Archive Result

1718

20110826GRAALR2

00:00 Preliminaries: Heart Sutra, Invocation, 7 limbs, Muni Muni, Sang gye chö dang, Lineage prayer, mandala offering, sang gye chö dang..

0:26 Rimpoche reading outlines in Tibetan

0:27: Welcome to this teaching and the teaching you are listening to is the path through which all the buddhas have become buddha, from the ordinary level where we are to the total enlightenment level. This is the road map. This is also almost the essence of the heart of not only Buddha’s teaching, but also that of great Mahapandit Atisha and particularly Jamgön lama Tsongkhapa. It is known as lam rim. Do kindly listen to this with the motivation that “not only for me, but for the benefit of all living beings I would like to become a fully enlightened Buddha. For this I listen to this, learn and analyze, conclude and meditate.”

With this mind do kindly listen. There is no need for me to give a pre-talk here. This itself is the prerequisite, actual practice and conclusion all together. Simply by reading it one should be able to gain a lot of insight. As I said yesterday: today you are sitting here, listening and it is the transmission of Liberation in the Palm of your Hand. I have nothing more to give you than what this book has. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche himself told me, “Later people can just read this and teachers who will teach this can simply read. The students who are learning can simply read. I made it so simple to represent the words of Lama Dorje Chang.” He was referring to Kyabje Pabongka. With this in mind do kindly listen to the oral transmission first.

(Rimpoche begins oral transmission. [I am using purple book to list page numbers of oral transmission, this section is not in the English version, it is the outlines])

The edition I have here is the Ganden Shartse edition, which was printed in India in 1999. There are some notes. That is in the new books. The old Tibetan books didn’t have that. They started it with the books made in India. (reads table of contents). I don’t know how your English editions go. This particular edition has a preface, a praise and prerequisites. The very important point you remember is that the whole teaching has basic four outlines:

In order to show the authenticity of the teaching it talks about the quality of the author.

In order to gain respect for this particular transmission it talks about the quality of the dharma you are learning

Such a quality teaching, how do you teach and listen

Actual transmission/teaching, through which the practitioners are led.

1 Quality of Author – that has 3 sub-outlines

The true author of the lam rim is Buddha. But here they talk more about Atisha than Buddha, because Atisha was the Indian master, who came over to Tibet and gave teachings directly to the Tibetans.

Atisha’s life story, where he was born, his genetic background – not like doctors are looking in terms of diseases, but in terms of the old Indian caste system.

What qualities he gained.

After gaining those qualities, what did he do to benefit living beings, which is giving teaching.

2 Quality of the Teaching - there are also four sub-outlines

This teaching will make you understand that all of Buddha’s teachings are non-contradictory to each other.

All Buddha’s teachings are transmissions.

This will help you to understand the Buddha’s intended message, his thought and thinking.

The big negative actions will automatically stop.

3 How to listen and how to teach – that has 3 outlines:

How to listen

How to teach

What to do together

4 How the Individuals are Led to the Path – that has 2 sub-outlines

Root of all Development, guru devotional practice

By obtaining guru devotional practice, how you train yourself on the path

The first of those, guru devotional practice, also has two:

Guru devotional practice itself

How to function during the session

That second part has three:

The Six Prerequisites

Actual practice of guru devotion

How to conclude

What to do in between sessions.

2 After developing guru devotional practice, how to travel on the path

Importance of Life

How to take the Benefit of Life to your Path

That second one has three:

Common with the Lower Level Practice

Common with the Medium Level Practice

Mahayana Practice

Common with the lower level – that has lots of parts

One has to remember that life is impermanent – that has three parts:

Faults of not remembering impermanence

Benefits of remembering impermanence

Actual visualization of death

What happens in future lives – joy or misery

Thinking about sufferings in hells

Thinking about sufferings in hungry ghost realms

Thinking about suffering in animal realms

Methods of obtaining joy in Future Lives

Entering the Doorway of the Teachings – taking refuge

Understanding the karmic system and realizing that all joy and suffering comes from the karma we create.

1 Taking Refuge

Cause of Taking Refuge

To whom you Take Refuge

What is the measurement of Obtaining Refuge

Advices of Refuge

Karma

Thinking about Karma in General

Understanding Specific Karma

How to Deal with Karma

Common With the Medium

Gaining Desire for Liberation

Establishing the True Path of Liberation

1 Gaining Desire for Liberation

Thinking about samsara’s general suffering

Thinking about samsara’s specific sufferings in the different realms

Specific Sufferings in Different Realms

Suffering of Humans

Suffering of Demi Gods

Suffering of Samsaric Gods

(The lower realms’s suffering were already covered under the “Common with the Lower Level”)

Establishing Actual Path

Thinking about Truth of Suffering

Thinking about Cause of Suffering

At Death how do you join in the next life

What Kind of Life could reverse the continual circle

What kind of path can cut the circle

That concludes the “Common with the Medium Level Practice”. Why are they common? Our path is actually geared to the Mahayana path. But you cannot reach there without going through the Theravadan principles. That terminology may be Greek to some of you.

The Mahayana is the bigger vehicle and the Hinayana is the smaller vehicle. That was a big issue early in India, a thousand years ago.

0:53

Why are there these two? Buddha gave teachings according to the capacity of listeners. He didn’t teach people the Mahayana who were not ready for it. He taught according to what the practitioners were willing and suitable. To some people he taught love, compassion, dedication, altruism. To some he taught helping yourself, removing your pains and finding out where they come from. The main goal here is to liberate yourself. That falls under the theravada, the small vehicle.

Altruism, lack of selfishness, these teaching fall under the mahayana path. Buddha gave teachings to suit the individuals. He expects us to combine them together, to take the essence of the absolutey necessary things. In other words, without the Theravada essence Buddhism is incomplete. Without Mahayana, Theravada is incomplete. In order to have one person become a totally enlightened Buddha, you need both of these.

0:55

If you want to only liberate yourself and don’t worry about other people then this is enough. The Theravadan path is enough. If you want to do both, you need both. That’s why Tibetan Buddhism is almost geared to – and not only geared to – it is part of Mahayana. What’s commonly known with Theravadan practitioners you have to learn and practice. That’s why it is ‘common with…” Lower here means scope. That’s what some translation say. Then it is smaller scope, medium scope and Mahayana. But I use “common with lower”, “common with medium” and Mahayana. That is easier for me, not because of looking down or anything. Jack Kornfield called me one day, saying, “You Tibetan teachers used to address us as “Hinayana” and now you are not doing that anymore, but you are calling it Theravadan, which is very good, but please call it “Elder’s Way”. Maybe that is more respectable. The principle is liberating yourself. Oneself is the most important and so this is how to liberate yourself.

Then the Mahayana is helping others and liberating others. In order to be able to do that first you have to learn how to liberate yourself. Otherwise you can’t do anything. You have no idea what you are doing. That’s why “common with…”

Now the Mahayana path (Rimpoche reads oral transmission of Mahayana outlines)

1:00

The Mahayana path has 3 outlines:

1 Doorway to Mahayana: bodhimind, ultimate, unconditional, unlimited love/compassion

2 Actual Development of that Mind

3 After developing bodhimind, what to do

2 Actual Development of that Mind

Through 7 stage development

Through the exchange method

Development through Ritual = bodhisattva vows

3 After developing bodhimind, what to do

In order to help yourself, the 6 Perfections

In order to help others, the 4 Perfections

1 In order to help yourself, the 6 Perfections

General behavior of Children of Buddha

Particularly the 2 last perfections

2 Particularly the 2 last perfections:

Concentration

Wisdom

1 Concentration

Cause of developing Concentration

Actual development of Concentration through 9 stages, 6 powers and 4 attentions (conjunctions) or “mental processes” - as in this translation (Tib: yi je)

How actual shamata develops through that.

Shamata is very strong focus, not stronger than you need, but strong enough to be able to do what’s needed.

2 Wisdom

Non- existence of self of persons

Non – existence of self of phenomena

How vispasyana is developed through that

Vipasyana means special insight (Tib: lhak tong)

Vajrayana

In order to help others, the four other perfections

That concludes the outlines.

These are the outlines. Every time we go through, you will be introduced to these. This is the whole thing you are going to see.

Now there are the printers’ and publishers’ notes. I am supposed to read these, even though I have not received the teaching of this. (Rimpoche reads oral transmission of publisher’s notes)

1:10

The publisher’s notes in gist say that Buddha is one of the buddhas, the 4th official Buddha. Buddha Shakyamuni is considered the 4th official Buddha. This eon is supposed to be a fortunate eon, because 1000 buddhas will appear in this eon itself. Some of us will say, “I the end of the world is tomorrow” – or December last year (audience laughs). Many of us think the end of the world is sometime in 2012. But this eon is supposed to have 1000 buddhas, that is official buddhas. We are in the time of the 4th one. There are still 996 to come.

All Buddhas’ job is to help and liberate all of us. If we don’t cooperate they can’t do anything. Sometimes you have this commercial that says “Call 1- 800…..” If you don’t call they can’t do anything. It is almost the same way: if we do not cooperate the buddhas may have immeasurable capabilities but without our cooperation and consent they can do nothing. That’s why there is not only one Buddha or two, but a thousand. One after another they try to help us and liberate us. Buddha Shakyamuni happens to be the fourth. The first was the Buddha “Staring at the Sky” (Tib: Sang gye Nam Se). The others are Tsug Tor Tamche Jung, Kor Wa Jita – One who destroys samsara , Tsi Tub Wö sung – that is Amithaba and Shakya Tub pa or Shakyamuni.

The fifth one will be Maitreya Buddha, the Buddha of Love. That’s why we have so many buddhas. Not only unofficial but even officially, there are 1000.

The 4th Buddha’s teaching is sometimes measured in heaps or collection of teachings. It is said that there are 84,000 heaps, in order to overpower our 84,000 neuroses. Out of them the outstanding is the Prajnaparamita or Wisdom sutra teachings. This has direct and indirect meanings. The direct meaning is the wisdom of emptiness. The indirect teaching is compassion and other related spiritual paths that we have to obtain. These have come to us through two of the outstanding spiritual disciples of Buddha, Manjushri, the wisdom guy and Maitreya, the love-compassion guy. All of them are put together, organized by Dipamkara Atisha, the great Bengalian teacher from Vikramalashila. He organized these three scopes.

Otherwise Buddha’s teachings are in the manner of a group of people asking Buddha questions and he answered this and that. So he didn’t write books and didn’t categorize his teachings into chapter lay out and so on. He just taught here and there. Organizing them became the job of Buddha’s disciples. So Atisha formulated the 3 scopes – business. Atisha’s teaching tradition is called the Kadam tradition. ka means order, in the sense of the king’s or queen’s order or word. Every word that Buddha said has value, meant for all of us. Every word Buddha said is a transmission. Not a single word can be thrown out and is taken as transmission. That is the meaning of ka dam. From Atisha to Tsongkhapa the tradition is called Kadampa. From Tsongkhapa onwards it is called New Kadampa.

Atisha’s method of putting the three scopes combined together with Tsongkhapa’s teaching on the four qualities is the basis of Tsongkhapa’s big lam rim. He then wrote a medium length lam rim and a short synopsis of the lam rim. Then there is the 3rd Dalai Lama’s Essence of Refined Gold, the 5th Dalai Lama’s Manjushri’s Words, The 1st (or in a different counting system 5th) Panchen Lama’s Smooth Path, then Panchen Lobsang Yeshe’s Quick Path, then Tagpu Ngawang Drakpa’s lek so nying kur – Essence of Eloquent Speech, etc. There are eight great commentaries of the lam rim. All those eight together was the teaching Kyabje Pabongka gave in 1921 in Chubsang. That is a little north of Lhasa, when you look at Sera monastery. At the right hand side of Sera there are two retreat areas. One lower, called Chubsang. The upper one is called Pabongka. Then above that still is a tiny, little place called Tak den pu. That was Kyabje Pagongka’s residence. Kyabje Pabongka got his name from that Pabongka retreat area, but he is not really the Pabongka. Pabongka is a small retreat monastery by itself and the abbot changes. During my young age Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoch was the abbot of Pabongka and he didn’t get known as Pabongka because the great Pabongka became so great while he was abbot of Pabongka. So he took the Pabongka abbot name and after that the following abbots couldn’t take that name because they were no way there.

1:23

These notes here say that from this and a couple of other of Pabongka’s lam rim teachings Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang took notes. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche had told me and might have told these people too that “This is like a handbook for practitioners. For those who are teaching this is your tongue.” That is written here and that’s what Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche did say. These notes say that it has been put together “through computer”.

Now we reach to the actual nam dröl lhag sang (Liberation in the Palm of your Hand) itself. The first is the Praise by Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang) to Lama Lobsang Thubwang Dorje Chang.

Briefly speaking, all objects of refuge, wherever, whatever, whoever might be there, all came together as one. Their three secret mandalas became one manifestation in Lama Losang Thubwang Dorje Chang. Those who remember the lama chöpa will know and those who have listened to the nyur lam teachings will know. Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang is referrging in Lama Lobsang Thubwang Dorje Chang to Kyabje Pabongka, because he was his master. It also refers to Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa as well. He is requesting to give the shower of great auspiciousness to all beings. That’s what the first verse briefly says.

The next verse is directly addressed to Kyabje Pabongka. His personal name was Jampa Tendzin Trinle Gyatso. Jam – is compassion and love and that destroyed extreme peace. One who did not get attached to the joy of samsara and who holds the banner of the Three Higher Trainings, with kind activities destroyed the 8 worldly dharmas, the source of all joy, I bow to you, the leader. He is referring to Kyabje Pabongka.

The next verse says: “Your words are the medicine to destroy hundreds of different illnesses. Your words are like an ocean of qualities. Child-like people like me cannot fit them into their minds. However, it would be such a waste if we forgot, so I will just take a little note here.”

Now Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche begins his notes by saying that countless numbers of buddhas appeared before and even in this eon we did not have the fortune to meet the Fourth Buddha without equivalent and become his direct disciples. In the beginning he tried to help us grow a little bit of the perfect virtuous mind, so that gradually we obtained this wonderful life. Within this life we found the complete, unmistaken, perfect path that leads us to total enlightenment. In short, in order to cut all negativities, we have been pulled out of negativity again and again. We have given good deeds again and again. That kind, great master, in order to fulfill the purpose I say his name: Jampa Tendzin Trinle Gyatso. He gave a teaching in the good place of Chubtsang Retreat Area. The difficult to tame persons like me were able to share in the great words of the Mahayana in the Iron Bird Year in the autumn for 24 days. Disciples from the three monasteries, Central Tibet and Tsang and Kham have come to seek teachings like thirsty persons seeking moisture of water. With great difficulty they have come. There were 30 incarnate lamas and many monks and disciples, about 700. For them he gave the teaching on the 5th Dalai Lama’s Jambel Zhal lung, both systems, the Central system and the shorter Southern system, combined with the quick path and during the exchange stage and seven stage development he gave the 7 point mind training with that. For each he gave examples, reasons to establish, interesting stories and trustworthy quotations.

Also it is easy to understand for lay persons. It fits the very intelligent too, the best, the worst and everything in the middle. It is taught on the basis of experience and therefore helpful to the mind. Sometimes when we were falling asleep, the jokes made us laugh and sleep went far away. Sometimes we had to cry helplessly. Sometimes we were very afraid, really wanting to enter into strong dharma practice that very minute. Such explanations, who can write them down? But some few important points, based on personal experience, if they were forgotten it would be a great waste.

Later, the great master himself also told me, “There are many people taking notes, but it will be difficult to rely on them. So you should definitely take notes.” For those who would like to practice it may be like the representative of the words of the master himself. That’s how I took notes.

That’s my imperfect explanation on Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s words.

1:37 (reads more oral transmission of forward)

1:40

Now we starting on the First Day (oral transmission)

When you are reading it you will see that Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche does not refer to Kyabje Pabongka as Kyabje Pabongka. He says “tsung me cho kyi gyal po zhel nga ne” – the peerless dharma king says from his mouth”.

Then he starts with “O lasso”. That is just a Tibetan expression to begin a talk. I remember when Lochö Rinpoche came here and he said “O lasso” all the time and somebody sampled that into a song. Kyabje Pabongka himself refers to Tsongkhapa as kam sum chö kyi gyal po – dharma kings of the three realms, rather than calling him “Lama Tsongkhapa”. He quotes from Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s short lam rim:

The precious human life is much valuable than a wish-fulfilling jewel. It is very difficult to find, found but once in a blue moon. Difficult to find, it is easy to destroy. It is like lightning in the sky. Think about it properly, don’t waste your time by entertaining mundane ordinary meaningless activities. They are almost meaningless like [chaff].

Anyway, you can read it here. So it is important to remember that you have to take benefit from this life day and night. Don’t waste it.

Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa says, “Great masters have done this and I would like to follow”. But the teachers will say, “I the yogi practiced this way, you, who are seeking liberation, should follow.” The last two lines are always switched around.

In other words, there is nothing we have not experienced before. All different sufferings and samsaric joys, in so many life times. But this time is different. We have the precious human life, enriched with leisures and opportunities. If we don’t think properly, then losing a couple of dollars we consider a great loss. But we don’t realize such a precious life we waste. We don’t even have any regret. We consider a few dollars more important than this precious life. Truly, this life is worth more than 100,000s of wish-fulfilling jewels.

If you have wish-fulfilling jewel you rub it three different ways and make offerings and hang it on banners and that way you can make your livelihood quite easily. But this life can do something that wish-fulfilling jewels cannot do and that is, to help ourselves for future lives. If you want to achieve to simply not falling into bad rebirths, this life can do it. This life can also help you to become like a hindu-buddhist mythological deity, like Indra, Brahma, etc. If you want to go to a pure land like the Western Paradise or the Great Joy Pure Land or Tushita (Tib: Ganden) or wherever you want to go, you can do this. Not only that, this life can give you total liberation from samsara and the ultimate Buddha level. In many other lives you have to contemplate for countless eons and this life can do that within this short life time. Therefore it is definitely more precious than 100,000 wish-fulfilling jewels. Such a life we should not waste.

If you waste 100,000 wish-fulfilling jewels it is not as bad as wasting this life. This would be a big loss and such an individual is not intelligent but stupid. This is very, very harmful for you. Why? Shantideva said

I found such a wonderful life. It I cannot do right on this, then there is nothing worse and nothing more stupid.

Let’s take a short break here. 1:52

After break: (Rimpoche continues reading oral transmission)

1:54

The teaching continues after the quotation from Shantideva (p. 10 of purple book).

The gist of the teaching here is that you have to “extract” the essence of this life. That sounds like you have to squeeze the life or press it through a machine and get the juice out. (laughs). So in other words it means taking the benefit. Life is important and worthwhile. So we shouldn’t waste it. If we don’t waste it, what do we do? You have to do something worthwhile. That is meant by extracting the essence. If you don’t do this immediately, then death will definitely come. When death is coming is not known. Some people say that religions use death as a threat. In this case, in my personal opinion, it is not a threat. It is the reality we face. Pabongka says, “Right now we are all sitting in this dharma gathering. In a hundred years all of us won’t be here.” Buddha created a tremendous amount of merit and purified so much and found the vajra body, but even then he went through death. All the disciples thereafter are also gone. In short, there is no one who didn’t die. So how can I hope that I can remain all the time? We don’t hope, but we actually even believe it. We think we will be here forever. That’s the reality. We don’t even hope. We take it for granted that we will live forever.

Pabongka is reminding us that this time next year it is not certain whether we are still wearing the same clothes we are wearing now or whether we will have the hairy fur of an animal. Or maybe we are a hungry ghost, unable to find a drop of water. Or maybe we are in the hell realms, burning or being cold. The important thing is that after death our mind or awareness does not stop. It continues. Let’s not talk about how you can know that it continues. That will come later. But it is continuing, no matter who says what. So then it can only be good or bad. If you end up in the hell realms there are places where you cannot separate your body from the fire. You can’t figure out what is what. There are places where it is so cold that your body cracks into hundreds and thousands of pieces. You have no idea what is what. Right now if we touch fire with our little finger, how much does that hurt! Forget about fire, just think about trying to touch some steamed hot dumplings. You will drop them because you can’t take it. So can you imagine if your whole body is burning?

2:01

Some people may say, “If you body is burning here and burning in hell is two different things”. But no, it is one person and burning and burning. In short, whatever suffering we go through it is suffering. Even animals suffer. Just look at the dogs and cats. I am adding up cats. It is not in the text. First they have to find a place to live – actually to hide. Everybody will chase them – including me. Then they have to find food. That’s the same problem with raccoons. Then they lose their food all the time. Another animal may take it. Sometimes they hide it but forget where they hid it. There is the story of the rabbit who picked up some food and dug it into the ground. He looked at a cloud and marked that and next time he tried to find the food he couldn’t.

Sometimes we call it “next life”. That is something far away. But between ourselves and the next life and the suffering of next life there are no mountains to cross and no rivers to cut through. You don’t need visas or passports. If you need visa and passport, better not take it, right? But no, there is only a tiny, little breath that we breathe in and out which is standing between the so-called future life and ourselves. If you really think carefully it is true. That’s what the teachings say: between ourselves and the suffering of the next life there is only this breath. If it goes out and doesn’t come back, that’s it. The so-called future life starts. Truly, we know that and we see that all the time. The other people will come and feel it and when it’s gone, that’s it. The curtain between this and the future life is only that.

(2:05 oral transmission) 2:07

Some of us will think, “Why should I fall into the lower realms?” In our western culture everybody will say, “Why should I go to the hell realms? I haven’t done anything wrong.” And everybody else will say, “True, we haven’t done anything wrong, why should we? You are great and wonderful.” Our culture encourages that. If someone says, “But that’s not true”, you will probably say that person is crazy or a bully. But the truth is, I am not sure whether that is helping or harming us. Sometimes dharma is very different from everyday life. In everyday life being diplomatic is very much considered. But in dharma sometimes, if someone tells you, “Yes, you are going to go to hell”, you may get a little upset. But it may be helpful. It can remind us.

When Atisha was in Tibet, he had a friend who was always insulting him all the time. The Tibetans didn’t like it. They want this friend to go back to India. They tried to bribe him to go back and tried everything. And he was a funny guy. He took all the bribes, but didn’t go (laughter). Finally Atisha came to know and he said, “He is the only person who is helping me here to develop my patience. I am not letting him go”. So sometimes, if you have someone telling you, “Hey, you are going to go to hell”, that may be helpful. But you have to be wise. Number one, better save your cheek, because someone who gets upset may hit you. Number two, instead of helping that may create negativity for the other persons. That’s not help. That’s harm. With all this you have to be careful.

Here Kyabje Pabongka is saying that we didn’t think carefully. We may think, “Well, I am not going down to hell because I have my vows, I am saying my prayers and I really didn’t create any negativity. I didn’t kill anybody.” But that’s faulty thinking. If you think properly, whether we go up or down is not in our control. If it was in our control we would always choose to go up. Or if you needed a passport and visa to go to the lower realms, better not get it, but just stay here, like illegal immigrants, as long as we can. But it is not in our control, but the control of karma.

Each of us has a tremendous amount of negative and positive karma. But which karma is going to connect with yourself depends on which of your negativities or positives are most powerful. The powerful ones connect first. What makes it powerful? When negativity is very strong, it is powerful. When the positive is very strong it is powerful. What makes it strong? The conditions, such as motivation, action, and at the end when you conclude.

Kyabje Pabongka gives an example from the monasteries, when monks scold their students all the time. When you are scolding a student you get very angry. You almost develop hatred. That’s why you start scolding. The action is to do the scolding as harmful and painful as possible. At the end you have the satisfaction that you could give it to that student. So although it is just scolding, but it is a very powerful negativity. Even if you kill a little lice the negativity can become very strong. The lice bites you and you catch it and think, “I got you now”. You rub it as much as you can and finally you squeeze it between two fingernails and think, “That’s what you deserve”. That makes the killing of a little lice or even the egg of a lice very powerful.

Then on the other hand, look at our positive deeds. There is no strong motivation of doing it. Even if you say a mala of OM MANI PADME HUM you only do it because it is your commitment. It is like paying a tax. You drag yourself to do it. While doing it you don’t focus, but think of all kinds of other things you have to do or don’t have to do. You are even talking and answering and if you don’t actually speak you do texting (SMS). You think you are not making noise but then you are e mailing or texting.

There was a Tibetan official who went into retreat. But he told his attendant to put a piece of paper and a pen next to his meditation table. When he was meditating he took notes: to whom I have to give what – from whom I have to collect what. When the session was over he had a whole page to give to his people, telling them “do this, say that, collect this, pay that” – and that shows how weak our virtues are. They are weak in the motivation, weak in the action and finally even the dedication is weak. We forget to dedicate.

So in order to make it good, there should be the best motivation and that is bodhimind, or at least renunciation or at the very least seeking a better future life. But we don’t. Mostly we are after good health, no illness, success in business. Kyabje Pabongka says, “Even if you are saying manis you fall asleep and you forget about it. Even if you are saying one Ganden Lhagyema it is very difficult to be clear-clean from the beginning to the end. That is the reality of our positive karma.” So it is very weak. Some are not good in the action, some don’t have proper motivation, most of them have something wrong somewhere.

So we have very powerful negative karma and very weak positive karma. If you connect with negative karma you have to connect with the lower realms, because karma is definite. Whatever you connect with that will go through. If you connect with negative karma that will go through.

2:20 (oral transmission)

2:21 I am only touching at the important points. If you are connected with negative karma then there is no other place to go except lower realms. You are definitely going to go. Right now we are going to some lamas who know the future and to fortune tellers and ask them. That’s the difference between western and eastern culture. In western culture we go to fortune tellers and ask, “How successful will I be?” The Tibetans go to lama-fortune tellers and ask, “Where will I be reborn in future?” They will say, “There is a danger you could fall into the lower realms”, so you will be a little worried. If you say, “You are going to be a god or human being” you will be very happy. Pabongka says, “You don’t have to go to fortune tellers or astrologers to find out, nor do you have to do I Chings and all that. Buddha has already given us the prophecy. And all the Buddha’s disciples have as well. For example Nagarjuna said in the Ratnamala, “From negativities all the sufferings will come, likewise all lower realms. From the virtues, all joyful lives will come.” That is the prophecy given by Nagarjuna on the basis of Buddha’s teaching. It is true and relevant to all of us. That is just one example. There are many.

You know yourself. Check your own mind. If you have more stronger negativities and weaker virtues you can give the prophecy to yourself, “Hey, I am going to go down.” If you see this you have to do something. What can you do? Take refuge. Get help from somebody who can really help.

2:25 (oral transmission)

2:26 So what do you do? Get help from someone who can help, who has experience, who knows, who is kind enough to be able to do something, who is willing to do it. Buddha introduces Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as our protectors. Just taking refuge alone is not enough. Yes, you take refuge, but what do you do? You have to follow the advice. It is like going to the doctor who gives you a diagnosis. Okay, fine. But then you have to get the prescription and then you have to take the medicine and see if that is helping or not. That’s what we do, right? Likewise, here you can take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but then they give you the advice of karma. That is like the prescription. So you go and do whatever you want to do. Through that only, the Buddhas can help us. They can only share their experience, but we have to follow that. They cannot come and wash away our sin, nor can they remove our suffering like pulling a needle out of a physical body or a thorn. If you have a rose thorn stuck in your finger you can pull it out. But buddhas can’t do that with our negative karma. Nor is the development of the buddhas transferable. If they could do that by now we all should have become buddhas. All these buddhas have committed to help. They promised and they do everything they can. But they can’t do everything if we don’t give them the opportunity.

If they could just take it away they could have taken it a long time ago. But they can’t. It is our own karma, our own deeds. We are the most important. We have to do it. The other, second and third persons can do nothing, honestly. That’s what Buddha tells us. Through the practice of karmic principles I will properly follow the karmic system. If you think that way that is the motivation of “common with the lower scope.”

2:31 (oral transmission)

2:33 The “common with the medium scope” thinking goes further. Simply wanting to be free from the suffering of next lower rebirth is not enough. Maybe you can get one or two good lives, but then the same thing will repeat. That’s because we are addicted to negative actions and are bound to fall back. Earlier, we have taken so many different rebirths. You can almost say that there is nothing that we have not taken rebirth as. But we still remain in the same condition. You might have become like Indra, Brahma and so on a number of times. But when you die from that you get reborn in the hot hells or cold hells. Similarly we can take rebirth in the samsaric god’s realms, enjoy their nectar and the youthful boys and girls of the samsaric gods, but you will certainly lose that life and then you will be reborn in the lower realms with those fearful hell realm commandos. Sometimes you become a universal king with hundreds and thousands of subjects and their families. But then you take rebirth and you will become the worst attendant looking after dogs and donkeys. Sometimes you may take rebirth in the form of the sun and moon. In the Tibetan tradition they think that sun, moon, etc, have their own life. As such you have so much light that it shines throughout the world. But then you take rebirth in a world where it is so dark that you don’t even see the movement of your own hand.

In short, all those samsaric joys are not reliable. They are meaningless. We have also suffered tremendously earlier. If we continue in this samsara we are bound to suffer much more. If, from all the rebirths we have taken as animals before, we could collect our waste into one spot it would be higher than Mt. Meru. If we don’t end our samsara we are bound to create even more. Earlier, we might have been killed by our enemies a number of times and have our heads cut off. If we could collect all these heads together in a pile it would be bigger than Mt. Meru. If we don’t end our samsara it is bound to be more again.

Until we get out of samsara the suffering will continue. That will create even a depression. Even if you take a better life as a samsaric god or human being, even then it is in the nature of suffering. As a human being you have the suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death. You also have the suffering of separating from loved ones, of having to live with a person you hate, the suffering of not finding what you desire. These sufferings will continue even in a human life that is considered precious and wonderful. If you are born as a demi-god you are always fighting with the god-realm people. You are always occupied by jealousy. If you take rebirth as a samsaric god you always have the suffering of the sign of death. If you are reborn in the form realms, there is no direct suffering, however, there is always pervasive suffering.

In short, in samsara, whatever you do is in the nature of suffering. So we need to get out of here. You can only do that from this life time, because this life is capable of doing it. Most of us will say, “This life I didn’t get anything done. I will pray that I can do it in the future life.” But that is wrong. This time you have this very special life. You have met with the teachings of the Buddha. All the conditions are right. The most difficult obstacles are cleared and if you can’t do it this time it will be very difficult in future.

2:43 (oral transmission)

So Kyabje Pabongka is saying that this is the life time where you can make a difference. If you cannot do it this time, when can you do it? There will be no time at all. Such good conditions are very difficult to find. So this time not only you have this precious opportunity of a life but you also met the teachings of the Buddha. You also have all the conditions right, so you really have to put efforts in to free yourself from suffering. So the method of obtaining liberation is following the Three Higher Trainings. Those of you who are familiar with the Buddhist teachings and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, you will know what the Three Higher Trainings are. But we also have new people here, so I have to say it.

The Three Higher Trainings are the trainings on morality, concentration and wisdom. Proper morality is needed as much as possible. Proper concentration doesn’t mean just focusing alone, but we need strong, stable concentration. Then we need wisdom. If we don’t have wisdom, then even if you have proper morality you are handicapped. You have good motivation and knowledge, but you don’t have the tools. These three make the individual get out of samsara. With this mind think, “At least I will get out of samsara.” That is the motivation of the medium scope.

2:47 (oral transmission)

2:52

I am going a little more in detail than I should. But this is the motivation and the first day of the teaching of Kyabje Pabongka. So it is important. Almost the whole lam rim will come in here. That’s why. You can see it. We already had the “common with the lower” motivation and the “common with the medium” motivation. And now comes the Mahayana motivation. Is liberating ourselves enough? No, it is not. Self liberation is the realization of the Sravaka and Pratyeka arhats. The three yanas are: Sravaka yana, Pratyeka yana and Mahayana. American Buddhists always say: Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana. I found that’s how they count. It is just the way of counting. But according to the traditional Buddhist Canon (Tib: kangyur) and the Shastras (Tib: tengyur) by the earlier Indian teachers the way to count the three yanas is Sravaka yana, Pratyeka yana and Mahayana or Buddhahayana. The Buddhayana is divided into Sutrayana and Vajrayana. The Sravakas and Pratyekas achieve their freedom from suffering, but nothing more. So they don’t achieve the goals for others and their personal goals are also not completed.

Helping others is very limited. They have not cleared all the obstacles. They have cleared the gross delusions but not the imprints of those delusions. If we put our efforts geared towards the “common with the lower” or “common with the medium” that would be like cutting across the same river twice. Once you go across and then you have to come back and go again. There is no need for that. Cutting across a river was very difficult in Tibet. There were no bridges mostly. You would have to get through the river on a horse and you would be in water up to your waist. So if you have to do that twice that would be a little too much. That is the traditional example.

Does anyone have a different example? No? Okay, doesn’t matter. If you have any new examples, please raise your hand. I mentioned Jim, Rochelle, Mark Magill and Dimitri. That’s why it is important right from the beginning to focus towards the Mahayana path. This could be Mahayana doctrine, but this is what the teachings tell you. All three yanas have different goals. The goal of Mahayana is to become a Buddha. The goal of the Theravadan yana is to be free of samsara. The goal of vajrayana is to obtain buddhahood, but to do so as quickly as possible. That’s why we say it double: quickly, quickly. The goal, purpose and method will change, but one builds on top of the other.

Therefore it is advisable to go directly to the Mahayana path. Pabongka quotes Nagarjuna:

Your family is falling into the ocean of suffering and at that moment, although you do not recognize because of the change from death to rebirth, it is all your family. If you see them falling but you run away to save just yourself, although you have the possibility of helping, without putting in efforts that is considered unkind.

In other words, everybody is related and is family. That’s where the famous idea of “all living beings are mother beings” comes in. All living beings are mother beings – that is the Mahayana slogan. That comes because the closest person we rely on, even some people may not like their mother and hate their mother, however, the mother is the closest person. If you have difficulties, you will call “Mom”, even the elder, fully grown people will still say, “Oh Mom”. That shows you. During the kid’s period it is always “Mom, Mom, Mom”. That shows you it is very close. Under certain circumstances and conditions you may hate your mom, but even then you rely on her. That is one of the examples. You should not disconnect from all people and all living beings. We are not only connected, but we are very close, like a mother. That’s why. Then they say that everybody is your mother. I have to recognize them.

People say, “I know who my mother is and that’s not my mother.” It is true, but at the same time it’s not. There is also the previous life’s mother and the mother from before that and before that and so on. One mother can’t be your mother all the time. Otherwise she has to be your mother, quickly run, have another life and give birth to you again and so on. That is not going to happen. Sometimes you go before your mother goes. So then you are not going to find the same mother in your next life. Therefore it changes. In short, we cannot say to any person, “You have never been my mother.” You have to give the benefit of the doubt to that person and this person, including your own father, your kids and so on. They might have been your mother. Whether they have been your mother in this or in previous lives, it doesn’t matter. They have been kind and helpful then. The person who gives you a gift this year and makes your life easier and a person who did the same thing for you last year, it’s the same thing. The time will make no difference. You are grateful and you are indebted, whether it is this year or next year or last year or whenever.

Likewise, the mother who has been kind in this life or previous life or any other time, it is the same thing. This moment, these very mothers are in a boat on the ocean, where a whirlpool is sucking them in. The boat is going in that direction. When you are watching that, you have to at least warn them and guide them and try to pull them out. Don’t let them get sucked in there. That is just normal human decency. But if you are person who is on the spiritual path, who would like to obtain buddhahood, then you certainly can’t be just watching and letting it go. Saying, “I am shocked” is not an excuse. That is lack of awareness. We use that as a very good excuse, but it is not.

3:06

Therefore we should always be concerned with everybody. You should always repay their kindness. Yes, giving food to the hungry, giving drinks to the thirsty, giving wealth to the poor, giving shelter to the homeless, medicine to the sick are very good. But you can do more and you can do better. You can make them free of all sufferings. You can make them have joy of all kinds. One thinks, “I will bring joy to all living beings and free them from suffering. That will bring compassion. Bringing joy will be love. So there is love and compassion. That way one can develop greater compassion. You will raise the question: Can I do it? You realize: Right this moment I can’t. I can’t even liberate one living being – myself. So who has the capability? If I can become a Buddha I can do it, because Buddha’s quality is such that even if you generate light from your body it liberates all living beings. If I become a Buddha I can be in front of each and every one of them, talk to them and give teachings to suit their moods and ideas and thoughts. I can speak to them in their own language, make them understand. That’s why I need to become a Buddha. Can I obtain buddhahood? Sure. Why? Because you have the best opportunity with this life. Whatever is lacking here is only my laziness. Otherwise I can make myself fully enlightened. I can become Buddha Vajradhara within this life time, because this life is capable.

The biggest method of becoming Buddha is the Mahayana path, the mahayana dharma. We fortunately all have the Mahayana dharma in front of us, complete and unmistaken. It is the perfect teaching of the Second Buddha, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, the combination of sutra and tantra together. It is a stainless teaching and we have met it. In short it is only our lack of enthusiasm that is letting us down. At this moment all conditions are right; all needs are there and in future something better than this is very difficult. We may today is the degenerate age. But for us it is the greatest time. We never had a better time before and are probably not going to get one in future either. It is one time only. It is the one opportunity. So this time we try to achieve the Buddha level. For the purpose of all living beings I must obtain the buddhahood. Generating bodhimind this way is the Mahayana way of motivation.

3:13 (oral transmission)

This is very interesting. It says: this is the Mahayana way of developing the proper motivation. The next sentence says that when you have gained effortless experience on this it is the sign of developing bodhimind. Here you see when bodhimind develops. When you look for the measurements of the development you may not find it. So here it is. So when it comes effortlessly you have developed bodhimind.

So we better stop here for lunch. From tomorrow on it would be better if you could bring a brown bag lunch. That would be easier. Then we won’t need 1.5 hours for lunch.

3:17 Thank you – short mandala offering – 3:17:53