Recently when re-thinking about learning languages, I've come to a point where the context is (for me) equally important compared with just learning words. If you could see patterns and usage of words, then you get a better understanding how the language works and you could comprehend more, compared with learning just words and assume it will work out in the end. It's still important to learn many words but when you encounter them in sentences you are curious about, you get a much better comprehension of the word and where the words or constructs are used.
Also, it's quite Ok to see sentences where you do not understand some or most of the words. Just by seeing this over and over you get a habituation of how the language works and each time you pick up something new. It also helps if you put some effort into learning the sentence by looking up unknown words in dictionaries, or ask for help.
So some of the next posts will be about dharma expressions, words or other constructs with a short explanation and then a list of usage based on various translations from
lotsawahouse.org and other instances. It's an experiment, so the format might change over time.
The Three Times
Buddhist thought is extremely vast in scope, not just in space, also in time (actually infinite in space, time and amount). A common term is
the three times, དུས་གསུམ་
dus gsum,
which defines all of past, the current, and all of future, or past འདས་པ་
'das pa, present ལྟ་ད་པ་
lta da pa, and future མ་འོངས་པ་
ma 'ongs pa.
This scope is then used for very extensive dedication purposes, or requesting all enlightened beings of the past, current, and future. As this includes oneself as an enlightened being in the future, then this is very amazing.
Here are examples of དུས་གསུམ་ from various translated verse/practice texts.
དུས་གསུམ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྲས་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི། །
Of all the sugatas and bodhisattvas, past, present and future:
བདག་གཞན་དུས་གསུམ་བསགས་པའི་དགེ་བ་རྣམས། །
All my own and others’ virtuous deeds throughout the three times,
དུས་གསུམ་བདེ་གཤེགས་དགོངས་པ་རྟོགས་པ་དང༌། །
May I realize the wisdom mind of all the sugatas, past, present and future,
དུས་གསུམ་དགེ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས། །
And all my merits, past, present and future,
དུས་གསུམ་བསགས་ལ་རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་ངོ་། །
Accumulated throughout the past, present and future, I rejoice.
དུས་གསུམ་འཕོ་འགྱུར་མེད་པར་བཞུགས་མོད་ཀྱི། །
And remains changeless throughout past, present and future.
ཧོ༔ དུས་གསུམ་བཞུགས་པའི་སྐྱབས་གནས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ༔
Hoḥ! To all sources of refuge throughout the three times,
དུས་གསུམ་དྲང་སྲོང་གྲུབ་པ་རིག་འཛིན་སོགས། །
Together with all you sages, siddhas and vidyādharas of the past, present and future—
མདོར་ན་དུས་གསུམ་དགེ་ཚོགས་མ་ལུས་ཀུན། །
In short, by dedicating all virtuous actions from the past, present or future,
དུས་གསུམ་དུས་མེད་རྟག་པར་སྐྱོང་། །
Sustaining an experience of timelessness beyond past, present and future,
དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔
Throughout past, present, and future, know your constant blessing.
གུ་རུ་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡིས༔
O Guru [Rinpoche], you who know past, present and future, through your compassion,
དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡིས། །
With the compassion of the victorious buddhas of the three times and their heirs,
འདི་དག་དག་པར་དུས་གཅིག་ལ༔ མ་ཡེངས་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་བརྗོད་ན༔ དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་སུ་སྐྱེ༔
If you recite this mantra correctly and undistractedly a hundred and eight times in a single session, you will become an heir to the Victorious Ones of the past, present and future.
