Archive Result

Sound file:19910512GRLR3

Speaker:Gelek Rimpoche

Location:Ann Arbor

Topic:Lam Rim

Transcriber:Jayapushpa

Date: 26th October,2023

..So when you received this big ? from New York, it sounded like really worthwhile. Here it doesn’t really comes through. You have that? (Audience: I am not sure if this is Thurman’s now) Doesn’t matter this is not Thurman’s. Actually there is a problem.The problem is Geshe Kelsang told me and another friend very clearly he would not like to go any other translations. He said they are all bad, it’s not good. So, others are not following any translations at all. Like Trungpa’s Rimpoche’s Vajradhatu and Dharmadhatu, Naropa, they ‘re retranslating every translation available. So, there’s a big thing going on anyway. So, you found that? What did they say? Read that. Is that Foundation of that work? Only problem is my English is so bad. Is that the thing what you are reading? (Audience:Yes, this is Thurman’s. He called ‘Prayers on the stages of the path’) “Stages of the path’ is slightly different. Read the first line. (Audience: “The path begins with strong reliance on my kind root ? Oh, bless me to understand this and follow ?) Okay. I ? in between. (Audience: That can’t be; that can’t be..) I do not know what is this prayer is but I think it may be the same thing. Anyway, the principle is almost the same everywhere wherever you look. So not even sure. (Audience: ?) Haha, see, everything will have the same thing. Anyway..(Audience: ..maybe more detail..) You want more detail.’Human life with all its freedom…’. Maybe is this. You keep on watching that. Let us do whatever our thing is here, okay.0:02:45.7

So, the second word, ‘Yon ten kun gyi zhir gyur drin chen je/tsul zhin ten pa lam gyi tsa wa ru. ‘. The root of all development depends on the perfect practise of that. So, what we have is missing ‘the perfect practice of it’. Looks like that is missing with our translation . ‘Perfect practice’. You know we do have the (*interruption)..’Yon ten kun gyi zhir gyur drin chen je’. The first word we took care of. The second word, ‘tsul zhin ten pa’ , that was missing in translation. Okay, ‘tsul zhin ten pa’. ‘Tsul zhin’ means in accordance to the rules or something, you know. You know what I mean? (Audience: Hm hm) ‘In according to the actual way’,’tsul zhin ten pa’. ‘According to the actual way of practise which is the root of all path’.Did they say ‘path’? (Audience: lam gyi tsa wa ru’) (*some discussion) Okay, ‘Foundation of all perfection, following kind master, is the foundation and very root and basis of path’. I think what he made is ‘following’.The ‘following’ is commonly used in between first two words. Yon ten kun gyi zhir gyur drin chen je / tsul zhin ten pa..’. ‘Tsul zhin ten pa’, I think they made it ‘following’. So, it looks like the ‘following’ is the first line of second tibetan line, ‘tsul zhin ten pa’ it is translated as ‘following’.(Audience: There is a translation here , page 23.)Which translation is that? (Audience: This is also Yonten zhigyurma’). Okay, that also. (Audience: (reads) “Let me see that my devotion to my kind master is ? translation. ‘Let me see that the ? devotion to my kind master foundation of all good qualities is the root of the path . Devote myself with great respect and make efforts. Inspire me thus!) And whose translation is that?(Audience: I think it is this English guy ..what’s his name?) What publication is this? (Audience:Essential..Nectar? Okay, that is Stephen Batchelor’s. (Audience: oh, that’s him) Stephen Batchelor translation, okay) 0:05:44.6

So, now you see big difference comes in with all these interpreters, translators, paint different pictures(?) So, I think he used the word ‘following’ . They try to cover both. Both ..(Audience: Martin Wilson ) Martin Wilson, oh not Stephen Batchelor. Most by Geshe Rabten done by Stephen Batchelor .Okay, so you have this version, and this version and you have Geshe Kelsang’s version. And you also have Thurman’s version. And you have Jeffrey’s version, which is also different. So, you can look all of them and figure out. (Rimpoche laughs) . 0:06:44.4

So, let me..now it is my job .Yon ten kun gyi zhir gyur drin chen je / Tsul zhin ten pa lam gyi tsa wa ru / leg par thong ne ba pa du ma yi / gu pa chen po ten par jin gyi lob. You have the tibetan version. Are you paying attention or just paying attention to write? (Audience: I am writing what you think) Alright. Tsul zhin ten pa lam gyi tsa wa ru.’tsul zhin ten pa’, second word if you look …what is it? (Audience: line) Second line, the ‘tsul zhin ten pa’, I think in our translation looks like ‘following properly’ is the ‘tsul zhin ten pa’. They try to translate that. Don’t have ‘proper’ but ‘following ‘. ‘Lam gyi tsa wa ru’. ‘Lam ‘ is the path; ‘tsa wa’ is the root. “Lam gyi tsa wa ru’. ‘Ru’ .. the word ‘ru’ datic locative. (*interruption) So, ‘ru’ . ‘’leg par thong ne’, the thrid line if you move it. “Leg par’ is ‘properly’; ‘thong’ is ‘seeing’. ‘I may be able to see that properly, with all efforts I may be able to follow’. ‘Gu pa chen po ten..’I may be able to follow. But maybe the Geshe Rabten’s translation is more closer ,isn’t it? (Audience: “I will devote myself with great respect and make efforts”..) Ya, ‘gu pa chen po ten par jin gyi lob. (Audience: ‘Inspire me thus’ that’s pretty same as ‘jin gyi lob’. ‘Inspire me thus’. ‘gu pa chen po’ is ‘great efforts’. (Audience:Ya. Here it states’to make every effort to follow well) ‘Every effort to follow well’, okay. So, that is the first. That covers the guru devotion practise. So, now I have to explain otherwise this is not going to work out. 0:09:21.1

So, what you do is you look the word, word by word and get the meaning yourselves and try to figure out what just really try to tell you. So the foundation of all the perfection , qualities is depend on the guru devotional practise, which is ‘guru yoga,’ we called it. We called Ganden Lha Gyema, guru devotional practise. So all the lam rim development …spiritual development through Lam rim. Lot so people say, “I am not going anywhere; I am not reaching anywhere. I am not doing anything; I am not getting anywhere.” The problem is here. Because the foundation of this is guru devotional practise. You have to be very strong on that. Okay. (*interruption) Now the next question comes, “What is the …Oh,ya, it comes here, “Follow well”ya.What does the word, ‘to make very effort to follow well’ What does that mean ? What does that word ‘follow well means”.How to follow? That is the question, right? Did you get it? Please remember this is material for meditation. This is not just out word. It is really material for meditation. So, ‘to follow well’ what does that mean? How to follow well? What do I have to do? The answer for this. First, the question is , ‘Do we really need a spiritual guide?” That’s the question. Do we really need a spiritual guide or spiritual master?Do we really need? So, I don’t know the answer. It is individual. We have to ask to ourselves. Do we really need a spiritual master. Everybody has to ask that question to yourselves. And get answer from you. And some people will say, “I don’t need spiritual master”. “I can trust my internal …what you call it..in tui..(Audience: intuition) Intuition. And some people will say, “Ya, I can read all different books, and bring it together.” Some people will say, “I am good enough to figure out, so I don’t need it”. But Buddha had recommended very strongly to have a spiritual master. To have a spiritual master. Buddha recommended very strongly to have a spiritual master .Giving example, even our own ordinary work, like learning even ordinary work, it is much easier to have somebody to show you how it works, even if it is carpentry. Or, drawing or growing food, or anything.If you have somebody who shows you how it works, it makes easier. So, here it is spiritual path which we don’t know anything about head and tail. So, without guide it is very difficult and almost impossible. So Buddha recommended to have a guide, spiritual master.0:15:03.7

And what kind of spiritual master one should have it? Now, it is going to be a little complicated. And how do I know ? Where I am going to get it? How do I know? Okay. Where you are going to get it? You have to search yourself. You have to search yourself, you have to find it. And if you think, if I am right, it will appear on my door, lots of people think that by using reason ,’buddhas and bodhisattvas are totally committee” When I need it, they will appear on my door”. forget it! It is not going to be.!it is not going to be. It is not going to be and why? Buddhas and bodhisattvas are all out there to help and guide all sentient beings. But unless they put their own efforts way put it out, they are not going to come up to your door and get you out. I had somebody told me in Malaysia actually., “Somebody’s knocking my door and I went downstairs and opened up and I saw all these buddhas and bodhisattvas standing there”That must be some kind of delusion. That guy is not lying but some kind of funny delusion. He may have.I was making the same joke. We got lots of images somebody sent the other day. There is Medicine Buddha and all these sorts of things.I don’t know whether it is Chris or somebody, “Where do these come from?”Oh, it’s an elder lama. When he was here and he came in and he said, “Where does this come from?” I said, “Oh, they came knocking the door. They came by UPS delivery” (Laughs) So somewhere, some guy in California, had all these buddha images and they wanted to give away to somebody, because it belonged to his mother and mother is no longer there , and they also moving house and he said he still got lots of them. He said can’t fit in the house. So, he wanted to give away somebody else and took to three monasteries in California, and they didn’t accept it. So, somehow he heard we are here and he called me on phone, “Can I send you?” I said, “Fine, send it”And came through Dere Nyingpo, and Dere Nyingpo took and they are here. So he called me up. I said, “Fine “ and they came, all these images. So, they are not going to appear that way at all. (Laughs) They ? but it’s not going to come that way. So, we have to put efforts out. Unless you put efforts out, it is not going to come in. True. It is not going to come out. And everybody had put a lots of efforts out. ; eveybody puts. There’s not a single enlightened being who has not put effort of finding a great spiritual teacher for themselves. Nobody! And it is not going to be easy either. Not going to be easy either. If you look at how tibetans had found Atisha and it is very complicated, very complicated. And the tibetans needed somebody, some great teacher to correct Buddhism. Earlier Buddhism came in Tibet , 7th century with great pandita, Shantarakshita, right? (Audience: Kamalashila..) No, Kamalashila is later. Shantarakshita, Shantarakshita and Guru Padmasambhava and all that period, Buddhism came into Tibet. But that Buddhism afterwards had lots of obstacles came in. Now this is going to be…I am going to talk to you like I am only talking in the traditional tibetan way. So you have to judge yourself a little bit more. It sounds a little bit funny sometimes. So, I am going to make it that. Because otherwise I am always talking very liberal manner , try to accommodate everybody. So sometimes it might not work in the best interest. 0:20:30.2

Buddhism developed during the Shantarakshita and Guru Padmasambhava period had problems came through China. The China problem is the great Chinese Mahayana teacher called, Hua Shang. The Hua Shang Mahayana came over Tibet and started introducing slightly different. So, that’s why the problem developed in Tibet. And they need to make it correct. , to make pure Buddha’s experience rather than all these different things. So they started looking more additional teachers in India. So we got one teacher called ‘The Blue skirt pandit’. The “Blue skirt pandit’ and all these came and they introduced lots of magic in Tibet…lots of magics. And the magics might have helped few individuals here and there but on the whole it did not contribute to general genuine spiritual development. I am using the word that official His Holiness uses, ‘genuine’. That is really …the word ‘genuine’ what he’s using the word thinking in tibetan . Tibetan is’ dro tenpa’, is ‘the absolute.’, like ‘Tenpa trolah(?)’, the teacher. If you turned that around, dro tenpa, means absolute. So that is what ‘genuine’ word really means. When His Holiness uses that’s what he meant. So, in absolute help, it didn’t get much. So they still keep on looking for purification. They need to be purifying the authentic Buddhism. And tibetans have sent 21young intelligent guys, selected throughout Tibet, and sent 21 to India, to learn themselves and bring it over the pure part of it. They sent 21. Out of 21 only 2 or 3 survived, all died. And even those who survived, they tell you all sorts of horror stories how they got to India. ‘Shin don gong me dun tu ta pa….’All these great translators said on the way they found a huge tree fell down. They have to cut the Himalayas across. It is not going to be easy because there is nothing. They have really to go in the forest, they got lost and they say they find big trees laying down there, just like dead body over there. So they say, ‘to pei ta ye…..” They say even now, after 40 years , even I remember now, it is shaking all my hearts and intestines and everything”. Those translators had said.Anyway, whatever they do there is climatic difference. They couldn’t survive, only 1 or 2. Like Loden, Sherab and Nagtso or somebody. Only 1 or 2, the others died. For the benefit of better, we have to get one Indian great scholar, pandit and saint, something to come to Tibet. But has to be very good one, and not old one. Because Tibet is very harsh place weather wise, or facility wise. The older ones cannot survive. So, therefore they need a young, good, and great one. So, they started looking around, they found Atisha the best. Atisha is almost the top in Vikramala shial as well as Nalanda, both of them. And they found him sort of the top and young and good.And when they tried to get Atisha, Of course Indian monasteries is their future hope. So, they are not going to let him go. So, they are not going to let him go, tibetans tried to get him. And the struggles goes on and on and on…on on on for a long long time. So they … to prevent the tibetans taking the great teachers back to Tibet, the Indians used method , saying, “Alright, you bring gold, and then we give you teacher”So, they are asking gold all the time. So, the tibetans are searching gold all the time …searching gold to get Indian teachers, Indian great teachers. They keep on searching gold everywhere.Every gold whatever they could collect. And then they tried to get the teachers. They went everywhere searching gold. And no matter how much you gave them , is not enough. Always there’s some thing short. So they say, “Alright, next time you bring much more”. There is always more more more …mlore gold, and never get enough. So, finally what happened is the ruler at that time, he himself put a mission , he is going to go and search gold. And landed in different territory, somebody else’s kingdom there. So that guy is anti-Dharma guy, probably …..I don’t know, no..so I am not going to say it. (Audience: Christians) No, it is not Christians. It could be Muslims. (Audience: because they found a type of people who..) I think Islamic …I think it is close to Afghanistan somewhere.So, anyway, what happened is they got the king who was searching for gold arrested. So, his nephew who became ruler, automatically..who becomes ruler, and nephew was same. Nephew went around and tried to get him his uncle back then, who is the ruler. He went round to get him back. He negotiated with the king. He said, “Alright, bring gold to me, and gold equal to weight of this fatty king, that I arrested. So, equal to that, bring it and I will let him go”So, what happened is, this nephew, collected gold equal to his body and took that to that king, and said”Here’s gold equal to the king’s body and now please take the gold and let him go”They said..they weighed him and they said, “Okay, you got gold enough for the body weight, but I want additional weight equal to his head”So, there is additional equal to the head. By about that time, he said, “Can I tak to him?” They said, ‘Alright, you can talk to him. He is under arrest and downstairs somewhere, under the palace of that ruler. You can only look through the cracks in the door”. So, he started shouting from outside the door and calling, “Uncle, after you got arrested and I took over and If I collect all the soldiers and weapons around here, we can easily defeat this little barbarian king. However, we have been working for development of Dharma, and if we have to have a lot of killings, so in the long run it may work against development of Buddha Dharma. So, I decided not to attack him , decide not to challenge him through force, and instead I negotiated. And result of negotiation, he demand gold equal to your body. I found that and given to him. And he now want additional gold equal to your head again. So, I will try and soon I’ll come to collect you”.So, he replied, “I thought you are little spoilt guy,but I am so glad you are thinking in that direction, and I am happy you are not a spoilt guy. You thinking ..way of thinking not challenge the king by force is great decision . Even I get out of life here”, he said, “ I have not more than 10 years to live. Even I get out of life. For 10 years of my life if we waste the gold equal to my body’s weight, then the enlightened beings will terrify with me. So, let me die here and I can relax , you are thinking the right direction, you are doing the right thing, So, take all these gold, don’t waste here, take all these gold give it to the Indians,and ask them to send the teacher particularly Atisha. …”to the ear of Atisha”, he said, which means ‘tell Atisha I am happy to let them have my life; So, be a little compassionate and make your decision and come over Tibet and purify this Buddha Dharma teaching” So, this was his last message from that prison. He said he looked in the crack of the door , he said he is so weak. The power of talking is much weaker and he looked terrible, and he couldn’t look much and left it and he died there, The king died there. So they didn’t give any gold to that one and all the gold was sent again to Nalanda….or Vikramashila in India. So, the message was delivered to the abbot of the monastery and Atisha, both. So, the abbot said, “Atisha is the future of this monastery. Forget it, get out of here! So, nothing. Nothing doing!” so, they went to Atisha himself. Atisha said, “Well, tibetans has wasted a lot of gold for me. And moreover this king must be a great bodhisattva.”,he said, “If I don’t go to Tibet, it maybe a little embarrassing now. So, anyway, I will ask Tara, the deity Tara, and within the next couple of days, and then I ‘ll let you know”.Then he asked Tara. Tara said, “You should go to Tibet. If you go to Tibet, your life will be shortened by 18 years. 18 years your lfe will be shortened, but will be tremendous benefit. So, the choice is yours”. ..or, 7 years, 7 years life will be shortened. I think so, 7. I am getting forget. So, anyway, Atisha choose that reason it is worth to shorten my life. And so Atisha finally came to Tibet. And that is the hardship the tibetans …that is one example. There are lots of them. You read Marpa, you read Milarepa, you read all these different stories and you have all of them there. That is important for you to search. I don’t believe good teachers will ever advertise. But today, you open yoga journal, you find in there.(Laughs) Or, what else? East West and New York Times. And all of them in this here, that here, and there…I don’t know whether it is good or bad, whatever it is. So, it is not the traditional style at all. So, you really have to put effort and look for a good teacher. You are not going to get great teacher now. Nowadays you are not going to. No way! If you are fortunate enough, we would have seen Buddha. And during that period we would have come. No, we are not going to.We haven’t; we are too late. If Buddha appeared in front of mus today, we probably ran away. Because it looks different, completely different. Little dome here, long hand, hands joined,..probably first thing take the Buddha to hospital and operate, whatever. Something will do. 0:35:29.0

Anyway, we don’t have the fortune of seeing a Buddha but still the great teaching of the Buddha is still alive , as a living tradition. So, you have to have a spiritual master who are connected , who are in the living tradition.otherwise somebody can cook up something and develop some kind of ‘ism’ by itself. You know what I mean? Some kind of ‘ism’ (*some discussion among audience) And of course, Mahatma Gandhi, is no doubt a great teacher. He’s great. ..not teacher, politician whatever it is. He’s great. It is not a founder of any certain traditional Dharma or something. But nowadays, comes religion called ‘Gandhism’. Gandhism comes up. And then another thing, “Ambhekarism ‘comes up according to Buddhist sect. There was a great Indian lawyer who is author of Indian constitutions. He needed something, he needed some thing, Indian has lots of caste system .The Hindu caste system is very bad. He really needed something to work out. He looked around and he found Buddhism doesn’t have the caste system which is very good. So, somehow he said, “ I am becoming buddhist and he had like 4 million people or something together become buddhists one day. So he has a lot of number of peole in India, they called themselves ‘neo buddhist’(Audience: where..) They are everywhere. Most in headquarters in Nagpur., and is everywhere else. So, now, Dr Ambedkar is the lawyer who drafted Indian constituition and he died. And after he died, a lot of people demanded, “We take refuge to Buddha, refuge to Dharma, refuge to Sangha, refuge to Dr ambedkar” They insist should be included in that . Buddham saranam gacchami, Dharmam saranam gacchami, Sangham saranam gacchami , Ambedkar saranam gacchami. So, they goes to that. These people took mark themselves slightly different and when they see each other on the road, they greeting, “Namo Buddhaya”. They have said, “Namo Buddhaya”. So, they say, “Namo Buddhaya, namo buddhaya”. They reply to each other, “Namo Buddhaya”. So, now, the elder buddhists, or rather buddhist in total, they =said, “Ambekar gacchami” is not great way to do. So, they rejected that more or less. So, they found a new religion called “Buddha Ambekarism”. Buddha Ambekarism, so another ‘ism’ comes up. So, things like that is probably not going to give any good results form individuals at all. Real authentic, genuine teaching, like Buddhism, Hinduism or Christianity or even Muslim… ‘even Muslim’, this is my prejudice, ‘Muslim is bad’, I don’t know..so, it is my personal thing comes up. Something authentic is really necessary. Otherwise in between that, neither here nor there, or you create funny thing, you got funny result too. Right? So, it is very important when you look for spiritual teacher, you need authentic teacher.’Authentic’ who has spiritual backing, who has spiritual connection,who has unbroken lineage, which will lead to something ultimately one of those great beings. Tibetans will say, like geographically Tibet is found in certain area. So, tibetans will say if you want to drink pure water, the pure water must come from the snow mountain. Tibetans water source is snow mountain. So, they traced up to the snow mountain . they are not going to drink from the little spring here and there. And they are not going to be happy with that. It is constant good pure water. The source of the water they will trace up to the snow mountain.Similarly if you want perfect teaching tradition, you should be the lineage should be traced up to the Buddha. It is talking about Buddhism. So, has to be traced up to Buddha .0:41:34.5

And so, what do you look to the teacher, and what you look for teaching is interconnected. Interconnected. If you have a great teacher, but the teaching is not that great, again, it is not going to serve purpose. But teaching is great, if you have so so teacher, , you also going to get so so result. So, this is important, huh. Not only important, it is dangerous. It is very dangerous and very fundamental basis for the spiritual development. That’s why it says, ..what is it? ..’foundations of all …” This one says, “perfections’. The foundation of all qualities lies on that. That is very important. So both the teaching and the teacher, should be pure. Buddha been produced…you know..the great earlier buddhist teachers,gives..say the Buddha is perfect. The reason why Buddha is perfect . ..they did not say because he has all these marks and signs or looked different. They say is because teaching is perfect. So the proofing, the teacher perfect is only the teaching. Not the look or behavior or anything. The teaching. So Buddha is perfect because the Buddha’s teaching is perfect. Do you get it? Ten pa ……tu ka re? This is one of the great buddhist thing. In order to prove that Buddha is perfect is because what Buddha taught is perfect. Because it affect other people. Because it helps us. Not only it helps, it help[s all the way through till you become enlightened buddha. So, that’s why kit is perfect. So, this is the reason you have to get it.So, when you look for teacher, you not only have to look for teacher, you have to look for the teaching. And if the teaching is great, and the teacher is good, you are fortunate. And if the teaching is not great but the teacher is perfect,it will be useless. And if the teaching is great, but teacher ism so so, it’ll be difficult. So, that is how you look. You have to put a lot of efforts. And 90% of publicity I will not follow. And again truly speaking today, 90% of publicity you come in, I am not going to follow it. If I have to, fortunately I don’t. Right, really. That’s the only thing I am really fortunate. But if I am born in America, or like your type of person, and what I’ll do? I am not going to follow the 90% of the publicity. Not really. 0:45:21.6

So then not only that. You have to find the quality of the teacher. And the qualities always described everywhere. So, I think I have to talk about that here too. Basically there are two qualities. Quality one, the teacher must be very stable. I don’t mean ‘stable’ is a..I don’t mean ‘a crazy person’. ‘Stable’ in the sense they have been in the practise ..in that tradition practise, at least for 10 years or so. That’s called ‘stable’. And knowing what the person is saying. There are lots of teachers who say things they don’t know what it is. When you don’t know what it is, you have great excuse. The great excuse is something which you can feel it, you cannot express. , ‘ma sam je re’. Ya, you can feel it, you cannot express. There’s no words enough to discover..(*Recording problem..) see....what you are saying about it, right? And for spiritual, not only you are saying it, knowing about it, but also you are practising.And that is necessary. If you practice some thing else, you preach something else, that’s wrong. You practise what you preach. Right? (Audience: That is second point? ) That is second point. First is ‘stable’ Second is rich in knowledge. That is ‘knowledge’, not only academic knowledge, but spiritual quality, rich in that. That’s really you need it. Rich in spiritual quality. These are the basic fundamental need of the quality. These two.0:48:13.7

In addition to that, there are ten more qualities for Mahayana teachers. I mentioned number of times now. (Audience: I thought they are all together) No. Ku sum le dang lo choe ..Ma re..on ten jung nay tsul trim gya tso che /Mang tho nor bu tsoh kyi yong su tam/ Ngur mik dzin pa thup wang nyi pei je / Nay ten dhul wa dzin la sol wa de (*Verse36 of Lama Chopa) Gang dhang dhen na dhe war shek pei lam/ Ton par o pei yon ten chu den pa. (*two lines of verse 37 , Lama Chopa) .Okay, there is a ten qualities of Mahayana teacher. Ten qualities shin ne tu wa ….these are the ten. Zhine tu wa..well behaved. ‘Very well behaved’, I will explain later what does that means. ‘Very very very well behaved’, …three of them (Rimpoche laughs) Okay, first ‘well behaved’ means really behaving well. Second is, ‘overpower the delusions’.Third, imprint of delusions are also overpowered. Imprints of delusions. Yon ten drak pa..more learned than you are , otherwise what you are going to learn from him, from that person. More learned than you are. And diligent enough. Otherwise the laziness will delay. And rich in the source. Otherwise will be limited. If the teacher only knows one thing,you have to stuck with only one thing. So the variety of people with the different feelings, different attitudes, different wants. Some people will be interested in Vajrayana; some may not be interested in Vajrayana ; some are only interested love and compassion; some are interested only self liberation. And all these ..these are varieites. So, anything comes up they should be rich in the source. Otherwise you have to make up story, right? Unless you have the capability of tapping somewhere, but which is very limited. So they try to avoid makeup stories. So the rich in the source. And one who understands what they are teaching. Not only one understands what you are teaching, but can be presented well. Otherwise if they wrongly presented, it will not help people at all. Like earlier we had offering, ‘that’s good for you! Take it! Looks terrible, but take it”Nobody is going to take, because that offering is not good, right? Similarly here, “I sincerely meant it, that is true; like it or not, you take it”That’s not to be good teacher at all. Good teacher has to have skilful means. You can’t be stubborn . You have to be able to adjust it. You can’t reject people, that will be shutting the door. You should be able to adjust somehow. That means well presenting is the art of presenting it should be known. And the person should be very compassionate. Otherwise it’s big problem. And the person should be able to take a little hardship too. If the person can’t take hardship then it is another problem. So these are the ten qualities . I hope there is ten. (Audience: yep) (Audience: 9..) So, ten qualities. You can give 50% discount. (Laughs) It is allowed. Really true. It is allowed. You can give 50% discount. And out of those 50% discount, the compassionate, more knowing than you are, and knowing what he or her talking about it. I don’t think you can give discount on those. Hardship, you can give some discount, so that I can stay in hotel. (Laughs) Don’t have to squeeze in Brenda’s house. (Rimpoche laughs) So, these are the ten basic Mahayana teacher’s qualities. When you look for teacher, these are the qualities you look for. 0:54:02.8

In addition to that, Vajrayana teacher has ten more qualities. These ten is counted as one. All these ten what we now mentioned, is one quality. That is one. In addition to that, Go sum lek dham lo chen zo dhen drang / Yeo dhang gyu may ngah dhang gyu shey shing / Dhe nyi chu zung dri dang che khe pei / Dorje dzin pei tso la sol wa dep. (*verse 38, Lama Chopa) So, Vajrayana has one more..9 more qualities , Vajrayana teachers, which might not be relevant to us just now. So, I am going to skip it. So, when you…so you have to look for a teacher and you need that sort of teacher. Without spiritual guidance, I don’t think one obtain enlightenment . Otherwise everybody can read through book and get it. But I don’t think it works. Why it doesn’t work? Because there is no continuation of lineage, no lineage support, no tradition. Tradition is not a big deal, but lineage is. Very big deal. And that makes a hell lot of difference. So people can’t just create something which out of some …You know people do that these days. People that these days, create some kind of spiritual path, or write a nice ritual, all these sort of things, I don’t think it is going to be great. It may work, excite lots of people for a while.Don’t think I am criticizing New Age. But more or less…maybe I am but….really, that’s what it is. I am not criticizing New Age as New Age, but authenticity is necessary. Maybe that’s enough. 0:56:39.9

And it is teaching and teacher has a very good relation. You have to inter related. And you look for. If you find one, then proper devotion is demanded. If you have a proper devotional practice, that becomes guru yoga. You don’t have to have a yoga separately. Proper devotion and if you have that, there are 8 benefits. 8 benefits. If you don’t have good teacher, there are 8 disadvantages. And if you have a teacher, and devotional practice is wrong, there is 8 disadvantages. So,you have to look one 8

that is benefit. You have to look another 8 which is disadvantage of not having teacher, and another the third one 8, is disadvantage of not having proper devotional practice, which are detail..written detail in that ‘Liberation In Your Palms’. I hope that covers. (Audience: I am not sure..) The ‘Joyful Path’ should have it. Should have that. And ‘Essential Nectar’ should have it. (Audience: It is in the Lam Rim Outlines) Lam rim Outlines, you all have it. And when you look in the right books, you find there, everything in that.0:58:47.4

So, that much is the beginning of introduction to the first point of the Lam Rim , which is, the guru devotional practice. It is beginning. So we stop here.Lots of people have commitments especially being Mother’s Day. So, everybody has a mother,right? Is there anybody who doesn’t have mother? Even I have a mother. So, do we have say when do we meet next? When is next meeting? (Audience: We were talking about how we can get together Rimpoche,maybe next time..) Ya , 2nd Sunday, 9th ,right? If you doesn’t mind if it is not going to be this subject, it will be out of Six Paramitas, that will be ‘Patience’ versus Anger; Laziness versus Diligence; and then Meditation and Wisdom. I do not know, maybe we can come out only one or two. I am not sure. Whether we cover the Patience and Diligence, both. Or, we only cover the Patience, I don’t know. But that’s going to be ? It will be..I think it will be beneficial for everybody. It will cover everybody together. So, even from Chicago…are you gonna..(Audience: Yes..) Okay, so both the study group and the single group, Chicago, Cleveland too. (Audience: *unclear) Howard Johnsons(?) Ho Jo(?) By the way they say if you want to stay there, probably try to get for 15 and negotiated, looks like 15 per room. (**discussion continues…regarding accommodation)

Read that, and read about guru devotional …(?)(Audience: …I don’t know he said some thing..) (Audience: I don’t think is this..) (Audience: It is the part on guru devotion? It is section on guru devotion..) Section on guru devotion, read that. I don’t think there is any…Actually Lam Rim session if you going to follow properly you have to meditate. You have to meditate four times a day. That is the proper Lam Rim style.ou have to meditate four times a day (Audience: on what?) On the subject. No, not sitting like that. That’s not what I am talking about. I am talking about subject you have to overview from guru devotion till enlightenment, and particular point. Point by point you have to meditate, four sessions, four times actually. That means when you have teachings, that evening you must meditate , next day you must meditate, day after that you meditate, day after that you must meditate. So, at least four days you have to have meditate on point we covered today. And four days before the teachings start, you also meditate the same thing. In between that period, overview only will do. If you want to spend all these times to try to…if you want to achieve results, you have to spend time on meditation on the point. And on the point if you keep on meditating, you’ll achieve the result.Achieving resultis…when I say ‘achieving result’, probably you have no idea what I am talking about it. Perhaps too early to mention now. So, let’s do that four times. That means tomorrow..what is tomorrow? (Audience: Monday) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we should always meditate on the things we talked today. That means just sit down and think about , go over it, look at your notes and then think about it, try to analyze them down and consolidate them and get the point. Do that for four days. And before the ? days, so four days. So everyday you do this foundation practice. Read the first line, think about it what we talked today and then do it. If you want result, you have to do that. You don’t want any result, then that’s fine. Just listen and go home and forget about it. Then next time, try to open book (*interruption) , you are not going to get anything, right? Maybe you learn something every time. So, in short whatever we mention here, and look how to fit ? (Dag gye ji ne …)1:06:43.7