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20120526GRGRHS02

Good morning everybody, I hope you had a good night's sleep. Sometimes you get interesting dreams here. So last night we talked about the Buddha's teaching in general, and particularly Tibetan Buddhism, what they emphasize. We talked about it very simply, what does it mean to practice Tibetan Buddhism?

That question some of us think and talk about it a lot, because many people will straight away think, "Well, carrying the mala and saying mantras”. Or meditating. Or all kinds of things. They're all very definitely a part of a Buddhist study. But what you really need is a comprehensive practice. That is necessary, because a single branch or a single thing alone may not be capable of delivering the goods. [30:00] When I say: comprehensive, people may think immediately, "Oh yeah, very complicated, this Tibetan Buddhism” or even Buddhist philosophy thoughts and ideas.

I'm not talking about that type of comprehensive. I'm talking about a comprehensive practice for one individual person, to be able to uplift ourselves from this moment where we are to wherever we are going. Maybe I'm using the wrong language, maybe it means some kind of efficiency, to be able to deliver the goods - that's what you need. One single little thing trying to be good alone, may not be able to deliver the goods you want to get.

For example, this is important to know, I think: what is our purpose of doing Tibetan Buddhist practice? What is the goal? What do you want to get out of it? I think it is important to know the goal. Otherwise it will simply be a fashion for some people, others do it because it’s “cool” and others think, “Well, a lot of people are doing it, I might as well do it," and all that sort of thing. It really doesn't give you the solidness of this. You must know what you want and when you know what you want, you must gear your practice towards these things.

Everybody will say," I want to be good". Well, if you want to be good, then Buddha says, "Follow the path of ten virtues. The ten non-virtues make you bad and give you a bad result. So getting away from that, engage in the ten virtues. And then, if you want to do that you just need to know what are these ten virtues and wanting to engage with this. That's generally saying, "I want to be good. Not only good now, good in the future, not only good in the future, I want to be good right now." So simply, the ten virtues.

This Buddhism is something very interesting, honestly. Even this ten virtues, you know, when you count to ten, it is ten. But if you really want to make it, it boils down to three things. In Tibetan language these are called la ba sum,the Three Trainings in the Mind, the Three Basket Teachings and things like that. So it really boils down to three. [35:00]

So out of these three, the first and foremost is morality. Morality is the number one. So if you are good in morality, then you have a fundamental basis or foundation for developing properly the spritual practice, following Buddha's path, or anything. To do anything good you have to have a good foundation of morality. Some people may say," Hey, morality is something you can ignore.” But there is no such thing as an immoral Buddha. Even on the practice level, if you study, but ignore the morality, the result will be such a thing that has never existed. The moral foundation is extremely important. Normally in Tibet, we don't use the term morality much. In common language we say you have to honor cause and effect. [37:00] When we say, "Honor your karma" that means bringing your morality up to date, making sure that it is functioning. Though the words don't say it, the message of honoring karma means keeping your morality straight. And that is the basic foundation.

And I don't want to go so detailed about this morality, but when you are talking about morality, we are not talking about sexual orientation. I really want to make that clear because a number of people think sexual orientation or sex related matters is the moral issue only. That is part of morality for sure. But the real morality is much deeper than that, much more. Actually, avoiding wrongdoings and doing the right that, that is really what morality is all about - avoiding wrongdoing like hurting other people. Anything whatever it may be, hurting people, hurting yourself, these are wrong things to do, whatever it may be. Sometimes, culture makes a slight difference here and there. But when you hurt, you hurt. Whether it is Eastern culture or Western culture, it doesn't matter. [40:00] When you get hurt, you get hurt. When you get hurt, it creates pain, misery and problems.

Sometimes the problems are so much, it damages the other person's life, sometimes without realizing. Very small little things – it may look small like nothing - but it damages the other person's whole life. These are real hurt, even though you are not beating the person physically, with the knife. But it is beating, it is physical. You may not be carrying a knife, you are not carrying a stone or something. But still you are hurting. A slap across someone’s face can be very hurtful. There are many of those, so we have to really be aware of it. Many times we are not aware of it. We pay no attention, no attention whatsoever. And hurting other persons doesn't even have to be physical. It is often verbal, when you say something, using your words. You know we have saying in Tibetan, "The word is the worst, the tongue is sharpest, it cuts the heart of other people in two pieces." So we have to be aware of the words that we use. Sometimes we pay no attention. So that is important when you talk about the morality, not only the physical, but the verbal level and even mentally, ill wishing as well. That is body, mind, and speech. Being aware of that is the real essence of Buddha's teaching. When you say you have to learn, I told you last night, that doesn't mean you have to be scholar. But you need to know small things like that.

Traditionally, Tibetan Buddhism developed so much in Tibet, over a thousand years, beyond anybody's imagination. It really got so deep into philosophy, into religious practice, into delivering spiritual development within the individual - all three levels. The intensity and the detail of study and the upliftment was fantastic. And so many mahasiddhas have been developed. This 1000 years of Buddhism in Tibet didn’t just bring perfect Buddhism from India, but developed way beyond comprehension. [45:00] So when you have to learn all of them it is not possible for one individual, not even possible.

So what happens, we synthesize it, to make it shorter and comprehensive, condensed, and boil it down to the three things, the three pitakas. [46:00]So when you are learning about Buddhism, Buddha's teaching, it is really boiling down to those three things. In the West, it is known as the Three Pitakas. Pitikas is not Western language, I believe it is Pali. So it talks about morality, it talks about wisdom, it talks a little bit about metaphysics.

And then by practice, by doing those, what will happen? We talk a lot of Buddha's teaching, there is information, teaching, spiritual practice, and the bottom line for all those will really boil down to the three higher trainings. By doing the three higher trainings, what you expect to gain is three good results, good achievements, within the individual. [50:00] The first is morality. Then the second is concentration, concentration meditation. I'm still looking at metaphysics. Normally in the West they call it transcendental meditation. That’s what the Maharishi used to teach. They called it “transcendental meditation”, right? That is GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASMAGATE BODHI SOHA - gone, gone, gone beyond. That's what we're talking about, right? Transcending from ordinary to extraordinary, right? I believe that's what it is. By learning the essence of those three higher trainings you get essence of these three developments, and that means the completion of Buddha's informational teaching. The spiritual development is completed within one individual. This is the essence of the practice.

It’s not the mantra, not the sadhana, not all this. They are great aspects, no doubt. Right now we are in the Sakadawa or Vesak month. Last night my sister Yangdon-la came into my room and gave me dry Tibetan beef jerky, which she got from New York. I said, "Is it good?" She said, "Maybe." I said," Okay, why don't you have some?" She said, "No, I'm not eating meat these days." I said,"Why?" She said, "Because it's Sakadawa". That is the same as Vesak month, you know. I didn't even know it was Sakadawa. "Oh, I didn't even know," I said. I overlooked all this. Because, you know, we have two Vesaks, right? The whole world had a separate Vesak last month.

When I first came to India, Mr. Lhalungpa , one of the Tibetan scholars who had come to India earlier, ran the All India Radio. He was a Tibetologist and Buddhologist, a very good one. And he kept on broadcasting on Indian radio ,"We are going through the 4th month of need deva. Very nicely he used it, but you know, what he really meant is the other way of counting of the events of Buddha's life. So in Sri lanka, Southeast Asia, including some parts of China, India, the counting of the year is different, the counting of the month is different. [55:00] Many times they count 16 days as one month, and then the Tibetans somehow count 30 days as one month. And then there are plus and minus days, and even plus and minus months within certain years. So within a thousand years, when it comes down to different counting systems, they become different.

Buddha didn't have his birth twice, Buddha didn't have enlightenment twice, Buddha didn't have mahaparanirvana, the passing anniversary, twice. But the way we count is a different system, and then over the years, over 2600 years, you get different few days here, a few days there, a month here, a month there, that's what happens. If you are wondering why there's are two different systems.

So the way Mr.Lhalungpa called it the need deva system, he was really referring to one of those 18 different schools of the lower Buddhist schools, which we call chetramawa in Tibetan and Vaibashika in Sanskrit. [56:54]. They have different segments, 18 different of them. Now I better not go there. If I go there, I'll talk about that, and I won't talk about our subject. But in case you are wondering why the Tibetan Vesak is different from the one in Sri Lanka or Thailand or Burma, this is the reason why. So the way of counting month differs. Tibetans pick an easy way to count, almost like a lunar calendar. Actually it is the lunar calendar. They decided to count one to thirty, rather than one to fifteen. They go up to waxing moon and then waning month, and then they count different months and then one day short here, two days short there, something happens and just becomes a little complicated. So that's why there are two different months. [58:43]

So whoever has the stronger faith, that becomes more effective for that person. Now for example, this month, whatever we do positive, it's supposed to be increasing a hundred thousand times. Even if you save one single insect's life you get the benefit of saving one hundred thousand lives. That is the reason why, in old Tibet, no meat is sold until 15th of the 4th month. No one is allowed by law. although Tibetans were meat eaters earlier, nothing but meat eaters. So the meat is not allowed to be sold throughout the country, actually supposed to be for the whole month, but after the 15th, they relax a little bit. [1:00:00] So up to the 15th, no one eats any meat.

Bakula Rinpoche, the head of the Ladakh, told me once that as a kid he loved Tibetan beef jerky. He became a total vegetarian in his later years. So as a kid he used to love Tibetan beef jerky, and he was prevented from eating them during the 4th month, particularly the full moon day. So he was crying, showing his temper tantrums, begging for meat. I knew one of his teachers, who was the head of Drepung monastery when I was a young, Gye pa Kensur Gen Jung ney[1:01:15]. So Gen Jung ney was Bakula Rinpoche's teacher at that time, a very learned, great scholar earlier. So he finally gave him a piece of meat and said, "Now you eat. You are worse than a simbu [1:01:39] Simbu means monster. So he said, "You're worse than a monster, eat this." And then he told a story. He said, "There's one big monster in the ocean, Tsushin. Iff he closes his mouth, hundreds of little fishe and insects will go in his mouth and he will sort of, kill them. But on the full moon of the 4th month, even that monster will try not to close his mouth, but have it remain open in the ocean. And you are worse than this monster. So eat this piece of meat." So that's how the Tibetan culture trained us. So we had a sort of a culture not to eat meat in this month. Whether eating meat is negativity or not is a different story altogether. That's it.

Knowing this and avoiding it is great. As I told you many times, dharma practice really means, within the teaching of the Buddha, whatever it says, when you are reading about that you should or shouldn’t do a certain thing, you should be able to follow that. If you can't follow, then it doesn't become good dharma practice. As I said earlier, there was a guy who sitting on a piece of skin, bear skin or something and he was reading a sutra, and it said," One shouldn't use any leather at all." So he pulled his little skin from under his cushion and threw it to the side. And he sat on the ground and kept reading for a little while and then he read, "If you are sick, you are exempted to use leather." So he pulled his little cushion back and put the animal skin underneath again. So this is an example.

When you see that you can't do this, you can't do that, that is what the dharma tells you. If you leave that aside and do something else, that’s not right. [1:05:00] And when I was a kid, the talk of the town in Tibet was that there was a messenger called Adrung Tashi who belonged to the Tibetan government. He was corrupt, he misused his power a lot and took out a lot of things he was not entitled to. So he got a letter from the central government saying that he couldn’t do that. But he said, “Let that water remain in the wall and let me go down to town and start to stir-fry my food.” That means he was going to be mean and try to grab whatever he could or wanted to. So if you do that, that will not be dharma practice. Again I don't mean that if you do Adrung Tashi’s job you are not doing dharma practice. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when the teaching says you can't do that, you think, “Let the teaching be the teaching, but I do what I want to do.” That will not be good dharma practice.

Sometimes I don't make it clear because I use Tibetan examples which neither the Tibetans get nor you. Meanwhile I lose my message in between. Anyway, so the essence here is morality. Anything you need to avoid should be avoided, anything you need to pursue should be pursued. Okay? That is very simple.

[1:08:15] So when you are talking about morality, the bottom line is don't do things you are not supposed to do and do the things you are supposed to do. That will be your perfect morality. It really doesn’t matter what it is. If you are hurting somebody, including yourself, don’t do it. If you are not hurting but helping, do it. If it is neither hurting nor helping, it is your choice, whatever you want to do. That’s fine. That will be the morality.

Then concentration. If you focus and meditate, that’s great, but if not, then at least have good awareness.

1:10

Awareness means paying attention and knowing what you are doing. If you don’t know what you are doing you don’t have awareness. Sometimes you do have some awareness, sometimes you don’t have any. Not having any awareness is not good. You have to have some awareness and get more and more awareness. That is the beginning of concentration. Meditation as we know it in this country is the real strong awareness, acknowledging everything, knowing what’s going on. Sometimes we make a joke: be aware what’s happening. Be aware the phone is ringing. Acknowledge it is the phone that’s ringing. Be aware that you have to pick up the phone. Be aware how you are walking to the phone. Then walk up to the phone. Acknowledge you are picking up the phone. Then the phone stops ringing! That’s the joke. But really truly, that is awareness. There is such a meditation in the Tibetan tradition too. One time, I remember, in Chopra House, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche was there and I don’t know what I was doing there, but I used to go there very often. So I was there talking with Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. That was the beginning of the Goenka meditations in India. So I heard about it and told Kyabje Rinpoche that this is what was happening. He said, “You didn’t read it? There is some sutra that says: now I am walking, now I am lifting my right leg. Now I am lifting my left leg. Now I am holding the door. Now I am twisting the door knob. Now I am opening the door.” Kyabje Rinpoche said, “And then the Mahayana adds up one thing: For the benefit of all beings I am now walking. For the benefit of all beings I am now moving my left leg. For the benefit of all beings I am now opening the door. Now I emptying the lower realms of people. Now I am shutting the door to the suffering realms. Kyabje Rinpoche said that this was known in the Tibetan tradition, which so many people don’t emphasize or talk about. But it is there also. It is really true. It is the teaching that comes from Buddha, from the Buddhist tradition, from both, Mahayana and Theravada tradition. It is a teaching from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and any other tradition. I think that’s how the introduction in the western culture is. The meditation is coming either from Buddhism or Hinduism – either way it is from the eastern religions. That doesn’t mean that in the western tradition there is no meditation. I am sure it’s there, but what we do today is mostly coming from – I believe – Asia. But I am sure the Judeo-Christian tradition, in their mystical practice, has that. It is not very open to everybody and thereby has become a “mystery”. Sometimes, if you keep it top secret too much, there is the danger of misinformation and losing the tradition too.

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition carries a lot of ‘top secret’ teachings. Actually when you look in, there is nothing secret. Everybody knows everything. By knowing it is ‘secret’ people get a little more excited or whatever the reason is. Sometimes some person is not supposed to hear it, because they haven’t gone through with certain training. I think it is very, very few people who get that problem. It is not that you can’t handle the truth. You can. But some people, maybe one out of thousands or ten thousands, may have little difficulties. Probably to avoid that, there are lots of prerequisites of this and that being introduced.

Many of the prerequisites, sometimes without caring, we treat them as preliminaries. In somebody’s ears that may sound like things that are done by kindergarten kids, not for grown up persons. Within the preliminaries the main essence of Buddha’s teachings are within that. Honestly. Tibetan Buddhism, particularly, if you look there, the major Buddhist teaching, the major thing that makes a difference in one’s life, is in the prerequisite level. It is not in the top secret category. So the prerequisites are the major practice. The person like me, who is presenting Tibetan Buddhism, can make a big mistake by making it look like a preliminary thing that is not so important. Not necessarily consciously, but unconsciously people often think, “Oh, I have been in Buddhism now for about 30 years, so I don’t have to do the kindergarten work every day.” That means we are doing a disservice to people. Honestly, what really makes a difference in one’s life is doing very strong prerequisite practices.

1:20

Many people will say, “the lam rim, oh yeah, that’s some pre – thing. We don’t really have to do that. We should do something that really develops the illusion body in Guhyasamaja or Yamantaka.” They think that is something very serious, also Heruka, Vajrayogini because it develops clear light. We often go into that rather than into what is really making a difference and is fundamental.

When you learn Buddhism, in general it is building on top of another. The basic foundations, the fundamental teachings of Buddha are the Theravadan teachings. The Mahayana teachings are built on top of that. If you don’t have the Theravadan foundation and you try to catch the Mahayana teachings you are not going to get anywhere. And then, if you don’t have Mahayana and try to catch Vajrayana, it is not going to work at all. Vajrayana is part of Mahayana and is built on the principle of sutra Mahayana. If you lose all that there is no base. That’s what we call an ice castle. There is no foundation. In the ice castle you may may imagine the square mandala, however big it may be, maybe 50,000 square miles and with this and that division and such and such decorations and this and that yidam and so on. But all that is just a play on ice. It is like kids playing in an ice castle. If strong sun shine comes it will all go. Tibetan culture emphasizes that because they will show the butter sculptures. They make mandalas and images and so on out of butter and it has to be shown at night, on the 15th day of the first month. Before the sun shines the next morning they remove everything. People say that if they don’t remove it the butter will melt. The butter will not melt within a couple of hours, although eventually they will. But it gives you the idea that if you haven’t got the proper foundation your practice will be like a night show.

The foundation is so important. The non-contradictory nature of all Buddha’s teaching is very important. Otherwise it will contradict. Saying that this is meant for Theravada, that for Mahayana and that for Vajrayana is not right. Then you will say, ‘You are Mahayana and I am Vajrayana and we don’t agree.” Or, “you are Theravada and I am Vajrayana and we don’t agree.” All this is contradicting the Buddha’s teaching.

1:25

In the actual Buddha’s teaching there is no contradiction. They build on top of one another. Without the Theravadan principle there is no base for Mahayana to build. Without Mahayana compassion there is no base for Vajrayana to build. Nagarjuna says:

Ge wa di yi kye bo kün

So nam ye she tso sor shag

So nam ye she le jung wei

Dam par ku nyi tob par shog

Let me paraphrase:

By this virtue may all living beings complete the wisdom merit and merit merit and as a consequence of that we may be able to achieve the two forms of Buddha: the mental and physical aspects.

So we need two: the wisdom and the compassion. Wisdom and compassion are the principles of Mahayana. That is built on top of the three pitakas. It is part of it and parcel of it and also built on it. That is the meaning of: knowing that Budddha’s teachings are non-contradictory.

If you do that then you can find that every teaching of Buddha is a transmission. Otherwise we have to look for transmission a something else and teaching as something else. Many people do that these days. If the Buddha’s teaching goes somewhere and the transmission comes somewhere else that’s not right. That means that somewhere some kind of transmission of some secret thing is floating around which has nothing to do with the Buddha’s teaching. So that’s not right. Buddha’s teaching is the transmission. There is no separate transmission from Buddha’s teaching. If you find it you better be aware of it. You never know what result you are going to achieve with it. If you read Pabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hand on Day 10 he begins with a quotation from Gedun Tendzin Phuntsok. This quotation goes like this:

Ka ten tse me nying gu yin

Rang tsun dzön chu ten pa yin

Shing ta chen nam shen shu yin

Lön pö na du ten ma yin

Khe drup dam pei nyam yu yin

Se si trü nam den ma yin

La me jang chub shung lam yin

Nyam ge yang su de ma yin

This is not false, invented dharma,

Because it is the path of authentic oral teaching.

This is not foolish talk,

Because it comes from classical texts by the great champions.

This is not a shimmering mirage,

Because saintly scholars and adepts have experienced it.

This is not a perilous cliff,

Because it is the highway to highest enlightenment.

The translation does not seem to really do a good justification for the original text. However, it is better than nothing. Did anybody ever have a copy of Geshe Lobsang Tharchin’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hands? I wonder whether the translation is different.

INSERT GESHE LOBSANG THARCHIN’S TRANSLATION HERE

That is probably Vincent’s translation.

Audience: it is mostly Art Engle’s.

Rimpoche: Vincent does great. I don’t know much about Art Engle. It’s worth to see and check out. The real essence of Buddha’s transmission is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. Many times we say that Buddha’s teachings are meant to put on the altar and not be read.

1:32

But what you really have to do is [watch this]: Ka ten tse me nying gu yin

Rang tsun dzön chu ten pa yin – somebody cooked up some cheating material, which has nothing to do with Buddha’s teaching. This little verse will tell you what is right and what is not right. Really. This is just a four line quote. The second line is: shing ta chen nam shen shu yin lön pö na du ten ma yin. It has to be the essence that has been accepted by great teachers like Nagarjuna and Asanga. There are 6 ornaments and 10 excellences. Then His Holiness emphasized the “Nalanda tradition.” There are 17 mahapandits and teachers of the Nalanda tradition. That is really proving the authenticity. The third line is: khe drup dam pei nyam yu yin se si trü nam den ma yin – the earlier siddhas or adepts have to have had perfect experience of that. It should not be somebody’s “shimmering mirage.” You see water in the sand, that’s a mirage. That should not be. The last line:

La me jang chub shung lam yin nyam ge yang su de ma yin. The bottom line is that this has to lead you to total enlightenment. Make sure it doesn’t lead you to the lower realms. That is important. When you talk about the essence of Buddhism, what is Buddhism, what is Tibetan Buddhism and all of those, that’s what it is all about.

So what is the essence? The three basket trainings plus love/compassion or Love/compassion and wisdom. That’s it. This wisdom and compassion influences and flows through all your three basket trainings, morality, wisdom and even concentration. I told you about the awareness of walking and even opening the door. Then compassion is added up. “I am opening the door of liberation.” “I am shutting the door to the suffering of the lower realms.” That is the influence of compassion. So whatever you follow, this is how you engage. The essence of Buddhism, the essence of Tibetan Buddhism, really gets inside you, within you, the way you think, how you function, what you do; rather than how you show, what you say, how long and big your mala is. That doesn’t count.

There is a story about a buffalo, sheep and goat. There was a Buddhist practitioner, either a monk or semi-monk. He was saying prayers all the time. He was keeping three animals, a buffalo, a sheep and a goat. The goat said one day, “Are you sure this guy is good? I doubt it. He will kill us one day.” The buffalo said, “Never, he is a practitioner. Don’t you see he has his mala in hand when he walks around.” The sheep said, “I do agree.” But one day that guy called a butcher. He told the slaughterer, “You have to slaughter all three today. I definitely need it.” The butcher was saying, “I am so busy today, I can’t do it. If you urgently need it I can kill one first.” But he kept on insisting, “No, kill all three today.” Then he came out of the house with mala in hand and OM MANI PADME HUM from his mouth, making sure that all three got slaughtered that day. So gestures don’t count. The mind counts. When you talk about Buddhism and Buddhist practice, look inside, don’t look outside. Okay? When you do that you do have a very good background, wonderful background. You don’t have to go anywhere, just right under your own nose. That’s what we should do.

1:41

So, if I don’t start the Heart Sutra at all, that might not be right. You know the Heart Sutra is a transcendental wisdom sutra. The large one has 12 volumes. The medium one is a big volume called gye tong pa. Then the Heart Sutra is the direct essence teaching of wisdom. It is compassion/wisdom. That wisdom. Actually, before you touch the wisdom, you are supposed to touch very strongly with the compassion. Without the background of compassion you may not be able to get to the wisdom much - although there are people who develop wisdom before developing compassion. Normally we say that we develop compassion first, on the five paths. But Nagarjuna said,

There are great intelligent people who develop wisdom before developing compassion.

People sometimes raise the question whether wisdom or compassion is developed first. To some people wisdom is much easier and compassion is almost impossible. To some people compassion is very easy and wisdom is complicated and sophisticated and difficult. It depends on the individual. Buddha said that both are available. But normally you have to have a good background of relative matters, otherwise emptiness will become empty. If it is empty it is meaningless. Tong nyi nying gye nying po che – the essence of wisdom must be compassion.

Anyway we get to that. When I am looking at this commentary it tells you the tremendous benefits, this and that. But anyway, it doesn’t matter.

Now to the actual text:

Arya bhagawati prajna paramita hridaya

Phag pa chom den de ma she rap kyi

Pha röl tu chin pai nying po

The Essence of the Perfection of Wisdom

1:48

If you look at the word arya or in Tibetan phag pa, that means special person. Then bhagawati in Sanskrit or chom den den ma is the feminine ending, rather than chom den de [conqueror] The emptiness is mother-like and gives birth to all buddhas. The English translation for that is not there.

In the last line she rab refers to wisdom as the 6th perfection. The first five perfections are generosity, morality, patience, enthusiasm and concentration.

1:50

Pa röl tu chin pa means ‘gone beyond’. If you go beyond the ordinary it becomes perfect. Nying po is essence.

Then there is a verse which is not part of the Heart Sutra but many people say it.

Ma sam jö me she rab pha röl chin

Ma kye mi gag nam kha’i ngo wo nyi

So so rang rig je she kyö yül wa

Dü sum gyal wai yum la chag tsal lo

I prostrate to the Mother of the Conquerors of the three times,

That Perfection of Wisdom, indescribable by words or thoughts,

Which does not arise and does not cease; in nature like space;

Whose object belongs to the individual subject’s awareness.

The word ma sam jö me means you want to say something but you can’t describe. It is something beyond words. That does not mean it is something you can’t understand. It means that just simply words cannot really describe it. That’s why sometimes people say that “yeah, it is there, but it is not there” or “neither is it here nor is it there”. All that will come because of that reason. Besides that, remember, when Buddha first became Buddha he decided not to speak.

Zab she trö te ö sel du ma che

Du se ta bu chö she kö yo ni

Su la ten ja ko or me nü pei

Ne ma na gye sib tu ne par ja

I found something very profound,

Like light, uncreated, nectar-like,

But if I express no one can understand

Therefore I will remain silent in the forest.

That’s what he first said. That nectar-like, undescribable experience is this. That’s why this particular word is added up here. When you read the Heart Sutra it begins with:

Ja kar ke du/ arya bhagawati prajna paramita hridaya/ pö ke du/ phag pa chom den de ma/ she rab kyi pha röl tu chin pai nying po

In the language of India (Sanskrit) “(Arya) Baghavati: Prajnaparamitahridaya;” – in the language of Tibet, “Pak pa chom den de ma she rab kyi pa röl tu chin pey nying po.”

We have already explained this from the first page.

Then comes bam po chi go - only one chapter. Then:

sang gye dang jang chub sem pa tham che la chag tsal lo

I pay respect to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

I should lay out some outlines, but when you read it, it will be become easier. It is the Buddhist culture, before you do anything, you pray to the perfect ones. I am not sure whether that is Buddhist culture or Indian culture. Maybe it is both. Maybe it is more Indian culture. I’d rather not go much in that detail. In any case it is the Indo-Buddhist cultural system. This one chooses to pay homage to Budhas and Bodhisattvas. There are reasons behind that. But I won’t go into such details.

Then:

di ke dak gi tö pa dü chik na

Thus did I hear at one time

Then

chom den de gyel pö kap/ cha gö pung pö ri la /ge long gi gen dün chen po dang/ chang chup sempei gen dün chen po dang / tap chik tu zhuk te

The Buddha was residing in Rajagriha at Vulture Peak, together with a great assembly of monks and a great assembly of Bodhisattvas.

When you hear so many of Buddha’s works they start with “Thus I have heard.” You hear that a lot. That means that Buddha did not write that down. Someone recollected that in their memory and then say, “I heard this. Buddha was at such and such a place and among us were these and that people.” Many of us went to the Vulture’s Peak. It is a very small peak and I don’t think hundreds and thousands of people can fit on it. It is lucky if you can fit 20 or 30. Anyway, that is Vulture’s Peak, where Buddha first taught the prajnaparamita. That’s true. Sometimes people say that this where Buddha first taught the Mahayana. That is not true. Many people go in that way, but it is not true. The prajnaparamita was taught there.

So we just began the actual Heart Sutra and I think we stop here and I guess that’s it. No mandala offering, nothing. Thank you. 2:00:54