Conclude the meditation by visualizing, feeling, and believing that all beings and the whole universe have been purified, healed, and transformed into a universe of blessing light with boundless peace, joy, and unconditional love—the qualities of the Buddha of Loving-Kindness.
In this Inner Buddha meditation, you are generating heartfelt loving-kindness—aspirations for beings to have happiness and attain enlightenment. You are also putting those aspirations into practice by praying and doing the meditation, which embodies the qualities of the Six Perfections of the bodhisattva path.
8
MEDITATION ON THE UNIVERSAL BUDDHA
IN THE UNIVERSAL BUDDHA STAGE we perceive all form—our body, the universe—as the image of the Buddha and his Pure Land with the qualities of loving-kindness. We hear all sound—within us and without—as the sound of the Six-Syllable Mantra, waves of the sound of loving-kindness. We experience all feelings—meditation, emotions, and sensations—as the feeling and expression of unconditional love.
Seeing, Hearing, and Feeling Every Particle of Your Body as a Boundless Pure Land of Loving-Kindness
Remember that your mind has been transformed into a mind of Buddha blessings, loving-kindness. Remember to see and feel that your body—your whole body—has become the body of Buddha’s blessing light, light of loving-kindness, as described in the last chapter.
So, now, see and experience every particle of your body as a particle of blessing light. Every particle of light is an inconceivably vast pure land. Each pure land is presided over by a Buddha of Loving-Kindness. Each pure land is filled with infinite Buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakas, and dakinis, who have all-knowing wisdom, unconditional love, and boundless power.
Feel that all the movements of light, energy, and sound of your body’s pure lands are waves of wisdom, love, and power with blissful heat—the blessing energies of the Buddhas and their pure lands. Every pure land is filled with singing and dancing angels—arisen as a great miraculous display. Even the music and dances of the celestial realms cannot compare. Every movement is accompanied by waves of blessing energies with the sweet music of holy Dharma—of esoteric teachings and prayers—that fill all the ten quarters.
See the magnificence, beauty, richness, and joyful nature of your body. Feel the vast magnitude of its infinite pure lands. When you are enjoying the amazing qualities of your body of light and love, your mind also spontaneously awakens into one of boundless loving-kindness, as mind is the one imagining and enjoying the infinite loving-kindness of the Buddha and pure lands.
At the beginning, you might find it challenging to wrap your head around the infinitude of boundless Buddha pure lands in the meditation. But you’re not doing this exercise just for mental gymnastics to push the strength of your imagination. You’re doing this exercise because boundless infinitude is, in fact, the absolute dimension of the pure lands. If, with a relaxed mind, you train yourself to conceive of such infinitude, the scope of your mind will open enormously because of the skill and power of such an approach.
Teaching on how to meditate on infinite pure lands, the Buddha himself said:
Imagine that on each atom there are as many Buddhas as the number of atoms in the world
Sitting in the midst of [an ocean of] their children [disciples].
Thus the entire atmosphere
Is filled with infinite Buddhas.
An ocean of inexhaustible tributes
Of all those Buddhas is expressed
Through the sounds of an ocean of melodies.
I praise all the Bliss Gones.133 . . .
On each atom there are as many pure lands as the number of atoms in the world.
In each pure land, there are infinite Buddhas
Sitting in the midst of their children [disciples].
May I see them and perform enlightened activities with them.134
The Buddha also said:
Learn to enter into the thought of [seeing] inconceivable pure lands of the Buddhas within the dimensions of a single hair.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[See] that your own body is fully filled with Buddha pure lands.135
Again, the Buddha said:
In the space of a single hair, [see] as many Buddhas
As the number of sand particles of the Ganges River.
Each Buddha has that many pure lands.
Each has its own unique characteristics and qualities.136
Seeing, Hearing, and Feeling Every Particle of the World as Boundless Pure Lands of Loving-Kindness
Once you have trained your mind to see your body as a body of loving-kindness made of infinite Buddha pure lands, start seeing the external world that way, too.
Whatever you see—beings, land, mountains, flowers, houses—see as appearances of loving-kindness, the Buddha of Loving-Kindness and his Pure Land. Whatever you hear—people, nature, traffic, music, prayers—hear as sound with the quality of loving-kindness, such as the sound of the Six-Syllable Mantra. Whatever you feel— whether mentally, physically, or emotionally—experience it with the qualities of loving-kindness, for the Buddha of Loving-Kindness is reaching and uniting with all, as discussed in the Inner Buddha Stage. Before long, all beings and the world will arise for you with the qualities of loving-kindness—or even as loving-kindness free from concepts (the final Universal Buddha Stage, discussed in the next chapter).
Again, see each wave of your mind of loving-kindness as a projecting and gathering of rays of light of unconditional love. Perceive each wave of your exhalation and inhalation as sending and receiving waves of light with blissful heat of the wisdom body of the Buddha of Loving-Kindness. Experience each wave of natural sound of the Buddha’s speech, the sacred Six Syllables, as filling all existents with boundless power. Feel the omnipresent wisdom of enlightened nature and qualities of the Buddha pervading all as the union of loving-kindness and emptiness.
Realizing and remaining in the awakened nature of the Buddha body, speech, and mind, chant or sing the sacred Six-Syllable Prayer slowly and softly, clearly, and accurately in the sweetest melody you can, hundreds, thousands, millions of times: OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG.
When you are enlightened, loving-kindness and blessing lights are the same in their ultimate nature. They are Buddha and Buddha pure lands. They are Buddha wisdom, love, and action. They are the nature of the universe: infinitely open, pure, radiant, omnipresent, and nondual.
Until we are highly realized, we should visualize blessing lights as rainbow lights or as the light of the sun or moon, which are relatively subtle and pure. As we advance, we should try to realize blessing lights as the Buddha’s wisdom, love, and power—as accomplishing everything, fulfilling our wishes, and enlightening all. The Buddha said:
The body of the Buddha emits lights
As numerous as the atoms of [the earth multiplied by a] hundred thousand of the number of particles [of the ocean].
Likewise, the number of pure lands are as infinite as . . .
The number of particles in the ocean.
There are as many [rays of] light [as there are] atoms. Each [light ray has] many secondary rays.
These lights manifest pure forms of Buddhas In lands where there are no Buddhas
[So that they can] teach the most profound Dharma.137
These lights are pure, boundless, and beyond conceptual mind. They are the source of peace, joy, and realization. The Buddha taught:
In brief, these lights [of the Buddha] transcend all lights.
These lights are immaculate. They are totally vast.
They cause bliss in the body and joy to the mind. . . .
They generate joy, supreme joy, and bliss.
For beings whose minds are virtuous, they cause them to have virtues, vast realization,
Knowledge, and supreme joy in their minds.138
Je Tsongkhapa writes:
These lights are immaculate like crystal. They are thoroughly vast like space. They cause
bliss in the body. They cause joy in the mind. Whomever they touch, they make supremely joyful.139
Filling the days of our lives with devotional meditations, loving-kindness, and heartfelt prayers is the way to triumphantly fulfill the goal of our precious life.
9
MEDITATION ON THE ULTIMATE BUDDHA
The Ultimate Buddha Stage is about meditating on loving-kindness free from concepts. This is the union of loving-kindness qualities and the openness nature that we realize if our meditation on loving-kindness has progressed well and reached the final stage of attainment.
Rest in the Awareness of Boundless Loving-Kindness without Grasping
So now, meditate as follows. When you were meditating on the Universal Buddha Stage, you might have experienced an awareness of loving-kindness that was openness and boundlessness. To bring that to the Ultimate Buddha Stage, when that happens, don’t grasp at the experience at that moment. Just remain open. Don’t conceptualize or label it. Just rest in stillness. Don’t let your mind waver with thoughts. Just remain tranquil. Don’t entertain doubts or expectations. Just relax. Rest in the state of mere awakened awareness of boundless loving-kindness without thoughts.
With openness, watch the openness nature—the seeingness and knowingness of the innate loving-kindness— without apprehension, modification, hesitation, expectation, or fixation. Rest in such openness state, as it is. Let the chain of conceptual thoughts break, melt, and dissolve naturally and simultaneously like a mirage.
When you experience the awakened openness state of mind, remain in it without dualistic thoughts. Don’t let your mind run after past thoughts or memories. Don’t invite future thoughts or dreams. Don’t grasp at any present thought. Just remain in the awakened state of loving-kindness free from concepts, as it is, where there is no root that produces any thought, and no foundation that provides any ground for thought to dwell. When the realization of this awakened state is fully perfected, it will blossom as the omniscient wisdom with fivefold dimensionless dimension.140
Expand the Ultimate Resting in the Awareness of All
After gaining some stability in this meditative state, you could introduce more meditation exercises to expand the depth, breadth, power, and actions of the experience.
In their true nature, all remain in the union of loving-kindness and emptiness. So see all the images that appear before you as the union of appearances and emptiness that are boundlessly open. Hear all the sounds that you hear as the soothing sound of Dharma, the union of sound and emptiness. Understand all your thoughts as the great union of awareness and emptiness, or loving-kindness free from concepts. Experience all your experiences as the powerful waves of blissful heat, the union of bliss and emptiness. Meditate on this over and over again.
Recognize and remain in the awareness of such union—the ultimate loving-kindness. Repeatedly chant or sing the sacred Six-Syllable Prayer slowly and softly in the sweetest melody with total openness—the great boundless unity of sound and emptiness: OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG.
Instructions and Benefits as Taught in the Sacred Teachings
Longchen Rabjam advises that after meditating on loving-kindness that is with concepts, we must contemplate loving-kindness that is free from concepts and rest in it. He writes:
After that, contemplate in the all-evenness state. That is great loving-kindness free from concepts, as it is the union of loving-kindness and emptiness. The objects of loving-kindness, beings, have taken birth due to the gathering of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness. But if you analyze them, they exist neither as gross elements, subtle absolute reality, nor consciousness. They are like space. Thinking thus, meditate on this. . . . When beings appear, if you analyze their bodies, you will not find their existence. You will find neither a consciousness that depends on [a body] nor a body [on which a mind] is depended. In this way you will not find any “I” or “my,” as they are emptiness in their true nature. . . . Merely appearing to be seen or heard does not prove something true or false. True or false is a thing invented by the mind. . . . As the sign of the perfection of the meditation—while the development of loving-kindness [toward all is present] in you—you have the concurrent realization that there is no reality or self in beings, like a water-tree.141
If you maintain such a meditative state, then due to the power of (1) the blessings of the Buddha of Loving-Kindness and (2) the virtue of doing meditations on loving-kindness and loving-kindness that is free from concepts, we will realize the ultimate meaning, loving-kindness whose essence is emptiness. That is the suchness—the true nature of all that is free from conceptual elaboration. It is the loving-kindness that is free from concepts. It is also the true nature of the mind, the state that is free since the beginning. When you realize such true nature, you must maintain that realization by remaining in it through meditation without wavering until the full realization is perfected.
Then gradually, as the self-power of that realization, all phenomenal appearances will start arising as the Buddha of Loving-Kindness and his radiant Pure Land, spontaneously. Then all appear, but with no duality, as they are pure and open. All function, but without distinctions of good and bad. All arise, but naturally free and fully complete, without any limitation or conflict. This experience is the total freedom from the dual obscurations—emotional and intellectual—without even a trace of duality. Such realization will awaken the two wisdoms—the wisdom of knowing all things as they are, and the wisdom of knowing the truth of all as it is. That is also the securing of the fully enlightened state, the primordial nature.
In the state of such realization, all thoughts of grasping at physical and nonphysical objects have been exhausted, verbal designations and conceptual thoughts have ceased, and all suffering and conflict have ended. This is known as the Great Wisdom Mother (Prajnaparamita). Nagarjuna writes:
The expiration of grasping at physical and nonphysical objects
Is called the cessation of suffering.142
Shantideva writes:
When something and no-thing
Are not there before your mind [to apprehend],
Then there will be no other option [for your mind, except to]
Rest in peace, free from concepts.143
Ngulchu Thogme144 writes:
All that appears is [the creation of] one’s mind.
The nature of the mind is free from extremes from the beginning.
Having realized this, never think about the characteristics of grasper or grasped.
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.145
This is the wisdom that is nondual, free from the two extremes. It is free from falling into eternalism, as it is emptiness like space. It is free from falling into nihilism, as it is the self-awareness or the discriminative (all-knowing) wisdom. In the Drachen Dzinkyi Yumla Todpa sutra it is said:
Perfect wisdom is the freedom from designations and concepts.
It is unborn and unceasing like the nature of space.
It can be seen through natural awareness, omniscient wisdom.
It is the “Great Wisdom Mother” of the three times.
To you I pray.146
Maitreya-natha writes:
In this, there is nothing to be rejected
And nothing to be defended, even in the slightest.
Just look at the true suchness perfectly.
If you see it correctly, you are fully liberated.147
Training in the meaning of the union of loving-kindness and emptiness will lead us to realize the space-like all-evenness state of all phenomenal existents. Giving teachings on Dzogpa Chenpo meditation to Manjushrimitra,148 Prahevajra149 said:
The nature of the mind is Buddha from primordial time.
Mind has no birth or cessation, like space.
Having realized the evenness state of all existents,
Remain in it, without seeking anything. That is the meditation.150
So, if you realize the meaning of loving-kindness free from concepts, y
ou will have realized the meaning of suchness, no-self,151 freedom from extremes, universality, and freedom from the beginning. You will have attained the sublime fruits that are taught in Madhyamaka, Mahamudra, and Dzogpa Chenpo. As Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa writes:
Not dwelling in extremes is the meaning of Madhyamaka.
Universality and spontaneity is the state of Mahamudra.
Free from extremes and vastly open is the essential point of Dzogpa Chenpo.
In this spontaneously perfect womb, where all the virtues of the paths and stages are complete from the origin,
The Heart of Unconditional Love Page 10