to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.” Then we wait there and expect that the buddhas will take us and throw us into an enlightened state, just like flinging a stone into a pond. I’m sorry, but this is not the way it works. This is not the right way to take refuge. Rather, regard taking refuge as being willing to realize the state of enlightenment so that we understand the fundamental indivisibility of the wisdom of the buddhas and the original wakefulness present in ourselves. That is the real refuge.
Once we have established the refuge attitude in ourselves in a realistic and effective way, the next step is to become a bodhisattva. Taking the bodhisattva vow essentially means we form the resolve to help other beings, and we actively work to create the basis for doing so. In other words, having taken the vow, we are counted among the bodhisattvas. This doesn’t mean we become perfect bodhisattvas simply by taking the vow. Rather, it means that we are aiming in that direction; we are moving toward bodhisattva perfection. Taking the bodhisattva vow is like planting the seed of being a bodhisattva. We are creating the basis for helping and benefiting others.
Bodhichitta, the enlightened attitude, is like a moisturizer for our basic nature. It is like salad dressing on the salad of our basic state. Without this, we are just a little too dry. Our usual way of solidifying and fixating on experience causes us to be deluded, to move away from our basic nature. This pursuit makes us very dry, antsy and restless. We are always chasing after this and that, in a very limited and narrow-minded way. Both our perspective and aims must be opened up. We may not immediately be able to generate the true and perfected state of awakened mind, but we can at least begin to by forming a wish, a resolve: “I want to benefit all sentient beings, and for this reason I will practice the Dharma.” It’s possible for us to experience that opening, that starting point, right now, this very instant.
The real bodhichitta, which is awakened mind, is of course already present within us as our basic nature, but somehow it is covered up by our normal way of thinking, encased within the shell of deluded perceptions. It’s not so easy to have it become visible immediately in a fullfledged way. It’s as if we need to plagiarize awakened mind a little bit, by forming a thought as an imitation. There is really no way around this other than to make a facsimile of the awakened attitude. When a new gadget is invented in the United States, in China someone immediately makes a copy of it to sell. The real gadget is still in the USA, but the copies are being fabricated right and left. Similarly, we need to copy bodhichitta by forming the thought of compassion for all beings. There is nothing wrong with that. Bodhichitta is not copyrighted; no company manufactures it, so it’s not as if we’ll be sued. We simply want to imitate what we have heard so much about, the awakened state realized by the buddhas and masters of the past.
Now we may have heard in various Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings that we should be totally free from artificial concepts, completely natural, and realize mind’s original, natural state. And here I am saying, “Form the thought of wanting to benefit all sentient beings.” We might think, “That’s artificial. If I try to make up something that is not already present, then I’m corrupting the mind’s natural state.” We might even feel guilty and shy away from doing so and thus end up with nothing. Of course, it is wonderful if you have already realized the original wakefulness that is the awakened state of all buddhas; by all means, don’t hold yourself back. There is no problem at all if it arises as an actuality in your own experience. But if it doesn’t and you feel guilty about fabricating bodhisattva motivation, you simply end up without anything—without either the real thing or the copy. Many people stumble on this problem.
To make a copy, to fabricate a conceptual thought, is perfectly okay if it is helpful and useful. If a copy works like the original, what’s the problem? The idea here is that if we don’t have anything, if we don’t have a natural orientation toward the bodhisattva’s frame of mind, then it is fine to make a copy, because then you at least have something. As you improve upon it, it gets better and better, so that ultimately it may be perfectly splendid. There is nothing wrong with imitating the vow taken by all bodhisattvas; in fact, we should do so.
Refuge and bodhichitta are both included in the excellent method known as the preliminary practices of the four times 100,000. To undertake these preliminary practices, the ngöndro, is something very precious. We begin by taking refuge together with making prostrations, bowing down 100,000 times. Sometimes we form the bodhisattva resolve along with refuge and prostrations. The purpose of taking refuge, as I mentioned earlier, is to turn away from samsaric existence and aim in the direction of complete enlightenment. We do so by seeking help from the Three Precious Ones.
Next in the ngöndro comes the meditation and recitation on Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva is the buddha who embodies all other enlightened families. He is described as their natural form and as the buddha of purification. This practice removes all our negative karma and obscurations, all our faults and failings in the sense of broken promises, which prevent us from making progress on the path to enlightenment.
Next is the mandala offering. The purpose of this is to relinquish all kinds of ego-clinging and any form of conceptual attitude that holds on to something as being one’s own. Giving away everything, by means of the outer, inner, and innermost mandala offerings, relinquishes all types of clinging. Automatically, at the same time, the accumulation of merit is perfected.
It’s said that the first mandala offering was made after the Buddha attained complete enlightenment, when the kings of the gods, Brahma and Indra, requested him to teach the Dharma. Presenting the Buddha with a thousand-spoked golden wheel and a miraculous rare white conch shell that coiled clockwise, they requested him to begin teaching, to turn the wheel of the Dharma.
Later, when the Tibetan king Trisong Deutsen invited Padmasambhava to Tibet to establish the Buddha’s teachings in his country, he composed four lines of verse to accompany his offering. As he made the mandala offering to Padmasambhava with the request to teach, he gave his entire kingdom, all three provinces of central Tibet, as an offering. While making the offering of his kingdom, he chanted these lines, which we still recite today:
The earth is perfumed with scented water and strewn with flowers,
Adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun, and the moon.
Imagining this as the Buddha realm, I offer it
So that all beings may enjoy that pure realm.1
I am told that it was due to the auspicious coincidence of the king making this mandala offering that the Vajrayana teachings were able to remain for such a long time in the country of Tibet, in a natural and very propitious way.
What is the substance of such an auspicious coincidence? It consists of a complete surrender of ego-clinging. That is essentially what our practice of the mandala offerings is about—laying down everything that could be clung to as being “me” and “mine.” We could say that the king totally opened himself up. He turned over to Padmasambhava whatever he might cling to as being his, and in this way he rendered himself a genuinely suitable recipient for the Vajrayana teachings.
By completely surrendering ego-clinging, King Trisong Deutsen established an authentic basis for the Vajrayana teachings in Tibet. Not only was giving away his entire kingdom an incredibly courageous deed; it was also a way to temporarily make a gap in ego-clinging. Of course, ego-clinging cannot be totally and permanently erased from one moment to the next. This is a process that happens through disciplined training. Still, the temporary suspension of ego-clinging is in itself something truly remarkable.
Some people might ask, “How can I offer Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun and the moon, and so on when they don’t actually belong to me? How can I give them away? They didn’t belong to King Trisong Deutsen either, so how could he give them away?” It’s not necessary to be this nitpicky. As a matter of fact, our world does belong to us. Whatever we perceive through our five
