Archive Result

20111105GRAASE1

00:00 Opening Prayers – Jewel Heart prayers, mandala offering

02:00 (Rimpoche recites preparatory teaching verses and review of covered outlines in Tibetan)

03:00 For the benefit of all beings one would like to obtain the state of buddhahood, for which you would like to listen to this teaching. The teaching you are listening to has all the qualities of the lam rim. All the buddhas have travelled through the same path. It is the essence of the practice of Atisha and Jamgön LamaTsongkhapa and the essence of all the teachings of the Buddha, made into the organized stages of individual development known as lam rim. However, this is done here as a teaching, not as a transmission. Neither the oral nor the teaching transmission. We didn’t do it that way. That’s why just listen to this teaching.

We reached up to the “common with the medium level”. I do know one thing that between this Saturday and next Saturday I am supposed to finish the whole teaching.

13 DUK DEN NYE MI SAM LA MA BE NA

THAR PA DÖN NYER JI ZHIN MI KYE ZHING

KÜN JUNG KOR WAI JUG RIM MA SAM NA

KOR WEY TSA WA TSE TSÜL MI SHE PAI

SI LE NGE JUNG KYO SHE TEN PA DANG

KOR WA GONG GI CHING PA SHE PA CHE

NAL JOR NGE KYANG NYAM LEN DE TAR GYI

THAR DÖ KYE KYANG DE ZHIN KYANG TSAL LO

If you do not make an effort to think about true sufferings and their drawbacks, you will not properly develop a keen interest to work for Liberation. If you do not consider the stages whereby (true) origins of all suffering place and keep you in cyclic existence, you will not know the means for cutting the root of this vicious circle. Therefore you should cherish exuding total disgust and renunciation of such existence, while knowing which factors bind you to its wheel. I, the yogi, have practiced just that. If you would also seek Liberation, please cultivate yourself in the same way.

This is “common with the medium”. Remember we have divided the practice into three different layers or segments: “Common with the Lower Level”, “Common with the Medium Level” and Mahayana. We call those “common”, because our real goal is to achieve Buddhahood, not arhatship. To achieve Buddhahood it is the Mahayana path. It is geared towards Mahayana. So anything that is absolutely for that from the theravadan teachings we have to use. It is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for the Mahayana path. “common” means together and “uncommon” means a very restricted, specific method. So together with the Theravadan level we have to use all the steps from guru devotional practice onwards. That is also slightly prefixed. The “common with the lower” is from the appreciation of life onwards, to taking refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Then “common with the medium”, after taking refuge, what are we supposed to function and what are we supposed to do?

The refuge taking is sort of an emergency measure. After that, what are the advice Buddha actually gives? The positive and negative deeds – karma. Positive karma gives positive result, negative karma gives negative result. Then comes how karma functions and how it all happens and that is the Four Noble Truths. Buddha’s teaching on the Four Noble Truth is absolutely the core buddha’s teaching. That is divided into two segments. One is what we call the negative segments. That means how one gets into samsara and how does one maintain the samsara. That means the truth of suffering and the truth of the cause of suffering. Then, path and cessation are the two positive sides of the truth.

0:13

Now, this particular verse says that if we don’t put in efforts to understand the consequences of the First Noble Truth, then there is no reason why we have an interest in liberation. There is no desire to get liberated. There is no reason why we have to be free from suffering, if we don’t think about suffering and its consequences. Most of them will not think about it. Yes, we don’t like suffering. But this dislike doesn’t interest us enough to go for liberation, because A - we don’t even know if there is such a thing called liberation. We have not seen anyone having it and don’t really know. B – even if we did hear about it, it is something over there and not within me. The Buddha is up there and out there, disconnected. These are our two challenges.

Therefore we have to know if liberation is real and it is do-able for us. In order to get to that level it is necessary for us to have a strong desire to separate ourselves and distance ourselves from those sufferings. That is only possible if you think about suffering. Many times people talk to me, saying that the purpose of Buddhism seems to be to scare you. That’s wrong. That’s not the purpose. Buddhism doesn’t care if you get scared or not. Buddhism doesn’t want you to be frightened. Buddhism wants you to be fearful and a hero and to take the challenge. To take the challenge, to get yourself interested in liberation you have to think about suffering. When you see the suffering, how it is nagging us all the time, the physical, mental and emotional torture we are going through and also the life itself, with the rush madness and everything. From this to that and driving, flying, changing time zones and yet you function as though you have been living there forever. This madness and rush is all suffering. People may think, “It is great, you can take a trip, how wonderful” and if take an occasional trip it’s good. But if you do it regularly it is not that good. I am talking about myself. In the last 2 months I have been to New York three times, and then to Ithaca, Cleveland, Chicago, California and I just got back the night before. So I am here today and tomorrow, then the weekend in New York and then back after one day and then we are off to India. That is called madness, honestly.

0:20

Saying that, also I must say that our India trip this time is really becoming extremely rich, with so many pluses – unexpectedly. Originally I thought that we could engage a couple of great teachers on this trip, but did not really expect that many would be happening. Now almost all the outstanding Gelugpa teachers are connected with this. We have two Himalayan region Buddhist teachers: Lochen Rinchen Sang po’s reincarnation, Lochen Rinpoche, who is from Spiti and Tashi Densapa Rinpoche from Sikkhim, who will be talking with our group about Himalayan Tibetan Buddhism and its development and all that. Then we have in Dehli Samdhong Rinpoche talking about Buddhism to us. My request was for him to give a talk for the benefit of this and future lives. Gyari Rinpoche will be there another day and since we are connected to Tibet after all, he will be talking about the Tibet situation. Then Ganden Tri Rinpoche will be talking to us in Dehli and then unexpectedly Lochö Rinpoche will be coming to Dehli at that time too. I had thought it would be too much to request Lochö Rinpoche and so I said that I would go wherever Lochö Rinpoche would be that day. Rinpoche replied that he would be happy to come to Dehli.

That is becoming really an unexpected plus. Then, in Varanasi we will have Geshe Yeshe Thapke talking to us and Geshe Ngawang Samten, the head of the institute there and it goes on. I am sure more people will pop up. Then also Demo Rinpoche will be accompanying us everywhere. So it is becoming very rich from the spiritual point of view. We didn’t expect that in the beginning and it is becoming very nice. So even out of the madness of traveling some good things are happening.

If you don’t think of the suffering then desire for liberation will not grow. When that doesn’t grow there is no reason for the individual to think how we are caught in samsara and how samsara functions. That is very simple. Kün jung is the truth of cause of suffering, that tells us how we get into samsara, how it becomes. If you don’t think about that you won’t know how to cut the root of samsara. The Second Noble Truth, the Cause of Suffering, tells us that we create the cause. What is the cause? It is of course karma, but who made karma? It is not somebody up there deciding that “Mr. So and so and Ms. So and so have to suffer.” Even if they did it wouldn’t work. We go through with the suffering because we ourselves have created it. We created suffering, so we get into suffering. Why do we create it? Because we have the addictions of the negative emotions. How did we get that addiction? You can say two things. One point is that it has been going on for a long time. We have been addicted for countless lives.

0:27

Somebody may say, “That’s it, nothing more?” There is more. How did we get addicted? Through the self grasping, the ego grasping. You had a wonderful teaching from Geshe Yeshe Thapke last weekend about the wisdom of emptiness. So this self-grasping is the object of negation. What you have to destroy is the root of all suffering, the root of all our addictions. It’s the root of all our difficulties. The challenge for the liberation seeker is to cut that root – not cutting the individual. The teaching books may refer to the “I” or “self”, but honestly, what is this ego grasping? It is very different from selfishness. It is the crying for “me, me, me” – briefly speaking. Unless you are able to cut that there is no way to cut the samsara and not way to cut suffering.

You need the feeling of disgust for the suffering of samsara and the idea of renouncing that. You also need the knowledge about what makes the individual tied to samsara. An elephant can be tied up to a little wooden stick with a thin, little thread. You can also tie an animal to a tree with a rope. Just like that we are also tied to samsara like that. The trained elephant thinks that if he or she moves the thread will break. He is very afraid of that and just sits there. A thin thread is not able to tie the elephant down, we all know that. But if you tie it with a big rope the elephant will get mad and move. But if you use a tiny, little thread, the elephant won’t move, but sit still and won’t even go to the bathroom, afraid the little thread might break.

We do the same thing. We are really afraid all the time that “I, my ego” will break. We are so careful all the time, afraid of breaking that ego-link. Honestly. That’s what we are afraid so. That’s why we say: be fearless, don’t be afraid to break that. If you break it, that’s better. But we are really afraid of that. Then there are all the unwanted consequences.

So it is important to know what ties you to the samsara and that is the ego grasping. Then the verse ends with the line: I the yogi have practiced in that way. You who are seeking liberation should follow the same thing.

In this particular lam rim the “common with the medium level” is only this verse. In the detailed lam rims you see they are talking about the 12 links of the interdependent system and the Four Noble Truths in details. Maybe I have to leave it here at this level, rather than going into detail. Just that much: when you think about the ‘common with the medium’ level it is really about the Four Noble Truths. That is the very fundamental Buddhist teaching. There is nothing more and nothing less, honestly. It is our life, our situation. Mind you, it is now 2600 years after Buddha. So with this, it is still absolutely relevant and it is happening. Nothing has changed in 2600 years. It was relevant then and is still as relevant today. That’s because samsara functions the same way. Our practice doesn’t change. Our goal is to liberate ourselves and the “common with the medium level” tells us how we get in and how we get out. We get out by challenging the root of samsara, ego grasping. Sometimes it is referred to as dag dzin in Tibetan, which means ‘holding the self’ or self-grasping. Sometimes it is called teng dzin, truth grasping. Sometimes it is also called ngar dzin, “I” – grasping, thinking “me, me, me”.

0:36

Cutting the root is the way and there is no other way. The wheel of life shows you that. There are these drawings that show the wheel of life. In the center are the 3 poisons, ignorance, hatred and obsession. Around that you see a circle of the bardo, upper and lower ones and then around that are the six realms, 3 higher and 3 lower and all are within the outer rim are the 12 links of interdependent origination. You can’t cut through that wheel and the wheel is held within the chest of what we call the shin je chö je – the dharma king, a different version, but within that. Cutting through can only happen if you cut through the root. If you can do that the outer rim of the 12 links stops. I am sure Geshe Yeshe Thapke talked about the sa lun jang pai do – the Rice seedling sutra. He didn’t? Like because of this that has grown and so forth? Ah, he did the explanation based on Shantideva’s 9th chapter. So in any case, the “common with the medium level” is cutting that. In order to cut that you need the knowledge of how you get in and the knowledge of how to get out. The outer rim of the 12 links has to be stopped. And if you stop the root, then the 2nd link will stop, the 3rd, 4th, 5th and all the others will stop. If the root doesn’t stop, it will continue and that’s why this verse says that without that you won’t know how to cut the root. That’s about the “common with the medium level”.

0:40

Now the Mahayana part.

(14)

SEM KYE THEK CHOK LAM GYI ZHUNG SHING TE

LAB CHEN CHÖ PA NAM KYI ZHI DANG TEN

TSOK NYI KÜN LA SER GYUR TSI TA BU

RAB JAM GE TSOK DÜ PAI SÖ NAM TER

DE TAR SHE NE GYAL SE PA WO NAM

RIN CHEN SEM CHOK THUK DAM THIL DU DZIN

NAL JOR NGE KYANG NYAM LEN DE TAR GYI

THAR DÖ KYE KYANG DE ZHIN KYANG TSAL LO

The foundation and basis of great practice is like an elixir for the two accumulations. It is the treasury of merit containing countless virtues. Knowing this, the courageous children of the Victor hold this precious supreme aspiration as their core practice. I the yogi practiced in this way, you who seek liberation, should do likewise.

Generating bodhimind is the core or the major part of the mahayana. If you talk about the basic foundation, let’s say of a car, the car itself is built on the ground. The wheels are able to function and there is a big beam that goes into the center, which I think is called universal cross. Maybe that is called chassis here. Then you have two things going out from there where the wheels are being connected. That is the base on which you put everything. It is like that. That foundation is the bodhimind. In the olden days, if you build a stupa, there is a central wood or metal beam or pillar. If the central pillar is not there, nothing can be built on the basis of it. All the stupas are built by first putting in the central piece – that is zhung shing. So the mahayana’s center piece is the bodhimind.

Developing bodhimind is the best vehicle’s central pillar. It is the base and foundation on which you can develop and accumulate the great activities of the bodhisattvas. If you function in the bodhisattva’s way, the base for that is the bodhimind. It is not only the central pillar but also the base. The activities we engage in should be the bodhisattva’s way. The total bodhisattvacharyavatara is nothing but how the bodhisattvas function. It is also the ornament for accumulating merit and for purification. It is like the gold elixir. The gold elixir transforms any ordinary metals into gold. Likewise, the bodhimind makes all your virtues and purifications extraordinary. It is really the point where it makes a difference.

That’s why you hear that very often: if you have bodhimind, then even if you just give a piece of food to a dog or cat, it can be much more than huge generosity for millions of people. That’s like the elixir that transforms ordinary metals into gold.

0:51

We are very familiar with gold plating. So we may think this also is like gold plating and doesn’t really make it into gold. But we are not talking about gold plating. Earlier, about 2000 years ago there were certain solutions that would really transform metal into gold. That’s how the Indian Congress Party did it. Gandhi financed his rebellion against the British Empire through that method. Otherwise, Gandhi has nothing else, except two pieces of dhoti, a goat and a stick. That was his total property – and his glasses. Yet he led the revolution that overthrew the British Empire, which was huge. At that time it occupies so many countries, from Japan to South-East Asia (except Thailand), through India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and everywhere. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and so on were all part of it. And all these divisions of countries were made by the British when they left. They wanted to come back. There were always these treatises saying that “if you can’t manage, we will come back and manage.” India and Pakistan used to be one country called Hindustan. They cut it into two pieces. All Muslims had to move this way and all Hindus that way. The fighting between them killed millions. A train would cross from India to Pakistan and another train the other way and they were stopped at one station and people would come with knives and killed everybody. Gandhi had to sit in the middle, doing a hunger strike. Remember all of Gandhi’s deeds? And that was after India got its independence. Before he was fighting against the British and afterwards he was fighting against communal riots between Hindus and Muslims.

Gandhi’s way of supporting his revolution was helped by a few spiritual persons who had the knowhow of making metals into gold. Gandhi had a benefactor. India gave this benefactor tremendous economic advantages later. This guy said at the time, “I am supporting this simple man, but it is the most expensive thing I ever touched. He is always the one who brought the most profitable business to me.”

Gandhi somehow used that business man as a sponsor for the revolt against the British through non-violence.

0:55

That comes out because of the gold making elixir. So that is not gold plating, but really transforming metals into gold.

rab jam ge tsok dü pai sö nam ter - It is the treasury of merit containing countless virtues. It is the treasury where all fortune, luck and virtue are accumulated. If you develop bodhimind within you then the accumulation of merit and purification becomes much easier. Atisha said that if you develop bodhimind purification will be done by this mind and accumulation of merit will also be done by this mind.

You may think, “What do I have to do with merit?” You think, “I can just practice and do the right thing and can become Buddha.” But it’s not that simple. If you are not lucky enough you can never become a Buddha. Forget about becoming a Buddha, you can never even become a bodhisattva. You need a tremendous amount of luck and good karma. Luck is merit. If you are not a lucky person you are not going to make it, for sure. In Tibetan Buddhism, no matter which particular tradition you are following you will see everywhere:

Sang gye chö dang tsog gyi chog nam la

Jang chub bard du dag ni kyab su chi

Dag gi jin sog gye pai so nam kyi

Dro la pan chir sang gye drub par shog

I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

By accumulating generosity, etc, may I achieve Buddhahood.

This is stuck on your tongue the moment you open your mouth. That’s because of the need of the merit. ”Generosity, etc” – so it is always talking about merit. Some people may think, “I just do the meditation and it will work.” No, it doesn’t. You have to put in lots of effort. It just doesn’t work. The accumulation of merit becomes very important. Not only to become Buddha, but even bodhisattva. Even the shorter version of taking the bodhisattva vow says,

“I purify negativities, I rejoice in the virtues of all, I hold the bodhimind….”

1:00

So the prerequisite of holding the bodhimind becomes purification and accumulation of merit. These are the only things that make our work complete. What does bodhimind do? It is like an elixir. It is also a “treasure of merit containing countless virtues”. Whether it contains countless virtues or not, but if you don’t have countless virtues there is nothing to contain. What does this mind do? It brings countless treasures. By developing it, by making efforts to develop it, one creates countless virtues. But then there are lots of ways in the Buddhist teachings that will tell you how to develop this, how to gain these virtues, how to have that good karma and merit. However, along with that we have our negativities within us. We have anger, hatred, self-hatred and so on. They will keep on destroying whatever you build. There are lots of ways to build and on the other hand all these things will destroy them. The 6 perfections after that will show you how that happens. Any little thing connected with anger will burn virtues. People may wonder, “I have done this and that to develop, but nothing happens. When is it going to end?” It is because we have anger against ourselves and others. We have hatred against ourselves and so many others. They keep on burning everything. They become fuel for anger. Yes, we have all these ways to develop, but we also have automatic weapons inside to destroy them too. That’s our struggle.

That is why Tsongkhapa says in this verse

Knowing this, the courageous children of the Victor hold this precious supreme aspiration as their core practice.

So to understand that “you the children of the buddhas hold the bodhimind as essence of your practice.”

Atisha said, “The mistake is this: there is no one who doesn’t have a yidam to meditate and there is no one who doesn’t have a mantra to say. However, there is no dharma practice. That’s your problem.”

The true dharma and true essence of the practice should be bodhimind. Then the verse concludes with:

I, the yogi, practiced this way. You the liberation seekers should follow the same.

So that is bodhimind. It’s the real essence of Mahayana Buddhism. It is the base of development, the backbone of Mahayana practice. It is the elixir to become perfect for accumulation of both merits, the relative merit and the absolute merit. It is also the treasure of your luck and fortune. Knowing this the children of the Buddha, the heroes, will make the bodhimind their essence practice. If you are the ones seeking that you should do the same thing.

So what is this bodhimind all about? Most of you have some idea. Many of you don’t. One or two people today may be here for the first time and may not even know what I am talking about. That’s also possible. Bodhimind is a technical name. It is a Sanskrit word. It means unconditional, unlimited, ultimate love and compassion. Can we all develop that? Yes, we can. But we have to work for it. It is not an automatic thing. The time it takes to develop that doesn’t matter. It is not on a first come first serve basis. Some people may think, “I have put 20 years of practice into it and nothing is happening.” Someone else may say, “I put 2 hours into it and developed bodhimind.” That happens. It has nothing to do with it. We may say, “I waited 2 hours and nobody came to see me.” That doesn’t apply here. You have to put effort in.

One thing is we have to purify our negativities. If you have so many of them the bodhimind will not develop, because negativities are blocking that. It is like when you put thick curtains in the window they will successfully block the sunshine.

1:10

Just like that, negativities will block bodhimind. That’s why purification is important. Then if you are not lucky it is not going to work. So you need accumulation of merit. These two now become prerequisites. Plus you need the desire to develop bodhimind. Without that desire you never develop it, never ever. Whatever you do will be like child’s play. Most of our dharma practices are like child’s play – half-hearted. Deep inside, the self-interest is there, even if we say prayers or mantras. OM MANI PADME HUM is supposed to be Avalokitesvara’s mantra, the ultimate compassion. Even then I say this mantra so that I will be a better person and have less negativities and that I will be better and then people will call me a better person. So there is this deep “me” interest inside, even when saying OM MANI PADME HUM. That’s why it is half-hearted. A lot of us will say the Tara mantra OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA. Yes, we know that Tara is wonderful. Yes we know she is around here. We also know that we don’t see her. Many of us don’t while some do. That’s because we have some personal interest inside – honestly. You may say the Tara mantra but you think, “I will be more healthy, better.” I don’t know if anybody thinks, “I will be more handsome or beautiful” but health, wealth, success and less trouble are motivations. So even though you are saying a dharma practice, however, there is selfish interest involved. These are the problems. And if it not about “I”, it is about “my”.

We have to get out of that completely in order to make it. We have to take it very seriously. And you do take it seriously. I am not complaining. You do, most of you. But that seriousness has self-interest. As long as there is selfishness this will never work. It does purification to a certain level and does accumulate merit to a certain level - better than anything else. But even then it doesn’t really work that well. Getting rid of that selfishness completely needs total dedication and altruism. It is simply thinking, “I have to develop bodhimind” because I am the one who is doing it, who want to achieve liberation for all beings and bring them to the Buddha level. You think, “I want to do that.” When your heart is totally going for that your self-interest and selfishness is not there. If you move without that selfishness you will find it much easier. There will be no struggle and no obstacles.

So developing bodhimind can either be done through the 7 stage – or the exchange state method. It can also be those two combined together in the 11 stage development of bodhimind. Whichever you follow will give you the result. But you have to follow those procedures. They are the training of your mind. The 7 stage – method you can also find in the lam chöpa.

54. NYAM THAK DRO WA DHI KÜN DHAG GI MA

YANG YANG DRIN GYI KYANG PEI TSÜL SAM NAY

DHUG PEI BU LA TSE WEI MA ZHIN DU

CHÖ MIN NYING JE KYE WAR JIN GYI LOP

Recognizing that all suffering beings are my mothers,

Who have raised me in kindness again and again,

Inspire me to develop authentic compassion,

Like a mother’s love for her only child.

Of course, the basis for the 7 stages is equanimity. Then recognizing every living as “my mother being”, then remembering their kindness – and not only when they have been my mother, but also even when they are not my mother. Then comes committing to repaying their kindness. Then comes love, compassion, the special resolution and bodhimind. That is the 7 stage development. This is taught in detail in almost all the lam rims and our courses will show you these.

1:19

The exchange stage development of bodhimind has the same equanimity, etc, but at the time of love, it is slightly different. That is followed by the faults of self-cherishing and the benefit of cherishing others. Then you realize that you can exchange and then you do the actual exchange of self and other. The exchange does not mean that when I sit here and you there we switch seats. It is exchanging how I used to cherish myself before for cherishing all beings. How to cherish all beings is replacing how I cherish myself. The importance is given to cherishing others, because it has all the benefits. Cherishing myself has all the faults. You can exchange these and then you do the actual exchange.

Then: TONG LEN LUNG LA KYÖN PAY TRÜL DHEIK CHAN

JAM DANG NYING JE LHAK PAI SAM PA YI

DRO NAM SI TSO CHE LAY DRÖL WEI CHIR

JHANG CHUP SEM NYEI JONG PAR JIN GYI LOP

‘Give and Take’ mounted on the breath is the magic device

That brings love, compassion, and the special mind.

To save all beings from this world’s great ocean.

Please bless me to awaken true Bodhimind.

You mount give and take on the horse of the air that you breathe and thus you develop love, compassion and the resolution even stronger. In order to liberate all beings from samsara you develop bodhimind.

That is how bodhimind is developed. You can look in any lam rim or in the lama chöpa or bodhisattvacharyavatara – wherever you look that’s how you develop bodhimind. I talked very briefly on this. Sometimes very brief talks are not that useful but sometimes they are of some help.

1:22

After developing bodhimind what are you supposed to do? Carry out the bodhisattva activities. We will talk about that when we come back at 2.00pm.