Archive Result

Soundfile 20040505GRJHNLTa05

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location Netherlands

Topic Tara

Transcriber Sally Tittmann

Date January 15, 2021

[prayers]

0:15:10.8

So now, just generate the appropriate thought: for the benefit of all sentient beings, I would like to learn this dharma and practice and become enlightened. Then the dharma that you would like to listen to is the great YISHIN KORLO, or the wish-fulfilling jewel, White Tara. It is a teaching, actually the teaching, with self-generation and with only front-generation, and a combination of self- and front-, which is not at all the tradition, but it happens to be here because the circumstances. Because a certain number of people do have initiation, a certain number of people don’t have an initiation, so we just don’t want to leave only in the front-generation. So we’d like to have a combination of it. And by doing the combination of such a teaching, there might be some of them might not be, maybe not supposed to be mentioning, might be leaking here and there. I’m seeking the permission of the great masters and yidams, for forgiveness in that. And within that, when you really look at this, there are prerequisites of this, and actual, and conclusion.

[DT]

0:18:42.7

The prerequisites in this, as usual, every buddhist — that of mahayana, that of vajrayana — really talks to the prerequisite is the three scope practitioners who are dealing with our life in the three different ways, which are normally known as teaching of the three scopes. In other words, it is a complete Lam Rim, a complete Odyssey to Freedom, and that’s the normal prerequisite of any Tibetan buddhist practitioners. In the west, we would like to say vajrayana, non-vajrayana, and we make that big division. However, if you look at the Tibetan tradition, every Tibetan tradition is vajrayana. It’s coming from vajrayana. It is vajrayana. It’s geared toward vajrayana. Without vajrayana it is incomplete. Incomplete means it’s incapable of delivering the goods. It is almost vajrayana, so therefore, for all LamRims, for Odyssey to Freedom, all of them are what I used to call preliminaries. But when you get the idea of the preliminary, and then you’re in the preliminary for years together, it doesn’t sound right. One of my editors told me, “I think the word you’re looking for is prerequisite, not preliminary.” Maybe she is really right, because it really is prerequisite, not preliminary. So though, when you are looking in the Tibetan, these are all one WON DROP???, and certain Tibetan traditions will say WON DROP means, you have to do five… whatever. One hundred thousand prostrations, mandala offerings, guru yoga, and vajrasattva recitations, and they call that as WON DROP??? But in great Je Tsongkhapa’s tradition, the real WON DROP is the actual Lam Rim, is the real WON DROP. Because actual practice is really is the mahayana practice. And that of vajrayana practice. And therefore, all of them become WON DROP??. So it’s a prerequisite. In every practice.

[DT]

0:25:07.9

Actually, what’s really happening is the moment you step in and follow any Tibetan buddhist teaching — I don’t only mean the tradition of Tsongkhapa — whatever you are following, DsogChen, or any of those, whatever you follow, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelugpa, any tradition — from the moment you step in at the beginning, that is the day when you build a connection with the vajrayana. That’s what it is.

[DT]

Though officially we say, when you actually take full initiation, then you are entering into the vajrayana, which means the prerequisite, the last prerequisite for vajrayana practice is the actual initiation. It’s the full initiations are the last prerequisite of vajrayana practice. That’s why we are giving that as a step. We say in-out ??? vajrayana. That’s what we do. But actually, it is already, right from the beginning..

0:26:49.6

[DT]

I made it very clear yesterday. Tara practice is vajrayana practice.

Out of this, I missed one yesterday. What I did miss, is I went for the offering. Let me go back. In the prerequisite practice, we also have the refuge, the four immeasurable, all of them, and briefly it is covered, because many of you did have LamRim. Somewhere here and there. But even in this trip alone, this visit alone, you know, places where we talked different areas. We did talk LamRim for a weekend, right? But it is sort of half LamRim gone. But the major points we talked, in the different areas, so even, sort of a substitutable Lamrim, briefly we have it covered.

[DT]

0:29:16.2

Then, most important out of all this, is the ultimate love-compassion, bodhimind. And wisdom. And both of them, we have quite well covered.

[DT]

Then comes actual generation of the wish-fulfilling Tara, as front generation, which can be used as front generation only, or can be used as a refuge object. Both. And we have covered yesterday.

[DT]

And you can sort of synopse ?? this down. Generation of the commitment being, invocation of wisdom being, and initiation to the wisdom beings combined with the commitment beings. And making offerings and prayers. And all of them covered yesterday. But, making offerings I have only talked to you about the vajrayana point of offering. That’s what we did yesterday. I have completely neglected the other side, which you already have in your book, and we say every morning, that is the seven limbs.

[DT]

0:32:09.8

And the major explanation on the seven limbs is in the LamRim teachings everywhere. Every guru yoga teachings, every Lamrim teachings, and it’s almost everywhere. I think we have that in Odyssey to Freedom, right? Briefly. And it’s everywhere.

[DT]

But still, just not to have that outline, or the powerpoint, not to leave it blank, so we can mention very little here, because the time will allow us very very little. So, “I bow down in body, mind, and speech.” That’s first, right?

[DT]

As you’re practicing, you begin to see, you take refuge and generate the four immeasurable, which I explained why it’s called immeasurable and all of that, and after that, you have seen the invocation. We just started doing it in English, and it’s very nice. Doing it in English is very good, because it makes sense to you. Doing it in Tibetan doesn’t make sense to you. It’s a nice melody, but, however… you have no idea. It’s like I’m looking… It’s great. You people can look at the Tibetan in the Roman script and you can read it and say it. But you can write something in Dutch and show it to me, and I won’t be able to read it and I won’t be able to say it, but you people do a great job.

[DT]

0:35:09.6

So, “I bow”: the word “bow” is a lack of choice. It has much more meaning than that. The meaning that you are supposed to understand behind that, hope to understand behind that, is “admiring the quality of the object of refuge”. In this case it is Tara. Admiring the quality of Tara, the body quality, the mind quality, the speech quality, and expressing desire to have it. That’s what I say: I bow is a lack of choice.

[DT]

And, “I bow down in body, speech and mind,” is just one single sentence. But that very sentence has been slightly intensified. If you look in the Ganden Lha Ghyema, it comes a verse of four lines, sort of exprressing the quality of body, mind, and speech separately.

[DT]

0:38:06.2

That very version has been extended verses. If you look in Lama Chopa, ???. Five six seven sholokas, the stanzas of four lines. Five, six, seven extended over there.

[DT]

And that also, if you go into the Prayer for Good Behavior, or something, and it is out of nine different prayers that we do, Sang BoJe Pa Molung???, and Sangje Molung. If you go there, — that first was expanded to something like twenty-some verses. And if that goes, and takes us further to sutra, and there are volumes of that only. And even, medium-level, if you look at the fifty verses of guru yoga, that is all about that. That’s only the first verse! And so, you can see how it works. It can be huge, like there’s volumes and volumes, and it can bring them in a couple of verses, or it can bring them in one verse, or just bring them in one word, say, “I bow down in body, speech, and mind.” What I want is for you to see the scope of how it expands, how it can be [made more] concise. And so, if you see that, you begin to see the flexibility. I think that’s important. You are getting somewhere. Otherwise, there’s one word, there’s another word, there’s another word, that’a a hat, that is a shoe, that is a tie, then it won’t work. But if you can put them together, it becomes hat, it becomes tie, it becomes shoe, and it fits.

[DT]

0:41:44.3

Here in the west, the western culture is such that we have to separate all of them, and put Lama Chopa in a Lama Chopa box, Ganden Lha Ghyema in a Ganden Lha Ghyema box, and Sang Ju put in Sang Ju box, and the Seven Limbs put in the Seven Limbs box, and you lock them, and title them, and say the situation is under control.

[DT]

In reality, when you do this, the situation is not under control. The situation is completely taken into pieces, and, it is completely different. It looks like the hat, the felt hat, has been taken by Houpperman. And the shoe has been taken by Angman. So there is nothing together. So, if the situation is under control, all should come together. So, it is separated and goes into parts and it is not together. So, in LamRim, when you are studying LamRim, you will see one of the qualities of the LamRim, they say, all the teachings will come into one piece together.

[DT]

0:44:30.6

Otherwise, the hat belongs to him, and the shoe belongs to him, and pants belongs to her, and shirt belongs to whoever, so it all becomes a piece here, a piece there, so it never works.

[DT]

So all must be able to be put together. If you can, if you are capable, but the moment you say, “I bow down in body.” If you are capable, you have to think of the qualities of the enlightened beings body that literally, by words, mentioned in Ganden Lha Ghyema, literally, in words, mentioned in Lama Chopa, literally, by words, mentioned in the eighth chapter of Abisamayalankara, which is the essence of Prajnaparamita. So all of them has to get on your head together, and they will get in that, and that means that you begin to — I don’t like to call it organize — I want to call it … [distractions…]

So that is one example of the first, “I bow down in body, speech, and mind.”

[DT]

0:47:58.6

That also gives you another flexibility. I should not be saying it to you, it looks like I’m giving you bad ideas, but another flexibility is, if you don’t have time to say all these words, and you can think right, and one single word can substitute pages and pages of what you are going to say. That is how it works — both ways.

[DT]

So the expression here, there is two things: you express two things, two points, to the object of refuge, saying you have such a great quality, and from any angle I look at you, your mind, your body, your speech. And I admire this quality, and I just don’t want to leave it with you just by admiring, but I also express my desire to have it for me, by me.

[DT]

0:50:27.0

Tibetan

“I offer the best I have to give, both real and imagined.”

You got the best extra words in there, that is because of the tombs ??? that they have to change it. ???

So, if you look in the Ganden Lha Ghyema, you have water and incense and flowers and so and forth, and if you look in the Lama Chopa, you have outer, inner, secret, and suchness offerings, and the medicines, and practice offerings, and all of them are in there. So when you say, “I offer the best I have to give,” you have to think all of them. Not just think. But then the word actually arranged and imagined. Imagined is imagery, imagery means visualization, visualization means manifestation, in the vajrayana language, anyway.

[DT]

0:53:24.8

Outer offering is actually outside, not connected with the individual beings. Neither physically, nor… Not connected. Individual beings like the flowers or the beautiful environment, or the all the beautiful mountains in Europe, and the beautiful plains of the Netherlands, and all of those are the outer offerings. And don’t forget the tulips! Yesterday I made a mistake. Somebody came from 150 kilometers away, and it sounds very much like a coconut or something, so I thought that’s where the tulip is, and I said how is the tulip in the coconut?

???

[DT]

One time I came here with Matthew, and we came together in the plane, and Matthew said, look, look, and I said, what?, and he said, the Dutch are interesting, and I said, why? And he said, they print the rule of the house in yellow lines, and red lines, and green lines, look there!

[dT]

So, these are the outer offerings.

Inner offerings are inner personally connected offerings. Outer, inner, secret.

Secret offering, is a secret offering!

Suchness offering is the offering that are connected with the wisdom, understanding of reality, wisdom, is suchness offering.

[DT]

0:57:19.7

The way I said it, the secret offering. I didn’t explain the other ones. Some people may think, what’s that? It’s funny. So, over here, secret offerings are offerings that brings the joy and the pleasure in body, speech and mind. That is secret offering. And the visualizations are normally, generating a concert, or mentally creating and making it in the form of a mandala, so that is the secret offering. Because people may think, what is the big secret hiding in here? There is nothing of that sort.

[DT]

Suchness, secret. I think we covered almost all. And, of course,

tibetan

and myself, and all others, body, mind, and speech, all environment inhabitants, and all of them, so the whole world, all of existence, and not only this world but the whole universe, so it is a great opportunity to be generous without taking a penny out of your pocket!

[DT]

0:59:47.7

And if you look in Six Session Yoga, it says Dago son…

Land, body, wealth and all virtues collected,

for the sake of all mother sentient beings I gladly release.…

So, if you read it like that it makes sense,

[TIBETAN]

Whether anything in existence, not only this world, but any universe ever in existence, any multi galaxy, any universe ever existing, anything whether it is owned by somebody or not owned by any individual, and everything, good and past, valuable, I collect and offer it to you.

[DT]

So, that means everything. The form, the sound, the smell, the touch, everything. The music. Gospel or non-gospel!

[DT]

So, that is offering. Artists can do every art. They personally make it. And made by others. You know, in Holland, you can sit here and rejoice, what Van Gogh has done, and Rembrandt has done. You can rejoice, and make them offer a million times!

[DT]

You can produce even the Mona Lisa. So you can also visualize that.

[DT]

1:05:05.3

The offering is unlimited. From the asparagus soup to anything, you know. The whole universe.

So, that is when you say, “I offer the best”. That is one word. You have all these things. You can think one thing one day and another thing a different day, or another day, or one thing, all of them, or you just simply imagine everything is over here, and accepted by your power.

[DT]

The next one is… Each and every one of them in important. But this one is not only important, but also very relevant for us, because that is purification.

[DT]

Purification is, again, unlimited. So many things. Even if you look in our life. In our everyday life, without any dharma or any spiritual anything, and people do a lot of purifications.

[DT]

People who go on diets. This diet, that diet. In order to get toxins out of their body, it is purification. And people sacrifice eating flesh, is also a purification. And people who are not eating dairy products, it doesn’t suit my body, or it does suit my body, that is also purification. Then there is, of course, you cannot forget, the most outstanding AA programs. And they are all purification. And then the spiritual purification is also tremendous. Some of them we agree with, we appreciate, we follow, some of them we don’t agree with.

[DT]

Such as, there is a lot of violence purifications — in every tradition. Buddhism is not an exception in this. It is not only the muslims that have it, you know, torturing themselves, and beating themselves. You know, they do all kinds of things.

[DT]

1:10:11.4

And Judeo-Christian tradition is not an exception. One time, twice I have visited, throughout Holland, where they burned the witches in the 17th century. And they are also coming from great traditions, but there is such violence.

[DT]

And we disagree with that. And buddhists are not left out. You know, during the Vietnam war, I cannot get out of my image that I carry, a monk was put, voluntarily or falsely, who knows, and all of a sudden he put kerosene oil, and put fire to it, and it started burning, so naturally, if he wanted to get out, he can’t get out. Who knows, they might have tied his hands, who knows. So they haven’t shown it. The pictures that we saw on television are, it is still very vivid in my head. They may be considered purification, but we don’t agree with this. It’s violence.

[DT]

The Milarepa’s sacrifices we rejoice — at least Milarepa’s life. So, there is a lot of purification in the name of purification. It might even be purification, but all of this purifications we do not agree. But, purification is a must, and it is very important for our life, and there are ways and means of doing it, and we can talk about that after the coffee break.

[DT]

1:13:02.6

About the purification. We just talked about the physical purification. We certainly don’t like violence-oriented purifications. But, on the other hand, the prostrations are considered one of the most important activities of purification. You see in the Tibetan culture, there are hundreds and thousands of people doing prostrations everywhere in Tibet, in Bodhgaya. Whenever you go to the central temple in Llasa, at the central temple, people are doing prostrations there all the time. People come from as far as the Amdo area, all the way to central Tibet, all the way to the feet of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s image in the central temple. They keep on prostrating on the road, from their doorstep to the central temple. And some of them not only do it this way, but sideways, because they think that they cover too long an area. So, like a month-long walking area, going up the hills, going down the hills, over the bridges, each and every one of them, and so, up the hill, under the hill, doing the prostrations as purification. It is hard. I don’t know if it is violence against you. Maybe not. Hopefully we don’t consider it violence.

[DT]

1:17:00.8

Circumambulations is also considered an accumulation of merit as well as purification, both.

[DT]

So, it is important to do something physically. The one problem with Tibetan buddhism, it is a big problem. And it becomes too much mentalization. Meditation, mentalization, so the purification is also through the mind, and everything is through the mind, so we become big fat ones.

[DT]

Every good teacher, great teacher in the Tibetan tradition — with the exception of one or two, like ??? Rimpoche — otherwise, the rest of them are not that great, when you look at them from the health point of view.

[DT]

There is a professor called Alan Wallace, he gave a lecture at the Tibetan medical conference, in Washington. There were people from Holland there, like Paula was attending. And he gave as a bad example of the healthcare the Tibetan great masters!

[DT]

And he said, you look at each and every one of them, they are horrible, health-wise. But they are great masters! So that is our problem. Too much mentalization. Really, too much. And, it does work. It works, for sure. It is a mind-level. I mean, it is not a problem for the western people. If you tell them not to move it is a problem! So, if you tell them to move physically, it is no problem.

[DT]

1:20:45.6

I do give the example of laziness, usually. Usually when I talk about laziness, I talk about two lazinesses: eastern and western.

[DT]

The western laziness is busy for nothing, and the eastern laziness, at least for me, is sitting in a nice beautiful corner and don’t move.

[DT]

Either you read something, or watching something, or doing nothing and sitting over there. It’s great! That is the eastern laziness.

That’s what we’re talking about, purification.

The question arises, number one: can we purify anything? Is there such a thing called purification? Does it exist? Or is it just a matter of getting forgiveness? In the western culture, we always like to seek forgiveness. We go to somebody and seek the forgiveness of that individual person.

[DT]

1:22:50.3

And, if it is a nice person, he or she will be happy to forgive you, for anything. If that person is not such a nice person, then they won’t give you forgiveness. You go and seek forgiveness, they give you more trouble, and you are going to get more anger, and you are going to have more difficulties.

[DT]

And I’m really looking at this. So it is a bigger problem. It is a culturally established, whether the religions established it or not, it’s a problem. And then, somehow, you always have the confession, when you go to church and have to confess what you did.

[DT]

It is also a big problem. We have seen so many times the James Bond is sitting on the other side of the box. So it is a problem. And it is not only a James Bond, but even sometimes the church blackmails people. We have seen that all the time in the history. That’s what we normally do, but the problems are there.

But, on the other hand, what do we have to do to purify? Buddha came out with the four points here. Point number one, the most important that we need, is regret [recognize??}. If you do not regret what you did, there is no reason why we have to purify, because perhaps we may be proud of what we did, and luckily we will do it again. So there is no point here.

So, regret comes out of recognition. If you recognized, and if you acknowledge the mistakes. I believe that is really almost the first step. And we have difficulty doing this. We are great at talking about purification, but it is very hard to recognize that I made a mistake.

1:27:45.7

It’s really hard to recognize, not only recognize, but to acknowledge that one made mistakes.

And that goes for everybody. Including people who are preaching us, or preaching you, purification. What had happened, in the Catholic church, with the priests and scandals, are every bit an example. And it’s not only the catholic church that is the problem, but it is every old tradition, including buddhist monasteries, and everywhere. You have that problem.

[DT]

So, it is a common problem. And even individuals, individual person also. First, it is difficult to know that I have made a mistake. Second, when you realize, it is extremely difficult to admit, recognize… admit: that is very difficult.

[DT]

And ???, George Bush is a good example. Always. And you now see what they do in the prison, and the photographs coming out, one after another, and it is amazing. It first broke in the United Kingdom, and the American media is not willing to put it out until the Washington Post started putting it out, which a number of them said is non-nationalistic or something, international or something [???}. So it is amazing, how one person influences. Because normally everything is open in the United States, that’s the first place where everything leaks, or comes out, or opens. Every media is scared of putting it out, till the Washington Post.

1:31:06.6

[DT]

After that, there is a huge demand that George Bush has to apologize. Do you remember in the last few days, there is so much demand from everybody, that George Bush has to apologize.

[DT]

Including the Saudi kings, demanding that George Bush has to apologize! And I saw last night, a clip on CNN, he was speaking, and his apology is, “I told him sorry!” — referring to the king of Jordan, King Hussein. “I told him I’m sorry!” That’s his way of apologizing.

And the media immediately picked up, the president’s apology has been extended. He actually said, “I told him sorry!” So, it is very hard for him to look at it and say, “I’m really sorry.” But he said, “I told him sorry!” It’s a joke!

So, it is no surprise when George Bush cannot admit it, but it indicates how the human mind functions, and it is really hard for all of us to admit, and so we like to deny all the time.

[DT]

1:34:10.2

And we deny, and we cover up. And then, if you are covering up, then you get into a lot of trouble. Even a good president, like Clinton got into trouble, because of denying and covering up.

[DT]

So, regret comes from recognition. Recognition comes from open-mindedness. fairness.

And so, really the fundamental basis of purification, you begin to see that people have to be fair. And people have to be open. And you don’t have to be hard on yourself, don’t misunderstand that. Some people think, “I have to be hard on me.” No, you don’t have to be hard on yourself. But you have to be fair. Treat yourself fair with anybody else you treat. And so if you do that, when you see the other people’s fault, you also see your own faults.

[DT]

1:36:22.6

So the moment you begin to see fault within yourself, then you have to really, with open-mindedness, you have to look, is it really a fault, or is it something that you have to do?

[DT]

Just because somebody else thought it is a fault, does not necessarily mean it’s a fault. Really. That is true for everybody. Yet, that does not mean you have to cover up your mistakes either.

[DT]

When you recognize the mistake, when you recognize the fault that we have committed, then you dislike it, what you did. When you dislike it, then you begin to establish the idea of not repeating it. And not to repeat, also when it becomes strong. Then there is the possibility of you going to end whatever you have been doing.

[DT]

And when you have decided to end what you are doing, then it is the beginning of the opportunity for you to purify. And then really comes the idea of regret from the bottom of your heart. Not because you got into trouble, or not because you are getting into trouble.

1:39:10.0

So, the regret is the most important. If you have the regret, and then you have the desire to do whatever you can to make it right. There is nothing that you cannot do to make it right. Although, if you killed someone, you cannot bring that person back to life — if you are thinking in those lines, that is not even possible.

[DT]

But still, what is a possibility is possible for you to purify that killing karma. You can make that karma not function. And that is what the purification is all about. It is not escaping justice. But it is doing the right thing.

[DT]

You know, I do have a problem with the word justice. A lot of people commonly accept it. However, it is completely overused, and over-abused, by so many people, and so many authorities, everywhere.

[DT]

1:41:37.2

I will not be surprised, these people who are giving torture in the prison, in their mind, they are probably doing a justice. I will not be surprised. Honestly.

[DT]

These soldiers are completely, obviously, brainwashed so much, saying, those are the enemies, they did September 11. They did or not did, it doesn’t matter, they are told they are the ones, they are the culprit, these are the weapons of mass destruction, they are, all of them. And they probably think, these are the monsters, and well, I’ve got my hand over the monsters, let me show them what that is all about. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that goes through their minds. I really do have a problem with justice.

[DT]

And the capital punishment is the worst of all. I mean, who are you to kill someone. Who are you? It is unbelievable, “On behalf of God, I should kill you here. If the God cannot kill someone, what is God doing? He has to hire someone to kill on behalf of the God?”

[DT]

1:43:47.1

So, it is a problem. It is not God’s problem. It is the problem how we manage. It’s a great excuse they use: “on behalf of God! I nearby sentence you to death!”

[DT]

So it is terrible, things like that. People who are part of the decision making to award capital punishment is ego conspiracy?? for murder.

[DT]

In karmic law, you contributed to it. And capital punishment does not end the crime. Perhaps it produces more. So anyway, we contribute to this, through various ways. Those of us, the U.S. citizens, we pay our tax directly to contribute to this.

[DT]

And those of you Dutch people who are sitting on this side of the ocean, indirectly contribute towards this because you depend on the trade.

[DT]

1:46:26.1

You are contributing towards that through Harry Potter. So we all do contribute, directly or indirectly. So our noses are not as clean as we think. And we cannot skip that. That is the law of the land, too. Neither you nor we are the law of the land. What we are left with is only purification.

[DT]

Mind you, not only through justice, but also the war in Iraq, we are also contributing directly to the killing. And torturing, and all of those. We are really directly contributing. Without our knowledge. So, even though you think you’re just minding your business in my little village on my little bicycle, minding my own business going around, but you are doing it.

[DT]

Unfortunately, the world today is such. The whole world is involved in this. And welcome to the capitalist world. That’s what it is. So what shall we do? There is only the spiritual path that is left a little chance for us to do something. And that is the purification: here we regret. When you regret, naturally we don’t want to repeat. And that also, you cannot go on and say look, I don’t want to pay my tax because I don’t want to contribute towards that. Only very few people can do. A few great ones can do. The majority of us cannot do it.

[DT]

1:50:10.5

If Gandhi is here, he would do it. Or the Martin Luther King would probably do it. At least Nelson Mandela refused to see George Bush. He uninvited him for his birthday party!

[DT]

Instead he invited Clinton. All sitting world leaders. He uninvited Tony Blair and George Bush. So there are only very few people in the world who really ??? that. If Allen Ginsberg were here, he would have done it. Probably going around, singing poetry and doing all that everywhere, if he were still here. For that matter, all beatnik poets will probably do it.

[DT]

But, that is our world now. So we are left with the spiritual path only!

So the regret of ours will be limited. And our regret will probably be, — the repentance will be: we don’t want to directly contribute, it will come up to that.

[DT]

1:52:31.7

Good old Tibetan excuse of eating meat: it is not done by me, and not done for me, so I’m ok! It goes in the general business; it’s fine. So, regret, and not repeating. Then, some compensation. You need to compensate.

[DT]

We cannot go and buy everybody a shirt and give it to compensate. Maybe they don’t want a shirt, who knows? So what we use is love/compassion. Because compassion really wants to remove the sufferings of the individual. Somebody asked yesterday, what is compassion and what is love? I think that was you… when did you ask that? Many of you probably have not heard that. Last evening there was a New Students here? a beautiful group of 40-50 there last night. So this gentleman asked a question: You talk a lot about love/compassion, but you didn’t even say what it is. So, I did tell the Zen story, the Zen look-like story.

[DT]

1:55:44.9

And I was saying the love/compassion both are one mind, two different aspects. One mind, the love, wishes you to be really happy and joyful. And compassion wants you to be free from the sufferings. The love seeks to bring you together with the joy and happiness. Compassion seeks for you to be separated from pain and sorrow. That’s why the love/compassion is the best compensation you can provide for anybody. And then, if you have heard someone who up in the enlightened ones, then you take refuge.

[DT]

Taking refuge is buddhist language. But it is actually praying to that person. Actually praying to God and taking refuge to Buddha, they are very similar. I can’t say it’s one, but very very similar.

[DT]

1:58:15.2

I think someone asked me yesterday, I think the beautiful lady over here. I think you’re Inneke, right? She asked me, what do you mean, we don’t have a soul? I was awake last night, after two or three cups of coffee. In the afternoon I’m totally asleep. So I said, I think it’s a technicality, because we don’t believe in the soul but we believe in consciousness, so what? Either we believe or not, that also we repeat a word after somebody just like a parrot. Because whoever is telling the person, like, even I (you see? my pride!: even I!… so the words will tell you, show you how you have pride). Let’s say, if I say, I don’t believe in the soul but I believe in consciousness, I am repeating somebody else’s words, just like a parrot. I have no reasons to believe or not believe. I was told, or read in a book. So, it is very similar. Praying to God, and taking refuge to Buddha, there is not that much difference. A technicality. There is not much difference.

[DT]

2:00:44.1

The only difference will be, when you are taking refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha until I become fully enlightened. So you are attaching, I take refuge and you are great, and it’s almost … it’s not worship but, you know, the last thing is: I want to become you. I want to become you, and you don’t have that! You can’t say to God, I’d like to become God. That’s culturally not possible. Not religiously, but culturally not possible. So that is the difference. Otherwise, there is not so much difference here. Actual refuge and actually praying. There is not that much difference.

[DT]

No one thinks or says, I would like to become God. Right? It’s not in the culture. So, praying. Or taking refuge, to enlightened ones. That’s how ??? So then: I wish, I pray, I want, are not only dust job, you have to have something solid to give.

[DT]

That is the antidote action. Or you meditate on compassion. Or you do prostrations. Or you go and save a life. Or you go out and save the environment. Or do anything. But do something right. For God’s sake, once! For Buddha’s sake! Or no. I made a mistake. For your own sake. That’s what it is.

So you have antidote action, compensation, regret, and repentance, combined together, taking action will be purification. A good one. What you are hoping, is you are not hoping to … It’s like killing. You are not hoping to bring the dead person back to life. That is not your purification. Your purification for that will be: regret what you did, promise you will not repeat it again, and you compensate something, and you dedicate something for a good cause. A combination of that will purify.

[DT]

2:05:24.3

And the result of that will be pure you. Start all over again. Fresh. Once is not good enough. Twice is not good enough. Ten times is not good enough. A hundred times is not good enough. Until you really become pure you have to do the purification.

[DT]

So that covers now what, how, and what we hope to be, with the purification. The next thing is, you have to do it yourself.

Bon appetit!