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Soundfile 20050621GRAASR21T4

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

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Transcriber Wee Lin

Date April 16 2024

Good Morning everybody. I just [want to] briefly remind you to generate pure thoughts and though we try to be the usual things are not so much mentioned here and you try to be whatever the Tara thinks. However it is also a great opportunity for generating good wonderful karmic thing and for which the motivation is extremely important. We mention this all the time. The other day on first day too so I would to remind you that whatever understanding of bodhimind you have, do kindly generate that. If you don’t at least you think, for the benefit of all mother sentient being, ( here the Mahayana influence comes in) one would like to obtain the stage of Buddha Tara and for which I would like to learn, practise and develop and then help others. So that much and for that reason I am here and for this reason I am spending a week in the middle of nowhere in Michigan, so I am going to use my every time and opportunity to pick up, learn, practise enhance my practice, moving forward and I do not want to waste time, waste a week and particularly today I am not going to waste.

0:02:57.7 It is also important to remind ourself of impermanence . Impermanence is something that is always there, right in front of us. We never know when we are going to step our foot in that, we already have one foot in there whether you like it or not. The other foot I don’t know when we are going to put that in and that’s about it. And that is the reality, truly. So why do we think about this? Is this a threat from the Buddhist tradition or is it that Buddha used to threaten people? No, it is not. Whether you threaten or not threaten whether you talk about it or not talk about it, its going to go in there, for sure. No matter whoever, all those great spiritual persons like Buddha, Jesus and so and so forth and we talk as though Buddha did this, Buddha did that and looks like Buddha went to bathroom to change. No. He was gone, 2600 odd years ago.

0:04:32.6 Also did Jesus. So that’s why we said it is 2400, 2500 , 2600 what does the 200 come from? All of those, everywhere. So the spiritual, military power, economic power , political power all of them gone. No where and no one has ever lived [forever] and certainly I am not going to be the exceptional one. We never know when we take the . So it is not a threat but it is a reminder for us. Why don’t we get ready? If we know we have to go tomorrow, why don’t we pack? Better pack today, otherwise you are going to forget your hair dryer or if you forget your hair dryer you can’t dry your hair specially if you are bald. Ha Ha ha. Because I see two nice shinning guys sitting together there.

0:06:16.3 But the reality is I [should] get ready and pack. There was a question last night, how do I get prepared? How can I help myself? You have the same question, how do I get ready , how do I pack? Well you know in the United States you don’t need, where I came from, from old Tibet, there were no motels, no hotels so if you are taking a journey of 21 days you have to pack everything. I did that. Couple of journeys of 20 days from where I lived in Lhasa to my father’s estate in the Gompo area. It took us 21 days. People who are going straight I don’t think they take that much. For us 21 days we get all kinds of people going together and so about 50 or 60 people so some go some don’t want go, some don’t want get up early, some want get up early and so anyway we must be going on the pony for about three or four hours a day. It took 21 days. So you have to have to have everything prepared, including the cooking pots and utensils and tea and butter and food and sleeping things and tents and dresses and everything. It was an old fashion thing that we would have a group of people going before us to make arrangement for lunch and another group already gone before where we were going to spend the night. They also carried everything. So we have to pack everything.

0:08:44.5 If you have so many [things to carry] you cannot carry a lot so what we do is the unnecessary things and useless things we discard them because instead of helping, it will cause harm. That’s why we discard all negativities and take everything useful that we need. So every virtuous work and anything we accumulate. Generosity is one, you all know. Morality is another one, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, wisdom and compassion. Those we pack. These are what we keep on packing and the box, the suitcase in which you pack is your consciousness and within the consciousness there are certain things where you carry the imprints or whatever. So you are packing that. You don’t have to find that box to put it in because it is automatic. Nowadays when you have those automatic things you put your name on it, they automatically alphabetically they will organise and put it automatically. Just like that if you just create virtues they automatically packed in. And they know exactly where to go. Alphabetical order. And whenever you need it, it will just pop up.

0:10:38.7 And if you pack unnecessary things they also start popping up together so then you have a problem of sorting out, like Marione. ( a joke) When you have a Marione in Holland then you see all these Mariones, Marione Soeters, Marrione Bickos, Marrione Van de hof, all these Mariones will pop up. You don’t need that. That’s why even it is virtuous, even then some are not that necessary. So anything that being influenced by Bodhimind which is a direct cause for enlightenment, you pack those things in. When I say be prepared that’s how you prepare.

0:12:00.5 With the motivation such as what I mentioned all my life especially this year, this month, this week very especially today the 24 hours, with this motivation, one benefit I must share with you is bodhimind. Bodhimind’s benefit is tremendous as in first chapter of the Bodhisatvva charyavatara which we did. It was interesting, the first time, I think it was Aura, requested me to teach Bodhisatvva charyavatara I said ok. It was easy to say ok but when you start teaching, years go by and not finishing and so three, four or five years later I said I think we spent about a year here talking about Bodhisatvva charyavatara. I think Tony King said No Rimpoche. What? He said Rimpoche it had been five years. It was five years already. So out of which the first chapter was on the benefits of bodhimind. It is tremendous. These are why are they telling about those benefits because it is true, if not true why should they lie and making a chapter out of the extremely famous important teaching such as Bodhisatvva charyavatara. If you look back, the author who shared this Bodhisatvva charyavatara is …teaching by one individual monk who did nothing but just slept all the time and ate and went to bathroom. Then got up ate, slept and went to bathroom. So all the Buddhist community in that Ashram of Buddha started labelling this guy as three times. Three time normally means past, present and future but for him three times meant time to go to bathroom, time to eat and time to sleep. So that beccame his nickname..

0:15:08.8 It was the Buddhist tradition to have purification and confession every fourteen day. It is unlike the Western tradition somewhere somebody goes in and get into room and tell your sins that you committed and not knowing whether the James Bond is sitting in the other side of the wall or not. But you keep on saying it. But in the Buddha’s tradition, it is very interesting. Almost all the downfalls and negativities like full fledged Bikshus have 254, all of those and they all listed; What happen during the confession period, everybody stand up, somebody will start saying, killing human beings, then stealing, sexual misconduct and so and forth and everybody will say together. Everybody make the confession together and then actually from your own mind so no one can misuse this and blackmail you. James Bond will not be interested to come in because there is nothing to pick up. So they did this every14 days. It was a funny old Indian culture that when the nuns are making the confession they must invite a male Bikshu always. That is funny but that was old culture. Buddhism always work and adapt the culture tremendously so it is our duty to [distinguish between] what is culture and what is true dharma and separate them and begin to discard what you don’t need.

0:17:47.3 They invited and then they chose this three times guy. The nuns thought that to be an insult to them. They could have chosen any learned person because at the end of the confession there would be teachings. Normally they would memorise certain sutras and they would just recite them and call that as teaching. So the nuns thought what an insult to us. They could have sent any learned guy, there were hundreds of them there but they chose to send this guy who knows nothing but the three things. They are insulting us so we must insult them back. So what they did was they collected all their robes and made and a huge throne such that there was no way he could climb up, no provided steps or anything. So he came in and took the usual confessing and everything, participated in that and then when it was time to teach he saw the throne and it looked like there was no way he could go up there. His thought was it this was done out of respect or was it done to insult. He knew it was an insult. So he raised his hands. The books will tell you he raise his right hand like an elephant trunk and pressed everything down. Everything shrunk, just shrunk so he sat on that and he began teaching the Bodhisatvva charyavatara and then he started going up and up and up and went beyond the roof and anyway finally the guy was completely gone. And after the 10th chapter they said they could only hear the sound and not see him at all, only heard the sound. So that is Bodhisatvva charyavatara.

0:20:13.3 There is no reason for them to lie. So totally the first chapter out of ten is on benefits of the bodhimind. One thing I remember maybe its essence ( Tibetan) It is like a golden solution even an impure contaminated life like what we have, we will be changed into a pure uncontaminated body like that of life of Buddha’s. So it is priceless. There is no measure of value in any times. It is the bodhimind, it’s like a gold solution that if you apply on the matter will change into gold, likewise this is what bodhimind does. That’s what Shantideva said. That’s why this mind is ultimate unlimited unconditioned love and compassion. Even if we don’t get it, at least just by a , it is sort of interesting. When you are taught to meditate and everybody knows how to sit and do whatever you are doing, this or that. You can do because you can look at the other person whatever they are doing and then you can do the same thing so it is easy part of it. But what you [need to] think is very difficult but what how you sit, what you do so you know. Just like that even if you don’t know the real bodhimind at least just copycat, try to duplicate, try to think for the benefit of all beings I would like to obtain enlightenment for which I will do this and that. It is simple little thought it will make a tremendous difference. It is like a salt in food. If you put a little salt in food, the food will taste perfect, if there is no salt it will be some sweet or whatever. Just like that it will work., It is simple, very easy. However it is extremely beneficial.

0:23:32.5 So if you build in your habit the moment you wake up think Oh I am happy to be alive but I will not waste my life, I will not waste my years, my months my week particularly this day so whatever I do I will like to do to benefit all beings. ALL- all beings, that including yourself. Don’t say I spend my time here to benefit all beings except me. Nor except somebody else. It just ALL period. You should not do exception. During the teachings they tell you the story. I think it is Drugpa Kunleg, the founder of the Drugpa tradition or Akhu Thamba, one of them I cannot remember. One of them went to a monastery in the Northern part of Lhasa. At the back of my house. There were two monasteries. Next side was the prime minister’s house. So two of them known as Muru, no Songbolin and Shedek , two monasteries. Quite big maybe they had 100 monks each which is nothing in Tibet because the big ones had ten thousand monks. Those monks were in the city so they were very active in life. They were involved in business and did all kinds of things. So either Akhu Thamba or Drugpa Kunleg , one of them went outside the monastery and sat there shouting. I take refuge Buddha, I take refuge in Dharma, I take refuge in all sangha except the monks of the Muru and the Shedek. Ha ha ha. So we shouldn’t do anything except, so not except me not except so and so. That’s for the benefit of all beings.

0:26:55.1 It will help you tremendously and if you are new to this and if you keep that in mind, if you try to do in your daily work and by the time when you go, you will be thanking me. Honestly. That’s what when I said generate pure thoughts, pure motivations I am referring to this.

0:27:52.4 Let us start the day looking into this 21 Taras. Again this practice again coming from Buddhist practice. This practice is coming from Mahayana practice. Again taking refuge, generating bodhimind thinking about the four immeasurables. You know all those. Generating bodhimind, I just talked to you, taking refuge I talked yesterday. Four immeasurables, we have been singing all the time here, may all beings have happiness and all these, free of this and that. These are the pre requisites and it also identify where the practice come from and even here again emphasized for the benefit of all beings one would like to obtain stage of Buddha Tara and for which one will like to have the yoga of Tara. And I would like to practise the yoga of Tara. Now there are two things here, one if you are Vajrayana practitioner, even if you had initiation you have sadhanas normally you are not Vajrayana practitioner because although we pretend to be and we claim to be, we are not really because to be a good and true Vajrayana practitioner you should really to have the wisdom and all these, at least you have to have. You should comprehend the wisdom and bodhimind and it is really hard. But we pretend to be and that’s good enough to be able to pretend.

0:31:00.8 We emphasize a lot of danger, downfalls and all these and I am thinking myself whether I have a little over done that because people will begin to have hesitations and worry yet they want to do but they begin to have hesitation and all that. Anyway it is good. On the other hand it is not that good because the opportunities are very rare. And the I believe the Vajrayana will be very short lived. By nature it is. It is nobody’s fault but it is so, that’s why. So we pretend to be Vajrayana practitioner and if you are pretending to be a Vajrayana practitioner you can generate yourself in the form of any yidam. Provided if you are practitioner of a Maha anuyoga tantra, highest tantra, all lower tantras covered by that. But if you are practitioner of only Kriya or Charya and then you cannot generate yourself in the form of yidam which belongs to the higher yogas. You will have downfalls if you do. So that’s why.

0:32:37.3 And if you are not and over here most of us are not. So what we are going to do is we are going to find the one Tara in front of us so you have to meditate. Just like this longevity White Tara you meditate, just like that here you in the space before ourself. Space is empty. Represents emptiness because when there is nothing blocking, there is room. When there is room you can do anything you want to. When there is no room then you can’t do anything because you are limited. So that’s why space in front of us. Lotus and moon cushion, is interesting. Lotus and moon cushion. Why lotus and why moon? Try to look in here and say what the first Dalai Lama said. I thought of talking to you with this the first Dalai Lama’s praise to Tara but might not be able to because … The second verse says ( Tibetan ) What it really tell you is yesterday we briefly told you the source of Tara tantra. There are two different ways of introducing Tara. So here the first Dalai Lama chose ( Tibetan) This is Tibetan poetry . ( Tibetan) It is fantastic. Referred to the Avalokitesvara , not as Avalokitesvara, referred as Avalokitesvara who has been kind almost says Buddha of compassion. From the compassion of the Compassion Buddha out came this most beautiful female deity of activity who helps all beings protecting from all their weakness and the lack of having anything. So which is known as Dolma. I am not doing any service at all, matter of fact I may be doing disservice to this beautiful poetry by telling you in this way.

0:37:26.3 Because the kind compassionate Buddha’s compassion, (I told you yesterday Avalokitesvara is almost getting fed up saying well I can’t do that all by myself) his tear drops Tara pops up. Remember? That’s what this is referring to. From the compassion of the compassionate Buddha, comes the most beautiful etc etc. So what I need to hear is ( Tibetan) The word is ( Tibetan) it is just one little word, so when they say Ying, Ying is actually referring to, the Tibetan poetry has such a funny system, we just take one word here, one syllable here so you pick up a huge thing out of it. You will never to able to read poetry unless you know Tibetan very well, extremely well. Otherwise it is very difficult. When you read the Ying, Ying refers to rang zhin ying, rang zhin ying refers to nature, nature refers to shunyata. Shunyata in one way is emptiness, in another way it is Dharmadhatu. That’s where Trungpa Rinpoche used terminology called the Dharmadhatu Vajrayadhatu and all of those. Those Dhatus. Ying is referring to Dharmadhatu. Dharmadhatu refers to shunyata. So if you look into the Tara’s sadhana, you have OM SHUNYATA JNYANA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM right ? Oh its OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHA HAM, they all same thing anyway.

0:40:04.5 That is what Allen Ginsberg translated as Nature empty, everything's pure, naturally pure, that's what I am. That is OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHA HAM. So Ying refers to this. To represent that Ying you have a lotus. You get it? Why lotus? Rig represents rigpa, rigpa represents pure mind. Pure mind represents enlightenment, that’s why Sogyal Rinpoche used Rigpa as for his centres. We have Trungpa Rinpoche here and you have Sogyal Rinpoche here, so Ying and Rig, that’s how it works. ( Tibetan) That represents pure , pure represents at the moon, moon represents pure. You know why moon represents pure? Whether the Hindu Buddhist mythological stories. Whether it is really myth or not but what it represents to the people what really happens is the sun gives the heat and the moon gives coolness. Because they give you light but filters the heat that comes through this sun and moon consider cool and which goes with our common language today, it is cool man, so that’s coolness. Anyway the moon represents pure. That presenting pure also, the ying represents the purity of nature and the moon or the rig represents the purity of the impure things that suddenly comes up.

0:43:20.9 When you talk about the obstacles you talk about the two obstacles, nature obstacles and temporary obstacles. Although you people only heard the temporary obstacles not so much the natural obstacles. Because I notice every Tibetan Buddhist teacher don’t talk much about natural obstacles at all at this moment to the Western audience anyway. So they don’t mention at all so you only hear about the temporary obstacles because it is easy but the natural impurities are also there which is , we begin to touch, you say what is the imprint of the delusion yesterday, we talked about garlic, garlic smell and all of those. And the smell aspect of it is cause the natural impurity aspect of it. The ying and rig, the moon and lotus represents the purity of both. Moon represents the purity of temporary things that comes in. ( Tibetan)

0:44:55.1 On such a cushion sits one who is the colour of ma ge. Ma ge is a jewel, emerald, it is green jewel, emerald green. It’s emerald jewel. Emerald coloured, one face, two hands. Emerald colour represents out of five wisdoms, the wisdom of activities. When you become fully enlightened, the problem here , you notice that, when I say five wisdom I am sure those of you here for the first time, ‘what did he say?’ What five wisdom? Is there five something? Actually to be benefit for, those who have heard before, they know what I am talking about. But we have five skandas, that’s Greek too. Five aggregates, is that Greek too? Five aggregates, and we have five consciousness. Five aggregates transform and later become five pure enlightened Buddhas and five consciousness has become transform and become five wisdoms. So that’s how it works.

0:46:55.2 So out of five wisdom one of the wisdom is called wisdom of activity, to be able to do everything. In other word that represents Tara in that way. In other word Tara is coming out as one who rolls her sleeves up and ready to work. It indicates that. Even out of five wisdoms that wisdom of activities, youthful, very youthful not only the Tibetans but the traditional Indian culture always says the youth is 16 years of age. Don’t think 16 is not matured or is not matured enough. I think the reason why they chose 16 is internally although physically they don’t show, physically they begin to show the youth going down begins at the 25 but internally I think it is 16 is the peak and then it will have effect of going down. I think by 17 it starts to go down. That’s probably the reason why they always talk about youth 16.

0:49:34.5 So such a Tara sitting and the right leg represents appearance side. Appearance side means when you are looking from the wisdom angle you see the things appear so the appearance side and then when you looking in deeply you have the empty side, the nature of the emptiness side. The right leg represents appearance side so slightly stretched out. Left leg represents the empty side which is slightly put in and the way Tara sits. We are very grateful to the Rubin museum. They have provided all our needs of the 21 Taras out of their Thangka. They even provide the high resolution original film itself for all of these 21 Taras. They also provided the film of the 8 protection of the Fear Taras so we are grateful for that. And we have been struggling [ identify the Taras] because for the Western mind all has to be chronologically worked out. Hartmut and Jonas spent time trying to put them in chronological order. It didn’t work at all. Some are up there, some are down there, some are here, some are there. So doesn’t work. So they have been complaining, I said don’t worry we [will get] used to it, doesn’t matter. We had never done this. It was only Andy Webber who had printed 21 thangka and chronologically. Probably that is the only one I know of. Otherwise they make sure they don’t do it that way. It is not necessarily come out to be right but so it is the green printed as yellow, That’s fine.

0:53:16.7 So the left leg represents the wisdom aspect. I am going to spend time to talk on one Tara. The rest of them will have the same thing, same sitting way. There is another one 21 Tara system which was brought through the Mahasiddhi Nyi bä. The Nyi bä system of 21 Tara has completely different hand implements and different things. You look at the wrathful Tara, you look at the Tara. You will find totally 21 different ones, just look and the explanation is there. All Taras are almost same way but hand implements will change so whole thing will change. Their purpose will change, everything will change. So to praise this, first Dalai Lama says ( Tibetan) Really beautiful. The right and the left chest of your body you have are beautiful fully developed rising, not going down. Youth that’s why 16 years. The beautiful breasts which give the indication that she is a giver of uncontaminated joy. Not the attachment and obsession oriented contaminated joy but it is pure love oriented uncontaminated joy. So she indicates , give you the message saying ” I am the giver of uncontaminated joy” or “ I am the treasure that keeps and share the joy of uncontaminated ones. “

0:58:02.9 The face is like a full moon. A full moon has nothing missing, totally full, completely, Not necessarily telling you it is moon-like face, round like a tortilla bread or chapati. They are not telling you that. Each one of these words will give you one opposite and one insight, that’s why it’s the beauty of this poetry. You don’t have to write so much , just one little word here and there and if you know how to read it, you will know. If you don’t know how to read, it just the face is like moon. That’s it. It tells you it represents the moon fullness, it is fullness. Physically fully matured, fullness, nothing missing like moon on 15th of the lunar calendar, full moon. Radiating light. And two eyes. Not only the full moon, fully developed face but extremely peaceful and wonderful, joy nature, beautiful. The beautiful eyes and looking at all living sentient beings and that of the down trodden who are helpless and hopeless and who think themselves helpless and hopeless and she is looking at them with slight gesture of sort of indication of hey, I like you, I love you with that message from the eyes and the also the long eyes not threatening round bulging eyes but sort of long eyes. Long indicates indicates showing the compassion and love.

1:01:16.7 When you have bulging eyes and giving you the message “ I am going to hit you” or going to choke you, it is not that way but long beautiful soft gesture indicating the love and affection. And living in the forest of sandalwood or forest of sandalwood that is growing in the pure turquoise land. And such a wonderful mother to you, I bow. So that’s give you the explanation of Tara’s body here. The physical body, almost all except hand implements.

1:02:25.4 Welcome back all beautiful Taras. To continue where we stopped. Now we reach to the hands of the Tara. ( Tibetan) They are talking about the hands of the Tara. It didn’t say it is the golden branch, it says it is like a branch of a Turquoise tree. So must be green. Just joking. It is like turquoise tree branch. That doesn’t have any thorns or any thing harsh. Roses are very beautiful however they have lots of thorns. This one doesn’t and is very smooth as though it is a turquoise branch stretched out. Soft, smooth and gentle to touch and very flexible. Putting on the right side the knee and showing the palm of the hand to all is the offering mudra which indicates I offer the ultimate and if you are intelligent one and if you know you think you can manage, I am here to assist you. I am here to offer you the ultimate siddhi or the ultimate accomplishment that is the total enlightenment. I invite you to be the guest of joy celebration of total enlightenment. I am quickly inviting you please join with me quickly. That’s the right hand gesture.

1:05:24.5 ( Tibetan) The left hand is holding at the heart level of the Tara herself which indicates I am a Buddha, my mind is a Buddha, I am a Buddha. I am Tara ma, my speech, my sound is dharma, I am a sangha, my body is sangha. So indicating I am the total collections of three jewels, three objects of refuge, the ultimate refuge, three objects which indicates by rising three fingers up in that manner. Along with this she also holds her left hand at the side of the left breast and it is showing the she is also indicating the giver of protection. Protection I told you yesterday, here I am here to protect you from the sufferings of the samsara in general and particularly hundreds of different of fears. I didn’t notice recently the number of people been saying they changing the fear into danger. Protection from the danger. Ya but danger is one thing, fear is another thing. Danger indicates something temporary and fear is something very long nagging continuously. Even this administration use the fear of terrorism constantly and then they give you the danger [signal] of red, orange and yellow and all of those for whatever the reason may be. No one can say it is not true , no one can say it is true either. So whatever it may be, slightly different here and there so it is temporary thing. Here she is protecting from, the word they use in traditional Tibet this beautiful poem of the first Dalai Lama, ( Tibetan).

1:10:12.4 Those who are suffering from the hundreds of different fears I am telling you, don’t be afraid. I am here to help you, I am inviting you to join me especially those who are down trodden and who doesn’t have help, who thinks they are helpless, hopeless so I am telling you, don’t be afraid, I am here. It is nice Tara doesn’t say Help is on the way. If you keep on saying help is on the way, if you don’t get in the White House you don’t know if help will come. So this is saying I am here to protect you from the fears, the hundreds of fears of samsara in general and particularly lower realm sufferings. So please don’t be afraid. I am here, I am Buddha, I am dharma I am sangha, I am Tara, I am here at your service to quickly deliver you. So that is how Tara send this message. I am here, she says. She doesn’t say. I am on the way. ( Tibetan)

1:12:37.1 Both the right and the left hands are holding a beautiful Utpala, blue colour Utpala flower. This is not lotus. A number of people will say it is lotus. It is Utpala, not lotus. Utpala is more rare than lotus. Believe me, I have seen Utpala during my childhood. It grows at 18000 feet high in the big mountain behind Drepung monastery. It grows in the very rocky area, it doesn’t grow in the beautiful pasture or nice place where it should grow. It doesn’t. It grows in terrible rocky area in the middle of rocks, somewhere down there. Here and there and one or two very rare [occasions] I have seen it. In order to see the Utpala you really have to go almost whole mile up from the monastery up to the mountain top. I was a kid then. You have to get there before sun rises around there and we were not supposed to say a word. Everybody had to keep their mouth shut. Because if you make noise they said the Utpala will disappear. Or maybe because I was a kid making a lot of noise they probably told me that. Hahahaha. Who knows? They might have done that too. Anyway I was told, if you make noise they will disappear. So you look here and there in between in certain area, you really see nice beautiful flower. It is not so big as this, it is tiny little one, not that tiny . It is almost size of pansy. Really beautiful. I also remember when his Holliness visited Drepung he wanted to pick up those Utpala flower and he went up there himself, I don’t know whether he got it. Probably didn’t. What happened was thereafter for a number of days people were going up there to try to pick the Utpala flower, I am sure he got it at the end. It is considered more rare than lotus. But it is not so rare as Udumbara flower. Sometimes Udumbara comes occasionally when the official Buddha, fully taking charge, Udumbara blooms once. Utpala is not that rare but more rare than lotus.

1:16:22.6 What does Utpala tell us. ( Tibetan) Gives us the message , don’t be silly and don’t be attached to this contaminated joy that we experience. Don’t have obsession for samsara’s picnic spots. Join with me in the liberation. That is invitation. So in my mind as I explained last night on the question why you say Chose love and be fearless. As I explained last night with the T-shirt. Somebody was wearing the T shirt today. Kathleen is wearing the old T shirt. She was showing to me today. So that is what I talked to you last night. Truth transcends fear, right? So Brenda says Joe wears all the time. That gives you fearlessness and the invitation of the Tara’s Utpala and the hand gesture tells us chose love. Be fearless, chose love. And especially here, Tara says don’t be silly and don’t be attached and have obsession to samsaric spot which is very difficult not to be. One needs to be fearless to be able to do that. And these are some of the reasons why we have that slogan. Of course there is commercial reason too, that’s what Kathleen told me too. There is a number of things some people have given and is not that great, commercial people , they chose that. So these are the leftover of last night’s question. Last night I just explained this fearlessness and then I know it is going to come today so the hand implements and the lotus and all of those and give us the something to stand behind this statement. Whether the statement that comes out of this reason or not but there is something to stand behind this statement. That is the hand implements of Tara and I think that should be enough of talking about Tara’s body. Since I explain on the first tara, then the rest of them are completely same. We may not necessarily be revisiting it.

1:20:43.2 In front of you there is space, lotus and moon cushion. From the lotus and moon we went on to explain Tara’s body. Then you have Tara the quick one, the hero and since the principal Tara in this is green that’s why all the explanations that I have been sharing is [based on] green. People say green Tara, Tibetans also called it Drol jang green too. But her actual name is seng ldeng nags kyi drolma which means liberator who lives in the forest of sandalwood. That’s really her name. As I explained yesterday she also had had the name of quick Rana as well as the Heroine so the heroine now if you look in this that little pink sheet which every one of you have, it is the praise of the 21 Taras. So homage to Tara who is swift and fearless whose eyes flash like lightning, born from the lotus in an ocean of tears, drop of tears. This is the first Tara. Lord of the three worlds, that’s what it is.

1:23:14.6 We don’t have it here but what you really need is the Om before that. Before you say homage to the Tara you have to say OM. OM Jetsun ….. chal tsal lo. When we say the praise of tara wherever you go, whether you are in nunnery , or the monastery wherever, they all begin with OM Jetsun…. Just did not say Jetsun ….alone, they will say OM first. So OM has to be there, not only OM is the conjunction from the Sanskrit grammatical point of use but as I explained yesterday with the three letters together, representing body and mind and speech. Also in this case OM also represents mother, source of all. All mantras come from OM. All sounds come from AH, all compassion represents by M so all that sort of reasons, OM should be there. So OM Jetsun ma ….. It has OM jetsun ma in Tibetan, Jetsun ma here is venerable. For women I don’t know if you say lady venerable or what? What do we say? I am not sure whether this particular one says or not. There is important point here because Tara herself is the mother of all enlightened being. You may say oh there are thousands and thousands of enlightened beings how can she give birth to thousands and thousands of them so you don’t to think in that way. The mother here is actually one who gives [birth] and that is mother of emptiness. Emptiness is the wisdom so that’s why almost every female buddha and even the male Buddhas and all enlightened beings are combination of union of wisdom and compassion. The wisdom part will give you the idea of mother being. That is the reason why I said there is no separation, there is no difference, that’s the reason why.

1:27:14.6 Venerable also indicates Tara really says clearly by herself not only I am the mother of all enlightened beings but I also have all three vows, that is vow of monks and nuns, self liberation and vows of Bodhisattva and vow of Vajrayana. I have all three vows. That’s why it says the venerable Jetsunma . When you use the word Jetsunma you are not necessarily referring to the lady who used to be in Maryland, ha ha ha though she called herself Jetsunma. Pagma is special being. Special being because I am not in samsara, I am beyond samsara, I am beyond the nirvana, not only samsara I am beyond nirvana. In Theravadenyana or in Hinayana in Buddhist system nirvana is peace, samsara is suffering. It is Buddhist logo. You know that. Four signs of Buddhist, this is one of the Buddhist logos. But in Vajrayana and in Mahayana, nirvana is peace but not free of suffering. So total enlightenment is free of both samsara and nirvana sufferings. So the word in Tibetan, zhi shi jigpa is the fear of zigpa, the samsara , fear of peace, the nirvana so the fearless here as you see the Tara fearless, special being, fearless, fearless is the fear of both the samsara and the nirvana. Samsara has suffering, fear of suffering, nirvana has fear of peace so boring probably doesn’t know what to do, lukewarm , sleeping, can’t sleep anymore. You can’t sleep 14 hours a day , if you do must be something wrong. So you can’t. So fearless is pagma or special, not in samsara, not in nirvana, beyond samsara , beyond the nirvana.

1:31:31.8 Om jetsunma pagma …..chak tsal lo. ……..( Tibetan) So who I prostrate to you, who are the swift and fearless. Homage to Tara the swift and the fearless. I just explained ( Tibetan) about whose eyes flash like lightning. Tara is swift means she is the much quicker, much faster than other buddhas. The buddhas do take a little time to function but Tara is supposed to be much quicker. As I told you yesterday in Tara’s story she tried to prove that as a woman, I can do things double the efforts and double the efforts. Even today I have seen the woman in the executive position in their companies try to prove themselves. They have to force themselves and make themselves much more forceful than that of their male counterparts. I have seen that. Whether you accept or acknowledge or deny that but all your actions show that everywhere. So just like that, Tara went through working double the rate, double the efforts and all that. That’s why she got this title of swift.

1:33:39.4 Hero, hero ni over here is fearless but however hero , hero ni here means not only she’s quick but she will totally destroy all evil forces. Don’t think of evil who has little horns and tails and fangs but it is the evil within us. And that is our negativities, negative emotions, negative karma, our hatred, our obsession and especially our ignorance. And her eyes are like lightning. Lightning is very fast, so just like that, very fast like lightning she can see every reality absolutely, inner, outer, secret reality within matter of seconds all the time simultaneously and that’s why whose eyes flash like lightning. ( Tibetan)

Then born from the lotus and ocean of tears. Where does the ocean of tears come from? The Tibetan here says …, there are two parts. The first part is born from , the first part , here is last from Lord of three world. The three worlds are the world of the Nagas. Y ou are going through little mystical points, ok? Nagas are the spirits that live under the ground. On the ground that will be world of human beings or the human land. Then space, the world of gods. In other words, the three world means in our normal American language , hell, heaven and earth. Traditionally in this old ancient culture you have under the ground, over the ground and the space. Under the ground they refer to the Nagas. There is a state called Nagaland which is supposed to be below the ocean but it is not. It is on the mountain top. I don’t know why but even the explanation of the Indian documents will also say it is lower than ocean, but it is not, it is on mountain top. Anyway it is called Nagaland. There is state called Nagaland. Actually half of the Nagaland is on the mountain and half is ground and upper part is called Arunaja. The state changes. Anyway the three world is under, over, space and it is hell, heaven and earth.

1:39:10.0 ( Tibetan) The lotus is born out of water. The lotus is born out of mud. Lotus has lots of reasons. ( Tibetan) The lotus is born out of mud but there is no fault of mud. It also gives, represents the the bhanga and the bhanga represents the giver of joy.so that’s the reason why. I hope it is not too much Greek. You can imagine. ( Tibetan) Though it is born out of attachment but there is no fault of attachment like lotus born out of mud but there no fault of mud. It is pure. Represents pure. (Tibetan) So such a lotus born out of such a water, which water are you talking about. Water that came out of the face of the one who helps, one who leads the three worlds which is Buddha of compassion which is Avalokitesvara. The tear of Avalokitesvara which is coming out. I told the story yesterday. So this ocean business is talking about water in that way. And that is the first Tara.

1:42:57.2 Tara also has a wonderful dress, the skirt as well as the shawl etc. It is also not just ordinary silk but is panjelika material which never exists anyway. A never existent material. It is not the Emperor’s new clothes but it is a never existent, sort of going through extreme, the finest of all clothes that you can wear. They call it Panjelika. Panjelika is gone beyond the silk, gone beyond wool, gone beyond every ordinary level of anything we can think of. It is extraordinary, joy nature, wisdom nature, compassion nature that came through a dress in the form of material and that is what Tara wears.

She also has the quality of 80 minor and 32 Major marks of Buddha. And sitting in the radiating light from the body and sitting in that, if you sit crossed leg you will say lotus posture or sometimes we say vajra posture. Here you say Bodhisattva posture. The way Tara is sitting you know the left leg in, right leg slightly out, is called the , in Tibetan it is called Sempa Gedong. Sempa can be mind but they are not talking the mind, they are talking about the dorje sempa. Dorje sempa can be Vajrasattva or Vajrasattva can be Bodhisattva, so that’s why sempa gedong means Bodhisattva style of sitting. And each of those Tara has a letter OM representing on the crown but you may not see that in Thangka. We don’t print that in Thangka because the thangka is picture. A picture is symbolic, just a reminder and picture is picture. It belongs to museum not us. What you need is your own 21 Taras. The first of your own Tara and that you have to produce. You can commission any great artist to draw your Tara but that also will be the artist created Tara but what you really need is your own Tara. I am not talking you [generating] your Tara in your computer. I am not talking about computer drawing. I am talking about your mind producing your own Tara and that is yours. No thieves can ever take that away from you except your mental faculty called forgetness. Except that, no one can take from you and that’s your Tara. That is [the Tara] you imagine, in other word, normally we call that visualise. It is meditation, visualisation, in other word visualising is imagining. Another word is image drawn by your mind for you by you and for your eyes only. So that is really your own Tara. That’s what you draw.

1:48:26.3 In that Tara you draw the letter OM on the crown Ah at the throat and HUM at the heart level. There is important reason for that. If you don’t know what OM looks like, it is ok. O M can be OM and then for AH you can write A H A and HUM, H U M. and If you can write O H M for OM that maybe better. For AH, Allen used to write A but later he changed to AHA. If you have three syllables put together it gives you lots of meaning, that represents the body, mind and speech. I hope nobody will write and say who put H in OM. Somebody put a H in Gelek and somebody wrote a note saying who put a H in Gelek. So I hope nobody will write a note saying who put H in OM. That’s because its body, mind and speech.

1:50:56.0 You have your own Tara drawn and visualised, I am just talking to you today and not making you meditate. But if you want to meditate, in your free time and during the morning, they will tell you the same thing except that all the Taras look the same except the hand implements change sometime and the colour of the Tara also change. It is your own creation and that is good enough to be true Tara. Believe me. It is really good enough. Why? I do have a zillion different reasons but I tell you one. The activities of the enlightened beings have no limitations, they are limitless. The moment we give ourselves a little opportunity, a little openness, they are there to serve you. They are there to help you. Therefore the moment you open up a little bit, Tara is there. There is no doubt about. Tara is there. So that is good enough.

However our rational mind is such a crazy mind that it will tell you there is nothing here, just imagination and that this big fat Tibetan Lama told you and you just listened to him and imagined. Right? So just to satisfy your rational mind, hey why don’t you have the invocation. Invite the wisdom Tara from her natural abode or wherever she is from or from the turquois pure land wherever. The way you do that is radiating light from that letter HUM at the heart and the light reaches to all pure lands and invite all enlightened beings in the form of Tara and dissolve them in your imagined Tara and become oneness. If you want you can say it DZA HUNG BAM HO. If you don’t want say it, it’s fine. Not only it enters and become one, not only become one, happy to be there. And that’s what you have consecrated your own Tara with invocation. So it becomes real, true Tara.

1:54:49.2 Now that you have your first Tara with you. What are you going to do? Offer the seven limbs. I bow in body , mind and speech, I offer whatever is actually arranged and mentally created, I purify all my negativities, I rejoice in all the great activities by every great beings , I request you to remain forever and I request you to give me guidance and help, I dedicate all my merits. When we come back or if there is time I will explain these 7 limbs otherwise in the morning Tara teachings there will be explanation of seven limbs one day for you for all the benefits of beings there.

I have mentioned that we have been doing this teachings on the Bodhisattva charyavatara. The first chapter is on the benefits and the other chapter on morality, generosity, conscientiousness etc. We spent a long time explaining and a lot of people worked to come up with the transcripts. A lot of transcripts are available, a lot of them not yet ready. We spent whole of last year, every Tuesdays and Thursdays talking about the fifth paramita of concentration which is meditation. I taught meditation on the basis of the Bodhisattva charyavatara on Tuesdays in Ann Arbor and on the basis of Je Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim chenmo on Shamata based meditation in the New York.

As you know the Jewel Heart is doing a great service to the members. Not only do we have the teachings available live, online as well as webcast them continuously for 24 or 48 hours, making it available. We all have a great deal of appreciation and deep sincere thank you for the IT people lead by the crazy Jo. Transcripts are made by the program side especially Hartmut taking years and making them available online immediately. There are a lot of help from others too. Then Marianne Soeters continuously working so hard, making the transcripts possible and Anne puts lots of efforts to try to [edit the language.] So we really deeply thank all of them. Thank you. As a result of those this little chapter on meditation thing is now available.

The pictures we used here belonged to Domo Geshe Rinpoche. It is not American based but it is Gangnum, the Gangjong Namgyal up in New York. Unfortunately Geshe Rinpoche passed away several years ago. I saw this thangka at the Geshe Rinpoche’s dining room. This thangka, this drawing was originally created by Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche when he was about 40s or 50s. Then within the short period of time, everybody was using this but then slightly different changing somewhere so then the somebody noticed it and requested Kyabje Rimpoche to redraw and they carved the xylograhic block print. Geshe Rinpoche had that coloured thangka printed out of that xylograph which Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche himself again corrected. Even in the colophon he wrote that people are making [ the picture in] different ways so the publisher told him to correct it so “I had corrected it” and sort of said “I will stand behind this”. So that was the pictures we use and we are very grateful and thank you Geshe Rinpoche and Gangjong Namgyal. Hopefully Geshe Rinpoche’s reincarnation will come soon and be a good one, be helpful as every incarnation is no necessarily great. Very unfortunate.

Gun?? Rimpoche had said one great Amdo Lama of 17th century ( Tibetan) When you are recognising the incarnate it looks wonderful and beautiful. When the incarnate is dragging the feet of the great previous one with big heavy load when it is dragging it down, how sad it is. That’s what Gungtang said. Sometimes it happens very often. Might not be the fault of the incarnate, definitely not the fault of wherever it is emanated from but it happens with the times and conditions. Sometimes that happens. So do not take for granted when the incarnate [acts] that way.

A few years ago we had a great deal of difficulties. There was a Rinpoche called Telbur??? Rinpoche. He’s still living in California. He is a nice guy, there is no doubt about it. [The previous] Telbur Rinpooche was even more important than Trijiang in Ganden Monastery. Telbur Rinpoche/ Telbur was one of the biggest one. Even Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche told me that. He even wrote in his biography. One day Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche was asked to sit by somebody above the previous Telbur Rinpoche. Kyabje Rimpoche said he was scared but felt proud and happy both. He said he had a funny emotion because he was sitting above the Telbur Rinpoche then.

So Telbur Rinpoche’s reincarnation was in Dharamsala. Somehow he ran away and came to Delhi and borrowed money from everybody giving some kind of excuse saying that he is working for Tibetan library and couldn’t get his whatever it is and so borrowing from everybody. We knew we were not going to get [ the money back] so we loan 100 or 200 or whatever. You know you are not going to get it back so might as well forget it. He said the moment he gets money from the office he will pay back. Forget it. That’s what he did. He was running around. Then Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche told me. He said I did not make mistake on recognising the Telbur Rinpoche. So please help him. So I kept Telbur Rinpoche with me. Tried to get him to edit those printing books. I had to read twice after him. He was supposed to work 8 hours for me but I can hardly see him for one hour or so. Anyway that’s not bad.

Finally I somehow helped managed to send him to the United States where I thought at least he would do something good. For a while he was ok. He got married, he worked then he went somewhere else. Lati Rinpoche was Telbur Rinpoche’s teacher at that time. One of Lati Rinpoche’s disciples was married to a Japanese. Lati Rinpoche might have told that [disciple] that this was the real Telbur Rinpoche so please help him. Kyabje Trijiang Rimpoche told me that Lati Rinpoche might have told her to help him. So she made him the manager of the Japanese restaurant and they went for holiday. Telbur Rinpoche then took all the money and ran to Mexico. He left a note saying that he took this much money and that whenever he have the money he will give the money back.

He was arrested and put in jail. The judge set such a huge bail so no one could [bail him out]. That was because the judge thought he was a smuggler so set a huge bail something like $25000. So no one could bail him out. Then they kept on reducing reducing reducing the bail. One day the judge told him that even if I had set bail for someone at 50 thousand or hundred thousand people will bail him out within a day, what happen to you? He said no I don’t have anyone. The judge then realised that he was not a smuggler and finally reduced the bail to 5000. So we all collected the money and got him out. Especially Geshe Sutrum Gyentse the LA Lama did it. Even the late Mrs Yutok contributed, everybody contributed and got him out. So that is the Telbur’s incarnation. So every incarnation is not necessarily perfect but it is there. So that’s the reason why. So Geshe Rinpoche’s reincarnation will hopefully will come soon and that he will be a great one. That we should pray for.