HEALING AND SELF-HEALING THROUGH WHITE TARA Kyabje Gehlek Rimpoche Spring retreat teachings, The Netherlands 1995 Winter retreat vajrayana teachings, US 1996-7 A Jewel Heart Transcript ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Part I of this edition is the transcription of the teachings on White Tara, Healing and selfhealing, that Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche gave during the spring retreat 1995 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Part II are the vajrayana teachings on the practice of White Tara, taught by Rinpoche during the spring of 1995 in Nijmegen, a vajrayana weekend in Ann Arbor 1995, and the winterretreats 1996/97 en 1997/98 in the US. Part II is restricted; what is taught can only be practiced by those who’ve received full initiation in either Avalokiteshvara or in any maha annuttara yoga tantra. (A Tara long-life initiation – which actually is a blessing – is not what is meant here). Because of this restriction, part I has been published separately. The transcript is updated since the 4th edition. In particular it got a number of features that facilitate studying this worthwhile practice. A glossary, a list of literature and an index are provided. Images related to the teachings have been added. References to other literature have been made. Cross-references between the sutrayana- and the vajrayana part may help clarify difficulties. For easy study additional small headings have been made. The teachings of Part I were transcribed by several Jewel Heart friends in the Netherlands. The vajrayana teachings have been transcribed by Hartmut Sagolla. The drawing of Buddha Shakyamuni and those of the mudras were made by Marian van der Horst, those of the life-chakras by Piet Soeters. Any mistakes that may occur are due to my limited understanding. Marianne Soeters Jewel Heart Nijmegen, 4th edition, August 2002. © Gelek Rinpoche/Jewel Heart 1995. CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 II EXPLANATION OF THE PRAYER TO THE NOBLE TARA ------------------------------------ 11 III OFFERING THE PRACTICE OF THE SEVEN LIMBS --------------------------------------------- 35 IV TARA AND THE EIGHT FEARS------------------------------------------------------------------------ 49 V THE PRACTICE OF HEALING AND SELF-HEALING-------------------------------------------- 57 VI FEAR AND FEARLESSNESS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 79 VII TEXTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 87 VIII VAJRAYANA TEACHINGS ON THE PRACTICE OF WHITE TARA ------------------------101 IX SADHANA’S OF WHITE TARA -----------------------------------------------------------------------143 X GLOSSARY--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------153 XI LITERATURE-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------161 XII INDEX --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------163 4 Buddha Shakyamuni PART I: GENERAL TEACHINGS ON TARA I INTRODUCTION Good morning everybody. We have come here to do a longevity and healing practice through Tara, or rather with the help of Tara, or maybe we should even say ‘within the sphere of Tara’s great energy’? The way in which the great masters of early generations have given this practice is not just to have longevity for the sake of living long, but in order to have a meaningful life, meaningful in the sense of helping ourselves and, if possible, helping others. I believe that is our purpose. As you know, in the West a lot of people say, ‘What is my mission in life? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to do?’ Your mission is helping yourself and, if you can, helping others. If you cannot help others, at least help yourself. For this you need longevity; for this you need a healthy life. That is why the earlier masters have given us this practice and that is how we should use it, too. Basically, when I was a kid, I was taught two things: - What do you do at the beginning and why? In other words, what are your ideas and motivations? - What do you do at the end? These are the two most important things. They told us to have at the beginning a proper motiva- tion, a good way of thinking. What that really means is to think, ‘Why am I doing this? What for?’ Whether your thoughts are good or bad, it is always good to correct your motivation. Whether you have a practice in general or this one in particular, it is always nice to think, ‘Hey, I am not doing this just for the sake of doing it, I am doing this for the benefit of myself and others.’ Even if you have come for other purposes, you can think at this moment, ‘I am here for very important purposes.’ That is what it means to have a great motivation. You do not necessarily have to sit cross-legged and meditate and say, ‘I am correcting my motivation’, I do not think you need to do that. So step number one is: the purpose of what we are doing here is to help ourselves and to help other beings. Step number two. We do not have the power. Maybe we have it, but the power is not at our disposal. In one way we are very great, in another way we are helpless. So what do we do? We rely on another power. Basically a lot of people do that, rely on another power. You see a lot of healers in the world today rely on some spirits. A lot of people channel them, do all sorts of things. Whatever things 6 Healing and self-healing through White Tara are happening, they will go with that. Whatever will give you a shake and vibration, mentally, physically, psychologically or emotionally, people follow that in the world today. If you look around and see what is happening in the world today you see a group of people that is – let me put it nicely – ultra-scientific: nothing is acceptable to those people unless it is very scientific. And there is another group of people that believe there is an alternative power, too. I think all of us here are in that category. That does not mean we are against science. Spiritual power is not really scientific, because, if I understand correctly, scientific means: no matter who does it, where he does it, whenever you repeat it the correct way it should have the exact result. Spiritual power does not work that way, It is totally different to different persons. Though you may do it the same way, you approach it the same way, somehow the results are slightly different to each and every individual. It is like hand-made clothes in comparison to factory-made ones. You know what I mean? Individuality is there. Likewise spiritual results, I think, depend on the level of the motivation of the individual, the intensity of the individual, the luck or fortune of the individual and many different circumstances. Criteria for spiritual reliability Among the spiritual powers that you invoke, are major differences. A lot of people will use any spirit they can get. Basically, non-human spirits always have clairvoyant power and some limited capability of healing, whether good or bad. That is the reason why Buddha insists that for any spiritual power you invoke, you make sure that the individual source is fully enlightened. Why? Because if that spiritual power is fully enlightened, then that spirit is free from all problems and all sufferings. Spirits that have some power but are not free from suffering themselves, have their own reasons for doing it. When they are fully enlightened they do not have a hidden agenda of their own. This is what makes the difference. Fully enlightened beings are not only free from suffering; they also know how to lead other people. Then the most important thing is: they have great compassion, compassion equal to everybody. So basically there are three most important reasons for invoking enlightened help: - the object or power that you invoke is free from suffering, - they know the best way of helping others, - they have great compassion. Compassion and great compassion are two different things. Compassion generally means to have compassion for somebody or for a few people, but great compassion means compassion equal to all beings. If you do not have great compassion, you will do some good to the people you know, your friend and the ones you like, and you do less good to people you do not know and that are not your friend; so there is the effect of closeness and distance. Greater compassion will not allow that. So basically the criteria of being an object of refuge, being a power to be invoked, are these three qualities. Though teachings in books, like e.g. Lamrim, will tell you a lot of qualities, it boils down to these three which, I think, are the most important ones. Now the case of Tara. She is a fully enlightened being, which means she herself is free of all problems, she does have great compassion, and she does know the methods to help. So, the criteria are there. It is not that we can judge who is great and who is not great, but at least we have means of looking at it. As I said earlier, in the West, the moment you get some kind of physical, mental, spiritual shake you will follow it, because you do not have criteria of looking at it. That is why a lot of people have problems. They say, ‘I hear a voice, the voice tells me to get up, to sit down, tells me that now I should eat and now I should not eat, the voice tells me I should go, the voice tells me I should jump into the water. People have that, and they just follow it because they have no way of judging. Good old Tibet, the Tibet that I used to belong to, is now being looked at as the world’s spiritual source. How fortunate I have been. Really true. By sheer luck I lived in that good old Shangri-La.