His Holiness had a couple more stories to tell. Apparently the great scholar and adept, Serkong Dorje Chang was once teaching in Lhasa when he asked the audience a question which no one answered until a Mongolian offered a reply that greatly pleased him. Then at the time of the 13th Dalai Lama, Ngodrup Tsoknyi, who later became one of His Holiness’s debate partners, was receiving monk’s ordination. There is a point at which the upper fold of the lower robe has to be pulled up for the presiding master to bless and he hadn’t done it. He was taken aback when the 13th Dalai Lama spoke to him brusquely in Mongolian. 

 

In the past, Mongolians studying in the monasteries in Tibet were all dedicated students of philosophy. Today, again, there are many Mongolians studying in Tibetan institutions. He said he was very hopeful of their prospects. 

Resuming the Vajrabhairava empowerment he began yesterday, His Holiness referred to his request to the disciples to check their dreams. He quoted Aryadeva’s having written that those who have a strong earth element in their physical constitution tend to have very clear dreams. Having done that, he also resumed his explanation of the ‘Foundation of All Excellence’ with this verse:

The basis of achieving the two attainments 
Is the pure vow one takes on entering this path. 
Having found real understanding of it,
May I keep this vow though it cost my life.

As he completed the text, he remarked that study should not be the preserve of monastics, but that lay people should take the opportunity to study too. Turning back to the empowerment again he said the purpose of the empowerment is to overcome ordinary appearances. He quoted a verse from chapter 22 of Nagarjuna’s ‘Fundamental Treatise of the Middle Way’:

The Tathagata is not the aggregates

Regarding the vows, His Holiness mentioned that Pratimoksha or personal liberation vows are intended to restrain us from harming others; the Bodhisattva vows are for restraining selfishness and the Tantric vows are for restraining clinging to ordinary appearance. Whereas the Pratimoksha vows tend to concern the conduct of body and speech, Bodhisattva and Tantric vows restrain the wayward mind. He gave both Bodhisattva and Tantric vows to those present.

 

His Holiness began the afternoon with the observation that the awakening mind of bodhichitta is a state of mind in which you think of others before self. Bodhichitta is a factor indispensible in the achievement of omniscience. He again quoted from Nagarjuna’s ‘Fundamental Treatise’

Whatever is dependently arisen is empty,
That is dependently designated;
That itself is the middle way.

The practice of tantra needs both the awakening mind of bodhichitta and an understanding of emptiness, much as two loads are needed to balance each other.

Before reaching the end of the empowerment, he gave a reading and brief explanation of the 2nd Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso’s ‘Two Yogic Stages of Yamantaka Tantra’. Once the empowerment was complete, he remarked that dedicated practitioners take the necessary parts of the empowerment as and when they need them. By request, His Holiness gave a reading transmission of a prayer for the swift return of Kalka Jetsun Dhampa, who passed away in Mongolia nearly two years ago. Proceedings were completed with a tsog offering and His Holiness gave his concluding advice: