Commentary on the Epithets of the Buddha

By Lama Zopa Rinpoche

In this teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the profound meaning behind two of our most common mantras, the Shakyamuni Buddha name mantra and the mantra of Shakyamuni Buddha. Rinpoche begins with a translation from a text that explains the benefits of the name mantra and then gives commentary.

The Bodhisattva Compassionate Eye Looking One stood up from his seat, put his right knee on the ground, put his palms together and requested the Buddha in this way:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHAKYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

Then the Buddha said, “Rigkyipu, Rays of the Sun, to benefit sentient beings well and for a long time, it is good to listen well and keep this in mind. By merely reciting this Wisdom Gone Beyond, which has great merit, all sentient beings’ negative karma is purified and it definitely brings them to enlightenment. Those who are attempting to practice secret mantra, the Vajrayana, will accomplish it without experiencing obstacles.”

Then the bodhisattva, the great being Compassionate Eye Looking One, whose holy mind is enriched with qualities, said this to the Buddha, “Please explain this for the benefit of all sentient beings.”

Then the Buddha’s holy mind abided in the equipoise concentration called Liberating All Sentient Beings. While the Buddha was in that equipoise meditation, hundreds of thousands of light beams emanated from the white curled hair in the center of his brow and these beams covered all the pure lands of the buddhas. All the sentient beings touched by those beams definitely achieved the peerless full enlightenment. Then all the pure lands of the buddhas shook in six different ways and in the presence of the tathagatas, there was a rainfall of sandalwood powder. Then the Buddha said, “Bodhisattva, keep the mind in equanimity and loving kindness, the mind that wishes to repay the kindness of others. Keep the mind free from all negativities. Recite this heart of the perfection of wisdom, this Wisdom Gone Beyond.”

Commentary

We have chanted this for many years; it used to be popular before teachings. It was received from Kunu Lama Rinpoche and also His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We recite a few extra syllables:

LA MA TÖN PA CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHAKYA THUB PA LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO.

This name homage to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is unbelievably precious to recite. One text mentions that ten million eons of negative karma are purified by reciting this homage. In order to understand this, first we have to understand the power of just one negative karma. For example, one negative karma of killing, one negative karma of stealing, one negative karma of sexual misconduct, one negative karma of covetousness, one negative karma of gossiping, one negative karma of generating ill will. One complete negative karma has four ripening results. The first is the ripening aspect result of rebirth in the lower realms. Of course, for one complete virtuous karma, the ripening aspect result is rebirth in the deva or human realms. For non-virtues, the ripening aspect result is rebirth in the lower realms.

Then, from one negative karma, there are three other suffering results that you experience when you are reborn again in the human realm. The first of these is the possessed result, which means you experience problems with the place. For example, the possessed result for the negative karma of killing is that the place is very dusty and depressed. When you eat food, the food becomes a problem. I am a good example because I have diabetes and sweet food has a side effect. Food that you eat has a side effect, medicine has a side effect, many things like this happen. Food, which is meant to help maintain life, becomes a condition for death. For sexual misconduct, the place is very dirty and unhealthy, full of feces and things like that. Also, there are a lot of dangers and harm in the life, a lot of sicknesses. For other negative karmas like ill will or stealing, the place experiences drought – there is no rain – or there is too much rain and the crops are destroyed. There are tsunamis and earthquakes.

Next are the two results similar to the cause. With the negative karma of killing, you receive harm from others and experience a shortened lifespan. Even though you are born a human being from a mother’s womb, there are obstacles for your life and you die during childhood. This explains short lives. Also, because of past imprints, you create the result similar to the cause, which means you commit the negative karma of killing again. Even when you are born as a human being, you kill over and over again. It is the same with other negative karmas such as stealing, covetousness, gossiping and so forth. You experience these four results over and over and like that, it goes on from life to life. Creating the result similar to the cause goes on from life to life, and that means each negative karma creates the result similar to the cause and produces the four suffering results. That means that just one negative karma makes the suffering of samsara endless. If you don’t purify it, if you don’t actualize the path that stops you from experiencing the result of that karma, then one negative karma causes endless suffering of samsara. Therefore, it is very, very terrifying; unimaginable.

From among the four suffering results experienced from one negative karma, the fourth – creating the result similar to the cause – is much more terrifying than the hell realm itself. It produces the four suffering results, one of which is creating the result similar to the cause, which in turn produces the four suffering results, and it goes on like that. Of course, in Christianity, once you are born in hell, that is it; there is no freedom forever. But in Buddhism, once the hundreds of thousands of billions or zillions of years or eons you have to experience the hell realms finishes, that is it. Of course, if you purify the negative karma, you don’t have to be reborn there. By actualizing the path, you don’t have to experience the result of that karma. Even before you actualize the right path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness and the cessation of suffering, you can purify through perfect confession. The negative karma can be purified through strong purification. However, merely the experience of hell realm suffering doesn’t cause another hell.

Karma is definite. If you create good karma, you will definitely experience the result of happiness. If you create negative karma, you will definitely experience the result of suffering. Karma is also expandable. This means that if you create one small good karma, you will experience the result of happiness and success so many times in one life, or you experience the result of happiness in many hundreds of lifetimes, many thousands of lifetimes. Similarly, from one small negative karma, you will experience the result of suffering many times in one life, or in many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. Therefore, we can see how even small negative karmas must be abandoned and even small good karmas must be practiced. You must do it.

As Lama Tsongkhapa explained in the lam-rim prayer The Foundation of All Good Qualities, we must “practice all the virtues.” That means not only the big ones, but even the very small ones must be practiced, because the result of virtue is happiness. For small pleasurable results, we must practice even small virtuous actions.

Therefore, if you are able to purify just one negative karma, then wow! That means so many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes of suffering from that one negative karma will not have to be experienced. You are free. You are free from the suffering of the lower realms that would have resulted from that negative karma. That is just unbelievable! It is like liberation.

So when it comes to this mantra, we are not talking about purifying just one negative karma, we are talking about purifying an entire lifetime of negative karma. If you understand what it means to purify just one negative karma – that you don’t experience the suffering results in so many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes –  with this mantra we are talking about purifying one lifetime of negative karma. Wow! Amazing! We are not just talking about hundreds of lifetimes, we are talking about eons. It’s not just purifying one eon. One text says this mantra purifies ten million eons of negative karma one hundred times, so that means one billion eons of negative karma is purified.

Chanting the Buddha’s name mantra just one time has the power to purify one billion eons of negative karma. That’s just unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable liberation! It’s not actually liberation, but it’s similar. Amazing! On top of that, the text says another 80,000 eons of negative karma are purified.

When the Buddha was a bodhisattva, he made prayers that even his name would benefit sentient beings and would take care of us. He made so many prayers and then when he became Buddha, he obtained the ten powers. One of the ten powers is the power of prayer, and once he achieved this all the prayers he made for the benefit of sentient beings during his time as a bodhisattva happened. Therefore, anyone who recites this Buddha’s name is purified. That is how it works. It is like a machine or a clock. One tiny wheel moves another one and that moves another one and that moves another one. It is dependent arising.

Then, if you chant Buddha’s name mantra, it causes you to meet the tantric teachings quickly again in your next lives. It doesn’t just cause you to meet the Buddhadharma, but in particular, you meet the Mahayana. And not only do you meet the Mahayana teachings, you meet the Mahayana tantric teachings. That is even rarer than actually meeting a Buddha who has descended to this earth. From among the thousand buddhas who will descend in this world, Shakyamuni Buddha, who is the fourth one, was the first to reveal tantric teachings. Then it is said that the seventh one, the embodiment of Lama Tsongkhapa, might reveal the tantric teachings. Then the last buddha promised to teach whatever Dharma the previous buddhas had taught. He didn’t specifically mention tantra, but we hope that since Buddha Shakyamuni taught tantra, the last buddha will teach it too. If you happen to be in the world at that time as a human being with the last buddha, you will receive those teachings. Therefore, we can see that to meet the tantric teachings is more rare than to actually meet Buddha, even though meeting Buddha is extremely rare. Reciting this mantra helps us meet the tantric teachings again.

Just by practicing the lesser vehicle teachings alone, the Hinayana, you don’t become enlightened. When you complete that path, you only achieve liberation from samsara. By practicing the Mahayana path, you achieve enlightenment, because you draw from the power of bodhichitta and are able to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. You are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. You are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from each realm, from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and you are able to bring them to enlightenment. In order to do this, you have to collect merit for such a long time, for three countless great eons. You have to collect the merit of practicing morality, charity, perseverance, patience, concentration and wisdom, and then you achieve enlightenment. However, when you practice tantra, you complete all those merits in just one lifetime. Even if you practice only lower tantra, you are able to collect all the merit in one lifetime that would otherwise take three countless great eons to collect. Therefore, you are able to achieve enlightenment in one life.

When you practice highest yoga tantra you can achieve enlightenment in a few years, in one brief lifetime of these degenerate times. In a very short life, you can achieve full enlightenment and that means that sentient beings don’t have to suffer. Practicing the Mahayana sutra path takes three countless great eons, so sentient beings have to suffer for an unbelievably long time. If you practice lower tantra and especially higher tantra, the sentient beings who are connected to you and depend on you for receiving Dharma teachings, those beings to whom you will reveal the path, don’t have to suffer for such a long time. They are liberated quickly from samsara and are brought to enlightenment quickly. That is why there is a need to practice tantra, especially highest yoga tantra, which has the highest skill to quickly eradicate the defilements. Reciting Buddha’s name means that you will meet the tantric teachings again quickly in the future.

When we become enlightened, we make ourselves the perfect guide – free from all suffering and its causes – and we complete all the realizations. After making ourselves a perfect guide, we are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Not only that, but we are able to bring them to enlightenment. This ability comes from the Buddhadharma, which reveals the complete method that gives all the realizations, all the education and all the practice to our minds.

The mantra begins LA MA TÖN PA. You can’t use the word “Lama” for just anything. In India, the Indians call many Tibetans “Lama,” just by name. One Tibetan became a policeman and they called him “Lama.” There are many Tibetans like this in India, Lama something something, and many Sherpas as well. But we should remember that this word becomes the heart of the guru devotion teachings. Lama is the Tibetan word that means “Guru,” and the meaning of that is “heavy” – heavy with qualities, not heavy by weight, like when you need a machine to lift something. First, it means having this human body qualified with the eight freedoms and ten endowments to practice Dharma. This human body gives great meaning and allows you to achieve all the happiness of future lives, and the happiness of being born in the pure land of the Buddha where there is no suffering, where you can complete the path to enlightenment. The human body has seven qualities to be able to practice Dharma and benefit others, and it has eight ripening qualities with which we can practice Dharma and have great success in attaining the path. We can obtain the happiness of having a human body in future lives with the four Mahayana wheels¹ and also practice tantra and help others. A perfect human rebirth can obtain all the happiness of future lives. This life has the three great me anings and doesn’t last forever. Death can happen at any time, and at the time of death, nothing can benefit you except the Dharma. Once you realize how samsara is only in the nature of suffering – samsaric perfections, samsaric happiness – you have renunciation. Then you have the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom. And then you are liberated from samsara. When you also have great compassion and bodhichitta, you won’t be born in the lower nirvana and you enter the Mahayana path. Then you actualize the five paths and the six paramitas: charity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom.

There are five paths and ten bhumis on the path to enlightenment, when you achieve total cessation of the gross and subtle defilements and achieve all the qualities. By practicing the two paths of lower tantra – yoga with sign and yoga without sign – you are able to achieve enlightenment in one life. Then, by practicing highest yoga tantra – the gross and subtle generation stage as well as the completion stage practices of isolation of speech and isolation of mind, the clear light and illusory body and the unification of those two, then finally the unification of no more learning – you cease the impure mind and impure concepts. Practicing highest yoga tantra allows you to cease the gross mind. Only the extremely subtle mind attains enlightenment, and this can be done through the practice of highest yoga tantra. Then you achieve the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of non-dual bliss and voidness.

The Guru is the one who has ceased all wrong concepts and achieved all the realizations of the lower, middle and higher paths, as well as tantra. So the real meaning of “Guru” is the dharmakaya – someone who is free from all mistakes, wrong concepts and defilements, and who has completed the holy mind in all the qualities. This primordial mind pervades all phenomena. Wherever the karma of sentient beings has ripened, without the delay of even one second, the Guru immediately manifests there for that sentient being. The Guru has no beginning and no end. Bound with infinite compassion and existing everywhere, the Guru pervades all phenomena. It all depends on our karma. When the karma ripens to receive guidance, the Guru manifests there in whatever form, according to our karma. If we have impure karma, the form will be impure. If we have pure karma, the form will be pure. Our impure mind results in an impure aspect that shows mistakes. To those with pure minds, the Guru has the aspect of a buddha. In whichever form the Guru manifests, the Guru reveals methods and guides us from suffering to happiness and from happiness to liberation and enlightenment. The more we purify, the more we see the Guru’s aspect as pure. To pure beings such as bodhisattvas, the Guru appears in sambhoghakaya aspect. To those beings who have achieved the great path of merit, they appear in the nirmanakaya, the impure aspect of the Buddha. When the karma ripens for ordinary beings to receive guidance, then without delaying even a second, the Buddha takes a manifestation and guides sentient beings in ordinary form, as these sentient beings only have an ordinary mind. Buddha can also manifest for animals. As the Buddha said in the Arya Sanghatasutra, “In the land of the nagas, I teach the Dharma in the form of a naga. In the land of the yakshas, I teach the Dharma in the form of a yaskha. In the land of the pretas, I teach the Dharma in the form of a preta.” To help the preta beings, they manifest like them, as pretas. They manifest in the form of animals to the animals. They manifest in the form of animals to humans sometimes when humans would most benefit from a manifestation of an animal.

Not only buddhas manifest like this, so do bodhisattvas. For example, there is a conch shell in the ocean that turns to the right. Nagarjuna said that conch shell is a bodhisattva, born in that form perhaps as many as seven times to protect the other conch animals in the water. If you have that conch shell in the house and you blow it, because it is a bodhisattva’s body, it brings healing and harmony to the family.

I am not saying I am Buddha. My gurus are buddhas. For example, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many other great lamas are buddhas. Buddhas manifest in ordinary human form for us. If buddhas manifest in a more pure form, there is no opportunity for us to see them. If they manifest in lower forms, then we cannot recognize them and cannot take teachings. Because we have delusions, the sufferings of samsara such as sickness and so forth, the only form we can see according to the level of our minds is this ordinary aspect, which shows mistakes. It is only in this way that we can be guided directly. Otherwise, we couldn’t be guided. We couldn’t receive teachings or initiations. Therefore, if you don’t have this aspect of the Guru, then your life is completely lost. You wander in samsara completely lost without any purpose or meaning, and you continuously live in negative karma, like animals. You have a human shape, but you have no understanding of Dharma, so your motivation is only non-virtue. That means your life is like an animal life – not in shape, but in the way you think and act. Due to past karma, you are born as a human being, but because of negative actions, you go back to the lower realms for unimaginable eons.

Therefore, having the Guru in ordinary aspect and being able to receive guidance directly is unbelievably precious. It is so important for you. Every second that you have this ordinary aspect of the Guru is more precious than the sky filled with mountains of diamonds or even wish-granting jewels. That wealth is nothing in comparison to having the Guru in ordinary aspect. With that wealth, you can’t even achieve a higher rebirth or liberation from samsara. You can’t achieve enlightenment. But with this Guru, in every second, in every minute you can achieve all those things. You can achieve all this happiness up to enlightenment and you can liberate numberless sentient beings from oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment.

Every happiness from beginningless rebirths comes from the Guru. The Guru protects you from the oceans of suffering in each realm. The Guru manifests as all the buddhas, the four classes of tantric deities, bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis and Dharma protectors. The Guru manifests as everything. Without this Guru, there is no Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, no Maitreya Buddha, no Tara. No Dharma exists. The Sangha doesn’t happen. There are no Dharma protectors. None of this would exist. It is good to do that meditation with each Guru. “Without this Guru, no statues exist. No scriptures exist, nothing.” This lama is the dharmakaya, the ultimate Guru, the holy mind of all the buddhas which does the activity of numberless pure lands, numberless universes, everywhere. The numberless buddhas are all manifestations of this ultimate Guru. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other great lamas take ordinary aspects to guide us, and that is the conventional Guru.

This ultimate Guru pervades all phenomena and works for all sentient beings, in numberless pure and impure forms. The ultimate Guru has guided you from beginningless rebirths, and therefore, all the happiness that each of us has experienced since beginningless rebirths came from the Guru, from the Lama. That means all our present happiness comes from the Guru, all our future happiness comes from the Guru, liberation comes from the Guru, and then enlightenment comes from the Guru. All the realizations come from the Guru. Then, through the kindness of the Guru, you are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full enlightenment. This is the extensive way to think about the kindness of the Guru.

The holy bodies, holy speech and holy minds of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas have skies of qualities, and through the kindness of the Guru, you are able to achieve these. The Guru frees you from oceans of hungry ghost suffering, oceans of animal suffering, oceans of human being suffering, oceans of sura and asura suffering, and oceans of intermediate state being suffering. The Guru liberates you from every mistake, every wrong concept and every suffering. Whenever we have difficulties, they guide and protect us. Therefore, when we say “Lama,” we have to remember that this is the possessor of the dharmakaya, and everything else I mentioned. Think of all that kindness. Get it in into your mind, into your heart – all the essence of what “Lama” is and what it means to you.

The Lama, the ultimate Guru, manifests as Shakyamuni Buddha, who is the foundation of the Buddhadharma. Shakyamuni Buddha is kinder than all the other buddhas, because the other buddhas left us out in this period when times are very degenerate and so many beings are difficult to guide. We are sentient beings who were unable to be subdued by other buddhas, so Shakyamuni Buddha took the responsibility of guiding us. Shakyamuni Buddha chose to guide us – those of us who were left out during this difficult time of degenerated mind, degenerated life, degenerated sentient beings and degenerated views, when the mind is so difficult to guide. Therefore, Shakyamuni Buddha is kinder to us than all the other buddhas, and the Lama manifests in this way.

CHOM means “to destroy.” It means to destroy the delusions, the two obscurations, the gross and subtle defilements, and the obstructions to omniscience.

DÄN means having qualities. There are six qualities and four kayas. There are two types of dharmakaya: the transcendental wisdom dharmakaya and the ultimate nature of omniscience (the svabhavakaya). There are two types of rupakaya, the holy body of form: the perfect enjoyment body (sambhoghakaya) and the transformation (the nirmanakya). There are four kayas and five transcendental wisdoms. “Having qualities” means these.

DÄ means “gone beyond” – gone beyond from samsara, gone beyond from lower nirvana, gone to enlightenment. Therefore, TÖN PA expresses Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder, and CHOM DÄN DÄ describes the qualities.

DE ZHIN SHEG PA means “tathagata,” and “tathagata” means “gone as it is.” DE ZHIN SHEG PA means directly seeing all phenomena as empty, and not only that, but that this holy being is immovable from directly perceiving emptiness forever.

DRA means “enemy,” the inner enemy of delusion, and CHOM PA means “having destroyed.” There are four gross and four subtle maras that have been destroyed: the mara of delusion, the mara of the samsaric aggregates, the mara of the lord of death and the mara of the deva’s son.

YANG DAG PA means “fully purified” and DZOG means “completed all the qualities.” SANG GYÄ means “Buddha.” SANG means that Buddha has eliminated all the gross and subtle defilements and GYÄ means that Buddha has developed all the qualities.

PÄL means “glorification,” having all those qualities, and GYÄL WA means that Buddha is victorious over the four maras and the gross and subtle defilements.

SHAKYA is the highest caste, into which Buddha Shakyamuni was born, and THUB PA means “white one,” or one who has eliminated all the 84,000 gross and subtle defilements.

CHHAG TSHÄL LO has some meaning as well. It means purification. CHHAG is when you clean the garbage. It means purifying all your wrong concepts from the thought of the Guru having mistakes all the way up to the subtle dual view and the subtle negative imprints. All those wrong concepts and hallucinations are purified. TSHÄL means you are looking for and wishing for guru devotion, the three principles of the path, the two stages and the two kayas – the dharmakaya and the rupakaya. You wish for that whole path to enlightenment. CHHAG means that everything that hinders us on the path is purified, and TSHÄL means the entire path from the beginning, guru devotion up to enlightenment.

Then there is the mantra:

TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNEYE SVAHA

Most Tibetan texts say MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE. According to one Rinpoche who is a Sanskrit expert, that is mistaken. In Tibet, the Sanskrit language was not commonly learned in the monasteries, and I think there is a possibility that mantras are correct at the beginning, and then later, here and there, small things can be missing. So it is MUNE MUNE, not MUNI MUNI. There are a few scriptures where you find the correct version like that.

TADYATHA means “like that” – how to achieve enlightenment. SVAHA means establishing the base in your heart by having devotion. If you have that, you actualize the meaning of MUNE MUNE. This is the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being and the graduated path of the higher capable being. This also includes that tantric path. The first MUNE refers to completing the graduated path of the lower capable being, by having ceased attachment to this life, all the superstitious concepts. The second MUNE means having accomplished the graduated path of the middle capable being, having ceased attachment to samsaric perfection. The second MUNE can also mean ceasing ignorance through realizing emptiness, and this can also contain the paramitayana and also the tantra teaching. All three vehicles are in the MUNE MUNE. MAHA MUNEYE means having ceased the self-cherishing thought by actualizing the Mahayana path.

Therefore, the complete path to enlightenment is in TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNEYE SVAHA. The path comes in two parts, method and wisdom. When you completely actualize these, what happens is OM. OM is made of three syllables – AH, U, and MA – which signify your purified body, speech and mind. Then you achieve the completely pure body, speech and mind of the Buddha. SVAHA establishes the base in your heart, and through that, you actualize the meaning of MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNEYE, and then you achieve the OM – the complete pure holy body, speech and mind of the Buddha. Then you are able to work perfectly for sentient beings.

As you recite the mantra, think you are purifying yourself and all the six realms’ sentient beings. They purify all the defilements and receive all the qualities. Think that all the gross and subtle defilements from beginningless rebirths are gone, totally purified. Then a replica of Buddha absorbs into you and you are fully enlightened. Now, visualizing yourself as Shakyamuni Buddha, you send beams from every pore of your body. Each beam carries a Buddha on top and these absorb into numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras and numberless suras. Each being is purified. Every one of them becomes Buddha, and then all the buddhas absorb back into you, at your heart.

Another way to visualize is that all the buddhas go out from you and absorb into them, and all sentient beings become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha. Numberless hell beings become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha, numberles s hungry ghosts become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha, numberless animal become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha, numberless human beings become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha, numberless asuras and suras become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha and numberless intermediate state beings become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this talk to the Pamtingpa Study Group in Washington, September 2008.Transcribed by Tenzin Denison and edited by Ven. Gyalten Mindrol, FPMT Education Services, April 2009.

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