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20100313GRNYNL1

Heart Sutra, lineage prayer, mandala offering, sang gye chö dang…..

15:34

Do kindly generate pure Bodhimind. If you cannot, then at least think that whatever you are going to do here:listening, talking, thinking, analyzing, meditating, you are doing it for the benefit of all living beings and for that purpose one would like to attain total enlightenment.

Whatever we do here is for the purpose of that. Please generate that even if it is just artificial bodhimind and listen to this teaching. This teaching is the nyur lam or ‘Quick Path. Through it the individual is quickly able to be led to total enlightenment. It is not meant for people who will just simply say, “I know this is all about this and that”, but it is really meant for the individuals who seriously consider achieving something great within the spiritual path – and not just by words alone. It is for those who really would like to get freedom from samsara or the biggest and best goal, which is total enlightenment – the Buddha stage. There are two basic outlines. The first is talking about the lineage. We always do that very quickly because we think it is like telling a story. Traditionally it takes a long time here, talking about the life story of Buddha and at least Maitreya Buddha or Manjushri and then a couple of lineage masters, like Atisha, and then the great Dharma King Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa.

In Tibet you would have been attending a lam rim teaching for about a month or two, every day. It would start at twelve or twelve thirty and go till 5, 6, 7 pm. So then this portion alone one the lineage will at least take 10 days and here we don’t do it. Neither the teacher nor the listeners have the time. We consider it not to be so important and it looks like just storytelling but there are disadvantages too by not doing it. 20:54

One is that the object you would like to achieve will be not very clear. We just call it enlightenment. On the other hand there is a portion later called refuge and within the refuge we do talk about the quality of a Buddha, his knowledge, his personality, his compassion and caring, his power and the qualities of his body, speech and mind. It depends how much time we get. If we have a lot of time we can talk. Sometimes it also depends on the text that you’re using. Some text will give you quite some detail. There is a sutra part of the refuge or then there is a tantra part of refuge. There are the early Indian masters’ teachings on refuge and their commentaries by the earlier Tibetan teachers. That’s all quite detailed. A much shorter and more appropriate explanation for us is available in Je Tsongkhapa’s lam rim chenmo. That’s available in English now in three volumes. If you go below that you have a medium lam rim, which is an abbreviation of the lam rim chenmo. Then you go down and there are other lam rims such as the nyur lam and the even shorter de lam or ‘Smooth Path’. Then you have Pabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hands, which is again more detailed than the nyur lam. I don’t know whether it was a 31 days teaching or something. 24:26

That would have been not more than a month and a half and not less than 20 days, so I am thinking maybe 30 or 31 days or so. So it depends a lot on the text on which you are teaching. In the Gelupa tradition you definitely base your teaching on certain absolutely reliable texts. Otherwise you’ll be just going blah blah blah like last night. I have been saying blah blah all the time. That might not be right. So the qualities of an object of refuge such as a Buddha is important to notice because that is what you are trying to make your goal and if you don’t know anything about it then that’s not very good. But today we can’t spend so much time talking about the lineage but these things are available in English and it is important that you should read them. We are trying to build our knowledge at this moment and through that you should become interested in gaining whatever the qualities the great lineage masters have.

So if you don’t know anything about the quality then what is so great about that? All we can say then is that becoming a Buddha is the Mahayana Buddhist goal. Is that the best explanation we give to ourselves? We don’t go beyond that; we are satisfied. But that means you sort of really shut the door for yourself to reach that goal. So it is good to read about it. There are lots of books on Buddha’s life stories. There are the 10 principal epics of Buddha’s life story; there are the Jataka stories; there are the Avadan stories and there is the story of Buddha’s life called “The wish fulfilling tree”. All of them are available in English I was told. Sometimes when you have extra time just read about it. So you will gain some kind of knowledge. Then when people ask you, “Who is Buddha?” you don’t have to dismiss it with only saying, “He was that Indian prince who became the founder of Buddhism.” That would be slightly not right. Why would you want to become a Buddha then? So sometimes think about that in order to reach to the Buddha level that’s why they talk about the lineage. That first point should be able to convince the individual that they would like to become the same way.

Once convinced then the second step is: How do I get there? What do I do? So then comes the lam rim road map to buddhahood with the three scopes and that has basically two important points: the wisdom path and the compassion path [30:59] All three, the ‘common with the lower’, ‘common with the medium’ and mahayana have to carry wisdom and compassion. The translations will tell you about the “profound” and “vast” paths, but that is referring to compassion/love on one hand and wisdom on the other hand. You have to read it with that understanding. Otherwise you may think that “vast” refers to some huge details and then there is a danger that you’re getting lost in between. So it is really compassion/love in one line and wisdom in the other line. And you don’t have a choice between those. You need both. The compassion lineage of course comes from Buddha Maitreya, Asanga, etc, to the early Indian masters and the wisdom lineage comes from Buddha Manjushri, Nagarjuna, etc to the early Indian masters. Now you may think that the wisdom masters did not have compassion and the compassion masters had no wisdom, but that’s not the case. It is just that these subjects were more emphasized in their lineages.

They sort of specialized, but not in the sense that they do nothing else except their specialty. In the Buddha’s path, to become a Buddha, you don’t have that choice. Everybody has to do both. But you spend more time, you write more about one aspect. Otherwise in the lineage both Manjushri and Maitreya and both Nagarjuna and Asanga are not separated but a slight division has been made because one person has more emphasis on one or the other in their writings and teachings. But we do need both. That’s why you put both together and then it becomes ‘common with the lower’, ‘common with medium’ and the Mahayana. Then it depends on the individual practitioner’s mind whether it is suitable to take all three or only one or only two.

That’s how they have been divided into three and all three have the wisdom aspects and the compassion aspects both. They are equally important and emphasized but the division was made on the ground of the object what you hope to get and the method that you use.

At the ‘common with the medium’ the ultimate object for the individual is to be free from samsar. Nirvana is peace - samsara is suffering. That’s the slogan and that’s the principle. So the goal lies there and the way you use wisdom is no different. The Mahayana wisdom, vajrayana wisdom or theravadan wisdom is one wisdom. That is the reason why even the vajrayana teachings says it is not the wisdom that makes the difference, but it is the mind that is perceiving the wisdom that makes difference. At the compassion level it is supposed to be slightly different. The Theravada, on the ‘common with the lower’ and ‘common with the medium’ levels, has very strong compassion, however it is not completely selfish-less; it is not completely bodhimind- oriented. It is simply compassion, whether relative compassion or absolute compassion. But they don’t have bodhimind.39:03

The definition of bodhimind is seeking the Buddha level for benefitting all beings. At the Theravadan level, i.e at the ‘common with the lower’ and ‘common with the medium’ levels, we don’t have that idea of benefitting all living beings or obtaining enlightenment to serve all living beings. They are not in the picture. These levels don’t talk about it; they don’t think about it; is not in their vocabulary. That’s why at the level of compassion there is a difference, rather than at the level of wisdom. The goals are different. At the ‘common with the lower’ level you are seeking a perfect, good, wonderful future life. They don’t say it but it is their goal. At the medium level you will seek total freedom from samsara. At the lower level you are not sacrificing this life for the sake of future lives but aim at gaining a perfect good future life. You need a good life here and that will bring a good death, which will bring a good rebirth and ensure the future life. The goal of ‘common with the lower’ is almost like that, though they don’t say it. That’s why the individual person is practicing the root of all development guru devotion, then the embracing of the human life and impermanence and not so much karma. So when you get to the refuge level you’re shifting yourself from the ‘common with the lower’ into the ‘common with the medium’ level. So then your scope is different and you’re looking not only from birth to death and to one future life. You are looking at life after life - before life and after life. It is the panoramic view of who you are. Therefore you are also moving the target of your negation or object of negation. It is not so much about laziness and lack of interest but it is more the ignorance, the ego - the creator of suffering. If you really look there is a creator of suffering and there is a creator of joy.

The creator of the suffering is the ego- ignorance. Traditionally it is called ignorance. If you look in the circle of existence you have the three poisons in the middle, then death and rebirth and then you have the 6 realms, and then beyond that, what keeps the whole wheel together is the 12 links and down there at the lowest part of those links there is sometimes the depiction of an old man striking his own eyes with an arrow. This represents not seeing as well as confusion. So traditionally it is called ignorance and it is the root of all suffering. It is all because of wrong knowing and that creates karma, which creates the results and that’s how the other 10 links are created one after another. This outer rim of the 12 links keeps all spokes together. The good way of looking is keeping the whole thing together, the bad way of looking shows you how the whole thing is a prison. 46:07

As spiritual practitioners are we are changing our own level, our own goal. We are supposed to have achieved our goal already, the lower goal of making sure our future life is okay. In order to make sure it is okay then in this life you don’t do wrong things - you don’t make mistakes. You avoid negativity and build positivity and when there is no cause for suffering it is guaranteed that there will be no result of suffering. That is how the ‘common with the lower’ level will ensure the individual has no suffering for whatsoever.

Up to here

You will eradicate the root creator of suffering within you completely. So this ego-ignorance combination is the target, this not knowing or whatever, this stupid one. You are attacking the target by using the Three Higher Trainings of the mind or the Three Basket Teachings. Morality is the base. The others are wisdom and concentration. By utilizing these you destroy that very stupid target and ensure that you are not going to be subject to abuse of your own ego. When you have achieved that you begin to be concerned about the other ones, my loved ones, the family, the extended family, the friends and so and forth and then ultimately all living beings. In the eyes of the Buddha every living being is very close to everybody, their nearest and dearest, even the most hated enemy. Buddha sees the past, present and future of everyone without obstacle. That means in true reality everyone has been most nearest, our true reality. Everyone has been our most hated enemy. It’s true; no one can deny that. Thinking of an enemy will not benefit anybody but thinking of the most nearest and dearest benefits everybody. That’s why Buddha chose to guide people on the path of love and compassion, so much so that he tells us every living being has been our mother [51:13]

That is such an extreme statement that we cannot easily adjust to. We may dismiss it. To really make sense of it you have to have the background of reincarnation; otherwise you will never accept that. You will say, “I know who my mom is.” We are not stupid; our mind will really block us there. But so far somehow you people are so kind and let that pass through. You are probably thinking that it is Buddha’s teaching or I don’t know what you think. Maybe you say it is the Buddhist way of thinking. But if you really meditate you wouldn’t let this one go through so easily. Why did you buy that statement? It is kind and generous because it comes from Buddha and the Buddhist background. That’s why we just let it go. But the moment you think about it that’s not enough. I know that my mom is not you and you are not my mom, right? You are younger than me or whatever. Without the background of reincarnation it never makes sense. It can only make sense when you begin to realize this is not the only life you have. Is there past and future lives? These are lam rim points. Some people think that the lam rim is nothing special, that in the lam rim they tell you first you say A, second you say B, third you say C and lastly you say Z and that’s the lam rim. But that’s not right. 5451

That’s not even lam rim. The lam rim really goes from this ordinary today’s level to extraordinary total enlightenment. It tells you how to get there, what difficulties you will encounter, what methods you can use to overcome them, what is the quickest and best way. So there is nothing better than lam rim. A lot of people today say, “lam rim is a preliminary practice, in which they talk to you about the guru or about the precious life.” But then you really think I through it is the whole thing. It is not just a preliminary or prerequisite. It is the whole actual path, capable of leading the individual to a total enlightenment. Not only is it capable, but one of the best ones. That’s why you can’t think of every being as your mother being without thinking on reincarnation.

So then comes the question of reincarnation. When you are convinced the reincarnation is true then every time there’s a different life you have a different mother. Some of the lives may not have a mother, sure. You just get born out of heat or moisture. So altogether some do some don’t. In some lives you are born out of an egg and that probably has a mother. But that is not the only life. You need more than one. Then at the end you cannot say that any particular being has never been your mother in a previous life. When you get to that level it contributes more also to equanimity, a subject which you’re supposed to have already mastered by then. But looking back at it, the understanding of reincarnation contributes to understand that better. You will not have such a black-and-white view of enemy and friend. That will be begin to fade away and not be so vivid. It will soften and not be so strong and eventually disappear. So these points go back and forth. 59:43

So if with equanimity you recognize all beings as mother beings, once you are convinced of that, then you know it is the truth. Lives change and you get different mothers. This life’s mother is not going to be your mother for life after life. Your mother could next time round be your daughter or son. All these possibilities come in once you’ve unlocked this sort of strict thinking. You see that everything is possible. I think we can call this open-mindedness. You are not rigid in one sort of culture or custom. You are not addicted to that way of thinking. That could be good or bad too. Don’t you ever think great opening and changing is always the best. That’s not true. People like “change”. Everyone was so excited during the Obama election, waiting for “change”. I was the only one who said that yes, it’s wonderful that he says we go and change, that you and I will go and rewrite history and turn the page and change the channels. But changes are you really going to make? He never said what change is coming. So change is not necessarily great but being ready for change is openness and change is unavoidable. It will take place no matter what.

How is that? Because it is dependent arising, depending on causes and conditions and so on. During my Tricycle Talks somebody asked, “How does karma work?” While I was talking into the camera the thought came to my mind to look at the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. The suffering caused by the Haiti earthquake was much stronger, although the strength of the earthquake itself was much stronger in Chile than in Haiti. The Chile one was 8.something and the Haiti one was 7.something. So the Chile earthquake was much stronger, but the resulting suffering in Chile was much less because of factors such as better enforced rules and regulations for building codes and housing systems. This is the change in the conditions that we talked about.

The condition of the buildings in Haiti contributed much more to the suffering, the number of lives lost, the number of buildings destroyed. I’m talking about only the earthquake. I’m not talking about the rain water and the monsoon and all this. I am simply talking about two earthquakes put it together to show you a clear example how the causes and conditions affect the results. If there is no cause, then no matter how bad the conditions maybe the structure will still remain. That’s like in Nepal – there is nothing solid there, just the bricks going all the way up there and these buildings stand. Because nothing is shaking, nothing falls. If the earth would shake even just a little bit the whole thing will collapse because there is nothing solid there, just brick over brick. Some of the newer buildings may have a little cement put in between but het older buildings are only bricks and mud. 108:17

Therefore, if there’s no cause, then even if the conditions are poor nothing happens. That is how causes and conditions effect. That’s also important when you think of the continuation of lives. Mind you, it is the same old person going from identity into another identity. It’s not a stranger. We don’t remember our past lives and maybe it is better. If we remembered all the horrible things of all our lives we won’t be able to handle it at this moment. So that’s an advantage for us not to have the memory of previous lives - also not seeing the future. There is too much suffering. The samsaric gods are supposed to see where they come from and where they’re going to go. So the last seven days of their life are much more torture than a whole life’s joy. So we are lucky we don’t see previous and future lives, otherwise we would go crazy. But then if you understand the life and when you have no problem then it’s fine because your understanding can overcome the shock and the worry and the regret. 110:48

And vice versa – rejoicing, sadness, happiness - all can be handled by the capacity of the individual. Then we will know and that’s fine. Then you know how to handle it. So these are the steps that lead us towards spiritual development which is total knowledge. I didn’t teach anything this morning and it is already noon and people may have things to do – so better stop on time. Have a good lunch.

Mandala offering - Thank you