Jenang Initiation of Je Tsong Khapa Nepal 2022-03-22 || 三種姓合一宗喀巴大師隨許灌頂 2022-03-22

His Eminence Jangtse Choje Kyabje Gosok Rinpoche

Jenang Initiation of Je Tsong Khapa with Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani

March 22, 2022 from Gosok Phuntsok Choeling Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal 

Today I will confer the permission (djenang) of Je Tsongkhapa that combines the sadhanas of the three families.

In the next days I will give teachings on Ganden Lhagyama and on the Foundation of all qualities so that will make a coherent whole.

Today, permission (djenang) is linked with the Guru yoga to Je Tsongkhapa.

It is a very special and extraordinary practice in which Je Tsongkhapa has the same nature as Manjusri, Avalokitesvara and Vajrapani.

To receive the initiation, the disciple should think that the place where it is conferred is not an ordinary place but a divine palace, the one in the Pure Land of Tusita.

To think this way will bring more blessings.

In the same manner, the disciples should think that the Guru conferring the initiation is not an ordinary person but is the Victorious Je Tsongkhapa himself.

In order to receive the permission, the mandala has just been offered.

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We have now obtained a rebirth as a human being endowed with leisure and fortunes. This kind of support is difficult to find. Once we have found it, we should use it in the proper way to take its essence.

We should remember all sentient beings as our mothers and generate the aspiration to lead them to liberation and to Buddhahood.

In order to achieve this goal, we first need to attain Buddhahood ourselves. We should think that as Tantra is a quick path to reach Buddhahood, we will engage in this Path to quickly achieve the ability to benefit all sentient beings. It is with this aspiration that we request this initiation.

That is the way we correct our motivation.

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Please repeat the request:

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཕུང་པ་ཅན།  Kun kyen yeshe pung pa can
སྲིད་པའི་འཁོར་ལོ་རྣམ་སྦྱོང་བ།  si bey kor lo nam djong wa
དེ་རིང་བཤད་པའི་རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར།  de ring shey pey rin chen ter
གཙོ་བོས་བདག་ལ་བཀའ་དྲིན་སྩོལ།  tso wö dak la ka trin tsöl

You who possess aggregates of omniscience
You who have totally purified the cycle of existence
Ô Lord, today please kindly confer to me
The precious treasure of explanations.

When we make the request for the third time, we will think that Je Tsongkhapa is glad to have heard it.

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The 84 000 sections of the Teachings of Buddha have as a nucleus the four verses of the prayer Mitsema.

This prayer was first composed by Je Tsongkhapa as a praise to his root Master, the Noble Rendawa. But Rendawa answered that he did not deserve it. He changed a little the verses and offered it back to Je Tsongkhapa as a testimony of his respect for him. These four verses that have such deep blessings are :

You are Avalokitesvara, great treasury of objectless compassion.
You are Manjusri embodiment of stainless wisdom.
You are the crown jewel among the learned of the Land of Snows.
I supplicate at your feet, Ô Lobsang Drakpa.

Many great practitioners have been practicing on the basis of this prayer and there are several practices that take Mitsema as their nucleus. Among them this practice of Guru yoga is particularly deep.

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Rinpoche gives several citations that indicate that Je Tsongkhapa is an emanation of Manjusri. The Buddha himself said that after his nirvana, Manjusri will appear as a bhiksu to benefit the Dharma.

For example, in the Root Tantra of Manjusri, the Buddha is addressing Manjusri in this way:

When I enter nirvana
And when the earth becomes barren,
You will assume the form of a youth
And will perform the deeds of a Buddha.

There are also many prophecies about the coming of Je Tsongkhapa to Tibet.

So there are several authoritative scriptures that give testimonies of the fact that Je Tsongkhapa is an emanation of Manjusri in the form of a bhiksu.

In the same way, different citations are given from Kadampa scriptures to attest that Je Tsongkhapa is also an emanation of Avalokitesvara. According to his biography, when some great practitioners met Je Tsongkhapa, they saw him as an emanation of Avalokitesvara.

In the same way, they are evidences that he is an emanation of Vajrapani.

So, Je Tsongkhapa is an emanation of the Lords of the three families and this enabled him to accomplish extensive activities for the benefit of Dharma in both Sutra and Tantra fields. We should develop firm conviction about this.

Before Je Tsongkhapa’s birth, the Master who would become his first teacher was practicing Vajrabhairava, the wrathful aspect of Manjusri, and when he made a request to see his yidam, Vajrabhairava replied that he would quickly manifest an emanation. It was Je Tsongkhapa.

There is also the story of the dreams made by the father of Je Tsongkhapa: he saw a Chinese monk that said he came from the Mount of Five Terrasses (Wutai shan ; Riwo tsena), the Chinese mountain associated with Manjusri. He then entered the house of the father and went directly to the altar.

Before the birth of Je Tsongkhapa, his mother also dreamt of a huge gold statue of Avalokitesvara appearing in the sky surrounded by a vast assembly of celestial beings. It then became smaller and smaller and dissolved in her heart.

Before the birth of Je Tsongkhapa, his father dreamt of Vajrapani who from his Pure Land threw a golden vajra that dissolved in the heart of the Mother of Je Tsongkhapa.

All these dreams and miraculous signs are proofs that Je Tsongkhapa is an emanation of the Lords of the three families: Manjusri, Avalokitesvara and Vajrapani, who ultimately are of a same nature.

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Rinpoche gives citations of Master Ensapa and of the Great Fith Dalai Lama on the importance of the instructions of the practice of Mitsema.

The lineage begins with Je Tsongkhapa. And then there are his famous disciples, Shérap Senge, Kedrup Je, and so on.

This is a very profound practice of the Gandenpa or Gelukpa.

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To receive the initiation we have to visualize the Deity.

For the Deity visualized in front (in the torma): visualize a huge throne made of jewels and supported by lions. On it, is seating our root Lama who is a Buddha and has the appearance of Bhiksu Je Tsongkhapa: he is Guru Vajradhara Losang Drakpa who embodies all refuges.

He wears the three monastic robes.

His hands are at the level of his heart doing the mudra of teaching Dharma and holding the stem of lotuses that blossom upon each of his shoulders. He is sitting in vajra asana. He is like a mass of light. Rays of light emanate from his body and go to accomplish one’s interest and the interest of others at the feet of Buddhas in all the Pure Lands. In each pore of the Buddhas there are also Pure Lands where his emanations are accomplishing all the different extraordinary activities of the Buddha. Because the Body and Mind of Buddha are inseparable, wherever there is the Body of a Buddha, his Mind is also there. So the Mind of Guru Je Tsongkhapa is encompassing everywhere in the ten directions.

On the top of his head, on cushions of lotus and moon is Manjusri. He is orange and is holding a sword and a text.

On his throat, on cushions of lotus and moon is white Avalokitesvara with four hands. The two first hands are joined at the heart. The others hold a rosary and a lotus.

At his heart, on cushions of lotus and sun is Vajrapani whose color is blue. He is holding a vajra in his left hand. He is adorned with precious snake ornaments and is standing in the fire of wisdom.

On the three places of Je Tsongkhapa there are also the three syllables: white OM on the top of the head, red A at the throat and blue HUM at the heart.

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Then, in order to take the Bodhisattva vows, clearly visualize in the space in front of you the objects of refuge: that is the Great Victorious Je Tsongkhapa who is surrounded by a vast assembly of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, lineage Masters, Sravakas, Pratyeka Buddhas, Dharmapalas (Protectors of Dharma).

In front of them, think that you generate firm bodhicitta:

« I will achieve the precious state of Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings who are my mothers. To this end, having taken the vows of Bodhisattva, I will correctly train myself in the great activities of the Sons of the Victorious. »

Then in order to take the Bodhisattva vows, repeat after me :

དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་བདག་སྐྱབས་མཆི།   Kön chok sum la kyab su dro
སྡིག་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་སོ་སོར་བཤགས།   Dik pa tam che so sor sha
འགྲོ་བའི་དགེ་ལ་རྗེས་ཡི་རང་།    Dro we ge la je yi rang
སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་བཟུང་།    Sangye jan chup yi ki sung

I take refuge in the three Jewels
I make confession for each of my bad deeds
I rejoice in the virtues of beings
I keep in mind the enlightenment of a Buddha.

དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ    Kön chok sum la kyab su dro
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གིས་གྲོལ    Sem chen tam che dak ki dröl
བྱང་ཆུབ་གནས་ལ་འགོད་པར་བགྱི       Jang chup ne la kö par gui
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ནི་ཡང་དག་བསྐྱེད།        Jang chup sem ni yang dak kye

I take refuge in the three Jewels
I will liberate all sentient beings
And establish them in enlightenment
I perfectly generate Bodhicitta.

When you recite these two strophes for the 3^rd time, think that if you had never received the vows of Bodhisattvas, you have now received them. If you had received them before, but they had degenerated, they are now renewed. And if you had received them before, and they had not degenerated, they are deeper.

Think:

« I have now taken the engagement to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings who are my mothers and who are infinite in number ».

Remember that you have taken this oath in front of the vast assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that you had invited in the space in front of you.

Taking a commitment implies to engage in practice and here it means essentially to act for the benefice of others. We have already taken the vows of Bodhisattva several times, but if the only actions that follow are activities for one’s personnel interest, it is not proper, isn’t it ?

We should act for the benefit of others: to protect them from sufferings, to establish them in happiness. To achieve this, we have to train our mind, and we have to train ourselves in the great activities of the Bodhisattvas. This is our mission, our work, our responsibility. This is very important.

It is not easy. We have to think about all sentient beings without exception, without rejecting some of them. So, generating bodhicitta should be the basis of our practice.

Today we have to correct our motivation before receiving the permission and so it is important to generate in our mind both renunciation and bodhicitta, the aspiration to realize Buddhahood for the benefit of others. That is the reason why the vows of Bodhisattvas have been bestowed.

If we receive this initiation without a motivation based on bodhicitta, we will not even obtain the blessings. Thus, it is fundamental to generate this aspiration mind.

Now that the disciples have corrected their motivation, they should generate the Deity in order to have the basis to receive the initiation.

Think that :

Everything becomes emptiness. From vacuity, on a throne made of jewels and supported by lions, on cushions of lotus, sun and moon appears my extremely subtle mind in the form of the syllable HRI.

This extremely subtle mind is coming from our previous lives and will go to our future lives. It is now covered or stained by impurities but its ultimate nature is pure, limpid and luminous. So, we should work on it, train it so that its real nature might become manifest, so that we can achieve omniscience. This is the goal we may achieve through the practice of Tantra.

The syllable HRI transforms itself and the disciple appears as Dje Tsongkhapa, the Dharma king of the three realms. The three places of his body are marked by the three syllables (OM A HUM).

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While the ritual is accomplished, the disciple should think that from vacuity, he has now appeared as Je Tsongkhapa. His body is orange. He is sitting in vajra asana, wearing the bhiksu three robes. He is smiling. His two hands are at the level of his heart and they are doing the mudra of teaching the Dharma. They are holding the stem of a lotus Utpala that blossoms on the right and left shoulders. On the right flower, there is a sword, and on the left flower there is the book of the Prajnaparamita in 8 000 verses. The three places are marked with the three syllables.

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So, in order to receive the initiation, all the ordinary appearances have been purified: the disciple is appearing as Je Tsongkhapa. The three syllables that mark his three places (top of the head, forehead and heart) will be the basis that receive the blessings. OM is the Vajra of Body, A is the vajra of Speech and HUM is the vajra of Mind.

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Now comes the initiation proper: the bestowing of the blessings of the Body, Speech and Mind. To receive them, the disciple has to make requests:

He should think that the torma in front of him is really Je Tsongkhapa and that the Guru conferring the initiation is really Je Tsongkhapa and that they are inseparable.

Then considering them, he will make request with an ardent fervor. Repeat after me :

Great Je Tsongkhapa Dharma king, you who are the embodiment of all refuges, I supplicate you.

Please bless my body, my speech and my mind.

Please bless me so that, my mind being propelled by a genuine thought of renunciation, I be able to put into practice benevolent love, compassion and bodhicitta, the profound middle view and deep yoga of the two stages of the Path.

Please bless me so that, having taken these practices as the Path, I obtain the state of Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings that are infinite like space.

In brief, please bless me so that being protected throughout all my lives by You Great Je Tsongkhapa, I be able to extensively accomplish the benefit of myself and others.

Repeat for the second time.

Repeat for the third time.

As a consequence of the fervor and devotion with which the disciple made the request, from the heart of Manjusri who is on the top of the head of the Guru, rays of white light and white nectar are released in a continuous way. They dissolve in the forehead of the disciple.

All the bad deeds committed with the body are completely purified.

The blessings of the Body of the Guru infuse the body of the disciple.

Among the four initiations, the blessings of the initiation of the vase has been obtained.

The disciple should think he has deposed on his mental continuum the specific potentiality to achieve a vajra Body.

Thus you should think during the ritual.

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The Blessings of the Body of Guru Je Tsongkhapa have been bestowed.

Among the four initiations, the blessings of the initiation of the vase have been obtained.

The disciple should think he has deposed on his mental continuum the specific potentiality to achieve a vajra Body.

It is very important that the disciple be convinced that he has received the blessings. It is a fundamental point when one receives an initiation.

Then, in order to receive the initiation of the Speech, as the request is the same as before, we will say it only one time. Like previously, the disciple should think that the torma in front of him is really Je Tsongkhapa and that the Guru conferring the initiation is really Je Tsongkhapa and that they are inseparable.

Then considering them, he will make the request with an ardent fervor to receive the blessings of the Speech. Repeat after me:

Great Je Tsongkhapa Dharma king, you who are the embodiment of all refuges, I supplicate you.

Please bless my body, my speech and my mind.

Please bless me so that, my mind being propelled by a genuine thought of renunciation, I be able to put into practice benevolent love, compassion and bodhicitta, the profound middle view and deep yoga of the two stages of the Path.

Please bless me so that, having taken these practices as the Path, I obtain the state of Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings that are infinite like space.

In brief, please bless me so that being protected throughout all my lives by You Great Je Tsongkhapa, I be able to extensively accomplish the benefit of myself and others.

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As a consequence of the disciple’s request, from the heart of Avalokitesvara who is in the throat of the Guru, rays of red light and red nectar are released in an infinite way. They dissolve in the throat of the disciple.

All the bad deeds committed with the speech are completely purified.

The blessings of the Speech of the Guru infuse the speech of the disciple.

Among the four initiations, the blessings of the secret initiation have been obtained.

The disciple should think he has deposed on his mental continuum the specific potentiality to achieve a vajra Speech.

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The Blessings of the Speech of Guru Je Tsongkhapa have been bestowed.

Then, in order to receive the initiation of the Mind, please repeat after me the same request (three times):

Great Je Tsongkhapa Dharma king, you who are the embodiment of all refuges, I supplicate you.

Please bless my body, my speech and my mind.

Please bless me so that, my mind being propelled by a genuine thought of renunciation, I be able to put into practice benevolent love, compassion and bodhicitta, the profound middle view and deep yoga of the two stages of the Path.

Please bless me so that, having taken these practices as the Path, I obtain the state of Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings that are infinite like space.

In brief, please bless me so that being protected throughout all my lives by You Great Je Tsongkhapa, I be able to extensively accomplish the benefit of myself and others.

As a consequence of the fervor and devotion with which the disciple made the request, from the heart of Vajrapani who is at the heart of the Guru, rays of blue light and blue nectar are released in an infinite way. They dissolve in the heart of the disciple.

All the bad deeds committed with the mind are completely purified.

The blessings of the Mind of the Guru infuse the mind of the disciple.

Among the four initiations, the blessings of the wisdom-knowledge initiation have been obtained.

The disciple should think he has deposed on his mental continuum the specific potentiality to achieve a vajra Mind.

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The Blessings of the Speech of Guru Je Tsongkhapa have been bestowed.

Then comes the initiation of the Three Vajras of Body, Speech and Mind. This has as a nucleus the Prayer of Mitsema. It will purify all the bad deeds committed by body, speech and mind. The request is based on the recitation of the Mitsema in nine verses (Mitsema kukor). There are two traditions concerning this version in nine verses, the one of Ensapa and the one of the lineage of Sey (Sey gyu). We will use here the version of the Sey gyu tradition. Repeat after me:

༄༅།།བསྟན་པའི་བདག་པོ་ཐུབ་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།     Ten bey dak po tup pa chom den dey
རིགས་བརྒྱའི་ཁྱབ་བདག་དྲུག་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་།     Rik gyey kyab dak druk pa dorje chang
དམིགས་མེད་བརྩེ་བའི་གཏེར་ཆེན་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།      Mik me tse wey ter chen djen rey sik
དྲི་མེད་མཁྱེན་པའི་དབང་པོ་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས།      Tri mey kyen bey wang po jam pey yang
བདུད་དཔུང་མ་ལུས་འཇོམས་མཛད་གསང་བའི་བདག    Dü pung ma lü jom dze sang wey dak
གངས་ཅན་མཁས་པའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་ཙོང་ཁ་པ།     Kang chen key bey dzuk kyen Tsong kha pa
བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།     Losang drak pey shap la söl wa deb
ལུས་ངག་ཡིད་ལ་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཞུགས་ནས།     Lü ngak yi la ku sung tuk shu ne
བླ་མ་ཁྱེད་རང་ལྟ་བུར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས།།       Lama kye rang latur chin gi lop

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As a consequence of the fervor and devotion with which the disciple made the request, from the three places of the Guru, rays of light and nectar of white, red and blue color are released in an infinite way. They dissolve in the three places of the disciple.

They purify all the bad deeds that we have committed since beginningless time with body, speech and mind as well as karmic residues of such deeds.

The blessings of the Body, Speech and Mind of the Guru infuse the mind of the disciple.

Among the four initiations, the blessings of the word initiation have been obtained.

The disciple should think he has deposed on his mental continuum the specific potentiality to achieve the state of union of Vajradhara where the Three Vajras of the Body, Speech and Mind are inseparable.

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The fourth initiation of the Three Vajras of Body, Speech and Mind has been conferred.

Then comes the phase of the absorption of the initiating Deities.

The disciple should visualize the central channel from the top of his head down to his heart. The central channel is white on the exterior and red inside. The upper extremity is lightly flaring and the lower extremity is thinner.

In the heart of the disciple, there is a red lotus with eight petals facing upwards. In the middle, the disciple visualizes his subtle mind as a red-orange HRI syllable.

Then looking with ardent fervor to the Guru and to the Guru generated in front, the disciple will make request and think that as a result of this request Guru Je Tsongkhapa comes on the top of his head and enter the central channel.

There are two traditions: for some, the Guru manifests an emanation, for others, the Guru himself comes entirely. If you do not plan to have another practice after this visualization, you can think Guru Je Tsongkhapa comes himself. Repeat after me the request:

Glorious precious root Guru

Please come to the lotus and moon seat at my heart

And in your kindness, please remain with me.

Please bestow upon me the blessings of your Body, Speech and Mind.

As a consequence of this request, from the Guru, an emanation of the Guru, the size of a thumb appears. It comes to the top of the head of the disciples and goes through the central channel down to the lotus with eight petals at the heart.

Visualize that it dissolves in the syllable HRI that is your own mind.

Think that the Mind of the Guru and your own mind are now inseparable.

This is what you should think when the torma is placed on your head.

At that time the request is made individually by each disciple. When « Dza hum ba ho » is pronounced, think that the Guru Tsongkhapa has really dissolved in your mind.

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This is an important point of the Guru yoga practice, whatever Deities it is based on, be it Vajrabhairava, Heruka, and so forth. To visualize the Guru that become inseparable with one’s own subtle mind is fundamental and we should maintain perception of emptiness, like a fusion with the Dharmakaya. All phenomena and one’s own mind become emptiness. From this emptiness, one emerges with the divine pride as the Deity. This is the central point of the Guru yoga and the reason why it is venerated as such a powerful practice.

It is therefore important to apply oneself to this meditation. The Guru/Deity has about the size of a thumb. He enters our central channel from the top of our head and then dissolve in our own mind that become inseparable from the mind of the Guru/Deity. Then we absorb into emptiness. It is good to maintain this meditation on emptiness and think that because our mind has become inseparable from the Mind of the Guru, it is delighted by the wisdom of the union of emptiness and felicity.

When we do our recitation, we should not satisfy ourselves with an oral activity, we should also apply ourselves to meditations on the meaning.

This should not involve a lot of efforts because basically, we just need to seat quietly, and reflect and meditate. Yet, as our mind is always under the influence of distraction, many discursive thoughts appear and it is difficult to control the mind. It is always moving in all directions. And so, although we want it to be quiet and still, it is difficult for the mind to obey. He has the habit to be always running in every direction and so the mind cannot bear to stay in one place quietly for a long time.

But if we train ourselves, slowly it will be easier. If we get accustomed to maintain the mind turned inside and not running outside, progressively the difficulties will be lesser. But without training, without getting accustomed, it is evident that this is difficult.

This is the essence of the practice. It is the way to control one’s mind.

So, if we come back to the practice of the Guru yoga, after the practice, we visualize the Guru that dissolves in our mind and then it is important to maintain the meditation on emptiness and the inseparability of our mind and the Guru’s Mind. If we train and get accustomed, it will become easier and this practice will leave an excellent karmic imprint on our mind.

Then the disciple should think that the lotus in his heart slowly and softly closes. Inside is his own mind which is inseparable from the Guru’s Mind.

The lotus is tightly bound by the rosary of the mantra: OM ARAPATSA NA DHI / SUMATIKIRTI / SHRI BHADRA / ADHI SHTA NA / A SHISHTI SOHA.

The fact that the lotus is tightly bound by the rosary of the mantra means that, until the disciple becomes enlightened, he will never be separated from the Guru. While mentally making the request that the Guru will always protect him, the disciple should repeat the mantra.

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I will now give the transmissions (lung) of the mantras of the Lords of the Three families. I could have given them when the blessings of the Speech were bestowed. But it is also possible to do it now. Rinpoche then gives the lung of the mantra of Manjusri, of Avalokitesvara, of Vajrapani, of Je Tsongkhapa and of the prayer Mitsema.

After the recitation of Mitsema, you can accumulate the recitation of these mantras.

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Now, that the Guru is in your heart inseparable from your mind, please repeat the request that he stays here until you achieve Buddhahood:

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This permission of Je Tsonghapa that combines the sadhanas of the three families is full of blessings. Now that the different sections have been entirely and correctly conferred, you should put it into practice.

The disciples should regularly practice the Guru yoga and visualize in their heart their mental continuum having the same nature as the Guru’s Mind. Remembering it, they should regularly make requests to obtain blessings.

When the disciples are eating or drinking, they should think that food and drink become nectar that is offered to the Lama in their heart.

Regardless of which practice they are accomplishing, be it accumulation of merits, purification of faults, the disciples should always link it with Guru yoga, remembering the Guru in their heart.

I gave these instructions so that you practice. If you only came to claim afterwards « Well I got this initiation, and also this one », or « now that I got this initiation, I will become a Buddha », « I received the initiation, so I do not need to do anything more », you are wrong.

Why are initiation conferred? Why do you receive initiation? The goal is to practice. Because you want to practice, you receive initiation. So, when the initiation has been conferred, you should practice.

It can be the accumulation of the recitation of Mitsema. You should accompany it with requests to purify your body, your speech and your mind of all the bad deeds that you have done previously. It can also be purification through the recitation of the mantra of 100 syllables.

But just remember it is not a mere oral activity. You should always reflect and meditate on what you are doing.

Thinking of these, the disciple will take an oath to practice like this. Repeat after me.

The disciples then offer a mandala to express their gratitude.

English text translated from Tibetan by Françoise Wang.