Tonight, we did a Green Tara Practice under the guidance of Acho
Rinpoche. After which, he told us that the first fifteen days of Chinese New
Year is the Month of Spiritual Transformation with great blessing power; he
advised us to practise with vigor during this period. He mentioned that a
former Taiwanese neighbor of his came by his house during the Chinese New Year
for a visit, where she consulted him on spiritual practice too. After that, he
continued to do his sadhana. In gist, Acho Rinpoche made use of all his spare
times doing his spiritual practice, studying the sutras and doing his walking
meditation; he would typically do at least five to seven rounds of spiritual
practice daily. He felt that our life is very short, so we should spend most of
our spare times doing spiritual practice. In the past, Master Tshongkapa
would hold a fifteen-day Grand Tibetan New Year Prayer annually. The Tibetan
calendar and Chinese calendar happened to coincide with each other this year,
so one would certainly receive a very powerful blessing during this period if
he practised with vigor.
Next, Acho Rinpoche advised us that we should aim to attain a state of
spiritual accomplishment where there is no longer a distinction between sleep
and wake. If we are too preoccupied by the many mundane activities in life
during the day, including the numerous interactions with our friends and
relatives etc., it will impact our spiritual practice. So, we should reduce our
frivolous conversations on mundane matters but, instead, focus more on our
spiritual practice. He also shared with us his recent experience where while he
was sleeping, he somehow felt that he was still doing his spiritual practice.
This is the state where sleep and wake are merged as one. If a person is
distracted by too much mundane activities during the day, he will not be able
to enter a true state of spiritual practice, let alone reaching the state where
sleep and wake are merged as one when he falls asleep.
Acho Rinpoche told us that, sometimes, he would do his practice
throughout the night, meditating and reciting the sutras; he even found himself
expounding the Lotus Sutra in his dream. So, we should practise with vigor
during the day, in order to attain the state where sleep and wake are merged as
one. We should focus our mind on the Lotus Sutra or reciting the name of
Avalokitesvara during the day, in order to be able to attain the state of true
emancipation free of cyclic existence. When a person has truly attained the
state of enlightenment, he would see a perfect world right at this moment!
He also told us that in his early stage of practice, there was a period
of six months where he completely lost his sense of taste; since then, he has
no more desire for good food. Also, his mind became a complete void and that
made it very difficult for him to carry on with his job because he had become a
person with no opinions, for everything seemed to be perfect to him. At that
stage, it was indeed hard for him to continue to live like an ordinary person.
He said, under such circumstances, he should have gone into a retreat.
Initially, he strived for his own emancipation but now he strived for the
emancipation of all sentient beings, for he feels the agony of the sentient
beings trapped in the cyclic existence.
Finally, we ended our
prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche
and dedicated all merits to the sentient beings - may all sentient beings be
happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment swiftly.
Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 17-2-2018
@Singapore
