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20140216GRAAMH04

Winter Retreat...2014-GRAAMMO4

(28:00 min.)

Now this lineage prayer is very long. There are some mistakes as well here, looking at the Tibetan. I don’t know whether you have a book of who is who in English. Do you have them in English?

Do kindly generate pure motivation of bodhimind. If not, at least for the benefit of all mother sentient beings I would like achieve the state of a Buddha for which I would like to listen to this teaching. This teaching you are listening to is the essence of Buddha’s teaching and the essence practice of learned scholars and the actual part which leads to the fortunate realm of the state of a Buddha, quickly quickly, known as great Mahamudra. It has three outlines: where it is coming from, its quality and actual practice. I think through yesterday we have covered the first two outlines: where it is coming from. Now today is the actual practice. Last night we just mentioned during the session and in between sessions.

Session also has pre, actual and conclusion. Pre, requirement here is refuge, generating bodhimind. This refuge and bodhimind, every time you sit down to practice you have to do it. Every time you should take refuge and generate bodhimind. It is like little verse, “I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sanga…” This is your chore every time you sit down to do something or whatever. It is actual practice and also must. This type of practice is very specifically important to emphasize. Again three: taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sanga, and generating bodhimind. That is one. Second is purification and bodhisattva practice. Third, guru yoga in order to obtain the blessing. You say, “Well, I get a blessing.” It is not that. The word in Tibetan is blessing, but it is really not what we understand as a blessing. We understand “blessing” as we get some kind of positive psychic effect. We call that” blessing.” Here, the word what we say is in order to obtain a blessing you have to have guru yoga and make offerings, including a mandala offering. This particular blessing is not just psychic. It is the actual back bone. You may think the Guru Yoga is the back bone. But this is really what happens, the seed. The soul of the practice referred to as “blessing” here.

That is the three outlines. The pre's are very important. Particularly, the guru yoga, how important it is. It is not only a prerequisite; one cannot do without.

It is also the teaching tradition to talk here about where one should meditate. There are many points given, particularly in Guhyasamaja.

(40:00 min)

The Guhyasamaja tantra and all other tantras will tell you there should be a very nice quiet place where there are lots of flowers, food available, a secluded area, whether it is behind a mountain or whatever. That is what they normally describe to you.

The most important thing is you find in Lam Rim teaching the quote from Maitreya Buddha. The meditation, wherever you do, your practice wherever you do, they give you five qualities. Most of you know. Quality one: it is easy to find the food you need. These are the traditional things. Something to eat. Traditionally you know there are no modern facilities available so you have to get something to eat. That was quality number one. Quality number two: there should not be any thieves or robbers or animals, or something that will threaten your life. Also traditionally not only there is no physical harm from any living beings, but also the place should not create illnesses to the individual. Now we call it toxic, right? It should not be toxic. It should be environmentally very suitable, suitable in the sense that it does not make you sick. That is number two. Number three: the friends you have. You need like-minded friends. These are very important for your practice. If you don’t have a like-minded person, you will spend all your time arguing with that person. They recommend you have like-minded persons, and along with that there should not be many people travelling or noise. So that makes five, five qualities.

The five qualities are something you always look for in your practice. Convenient to find food means convenient to be able to travel to wherever you have to go to meet your needs. Of course, it should not be a crazy place; it should not be the south side of Chicago! (Just joking.) Environmentally very suitable and friends and companions who are like-minded people and then quiet. If you are capable, yes you can do. They sometimes recommend you to do it in the middle of Grand Central or something, but in general it is difficult. These are the five qualities.

In such places where you are sitting, they traditionally recommend you to have a little something, some piece of something, maybe some wooden piece, or maybe something standing or if not maybe two flat stones stood up together. It doesn’t matter wherever you put. You can put them on the roof or above the door. Sometimes you find in traditional Tibetan culture a mantra Om Mani Padme Hum over the door and you go under that, it purifies or something. They don’t tell you that in the teaching here. But it is like that in some places you find a little slab of stone or maybe a wooden stupa which are available now a days. It is not really a true stupa, just a wooden piece. That will also do.

That you can put anywhere, thinking this particular thing represents the four kings. Buddha has four protectors. They are the four dharma protectors of the Buddha. They call them four kings of east, south, north and west. If you know who they are, fine. If you don’t know that, fine. There are supposed to be 4 dharma kings or spirits who are committed to Buddha to protect the

(50:00 min.)

Buddha’s teachings and those who follow in Buddha’s footsteps. So think they are that and then ask them to protect, help, and guide you. It is not compulsory. Traditionally, they will put these at the boundary of where you walk or don’t walk. This is the 1800’s in Tibet; they are already collected somewhere inside above the door or somewhere. Today you can do much more. If you don’t have anything, that is also fine. If you have a photograph of the four dharma kings, that will also be fine. Wherever you put that is also fine. It is mental satisfaction. That does not mean it is not true. It is true; it helps; but it is not compulsory.

What is compulsory is an image of Buddha, then Manjushri, Je Tsong Khapa and your own spiritual master, etc. Any image, photograph, drawing or Tanka is fine. Also normally I say one should not be loaded with all sort of…. This is American spiritual people. Sometimes, they have their altar not necessarily high up and completely covered with dust! It almost becomes a place where you put everything. You can create a place to put everything. That is fine but it should not be a dharma altar. It should be nice quality, convenient, not necessarily huge. You can’t have a huge image of Buddha everywhere, so convenient, nice. The altar should have an artistic touch. The art is very important. You know why? If you have a nice altar you will wish to look at it. If you look at it, you will appreciate and at least have a happy mind. If you have a messy altar, then your mind is more messy. On your own personal altar you should have something nice. The recommended one is the most important guru of all is the Buddha for Buddhists. There is no more important guru than Buddha. He is the most important. Then in this case Manjushri because he represents wisdom. Then Je Tsong Khapa is recommended. Not only is it a Gelugpa thing, but he represents profound wisdom. Then your own spiritual master, who is everything. In reality it is the Buddha, Manjushri, and Je Tsong Khapa who is serving you…. If you have to go personally, just get up.

That is the body aspect of it. Body in the sense of the image, like a human looking representing. Then you need the speech aspect. The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra or any tantra or sutra, anything. That is why in Jewel Heart we put in the Tibetan books. They are supposed to be the collected works of the Buddha, plus the collected works of the early Indian pundit commentaries, plus Tsong Khapa and 2 disciples. That is what we have here but literally, individually, you can’t have it. Today you can’t say you can’t have it. We probably have a couple of thousand volumes here.

(1:00min)

The purpose is reading. If you are not reading, this is what happens in the Tibetan culture too. We have the books here and they collect dust which means you don’t read them. So recommended is sutra and tantra. It is also recommended to represent mind, a stupa is recommended.

In front of that, any offerings. In Tibet they always tell you offerings which are not created by the wrong livelihood. Cheating, well everybody cheats everyone anyway, because that is what business is all about. You have to, but not unduly cheating. If you are not cheating, great! The definition of cheating may have to be revised slightly. So unduly cheating, and sometimes people do way beyond. Anyway, there are five wrong livelihoods which I have mentioned a number of times. Don’t ask me to count them. Whatever offering you put in, when you use the word “pure,” it is not necessarily in the quality of the material, but “pure” in the sense of where did you get it and how did you get it. In order what not to do is this: in order to be generous to the dog, you should not catch the fish. You kill the fish and feed the dog. That is normal western life style. Not much wrong, but you are killing one living being in order to be generous to another living being. You know why? It means something to me because of my background and culture. When I look at you people it is normal, nothing wrong with it. In other words an additional negativity should not be created to be able to make an offering.

And a good artistic decoration. You don’t say, “Hey, I am offering to you,” no matter whatever it is, and bang it on the table. That is not the way to make an offering. Sort of artistically presented. I do remember I got in trouble here, I used to see how the artistic the Japanese art work is, the Japanese made a little, whatever it may be, radish or carrot or whatever, a tiny little one they made so beautiful and becoming tempting to eat. But it is the same old carrot or same old thing. I do remember. Anyway, an artistic point of presentation.

So this is the same old thing but it is a reminder. You know you have a cushion. It is recommended to have two crosses under your cushion, one going in this direction and one going in that other. In the Tibetan tradition, non-Buddhists, Bonpos, traditional Tibetan Bonpos go the other way around like the Hitler style, and the Buddhists goes the other way round. I don’t know why, because the Bonpos did that and the Buddhists decided to go the other way around. In the books they tell in the dharma you do not do this way but that way. Traditionally, they did not consider Bonpos as Buddhists. The traditional old Bonpos which had black magic but it is no longer there. Somehow those great Tibetan teachers diluted the Bon and changed them gradually. It is now like Buddhism. I used to have one friend; a friend who was a Bonpo who was a great Buddhist teacher.

(1:10 min)

He said today it does not make that much difference, but traditionally the system is the dharma or Bonpo. That is how it was. I am reading from a traditional Buddhist text.

The reason why it is used in the traditional teachings, the Buddha said use the vajra, the crossed vajra. Then vajra is the sign of indestructible, unchangeable. But the vajra is the hand implement of yidams and in that world the hand implement, mantra. Dharma, and beings, there is no difference. They are all hand implements. Not only hand implement, even the knotted thread they give you to wear. Sometimes they give it to you to wear on your neck or to hang on your house. It is one knot or a couple of knots, whatever it is. In Vajrayana they are all yidams. There is no difference and that is why any hand implements or any of the yidam things, you don’t sit on. For Vajrayana practitioners by sitting on it you may be creating a negativity. That is why the crossed-vajra is substituted. No other reason. Buddha said, “Use the vajra,” but on the other hand he also said, “You cannot use a hand implement of the yidams.”. So yes, you have to use something, but other than a hand implement. To the person who knows, to that person it is the vajra sign of indestructible, or it is a yidam. To so many it is not. That is why avoiding negativities.

When Buddha first became Buddha he used things to suit the Indian Brahman culture. The Indian Brahman culture used the pusha grass as purification material, so as purification you put it under your seat just to follow the Buddha’s practice. That is why they recommend it to you because you are supposed to be a long time meditation and retreating. Not only that; you are supposed to think the Buddha sat on the pure grass and defeated hundreds and thousands of evil forces, by the power of love, gained enlightenment. Likewise I will sit on this cushion and I will defeat my internal demon, ego grasping. I will also defeat his retinue, because each one of those negative emotions is coming from ego grasping. It is ego grasping mind that produces those negative emotions. So when they tell you,” I will defeat this very evil demon within me and his retinue, “ that is what they mean.

How will I defeat? By this profound practice. The profound practice here is Mahamudra, the wisdom that understands, the wisdom that defeats hosting that ignorance, confusing, misguided, ego grasping. So we have an internal demon, and a retinue. The retinues are the effect of the ego grasping itself. That is the reason why we have real purification, purification materials. Mental purification, that is what it is. Slightly higher in the back and all that.

In short what this great Gyalwa Ensapa, sometimes referred to as crazy Ensapa, says this is the Buddha Vajrayana style of sitting. This was made clear to us by Ensapa. These are the usual things, crossed legs and two hands put together like this; try put below your navel

(1:20min)

a little bit. A lot of people put their hands up here, doesn’t matter but they should be below your navel. You know these are the normal meditation instructions. Here I will repeat briefly. Crossed legs. Hands joined together and the left hand is underneath the right hand. The tip of the tongue should be at the roof of your mouth. Your shoulders are supposed to keep straight, not like I do, like this, not like a hunch back. You sit straight. A lot of people may not emphasize that. This is important, keep your shoulders straight, unless you have a crooked back. Otherwise your vertebrates should be straight. Nose, throat and neck should be slightly down like this. The tip of the tongue slightly touching the upper gums a little bit, so you that don’t become dry inside the mouth.

Marpa, the Milarepa’s teacher, used to say every Tibetan’s meditation way put on one side and my, Marpa’s way of sitting alone, on the other side because my way is much better than all the other ways of meditating. That is how Marpa used to boost. Such a practice of sitting is also followed by Je Tsong Khapa, so it is important. After sitting, now is the movement of the air. Some instructions say breathe through the nostril, not the mouth. You breathe in the right nostril and out the other nostril. When you breathe out all your faults are pushed out. When you breathe in, it is the blessing of the bodhisattvas.

There is one more thing here. That is the defeat of the air. I did mention the style. If you can do that style it is good, if you cannot whatever is easy for you. If I don’t mention it it is not right.

After settling properly, then begin to observe your own mind very carefully. You are looking at your mind. What are you looking at? You are not looking to see whether your mind is busy or not. Your purpose here is: are you getting true dharma or not. What makes true dharma? If you have any desire to comfort your life, that is what they call attachment or rather it is the interest in life. In one of Thurman’s translations of three principles he wrote saying, “Turn off your interest in this life.” This is his straight forwardness. It looks a little uneasy, but as long as you have desire, something to make comfort in life anywhere, not necessarily in the moneymaking form, but even in the form of generosity or moral. I used to say this very often. As long as you have that you are still not seeking freedom. So you are observing that: you are not observing whether your mind is busy or not. A lot of time purposely misleading or misunderstanding or whatever the reason is, you begin to observe whether you are busy or not busy, whatever.

(!:30 min.)

For true, genuine dharma, particularly when you want to defeat ego grasping. Then this is important. So when you are observing your mind, you are observing that rather than whether your mind is busy. That is an important point. If you think, if you notice that and say oh here you are again, this terrible thought which is, ego’s manifestation, which sometimes comes out as very great, gracious, generosity, caring, loving thing. Sometimes it comes out mean, violent, all that. All are ego manifestations, unfortunately. If you are a nice person, well educated, well-versed, kind, compassionate, ego will manifest in such a way. If you are violent, a little bit acceptable, all of those, if you are there, ego will be like that. “I can’t help it” or thinking like those people who are called NRA. Those important people are very sincere. Sincere in the sense of wanting you to have a gun to protect you because that is the way their ego manifests in their mind. That is how they keep on promoting it. And for us we do the opposite way. Our ego will manifest as nonviolence. This is how ego plays games. So at this particular period, the point where you are looking is not to see if you are busy, but to see if you are ego-centered or not.

If so, you say, “Hey, all kinds of ways you have tortured me for how many lives. So today I only have one chance, honestly, to somehow be able to see something, be able understand something, and you want to waste this too? So I am going to defeat you.” You say here I am going to eject you from my mind completely.

So then breathing out, nicely and slowly breathing out the ego with its imprint and with its retinue, all delusions. Then you are breathing in collecting all the blessings of the Buddha and all that. Slow, not breathing that produced noise. Very slow, gentle, and same length. Probably count 7 times outgoing and incoming. If you can count 7 without losing focus, then a second 7 and a third 7. By that time the mind will be a little bit of divided, a certain portion of the mind becomes clarity and a certain portion becomes not so clear. Like if you have a salad dressing and shake it up and oil will come up and all other will go and separate in that manner. Within your mind you will also have a little separation. That is, if you read the Mahamudra root text, it says…can you read that particular verse?

“On the meditation seat most comfortable,

Ensuring the adoption of the seven-fold bodily posture,

Dispel the impure winds through the nine rounds of breathing

And distinguish clearly the fresh and scoria of awareness.”

(1:40 min.)

So that’s that. He said what, a distinguishing mind? The last verse, “scoria.” It is sort of a little thickness or impure; I gave you the example of salad dressing, the oil you put in there. And that is interpretable. I think the final clarity of that really comes at the clear light level. This clarify, did you say clarify? The word in Tibetan is “Tang Ne”, “Tang Ne” means pure/impure, separation. Anyway ultimately they are thinking about the Vajrayana clarity, clear light. But in our case our mind which is somehow influenced by so many positive and negative emotions, particularly negative. So many negative emotions influence our mind.

When you give yourself a little time to settle down you calm down the agitation and worry and begin to see within the mind itself free of that, without not being clear you will see the difference. I think that is what they are talking about, clearing the pure and impure, a little bit of separation. That is what I think they are talking about.

Why do we do that? When that impure settles down a little bit, the mind becomes easier to work with. The example is if you have a color already on the cloth and you put another color on top it becomes difficult. But if the cloth is pure white and you want to put any color on it, it becomes easier. It is easier to bring virtuous imprints on a mind which is free of impure, non-virtuous thoughts. Making the mind itself free of that is giving a little time here and try to see the difference between the pure and impure perception appearing in the mind.

Once you are observing the mind, not mind here but you are seeing the appearance of the mind, you see the pure and impure. This is the beginning of the meditation. Je Tsong Khapa in the late 1300’s wrote this is the beginning of meditation. It is like when we begin to translate a book, first we write the title of the book in Indian language. That is where the books begin. Je Tsong Khapa says it is equivalent to saying the book is in the Indian language. The open questions arise 200 years later, by the first Panchen Lama. So the beginning of the meditation, observing your mind, is like beginning to say the book is in India language,

What are you expecting out of this? By looking at the mind I have provided really the basis of suffering, for me, from the limitless beginninglessness of existence. Now if I do not change it there will be more suffering. So such an understanding is really needed, until it really works. No matter how many times we have heard, we don’t get it. Somehow it slips through. They give you the example: the traditional example is no matter how many times you throw, it will be like throwing water on the ice. It will just be more ice. Or another example, if you don’t desire to drink the water, no matter how much water is around you won’t get it. So clarity within the mind, settled and clear, both are needed. Probably, then you have provided the base of any thoughts you wish to create. I gave you the example of being like color on clear, colorless white cloth.

I think we will stop here. That should be enough.