Kusali Practise

Kusali practise is not included in many ngöndro traditions, but you will find it in the long version of the Longchen Nyingtik Ngöndro.

It’s not a bad idea for those following the shorter version to practise it too, because it is an excellent method for accumulating merit.

Kusali practise is recommended for practitioners who are poor and cannot afford mandala plates, offerings or any of the necessary special offering substances and as Patrul Rinpoche points out, kusali literally means “beggar.” Yet, from the dharma point of view, it ranks amongst the highest teachings. Visualisation: Victory over the Four Maras

Kusali practise is aimed particularly at destroying the four maras:

the mara of the sons of gods; the mara of death; the mara of defilements (meaning all emotions); and the mara of the aggregates.

Khenpo Ngakchung said that not to understand that all that appears is nothing more than the projection of your own mind is the mara of the sons of gods; this body, which is a compounded phenomenon and constantly changing, unstoppable by nature and an obscuration, is the mara of the aggregates; attachment, craving and fixation are the mara of defilement; and the aggregate that includes birth and death is the mara of death.

Start the practise by saying the syllable PHAT and visualise the total separation of body and mind by ejecting your consciousness from your body, leaving it behind like an old sack lying in a heap on the floor. The instant your body falls into a heap, you hover above it, a formless being of pure consciousness, and see that your precious body is now merely a corpse.

Generally speaking, pride arises in response to two factors, mind and body, and so if you have a body, you will also feel pride. Therefore, by destroying the body you also destroy your pride, which is a victory over the mara of defilements; and the moment you feel no attachment to your body, you will have destroyed the mara of the sons of gods.

However, unlike the flame of a snuffed-out candle, although the body has been dismantled and destroyed, mind remains conscious and continues to be aware, which means you claim victory over the mara of death.

This third victory is what we call “Krodhikali,” and hers is the form you adopt once you have destroyed your body. She is black, beautiful and adorned with all the ornaments of a dakini, including crowns, bone bracelets and a tiger-skin skirt. She also brandishes a curved knife to symbolize the destruction of the mara of defilements (emotions).

It is Krodhikali who must destroy the mara of the aggregates by slowly cutting the skull, your skull, away from your inanimate body. We now call the skull, complete with hair, a kapala, or “skull cup,” and as soon as you have visualised the skull cup in front of you, imagine it increases in size until it is as enormous as the three worlds.

Instantly, a tripod of three human skulls (representing the three kayas) appears and you place the kapala on top of them.

Then return to your corpse and cut off its hands and fingers; peel off its skin; remove the lungs, liver and all the organs; and drain out all the blood. Continue dismembering your body, not forgetting to cut off your lips and nose, and prise out both eyes with your curved knife along with each one of your teeth, and place each body part, one by one, into the kapala.

Now an extremely intense wisdom fire blazes from the three skulls. As you chant OM AH HUM, imagine your body parts melt and boil like a rich stew bubbling on the stove.

Gradually, this body-part stew becomes a powerful wish-fulfilling nectar, each drop containing everything that gives you pleasure, such as lakes, gardens, food, drink and so on. Anything that you, as the object of offering, wish for, is precisely what the nectar will become, and this is what you offer. The Guests and Their Offerings

If you would like to elaborate this visualisation, imagine it’s a banquet. The first invitations go to all those who have destroyed ego, including everyone from arhats right up to the Buddha, borne on brilliant rays of rainbow light that shoot out to the Copper-Coloured Mountain, the realms of Amitabha and Akshobhya and all the other buddha realms, as well as to all the bodhisattvas. Next, you send out invitations to the six realms, and your guests arrive quickly and take their seats.

The first portion of the banquet is offered to the sublime ones. In return you receive all the common attainments, including long life and freedom from obstacles and sickness, and so Kusali practise is particularly good for those suffering from serious health or financial problems that are the result of karmic debts from previous lives.

You also receive the uncommon attainments, which are rooted in the ability to feel love and compassion for others, be diligent, have devotion and recognize the nature of your mind.

Next, you serve the guests from the six realms. With every sip of wine, mouthful of asparagus, lick of ice cream, chew of steak, swallow of crème brûlée and suck of lobster, visualise their sufferings disappearing, and love, compassion, bodhichitta and devotion nourishing their being so they in turn will be able to help other sentient beings.

Two groups of guests are special. One includes those who bother you or who you think of as enemies, and as they receive your offering, they consider all scores to have been settled.

The other group is the biggest because as it is made up of all those with whom we have karmic debts. There are many different kinds of karmic debt, for example, the karmic debt we owe to our fathers and mothers, our friends and those who have provided us with food, shelter and protection; or the debt we owe those whose space we have occupied, or who have served us. And each of us owes such debts to an immense amount of people.

Dissolution

As the banquet draws to a close, you realize that the whole thing has been a creation of your own mind. Everyone dissolves into you, host, guests and feast become inseparable, and you remain in that state of inseparability for as long as you can.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse - Not for Happiness - A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practises - Shambhala Publications