From Part One: The Shortcomings of Our Decadent Age

Having paid homage to the Three Jewels, Patrul Rinpoche begins the first section of the text:

4. The True Rishi, the Munindra, god of gods,
Attained the true level through the true path,
And truly showed this true and excellent path to others.
Isn't that why he's known as the True Rishi?

In ancient India, rishis were long-haired ascetics living in forest retreats, sustaining themselves with whatever alms might come their way, and remaining aloof from family life, trade, farming, and other ordinary worldly activities. They were called rishi, in Tibetan trangsong, which literally means "straight" or "true," because their conduct was upright and true and made them worthy of respect and veneration.

These rishis, of whom some were Buddhist and some were not, varied greatly in their degree of accomplishment and realization. There were some who had achieved miraculous powers through concentration and meditation and were known to live for a kalpa, to be clairvoyant, and to be able to fly or levitate with ease. But even such accomplished rishis had not yet cut the root of the obscuring emotions, and so they remained vulnerable to pride and attached to praise and recognition. Lord Buddha, on the other hand, the unequaled prince of the Shakyas, totally eliminated ego-clinging at its very root from the very moment he conceived the thought of enlightenment. How was it that he was able to do this? It was because he sought enlightenment exclusively for the sake of others. That is why he is called the True Rishi.

When the thousand and two Buddhas each made their prayers of aspiration to benefit beings, Buddha Shakyamuni vowed to help those of our present dark age. He was undaunted by the fact that this would be the age of the five degenerations and that the minds of beings, obscured by gross emotions and tossed by the strong winds of passion, would be wild and difficult to tame. Such is the nobility of this aspiration that, of all the Buddhas of the kalpa, Buddha Shakyamuni stands out like a brilliant white lotus.

From the moment the bodhichitta arose in his mind, he gave up all traces of selfishness and considered only the welfare of others. For three great kalpas and over hundreds of lifetimes he accumulated merit and helped living creatures in every possible way with a determination and resourcefulness that knew no limits. For example, once as a young prince, while walking in the forest, he came upon a tigress so weakened by hunger that she could not feed her cubs. Overwhelmed by great compassion he offered her his own flesh, but she did not even have enough strength left to eat it. So he cut his wrists and nourished her with his own blood; and when she had revived, he gave her his entire body on which to feed.

Through his extraordinary compassion and unfaltering diligence, he finally attained the fruit, perfect enlightenment. Following the true path to its end, his ego-clinging utterly extinguished, Lord Buddha was like a great sun illuminating the whole universe for the benefit of beings.

All this he accomplished solely for the good of others, and it is through his perfect example and flawless teaching that we now have a chance to blend our own minds with the true Dharma and attain Buddhahood. By adopting the right attitude and following the true path we can achieve the true result; like the Buddha, we will no longer be deceiving either ourselves or others. Since Lord Buddha himself was true, he spoke the truth as it is. To those with faults he pointed out what was wrong with them. To those who wished to devote their lives to the Dharma he said, "Go from home to homelessness, take up the three monastic robes, and immerse yourselves in study, reflection, and meditation." To householders he explained how to give up the ten negative actions and cultivate the ten positive ones. In these ways he enabled people of different capacities to lead their lives in the right way and practice the Dharma correctly.

Followers of the Buddha—whether learned sages, accomplished meditators, or just ordinary people like ourselves— should follow the path properly. Even in ordinary life people respect someone whose mind and behavior are straightforward and true; but a dishonest person is trusted by no one.

We should pray that our teacher will clearly show us our mistakes and defects. When he does so, we must gratefully accept his criticism and use it to rid ourselves of our faults. Here the words of Patrul Rinpoche come down in a direct lineage from the teachings of Shakyamuni—they are the words of the Buddha himself.

5. Alas for people in this age of residues!
The mind's wholesome core of truth has withered, and people live deceitfully,
So their thoughts are warped, their speech is twisted,
They cunningly mislead others—who can trust them?

In the golden age, the age of perfection, there was no need for sunlight or moonlight, for beings radiated light from their own bodies. They could move miraculously through space, and they lived without needing any solid food. All creatures naturally abided by the ten virtues. But, as time passed, they began to harm each other, to be ruled by their desires, to steal, and to lie. They lost their natural radiance and had to depend on sun and moon for light; they lost their ability to fly; they began to need solid nourishment, and when eventually the spontaneous harvest and the bountiful cow disappeared, they had to toil to produce their food. Now in our present epoch, all that remains of the qualities of the golden age are residues, like the unappealing leftover scraps of a sumptuous feast. Anyone with eyes of wisdom seeing the miserable condition of people in this decadent age cannot help but feel great compassion.

In this age of conflict people are ill intentioned and full of deceit. They put themselves first and disregard the needs of others. Whoever flatters them they regard as a friend; whoever contradicts or opposes them they see as an enemy. As these attitudes gradually distort all their actions, words, and thoughts, people become more and more warped and twisted, like crooked old trees, until finally their mentality degenerates so far that any notion of right and wrong is completely lost.

We are in an age when anger, craving, ambition, stupidity, pride, and jealousy are the rule of the day. It is an age when the sun of Dharma is already sinking behind the shoulders of the western mountains, when most of the great teachers have left for other realms, when practitioners go astray in their meditation, and when neither lay people nor the ordained act according to the Dharma. People may obtain some transient advantage from the misguided values of these times, but ultimately they are cheating no one but themselves.

The poisonous emotions that saturate people's minds in this dark era are the principal cause of their wandering in the endless cycle of samsara. To deal with those emotions we need to keep a constant vigilance, following the example of the Kadampa masters, who used to say:

I will hold the spear of mindfulness at the gate of the mind,
And when the emotions threaten,
I, too, will threaten them;
When they relax their grip, only then will I relax mine.

6. Alas! How depressing to see the beings of this degenerate age!
Alas! Can anyone trust what anyone says?
It's like living in a land of vicious man-eating demons—
Think about it, and do yourself a big favor.

If you were to find yourself in a land of man-eating demons, you would find it hard to feel relaxed, knowing that however friendly and polite they pretended to be, they might attack and eat you up at any time. In the same way, however agreeable ordinary people may seem, you are sure to end up in trouble if you listen to the advice they give you. And if you should try to give them advice, that will only lead to trouble, too. It would be much wiser to concentrate on your own shortcomings. Numerous as they may seem to be, they cannot be permanent, and it is always possible for you to transform them. Replace negative thoughts with faith and love, ordinary gossip with prayers, pointless activities with prostrations and circumambulations, and you will be doing yourself a favor. To take monastic vows, respect your teacher, and make serious efforts in study, reflection, and meditation, working on all your defects, is to do yourself an inestimable service. Just as the application of a drop of gold can transform an entire painting, so too the application of the teachings will completely transform your mind.

To do yourself a favor in this sense does not mean to be selfish. It means that rather than perpetuating your own and others' suffering by allowing yourself to be taken in by the ways of samsara, based as they are upon deluded attachments and aversions, instead consider carefully what the best way to use your life might be. The true goal of the Bodhisattva is to free all beings from samsara, but to be able do that he must first free himself; and to free himself from samsara he first has to understand clearly what is wrong with it. As it is said:

Whatever is born will die,
Whatever is gathered will be dispersed,
Whatever is joined together will come apart,
Whatever goes up will fall down.

Like a pit of burning coals, a nest of vipers, or a city of demons, ordinary worldly life inevitably brings tremendous suffering. Imagine 360 holes pierced in your body, each with a burning wick set in it. The terrible pain you would feel is nothing compared to the inconceivably intense suffering caused by even a single spark of the fires of a hell realm. Whatever suffering we may experience now, we should use it to remind us of compassion and love, to sweep away our evil deeds and obscurations, and to spur ourselves on as we travel the path of deliverance. We must understand the nature of samsara and see clearly that its only antidote is the practice of Dharma.