Archive Result

2

Teaching at Memorial Day Weekend 2007 at Garrison Institute

Part 1 (Day 1, Fri May 25, 2007)

Welcome everybody. It is wonderful to be able to get together with old friends. Some of you have been friends for 20 years. Some of you are quite new. It’s great to see the old ones, and I would like to welcome the new ones, too.

We are together to do Lojong. Lojong is training of the mind—not like a silver mine, but training of the mind. Although there are very specific textbooks called Lojong, it is very specific within the Gelugpa tradition, and comes from Atisha. We say Lam Rim and Lojong sort of side by side. We have textbooks talking about it. However, the true Lojong is our practice—practice of training the individual to be able to uplift yourself from our present spiritual level, wherever you are, to that extraordinary total enlightenment.

Although—I must say it clearly here—I do give a lot of open teachings, when we are talking about Lojong, it can’t be very open. It will be not only very strong Buddhist background but also very strong Buddhism. Not only is it very strong Buddhist background, but it is also very strong Mahayana Buddhism. I would like to make that very clear to you so that you have a clear idea what you are here for. In some conversations, talking here and there, you will probably feel what seems to be criticism of some Buddhist teachings, but it is not criticism. I’m following the principle in which these particular textbooks talk about it. So if you find certain things where it looks like criticism of something, please have a very clear and open mind here. It is not criticizing any tradition or any school or teaching, but is simply following the principle. For example, as I said, it is typical Mahayana. It will be the very typical Mahayana idea of total altruistic, totally dedicated activities. By doing so, you may think it is undermining self-liberation or something. It is not undermining self-liberation, but pointing out the altruistic aspect of it as one example. Please do not take it as a criticism either of an individual person or a school of thought.

We spend a lot of time sharing among friends such as yourselves. But every time we are talking and sharing, whether it is a small group or large group, particularly a bigger group, one has to be sort of aware that this way may hurt the feelings of a certain group of people or group of teachings. That way ,though, it is always undermining the particular teaching , because through this hesitation, on the flip side of the coin you may get different information. So we are always being careful. But then there are certain times when you cannot go that way; and there are certainly important points that you have to be informed of but we are unable to discuss, because of fearing that it may produce hurt feelings. That has been one of the biggest problems of mine, when I look back on almost the last thirty years. Sometimes you cannot emphasize the importance of it. So I’ll be talking to you more and more in that manner, but that doesn’t mean criticizing or anything else. I want to make that absolutely clear.

Second, as I said, Lojong or training of the mind: every Buddhist practice where Buddha has given teaching is all training of the mind because the mind is the most important thing. The mind is the thing that can make a total difference to our lives. Our happiness can be given by our mind; our sadness and sorrow can be given by our mind; not only our happiness and our sadness of this life, but suffering and joy of future lives are totally the result of our mind and its activity, and nothing else. It is the mind that makes the total difference to our life, and our lives. It is so important.

What is our mind at this moment? Our mind at this moment is in a very addicted situation. We have a very strong addiction of anger, hatred, obsession, jealousy, and, most importantly, ego cherishing, self-cherishing, ego entertaining. This addiction is extremely strong with all of us—even people who claim or who think by themselves and others they are doing wonderful work. Most of them have a very strong ego attachment and very strong ego boosting addiction and very strong self-cherishing addiction. Even those who are doing wonderful work for the benefit of a lot of people and even the generations through a variety of activities have a very strong ego boosting and self cherishing addiction. This is the problem for all of us. This is the enemy within ourselves. If we do not realize that, one will think: I’m great, I’ve been doing wonderful work. True; they are great, and they do wonderful work.

But how wonderful it would be if there was no ego service, if there was no self-cherishing service. Everyone has room to improve, so we hope to advance to that this weekend, to the great teachings of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons.

When you read the first page of the text, you know, the English translation went as the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, but in the original Tibetan there is a subtitle. The subtitle is found here when it says “Homage to the three jewels—this is the wheel of weapons striking at vital points of the enemy’s body.” The English here has been made to sound like good English. But if you pay attention to the original subtitle, it says “One will strike at the vital points of the enemy,” not “body.” The important point is that this is the weapon that cuts the most important life giving and life saving points of the enemy. That is the title. The moment we look at this title, we see “The enemy.” When we see the word “enemy,” what are we talking about? We are not talking about the outside. We are not talking about Osama bin Laden. We are talking about the real enemy who lives inside ourselves, who controls our lives, who dictates his or her demands on us, who subdues us, the individual human being. That is the real enemy who takes the life of our liberation, who makes us a slave of our negative karma. That is the true enemy within us. We are not talking about another human being. We are not talking about the devil. We are talking about the enemy within ourselves.

The most important part we have to recognize here is the enemy within us, which is self-cherishing as well as ego. I don’t want to say “ego grasping.” That will confuse you. So I just say “ego,” and particularly the ego that cherishes the self. Why is it the enemy? Because of this we have a continuation of suffering, of pain. Sometimes there is so much that we have been in the hell realms, the hungry ghost, the animal realms, even human beings. There are horrible human beings, such as the barbarians who know nothing but how to hurt another person. We are made into this by these particular thoughts, particular mind, and particular mental aspects. Because of that, all our suffering and pain is not given by anybody else from outside. God did not create suffering for us. It came from ourselves. Because that enemy within us not only creates suffering but makes sure suffering continues, makes sure we don’t want to get off of the truck of running into suffering. That is why this is the real enemy within us. It is not in another human being. It is aspects of our mind. An easy way to strike at the vital points of the enemy is the training of the mind.

So this is a Mahayana practice. It is very important to realize that a Mahayana practice cannot be effective to the individual unless we have quite a strong background of what we can technically call Hinayana. The politically correct language is self-liberating yana (vehicle). But Hinayana is the Smaller Vehicle, and Mahayana is the vehicle which delivers the individual to liberation. So it is called Hina or “small” because it is only self-concerned, not so much concerned with all living beings. The focal point is the self—one person. Without that we cannot go on to liberate many, because if you do not know how to liberate one person, ourselves, we have no way of knowing how to help so many. Honestly speaking, it is not possible. That is why self-help is the most important thing. In order to get to the Maha or “bigger” vehicle, it is important to get into the Hinayana first. Without that, we will lose every foundation, every ground. We will simply be building an ice castle on ice ground. The weather we are having today—suddenly it’s summer—will melt the ice. Our ice castle will serve no good purpose. It is most important to gain a ground of helping ourselves, without which you will get nowhere, believe me.

So first and foremost, the training of the mind from the Buddha’s teaching and how he shared his wisdom with us, is really truly through the Four Noble Truths. There is nothing equivalent to the Four Noble Truths, which is absolutely relevant in our lives. It was relevant 2600 years ago and is still relevant with our lives, and it will be relevant in the future. This is something fantastic; it is a great jewel that the Buddha shared with us, honestly. In the Vajrayana, in the Mahyahana, and even in the Hinayana, we see that so many truly profound teachings of the Buddha come down to the Four Noble Truths.

The first truth, the Truth of Suffering, is true to all of us. No matter whoever thinks what or says what, it is the reality of our life. We are dominated by the Truth of Suffering, day after day, minute after minute, while we are asleep, awake, walking, eating, sitting, every time. Does it have to be that way? Buddha said no, it does not have to be that way because of our addictions that we talked about earlier. All of these addictions—hatred, jealousy, etc.—they all remain active with us because of our addiction to our ego and our self-cherishing. True misunderstanding was given to us as truth. Honestly speaking, if we had been kind to the other person, as a servant tries to help, it automatically helps oneself. When you do good to someone, you get good benefits—I don’t mean spiritually or behind the curtain, it’s not that. When you help someone, you get a good return of joy and happiness. We do get that for sure. But we have a misunderstanding; we think to help ourselves we have to hurt others. That is the original misunderstanding we carry. In order to make myself better, I have to destroy you. In order to make me better, I have to attack you. Then I look a lot better. That misunderstanding is the consequence of self-cherishing and ego.

The bottom line is that all our problems come from ego and self-cherishing, period. In order to strike that enemy’s vital points, we must make ourselves strong. Otherwise, we cannot do it. Where and how we make ourselves strong is through the way of the Four Noble Truths. That, also, is really what it is: the truth of the cause of suffering, truth of suffering; truth of cessation and the path leading to it. That is the bottom line. Years ago we used to say we needed “Bus Stop Buddhism.” We did not realize that Buddha already provided a Bus Stop Buddhism called the Four Noble Truths. We try to be more clever than Buddha, trying to put our thoughts together and make Bus Stop Buddhism. Truly, Bus Stop Buddhism is the Four Noble Truths: truly profound and deep.

The fundamental principle of Buddhist teaching and our way of life, whether we go to the positive process or the negative process, is just four lines: two going this way and two going that way: cause and result, cause and result. That’s what it is.

The question comes: When can we do this? Which is a better time for us to do this? It is a matter of switching from our addiction to creating a new way of life. When can you do this? There is nothing better than this life, according to the earlier teachers. Even if you are born as a sort of samsaric god-king, or some sort of prince, even then you can’t do it. You can only do it in this lifetime, in this human lifetime, with this human quality. So from the time point of view, this is the right time to do it. Not only is it the right time to do it, but it is almost getting late. If you keep on putting it off until tomorrow, then it will be time for us to go. There is only one place to go. Although we say it is never too late, there are times that get to be too late because we lose both the opportunity and capability. That’s why this is the right time. Even in this lifetime, if you get old, that has its own physical, mental, and emotional consequences. When that takes over, it becomes more difficult than when you are young and healthy and when you can do it. I’m not talking about being young in your twenties. I’m talking about being young in your thirties, forties, and fifties. When you are mature, it is a great time to do it. We have a very limited time. And particularly, we are very good at wasting time by getting other priorities. We have tremendous schedules, deadlines, and priorities. Again, I said earlier, and I will say it again, we make tremendous schedules and deadlines because we are doing something important to benefit people. We do that at the expense of helping ourselves through meditative practice. To me, it is a waste, too, although it is good and wonderful work and benefits people. Even then, it is a waste to the individual.

Awareness of this is really called for nowadays. What’s happening today is that the real essence of the Dharma, the real essence of the Buddha’s experience, becomes something we put away somewhere. Then, something similar takes priority and becomes the most important thing in the individual’s life. When it is time to go, and you are calculating, you may have huge losses. You do have lot of gains, but the gains may not balance the losses, and that is important to remember. That is how you help yourself.

Buddha repeatedly said helping yourself is nothing more than Dharma. There is nothing else. We say at the time of death, wealth will not help, retinues will not help, friends will not help; you go one by one, this and that will not help, and at the end you are left with positive or negative karma. Equally, and this is the key of the Buddha’s teaching and message, the essence of the Buddha’s message—this is karma, karma of our own creation. It is me who makes a difference to me, and nobody else. That makes us strong. Once we realize that, and once we worry about thinking of it, maybe there will be time when I will not be able to do much and I have to go. What should I do? Take refuge. Traditional teachings will tell you to do tremendous amounts of meditations on impermanence, particularly on death, by providing three roots, three reasonings, and three resolutions. This is a very strong practice of training your mind. It is not here to create trouble or fear for the individual, or sadness and depression. It is here to give us a sense of urgency. Otherwise we’ll put everything off until tomorrow. That is extremely important.

If death comes before I can do anything, what should I do? Take refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I’m not going to go into detail why. You can raise questions to individuals here. We are all here together for the weekend, and everybody here is more learned than myself. You have to think that way. I used to think that way: everybody else is more learned than me. That way you reduce your pride. Otherwise everybody will think, “I am the best.” Best of what? Empty head and ego. If that person doesn’t have an answer, don’t think I’m better than him or her, because that will harm us. That’s where you discuss. Whatever you know, you can share with that person. If not, don’t push it, because it may create negativities for the other person.

Quality of the Buddha, quality of the Dharma, quality of the sangha. This is important. Why not take refuge to the tree god and fire god and all that, unless you know the quality of the Buddha? If you really want liberation, if you really want to help yourself, without the lamrim, without lojong, you’re not going to get anywhere. You may be a Pali scholar, a Buddhist scholar, a Sanskrit scholar, but without training of the mind, you are going to get nowhere, believe me. Some people may think, lamrim is meant for those who know a little bit of something. If you look at it carefully, all the Buddhas have become a Buddha with the lamrim. All the great masters that followed the Buddha, the earlier Indian teachers, like Nagarjuna and Asanga and Buddhapalita, will not become Buddha without that stage of development. Some people call it lamrim; that’s the Tibetan name.

Some translators call it “Stages of the path,” so it loses value to the individual. It sounds like a manual for fixing a tape recorder or something, so it is a big problem. Honestly, without that, you will get nowhere. There is not a single enlightened person who did not go through this. Some may have called it different names, but what you meditate on is the same. Forget about Buddhism—without transcendental wisdom, no one will get liberated, anywhere. It is so important. Some people will say you can get liberated within a week, within a month, within a year. It is not that easy. We had one incident in old Tibetan culture that promised liberation within a week. What was the requirement? Not only ten percent of your income, but all of your belongings had to be presented to the teacher. And for seven days they would deprive you of food and water and sleep. At the end of seven nights, they would throw you off a sort of cliff just on the other side of Potala called Chakpuri. This is called seven days’ enlightenment. I don’t care whether you call it illusion body, clear light, sadhana, emptiness, uma (the middle path), Mahamudra, or whatever, there is no instant enlightenment for anybody. Unfortunately, it is a gradual process. There is no kind of enlightenment aspirin that cures all obstacles. Even cocaine won’t do it. It is a gradual thing, honestly.

What I really want you to do is think of something you can gain out of this weekend. This is a lot to go through, so I am thinking that I will go through as much as I can of the upper half of the text, and Hartmut is supposed to give me the verse number and up to that I will go as much as possible—not in detail, but as much as possible. The other half I will try to do during the Labor Day weekend. One more thing I want to tell you: for Buddhists, the textbooks are considered Dharma, so we try not to put them in the background or jump over them, particularly for those of us who have refuge vows or Vajrayana vows. We get a tremendous amount of downfalls.

My main job today is supposed to be setting the motivation. The motivation is why you are here. You are here to help yourself by yourself—to uplift your spiritual development. At least we should challenge our ego and threaten our self cherishing. Hopefully we will get somewhere—that is your purpose, your goal, and your motivation.

Part 2 (Day 2, Sat, May 26, 2007)

[Note: I am skipping over discussion of whether or not to include Heart Sutra with morning prayers]

This title in English doesn’t say what it says in Tibetan. The title should be “The Great Mahayana Training of the Mind Known as the Wheel of Sharp Weapons.” That is exactly what it says. In Tibetan the author is simply given as Dharmarakshita. In English you have “Attributed to Dharmarakshita.” The word attributed has meaning. In Tibetan you don’t have “attributed” or “noted.” It just says Dharmarakshita. [Reads Tibetan]

The real title comes here: “Striking at the Vital Points of the Enemy.” We talked about the enemy last night; it’s not an external but an internal enemy, the enemy we protect and cherish and bring up. We spend day and night protecting and promoting this enemy, in order to destroy ourselves and have the worst consequences we could ever have. This is the enemy we don’t know as an enemy. We know this enemy as self-cherishing and ego; these are the two most important enemies. And that also boils down to the ego itself. Self-cherishing is linked to the ego very closely. Ego will refuse to give up cherishing ego. Ego will choose me over others—not only over all human beings but all living beings, and that is the real truth of how the ego functions within us. If that is not your enemy, who else is? The consequences of cherishing the ego bring us continued suffering. That’s why, as Milarepa said:

The enemy within us is our negative emotions.

No matter how long it has been,

no matter how much I have been deserving for this,

I have suffered the consequences

and been tortured continuously for no good reason.

By the way, I received this teaching originally from Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche when I was very young, probably nine or ten. When the late Ribur Rimpoche was here he reminded me that I received this teaching from Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche because I was there and he remembered that. Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche was so great and fantastic; one of the greatest masters. He remained after 1959 in Tibet, and during the cultural revolution he remained in Tibet. These are the stories I heard from Ribur Rimpoche. After the Tibetan uprising in 1959 when the Chinese Communists took over, they wanted to introduce study and education. Education, to them, meant Communist education. The word “education,” in Tibetan, is Lobjong. Lobjong means “study.” It starts with “Lob.” Lojong begins with Lo, not Lob. So Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche was the most senior lama, by age and respect, and many people listened to him, even though Gandenji Rimpoche was still there. But Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche was senior and respected there. So the Chinese made everybody speak a little bit, and they emphasized Lobjong. Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche half pretended not to hear—he was really old—he said, “Yes, you have to do a lot of Lojong. Lojong is really good. You have a lot of incarnate lamas here, and you have a responsibility. When I was young I studied a lot of lojongs, including Wheel of Sharp Weapons, and including Pico overpowers poison, and Seven Point Mind Training, and Eight Verses of _____.” Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche kept on counting almost 100 lojongs. He kept on listing them one after another. I asked Ribur Rimpoche what the Chinese leaders did. He said they sat with their heads down like this. I asked, “What did the Chinese leaders do?” He said, the Chinese leaders didn’t say anything, but sat with long faces, all the time.

So now to the Wheel of Sharp Weapons: Ribur Rimpoche told me that, I said, yes, I had this teaching the first time from His Holiness. He said, no, you had it from Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche, and I remembered that it was actually in my own house. The second time I received it was just two years ago in New York. The lineage is according to their lineage list. Kyabje Lobsang Rimpoche probably received it from—I don’t remember who he received it from. His Holiness received it from Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche who received it from Pabongka, so the lineage goes according to the teaching lineage list of Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche. Probably Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche’s lineage list normally refers to Pabongka’s. So that is the background of the continuation of the lineage.

Now, the verse here uses the words: “Vital point.” The usual teachings will tell you that the spiritual practitioner has to try to be as expert as possible to strike the enemy within ourselves. It is important so we can develop ourselves quickly as well as easily. Our struggles may not be so difficult. Traditional teachings will tell you that the people who cut wood know at what point to cut the wood. For them it is much easier to cut wood than a lay person like me. People who know have some kind of system; they know where the water flows through, and they chop the wood there. Normally, traditional teachings will tell you not only about old wood, but will talk about the banana tree. The banana tree has a vital point where moisture comes in a little hole. If you hit that hole, the banana tree falls immediately. Just like butchers know how to butcher an animal without torturing too much, without suffering, just like that, we spiritual practitioners need to destroy the enemy within us, so we need to know the vital point of the enemy’s life strength. Then you can strike at that. So this wheel of sharp weapons will lead you to that vital point. That is why the text says “vital point.” It is not just one striking weapon but a wheel of weapons—one after another, they hit on the vital point itself.

[Reads in Tibetan verse ending “…chak tsel lo.”]

The homage being paid here is to the wrathful Yamantaka. I don’t know about the homage to the three jewels, where that comes from. To mark this Buddhist paper, Damarakshita makes homage to the three jewels. As you already know about the three jewels, I may talk just a little bit about it. What makes one a Buddhist, and one not a Buddhist? Where is the divide? If you look in traditional Buddhist teachings, Buddhist and non-Buddhists say very similar things. But what makes an individual Buddhist? There are a lot of points. If I remember correctly, in this very room two years ago, when the Tibetan Buddhist centers had a meeting, one of the remarks His Holiness made was: What makes you Buddhist or non-Buddhist? There are three different viewpoints. One says one who has accepted the four white seals or the four Buddhist logos is considered a Buddhist. Normally we say that when you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, you are a Buddhist. Theoretically speaking, one who accepts Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as the perfect object of the refuge becomes a Buddhist. According to the Panchen Sonam Drakpa, the founder of two ___ of Loseling and Ganden Shatse(?): Panchen Sonam Drakpa says a Buddhist is one who accepts Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as the ultimate, pure, perfect object of refuge. I think Panchen Sonam Drakpa goes on to say that Buddha doesn’t take refuge to Buddha himself. Therefore, unless you are prepared to say that the Buddha is not a Buddhist, then you cannot say one who takes refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is a Buddhist. But this is a word game: you can’t say Buddha takes refuge to Buddha; it sounds funny. The Buddha might have taken refuge to Buddha before he became a Buddha. You can’t say the Buddha is not a Buddhist. So technically, one who takes Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as the ultimate object of refuge is a Buddhist.

In order to accept Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as the ultimate object of refuge, we need to know what is Buddha, what is Dharma, and what is Sangha. Yes, there is the historical Buddha. Scholars may tell you these are non-objective or biased people, but as Buddhists, we need to know what is the historical Buddha and the Buddha. The historical Buddha is a Buddha, but not all Buddhas are the historical Buddha. Historical Buddha, according to “Buddhism,” is not necessarily Mahayana. What happens these days is that there are some radical scholars who say Buddhism is Pali, not Sanskrit. There are Pali teachers, too, and Pali scholars, and even if you go to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia and Thailand, even a number of them will not accept Mahayana Buddhism as true Buddhism. One time when his Holiness visited Thailand, His Holiness always wanted to function as a monk, so he wanted to eat with monks, and he was the guest of the senior-most monk in Thailand. They started serving the Dalai Lama and his retinues first. “You are the guest, you have to eat first,” they insisted, no matter how much his Holiness protested, they insisted. The real reason, I was told later, is that they don’t accept the Dalai Lama as a true monk. The true monk must be a Thai or Sri Lankan or Pali-based monk, in their opinion.

But that’s not the point. The point raised here is that we are practitioners. We are here to seek benefits. We need help wherever we can get it. We don’t care whether the Thai monks are real monks and Tibetan monks are fake monks, or vice versa. The point is that we need to be open minded. That’s what it is. Sometimes people will say Buddhism must be limited to only all three baskets, the Tripitaka. That’s absolutely a radical, ridiculous view. Honestly, for a thousand years now Buddhism has been going around everywhere—from India to China, to Tibet; it’s not that the Tibetan Buddhism went to China or Chinese Buddhism went to Tibet. Buddhism went from India to China and Tibet separately. Buddhism went from Tibet to China too. Chinese government calls this “Buddhism that came through via Tibet.” There is a huge amount of that in China.

The real true Buddhism was gone out of India during the ruling period of the Mongols. Then India invited Sri Lankan monks to re-establish Buddhism in India. Very lately, when India became independent in 1947, India restored all the traditions that came to India, and Buddhism happened to be one of them. Dr. Ambikara started the “New Buddhists,” and the great development in India has taken place after Buddhism came out of Tibet. This is a well documented historical fact. The important point here is the Buddha. The term “Buddha” is not simply limited to the historical Buddha. If that was the case, we would be doomed, because there would be no point. The material world would be absolutely right in that case. In fact, there are many, many Buddhas. So when we say “I take refuge in Buddha,” the historical Buddha is represented, but ultimately we are connecting to our own future Buddha. We will be able to nurture our own Buddha. When we take refuge to Buddha, there is causal refuge, and result refuge. Causal refuge is by taking refuge to the historical Buddha, our own future Buddha will mature.

Vasubandhu has described two types of Dharma: information and spiritual development. Spiritual development is ultimate Dharma. Information is the relative Dharma.

Four Buddhist monks are considered Sangha. It may not be politically correct, but that is the Buddhist male chauvinist tradition. Change is definitely needed; I am all for it. But we cannot change it without a Buddhist council. That is the representation. But in reality, those of us who have taken refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and are following the positive and negative advices contained in the refuge are the relative Sangha. Your status as a sangha member is not based on your annual pledges at all. As a sangha member you need to be a role model; you need to be fit so that people will bow down and pay homage to you. Wherever you go in society, you need to be an example. Each and every one of you is so precious for others. You are the only ambassadors Buddha has in society. Take one or two steps a day in that direction, so that, when an incident occurs, you will be a Dharma person. Maintain mindfulness at all times because you are bringing 2600 years of wisdom to mankind.

Then the text reads, “Homage to the wrathful Yamantaka.” The English translation uses the word “wrathful.” But a word-by-word translation is “the great fearless Yamantaka.” Yamantaka is a yidam: a mental commitment to a fully enlightened Buddha. Translation is so difficult; you have to be very careful with it. Yamantaka refers to a particular yidam. The word yidam contains yi (mind) and dam (commitment). It is a mentally produced, mentally existing point that we hold as our own commitment. All yidams are born out of emptiness. There was not a real person called Mr. Yamantaka born in 600 A.D. in southern India. That’s not the point. It is a mental commitment; your mind produces it. Yamantaka is one of the most wrathful deities: one who destroys the Lord of Death. There are physical forms of Yamantaka: red Yamantaka, black Yamantaka, 13-deity Yamantaka, Solitary Hero Yamantaka. But when you are saying “homage to Yamantaka,” this is red Yamantaka, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The text says: “Great fearless one, who are you threatening? Not a person, not a living being, but self-cherishing and ego.” Why is Yamantaka so angry? Because he is angry at ego and self-cherishing. Why does he have so many weapons in his hands, but no guns or bombs? All the weapons are meant to strike on the vital point of ego and self-cherishing. That’s why Lama Dharmarakshita pays homage to Yamantaka. The peaceful Yamantaka is Manjushri, the wisdom of all Buddhas. Why Manjushri? Because of absolute Bodhimind.

Verse 1

When peacocks roam through the jungle of virulent poison,

Though the gardens of medicinal plants may be attractive,

The peacock flocks will not take delight in them;

For peacocks thrive on the essence of virulent poison.

Verse 2

Likewise, when heroes enter the jungle of cyclic existence,

Though the gardens of happiness and prosperity may seem beautiful,

The heroes will not become attached to them;

For heroes thrive in the forest of suffering.

This is a funny traditional Indian as well as Tibetan saying, but I’m not sure whether the saying really works in the West. Probably it doesn’t. We used to say that peacocks prepare to eat poison trees rather than medicinal plants and fruits because peacock feathers become brighter by eating poison. Just like that, when we say “heroes,” we are referring to a person, either male or female. Why do we call them heroes? They have been able to defeat self-cherishing and ego. They almost completely ignore selfish interests, and all activities of those great Bodhisattvas are totally dedicated for the benefit of a-l-l all living beings. When you look in Vajrayana or Mahayana Bodhisattva vows, you talk about males and females. But at the Sutrayana level, there is a difference between monks and nuns. In Khedrup Je’s praise of Tsongkhapa he says, “One little breath you breathe is for the benefit of all living beings.” That’s what we mean. We breathe in and breathe out, and every breath should be for the benefit of all living beings. That is the Bodhisattva’s way of living. When you reach that level, then you become a hero.

Comments on Verse 2:

The next verse says, these heroes go into the forest. That is samsara. Why is samsara called a forest? In the forest you have nice, wonderful trees and green as well as poison ivy, and all of those types are available in the forest. The forest has wonderful things, as well as the poison of attachment, hatred, anger, and ignorance. There is so much though that you cannot even see the sky—samsara is covered with all kinds of growing things. Hatred and anger grow together, attachment and obsession grow together, and ignorance and ego are growing together so strongly that you cannot see the sky of freedom. Yet, these heroes would like to be in that samsara because they can destroy one by one with each and every individual, for their purposes. That’s why it’s important here.

In samsara, you do have samsaric picnic spots. I’m not sure whether the great bodhisattvas really enjoy them. Most probably they do not enjoy the picnic spots of samsara. Yet, they will be happy to deal with the most difficult things. One time Jack Kornfield asked me, “How come those Tibetan lamas always like borderline personalities more than anybody else?” I never knew the answer. Today, I thought about that. When these particular words come, that’s probably what it means.

The saying that the peacock gets its colors from poison may be from the Sanskrit tradition. I don’t think people in the West say that. Anyway, the real message is that the great Bodhisattvas always like to come back in Samsara in many different forms—in the form of some very well respected and well behaved master, great monk, great nun, in that form, or also, sometimes as an absolutely crazy yuppie. Even the Bodhisattvas are reported to come back as military generals, and, as a matter of fact, if you read Sebo (?) Rimpoche’s Quick Return(?) written by the Dalai Lama, he puts in the verse, “You may come back as a military general some day.” Or even as a bird: there is a story of a blue necked bird. This is the great bodhisattva’s way of coming back to samsara. Quite honestly it is not what we expect. It can happen in some crazy, naughty way. I’m not trying to give you an excuse as to why some incarnate lama is behaving in a crazy way. But the reality is that it happens. The reason these Bodhisattvas are living more in samsara than nirvana is compassion, love, and caring. That’s why love and compassion are so important. Remember the unguli mala story—the guy who has killed 999 people by severing their heads, and walks around with their thumbs on a mala because of a non-virtuous master who told him, “If you can kill 1000 human beings in a week and come back to me with their thumbs, I will liberate you.” So the guy killed 999 human beings. Everybody ran away, except his own mother. He hesitated about killing his own mother. If he is forced to, he will; his mother can’t give up on him, so from a distance she watched, and he saw her, and she ran away. This is a mother’s love to her children. The mother has fear and a threat of her own life, but still she cannot give up her own son who just killed almost 1000 human beings and is wearing their bloody thumbs around his neck. Just in that way, for the hero Bodhisattvas, love for all human beings makes them choose samsaric suffering places more than picnic spots. That’s why they’re called heroes.

As a matter of fact, those great heroes may see those picnic spots as suffering. The peacock did not fall in love with the medicine of the beautiful garden. Just in the same way, you will not develop obsession and attachment to samsaric picnic spots. If you do so, you will get tremendous problems. Your Bodhisattva vow cannot be broken by pain and suffering, but it can be broken by attachment. Attachment is one of those emotions that may, in very special cases, assist an individual to become liberated. But in general, attachment is also capable of breaking your Bodhisattva vows. That’s why hero Bodhisattvas will always come back in a place of suffering. One can take tremendous advantage of suffering. Number one, the understanding of suffering is of tremendous benefit. Number two, suffering itself has one good quality—only one good quality. Kyabje Ling Rimpoche always said that the good quality of suffering is you can always get rid of it. Even Buddha gives the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. First principle is suffering. The purpose of giving the truth of suffering is to understand it and, thereby, get rid of it. The purpose of the first noble truth is to recognize; the purpose of the second Noble Truth is to get rid of it. Number two is that in certain cases our mind is very harsh. There are certain spots where the heart can become gentle or fragile. There are two points: the point of joy and happiness, and the point of suffering. When the individual is having a tremendous amount of suffering, it opens up the mind. For some people, it makes more heartaches.

I have an interesting story to tell you here. There was a woman by the name of Lady Lalo. She was a very devoted person and a wonderful woman. I think her husband died; he was a cabinet minister. Then she had a lover. The lover was the person who tried to establish democracy in Tibet earlier. He was somehow arrested, and they took out his eyeballs. She got so mad and so hardened. Until now I’ve been doing prayers and making offerings to all four Tibetan traditions, to all different monasteries. I’m now fed up. She went to a temple in her house at night. She did her morning business right on the offering table. She locked the door and said, “From now on, this is locked, I’m so fed up with everything.” She became very disheartened and didn’t open the door for a long time. Later, in her old age, she met Pabongka, who was able to open her up, and she was able to practice again. In my memory, she was the first woman who sponsored the Dalai Lama to give the first Kalachakra initiation in Tibet. She was making a mandala offering, and all of her jewels fell down everywhere. Sometimes, hardship hardens the mind, but other times, the mind can be softened.

Part 3

At this point we are talking about how Bodhisattvas come back and like samsara better than nirvana. Now there are questions, such as: When a Bodhisattva comes back to samsara again and again to help or to do whatever their job is, are they really a samsaric person or a Bodhisattva? Bodhisattvas who take rebirth in samsara willingly and come back theoretically are not samsaric persons. They are Bodhisattvas. Even some Bodhisattvas may take birth in a hell realm. Some take rebirth as animal. They are not samsaric persons; they are Bodhisattvas. A great example is Kundu Pandita, who wrote the very detailed Yamantaka commentary, which is still available in Tibetan and English. There are reports that Kundu Pandita took rebirth as a downfall of breaking commitment, took rebirth as a jackal. In our mind, we ask, how come? The whole person is to get freedom and have no suffering. We have to think about these kinds of things, or else we’ll get mixed up.

When we talk about samsara, we talk about where it begins and where it ends. That is a question that bothers a number of intelligent people, people who think about such things. There are people who say, in our case, we do not say “at the beginning of samsara.” But we do talk about the “end of samsara.” Buddha was asked, “What is the beginning of samsara and what is the end of samsara?” Buddha kept silent. Silence is considered most important. That is normal Buddhist terminology. That tells us there is no beginning of samsara. No one can say where we began. But there is always an end of samsara—not the end of an individual person, but the end of samsara. All of us are within this circle of life right from the beginning where we cannot point out; it has been there. So consciousness has no birth, no death. It is always like that.

There are certain schools where we say Buddha is with you all the time: “Buddha is always good, Buddha is there with you from the beginning, but then something happened.” The reality is, there is no beginning of samsara. It’s like the idea that “all souls are old souls.” The idea of consciousness is that all consciousnesses are old consciousness. There are no new beings at all. It is the pool of beings. Some are better off, and we divide them into samsaric and non-samsaric. From that pool, a couple of us will get out and become non-samsaric. Liberation is not somewhere else; it is always within us. I always say continuation of contaminated rebirth is samsara. Contaminated consciousness becoming uncontaminated is the beginning of liberation. When you reach to the arhat level, you become non-samsaric. That’s how it is. That is better than when someone tells you, “You have the Buddha with you right from the beginning, but this Buddha had some problem because of our negative emotions.” That is a totally wrong teaching. Logically speaking, it is straightforward: if it is a fully enlightened Buddha, how can that Buddha get in trouble with attachment and hatred? When we get rid of negative emotions, what guarantee do we have that we will not repeat? None.

This is a big question that bothers spiritual practitioners, honestly speaking. In one way. it is not important: if Buddha is within you, it is fine; if Buddha is not within you, it is fine. It doesn’t look like it is so important. But when you really pin it down and think about it, it is a big problem. What guarantee do we have even if we work hard? We’ll have all kinds of hits we have to take. Now we have this beautiful weather. Why are you not out there lying under a tree getting a beautiful breeze instead of being locked in this room, listening to me with this terrible voice bugging you in your ear all day? Why should you take that hit? At the end of all this, you are going to learn a lot of things not to do. Things we cherish the most—ego and self-cherishing—here we’re telling you, Bad, Bad, Bad! We have to think twice before we even have to listen. You say this is a wonderful thing, and all these hits—why do you take them? If you follow the meditations, they will tell you attachment is not good. But at the same time, we all enjoy attachment. Why should we have do things like meditation that are not part of our culture? Usually when you pray, you say, “Give me this, give me that.” Here, when you pray, it is completely the opposite. You look at yourself and think, this was the right thing; this was the wrong thing; I need to purify this; I need to encourage that. It is very much not part of Western culture. Plus, we have very important work to do, responsibilities and jobs. Whether it is work for three pennies or three million dollars, it is important for each and every one of us. Then you try to fit in your practice. When you can’t fit it in, you do it at 12:30 at night. We begin to say our prayers and go to bed at 2 in the morning and get up at 6:30. Why should we do this? Because there is no guarantee: number one, there is no guarantee we are going to be enlightened because our negative emotions are so strong. Number two, if we improve a little bit, what guarantee do we have we will maintain this? If one is fully enlightened right from the beginning, and then it becomes terrible again, who can say it’s not going to happen? It has already happened once.

That’s why Jambo(?) Lama Tsongkhapa’s point is so important: we are not enlightened at all right from the beginning. Some people think we were enlightened originally and then something happened to us. If that’s the case, what guarantee do we have, if we become enlightened again, that we will not have the same problem again? In one way these look like philosophical, theoretical, theological problems. But on the other hand, it is a real problem for us practitioners. We put our efforts and energy into this, and we need to know what we are doing right. That is important. So when you say you were fully enlightened at one time but then you had negative emotions and then were not enlightened, it is a wrong statement. When we talk about samsara, we need to know that. Once we get out of samsara, we are not going to come back at all—at least not due to the power of negative karma and delusions. That’s what we’re working for. [quotes Tibetan].

When you are in the second path, the second path has four stages: heat, peak, patience, and best Dharma. When you get to the patience level, you are immune from being reborn in the lower realms. When you come to the patience level, you are not going to take rebirth in the lower reams, guaranteed.

When you become an Arya, or special person, that is the third stage of the path of seeing. When you become an Arya, then the suffering of illness, death, and aging are not there. These Aryas will not take rebirth in a suffering realm by karma and delusions.

The Theravadan traditions speak about the four result levels: the Stream Learners, One-Time Returners, No More Returners, and No More Learning. It almost corresponds to the five paths and four results. Then the question is, how did the great hero Bodhisattvas come back to samsara? Why are they here? How and why they got here is not by karma, and not by delusions, but they got here by their compassion and their own commitment. They took rebirth in samsara with their compassion, love. and commitment. That’s the whole idea of the tulku system. That doesn’t mean every tulku is free of it. A person like me is certainly not free. But that’s what it’s supposed to be.

In the normal teachings, at this moment we should be talking about guru yoga as well as the impermanence of human life. This whole thing is the development of Bodhimind. But if I keep on doing this I will take a lot of time here, so I am going to skip it. However, I would like to tell you very briefly; otherwise it will not be helpful to all of us. All these normal practices—I would like to emphasize one more thing. Do not dismiss the Lam Rim practice because it is preliminary or prerequisite The most important and effective practice to our life today is the Lam Rim. It is the Lam Rim that will touch your heart and soften your mind. It is the Lam Rim that will uplift you. The Lam Rim is the real vehicle you can rely on. Do not look down on it and dismiss it.

In the West, there is some kind of funny thing in the air that says the Lam Rim is not important, but instant enlightenment is extremely important. Vajrayana never works with the individual if you do not have a strong foundation of Lam Rim. It proves again and again continuously; it is very hard for us to learn the lesson. You know what happens? If the Lam Rim is not based strongly within the individual, you would like to go and get initiation and get Vajrayana, and no one will say no to you. Right or wrong, it went through superficially. Then people will get commitment, and then they will say, What the hell is this? What am I doing here? I don’t like this. How did I get here? Then there come a tremendous amount of obstacles. When you really want to make your practice go more smoothly, you get sick, you get family issues—obstacles come in that form. The obstacles won’t keep you sick or make you die, but they will keep you away from making your practice smoother. By the time it is happening, it is too late. What can you do? It is already done. It is never too early to take initiation. Some people become allergic to it: “Oh Vajrayana, it is not meant for me.” I don’t have many problems like that in the United States, but we have a tremendous amount of problems in Europe. In Europe we have our own teachers who will tell them: “Vajrayana is not meant for you, don’t even talk about it.” They will make it a big deal. Unless people have been 5, 6, 7, or 8 years, they won’t even consider them for the Vajrayana. That’s what they do. That may be too extreme. It becomes a problem. Even our own Jewel Heart teachers do it all the time, habitually. But Lam Rim is most important. A number of people would like to take initiation, so I let them take initiation. And I tell them, your major practice remains the Lam Rim. You may have a daily commitment of saying the sadhana. That’s fine; just say the words and think about it a little bit. But spend your major time on the Lam Rim. That’s the one that will make a difference to us. Vajryana is a totally different system.

For example, at the Lam Rim level, our target of what we want to get rid of is negative emotions and negative karm—particularly self-cherishing and ego grasping. When you get into the Vajrayana, the targets change. The target now is ordinary perception and conceptualization rather than all those negative emotions. They presume you are already done with this. Since it is an opportunity, one must take the opportunity because Vajrayana is so rare. Once the official Buddha comes, one time a flower blooms—we call it an utumwara flower. When the Buddha dies, the flower dies. Vajrayana is extremely rare. Even out of 1000 Buddhas in this eon, maybe two will carry the Vajrayana. One cannot afford to miss the opportunity. But along with that, your major focus must be on the Lam Rim. If that does not make a difference in your life, Vajrayana will do nothing. If you make a difference in your life with the Lam Rim, then when you reach that level Vajrayana will make a tremendous difference. That doesn’t mean you should block your opportunity. In order to make the individual practitioners make a difference to ourselves, the day is divided into two categories: actual session and in-between sessions. Actual session, even though we are not in retreat, if you make a division of session and in-between session, it will make a hell of a difference in your life. The session begins in the morning. I briefly have to tell you that the actual practice begins with the six prerequisites, or six actions, or six preliminaries, or whatever name you care to give it.

The moment you say the word “preliminary,” it has a psychological effect on us. We immediately look down on it. We think, that young kid who just joined yesterday—that is his job. The moment we use the word “preliminary,” we look at it that way. No. It is a preliminary for all of us, every day of our lives. There are six of them: cleansing; laying out your altar; making offerings with presentation of art; sitting according to Vairochana Buddha’s style of sitting; generating pure thoughts; and special virtuous mind.

These are all things we need to do every day. We look down on them very much, and sometimes our time will not permit them. Can you imagine telling the working American to get up in the morning and clean your bedroom before you do anything else? It is almost impossible. Our life is such that the moment we jump out of the bed, we jump into the shower or not. The first thing to do is pick up coffee and a hamburger and get in the car and go. This is the life we have. If you tell that person, “The first thing you need to do is to clean up your room,” it doesn’t sound right—but it is. Even if you can’t clean your room in the morning, it’s fine, as long as you clean it. And you have to lay your altar. The altar is important, but some people like to hide their altar. I personally don’t like hiding the altar at all, but some people have to do it because corporate America doesn’t accept having an altar. Maybe that’s the reason. It’s your own personal business. For myself, I don’t like it. Even last Tuesday, I was fighting with Jonas because you closed that window curtain. We’re not doing something that we have to hide from people. What are we doing? Are we doing something the public cannot see, or what? I do remember once in Ann Arbor, in that room, when I first came, the first time talking. That time we had a very small group, maybe five or six people. There was one lady named Reverend Rainwater Sunshine. She came with 10 or 15 people; they called themselves a Tantric group. I was supposed to give a Vajrayana talk. I basically talked about Vajrayana, none of them paying any attention. By the time I finished, one of them put their hand inside their pants and said, “When do we begin?” That’s Tantric for you! I didn’t even get what they said. I said, “If that’s the activity, we have to close all the curtains.” That reminded me—so nothing we do has to be hidden.

But then on the other hand, Vajrayana will tell you, keep it secret; secrecy is important. They aren’t saying keep the image secret. You can’t keep the image secret. The Chinese published all the best artwork available in multicolored books available everywhere. Everywhere you see all this yab-yum business, in every art store and every bookstore. But what they mean is that you should keep your individual practice secret. When we do a short initiation in public, we will skip over the generating the individual receivers in the form of the yidam. We skip it because it is the losing of secrecy—not the thangka.

If you don’t want to have an altar in your living room, fine; if you want to have it in your closet, fine. There’s nothing wrong with it. But don’t put your altar in your closet in order to hide it. You put your altar in your closet in order to make it inaccessible to anyone else. It is the mind that makes a difference. If you think in your mind, “I have to hide it,” that is wrong. If you think “I can’t make this totally available to everybody,” then it’s different.

The act of offering is important. Yes: you can imagine everything, but at the same time, a little bit of physical offering is necessary. If your offering is all mental and nothing physical, it’s not a good offering.

Prostration is very good for you. It is one of the best ways to purify our negativities. It is also good exercise. A person like me should do a lot of prostrations, but I am unable to do them right now. A number of people here did a lot of prostrations, and it’s very good. I sometimes use prostrations as a punishment. Some very nice guys accepted and worked very well, and I am very happy with it. That is a wonderful thing.

Creating field of merit and making seven limb offerings—“I bow down in…” These are an everyday requirement. Don’t look down on them and say it is only a preliminary. It is not for the kid who just joined the club. It is for all of us. Many times, great teachers come to great monasteries. There are some old monks who are facing down, and some great lamas go around and say, “There is a great senior monk who forgot his refuge behind the door.” Which means the monks have done nothing of refuge or anything, so the refuge was left behind the door. The person became very senior and went to the top of the list, and they are facing down rather than facing up. The senior most abbot normally faces down to the monks, and the monks are normally facing right and left. Either it is an incarnate lama by rank, or the senior-most. The person becomes very old and facing down, and he forgot his refuge. This happens very often. They say, “This person is a good practitioner, but the meanest person I have ever seen.” That not only happens here, but in traditional Tibetan culture too.

Remember of the story of the buffalo and the monk? The owner wanted to kill all three of them. Sometimes, when you become old and you think you are great, you forget your own practice. And that is nothing more than these seven limbs. One should do at least that much every day. It is a very important thing. That is the beginning of our session. According to the Buddha and our Buddhist teachings, you do your session early in the morning. But if you can’t, you have to do it later in the day. If you can do it early in the morning, it’s always better. It’s my own personal opinion: if you do your commitments in the morning before anything happens, it’s much better. My teacher Locho Rimpoche tells me, “morning is morning and evening is evening.” You do your morning session in the morning and evening session in the evening. That is Locho Rimpoche’s world. He can do that. For us, it’s difficult. Better do everything in the morning if you can. If you can’t do it in the morning, you do it after midnight, half asleep. You fall asleep not knowing if you have said it or not. His Holiness does everything in the morning. He gets up 3:30, or no later than 4:30 in the morning. By 6:30, his first appointment starts, and he has done everything by then. That means you have to go to bed by 8 or 9. Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche went to bed by 8:30 or so. One time he invited me to dinner, and I didn’t realize dinner was 4:30. It was in Lhasa, and his attendants came to find me. I said, “Dinner? Dinner must be 7 or 8.” They said, “No, it’s at 4:30. He is waiting.” I had to run.

Kyabje Ling Rimpoche stayed up a little later, but if you were late in the evening for dinner he always scolded you. One time I was at Sor Rimpoche, and I said I had to go. Sor Rimpoche was talking, talking all the time. I said, “I’m going.” He said, “Stay a few minutes.” By the time I got back to Ling Rimpoche, he said, “Where have you been? Everybody is waiting for you here.” These people do their practice early in the morning. I couldn’t get up at 5:30 or 6. When I’m sleeping in Kyabje Ling Rimpoche’s house, Kyabje Ling Rimpoche came by and started scratching my head in the bed every morning. Sor Rimpoche held me so long that night, in the morning Kyabje Ling Rimpoche started scratching my head. Normally I would get up right away and run down to a little faucet, and I would put my head under there. When I got up this time, Kyabje Ling Rimpoche said, “Sor Rimpoche is sending his attendant to call you. I saw him, and he hid behind the tree. When I walked to the other side, he hid behind the tree. So Sor Rimpoche started calling me at 6:30. Kyabje Ling Rimpoche woke me up. I went to Sor Rimpoche, and he stayed in bed. The conversation we had last night, where we had stopped, he started talking there again.

Part 4

[Question and answer session]

Q. There is much confusion about the nature of the ego. Psychoanalysts tell us that it is central to our identity. But Buddhist teaching tells us that it is something to be destroyed. Don’t we need some sense of ego in order to succeed in society? Can you define the ego further and tell us what exactly we need to attack?

A. Can I ask Anne to answer that question?

Anne Warren: Well, I think there are two parts to the question. One is a terminology confusion. The way that psychologists or psychiatrists use the word ego is very different from the way that you (Rimpoche) are using the word ego, which is in the way of ego being self-centeredness and self-solidity. In terms of psychiatry or psychology, yes, a person needs a healthy ego, but that simply means a sense of self-confidence and self-efficacy able to accomplish things. And that’s not something to be gotten rid of. But the self that needs to be protected in warding off everything else and sort of the center of everything and not concerned about others—that sort of ego is getting close to what the idea of the enemy is, I think.

Rimpoche: Thank you. I might add something here: The word ego was created by the psychologists, and it means something to be protected. I use the word ego as normal common people’s usage: “Oh, it’s your ego talking.” For example, we say George Bush is an egocentric person. He is a complete egomaniac. From that angle, maybe it is totally wrong language. But I am using the word ego from that angle. The original terminology in Tibetan is ignorance or not knowing. When you use it in this sense, ignorance becomes wrong knowing and confusion. It may not be a better choice because we already have confusion here, but this is why and how I use the word ego. Within the mind, it is maripa (?), which is a combination of fear and selfishness and dismissing other persons, and undermining everybody else—truly not knowing what reality is. It is fear and confusion and lack of clarity all combined together. It could be totally my fault using the word ego in that sense. No: Kyabje Ling Rimpoche used it in his teaching of the four mindfulnesses. I don’t mean self-esteem that has to be maintained, but the overpowering self as the dictator, or what I used to call “Queen Bee” or “I Rimpoche.” All of those are referring to that.

Q. What attitude does one need to have towards the ego when one sets out to vanquish it? Are there some guidelines to distinguish between selfish interest and self interest in this pursuit?

A. I think that’s a very important question. When you are striking at the ego, what will you have to do? The whole book we are studying will tell you that. Self interest: you have to forgive me; I never learned English. Whatever language I know is street language. When I say “selfish,” I mean that I am the most important; my interest supercedes anyone else’s interest—interest of country, of society, of mankind, of everybody. My interest is the most important for me. That is selfish interest. When you say “self-interest,” as an individual person we want to help develop compassion, develop a spiritual practice. These are types of self-interest, and there is nothing wrong with this. But self-interest should not be selfishness: overpowering everybody else’s interest. The word “self-interest” in Tibetan is Rang Da (?); it is the purpose of the self. When you say “selfishness,” it is Rang Jin Say, or self-cherishing. There is a huge gap I see; self-interest is benefitting the self, which is really required. What did the Buddha complete? The purpose of the self and the purpose of others. Even in the Vajrayana practice, with self-generation and all of this, sometimes you find that light radiates from the seed syllable of yourself and reaches to the enlightened beings and un-enlightened beings, and the non-enlightened beings are transformed into enlightened beings, and reaches to the fully enlightened ones. You make offerings, make them happy, and dissolve to yourself. This fulfills two purposes: purpose of self and purpose of others. Purpose of self is purification and spiritual development—not only just spiritual development, but total enlightenment. These are self-interests, and they are good things to have. But I the dictator, the I the Commander in Chief, these are things you don’t need, so I call them selfish.

Q. Let’s say one has this self-interest you describe. Can you characterize the attitude one needs in order to vanquish the ego?

A. The whole book will do that.

Q. Is it vital point singular or vital points? Why a wheel image rather than a single sharp weapon or sword? Is it because there are many vital points, or one point that needs to be attacked from many different angles?

A. Good thinking. What is the specific question?

Q. Last week I took my six year old grandchild out to dinner. As we went to leave the restaurant, my car was being towed away. I completely lost my temper. To make matters worse ,it began to rain very hard. My daughter started to cry, and my grandchild got wet in the rain. It took me until the next day to get over being upset and angry. Rimpoche, how could I have known what weapon to use to defeat my anger in this car towing situation, which was actually happening?

A. Patience. Patience, understanding, and not blaming the police. Why did they tow your car? Because you may have been parked in the wrong place. There has to be some reason. They are not going to tow your car just because it happens to be your car. I don’t drive in New York, so that’s why I say that. I don’t think these particular police have a grudge against you. These things happen, I am sorry to say. If you look back, you could have gone back to the restaurant. There are all kinds of things you could have done. Naturally, your daughter cries. And you get upset because why does your car have to be towed at this particular minute? When you think about it from that angle, you get more and more mad. But when you think from the other angle, maybe I parked in the wrong place—even if there is no reason at all—we have the opportunity to challenge him, if you want to. Without punching his face, you can challenge the ticket. Take a deep breath, sit down for a minute. First, protect the child and take her out of the rain. Patience comes out of understanding. It is the mind that makes the difference. The mind thinks, “How dare they do this to me! They don’t know who I am!” If you think in that way, you will get in all kinds of troubles. But the misery and suffering is what the individual has to experience. No matter how much we feel angry, and even if we even kick the footstep or the door, the pain is in our own leg, and the person who is doing the towing isn’t going to feel any pain at all. The police are gone; the car is gone; it is too late. The only thing to help ourselves is to understand why this is happening. Almost always we find it is our own fault.

Q. You said this morning that, in certain exceptional cases, attachment can be used to further the path. You said that Bodhisattvas can experience pleasure without being attached to it. Would you elaborate on what you meant by that?

A. I did say that. The teachings will tell you that sometimes Bodhisattvas can use attachment to serve and benefit and uplift individuals as well as helping others. Even in Vajrayana, sexuality as spiritual practice is available and commonly known. At the attachment level, sometimes you have that. But at the anger level—sometimes especially at the hatred level, although Yamantaka is an example of hatred transforming into the path—the transforming of the path is extremely difficult. Attachment transforming into the path is a little easier because it’s cool. Hatred is hot. Ignorance transforming into the path is supposed to be associated with Guyasamaja. It is so difficult we almost cannot comprehend it. That’s why I said that sometimes attachment can be used in that way. Even the sutras say that sometimes attachment can be used to help the individual.

I once had a photograph of a Rimpoche, a very big Kagyupa lama. He was not very well known outside of Tibet. After 1959, when we came out of Tibet, those who were very great in Tibet became nobody, and those who were nobody became huge. Take the Karmapa. In Tibet, he wasn’t very big at all. Yet on the other hand, some very well-known incarnate lamas were treated like nobody. When you look at the picture of the very big Kagyupa, he dressed like a joker. He had a funny hat, and his scarf was put in his belt. He was very funny, and very good too. He lived near Lhasa. Nowadays it doesn’t take any time to get to Lhasa. He came once a year to Lhasa during a prayer festival. He had so many in his retinue. It could be 50 or a hundred. He always stayed in our house. He was known to every well-known incarnate lama and every government official, and he interfered with everything. He behaved like a lawyer taking a case, and he was very respected too. What I noticed was that he was the teacher of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Whenever I saw him, I used to call him Kundun. He had very famous precious pills that the Fifth Dalai Lama made. He said, “If you don’t use the word Kundun during the five or six weeks I am staying here, I will give you some of those precious pills.” I tried not to do it. Every year he came to Lhasa, he had a new wife. Every year! When I was in the monastery, age 19 or 20, I was confused. They called them secret consorts. I said, “This lady, your secret consort, is not the same as last year. What happened?” He said, “I have a commitment to have 500 wives, and each one of them to liberate. He went on about how many lifetimes before he had made that commitment. In 1682, or something—it was almost like the Queen of England at the White House dinner saying when I was here in 1776 or something, and everybody laughed, because George Bush had said she had been here for 300 years. Just like that, he said, “I have a commitment of having 500 wives and liberating each one of them.” But he behaved like a lawyer, very funny. The day when his Holiness was leaving Tibet, Sabon Rimpoche, who was confirmed to be accompanying His Holiness that night, took a special trip to Lhasa to tell my father, “You had better go, because His Holiness is leaving tonight.” There was another Rimpoche there from Ganden. He couldn’t say anything in the presence of this Rimpoche. He tried to talk to my mother, “Can I talk to you in another room?” My mother didn’t take him out either, and just invited him to have tea. He was thinking, I can whisper in his (Rimpoche’s father’s ear) and tell him, but he will get suspicious. At that moment, this Rimpoche popped in the room and said, “I know the true picture of what is going on between the Chinese and Tibetan authorities. They decided to negotiate, etc.” and Sabon Rimpoche said to himself, “There is no way I can tell him now.” So he left. This Rimpoche is like that. But on the other hand, the cultural revolution came, and he was supposed to be beaten up. They even gave people training on how to beat him up. When the Chinese were coming to catch him, he asked his attendant, “What’s happening?” The attendant said, “Nothing’s happening, they are coming to get you. Sixteen people are coming to get you and beat you to death.” He said, “Oh, very good, bring me monk’s robes.” He was not a monk. He wore the monk’s robes and he said, “Just close the door and go. When they want to open it, let them open it.” He sat on his bed, cross-legged, and he passed away. When they opened the door, he was dead. That shows he had total control over living and dying. That showed how great he was. Also he was extremely learned, and a great poet. He wrote huge love poems. He would dictate and two or three people would write. That’s what I meant: sometimes attachment can be used by Bodhisattvas.

Q. The text says Bodhisattvas never become attached. However, there seems to be some times when attachment is helpful: when we are babies, babies only thrive when there is attachment between mother and the baby. Are there kinds of attachment that are okay? Is attachment ever okay?

A. I would not say a baby has attachment to its mother, but there is love. Love and attachment are two different things to me. Love is pure; attachment is sick stuff. Okay? That’s it.

Q. You had said that sometimes a Bodhisattva might even come back as a general, and as we sit here across from West Point that question elicited some discussion: how could a general be a Bodhisattva? How is that possible?

A. Well I didn’t say Dick Cheney was a Bodhisattva, when he was across the river today. But you know, there are the generals of the Shambhala. They are generals, and they are Bodhisattvas. This is just one example.

Q. The last question is about the discussion we had this morning, about whether a sangha can be monks and nuns. This person also noticed that the peacock seems to be a male peacock because it has all these beautiful feathers. What’s the future for women in Buddhism? How do you feel about the idea that things need to be changed in that direction?

A. I’ve tried to promote women in Buddhism as much as I could throughout my life, particularly introducing Tara as a feminine principle Buddha, and a female Buddha. However, when Vinaya rules come into play, as I suggested this morning, a very strong Buddhist council headed by someone like His Holiness the Dalai Lama can make a difference. Buddhist principle is a democracy principle. It is the Buddha who introduced the democracy principle. Twenty six hundred years ago, nobody had a council or anything. It was the teacher and his disciples and followers. It was Buddha who had the council, following the democratic principle. If you look at Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara, it is very difficult to make a difference between the Communist party’s manifesto and it. Tibetans formed a Communist party in Dharmsala. They had a huge manifesto and they went to Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche and they presented their party document. When they went out, I went in. Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche said, “This is the Communist party. These people are Communists, and this is supposed to be their document.” I said, “What do you think?” He said, “It looks like reading the Bodhisattvacharyvatara.” It is very much a democratic principle; very similar ideas are there. My opinion is that a strong Buddhist council could change all of them. As we do individually, it is not going to reach too far. Some organizations affiliated with Jewel Heart may not accept it. But a strong Buddhist council, if it does that, will at least produce strong consideration among Buddhists. Buddha did give room for change. But it is a matter of movement. And it’s not going to go without objection either.

Q. How does one quiet distracting thoughts and develop one-pointed concentration and attention?

A. If you attempt single-pointed concentration, you will have two obstacles: laxity and excitation. Each one of those obstacles is handled by all kinds of things, but particularly by two mental faculties: awareness and alertness. Whenever you notice you are not focusing, bring it back. The straightforward answer is that, the moment you recognize you have lost concentration, don’t give up and say, “I have lost concentration anyway, let it go.” That’s not right. Bring it back, bring it back. Putting it back is the answer. If you want to know more about single-pointed focusing, we have a transcript called GOM. GOM will give you a very good idea about it.

Q. Would you comment or explain on absolute sangha?

A. Absolute sangha is the moment you realize emptiness either face to face directly, or you come to understand emptiness through reasoning. The true sangha is, once you see emptiness directly, at the path of seeing, face to face, eye to eye, and not only see it but understand i. Then you become a special person. This is spiritual development, or you may call it mental development. In the Buddhist tradition, we call it: Someone who has gained wisdom. That is absolute sangha. Men, women, hermaphrodites are all fine. There is no male chauvinism here.

[An additional question was asked about Dalai Lama’s view on full ordination for nuns]

A. I am an ex-monk, so I am not in a position to say. But with my knowledge behind me, I would say full ordination for a woman is almost impossible. Why? Because there is no continuation of the vow itself. Yes, there is something that comes out of Taiwan and Southeast Asia. But when you do a thorough study of their vow and read the Vinaya rules, it doesn’t come that close either. That is only my personal opinion.

Now we have time for teaching. We have done only one verse, so we had better get going now.

As I said this morning, at this level one has to have at least an understanding or, if possible, realization in common with the lower level. I stopped with the six preliminaries. The actual practice of this begins with the guru devotional practice. This is referred to as the root of all development. This is very foreign language for Westerners. Guru is not a foreign language for Asians, but a very foreign language for Westerners. On the other hand, it is also extremely important as the root of development. When there is no root, nothing can grow. In the West, Guru is very foreign word, and it sometimes becomes dangerous too. Why? There are a lot of incidents that happened in the 60s, as you know. It is very hard for people to remember and appreciate the contributions of every individual’s spiritual development—those early gurus in America—the real, proper, true ones. Contributions are very hard to remember. But the controversial people are very easy to remember. So there are many issues of caution that have to be raised. In my generation, when I came here in the 1980s, I hesitated. Though I am the same age as the late Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, as well as Lama Yeshe. All of them passed away at the age of 47 or 48. I came here much later, in the 70s and 80s, and was very cautious about talking about guru devotional practice because of the scandals. It was not only my contemporaries and I. Kyabje Ling Rimpoche and Trijang Rimpoche, who had been teaching guru devotional practice for decades in Tibet, also hesitated to speak about the subject because of confusion and fear of misunderstanding. Kyabje Ling Rimpoche, in his last teaching of the Four Mindfulnesses, spent a tremendous amount of time on the mindfulness of the guru. Even during breaks, when he came to his room and took a rest, as I was serving tea, he told me, “You cannot always be afraid of it. You must speak, and I spoke of it today.” If you look in the mindfulness transcripts, you see how much he went out of the way to speak of it, because it is the root of all development.

The guru is extremely important, as you all know. This is a funny subject. People have taken advantage of other people and have done a lot of wrong things. That doesn’t mean you can do away with guru devotional practice. You cannot limit it. If you look at this, there are eight advantages, eight disadvantages, and eight lacks of guru devotional practice. They are not a joke; they are a very serious matter. Many of us have difficulty getting spiritual development. This is not because of no reason; these difficulties are not the fault of the teaching, not the fault of the lineage; some of them are not the fault of individual practitioners and where and how they do their practice; but they are the fault of a lack of guru devotional practice. Lack of guru devotional practice unfortunately gets the individual nowhere. It is very important. The essence of guru devotional practice is faith; it is intelligence faith, not blind faith. That is like a mother who can give birth to children. Just like that, it can give birth to spiritual realizations. Without it, it is very difficult.

So guru devotional practice; embracing human life, impermanence, especially death, what happens after death to the individual—do we disappear? (Remember I told you all consciousnesses are old consciousness.) It tells you that you don’t disappear. It is all a question of karma but the Four Noble Truths is looking at two negative truths, two positive truths. Two negative truths are the cause of negative and the result of negativity. The cause of negative is that negative karmas are created by negative emotions, which come from ego and self-cherishing, as well as two positive truths: libration and the path leading to liberation. This is the basic structure of how our lives are governed by our own deeds: a positive way and a negative way. With that realization, if it is possible it adds up to the twelve links of interdependent nature of existence. It completes the individual, the common, with the medium level practice. Thereby, the challenge of the individual has now shifted to compassion and love.

Bodhimind, we call it; Bodhisattva’s mind; altruistic mind; mind that is seeking total enlightenment for the benefit of others and for myself. Each of us will say, for myself for the benefit of others, I will seek total enlightenment. Do you see the two purposes? Purpose of self and purpose of other. Both are clearly worded here: seeking enlightenment for myself for the benefit of others. Such an unlimited, unconditioned compassion and love cannot be conditioned in us by saying the word “Bodhimind” or feeling a little good here and there, or by thinking, “Oh yeah, I’m doing great.” We’re not going to get anywhere in Bodhimind at all, no matter what you do—helpful works, even if you take the whole heavy weight of the world, even then, you’re not going to develop Bodhimind. Bodhimind is only developed within the individual through a meditative process. Only two are known in the history of Buddhism: the seven stage development that Buddha shared with us through Maitreya Buddha, Asanga, and all that, or exchange stage of development of Bodhimind shared by Buddha through Manjushri, Nagarjuna, Shantideva, and all of those. Tsongkhapa has especially given 11 stage development, combining these two together.

So either the seven-stage or exchange stage or combined stage and seven stage together, making 11 stages—whatever you do, it is totally up to you. But without following those steps, whatever you do will not develop Bodhimind. This is very funny, but it is true. It is a fact. We normally say there are so many Bodhisattvas who didn’t follow the Buddhist path. It’s absolutely true, but they do follow one of these paths. One doesn’t have to be a Buddhist in order to become a Bodhisattva—well, I think we have to be. Maybe that’s too extreme a statement, because the object you want to achieve is to become a Buddha, so that makes you a Buddhist. But on the other hand, a person like Mother Teresa, having great Bodhisattva activities—the Bodhisattvas may not have been able to do as much as she did. However, whether she is a Bodhisattva or not is a different question. I don’t know whether she seeks total enlightenment or not. She had an unlimited altruistic mind, no doubt. But if she doesn’t seek total enlightenment, no one can make judgment of anyone else except ourselves, the Buddha tells us. But the definition of Bodhimind tells us it is a two-pronged mind. One is total altruism. That is only one prong, one point. The second point is seeking total enlightenment. When you combine these two together by one person it becomes absolute, unconditioned love and compassion, which is technically known as Bodhimind—or Bodhicitta, citta meaning heart, and heart referring to mind.

So briefly, I should share with you at least one stage. Of the seven stages, the first stage is, whether you count it in or not, equality or equanimity. But this equality is not what we call American equality. It is not and it is. Here, the major emphasis of equality is between me and others. When you talk about American equality is equal rights—as long as you are an American citizen you have equal rights. I’m not saying you are equal to me or I am equal to you. I am saying that in my mind, my wants and dislikes should have same value as what you want and what you don’t want. Therefore, right now, Me is the most important. I often say, if I don’t help myself, who else can help me? That’s true. On the other hand, Me is becoming my priority by ignoring others. That’s what we need to change. Making your desire equally valuable and important and serious as my desire is in my mind. I can’t do that right now because you as you are here, all of you, when I look at you wonderful people, great people, kind, compassionate, many of you are brilliant, but still, my selfish mind, when I entertain that, my needs supercedes what you want. When I am talking about equanimity, reducing my power, my brilliant power, supercedes others’ needs and desires, and that has to be reduced. By reducing that, the needs of others begin to be recognized, acknowledged. Consider it seriously; bring it up to the level of my desire and others’ desire. We are not making you equal to me or me equal to you. No: In my own mind, I am making my desire and your desire be on an equal level. That is how you gain respect for people. That is the opening of friendship with people. If you close that, you’ll have a lack of true friends. If you think the person has a motive, that’s not going to be a friend. They will be cautious: what’s this person’s motive all about? It’s like a politician’s smile. When you see politicians clapping their hands, like the Chinese leaders, we are cautious. We might like to support politicians, but we are cautious. Just like that, when you have not made this equal level, you cannot have a genuine friend. Mutual respect and honesty are really open when you have this equalizing level. It also opens the individual to appreciate anybody else, no matter how they look and what their character is. This is what the Dalai Lama calls “heart to heart touch,” or “heartshake.” Shaking hands with the mind of a warm heart. That is where equanimity or equality begins. This is what we’re looking for. What is our obstacle to developing this? It is our projection of likes and dislikes. I don’t like Hillary; I like Hillary; I don’t like Obama; I like Obama. These are examples of likes and dislikes without valid reasons. We ask, “Why don’t you like them?” “Well, I don’t trust them.” We look at some people and say, “That is an enemy; that is a friend.” Sometimes, someone who was our friend, we make them into an enemy. Saddam Hussein is an example.

Enemy, and then friend: our loved ones. There is a huge difference in our mind, perceiving the face of our loved ones. We begin to smile. Nowadays, they bring machines that show you faces, and whether you like a face or don’t like it, they take measurements. Then think about Osama bin Laden. We all feel cautious. We might not feel anger, but the mind goes down. This is the black and white picture we have. This strong black and white picture is the strongest obstacle to developing equanimity and the ego. No one here, and I am very strongly included, would have the desire to fulfill the wishes of Osama bin Laden. It’s very hard to think about it. We can develop compassion for Osama bin Laden by focusing on helping himself. But we can never develop the thought, “I wish he would fulfill his wishes.” It’s not possible, because his wishes are wrong. Therefore, it’s not possible. That at least gives us the picture of black and white, of our mind looking. This is particularly true if you have a personal enemy who is even stronger than Osama bin Laden. The building of equanimity here is to face that challenge. That is a very big challenge for us. This is the first step toward building greater compassion. It is easy to develop compassion for loved ones. It is easier to develop compassion for ourselves. But it is very difficult to develop compassion for all—very difficult. And Bodhimind—Bodhicitta—or unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion demands that, because the root of that mind is based not only on that compassion but on greater compassion. Greater compassion is not focused solely on one person but focused on all living beings: A-L-L living beings. Desire to separate them from our suffering. When we sit here and produce a lot of nameless, faceless dots and call them all living beings, it’s easy to develop. But the moment each and every one of them occupies a face and a name, our mind will change. We begin to see the true color of our mind.

The first challenge is equanimity, equalizing. What helps? We can’t make enemy or friend. Maybe we can, but the CIA always makes friends into enemies. But we can reduce the obsession and the hatred. These are the things we need to undermine—hatred and obsession. Right from the beginning, at the equanimity level, we are undermining hatred and obsession. We are throwing a huge challenge to hatred, a huge challenge to obsession. What will help us? Who will help us? Time and change. Consider the enemy of last year; this year we don’t hate them so strongly as we did last year. Time helps us. Time tells us. The changing of our mind tells us. The changing of the mind and time makes a big difference to one individual. If you think of others, it is the same principle, the same mechanism. People are not so anxious as they were in 2001. This year we are not that anxious. The fear and anxiety have gone down. Going down will help us to reduce our hatred and reduce our obsession. That’s what I meant: time will help; change will help. Change of circumstances will help. It is impossible for me not to feel sorry when Jerry Falwell died. I was feeling very sorry—honestly. Although he was in the right wing, and all of that, you cannot help but feel sorry for him when he passed away. I really thought it was being overweight that did it. You can’t help feeling sorry. Even though we don’t appreciate the way he functioned, circumstances make your feeling change completely.

Time and circumstances will help us to reduce hatred, reduce obsession, and develop caring and compassion and love. Buddha tells us we have to develop looking at everybody as mother sentient beings. I often think that a mother’s love for her children is the point Buddha was talking about. With a very few exceptional cases, most mothers have tremendous caring and compassion and love to their children. No matter what it is, a mother is willing to sacrifice it for the children. Don’t think about you and your mother’s relationship. Think about if you were a mother, about your relationship with your children. From that angle, you know what Buddha is talking about. And Buddha recommended to us to develop that much caring, that much kindness, that much love. Then we remember their kindness—repaying their kindness.

And the result of that, at the result of equanimity and developing the motherly feeling, remembering the kindness, committing to repay, it will automatically bring you love. There is no way you cannot love that person. Love is an automatic result. If you say, “I have to meditate on love, good things, good things,” I am not sure if you are going to develop love or attachment. But thinking along those lines will automatically give us love. We spend time on these three and then develop love. If you love, you have compassion. If you love, you care. Caring is such that you cannot force the caring idea without love; there is no way. It is almost like the cause and result of evolution—one brings the other.

If you have compassion, caring becomes compassion. Compassion brings commitment. Love plus compassion will definitely bring commitment. Mothers will know that. It brings commitment: no matter what it takes, I will do it. That is called special mind. Once you have that special mind, reality will settle in. Okay, I’m committed, I’m going to it. What can I do? I don’t know what to do. I need total knowledge, total enlightenment, because I need to know how to do this. Not only for one person, but for all. So the need is tremendous knowledge, tremendous information, and there is no way to pick it up one by one, so we need total knowledge and enlightenment. That becomes at least artificial Bodhimind/Bodhicitta. Whenever we talk about it, we just follow that meditation; it will give you artificial Bodhicitta. You keep on repeating and repeating it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I almost wanted to say life after life. If you keep repeating it, it becomes true Bodhicitta. If it becomes true Bodhicitta, we are talking about two types: one is prayer form, the other is action form. First, you pray that I may be able to do this. Then that praying Bodhimind can become actual Bodhimind, which we literally engage to action. That is briefly the development of Bodhimind. I have to tell you about the development of Bodhimind. If we don’t, we will read this book and we don’t have a basis on which to function. This is the basis on which this book will function. This is not analytical meditation; it is a superficial move through the stages. It is better than playing with a Rubik’s Cube or a jigsaw puzzle. It is a great, worthwhile meditation. It is a way of achieving and fulfilling the purpose of life—or, you may say, fulfilling my mission. This is going to be a good contribution to you, as far as I know. This is Buddha’s wisdom, which was shared 2600 years ago.

Part 5 (Day3, Sun, May 27, 2007)

Commentary on Verse 3

Now I should read half of this verse: [reads Tibetan]. I don’t exactly know whether this is going to follow the translation as it is printed here. Can you read it please?

Verse 3

Those who avidly pursue happiness and prosperity

Are brought to suffering due to their cowardice.

The Bodhisattvas, who willingly embrace suffering,

Always remain happy due to their heroism.

The translation is much better than the original Tibetan! The original Tibetan is quite complicated. I should explain it according to the original Tibetan; otherwise it gets funny.

The word begins [reads Tibetan]: “Because of that,” it says. Because of what? This is really interesting. “The reasons we gave earlier, those heroes who are happily and voluntarily taking on sufferings are great Bodhisattvas.” In other words, good Bodhisattvas should be able to, without hesitation, be involved with suffering. This is really hard, because self-cherishing will say I should not get into suffering. This is not right: getting into suffering is not good. I will be unnecessarily sick; I will be unnecessarily having problems. But the Bodhisattva’s way here says, “Because of the reasons given earlier, the hero or heroine Bodhisattvas should be able to accept suffering as a joy and welcome it rather than avoiding it.”

[reads Tibetan] “Because of that, those Bodhisattvas who would like to have luxuries and pleasures and joys and happiness welcoming are, because of their weaknesses, their weaknesses will make them grow in suffering.” Weaknesses will lead you to suffering. If you are entertaining your weakness, then you do not become a hero or heroine because you are a coward and a weak person. You become a weak Bodhisattva.

[reads Tibetan]. Just the opposite of that: “The great Bodhisattvas who welcome, who embrace suffering, because of your heroism, you will always remain in joy.” [reads Tibetan]. What are they talking about? When you become a Bodhisattva, you should be a very stable and steady person. You should not be weak and cowardly. What they are really trying to tell us is that, very often, we have in the West these things happening. When we have a little bit of problems or difficulties, and little incidents, we cannot take them. It is completely overwhelming and becomes difficult for us to manage it. If you analyze the difficulties, sometimes it’s not that much. It’s not very unusual. It is a very simple matter. Our desire is so great that it doesn’t meet our expectations. Then we get frustrated and become very nervous. As I said last night, when your stomach is filled up and you have good sunshine and it is warm, you become good Dharma practitioners. But when you have a little incident, you become worse than ordinary normal human beings. This is what they’re talking about here.

We also compare ourselves to other people: “So and so makes it so easily. Why not me? It is my problem.” We get completely worked up and overreact. More than that, we start blaming ourselves. This particular verse is referring to the weak and cowardly person. It is not the normal Western understanding of the word coward. This particular author has a particular intention when he refers to a “weak person” and “weakness.” He is referring to the personality in which we very often engage. This verse is telling you, “don’t do it.” If an incident occurs, it is samsaric in nature. Nothing has happened to you alone which never happened to anybody else. It happened because it happens. I happen to be the person who happens to be meeting with this incident. So what? As a human being, I have this wonderful mind. I have these capabilities. I can manage and look for a way to manage rather than saying “Why me?” and having a long face, making your whole day and life miserable, and thereby affecting your companions and making everyone else miserable. That is one way. The other way is: you have a small success and you go “Ooh!” You fly in the air and circle around and refuse to land on the ground. These two are called a weak person. These are the first half of the verse, the two lines that give the definition of “weak” and “coward.” Thereby it is telling us, if I am engaged in that, it is the wrong behavior, according to the Bodhisattva’s vows and commitments. So try to be a little bit stable as a person. Maybe the word “stable” is too much; I don’t mean we are unstable. But some people have more, and some people have less. So both excitement as well as sadness, different people have different characters. It is nobody’s business to look at another person and make judgments. Again, I must emphasize that. When we hear this, the first thing we do is forget ourselves and look out and say “this person has this problem,” “that person has that problem,” and a whole list runs in our mind. Each face is labeled together. That won’t do any good. That is nobody’s business. It is only the business of the individual. Buddha said very often, “Do not make judgments of another person unless you are like me.” That means if you are a Buddha, go ahead, because you have total knowledge. If not, don’t judge. If you do give judgment, that sometimes creates tremendous negativities. That is the reason why.

You have to observe yourself, and you have to make an assessment of yourself. If you find yourself in that category, then you know what to do. This is the change that needs to take place. This is called Dharma practice. Dharma practice is not necessarily sitting down and praying and picking up a mala and counting. Dharma practice is really observing the individual and [reads Tibetan] “Our own self, the individual’s own problem. You should see your own reflection in the mirror of Dharma, in the mirror of the teaching.” Here we have introduced one problem. It is now your job to look in your own mirror and look at yourself and see what you are doing. If you are like that person, and if you are in that way, then it is your problem. No one can help except yourself. No one can make a change except you yourself. Yes, you can pray that you might be able to change. But if you cannot change by yourself, then the only alternative we have is prayer that I might be able to change. The true Dharma is trying to make a change. That way, even the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas may not call you hero or heroine, but they should not call you a coward or weak. That decision remains within ourselves, and only we ourselves can make it. That is what these two verses mean.

Then the next two verses [reads Tibetan] are the other half of the equation, the opposite of that: Those who can embrace suffering have a brave mind of embracing sufferings—not only the suffering of a person, or group of people, but embracing the suffering of all sentient beings or all living beings. If these are not heroes or heroines, than who else is? These are called great Bodhisattvas. Great Bodhisattvas will lead themselves into joy and happiness by the force of the heroic actions. These will lead you to joy and happiness. Weak and cowardly actions will lead you to suffering; heroic actions will lead you to joy and happiness. This particular verse has half talking about the negative system and half on the positive system, just like the Four Noble Truths.

Verse 4, beginning:

Now here, desire is like the jungle of virulent poison

The peacock-like heroes [alone] can digest this. But for the crow-like cowards it spells death,

The Tibetan words say “Now here.” What do we mean by “Now here?” “Now here” is referring to previous activities. We always have to look backwards to where we are coming from. We are here now, but how did we get here? We got here by developing Common with the Medium Level and Common with the Lower Level both. Why does that make a difference? Common with the Medium Level and Common with the Lower Level practices made me the individual strong enough to be able to endure that. If I was not strong enough, I would not be able to endure it at all. If you tell someone who walked into the group for the first time, “Go ahead and embrace everybody’s suffering on yourself, by yourself, for you alone,” where is that person going to go? He is going to run out of the door to get out of here.

What makes you be able to think about it and even listen to this? Because of the background of Common with the Medium Level and Common with the Lower Level. We spent most of Friday and yesterday talking about it. In addition, you have a lot of years of effort, many of you, and all of you have spent a lot of time in this path. That background enables you to at least hear about embracing suffering.

So “here now” means “How did I get over here now?” Because of my background, I am strong now. What background? Common with the Medium Level including the Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths and the interdependent system of links and the karmic system, as well as Common with the Lower Level including the importance of human life, the impermanence of it, refuge, karma, and rebirth. All of those made me see things much more than I used to see. I used to see my life, from birth to death, and nothing else. Within my birth to death, what do I see? My measurement or my assessment or my perception of happiness, and my perception of suffering, which may or may not be true, but that’s what I am used to seeing. Whatever the individual’s role model is: if you are from Third World nations, the role model or object of achievement is wealth. If you are a fortunate person, like Americans or Europeans or other developed nations, your projection of joy and happiness shifts slightly from wealth to leisure or whatever it is the individual has in his own fantasy. Some people will have the fantasy or Playboy or whatever. Because we don’t have a proper reference of joy, and we don’t know the joy that has never known suffering, that’s why our joy, our happiness, is a simple projection of the individual’s fantasy. If you think I’m wrong, tell me, but I don’t think I’m wrong.

Even if we substitute that fantasy with enlightenment or something, even then it’s a fantasy right now. It may become reality, hopefully, but it is a fantasy. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with having a fantasy. But it is different from individual to individual.

Replacing that fantasy with another fantasy called enlightenment or total liberation or total freedom—at least it’s better than Playboy. That has made us able to reach “Here now.” This is what we call taking suffering as a path. If I say “Taking suffering as a path,” you will all have some pause, doubt, long faces. Many of you have long faces. If I change these words to “Transforming suffering into joy,” everybody will have a nice smile. That indicates how cowardly we are, to use the words of this teaching. So if when we see each other, “Good morning, Miss Coward,” or “Good Morning, Mr. Coward,” that’s what you can do yourself. In the morning, yesterday, when you go to bed, it is part of Dharma practice, don’t just go “boom” and fall asleep. Just before you go to sleep, just review what you did today—not every thought, but major ones. Review it a little bit. If it is good activities, rejoice. Give a pat on your own shoulder. If it is a little weak, next morning you address yourself: “Good morning, Mr. Coward.” Dharma practitioners are always urged to have at least a little review before you go to sleep and at least a little preview of your motivation before you get up. These are the ways you conduct your daily life. A nice way of saying this is transforming suffering into path. A way of hitting the ego and self-cherishing more is “Embrace suffering—not only your own future suffering, but the suffering of all your friends and enemies and every living beings; any suffering, wherever it is, take it. It is yours.” That is how you hit your own ego. Ego will probably be dancing around, hitting the ceiling, saying, “What is wrong with this guy? I should not have let him go to Garrison.” If that happens, you are getting somewhere. These are all methods of loosening the ego’s grip over ourselves. We are good at it. We are happy to wear our hat the other way around. Counterculture activities are our gift. Here we have to use them against our ego. Here counterculture activities are in our blood. America is formed on the basis of going against the British empire. It is time for us to utilize this and go against our boss, the ego inside us, and our self-cherishing. If you get even a step forward toward that, it will make a hell of a difference to us and lead us to the joy that has never known suffering. That is our goal; that is how we are moving. 36:36

Again, “Here now.” “Here now” means not only how we got here, not only that we are capable of embracing suffering, but at least if we cannot really commit, the alternative is to pray to the guru that I may be able to do this. This has to come with a Lam Rim background. Even the guru also has an absolute guru and relative guru; absolute guru is Buddha Vajradhara or in some cases Buddha Vajradharma. But whatever it is, pray to the guru to be able to do this. If you can’t do it directly, the second step is to pray to be able to do this.

Not only does this talk about embracing suffering, but “Here now” also refers to the Vajrayana. The most important practice available from the Buddhism that has come through the Tibetan tradition, the caviar or the icing on the cake, is the Vajrayana. Some people are afraid of it. I always encourage it. You cannot become Vajrayana practitioners without a little background in the Lam Rim. This, here (“Here now”) is pre-Vajrayana. [reads Tibetan]: “The peacock-like [heroes] can digest this, but for the crow-like cowards it spells death.” They hope they will have nice feathers like a peacock; they eat the poison, and then the crow may die. That’s what this one says. Just like that, without any background of Common with the Lower and Common with the Medium, you will die with your spiritual path. You cannot manage it. So when you see this, the Vajrayana goes beyond this, again “Here now.” Vajrayana embraces attachment. Vajrayana embraces anger. Vajrayana embraces ignorance. Now I am using the word “embrace.” Again, the embracing I am talking about is transformation, especially attachment, because it is cool. Hatred is hot. It is difficult to handle something that is hot; it is easy to handle something cool. So the Vajrayana quality is being completely emphasized here.

Why do we do this? Because we have so much anxiety to become fully enlightened. We put all our efforts toward doing something good. As a result, there are two things. Some people’s goal is just to do the right thing. That is a good enough goal for them. Some people’s goal doesn’t stop there: just do the right thing to help people, and thereby, I may become fully enlightened as soon as possible. Bodhimind tells us this: Bodhimind was developed within us by remembering the kindness that people rendered to us. Bodhimind also tells us that people’s sufferings are so urgent that they need to be cared for just like we begin to see that the environment needs to be taken care of. Otherwise we will have no good air to breathe or good water to drink. We begin to see the urgency now. Just like that, the need of people and the responsibility we have taken as part of our development, there is a sense of urgency and that is why, as quickly as possible, we need to become a Buddha. Otherwise, why should I become a Buddha? I might as well be free of suffering and have a nice picnic in the Bahamas or somewhere. This need is because of the sense of urgency; you are having your loved ones waiting here to be helped. Your loved ones are standing there just waiting for rescue. That’s why the Vajrayana is important. Vajrayana is the only yana or vehicle or way that talks about the individual obtaining enlightenment within a reasonable time.

Number one, the Buddhist traditions such as Theravadans never talk about it becoming an issue. It’s not even a subject of concern at all, just like in the Judeo-Christian tradition you don’t talk about becoming God. Just like that, in the Vajrayana. This may be a naïve statement because of my lack of knowledge of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but I hear no one talking about becoming God. Because God is beyond reach; it is a supernatural, monotheistic God. Theravadan traditions will look on Buddha in a similar manner. Buddha has become Buddha, and that’s about it. They don’t talk about people becoming a Buddha at all. They talk about arhats becoming free of suffering and having a nice picnic. Mahayana comes in saying that samsara is not the only suffering; nirvana is also suffering. These are the two sufferings; freeing ourselves from that and becoming a fully enlightened Buddha and helping all other living beings is the goal. Here, they are not introducing the Buddha who goes to a picnic lunch all the time. No. They are introducing the Buddha who takes action all the time. The goal changes. But, in sutra alone, they talk about “three countless eons” when you accumulate merit and purify. It is impossible to gain. The Vajrayana is the only one that talks about a reasonable time period: a lifetime achievement. If not then, it will be at the time of death. Everybody counts, more or less, at the time of death. If it is not possible, then it will be during the next one or two lives. Or, as the Fifth Dalai Lama says, in the sixteenth lifetime, at maximum, which is very short compared with countless eons. That’s why the Vajrayana is the crown jewel, the cream of the Buddhist milk. And the method of the Vajrayana is, again, transforming attachment and anger. I don’t know whether you can really transform ignorance or not, but he is discontinuing ignorance with his own speed.

So embracing here is actually talking about transformation. We will be happy to accept it; it’s not going to hurt ego; ego will enjoy it too. But when you say accept suffering, death, and the bardo, that will shock the ego. Each shock the ego gets, it hurts the ego and it hurts self-cherishing.

[after break]

Kimba showed me another translation of this by Geshe Sopa with ___ and Leonard Sowali(?) Here the translation goes: “Now here, desire is like the jungle of virulent poison, the hero like the peacock masters it; the coward like the crow perishes.” What do you have?

The peacock-like heroes [alone] can digest this.

But for the crow-like cowards it spells death.

Translation or no translation, this is important. [reads Tibetan] “How can the person concerned with their own desire master this poison? If they involve themselves in other affiliations as well, it will cost them their chance for emancipation, just like the crow.” You have the same thing?

For how can the self-centered digest such poison?

When you extend this [analogy] to other afflictions,

Each similarly assails liberation’s life force, like [poison to] a crow.

Might as well read the next verse, too. [Reads Tibetan]

Verse 5

Therefore peacock-like heroes must convert

Afflictions that resemble a jungle of poison into an elixir

And enter the jungle of cyclic existence;

Embracing the afflictions, heroes must destroy their poison.

Such a practice of embracing suffering or embracing negative emotions are things that only the great Bodhisattvas can do; others will not be able to do them. If they attempt them, instead of transforming it, it becomes threatening to their life. It’s true. A person who has been able to receive suffering, and more than that, if we are looking into embracing attachment, this is a big deal. Either you embrace attachment or control attachment and use attachment as a path for development, or attachment controls the individual and makes the individual a slave of attachment. It is always who influences whom, and how much; that is where the risk is involved. Chances are since we have a strong addiction for so many lifetimes to attachment, controlling attachment is much more rare and difficult than attachment controlling us. That’s why they keep this analogy of a peacock digesting poison. I don’t know how far this story is true, but they will add one story here. The story is that the peacock enjoys the poison and they eat the poison and they don’t harm other living beings much, like other birds or animals. That’s not only the peacock’s look that has been developed by poison, but it also prevents them from harming other beings. The comparison they’re making between a peacock and a Bodhisattva is not only the development aspect of it but prevention aspect as well.

The flip side of that is that the peacock is careful not to hurt other living beings. That’s what the tradition does. What happened here is [reads Tibetan] …all this we are talking about: embracing suffering; embracing human emotions; what is the real message behind this? The real message is embracing the path of bliss-void combination. Void is wisdom. Bliss is technically called the method aspects, which is love-compassion and related activities. Wisdom is emptiness and related activities. Wisdom has other viewpoints within the Buddhist schools. Even in the non-Buddhist schools, the bottom line of this wisdom actually boils down to negation of self—the self that is grasped by the self-grasping mind, the self that is cherished by the self-cherishing mind. There are so many different schools that present what that self really is. We have been talking about Chandrakirti’s verse, “All the faults of negativities are of causal result, are coming out of jik ta itself.” Jik ta means the mind that focuses and perceives the perishable aggregates as the focal point of the self. When you look at jik ta, its main focus is nothing but the self. The yogis will eliminate/eradicate/refute the self. This is what Chandrakirti says; it boils down to that. Non-Buddhist schools, the four plus one Buddhist schools, have different ways of perceiving and projecting what the focal point is. But ultimately everyone recommends strongly Prasangika’s viewpoint. Prasangika says everything is terms and conditions existing; there is nothing to be “this is the one.” This means that there will be no end of Russian dolls. Everything is terms and conditions. That is the definition of existence. That particular wisdom and that particular bliss, which has to be not only embraced but has to be the physical aspects, have to be bliss and mental aspects of the individual, and they have to be void. That is the combination of bliss and void, of clear light and illusion body. So here, when you say “now here, now here,” and the embracing business, it is telling us all the things behind these words. When you look at it at such a level, only a hero like a peacock can digest, not a coward like a crow.

Now the next verse is very simple [reads Tibetan]: “Therefore, the great heroes like a peacock, the poison-like samsaric things, particularly samsaric negativities and afflictive emotions, are taken as elixir or nectar. Heroes will take that as nectar and enter through the forest of poison, the forest of samsara.” Why? By embracing this and destroying this poison, the reasons why you go in the poison field and embrace and gain control over it, defeat and destroy it. That is how the Bohisattvas are recommended not only to embrace sufferings but negativities and negative emotions.

Then the next verse [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 6

From now on I will distance myself from this demon’s emissary—

Self grasping—which [makes me] wander helplessly

And seeks [only] selfish happiness and prosperity;

I will joyfully embrace hardship for the sake of others.

Up to here is the general explanation of samsara and the root of samsara and how samsara works. Samsara works by negative activities, and that guarantees the continuation of samsara; and the negativities are created because of the root of all negative emotions coming out of ego-grasping. Because of ego we grasp ego; because of ego grasping we have self-cherishing; working for ego-grasping, all of them are generally explained. Not only that, but the second word “demon’s emissary” is self-grasping. What are they really talking about here? In this case, when they say “the demon within us,” that is self-cherishing. And self-grasping is the agent of the devil. When you begin to look within us, these two, the self-cherishing and self-grasping, are very much interconnected. Self-cherishing is the one that really makes the self so important. It is everything I cannot do without. It is like a master living inside. The perceiving mind is serving the master, self-cherishing, because it is Me. It is my territory that is coming in. The idea is that I have to grasp and protect because I am the most important. Self-cherishing is the one who sits inside and dictates, and grasping is a little less important than cherishing in this case. But it depends on how intelligent the individual practitioner is. If you are very intelligent, you can get rid of self-grasping before you can get rid of self-cherishing. There are non-Bodhisattvas who have realized wisdom even before developing Bodhimind. Nagarjuna said there are individual practitioners who recognize this wisdom way before they even challenge self-cherishing.

I had an interesting experience at the University of Michigan in ‘87 or ‘88. They gave me the opportunity to teach Tibetan language as an adjunct lecturer. There was a Japanese professor who was hired as a visiting professor. He was translating a particular verse, and he could not figure it out. We met together, and everybody was looking at each other, and saying is this right? Anyway, the Japanese professor had the idea that Bodhimind has to be developed first and wisdom comes in the first path, and second path, and at the path of seeing, you see wisdom. This happens all the time in Buddhist studies, in the Upper Tantric College or Lower Tantric College. If someone goes through the dying state, does that person see emptiness? If that is so, does emptiness have fallback? There arell kinds of arguments and valid points. Even then, these things are very common. Anyway, this verse talks about the fact that there are people who have overcome self-grasping before self-cherishing. But for normal people, self-cherishing is easier to handle than self-grasping. It is really hard to find what you are grasping at with self-grasping. It needs a lot of thinking and meditating, and a lot of purifications. Without doing purification and just analyzing along, you cannot analyze wisdom at all. But analyzing can lead you to so much. But the ultimate obstacle is within the individual, and that ultimate obstacle is our negativities. It is more the intellectual; you get closer and closer, and ultimately, to be able to see this, you have to overcome the internal obstacles which are the negativities created by afflictive emotions. That’s why it is very tough.

On the other hand, self-cherishing is not that tough to recognize. Whenever we talk about me me me, we think we are talking about wisdom. Actually, we are talking about self-cherishing. “What about me?” This is self-cherishing talking, not the ego or self-grasping talking. Self-grasping needs to see what is being grasped at. Analyzing alone will not get it; you need purification and accumulation of merit. That doesn’t look very scientific at all, but experience tells us about it from that angle. They discovered that Einstein had contributed to the world so much, and one person raised the question “Do you consider Einstein an Arya, a person who sees?” I don’t know, but the obstacle has to be the internal negativity effect. At all layers there is involvement, but I think you need to clear both. Logical analyzing will be able to come to the same point. Clearing the obstacles through purification and accumulation of merit, I don’t know how that’s going to happen. It’s not for me to say, but this also has to be done. Otherwise we will reach a certain level and then get stuck.

Part 6

Now to continue where we stopped this morning: we were talking about this master and agent-emissary pair of self-cherishing and self cherishing. We always want to have “joy and happiness.” Here this book says, “Throw them away like a dead body.” The meaning is: don’t let us go to the wishes of these two. These two will always make us seek samsaric joy, samsaric happiness, and will never let us embrace suffering or the pain of others. This is the problem. Then, what you need to do is just the opposite: we continuously suffer in samsara without any control or freedom, and this is totally the fault of self-cherishing and ego-grasping, and also continuously making sure that we entertain afflictive emotions.

In order to develop joy and happiness for all others, I will embrace the suffering of all beings and let these two have it. [reads Tibetan] “Still, in that, if I have desire for myself, then what should I do? I should recognize it and give joy and happiness to others.” They say “if”. Why do they say “if”? Because most Bodhisattvas will not have that if they are Bodhisattvas. But in case someone somewhere should give up, that’s why it says “if.” Then you have to do the exact opposite of these two negativities. [reads Tibetan]. I think where we are now, we haven’t read those translations.

Verse 7

Propelled by karma and habituated to the afflictions—

The sufferings of all beings who share this nature

I will heap them upon this self that yearns for happiness.

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 8

When selfish craving enters my heart,

I will expel it and offer my happiness to all beings.

If those around me rise in mutiny against me,

I will relish it, thinking, “This is due to my own negligence.”

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 9

When my body falls prey to unbearable illnesses,

It is the weapon of evil karma returning on me

For injuring the bodies of others;

From now on I will take all sickness upon myself.

[comment on verse 9]

So this is saying that when we get illnesses, it is actually our fault, because we have created pain that affects the other person’s physical, mental, and emotional self. Now, in order to protect myself, I shall not do harm to anyone, but any harm or illnesses come along, I would like to embrace them so other people do not have t experience them.

Verse 10

When my mind falls prey to suffering,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me.

For definitely causing turbulence in the hearts of others.

From now on I will take all sickness upon myself.

[comment on verse 10]

These are the reasons why we have to embrace suffering: Because we have these problems anyway because we have created the karma for it, we might as well take it upon ourselves now. Next is [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 11

When I am tormented by extreme hunger and thirst,

It sis the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For engaging in deception, theft, and miserly acts;

From now on I will take all hunger and thirst upon myself.

[comment]

This one doesn’t need much explanation. The next one is [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 12

When I am powerless and suffer in servitude to others,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For being hostile to the weak and subjugating the;

From now on I will employ my body and life in the service of others.

[comment]

These are the different ways of embracing suffering [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 13

When unpleasant words reach my ears

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For my verbal offenses, such as divisive speech; From now on I will condemn flawed speech

[comment]

This is true because whenever we have problems where people are saying something bad about you, it always seems “this is something bad about me.” It is always not their fault, though we think it us. Unless I have not created such karma, I will not experience it. Therefore it is a consequence of my doing it. If I don’t want that, what I have to do is watch my mouth. Read my lips!

Verse 14

When I am born in a place of impurity;

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For always cultivating impure perceptions;

From now on I will cultivate only pure perceptions.

[comment]

You know, it is interesting. People take rebirth in very difficult places. Physical conditions can be very difficult, not only in Tibet. When we look at Ladakh, it is very difficult conditions—dry, cold, miserable. Streets are all up and down. But do you know what Ladakhis call themselves? The word Ladakh is “Pure Karmic Human Beings.” The earlier Ladakh teachers have emphasized the because of the difficult area where they are born, and constant problems with the Muslim faith, they don’t have pure karma. To remind themselves that they need pure karma, they call the land “Pure Karmic Land.” It’s obvious they need pure karma. In one way you meet with great Buddhist teachings, and it is great; on the other hand, it is a very difficult physical area. So in order to do this, you have to generate pure perception. That’s the reason why ordinary appearance and perception becomes the object of negation in Vajrayana. Anyway, next is [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 15

When I become separated from helpful and loving friends

Is is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For luring away others’ companions;

From now on I will neer estrange others from their companions.

[comment]

This one doesn’t need much explanation .

Verse 16

When the sublime ones become displeased with me,

It si the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For renouncing the sublime ones and seeking bad companions;

From now on I will renounce negative friendships

[comment]

Maybe continue reading…

Verse 17

When others assail me with exaggerations, denigration, and so on,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me, etc.

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 18

When my material resources waste away,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For being disrespectful toward others’ resources;

From now on I will help others find what they need

Verse 19

When my mind becomes dull an my heart unhappy…

This is quite important. We have that happen very often. In order to avoid it, every last line of the verse will tell you what to do [reads Tibetan]:

Verse 20

When I fail in my endeavors and feel deeply disturbed,

It is the weapon of eil karma turning upon me, etc.

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 21

When my gurus remain displeased no matter what I do,…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 22

When everyone challenges what I say, …

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 23

When disputes arise as soon as my companions gather,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For peddling my destructive, evil character in all directions;

From now on I will maintain good character wherever I am.

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 24

When all who are close to me rise up as enemies…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 25

When I am sick with a chronic ulcer or edema,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For wrongfully and with no conscience using others’ possessions;

From now on I will renounce

Acts such as plundering others’ possessions.

[comment]

The translation just says “others’ possessions.” Here, the idea behind this is taking away or diverting the offerings--whether it is a food offering, clothes offering, medicinal offering, financial offering, or something meant for certain purposes--you divert it, thinking it is better used for something else. For example, you are going to donate $100 to Drepung and someone comes in and says, “But Drepung is quite well to do and maybe this other place is poor and you should divert it there,” or vice versa. That’s what it means. The translation uses very politically correct language. Diverting in that way is considered a very important negativity that has lots of consequences.

Verse 26

When my body is struck suddenly by contagious disease,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For committing acts that undermine my solemn pledges;

From now on I will renounce nonvirtue.

[comment]

It is funny. This translation uses very politically correct language. It just says “contagious diseases.” But if I am the translator, I would say, “If you suddenly get a migraine headache, it is a clear sign that you have broken your commitments.” I would have said that. Oh, I see, I read it without an “s.” With an “s,” it means contagious disease. This changes the meaning. [Apparently “contagious disease” is correct.]

Verse 27

When my intellect becomes ignorant of all fields of knowledge…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 28

When I am overwhelmed by sloth while practicing Dharma…

[comment]

What does “sloth” mean? Here it says, when you begin to practice and are sitting in the teachings you start falling asleep.

Verse 29

When I delight in afflictions and am greatly distracted…

[comment]

Each one of these has a really important point which I could talk to you about a lot. But the thing is this: when you have this huge mental wandering and addiction to afflictive emotions—anger, hatred, obsession—the real direct antidote, each one of them will tell you, like aspirin, is meditation on impermanence, and particularly self-impermanence—the condition of dying. These are the most important points that can protect us from those negative addictions.

Verse 30

When I continue to regress despite all my efforts,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me

For defying karma and the law of cause and effect;

From now on I will strive to accumulate merit.

[comment]

When we try to do something we could not achieve, and we blame bad luck or misfortune of some sort, it is true we have no luck, it is true we do not have good fortune. If we do not like that, we have to create the fortune which is not making money, but which is accumulating merit. That’s what it’s referring to, I believe.

Verse 31

When all the religious rituals I perform go amiss,

It is the weapon of evil karma turning upon me…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 32

When my prayers to the Three Jewels are impotent…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 33

When my imagination arises as veils and possessor spirits,…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 34

When I am lost and wander like a powerless man…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 35

When calamities such as frost and hailstorms occur…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 36

When I am avaricious yet bereft of wealth…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 37

When I am ugly and am mistreated by my companions…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 38

When attachment and anger erupt no matter what I do…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 39

When all my meditative practices fail in their aims…

[comment]

This happens very often with us. When we practice, we can’t focus, and we don’t get to the point. This is what they’re talking about here.

Verse 40

When my mind remains untamed despite spiritual practice…

[comment]

This, again, happens to us. We put in a lot of efforts, and it doesn’t have effect on our mind. The problem is that we could not give up self-cherishing, and we are always hoping to get “samsaric goodies.”

Verse 41

When I feel remorse as soon as I sit down and reflect…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 42

When I am deceived by others’ treachery…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 43

When my studies and teaching fall prey to attachment and anger…

[comment]

Whenever we are doing teachings or explanations or helping to guide others along the path, it is extremely important to have pure motivation—not only the motivation of benefit for all living beings, but the pure motivation, completely pure. I do not want to think that because of this, my name may become known; people may say I did a great job; I may gain some pride; or people may begin to realize I’m good at it. These sorts of ideas come up. Even the slightest touch of that, and every teaching you give will not help people, and not only that, it becomes a difficulty for yourself, too. This is what we have to remember, because my hope is all of you will become great teachers in future. One way of helping others is teaching. When that happens, the biggest obstacle is that “I say something right, so people will think I have learned a lot.” It’s a funny, crazy kind of hope we keep in our minds. If you are saying even a single word of advice, think that it is purely dedicated, purely of service to other people and never have any funny thoughts like this.

Verse 44

When all the good I have done turns out badly…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 45

In brief, when calamities befall me like bolts of lightning…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 46

When I undergo sufferings in the lower realms…

[no comment on this verse]

Verse 47

When the sufferings of the householder befall me…

[comment]

These are encouragements to become monks and nuns.

Up to here, the things are all of the same category: if we experience this, these are the consequences. It is really clearly pinpointing to us the consequences of our actions. The whole purpose is change—to change our addictions and way of thinking. Our tiny mischievous mind is always working. Anything we try to do, even if we try to do good things, there is a hope of acknowledgement, of return, of getting recognized in some way. These are very, very tedious, difficult, and apparently small things but they are particularly harmful. These are the things we have to be careful about.

Part 7

[Question and answer session]

Q. Rimpoche, there is still some confusion about the difference between self-cherishing and self-grasping. Another question that came from a different group that is the same question suggests that perhaps it would be clarifying if you could explain how self-grasping and self-cherishing manifest in everyday life and give examples.

A. It’s easy to write and say the words, right? But it’s very difficult to point out what is self-grasping. Self-cherishing is not a problem. Self-grasping is very hard. That’s why people spend their whole lifetimes finding what the object of negation is. Self-cherishing is where the self is considered the most important; and whatever the self’s needs are, those are the most important needs. And also, the self that is not willing to embrace or even accept suffering or any problems, the self that would like to have picnic spot to picnic spot, one after another, all through their life, that is self-cherishing. There is no confusion about that. But self-grasping is where we are holding something that is not there. Though it is functioning as master and emissary, even then, what we are grasping at is not there. That is why it is a confused state of perception. When you write it, it is easy. But giving an example in our daily life is very hard. If it was easy, people would not have to spend their whole life trying to gain wisdom.

Q. You mentioned that some people are able to recognize wisdom before they recognize their self-cherishing. But how can a being who is no longer self-grasping still be self-cherishing?

A. There are definitely people who can do this. Self-cherishing is cherishing my desire. I want it to be on my terms of happiness. That is there even after one sees wisdom. Again, here we have to see compassionand love. All of them are one aspect of functioning. Wisdom is another aspect of functioning. Although they work together at that level, you can defeat them separately.

Q. Two questions about Bodhisattvas: Are Bodhisattvas enlightened?

A. What kind of question is that? Why don’t they call them Buddhas? Clearly they are not.

Q. You also talked about the concept of a weak Bodhisattva. Could you explain what a weak Bodhisattva is?

A. Some Bodhisattvas have weaknesses regarding their negative emotions. Some have weaknesses for attachment; I don’t think they have attachment weaknesses, but attachment, yes. Within the Bodhisattva designation, there are five different paths and ten different stages. Everybody is not equal when there are ten different stages. The first stage is not equal to the second stage, third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth stage.

Q. The follow-up question to that is: For those people who have taken Bodhisattva vows, are they now weak Bodhisattvas aspiring to be stronger Bodhisattvas as they advance on the path?

A. I hope they are weak Bodhisattvas. Most probably they are not. Whether you are a true Bodhisattva or not does not depend on whether you have taken Bodhisattva vows or not. It depends on Bodhimind or Bodhicitta, and whether that’s developed with you or not. That is the real factor that makes a difference. Either you have not taken the Bodhisattva vow but have developed Bodhicitta and you are a Bodhisattva, or you have taken 100 million times of Bodhisattva vows and not developed Bodhicitta, in which case you have Bodhisattva vows and do not have Bodhicitta. It’s as simple as that. The follow-up question will be: What is the use of taking the vows?

Q. The last question I have is about Yamantaka. In the wheel of Sharp Weapons, there are 40 stanzas in which we call on Yamantaka to trample, overpower, strike, and butcher the enemy of our self-cherishing. Can this text be inserted in the sadhana? Can it be inserted as part of the practice? What’s the relationship between the two?

A. No. You should not insert it in the sadhana. Number one, those sadhanas should not be mixed so much. If you start mixing things, it’s not very good. The authenticity and truth to the traditions will be lost. Remember this is not New Age. In New Age you can do all that. Number two, in the historical period there are certain monasteries in eastern Tibet that did this. They brought this particular thing into the form of a ritual within the sadhana and did it almost like an exorcism style of chanting, as well as doing the symbols and rules of exorcism—you do nine times this and four times that, four times that and two of this. There are certain systems, and they did that. Not only one or two, but a number of monasteries did this. And the consequences? Who knows what happened. But as a consequence of that, there was a lot of misfortune in those monasteries and a lot of funny things like sudden death and unnecessary earthquakes and floods. Whole monasteries were leveled to the ground. A number of people died. That’s why one shouldn’t do it. If it is in Lojong, let it be in Lojong. If you say, “Let me see how it works in the sadhana,” open the can of worms at your own risk. Otherwise you should not do it.

Q. There is a series of questions about embracing suffering. Let’s assume we are ready to embrace suffering. What next? What do we do?

A. The question is what would you do with the suffering. The question is not, “What next?” I know what you’re looking at: “A special method of transforming suffering into joy.” If you are hoping for that, I have to disappoint you. That’s not the point. The point of embracing suffering is that there is much that makes you a brave person. That much bravery you build up within you, and that is your strength. That is what the books keep calling Hero and Heroine. The first thing you have is the strength to be able to do that. Second, actually, can we really take the suffering and embrace it as we visualize and pray and talk about it? The answer is no, we cannot. But there may be a time when you may be able to do it. If the opportunity and the capability rises to the individual to be able to do it, then that very person will have the capability of knowing what to do with it. For example, remember Milarepa’s story. Milarepa was quite famous and extremely important. There was not an equivalent to Milarepa. But there was a Gaeshe called Geshe Sopowa. Geshe Sopowa was always jealous of Milarepa because he became so famous, and Geshe-La’s activities weren’t growing very well. Because Milarepa was so famous, he always overpowered Geshe-La’s activities. So Geshe-La always had a funny sort of …so much so that I think Geshe-La’s niece brought poisoned yogurt for Milarepa. Their idea was to poison him. I don’t know whether they wanted to kill him, but they wanted to make him handicapped. So Milarepa was offered the poisoned yogurt, and Milarepa knowingly took it, and Milarepa fell sick. Then this Geshe had tremendous regret. He came to see Milarepa and apologized, and Milarepa said, “It’s not your fault. It’s my bad karma. He said, “There is no way I can take it, but if there was a way, I would like to take it.” He sincerely regretted. Milarepa said, “There is no way you can take it. I could transfer it to you; however, you will not be able to bear it. Let me transfer all the pain to the door. He did some gesture, and the door started going crack, crack, and all kinds of funny things. And Milarepa said, “Even the door, which has no mind, cannot take it. Let me take two percent of it and give it to you.” He made a gesture. Geshe is screaming and sweating and yelling and saying, “Please take it back!” This is an example: if you can embrace it, you will know what to do with it. Right now we are more or less visualizing or imagining or praying to be able to do this. When you are literally able to do it, you know where to transform it and not to transform it. Even in the visual image of taking the pains of other people, we have tremendous fear and hesitation and worry there. It is not easy. People are not crazy. We haven’t read about the give and take technique, but it begins by taking it from the self rather than others. My evening pain that I am supposed to have, or “tomorrow’s pain that I may have, I am taking it now,” or “next week’s pain I am taking it now.” If you start talking that way, it is easier for our mind, and not so harsh, rather than saying, “Take your enemy’s pain now!” There will be fear and doubt then: if it really happens, what do I do? So always take your own pain and suffering first. Even if you don’t have it now, probably you will have it later. This is how you train your mind. When you are literally able to take it, you will have the capacity to know what to do with it.

Q. Theext question is very closely related to what you just talked about. It is about how you know your limits.

A. The limit depends on how brave you are. It’s not like you think you are brave and say, “Well, I’ll take it anyway.” Not that. If it really, literally happens, how will it be? How do I handle it? By seeing your mind by yourself and seeing how much it goes. You will see your own limits. Probably they will be zero. [Laughs.]

Q. How do we deal with poisonous situations now?

A. We have a tremendous amount of poisonous situations every day, with the environment, with food. I think seventy percent of our seafood comes from China, throughout the world—and their idea of the environment and clean, you know . . . I saw that report in Europe. That water in which they grow fish is not the best. Then, with the idea of nature, they use natural minnow, human waste, and in order to cleanse it they put antibiotics in the water. This was on CNN. There is some funny thinking there. Now we begin to realize what is happening. It is very hard, this toxic; it has almost taken over completely. It does not only affect the environment but also our food. We have to get some peacocks around.

Q. This is on the topic of “toxicity.” How about toxic relationships in the workplace, etc.?

A. Everybody has to try to see themselves and see everybody, and we know how toxic relationships are harmful. We have to do the best we can. I personally feel awareness is so important. And also education. Education and awareness can probably save us. Other than that, you people know more than I know how this country is functioning. There is one handful of people who have awareness and who need to save the environment and human health; on the other hand, there is a powerful group of people who like to pollute. And we are struggling with that. The more awareness and education people have, the more effective it will be. Even regarding the environment, the awareness is more now than it was a few years ago because a sense of urgency is coming in.

Q. We’re talking about emotionally toxic relationships, such as between a boss and a worker in an office.

A. If you don’t like it, quit. [Laughs]. That is the easiest way. But tomorrow you have to find out how to pay your bills. I’m sorry, I misunderstood. This is not only a question between boss and worker, but between all human beings. This issue is everywhere, not only in the workplace. It is ecause of self-cherishing and ego. There are two egos and there are two self-cherishings, and they are banging their heads against each other. That’s how it is, right? One has to take a step back and think about it a little more. It’s difficult, honestly. On one hand, if you are not wrong, you not only have a right, but you should point out every point of your point of view. Not only is it right to do, but you may know a lot of things and many things you discover by experimenting and doing all kinds of things. But on the other hand, if you have two thick heads bouncing off each other, it never ends. One needs to be understanding, but not roll over and be a doormat. Bodhisattva’s advice here we read in the afternoon: all of the problems are your fault, because of your bad karma, your bad knowledge, your limited understanding. When you do that way, honestly speaking, it is my fault as well. There is always my contribution. But one doesn’t make noise. When you clap two hands, you have to have two. Only one hand doesn’t make noise. My fault is always there, for sure. But how much is my fault? One has to be open-minded about that. If one is a Bodhisattva practitioner, then the advice here is to embrace suffering and embrace blame. Where is it coming from? Try to avoid the cause of it. That doesn’t mean you have to be policing the other person or only do what the other person tells you and don’t think about it. My mind is not working; I don’t know what to say. Maybe I had a long day.

Q. Please provide some practical tips on making necessary assessments of people without falling into judgments.

A. Tonight all my answers are going to be “I don’t know.” When you talk to people, you do have some sense of understanding of the individual. That sense of intuition will give you some ideas, and that very idea you get through your intuition. You have to find out whether it is right or wrong by experimenting or testing. Then your intuition is more or less confirming not once but twice. By this time, you may or may not be making a judgment, but you more or less know what this is all about. And particularly if you are meeting with a stranger and talking about it, physical gestures will give you certain understanding of their mental level that could be wrong, but more or less give you certain [signals], and this is how one develops “knowing the other’s mind.” You know the other’s mind on two levels: one ritual mantra and purification and accumulation of merit, and on the other side analyzing—analyzing yourself with your own thought within yourself, and seeing what kind of body gesture is corresponding to your thoughts. Then your own mind is not a secret to you, so judging from that angle, try to see whether that is suiting the other person or not. If you spend ten minutes with somebody, you get an idea of what kinds of body gestures that person does, whether they are honest or a joke or bluffing or whatever. That is how you begin to make sense. Then, you combine some intuition with reasoning. Intuition could be right or it could be wrong; don’t rely on it without some reasoning, some body gesture that will give you some idea through reasoning. When you test that idea a couple of times, you more or less can—not judge, but you will have some sense or idea as to whether the person is OK or not OK. A few years ago, we met that one person, and Jonathan was there. We had dinner together, and I said, “I think that guy is crazy,” and they all said “No.” Those things happen.

Q. What are the signs that we are at risk of being poisoned like the crow?

A. There are a number of things that are signs of being poisoned like a crow. The most important sign is whether the individual person is improving or going down in terms of their own virtuous and positive activities and your way of thinking, your manner in which you are developing negative emotions. How many times do they come? How quickly do they come? These are the signs you see. But there is another one. Another question I have to raise is when the spiritual person puts in efforts, sometimes you begin to notice your own faults or negativities. It’s not a new ability you develop. But you already have it, and you notice it much more than before. These are not the sign of a crow being poisoned, but these are the recognition and acknowledgements of seeing the faults of the individual. But in general, if negativities are increasing, positivities are going down. And if even those who have a few become faulty, these are the signs I can say of a crow being poisoned.

Q. You used the word “coward” to describe someone who is carried up and down with violent swings of strong emotions. It seems surprising to think of cowardice in this context. Why is someone a coward who feels excited or happy about a very positive experience? Aren’t we supposed to rejoice and appreciate our good fortune? Can you explain why the word “coward” applies here?

A. Very good question. When I was talking, if I remember correctly, I said this particular teaching and this particular book calls that person a coward. But he or she is not necessarily a coward that we in a normal sense take it. Why is it a coward in this particular sense? Because that person has a lot of emotional swings, and those emotional swings are what the hero Bodhisattvas are able to stabilize their emotions and get steady on it. They like to call those who cannot maintain their emotional moment unstable; they use the word “coward” to describe them. But they are not necessarily cowards. They also use the word “coward” to describe a crow. But a crow is not necessarily a coward. A crow is brave. But this is a poetic metaphor. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are a coward. This is sort of a poem, so they use metaphors too. I hope that explains this.

Q. There’s another part—aren’t we supposed to rejoice and appreciate our good fortune?

A. The whole idea is that a little gain should not pursue the individual so much. A little loss should not pursue the individual emotionally, bouncing up and down. That is the problem, and that is why they call it a coward. The heroes are emotionally quite balanced people. Yes, you rejoice, and you are happy about it. But with every joy and happiness you don’t have to shout and scream and fly three times in the air and refuse to land. Nor with every sadness and misfortune. You should acknowledge it, but don’t have a long face and land into depression either. After all, it is impermanent. After all, it changes. After all, it is emptiness. So why torture the individual so much with joy and sadness. When little effects swing the moods so much, that might not be good for you. I don’t mean physically or mentally, but I mean spiritually. It is very important to be a stable person. If you go “zoom zoom” all the time, you become more moody. If you become good moody, fine; but then when you go up to being good moody, then you have the opposite side and you come down. A little stability is recommended through the Buddha’s teaching. I shouldn’t say much, because I don’t know anything about psychology. So here you have great psychologists and psychiatrists and all that, and who am I talking here? But Buddha always recommended not so much mood swings; but we do. And each and every one of us who has that swing in mood will have a lot more suffering and always shedding tears and even happy, they shed tears too. A little bit of stability provides a good foundation for mental development, honestly. I don’t mean that emotional people cannot obtain enlightenment. But it helps.

Q. Please elaborate on the transformational process.

A. As I said already, embrace suffering. When you embrace suffering, literally suffering does not come to you. But in your visualization or imagination, you are accepting everything. By accepting that much suffering, as I said already, it builds up a little bit of openness of mind and a little bravery in the mind, as well as giving the opportunity to see where these sufferings are coming from and what is their cause. And now, if I don’t like them, what can I do not to have them? The verses we read in the afternoon, when this thing happens this thing happens; realize this is caused by this; and from now on don’t do this; from now on one should do this. These are the tips and techniques of transforming suffering into a practice. This is what we can do at this moment. But if everything’s okay, and everything goes well for us, then even the Bodhisattva at that level, even the suffering doesn’t come literally on us. And when you think about accepting all the suffering, other people’s suffering is free and they experience wonderful joy. Appreciate that joy. And all of those things give us an opportunity to do something we don’t normally think of. That’s a very positive activity of building positive karma and is itself a transformation of suffering in the path. I wish I could openly speak to you about how to make the transformation of attachment or sexual energy into spiritual path, which myself I don’t know, so how can I tell you that? The bottom line may get to that. The Reverend Rainwater Sunshine may have a technique for that.

Q. I found that my heart has been opened by the experience of this weekend teaching. How do I keep the feeling of the open heart as I go back into my regular life?

A. Keep on thinking about the subjects we talked about. If you want to look at it a little mystically, you should meditate on it. The truth is, think about the subject and read about it and see the relevance in your own life, where it is coming from, whether it is measuring anywhere. And even take one single point and try to correct it and try to change. That way, you are not only keeping your open heart but making a hell of a difference.

Even though you don’t pray or say mantras or anything, just think about the points we raised here and see how it suits you. In the verses we read, they say “don’t do it,” and try to avoid it, and when this result is happening it is coming from that action. Recognize that your particular action was the cause of that pain, and try to change it. As the verse says, “From now on I should do this, from now on I don’t search other’s faults.” These are the real tips and techniques. Keep on doing this, and it will make a difference in your life. The purpose of opening your heart is to make a difference, not only in this life, but in future lives. Our own future lives are in nobody’s hands but our own. Buddha cannot tell you, “Go to hell.” Buddha cannot tell you, “Go to heaven.” It is only our own deeds that makes a difference. Remember, the most important thing is that each one of us is responsible for ourselves. I am responsible for me, and you are responsible for yourself. That’s why whether I want good or bad depends on me. If you want good or bad, it depends on you. He wants good or bad, and it depends on him. She wants good or bad, and it depends on her. This is our responsibility. Karma is nothing but this responsibility.

According to the Buddha, karma runs our lives. We create our own karma. Buddha does not create the karma for us; we create karma. If Buddha creates karma for us, Buddha should have created all of the best karma for us because of his love and compassion. But he could not, so it is our responsibility. So making a difference to our life or lives is through the karmic system. It’s just like the Four Noble Truths, with two sets of cause karmic things and two karmic results. One is suffering, one is joy; and one is negative, and one is positive. Both results depend on the cause. To avoid suffering, work against the cause of suffering. To gain positive cessation, that is the path. This—wherever we go, whatever we do— is solid fundamental principle. No one can skip this. No one is beyond this. They cannot go underneath or sideways or anywhere. This is exactly how our life and our lives function. Knowing how this contributed to our self is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching and message. Seeing this will make a difference to our life and lives, and that is the best way to help ourselves. This is the essence of Dharma. This is the essence of spiritual practice. It is the best way to help ourselves—nothing more, nothing less. Magical, mystical things are wonderful stories. They happened; they are true. The magical, mystical stories will tell you about changes happening at the last minute. But how can that be? Without a cause, there can never be a result. Anything—whatever it may be, everything—is dependent on this. That’s why we have the joys, we have the freedom, we have the opportunity to make a difference. Only you as one individual can do that. No one else can do it, not collectively. Collective karma is there, but making a difference is really an individual issue. That’s the best we can do for ourselves, and hopefully other things may materialize here and there, left and right. That’s really how life goes, spiritually. That’s my understanding, and my firm commitment and belief, and the functioning of my life.

Q. If everything is related to the law of karma and cause and effect, and we are all responsible for our own individual lives, why should we create or do, for example, the Tara prayers? We shouldn’t have to do that because we are responsible for ourselves.

A. Good question, thank you. The answer to that is that we are providing the cause. Praying is providing a cause. Praying is seeking support. Praying works very well. It is one of the causes we create. That’s why we should pray.

Q. This afternoon when you were speaking to the group of new guests, I asked a question about the difference between Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, and you had said it is a very dangerous practice. It’s like riding a tiger. What do you mean?

A. Vajrayana is extremely effective and wonderful and great. But if you are not ready, it is like jumping on a tiger. You don’t know where you are going to land. You can ride the tiger; the tiger will carry you. Nagarjuna used this metaphor to describe emptiness. But I used it to describe Vajrayana practice. Vajrayana is great, but it has advantages as well as dangers. There are a lot of safety precautions as well. It’s great, but we need to know what to do with it. The danger here is like what we said earlier. Vajrayana uses the negative emotions and turns them into a path. But if you don’t know how to use it, you will be completely overpowered by negative emotions. Instead of whatever little gain we have made previously, they will all be washed away and overpowered. That is the danger we are talking about. It’s not a physical danger but a spiritual danger.

Part 8 (Day 4, Sun May 28, 2007)

Good morning everybody. We are meeting here today on the last session of this particular weekend. When we look back at what we did, we talked on Friday night briefly trying to introduce you to the common with the lower level. On Saturday, mostly we covered common with the medium level here and there.

On Sunday, mostly we talked about the Mahayana level. We also talked about developing both relative and absolute Bodhimind. Those of you who are familiar with these terms know that when we say relative and absolute, there is normally a lot of terminology confusion. Even in Tibet, relative bodhimind or kunjok sangu is the true bodhicitta. When you say absolute, that refers to absolute reality, which is emptiness. So emptiness is wisdom connected to bodhimind, and that is called absolute bodhimind. So the difference between relative and absolute bodhimind is whether there is the influence of seeing emptiness combined with it or not.

So therefore, relative bodhimind becomes true bodhimind, and absolute bodhimind becomes wisdom-oriented bodhimind. For those of you are familiar with this, you know it; those of you who haven’t heard this before, that is the difference between absolute and relative bodhimind. When bodhimind is influenced by emptiness, then truly the essence of emptiness is compassion. The essence of compassion becomes wisdom. That is really what we are looking for: the combination of wisdom and compassion. Wisdom, in essence, is compassion; compassion, in essence, is wisdom. This is the real essence path that Mahayana practices share with us, and that lead the individual to the five paths: the paths of accumulation, action, seeing, meditation, and no more learning, the last referring to Buddha.

At the path of accumulation, the essence work at this level puts the major emphasis on accumulating merit, as well as purification. That is why it is called the path of accumulation—you are accumulating merit. It’s almost like saying “good karma,” though that’s not technically right. The bottom line is that you accumulate positive deeds as much as possible—that is good karma. Creation of good karma is our major effort right now, as well as purification, side by side. For the creation of good karma, you have the seven-limb practice. As I say often, the seven-limb practice is a daily practice for everybody, which means junior or senior, young or old, man or woman, kid or crone—I really was thinking retired senior in their 90s and 100s. It is for everybody. Remember that if you look into Buddha’s words called Prayer of Good deeds, it is essentially the seven-limb practice, and it is so detailed. Then you go into any ritual anywhere you go, and people do Avalokiteshvara prayers, Tara prayers, and if you look anywhere, in essence it is the seven-limb prayer. You find it not only Tibetan tradition, but Chinese traditions as well. They may not have seven exactly, but they may have three or four. And not only Chinese Buddhists, but Taoists do that too. For me there is a big issue with whether Taoists are Buddhists or not, but that is neither here or there. They have beautiful ceremonies and art but it is in essence they are doing the seven- limb practice. As Shantideva says, the Buddhas taught for eons what the easiest way we can benefit people, and that is where the seven- limb prayer came from originally. The real necessity of accumulating merit is collected in it.

Even In our case, if you look at the Ganden Lha Gyema, every verse is part of the seven limbs. If you look at the Lama Chopa, each verse three or four of the seven limbs. Even here (in Jewel Heart prayer book) you only have seven lines. You can shrink it for somebody to say in one minute or it can be detailed and practiced for ten hours a day. Whatever you do, it is all valuable. If you look at the previous masters, they did everything they could. For those of us who can chant 18 or 20 hours a day, you can do that. But those of us who want to finish in one minute, we can do these verses. You can contract or expand them as needed.

The most important point is not the deeds or words but the mind. Mind here is meditation through the way of visualizing. That’s why Tsongkhapa always said meditation has two components—concentration and analyzing. Without analyzing, how can there be meditation? Just sitting blank for a period of time, the individual can train the mind, that will give you harmony and pleasure, but that is not going to get any individual anywhere. Even if you look at the seven-limb prayer here, the first verse begins with respect. We call it prostration. That also has to have thought associated with it. Simply knocking the hand doesn’t show any respect. Here, respect is remembering the qualities of the subject to whom you are prostrating: their qualities of body, speech and mind, their activities, their intelligence mind, their compassion, their wisdom, and admiring that and acknowledging that, respecting that, and seeking that quality for ourselves—that is prostration. When you say, “I bow down in body, speech, and mind, what does that mean? You take the highest part of body and touch to the lowest part of your body. And through speech, it is shown through praising--admiring the quality that makes us praise. Then mind, as I said earlier, it is a matter of admiring and apprec iating and seeking that quality. Though the word may be short, the mind needs to be busy, and it is capable. When you are well trained…as I say many times, there are some early Tibetan teachers who can meditate on the whole Lam Rim. The moment you put the leg in the stirrup of a horse and jump on the horse, in that short amount of time they can meditate on the whole Lam Rim. This is the capability of our minds.

I think I mentioned this to you some time, but when I was a kid, in my monastery, Nyare Khamtsen, the biggest lama was Dyab Rimpoche. Dyab Rimpoche had two [assistants?], the Bigger One and The Small One. It used to be two incarnate lamas in a one incarnate lama institute. Then five or six generations later, they had a fight and separated, they went to caves for years. They did all sorts of mean things. That is because of human nature. Sometimes people think that old Tibet was a real romantic, compassionate society; No. Earlier Tibetan teachers refused to teach martial arts to the Tibetans because on the one hand we were quite barbaric. If Buddhism had not come to Tibet, this would be a land of true barbarians. People would not hesitate to stick a knife in someone’s stomach during a fight. But even Buddhism has so much difficulty influencing people. It took 1000 years to get people to be kind and soft and gentle. Luckily, the Tibetans don’t have a nuclear bomb. Otherwise they would be throwing bombs from the Himalayas on down. So don’t romanticize Tibet. But at the same time, because of the influence of the Dalai Lama and great many teachers, the people are kind and compassionate and good.

Then there was Chungza Rimpoche, which means Small One. He was a wonderful person, and when I was a kid, Kyabje Ling Rimpoche told me he is a living Yamantaka, but that when you talk to him was a bit difficult to talk to. Chungza Rimpoche would say mantras all the time. He would make his mala go all the time, moving more than one bead at a time. I was sitting next to him and I was trying to listen to what he was saying, and he notice d I was trying to hear. I put my ear next to his mouth and he yelled “Om Mani Padme Hum!” Later, Chungza Rimpoche passed away in 1959, and I asked Radur Rimpoche who was there, what was Chungza Rimpoche mantra? He said, “Yes, I heard he screamed Om Mani Padme Hum in your ear.” I said, “Yes.” He said the mantra was “Om Yama Raza…”, Yamantaka’s mantra. He did millions of them. He didn’t depend on seeing the words. He did mental recitation. He did millions of them. That’s why he grabbed any beads on his mala at once. When he was cremated, a piece of his skull came out of his fire and landed on the roadside, and you could read part of the mantra: Yama Raza.

The mind is capable of doing this. We have to use our minds in that way. Visualizations and imagining should be there. If you just say only words, and one doesn’t back it up with thought, it doesn’t do any good. This applies to all your sadhana practices, and to all your pujas. Words are not the answer. If you can’t do it properly, though, saying the words will help you keep your commitment. Other than that, words alone are not that great. But visualizing is more important. And numbers are not that great, with the exception of V ajra Yogini. Thoughts are absolutely great. Why is Vajra Yogini? Because in order to take rebirth in pure land of Vajra Yogini, saying mantras is especially important. Other than that, numbers are not so important. Thoughts and saying prayers and mantras together is important.

The next most important thing is purification. You may say, “I regret all my negativities, etc.” But you have to use the apply powers as well:

The power of base: generate refuge and bodhimind.

The power of regret is most important thought we have to generate.

If the power of regret is there, the power of non-repeating will automatically follow. If the power of regret is not there, no matter how many times you say “I will not repeat,” it will not do any good. Say regret with honesty from bottom of heart.

The power of antidote action: With antidote action, prayers are the best antidote available.

These are the four powers for purification.

The next important thing is to rejoice. Rejoicing in other peoples’ great activities has been done everywhere, wherever you can see. We have countless examples from the Buddha’s own activities. The Buddha’s discovery of reality; how effective and helpful it is. Even after 2600 yrs later, how, in a place like this. And then the great many other religious leaders, everybody who promoted kindness and compassion and non-violence. You can rejoice in all of them, in all of their traditions and their deeds. And even in the present times, there are living human beings we encounter such as His Holiness or Nelson Maneala, or Mother Theresa. There is no shortage of things to rejoice in, but the problem is we don’t take the time to do it. Whenever you rejoice, the act of rejoicing will probably give you if not equal, at least half of the positive karma that person generated. This is very quick way to get rich in the karmic field: The quickest way to get rich. The Buddhas did not choose this for no reason within the seven limbs. The most important of the seven limbs is purification, respect, and rejoicing. Then the dedication of course.

So that’s what you do every day. Since you have spent the weekend here, what you need to take home; you can do this. And object of refuge, whatever you want to use is fine as long as they are enlightened beings. Do not worship tree gods and fire gods and water gods and river gods--these sorts of spirits. If you do so, you may have temporary help here and there, but other than that, in the long run it will be harmful. It will increase negativities. There are a number of Buddhist stories along these lines. At time Buddha died, seven regents came after him. I think the 5th or 6th one, during that period that he had encounter with Yama, the devil. I think he overpowered the devil and the devil committed to him, “I will do whatever you want to do,” and he said, “The first thing I want to see, you have the capability, show me what Buddha looked like. So devil showed himself in form of the Buddha, and immediately the regent prostrated. But the Buddha figure said, “Remember, I am the devil.” So if you worship the devil, you can get in trouble. In the time of Atisha, there was a shepherd, who went to a mountain and he would offer milk to a naga who remained in a spring. That naga was quite happy and he appeared to the shepherd one day and said, “What can I do for you? I want to do something for you.”

“I need some wisdom,” the shepherd said.

“That I can give you,” said the naga.

So the naga gave him the power to site on the long grass and cushion and naga told him how to med and gave him some wisdom—how to treat nagas, and what to give them, and what pujas you can do. Finally Locho Rinchen Sompo went to there he was sitting, and Locho Richen did three prostrations and the guy fell off the cushion. So Rinchen Sompo edited all he did; some of them were useful, so he fit them into the commentaries. He added,”If you worship nagas or spirits this is a problem.” But take refuge to anyone who is fully enlightened; doesn’t have to be a Buddha, although we do give many reasons why Buddha, why Dharma, why sangha.

Then, generate bodhimind—unconditioned, unlimited love and compassion is bodhimind. Remember, bodhimind does not just grow like this, just by saying “for the benefit of all beings I will obtain Buddhahood, for which I will do this and that.” That is a substitute. That is not permanent. It is a temporary substitute. The real bodhimind is developed through either seven-stage or the exchange stage of mind, or a combination of the seven stages and the exchange stage, the eleven-stage development. And giving and taking techniques: tong len. First, love-compassion; then give-and-take techniques. When you are breathing in and out, with the breath as your basis, you take in all the sufferings of people. You are giving the virtuous things, and taking the negativities. It’s not giving your own negativities and taking the virtues of others. When you do it correctly, that will force the mind to develop love stronger. Otherwise, if you are just sitting there saying “love love love,” that will not go well. Use give-and-take so your love becomes stronger, and your compassion becomes stronger. It is not just an exercise. The level you do, whether it is seven-stage or exchange stage, brings love and compassion. Thereby, the special mind will come as a result. Without that, we say, “I take total responsibility,” we do that artificially right now. It doesn’t become strong when we say it because In our heart of hearts we have hesitations. But it will become a true statement by the power of give-and-take technique. You may want to take your own future sufferings first before you try to take other people’s sufferings so the mind becomes accustomed and you don’t have rejection.

Sometimes the mind can give a very strong rejection. Sometimes if that happens, you have to stop for a while. That is why you have to move very gently. Do not force anything, any visualization or anything. This applies the same way when you treat your mind, just as you treat your children. If you try to force them to do something, you will have a strong rejection, and that can lead them to do some crazy things because they have no power other than that. Their power is limited to hurting themselves, and they indulge in something to try to register their displeasure to their parents. Our mind in the same way: we can register displeasure to ourselves. It can register something very crazy, and by the time you realize it, it is a little too late.

That’s why you always need to apply focus with gentleness. When you have gentleness, softness, and kindness, and someone wants to harm you, it is not easy to harm you. I tell you all the time the ghost story of this Kadampa master who is always crying. The local people tried to finish him off, because the thought they would overpower him. They had a ghost meeting. One agenda item came up. “We had better take care of that meditator, or he may become quite powerful.”

So someone volunteered: “I will do it because it is my territory.” He went there, and the meditator was crying. “Why is he crying,” the ghost thought.

The man said, “I am worried about thee ghosts and how they are suffering all the time.”

The ghost went away, and came back three times, and always he was crying. Next meeting, he reported, “I couldn’t do it; he was crying.”

The leader said, “I’ll do it myself.”

So the leader went there saw same thing. The leader couldn’t throw him off the ledge either. The meditator was known as the Long-Face Geshe—not emotional geshe but long-face geshe, always crying. So even that meaning harm, when you are feeling sad about them, they can’t harm you. Remember that compassion and love is the best protection. “Hum Hum Phat Phat” doesn’t destroy much, but love and compassion do. When you encounter a ghost, don’t try to frighten with them “Hum Hum Phat Phat.” Love and compassion is always the best.

So now I will read a few verses here. Where are we? 48.

Verse 48

Since that’s the way things are, I’ve seized the enemy!

I’ve caught the thief who steals and deceives with stealth.

Aha! There is no doubt that it’s this self-grasping indeed;

This charlatan deceives me by impersonating me.

[comment]

Here you say, “Now I got you!” That is the enemy. Now we have talked about so many disadvantages of self-cherishing in previous verses. By doing this, these are not just made up stories, they are true realities. Since this is the real truth, now I recognize the enemy—“I caught you red-handed here! Now I have caught the thief who comes and hides behind me and steals things; I have caught you red-handed.” Until now, I did not recognize that the true enemy is the self-cherishing within me. Today, because of this kind teaching of Dharma and the kindness of the gurus I now recognize you for who you are—my dear enemy.

Honestly! My dear enemy. Just like a thief comes hidden in the night and steals things, this self-cherishing also hides—hides behind some beautiful picture. He says, “Oh I care for you, I’m the wonderful one, I am not a bad person, I am kind and wonderful and this and that.” Behind that, this one [self-cherishing] hides completely behind this. “Why me? I’m not a bad person; why me?” Because self-cherishing is completely the other side of the coin. Today, you say, “I recognize you.”

Not only hiding behind this, and pretending to be me. It is identity theft. It is self-cherishing and ego-grasping, but it is true identity theft because me has no power. Me doesn’t get to say anything. Self-cherishing and ego grasping is always the emissary of Me, or not even the emissary, but overtaking me and fulfilling my place and my functions. So Me wants joy and happiness. Me doesn’t want to hurt anybody. My ego and self-cherishing wants to have a porcupine type of behavior. My ego and self-cherishing says “pre-emptive.” It’s not the American public who wants preemptive action, but the American ego says this. Just like this, my ego and self-cherishing pretend to be me and steal my identity and do all this. Now you say, “I have caught you, you thief, who has stolen my identity.”

Ema Dan Tsin…: How do you way in English? Oh. Aha! Now, here, I have no doubt this is you, my ego and self-cherishing. These are the two we described earlier: the master and emissary, the mister and missus, lord and lady within us. This is self-cherishing and ego-grasping sitting in there because they are all the same principle, same purpose, same goal; this is the true enemy within us.

Now the next verse will be…

[Mark Magill reads 49 through 52 in English]

Verse 49

Now, O Yamantaka, raise the weapon of karma over his head—…

Verse 50

The king of spells who confounds the enemy’s mind;…

Verse 51

Summon him, summon him, wrathful Yamantaka!...

Verse 52

Hum! Hum! Great meditation deity, display your miraculous powers; …

[comment on Verses 49-52]

The first verse is asking: Because of the following reason, the bad karma of my enemy, self-cherishing, in order to make this not exist completely, I urge the great wrathful Yamantaka. Wrathful--you remember, very fearless, very angry to self-cherishing, very angry to the ego—I urge you. Lama Dharmarakshita urges his yidam, Yamantaka, the red Yama, saying: “All your hand implements with all your weapons, let them circle on the head of this enemy of mine. Chop them into pieces. Don’t let any single piece remain there. Just turn them into dust. Destroy them completely. Not only you destroy them, not only you circle them, but you circle them with wrathfulness. You have two legs the two legs of two truths.”

Here it refers to the two legs of bodhimind--absolute bodhimind and relative bodhimind. Relative bodhimind is the right leg, which is slightly drawn in. The left leg is absolute bodhimind, which is slightly stretched out. And also your two eyes staring are the eyes of relative and absolute bodhimind. The two are equally powerful, at an equal level. It’s not one eye bigger than the other. Both are staring at the enemy, the enemy of self-cherishing and ego. You also give your fangs of four powers—four fearless powers. If you have mantra power, which makes the enemies get confused and circle around; this is also referring to that. This one makes me run throughout samsara. They give me sword in hand, the sword of ego-grasping so make me run throughout and hurt everyone else—that is why, running throughout the forest of samsara. Make me run with that weapon known as ego-grasping and self-cherishing, and which makes me and everybody lost. So the urging to Yamantaka is: Kukje! Kukje! Great Yamantaka. Gobje! Gobje! Hit! Hit! Hit with relative bodhimind! Hit with absolute bodhimind! It is saying Hit! Hit!

Punje Do: Hit with force—morally strike at the heart of the butcher and enemy, Ego! It is true that this is false conception that makes us lost—that means me and all others. So you say strike at that! Strike! Strike! Absolute and relative bodhimind.

Da! Da! Refers to the enemy, ego. Da! Da! In Tibetan. It is the enemy, self-cherishing. Destroy their heart. Mariya! Mariya! means Kill! Kill! These two enemies, false conceptions, two enemies remaining in the heart of us—kill these two. Hum! Hum! Double “Hum” means union. But I’m not here to explain Hum. It refers to absolute and relative bodhimind: Hum Hum. Really, this huge enemy is the dirty bag full of ego and dirty bag of self-cherishing. These two bags, you should destroy them.

Dza! Dza! (All double exclamations refer to relative and absolute bodhimind.) This means “Control it! Overpower it!” Don’t let them get away easily. Put them away nicely.

Phat! Phat! Means “Control it! Control it! Crush it! Crush it!” Phat! Phat! means control this one, control that one, and release us. We get freed if our ego-grasping and self-cherishing are controlled. That’s why Phat! Phat!

Shik! Shik! Again, all doubles are relative-absolute. Shik! Shik! Means, “Release the individual from the knot of the ego and self-cherishing. Untangle it.” Shik! Shik! Means “Untie it! Untie it!”

Verse 53

Appear before me, O Yamantaka, my meditation deity!...

[comment]

Again you are calling Yamantaka. I call you once again; I have more things to talk to you about, and more things t urge you. This enemy of mine is making me suffer tremendously in this karmic samsaric mud, and locking me into negative karma and delusions and five poisoned fields, so please cut it, cut it now. Here you say Shak! Shak! Cut! Cut! and Kill! Kill! Both doubles refer again to absolute and relative bodhimind.

Verse 54

Even though he leads me to misery in the three lower realms…

[comment]

This enemy is making me suffer countlessly and continuously in the three lower realms. Still , I don’t learn how to be cautious and to be free of him. This is because of the enemy who pretended to be me and who has stolen my identity—so Strike! Strike! at that false conception. Strike at the heart of the enemy, the self-cherishing, and the enemy ego, the self-grasping.

So the rest of this I have to stop and read as oral transmission. I wish I could go through this in detail; they give you detailed explanations of absolute and relative bodhimind, but we will be talking about the rest in Ann Arbor.