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20130704RAASR01

Welcome everybody for this retreat (Protector Prayers).

Thank you. So I have to give you the orientation of what we are going to do. If you join in the morning and begin with the good motivation, that’s what every time every day I talk about.

The recommended motivation is bodhimind. Most of you are familiar with that language. We call it precious bodhimind. “Precious” because it is so difficult to be perfect but you can have it just by making up your mind, ”Whatever I do here, even walking, driving, sitting, whatever I am doing here, I’ll be doing it not only for benefit myself but to benefit all beings.” At least make up that sort of corrected motivation that you can create because the perfect motivation of bodhimind is considering the needs of others more important than the needs of oneself which becomes very difficult for us, that’s why it is precious.

This is not impossible but possible and not only possible but probable but we can do it gradually, slowly. So if you have to wait to get that all our time will go. We don’t want to waste all our time. That’s why a sort of corrected mind will substitute the pure bodhimind hoping that this corrected look-alike, think-alike like bodhimind will become actual bodhimind. So first and foremost, motivation. Motivation is important not only for today’s evening session and tomorrow morning’s Tara session but all the time, when you are coming from your home through whatever vehicle, all the time and effort of preparing, coming here, all of them are utilized for that purpose and that will be the motivation, briefly substituting.

And then the teaching we are going to do here is on compassion and love and bodhimind and that also on both bodhiminds, the relative bodhimind which is the genuine, true bodhimind and on the absolute bodhimind.

These terminologies, relative, absolute, are borrowed terminology. Actually if you think about it absolute is the truth, relative is not so much the truth, it’s sort of sounds like it but in terms of bodhimind, the true genuine bodhimind is called relative in English. In Tibetan it is kun tsob jang chub sem. Kun tsob is a sort of rough, gross type of thing which somehow the Buddhologists and Tibetologists chose to call “relative” but actually it is sort of “not refined”. It is not the absolutely fine level but sort of a rough state of bodhimind. Then jang is perfection and chub is the perfect conclusion of the perfection which is ultimate, total enlightenment. Sem means mind, the mind that’s seeking the ultimate, total enlightenment which. So that’s called bodhimind or jang chub sem. It is divided into two categories, sort of the rough state which is true bodhimind yet is called relative, but then the absolute bodhimind, which is not only bodhimind alone but it has wisdom. So extraordinary bodhimind which becomes that.

This is supposed to be our subject for this week and I cannot go on and talk like into the open air about emptiness about which we have no idea where it is going. So it is the tradition, it is customary in Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s system to base it on a proper book or text. So I’m thinking that, although we did Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand last year or year before and the bodhisattvacharyavatara in one of those years, however we didn’t really go into detail talking about emptiness because we just had the oral transmission and didn’t really talk much about it, so I’m not going to read page by page, word by word but roughly base the explanations on the wisdom chapter, the vipashyana chapter of Pabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hands as well as Shantideva’s 9th chapter of the bodhisattvacharyavatara. First I thought I will sort of put them together but then I had two, three days of rest up in the Catskill Mountains. That I was told is Dutch language because it was a Dutch colony and there are a lot of names like catskill, riverkill, peetskill and all those are in that area. I was told it means river. Anyway, in the Catskills I had a little time for two, three days and I was looking to see if I could combine them together.

It’s not going to work well so I might as well do the Pabongka text by itself and then I will do the bodhisattvacharyavatara thereafter. If I try to put them together it will be something funny, it doesn’t match. But on the other hand, in some area it will match too. Whatever it is, Pabongkha’s vipasyana chapter is straight forward. Vipasyana is actually Sanskrit and means ”insight”. So it is internally looking, internally seeing and the translation vipasyana into Tibetan is lhak tong, “special seeing”. It means special seeing through reality, that is really what it is.

Basically first we have to talk about bodhimind itself and as you know you cannot just touch bodhimind like this, you really have to know the Three Principles. The first principle is the most important, fundamental basis and I will really have to touch a little bit on that. When you are looking at something to improve yourself spiritually and you find Tibetan Buddhism or Buddhism or any other tradition, it doesn’t matter, those who like to be self- improved need to do something to become better more than materialistically, it has to be more than about money or wealth or even health, but has to be open-minded.

So we need something else to improve ourselves, not simply mind. We can say improving our mind and I’m not going to argue with you whether this is mind, this is not mind. I’m just simply saying that we need to improve ourselves. To me and to me especially lately it doesn’t matter through what tradition or through what path you come, it doesn’t really matter at all. So what you really need is the best we can get. This is almost honestly speaking, it doesn’t matter whatever the name it’s called. If you look at…I don’t know anything about the Judeo- Christian tradition but when you look at living in this country a long time God is something that you don’t become at all.

It is not the path to become God, so forget about it. But then, when looking at Buddhism and Buddha says that buddhahood is something you can become that – it is the best you can get. So maybe it’s called buddha, maybe it’s called something else, whatever it is, it is total knowledge, there is nothing more to learn. Actually when we look at ourselves, every day we learn something more, every experience that we get is getting something more, which means you have to go beyond, something more, something more. So total knowledge means nothing more than that. When you read the Ganden Lha Gyema: she jai kyon kun jal wai lo dro tug – your mind comprehends the full extent of what can be known. So the mind is talked about like a yard measure, like a yard of cloth and there’s nothing left, nothing short, just exactly one yard is one yard and just like that, anything to be known is known - which is total knowledge.

Whether you call it buddhahood or God or whatever, it doesn’t matter. So whether you come through the Judeo-Christian tradition or Hindu-Muslim tradition or through Buddhist and Jain traditions and whatever, all these traditions, whatever comes it doesn’t matter, as long as you get that. And I don’t believe when you get that they quarrel among themselves, like my way is better than your way, your way is better than my way or this is my territory that is your territory and you don’t do that. So anyway we are the seekers, whether you call it liberation or whatever you call it but we really want to get totally the best we can. But if you don’t get to the best wherever you can get, whatever you can make it, you have to make it somewhere, sometime, something sort of going towards the best.

So in the Buddha’s way it is divided into three levels: the common with the lower, medium level and Mahayana. maha means big, bigger vehicle, way. That’s sort of divided into three but one depends on the other. They are completely interlinked without obtaining a base foundation, even if you try to get medium, low, upper or whatever, you can…that is called ice castle or a castle built on ice. The ice will melt, the castle will collapse, so the base is absolutely necessary. The base is principle one, which is very simple: seeking liberation is the principle I, liberating ourselves. Liberating from what? Liberating from suffering and the cause of suffering. If you liberate yourself from suffering but not from the cause of suffering, the suffering will continue. So that’s why liberating ourselves from suffering and the cause of suffering is principle I. And what makes you not get liberated from suffering and the cause of suffering? The number one challenge is because we don’t want it.

We are not really seeking that. What makes you think you are not seeking that? Because we did not really have enough acknowledgement of suffering - because many of those sufferings we enjoy sometimes. Sometimes we enjoy and we look forward, sometimes it becomes a treat and that is our problem. That is the reason why sometimes principle I is called renunciation. The simple reason is because we enjoy suffering sometimes, particularly changing suffering.

Samsara’s delights are sometimes difficult to give up, not only difficult to give up, we are looking forward, honestly. And that’s our first challenge and how do we do this? Because of strong obsession to something, a strong obsession to samsara’s delights, including hotdogs until you get bad one. I had a hotdog yesterday on the way from New York to here, a real good one, it’s not like “La Dog” here but it was a good one, anyway so there’s samara’s delights. That’s why recognizing samsara as suffering is important and the true desire to renounce samsara and its cause. So that’s suffering and the cause of suffering.

When you use the word suffering, when meditating, it is simple to renounce suffering, but when real, genuine desire comes it is very hard to renounce. I don’t want to renounce that. So this is the first challenge. I’m not going to talk very long here on this because you’ve had so much background, it is time for you to pull it all together and make something for yourself to rely on. You’ve had this lam rim teaching, that lam rim teaching, this course and that course and all these materials are available – everything, but you have to make something for yourself to solidly think simply, like either you base your thoughts on the Three Principles of the Path or the Foundation of all Perfections or something like that.

Since we are talking on the basis of the Three Principles, it says there:

4. DAL JOR NYE KAR TSE LA LONG ME PA

YI LA GOM PAI TSE DI NANG SHE DOK

LE DRE MI LU KOR WEY DUK NGEL NAM

YANG YANG SAM NA SHI MI NANG SHE DOK

Wonderful is this life, short its nature.

Don’t cheat yourself with fleeting pleasure.

Deeply contemplate the certainty of karma

and the constant suffering of samsara.

See beyond the cycle of lives

Out of the Three Principles, Principle I is divided into two: first desire for this life’s goodies, and then desire for goodies in future lives. Meditating on the preciousness of life, the difficulty to find it and it’s impermanence, those three should take care of the desire for samsara’s goodies for this life. Meditating on the infallible karmic system and the sufferings in samsara in general and specific realms should take care of the second, i.e. our desire for samsaric goodies in future lives. So these are the two points and you don’t have to get them in detail so much, but get the force behind you, so the conclusion will be these two important points for you to overcome these two types of desire. When you do that you have established your own first principle.

The first principle itself says:

5. DE TAR GOM PE KOR WEY PÜN TSOK LA

YI MÖN KE CHIK TSAM YANG MI KYE ZHING

NYIN TSEN KÜN TU THAR WA DÖN NYER LO

JUNG NA DE TSE NGE JUNG KYE PA LAK

No longer craving fantasy,

a steadfast desire for liberation.

Attaining these two is the first breakthrough

So here you find also the measurement whether the individual has developed it or not, right? You don’t have any more admiration and desire for samsara’s goodies and day and night you are seeking liberation. If you become naturally that way then your meditation, your practice, your effort, is getting you some benefit, you’re changing yourself internally and that’s what we call the “first breakthrough”.

Until then you have got to put in effort. Detail is great but you have to force the details to come together, channel them, make them into important points, two points. Challenging the desire for samsara’s goodies for this life and challenging desire for samsara’s goodies in future lives, these are the two targets and challenges. The two points of importance of human life and it’s impermanence can challenge or overcome the desire for samsara’s goodies for this life. The infallible karmic system and the sufferings in samsara, those two points challenge desire for the future lives’ goodies.

When you have done that then you become eligible to be able to move on to Principle II, in this case, bodhimind. Maitreya Buddha says that bodhimind is nothing but seeking total enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. It is a two-pronged mind. One prong is totally seeking enlightenment for yourself, the second prong is total dedication: “I’m seeking this for me but not for me as for my needs but for the purpose of helping and serving all beings. So I need it.”

Such a mind simple way of putting it, can it develop with us? Sure, you can develop but you can develop only if you have at least some heart-touched or heartfelt movement from the first principle, then on top of that it becomes easy. Until we have that we substitute it again with created thoughts like we did for the motivation, but that is only for the temporary purpose of fulfilling the actual mind, because if you decide to wait until it is fully developed you will always say, “I’m not ready” and then the opportunity may never appear to you, to us and that is the reason why this tradition will take you through the path anyway, whether you are ready or not, because that’s really what it is.

It’s because this opportunity is really rare and may never appear again for a million years. That’s all possible. There are two points here: Point one: utilize the opportunity and if we work hard, if everything’s okay it may perfectly work well. Point two: if you say, “Yeah, yeah, I know that, I heard that, I read that, yeah, yeah, yeah” then nothing will happen to you. Both are possible. Thinking “I know everything” is in our character whether anybody admits or not and we have the addiction of “I know everything”. Everybody has that. Some people may admit, some may not, but it is there. So the bodhimind also needs to be meditated. Meditation also has to be done through three things, learning, analyzing and meditation. Actually, you have to learn what you meditate on. There are steps you have to take. You don’t get there without taking the steps.

The steps are either the seven stage - or the exchange stage systems. They are all known to you. The exchange stage is very much the subject of the bodhisattvacharyavatara but the seven steps are better known and easier and simpler and that is the basis of this equality, equanimity which is very, very easy for Americans. This is what everybody seems to be fighting for, equality, American character, honesty. Everybody will get upset when they think there’s no equality, maybe no solid reasons, but just because there is no equality. Look at what happened to the Arab spring, right? People are very excited, saying, “This is the time, it’s equality and the down- trodden people are challenging those dictators.” But we don’t think about the consequences. It started with Tunisia right, and then Egypt and we were very happy to see Mubarak go down and then now we have this problem and now Morisi is also gone. The people are not easy. Not only the Egyptian people are suffering but those of us who are watching from here in one way we think, “Well, Morisi is gone, it’s okay”, but on the other hand he was the first democratically elected person going, and that’s not easy. Similarly it is in our own blood when we see a minority has difficulties. We all think that’s not right, because of equality. And whenever we think people are bullying and then everybody goes up and down, whoever it may be, whether it is a dictator or a few individuals or whatever. So equality is in your blood, honestly.

So equality is easy for us to develop and no one disagrees, everyone has to be equal, equality is all about that, everybody has to have equal, so equanimity, so no one should be left out. Didn’t George Bush say something? “No child left behind”, okay. So anyway, we don’t have to put so much effort into the equality, somehow luckily we already have that. Utilizing that don’t look outside, he and she, they and those but look at me and those, try to make that equal. Equality is in our principle so it’s easy to take it. But then even most of us who really are very much for equality and all that, when you begin to talk between me and others then this equality will have a little shaky ground, because “me” of course should be better. We won’t say it because it’s embarrassing, but in our mind of minds we have that, that is our challenge. Try to get rid of that thought, try not to entertain that thought, try to get that thought out of your system, make everything equal.

Your needs and my needs are equal. You have rights, I have rights, so we should be equal. That’s what we should really do. So I desire not to have suffering and they desire not to have suffering, what is the difference? We have equal rights not to have suffering, so we must entertain this, that’s where the equanimity begins. And then recognize everybody a little more closer than we are looking at them at a distance, more closer, still more closer, still more closer and Buddha says look at everybody as mother beings, as mothers. Maybe don’t say mother beings, because then it becomes something else at a distance. Just think mothers. Some people don’t like mothers though, to some people seeing their mother is an obligation. Some kids think that.

But many kids they do feel close to their mother. Anyway, whatever may be, they are sort of closer and friends, they are dear and near, and there is something that you can feel, something that you touch, sort of really seeing closeness, no one left out, no one left behind, everything close and remember some of their kindnesses and pick up little indebtedness and then love, then compassion, then the special resolution of “I will do it” and then that strong desire will move you to the eighth point of bodhimind. So briefly I have reminded you of the bodhimind and if you can think about it a little bit tonight and tomorrow morning please do and then we will meet tomorrow morning at 10 am. We will say the Heart Sutra and the Jewel Heart prayers, no mandala offering, this is casual. No mandala offering, no prostrations.

So anyway, so I think I’ve welcomed everybody and I hope you have a not so miserable place wherever you are staying and whatever they are and also you know I’m sure Kathy has mentioned and please don’t have nesting here. Did you mention nesting yet? Because people sometimes they sweep floor and all that so that’s why and also, dharma books, dharma pictures, books people shouldn’t jump over because one of those refuge, taking refuge in Buddha, dharma and sangha, there’s negative advice and positive advice say don’t jump over book, don’t jump over pictures of object of refuge, so it’s downfall in the refuge. So one of the reasons why I’m saying no nesting is because everybody leaves their book on floor or another cushion, so then people will walk over and some people sitting situation is such they have no alternative except they jump over or they can’t go so it is unnecessary downfall those who have taken refuge so that’s why pick up books and put on table. Do we have table there? Thank you. So table there and

I guess that’s it and then relax. The other day I went to Garrison where there was a meeting of about a hundred Tibetan university kids, and I said to them, “Enjoy your life because if you don’t enjoy your life people will torture you”. So the same goes for you, enjoy yourself, otherwise, people will make you miserable and they’re good at it. You have to be good at enjoying yourself so whoever is shooting any arrows at you, don’t take them. Pick them up and put them aside.

You know Ram Dass’s story on that? He said his brother or somebody was shooting arrows from the mouth and Ram Dass said he picked them up and put them on the dinner plate at dinner. Ram Dass had to go a family dinner and he miscalculated the time and was still high on acid. So when he was driving there, the steering wheel seemed to be like a snake and he didn’t’ go straight, but finally he got there and sat across from this brother. I used the story in my book and I got permission from Ram Dass, except he said, “Change it from brother into “business man”, that’s all.” So I did, if I remember correctly, change that.

So that business man was throwing arrows at him, and he said, “There were little arrows coming out of his mouth.” So before they could hit him he caught them and put them on a plate next to him. So you can do that when you are high but you should do that every day without being high and that’s how you make yourself happy, that’s how you make yourself enjoy and when I say others will torture you, the arrows will come, anybody, doesn’t matter, whoever they are, even from the objects of refuge, the lamas, the gurus, one word can throws everybody up and down they will come, so you have to know how to pick them up and put them there and that’s how you make yourself happy.

And meanwhile if you pick up this little bit about both bodhimind, relative and absolute bodhimind that will make our lives worthwhile not just in this life, but future lives too. So that’s I guess what we are here for. So hopefully we get that. Okay, thank you so much. I guess we should say some prayers now. Let’s do the losang gyal ten ma.