Nine Ways

The spiritual master Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche was a Yungdrung Bön monk, teacher, scholar, and realized practitioner of the modern age. He was born in the earth female sheep year of the fourteenth cycle, 1859 C.E. on the eighth lunar day of the third month in Kham, Tibet and was given the name Namgyal Tseten. In 2026, this date coincides with April 24th. At the age of nine, his parents were told that Shardza should be a monk.  He being their only son, they refused. He then became quite ill. As the illness continued, the parents agreed that he could become a monk. At this, he quickly recovered from the illness. 

Shardza attended his root lama, Tenzin Wangyal, for many years. At the age of eighteen, he took the full vows of a monk from the abbot of Yungdrung Ling monastery, Kalzang Nyima Toggi Gyaltsen at the Dza Tengchen monastery in Kham.  Because Shardza considered himself non-sectarian, he, received teachings, blessings and empowerments from many Bön and Buddhist teachers.  Altogether, he had twenty-four masters throughout his life. He went on a pilgrimage to many sacred places such as Kongpo Bonri, Menri Monastery in Tibet, Yungdrung Ling Monastery, and holy places in Lhasa. During this pilgrimage, he had many extraordinary visionary experiences.

Although Shardza kept strict vows and also performed many tantric practices, his view was dzogchen. He famously repeated the accumulations of the preliminary practices many, many times in his life, as well as reciting millions of mantra, especially the SAL LE Ö mantra. He preferred to retreat to a solitary place on the mountain near his monastery and focus upon the practice of dzogchen. When Shardza was seventy-five years old, his behavior changed. He became more casual in general and delighted in playing with children. He was seen doing miraculous things such as walking without his feet touching the ground or setting his bowl down in space.

In 1934 C.E. at the age of seventy-six, he began to spontaneously sing songs of realization. A few days later, he sewed himself inside a tent and forbid any of his disciples to open it.  The next day, rainbow lights began appearing above and around the tent. By the 4^th day, rainbow-colored mist was seen coming through the seams of the tent. On that 4th day, Shardza’s disciple opened the tent. He found Shardza’s body enveloped in rainbow light, levitating in midair, and shrunken to the proportional size of a one year old child. (For more about Shardza Rinpoche, see previous article: https://ravencypresswood.com/2024/05/19/90th-anniversary-of-the-parinirvana-of-shardza-tashi-gyaltsen-rinpoche/) This realized master was a prolific writer and left behind volumes of commentary, practice instructions, prayers, and and spiritual poetry. Among his writings, he left the following advice for disciples and spiritual practitioners.

“Atop the white lotus blossom of uncontrived faith, in the midst of the expanse of the five lights, with a longing to never be separate, from the heart of this faithful beggar, I supplicate to the wise lama who has immeasurable compassion!

I am a beggar who is overwhelmed by the disease of distraction. If the ties to meaningless preoccupations are not cut, there will never be a time when worldly activities are finished. Right now, my heart’s desire is to concentrate single pointedly without preoccupations!

For those whose mind stream is not liberated but who encourage others to be virtuous, if one’s own afflictive emotion of arrogance is not tamed, there will never be a time when that bad disposition is liberated, regardless of how hard you try. Right now, my heart’s desire is to tame my own mind stream!

For those happy to mindlessly talk when asked to comment or explain something, if meaningless talk doesn’t end and one’s speech doesn’t rest, there will never be a time when the afflictive emotions of attachment, aversion, and debating will ever be pacified. Right now, my heart’s desire is to act like one who is mute and to not speak!

For those attached to servants and companions, if the rope of longing for friends and relatives is not cut, whoever you are connected with will become contrary to spiritual practice. Right now, my heart’s desire is to be solitary and without companions.

For those who do not let go of grasping and being attached to wealth, a time will never come in the mind stream when you realize that you have no need for anything. There will never be a point when karmic defilements and the seeds of cyclic existence are exhausted. Right now, my heart’s desire is to be without attachment and free from activity!

For those tasked with working for others but who roam hungrily through the town, if you don’t put an end to eating the black food of insatiable donations, the thick defilements of karma will never be exhausted. Right now, my heart’s desire is to roam on a mountain like a pauper.

For those who accumulate things because of dissatisfaction with their possessions and wealth, if wanting to possess whatever you see isn’t abandoned, a time will never come when there is liberation from the suffering and misery of cyclic existence. Right now, my heart’s desire is to act like a beggar without anything! 

For those who adorn their body with many ornaments, if you don’t cast off wanting to wear nice things, there will never be a time when the negative karma of continual greediness comes to an end. Right now, my heart’s desire is to be without clothes and naked.

For those who are filled with the arrogance of having a youthful form, if the pleasure from eating and drinking wonderful things is not given up, there will never be a time when the craving mind of afflictive emotions and desire is renounced. Right now, my heart’s desire is to happily prepare this food and drink of a beggar. 

For those who practice virtue with coarse attachment, if you are unwilling to leave your mansion behind, whatever you accomplish will be unable to rise above being merely a worldly activity. Right now, my heart’s desire is to leave behind the mansion of my birth.

For those who want happiness through sleeping in bed, if the enemy forces of constant laziness are not conquered, in spite of having the soft mattresses of nine beds, they will only be a cause for fatigue. Right now without sleeping, my heart’s desire is to generate diligence and zeal.

For those who seek the bliss of the same taste in nine different places, if whatever suffering and misery arises is not taken as the path, even if you travel to the borderlands of the empire, there will still be causes for hardship. Right now, my heart’s desire is to not travel but to sleep like a beggar.

For those whose practice is lost in studying books, if there is no skill in subduing the afflictive emotions within one’s own mind stream, even though the Nine Ways are held by the intellect, it will be a cause of hardship. Right now, my heart’s desire is not to study but to summarize everything into a single meaning.

Because of never-ending activities, become weary of these meaningless distractions. Desire to go into the mountains of solitude without people. This is my simple advice.”

All Tibetan translations by Raven Cypress Wood.

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