Tonight, I will give a summary on our Sri Lanka tour.
We first planned to visit Sri Lanka some twenty years ago but it was delayed
till five years ago (when it was initiated by Dharma Sister Mei as a family
tour) and again did not materialize because her daughter did not want to join
the tour. Finally, we have made it this time.
We visited Adam’s Peak, Buddha Tooth Temple and the
various places enshrining the sacred relics of Sakyamuni Buddha. We had also
witnessed the many appearances of rainbow, sun halo, colorful clouds etc. On
our way to Adam’s Peak, unusual clouds appeared in the sky above Adam’s Peak.
It actually requires one to have accumulated tremendous amount of merits and
spiritual practice through eons of time in order to be able to join this tour.
Adam’s Peak is a sacred place. Only eleven members
were selected to ascend the hill. Not everyone could ascend the hill such as
Dharma Sister Bi – had she come ask me if she could go up the hill, I would
have advised her not to do so. There must be some members who stay behind or
you will be making a long bee line going up the hill but stretching very far
away from the peak; it would have been made worse off by members who are
physically unfit to trek. Also, if all of us made it to the peak, not everyone
could squeeze into the tiny room enshrining the Buddha’s sacred foot print. As
we are all different in terms of our physics, we must choose only a few would
could do it, which was pre-destined. It does not matter if one could ascend to
the peak or not. For instance, Dharma Sister Kan is unable to join us
personally this time due to her eye problem (she had to stay behind in
Singapore). However, her mind is with us throughout this tour and she has
received tremendous power of blessing like the rest who joined the tour. Your
mind matters. Whether you are following your guru closely with your mind and
abiding in your guru wholeheartedly matters most. If you merely follow me
physically but not abiding in me as your guru wholeheartedly and failed to
observe your precepts, your outer actions of following me and ascending the
Adam’s Peak are meaningless. It is utmost important that you observe the
precepts closely, practise with vigor and internalize your Guru Devotion, which
will gain you inconceivable amount of blessing. In fact, my foot print is no
different from the foot print on the peak.
Just now when we entered a shopping center, I saw an
image of Sakyamuni Buddha and some flowers placed before the image. I folded my
palms to pay my respect to the Buddha. Immediately, I saw Sakyamuni Buddha
appearing before me. So, I stopped by a shop and bought a cup of coffee and some
biscuits as offering to the Buddha. I prayed to the Buddha that he would bless
every shopper who came to this place, as long as he took a glance of the Buddha
image, folded his palms to pay respect to the Buddha image or praised the
quality of the Buddha – as long as he showed some form of faith in the Buddha,
he will certainly receive the blessing from the Buddha.
When we entered the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop, I
could feel the presence of the numerous souls of the chicken slaughtered and my
whole body felt very itchy. So, I delivered their souls by doing a soul
deliverance practice there and then. You see, as long as you have accomplished
your practice, you will have the ability to do soul deliverance for the
deceased. If you are a renown spiritual teacher sitting in a high throne
surrounded by a large audience of tens of thousand of people, yet you lack the
spiritual power to help the invisible sentient beings, they will simply ignore
you; there will not be any rainbow appearing above your head either. There was once that I participated in a
Dharma assembly presided over by a renowned spiritual teacher, and a rainbow
appeared in the sky during that period. Someone said that the rainbow appeared
because of that teacher. However, a Bodhisattva in the spiritual realm told me
that “Not so! The rainbow appeared because of you but not that teacher!” So,
you should not assume that a Dharma teacher who is very good in teaching the
Buddhadharma must be an enlightened person. It is utmost important for a practitioner
to actualize the practice and abide in his guru. Dharma Brother Xin has done
very well this time in terms of serving his guru – he followed me closely in
serving me and yet constantly kept a comfortable distance to make me feel at
ease too. He watched me very closely from a comfortable disctance in order to
be able to respond to my needs immediately, without distraction. Some people
are easily distracted by their surroundings and their minds will drift away;
they will not be able to serve the guru well in that case and therefore,
receive weaker blessing. Dharma Brother Xin has cultivated well – his mind is
pure and he serves me with great devotion.
So, he has received the greatest power of blessing which increases his
vigor in practice. When you are not devoted to your guru, you will feel tired
of doing your practice. The power of blessing from your guru will increase your
fondness in practice and you will naturally practise with vigor. Guru Devotion
is very important to a practitioner. The spiritual accomplishment of a
practitioner is achieved through his devotion to his guru.
Konde Rinpoche shared with us that Shri Singha served
his guru for 25 years without doing any spiritual practice. Finally, his guru
transmitted the Dzogchen lineage to him entirely and he became enlightened.
Guru Devotion is a key practice in Guru Yoga. Guru Yoga is just Dzogchen. When
you accomplished your Guru Yoga (Guru Devotion), your spiritual attainment will
be no different from that of your guru. The recitation of the verse of
supplication and the chanting of heart mantra of your guru are very important;
you will be no different from your guru when you accomplished these practices.
This hand mudra signifies Dzogchen, with the fourth and small fingers
representing Adam’s Peak where Dzogchen lineage was first transmitted to our
world; the thumbs and index fingers representing the vajra that signifies
Vajrayana Buddhism; the middle fingers crossing each other representing the
pervasiveness of Dzogchen being transmitted in the ten directions. When we join
and turn our palms in a circular motion while singing the verse of
supplication, it means praying for the pervasive transmission of Dzogchen in
the entire universe, through which you will also receive the blessing of
Dzogchen. This is an inconceivable method of practice which can bring about a
very swift accomplishment, whereas other methods of practice will take a much
longer time to accomplish.
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Recorded
by Lian Shao on 12-11-18