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Welcome everybody here. This is the beginning of this year’s serious teaching. This will continue for not just a couple of weekends, but a couple of months. My understanding is that people are online listening in Ann Arbor, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia and Nebraska.

What we are going to teach is Jamgong Lama Tsong Khapa’s shortest lam rim. Some of you have had the teachings a number of times, or at least once before, but many of you did not have this teaching. I’d like to talk to you about what we normally call lam rim. This is an interesting thing. In one way, if you listen to this word, lam rim, which people translate as stages of the path to enlightenment, people will try to get a different title, just to convey the message.

Even in my own case, I taught a course called Odyssey to Freedom. There’s even a little booklet entitled, “Odyssey to Freedom.” They will talk about Tsong Khapa’s short lam rim, Nyur Lam, which we talked about two years ago. There are all different lam rims which we taught. But they are all lam rims. (22:15)

What does that mean? That really means the individual person; wherever, whatever, whoever we may be today. From here, where are we going to go in our spiritual path? What is the goal? How am I planning to achieve that goal? Let’s say you’re traveling from here. Where am I going? How do I plan to go? How am I going to get over there? That is actually what lam rim is all about.

We all say we are spiritual practitioners. Many of us don’t even know what that is all about. We talk about it, and honestly, many of us don’t know what spiritual really is. We have our way of thinking. Sometimes we think if it’s not mechanical, or scientific, then it is spiritual.

A lot of people will say, “If you drink wheat grass juice, and you’re vegetarian, then it is spiritual.” This lam rim tradition, in essence, what they do, they will try to introduce us first to who we are and what we are, and what situation we are in. Then we also introduce you to, ‘what is your spiritual goal?’ The best, medium and the least, like three different levels of goals. Also, how does one get to the goal, from here to there? How?

And that also; first they will introduce you. Second, they will explain to us, third they try to make it smooth and perfect. That is the learning aspect of it. The learning is not the only aspect. Whatever you learn, then you have to practice. The practice will go in two ways. One, in one hand, building good karma/merit; they call it merit, good karma.

Simultaneously, purifying, reducing, eradicating negative karma. These two are absolutely necessary. Then third, meditation. So, the tools that lam rim introduces to you are three things. Learning about it, practicing about it and meditating about it. All three together, simultaneously. (27:44)

That is what this lam rim practice is all about it. It is not one. Not learning only; no. A little bit of learning is necessary because we are traveling [a road] which we have no idea what is all about it. So, if you don’t learn, how do you get it? These are the three things. Before we do anything, I would like you to hear this: learning, practicing, meditating, all simultaneously. Because we don’t have time to learn about it, and then practice about it, and then meditate.

When it was done before, in the seventh century, eighth century, ninth and tenth century, yes; and eleventh century, they did it that way. Then afterwards, they couldn’t do that, because people don’t have that much time or opportunity. Before that, probably they had nothing else to do. Even when you look back to the Tibetans, from the eleventh century to the twentieth, probably, from our point of view, they had nothing else to do. But from their point of view, they’ve been very busy.

So many things to do. They have to have a life. If you are a monk, you have to go to a monastery or nunnery and follow their rules. They studied their catacombs and all that. If you are a layperson, you have to live your life, you have to bring your family and be responsible for everything. Even if you are a nomad, you’re responsible for your family, you’re responsible for your animals, you’re responsible for your products. If you are a farmer, you have a responsibility to feed the people. The growing season is very short in Tibet. All that you have to do.

We say we don’t have time. True, true, we don’t have time. It’s true we don’t have time. But we have time for everything else. Number one, we have time to talk. We keep on talking all the time. We don’t have time, ‘I’m so busy, so busy, so busy, I’m behind, buh buh buh;’ still you talk. That takes time you forgot. (32:04)

And everything else. So busy, so we don’t have much time. Honestly, we don’t have much time. Really, the true deadline is the impermanence; particularly the impermanence of your own life. That is the true deadline. You can neither extend, nor the wait (?33:06). So, we are talking about the no time. That is truly no time. When you look back, like me, I’ve wasted about 70 years. So that’s it. Seventy long years gone.

So similarly, each one of you, maybe you’re young, in your twenties, which means you’re young, and this and that, but on the other hand, twenty is gone. That’s true, no time will be the true deadline. No time will be that. So whatever, there is something there, you have to get yourself the result. If you don’t, then the same thing repeats. What do you call it, samsara? The same thing will repeat, countless times.

Many of those lives do not have the intelligence that we have, the capability that we have. This is somehow by chance. It is almost by sheer luck that we have that. Then, you have to achieve something. Because if you don’t achieve, the same thing will happen, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes you’ll go to a hell realm. Sometimes you’re born as an animal. Sometimes you’re born as a hungry ghost. Sometimes you’re born as a samsaric god.

All of them, who created ourself? Nobody else. Who controlled? Our karma controlled. We don’t control. If we control, we want to be good. So by the time when we are managing, we have no control whatsoever. It is like you are going through something, whatever it may be. That’s how, most of the time, we went through death. We just went through, because events are taking place, time is going, the individual is passing through. We hope for the best, but we almost can do nothing, honestly. (37:46)

Last weekend, there were Tibetan kids together here, at the YMCA on the upper west side, 50 or 60 of them. One of them asked me, “What happens when you die?” The suitable example I could think of at that time was, when you’re dying, you’ll be taken away, like those autumn leaves that are taken by a storm. You have no idea, the dry, autumn leaves on the floor, have no idea. The wind will come and carry you in the air, and you have no idea where they are going to carry you.

Suddenly you’ll be dropped somewhere. Neither the wind nor the leaf has any idea or plan; none. Because of the air circulation, you’re taken up in the air, and you’ll be flying, and you’ll be carried wherever you are carried; either to the next block, or the next street, or wherever. Maybe in the slum, or maybe in the sea or water, you have no idea. They are just going to drop you there, and you are dropped.

That’s exactly what happens when we die. We neither have control, nor a plan. We hope for the best, of course, but the actual reality is, the time is going; you’re going. Then they drop you, and then what we call the next life, happens. Whether it’s going to be good or bad, you have no idea.

That has been with us. We did that so many times. The suffering we went through. The sweat that got out of our physical body. If it were collected in one area, it could be bigger than the ocean. This was said by so many earlier teachers. The physical bodies that we have lost, the corpses that we have produced, if collected in one area, will be bigger than Mount Everest. That is the reality of what we went through. Do I have scientific proof? No. Can any scientist deny that? No. That is what the earlier Buddhist teachers have told us.

There’s even a biblical-type story in Buddhism. One of those disciples went through a magical power, seeing himself through previous lives, all the physical bodies, actually not decomposed. There are other stories like that. That is the reality.

Now is the opportunity, because now we can think, we can understand, we can make a difference in this life. That is absolutely true. If you look at other lives, see, if you are a dog or a cat, no matter how intelligent the dog or cat may be, they cannot make that much difference. They cannot express. Their intelligence is limited. That’s that.

This lam rim will tell us what to do. Whether it is a short lam rim or a long lam rim, it doesn’t matter. A long one will tell you in a very detailed way. A short one will tell you the essence. For us, sometimes the shorter lam rims are more convenient, because we are so busy.

In essence, when we talk about a longer lam rim, like Tsong Khapa’s Lam Rim Chen Mo, which is somehow translated, luckily, into English, in three volumes, somehow we think it is very long. If we read a few pages, we think, ‘oh, it’s OK, even long, but I can sort of look at it.’ Then, don’t forget, the lam rim, Tsong Khapa’s bigger, longer lam rim; two lam rims, one dealing with tantra, one lam rim dealing with non-tantra Buddhist path.

The others don’t call it ‘lam rim’, they call it (?46:38) just to make a difference. Otherwise, two lam rims. Two lam rim big ones. The two lam rim big ones are the shortest synopsis of buddha’s teachings. I tell you what. When I was a kid, brought in the monastery, the first year or so, even before getting in the monastery, I was learning how to read. They didn’t teach me how to write. They never taught me how to write. Never. That is the old style education. They taught me how to read and memorize.

Reading and memorizing. So, before you even enter the monastery, for a year or so, you learn to read and memorize the essential prayers that you say in either your daily practice, or in the monastery gatherings. You memorize those. Other than that, around the age of seven or eight, ‘til when I became 20, I went through certain texts, huge texts. The root text is Prajna Paramita, a few pages. But there are so many commentaries.

We don’t read the Indian commentaries, the Tibetan commentaries. Each monastery has its own little doctrines, and one goes through that. Afterwards, then we reach Tsong Khapa’s and the two disciples’ commentaries. After that we reach the Indian commentaries. So, it’s like swimming through 30 or 40 volumes, and then finally you have one of those subjects. We learned five of them, different ways, one after another.

The essence of the Lam Rim Chen Mo, the big one, is the essence of those number of volumes that we read through. Not only read, but memorize, debate, argue, and perform your own theory, try to prove it, then get lost, defeated, and then form another one, form another one, form another. That is the result. The Lam Rim Chen Mo is the result, the synopsis of that. And then, can you imagine, the shorter ones are even beyond the synopsis. (50:52)

So, in this case, we have a tiny little one, a couple of pages. Is that going to be enough for us? That will give you the way. That will lead you to your goal. That is the purpose. That is the goal. So, before I even read it, I told you they will introduce you to the goal. The goal; I’d better tell you the goal. There are three. They always want the highest goal. That is total enlightenment, total knowledge; in other words, to become a Buddha.

Buddhism introduced Buddha as the goal. That’s it. I’m not going to go into the Mahayana/Hinayana business, because we’re going to get confused, for some people. If you don’t get the Buddha level, your second goal is to get yourself free. Freedom from suffering. The suffering of karma and delusion, both. So the consequences of that actual suffering, of delusion and karma, is the mental, emotional and physical pains that we go through. So, getting freedom from that. Technically, we call it getting out of samsara.

That means life is no longer controlled, no longer like the dry leaf carried by a storm. At least you plan, you think, and you try to manage. There’s no ‘another’ powerful force that will push you around, no. To try to gain control over that is the second goal. The third, or least is the next life immediately after death, it won’t be a miserable one; it will be an OK one. That is the ‘at least.’

The purpose of life is to achieve one of those. It is the mission of your life; to achieve one of those. The lam rim tells you how you can achieve that, what you are supposed to do. OK? That includes learning, meditating and practice together. So, at least we know. We’ve been introduced. [If you are asked] ‘what is your purpose, what is your goal?’ That’s it. So, if you don’t think, that is not right for me, then that path, whatever we are talking about, is maybe not right for you. This path will not tell you how to have a comfortable life. It will not tell you how we can be rich, or worry-free.

Actually it’s not true. Worry-free, they do tell you. They will tell you how to be worry-free, but they won’t tell you how to make money. Honestly, that’s what it is. Now, the biggest question is, “What is the goal? Am I capable of getting those goals?”

The answer they give you is, “Yes. Yes, very definitely, you are capable.” No guarantee you’re going to achieve the best goal, nor is there a guarantee you’re going to achieve the second level goal, nor is there a guarantee you’re going to achieve the last goal. But, they tell you the way, and if you follow, things are bound to happen.

Why? Because, if you created the cause, the result will be there. If you created the part and parcel, the event will take place. That is somehow the nature of reality. So, on that basis, on the basis of experience of Buddha and his disciples, millions of them thereafter achieved the result. On the basis of their experience, these are the messages that they left.

So, if they achieved, why not us? If we don’t follow it right, then something can go wrong, because if the conditions are not right, the results cannot be 100%. When there is no cause and conditions, then the result will not materialize. So, this is the situation where we are with this mind, and we will try to go and try to take the first step; try to learn. (58:52)

OK, now when we say learn, we think, ‘this is only the learning.’ No. As I said earlier, I’ll repeat again, three things. Learning, whatever you learn; a tiny little one, don’t wait to accumulate your knowledge. If you keep on waiting to accumulate your knowledge, you will never be able to accumulate it properly. No, never ever. It will go.

Earlier teachers, what they have done, I will give you one example. There was an old teacher who was not well, and was sitting on some animal skin on top of his cushion, because that was keeping him warm, right? So he was reading his sutra. It said, ‘You cannot use animal products.’ So he pulled it out; he lifted up his butt and pulled this animal skin out. Then he sat on the cushion without the animal skin. He was reading for a little while, and after a few pages, he read, “If you are not well, or if you are cold, you may be able to use an animal skin.” So, he pulled it back and put it under his cushion.

That is how whatever little you learn right, and then, whatever you learn, you try to practice that. That is what you do. You get it?

Particularly the lam rim is practice-oriented. You really have to meditate. Learning alone will do no good. I mean, if you don’t learn, you don’t know what to do. If you learn something, you have to practice. If you don’t, then the whole purpose is defeated. The purpose of learning itself is defeated.

Though enlightenment is total knowledge, this way of building knowledge is not – you could have done much better. So, it’s defeated.

Recently, I was told that His Holiness was giving a teaching in Varanasi, in Sarnath, in India. I think it was about a week or ten days ago. They had an extra molam. By the way, we at Jewel Heart had made some offerings for tea, bread and distribution. Many of you put some money in it. We made offerings for ten thousand monks, or something; no, nine thousand seven hundred monks were gathering there. Somehow that money is already made by contributions. I was sort of thinking that everybody will put four or five dollars, and we’ll meet that. But I was told that it’s already been covered.

At that teaching, His Holiness said something a little strange. I was told; I haven’t seen it. You’ll see it on YouTube, I was told. But I haven’t seen it.

His Holiness was somewhere in Canada last year; maybe at some Buddhist conference, some gathering. There were some academic professors there. [His Holiness said] “If you want to build knowledge and learning, then you have to follow the Gelupga style of teaching. But if you want to practice, you can’t follow that. You have to follow Nyimgmapa or Sakyapa or Kagyupa.”

So His Holiness said, “I got the biggest shock in my life. I contradicted at that moment. I will repeat again.” So, I don’t know what he said, I didn’t know. That’s what a number of people told me.

His main point is, when you think about lam rim, he said it’s totally practice and meditation. What are you talking about? So in lam rim, if you don’t have practice and meditation, then Buddhism has nothing else to offer. (1:06:32)

So, that is what he had said. So, if you don’t meditate, don’t practice, it doesn’t affect yourself. The system is such that at keast with me, I was brought in. So, meditation was my responsibility. Like taking medicine. When I’m sick, I’m supposed to take my medicine; my insulin, whatever, my pills. Whatever you’re supposed to take. And if you don’t take it, it will be my fault. It will not [take] effect in my body.

I have knowledge; knowledge that I have to take insulin. I have knowledge that if I take food, I have to take insulin accordingly, to balance. If I don’t, I’ll suffer.

So, it’s the same thing. The tradition is such that the teachings will teach you what, and it is up to the individual to practice and meditate. The centers like Jewel Heart can organize and provide you with the teaching. And, they may provide retreat. But they don’t provide you with every-day meditation. Every-day meditation was left for the individual.

Whether you do it in your own home, or whether you do it in the center, or you do it in the subway or the bus; don’t do it while driving. That’s not a good idea. Some people do that. But it’s not a good idea.

So, if you don’t do this simultaneously, it will have no effect to the individual. Knowledge becomes knowledge, and nothing more. Knowledge becomes quality, by practicing. That is sort of simultaneously what you do. In one way, accumulation of merit, and on the other hand, purification. This is a sort of must thing. Plus, subject meditation. All this together, you have to learn.

If you learn one thing, you have to practice and meditate that one thing. If you learn two things, you do two things. Remember that animal thing was taken [from under] your butt? Out of your cushion? And then the animal skin was put back? That is how they showed you how they do.

So now, without telling too many things, let’s start to read it here. We do have the textbook available, at least the short lam rim of Tsong Khapa’s teaching. All of you here have the original text; I hope everybody online has it. Anyway, we also have it in Jewel Heart, in the blue prayer book. It is called The Lines of Experience. Sometimes they call it Lines of Experience, sometimes they call it Songs of Spiritual (?1:11:42).

I have another translation here which is published by the Tibetan library archives (?1:11:53) In that, it says, Songs of Experience. It says, ‘condensed meaning of lam rim of Je Tsong Khapa.’ What I do, is I read Tibetan. I can’t read English. Then, the explanations I’m going to give you [are based] on the commentary by the third Dalai Lama. I think Glen Mullin called his translation Essence of Refined Gold. Then, this one is called Essence of Superfine Gold.

The title doesn’t matter. The text itself is sometimes called ‘lam rim nyam gur’ (?1:13:52) Sometimes it’s called ‘short lam rim.’ There’s another one, Tsong Khapa’s shorter lam rim. I think people sometimes get confused between two of those. When it goes in English, I get confused. Now I’m not even sure. When it comes to Tibetan, we don’t get confused. At least me, I don’t get confused.

The other is called (?1:14:32), meaning, Tsong Khapa says, I achieved the purpose of my life OK.” So then the verse goes [on to tell] why it’s OK. Some people call that The Songs of Experience, in English. Some people call the other one Songs of Experience. The confusion comes when you use the English language. In Tibetan we don’t.

So, Lines of Experience; why do we call it that? Because that is how he himself developed. That is how he experienced himself on the path. And that is why we sometimes call it Lines of Experience. A couple of lines come on the basis of his experience. When you call it a shorter lam rim, it is a couple of lines for the poems of lam rim; what you meditate on, what you develop, what you experience. That is Nyam Gur, or (?1:16:14), both are referring to this.

I don’t know whether The Lines of Experience or The Essence [of Refined Gold] – when new titles come in, at least it throws me off. Anyway, that’s why it’s safer for me to read the Tibetan. At least I can read.

The first [thing is] Buddha is praised. So, praise Buddha. Why? I mean it’s very simple. If you read it, you know what it is. The Buddha is the ultimate guru. If you think about the guru, the ultimate guru is Buddha, number one.

Number two, this practice, this teaching, it all comes from Buddha. Buddha is the real source. That is why Tibetans used to say, “If you want good water, water that will help you, and won’t harm you; good quality, you’ll make sure that your water is coming from a glacier. Not just pop up here and there. Some of them are very good that pop up here and there. But make sure it comes from glaciers. (1:18:48)

Likewise, if you want to practice Buddha’s path, make sure it comes from Buddha. There may be the Buddhist canon, or the collected works of Buddha; there are a little over a hundred volumes. The way and how Buddha taught in Buddha’s lifetime, is quite interesting. Although we say ‘sutra’ today, it looks like Buddha sat down somewhere and poured out his experience and started putting them in writing. I believe it’s not. I don’t even think there was writing at that time, at all. Maybe writing was not even developed.

He didn’t write. Most of the Buddha’s teachings are the from incidents that took place. People go on and ask Buddha, ‘Should I do this?’ Then he gives you reasons why you should do it, or not do it. Mostly Buddha’s teachings, sutras are based on that, rather than his sitting down and composing them. That’s why the Buddhologists don’t talk about the collected works of the Buddha, they talk about the Buddhist canon. (1:20:53)

It is always different points, different here, different there. Later when they collected them together, they categorized them subject-wise and tried to put them together separately, here and there. Other than that, whatever happens, it happens that way. It is not simply easy to read, it is not talking about the same subject all the time. You are talking about this, you’re talking about that, and all that. That is why (a) it is not simple, and (b) it is not in an organized manner. So that’s why those earlier commentaries are put in.

In the essence, for the purpose of those three goals, they have three slightly different practices. One is the bigger goal, one is the medium goal, and one is the small goal. That’s why they call it three stages, or the three scopes; common with the lower scope, common with the medium scope and common with the bigger scope, the Mahayana scope. So they call it three, because of the goal. Do they do them separately? No, they don’t. All of us have a must. The must is the lowest goal. All of us must.

Then, the second and the third are almost optional. Optional because of your goal. Not optional – I mean, it is optional. Optional is optional, anyway. So, why these three? What have the earlier teachers done? They have the Tibetan tradition. At least they try to practice and achieve all three. Why? Because their goal is to become Buddha. There are a zillion different reasons why. Even if you don’t achieve it in your lifetime, it doesn’t matter. You’ll achieve it to a certain level. It will be not meaningless. You will be not empty-handed. You’ll achieve certain things.

That’s why, hope for the best. Do not settle for less than the best. If you don’t get it, whatever you could get, you’ll be happy with it. So, that’s why three. Those of you who have The Essence of Refined Gold, if you start looking in there, you’ll see all those. A lot of people have it on the iPad. Or, you’re going to google it? Is it available there on google?

You know what this one says? This is the real essence of all Buddha’s teaching. This is the path through which all Buddhas have gone. As in the tradition, they will say this is the only path that Buddhas have gone through. This is the earlier Indian master such as Nagarjuna and Asanga’s way of doing it. This is the path that will lead you to total enlightenment. It is the complete path; maybe not detailed, but it’s the complete path, so it is called lam rim. That’s how it reads, my own way of reading here.

You know why? Those of you who are reading other lam rims, particularly that of Pabongka, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, at the beginning of that, on the eleventh day, it [addresses that].

You know, when I was in Holland, I had all my Yamantaka things in my iPad. So, when I had to look at commentaries, and I sort of turned on the iPad and looked around. One of the guys there told me that the iPad was just being released in Holland. He said, ‘Now you’re turning it around here and there, and I bet at least a hundred iPads will be sold. Do they give you any commission?’ (1:29:44)

In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Pabongka’s way of teaching is, every day he will give some quotations. The quotations are from the previous masters. Whatever the subject, either what he had talked about yesterday or on the day he was talking, he put quotations in there. On one of the days, he begins with a quotation from the master called (?1:31:08) He said that the path you practice has to be the real essence meaning of Buddha’s teaching, as well as Buddha’s disciples commentary.

[It can’t be] something that you cooked up, a personally made-up story. It has to be the path that is accepted by the forefront banner holders of Buddhism, such as Nagarjuna and Asanga. It’s not a few stupid people who got together.

This is not false, invented dharma.

It’s from day ten. It has to be the experience of a learned scholar who achieved experience. The word in Tibetan is KE. KE means learned. DRUP means one who gained experience. KEPRUP, like Tsong Khapa’s disciple, Keprup Je; it’s one word. It might be someone’s name, like ‘Mr. Kedrup.’ But KE stands for learned; DRUP stands for gain experience. So, KEDRUP combined together means not only learned, but also achieved the result.

It has to be the experience of the learned and developed person. Not one; not learned only. Not experienced only. Learned and experienced in combination. In the Tibetan tradition, particularly the Tibetan tradition, you need both. If you have great experience but you are not learned, you’re not useful for us. Honestly. If you are only learned and not experienced, if you have dry, academic knowledge alone, it’s not that useful for the spiritual path and development. So you need both.

You build both by learning and practicing together. That’s how you build. Why this path because of those qualities? According to this, The Essence of Superfine Gold, when you read translations by different translators, you get something different; it’s very strange. According to the lam rim tradition, even the old Tibetan teachers, the great masters had to sell you the lam rim. Honestly. Otherwise, why should I buy lam rim?

I’ll be happy to listen to you, because you are a good person. I like you. But why should I follow you? Why should I do what you told me to do? Then I have not done my selling job properly. That is not selling only from the business point of view, but in terms of the tradition. They have to convince the disciples and practitioners to follow this.

What do they use to try to convince people? First, they say, whatever I’m going to talk to you about here, it’s not something that I invented. This particular verse tells you this is the absolute reliable Buddha’s and disciples’ word. It’s not that somebody self-invented the method. That’s number one. It’s not self-invented. It’s really authentic, coming from Buddha and his disciples. Don’t let me prove it here. But if you want proof, you can now get the reference; even those collected works of sutra and tantra, many of them are available in English. You can go to Columbia and get it.

One single-pointed; enlightenment is very complicated. It’s not just simple, straightforward. It’s complicated. To achieve all these points together, you need the complete path. A single one alone will not do. Let’s say, meditation. Meditation is one single thing. Analytical meditation gets on the basis of meditation, then using your intelligence here, and building, analyzing; so that is not simply just sitting and meditating. It is thinking and analyzing.

That adds up one more. Then, analyzing on compassion is another one. It’s not just analyzing, it’s analyzing on something. How much compassion? What type? This much limit, that much limit, where do I draw the line, or do I draw the line, or don’t I draw the line? All this analyzing will make it a little more complicated. Then, compassion alone is not enough. You need wisdom.

That’s why you need so many things to achieve any of our goals, all three. The lower goal is easier, but not just one. So that is why this path is not only authentic, but it is complete. Complete here means if you have this path, it is capable of delivering the goal. Everything you need will be there.

Even Buddha’s simple teaching called ‘Path,’ which has five different stages. Each different stage has its own cause, its own condition. We have to have each one. Does lam rim have all those? They are saying ‘Yes.’ Not only are they saying ‘Yes,’ but they are trying to convince you it’s all here. If you take one single path only, if you’re only thinking wisdom, with wisdom alone you can achieve something, but not enlightenment. Compassion alone can achieve something, but not enlightenment. (1:43:14)

Likewise, even all paths need five different causes and five different conditions. Does lam rim provide this? You know the stages, right? You go to the Buddha levels. Ten stages, right? Stage one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Each one of those stages has its own cause. Do you have it? In the lam rim, yes we do. That is why they are talking about as authentic, but also complete.

And, you’re sure there’s no mistake. Naturally, we were traveling through an unknown path. So at least we asked, ‘Is there any mistake?’ They say, ‘No, because all buddhas and all disciples traveled through this.’ These are their words, and there should be no mistake.

That’s why it becomes jewel-like, fulfilling the wishes of people, fulfilling the wishes of spiritual practitioners. So, if you read Tsong Khapa’s lam rim itself, that tells you whatever I have been talking to you, right? The first one, praise to Buddha; second verse, praise to Buddha’s disciples, Manjusri and Maitreya, because Maitreya is the ultimate disciple of the Buddha on the path of compassion. Manjusri is the ultimate disciple of Buddha on the path of wisdom. If I don’t read this, I’ll be missing.

In the next verse, Tsong Khapa is praising Nagarjuna and Asanga because after Maitreya and after Manjusri, the Mahayana path is actually disappeared in India for a number of years. So it is Nagarjuna and Asanga. There’s a long story in lam rim. You read in a detailed lam rim the teachings that will tell you exactly how Nagarjuna discovered it from the nagas’ land, under the water, somewhere in the ocean.

Asanga discovered it from above the sky, from Tushita pure land from Maitreya. So, that’s why these two are called the banner-holders, or the road-openers.

Two of the important subjects that they discovered, that they experienced, is continuously taught, in Tibet by Atisha, the bigramshila (?1:48:32) teacher that rejuvenated Buddhism in Tibet in the 1100’s. So the normal lam rims will tell you all that detail.

As a matter of fact, summer retreat, if everything is OK for me, physically, I was hoping to do the total teaching of Pabongka’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, word by word, from the first page to the last page; hopefully. That’s what I’m planning. So, I’m encouraging everybody to be available for that. I don’t think we can teach you that lam rim so many times.

We did so many times here and there, but this is comprehensive and good. Also, when I was in Bejing, one of our old friends, Marty, [said he] wants me to teach the lam rim. So I said, “OK.” He said, “Pabongka’s Liberation In the Palm of Your Hand.” I said, “OK.” I thought little important points here and there. I thought I’ll do. Then he said, “No, no , no, Rimpoche, I want from the first page to the last page, at least reading it.”

So I did up to about nine days. I didn’t reach the tenth day. So, when you do this page by page, it is totally different than the essence of what we do. The essence of what we do is actually whatever I know, whatever I thought was important. When you’re doing page by page, it’s not me; it’s the lineage. That makes a huge difference.

So, that made me think I should do that completely once. I did that once in Ann Arbor, early, early. There’s a huge thick lam rim. You have two volumes. So, at least, we thought we will do that. If you could read the Lam Rim Chen Mo, the three volumes, there’s nothing better.

It’s a very good translation. Remember, I taught here [in New York] the meditation part; the zhine part. I tried to begin to teach the wisdom part, but somehow, we couldn’t. So I still have left over that meditation chapter, and Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara, chapter nine. They both are the wisdom aspects of it.

If you can read the Lam Rim Chen Mo, there’s nothing better. Otherwise read Pabongka’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You’ll get completely familiar. All lam rims will fall in one. The essence message will be one.

The next verse here is a praise to all masters. Up to here, I don’t know how many verses it went; one, two, three, four, five verses, are the praise. It is also easy to say that it is the praise to Buddha and leave it. You want to read how they praised to Buddha. If you read it, it is praise to Buddha through his body, speech and mind.

The body of Buddha is not produced by flesh and bones. It is the collection of millions of positive karmas, briefly talking about it. When you’re reading about the speech of the Buddha, it’s not just noise. It’s not just loud, or sweet alone. It is wish-fulfilling of all living beings. (1:54:39)

If you are praising the mind, the mind of Buddha they are talking about is total knowledge. If you say it is praise to Buddha, if you leave it as praise, that’s one thing. How he is praised is another thing. That body, a collection of millions of positive virtues or karma, means the message is this: that Buddha, Shakyamuni, the official Buddha, achieved his body in that way. So, if you want to become a Buddha, you need to achieve that.

It’s the same with the speech, and the same with the mind. These are not instant developments. Nothing happens instantaneously. Nothing. Though the vajrayana says,

Within a matter of seconds…

Then they explain that ‘second’ doesn’t mean second. One lifetime is equal to a second, blah blah blah. So, there is nothing instant. Nothing. Even our today’s achievement is not an instant. Whatever little I knew, I share with you, is seventy years of learning and practice of Buddhism.

Even if you are twenty years old, whatever you have today, your quality, it is your twenty years’ learning and twenty years of achievement. There is nothing instant. So the individual people’s knowledge, quality, experience; everything is gradually built. Even your qualifications; you did not become instantaneously a Ph.D. or a B.A., or anything. It takes years of efforts.

Even in everyday things. Look at our own system; the schools, high schools and colleges and so forth. You go on, and you get it, right? Am I right or wrong? Or is there some instantaneous school where you can just go in three days and become a master? You don’t have [it], huh?

I have a nephew, my sister’s son, who landed in jail for five years, and came out now. He wanted to be instantaneous. During high school, he stayed in Ann Arbor. Tomorrow, he wanted to become that. He wanted to become a chef. He said, “I’ll go to chef school.” I said, “That will be good, wonderful.” He thought, ‘When I start cooking, they’ll say, “Yes, you are learned.” ’

So, after a few days, He said, “I get it.” No way! You forgot you have to spend three years peeling potatoes, only. You’re peeling vegetables for three years and then you learn, right? Likewise, it’s not unknown. It’s known. You can watch, you can copy, you can do the same thing. But this is unknown. You really want to end all our sufferings. You want to get the best you want.

That’s not going to be instantaneous. That’s why, you [shouldn’t] dismiss those verses as praise, and nothing else; but if you look at it carefully, at the quality of the individuals; how did they get it? If I want to follow in that path, I have to get that, too. That’s how it is. (2:00:43)

Even here, it says,

You are like an eye that can see and read the meanings and the teachings of all different buddhas and masters. You are also the guide to the fortunate ones, who lead to the liberation status. You are also the compassionate one, with all kinds of wise ways of leading.

That is the teacher’s quality. When you are teaching, that is the quality of the teacher. So, when you want to become a teacher, you have to have the teacher’s quality. If you don’t have the teacher’s quality, they’re going to fire you, like Keith Olbermann. I don’t think he doesn’t have the quality, or whatever it is, but he’s been fired, right? What happened, anyway? He quit?

So, this teaching can fulfill the wishes of the people. It will be jewel-like. The word ‘rimpoche’ comes out of this, anyway. It is also like an ocean that collects all different waters. I’m trying to make it short. It has, complete, not only the sutra, but the tantra basis also.

If you look in the Tibetan Buddhism, one thing we will say is, ‘I am not a vajrayana practitioner.’ We do say it, we do it, and we even make a distinction between [the modes of practice], and all that. But still, all Tibetan Buddhism is geared with the vajrayana basis. Totally, it is a vajrayana basis. You may say sutra alone; even then, it has a lot of vajrayana basis, combined [with sutrayana].

Traditional Tibetan masters and practitioners are very proud of that. Today, people are hesitating, trying to say it, and trying to make a distinction; particularly among the western people.

So, it is like an ocean that has everything in it. Because enlightenment is sophisticated and complicated, your practice has to be perfect. What you need is completeness. What you need is speed; to be able to go quickly.

One thing I forgot to say is, why is enlightenment sophisticated and complicated? Our negativities and emotions are so sophisticated, complicated. So, each and every one of them needs its own antidote. There’s a general antidote and an individual antidote. You need them. That’s why enlightenment is sophisticated and complicated; because our negative emotions and positive emotions are so sophisticated.

There’s [nothing more] sophisticated than our emotions. True or not, you check yourself. That’s it, then I stop here for lunch.