Lam Rim Meditation from the Lama Chopa Practice
By the power of my having made offerings
and respectful requests to you, holy and venerable Gurus, supreme field of
positive potential, inspire me, protectors and root of well-being and
bliss, to come under your joyful care.
Realizing how this body of
liberties and endowments is found but once, is difficult to obtain and is
easily lost, inspire me to partake of its essence, make it worthwhile and
not be distracted by the meaningless affairs of this life.
Aghast
at the searing blaze of suffering in the lower realms, I take heartfelt
refuge in the Three Jewels. Inspire me to eagerly endeavor to practice the
means for abandoning negativities and accumulating virtues.
Violently
tossed amidst waves of disturbing attitudes and karma, plagues by hordes
of sea monsters - the three kinds of suffering - I seek your inspiration
to develop an intense longing to be free from this monstrous ocean of
boundless and vicious existence.
Having abandoned the mind that
views this unbearable prison of cyclic existence as a pleasure grove, I
seek your inspiration to partake of the treasure of arya's jewels and the
three trainings, and thus to uphold liberation's banner.
Having
considered how all these pitiful beings have been my mothers and have
raised me with kindness again and again, I seek your inspiration to
develop unaffected compassion, like that of a loving mother for her
precious child.
There is no difference between myself and others:
none of us wishes even the slightest suffering, nor is ever content with
the happiness we have. Realizing this I seek your inspiration to enhance
the bliss and joy of others.
The mind that cherishes all mother
beings and would secure them in bliss is the gateway leading to infinite
virtue. Seeing this, I seek your inspiration to cherish these beings more
than my life, even should they rise up as my enemy.
In brief,
infantile beings labor only for their own ends while Buddhas work solely
for the welfare of others. With a mind understanding the distinctions
between the failings of one and the advantages of the other, I seek your
inspiration to enable me to equalize and exchange myself for others.
Since
cherishing myself is the doorway to all torment, while cherishing my
mothers is the foundation of all that is good, inspire me to make my core
practice the yoga of exchanging self for others.
Thus, venerable
compassionate Gurus, inspire me so that all negativities obscurations and
sufferings of mother sentient beings without exception ripen upon me right
now, and that I give my happiness and virtue to others and thereby invest
all beings in bliss. (3X)
Should even the environment and the
beings therein be filled with the fruits of their karmic debts and
unwished for sufferings pour down like rain, inspire me to take these
miserable conditions into the path by seeing them as causes to exhaust the
results of my negative karma.
In short, no matter what appearances
may arise, be they good or bad, inspire me to transform them into a path
ever enhancing the two bodhicittas through the practice of the five forces
- the quintessence of the entire Dharma - and thus to attune myself solely
to the bliss of the mind.
Whatever I occasion to meet, inspire me
to adapt it to my meditation by the skillful means of the four acts of use.
May I render this life of liberties and endowments infinitely meaningful
by practicing mind-training's advice and commitments.
In order to
rescue all beings from the vast seas of existence, inspire me to become
adept in bodhicitta through a pure selfless wish, and by love and
compassion conjoined with the visual technique of mounting giving and
taking upon the breath.
Inspire me to eagerly endeavor to practice
the three Mahayana ethical codes, and to restrain my mindstream with pure
bodhisattva vows, the single path journeyed by all victorious ones of the
three times.
Inspire me to complete the perfection of generosity
through the guideline teaching for enhancing the mind that gives without
attachment, transforming my body, wealth and collection of virtue of the
three times into the objects desired by each and every sentient being.
Inspire
me to complete the perfection of ethical conduct of working for the sake
of sentient beings, collecting virtuous deeds and not transgressing the
bounds of the pratimoksha, bodhisattva and tantric vows even at the cost
of my life.
Should all the myriad beings of the three realms become
angry at me, humiliate, criticize, threaten or even kill me, inspire me to
complete the perfection of patience not to be distraught but to work for
their benefit in response to their harm.
Even if I must remain for
an ocean of eons in the fiery hells of avici even for the sake of one
sentient being, inspire me to complete the perfection of joyous effort to
strive with compassion for supreme enlightenment and not to be discouraged.
Having
abandoned the faults of lethargy, agitation and mental wandering, I seek
your inspiration to complete the perfection of meditative concentration
through the samadhi of single-pointed placement upon the nature of reality
- all things are empty of true existence.
Inspire us to complete
the perfection of wisdom through the space-like yoga of single minded
placement upon ultimate truth, conjoined with ecstasy and great bliss
induced by the discriminating wisdom analyzing suchness.
Inspire me
to perfect samadhi on illusion by realizing how all external and internal
phenomena lack true existence, yet still appear, like a mirage, a dream or
the image of the moon on a still lake.
Samsara and nirvana lack
even an atom of true existence, while cause and effect and dependent
arising are unfailing. Inspire me to discern the import of Nagarjuna's
thought - that these two are complementary and not contradicting.
Thereupon,
inspire me to cross the labyrinth ocean of tantra through the kindness of
our navigator, Vajradhara, and to hold more dear than my life, my vows and
pledges which are the roots of powerful attainments.
Inspire me to
cleanse all stains of ordinary appearance and grasping through the first
stage yoga of transforming birth, death and bardo into the three bodies of
a Buddha, so that whatever arises may arise as the body of a yidam.
Inspire
me to actualize in this life the path of unity of the clear light and
illusory body, which arises from placing your feet, protector, at the very
center of the central channel at the eight petals of my heart.
If I
have not completed the points of the path at the time of death, inspire me
to be led to a pure land through either the instruction of applying the
five forces or by the forceful means of enlightenment, the Guru's
transference of mind.
In short, inspire me, protector, to be cared
for by you without separation, from birth throughout all my lives, and
thus to become your chief disciple holding every secret of your body,
speech and mind.
Protector, please grant that all be auspicious for
me to be among your very first circle of disciples wherever you manifest
Buddhahood and hence all my temporal and ultimate wishes be effortlessly
and spontaneously fulfilled.
Having thus been entreated Supreme
Guru, grant my request: in order to inspire me, happily alight on the
crown of my head and once again set your radiant feet firmly at the
corolla of my lotus-heart.