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20090115GRNYNL

Jewel Heart Prayers sazhi pokyi - sang gye chö dang

0:07:10

For the benefit of all beings one would like to obtain the stage of a buddha within the life time for which one would like to learn this practice and then practice it. With this motivation do kindly listen to this teaching tonight.

The teaching you are listening to is how the fortunate people are being led to total enlightenment. It is the road map to buddhahood, known as lam rim. We have two outlines:

Telling you about the lineage masters and their historical effects. We talked about Buddha, Atisha, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. That is over.

Then the path: there are 2 outlines:

1. Three Principles oriented 3 different stages towards enlightenment, known as "common with the lower level", "common with the "medium level" and the mahayana path.

When you are explaining these 3 stages there are two categories: vast (or method), which in normal language deals with the compassion aspects and the profound, which is normally known as wisdom aspects.

0:10:20

We express the practice here from the compassion aspects as well as the wisdom aspects. So out of the 3 scopes we haven't even begun the first one. We are at the prerequisite level. There is prerequisite, actual and conclusion.

Here we have the root of all development, guru devotion and thereafter developing the individual through the path.

The first, the root of all development, guru devotional practice, also has three: prerequisites, actual and conclusion. We are at the prerequisite level. There are six activities: the first is the activity of cleansing your place and laying the altar. That part is over.

Creating offerings - uncontaminated, if you can. At least offerings should not be influenced by the two negative mental faculties called yo and gyu, deceit and dishonesty or wrong livelihood. They should be presented with artful presentation.

The Third Prerequisite is to sit on a comfortable cushion, if possible, in the 8 Vairochana style of sitting. If not, sit comfortably and then generate the very special mind.

That part is over. Then sitting in that way, one takes refuge, the Four Immeasurables, and these are also over.

The fifth is to generate the Field of Merit very specifically for this practice. With the Field of Merit we can accumulate positive karma and purify negative karma. We do that by using the Seven Limbed Practice, which includes prostration, making offerings, purification, rejoice and making request to remain, request for teachings and dedication. Out of these, if my information is correct, we have done the prostration, offerings and purification. So we are at the level of rejoicing.

Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa said,

be pa chung ngu lap chen tsog dö pa

ge la gyi su yi rang chok do ka

With very small effort one can have a huge effect through rejoicing.

We are in the habit of looking at someone who is doing great work, instead of rejoicing, we sometimes don't like it and instead get jealous and disagree with that person. We could just say: How wonderful that this person is doing that and full stop. Just rejoice. That would be very beneficial. However, our addiction is such that we don't do that. We have to say something nice because everybody knows that whatever that person is doing is good work. So we will say, "Good, good, good, but..." There will definitely a "but" that comes up. And then you question their motivation or see all kinds of faults up. What does that do karmically? Karmically you completely rip yourself off. If you just say, "Wonderful", and leave it there, you almost get equal benefit of that person who worked very hard.

And yet, we don't want to do that and look for faults. In one way we are trained to do that, because we always see the faults, our own and others. Somehow we like to see the faults, so that we can stop them and prevent people from making more mistakes. That is a good thing, no doubt, but we are in danger of applying that to every good work that everybody does. But when somebody does a good job, you have no business criticizing, just let it be. Just say, "Thank you, wonderful, I appreciate it." But we don't. We see problems. We will be suspicious and think, "What was their motivation? What was the goal behind this? What does he or she want out of this?" That creates unnecessary negativity for us.

According to the Buddha, if you rejoice in the great work done by great people we get at least 50 % of the benefit. If we rejoice in the great work done by Mother Theresa or Dr. Martin Luther King it is great. It is easy for us to do that, because somehow we know about it and they are not so close to us that we see faults. If you are very close you will see faults. People will say about Mother Theresa things like "She was short-tempered" and so on. Then the whole appreciation is wiped off. For us it is great, because we don't her that well. We know her great work done everywhere, especially in Calcutta. So we can rejoice easily. I say this because I heard of someone who worked with Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross, who had done great work with dying people. They said, "Oh my God, she is such a horror." I don't really want to hear that, because then, instead of rejoicing, it will bring a horror picture up.

Even within our Buddhist community we have Geshe Wangyal, who has done great work and produced wonderful students like Robert Thurman and Jeffry Hopkins. But people who knew Geshe-la called him "holy horror". I know that he used to yell - tremendously. It was almost beyond control, because he was Mongolian and Mongolians are normally known for that. Honestly, he yelled. I know that because he yelled at me too. He liked me, he really liked me. When I was in the United States in 1964, Geshe-la made sure that I would come and visit him. So I went there and he cooked and boiled meat and all that. Geshe Söpa, who is in Wisconsin now was cooking for him at that time. And Geshe Söpa is a really learned geshe. So at that time he was cooking for Geshe Wangyal. When I came I was wearing a suit. And Geshe Wangyal had made nice arrangements to receive me, but the moment he saw me he yelled, "What is this? A monk or a monkey? A man or a lama?"

Even Geshe Söpa felt a little funny.

0:26:25

Also Gyume Khensur Geshe Lekden-la was there. He was feeling really awkward. But that is how Geshe Wangyal would yell at you. That was in 1964. After that he gave me a very nice dinner and $200 in cash. That was very nice. Later he told me that I should work for him in his Learning Center. And I said yes and no. I thought maybe, because I liked to be in the United States. But then I met Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, later known as Khen Rimpoche. When I told him about the offer he said, "Oh no, no way. If you work for him you are buying misery. You are going to pay your sweat for your misery. I built so hard to build the center and this thing and that thing and Geshe Lobsang Tharchin gave me a long lecture, which made me not to say yes to a hundred per cent and I sort of left it there. Geshe Wangyal waited for me to confirm after I had gone back to India. But I didn't confirm.

Then there was a Mahabodhi Society Conference in Dehli and Geshe Wangyal came to attend the conference and Joshua came with him. So I went and saw Geshe Wangyal in the Lodi Hotel. When I came Joshua said, "Geshe-la is asleep." But he must have woken up because he called from inside, "Who is here?" so Joshua told him that I was here. Geshe-la, from being half asleep came right out of his bedroom and started yelling at me, "You said you are going to come and work for me, but you never came!" He was really yelling at the top of his voice. At the end he said, "I got somebody better than you. I have got Denma Lochö Rimpoche! He is much better than you. I am glad you didn't come."

By that time I was laughing. There was nothing to be upset about, so I was laughing. Actually, Lochö Rimpoche did agree to go there, but Kyabje Ling Rimpoche later said no. I should have told Geshe Wangyal later, "So, did you get Lochö Rimpoche?" Anyway, so he did yell. And he was known as Holy Horror.

So now I did everything I just told you not to do. 0:30:05

Exactly that is how it is. Appreciate what Geshe-la did: he brought Tibetan Buddhism into the United States, setting up the first monastery and developed the Learning Center, producing great people like Bob Thurman and Jeffry Hopkins, all these great Buddhologists and Tibetologists are coming now from them, most of them, anyway. So let's appreciate that and put a period right there. Then we get equal or at least half the positive karma that Geshe-la created to bring Tibetan Buddhism and starting the Learning Center and so on. But if I keep on thinking, "Geshe-la yelled", I am cutting away from the positive karma of appreciating. That is how rejoicing and critical thinking can work for and against our own good deeds.

Tsongkhapa said that in order to effortlessly accumulate positive karma there is nothing better than rejoicing. You can also rejoice in your own previous works and that keeps creating more and more good merit on top of it. That is what we should understand and therefore not bring the "but" in. We should know where you put the period and rejoice. That goes for everybody. It doesn't have to be Mother Theresa. It doesn't have to be Geshe Wangyal. It can be anybody, whoever did some good work. It can be the next door neighbor or whoever. So just appreciate.

When you take the bodhisattva vows quickly, how has Buddha arranged the system? First you take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, then you do purification and thirdly, you rejoice. We say,

kön chog sum la dag kyab gye.....

I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

I purify all my negativities,

I rejoice in all the great deeds of all beings,

I take Buddha's enlightenment mind.

These are the four simple lines you say. Purification is there because if we don't purify, our negativities are so strong that we can never develop bodhimind or anything else. Rejoicing is there because it makes you lucky. It brings you good karma. If you are not lucky enough you can never develop bodhimind. That means ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. So rejoicing is some kind of very easy way to make yourself rich in positive karma. Jealousy and very critical ways of looking at people blocks you from that. Critics are not necessarily bad. Critiquing something is great. But it depends on the motivation. If the motivation is to truly cut out mistakes and improve, then it is good. If the motivation is, "I can find faults and bring them out and then I will be a popular person", then the motivation goes wrong. The bottom line of that is selfish interest. The moment the narrow, selfish interest gains influence, the motivation is not correct. Even if the nature of your work is critiquing, the motivation will make the difference. The motivation should be simply to help the person, to help everybody, the public. That is correct motivation. Then critiquing will become a positive deed. But if the motivation is gain something for ourselves and therefore put others down then it is wrong motivation. That will harm not only the person you are critiquing, but also yourself. You may gain something in the short term but in the long run - in your future lives or in this very life - you can get hurt back, because the work you do has been negative.

Maybe it is not negative by nature. It is just critiquing. But your motivation and the way you did it will become negative. Then you will get hurt in turn. Rejoicing is so simple, very easy to do. But the motivation is what decides if that becomes positive without almost any effort or it will become another negative activity. Knowing that, understanding that, we should be correcting our way of doing it. That makes a hell of a difference in our life. According to this particular text we are following here we should never have pride that "I did a great deal of work". "I have achieved something tremendous".

There they use the term nga gyal for 'pride'. If you translate that literally it is not talking about pride. It tells us that if we did some little good thing don't let it go to your head. Don't think "I did something fantastic". You should appreciate it and be very happy about it. But don't let it get in your head, because then you will immediately begin to look down on the others. Then it becomes, "I did that, he did this, what a big deal". You will say, "What a big deal that you went to Harvard. I went to Columbia."

0:41:18

The whole idea is this: appreciate and be happy that you could do something, but don't use that to look down on others. nga gyal in Tibetan and 'pride' in English is very different. In Enlish there are a lot of good things in pride. "I am proud I could do that", "I am proud of you, who are doing great." But in Tibetan it is just negative. The example is the lion, the king of the animals, saying, "I am the king" and pounding his chest. Then the nice, little rabbit will come and take the lion to the lake, saying, "You are great, but there is somebody else there who is trying to challenge you." The lion asks, "Who is it?" and the rabbit says, "He looks just like you, he lives in the lake down there." [Then the rabbit led the lion to the lake and said, "Look in there. He is in there." The lion saw his own reflection and growled at it and said, "There is indeed somebody who looks like me who is challenging me" and he jumped in the lake and drowned.[ That is a kids' story but that is how it works.

The nyur lam has another story. Buddha and all his disciples were invited by one of the Indian kings for food. At that time there was one very poor beggar, called De ba, that means "one with faith". That might not have been his name. He could have just been someone who had great faith. He was very poor and forget about feeding Buddha and all his disciples, he couldn't even feed himself. But he saw that he king Sagyal was making all these offerings to the Buddha and his disciples. He kept on rejoicing, "How wonderful. How lucky the king is to be able to do this."

It was common for great sponsors to invite Buddha and his disciples and at the end of the meal Buddha would always say a very words, prayers, predictions or whatever. In this case he said, " "The king who had paid for this and worked and made all these offerings and the poor guy standing outside on the road rejoicing, both of them have equal benefit." The beggar might have been standing across the street under a tree somewhere, looking over.

In the "King of Prayers" it says,

I lift up my heart and rejoice in all positive potential

Of the buddhas and bodhisattvas in ten directions,

Of solitary realizers, hearers still training and those beyond,

And of all ordinary beings.

This would include people in the reach of our time like Mother Theresa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all these people and don't forget the next door neighbor who does a good job helping somebody.

Rejoice and remember the benefits and develop joy. That serves the purpose of the prerequisite of this. Whenever somebody is doing something good, when you hear it in the news, just rejoice and don't think, "Wonder what the motivation was behind this." When we are suspicious of politicians and we hear they did something, we will immediately say, "What is the motivation?" For example right now, if George Bush is doing something great, some people will say, "What is he trying to do, make up for everything in the last minute?" That is the sort of attitude we have. The same happened with Bill Clinton. Some people always questioned everything he did. We hear and see things in the news every day, so here is an opportunity to block the overcritical mind out. If they are doing something good, then okay. Bush would like to declare certain areas in the ocean as environmentally protected zones. So that is great. Don't worry about who made him do this, why he is doing it and so on. We don't need to go behind that. He has done it, so appreciate and leave it there. He is going, so let him go. Even if you want to hold him back, he will go. Even if you like him to sit longer, he can't. He has to go. So let him go.

Even in good old American culture we say that someone is innocent until proven guilty. But we forget that all the time. And it is costing us our positive karma and is building negative karma.

0:50:59

Why? Because it is out habit, our addiction. The addiction to build negative karma is in our blood, unfortunately. That's how we work. In one way it is great, no doubt about it. But on the other hand it is better not to deal in this way. Rejoice, period. Don't try to be Jack Cafferty (CNN commentator). He sometimes get mad when he is arguing.

The next is requesting Dharma teachings

We make requests to the Field of Merit that we have generated in front of us to give us dharma teachings. Those enlightened beings who remain for a long time are requested to give dharma teachings for those who need it. Particularly for me: I need to receive teachings. This request becomes our daily practice. In the Jewel Heart Prayers it says:

I request wise and compassionate guidance

In one way you are asking for the teachings. But we all also do need teachings even in the last minute before we become fully enlightened. We all need that last uplifted teaching. All the buddhas, before becoming buddha, in the 11th hour they need that teaching. Buddhas will appear to them at that moment and give that teaching. To build that connection, to create that karma, we ask for teachings every day as part of our practice. At every level of practice different teachings are needed. Particularly just before becoming fully enlightened we still need that last teaching. All the abhisekas have this message all the time. When we pay attention we will notice.

At this particular level of practice it is recommended to visualize offering a thousand-spoked dharmachakra (Chakra means wheel) to the Supreme Field of Merit. Think that they have accepted your request. Even though this is pure sutra level and nothing to do with tantra, still you have visualizations and you are thinking that they have accepted your request. All of these will come together.

What difference will that make? It will not only make the difference of good omens and good karma but also it also purifies negativities of ourselves and others, who are lacking the dharma information. This lack is the result of negative karma and is purified with this request, according to the nyur lam. Especially if we have disturbed other people who are doing perfect dharma practice through different activities that may prove harmful to their practice, we purify those negativities.

Request to Remain Forever

Those enlightened beings who are intent on going away, we request to remain for eons. That refers to your own spiritual teachers who can give you good dharma teachings as well as those others. That also helps ourselves, to have longevity. In relation to the White Tara longevity practice it is clearly mentioned that one of the best ways to have longevity is to create the cause for others to have longevity, particularly your own spiritual masters. It actually creates longevity for yourself. I don't know if it makes a difference to the spiritual teachers or not. Most probably not. They will follow their own karma, their own desires and wishes, but making prayers for their longevity will build longevity for yourself. That is the reason why Tibetan Buddhism has that culture of making longevity prayers like the ten zhuk - prayer to remain permanently. That sets an omen for you to have a long, healthy life.

1:00:19

Dedication

This is also very important. Virtues are impermanent in nature. That means it can change and can be destroyed. Positive can change into negative; negative can change into positive or into neutral. Change is change. We are very fond of change. When Obama talked about change, we all voted for it, without thinking twice. Change can be good or it can be bad. You never know. Even today's economic situation is also change, compared to the 90s. It is not necessarily a great change, but it is change.

What does dedication do? If you look in the karmic system, there is the statement that karma is definite. It is changeable, yet it is definite. How can you lock it down? In our society, when you want to commit or pin down a person, you make them sign a paper and then it is legally binding. Karma won't do that. No matter how many hundreds and thousands of lawyers you send karma won't sign anything. So how can you pin down karma? Through dedication. The moment you create a good karma, dedicate it. It is like ear-marking a project. When you donate money you specify: this money is for this project. Then legally they are bound to use the money only for that project. The economic stimulus money might not be really working but......did I hear that Bank of America went down today? Oh, didn't go down yet...

Anyway, in the karmic system, the dedication locks down the karma. It cuts the waste. We have money and we waste it, because whatever the system is supposed to do, we don't follow. So to ear mark the money will block it from going somewhere else. Likewise here: if you dedicate it, it will not be wasted. It doesn't change into something else. The positive will not change into neutral and the neutral will not change into negative. That's what normally happens. That sort of changing is blocked by dedication.

Buddha considers dedication very important - actually all the Seven Limbs are very important in our everyday lives. Particularly the motivation, purification, rejoicing and dedication. They are more important than the others. Dedication makes sure that whatever you did is working for what you wanted. So the best is to dedicate every good virtue towards obtaining enlightenment.

Buddha said,

Whatever the great bodhisattva hero Manjushri and others have dedicated their positive karma to, I will dedicate along with them.

The second verse says:

Whatever the past, present and future buddhas have recommended,

I will also dedicate all my virtues for that purpose.

The idea is this: those great bodhisattvas, all their huge amount of virtue is like the ocean. Our virtue is like a tiny, little drop of water or maybe a half full glass of water. If we mix ours with their ocean-like virtue, the benefit we receive will be tremendous. The ocean-like huge amount of virtue will have tremendous benefit. If we mix our virtue with that it will have a very strong impact on us. If we have to rely on the virtue of our half a glass of water, we can't do much. But if you have a big ocean of water you can do a lot of things. That's why we want to make sure that every positive we have will become very positive. So we get it into the right place, mix it with the right virtue and have better benefit. I guess we have to make sure we are not getting mixed up with Bernie Madoff (laughs). If the buddhas and bodhisattvas are going down, then we will go down too. We might as well then. So what? It is worth getting mixed up with their virtue.

Buddha says,

If you put a drop of water in the ocean, then until the ocean is finished your drop cannot be finished.

It is mixed. No one can say, "This is not your drop of water."

There is a funny example, given by Tibetan teachers. The staple food of Tibetans is tsampa. That is barley flour.

1:10:09

This is for "okay" Tibetans. The poor Tibetans can't afford to eat barley. They eat grounded black pea powder as their staple food. It is sort of nutritious. You can't clean these peas up so they are grounded together with the skin. Then the powder has a lot of black spots.

So the story is this: two Tibetans are traveling together for a long distance. One is a wealthy guy, the other is poor. The poor guy has pea powder in a small bag, carrying it with him every day. The wealthy guy has a huge bag of barley powder and he carries that every day. They are walking together. After a while the poor guy's powder is getting less and less. The other guy still has a huge amount of barley powder. So the poor guy had to think, he couldn't be lazy. There was nothing they could get on the road. There were no motels. So one day he said to the wealthy guy, "If we could mix our food together, I would carry it all." The wealthy guy said, "You would carry it?" The other guy said, "Sure, why not? But then we have to eat together. We mix our rations together and then we eat together, because we stop at all the places together. So far you have carried your food and made your food over here and have carried mine and made mine over there. Why don't we mix them together and I carry it for you?" The wealthy guy said, "Good idea." So they did. The pea powder with its black spots got nicely mixed up with the barley powder. They ate together and as long as there was a lot, there was no problem.

Then it went down and became less and less. Then the wealthy guy realized, "We mixed our food together. I had a huge amount and he had very little. We have been eaten equally. So by now his food might have finished." He didn't want to say anything. Also on the next day he kept quiet, but on the third day he thought, "I better tell him, because he is eating too much. I have to make it a little less." So he said, "Hey, don't you think your ration is finished by now?" The poor guy said, "Yes, it should have. But let's look." He opened the bag and said, "Look, here is a black spot, there is a black spot. Mine has not finished yet." So until the whole bag of barley flour was finished that handful of his black pea powder was also not going to be finished. Just like that, when we mix our virtues with those of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, until theirs finish ours will also not be finished. That's why dedication is recommended. One, the anger not take it, then hatred will not burn, and then, as long as the virtues of the buddhas and bodhisattvas don't finish, ours won't finish. It is a good way to become spiritually rich.

I have to stop here. And I will be here next week. Tomorrow I will go to California to talk to the Tibetan community and then to the Gyuto tantric college and then the Jewel Heart people in San Francisco. I will be back here on Wednesday and will teach here again on Thursday. On Friday I will go to Philadelphia. Again, there I will go both, the Tibetan community and Jewel Heart Philadelphia.

(Announcements) .....there is also a compulsory tsoh next Tuesday...

Rimpoche: Compulsory tsoh is related to mother tantra initiations and there are two days in the year. The first we make it Vajrayogini tsoh and the next one we make that lama chopa. For those who cannot make it on every 10th and 25 day of every lunar month, at least these two are compulsory. We are going to do these through video webcast, so wherever people are meeting in the Jewel Heart chapters, they can do it together.

Thank you for coming and good night. 1:17:00