Archive Result

20110521GRAASE1

0:00 (roughly 80 minutes)

Everybody has been waiting on the webcast for about 25 minutes. My apologies. I was just asking what prayers we normally say for this teaching so the last two times apparently we didn’t do any prayers because the web cast audience is waiting. So we are webcasting and everybody has been waiting since 10 am. I am sorry.

Netherlands Report

Between the last session and today I went to the Netherlands. A number of people from here also came. It was interesting. The request came from the DCT for a Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa initiation and they specifically asked for not the long life initiation but for a jenang. So I did Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa initiation as combination of Manjushri, Vajrapani and Avalokitesvara, known as rig sum chig drub. That means “three different activities of all enlightened beings in one”. That is not really a secret initiation, but is not commonly given. So we did that, followed by Ganden Lhagyema teaching and I did the Secret Ganden Lhagyema teaching. They had requested that but what they organized for is new people. They probably thought that it will be the usual Ganden Lhagyema, but maybe within the DCT (Dharma Coordination Team) they didn’t talk to each other, because the arrangement they set up was for new people. Somehow these new people got quite lucky. Suddenly they got that. Then we did one weekend Karma workshop.

I must say they do very well in Holland. We had a meeting of their board and the DCT together. They have some difficulties sometimes. These are two strong committees functioning side by side, but for the board we made the rule that board members have to change every four years. For the DCT we don’t have that rule yet. So for a while the DCT has become very strong, stronger than the board. The DCT members have been functioning together for a number of years. So naturally they build up a strong team. So we did meet with both groups together and almost talked about merging them into one group. They function slightly different from the board here in the US. We have very nice, kind and dedicated people in the board, but they only meet occasionally. In Jewel Heart Netherlands each board member does individual jobs. They do have an office, but most office people are volunteers. So each board member takes responsibility for an area of work. One is responsible for finances, another for building issues, another for the running of the facility. So they work totally different from how we run here.

They didn’t decide to merge with the DCT, but they agreed to meet four times a year in a retreat setting. So almost every season they meet for a day-long retreat, so that they work is getting coordinated. So they are doing very well. I noticed it by the way they are sitting in the meditation hall. All the current senior board and DCT members are sitting right in the front row. Then the younger generation next to that is sitting in the second row, ready to take on any responsibility for the people sitting in front of them, in case they need a sabbatical or they don’t want to work or whatever. They are ready to step in. So for example, the person responsible for the facility is sitting in the front row and the person sitting behind is the person who would be the next facility person. That is not specially arranged but it happens that way. In the third row are the ones that are ready to take action if their turn comes. So it is transiting very well. I thought I would just report that.

They have had a little difficulty with the building over the years. Their idea is to build apartments on the top floor of the building and they do have a nice, big building. A few years ago they bought the building, which is two old factory buildings joined together. It is very spacious, like here. Overall it is maybe a little bigger than here. It is almost like two stories. Even the ground floor is almost as big as this center here. So the Dutch decided not to borrow money from the bank.

0:11

They borrowed money from individual members – without interest. Lots of them have put money down. The way they want to pay the money back to the lenders is by building and selling apartments with priority to Jewel Heart members and if not, then to outside people. That was the plan. They are having some difficulty because some neighbors are objecting to the project. Some slightly illegal thing happened. When we bought the building, two buildings were joined together by a beautiful glass structure in the middle. We did not know that this glass structure had been done illegally. So we built one more glass structure on the other side of the existing one and made this glass house in between the two buildings. That is on the ground floor and first floor. That happens to be legally not correct. There would have been no issue unless the neighbors objected. Since that happened those things have come up. They are sorting it out now. We can reasonably meet the neighbors objections. They complained that light is coming into their home. That is the only thing. Some concerns are very genuine. When we turn the light on in that glass house, it is reflecting to the outside. But that can be addressed, maybe by putting up a thick curtain or something. It looks like they are going to be okay and should be able to build the apartments next years or so and proceed with whatever they had planned to do.

Other than that everybody is okay. Some older members are not well and they are sick, but that’s what happens to all the people my age and above. We do that. That’s the news from Holland. Everybody admires the American sangha. They appreciate it and really warmly welcomes the Americans who joined this teaching. I guess that’s about it for that.

0:15:15

Now here we are continuing the teaching on Jamgon Lama Tsongkhapa’s shortest essence lam rim, the lam rim dü dön. Sometimes it is also called lam rim nyam gur, that means ”Lines of Experience” [or Songs of Experience]. They both refer to the same text. It is his shortest lam rim and it is based on the experience that Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa himself went through. There is also a very similar short text by Tsongkhapa. Each verse there ends with the words, “That’s what I did and now when I look back, I feel fortunate. My life has been worthwhile. Thank you, my great guru.” This is called Tok chö dü le ma in Tibetan. It is very similar, not based on the lam rim, but based on his learning and contemplation. Sometimes people get confused by the titles and think that lam rim dü dön and lam rim nyam gur are different texts. That happened even in Tibet. It is nyam gur, because Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa himself went through this and developed those realizations. This is the spiritual path he developed.

We have to make a big mental adjustment. What we really need is this: sometimes we are looking for spiritual development and looking for suddenly become some kind of mahasiddha or clairvoyant or some funny thing like crazy wisdom – or total enlightenment. But we don’t get that immediately. That is very true. That is not going to happen to us immediately. It is based on gradual steps. The great masters made those very simple for us.

For example, we look into the Three Principles of the Path.

0:20

Everywhere in Jewel Heart people think that the Three Principles are some kind of preliminary teaching, but apparently it is not. It is the total concept of spiritual path. In a very short way it is made into 1, 2, 3. Principle 1 is cutting the attachment for a materially luxurious life. You realize that karma and the karmic functioning and its results are not only reliable but functioning exactly as it says. By realizing that we know that as long as we cannot change our desires for material life we cannot have a proper spiritual path at all. Remember, the First Principle has two parts: one is focused until death, the other for the time thereafter. Out of the lam rim, it includes the difficulty to find a precious human life in three different ways: by nature, by example, by what it is made of. Even if you find such a life once it is so impermanent and easily lost. That challenges our goal of life to make ourselves rich, comfortable, famous and all that type of thing. That changes. If you do become rich, great. You don’t have to reject it. If you become famous, it is great, but you don’t run after becoming famous. If that is your primary goal it is a huge waste of your life. But if you become famous by doing what you do then it is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. It is your good karmic consequences. That’s fine. You don’t have to reject them.

I sometimes joke: there is one difference between Christianity and Buddhism: we Buddhists don’t take the vow of poverty. But if we remain poor that’s fine. Similarly, if you become rich and famous, that’s fine too. There is nothing wrong with that. But that’s not our goal. It is not the purpose of our life. That doesn’t mean you can’t have it. If you have it, great. If not, you need to know at least how to manage. As long as you can manage your life that is good. In our group, people seem to manage very well. So I think it is good. After all, what is life for? If your goal is just to make money all the time then suddenly it will go. Whatever the way it may happen, but it will go. If it doesn’t happen already in life, then at death it definitely will. You will be separated and you go and you don’t take a penny. That’s why it is called meaningless. Is it really worth spending your precious life on that purpose? If you really think about it, it really becomes questionable.

What we are capable of is fantastic. But if we spend our time to just achieve something like that, which is nothing really, it is a big waste of our life. Even if you become rich and a multi-billionaire or whatever, it means nothing. Look at Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He is honestly more important than the presidents of many countries. [He was head of the IMF, international monetary fund]. It is in his hand if he wants to save Greece, Spain or Ireland. They all depend on him. Then he was in the Sofia Hotel in New York in a $3000 a night room one minute and next minute law enforcement people handcuffed him and walked him to jail. Half an hour or 40 minutes changed the fate of this person completely. Everybody put pressure on him that he should resign, so what else could he do except resign? I don’t even know how he could resign, while being under suicide watch in a little room! Anyway, he resigned. Now he can’t even get back to his own apartment. And this is not like Bernie Madoff’s case. This is different. This guy’s career was real. He was IMF chief. It shows how life truly is. So to achieve something like that should not be our goal. We should not have so much attachment and desire to make it right is not good.

0:31

A lot of times our goal is just “to make it”. But make what? It is a matter of how we think and how we set out mind. Sometimes, as traditional Tibetan teachers used to say, the beggar with his little stick and begging bowl or bag have more comfortable, happy lives than kings and queens in their palaces. The kings and queens live under all kinds of regulations, always under public scrutiny and a guy like Dominique Strauss-Kahn has probably been living on the needle point. Yes, there is pomp and show. When he walked into a meeting all the presidents of the countries would get up and bow down and smile, trying to shake hands with him. Now, suddenly he walks into a room and everybody there looks at him, thinking, “Who is this criminal, this crook?” And the justice is sitting up there and law enforcements officers are holding him hand-cuffed. That just shows how life really is. While living in the atmosphere where all the presidents got up and tried to shake hands, even then he was living on a needle point. Anything could go wrong and he would be out. Addictions are addictions, no matter who you are and where you are. They won’t leave you. So the combination of addiction and French culture made him the perfect target (laughs).

That really should not be the goal of life. So realizing that is the first step. When you really understand, then you adapt and adjust and change your thoughts. You become comfortable with that and clearly see and understand. That is called realization. With that you are achieving the first half of the First Principle. In the lam rim stages, by this time you have achieved the realization of Embracing Life, Impermanence and Refuge. Of the three scopes of lam rim that is the First Scope, known as “common with the lower”.

Then you go beyond that and realize that the situation we are in today will become the same in future lives. As long as the source of negative addictions we have remain with us then even if you move one step, the next step will again be totally contaminated. The next idea and goal will be totally contaminated. The source of the addictions, the ego or ignorance remains with us. For that the karma does exactly what it says it does. The sufferings in the different realms will continue, including the human realm. The combination of that make you realize that one needs to have a permanently reliable, joyful life. That changes your mind. Instead of striving for a good future life you begin to strive to cut the net that binds you to suffering. These are addictions that come from ego-ignorance. You will want to shift and change that. That is the other half of the First Principle. This is all internal change. It is thought-transforming. It is not that you are flying in the air, sitting under the ground, walking over fire or something. It is simply changing of your personality and thoughts. These are achieved by meditations on karma and suffering in samsara.

0:40

That’s where you achieve the realization of the First Principle. Once you have the realization it somehow prevents you from going back into old habits and addictions. You make yourself comfortable in this new attitude. Some people will say, “Well, it is the truth and I don’t care what other people think.” That is not necessary bad or wrong, however, it is not nice. You are losing the manner of functioning of the respectable human beings. In the Tibetan tradition there are two types of dharma. Even the spiritual path of dharma has two parts. One is called mi chö – human dharma and the other is lha chö – dharma of the gods. The aspects we talked about earlier, the realizations on the First Principle and so on, are lha chö. But human behavior, which is not offensive to others, is the human dharma, mi chö.

There is a story about that. There was a great spiritual master, Drukpa Kunleg, a great guy, the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition. He was traveling in Tibet. If it was Drukpa Kunleg it would have probably been in the 1100s [Wikipedia says: 1455-1529]. In those days (and even nowadays in many parts of Tibet) there were no motels or anything of that sort available. Maybe occasionally there would have been a little village here and there, especially if you were traveling on the plateau. That was old Tibet. There may be a little house, or small village with one or two houses here and there. That’s what I remember from old Tibet. Sometimes there would have been a house built into a rock cave. The walls were built out in front and instead of a door, a heavy door curtain and inside the room is filled with smoke. An old lady will come out, jet black in the face, except for the white teeth, and they also could be half not there (laughs). Honestly, that is old Tibet.

So Drukpa Kunleg came along and he had the pride of being somebody, well known and well respected. He asked at such a house with such a lady if he and his retinue could spend the night. He was a known lama and looked like it and was dressed like it. He had some retinue too and expected that she would give him her bed room or the best room available in the house. But no, she didn’t. She said, “You want shelter for the night? Okay you can sleep here” and she showed him to the horse barn. He didn’t like that and felt very insulted. But he had no other place to go to. So he had to sit there. When you ask for shelter the hosts normally bring you some tea. So that lady did bring tea. Tibetan tea has different categories. The good one will have tea with butter and salt and that is shaken and becomes almost like soup. It is very good. Some people put cream in it too. It is almost like tomato soup with cream in it. Then the quality differs. The butter may not be good and may be rotten and smelly. A lot of people who went to Tibet had that experience. After coming back they tell me, “Oh that tea sucks.” But you have to be polite and drink it.

The second best category is black tea with a little butter thrown on top. So you can blow it round and it is a little fat on the tea. The worst is black tea with no butter at all. They just pour very light black tea. So this lady poured very light black tea. So he thought for a while and then said,

This tea does not even have the smell of tea. How can there be butter? It is not fit to drink. Therefore I offer it to the wall.

And he threw the bowl against the wall. The lady grabbed him by the collar and said,

You don’t even have the smell of human dharma. How can you have the dharma of the gods? There is no place for you here tonight. Get out of my door.

So she threw him out. It is said that she was a manifestation of Tara and she did that for him to reduce his ego grasping feeling. So that’s what happens. So when there is not even the smell of human dharma there can be no good dharma at all.

That means good human behavior is important. That does not mean that you cannot do or say what you want to. You do and say whatever you want to, however, you consider the feelings of other people. You cannot ignore them. You cannot think that you are the only person in the world. A lot of people do that and say, “I am me, so what can I do? In the four walls of my room I can do whatever I want to.” Sure you can, but you cannot insult or hurt or ignore other people. That’s called human dharma. It is considering other people.

0:55

It is coordinated behavior that avoids hurting other people. That is human dharma. If you have good dharma within you that will automatically influence your outer behavior and you won’t do that. If you behave like a spoilt-rotten kid it shows that there is nothing internally available. It is an empty shell functioning. If there is something solid inside that will affect the outside. Your behavior will change, unless you insist that you would like to do it that way. Traditionally the teachings give the example of the persimmon fruit. In Tibet it is called ama – the mother fruit. There are persimmons that are ripe inside but not outside. There are those that are ripe outside, but rotten inside. These are examples for spiritual development.

There are people who are developed internally, but it has not yet effected their behavior, like a persimmon which is ripe inside but that has not effected the skin and the flesh near the skin. If you eat that persimmon it will hurt your tongue. It will be bitter, heavy and oily. This is like people having the beginning of internal development but it doesn’t affect the outer behavior yet. The person may be kind deep inside but act roughly on the outside. After some time a persimmon becomes fully ripe and is sweet right up to the skin. That is how spiritual development goes too. Internally the development comes from the root and when it influences outside behavior you not only become a nice person but it influences your body-speech-mind behavior, which will be in accordance to the inner development. That is the sign that there is development.

When there is smoke, there is fire. When a sea gull is around it shows there is water. When the behavior of the individual is good that is a sign that there is development within the individual. This is how spiritual development affects us. After that has happened you can affect and influence other people.

1:01

A spiritually developed person will affect other people around them. That doesn’t mean everybody around gets the perfect effect. Some people have misconceptions and misunderstandings, but those who can be affected will be affected. That is the spiritual development within that is coming out. So like the smoke indicates fire and seagulls indicate water, that effect indicates the spiritual development. That doesn’t mean that there are no crazy, rotten bodhisattvas. There are some that scream and yell too. That means that the internal ripening has not affected the outside yet. You have to see it at that level. A normally educated person knows through education how to behave and function properly. Uneducated people behave like hillbillies or ypsituckies. You know, I live in Ypsilanti. In case you have never heard that word, it came about thanks to Henry Ford. He collected lots of Kentucky people to work in Ford Motor Company and they all settled in Ypsilanti. So they became ypsituckies. The educated people have external education affect their inside. The spiritual development affects from inside out. Being able to have both is wonderful. If you only go the spiritual way then it has to internally change and affect to the outside.

Having said all this, spiritual realization has to be something that affects the individual. And that is not only happening for one thing. There are so many steps. This is the path to enlightenment. How is it called in the latest advertisement?

Audience: A comprehensive guide for today’s spiritual travelers.

Rimpoche: Wow, but what about yesterday’s spiritual travelers? They didn’t get anywhere? (laughs) And what about tomorrow’s? I am kidding. There are so many stages. Lam rim means all these different stages and you have to experience them one after another. Ultimately you become fully enlightened. The spiritual development is a gradual process. Always remember that it is not an overnight job. It is always affecting you slowly and steady. Look back 5 or 10 years ago. How did you deal with difficulties then and you are you dealing with them today? How did you handle your emotions then and how you are handling them now? You begin to realize how far you have come. Some people have more effect, some less. That depends on the personality of the individual. That’s what I want you to keep in mind. Spiritual development is all about that. Ultimately we become Buddha – total enlightenment. This road map or guide is leading to total enlightenment. That is how we function.

Where did we stop last time? I think we are supposed to stop at 12. I will start with that in afternoon. We have 15 minutes left now. Does anybody have any questions or comments?

Audience: you talked about the precious life and how hard it is to find and you said there are three angles. The only one that I caught was by example. What were the two others? And how will you know when you are enlightened?

Rimpoche: When you are enlightened you will know it. But that’s not a one step practice. That’s my main message this morning. It is gradually developing. It is not just going to happen one fine morning. If that happens it is very dangerous. It probably means that person has gone crazy or something. Some people want to have enlightenment so much and almost expect it overnight. They meditate really hard one month and then, instead of getting any spiritual development at all they may go crazy. That happens very often. Richard Davidson said it clearly in his talk yesterday. He said meditation can have adverse effects. That’s not a mystery. You can get the opposite effect because of anxiety. It happens quite often to people following the spiritual path. This is supposed to be a joke, but some people may not like it: if certain screws are not loose you won’t even be here. That goes not only for Tibetan Buddhism but for almost every alternative method and even including the Judeo-Christian path. Everybody has a few screws loose, particularly very conservative or very liberal people. They have a lot of loose screws. Then on top of that comes anxiety and then also there is a lot of impatience. Everything has to happen overnight. Yesterday we were talking and somebody said, “When people get sick they all of a sudden say lots of White Tara mantras in very short time, but then nothing is going to happen.” That is true. You need a total connection with Tara, totally rely on her. One of the Tara dum bos (lu le ma – Song of Longing for Tara, the Unfallible) says,

In short, my guru, my deity and protector,

My refuge, dwelling, food, wealth, friends and all –

Everything whatsoever I wish, you are;

So make me accomplish everything easily!

You are the most important teacher, you are the most important yidam, you are the most important dharma, etc. So people have to build this up over a long time and then it will have effects. But people just want to say the magic mantra a few times but nothing happens. So it is really true. All the spiritual development or accomplishment needs constant and continuous work. Then the change of mind and personality happens. Then by the time you really get your spiritual development you don’t need these capabilities but then you get them all. You don’t even have to say OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA. Just saying “om” will be enough. That’s how it works. Constant and continuous efforts, reducing negative emotions, building positive emotions followed by positive actions is what is needed. No matter how small the virtue, one should never ignore it. Small things will have big results. No matter how small the negativity may be, one should never ignore it. Small things will have big results. It will build up. Killing an insect could build up almost to the level of killing a human being. That’s a little shocking for us to hear, but that is how karma works. So even small actions count – both positive and negative. I think Shantideva said it: Don’t think it is small, because it gives you tremendous results.

That is the awareness that the individual needs to build. That is true mindfulness, honestly. Avoiding negativities and building positivities. It is true, mindfulness meditation usually goes like this: now I am sitting. Now I am opening the door. Now I am closing the door. The bell rings. It rings again. I acknowledge. I bow to the bell. I walk towards the bell. I pick up the phone. I say hello. The people on the other side hung up already. (general laughter)

We, in Tibetan Buddhism add up on that. It is not that we don’t do mindfulness meditation. We say, “I am now going to get up for the benefit of all beings. I move the right foot in front for the benefit of all beings. I move my left foot for the benefit of all beings. Now I am folding my two hands and raise them up to my shoulder level. Now they go up past my ears and rest above my crown and develop the virtue of the ushnisha. Now I am moving my folded hands down to the forehead to develop the third eye. Now I am moving…….” And so on.

This can be done very slowly. The Tibetans have a nickname for that: Long day monk – ge long nyi ma rimbu. The day is so long, nothing is moving on. When they open the door, they think, “I am now opening the door for the benefit of all beings and letting out all the beings from the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Now I close to door to the lower realms”. That’s what the Tibetans do. Nobody is doing it here. In Tibet they give you an example of it traditionally during the Second Month of the Tibetan calendar, where we have a 12 day long prayer meeting called song chö. On one particular day, the 30th day of the 2nd month, which is the new moon day, they have this prayer with all those different offerings and practices. Within that four tall monks will do a prostration. One prostration can take as long as 45 minutes to an hour. So it’s not that Tibetans don’t do this practice, but they don’t make it a big deal for teachings.

1:23

That’s what we are taught as physical mindfulness. I was watching Richie Davidson’s film clip with mediation for kids. That was wonderful. It shows that you don’t have to make the kids sit and be quiet. The purpose of that meditation is bringing awareness and noticing and as they said in the film “paying attention”. That is a really, really good thing. That is true meditation. You don’t have to sit down formally.

So that is how the individual develops and that changes the person from negative into positive, non-virtue to virtue. Thoughts change. Considerations change. As outcome of that, human behavior changes. When that happens everything is working.

Lets take the lunch break now.

1:25

© 2011, Ngawang Gelek 20110521GRAASE1 Page 1 of 11