Archive Result

88

20120528GRGRHS08

00:00 Heart Sutra chanting in English and Jewel Heart Prayers

0:20

Good morning and welcome everybody to our last session this time. We have been talking about and reading about the Prajnaparamita, the Essence of Perfect Wisdom. I read most of the Tibetan for this, which means the oral transmission is included as well as while we talked, this was with the lineage, so those of you who are receiving this as a teaching you have received the teaching transmission and oral transmission, both. Those of you who are not receiving this as a teaching you have studied that. We have almost come to the conclusion in the text itself. Let me read what’s left:

sha ri pu/ chang chup sem pa sem pa chen pö/ de tar she rap kyi pa röl tu chin pa/ zap mö la lap par cha-o

O Shariputra, a Bodhisattva, a Great Bodhisattva should train thus in the profound Perfection of Wisdom.

de ne chom den de/ ting nge dzin de le zheng te/ chang chup sem pa sem pa chen po/ pak pa chen re zik wang chuk la/ lek so zhe cha wa chin ne/ lek so lek so rik kyi bu/ de de zhin no/ rik kyi bu/ de de zhin te/ ji tar kyö kyi ten pa zhin du/ she rap kyi pa röl tu chin pa/ zap mo la che par cha te/ de zhin shek pa nam kyang je su yi rang ngo

Thereupon, the Buddha Baghavan emerged from that Samadhi and declared to the Bodhisattva, the Great Bodhisattva, the Exalted Avalokitesvara, that he had spoken well: “Well said! Well said! O son of the lineage! It is just so! It is just that – just as you have taught, so should one practice the profound Perfection of Wisdom. [Not only I but all] the [other] Tathagatas rejoice as well!”

chom den de kyi de ke che ka tsel ne/ tse dang den pa sha ra ta tii pu dang/ chang chup sem pa sem pa chen po/ pak pa chen re zik wang chuk dang/ tam che dang den pei kor de dak dang/ lha dang mi dang/ lha ma yin dang/ dri zar che pei jik ten yi rang te/ chom den de kyi sung pa la ngön par tö do

When the Baghavan had thus spoken, the Venerable Shariputra and the Bodhisattva, the Great Bodhisattva, the Exalted Avalokiteshvara, together with the entire assembly as well as the rest of the world comprised of gods, humans, demigods, and spirits, filled with joy, highly praised what the Buddha had taught.

Chom den de ma / sherab kyi pha röl tu chin pai nying po / she ja wa/ thek pa chen po’i do dzok so

This completes the Mahayana Sutra called “The Essence of the Perfection of Wisdom.”

Rimpoche reads to end of the text in Tibetan and starts reading the beginning again for a little bit. Then he reads the English as well.

Rimpoche: It is always the Tibetan custom not to end at the ending, so you re-read a little bit from the beginning. I did this in Tibetan, so I am going to read that in English as well up to:

yang dei tse/ jang chub sem pa chen po chen po/ pak pa chen re zik wang chuk/ she rap kyi pa röl tu chin pa/ zap mö chö pa nyi la nam par ta zhing/ pung po nga po de dak la yang/ rang zhin gyi tong par nam par ta-o.

Also at that time, the Bodhisattva, the Great Bodhisattva, the Exalted Avalokiteshvara, was investigating the practice of the profound, perceiving that even those five heaps are empty of inherent nature.

With that the oral transmission is completed. Now the little bit of the last explanation here: I don’t really have to explain much here. What did we do here? We did talk basically about Buddha’s teaching, about how to handle our life. The first evening we spent more time talking generally about how to be a good human being.

0:30

It is very simple. I would like to make it very simple so that you have something to take home. And that is this – I hope. I think everyone of us would like to be good and if possible perfect. But whenever we try to do something to be good and perfect something goes wrong. What goes wrong is our negative addictions that pop up. Somehow, somewhere we get a disappointment. Somehow somewhere we get angry. Somehow, sometime we get jealous and obsessed – all the time we are confused. Our ignorance prevails all the time. That’s why something goes wrong, even though all want to be good. So what can we do? Can we do something? Yes. As human beings we can do a lot. Not only as a human being, but as an educated human being, you can do much more. What can you do?

I am not going to say “become a Buddhist.” People may expect that. Nor am I going to say, “Take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.” But the essence of taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha’s advice, their gift to us. That is love and compassion and wisdom. So what we really have to do is remember the love, remember the compassion, try to find a little wisdom here and there and manage. The first step is managing our life. The second step is control your life. The third step is to make it perfect. That we can do. We have a better chance than uneducated people, because as basic human beings we have a wonderful mind, plus we have education and information. How important the information is I don’t have to emphasize. You know. The value of the information is so much so that all the money in the world cannot afford to buy that information, honestly speaking. So the information you have – yesterday we briefly mentioned that learning is the light in the darkness, it is the best wealth you can have with no fear of thieves and robbers taking it. It is the best friend when you are down, particularly when you feel low, when your friends want to keep a little distance from you. Who will really remain close with you? Your knowledge, your learning – the information you have.

0:35

It is only a matter of utilizing that. Utilize that on time. Sometimes we realize it afterwards. That’s because we are what we are. It happens all the time. Afterwards everybody can say, “this went wrong, that went wrong”, because we saw everything. But still it is okay – better late than never. Sometimes you notice afterwards. That’s okay, you can do that one or two times or three times. But then there has to be a limit. Otherwise, it becomes what we do. Every time we have difficulties we will say, “This is a good learning experience.” Right? That’s a good excuse and we can pat our own shoulder. But how long can keep having learning experiences? Till the cows come home. So that’s not going to happen, right? So we don’t want that. One time, two time is okay, but by the third time you have to learn. The first time, after the situation has gone on you begin to realize. By the second time, a little after everything has happened you realize. The third time, it has to be on the spot. Thereafter we should notice before we make a mistake. That’s how we utilize the information.

Meditations help to get to this point, to be on time, not to be too late and even get to it before that. Meditation makes it a part of our life. In other words, positive meditations will give you good addictions. I hope you don’t mind me saying that in a funny way. So you are going to get addicted to good things. You are getting out of bad addictions and will be addicted to good. So that’s what you do. I believe that is the way how we maintain our life as spiritual persons. Plus, within that we have the information of what the negatives are and what the positives are. So look at yourself. You are the best judge for yourself. Don’t let anybody else judge you. Don’t let the judges judge you, but judge yourself. The best time to do that is in the evening, before you fall asleep. Just look back over that day of your life, morning till evening, how your thoughts have been, how your actions have been. If there is something admirable, rejoice. You get double the benefit. If there is something embarrassing, regret, hesitate and try not to repeat. Pray that it will not repeat. That review in the evening is actually your guideline for your next day.

0:41

If you adapt that there is constant reminders, a constant push for something that is making yourself better. That’s how you will be a good person. That’s how you will be a dharma person. That’s how you will be proud of yourself. That will make you fit to be an example for others. Retreats like this reinforce your desire to be good. It recharges you, like that little scooter that I drive. When the battery goes down it won’t move anymore. Before it finishes, when there is little hill, it stops. When I recharge the battery and it is full then it goes zoom. Just like that, that’s how our life is. This is what you have come here for and that’s what you will take home.

Plus we talked about the wisdom of emptiness. Don’t forget we talked about GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. Going beyond even what we have talked is because of the compassion, because of the wisdom. Going beyond even what we talked, everything whatever you do you do for the benefit of all beings. Not only for their benefit. Benefit is such a thing that if I give you a wooden nickel or five cents it is also a benefit. But when you talk about benefit here you are talking about something every important, way beyond money and all that. It is sort of relieving the suffering and eradicating the suffering. That is what we are talking here in terms of benefit. It is not a fundraising benefit. So, not only ourselves, but without forgetting ourselves, everybody else. If you can’t think of everybody else, think of your own family, your own spouse. Then extend that from the family and that’s how eventually you get to all human beings. It is not the other way round. We may think first of all living beings as a field of little dots which are called “all living beings” and I am the big one here telling all living beings “be happy and free of suffering.” That won’t work. You have to start with yourself and your spouse, your family.

There is a tradition in the west, particularly in the United States. I have seen it a couple of times and the late Allen Ginsberg used to do that. When we do the dedication he started saying a wish to be happy and joyful. It came out of him wishing himself happiness and then everybody else in the room happiness. That sort of cloud of good wishes goes out of the room, fills up the valley, fills up the county, fills up the state, fills up the country, goes beyond the ocean, fills up Europe, fills up Asia, Africa, reaches back to South America and finally comes back home, wishing everybody well. Just by the touch of the wish alone we relieve their suffering, bring them joy and that light which you have sent is returning to yourself.

Allen did that a couple of times with me. Whether it was Allen’s invention or western Buddhist tradition or maybe it is the Bu-ju’s style I don’t know. So it is things like that, with the idea of going beyond. That wisdom, that compassion, should influence every good deed you do. Even if you don’t do any extra good deeds, even if you don’t put our extra time for meditation, but whatever you are doing, your walking, your sitting, your chit-chatting, your singing, your dancing, - Drinking alcohol may not, I don’t know, - all of them can be turn into the activities of making yourself well and benefitting others.. That is how you go beyond. The quality of being a good human being I told you first, right? Above that, then you go beyond. First you go with a tremendous amount of effort and struggle and all that. That is GATE.

The second GATE is a little more intense. Remember the five paths, the path of accumulation, the path of action, the path of seeing, the path of seeing, the path of meditation and the path of no more learning. From the path of seeing on it becomes less struggle. It becomes normal, natural. Then the path of meditation is smoothening that activity. It becomes your habit, part of you. That brings you ultimately to no more learning and that is how you think about your everyday life.

0:50

That means you are taking the essence of the prajnaparamita home. That’s it. I guess that’s it.I should be stopping here actually.

0:51

All the thank yous were done by Carole yesterday. So now I want to say thank you to you and Nancy for all the work you do. Then thanks to the people who organize and host and do everything and most importantly, thanks to all of you. Without you being here we won’t have the retreat. It is dependent origination, you know. If you are not here, there won’t be a retreat. If I am not here there will be no retreat led by me. There will be a retreat, but….All these are dependent rising. This time we have to thank specially to Garrison Institute, Tibet Fund and the other sponsors who sponsored the Tibetan Himalayan and Mongolian scholarship. And I thank the staff, the Jewel Heart staff, the Garrison staff. I am repeating what you did yesterday. And this time I like to thank Jonas. Really. He not only does a very good job all the time, but this time he is also quiet. So having said all this it is time for us to dedicate our virtues. Not only the virtues we have but the virtues we have very specially created by doing the explaining, discussing, listening, talking and thinking about this profound perfection of wisdom sutra.

If you look at the benefit, there are tremendous benefits. I was looking at the Tibetan commentary yesterday and I couldn’t get through what I was talking about, because they were talking about benefits for 10 – 15 pages. There are tremendous amounts of benefits. Many of the sutras talk about huge benefits.

0:55

Before the dedication I would like to tell you a story. There is a sutra called “White Umbrella.” There is a deity or yidam called White Umbrella. When you read the sutra the benefits are included in it. I used to memorize that. In the monasteries they say that sutra almost every day. Then when you read that it says: this sutra protects you from fire, from water, from poison, and from almost everything else. It is written there as part of the sutra. I think Buddha might have said it, somebody remembered and repeated it and that’s how it comes as part of the sutra. So much benefit that sutra has. So the story is this. One nomad came to visit Lhasa in Central Tibet. We make a lot of jokes about nomads. So if there are any nomads here, don’t take it personally. Nomads are sometimes so funny. This nomad had heard about these benefits. He bought a copy of that sutra in the Jokhang market. He wrapped it in nice cloth and took it back and left it in his tent. Nomads live in tents that are very similar to the Mongolian yurts, made out of yak hair, very rough. So kept the sutra in there. These nomads go round with all their animals. So one day one of the animals went in his tent and ate half this book. The nomad came back and say that this book had been eaten half. So he said, “Wow, this protects from poison, from water, from fire, but it cannot protect from yak!” [laughter all around]

Actually we really do accumulate a lot of merit. The problem with the merit and positive karma is what we can’t see it. We can’t show it, we can’t account, we don’t have a data base. Maybe we will find a way to make a data base in future, you never know. You can never say never. Scientific development is such that if somebody pays attention, I am sure they can do it. But somebody has to pay for somebody to look into that.

So what do we do with those benefits? Just let them be? No. We dedicate. Dedication is like a lock box. Remember, when Gore ran against Bush? He used to say, “I keep social security in a lock box on my desk.” So dedication is like a lock box. When you dedicate your virtues are not dimishing. Not only are they not wasted, but they do not diminish or decrease until the purpose has been fulfilled.

1:00

That’s why buddhas always recommend to dedicate as the buddhas and bodhisattvas dedicate, such as Manjushri, Samantabadra and so on.

Jam pel pa wo’i chi tar ken pa dang

Kun tu zang po te ya de zhin de

De tar kun zhi je so ta lob chir

Ge wa di dang tam che rab tu ngo

Like the buddhas recommended, Manjushri, the great bodhisattva and Samantabadra followed.

What did they do? They dedicated for all living beings, including oneself to obtain enlightenment. That is the No 1 priority. Thereafter comes peace, joy, relief of suffering throughout the world, both the inhabitants and the environment. Then comes the sources of joy and happiness that Buddha’s teaching lasting for a long time. And the teachers, such as His Holiness and many other great teachers may have longevity and be successful in whatever they do. Then comes ourselves, our families, friends we know who passed away. We dedicate this virtue to purify, reduce and relieve their negativities and negative karmic consequences, whatever they are experiencing or will be experiencing.

Don’t forget the pets you have, the dogs and cats and so forth. Then the next step comes: for ourselves and all living beings, most importantly the human beings, that the rest of our lives may become worthwhile. Whatever time of our lives has gone is gone. The rest becomes worthwhile. While we are here we may live long and be well and be good persons. And that’s how we dedicate. Not only for ourselves, but all our family and everybody else.

1:05

Then at that end, what I would like to say is that my understanding is that next on my teaching schedule is the summer retreat. In between that I have teachings in Holland, but here in the US it is the summer retreat. This year I am hoping to do the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, which means compassion and love and what it is and how it develops. How does one function in life within that principle. The bodhisattvacharyavatara is written by a very early Indian saint who really gave that teaching. This is a source of information for almost everybody, at least in many traditions. It is used in quotations, trying to prove what you are teaching a lot. It is a little detailed. I did give teachings on that for about 8 years. We have 8 separate transcripts on that, many of them edited by Anne and transcribed by Hartmut. But I didn’t do the 9th chapter yet. There was not the opportunity. Those of you who are coming, first of all, do come. I make the very strong recommendation to come. I don’t know how many times I will be able to do that sort of big text teaching. We did the lam rim last year, the Liberation in the Palm of your Hand. We did the whole thing. And now I would like to do the Bodhisattvacharyavatara this year. As I said in that little recording on the website. It will be in Ann Arbor, the cultural center of Michigan (laughs). We will meet there for 10 days, July 5th to 15th. There are 10 chapters, but maybe it won’t go exactly that way. Some chapters are shorter than others.

We are going to read it and talk about it and it will have the oral transmission and teaching transmission. I have to emphasize that. We used to talk about oral transmission and somehow people picked that up and then forgot completely to mention the teaching transmission.

1:10

The initiation one kind of transmission. Then there is the teaching transmission and to support that, we have the oral transmission. So in vajrayana all these three have to be there. In non-vajrayana, there is no initiation, but there is the teaching transmission and oral transmission together. Both we will be doing together. To prepare that, since we only have little time there, you can read the bodhisattvacharyavatara itself and we are going to do chapter 1 – 8 following Stephen Batchelor’s translation, which was published by the Library of Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. But his 9th chapter is a little difficult. It has become a sort of commentary rather than a translation. So we are going to pick up Thubten Jinpa’s translation of the 9th chapter. Also you can read my eight transcripts on that work and then very strongly I recommend two other books on it. One is HH Dalai Lama’s commentary Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night and the other is Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s Meaningful to Behold. A number of people think that Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is controversial, sure. But that commentary came from teachings he had given a very long time ago and every time he gave that teaching in London, he used to make some funny Tibetan notes and send them to Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche for correction. Kyabje Rinpoche corrected them and sent them back to him and from that later the Meaningful to Behold was made. So it is not only Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s work, but contains a lot of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s involvement.

It was almost day to day that he sent notes. Then Kyabje Rinpoche sometimes gave the notes to other people to read and correct. So a number of us did that, Samdhong Rinpoche, Dagyab Rinpoche and I used to be there and Kyabje Rinpoche used to give us this page and that page. That’s how I know. Then Kyabje Rinpoche corrected that and sent it back. So this Meaningful to Behold is a very good work and is sort of beyond Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. He happens to have his name there, but for us it will be very useful to read. I haven’t read the English, that’s my problem.

So I think that’s it. As you know, every Sunday morning I talk from 10 – 11 am under the title “Tibetan Buddhism with Gelek Rimpoche”. That’s available every Sunday. So we see you either on line or personally and in between that I wish you very well, take care of yourself and those of you who are driving, drive carefully. I will be back here in Garrison in October, whether me alone or with Lochö Rinpoche, I don’t know yet. So better register now! (laughs). That’s October 5th to 8th. So far we selected the subject to be the Recognition of the Mother’s Face, composed by Changya Rolpai Dorje. In Tibetan that is tam gur ama ngön dzin. If Lochö Rinpoche comes there may be a different teaching. We all briefly received the Recognition of the Mother’s Face teaching from Lochö Rinpoche in Dehli during our Indian tour last year. That was very short and I am supposed to do it a little more detailed than an hour or two. That’s why I put it on the schedule. Lochö Rinpoche told me to do a more detailed teaching on it. That’s why I put it there this time. But if Rinpoche comes there will be a different teaching. Hopefully we will be able to synchronize his travel with the Garrison schedule. I guess that’s it. Thank you so much and we will dedicate with the lam rim dedication. We have to finish now because a number of you took precepts this morning and those people have to eat at least before 1 pm and can’t have meat, remember? Then if possible, have only this one meal now and not eat in the afternoon at all. These 8 mahayana precepts has a number of things. That day you don’t wear jewelry, and so on. All these are okay. Sometimes it is better to wear your jewelry, because if you try to take it out you may misplace and lose it. So that’s okay. Not do have unnecessary gossip and chit-chat is what you really have to watch. With what and when to eat people will be very careful. That’s okay. Thank you

1:19 chanting lam rim dedication and miscellaneous dedication verses and 3 migtsemas.

1:29 Thank you - end