Archive Result

Soundfile 20080523GRGRMRMMF07

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

Location New York

Topic Mind and mental faculties

Transcriber Caroline Vossen

Date 2-4-2021

Audience: What is with the five this and three that and the seven of this other?

Rimpoche: It is one, two three, four five, plus six and seven (laughing).

Audience: Alright, thank you, moving on.

Rimpoche: Actually you can’t dismiss it that way. Actually, you know, we try to do almost an overview, and when you are going through it, like the wrong view, you have five different wrong views, and when you are going through the three causal this and that, that is casually mentioned, not casually, but in the form of overviewing, I am not making again certain,.. because somehow we want, somehow people see the need of overviewing all of those, so then the time shortage and all this together, and that is why there are five those, six that, and seven that. And so that is what happened. So, I am sorry but I still do have a couple of more weeks. How many more weeks we have to continue this, both in Ann Arbor and New York. How many weeks do we have?

Audience: Six weeks in Ann Arbor

Rimpoche: So anyway, eight to ten weeks we have, we have more. We have been doing that in an hour, so hopefully we will be more clear on that level during that time. That’s what it is. It is some sort of completely, having something complete, at least going through the names and a little introduction, a little bit of a synopsis and that is what it is and that is why five of this and seven of that. That is what happens. I am sorry about it.

00:03:23

Audience: The next question is actually seven questions, so it has a number of parts. The first question is: Can analytical training affect the mind which ages and suffers defects such as dementia, Alzheimers, strokes etcetera?

Rimpoche: Good question, I don’t know the answer, honestly. The purpose of Tibetan Buddhism introducing this type of meditation is not for physical improvement, you may think it is mental, but the purpose is overall improvement of the individual, the goal is always to obtain enlightenment, it is very definitely contributing towards that direction. Does it really give you help? To a certain extent they do. But is it a guaranteed thing? I don’t think so. I do notice many great teachers also suffer through stroke, many great teachers suffer from Parkinson, however I don’t have an example of a teacher, a great teacher, who is suffering from this Alzheimers. I don’t want to claim practice and meditation will help or protect, I don’t want to claim that. But I am not seeing any great teacher, nor I have seen, nor I have read of any great teacher having Alzheimers. However, if you make a mistake of meditation, meditation such as sharp analytical, subtle meditation getting mixed with the subtle sinking mind, whether it is Alzheimer or not, that individual person is losing intelligence, I haven’t seen it, but I have read it, and I have also heard an eye witness account. So, that is not because of anything else getting the meditation done wrong, and then staying there without countercheck, sitting there without check and balance, that happens. And I am not saying other than that any teachers are suffering Alzheimers, stroke yes, Parkinson yes, but no Alzheimer, I haven’t seen it. That doesn’t mean the meditation protects or helps, I don’t want to claim it, I don’t want to say it, but it could be, it could possibly be contributing, because mind becomes stable, mind becomes sharp, solid, so where is the Alzheimer going? So, yes, immediate time forgetting is very common. What happened yesterday is forgotten, but what happened twenty years ago is clearly remembered. That happens. I don’t know whether that is part of Alzheimers, then I don’t know. So that is my straight talking answer.

00:08:17

Audience: Part B of this: Is mantra practice useful for alleviating things like dementia Alzheimers, stroke etcetera?

Rimpoche: What is dementia?

Audience: Senility.

Rimpoche: Meditation through mind, mantra through sound works together. And, so the effect will be the same. Particularly when the mantra and the meditation don’t work together there is a weakness. Although in this country when you are known for meditation, meditation is more or less sitting and focusing concentration and that is sort of known so far. Analytical meditation is not very well known in this country. Analytical meditation makes a hell of a difference to build, to renew your strength, your intelligence. Concentrated meditation doesn’t do that much. And when you are saying mantras, the sound of a mantra is, with the exception of one or two yidams like Vajrayogini etcetera it says ‘pak pe..’(citation): because it is just simply reading and saying is good enough. Other than that any mantra doesn’t only have to have the sound but also the thought, meditation has to go, otherwise it becomes incomplete. You know, people are in the habit, at least Tibetans, to say ‘OM MANI PADME HUNG, OM MANI PADME HUNG., OM MANI PADME HUNG’, in the habit of saying it, but that is saying it, but the true OM MANI PADME HUNG you have to think of the meaning of OM, MANI, PADME and HUNG all together, then when you say OM MANI PADME HUNG you have all this solid idea of method wisdom together to the basis of body, speech and mind of enlightened beings leading to ourselves, so that sort of thing always has to be, and then it is working well. So the effect of the mantra and the effect of the meditation should be the same.

00:11:38

Audience: Part C: Does chanting a mantra or mantras have an emotional and neurological effect?

Rimpoche: It must be providing some kind of atmosphere, change of mood and all that. And also the whole idea for Tibetan chanting, singing is not the musical aspects of it, but saying slowly so it is giving the individual time to think. Like if you say ‘OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDO HAM’. If you say ‘OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDO HAM’(very quickly) then you don’t have much time to think. But if you look in the tantric college they will say ‘OM SVABHAVA ..(singing slowly), which is giving you time to think. The tune, people are trained is automatic from your mouth. If you have any trained tantric monk or even ex-monk like our Sonam, immediately if you say “Can you sing that mantra?”, they will say “OM..”(singing), straightaway, they don’t even have to think because they are trained. They don’t have to look in any book, they just say ‘OM..’, they go straight away without any efforts. They have to shout and scream but besides that it is automatically goes. So the mind is free, so the mind can think, that is the whole reason why chanting begins. Then, all mantra sayings are not necessarily chanting. When you are building the number of mantras, you can’t keep on chanting, then the number will never come. Like during a certain period ‘OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDO HAM’, that alone, and when they are chanting that takes half an hour. So if you are chanting you get nowhere. So the chantings are for that purposes. The idea is to give you time to think and the sound and thought going together and that gives the number one purpose.

00:14:39

And the number two: people who have a beautiful voice, not like me, I am always out of tune, but those who can sing with the tune and have a good voice can give joy and pleasure, you know that, they give joy and pleasure that relieves the pain and suffering of mind and even body to a certain extent. It is like any other music, that is doing the same thing. So, it has that effect plus there may be a blessing. Blessing comes from three or four sources: 1) the mantra itself, 2) the yidam which has the mantra, 3) the tune itself might have been developed by earlier great beings. That blessing all continues, that’s what they have. So, blessings are always important and it is not necessarily you get them from the enlightened buddhas only either, so it happens very often. Like Allen Ginsberg, undoubtedly has the blessing of the…, no the famous poet Blake undoubtedly, it is obvious, you can see it. So things like that.

00:17:02

Audience: I think you have already answered D and E. D was about the importance of understanding what you are saying , when you are doing a mantra, and then next one is how a mantra is qualitatively different than popular music. You talked about that, so I will move on to the next question, which is:

Is there something transformative or magical in a mantra?

Rimpoche: It is supposed to be, because it is a mantra. The whole mantra is out of tantra. This is interesting. We use the word mantra loosely: if you keep on repeating something, we say that is your usual mantra. We use the word loosely in that way for something you repeat again and again, then that becomes a mantra. But the real mantra is the essence of tantra, the tantra is the real essence of an enlightened being, the physical emotional living being, one of those enlightened beings. Their essence becomes sound, the mantra is not what your read, it is the sound, the whole life forces of those yidams are tantra, the essence of that tantra is the mantra. So it is a living connected… it is living. So it may be slightly different than just usual music, however you cannot dismiss it easily because sometimes music is also alive to a lot of people.. not to a lot of people, but music has a life, and it is very physical. It is not only just sound, it is very physical. So, but maybe it is alive and some music can be from enlightened ones and many of the devotional music in the Indian culture, many of them are sara suddhis (? term) and things like that, they are more or less mantras in musical form. And so a lot of those things are there. But whether every music has that effect, I don’t know, especially those big rock and roll things, I don’t know whether there is any sara suddhi dancing over there, I am not sure. Sara suddhi jumping on the bases bem boong (laughing). So it is a good thought, good question, but what I do know how mantra and that devotional music works in that way, you cannot deny that.

00:21:29

Audience: We are changing the subject matter a bit, we are moving into karma: Is it better to do a positive action with a negative intent, or to do a negative action with positive motivation?

Rimpoche: No answer. You know why no anwer? Negative motivation makes positive action becomes negative. But on the other hand positive motivation cannot change negative action into positive. Because by nature it is negative. Neutral yes, by motivation it changes. So I really don’t know how to answer.

Audience: We have another question about karma: Is there any kind of intentionality that is not conditioned by karma?

Rimpoche: What does the word intentionality mean?

Audience: How you set your mind.

Rimpoche: How you set up your mind. Then what is the question?

Audience: Is there any intentionality, intent to do something, that is not conditioned by karma?

Rimpoche: Well the answer is yes and no. Honestly, every intention the individual sets up is not karma. But it becomes karma afterwards because of the action. So if you know what happens, everything has to be functioning according to the karmic basis, what happens to the individual freedom, it is not there. So whatever you do, it is absolutely free, whatever you want to do, you can do,. It is not necessarily set by karma, but it becomes karmic, because if the action is positive, it gives you positive karma, if it is negative it gives you karma, if it is neutral, it gives you neutral karma. So deeds become karmic, that is what it is.

00:24:32

Audience: Okay, the next question is: What is it that continues from one incarnation to the next according to a) the Mind Only School, and b) the Middle Way?

Rimpoche: a) is the basis of all, that consciousness carries everywhere, b) it is the self, the selfless self.

Audience: I have one more…

Audience: Continuation of discontinuation

Rimpoche: Yes Trungpa Rinpoche’s terminology, very nice: continuation of discontinuity: impermanent, changing self, yet it is discontinued, but it is a continuation of discontinuity, one after another comes and is going, that is how. It is very good terminology Trungpa Rinpoche uses, I hope it is not hard one.

00:26:04

Audience: I have one more: They said they are sorry but they missed your explanation of this. You said that Nagarjuna is credited as having the ultimate explanation of emptiness, they weren’t sure whether you said Asanga was the authority on…?

Rimpoche: Asanga, the method aspects of it, the bodhimind and so forth, six poaramitas and all that. That is probably what happened, thank you.

Audience: The first question is: do the fifty one mental faculties that we have been discussing pertain primarily to the human mind or do animals and other forms of beings also share these mental faculties?

Rimpoche: I think they do share some, maybe not all because the mental capacities of the animals and the human beings have a huge difference.

Audience: In regard to the same idea: do all human minds share the same basic faculties?

Rimpoche: Unless some people have gone off and gone crazy, like a lack of presence of one or more of the five omnipresent mental faculties or lack of one or more of the five object ascertaining mental faculties, other than that the normal human mind will share everything

Audience: Regardless of culture and history?

Rimpoche: Regardless of culture and history, sure the Africans will also have that intelligence and American white women will also have a greater… (laughing)

Audience: …fifty two mental faculties, is that right? (laughing)

Rimpoche: Asians don’t have anything extra either.

Audience: .. What about people of limited actual ability? You know, not cultural, but if you talk about the capacity, if people are stupid.

Rimpoche: That is what I told you earlier, the lack of one or more of those five, you don’t have it, and when you don’t have those, you become stupid. And then you become..

Audience: … like Bush

Rimpoche: Haha, don’t underestimate his intelligence, you don’t know… I am kidding. (laughter)

I mean in those autistic kids it may be one of those things is missing, or in crazy people some of them are missing. It is a matter for somebody to sit down and really analyze which one is missing and how can we rebuild, that is another question. There is complete field left there, which we can study.

Audience: Rimpoche, there is another related question there: there is this talk about mind having more plasticity than we assumed. If one of these mental faculties is deficient, can the mind compensate, can we repair it?

Rimpoche: That is what I am saying: I think this is a complete field, we can study this. Am I right, Ben? Ben is shaking his head. I mean there is no harm, people do study and why don’t they study some of these things, and see what is wrong, what is missing and then can they teach them, can they rebuild them. I am quite sure everything is possible to some people, to some people it may not be possible.

00:31:57

Audience: We have been talking about this process of these mental faculties. What is thought?

Rimpoche: I don’t know. Ideas, thoughts, it must be these mental faculties, one or two mental faculties combined together came out with some ideas.

Audience: Is the thought the result of a mental faculty or is it inextricable from the mental faculties we are talking about?

Rimpoche: ..the second word you use…

Audience: Inextricable: is it one and the same as the mental faculties or is it like a product of them?

Rimpoche: Do you consider thoughts are emotions?

Audience: No.

Rimpoche: No, the result of emotions?

Audience: (inaudible)

Rimpoche: Okay, so then in that case the thoughts must be one or two mental faculties working together with the mind and popping up. Or cause to be. When you pop up as a result of a mental faculty, it will also become the cause of emotions too. Why not? That is exactly how it works, I believe.

00:33:35

Audience: This question is about one of the omnipresent mental faculties, intention. Is intention..

Rimpoche: What is intention?

Audience: Sempa. Is intention one of the key mental faculties in creativity and if not, what are?

Rimpoche: Sempa, ‘sempa yikyi..’(citation 00:34:06): the mental faculty called sempa is the activity of mind, and what does that do? It brings the attention of the principal mind to a point. Not very specific. You remember yila shepa and sempa: yila shepa goes in very detailed, sempa draws the internal attention.

Audience: I believe this person would like to know which role the mental faculties play in creativity.

Rimpoche: Creativity, sempa will play a role, yila shepa will play a role, all five omnipresent mental faculties have to play a role, because if one of them is missing, it can’t function. Plus for creativity you have to have the five object ascertaining mental faculties, they have to function, otherwise you don’t understand what you are doing, right? So I don’t think one produces, I think it needs all of them. And if one of them is missing or weak, then a lack of creativity comes in.

00:35:37

Audience: If the sixth consciousness is individual, or I believe this means it pertains to a single individual, when one becomes enlightened, and omniscience occurs, is that consciousness restricted to that individual?

Rimpoche: Restricted means?

Audience: I think than consciousness retains to one individual alone without any spillover perhaps

Rimpoche: I think it is true. I think it is, otherwise enlightenment level will be split with another mind, no it doesn’t, that sixth consciousness, presuming there is no seventh.

Audience: Isn’t that inherent existence?

Rimpoche: No, definitely not. But if you have a seventh, the basis of all, yes, it all becomes inherent existence. But not the sixth sense, no.

00:36:52

Audience: Is it mental laziness to let anger take its course?

Rimpoche: What does that mean?

Audience: Well, I think you were discussing some of the virtuous mental faculties that.. if somebody wants to own this question, you can save me from this interpretation, but… you were talking about the virtuous aspects of enthusiasm that help and support patience, patience being the antidote to anger.. so I am wondering if this question that probably pertains to that aspect of laziness letting anger taking its course, patience playing no role in this..

Rimpoche: Letting anger take its course..

Audience: ..that is what it said here..

Rimpoche.. then what happens?

Audience: Is it mental laziness to let that happen?

Rimpoche: Yes, if you are not lazy, you work, right? Or maybe some people may want to develop anger, you never know. Some people may like to develop anger, and if they do want to develop anger then letting it take its course is not laziness. Laziness is ‘nyum le’ (term 00:38:25): sort of not bothering, you know it is wrong, you know it is functioning, but ‘I just can’t do it’ or not even paying much attention, letting it go. Taking the purpose of the mind away from preventing anything happening, or improving anything happening, let it be just like whatever it may be, let’s see wherever it goes, something will happen, whatever may happen, let’s see, that is what it is, I think.

Audience: This question, I will read it, I did get a clarification so I will give you that as well: How do we not use dharma as a tool to strengthen self? This example was in a discussion group, not Jonas’ discussion group but another one, where people were arguing and discussing dharma. Like in the West we have this thing about trying to figure out how many angels will sit on the head of a pin, it is a religious argument, it goes nowhere. So if you are sort of showing off your dharma debating abilities and that is strengthening your ego rather than diminishing it, I believe that is what this question is about, how do we avoid doing that?

Rimpoche: Probably that is why we have pride as one of the problems in that six root delusions, that is probably what this is.

00:40:38

Audience: This is the last question: Why does victory feel so good? (laughter)

Rimpoche: It makes ego happy, that is why we feel good.

Audience: Isn’t there a gesture that goes along with that?

Rimpoche: No. it makes ego happy. Okay?

00:41:17

Rimpoche: Alright. Thank you so much, and now I don’t know

Did we do the secondary delusions at all or not at all?

Audience: Not at all.

Rimpoche: Alright, there are twenty of those. The first is what? Do you have it there?

Audience: It is anger, indignation, wrath or aggression.

Rimpoche: Anger, okay. And would you read all the twenty together?

Audience: I will read the geshe Loden column.

Rimpoche: How about Guenther? Guenther is very interesting, not necessarily good.

Audience: Absolutely. Okay, the first one is indignation, followed by resentment, slyness-concealment, then spite, jealousy, avarice, deceit, dishonesty, mental inflation, malice, shamelessness, lack of sense of propriety, gloominess, ebullience, lack of trust, laziness, unconcern, forgetfulness, inattentiveness, desultoriness.

Rimpoche: These are interesting.

00:44:50

Okay the first what? We call it tro wa.

Audience: Indignation

Rimpoche: What does geshe Loden say?

Audience: Anger.

Rimpoche: Anger, okay. Anger, and the other one is?

Audience: ..indignation, and it is also wrath and aggression.

Rimpoche: Wrath is more like .. the definition goes: this particular mental faculty is anger increases and you really want to hurt the other person, almost wishing to hit the other person, physically even: mental verbal, physical, emotional, whatever way you can sort of hit it, desire to hit it. The basis on which you are going to get angry is the person who is there, and then the action is really hitting.

00:46:10

Rimpoche: The next is?

Audience: Resentment.

Rimpoche: That makes the anger continue, you continuously resent. So what does this one do? You don’t let the anger go away, you continuously want to harm the person, or if someone hurts you, you want to have revenge, continuously, and that is that one.

Rimpoche: And then the third one is?

Audience: Slyness-concealment.

Rimpoche: That means hiding your own faults, not letting people see, you try to hide them, because you don’t want to get a bad name, you don’t want to get a scandal, you don’t want to lose your own prestige, privileges or gains, so you hide. This is considered a negativity in Buddhism, and a secondary delusion.

00:47:30

Rimpoche: And then the next one is?

Audience: Spite.

Rimpoche: Not only you are angry but you are holding it and you even want to use harsh words, desire or wish to use harsh words. You may not use harsh words, but the desire or wish to use harsh words, that also counts. Using harsh words, no doubt, but even wanting to use harsh words will count within that territory.

Rimpoche: The next is?

Audience: Jealousy.

Rimpoche: Jealousy is such, it is attachment oriented, ‘my privileges, my prestige, my name’, you have attachment to that, seeing someone else is getting better than me, so ‘I wish it is me’, going in that way. Sometimes we may use simply ‘I wish it is me’ may be okay. But you know, you are angry it is not me, you are not only angry, but it makes your mind very uneasy and sad and even willing to take actions, why it is not me, and that is what comes into this.

00:49:11

Rimpoche: And then?

Audience: Avarice.

Rimpoche: That is stinginess, right?

Audience: Yes.

Rimpoche: Stinginess is again attachment oriented: If I am generous, if I give it away, then I will be losing it, or when I need it, I won’t have it, or whatever within that reasons, that is stinginess.

Rimpoche: The next will be?

Audience: Deceit.

Rimpoche: Deceit. This is again a very strong attachment that you want to have everything. This is one of those wrong livelihoods. The way how you develop, how you deceive people is you pretend to have quality and knowledge which you don’t have. You know you don’t have it, but you pretend to have it. Again five wrong livelihoods: you pretend to be well-behaved, you pretend to be celibate, even when you are not in order to gain, - this is very Buddhist culture - , in order to gain a gift or something. And also in order to gain something to talk very sweetly, what we call buttering business. And then another thing is trying to gain something more valuable by giving something small. So that becomes something small and trying to get more. And ‘nye pe..’ ( citation 00:52:02). So then you know, during the teachings they are always accused of certain people who like to bring a pot of yoghurt, and then they give you a pot of yoghurt, and then you expect to get something in return. These are the examples of this. Did I get five there? Not yet, one, two three.

Audience: Of the wrong livelihoods?

Rimpoche: Of the wrong livelihoods. Anyway that is what I could bring up right now.

00:52:45

Rimpoche: The next is?

Audience: Dishonesty.

Rimpoche: Again it is almost the same as the earlier one, hiding your own wrongdoings. That’s it. In order to gain…. it is almost the same as the one above.

Audience: Slyness-concealment.

Rimpoche: Yes, they are almost the same. I am sure there is a difference, I just don’t remember

Rimpoche: Then the next one is?

Audience: Mental inflation

Rimpoche: What does that mean?

Audience: It is also haughtiness, self-satisfaction, puffed up.

Rimpoche: Do you know what they call it in Tibetan? Gyap pa, it means fat.

Audience: we say puffed up, like a bird, like a turkey.

Rimpoche: I don’t know why this is a negativity, but that is what it is. You are very happy with yourself, whatever it is….

Audience: ..too happy with yourself

Rimpoche: Too happy with yourself, yes.

Audience: A form of pride.

Rimpoche: A form of pride too but .. yes it is, it is a form of pride.

00:54:37

Rimpoche: The next one is?

Audience: Malice.

Rimpoche: Harming people, right?

Audience: Cruelty.

Rimpoche: It is almost like violence, but not really physical violence, having no consideration of others, being very cruel.

Rimpoche: And then shameless is the same as before, using yourself as a reason, and protecting shameless is the same thing

Rimpoche: And embarrassment-less or what?

Audience: non-embarrassment, it is the same thing: using others as reason, it becomes very careless, neither you care about you, nor you care about others, and that is what it is.

00:55:35

Rimpoche: Then the next is?

Audience: Gloominess

Rimpoche: That is heaviness, right? Physical, mind, all becomes very gloomy, that is called a secondary delusion, being gloomy. They count it as a delusion, here, a negativity. Number one: if you are maintaining the gloominess you may think: ‘That is my business’, but it is not my business, maybe it is my business, but it makes me useless, it makes me unhappy, it make me miserable, it makes me terrible. Plus the impact on people around: when you have a gloomy face all the time, people with you, even though they are happy, they have to be gloomy, because they have no choice. If I try to be gloomy here and people around me try to see ‘Hey, hey hey’ and I get upset, and then it hurts me, therefore you don’t only make yourself gloomy, but you make everyone around you gloomy, your family, your friends, your companion, everybody, and that is why it is negativity. Otherwise, being gloomy, ‘I am gloomy, that’s my nature, what do you care?’ But that doesn’t do, because that makes other people miserable, so naturally they do care.

Audience: The other translations of mug pa are totally different to me: lethargy and dullness

Rimpoche: What do they have?

Audience: Geshe Loden has lethargy

Rimpoche: What does lethargy mean?

Audience: Lethargy is like sluggishness.

Rimpoche: That is gloomy, isn’t it. That is what it is

Audience: Dullness.

Rimpoche: You know if you are gloomy, if you have a lack of energy, not moving, it is gloomy. The other gloomy is angry. That goes in the anger, this is that part.

Audience: Is that an extension of laziness?

Rimpoche: They are all interrelated, so they try to make them individual, but they are all interrelated.

00:59:05

Rimpoche: So Mark, the next?

Audience: The next is excitement or ebullience, my goodness. I have never experienced it, on no occasion I have used the word.

Rimpoche: So this is gö pa, right? So what is that?

Audience: it is excitement, the word of Guenther is ebullience, and it is also translated as excitement or mental excitement.

Rimpoche: That is almost like attraction, you see something very attractive, it draws your attention there, you are attracted and then you can’t keep your mind straight, you are always thinking of that beautiful girl last night in the discotheque, and then today you can’t think of anything else, you may even begin seeing it, visioning it. I believe that is what it is. Does that language give you that expression?

Audience: No, it seems more like if the previous one is depressed, this one would be manic.

Rimpoche: Oh, the other way around

Audience: Like going too far.

Rimpoche: Maybe you are using your intelligence here: because if it isn’t gloomy, it has to be manic, everybody is not..

Audience:… bipolar.

Rimpoche: It is positive, but it is negative because it loses your focused concentration, and all this, and you are attracted, it is part of attachment, you are attracted, I just gave you the example: that beautiful girl in the discotheque last night.

Audience: Are these related to sinking and wandering?

Rimpoche: No, not at all. I mean it is part of wandering for sure, but mind is not there, you can’t think of anything else, except that one. People do have that problem sometimes, don’t they?

Audience: Sure

Rimpoche: Did you never experience it?

Audience: Oh yes, I never realized it was ebullience. (laughing) As soon as you mentioned the word disco, I was there (laughing).

01:02:57

Rimpoche: Okay, the next is? Non-faith or what?

Audience: Non-faith, lack of trust

Rimpoche: Non-faith, not having trust to Buddha, dharma and sangha, masters etcetera, and virtuous and non-virtuous and the karmic system. The problem is, if that happens, then one does not accept, one can be deprived of the opportunity of liberation, result of working, development etcetera, so it is considered a bad idea.

01:03:45

Rimpoche: The next is laziness probably.

Audience: Yes.

Rimpoche: Laziness here is something you are enjoying, happy doing wrong things, love to sleep and so love to do something else, what is taking you away from doing the positive virtuous work, because of the love of whatever attraction it is, that is laziness. The activity of this particular delusion here makes the individual not enjoy doing positive karmic karmic work.

Rimpoche: Then what? Unconcerned?

Audience: Unconcerned, unconscientious.

Rimpoche: And that is: no matter whatever delusions may be, whatever hard work may be, you have no concern, you let the mind go, do whatever it wants to do. That is that.

Rimpoche: Then forgetting or ..?

Audience: Forgetfulness

Rimpoche: You know what, not every forgetfulness is not. Again the same thing what we have, the discotheque thing: your mind is only thinking of that, you forgot to say your prayers, and you forgot whatever you were doing, and that is what this one is.

01:05:40

Rimpoche: the next will be?

Audience: Inattentiveness.

Rimpoche: Oh, ‘nyung ma..’ (citation 01:05:51): so this is your thoughts are preoccupied by the attachment side or anger side, and the activities you are doing, you may not know what you are doing, but you keep on doing it. If it is not harmful, it is not hurting the people, it might not be that bad, but when you do something and you don’t know what you are doing, and if that hurts people, then it is definitely a negativity. But basically this particular mental faculty is doing something, and not paying attention, not knowing, just for the sake of doing it.

Audience: The last one is desultoriness or distraction.

Rimpoche: Okay, mind is completely controlled by delusion, right? And because of that, not concerned, not focusing, not thinking. Just let it be. A lot of us do, a lot of let it be business, when something is going to happen, let it be. That is a little less in the west because of the education. Education really takes care of that a lot, because education makes people think, analyze and do something and plan it. And here you know, nothing. We have an example for this: ‘ka ga mi..’ (citation 01:08:24): The temple may be catching fire, you are still sitting aaah, and the dogs may be eating all the offerings in the temple and you still me be saying aaah’ (laughing). So let it go whatever it is, something will happen. That is what it is.

Did we complete the twenty secondary delusions here?

Audience: Yes we did.

Rimpoche: Oh good.

01:09:33

The explanation here which I have to add up is anger and continuation of anger etcetera, all these twenty secondary delusions, sometimes they are part of the six root delusions too. Sometimes they are part of it, but it is close to the six root delusions, therefore they are called secondary. So, all of those secondary delusions, are not necessarily negativity, that statement itself said, and that may be true, all of them are not necessarily negativity, but bringing the individual closer to one of the six root delusions and therefore it is not a good thing to be engaged by spiritual practitioners, so that is why they are secondary delusions. Now I am left with only the four changeable ones, which I have already talked about yesterday. And we still have tomorrow, tomorrow we can talk a little more overall.