Monlam Pavillion, Bodhgaya
February 2, 2025
The morning of the second day of the 39th Kagyu Monlam in Bodhgaya began with opening prayers and a mandala offering to His Eminence Kyabgön Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche requesting him to teach. His Eminence announced that for the teaching this year, His Holiness Karmapa had asked him to teach the text Pointing Out the Three Kayas.
After encouraging the audience to remember their bodhicitta motivation in receiving these teachings, His Eminence stated that the text he would be discussing is well known in the Karma Kamtsang practice lineage. Pointing Out the Three Kayas originated with Buddha Vajradhara and was passed down through all the mahasiddhas in the lineage. Starting with the primordial Buddha, innumerable buddhas from beginningless time understood and taught these instructions. For the perfect buddhas, these pith instructions have been within their minds from the very beginning. Yet all of us unrealized beings now living in this time of degeneration cannot perceive this wisdom directly. However, we can rely upon the scriptures and have faith because of them.
The Indivisibility of the Nature of All Things
Among all the primordial buddhas, there is a Buddha named Mitrugpa, which means the one who is imperturbable – he was never disturbed at all. Since he is a Buddha who is not preceded by any cause, so this Buddha dwells as the nature of all the Buddhas, of all of the infinite untold Buddhas who dwell in all the different realms,
As it says in the Sublime Continuum, the first Buddha has no cause —so there are buddhas who are originally awakened. And so because he is a buddha who is not preceded by any cause, an original buddha, all of the teachings of the Mahayana, foundation vehicle, six transcendences, and tantras are complete within his wisdom and knowledge; they exist within the expanse of the dharmakaya. For this reason, all of the aspects of the Mahayana we need in order to realize Buddhahood, the ten levels, and the five paths are complete within and inseparable from the expanse of the dharmakaya. This means that this realization is not something we need to create or accomplish anew. Rather it is already present, and all the afflictions, obscurations, and adventitious stains are like dreams and illusions that block us from recognizing the true nature of how things are, which is inherently unblemished by these stains. Thus, to see the full picture, we must understand there are two aspects – the confused and the unconfused.
This primordial Buddha dwells in the form of Vairochana. He is in a form that permeates all realms, and the bodies of this Buddha appear in the forms of the five Buddha families. Buddha Vairochana’s bodies appear in many different forms, and there is never a time when his forms are not teaching the dharma. When they teach the dharma, the dharma itself that they teach is the perfect Buddha. These forms themselves and the dharma are not separate – it is dharma and dharmakaya inseparable. Thus, when they are teaching the dharma, they are teaching their own nature.
As such, when the primordial Buddha turns the wheel of dharma, the teacher here is not separate from the students. In our impure time, it feels like “me” teaching the dharma to “them.” But for the forms of the primordial Buddha, when they teach the dharma, the teacher and the students are inseparable.
In addition, there are also many Buddhas and bodhisattvas, such as Vajrapani, Manjushri, and Chenrezig. Ultimately, they are not separate from the primordial Buddha either; the teacher and the retinue are inseparable. Furthermore, there were also many great mahasiddhas in India, such as Maitripa, Nagarjuna, and others. They too are not separate from the primordial Buddha.
This truth is also taught in the tantras, which say: “I am the teacher. I am the dharma. I am the students. I am the retinue.” The “I” here is the dharmakaya – the ultimate dharmakaya. We say “I” as a convention, but in actuality there is no “I” in the nature of how things truly are. However, we ordinary sentient beings cannot perceive this truth, and so we must rely on the authoritative scriptures.
Yet even during this time of our impure experience as sentient beings, there are in fact no distinctions in the dharma nature, in the nature of things as they are, in suchness. This truth is confirmed in the Mahayana Sublime Continuum, which states, “In suchness, there are no distinctions.” Another way to say it is that there is no distinction between suchness in the nature of a Buddha and suchness in the nature of sentient beings. There is no difference in terms of good or bad, no difference in terms of great or small. The essential nature of an obscured sentient being is not inherently dirty or polluted, and likewise the nature of a Buddha is also pure. There is no distinction at all!
So even during our impure phase as sentient beings, there is truly no distinction. It is simply that when our obscurations are purified, this truth of inherent purity will become manifest and visible. This is how it happened for Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the great siddhas – when they purified all their obscurations, it became clear that there are no distinctions. For us right now this truth is not manifest, but once we too have purified our obscurations, we will clearly see this indivisibility of the nature of all things.
The Origin of the Text
After providing this explanation of how the teacher, teachings, and retinue exist in relation to one another, His Eminence next discussed the origin of the text Pointing Out the Three Kayas. He stated that when the primordial Buddha Vajradhara teaches, he is able to teach innumerable amounts of dharma in one single instant. When teachers today explain the dharma or give empowerments, every single point takes many words to explain. But it is not like that for Vajradhara, who is able to teach many meanings and many different points in a single instant. This quality of Vajradhara’s teachings is explained in the background stories of the tantras where it is taught that in a single instant, all the buddhas are able to give innumerable dharma instructions without using many words. Since they are buddhas, they are able to transmit the incredibly vast teachings with only a few words. Thus, when Buddha Vajradhara teaches Tilopa, Vajrapani, or Saraha in a single instant, he is able to explain this teaching on “pointing out the three kayas” and many other dharma teachings in just a single instant.
In this manner, Buddha Vajradhara transmitted many dharma teachings to Tilopa, who in turn transmitted them all to Naropa, who had developed the dharani of a perfect memory. As such, these teachings were understood fully by Naropa. Then, when the great mahapandita Naropa had himself manifested the three kayas, he always dwelled in samadhi. While he was in samadhi, he transmitted all these teachings to Marpa the translator who had come from Tibet. When Marpa was with the great Mahapandita Naropa, there was Naropa's great realization of manifesting all the dharma teachings,
and Marpa's realization was inseparable from this. There was no separation in Naropa’s manifestation of all the dharma and Marpa’s understanding of non-duality. Within this non-dual state, Marpa realized the meaning of the teachings on Pointing Out the Three Kayas.
Later, Milarepa came to Marpa, who transmitted many different empowerments and pith instructions to him. Milarepa in his own body, speech, and mind was able to understand the vajra meaning of the three kayas. In this way, his wisdom mind also became inseparable from the teachings and he was able to manifest this realization. Likewise, when Gampopa came to Milarepa, he received many different empowerments and pith instructions. When this occurred, Gampopa was able to instantly understand the particular points of these instructions.
Next, the first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa received many empowerments, pith instructions, and teachings from Gampopa. In this way, Dusum Khyenpa was able to manifest the self-arisen wisdom of the nature of everything. At that time, all of Gampopa’s teachings were transmitted inseparably to Dusum Khyenpa, who then in turn transmitted these teachings to Drogon Rechen. In this way, Drogon Rechen was able to recognize the view of the inseparability of the four kayas, the three vajras and the three kayas exactly as it is, as the realization was transmitted directly into his being. Then when Drogon Rechen transmitted these teachings to Pomdrakpa, the realization within Drogon Rechen’s view of the inseparability of the three kayas, the four kayas, and the three vajras was completely transmitted directly into Pomdrakpa, just like pouring water into water, with no separation at all in realization.
The second Karmapa Karma Pakshi stayed with Pomdrakpa, and he received many different teachings and pith instructions from him. From these instructions, Karma Pakshi experienced realization inseparable from that of the primordial Buddha who had awakened many eons ago, and moreover, he saw that he had already possessed this realization. He had manifested in this lifetime in order to display the manner of receiving these teachings once again. This is confirmed by the Buddha, who said the perfect Buddha had already awakened but the emanations continually awaken; it is for the sake of his students that he keeps appearing to awaken again. In the same way, Karma Pakshi had for many eons been inseparable from the primordial Buddha, Vajrapani, and Manjushri, with no distinction between them and him. Yet once again he appeared and seemed to receive the instructions from Pomdrakpa, and at that point he demonstrated the appearance of manifesting these instructions again.
All dharma teachings, empowerments, and pith instructions speak to the same truth as that which is within the text Pointing Out the Three Kayas. Karma Pakshi gathered the essence of many different instructions and put them together, and this is what resulted in this particular text. Yet these instructions on pointing out the three kayas are swifter than any other empowerment or pith instruction. They bring results more quickly, and they are able to present in just a few words truths that are described with more verbosity in other texts. Once one realizes the meaning of Pointing Out the Three Kayas, one naturally understands all other pith instructions.
After the mahasiddha Karma Pakshi developed these pith instructions, he transmitted them to his special disciples Orgenypa and Nyenre Gendun Bum. He taught them in the form of a whispered lineage to just a few disciples. When the third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje appeared, he had not forgotten any of the pith instructions of his predecessors; he remembered them from the very beginning and was not affected by any of the stains of the womb. He said that even when he was in the womb, he remembered these instructions on pointing out the three kayas. The third Karmapa formally received these pith instructions from the great scholar and siddha Orgenypa. Realizing the time had come for these teachings to be propagated more widely, the Third Karmapa wrote them down and taught them.
The Actual Instructions of the Text
As for the actual instructions on pointing out the three kayas, it is good to first note that there are slightly different instructions for those of differing faculties. For those of lesser acumen, the instruction is the four preliminary dharmas, which are similar to but slightly different from the ones we normally practice. Then, for individuals of middling acumen, the instruction is the four points, the wheel of dharmata. Finally, for those individuals with the highest faculties, the actual teachings on pointing out the three kayas are provided. In this way, there are different stages to the teachings.
These teachings on pointing out the three kayas should be taught to someone who has faith and samaya, has diligence, and is seeking out the aims of the next life. The first part of the teaching is guru yoga practice, which allows one to receive the blessings of the guru. It is said that devotion is the head of meditation as is taught, so having devotion for the guru is the main point. If one thinks of a sentient being’s body, the main part of the body is the head. If there is no head, then the arms, legs, heart, and lungs will not work. Nothing will work at all without the head. Likewise, even if one has bodhicitta and does all the preliminaries, shamatha, and insight meditation, the practice will not work without strong devotion for the guru. In addition to devotion, when you begin the practice, you need to begin by going for refuge and arousing bodhicitta.
Purification and Accumulation
In this practice, Vajrasattva meditation and Guru Yoga practice are combined. You visualize above your head a moon disc, and on top of that a white HUNG that transforms into Vajrasattva. His body is white with a reddish tinge, and he has one face and two arms. He is holding a vajra at his heart and in his left hand he holds a bell at his hip. He wears a skirt of beautifully-designed fabric that is superior to what we ordinary humans wear. His body is adorned with various pieces of precious jewelry. On his head is a crown, and around his neck he wears several necklaces.
With this image in mind, you should then imagine a white HUNG in Vajrasattva’s heart surrounded by the 100 syllable mantra. White nectar flows from these and fills his body, flowing out through his toe and entering you through the fontanelle, the brahma aperture, filling your body. You imagine the nectar fills your body and purifies you of your misdeeds and obscurations, and once these have been purified, the nectar fills your body and comes out through the top of your head. As you do this visualization, you should recite the mantra and count the recitations. From the moment we begin practicing the Vajrayana, we need to do the Vajrasattva practice every single day. Once your misdeeds and obscurations have been purified, you then visualize Vajrasattva dissolving into you, and you should have the confidence that you are inseparable from Vajrasattva. It says in the text, that this is purifying obscurations based on Guru Yoga and the hundred syllable mantra. Hence, this is doing the Guru Yoga and the hundred syllable mantra together. This portion of the practice is done in order to purify obscurations.
Next, in order to practice the pith instructions, one should gather the accumulations by making mandala offerings. For this practice, you place a mandala in front of you and then you wipe it, thinking that you are purifying your body, speech, and mind of misdeeds and obscurations. As you do this, you should take care to not have an impure intention but instead a pure intention of resting your mind in its true nature. With this motivation, you next place a pile of grains in the center of the mandala.
The pile of grains should be visualized as holding up a lotus, sun, and moon seat; on top of this seat sits your precious root guru, the Karmapa. Then while you imagine that you are making offerings to him, you should say the offering mantras. Next, you place a pile of grains in front and visualize that this is the mother Vajravarahi, and you also make offerings to her. Then a pile is placed to the right, and with this you visualize the Buddha Shakyamuni as the principal among innumerable buddhas and bodhisattvas, and you also make offerings to them. Next, you place a pile in the back, imagining on it rests all the Mahayana dharma in the form of volumes of the dharma texts wrapped in fabric with the front of the text facing the front. Finally, you place a pile of grains to the left, and on this you visualize Chenrezig and the other members of the Mahayana sangha, as well as the listener arhats and sravaka buddhas, and you make offerings to them as well. Then you think to yourself that you are offering your own body and also all your possessions and wealth. In this way, you make mandala offerings.
At this point in the practice, you should rest with your mind not wandering to anything else, allowing it to simply rest in the meaning of the actual nature. You rest in a state where all sounds are inseparable from emptiness, all forms are inseparable from emptiness; you rest in the nature of things as they are. You rest evenly in the essence of mind in a clear and empty way; it has the nature of the dharmakaya, with no fixation. You rest within the nature of the dharmakaya, which is naturally present within all sentient beings. In this way, you gather the accumulations by offering mandalas and by resting your mind in clear, empty non-fixation. This is the method for gathering the two accumulations of both merit and wisdom. And this contains all of the four preliminary dharmas.
There follows the four points which are pith instructions. By practicing these points, you are able to practice all of the dharmas.
The First Point – Posture
The first point is about posture, and it is an extremely important point. It is said that the methods of resting the body are the crux of meditation, so by resting your body properly, the points of the posture contain all the points of meditation. There are many stories about the importance of correct posture. For instance, when Marpa the translator sat in the proper posture, there were people who saw him and who were able to realize the nature of dharma simply by seeing him sitting in that posture.
To have the proper posture requires one to have a neutral body free of effort. You should sit cross-legged. Without modifying your speech, you should let it be as it is – this means that you do not speak impure chatter or anything like that. When we speak about impure subjects, this talk disturbs all the winds of the body. When the winds are disturbed, we are not able to rest in samadhi, and we are not able to have virtuous thoughts. Disturbed winds naturally increase the afflictions. Speaking in impure ways causes many problems. As such, many practitioners will in fact not speak at all so that they do not say anything impure. Instead, they will only recite mantras or dharma texts. They may spend a month or two in silence and only write short notes when they need to communicate.
In addition to allowing your speech to be as it is without modification, you should also not block the six collections, i.e., the eye, ear, nose, etc. the consciousnesses that engage objects. Instead of blocking these or doing anything at all, you should let them be as they are. In this way, rest within the dharma expanse, the nature as it is. When you practice like this, the six consciousnesses will also naturally come to rest within the dharma expanse.
Resting for a long time in this way creates the conditions for self liberation. Some people are easily able to rest like this and are naturally liberated. They rest in this way in the dharma expanse, and their six consciousnesses are naturally liberated when they become free from the obscurations; this process is made possible when one sits in this way. This is the point of the importance of body posture.
We often call this proper posture the six points of Vairochana. In the words of the Karmapa, the way the body and the four elements sit should be comfortable, broad, and loose. Broad means that your shoulders should be open and your chin should be slightly tucked. In short, your body should be broad and relaxed, in a cross-legged position and very loose. Loose means you are not too tight; when you are too tight, you are working too hard. Your mind will not rest in samadhi when this happens, and the method will not work. It is essential to rest in a relaxed way for your practice. Your hands should rest in the mudra of touching the earth, which means your hands are on your knees and touching the ground. Then you relax evenly and allow your mind to rest in its true nature.
When you rest in this way, allowing your body to rest as it is, it is not just your mind that rests – you are also resting all of the six consciousnesses just as they are. For example, you allow your eye consciousness to rest and do not fixate on forms and become attached to them. When you see a beautiful or ugly form, you do not think it is good and try to keep it, or think it is bad and try to remove it. The same goes for sound and all the other consciousnesses; instead, you should rest without attachment or fixation. You just rest in the nature of it all and let it all come and go as you rest naturally.
The Second Point – Meditation of Guru Yoga
Next is the meditation of guru yoga, which is the point of devotion. For this practice, you must have very vast and strong faith and devotion. The Buddha taught that faith is the gateway to all dharma. The more faith we have, the more likely it is that all the virtuous types of cognitions will naturally arise.
For the practice of guru yoga, you should first perform all the points of body as described above. Then you should imagine above your head a lotus, sun, and moon seat on which rests the glorious Vajradhara, who is inseparable from your root guru the Karmapa. His body is intensely blue and he has one face and two arms. He sits with his two legs crossed. His body is in the earth touching mudra and he is adorned with colorful jewelry. The tantras teach that one should meditate while remembering that from the very beginning, the guru has been inseparable from Vajradhara, with no distinction between them. The guru is surrounded by all the Kagyu gurus, mahasiddhas, and great masters. In particular, he is surrounded by the masters of this lineage of pointing out the three kayas.
Next you should supplicate with the words: “Inconceivable essence of body, speech, mind qualities, and activity of all buddhas of the three times, glorious Vajradhara surrounded by hosts of Kagyus, I go to you for refuge. Please make me achieve the supreme siddhi of Mahamudra in my body, speech, and mind.” We supplicate and repeat this prayer many times.
Then think that because you supplicate in this way, all of the Kagyu gurus dissolve into Vajradhara, and Vajradhara himself dissolves into light and enters the fontanelle in the crown of your head. In this way, you receive all the blessings of body, speech, and mind as they enter you. You should think that you have realized them. Due to meditating like this, where we visualize we are inseparable from the guru, eventually this will become the truth; we will be able to rest in the true nature. All buddhas and sentient beings are in their actual natures indistinguishable. When we visualize in this way, it makes the actual nature of things manifest.
As it says in the Hevajra tantra: “Not taught by others, co-emergent, and not found anywhere at all. It is found by following the guru’s time and method and by following one’s own merit.” Thus, in order to know the nature of one’s own expanse, we need to meditate upon and supplicate the gurus. Many causes and conditions must come together; in this way, we can know.
While it is necessary to meditate on guru yoga, instead of meditating on the guru’s body, it is logical to meditate on the guru in the form of glorious Vajradhara, Naropa said, "The guru is the treasury of all qualities. The guru is the root of all dharmas." For this reason, we meditate on all root and lineage gurus as Vajradhara. This explanation is the meditation of guru yoga and the point of the importance of devotion.
The Third Point – Breath
The next point is that of the breath, or the winds. There are both pure and impure winds, and it is due to the impure winds that obstacles occur. Impure winds lead to confusion and suffering, so we need to eliminate them. On the other hand, the pure wisdom winds allow us to achieve the four kayas. These winds are taught by the perfect buddha in the tantras of the secret mantra. He did not teach them in the common vehicle of the sutras. To practice this point, we sit in the proper posture and meditate on the winds. Through this meditation on the winds, we are able to purify ourselves of the impure winds, which allows us to manifest the true nature.
It is said in the Vajrayana that buddhahood can be achieved very swiftly, in only seven or sixteen lifetimes. The reason why it is so fast is because of this meditation on the wisdom winds. All sentient beings are the winds by nature; even in their impure phase, sentient beings all have some kind of breath or respiration. Understanding the winds is very important because when they are blocked and not flowing properly, various obstacles occur. We may see ghosts or spirits, or experience other kinds of obstacles. The winds are responsible for all these various activities.
There are different types of winds, both gentle and harsh winds. The harsh, forceful practices are not able to be taught here, and you must seek out these teachings yourself if you wish to learn them. But His Eminence said he is able to provide a short teaching on the gentle winds.
To meditate on the winds, you should first assume the proper posture and then expel the stale breath three times, thinking that all dualism, illnesses, harm, and so forth are cleansed and gone. Then hold the breath like a closed locket and swallow once at the same time while continuing to hold the breath. You should meditate like this for a long time. As it says in the Mahamaya tantra, after efforts at prana and exercise, the yogi should hold and inhale the breath. It is a most crucial point to hold the breath. Then when you are holding the breath, you should direct your mind towards it. All of the perceptions are based on the winds, so we can work with them by holding the breath. Holding it below the navel, you direct your mind there, simply letting your attention rest there. This is the practice of gentle breathing. Due to this practice of gentle breathing, the afflictions will not arise, virtuous thoughts will naturally increase, and we will be able to rest naturally in samadhi.
His Eminence stated that he is not able to provide all of the instructions here, so if you wish to practice these three points of pointing out the dharmakaya, you should seek out the instructions and practice them in retreat. He reiterated that the most crucial point is to hold the breath and to never be apart from guru yoga, meditating with intense diligence. The great, venerable Tilopa said:
Hold the points of the winds, let awareness go. And with multiple gazes and techniques for holding the mind, direct awareness until it rests within the nature.
When holding the breath and directing the mind towards the navel, you direct the attention there and rest – this method contains all the points of meditating on the winds.
To give a worldly analogy, imagine a country with a capital and its surrounding countryside. When all is going well in the capital, when people are getting along and there is no conflict, then all will also go well in the countryside. But if there is conflict in the capital, there will be disturbance in the countryside too. The capital here is like the winds in the navel – if you can direct the attention there and let it rest, the secondary winds will also naturally flow properly.
You should hold the winds and rest undistracted in the empty, clear, unfixated awareness. You should rest without many conceptual thoughts, with no bad thoughts. This experience is not like going blank and being in darkness. Instead, it is clear and empty, and it is able to know and do anything virtuous. You should rest within that clear, empty, unfixated awareness, the luminous nature. Then when the wind disperses, you exhale slowly through the nostrils and think that all your unvirtuous deeds and obscurations have been purified. This process is like washing a dirty pot. This is the point of the importance of breath, of pranayama.
The Fourth Point – Physical Training
The next point is that of physical training, which allows for the purification of the obscurations of the body. This point requires you to perform the thirty-seven exercises, which are a particular feature of the Karmapa. We perform these exercises in order to purify obscurations. The common teachings of the sutras state there are thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, such as the four foundations of mindfulness and so forth. These thirty-seven exercises are said to accord with those factors.
If you would like to practice these exercises, you need to seek out a lama and practice them in retreat, as they are not something that should be taught in public.
The Basis for Meditating on the Four Points – Tummo
Tummo meditation is the basis for all of these meditations on the four points. The word tummo means wrathful, like when you are angry. When you are angry, you can do things really quickly, throwing things here and there and getting rid of everything that needs to be cast away. Likewise, when you meditate on the winds in this fashion, you can quickly get rid of all the stains and obscurations. The process is quick like when you are angry, and for this reason it is called the wrathful, or tummo [Tib.], or caṇḍālī [Skt] practice.
The basis for all four of these points is tummo. This means that if you have the practice of the four points described above and the preliminaries and so forth, then you can practice tummo. For the practice of tummo, you visualize yourself as Vajravarahi, and then you visualize the four directions around her – Blue Vajradakini in the east, Yellow Ratnadakini in the south, Red Pemadakini in the west, and Green Karmadakini in the north. You visualize the letter DRUM in the navel of Vajravarahi, and you picture it as being the nature of wisdom fire, the nature of light. Visualizing that red light like fire, you imagine it fills all of the channels and nadis in the body. Then, when they are filled, all of the impurities are eliminated. Once the impurities are eliminated, the pure winds are able to naturally increase and grow.
Dedication
Concluding the teaching for the morning, His Eminence took a moment to acknowledge several disasters that have occurred around the world. He first mentioned the large earthquake in Tibet, which has caused a tremendous amount of suffering. Parents have lost their children and children have lost their parents. Many are grieving and have injuries, and many have died. Next, he noted the large wildfire in America that has burned through several towns, killing many people, animals, and insects and destroying many homes. In addition, there is also the pointless war between Russia and Ukraine that has been going on for many years, killing many people and animals. There are also many new illnesses appearing around the world, as well as other disasters of water such as floods, disasters of wind such as tornados, and disasters of earth.
For the sake of all of those affected by these disasters, His Eminence requests that we recite the Confession of Downfalls practice, the Noble Aspiration for Excellent Conduct, and the aspiration from The Way of the Bodhisattva in the afternoon session. He also requests that we recite the Medicine Buddha and Tara mantras for the sake of the ill.
The morning session ended with closing prayers.
