Archive Result

20000828GRSROTF02

Soundfile 20000828GRSROTF01

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location SR

Topic Odyssey to Freedom

Transcriber Helen Breault

Date November 4, 2019

[24.8 Teaching Starts]

Good morning everybody. Maybe did not have a good morning? [laughs]

I’m not going to talk very long in detail because it’s going to take time. Things we try to cover it’s going to be quite a while and if you keep on looking on this bookmark that you have. I should at least remind you to generate pure thought. Thought that to benefit all sentient beings one would like to achieve the stage of Buddhahood. So, within this short lifetime itself, and at least at the time of the death or bardo period, or at the worst within the couple of lifetimes, one would like to become a Buddha. For that reason you would like to learn this, think about it, meditate and sort of adapt your personality into this message. That is what you have to be generating your thought.

[2:00]

I talked to you last night a little bit of whatever— the background to Odyssey to Freedom and all this. The number one, you have to create a sacred environment. You already have that. In other words, in your own home you have to generate that too. (Actually, oh forget it…)

And then arranging offerings. The offerings, that actually whatever is available for you to arrange, whatever you have, and actually arrange and mentally created. In case if you’re new here—there are some new people here— I have to say a little bit here. The best place for you to do your practice is your own home, truly speaking. It’s wherever you are, whatever you are: home, house, apartment, or up in the woods. Wherever you are. The best place is your own home. Though people like to go out somewhere to do practice. That’s very nice. But it is most helpful to you in your own home because that’s where you spend most of your time there. It is very nice if you have the facility to arrange a separate room for altar, meditation room great. Otherwise the best place is your own bed. Even though you have a room, like a lazy person like me finding always sitting on my own bed and doing my own commitments as fast as I can. That is my own experience. So your bed is also the best place.

[4:28]

However, to have a good little environment is important. If you have a lot of dirty clothes thrown all over the place, you have to almost swim through your underwear to get into bed, it might not be the best place. It’ll be nicer to pick it up a little bit. The reason is not just because of you alone but you’re doing something where you’re going to invite all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the Supreme Field of Merit. A little tidy-up is okay, you should be able to do a little tidy-up. That’s the important point I wanted to mention. So whatever you feel comfortable with—bottom line is you should feel comfortable. The place should not disturb you to doing your practice. And that is the environment you should create.

Offering yes, part of environment. And creation of environment and part of actually it is the generosity part of it. This is very important. Offering is the best generosity part of it. Offering doesn’t have to be only for incense, water, and flowers. It can be everything. Everything that you see, you have seen it, you own it, everything without any hesitation. Without any hope of return you should always offer. You know why? Attachment goes away. It’s no longer yours. Though you own it you’re managing it. But it’s no longer yours. It is giving to Buddha, dharma, and sangha. It is giving to the Supreme Field of Merit. It’s giving to all sentient beings. So you’re simply a manager, or whatever you call it. Caretaker. But not the legal thing. [laughs] Lawyers managing estate, it’s not. But you know, that’s how it is.

[7:10]

And position of body and mind. Body, you should sit straight. You know, like Allen used to say, “ If you want to meditate, the first thing you do is keep your backbone straight. Sitting on the ground, the ground’s not there, sit on the chair.” Remember those? I remember Allen all the time anyway.

These are the points. So, a lot of meditation postures that you see there’s posters available, books available, everything’s available. You look into it. But the most important thing at this moment at the beginning level for ourself is just to be comfortable and don’t want to fall asleep. You have to be sort of in-between that. You don’t want to be too comfortable. Don’t want to be lying down. If you want to lay in bed that’s fine. I’m talking to you about right now. I’m talking to you about when you do the practice. The most important thing is to be comfortable, body position. If you’re doing something like dzogrim [8:43] level or something, then you really have to sit straight and keep your backbone straight and all this. You really have to do at that time.

[8:54]

Just to be able to develop shiney I don’t think you have to do it.

Anyway, so the mind position is, well, clear. All your doubts and all your, sort of negative emotions and wrong thoughts and everything, sort of like a peel-off. Peel off all your wrong thoughts just like you’re peeling the skin of orange. So that’s exactly what it is. Any wrong thoughts that are coming up, peel off. Such a strong thought—a lot of them—even you’re sitting here and there can be wrong thoughts. Such as, for example, your pride. Pride. From any angle you can get pride. Some people may think, “Well, I’m very senior. Why am I sitting at the back?” Some people may think, “I’m very junior but I’m right in front. Ohhh!” That kind of thing is pride. This is unnecessary thought that has to be peeled off. And that’s what it is.

Even in here I would like to mention there’s a number of teachers in here who have been teaching Buddhism to large groups. A number of them are available here. So when you’re learning, you’re learning, you’re the same person whether you sit at the front or the back. But when it comes in your time to sit over here and talk then it’s different. Until then it’s the same thing.

[10:54]

You know I used to have that pride quite a lot. For a very long time. That’s what it is. Keep that in mind. So positioning body and mind.

And not only that. Positioning your—most important, then attachment. Pride one thing, attachment is another one. You see a nice body over there so your attention is drawn to that body. You want to look to the side all the time or draw attention. You know you know it better than I do. Those are the wrong thoughts. That thought has to be peeled off.

And then anger. Equally. Yeah, that person’s not looking at me, that person’s looking at so-and-so. [laughs] So that type of thing, you have all of those. I’m just giving you a vivid example. Then, you know, some people have deep anger inside. You don’t know what you’re angry about, to whom. But you’re deeply upset. It could be anybody. It could be something happened to you at your childhood. It could be anything, any time, anywhere, with anybody. We do have unnecessary anger we carry, a number of us. This is the time for you to load off those angers. Here as well as in your home when you meditate. And that is something which you don’t need. You really don’t need it. Anger is never going to protect you. Attachment may, it is a little tricky area. But anger will never protect you. But you think you will. But it’s never. Never, ever. It will create more trouble, more suffering and more things that you don’t want. So when you’re positioning mind those are.

[13:15]

And the most important is the ignorance. Ignorance is not only not knowing but wrong knowing. The wrong knowing is even worse than not knowing. Not knowing is okay. You don’t know it you can learn it. But if you have wrong knowing it’s very difficult to get rid of it—because you think you know it, you think what ever little information you have is right. Plus that we have stubbornness in our nature, particularly American nature. We have that stubbornness. But wrong knowing plus stubbornness you’re in trouble. So ignorance is the worst. Worse than anger. Worse than attachment. It is the creator of the anger and attachment, is ignorance. You know it. I know it. We all know it. The ignorance creates our attachment. Ignorance creates our anger. Look very carefully within your mind. How is your anger rising? How is your attachment arising? It is all because of misunderstanding or something or another. Misinformation. Misknowledge. Misunderstanding. It’s all because of that.

[14:54]

There is no such a negative emotion that’s not risen out of ignorance. It’s all because of that ignorance. And that is our biggest problem, our biggest challenge and most difficult to clear, to get rid of. That is our biggest challenge and biggest trouble. Even true friends not getting along well is due to misunderstanding. The misunderstanding is coming out of misinformation. It is the ignorance.

[15:38]

This is one of our biggest problems. We always think anger is big problem, attachment’s a big problem. But no, ignorance is the biggest problem. If there’s no ignorance there will be no attachment. There will be no anger. There will be no hatred. It is all that ignorance. The ignorance also, bottom line ignorance is all for the ego. I would like to use the word “ego” for ignorance, really. Number one, we use ego a lot. But we don’t know really what ego is. Do you? No, I don’t think so. We’d like to call it ego. Even if you see pride you call it ego. It’s a product of ego. You see anger, you see behind the anger something you’d like to call it ego. You see attachment, you see behind that something, you’d like to call that ego too.

[17:00]

(Talks to Kathy about something.)

That is the ignorance and ego combined together. Let’s put together in that way. Leave it there. At least you should have some kind of picture to point it out, ego. And not me but my ego. We say that, right? If you read my, this Lojong transcript. By the way, there is a new, Marianne from Holland worked hard as usual and the Lojong teachings that I did in New York and Holland—right, two—she combined them together and have a nice new updated version of Lojong transcripts available. And I think it’s quite useful for you people if you read it.

In that we talk a lot about the ego in there. We talk about it. We try to introduce, we try to pinpoint it. Not exactly yet. Probably another update will get it. Really true. [laughs] I think Marianne will do it too. [laughs]

[19:00]

You’ve got in there. You begin to see it something different than yourself. And that ego has to be the root and the real root and the bottom line, I should say bare bones of ignorance is that ego. Which is the really creator of all negative emotions. So when you have to clear, when you position the mind, you have to clear the ignorance. You have to clear the hatred. You have to clear the attachment. Tibetan Buddhist tradition calls these three the three poisons. Even you look in those Wheel of Life. If you look in Wheel in Life it tells you the story of how samsara works. And you see the middle there is a snake, pig, and cock. Three of them are eating each other. Supporting each other. Creating each other. So that you see in the center. It’s really what’s happening is these three negative emotions: the ignorance, the attachment and the hatred. It’s really the creator of all our samsaric sufferings. The attachment sometimes creates a little nice little picnic spots here and there. And that’s why you have this pretty beautiful cock was put there. Sometimes they can do something nice. Some attractive things, that’s why. And then snake and pig.

[21:30]

That sort of represents the hatred and the ignorance. So you see that in the center, then everything is out of that. You have the whole circle coming out. It’s really the creator of our suffering. If you begin to look where the suffering’s really coming from it’s from those three, and particularly from the ignorance. Those three. It’s really there. A god did not give us suffering at all. Did not create the suffering. It is our negative emotions, all three of them. It is the cause of suffering. That is within ourself. We protect that. We cherish that. We can’t let it go, this because we think we’ll be stripped off. If I let it go, my anger, I’ll be stripped off. If I let go of my attachment, I’ll be stripped off. If I let go my ego, I’ll be nowhere, I’ll be bare naked, a little thing thrown out in the middle of nowhere. That’s what we’re afraid of. The fear that is created by our ego to protect the ego, to protect the hatred, to protect the attachment, so that they don’t have to do anything more. We do it. We are the real slaves of the anger, hatred, attachment and ignorance. So positioning your mind right from the the beginning. Even if you can’t get rid of it, recognize. Do not make mistake now. We made a lot of mistakes, life after life, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re in this condition today.

[23:56]

That’s why we have pain. That’s why we have suffering. That’s the simple reason: because we keep on making mistake on that again and again and again and again. That’s our life. Here is our problem to be recognized right from the beginning. Do not make mistake. If you make mistake this time you really lose a lot of opportunity. Even you still hang on in dharma, carry your malas, saying your prayer, doing your meditation, but if you make a mistake on this, nothing. All the prayers that you say, wasted. All this efforts you put in, totally wasted. All the meditations you’ve done is wasted. Really, it’s wasted. You may get some good karma somewhere, but you get at something. But not a big deal. Nothing. This is the big deal here. So do not make mistake on this. We can keep on talking and make jokes and do all kinds of things. It’s fine. But bottom line here, all our sufferings are coming out of these three. Never, ever doubt about it. Never, ever think twice about this. Even our normal American common sense, you say, “Okay, God is the creator. God created all of us.” But are you going to say God created our sufferings as well? No it doesn’t. Or God’s angry and gives you suffering. No, it’s not right. It doesn’t.

[26:06]

That is our self. We did it. And how we did it is this way. We never created suffering for ourself because we wanted to torture ourself. Never ever. Because we want to protect ourself. We don’t know how to protect. We thought we could protect by ourself by getting angry or by getting, you know… People do that all the time. People use anger to shelter. People use attachment to shelter, to gain something. That’s really what it is. I don’t think there’s anything mysterious about it. It’s very simple, straightforward. When you look at yourself, when you look at others, people use those negative emotions to shelter themselves, don’t they? Don’t we see it every day? We do! So you know it’s there. That’s what, whatever the other person’s doing we’re doing the same thing. Because we’re in the same boat. Don’t worry about it. Look at that person. Terrible, he does this and that. I’m sure we do the same thing. We’re in the same boat. We’re created by the same type of emotions. It’s the same thing.

[27:36]

You know there was a dream during the—this is Hindu-Buddhist mythological stories— according to the previous Buddha’s time—not Buddha Shakyamuni, previous Buddha’s time—there was a king who had a funny dream. There were a number of monkeys playing somewhere. And there’s one little tricky monkey and he was sort of falling there, piece of shit. And came out of it and sitting over there. And there was another monkey whose tail went over to the shit pit and had a little shit on the tail. And he was completely covered. And he’s pointing a finger to the other side, telling the other monkeys, “Look at his tail, he got shit over there.” Where he himself was completely covered. He doesn’t know that and he was doing that. Then this king got so amazed and went to the Buddha at that time. Not our current Buddha, but previous Buddha according to the thousand eons or whatever. And so told him that story. “What is this?” (he asked). And he said, “This is not during my time. It is the next Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni’s period. The disciples of the buddhas will do that.” [laughs] That’s what he told. And that’s exactly what we do. So remember that. When we’re seeing a fault in the other person, we’re saying, “Look at the other person. Look at what he’s doing.” We’re doing exactly the same thing.

[29:18]

Because we’re created by the same thing. We have the same sort of addiction. We are bound to do the same thing. It’s there. So that’s the positioning your mind. [laughs]. Okay?

Now the next one comes the visioning Supreme Field. I should say something briefly. Though you have created the altar. The altar is a physical thing. This is not a physical training. We’re not training physically. If we’re training physically we should have all these gadgets around, you know building our muscles and all. Even though it’s Buddhist we should have all the martial arts equipments here. It’s not that. It’s not a physical training. It’s a mind training. Even though symbolically we arrange a little altar. But the most important altar is up here (Rimpoche gestures). You have to arrange your own altar mentally. This is the most important. Maybe the altar, the word “altar” does not work well, maybe. Because English language altar has to be something physical outside. Is that right? Yeah, it has to be, maybe. But the reality is the true altar is the mental altar which you have to create. Physical thing is fine, good. It is icing on the cake but not real. The real ones you must create. And that is your meditation. If you read the Lama Chopa, there’s a very detailed altar over there. Even Lam Rim, there are all different lineages there. The lineage of the love/compassion, lineage of the wisdom, lineage of the practice. All these are there. If you can remember them, wonderful, wonderful. I can’t. If you can remember, great. But if you cannot remember that, at least you must have one here, one here: Supreme Field of Merit. Can be Buddha, can be Tsongkhapa, can be your own spiritual master or everything oneness in Buddha form or Tsongkhapa form or something like that. If it’s more refuge-oriented, it is Buddha. If it’s more practice—like Lam Rim oriented—Tsongkhapa form. It doesn’t matter, whatever the form you may be. You have created a picture.

[32:40]

A picture and that picture is a totally mental picture not tangkha or photo or poster, nothing. Totally a mental picture. Mental picture with the life. A living one. Whatever face you want to borrow, fine. But a mental picture, a living one, inseparable to that of Buddha, Tsongkhapa, your own spiritual master, all the lineage masters. You have to create one person, mental image. And that you can label Supreme Field of Merit, your root master, your Tsongkhapa, your Buddha, whatever. A picture must create and that one is your Supreme Field of Merit. Supreme means what? The best, the best ever possible, merit-creation base. What is merit anyway? (Asks audience)

[34:31]

(What does the dictionary say about merit? It doesn’t matter, no one has it.)

[34:48]

Anyway, that is your own—you can call it your own guru. You can call it your own Supreme Field of Merit. You can call it your own master. It is sort of a base on which you work every day. Base on which you purify all your negativities. It is the companion with whom you can share with your own faults. I’m trying to talk to you two things together here: creating a Supreme Field of Merit and guru devotional practice. I’m trying to put the two together, so that we don’t take so much time talking here. To have a person, yes it’s good. But it’s always important to have your own creation of somebody. That is your Supreme Field of Merit. That is your guru. I shouldn’t say, “That is” because it becomes article. He or she is. I can’t say “he” alone because then the ladies won’t like it. Doesn’t matter.

[36:33]

I mean that is finding of your own, sort of, you know, image. A representation, a figure. Otherwise if you read Lam Rim books or if you attend Lam Rim teachings, or whatever you do, they will tell you the guru, guru, guru, guru, guru business. But they won’t tell you who is that guru? What is it? And they will sort of somehow, to make it easier for everybody, every single person that you had spiritual teachings from, anybody, you have to say this is guru. Otherwise you quote from Sakya Pandita [Tibetan 37:41]. The quote, “One would listen to even a single verse, if you do not consider it’s guru you’ll be born as five hundred times as a dog.” It’s so funny that word there. So we caught that. And you see that in Lam Rim books everywhere. They won’t tell you exactly. Somehow you have to figure it out. You have to learn. That’s what you’re going find— a mental thing.

And then it’s so important you have to see it’s inseparable. That is extremely important. But sort of in reality you have some one. In my personal case, it’s always there’s someone there. And the face is sometimes Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche. Sometimes it’s Ling Rimpoche. And sometimes it’s Gomo Rimpoche or Locho Rimpoche [?38:49] or my father.

[38:56]

My father, you shouldn’t think every father is that. My father’s different, that’s why. [laughs] It’s different because of my father. Not your father. No, he’s a very well known incarnate lama and one of these outstanding persons in his life. That’s why.

The face, I think you can change at the time. Sometimes Tsongkhapa. Sometimes Buddha. Even the physical form. But you have to have somebody and that’s your Supreme Field of Merit. That’s your own guru.

[39:48]

It’s very interesting anyway. Envision the Supreme Field of Merit. Offer salutations— probably you have to salute, right, left, right, left, wow. That’s what you do, okay? [laughs] Amy, you have to carry the guns. (talks to Amy in the audience [laughs] We changed that one. Why is it here? Okay, thank you.) So then you don’t have to salute. So there’s a change of the word. Express what? Praise. Oh, you’re going to praise the person. So you don’t salute the person. You praise the person. You praise the person. Why? Because you know their quality. You admire their quality. You would like to have the quality. That’s what you do. Quality of what? Free of ego. Free of ego-productions. And that’s the quality. The best quality available.

[41:35]

If you are free of ego, the moment you’re free of ego you can do anything you want to. Actually, your limitations are out. All our limitations are basically the ego-production. Every limitation, everything whatever you want to do. Everything is, what is limiting is the ego. Ego is the one who puts all our limitations. If you’re out of that, you’re free of that ego-traps then you don’t find the limitations. You can do anything you want to do. Real freedom. You can live if you want to live. You can die if you want to die. You can do anything you want to do. All our limitations are ego-production. What we admire from the Supreme Field is the freedom they have, the most important. You know, when we talk about the Buddha’s quality, we talk about Buddha can do anything. Whatever they want to do, there’s no limitations, knowing everything. And all obstacles cleared and blah blah blah. We say that all the time, right? And that’s what they’re talking about. That position is possible with the ego free position, when you obtain that. It’s all limitations are gone.

[43:41]

Really, that’s what it is. Not only when you’re freed from the ego, not only you got free, but you’re also free from the law of physics too. Then the law of physics does not apply to you. Such a development can be obtained from the scientific means too. Freedom from the law of physics. I’m sure, I have no doubt. Why are you looking me like this? No, really, there’s no limit. I’m sure you can do it.

(Audience member makes comment—inaudible)

Okay, thank you. I mean normally you say you can’t— you know the things you say, you cannot walk on the open air, you cannot go through the walls, and you cannot hang on the air, and all those type of things. Isn’t that the physics right? The law of physics. Am I right or wrong, Mr. Physicist? Dr. Physicist? Okay. [laughs] I keep thinking you’re a physicist, why? You’re what, biologist. It’s equally good. [laughter] I’m quite sure you can be free by the scientific means. I would not be surprised. Scientific means people will begin to discover you can walk across the walls. What will the banks do? [laughs]

[45:44]

Anyway, so, I believe if you get free from the ego traps you do that. All of them. The quality that we talk with the Buddha level and the arya level, and the this and that, they can do all of them is just because you get freedom from the ego thing. That quality we admire. And because of that we praise, with the expression, “I want your same quality.” So that’s what it is. That is called the spiritual development. You can reach to that level by spiritual way or scientific way. I guess I’m saying that. I don’t know whether scientific way you can become fully enlightened or not. Probably not. But all of those things can happen.

Anyway, what does this word say? I have here, “Offer salutations.”

[47:08]

This is probably printed from some old versions, right? Probably.

Praise and symbolic and boundless imagined offerings. That’s right. It is the opportunity. You know, what I’m doing is the Seven Limbs. That’s what you have. I offer some thing, some thing you said in the morning, remember?

(Do we have a break in between? Okay, no break in between. I don’t think so. If it’s after 12:30 you better continue, right?)

So, present symbolic and boundless imagined offerings. When you meditate making offerings, even though actually you may be offering a mere cup of water, pure, mere cup of water, but in your imagination you are thinking of offering a million lakes of water, not cups of water, lakes of water. Sort of, you know, mental level you have to be very, huge, always. Always has to be huge.

[48:51]

Even you have a beautiful single flower, however, it’s multiplied into millions. Even you may have a mere, you know, it’s so funny—some funny thing comes up on my head. I can’t help it.

Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche studied the Tibetan grammar and sort of poetry with his teacher, at that time it was Geshe Sherab Gyatso, a very famous Amdo geshe who later remained his last life in China. And he became the president of the Chinese Buddhist Association in Beijing under Mao. [laughs] So anyway, Kyabje Rimpoche studied under him. And when he finished the teaching Kyabje offered some piece of meat or something, some lamb thing. It’s a traditional Tibetan custom, they give you lamb. I don’t know, maybe it’s Mongolian culture or what it is. They give you lamb. And so Geshe-la wrote a reply in the poetry. In the poetry he says, “In earlier times, in India, to learn one verse of knowledge the kings and queens they have given their lives. Today, to a complete system of poetry, a bare small piece of meat, that also young lamb—what do you call it?—lamb who died with the hunger, who died with the famine or something…” I read that in Dharmsala. And Kyabje Rimpoche read Geshe-la. And [he said] how beautiful is his poetry and blah blah. I sort of went through and saw that. Kyabje Rimpoche might have given him some very very weak and poor dry bone only, some type of little square meat. And Kyabje Rimpoche said, “No, no, no, mine was a big one! Fat, not even a little piece, complete body of sheep that I got from the north of Tibet. Carried over by many people and it was a really good one.” And blah blah blah. But Geshe-la wrote in the poetry, he even said [52:12 Tibetan] sheeling means a quarter of a body. But that also, the lamb died of famine or something. [laughs]. So I thought it must be some very tiny little thing, something. Kyabje Rimpoche was saying it was a huge one and all that.

[52:37]

The offering is one shouldn’t do this—like a little thing. It has to be plenty and many and has to be that way. And I can never forget when I was asked to teach in Tushita in Delhi. And the first day, they were having a Lama Chopa tsoh offering. In the tsoh offering, instead of bringing them a lot of them, they get biscuits. And they open the box of biscuits and put one biscuit in each plate and covering the whole plate, one-one-one each. You know why? Some of the teachings, they say, “Don’t leave a plate empty.” So instead of putting a lot and filling it up, they put one biscuit each and covered all the face of the big dinner plate. I thought it was the most terrible thing to do. They’re not doing terrible--they don’t know what they’re doing. They probably heard, “Don’t leave empty plates” so probably filled up everything with one biscuit each. So, anyway, the offering should be abundant. It should not be limited, should not be small, should not be… Even though, it’s maybe wasted, even though it may be wasted, you don’t presume it. You know, you don’t presume. You buy a lot of fruit, give it to your master or something. And nobody will eat it. It will go bad and throw it away, it doesn’t matter.

[54:27]

From your angle, from normal point of view it’s wasted. But from our angle, to accumulate merit, we have offered a lot. It doesn’t matter whatever happens thereafter. In one of the acquisitions [?54:53] the Chinese communists did to the Tibetans are wasting. Wasting butter, a tremendous amount of butter. They were making lamps, making tormas, getting it rotten. They were throwing it away. And it was the Communist Chinese acquisition for the Tibetan culture is wasting. They have a very valid reason. It’s right. However, it’s none of their business. [laughter] It is none of their business. It is the people who would like to accumulate merit, they did it. Some had a purpose. They had a reason. So let it be. It’s none of their business. [laughs] And it’s very very valid reason, yes. No doubt about it.

[55:50]

Very valid reason, no doubt about it. But that’s what it is. So that’s that. That’s the offering part of it.

Purify all that is negative. I should say very briefly no matter whatever negativities you created it is not permanent. Definitely not permanent. Any mistake that we make we will make mistake and we did make mistake. We will keep on making mistakes one after another. Again and again and again. That’s because we are human beings. If you’re so perfect being you won’t make mistake because you’re superman. If you’re not superman you’re bound to make mistake. Yes, you have to worry about it but don’t worry too much. You know, in the west, I notice a number of people who like to be everything right. Too much righteous. It won’t work. It won’t work. We are not manufactured that way. It is a manufacturer’s defect. So [laughs] the General Motors won’t take it back either. But it is manufacturer’s defect. Don’t worry about it. We are bound to make mistakes and we will keep on making mistakes again and again. There’s no reason why people have to worry too much about it and get depression out of it. No reason at all.

[58:16]

You know, great Atisha, Atisha says, “I don’t get downfalls of self-liberation vows. (That is vows the monks and nun take.) But I do get quite a lot of downfalls of the bodhisattva vows. And, for breaking vajrayana, I’m getting like that of a snowstorm all the time.” That’s Atisha. Not you. Not me. Atisha. Eleventh century great Indian master who brought the pure Buddhism into Tibet. That’s Atisha. And that one gets downfalls like a snowstorm. So what about us? Bound to be. There’s no reason why we have to get depressed on that. But that doesn’t mean you pay no attention either. Pay attention. Downfalls we’ll get. But you have to pay attention and you can purify. There is no such a negativity which you cannot purify. None for whatsoever. Remember, Angulimala’s story. This is a very powerful story. Remember that.

[1:00.23]

So, no matter whosoever we might be we are bound to make mistake. We have downfalls. We break our vows. We break our commitments. But that is impermanent. We can change. We can correct. You people are lucky. (You people can go to bathroom, I can’t. I’ll go another half-an-hour.)

So [laughs] pay attention and purify. The reason why you can purify is because it’s impermanent, it’s changeable. You know why I’m talking to you about this? Because you may think, “Is it possible to purify?” You have to think is it possible to purify? If you don’t think it’s possible to purify, if you don’t think that, you just simply buy because I said so. It is sign of stupidity. Really. You have to think, what happened to your mind then? You have to think and then you have to reason yourself. You can purify because it’s impermanent. And there are people who will tell you you cannot do anything. You made a mistake, you made a mistake forever. You have to live with it. That’s not true. It’s impermanent. Everything is changeable. Everything. Good is changeable. Bad is changeable. Everything changes. Not only changes, it changes every minute, every second. Three hundred-and-seventy-five times in this period alone it changes. So, it’s changeable. Since it’s changeable it’s purifiable. Since it is purifiable even positive things you can lose because it’s changeable. It’s changeable. I mean if you don’t believe it watch yourself.

[1:03:26]

Look at your photo that was taken twenty years ago—and now. Compare it. Where does that change come from? Because it’s changeable so it changed. Because it’s impermanent it changed. Today you don’t have a beard, tomorrow you will have a beard. It’s changeable. That’s why it’s changing. And that itself is convincing enough for yourself to see it is changeable. And how many times we change our mind anyway? In an hour? It’s because it’s changeable. So that’s what it is. Even our negativities are purifiable because it’s impermanent. If anyone can try to prove it is not purifiable, if anyone tried to prove it is permanent I’ll be happy to challenge with reasonable logical thinking. If you’re crazy, you’re going to say, “No, no no, it’s permanent.” Then you can go on and say, “It’s permanent. It’s permanent” for one hundred times. And then you’re crazy, that’s it. That’s the sign of being crazy. [laughs] So otherwise, it is changeable. No matter whatever. Angulimala who killed 999 human beings can become pure. It is repeatedly Buddha shared that story everywhere, right? That itself is good enough reason it’s changeable. None of us have killed 999 human beings. Not even 90 human beings— unless you are…I won’t say it. [laughs] I’ll keep my mouth shut.

[1:05:55]

[laughs]. Now you know, right? Unless you’re Commander in Chief of army, somewhere.

Anyway, that part is joke. But…where are we? Purifiable.

Can we just say, “I purify.” Is that enough? No, that’s not enough. You have to have four powers according to the Buddha. If, you know when the condition’s right, thing’s right. When the condition’s not right things don’t work. To make it work you have to have four different conditions. The most important condition is the condition of regret. Powerful regret, strong regret so that you will not dream of repeating it again. Regret. Then you need an antidote action. Three. And then you need compensation. That makes four. Compensation, love/compassion. Antidote action: anything you do positive recommended love/compassion meditation, Vajrasattva Recitation, meditation on emptiness and so and forth. Antidote action: regret powerful enough that you will not even dream of repeating it. That’s the four conditions. If you have those four then everything can be purified. If you don’t have them you can keep on making attempt. And it will make a dent gradually. It will work. Yes, you have four.

[Audience member says something- inaudible]

Rimpoche: Nobody asked a question yet. They—who are “they”?

Question: What are the four?

I said don’t even think of repeating. Don’t even dream of repeating it. There is four. There is four, please don’t worry about it. I do that every day. Didn’t I get four there? Regret, not going to repeat, antidote action, compensation—that’s four to me. That’s four to me. At least my finger, four went up. [laughs]

That is the purification part of it.

[1:10:11]

You know this is a very good reason why you have to have a group. You can talk about it there.

Rejoice in all that is positive. Actually rejoice is a trick. It’s sort of a spiritual trick that makes it profitable. Makes it profitable because keep on rejoicing instead of getting jealous. When somebody’s doing good keep on rejoicing. You know, it’s so funny. Our negative addictions will automatically make us to get jealous. That shows it’s a negative addiction. If you rejoice you get benefit. If you get jealous you get disadvantage. Every action that we take because it’s influenced by negative addictions so we always want to do the wrong thing, automatically. It’s almost like whatever you want to do you should do the opposite of everything. It may become dharma anyway. [laughs] It’s almost like that.

[1:11:35]

I guess that’s it, rejoicing. It’s a very easy way of… You know you can read it, but if you rejoice equal level of spiritual person you get the equal benefit. And if you rejoice somebody who’s lower than you, instead of getting jealous and getting threatened, you get double the benefit. If you go up, look up there, you get half of it. And that’s how it works. It’s call “natural law system.” Make it easy so no one will argue. Rejoice.

Seek guidance, #9, seek guidance. You have to seek guidance from that guru you have imagined. I told you all the time, it’s not that that guru’s going to speak to you but somehow you get it. Not only right now, the most important thing is at the time when you need it. A lot of people make mistake on this. A lot of people think when the guru has to have it the guru will appear. Perhaps not. Perhaps not. Perhaps not. But why you keep on seeking the request, then it may work. And particularly at the time when you become fully enlightened, at that moment you need guidance and they will be there. It’s not necessarily whenever we need a guru guru will appear. That’s not correct. That’s wrong. Guru will appear occasionally, occasionally. It’s like the utpala flower. Occasionally it comes, the real true guru. Occasionally it will come. And when you don’t get the opportunity at that time it goes. It goes. That’s how it works.

[1:10:00]

So anyway, seek guidance. That’s why you request to remain, request to remain. Request to remain is—even guru in life or death—it is the same thing. The person may not be living but the person is living. The person is living. May not be in physical human life but the person is living. For you, for me, for our personal needs, it’s needed all the time so you make a request to remain. Dedicate all our efforts. If you dedicate it locks, it’s a done deal. If you don’t dedicate, the deal is not closed. It’s left open so it can be changed, can be lost, can do anything. It’s like signing. When you have an agreement, buying, selling a house, whatever— you do the done deal business, you sign it. That’s the dedication makes it a done deal. If you’re playing chess that looks like the next person moved so you can’t go back. You say, “Hey, take it back. I didn’t mean that.” You can’t do that. That’s the indication.

[1:16:30]

Ask for inspiration and blessings and that’s like OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNI SOHA. Saying mantras and all of them are included in this. Okay?

Now we reach to the #13. That is guru devotional practice. [1:16:57 Tibetan]

There’s fifteen minutes. I don’t want to touch guru yoga yet. So anybody have any questions or anything? When I’m talking people are raising hand and even Dan said “they” have a question, “they.”

[1:17:45]

Audience: Earlier you were speaking about merit and asking if anyone knew what merit was. And then I thought I heard you say, “It doesn’t matter. No one here has it.” And I wonder what you meant by that?

[laughter]

Rimpoche: Oh no I don’t mean no one here has merit! I was talking about…You know, you see this is called “out of context.” I was saying, “What does the dictionary say?” And then, well, no one here has it. That’s what I meant. You caught me red-handed but you’re out of context. [audience laughter] Good question. Thank you.

[1:19:00]

Audience: You say “position your mind, clear your mind.” And then three things are very powerful things—the three poisons. And I’m wondering…You’ve got the symbolic offerings. And you position your mind. Do you just say to yourself, “Okay, I’m acknowledging that these three things exist, these three poisons.” That is positioning my mind. Because I would spend a long time just right there. Just make that statement and then go right into envisioning the Supreme Field?

Rimpoche: Excellent question. It is. Yeah, if you try to remove three poisons there you might take a whole life there, it’s very true. So I guess, what I’m saying, the position in your mind means clearing the three poisons. You may not be able to clear all three poisons. Not only, but even a single one, we may not be able to clear at all. But however, at this moment, moment there, if your mind is under the control of one of the poisons try to get back. Try to reclaim your mind from those one of the poisons. Let’s say if you’ve been nagging by attachment or if you’ve been nagging by anger or irritation or hatred, you try to relax a little of it. And get mind free, a little bit of free from that nagging condition. Little bit better so that you have room to think something else.

[1:21:30]

Perhaps what you’re going to think, what you’re going to do is the opposite side of what you’ve been nagging. So it may be a little difficult to bring in unless you get relaxed a little bit. And way and how you get relaxed is think something else. That’s why they tell you, “Watch your breath.” Breath going in, breath going in, going out, going in, going out, going in, going out. That trick they teach you because they want you think something other than what you’ve been thinking. And then they even tell you, count breath going out of nostril because there’s movement, physical movement, so you can think better. These are the reasons why they do this. Counting breath is, we call this “meditation.” “Breath meditation” we call it. We sometimes even give shamata meditation. Or sometimes we give shiney or whatever. Actually what you’re really doing is giving another alternative where you can shift your focus from the nagging anger or attachment. So positioning your mind, getting yourself free from those poisons meaning moving that way. I’m glad you raised that question. When I try to go too fast I create those troubles.

[1:23:35]

Audience: Thank you Rimpoche. When you mention rejoicing and those positives, you said that it comes back double when it’s someone you despise? I found that really hard to swallow. Not that I’m arguing in any way. If someone is maybe not physically but breaking your fingers, you say, “Gee, you have good strong hands. That’s a good thing.” [audience laughs] Or, stabbing you in the back with a good strong arm, do you always look for the positive in the negative? Or do we have to decide what is negative and what is positive and separate the two? Am I making any sense at all? Are you saying that we should try to find the positive in what may appear to be negative?

Rimpoche:

What I was saying, but your question’s very important and we have to talk about it…but what I was saying is when somebody else is doing a good job, something positive, nice one, instead of getting jealous, rejoice, appreciate. Even the word rejoice itself is very strange word in English. I begin to learn it. What do you mean, “rejoice”? You know. But actually anybody doing something nice you appreciate rather than getting jealous. That’s what I think I was saying.

However, the subject that you raised is very interesting. If somebody is really punching you badly, and you say, “Gee, you really have a strong fist. Wonderful.” If you could that, you’re a bodhisattva.

[1:26:05]

It’s great if you could do that. You know, that reminds me of a Mongolian scholar and teacher called Sopa Lobsang who was, in Tibet, the year we left, ’59, he was the new Deputy Abbot of Gyume, the lower Tantric college. He was a great guy. Wonderful teacher, learned scholar, very dedicated person. However, a number of Tibetans thought he was pro-Chinese. He very strongly co-operated with China, communist China. And even during the part uprising in ’59 and he was in Chinese camp and things like that. But then came the Cultural Revolution. He was asked to make a direct attack—people give you two different stories—some people say Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche, some of them saying the Dalai Lama. But he refused completely. When he refused he was beaten badly in public. And at first he was saying, “No, I won’t say it.” And he was beaten very badly. They say he was dripping a lot of blood and things like that. And after a little while somehow he raised up ahead and he said, “I have walked all the way from Mongolia to Tibet to do a dharma practice, to learn dharma practice and to do. And here you people have given me great opportunity. Thank you very much.” While he was being beaten. Then thereafter no matter how many people beat him or did whatever he won’t say anything. He wouldn’t eat. And he died.

[1:28:42]

So that’s when you say somebody’s punching you, stabbing you, say, “Gee, you have a very strong fist.” That sort of reminded of that story.

Perhaps that’s something we should rejoice. Thank you.

[1:29:15]

Audience: When you visualize the Supreme Field of Merit, and then you go on and do other things— but I find after #13 which is reflecting on the quality of the guru, cultivating it. Then I get into these other imaginations, the bardos and all that. I forget the Supreme Field of Merit. How long are you supposed to maintain it? When do you dissolve it?

Rimpoche: All the time.

Audience: So you’re supposed to keep it there even while you’re…

Rimpoche: Everything. Yeah. Because in the Lam Rim meditation [1:29:59 Tibetan] they always tell you while you’re meditating your Supreme Field of Merit then you should think this, this, this. So it’s always, all the time. I’m glad you raised that. Thank you.

[1:30:11]

And I think we have to take a break here. And whether you like it or not I have to visit. [laughter]

[1:30:33 ending prayers]

[1:30:41 tape ends]