Archive Result

2

GR19991204

Welcome everybody here. We are celebrating the anniversary of Tsong Khapa, the founder of the tradition that I follow. That’s why we are here today. I need to tell you a little bit about Tsong Khapa. Otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense to talk about rebirth unless you have a lot. You may get the idea he’s just one of those important persons who just started a tradition. Just that much idea is not good enough.

I need to talk to you a little bit about Tsong Khapa, who he is, he was, and why he is so important. What happened is Buddhism actually came to Tibet in the seventh century. I sometimes wonder if maybe Buddhism in the West, people tried to understand what is it. What are they talking about it, what does it do to individuals? But he has no idea what it is. There is a book with supposed to be something there. That’s about it. Nobody even could read it. Nobody could understand. No one knows anything about it for four generations.

After four generations we begin to read. But nobody could read and hear a little bit about OH MANI PEDME HUM and all this about it. They just began to hear and nothing beyond that for generations. And then they begin to get an idea about what is going on and what it is a little bit and having several different interpretations. Every interpretation is different. It is really funny to try to read the Dharma without the tradition, the Buddhist path. Today the term is nothing but that of Buddhism, just straight Buddhism. Shakyamuni they call “shinga” and instead of the Dharma they call “tam.” That’s all the interpretations.

If you read, its sha and tam. So that’s Buddhist interpretation. I do not know why, but what happened to sha and tam? Either it disappeared or they didn’t have much. There is no script, no writing. The information is left in little tips, and then pass the tips. That information is passed through initiation. Maybe they didn’t have much information. There is no script or alphabet or nothing, no character or nothing. There may be a scrap or two. That is how the information is supposed to be maintained. They really don’t have much information. How much they don’t know by the method itself. It completely limited the information. In the seventh century they introduced the writing system. Introducing the writing system was big, opened people’s eyes. I’m talking about Tibet. Then interpretation comes in. Some people were Gelugpa anti-Nyingma and anti-guru, others were Nyingma, anti Gelugpa. I don’t think Buddha, Dharma, Sangha or vajrayana was practiced by anybody at all. Without the mantra and the Gelupa tradition and without which, there would be no commentary whatsoever. That’s not. Some people made interpretation, particularly among the Western scholars, not so much the native people, the traditional native people.

The grand core (?) invited me to Spain, a person who comes from Jewel heart (10:00) for thirteen, fourteen years. He wanted me to go there for four or five years. It was my first time. Even in the introduction I didn’t speak Spanish. I couldn’t hear it and it was la, la, la. (?) Rinpoche in the Nyingma tradition, la, la, la. It sort of reduced a lot. It used to be like that ten years ago. Now I think it’s gone down much, not too much. It’s not the idea of a few scholars arguing about, and you are automatically entered in the entire dharma sambhava. It’s absolutely wrong. Even in the Gelugpa tradition you don’t have a Buddha, Dharma, Sangha initiation. We don’t know that, we just thought about it and did the quick interpretation.

A woman, she said I was needed by New York. She’s an art dealer. He’s the main person, and she said the invitation came out, and there was a connection in the name of transforming. Can you say transforming? Transformation, a transformation the painting. It was in the style today, and they kept on telling me this was the tradition of Tibet. They kept on saying it was in the karma body style. That’s where the Karmapa tradition developed. There are a couple of different styles in Tibet. She called it ”Mindy” and it comes from the karma tradition style. So it’s Mindy. There is a new Mindy and an old Mindy, so they are two separate styles. There is the third style, karma body, and then there is the fourth started by the the Karmapa tradition. Basically, they are really four totally different styles. They had an event. She is in charge of that. Anyway, her office was in New York, and she went everywhere. The thangkas included his own artist in that. Everywhere. That’s the Tibetan book. It is art came out of Tibet. She doesn’t know Tibetan. She doesn’t know about Tibetan Buddhism, anything. It was art from the art point of view. (audience) What is the difference from that point of view? We ask you to distinguish between them. (GR) It doesn’t matter. There is a difference between them. There is nothing wrong with it. You can’t tell a person who doesn’t know that much. I was really surprised. I think she doesn’t know anything about Tibetan Buddhism, just about art. I don’t care. Whatever it is it doesn’t speak to me. I don’t buy it. That’s not my point.

My point is when you are looking at it and you produce a “book,” people look at it and started writing and giving interpretations, and particularly on the staff. They gave me the book. I didn’t read the book. Then they tried to tell me (it was produced in) a great big monastery in Tibet, in Eastern Tibet. Not so many Tibetan people know about it. These are the styles from there. No Tibetans know those styles are from there. I had the information, not to correct her, interpreting the art. At the end afterwards I opened the book and it is by Robert Thurman. I looked at the pictures. The reason why they showed it to me, they wanted me to become their advisor. They said it’s wonderful (20:00). The identification of the books and the styles and I don’t buy it. I don’t care who says so, I don’t buy it. If you have any proof of whatever you stated here, printed in Tibet before fifty-nine. The art I don’t have any interest. Show me one single book printed in Tibet before nineteen fifty-nine. Show me one book printed in Tibet before fifty-nine. I don’t buy it. This woman got up and said she is my boss. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Anything printed, identified, anything about the styles, where is the proof? There is no proof. Show me one book printed in Tibet before nineteen fifty-nine. It doesn’t matter. As far as I’m concerned I don’t buy it, printed in Tibet before nineteen fifty-nine.

People are so quick to make a judgement who don’t think about it. They say I know about it, but Tibetans don’t know about it. The Tibetan culture, people have been in Tibet for thousand years. Western scholars do that, saying there is a big distinction between Gelugpas and Nyingma in Tibet. Yes, there is a different system, there is. But they all follow the same Buddha and they are all Buddhist and follow one Buddha and one Buddha’s teaching and everything. I said that so they would understand, but then someone introduced themselves as a Gelugpa scholar and said blah, blah, blah. So sometimes Western people are a little too quick to make a judgement and add a few extra pages and write about it.

But we are talking about Tsong Khapa, and I wanted to make that clear before I talked about Tsong Khapa. What did Tsong Khapa do, talking from the strictly Tibetan point of view? Tsong Khapa came in thirteen fifty-seven and he passed away in fourteen nineteen. Now it’s twenty nineteen. He was not some kind of reincarnated lama or head of this and that. Tsong Khapa was definitely not the Dalai Lama. Tsong Khapa was definitely not a Panchan lama. Tsong Khapa was definitely not a Karmapa. All those big names with titles, Tsong Khapa doesn’t have it. He just taught the dharma and was the guy who upheld karma. He doesn’t have any recognition of any kind in society. So a very ordinary, ground level person. He travelled from Eastern Tibet into China area bordering India in an area now called Shindams, very close to Shindo and that area. From there he travelled to central Tibet. In those days it took a tremendous amount of time. We had very limited travel, very limited horse. What Tsong Khapa really did is he carried his backpack. He carried it on his own. He travelled for a very long time with great difficulty into central Tibet. He knows nobody. Even in his native land he only knows his parents. That’s it. When he got to the central Tibet he knew nobody.

He was somehow interested on the spiritual path and making it helpful to a people, presenting the correct message and experience of the Buddha, what really Buddha experienced, and what followers of the Buddha experienced, cutting down completely all philosophical things and developing it into the essence of a real practice. He tried to make it absolutely clear, bringing it to the ground level and making it relevant to people’s life. When he was doing that he found the absolute relevant to the people and their practice. He explained the essence of the philosophical points too. He discovered that Buddhism can be used as a simple practice for one individual (30:00) without contradicting a single solid practice. He proved it correct, not only philosophically, but also multicultural, in other words common sense enough to be able to prove. He was looking for some kind of a single, solid practice, covered the basic concepts and analyzing without looking for philosophical points, without looking for logical points. Every single point he brought out had been proven by the philosophical reasons, the logical reasons, based on ethical reasons and the words of the teachers. He brought them all together without contradicting each other. Until then vajrayana people said we don’t care about sutra. The sutrayana people said we don’t care about vajrayana. It was a huge practice without contradicting tantric or sutra practice. He translated the Buddha’s personal experience making it relevant to people’s lives. I think that is the greatest achievement of Tsong Khapa. He totally revolutionized completely, everything. So that’s why Tsong Khapa’s important.

Everybody will not buy everything Tsong Khapa said. That’s fine. It’s definitely okay. There is nothing wrong with that. Officially they will talk about four different activities in Tsong Khapa’s life, all of those milestones and all of that. Tsong Khapa founded the great Monlam festival. Tsong Khapa and his disciples developed the biggest Buddhist monasteries in Tibet. All those type of things are there.

Also, the Buddha’s image in the central temple at Lhasa supposed to come from India, and that is the model for all Buddha images in Tibet. Tsong Khapa changed that and presented a crown to the Buddha that changed Buddha’s look. The body was changed, and he changed the Buddhas look to Sambhogakaya. They called it a Sambhogakaya being. So he changed the body which was only accessible to certain types of people by putting on a crown with the jewels and decorations on it. They can see it and talk about it. It was very controversial. It is counted as one of his four great achievements. Some people didn’t like it, and they went to the extent and tried to produce some books claiming that a devil will come and change the look of the Buddha into this manner and that manner.

The time when I left Tibet, it was nineteen and fifty-nine, and that is when the Communists completely took over Tibet. At that time according to the Chinese, the Tibetans didn’t know how many people were there. The Tibetans had never had counted their population. They didn’t know how many people they had. The Tibetans do have some tax system, they used to count ears. They counted ears. They really did not know the population of Tibet, how many Tibetans there were, in nineteen fifty-nine. So after nineteen fifty-nine they estimated there were six million Tibetans, Tibetan speaking people. Also according to the Chinese estimate they found ninety-two percent of (40:00) Tibetans were followers of Tsong Khapa, ninety-two percent in nineteen fifty-nine. The Chinese counted the Tibetan population.

So that’s it. That’s the background of Tsong Khapa. He was not some great incarnate lama whatever. He came to central Tibet. He travelled thousands of miles on foot, and came to central Tibet, and changed the practice, and now ninety-two percent of Tibetans follow him. So that’s Tsong Khapa, thirteen fifty-seven to fourteen nineteen. That’s why we are here. The way and how to commemorate Tsong Khapa is actually to learn what his message was about and to learn his interpretations. I think that is the best way to commemorate him. That’s it.

Traditionally, that’s why we make Tsoh offerings. The spelling was changed to “Tsoh.” It is not how to be a monastic. I tried to create a Lama Chopa Tibetan practice and turned it over to Steve. I went in the back and had tsoh and cha. I couldn’t find it. So I tried to get the Sanskrit and couldn’t find it. I tried to think about it, had a couple of bottles of beer, and pulled it together. Carmine told me don’t don’t you think you had better stop. I said why. She said you’ve had three of those. Tsoh, how do you pronounce? She said “cha”. It’s not “chow.”

We have this Lama Chopa here mainly in Tibetan. You probably will not know what’s going on. It’s that yellow book on that table. You read it. Let us go through. Or you want English and Tibetan or in English or completely in Tibetan. I think we will read it in English and when the Tsoh offering comes we switch to Tibetan, or you want it in English? Even in English a lot of it will be Greek to you. The English person can start reading it. What I’m going to do is say it quietly in Tibetan, and you can do it in English. We’ll go verse by verse. We will go straight through. I’m going to switch off (the recorder).