Archive Result

110

20090523GRGR3P4 Sat evening

Questions and Answers:

Audience: About oral transmission. We missed the first 2 sessions of this retreat. Thus we missed the oral transmission. How can we repair the oral transmission?

Rimpoche: If you were not here then you have to re-hear that. I will see if I can do it some time. Just reading it will not be that difficult. But just 2 sessions doesn't mean anything. If you missed the first 2 sessions of reading the oral transmission, if you were not there, you missed it. Even if you went to the bathroom you missed it. Honestly, that's what it is. You have to try to sit there. Anybody else who missed a session and really wants to have the oral transmission? If you think yes it's okay, I don't care, then you don't need it. If you are in New York we can do that sometime as a private arrangement.

Audience: Can recordings serve as oral transmission?

Rimpoche: No, no, they don't help. I don't think so.

Audience: I have a question about consciousness continuing. If your mental faculties such as memory are not all intact at death are you still able to use the stages of death on the path to enlightenment?

Rimpoche: Interesting question. During death a lot of the gross mental faculties will pack up. I don't think you will have memory. Some people may have memory, some don't. Depends on the person. You are strongly forgetting and disconnecting. But it is the individual person's job, as long as you can remember, to try to put the focus on something positive and virtuous, something that you are used to, so that you don't slip out. Whether it is compassion, wisdom or even thinking of Buddha, Guru and yidams, you should do something that you are used to and can maintain your focus on, so that it doesn't get disconnected. Apart from that, the mental faculties are likely to fail. Consider them to fail. So until they fail you have to push strongly. That is not meant in the sense of physically forcing the focus, even holding your hands tight. I don't mean it that way, but as much as you can try to maintain focus.

Just before Allen Ginsberg passed away, he called me and said that Peter had not received the teaching on the Uncommon Inconceivable, but had done something in Shambala and he asked me whether Peter could type up the Uncommon Inconceivable and enlarge it and hang it up near his bed where he could see it. I said that this would be fine. I don't know whether they were able to do that later or not. I didn't see anything hanging there. Like that, anything you want to add up, any aids you can give, either through hearing, seeing, somebody talking to the person who is passing away, making sure that they are not distracted or disturbed, is what you have to do. The mental faculties are going to shut down for sure.

Audience: While we are still alive but deteriorating, are we still able to continue?

Rimpoche: The mental faculties will shut down for sure, but for as long as you can focus you should. Once they have shut down another factor takes over. You sort of get carried through. The death process itself will lead you to the quiet state. Within that quiet state it carries through, whether you remember or not, the effect will remain there and then you transit. That's my understanding.

Audience: This is about renunciation. Various phrases and words have been used for 'renunciation'. Can you explain the Tibetan word from which these are translated.

0:10:46

Rimpoche: It is nge jung. That should give you the idea of clearly seeing the faults and almost like you are going to throw up. That much dislike one has and that makes you turn away from it. A good example for me is when I was around 9 or 10 years old we used to get these strange oranges from China. They were smashed along with the skin and sugar-coated. As kid I used to love that. A couple of them might have been rotten. When they are dry you don't know. So I ate them and got really sick - for a little longer period, not just a stomach ache for a few days. Since then for a long time the moment I smell oranges I am ready to throw up - good or bad ones. They can be the best oranges every possible, like the ones from Sikkim and Bhutan. They are like mandarines, but bigger and really wonderful. Even then I couldn't touch them. I was ready to throw up. That is the perfect example of nge jung. You realize how bad it is.

Right now we have so much strong attachment to samsara's delights. When you realize that this is suffering and cause of suffering, that it creates difficulties, then that will be like me looking at oranges. It took me a long time to begin to even take oranges. It was probably 15 - 20 years later that I could eat an orange again. I am having the same reaction to pineapples, even now. I don't know why. I don't remember getting sick from pineapples. But for me the good part of the pineapples is just their look. They make a good direction. They look like a nice, big chunk.

The last time Lochö Rimpoche was here another Rimpoche came to see him. That was here in Garrison. Lochö Rimpoche looked at him and gave him a pineapple that was sitting on the table in his room. That was so funny. It was funny for me that time. It looks like a nice gift, but....that't the only thing it is good for.

Audience: What is the relationship between renunciation and emptiness?

Rimpoche: They are put separately, but they will help each other tremendously. Individual people have to study and meditate on them separately. You have to gain realizations separately. Renunciation is the prerequisite I would say. Emptiness will cut the root of samsara forcefully. Renunciation will make you want to cut samsara. Otherwise we will think that is great and a wonderful thing. For every fault of samsara we can find a nice little excuse of adjustment, like "Well, it is the reality", or "You are not alone, everyone goes through this", and "it is part of nature". With all this we give a little justification. Maybe that justification is good for an individual so that they are not overtaken by sadness or sorrow or depression, but still it is a justification. It is a method to make the individual not feel so bad, trying to protect them falling into big sufferings from a loss or whatever. That also because we are not ready to cut and let it go. Renunciation makes you feel that it is possible that you could and should do it. Renunciation alone doesn't cut the root of samsara. It makes it possible for you do it. Otherwise you would not even be willing to do it. You would like to continue in samsara, because you think it is good. There are good things in samsara, like there are Lamborghinis to drive and there is Calvados to drink.

0:21:04

Audience: Are there different steps leading to renunciation? If so could you describe them?

Rimpoche: That will come during these teachings

Audience: In show business that's what's called a setup.

Rimpoche: Thank you. (laughs)

All right. So Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa says that if you are interested you should listen.

GANG TAK SI PEY DE LA MA CHAK SHING

DAL JOR DÖN YÖ JA CHIR TSÖN PA YI

GYAL WA GYE PEY LAM LA YI TÖN PEY

KAL DEN DE DAK DANG WEY YI KYI NYÖN

Not addicted to samsara’s delights,

fulfilling the mission of precious life

pursuing the fully reliable path,

listen with a clear mind, you fortunate one.

That is nice, really. "Not addicted to samsara's delight" - GANG TAK SI PEY DE LA MA CHAK SHING - those who are not influenced by attachment. Attachment is one thing. Addiction is another thing. Addiction makes the attachment prolonged and strong and continuous. If you are addicted to samsara's delights you will not be interested in the Three Principles of the Path. Why should you? Why should you renounce? Why do you care what the buddhas and bodhisattvas like or not? So those who like to listen to this should not be addicted to samsara's delights.

This tells you: Cut samsara's delights. Don't get addicted.

DAL JOR DÖN YÖ JA CHIR TSÖN PA YI

fulfilling the mission of precious human life.

Human life is so precious and so important. Buddha talks about the eighteen qualities. By the way each and every one of us here in this room as well as those who are listening on line and those who will listen and read later have the most precious human life. Every one of us really has it. There may be some challenge, some handicap here and there. Some may not be able to see or hear, because of physical challenges. But even then you have a most precious life because of your mind. The capacity of our mind is such that the sky is the limit. Honestly. That's why total enlightenment is possible at the human level. Not even the samsaric gods can do it - unless you go up to the 17th level, to Ogmin (Skt: Akanishta). Other than that it is not possible, although the god realms are higher realms. But human capacity is so much. Such a capable life has purpose. We have a mission to fulfill. We don't get that chance very often. It is very difficult to find - from the example point of view, from nature's point of view, from the causal point of view. In the lam rim we talk about that all the time. It is very rare, like the blue moon. We happen to have it in this life. If we waste this opportunity then it is gone. Wasting it is not difficult. Minutes waste the hour. Hours waste the day. Days waste the week. The weeks waste the month. Months waste the year. Years waste the life. Wasting our life is not only easy - it is happening. We have been doing it. Such a precious, capable life and we are doing nothing with it.

From Buddha's point of view anything other than total happiness or joy is wasted. But from our ordinary point of view, if you cannot contribute anything from the capacity of this life then it is wasted. You may have this good wonderful life, a wonderful, intelligent mind, a great education, yet you do nothing. Sometimes a good tree rots under the skin. That's exactly what's happening in our life.

Why is that happening? We are addicted to certain things. Those of us who are addicted to something will know. I am addicted to junk news. Sometimes I just sit there and run and re-run the news on CNN three or four times without even realizing. Here are the same, old news that have come four or five times already. There are people who are addicted to discovery. Then there are people who are addicted to substances, like alcohol. The addiction takes your time away from being able to do useful things. If I didn't watch junk news so much I could have achieved something. (Amy would not be smiling a me - in other words, if I wasn't addicted to the news I would have finished my book by now.) So addiction takes away your achievements.

When you are addicted to samsara's delights you are only looking for more of that. And then you don't even get it. You may get something once, but then you can't get it again and you get hung up on that. That is not suitable for the Three Principles of the Path.

Because of this addiction you cannot fulfill the mission of your life. Buddha has given us, his followers, a mission for this life: to liberate ourselves from samsara and obtain total enlightenment and lead everybody to that same state.

There is a mahayana mission and a hinayana mission. The hinayana mission is to liberate yourself. The mahayana mission is not only to obtain total enlightenment but to lead everybody to that state. It is a very, very important assignment given by Buddha to his followers.

0:34:32

We all claim to admire Buddha's teaching, because Buddha taught what he knew and saw. Jamgön Tsongkhapa called him a "teacher without equivalent" because of that. He said, "Because you taught interdependent origination you are without equivalent." But if you really want to follow Buddha, he has given us a mission. He is challenging us, "This is what I achieved. Why can't you?" We can't get there because we are addicted to samsara's delights. It could be a nice glass of wine. It could be little bon fire or nice warm cozy spot in front of a fire place. It could be a couple of joints or some prescription pills - maybe some Demerol. That was in the old times. Whatever it may be, any addiction will take you away from your mission, from the purpose of your life. The Buddha has given us a tremendously heavy responsibility for this wonderful precious human life combined with this mind. We can achieve liberation or even total enlightenment. Liberation is for our personal sake and enlightenment to benefit all beings. This is the mission of our life.

We cannot do this in any other life. Can you image fulfilling that sort of mission if you are a dog or a cat or any other life form? Even a peacock cant' do this, though it is a nice and wonderful thing.

(to the audience:) What have you found there? Another spider? Oh, a hornet. You have to get a glass and cover it and take it out. Well, if you are a hornet you cannot fulfill that mission.

Audience: He is trying.....

Rimpoche: He is trying to fulfill it but he can't. So we have to throw him out (laughter)

So a person who is not addicted to samsara's delight and would like to fulfill the purpose of life and who has an interest in the path that Buddha has shown, this person is addressed by Jamgön Tsongkhapa as "fortunate one". He says: "Do listen with interest."

0:40:18

Maybe I am going to read the oral transmission here.......

0:42:29

What Pabongka is emphasizing here is is not only those of us who are supposed to be qualified, not attached, not addicted to samsara's delight, who would like to fulfill the mission of life, who have the interest in the path that Buddha has shown, fortunates ones.

If the fortunate ones have interest then the purpose of life is to achieve buddhahood or at least liberate oneself. For that you need a practice, a path and that has to be an unmistakable, complete path, not a wrong path. Such a disciple should also have qualities, like Nagarjuna says in the "Four Hundred Verses":

Mind is not prefabricated, wisdom with interest - these are qualified disciples

We talked about being free of the three faults earlier and then there are the six mindfulnesses. These are normally clearly mentioned in the lam rim.

rang la ne pa ta pei dü chi

chö la men kyi dü chi

de zhin shek pa la men pai dü chi

chö kyi tso la yen run du tso wai dü chi

now I forgot the last two.

Thinking that oneself is a patient with lots of chronic diseases

Thinking that the Dharma is the medicine that can cure those diseases

Thinking that the Buddha is the doctor who can administer those medicines

Looking at Buddha as an extraordinary person

Wanting to remain in the dharma atmosphere for a long time

Maybe I missed one [from nyur lam teachings: last one is: Practice is the actual cure[[[

These are the Six Mindfulnesses of dharma teachings. [Also known as Six Recognitions when listening to dharma teachings[[[

So people who have all these, should listen to this teaching on the Three Principles.

According to the lam rim tradition the praise of the masters in the first line is to prove the authenticity of the lineage and its masters and tell their life stories. So that part is covered by the line "Homage to the Great Masters". The qualities of the author are in this case Buddha. The first verse "Heart of the Buddha's teachings", etc, marks the qualities of the dharma. The very last verse which we just read covers how to listen and how to teach. According to the lam rim you have that, right? So that completed the preliminary part in accordance with the lam rim.

So now we reach to the actual Three Principles. That has four outlines:

Renunciation

Bodhimind

Wisdom

How one should practice

Renunciation

That has also three subsections

1. Why renunciation is necessary

2. How to develop renunciation

3. Sign of achieving renunciation

1. Why renunciation is necessary

The root text says

3. NAM DAK NGE JUNG ME PAR SI TSO YI

DE DRE DÖN NYER ZI WAI TAB ME LA

SI LA KAM PA YI KYANG LÜ CHEN NAM

KÜN NE CHING CHIR THOK MAR NGE JUNG TSEL

Lacking the determination to be free,

you remain stupefied by samsara’s delights.

Since obsession ropes all beings to samsara,

first free yourself from it.

In order to free ourselves from samsara it is necessary to have the desire to be free. In order to develop that desire you have to have no attachment to anything regarding the samsara, none at all. If you have some even slight attachment you won't be able to free yourself because you still want it. A certain deep part of the mind cannot let it go. There is always desire and that's why you keep on circling and coming back. That is very common with us. Particularly when there is some kind of set back, something that pushes you back you even get mad. You get out of the way to get it. Unfortunately the example that comes up in my mind has something to do with the Tibetans. That is because it is my experience, my childhood and so on. I am sure there are equivalent things happening in the west. If I were aware of it that would make a wonderful quotation. But I only know about the Tibetan things. If you have a little set back you get mad and jump even deeper into it, instead of letting it go. That always happens. But that might not be the right place to talk, so I better keep my mouth shut about this Tibetan example.

Suppose a prisoner thinks, "The prison is okay; I get food, shelter, medical care and everything. So why should I bother trying to get out? As long as I can live here it is much better for me." If you think that way you really don't want to get out of prison. On the contrary. You try to remain in prison as long as you can. That's what attachment to samsara's delights does. It tries to keep you in as much as you can.

If you don't have the desire to cut the attachment you will never have the desire to free yourself. Attachment or obsession to samsaric things really binds every living being to remain in samsara, the circle of life, this continuation. The first and foremost then is to have renunciation. That is the reason we are giving. In order to get ourselves free from samsara we have to know what samsara is. How is it that I am tied in this? Is there a possibility that I will be free? These questions rise in our minds.

What is samsara? That is a Sanskrit word. Often it is translated as circle of life, continuation of life. But what does that really mean? Buddha says samsara is suffering, nirvana is peace. What is nirvana? You have to raise that question in yourself. Many of you are aware of what samsara is. We hear that we are tied to samsara, that we are stuck. It sounds like there is some kind of glue and we are stuck and can't move. On the other hand it is like bondage, like being tied by ropes. The rope of samsara is attachment.

I have an answer of what samsara is. It is some sort of pre-prepared slogan but you have to get yourself to understand it.

Samsara is the continuation of contaminated identity.

Traditional Buddhist texts will say: Continuation of contaminated form. But it is the identity.

1:00:01

Who is tied and bound by the ropes of attachment? What is it tied to? The physical identity. That is why we need to free ourselves. Sometimes we tie and animal to a pillar with a rope. The rope here is attachment. The pillar is the contaminated identity. The continuation of that is samsara. When you try to free yourself you try to free yourself from that. It is not that this place is samsara. It is not a dirty, filthy slum in Calcutta. It is not the point of getting away from that and coming to a beautiful New York zoo or something. Samsara is within ourselves. Nirvana is also within ourselves. There is nothing out there. There is a relationship with the external world, but it is not the external world. Some people point outside and say, "From the sky to the ground, this is all samsara." But the sa cha nyie len kyi pung pö gyun, the continuation of contaminated identity as well as entity, that is samsara.

Getting out of samsara happens when you make the contaminated identity uncontaminated.

Pabongka clearly says in his commentary:

What ties you? Your negative karma and negative emotions. Where do they tie you to? Your physical form. Getting out of that is called liberation. In order to get liberation you have to understand that anything to do with this is suffering by nature. You feel bad and sad about it and almost want to throw up. The stronger the feeling of throwing up the better the renunciation. If your renunciation is not that strong then you cannot give up samsara's delights. Therefore it is very important for us to have the desire to cut that out.

(Rimpoche reads more of the oral transmission)

1:08:25

In essence Pabongka Rimpoche emphasizes here what is samsara, how one gets tied into samsara, where it is tied, what ties you. In short, if there is no strong desire to liberate yourself, you cannot go easily to renunciation. Renunciation is must. Just like there, you see it also in the lam rim, both in the small and the medium scope. Though it doesn't say directly, but it is compassion for yourself. If you care for yourself, if you are addicted, then you have to try to get rid of that addiction. Otherwise that is going to destroy you. We all know that. We know it is difficult and we know it is suffering and hard to get rid of; however we have to do it. Just like what, if you care for yourself you have to cut the addiction. Likewise here: if you have compassion to yourself you have to cut the attachment to samsara's delight. That is the one that really confuses us and the one that makes us not let it go. If it was only suffering over suffering and pain over pain, who wants this? But it gives you some kind of little delight here and there, a spark here and a spark there and that maintains samsara's continuity. Buddha is saying: cut that out. Total enlightenment it born from bodhimind. Bodhimind is born from compassion.

From one way, compassion is compassion for others. If you look at yourself, it is compassion for yourself and that is actually the renunciation.

1:11:56

It is a compassionate act to take care of yourself. Especially if you do not know how to handle yourself, then all the compassion and caring for others is just words; not really deeds. You can't do it, because you have no way to know what to do. Knowing what to do to help others is based on what you can do for yourself. The renunciation will:

a: liberate you

b: teach you how to help others.

Not only the renunciation works as liberation for yourself but also prepares you how to help others. How often do we say that the personal experience is so important? This is it. The personal experience of liberating yourself is renunciation and teaching that, bringing that to other people, letting them do as you do, that is compassion.

Pabongka quotes Atisha,

You Tibetans know bodhisattvas who does not know how to practice love and compassion!

That's because you do not have renunciation for yourselves.

Whether the Tibetans know such bodhisattvas or not, but the Americans definitely do. Now it is sort of trendy to learn love/compassion meditation. It is almost a subject. There is mindfulness meditation and love/compassion meditation. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you. We wish you all to be happy. We wish you all to be free.

We sing that too: may all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. May all beings have the joy that has never known suffering.

It seems to have nothing to do with me. It is totally facing outwards. That becomes a brand: love/compassion meditation. Atisha further scolded the Tibetans:

You Tibetans know a compassion that has nothing to do with renunciation.

I am not sure whether the Tibetans did or did not know. Maybe they had that problem and gave it up because of Atisha. Now the Americans are picking up the problem. The Europeans are even worse. It is fashionable to categorize the meditations in mindfulness meditation and love/compassion meditation. They are all in their boxes, with labels on them and you can sit over there and say: "Situation under control. This crazy thing called meditation! Now we have organized them all and put them in their own respective places and identified, sorted and catalogued them according to classification."

If we do that then it has nothing to do with our mind. It has nothing to do with interpersonal matters. It is simply another zoo-object or something that ends up in the Smithsonian Institute later. If it becomes like that it is very unfortunate.

Renunciation won't let you do that. That's why here we are talking about renunciation very strongly and powerfully. It is a very difficult one. But then each and every one of them you can bring renunciation in at a smaller level, at certain focal points. That's what we do. We try to bring people out of substance addiction. We try to bring them away from alcohol addiction through the 12 step method. That is renunciation. You are renouncing certain things that you are attracted to, but on a smaller scope. Buddhism's total goal is full enlightenment. So we have a larger scope. But if you zoom in you can point out certain particular points. That's what we do too. We do the 12 step programs. Now there are a lot of new ones, trying to get rid of certain problems. You are renouncing the things you are addicted to.

1:20

But in Buddhism, since we are talking about total enlightenment and total liberation of samsara, it becomes a bigger scope. Now we can't handle that. We go "Ohhhh", and it is bigger than our head, bigger than the sky. But if you start zooming down, then the same thing works for problem A and problem B. That's how we can handle it. The basic idea is this. That's what the Buddha said.

So tonight we covered the need for renunciation. Tomorrow we will talk about the actual renunciation. That will be

1. in order to cut attraction to the materials of this life

2. in order to cut attraction to future lives

The reason why you need renunciation is because we know that this is not good for you. So you have to get away from it. Even in our material world, if you are addicted to something you will try whatever you can to cut the addiction. You go to the AA meetings and do the 12 step program and all of them. They are small scope renunciation, trying to renounce the substance abuse against yourself. So what is so Greek about that? Nothing.

So whatever we said today we dedicate our virtues for positive achievements.

Conclusion Prayers:

Dag gi ji nyi sag pe ge wa di .....

sa zhi pokyi....

gang ri ra wai shing kam der.....

pa ma sem chen tham che de tar den gyur chig

ngen dro tham che tak du tu wa tar

jang chub sem pa kan no su jug pa

de tar kun kyi mön lam drub gyur chig

chö kyi gyal po tsongkhapa....

da dang shen gi du sum dang....

mig me tse wai........

Good night.