Archive Result

Odyssey to Freedom –

20010118GRNYOTF

Odyssey to Freedom - Number 20 continuation - Face the Inevitability of Death

00:00 Welcome everybody here for tonight. I have to apologize for last Thursday I was not here and somehow was unable to inform everybody and some people get came all the way here. So, my apologies for that. 0:25 [Administrative to 3:00] Anyway, so now we are still here, that is, I think that’s where I did number 20 in Odyssey to Freedom, is that right? What is number twenty? The inevitability of death, that’s right. I remember that before the end of the new year, I didn’t want to talk about death. So, now I remember that okay. 3:38

3:38 So, you cannot avoid not talking about death. So, basically, if you read in the suggestion, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, if you read, they give you a like six benefits about thinking about death, I should say meditating and six disadvantages of not meditating on death and then actual meditation on death and all of them there. It makes you very clear there. I want to touch a little bit here, actually, this is Dharma practice. 5:07

5:07 My personal experience is that I always hesitate to talk at this level, something, which I should be doing it, which is, when you look back at the three principles aspects of Buddha’s teaching and Tsongkhapa goes around there (Tibetan). 5:56 So, they said this in (? - rarity of having a human life) of human life and the difficulty to find and life is impermanent and should reverse the so strong hanging on to “What’s going to happen to me? What’s my life? Will I have enough money. Will I be managing? Will I be left alone?” What really the traditional teachers call this is sort of cling on, some kind of material comfort. This is an important point. I think is does slightly difference comes in the usual, everyday way we think and actual Dharma practice. It differs a little bit here. 7:13

7:13 If it is not properly presented, then there is a danger of misunderstanding. For example, I come across with a number of people, who tells me Buddhism that it is the religion for dead people. Some people say that. And some people say Buddhism (is about) renounce all life. There is a truth in that. Buddhism renounces all life, for those who become a monk or nun and they renounce their total life, total material life and become a monk or num, that who try to not only become celibate but have no interest of making money, at least, it is not their goal to build a comfort in life or luxury comfort in life. It is truth of that is there. 9:12 However that doesn’t mean every Buddhist practitioner don’t have to worry about your life. Certainly, you have to worry about paying your bills and certainly you have to worry about something you can use and when you need a little some kind of something. You know I think they aren’t thinking about that at all. But people have some misunderstanding and that’s why we try to, at least for me, I hesitate ever time when I came to this point. I hesitate to say it because of fear of misunderstanding. Thus, if you get misunderstanding then is not very good. So, you lose all the other benefits out of that. So, that’s why I hesitate to talk. That’s my personal experience. 10:28

10:28 I don’t know what other teachers do. I have no idea. I don’t know. But anyway, one of the most important methods of not so much attachment for the life, not as life, but the luxurious or even to a certain extent good comfort, the material gains. When we look at comfort, we see comfort as material gains for us at this moment. We don’t see anything beyond that, which actually is not true. Actually, it is not true, the real comfort has nothing to do with material. That is absolutely true. But we never know that. For us the picture of comfort is somehow, no one really wants to be a billionaire or famous and, they do, but they don’t. If you look at the (?) everybody does want it, but also everybody does not want it. So, that’s there. Good satisfaction and all this. But still, they do worry about it, they do think about it and it becomes an issue. So that’s why I hesitate. I hesitate because if I develop a misunderstanding instead of contributing to your life, I will be doing a disservice. That’s why I hesitate. 12:36

12:36 But actually, this is the key here. Why the death meditation, meditation on death, is so important both analytical and concentrated meditation. Analytical from the (shem shem the Prasanna) and the concentrated from the Samadhi point of view. 13:03 So, it become so important here and that’s where it’s really making a difference between the true Dharma practitioner and true materialistic. No one would like to be called, at least among ourselves here, in this room or those of you who are listening on whatever. So, you probably don’t want to be called a true materialistic person. However, our attachment, our attachment, to a material thing, has not gone out of our system at all. On the contrary, you begin to notice more here than when you are not thinking about it. And because you are not focusing, it become a part of daily life, if becomes part of your chose, thinking and fighting and all this struggling. So, you don’t even notice. 14:24

14:24 But when you begin to practice, you have attachment. Attachment is such a funny thing. It doesn’t have to be something unusual, uncommon treasures. It can be any little thing, even those of us who claim to be practitioners, we can have a very good attachment to our mala, for example. You know, people have that. My mala is coral, or mine is turquoise, mine is lupus lazuli, my is amber. My counters are pure gold, my silver (?). We have a very strong attachment to our ritual objects. You know my bell is old. It has to be ancient, good quality, not too big, not to small and good sound and you know this thing that goes on top of the bell whose called _________ and vajra, whether is was made properly or not really made properly. Is it an old one or is it a new one? If it’s an old one is it guided or not guided. You know all those things are we have attachment. 16:16

16:16 We’re supposed to be Dharma partitioner. These are supposed to be Dharma objects, even they bring the attachment and clinging on, on this. So, it really doesn’t have to be attachment as sticky stuff we see. It can be everywhere. So, all these things are supposed to be cut by this meditation on death. 17:04 But if it goes beyond there maybe another danger of becoming too much hippie. You can put it that way, you understand what I mean, you know. So actually, it is meant to cut to the good yuppie, but if you do too much it becomes too much hippie. So that is one thing you have to be aware of. 18:06

18:06 Actually we waste a lot of our time for not really doing a good perfect Dharma practice. It is just because not remember the depth. And I think, I have mentioned, even last time when I was here last year, Buddha said the footprint, among the footprints available, the elephant’s footprint is the biggest, because the elephant is the heaviest (animal) and makes the big footprint in mud. Likewise, the meditation on death makes a stronger impact on practitioners not to have so many of those silly, you know in one way it’s a silly, on the other hand it is one of the very strongest things that we do to ourselves. 19:25

19:25 If you look at Western culture normally, since childhood, we’re brought up people with every education we are giving in this direction to build a good comfortable, wonderful, best person, don’t settle to the second, all of those. Why not the best and all that build up and may contradict. I don’t know. 20:01 My knowledge and understanding of normal Western culture, might not be good enough, to make this thing here. But, however, too much of too strong attachment for this is not a right thing. We all know that. Even, I always said, one of the Buddha’s best gift for the humanitarian a least, for me. Of course, enlightenment and all of this are the usual thing. But even then, we you look, satisfaction, whatever you have your life, whatever level you have it, material. You know mental, physical, emotional level, material is satisfying whatever we have to be satisfied with that. 21:26 It is very important to give, I think, because our greed, we call it, is so strong, it will never satisfy anything. Everybody would like to have more, not necessarily in terms of money, alone, but in terms of everything. 22:13

22:13 A grinch, a (? flying kettle thing), and they also, didn’t want money. They have plenty. But they want something more, even their own name, fame, whatever who knows, whatever, prestige, so that is the human fault we have. We always wanted something more. Those things, in one way it looks, it helps us. It helps us to build a life. To a certain extent, it is certainly true. But then, to a certain level, beyond that, then it doesn’t help you anymore. On the contrary, it hurts us. It hurts us because our priority become different. Our priority is, you know, building our life and building it more, having more houses, more plane whatever, more and more things. 24:20 That become the priority, rather than helping ourselves. 24:31

24:31 Since I am talking with the background of reincarnation with our lives, then it becomes to hurt ourselves rather than help it. I just recalled when His Holiness was in Washington, when he was talking in that Mall, Washington Mall and he was saying is that you cannot wear ten rings on your fingers or then diamond rings or you cannot have seven or eight watches. And if you’re really looking at the stomach, you can eat only this much, and he was talking that at the Washington Mall on a public talk. It is reality, it is truth. I think here we sort of differ, the culture difference, of course, the moment you talk about Buddhism, everywhere there is a big difference, culture difference. But over here it is a very strong difference. 26:06

26:06 Anyway, that is perhaps the reason why I hesitate to talk a lot of the benefits about meditating on death. And the disadvantages about not meditating on death, all of those. So, actually, if you don’t think or meditate about death and dying, then certainly, death and dying is not in our consideration, we just simply think what we are going to do. We’re simply going to think, what makes me feel happy? What makes me feel comfortable? What makes me better, whatever that better is, rather than carefully thinking there may be a time for me to settle my account. But there may be a time for me to make a, I guess I have to say settle my account, which I don’t want to say. It gives you a funny picture. And I said I don’t want to be that conservative religions thing. I don’t want to give any picture of that at all. But there may be a time, otherwise, why we have to be good. Why we have to be good, it is because good bring good and bad brings bad and all this and that’s why we try to be good. 28:42

28:42 It has to come up in our own faith. It has to be settled. It has to be guided. It also guides our future lives. We would never consider that if we don’t think about dying. It will not become our consideration at all. So, everything whatever we do, to make ourselves happy as well as we live. That’s what it is. So, we are going aim our end at a sort of the dead and dying level. That level, that’s big. So, nothing beyond that is in our consideration at all. I just notice this, since very early. Not only in the United States or in the West but since my time in India, in 1959 60, and the majority of the people that you meet, there real point of life is very limited, from this birth to this death. And that’s that. Whatever is going to happen in this should be and if this does not happen here, then no matter what it may say, it is another story, not a concern for me. That sort of view, which is very interesting, it is reality to a certain extent, but I don’t think the individual person does not end at the time of the death. And that is for sure, at least for me. It is not faith. 31:42

31:42 Obvious reasons, tremendous amount of reason, it continues. So, who is the person really continuing thereafter is me. It is definitively me not another person. It became difficult because nobody can say, “Hay you remember me? You know, I use to look like this, and this is my name.” And though there are some Tibetan incarnate lamas, but that also is a little funny there. It doesn’t really serve the purpose as it should be. It doesn’t. So, but on the other hand, it doesn’t really end there. Can you call this culture difference or way of thinking, I don’t know? That’s there. But in the long run our goal is only limited to that level, only. Within that level, I should have become, you know. Then our scope it completely reduced, very much reduced. Though we say, “For the benefit of all sentient beings, I like to become fully enlightened and blah, blah, blah.” 33:21

33:21 Actually I don’t want to. You know it. It is not going to happen there. It is quite clear judging from our own self. It is quite clear. It is not that easy as we thought of it and saying it. That does not mean we did not develop at all. We do develop a lot, we gained a lot, but we did not reach to that point within such a short period of whatever, a hundred, or sixty or eighty years. So, I think here is a big difference. 34:09 So, I want you to get a little familiar with these ideas. At least, give it a benefit of doubt. If it is true that the individual doesn’t end at the time of death, then what? At least the benefit of doubt, you must give. After all, all of you are educated, intelligent, many of you are brilliant. 34:54

34:54 There is also no valid reason for you, after that it ended, no valid reason except, I didn’t see anyone, no one has ever seen it. Nobody came back and these are in a way, it is valid reason. But simply by not seeing, by not recorded alone, does not mean it is not there. They did record by a number of people, like Buddha and many others. Many other spiritual teachers have recorded. However, they recorded may not be scientifically as we call it today. 35:47 There is no scientific backup. 35:54

35:54 So, I want to make it clear, then with the benefit of keeping in mind, of the benefit of doubt, then we would like to see what advantages is in there. Actually, this will make sure you do not waste your time (?) 36:16 Whatever your goal is, material goal or spiritual goal, whatever it may be, you don’t have all the time you think you do. Really the clock ticks. Life goes. When I came first to the United States in the late ’80’s. I had a lot of time. I use to watch that soap opera, Days of Our Life. It was interesting there is this little bottle there with sand and turned upside down. Yeah, many of you think, it goes. It is very true. That is how our life goes. I am not giving joke here. I am not making sort of, you know … I am not blowing my own horn, but I watch it all the time and I use to think, that’s how my lives go. Always think, always. I don’t think I pass a single day without thinking that is how my life is going. But still I’m watching soap opera. 37:43 37:43 Still, I watch. That’s what it is.

37:51 So, if you really don’t think about future lives, death and thereafter, then our total aim, our total purpose existence, we reduce it to the level we can see and we can really have it, or whatever, you want to be. You want to be a billionaire, or chairman, or whatever you want to be. You are sort of stuck there. You will not go beyond that. So, it is important, important. All of us have to think we are travelers. 38:52 Many spiritual teachers tell we’re travelers. Many of them do, many of the don’t. So wherever they go. But life really is, we’re travelers. We’re not green card holders. But the point is that we are not here permanently. We’re all travelers. And when you are a traveler, then the traveler has to make his or her own schedules and planning and arrangements has to be done. That’s a value for you (39:58).

39:58 If you are permanently staying here, then we don’t have to worry about it as long as you have enough. Coming in or even without coming in, if you do not make it, it’s okay. But we’re not. We have to think beyond that. That is one of the strongest reasons why our Dharma practice should be good and proper and the right one. Otherwise, we can fool around and do all kinds of things, chant here, chant there, sit here, sit there and go out and go down, the sun rises, the sun sets, go to bed, get up the next day, do our own daily chores, (? 40:54), running here or there, get tired, dunk, whatever you know and I grossly, falsely, or whatever and get up. That’s our life. It is limited only to that because we don’t see beyond that. Within that we just have a little bit of building this and that. 41:27

41:36 I know I have mentioned to you, that the Buddha always says, “Every single existence has been somehow concluded with some kind of negative thing. If you have accumulated, there is exhaustion. At the end of life, death. So many of those. All of us have an idea, in the end we are going to die. We all know that. Why I did continuously watch that Days of Our Life even at the beginning of that time, I saw this sand bottle going down, I projected that’s how my life is going. Still why did I waste my time continuously watching that (? 43:45) all those characters in there is I knew I am going to die, but I have in mind that is not urgent for me. It is coming, down the way two hundred years later, or something like that. It is never urgent for me, never ever until you see your friends are suddenly going or gone. 44:27 But it was never urgent for me. Even though we see people dying. So, and so dies, So and So dead. We see that on television all the time. We here this all the time. 44:45

44:45 We notices that flocks started flying, we are halfway through. That doesn’t really click with you unless you see a very close friend or family or someone within your circle. The more it becomes closer, more it makes impact. Even during our Winter Retreat just, a couple of weeks before, we just finished it on the Fifth (of January). 45:50 Even that, one of our friends, who had a lot of close friends, so many, died from, he’s originally from Porto Rico and stayed in New York here finally and moved to Europe and lives in Spain. He called me saying he is coming to the retreat. Then two days before the retreat, three or four days before the retreat, he said that he’s sick. So, then we went to the hospital and then two days later he said that he was better and coming. He said that his temperature is not going down. 46:44 I said that if your temperature is not going down, better not come. So, check, okay he admits and so during the retreat time there is some message on my hand phone, and it doesn’t work well. 47:02 So I got back to my house, the first phone ring is his boyfriend, started calling he’s so bad and I think he only has today left. And when I hang up, he called then the next morning he’s dead. 47:17 So, just like that it goes. So people goes like that. When you go, it doesn’t really take long. 47:24

47:24 We’re just here, just now and then the next minute it’s gone. When you get things like that and then it becomes, it shakes you a little more. You probably will not sit there and watch Days of Our Life. So, the sand bottle does drop but it does not do enough, even though you remember it, but it’s sort of left in general information. It doesn’t push you 48:05. You know what I mean? So, I’m taking one step not remembering and when you do remember, the priority is something else. Laziness will take over or addiction will take over. Attachment will take over and all this. 48:26

48:26 So anyway if you can begin, though you do it, but then you don’t do it nicely. You don’t do it properly; you don’t do it nicely. When you practice, Buddhist practice, nicely. It means, it is not meant for me to have fun. It is not meant for me to enjoy. You can enjoy, but it is not meant for that. You know, it really doesn’t mean to clear your obstacles. Perhaps this is another culture. In our Eastern culture, that of Tibetan culture, we do a lot of prayers and pujas and things like that. 49:28 We spend thousands and thousands of dollars to the monks to pray and clear obstacles. So, when you do this and it’s for clearing obstacles, it is not really, though you do and engaged the most famous monastery, the highest respected monastery, you engage so badly, in that most of the standing the lama to had, or whatever you do all this. It does not really become Dharma. It is simply to clear obstacles, not to get sick, not to have success of your business, success of your program, success of your debt. So, though you did a Dharma practice and Dharam thing, however, it is not Dharma. It is material gain. 50:36

50:36 You see it a lot in Asia, particularly in Chinese community inside and outside of China, everywhere. People put a lot of effort in this. You see that in India with the Hindus, in the temples, the gurus and all this. In the Chinese culture with the masters and monasteries. And in Tibetan culture in the monasteries, lama, Rinpoche and all of those. You do. So, all of them are, and I am actually speaking of them in the Western culture as well. The Western Buddhist (? 51:34) actually begin to do that. So, I don’t know if that’s a good one to repeat or not a good one to repeat, I have no idea. 51:39

51: 47 So all of them becomes another thing. If you are doing something and you did not do it properly. Even when you do your practice, you do your daily practice, you do your daily practice, so you feel good. I did it. I made my lift way up. Then if that’s the reason get an extra hour sleep. 52:22.

52:36 That goes to our practitioners too. If we do practice, we would like to show to the people that I am a practitioner. If you have an altar, you have to make people see the alter. It’s funny, you know. It’s different. When I came to Dharamshala in 1960, there are lots of number of people who come out of good monasteries from Tibet, a number of us. That’s the same age an incarnate lama, we are twenty-three in Tibet and I was twenty-three who came from (53:50 __________ in India) we are all together in Dharamshala. And we don’t make noise and all the senior very senior ___________ Rinpoche 54:04 are all around. They don’t make noise. There are two formal Tibetan officials, near official, who became a monk in his late age of 50’s or 60’s. And they say their prayer, they do. They ring their bells (paraphrased) as they walked through the streets ringing their bells. 54:41 They wanted to make a show that they were saying their prayers. 54:49

54:49 Even when you do practice, you want to make sure people know it. Even those people, you know this is so difficult those meditators who sit in their little cave and close their doors cemented almost. And they get a little window where they can get air. Even that person, sitting in that room that cave, could not let it go. They are hoping someone, some Sherpa, or somebody whose following animals, domestic animals, will notice that they are there and hope that they will go back and talk to the village and say that there is a great man up there sitting. Even they have that. 56:16 There are a great many teachers including Milarepa goes a number of points on that, number of points. 56:31 Dowa ________ 56:37, __________ Assange 56:38. And each and every one of them, there is poem after poem, even the person who is going to sit there for three and three years and even nine years and dope someone will notice that he is there and talk to the village and the villagers will acknowledge there is a great man meditating over there. 57:02

57:02 It is easier for people to give up cloth, luxurious cloth, easier for give up food. It’s very difficult to give up the name, fame. It is much harder, much, much harder. Even our own enemies, we hope our enemies will say something good about me. You know it’s not going to happen because it’s your enemy, but even we have hope. “What did he say about me?” So, this is the problem that goes on top of other one. Even you do it, don’t do it properly, don’t do it nicely. Long pause 58:36

58:36 Now on top of that, even when we do it properly, but we don’t put in enough efforts. I am telling you these are our problems. What makes these problems better, is death. This death makes thinking about meditating about this death. This death makes you forget about these types of laziness, that makes us want to do it nicely. 59:24

59:24 Anyway, if you really do a good practice and then not to waste time. You know Milarepa sits naked. It is not that Milarepa did have shame for sitting naked though his niece thought he is a shameless person. He is sitting completely naked, sitting nude over there and nothing is covered up. 59:54 So she worked very hard and bought a piece of cloth and then she brought it to him and said, “Cover up all your hanging, dangling things. That’s what she could say. She meant to say cover up, you know, where he sit in it yet and she goes and sees him and he sits naked out there. 60:27 So, she felt embarrassed and sky. So, what Milarepa did is was cut all these pieces and covered here and covered these fingers. 60:42 So when she came, she saw that he had five fingers and ten fingers covered and ten toes and extra covered and sitting on there and he sits all the way. But the thing is Milarepa is still naked. The message that Milarepa is trying to give us is not his shameless, or embarrassment, or something. But he starts to say, “I don’t have time.” 61:17 I don’t have time to stitch, to entertain my cloth, to stitch this way or that way. So, I don’t have time. That is what Milarepa is saying. 61:31

61:31 So, all of those senses of urgency to put our efforts in the practice is actually brought by this meditation on death. Now I would like to add one more on top of that, not only that, the meditation on death, if you don’t meditate on death, it is not only difficult to practice, but you will never be able to challenge and cut the delusions, such as anger, hatred, attachment. Because the sense of urgency is not there, so we sort of submit to our addictions, the addiction of attachment, attachment of anger. 62:52 So any action that we take from thereafter, there is a strong influence of attachment and hatred remains so that will be harmful for our practice. 63:09

63:09 That doesn’t end. Lastly, if one doesn’t meditate and think about dying, if death suddenly comes, then we have regret. We have nothing but regret. You can’t tell the death, wait a minute, I have to practice a little bit. Have a cup of tea or have a beer and watch Days of Our Life and I will prepare. You can’t do that. You can’t do that. 63:56

63:56 So when it comes one day, then that’s that. It’s there. Even worse. Actually, we’re worse than those 100% yuppies. At least 100% yuppies, say well, they don’t want to die, but they don’t think of anything beyond that. They don’t know of anything beyond that. And, we are in part informed, that it doesn’t end there, you go beyond that and then you spend blah, blah, blah. Additional worry is on our head. Not only we don’t die, then you’re afraid. Not only afraid of dying, but afraid of what’s going to happen thereafter. 64:59 And then you think about what did I do? What did I have something solid to carry with me? As I am thinking back, very little, very little. Though what you think what I spent fifteen, twenty years practicing everyday regularly, we are good. 65:21 If you are really careful in some kind of order there, then you can find all of those, such as motivation for clearing obstacles, to make me happy, or go where my challenger 65:35 or, you know all kinds of things. So, a lot of purity and impurity in that can select and then there is not very much left in there. So, all of those, is very regrettable. Death will come and that’s that. 66:11

66:11 Earlier teachers will tell you, you should think about death and dying is almost like there is a pit of fire right in front of you. If you take one wrong step you will fall in that. This was earlier teachers they use to say to make it proper and give it a sense of urgency. And that’s why we learn to meditate, mindfulness all of them become extremely important for any practice. And if you don’t put them together, the mindfulness is one kind of meditation there and Shamata is another type of meditation over here. Prasanna is another type of meditation over here. So, this is a Burmese system, this it Thai system, this is Chinese system, this is Tibetan system or this is who did I forget the Japanese over there. Yeah, all of those, but in reality, it is all together. One has to know how to bring them together in one’s practice because they are all together. 67:44

67:44 The practical side of analytical meditation provides the basis and Shamata style of concentrated meditation is that into your life (instilled) and a sense of urgency makes it all perfect. In the one hand, as long as we have that strong attachment of life, you may think, alright if I don’t think about my future, this further until I die. If I don’t think about it, I may become a beggar, okay. I may just become a beggar. Alright, if I become a beggar and I die, nobody will care. These are the traditional teachers; I am talking about. 68:55 They call this great treasury. Great treasury let it be. You should be liberating yourself. If you become a beggar, let it be. If you die as a beggar and nobody cares, let it be. They will leave your dead body without moving it out because people will smell it and feel bad. They’ll throw it out anyway. You don’t have to worry about it. These are what the traditional teachers tell you. 69:32

69:32 This is absolutely terrible to this culture, right? But the traditional teachers will tell you that. (In Tibetan) 69:48 Your mind is on Dharma. The Dharma based on begging, beggar. Beggar be strong, dying where nobody else. Milarepa says in essence is: If I get sick in the middle of a dry rocky mountain and nobody knows I have fulfilled my wishes. My prayers have come true. My wish has been fulfilled. If I died in the middle of a dried rock and nobody else knew, my body has been eaten by the dogs, animals and birds, I have fulfilled my wish. 70:53 But we are all not Milarepa. We cannot do that. I am just giving you the idea that Milarepa goes that far. 70:59

70:59 So, now I would like to conclude before I told you all terrible things. But I am not urging you to become a beggar or anything like that. These are persons like Milarepa that could do it. Oh, one more thing, before I say that. You know, one thing, if you say, If I become like that and I am not going to get anything. I won’t have money. I won’t have cloths. I won’t have food. The mind, here they tell you, not to worry about it. Let it be whatever. But what reality really happens is (in Tibetan) Dowa Yang Gupta says (?) 71:58, If I give up my attachment for material things, just like I don’t have attachment for dead body. 72:07 So my material needs to come over me as though vultures come fly over to the dead body. That’s what Dowa _____________ says 72:26 If I don’t have attachment all my things become substantial. 72:31 Material things will grow up. As long as I have that attachment, I have struggle, and everything goes wrong. 72:41

72:38 Did he beg (?) 72:54 First he has in his karma, he has forty acres of land. I don’t whether it was acre or not. The measurement is entirely different, but forty acres of land. He grows food. He’s a simple person. But he says, I use to grow forty acres of land and grow food. And I still had to create a tremendous amount of negativity to meet my need. So people use to call me forty negativities. His nick name was forty negativities. He had forty acres was not enough and had to do so much. And then, not only that, I during the daytime I go up to the mountains the road of travelers. During the night I become thief in the village. So even then I did not have even enough. And, I had plenty of enemies. Since I practiced Dharma, I let it go. My needs are, there are so many things, I have here. The foods are not finding my mouth. Before I had to work. My mouth has to go out and find food. Now the foods are circling around could not get into my mouth by letting it go. So, this is what Tichendan said. 74:28

74:28 And this is also true for us. As long as we have a strong desire to have, it never comes. Even if you want to become a millionaire, you may be able to answer two, or three or five questions right. It is hard to get everything. But if you don’t have attachments then things seem to pop up a little bit. Tsongkhapa had a tremendous number of followers and each one of those, a number of people during that period thought, that Tsongkhapa has some kind of Yantara, Mantra or Tantra some trick that he knows how to play to collect people. So a number of people ask Tsongkhapa what best practice can we do to collect crowds. 75:44 He said, I don’t know. Tsongkhapa credited his success not only of his own practice but his teaching, followers and even today 1347 to 1419 and now we are here in 2000 in the United States in America, not back in Tibet. Even today, people read about Tsongkhapa we try to get out of his presentation for ourselves. It is all because he let it go. He credited this to two things - his guru devotional practice and letting it go. 76:34 So his success he credited to this. 76:40

76:40 And so, (In Tibetan) So, if you let go your attachment, your success is quite assured, quite assured. That goes to almost every day. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t care. You do care. You do have to work, you do. But don’t have that tight (grip), if I don’t get it I am going to end my life. I am going to jump from the Empire State Building, or whatever and all that. It is always me, me, me. I’m the (? mover) why, why, why. You don’t see other people suffering. Everybody loses something or another thing, but you only think about me, me, me. Why am I losing? Why am I the loser? All of those, I believe in short there is something called (Inwardly ? - Earthly or Worldly) Dharma 77:50. Is somebody praise you; you like it. If somebody did not praise you, you don’t like it. If somebody says to you, this is (? a little dose). 78:04 If you are relaxing and happy and enjoyable and if you are miserable you dislike it. What are the others? If you become famous, you like it. If you don’t become famous, could not break through, you don’t become famous, you don’t like it. Wealth and gain. There are like eight of them (the Worldly Dharmas - pain/pleasure, gain/loss, praise/blame, fame/obscurity) praise, like and dislike, joy like and dislike, peoples respect like and dislike and richness like and dislike. There are the Eight Worldly Dharmas. So, when they say, let it go, I think they are talking about this. 79:00

79:00 Okay! I am going to stop here. We will talk to you a little bit about the benefits as well my round of death meditation 79:26 and then what is that. What’s that? I am not going to talk about the advantages. Well, I’ll talk a little bit. So, everything single thing I talk to you here, I am giving you material for meditation. It is not a simple talk show entertainment, David Letterman and Jay Leno. You know what was popping out of my head, Johnny Carson. So, it tells you how ancient I am. So, it is all material you can think, process in your thought. Meditation is nothing more that processing in your thought. Really, true. So, I guess that’s that. 80:56

Announcements followed by Migstema.