Chenrezig Empowerment, Buddha of Compassion

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་།
Chenrezig Empowerment
by Kundheling Rinpoche
15th August 2014

Kundeling Rinpoche, a young Rinpoche at 30 gave Chenrezing wang, Avalokitesvara Empowerment to a group of pilgrims at Gyumed monastery in Hunsur in Karnataka State in South India. Before conferring the actual empowerment, he explained briefly about how this empowerment is placed in the Buddhist teachings. The empowerment is one of the practices in Vajrayana Buddhism, and the Vajarayana is the highest stages of Buddhist teachings. Purpose of the Chenrezig wang is to generate a pure compassionate mind, Boddhicitta to help liberate all sentient beings from the sufferings of samsara. In order to help other, first one need to be in a position to help and guide. For which one need to achieve enlightenment first. To achieve enlightenment one need to achieve Choe-ku and Zug-ku [Dharmakaya and Nirmankaya]. Choe-ku is achieved through Yishe-kyi-tsog, accumulation of wisdom, and Zug-ku is achieved through Sonam-kyi-tsog, accumulation of merit. These two bodies could be achieved only through the practice of Vajrayana [gsang-sngags]. It cannot be achieved through Sutrayana [mdo-lug]. It is only through Vajrayana that one can achieve full enlightenment.

To achieve enlightenment, one need to practice the two paths of Boddhicitta and wisdom of emptiness [བྱང་སེམས་དང་སྟོང་ཉིད་རྟོགས་པའི་ཤེས་རབ།]. While receiving Chenrezing wang, it is important to meditate on Boddhicitta and wisdom of emptiness. What is Boddhicitta [byang-sem]? Putting other before self and feeling thankful to other is Boddhicitta mind. You have to think about the 7 cause and effect precepts [ རྒྱུ་འབྲས་མན་ངག་བདུན། ] ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་སྐྱེད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཐབས་ཟབ་མོ་བདུན་ཏེ།  མར་ཤེས་པ།  དྲིན་དྲན་པ།  དྲིན་གཟོ་བ།  ཡིད་འོང་གི་བྱམས་པ།  སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།  ལྷག་བསམ་རྣམ་དག  སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་བཅས་བདུན་ནོ།  1) Considering everyone as having been one's mother; 2) remember their kindness; 3) intention to repay the kindness; feeling immaculate love; feeling great compassion; sincere aspiration to help; and positive motivation to help all beings. This practice is very important as method [thap: ཐབས།] aspect of the path to enlightenment.  

Next is the wisdom [sherab: ཤེས་རབ།] aspect of the path to the enlightenment. Here we need to study and meditate on the empty nature of all phenomena. We need to study and analyze where is self "I". Cause of suffering is too much emphasis and belief in the independent existence of self. Because of our self centered attitude, we are confronted with various sufferings. We look outside for enemy; actually the enemy is within you. If one can eliminate the enemy, the mental affliction [nyon-mong: ཉོན་མོང་།  ] within oneself, there will be no enemy outside. Think about the Great Wall of China, it was built to keep away the enemy. So many lives were lost and people suffered greatly in building it. Did it really helped in keeping away the enemy?  The real enemy is our mental affliction like anger, which always tries to look outside and blame other. If you can rein your anger, there will be no enemy. If a thorn pricks your feet, instead of trying to cover all the land just put on a shoe. If we are able to realize the non-existence of independent self or the emptiness of objective existence of all phenomena, we have achieved the wisdom of emptiness.

Therefore, the Boddhicitta mind and wisdom of emptiness is very important to practice Vajrayana Buddhism. Chenrezing wang places great importance in these two paths of Method and Wisdom. [ ལམ་ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ། ]. Cherezig mantra is helpful in invoking the right motivation and concentration in the practice. Om-ma-ni-pad-me-hun [ཨོྃ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ། ].  The mantra has profound meaning. It invokes release from the six realms of samsara. Om represents the body, speech and mind of Buddha; Mani represents Boddhicitta mind or a beneficial jewel; Padme represents wisdom of emptiness or cleansing of dirt - mental affliction; and Hun is the two paths of Method and Wisdom. Recitation of the mantra is importance to keep oneself abreast with the presence of Cherezig and the teachings. With this brief and profound teaching, Rinpoche conferred Cherezig wang to the devotees on the day.
 

 Above is a note taken by the writer, error or omission cannot be ruled out. Serious students are requested to consult and confirm from authentic teachers