Archive Result

114

20110122GRNYSE2

00:01

I am reading Tibetan. There are no verses or numbers of anything of that sort. So I have been asked to tell you the verse numbers so that you can find where you are. I think we got to verse 7.

7

KYE GÜ DÖ DÖN MA LÜ KONG WAI NA

DAM PA RIN CHEN WANG GI GYAL PO TE

ZHUNG SANG TRONG GI CHU BO DU WAI CHIR

PAL DEN LEK PAR SHE PEY GYA TSO-WANG YIN

Since it fulfils all the wishes of beings without exception,

It is the king of kings among all quintessential instructions;

Since it gathers into it thousands of excellent rivers of treatises,

It’s as well the ocean of most glorious well-uttered insights.

It is jewel-like, because it fulfills the wishes of all the people in general and particularly those who are seeking the liberation. It also collects almost all the thousand different teachings of the Buddhas. They will actually come down to this. It is like an ocean that collects all kinds of different waters from all the rivers. Ultimately they all go into the ocean. Just like that.

8

TEN PA THAM CHE GAL ME TOK PA DANG

SUNG RAB MA LÜ DAM PAR CHAR PA TANG

GYAL WEY GONG PA DE LAK NYE PA DANG

NYE CHÖ CHEN POI YANG SA LE KYANG SUNG

It helps to recognize all teachings to be free of contradictions;

It helps the dawning of all scriptures as pith instructions;

It helps to find easily the enlightened intention of the conquerors;

It helps also to guard against the abyss of grave negative deeds.

Here they are talking about the 4 special qualities of lam rim practice.

By understanding, learning and meditating this we do not contradict Buddha’s teachings.

That may not be a big problem now in the west, but it was a big problem early in Tibet. I am talking about 1000 years ago. When Buddhism came from India into Tibet it was a huge problem. It is very similar to today. Those Buddhist practitioners totally relied on what came from India. That’s where Buddha had come and a great many Buddhist teachers and earlier practitioners, such as the two outstanding institutions of Nalanda and Vikramalashila. They existed simultaneously in early India. So the Tibetan traditions come from there. You will hear about Nagarjuna, Asanga, Dignaga, who are from Nalanda. Then you have Atisha and Shantideva from Vikramalashila. So the Tibetans will totally buy it if it was from the Indian tradition.

It is almost like now in the west. You are interested in Tibetan Buddhism and you are satisfied if it comes from Tibet. The Tibetans did the same thing with teachings coming from India. There were a number of things that came out from India. The whole reason why Atisha had to come to Tibet is related to that. Earlier, so many great Indian Buddhist teachers had come to Tibet, such as Shantirakshita, Kamalashila, Guru Padmasambhava. But by the 1100s it all got mixed up completely and the king of the native local Indo-Nepalese border region had to lose his life in order to bring Atisha. All this was because so many other things had come in from India and you don’t know that’s what. It’s been very badly diluted. The very same thing is happening here today. In one way you have very profound teachings from the Tibetan tradition. So many great teachers have come and presently we have His Holiness and others. But then you have also a number of phony persons. It is a very similar situation, not as bad as what had happened in Tibet, because there are a number of great teachers still available. That’s why. When the time changes it will be anyway.

That’s why it is important to talk about these qualities. Otherwise Buddha’s teaching will be confusing for many people. When I was a kid, in some places of Buddha’s teaching I would read that you can’t have meat. I told you earlier, that there was somebody sitting on an animal skin and read that you can’t sit on it. So he took it off from under his cushion. Later he read that there can be exceptions, so he put it back. Similarly, there are scriptures that say that you can’t eat meat. In a way it is true. You talk about compassion and then you eat somebody’s flesh. Then in some places it says that you have to eat meat. It sounds like a big contradiction. It is almost like hot and cold. Sometimes, some places they talk about how great the Mahayana is, how wonderful and that you cannot do without it. At other places it doesn’t talk about the Mahayana at all, but emphasizes how important the hinayana principles are. You cannot have a spiritual life without these principles. If you don’t think about these carefully, they will contradict each other very easily.

0:12

Even during the Buddha’s life time there were a number of disciples of the Buddha who did attend Buddha’s explanation of the Mahayana. Buddha’s teachings were not organized the way we have them now. Some event would take place and he would say something. When he was talking about Mahayana subjects, those of his disciples who were following the theravadan path didn’t walk away. They sat and listened. So they heard about it, but they didn’t bring it into their heart. If you asked them if they heard it they would say: yes. And they could repeat it. But they didn’t keep it in their heart. So that group of disciples is called sravakas – Hearers or Listeners. They would tell Buddha: I am a sravaka. I heard what you said. Do I practice this? No, I don’t. I relay your message but I don’t do it. Then there are the pratyekas, the self-liberated disciples and then the Mahayana disciples. It looks like their paths are contradictory to each other.

0:14

“That’s not really Buddha’s teaching”, some say. “Buddha’s real teaching is this and that”. That is contradicting again. The quality of the lam rim. When you begin to understand the lam rim you will see that all the teachings of Buddha are not contradictory at all. One direct example is this:

Buddha had a disciple, a king. His son, the “Prince of Wales” of that kingdom, overthrew his father. Not only that, because he was afraid that if he released his father from jail all the old ministers would follow him and overthrow the son. So he kept the father in jail and never allowed him to meet anyone of the ministers, hoping the father would die. Somehow the father didn’t die for a long time. He was kept on the middle floor of the palace, in something like house arrest. So that father, who was a follower of Buddha, became an arhat. But then he died, while still under house arrest. So his son thereby committed two of the five immeasurable heavy negativities. Not only did he kill a king, but also a father, who also happened to be an arhat. When he realized that his father was kind and loved him, it was too late, he had already died. So now he had tremendous regret and didn’t know what to do. His mother told him to go and see Buddha. He did that with all his tremendous regret and deep in depression. To his surprise Buddha said, “Oh yeah, father and mother should be killed. If as king you destroy your retinue you will be liberated.” The king was wondering what Buddha was talking about and that began to open his thoughts and broke the ice. Actually what Buddha meant was the father of samsara, ignorance and ego, should be killed. The mother of samsara, obsession and so forth, should be killed. The retinue, other negative emotions, such as hatred, obsession, jealousy, and so on, if you destroy them, you naturally will become pure and liberated.

So Buddha had this way of teaching too. But if you take it literally and say that in this sutra Buddha said this and that in his own words, there can be a problem. This was said at a particular time for a particular purpose and it happens with us all the time, even today. When somebody is feeling something horrible and they come and talk to me, I am not going to say, “What do you did is horrible and horrendous”. If I do that it will add up on the suffering of the individual. I will probably say, “Well, it may not be that good, but it’s not that bad”, blab la bla, or “This happens” or “You are not the only one who did that” or something like that you have to find. That doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do. Then someone may find it on a tape and say, “Rimpoche said it’s not that bad.” So it is true, but not true. So this happens. And it happened in Buddha’s case, definitely.

So the lam rim gives you an idea, a basis from where to judge what it is all about. That’s why it shows you non-contradiction. Traditional teachings will tell you the example of a doctor who is treating a patient with the Tibetan, aryuveda- based medical treatment.

0:22

Tibetan medical treatment includes a lot of dietary advice. Some will tell you in the beginning, “Don’t eat meat at all.” Then later, the same doctor will tell the same person, “Now you should have bone soup, eat meat.” In old Tibet the medical treatment was very different from what it is now. Not only did the doctors not charge you any money, but they would also make the medicine for each individual patient. Not only that, they would also give food to the poor patients. That was not a requirement for their job, but they did that. My neighbor was a doctor, called Aku Patse. He also gave me sweets out of his pocket, filthy little things, but I liked them. But he had some poor monks as patients so he would go and buy food for them. When they were not supposed to eat meat he would give them vegetables. He was the manager for another incarnate lama who was very well to do. That lama is still alive in Tibet today, a very good one. Later his institution threw the manager out because he spent so much money for treating patients.

0:24

This Rinpoche and I studied together under Lochö Rinpoche, every morning. So the doctors not only made different medicines for the different patients, but for different days and weeks. This doctor not only checked the patients’ urine with a stick but even put it on his tongue and tasted it. There was nobody who took notes but he always knew what each patient needed. He didn’t take too many patients. Those Tibetan doctors didn’t, maybe two or three, that’s it.

So that’s where this example comes from: one doctor tells one patient at one time to eat meat and at another time not to eat meat. Similarly Buddha does the same thing. That doesn’t mean it is contradicting. Many people think that Buddha’s words are contradicting each other. If you take it literally, they are. The lam rim will give you a basis on which you can think and use your intelligence, seeing what is what. That is the first quality. Sometimes, when you are reading Buddha’s teaching, or listening, the lam rim tells you that it belongs to the principle of this path and other ones are fringes of this path to make it work better. In other words, every word and teaching of Buddha has a very valuable message for each and every individual. But the question is where to take it directly and where not, where you take it as principal guidance and where you take it to be fringes. That requires individual judgment. This judgment you can gain after going through with the lam rim. Then you basically understand what principle it is, how it works, what system it is, how it works. Sometimes, when you are educated and you know your subject well, then even if the written things are not clear, if one or two lines are not clear, even then you can figure it out. Even if there are typo-mistakes, you will know that these are typo-mistakes. In order to know that you have to have the basic quality of knowledge. If you don’t have, you can’t. That would be like me trying to read English. I don’t know whether something is a typographical mistake or whether it is a different word. I don’t know how to pronounce properly, I don’t know how to spell properly. So I won’t know. When I have basic knowledge I will know. So the lam rim does that for you. That is the quality we are talking about here.

30.00

Every teaching of Buddha is a transmission.

Many of us will wait for a transmission in something else other than the teaching. We think that some mystical thing should happen. Even if we deny we do. We know better, that’s why we deny, however, we still wait. Some traditions will tell you, “This is a transmission and that is not.” Right or wrong, I have no comments on it. But according to this every word that Buddha taught is a transmission. Not only a transmission, but a transmission for one individual – that’s me – to obtain enlightenment. Every one of us can say “that’s me”. It goes for each and every one of us. It is for us. Pabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hand gives you a basis. They are talking with and old Tibetan example. There is an old monk who goes outside and finds a handful of sugar, a handful of salt, a few tea leaves, a little butter. By itself that is not very useful. What can you do with a handful of sugar or a handful of salt? But if you pick that up and bring it home, you can add it to your sugar put, your salt pot and your tea container and butter dish. Then it is useful. It adds up to what you have. If you don’t have those containers, what are you going to do with this? Mixing these substances up they almost become useless. Can you just put them in the mouth or what can you do with them? But if you take them home and put them into the right containers they can improve your supplies.

Likewise, you read one of Budddha’s transmissions here, another one there and if you have a practice basis you will see, “Ah, this is relevant with this, that is relevant with that. This adds up here, that adds up there.” Sometimes this can become very profitable and make a wonderful addition. If you don’t have the base, it can be completely useless.

Transmission means that you have a practice. If we don’t understand that, then you may read some very profound teachings of Buddha and you think you understand but it only becomes something to explain. It doesn’t really become dharma practice. It becomes talking dharma. Many of us do that. If you really think carefully, we do that. We hear something and immediately change that into ‘talking dharma’. We act as if it is meant to be talked about with something else, but not to be practiced by us. “I heard about it, I read about it, I know what that is – I can tell you, I can lead a course on that, I will do this and that”. If you do that a very profound transmission will be simply become something to talk about or just to say something. That becomes “talking dharma”, which is useless. “Talking dharma” does not become any good to you. Then, no matter how much you talk about, it won’t be any good for others either. Every time we say ”unless and until you can tame your mind you cannot tame others’ minds” – that’s what we are talking about. You heard about, read about it, you have information and then you talk. Then dharma becomes “talking dharma.” Not so useful. Lam rim will make you not to do that.

37.00

I talked many times to you people. Mrs Taring, the author of the book “Daughter of Tibet” used to say very often:

sang wa dupe mi sab ti - kyab dro tsig sum sab pa yin

Guhyasamaja is not profound – the three words of refuge are very profound

We will think: what do you mean, Guhyasamaja is not profound? It is the king of tantras. There is nothing that can go beyond. But the reason why the three words of refuge become more profound is because it is makes sense to the practitioner. Guhyasamaja has millions of profound points, however, if you don’t “get it”, then it’s not profound; there is nothing. There are lots of beautiful words and beautiful poetry, it sounds funny and interesting, but you don’t get it. That’s what it is. So the lam rim makes you “get” what Buddha said. So not only does the lam rim show how Buddha’s teachings are non-contradictory, but also makes sure you “get it”.

Otherwise, the biggest and best has no practice, but just a lot of words. Our practice really begins with the guru devotional practice level and goes till ultimate enlightenment. In the lam rim tradition it is the combination of concentrated meditation and wisdom combined. That is the real essence of Buddha’s transmission. So then we understand whatever you need. Sometimes you need to meditate with analytical points, sometimes with concentrated points. Lam rim enables the individual to make their own judgment on each and every point of Buddha’s transmission.

It helps to find easily the enlightened intention of the conquerors

“Intention” – we do have that a lot among ourselves. We don’t hear what the person really wanted to say. Often we hear what we want to hear. That is common with everybody. This goes for everyday conversation, every place where you work and particularly in teachings. You are really going to hear what you want to hear. You don’t hear what you don’t want to hear. So we misunderstand, get confused and so on. Somehow, when one individual talks to another one is saying something and the other is going to hear it the way they would like to hear it.

Just as an example: this morning I walked in and one of our dharma coordinators told me that there was some confusion due to our cancellation of last night’s teaching. Apparently many people thought that today’s teaching was also cancelled. I was thinking that maybe we should have sent the message: “Friday only cancelled” or “Saturday not cancelled, Friday only cancelled”. People probably looked at the beginning of the e-mail and saw “Friday cancelled” – and not seeing Friday presumed that Saturday was also cancelled. People do that. Like that you are saying something but people hear differently. That’s just a simple little conversation and short announcement. Then when you have complicated teachings of Buddha on spiritual practice there are bound to be more misunderstandings and confusions.

If the person has nicely built a lam rim background the common understanding and the common sense is quite better, so the misunderstandings are limited and you get what Buddha really wanted to say. Sometimes Buddha’s teachings are also not as straightforward as we think.

If you really want to find out what is Buddha’s essence message you sometimes have to read and study a lot and even then we sometimes don’t find it. Or you may find it, but it takes a very long time and lots of effort. So what did the earlier Buddhist masters do? They clarified Buddha’s intention and made it easy to understand and convenient for the individual. So the lam rim is somehow based on the first teachings of Atisha in Tibet. Atisha took a great deal of difficulty to come to Tibet.

0:50

I am not going to talk in detail about how difficult it was but a Tibetan king had to lose his life in order to get Atisha to Tibet. It was a king who was in power at the time. Then, the first teaching Atisha gave was lam drön - Lamp on the Path, a very short version of lam rim. This is what lam rim is all about. When Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa became very popular and so many people were attending his teaching, literally hundreds of thousands who were following him everywhere, then one of Tsongkhapa’s teachers asked him what he was teaching. He replied in a letter, “Regarding guiding disciples with teachings, extremely effective and helpful is Atisha’s Way.”

Atisha’s way is very practical in order to get all the messages of Buddha, effective, relevant and on the point. That’s what is meant by: finding the intention of Buddha. Different levels, different points – there are so many different emotions and each of them has its own challenge. For every point Buddha has a profound thing to do. These are delivered to the individual practitioners in this way.

It helps to guard from the abyss of negative deeds.

The most important quality is that it stops huge negativities. There are so many that we have, particularly saying things like: this dharma is good dharma and that dharma is bad dharma. Some people will say: “Mahayana is good, vajrayana is bad”, or “Vajrayana is good, Mahayana is bad” or “Mahayana is good, hinayana is bad”, “Hinayana is good, mahayana is bad”, etc. It is happening today everywhere. According to the Buddha, this is one of the 5 immeasurable negativities: giving up the dharma. It is more or less doctrine. Some contradict one teaching by another or just accept one of them and for the rest of them say, “That might not be Buddha’s words, somebody else made it into Buddha’s words”. We can see that a lot today. There are a number of people who will say that the theravadan tradition is great and that those Mahayana people may not really be that great. This is very common. If you go to South-East Asia, particularly Thailand, they may not accept Tibetan/Chinese Mahayana monks as monks. In reality they don’t.

30-40 years ago, HH Dalai Lama went to Thailand and wanted to function like a Thai Buddhist monk. He wanted to be with the monks and eat with them. Lunch was served, but the Thai monks wouldn’t eat with him – even the head abbot. His Holiness was his guest and his statement was, “The guest eats first.” In reality, they don’t accept Tibetan monks as monks. According to their vows they don’t eat with lay people. So if you don’t accept anyone as monk you don’t eat with them. I am not sure whether it is still happening today, that’s a different story. This is now 30-40 years later.

Many theravadan monks will not accept Chinese or Tibetan Buddhist monks as monks. Similarly, in their heart of hearts the Chinese Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhist monks are not so sure if those yellow theravadan monks are really monks or not. Among the Buddhist monks and nuns there are all these superiority – inferiority complexes everywhere. It is not only we who have problems, they also do.

And it is not only about whether they are really monks or not, but there is issues with the practices they do. A number of people will reject vajrayana as not being Buddhism. They will say, “It is really hindu tantra”, or if they are Chinese, “It may be Taoism mixed with Buddhism”. They easily label and reject something. Some vajrayana practitioners on the other hand will look at the pure theravadan monks and say, “They are nice monks, but they have an incomplete practice.” That’s not the best choice of Buddha’s disciples.

1:01

By thinking that way we are creating a tremendous amount of negativities of rejecting certain dharma and accepting certain dharma. So if you understand lam rim you understand this. You will have a basis to think and understand. You will know that the principle of Theravada are these and therefore to be accepted and are wonderful Buddha’s teachings and followers. The Mahayana principles are these and therefore they are very important Buddha’s teachings and disciples. Vajrayana principles are these and there are very definitely very important Buddha’s disciples. Acceptance, openness, the basis on which you can go. You will also know which are false inventions and which are genuine Buddhist practices. You get a basic knowledge to be able to judge correctly. Also thereby you will not create big negativities, such as rejecting certain dharmas but you also get a basic idea. A lot of confusion comes into our practice.

One confusion is that we say: “this is wonderful skillful means” and so you do it and you think you have no problem. But if you have a basic understanding of lam rim it will stop you. Take for example having a drink. If you are drinking you are drinking. There is no skillful way of drinking. If you are using alcohol, that’s what you are doing. That’s all. Let it be that. If there is a downfall, that is the individual’s problem. Don’t make that into a skillful way, saying, “It is okay for our path.” That’s not right. If you are drinking, you are drinking. So just drink and know it is wrong. It hurts you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Fine, accept that, but don’t deny, saying, “That is a skillful way.” If you are eating meat, you are eating meat. Don’t say there is no downfall in that. It is somebody else’s flesh you are eating. Honestly, that’s what it is. It’s not soya meat. If you want tofu, you can have tofu. The lam rim will protect you there. Honestly.

Because of these four qualities:

9

DE CHIR GYA BÖ KE PEY KYE BO NI

KAL DEN DU ME TEN PEY DAM PA CHOK

KYE BU SUM GYI LAM GYI RIM PA YI

YI RAB MI TROK CHÖ DEN SU ZHIK YÖ

Therefore this most excellent instruction that is sought after

By numerous fortunate ones like the learned ones of India and Tibet,

This [instruction of the] stages of the path of persons of three capacities,

What intelligent person is there whose mind is not captured by it?

When Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa wrote this, he did it in a poetic way. When the translation comes, it is not like directly talking but saying: who else who is an intelligent person would not be attracted to it? Such a teaching with all these four qualities is very special. And if you are an intelligent person, who would not be interest in this essence practice of earlier Indian and Tibetan masters, the three scopes or layers of lam rim practice?

In essence, this is a practice for us, because it has all these qualities. It gives you all theBuddha’s messages straight. It makes you understand all the teachings of Buddha are transmissions for you. You also get straight away what Buddha’s real intention is and particularly it stops heavy negativities within the individual immediately. It is not only right, but what better method could you get? This is how you have to understand this verse.

1:11

Such a quality teaching, even if you hear it only for one session and meditate on it just once, it is a great contribution to benefit all beings. This is in the next verse:

10

SUNG RAB KÜN GYI NYING PO DU DU WA

TSÜL DI THÜN RE TONG DANG NYEN PE KYANG

DAM CHÖ CHE DANG THÖ PEY PEN YÖN TSOK

LAB CHEN DÜ BAR NGE PE DE DÖN SAM

This concise instruction distilling the essence of all scriptures,

Even through reciting it or listening to it only once,

The benefits of teaching the dharma, listening to it, and so on,

Since such waves of merit are bound to be gathered contemplate its meaning.

This will be helpful for the service of the Buddha and the Dharma. If it is nicely taught and practiced, it has all the benefits of teaching and practicing. How you have to listen is being three of three faults. That is not directly in the verse, but it is in the commentary.

When you teach this there is ways how to teach this. You can read and explain – that is one thing. But the individual person who receives the teaching and then teaches it again, that is another thing. You can pick up the book and read about it. You can explain from your understanding. You can look at the commentary and explain. That is one way of doing it and that is fine. But the individual who has received the teaching should pass it on in the same way as they have received it. That brings you the unbroken lineage.

If you pick up the book and read about it, you have the information. But it has no backbone of the unbroken lineage. But if you receive it from a teacher who received it from another living teacher, that will ensure the continuation of the teaching. It is the unbroken lineage.

1:16:39

How you teach, how you listen – there are so many thing here. One has to pay a little attention. For example, if you want to receive this teaching, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa said, that it is the essence of Buddha’s teaching and it has all these benefits. That is talking about the teaching of Buddhism, and particularly Mahayana Buddhism. From whom do you receive this? What type of person with what qualities? What criteria does a teacher need? How does one listen? The teacher should have pure motivation, pure action. If the teacher is thinking, “If I say this, people will like it and that will be good for me and I will be popular” – all these ideas are totally wrong. Also, the action you take, if you try to impress people, by using wonderful words and beautiful examples, if it is just to impress people, then that is wrong. But if you get good examples and good language in order to help and serve people, then it is the right motivation. If you think, “I will say it in such a way so that it may be clear to the people”, then that is a good motivation. Clarity is most important. People are already confused and if you create confusion, there will be just more confusion. That is a disservice. We don’t want to do that. We should be clear. It also has to be right type of examples and everything. That has to make sense to the individual. Then it helps the individual. If you think that way, then that is the right motivation. But if you think the other way around it is the wrong thinking and wrong motivation.

Not only that. We have to have the right persons too. You can’t be talking to the wrong persons. If you talk to people and it doesn’t make sense to them and doesn’t mean anything to them – not just in the sense that they don’t believe it, but if it doesn’t click with them and you try to push it, then it is not right. That is a judgment that the individual has to make.

Then the person who is listening also has to have qualities, such as not having the three faults.

These are commonly taught, but if I don’t say it, I won’t be giving you a complete lam rim teaching. I am sure almost everybody here has heard that.

What are the three faults?

Being like a utensil that is not pure and clean.

If you have a dirty glass, with dirty stuff inside, and you pour water or milk or nectar in it, you will be unable to drink that. It is spoilt. Likewise, if in our mind we can have wrong, impure emotions, such as hatred and anger and obsession, etc,. Another one is having a prefabricated mind, thinking, “The teacher should be saying this and that and should be doing this and that”. All this is just like having a dirty glass.

Paying no attention – like an upside down cup

Your physical body is sitting there, but your focus is completely on something else. You are not even listening. This is like putting your cup upside down. Nothing can go in. The Chinese have the example of pouring tea into a cup that is already full and overflowing.

Having a hole in the glass

Yes, the water goes in and the cup is clean but if there is a hole in the bucket and you don’t fix it then everything goes out. No matter how much you pour in it goes out.

Similarly there are six awarenesses.

1:25

These are mentioned but not listed in this commentary. But the Liberation in the Palm of your Hands has them:

Thinking of yourself as a patient who is seeking help

Thinking of dharma as medicine that is going to cure you

Thinking of Buddha as an extraordinary person (doctor)

Wishing to remain for a long time in the teaching system of Buddha

Attitude that diligent practice will cure the illness

Tathagatas are holy beings and the dharma should be preserved

I am trying to go a little faster now. Whenever you are listening to the teaching you should be listening like a patient is waiting for the doctor to tell you how you can be cured. Truly speaking, we are the patients. We may not be physically ill, but spiritually we have been sick for a long time, controlled by the chronic disease of our negative emotions. We have had this for a very long time. Think about it: when did you not have it? There is no time that you can even point out where we have not been influenced by anger, obsession, etc. They are always there.

The cure you are going to get is the medicine which is the dharma. Dharma really cures those diseases, truly - this particular negative emotional disease. Dharma will tell you what their problems and faults are. Number one, they will introduce this in such a way that you will be very embarrassed of yourself. Number two, they will make clear that they are not necessarily good. Some people think that “my anger is very good, because I can express. And If I cannot express it is even worse.” Very true, but it is not something great to have. It causes a lot of other problems.

It creates hatred. Hatred creates so many other mental and even physical and emotional problems. The dharma teachings introduce you in such a way that first you recognize these negative emotions, secondly they show you their faults and thirdly they will even tell you how to get rid of them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it takes more efforts. That’s why, when we are listening to dharma teachings, you are somehow looking for something that really makes us better. So we have the attitude of a patient who really wants to get rid of a certain disease.

Then the dharma is nothing but the real medicine. Whether you get the right or the wrong medicine depends on whether your doctor is intelligent or skillful enough, conscientious enough. Thereby it brings the qualities of the teachers too.

1:31

Then one should always have the desire to remain longer in that atmosphere. The more you can remain there the more helpful it may be. It may not be so comfortable and it may take a lot of time. You could have achieved many other things, but even then, the other things, no matter what you could achieve, will be similar samsaric activities, no non-samsaric activities. If you think that way, then even a minute, hour, day, month or whatever, becomes worthwhile to the individual. Not only you think that way, you have to convince yourself that this is right. If you just think that way in the sense of imagining, but in reality it may not be true, then that means you are brainwashing yourself. That’s no use. You are not a fool. You know it. It won’t work. You really have to convince yourself. This is something you can do for yourself, for the long run. Think about it, whatever we meditate goes against our negative emotions – even a single word. At least that much we know unless we are quite stupid. That’s why these 6 awarenesses are always important to remember. Many times we don’t. Many times we go for the teachings because we want to learn something more. Maybe you don’t have so much more to learn. But you can understand better. There are many earlier Tibetan teachers who said, “I didn’t hear anything new, but I learnt something new.” That happens so many times. That’s about the pre-aspects.

When I look back on what we have done it looks like I have covered authenticity and excellence of the lam rim, the greatness of the instruction of lam rim. We covered how to listen to and explain the teachings.

Then we have to talk about the qualifications of the spiritual teacher. This is an important point. Early on they did examine a lot. The students would examine the teacher and the teacher would examine the student – for so long. For example, one of those 5 great earlier Sakya teacher, was invited by the Chinese emperor. This was probably a Manchu emperor. He invited him to be his teacher. When he got there, the Manchu court examined the teacher for 6 years. I am not sure about the number of years, could have been 12 years, but I think it was 6. Anyway, after 6 years the court decided that he was fit to be the emperor’s master. They informed him that he was deemed to be fit to be the emperor’s master and that soon the emperor would be receiving teachings from him. He replied, “Yeah, you checked me for 6 years and now I have to check whether the emperor is fit to be my student or not. That will also take 6 years.” Before the 6 years were over this Sakya lama died. His number one disciple and nephew was Chögye Pakpa. Now the emperor took teachings from him straight away and Chögye Pakpa accepted him as student straight away – no examining. So that happens. Earlier that was the system.

So both teacher and disciple do need to examine each other a little bit. The student has to figure out: Can I tolerate this guy? There are bound to be difficulties, so can I tolerate? There are criteria such as the 10 qualities of the master and 10 plus 10 qualities for a Vajrayana master. You can find them in the books. But the basic thing is: Do I get difficulties by receiving teachings from this person? Particularly, a great deal of difficulties. Some lamas are very easy, great and wonderful. Some teachers are controversial and all kinds of things.

What you are examining are those qualities, not only qualities as good points but also concerning the personality of the individual teacher. For example, personally, some teachers are quite wrathful. They will scream and yell all the time. Some are quite silly. They do all kinds of wrong or meaningless things. So when you are examining you are saying, “What happens if that happens?”

I might have told you that I have 30 some odd teachers. They are all great. Some are quite silly, like for example, Kyabje Gomo Rinpoche, who wrote the book ”Becoming a Child of the Buddha”.

1.43

Gomo Rinpoche behaved in a very funny, silly way – to me. But I am sure he had his purpose with whatever he did. When Gomo Rinpoche lived in India he was known as “house parent No 15” in Mussorie. That’s an orphanage. Rinpoche and his wife were the house parents at home No 15. I don’t know how many houses were there. So some people used to call him “15 Rinpoche”. He had excellent qualities in many ways but some things he did were quite silly. He carried as little rucksack on his back and went around with that. He was not very well to do financially. One time he went to Nepal and I got a phone call from him from Nepal. In those days it was not so easy to make long distance calls to India. It was very difficult. He called me and said, “I am coming back to Dehli tomorrow by plane and I am bringing some turquoise. Would you make sure that Customs won’t get me.” I thought maybe Rinpoche had been given or bought some turquoise and that might have been helpful for him financially. So I thought, “By all means, I will do my best.” It talked to some friends I knew in Indian customs, gave them a gift, you know – I think I gave him a Johnnie Walker Black Label bottle. Then, the next day I went to the airport to receive Rinpoche and he did have quite a lot of turquoise with him. The customs guy on duty that day happened to be one of his friends too and they didn’t look through his bags. But then when we got to Rinpoche’s home, all these turquoise turned out to belong to somebody else – so many people.

So Rinpoche might have told a lot of people that he was flying from Nepal to Dehli and was bringing turquoise, so everybody said, “Carry some for me”. So all of them were packed in little packages and each had a label, “Belongs to So and so” and Rinpoche would say to me, “Where do these people live? We have to go and deliver.” So I had to drive all over the place and do door to door deliveries. At the end Rinpoche had just a couple of turquoise left for himself! So things like that happen.

1:48

Some teachers are very short tempered – like Geshe Wangyal, who started the New Jersey Learning Center. He was known as Holy Horror among his students. Thurman, Jeffrey and so on are all his students. Geshe Wangyal would always yell at you, whether you knew it or not. I came to the United States for the first time in 1964. Geshe Wangyal called me for dinner and I came in suit and tie. Geshe Sopa, who is in Wisconsin today was the cook in Geshe Wangyal’s house. Geshe Sopa came out, wearing an apron and he was and still is a very learned geshe. There is no one better today. Geshe Wangyal came to greet me and saw me in my suit and said, “What is this? A monkey?” and he kept yelling through the whole dinner. Geshe Wangyal was like that. On the other hand he cooked good meat for me and also gave me $100. In 1964 that was a lot of money for me. But he gave me a long lecture why I should not be dressed like a monkey. He kept on yelling. Later he asked me to stay in his center. He said, “First go back to India and do what His Holiness wants you to do for a couple of years and then come back.” I said okay. Later he reminded me again.

After visiting Geshe Wangyal I went to see Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, known to many of you as Khen Rinpoche or Khensur Rinpoche. He very strongly convinced me to stay at Geshe Wangyal’s center. So I didn’t do it. Then later Geshe Wangyal came to India to attend a Buddhist conference, arranged by the Mahabodhi Society. He was staying at the Lodi Hotel on Janpath. I went there and visited him. Joshua opened the door and said in a quiet voice, “Geshe-la is sleeping”. After a little while Geshe-la woke up and said, “Who is here?” and Joshua told him that I was there. Immediately he shouted, “Oh you! You said you were going to stay with me and now you are not. You lied. You cheated me!” He kept on yelling at me, not only in his room, but even after that, during the conference. Then he said, “I got someone better than you anyway. I got Lochö Rinpoche to stay with me!” I knew that Lochö Rinpoche was not going to stay with him, but I didn’t say a word. Sometimes, these things happen.

Things like that you can examine, before they become your teacher or master. So that means not only looking for the qualities, but also for the individual things. Even before I took teachings from Kyabje Ribur Rinpoche I looked into what is going to happen with the family relations and so on. I examined that. When you think, “Whatever may come, I can manage”, then you take teachings. These are things that are not mentioned in the books. The books will tell you the 10 qualities. The bottom line of these is that there are three: dul wa, zhi wa, nye wa zhi wa - well behaved, very well behaved and tamed. These really mean the Three Basket – teachings of the Buddha. The teacher has to be morally okay, intelligent enough – wisdom wise – [and have good focus]. If the person is rich with the Three Higher Trainings, then that’s okay. If there is a problem with these, that is a problem. That’s how you individually check.

The guru devotional practice becomes the real back bone, the real essence of spiritual practice within Buddhism, particularly in vajrayana Buddhism.

1:55

So all these problems you have to think about before you take teachings. Once you do take teachings you have to treat the teacher like a Buddha. That is a little too much, too powerful, too dangerous and a little difficult. So one has to be very careful. I am not going to talk about that very much today, but leave it for the next time, probably when I talk from Ann Arbor on Feb 5.

When we come back, we will start with verse 11, guru devotion. What we really did today is the 4 qualities and criteria. At least you got an idea what lam rim does for you. The real true practice that will make a difference in our life is the lam rim. Vajrayana practices like sadhanas and healing and this and that are great and wonderful, but will not make that much difference. You can get healed and that is good, it happens. But really making a difference to people’s life, including anger, hatred, obsession, etc, building the opposite of that, like love, compassion, etc, are done by the lam rim. That will make a huge difference, and it will be a comprehensive, organized, perfect path. It is learning, analyzing and meditating that will make a huge difference. Whenever you learn, meditate a little bit. For example today, we have not reached to the level of meditation yet. We have only been talking about the qualities. But from guru devotion onwards, if possible, at least once a day, you should meditate on that. Then you will see what difference it makes. That way it is worthwhile. To make it worthwhile for you, you have to put in the effort. I guess that’s it.

2:02:50 announcements, program details, dedication 2:09:40