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20010222GRNYOTF Gelek Rimpoche talk in New York City on February 22, 2001

1:06 Welcome here tonight, everybody. It is such bad weather and I expected only five or six people here. There is close to twenty-five, thirty, something like that. So, welcome everybody anyway. What we are talking here is the continuation of the Odyssey to Freedom, as you know. Traditionally, in the Tibetan Tradition, it’s called Lam Rim, rather than Odyssey to Freedom. So, it’s Lam Rim. Now when I was beginning to talk about Lam Rim and I had a great deal of difficulty to say… Traditionally when you talk about the Lam Rim, it is very difficult for a number of people. So, based on the Lam Rim and the Odyssey to Freedom. Actually, talking about the Hell Realm, you have no idea. So, you think there is the Hell Realm and it’s very much Catholic, this and that. But when you talk about Buddhist Hell, you have no idea how difficult it is. 4:05

4:05 As I recall, my first-time receiving Lam Rim teaching, from (? 4:13) Ling Rimpoche in the Losaling assemble where the monks meet (? 4:19. His talk there and there was a pillar and I sat right in front of the pillar and when you are talking about the Hell Realms suffering, I couldn’t stop crying for three days. There was so much of this Hell Realm discussion and how suffering it is and so big and heavy, the usual talk of Western Hell Realm is just nothing. Forget it. And I couldn’t stop crying for three day. Crying about the Hell Realm. I could see myself falling into that Hell Realm a fight and another fight at a young age, about ten or eleven, around about that. And you do have quite good compassion in those day. Not now. Both of them sort of support each other. The fear supports the compassion. Not real compassion but, I don’t know, sort of compassion type of thing. They support each other 5:56 and I’ve been crying for three days till somebody really told me, you don’t have to cry so much. Somebody told me, I tell you how their (? 6:16) did suffer. It was an older monk and somebody for whom I have quite a respect and quite learned, too. So, he goes on and talking to me, the (? 6:29) is growing under the ground and (? 6:32) and uncompassionate person and is removed from the comfort zone and this and that and they measured and cut it, you know, cut into pieces, and skin it and all of those and finally they even said you steam them and (? 6:53) you sterilize them. That’s not enough, you eat them and all this, and even talk about all of those. I started laughing and that’s where I begin to stop crying. I was really continuously crying for about three days. I remember that. 7:09

7:09 So talking about the Hell Realm, and Buddhist Hell Realm, is such that you have no idea, and we try not to talk about the Hell Realm because you people are afraid. I’m afraid, you’re going to be afraid. That’s why I am not talking about it. So, I said, “Avoid (not: makes it a double negative) taking rebirth in the Hell Realm.” So, we’re talking Hell Realm, if I remember correctly. I did talk the Hungry Ghost Realm, too. And I did talk the Animal Realm, which is not very funny about it. We can see it every day in our life, they eat each other. The bigger one eats the smaller one and that’s what it is. So, we did talk about that. I probably said even it (meaning lower realms). 8:09

8:09 Should be, “Remember the Limitations of the Human Rebirth. So, we talked about the preciousness, importantness of the human life and how wonderful it is, what you can really do and what you really cannot do and all of them. And here we have to think about the limitations of human life. In one-way, human life, human beings’ capabilities are absolutely unlimited. You can do anything. Yu can achieve anything you want to. It is life itself that is capable of giving that. And that’s what we have. Our life, what we have today is capable of giving whatever we really want to, materially or spiritually. In other words, really life itself is capable. 9:22

9:22 But what is not capable is our desire to achieve, our determination to get what we want to. Number one, we don’t even know what we want to. So, you know really, whatever we have here today, fifty people, how do you know what you really want? So probably not so many. The number is going to be reduced to a few. So, that’s number one, we don’t even know what we want. And we try here try there, do this do and we don’t make it. This is basically the number one limitation we have. Number two, the human life is wonderful no doubt, but it’s not free of suffering. We do have a quite a lot of suffering. Suffering of mental, physical, emotional. We have plenty of them, particularly emotions suffer. So much sometimes, we may be paralyzed by those suffering. Particularly emotional. Many young people suffer from emotional sufferings. They almost paralyzed, you almost can’t do anything. You can’t write your music (? 11:01). You can’t write your newspaper report. You cannot edit anything. You cannot design anything. Right? All of those, you just get paralyzed. And these are the emotional sufferings we have. That becomes a limitation. I think we are all experts on that. 11:30

11:30 We there is physical suffering, is a little less. The emotional suffering takes more. If you look into a Third World nations, you know, I know at least. You may not know how much suffering they have. Illnesses, disease, shortage of food, lack of education, lack of pure water, a number of you know. Many of you have no idea how bad it is. These are human limitations. And when you don’t have opportunity to entertain our emotional problems, that because they have so many sufferings. 12:22

12:22 I used to live in India, as you know. And sometimes there is so much family of eleven or twelve, maybe living in a room, a quarter the size of this. That’s their home. That’s about it. It is not even uncommon. That’s very common. There are so many of physical sufferings, which we don’t see. Perhaps, too many are not even aware of it. And then you think about the sufferings in China under the Cultural Revolution and afterwards and before and all of those. Then the Tibetans. You look anywhere. Africa, there is no shortage of suffering in our human place (? 13:32). These are the human limitations. And when you are caught in that sort of difficult situation, all your total energy, your total focus is taking how do I get my next meal. And how do I maintain my family? There are no opportunities for them to do anything. 14:01

14:01 Even though they try to do their best, simply try to pray, they try to do all that. But they really don’t have the opportunity like we do. We can think, we can analyze, we can understand. I have been talking about here, the spiritual path. At we will know, we can think, (?14:30), what is spiritual. What does that make a difference? And how does that work? We can think about all of those. To me, spiritual is not necessarily connected with holiness. I don’t mean holiness as a person, being holy, being holiness, try to be holy. It is not in spiritual for me. For me, what is our problem comes in, our mental, physical, emotional, comes in. They come in from our negative emotions. Bottom line. I am not supposed to say that. As a Buddhist, there’s there or that karma, as whether karma, this is your first Nobel Truth, and where does that come from? It comes from the Second Noble Truth. What is that? There are two types of things and all of that. Right, Anne? I am supposed to say that, right. 15:29

15:29 Two types of things. One is called karmic and one is called delusional and all this. But the bottom line will be the negative emotions. The negative emotions that we experience, that make us to do the negative thing. The negative emotion, such as anger, attachments. These are our causes. They are the one that really creates trouble to us. If you believe in future life, reincarnation, or you don’t believe it doesn’t matter. But with this life serves alone, the sufferings we endure, are coming from those negative emotions in the form of protection. In the form of our protection. You look at it. You get angry. Why do you get angry? Because, that person is insulting me. That person is undermining me. That person is harming me. That person is cutting my bread and butter. And, that person is creating rumor for me. These are the reason why we get angry. If there any other reason? Yeah, I am sure you can find more, but these are the ones. 17:30

17:30 And that creates trouble. All the troubles come from these negative emotions. Attachment is the same thing. Anger and hatred have the aspect of hating, disliking. Attachment has the aspect of desire, wanting to have. Wanted to get! (? 17:56 to 18:04), it’s a different thing. 18:05 However, these are the points where we get all our troubles. Jealousy, all of them, these are the real cause of our troubles is within ourselves. Nothing anywhere external. So, to me the spiritual path really means one who is dealing with those negative emotions and tries to reduce them and possibly overcome and even possible to eradicate them completely. 18:42

18:42 Anything you do in this regard, to me, is spiritual. That is my (stupid ???) point of view. 18:57 Anything other than that, even whatever, looks holy, holy, corny, phony, all of them, whatever it is. To me it doesn’t become spiritual because it doesn’t make any dent on. It doesn’t help me. It doesn’t help me to reduce my negative emotions. Plus, it doesn’t help me to reduce my suffering. So, it is not really a spiritual, to me. 19:38 Theoretically, I am wrong 19:43. Practically, I am right. Honestly speaking, theoretically, I am wrong because of all ot those theories and thesis and all those types of things, you know. So, human beings, we have the opportunity to really think and understand by ourselves, what I mean by a spiritual practice. 20:13

20:13 What for? What does that make a difference to me? You know relevance is extremely important. If it is not relevant to me, why should I waste my time, my energy. Why should I come in, in this snow, with all this terrible stuff? The taxis don’t go. Nothing (works? 20:43) and those and why should I be here. Why should I come in? Why should I put in so much effort in? Why should I have to put my energy in? For what reason? 20:53 There has to be some reason. Not only that, not coming here, that’s a little part of it. But a major part of the efforts you are putting in day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, try to do something. 21:14

21:14 So why should I do that? If that doesn’t make a difference to me, then why should I? (Tape breaks up 21:24) Why should I? So, I don’t have to do that. But it has to be relevant to me. The way it can be relevant to me, it makes a dent on my negative emotions, so that my mind is not controlled or overpowered by my negative emotions. 21:50 When my mind is completely overpowered by my negative emotions, then I do all wrong things according to whatever spiritual, buddha, or whatever it is. Or do the wrong thing because my mind is fully controlled or occupied or influenced by my negative emotions. if not, I am not going to hurt anybody for what reason. Why should I hurt. Mind my own business. Because my negative emotions such as anger, hatred, jealously, attachment makes me hurt another person, forces me to do it. And that’s how it really works. 22:40

22:40 I am a believer of karma. Whether I believe it or not it doesn’t matter. But, if you really look carefully in our life, cause and effect, is absolutely relevant. You are not going to find anything, any result without any cause, without cause. And cause and result is relevant. We all know. Afterall, why do you go to school? Spend all your time, all your money, all your energy because as a result, you can have a better job. And you can be helpful to yourself. Forget about the others. We would like to say that, but the whole ideal right from the beginning is to help my own self. I go to school. Right? 23:37

23:37 I didn’t go to school. You people did. Really! That’s what it is. So, it is a cause and effect? If I did not eat meat, there is no reason that I should get mad cow disease. It’s really true. So, the cause and effect is always relevant. If I did not do something, I shouldn’t be doing, there is no reason why I should get any arrest or save or something (24:20?). It is cause and effect, it’s true, in our everyday life. So even a larger picture, it is also true. 24:35

24:35 In a small picture, like it’s true in the small picture. In a larger picture it is also true. As a matter of fact, we are all totally driven by cause and effect in our life. This is what it is. 24:53 And who created the cause? Me, only, not second person, not third person, not he, not she. it is only I who created my own cause. Good or bad, that makes me responsible for my deeds. This is absolutely true. Whether you like to take responsibility or not. You know we are all responsible for our deeds, good or bad. So, if you get good results, you have earned it. If you have bad results, too bad, you deserve it. I’m sorry. Really, that’s what that is. 25:53

25:53 One thing is very clear according to the Buddha’s personal experience. That is, we are responsible for our self. If I did not create the cause I am not going to experience the result at all. Even a plane crash and if I don’t have the karma to die, I will survive. You may call that (? 26:67) or whatever. I will survive because I don’t have the cause to die at that moment. That does not mean I don’t die forever, you know that. 26:44

26:44 So cause and effect is the sort of driving principle of our life. And that makes us, responsible. And that give us the opportunity to do and undo. So, in Buddhism, you have to make it absolutely clear that each and every one of us, every one of us, are responsible for ourselves. We cannot blame on anyone. We cannot credit to anybody else, except ourselves. Buddha is not responsible, good or bad, whatever I experience. It is only me, me alone. 28:35 - 28:43

28:43 So, according to this, not only according to this, when you look at it very clearly, we will see the responsible person, what we normally call it, will be the horn over there (28:59), is not an external one. It’s an internal one. Internally available in us, within ourselves. These are the attachments, our hatred, our jealousy, and what I like to call our negative emotions. So, if you are wanting to help yourself, this is the way how to help yourself, how to reduce our cause of suffering, to increase our cause of joy. This is Dharma. 29:37

29:37 If you leave that aside and try to search for Dharma, you’re never going find anything else. Oh, you may find some holy things, drums are beating, and symbols are playing, and monks are chanting, and incense burning and, you know, all this. 29:57 This is great and wonderful, but the real dharma lies within us. I think I did say here, last Thursday or before, I don’t remember. You know, Atisha, the great famous, Indian, Bengali, teacher, saint, scholar. The Tibetans worked so hard. They really sacrificed even the life of a king of Tibet at that time, just to get them over to Tibet to help, to make a correct. 30:41

30:41 So, when Atisha comes in and many of them asked, can I meditate sometimes. Can I meditate. And Atisha said, yes, it’s very good, but I wish you would do a little more proper Dharma practice. Okay, can I teach? Very good, but I wish you would do a little more proper Dharma practice. Can I sometimes teach and sometimes meditate? And he got the same reply. Very good, I wish you do a proper Dharam practice. Can I do circumambulation? Or can I do a mandala offering? Or can I do prostration? Or can I read, all of those? Can I say prayers? All of them, Atisha kept on saying, “Very good, I wish you do a little better Dharma practice. Then, if these are not Dharma practice, these are not spiritual practice, what should I do? He said, “The thing you have to worry about is your mind and watch it and give it training to your mind.” That is what Atisha is teaching to the Tibetans even after sacrificing the life of the king at that time. 32:24

32:24 There are many stories that I am not telling you. If you keep on talking about the stories, then you won’t go anywhere. So that really means what do we get message out of those? We really get message out of it. The real spiritual practice is uplifting yourself. It is dealing with your mind, making yourself a better person. Making yourself a little kinder and gentler and bringing to that level. And if you are completely overpowered by the limitations and sufferings of human life, you can do it. You have time and opportunity, that’s why we said this, whatever number it is. What number is it? Twenty-eight, Remember limitations of human rebirth. That’s what it is. 33:33

33:33 But then you know, this is the straight forwardness, but if you look at from the other side of this and the person like us, that are here tonight or those of you listening on the internet, you have the opportunity here and you are not handicap by those limitations. And you even have interest and if you don’t have interest, it’s a totally different story, door number one was shut. You have interest, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, or you won’t be listening. You have interest, and you probably have a misunderstanding what Dharma is all about it. What’s really spiritual is all about it. We have plenty of confusion in our lives today. More than ever because there are so many spiritual paths. Everything from eating brown rice to drinking wheat grass juice. And all are treated as part of a spiritual path, too. To some people, it really is. So, from their point of view, yes, it’s right. They have every right to claim that. 35:10

35:10 But that is not the spiritual path we are talking about, what Buddha was talking about. Buddha did not become a Buddhas by eating brown rice and drinking wheat grass juice. Buddha would have looked green or yellow. Maybe Yamantaka or Heureka have been drinking too much wheat grass juice and they become blue. I don’t know. So, anyway, that’s supposed to be a joke. 35:50

35:50 You know it’s interesting, the spiritual path is an unknown path for us. No matter how much we claim or claim to be experts. The more we claim expert the more we know what we don’t know. Really, it’s true. It is an unknown path. So, an unknown path anybody can say anything, and anybody can show anything. The true experts are those people who have achieved the result of total freedom, freedom from all sufferings, great beings. Doesn’t have to be Buddha alone. All these great beings. Yes, I am thinking Jesus, too. Those great beings. They have achieved and what they achieved is freedom from the sufferings and the capability of helping others. And that was the great thing they achieved. And that’s what we are looking for. And the way and how they achieved that, is simply eating brown rice and drinking wheat grass juice. 37:30

37:30 They achieved that by changing their addictions. Addictions of anger, addictions of attachment, addition of jealousy, challenging them and overpowered them and they were able to reduce it in there, not only reduce, but eliminated, completely eradicated completely. So, they no longer produced any negative karma. So, every single damned thing they did, become positiveness because of overpowering (I’m sorry I used the work damn, so sorry) Every single thing the great work they did, okay. It’s great because the motivation within themself has become free of negative addictions. And that is our goal. That’s what we’re supposed to be looking for. 38:39

38:39 If it is not clear to you, that is what we’re supposed to be looking for. But if you are looking for something else, that’s fine. Nothing wrong if your right. If you would like to just walk across the street over air, fire. That’s supposed to be spiritual path, right. If you pay a hundred dollars and they are training you for what, a day - a hundred-dollar day, that was ten years ago. Maybe more now. So, they are training you for three days and at the end of three days, you may be able to walk across on the fire barefoot. 39:18

39:20 So is you want that as your aim and goal for spiritual. Fine, if you’re right. You can do that. But that is not what the Buddha looks for, that is not what the Buddha achieved for. That is not the earlier great Indian teachers, did not look for, did not achieve, did not work for. For over a thousand years in Tibet all those great masters did not look for that 39:51 What they looked for was total enlightenment, unlimited, no limitation, capability, compassion, caring, loving, knowing, knowledge. In a word, Buddha means awakened state, all knowing. Knowledge comes up because obstacles clear it. Qualities build up because disqualifications didn’t clear it. So, what we really work for is clearing obstacles rather than to achieve what we want to achieve. 40:40

40:40 By clearing obstacles, what we wanted to achieve will automatically come in because (? 40:50) didn’t clear it. When the negative emotions go down, the positive emotions come up (The Law of Reciprocations). It is like a seesaw on which children play. Like that, it’s automatic. So, the effort what we put is clearing things rather than achieving things. Though you may have to do something to achieve. But by clearing the negative things, the positive things come up. These positive things are called our own spiritual development. That’s how we build up on top of that other. And when that build up becomes unlimited then you become a Buddha, or whatever. So, this is what my understanding of a spiritual path is. 41:46

41:46 So for a week, we need to avoid taking rebirth in the limitational as a human being, even human being. Even as a human being, we want a good human life. It is very hard to get. The cause for that is very difficult. The fundamental basis of cause to getting such a life, you have to have perfect morality. When you talk about morality, we know, what kind of morality we have. What we do, is only know to ourselves. Whatever, Bill Clinton did, is known to everybody. And we are very good at point a finger in that direction. I don’t mean the political party point of view. Each and every one of us are good at pointing the finger out. But if you have to change the direction of the finger, and point it at ourselves, then it’s difficult. But we do that, and we know what kind of morality we have. 43:33

43:33 I don’t mean all of us are immoral. But you know what I mean, you know. So, this is where we are. So, the fundamental basis for taking a human rebirth, the basic shaking, rocking, so where are we going to get it? And on top of that you have the perfect conjunction of (? 44:04 pray) and the help of the six gone beyond parameters. This is the real cause of taking on a perfect human rebirth. And it is very hard for us to achieve that again. Right now, whatever may be, our previous life (I am talking to you from the reincarnation point of view). I am not asking you to believe it. But I am asking for you to give it the benefit of doubt. 44:39

44:39 From our previous life, no matter whatever, we did something good for what we have today. Today, we are spiritual person. We have to make sure; we don’t let ourselves down in future. This is one of our things is, goal is, our purpose it. So, even we have a human life, without this sort of condition, is very rare, very difficult. Even you think your own goal is, you own friend (? 45:40), your own better half, or your own companion, how many times have you tried to bring that person in here or something? And how difficult it is? I’m not interested. Or I don’t want to. Or, yeah, yeah, yeah in the future, sometime. All this tells you the individual person does not have the karmic connection here. And we do, you do. 46:13

46:13 I am not talking to me about it, but you do have a karmic connection. You’re interested. You can read. You can meditate. You can understand. You can make a difference. You have all of those. So, that is great! But every human being doesn’t. That’s what I mean. Avoid limitations of human beings. 46:46

46:46 Limitations does not only depend on the economic sufferings. If limitations depend on so many things. So many things. Anyway, so I want to go through this and finish here. Try to finish this. That is number twenty-nine, Avoid the demigod rebirth. This is sort of I told you, a Buddhist metaphysical, they talk about the six realms. We’ve been talking about this. Between gods and human beings there is something called demigod. They are supposed to be full of jealousy. They see how the gods enjoy. These are small gods. They see how the gods are enjoying their life and wonderful it is there, and they look at themself and they see their own liking all of them. So, they say, why don’t I get that, why don’t I have that, why don’t I have that? And always their whole lives they try to be equal to the gods. They even fight, physically. They have wars, there is supposed to be. You lose all the time. Even the trees have good fruit, but the root of the trees remain in the demigod’s realm and the fruit is up to the god’s realm. So, naturally, they will think about it. They will have to have jealousy and all of those. Anyway, most of their lives are spend with jealousy, completely, jealous of these gods. And, if you take rebirth in there, it’s a good rebirth. However, to help ourselves to get through this, one for all to cut our sufferings, it doesn’t work. It will continue. 49:20

49:20 Even avoid samsaric gods rebirth, which is number thirty. Samsaric gods, they are always high, very high. We human beings have high, don’t we? So, just like that, they are always, high, by birth. But they are suffering. Not so many sufferings, not so many sufferings that we experience in the samsaric god’s realm. They are supposed to be free of most of the sufferings. However, they do have mental and emotional sufferings. 50:28 Particularly, they’re born in then they will enjoy their lives totally. Just before they die, they get a signal, a signal that they are going to die within seven days. 50:42 And then they begin to feel that I am going to be reborn because they have clairvoyant capacity to be able to see past, present and the future, at least three lives. So, they are looking. And do you know what they are going to find? The rebirth is going to be a pig in the farms of Calcutta. So, when they notice that, they have tremendous fear and worry what to do. 51:18 And in addition to that they are born with the flower garlands together. These flower garlands are everlasting until they get the signal of dying. So, by the time they get the signal of dying, their flowers will go down and die. 51:41

51:41 So the friends who have been playing with you, who have been fooling around with you, will no longer talk to you. They avoid. They think this is dirty something, it’s going to go down, so avoid. A very, very good friend sometimes brings some fresh flower with a long stick and throw at you. 52:06 So, what you going to feel, how you going to feel about that? Right? So, think about it. They are even not free of pains, emotional. So, Buddha labeled them samsara. So, Buddha sort of put them in the pit of suffering, even the samsaric god. So, that’s that. 52:48

52:48 So, now I can talk here. Thirty-one, know what can help and harm in life and death. That’s that. So, now you can figure out. I have talked to you a number of times, even during this period. I talked to you our life insurance will not help at that time. Believe me, it’s not going to help you for sure. It may help your lawyers and other people, but it is not going to help you. By that time, you’re gone. Your insurance company will not even recognize you. They are not going to honor your signature. They don’t even recognize you. You know, so how are you going to get it. It’s not going to help you at all. No matter how many wealth you have accumulated, you don’t even have the right to take even a needle, a needle, a pin. No matter how many shoes you may have, like Madam Marcos. What is it, a couple of thousand, right? So, no matter if she goes, when and when she will go, no matter a, when she goes, if she had left some shoes, she will not be able to take a single one. No matter how many she had, and no matter how many she had left over now, she will not be able to take a single shoe. 55:05

55:05 No matter how many shirts we have and cloth we have, the day when you die, you go naked, totally nude, naked. Not even the pajamas you have, you cannot take it with you. It will be left with our dead body. Sorry, that’s what it is. Think about our body today. How much do we take care of this? If you go outside, you are worrying about being cold. We wear coat. We wear overcoat. We wear scarf. And see how much we look after it. The slightest touch here, something, some poke, maybe a little bit of cigarette, you see that smoker, dropped ash and burned. How much we worry. 56:13

56:13 After death, the body is cremated. Or sky burial, cut it into pieces or hanged on the walls and let the birds eat. So, that’s what it is. 56:39

56:39 You can’t help. That’s the way it goes. At the time of your death, no body can help your body. I didn’t mean nobody. I mean your own body cannot help you, your own wealth cannot help you, your own friends cannot help you. Such a time all of us will go through, sooner or later. There will be no one who will not go through this. People here, we will all go through this, like it or not. By that time only you can help yourself, and I can help myself. Nobody else. 57:49

57:49 So, this is the important point. What can help and what cannot. So, what you have to do is, I am not going to even say meditate, think what’s going to help you. Retirement? Medicare? Blue Cross? Life insurance? And all of them you have to eliminate. By eliminating, you don’t have to talk to anybody, I won’t even call it meditate. I want you to think what’s going to help me at that time. And those you think is going to help, and you have to look carefully at that moment, what’s really going to help? Begin to eliminate what is not going to help and then see what is left. And then observe what is left and are they really going to help at that time. Because at that moment, right now you are young, beautiful, you don’t want to think about dying, true, absolutely true. However, within a hundred years you will have to face death. And so, what can we do at that time? 59:42

59:42 This is the important point. You don’t have to have a belief system that tells you this. Use your common sense, use your logical ideas. Even today we see cause-effect-result. Think in those lines. I think I have mentioned here that the traditional Tibetan teachers use to say, “Your consciousness will go out of your establishment including your body, like they are pulling a hair out of a piece of butter. A thin, tiny thread of hair is mixed in the butter. They pull the hair out. All butter will be left there because Tibetans enjoy butter all the time. That’s why butter is used as an example. And they have a lot of hair because those ladies who make butter before don’t wash with soap or anything. They don’t wash their hair three times a day. So, their hair drips. So, when you get butter you may have to pull the hair out. The hair will go as you pull them out, no butter will go. So, they use that as an example, how we pull our consciousness out of our body. 61:24

61:24 So, what you can carry at that time, only karmic imprints, nothing else. Good and bad both, equal balance. Good does not overpower bad at all, nor does the bad overpowers good. It’s equal power. Karmic imprints you’ve been carrying and who created karma? Me! Nobody else other than me. And that makes me responsible to me. I shape my future life (destiny) or my future, even tomorrow. I shape and design my tomorrow by me today. I plan my next year by me, this year. And I plan (almost sounds like plane - used to shape wood) and shape my future lives by me at this moment. This is what is so great about it. And, if you fail, you fail. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. If you can do it, you do it. Who is going to benefit? Me, only. Nobody else. 63:08

63:08 I suppose I talked too much. Yes, I did.

Questions:

Audience: Could you give an example or two about either someone here or someone you know, or yourself regarding negative emotional overreacting and how that person was able to get away from the mechanical kind of over-reacting regarding, you mentioned about, this emotional negativity and that karmic kind of results. Could you talk maybe about a beginning step to neutralize this kind of mechanical, emotional, reacting that I have and just about everybody I know has, because I am looking for a first step. I have a sitting practice in the morning every day, just about. I try to be here now. I try to be good. I try to do a little service, but I, too, many times step into it, the emotional overreacting, and I see it. I observe it. I know I do it and I find that it is almost like, ah, I’m surfing in an ocean and can sort of keep balance, but I want to be in a nice, well, you know, even before I ask the question. I know Rimpoche, but how does one become good or stay in the truth for five minutes or even five seconds? 65:08

Rimpoche: Very good question and very nice of you, use as I have a problem. A number of people would not like to do that. They would like to do; my friend has a problem rather than me having a problem. By accepting itself, saying I have a problem, actually you have already taken the first step. Let’s say, according to the Buddha, let’s say anger. The antidote for anger is patients. Ture, absolutely true, I don’t even have doubt. But, even an angry person, has to think about patients. It is extremely difficult, how it is going to happen. You remind the person about patients. You get ready to get ahead here, hit on the cheek, if you are lucky. Otherwise, a bum on the head (66:46?). So, there is a bridge. Your mind has to be bridge. Between the antidot of anger, which is patients, and angry level. The bridge, from my understanding, and what I have seen, is the bridge is awareness. Awareness and acknowledge me. All the negative emotions grow under the shelter of denial. The moment you acknowledge, somehow it looks like that negative emotion was, sort of striped out in total naked, free of skin, so they feel shaft (? 67:52). You know those dogs, with a lot of heavy dogs, and sometimes you shave the dogs. If you shave the dog completely, what would the dog go? The first thing is to hide under the bed, in the corner and not come out. They seem shy or something. Just like that, negative emotions, when you acknowledge, it looks like its exposed. So, the power of that anger, when you acknowledge that I am angry, is not right, it’s wrong. So, the power of the anger has been reduced quite a lot by this recognition, alone. And even years after, when you look at that, you still feel a little embarrassed, which is the positive emotion. 69:04 Buddha uses very often for uplift, for development and rejecting (? 69:10) negative emotions. Embarrassment, even years later, is a good thing. So, at the first step, recognition. I am not denying. Denial is gross. And recognizing and acknowledgement reduces its power. 69:37 So I will say, the first step is recognition. And we are very hard to recognize it, that we are angry or attached or whatever. We say I am not angry, but blah, blah, blah. People complain, this, that, you know. Any excuse we will have. I am not angry, but … Right? So not acting is, another point here, is anger, if you get angry and you hit the ceiling and blow your hot air, or if you have a lot of temper tantrums things, some consider not that bad. That’s not that bad. It may be angry, but you just defused the hot air, you know. It is not going to become hatred 70:52 It is okay. Okay, it is not okay, but it is better than that. 70:55 But there is some people somehow sees that and you take the anger in, but you put up a beautiful show out what we call passive aggressive. 71:17 I kept cool, he’s getting more and more angry, but I maintained my coolness. Don’t we hear that very often. People say, I am getting cool, but he’s getting more and more angry. But I did not lose, but I kept cool. I did. This is passive-aggressive. You are playing with that person’s emotions and making that person suffer more. That is not love. That’s not compassion. That is passive aggressive. That is anger. It is not proved temper tantrum, but you know, it comes with the butter and there’s a (? 72:12) mixed in the butter. You put that on. Jalapeno pepper mixed in the butter and you butter it. Laughter (I’m sorry I am duty minded; you know.)

Audience: I am having a problem with the desire to avoid human rebirth because in my life, I know, a lot of suffering, and I know pain and I also feel so deeply blessed by my life. And so, I have been really working at trying to see avoiding human rebirth. And I am truthfully having a very difficult time, to genuinely believe that that is something that I would want to avoid, if it were a life as mine is now.

Rimpoche: Well, don’t believe it. Number one, who asked you to avoid human rebirth?

Audience: It’s one of the numbers of (Rimpoche asks her to read it) Remember the limitations of human rebirth.

Rimpoche: So, you have to avoid the limitations. You don’t have to avoid human rebirth. You don’t know what I am talking about. Do you? (Answer: No). You want the goodies, right? Only the goodies. Is there any more questions? If there are no more questions I am going to close shop. 74:30