’s translated as infinite, which is an extremely high number, hundreds of trillions, and in all extensive purpose, infinite. I’m talking about the infinite Buddhas and here the word Gala, literally rather than Buddhists, could be translated as conquerors or victors, having conquered the three poisons, which is an epithet of the Buddha.
And then they’re paying homage to the lama. They’re saying that the lama is the exalted wisdom. Here it uses the word pristine awareness. I use the translation exalted wisdom, pristine, of all of the infinite conquerors. And that as we said, that upon Buddhahood, the continuums continuums of of the the truth body are indistinct, that they’re not different continuums within they become one, one exalted wisdom in terms of the truth body.
So there’s one truth body which in order to subdue the various dispositions of varieties of disciples takes on different aspects. So this one exalted wisdom emanates in various aspects according to individual’s disciples’ needs. For example, one may emanate in the aspect of Chenrezig, Tārā, as we mentioned before, are all these expressions of the exalted wisdom emanating in terms of the lama, the meditation deity, the Buddhas, the Dakinis and the protectors. These are all aspects of the single undifferentiated exalted wisdom and this is a skillful means. This wisdom bliss, exalted wisdom can emanate in various aspects.
It can be a person, an animal, a bridge, water, food, whatever it will be of use in subduing the mind of a particular disciple, it will emanate in that aspect. But amongst these numberless emanations which the exalted wisdom can appear as supreme, the most skillful amongst them is that, the most skillful of them is that of the supreme emanation body, which is, was Śākyamūni Buddha having taken on the aspect of a monk. So the supreme emanation body was that of Śākyamūni Buddha but we were not able to meet with Śākyamūni Buddha but that individual which replicates Śākyamūni Buddha for us is the spiritual friend it could be the spiritual friend appearing in the aspect of a renunciate, for example, as a monk. Since it is such an individual who shows us the path, who protects us from our fears, that they help to eliminate all of the various inhibitory conditions, that is to say they, like a father, helping their child and educating them to remove all their various faults and to make an effort to help them develop all their excellent qualities, and likewise it is the lama who assists the student, his disciples, in eliminating their various faults and bringing to consummation all their excellent qualities.
Then Then the twentieth verse, which is the third of these homages, is in terms of the lama in terms of the Truth body. So the twentieth reads as follows. We prostrate at your feet, oh, venerable sole source of benefit and bliss without exception. You eliminate the root of all faults and their instincts and are a treasure of myriad jewel like quality. So a Buddha is constituted of various bodies and sometimes these are enumerated as three bodies of a Buddha, but these can be condensed further into two bodies of a Buddha.
These two bodies are the form body and the truth body. With respect to the truth body, are two types. There is the truth body which is the abandonments and the truth body which is the realizations. The abandonments, represents a true cessation. That is to say it is freedom from obstructions to liberation and the knowledge obstructions.
That is to say the abandonment of the afflictive emotions along with their latencies, completely from the root. So within the Buddhist continuum, there exists this abandonment, a cessation. This cessation is a liberation and this abandonment, this freedom from these obstructions is the abandonment truth body. Then there also is the truth body which is realization, that is to say the direct realization of all phenomena both vast and profound. This exalted wisdom is the truth body of realizations within the Buddha.
So these two bodies only exist within, these two attainments only exist within the continuum of a Buddha. Now Buddha in Tibetan, and the Tibetan word for Buddha is we’ve explained this. Means to have cleared away, it. That is to say, having cleared away all the various obstructions, that is to say this abandonment aspect of the truth body. Whereas means to have evolved, evolved all the realizations, the realization aspect of the truth body.
It is said that that these aspects of the truth body, the realization and abandonment aspects of the truth body, are the source of all happiness and benefit of sentient beings. As it says here in the text, sole source of benefit and bliss without exception. Other than this source, this is the, actually it says the only doorway from which arises the benefit, all benefit and bliss. So other than this source of the benefit and bliss, there is no other. And what is this source?
What is this only doorway that we’ve spoken of? It arises through the complete elimination of all faults and bringing the consummation of all excellent qualities. If one hasn’t eliminated all faults, there’s no way that we can bring to fulfillment all of one’s excellent qualities. You know, excellent qualities which have been brought to consummation, we could talk about them in many different ways, but if we were just simply to list those in terms of mind, these would be the exalted realizer. One exalted realizer, the other is compassion, and the other is ability.
So in talking about these three consummate qualities that a Buddha possesses, in order to eliminate the sufferings of sentient beings, one must be able to have an exalted wisdom which knows exactly the teaching which this particular disciple needs at a particular time. What path do they need to be shown? What would be of benefit to them? Therefore, in order to free sentient beings, it is necessary to have such an exalted wisdom which realizes what would be a benefit in each particular case. But that in itself is not enough.
If we simply knew that, we could simply leave him aside. But a Buddha doesn’t do that because compassion that he goes on to not only to know what needs to be taught, but out of compassion to actually teach. And by means of, but additionally, the Buddha has the ability to protect, to protect from all various sufferings. To protect, So has the ability to protect. So Buddha represents a combination of these three factors, the exalted wisdom, the compassion and this ability to protect.
So by means of these, the Buddhas lead sentient beings in first to taking rebirth as a human being and then aiding them to gradually generate various paths, first generating the path of accumulation, then preparation, and going upwards to the finally attain Buddhahood. So it is by means that one here is paying a homage to this condensation of these three aspects which can bring about the temporal and ultimate welfare of sentient beings and this is expressed in the aspect of one’s root lama and two, that root lama, one pays homage. Then the twenty first verse, we prostrate to you, oh benevolent gurus. You are in reality all Buddhas, teacher of all beings including the gods. The source of 84,000 pure dharmas, you tower above the whole host of aryas.
Here we are paying homage to the lama in the aspect of the condensation of the three refuges. So there’s a verse of verse where the offering verse, where the lama is the Buddha, the lama is the Dharma, the lama is the spiritual community of the Sangha. The lama is the creator of all lamas. I pay. I make this offering.
Here the line from Lama Chöpa begins with, you are, that the lama is in the nature of all the Buddhas, the entity of all the Buddhas, and that, so this is in the refuge in terms of the Buddha, as the Buddha teaches, as a Buddha teaching to all beings, humans, gods, and all beings what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. That’s in terms of the lama as the refuge of the Buddha aspect, Buddha refuge. Then in terms of the Dharma aspect, that by means of these teachings, these teachings are the method whereby to eliminate the 84,000 afflictive emotions of sentient beings. In order to eliminate the 84,000 afflictive emotions, there is the Buddha taught the 84,000 different dharmas to eliminate each of these and this is therefore the lama is in the condensation of the Dharma aspect. Then the various superiors, aryas, the hearer superior, the solitary realizer superior, the bodhisattva superior, and the Buddha superior, and that you are supreme among all of these multitudes of superiors.