Archive Result

;;

Soundfile 20030904GRNYOTF

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location New York

Topic Six Paramitas (enthusiasm) - Odyssey to Freedom

Transcriber Steven Krichbaum

Date 2/15/2020

Good evening everybody and welcome here tonight. We’ve been talking here the six paramitas as part of this Odyssey to Freedom actually. That is where we started and we are going through this. Actually Odyssey to Freedom is supposed to be modern verison of Lam Rim. Which really is - there is no difference between Lam Rim and Odyssey to Freedom, except the Lam Rim has a lot more traditional way of rituals, prayers and mandala offerings, prostrations, and all of those. Plus it’s own little prayer. But in essence real message, the real essence message for one practitioner’s training your mind. try to make your mind smoother and better and kinder and gentler. and all necessary steps are included in this Odyssey to Freedom.

it is also presented in a non-scholarly way. not sure this is a good or bad way to say. it is not so much philosophical scholarly points. it is more brought out for indiidual to meditate on. in that form it was brought out. basically has been divided into 4 categories. Category 1 we had teh prelminaries. preliminaries that include the 7 lump that we chant now in

english. that is the preliminary portions. each one of the words has meditation behind which we have already presented. if you are not familiar with this. we do have the books here, right? we did not give them away yet the last couple of weeks. those of you that don’t have 0:03:28.1 you can read it and carry it. you don’t have to buy it.

if you have it already before - don’t pick-up - if you don’t have it. read it and it will give you meditation point for every word you say here for 7 limb. these are the preliminary levels and then we divided after that. Common with lower level, medium level and Mahayana level. and as y ou have seen - the lower level goal is to get ourself making sure better future life. And enjoy this life and take the total benefit out of it. Enjoy, Embrace and realize its impermanence. question what will happen thereafter. all of those and then possibilities of taking rebirth. all of them. even taking refuge if we can’t help ourself at this moment, who can help? how can they help? 0:05:06.4

And just simply taking refuge…namo gurubye, namo buddhaya, namo dharmaya, namo sanghaya. reciting alone doesn’t do any good. if you have nice voice you can sing and enjoy. we don’t have that either so…. I don’t have that I should say. excuse me. I don’t have that either. so, but just word alone doesn’t really do any good. because word will be meaningless. so that is why quite detailed there. Why Buddha? What? Who? Why? How? Dharma, Sangha, all of them. see them and we try to cover all those. so every word you say has something to think behind and support your thought. and then followed by 0:06:31.8

possibility of taking rebirth. that is absolutely true. I mean we can pretend…absolutely true is rebirth. there is no way we can disappear. no way. because we have been there all the time and we are going to be there all the time. unfortunately. So no way we can get lost. no way we can disapear. no way we can hide. no way we can do anything of that sort. it sort of circles. really get through. might be able to escape here and there for a short period of time. But sooner or later it gets through. so what will be the next rebirth? that question we consider. no matter the possibilities they taught. good ones, bad ones. both are reality. nothing fake. absolutely. but what makes you because nobody is judging you to do. now you are judged to be taking rebirth in upper realms, lower realms, middle realms, here, there, nobody does that. it is our own deeds and our own karma that makes difference.0:08:20.4

I am not going to talk to you here because you know that. it is total thing is our karma that’s it. I made it. you made it. we all made it. collectively or individually. our consequences of our karma good or bad. we gain our rebirth. our deeds, nobody else judges you. go up, go down, fit to be here, nobody does that. we sometimes think we do, sometimes we utilie the great traditions utilize this to make us do a better job. but the reality is our deeds make difference. so that is why we are responsible for ourselves. to me Karma means that. nothing more. when you say what is karma? you have to say it is cause and result. that is what you have to say, but what really reality bottom line karma means I am responsible for my deeds. so you are responsible for your own deeds. so we all are. that is why we have to make our mind up whether whatever I’d like to do. so I have to see it. what it effects me. when it effects me it effects you as well. the problem right now is a little funny. we see me and then you see you. it is a big seperation. but unfortunately there is no big separation. it is very, very close. 0:10:26.6.

Also sometimes when we say, whatever I do matters for me and not so I can sit in my little corner in any part of hte world anywhere. it may have a little effect to my spouses, maybe a few friends here and there. that is what we think. but it is not true. whatever we do we have effect to so many people. so much by now we all know. few years ago Jonathan told me, showed me on teh computer the butterfuly in China makes difference in United States. Now we all know that. So a little creature like a butterfly movement a 1000 miles away in the united states makes a difference. that means every one of our actions makes difference to a hell of a lot of people. We do have a funny idea we think we, I am the one. yet there is bad one. we are the good one you know. there is not so much difference between they and us. honestly when you think about it. they are the bad ones. we are the good ones. what is the difference? between they and us. not so much. we want happiness, they want happiness. we protect our great precious I and they protect their great precious I. so that is karma. honestly that is karma. 0:12:28.2

It is so funny but that really is what karma is. and that is why everything whatever we do it makes a lot of difference to a lot of people. Of course make a lot of difference to ourselces. to me, whatever I do makes difference to me. good and bad both for sure. cannot hide. we cannot do anything. it is the reality. the absolutely that is what it is. there is nothing to hide. hide from whom? no one can cheat anybody. that is the true relity. So our lives make a lot of difference. our deeds make difference. that is karma. the real essence of Buddha Dharma practice to me is changing our way of thinking, way of living. changing it from the negative way of thinking, into a positive way of thinking. and negative thoughts are very often we have. because we have dissatisfaction in our life. we’ve dissatisfaciton makes us to do different. you always think I can do better. there is much better way. there always better way there, but not necessarily we can get it. yes we can get it, but the way to try to get it makes us more difficult sometimes. sometimes it is ok. 0:14:35.1

that we talked very detailed in this. and all of them try to do what? to develop compassion and care for myself and that is the most important. people always ignore ourself. the moment we say compassion, we out look. we don’t look at me. what about me? I don’t mean the precious one, I’m not saying it. Me the human being needs equal care, equal love, equal attention. we need it. we do. and we try to ignore that. I’ll be alright. you cannot ignore that. because if I don’t help myself, who else will help? no one. if I don’t take care of myself. who else will take care? If I don’t develop love for myself, who else will love? if I do not develop compassion for myself, who else will? so caring myself, developing love and compassion on myself. and making myself free from those negative emotions and its consequences are basically common with medium level. Where we share that on the basis of 4 Noble Truths. We share that 4 Noble Truths teachings and then once we knew how to take care of ourselves a little bit. Then we raise the question - what about the others? the problem for us is we don’t take care of ourself, we try to take care of the others. which is great I should say, otherwise we’ll all brecome selfish person. which is great, however, the normal routine structure is take care of yourself and then take care of the others. if you can’t 0:17:41.4 you try to take care of others. you have to say how can I help you?

But that is the reality. What happens is you will not be able to take care of otehrs if you never take care of ourselves. taking care of others is the way, how we help ourselves. copyhing the same thing. in other words compassion, focus on self is the determinatino to be free. and the compassion focus on others is helping and liberating others to freedom. as simple as that. so we are in the level of Mahayana level. compassion for the otehrs. not only a simple compassion, but ultimate, unlimited,unconditioned compassion. we talked about that. having compassion is not enough. we have to do something. what do we have to do. we talked about 6 paramitas. out of which is generosity. we talked about the total what is genefrosity. how it works, what kind of motivation should there be. how that effects the person and how does it effect to us. all of them we talked. we talked about morality. 0:19:34.1.

What is morality? how is it? it is necessary. Is it important? what type of morality are we talking? all of the those we really talked about it. we covered that. then we covered patience. Did we move to enthusiasm last time? we did not, we just finished to the end of the patience. Yes I did talk about patience brings beauty. 0:20:27.5 Tibetan Even the Buddha claims that his beautiful body of the golden color is the result of the meditation on patience. we talk about the patience. all kind of patience. there are persons who can suffer tremendously. I have tremendous patience. every bearing is not necessarily patience. I mentioned that. 0:21:13.7 Tibetan. So Tsong Khapa discovered the patience is the most wonderful ornament, patience is the best sacrifices. Positively we are doing it. Buddhism is Buddha’s experience which is is non-violence. violence is never considered positive at all. biolence is negative. it hurts. hatred develops and anger develops. hatred develops. it continues hates. so violence is never considered, but the patience is one of the best sacrifices. And also Tsong Khapa says, 0:22:24.0 tibetan, Eagle is the biggest enemy of the snake. Hindu-Buddhist mythological stories. The eagles pick-up the…garuda is what they call it in Hindu. Garuda is not necessarily that big bird…anyway..picks up all the snakes. the snakes is the enemy. the antidote of the nsake is that big bird looking like and Eagle. bigger than Americna Eagle anyway. Hindu-Buddhist mythological deity actually. the patience also catch the hatred like that. that particular bird eats snake anyway. Snakes are scared of that bird. so hatred is scared of patience. I mentioned to you earlier. the patience has to be virtuous nature. I gave you example of your girlfriend, asked you to wait in the middle of nowhere. say I’ll meet you at 2pm and then meet you at 5pm. you say, I’ve been so patient that’s not patience. that is 0:24:39.9 laughter and audience answer I couldn’t hear. So with this I’m just going to finish talking about the patience.

Next will be enthusiasm. What does enthsiasm mean? 0:25:02.5 Tibetan. Enthusiasm is nature of joy. Here Tsong Khapa really emphasized, so important, that any virtuous work that you really want to indulge yourself - you must enjoy it. the enthusiasm is joy nature. Basically, the definition of enthusiasm for me it is action that whatever you are taking must be virtuous and plus the individual is really enjoying whatever you are doing. So that will be enthusiasm again. it may not be every enthusiasm may not count. we are very capable of indulging certain great enthsusiasms…(laughter)…Dmiti and I know what we are talking about right? that may not necessarily be enthusiasm. What did you say? 0:26:37.3 audience comment Might not even be I’m sure he has a different word for it. (more audience comments and laughter). No I think I call it craving…(more laughter)…so anyway. (from audience: Is that bad? craving…). Rimpoche: we are just making jokes. depends on what you are craving for. So if you are craving for 0:27:30.9 if I am craving for girlfriend it may be honest craving, but that is not necessarily enthusiasm we are talking here. Because it is attachment oriented thing that is the reason why. Not virtuous nature. so that is why I am saying that it has to be virtuous nature. so having said that, it is my division business. So basically this enthusiasm been divided into 3 categories. The armor like enthusiasm (#1) - old time warriers wear that thing protect yourself from other weapons. you know this old times - only 2600 years old. not very old huh? (laughter). And what sort of - we call it armament right? - what sort of armament do you wear here? And it is interesting when you read here it tells you the qualities of the Buddha’s body (couldn’t understand)0:29:50.3 - even a hair pore takes tremendous amounts of efforts - years, aeons - so what does that mean? The meaning is you should really have a very strong, self confidence. Not only self-confidence as you can do it. I can make it. But so much so that even may even take me a billion aeons, I will be willing to do it. I will do it. That much confidence is what they are looking for. You know the Lama Chopa?

0:30:59.5 Tibetan and then talk to the audience about having the text in a plam pilot/memorizing it, people looking for the text, etc. teaching resumes at 0:32:19.6 Inspire me to perfect transcendent joyous effort by striving with tireless compassion for supreme enlightenment even if I must remain in many aeons in the deepest hell fires for the sake of each being. That is it. What verse is that. audience: (Verse 69 interestingly and then laughter). Rimpoche: 69? Oh I see (and then everyone laughed.) See I told you the enthusiasm here. 0:33:14.9

So Tsong Khapa said the measurement of enthusisam is one should never be shaking or burned out. Even for sake of 1 sentient being. Has to remain in the hell realms for hundreds of aeons. That is the armament we are talking about. If you have that much self-confidence. That much strong thought and motivation. then becuase of the power of that strong motivation even if you have strong difficulties, everthing will look little and everything will seem a small matter. When that happens that joy of enthusiasm what we are talking about can never be shaken. that is the armament we are talking about it. Anything that hits you, come against you. Eventhough it may be huge - my life falling apart - not getting better. There definitely must be a better way of doing it, I’m sure about it, but not getting better, falling apart, this and that, tiny little matter for that individual person.

I was reading something in the afternoon, sitting in my chair, looked at some book, in that book I just saw and they says for those Bodhisaatvas who are so used to it for genorosity and giving Like an eyeball or something is nothing for that person at that moment. for us it is a huge thing 0:36:03.0. Huge decision. for them it is like nothing. What I read in the afternoon, something what I saw, it says this is what we are today but when we get to that level it becomes nothing. Even for you. That is what it reads. Even for us it becomes nothing. It will be as same as giving away a wooden nickel. yeah really so. impossible type of thing becomes not only probable, but positive and definite. I believe that is the transformation that it takes. That is what it really is about it. I just sat on my chair and looked through a book and saw a sentence and thought, that is exactly what it makes. unthinkable, unimaginable now for us at this moment, becomes something really simple, easy thing at that time. That is the transformations that do that. But even for us Tsong Khapa made this for sake of 1 sentient being even you have to remain in hell realms for hundreds of aeons. it is really giving us self-confidence. urging us, telling us, that much confidence you should have it. They call it enthusiams, joy nature enthusiasm, maybe but what it is really telling us is have that much self confidence. 0:38:40.9

If you have that much self confidence, any other obstacles may poke in there. It will be simple, easy, silly ones. It will be just silly. Meaningless, useless irritation. that will happen. 2nd enthusiasm is accumulation of positive virtues, in order to develop oneself, the 6 paramitas in order to help others. Someone asked the quesiton the other day, and I will come back to that. Someone asked the otherday about the 4 and I’ll come back at the end of the 6 paramitas, I’ll go through the other 4 paramitas so you’ll have all 6 + 4 paramitas. 6 Paramitas are to help ourself, 4 are to help others to do that. that is the second type of enthusisams.

3rd - helping sentient beings. You can help great, but you should never get burned out. You should never, ever get tired of helping other beings. that is what this enthusiams is all about. we are so used it. Getting burned out. it is very good american language. i”ve been burned out. I’ve been burned out. everyone will say that all the time. I’ve been burned out. Everyone will say that all the time. I’ve been burned out. So what we forget is the other choice is we really been burned by the hell realm fire by our own body and that is the other choice. So don’t get easily burned out. Chandrakirti has said, 0:41:56.3 Tibetan all our qualities are really comes out follows enthusiasm if there is no enthusiasm then it doesn’t happen. just like my weight, my fat (laughter). I have been told lose, lose, lose, lose. even in the summer retreat people started pledging for pound of weight. (laughter). But I don’t lose anything because there is no enthusiasm honestly (laughter). Audience: too much enthusiasm for food. Rimpoche: not that true really. And I can tell you exactly how it works here you know. Je Rimpoche, Tsong Khapa has said 0:43:15.9 Tibetan if you have this strong enthusiasm all your qualities will go like a waxing moon (increasing moon). 0:43:49.4 Tibetan all your work, whatever you do, even your chores will become very worthwhile. whatever you start will be able to complete, fulfill as you wished. This is what enthusiasm does. 0:44:28.3 Tibetan it is Maitrayas Buddha’s prayer - prayer of love - 0:44:34.9 Tibetan - enthusiasm of the enthusiasm will over take the laziness of the laziness and the power of that enthusiasm may be able to complete the paramita of enthusiasm. that is what Maitraya Buddha praised. In other words - what is the antidote, opposite of enthusiasm - laziness.

actually it is joy nature I have mentioned earlier. when it is joy nature you enjoy doing it. when you enjoy doing it you want to do more because it is joy nature. so that sort of joy natured enthusiasm will overpower 3 types of laziness. The first laziness is the our usual laziness. I won’t be able to do it today or it will be on my list next to do. People say all the time - it is on my list, nexs tthing to do - that is laziness. I can’t do it today, I will do it tomorrow. i can’t do it tomorrow, I will do it next time. I can’t do it next time, I will do it thereafter. and all this delaying business. it is not the mind of not doing it, but delaying, delaying, delaying. that is the usual laziness. particularly working with our spiritual work. making sure our attachment is controlled, making sure I eradicate my hatred, making sure I will not entertain my jealousy. And all of them we will have some excuse because everything is important, except your own spiritual practice. And that is true to all of us. We all know our spiritual practice is important, but not our first priority. of course, we have ot pay bills and that is very urgent 0:47:57.4 then so many things come up and our own spiritual practice will be the last one in the list. whenever I have time, I’ll do it on the weekend. when the weekend comes I have this and that priority. well next weekend. next weekend, next month, all this will do. what do you do for that?

there is one meditation here called impermanent. gross impermanent. death and dying. remind us all this. that cuts that laziness. and that gives priority to our spiritual practice. there are some people whose life somehow organized, organized their limited time has giving for your spiritual practice. certain people like me never organize, everything is taken over by one thing or another. the last list thing to do is keeping your own commitment - 2:30am or 3am - half falling down, and then begin to putting your air conditioning on. put your body in the bed, and falling asleep and you don’t even know if you’ve finished that mantra or whether it is 6am. happens lot of times. So perhaps we have to revisit impermanence. 0:50:37.5 and gross impermanent. remember 9 round of meditations on death. 3 root, 3 reasonings, 3 resolutions. Now you see whatever the preliminary level you did everything which really is becoming very important key throughout the practices. The laziness is one of the biggest obstacles that we face. Buddha himself said in the sutra of mindfulness - 0:51:36.5 Tibetan - so the Buddha himself says 0:51:50.4 Tibetan - one of the basis for negative emotions or disturbing conceptions is the laziness - whoever has the laziness has no quality, no development. that is what the mindfulness sutra says that. 0:52:21.4 Tibetan - one who has the laziness has no quality at all. so that the laziness that we talk about.

The second laziness is lack of self confidence. I can’t do it. I won’t be able to do it. I’m too old, I’m too young, I’m too clever, I’m too stupid, whatever the reason is, so you say I cannot do it. Actually if you revisit the embracing human life, in that we have all the 18 qualities remember? All of those will be the antidote of this particular laziness. I can’t do it. It is almost become the point. if I can’t do it, who else can? We are human beings, we have this great wonderful mind, we have all this qualities. we have all of them. you know the preciousness of this life. I used to say remember? No matter ,whoever, even Buddha - he was just a human being like you and me. Nothing superior - same mind. same type of mind. same human being. and whether you looked at material world. you know all this - Einstein and all of them. had very similar type of human being with same problem. don’t think they are superior and they have no problems. It is not true. Buddha had tremendous problem, much more than what we face today. he had overcome. so does everybody. it is not people don’t have problems. everybody has problems. 0:55:45.6 But if problem remains problem then it is a problem. if problem is able to be managed, it is called brilliant.

So human capacity is tremendous. we can handle anything. it is this mind. it is this life. that is why it is called precious human life. this life is capable delivering total enlightenment. No other life is capable except this. because we are capable of adapting to any level. any kind, anything we have to do. we have tremendous information. we have tremendous method. and we have all the facilities too. if we can’t do it. who else can? that is true reality today. particularly enlightenment. Who else has such a method like the Vajrayana? I know many of our friends here sometimes think well this is great, but I am worried about Vajrayana. There is nothing to be worried about it. Yeah of course I have to go according to the yo 0:57:55.3 ?wishes, but many people tells me I’m very happy with this. The Vajrayana I have a problem. I always think - the person really doesn’t know what he or she is talking about. And that is not his or her fault because we did not present the Vajrayana properly to you. However, the message that I am getting it. Just like saying I don’t want the real cream here. but just want water diluted milk. don’t mind having it. I really enjoy this, I don’t want the real good ones. that sort of thing, that sort of message I get. But of course I have to entertain to you, say you are crazy you know. If I say that it goes against the 4 paramitas - the 2nd paramita is - say it nicely and suitable to the mind of the individual. goes against that if you don’t say nicely. against the wishes of the individual person so that is what it is. 0:59:34.7

and the Vajrayana makes the individual able to become enlightened. it is the partnership between quality of life and method of hte vajraya. they support each other and make the best for the indiidual. that is why any other lives cannot because the understanding, the mind level, the mind is the one of the human mind. but every mind even the beautiful dog has a mind there, but that is not a human mind. and it has a limit. it cannot communicate - it can communicate but only in the language that we don’t understand. so it doesn’t really become communication. just saying something. to be able to understand and express and able to feel, experience and express that is really the mind and mind’s quality. and that quality works perfectly with Vajrayana methods. works perfectly, makes the difference. I was just simply looking at it today. Just thinking mindfulness. think mindfulness. mindfulness is a meditation coming out of Hindu Buddhist tradition. Both traditions. It is common quality of Buddhism and Hindu tradition. and it is all comes out in a totally perfect package of bringing one individual to the level of enlightenment. But now what we have is taken the mindfulness by itself out of the total context. been developed it and used for all kinds of things. for everything. you use the meditation 1:02:27.4 for stress release or for pain relief. and we use this for all kinds of things you know. Couple of lists but now forgot. But it is extremely usefull, helpful. even for family therapy. all of those mindfulness been used. It has been helpful. But the whole purpose of the mindfulness is to deliver total enlightenment to the individual practitioner. I don’t know where I touched this - brought out of context - I lost my thought. I don’t have brilliant mind like I used to. Remember when you were giving that Alan’s thing coming out and in Boulder and such a beautifully each one of you - Alan’s point I remember that. My mind doesn’t work that way. everyday subject is gone (laughter).

What did I bring the mindfulness here? (audience responses can’t hear)1:04:31.4. Oh right anyway, thank you. I lost my mind anyways. anyways wherever it is. Now I lost my book too (laughter)

Total enlightenment is something we can totally get it, we can manage. this is the life which can give. Vajrayana is the method of delivering that enlightenment without Vajrayana I think it is very limited honestly. very limited. but vajrayana makes it possible. makes it possible to…they say it is possible to deliver within 3 years and 3 months. all of those, but also heard his holiness say onetime it may be propaganda. maybe it is true, I don’t know. so I don’t know, but it really made it possible to deliver enlightenment for a lifetime. it made it possible to be able to think of becoming total enlightenment within the lifetime. that is the vajrayana quality. nobody else talk about it, think about it. So from the natural life quality point of view, from our mind quality point of view, from the methods available point of view, it is possible to be able to obtain enlightenment. and then why worry, why doubt whether we can handle the negative emotions or not. So that is why the confidence of should be able to overcome this particular - I am incapable thinking - it may be possible for so and so, but not for me. because I am not this, not that. I think that is laziness.

3rd laziness is the addiction to negative emotions. negativities, negative actions. that is the 3rd laziness. 1:07:57.8. So what our addictions are normally non-spiritual picnic spots. that is really what it is. so the best meditation to overcome the meaninglessness of those nature. very temporary, those picnic spots are extremely temporary. anything can go wrong, not lasting, impermanent, when it is change, it is change is terrible, pain develops thereafter becomes even more severe than nature. those meaningless of almost all samsara picnic spots. not lasting, changing it is full of pain. though it looks. how unreliable it is, though it looks great. but when you get it, nothing great about it. it creates more suffering, more pain, more difficulties. and this will be able to help us cut away from those addictions 1:10:07.0

addictions for smoking cigarettes. interesting when you think about it. what relief you get…little bit, but then you can see it. the person sitting outside in the cold, shivering, caughing, yet still smoking continuously (coughs), but still puff, puff, puff continuously. how unreliable those picnic spots effect us. it is same thing with drugs. even the official drugs you get addicted. Of course it isn’t illegal is the difference, because the drs can write to you. that is why it becomes legal, but otherwise you get addicted same way. it may help something else but. all those are how unreliable it is. so our addictions, is it really worth to waste the tremendous valuable important life that capable of delivering all this. are we just going to waste on account of senseless, useless just little (inaudible, but think picnic spot 1:12:10.0). Well I think that is what I heard, that is about it. we have to talk something more about what is going to happen in September. I have been keep on promising September calendar, but now you have it Diana. Thank you.