Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute commentary, Kyabje Rinpoche examines three verses of the Lama Chöpa—focusing particularly on the offering of medicine and oneself as servant. He begins with the offering of goddesses (exploring the four joys) and the offering of ultimate bodhicitta (bliss inseparable from wisdom), then spends the majority of the session on the medicine offering. Here he teaches the traditional framework of the 400 afflictions—arising from wind, bile, and phlegm imbalances—and explains how visualizing medicine offered to the lama generates healing nectar for the practitioner. He illustrates with concrete examples, including cancer medicine. Throughout, he reveals the correspondence between each offering and its tantric empowerment. Suited to practitioners who have received guru yoga initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-09-15 – 14B – KR.mp3
UUID: 15a65956-cb19-4045-824d-b388a05fb372
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Date: 1992-09-15
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,003
Contained in verse number 35, we offer even voluptuous illusion like consorts, the host of Messenger Takinis born from place, from mantras and simultaneously born having slender figures that glow with the vibrance of youth and skilled in the 64 arts of love. One is emanating the beautiful goddesses from one’s heart. They’re perhaps 15 years old and extremely tender and beautiful figures and skilled in the 64 arts of love and there’s three types. There are those who are born from place, these are the goddesses who abide in the 24 holy places associated with Heruka. Then there is born from Mantra and this means that those goddesses who have having practiced the ordinary path, have gained the realizations of the ordinary path and then gone on to practice secret mantra, gain the realizations of generation stage and then within the completion stage have gained the realizations up to the realization of the meaning clear light up to that point that having gained those goddesses who have generated the realizations up to the meaning clear light.
These are said to be born from mantra. Then finally those who are simultaneously born. That would be the goddesses who have actually gained the realization of the meaning clear light. These are the term those who have been born simultaneously born and one emanating hundreds and thousands of them from your heart and then they all condensed down into a single figure and this figure goes forth and sits in consort with Vajradhāra and by means of which the four joys are generated and this is the offering of secret, this is the secret offering, of joy. So the 64 arts of love, there are eight fundamental or main, each having eight parts, each having eight sections making 64.
These 64 arts of love, the way in which one can be joining together with the consort. A worldly fashion, this acts as a means to generate attachment but here, no, it has the same name. They are used as means to abandon attachment. Next comes the offering of substance which is associated with the word This is contained within verse 36 where it says, We offer you supreme ultimate bodhicitta beyond words, thought and expression spontaneous and indivisible, the void sphere of all things free from mental fabrications of true existence unobstructed great pristine awareness simultaneous with bliss. Having the three types of Having offered the Having offering the three types of goddesses, those born from place, mantra and simultaneously born to Lama Chöpa and to Vajradhāra sitting in meditative equipoise with the offered goddess.
One generates the mind of equipoise collected at emptiness by means of which mind is freed of all the various obstructions, the knowledge obstructions and the afflictive obstructions and one gains realization of the emptiness that all phenomena are empty of natural existence generating and at this point one has generated a great bliss combined combined with this wisdom and this awareness of the combination of great bliss and wisdom is the awakening mind or that is to say the ultimate mind of enlightenment or ultimate bodhicitta and this is the offering of suchness. So this offering of suchness is associated with the word empowerment. So we’ve made four offerings thus far, internal, external, secret, and suchness. Now we’re going to make a fifth offering which is the offering of medicine and oneself as a servant. So this is contained within verse 37. The first two lines, we offer sundried types of food and medicines to cure the plagues of the four hundred afflictions. It should be there’s mistake there but those first two lines are the offering of medicine.
Then the second and latter two lines, and in reverence we offer ourselves as servants to please you, pray, keep us in your servant as long as heaven endure this offering of oneself as a servant. So in this first two lines, offering of medicines. We offer so many types of potent medicine to cure the plague of the It should read, was left out in the printing. It used to be there. To cure the plague of the four root and four hundred afflictions.
Four root and four hundred. That should be added in four root and four hundred afflictions. In general, to the categorization of illnesses, a categorization into 400 types of illnesses, but these can be condensed down into the four root illnesses. Firstly, there are the three types of illnesses of the wind energy illnesses, energy, wind energy types of illnesses, bile and phlegm disturbances with respect to the wind energies, the bile and the phlegm, so that’s three. And then there are the various combinations of these three.
You could have a wind bile disturbance, a wind phlegm disturbance, etcetera. So these combine amongst themselves which is considered as one. There’s various combinations of these three. It’s counted as one type of root illness. So there are four root illnesses, four root and 400 types of illnesses and illnesses come about through karma, through actions.
These generate the illnesses and so there are again corresponding to these types of illnesses there are 400 categories of afflictive emotions plus four root afflictive emotions. So the root of our the root of our illnesses is misknowledge or ignorance and arising from out of ignorance arises these 400 categories of afflictive emotions or 400 types of afflictive emotions plus the four root afflictive emotions. Due to these afflictive emotions, we create karma, engage in actions, and as a product of these actions, we experience various illnesses. Illnesses with respect to disturbance of the wind energies in which there is a 100 types mild disturbances in which there is a 100 types, phlegm disturbances in which there are 100 types, and then the combinations of these three of which there are hundreds of type, 100 types. So there are 400 types plus these four root illnesses coming about through the 400, four root and 400 afflictive emotions and these as a means of in the worldly respect we offering actual medicines to cure these 400 illnesses, various types of a variety of medicines made from herbs and plants etc.
So in fact, the the the Lama does not need medicine. The Lama does not suffer from illness and why offer it? By offering these medicines we please the Lama and in response to having to please the Lama then nectar flow forth down into ourselves which then act to cure our own illnesses. So it’s said to be a great benefit that if for example you were suffering from a bile illness, to offer to one’s lama medicine which is useful for curing bile and in response to being pleased with the offering, the nectar flow forth from him down to ourselves and by means of which our own bile illness can be cured. They never So mean these days there’s no cure for cancer but if one were to visualize that one is making, offering a cancer medicine to the lama and having been pleased by this offering that nectar flow down from the lama into individual who has cancer and imagine that it’s curing their cancer, this definitely will be a great benefit to them.
So this is a extraordinary means of of within Buddhism. The next two lines is the offering of oneself. One has offered one’s body, one’s skillful actions, possessions and now one actually offers oneself. In reverence, we offer ourselves as servants to please you. Please pray keep us in your service as long as heaven endures.
Why do we do this? Why do we offer ourselves in this way? The lama is seen as the bestower of both temporal and ultimate happinesses, and this is by means of the great kindness of the lama that we are able to free ourselves from cyclic existence, the various bad migrations, and eliminate our various faults. We cannot achieve this by means of our own power and it is only by means of the lama that this can be achieved. All of that the lama does is for the sake of beings.
So if one were to give oneself over to the lama, one would as it were be giving oneself over for the sake and happiness of all sentient beings. One does this in order to create the necessary creative potential. In order to create creative potential. So it is by giving oneself over to the lama that one is giving oneself over for the happiness and welfare of all sentient beings. One has kept us.
Please keep us as long as the heavens endure. So we have we’re going to stop there we have finished the offering section. So of the seven limbs of the seven-limb prayer, we have finished the homage or offering of prostrations and then the offering of the various types of offerings. Next will be the third limb, that of confession. We said that the external offerings were associated with vows empowerment.
The various types of external offerings offerings that we make such as flower, incense, flowers, incense, water, lamps, etc. These are all external because they’re external to the continuum of the person. They’re not included in one’s continuum. Likewise, all of the various empowerment, the vase empowerment are external to the continuum of the being. For example, the water in the ritual which is held in the vase is external, but also the various components of the vase empowerment.
We make use of the bell, the vajra, the crown. All of these empowerments which are contained within the vase empowerment are external substances, external to the continuum of the being. Therefore, there’s a relationship between the fact that they’re external and also the external offerings. So then we went on to say that the internal offering and the is associated with the secret empowerment. The inner offering is generated by means of the blessing of the inner offering substance.
That is to say, imagine the five meats and five nectars, etcetera, and therefore it is matter of an internal, it is established by internal substance. Likewise with respect to secret empowerment, we offer a consort to the lama who sits in equipoise with the consort and from this union of the consort and the lama flows forth the secret substance, the white element and this too is an internal substance. So there is a, the inner offering is generated by internal means and the secret empowerment is attained by means of an internal substance, by an inner means. And the third type of offering is associated with, the third type of offering, the secret offering is associated with the third empowerment that of exalted wisdom empowerment. In the secret offering we emanate a goddess from our heart, wisdom woman and offer to the lama and it dissolves into Vajradhāra and the wisdom woman dissolves into the consort of Vajradhāra and this is the secret offering.
In the secret empowerment the lama gives each a knowledge woman to sit in consort with. For example, as in the case of the practice, one would imagine that oneself is being given a knowledge woman and sitting in consort and generating bliss and this would be by means of which one attains the exalted wisdom empowerment. So there’s relationship between these two. And then the fourth offering, the offering of suchness is associated with the fourth empowerment, the word empowerment. And the offering of such the of suchness, there’s no substance which is being offered.
One offers it by means of reflecting upon the meaning of the words. In the word empowerment, again there is no substance. the lama points out that this is this, this is this and it is by means of the words without substance that one is able to attain the word empowerment. Previously, someone had questions. This is a very profound question and we didn’t answer at that time and we’re trying to expand upon that.