The Origin of Bondage #The Shurangama Sutra L50 #khenposodargye

The Shurangama Sutra L50 The Origin of Bondage

In this session of the Shurangama Sutra, Khenpo Sodargye begins by urging practitioners to approach this teaching with great courage on the Bodhisattva path, stressing that generating the supreme Bodhicitta requires thoroughly understanding the nature of the perceiving faculty and the false mind. He then explains how the twelve links of dependent origination give rise to a long chain of delusions from this false mind. The six sense faculties are described as six conspirators — mediators between the internal afflictions and the external six sense objects — which together create the bondage of samsara. Khenpo then introduces a remarkable teaching on how the six faculties of sentient beings are not isolated but are actually united with all ten directions and the three periods of time: once the faculties exist, they encompass the entirety of time and space. This leads to an extended mathematical analysis of how the twelve hundred efficacies of each faculty are derived — multiplying directions by periods of time — arriving at the cosmic scope of each faculty's potential. The session closes with Khenpo giving a transmission of Simhamukha, the Lion-Faced Dakini, explaining her image among the wrathful deities and recommending her mantra as a powerful protection for practitioners at the time of death.