Archive Result

10

GEHLEK RIMPOCHE

New York – Thursday Evening

3/4/04

Gehlek Rimpoche: Thank you and welcome. Here we are now talking about the meditation. Basically, I sort of put down six main points. Out of those main points, first, the benefit of meditating, both those meditations. And then actually how they are the basis of all wisdom and meditative state, actually what it is, the zhine or meditation, and what it is specially seeing. And then why do we need both, which follows what, and how one develops. So out of six, we have done almost all above four of them. But I’d like to revisit a little bit about actually what is zhine or shamatha all about. Because if we do not revisit, then there is a problem. Because we are learning how to develop just not simply meditate. In our normal language when you say “meditate,” anything you think focus, it becomes meditation; but not according to those great Buddhist masters. Simply you are just sitting focus alone does not become meditation at all from their point of view. Their point of view, meditation must achieve something, something of peace in mind, and be able to remain within that peace is the sort of bare minimum meditation. And then on top of that, and especially seeing really mind like a razor sharp that really cuts through the point what you are focusing on and seeing it deeply, so that’s called specially seeing, normally known as shamatha and vipasyana. The name shamatha and vipasyana is used in this country or in the West very often by so many teachers, so many traditions, then it becomes what is meant shamatha, what is meant special seeing or vipasyana, it becomes a big difference. Big difference. Shamatha…but there’s something very common also carries. Whenever we talk about shamatha, almost every tradition and everybody in here, in this country, thinks it is something focusing – how deep, how strong, what their problems I don’t know, some are clear, some are not, but they think that. That is common for all of us. The moment you say shamatha, you think that you have to focus and think. Then vipasyana is sort of translated into looking in, looking in. You know, you have the insight meditations and you ask them, “What do you teach?” They say, “We are teaching vipasyana.” So that’s sort of looking in. And that also common – common for us, common for all of them, and common for everybody. But what is not clear is what does shamatha really…you know, I did explain the other day. The word shamatha probably…I don’t know what does that Sanskrit word mean because I don’t speak Sanskrit, I don’t speak Pali, so I don’t know. As I said the other day, I never got to look in the dictionary anyway. That’s the last thing happens to me, try to look in dictionary, so my laziness. Even I look in dictionary, but I don’t think I’m going to get it. The dictionary explanation is something else. But the word in Tibetan, that is translated into Tibetan as zhine. Zhi really means free of all obstructions of mind. So free of all obstruction becomes peace. And ne, remaining. Remaining in that peaceful mind, that is really zhine is all about it. So you have to search for that peace level, you have to gain that peace, and then you have to remain in that. So simply just sit down and focus, you’re going to go down in detail, you’re going to see it, you’re going to find it. Right now we even consider concentrating on the breath that we take in and out, concentrating on that we even call it almost like shamatha, but probably it will not be. So you will see it later. So we try to achieve here out of these two things, two meditative state. Number one, the zhine; the number two, the lhak thong, specially seeing. So what is zhine, what is lhak thong? That’s what our main thing we talked the other day, but I’d like to again emphasize because [Tibetan]. So this Maitreya Buddha. Maitreya Buddha was saying your mind find extraordinary base and remain on that is called zhine. And with the mind, laser sharp mind that really finding deep truth is called vipasyana. So I really wanted to make that clear, though there’s a lot of things. Some of them I have to touch here. If I don’t touch it, and then there will be a little problem. That is point four we have to move. This point third, what it is.

Point four. You know, I’m very bad to presenting here. If I’m good person, not lazy, I should have produced the PowerPoints and then pointed out to you. These are the really main PowerPoints, and have some kind of slide show you, and then you’ll be impressed much more. Now we shift from there and then question arises, why do we need both? Why can’t be one enough? So in this country we never raised this question, never raised this question why we need both. Nobody talks about it. Everybody talking about meditation – focusing, focusing, focusing, sit down, count your breath one-two-three. And also I told you the other day, a healer in Texas, apparently the healer was Norbu Chen. So Norbu Chen came to India and brought me to Texas and to give him some initiations and things like that. So when I was talking with him… Jacqueline asked me the other night, “You’re talking about the Norbu Chen, are you?” I said, “Yeah.” So the Norbu Chen did…I wasn’t there…supposed to be cured Yul Brynner right on his voice. Because he has to sing somewhere in Washington, if I remember correctly, with President Ford and Secretary of State, that Henry Kissinger, right? I think so. So anyway, he’s supposed to sing and he lost the voice completely and went Switzerland and somewhere else and didn’t cure, and finally landed with Norbu Chen. Norbu Chen said, “Spend night with me” or something, and the next day he is OK. So he’s a great healer, no doubt about it, there’s no question. But if you have to deal with him, he’s extremely difficult, extremely. Absolutely crazy and wild crazy. So that I believe happens. Anyway, so he was trying to tell me meditation, I told you the other day, and so “I don’t know what meditation is all about.” He was trying to show me incense burning and watching and not losing the focus, but he’s trying to tell me zhine. But no one really talks about it, about the penetrating mind which really goes deep down and find out. For example, if we are talking about addictions, addictions of negative emotions – why, where it is, what it make us, how we stop it – we don’t do a penetrated meditation on it. And if we do so, we will get it, we get the answer, we know how to handle it. In one hand, we are getting all this information through teaching, through book, through message, through everything. So many Buddhist books are available now, really, unlike decades ago. Two decades ago there may not be any books available, one or two books. You know, Alexander David Neil’s books, and then there was one guy, I forget his name. Evans-Wentz, yeah. I was thinking something else. The Phillip will remember that book, right? What is name? The guy with the beard, guy will be wearing…no, no, no. Bernard, yeah. And then afterwards is Govinda, and many people thought Lobsang Rampa’s those novels, Doctor from Lhasa and Third Eye and all of them are very authentic spiritual book. But those were the days and now we don’t have, though. There’s plenty of material available – true, genuine Buddhist material available now. So on one hand, you’re going to get all this information; and on the other hand, one has to develop within oneself that very mind, that very mind. So that meditation, meditation on those with the laser sharp mind. So if you don’t have that sharpness of the meditation or what we call vipasyana, specially seeing, and if you only have this focusing, then you will never penetrate causes and actually what it is. We all have a very superficial idea of what hatred is all about. We all have a very superficial idea of what obsession is all about. But we really don’t know deep enough. What is really hatred, how it works, where it comes from, what makes it function, and how do you cancel it? So for that, you need this other half of this meditation. So that’s why two is necessary.

One, first, focusing is necessary. If you don’t have the focusing, so your mind is never going to be focused enough. It’s going to run here, run there, run here, run there. Even you meditated for a long time, never going to be focus on it, never going to be. Cannot be learned, cannot be. You will develop tremendous wisdom and sharpness and the wittiness, wittiness, but you don’t focus. So sharpness, wittiness will touch and touch and run, run, run, that’s what happens. Information is available, so picks up, and very good for saying, “Ah, this is this, this is this, this is that, this is that.” That’s very good. But you cannot deal it. Sometimes even in our Gelugpa tradition we do have that problem, big problem, because they’re great scholars, they will learn a lot, they were great at the debating, really. So you can do everything, so you can see the movement, whatever is wrong you get the whole thing comes up on your head, everything. You can go “boop, boop, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing,” cut it. But then when you really get it with yourself, when you have to deal it, we have a problem. And then some people, even other traditions, traditions like…I shouldn’t say much about other traditions. But like other traditions, some of them, really, they will meditate, meditate, meditate, meditate, and keep on sitting, sitting, sitting and meditate and doesn’t know sharpness. So it becomes a problem. So it’s absolutely…it’s not the Gelugpa’s problem, but practitioners who really learned a lot and never apply and become great scholar and then these are the problems they have. It’s not the problem of other tradition such as Kagyupa or somebody, that’s not their problem. The practitioners who only interested to learn how to sit and sit and sit and open eye and sit and waiting and waiting till the cows come home, that’s their problem. It’s not the problem of the tradition, it’s their problem. So the traditions wherever you look they will tell you, they will tell you you need both the shamatha base, vipasyana as a necessary instrument. Very often they will say the shamatha is like a horse, vipasyana is like a horseman riding the horse. Very often they also tell you shamatha is like a stable shoulder, the vipasyana is like a sharp ax who can cut the woods across. So it is like that. So you need both. If you don’t have both, will be big problem.

So sometimes you say, “Well, we don’t need shamatha. I can focus on emptiness and I can understand emptiness.” Fine, great, nothing wrong with this. You can understand emptiness without having shamatha, you can. You can. You can. You can understand impermanent, you can understand compassion, you can understand all of those points, you can understand bodhimind, all of them, without shamatha. You can. However, that understanding of emptiness will not become vipasyana, it does not become. Though you understand emptiness, it does not become vipasyana. Why? Because it does not accompany the joy that you develop, the joy you develop out of shamatha. Shamatha gives you joy, there is tremendous joy that comes out. It’s not like Vajrayana, please do not misunderstand, OK? It is different. It is just joy, happiness, just joy the shamatha does. Shamatha brings that. Meditation brings that. Without which that joy, even you understand emptiness or you have wisdom, that wisdom will not be able to work well because it is lacking the force behind. You get it, lack of force, there’s no force behind it. So that’s what the point of what is zhine and what is lhak thong, I would like to add up that.

Now today I would like to say…we also like to say what we needed both. Remember, we gave you the example the other day, I think I did, the traditional example of a painting in the big…paintings, the wall paintings. And when you really want to see these wall paintings nicely, you need light. You need candlelight that is clear and stable, not moving by air or…I gave you that, right? I did tell you. So I don’t want to repeat. So this was the example. So what does that mean? That means the candle not moving, candle straight way burning, nicely burning, indicates the mind that whatever you are focusing, it remains focusing on it. Even you learn how to analyze, but without losing the focus you have to learn how to analyze. This is not difficult for us, we now know, everybody knows. Everybody who specializes on anything, they will know how to focus on the basis and then experiment and do…find out. Before it was difficult to explain, now it’s not. We all know. But what happens is sometimes we focus too much, and then we lose the basic focus and running it away. And then if you run away, if you run away, nothing works. I don’t mean to criticize any meditation, any type, because I am not expert myself so how can I criticize others? But with my little stupid knowledge of very little knowledge what I can see, there are certain people, certain traditions will really tell you meditation is a journey, it is the process. It is process, it is journey, no doubt. The language is such a thing, you know? But you are focusing and then you are traveling, you are going everywhere. You’re going everywhere, you’re going to United States and Europe, Japan, Asia, Hong Kong, China, New Delhi, wherever, and then going beyond – galaxies and here and there and all of those, hell, heaven and the earth and everywhere. So where it is meditation, I have no objection for that. And then when you do such a meditation for years and years, what do you gain out of this? You become a good traveler. And you can go up to the Mars, but you’re not going to find it whether there’s water or not or whatever, whether there have been water before like George Bush says. He says if there’s water, then there is oxygen. When there is oxygen, we can breathe. He must be briefed by a scientist somewhere, so it was really he learned that so he is giving the public talk, in the lecture. When there’s water, there’s oxygen, you can breathe. So that’s what it is. But even then, even you go there every day and come back…but you may lose sensation here; however, you’re never going to find it what is there because you’ve never been there. It is imagined travel and you gain nothing out of this. That’s what I mean, just because you can focusing, nor you can how to internalized, nor you can anything as far as spiritual concerned, that’s my problem. Maybe I don’t know enough, that’s very possible. Maybe there is untold hidden some big teaching. If that’s the case, my apologies. But if it’s just simply running around, doesn’t gain anything. You’re never going to gain stable mind and so you don’t gain any joy, you don’t gain any happiness out of that. When you are traveling it’s fun going around, but finally you have to come back. And when you come back, the same old ground hog which saw or did not see the shadow. That’s what it is. That is a big problem to a lot of people. People don’t really get it. People don’t get it. The meditation has to have a purpose. The purpose of the meditation is to gain control over your mind, and you will be able to use your mind as much whatever the way you want to. The Buddha will say use in virtuous way, some others will say use in different way, but doesn’t matter. Whatever you’re going to use it, good way or bad way; but if you don’t have control, how can you use it? So gaining control is the aim here. When we say stabilize, stable, stable, stable, stable – what does stable mean? Don’t run around, stay, and do whatever you want to do, gaining control. That is the real point.

By gaining some control, holding your mind inside you, you also hold inside you one point, you also hold your energy all together, your forces together. There’s all kinds of system of energy, different type of energy who does different things in our body. Traditional Tibetan teachings refer that as rlung, or air, which direct translate air. It doesn’t really mean air, it is movement, it is circulation, it is a force that you have. Different forces do different things in our physical body. Some forces holds and make a base that our life remains in life. So it’s called life-sustaining force which really holds there and gets… And if you lose that, you lose your life because that makes the base in our body to keep our consciousness within the body, within the boundary. So when you lose that, you lose life. And there are some other forces to uphold. And if those forces are not there, we will not hold anything, we will be running around with all urines and everything dripping. So that is certain forces there to uphold. And there are certain forces will circulates all of them. So anyway, this is not the point of my to talk here anyway. I did explain whatever I could about that during our Winter Retreat just last month, but very limited one. So anyway, all these forces are also bringing together. Because our mind, somehow we are thinking of somewhere on Canal Street over there. So the mind is not completely gone from here, but the force is gone. Remember, the mind is like a horseman and the forces are like a horse. So by keeping them all together, giving a relax and rest, internally bringing, so then it makes both the force and the mind workable. Workable. It will be not like some period when you have a big iron piece, you cannot hold the iron piece, you cannot do anything iron when the iron piece is not properly treated, you can do nothing. If you try to pull them together or make a hook, it’ll break, right? The metal pieces. But if the metal is hot enough or worked well, and then you can do anything whatever you want to do with that metal, make different shapes and all this. And just like that, the mind and the forces become workable because it’s been able to sit and maintain.

Because of that, mind and forces workable, the joy that I’m talking about is automatic. Even you don’t want it to, it’ll be there. It is happiness and joy, the physical good feeling. Not only…not good feeling what we say, “I feel good,” that’s not good feeling. When we say, “I feel good,” we really mean actually our elements are balanced quite OK. The water is not more powerful than earth, fire is not more powerful than air, they’re all quite balanced so we don’t have ache, pain, heat, all this, so we feel good. We say, “I feel OK, I feel good.” That’s why it is. When I’m talking about the joy, it means it’s going beyond that “I feel good.” Going beyond that “I feel good,” there is a real good sensation in our physical level and in our mind level. And that sensation enforce us to be able to focus better or to be able to analyze better. So without that sensation, physical and mental both, whatever you have, even focusing power, it doesn’t become zhine. This focusing, these sensations are called…traditionally it’s called zhin jung. Zhin jung really means zhin da jung wa, sort of you really learned, sort of perfection. Zhin jung it’s called, zhin jung. So without that, no matter how much you focus, whatever you do, you don’t have zhine at all. Without that stable, without that joy, even you analyze, the moment you analyze your mind will be forcefully taken by certain points of division of analyzing mind, you will lose the major focusing point, which is true to all of us. When we try to focus certain item in our body, then we lose the major physical body points. These are very fact. Within our mind we cannot do it. The moment we go divided, subdivisions comes. When you follow the division, you lose the main point where it’s coming from. This is true with our mind. But when you develop this zhine, this stable mind, without losing the basis and you make every divisions and every connections become are perfect. And that’s why it’s called wisdom, not just simple knowledge. So that is good enough for this point four, or maybe not good enough. Maybe not good enough. I may have to say it a little more. Once you have that, then your focusing points can be such as karma, karmic consequences, or karmic functionings, or the samsara, or love, or compassion, or bodhimind, all of them. The result what you’re going to get is a big difference. It’s like what we say in usual American language, “work smart.” Don’t work too hard but work smart. That’s what it is. The “work smart” comes here. If you don’t have that, Shantideva had already said it, I read it last Tuesday.

Actually you do have the transcripts here, right? If you need Tuesday transcripts and Thursday transcripts, they’re all available. [discussion about transcripts being available as printouts and on line] I think combining these two are necessary for you to be able to have good course of this meditation. So whatever I’m teaching on the Tuesday night in Ann Arbor and Thursday night here, the same subject. But this is same subject but it is big difference comes in, so you need to have both combined. It’s an interesting thing. For me, whatever I’m talking, and I’m talking on the basis of my knowledge and all that, there’s always…even in same subject you will find a hell of difference. They don’t contradict, but hell of different things comes in. And I did a while in some church service in Detroit area called Renaissance Unity. So they do a back-to-back service because Sunday too many people come in, they don’t fit, so three or four thousand. And then another one goes away, another three or four thousand comes in. So back-to-back. So I can never speak the same thing even on same subject. And they complained it’s two different things and not do, and you have to say the same thing. I can’t repeat what I said earlier. I don’t change the subject, but you know way I say it, they’re having difficulties too. But that’s what it is.

So once you have this stable…that is, shamatha or zhine, then even you go around different points, it’s like impermanent, karma, samsara, compassion, bodhimind, and all of them are not only linked together but all focused together, you have all the all things comes together, that’s what you get. Right now, whatever we do, we talk about the karma, we talk about the karma, we think about the karma, we think about the karma. Then karma may link for suffering, or the suffering may link to a compassion, compassion may link to a love, love may link to bodhimind. But only now we can link. But when you have this zhine, then you focus, you don’t lose it, you get them all together. It doesn’t become mumble jumble, but separately you will be able to penetrate, work together. So this cannot be done without shamatha, and that’s why shamatha is necessary. And without penetrating wisdom, you cannot overcome all our problems at all. That’s why vipasyana is necessary. So both are necessary.

So my point five. All right, if both are five, what one I should do first? I like the wisdom part of it, so can I do the wisdom first? No. They say no. They say [Tibetan]. So the Shantideva, I think I read that last Tuesday. [Tibetan] What Shantideva meant is with zhine, such a focus in wisdom really destroys our addictions and sources and the cause of all addictions. So to know this, and so first try to work with zhine, or the focus in stabilizing mind. Though you can develop the zhine by focusing on wisdom, you can do that, that doesn’t mean you are learning the wisdom first. You are learning how to focusing first. Though you do understand, many of you here do have some idea about when we talk about the wisdom, when we talk about emptiness, and you now know what does mean by that. You now have some idea what emptiness is all about. You don’t think empty as empty, nothing, many of you. Many of you are quite new, so begin recently maybe you have some different ideas, I don’t know. But many of you do. So you can use that as a focal point of developing focusing, zhine. You can do that. But that doesn’t mean you are learning the vipasyana first over zhine, you know what I mean? So, therefore, whatever you have to develop first is well established, well established. And you can be counterculture, turn your head(hat?) around. You know, this head, you can turn around, can be a counterculture. But you cannot do this here because it won’t help you, gets you nowhere. At least the counterculture we can express what we don’t like what the parents tells us to do, so you can take the head around and turn back and sit there and at least get message. But over here, if you try to do that, nobody gets the message and you get nowhere. So we have the habit of counterculture business, we always like to do. So when he says…I say it’s been well established, and so then I immediately thought, “Yeah, then if it’s well established, let me turn my head around.” So we get that idea, we do. But if you do this, we are loser. It’s not going to get anywhere.

So I think I really covered most important things that I have to talk up to here. So that covers all my five important points that I’d like to raise. Now comes the most important last point: how do I develop? How do I develop? I’d like to throw again two points here, two important points. How do I develop? I have to learn, I understand, I have to have both. I also understand I have to pick up the zhine first and then lhak thong later, but how do I do it? So to emphasize more he said, “Yes, how do I do it? There are two: how to pick up the zhine and how to pick up lhak thong.” OK? The zhine and lhak thong, the shamatha and vipasyana, how do I pick up? So the first, zhine, the shamatha point. That three major points. Point number one, what is necessary prerequisite points here. How I actually do it, and how do I know I achieved, what is the measurement? What is the sign, where do I measure, what is my measurement? OK, did you hear me? Are you OK? So do I have to repeat? You’re going to get the transcripts anyway. Because major time I take because I thought you don’t get it, so I go repeat, repeat, repeat. So now the transcript is going to get available, so then I don’t have to repeat much. OK, now what do I do, what is needed to be done? This you have to remember, bear with me a little bit because it’s a traditional teaching too. So they said first six requirements, six requirements, OK?

Requirement number one, where you’re going to meditate, the place where you’re going to meditate. You do need place. Where should they be? [Tibetan] There are six of them. First one is place. What sort of a place? What quality should that place be? Five qualities the place should have. Six of these, five of that, two of these, three of that, OK? Five qualities. Quality one. This is a traditional teaching and may not be very applicable for us. Traditionally they said place where you can find easily the food and cloth to wear without much difficulty. It is 2,500 years ago they’re talking about it, right? So there’s no…the McDonald’s are not there yet. So everywhere you have to get your food and if you have to work so hard to try to find food, you waste a lot of time. Likewise the cloth too. So easy to find. When you choose the place, that’s what they recommend you. Choose a place where you can find necessary things easily, which may be applicable for us even today, even today. Though we say this is traditionally, but may be applicable to us to find. And then this is…make sure there’s no strange animals that will eat you up. That is a traditional thing, but at the same time… You know what they call it? Good place. Good place means place where there are no threats to your life. Today we should really look into this as whether no tiger is going to come and eat us up but, however, there is plenty of toxics around and all of them are sometimes even like a tiger is threatening to our life.

Though I do have a friend, our friend, I must tell you this. I do have a friend. It’s a very interesting guy. I don’t want to say the name because more or less everybody knows the guy, he’s in Ann Arbor. So he had some kind of something, some disease. So he wanted to get rid of this disease through mantra, so I recommended certain mantra with certain things and I said an initiation and told him that “You can do this about a million mantra.” And this guy went to Colorado and went up in the mountains somewhere and sat there. And he is sitting there and doing his practice and did that mantra for a million times, million-time mantra. And the day when he was finishing and he is going away and he found two or three other people down there and so bombing of something in the snow, blowing up something. So he went down and talked to this guy and he said…so he wanted to make sure that he’s not blow up. So they said, “Where are you?” He said, “Well, I’ve been doing this.” He said, “You have been sitting on some kind of a huge deposit of some World War II ammunition base.” He had been sitting on top of that and been meditating on top of that, yes. So later when he finished the meditation and he went away, and he found that he was actually meditating. So that is threat, so it’s not a good place to be. So there’s no tiger comes in, but the old ammunition can blow up any time with something. So they sort of dumped in area where nobody’s there. So he had been sitting on top of that for a month or two doing all that, his practice and all that. He’s still in life, perfect, working well, so… So good place.

And good place also included for us, for lay people like us, laymen, right? Laymen, we are learning, we are not perfect. So for us, we also for this particular meditation must is a quiet place. Not so many noise, not so many all of those, very quiet places. And place does not cause us illnesses. That is necessary. So they are called good place. So when you count six, you say easy to find the necessary things and good place. Good place means that, OK?

And then you should have companion, if you have a companion. The companion must be good. Generally, everybody is good. Everybody’s definition of good is different than everybody else’s. But here when you are talking about it, the good companion means the companion should have good moral standing and good view, just like yours. You wanted to develop this shamatha and spiritual development, the companion is good moral standing but would like to make money, would like to do this, would like to do this, this, and then it’s not going to work. So the companion will have good…that doesn’t…I’m talking about a very specific period for specific purposes, OK? This meditation on this shamatha can be achieved within six months time. So that’s why, I’m talking about a very specific period. I’m not talking about the lifelong business, OK? So lifelong business, if you don’t bother about your paying the bills, the companion has to bother; otherwise, you both get into trouble. So that doesn’t mean not having the same view. So out of six, I think this is the first one. First one said the right place and the right friend, right companion.

Then during the period of meditation, you should not have so much desire. So you say, “Oh, I need 50 shirts or 7 shirts,” and if you have to have that type of thing, then it won’t work. So should not have so much, should not be many needy of it. “I must have a computer here, I must have a camera here, I must have the tape recorder here, I must have all this,” and it won’t work. It won’t work. Number one, it will have a big attraction. Number two, the computers won’t work, so you spend all your time going to spend to try to fix the computer work or camera work or tape recorder work. So it won’t do. So the best thing is to be satisfied without that, at least for that period whatever you are sitting.

And then not only not to have so many desires, the third, whatever you have you should be satisfied. Your clothes, your food, your needs, whatever you have you should be satisfied. You should not be looking, “Hey, he has brought for the meditation for this period the color TV and this and that, satellite connection, and I must have it.” No, you don’t need it. He has it, fine. You don’t need it. Whatever you have, that’s fine. All right? So satisfaction of whatever you have.

And then for that meditation period, do not bring many activities such as “I have to buy this, I have to sell this, I have to change this.” You know, “I have to change my car, I have to sell my house and buy another one and do all this and that.” And in the middle of the meditation you say, “Oh, my God, this is a good time to sell, I must go.” So you are not going to get it anyway. So many activities should not be there. And then these many activities are not only included here – buying, selling, and chit-chat. Chit-chat. Chatting, talking. You know, chit-chatting and talking everything. Even acting like a medical doctor and astrologer. It’s really counted here, so I didn’t make up this. So give up all of them that period. So not many activities. Reduce all different activities.

And pure morality, this is important. What does pure morality mean? It explains here. Pure morality here means you are protecting your vows. Sometimes vows have so many things – I won’t do this, I won’t do this, I won’t do this, I won’t look here, I won’t look there, I will only look here, and all of those. And if you break those, I don’t think you become not a pure morality, it doesn’t. Within the vow there are two things. Some are simply by rule. Some are by nature it is negativities. Harming others, hurting others, by nature it is negativities. So if you are protecting your vow and hesitations to engage those negativities, if you have hesitation, it is good enough to be perfect morality. [Tibetan] They asked Buddha, “What do you mean by perfect morality?” He said, “Among the monks and the nuns, if they don’t have four downfalls, four root downfalls, and if they hesitated to engage in the negativity nature, I consider that as perfect morality.” That’s what Buddha says. Buddha’s definition of perfect morality is this. So you yourself should be a perfect morality, and your companion should be a good morality; otherwise, they will abuse you, right? All right. So that should be the fifth one or the sixth one. Ah, fifth one.

The sixth one is mind. They should not have so much desire thoughts running around. Even you don’t physically collect needs, the computers as well as the cameras and cell phones and all this, you are not collecting the radios and whatever, the flashlight. Flashlight may be a necessary one, especially if you’re in a forest. But similarly in mind, the mind desire to have all kinds of things, “I need this, I need that, I want this, I want that. I don’t need here, but when I go back I have to do this, I have to…” all of those will not do. And what Buddha advises here, hey, all of them is I have attraction for it, they are all nature of impermanent, it’s going to be destroyed. And even I get it, I won’t have it long enough, I’ll be separated from those. So why should I waste my time worrying about this? If I go, they will not go with me, I have to leave them. So these are the…roughly I’m talking about six points. If you go detail, the Buddha then goes beyond that, goes about 13 main points. We are not going to touch it. The six is good enough. So if you don’t have those, then Buddha says…no, Atisha says, [Tibetan]. Atisha says if you don’t have those six things, no matter how much efforts you put for 1,000 years, you are never going to achieve it. So these are not only requirement, but absolute necessary requirements.

And I guess I have to stop here because it’s… Oh, by the way, I didn’t realize that I have to speak in Tibet House on this coming Monday. I was just informed today. [talks about speaking at Tibet House]

Woman: Do you know what you’re talking about, Rimpoche?

Gehlek Rimpoche: I have no idea. What is it? Oh, it’s my book, OK. All right, Good Life, Good Death, reincarnation. Reincarnation, OK, all right, thank you. So if you come, you are welcome. And then I have to go back because I have to teach Tuesday night in Ann Arbor. Then I’ll be here Thursday again, thank you. No questions, right? You do? If you have questions, raise your hand.

Man: I actually had a question about Tibet House.

Gehlek Rimpoche: OK, questions, comments and anything you want to. So whatever you want to say, go ahead, say it.

Man: Well, it seems like the two things that we’re talking about, the zhine and lhak thong, that they’re really…I’m having trouble understanding why they’re two different things and why each isn’t just an aspect or a (inaudible).

Gehlek Rimpoche: Well, I think I have tried to explain that. I thought I did try to explain. To be straightforward, first pick up the very strong, stable focusing power. And then, second, pick up the sharpness. And then combine them together works.

Man: But it seems like two aspects of practice that need to be ongoing all the time.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Two aspects of the practice will come together, but first we’re going to pick up one and then going to pick up the second and then we have to combine them together. So that’s why we say which one we pick up first, we say we pick up the zhine first, then we follow by lhak thong. But now we come to if we’re going to pick up zhine, what is necessary requirement? Then we come six of this and six of that, and all of those came.

Man: You made it very clear. I was just having trouble in my mind understanding why they aren’t, in fact, simultaneous.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Because the reason is you cannot find a way simultaneously do it. Even you use the wisdom as a focal point to develop zhine, and it will not develop the wisdom. It will develop zhine, then you have to develop the lhak thong again even you use the same lhak thong point. In other words, it’s really a necessary thing when you have to walk to the other side of the 6th Avenue, you have to go through here. Without walking out of this door and all this little lanes, St. John’s Lane, you’re not going to get over there unless some kind of a helicopter comes and pick you up – that is what we call it miracle and blessing and all of those. Otherwise, you have to walk there and get over there. Thank you. See no other hands. Yes?

Woman: Well, now that’s made me think a little bit on the… When you talk about if you use wisdom as the focal point, it seems like…I’m not having a clear notion of how I would do that without somehow analyzing what I think wisdom is. To me that’s very different than just sitting and following my breath, which is just a simple…it’s like a function and I can see how my mind is either with it or not with it. And I can understand how I would work with my notion of what wisdom is and either I’m with that or not with it, but that’s still an analyzing function of what my notion of wisdom is. So how would it be just a focus without analyzing?

Gehlek Rimpoche: Well, if you analyzed what wisdom is all about it, and then you probably find a point that comes – it is a lack of inherent…we’ll make it short…lack of inherent existence, lack of true existence. So if you find a point of seeing lack of true existence and if you focus on that, the conclusion of lack of true existence. Maybe there’s no mental picture, but there is a subject point. If you focus on that, that means you are focusing on wisdom point. But what you’re going to pick up is the zhine, not the lhak thong. That’s what I mean.

Woman: Because sometimes that’s been…in other traditions, that’s actually called vipasyana.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Yeah, that’s maybe not vipasyana yet.

Woman: OK, thank you.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Thank you. Yes?

Woman #2: I have a question.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Oh, yeah, sure.

Woman #2: You mentioned the four root downfalls. Which particular ones are you talking about? [Rimpoche doesn’t understand what she said] Four root downfalls.

Man: For perfect morality.

Woman #2: For perfect morality.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Perfect morality, what happened?

Woman #2: You said that to protecting vows and hesitating to engage in negativities…

Gehlek Rimpoche: Oh, protecting four root vows. Root.

Woman #2: Oh, four root vows.

Gehlek Rimpoche: Yeah. Not killing human being, not stealing. You know, usual four.

[END]