We all have the potential to gain realizations of all the stages of the path to enlightenment. These potentials are like seeds in the field of our mind, and our meditation practice is like cultivating these seeds. However, our meditation practice will be successful only if we make good preparations beforehand.
If we want to cultivate external crops, we begin by making careful preparations. First, we remove from the soil anything that might obstruct their growth, such as stones and weeds.
Second, we enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer to give it the strength to sustain growth. Third, we provide warm, moist conditions to enable the seeds to germinate and the plants to grow. In the same way, to cultivate our inner crops of Dharma realizations we must also begin by making careful preparations.
First, we must purify our mind to eliminate the negative karma we have accumulated in the past, because if we do not purify this karma it will obstruct the growth of Dharma realizations. Second, we need to give our mind the strength to support the growth of Dharma realizations by accumulating merit.
Third, we need to activate and sustain the growth of Dharma realizations by receiving the blessings of the holy beings.
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MODERN BUDDHISM
The brief prayers that follow contain the essence of these three preparations. For more information on them, see The New Meditation Handbook or Joyful Path of Good Fortune.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
1987
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Prayers for Meditation
Going for refuge
I and all sentient beings, until we achieve enlightenment, Go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
(3x, 7x, 100x, or more)
Generating bodhichitta
Through the virtues I collect by giving and other perfections, May I become a Buddha for the benefit of all. (3x) Generating the four immeasurables
May everyone be happy,
May everyone be free from misery,
May no one ever be separated from their happiness, May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.
Visualizing the Field for Accumulating Merit In the space before me is the living Buddha Shakyamuni surrounded by all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, like the full moon surrounded by stars.
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MODERN BUDDHISM
Prayer of seven limbs
With my body, speech and mind, humbly I prostrate, and make offerings both set out and imagined.
I confess my wrong deeds from all time, and rejoice in the virtues of all.
Please stay until samsara ceases,
and turn the Wheel of Dharma for us.
I dedicate all virtues to great enlightenment.
Offering the mandala
The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with flowers, The Great Mountain, four lands, sun and moon, Seen as a Buddha Land and offered thus, May all beings enjoy such Pure Lands.
I offer without any sense of loss
The objects that give rise to my attachment, hatred and confusion,
My friends, enemies and strangers, our bodies and enjoyments;
Please accept these and bless me to be released directly from the three poisons.
IDaM GURU RaTNa MaNDaLakaM NIRYaTaYaMI
Prayer of the Stages of the Path
The path begins with strong reliance
On my kind Teacher, source of all good; O Bless me with this understanding
To follow him with great devotion.
This human life with all its freedoms,
Extremely rare, with so much meaning;
O Bless me with this understanding
all day and night to seize its essence.
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PRaYERS FOR MEDITaTION
My body, like a water bubble,
Decays and dies so very quickly;
after death come results of karma,
Just like the shadow of a body.
With this firm knowledge and remembrance Bless me to be extremely cautious,
always avoiding harmful actions
and gathering abundant virtue.
Samsara’s pleasures are deceptive,
Give no contentment, only torment;
So please bless me to strive sincerely
To gain the bliss of perfect freedom.
O Bless me so that from this pure thought Come mindfulness and greatest caution,
To keep as my essential practice
The doctrine’s root, the Pratimoksha.
Just like myself all my kind mothers
are drowning in samsara’s ocean;
O So that I may soon release them,
Bless me to train in bodhichitta.
But I cannot become a Buddha
By this alone without three ethics;
So bless me with the strength to practise The Bodhisattva’s ordination.
By pacifying my distractions
and analyzing perfect meanings,
Bless me to quickly gain the union
Of special insight and quiescence.
When I become a pure container
Through common paths, bless me to enter The essence practice of good fortune,
The supreme vehicle, Vajrayana.
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MODERN BUDDHISM
The two attainments both depend on
My sacred vows and my commitments;
Bless me to understand this clearly
and keep them at the cost of my life.
By constant practice in four sessions,
The way explained by holy Teachers,
O Bless me to gain both the stages,
Which are the essence of the Tantras.
May those who guide me on the good path, and my companions all have long lives;
Bless me to pacify completely
all obstacles, outer and inner.
May I always find perfect Teachers,
and take delight in holy Dharma,
accomplish all grounds and paths swiftly, and gain the state of Vajradhara.
Receiving blessings and purifying
From the hearts of all the holy beings, streams of light and nectar flow down, granting blessings and purifying.
At this point, we begin the actual contemplation and meditation.
After the meditation, we dedicate our merit while reciting the following prayers: