45. Positive Actions That Lead to Liberation
Longchen Nyingtik Meditation 45
The Beginning
Take refuge and arouse bodhichitta.
The Main Part
Meditate: Whatever virtuous action you perform, they all have the power for achieving the goal of fleeing from samsara and attaining nirvana, if you aim for it. Although there are three levels of liberation—that of the shravaka, that of the pratyekabuddha, and Buddhahood—the state of perfect Buddhahood is the ultimate goal, and should be the liberation you seek after. To this end, you practice the ten positive actions, the four meditative absorptions of the form realm, the four meditative absorptions of the formless realm, the tranquility and insight meditations (Shamatha and Vipashyana), the four immeasurables, the six transcendent perfections, and so on. When undertaking all these trainings, you apply the three supreme methods: giving rise to bodhichitta as preparation, remaining free of conceptualization during the actual practice, and closing with prayers of dedication. If you fail to accumulate enough of these merits, Buddhahood cannot be reached. Therefore, resolve: I must endeavor relentlessly in the practice of the Dharma without a moment’s slipping into laziness.
The Ending
Dedicate all the merit of your practice to all sentient beings.
Reminder
Whenever you practice virtue, you must begin with arousing bodhichitta, the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings; in the middle, do the main practice to the best of your ability; at the end, dedicate all merit to limitless sentient beings. But for training in this fashion, your virtues will not become the cause of enlightenment.
Hence from now on, you must enable all your virtuous actions to become the causes for liberation. Failing this, your virtues will bring only the worldly happiness of humans and gods, leading to rebirth either in the formless realm, in the form realm, or in the desire realm, with which you will still languish indefinitely in samsara, with no chance of liberation at all.
The world today sees many traditions. However, it seems to me a bit of a pity that in the classic texts of other traditions, nothing is mentioned on how to realize the sublime levels of the buddha and bodhisattvas, which in turn makes it impossible for the followers to reach those states. To sum up, accumulating merit leading to liberation is vital, and if you do not apply bodhichitta to practicing virtues, you will not reap the sublime fruit that’s beyond the worldly.
