The Heart of Unconditional Love

by Tulku Thondup

  May all beings’ sicknesses, without remainder,

  Never occur again.

  From here, in the direction of the West,

  There is the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light.

  Whoever says his name in prayer,

  May they [all] be born in his supreme Pure Land.

  By the power of these merits, may we swiftly

  Become one with the Buddha of Loving-Kindness.

  May all beings without exception

  Attain the state of [the Buddha of Loving-Kindness].

  By the blessings of the Buddha, who has attained the three bodies;

  By the power of the truth of the changeless state, the ultimate Dharma nature;

  By the power of the truth of the Sangha, which never deviates from realization—

  May the dedications and the aspirations that we have made be realized, as we have made them.

  20

  THE FOUR-STAGE MEDITATIONS IN BRIEF

  MANY PEOPLE COMPLAIN that they cannot do Dharma practice because they don’t have the time or energy. Although meditating for longer periods is better, you can still profit from shorter sessions that will fit into your daily schedule. Meditating for only 30 minutes will be highly beneficial, especially if you can do it every day and with heartfelt concentration and devotion. The following is a sample of how you can do the Four Stages of Buddha meditation in just 30 minutes or even less.

  If you are beginning, spend 10 minutes for the First Stage, 10 minutes for the Second, 3 minutes for the Third Stage, and 2 minutes for the Fourth Stage. Each Stage will flow naturally into the next, if you do the preceding stages properly. Take 3 minutes to settle down the mind at the beginning and 2 more minutes to conclude the meditation at the end. Once you’ve done the meditation daily for a month or so and have made some progress, you can readjust the length of time for each stage, as you wish.

  Sit in a comfortable place that is suitable for you. Take a few deep breaths in order to release any worries or stress. Feel good and thankful for the opportunity to have the time to do meditation.

  Setting Your Intention for the Meditation

  Start the meditation by developing the attitude of enlightenment. Think and say to yourself: I am making a vow to bring happiness with its causes and enlightenment to all mother-beings. By launching yourself into the meditation with this intention, you greatly expand the scope of your mental resolution and power.

  First Stage: Meditation on the Outer Buddha

  You are now ready to start with the Outer Buddha. Visualize, feel, and believe that the Buddha of Loving-Kindness is in front of you, looking at you and thinking of you with all-knowing wisdom, boundless power, and especially loving-kindness, unconditional love. Feel the intimacy with the Buddha.

  Pray with devotion: Then pray by chanting OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG with heartfelt devotion that opens your heart with the energy of joy of being in the presemce of the Buddha of Loving-Kindness. Trust in his presence, his love, and his enlightened qualities.

  Receive blessing: Then, from the Buddha’s body, visualize and feel that his blessings come in the form of infinite beams of rainbow light, lights of his wisdom, love, and power with energy waves of blissful heat. These bright lights of loving-kindness—wishing joy for all—enter your body, and all your unwholesome thoughts, negative emotions, and evil deeds (karma), as well as your suffering, are totally dispelled in the form of darkness from every particle of your body. Do this over and over again.

  Transformation: Every particle of your body is purified and filled with—and then transformed into—the blessing lights of wisdom, power, and especially loving-kindness of the Buddha. See every breath as the blessing waves of blissful heat of love with the sounds of OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG. You must recognize the transformation that is taking place in you and enjoy it again and again.

  Second Stage: Meditation on the Inner Buddha

  You are now ready for the Inner Buddha. Since your mind changes according to what and how you see, think, feel, and believe, you should now see and recognize that through the power of meditating on the Buddha and his loving-kindness, your mind has become a mind of loving-kindness. Loving-kindness, embodying the pure qualities of your mind, has now awakened. See, feel, and rejoice and celebrate over that great transformation.

  Serve others with loving-kindness: Then, with that newfound heart of loving-kindness, inwardly look at your loving mother (or any beloved individual) with strong feelings of unconditional love from the depth of your heart. See that lights of love, wisdom, and power, with waves of blissful heat energy and the sound of mantra, come to her from the Buddha who is before you as well as from your own transformed blessing light body. These lights of unconditional love dispel the darkness and suffering from her body. Her body and mind transform into a body and mind of the light of wisdom, love, and power with the energy waves and the sounds of mantra. Her body becomes a body of blessing light, a mind of wisdom, power, unconditional love, joy, and peace. Chant OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG many times.

  Then, with a heart of loving-kindness, gradually share the blessings of the Buddha and yourself with other friends in the same way. Extend the blessings to strangers, then foes, and finally infinite mother-beings. All have become a universe of light and love, peace and joy, with waves of OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG.

  Third Stage: Meditation on the Universal Buddha

  Move now to the Universal Buddha Stage. The qualities of your mental objects, the world, become what your mind sees, thinks, and feels. So see that all forms that your mind is seeing are images of light with the qualities of loving-kindness. Hear that all sounds that your mind is hearing are sounds with the qualities of loving-kindness—OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUNG. Feel that all experiences you are having are feelings of loving-kindness—unconditional and boundless love. Enjoying loving-kindness with this awakened openness and universal dimension, we meditate and pray.

  Fourth Stage: Meditation on the Ultimate Buddha

  Finally, rest in the Ultimate Buddha, the state of awareness of unconditioned openness and boundless loving-kindness—without grasping or conceptualizing at all. Even your senses are suspended. That doesn’t mean that you can’t hear or see; just that you are seeing and hearing through the power of awareness wisdom, with total openness and oneness without duality followed by emotions, sensations, and so on. Keep going back to that openness nature of loving-kindness and resting in it again and again. Then, slowly, the loving-kindness that you are experiencing could become a state that is free from concepts, the union of loving-kindness and emptiness—the true nature of the mind.

  Concluding Meditations

  Conclude the meditation with Dedication and Aspirations. Dedicate the merits that you accumulated by offering them to all mother-beings as the cause of their happiness and enlightenment. Then make aspirations that, as the result, every mother-being may enjoy happiness, peace, and joy, and attain Buddhahood.

  CLOSING VERSE

  The sun of this life is fast setting behind the tall mountains in the West.

  But, if the light of unconditional love is secure in our heart core,

  Forever will it remain as the source of the timeless light of wisdom and love.

  I have tried to share this message with all who care to lend an ear.

  Though my own mindstream is ruled by the wildest emotions,

  What I have offered here is the pristine ambrosia cherished by the Awakened Sages,

  Unstained by the reckless blurting of my own mundane jabber.

  So it is worth your picking it up with respect and enshrining it in your heart.

  By the power of the refuges—the Three Precious Jewels,

  The Masters of Accomplishments, the Seekers of Enlightenment and the Angels of Wisdom—

  May all mindstreams that are touched by these messages of love

  Be united with the true loving-kindness, bodhichitta.

  NOTES

  Titles of Tibetan texts are abbreviated in the notes; see the Biblio
graphy for the complete data. The word “folio” in the notes refers to the Tibetan style of pagination, and “p.” (for “page”) is used for the Western style of pagination. When paginations from traditional Tibetan sources are cited, the abbreviated title is followed by the folio number. Where relevant, the front and back of the folio is indicated by letter a or b, respectively; and then the line number follows the slash mark (for example: “CT, folio 244a/1”).

  Opening Verse

  1. Tib. drupchen, grub chen; Skt. mahasiddha. Here this refers to Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche the Fourth, who is my root teacher. Here, Do (rdo) is “stone,” and Drupchen means the “great adept”: “the Great Adept from the Stone Valley.” The main Monastery of the Dodrupchen lineage in Eastern Tibet is also known as the Dodrupchen Monastery, where I studied.

  2. Tib. rigdzin, rig ’dzin; Skt. vidyadhara. The realized Masters of esoteric (tantric) teachings of Buddhism.

  3. Bodhisattvas are the trainees and the highly realized Masters of exoteric (Sutra) teachings of Buddhism.

  4. Tib. khandro, mkha’ ’gro; Skt. dakini. Highly realized female teachers of esoteric (tantric) teachings of Buddhism.

  5. Ngodrub Palbar Ling (dngos sgrub dpal ’bar gling), or Blazing Glorious Seat of Accomplishments, is a name for Dodrupchen Monastery, where I grew up as a novice and as a young tulku in training.

  Chapter 1: The Importance of Training Our Mind

  6. LS, folio 246b/4.

  7. The Third Dodrupchen was Jigme Tenpe Nyima (1865–1926). Dodrupchen means “mahasiddha [great adept] of the Do Valley.”

  8. KDL, p. 202/16.

  9. Maitreya-natha is a bodhisattva who is said to be currently residing in Tushita Heaven, ready to descend to the Jambu continent (our world) as our next Buddha. Asanga had a vision of Maitreya-natha, who revealed many teachings to him. Asanga wrote them down, and they became the famous Five Texts of Maitreya, upon which the Yogachara, or Mind-Only, school of philosophy was founded. Many, however, credit Asanga as the actual author of the texts and founder of the Yogachara school.

  10. GB, p. 6/3.

  11. CT, folio 244a/1.

  12. DDN, folio 25a/3.

  13. GR, folio 200a/4.

  14. TBN, folio 123b/4.

  15. DNC, folio 172a/1.

  16. BGD, folio 16b/2.

  17. GR, folio 187b/5.

  18. Konchog Dronme (1859–1936) was an esteemed scholar and adept of Dodrupchen Monastery.

  19. TBS, p. 10/3.

  Chapter 2: Essential Tools for Meditation

  20. Padmasambhava (Skt. “Lotus-Born”; Tib. Pema Jungne, padma ’byung gnas). One of the greatest adepts and teachers of esoteric Buddhism, known popularly in Tibet as Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Teacher”). He traveled from India to Tibet in the eighth century and founded Tibetan Buddhism, tamed human and nonhuman forces opposing the Dharma, transmitted Vajrayana (esoteric) teachings, and through his mystical power concealed teachings and religious objects for future followers to find. Those concealed teachings and treasures (terma) are still being discovered in Tibet. See Masters of Meditation and Miracles by Tulku Thondup.

  21. SLD, discovered by Rigdzin Godem as a ter text, folio 44a/4.

  22. GB, p. 3/16.

  23. This is a summary of a sutra quoted in GP, folio 475b/1.

  24. DDRS, p. 96/11.

  25. See Glossary for pronunciation.

  26. See Avalokiteshvara in the Glossary for pronunciation.

  27. Shantideva (eighth century) was an Indian scholar who wrote the well-known Bodhicharyavatara, a guide to the bodhisattva’s way of life.

  28. BP, folio 95a/4.

  29. TY, p. 241/16.

  30. Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) was a great Master with a nonsectarian approach. Among his major works that are well known in English translation are Treasury of Precious Qualities and The Words of My Perfect Teacher.

  31. The four actions are pacifying, increasing, overpowering, and demolishing. See Tulku Thondup, The Healing Power of Loving Kindness, pp. 79–91.

  32. TTB, pp. 351–364.

  33. BN, p. 58/12.

  34. KBZ, p. 439/15.

  35. Kyala Khenpo Chechog Dondrub Tsal (1893–1957) of Do-drupchen Monastery was Tulku Thondup’s tutor.

  36. RZD, folio 26a/2.

  37. Karma Lingpa (1326–1386) was a revealer of ter, notably the famous text popularly known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

  38. ZTR, folio 7a/1.

  39. STG, folio 5b/3.

  40. Shantarakshita (eighth-ninth century) was an Indian Master who was abbot of Nalanda University. He ordained the first Tibetans and established the first monastic community in Tibet (Samye Monastery).

  41. DGT, folio 700/6.

  42. KZBZ, p. 317/14.

  43. Tib. ye shes kyi rang od; ye shes kyi od; ye shes kyi gdangs; and rig gdangs.

  44. KD, folio 3a/3.

  Chapter 3: Devotion and Trust

  45. BP, folio 72/4.

  46. Tib. depa, dad pa, popularly translated as “faith.”

  47. Four trusts: dangwa (dang ba, joyous clarity), döpa (’dod pa, yearning trust), yiche (yid ch’es, confident trust), and chirmi dokpa (phyir mi ldog pa, irreversible trust).

  48. Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798) was the discoverer of the Long-chen Nyingthig teachings as a ter.

  49. YD, p. 33/15.

  50. BP, folio 71a/2.

  51. SLD, folio 44a/4.

  52. See BLC (Lamrim Ch’eba), p. 138/9.

  53. YD, p. 34/3.

  54. D. T. Suzuki, Buddha of Infinite Light, p. 26.

  55. Tagtu Ngu (Tib. rtag tu ngu; Skt. Sadaparudita, the “Ever-Weeping Bodhisattva”) was a disciple mentioned in the Prajnaparamita scriptures as a perfect example of devotion and perseverance.

  56. GT, folio 276b/4.

  57. Kunkhyen [Omniscient] Longchen Rabjam (1308–1363) was the greatest Dzogchen master of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

  58. YRD, folio 31a/4.

  59. KT, folio 63b/6. The Buddha’s figurative offspring are the bodhisattvas.

  60. CT, folio 245a/1.

  61. DTG, folio 97b/5.

  62. KT, folio 63b/5.

  63. GB, p. 19/19.

  64. GB, p. 36/5.

  65. Blofeld, Bodhisattva of Compassion, pp. 110–115.

  66. CCL, folio 166a/3.

  Chapter 4: The Essence of Loving-Kindness

  67. LS, folio 246b/4.

  68. CT, folio 245a/1.

  69. TY, p. 209/15. The Tibetan wording here is snying rje stong nyid kyi snying po chan zhes dmigs med kyi snying rje.

  70. BP, folio 4b/4.

  71. BP, folio 5a/2.

  72. DTG, p. 491/9.

  73. PHC, folio 361a/6.

  74. Pandita Padma Wangchen (1870–?) was a great scholar, monk, and tertön, one of the few tertöns who was also a monk.

  75. DNN, folio 10b/1.

  76. BM, folio 130b/2.

  77. See four virtuous attitudes in the Glossary.

  78. See four boundless attitudes in the Glossary.

  79. KBZ, p. 347/6.

  80. SN, folio 27b/2.

  81. snying po mch’og gi mdo, quoted in YNG, folio 43b/2.

  82. TZG, folio 19a/6.

  83. Tib. bsam pa bzang po, “good thoughts.” See KBZ, p. 347/9.

  84. These are well-known lines recited by all the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism. However, I don’t know who composed them.

  85. NTG, p. 3/11.

  86. DDRS, p. 440/2.

  87. Tib. chökyi rangzhin, ch’os kyi rang bzhin, “nature of phenomena.”

  88. Tib. don dam sems bskyed. See TR, p. 138/10.

  89. “Free from elaborations,” Tib. spros bral.

  90. The First Dodrupchen, Jigme Thrinle Ozer (1745–1821), was the first of the Dodrupchen incarnation lineage. Dodrupchen means “mahasiddha [great adept] of the Do Valley.”

  91. Victorious One(s): an epithet for the Buddha or those who are like the Buddha.

  92. GCT, p. 293/21.

&n
bsp; 93. BG, folio 132a/3.

  94. TY, p. 195/7.

  95. Nagarjuna (ca. 150–250) was one of the most celebrated philosophers of the Buddhist world and the founder of the Madhya-maka, the Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism.

  96. RP, p. 122/6.

  97. TG, p. 111b/3.

  98. BM, folio 132a/3.

  99. TG, p. 106/4.

  100. Tib. rdo rje rtse mo. SDT, folios 142b/1–274a/5.

  101. TGR, folio 39a/4.

  102. SN, folio 28b/2.

  103. “Contaminated happiness” is happiness contaminated by concepts and emotions; it is not ultimate happiness, which is freedom from dualistic and conceptual sensations.

  104. BLC, p. 304/19.

  Chapter 5: The Four Buddha Stages

  105. DP, folio 168ba/1.

  106. BP, folio 38a/2.

  107. In Buddhist teachings, Avalokiteshvara is portrayed both as a Buddha and as Buddha’s manifestation as a bodhisattva.

  108. CYD, folio 84a/5.

  109. Rigdzin Godem (1337–1408) was one of the greatest tertöns (Tib. gter ston), or discoverers of mystical teachings (ter).

  110. YN, folios 211–214.

  111. KSG, folio 9b/3.

  112. DMZ, folio 201b/1.

  Chapter 6: Meditation on the Outer Buddha

  113. The Buddha does not have flesh skin. He is made of light, and even that is wisdom-light. Nonetheless, it is taught that his complexion is white. The color has significance for our meditation. Whatever colors we are visualizing, we must understand them in their best symbolic qualities, such as white representing purity as well as calmness and peacefulness.