Archive Result

20071006GRGRVaj4 Q and A Session

0:00:15.2 Audience: We divided the questions into sections and the first ones we have is on guru devotion. There are 6 questions, 3 each and the first question is:

In our group we had no difficulty seeing you on a lion throne. Is it okay to start out with a lama in his physical being, in human form, then morphing that person into a yidam?

0:00:55.3 Rimpoche: Well, good question, when you say: in our group we have no problem, that means you don’t know me (laughter). So, anyway, the second question: yes, the human physical form and moving that into a yidam form and back to human, that is normally what we talked about yesterday and I think that should be. I don’t see any difficulty or problem in there.

0:01:56.3 Audience: Is there a difference between guru devotion and oneness with the guru as in guru yoga?

0:02:10.0 Rimpoche: Oneness with the guru is at the final dissolving level. Ultimately, as I said yesterday, when you obtain enlightenment, you obtain enlightenment in the nature of the mind of the guru. So oneness is representing that. At this moment we pretend for a short period, during the dissolving period, becoming oneness. That’s a good way to start, but it is not really oneness at this moment, is it? Vajrayana is called result yana, not causal yana. Everything we talked is talking about as though everything is happening, as though everything is in the result level.

0:03:22.0 That’s why we generate ourselves into the form of a yidam. That’s why the light goes from our heart, touches everything, all impure becomes purified, the environment becomes a pure land and the inhabitants become pure beings. They all become fully enlightened and leave for their “natural abode”. All of them are imaginatively working with us because that is supposed to be the result and at the result time that is actually supposed to be happening. That’s what it is. It is really right now pretending. That is done for a short period in order to complete the practice, the ritual or meditative state or whatever.

0:04:42.0 Some people may think: what is the use? What is the difference between that and thinking I am Napoleon or Julius Caesar and visualizing that? You can definitely think that way. But the point is there is no tantra stated by Buddha on Julius Caesar or Napoleon, nor is anybody seeking the status of life of Julius Caesar or Napoleon, nor are their lives pure. There are lots of those differences. Otherwise, imagination in Vajrayana can be very wild. It can be anything. That’s why I have been saying that we need to stay within the norms, within the rules, within the tantra, within the framework, within the reasoning. Otherwise it is the same as thinking: I am Julius Caesar and running around like that. You can wear all of Caesar’s dresses and say, “I am Julius Caesar”. I don’t know, in this country you can do that. Nobody will tell you that you are not Julius Caesar. We have plenty of people going round, saying, “I am Elvis Presley.” People do that. So what is the difference?

0:06:54.9 Audience: We normally accept the need for role models and teachers. What’s the difference between seeing someone as a teacher and role model and seeing someone as a guru?

0:07:16.4 Rimpoche: Interesting question. All gurus are supposed to be teachers, but are all teachers gurus? That is the question. The definition of a guru actually, the word “guru” means “heavy”. So that means that all good gurus should be big, fat ones! (laughs). So if you find a nice thin guru that may not be heavy enough. So the definition of the guru is heavy – heavy in quality. So the teacher teaches a subject that he or she knows. A guru is supposed to provide quality. They have to have a little information too, but more quality of the individual. That’s my understanding. Yes, a teacher is an extremely respectable position. It’s great. However, there are all kinds of teachers and all kinds of gurus.

0:09:16.0 So a teacher who teaches you how to gamble for example is a teacher. A teacher who teaches you how to kill human beings is also a teacher. I am not sure if you call them that, but I think you do. They running training courses. So whether you are going to label gurus I don’t know. Probably not. A teacher who teaches you how to shoot is not necessarily loaded with quality, although that teacher may be quite heavy. Otherwise how can you get on a Harley Davidson? I am joking. So these are my thoughts. All gurus may be teachers, but all teachers may not be gurus. I see a difference that way.

0:10:41.5 It is a very reserved language. Nowadays you have different gurus even in our normal media. People talk about this and that guru or pandit. Originally pandit is a word for being well-informed and well-versed, well-learned. Now we have a lot of political pundits and things like that. Also gurus too. So it’s the usage of the language. But when Buddhism refers to gurus, the word is tön pa. We call even Buddha tönpa, who gives guidance. That is also a role model, for sure. That’s what I see. I don’t mean I am right, I could be wrong, but that’s how I look and act.

0:12:25.0 All Buddhist teachers or spiritual teachers may be qualified to be called gurus. Maybe. I don’t know if all gurus are qualified to be teachers either. I am not even sure. If you go into that detail there are some great gurus who don’t teach in terms of teachings, but who are great masters. That’s also there. I think we came to a couple of examples even this morning. So that’s just a few thoughts on that, I don’t have the answer, honestly.

0:13:20.7 Audience: There are some questions about enlightened mind and then one about karma and purification. Let’s start with enlightened mind. It has to do with what the perceptions of enlightened mind might be. When one is enlightened, then do distinctions like east and west and past and present exist? Are your perceptions located at any fixed point, similar to a normal person or is it completely different?

0:13:55.2 Rimpoche: Since I am not enlightened that is very difficult to answer. However, my understanding is that being enlightened means knowing everything. The word in Tibetan is thamche kyenpa, knowing all, everything, past, present and future, including changes that will take place and what will happen at the end, which changes are taking place and where it is going to land. They are all supposed to be known simultaneously, together. It is an almost unimaginable level of information.

0:15:14.0 I think as for east and west, if a person can’t make out what is east and west, it would be difficult to call them enlightened. At the same time I can see the point of the questioner, because being fixed on certain aspects means maybe [not reality]. And there are explanations that say: the time is only the present and things like that. In that category there is huge information available. Looking from that point the person may think that such a person only sees the present. But if he sees only the present and has no knowledge of past and future that probably cannot quality to be all-knowing.

0:16:39.1 Yes, if the present is not known that can also not qualify to be all-knowing. So I will say that enlightenment is such that it knows past, present and future as well as everything that is to be known – as it is. That makes a hell of a different: as it is. Every transition, every movement, every change they see as it is. I don’t know whether or not I answered your question, but these are my thoughts. Besides that, to imagine total enlightenment is very difficult. The most difficult point is to see the relative and absolute level together, simultaneously. That is extremely difficult. There are a lot of logical points where the mind of seeing absolute might not even see the relative at all. There are very strong logical points where the mind absorbed in the absolute has no other attention to anything else.

0:18:22.4 All of them are there. It is hard to say but the definition of enlightenment itself is total knowledge. And that should not have any exception. That is how I escape out of this question.

Otherwise, if you go deeper into that thinking, then direct perception will block indirect perception and all that. But at the enlightened level it is different. But even then, you know, even Tsongkhapa insists that the completely focused mind of an arya, while focused on absolute truth, shuts out all dualistic feelings completely. That means that relative things are not there at all. So when you go in that level it becomes difficult. The best way for me to answer is that enlightened mind knows everything and then I escape.

0:19:57.7 Audience: When speaking about karma and purification you said earlier that we have equal amounts of positive and negative karma and it’s a question of how you pick up with that? Can you explain that further?

0:20:15.2 Rimpoche: Well, everyone has good and bad karmas. Who doesn’t? Unless you are negative karma-free. Everyone of us definitely has huge amounts of good and bad karmas. True. Which is heavier? If the negative ones are heavier, the negative results will come first. Vasubandhu said,

Le kyi kor lo chi wa ne

Nye wa kam dag gom pa gar

Whichever is heavier comes first. That’s why we purify and all that, trying to make it light. If they are at equal level then the one which is closer and which we are used to, whichever we are habitually comfortable with come first. I don’t know what further explanation you need.

0:21:32.1 If you look for someone who doesn’t have negative karma it will be very difficult to find, unless that person is enlightened. We all have at one time or another, all the time, while creating positive karmas, we also create negative karmas, with or without knowledge. It is very obvious. All the positive karmas which we create are not necessarily very positive. They are always influenced by “I did it”, “I contributed”, “I am instrumental”. A lot of ego things pop up, even if you did something good. “Will people know that I did it?” “Will I get the credit? I must take credit”. All these thoughts will come. “Will somebody else take the credit? Will that be okay with me?” All these things happen. Each one of these produces its own level of negativity along with this. Even generosity. You will say, “That’s good enough, not more or less, one should do this and not that.” We do that too. That is also a limitation. There is the positive karma of generosity and limiting that by whatever, that may have valid reasons. So all of those.

0:23:41.5 These are double-edged things. If you don’t limit it, that’s also not right. So if you do it, that’s also not right. All these are there even in the case of generosity. And even in the case of morality. We do have all kinds of things and a lot of misinformation. We think of having perfect morality but in reality it could be something else. And then again, the ego affect. “Will people know that it is me who has good morality?” “How do I let them know?” All these thoughts and ideas will add up a little bit of support in everything. Even with patience you have that. Your patience may go very well, but then you think, “Oh, I must let them know that I have good patience.” Again, that thought pops up. Then it is like a drop of ink in a glass of milk.

0:25:13.5 That’s what one of my teachers used to say. You have a nice glass of milk but with 2 drops of ink, so honestly, that’s how it affects. Negative karma always comes up along with the positive karma. While you are doing it, someone else obstructs and then you get angry and get hatred and you get misinterpretation and you exaggerate it and even though you have no feeling for whatsoever and it is simple and straight forward, you accuse the person of having an agenda. All these things happen in our lives, all the time. So don’t worry about not having negative karma, we all have it a lot. Anyway, if it is equal, then whichever we are more used to that comes first.

0:26:30.6 Audience: How do you hook up with karma in the context of the capacity of human beings where we can think, communicate and make changes?

0:27:05.0 Rimpoche: How to hook up? In the old Tibetan culture we do have a culture when people are dying we make sure that there are no emotional disturbances. We make sure that people don’t die with anger or hatred or emotional disturbance. We always try to have people die while thinking about Buddha or about their spiritual teachers, while thinking about compassion – something other than jealousy or hatred or particularly fear. Also worry. Try to take away all of them as much as possible. That is the culture, because it taught us that. Some of that good old Tibetan culture is not just culture. It developed. It is the efforts of so many thousands of great teachers and masters and spiritually developed persons who have injected that into the human culture.

0:28:57.4 With the idea that Buddha says: if you die thinking of the Buddha you will not fall into lower realms. Keeping that in mind they always try to remind the individual of Buddha. The mind is somehow occupied with the quality of the Buddha, even though you may have a little more negativity than positive karma within your life, but the last minute thought that is transiting should be a positive thought that is thinking about Buddha or his qualities or something, which may help the individual the moment they come out of the dying period to be connected to a positive thought, positive emotion.

0:30:05.8 That positive emotion has a better chance of linking to positive karma. These are important points. Vice versa, if a person dies with negative thoughts, like anger, jealousy or hatred or all of those, then that may have the adverse affect of bringing those thoughts to the transition mind. That may lead to a negative karmic connection and that may put the positive karma at the backburner for one life or another or whatever it is. That is what I mean by how you link. Especially the dying period is considered very important, because that is a) very sacred and b) it is an extremely important opportunity and c) is it transitory. It is the twilight zone, honestly.

0:31:38.3 That is the twilight zone you want to have influenced by positive things. You want a positive twilight zone. If you are influenced by negative things you get a negative twilight zone, which will have an affect on the next minute of mind when you are coming out of that zone. By that time, whatever the next image of life is going to be it is somehow already connected with something, if the connection was done during that period. So that’s what I mean. How you link, how you are doing to cash out, doing the best you can, be nice, kind, gentle, everything, be the best person with the best personality that you can. That also builds the habitual pattern of linking with positive things. That is the double benefit, plus it will help to connect positive karmic things and that’s why people do prayers and we have the tradition that some teachers or lamas or Rinpoches talk to the individual dying person and lead the mind in the positive fields.

0:33:24.7 Some people call that introduction to the bardo. If there is an enlightened master, or if not enlightened, at least a master who is wise and who has clairvoyance, they may be able to tell that person, “This is what you see, this is what you feel, this is what you are going through, this is this, this is this.” But most of us have no clairvoyance and don’t see anything, so we have a set normal teaching of the dying process. According to your own judgment you talk to the person, “You may be seeing this, you may be feeling this. If you are feeling here in this way, this is the sign of dissolving the earth element, this is the sign of the water element dissolving, this is the sign of this…and in case you are seeing huge difficulties like sinking under a mudslide or landslide or being buried under heavy trees or whatever, this is a delusion. It is a hallucination. It is not reality. In reality there is pure kindness, compassion and emptiness.”

0:35:31.8 All this you bring up so that the person is uplifted from that negative effect. This is truly called bardo ngotrö – Introduction to Bardo. This is what they do, but that requires not only a qualified experience but at least someone who knows what that person is doing. Then the second level besides that is [working] from a distance. From a distance you keep up with that person. The person may or may not hear, but a distance mind helps. It is interesting.

0:36:49.0 I had a funny experience when I was in Delhi, that was many years ago. The sister of Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama’s representative in Washington, died. She was married to a Ladakhi guy. She died in Delhi, in the Ladakh Bodhi Vihara. Those were the days when I was wild and crazy and had nothing to do with Dharma, you know. But then I went there to give my condolences. And Lodi Gyari’s father asked me, “Please pray and guide and give a phowa transference, please, please, please.” I thought for a while. I couldn’t say nothing because I have that title of “Rimpoche”. So I couldn’t run away, though I wanted to. When Mr. Shekapa’s wife died before he died, she was saying, “Please pray” and cried. At that time I ran away, but this time I couldn’t run away, so I said yes and I said the Lama Chöpa completely and at that time of the verse of the phowa came up

LAM NA MA ZIN CHI WEI DHÜ JEI NA

TSEN THAP TSANG GYA LA MEI PHO WA NI

TOP NGA YANG DHAH JAR WEI DHAM NGAG GI

DHAH PEI ZHING DHU DRÖ PAR JIN GYI LOP

If my death should come before I enter the path,

Bless me to reach a Pure Land

Through applying the instructions on the five powers,

The supremely powerful method of transference to Buddhahood.

In case I don’t catch the path, if I die, by the five powers may I be led to Buddhahood. At that level I said that verse maybe 6, 7 times and I was thinking, “Who could be her guru? Will that guru’s mind be drawn to attention or not?” I remember it was in the evening as it was getting dark. Her guru happens to be Bakula Rinpoche. He was in Delhi. He was a member of Parliament at that time. He was in Delhi. He had a house in Janpath, just across from the Hotel Janpath.

0:39:40.1 It was about 7.00, 7.30, about that. The next morning Bakula Rinpoche told me, “So and so, who died, came last night at 7.30, did you send her here?” Honestly, he told me it had been at 7.30 that she came. To my surprise I have some kind of, not full, but half, slightly hidden story about that in Good Life Good Death. Then one of Lodi Gyari’s daughters called me up and I had to say, “That was me.” Somehow they said they have their connections and somehow….I think now she is married to one of the Bhutanese Rinpoches. I think he is the person who is making the Milarepa movie. Anyway, whoever, their couple of daughters, I don’t know who, but it happens to be like this. So mind works in that way. Karma works in that way, it functions that way. So if you are not near you can have a distant focus, which happens. That’s why people carry instructions from their teachers about what to do at that moment.

0:41:35.2 There are lots of other stories, but I am simply telling you whatever I experienced. That’s what I mean: connect to positive karma. Any more questions? Done? Oh good. So looking at the clock it is 8.30 and I like to stop at 9. I am a little tired today. Maybe we can go to the lama chöpa tsoh, because if I start the initiation part I won’t be able to talk very long and might as well as do that tomorrow morning. At least we have devoted one day to some important points and tomorrow is Sunday, right? So then we can do the Vajrayana aspects tomorrow and a little bit on Monday morning. That should be okay.

0:43:16.0 (preparation for chanting Lama Chopa) 0:44:14.1 End of file