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20130527GRGRTB08 Monday morning

[Opening prayers to 15:50]

Thank you for being here today and for this retreat. So now it's sort of concluding today. So, where did we begin? We began with the motivation of bodhimind and we briefly introduced bodhimind. When you're looking at the bodhimind, we should also realize that this mind is rooted in compassion. Compassion is the root of bodhimind. When you look at compassion, you can't help but noticing compassion is very much rooted in love. When you look at love and particularly pure love, you see the difference between attachment and love. Basically attachment is when you desire something for you and you alone. And pure love doesn't do that. Attachment also has the criteria of a control issue. Pure love is simple appreciation. Both attachment looks like love, love looks like attachment. They look very similar but the difference is that really desire feels, “I am the ultimate object and want to be the gainer and controller. And you are the submissioner for me.” This is what attachment will look for. And pure love won't look. That will be quite different enough.

And when you're looking at love, it cannot be developed unless the person really appreciates and admires the person. And if there is hatred or anger, that appreciation and admiration a) won't come; b) the way it comes will not last. So therefore less hatred, no hatred, no obsession. No hatred, no obsession, sort of equal in that way. And that may be one of the definitions of equality or equanimity. The other difference is also between you and me. We have a tremendous feeling that “I am”. You may not say it, you may not openly express, but you always think, "I'm better, because it's me." Simply. Honestly. “I'm better because it's me, not you. You're worse because it's you.” I don't know if you think that way or not, but you think "I'm better."

Equality, equanimity is extremely difficult to accept, although it is the principle of our democracy. So it needs training of the mind. You should be able to make it acceptable to your mind. And people can change. You know it, we all know it. Even if you look in our country, the United States, decades ago it was really quite prejudiced, it was not so easy to accept anything different. We all know that. If it weren’t like that, Martin Luther King and a huge amount of people didn't have to struggle. So people change and accept. So that also goes for the difference between man and woman, between the gays, lesbians, and straight. All of those.

But you know people learn, people change. So if you just let your addiction take place, then everything will be, you know, my, my, my. My side, and try to make it smaller and superior and smaller and superior, that's what you do in your mind. Everyone does that. The language and all those white supremacy in not unknown language. But today, nobody speaks a lot. Nobody uses that. And then everybody, every race, religion has a little bit of individualizing. No, everything has a way of creating exclusiveness which becomes a basis of functioning of all those.

So the mind is capable of looking at the right thing and change. Human mind is very capable of developing equality, equanimity from that angle. From the other angle through which we look equality is, between you, the people, and me, the individual. We are all equally suffering. That's another point of equality. Then you look at the desire point. What I want is joy. What the people want is joy, happiness. What we want is the same thing. Vice versa, what we don't want: suffering, misery, difficulties. That's also equal. So when you're thinking, this is something you have to think about. This is something you have to get the idea of and then you have to observe and analyze and make a decision and change. You know, one quality with the people, particularly people here and also very particularly those liberals are very good on this, a little better. They have better opportunity.

So the basis is equality, then remembering kindness, etc., and reducing hatred. Do not entertain obsession. Reduce hatred. And that may be able to bring a little smooth thoughts within the individual mind. Yet, there's a tremendous amount of challenge in life. Anything, this is not right, that is not right, that is too much, too little, all kinds of challenges. And that's your own intelligent mind and help of your colleagues and friends, particularly dharma friends. And that should be applied.

In short, one has to remember our life is short. No matter how long it might have been, it is short. Perhaps I am the eldest among us here. I'm seventy-four. But for me it was just yesterday, so it is that short. So all of them, my life in Tibet, my life in India, and in the West, and all of them, and what happened yesterday. And that's really how short the life is.

So this is important for yourself to enjoy your life. And if you do not enjoy your life, people will give you suffering. People will help you, guide you, lead you. They will also give you suffering. Everybody, including yourself, your companions, spouse, children, parents, mother-in-law, everybody will give you suffering, no doubt about it. So you have to know how to make yourself happy and enjoy. Plus make life worthwhile, because you have a very special and very different life than most of the people you know. You came across the Buddha's teachings, and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings. It is almost like some very rare, very unusual opportunity. Some people may look at you as crazy, a crazy bunch.

But from your point-of-view, you really have a very unique opportunity. That really gives the power into your own hand and gives you a way to shape your life and lives. You've been introduced to total enlightenment as your object or goal. And if you don't get it there, at least the second choice will be freedom from suffering. At least the third, live well and meaningful and die well and meaningful. These are the three different levels of achievement which you can achieve and that was introduced. It's very rare. I am not just telling a story, not just narrating a novel through whatever media. But it's real and for you. So that is something very unique and very rare. And wasting that will be not that great. That's a big waste. And making sure you don't waste that, try to govern your life by those Five Powers we talked about yesterday, living with that through every moment of your life.

And similarly, there are same Five Powers: Power of Motivation, Power of White Seed, Power of Familiarity, Power of Antidote, and Power of Prayer that we talked about for life, also for dying. The Power of the Motivation here will be three categories and category one is changing the death stage into the almost-like pre-enlightenment stage, which we were just mentioning. And those of you who know, you know. And those of you have not heard before, you have heard about it and you have something to think and something to take. The Power of the White Seed is the same white seed that you have in life, and is materializing now at the time of the death.

The Power of Familiarity is the same thing. Whether it is familiarizing with bodhimind or familiarizing with compassion or wisdom; it is huge, impossible. So why familiarizing? Because you have to not only get used to it, but you have to feel comfortable, you like it, you like to return to that level very often and all the time you're looking. Sometimes when you're saying different mantras and when you fall asleep you notice that you land in a different mantra with which you may be more comfortable. One of my great teachers, Kyabje

Ling Rimpoche always said, "Whenever I fall asleep, and whatever I'm doing, priorities, I notice myself falling either Migstema or Om Ara Patsanah..”. So it means I am very comfortable, and like it very much. So whenever you lose a little alertness in mind falling asleep, you go to that. So that is familiarizing, being comfortable, liking it, enjoying it, so it automatically falls on that.

The Power of the Antidote is the same thing. Those heads popping up have to be hit down with the stick. Did you see the commercial? Why are you laughing so much?

Audience: You talked about it yesterday.

Rimpoche: That comes very often on TV, all the time, in between the news. I don't know whatever they're advertising - some credit card, I think.

Anyway, so then what's left? The Power of Prayer. You should always pray for the best and that would be to be able to transform my death stage as dharmakaya, my bardo may become sambhogakaya and rebirth may be nirmanakaya.

So I guess that's about it. And very often I say: a good death follows a good life. Different peole have different good lives, but for us, it is a life governed by these Five Powers. You can refer to that in the lama chöpa:

Verse 62:

DHOR NA ZANG NGAN NANG WA CHI SHAR YANG

CHÖ KÜN NYING PO TOP NGEI NYAM LEN GYI

JANG CHUP SEM NYI PHEL WEI LAM GYUR TE

YEI DHE BA ZHIK GOM PAR JIN GYI LOP

In short, whether conditions seem favorable or unfavorable,

Inspire me to make a habit of happiness,

By increasing the two types of Bodhimind

Through the practice of the five forces, essence of all the Dharmas.

There you go. And then the Five Powers of the Dying State, and the forceful transference of consciousness [phowa]

Verse 77

LAM NA MA ZIN CHI WEI DHÜ JEI NA

TSEN THAP TSANG GYA LA MEI PHO WA NI

TOP NGA YANG DHAH JAR WEI DHAM NGAG GI

DHAH PEI ZHING DHU DRÖ PAR JIN GYI LOP

If my death should come before I enter the path,

Bless me to reach a Pure Land

Through applying the instructions on the five powers,

The supremely powerful method of transference to Buddhahood.

And that's it. And these two verses will do the total life, how to live, and how to die. And so you also have transcripts and explanations on that. And if you read the Tibetan, there's so many commentaries. Particularly very important are Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s commentary, which is great. Then the middle length one by ……………is an easy one, [45:40] a Lama Chöpa word explanation. And then there is another shorter one by …………….[45:58]. And there's so many. There are a couple of Lama Chöpa commentaries available in English. One is by H.H. Dalai Lama, "Union of Bliss and Emptiness", and then Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has "Great Treasury of Merit."

It's not that you don't have the material, you do. But you need to know what to pick and manage that. To make it worthwhile really the key is the compassion; compassion as motivation, compassion as actual deed and actual compassion as conclusion. So, in other words, live with compassion and wisdom and die with compassion and wisdom. And that's what we do. If you do that, you'll be sort of sure the rest of your lives will be okay. And if you could do that, that is a great achievement. Really, really a great achievement. And somehow we have this opportunity. Somehow we're in that and can make the best use of it.

I guess that's it. Thank you for everybody being here. [thanking etc. 49:08]