Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 29-minute talk, Lama Lhundup teaches a visualization-based approach to going for refuge, the foundational Buddhist commitment to the Three Jewels. He guides practitioners through imagining an elaborate field of merit, with the Buddhas and lineage masters arranged in a grand assembly before them, then positioning themselves as leaders of all sentient beings gathered around. The core practice involves reciting refuge vows while visualizing purifying white light descending from each of the Three Jewels in turn, cleansing negative karma and specifically eliminating negativities directed at Lamas, Buddhas, Dharma texts, and the spiritual community. He emphasizes visualizing negativities leaving the body as waste and dirt, flowing into the mouth of Yama the Lord of Death and disappearing underground. For those unable to visualize the full field, he offers a simplified version using only Śākyamūni Buddha. The talk concludes with instructions on generating joyful confidence in complete purification and dedicating the resulting merit to all sentient beings’ enlightenment.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 11 C o P.mp3
UUID: d4af7757-33e5-49df-8fd8-5bbde9301a1e
Teacher: Lama Lhundup
Collection: Changing our perspectives (Lama Lhundup)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 28.9 minutes
Words: ~1,477
On the left side, surrounding Maitreya are all the Lamas of the vast lineage, the extensive lineage, and surrounding Mañjuśrī on the right side are all the Lamas, such as Nāgārjuna, etcetera, of the profound lineage. So the surrounding vajradhara are the teachers of the lineage of the blessings of the practice. For example, in the case of meditating on the graduated path, the teachers who have transmitted in lineage of the transmission of the graduated path down to the present, these are surrounding vajradhara. So, surrounding in front, surrounding your root guru are all your direct teachers or your actual lamas or gurus surrounding in this life or the various teachers that have taught you. Your actual direct teachers are surrounding your root lama.
So, should try to see this clearly? You have this great throne with these five thrones on top, and below surrounding this, and below are the all the yidams or the deities of the highest Yoga Tantra, each sitting on a lotus surrounding this great throne, and then the various yidams of the various classes of tantra coming down. Then below that are all the various Buddhas, hundreds of thousands of Buddhas each sitting on a lotus. Below that are the Bodhisattvas. Below that are the hearers and the solitary realizers, they are foe destroyers, and below that are the various protectors.
So, there’s like a great meeting taking place, and we should try to see this. If we can’t see this, then we can just imagine that our root guru is in front of us. Even though may not be able to visualize this, we should think that it’s there. So, should try to imagine that this gathering is like a busy government office. People are coming and going.
They’re sending out all these manifestations and they’re going out performing the twelve deeds of a Buddha, for example, and coming back, and there’s always coming and going for the benefit of sentient beings. So, we shouldn’t imagine, for example, it appears in a painting, it’s just a flat painting on the wall. We should try to imagine that this actually is in space before us, and that these beings are made of light, and that we should visualize it as clearly as possible, even see the eyes of each of these, and that not only are they out there, but they’re relating to us, that they’re very happy with us, and everything appears very pleasant, that they’re very pleased. So, usually our actions are not so good, but now, at this time, we know we’ve developed a good motivation. We’re trying to tame Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings, and now we’ve made effort to actually visualize this field of merit.
So, in doing this, the Buddhists are extremely pleased with us. A mother isn’t pleased when her child, he may usually act bad. He may be acting bad all the time, and usually the mother would not be pleased with him. But if just one day he is well mannered and acts well, then the mother will be extremely pleased with that child for that time, and therefore this is a similar situation. So, this is what is appearing in front of us, this field of merit.
Now, on our right side we should imagine our father and on our left side is our mother. In front of us are all the enemies and completely surrounding us are all the beings of the six realms in having a human form. We have all these sentient beings around us, and we should imagine that we’re the or the director, we’re the leader of this group. Group. We should generate from the depths of our hearts faith and objects of refuge, and then we actually in going for refuge, reciting I go for refuge, should imagine that all sentient beings around us are reciting in union with us, that we’re leading them in going for refuge.
So, when we first recite, I go for refuge to the Lama, to the Guru, then we should imagine that from the Lama white light comes down, enters into us, and enters into ourselves and all sentient beings, purifying all their negativities. Any type of negative action that we’ve committed against the lama or the guru has been completely purified. Then, we say, I go for refuge to the Buddha, from Maitreya, from Mañjuśrī, all the various yidams around, white light comes down to ourselves. White light comes down to ourselves and all the sentient beings purifying any negativity that we may have created with respect to the Buddha, for example, kind of disrespect that we may have shown them, thinking any kind of wrong views, saying that the Buddha does not exist, all these negative actions are now purified. So, when we recite, I go for refuge to the Dharma, on our left side there should be placed a scripture which represents the Dharma in form.
In nature, it’s true cessation and true paths. When we recite, I go for refuge to the Dharma, white light comes down to ourselves and all sentient beings, and this purifies any negative actions we may have created with respect to the Dharma. For example, negative actions showing disrespect, disrespect to books having shown disrespect to the books which are representative of the Dharma. And again, we go for refuge to the Sangha. Go for refuge to the spiritual community.
So, the various levels of beings below the Buddhas represent the spiritual community, the Sangha, and therefore we go for refuge to the Sangha and white light comes down to ourselves and all sentient beings and purifies any negative actions we may have created with respect to the spiritual community. So, having going for refuge in this way, we should imagine that we have now purified all our negative actions, but now we have to create not only purify, but we have to create all the excellent qualities necessary. So, we go for refuge again, and from the Buddha a yellow light comes down into ourselves and all sentient beings. This yellow light represents all the realizations and excellent qualities of the Buddhas, and we should think, Now I have attained all the excellent qualities of the Buddha, and we should generate a great joy. So, when we’re doing this, when this white light is coming down and purifying all our negative actions, we should imagine that all these negative actions are leaving us, are going out of ourselves down into the ground, and there is the great lord of death, Yama, is opening his mouth, and all our various negative actions are going into his mouth.
For example, our various actions are self-cherishing, our conception of true existence. Any type of negativities that we’ve created, go out in the form of snakes, frogs, all in the form of waste. All this dirt is being eliminated through our bottom and it’s going into the mouth of Yama. And Yama, he takes it in his mouth, and he goes underground, never to return again. And therefore, we should think that, you know, I have completely eliminated all my negative actions, never to return again.
I have completely purified. So we should generate powerful confidence that I have completely purified myself. For those who cannot presently visualize this entire field of merit, one can just visualize Śākyamūni Buddha, in the form of Śākyamūni Buddha. For those who have trouble meditating this way, it’s not clear, you can just meditate that it’s just Śākyamūni Buddha is before you, and just imagine that Śākyamūni Buddha is the Lama, is the Buddha, the Dharma, is the Sangha, and that we go through the same process of purification with respect to only just the Śākyamūni Buddha before us. So, we’ll stop there for today.
So, we’ll meditate in a short while. And we should imagine that going for refuge, that this white light is flowing down while we’re going for refuge, that it’s purifying all of our negativities completely, and that all our negativities are going out of our body in these various forms of dirt, etcetera, and they’re going into the mouth of Yama, the Lord of Death. Then having done this, we should generate a firm conviction that we have completely purified of all our negativities, having done this we should generate a great feeling of joy. Having done this, then we should make a dedication that whatever the merit I created from this action may I and all sentient beings quickly attain Buddhahood. And having dedicated in this way, again, one rejoices in having created the causes actually bring this about.
And from the very fact of rejoicing in the virtue that you have created, then again, generate the feeling of joy through having created this virtue.