Archive Result

20130526GRGRTB06 Sunday afternoon

Welcome back to the afternoon session. And we are glad to have Professor Thurman here. We call him Ganden Tri Rinpoche. A professor who occupies Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's chair is called Ganden Tri Rinpoche. So you're occupying Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's chair so you're Ganden Tri Rinpoche. That's it. “Rinpoche” is a name to pour the tea. [Laughs] I'm just joking.

So now, I think briefly we had the run-through with the Seven Limbs and little bit about the meaning of the mantras. So since the time is limited, I have to leave it there. I cannot go on talking more on this. The major thing I wanted to talk to you about is still left. So I'm looking at the principles of Tibetan Buddhism. I thought I could really cover a little bit but not reading a textbook and go, but didn't really do much. Basically we talked about this slight difference between the Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions, based on what is called The Four White Signs or Four White Signals or Four Logos, or whatever the name people give. That gives you the difference between Buddhist and non-Buddhist, although, when you talk about what makes you Buddhist, people simply answer "I'm taking refuge." That's fine, nothing wrong with it. But in principle when you understand and accept that all created things are impermanent, all contaminated things are suffering, all phenomena are in the nature of emptiness and nirvana is peace, these are the basic important points of being a Buddhist.

On top of being Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhists do have a special way of taking refuge. Not only Tibetan Buddhists but all Mahayana Buddhists. Mahayana refuge is different from normal refuge. Normal refuge has as the cause of taking refuge a sense of urgency and trust in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Mahayana demands compassion. That will be sort of the beginning level difference. Tibetan Buddhism, the Buddhism that comes through Tibet, is definitely mahayana and mostly vajrayana. Vajrayana is associated with this. But every Tibetan Buddhism is not vajrayana, because there are a lot of non-vajrayana things too. For example, the great big famous subjects that they study in the monasteries are the abidharma, which is metaphysics, then the transcendental studies [Prajnaparamita, Abismayalankara], then Madhayamika, the middle way wisdom study, the Vinaya, the monk's and nun's rules, and all of those are non-vajrayana, but Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism does carry Vajrayana. But not all Tibetan Buddhism is vajrayana. The principles of Mahayana are two things: the love-compassion aspects and the wisdom aspects. Love-compassion is mostly normal functioning of life.

In short, there are two sets of Five Powers. One set is the Five Powers for Living; and the second set is Five Powers for Death and Dying. These are very important points. The first of these five powers is motivation (Tib: dün pei thob?) . We have talked about that since the day before. [25:51-26:04 We talked that whatever we could.

-The First Power: The Power of the White Seed

-The Second Power: The Power on Intention

-The Third Power: The Power of Blaming the Ego

-The fourth Power: The Power of Prayer

-The Fifth Power: The Power of Training

The second power is pemba thob [26:26 Tib]: these are the actual virtues you're creating, the practices what you do. All of them are included in this Power of the White Seed. If you look in your life, in Tibetan Buddhism, your practices and your thinking are brought within these Five Powers. They are almost tied to engage all your life. And whatever you do in your life you are fulfilling within that, with or without introducing or not telling you what it is.

The third power is the power of familiarization. [Tib 27:44]. You get used to it. When you do something every day you get used to doing it, and you become comfortable with that, and you live with that. That is really the third power. The subject - what you are, your practice, your way of thinking, your way of taking things, and all of those are the power of getting used to it. Traditionally, if you look at it, they will tell the power of getting used to is actually the path. That's whatever you follow, that is what your practice really is. In our case it is the lam rim path, from the beginning with the guru devotional practice to ultimately establishing total knowledge, total enlightenment. Your mind is first getting to know it, then it becomes comfortable with us and third it will be adopted as sort of our way. And that’s how you live, how you think.

Then the next is power of the antidote. [29:28] That is the difference between the four powers you use for purification and this one. Let me look because I can get confused.

The motivation we said earlier is, bodhimind, from now on until I become fully enlightened; especially until I die; very specially this very day. I'm not going to be relaxed but will be very alert about that. As bodhimind practitioner, from all this time 'til I become fully enlightened or 'til I die, especially today I will not let "me" rule over by my ego and I definitely hold very strongly the two kinds of bodhichitta. So this is the motivation power. The power of getting used to is Atisha's and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's teaching, which is a complete path. To understand that very clearly, trust and learn and practice that all the time. That means, whatever you are practicing, your practice, right from the beginning, from guru devotional practice to ultimate enlightenment is this.

One thing I forgot: in this particular practice, when I say from the guru devotional practice to total enlightenment, what it really includes is the three levels of the practice; ‘common with the lower scope’, ‘common with the medium scope’ and the Mahayana path. Either you want to count that way or you count the Three Principles’ way, in which case there is first, understanding and renouncing samsara, second, compassion, love and third, wisdom. So these three are the major things. We call them the three principles.

So when they say, “getting used to” Atisha’s and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's teaching, the really essence is this. Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's real essence teaching is the Three Principles, which is Manjushri's, the Buddha of Wisdom's, personal teaching to him. When Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa wrote that huge Lam Rim Chen Mo, Manjushri joked, "My Three Principles are not enough for you, right? So you have to make a big volume." So Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa replied, "Your Three Principles is the backbone and major framework of my Lam Rim Chen Mo."

[35:43]

So in the essence they will really boil down to these three things. The first is renouncing samsara. Most of us are really, right now, stuck in these samsaric things, no matter whatever we pretend to be. The first principle is not straight for us. We are really stuck. We have a different type of thing, you know. Each and every individual has his own designed samsara of his own. Honestly. As you see, people have different sufferings. Each and every different individual has their own mental, physical, emotional suffering. It also has its mental, physical, emotional samsaric goodies in which you also get stuck. And each and every one of us are really stuck in tha, different people in their different ways. Some people are totally truly materialistic, just totally stuck. Some people are not only just materialistic, but even more. Their problem is just to kill, just to cheat.

Last night we had one question, "Wealth is important and to make that happen we have to do all kinds of non-virtues." Somebody sugar-coated that question. But the whole idea is we have to do all kinds of different things to get more money. Is that okay? How do you deal with it? But the question was sugar-coated. It is the same thing. Some people are so much in that, they're stuck there. Some people are a little less there, they have different ways, better ways of doing it. They don't forget care. They don't forget kindness. They don't forget compassion. And they would like to engage all that. Yet still there is a very samsaric, strong thing and we are stuck in that. Some people are even better than that and they're really doing things for the purpose of benefitting people. They're doing it not so much as "me" as an interest, but for everything else. Yet still we're stuck. It's our own little own samsara, we get stuck. People like me, who try to carry the message of dharma, are supposed to be of service for all beings and benefit others and not me personally and get my own samsaric effects. We should think, “How can I be better?” with the idea of “how can I help you better?” But deeply when you go in there, there's a hidden mind saying, ”How can “I” be better?” These are all there.

So that's why I mean: each and every individual has his own level, his own samsaric thing that they are stuck to. When we renounce we cut renounce this. [?40:42]

This is very interesting. One of the great Kadampa lamas, Geshe Ben did really nothing but practice. Then one day, one of his important benefactors was coming to visit him. So he made a special effort at cleaning, more elaborate offerings and decorations, and then he started sitting down and making himself look a little holier than usual. And then he suddenly noticed, "What am I doing?" So he said, "Definitely I'm trying to impress this benefactor by making more elaborate offerings and trying to be holier than what I am." So he got up, collected a handful of dust and started throwing it all over the offerings and himself and everywhere else. So that's considered to be a great practice. And that very story is continuously carried on through the generations as part of teaching.

So when we all have our own little samsaric things, that what we have to renounce. Each and every one of you will know by yourself. My samsara, where I'm stuck, and your samsara where you're stuck, is totally different. So my solution will not work for you and yours will not work for me. So the individual has to find their own samsara and renounce it. That also comes exactly at the level that is suitable to your mentality. If you are a shrewd business person, like a weapon manufacturer it will come in that form. [Laughs] For those of us who are liberal, who want to do the right thing and want to be good ones, it will come in that form. For those of us who want to be humanitarian, those of us who want to be of service or whatever, you know, environmentally or something, it will come in that mode. So if you are wise, if you are intelligent, you have to recognize your own samsara and get rid of it. Renounce that. Really, the first principle is that.

Animals have their own samsara. I don't mean a separate samsara. Human beings have their own samsara. Human beings have a different level of samsara. Samsaric gods have their own samsara. Hungry ghosts have their own samsara. When we're stuck, we're stuck. It's not one samsara, they don’t all look the same. That's not true so we have to know that and get out of it.

The moment you recognize your samsara, the moment you're turning away from your samsara, you're beginning your dharma. Until then it's not, no matter whatever you do. You may meditate eight hours a day. You may say a million mantras. Whatever you do it will very well be within samsara. Such an information like what you heard just now is you don't hear much. People will talk to you very politely. Nobody will tell you, "Hey you are stuck in your samsara." No one will tell you. They will hesitate. But also, you know, for me I have an advantage because I'm talking to a group. I'm not talking to one person, I'm not talking to anybody, but I'm talking to everybody. So everybody has to know and pick up. If you are interested, truly, truly want to help yourself and help others, that's where it begins.

Then second is compassion and love, and we talked quite a bit about it this weekend. Mostly we talked about it as motivation, but with that we filled up the second principle. What I did not talk is the third principle of wisdom. I did mention this morning a little bit about dependent origination and impermanence. Since it is dependent origination it changes. All of those we did mention. Dependent origination is really the gateway for the individual that leads them to the wisdom of emptiness. Is emptiness dependent origination? Probably it is. Knowing the temporary, impermanent, transitory nature of everything is not emptiness, however it helps us. It really leads us towards emptiness. It brings us much closer to emptiness than to the existentialist or even nihilist extremes. [48:55] So that is basically the essence of Atisha’s and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s path, which is recommended to not only learn, but get comfortable and used to it. So that is the Power of Getting Used to It.

Ten the power of the White Seed. Like I said the other day, if it's bodhimind, then those who have not developed bodhimind try to develop it. Those of us who have developed a little bit of bodhimind, try to grow it. Maintain it and grow it. That is very important. This will apply not only to compassion and love but also wisdom. Compassion and love and bodhimind, once developed, you can still fall back. I don’t think the understanding of wisdom-emptiness has a fallback. So maintaining that may be easier. The power of accumulation of merit and purification is also for maintaining and moving forwards both compassion and wisdom within us. First finding, then taking root, then growing, and developing. That is Power of White Seed.

Then the Power of the Antidote. Anything that loses or reduces the power of compassion and love or wisdom within you, try to beat them down. Do you remember that commercial on TV? One of those credit card commercials. Some heads pop up in the little holes and somebody comes with a stick and hits them on the head. Did anyone see that commercial? It's a funny thing, I see things and then I get my own understanding. So I don't have neither the name nor the time, not even the purpose of the commercial. But that is exactly what the Power of Antidote does. Anything pops up, hit the stick on that and reduce it. That is the Power of Antidote.

And then, the last one is the Power of Prayer. Prayer has a lot of power, don't forget. You are not growing food in the open air. Really. It has its own power. That power comes out of by the truth of enlightened ones. [53:42 Tib] The power of enlightened ones and the power of truth of interdependent nature and your pure motivation makes the prayer to be able to materialize. It's not that you pray and your prayer is granted. But it will materialize that way. If it is simply prayer, not a meditative thing, even then it has its own power.

So these are basically the Five Powers with which you want to conduct your life, the principles in which you conduct your life. So it's not necessarily true that the more you prayer the better it is. It is not necessarily always when you meditate more it's better. It maybe better, but equally can be something else. So conduct your life in that principle, through each and every one of these powers we talked about. We had the teaching on that basis and since Friday mostly talked on this. So you do have quite a good thing within you.

When you are conducting your life in these five principles, then whatever you get, sometimes good, sometimes rough, sometimes bad, good and bad, whatever appears that you may come in contact with it, don't let them get you, but use them within these Five Powers. Let's say if you come into contact with some uncomfortable, unwanted situation, there is no point of getting unhappy or getting angry or upset or say "I don't want to talk about it." That will just bring us more under that obstacle's control. Instead of that, recognize it, acknowledge and maybe if there is something to be able to help for that, use it instead of worrying.

The great Indian pundit Nagarjuna said [59:52 Tib], "If there is something to be corrected, why you want to be unhappy? You should engage your energy to correct. If there is nothing to be corrected, why should you be unhappy? There's no need, it won't help anything." So unhappiness will bring you more misery, more problems, more difficulty. So just acknowledge. If there's something to be corrected, totally engage in that and correct it. If there's nothing to be corrected, simply don't waste your time worrying. And also utilize this as an opportunity to get rid of negative karmic consequences. Why? This unhappy situation is happening not because of his fault, her fault and the mother-in-law's fault or the father-in-law's fault. It is because of our negative deeds. So if you don't like it, don't like your negative deeds. And by experiencing this, a bigger, more powerful negative karma that you may have had to experience later may be substituted by this. We pray, we even do pujas, to be able to substitute that.

And that will be better use of an unfortunate situation that you can't correct. And if it's an unfortunate situation that you can correct, then you just have to do it, whether you have to take medical care, physical care, or mental or emotional care. Is there any care there left? [Laughs] And then spiritually you care that way and conduct your life. These are very much with the Lojong things. You have heard that before. You learned that before. You heard it from me a number of times. And that is what training your mind is all about. That is what your practice, really true practice is all about. So you're engaging in that way. And that is the conduct of your life through the Five Powers. Although we made it into a very simple short statement of five minutes talking, however that really covers all life from birth to death. It is a tremendous thing in there and perhaps this is one of those unique qualities of Tibetan Buddhism. There seem to be many Buddhist traditions who talk about and present love and compassion. But bodhimind and all these Five Powers are presented in Tibetan Buddhism. I don't know whether anybody else does. I shouldn't be talking when the professor's sitting there. Right?

[Thurman]: I have difficulty hearing.

Rimpoche: I'm glad. So I can say what I want to. [laughs]

Anyway, you do have questions and things like that? I can talk to you later too. It looks like I've finished my talking. Nothing more to say.

The Five Sets of Power for death is another one, either I'll talk tonight or tomorrow morning. Maybe not tomorrow, because the last day I don't want to talk about death and dying. [Laughs] And there's much more to say, but I don't want to say it, honestly.

Any other remarks or comments, anybody? What I was planning to say I finished and there is nothing more to say now. I guess I'm looking for you people to help me, but no one's going to help me.