Archive Result

11

Soundfile 19980830GRSROrientation

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location ??

Topic Buddhist Psychology

Transcriber Vicki Cahill

Date

I’d like to welcome everybody here. And. Oh, I’m sorry. I should say, “good evening”. Right? And welcome for this Joyful Summer Retreat. And many of you have been in our Jewel Heart retreats, whether it is Joyful Summer Retreat or Miserable Winter Retreat. Whichever it might be. But very, very happy to see the members of the family at least once or twice a year together. As each and every one of you and us, we always look forward to having this, spending our time together. And sort of, recharging our spiritual strength and our practice. And opportunity to be together. We always look forward. And really, really happy. And to get together at least once or twice a year. So, I’m supposed to be doing this orientation right now. Which means I’m supposed to tell, which is east. Right? So, you’re all supposed to say, “yes”. If I pointed my finger to the west and tell you, “this is east”, make sure you say “yes”. Otherwise we will not have. What you call that? Will not become cult system. I was talking with Tarab Rimpoche and Dr. Lenni. Huh? What did you say? Oh, I’m sorry. This morning, I’m talking about it and so, when you talk about the yellow hat Gelugpa sect, or Nyingmapa sect, and she was telling me, if you tell sects, sometimes people take that as some kind of cult system. So, to be able to qualify ourself to be a cult, you have to say, “wherever we put the finger, east to be any direction”. Actually, you say, “east” and that will be the orientation. Right? (laughs)

0:03:00.5 So, and while I just said that, and most of you who come to the Jewel Heart all the time. So, you probably know what we’re talking about it. But then, they ask, there are about, if I understand correctly, there are about fifteen to twenty people; new, who had not been to Jewel Heart before. So, you may not get it, our joke. And you may really think it is seriously, you have to say, “Everything’s east. Yes.” And so, if you think that, then you are wrong. So, it’s not. Ok? So, as you remember, all the time we emphasize so much to use our common sense. And use our understanding and our education and use our mind to guide ourself, all the time. Rather than listening to anybody else, who tries to tell you, “This is east.” And if you tried to follow somebody who tried to point it our everywhere and saying, “This is east.” And if you really want to say, “Yes.”, and follow it, you got in the wrong place. Even you’re a little too late, you should have joined Jim Jones. Maybe you’re a little bit too late. So, just remember that. Ok? So, it’s always; you have to listen, learn, understand, try to understand, analyze, accept or reject. That is your job. You’ve got to do it. We’re here. We try to present to you everything, whatever the best we could. But it is for you to judge whether that is right for you or good for you. And it is the you, who has to make the decision and not anybody. Not any speaker. Not the organization. Not the group. It is the “you”, and you are the most important. Please do remember. We have a variety of great people coming in this summer retreat and talking, sharing their wisdom, and their ideas. But most important of all, it is yourself. It is a presentation. People will give you the presentation based on their experience or their knowledge or whatever it may be. But it is for you to pick, to make the selection and whether it’s good for you or whatever it may be. That is only you and you can make a choice. If you try to leave that up to somebody else, you’re losing. That’s not right. You have to make your own decision. Always. No matter whoever the speaker may be. A great person or whatever may be. But it is you are the most important.

0:06:34.4 And we always have different themes in the summer retreat, because everybody in Jewel Heart is somehow committed to build some kind of spiritual path to ourself .And that is the reason why we’re here. Spiritual path, which is of course you know. It is really the unknown path. It is very tricky path. Very tricky path. I often say, very often I tell you, people can tell you anything is a spiritual path. Brown rice, wheat grass juice, walking on the fire, and each and every one of them, they could get the label of a spiritual path. And many people will follow it very religiously. And think it is. I have no quarrel with that. That’s your choice. But that’s not the path we present in Jewel Heart. What we present is, we present mostly on the basis of the Buddha’s teaching. Buddha. Buddha’s teaching. Again, the moment I use word, teaching, you get some kind of sophisticated idea of, “oh, preaching and teaching and it is the lord’s word.” And you get all kind of ideas. And we’re not looking at that at all. Buddha’s teaching is nothing, nothing than that of the personal experience of Buddha himself, dealing with his life. Just like you and I deal. And he wanted. He had a problem. He had joy. He had suffering. He had difficulties. He’s looking for, “how to handle this.” That is Buddhism to me. The Buddhism to me is not the Buddhism of Mahayana. And the Buddhism. I better say this before Jack Kornfield gets here. I’m not talking. I’m (laughs) I’m not talking about Buddhism of Theravadin. I don’t want to use the word Hinayana, but.

0:09:21.0 But I very often told you people, Hinayana does not really mean “smaller vehicle”. And Mahayana does not really mean a bigger. I mean, it is bigger and smaller. But that doesn’t mean, one’s greater, the other is lesser. Greater. It’s not. When you really look very carefully, if I’m wrong, would you comment? Really. But I’m sure Tarab(?) 0:09:54.4 Rimpoche will say it’s true, if I’m wrong. I hope I’m not. I hope he’ll keep quiet. (laughs) I’m just joking. But. You know, but thing is, if you really look why it is the maha and the hina and big and small business really is over there. It’s the emphasize. Emphasizing for one individual, as me, a person, “how do I help myself? How do I liberate myself?” Which is the major focus of the Theravadin or thing. And the Mahayana is on the basis of helping yourself, try to put on the other person’s. And that is the difference. It’s not maha is bigger and greater, in the sense of spiritual quality. And Hinayana is smaller and something a lot smaller. But however, people take it that way sometime. And they don’t even like to call, even a Theravadin. And they like to call, “way of the elders”. That’s fine. So Jack’s going to be here soon, so we can call it “way of the elders”. Right? Ok. So, so, having said that. Having said that, the really, the teachings of the Buddha is not nothing than that of Buddha’s person gain and personal experience of dealing with his own life and solving the problems that we face today. Our negative emotional problems that we face. The problems dealing with our attachment. Problems dealing with our anger. Problems dealing with our pride. And these are the problems that Buddha had. The same thing as you and I have today. And the Buddha looked for some kind of method how we can help. How can I help myself? That was the question; on that Buddha brought the Buddhism. So, the Buddhism is totally, to me, is nothing than that of Buddha’s personal experience of dealing with our problem. Knowing where it is coming from and how do we handle that?

0:12:37.1 Thus it’s very simple. Really truly speaking, it’s absolutely simple. That’s what it is. Buddhism is nothing than that of personal experience of the Buddha. How do we handle our problems? How do we solve? Liberation is nothing than that of freeing ourselves from those problems. So, in other words, what we’re really looking for. How do we free ourself from those negative emotions? I say, emotion. Why? Because that is the cause of the problem. If you don’t have those negative emotions, we won’t have negative karma. If we don’t have negative karma, where are we going to get negative consequences? Suffering. Not going to happen. Nothing happens without cause. The cause of suffering is negativities. We act. The acting came because of the negative emotions. So, the bottom line is the negative emotions. Whether it is the ignorance or no ignorance. 0:14:12.7 (??)You have to say, it’s ignorance, because the Buddha said so. But we don’t know. As far as I know, I don’t know. It may be true. Maybe not. But what is really relevant to ourself, is those negative emotions. The anger, the attachment, the hatred, the jealousy. All of those. These are the cause of our problem. So, the Buddhism is method how we handle that. It really doesn’t matter what the general Buddhism really do. It is the your own Buddhism, within you. That is matter. That is the most important for us.

0:15:03.6 Well, you’re here. With all kind of difficulties. You are spending seven days here. The time, which we don’t have it. Yet you are spending here. And hopefully it will become something worthwhile. Something worth for you. Or for whosoever, whatever. I don’t want to bring, like a traditional Buddhist teacher way, teachings way, for the benefit of all sentient beings we are here. May be to some of us. Some of you. Maybe we think we’re here for the benefit of all sentient beings. But whether you’re here for the benefit of all sentient beings or not, but you have to make worth for one sentient being. That is yourself. We have to make sure that we are benefited. Ok? And that’s why you’re here. I’m sure you have great deal of difficulties here. No question. And number one, we have so many people in one room. And that itself is a discomfort. And number two, the condition over here is a little rustic. Ok. That is a problem. It is a difficulty. Right? And number three; the food. To some people, it’s great. To some people, it’s so-so. To some people it’s edible. To some people it’s not even edible. So, that’s a problem. Alright? So, all sorts of discomfort. Oh yeah. The sleeping conditions. I can’t forget that. Right? We’re going to have a lot of people together. Right? So. All sorts of things happen. Right? Right? People snore. Some people will enjoy great deal and some will wake up the whole night while won’t be able to go to sleep. And, yeah, all sorts of. I do know. When you turn around, it will squeak. And wakes everybody up. And all these are there. And we are here knowingly, these conditions, yet we’re still here. So, let us hope it has some worth for us. Some kind of spiritual, sacred value for us. Am I using the language which I never use? Uh huh. Sacred. I don’t use much. But we really hope to do.

0:18:20.1 So, you do have this schedule here. I’m sure each and every one of you had, in your own package. Right? In the package. You do have the schedules here. And when you look at the schedule, our day begin at seven to seven-thirty. That’s what I see first. Seven to seven-thirty. So, what do we do? Seven to seven-thirty. We have coffee, miso tea. (laughs) That’s the first thing what we do in the retreat is have coffee and miso tea. And it goes across the board. So, Monday through Sunday here. You can see. It goes through. So, because we know. We’re Americans. And many of us, if you don’t get the coffee, then we know what we have, what we’re against. So, that’s why you have coffee there. So, that you don’t have a headache. And so. And now, I better not make joke. So, better go down. So, seven to seven-thirty. Oh. By the way. This coffee, miso tea is not at all compulsory. Ok? It’s not compulsory. So, then we start seven-thirty to eight-thirty. And we do have this White Tara meditation across the board. In every day. As you know we always do the White Tara practice in every Jewel Heart gathering everywhere. A number of reasons. I’m not going to tell you many. But it is the feminine principle of the Tibetan Buddhist. Symbolic of the feminine principle as Tara itself. And the healing and health is also extremely important for each and every one of us. We would like to be living. We would like to have life. And we would like to have healthy life. We don’t want unhealthy life. We would like to be as healthy as possible. So, there’s a variety of method. A variety of different deities through which you can do the healing and all this.

0:21:19.8 But we have been doing the White Tara for a long time. Almost, every since we establishment of the Jewel Heart, we’ve been doing the White Tara practice. And it sort of incidentally, at very beginning, at the beginning, when we’re beginning to establish Jewel Heart. I remember quite clearly, I had lunch with the American Ganden Tri Rimpoche. And there’s Professor Robert Thurman, who’s here. And do you remember that? Somewhere, somewhere, I don’t know. Somewhere middle of some open air café and we’re having lunch together. And you had a woman from Denmark called Marianne. Right?

Thurman: Mariana

Rimpoche: Mariana. So, she’s a great painter. And she would. And she said, “I would like to paint something for you.” Remember that day? And so, she’s coming to Detroit to do a mural painting for Fox Theatre. Is it Fox Theatre? Huh?

Thurman: Masonic Temple

Rimpoche: Masonic Temple. Ok? So, she wanted do something So, I wanted do small something, whatever. Maybe Tara, maybe something. So, she insists she wants a big one. Because she’s used to doing the mural painting. So, finally we compromised and at the consequences of this, this particular White Tara painting was born. And since then, we’re using the White Tara. And I can tell you, the practice of the White Tara has been extremely helpful for me, as well as for many other people. You, yourself will know. It has been extremely been helpful for all kind of variety of things. Physical, mental, emotional. We don’t know whether our life is. Whether we gain longevity or not. We don’t know about it. But I’m sure we did. But we still don’t know. But what do we, what we really know is we gain a lot of help; physical, mental and emotional. Help. So, it is extremely helpful, number one. Number two; it is the feminine principle. Number three; she’s also so kind and so wonderful so that any little mistake here and there is not a big problem. So, it’s very easy for us. And easy to do it. And we make it such a short way, there’s a very simple way of doing it. So, with that, we try to us that every day to have some kind of, some kind of very Buddhistic Vajrayana-yan. What else? Huh? Did you say magical? No, you didn’t. Did I hear somebody say it? Oh, maybe, maybe I said myself, then.

0:25:25.5 So, with all this, we have that practice. And I hope to be here, myself, in the morning. And one or two days we may be substituting different people. And so, we will have guided meditation on this White Tara practice for one hour every morning. It is a healing oriented practice. And that’s also not compulsory. There’s nothing compulsory here. Do whatever you want to do. Ok. And then suddenly what is not compulsory is the breakfast. Goes between eight-thirty and ten. Not at all compulsory. If you like it, you can have it. If you don’t like it, you don’t want to. That’s fine. So, then we have by ten till eleven-fifteen, we have Tarab Tulku Rimpoche. Rimpoche is a very old friend and he’s senior to me. And as many of you have heard, he’s been really so wonderful, so kind and believe me, most learned. The most learned Geshe. Geshe. Most of you know. If you don’t know, that is the highest Tibetan 0:27:03.2 to be(??). The most learned Geshe available today. I think he is the most learned Geshe. I mean this is my true opinion. Most learned Geshe available today. It is fortunate and unfortunate, he wears shirt and pants like I do. We are fortunate, because he can deal and he can be mixed with ourself, and deal and talk with our life. Just like anybody else. And if he’s wearing a robe today, they automatically create a distance. So, it will be very difficult. And that is fortunate. Unfortunately, we should, we all should remain monk, but we didn’t. But that’s the unfortunate part of it. Fortunately or unfortunately, he’s wearing suit and pants and I think we’re very happy to have him. Because Jewel Heart is such a, to begin, to begin with myself, it is a place where we can really welcome everybody. We embarass, embrace, the (laughs) . We embarrass everybody. (laughs) Right?

0:28:49.9 So, anyway. And you know, and there’s a lot of different, a lot of . You know, if I were to keep on talking about qualification and quality of the individual, and there’s no end. And to cut it short, Tarab Rimpoche, you know, is really compassionate, a great lama. Wonderful one. And I really know him. Since very, very small. He’s bigger than us. Yeah. Senior and bigger and all this. But is wonderful kind, compassionate, learned. Most learned. And wonderful person. And we are very fortunate. You know, they have very busy schedule. Really. Busy, busy schedule. And he does, he has these courses. They call it Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and psychology. Right? Am I right? Yeah. He does these courses from all over Europe. And they have set courses. It’s not like Jewel Heart retreat where you come. They sort of they really, it runs through with a real complete structure. Year after year they go through and does all this. So, with that, he’s extremely busy, but really accommodating. And I’m quite sure, with normal schedule, they’re supposed to be teaching in Germany round about this time .Am I right or wrong? Or France or something. Right? Well, you moved a little bit earlier, right? So that’s why and we are really grateful to Rimpoche and you too And so, we are very fortunate to have both of you with us. And we are looking, we are looking forward to get the benefit. Because Tarab Rimpoche really does the authentic Tibetan Buddhist psychology. And we cannot look at psychology as, some people love psychology. Some people hate psychology. People will look down and say, “We’re spiritualist and we don’t want psychology.” Some people say, “Well, it’s just psychology. So what?” And all of this. But most important point, what I’m looking at it. I’m looking at the human beings, as ourselves. A human being. So, we’re looking, working for the spiritual path; spiritual benefit for ourselves. Where are we going to build, base our spiritual practice? On our physical part? Or the mental part? We’re not going to build on physical part, because it’s going to go down. No matter how many it goes up, but it has to come down. Right? So that’s what it is. Really true. Up to about twenty-five or so, the physical thing goes up. And after a little while it has to go down. And ultimately, we have to leave the physical body and go. Wherever you go. But we go.

0:32:28.0 So, naturally we have to build our spiritual path is all our mind level. Not the physical level. That doesn’t mean. I’m again. You know, I have to say that all the time. Because. That doesn’t mean, I’m not looking down on the physical aspects of the practice, such as hatha yoga or physical. You know, all the martial arts. Or, you know, all kind of spiritual practices through physical means. I’m not looking down on them. But, the spiritual path, what the Buddha shared with us, is really liberating the individual. Totally, if possible, totally enlightened. If not, getting ourself free from the cause of suffering, which is the negative emotions. And that, we really have to build on the physical point. And that’s why it is become so important. And it becomes helpful if we know how our mind is functioning. What is it? What is it? What kind of mind is it? What kind of a principle consciousness. What is it? And how it functions. They maybe dividing into two, three pieces. Or they may not. Whatever it is. Really doesn’t matter. But what we really does matter is, we need to grasp it. We need to understand how. Some idea. We don’t want to become expert. But some idea of mental functioning. And that also coming out from an authentic Buddhist tradition. The practice by thousand years, by the earlier Indian and the Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. If you could get that, that would be very, very important for us. I mean this is one of the necessary. The bridge that we could build to understand. That is another missing link in our spiritual practice. So, we hope to be able to fill up that. And that’s why Rimpoche and Dr. Handberg agreed to be here. We are very happy. So, we are looking for that.

0:35:07.2 And of course, Rimpoche’s courses if you look. He talks like, I believe he teach like eight hours a day, and three weeks and things like that. We don’t, we’re not going to get that. But I’m sure we get summarized and wonderful useful thing for us. So, we do have something like it. Seven or eight hours here. And that’s the, that part. And we do have 0:35:37.0 Tarab(??) Rimpoche talking every day, before the. After the breakfast. So, that is very sort of most, what you call it? Prime work what we’re looking for. Putting our prime time in there. Then of course, we have Jack Kornfield. I do not know how to introduce Jack Kornfield. Most of you know. He’s a. He’s very famous. He doesn’t need my introduction. So, I may simply have to say, this is Jack Kornfield. That’s it. So, that’s that. So. And he called me a couple of days ago and told me, “What do you want me to do?” And I said, “Just give your wisdom. And I’m very interested to know”, I said, Two things. At the connection and the between. How do we? How do we get the points? How the individual accept or reject? And in other words, the link between the head and the heart. And also, also, I’m very much interested to see how this, the compassion works. Psychology working on the basis of compassion. Everybody talks psychology on the basis of wisdom. But we are also very much interested to see the psychology working on the basis of compassion. We also like to see, what can Buddhism contribute to psychology and what psychology can contribute to the Buddhist practitioners, from the practice point of view. And that’s the, that’s what we’re looking for. So that’s why we have a number of psychologists coming, including 0:37:35.7 Tedo(?) Rimpoche here. And we’re very fortunate to have on Tuesday at the same time, Professor Robert Thurman, as a number of Jewel Heart. Jewel Heart board of advisor board. What do you call it? Advisor board member. And being instrumental, that of, for me, to be able to function in the United States, right from the beginning. I always say, both he and Nina has been very kind. And sort of an opening for me, when I was in the United States. Always very grateful. Then we argue, we debate and we joke and we scream and yell at each other. And we enjoy that. We criticize each other too. But not at the back. In the front.

0:38:36.3 And I just recall last night, thinking, you know, the last teachings of by Kyabje Ling Rimpoche, the Yamantaka teachings by Kyabje Ling Rimpoche in Drepung and every evening we have debate, up there in 0:38:55.1 yatta(???). Remember? We’d been keep on. You know what happened. Kyabje Rimpoche told me, whatever I told during the daytime, you repeat to those, the western people there, who came there. He came with me. Went out there. So, I’m supposed to be teaching them. Right? So, when we started, we’ll have debate all night. And I enjoyed debating that. And we learned much more by debating. Not by “yes sir” business. It’s not, every finger wherever we point, it’s not east. We argue. We debate. And we almost fought. So, that’s what we did. So, that’s been very helpful. But one thing I have to remember. Every time, either when I say prayer or when we have a debate, the next day I have, what you call, laryngitis. All the time. But today I have this microphone here so I have better position. But if I move down there, I’m in trouble. So. And we’re really happy to have you. And it’s so nice. I know how busy you are. You know. Everybody knows. And so, but really taking time and coming. It’s very nice. And we also, Nina’s not here, but she’s here in spirit. So, in always. So, that’s that. And then we have Aura Glaser. I don’t think Aura needs introduction again. She doesn’t need introduction. Aura’s Aura.

0:40:41.5 And then we see on Thursday, we have Dan Goleman and then we have Friday, Dan and Tara Goleman. Dan and Tara Goleman. Dan Goleman. They also don’t need introduction. Emotional intelligence is enough introduction. Right? So, I don’t. I cannot introduce them. It’s beyond my scope. So, they’ll be there. Then we have 0:41:08.3 Chok Tsering(?). This needs introduction. He’s a Tibetan western medical doctor. Neurologist. And we have two Tibetan western doctors in Ann Arbor. And they both are great thinker. Especially this Chok Tsering0:41:32.7 thinks tremendously. I mean he’s a really great thinker. And I been discussing a number of things. Talk lot of things with him, whenever I have opportunity; half hour, forty-five minutes or one hour, two hour, I try to talk to him. And he gives very good, very good ideas and thoughts, whether it’s on the spiritual or political or whatever it is. They have great ideas, all of the time. And then to my surprise, one, there’s a few years ago, I was talking to him with people who are having emotional difficulties, like depression and all this. I’m talking to him and he gave me sort of a big, sort of surprised look and tried to tell me, “Well, compassion is the one of the best way to cure depression.” And I couldn’t understand what he’s talking about it. I heard Buddha has been saying for two thousand five hundred years, is love compassion helps people to help, to overcome your mental difficulties. But somehow, I didn’t really get it very well. And the Chok Tsering0:43:06.8 said, and I said, “How?” And he said, “What you mean, how?” I said, “Well, you can. It’s easy for you to say compassion helps depression, but tell me how does it end. You’re a scientist. Tell me how it helps.” He said, “It’s simple. Depression is based on focusing on self. How can I do? What can I do? How can I help? What can I do? What can I? Am I going to be alone? Am I going to be sad? Am I? What am I, am I, am I, am I, am I? Totally build on that.” He said, “ Compassion will switch the focus. Not me. How about them? How about this? What about that? Since the focal point of the mental focus is shifted from, me, me, me, to somebody else.” Said, “The simply by doing that, you’re removing the red carpet from the feet of depression.”

0:44:09.8 Ok. I mean he had long way and I made it short, you know. So, but he has a long way to explain that. So, I said, “Ok. Come here. Talk to us.” So, and that’s one thing. And two is the neurological point. Talking about the psychological point. We also like to know little bit about neurological, how does our mind function. I mean, I’m sorry it’s too short for like one hour. An hour. But doesn’t really not too much, but still we can. There’s a tremendous mental and physical connection. There’s a tremendous connection between our mind, thought and neurological points. So, we’d like to see. And at least people in Jewel Heart will have the benefit of using our spiritual path to benefit individuals through the tools of psychology. Through the tools of neurological. And this is the reason why we have this interesting hodgepodge summer retreat here, You know? And that’s the, it’s sort of hodgepodge. I’m sorry, but, but every great speaker’s here. But still it is hodgepodge. By planning itself, it’s hodgepodge. Hodgepodge it is. That is the reason why. Our mind also functions by hodgepodge. So. That’s why we’re here. Alright? So, that the reason why 0:45:45.7Chok Tsering(?) is here. What did I get now? Oh. Am I supposed to go this way or that way? I’m going to keep on going that way. I’m sorry. Huh? Alright, the 0:45:58.4 Chok Tsering(?). Then I’ll go back. Oh, the there’s another thing is next to that is not compulsory. That’s lunch. And then we have free time. We call it free time. But we really jam packed. We jam packed and that’s why we call this free time. Earlier I told you, we also wanted to make this worthwhile. Worthwhile from the learning point of view. Worthwhile from our practice point of view. And I look around this time. We have eight, including 0:46:35.5 Tarab(?) Rimpoche, we have nine of us, who is currently perfect monk, three if them and the rest of them are ex monks. And we’ve got nine of us together here. And so, which is within the Jewel Heart, we’re there. And each and every one of them have their own tremendous amount of talent and expertise, which you know very well, by yourself.

0:47:06.5 So, we hope to do some three different fire pujas. Three powerful fire pujas. So, the first fire puja is going to be tomorrow at the free time. We did not put this in the schedule, because we don’t have any other time to put. So, we’re putting the all fire pujas at the free time. So, that means, you don’t have to come, if you don’t want to. Or if you want to come and sit by and chant and pray together, participate, you’re very welcome. That’s for you. And we’re doing it. But we don’t have. There’s a long ritual. So, the long rituals. We’ve been doing the ritual. And you can visualize. You can do practice, whatever you want to do. You’re welcome to participate. The first fire puja falls tomorrow at the free time through White Tara, for peaceful purposes. That means, clearing the obstacles. Illnesses, of yourself, your family members, and everybody. We’re doing it for everybody. Not necessarily for you as you, but for everybody here. Those of us who are here. Well, I don’t mean every sentient beings. Though every Tibetan practice is for benefit of all sentient beings, but actually we’re doing that for the peaceful purposes tomorrow. The second fire puja is a power puja. It is for power. So, whoever here have the great power to conquer whoever, whichever, your spouses and so forth (laughs) It’s joke. So. So, it is power based. Power fire puja. That’s going to be through Hayagriva on Friday free time. And then the last one is prosperity. Prosperity fire puja on Saturday. That is through Tara. Prosperity here is not necessarily wealth and economic prosperity, but also the prosperity of learning wisdom, compassion, spiritual development and economic prosperity all together. That is the. [Thank you. So, now the air condition begin to move. Huh? I’m sorry. Yeah. Because it is really hot and I’m sure they’re very hot in the middle. Extremely hot. So. Huh?

Audience: Fan on

Rimpoche: That won’t help much, will that? Ok. That switch is there. Behind you. Huh? So, there’s another switch here. Over here.

Audience: Close the door]

0:50:36.4 Rimpoche: So, that will be the fire puja on Saturday. And then every afternoon, four-thirty to six, we. We have. Is it four-thirty to six? Huh? Four-thirty to six we have a panel discussion. And Phillip is going to be the person who is. Huh? Moderator. Right? Or monerator. Philip is going to be the moderating the panel discussion. And all the speakers available here. Will be over here. But it was more or less, be sort of major focus on the speaker of the day. Those speaker of the day. And Tarab Rimpoche will be here. I’ll be here. And Doctor Thurman will be here. Jack Kornfield. Everybody will be on the stage here. Probably we have to remove the. Maybe everybody has to sit on the carpet or whatever. So, that what’s gong to be. Aura going to be here. Lene going to be here. And all this. It sort of discussion. It’s a discussion group. And I would like to have all the questions. Whatever you have the questions. It’s nice to ask directly, but it also some people have a little difficulty to ask directly. They feel embarrassed and all this. So, I’ll be happy. If you write your questions during the. Whenever you write. During the speaker’s presentation or teaching or whatever. And then at lunch time, if you could present, give all your question papers to a panel of three people. That is. None of them have been asked to. They’re going to be surprised. Ok? If you don’t want to, tell me, “I don’t want to be.” So, the panel of three people. That’s going to be Brenda Rosen, and Anne, Anne Warren and Chris Branson. So, three of them will look through and they will sort it out. And if your question is very silly one, they will throw it in the waste-paper basket straightaway. And if your question is. Oh. No. Other way around. If your question’s great they will throw it away, straightaway in the garbage. And if your question is silly, they’re going to bring it up here. And so. So, that’s how I think we like to function the thing. And Philip will sort of dictate there and say, “Hey, you’re talking too much. Shut up now.” That will he will say. (laughs) Right? So, that is how we hope to run the panel discussions. And then you have dinner. And then, today we have orientation. It’s going on now. I’m telling you “everything’s east”. And you have to say, “yes”.

0:54:16.9 And then, in the evening, and I would like to share a little bit of my thoughts And on the basis of your practice and especially what we tried to learn, what we got during the day. And how we’re going to put them together on the practice of individual. How can get benefit out of it. And I’m sure, I’m going to do terrible job for that. But I’m sure I’ll get a lot of help from point. And I would like to bring that together to a point of, like Odyssey to Freedom. The Odyssey to Freedom basis on that. I would like to bring the day’s discussion and presentations and bringing on the points of any sixty-four points, wherever fits on the Odyssey to Freedom. I would like to do that. And if I run out of it, we can change into discussions and all this. That’s what I’d like to do. Then, nine-thirty to ten, we have conclusion prayer and so and forth. And ten to eleven-thirty the bonfire, the music, and all of those. Remember, this is joyful retreat. We have to enjoy. So, those of you who enjoy music. You know, remember, we used to beat all the pots and pans and the camp chases(?)0:56:02.2 Debbie, every year. So. So, we will repeat the same thing. And then, I would like to really say eleven forty-five, lights out. Lights out. That’s it. And if you really want to make noise, you have to go where there are nobody sleeping. That including tents. You may think you can make a lot of noise near the river, but remember, there are a number of people trying to get some sleep. And the little tent, you know, there’re maybe there are human beings trying to sleep. So. Remember that. Ok? Any little tent there is a little human being trying to get sleep. Remember that. Ok? Thank you. So. I guess that’s about the orientation. And of course, as I’ve said, it’s a rustic conditions. And difficulty. And everyone of us has come here, voluntarily. You, including you and me. All of us come here and voluntarily. So, nobody has forced you to come here by any means. You know. So, little difficulty, please try to adjust. Whatever you want to think. You think this is your purification. That’s fine. That’s fine. I have no problem with that. Ok? That’s fine.

0:57:34.5 But, if you have a very, very unbearable complaint, then you know, you have to catch Kathy’s ear. So, any difficulties. What? Ok. Kathy says, even it is not unbearable, any difficulties you have, please let me know. Ok? So. Just remember that. So, make sure you catch Kathy all the time then. Ok. So. Anything else, Debbie, did I forget? I’m sorry. Turning over of trays. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. New. New. We have tray this year. You know every year we have that little foam thing? And we carry food and drop. You know, soup fall and all this. So, we got tray. And we ordered two hundred trays. But they delivered one hundred only. So. (laughs) So, we have one hundred trays, have to be shared by two hundred people. Two hundred fifty people. Which means, they are very useful to pick up a tray, get your food, bring it over to the table. And if you picked the tray. Put it back where the tray you picked it up. So, that is how can two hundred and fifty people can share one hundred trays. So, please remember that. So, don’t keep tray till you finished your food. Put it back. So that. But they may deliver tomorrow or next day. If they. Forget about it. Day after. Until then, please put back the tray so the next person can use it. Ok? That is the tray turning around. Anything else?

Debbie:….

Rimpoche: We’ll wait for a minute. Wait for a minute. Ok? Then, of course we are like two hundred people here together seven days. And we came with very excitement and enthusiasm and along with that, we also brought our baggage. Right? We have a lot of baggages. So, when you have those baggages, sometimes you have difficulties. So, if you have to talk to me or Tarab Rimpoche or Cho Dang Tulku or, or Doctor Thurman or any of those. Sometimes you’ll be little difficult to get hold of it. So, we as usual, we have counselors. So, I’m going to read the list. Did the list go to counselors for somewhere else? Hanging somewhere? And is that given to the each and every in the packages? No. The counselors list. Oh, you don’t have a counselor’s list. So, I’m going to read this. Again, again, just like last year, some people who were in last year’s counselor were not in this year. Some people who were not in last year, they are here this year. It’s not because you’re good or bad. But we try to rotate and try to make best use; benefit for everybody.

1:01:02.9 So, this year, in the list we have Brenda Rosen, Chris Branson. Everybody knows. Right? Otherwise, would you mind raise your. Brenda Rosen. There’s Brenda. Chris Branson. Sandy Finkel, who is not here. She will be here tomorrow. Kathleen Ivanoff. Rocky Winter. Oh, she is there and she will be there tomorrow. Ok. They’re pointing there. Ok? David Lewis. He’s here somewhere. There you are. David Lewis. Anne Warren. Deborah Roselle. Marianne Soeters. Beth Dulka. She’ll be here tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Morley Hastings. Where are you Morlie? She’s here somewhere. Where are you? Morlie Hastings. I don’t see her. Huh? Oh. Ok. She’s taking rest. Then Kent Porter. Where are you, Kent? Oh. Over there. You have to get up little bit, because people not going to see you. Thank you, Kent. Jonathan Rose. So, then you have David Jacobs. David, are you here? Oh. There you go. So, these are the counselors. So, if you have difficulties, you know what I mean. You’re more. You’re more expert than I am, the difficulties they go through. So, you like to talk to the, one of those counselors. And also. And also it is good to talk to the counselors, you can share something. You can talk to them. You can get benefit. But also remember those counselors are human beings too. They also have the same problem. We all do have the same problem. So, don’t overload them. Ok? So. And they’re all. They even. They did don’t even know they’d been picked them out. Nobody has been told earlier. Right? So, but very kind. Everybody accepted. Thank you. And. (laughs) And that’s that. Huh? What happened? Ok. Then. Oh. We always try to, you know, unlike any other dharma center or anywhere that I will. I sort of like to go, myself, in the line. I never try to take advantage. What I’m talking? Never try to go out of the line and try to do all this and that. Always go line. And treated, behaved just like anybody else. But since we have a number of people here and so if the faculty person comes to the dining side. So, if they go by the side. So, please excuse. And they’re also, we want to make sure the faculties get tray. So, we’ve got a couple of trays marked faculties. So, don’t take those. Because, you know, they’ll be up the last person. You’ve been in the line earlier. So. They’ll be left without, so that may not be right. And then I have, if there’s a bathroom complaints, call Kathy, it says.

1:05:31.0 Am I reading wrong?

Kathy:…..

Rimpoche: Thank you. (laughs) I’m just joking. You know it’s written here, but “bathroom lodging, to ask Kathy.” So. If bathroom complaint, call Kathy. Kathy the plumber. So. There we go. Ok. Now, we begin tonight with the Lama Chopa. And so. So, the. It’s quite. I’m sorry. I over went through the orientation a little over, then I’m supposed to do. So. Do any of you have any questions? I’m so sorry. Did not do that job. Anybody have any questions about those orientations and anything? Anybody? Ok. No questions. That means, fine. And then, we begin with the Lama Chopa tonight. Lama Chopa Tsoh offering. We try not to take very long, but we’ll do that. And then. Oh. The most important spiritual orientation I have to give you. That’s called motivation. Ok? Motivation. No matter whatever you do, if your motivation is good, you going to get quite good success. No matter whatever you do, if your motivation is bad. No matter whatever you do you know, you’re not going to get far away at all. Not going to get very far. So, the motivation is very, very important. So, what, recommendation of the motivation is bodhimind. That is: For the benefit of all beings, I would like to become fully enlightened one. For that purpose, I attend this seven days retreat. I participate every portion here. So, everything, whatever I do, it will be putting a stone to building a great protection wall for all sentient beings. I’m putting my own share over there. Hopefully it will materialize. Ok?

1:08:31.4 My own contribution towards developing enlightenment for all sentient beings. And that is the motivation. That you have to remember during all the time here. During, during your sleeping time. During your swimming, while you’re eating. While you’re taking shower. And while you’re sitting on the throne. All these periods, while you’re walking. Remember that motivation. Maintain that motivation. All the time. That will be your spiritual orientation. Thank you so much. And all the best. Enjoy. Oh. I’m sorry. John. What you want to say something earlier.

John: flowers….water….

Rimpoche: And earlier I saw John was. Earlier I saw John was putting those flowers up and I wanted to make joke with John, but John already left. You know, when you’re bringing those flowers up putting here and putting over there, I thought you tried to put, put up some competition for me. (laughter)

John: They don’t even come close.

Rimpoche: Thank you.