Vajrasattva

[Scott Hutton]

Here is a gift from Lama Zopa Rimpoche:


Before you go to bed each night, recite the Vajrasattva mantra to prevent whatever negative karma you have created that day from multiplying. If you don't purify it in this way your negative karma will keep doubling and re-doubling day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year up to the end of your life and even one day's negative karma will become as huge and heavy as a mountain?in time, even one atom of unpurified negative karma can swell to the size of the Earth.

Even though you may not necessarily create particularly heavy negative karmas, since unpurified negative karma increases exponentially in this way, even one small negative action can cause you to be reborn in the lower realms and experience great suffering for many eons. And because in the lower realms you continually create more and more negative karma, it is extremely difficult to be reborn back into the upper realms, which makes it almost impossible for you to practice Dharma. Therefore you must purify your negative karma every day.

Since practicing the Vajrasattva recitation-meditation at the end of the day prevents negative karma from multiplying it is an unbelievably powerful method. It makes your life very light and easy and keeps you happy and peaceful inside?in your heart and in your inner life. Furthermore, it purifies not only that day's negative karma but also that created in this life from the time you were born and in all your previous lives as well.

Purifying negative karma makes it much easier to attain liberation and actualize the path to enlightenment. It also decreases your suffering and any obstacles that might arise. Purifying negative karma means that you won't have to experience the many eons of suffering in the lower realms that result from not purifying even one negative karma, and you won't have to experience again and again without end the four suffering results that arise from each unpurified negative karma.

The conclusion is that even if you have completed the preliminary of reciting 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras you can't just stop, relax and say, "I've finished my Vajrasattva preliminary practice. Now I don't have to recite that mantra any more." You need to keep doing the long Vajrasattva mantra at least twenty-one times or the short one at least twenty-eight times a day in order to keep purifying your negative karma and prevent it from multiplying.

SOURCE:

    http://tinyurl.com/yps6nu

[Scott Hutton]

Caveat:   the following is in NO way to be construed as a comment upon Joey's administration of this forum; it is merely a practical vajrayana hint.

When I was with my first lama, from time to time, unpleasant disruptions of our little sangha's harmony would occur.

Someone might decide the guru was trying to fuck her (in most cases, she should be so lucky!), someone else might decide that the guru's wife was irresponsible, someone might decide that the guru was too much into money:  you do the math; all the usual nonsense.

Whenever such occurred, all teachings (and, trust me, they were serious Nyingma teachings indeed) would be called to a halt until we, collectively, had chanted 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras.  Until the karma was clear, the lama refused to move on.  The only alternative practice that was acceptable to him was "Dusum sangye Guru Rimpoche", a Tibetan chant averring that Guru Rimpoche is the all the buddhas of the three times throughout space...but even that fabulous chant wasn't quite in Vajrasattva's league.

Oh, how I treasure his devotion, almost 50 years after the fact!

SNN having polluted this forum so successfully, I suggest:  those who feel it sensible, please undertake to say at least 100 of the short Vajrasattva mantra or 21 of the long mantra every day for a while....until we collectively feel that the atmosphere has been cleared.

We can help ourselves and SNN all at once (his karma would be cleared too) and, surely, that is a good thing.

Scott

[goat]

om vajrasattva hum .short


om vajrasattva samaya manu palaya - vajrasattva deno patita - dido may bhawa - suto kayo may bhawa - supo kayo may bhawa - anu rakto may bhawa - sarwa siddhi mepar yatsa - sarwa karma su tsa may - tsitam shriyam kuru hum - ha ha ha ha ho - bhagawan - sarwa tatagata - vajra ma may mu tsa - vajra bhawa maha samaya sattva - ah hum pey

??

[wmw111]

Thanks Scott,
for sharing your experiences with your teacher . Sometimes tsem rinpoche would also not budge ( no more teaching s) until certain things were sorted out. And he used different methods , sometimes asking us to commit to certain work ( the work normally has interactions with people and deadlines , so a lot stress and difficulty - this helps to purify negativities also ), but all in all to make us give up always just thinking about us , us, us all the time and let go a bit .

"Oh, how I treasure his devotion, almost 50 years after the fact!"

What do you mean by this , could you elaborate?

Goat , the 100 syllable mantra is the bottom one and the top one is the short mantra.

[studyreligions]

Here are some links regarding Vajrasattva.

This is a video of images of Vajrasattva to the chanting of the long and short mantra. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1924205

Here is a link to a guide to Vajrasattva purifcation practice that I have found very effective.
http://www.angelfire.com/mt/thubtentenzin/vajrasattva.html

May all of our negativites be purified!

Om Vajrasattva Hum

[Scott Hutton]

TO W:

It has been nearly 40 years since I studied with my first lama.  His devotion was non-stop 24/7. 

I cherish that devotion because, to this day, in its remembered form, it urges me 24/7 to have a care regarding my own devotion.  There was, yes, a period when I got totally off track...but somehow or other everything pretty much got sorted out.

Not sorted out by me, but the gurus, using ways and methods of which I'm still pretty much unaware - I could see only the results.

Scott

[goat]

studyreligions...just what i was wanting to hear...thank you..

[clouded]

The Vajrasattva mantra that's in the book Faces of Enlightenment is:

Om Benza Sato Hung

and the 100 syllable mantra is:

om benzasatto samaya manu palaya - benzasatto teno patita - didro may bhawa - suto kayo may bhawa - supo kayo may bhawa - anu rakto may bhawa - sarwa siddhi me par yatsa - sarwa karma sut tsa me - tishtam shriyam kuru hum - ha ha ha ha ho - bhagawan sarwa tatagata - benza ma may mun tsa - benza bawa maha samaya satto - ah hum phet

Both mantras are the same right?

[Scott Hutton]

Hm...that's a tough one; in the Nyingma puja I learned one chanted at least 21 of the long mantra whilst visualizing the purification process, then 108 of the shorter one as one visualized the radiance and subsequent dissolution of the final HUNG.  (This was a short puja within a Guru Rimpoche puja - the bridge between the Bodhisattva vow and mandala offering.)

I have always considered the longer mantra to be more powerful but that is strictly a personal feeling - no lama ever taught me this.

Scott

[Ninje]

Hi Clouded,

Both are the same. According to one senior member, the reason being that when this mantra was brought to Tibet, some Tibetan have difficulty to pronounce the word "Vajra", thus, it was changed to "Benza". All the rest of the words are exactly the same. Anyway, due to translation by different groups, there are different versions in "spelling". Similarly, here in Kechara House we normally chant Manjushri mantra with this version, "Om Ah Ra Pa Tza Na Dhi" whereas in some other text it is spelled as "Om Arapacana Dhi" which I think is more accurate because "Arapacana" is supposed to be the name of Manjushri and "Dhi" is the seed syllable. Maybe someone else can confirm this.

Hi Scott,

If I may, I would like to share this small 'story' to confirm that your feeling is right about the different power between the shorter and the longer mantra.

During the time we were committing every Saturday nights chanting from 7pm to 7am (sometimes up to 8am on Sunday) to fulfill our 10 million Migtsema recitations as instructed by D. Setrap for the long life of Rinpoche, Rinpoche himself would occasionally made early morning surprise visits at 2am or 3am to gompa where the students were reciting Migtsema.

This was kind of "up close and personal" because there are only about 10 students around, so we got to ask very direct and some rather 'private' questions (as compared to his public talks with hundreds of attendees). At one of these rare fortunate private teachings by Rinpoche, someone asked him the different between the 6-syllables (shorter) mantra and the 100-syllables (longer) mantra, this was his answer (though may not be exactly word to word):

"What is the different between $6 and $100?" And then he added, "Is there anymore not so intelligent questions?" 

Everyone laughed. 

Cheers

[Scott Hutton]

I adore a man who keeps an eye on the cash.  Good for Rimpoche.  I am often tempted to offer him an antique cash register.  He'd know what to do with it.

Once I was asked to give teachings to a Dharma group in New York.  I hadn't the faintest idea what to talk about, thought about it and finally, arrived with xerox copies of the 100-syllable mantra and had them chant it (I functioned as umzeh) 100 times.  This was Kargyu group - none of them had the strict Nyingma training I had.  Hell, they didn't even know the mantra.

You will forgive the lack of modesty,  the chanting blew them the f-word away. 

I did have a care to talk them through the visualization, interrupting the chanting every 20 mantras or so, but gave absolutely NO comment, teleping to whomever of the lineage was about to please do the commenting for me.

I think it worked, the simple act of not preaching afterwards.  Someone later said they felt the power for days.

A disclosure for this forum only:  right now I'm flashing on Green Tara as Dharmakaya (after all, she is, when all is said and done, Prajnaparamita) and Vajrasattva as, for want of a better word, radiance.

Limitless purifying radiance.

It's a wonderful flashing, and beautifully gets me through the night.

Scott

[clouded]

Thanks Ninje.

[Ninje]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for sharing. 

[Scott Hutton]

Last Monday, after a long weekend, I came back to the office to find a small parcel (from Austria) on my desk.  Inside, strung on what must be yak rahwide, was an largish gau (supposedly never opened) the size of a thick apple slice on whose surface is Dorje Sempa.

It was love at first sight:  yes, I love Dorje Sempa but I also love all the divinities of the Tibetan Book of the (Recently) Dead...of whom I've lost count:  is it 100 or 108?

Om benzar sato....

I wear the gau when at all possible, which isn't daily, as it's so big.  On days when it's not worn it lives on the shelf above my sleeping area.

....samaya...mano palaya.....

Oh, it IS nice to have such a gau again!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho!  Bagawhan!

Scott

[Ninje]

Hi Scott,

Please excuse this unlearned person... could you please explain a little what is this 'largish gau'?

Thanks.