Archive Result

20070630GRALSR16 transcriber Christine Brennan

evening – mostly Q and A

[short mandala offering]

I want to continue from this morning. So this morning we have briefly mentioned about the concentration and I’d like to emphasize it a little. As I mentioned, whether you are focusing on Buddha or focusing on subject of mind or anything; what is the most important thing here, if you are Buddha and space in front of you it is right in front of you in the air, lotus and mood cushion, lotus and moon cushion then lama Buddha Sakyamuni pure golden color, one face two hands, sitting cross legged vajra style. So that is the focal point. Then focusing by using two mental faculties, such as remembering and alertness. Remembering will make sure you remember the alertness will make sure whether you have any obstacles such as the wandering mind or sinking.

So then with the mind of obtaining perfect shamata one has to focus or meditate. As I said earlier, there are 5 problems and 8 solutions. Now most of them are laziness, problems of laziness.

One May not like to focus, one may not like to meditate because it’s not very.... Anyway, it’s a little better in the West, it’s becoming fashionable to meditate. So in good old Tibet it’s not so much fashionable, so people have laziness but how this laziness has to be overcome?

Laziness has to be overcome by seeing the quality meditation, by seeing the benefits of meditation, having a faith in meditation and that is #1, seeing the benefits, having faith in meditation. Then a willingness of putting efforts then comes enthusiasm and because of tall these three: like, faith, willingness, enthusiasm brings a result. That result will be the joy we are talking about, physical and mental joy. That is that is the how you handle it

Wandering mind or sinking, both actually. What is happening is the meditator forgot the subject on which you are meditating. Actually we call it lost or whatever.

You forgot it so that is why you have to remember it when you forgot you have to remember it. So if you forgot you have to remember, what else can you do?

So remember it, and then when it is wandering or sinking, whatever, and then you need to know. You need alertness because you need to know. If you don’t have alertness then it won’t matter whether you are snoring or dreaming or whatever, even then you are thinking you are meditating so that is goes off.

Then the next problem is when there is problem you don’t utilize the solution. That is problem 1 and problem 2 will be when you’re are focusing you try to utilize the solution and that disturbs the focusing itself. When you are not focusing you don’t apply the solution, when you are focusing you try to apply the solution that of remembrance and likeness and you shifted your focus it goes on that and that is the problem

So with this adjustment of awareness, alertness and whenever you recognize there is a problem and then apply the solution and you do not apply the solution when there is no problem,because then the solution will become a problem by trying to apply it. So by making adjustments and focusing.

Then there was a question earlier saying somebody told me ‘when I was meditating I thought I have to be static, but when you are talking about it you’re talking about live living.’ So, I’m not emphasizing anything to be static or not alive, but however every meditation, everything whatever you do it’s to be life. It’s got to be alive everything life you know? Because you know if it is not alive it’s not right.

Alive doesn’t mean changing and moving, and you know that is objected. If you have a sitting Buddha and if you are trying to think you’re injecting life into it and sitting Buddha decides to get up and walk or walking Buddha who decided to sit down or sitting Buddha who goes to sleep and sleeping Buddha will get up and walk, these are problems again. So life, but not changing the movement or anything. That is probably the clarification and needed to be given. So this is briefly talking about concentration.

I also forgot you must be having questions, right? No questions today? Ok

So I will throw it open to the thing because there’s no selected questions so if you have any questions...Yes, Vivian, wait one minute.

Audience: Rimpoche, I actually I have a question that my group had and I forgot to give it, but I have it here.

Rimpoche: All right, you read it to me.

Audience: Please explain patience and the emptiness of self and phenomena. I think it was when you mentioned yesterday about the third type of patience and a member of my group wanted to know if you could expand on that a little bit.

Rimpoche: What do you mean third type of patience?

Audience: When you were talking about the ....

Rimpoche: Oh, three patiences, we talked yesterday. So what they, I forgot. Let me ask you.

neh je leh chim ney yem beh so wah do neh tah len geh lah suh beh chu lah

gyen doz su bah

The third one is knowing the true emptiness, right? The emptiness on self and emptiness on phenomena. That’s what it is, the one. That I probably will deal with tonight because the wisdom aspects I have not done yet. So I’m going to tell you today the... we don’t have anything else besides the skit right? Yeah, nothing there, right? Ok.

So I have a slightly different thing tonight here, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to talk to you a little bit and I’m going to go to 8:30 or 8:15 or something like that and then around wherever it comes around about that time we’re going to take a break. We’ll take a break and that break is a very short break. When you come back you have the skit of 30 minutes or 40 minutes or whatever it is and the skit is going to be there. Then after the skit you have another pee-pee break and then we come back, or maybe you want some coffee or something and then you’ll come back. Then I have to talk to you on the rest of this thing, so it could be a little late tonight. So please be prepared, it could be 11:30 or 12:00, it could be that late, so please be prepared in that way. Kathy, you’re raising your hand....

Kathy: We have two issues Rimpoche. One is we have to make our special arrangements for parents and children. The other is that the skit be in the middle it involves...

Rimpoche: I’ll handle that. That’s no problem.

Kathy: Ok, and then just one other thing. Wherever you want to do...that other piece be ...

Rimpoche: Ok, that we can do at the end. About midnight or 1:00 in the morning. Ok.

Kathy: But then how to handle the children?

Rimpoche: Children I have no idea. It is a, you know, I mean this is one thing we’re happening. In India[?] it happens every day, ok? So that’s what they say Lama supposed to starting teaching at 7:00 supposed to finish at 8:00 it happens to be 3:00 in the morning. It is regular thing, so we’re happening only one time It’s like in the blue moon so I...

Kathy: I may have to then ask some of the parents, some of the parents who have older children it’s fine, but the little ones are going to have to go in the either ....they’re putting them down to bed you know it’s.... supervise the children, and we can’t ask the child care to do it.

Rimpoche: What?

Kathy: So parents have to resolve that.

Rimpoche: I certainly will not interfere with your work. I’m just joking. Ok. This is how I think, because I still have to talk about this wisdom aspects a little bit and then followed by this four other paramitas followed by the vajrayana so if I try to finish in 1 hour all of those it’s not going to work well.

So since you don’t have early morning Tara meditation and so you can relax and have a little later and although the breakfast they’ll serve you at 8:00, right? So then we try to have the long Tara, longevity initiation of Tara around about 9:30 or something tomorrow morning.

But tonight you have to give me a little time. I’ll try not to make it that late, ok? But better tell you, plan to go until 12:00 so and if you finish by 10:00 or 11:00 you’ll be happy. So but plan it to go until today and so, yes, children are an issue I’m sorry. Well, I think, Kathy would you mind you take care of it separate little rather than talking in here, ok? That part, ok? You can get up and talk to them quietly or do whatever you want to do, ok? So thank you.

So this is what I though, because otherwise tomorrow initiation comes, right? Then you have, originally I was not planning the initiation actually, then somebody said would you please do the White Tara initiation, I said ok. So you know when you say ok, then you get into trouble. So that’s how it happened. So which means you have to give me a couple of hours in the evening, that’s really what’s happening because you know then again I was talking they say well 1:00 and then you have to get out of here and all that so there’s a deadline so that’s why. In the morning you’re not going to find much time.

So we have the night and then some people have to go because of the children. They have to go and look after them. I mean there’s the same thing and you can get the tapes, you can get the information but you can’t leave the children alone, that’s the reality, ok? I’m sorry for that.

Ok, so we talked about the, yeah, the question, right. So the wisdom aspects of what is it called:

19:57

chu lah nye toh geh suh bah

True understanding of dharma, patience of true understanding of dharma. That is actually nothing but the wisdom aspects of it. So this you know interlinking the six paramitas are always there so that that’s what it is, ok?

Any other questions? Dimitri?

Audience: On Friday night, or whenever the first orientation was, Sunday night, you had said something about luck or lucky karma, I forget the context, but you said something about generating luck or something with the word luck and I was thinking, you know because the qualities of karma, the third and fourth are that I will never have an experience for which I have not created the cause and I will always meet with the results of past actions, so I was sort of confused about luck because luck means that it’s kind of like a random thing that I haven’t created the cause for it.

Rimpoche: Maybe I’m using the wrong terminology, but luck you know karma, one who has been lucky and that is good karma.

Audience: So it’s just positive karma basically.

Rimpoche: Positive karma, but every positive karma, there’s something called lucky karma, which is not necessarily giving you a good result of liberation or freedom from samsara. It’s not delivering the normal learning of theravaden level or mahayana level but giving you a good life and all these sort of things are called lucky karma too, ok? Thank you.

Any other questions, anybody? Ok, Jenna.

Audience: I have a question about generating equanimity because, maybe it’s because I live in New York, but I keep thinking that there’s a lot of people who don’t have my best interests at heart.

Rimpoche: What?

Audience: I said, I don’t believe that everyone in the world has my best interests at heart. So I can see that I could theoretically generate compassion for Dick Cheney, but how does one generate compassion and yet not get taken advantage of?

Rimpoche: If you generated compassion, actually you are taking advantage of it, it’s not that person taking advantage of you. Generating compassion does not necessarily mean ‘yes, sir.’ No. You can really generate compassion, but while generating compassion you can give a hard time to people. You can really give a hard time.

I just did to Carla, and I just gave a hard time to Carla I tried to threaten to throw her out of the teaching and did all kinds of things and she thought I was joking and in half way I’m joking but in another half way I’m very serious. So I gave her a punishment and she said gladly happy and when given punishment, she said ‘that’s good, I’m happy.’ So I said, oh maybe I have to change the punishment.

So anyway, so you can do all this. You can pretend to be angry, you can shout, you can scream, do all that but truly don’t get angry. Truly have compassion. We are capable of doing that. Doesn’t that sound funny?

I must say, no, I shouldn’t say it, but it’s very hard for me to get angry. Whatever the reason may be, you know whatever. When I was young my colleges and peers will sort of know that this man never gets angry, but then you know I have to pretend to be angry especially when I’m in India. I’ll scream and yell at the top of my lungs to the gardeners and cleaners and all that, if not they take their salary but they never show up. So you have to keep on yelling at them and they will do something. So almost like sometimes you may laugh while yelling, you know? So you have to be careful not to do that. So that’s what you can do, there’s nothing wrong with that, ok?

You know compassion, yes. That doesn’t mean you have to submit to whatever they want. You use intelligence otherwise you have compassion and then they tell you whatever some very negative thing you have to do, so then you can’t do it. That’s the wrong thing to do. So you have to protect yourself. That doesn’t mean you don’t have compassion. Sometimes you have compassion and that’s why you scream.

I told you my experience of hanging up and chili burning and that may be temporary condition of little anger, but it is definitely no anger. It is the compassion, and it did not harm me it helped me.

One time, you know I’m good at memorizing, somehow, as a kid something happened, I mean it was half accident. Half accident, you know the Tibetan books sometimes there are two little pieces of wooden planks to keep the books together. One time one of the teachers, something happened either he’s threatening to hit me with the plank sideways, or then I jumped up and he tried to threaten down. I really got it over here and I’d been seeing, when I look at the sun I’d been seeing two or three suns for seven days or eight days or something, but it doesn’t damage me anything. So it has no effect. So these things do happen, you know. Anyway.

Ok, any other questions? Yes, Sean Ike?

Audience: Yeah, just a quick clarification on something from a few days ago between wrath and anger. Now, and that was part of the being upside down story too. Well, I see wrath as having a.....

Rimpoche: You know, Sean, before you even ask the question, you have to know: I don’t know English. Honestly. I don’t know English, I did not study English, I don’t know and I have, when I use the word and I have behind the word I have something to feel and understand which could be very wrong, but when I’m looking at it, when you use the word anger and that means that the person is really angry and so it’s jumping over and yelling and screaming. Wrathful means, you know, they’re not really angry but pretending to be. Like look at the Yamantanka:

29:50

je beh tah ten jeh bah zeh beh goh

The most fierce of fierce of all. Like other fierce dieties, when they see Yamantaka they drop their hand implements they get so scared, right? So that much fear, and that is wrath.

Wrathfulness where there is not a single slightness of anger or hatred at all. So I’m trying to with this mind I’m thinking, trying to use wrath and anger and I try to divide that. This is my intention, this is how I’m looking at it. It could very well be wrong language I’m using, but I’m trying to share with you this how I’ve been thinking.

Audience: Ok, because that’s exactly what I was thinking, wrath has virtue attached whereas anger is a hijacking of your.....

Rimpoche: Right. Virtue attached or not, but not anger, hatred hijacked the individual. The individual is very much in control and that’s what I am thinking the mind is completely controlled. That is how I am using my mind to use this particular word, anger, right? It could be very wrong English, but this is how I’ve been thinking.

Audience: It makes sense to me.

Rimpoche: From the language point of view I could be very wrong, you know, honestly. That’s how I am thinking, I’m using it. I’m glad you raised that question.

You know when I used that I thought about it, because there were one or two questions that came, remember, on that. So I’ve been thinking, maybe I am using the wrong language here. I meant to ask Amy or somebody but I forgot. Fine. Binda says fine. So ok. That’s how I’ve been thinking.

You remember I never learned English, so you give me those lists of names it’s very difficult to read it and then even pronounce properly. You know. I have a dentist called Dr. Hatch for years I’ve been calling him Hitachi. I didn’t read it properly there’s a ‘T’ so I’ve been calling him ‘Hitachi’ he probably thought I was joking or something. Well, he’s also very eccentric. A very eccentric dentist, so ‘Hitachi’ is fine.

And I told you before Yael I’ve been calling ‘Ya-Ya’ ‘Yo-Yo’ all decade, actually for a whole decade I’ve been calling, I just cannot say Yael or whatever. I don’t know, still, if I am saying it right or wrong, but I’m no longer saying ‘Ya-Ya’ or ‘Yo-Yo.’ Although she say’s she likes Yo-yo, but I do remember the very first day when she came to see me she’s a vegetarian and then the first thing I sent her to buy hamburger. I say ‘Ya-ya, Yo-yo please go and get me a hamburger. Do you remember that?’

Yayel: Acutally you sent Matthew.

But I sent you to buy hamburger, right?

Yayel: I was there, but you sent Matthew.

Rimpoche: Oh, Matthew went, alright. Anyway so very first day, you’re a vegetarian, right?

Yayal: At that time.

Rimpoche: Ok. Anyway so anything else? Any other questions? Alright no questions.

So about this concentrated meditation, this samadhi and shamatha we have very briefly talked here, but it is very quite well worked out as I told you this Göm transcript really gives you more than enough information than you need.

And then because of my not knowing the language and because since I don’t know the language I don’t read myself and whatever. So now I’m better, I can watch my own video and listen to it. Earlier I didn’t like that at all, so I didn’t, but now I’m a little better at listening to myself and I see what went wrong. But anything where I’m aware of it I try to correct.

Then you know we have very reliable people who are working on the transcripts and: 1) they are all, you know, really dedicated for transcribing. They do the best, they just don’t do it because they want to finish it soon; 2) the transcripts are very carefully read and edited by a number of people one after another, Hartmut takes special care.

Harmut take special care, not ‘Hartmet,’ someone else was also calling him ‘Hartmet’ and I had to correct them, who was is?

Audience: His mother.

Rimpoche: Is it? No, besides that. Somebody else was taking to me today and saying ‘Hartmet’ and I said no it’s not ‘Hartmet’ it’s ‘Hartmut.’

Anyway he takes care and then every editors that reads, and you know and Marianne Soeters, they take really good care of it, tremendously. Somehow Binda’s doing it, and Mark did great work. Thank you for each and every one of you, really. And they are good service for people and there’s some people that I didn’t even mention or just remember or forgot about it but really great. It’s carefully worked out, as careful as possible and editing the transcripts so it is reliable.

Then as far as I’m concerned the Göm more or less is sort of complete, I mean...

I think it’s somebody is trying to leave that door open and doesn’t know how to open it and even put the shoes there and then some people try to close it and you know. Somebody goes and closes, somebody comes and gets up and opens you know so this is going on here.

So anyway those transcripts are very good and very useful and we still have quite a lot of transcripts and quite a lot of them not even transcribed at all. Then some are transcribed but not read or did any sort of light editing and there are quite a lot of them there. Even in Bodhisattavacharavayrta, I think we’re on the ninth chapter. So they are available, so far what we have is up to Chapter 6 or what? Five, so but still has to come out, it’s available but it has not come out Chapter 6, 7, 8 and a certain portion of Chapter 9 too.

So there’s quite a lot of them available, so some of you could give, if you have extra time, give a hand. It would be very useful and helpful to yourself and helpful for the future people who read. A lot of people put a lot of time in, Colleen Rutherford and Allison and there are many people, I mean just to give out the names even there is a woman named Ginny eh? Janet and so many people did so much and still, I know everybody is short of time, but if you have extra time and if you can sort of come out of a little rough situation, and it would be very helpful. If something is really wrong I can change it. And then you know if not afterwards it would be difficult to change, so that’s why it would be helpful.

So what else? And then normal practice whatever we call it, you know whatever you learned here, this very, very appropriate 41:29 frey? form and you should do that if you can. It’s not a commitment, you’re not committing, I’m not giving you a commitment or anything, but if you do that meditation, either you do it completely everyday or maybe you complete once a week or at least once a month or something like that if you do it you’ll make a hell of a difference how it’s making to you, to your progress and particularly when...

You know, if everything goes right enlightenment is not that difficult. Even they say you can make it enlightenment as though you’re dealing with, you know, art pieces that you make. You can really hand make enlightenment, so in one way it looks very far but on the other hand you can make it as though you’re dealing with dough. You can make enlightenment in that way, but it is all a little efforts a little effort will really go very far way. No matter whatever we say, our biggest obstacle is laziness.

Laziness in the form of business or making a priority or any of that way. So that is the thing I think I would like to share that with you when we come back after the skit and we’re going to do the wisdom aspects afterwards.

So what I do here is we make a very short mandala offering and very short dedication and, oh thank you. And something I have forgotten the day before yesterday, I forgot to announce and people reminded me and that was in the sangha council chairs in Chicago we have a librarian, Robin Olsen and PR Advertising Kate, I know, but what did I say? No, I said something else earlier. Instead of O’Connell what did I say? O’Donnell, yeah, right. O’Connell and Membership wait a minute, this is Darren (?) Sardiga and Audio/Visual John Parrish; Sacred Space Carol Shuford, So I forgot, my apologies. That is my fault. I somehow either didn’t see it, didn’t read, or it’s not there or what happened. So anyway, I’d like to point that out and taking advantage of that.

And so we do a very short mandala after the mandala and with and I request you to all of you to leave and go to the bathroom and all this. The skit people will have an opportunity, but I need three people here to help me that will be Magdi, and Yang Ju Net, Junior the Camillo and Tony King, and Hartmut, ok?

46:07 – [Short Mandala offering Blue Book pg 7]

sa zhi po kyi jug shing me tod tram

ri rab ling shi nyin day gyen pa di

san gyey zhing du mig te ul wa yi

dro kun nam dag zhing la cho par shog

idam guru ratna mandala kim nir yata yami

kye wa nun tu yang dag lama dang

san gye dor ju jeh

dor wah chey gyen ma lu pah

dey yeh zha lah go pang nyur tob shok

We do the mandala offering dedication because we’re going to have a different activity in between.