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Soundfile 20031115GRCLMB1

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

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Transcriber Wee Lin

Date Sept 12 2022

0:00:14.0 So to conclude the first verse,

YÖN TEN KÜN GYI ZHIR GYUR DRIN CHEN JE

TSÜL ZHIN TEN PA LAM GYI TSA WA RU

LEG PAR THONG NE BÄ PA DU MA YI

GÜ PA CHEN PÖ TEN PAR JIN GYI LOB

Following a kind master, foundation of all perfections,

is the very root and basis of the path

Empower me to see this clearly

and to make every effort to follow well

0:00:40.7 Knowing the Guru devotional practice is the root of development and developing that within ourself I may be able to develop this and I may be blessed to be able to develop this. Then light and liquid come from the body of supreme field of merit and purify all negativities in general and particularly negativities that cause us to be unable to develop this very foundation which is misunderstanding, wrongly understanding and not having faith. All of them have been washed away from ourself and become pure. As usual light and liquid practice we can do over here. That is the first verse.

0:01:48.1 The second verse of this.

LEN CHIK NYE PAY DEL WAY TEN ZANG DI

SHIN TU NYE KA DÖN CHEN SHE GYUR NE

NYIN TSEN KUN TU NYING PO LEN PÄ LO

GYÜN CHÄ ME PAR KYE WAR JIN GYI LOB

Precious human life, gained but once,

has great potential but is easily lost

Empower me to remember this constantly

and to think day and night of taking its essence

Now we are moving from the Guru devotional practice that is in the Odyssey to Freedom I think it is number 13 of the Odyssey to Freedom Bookmark. 13 is Guru devotional practice and now we are moving to number 17. That is embracing human life. This system is exactly how it follows. So when you have the guru devotional practice and when you have the foundation built in, the first thing what you do is think about the value of the life, embracing the life, not rejecting it.

LEN CHIK NYE PAY DEL WAY TEN ZANG DI

Precious human life, gained but once.

Maybe we think yes, I can understand reincarnation. Well maybe it makes sense. But this life I can always get it, anytime, anywhere, whatever, if I come back, I will come back as what I am [now]. So I can get it all the time, you may think that way. First to accept reincarnation is difficult, you don’t have to accept. Benefit of doubt is good enough but even if you give benefit doubt but imagining a life that is something other than what we are is almost impossible. But the Buddha tells us, “No, that’s not impossible.” But to be able to be exactly like what we are is almost impossible. (LEN CHIK sam sheg) Found but once. So the chances are not likely that we will find such a life again.

0:04:59.2 Before we talk about this, why is this life so important. We all know its value, we all know how precious it is, we all know that but when they tell us this is important from the spiritual angle, that’s not what they are talking about. Not our knowledge of life’s importance. They are talking about something more.

What are they talking about? The opportunity this life has. It is the opportunity they are talking about. So in Tibetan language it says tel jor. Tel is one who has time and jor who is rich of it. So in other word it has tremendous of qualities that we can use and we can have opportunity. It is absolutely true. Lots of people have this opportunity and lots of people don’t have this opportunity. They are not talking about whether you are human being or non human being. They are talking about human beings who have interest in developing not only just spiritual development but who have interest to end this samsaric suffering life once and for all. They are talking about human beings who have interest and opportunity to make themselves perfect enlightened beings.

0:07:03.7 Now you see how rare it is. Think about your own family, your friends. Many opportunities are right here, right in downtown Cleveland that pass under the nose of many people who don’t bother. The number 1 excuse is, I am not interested. I couldn’t figure out whatever it is, it is not for me, it is not my cup of tea or cup of coffee, I forget this is America. So it looks like the person has no interest but what is really happening is the person has no opportunity. That’s what it is. They don’t have the opportunity, maybe they say I am not interested, whatever the excuse may be. Or don’t believe it, whatever. Besides Buddhism doesn’t ask for belief anyway. Or doesn’t want to find out anything. That’s why with such a quality become rare. How many people in Cleveland, people who have opportunity is so rare. We are not talking about the number of human beings around but about human beings with this quality.

0:09:06.8 If you look in the teaching transcript of Odyssey to Freedom or any Lam Rim books or any teaching, you will find that they talk about 18 qualities, 8 leisures and the 10 opportunities. So I will not count it now. Sangje chodak …. Actually we call it degenerated age. But from our individual point of view this is a very exciting time for ourself. It is the time, it is the right time and the right place. If we are a little bit earlier at the time before the teachings developed. Let’s say you are growing up in the 50s and 60s. The 60s made opening in the United States but in the 50s no one will be interested to sit on the floor, squeeze themselves and try to listen to nonsense, try to think to think senseless and try to do such a thing, it is impossible for America. So we are not too early. And if you are a little bit later than this you may or may not. Probably the opportunity of rareness may not last that long. May not last that long from every angle. Yes there will be continuation of teaching, there will be continuation of teacher, continuation of all these but when the generation gap’s been changed it is a huge difference. Anyway so now not only the generation is changing but even the transition of East West too, so it will be different. However it will maintain its own value. It may not be perfect same old value but it maintain its own value. So if you are a little bit too late, it is not right. If you are a little bit too early, it is definitely not going to be right so this is where we are.

0:11:58.6 Even from our personal point of view, it is perfect timing. And perfect opportunity too. Earlier there were not so many even in Tibet there were not so many. The Tibetans kings’ translators all of them have to take tremendous hardship to learn from India. Once that transition took place, it was unable to settle in Tibet itself over hundred years. Then gradually for thousand years it’s been flourishing in Tibet. Then it was uprooted and it didn’t last very long. This is real wonderful window of opportunity, that’s where we are. And that’s why this life what we have is not only the life’s quality but there is a special quality on this. That is because this practice can offer once and for all solution, that’s why. So the rest of them samje, chodak, tamje …….. so this things are all available in the books, you can read it. That’s why it is difficult to find.

0:14:02.6 One point. It says oh great I have found it but I did not manage very well. Let me come back and do it well. Not so sure. Because it is difficult to find. Why? What makes such a great opportunity oriented life. The foundation of this is the perfect morality. The base on which is perfect morality. Our own morality, how good it is, we know. It is not a secret to ourself. We are glad it is secret to others but it is not a secret to our self. So we know it. Judging from our own knowledge how good morality we have, in addition to that we need to have conjunction of pure prayer, how much we have. When you look at it, it becomes difficult. Difficult to find, nejor … Not only it is difficult to find, if you look in detail they are presented in three different ways, from the causal point of view, it is difficult to find, from the example point of view, it is difficult to find. You know example is very funny.

0:15:55.7 The Buddha gave the most funny example here. It almost does not make sense but if you listen to it , it has interesting point. Buddha says let there be a blind tortoise popping up his or her head once every 500 years in the middle of ocean somewhere. Let somebody throw a yoke which is been driven by air once in 500 years’ time. So is it possible that the blind tortoise pops up and the yoke comes and hook it. It is possible but not likely. We can say 99.9% that is not going to happen. Buddha gave that as example to be able to find such a valuable life again. You have to meditate that way. That is the reality. If that is reality whatever I have now it is much more important and precious now for me because I have it.

We don’t value our life. We value money. Many people will agree if somebody give you million dollars and say let me kill you. Many may do it but the question is what would you do thereafter. Some people may think my reincarnation. Remember earlier we were talking about reincarnation. But anyway if someone gives you a million dollar and kill you, you are now killed then that person going to take that million dollar back after killing you, right? So there is no value. It will be foolish to select a million dollars over life. For that matter, billions, for that matter any amount. It’s gone beyond money to revalue our life. Do we see that? If we think we will see it. Some thugs kill people for 20 dollars, right? So that tells us how wrong we are sometimes.

0:19:21.0 So the life that we have cannot be measured in terms of money. That’s a true fact. In terms of anything for that matter. When you realise that, when you realise it is difficult to find then we have sense of urgency. While we have life, if we don’t do it now, then when? It is not ever lasting. It is not evergreen tree. Winter comes so quick, so fast so we go, impermanence. We don’t think of going, we think of living. It is good but sometimes we have to realise our own situation is very impermanent. Right? ( Tibetan quote) 7th Dalai Lama. The moment you are born, you don’t have a minute to spare. You will be running like a galloping horse running towards death. We are all running towards death though we may call ourself as living beings. Though we may call it living but we are on the road to death. It is a sad situation no matter at whoever you may look. Another 17th century Amdo scholar, teacher Guntang Jampeyang ( Tibetan quote ) Whether tomorrow comes first or so called future life, which is going to come first, no one knows. It is better to prepare for future.

0:22:43.5 There are lots of those [quotes] Our life is not totally permanent, it is impermanent. It is totally impermanent. So the time of dying, death is definite. No one can avoid, no spiritual power can avoid it. If so Buddha, Jesus should be alive now. No they are not. For Buddha, died 2600 years, for Jesus, this year is 2003. Where does that 2003 come from, it is after Christ, right? So it shows spiritually, it cannot avoid. The best chance. The second chance is material and monetary power. If the military power could have protected from death, there we should have all these European Julius Caesars and Napoleon, all of them should be alive today. The Chinese dynasties, the Ming, the Ching all of those should be around, but no one. The dynasties are gone so. Sun Yat Seng came, Chiang came, gone, Mao came , Mao gone. All of those, everywhere even in our country. We call them forefathers. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, all of them gone. Even Abraham Lincoln is gone. Right? President John F Kennedy is gone. All of them. Think about it. No one is invincible. Unfortunately great ones go faster, Dr Martin Luther King, all of those are gone. So death is definite. Which comes first, we will never know, tomorrow or death. ( Namje… )

0:26:20.5 When you are meditating we have to meditate that death is definite and convince yourself because our mind will say, it is definite, yes but not for me. All these arguments will come. So we drag our feet as much as we can but let it ..in your meditation and finally, truly, honestly draw your own conclusion, yes death is definite. And then the question only comes, when? Then uncertainty. No certainty. ( Tibetan) So when not only the uncertainty but you really never know when. I was just giving a talk last Thursday night, many of you listen on the internet so you know. Last Thursday night I was talking and just giving a example of our friend Nancy, the fancy Nancy. So many Nancy, mama Nancy, fancy Nancy. Earlier just before lunch I was talking to Sandy and I asked where she was going. She said I am supposed to go with Nancy, I said which one. She said the one here and I asked which one. Then she said the one with the red jacket, so that’s mama Nancy, that’s fancy Nancy. She had a dog, a nice big dog. Actually I have never seen it. My brother made it, my niece made it, that doesn’t mean I have seen it. ( some conversation) There is unfortunate event here, what happened was about a few days ago, suddenly dog jumped and crashed into a car and died. Unfortunate but accident goes just like that.

0:29:49.1 Whenever some people met with lots of accidents, crashes here and there and no one planned to do that. But it happened and when it happened it happened suddenly. If it does not happen suddenly we can manipulate, avoid and do all these. Unfortunately when it happens suddenly, no one can do anything. That’s our life. Our times and condition such that we have to live with those movables whether is automobiles, trains or planes. I was telling when I went to New York the day before yesterday. After landed there I was glad that I had landed. Because the wind was such that it was 50 mph or seemed it was 70 mph and the plane couldn’t land. So that happened. When you landed finally oh, we are glad to be alive, that’s what happened. These are just little incidents, it is reality, it is truth, nothing is certain, it is always on the verge especially with these modern things. It becomes more dangerous over there where it is faster and it is possible and comfortable and everything and at the same time, all the dangers are increased. That is the situation. No certainty.

0:31:47.3 So when you die, what happens? We are all going to die and when you die, what happens? That is the biggest question. Yes I can tell you this is going to happen, that’s going to happen but you are not going to believe it. You don’t have to believe it, I don’t blame you. But at the same time , possibility arises. Did I say this morning or somewhere, I said mind doesn’t end. I think I said this morning. All souls are old souls. Believe it or not. There are no new souls. That’s what it is. As Buddhist I shouldn’t even say soul. But it is the same thing. All souls are old souls. There are no new souls. So where did they come from? 0:32:54.3 What was it before. Yes we have a new body, young blood. Yes sure but all souls are old souls. It is coming from another life. At the time when you die, when you go we have to pack. Even coming for overnight, we pack. We have a nice little bag called overnight carrier. All of these, with wheels and without wheels and all that. Every choice we have. But we have to pack. But when you are dying, you can’t pack. Everything thing you have to leave behind. We have a saying in Tibet ( Tibetan) the rulers will leave their estates and the beggars will leave their begging bowls. The king who died in the palace and the beggar who died in the street, equal at the time when you go. But the kings will have better funerals for the dead body for sure, more people are forced to worry about that but some people will genuinely worry but besides that after that the two souls go shoulder by shoulder on equal footing, no difference. Whatever you have, friends, families, wealth, health, power, money and life insurance, all of them won’t help. Life insurance somebody else will gets. You die somebody else gets your life insurance. That’s about it.

0:35:35.0 So what you take only is the imprint of positive and negative deeds. We called that karma. That’s it, positive and negative karma, nothing more. That is true fact. You may think this is Buddhist teaching. Actually it is not Buddhist teaching, it is universal truth. It is really true. That’s what it is. So what will help you? The positive karma. What will hurt you? The negative karma. Not only we know that in future life, we have seen that even at the time of death also.

I shared a number of times that Bakula Rimpoche who unfortunately passed away last Tuesday. He was a great person. One of his friends or whatever, a smuggler who had been carting the images out of temple, stealing and selling and all that. The guy finally died in Delhi. At the time of the death, his hallucination was the Buddha and all these images jumping out of those hospital walls and choking him to death. He can’t breathe. They were jumping on his chest, landing on his chest and he can’t breathe.

0:37:54.7 So that happened even way before you die. We call that hallucination but hallucination or no hallucination what’s going to happen in the next, that’s shown here. At that moment, I shared a number of times, Bakula Rimpoche wrote me a note a note saying his friend so and so was dying quite badly but this was what’s happening and please pray and enclosing 50 rupees in there. So I replied to Bakula Rimpoche saying it is just too heavy to pull that for just 50 rupees. That was just a joke between us.

However it is the reality. It is reality. The reality is actually you begin to really see what is happening to that person in future just before he even dies. Everybody sees that. Tibetans have a system when people dying, they bring image of Buddha so that when you are thinking and remembering Buddha and if you die you won’t born in lower realms. That’s why. But for this guy, first the family brought Buddha image and he said please take it away. What happened was this Buddha and all these different deities would come and he said they were jumping on him and he couldn’t breathe. They were choking him. That was his hallucination. So that’s what happened.

0:39:41.9 So at least we begin to see the negative karmas. And the positive karmas also we can see. I have my own personal experience. One of the friend of ours, a government of …. Before he died, I was saying sadhanas and then he suddenly said where are these Tantric college monks. I said there are no monks around in Delhi at that time. He said no no I can hear them reading the tantra, I can hear them are playing this flute, the magical flute, I can hear that. He even repeated the word they were saying, the Guhyasamaja tantra. So you see that too.

Though there looks like very strong line between life and death but there is a blurry point where the boundary is low and there is overflow. And when you are passing through that you begin to see it. Those of us who are leaving we can see what’s happening. You don’t need a rocket engineer to figure out what’s happening there. We can really see it unless you are blinded with some kind of denial.

0:41:37.2 So what happens after death? So now (SHIN TU NYE KA DÖN CHEN SHE GYUR NE). With all these what they are telling us is don’t waste your time. Don’t waste your time, we do whatever we could, we do it right now. Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste time, day or night. That is called immediately. Then what happens after death. Two places, good or bad, that’s it, good or bad.

LÜ SOG YO WA CHU YI CHU BUR ZHIN

NYUR DU JIK PAY CHI WA DREN PA DANG

SHI WAY JE SU LÜ DANG DRI MA ZHIN

KAR NAG LE DRE CHI ZHIN DRANG WA LA

I must remember that death is quick to strike,

for spirit quivers in flesh like a bubble in water;

and after death one's good and evil deeds

trail after one like the shadow trails the body

Our body, our mind like bubble in the water. It is definitely going. What happens after death, only these two, positive and negative karma will follow like a body and body odour. Body odour we can cancel that by using deodorant now, ha ha ha. But it is a traditional example so this is before the deodorant were made. In other words, body and the shadow. I wish they had said shadow. The shadow they had at that time. But they never thought people going to make this deodorant.