Archive Result

20010705GRNYOTF - Odyssey to Freedom Date: 07/05/2001

00:00 to 8:52 Jewel Heart Prayers and Migstema

08:53 Welcome here for tonight. We have been talking here about this Odyssey to Freedom bookmark. We have been talking on 33, 34 and all this. But it seems to me that I have been lingering around numbers 32, 33, and 34. Somehow, I am not fully satisfied when I am talking about this number 32, Taking refuge. And I am certainly not satisfied with 34, and that is refuge and karma is so important. Though we think about our life, the more we think about how we live our life. This is very important, extremely important. So, as I have been saying, though we have already covered all this area, I would like to talk a little more about refuge and well as karma, both. 10:34

10:34 So, when we use the word refuge, you get some kind of understanding of refuge because of the word. The meaning that follows by the word in English is refuge, which may be slightly different than that the actual refuge we are talking about it as a Buddhist. I think there is a big difference. Somehow, I don’t think we can understand when we talk about refuge. I am sure each and every individual person has his own understanding of refuge rather than what it is. Though, we talked about why Buddha, why Dharma, why Sangha. What is their qualities? What is relevant to me? And even why three, why not one? Is there a difference between being one and three? All of them we discussed, and we talk about it and I am still not sure how much we are familiar with refuge. 12:27

12:27 Actually, there is one verse which says (In TB 12:33) … why do I come back all the time on the refuge? Because there is a faith involved and not a faith as the Western understanding of faith. Have faith in Buddha, Dharma. Have faith in God or whatever. I don’t mean we are talking about that at all. We are talking about a sort of intelligence faith, which really means the relevancy of it, the understanding of it, understanding the relavance of the Buddha, the relevance of the Dharma and the Sangha and why is this connected with me? And why do I have to bother with this and what can I gain out of this and all of those. 13:43

13:43 One needs to know in order to have this particular faith. It is not the blind faith saying hay, Buddha is great and have faith, so follow. That doesn’t mean anything to me. Yeah, Buddha is great because he looks yellow, like the walls. I don’t whether he is great or have jaundice. I have no idea. So, that doesn’t convey any message to me at all. So, I need to understand why Buddha is great. We say Buddha is great. Yeah (? 14:33) of course everybody agrees Buddha is great. But the greatness of the Buddha, I think that is what we have to get it. Again, traditional teachings will tell you, it is all knowing awakened state, everything, blah, blah, blah and they are great. 14:53

14:53 All knowing, actually, when you really think about all knowing, it is almost impossible to measure. Really, that’s true. But on the other hand, we need more than that. Alright you know everything, that’s fine. But what does that got to do with me? How did you become all knowing? Is it possible that I can be all knowing? All of those are the questions we have to think. I am in the habit of saying we have to think, but what I should say is that we have to meditate. If I tell you have to think, you’ll say I’ve been thinking all day and now I have to think again. But it’s a meditation. 15:51

15:51 So, the beauty of the Buddha really, who is not somebody who is already sort of something you know, well, the god that comes down or some other god that stepped down here or is our savior or whatever. It is not that way. The beauty of the Buddha to me is that Buddha had the same problem we face. Mental, physical, emotional pains and sufferings. And that fellow had looked for something you can do or is it something you cannot do. In principle, in Buddha’s teaching, remember if there is something that can be corrected, one has to correct. If there is nothing to be corrected, one shouldn’t worry about it. (In TB) 17:03) The Nagarjuna has said, “If there is something to be corrected and why should you be upset about it, just go ahead and correct. And don’t sit there and grumbling. And if there is nothing to be corrected, don’t grumble that you are going to get additional problem.” So, do something and try to make a move. That is what Nagarjuna really tells and that is the principle in Buddha’s teaching. Because a lot of people would like to say, I have to worry about it and worry about it, you know. Yeah, but if you cannot correct, what is the use of worrying. If nothing can be done, so you are inviting additional suffering. So, that is kept as a principle. 18:04

18:04 So, the first can I do something or not, can something be done. We know this pain is here, we know this suffering is here. I saw it! I discovered Buddha’s mind going through. I discovered beyond the palace I am locked in, there is full of people that are full of suffering. And I discovered this includes my parents, the royal family. The royal family is not removed from the sufferings. Just witness what happened in Nepal, right. So, including my family, the royal family and the subject that I’m supposed to be protecting and leading and guiding. So, they all, excuse my language, is full of thing. 19:19

19:19 So, the question comes to that fellow, is there something that can be done from me, who’s going to become the Buddha, and for my parents and those who my responsibility are, my subjects. So, the first question is: Can it be done or not? So, he found that, “I can do something.” So, then, it is, you know, there is a little light in the darkness, I can do something. So, something can be done. So, then the question comes: “What can I do?” 20:09

20:09 Basically this is even common sense, spiritual and non-spiritual. We see everything. We see pain. We see suffering. The question comes: Can I do something to make it easier or better. I hope all the scientists are there because of that reason. I hope the scientist did not put their effort in to say, I hope I can make some money, can I find a way to make money and then go into the science though the corporations may use that as a priority. But the idea should be how can we ease the pain? Whether it is scientific or artwork or poetry or medicine or spiritual development. I think all leads to this, how can we make our pain less. And how can I make so (the world) a little more comfortable? I can I make myself a little better? Or how can I make other’s a little better. That depends on whether I can make me better or other’s better. It depends. And that’s why it is called Mahayana and Hinayana difference. 21:44

21:44 So, I should think really that everything leads to that. So, the Buddha came to the point, can I make, since he’s a Buddha right, can I make everybody. I am not sure Buddha has a mind of everybody, that he may not, but at least, he and his family and his subjects that he always talked about it at that time, so that is his mind. So, when he found when he says “Yes, there is something that can be done. Then the question comes: “What is that something and how do I approach, right? 22:25

22:25 So, naturally there are people who would like to follow the facts, and then try to follow it and that is scientific development. And certain people which we may say faith, but that is also very scientific for Buddha. Just because he has faith, and he sits there and praying that all-sentient beings be free from suffering. It is never going work and he never did that. He did pray, but he did not rely on simply saying that “May all sentient beings be free from their sufferings.” And then think about it and visualize that everybody is free, and they are flying in the air, which we do very well and often. And all the traditions of Buddhism’s will do. And Judeo-Christian tradition may be doing the same thing, I have no idea. But I presume, you do. 23:31

23:31 So, that alone is a very good thought and wonderful idea and very good motivation. It’s wonderful. However, forget about everybody including yourselves, not going to be afraid. We know that very well. We’d like to cheat ourselves, meaning that it is going to happen or is already happening. That’s not right. Or it is not already happening and hope it will happen. But that is simply sitting praying and thinking, “May all beings be free from suffering.” I don’t mean you don’t pray. You can pray as much as you want to. You should pray. It may have some result. But that along is never going to have it. Otherwise, you could put a big sign box “May all sentient beings be happy,” and put everywhere. So, we took all those Marlborough signs down and put up, “May all sentient beings be happy or free,” and all this we can put it up. Everybody can read and say it or blog about it or appreciate about it and do some help, right. But it doesn’t! 24:59

24:59 We have to work. Without working it will never work. You will never get it. Buddha knew that and that’s why Buddha is great! So, he put his efforts. He put his life on the line and went into this six year of (asceticism) eating one a grain a day and becoming different no different than part of the tree or not. And that’s what the traditional teachings will say, but you have to think this was two-thousand five hundred years story. So, we all extract a little bit here and there, so go to that extent. But the bare minimum food just to survive, that’s for sure. The word in the food offering (In TB) I would like to use the food like medicine just to settle up and not make myself fat, just to sustain in my life. So that came out of this, the Buddha said life story out of this. So, there minimum survival food, he spent six years there. 26:31

26:31 With the common story the traditional tells you, so much, that one could not figure out whether it is a human being or a branch of a tree. That’s not possible, but they tell you that much in the story, that they give you that much idea to impress on us and went up to that level. Again, I don’t want you to misunderstand. This is not sacrificing become as a part, it’s not. He tried not to waste his time so he doesn’t want ot waste his time cooking and he just ate whatever he could eat and devoted his time to whatever, twenty-four hours or whatever it is, or sixteen hours or eighteen hours or whatever doesn’t have to sleep sometimes or went into that and that is not sacrificing. I am not emphasizing that, but what he did in this, he challenged his negative emotions, which is the cause of negativities, negative karma. 28:01

28:01 Negative karma, it is traditionally in the Buddhist point of view, I should be telling you our sufferings are coming from our negative karma. Yes, it’s true. And then we’re all saying, what is negative karma? Negative karma comes out of negative actions. And then where do our negative actions come from? It comes out of negative emotions. So, the bottom-line is the negative emotions, such as hatred, attachment, jealousy. And these are the real source of our sufferings that Buddha found. And the Buddha also found you cannot treat the symptoms and hope it will go away sometime. But as long as you have the cause continuously functioning then it will not go away. 29:04

29:04 It is just like my diabetes. So, I treat my symptoms by taking insulin, right. So, when I have taken the insulin the sugar goes down and balances. And then suddenly when the insulin goes away, the sugar has to go up because you cannot treat the diabetes that’s about it. So, until you treat the cause, the symptom will be, if you keep on fighting with the symptom, it’s going to be like this. So, Buddha knew that. So, the Buddha did not want to waste his time fighting the symptoms, but rather looking for the causes. When you cut the cause, there will be no continuation. Just like if you have huge dam, where the water collects, and you see too much water is coming and the dam is about to burst. They you have to stop the river coming from somewhere. You have to divert and take the river away in that. Unless you do this and if you try to do something else, rather than try to remove and helps to sometime. It is very similar to that. We try to reduce our negative emotions a little bit here and it looks like taking water out of the dam. But it continues happening, it’s continuously growing and then you may not be able to manage, and the dam bursts and a small little village may was away or whatever. But if you can divert the water from the top and the sources fall in there continuously and then you are going to start (stop) that pressure here. It is just like that, how Buddha found. We could stop the original cause, which creates the suffering, rather than try to take aspirin, trying to make my headache better. And that is so great about Buddha 31:35

31:35 That is so great about the Buddha. If you are looking at the early Indian teachings in India, it is so interesting and when it was eighty years or Western invention or there is a Muslim moment comes and the Hindu-Buddhist become one, together, it is almost part of the same thing. And when they’re alone, they divide among themselves and when their external threat becomes one, that is a historical fact, if you are looking at the earlier Indians civilization. It was the period between the Buddhist and non-Buddhist Hindu scholars, who you know was the arguing-fighting period. 33:18

33:18 It was the time when General Home(? 33:20) a great, one of the outstanding great masters in the non-Buddhist Hindu tradition and he is challenging the Buddhist and debate. If you lose the debate, then all your monasteries and abbots and everybody will have to follow me. And if I lose then all my followers will have to follow. This is a traditional debate is done that way. It is not like a bare statement done by Gore or Bush and there is intervention in between (a moderator). It is not that way 34:09

34:09 The other day I mentioned to you how we debate in the monastery. I don’t remember where, but I had to cry because I debated my Father and I had to cry because I had to accept my monastery, Loseling Drepung, who has ten thousand monks, the abbot had no skirt to wear, he’s naked in the lower part of his body. I had to accept because this psychological will force you to accept. It takes you down that way. This is how the traditional debate is done. And when they take you down there, you have to really sit there like a crazy person. You have to say I am still here, but I don’t a hat or something. That means you cannot argue anymore. You know you lost. You know you are wrong, so they will chase you back. If that is not true in what you said, is not true, that is not true, and this is not true. If this is not true then this not true which ultimately leads to the most profound philosophical ideas. That is how they prove. This is how the traditional debate is done. This is how it is done. 35:40

35:40 So General Guni is challenging Nalanda, I think, which is one of the largest Buddhist sanctuaries. So, the scholars and monks at the present could not challenge him at all. So, they had to wait for someone else to show up. While they are waiting, General Guma locked them up in the monastery and almost like a bunch of sheep or cows or something. He locked them in the main assembly walls, they make them sleep there. In the morning they let them go out. Every time they go out, he took a little stick and say one bald head, two bald heads, three baled heads, where they shaved, you know. He hit them with the stick on their head and let them go out in the evening when they come back in they counted one bald head, two bald head, three balled head. 36:37

36:37 So, this continued for about a month. At the end only an additional head came up when they were coming back. They said, “Oh, where does this new head come from?” And they hit this guy with a stick on the head, he said it’s coming out of the neck. He said the head was coming out of the neck. So, Sandra Gume knows this is who he has to challenge. They have this challenge and debate and all this and it was a very long debate for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. There are all great, really great. In the end General Gume lost. So they got a hold of him, and I’m cutting the story short. They got a hold of him physically. They wanted to lock him up and there is no other place to lock him up. So, they found one little old room, where they threw all their books, which were incomplete. So, they throw him in there. So, he’s a scholar, he’s been reading the books and any page his could get his hand on, he’s sleeping all over the books, you know and all this sort of thing, and reading and reading and doing all this. And suddenly, he picked up one little piece of paper under his bottom and started reading that. If happens to be the Buddha prophesy saying that there will be a great scholar like Chopa Goma name, where he will appear and he will be that much a great scholar and the mind followers will find it very difficult to protect (?38:44) themselves. 38:49

38:49 Even Buddhas says if he embraced my ideas and my thing, he will be one of the greatest teachers available. He saw this and said “Oh!” And being a scholar, he understood and he went through all this debate and how did he lose on all of them. As a result of that he came out with one little booklet, “Praising Buddha.” How did he praise Buddha? He did not say, you’re a Buddha, you are all knowing, you are great. No, he didn’t say that. He said, “Now I am going to denounce the other teachers and I am going to take refuge in you, the Buddha.” Why do I do this? They are scholars and great teachers, great spiritually developed. They will not do anything without reason, without a proper reason. So why do I do this? He said, your teaching, how you have developed I could not find false and find a lot of qualities. And I spent my life to find certain faults in your teaching but could not find it. 40:54

40:54 Whatever I learned what the other traditions are teaching the more I think I see your quality better. (TB) There is a lot of them. One thing I learned that is that you can sit and meditate and concentrate and saying, “May all sentient beings be happy.” You know that type of thing. You can lead yourself to the tip of Samsara, he says. You can go up all the way, up top. Remember a few years ago, we made this chart of samsara life. We showed you a couple of times the fifty-four different ways up there. So, we can reach better and better and better. So, the top of it is called Sebet Semo, the tip of samsara. 42:40 You can go way up there to the tip of the world, tip of samsara. Yet you lose and suffering revives, and you go all over again. TP So your teachings, the way you guided, you did not emphasize to bring through the four gammas and the four formless stages. Even though you do not receive any developed gamma, which is concentration power focusing powers. There are four of them. So even if you don’t get in gamma, but somehow you utilize the wisdom and cut the root of samsara, that is the beauty of your method. And that is what you shared with your disciples. And that’s the reason why I take refuge in you. 44:21

44:21 That’s a (? 44:24). So, these are the very important reasons and we and people such as yourself, you are educated people, you are an intelligent person, most of you are anyway brilliant people. This is really true. And brilliant people, I didn’t say everybody is brilliant. You know. Everybody except you and me. So anyway, so brilliant people and you have your educational background, and you don’t just have the follow by blind faith. And if you have to follow with blind faith and all the years of educational background and common sense all of them are wasted. Really wasted. You may use that for your career or for making money roe besides that. It’s gone. It’s wasted. So yours should utilize that and find out why it’s different, why it’s so important. What is this beauty within this guy called Buddha? What did he do? 45:50

45:50 So, for us, you know whatever we want to say and think and because it’s going to help you with those negative emotions, the gross level of negative emotions are going to go down and shrink and going to go down. But that doesn’t mean you are going to be liberated. And a funny thing I mentioned to you there are four generous and four formless (? 46:25) above that. And those formless there are the cause of the individual taking rebirth in the formless is actually with as much mental activity as sitting. 46:42 But you are getting better. You are better definitely way gone beyond the hell realms, even beyond the human, even beyond samsaric gods, even gone up with the jnana’s, even gone beyond the form, and you get to the formless level. 47:07

47:07 And yet, something happens. Something happens and you start all over again. So, that’s the beauty of the Buddha. It is not so much emphasizing, sitting on that way. But cutting the real cause of these sufferings. And this is nothing but our own, what in the Buddhist traditions, called ignorance. But really it is the mixture of fear, confusion, and ego. You may level with the ego or whatever. But that is the root of all the confusion and fear. That is the root of all. We get confused and then we have all these problems of you and me and my side and your side. I have attachment to my side. I have hatred to your side and this and that and me brings me. And “my” becomes more important than anything else. Your glasses and my glasses. My glasses are more important because they are my glass and that’s how it comes out. That’s what it is, exactly. 48:46

48:46 This is an example. Because this is my glasses, they are more important and superior. Because it is my, it is more important. And that is the root, actually. The traditional teaching will tell you ignorance. But remember it might not be exactly what we think of ignorance and not knowing and blah, blah, blah. But it is the mixture of fear, confusion, misunderstanding. That’s there. 49:35

49:35 So, the beauty of the Buddha is actually looking to the total cause to the root of things you don’t want. Not fighting with the symptoms but fighting with the cause. And that also the ultimate whatever the rooted. If you don’t touch the root, the tree continues, and you keep on chopping the branches. You may keep the tree down maybe into a little bonsai whatever, but it is still growing. Even when they give you fruit, it may not be edible, but they give you a little fruit, right. So, it’s still growing. So, the Buddhas thing (method) is to get out of it. So, then it will never grow again. And that is one of the reasons why and how he used it. 50:56

50:56 How do we prove Buddha is great for ourselves. Because what he says, what he did, what he taught (shared with us) and how that made a difference (its impact) to me importantly and millions of others. And that is the reason we see that Buddha is great. Not because he is yellow or in the awakened state. We have no idea. We have no idea about the awakened state. So this, somehow, I couldn’t get that to you. So, I am sort of lingering around and lingering around. There are many other things regarding this, not only this point. 51:46

51:46 So this point I wanted to get across to you so that we are talking about the same thing when we talk about the refuge. We are talking about the same thing. I wanted to make sure we are on the same page. I wanted to make sure we are talking oranges to oranges, not apples and oranges. So that’s the reason I am lingering around and linger around. There are many other things looks similar to that. So, this is what I wanted to bring in. 52:27

52.27 So, without intelligent faith, the simple, little, stupid faith. I’m sorry, but it is. They say how great and wonderful. I feel it and it’s beautiful and it’s running through my spine and all this. And tomorrow you put a chili in your mouth, it will also run through. That really won’t do any good. It is better than nothing? That is to say, it is not a wise way. It is not a wise way. Traditionally it is not a wise way. And today it is not a wise way. 53:10

53:10 And, it’s amazing if you look at it. It is so amazing this Buddha’s ideas and thoughts and things that he shared. Now, it is that scientist is helping us to prove it. They don’t think they are going to prove Buddha’s idea; they think they are following the fact and that’s their discovery. So many great discoveries. And one of the most important things I admire is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. I have mentioned a number of times to you, that the Buddha’s idea of emptiness is this. You know, I don’t want to say believe me, but it is sort of coming out of my mouth. If you keep on looking for empty and no function nothing is wonderful like the sky and sit there, and that means you, the sky. Like a beautiful open space, nonfunctioning. The moment there is functioning, then there is a problem. The moment that you noticed there is functioning, then there is a problem. So, that is the problem. And a lot of people are confused about that. A lot of people think the observer and the object what you observe has to merge in oneness and there is nothing else, no moment, nothing. It is a standstill beautiful, wonderful; you know. You have not understood, you are not even in the direction of the Buddha, sounds like emptiness but it is not. Honestly speaking the reality will contradict that. The true reality will contradict that. 55:48

55:48 So that’s why you have two different worlds. The world of here, the imaginary world. The world over here is really reality. And that is a problem. There are no two-separate world. It is one person either here or there or wherever. You cannot divide that and go into it. And if I don’t say, it’s a failure from my duty. But I have to say it. I don’t like to say it because a lot of people bank on that. That’s their bank. That’s their savings, but that is the problem. Because is you cannot observe, if there is no observer, the word dualistic is a beautiful word. People like it. But there is a meaning. There is a meaning for that. If you lose it, any one of the realities, it is a problem. If you don’t lose reality and you merge the observer and the observed, fine. But if you lose one, it’s a problem. These are the important points. Again, this beauty of this guy called Buddha. 57:29

57:29 When you say Buddha understood. What did he understand? He understood that one. It is dependent arising, interdependent relationship. If you keep on looking into zero you are going to find zero when you talk about emptiness. When you are looking at existences and interdependence system, interdependent in nature. Then you find empty out of this interdependent. And, it took for an Einstein to come out with that Theory of Relativity. It took Einstein to come out with this and we have a better understanding. 58:30

58:30 I mentioned to you the other day, I learned much more in America by thinking, not by reading. So, I think these are the important points of the Buddha’s idea. If you that point of reason you lose completely with Al Gore. If the point of reference can hold you and that is the relativity. The relativity will tell you empty. I don’t mean that Einstein understood emptiness. I said that one time and somebody came up to me and told me, do you think Einstein every understood emptiness, I didn’t mean that. I don’t know whether Einstein understood emptiness or not. But Einstein really understood how we exist in terms of the language that you can understand. 59:34

59:34 And that is the beauty. That shows, emptiness, the wisdom that Buddha talks about is the true reality. You cannot go beyond the truth and put something in the air and call it great. You cannot because you are contradicting the reality. The moment we conduct with reality, we are wrong. We become two separate worlds (words). Word up there in the world up there and the world down here. That’s wrong because we have one life. And then on top of that to confuse us more, we have so many words, like you know. Absolute truth, relative truth and all this comes out and we get more confused on all this. 60:51

60:51 So, I think a good idea for me is to pull back from all these fancy words and pull back all on all the (? 61:02) and justifications and try to put your thoughts in your mind and say how real it is. The mystery of life, what they call it, is nothing other than this. The moment you can get to the bottom of this, we have solved the mystery of life. The moment we have solved the mystery of life, we have great joy. That becomes the first bhumi. 61:37

61:37 So the other day I was sitting and thinking on one verse in the Chandra Kirti which says “You are free of three (? 62:05). There is something called the (?) when you see it, when you read to the part of seeing then you get out something and called three of them. Whether these are not (? 62:22) I have been thinking very, for thirty years you know, so then all of a sudden then you realize, and the next word tells you that Bodhisattva is so joyful. And then I keep on thinking, what does that mean “so joyful?” So then I began to realize the first bhumi stage (of the ten bhumis) is called the bhumi of joy, which is the equivalent (equalize) of the Path of Seeing, which means these three what I’ve been thinking about what it is has to be (TB). So, all of those, so that’s how you get in, you know. That’s how you get in. 63:23

63:23 So you are resolving the mystery of life and then you see reality. When you see the reality, true reality, is encountering emptiness. Seeing the true reality which doesn’t contradict. What is truth? Truth is reliable. What makes it reliable? It does not contradict (? 64:01) reliable mind. I told you when I have to say that my abbot has no skirt to wear, which mean I have contradicted the reliable mind. Everybody see you are (? 64:17). Everybody know he doesn’t run around naked. It is contradicting with the true establish mind facts. And when that is establishing and when that is contradicting, you know you’re wrong. So, the truth is supported by the … the truth has to be held by the reliable mind. Reliability means another reliable mind or person cannot contradict. 64:58

64:58 So these are the main points of the Buddha’s teaching. That is the main point how Buddha had bust the lie of this suffer and its origin (where it’s coming from). And that’s how he had to come out with the idea of emptiness. And that is the reason and its relevant for our life and even the scientist are beginning to support this. From Einstein to Steven Hawking’s, The Theory of Invisibility. Yet, I don’t agree with what Hawking’s is saying there is an end of the Russian Dolls. That is a big problem for me. If there is an end of the Russian Dolls, there has to be static existence. 66:08 If there is static existence there is intrinsic existence. If there is intrinsic existence, then the Theory of Relativity should be wrong. Really, and that’s how my mind works anyway. 66:34

66:34 So the Buddhas things…spiritual development is not a mystery. Spiritual development is reality. It is real. It’s the truth. And if you think… A lot of people tell me, do you think I am fully enlightened? And if you don’t know that you are fully enlightened, you have no way of knowing you are not there. Honestly, to add to more confusion, some people will say I am a Buddha. We are all Buddha already. 67:26

67L26 I don’t know whether I said that last Thursday or not. Okay, so you know this weekend we had this Tricycle conference. Somebody on the panel said in really beautiful language silky, sweet and soft. The language was so beautiful, I was admiring. It was like touching this stones that remain under for so long and very soft and smooth and slippery, too, you know. It’s a beautiful language and that person said, “You are already Buddha, I’m already Buddha, We’re all Buddhas and how wonderful and beautiful and people started clap, clap, clap. And I am on the panel, my first thought is that I have to keep my mouth shut. And that’s my habit. In my head I keep my mouth shut. Then I learned one day in our Jewel Heart board meetings, if I don’t say anything, some of our member say, “You have agreed.” I said, ‘No I did not.” “But you didn’t say anything.” So, if you don’t say anything means you agree with this. (? 68:56) Sometime it doesn’t work that way. So, then I decided well everything is nice and well and beautiful but I can’t think we are Buddhas. 69:06 (? 69:10) I can’t explain that. No, no, no, we have Buddha nature. That doesn’t mean you are a Buddha. 69:21

69:21 Actually, I don’t blame that person, you know. Buddhas nature has two different Buddha natures. The growing Buddha nature and natural Buddha nature. Natural Buddha nature will make you almost understand in a certain way. The problem is that you did not learn the debate system in Tibet. Honestly, they will cut you way through, the way through to natural Buddha nature is not existence. I mean it is existence but does nothing there but fully matured. It is not gross Buddha nature, but it is natural Buddha nature. There is a way to do this. Not a way to do this, but the way how we learned this. And it makes total sense and the end of it. 70:11

70:11 Tsongkhapa comes out on this particularly, the great Tibetan teacher and master’s tradition that we follow. I follow at least, Tsongkhapa. Tsongkhapa comes out even that natural Buddha nature is at the seed level. Seed that grows food. Seed level, not a natural existence fully grown level. So, it’s a seed. It is not functioning. It is a baby Buddha, infant Buddha. It is a Buddha in the Mother’s womb. Tsongkhapa goes in that way. You know it reminded me when I first came to visit in America in ’84. I was visiting Ora and Sandy in Ann Arbor. There is a bunch of us like six or seven guys hippie looking being interviewed on television. It is a Detroit television. And these guys keep on saying, I am god and your god, you know. And this interviewer keeps on saying you are god. Tell me if you are god, you know everything right. Yes, was the reply. Then the interviewer said, okay, tell me what’s in my bank. The guy says, no, no you don’t ask that way. So that reminded me I’m a Buddha. you know. I could have said if you’re a Buddha, what’s in my pocket and tell me. 72:05

72:05 That is what one of the Dalai Lamas did, I think the seventh Dalai Lama or somebody. The seventh Dalai Lama met with (? 72:14) one of the great Tibetan teachers. The linage of Domo Dorje Chon (? 72:19) [Note: there was a lot on intrigue about the Seventh Dalai Lama] The linage of Dome Dorje Chon is a teacher to Pabongka, the great Pabongka. Domo Dorje Chonwas was known for being clairvoyant. So, the Seventh Dalai Lama said, everybody says you know everything. If you can tell me what’s in my pocket. He’s wearing monk’s robe. I will give it to you. There are in the room and talking amongst themselves. So, he sat for a while like this and then suddenly said, you have a rosary in your pocket. The rosary that you have is a ruby, red ruby. And he says it’s a ruby and it turned out to be true. Then he lost the ruby mala. Then they asked how do you see it? He said when you asked me the question, he said the way I see it, I see a bell. You ring bell. The bell behind your head and then the bell will act like a mirror and then I can see the reflection in that. So, that is knowing something. Dome Dorje doesn’t claim to be Buddha, but he claimed to be knowing and can see it and he got that ruby mala. And, that is a true reality. 74:17

74:17 And that is the real ones, we are the phony ones we do a lot. We pretend to be, the funny ones we do a lot. I am wasting your time. Someone asked a question; the way I see it we are like a bell. The bell behind your head and the bell will act like a mirror and I can see the reflection in that. So, that is knowing something. He (?) doesn’t claim to be Buddha, but he claimed to be knowing and can see it and he got that ruby mala. And that is the true reality. 75:10

75:10 And that is the real ones, we are the phony ones we do a lot. We pretend to be, you know. We phony ones we do a lot. I don’t know, I am wasting your time. But an example I remember is a very funny one. It is coming up on my head. You know, in Tibet, we have a lot of those Dharma Protectors or something that comes in all the time. And some of them are great! Many of them are great! But there are some little local deities here and there and they are trying their bell and it goes to us. Many of them are just false. They are not nothing, but they do something and pretend to be, you know. That something. Sometimes the bell is a mother who has made a hard living by being an oracle. By being a medium who entertains oracle and tells people what to do. So, when she was dying, and she told her daughter. You know in Tibet the oracles are not like here or even in Chinese tradition. But in Tibet they shake their body and change bells and change colors and do all kinds of funny things and even block the memories of the individual and take over. 76:58

76:58 So she told her daughter, if you keep sitting on the toes and put your heel down keep on putting on toes, you will shit. If you put on the heel, you will shit. And the incense calls white tree sap, a white tree sap, if you keep on burning that you will state urinating. So, she said, put your toes and your legs will shit and burn the white sap of trees and you state urinating, and you said many things to you will be correct. That is how the mother found her lovely word and that is how daughter should do. So, that’s what it is. I don’t mean all oracles are wrong again. So I give you that example so the phony ones can function in anyway everywhere because it is uncharted territory. There is no scientific data, there is no distinct (? distinctions), sort of you know, that’s why its uncharted territory. Even though, there is a statement and everything there, but it’s still uncharted territory and gives you room for phony ones, too. 78:37

78:37 But I don’t mean everybody is phony and a lot of them hide. They have different ways of teaching, different ways of showing, but the bottom line is you cannot contradict the truth. The spiritual path is to recover truth, to better know the truth (split infinity), not to defeat truth. That is the bottom line. If it contradicts the truth, then it’s a sign of just giving funny signals. There are a lot of symptoms like that we can understand, but we never know. We don’t know what is right and wrong, but the symptoms like that can tell you. 79:34

79:34 Anyway, so one of the reasons why we take refuge to Buddha is for that reason. Why Buddha is great because the teaching is great. How the teaching is great that helps, not only helps, but is capable of delivering the individual from the, take away, from the suffering and delivering them into nirvana or at the Buddha level. That is why it is authentic. That’s why it’s reality. And that’s why Buddha is good. 80:13

80:13 The reason why Buddha is great is because of his experience and his teaching and not because he is Buddha, not because everybody thinks he’s great. That’s why … There is a great early Indian scholar, in Tibetan it’s Chola (? 81:11) … He discovered that Buddha is great because his teaching are great. There are like seven steps … It is reliable. It is compassionate. It is the teacher. It is the one who traveled well. In other words, one who traveled well, one who had experience going beyond suffering. 82:17 And one who is a protector. So these are the basic Buddhist reasons why Buddha is great. 82:31

82:31 So, if you know a little about this and then you are taking refuge to Buddha, it will be much more solid and relevant in your life that simply saying Buddha is great. So, anyway, I am taking a lot of your time. Sorry about it. I waste your time. So, if it helps you, it helps you. Take it. If it doesn’t help you, I am sorry I wasted your time. So, with these reasons there you take refuge, and you will really be able to rely on Buddha. You are truly convinced that you can really rely on Buddha. And if that happens you are beginning to get into a refuge. It is not as simply as you go to some lama or some master and ask may I have the transmission and then they will say. “Now you are Buddhist and give you a new name or something.” That doesn’t make you Buddhist. Doesn’t make you take refuge, honestly speaking. If you contradict with everybody claim. So, the reality is when you begin to realize in your life, not because somebody said it’s great, but you’re deeply convinced, not believe, don’t confuse between belief and feeling, and you get a solid reason you think yeah, I can rely on that. 84:37

84:37 Then relying on Buddha is really taking refuge to Buddha. And that also, the historical Buddha as a guide, the informer, and your own future Buddha as your own Buddha. And really taking into this, is more important. Even Pabongka has mention here. (In TB) So when you have that historical Buddha bring him and taking refuge to him, is ordinary refuge. And your future Buddha and you realize that and pinpointing to that, know that is what you are going to be and taking refuge in that, building that up, it the extraordinary refuge. So, now you got the refuge straight. It took me time about four or five evenings. I had to go around and around, because I don’t want to contradict. It has to be the right time to mention to you. So, anyway that is taking refuge to Buddha. 86:22

86:22 So ordinary and extraordinary (where) ordinary is the historical and extraordinary is the future one, which doesn’t exist right now. It is only at the seed level, the Buddha nature. But knowing that is going to happen and building that up, working with that makes you Buddhist, whether you claim to be Buddhist or not claim to be Buddhist. There are millions of wonderful persons who don’t claim to be Buddhist but are very good Buddhist, much better that like me. There are a lot of them, really. So, perhaps that is how it is. 87:19

87:19 Anyway, if you have questions, I will be happy to say a few words. I don’t think I have an answer, but we can share it. If you don’t, I don’t see any hands around. You do, go ahead. 87:40

87:40 Audience: There has been said there are many worlds, planets with people on them. Here we have human (?) life forms. Are the six realms do they also hold on these planets, where the life forms may not be human, they may be something else. What would that be? Maybe there’s a hell realm, a ghost realm but…88:32

88:32 Rimpoche: I have no idea. Honestly. They may not be human beings. It is not only the world. I don’t think our human land is the only human land. There may be other human lands, too. But I have no idea. Whether every world we talk about, is just like the sixth realms. Chinese talk about ten realms. So, all of those, I don’t know that they look like the same thing and (? 89:08) as we do, maybe not. When you go to the moon and you look back to earth, they may look like a round ball, but in there it is different. So, there must be different. But one thing I know is whatever we call this beings, human beings or animal beings or whatever the beings are beings always. Non-beings cannot become beings. Beings cannot become non-beings. The nature cannot become beings and beings cannot become matter. (? 90:05) That I know. I also know there are no new beings. We are all so old, billions of years old, countless years old. That’s what it is. We happen to be a new identity. When the identity gets old, we change. But there is no newborn. Hard to follow, right? It is. I may have done a disservice mentioning this. And do not have enough time to explain. I hope not. That is the reason being all sentient beings are mother sentient beings. It comes out of that. Yeah, empty. 91:12

91:12 Audience: There is the reality, like when we are meditating and using our imagination to have a sense of emptiness and being space. Of course, in relative reality, things exist, right. But we shouldn’t be too worried to dissolve everything into this complete emptiness of space. But I (? 91:54) kind of a confusing thing when I am working with the meditation like, you know, it is very hard to have, your body doesn’t really go away, it’s like saying don’t think of an elephant, you know it is like dissolve everything into space and my body never feels so solid as when I try to dissolve everything into space. So, are you say, that even when we’re meditating, there is a way in which we are still acknowledging relative existence even when we are in our imagination? 92:29

92:29 Rimpoche: Sure, we do. We may say no aim, no eye, no nose, no ear, no tongue, no (?) you get. You feel the pinch. That’s reality. But what we are really saying is: no eye, not ear, no nose, as we think it exists. After saying there is no eye, no nose, people will tell you, when you have a very strong focus when you merge into that, within that focus there is no eye, no ear, no nose. There is a truth in there, but I don’t think that is the ultimate truth either. Simply, you know, when we do (? 93:39) I’m suppose…all is empty or something, nature empty, everything is pure, naturally pure, that’s what I am, right? When we say all this in our visualization, we simply sort of close our eyes and think and saying, it has all sort of evaporated and there is nothing. And that is a substitute for understanding emptiness. Since we don’t have true wisdom, this visual thing is just to substitute something better than nothing. And that is why it was put in there. But I don’t think it’s the reality. The reality is really is, if you truly know, this particular word is here to block, because there are a number of molecules and many of them are functioning in there and moving. There is a lot in there. When you understand that clearly, you will know it’s a piece of a world that these molecules are being passed through the other. So, it a sort of connection effect. And when you really know that and then this (? 95:40) blocks our hand, but our understanding will be different. People have no idea of the molecule. And the people who understand the molecule, when you look at the word, you have two different understandings. Though you may choose not to think about the molecule business. You lack the truth to keep this, but if you think about it and the way you look, the solidness is gone. And that is what they are talking about. 96:25 No nose, no ear, no tongue, that is what they are talking about. I don’t think they are saying there is no nose. The nose is here. 96:50

96:50 Audience: I gave my mother your cd’s from the summer retreat, the Lam Rim teaching. She has been asking me about embracing human life and how rare a human life is, like a blind tortoise coming up from the ocean … so it takes a lot of positive karma to have one. She was asking me the other night, like a hundred years ago, there was a 100 million human beings on the planet, now there is 6 billion. It took like thousands and thousands of years to get up to a 100 million and it went exponentially bigger. So, she was saying if it is so hard to have a human life, but people don’t look like they’re behaving better in terms of external behavior in the last century doesn’t look that good. So, we went from 100 million to six Billion suggesting a lot of people earned human lives though a lot of positive karma, so I didn’t know the answer to that. So I passed the question along of how. 98:07

98:07 Rimpoche: I don’t know either. But I don’t think we are talking about the numbers. I think we are talking about the human life or the opportunity. That’s what. Remember the story, the Panchen Lama was giving teaching and some Chinese guy came up from (? 98:29) and listened to the teaching and he said, since you have not been to China, you don’t know what population means. Remember that story? Well, it’s in your Pabongka’s “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.” So, I believe that that’s the answer, A. And, B, again I don’t think we are really talking about every human life. We are talking about every human life with opportunity. Yet, yes, in the modern times things are much different, much faster, much better. Yes, it took how many years to build up what to what? 99:17 Audience: it took like tens of thousands of years for human population to grow from some sort of a million to a hundred million in 1900, and from 1900 to 2000 it went to six billion. 99:29 Rimpoche: So, it’s really going to go faster in many ways, it does. But you know what, karma does not restrict to one life. Karma is not limited to one life. Karma does not limit to one century. It does not. There are a zillion different karma, each and every one of us grab it. Not only the number of human life increment, but even the knowledge increment is much faster today than a thousand years ago or even a hundred years ago, even ten years ago. 100:17 They all have reasons. And I am quite sure there are a lot of reasons Buddha gave and be relevant with this. But we don’t have any time to talk tonight. We can talk another time. Thank you. Before I close shop tonight, I like to say I will be here next Thursday and that’s it. 101:06

101:06 Migstema followed to the end at 102:12