Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session on Lama Chöpa’s requests section, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches how to make genuine requests to the spiritual master by cultivating unshakeable faith in their qualities. He guides recitation of the Miktsema or nine-line mantra, then works through verses 43–47 to progressively deepen this faith. The commentary reveals ethics as an “ocean” containing jewels of renunciation, awakening heart, and correct view; the 10 qualities that define a suitable guide; the lama as Vajra master of secret mantra with three well-subdued doors; and crucially, the lama’s personal kindness—their singular ability to teach the path when countless Buddhas before them could not. Suited to practitioners already engaged with Guru Yoga.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1992-10-23 – 16A – KR.mp3
UUID: 0c11f2c9-ea9f-44b3-ac36-5c9b84a46b78
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Guru Puja – Lama Chopa
Date: 1992-10-23
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,997
That I be able to lead all living beings to a state of complete freedom from suffering and where they have complete happiness. I will practice the essence of the universal vehicle, that is to say the practice of Guru Yoga by listening and finally putting into practice everything that I hear and bringing my practice to consummation. So we have have finished offering the seven-limb prayer to the field of assembly, Lama, Yidam, and Tugän Dorje Chang, and the other deities. Now comes the section on making requests. So we’re going to become a section on request and we’re going to make requests by way of three different ones., in terms of the context of being mindful of the benefit of the spiritual friend and in order to clear away any obstacles, the recitation of the mantra for long life.
So, there are going to be the request is made in four different manners. The first of these, remember you need to be mindful of the great benefit of the spiritual friend and the obstacles if one cannot receive the teachings, the recitation of the life mantra. And the second one is in terms of mindfulness of the great kindness of the spiritual teacher and their great qualities making various requests. The third one is making requests in terms of by means of the four types of offerings external, internal secret and offering of suchness. And the fourth is the making request in the manner of the ritual knife.
So the first is that Lama Lobsang is to be seen in the same nature as our spiritual master and we should view our spiritual master as having only excellent qualities, that we should see no fault. And what is the benefit of seeing only excellent qualities? By means of seeing only the excellent qualities, we will develop the supreme and ordinary powerful attainment. On the other hand, by seeing faults then this will act as an obstacle to the development of the powerful attainment. So seeing one’s spiritual master as having only excellent qualities, then one goes on to recite the life mantra.
For example, the recitation of Miktsema mantra. Recitation of the Miktsema mantra, So you recite the four lines, the former two lines and the latter two lines. You would recite So you would not recite the You would not recite that middle line. The or you could the the the mantra could be recited in terms of all five lines as it is shown on page seven. And there is the recitation of the mantra of nine lines.
And this is the best mantra to recite. Rinpoche just recited it. So in the future, maybe we can recite the nine nine mantra so we can copy it from the text. In the context of developing great faith and making requests, the mantra is recited and once you visualize that from the spiritual master, nectars stream forth, entering into oneself, purifying all of one’s various negativities and obstructions. And that one, by means of this, develops all the qualities of the body, speech, and mind of the spiritual master and generates all of the various realizations.
And the second was a request in terms of the mindfulness of the kindness and excellent qualities of the spiritual master. So here in actual text of Lama Chöpa, we’re looking at verse 43 where it says, We make our request to you, O holder of the three baskets O master, second Buddha, clad in saffron. You brim with the treasure of jewels of much hearing and are a source of excellence and immense ocean of moral discipline. So there are many types of lamas. There are lamas of the or moral discipline, the sūtra, etcetera.
Here we’re looking at the lama in terms of his being a master of moral discipline or. Ethics is the basis for developing all excellent qualities. And here it’s like into an ocean. In the ocean there are many varieties of jewels to be found. These jewels, ethics is like an ocean.
Within this ocean, the various jewels that we find are analogous to the jewels of renunciation, the awakening heart, and the correct view of emptiness. And by means of these, and dependence upon these jewels, that is to say the ethics, we develop all of the various realizations such as these three fundamentals of the path. We develop all the grounds and paths realizations. All the all the excellent, qualities, the precious qualities of the Buddha arise in dependence upon ethics. And here the Lama is seen to have a combination of perfect ethics and to be a master of the three categories or baskets, Vinaya Sūtra and Abhidharma, Tripitaka.
So in the aspect of Lama Lobsang Dorje Chang, that is to say appearing as a monk, as a renunciate. So in this aspect we are making requests to his aspect of that being of a monk in terms of his ethics and scholarship. Now we’re looking at verse 44 in Lama Chöpa where it says, We make our request to you, O mahayana gurus, lords of Dharma, representing the victorious ones without exception. You possess the 10 qualities that render you suitable guides along the path of those who have gone to bliss. So again, the various types of lamas here, looking looking at the lama, being mindful of the lama as the shower of the path of the common vehicle.
By common vehicle, it means that vehicle which is common both to sūtra and tantra. The uncommon vehicle would be mantra. So here the teacher who shows his common vehicle both through Sūtra and mantra. In such a one who is suitable to be a guide along this path is the lama who possesses the 10 qualities. So we are viewing the teacher as the shower of the path of the great vehicle, the common path of the great vehicle, who possesses and being mindful of his possessing these 10 qualities.
Qualities which the lama possesses. Externally, the appearance of being well disciplined in the manner of a fully ordained monk. Internally, having attained meditative stabilization which has pacified all the various distractions and stirrings of the mind. Thirdly, having gained realization of the higher training and wisdom. Fourthly, having higher realization than the student.
Fifthly? Fourthly, the lama has the quality of having higher realization than the student. Tremendous effort. Six is able to explain the meanings of the scriptures. Seven has realized the meaning of emptiness.
Eight, is expert in the ways of teaching. Nine, has compassion for his students. And 10, does not tire of teaching and is willing to endure hardship for the sake of his student. So then next we’re looking at verse 45. We make our request to you, O foremost holder of the Vajra.
You are skilled in explaining and composing, are endowed with both sets of 10 qualities and a knowledge of tantra and its rituals. You are honorable without pretense of guile. Patient, broad minded with your three doors well subdued. So this is being mindful of the lama in terms of the shower of the extraordinary vehicle, universal vehicle, that is to say, secret mantra and in terms of the teacher being the vajra master. So here we are being mindful of the spiritual master in the aspect of Lama Lobsang Dorje Chang is being mindful of his various qualities, that his three doors are well subdued, that he does not express any faults or negativities through his body, speech, or mind.
That he possesses great wisdom. That he is extremely tolerant no matter how much difficulty others may give him, he does not become angry and he’s very straight, non deceptive. And that he has two sets of 10 qualities. There’s an internal set of 10 and an external set of 10 making 20 qualities that he must have. Also that he is an expert in the drawing of mandala and in performance of rituals and he is such a one who is considered to be the holder of the Vajra and is a lama of the secret mantra and be mindful that Lama Lobsang Dorje Chang has these qualities.
So, these three verses represent the generation of faith in terms of praising the lama with respect to his qualities, and he represents a combination of the qualities of of the lama of moral discipline, the lama of the common universal vehicle, and the uncommon universal vehicle of secret mantra. And such a one is extremely precious. I’m looking at verse 46. We make our request to you, O compassionate refuge protector, precious one, you impart the good way of those gone to bliss, to the unruly beings of this degenerate age who are difficult to curb and were not tamed by the countless Buddhas of the past. And here we are developing faith by being mindful of the great qualities of the lama in terms of their great kindness to ourselves individually.
There are many great lamas, but they do not possess the kindness in terms of ourselves personally, And here we are developing respect and admiration for the lama by remembering their kindness to ourselves as very personal kindness that they have shown us. There have been numberless Buddhas who have come into the world, but they did not benefit us. In this eon, there will be 1,000 Buddhas and Śākyamūni Buddha was the fourth, but we were not able to be benefited by them. There have been great Indian masters and Tibetan masters, Tibetan lamas and they too were not able to benefit us. So setting all of them aside, we were simply not able to subdue our mind through their teachings of Dharma.
But here in this most degenerate of times, present lama is the one who is actually showing us the paths of the Buddha out of his compassion. He is a real source of refuge and protection because he is showing us what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected, and this is his great kindness. By showing us what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected, we are able to find a refuge and to be able to protect ourselves. So it is through our lama’s teaching of the universal vehicle of the path in terms of adoption and rejection that we are remembering the kindness of the lama. Verse 47.
We make a request to you, O compassionate refuge protectors, you enact the deeds of the victorious ones for the many beings who lack a protector, refuge, at this time when the sunlight teachings of the sage are setting. So here the teachings of Buddha Śākyamūni, the Dharma, is likened to the sun and the sun is slowly setting. The teachings of Śākyamūni Buddha were said in its entirety will last five thousand years. Approximately two thousand eight hundred years have passed, leaving two thousand two hundred years. Of these, the last five hundred years, there will be no teachings, just the appearance of individuals in robes.
So that means only sixteen hundred or seventeen hundred years of the teachings are left. So it is as if the teachings are in their decline. Are like the setting of the sun. And when the teachings are gone, then there is a great darkness. When there is darkness, one cannot see the sun.
And that is to say, the people will not know what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. And it is the lama who is seen as the refuge protector who in such a time appears and enacts the deeds of the Buddha. That is to say carries on the acts which benefit sentient beings in terms of teaching, teaching what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected and therefore acts as a protector refuge. This is the great kindness which is to be remembered in this verse.