The Compassion Buddha is no other than Your Holiness

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This praise and request to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was given at the long-life puja offered to His Holiness on September 29, 1996, after the Kalachakra initiation in Sydney, Australia.

Your Holiness is the great treasure of infinite compassion embracing all us sentient beings, the sole source of benefit and happiness of all us sentient beings, the sole refuge of all us sentient beings. Your Holiness is incomparably kinder to us than all the past, present and future Buddhas. We the fortunate disciples who have come from many countries to receive the most precious thing in the world, the Kalachakra initiation, and we the Australian public who have been fortunate to see your holy body and hear your holy speech make the following request.

The kind, compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, out of his great compassion, descended to this world of Dzambu in the Arya land of India for the sole purpose of bringing benefit and happiness to us the migratory beings by leading us to liberation and full enlightenment.

It is said in The White Lotus Sutra: At one time when the Buddha was residing in Milk-Plant Park, he turned to face the north and smiled. Five rays of light issued from the curled hair in between his eyebrows. When the bodhisattva Meaningful to Behold asked why, Buddha replied, “O son of the Mahayana type, there is a land in the north known as the Land of Snow where the three-time Buddhas have not put their holy feet. However, in the future, the holy Dharma will spread and flourish there like the rising sun and all the living beings there will be liberated by Lord Avalokiteshvara, who once made the following prayer.

“May I liberate all sentient beings in the Land of Snow, who are difficult to subdue. May I subdue them. May I lead the sentient beings who are difficult to subdue in the outlying barbarous country [Tibet] in the path to liberation and full enlightenment. May even that outlying barbarous country become a field to be subdued by me. May all the holy Dharma taught by all the tathagatas be spread and flourish for a long time in that country. May the sentient beings there enjoy the holy Dharma by hearing the name of the Triple Gem, go for refuge and achieve the body of the happy migratory being.”

The bodhisattva Meaningful to Behold, to whom Guru Shakyamuni Buddha predicted the spread of Dharma in the Snowland, Tibet, saying, “In the future when my teaching has degenerated in India, the sentient beings in the Snowland in the north will be the objects to be subdued by you, the bodhisattva,” and the Compassion Buddha, who made all those prayers and performed extensive benefit, illuminating with the light of Dharma, is no other than Your Holiness.

Even ordinary people can realize that your incomparable qualities and the holy actions of your body, speech and min benefiting other sentient beings signify the infinite compassionate aspiration you made in the past. Not only did Your Holiness make prayers to extensively benefit Tibet by subduing the sentient beings there, nowadays you bring the light of Dharma to eliminate the darkness of~91nOTance and give the sunshine of peace and happiness even in the Western world.

It is proven that you are the present living Compassionate-eyed Looking Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, even from the lineage of the incarnation, which starts from Compassionate-eyed Looking Buddha and during Buddha’s time, the bodhisattva Meaningful to Behold; King Jigten Ngawang; also during Buddha’s time the Brahmin Khyeu Nangche; then Sangye Gyalwa; Nyatri Tsenpo; the first king of Tibet, Chogyal Trisong Duetsen; Chogyal Songtsen Gampo; Lama Atisha’s translator, the great Dromtonpa, who is the forty-fifth incarnation; the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Trupa, who founded the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery; Sonam Gyatso; Yonten Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama; Tsangyang Gyatso; Kelsang Gyatso; Jampal Gyatso; Lungtok Gyatso; Tsultrim Gyatso; Khedrup Gyatso; Trinley Gyatso; Thubten Gyatso; and the present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the sixty-fourth incarnation.

Your Holiness is able to preserve the complete teaching of the Buddha, the three higher trainings of morality, meditation and wisdom, the three basket teachings, which is the essence of the Hinayana teaching and the foundation of the causal Mahayana Paramitayana path and the resultant secret Vajrayana, which flourished in the past in Tibet and now even outside of Tibet.

Because of that you are able to produce continuously many hundreds of thousands of holy scholars and highly attained yogis, like stars in the sky. Even nowadays in different parts of the world so many people are able to receive many highly qualified practitioner-teachers from the monasteries of Sera, Ganden, and Drepung and also from the monasteries of the other tradition monasteries. So many Westerners, including Australians, are able to learn whatever they wish from them in depth, and in this way by are able to make their lives meaningful, putting these teachings into practice and thus find fulfillment. They have so much opportunity to enjoy peace and happiness and are able to direct their lives towards liberation and enlightenment, and this is increasing every year.

This is solely due to Your Holiness’ kindness. This means that without Your Holiness, Buddhism would suffer and it would be extremely difficult to continue the preservation of the entire Buddhadharma. Without the teaching of the Buddha, sentient beings suffer. The teaching of the Buddha is the only medicine to cease all the diseases of delusion and negative karma and their imprints. Therefore from the bottom of our hearts, we request you to have stable life until samsara ends.

For us sentient beings, human and even animals, even seeing your holy body and touching it purifies our mind and makes our life meaningful, giving unforgettable peace and happiness and planting the seed of liberation and enlightenment in our mental continuum. It gives us incredible inspiration and hope for a better life.

Your ever-loving smile and compassionate face radiating warm rays of light pacifies all the fears and anxieties, karma and delusions within us sentient beings. No matter how much one looks at the Compassion Buddha’s holy body, one never feels satiated. There’s no limit to the qualities of the stainless holy body and to the extensive benefit that sentient beings’ receive from it.

A special quality of Your Holiness that ordinary people can see and feel is that even though there might be some evil beings who criticize Your Holiness, but, differently from common people in the world and even other religious leaders, You only benefit them in return and You have greater compassion for and cherish them most in Your heart. You speak about their qualities and only pray for their well being, and temporary an ultimate happiness up to enlightenment. This means that there is no doubt that Your Holiness is a bodhisattva, the Compassion Buddha.

And in particular this present Dalai Lama has been able to benefit so extensively; even in the West, many millions of people in many countries have been able to benefit. Your Holiness has been so close to us people in the world, opening the hearts if so many millions of us. You show the aspect of understanding everything about the Western world and culture and are able to deal according to that, by bringing everything down to earth with humor that uplifts the spirit. This extensive benefit wasn’t offered in this way by previous Dalai Lamas.

So what Your Holiness has accomplished in the world is much more than the independence of Tibet for six million people. Therefore, this aspect is extremely important for us sentient beings who are in atomic danger, danger of dying from new diseases, and with so much suffering of desire, violence, anger and the gloom of ignorance. We thank you from the bottom of our heart and we request you to have stable life until samsara ends.

The most precious, important thing in the world is the Buddha’s psychology, the way of pacifying suffering and achieve happiness. We thank you for the preliminary teachings and the enlightening means of the pratimoksha and bodhisattva vows and the most precious teaching and secret initiation of the Kalachakra deity.

There is no way that we can finish repaying your kindness even if we offer you whole world filled with wish-fulfilling jewels for eons. Unbelievable preparation has been made in our mental continuum for liberation and enlightenment, for all happiness. We will practice your essential advice of caring more for others and practice loving kindness and compassion, serving others. We will put into practice as much as possible your holy teachings fulfill your holy wishes, particularly to free Tibetans from the misery and fear they are now facing, and help them to have freedom like before.

With our palms together we pray again for you to guide us continuously in all our lifetimes until we achieve enlightenment and for our lives to be most beneficial for all sentient beings from now on, just like Your Holiness, the Compassion Buddha.

And we hope this is not the last visit by Your Holiness to Australia, to bless and guide us in this way We hope it happens many times in the future.

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