Archive Result

Soundfile 19900904GRtalkA

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location

Topic

Transcriber Roger Johnson

Date June 30, 2023

Uh, yesterday I was in Long Island and day before that we have our New York chapter meeting at the New York City and yesterday we went over to Long Island at the University of Stonybrook, right, has a giving an honorary doctoral degree to His Holiness the Dalai Lama which they have actually confirmed him for two years ago and so they could not get a time or opportunity to celebrate. So, that was done yesterday and uh I’ve been happy to be there. And Jewel Heart New York Chapter was taking the total responsibility of ushering people and everything was done by them and that was very good yesterday.

And also, His Holiness is going to be there for two more days, two three more days and um originally it was thinking he was going to be a couple of days in New York side then a couple of days in Canada. So, I wrote a letter to the secretary of His Holiness asking audience, private audience for the Jewel Heart people. Ann Arbor, Chicago, Cleveland people may be in Toronto and New York Chapter people in New Jersey or somewhere. So, number one, it was very late; I didn’t even know when His Holiness was going to be. Very late. And, uh, so but then I’ve been able to speak to somebody and they said His Holiness is going to be free on the 24th and 25th of this month in Washington, New Jersey. So we can fix audience for New York Chapter over there.

That’s the representative of His Holiness in the New York. So, our thoughts that is going to be, then yesterday they told me the 24th and 25th His Holiness is not going to be free because New Zealand is going to open a room for separate they do have large Tibetan collections I think they do have some kind of exhibition before but they made separate room for temples and life in Tibet. So, they decided well His Holiness is the hone there they should open that up. So, the 24th and 25th is already taken by the, so they said there is time on Thursday morning. So, Thursday morning at about 10-10:30 in Jew Jersey, so they wanted to keep to Jewel Heart Chapter in New York to take that. So, I was trying to argue to make it a little latter because I’m supposed to be in Lincoln, NE, and I’m trying to make it a little latter but there is nothing so the question becomes this is the time available whether you take it or not so don’t blame us not giving you time later (laughs).

0:03:58.2

So, so we had to take it and so it is very short notice, though it was meant for the New York Chapter but anybody who would like to join they are welcome. It is a private audience for the Jewel Heart people. However, I have asked another private audience they said in the Canada it is completely out of the question because they couldn’t even give a private audience to the organizers. So, sort of you know I claims another one in May or March, March ’91 his Holiness is returning this site and that was happens to be talking the night before, Saturday night I was at the, what was that, Findley Ohio and they said His Holiness was going to be in Findlay in March – they announced that. So, I checked with the secretary yesterday and he said “I don’t have the diary here I don’t even know where His Holiness is going but anyway definitely come back in March.” But he said he doesn’t even know where but he doesn’t even have the diary or anything so I said “Well, we have to have private audience then.”

So, probably in March we will have private audience with His Holiness for the Jewel Heart people either in Chicago or looks like he is coming from Chicago, I couldn’t confirm, but it looks like he’s coming from Chicago and driving through here and going to Toledo and then going to Findlay Ohio then Columbus looks to me. So, whatever happens maybe we get opportunity to invite him to Ann Arbor I’m not sure. But, just like to mention casually. But that, another audience for the Jewel Heart chapter was fixed on day after tomorrow, Thursday. Anyone who is going part of Jewel Heart they are welcome. We also mentioned Chicago, too.

0:06:52.4

That’s about that and now, tonight, in between that I hope you had more meditation. We try to emphasize more on the meditation uh during the other Tuesdays and uh but I thought about making much more meditation here and talking a little less. However, the people been insisting I should talk because in October I’m planning to go the Asia so they said you’re not going to be here in October and November, November and December, so I should be talking. So that’s why it has turned about to be again talking Tuesday rather than meditating Tuesday. So, whether you meditate or whether you talk whatever you do the most important thing is, even if you talk , we try to give you material to meditate. And if meditation is weak we try to give you opportunity to mediate and sometimes to give you guidance and particularly remind people whatever they are concentrating sort of guided meditation so that I will have some kind of effect on the individual.

Whether it is meditating or talking, as I mentioned earlier the whole idea is to work with mind. Mind has become very important as we all know, it is very important. The capacity of the mind of mind is limitless. The capacity of each individual human being is fantastic. Not only capacity, but there is a tremendous wonderful beauty nature of the human being, and particularly that nature is impermanent. That nature is impermanent so it is changed. When it is change, changing g, it makes possible to develop. If it is permanent it is permanent. It is stuck there – cannot move, cannot change, right? It is impermanent – permanent (correcting himself?). But the human consciousness or actually the being itself, whatever you may call it. Theoretically speaking I can’t say that. I have to say part of a human there is certain quality and certain nature of being which is (inaudible) technically I should have said that, but technically it is not that important because nobody is debating here.

0:10:08.7

So, I mean the, why our, my, mind works that way, since childhood I brought up the monastery where you have a big debate on that so that is why immediately started coming up, but for practical purposes that you can say the actual being itself is a wonderful nature, which technically we call it Buddha nature. Why do we call it Buddha nature? Because it is a seed of a Buddha to become a fully enlightened being within an individual. So we all have that. If you don’t have that then tremendous trouble. Really. But that is not possible. Every human being has that. Every being, almost, every being has that. That quality. Quality which can be developed, which can be developed completely. Where ever, whatever the level you want to be developed it can be developed. And that is the quality what we have as a basic fundamental being. So when we work with mind, and when I say mind is important, the development of that quality within that individual, which makes the actual person, the being, is a better, and higher spiritually, and that is what we do. That’s what we look for. That’s what efforts what we put it in.

0:12:03.1

So that is only possible working with mind and sometimes physical too. So, the question is physically, I’ve been talking a lot about mind a lot. I’ve never touched much about physically you can do. So, physically, you know the mind the body mind and the speech actually there is a tremendous coordination between that. Body, mind and speech. When you’re working through your spirituality, your spiritual development, and you try to coordinate all three together, which becomes powerful, some people, some of us have tremendously emphasized much on the mind part of it, but we have not much emphasized on the physical part of it. At least I don’t. That is wrong. That is also wrong. Wrong, why? Because if you can collect all three together it becomes much more powerful. And there are physically you can also take advantage of it. Such as, such as, meditation postures. When you meditate. How you sit. I’m not going in that detail that is Aura and Alfred and all these people will do.

So, I’m not going to go in that detail and they’ll comment on it. That posture itself is the posture of the buddha Vairochana’s posture. There are seven qualities which they taught that period. Seven quality sitting system is the Buddha Vairochana’s system. And Buddha, the copying of Buddha Vairochana’s sitting itself is body work towards developing your body to be the body of enlightenment. So, that is another physical way when you are doing the meditation. Though, mind is important, I have bad tendency to myself, which will follow the day after, so not paying much attention to the physical structure at all. Actually, mind is the important one I tend to ignore the physical thing a lot and should not be.

0:15:03.4

And even I ignore, you people should know it and not to ignore it. The physical thing is important because the physical way of sitting itself will remind you of what you are doing, number one. Number two, it also creates a very good atmosphere and you sort of, uh, it is much better when you are not used to it, much better to sitting with a proper posture and mediate rather than just completely relax and lying down and meditating unless you are totally used to it otherwise I mean the atmosphere is not there is not good. Though, I do a lot I must admit. I try to say my prayers and everything before I get up, so that is really bad (chuckles) don’t every copy that, okay, please. That is a really bad way of doing it. Okay, don’t do it (chuckles).

So, physically what you do is uh the moment you get up your mind will set up two ways. One, that you’ll generate motivation. One you see, rejoice, you are still in life. Our life which is very…Our life, anyway looks very permanent and solid. On the other hand it is so impermanent and for no reason we see a number of people when they go to sleep, go to bed, and they don’t get up in the morning. Number of them. I mean there is some excuse, “Oh, he had a heart attack when they sleep” or something we say, but whatever it is a number of people they don’t get up. So, it’s funny, the other day I had, I went to the hospital I had to check my, what’s it called, my colon. They had to put some camera through and check the colon. So, I thought about it and I thought “Well, if I use the injection which will put you to sleep, so you never know when you are going to get up or not.” So I chose not have it. And that is silly anyway, but on the other hand because you’re not sure you’re going to get up or not, right? But never think when you go to sleep “Am I going to get up or not?” but when you put sort of you know that way I thought about it.

But whatever it is, it is a very um important to acknowledge that somehow we have not lost great life which has tremendous opportunity and capability. The opportunity you read books, you read a lot of Buddhism books, so you see those opportunities to see everywhere, but these opportunities are not, you might have read the eighteen qualities, you know eight leisures, ten endowments and all this you have read. And if you have not read you will be reading it. But all of them are talking about opportunity not as in human being, though they say it, but it is the opportunity for the human beings who are interested in having spiritual development. Who are interested in helping one individual. That is the opportunity and quality these people have it but not everybody have it.

0:19:23.1

So, our life with, our interest, with our quality with our opportunity is a tremendous valuable and great asset to us, more than so any other human life they have. Uh, it sounds funny, right? Not trying to tell you we are superior human beings. Don’t misunderstand. But we are human beings with spiritual purpose. But everybody has spiritual purpose, but they don’t take advantage of it. They don’t what to know about it. They don’t want to try about it. They simply are not interested. That is something that is not needed. So, for them what they are cutting is they are cutting their opportunity. But for you what you are not cutting is not cutting your opportunity so you do have the great opportunity to develop yourself. So that is the quality of being open minded, being sort of you know looking beyond uh beyond they uh beyond money. Looking beyond, though many people think they are looking beyond money but they are not. Including ourself. We also say “Money is not important.” Everyone one of us here will definitely say that and think that way. But when you have the opportunity, when you have to make a choice between them then you will know. But when you don’t have the opportunity to make the big money, then by say “Well, money is important” then it is easy.

0:21:29.0

But when you really have the opportunity to make the big money here and if you really have the opportunity, if you really have the choice, even us, including myself, even us will think twice. Which really shows that we have not gone beyond the point of money. Though we say we do. We will only know when we have the opportunity then we will know. However, we are supposed to be beyond that, supposed to be. At least we have the idea of looking beyond. So that beyond looking is the of course, the actual development is through mind, though physically you can definitely add up on that. Add up on that the sound and physical gesture both will add it. The sound particularly do much more that the really physical thing. Because the sound you will be able to say the mantras. Mantra, the word “mantra” is Sanskrit word. It is not in a translation, but if you worked out how this language system works, it will come out at end of it will come out as “mental protection.” When the word “mantra” really, when it comes down, when it boils down to, ultimately, it will come out as “mental protection”. Okay? That is not direct translation, direct translation it is not. There is a funny way of working it. I think the linguistic people and they will know. If you work with indo-European language system how which letter goes where, it goes that will do the Tibetan and Sanskrit too. But it will fall down to, ultimately come down to as “mental protection”.

0:23:34.1

For the mantra is, what does mantra do? By saying mantra it gives the mental protection. Did you get this idea? That is the whole purpose of saying mantra. Mantra becomes mental protection. So each of one of those mantras are um is not somebody made up a story. Each one of the enlightened begins are taking a certain particular form and they introduced their own tantra and mantra completely. And out of that you are taking it is the word of enlightened beings and their names or their symbols are combined together to protect one individuals mine. So whether it is love compassion, or activity or protection or purification s or whatever it is those mantras will work. So the same mantra is sort of physical through sound. Through sound they will also help to protect the mind. And that is why we always say mantra here is the reason. And the Tibetan tradition is unlike other traditions where the sound and mind always work together. If you look into the old Tibetans If you look all of them, whenever they are meditating you will always find they are saying mantras. They just don’t sit quiet. They keep on saying mantras all the time.

0:25:20.1

So the meditation through the mind and the mantra through the sound they always work combined together. But I noticed in the west they cannot do it. I don’t know why. I don’t think they are used to it. They just can’t do it. If they have to say mantra they only think the mantra. They don’t think the meditation. Maybe they are doing that. Do they do that now (to audience)? Saying mantra and meditating together? (Repeating audience response) “Something’s better than….” What does that mean?

Audience: Occasionally it comes together and occasionally it doesn’t.

Rimpoche: Occasionally comes together, yeah. Okay. (To staff): Can you turn the light on behind that please?

So, if you could manage to do that, that is helpful. It serves a lot of purpose. If you can’t that is also fine. But saying mantras are very important.

Then another physical thing which you should also do, as I am talking to you, the moment you get up in the morning, you rejoice you are still in life, that is great, that you will also make motivation that you are not going to waste your time. You are going to make best use of all your time, whatever is left, and particularly this month, this week, and this day. So emphasizing that makes a lot of important when you get up in the morning. And, after that don’t copy me just uh important to wash yourself, make yourself clean, and then it recommended to have some kind of altar. Everybody should have some kind of altar. Altar doesn’t have to be showing altar, you don’t have to exhibit. You can just have a small one. If you have roommate who doesn’t, they think you are strange thing, you don’t have to exhibit. You can have some photos, maybe a glass of water, that is enough. Or maybe a flower, maybe one incense or whatever. Whatever. So, you make your altar, that helps. Because our mind is the beginning level it is very hard to do anything, so anything that helps. By having an altar, looking at it, and uh will helps to create a sacred atmosphere, burning incense, it helps.

0:28:39.9

Not only that, in the morning when you get up and you should look at your altar. When you look at your altar, I tell you what I do, what I do. Do I look up in the morning, I go to my altar, and I will fold the hand I look up nicely, look, though I see that every day when you look up nicely look in their faces, I am not thinking I am looking at those pictures around, I am thinking I am looking, I am sort of encountering directly with those enlightened beings. There is Buddha, and Tsongkhapa and whoever that is pictures you have around, and I am sort of telling myself and thinking I am having actual physical, direct contact. This word in Hindi is call “da shin” (Transcriber note: Phonetic spelling of Hindi word).

I do not know what is the English. They translate as “audience” but I don’t think it is. But anyway you are having an audience of buddha and all the enlightened beings. So that is what you look at the altar in that way it accumulates a tremendous amount of merit and looking at the body of enlightened beings. Which they are purposely shown in some kind of physical form so we are looking at that physical form so it is creates a tremendous amount of merit.

0:30:20.0

Simultaneously, when you are making the offerings, the offerings do not have to be very detailed and elaborate one, if you can do it, good. I do remember most of my teachers and even myself long before I was coming to America, long before I am getting India…not long before, until I left Tibet, we used to pour one hundred bowls of water every day. That is hundred every day. Which is very common among Tibetans. Very common among Tibetans. And uh and so they don’t have to be one hundred, there don’t have to be seven, even a glass of water if you make it. That is very good offering. But that offering should be, glass should be really clean. Nicely wash it and clean. Not wet glass but also dry. And pour the glass full of water – not too full and not too short like this…this is probably last week’s, so nobody has refilled today. So, um, so that is last week that is wrong way. It should come up to the “H”. Can you point finger Dr. please.

0:31:49.0

Up to “H” it should come here. Pour it. More, more more. Okay that is about it.

So if you fill it up glass up to this much that is what you should do. Can everybody see it? The measurement on the top above the water and up to the “H” of the glass is the size of the barley. The Tibetans eat barley all the time so we always measure with barley, okay? One thick barley over there. So like big, fat brown rice. Maybe bigger than that. And that much. Sort of, that is what you fill it up. There are a lot of reasons if I go beyond that, there are a lot of reasons.

If you fill it less than that there is a likelihood one becomes poor. It is creating karma of becoming poor. It is overflow, it is not recommended you may lose some of your fortunes and lives and that is I do not know if that is the same. Whether it is the Hindu/Buddhist mythology or whatever it is, but that is what they do. But whatever it is we never give anything empty. You don’t give empty.

Milarepa, the famous Tibetan yogi which everybody knows. Milarepa throughout his life is one of the poorest person ever. Milarepa never have anything. He never had anything. He lived on (to audience): “Huh?”

Audience: Nettles

Rimpoche: Nettles? You know what that is? Some kind of green vegetable which pokes you if you touch it. (Laughs).

So, Milarepa lived on that. And Milarepa was always very poor. Always poor. So poor that he didn’t even have clothes to wear. And Milarepa has a niece, and when the niece comes to see Milarepa sometimes, before Milarepa becomes famous teacher, before that, when he is meditating during that period, niece comes to see him all the time. So Milarepa is naked because he doesn’t have clothes so niece feels very uncomfortable, feels very bad about it, but likes to see but this cousin is naked all the time and blue, doesn’t even look like human being, completely blue sitting over there, you know she feels bad. And she worked very hard and got a piece of woolen cloth in a piece. And so she gives that to Milarepa and says now make something of that and wear it, I don’t like to see you this funny things hanging around that is exact words, you know. Funny things hanging around. (laughter). So, this is exact translation I am telling you.

0:35:32.1

So the next time what Milarepa did, Milarepa cut all this cloth into pieces. The reason why he do this because he had this very nice woolen, very, very nice one hundred percent wool, very good one, she worked very hard, right? And soft, very nice one. She worked very hard and so Milarepa when they tried to look at it developed some kind of attachment to this cloth he noticed so he cut them out completely, but also doesn’t want to have his niece feel bad about it so he cut them all pieces and made some kind of thing you can put on each finger (laughing) little pieces each finger and all this. Ten fingers of the hand plus ten at the leg plus one big one he can put at the center, so the funny things can be covered, you know? So, next time when she come visit him, next time when she comes and visit him he had cut all this cloth and is sitting like that (laughing) and said he how crazy you are I worked so hard and now look at this piece of cloth you made in such a way, why did you do it?

And so you told me a couple of funny things and so, funny sticking things out so nothing sticking out now (laughing). So that is what he did.

0:37:05.6

Anyway, Milarepa so poor. Anyway, it is Milarepa’s karma to be choose as poor, to live as a poor to develop as its karma. But on the other hand it is also omens. The omens is when Milarepa first made his master Marpa and Milarepa had something to offer Marpa which is kind of a utensil, copper pot. A big copper pot he has. So Milarepa made his teacher, Marpa, that was after Milarepa did all funny things after he did a lot of funny things. If you read Milarepa biography it is there. It is available in English right? It is called what?

Audience: The life of Milarepa

Rimpoche: The life of Milarepa. There are two translations. The earlier translation is not good. The translation, the second time, retranslated by “a loong pa” (phonetic spelling) it is very good.

(Audience comments on who translated the first one – inaudible).

Rimpoche: I see. Whoever did it, it is totally wrong. The earlier translation, whoever did it, is wrong. It was retranslated and the second translation is much better than the earlier one. Much, much better.

0:38:36.9

So, anyway, if you are looking at that you will find all this. And, so, it is always, omens is important also. So that is why nothing offers empty, and plus doing all this with measurements all this have reasons behind. Okay? So that is just a simple example I am giving you physically. In front of the altar you make some offerings. Glass of water is fine, very good. Water has a lot of quality. Um, functions like, (speaks a Tibetan phrase – inaudible), there are eight qualities anyway. So, in the water and that is what Atisha taught Tibetans. Tibetan water is supposed to have it. I’m sure American water has the same thing. It is pure, clean, cooling nature, it doesn’t harm you anything in the physically, it doesn’t harm your stomach, throat this sort of thing like that they count eight qualities anyway, I don’t remember exactly.

So, Atisha says if you make offer one glass of water you also gain accumulate the merit of eight because there are eight qualities in that water. So, that is what you do. Physically you may offer one glass, fine. And if you offer more, great. But, in your mental exercise over there it is also very important to say Om Ah Hum, three letters. This mantra of Om, Ah, Hum. Did you understand everybody? Om Ah Hum. So Om Ah Hum, what does Om Ah Hum do? Okay. Wow. Let me know talk through that. That’s not good. But you just say “Om Ah Hum” that is good. (Laughs) What does that do? I won’t tell you. Anyway, it is a blessing mantra. It is purifying mantra. You should say it. If you say a purifying mantra, actually what is happening is enlightened beings are not supposed to offer anything impure. So, anything which is not clean is not supposed to go offered. So whatever is unclean nature is purified by saying Om Ah Hum.

0:41:19.3

With that you make this offering and in your mental, mentally you multiply one into ten, ten into hundred, hundred into thousand, thousand into ten thousand, ten thousand into hundred thousand, hundred thousand into like millions, and the space in front of you are filled up with these offerings. I mean, you can visualize…though you, though we may have our physical room, maybe as big as our nose, the hole in the nose, that is what normal tradition teaching will tell you, that is why I’m saying it. The monks in Tibet have a very small room, the rooms are normally as big as the hole in nose. So, our room may be that small but in your visualization it is in huge space, and your altar may be this much big but it is a huge, the Buddha in front of that is touching between the sky and the ground, completely filled up, that big Buddha. And the offering that you are doing is completely open space been filled up by the offerings. Though physically you may have only one left there, but it is multiplied and the whole space has been filled up by the offerings.

Your glass of water multiplied. So then we offer this to all the enlightened beings, all the enlightened beings. Not only offer them, but we also think they are very happily accepted. So if you think they have been accepted, here is another technical point. The point is if you just offer you get benefit and accumulate merit of offering. But if you think the offering has been accepted, accepted and then not only you have gained benefit of giving, but also you get merit of accepting it. So, it is a double (inaudible). So that is why, we need all the merit whatever we can collect. So, physically that is what we can do. So, not only we offer a glass of water, the offering has been accepted.

0:43:46.3

That much may be enough, but if you are on top of that, if you can think that not only have they accepted the offerings but this offering has brought a tremendous joy and um joy and great uh bliss and uh it reminds them, bliss and void combined to the object to whom you offer. If you can think that way it creates…as you multiply the glasses and that much merit you multiply here. But not only they accepted but it has become instrumental to bring great joy and bliss whining the enlightened beings. That is the way how we do. Okay?

So, making offerings. Not only in making offerings but also paying respect, showing respect. Showing respect is not because they are great so I bow down. No. What I bow down you do prostrations, you do physical prostrations. Why do we do physical prostrations? You see the quality of what they have achieved. You see the quality of those enlightened beings. Body quality. Mind quality. Speech quality. If you can think of those in detail, great. Right? The body quality, the buddha’s body had extraordinary quality of 32 major and 80 minor signs of different look in the buddha’s body. Each one of those signs are just not appeared like that somebody happens to be born with nose on face. It is not like that. Each one of them are result of tremendous development.

0:46:16.5

End of recording