Archive Result

810

20090512GRAANL

Heart Sutra, Lineage Prayer, Mandala Offering, sang gye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la...

0:13:00

Welcome everybody and it is great to be back from Europe, meeting with you all and we resume our lam rim teachings here on the basis of the nyur lam.

I have made the outlines a little shorter than what it was, making it more convenient. This is meant for serious people, who want not just the words alone, but want the experience and like to go to liberation and ultimate enlightenment through the path of jang chub lam kyi rim pa - the perfection of the path that leads to the perfect state. lam rim is the abbreviation of this, by taking 2 syllables out of these 6. It is really a road map to total enlightenment. For this there are two main outlines:

Lineage, stages and order

Actually generating a training of the mind

The first was over, the second has two:

1. Root of all development, guru devotional practice

2. On the basis of that, developing oneself

The first one was over. We did talk about the qualities, about developing intelligent faith as the root, and after that, how does one train one's mind.

How to train one's mind is to recognize and realize the qualities of life itself and thinking about the qualities and capabilities. I think all of these are over.

After realizing that, actually what do we do? Where do we focus? How do we think? I think we have reached to this point. That is a very important point.

There are only three things:

Common with the lower level

Common with the medium level

Mahayana

In Tibetan they say:

Kyi bu chung jung

Kyi bu dring wa

Kyi bu chen po

That means small, medium and big and really refers to the individual person who is travelling.

First comes the small level. A lot of western translations call it small, medium and great scope or sometimes they call it small, medium and mahayana level. So the small and medium are not mahayana, but are the necessary levels, without which we cannot do. These come out of the theravadan or hinayana level of Buddha's teachings. Some people don't like it if we call it "hinayana". Even among ourselves, in this room alone some don't like it. Even I don't like it and I have been requested not to use the term "hinayana". But I think in this particular teaching level we have to say it. We shouldn't use the politically correct language all the time. If you use that all the time it has other disadvantages. There are more disadvantages than the advantage of being politically correct. You need to see the difference between hina - and maha - yanas, the smaller and greater vehicles. You need to see the difference between the Smart Car, produced by Mercedes, and the real Mercedes Benz. Both are Mercedes, but one is a tiny little one, which looks like a loaf of bread cut off in the middle. The other one is a real car. That is the difference.

But out of the hinayana teachings there are certain things we have to have. Mahayana may be big and all that, but it is based on the smaller vehicle teachings. 0:21:42

As Professor Upadaya told us: "You are great mahayana people, wonderful and the Himalayas are very high. Mt. Everest is so high, but in order to know how high it is you have to know where ground zero level is. Without the basis of the ground, mountains cannot be high at all."

What he said is very true. The traditional teachings come through Tibetan Buddhism in general and in particular the Kadam tradition. The older Kadam tradition came from Atisha up to Jamgon Lama Tsongkhapa and from that time onwards they were known as the New Kadampas. Kadam means that every single word of Buddha has a transmission and is a specific teaching for the individual. This is about where we are today until we become a buddha and what to do to get there. All of these are included in the lam rim, that's why it can be called a road map.

Certain traditions, like the nyingmas talk about dzog chen. They will say that dzog chen is so great. American Buddhists are very fond of dzog chen. Honestly. It is very popular and everybody would like to be involved with dzog chen. This system also presents you instant enlightenment. That's how they talk. I am not sure whether there are many dzog chen pas here in Michigan - at least in Jewel Heart. But the "Crazy Cloud" group is supposed to be dzog chen pas, I believe. However, if you go in there, they will talk about enlightenment a little bit, but then they will go back and lead you to this exact same stage where we are talking about. The same stage will come up. That's why in the lam rim they say that every buddha has become a buddha through this path, whether you are following Tibetan Buddhism or not. Mostly, the officially declared buddhas were not followers of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism came much later. It started in the 7th century, after Guru Padmasambhava visited Tibet. Then the Kadampa tradition came up in Tibet when Atisha came to Tibet in the 1100s. The New Kadampas came after Tsong Khapa, who lived from 1357 to 1419. So all these officially known buddhas are not Tibetan Buddhist at all, because that was not around at that time. But the lam rim tells you that all the buddhas have attained their state by following this path. And it is true. There is no buddha who did not go through with these three: common with the lower, common with the medium and mahayana.

Why are the first two called "common with..."? Tibetan Buddhism is totally geared towards vajrayana, which is part of mahayana. But in order to reach to the mahayana path, this gap between the mahayana and us has to be filled. In order to fill this gap Buddha has taught in terms of the hinayana teachings. That's why it is common with the hinayana path, shared with the hinayana path, in order to reach the mahayana path. That's why is called 'common with the lower" and "common with the medium". The "common with the lower" is out of the three principles almost only on the first principle: renunciation. This is divided into 2: renouncing attachment and obsession to the present life and renouncing attachment and obsession to future lives. The present life level is the "common with the lower" level; the future life level is the "common with the medium". Why is it called "lower"? This teaching is 2600 years old. It has been revolutionized and changed a couple of times. But every time the change took place they were very careful. They never changed the structure at all. They probably put a lot of words together to make it sensible. If you read the "Collected Works" by Buddha you probably can't figure out what he was talking about. 0:30:50

It is almost like reading unedited minutes of group meetings. The later masters made it a little easier to understand and get it. But they never changed the structure. The material is 2600 old and has a lot of hierarchy ideas. That is because of the traditional cultures. That is why the order is small, medium and big (maha). Up to our death level (in the lam rim it goes till karma) is dealing with this life and those subjects are part of the "common with the lower" level. Then what happens life after life up until obtaining nirvana is called "common with the medium" level. Then from developing the altruistic mind, compassion, love and bodhimind onwards it is called mahayana, the greater vehicle. Within that you have mahayana sutra and mahayana tantra, which is known as vajrayana in the west. This is not only a big vehicle, but also a quick one.

This is how the three levels are divided.

The meditator should put the major focus on the level where they are, rather than others. You should learn about the higher levels but then focus on where you are. If you don't focus on where you are and then try to be big that is like building an ice castle. It will go down and melt, because the base is not built. That's why the learning part is on everything, but the focusing part is wherever you are in the development. That's how you gain experience in these points. Without gaining experience, simply learning about them will not do. When we talk about studying Buddhism we don't mean the intellectual type of study, nor the academic aspects of learning, but actually trying the help yourself, improve yourself, and then trying to help others. That is the level of study I am talking about.

Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa identified three steps. He synthesized the path into these three:

He said,

tang po gya chir tö pa mang po tser

First I studied and learnt very vastly

bar do jung lu tham che dam pa cher

I realized that every teaching of the Buddha is a transmission

Here transmission is not just meant in the sense of a word transmission. It is the internal, spiritual development transmission.

ta ma nyien tsu kun du nyam su lang

Finally, I practiced day and night.

So, these are the tö - sam - gom - learning, thinking/analyzing and meditating. This is the tool, the way. If you don't learn you won't know what to think. You will think all kinds of things.

We have a huge number of spiritual paths, totally different here and there. Many of them are from great traditions, such as the Judeo-Christian tradition, Hindu-Buddhist tradition and so on. These are the well known, well accepted traditions. Then there are all kinds of other things. You can take mushrooms and this and that and all these are there, because there is not really an authentic tradition on which you can go well. But everybody wants to do something and achieve something, so you get those things.

People are interested; as a matter of fact, they are extremely hungry for spiritual development, believe me - whether you are rich or poor, good or bad. Everybody is hungry for spiritual development. Mostly we don't know what spiritual development is, so we need to do something. Even taking drugs came out of that.

The first LSD experiments came out of a spiritual hunger. It was done by these young Harvard professors and their students, like Timothy Leary and Baba Ram Dass. Bob Thurman was one of the students. Ram Dass and Timothy Leary were the professors, right? Anyway, that came out of those. They were looking for spiritual development, an alternative, quick way to solve people's problems. Scientists and everybody else is also focused on the same thing: solving a problem, removing suffering. 0:40:46

Whenever we find something materially, like medicine, it is fantastic, wonderful. In my case, I wouldn't be here today if those medicines were not developed. For sure, I would be long gone. However, they are good and wonderful and they save your life, but they also have a lot of side effects. That is bound to be. The goal is to solve difficulties, removing suffering, whether it is material, scientific or spiritual. People are lacking a perfect spiritual path, although each tradition, Tibetan Buddhist or Thai and other hinayana traditions or Chinese mahayana tradition or Japanese traditions give you something - nothing is comprehensive, honestly. Nothing is comprehensive. For example, if you look into this Japanese tradition where they say NAMO HORANGI YO KYO and beat their little drum. That is Fuji Guru-ji's thing. Actually, what this is saying is a title from the Collected Works of the Buddha, called in Tibetan do to pema karpo - the "White Lotus Sutra". So when they chant NAMO HORANGI YO KYO KYO TO and keep on beating the drum, that means: I bow to the book called "White Lotus Sutra". Then they add up a lot more discipline on it. One of them is that you are not supposed to waste any food. So you have to eat your food and then put water in the plate and drink that at the end. That is the discipline part of it. But they also do great work. They do work for peace. They go in between the wars and try to sit in the middle and beat their drums and they build stupas here and there. That part is great. But the practice is: I bow to the Lotus Sutra. They don't translate that, but keep in the Japanese. That's what it is. This becomes their path. I don't know if people are going to be enlightened out of that. That is not for me to say. You can figure out but analyzing what is the base, what is the path, what is the result.

Similarly, there are so many of these paths, because people are hungry for a spiritual result. People are sick and tired of pain and suffering - honestly. They just want to get rid of it, find some alternative, get some change. That is what people are looking for. So anybody can try anything. But here we have that perfect, wonderful path. Really, leading up to the Buddha level. It doesn't stop at being good, feeling good and that's it. To be good and feel good is not even a result of spiritual practice. You can do that with a lot of material means too. That's why actually many materialist people try to be also good philantropists. They want to feel good and want to do something and they think they have a great spiritual practice. Then others do different things. Some people do a lot of sacrifices. They think they have to sacrifice, like the Chinese mahayana will teach you a lot of difficulties. People who learn in the Chinese mahayana tradition, in the first two years, they just have to make fire out of twigs, without matches. For two years you have to collect little twigs and make fire. You can't do matches, but somehow make fire and boil tea and serve that to the master. Then you drink yourself. For two, three years you train like that. The fire is not supposed to make smoke either. So that becomes part of a spiritual path too.

All these are good things, don't think I am criticizing. I am simply telling you that is what people do. Also the new age, we know, they collect everything from here and there and put them together and make a nice, new thing. I made the biggest mistake. I was walking with Ram Dass and that was after his stroke. I said about something, "That's bad!". He couldn't speak very well and with lots of effort he then said, "What do you mean by 'bad'?" - I forgot, in the new age they don't talk about bad things. Everything is good. So all these things are there.

Here we have that perfect, wonderful path, a path that has been travelled by so many great beings, that is well established. This path is right in front of us. Now we have to take it seriously, very seriously. So I would like to urge those who are listening, who are here, please try to be regular every Tuesday night that we are giving this teaching. Please try to meditate every day, at least for a short period, on the essence of what we have taught. I don't know whether you are really going to do this learning, analyzing and meditating. Some of you may not be able to do it. Some of you may do it. But do meditate every day.

And do not forget the Seven Limbs. That is the essence of purifying, accumulation of merit. 0:50:07

We made the Seven Limbs into seven lines. "I bow down in body, speech and mind", "I offer the best I have to give", and so on. If you look in the lama chöpa, half of it is the Seven Limbs. Two or three shalokas (verses) with four lines each are about the Seven Limbs. If you look in the Ganden Lha Gyema, the Seven Limbs occupy one shaloka each. If you look into the "King of Prayers", the whole thing is about the Seven Limbs. It is available in English. In there, there will be 3, 4 or 5 shalokas for each limb. Most of the rituals and pujas that people do are based on the Seven Limbs. They are the basic mechanical system, through which almost all offering rituals are conducted. Purification, accumulation of merit, making offerings - the generosity aspect. It is all in there.

Remember the Field of Merit. Remember:

kyab ne kun du lama lhak pai lha

thub wang dorje chang la söl wa deb

In the lam rim, particularly in this nyur lam there is Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang. In the Lama Chöpa you have Lama Lobsang Thubwang Dorje Chang. In Ganden Lha Gyema you have Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa with the three castes of Buddha, Manjushri, Avalokitesvara and Vajrapani, or just Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa with the two disciples. Everywhere you look it is different. However, they are all the same. Thubwang Dorje Chang is everywhere.

Remember, Thubwang Dorje Chang was born when the Field of Merit dissolved to the root master and finally Buddha Vajradhara from up there in the blessing lineage dissolves to the root master and that is how Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang is born.

kyab ne kun du lama lhak pai lha

thub wang dorje chang la söl wa deb

This is the essence of the objects of refuge that you use for the Seven Limbs, offerings, purification, and so on and then you begin to focus on the outlines.

Tonight I may not be talking about any particular subject, except 'common with the lower', 'common with the medium' and mahayana. 'Common with the lower' also has actual session and in between session. The actual session also has: pre - actual - and conclusion. This is just like above. The pre - level is

kyab ne kun du lama lhak pai lha

thub wang dorje chang la söl wa deb

up to that it is the same as before, making the Seven Limbed Offering, mandala offering, if possible, the 3 pointed request and finally the Field of Merit dissolves to the five, they to the one, then Dorje Chang comes and dissolves and Thubwang Dorje Chang, the collection of all refuge, is born. You are sitting with that, walking with that and doing everything with that - either on your crown or at your heart level, whatever is most convenient for the individual.

Then you meditate on the outlines. I will be doing the actual part of this next Tuesday. Then we don't have to talk about the prerequisites.

Review of Rimpoche's Activities in Europe

During the gap we had in the teaching here I went to Europe. I went to Jewel Heart Netherlands. I almost met all the different people in Jewel Heart Netherlands, because this time they had different segments. On one weekend I did the Three Principles, that was supposed to be one weekend, but a conference on science and Buddhism took up the Sunday. I had to go early, so it became two sessions from 10 am to 12 and 2 to 3 pm. That's how I did the Three Principles of that Path teachings. The second teaching went over 4 days, from Wed - Saturday; that was the teaching on the Dependent Origination. It was nice to see Alfred and Hartmut there, older European people, senior ones - not by age - and Marianne Soeters and everybody else, also Supa and Kimba. They also came to Italy, where I spent two days yapping and bla ba bing. At the end they wanted to have a White Tara longevity initiation. At the end of the Dependent Origination teaching we had the 21 Taras initiation. The request came from the DCT (dharma coordination team). I also didn't look and just said okay. So the first thing I had to make sure is: did I receive this? Yes, I did. Then I said okay, but when you really look in it, there are 21 different initiations in there! We were able to do it in one day. The last weekend was on the mind and mental faculties. That was done well. Almost 200 members of Jewel Heart Netherlands attended.

The system they have there is totally different from how we do things here. 1:00:15. They describe the whole yearly teaching cycle as a course, which begins in September and ends in June/July, before the summer holidays. They collect all the payments from the people in April, before they start in September. Many of them are paid by the government. We also have now two staff members in Jewel Heart Netherlands who are paid by the City, now it is going to be three. That is quite a different system from there. It functions very well. They have a nice building, probably the same size as this one, but they have also an upstairs level. That's where they want to make apartments and sell them and with that pay off the house. That's how they are going to do it. They talk about the recession, but there is really no recession there. Nobody is losing their job, nobody is losing their house, nobody is losing anything. Somehow the recession is not in the Netherlands. I am sure in most of Europe it is the same. They say that, yes, there is a world recession, but nothing really affects Italy or Germany. France might have some effect, but the Netherlands don't. And there is no effect in Malaysia, Singapore and so on. We talk about world recession, but it looks like it is much more happening here, which is rather unfortunate.

So I went for the first time to Italy, to the Lama Tsongkhapa Institute. It is huge. It looks like an old, big Italian farm in the middle of Tuscany. It is a very beautiful area. They are also running courses, just like Jewel Heart Netherlands does. But people doing it are all residents at the place. There are about 200 people there year round. They have also a five year geshe program. Maybe 30 or 40 people are attending that. They are very good. They had a fire that burnt their temple. That was on the 3rd floor of one side of the building. There is a middle house and two side buildings and on one side, on the 3rd floor is the temple that burnt. So they worked very quickly with the insurance. The day I came in they started repairing the temple. It worked out with the insurance and everything is done. They also told me that they received a lot of donations. I had no idea how much they received. They didn't tell me and I didn't ask. When I got to Germany I learnt that they received a huge amount. They had a meeting to decide to whom to appeal for donations. A lot of people said the appeal should go to Tibetan centers and sympathesizers, but somebody said, "No, just make a general appeal." So they did that on Italian television and radio and CNN picked it up and so they got huge donations and now they are going to build a new building in the middle. They said they already collected money. Also they bought 80 acres of land nearby and they are going to build a monastery. They said the money is almost there, through the donation. So it was just a general appeal. Tuscany is probably very wealthy. When something is burnt in their area, even if it is not a Catholic church, probably everybody writes a check. So they could buy 80 acres of land, make a new building. They said they are going to have a downstairs teaching hall that can hold 500 to 700 people. They will have two apartments on the top, one for the Dalai Lama and one for Lama Zopa. They collected the money already from the donation for the burnt temple. So it was a good luck fire.

So then I came back and went to New York and on Saturday night we had a panel discussion as a fund raiser for Jewel Heart. I was told it was quite successful. There were about 300 people. Lots of people bought lots of tickets, like somebody bought 30 tickets, somebody else bought 20 tickets. I was told we made up to $7,000 for Jewel Heart. So it was quite successful. And that has brought us up to today. So we are here, beginning our usual teachings and it is very nice to see all of you, looking well and I am looking forward to now working every week. I have visitors coming, the Malaysians who support me. The house where I live is their house. It is not my house. So one sister wanted to transfer it in my name, but I didn't. I only transferred 20%, because I had to have some ownership. So it is their house. They support me, but I pay the tax and utilities and everything else, but the house belongs to them. So they are coming to visit. They are also going to go to Garrison for the Three Principles teachings.

Is anyone from here going to Garrison? Quite a lot. How many people are driving? Did you ever think of car pooling? Maybe somebody should organize that. It could be helpful. This is going to the Three Principles for one weekend, starting on Friday and going till Monday morning. Somebody should be in charge for car pooling. It doesn't have to be the office or not even the Sangha Council. That would be helpful.

Thank you so much. Whatever we talked about today, please remember. We didn't teach anything new. But start meditating. I am sure you are continuously meditating, if not, start again as of tomorrow.

Dag gi ji ni sag pe ge wa di......(Dedication)