Hello Everyone. Tashi Delek.

I am very happy to be able to recite prayers together with all of you for the pandemic to subside. We will recite prayers for seven days starting from today. Today on the first day, we will recite the Heart Sutra and the Repulsion of Maras.

As all we know, the Heart Sutra is an important Mahayana Sutra, It teaches emptiness and interdependence. At this time, when the Coronavirus is spreading all over the world. We can clearly see the meaning of interdependence. We can see that we each dependent upon each other, and there is no such distance between us and others as we thought. If we had a deep understanding of interdependence, maybe the coronavirus would not spread so widely in the world. But we naturally have very solid ego clinging. We think each country are different and separated. And we are only concerned about the things which affect us, and don’t take other things seriously. Yet, every breath we take, connect us with everyone.

And this pandemic shows how much we are affecting each other, and how much we are connected. This is a situation that we will never forget in our entire life. So I think it will be very helpful if we reflect on our life experience, and the meaning of the Heart Sutra together. The shorter we make the distance between the Dharma and our lives, the more we will see that there is no difference between the person and the Dharma they practice. The Dharma and the individual will become one, and we will become what we call the Dharma practitioners.

Next, we will recite the Heart Sutra together. I will recite it slowly. If you can recite it along with me that is fine, or else recite it however you wish. The main thing is do not get distracted. It is important to think about the meaning. Thank you.

Prayers for Pandemic to Subside Day 1: The Heart Sutra with the Repulsion of Maras

 

Tashi Delek.

Today is the third day of our prayers for the pandemic to subside. Today we will recite the Sutra of the Dharani of Akshobhya. There are two such Sutras. The first is the one in the Tibetan Kangyur, and the second is from that I translated from Chinese into Tibetan. It is said that the Akshobhya is the most effective for purifying karmic obscurations. It is connected to his own particular aspiration when he first arouse Bodhicitta. He made a commitment, until I awaken to Buddhahood I will never feel malice or hatred toward any sentient being. This is the reason he was named Akshobhya, the unshakable one.

These days the word Karma is well known throughout the world. But mainly understanding the word does not mean that we understand Karma. It is because karmic cause and effect is connected to even the tiniest thought we have and the action we do in our daily lives. If we never examine our thoughts and actions and their effects through our experience, there is no way we can understand how Karma works.

The current pandemic sends a clear message that Karma is not just theoretical, instead it is related to what we have chosen to do or what we have chosen not to do in our daily lives. We always pay lots of attention to the results but we don't pay the same attention to the causes and conditions and motivations that led to the situation. For instance, if we do not consider it is important to wash our hands, practice social distancing, and so forth to prevent the transmission of the virus just wanting not to get sick won't help us at all. In the same way, if someone does catch this virus they can spread it to others so we must take responsibility, but not only for our own health and happiness, we must also take responsibility for everyone's health and happiness. This is the crucial point. Some people use Karma as an excuse they just blame everything on Karma as if it were their fate. Karma does not mean that we are unable to improve ourselves or move forward. Actually, the meaning of karmic cause and effect is that we can be even more confident and even more enthusiastic about taking on the responsibility of benefiting ourselves and others.

Now we will recite the two Sutras, those of you who do not speak Tibetan may recite them in your own languages. It is not necessary to keep up with me. If I recite too slow, Tibetan and those people who can read Tibetan will fall asleep.

 

Prayers for Pandemic to Subside Day 3: Sutras of the Dharani of Akshobhya

 

Tashi Delek to everyone.

Today is the second day of our prayers for the pandemic to subside. The prayers we will recite today are the Noble Aspiration for the Excellent Conduct and the Sutra in Three Sections. These teach the two main points of the Bodhisattva path: gathering the accumulation of merit and purifying obscurations. So these two are crucial for Bodhisattvas.

This current pandemic has brought great changes we never imagined before. Already in only a few months, there have been over two million confirmed cases and more than hundred and sixty thousand people have died. There have also been major changes in our way of life. We can no longer move freely. We are not able to meet the people we love. Losses to the economy and jobs are huge. We hardly dare to think about all the details. When we face such challenges, there can be a wake-up call that makes us examine ourselves much more deeply.

This pandemic didn’t just fall out of the sky. The way It started and the way it spread are strongly connected to human actions. According to many sources, the origin of the virus was connected to wet markets. In any case, we human have not cared about the freedom or live of animals, and the negative consequences of that now would be on us. The current bans on travel have actually been good for the natural environment. We are creating less impact on the environment, and in the atmosphere, it is less polluted. Many animals are being seen coming into cities without fear, these are facts that we cannot ignore. We now have the experience of seeing how much violence and destruction we have caused the environment and wildlife.

The point of gathering the accumulation and purifying the obscurations is to see what good qualities we have and what our weaknesses are in order to increase our good qualities and decrease our weaknesses. But if our prostration and confession are just a ritual for all for a show, then we will miss the point. Now we will recite the Noble Aspiration for Excellent Conduct and the Sutra in Three Sections together.

Prayers for Pandemic to Subside Day 2: The Noble Aspiration for Excellent Conduct & the Sutra in Three Sections

Tashi Delek.

Today is the forth day of our prayers for the pandemic to subside. Today we will recite the prostrations and praises of Twenty-One Taras. This practice is extremely widespread in Tibetan. For centuries, all Tibetans whether male or female, young or old, recite either in the morning or the evening. We have a strong belief that Tara will help. My mother even though she can't read, learn Tara orally and recite daily. Tara is an eminational Chenrezig, a manifestation of his compassionate activity. Chenrezig is the embodiment of love of all the Buddhas. When he appears in the form of a goddess, we feel even more strongly how his nature is like mother's love.

At this time, when the entire world is faced with suffering, thinking of others with love is even more necessary than at any other time. We need to counter Corona with the Karuna. If all our countries and people come together, and bear the responsibility together, it is certain that we will soon be freed from this ordeal.

Every day we hear in the news and social media of many situations that move us. Our heroes on the front-line, the doctors and nurses are making great sacrifice to battle the epidemic. Likewise, delivery services, police, soldiers, volunteers and many others are working hard for our safety. Because of this, I have the feeling that our problem is not that there aren't enough loving people in the world, not that we lack compassion. It's just that many people don't have enough courage and lack someone to inspire them. They need to know someone like Tara is there to support them and has got their back. Thus we all need to all need to do our bit to inspire each other and to comfort each other. This is a basis of the happiness of humanity.

Sadly, in a few places this pandemic is being used as a way to discriminate against certain groups of people. A group of people is not a single entity. It's made up of individual human beings. No one, no matter who they are, wants to be infected by the virus. No one wants this hardship. At such times, times as this, it's important to put ourselves in other people's shoes and reflect. Now we will recite the prostrations to Taras together. So that everyone can follow me. I will use the melody that I composed. Thank you so much.

 

Prayers for Pandemic to Subside Day 4: Praises of the Twenty-One Taras with the Benefits

 

At the end, H.H. recited the following merit dedication Verse:
KYI NA DEWA TSOK SU NGO
When I am happy, may my merit flow to others.

ཕན་བདེས་ནམ་མཁའ་ཁྱབ་པར་ཤོག །
PHAN DHE NAM KHAM CHAB PAR SHOK
May joy and benefit fill the sky.

སྡུག་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་གིས་ཁུར། །
DHUK NA DHUK NGAL DHAG GI KHUR
When I am unhappy, may the sorrow of all beings be mine.

འཁོར་བ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་སྐེམས་་པར་ཤོག །
KHOR WA DHUK NGAL GYI GYA TSO TONG PAR SHOK
May the ocean of suffering run dry.