The Importance of Having a Clean Room
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Suvarnạdvīpa Guru, according to his biography, used to clean out his own room. The source of this practice is a sūtra that says: “The Bodhisattvas sit cross-legged in clean surroundings.”
The reasons why you must clean your room are as follows: If you invite your guru or some officials to your home, you would give your room a good sweep, wouldn’t you! Similarly, when you invite your guru, the victorious ones, and their children into your room [in the course of your meditations], you should clean it out of respect for them.
There is no benefit at all if you do this with the same motives as the lay cleaning staff of the Potala, Sera, or Drepung, for example, because they do their jobs for the sake of their own happiness or to impress others. Instead, you should feel you are doing this out of reverence and respect for the merit field, whom you will be inviting into your room as a prelude to pursuing a particular meditation topic that you were taught in the Lamrim; you will be doing this meditation in order to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. It is most beneficial to think this way.
One sūtra tells of five benefits: One’s mind will become clear, other people’s minds will become clear, it pleases the gods, one collects the karma to be beautiful, and one will be reborn in the celestial realms when one leaves this body. My own precious guru told me that the gods who uphold virtue are constantly visiting the human realms, and protecting people who practice Dharma properly. But not cleaning your room discourages them, and they cannot offer their protection, because they avoid unclean things, and would be unable to surround you. And cleaning your room pleases your guru, the Buddhas, and so on, not just the gods who uphold virtue.
You will collect the karma to be beautiful. This does not merely refer to having physical beauty; it will also cause you to have pure ethics. Pure ethics may not make the body handsome, but it is something most beautiful to the perception of the Buddhas and their children. As great Tsongkapa said:
The discerning are clothed in modesty:
This is ethics—not fine satins.
Eloquence adorns their throats—not a necklace.
Their guru is their crown jewel—not some gem.
We are told we will be born in the celestial realms, but we should take this to mean, above all, the Buddhafields.
The above information is extracted from: Rinpoche, Pabongka, “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand: A Concise Discourse on the Path to Enlightenment”, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2006, page 105-106
About Pabongka Rinpoche
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Kyabje Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo (Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche) is one of the most important Gelug lineage lamas of the first half of the 20th Century. He was known as ‘Dechen Nyingpo’, or ‘Essence of Great Bliss’ or ‘The King of Bliss from the Palace of Bliss’, meaning that he was one with Heruka. As such, he was widely believed to be the emanation of Heruka Chakrasamvara and was also the reincarnation of Changkya Rolpai Dorje, who was the spiritual teacher of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong. However, due to the political climate at the time which did not favour connections with China, he was recognised and enthroned as the reincarnation of a tulku from the obscure Pabongka Monastery instead.
Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche was most famous for his charismatic teachings on the Lamrim (Stages of the Path to Enlightenment). He received experiential Lamrim teachings from his root teacher, Dagpo Lama Lobsang Jamphel Lhundrub Gyatso. Pabongka Rinpoche was given Lamrim teachings a topic at a time and was then sent to meditate on each topic until he gained signs of realisation. Ever since these retreats, Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche became famous for his Lamrim teachings. During an especially historic Lamrim teaching given over 24 days, his heart disciple Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche compiled his notes which eventually became the profound Lamrim treatise now known as ‘Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand’.
In addition to Lamrim teachings, the legacy of Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche was to popularise the tantric practice of Vajrayogini and the practice of protector deity Dorje Shugden amongst his followers. He felt that these practices would become more effective and necessary in the future because they are suitable for modern practitioners who are busy and plagued with many distractions and obstacles.
Click here to learn more about Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche.
For more interesting information:
- How to set up altar, make offerings, prostrate to the Buddha, meditate etc. | 如何设置佛坛、供养、礼拜、静坐等
- Teachings on Lam Rim Retreat-June 2011
- Vows: The Roots of All Attainments
- Discovering Yourself: A Teaching on Karma & Mindstream
- H.H. KYABJE PABONGKA RINPOCHE (1878–1941)
- Holy and Profound Pabongka Rinpoche
- The Collected Works of H.H Pabongka Rinpoche
- Pabongka Rinpoche and his yogini student, the Lady Lhalu
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I seldom clean my room, I feel urge to do it more frequently after read this article. Usually I will clean my room if I have visitor. Rinpoche reminds me, if we invite deities come to us, we should do the same too! It’s like honor their visit, especially when we do meditation, deities would feel comfortable and happy to stay with us.
Also, clean our room is similar with clear our mind, it mean we are aware to the environment around us. We know it is dirty and cluttered, we should get up and do clearing. It is a mind practice!
Notwithstanding whether it’s a Dharma practice or otherwise, I think cleaning is a very good habit to have and it is essential. There was a reality television show that I’ve watched once named ‘Clean House’ 🏡. Let me put its description here :
This series is a weekly intervention for families whose homes have been taken over by knickknacks, dusty souvenirs and other disarray. In a process that is traumatic yet liberating for the cluttering clans, the crew of interior designers and organizers makes a ruthless inventory of what needs to go, then unload the castoff items in a giant yard sale. The proceeds from that sale are poured into a home makeover, which always helps the family get over the trauma of letting go of some of its “stuff.”https://bit.ly/2zl6xkF
It says here that the experience is ‘traumatic yet liberating for the cluttering clans’ and then it further says that ‘ it helps the family to get over the trauma of letting go of some of its “stuff.” I think we don’t need more explanation for that. One should have realised that cluttering stems from bad habits of those people who didn’t want to let go. Hence, when they really learn to let go, the found liberation. My point, keep the room clean and declutter the house frequently, especially where the altar is. Since I got to know Buddhism, thank goodness I am able to let go some of the things that I thought was valuable but it’s not necessary after all. Besides, cleaning is very necessary. If you watched that show, I don’t think anyone of us wanna go in there even if we were invited! No, I won’t go in. So, it’s the same for the gods who uphold virtue. It is said in the article that these ‘Gods are constantly visiting the human realms, and protecting people who practice Dharma properly. But not cleaning your room discourages them, and they cannot offer their protection.’ In Buddhism, Gods are actually sentient beings in samsara and hence, just like us. If we find it unbearable to go to houses which are dirty, I think the same goes to God. Very simple isn’t it? It’s all logic. And hence the benefits such as a clear mind. How do we feel when we are in a clean place? Immediately we feel so comfortable and a peace of mind isn’t? I’m not very knowledgeable in defining those specific words or terms in Buddhism. So everytime I’ll make it simple with my own made up examples using what I’ve seen or heard. I find that I could relate more using these examples. I’m sorry if I have made an irrelevant examples or confused you more.
Thank you Rinpoche for this article. A reminder for me to always keep my space clean as we are inviting such an important persons like Buddhas to come and bless us daily.
Thank you very much for sharing this very important practice for everyone’s knowledge and awareness. Cleanliness is important as it helps to remove negative vibes that accumulates over time.
The practice of cleaning is not only for the environment but also for mind.Cleaning the room therefore is a practice too.As we practice more it will become habit.
Thank you for sharing this article with us. I didn’t know maintaining a clean room has such an important significance in our practice. Actually, it does make sense, our action or how we manage things shows how our mind is. A room is similar to our mind, a clean room represents clear mind. When our room is dirty and cluttered, our mind will be the same too.
Cleaning the room therefore is a practice too. When we are organised, neat and clean, our mind will also be the same. Besides, it will be very welcoming for the Buddhas as well. Buddhas are like our super VIP guests, we will want to offer them the best environment in order to invite them to come. Therefore, cleanliness is very important because it represents our attitude.
Many practices that we do using Buddhas as the object is a practice to develop our good qualities and attitude. How we treat Buddhas, we should treat others the same. As we practice more, it will become a habit and eventually a good quality in us.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this important teaching. Cleanliness is very important in every aspect of our lives. Certainly we cannot be inviting our Guru or other Buddhas to our abode when our homes are not clean. It would be disrespectful and not appropriate.
Humbly yours
Lum Kok Luen
The importance of cleanliness in our lives cannot be denied. Maintaining a clean environment is for the health of all humans. As our health completely depends on the surrounding atmosphere. The practice of cleaning is not only for the environment, but also for our mind . We can change our recognition of cleaning from something that’s negative to something that’s positive, then our quality of life will improve. The importance of having a clean room, clean environment is to respect the people we invited to. To develop the clear mind, we need to be aware of being very mindful, everything should be clean. Make it as a practice, consistently .
Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing.
This is very good practice that never occured to many people i guess. One’s mind will become clear, other people’s minds will become clear, it pleases the gods, one collects the karma to be beautiful, and one will be reborn in the celestial realms when one leaves this body. Thank you very much Rinpoche and blog team for sharing this very important practice for everyone’s knowledge and awareness. ????
Cleaning your room is part of the preparatory rites that are carried out in order to develop religious experiences during the main part of the meditation session. The meditation session consists of three steps, the first being the preparatory rites. Thus, as Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche said in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, “It is wrong to pay scant attention to the preparations.”
Keeping one’s surroundings clean not only shows respect to the people we invite into our space but inculcates the habit of discipline. Cleanliness is also important as it helps to remove negative vibes that accumulates over time. In short clean spaces attracts positive energies to dwell one’s home, heart and mind.
Just as how we bath to rid ourselves from dirt, it is in the same context that we must adopt cleanliness regularly- both physically and spiritually.
When we practice Dharma and we do things to please the Buddha or collect merits, we are in fact developing good qualities that we can apply in our lives. Whatever we are doing, if we do it consistently enough, it becomes a habit. When it becomes a habit we will do the same regardless of the circumstances.
When we always clean our room because we want to collect merits, as we do it consistently, we will develop the good quality of keeping the surrounding clean. As a result, wherever we go, we will do this automatically. This is how we create positive energy and people will respect and like our presence.
Serving our guru gives us the same result as cleaning the room. Our guru is very kind to make himself an object for us to collect merits and develop good quality. When we are trained to treat our guru the right way according to what the Buddha has taught, we will also automatically apply to people around us. The attitude we have for our guru should be applied to everyone we meet. Whatever pleases our guru, will please other people too.