Yo so bhagavaa araha"m sammaasambuddho Svaakkhaato yena bhagavataa dhammo
Supa.tipanno yassa bhagavato saavakasa"ngho Tammaya"m bhagavanta"m sadhamma"m sasa"ngha"m Imehi sakkaarehi yathaaraha"m aaropitehi abhipuujayaama Saadhu no bhante bhagavaa suciraparinibbutopi Pacchimaa-janataa-nukampamaanasaa Ime sakkaare duggata-pannaakaara-bhuute pa.tigga.nhaatu Amhaaka"m diigharatta"m hitaaya sukhaaya
To the Blessed One, the Lord who fully attained perfect enlightenment, To the Teaching which he expounded so well, And to the Blessed One's disciples, who have practised well,
To these - the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha - We render with offerings our rightful homage. It is well for us, Blessed One, that having attained liberation,
You still had compassion for later generations. Deign to accept these simple offerings
For our long-lasting benefit and for the happiness it gives us.
Araha"m sammaasambuddho bhagavaa Buddha"m bhagavanta"m abhivaademi
The Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened and Blessed One - I render homage to the Buddha, the Blessed One.
Svaakkhaato bhagavataa dhammo Dhamma"m namassaami
The Teaching so completely explained by him - I bow to the Dhamma.
Supatipanno bhagavato saavakasa"ngho Sa"ngha"m namaami
The Blessed One's disciples who have practised well - I bow to to the Sangha
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammaasambuddhassa
Homage to the Blessed, Noble and Perfectly Enlightened One.
Itipi so bhagavaa araha"m sammaa-sambuddho
Vijjaa-cara.na-sampanno sugato lokaviduu
Anuttaro purisa-damma-saarathi satthaa deva-manussaana"m buddho bhagavaa
He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy.
Tamaha"m bhagavanta"m abhipuujayaami
Tamaha"m bhagavanta"m sirasaa namaami
I chant my praise to the Blessed One, I bow my head to the Blessed One.
Svaakkhaato bhagavataa dhammo
Sandi.t.thiko akaaliko ehipassiko
Opanayiko paccatta"m veditabbo vi~n~nuuhi
The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise.
Tamaha"m dhamma"m abhipuujayaami
Tamaha"m dhamma"m sirasaa namaam
I chant my praise to this Teaching,
I bow my head to this Truth.
Supa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho
Uju-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho
~Naaya-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho
Saamiici-pa.tipanno bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho
Yadida"m cattaari purisa-yugaani a.t.tha purisa-puggalaa
Esa bhagavato saavaka-sa"ngho
Aahuneyyo paahuneyyo dakkhi.neyyo añjali-kara.niiyo
Anuttara"m puññakkhetta"m lokassa
They are the Blessed One's disciples who have practised well,
Who have practised directly,
Who have practised insightfully,
Those who are accomplished in the practice;
That is the four pairs, the eight kinds of noble beings,
These are the Blessed One's disciples.
Such ones are worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect;
They give occasion for incomparable goodness to arise in the world
Tamaha"m sa"ngha"m abhipuujayaami
Tamaha"m sa"ngha"m sirasaa namaami
I chant my praise to this Sangha,
I bow my head to this Sangha
The offering of lights, flowers, food, fruit juice, incense, etc. in the name of the Buddha is yet another practice, the meaning of which some people fail to understand. Offering of such things to holy persons is in fact an oriental custom. Even during the Buddha's time, it was customary among Indian people to carry some flowers whenever they visited a holy person. This is only done as a mark of respect. Devout Buddhists likewise always offer something in the name of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. This symbolic act gives them a sense of happiness, peace, and relief.
At the same time, understanding Buddhists often use the same offerings as objects of their meditation. They are fully aware that these physical objects are simple representations of things spiritual. The flame of the candle or oil lamp and the flowers could each be compared to the physical body of life. The offering of light symbolises the dispelling of darkness or ignorance through light. The existence of the flame and its brightness, the beauty of the flowers, the aroma of incense and the final fading away of such brightness and beauty only to manifest their impermanence; hence all these natural phenomena could be taken up as suitable objects for meditation. The flowers on the altar represent one of the most beautiful and yet one of the most transient forms of nature.
These offerings symbolises meritorious deeds because of the wholesome and devout mental states they induce. Therefore time spent in a shrine room in offering some of these articles and reciting some verses is not at all wasted. The devotees' pious acts have the effect of pleasing themselves and calming the mind. It is good to start out daily work after offering some of these objects to the Buddha as a mark of respect to the holy religious teacher who has shown us the correct path for our peace, happiness, and salvation.
However, Buddhists should not be satisfied by simply offering something in the name of the Buddha, reciting in a parrot-fashion some verses or Suttas thinking that their duty has been done. To become good Buddhists, they have to do something more; they have to correct themselves by following the Buddha's advice. Try to gain more knowledge and understanding through His Teaching. One should not think that by just offering something to the Buddha, one's wrong doings can be eradicated.
Every morning we start the day with a puja. It's a celebration of the Buddha's awakening, an act of praise and recognition. So even when we have completed the chanting if we stay with the puja and continue the act of offering, we can see this as a very good spiritual yoga. Whereas chanting some words and then going away, forgetting the puja as soon as the chanting finishes, is not a true exercise of the spirit. There might well be a fleeting arousal of energy but then we go away, we leave it. Maybe we go back to looking at the five khandas, and stumble around in thoughts, perceptions and feelings - not so much grasping them as being gripped by them. But if we pause to reflect on this teaching, this training in the Dhamma, then we realise that this is not a worldly teaching. It involves the activation of the five support faculties, the five indriyas, making them strong, in order to bring forth the spirit and faith. The puja, then, is a bringing forth, a waking up, an arousing, an activation of the spirit. We can activate the spirit with faith when we recollect the Buddha touching the earth, bringing Enlightenment into the world, into consciousness.
In our spiritual development, quite a lot is made of concentration and calming, but we still need to bring forth the right attitude - the element of faith - before we start concentrating and calming down. Without faith, we concentrate on the attachments and the old habits within the five khandas, just getting stuck in established perceptions and mind formations; not concentrating on the right thing. If the quality of mindfulness has not been aroused we remain fixated upon the old grasping, or being-grasped, experience.
When we undertake a puja then, without calming the mind and going inwards into some space beyond sensory impingement, then the puja isn't completed or fulfilled. If we just shut down and go away, without taking time to cultivate mindfulness of breathing, without due recollection, the entire experience becomes something we just slot into, without thought. Instead of mindfulness, we develop attachment to techniques, rituals, rules and systems. And this is one of the great hindrances. Chanting, mindfulness of breathing - even meditation practice itself - can be just another ritual that we do blindly or automatically, without sensitivity. Meditation can become another habit, a way of not actually relating to or experiencing anything a blind response, an escape from here and now. Then we are not being mindful but just 'dozing', falling asleep, or getting into a stale glutinous state of mind. Although we might imagine ourselves to be breathing, actually we fall into a perceptual mode that is far more likely to be one of stagnation than of calm; it is easy to mistake the two. Things may be still, but it is not the stillness of a clear mind, it's not an enlightened calm; it can be just stagnation in the mind, not feeling or hearing very much - a dull, dead state.
The puja, properly used, has the effect of energising our faith - although, for all appearances, it is just an outward form which can be done in a more or less perfunctory and automatic fashion every day. We think, 'Well, this is what we do'....but when we've done it every day for five years or so, we can become completely anaesthetised and resigned to it, rather than giving in to it. Maybe we begin to feel resistance or negativity arising, but we have to realise that this is only because the puja is not being done properly. The offering of one's spirit is not happening so, instead, it's just a repeated meaningless activity, a sankhara of the mind.
So what is this faith that is said to arise? How can it be aroused? We need purposefully to make the puja into our offering to the Triple Gem - to the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha - and to stay mentally alert by activating and exercising the spiritual faculties. This is done by focussing first on the qualities of the Buddha, recollecting his enlightenment and his teaching of the Eightfold Path, giving him full recognition as the awakened one; and realising for ourselves the Four Noble Truths. At this moment too, we see arising within the world all the pain and pleasure, boredom and doubt, greed and so on - all the positive and negative forces of the mind. Then there is Dhamma, the ultimate truth - a quality that is ever-present, total, unifying and absolute; and which is within all conditions, whether they are painful, pleasant, subtle or gross, physical or mental. It is something we must realise for ourselves. We don't have to find it or become it, we just have to open to it. It's all-embracing and inviting; it welcomes us, it's not something aloof. It has a loving, expansive quality: "Please come", rather than, "Don't come in here with your grubby mind stamping all over me!" attitude. This `ehipassiko, opaniyiko' is something that we can all experience when faith is aroused. We are invited to reach up to it, the Dhamma. This is all one can say, because words themselves are unsatisfactory and changing. But if we can open to the here and now, if we can but bring this reflection into our hearts, we open ourselves to a great movement of the spirit. Then there is faith in the Sangha. That is the potential for the personal, localised kammic experience that we call our self to actually connect to, associate with and be resumed into the Ultimate. This is one of the many miraculous things - they are all miracles in the Triple Gem - that there can be occasions when one experiences a state of wholeness or completion, a fulfilment.
Most religions recognise and evoke this spirit of the Divine, the Sublime, the Brahma, the Atman or God the Almighty, but then it's always: "But how do we get to it?" The Sangha is a quality of faith and energy, a mindful reflection that we bring to the present moment, to recognise that even the aspiration to be with Dhamma, IS Dhamma. It already is it. We look at that which brings us here: what it is that actually moves us to come together for a morning puja, or to go forth in the Holy Life? What is that? We might think, "I want to do it" or, "I felt like doing it" or, "If I didn't do it, I'd get blamed or feel negative about myself" or, "It seemed like a good idea at the time". All these attitudes and thoughts can come up, but this is just a screen of thoughts - often stained with self-deprecation.
So what is it that urges us to awaken? That, in itself, is an aspect of awakening. It, too, is an essential aspect of Dhamma; it is like the Dhamma seeking itself, or praising itself. When we participate in a puja, we're not particularly aiming to calm down because it's a celebration, a recognition and a gladness for the world. In this way we can look at our ability to see and feel, as an aspect of Dhamma. We can note our embodiment just sensations in the body or the thinking quality of the mind: what are they? Who does it? Where do they come from? We get so caught up in self-view, into feeling good about this and bad about that, wondering what to do, trying to get away from this or that. But instead we can note that there IS feeling; there Is consciousness....So what is it? What is it that can actually see; what is it that can note seeing, or be aware of thoughts, moods and feelings, and note that they change? In the puja we are not trying to meditate in some preconceived system. It's a great shake-out. It's a celebration and sweeping around to establish and bring forth faith, energy and mindfulness. Why go anywhere - why retreat into the numbness of the mind? In this celebration and recognition of the wonders of the Triple Gem our spirit can come forth to hearing, to seeing, to the feelings in the body, sensations of coolness or warmth, or the breathing; while with its self view, our physical form remains just a limp `bag of perceptions'. Even the mind itself can simply regurgitate habitual phrases, moods and feelings - repeating, like a weary old parrot nattering away on your shoulder, 'Polly wants a cracker'! But we can rejuvenate this somewhat limp, bedraggled `bird' of a mind - preen it, brighten it up, make it dance, make it sing. We can mentally `fly around', noting: there is a thought, there is a feeling all changing, moment by moment. It's all just an immediate dance of the present moment. So why go away from this beautiful puja of the spirit, why not join it? Whether we listen inwardly to the silence in the ear (we can hear different tones in the perception of silence) or listen outwardly to silence or sounds, our perception changes. When these aggregates are not adhered to they are fields of arousal of the spirit.
The Buddha was awakened within the five khandas; for example, within perception, by noticing the way it changes and moves. Noticing our thoughts and drives is an arousing sign; we observe the energy arising, whether it's slow or agitated, or where it goes. When we don't hold or grasp at the aggregates, they become a basis for the realisation of the momentary, dancing nature of experience. So when we find that the mind is bogged down, we can always turn to the five khandhas, the six sense spheres or consciousness. The eye, eye consciousness and the objects of the eye; the ear, ear consciousness and the objects of the ear - these are all available. There are plenty of possibilities for us to consider; rather than lying around being pummelled by some obsessive habit, mood, or dullness. We can actually `step out' and go to our skin, to the bones, to the back, the head, the eyes - even to the fact that there is consciousness arising; consciousness moving and ever-changing. All these can be looked at, seen as miraculous - celebrated and observed clearly in their changing and evanescent qualities. Then, when we get stuck in stale perceptions we can work with them, by returning to a feeling. Is the feeling pleasant or unpleasant? Generally, when one is stuck, it is unpleasant, humdrum, boring and dull. Or we can go to the form: what actually is the feeling of a hand resting on one's leg? Which part do you feel - the palm, or the knuckle, the finger nail or the thumb? In this way we go back to form itself. What actually is this apparent material form that is being experienced with sensations arising in it? Where do they arise, and what do they do? What are the perceptions that are created around them?
These are exercises in mindfulness and application. There are many opportunities to investigate the almost limitless manifoldness that we are. All of them are avenues to the Unconditioned - because all of these things are changing, and none of them are self; when they are grasped they are all unsatisfactory. These three characteristics of being will always guide and steer is. If we experience unsatisfactoriness, it's because we are grasping. And with change, there is the vibration of feeling, the movement of thought, the ebbing and flowing of the emotions and so on. What is it that notices their changing, and can stay with that - with the seeing eye, the listening ear - with a patient heart, and the faith of the spirit? This is the Buddha, this is the Dhamma, this is the Sangha - an eternal, timeless quality which is outside of circumstances and yet, at the same time, totally involved with them. So for the welfare of the world, we can practise these ways of the spirit within this body and mind; within the five khandas and the six sense spheres. When this world of which we seem to be the centre, this world of consciousness, of forms and change, is rehearsed with the spirit - when the spirit moves through it - then it's a delight, a place of truth, love and boundlessness.
In general, the role of faith in Mahāyāna Buddhism is as strong as that of the Theravādin. Moreover, the depth and range of faith may be perceived as being intensified, particularly in the Buddha nature sutras and the Pure Land literature
In the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra Buddha is portrayed giving a foundational position to faith. He states:
We say that unsurpassed awakening has faith as its cause. The causes of awakening are innumerable, but if stated as faith, this covers everything.
Faith as understood in this sutra is belief in the teachings of the Buddha and in the Buddha's own eternality. More specifically, it is belief in such doctrines as the law of karma, in the reality and eternity of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha and in the efficacy of the Buddhist path. The Buddha comments:
All that is said in these Mahayana sutras is the truths of the Way ... As I have already stated, if one believes in the Way, such a Way of faith is the root of faith. This assists the Way of Awakening ... The Way begins with the root of faith....
The Buddha further notes that a person possessed of faith is superior to one lacking in it:
There are two kinds of men: one who has faith, and the other who has not. O Bodhisattva! Know that he with faith is one who is good, and that he who has no faith is one who is not good.
Faith in the Buddha is seen as a positive virtue as it leads to more attentive absorption in Dharma, which in turn strengthens faith still further. The Buddha remarks:
Faith arises out of listening to Dharma, and this listening is [itself] grounded in faith.
Through such faith, along with other spiritual practices, the Buddhist aspirant is enabled to attain nirvana, according to this text. Faith is the first step for the bodhisattva to tread along that path to nirvana. It is viewed as a basic requirement, and crucially entails the understanding that the "real" Buddha is not a being of flesh and blood who can bleed and who dies, or whose Truth (Dharma) perishes with his physical body. The true Buddha and his Dharma are utterly deathless and eternal, so the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra insists. This the bodhisattva is urged to believe:
First, he [i.e. the Bodhisattva] is perfect in faith. How is faith perfect? This is believing deeply that the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are Eternal, that all Buddhas of the ten directions [= everywhere] make use of expedients [effectively to convey Dharma to the different types of being], and that beings and icchantikas [= the most spiritually depraved of persons] all possess the Buddha-dhatu. It is not believing that the Tathagata is subject to birth, old age, illness, and death, that he has undergone austerities, and that Devadatta [= Buddha's cousin] really caused blood to flow from the Buddha's body, that the Tathagata ultimately enters Nirvana [= finally dies], and that authentic Dharma dies out. This is where we speak of the Bodhisattva's being perfect in faith.
Yet faith in the Buddha should not be blind. The Mahāyāna not infrequently links faith with discernment and spiritual insight - spiritual penetration.The following words of the Buddha's[ indicate the need for a balance:
If a person does not possess faith and insight, such a person increases his ignorance. If a person possesses insight, but not faith, such a person will increase [his or her] distorted views. ... A person who has no faith will say, out of an angry mind: "There cannot be any Buddha, Dharma, and Sangh.
The Nirvāṇa Sūtra is not alone in according a foundational position to faith. The Buddha nature sutra, Exposition of Non-Decrease, Non-Increase (Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa) tells of how the essence of ultimate truth, the Buddha nature (tathāgatagarbha), can be perceived by means of faith. This matter of the Buddha nature lies beyond the reach of the foolish, of the ordinary person, unless that person possess faith, which will gain him or her entry into the realm of the Buddha nature:
No sravakas [the elementary students of the Buddha] or pratyekabuddhas ["private" Buddhas, who usually avoid people and generally do not teach] are able to know, see or investigate this matter with their insight. How much less able to do so are foolish ordinary people, except when they directly realise it by faith!
Faith is thus presented as a powerful means for Buddhist practitioners to penetrate through to, and realize deep spiritual truths for themselves.
It is not only in the Buddha nature literature that faith is lauded. In the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) scriptures, too, faith is extolled. Here it is usually in connection with trust and belief in the sutra which is at that moment being expounded. Thus in the Prajñāpāramitā Sutra on How Benevolent Kings May Protect Their Countries, the Buddha declares that even if living beings were to give away the most precious substances known to humanity in a huge act of generosity, still "their merit would not be such as that of the production of one single thought of serene faith in this Sutra". This and other prajñāpāramitā sutras explain that such persons who naturally engender faith in these texts are those who have worshipped and revered countless Buddhas in past incarnations. Faith comes naturally to them. Moreover, faith in, and reverence towards, such sutras is tantamount to faith and reverence directed towards all Buddhas. The Buddha asserts in the 18,000-Line Prajñāpāramitā Sutra:
If anyone, when this deep perfection of wisdom is being preached, feels respect, affection, and serene faith for it, then he feels respect, affection and serene faith also for the Buddhas and Lords of the past, future, and present.
Takasaki in his translation and study of the Sanskrit Ratnagotravibhāga (with protracted consideration of the Tibetan and Chinese traditions) renders an embedded extract of a sutra of Shakyamuni unidentified in the text that conveys the importance of faith in relation to what is known in the tradition as the "revolution of the basis of "buddha-dhatu" (buddha-nature) to the Dharmakāya (a Buddhadharma nomenclature of the ultimate truth):
O Śāriputra, the ultimate truth is really approachable only by faith [in the Tathāgata]. O Śāriputra, the ultimate Truth is a synonym of the mass of living beings (sattva-dhātu). The mass of living beings is, O Śāriputra, nothing but a synonym of the Matrix of the Tathāgata .
It is perhaps in the "Pure Land" sutras that faith and devotion reach a pinnacle of soteriological importance. Here it is one's faith in the salvific compassion of the Buddha Amitabha, coupled with one's development of "roots of goodness" and the earnest wish to enter the Buddha's happy land, that is said to bring deliverance into Buddha Amitabha's Western Paradise, the "land of bliss", preparatory to entry into awakening and nirvana. In the Contemplation of Amitayus Sutra, the Buddha tells of the types of being who gain birth in this pure land – and they are all characterised by faith:
Those born in the Western Land are of nine grades. Those who attain birth on the highest level of the highest grade are sentient beings who resolve to be born in that land, awaken the three kinds of faith and so are born there. What are the three? They are, first, the sincere faith, second, the deep faith; and third, the faith that seeks birth there by transferring one's merit. Those who have these three kinds of faith will certainly be born there.
However, even in these faith-oriented sutras of "Pure Land" Dharma, faith is often linked with understanding. It is not totally blind faith. The Buddha of the Smaller Pure Land Sutra speaks of faith allied with understanding as a prerequisite for the attainment of supreme awakening (bodhi), when hearing this text. Thus:
Furthermore ... if there is a good son or good daughter, whether having already heard this, or shall hear it, or who is now hearing it – once hearing this Sutra, profoundly is there born an understanding faith. Once there is born an understanding faith, a certainty about the accumulations of merit residing in the ten directions with the Buddha World-Honoured Ones, whose number is like the sands of ten River Ganges, and they practice as instructed, all will be firmly in the supremely unexcelled Bodhi.
This teaching of faith, originally advocated in conjunction with discernment and Dharmic practice, received a new interpretation in the teachings of the Japanese Buddhist saint, Shinran Shonin (1173–1262 CE), who taught that just one recitation of the mantra, "Homage to Amida Buddha", with deep faith, would be enough to secure the faithful person entrance into the Western Paradise. Subsequent utterances of that formula would be expressions of gratitude to Buddha Amida (Amitabha). Deep understanding of the Buddha's teachings and Buddhic practice were not necessary, Shinran claimed. This interpretation of the "Pure Land" sutras represents perhaps the zenith of faith-oriented Buddhism and remains controversial, although Shinran's school of Jodo Shinshu is today perhaps the largest Buddhist sect in Japan.
Following on from Shinran, Rennyo Shonin, a disciple of Shinran's, gave utterance to the view that practicing the Way of Dharma and being embraced by Amita Buddha and embracing Amita in faith are one-and-the same. Buddha-Mind and one's own individual mind are ultimately inseparable. He says:
When wood is kindled by fire, fire does not leave it. The wood is likened to the mind of one who practices the Way; the fire is likened to the Light of Embracement of Amita. Shone upon and protected by the spiritual light, there can be no Buddha-Mind other than one's own and no mind of one's own other than the Buddha-Mind. This is called "Namuamidabutsu" ["Homage to Amita Buddha"].
One of the most famous of Mahāyāna sutras, the Lotus Sutra, also embraces the ideal of faith, but links it to discernment. The Buddha tells his audience in the Lotus Sutra:
If any living beings who seek after the Buddha-way either see or hear this Law-Flower Sutra [i.e. the Lotus Sutra], and after hearing it believe and discern, receive and keep it, you may know that they are near perfect enlightenment.
The same sutra asserts that the Dharma as a whole is difficult to grasp with mere words, and that ultimately only those bodhisattvas who believe with firm faith can penetrate its nature. The Buddha says:
This Law [Dharma] is inexpressible,
It is beyond the realm of terms;
Among all the other living beings
None can apprehend it
Except the bodhisattvas
Who are firm in the power of faith.
Thus faith is a major element within Buddhism. While it is rarely (if ever) taught by the Buddha in any "blind" form and is often linked to discernment and understanding, it is nevertheless viewed as a powerful force which can start the Buddhist practitioner on his or her spiritual journey and convey him or her towards awakening itself. Perhaps the most enthusiastic paean to faith can be found in the massive Avataṃsaka Sutra, where, to the delight of all the Buddhas, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra proclaims the following verses in a great eulogy of bodhisattvas' faith:
Deep faith, belief, and resolution always pure,
They [bodhisattvas] honour and respect all Buddhas ...
Deeply believing in the Buddha and the Buddha's teaching,
They also believe in the Way traversed by buddhas-to-be,
And believe in unexcelled great enlightenment:
Thereby do enlightening beings [bodhisattvas] first rouse their will.
Faith is the basis of the Path, the mother of virtues,
Nourishing and growing all good ways,
Cutting away the net of doubt, freeing from the torrent of passion,
Revealing the unsurpassed road of ultimate peace.
When faith is undefiled, the mind is pure;
Obliterating pride, it is the root of reverence,
And the foremost wealth in the treasury of religion ...
Faith is generous ...
Faith can joyfully enter the Buddha's teaching;
Faith can increase knowledge and virtue;
Faith can ensure arrival at enlightenment ...
Faith can go beyond the pathways of demons,
And reveal the unsurpassed road of liberation.
Faith is the unspoiled seed of virtue,
Faith can grow the seed of enlightenment.
Faith can increase supreme knowledge,
Faith can reveal all Buddhas ...
Faith is most powerful, very difficult to have;
It's like in all worlds having
the wondrous wish-fulfilling pearl.
Faith in Tantrayāna
The Vajra Garland Explanatory Tantra (Wylie: bShad-rgyud rdo-re phreng-ba) evokes the metaphor of the owlionessns and her salvific milk of Dharma, hailed as a panacea in Traditional Tibetan medicine, rendered into English by Wallace:
Just as the milk of a lioness
Is not to be placed in an earthen container,
So is the Mahāyogatantra
Not to be given to those who are not suitable vessels.
Gyatrul (b.1924), in a commentary to this verse cited by Chagmé (Wylie: Kar-ma chags-med, fl. 17th century), conveys the importance of faith as a qualification of disciples who "listen" to the Dharma, rendered into English by Wallace:
This injunction pertains to teaching Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna, and to Atiyoga in particular. Those without faith who are completely involved in the eight mundane concerns are not suitable vessels, and they should not be taught these kinds of Dharma.
