Archive Result

20010322GRNYOTF Odyssey to Freedom March 22, 2001 Run Time 107:30

0:00 Okay, represents Buddha. The Buddha is inspiration for other people. Now, the Sangha’s duty is to give inspiration for others. The others will look at you and think how wonderful these people are the basis for which they can appreciate, fold their hands together (in Asia culture) in the object to the refuge. So, that quality is for the Sangha members to provide. If you are manipulated naturally without knowing, or with little knowledge or whether consciously or unconsciously, it is the disqualification of the Sangha. 1:13

1:13 (in TB) And you also become the Field of Merit and that’s why if you’re looking at the Asian culture and they have a tremendous respect for the monks and nuns because the are the Field of Merit. In the West we are called Sangha. So, we do carry that responsibility, with or without mentioning. So, if you have to be fit to be a Sangha member, you have to have those qualities. You are fit to be objective where people can pose that to you. They can pose that to you and get your blessings. 2:33

2:33 The Sangha has the quality of liberating themselves and others from one obstacle another obstacle. The Sangha members keep their vows and commitments intact and that makes you become the Field of Merit. So, that is how these three objects of refuge comes in. So, I think I have mentioned quite a lot and still even like a Buddha, a single Buddha is object of refuge. They have all the capabilities. The actual refuge is Dharma. The Sangha is the multiple objects of refuge, not a single person but a group together has all the qualities, almost like a Buddha to that level. That’s why they say highest assembly, best collection. All of those are the actual word Sangha is that. 4:34

4:34 When you are taking refuge it is a commitment that you are giving. You are giving a commitment to Buddha as your guide, master, teacher and you are giving commitment to Dharma as an actual way and the Sangha as your friend and companion. The example is the doctor, medicine and nurse. That is how you are giving commitment. It also makes commitment here (in TB), in other words, once you’ve taken refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha, then your commitment is to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and to everybody else. And, if you do so, you lose your refuge vows. That is very important. Even me, whenever I taught about this refuge, I have not emphasized this so much because right now we need to know more than anything else. So, knowledge is important. But after a little while it is also important to mention. So, whenever you have a doubt, if you develop doubt about whether the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is really there or maybe some fortune teller, or some kink of psychic or things like that, or some protector that comes into clouds or like a traditional Chinese culture, you have those deities coming in the clouds. So, that is why I hesitate to use the word deities for enlightened Yidams. I choose to call them Yidams rather than deities because in Chinese culture if you go on every street there is a deity and a little temple and a little deity and then somebody comes into towns and, I don’t know. Somebody comes into towns and cuts their own tongues, and nothing happens and all kind of things in there. All those things are a different variety of ghost in different levels. 7:28

7:28 They themselves lacking a tremendous amount of merit. They themselves and many of them are in the form of ghosts. And so, many people take refuge to them. So they cannot protect themselves, how can they protect you. This is so important. And that is a weakness we have, particularly in the West there is a weakness on this. Even in the East, even in the traditional Buddhist countries and they have that weakness on them. Even in Tibet, there is a weakness, which Dharma really developed so much. But even then there’s a weakness of those. At the same time, they also equally criticize, too, in Tibet. 8:51

8:51 There was a village near Lhasa, which I know, before I left Tibet. There is a village diety that comes into town and tells people to do this and do that and they can heal people, too. Some sick people they can heal, and they can do all that type of thing. And there was one some sort of crazy monk and really quiet a highly developed person, but he behaves like a crazy monk. So, then this village deity comes into town and towns and everything and drinks cha and do all kinds of things. And that monk took off his monk’s robe and wears one of the lay people’s robe, which has a lot of hair, you know, animal skin’s hair. Tibetans wear the animal skins inside, not like here. Here you put the hair outside, right all the coats, or the mink hairs out. The Tibetans keep in (the furry side) and stay warm that way. So you put that outside and claim some sort of shallow roof up there and these guys coming into town and suddenly he throws himself, with all these hairy things, bark, right in the middle of thing and said, “The Chinese are coming.” So, the town went off all the time and suddenly it’s gone. It’s not there, it’s gone. For a few days it didn’t come back in town and after a week or so they came back in town and the first thing they ask, “Is the Chinses there?” They’re scared of Chinese. 10:47

10:47 The monk in the animal thing jumped from the roof and ran inside, yelling the Chinese are coming. The spirits were so scared and went out of town. And in one week they came back and asked whether the Chinese were around. So, that shows the quality of those spirits and deities. So, they are not really fit to be an object of refuge. And I told you the other day the (? 11:20) 11:36

11:36 So, there was a Chantra Gome (? 11:39). Chantra Gome is a great non-Buddhist teacher and had that debate with Arya deva or one to them and he would have to follow Buddha’s teaching because he lost the debate. He was forced to cut his hair and locked in a little room where they are useless or incomplete or the books can’t keep it outside. This is one important thing, but I’ll come back to it. So, they keep him in a little sort of building like you build to keep tools in the garden, a shed. Just like that they keep those pieces of books stored. And he was locked in there, he’s very learned. So, he’s locked in there and could do. First, he lost the debate and then he flew. The Iodawa chased him and brought him down and looked him in that room. So, he’s been reading everything, and he’s enjoyed. Suddenly he pulled out something from under his butt and started reading all of the Buddhas word and Buddha’s professing that there will be such a person like this, like this, like this and he will have debate with my disciples and followers, and he will lose, and he will become great master that teaches the Buddha’s Path and blah, blah, blah. 13:29

13:29 He was reading that, and he’s been a great learned person and being, so somehow, he connects. When he lost the debate how wasn’t connected. He lost the magical power competition. Still, he is not convinced and correct. But he was reading the Buddha’s prophecy. When he was reading the Buddha’s prophecy, he was convinced that it was taking about him. So, hundreds of years ago. So now he was very convinced with that. And he’s become a great Buddhist master and he wrote prayers for the Buddha (In TB). He said, I give up all other teachers and I take refuge in you, the Great Buddha. 14:31

14:41 (In TB) Why do I do this? Because you have no faults. You have tremendous quality. And when I think of other traditions and teaching, the more I can understand and think, the more I admire you. (In TB) There is a tremendous, long one, it’s called (? ____ practice 15:08), special prayers for Buddha. If you look at that they really give you the Faultless Buddha because the Path you shared has no faults and it helps others. So, by using the Path as perfect, proves the Buddha perfect. Or vice versa, by proving Buddha as perfect, so your experience and your path is perfect. So, it goes both ways. So, this is the how the inspiration of the Buddha’s thing is developed. By using these two reasons and vice versa. 15:58

15:58 And especially, one of the things is by taking refuge to Buddha, you don’t take refuge to anybody else, expect Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And also, the advice is, respect all the Images of the Buddha. In other words, you don’t want to put the Buddha image under your bed and sleep over it or put at your feet and sleep against that. That is disrespectful and advisors tell you not to do it for Buddha. 16:41

16:41 Dharma also, by taking refuge in Dharma you cannot hurt anyone. You should not have any violence. The quality of Dharma demands the commitment to non-violence. You cannot hurt anybody, including yourself. There are people who say, “I can hurt myself, because that it’s me.” And particularly in the Asian traditions, sometimes they encourage, keep yourself as humble. Right? And then they go step beyond humility and say, “I am nothing important. I am useless. I am hopeless. The worst disciple of yours.” I get letter’s like that saying I am the worst disciple of yours. So how much farther can you go.? This sort of thing. And these are against Dharma. (SELF DEPRECATION). So, you are hurting yourself, and a lot of people do that. 18:16

18:16 Particularly, people do it for two reasons. First, they think it is a good way of doing it. It is a sign of stupidity. There are five signs of stupidity. One of them is this. That is one of the signs. If you want to find out about the stupidity signs, it is in the (? 18:46), the logical text. In the (? 18:57) I think the last sentence in chapter 1 or 2. The last words, if you read it backwards, the first word that you see is the five signs of stupidity. One of the five signs of stupidity is self-deprecation (putting yourself down too much) and hurting yourself. Any humbleness and going beyond the most stupid example you use. It is not only an insult to yourself, even in fact to your teacher, too. If you fall in that category, your teacher must be terrible. That’s that shows. 20:04

20:04 Another point is Dharma; the religious Dharma is Dharma books and Dharma information. That should be treated as equal to the Buddha image. So you don’t want to sit on Dharma books. You don’t want to put your feet on the Dharma books. You put the Dharma book in front of us and then you put your legs on top of that, so that is the wrong way of doing it. Disrespect for Dharma. Or even walking over. You should pick up Dharma books especially if you are wearing a skirt and you are going to bless on the others Dharma’s books. Your skirt or umbrella is going to carry over the Dharma books. This creates disrespect for Dharma because Dharma books and notes all represent Dharma, just like image represents Buddha. They are equal. So for us, we will not sit on top of the Buddha. If you think Buddha is present, you are not going to put your foot on the image and rest. We won’t do it. 21:42

21:42 People who don’t know anything, they do so because they’re ignorant. But those of us who have a little information won’t do it. But if we know a lot of the Dharma, particularly in Dharma centers. 21:59 So there the books are all over the floor, on the cushions, and in bags and who knows where you that bag containing the Dharma books will be put under shoes and out there and do that. They are being disrespectful to Dharma. So, taking refuge to Dharma, one should avoid doing this. 22:28

22:28 What not to do is most importantly is non-violence. Second disrespect to the Dharma representations. Sangha, by taking refuge to Sangha and then you don’t associate with the entire Sangha. Some people ask me, a number of times, if you read in Six-Session Yoga and they will say you can’t stay more than seven days in a non-Mahayana household. That is what it is. Not the same thing here. Anti-Dharma, Anti-Sangha can create doubt or can create poor thoughts on Sangha. And, if you do so, you lose your refuge vows. So, it is the double point of refuge, wondering is Buddha is really true or it’s just made-up story. It happens in Tibet, earlier, a number of times. 24:00

24:00 There is all this Buddha business is coming in from India and all this, it is totally some clever person, a couple of clever people gather together in the early generations and they made up all these stories and told us big lies and big tales. That happens in another area. One of the great Dharma masters says, “Oh yeah, this is true. Your great grandfather is also a total tale, right?” “No, no, no, my great grandfather is actually alive. He built this house. He built that. He wrote this document.” And then he said, “Oh yeah, Buddha also taught this Dharma and here are the one hundred and ten volumes that he taught.” So, he is sort of telling it in that way. So, these are the double talks called raising doubts on the refuge. It is really a cause of losing refuge. 25:07

25:07 So when you’re doing study, that’s fine, no doubt. You can definitely do all the studying. But when you are seriously taking it as a refuge and then you have to be careful at that level. The word in Tibetan (TB 25:26) means the object of refuge has a second opening. So, when you have the second opening, you lose total reliance the refuge. So, that’s that. 25:43

25:43 So, I think I have talked enough. 25:47

25:47 Audience: In the morning when I have been taking refuge and trying to take these teachings (? 26:00) so now I used to say I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, whatever was in my head. But now I am trying to think, I take refuge in the Buddha, the relative aspect being the body of the Buddha, the Rupakaya; the absolute being the Dharmakaya; the inner and outer beings, my seed Buddha and the historical Buddha. The Dharma the same thing, the relative being the Third Path and inner Dharma being my development being outside of text or the teaching. So, when I get to the Sangha, the relative is the four monks or nuns, the absolute is anyone who knows emptiness. I am still confused at the inner and outer aspects of the Sangha is because it seems like each Buddha, Dharma and Sangha has a relative and absolute, inner and outer, but I am missing that inner and outer Sangha. 26:54

26:54 Rimpoche: I don’t know whether you call this outer and inner Sangha. I am not even sure. But if you call it, that’s fine. In that case the outer Sangha is the group of four monks and nuns of the thing. The inner is the person who know the truth, who have developed beyond the third seeing path and that is the absolute Sangha as well as the inner Sangha. Again, the interesting thing, if you look at Buddha alone, you can also see the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha within the Buddha alone. And that is the Buddha’s body is the Sangha. The Buddha’s mind is the Buddha and the Buddha’s speech are the Dharma. So again, this is an important point to be remembered here. It doesn’t always have to be three separate ones. That was we’re taught is that they are separate, three separate somethings, but also Oneness? 28:11 The Oneness is the Body is the Sangha, mind is the Buddha, and the Speech is the Dharma. So, that’s what I know. 28:25

28:25 Audience: One other question. If we’ve taken refuge vows, the vows against violence and the Dharma. If we’re practicing something like martial arts. 28:35

28:35 Rimpoche: I don’t think martial arts is this. The idea of martial arts is to not hurt. The idea of martial arts is the protecting oneself. It is passive. It is not aggressive. 28:54

28:54 Audience: But if there is some part where you’re actually moving around and hitting somebody and getting hit in practice. 28:57

28:57 Rimpoche: Yeah, that’s a practice. Nobody is going to kill that person. Are you going to break his neck? No, so it’s a practice. It is not hurting. Hurting is, you know, if the mother gets so upset and beats up her kid. Is that hurting the kid? To a certain extent, it is. Even though the mother has a total pure improve [the child] motivation, but it hurts the kid. You’re hurting. Anything, mother or kid or woman or any weakness, a weak person, anything of that sort, it’s hurt against Dharma. It becomes violence. 30:00 Martial arts, it is the purpose of the martial arts is use control for defeating enemy. It is against Dharma. If the martial arts is improving the individual, then it is not against Dharma. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of Dharma activities in there.

30:32 Audience: When you say that the Dharma is the result … low volume. 30:46

30:46: Rimpoche: It is the result of the cause is the Buddha, Dharma is the result. It is the cause and effect. I did say it is. I did not say it is not. So, I will call it a day. And thank you so much. Rimpoche talked about the Spring break and resumption in Summer. 32:33

Sangha: Migstema 32:57

Resumption of the Talks

32:57 Welcome tonight. Actually, I was reading something and then I looked at the clock and thought I had a little time. So, I continued reading and then I looked at my watch and it’s 7:20 PM. I had to run. Sorry that I’m late and not necessarily stuck in traffic. That’s why I was last. We are still talking about refuge. So, perhaps tonight is the last night for this time when I am here. So, I will go through the refuge properly. I will try to finish, in other words. But it is also important because I did notice that when you look at the Odyssey to Freedom, I didn’t talk much about refuge. So, when I was talking about refuge and the people who are reading told me, they did not get big Lam Rim transcripts rather than Odyssey to Freedom because there is very little in there. So, I thought it is important to mention. And, the other Thursday, if I remember correctly, I have been talking about the quality of knowledge, power and compassion. What else did I talk about? Anybody have any notes? Audience: You talked about the qualities of the Dharma, the qualities of the Buddha. Rimpoche: Yeah, yes that also all three, but what angle did I talk? 35:02

35:02 Quality of the body, I talked about it, I remember. Quality of speech and the quality of mind I talked about. Right. So, did I talk about the quality of compassion and kindness. Audience: You talked about the Buddha being love-sick, the intensity of the compassion. Rimpoche: Yes, we did talk a little bit. Alright, anyway. One most important thing, you know, Buddha’s level is called enlightened, knowing everything 35:55

35:55 So what are we talking about? In one way we are talking about Buddha’s knowledge and no limitations and blah, blah, blah. But on the other hand, one most important thing, what we are talking about is until one reaches the Buddha level, we are unable to see the relative part of Buddha’s. In other words, when Buddha is looking at an individual, like me, not only does he know my body, my mind. But also, Buddha knows my nature. The nature of reality of what I am. So, when the Buddha looks at the wisdom part of it simultaneously, he sees the relative part of it. Does that make sense at all? Or am I talking in Greek? 37:25

37:25 In other words, when we look at something, we can only see the relative part of it. You don’t see the absolute part of it. Does that make sense? I don’t even know what that is. So let me say the relative part is when you see the people, you see the people’s body, hear the language, perhaps guess what they are thinking and maybe read the mind. And that is the relative part of it. 38:00

38:00 Then you see the absolute reality of that person, that person’s nature. Not only the Buddha-nature of that person, but that person’s true existence nature. So, the hidden wisdom behind that is also like you’re wearing glasses. Now I remember, last Thursday, I tried to touch on that, because the traditional example given was the servant transferring the fruit. When you put the transferring the fruit on the palm, you not only see what is inside the fruit, but also you can read the palms. That was the traditional example, which perhaps works very well, but today we have this example here, the eyeglasses. 38:53

38:53 The eyeglasses that you wear, you look through the eyeglasses and you see everything. I look through my eyeglasses, I read the lines in my palm here. I can read them. Certain tendencies this glass does not block what I am, and I can see with the glass and see this at the same time. Normally if you are not enlightened, the relative part will block the absolute part and the absolute part you will not be able to see your relative part because that requires more capability. You know what I mean? Okay. So, the Buddha’s quality is going beyond that level and be able to see everything together. Not only this body and mind of this individual all together but even the wisdom level, the absolute nature of the person and also be able to see together. That is extraordinary quality. No one except enlightened beings, total enlightened beings, others don’t have that. That is one of this. 40:20

40:20 One of these qualities is (in TB 40:34) That is one of the most important qualities of the Buddha and no one else has it, unless you are totally enlighten. 41:00 When I talk about the Buddha, you don’t have to think about the Buddha Shakyamuni alone. No matter, whoever is enlightened, then that is a Buddha, whether Shakyamuni or no Shakyamuni. It is a Buddha. Buddha is a name for general enlightened beings, an awakened state person. It is not one individual person’s name. It is like Gelek Rimpoche. Rimpoche is not my name. It is the generally part of for whoever gets that name anyway, whatever the reason may be. It is like a father (? 41:54) so like that. 41:56

41:56 Rimpoche is a general name. Just like Buddha is a general name. Whether it becomes Shakyamuni or Shakya tuba, then it becomes a specific historical person who are born in the Shakya caste and the leader of the Shakya clan. Then it specifically represents the individual. Otherwise, it’s a general name for total enlightened beings. So when I am talking about the Buddha’s quality, I am simply not talking about a Buddha’s quality. I am talking about all Buddha’s quality. 42:37

42:37 So no matter, whatever, you know, anything, anybody who are totally enlightened, and they are Buddha whether it is Buddhist, non-Buddhist, I don’t know. Whether Buddha, himself is Buddhist or not, is a big issue, anyway. Who knows? Who knows is an issue? Even when I heard this name, Buddhist, it is also a Western creation. I am not sure how true it is, but some kind of Buddha logiest brought that name and called Buddhist. I don’t think in India they call it Buddhist at all. They call it Inner/Outer. In Tibet they call it Inner/Outer. So inside or outside it of equal worth. (? 43:37)

43:37 The discriminating part of it is quite a distinction. They are talking about the inside and outside that they are talking about, rather than Buddhist or non-Buddhist. Even in early India, what do they call it in Sanskrit. Non-Buddhist is called a tracker and a Buddhist is called? The outer name is there, no inner name there. The Tibetans introduced inner and outer. In early India the Buddhist were not called Buddhist, that’s part of it, (? 44:35) and outsiders. So, that is exactly how it worked. 44:41

44:41 So to me, whoever has those qualities, then they are the Buddha. So, Buddha doesn’t have to be Shakyamuni. Even from the Buddhist point of view, in this fortunate eon, they call it. So whatever the fortunate or unfortunate whatever it is, only the Allen Greenspan will know. In the fortunate eon they call it one thousand Buddhas? And Shakyamuni happens to be the fourth official Buddha. So, we are in his tenure were in. It is Shakyamuni’s tenure we are in. And before the Shakyamuni are the Amitabha Buddhas tenure. Now, the official tenure is the Shakyamuni Buddha. So that the era we’re in. Even then there are one thousand Buddhas. Even if you don’t want to count others from the other side and that is official. There is a tremendous unofficial individual who have become fully enlightened Buddha and doesn’t have those ceremonial official interment or appearance or whatever. There are zillions of them, so there are so many Buddhas. The Buddha is not limited to one. 46:25

46:25 Even when you go outside the Buddhist traditions, into the other traditions, even when you look at Jesus or anyone of them and no one can say they are not a Buddha, at least for me. You cannot say they are not a Buddha. So, his name is not Buddha. If you call him, Mr. Buddha, he is not going to say Yeah, I’m here. They are not going to say that. But, otherwise, they are Buddhas and they are qualitied to Buddha. 47:11

47:11 And traditionally during the Buddha’s lifetime, some of the non-Buddhist traditions such as Sheiks’ teacher, Gadjah. So Gadjah died and then they do something and chose, and somebody comes into town and claims that I am the Gadjah who died, they give him food and all kinds of thing during the Buddha’s lifetime. So, Buddha at that time said, this is not Gadjah. Is was one of those (? 48:14) born spirit that goes around, and it is not the real Gadjah. So, people didn’t like Buddha, many of them. They hesitated to buy the Buddha’s word because everybody thought that this is Gadjah happy to see him and they gave him food and whatever they needed and all that sort of thing, which we see in the movie called “Ghost” right? So, just like that, the Buddha told them this is not Gadjah 48:51

48:51 So, the other day I mentioned to you the reasons why, so Buddha said, “I can prove it. Where I would like to prove it, each and every one of you go in your home and bring a grain from your house with a label or mark or something and rub them in the grain and wrap it in a little piece of cloth.” Hundred brought this in. Then Buddha collected them up front and picked up each and said, “This one belongs to you, this one belongs to you.” The hundreds of thousands of them he delivered back the warped grain and said this is yours. “Now find out whether this is right or wrong.” And he proved to be right. So, Buddha went beyond that when they say you’re great. He will go beyond. And once he said this is the grain you brought, I gave back, now if you bring a piece of wood from your house, I can burn all of them, I can recognize which ash from each of your houses. I can tell you whatever the end part of the branch of tree or the particular part of the branch of the tree. I can even recognize that without making a mistake on any number you have. 50:32

50:32 So, in other words the Buddha showed his unlimited knowledge. The information is not limited. Unlimited, unconditioned, functioning simultaneously and this is another quality of the Buddha’s knowledge aspect. 50:51 I am talking about here the knowledge and compassion, right. So, not only that, but Buddha can also show a different sort of magical thing from his body. The story of the six different teachers and Buddha having a magical competition. This story is commonly known. And to commemorate that story, Tsongkhapa introduced a prayer called Monlam in Tibet in 1416 So Tsongkhapa introduced the Monlam the Great Prayer Festival, which is only done at that time in order commemorate where the Buddha had this magical competition with six challengers. 52:10

52:10 They were all great masters and each and everyone. But that is what Buddha had done. So is that an example that his body can do a lot of manifestations, unlimited, unconditioned manifestations in order to help individuals. Buddha will not do useless things, senseless things, or meaningless things whatever he does has tremendous purpose. All the Buddhas I should say had that purpose because that’s their quality. 52:56 Not only that Buddhas are capable of manifesting themself in front of a single sentient being. If they have to manifest each sentient being, if the time is right, they will have no problem to manifest as one Buddha in front of one sentient being. So, there will be countless Buddhas can manifest by one Buddha. They are all capable of functioning. It is not like drones (? clones - 53:54), make a hundred thousand copies (? 53:54). It’s not but is fully capable of functioning as a total living being for one Buddha for one person, the Buddha can manifest like that. That is another extraordinary quality. 54:16

54:16 Then I mentioned to you the other day, Buddha can speak in one language and everybody can hear in their own native language. They don’t need translators. They don’t need a translator book. They don’t need the machine for translation. In one language they speak but everybody can hear in their native tongue. That is a Buddha’s speech quality. 55:00

55:00 A Buddha’s mind quality is unlimited with unlimited capability. They also call it (TB 55:29) the great power of a meditative mind, or concentrated power of mind. It depends whether you are thinking of meditation, then it’s meditative power. And you think the thing as concentration then it is concentrated power. There is an unlimited concentrated power. Now, for example, the moment the Buddha looks, the Buddha knew everything of thoughts and ideas of each and every sentiet being simultaneously including the ants. Forget about all the human beings, of course, but even little ants and all of them Budddha sees their mind, their thoughts, their wish, their ideas simultaneously. 56:35

56:35 The limit of the Buddhas knowledge, no one can really measure. There are a lot of stories, but I may not have that much time to tell you. But even the Bodhisattvas have limitations. For example, during the Buddha’s lifetime, there was an old man who wanted to become a Buddhist monk. They went to a number of arhats and each and every one of them said you cannot become a monk. And why? Because you have no positive karma at all left. Not a single positive karma with you. Therefore, you cannot become a monk. So, he went to hundreds of arhats and they all rejected him. So, finally he met Buddha and asked Buddha. Buddha said yes you can. He told the Buddha that the arhats told him that he didn’t have a positive virtue at all, so therefore I cannot link my virtue and build much because I don’t have a single one. 57:56 Buddha responded that they are arhats there, but they have their own limit. I am a Buddha. So, Buddha tells him that some kind of thousand lives before you happened to be a fly. And the fly was attracted to cow dung and the cow dung was a flew carried by a slave, brook. The brook carried that cow dung, and the brook happens to be circling around one of the stupas. So that little fly sat on that cow dung and went around a stupa once. You still have that virtue. That was a thousand lives ago. That’s what Buddha said. 58:45

58:45 So, the difference between the Buddha and arhat is knowledge exhibited by this alone. They are all in the Abhidamma and Jataka stories. If you look in them, there are a tremendous amount of those. And, that itself is the difference between the Buddha and all those high-level Bodhisattvas. Now we’re talking about knowledge. I should get them mixed up. Now let’s go to compassion. 59:28

59:28 The Seventh Dalai Lama said (in TB) describes the Buddha’s compassion. My own love to myself cannot measure, cannot only not measure, I don’t have love myself a percent of a percent of a Buddhas or .01 percent of Buddha’s compassion. He gave a lot of examples of people getting angry and upset and this and that and this and that and all of those. So, they are there, but the real point that my love for myself cannot even compare to one percent of one-hundredth of a percent of the Buddha’s compassion. So that itself will tell you. Our maximum love, maximum compassion, what we have is focused on us. I’m the one who likes to receive all my love, all my compassion and I deserve it. Right? That is the maximum we can give, not to you but to me. So, when you compare that to the Buddha, you don’t even have a single percent of that. So that shows the Buddha’s compassion, how powerful and how strong it is. 62:09

62:09 Our compassion also depends on the conditions. Sometimes when we see somebody suffering, you feel the compassion. And when you don’t see anything suffering, you don’t feel compassion at all. We are limited. And when you feel somebody suffering, you say how terrible, poor thing. That is good human nature. For Buddha’s compassion does not need any conditions, all the time, always to everybody equal. So, that is very powerful compassion. 62:55

62:55 If you read (?) they always have (In TB) To the Buddha, no matter whoever the individual is, they are always suffering because of the delusion, because of afflictive emotions or whatever they call it, but the bottom-line is our addictions to our negative emotions. So, for the Buddhas every sentient being, those who have not become a Buddha, and each and every one of them, either the direct negative emotional sicknesses or instinct, they are always tight and locked in. Therefore, Buddha’s compassion towards them has no relaxation whatsoever. Every time, every moment. And that is the quality of the knowledge and compassion. 64:47

64:47 Now comes the quality of activity. In the (? Uttaratantra Shastra 64:56 in TB) So, they are talking about a Hindu Buddhist mythological point. There is something called a Braham (Indra) up there in the (sky). According to the Chinese tradition it’s called the Thirty-third Heavens and according to the Indian tradition, it is called Samsara Gods whose leader is supposed to be Braham (Indra). So, Indra is the inspiration for all the other gods. So, they see Indra over there and they say how wonderful this Indra is. So, how can I become like Indra? 66:07 They are the leader of the Samsara gods, but it also Brahma, Indra and Vishnu. All of them, there are a couple of them anyway, six of them there. So all of them serve a purpose of inspiration for the samsara gods and they look at them and say how wonderful this leader of ours is. How fantastic. How wonderful. What capability they have. So how can I become like him? And that is the inspiration for the samsara gods to create some positive karma. They may not because they are so happy. You are very high (euphoria) so you may not really do much if you are that high. You remain numbed out there or whatever. You may not do much. But whatever little they do the inspiration they get from their leaders. 67:29

67:29 The Buddha is supposed to serve that for us. But, unfortunately for us, Buddha is gone two thousand five hundred years ago, and we are unable to see it. And then if really as a Buddha appeared today, in the middle of Manhattan somewhere, we’d probably run away rather than see the Buddha. (? 68:01) …who’s joking? And when you really realize it is all like that and we’d probably run away or whatever. So, somehow is not right and that’s why we lack inspirations. There is a lack of inspirations, really a lot. So, the only few spiritual teachers are maybe able to serve as inspiration. Of course, there is no doubt, that a person like the Dalai Lama, or Mother Teresa, or that type of person will certainly serve as an inspiration for us. 68:41 (?) …So, that is the lack of inspiration for us because we are unable to see the Buddha as Buddha. 68:52

68:52 So, we would be able to see Buddha and some kind of human being with all human qualities and faults and everything together because when they manifest in the form of human beings, they must also show the human weaknesses. Otherwise, why don’t they come out and say, “Hay, I’m a Buddha.” And look at me my ears are much longer than yours or these things. They could do that. But they don’t do it because anywhere we are unable to see it we are not able to appreciate or help. And that’s why Buddhas will appear as natural human beings. When you appear as natural human beings, then you have to have that human being with human faults and quality. Otherwise, what is the use appearing. But if they don’t bring some faults and they not become a human being, then you become a superhuman being and that doesn’t serve the purpose. And that is really what it is. Reality. 70:16

70:16 Anyway, so these are the activities of the Buddha’s body. And actually, is you really have the time the Uttara Tantra has nine examples? But I don’t have time, but you people should read it. It should be in the Lam Rim Chem Mo, which is now available in English. So at least the first portion is available in English. A number of people have translated together. Whatever it may be and there is something to read on that. So, whether the translations is good or bad is not for me to get. It’s for you to get. You make your own decisions rather than somebody else makes anybody’s decisions. And we are in this period. The period where we do not accept critics. It you criticize, it becomes a personal attack and I remember (Gehse _______ of Wisconsin 71:19) and did make some criticism to the professor in Columbia, Alex Werner, and he really makes good criticism of Tsongkhapa translation and he made a good remark. And Alex rebuttal and it totally becomes a person attack. And, then the Geshe said, rebuttal of that rebuttal and then it becomes a personal attack, which is terrible. Right now, we don’t have a critic. However, we do need a critic. If you don’t have critics, you have problem. Anyone can say anything they want and get away with it. It doesn’t have any proof or anything. So you can sit out there and I got up this morning and half asleep and have awakened, this thing happened, that thing happened the Dakina running here and so on. All this bull shit because there is no critic. Because there is no critic, that’s what is happening. 72:39

72:39 Right now I think we are in a very weak stage of knowledge because the critic does not know what it’s criticizing. I am not a Brahman. The critics must be well versed on the subject so the critics will have a zillion different question. They think it may be wrong. So, it is very difficult to criticize, and the person being criticized takes it personally, it’s even worse. So, really critics contribute tremendously. So, everybody will make sure, they’re right. At least they have something to prove what they say. Otherwise, you can say anything you want, right. You can build a huge castle in the air and call it Shambhala. So, what, a Shambhala palace. It’s nothing. I don’t mean that Shambala is wrong again. I don’t mean that. You know anybody can do anything. Build a huge castle in the air call it Akanksha. So, no one can say anything because there is no critics. So, people get away with it. And that is not very good. 74:10

74:10 Do you know why? There is no countercheck (audit trail), which is terrible. And when there is no countercheck (verification) anybody can give any information. It doesn’t have to be authentic or able to prove it. So that’s misleading the people. That is the biggest problem that I see. This is a tremendous misleading. So, anybody can do anything. So, it becomes misleading. So, no one can challenge anyone internal development, it is anybody’s guess, but still the sign of internal development is the external presentation. And that is why, Dharma is the result of Buddha. 75:00 (In TB) …it goes on in the academic attack right from the beginning. The Chakalaka and the Prochaska’s (? 75:17) and they are born out of Buddha. The Buddha is born out of Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are born out of Bodhimind. Bodhimind is born out of Compassion. So, that is how it goes. And why did I say this? I had something in my mind to give the message and I went over there (sidetracked). Why did I say that? 75:45

75:45 The point is the Dharma comes out of Buddha. So, the Dharma that comes out of the Buddha, what does that mean? The Dharma is the development of the Buddha, within the Buddha. Whatever you know and the expression of your knowledge and your development is Dharma. When the artist draws its art, you know they paint this door and make a huge painting or make a small painting, the expression of your thoughts are your ideas. The point of writing poetry is the result of their ideas and thoughts. The musicians express their understanding through music. Expressions are just like that; Dharma is the expression of the Buddha and their development is the result of that. If you say anything you think, that is not correct because there is no cause and effect. There is nothing. Somebody made a huge story like a (contradiction cannot understand - the word canard would fit) or something, you know (77:04?). Contradictory there is a little bit of truth in it, but most of it is accurate. Just like a contradiction. If you make people in that way higher, and then it becomes a Buddha affect. 77:17

77:17 Then there is this hugeness. So, this can happen if there is no critic. So, critics are very important, particularly, when this is something new development in the West. So, when you really bring it and there’s tremendous amount of room for corruption, particularly charismatic teachers. They have a great danger of leading it, you know. We have a lot of them, like a Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate and all of them are there. And if you have been there and they will continue. And all of them (will exist) because there is not a proper critic who can really critique without attacking personally. Right? And then it will be helpful. When it goes on a personal thing, then it is not useful like Monica Lewinski, for example. It becomes two persons, and nobody bothers, you know. And it became some kind of sunny fancy show. It is sort of entertainment rather than anything else. You know we had two years of that entertainment. Really, it is totally entertainment and nothing else happened. In one hand people tried their best, saying hay this is unethical, blah, blah, blah, blah. And those who can goes on television and how unethical it is and we keep on saying yeah, yeah, yeah. It came here and went out over there. It’s valid. So that is because it became personal. 79:22

79:22 When we talk about Mark Riche or Denise Riche. The woman who said that it becomes serious, you know. You say wow, what. What the hell is this, you become serious the moment you see that. When you talk about Monica Lewinski, you say yeah, sure. That is the difference between everybody it becomes independent or reality. And, just like that even in the spiritual path, you need critics, but the critic must have the proper understanding and valuable critiquing. Otherwise, it becomes show biz which serves no purpose. So why did I get the critics from? Read the Lam Rim Chem Mo there are nine examples giving in the Maitreya Buddha, Uttara Tantra of how Buddha can serve as inspiration and how it works. And that is the part of this activity of the Buddha’s body. 80:44

80:44 Activity of the Buddha’s speech again, it is a speech activity. One most important thing is the statement never flies over the head. If it is flying over the head of a person, it is wrong. And whatever you do, you give an teaching, whatever presentations you do, it should never go over the head of the person. If it goes over the head of the person, no matter how great you might be, how great your presentation might be, you have defeated your purpose. The purpose here is to help people to get the message through. Buddhas activity is only by sharing the experience. (In TB 81:46) Buddha cannot wash the things of others by holy water. So that means Buddhism doesn’t have baptizing. It’s a joke. But if you are going into Vajrayana Buddhism, they carry a little bag and pour water on your head and washing everything and this and that. You have that. They tell you that Buddhas cannot wash the negativities of others by holy water. Buddhas cannot remove the suffering of people by hand like you’re picking out splinters and pull out. The Buddha’s spiritual development cannot be transferred to anybody else. If that’s so, then everybody gets the Buddhas American Express card. So, it is not transferrable. So, they cannot get it. The only thing is by sharing the experience, the only way. 83:26 (in TB)

83:26 By sharing the truth only can help. That is the how Buddha’s way of serving the people. Being’s that Buddha want to serve, it is Buddha’s way of serving is by sharing the experience. The information they are giving. And if the information went over the head, what is the use. The purpose would be defeated. So, it should not go over the head. Even if it’s a terrible presentation, it should get to the person. If it’s beautiful high, wonderful language and goes over, it’s useless. It defeats all the purposes. So, the Buddhas quality of speech is conveying the message at the level where the people can understand and take it. Whatever language or culture, that are so important. If you don’t know the culture, even if you can speak the language, it doesn’t serve that much (ineffective). The culture is the key for the language to work. So, that is what Buddha has to do. This is the capability speech. 85:18

85:18 Then of course, traditional, Hindu/Buddhist mythological things, there is supposed to be some big, huge called a (? 85:30). It is called the great Gods drum or something. It is sort of a huge drum automatically beating. It was supposed to be giving the teachings all the time in summer in (? 85:54) in somewhere. That is also supposed to be effortless activity of the Buddha’s speech. 86:06

86:06 One most important thing here is you’re a Buddha, if you become a Buddha, you may not need any effort. You do not have to put in so much effort to get your message across. It comes and it goes through it. But if you are not a Buddha you have to give a lot of talks in that, at least ideas and thoughts you have to put in. If you are below the eighth bhumi or something, then you really have to work hard to get your message across. At the Buddha level you don’t have to do much (it’s effortless), it sort of automatically comes and goes. It gets to the person that it’s intended for. 87:22

87:22 And then there is the most important thing. For example, the rainfall. And when the rainfall comes it helps the crops to grow. And just like that, Buddha’s speech, makes the spiritual development grow within the individual. So, there are a tremendous amount of those qualities of body, mind, speech, compassion, knowledge, activity and all of those. if you keep on thinking about all these qualities of the Buddha, you become closer to the Buddha. The other day I mentioned this. Buddha is not a stranger over there, right. Buddha is another stranger over there, so the stranger is a stranger. So, there is not much contact. You don’t contact. But when you know these strangers, you know. Stanger’s in the night. Two lonely people together (a Song sung by Frank Sinatra). So when you get connected, two lonely people before the night is over. So, if you get connected, it makes sense. 88:52

88:52 So the way n which we can get connected to the Buddha is these qualities of the Buddha and sort of the figure we have in an art piece or that of an image on a thangka. You should be taking out of the image and out of the thangka and personized and making a personal connection. These are the ways of doing it. Thinking about the capability of the body, mind, speech, quality, compassion, activity. So that way it is not just a piece of art but made into a being and person that is no longer a stranger. You are connected. So, something has to happen before the night is over. So that something has to be enlightenment. It has to happen. So, that is how you make it personal. So, that is the important point. 90:00

90:00 So, not only that, but I also want to give you an interesting thing here. The activity of the Buddha is unlimited and effortless. Bodhisattvas are with effort. Arhats are with a lot of effort. The Bodhisattvas will have quite a number of efforts too. 90:43

90:43 Tibetans use very little (as an example), this is the moonshine. When the moon shines in the sky every little pool of water or even the due, each and every drop of due has the picture of the moon or even a glass of water, no matter wherever they are, the total image of the moon. It doesn’t require any effort for the moon to get into every pool of water, it shines automatically. And that is an example as one of the Buddhas activities affecting sentient beings. When wherever their opening is, that’s why the openness is important. Where there is no opening, then everybody has a prefabricated or preconception ideas. Then it is not open, and nothing can happen. And when there is an opening there, it automatically happens. 92:21 So the Buddha can enter in there and function. That was an example given. 92:30

92:30 So very often they (Tibetans) use in a lot of traditions. It can only happen when there is an opening. Though Buddhas activities are effortless, but each and every one of us has our own right what to do. So, if we’re open, we get it. If we don’t open, we’re not getting it. So that is called Buddha’s activity. 93:13

93:13 Now the definition, we’ve been talking about activity. Generally, the word activity means something bring. What is your job, what is your mission, what’s your commission, whatever, all of those? What is your percentage and all of those are activities? But here, when you are talking about Buddha’s activities, we say effortless, it’s happening, any nothing has to be done, and what are you talking about it. So, we’re really talking about it. The idea in Tibetan is … means the reverse of Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya really means the first mind state of enlightened beings. And when you become a Buddha, the first level is the mind level according to the Vajrayana. But whatever that’s called it’s called Dharmakaya, the mind level. Dharma and Rupa right. Rupa is physical. Dharma is nonphysical, which means mind. So the mind level of the enlightens is coming out of that. Virtue is natural. A quality of virtue is naturally coming out of Dharmakaya, the enlightened mind. This is really an activity of the Buddha. For us activity means I wager, I’m doing this. I’m putting in effort and doing this but enlightened level it is slightly different. We say effortless. 95:14

95:14 So what is activity. It is a positive natured quality coming out of enlightened mind. Enlightened, it is not even coming out. Because there is enlightened mind all there positive nature of quality. And that quality is called Buddha’s activity. Are you with me now? So when we’re talking about quality or quality activity, the real activity here refers to that level. It is not like our activity. We have to walk, get a car, get a taxi, get friends, get late and all this, these are not the activities we are talking about. And that activity we are talking about it. 97:01

97:01 And then one of the most important things is knowing the special thing with the Buddha. The word Buddha alone, in Tibetan, is sung gay. Sung really is the clear, cleared of obstacles. Gay is fully developed. And what obstacles? Two obstacles, Yamantiba and sheta is imprints of negative emotions. The example given is garlic and garlic smell. You remove all the garlic but aroma remains. That is the imprint part of it. 98:34

98:34 Anyway, so clearing obstacles to know. They are really fully developed, developed from the knowledge point of view and quality point of view. Again, at the Buddha level, knowledge and quality are the same. For our level, it’s different. In our level we get knowledge, and the knowledge becomes quality. At the Buddha level, the knowledge and quality if one. There is no separation in that. So, the development is the full quality of knowledge is by clearing obstacles. So again, this is a very special quality. Not only the direct and indirect negative emotions are not there, but even the imprint of the negative emotions have been totally removed means thought (? 99:40) is all cleared. Gay is fully developed. That name itself will tell you very differently. 100:22

100:24 So when you take refuge with what idea, seeking help. And that also has a lot of different things. The actual Dharma is… When you want to cross the river, what would you do? You need a boat, you need a pilot, and you need the hostess. The Dharma is the boat. The actual refuge is the (a normal example is Doctor, medicine, nurse). So here you have the boat. The Dharma is the boat. Buddhas is the captain. And the Sangha is the air hostess. So, you need all of them. And when you are getting in the plane, why do you get into the plane? Because you rely on the plane that you lift your physical body from Michigan to New York. So, you are relying on that little plane, that little piece of metal that flies in the air. So, you are depending on it. This is the way we take refuge to Dharma. So, depending on Dharma for my transmission or transformation or transporting even. Buddha is like the pilot. If the pilot keeps on going around, we will never get to New York. 103:00

103:00 So if there is no air hostess (stewards) you don’t get water or whatever. So that is how you take refuge. You take refuge in Dharma to rely on for your transformations and transporting yourself. And to take refuge to Buddha to guide you properly. To take refuge to Sangha to help you, whenever you need it. Instead of scolding you, when you ask for water. They say okay, here’s water. Rather than being rude (wait a minute). So anyway, that is a slightly different way of looking at it. 103:56

103:56 So whatever it may be, remembering the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha always and bring yourself close to that. You know I have mentioned all kinds of the Buddha’s qualities, all kinds of the quality of Dharma, all kinds of quality of the Sangha. The Sangha particularly is very important. One of the qualities of the Sangha is unity, no divisions, no fighting, no backbiting, no gossiping, and admiring each other, supporting each other, rather than undermining each other and discriminating each other. The Sangha will do it with knowhow. So will not do something that you don’t know what you are doing. So, you know what you are doing, and you do it. Straightforwardness, no distrust, no hanky-panky. The moment the sangha has hanky-panky, it is a big problem. If you have one hanky-panky with one person, you know and then the whole group becomes a problem. You know when you have a square stone, and you are a mason, and you pick up all square stones and build a good wall. But if there is a big round type of stone then you don’t know where to put it and it will shake a whole wall. One little round stone will shake the whole wall. So, that’s why when you are sangha, you have to remember one of your basic important quality is no hanky-panky. Always straight forward and no manipulations in other words. And people are good manipulating other people. There is no room in the Sangha for manipulating. It is against the Sangha quality, definitely. It is (?) fit to be object where people can appreciate. Sangha represent Buddha. The Buddha is inspiration for other people. So now the Sangha’s duty is to give inspiration to others. So, others will look at you and think how wonderful these people are. The basis for which they can appreciate, fold their hands together, in Asian culture which means you are object to be refuge. So, the quality is for the Sangha members. 107:33

Faded out but did not finish.

NOTE: Monlam

The Great Prayer Festival

TheGreat Prayer Festivalwas established by Lama Tsongkhapa in 1409, when the first one was held in Lhasa. People all over Tibet celebrated a two-week-long festival of prayer, auspicious rituals, teachings, and celebrations from the first new moon until the full moon of the lunar New Year. Many hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than one million, people came from near and far. This first full moon of the year is celebrated in the Vajrayana tradition as theDay of Miracles(Tibetan: ‘Chotrul Duchen’) to commemorate the final day of miraculous display by the Buddha which lasted 15 days….

The celebration began a 650 -year tradition of Great Miracle Prayer Festivals. During the festivals, all ordinary pursuits were suspended so that the laity and clergy alike would engage in games and contests as well as praying, making offerings and attending Buddhist teachings. Pilgrims from every corner of Tibet crowded into the capital, each year increasing by multitudes as the annual Great Prayer Festival became a focal point in Tibetans’ lives. The Festival signaled Tibet’s success in its deliberate progression from a war-like, imperialist power to a peaceful, spiritual nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness, education and enlightenment. The “Great Miracle” refers to the two weeks of miracles and teachings said to have performed by Shakyamuni Buddha, 2,000 years earlier in the city of Shravasti, India. As the story goes, after years of being persecuted by rival teachers who repeatedly challenged him to contests of miracles, the Buddha finally accepted the challenge. He then proceeded to create a vision of a beautiful universe, consisting of jeweled trees, lotus ponds, and rainbows. Astold in the Indian Buddhist Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish called ‘Overcoming the Six Teachers’:

“Buddha was challenged by six rival teachers to a contest of miraculous performances. For many years, Buddha evaded their challenges, letting people believe that he was afraid of their magical powers, losing his royal patrons, and causing doubts and worries to grow among the people.

Finally, in the city of Shravasti, Buddha accepted the challenge and stood before a huge assembly of people from the entire central north Indian area. He proceeded to perform miracle after miracle during the first fortnight of the lunar New Year. The rival teachers were eclipsed almost immediately, as Buddha produced spectacular manifestations. He threw down a toothpick and grew a giant wish-granting gem tree. He rinsed his mouth with scented water, and celestial lakes with divine ducks and jewel lotuses appeared. He concentrated and emitted rays of light, and hosts of Buddhas, bodhisattvas and gods filled the skies.Teachings of liberation and awakening, reverberating in every language known to man, illumined the minds of all assembled. He even manifested a vision of himself multiplying infinitely, his compassionate energy becoming clearly present to everyone’s awareness.”

Source: Tibet House in New York City.