Aspiration

Practitioners should take advantage of all opportunities to increase the accumulation of merit easily and swiftly. We need to know how to magnify our virtues. Phakchok Rinpoche reminds us regularly that we need to consistently accumulate merit.

To conclude our Copper-Colored Mountain series on this last Guru Rinpoche day of the year of the pig, I would like to share with you a very special prayer for rebirth in Zangdok Palri, written by the great tertön Chokgyur Lingpa himself.

Happy Guru Rinpoche Day to all of you! I hope you all are healthy and happy. As I am sending this message to you all today, I am in the presence of my Guru Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche’s Kudung Chorten in Tharpaling, in the beautiful valley of Bumthang, loved and cherished dearly by him just as it was treasured in the same manner by Gyalwa Longchenpa, from whom the blessed lineage of Longchen Nyingthik started.

I would like to share this message with you all for today’s Guru Rinpoche Day: My son, you need to understand the dharma that I taught you. That is the easy part. The difficult part is the practice. And the more difficult part is to maintain the practice. Maintain means to carry on the practice whether you are in the mountain or in the city.

I hope you have all been healthy and happy. I am at the moment at my home base in Boudhanath, Kathmandu. I have been spending my mornings in front of my shrine with a mani wheel in my hand and reading some texts belonging to my grandfather. This is my ideal definition of a happy time.

In this video instruction, Phakchok Rinpoche responds to a student’s question about thoughts arising during four foundations practice sessions. Rinpoche advises the student to look at the thought as it arises: look at the thought and then rest. Always try to be gentle with yourself.

Happy Guru Rinpoche Day! I am at present presiding over the Tsekar “White Amitayus” Drupchen here at our Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Boudhanath. It is a five family Buddha Amitayus practice with the hundred deities that Guru Rinpoche received at the Maratika cave in Nepal with Lhacham Mandarava.

In this final teaching, Phakchok Rinpoche reminds us that we can do this aspiration prayer as often as we wish.

In the second teaching, Phakchok Rinpoche continues his commentary on the text. He emphasizes that although this aspiration prayer is very ancient, we can see that it is very practical and applicable in our daily life.

Bodhisattvas arise from their practice of the path, but mainly through their own aspirations. Here, Phakchok Rinpoche briefly explains the importance of aspiration and the importance of Samantabhadra’s role.

Aspiration is like water, and motivation is like the seed. You plant a seed and want to see the plant grow. Water is the aspiration.

Bodhicitta of aspiration means the to wish to benefit beings and for all beings to be enlightened. Application means integrating that with everything we do.