Archive Result

Soundfile 20050724GRNE1Omaha

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location Omaha

Topic Good Life Good Death

Transcriber Vivian Obermeier

Date

0:17:13.7 Now I’m supposed to talk to you about Good Life Good Death. The essence of Good Life Good Death is the Jewel Heart prayers you just read. This is in simple English – you can read it, you can understand and we have running courses here. If I can contribute little bit on the Jewel Heart prayers that many of you say here, many of you say here. And there may be one or two who don’t say… is there anybody who doesn’t say that prayer, yeah? I’m sorry that is a funny question because no one would like to raise hand there. (Laughter) So but the real essence, the Good Life Good Death, is coming out of that prayer. So after we go through this you will see it, when you read it you will see how it fits. And that’s really what it is.

So I’d like to, if you don’t mind, with your permission – you came here to get an apple but I’m going to give you an orange. So, if you don’t mind, I thought it would be more useful, more beneficial for you. I’m not going to emphasize anything much on even Buddhism. I’m not going to emphasize anything much in the Gelugpa tradition. Not at all. but also not even much into emphasizing even Buddhism. In the essence of Good Life Good Death I’m going to talk to you. And there are certainly two purposes. The purpose one, is you’d be better off. You came here to get brass and you get gold. You’ll be better off. Purpose two, is also the people who are practicing in Jewel Heart, I don’t get to talk to the very often what the Jewel Heart prayers are all about. So that’s what I’d like to do, sort of kill two birds with one stone, if you don’t mind. So that’s what I’d like to do. With your permission, unless somebody objects to that. Well I don’t see any hands, hehehe. But I’ll be happy to entertain any questions that anyone has of this.

0:20:13.8 Interesting thing when Margaret started leading TAYATA GATE GATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. You people have been saying that, that is a Sanskrit word – do you know anything about it? I tried to explain here and there, all this, but I’d like to say a little bit. TAYATA: TAYATA is the sound that is being given – it’s “like this”. And when the Buddha gives his teaching, he always said – you know if you read any sutra, we say Buddhist sutra and some of the Tibetan Buddhists and a lot of Buddhists say The Collected Work or the Kanjur, what we call Kanjur. And I don’t know why -- we say “Kunjur”, but they always write Kanjur, k-a-n-j-u-r. I mean it’s established spelling.

So, when you read any Kanjur, though we say it’s collected works of the Buddha, Buddha never sat down and wrote it. We have to know this very clearly. So the Buddhologists say it is the Buddhist Canon. Anyway, they’re right. On the other hand, it’s Buddha who’s been saying this -- nobody else. So, when you read it, anywhere, it begins with: “Thus I have heard” it always begins: That’s what I heard. So just to shortly represent this phrase is: “TAYATA”. So, anyway, I don’t want to take much time.

0:21:29.7 GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. You say five words. These five words give you five paths. In Buddhism whether you are looking at Hinayana or Mahayana – I shouldn’t say Hinayana because that’s not right. Because Hinayana people don’t like it. Because they think it means smaller vehicle and looking down on it – it’s not – honestly. But still now they say no, you only say Theravada, the Elders’ Way, or something like that. But whatever, it is the politically correct or incorrect business. To be honest with you, whether you look at any path, there are Three Yanas. In Buddhism they call yana, it is a vehicle. Three different vehicles. All three different vehicles are interrelated. One is the outer big base and the other one is built on top of it, and the other one is built on top of that. So that’s why it is three vehicles. Wherever you look you’re going to find Five Paths.

0:24:01.2 Five Paths means when you are practicing Buddhism, and then how does the individual go from here to your goal? I like to be clear to all of us – I would really like to make clear to you – that is, when you practice any spiritual path, forget Buddhism, any spiritual path, you must have three things have to be corrected and clear to us. That is: base on which you’re standing, the work that you do, the result of what you hope to get out of it. If you look in this Good Life Good Death you will see “who are we” -- chapter one starts that way, right? So this is the basis – where we’re standing, on what basis? Your base and your work, what you do. Actually, the idea is: who are we, what shall we do, what do we hope to get? These are the fundamental principles. If you don’t have it, and then it becomes flying – I’m not saying it’s going to become that – you’re not grounded, you’re flying in the air. You have no basis.

The Buddha said, base is the Two Truths. The Absolute Truth and the Relative Truth is the base. Absolute Truth is the Wisdom aspect of our self, Relative Truth is what we are as a human being. Let’s say a human being -- because we are all human beings anyway -- so as human beings. What to do is two things: Compassion and Wisdom. What you hope to get: the perfection of body and perfection of mind. Perfect body perfect mind. So that’s the Base, Path, Result. So that has to be clear to all of us before we even sit down and begin to think and meditate. It is not theoretical, not philosophical, but for practical purposes this is spiritual – I didn’t say Buddhism – spiritual 101.

0:27:22.8 Otherwise, you’ll be flying, you know? Ahh doesn’t matter – as I told you last night, didn’t I say last night – sun rises, sun sets, the day goes, you know? And then suddenly there’s a gray hair and suddenly there it goes. And that’s a waste of time. Not only a waste of time, a waste of life. So that is very important to know. And then you know where you are, and you know where you’re going, and you know where you’re reaching. You have a – sort of a map – where you’re going, what is happening with you.

So, TAYATA, the word TAYATA tells you that Buddha was giving that message of Base, Path, and Result. One has to lead in one’s spiritual path. GATE, then reach to this path. They always give you Five Paths in Buddhism. Whether it is Shravakayana or Pratyekayana or Buddhayana, all always gives you Five Paths. Five Paths. Path One is called Path of Accumulation. And that is accumulating merit. We work, we purify, purifications and working, and building good karma. Basically, building good karma. Um, theoretically, I’m wrong, but practically I’m right. Theoretically I’m wrong because you build good karma even before you reached the Path, that’s why. So but practically, an accumulation of merit means collecting good karma, doing good works, good service, helpful for our self for others, for everybody, is building a love compassion. All of these are the path of accumulation. GATE means that.

0:30:09.0 Second GATE means Path of Action. Action. We call it, the first one we call it: Tsoglam [sic] in Tibetan, and the second one we call it: Jolam [sic] in Tibetan – that means action. You’re acting, towards Wisdom then. Here is the merit business, part of accumulation. Part of Jolem really you’re acting towards wisdom. If you look in the Jolem they give you four stages: [….] 0:30:51.8 That is four different actions they give you. So the example – this is 2600 years old tale -- when you want to make a fire with the twigs, you know these pieces of wood for when you want to make a fire, you have to rub those twigs together. I don’t think there were matches then, no electronics, no gas lighter. So they’re giving you that idea if you’re rubbing the twigs together after a while it becomes warm. That’s why it’s called a 0:31:35.6 [….], because it’s warm. Tsemo [sic] next, it becomes the peak of the heat and then it becomes quite hot, you know? And then Sooba [sic}, still you have to be patient and keep on rubbing.

Then the Chusor [sic] is the best of Dharma. That was the metaphor they gave you. So in other words, again, working hard to try to develop the wisdom towards this, and that is pushing through and working hard – four stages. GATE GATE.

PARAGATE then becomes Path of Seeing. Path of Seeing means – see what? See the truth. Action that you’re taking, cutting through the mystery of life and existence. And seeing what is the real reality all about? GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE whatever you have seen, you have learned – meditate. That is the Fourth Path. We call it Gomlam – whatever you’ve seen here, you meditate. Actually, detail-wise that’s like nine stages or something.

0:33:17.1 So, BODHI SOHA at the end. As the result of the Gomlam, then you have BODHI, or the No More Learning. The Fifth Path. SOHA is: may establish within us. Get it? In other words, GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA is the Five Paths. Whether it is the Hinayana or Mahayana. Even Vajrayana you can talk about Five Paths -- that’s a different story altogether, let’s not bring it here. So basic Sutrayana of the Buddha’s presentation of leading to the Enlightenment is Five Stages. These Five Stages are by these words. So, that is that.

So what do we have next?

Audience member: Next is taking refuge.

0:35:01.4 Rimpoche: Ok, refuge -- if I talk refuge – anybody have any objections? Because this is supposed to be public, open – but since you say it – refuge, ok I’ll talk to you about the refuge in a very open way, alright? So, actually when you go and pray – wherever you go to pray in church, temple, mosque, whatever you do, actually you’re taking refuge. When it comes from the Buddhist point of view, that’s what I know. When the Buddhists pray, they pray to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddha Dharma and Sangha is sort of Buddhist God. (Haha) I mean easy way to get it. The question really rises, now it’s very interesting: Who is Buddha? What is Buddha? To whom are we praying? What are we praying? How doesn’t matter – it’s not so important. To whom and what is most important. In normal understanding, they’ll say yeah, Buddha that guy from India, who was some kind of Indian Prince and who worked so hard and gave up the kingdom, went into the forest and meditated without eating food also, for years after that, developed and became a Buddha, they call it, and shared his experience that is the Buddha we think of. Some people think little more than that: well it is total enlightenment blah blah blah, and all that way. And so, these are all referring to historical Buddha.

0:38:16.7 There is historical Buddha who represents… let me talk to about myself. What does that historical Buddha mean for me, this is me, this particular human being I’m talking about? I’m not talking about you, and I’ll tell you what that means to me. To me, this historical Buddha is the representative of the Totally Enlightened Beings to me. Enlightened Beings is maybe a technical word for you -- some people. What I mean is those who are living in a perfect Heaven are The Enlightened Ones, and Shakyamuni Buddha represents that to me. So therefore, also that Buddha is most important Guru to me. So Guru and Buddha both. That is the Historical Buddha.

0:39:55.3 Simultaneously it will also touch Historical Buddha is the Causal Buddha. It caused to develop my own. So it is a Causal Buddha. And I also look at the Result Buddha. The Result Buddha is my own Future Buddha. My goal, the result which I hope to be gained for me, is to become a Buddha. That’s my result. When I get to the Buddha level, I have completed my purpose. That’s my goal.

0:41:29.4 So why do I take refuge in the Historical Buddha? Because I would like to raise and mature and bring up my Future Buddha. As simple as that. My Future Buddha is the most important for me, even more important than Historical Buddha. Historical Buddha is a representation. Just a representation. My Future Buddha is my goal. So I take refuge to the Buddha, The Historical Buddha, in order to awaken my Future Buddha. Indirectly, I’m taking refuge to my own future Buddha. That’s enough now, for Buddha.

Dharma. A lot of people say, people ask you, what is Dharma? They’ll say Teaching is Dharma. Or Dharma books are Dharma, this and that. These are all, again, like Historical Buddha – it’s a representation. True Dharma is your own, my own spiritual development, whatever I have. When I’m saying me, I’m giving it as an example. So when you’re looking within you, whatever spiritual development you have, that is your true Dharma. Books, talks, teachings, and so forth are supposed to be the result of Dharma.

0:43:34.8 Dharma is development, and whatever your knowledge or development you have, you express it. Through any form. Through art, through music through dance, through writing, through book, through speech, through presentation. Through whatever means of communicating. So these are the representation of the Dharma and whatever you have within you, is the true Dharma. And that has to be ever-increasing. There will be time when that is totally completed -- by the time when you become a Buddha and your Dharma is totally completed. Because that’s why the Fifth Path is called No More Learning. Buddha did not accidentally call the Fifth Path No More Learning. So but that’s really what it is, your Dharma is completed. You cannot go beyond that. You’ve reached the ultimate spiritual level. That’s your Dharma. Sangha also similarly. Monks and Nuns, we respect when they wear the dress, no matter whatever whoever may be the person inside but we do give respect, because that color represents something. That represents Sangha, Sangha means Path of Seeing. Seeing means one who really sees the Truth. In other words, one who has actually reached Third Path – Path of Seeing. So these are the Absolute Sangha. No matter whether you man woman children dressed in yellow, white, red, blue, black, color, multicolor rainbow – whatever. But that is True Sangha, Absolute Sangha, when you reach to the level of that Third Path. Whether you’re a monk or not, or man or woman, kids or dogs or cats, or whatever you might be. You are Sangha, you’re True Sangha at that time.

0:46:32.8 And Sangha is represented by more than four fully ordained Buddhist monks. So that’s sometimes you see the translation “I take refuge to the highest assembly”. Assembly means accumulation, collection of at least four or more fully ordained Buddhists having all the vows. We are talking about 0:47:19.7 […] only. That is the Sutra part of it, nothing to do with Tantra. It means it is the straightforward teachings and nothing about the mystical path aspects of it. So that is more than four is called Sangha, representing Sangha. That is: I take refuge to the Buddha Dharma and Sangha.

Why do you take refuge to the Buddha Dharma and Sangha? So I see the example, I see where I’m going because of the example. And I see what to do because of the Dharma. I do have help and support – that is Sangha. And by having that condition for me, my good work, such as Generosity, Morality, Patience, Enthusiasm, Concentration, Wisdom, etc., -- engaging in these activities I may reach the Fifth path. That’s simply praying, dedicating, giving commitment to yourself by yourself for you.

0:47:19.7 Four Immeasurables. What kind of attitude should I have? What kind of person should I be? What do we want? I mean looking at myself, what do I want? I want happiness, for sure. There is nobody that doesn’t want happiness. I want to be happy. And sometimes when you don’t know what happiness is, then you look for change and then you sometimes seek pain to substitute happiness. And that is what we call Delusion. So, everybody wants happiness. And, knowing from the Buddhist point of view, you don’t get the happiness. Even if you get it, it doesn’t last if they don’t have constant continuation of the cause of happiness.

0:51:07.9 It would be like when you collect water try to make a river valley project or dam by bringing the waters together from the mountainside. And if there is no more water coming from the mountainside, no matter how big a dam you build it’s going to be dry as the Arizona Desert.

So the cause is necessary. So what I wish for me is happiness. In order to maintain that happiness I have the cause of happiness continuously. That’s what I wish for myself. The attitude I take is whatever I want, I think everybody else wants the same thing. The happiness aspect of it. May all beings have happiness. And you have to think of the cause. Otherwise it doesn’t…0:53:26.1

May all beings be free from suffering. So what we don’t want is suffering. So the attitude we take not only I may have happiness and I may not have suffering, but all, everybody may have happiness and may not have suffering. And think about the cause. If you have the cause of suffering, it will come. Sooner or later. Not only sooner or later -- it changes every second anyway. Seventy-five times in every second, that’s what it is. So, the cause might not be there.

May they find the joy that has never known suffering. We don’t know what that is, anyway. So there’s something called: joy that has never known suffering, we know that. We know it’s there but we don’t know what that is. But anyway we wish for it.

May they be free from attachment and hatred. Ah, this is chapter three and four. Attachment and hatred. Attachment and hatred are actually why specifically we pray for that, because attachment and hatred are really the direct cause of suffering. Attachment here is even more than attachment, it is more about obsession. Obsession and hatred are more important cause of suffering. So we wish everybody will be free of it.

0:56:21.5 Ok now, sometimes in the Jewel Heart Prayers we have invocations in between, in some areas. And some areas we don’t have them. Both are ok. The idea is whether you invite, or you don’t invite, The Enlightened Ones are there. It doesn’t depend on your invocation. They’re there. That’s why, sometimes you don’t have the invocation. But sometimes our rational mind is such a thing – you started doing your Seven Limb and then you say: who am I talking to? What am I doing? There’s no one listening -- I’m just shouting in the empty room. To satisfy that mind, at least you have invocations. So you feel: at least I have invited enlightened beings if they don’t come for me that’s their fault. At least I have invited them. Like: I sent the invitation, if you don’t come, what can I do? Sort of, you know. Just to satisfy our own mind. So we do have invocations sometimes. Even if you don’t invite them, they’re there. Because that’s their commitment, that’s their thing. So that’s why.

So those of you who meditate: whoever you meditate on is fine, as long as the representation you’re using is a fully enlightened one. If you think about the Buddha, it’s fine – a fully enlightened one. If you think about Tara, fine – fully enlightened ones. If you think about Jesus, fine – fully enlightened one. If you think about Mary, fine – fully enlightened ones.

0:59:19.6 And if you think about ghosts, spirits and all this, it is objectionable. Because what you are going to ask them to do for you, whether they can do it or not, is a big question. Most probably not. The spirits and ghosts and all kinds of things are in the human land. We have all kinds of things. We think we have about 30 people here – don’t forget those spirits with you. With all of us, there are hundreds of them. So we do have all of those, and sometimes they’re more powerful than we are, they can do all kinds of funny things, good and bad as well as harmful or helpful. All of them, you know? And sometimes they are very mischievous as well. So but, if you try to take refuge and worship those: if they can’t help themselves how can they help us? So that’s the reason why “fully enlightened”. Object of refuge has to be Fully Enlightened One. And then it doesn’t matter -- whatever tradition, whatever side, blue, black, yellow, white, green, blue, whatever, rainbow is fine.

So, what do you do with this? It’s a big business we have here. Really big spiritual business we are doing here This Seven Limb, or Seven Branch some people call it. Whatever it is, we do seven things. What comes first? Sometimes that order also changes. First is: “I bow down in body, speech and mind”.

1:04:27.1 The idea here is actually bowing down, not necessarily offering. But offering can be done. Whatever is shown here is body, mind and speech giving the highest respect. The best I have to give – giving of respect. It’s more than respect. The translation in English doesn’t do justice to the words that we use in the Tibetan language. What happens is then you have to write something like: I admire your qualities and I desire to have your qualities for myself and I seek your quality for me. Instead of saying bow or something you have to say three or four different sentences. The word in Tibetan is chak-tsel. Tibetan, the Himalayan Kingdom areas like Bhutan, Sikh and Ladakh, all of them use […] 1:06:16.2 Ladakh always says chak tsel chak tsel, I think the Buddha says that. There are two words: Chak and Tsel. Cha means I admire you, I respect you, how wonderful you are. Tsel will say I wish I had your qualities. That’s what it is.

1:06:53.0 Then bowing down, it means the prostrations they do. The Tibetan traditions, you know they have long and short prostrations, but long means touching all parts of the body to the ground, and as much ground that you can cover, that much merit is supposed to be accumulated. That is different part of the teaching. And then there’s a shorter version of the prostrations: touching your five most important points representing total body -- two knees, two palms, forehead. Forehead is supposed to be the highest part of my body, touching the lowest part where you are -- the ground. That much respect and so forth is not for nothing. For seeking the quality that they have. That is really what prostration is all about. And some of the Chinese traditions do a very similar thing as Tibetans, touching the five points, then turn the hands around like this. Tibetans never do that but Chinese do that, some Chinese. There are a lot of different systems in the Chinese -- some just turn and sit, some will go like this three times, meaning “give me”. So that’s what it’s all about. So giving body speech and mind here is putting myself at the disposal of your kindness and compassion so that I may get your qualities. So that’s why giving here is not literally giving, but is giving in that manner.

1:09:15.2 You know why you do this? This is one of the best ways of purifying negative karmas and one of the best ways of accumulating merit as well. That’s three things: when you do the prostrations it’s a little hardship. Number one, because of that hardship, with that your mind is set up with the power of enlightened beings and your desire purifies your negativities. Number two because of the hardship we are taking it accumulates merit, and also respecting that person with their quality that’s how we build our merit. So two things… and three: good exercise. True! Physically good exercise too, really. Ok then what is next?

Then it says the best I have to give both actually arranged and imagined1:10:37.0 […] millions of times to fill the space between us.

These two are merged together, see I told you, they add it up. They don’t go: one, two, three -- there would be too many one-two-threes. So what they did is they merged these two together --prostration and offering. So the offering is the best action of generosity. Generosity you know how important it is, you all know, I don’t have to tell you. Not only generosity, but admiring the generosity is also equally helpful. And not only generosity, being generous to your object of refuge. That is your Buddha, your Dharma, your Sangha. It is very important, generosity. More important that it is a great tradition in the West, being very generous. Very generous for those who need it. The medicine for sickness, and home shelter for the homeless. And help for those who need it is fantastic and wonderful, we should always admire and appreciate. And help as much as you can. 1:12:19.0

And also, according to the Buddha’s experience and what Buddha tells and object to whom -- I hope it is not Buddhist Teacher’s propaganda – but the object to whom you give will also make tremendous difference and that is if the object is Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and they’re considered extremely much more important than just general generosity. So that’s why we make offerings such as water, flowers, and all of those. And it just doesn’t stop there, so mentally created the space between the object of refuge and ourself totally filled by all the best. And then for giving, for offering, you cannot offer more than our own body, mind and speech. That is the highest offering one can ever make. For body mind and speech offering does not mean being abused. Does not mean to be sacrificed. It does mean to make best use of it. Best benefit for whom offering and not fully to whom is offering – person who is offering.

That doesn’t mean I have offered my body so it’s up to you, go ahead and cut it chop it or whatever. That doesn’t mean that – at all. So you say oh I offered but didn’t mean it that way so I take it back. I’m kidding, that’s a joke. So the best offering means that. And that doesn’t mean I offer myself to be abused either. One has to remember that very carefully. Because people get mixed up here and people get abused a lot. In different ways. So that’s a very important point to remember. Then what else? 1:14:50.3

I regret and vow never to repeat actions that cause sufferings.

That is purification. And purification is extremely important because we have a tremendous amount of negativities. So we have to purify. Actually, these are the meditations, ok? When you begin the offering and the prostrations together, you have to visually give. You know, the whole space fills up with the best jewels in the world offered to those enlightened beings, those Buddhas Dharmas and Sanghas. That doesn’t mean you literally give, that doesn’t mean literally they take it. It also does not mean just mere mental exercise. It means act of generosity.

Do you have the right to give everything? It's a different question. This question does not rise here. Theoretically speaking, yes, I do have a right to give everything in the world to anyone I want to. Because from the karmic point of view, my karmic contribution is involved in this.

1:16:38.7 There’s something called collective karma. Today’s world, how turbulent it might be, is not George Bush’s fault, it is all of our fault. But directly if you did not vote for him, he wouldn’t be in power. Indirectly because of our karmic collection, that’s what it is. I had been thinking sometimes even if John Kerry came into the White House and became the president, he would probably be doing the same things. Maybe a little bit better selection of Supreme Court judge or something, some few laws here and there. Maybe the Patriot Act might not have passed. Sort of things like that may be different. Other than that, the war will continue, killing will continue. What we don’t want is killing and all those, but that will continue anyway. So doesn’t really matter. Perhaps all politicians are all the same anyway. Whatever it is. So it doesn’t matter whether you are blue or red, doesn’t matter. Perhaps you really need a big change. Perhaps we have to invite George Washington back, Thomas Jefferson back, and Lincoln back. So anyway where are we, Hartmut?

1:18:55.6 I rejoice in those actions…

Ok, forget it. The purification. Purification - we have tremendous negativities. We have tremendous, wonderful qualities within us. Equally, we have tremendous negativities also. Don’t forget. I talked to you last night how the pendulum swings too much to the right side and everything and everybody’s facing nothing but hell, and suddenly it swings too much to the left and saying nothing is bad - that doesn’t even exist - you know?

Once, you know, when Ram Dass got sick, I started doing some workshops for him because that is his income. And he does a huge retreat at Omega with 700-800 people all the time for a whole week, maybe ten days. So I did 2 to 3 years there for him. And then later we did it together, he began to speak. And in one of those, I don’t think it was his retreat. Somewhere else we were doing something together. And I said: “Bad things” and Ram Dass told me (the second time): “Rimpoche you said ‘bad’ - what is that?” What is that? I give tremendous respect to that guy, and especially when he was sick. I said: “Your stroke is not good one, it’s bad”. So that’s my Guru’s blessing – I said no argument. But later he told me: “Yeah, I know but people don’t like to talk about bad. So we have to say there’s no bad things.” Bad doesn’t exist. So that is too extreme again, the pendulum goes right then left.

1:21:01.7 So really truly, it is there. Bad is there, good is there. Bad things happen, good things happen. We know that every day in our life. So bad is the result of bad karma, and good is the result of the good karma. And it’s your own deeds, nobody else’s. No god is there to punish you, no god is there to reward you. God’s there to witness, to remain as truth, to witness. Buddha is there to see that. If they can change that, why don’t they change all of them? Why should bad ever exist? Ram Dass is right. Why should bad ever exist -- it should not exist if they can change that. Why not? Let’s close the hell realm, we always pray. We even visualize Buddha goes down to empty the hell realm. We do. They don’t have that much power. Even God, or Buddha, whoever it may be. Because equally the individual is so important. And individual responsibility.

So being responsible here for negativities we purify. That is how we are being responsible for our own deeds. And in order to purify first you have to have a strong regret. If you don’t regret, why should you purify? Why should you? We are not military people, when they say “Left” you have to turn left. When they say “Right” you have to turn right. We don’t do that. We are civilians, we’re not military. So we do what we want to do.

1:23:32.0 So why should we purify if we don’t know we did something wrong? So that’s why we have to know what we did wrong. And even we don’t know -- and knowingly or unknowingly if I have done something -- purifying them together is profitable for us. And whenever we know we did something wrong, we regret. And I promise myself, I try not to repeat. Don’t lie again, I won’t do it.

It’s funny… you know we all know; I mean maybe not many of you, whoever comes to Ann Arbor in that area we all know Robert Thibideu. He’s a very good astrologer, really good astrologer. Almost every prediction he gave is quite right – except last election. Last election he was wrong bit he never admitted Kerry was going to be elected. He never said. “There’s something wrong – is he going to die or what?” But he was influenced by so many people around him that Bush was going to lose. I think that is the -- so can’t judge the person – but if you are not an enlightened being what happens is society and its energy will influence him. Honestly, I never told him that.

Then he has a metaphysical bookstore. His bookstore was burned by some people who threw Molotov cocktails. They threw them and the bookstore was completely burned. Then a number of people tried to help him by raising money and I don’t know whether you know but Marianne Williamson was the one who really wanted to help him. So she wanted to raise money for him. So she told him if you bring some famous person and then I can raise money for you. So we were having a retreat. So Philip Glass he agreed to go and play there. So we all went there. I spoke then Philip played. And then Marianne Williamson started raising funds. And the way she wanted to raise funds, she said, “I am giving five thousand dollars for him because it is so important and blah blah…” And, you know, one thing she made a mistake she looked at him and said, “You cannot spend that five thousand you have to buy books and put them in.” And then she was going to ask people to donate money.

1:27:40.3 In between that, Robert jumped up, grabbed the microphone from her hand, and holding his ears, he says, “I promise not to spend money”. [laughs] And then he wouldn’t let her speak. He’s grabbing the microphone back; he’s grabbing it back. And then after a little while she said, “Robert when I was selling my book, when I tried to say something, Oprah Winfrey told me ‘Shut up Marianne, I know how to sell books better than you.’” Robert grabbed it again at the end [laughs].

So when I said [….] 1:28:32.9 your ears, I thought of that. So you don’t have to catch your ears to promise not to repeat. However you have to be honest. They could have raised quite a lot, because they are regular church members and a lot of other people.

(from here transcribed by Hartmut)

1:29:00.2 They had probably in mind of raising $50-60,000 but he never let them, just grabbed the microphone, so I don’t know whether $15,000 came up out of that. Anyway, he is not a bad person. If he was a bad person, he would say, “At least keep your mouth shut”. So he built the book store again and it burnt again, to the ground. [laughs]. The second time they think it was an accident. They lit candles and left them on and they caught fire. That is what supposed to have happened. It burnt again completely, that’s what happened.

1:30:16.0 So promise not to repeat, even if you burnt the candles [laughs]. That’s important. And you can have that power to control your mind by yourself, not to repeat if you have regret. If you go to a restaurant and eat something and you get sick, would you like to go back without any hesitation? Especially if you get really, really sick, would you like to go back? No, you will think twice. Likewise here you need the regret. Actually, how powerful regret you have, that much power of purification you will have. If you think, “Yes, I did something wrong, I have to purify”, your purification will also be “I guess I need to purify, here you are.” It will be like that, not so much value. If you have strong regret, “I hurt that person, I am really sorry, I won’t repeat”, then that will be stronger purification, because your feeling of it is very strong.

1:31:46.0 Mostly I don’t agree with a lot of things in the society we do today, but sometimes I do agree, because they say, “This person does not even have any remorse about his actions. Therefore, they should have bigger punishment.” I don’t agree with bigger punishment, but I do agree that having no remorse for whatsoever [makes it a bigger crime]. Some of those bad killers, who kill for nothing [are like that]. Still, I disagree with capital punishment. Another karma is created, another circle is created.

1:32:58.4 It has to be corrected, like a corrected attitude, a corrected feeling. I would love to see prisons as places for correcting [wrong behavior] rather than punishment homes. Just thinking about giving punishments…these treatments we are giving to the people in Guantanamo Bay. Rumsfeld purposely thought, “This doesn’t fall under US law and Cuba is something different.” Right from the beginning they planned it that way so that they can create another almost like holocaust chamber. Torturing is a tremendous thing. Yes, you do need information, but what happened to human dignity? The pictures we say, O my God, are terrifying and who did it? We did.

1:34:25.3 Not Chairman Mao. He did worse than that, but this time it is us. We did it. Anyway, we are talking about regret. And we need that regret. And the strongest regret will have the strongest purification. Whatever Rumsfeld and others did becomes something that we did. We have a common karma, because our money, our tax, is involved in it. So common karma is there and we will experience common results later. There is individual karma and collective karma and this is collective karma and the persons responsible for issuing orders and carrying them out have direct karma plus collective karma and we all have collective karma, no direct karma. However, we need to purify. If you think, “I have nothing to purify”, yes, you do. Guantanamo Bay.

1:36:01.0 All of those and everything we purify. The opportunity is there for us to clean ourselves. That is purification. What does that mean? Changing the nature of reality over there, the reality of the negative into positive. Even if you cannot change it into positive, bring it to a neutral level. That’s why regret.

1:36:32.3 Then action. Without action nothing happens, it is simply a thought. So you need action, actions of generosity, saving a life, giving a life. The best generosity. Helping those who need help. That’s what it is. Building stupas, images, doing prostrations, practice mandala offerings, circumambulations and a lot of people will say to do Vajrasattva recitation. That is also very important. Meditating on love/compassion, learning and meditating on the wisdom of emptiness, these are the actions one can take.

1:37:39.0 Changing our life’s attitude, changing from narrow, selfish interest into compassionate nature – all of those are the actions. Having the four powers, the power of base, power of regret, power of repentance and the power of action, that will make purification work, according to Buddha.

The base here is the foundation on which you work. That is how you compensate for what you do. In order to compensate some people go to somebody, seeking forgiveness. It is our tradition here in the West. A lot of people do, but then some people will refuse to give you the forgiveness and that creates more trouble, you get more angry, like “I went out of my way to seek forgiveness, but he refused to give it.” Then you get more angry, so what is the use? I am not criticizing that, but what Buddha recommended is for compensating is if you have killed somebody you cannot bring the people back to life. But to compensate for that, develop compassion for that person who you killed. If that is an enlightened person, take refuge. So by taking refuge and generating compassion together you provide the foundation. You don’t have to go and knock on each and everybody’s door and say, “I am here to seek your forgiveness.”

1:39:59.4 You don’t have to do that. The base is built, according to the Buddha. You are compensating through kindness and compassion and not only for that person but for all. By taking refuge to all enlightened beings – that covers all living beings. There are two categories: enlightened ones and non-enlightened ones. There is nothing in between. Somebody is going from here to there, but there is nothing in between. Until you get to [enlightenment] you are part of [unenlightened].

1:40:48.1 So it’s included in this. So take refuge and generate compassion together. That makes the difference.

Audience: I rejoice in those actions that cause happiness

Rimpoche: The easy way to accumulate merit is to rejoice in other people’s work. Rejoice in Mother Theresa. Rejoice in the Dalai Lama. Rejoice in Nelson Mandela, rejoice in Dr. King. When you want to rejoice in George Bush think twice. This is important:

Be pa chung go lab chen tso do pa

Ge la je tsun yi rang cho du nga

Che pa rang zhing ngön gyi ge wa la…

Especially, rejoice in your own good deeds. No matter how young you may be you have done a lot of good things. Remember and be happy about it. “I am so happy I could do this. I am so happy I could help that person.” Rejoice in that and you keep on building your own merit continuously and double it. It is a great investment in the spiritual business, with no risk of losing anything. That is rejoicing.

1:42:47.4 Audience: I request you, the enlightened beings, to remain..

1:42:54.4 Rimpoche: For your own longevity you request the enlightened beings to remain. I mean you don’t it for that reason, but the result is supposed to give you longevity anyway. Then seeking teachings. That is necessary. No one will give you teachings unless you ask. Here in the West it is different. Here you advertise. That’s completely the opposite. Traditionally, if you read the biography of Naropa, Tilopa and all of them, it was completely different. Look at Milerepa’s biography – totally different. Here in the West, we do have teachings advertised and you do all that, you know.

1:44:09.0 Audience: I dedicate any merit for the benefit of all beings

1:44:11.2 Rimpoche: Dedication is Al Gore’s lock box. Remember, during the election he said, “I will lock Social Security in a lock box.” (laughs). We have never had that box again. What happened to it? Did somebody steal it?

Audience: Yes, you could say somebody did steal it

Rimpoche: Maybe you are right, somebody did steal it, okay, probably you are right. Anyway, so dedication is to safeguard [your merits]. Why do you dedicate? When you purify you will be able to cancel your negative karmas. When you develop hatred it cancels your positive karma. In order to save that you dedicate. You dedicate for a purpose. If you do that, until the purpose is reached good karma is not wasted. The karmic characteristic is that karma is definite. That means when you have created something there is bound to be a result. They say it but it really doesn’t mean that. What it really means is that if you do something for a particular purpose then that dedication is really earmarked for that purpose, so nothing else can destroy it.

1:45:54.5 That is the mechanism of how it works. That’s why dedicating for the enlightenment of everybody or for the longevity of the teachings becomes the cause for enlightenment that is everlasting. That type of thing you do and that’s what it is. That’s what dedication is all about. Specifically, if you want to dedicate for the healing of some individual or success or whatever, you can do it. But it is also recommended to dedicate to total enlightenment and then if you specifically mention somebody you can do it. That doesn’t mean that if I give it here [nothing] is left there, no. It’s not, the karmic rule is such a thing, it is almost inexhaustible.

1:47:02.5 That’s why, whatever you want to do for dedication you can do it. I guess it’s done. That is very good practice for anybody. You can do that in the morning when you wake up, the first thing you do. It doesn’t have to be dealing with the Buddha, you can deal with Mary, Jesus – anything. But make sure you don’t deal with ghosts. That’s what you do. That’s very simple, very good.

1:47:41.2 Audience: Then the mantras come

Rimpoche: OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE SOHA. That is Buddha Shakyamuni’s mantra. Before I talk to you about that, mantra means protecting the mind. It is a Sanskrit word meaning protection of the mind, protecting your own mind from your own delusions. That’s what mantra is all about. Here you are using Buddha Shakyamuni’s name “Muni”. Sometimes you can also say Tayata om muni muni… or tayata muni muni…a lot of different ways to do it. So here we have OM MUNI MUNI…let me explain the OM.

1:48:57.7 OM is the beginning of mantras used by Buddhists and non-Buddhists, like Hindus as well as everybody else in the Eastern traditions. This is the tradition that has come from India originally. You don’t use OM in the Abrahamic traditions? No, not at all, so that means Jews, Christians and Muslims don’t use OM at all, right? So Hindus, Buddhist and Jains and everybody there uses OM. It is the beginning of the mantra. OM is made of A-O-M, three letters combined together. A is the basic foundation of all sounds. If you don’t know how to say A you cannot produce any sound at all. The Manjushrinamasangit says

A ne yin du kun gyi chog

Tun ji yi ge dam pa yin

Ko ne jung wa che wa me

Chig tu jö pa pang po yin

Jö pa kun gyi dü yin kyi

Tser kom rab tu se wa tsen

A is the basis of sound. It represents the sound of you, me, enlightened beings. When A joins with O and M, then one of them represents body, one speech and one mind. Joined with M is becomes mother-like, the female sound M. That represents mind. When you are looking at the Buddha and say OM, you are talking about the body, mind and speech of the Buddha and also reflecting yourself, your own body, mind and speech. Let that be there. Forget about that. That’s the beginning.

Muni muni maha muni…in Tibetan thub pa, thub pa thub pa chen po. One who has overcome the gross delusions, the subtle delusions and who had complete victory over all delusions and negative forces. So ha means: lay the foundation or join. The foundation of your body, mind and speech that we mentioned at the OM level, now lay that within my body, mind and speech.

1:53:13.5 In other words, ultimately I am seeking the union, the union with the enlightened body, mind and speech. I am seeking the union with the muni muni maha muni. So ha is that.

Audience: Next is OM MANI PADME HUM

1:53:49.2 Rimpoche: That has a lot of explanations. But to make it short: the six letters purify the six realms. OM is what I explained already. MANI is jewel, the wish-fulfilling jewel. That is like MONEY. Avalokitesvara, holding the jewel in folded hands wants money, money [laughs]. No, that MANI represents the jewel of compassion, wishfulfilling love and compassion, all of those, they are symbolic in the jewel. I am making it short. PADMA is lotus, purity, wisdom. HUM is those joined together. Wisdom-compassion combination of your body, mind and speech, may have union with my body, mind and speech. That is the shortest and easiest way to explain this.

1:55:48.3 Audience: Next is OM ARAPATZANA DHIH

Rimpoche: I don’t know how to explain that right now. That’s a new mantra we have. The mantra of Manjushri. I introduced that mantra because this year we are talking about wisdom everywhere, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s why it is the mantra of wisdom. The explanation of ARAPATZANA will be a little difficult. Those of you who are interested, you can find that in the Yamantaka teachings.

Audience: Next is OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA

Rimpoche: A lot of people say that. OM is again the same OM. Tare tutare ture – that represents the Four Noble Truths, the truth of suffering, truth of cause of suffering, truth of cessation and truth of path to cessation.

Khor wa le tru ta re ma

Tutarayi ji je dröl

Ture nang wa nam la dröl

Dröl ma yum la chag tsal lo

The first noble truth of suffering represents our physical, emotional and mental suffering and all other sufferings. tutare means that these sufferings are brought by the cause of karma which is brought by the delusions, the pure mind influenced by negative emotions and the pure mind created the cause of those sufferings. These are the two causes of suffering, the emotional cause and the action/karmic cause. Tara is freeing from that. Ture – frees from all illnesses, the illnesses of negative feelings, negative emotions, negativities. Freeing from negative emotions is the way to obtain cessation and the best way to free from negativities is by the combination of wisdom and compassion. That’s the way to end the cause of suffering and is the cause of cessation which is total enlightenment. Soha – the same thing: the body, mind and speech of yours, lay the perfect qualities and foundation with my body, mind and speech.

1:59:15.1 Audience: Then comes the Foundation of all Perfections and the migtsema

Rimpoche: So that covers the mantra aspect. One more thing: in the mantras you strongly focus. Nr. 1, have a good motivation: for the benefit of all beings, myself included, everywhere – I say this very often – every Tibetan Mahayana/Vajrayana text that I read always says

dag dang dro wa nam khai ta dang nyam pei sem chen tham che du di ne sung te….

I and all sentient beings take refuge….and do this and do that…

It does not say: all sentient beings except me do this and that. So I must include myself. So everything, for the benefit of me and all beings, I do this practice in order to obtain full enlightenment. Sorry, this is my phone ringing. Anyway, the motivation.

2:00:55.9 Then during the action, whether you think of Tara or Buddha or Jesus or Mary or Manjushri, whatever you think doesn’t matter. They are physical representations, actually they are enlightened beings. They don’t make a difference. They don’t have divisions between east and west, black and white, male and female. It doesn’t matter at that level. Enlightened beings are enlightened or divine beings. So whether bald-headed, with or without hair, with or without beard or glasses, doesn’t matter.

2:02:05.3 Whatever suits you. That’s choice. Even if you want it to be completely empty, that’s also fine. Even if you want it to be a cloud, tree or whatever – you are not taking refuge to a tree god, but other than that it is all fine. Even if you use a tree as refuge object, but behind that are all enlightened beings, not just tree gods or fire gods or water gods or that type of thing. Totally focus on the meaning of the mantras. Remember that. Use these seven limbs. If you are saying a lot of OM MANI PADME HUM or OM AH HUM, that’s another thing: om is body, ah is speech, hum is mind. Nothing specific, but all enlightened beings together.

2:03:10.8 You know what I am talking about? So OM AH HUM is another great mantra, nothing specific to anyone, but in general. And then the seven limbs, if you can’t think when you are reading through, give yourself time when you are saying the mantras and repeat the seven limbs within your mind, the meaning. Do that three times at least in a day. That is very helpful. That will be something solid you can take when you go from here. I don’t mean from this room, but from the human land.

2:04:15.8 That is something solid to take. I am sorry, I am 15 minutes late. When are we meeting again?

Audience: 1:30……end of file