Archive Result

Soundfile 19941125GRJHNL3P 1

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location Netherlands

Topic Three Principles of the Path

Transcriber Lesley Pritchard

Date 5 Sept 2021

(Mantras and praises)

(Om mani padme hum)

(Om tare tutare ture soha)

(Migme….)

0:05:12.6 Hello. How are you? Are you comfortable? (Some people I didn’t see last night….etc)

0:06:03.5 Today we are supposed to talk about Three Principles of the Path. What I would like to do is, you do have the books made available. Everybody. Right? And the Dutch translation of Three Principles of the Path is there. So, what we will do is you get a copy and you start reading a verse and I will start to try talk about it. Verse by verse.

(Miscellaneous conversation…..silence etc etc….waiting for attendees to sit?)

0:10:02.4 People may look as sort of a different package. Three Principles of the Path. Lam Rim. Or Foundations of Perfections. This and that. You may look at different packages, however to me it is not in a separate package. It is very much within the one package. (0:10:35.3 Dutch translation) 0:10:56.7) One package, in the sense of the principle message, what it contains, is the same thing. (0:11:13.7 D 0:11:21.8) When Tsongkhapa started writing the big Lam Rim - Manjushri, of course, is familiar with everybody as the immanation of the wisdom of all enlightened beings in physical form called Manjushri. So Manjushri started teasing Tsongkhapa saying “Oh, whatever I told you is not good enough. So you won. Right? Again. (0:12:02.3 D 0:12:23.29) But Tsongkhapa said “No, no, no. Whatever you told me, it is the big (0:12:28.2 ??) And the life of this book. (0:12:30.6 D 0:12:39.0) So that’s why it is the essence of the Lam Rim that is here. Any other questions about it? We haven’t talked about. Would you like to know anything about it? Before we go into it? It sounds rather strange. Normally people ask questions afterwards. We (will have) their questions before. Well, in Jewel Heart what we will try to do is to give a basic essence of the Buddhist path. Therefore we go first through the Three Principles of the Path. Then we sort of give a little more than that. It is the Foundation of Perfections. Then we give the shortest Lam Rim of Tsongkhapa which is called Lines of Experience. Then we try to give the medium level of the Lam Rim. Then, if time and conditions permit, we will read the largest Lam Rim. What we are doing is, first we present the simple way so that people can comprehend. Then the second is a little more detailed, so that it will have a little effect on the individual. Then third, little more round so that you can really make a difference to your life. That is why we developed these stages. (0:14:35.1 Dutch 0:15:17.9)

0:15:18.2 That is also based on the study of what we do. (It) is not only on that reason alone. It is based on the traditional way. For example, when you talk about Tsongkhapa and his life, when Tsongkhapa talks about life, first and foremost he talks about the learning path first. What did he learn? Even he himself said (0:16:09.7 Tib) that first he started to learn. The second step, (Tib) is he meditated, analyzed, pondering on the idea until it becomes real matter materialized. At the end, he practiced day and night. When we said day and night practice, it does not mean he doesn’t do anything, just sit there and meditating. Shut the door and meditating. No. Practice really means get sort of incorporated into the principle of your life. So that’s why practice day and night is possible. Practice day and night does not mean you shut your door and then sit there and meditate day and night (0:17:14.9 D 0:17:57.5) What we are trying to do here in Jewel Heart is also true to the tradition. Yet, openness. Room is not restricted. You have to do this. You have to do this. You have to do this. Not restricted. Left open for people to explore, argue and counter-argue and clear your misunderstandings and doubts, thoughts and so on and so forth. Two points: Point One: true to the tradition. Point Two: its open and you can have idea, thoughts, arguments, counter-arguments and everything. (0:18:47.1 D 0:19:06.9)

0:19:08.9 So, that’s what we do. The first learning part of it, we will try to present some very comprehensive, small little things. We will talk everywhere and address everything. But what you need is something to collect them together. If you don’t have basis to collect, then you hear so many things here and so many things there, you read this, you read that. Lamas come, lamas go. Books you read, books you finish. That’s it, nothing else. And the bells ring. Whose bell is that? Yours? Ok. Bells ring, incense burns. Nice little music at the beginning. When it rings too much you don’t want to hear it anymore. And nice smell in the beginning, of the incense. When its too much, it irritates your eyes and your sinuses. So its no point. It almost becomes a circus. So, to make it different, and not make it show business or circus. To make it different you need a basis to collect every information and incorporate it within you. So Three Principles of the Path are very good with that. Foundations of Perfection is very good for that. There are a lot of those short little ones in there that are very useful. Traditional Tibetan teachers used to give example. If you have a little tin or utensil where you can keep your tea, coffee, flour, rice, sugar, you have little tins organized in your house, when you go outside, you get an extra handful of sugar, you can bring it into your home, into your sugar pot. It becomes your sugar pot more richer, a little better. So does the tea, coffee, everything. But if you are not organized, then what would you do? You are going to mix the sugar, tea, salt, rice and everything. Then what are you going to do? (0:23:00.5 D 0:23:31.0)

0:23:30.6 So, this is organization. Its going to be very, its not going to be juicy. Its going to be a little dry talk. But bear it. Bear with me. Its gets some fruit. Okay. So, let’s start with the first verse. The first one line there. Everybody has a copy? Right? First translate it - one line - into Dutch. (0:24:32.3 …..reference to the Holy Gurus…..etc….0:25:32.9) Reverence to the Holy Guru. Guru Trip. Haven’t you had enough gurus in the 60’s? Americans say they had more than enough. Maybe they did not have much in Europe? You did have guru trip didn’t you? A lot of people shaking heads, a lot of people sitting there. Maybe its an aging gap. A lot of the younger ones don’t know what a guru trip is. The other ones do know. (Laughter)

0:26:32.9 That’s all they did. But on the other hand, if you look today what’s happening with all these Eastern religions that have come in the West, when you look at it, it looks like it has introduced the guru trip and a lot of scandals and all these things we know. (0:27:02.1 D 0:27:17.8) If you look at it and you hear so many this not….this and that. This Zen master and that Zen master and this Trungpa Rinpoche and that Rinpoche and a bunch of big scandals we can see today. We can hear it today. (….Laughter……) But we don’t hear is what benefit people got. It looks like guru trip has become bad. Perhaps it has been bad too. The simple reason is, the criteria to be a guru is not properly looked at. Every single person who takes the name of a guru are not necessarily a great guru at all. Nor is Eastern religion organized like Roman Catholic where the Pope appoints the cardinals and its only announced about the cardinals. The bishops are appointed by the king, not necessarily by the Pope himself. So, in between that you had good gurus and bad gurus and everybody had to play their roles. I don’t think its the fault of gurus because I am protecting those. Because I am bound to that category. But the true point is, people have no idea of judging from what. The only thing that you have to judge is what kind of robe that person wears. Or whether their hair is longer or shorter or bald-headed. Sort of somebody says good and somebody else says something else. That is the only ground you have. That was the problem. That’s why you have no way to judging whoever somebody says is a guru. Then you just go “guru” and bow down. If you have anything else, tell me. Is there any way for you to judge? (audience inaudible comment…)

0:31:58.2 Translator: He says if the guru becomes rich of his followers, then that is a reason to say perhaps he is not such a good one. Rimpoche: I did not say why he is a good guru or bad. I simply said do you have a way to judging whether that person is the right guru or wrong guru. Right good, right or wrong. Besides, you hear from somebody else, or maybe the people dress differently or maybe there is some advertisement and what else do you have? Nothing. We don’t. Just yourself. (I’m not asking you. Laughter) Right? So now. Why? Because you don’t have information. You don’t have a base. You might have information about the person. He may have a very attractive resume or good public relations, good resume, attractive. That’s the only thing you have. That is the problem. It’s not the guru’s problem. It is our problem. Now, how do we observe the guru? What do we do? What quality should we (look for)? It depends on what you want. What is my need? Can this guy or this woman, can this person fulfill my need? That is why what Buddha taught us, is that there are three different types of guru.

0:34:51.8 The first is the Hinayana guru. What do Hinayana people want? They just want liberation. Something totally free of the individual’s pain. That is one type of guru that can do that. Then second is the Mahayana Sutra guru. What does that one, what does that path give you? What is the people in that? What is their aim? Accordingly, there is the quality of the guru. There are ten qualities of the guru there. Then you have the Mahayana Vajrayana. It is has its own quality. The first and foremost thing you need to learn is the criteria to be fit to be a guru. On that basis you can judge whether that person is fit or not fit. Let’s talk about it a little bit. The Hinayana is called two qualities. The first quality is the quality of stable. The second quality is the quality of the knowledge. What does stable mean? In the case of monks and nuns, the stable quality means the person remains in vow continuously more than ten years are called quality of stable. To remain in vow, continuously meaning that person had dealt with your own delusions with the discipline continuously for ten years. That is quality of stable. Quality of knowledgeable means the path that you are seeking. If you are seeking liberation, the person must know how to liberate. What steps are involved. What meditation you should to do, what problems will come up, how to handle those problems. That is the knowledge, the requirement. That is the sort of sum of guru number one.

0:39:28.5 That leads to guru number two: Mahayana Sutra. You need ten qualities. (Tib 0:39:49.5) The Maitreya Buddha has written a book called Buddha Tantra. In the western sense, you have to say Maitreya Buddha. Actually its the quality of the master - (who) is well-behaved. Very well-behaved. Knowledgeable. Enthusiastic. Rich on the source. One who has insight. One who knows how to present well. One who is compassionate. One who can bear a little hardship. So now, very well-behaved. What does that mean? It does not mean knowing how to sit properly. “Well-behaved” here means, one who has upper hand over their anger, hatred, jealously and fault of the delusions. Got it? Then there is one more. It is completely. Been over it. Get rid of it. Completely. I am talking to you as everyday, easy way of dealing. I am not talking technically with you. Technically, you are supposed to deal with three baskets in teaching and all of that. Forget about it. And then one who knows better than you otherwise what will they teach you. The third one. Who knows better than you? To teach you one who has to have a little enthusiasm, otherwise the Buddha’s will go to lunch. Once you have been reaching the source, otherwise they have been giving you the wrong message. One who understands what you are teaching, otherwise its the blind leading the blind. One should be able to present it nicely, otherwise it will be very boring and you will go to sleep. I don’t think it depends on the language either. If you think about it and you look back, at the late Lama Yeshe, its very nice. His language of English was not that good at all. But somehow he has a way of presenting. Sort of a universal language. He gave the message more by the body gesture rather than the language itself. I am sure that some of you had teachings with the Lama Yeshe. (You never met Lama Yeshe? Anybody else? Video?….laughter…how was the language?)

0:45:21.6 He comes in and catches you with all sorts of body gesture. I noticed that. Rather than language itself. Then you have, if you are looking at Tibetan Buddhism tradition, you have Trungpa Rinpoche on the other hand. It is very rich in the language, as well as very charismatic. Exactly how to put things straight. Then if you look, there are much more learned geshes and rinpoches than all of those people who are totally handicapped by the presentation. If you sit there, you sit there and it becomes very difficult. This is the quality that is missing. The presentation part of it (0:47:26.0 Unintelligible….) The first day, when they invited him, they said it was going to be like a ten day course. The first day there were 40 people. The second day there were less than ten people. The third day, there were three. The fourth night they said, you can go home now. That is what happened I think 2-3 years ago. It is not the shortage of the quality of the person presenting, but the part of the presentation is missing. That’s why this quality, the person has to be compassionate. If there is no compassion in this person, even if they have qualities, it will make no difference to you. Even if you have a nice presentation. It will not be as good as the professor who presents his viewpoints in the academic community. It will not affect the individual that much at all. Compassionate is necessary. Compassion makes hell of a difference. Even if I am talking with my own personal experience. Whatever you do, even if its a tiny little one, it must contribute something to the benefit of the person who is sitting there listening to you. You have to have that feeling. If you don’t have that feeling, no matter how much you try to do, you make a very impressive lecture or talk by doing a lot of research and bringing a lot of papers, bring a lot of books, open this, open that, it doesn’t do any good.

0:51:02.3 If you have compassion, whatever you do, the desire to be helpful with that motivation, with that attitude, if you do it, even the gesture of Lama Yeshe can get the message across because of the compassion. Like a Karmapa, who does nothing but just sit there and put his head on it but it will be very helpful for the hundreds and thousands of people. The late Karmapa. He doesn’t do anything. He just sits on the throne and puts his head on his hand like this. The people see him and they are very happy. It affects their life. That is because of the compassion. Then, (you need) one who can take a little hardship. Take a little pain. If you can’t take the pain, noone is going to entertain the western emotional problems. The emotional problems, particularly in the west are tremendous. It doesn’t take much time to make your face longer. (laughter) Right? So one has to take that little bit of hardship, otherwise one is useless. Particularly if you dismiss people’s problems as odd, unstable, or crazy. That type of person. Like gone crazy. If you dismiss people’s problems that way, that means you can’t take much hardship. Or “I don’t like the system, I don’t like the person, I don’t like the way and how it is.” You can dismiss it on any other grounds. It is easy to find excuses. I don’t like the culture. I don’t like the way the person thinks. Its not my cup of tea. We can always say that. Its an excuse. Its also the guru showing his lack of quality. Lack of quality which does not have endurance at all.

0:55:08.9 That’s about it. Besides the basic ten Mahayana qualities. I’m missing one. I said insight earlier. Very briefly, that’s fine. Anyway, you have nine. That’s more than enough. What Buddha recommended is, you give them a 50% discount. You know why? You are never going to find somebody with all of these ten qualities. Ever. Because of the time. Its the 1990’s. That’s why. (Laughter.) OK. At least you now have criteria to judge the master. Those of you who should be or who would like to be or become a master, you can also see whether or not you have the qualities. I gave you these things so you can judge yourself, whether you are or are not qualified. On top of that, the Vajrayana qualities, there are ten more on top of that. The Vajrayana masters have ten more qualities. All of them are put in one. That will be not so much a subject here. If the master is qualified to be Sutra master, if the person has the tradition of the Vajrayana, somehow they will be okay. These are the qualities and criteria for becoming a spiritual master. Then what you do, you will find your spiritual master. You will observe your spiritual master. See whether that person - you don’t observe your spiritual master, you observe the person who you think you will make your spiritual master. Observe that person. See if that person has these qualities or not. If there are qualities, if you are happy with that, then you join and you become a spiritual disciple. If that’s not there, then there is no point. Maybe its a great person, give them a nice note and say goodbye. That’s the way it should go. If you do that, you will not have the problem of the “guru trips.” That’s that.

0:59:40.1 Once you find the person with all these qualities and its suitable to you, then you get understanding with that person and yourself. It doesn’t matter whoever it might be, whether it is man or woman. Get understanding and lock yourself in with that person. You are a spiritual master. Would you accept me? That person will accept you. Then you lock in and then you have contact with them. You make contact with them. Then you begin the relationship of guru disciple. Get it? Once you are involved in the contact and once you have accepted the person as guru. Then proper devotion to it will become the foundation of perfection. Get the idea? That’s why first and foremost actually its sort of Buddhist 101. If you go to the university, the first class is 101. Sort of Buddhist 101 will be Guru Devotional Practice. That’s why its called The Foundation of All Perfections. How does this guru devotion work with the individual? Tsongkhapa made three points here. The root of all development is the development of profound, intelligent faith. The second is by remembering the kindness and offering of reverence. Respect. Profound faith is necessary. Not blind faith. There is a big difference between blind faith and intelligent faith. What was in the west earlier was blind faith. Blind faith really made a lot of people follow a lot of people. Then you encounter with certain difficulties. Then you get shock. Then you get accused. Then you build up the scandals. What will happen, what is happening is actually you are not accusing anybody. You are not building up scandal. You are cutting your own foundation. The blind faith is very easy to develop. And it is very easy to knock out. Somebody will say “So and so is great, great, great.” And you say, “Oh, great. Great. Great.” Then someone else says “Terrrible, terrible, terrible.” And you go “It may be terrible, may be terrible, terrible.”

There was a saying in the sutra (?? 1:05:34.6 Tib) meaning if three people agreed, then the Brahman’s goat may be made into a dog. You didn’t get it. OK. Let me put the story the other way around. In India there is a caste called the brahman caste. Right? The brahmans do not deal with the dogs. The brahmans are a higher caste. Especially the Kashi pundits, a special caste. They are not going to deal with the dogs. The dog is considered a very low caste. But they deal with the goats. So one brahman has a goat. This is a very old, old, ancient story. One brahman has a goat. That brahman thought “Alright.” But three thiefs thought they would steal this brahman’s goat and slaughter it to sell the meat. They said “How do we get this brahman’s goat?” Three of them said “Ok. We can tell him to kick the goat. How should we do it?” One said “We should sit here. When he goes by, (we say) “Look how funny! This brahman is taking a dog with him.” So, the brahman and his goat go by. The first thief says “Look, wow this brahman is taking his dog with him!” The second thief says, “What a stupid person. He couldn’t even figure out whether it is a dog or goat!” So the brahman stopped. After a little while, another third 7person says “Look at this funny brahman. He is taking a dog with him!” So, he thought “What?” He looks around once. Looks very carefully at his goat. It’s a goat, its not a dog. “What’s the matter with these people?” So he walks by. After a little while, the third person there, says “Look at this brahman. He’s taking a dog with him!” By that time the brahman thought “Maybe I am confused. This is a dog. Get out of here!” And he kicks the goat away. By that time the thiefs took the goat. That’s how the story goes. If three people agree, the brahman’s goat can change into a dog. The reality, is that the goat has not become a dog, but in the mind of the brahman, it has become a dog. So if you have blind faith, this is the problem. The real reason, your reason, for taking that person as your guru is because so and so said so. Or because I read in the paper. I read in the publicity. Therefore that’s what you build up. You have the opposite of that. You have contradiction. Then the goat becomes a dog.

1:11:21.4 This is what I am telling you. You have to have intelligent faith. That’s not only to the guru. Its for all of your practice. To everything that you do. Everything that you stand for. All of your own principles. You have to have that intelligence. Intelligent faith is intelligent faith, its not stubbornness. Blind faith and stubbornness are the worst problems the spiritual practitioners face at the beginning level. Get it? When you are presenting spiritual path, you have to give the spiritual path along with the problems you are going to face. If you do not introduce the problems and you only introduce positiveness alone, then again it is like blind faith. It becomes a lack of presentation. Now, when you have intelligent faith, it is necessary. Why? (1:13:39.2 Tib) Its like a mother. Without mother you cannot have children. No matter how great the father may be. Without mother, you cannot produce a baby at all. We can see that. Right? It’s like the ground. Like the mother earth. Without the earth, you cannot grow anything. There will be no vegetation if there is no earth. So intelligent faith is like mother earth or like the mother. It is intelligence. Just the mere slogan or mere accusing or mere something will not shake your ground. If shook, it does not shake a simple thought, it shakes your spiritual foundation. So, it is important. One, still number one: observation. Observe as much as you can. Once you make the decision, follow well. That’s how you do it. That’s about enough for guru devotional practice, I think. I can keep on talking for a long time, but it may not do any good. It may do good, but you have to talk about things, so maybe that’s enough. (1:16:18.1 Do we need to have a short break? Now? Ok.)

1:16:42.2 Conclude the first line, otherwise we will be nowhere. That’s why we talked about the first line. What does guru represent? That is the important thing. No matter whether they are good or bad. Whatever it is. To me, my guru represents the total enlightened beings. My living connection to the enlightenment is through my guru. Therefore, it is absolutely important for me. I’m talking about my guru to me. Not only, I look to my gurus as representatives of enlightened beings, I look at my gurus as real, living, enlightened beings. I’m talking about myself. I do have different practices. For example, I do have Yamantaka practice. I do have Vajrayogini practice. I do have Heruka practice. I do have different practices here and there. You need it. But I don’t look at them as a short cut. I don’t say. “Look, I will bypass my guru and make contact with Yamantaka.” It doesn’t work. If we start looking for some kind of living guru side, (and think?) “I can deal directly with the enlightened beings,” it doesn’t work at all. A lot of people, you know when I was young, I used to think the same way. I’m sure a lot of people in the west think the same way. I’d like to make a deal with the Buddha and leave the guru aside. That doesn’t work. That’s why its called the root of all development. I think that’s enough, for that part. That’s why Tsongkhapa first referenced the guru rather than Buddha or anybody else, in this matter. In this particular book.

1:20:33.7 The first verse. Can you read it? (Translator: “I will explain, as best as I can, the essential import of all the Victor’s teaching. The path praised by all the holy bodhisattvas. This entrance for those fortunates who seek freedom.” Rimpoche: There is a problem for this. A problem of translation. Not from English to Dutch. From Tibetan to English. The word in Tibetan is (1:21:26.2 ??) The “children of the Buddha” has been translated as “bodhisattva” and that is a problem. Bodhisattvas are children of Buddha but that does not mean that. But that may be too technical anyway. (1:21:51.2 Tib) This particular verse is called. “Promising to Explain.” What do you promise to explain? The essence of the teaching of the Buddha. What is the essence of the teaching of the Buddha? Three Principles. Principle One: Liberation. Principle Two: Love and Compassion. Principle Three: is Wisdom. That is the essence of the teaching of Buddha. (1:23:13.0 Tib) The second line? Translator: “The path praised by all the holy buddhas.” R: That’s right. Or, “the path praised by the children of the Buddha.” Now, why I said it was wrong. Because self-liberation. This word is supposed to be able to put all three principles equally. Each sentence is supposed to put equally to all three principles, or one by one, all that is (represented here?), is supposed to fit with everything. That is why if you made it “bodhisattva” it becomes difficult to fit the first one. All the children of the Buddha. Again, the self-liberation. The liberation, seeking freedom or determining when yourself becomes free of the suffering, is the determination of the children of the enlightened beings. That was the path praised by the children of Buddha. Compassion and love is the path praised by the children of the Buddha. And wisdom is the path praised by the children of the Buddha. That’s how it works. If you say bodhisattva, bodhisattvas do not praise the self-liberation.

(1:25:47.8 Tib) What was the last word? Translator: “Best entrance for those fortunates who seek freedom.” Rimpoche: That’s right. Self-liberation is the best entrance for those who seek the freedom. Love and compassion is the best entrance for those who seek the enlightenment. The wisdom is the doorway without which you cannot get freedom at all. That is what Tsongkhapa promised to explain. What is the last verse? Translator: “I will explain as best as I can….” Rimpoche: As best as I can. That’s good. Tsongkhapa is the master. It is the emanation of Manjushri. There is nothing he cannot explain. Still, he said “As best as I can….” Which means he is putting his ego down. The second verse will work the same way. Translator: “Listen with clear minds, you lucky people who aspire the path that pleases Buddhas, who work to give meaning to leisure and opportunity. Who are not addicted to the pleasures of cyclic…..” Rimpoche: Whoa. You’ve gone to far. That particular verse, opportunity is not there. Really? Ok. You are right. Anyway the first verse is asking people to pay attention. Like “Hey, listen to me. I will try to explain whatever I can. Something important to you. That’s what it is. What is that important? Not this bottle. (1:29:26.9 Tib) One who does not have strong attachment, or something like that. Translator: “Listen with clear minds you lucky people who aspire the path that pleases buddhas….” Rimpoche: The seeking of self-liberation, the seeking freedom to ourself is the practice. If you do it, the Buddha is pleased with that. Why? The buddhas are totally dedicated to helping others. If you do not open the way, there is no way they can help you because you shut your door. If you open a little bit and see the reality and wanted to free yourself (from) the problems, the buddhas will be happy. That is why the path pleases Buddha. Love compassion, the second principle, definitely pleases Buddha. Because that’s the only way buddhas do and because that’s what all the buddhas want you to do. Wisdom is the path which pleases buddhas because that overpowers ignorance. Because ignorance is our problem. That is the path which pleases Buddha.

1:32:05.8 That covers all three. What is next? Translator: “….who work to give meaning to leisure and opportunity….” Rimpoche: Leisure and opportunity is our life. We are not busy. We pretend to be busy. True! We make ourself a lot of deadlines. We make ourself a lot of commitments. We try to keep them together. We try to get here, we try to get there. We make ourselves busy. Agree? In reality, we have opportunity. We have time. We have time to gossip. We have time for anything you want to, actually. We do have time for shopping. We do have time for…..(laughter)……whatever. you know. So, we have time. We have opportunity. If you want to make that worthwhile, seek freedom. Generate love and compassion. Have a little wisdom. That makes it worthwhile. What is the next one? Translator: “….Who are not addicted to the pleasures of cyclic life….” Rimpoche: We are addicted.

(The End)