How to Practice at a Sacred Site

THE PATH OF AN AUTHENTIC PILGRIM

By Phakchok Rinpoché

While on pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Guru Padmsambhava in Bhutan, Phakchok Rinpoché gave the following teaching. Seated in the ancient temple of Kyichu Lhakang, built by Dharma King Songtsen Gompo in the seventh century, Rinpoché gave a full lesson in how to make the experience of visiting holy places more transformative. In his direct way, he shows us how to truly bring pilgrimage onto the spiritual path.

Pilgrimage is an important act of devotion and faith. It enables us to accumulate merit and purify our defilements and obscurations of body, speech, and mind, all through the power of the blessings of sacred sites. In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Buddha Shakyamuni says, “Monks, after my passing away, all sons and daughters of good family and all the faithful, so long as they live, should go to the four holy places and remember: here in Lumbini, the Enlightened One was born; here in Bodh Gaya, he attained enlightenment; here in Sarnath, he turned the Wheel of Dharma; and here in Kushinagar, he entered parinirvana. Monks, after my passing away there will be those who circumambulate and prostrate to these places . . . a pilgrimage to these four holy places will help to purify their previously accumulated negative karmas, even the five heinous actions.”

Now we are in a sacred place where buddhas, bodhisattvas, Mahaguru Padmasambhava, and countless realized beings have all been before us and therefore blessed the place. The intensity of blessings received from such a site depends entirely on the student; they fall into three categories. Those with greater faith, devotion, and pure perception will have greater results. The medium ones, with medium devotion, faith, and pure perception, will reap medium results. And finally, as in today’s day and age, people who have difficulty supplicating and generating faith, devotion, and pure perception will similarly find it difficult to receive the blessings of such a sacred site.

Sometimes, students have difficulty with the term supplication. This English translation may confuse us a bit, but we should take the time to investigate what we are requesting when we make a supplication. If we are correctly supplicating, we are asking to come to see, to realize the nature of our own mind. We supplicate our root guru, who is the person who introduces us to this precious gem. Thus, we are not requesting a gift from outside ourselves. Instead, we are asking the kind guru to bring us to understand our own nature. Similarly, when we supplicate all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, we are making the firm wish that we gain and then stabilize this awareness of the natural state.

1) TakIng Refuge

When you go to visit a pilgrimage site, the first and most important thing to know is how to do prostrations. First, you go to the shrine. Right away, you think of and invoke all the enlightened buddhas and teachers, right there in front of you. Feel them in the presence of Guru Rinpoché’s shrine. It is amazing that we can actually come so close to one of the places where the Mahaguru practiced. Not only that, many great masters have come to these places and blessed them as well. So, whenever you go on pilgrimage, the first thing you need to remember is to perform three prostrations.

2) Establishing the Motivation

After doing prostrations, the second thing to do is bring up your motivation. Quietly, sit down and think, “I’m here on pilgrimage not only for myself, and I would like to dedicate this pilgrimage to all sentient beings that are going through difficulties. I wish that all beings be freed from these difficulties, and that’s why I’m now doing this pilgrimage and practice.” You should always generate good intentions and remember these good intentions, because when you come to spiritually enhancing places like this, you might become selfish and think, “Oh, now I’m getting blessings, now I’m accumulating merit. I’m so blessed, I’m so happy!” Becoming selfish is easy, and that is why it is very important to recall your motivation. Bodhicitta is very important!

3) Receiving the Blessings

Thirdly, receive the blessings. How do you receive the blessings? You think, “Oh, Guru Rinpoché, you are the embodiment of all the sugatas, all your blessings, all your kindness, wisdom, siddhis, realizations—all your everything—is laid open like a wish-fulfilling jewel before me, yet due to my karmic obscurations and lack of merit, I cannot see that my nature is enlightened. Oh! How dreadful and how blinded I am with my habitual tendencies; they always take me astray from the true path!” With a yearning so deep, pray and supplicate to Guru Rinpoché to grant you blessings so that your defilements are cleared and you see the true path.

Then, visualize the Mahaguru radiating light and that you are receiving his empowerments. White light comes from his forehead and dissolves into yours. Red light comes from his throat and blue light from his heart, and both enter your throat and heart. If you cannot visualize these kinds of details, then just think that you receive the radiance, compassion, wisdom, dignity, and blessings of the Guru. This is very important. Whenever you go on pilgrimage, you need to know how to empower yourself in this way: this is how to receive blessings. Guru Rinpoché says that while you are receiving the blessings, you need to be firm and realize that now your defilements are purified, the two merits are accumulated, that you have received the four empowerments and received all the siddhis and blessings. This is key.

4) Making Offerings

Fourth, make some offerings. No shortcuts! If you spend so much energy traveling to the pilgrimage site and just do a shortcut prayer and make a feeble offering, it’s not worthwhile.

The word for “feast offering” in Sanskrit is ganachakra, which if translated into Tibetan is tsok kyi khorlo, or, literally, “circle of accumulation”. Gathering the two accumulations of merit and wisdom is the supreme and indispensable method for clearing away the cloud of obscurations that prevent us from realiz- ing our buddha nature. The practice of feast offerings is one of the most skillful ways to swiftly gather the accumulations and also purify our obscurations and mend our broken samayas. In many of Guru Rinpoché’s treasure teachings, it says that performing feast offerings generates tremendous merit. There even have been many instances when Guru Rinpoché himself has appeared in person during feast offerings and blessed the practitioners who were calling upon him with unwavering devotion.

Although we all may be doing different sadhana practices, all of which have their own, individual feast offering texts, they all have the same benefits and the same purpose: gathering the accumulations of merit and wisdom and purifying our obscurations. For those of you performing feast offerings at sacred sites, and especially if it falls on Guru Rinpoché day (the tenth day of the lunar month) and Dakini day (the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month), I would like to make one simple suggestion: in order to create auspicious coincidences (tendrel) for yourself and others, it’s very important to begin your practice by supplicating Guru Rinpoché with the Seven-Line Prayer. For those of you who are not yet familiar with the practice of feast offerings, simply reciting this prayer at least three times on those days will be extremely beneficial for your practice.

One of the treasure teaching revelations of Guru Chöwang, one of the five Tertön Kings, contains directions for supplicating Guru Rinpoché with the Seven-Line Prayer:

Pray in this way over and over again. Create a feeling of yearning and longing so intense that tears spring from your eyes. If the rapture of devotion overwhelms you, breathe out strongly, and then leave everything as it is. Clear and awake, focused and undistracted, look within.

When we talk about the guru, there are actually different levels of meaning: the outer, inner, and secret levels. The Seven-Line Prayer addresses the outer guru, who is symbolized or represented by the manifestation of Guru Rinpoché in a physical form. On the inner and the secret levels, though, the Seven-Line Prayer addresses, respectively, emptiness and co-emergent wisdom. Finally, no matter the practice you follow, be sure to seal your feast offering with the aspiration of bodhichitta: “May all sentient beings benefit tremendously from this feast offering, may the cloud of obscurations be cleared away, and may the blazing sun of wisdom shine through!”

5) Dedicating and Making Aspirations

After the offerings are finished, always make aspirations. What is your aspiration in doing this pilgrimage? What is your aspiration in sitting in front of Guru Rinpoché? You aspire to benefit all beings, to uphold the Dharma, and to reach enlightenment.

So, we start by taking refuge, performing prostrations. Second, we generate our motivation. Third, we receive the siddhis, the blessings. Fourth, we pray and make offerings. Finally, of course, we dedicate the merit and make aspirations. We should continually remind ourselves to make aspirations that everything we do may not lead us astray from enlightenment, but rather lead us toward enlightenment. One sutra tells of how Buddha Shakyamuni counseled a king, saying, “O King, whether you are walking, sitting, talking, whatever you may do, never forget the aspiration for enlightenment. When you have this in mind, you will never go astray from the path.”

There is a famous saying about the power of aspiration: “Guru Rinpoché resides upon the crown of all who have faith in him.” Keep this in mind as you supplicate with devotion and make aspirations for rebirth in Zangdok Palri, the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain. For a devoted practitioner, Zangdok Palri is truly present, here and now. There are many accounts of visionary journeys to the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain by the great treasure revealers and by devoted students. Our bodies may be subject to time, but our minds are not. Therefore, if one truly has devotion, one can reach the Copper-Colored Mountain in a finger snap. Devotion is the key word here. Without devotion, one can neither receive blessings nor perceive the signs of blessings. Clear faith and devotion will dispel any doubts that arise during meditation practice, as these precious qualities endow our minds with trust and confidence.

My teachers Kyabjé Nyoshul Khen Rinpoché and Kyabjé Tulku Urgyen Rinpoché were both incredibly knowledgeable and scholarly. However, when they taught, the first thing they would say was, “If you do not have faith, devo- tion, or compassion, you’re done. It’s no use trying anything else.” This was always the very first thing they taught. Therefore, please relax your critical mind and generate the mind of devotion and pure perception; then let the blessings of the sacred site seep down into the core of your being.