Archive Result

112

20110312GRNYSE1

00:00 Jewel Heart Prayers

0:10

Welcome here to today’s teaching. Before we begin with the teaching I would like to say that what’s happening in the world today, particularly in Japan, is very sad indeed and we dedicate all our virtues to those who lost their lives. Hopefully the number doesn’t go up. Also we dedicate to those who lost their loved ones. In one way this gives us the opportunity to feel the pains people go through, from both angles, losing your own life and losing loved ones. Also by feeling that we understand how strong the suffering is. Particularly when we look at the faces of those conservative-looking Japanese elder ladies we can see how much pain they go through. Japanese people don’t express their pain. They hide it, but you can see it on their faces. Understanding that helps us to generate genuine compassion. If you don’t understand the pain, the compassion will only be lip service. If you feel the pain, the compassion will be attached to feelings. That’s why compassion with love makes a difference. Here there is the opportunity to do all this, for our own benefit and that of those who went through this particular suffering and are still experiencing it. And then we dedicate for all living beings. So it is an opportunity to develop compassion and to realize what samsara really is. Fortunately or unfortunately, some of those pictures show you hell, the burning hot hells and the cold hell of the water. Maybe that’s what hot and cold hells are. I don’t mean to say there is nothing beyond that, but that tells us a lot. We should use that as an opportunity to understand reality and to make a difference. That will be genuine practice.

Many times we say we do practice and sit very holy and tight, but when conditions like this one come it’s not right to do that. The earlier Tibetan teacher Gunthang Jambelyang said,

When your stomach is filled and you are warm with sun shine, you look and behave like a dharma practitioner. But when certain conditions pop up you behave worse than the usual people.

So try to utilize events like that to improve yourself and everybody else. So we dedicate our virtues of discussing dharma subjects today and do our usual practices for the well being of those who lost their lives and those who are living – above all to end the samsaric world. This situation shows us why we need to end samsara.

0:19

To continue with our subject, we are talking about the basis of guru devotional practice. Guru devotional practices are based on the guru. Many of us would like to become gurus (laughs), but we need to know. In one way talking about the qualities of the guru you are talking about the guru. On the other hand, for those of us who would like to become gurus, it is learning how to become a guru. What are the criteria and the qualities? We are looking at somebody else and trying to figure out if that person is fit to be a guru or not. On the other hand if you are improving yourself and you want to guide somebody else or many people, the quality of the guru has to be the same. Whether you are a guru for one or many, the criteria are the same. We talk about the 10 qualities of qualifications of the guru. For ourselves we can look at it as a challenge to obtain these qualities. These criteria are provided to judge someone else’s qualification, but it is also a challenge for ourselves. Many of us who would like to be a guru will need that. Lately I don’t see it that much. But there was a time when some people in Jewel Heart would call others at night and say, “Hey, I am your guru.” We used to get this quite often. If you want to be a guru you have to have these criteria. Then, when people begin to realize you have these you gain respect. You don’t have to demand it. If you don’t show those qualities, then no matter what you do, due to feeling obligated or out of respect, people may temporarily try to sit there for a while. But other than that you don’t get much. That’s because you don’t show your quality. Simply saying, “I have the qualities” doesn’t make you qualified. So you need to know the qualities of the spiritual master.

0:24

To be a vinaya teacher you have to have two qualities. To be a Mahayana teacher, you have to have ten qualities and to be a vajrayana teacher you need ten plus ten. But you really need the basic goodness and basic requirements. The words come from Maitreya Buddha, but nothing is changed in what Buddha said and what his disciples have said thereafter. He talks about a person who is tamed, well behaved, not raw. What does that mean? It is about someone who has good morality. The basic three higher trainings of the Buddha are morality, concentration and wisdom. They are the subjects of the Three Basket teachings. These three correspond with Maitreya Buddha’s first three points: tamed, pacified and wise. We have to understand that the basis of morality. Perfect morality is absolutely difficult, but a good moral standing is essential. There are people who are basing themselves on something that is not true – like claiming to be something that they are not. They say “I am Buddha”, “I am Maitreya Buddha”, “I am Manjushri”, “I am Guru Padmasambhava”, “I am Tsongkhapa”, “I am the Dalai Lama”, “I am the future Dalai Lama” and so on. Their base is not correct. It is a lie. Morally that is not right. There are some people who say, “I am this lama and that lama”, all of those are wrong. I personally, am supposed to be a Tibetan incarnate lama, labeled by some reliable person. Nobody really disputed it. How I behave, that’s a different matter, but the claim that I am an incarnate lama is not challenged by anybody. But I don’t personally claim to be anybody else and neither do all the other incarnate lamas. They may carry their previous’ incarnation names. They don’t say, “I am Manjushri” or “I am Buddha” and so on. If they do it is a clear sign there is something wrong. That is the basic moral issue.

In addition to that there is our usual morality, like protecting people’s life, saving people’s life. At least one should have some hesitation even when some little insects are losing their lives. When you walk on the ground and you see ants smashed under your feet, have some awareness of not steeping over them. Secondly, if you realize that you have stepped over them, feel something, have regret.

0:31

Somehow even say at least om mani padme hum from your heart, not just by mouth. Otherwise is becomes just another show biz. It is different if you are sincerely doing it, like Atisha did. Otherwise, today if you do it, it becomes show biz. So now it is probably better if the person next to you doesn’t know what you are doing. In that way you regret and say om mani padme hum or whatever you want to say and do something. So that is the issue of saving the life even of an insect. Then don’t take things that don’t belong to you, which is stealing. Don’t have sexual misconduct. Basically you can’t hurt people. The books will tell you more, like you can’t do at this place and that place, not at this time or that time and so on. That is also identified as sexual misconduct, but the bottom line really is that you cannot go against the will of the other person. You cannot hurt the other person. The hurting doesn’t end at the physical hurting either. It includes mental, physical and emotional damage too. There are often long term effects for the other person. Basic morality means to avoid killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Lying is another one, particular lying about the spiritual path.

Since the winter retreat a lot of people are doing Cittamani Tara practice. Part of that are the “longing songs” or requests. In one of them is a verse that says that these days teachers pretend to know things that they don’t know.

RANG ZOI CHÖ KYI ZHEN GO KOR CHE CHING

TSEN NYI MI TAG NOR NGOR CHÖ TSONG WE

MI SHE SHE PAR DRAG SHING CHÖ GYE KYI

NAM PAR GYING WAI LA CHEN LA CHUNG SOG

Others cheat us with their made-up teachings,

Selling dharma for money that’s marked by impermanence,

Proclaiming ignorance knowledge, puffed up with pride

Through the eight worldly dharmas, gurus great and small.

NYIG DÜ SHE LA LO TE MI DUB PE

NGA YI LA MAI TSO WO KYE RANG YIN

JIN GYI LOB SHIG TSE WAI DAG NYI MA

THUG JEI THU PUNG KYE CHIG NGE PAR GONG

Since I cannot trust such friends of degenerate times,

the principal guru of mine is you yourself.

Inspire me, mother of the nature of love!

Arouse your great power of compassion! Think of me!

(From: A Song of Longing for Tara, the Unfallible (Lulema)by Losang Tenpey Gyaltsen)

So the author of that text is saying, “Even you don’t know you pretend to know and try to explain. That is the sign of unreliability of masters. I cannot rely on the masters of the degenerate age and my principal master is you, Tara.”

This tells you a lot about the lying, especially black lies, pretending to have spiritual development that you don’t have; pretending to have clear knowledge that you don’t have; particularly pretending to have received something that you never received. A lot of people do that. That’s a little surprising to me, but people do that. People are teaching something that they didn’t receive the teaching of. Traditionally we don’t have that much in Tibet. If it happens it is a joke.

Gomo Rinpoche (author of “Becoming a Child of the Buddha) used to tell that as a joke. The oral transmission of the kan gyur, the Buddhist Canon or Buddha’s Collected Works is a very long term tedious work. Quite a number of people used to give that in Tibet. Sometimes the government would even make the teachers do it and make the disciples listen. They made rules around that. Monks were forced to attend and teachers who don’t want to do it had to do it. It takes 9, 10 months to read. If you have good reading speed it is a little better, if not, it takes a long, long time. People would normally do it for 3, 4 months and then take a break and do another 3,4 months and take another break.

Gomo Rinpoche’s joke was about a Mongolian guy. Maybe it is a joke against the Mongolians or something. So this Mongolian guy says, “I can read very fast.” And he is indeed a very fast reader. So a number of people collect and he reads the Collected Works of Buddha to them for about half a year or something. At the end of the last day he says, “You people are so fortunate to receive this oral transmission. However, in my own case I have never received it.” And everybody is saying, “What?!!” “What you are talking about? We spent six months here listening.” And they are ready to beat him up.

That’s a joke that Gomo Rinpoche used to tell, a funny story that may or may not have happened. Somebody may have made that up. But now in the west, there are so many people who actually do that. Some have no idea of what they are doing. People do all kinds of funny things. They do funny rituals too.

0:40

There are fire pujas and certain rituals that have certain criteria of how the mandala is built and what it is. Then sometimes people don’t follow the criteria. I have seen some people throw some dust powder here and there. They probably noticed that one side is white, one yellow, one red and one green. So they throw a little colored powder and do some scratches into it. Anybody can build a bon fire! But people do that and it becomes part of the problem. So basic morality includes all this. That is criterion 1. There is nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know”. And if you can’t say that, at least say, “I forgot”. That’s a little easier than saying “I don’t know.” Some people find it very difficult to say that. And some people find it very difficult to say, “I am sorry.” They can’t admit a mistake. That’s just personality. So then you can say, “I think I used to know, but don’t remember now.” That in itself maybe a little white lie. So that’s the first point, the morality.

The second point is the mind remaining in peace. That is concentration. The Buddha recommended to go up to the focusing level of shamata, but not beyond shamata. Shamata is Sanskrit and it is zhi ney in Tibetan. Samadhi (Tib sam ten), which means focused, concentrated meditation, has 4 stages of very strong concentration within the form realm and 4 within the formless realm. The formless realm stages come after the form realm stages and have different names: like space, like consciousness, nothingness and peak of samsara. You can expand these 8 stages and they then become 17 stages. The first stage of the eight stages of Samadhi has a prerequisite level and Buddha called that “the level one cannot do without”. And that is the shamata or zhiney.

Sam ten tang poi nyir do mi gyur me – it is said. Sam ten is Samadhi, the stability of mind. Within that each level has three different categories, pre – actual and conclusion. The first pre level is the something you cannot do without and is known as shamata. When we talk about peace or concentration, here we talk about the minimum shamata that is available. None of us has strong shamata anyway. We have a little semi – or quasi – shamata. It is like when the Indians say “quasi-permanent”, something that looks like it is permanent but isn’t. So we have some “quasi – shamata”. That may be able to substitute, but you have to have some quality of concentration power. It doesn’t have to stay very long. You can’t maintain it, but you should at least be able to focus – with clarity and stability, both. A little bit, maybe a couple of seconds. I think we all can manage that. That is unless some people cannot stop thinking or talking or listening. People like to listen to others’ conversations. They can’t stop. People have funny habits. Sometimes people can’t stop thinking. That is still okay. Some people can’t stop having suspicious thoughts. “They are talking about me”, “They are saying something about me”. That’s not right. Then we should recognize that and realize that it is not good to do that. That’s what we are talking about. Some people may think that it is clever to think that way, but it is not. It is stupid.

0:50

Why is it stupid? You think you are the only one who knows, but in reality everybody else knows, except you. That’s the reality, all the time. We call that concentration level “peace”, because the craziness of the mind is not there. That is the true reality of the mind. The mind is not influenced by crazy emotions and that’s why it is peace. That’s why it is called concentration.

The third quality is ne war zhi wa - very pacified and that is actually wisdom. Those of us who have a little knowledge in Buddhism, when the word “wisdom” comes up, we straightaway want to think about emptiness. That’s also true, but the wisdom is also knowledge in the sense of knowing what you are doing, knowing what you are practicing, knowing what you are guiding and teaching. That is a very important requirement. If you have the difficult wisdom, that is the understanding of reality. That is quite difficult to get for so many of us. But at least know what you are doing. Either you are preaching or practicing, but knowing what you are doing is important. Without that you get nowhere. There is the saying, “Practice what you Preach” and I think that is talking about this wisdom.

In addition to the wisdom you have to be knowledgeable, at least about the subject you are practicing or preaching. It is difficult nowadays to have people who have very vast knowledge, as we had in the earlier traditional times. Nowadays there are only very few. There is only one Dalai Lama. There are not many like him. It really shows how rare it is. He has that huge, vast knowledge and quality. You don’t see so many, maybe one or two here and there. So at least you should have good knowledge of the practice you are practicing or preaching. Then, if you have these basic higher trainings, concentration, wisdom and morality, that tames your mind. When your mind is tamed, that is spiritual development within you. It is the quality you gain. You don’t count the qualities separately. Some do, but whether you do it or not, having these three basic higher trainings or three basket teachings, your mind changes and improves. These are your spiritual qualities. You are not only counting things, you have solid quality within you.

On top of that comes being knowledgeable with regard to the subject you are practicing or preaching. Based on that comes the sixth quality: you should be more informed than the student. Otherwise the student becomes the teacher and the teacher becomes the student. These are basically the first six: the three higher trainings, morality, concentration and wisdom, plus knowledge, quality and some understanding of reality.

On top of that the person should have the quality of presentation (7). You should know the art of presentation. On top of that you should have pure mind (8). This refers to compassion-oriented mind, rather than seeking something for yourself, caring for the people you are talking to, having compassion for all living beings, particularly the ones who are connecting with you and who you are talking to. Then one should be a little enthusiastic (9). We should talk with enthusiasm. If you have compassion, you will have enthusiasm. Lastly one should also not be easily irritated (10). Some people get very easily irritated. You don’t want that.

1:01

Back in Tibet there were some masters who were not irritated but pretended to. There were many of them. I think the reincarnation of Pari Rinpoche is coming here some time. Pari Dorje Chang was a very famous master, a cousin of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. He was wonderful for oral transmissions. I never had teachings from him, because we had the same ranking. Whenever we went to some government thing we were together. Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche, Pari Dorje Chang and lamas like that were there together. When Pari Dorje Chang gave oral transmissions of the kang gyur he read so fast that he was done in 3, 4 month. I was told he kept a long stick near his throne and if anyone was doing something wrong he would hit them straight away. You would have no idea where the stick was coming from. First he would scold, then he would scold the individual person and then he would hit you. He was not angry and it doesn’t mean he didn’t have enthusiasm. You do have care, otherwise why would you hit? Why should you bother? But on the other hand, there were lamas like Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche. You could whatever you wanted. You could get away with murder in front of him in the teachings. He didn’t bother. He had a different character.

1:04

So one shouldn’t not be irritable and have a little patience and one should have enthusiasm. So these are the 10 qualities. This is how we observe teachers. On the other hand this is also a challenge for us. If you want to teach somebody, whether it is one person or one thousand people, they are the same qualities. That’s the challenge – see whether you have those or not. Your mind is absolutely clear to you. There is no secret, nothing hidden. If you have those qualities, acknowledge and appreciate them and if you don’t, then you know what you have to work on.

Similarly, those who listen to the teachings and receive teachings also have their criteria.

Again, Maitreya Buddha lists the qualities. The first one:

sur ne lo den tö nyer wai

nyem bo nye je char wa che

The person’s mind should be straight (1), in the sense, it shouldn’t be that your mind is leaning towards this or that. In other world you shouldn’t have a prefabricated idea that “this guy is going to say this and this and this” and when he comes to those points, thinking “I know that, I am glad he said it.” That is a prefabricated mind. The mind should be open. Also some people will say, “He is not going to say anything right anyway, so let’s listen and I will show you.” That is not called for. It is not straight forward behavior.

Next, the person should be intelligent in the sense of being quite witty (2). The moment the teacher is trying to touch a subject one should be able to know what he or she is going to say and what to think about it.

Most importantly, the person has to have interest (3). I don’t know if that applies in the west. Here, if you are not interested you don’t have to come. You don’t have to listen. But in Tibet, going to teachings was sometimes compulsory. Certain people were forced to attend as part of discipline or something. Or perhaps they felt obligated to go. That’s why interest is mentioned. When you have interest you pay attention (4). You will also have profound faith and respect for the dharma you are going to hear as well as for the person presenting the dharma (5). Finally the person should also have the intellectual capacity to pick up the right things and drop the wrong things (6). Sometimes some wrong thing does come out and the person should have enough intelligence to pick that up. For example, most of the teachings, though based on certain text books, many times the explanations and teachings and quotations are extempore. They come out of the thoughts and ideas that are being discussed. Sometimes they can be wrong. The subject is not wrong, the message is not wrong. But quotations are sometimes wrong. The words can be lopsided. Some teachers are dyslexic. So they say the wrong words.

Kyabje Lhatsün Rinpoche always, instead of saying lag drum ta la ze pa trag would say trag drum lag la ze pa tra. That was usual for him. lag drum ta la ze pa trag means “it looks like a person without arms trying to climb rocks”. Lag is hand and trag is rock. Drum is cut off. So that is person without hands trying to climb rocks. But he would say trag drum lag la ze pa tra, which means “with rocks cut off trying to climb hands”. It doesn’t mean anything. But that was his habit. We used to receive teachings from Kyabje Lhatsün Rinpoche and he would say without hesitation trag drum lag la ze pa tra. Particularly the new incarnate lamas would giggle. We tried to tell them before the teaching that Kyabje Rinpoche would say these things and told them “don’t giggle”. But then they giggled even more when he actually said it!

1:13

Then, for example, the Liberation in the Palm of your Hands contains the quotation

pa she sa she ma la tsog….

…eating the flesh of the father, threatening the mother, carrying your life-long enemy in your arms as your most precious child – I laugh at samsara.

I am paraphrasing this. Kyabje Pabongkha said this quote was by Shariputra. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche edited it and then it was printed, saying Shariputra said this. Then I was researching Shariputra’s work and couldn’t find this quote anywhere. Finally, I asked some other people and they didn’t know. And you can’t read the whole kang gyur to find it, right? Then I thought, “How is the Sanskrit version?” So I asked Geshe Jambspel, because he is very good and he said,

“Yeah, yeah, you Tibetans say that Shariputra said this, but these are Katayana’s words.” He sent me the Sanskrit version of the quote, but I couldn’t read it. He took a lot of trouble of finding the Sanskrit quote and wrote it down and printed it out and sent it to me. In those days e mail didn’t work so well. He xeroxed it and sent it by mail. But I couldn’t read it. Later I looked into Katayana’s work and found this quote everywhere! But we used to say it was Shariputra. Nothing wrong with the quote, yet it is the wrong person that is identified with that. So there is nothing wrong with the spiritual practice or with the quote itself; just the wrong author was quoted. It happens because the quotes are done extempore. Kyabje Pabongka was also in the habit of saying that a particular quote came from such and such a work, even down to the page numbers and even down to the line. But then you get different editions and the page numbers and line numbers won’t be there. That all happens. So the person listening should have enough intelligence to figure those things out.

These should be the six criteria of the student. If such a qualified master and such qualified students come together they can create the Buddha level as though you are making figures out of play dough. That is what Kyabje Pabongkha would always say:

sang gye lhag pai sö par zhu gu re – you can make a Buddha by hand.

Or it is like an artist who draws a painting or an artist who makes little images out of clay, bronze or metal. That’s why the qualities of the master and the disciples are challenges for us.

From such a teacher you really need to learn the Three Scopes. That is very important. People are very fond of meditation. Right now we think we know one thing: if you meditate you get peace of mind; you can reduce your blood pressure; you can get a little mental relaxation. That’s all we know. With that little knowledge behind meditation is becoming popular now. They call it “mindfulness meditation” or whatever and people like to adopt it as part of their daily chores or do it at least three times a week. That’s because they see that much quality. But the biggest quality you can gain from mediation is to free yourself from all negative emotions. If you think about it that is quite clear.

Why do you get mental relaxation? Our mind is usually totally occupied with emotions – either negative or positive. Mindfulness or almost like being blank as in thinking nothing will separate your mind from these busy subjects of positive and negative things. That gives the mind a little relaxation. That is the immediate benefit. That is quite clear. It shows that your mind can make a huge difference to yourself. Particularly if you can inject within the mind more positive emotions and energy. How much difference that can make in your life! You can figure that out without being a rocket scientist. The teachings of the Buddha tell us that this is how we can influence our mind.

1:22

This is how you manage your mind. This is how you change your mind from negative into positive. Right now what is popular in the United States with people is just thinking nothing. If thinking nothing can make that much difference then thinking something can definitely make a very big difference. That is not a mystery for us. We like to improve our education. We put a lot of effort in to get the kids educated, because then they think and understand better. Otherwise, why do you need education? Of course, now the society recognizes a piece of paper that says that you have a PhD or something. But you are not putting efforts in for the piece of paper, but for the purpose of thinking better. Thinking better makes a difference in life. That is not a mystery. Whether you get a piece of paper or not, that is how you work with your mind. That is how you influence your mind and that changes you. That’s why meditating on the Three Scopes is important.

For that you need a nice, comfortable place to practice. I said “comfortable”, not luxurious. These are two different things. Sometimes luxurious things are comfortable, but sometimes they are uncomfortable. I am talking about being comfortable in the sense of wherever you feel happy and at home. It is important to have a little altar, particularly beginners. Those who have reached a little higher stages probably need nothing. But we need something, a little bit of a base, that can represent your objects of refuge. You need at least an image or something representing Buddha. I don’t recommend using too many posters and postcards. It was a fashion some time ago and even in those days I was hesitating. Now everybody knows. They collect dust. You don’t know what to do with them. You can’t put them all on the altar. An altar, according to the Buddhist tradition, must be at a respectably higher level, not near the door, not near a pillar or somewhere where everyone puts things on it. That’s buddha’s recommendation. Others don’t mind. There is nothing wrong with that. That’s their tradition and that’s what they do. But in Buddha’s tradition you don’t. You put a Buddha image in the middle. Some people say that “we are Gelugpas and we must have Tsongkhapa.” Yes, we do, but you can’t say that Tsongkhapa is enough and you don’t need Buddha. Some will say, “We are Nyingmapas, we need Guru Padmasambhava and we don’t need Buddha”, or “We are Sakyapas, we need the Five Sakya lamas or Sakya Pandita and we don’t need Buddha.” Some people say, “We are Kagyupas and we need Ma-Mi-Dha-sum.” That’s Marpa, Milarepa and Dhagpo Lhagye. Or “We are Karma Kagyus and we need the Karmapa and nobody else”, or “We are Tibetans. We need the Dalai Lama and nobody else.” That’s not right. We need Buddha, for sure, no matter whoever you are. It is true. The Buddha is the most important guru. He is the founder of the Buddhist tradition. We base our practice on the experience of the Buddha, which has been tested again and again by so many disciples of his. That’s why Buddha is the most important figure on your altar. It is the Guru-Buddha, Buddha who is the guru; it is Buddha who is the dharma and Buddha who is the sangha. That’s what we have to think. Buddha is a must.

Sometimes we would like to put the pictures of our loved ones on the altar, particularly in traditions that worship ancestors.

1:30

There is a whole ancestor altar. Some people merge them together. I don’t. This is my personal practice. You people make your own choice. My reason is that some of your ancestors may be great beings, but some of them may not necessarily be that great. If you put them on the same level with the Buddha, that will decrease their virtue. Instead of helping them it may hurt them. You never know.

One of the Buddha’s disciples, Mongelputra (Maudgalyana) is the outstanding disciple of the Buddha in magical powers. Shariputra is the outstanding disciple for wisdom. You often see them depicted standing next to Buddha. Mongelpu was supposed to be very powerful magically. But he died by being beaten up by other people. The reason why he was beaten up is this:

One anti-buddhist teacher passed away and Mongelpu was supposed to follow him. He found him in the hell realms. Mongelpu went to him and talked to him and that guy said, “The more my disciples put up my picture or drawing and make offerings to me, the more suffering I get here. So please tell them not to do that.” So Mongelpu went straight to their place and told them, “I found your teacher in the hell realm and he said this and that.” So they got hold of him and beat him up. Shariputra went and picked him up and said, “You are most powerful disciple of Buddha in the use of magical powers. Why didn’t you use them?” In Tibetan magical powers is dzün trül. So Mongelpu said, “Forget about trül, I couldn’t even remember dzün.” That means, forget about doing magic, I couldn’t even think about it. Buddha later said that was because of his karma.

That’s why if you are in the tradition of worshipping ancestors you should have a separate ancestor altar. Many Chinese traditions have that. So why not? They can be there. But this altar and the Buddhist altar shouldn’t mix.

I should stop here. Thank you. We are meeting again at 2.00 pm

1:35