Tonight, we did a Guru
Rinpoche Prayer with Acho Rinpoche. After which, he shared with us a post he
read in the WeChat, which was a teaching given by Khenpo Sodargye. In this
post, Khenpo Sodargye mentioned a teaching given by his late teacher, H.H Jigme
Punchok Rinpoche, on the consequence of a student breaking his lineage. He
said, when a Vajrayanist of Tibetan Buddhism deliberately breaks his lineage,
the consequence of such breakage is as serious as one’s destroying one hundred
stupas, and the person will certainly fall into the Three Lower Realms (animal,
hell and hungry ghost). Khenpo Sodargye advised that a practitioner must be
confident in his spiritual practice and make up his mind before taking any
action: if he is not ready for something, it is best that he does not even
start doing it at all; if he decides to do something, he must then resolve to
completing it but not give up halfway. Why so? Fickle-mindedness is a flaw
which cannot be taken lightly in the Law of Karma (cause-and-effect). When one
is fickle-minded in his spiritual practice, he is culminating a negative
propensity in his mind-stream, for such negative propensities will continue to
grow stronger, thus increasing his level of sufferings in future. What he
harvests from his current action will generate only meagre merits and he is
unlikely to succeed in his future undertakings due to his lack of perseverance.
When a practitioner
cannot persevere in his spiritual practice, he will do the same on his worldly
undertakings too and will not succeed in his worldly achievement either. He
cited an example of a student who went for a teaching on
“Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra” but quit halfway because he changed his mind and
wanted to receive the empowerment of another teaching. Although there is
merit in learning the other teaching which will bear its good fruit in future,
he has created a negative karma by quitting the teaching on
“Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra” halfway, which will also bear its bad fruit in future.
It all depends on which karma will ripen first. Generally, there is hardly
anyone who could persevere in his practice right till the end but the
consequence of discontinuity is indeed scary.
Acho Rinpoche expressed
his personal views on this post too. He said that although what Khenpo Sodargye
said was valid to some extent, it should not be generalized but assessed base
on individual cases. The key consideration lies in the reason why a student
chose to leave his teacher. For instance, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher who was
involved in a scandal recently, impersonated as an accomplished master
initially but was accused by his westerner students of wrong doings (physically
and sexually assaulting his students) lately. A student who abandons such
teacher is not wrong. On the contrary, if he continues with such
teacher-student relationship, he will fall into the Three Lower Realms. The
other Taiwanese Buddhist teacher who followed H.H Dalai Lama in his teachings
was doing fine initially. However, he picked a female layman Buddhist to lead
his ordained community before he passed away. The female successor was
scandalous, and some of the former abbots of this community left the group,
accusing her of her wrong doings. This lady even threatened those who betrayed
her that they would fall into hell; she also coerced some of the novice monks
into committing serious misconducts with her. These are two examples of wrong
teachers who ought to be abandoned by their students. In short, we should use
our wisdom to analyze the cause-and-effect of every situation and make the
right choice.
Acho Rinpoche said,
although the Vajrayana School has a special teaching on advising a student to
view his teacher as a Buddha, H.H Dalai Lama explained that the premise of such
teaching is based on a “qualified teacher”; the wrongful acts of a “wrong
teacher” should be exposed publicly. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche also said that
when a student views his teacher as a Buddha, the teacher should also view his
student as a Buddha. A teacher who physically assaulted his students obviously
does not view his students as Buddhas. Acho Rinpoche clarified that there were
indeed “crazy monks” in the past who were actually enlightened masters;
however, they were very rare indeed. So, a student should observe the behavior
of his teacher to determine if he conducts himself according to the teachings
of the Buddha. A student may choose to leave a teacher who misconducts himself
and needs not worry about falling into the lower realms because of the breakage
of lineage.
Later, Dharma Sister
Yue shared with us her recent experience related to the practice, through the
Internet. She said, “I had a few dreams related to the practice lately. In the
first dream, we went to an island with Buddha Master (Acho Rinpoche). It was
surrounded by a vast ocean. We were doing a prayer with Buddha Master on the
island. Suddenly, a huge black dragon appeared from the sea and it looked very
angry and wanted to eat us. Buddha Master stood up calmly, chanted some mantras
and blessed the dragon. Eventually, the dragon withdrew back into the sea and
just swam around calmly. Later, we saw many houses inside the sea, with many
residents within. It looked just like our human world, with the beings living
their daily lives like we do. Next, I noticed that the sea level began to rise,
submerging lots of houses. Interestingly, our island continued to float above
the water and so, we were safe. At this juncture, I heard someone
screaming for help somewhere on the island. Buddha Master followed the voice
and brought us along, to save the ones needing help. I could not see anyone at
all but Buddha Master seemed to know where they were. He stretched out his hand
and reached out to three little beings buried underneath a rock. They were of
the size of Buddha Master’s finger. He blessed them and brought them back to
life, revitalized and became active again. We felt very happy and laughed
aloud. This dream came to a perfect closure.
One the following
night, I had my second dream. In this dream, we went to a mysterious place
marked by 26 English alphabets. This was a very secluded place. It was a huge
green forest, with every tribal village marked by the alphabets. When we
reached an E tribal village, the sentient beings there had wings and they were
flying about in the air. Buddha Master continued to give us teaching while
walking around the villages. Suddenly, I saw many colorful birds appearing in
the sky, dancing so beautifully in the sky. We felt very happy watching the
show. Suddenly, the birds flew towards us and then I realized that it was
because the sentient beings there were flying among them, welcoming the arrival
of Buddha Master.
In my third dream, I
saw that we were all dragons. My best friend and I could transform into human
form at will, appearing as dragon and human interchangeably. The sense of
transformation was very vivid and I thought I could not be dreaming. In that
dream, I was telling myself that ‘No wonder Buddha Master told us that we were
from the dragon family. It is actually true.’ We could fly and swim in the sea
at will, and freely.”
In my fourth dream, I
saw a purple Buddha Eye, the one that I usually saw during my prayers. In the
center of the Buddha Eye was a Sakyamuni Buddha sitting in a meditative
posture. I could sometimes see some alphabets, such as YC, and rainbow lights
in numerous shapes and sizes.
I am grateful for the
blessing of Buddha Master. My homage to the Sun Moon Lamp Buddha.”
Lastly, Acho Rinpoche
led us in the recitation of the various titles of the Buddhas and dedicated the
merit to this world which is facing a very difficult time. May all sentient
beings be happy and their sufferings eradicated. And may all sentient beings
attain enlightenment swiftly.
Reported by Sun-Moon
KFS on 19-8-2017 in Singapore.
