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Ine is comncentra

Sound file:1991015GRLR1

Speaker:Gelek Rimpoche

Location:Ann Arbor

Topic:Lam Rim

Transcriber:Jayapushpa

Date: 21stOctober2023

..here you see how narrow it is..they almost have a one little purpose of some thing. That is in a way is very easy for people particularly in the West because you can exactly see what’s the aim is ; this is my purpose I want to achieve this, so I am just doing that. It is straightforward, simple and the thing. However, as in the spiritual path to bring a total enlightened stage of ..or totally free from the pains and cause of pains, and totally try to help all sentient beings, it is absolutely very very limited So when you see in the traditional practice here , it has almost no limit. The sky is the limit what you want to achieve out of this. And not only that, but also when you see it, …actually day before yesterday, when I was in Geshe Rinpoche’s place, I’ve been upstate New York ,and I have to record the teaching for the Cleveland last night, and it was the Ganden Lha Gyema, and the praise was the …the praising body, mind and speech, like ..”Your mind is…” What it says in English? Anyway, praise for the mind and body, speech and body,..And I was talking, and I was alone and talking on the tape recorder and looking over the lake , and sitting there so all sorts of thoughts normally . It is with you but normally doesn’t express much. Many of them sort of come up, and so I recorded in there. Last night I was talking to liase with Chris. I told her to bring the tape up. I just recorded and didn’t listen at all, but somehow I told her to bring the tape up, and like to listen and see what really …what I have to say, but..certain thoughts that’s up. It is funny because sometimes when you prepared to say somethings it doesn’t go on through. And sometimes it just comes up. So few thoughts…I mean the thoughts on the ear ornament of the fortunate one. And on that point I raised a few issues on that. And it might be interesting to listen on that because I like to listen myself what I have said it. Normally I hate to listen to my own tape recorder ; I feel a little embarrass. I don’t know, but..So, everybody here is working hard , try to achieve benefit for individual as well as for other sentient beings. And so that’s very nice. And of course you have a lot of difficulties of maintaining the spiritual life and material life and the family life and what else life you have. So, we have to maintain lots of lives . And so…right? The family life, the material life, spiritual life, emotional life, and all of them we have to maintain. So it has its won difficulties. But…(*interruptions). It has its difficulties but I think you work very hard and I appreciate it. And if you still goes on, I don’t think there is end for this till you …I mean this work is not done till you obtain enlightenment. So, it is not only a lifelong work but it is work that goes life after life. So, Sakya Pandita had said one day, “Se pa ….ce ya nam…” Even if you are dying tomorrow, you have to practise and learn, ..”sen ti…” If you are dying today,dying tomorrow, you may not going to be learned and developed scholar and saint this life. But in the next life it is like you are taking your savings …la na ni da par dzog”…So your wealth you ask somebody to look after and then you come back and take it away, take back. And in that manner , one can take it. So I believe the learning , meditating and thinking on those paths are something like that wealth , in the future life you can sort of take it back straightaway. That’s that.0:06:57.8

So the learning part of this is not ended till you become… enlightenment, enlightened. And the work part of it, helping other beings is not going to be ended until every sentient beings fully enlightened. So it is a bottomless ocean or something. But it is great. You cannot do anything better than that. There is nothing, nothing can be done better than this. So, be very happy about it and that’s about it. So today then as part of those learning, meditating…em learning , thinking, meditating process through which one obtaining enlightenment in the stage of this living tradition, Basically you have the preliminaries, actual practice and conclusion. In ‘Actual’ practice , they are like three divisions. ..Common with the medium …or no, common with the lower level practice, common with the medium and mahayana practice. Common with lower and medium is over.And mahayana practice there are two.In order to develop individual, ‘Six paramita activities’. In order to help other beigs, four activities. So, altogether, ten paramitas. So out of which, the firsr..”generosity” ‘Sila, patience, and enthusiasm are all over. So now is the fifth stage. The stage of the fifth is actually samadhi or concentration or semten, in tibetan. The word in tibetan is ‘semten’,’Sem’is the mind and ‘ten’ is stable…’Stable mind,””Concentration’…whatever you call it. The actual or…that’s the thing. I would like to go with the medium Lam rim of Tsongkhapa along with this. So probably…before we’ve been doing the Pabongkha’s Lam rim lot….more or less based on that, except little addition from Tsongkhapa’s big Lam rim, and small Lam rim, and Fifth Dalai Lama’s Lam rim And also Panchen Lozang Chogyen Quick Path; , and Panchen Pande Yeshe, Smooth Path., Joyful Path. I think translated as ‘Joyful path’. So, we add up from there and there but basically ‘Liberation In Palms..’ Pabongkha’s . And on that basis we have add up here and there, little bit. So, out of these ..today I would like to go a little bit on Tsongkhapa’s Smaller Lam rim. As a matter of fact, it will be interesting to look into Fifth Dalai Lama’s ..little bit on that. I didn’t have chance to look. Do you think you can find he book up there? (Audience: ..) It is one little wooden frame box and I think it should say,’Jam phel shel long’. (Audience: Jam phel shel long?) Yep. (Audience: Just one volume..?) Just little this much box. (Audience: Jam phel shel long) Ya, if you find it..if doesn’t find, doesn’t matter. Oh..forget it, we can look lunch time. Okay. So, Jamphel shel long;. 0:11:40.9

So let’s go over here. What does the ..normally it is called, ‘Small Lam rim of Tsongkhapa’.But ‘Small Lam rim” is actually the shortest one. This is medium. But medium known as small. Medium is not known as medium Medium known as ‘Small Lam rim’. Big and small rather than medium and small. That’s how it goes. (*pause) Actually here the division will sort of divided slightly different. But I think we can keep our own outline as we do. Here they say..like the two last paramitas, that means the concentration and wisdom paths combined together and then they started dividing separately. So doesn’t matter. Okay, Tsongkhapa in here has made the division into six. The first is benefit…that covers both ..both last paramitas. So you have to remember, two last paramitas. First is ‘benefit’ Second, “It is the basis of all meditation ..whether it is analytical or concentration. It is the basis and …the system. You know like … one word here they used it, ‘…kun gyi tu je..) ‘Tu je’ is some kind of system in which how it works. This is the system of all the meditation stage. And actual recognition of zhine, and lhatong. What is zhine and what is lhatong. You know when you say ‘zhine’ , this is the word I am sure familiar to you all. The concentration or the fifth paramita. The actual fifth paramita concentration is known as ‘zhine’. or, you called that ‘samadhi’ allthese. But it is actual zhine, tha’s what we are looking for. What is zhine, and what is lhatong. And terminology is familiar to you, zhine is supposed to what you call it? Shamatha. ‘Shamatha’, are you familiar with the word either? Barry? (Audience:No) No, How many people are familiar with ‘zhine’? 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8..you know..9, so..Shamatha? How many? You not familiar with shamatha? (Audience: 8voices..) Read about it, talked about it, okay. OKay, ‘meditation’? I think everybody's knows that. I don’t see any hands, that means eveybody knows. So, anyway. 0:16:03.3

‘Zhine’ is the tibetan word supposed to be equivalent to ‘shamatha’. And ‘lhatong’ is the tibetan word supposed to be equivalent to ‘vipasyana’. Supposed to be. But when you come into the lhatong, ..lhajkthong..lhjkthong.(*interruptions) lhakthong..lha..either ‘g’ or ‘k’ ‘thong’ is ‘t h o n g’,ya, that’s it , ‘thong’ ..lhakthong. Lhaktong supposed to be…Okay, let me explain that way..’she’ is the word in tibetam . ‘Zhi’ is the word for peace ..peace is zhiwa and the ‘zhi’ It is interesting to look in tibetan dictionary. Why don’t you bring that big …you know this three volume Chinese dictionary. It is very interesting..like to look at it. So, you know one is ‘zhi’ and one is ‘lhaktong’.You don’t have to… (Audience: All three)Okay, bring all three. That’s also fine. (*interruption) Incidentally I have to bring..I forgot to bring there are two cards. One from Sandy thanking for everybody, and one from Jewel heart Holland people,thanking everybody and these two cards I thought to bring up but I forgot. Now, as well, I mentioned. (*interruption) Let me just tell you, the word ‘’zhi’ is peace , and ‘ne’ is ‘remain’. So, the ‘remaining in peace’…sort of direct word probably mean something like that. And ‘lhak’…the other word, ‘lhak’ is ‘lhak tar’..means specially …lhaktar. And ‘thong’ is ‘seeing’ (*interruption) So, let’s look ‘zhine’. (*interruption)…(Audience: ‘zhine’…here you are..) ‘lhakthong’ also here?(Audience: ..’after light’..it says) should be ‘lhak ..ha tar’..like should be in ‘lhak’..the last ? Oh, ya, (Audience voices)It has tibetan chinese . If you read Chinese. (*voices) Hey! Do you know what this dictionary says? ‘Zhine’‘Shamatha’(Rimpoche laughs) …sha ma tha..(Laughter) …tam..zi ching sem….du she la…ne pa wo..It says, ‘sha ma tha’And it say, ‘ting ye sam tham che kyi……’ It is sort of the general rule of the general system what I told you earlier…general rule or general system of all meditations system and also the cause. The direct cause of bringing the meditative stage. Then they say the peace here …they did not say as peaceful peace. I mean it is peaceful peace. It says’chi ro yi u gyu la chi wa shen ne..’Sort of your mind is wandering for outside . Any object outside, external object, or external events or external object or something. Losing your mind towards external thing, pacify that. You sort of make doesn’t go that way so that remain inside. So inside wherever you are concentrating on that. So making remain on that. ‘Zhi’ is the not having the obstacle of external attractions, or attentions, or drawing your mind away from anything by external means, whether it is subject or whatever it is, you know., object or whatever it is. And (*interruption) So, whatever you are concentrating, and remaining on that single pointedly. Remain, pacified, not to have distraction or obstructions from external and remaining on whatever you are concentrating on. It is single pointedly remaining. That is the basic idea of zhine. Did you get it, quite clear. Let’ssay. I mean this is good dictionary. And I didn’t know they write ‘sh ma tha’. Shamatha. It is ‘sha ma tha’ they wrote here. Tibetans are very bad for Sanskrit, really bad, extremely bad. And Thurman loves..sort of laughs . They have funny way of reading, funny way of saying totally. Like ‘vajra’, they will say ‘benza’. ‘Benza” “Pramana” they say ‘thamana’Ah? All sorts of things we have.0:25:28.1

Let’s see what they say ‘lhakthong’. ‘lhakthong’. My god they say, ‘Vi ki sya pa sya’, ‘Vipassana’. ‘Bi ki sys pa sha’That must be vipasyana. I think that’s where the tibetans say, ‘bi kyi sya pa sya’. Interesting, vipasyana. ‘bi kyi sys pas ..’Again , same as basis or cause or system of meditation ..ngu u rang sem lap pe…The word ‘lhak’ when we say ‘special’, the nature of all phenomena, the real special nature of phenomena, seeing by special Wisdom eye. That’s the word really ‘lhakthong’ is. You didn’t hear me, did you? Nick? (Audience: the mind) That’s what you heard. You didn’t heard other one. Did you get it? (Audience: The real special nature of all pheneomena seen by the special Wisdom eye) Special Wisdom eye. Did you get that? (Audience:Hm..) Ya, because it is Brenda said, you can hear better(Rimooche laughs) .

(Rimpoche laughs) Just joking, thank you. So that’s what really zhine and lhakthong. THe word ‘zhine’ and ‘lhakthong’. It is supposed to be equivalent of , shamatha and vipassan. Supposed to be okay. And I keep on saying ‘supposed to be’.That’s reason. When you go to Vipasyana teachers like Joseph Goldstein or … I don’t know what they teach I don’t know ..’lhakthong’at all or not, I have no idea. So that’s why. And of course Thurman liked to call it, ‘Maha vipasyana’, for lhakthong. I mean that’s his

He always have special way of saying it. So “Maha’ is ‘great’.So, the greater vipasyana’. (*interruption) So, Geshela, what is lhakthong? What is lhakthong? (Audience: I am sure I couldn’t match your explanation.) Ah? What did he say?(Audience: He couldn’t match your explanations) Like I say it..(*Very loud sound). (Audience: the meanng of the word is like ‘excellent seeing’ or and you taught…) Who taught? (Audience: You have taught one little about one’s goal in concentration meditation between the two. The category what you described is (*unclear)..) Not necessarily; could be, alright, thank you. (Audience: Rimpoche could you explain the special wisdom on this seeing) The special wisdom I believe is it is kind of contact(?) (*Voices ) Are you buying it? (Rimpoche laughs) Let’s see if we can complete the sales deed here(?) (Rimpoche laughs) So the fifth paramita whether it is shamatha or not, is called ‘sam ten’ it is almost like stable mind. The actual nature of the stable mind here is zhine. Okay? And then the sixth paramita is the Wisdom paramita. The actual nature of the wisdom is the lhakthong. So that make sense? That makes better sense, isn’t it. So, we…what did we say? First is ‘benefit’. Second,sort of explaining what is this system of whole meditation, covers both of them. And then the actual nature of zhine and lhakthong. And next is reasons why you need both and probably fifth, what follows what..who follows what..who follows who. And then actual separate studies . That’s about six outlines on that.0:32:42.9

Now the next, Tsongkhapa goes on and says’Pag pa ji chung gyi gyen den ….” So Tsongkhapa says in one of the sutras explaining the thoughts of the Buddha, sort of commentating on the Buddha’s thoughts in the sutra. It says, “All the qualities of the mahayana hinayana and samsaric and non samsaric qualities, all of them are either the result of zhine or the lhaktong. That is the statement what Tsongkhapa makes on this. So, to bring that little more, So Tsongkhapa makes, raise a certain doubts.The doubt what he raised is ..ya, that was the statement. Then he put up questions..Then what about zhine and lhakthong itself. So when you talked about it, you can talk ‘zhi la’.When you use the word ‘zhi la) means you have zhine and lhakthong. And then you use ‘zhi la’ Sort of half of this and half of that,that is the tibetan language , it works always (Audience: normal Sila..)Zhila is zhine and lhakthong. (Audience:…I think she thinks ‘Sila’ as in Sanskrit> Sila in Sanskrit. No no no…Sila is Sanskrit. No no no. No no no no tibetan ‘zhi’ and ‘lhag or ‘k’, whatever you are writing. And ‘zhi’ and ..zhila..You can also combine Zhine and lhaktong’ Instead of saying ‘zhine’ and lhakthong,, just say ‘zhi la’So that is the easier way. So Tsongkhapa raises question “What about zhinla itself.Is it the result of meditation? Is that quality you gain out of meditation? And how can it be possible, all the qualities, are the result of these two, or either of it. That’s the question of Tsongkhapa..sort of raises. So Tsongkhapa further explains’The actual zhine or actual lhakthong , is definitely the result of meditation.And so all the qualities of the mahayana hinayana cannot be result of these two. However once you have good recognizable concentration power, and thereafter whatever qualities gained out of it, it will be…in the category of the result of zhine and lhakthong. Is that too technical for you or too philosophical? Maybe not. There are reasons why you have to do that, okay. (Audience: Rimpoche, ..what about the sentence ‘ recognizing the meditation power and..) Because thereafter. (Audience: Thank you) Thereafter.so whatever recognizable power to be able to concentrate and anything grow thereafter, will probably put under the category of ‘zhine’ and recognizable analytical thing what you can do whether it is actual..whether it is relative or absolute or whatever it is, recognizable thing whatever you do thereafter,will be going under the category of ‘lhakthong’.So because of that, the Buddha;s statement ’Of all the three yanas qualities, are the result of zhila , is not wrong. Tsongkhapa..the way Tsongkhapa put it is very intellectual way.You know he brings out one statement from Buddha and raises and doubts and brings argument and arguments, and then put up the reason why that is right. Why Buddha’s statement is right. You know what I mean? And sometimes he put up certain statement from Buddha, and then he would say, “This is not straightforward statement ; this has some different meaning. Buddha’s thinking is different and while making that statement, then Tsongkhapa brings all sorts of reason . That is Tsongkhapa’s style. So that’s why certain..when you read the Tsongkhapa’s text, that’s what happens. So there are certain people say “Oh, they are great for debating and nothing else. (Rimpoche laughs) Because Tsongkhapa has a style of doing that. So that is very important way. And he goes on further more by bringing another Sutra. So, maybe we should skip that.Actually it is a very important Sutra. Instead of reading it in detail, I just give us the gist of it. I think it will be a little easier. So both explanation of Tsongkhapa and the Sutra both. This is direct explanation, so it is easier. It says, “What does lhakthong and zhine do? Again here, I should red”Kye wa po ye lhakthong ye zhine kor….ge gyur” Tsongkhapa used the word again, ‘zhine and lhakthong’kompache. ‘Kom’means the past tense of ‘gom’, one who gets completely familiarized , one is comfortable..One is sort of , you know…’Gom’ is the word in tibetan means ‘meditation’. And the past tense of ‘gom’ is ‘kom’’Kom’ is sort of used to it. You completely familiarized ; you are sort of thing..That’s why you are…that’s why when you look at the …the teachers who are following Tsongkhapa’s tradition, you asked them “What is meditation?” They say, “It’s not a big deal ; it is getting used to it”A very simple statement you get it. …sort of getting used to it, familiarizing, getting used to it. But if some others, “Wow! It is meditation. It is deep, profound, sacred, mystical..” You know they make a big deal out of it. But Tsongkhapa has , “Ya, no, gom is nothing but …ya, word is ‘gom’ and ‘kom’ is past tense of gom, ‘kom’ you are used to it. So, another words, what you really do ,you try to train your mind, right. If it is zhine, you are training your mind and not getting unnecessary attention here and there.Not getting unnecessary attractions here and there . so just get..just train your mind to be able to think on subject or object whatever you are concentrating on that,to be able to make use of that. That’s what it is.the explanation here, ‘Zhine kom pe ….zhi wa dang..”’Chi wa leng ne ..yu ching ne kong to …pa sha dang..”So what does zhine do? So zhine makes the capability of growing mind in the opposite direction . In another words, the mind that you don’t want to grow. You understand what I mean? The capacity of the mind to be able to observe, to be able to analyze, to be able to study and go deeper in the subject you don’t want to use it, so to be able to cut that, to be able to reduce that. Not only to be able to reduce that, but even the imprint of that be able to reduce. So that’s why if you meditate on anything ,it directly reduce delusions and even imprint of delusions reduced. So, what does lhakthong do? So not only, lhakthong not only takes you away from that concentrating point, but the perception of the wrong perceiving the nature truth. You know the true nature of all phenomena. Perceiving point is also been cutting through. So that’s what lhakthong work is. Zhine work is…zhine will make you withdraw from the undesirable objects that you want to concentrate on, and lhakthong will cut the perceiving of that wrong perception been able to cut it. And that what zhine and lhakthong does. 0:44:52.0

(Audience: What is confusing Rimpoche, you put it in the negative..) Always you put in negative . Always in Tsongkhapa’s style , you always put in negative points. You don’t put in positive points here. (Audience: So, Zhine reduces the mind’s capability to go deeply into things that it’s not trying to concentrate on) Things you don’t want to go in…to avoid. So, naturally opposite of that, you gain the concentration on the things you want to concentrate. Ya, as I say, it always looks from the opposite direction , present that way. So lhakthong will cut the perception of it, so therefore you don’t have the wrong perception.The opposite of it you have the true seeing it. Okay? So, that much Tsongkhapa has giving on first outline, that is ‘The benefit’, isn’t it? Is that benefit first? I think is ‘benefit’. Ah? ‘benefit’, right? First, ‘benefit’. 0:46:28.3

So, this probably is very essence of it, but you need little more than that. Because for the benefit point, you really have to gain the interest on that. So what does this do? These both zhine and lhakthong, what do they do? They give…(*recording problem) .and .I don’t mean we are crazy but unstable mind. And it also brings tremendous joy to body and mind, both. This joy that it brings to body and mind, have name for it. It is known as ‘zhinjang’ . For joy of zhinjang, zhinjang. Okay. Zhinjang. I don’t know what zhinjang; I am not looking it. Zhinjang. There are two zhinjang. One is called ‘Lu zhinjang’ and the other is called ‘Sem zhinjang’. So, mind zhinjang and body zhinjang. The mind zhinjang brings tremendous joyful…makes your mind tremendous joyful, happy, and peaceful and satisfied. And the body zhinjang, (*interruption) ….the body zhinjang brings tremendous pleasure in body . It brings your body very light, light nature.And that’s why you be able to fly .Fly is nothing but riding on the air wave. So, you’ll be able to do that, light body. And it also brings full of joy …almost..I hate to use the word ‘bliss’ for that is the vajrayana special. I don’t think it is bliss or anything here. But definitely far better than ordinary pleasures that we look whether it is whatever it might be, from ordinary massage to sexuality. It is gone far beyond that. I mean tremendous. And that’s why people who developed lu zhinjang will have no enthusiast for sex whatsoever because …I am telling you the truth…because it’s gone far beyond that. It means nothing. So that becomes totally ordinary. So that sort of body pleasure and mental pleasure, yet with alert and control.That state of mind over there is tremendously clear,lucid and controlled. The difference between usage of materials like you know drugs and through meditative stage what you get that level, is the control. Not only the lucid stage but the clarity and capability of seeing far beyond and will not have side effects, and will have control.so, it is far better than using drugs or sex. And then of course, not only that, it reduces all the delusions automatically. So whatever you do will become tremendous virtuous, whatever you do on that stage. Except for non virtuous like killing or something, otherwise every single thing you do, is going to be better benefit for you, for yourself. So, it is a stage one can achieve easily compare with Enlightenment or even determination to be free, or getting out of samsara. But this is a stage where you can easily achieved compare with that. This something you can even say, “Well, this is my goal, I am going to go there and something like that. You can packaged . And it is probably an answer for all our problems. Probably it is answer for all our problems. ..to mental, companion, family, emotional,work, study, exams, whatever it is. Our problems, probably its answer for all of those. But that doesn’t mean you give everything and go you that. Okay. Try to do by side. Those who have no work , actually, those who doesn't have sort responsible jobs, probably they can spend lots of time for doing that., very useful. So, that’s what zhine and what’s lhakthong benefits is0:54:00.8

So, if you develop interest , you can develop. Lhakthong is difficult..a little difficult but zhine is not that difficult at all. When the conditions right, and time’s right, it doesn’t take very long at all. Incidentally I am interested to know what had happened, you know, somebody in California. You have ever heard the name, ‘Alan Wallace’? (Audience: Alan Wallace. He …retreat..) Ya, he brought one of those meditators from Dharamsala , give one year zhine retreat. I don’t know what had happened to those people , whether they developed zhine or not. If the condition is perfectly right and everything is right, they could easily developed zhine. But might not have been, we didn’t hear anything thereafter very much. (*interruption) And specially in the West, what we noticing now, with a little experience of couple of years what we have, we are noticing..(*interruptions) So, zhine and lhakthong..and you have to meditate, read more about the benefit of zhila, and then have to really build a strong interest. And lotherwise, if you don’t have the interest, it will be difficult for one to build up actual zhila on that. So, in order to build up zhila properly, you should have the interest, and develop. It is almost really gives you tremendous harmony.I am not going to say it is enlightened state; it is not. Even lhakthong, when actual lhakthong develops,you will probably seeing the true nature of emptiness from face to face. But that doesn’t mean you are enlightened being. One really has to be careful because particularly in the West, a number of people who are translators, well known translators and writers, teachers insists, when you see the emptiness, you become enlightened being. That includes Professor Thurman. He will just insists no matter how many times you tell him, he’ll say, “No, No, No. When you see emptiness, that is enlightened being. Otherwise nobody else sees .” (Audience: That’s what he said, “Arahats don’t see emptiness” ) That’s mistake, a totally…That is..there is you know..did he said arahat doesn’t see emptiness? (Audience: …arahats don’t really see emptiness, if you see emptiness then you are enlightened. So you can’t say they see emptiness …they acknowledge emptiness. …his idea) You know the difference between the Buddhism and non buddhist? One is taking refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The second is, selflessness. And the third is, not harming. Not taking the..I say non-violence , but sort of violence is not been used as path or practice. And something which harms others cannot be taking as path. And that is the basic differences. So, the whole principle of non-violence is drawn from there. But selflessness is the basic principle. And selflessness is..though it has different names in Tibetan, it is called ‘da me”selflessness. ‘da’ I, or ‘da’ or selfless, without. And that is emptiness. You have to accept as emptiness. Emptiness has its own quality. It is different qualities. So that is you have to treat as emptiness. If you don’t treat as emptiness, then it becomes only those who are following Nagarjuna and Buddhapalita, , Nagrajuna’s disciple, Buddhapalita only have emptiness and rest of them don’t have emptiness. So, that is the big difference here. You can’t be…Well, he has a point in saying that, but it is a very conservative view point. You can accept that. You have to be very liberal and open. You can’t be very conservative there.it is the difference of the subtle and the difference of the gross emptiness. And emptiness of self is easier to understand than emptiness on things and articles. And that’s why it is making difference. Buddhist principles in three of them. Refuge , as objects of refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. View, selflessness, emptiness. Practice, non-violence. Maybe I said ‘non violence’, but something which harms others cannot be.’Sa wa pang pu…”, the word in tibetan, ‘sa wa’, means harming other. So it has to be Dharma which is against harming others. So these are the three principles. 1:04:35.5(*interruption) ..and then till 4, right? “Di jai tham che me ta, sa ja tham che dro wai, cho…..gye wa o) Every created phenomena is nature of emptiness. And everything contaminated are the nature of suffering. All phenomena is nature of emptiness. Nirvana is peace. These are the logo of buddhist right Four signs of Buddhism. (Audience: ) Ya, I told

,”Di ja tham che mi ta pa . Everything created are impermanent in nature. And everything contaminated are nature of suffering. All phenomena are nature of emptiness. Nirvana is peace. This is the four buddhist logos. And that also has emptiness. Okay, thank you very much and have a lunch.1:05:57.8

(After lunch)

.(*Interruption) …Now, the second outline, and that is, that mahayana and hinayana , paths of all these meditational developments are somehow under the category of the zhine, and lhakthong, it has to come under that category. So, thee are tremendous amount of different meditation practice, has been given by the Buddha’s different teachings. So each one of them if you have to study and look for, it is absolutely impossible. That’s what Tsongkhapa said. Tsongkhapa said it is absolutely impossible to comprehend all the different meditations that Buddha taught. So, that’s why this zhine and lhakthong, two sort of categories under which you can…under the mechanism of working zhine and lhakthong could probably cover almost all practice.Otherwise if you have to take out each different meditations Buddha taught, in different sutras, it is probably hundred and thousands..hundred thousands, hundred and thousands of different meditations. So, there is no way we can one ..one can learn or do anything at all. So, basically the two zhine and lhakthong, which will cover the mechanical system of meditational practice. So, that’s why these two has been picked it up as basic example or to know the how the mechanism of meditation works. I believe that covers the second outline. I should really mark those outlines, so that makes a little easier. (Audience: So the second outline, ‘the basis of all meditations..) That’s right. 1:09:44.8

Okay, now the third one. Okay,’ what is zhine,’ right? And ‘what is lhakthong’. But let’s go what is zhine is. So, Tsongkhapa decided to introduce here one text, like the sutra, the commentary..(*Rimpoche quotes the sutra..) So, again, like Tsongkhapa quotes the sutra, long sutra here..and the explanation after that. Now,in short, what really zhine is So when you are concentrating on certain thing, one thing whatever it might be, holding your mind not running here and there , and concentrated continuously, for longer period. And when your mind is trained, to sit in longer period in the manner in which you wanted to put in, and it will remain on that, almost effortlessly. Are you getting me? Almost effortlessly and then because of that be able to bring the body and mind, zhinjang, that is the pleasure we talked in the morning. And when zhinjiang was brought, and then mind single pointedly focus, (*interruption)..what are we talking? (Audience: ..zhinjiang with the mind single pointedly ..) Ya, because of the zhinjiang, the mind will be single pointedly hold in. Okay? And that position…position where you have both body and mind zhinjiang, be able to concentrate , without interruption inside, is the basically what we are talking about zhine. Zhine is not necessary to be able to see true absolute nature. Okay? Zhine does not really have to do any analyzing, does not really have to be Wisdom. It just be able to hold and bring the harmony and zhinjiang of the body and mind. When you have that, then that is the zhine. Now, the next is ‘lhakthong’ The continuation from the same sutra, (*Rimpoche reads the long sutra) So, continuing beyond that, you have the capability of holding and using the focusing, wherever whatever you wanted, and have the body and mind zhinjiang,and combination of that is zhine. Going beyond that, be able to analyse, on different things…Sort of …it can screen, It can do a microscope ..screening of a phenomena or self,whatever it is, be able to do it..and of the relative as well as the absolute of any article, or anything that exists. You can also do a gross analyzing, as well as subtle…I should not use here ‘gross’ and ‘subtle’. I should us rather , ‘profound ‘ and deep analyzing be able to do on top of that. (Audience: Rimpoche , are you talking about the two meanings?) No, don’t try to think in tibetan. You get confused, okay. (Audience: Profound extensive) That’s right, ‘profound and extensive’. You are right. Thank you (Audience: ..vast..) Profound and vast. You are right. Profound and deep, is the same thing. And lots of translators do that. …told me three times, it is the same thing. (Audience: That’s right) (Audience: Same profound and deep) Ya, profound and vast . Ya. Profound is deep. That’s what doctor is right there. I thought you try to think tibetan ching gyi pa(?) or some thing in that manner. If you think in tibetan, you could get trouble here, little bit. So, now there is a short sutra, called Konchog ting ,the ‘Cloud of enlightened beings’ . And that one says, “zhine ne ..chik pa wo , hang so ne sok sok chog parm wo..” which means ‘zhine is something you concentrate on it, just single pointed concentration is zhine. And lhakthong, is sort of analyzing, screening, sort of microscope looking through, and that is lhakthong’. That is the short sutra . I think it is easy to..if you remember. That is probably easy. And Tsongkhapa has way of putting lots of quotations on top of that. He quoted, “Maitrya chokyi min yang top pa yi…zhine lam je so par chah.., lhakthong nam gye….nam par ….che par char” It is almost the same thing .The zhine is concentration, and lhakthong is screening and analyzing. ‘Yang tak ne pa ten ne le sem la jor ……….(*long quote) de sung sol”So, now, both of them from the buddhist point of view , both zhine and lhakthong has to be analyzing or concentrating on a proper subject or object. ‘Proper’ here in the sense it has to be virtuous. It cannot be using non-virtuous though basically in zhine you can meditate on any object from yak’s horn to cow dung. However, it can but to be a paramita…to be virtuous here, it sort of they emphasized pure and good. Which means virtuous. It is sort of you have to keep that in mind. (Audience: is the definition of lhakthong ‘(*very loud noise)…realized emptiness.) Ya, total achievement of lhakthong, yes. You will not achieve lhakthong unless you have seen emptiness. But seeing emptiness has lots of different levels.Emptiness you can see. You can understand emptiness. You can see emptiness through understanding. You can see emptiness in the form of memory. You can see emptiness face to face an direct. Now, let me make a little clear to that. 1:22:13.0

So seeing emptiness understanding way means if you study the emptiness, if you study, think about it, you read, you discuss, think about it, you gain some kind of understanding, “Hah! Emptiness means something like that.’And that understanding is known as ‘tung nyi tu je top par’..You sort of getting general idea understanding of emptiness. It also is called ‘understanding of emptiness. And then the other one, I was saying ‘face to face’. That was a direct concentration on emptiness. The direct concentration of emptiness, will probably have no object or subject that is coming in the mind of the individual.It is totally focused ..totally. Your focus is totally fixed and completely. So, probably is almost become inseparable, than that of concentrating, concentrator, and the concentration. And, concentration and on what you concentrate. It almost become inseparable; almost become oneness with that. Did you here me? And that..during that [period, the total observing individual, the subject of emptiness what you observed, and the mind which is observing the emptiness. It almost become same. I am using word ‘almost’. Because there is no difference you can see. So, that is called ‘a direct encounter’ with emptiness. A number of people misunderstand that or rather misinterpreted as ‘direct encounter with mind’. And so..it is direct encounter with emptiness, which probably you see nothing, hear nothing. That’s why these big..’no for,. no ear, no tongue, no nose, no tongue, no smell….all these business, is referring to that one. During that period, nothing, nothing is there. All gone. Though you have your form body and everything is there, but gone. It was stated one of those lamas in the..through the lineage, I forgot who was it, somebody while in the meeting, saying prayers or teachings whatever it is, and when they direct encounter with emptiness, and they noticed the person who tried to hold the ..what you call this? (Audience:collar..) The collar of the cloth ..try to make sure it is there, you know. Making sure it is there..sort of almost not there. And also Jigten Sherab Sangye or somebody, who probably founder of Gyume, one is encountering emptiness, leaning on the pillar and pillar was moving, and sort of no pillar. And later, the pillar bent like this..the wooden pillar bended. Not bent big bent, but pillar sort of like this. So, when you directly encounter, you probably see nothing. There’snothing. But when you are enlightened, and seeing nothing is changed. Now, this is problem for some people. See nothing is changed, and see that empty of everything, plus you see the direct existence of everything together, simultaneously. That’s why you say ..’direct encounter with both truths together is the absolute special quality of enlightened beings’. So, till you totally enlightened, you don’t see that. And when you are enlightened, you’ll be able to see both together. So, till you are fully enlightened, then you are encountering the absolute truth will block the relative truth. The relative truth will probably block absolute truth. So that is ordinary..not even ordinary..even the..that is the difference between the enlightened and non-enlightened beings. After encountering the direct encounter of that emptiness, once you waking up from that state,and there you are functioning . And then you are not directly encounter with emptiness, however you have the understanding of emptiness carrying with you, while you are dealing with relative things, when you are carrying with you, and that is the third kind of understanding, what I was mentioning. I used the word ‘memory’ but it is not really a memory; it is a functioning.(Audience:..living in..) Ya, it is sort of leaving inside but not direct encounter . so, I skipped myself, using the word, ‘memory’. But tibetan has a word for that,it is ‘thun chi’ and one is “dag chi”. The earlier is ‘dag chi’..’da chi’is sound, by the explanation sound understanding . Through the sound you hear, and through that you can understand something. And that is the ‘dag chi’ , to understand , to follow the word of explanation, dag chi. Then, understanding, follow by direct experience. That is the 3G. So, So, sort of three different ways of seeing emptiness. (Audience;So, the question follows, which of these ? is necessary for lhakthong. Is any or are they necessary) I think it is absolutely necessary. And that depends how good your lhakthong it. That will go in that way. So, it is there, that way. 1:31:01.9

Okay, let’s go now. Let’s not stay on. Otherwise I may be able to finish. ‘Ten ni la pang ne ..citta la…(*long quote)….” Okay, I have done that. (*Rimpoche mumbles through*) Now, Tsongkhapa further goes on and says…this is basically what the zhine and what the lhakthong is. And he quotes much more,…page after page , much more different sutras and commentaries. And that is Tsongkhapa’s style. Tsongkhapa produces reasoning, and he proofs that reasoning by coating different things. And oh..

Oh oh…sh ra che te maya..” Tsongkhapa further goes on says, “Zhine and lhakthong, has in their object, the relative and absolute, both. So which means .. which means ..some zhine has understanding of emptiness, and which likewise you have to say some lhakthong which will not have understanding of emptiness too…1:33:57.3