Archive Result

Soundfile 2003GRNYOTF

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location New York

Topic Six Paramitas (enthusiasm) - Odyssey to Freedom

Transcriber Steven Krichbaum

Date 2/15/2020

Jewel Heart prayers and quiet until 0:0:18:10.4

Good evening everybody. With the activities in September with His Holiness’ visit is over. Looks like we’re falling into our regular schedules. Before I begin I would like to once again remind everyone we do have this upcoming retreat October 9th-13th t Garrison Institute. I hope people are attending there because it is going to be - they reasons I did this retreat because you know we do the teachings here every Thursdays, but couldn’t really do comprehensive Lam Rim together. This is what lI was hoping to - reasons why we wanted to do in the NY Area - because it is NY area we haven’t done that comprehensive Lam Rim teaching. and htat is fundamental basis on which we really follow our spiritual path. we talk about this and that path - the really true path is the Lam Rim Path. 0:20:02.2 As many of you know the Lam rim is the really foundation on which we function. we in the sense almost all the Tibetan Buddhist traditions are based - though they may call Lam rim - Sakyas will call it theng rim (Tibetan ?), Kagupas will call something else different, Gelugpas will call it Lam Rim. but whatever it maybe called it is the fundamental basis. Even everybody who claims to have instant enlightenment over a night will come back to the Lam Rim basis and everybody has to go through this. this is essence of the Prangaparamita or trasncental wisdom teaching o fhte buddha. transcendental wisdom is reallyi how Buddha himself transcended dfrom the ordinary human level to the extra-ordinary Buddha level. that is what transcendental really is all about it. even over here what we are talking about, we are talking about six paramitas. today we stopped at the level of enthusiasm. By enthusiasm alone it doesn’t become a spiritual practice, when it links up with something else it becomes a spiritual practice.

what it is going to link up is the Lam rim practice. Lam Rim really means - sometimes people say - oh yeah it is Lam rim 0:22:18.4 it is some kind of preliminary gelugpa teach. many people do say that but the reality really is without Lam rim, if you are following Buddha’s path, you are not going to get anywhere. anywhere. even if you have instant enlightenment over a night, tomorrow you have to go back to Lam Rim otherwise you get no where. this is really base of Buddha’s experience how one individual really transcends from ordinary level to extraordinary level. that is what lam rim is all about it. sometimes people try to overlook. that is not for me. I am superior and I should have very superior teachings. if you look in the Lam Rim you have everything in Lam Rim. Without…everything…even when you don’t know what to do for that level onwards to the total enlightenment. the lam rim has been divided into 2 - sutra and tantra. tantra lam rim is not called lam rim…called nag rim. but really that is what it is. what to do, how to thinl, what to meditate, what is right, what is wrong, all of those. the total teaching that his holiness giving at the Beacon theatre is the path of Lam Rim and the wisdom path of that Lam Rim. It is sometimes 0:24:36.9

some people do not appreciate the value of this teaching and the lam rim tradition. and people think this is some kind of for everybody type of thing. it is nothing special, but one forgets that every human being and every living being are special. and if you are not a part of that then no matter what special one might be, might not be that great. so this is very important. actually it is the foundation, the fundamental basis without which you get no where. it is meditation. it is both analytical and concentrated meditation. it is seeking freedom and I didn’t really see this brochure, I saw it but didn’t read it. when you look here it will be divided into 3 sections - first 2 are dedicated to develop love and compassion for yourself. whether you develop love and compassion for yourself, but the first two are how to help ourselves and how to lead one individual to the path. which covers freedom from attachment and material attachment too, material success in both this life and future lives. as well as developing ultimate, unconditional compassion for others. the third session will detail the activities to undertake once compassion is developed. people have a lot of questions - what to do? what to do? this Lam Rim gives you what to do. 0:27:34.3

so it organize the one individuals life long practice of seeking whatever you are seeking…enlightenment…freedom or liberation or whatever you are seeking. and that is what it is. so it is really providing a base. even the lam rim teaching itself will tell you if one has the foundation lam rim itself. clearly, everything, everywhere, any practice you can find and organize that and utilize it. for achieve your goal. and if you don’t have it, you don’t give it. they give you example for old tibet you know. Old tibet - the commodities are a little rare. like tea or sugar or butter or salt or all those are not so lavish as we have in the United States today. I’m talking about old Tibet. few hundred years ago. so what happens is they give you an example. when you have in your home a container where you put tea, sugar, butter, salt and all those. if you find a handful of sugar or a handful of salt or something outside you can bring them in and put them in your container and make best use of it. if you don’t have this basic container, if you find a handful of sugar somewhere what else you do. even if rare, you’ll find what to do? the papers are not also so valuable as we have here. so you can carry this handful of sugar and not sure what to do. can’t eat them up together or even if you do that end of it so you can’t use it. but if you have storage you can add up on that. and it adds up and makes you richer and good usage. and the Lam Rim provides that base. and any practice, any way you find it. the lam rim finds where it fits. for what and how it works fo rhte individual that is really provides the foundation. 0:30:30.4

and I am sure many of you have noticed when his Holiness is giving teaching and every point, every word wherever he touched. did you notice he pulls all the essense of almsot all the teachings of hte buddha, from almost everywhwere he just pulls them together. that is made possible because of Lam rim. and first it provides a container. second it makes every knowledge, every information, every practice, organized. third when it gives you result when you give to the others the whole thing will come out together. that is what Lam Rim makes. these are not the traditional way of telling the quality of hte lam rim, but that is what really lam rim do. so I thought it is very important and we are doing this. and normally Lam rim teachings when I attended Lam rim teachings - probably - I don’t know- 20-30x times in tibet. Month long each time. start at midday 12pm, have a tea break, continue to 6, 7 or 8. two sessions, two sittings that is it. from 12pm to 7pm or 6:30pm so that goes to month long. and no one has month long time to sit like this nowadays. so we try to do a little detail bits and bits and bits. here on different tuesdays. but then one weekend, one little long weekend we try to combine them together. particularly Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday we try to fit all Lam Rim in together. So I do hope everybody will make efforts to attend.

0:32:57.1 When I am looking at this I did realize the cost is slightly high, but what can you do (laughs). But I guess this is paying why they call it degenerated age. traditionally you know when I attend Lam Rim teachings so we didn’t have to pay anything to anybody. so there were always sponsors for whoever call it. sponsor will carry all the expenses of the teacher, the master who is giving the teaching and his retinue and all of them beside him. and the individuals give to the person giving teaching whatever they can give. rest of them…no one charges you for room, no charge for the hall, no charge for anything and you eat your own food. you find your own living accomodations. and that is what we used to do. so now you can’t do that in the United States. So perhaps that is reason it is called degenerated age. audience: can i ask you a quesiton about this retreat. Would it be apprpriate for somebody who has had absolutely no Buddhist training, but might be interseted. Rimpoche: sure it is all fine because there are no secret or nothing or pre-requirements. it would be very useful for everything. In tibet, the lam rim teachings are absolutely open. used to be. when Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche or Kyable Ling Rimpoche or anybody sort of received and they used to be 2K-3K people for month long they sit there and sometime they want to sit in the big halls and then he will come sit in the courtyard and everyone will sit in the courtyard 0:35:52.5

and we have teachings out there. sometimes it will rain. sometimes the sun will be quite bright all the time. so nobody seems to get sick. nobody seems to bother you know. this is what I’m talking about good old time. nobody needs any requirement. they always do requirement to the teacher they will make request. can I attend they make request? but they don’t go see the teachewr, they will have some people who are sitting outside. 4-5 people and everybody will say can I attend? or if you are some incarnate Lama you send an attendance in. can so and so attend? you do send a little bit of an old dirty scarf folded. show it. so and so can attend and goes back. soem people will assist to leave that dirty old scarf theere, but many poeple will just show it and then take it back (laughs). and then at the end of hte teachings, whatever you want or can aford to give or like to give to the teacher you just put in an envelope and throw it at. that is what you do. at the beginning at the mandala offering people throw scarfs and some envelopes in it. throw them in because they jsut throw it up. and all the scarfs will be collected this big. there will be 2 or 3 attendents of the kyabje with a huge responsibility of remove the scarfs as fast as they could because middle of that heap. they have to collect them back, take them back. that is what they do. 0:38:09.2.

Over hear you know everything is…every moment is money so that is what it is. maybe that is why it is called degenerated age. I guess that is what it is. anyway so I do hope and especially I made this particularly clear. not anywhere here. I said Thursday night there will be very, very little talk. nothing really. Friday will be more or less preliminary 7 limb, all those types of practices, those who are familiar are also ok. And the major portion I like to merge them in Saturday and Sunday. so that is what I made clear and I do not know about the charge or price. I have no idea how that works. so that should be you know, the major portion should be when I planned to do this and of course people are insisting longer time. I would really like to start Friday night and end Sunday night. so that is what I wanted to do, but everybody will push you so you have to say ok, ok. that is what happens. the Friday whole day and even Monday to sometimes. so in session. are you going to finish lam rim? no you are not going to finish. but are you going to have a complete Lam Rim teaching? yes you are going to have it. because then that is what is going to be. if you are going to talk in detail and then it is not going to happen. not going to finish. but you have to be really on the task and sort of go through and there is completely comprehensive foundation will be provided. so in my case as I said earlier - I counted a few years ago - something like 30 times I had the Lam Rim teachings. anyway that is that. today we are at the enthusiasm part of it.

and that enthusiasm also link with the Bodhisattva activities at the ifluence of the Bodhimind. all these activities. these talks that we pull up each one of them. it is a little piece like enthusiasm right? and enthusiasm normally means people who are enthusiastic whatever you are doing it. that is what enthusiasm is all about it. but we are not talking about that. see this is the problem we hav eot say we are not talking about it. we are talking about enthusiastically involving in the activity of the Bodhisaatva. what is Bodhisaatva and all this? I am not going to go back. that we already did. but mind is all bodhimind. the mind of total dedication and seeking englightenment for yourself, for one individual, whoever that individual may be, for your case you, for my case me, for everybody individual. seeking total enlightenment 0:42:20.8 not for your own personal puposes much. but for benefit of all beings. why not so much for personal purposes. for personal purposes you need free of suffering. which you can get it without going through Mahayana activities. because every yana whether it is theravadayana which I was told somebody was arguing you can’t call it theravadayana, you have to call it hinayana or something. I forgot where it is. somebody was arguing with me, but whatever you call it doesn’t matter. but on the other hand I replied that it is respect to the Theravadan practitioners. they don’t like to call them Hinayana. Hinayana means narrow vehicle person. person who has small, narrow vehicle. remind me some of those car commercials. you know have a little toy car that a fat guy like me can’t fit in there you know? Just sounds like that. that is the Hinayana. Mahayana is Linoln or Cadillac or something. so that is why in respect to the tradition and to the people they prefer to call it Theravadanyana. or even they prefer to call it Elders way or whatever. So Theravadan is 0:44:22.7 the main purpose is seeking freedom for yourself. and freedom from suffering. and for that you don’t need ultimate love and compassion. you don’t need mahayana. your personal purpose is and that is good enough. but you are not going to be fully enlightened. why? you don’t need it. why? because for you personally, one individual to make yourself free, happy what else you want it. but when you have compassion and love you can’t walk away from your friends, family, associates and everybody else.

0:45:20.7 So not only are you in question but everybody else in question. so for that you need the best tool. that is why you need enlightenment. enlightenment is nothing but total knowedge right? what does Buddha mean? I don’t know what word Buddha means? the translation of hte Buddha in Tibetan is call Sang gye. Sang is like clear. clear of what? clear of all delusions of all delusions and imprints of all delusions. gye really means total knowledge. anything to be known is known. total knowledfe which is why it is called enlightenment. referring to Buddha. so why you need total knowledge? why you need all this? because you want to do something. not only for yourself, for everybody else. and that is why you need the best thing. so these things we have already dealt at least, supposed to be.

enthusiasm over here is also enthusiastically seeking englightenment to help all beings. so in this particular case. this enthusiasm is refering 0:47:13.2 Tibetan it is only one who enjoys and working with the positive, virtuous activities is to suit your motivation, your purpose, your aim, and your goal whatever it may be. For Bodhisaatva goal is to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all. So enthusiastically working for that. that is why we are not talking about every enthusiasm is here as good, positive Bodhisaatva activities. there are a lot of people who are very enthusiastic for war. yeah they are. they are not bodhisaatva activities. they are not talking about that enthusiasm. on the other hand those people who are against violence. enthusiastically working that may be Bodhisaatva activities because that is our side (laughter). supposed to be joke ok. violence is violence. hatred oriented and hurts people and that brings and makes sure the violence continues. so that is why it is negativity. so that enthusiasm we are not talking about it. we are talking about enthusiasm in good way. one who enjoys indulging in positive activiites within in your program, within your framework to suit your motivation to reach your goal. somehow it has to fit in. spiritual practice has to be bery well organized. there is no unorganized Buddhas that has ever been before. there will not be. if there is one it will be very strange. so therefore every practice is very well organized. 0:50:11.1organized in the sense that it is fit within the framework. if you don’t fit in there it is the energy will be wasted. has to be fit in that.

enthusiasm also encourages us tremendously to have self-confidence. and when you are talking about enthusiasm what is opposite of enthusiasm. what makes you not enthusiastic? what makes you lose is the laziness? enthusiasm is hte positive side of this, laziness is the opposite side of this. there is always.. spiritual path is sometimes like a battle. I have to admit when I first saw Trungpa Rimpoche organized some kind of warrior thing…program…I have to say what is he doing? when you begin to get into it with American culture and American mind working and then that is perfectly what it is. spiritual path is like a war. war between the positive side and the negative side on your own mind. on the basis of yourself. and when you loses that is the individual loses. when you lose you lose big loss. you gain, you gain a lot. sort of war, sort of competition. two sides always. everywhere. killing is one thing, saving life is another one, stealing is another one. generosity is another one. hatred is one side, compassion and love and caring is one side. laziness is the other side and enthusiasm is the other side. it is always like this. these 2. so overcoming negativety means that. each one of them has its own opponent and individual has to be overcome. overcoming is not by forcing. arm twisting doesn’t work. maybe it worked for Mr. Bush, but not for everybody else. it doesn’t work. 0:53:22.5

what really works is the individual has to build the strength and build the desire and build the activity and the opposite side goes down and then the other side comes up. that is what is called overcoming. that is called spiritual practice. so in this case. enthusiasm what you have the laziness here and the enthusiasm here. now the question is? who is going to win? who is going to win me? laziness going to win me or the enthusiasm going to win me? I’m talking from the spiritual point of view, but that goes for everywhere. even business. same thing. who is going to win? so the laziness sort of 3 kinds of laziness according to Buddha. One laziness is one just doens’t want to move. everything is tomorrow Sir. tomorrow, tomorrow. or it is in my next what to do list. not now, it is in my to do next, whatever. that is the number 1 laziness which we all know. and #2 laziness is how can I do this? this is not possible. enlightenment? you are dreaming. long shot, I can never be able to do that. #1 I’m old. I’m fat. whatever reasons I can give. I am lazy you know. all of those. never do it. you know? underestimating or I’m not intelligent enough. I’m too busy? who made you too busy? yourself right? Or I forget it is degenerated age. that make us busy right? so we have to pay bills. so 0:56:07.3

underestimating is I can’t do it. a type of laziness. Bodhisaatvas are recommended to have tremendous self confidence. so much so that enlightenment is something to take and readily pick up and put in your pocket. that much confidence is recommended and encouraged by the Buddhas. in one way it is true too. not exagerated. it is true. because there is tremendous powerful forces, our own efforts, our own diligence, our own practice, and the blessings of the /Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. and the blessings of the spiritual masters and yidhams and there commitment. there prayer. and the good karma of ourself. and good karma of future generation. it is not something impossible at all. it is really sort of there. so the Buddha warns us ot have, he really wants us to have that much confidence as thought enlightenment is right here and I pick-up and it will be mine. and I will keep in my pocket. but that much confidence so there will be nothing that one cannot do. it is true, there is nothing we as human beings cannot do. you know it. I know it. we all know this. this is true. but we always underestimate. we have this tremendous mind. mind that has no limit whatsoever. total enlightenment, total buddhahood is also total capacity of the mind being utilitzed. that is total knowledge is all about. our mind has tremendous capacity. because of that we are special. we as human being have the Lam Rim will tell you we are special because we have 10 endowments, and 8 leisures. 18 qualities - we do. it is all true. that is because we are human beings and human qualities. there is no limit what human beings can and cannot do. in both positive side as well as negative sides both. it is our mind that makes big difference. 0:59:33.2

we seen it. how many people you know, one individual can make hell of positive difference like Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King or Mahatma Ghandi. or all of those. and does make a positive. Dalai Lama does make difference. on the other hand we’ve seen Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao. all of those I forgot 2 persons. one on other side one on this side. I should have said President Clinton earlier, then or course you’d follow another president hear (laughter). that is supposed to be joke. saw on internet right. anyway. the individuals make difference. really. we may think - they are special people we are not. that is not true. that is not true. we are all special people. we all make difference, because society itself is nothing more than collection of the individuals. that is why it is called society, isn’t that right? true. if there is no members of the society there is no society. society is collection of individuals. that is why we are members of the human society. so we make a difference. the human land, human whatever you call it. galaxy or whatever this is. it is the collection of the individuals that make a difference. not only to our self but to society in general. so we can make a difference with that make difference. we are making difference. so that tells us we are capable. we should really have tremendous self-confidence. well I don’t know anything what to do. that is a problem. 1:02:41.0 that is why we need learning. the spiritual path follows learning, analyzing, meditating. these are the 3 steps. if you don’t learn anything, then you don’t know anything. you have to say what can I do? yeah what can I do? so that is why the learning is really very important. Buddha has so much emphasized me for learning. 1:03:19.7 Tibetan - Buddha says learning is like light that clears the darkness. it is the wealth that thieves cannot take away from me. 1:03:36.0 Tib it is your best friend, no matter how low, how weak you may become. they will never let you down. will never drop you. they will be always with you. 1:03:51.1 tib will never change. the friend that you can rely on. never change

1:03:58.9 tib it is the weapon that destroys all ignorance. 1:04:06.8 Tib it is the best friend who can give you all kinds of alternatives and suggestions to solve your problems. you can go on and on. there is a volume this high for talking about the benefits of learning itself. because if you don’t learn, you can’t do anything. which is why we are all here together. so to do is something everybody has in mind to do something. but they don’t have the method, don’t have the knowledge. don’t have the information of what to do. which gives you, makes you very vulnerable too. vulnerable in the sense that this is an unknown path. unknown path anybody can come and tell you all kinds of funny things. especially with nice little charisma guy or person. comes and tells you can lead you anywhere else. that is why we had a tremendous amount of problems in the 60’s. 60’s we had a lot of problems because some are good. some are bad. but we don’t think about the good things, we talk about the bad things. because it makes ourselves very vulnerable because we don’t know. we don’t know. that is why Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate and all these are happening because we have become very vulnerble. Why? because we have no knowledge. we don’t have the knowledge of what to do. we don’t have authentic knowledge. Nor we have reliable source. nor we have counterbalancing and countercheck and that is why it has happened. 1:06:21.4

That is why one of the great teachers of the 17th century says 1:06:28.1 Tib - it has to be an authentic teaching of Buddha and Buddha’s disciples who had great experience. talking about from the Buddhist point of view. not talking about other religions don’t have it. But we are talking about Buddhism. so Buddha’s point of view. It has to be essense of teh teachings of the Buddha and disciples. and not something that people have cooked up, made up. 1:07:06.5 Tib it has to be accepted by the 4 (?) friends, great early indian panditas such as Nagarjunas, asangas, Rang… (ineligible) - not a few stupid people sitting in a corner some where and cooked up things. Tib 1:07:32.0. It should be the experience of the great mahasiddhi’s and learned and developed persons. Not the hallucination of some crazy people. 1:07:53.6 Tib - The practice that leads the individual to the total enlightenment, not the other way into the hell realms. so these are the authentic points we have been taught. fortunately in Tibet we carried this 2600 years of wisdom that tells us of this. in this country we don’t have that. so all kinds of funny things can pop-up and becomes something. only true to certain times you know? traditional teachings will tell us when you are picking up the teachings you should not be like a donkey. the example when they explain it - what does donkey do? if somebody picks up dust - handful of dust- and put in the donkey’s ear. what will donkey do? move the ear, move the head, try to throw that out. somebody else also put a handful of gold dust in the donkey’s ear, donkey will do the same thing. that is definitely. because Donkey don’t want anything in his ear whether gold or sand. but the point here is this: donkey will make no difference whether it is dust or gold. so we should not be that. if we are that that’s why, that’s why Jim Jones managed, that’s why all kinds of things, not just past. present to. past we know, but present too. so you know wht? what we lose is tremendous opportunity. tremendous opporunity that one can make total difference to ourself once for all. and that if you lose it is big waste. 1:10:18.3 tremendous waste. spiritual path there is tremendous hunger for the spiritual path today. you can just see it. the people go to the center park for Dalai Lama. that tells you. But if you misguide them or if they can’t help themselves they will go in the wrong path and that’s it. that’s the end of it. that’s why it is necessary, has to be coming from some authentic. And then it also true some people in the middle can get 90 degree turn, 180 degree turn. so one has to know that too because it is degenerated age. would not have happened if good old period. but it happens now because some people take 90 degree, 180 degree turn. completely U-turn goes. and then at that time the individual should be able to observe and make a proper, appropriate decision for their own benefits. Otherwise, if the teacher goes crazy then you know everyone will be led into craziness which is big problem. 1:12:17.1

so you need enthusiasm. enthusiasm you need with confidence. confidence you can gain with knowledge. I am not encouraging you people to be scholars. I don’t want it. I mean if you become scholar you are great, but that is not a requirement. At least you know what you are doing and one shouldn’t do what you don’t know what you are doing. that is important. meditation is quite popular because people look at person who is meditating and you can do same thing and copying someone else doing it. that is eaasy. then you know but what are you doing with your mind is different story. you can’t copy with the other person. you won’t know what the other person is thinking. somebody may be sitting with all very holy, yet who knows what the mind is thinking you know. the mind could be where last night’s party. or anything can be. so that is why it is important to have, to know what to do. that is that. that is really true. it is important to know what to do. important to know what obstacles will come. important to know how to handle this obstacles. what choice do I have? How can I choose? this much you need to learn. and if you can’t - Jim Jones is not too far from us. So enthusiasm is necessary that needs self-confidence, self-confidence needs some knowledge. If you look at Tsongkhapa, greatest teacher actually after Buddha. Tsong Khapa says, somebody asks Tsong Khapa if you’d give an autobiography of yourself. He just give 3 lines. 1:15:29.7 TIB

First I learned in detail, I learned profoundly. second I analyzed, I understood all Buddhas teachings are in one. that is a wise way to overcome our negativities. Finally, I practiced and meditated day in and day out. That he gave as biography. that is foundation of our spiritual biography should be. thereafter Tsong Khapa anybody who is writing any biography will sort of - if you are a writer - we have to write biography we keep these as 3 bases. and when we have read someone’s biography when you don’t know anything about it. the first thing we do when we do research how much that person learned from whom, what, and all of those. we take them out and try to fit that first gap. that first outline and then second how much that person does retreats and prostrations and so and forth. whatever they do we fill that gap up second. and third how much he had been teaching, helping and all of them. put them in that so that is how we have the basic lines. this is the foundation of our own spiritual biography. everyone should look for that. give these 3 outlines. leanring, analyzing and practice. and see what you can fit in. these are our 3 containers. so what can you put in there. you find out. so then you look back. hey you are doing good, doing bad in your spiritual path. that is how you can measure it. 1:18:03.6

try to measure yourself, don’t try to measure others. none of our business. one has to be judge of oneself, not of others, cannot judge others. so even Buddha himself said don’t judge others. 1:18:22.0 Tib - you’ll be loser, you’ll lose if you judge others. 1:18:28.8 Tib. Buddha said me, meaning Buddha himself or like me person. can make judgement, but don’t judge others because his total knowledge and enlightenment. knowing everything that person can judge, not everybody else. people shouldn’t judge others. anyway. 1:18:59.3 Tib

Tomorrow, tomorrow is the first laziness. How can you overcome with this? you can overcome with this very simple - the question is - you have to check with your schedule. when you are supposed to die? (laughter). check with that schedule. when you have fixed the date and time, then you can judge from there. and if you have not made that schedule yet. perhaps not all of us, we hope that it won’t come for years down the road, but one never knows when it comes up. when it comes up, it comes up and then you go. there you go. so it has to be before that. why it has to be before that? if you are with the background of not believing in reincarnation then it doesn’t have to be before that. doesn’t matter. after death you never know what happens. you may disapear. gone with the wind. whatever. then why bother? why have spiritual pratice even? why? you can make yourself happy within this lifetime. whatever you can. very hard to make your mind happy, but you know how to make your body happy. but you don’t know how to make your mind happy, but we try our best. that is about it. in a few years it will be gone. 1:21:21.2

But those who have doubt of whether there is reincarnation or not, then the biggest question is what happens to me? what happens to me then? am I going to disappear like the candlelights? when the wax is gone, the candlelights gone. is it like that? or do I continue. if continue, who is continuing? me or someone else? if somebody else it is none of my business. whyt should I do ssomething to get that person better in future? it is not. but it has to be me because I am never going to disappear. that’s true. lot of people have fear that i am going to lost somewhere. I am going to be lost. lost in the universe. nobody will see me. huge in the space, gone. but even those people with your normal common sense. though you are afraid of losing, but you are thinking of your continuing. it is reality. no tradition never told you no future. even we consider Judaic-Christian tradition probably told not to accept reincarnation. but even that tradition tells you going to the right or the wrong side. who is going? so no scientist has told us, they might not have proved, but no one has proved there is no reincarnation. actually we do continue. that is why it has to be before the date we made with Lord of Death. it has to be before that. and one time before that is not good enough. because we have to have perfection. so therefore since we never know what the date is, we’ve got to start right now. better late than never. it is getting late. got to start, start right now. 1:24:41.5

so that meditation along with meditation on impermanence, death, and dying stages. not stages of dissolving system, but stages of Pabongka’s great Heart Spoon reminder of the death Heat Spoon. that will tell you stage of meditation. lie yourself down on the death bed, can’t move, can’t think it, try to speak, other people don’t understand, all of those,

1:25:34.1 Tib. The last word whatever you have to say your last will and wish and consequences of your suffering. you would like to communicate it, however peopole will not be able to understand because your tongue is already frozen. so with sadness you have to go. Now I forgot those words. 1:26:16.1 Tib. I don’t remember. anyway - the last food you get blessing pills, liquids and all of those. some kind person might have poured in your mouth, however, you left if in corpse mouth. you wn’t be able to swallow it and take with you. in the lam rim there is a meditation stage where it is going the last minute. those meditations and if you go in the traditional thailand and burmese monasteries they do keep the dead bodies for the monastery. for hte monks to be albe to meditate. they have the skulls and bones put them together in the tallest, so and forth, and all of them reminding us this. that will cut that laziness. what that laziness called tomorrow. that laziness called tomorrow will be cut by that meditation. so the impermanence overcomes that. impermanence overcomes the later, later, later. really overcomes that. so anyway, so I have to stop here. These are the practices we do. and those of you who are coming to retreat will be able to talk to you more. Next Thurs I won’t be here, because we begin the retreat that night. 1:28:30.1

then talks logistics of future teachings