Archive Result

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20111007GRGRMB1

00:00 Jewel Heart Prayers

0:15 Welcome. We have a nice, small group together here today and we are gathered here to do a Medicine Buddha practice. Actually, the Medicine Buddha practice that’s introduced here was done here last year and it is sort of straight forward. I didn’t see this booklet until this moment. I am just beginning to look. It is simple and straight forward and you can just read it, in English, Tibetan or mixed or whatever. It doesn’t have to be like last year when we were talking about it.

I was thinking how that will work tomorrow. I have to do the preparations. You can walk around the building and you should do it eight times minimum, representing each Medicine Buddha. You can walk or jog by yourself or in a group and think that the Medicine Buddha is here in his palace and that you are circumambulating him. You should do it clock-wise, otherwise people will say we are Bonpos. But then again, the female tantras will tell you to go the other way round as well. Then have breakfast and at 10.00 am meet in a separate room, the Appalachian room to read this Medicine Buddha practice together. I will do the preparations and when I am done, at 11 – 11.30 we come back and do the Medicine Buddha initiation. Then in the afternoon we can do practice together. I came here with the intention of not doing the Medicine Buddha the whole time here. I came with the intention of definitely talking to you about the 3 Principles, because that’s a fundamental spiritual practice. You can do Medicine Buddha, sadhanas, Tara practice, any yidam anywhere and anything. That will be fine, but your core practice should be the 3 Principles. That’s why we made the Three Principles text available along with the Foundation of Perfection and the Medicine Buddha practice. On page 37 you find the Three Principles text and if we have extra time I will also go to the Foundation of Perfections on page 28.

0:23

The Medicine Buddha is the healing practice for psychic healing. But the most important thing is the mental healing, which we can do through the Three Principles and the Foundation of Perfections. We can do that back and forth or together. That’s what we hope to over the next few days.

Some of you may think, “But you didn’t advertise and announce that.” That’s my fault. Most of you here are good old dharma practitioners, except one or two. Now I have to give you the orientation. That is sort of our rule. So the orientation is this:

Let us assume we are all here for the spiritual path, and at that a real, damn good one. Fortunately, when you look around, you will begin to see that ours is really good. And how does that work with the individual? It works with three things:

First you have to get enough information about what this is all about. The information you really need is what this is all about, where I am going, what my problem is and all that. What is my problem? I think we know. We do have quite a lot of problems. That’s there. Now, what am I looking for? What am I going to do? I am looking for something to get rid of these difficulties, not only just temporality, but permanently, forever. Is there such a thing called permanent freedom from all these difficulties? Buddha said: yes, there is.

0:31

He said that’s the Buddha stage. Everyone can become a Buddha and when that happens you don’t have those problems, neither the direct nor the indirect. Everybody is eligible and not only that, everybody will have to do that, otherwise until then you are stuck and circle around continuously. I am not going in a philosophical way, but am talking straight forward. The goal of this practice – whatever you get – through Tibetan Buddhism or the Buddhism from Tibetan origin – the goal more or less is to become a Buddha. The goal has been introduced to us and settled by all the earlier Buddhist masters, from Buddha onwards. There have been countless Buddhist masters and all of them have pointed to that goal. Some may have shown lesser goals to suit the individual’s ideas. You can make temporary goals and ultimate goals. But without going into these details, the challenge and the goal is to become a Buddha. When that is the challenge and goal, the question is: is that possible? The answer is yes, it is possible. It almost looks like it is impossible and is never going to happen, particularly not ever going to happen for me. But the truth is: everything is impermanent. Whatever is created is created and therefore impermanent. It changes. We can contribute ourselves to make the change better, day by day, hour by hour, year by year.

When you go to better change, with or without realizing, there are big surprises. Everybody will make it sooner or later. Some will do it sooner and some later, but we all ultimately will make it. When you want to make it, what do you do? Right at this moment we are not sure what we are supposed to do and how we can function – honestly. We are supposed to do something. People say: you are supposed to meditate? So all right, how do you do that? So they will say: sit down and think nothing, count your breath. That’s okay, but it’s not the best. You can count your breaths, that doesn’t matter. Even if you don’t count them they will go and come back. That’s just training your mind in noticing and having awareness. That’s okay, it helps.

However, all of you are a little better educated than that.

0:36 In case you have anxiety and can’t think and are really nervous, you may count the breaths. It makes you calm down and a little cooler. But other than that, that is not your challenge. It is not your goal. The challenge is two things: What makes this suffering continue? Where is it coming from? Is it made by some people who decide to make us suffer – like Hitler did? He made the decision that the Jews had to suffer. And even then, what happened then was a temporary thing. Some crazy guy decided that in order to boost the morale of a certain group of people. They found an enemy to beat up and got excited and got mean and hateful. That was a temporary matter. But the truth is that the suffering is not decided by somebody. Very definitely not. The sufferings we experience are not through the decision of some strange being up there either. Nor is it just happening to me without any causes or conditions. That’s all not true. Things absolutely happen through causes and conditions. They are created by ourselves. So in other words, I am telling you that our sufferings are created by ourselves – like it or not. The problem is that in a period like 9-11 you can’t say that. If you do, people will say that you are victim-bashing.

0:40

That was the time when my book “Good Life Good Death” came out and people started asking me, “What happened here? Why did the 9-11 people have to suffer?” I said, “That’s their karma.” Then I was told, “You are victim-bashing. You can’t say that, even if it is true, right this moment.”

The truth is that we made our own suffering. I am responsible for myself. How did it make that happen? These are the questions that will lead us onto the aspects of the path of wisdom. Where was my suffering made and how? How does it affect me and how do I change it? That’s the wisdom part. Feeling and experiencing suffering, recognizing and disliking that is the First Principle of Renunciation or Seeking Freedom. Knowing the situation, clearly recognizing what’s happening - in and out – is the First Principle. The Second Principle is that not only I, but my family, my circle, my near and dear ones and beyond that everybody, all living beings are suffering that. Bringing compassion and love and bodhimind in is the aspect of looking after others. Whatever is happening to me is also happening to others, so why don’t we work together for the betterment of everybody. That’s the Second Principle.

And as I said just then, the Third Principle is wisdom. You don’t have to use the technical Buddhist words like emptiness. It doesn’t matter. The true wisdom is finding out: how did I make myself suffer so much? Who is the culprit within me? What is it? How do I change and destroy it? How do I destroy that which creates my suffering and not only that, makes sure that my suffering continues? It is maintaining and running it. That’s what we have to change: A – discontinue and B – not make any new suffering, not maintain it but dismantle it. That is the wisdom. When you trace that down, then there is nothing to point out and it is all a collective thing. That’s why it is called emptiness.

0:44

There is no other, better, simpler little text than Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s Letter to one of his benefactors, some Mongol chieftain (Tsarko Bompo) called Ngawang Drakpa. He was his disciple and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa sent him a letter and instead of saying, “Dear So and So, I hope this letter finds you in the best health…” he wrote, “I pay homage to the gurus” and then started talking about these three things. It is a one – or two page correspondence. In such a short essence that he explained the core practices that freed Buddha himself and that freed many of Buddha’s disciples, including all the early Indian pandits and adepts, whether they practiced sutra or tantra, whether Mahayana, vajrayana or even Theravada. This is the basic foundation, the backbone of Buddha’s practice. Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, taught it to Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa as one person to another. That’s really very, very short. Manjushri didn’t write this but taught it to him and he taught it and put it in writing for one of his benefactors. He probably cc’d many other people, including us nowadays. That’s really what it is.

The whole thing is in very short form and I thought we can use that for the healing of our mind, since all of you came for healing. Then, if we get time we can also cross-reference the Foundation of Perfections. That comes in in a little more organized lam rim manner. It gives you a little bit more information in between the Three Principles. It goes a little more linear. I don’t expect to have a detailed talk, but we can talk and discuss and you people can think about it and freely ask questions. What we really need in the end is something solid to hold, so we can say, “Ha, I learnt Buddhist practice”. That does not mean learning a ritual or how to say prayers or how to chant and how to say mantras, but how to think and function and help us to deal with our lives.

We have a little time left now, so let’s start. Go to page 37 and the first line there says:

Homage to the Great Masters.

0:50

This is about the guru devotional practice. You can pay homage to anybody, but Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa credits all his achievements to his guru devotional practice. That’s why. Even when you look at the lam rim¸ you will find that it talks about the “root of all development, guru devotional practice”. It is even put in as an outline in the main skeleton structure of the lam rim. It comes right at the beginning. This is really important. From the vajrayana background, we take refuge not just to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but to Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Guru-Buddha, Buddha-Guru – that’s very important in our practice. As long as we have a separation of Guru and Buddha or Buddha and Guru we don’t get much.

The bottom line, honestly is that. Those who have taken a lot of teachings and have studied and practiced, when getting into vajrayana, there they tell you that it is lama and yidam inseparable.

That is the first key. As long as we separate guru and Buddha, and start picking – we get nowhere. I was thinking about that last night and I couldn’t sleep. The whole night I couldn’t sleep. I kept on thinking, “What is the problem with some people?” Some people do very well and very good. However, they don’t really get straight, tangible results. Truly speaking, when you are doing the practice, like the sadhanas or invocations or initiations, especially during important, detailed longer initiations, it is absolutely the case that the yidams and buddhas are all there – very definitely. But somehow many of us don’t see them and don’t encounter them. Why?

0:55

The whole problem is the organization within a few individuals. The western education really told you people – I am not educated – that you should organize and compartmentalize. So we do that. The guru goes into the guru – compartment and yidam in the yidam – compartment and Buddha into buddha’s compartment. The mantra goes into the mantra compartment, the sadhana in the sadhana compartment. That is a very good way of organizing, but it becomes a very big obstacle. We are unable to merge them together. Not only the guru and Buddha have to be merged, but even we ourselves. The mind of the guru, the Buddha and of ourselves, have to merge together. That compartmentalization cuts them separately. We think, “They are connected with me, but you are going in this box, you are going in that box and you are going into another box. I am here to manage all of it.” And we put titles on the boxes. That is a good way of organizing, no doubt about it. But probably it is one of our biggest problems with achieving something.

If you are cataloguing or managing, that’s fine and that may be a good way to manage. But if you are practitioner that may be a problem. The problem is always the case at the level of guru devotional practice. That is where we really get difficulties and that is the root of development. In order to show this, not only in the organized manner of practice they give you that as first. It is a very difficult bullet to swallow, very hard. But it is the root, the foundation. In order to show that, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa chose to address that as the first point. So instead of starting with, “Dear Tsarkom Bompo Ngawang Drakpa” he starts with: Homage to the gurus.

1:00

Why? Because it is important. Not only that, it is the root of all development. Not only that, but without that you don’t move. It has been the biggest difficulty to many. That’s the first thing in that text. Then the second verse goes:

GYAL WAI SUNG RAB KÜN GYI NYING POI DÖN

GYAL SE DAM PA NAM KYI NGAG PAI LAM

KAL DEN TAR DÖ NAM KYI JUK NGO DE

JI TAR NÜ ZHIN DAK GI SHE PAR JA

Heart of the Buddha’s teachings,

path praised by Bodhisattvas,

gateway to liberation,

this I will explain as best I can.

So he says: I will explain whatever I can. What is there to explain? The essence of the Buddha’s teaching. What is that? It really is the Four Noble Truths. These are divided into two: the positive and the negative truths. They are negative in the sense of how one gets into this negative mess, what is the cause and what is the result. Our suffering is the result of our negative deeds. The cause is our negative karma. How did we create it? Who created it? How? What happens? How do we free ourselves? These are the 2 positive results. Is there such a thing as freedom from that? Yes, it is called cessation, the Third Noble Truth. How does one get it? Through the 3rd Noble Truth, the path. Suffering and cessation - these are the 2 result levels presented first. Then cause of suffering and the path to cessation are the two cause levels of the Four Noble Truths. Thus they tell you how you get into samsara and how you get out. That’s really the essence of the Four Noble Truths. That’s the real essence message of Buddha’s teaching, as the first line of the first verse says: gyal wai sun rab kün gyi nying poi dön – essence of the Buddha’s teachings

The second line is the path praised by bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas, the followers of the Buddha, are earmarked to become Buddha. They are bodhisattvas because of bodhimind, which is nothing but love and compassion. That is really the path that Buddha praised. If you just develop bodhimind, if you are brand-new, even then buddhas will treat you as most precious, just like we treat babies as the precious children they are. Likewise buddhas will treat the young bodhisattvas. A sutra says that “people respect the waxing moon, not the waning moon.” That means the buddhas care very much for the upcoming young bodhisattvas, even to the extent that when the little, new bodhisattvas need to play and there is no one pulling their horse cart, the buddhas will not hesitate to pull the horse cart with their own head. They also give you the example of a diamond. No matter how small, how fragile, it has the capability of cutting any glass or any semi-precious jewels. These examples they give you to show that it really is the path that pleases the bodhisattvas.

The third line says: gateway to liberation and that is wisdom. Why? Wisdom is the one that really challenges the root of all suffering. Only the fortunate people can handle it. Each of these three lines can also be explained in three different ways, but I am giving you that one explanation tonight.

Then the last line say: I explain as best as I can.

We might as well talk about the second verse as well:

GANG TAK SI PAI DE LA MA CHAK SHING

DAL JOR DÖN YÖ JA CHIR TSÖN PA YI

GYAL WA GYE PAI LAM LA YI TÖN PAI

KAL DEN DE DAK DANG WAI YI KYI NYÖN

Not addicted to samsara’s delights,

fulfilling the mission of precious life

pursuing the fully reliable path,

listen with a clear mind, you fortunate one.

This is talking about those who are not stuck with samsara’s delights. If you are, then there is no chance for you. That’s what it is. One would like to make life worthwhile and therefore admires Buddha’s way, the path that he likes. So Tsongkhapa says, “I am asking those people to pay attention.”

That’s what we are going to be spending these next two and a half days talking about. That’s your subject orientation.

Any questions so far?

1:10

Audience: You said the gateway to liberation is wisdom. Can you talk a little more about that?

Rimpoche: What really liberates you is wisdom. Compassion doesn’t. It is not the direct opponent of ignorance. Really, the gateway to liberation is wisdom. It is the direct antidote to the root of samsara, ignorance. That’s why it is called ‘gateway’. Until you pick up wisdom, no matter whatever you do won’t be a challenge to ignorance. You may say mantras, tantras and yantras, but all of them really don’t challenge. You can say a lot of OM OM, HUM HUM and PHAT PHAT and jump up and down, but it doesn’t matter. One time I remember, during one of our summer retreats we had a visiting group from Italy. They did their own little practice and I am not critizing them but at the end when they HUM HUM PHAT PHAT came, everybody got up and jumped in the air. When you have 40,50 people doing that in a small room it is quite something. But no matter how much you do that, unless the individual person is thinking right it doesn’t really challenge the root of samsara.

Audience: You talked about guru devotion and the importance of not compartmentalizing. Can you speak a little more about why it is important especially in vajrayana practice to see the guru as a yidam?

Rimpoche: The short answer is: when you become a Buddha, how does that happen? That simply answers that.

Audience: You talked about how some people don’t encounter the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the longer initiations, though they are there. Some of us have been studying for a couple of years and sometimes you don’t have a problem in the sense of having good experiences in the empowerments. Sometimes it comes and goes. Why is that?

Rimpoche: You are not used to it.

Audience: But in a span of a decade you are keeping up with your practice and study and it’s kind of steady, and then once in a while you hit a period of low burn out and it falls apart.

Rimpoche: That’s why I said: you are not used to it.

Audience: Does it get better?

Rimpoche: Depends on the individual. That’s due to some kind of problem the individual has. Where does that come from? Mostly you find that these problems are coming through ego. Mostly. Sometimes even pride. It depends. A number of people may not be paying proper attention. But I don’t think that’s the problem in the cases you are mentioning. It could be an ego problem. When you have such difficulties the answer is given by Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa in the lam rim chenmo – I am paraphrasing: When you meditate you cannot. When you try to think you cannot. When you try to put efforts in you can’t. When you try to listen, you can’t listen properly. When you try to memorize you can’t. And then he says: shing ge tu la den pa men nga yin – you have to go to the power of the field. That is again referring to the guru devotional practice. You have to make sure that you include all your gurus, without a single one left out. Meditate them, make mandala offerings, prostrations, make single-pointed requests. That may work. So depending on the “field” is the advice or transmission. You will see it in the lam rim chenmo. But that sentence is not at the guru devotional level, but somewhere else. Maybe it is at the “common with the medium” level or somewhere around there. That just pops up there. When you try to think you cannot think, when you try to memorize you cannot memorize, etc. We call that burn out and leave it there. But Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa recommends: shing ge tu la den pa men nga yin

1:21 Audience: I have a question about the compartmentalization. It strikes me as a fundamental problem we have in the west and you described it as these pockets or cubby holes we make from the sadhanas, mantras, breathing meditation, studying, etc. That really prevents us from connecting us with the actual experiences of you as our teacher, the yidams, etc. Are you asking us to bring that experience of the guru into that internal field you described a moment ago, that internal psychic field, helping us feel as if these beings are with us, these teachings are alive, that it is not an abstract experience, but real and to accept the gift of that? Is that the antidote to the compartmentalization?

Rimpoche: It’s a little more than that. You are almost merging them together with ourselves. They are almost becoming part and parcel of me, the individual. Compartmentalizing leads to teachings coming in one line and the individual going in another line. It is the separation of the teaching and the individual. When teachings and individual go separately it is never going to work. You not only merge them together and accept them as real and functioning, but also they are becoming part of me. That’s one step more than what you have described.

Audience: The next step for me would be remembering with profound respect the refuge, the guru as the embodiment for that as the cure to samsara, the profound greater compassion and huge feeling. Then it becomes an experience and that moves you to the next…

Rimpoche: Something like that. Maybe we call it a night – can’t call it a day. Thank you.

1:25 Dedication - 1:26