Archive Result

Name of Transcript: 20050508GRNL3P16

Name of Transcriber: Sally Boyer

Start Date: 05-26-2023

Finish Date: 05-29-2023

So do kindly generate pure motivation as we said during this period when we say SAN GYE CHO DANG TSOH KYI CHOH NAM LA, JANG CHUB BAR DU DANG NI KYAB SU CHI, DAG GI JIN SOG GYI PE SO NAM KYI, DRO LA PAN CHIR SANG GYE DRUB PAR SHOG. So at that moment we have both taken refuge and generated bodhimind together and especially you people have said DAH GYE CHU NYEN GYE PO SO NAM GI. CHU NYEN as those of us to listening to the dharma teaching by these virtues we may be able to obtain total enlightenment. And person who’s teaching here will say: DAH GYE CHU SHE GIR PER SO NAM GYE by giving this teaching we may be able to obtain total enlightenment. So though we already generated bodhimind but again remind you to generate bodhimind because that mind makes every work we do TEN NE SUN DEN MI LOK COM PAR NE CHU DO JANG. So since then whether you going to just sleep or no matter that includes if you fall asleep during the teaching, no matter whatever you do and even not paying attention and all of those. PAR ME TEN NE SUNG DE NI LOK GUNG PA ME JU CHEN, so even not paying attention and all of those and that become virtuous and that is because of the technique that you applied that is the motivation, and that is the power of the mind. It is mind power that makes the difference and that’s the reason why. Otherwise you probably think why if I just say the words it will become… I don’t think the word alone does but the word must follow thought. If you don’t have the thought behind the words it’s just dry words. Dry word, there’s a difference between just dry word and thought that accompanies it. Actually, it is big difference. Just words alone will be just like the dummies you put in those store you know to put on the window decorations you have the dummies. And words with thoughts with actual living human beings functioning just life in it. Just like that, even the teachings and lectures, the lectures are giving pure academic lectures are like that, provided that we are talking about spiritual path. And spiritual teachings are actually should be living human beings and that is not just dry words. While I’m mentioning here to you because might as well tell you a little bit about the teachers themselves. The teachers are, since we do have great teachers here and many of you will be this is one way you can serve the human beings and sentient beings and particularly that of your own fellow country person and one way that what we have is this gift, the gift of these teachings. So the teachings, the message, it is not like it is interesting, it is not like message carrying. Please don’t take that as criticism to any thing anywhere but you know when you look at the Jehovah Witnesses and they are very nice with their good mind, good thoughts and with their great compassion and they just carry a dry message and whatever they learn a little bit and they try to convince, try to talk to you and convince and why I use Jehovah Witnesses because when I first got to Ann Arbor I did have a couple of Jehovah Witnesses came to visit me every week and they would come because I was not busy I had not so much to do and they had not so much to do they had to do their job so they came and talked to me. And they were very sincere mind you, much more sincere than we are sometimes you know, honestly. They strongly believe what they talk to you and they try to convince through various ways and means you know and they do. And you sort of respect them and listen to them, they come back all the time. And then you ask certain difficult questions, they’ll say, ”I’ll bring the answer next week.” And the next week they give you actually worse answer than what they themselves first giving and then we just contradict, oh no that’s not right because blah, blah, blah. He says, “It makes sense. I’ll come back next week.” And that’s what they do. So just carry a bare message and that’s very nice of them but for us slightly different. It is not a message alone, whatever you are going to share is based on whatever you learned and you thought about it, you think about and you have some understanding about it and then you share that. And that is more than a message, it is living that makes it a living, it is a living, it is not just book knowledge transferred here and there. Book knowledge you don’t have to transfer, we can read the books, any body can read books. So that’s the quality, the most important quality that I’m so thankful and great and actually proud of the number of you who have been doing that. And I’d like to encourage more people to do this. And there are two ways. One way: learning for yourself and two: practice yourself because you carry this and whatever you are learning you are going to carry that, it’s a practice yourself and third and when you share with other people, leading groups and teachings, leading group and that means here you are doing action bodhisattva activities and so it is important. The basic foundation for yourself is first learning, second you analyze, think about it and third you meditate and even you don’t understand completely it’s okay, so you still have other senior people around you can ask them personal questions, you can talk to them or you have senior teachers group or sangha council or also the TTC people here. So you can ask them question and they can support and when they have a question they can ask again. We have some system we made, you can ask this question to Hartmut and he will pass on to me and whatever we know and so we will try to let you know. And we support in that way. But most important thing is basically learning, analyzing and meditating and then when you are leading the group talk based on your own understanding and practice and learning and experience and that doesn’t mean again you can bring any subject, anywhere you know and so while here I’m going to talk my experience and let me tell you my experience on Buddhism or something and I don’t mean that that way you do but on the basis of things we taught and you know things whatever I try to tell you is totally based on authentic teachings of great earlier Tibetan masters and so that’s why you have a solid basis. And if you don’t have solid basis and you have some little experience here and there if you tell that then it contradicts our fundamental principle. The fundamental principle that we follow is a great master called Gedun Taenzin Gyatso, actually his statement what I want to quote is I think the first verse on the eleventh day of Pabongka’s teaching of Liberation on the Palm I think it is eleventh day if I’m not making a mistake, it says: also you know in Holland you have done tremendous amount of work particularly those transcripts and Marianne Soeters took it personal interest and a lot of people equally took responsibility and work together and made it possible a number of transcripts now available. It’s our contribution towards the future generations and we all will be very grateful, deeply grateful to Marianne and everybody else who tried to transcribe them or help them to rewrite you know or whatever, every effort you put in there and we should rejoice ourselves. And this is our contribution to our future generations. And likewise, I said the teachers contributed tremendously. This is our way of serving to our own community, our own people as well as other people who put the efforts here to make it possible to make this beautiful place and make it possible to be able to do it by tremendous amount of physical labor and time that you put in and as well as financial support to be able to make it possible. All of them me personally I’m very grateful and you should also rejoice that you’ve made it possible something for your own future generation to be able to learn and do something. So that’s what I wanted to share. And all of them was a seed, the seed of all of those as fruits by that lady over there. And this happens to be day 10 in the Pabongka”s Liberation in Palm of Your Hand and it says: This is not the false invented Dharma because it is the…it says pith, is that right? It is the pith of authentic oral teachings, this is not foolish talk because it comes from the classical texts by the great forerunners, this is not a shimmering mirage because saintly scholars and adepts have tested it, this is not a perilous cliff because it is the highway to highest enlightenment. So what it says in Tibetan I have in my heart. It is the real meaning, the real essence of reliable Buddha’s and Buddha’s disciples’ teaching but not someone else just made up. You know made up will sometimes whether it is going to be reliable or not it becomes questionable and that’s why we appreciate it a lot of New Age, there is lot of great qualities but we have question how reliable it’s going to be to all of them because it is also a hodgepodge and that’s why particular verse will tell you. It is the real essence of the teachings of the Buddha and the disciples. Why? Because their experience and they based everything on their experience. Because they just one fine morning wonderful idea came up which you put in the writing, that’s how we write novels. You know the person who write novels and make something wonderful thing come up. I mean Harry Potter is all about it. So I mean there may be some hints here and there and then the idea comes out after that make into it. But we cannot take Harry Potter book and make it into our spiritual practice though there is a group who does that you know, I mean you know this Harry Potter group who does practice that and so that’s why it has to be the essence of the thing that first verse. The second line it says: this is the great path that’s accepted by the forerunners like Nagarjuna and Asanga, etc. You know, what they say what is and the second one says what’s not. What is, is this practice and teachings and all these are the great forerunners and earlier masters accepted. It’s not just a few people you know, some stupid people thought about it and they say well, whispering teaching and I only whisper in your ear and you can only whisper into somebody’s ear and no more, that type of thing, and it says it is not because there are some great whispering teachings are there too. Almost all the Ganden Nyingyu Tradition, tradition that came from Ensapa, all of them are whispering teachings. Actually, they whispered but whispering is also put out and printed in black and white and tested and commented and debated and tested. So that’s why it says it is not just whispering teaching and it is a straight forward open tested. The third is even more important. It is the experience of great scholars and adepts both, it is the great experience same thing experienced by one and others, many people experience have confirmed it. It is not just sort of you know some strange thing that I felt that or you know some sort of half dream, half asleep, mirage thoughts, not that and that is saying it is not. And that is not that they don’t have it such a thing, they do. They do have great things you know by visions and this and that, all of them there but they are all tested, all are tested and commonly accepted and they are the one who will do. I mean it doesn’t mean try to block any of these new inventions however that is the guideline here. And then the conclusion is there the fourth verse, fourth line: path that lead the individual straight to the ultimate level not to the cliff that falls. So this should be our guideline for the teachers, group leaders and the practitioners, for everybody. This is our guideline. It is nothing new we made up it is since the Buddha and sort of put easy word according to GedunTaenzin Gyatso right? So it comes this, in a written book says Gedun Taenzin Gyatso. So this should be guideline for the people who are leading the groups, teachers and everything and we follow as much as possible, can be 100% follow? No, you cannot. We try to follow as much as possible, keeping that as principle and then we will be helping ourselves, we’ll be helping the future generations, we are not leaving misinformation to anybody, we are not misleading anybody. This is comfort zone for ourselves, we feel good we have done some contribution, we feel good and whatever you try to put in and out. People who come to study and all these and their time is not wasted and it helps them and they will develop and this is how the spiritual teachings and spiritual development and leading people to spiritual path and freeing from the samsara in general and particularly lower realms and this is how. And this is sort of went away from the main thing we have to finish today so I think we almost finished everything of this wisdom part yesterday. What didn’t we finish yesterday leaving there? I think we have done the twelve, nothing is done twelve, it is very complicated. Twelve, but what they say…actually on eleventh, there’s one point. Interdependent appearance infallible right? Emptiness in expressible reality. So what is that interdependent appearance infallible. What is that? What could that be? I think it is the same. You know we in one way we will say relative truth, we will say it and we will say interdependent appearance reliable interdependent appearance then we would say emptiness in expressible reality, right? So what is it? I said two things, that’s what I’d like to talk about. Are there two things? Apparently not, they are not two separate things, both are same. And when you want to say what is emptiness, emptiness is interdependent appearance infallible, that is emptiness. And then what is that relative truth? Relative truth is emptiness in expressible reality. I believe both are same, one thing you are talking about. You are not talking about two separate things and that’s why in the Heart Sutra you say: Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, form is no other emptiness, emptiness is no other than form. So basically they are saying there’s no gap, no separation, nothing so I think that I’d like to make a little emphasis on that. This is known as the four connections, four knots or four twists, you know, four junctions: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is no other than form, form is no other than emptiness. Comes four times, it sort of four knots, you knot them four times and it really gives you the real essence and you don’t look emptiness something beyond that, we always have idea emptiness is something over there that we have to catch it or something coming to our…something to develop something to get from outside. It is not, it is right there. It is a matter knowing it, matter of clarifying, a matter of getting it and that is very important. So that’s what sometimes known as RAM DONG, self-empty. And if it is not RAM DONG if it is SHAM DONG you know RAM is self and SHAM is other. So if it is SHAM DONG then the form doesn’t becomes emptiness, emptiness does not become form, form is empty of something other than form, and then it becomes SHAM DONG. And here I’d like to point out one thing, Chandrakirti has said, “So somebody when you see a cobra in your own room and then you are doubtful, you are scared, you are doubtful and then you seek help and then somebody come to help you and goes around your house and check everything and comes out and say, “Hey, don’t worry there’s no elephant in your room.” So the doubt what you have is whether there’s a snake in my room or not but somebody else comes and say, ”Relax, there’s no elephant in your room.” So, and what does that help? So you know this is the idea of SHAM DONG according to Chandrakirti. So this is the Prasangika refuting object of negation other than self. You know some will say it’s the indivisible thing and some will say, “Well, it is not a indivisible thing but is a combination of something.” Somebody else will say, “No, it is only the mind and nothing else.” And someone else will say, “Mind plus some external thing comes up because of the reflection of something, something” and all of them. Chandrakirti worked with this, we don’t care whether the elephant is in your room or not and it’s not even the question. The question is whether there’s a snake in your room or not, so don’t care. So this is how why form is emptiness, emptiness is form, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness is no other than form. This is important point of self-empty not empty of anything else other than self. It is not just Chandrakirti alone it also goes to Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna’s Jewel Ornament said, “As long as you hold the form, skandhas, aggregates, as long as you hold the form that person continuously holds that “my” “I” and “my” and if you still that my thing goes on that will grow suffering again from there. So in other words, Nagarjuna tried to say, form is empty. If the form is not empty and you are holding the form something other than the emptiness and then you will have that “my” and that “my” will bring everything back to “do re mi”. Then comes the twelve. Perceive simultaneously without alteration, seeing any infallible interdependence destroys the objective identity, That is what it is. So when you see the form itssself is emptiness, the form is the basis where we put the interdependence appearance. When we see that, that is emptiness by looking at the form we see the emptiness in the essence of that interdependent appearance. Vice versa, when you are looking at emptiness, when we are talking about is the emptiness of the form, did you get it? When you are looking at the form what you see appearing to you is you appearing form which is dependently arising. So it is not independently arising, dependently arising, which is emptiness. So looking at the interdependent arising nature you see the emptiness and when you looking for the emptiness, what you see is the form which is emptiness. That’s what they are saying, seeing simultaneously not separately, simultaneously means together. So this gives you the second, the logical reasoning that’s what you call King of Logic. They are saying the King of Logic says whatever you are saying, “my” “me” my phone. Take my phone, it is not truly existing because it dependently arises. So once you know it dependently arise and because it is dependently arise so therefore it is not truly existent. You get me? So this first particularly after seeing this then it gives us room to work the King of Logic because it is dependently arise because it is dependent. Because it is dependent it is not truly existing. And that also give us the room to the next verse which is what we call special quality of…what is that verse? What happens is here, further the appearance eliminates the extreme of existence. In normal appearance should eliminate non-existence, it does. You say he is there, I saw him. At the same time you should also see here what I saw is interdependent him not true existence of him because he has a form, he has a life, he has mind, it is combination. It is the Prasangika thing, not only the appearance eliminate the non-existence but also eliminate the extreme existence. Vice versa, emptiness not only eliminate the extreme of existence but also eliminate non-existence, non-existence of true inherent existence, inherent true existence, so both will eliminate both. So emptiness itself is cause and effect and cause and effect itself is emptiness. Okay, the last verse. So once know learning what you have to do thereafter and analyzing and practice and help yourself and that’s what they are asking us to do. So what do here first what we do here we are providing the facilities and opportunity for you to learn and we try to provide a little bit of opportunity and facility to practice but we can’t do much, that depends on yourself. We cannot have everyday meeting and meditating as it is not possible for your own schedule so and that’s why we cannot facilitate much for the second step, we try to facilitate the first step as much as possible. And totally it is individual so we can later, yes, why not provide facility to meditate and all of those and do retreat and things like that and so far I mostly want also learning retreat but you do have a few mantra retreats and that also we try to qualify to be able to say mantra recitations and a little bit of meditation, otherwise and that’s where we are. And then what you have to do in general are provided this opportunity for many people and for yourself the second and third practice and gain experience that individually you have to help yourself. And Marianne this morning asked me whether you are following fourth Panchen Lama’s commentary and I’d like to clarify here to you. The earlier teaching that I gave on the Three Principles mainly and mostly I gave based on Pabongka’s commentary, bringing a little bit here and there, a little bit more and this time the meditations that I did here is based on Shorturn Kedrup’s is called…it is not commentary. I don’t know how to say that in English. It’s practical training, may be. And most of the talks are based on the Mudru Losang Satay and few picked up from the 4th Panchen Lama’s commentary and that’s what has been done. Okay, I guess that’s it for the Three Principles of the teaching and I am very happy that I’m able to do this, thank you for calling me to do this, thank you for your practices and thank you for your work. And those of you who worked in various departments, the housing, the city, the board, the elders and above all to all of you who participated to make it possible and translators, wonderful translators and the translators are teachers so great and the beautiful soups that we had, we never forget that and wonderful tea and coffee and everything and the cleaning, so it’s all. When you begin to see one and you see so many things and if I did not mention anyone it doesn’t mean I purposely left out, it is my ignorance and forgive me and thank you so much.

Audience: Rinpoche, on behalf of everybody here I also like to thank you for being here, I hope you enjoyed your stay here. We hope to listen to a lot of your teachings comes next week when it’s possible in various places in Holland and hope to see you back here for more teachings. So thank you very very much.

Rinpoche: Thank you. I’d like to say I enjoy here and I was a little bit but feel better and thank you. I intend to do all these teachings that you have scheduled. My apology the first day I missed that workshop but I really wanted to come at the last hour at least but couldn’t make it that time. And Yes, in the winter the November, you know the date?

Audience: 21st of November starts.

Rinpoche: November I hope to be here. Not hope but planning to be here. And we are going to the Lama Chopa teaching as we have decided that a while so we are going to do the Lama Chopa here. I think we should open it as much as possible although Lama Chopa is restricted to vajrayana teaching only however this is so important and so in my opinion we should really open to everybody and if they can afford to take the opportunity I think we should open it to everybody, that’s my opinion. Though there is a restriction they say but it is very very important and somay as well make it open to everybody.