Day
two: morning
Prayers to
Buddha Shakyamuni and to Manjusri.
The Refuge
Vow
Today, I will give the Refuge vow.
A Buddha is one who
has attained the three kayas. He has attained the Dharmakaya,
the Sambhogakaya, and the Nirmanakaya. When you
take the Refuge vow, you can focus on Buddha Shakyamuni, who
is the Buddha of our world. Imagine Buddha Shakyamuni in front
of you and then think of his qualities – the same qualities
as those of all the Buddhas. Buddha Shakyamuni accomplished two
benefits, the benefit for himself, and the benefit for others.
To accomplish the benefit for himself means that he has given
up all veils and all negativities of mind, and his wisdom has
been fully awakened.
Dharmakaya
There are three kinds of veils. The first is the veil of
obscuring states of mind. The second is the veil of knowledge,
and the
third is the veil of very fine habitual patterns. When the
veil of obscuring states is given up, one is free from
rebirths in
the cycle of existence – one is liberated from samsara.
When the veil of knowledge is given up, one is no longer stuck
in self-liberation. And when the veil of habits is given up,
one has become a fully enlightened Buddha. To be a Buddha means
to be free from all three kinds of veils. It means to be fully
awakened having realized the Dharmakaya.
Take
for example, Buddha Shakyamuni who did not start out in his
life enlightened. He was a Bodhisattva, the son of a king.
And in his role as a prince, he had enjoyed life for some time.
It was not until later that he came to realize that there was
no meaning in the life of a wealthy king, and no satisfaction
to be found either. He then went looking for a cause that would
give satisfaction. This cause as he came to understand, could
be found in the freedom of a mind completely removed from all
ignorance. Consequently, the prince renounced everything, went
to the forest and meditated. Through meditation, he eliminated
all three veils of mind and became fully enlightened. In other
words, he attained the Dharmakaya.
Nirmanakaya
Enlightenment benefits not just one person. And just because
the Buddha himself was enlightened, it did not mean that he
would then disappear from his disciples or sentient beings.
On the
contrary, the enlightened Buddha Shakyamuni went on to teach
sentient beings how to achieve enlightenment. Thousands upon
thousands of disciples everywhere were enlightened as a result,
and not only in his lifetime. This effect is just like the
reflection of the rising sun, the sun’s reflection at once, appears
in every droplet of water everywhere, just like that! (a snap
of the fingers.)
The real cause of liberation from samsara depends on you. It
depends on a change in your own mind, which is the real cause.
Therefore, emanations from the enlightened mind or Nirmanakayas
appear to help beings by encouraging them to change their attitudes.
For instance, to affect a beneficial change in the attitudes
of insects, the impetus would have to come from an insect. It
could not come from a human, and so an emanation in insect form
would appear to help the insects change for the better. Accordingly,
Nirmanakayas are as numerous and as varied as there are forms
of sentient beings.
Buddha
means completely accomplished. What is accomplished is the
compassion he has
generated towards sentient beings on the
way to become enlightened. All his wishes beneficial to sentient
beings come from this compassion. Therefore, completely accomplished
means that all the wishes of a Buddha are happening. These wishes
are coming true. They come to us through the Nirmanakaya. In
other words, all the help that sentient beings are receiving,
all the beneficial circumstances that are happening to sentient
beings are the Nirmanakayas, the emanations of Buddhas. Just
as the sun’s reflection appears in the water droplets everywhere,
the Nirmanakayas appear in every realm of sentient beings to
benefit them.
Sambhogakaya
There are many realms of advanced beings like the Bodhisattvas.
These Bodhisattvas have already attained certain bhumis, or
levels of achievement. There are many small and medium
bhumis that come
before the final bhumi, which is complete enlightenment. Bodhisattvas
who have attained these bhumis are in very pure realms, unlike
our impure human realm, or the impure realm of insects. The
realms of Bodhisattvas are very, very pure. The reason
is because their
minds are like a clear mirror, and so the reflections from
these pure minds are also clear. However, these Bodhisattvas
still
need guides to help them reach the full enlightenment. To help
these pure beings, the Buddhas’ emanations manifest in
these pure forms, pure like Buddha Vajradhara. This form of very
pure emanation is called Sambhogakaya. Again, Sambhogakaya also
comes from the wishes made by the Buddhas.
Nirmanakayas
and Sambhogakayas appear according to the qualities of the
sentient beings. They
are inseparable from a Buddha’s
Dharmakaya, a Buddha’s wisdom, or a Buddha’s complete
enlightenment.
Wisdom
The three kayas can also be described in terms of the two
aspects of Buddha wisdom: vast wisdom and profound wisdom.
Dharmakaya
is profound wisdom because it is wisdom that realizes itself,
so nobody can judge it. Vast wisdom is Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya,
which are emanated. Whether you refer to enlightenment as the
two wisdoms, or the three kayas, the meaning is the same as
described.
Without profound wisdom, one cannot have vast wisdom. Profound
wisdom is the wisdom that you can achieve. However, there is
no separate way to achieve vast wisdom, because it is part of
profound wisdom. Profound wisdom means a mind totally free from
all veils of obscurations, at all three levels: gross, medium
and subtle. In the absence of obscuration, the mind changes into
profound wisdom, and that includes the vast wisdom.
If I have profound wisdom, I will no longer have dualistic concepts.
I will see your illusions as your dreams. I will recognize that
all of you here, are sleeping and dreaming. As well, my profound
wisdom can understand all your dreams, which are different individually,
yet the same in one nature. It is because a Buddha knows all
the illusions of sentient beings that he can accordingly, manifest
the emanations, which is vast wisdom, to help them. Profound
wisdom is the quality of a Buddha. And Buddha also means profound
wisdom. They are synonymous.
Refuge of the Triple Gem >>>
The S h a m a r p a
