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19960709GRAABWL

Tape 8 side A - 07/09/96

Verse thirteen

Like entrusting myself to a brave man when greatly afraid

By entrusting myself to this (Awakening Mind) I shall

Be swiftly liberated

Even if I have committed extremely unbearable evils.

Why then do the conscientious not devote themselves to this?

When you generate bodhimind you will have an extremely powerful companion on your spiritual journey. Traditionally, when people used to travel in old India or Tibet in the years 800 - 1000, at round about that time, there used to be a lot of robbers and thieves. The thieves would come at night, the robbers would rob you in the day time. It was difficult. You could not go on a journey by yourself. In order to make sure that you had a safe journey, you needed a very powerful companion. You could rely on that companion, and he would take you and it would be easy to cross over, without difficulties at all. Likewise, on the spiritual journey, we will also have a lot of obstacles.

One obstacle will be that you could be either overenthusiastic or not interested enough - too relaxed. Then you would lose interest.

Another obstacle is the friends. The friends whom you talk to, with whom you share your experiences, they may say, ‘What a crazy thing to do! It is very unscientific. What makes you think it works? Don’t waste your time, don’t do it! Don’t get into it, it was good in the old times, but it is not meant for now’. This they will say and on the other hand they may say, ‘This is not safe. You better make sure that you are safe!’ Then they will try to save you from falling into the clutches of some kind of evil spirit, from going to hell, from going to the wrong side of God.

These are outer obstacles. Even if you are free from them, you get your own internal obstacles such as doubt. You don’t see what is going on. Spiritual development is such a slow movement. You don’t really realize how much progress you are making - unless you look back. When you look five, eight or ten years back, then you can see the difference. But when you try to see a difference between now and what you did three months ago or last year, you are not going to see it. Then you may think, ‘What is happening? I am stuck, nothing is happening, I am not moving.’ So you get doubts. Another obstacle is non-availability of support - and attractions. There are attractions for all sorts of things. There are attractions for companionship, for materialistic development. Remember, our biggest problem is the phantasies - our attachment to our phantasies. They are our hang-ups. We have materialistic hang-ups, sexual hang-ups, etc. My thought was going to somebody who had to bury their vibrator in the backyard. Hang-ups, you know! So those hang-ups are our problem. They will throw you off the path. Sometimes, however, over-enthusiasm can be a problem. You put all your energies into it, try to get something done, you may not be exactly on the point where you have to be, and your efforts go off in that way. So these are our obstacles.

On top of that, we have lack of awareness. That is another problem. We have very little awareness. We don’t focus, we don’t concentrate. That is one of the biggest obstacles. After you free the external and internal doubts, and all your friends will come and try to save you, if you get through all this, your biggest problem will be awareness. We spend time, like days and weeks, without awareness. That is the biggest problem. To protect ourselves from all of those, a big macho-viking guy comes around and moves around with you as your body-guard. That is the bodhimind. It is the powerful companion who makes sure that you don’t get tripped up on one of those obstacles, or that you don’t fall into holes. If you have such a powerful companion-vehicle, which is able to cut through all the obstacles, even if you have committed a tremendous amount of negativities, [you will make it]. You may even have committed the five limitless negativities, that is: killing your own father and mother, killing arhats, killing Buddhas, creating disunity among the Sangha, making them fight among each other. These are the five limitless negativities.

Arhats are those people who are free from the samsara or cyclic existence. They have gone out of that cycle. They have achieved nirvana or peace. They are free from the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth, life after life. Technically it is not quite correct. If you ask what is samsara, in the technically correct way I have to say that is the continuation of contaminated identity. To be free from that is nirvana. So if you kill an arhat, or if you like to kill a Buddha - you cannot actually kill a Buddha - if you kill your own father and mother, or created trouble among the sangha, these are the five limitless negativities. According to Buddhism these are the five heaviest negativities, even heavier than what Jeffrey Dahmer did [ killed and ate his victims]. It is even worse than what Angulimala had done. [He killed 999 people, cut one of their fingers off and strung them onto a mala which he wore around his neck. He believed that if he managed to kill 1000 people in that manner he would achieve enlightenment]. There was one king in old India who actually accumulated two of the five limitless negativities. He killed his father who also happened to be an arhat. He had thrown his father in jail and when he realized how great his father really was, he got extremely worried and gave the order to free him, but he came two seconds too late. That king had tremendous regret and he ran to Buddha. Buddha did not say, ‘You made a terrible mistake’. He said instead, ‘It is okay, you should kill your father and mother, you should destroy your whole retinue, then you will be liberated.’ When the king heard that, he was so shocked that he had to sit down for a while, but through that Buddha gained the opportunity to change the king’s thoughts. Later he gave him all the explanations. So Buddha could do that, we can’t. A Buddha has the capacity to handle that, we don’t, we are not Buddhas - although when Gelong-la passed away during the retreat, John came running to me and I said to him, ‘Sit down and have your breakfast!’ He said, ‘Me, Breakfast?’ ‘Yeah’, I said, ‘Breakfast’ and he said, ‘Okay’, and sat down and he had this muffin in front of him. The muffin never went into his mouth!.

Anyway, such a person who has committed all of the five limitless negativities, even such a person does not have to be afraid, because there is this powerful helper, companion, friend, ally - and that is the bodhimind. It is also very quick. It can take you comfortably, quickly through your journey. If you are a person who has any awareness, any understanding, why would you not rely on such a powerful ally? So that is the point. That is why we always say, ‘Watch your motivation!’ Motivation is the most important thing. No matter whatever you do, your motivation is extremely important. If you have a good motivation, the influence of that motivation will run through the eight hours or sixteen hours of your day, and through the time that you sleep, whether it is six, eight or nine hours. If you cover like that the twenty-four hours of the day with such a great mind, that makes every of your chores perfect.

I am telling you all the time that even if you have to wait at the check-out counter of the grocery store, or at the parking lot, or if you are a very busy shuttle flier and go all the time between Detroit and New York, even if you have to do that, if you have such a motivation, you will have a tremendous amount of benefits. That is the power of ultimate love and compassion. It is the power that makes every work that you do, positive. That is the power. Who in hell, if you are a sensible person, would not take that as their companion? Why don’t we take that as the solution to the busy American life in the 1990s and 2000 - making everything positive? If I had to choose between such a powerful motivation, while being a busy lawyer or resident doctor, and on the other hand, not having that motivation and having all the time in the world to say mantras and meditate, without any hesitation I would choose the busy resident doctor’s life who has to work 68 hours at a stretch. From the point of virtues and positive karma you are better off than the lazy guy who is sitting down, saying mantras all the time. True, that is the power of this mind. When you read the bodhisattvacharyavatara, it will tell you.

verse fourteen

Just like the fire at the end of an age,

It instantly consumes all great evil.

Its unfathomable advantages were taught

To the disciple Sudhana by the wise Lord Maitreya.

Buddha Maitreya taught his disciple Sudhana about the bodhimind. It is a long story. I am not going to go through that according to the commentary. It is very long on that. Actually, the commentary also says that one of the best things to protect people from the fear is bodhimind. We do have a tremendous amount of fear within ourselves. That is one of our obstacles. A lot of people don’t know what they are afraid of. People are afraid of giving up, of falling down, of being left out. People are even afraid of not knowing what they are afraid of. Sometimes people are afraid that somebody comes out of their closet. We do that all the time. All these fears are there with us. Funny or not, but that is what it is. Bodhimind is one of the best ways to overcome the fear, particularly the fears that come out of negativities which will make you fall. Bodhimind will protect you from that.

Verse 14 is talking about the end of the age, when the whole universe is going to be destroyed by fire. Christianity talks about that too. I did not know about that until the incident at Waco, Texas. These people said that they did that to fulfil a prophecy. [They killed themselves and burnt their property down]. Anyway, the whole universe will be destroyed one day by fire, also by water, air and earth. The four elements will destroy the universe. The end of the universe - a lot of people will say that something will happen and everything will disappear suddenly. I had that discussion with a number of people. It might not be like that. To me, it is not. For sure, the universe will be destroyed by the elements. But it will happen gradually. It is not going to go out all of a sudden. If you are looking for that, you will be disappointed. We are already losing a tremendous amount of forests year after year through fire. Certain things happen in a cycle, definitely, but certain things we are losing more and more. There is a lot of elemental destruction we have been seeing in the last couple of years.

That White Tara practice which we made - the shorter one - is also dedicated to protect from that elemental destruction. If you notice, there is a little notice under the actual practice. There is a little dedication of mine in there somewhere - if you have the correct copy. Apparently it was too long and has been cut out. Anyway, it is dedicated to that. It is simply because the elemental destructions are getting more and more. This is a clear indication that we are going to go through worse times. So we would like to drag our feet as much as possible. Still, it is going to come slowly, not in one bang. If you are the last one when that happens, you have got to go, thats that. But the final destruction is that fire will destroy everything up to the first level of the samadhi. You can look at the General Motors - type of chart of the different realms, you see there the 52 different realms of existence according to the Buddhist thought. Out of these 52, there are the six desire realms, the four form- and the four formless realms. The first level of the four form realms is called ‘First Samadhi’. Up to that level everything is supposed to be destroyed by elements at the end of the age. The fire element will destroy everything up to that level.

Likewise, the bodhimind destroys all the negativities that we have created. According to the Buddha Maitreya’s teachings, the bodhimind can destroy all the negativities in one go - like a powerful fire. You can see on television all the time how fast the fire can come and take the trees. Hundreds of acres are consumed within hours and everything is burnt. People are amazed how fast that happens. Similarly, bodhimind has that much power to consume all the negativities - even the five limitless negativities created by one person. Bodhimind can destroy that. This is so powerful for purification. The bodhimind is not only the companion that protects you from fear, but it also gives you tremendous purification. If you do the Vajrasattva recitation a hundred million times, it is great. But that work, if you have developed the bodhimind, can be done in one minute. One minute of the bodhimind is capable of doing that. So that is extremely important. So this is the powerful companion. This is the solution to change ordinary mind into extraordinary mind, like the elixir changing metals into gold. This is the most powerful purification. It is the most powerful companion to travel with on your spiritual journey. This is the source of comfort, the source of changing everything into positivity. Looking at that, who in the world would not be interested to develop this mind? This is the solution, this is how you have to develop, this is it. This is bodhimind - ultimate love and ultimate compassion.

Then you will begin to raise questions. What is bodhimind? How do I get that? That will be answered in the next verse.

Verse fifteen

In brief, the Awakening Mind

Should be understood to be of two types;’

The mind that aspires to awaken

And the mind that ventures to do so.

That gives you the prayer form of the bodhimind and the action form of the bodhimind.

The prayer form is aspiring or wishing to be able to do that. It is praying that ‘may I develop that’. The second type is actually taking action, doing something to make that happen.

Verse sixteen

As is understood by the distinction

Between aspiring to go and (actually) going.

So the wise understand in turn

The distinction between these two.

It is the difference between saying, ‘I would like to go’ and actually going. So the first type is like saying, ‘I wish to do that, I wish to do that’. Even that alone is great, although you don’t do anything. It is such a powerful mind. That is the power of love and compassion. Even if you can’t do anything and just say, ‘I wish to do something’, this makes you perfect. Then, if you actually do it - no comparison. There is no equivalent. It is inconceivable.

So the bodhimind is divided into two. Aspiration and action. First we have to develop aspiration. Without aspiration you can’t act. So even the aspiration has tremendous power. Don’t forget that. Why is Tibetan Buddhism so important?

end of side A of tape 8

Tape 8 side B - 07/09/96

You are actually holding the keys in your own hands. Do not miss the opportunity. Why is this your spiritual home? You know Vajrayana is great, no doubt. But what makes Vajrayana great? It is because of these points. I always tell you: If you build a castle on the ice, in June the ice will melt and the castle will collapse. But if you build a solid foundation, it is different. This is the foundation. These are the keys that make Vajrayana powerful and perfect and make it work. If you miss it here, you miss everything. This is very important.

The next week end we do the mind training. That is about the action bodhimind, not only aspiring but actually doing it. So it goes very well with this teaching. Rilbur Rinpoche will give that. He has had seventy-four years of training in both the spiritual and temporal systems of Tibet, including communist Chinese prison as well as being of high rank. He is a very close friend of my family, as well as being my father’s disciple. That is why he chose to come here first before beginning his tour in the United States.

Audience: You have talked about the division between aspiring and action bodhimind. In order to attain the first bhumi, do you have to have both?

Rinpoche: Yes.

Audience: So you have to have the action bodhimind before entering the first bhumi?

Rinpoche: Yes. Bhumi is a technical term. It means soil or ground. If the question is whether the first bhumi is the dividing line between the aspirational and the action bodhimind, my answer to that is ‘No’. The first bhumi equals the third path, the path of seeing. So the level of the bhumis is connected with absolute bodhimind rather than relative bodhimind. That is probably the confusion which caused this question to come up.

So there are two different categories here. On the one hand you have relative bodhimind and absolute bodhimind and on the other hand you have aspirational and actual bodhimind. This is very technical - I am sorry. Both, aspirational and actual bodhimind are relative bodhimind. Relative bodhimind is true bodhimind. Absolute bodhimind is measured by the understanding of emptiness.

Audience: Is wisdom conducive to understanding bodhimind or is bodhimind conducive to understanding wisdom?

Rinpoche: That is difficult to answer. If you are a very sharp and witty person, plus if you are lucky enough, it is possible to gain the wisdom first. There are people who have done that. Then there are people who attain bodhimind first and then go on to achieve wisdom. So this question is difficult to answer. It depends on the individual. But what happens is, that those who first attain wisdom and then the bodhimind, the moment they become bodhisattvas, they enter the third path straight away. They supersede the first two paths, those of merit and action. They immediately enter the path of seeing. It is like a helicopter lift. That is the difference.

Audience: What happens to the beings of the world when it is destroyed?

Rinpoche: This is not the only world. There are zillions of galaxies out there. When one world is destroyed, the beings get reborn somewhere else, here and there. There is no shortage of places. Existence will go on. Many universes like this one have been destroyed before and many will newly arise. That is what Buddha has been talking about 2500 years ago. There are zillions of universes. Beings are reborn here and there. That is why you need a mental body. If you would have to drag a physical body, you wouldn’t go here and there.

Audience: When we have obstacles to our spiritual development, is that where the aspiring bodhimind helps?

Rinpoche: Sure. Let me repeat what the Bodhisattvacharyavatara says. What person would not be interested in developing bodhimind, taking for granted that those persons would be intelligent, fortunate and educated in terms of the spiritual path. If you are educated and intelligent, how in the world could you not be interested in it? So the way it has been put is: unless you are not intelligent, or have too many screws loose, there can be no other reason why you are not interested. That is if you have too many screws loose. Everybody has some screws loose. It is all right to have a few screws loose. Otherwise you become like Newt Gingrich.

end of side B of tape 8