Archive Result

20060624GRSR04

6-26-06 am session

Welcome today. I think we can close what we talked about yesterday (on page 44).

Again, just to say:

This working basis of human form, endowed with liberty, is superior to a wish-granting gem. Moreover, such is only obtained this very one time. It is difficult to acquire and is easily lost. It passes in a flash like lightening in the sky. Considering how easily this can happen at any time, realize that all worldly cultivates are as immaterial as chaff. You must try to take advantage of its essential significance at all times, day and night. I, the Yogi, have practiced this in the same way. If you also would like to be liberated, please cultivate yourself in the same way.

Once again: Not having compassion for oneself- which means not caring for oneself , which [in turn] means not having love for oneself- makes it very easy for the individual to undermine their own capabilities. (2:44)

Many of our problems that sometimes… we have a lot of ego-boosting things, sometimes we have a lot of, when you take it down [/become very down], we have to go so low and [/we become so low that we] become the doormat of everybody. These are our problems. (3:06) These problems are [/arise] because we have no compassion for ourselves. No compassion for ourself. So that’s why everything we do is for our own personal benefit, which [upon careful reflection we can see] may not be so important [in terms of bringing us true happiness].

It is one thing if you have achieved whatever you wanted to achieve and then you don’t really care much for yourself spiritually, or even materially. Even financially. If you have achieved [your financial goals] as best as possible, then you want to give it away- that’s a great thing! But that is one way. That’s not loving yourself or caring for yourself.

But we don’t reach [our goals] anyway and then we ignore ourself many times. We do that. And that is a problem. No matter what you say. That is a problem. Why does this happen? Because you don’t care for yourself. Materially, [it matters] not that much. Spiritually, if you ignore yourself, it’s not good at all. That’s why it’s important for us to see that we care for ourself.

I mentioned to you yesterday how we burn ourself-‘I’ve been burned’ and this and that. These are small symptoms, very small matters. Most importantly, if you ignore yourself, then who else is going to help you? Only you can help yourself. (5:42) I can help myself. If I ignore me, and if you ignore yourself, who else is going to help whom? No one.

We may say, oh yeah, buddhas, bodhisattvas, gods, and all of them are compassionate and wonderful and all that. Why, sure, then, why have they not liberated us yet? Where have the buddhas gone? Where have the bodhisattvas gone, where have the gods gone? Nowhere. They just can’t. Honestly speaking, they cannot.

It is our self, it is our responsibility, it is our deed, it is our karma that we are to experience our [karmic] results. No one can experience the karma of somebody else. If you could, then we could all enjoy the karma of Buddha and god and everybody. Why bother? But we don’t. Clearly we don’t. We know it. (6:45)

That’s truly speaking. If you don’t care for yourself, who else is going to care?

Nagarjuna, the great master said: [quotes Tibetan]:

You are your own leader. Who else can be? How can others be your leader? How can others lead you?

[Quotes Tibetan]

You, yourself, are your own leader. No one else can be.

And that’s important.

Nagarjuna doesn’t say, “Make Buddha your leader.” Nagarjuna doesn’t say, “Make Nagarjuna your own leader.” Nagarjuna doesn’t say, “In any tradition that you belong to, [make the founder of that tradition your leader,]” or “Make Tsongkapa your leader,” or “Make Guru Padmasambhava your leader.” He doesn’t say that.

It says [quotes Tibetan]:

You, yourself, are your own leader… protector, guide, helper

Under those words, what he is writing, is; you, yourself, are responsible for yourself. [8:25]

So that is the basic principal- at least in terms of Buddha’s experience that we know; what Buddha shared with us. Fortunately or unfortunately, it seems to be true. (8:48) Virtually- today- what do we expect? We don’t expect much, we don’t want to be sectarian; we don’t want to be locking [heads] (???) (9:05)

Somebody asked last night ‘how long do you open the window- like Ghandi – or when do you shut it?’ It’s true.

Openness is very important as long as you can judge properly, [as long as] you can make decisions. Openness is absolutely necessary. What we need to do is we need [to get] help. Wherever we get it [from], it’s great. It doesn’t matter whether it comes from Judeo-Christian tradition, Hindu-Buddhist tradition, East, West, I don’t know. Wherever it comes from, it doesn’t matter. What we need is help.

So, when you’re looking at that from that angle (openness), don’t lock yourself in suddenly, you know- [in] a system. Just be, you know. (10:10)

Openness is important. When you are looking from that angle, then you really become your own leader. You are your own guide; you are your own protector; you are responsible for yourself. How can others be responsible for you? For me? How can you be responsible for me? How can I be responsible for you? And vice-versa. [This applies to] everybody else.

Nagarjuna’s statement of [quotes Tibetan]: “you are your own leader.” This is one of the most important points of the wisdom texts.

Whether you call it leader or no leader… responsibility. How can anybody else be responsible for anybody else’s deeds? Not possible. That’s why [being] self-supporting, self-standing, is a must. If we can cash - sometimes we try to because we dedicate, but other than that - if we can cash [in on] somebody else’s karma, then there’s no responsibility and nothing [/or anything] else. If there’s no responsibility and nothing else [/or anything else]… if it’s true it doesn’t matter, but in reality it’s not true.

Whenever I’ve done something bad, I’m responsible and I must pay for it. (12:35) When I do something good, I am responsible [for it], and I deserve it and I must [/to] get something. That is [the] very basic [nature] of good/bad, the very basic [nature] of joy and suffering. (13:00)

Delusion and confusion and all this have a different story. But in principle, one is responsible for oneself. [This] is [a] must. Once we’ve been able to establish that, then all of them will make sense. Life, what we have, is precious. Liberty is superior to anything. All of them will make sense if we realize that we are responsible for ourselves. If you don’t then it doesn’t matter… if you’re superior, then you’re superior, so what? Lake Superior is here all the time! Doesn’t make any difference. It makes some difference, but it’s there all the time. (14:15)

We need to establish that. We need to clearly establish in our mind: responsibility and quality of life. One of the most important qualities of our life is [being] able to communicate. Communicating. [Having a] Mind that is able to pick information, digest, and function. That is very important.

When we look at it, everybody knows, ‘Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. I know what that’s all about. Yeah. That’s true in that way.’ But if you really think, everybody does not digest the information. Everybody doesn’t change their life on the basis that [/based on] the information they receive.

We all know information is power. We all accept that. But we don’t know how to use it. It is a limitation of our understanding.

I mean look at your pet dog. Look at your cat. They are exposed to the information that [/to which] you’re exposed. Heard it. Maybe it’s just noise, maybe it’s just bluh-bluh-bluh, or whatever it is. But they don’t get it. They are unable to translate it to the mind. The mind is unable to digest. They are unable to function according to this.

That is the quality we have that other lives don’t have. (16:12) The nearest that we see- dogs and cats and birds, whatever, snails, and all of those- they don’t have that capability.

You may be thinking that I’m using only the lower lives, but we don’t see the higher lives at all, so what else can we use? The highest that we see is the human life. We don’t see the samsaric or non-samsaric gods. We talk about them but we don’t know how they function. We have no idea. We can’t use them as an example for us.

As far as we know, this is the best life. Don’t forget! Close encounter with the third kind. When you are watching, waiting for something to come out, one comes out.

Really, this life is so important, so precious- the preciousness is because we are able to communicate. Not only [are we able to] communicate to each other, but we are able to communicate to ourself. And to be able to observe the message, bring [/take] it in, and digest the message. (17:50) And use it. That is the quality.

It’s very hard. Many [types of] life can’t do that.

We really have to properly establish that. This is not just a life. [It is] a great life.

You know, normally in American language, [there’s talk of] ‘good life’ and ‘bad life.’ [Whether someone has] money, not so much illness, a little bit of longevity- we call this a ‘good life.’ With no money, poor, difficulties- we call this a ‘bad life.’ That’s not true. That’s definitely not true. (18:45) Definitely not true.

We have a saying in Tibetan- I don’t think it’s authentically in books, but it’s a saying in Tibetan- that goes something like this [quotes Tibetan]:

Some of the wealthy kings, they have all of these royal estates, [and they are] still hungry, [they] still desire more, [they are] never satisfied. [Then] There [is] the beggar who sleeps comfortably under a dirty rag, [and is] fully satisfied with life. Now the question is who’s really rich in life?

The royal one may have more [in terms of] numbers, but what will the numbers do? Nothing. Because “I have that much!” Alright. You have that much. They are figures. You know, actually, [consider] how much you can really consume.

You know, it’s so funny. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he was in Washington a few years ago for that big Tibetan culture thing they did on Pennsylvania Avenue. That day he said it, I was there, he said it, “Yeah, that’s true, but with so much wealth, what would you do?” You can’t [/couldn’t eat]. You can [/could] only eat very little, compared with what [wealth] you have [/had], you can [/could] consume very little. You can [/could] only wear so many clothes. Even if you changed every hour! But how many [times] are you going [/would you be able] to change?

So, [relatively speaking], consumption is [/would be] so little. You can’t [/couldn’t] use [all of your wealth]. A lot of you [would] wear diamond rings, whatever, jewel ornaments. Maybe they cost a lot of money. Maybe you’ll be worried more, thinking “I’m going to lose it.” Who knows? (21:28)

So, using is very little [/even if you were wealthy, you wouldn’t spend all your money]. And the great wonderful thing about this country, a lot of those people who have, the wealthy ones, they give [their money] to good causes, which is great. Yesterday’s news: They’re always saying the number two richest person gave his things to the number one richest person. Warren Buffet gave most of his assets, eighty-five percent of all his earnings, to the Gates’ charity foundation. That’s great! But what else can you do?

You can misuse it… that is a waste. Even if you misuse it, how much can you misuse? It is very limited. Unless you go crazy! Like what we’re spending in Iraq. How much do we spend per day? Anyway, that’s a different story.

To me, wealth, riches, comfort, all, does not come by number [/ from the numbers in the bank]. Honestly. Truly speaking. Numbers are great, fine. But that doesn’t make it. Satisfaction. Joy. Peace. Comfort. Especially satisfaction. There’s the Tibetan saying:

The king with all the kingdom is still hungry. Not hungry because he doesn’t have food, but hungry because he wants more. The poor beggar who sleeps under a rag, [does so] comfortably, happy [/happily; with happiness], breathing fresh air, snoring, and satisfied with life.

That is okay. Lesser in numbers- they do have worry, I did not say they don’t have worry. They don’t know where they’re going to get their next meal. These are problems. However, they have satisfaction. Satisfaction is happiness. Dissatisfaction is suffering. Dissatisfaction is… that’s what it is.

We are all looking for satisfaction. When we say we are looking for happiness, we are not talking about ‘The Joy that has Never Known Suffering.’ (25:04) I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about simple happiness. Satisfaction, joy: all of them [are felt] when you are satisfied. When you feel you have not been pressured; when you feel that you are appreciated. These are the things that make individuals happy.

Interesting. Every material comfort can be bought with money. But satisfaction and joy cannot be purchased with money. The earlier kings and queens, they bought, or they had, or they took –whatever it is, all material comfort. However, they could not buy or take happiness or joy. They didn’t. So this is the thing in life. It’s not only one-sided, but both.

We all are hungry for happiness. Who is not? We all are. Thinking that wealth will bring happiness is an illusion. (27:08)

Wealth does bring some happiness to some extent. But it doesn’t bring happiness all the way around. You cannot buy it. You can also see a lot of wealthy people with dissatisfaction in their lives. You don’t have to look very far. We can look in our earlier famous people… Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. Look at their lives. They had [it] all, but lacked satisfaction, happiness.

All of us, actually, as a matter of fact, we all lack satisfaction and happiness. We look for satisfaction and happiness. So we go and we try everything, thinking that it will give us happiness. That is how drugs came up [/about], right? Nobody is going to be interested in getting drugs because they want misery and suffering. They think they’re going to get happiness and joy out of drugs. (29:03) Alcoholic addictions, tobacco addictions, all of them come from that. They all boil down to: lack of satisfaction.

Satisfaction is something you can learn; something you can train yourself [to have]; something we can give to ourself. You don’t have to wait for the gods to grant [you] satisfaction. We don’t [have to] wait for buddhas to grant [us] satisfaction. They can’t even if they want to. Satisfaction is brought by ourself. It goes beyond material. It is a mental thing.

We know a little bit of [the experience of] mental satisfaction. We know quite a bit of [the experience of] physical satisfaction. We know more about physical satisfaction, because the moment we look for satisfaction, we look for physical satisfaction. That’s why we use all these chemical things, or whatever- sex is included, because we are looking for satisfaction.

The moment we are looking for satisfaction, we exactly jump to the physical. But physically, you don’t [experience satisfaction]. It’s the mind that gets the satisfaction first, and that influences the physical, too. The satisfaction comes from your own mind. Given by yourself, for you.

Spiritual practice hides behind that [and] comes out, pretending to be giving mental satisfaction. (31:43) Actually, mental satisfaction, you don’t really need even on the spiritual path. It’s very difficult to say what’s spiritual and what’s not. [There’s] a lot of grey [area] there, you know.

Spiritual [practice] is supposed to give you more than that, [more than] just mental satisfaction.

Mental satisfaction is something that one can learn. (32:12) One can learn and one can be happy with it. That’s why meditation somehow has become more popular, because it’s supposed to give you mental satisfaction. Meditation does. Focusing on mind and sitting gives you mental relaxation, not mental satisfaction. Analyzing, drawing conclusions, and gaining understanding will give you mental satisfaction, but not so much mental relaxation.

So our key to bringing happiness is to bring satisfaction. To bring satisfaction, we can do [this] by ourself, for ourself, which doesn’t really need [to be] such a big thing. That’s my understanding.

Whatever you want to bring- permanent happiness, joy- which spiritual practice is supposed to give to the people. [Whether it be] mental satisfaction or just joy/ happiness, both require the basic foundation of understanding the [value of] the life we have, digesting [this knowledge], and making [this knowledge] become a part of our life. (34:15)

To be a part of life and to experience life are two different things to me. You [have an] experience, and that experience you make part of your life. It’s all made by ourself.

Sometimes we consider [things to be] ‘man-made.’ [If it’s] ‘man-made,’ we consider it bad, but it’s not (34:45). There’s nothing which is… It’s all goodness [contributed? given?] to mankind if it is man-made. Every goodness that we, ourselves, experience- [we should realize that] we made [that experience]. To make that, we need a basic life of [/which has] that quality, that capability- which we have. (35:21) Fortunately, no matter how many bandages we put on, with all these bandages, we still have this basic, good life.

We should be happy with this and even learn to be satisfied with this life. I think Step One is here. To be able to be satisfied with [one’s] life. When you look at yourself, and [think] “I don’t have this, I don’t have that, I don’t have this, I don’t have that, I don’t have this, I don’t have that,” it is the opening of the door of misery.

Being satisfied with what you have opens the door of satisfaction and happiness. If I have to wear glasses, fine! I have to wear glasses, but I can still see. As a matter of fact, I can see better with glasses than without glasses. Not for distance, but for short ones! I can read here with glasses, but without glasses, no.

If you have to have glasses, you are [/should still be] satisfied with your life. If you are not satisfied with the glasses and say, “I don’t want to use glasses, but I cannot read. I cannot use them, I don’t want to use them, but I cannot read [without them].” If I make a struggle within myself, I’m going to have a hell of a struggle here. (37:17)

That’s just a simple, very simple, mundane example. Normally, you know, good old Americans say, “be happy with it.”

This is just an example. You can read with glasses, fine. That’s good enough. The activity, the purpose of the eye consciousness is that it is supposed to understand and then translate that into mental principle mind. (Please check this sentence 37:59) And principle mind gets the message through the medium of eye consciousness. That’s exactly what’s supposed to be done. Whether it’s done with glasses or without glasses, it doesn’t matter.

Similarly, hearing, smell, taste, all of those [work in the same way with their respective consciousnesses]. Just simply touching a tongue doesn’t have [/cause] any taste at all if the tongue consciousness does not connect. Not only does the tongue consciousness have to be connected, but it also has to give the message back to the principle mind. That principle mind will have [the experience of] satisfaction of whatever taste you have, whether it is chili or sugar. Chili or honey, whatever. That satisfaction of the tongue consciousness makes the principle mind satisfied temporarily. That principle mind’s satisfaction brings joy to the mind. That mind of joy makes the body feel okay. That’s how satisfaction simply it was brought in that way [/occurs]. (39:25)

If there’s no consciousness connection with whatever [sense you are working with], you won’t feel anything. You may be touching everything everywhere, but you’re not going to feel anything. Because there’s no mental connection.

It’s not the body that gives the [feeling of] satisfaction. It’s mind that is satisfied, and it sends a message throughout the mental consciousness. Thereby [there is] a tremendous connection between the mind and body.

Happiness is through the mind, not through the body. Thereby material [goods] may help, but [they] do not bring happiness.

That’s the reason why every happiness that we experience is temporary. Chili burns your tongue temporarily; sugar sweetens your tongue temporarily. The rest, I don’t want to say, you think about it. [Laughter] Honestly, it’s all temporary. That’s the reason why. (40:51) It’s the physical connection combined with the mind.

If mind gets us, without the physical ‘pop’ thing, then it’s lasting. (41:08) That’s why mental sufferings that we have, emotional or anything, they are very hard to get rid of.

How much does it take for us to get rid of depression or any one of them? I don’t want to talk about it because there are a lot of great psychologists here… I don’t want to make a fool of myself! However, my understanding is: because it is directly from mind, it becomes harder to treat. It takes a long time to get rid of it. It’s not like you have a headache and can take an aspirin. [You can’t] disconnect something somewhere, [or do something that is] temporarily numbing. Whatever it is, [you can’t make it so that] you don’t feel it so you get to feel better. Not that way. (42:02)

Mental problems are… they are mental problems so it takes a very long time- sometimes a whole life.

Likewise mental satisfaction, mental happiness, mental joy will also be very hard to come by, and when it comes, it’s lasting. Not only for a longtime, but sometimes for a whole life.

That’s why the mind is more superior. We always say, ‘mind over matter,’ don’t we say that?

Happiness comes from mind.

Happiness comes from mind, not from [our] physical [body]. Mental happiness is provided by ourself. We have to communicate with our mind. We don’t want to brainwash our mind. Brainwashing doesn’t work, and it’s a problem. What we do want is we want to communicate with our mind.

We want to sell whatever we want to sell to our mind, and see whether the mind will buy it or not. If it rejects it, we’ll put it in another color. Sell it again. If it is rejected, we’ll put it in another color. Sell it again. Never give up. Never give up. (43:49)

That’s how we bring happiness to ourself. That also has to be done very gently. There [should be] no force. Guns don’t work. Kindness and compassion do work with the mind.

Mind cannot even be killed. (That’s for me, with my background.) Mind cannot even be killed. So guns as a threat will never work. People use threats to get [things] done. It is in our blood. We do [use threats] all the time. Politically, economically, militarily, even in religions, we use threats. “If you don’t do this, you’ll go to Hell.” (45:08) There’s something called ‘Hell,’ wherever it is.

We use that. It might have played a little role by bringing fear for a couple of years, or maybe a couple of centuries or something. But it doesn’t do any good at all for anybody. Number one, we don’t really know whether there’s something really called ‘Hell’ or not. Religious traditions will say and we have to believe it. But it’s a true fact: the suffering is there. We suffer.

We talk a lot about a lot of Hell business. There are eighteen different things [/levels].

Sometimes I make jokes- we have a lot of Catholic people who have run away from the Catholic tradition because they don’t like Hell. And they go and try to find an alternative religion, like Hinduism, or Buddhism, or something, and there they find eighteen more hells in there! [Laughter] Not just one Hell, but eighteen of them!

Nor am I willing to say- some people say, ‘it is a mental state, it’s not real.’ I’m not willing to say that either. The teachings, and Buddha, and every tradition, tell you it’s real.

We haven’t been there… as far as we can remember. Without remembering [/Though we can’t remember], we’re supposed to have gone there a million times. And [we’re supposed to have] come out of it a million times. But as far as our memory is concerned, we don’t know that yet. (47:25)

But suffering is real for us. Similarly, happiness is real for us. Joy is real for us. True happiness, true joy is mental joy and mental happiness.

So, if you love, if you care for yourself, the only thing you can [do to] help yourself is to bring [yourself] mental satisfaction. That satisfaction becomes happiness. That happiness becomes joy. That joy remains with us for a long, long time.

That’s what we need to achieve. That’s how we help ourself. (48:32)

Our suffering is real and our need of help is real, but it doesn’t seem so urgent- to some people, yes, it is very urgent, but for some people it is not so urgent it seems. However, truly, it is urgent. It should have been done yesterday. It should have been done yesterday, but we could not, we did not. So we must do it now. Otherwise…

Why the urgency? I’ll tell you why the urgency.

I would like you to draw your attention to the Jewel Heart Prayer Book, page 28, please. (50:00) Page 28, the second verse [of the Foundation of All Perfections]. Forgive me my terrible English reading here:

Precious human life, gained but once,

We talked about that preciousness yesterday. You now know…

…gained but once,

we talked about it, but if you’re intelligent enough, which you are, ‘gained but once’ is almost true. ‘But once.’ ‘But once.’ It is almost true. Without any influence, if you think… especially if you think it’s [/there’s only] one life to live, yes, it’s once, for sure! [laughter] ‘Gained but once’- if you think we only have one life, then that’s it!

Has great potential…

That’s true. We know it. You know it. We all know it. Right? We all know it. Does anybody doubt that? No. It has tremendous potential. Because you can achieve anything you want to with this life, with this life’s capability and with the time that we have. You can really achieve.

…but is easily lost.

“But is easily lost.” We talked about this yesterday. It is the true reality of our life. It is really easy to lose. We talked a lot. We don’t have to talk [about it], we [can] see [for] ourself. Though one may not see [this in] an [/our] individual self- it’s a little difficult to see. But when we look at others, when we look at each other, we see it in each other [as when we see each other] getting older.

Very true, we see that all the time. Year after year, retreat after retreat, gathering after gathering. We’re getting older. (53:03) More gray hair. We do see that. More wrinkles. More everything. There’s no secret about it. There’s no mystery about it. We’re seeing it. People who are here now, and then they’re not here. When you look at the group pictures that you took a few years ago or years ago. Look [at them]: How many are here? How many have gone? That’s a reminder. Our own companions, families [are here one day, and gone the next]. The funny thing is, if you look at the group photos year by year, you see the ‘gone’ numbers going up and the ‘still alive’ numbers going down. One day, everyone in that photo will be gone. It’s reality. Reality.

That is lost. And lost easily. Not so much effort is needed. It is very easy to kill; very difficult to save. That’s the reality of our life.

I’d also like for you to… I don’t need to read this:

Empower me to remember this constantly

And to think day and night of taking its essence.

I don’t know whether that’s a correct sentence or not, but…

I’d also like for you to look at the next verse.

I must remember that death is quick to strike,

For spirit quivers in flesh like a bubble in water;

Our life: wonderful, precious, capable, great. But that is like a ‘bubble in water.’ (56:45) That’s the reality. For many of us, we think day after day, month after month, year after year, and we look back and think, “oh, that year in the1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s” looks like nothing. Everything’s all permanent. However, the impermanent can strike any minute. [Life is] so fragile, like a bubble in water. It doesn’t take much. Internal, external. So many. Internal: heart failure, kidney failure. Really, I don’t want to count it. It can happen any minute, anywhere, to anybody. External: accidents, falling down, crashing, all kinds of things. Any minute, anywhere. No one can really guarantee you’re going to remain for the next twenty-four hours. Truly. Well, of course, [there can be a] false guarantee, false life insurance. All of them are false. Truly, no one can guarantee that.

Why am I talking about terrible things like this? (58:50) To overcome our laziness. To overcome our laziness. Because laziness is the major thing separating ourselves from our happiness. Until you overcome that, nothing can be achieved.

[Break.]

We were talking earlier about our laziness. Laziness is so powerful with us, so strong, so powerful. It dominates our life day and night.

Take for example, a day, in the morning. Our laziness makes us not get up. How many times do we turn and twist in our bed? Many times. Even people who are up, where showers are running, people are talking, smelling coffee, whatever they do, they would like to cover their heads and sleep with a blanket. How many times do we do that? We know it’s wrong; we know we’re going to be late for everything. Even then we cannot defeat our laziness in the morning.

Then during the day, laziness takes over. Number one: we don’t even want to know about it- whatever it is- we don’t want to know about it. Number two: even if you know about it, you don’t want to look at it. You don’t want to touch it. You want to just sort of hush it and sweep it under the carpet. We do that all the time. (1:02:00)

So then, if possible, we don’t want to pay attention [to it]. We don’t want it to draw our attention. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to know it. If we do see it and if we do know it, then we have the best method of avoiding it: “Tomorrow.” “Tomorrow I’ll handle it.” Tomorrow, not today. Or “It is on my number one ‘to do’ list.” All of these [excuses] are [typical of] our usual laziness manifestations. (1:03:02)

“Number one on the ‘to do’ list,” or “Tomorrow.” Everybody uses “Tomorrow.” Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Talking about tomorrow, a great Tibetan teacher from the 1700s said [quotes Tibetan]:

Whether tomorrow’s going to come first or so-called ‘future life,’ no one knows which is going to come first.

Most probably, future life is going to come first. (1:04:04) Because tomorrow never ends. When you get to tomorrow, you say “I said I was going to do it tomorrow!” then the day after tomorrow comes, and you say, “I said I was going to do it tomorrow!” So your tomorrow will continue, but so-called future life can come before.

If that happens to us, then this wonderful opportunity, this capable, intelligent life has been wasted, for nothing. When we cannot achieve something- if days go in, days go out, night comes in, night goes out, if our life goes that way- that’s truly called a ‘waste of our life.’ (1:05:12)

Even in the material world, we talk about ‘legacy,’ don’t we? We want to achieve something. Something. We want something to be left. A 19th century Tibetan scholar has work that has recently been edited and published by Professor Lopez, and is called Madman’s Middle Way. Madman’s Middle Way. When you look at his work, he makes a beautiful point. He really had something fantastic. [Quotes Tibetan] he said:

Mostly people would like to leave something. Many of them would like to leave continuation of themselves.

The spiritual teachers would like to leave their legacy: their ‘Bibles’, their continuation of spiritual practice. Actually, that is the legacy of spiritual teachers. Also, people would like to leave their children behind them. Some people build beautiful monasteries, temples, libraries, and memorial this and that- as their legacies, they want to leave these behind.

People will always look for something to be their legacy. If you have nothing there, then you have achieved nothing. Then [your life can] truly [be] called: life wasted. Nothing spiritually achieved; nothing materially achieved; nothing. (1:08:02) That is a waste of life. You might have enjoyed it, or you might have suffered, but truly, nothing was achieved. And such a precious, capable, wonderful opportunity- one could not use it, and that is very regrettable.

That’s what I say: tomorrow, or so-called ‘future life’? Which comes first? One never knows.

The Madman’s Middle Way continues to say [quotes Tibetan]…

He actually wrote this for [/about?] some Mongolian scholar who wrote the first alphabetical Tibetan dictionary. We had a lot of dictionaries, but nothing was alphabetical, making it most difficult. In order to find a word before, you had to read the whole thing! He made the first alphabetical [/alphabetized] system. (1:09:32) He wrote: [quotes Tibetan]

The person who neither has dharma, nor has wealth, less or both (????1:09:49)- the beggars’ story- and he has nothing else that I mentioned- no monasteries, no followers, no images, no memorials, you know what I mean- nothing’s there. “But by eating so many years of the human food, I would like to leave this little booklet.” That was that first dictionary, alphabetized, that little booklet, as payment for eating so much human food.

[Quotes Tibetan]

In other words, it’s another legacy.

So, you have to achieve something. When you don’t achieve anything, that’s called: a life wasted. Life wasted. When you waste your life, that’s the most regrettable thing.

What makes us waste our life? Laziness. Laziness. It begins with getting up in the morning. Honestly. If you have nothing to do for the day, then it’s a different story. Other than that… (1:11:09)

You know I have to get up at four in the morning, every morning. It doesn’t matter what time I went to bed. It’s not even counted. Four in the morning. And if I don’t get up, I’ll probably sleep, I’d probably be sleeping up like this… I put my knees up and the first thing I feel is the stick hitting my knee. The pain on the knee, because they hit [you with] a stick, you know, on the knee? So I fee that pain. All the time. This is a part of how I’ve been taught. The moment I had the first opportunity, I didn’t get up until twelve!

When you push it [/are pushed] that way for so many years, either it becomes a habit, or you go completely in the opposite direction. I go the other way around- I always go the opposite direction. That’s my bad habit. Honestly. If I’m being rushed by somebody else, I will delay them by half an hour, for sure. [laughter] For sure. That is in my blood, I’m sorry, that’s my character. It’s not excusable at all, but that’s my bad habit. That’s how I do [things].

So naturally, for all of these years, for about almost fifteen, twenty years, they made me get up at four in the morning. No matter what day it was, they made me get up at four in the morning. If you didn’t, you got hit. There’s pain on my knee all the time because of that. The prick pain would wake me up!

The advantage is: you achieve so much. Many of you know: you get up in the morning, you meditate, you say prayers, you exercise, run, walk, whatever you do. And still you come back and you wash and you have a bath and all that, and still it’s not 6:00 yet! You have the whole day at your disposal.

It is also [because] the great spiritual masters that I know- the Dalai Lama’s masters, as well as His Holiness himself, all of them- get up at four in the morning. Four in the morning, because that’s the time you can do your commitments, your sadhanas, whatever you have to do. By seven or eight o’clock, you’ll be busy with normal, worldly, material work. That’s why you can achieve a lot of things.

If you sleep for half the day, then the whole thing is gone. The whole day is gone. The whole thing is gone. So whole life is gone. That’s the reality. That’s the reality. [That’s what happens when you are filled with] laziness at the beginning [of the day].

Laziness blocks the individual from bringing achievement to their life. (1:15:07)

The best thing we can do, something good for us, is to get compassion for ourself. Free ourself from suffering. And that’s not going to happen easily at all. That requires such a life [as that which] we have. [This life that allows us] To be able to communicate, understand, digest, and integrate that into our qualities, integrate it as our quality in our self.

You know dogs can’t do that, cats can’t do that, birds can’t do that. any other life we see around us cannot do that. we can.

Whether we have a future life or not, if you don’t achieve that, then you achieve nothing. Really. Truly. The best legacy is missed. If you can achieve that, and if there is a future life, then you are better off. If there is no future life, then you are better off. So some purpose is served. The mission of life is completed. Life is not wasted. It doesn’t become meaningless. When time has passed, then it has passed! If there is nothing left, then it becomes meaningless. If you achieve nothing for yourself, then you can’t achieve much for others, either.

Remember there was a question last night: when I am not enlightened, how do I know that I am not making mistakes?

If I recall correctly, my answer was: Because [you make decisions] based on your experience. That’s why you know you’re not making mistakes. If it is not based on experience, it is just guessing. (1:18:00) Then you have no idea whether you are making a mistake or not making a mistake. You don’t know.

So our life is short, precious, important. From the dharma point of view, it is extremely difficult to get. Extremely difficult to get. I’ll tell you why. You don’t have to believe what the traditions say. I’ll tell you why.

As we talked about yesterday, about how sophisticated this life is. [Some examples of how it is sophisticated are:] Even our body structure alone… And the mind that is able to meet the challenges posed by the body… And the body that is able to meet the challenges posed by the mind… [all of this] needs a tremendous amount of karma, or something, that [/to have] caused that life. Not just one [karmic cause/result], but many combined together. It depends on those causes as well as the conditions.

That’s true: it [/our life][is due to] dependent arising. You don’t have to believe in any religion at all. Just look at it, think about it, you will know it is [due to] dependent arising [/has dependently arisen]. (1:19:55) It did not come out of no cause, nor was it put out by somebody else, nor did it just pop up out of nowhere, like toast pops up. That’s it. It has causes, conditions, that all came together. A lot of them. A lot of them. Not one, but a lot of them. That’s why it is [due to] dependent arising.

To meet so many conditions at one time is extremely difficult. Look at our own schedule. If you want a meeting between two people, and you look at each person’s schedule, and try to meet at one point, how difficult it is! Even just a simple meeting, or a lunch meeting. It is quite difficult to meet. Because it is dependent. Dependent on the time that each individual has. Even if you find the time, and you put it in your schedule, how many times have you not been able to keep it? It shows how difficult it is when you have to depend on something.

Everything is dependently arising, and therefore it is extremely difficult. Such a sophisticated, complicated life- to be able to bring this together is very difficult. Honestly. I’m telling you (that is an expression you use, right?). Honestly, it’s very difficult to get.

It is rare. It is by chance that it happened. So once we have it in our hand, it is our wealth. It is our, you know, really, our treasure. It is our achievement. It is our fortune. If you cannot use it, and then hope to get something in another time (1:22:36)… which is absolutely silly!

In order to achieve something now, the [thing that is] blocking us the most is laziness. We have to overcome that laziness, because that laziness is also an addiction. We are addicted to it. It is very hard to overcome. Either you are going to overcome it willingly, or by force. We are not the people who are going to submit to force. We have to willingly overcome. [In order to] willingly overcome, we have to convince ourself that this is important. When we don’t have compassion for ourself, we cannot convince ourself that this is important. We don’t really care: “Yeah, maybe, but I enjoy my morning nap.”

Whatever it is, not ‘morning nap,’ what do you call it? Sleeping in, okay? That’s just an example for everything.

Some of our friends also have laziness mixed up with hesitation. Laziness mixed up with disliking. You know laziness is such a thing that it uses all possible emotions to be able to continue the laziness. For laziness, it is survival. It uses all survival tactics. Laziness is not a person, I’m not trying to say it is a person, but it’s almost like that! (1:25:07)

It is survival for laziness. It uses every technique. That includes using the emotions. Fear: you don’t want to change. You are afraid. It uses fear. Hesitation: in the form of ‘be careful.’ Hesitation as hesitation, as well as in the form of ‘be careful.’ Danger. Everything that you can find- laziness will apply [this crippling emotion] for its survival.

Each and every one of them brings [/causes] a struggle within us. Each and every one of them brings [/causes] a struggle within us. Struggle within us. We struggle between our laziness and ‘to do,’ between laziness and enthusiasm. That’s what we struggle with.

Forget about enthusiasm! We don’t even have joy, and just [being] happy to do [it] is not there at all. We have somehow the common sense and information and knowledge that that’s the right thing to do for me. However, the obstacles are so powerful, so strong, that we can’t just do it. We have to look at it, circle around it five times, think about it, then go over there, and take three steps back, and think about it again. We do that all the time.

These are the manifestations of laziness along with emotions. It looks like the mind is playing tricks. That’s how we acknowledge it, that’s how we perceive it. But it’s not the mind playing tricks. It is the addiction to laziness manifesting in different forms.

Why have I been talking to you about this? (1:28:20) So that it may appear within yourself: “I may be able to recognize it… it is the laziness’s trick!” So that you may be able to at least suspect it may be laziness. But if you have been able to suspect it as laziness, do not postpone until tomorrow to find out whether it is laziness’s trick or not! At that very moment, look in, touch it, look in, look out, touch it, look in, look out, and touch it. And work with that.

Acknowledge it is laziness! Acknowledge it is laziness! And [acknowledge that] your knowledge, your understanding of laziness is not good. Then combine them together. Then look at that [laziness and your lack of understanding] as an obstacle. For the first time put your finger on it and say, “This is my obstacle!” (1:29:53) There you are. “This is my obstacle.”

So now what are you going to do? Worship your obstacle? Or pray to your obstacle? Or cut it out and get rid of it?

If you have compassion for yourself, that question does not arise. When there is an obstacle, it is an obstacle and you have to get rid of it. Whatever it may take. Cut or destroy.

If you don’t have compassion… this is interesting! Doubt comes in. doubt comes in as a form of another emotion. It says: “I think it’s an obstacle. I think so. I believe so. But how do I know? It may not be. It may be a gift. How do I know it’s an obstacle? It may be a blessing in disguise.” That is where the doubt comes in. Doubt plays very strongly within our mind. “Blessing in disguise.”

If you let that doubt come in, and that doubt take place, then you can’t dismiss the doubt. You have to deal with it again. You have to deal with it. “Is this a blessing in disguise?” the mind of doubt will probably say, “Maybe. Maybe it is.” But it’s not going to say, “No.” It will say, “Maybe. I have to be careful. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise.”

How? A blessing that makes me not to achieve my purpose? Not to have my legacy? Not to achieve, not to develop compassion for myself? When you begin to think about it that way, it can’t be a blessing. If you are true to yourself, that can’t be a blessing. (1:32:40) It is not a blessing.

That’s how you have to overcome. The human mind is such a… who knows what’s going to come up? Every individual has different ways of thinking that will come up. [You have to] listen until it is over, and listen until it’s [/the mind is] convinced that you’re not going to move [/make any progress] on your goal at all. Honestly.

We all pretend to be; everybody pretends to be. If you are a Buddhist, you pretend to be a Buddhist; if you are not a Buddhist, you also pretend to be not Buddhist. Honestly, you pretend to be not Buddhist. You’re not only not a Buddhist, you pretend to be not a Buddhist, too. Because mind is so tricky when you have to deal with it.

It is not the mind. It is our addictions kicking in. Addictions find any excuse they can. That’s how the negative forces separate ourself from the positive forces. Because if we develop compassion for ourself, they will not find a place in our mind. There’s no room for all those mental emotions.

Because of the compassion for myself, [there’s] a sense of urgency for myself because I know the opportunity is limited. Limited to a very short time, half of which is already gone. [there’s] only a little time left. If I cannot achieve [my goals] within that [time frame], then when? (1:35:12) The answer is: almost never.

That’s why it’s important. That’s why it is now. Otherwise, somebody called “Death” knocks and comes in. It’s too late.

I vaguely remember, Allen has poetry [/a poem about this], I don’t remember exactly, but it’s called ‘Death Comes Knocking’ (??1:36:00) “Death came to get me,” he said, “… I hid in the toilet, the door crashed, and they got an innocent kid.” So… when Death comes in, I don’t think death will make a mistake! It won’t take an innocent kid at all. It is poetry, that’s why he put it in.

When Death comes in, everything is too late. Everything is too late, no matter how precious the life might be. Now it’s going, and it’s going, and it’s gone. So no longer do we have it, and no longer can one use it. That means the opportunity is gone.

So anything that you want to do- if you want to make a million dollars, make it now! Don’t wait ‘til tomorrow. If you want to achieve something- joy, happiness, compassion- try now! Don’t wait ‘til tomorrow.

Don’t submit to laziness. Don’t submit to postponement. Don’t submit to delay. Even if it is temporary, don’t. If you do, you’ll never make it.

That is our meditation for the day. That is your meditation for the day. What I did not do is let us sit together and say, “Think this and that.” That is your meditation for the day, for the week, for the month, for the year, and until you overcome those obstacles. By thinking “quality,” “preciousness,” “capability,” it should protect the individual [/you] from feeling low [/down]. I don’t know whether it will protect you from depression or not, but if you catch it early enough, it will protect you from feeling low. (1:38:50)

Disappointment: you know we get disappointments a lot. This leads to those problems. As long as you have life, nothing is too late. It is never too late. That’s what Allen says, right? It is never too late. Never too late.

Do the meditation- that I remember. Do the meditation! It’s never too late, as long as we have life. When we don’t have life, it’s too late. Then it becomes too late. So the disappointments are never too late [to undo]. Anything, whatever you have lost, or gained, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. You can do it again. Don’t submit yourself to disappointment. Because life is capable of building anything you want.

The appreciation, joy, happiness, of having such a life and its qualities should uplift ourself in our life. It is impermanent and short-lived, and [ends in] death. All of them [/these more sobering qualities] do not let you fly [/keep you grounded]. You have to balance [the feeling of being uplifted and grounded]. At the balanced level of the mental position, you can achieve compassion for yourself. That’s how you have to train yourself. That’s how you have to meditate. Meditate for yourself.

That’s how you bring balance to your life. Joy and happiness [come from] remembering [this amazing opportunity we have in life] and brings us uplift [/makes us feel uplifted]. [Recognizing that this life is] short-lived and [that] death [is inevitable], [and that life] is impermanent, and [that] aging [is inevitable], and so forth, will not let you fly [/will keep us from feeling too uplifted; will bring us back down to earth; will ground us]. So that you remain grounded, [these two] function together.

I guess that’s it.