Archive Result

;;Name of transcript: 20150624GRAASR08

Name of transcriber: Sally Boyer

Start date: 08-01-2015

Finish date: 08-11-2015

Now to be continued where we left this morning about the refuge, so I don't know whether I have to explain much about refuge but briefly when you take refuge in Buddha, in Dharma, in Sangha there are a number of ways particularly Mahayana refuge. Mahayana refuge is in addition to the usual rely on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha but also generating compassion and even bodhimind, whatever you can and that will be Mahayana refuge plus...okay so may be that is enough. So as you see you all know to whom you take refuge, how you take refuge and why you take refuge and all this and the reasons why you take refuge is and there are two causes of taking refuge. Because number one, you need to be sor of emergency help and that is the seeking help from Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. There are a number of reasons why Buddha, why Dharma, why Sangha. There are reasons like Buddha himself is experienced, free of all sufferings and he is one of the wisiest persons to guide others and has great compassionate, doesn't matter whether person likes you or not and all these usual reasons why take refuge in Buddha and why take refuge in Dharma, why take refuge in Sangha and all this. And finally when you talk about Buddha, what type of Buddha are you talking about. Are you talking about historical Buddha, are you talking about Buddha image, what type of Buddha are you talking about? So there are two definitely two important styles of refuge which is causal refuge and result refuge. Causal refuge is of course taking refuge as usual, the result refuge is very specific within the Mahayana tradition and that is as I said earlier, not only you generate compassion bodhimind but after taking refuge Buddha dissolves into you, becoming yourself like Buddha, like the beginning of the Lama Chopa.

DHE CHEN NGANG LAY RANG NYI LAMA LHA

GANG DER SAL WAY KU LAY O ZER TSOH

CHOH CHUR TRO PAY NO CHU JIN LAB PAY

DAK PA RAP JAM BA ZHIK LYON TEN GYI

KO PAY DHYE PAR PHUN SUM TSOK PAR GYUR

Anyway becoming yourself as buddha radiating light and becoming everyting is pure, making everybody as pure it is the result oriented refuge. Whatever it may be whether you take refuge in the causal form or result form it is really truly important is connecting your own future Buddha within you. Connecting that is really important. If you cannot connect that and then it becomes simply worshipping, little more than worshipping. That try to make your seed of Buddha within you in the seed level, try to make that workup and try to function, so that is important though actual refuge object of refuge is dharma not Buddha. That's why Buddha gives explanation, Buddha is like a doctor, Dharma is like medicine, Sangha is like a helper. So it is the real medicine, medication that cause the disease or the illnesses, the real true refuge is antidote of your own negative emotions and negativities. And your true spiritual development is true dharma. That spiritual development overcomes the negativities, that positivity which you gain by overcoming your negativities are your true dharma. The spiritual that is also your own spiritual development, your spiritual development within you is overcoming your negativities and your negative emotions as well. So but then if you go detail and then there are qualities of a Buddha, Buddha's quality, eight; and there is Dharma quality, eight. SEM MAY NYI MAL DHOR WAY DA SANG NYAN BUR CHU ZHIG, so anyway, and then there are eight qualities of Sangha too. So whatever it is, whatever understanding you have so try to seek those qualities. Buddha qualities (speakinf in Tibetan) so Buddha has in normal even we talk about it, tremendous amount of quality if I keep on talking about Buddha's qualities then it is not that it is really going to take time and also nothing new I add, all of you know. It is always addressed to Buddha as well traveled, total knowledge and it is the sort of the driver of leading every being to the best possible, equivalentless and he is the teacher of samsaric gods and teacher of human beings and it is known as fully enlightened Buddha, sort of even in that way. So if you have longer Buddhist food offering and that will even tell you. Even medium GON BO CHU ZHIG CHUR JANG MA TUM JE CHUM BA JUM BAH, SUM BA YUN DEN AS SHE JIN and they will also tell you the quality of a Buddha, kind, compassionate, total knowledge teacher and field of all merit, all luck, fortune, that is one that has traveled well. And then quality of Dharma is DA VE CHUN NAM TOR MA GYEL, PA DO GYEL, PAM MA GYEL, DUR RA SEM WOR CHUN JU SOM SEM, MA N DE VA YON TSOK SONG, YOR TSO DA BA so it is pure, peace beginning, middle, end, all the time and it gives well explanation and beautiful wordings and not mixed up, very smooth language, etc., so anyway, there are then sangha qualities: TEK QUA CHIM PUR GYEN DU NGNE LAY JU LE SHU WA, RE JU SHU, CHUNG GU RI SHU TU BA TUNG BEI CHU BA, TUNG MU JEI WAY... . now I forgot. Anyway, Sangha is the Mahayana Sangha is well sat, well sitting, well functioning and well pacifying, not fighting and not gossip so and it is the field where people can worship and pray and it is the field where people can prostrate and pray. TUM MER JE VER WOR SHE JUR WA CHA JE WUR UL SHE JO KA, field where you can develop merit. So we claim that we are sangha members, so the collection of sangha members are called sangha community and sangha community is becoming one of those objects of refuge although true Sangha is more than four Buddhist full fledged bishus more than four full fledged bishus is that is when that is best assembly. The vocabulary which we use, best assembly that is the reference to the Sangha. Anyway when you claim to be a sangha member, we try to gain the sangha quality as much as you can, so be kind, compassionate, not interested to gossiping, gossiping is fine but not unnecessarily sangha schism which is very important. A lot of people do that without knowing, without knowing people engage in schism which is not good. One of these five unlimited negativities is creating schism within the sangha, remember? There are five of them: killng a father, killing a mother and drawing blood from the Buddha and killing an arhat and also sangha creating sangha schism. Five limitless negativities, so knowing all that and avoiding that at least try to gain the quality of the sangha though you yourself is not object of your refuge however you carry the name of the Sangha so try to gain the qualities as much as you can though true Sangha is those who have understood meaning of reality. Reality...these are whatever, men, women or children whoever may be that is true Sangha but relative Sangha is more than four full fledge Buddist celebacy, that is the really relative Sangha. Absolute Sangha is those know the true nature of reality, these are true Sangha. And so when you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha you really have to know whom you are taking refuge, not image of Buddha, not necessarily historical Buddha but your own Buddha and connecting that and making yourself, bringing yourself to that level, and really and until you have your own Buddha, historical Buddha substituting so that is really, truly taking refuge. The result refuge is recommended to be the real refuge. And then in the Vajrayana refuge, then all yidams are all the Vajrayana yidams are all the Buddhas, whether it may be they have more than two hands, may be they have multiple hands, wrathful faces, many of them but in reality it is Buddha. One of the most important points we have to remember is no separation of the guru, yidam and Buddha, and really in essence of Vajrayana practitioners they always must see lama, yidam and Buddha inseparable. One thing I might have forgotten earlier to tell you though you all know, when you are talking about Buddha Shakyamuni, Buddha Shakyamuni is the most important guru to us, we are the follower of Buddha Shakyamuni so although we talk about it, lama, yidam and then Buddha, bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis and arhats, dharmapalas etc., when you look at field of merit it works that way but Buddha Shaykyamuni is not put in the level of where we put all the Buddhas, Buddha Shakyamuni is the most important guru of all, particularly in the refuge, guru in the form of Buddha and that of Buddha Shakyamuni. Shakymuni is the fourth Buddha of thousand Buddhas of this eon or something, whatever. So anyway, so sometimes you see those lama, yidam, Buddha, bodhisattvas so you think Buddha has come down, no, Buddha Shakyamuni is the most important guru honestly there's no other guru higher, better, important than that of Buddha Shakyamuni in Buddhism. There are certain people will tell you our guru is this fellow, that fellow no matter whoever. Many of the Gelupa will tell you guru is Jamgong Lama Tsongkhapa, it's true, Jamgong Lama Tsongkhapa is our guru but is not above Buddha. And many Nyimgmapas will tell you the guru is Guru Padmasambhabva, this is the most important, Yes, true that is the most important but not more important than Buddha Shakyamuni. So does every other traditions and they do. So Buddha Shakyakumuni is the most important guru particularly the refuge level. If you look at the refuge tree there is always dipict Buddha in the most important figure and if you look at the Lama Chopa tree and they will figure Lama Losang Tubwang Dorje Chang as most important figure but you know Buddha really is the important so don't misunderstand that. So you may be wondering what is bodhisattvas what is dakas, dakinis are. These are the sanghas, Mahayana sanghas are bodhisattvas and Vajrayana sanghas are dakas and dakinis and Theravadin sanghas are bishus, that's why we have arhats put in there representing three diferent vehicles their sangha levels and then dharma protectors at the end of that line. There are two types of Dharma protectors, samsaric and non-samsaric. Non-samsaric protectors are put inside the field of merit. Samsaric Dharma protectors are not included as you know so that should be and then taking refuge is totaly rely on. After taking refuge, following the advice, adivice of positive and the negative. So I will not go into detail but the most important advice is to follow the karmic system because karma is the one who make totaly difference in our life. Causal karma creates positive, negative things and the result karma experienced by the individual. So really the life governing principle is karmic principle. In the karmic principle, if you create, if you make it hurt people at the result of that you"ll get hurt. If you created joyful condition for people, at the result of that you get joyful state. Positive brings positive result, negative brings negative result. It is basic natural law, honestly we cannot hope to gain positive result by creating negative karma. What is negative, what is positive is quite difficult to distinquish but as long as we don't hurt anyone it could be neutral. As soon as you hurt someone including yourself then it is negative. That's why all violence are, all violent actions are negative because violence hurts. Every violence brings hatred, every violence creates anger, every violence brings jealousy, every violence brings all negativities together or separately, and that is why the violence is really bad. Unfortunately, we engage so much in violence in our own nature, forget about collectively together but even individual somehow the violence is in the nature becasuse if you live yourself, so innocently live yourself, and watch you, you are always afraid that somebody is going to get, hurt you so therefore I would like to take action before they hurt me I would like to get to them, we have that. So it is sort of unfortunately our human nature, it is not only George Bush's nature, Georgle Bush said, "We get you before you get us." But unfortunately it is in many of us if we have that character becasue it is the fear that they will hurt me because of that fear you are building protection, You are building wrong protection, hatred. Hatred cannot protect you, hatred will never protect, never protected before and never will be, it creates fear, it creates trouble, it creates trouble between family, it creates trouble between nations, it creates trouble between siblings everywhere. Violence, hatred creating difficulties and that's why it is called negative emotions because it creates negative consequences, it makes individual becomes part of that. It builds character to individual to be negative, to be harmful so that's why it is called negative. So the karmic rule which the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha told you you follow is positive karma, avoid negative karma. Buddha himself has said very small little verse says: DIP PA JE YAM MI GE YI, GYAL WA TRU SUM DZOG WA JIB, RUNG GE SEM NGNAM YOM SO DU, DIN YEN SANG YEN TEN PA UL. Avoid all negative actions, build all the postive actions you could, tame your mind, this is Buddism, this is bus stop Buddhism, honestly. Brenda and the two of us used to talk bus stop Buddhism, this is bus stop Buddhism. That's what really what it is. So it really tells you simply any negativity hurting anybody, avoid, including yourself. Heiping anybody, including yourself, do it. Honestly, if you go very detail, philosophically and then whether it is positive or negative, what is the condition, what is the motivation and what is the mental state at the time, whether it is complete or not complete, whether they are satisfied or not satisfied and all these, so many details are in there which is good to know, however simple person like ourselves we have to simply do that. Anything that is hurting anyone, that including little insects too not just human being alone, even the insects they have right to live, this little insects including them but we kill them all the time. We have to drive our car. How many insects will go underneath our tires, always, but you have to do our best, can't be so righteous either, can't be so righteous and saying, "If I drive my car I will kill people, killl sentient beings, so I won't drive. my car." Alright, if I walk on the ground I will kill sentient beings so I won't walk. Can you do that? Not possible. So we have to live our life reasonably so do the best you could and don't be so righteous, Some people want to be so righteous, and that great, admirable, wonderful but very difficult to live life and particularly if someone is following you and watching you making it impossibe to the other people to following. So don't be so righteous but karmically okay. But most important thing is even if you cannot avoid negativities there is mechanism for purifying. Some people will say, "Well, purification doesn't work because when you kill somebody you cannot bring that person back." True, when you kill somebody you cannot bring that person back but you can manage that karma. That karma try to neutralize that karma, try to neutralize that karma and try to make sure that karmic consequence will not function because karma is dependent origination, very definitely. Even karma is dependent origination so there are cause, there

is part, parcel, cause, everything, so if you could function there by purifying actually you try to kill that karma although you cannot bring the person back but you have to condense it or something so that's why we talk about the four powers, four powers of purification. Power of regret, power of repentence, power of committing non repeatable and power of base which means either you are taking refuge or generating bodhimind or love, compassion. So basically with the four powers if you purify negative karma it does purify. It doesn't mean it purifies vows, the vows are separate, if you are taking self-liberation vow you have to purify self-liberation vow from whom you took, Lama with assembly of monks. If you are taking bodhisattva vow, you are taking vow from Lama Buddha bodhisattvas, you have to purify there with their own system. If you have broken Vajrayana vow, Vajrayana vows are taken in the presence of Lama yidam and the mandala so you have to purify there. That is how the vows work, other than that all negativities are functions purification, functions in that way. So to be able to purify, to pay attention to purify is more important than to be righteous. To be, yes, iso f you keep on purifying your negativities beforethe period of 24 hours then it is helpful, there is no increment because otherwise 24 hours postive, negative karma increases, remember, increases that is why purification one of the most important activities of individual practitioner before you fall asleep, before you end your day, purification. If you can purify negativitiies in general particularly that very day whatever you have created if you purify either with Vajrasattva recitation, twenty-one Vajrasattva recitation at least stops increment. And then some people think if you hope to be Vajrasattva recitation only, no, bodhimind does that. Shantideva has said: DAY PA DOR JAN SHEN DO NUR SE VA, TEN NE JOR WAY JEN JU SEM MEN BA, GE SEN KANG JEN SE GYAN NUM BUN JU. So the bodhimind is such a powerful mind that really overpower all negativities. Then there's wisdom. Nagarjuna says: TEG SUM SO NAM SUM JE JANG, SI BA CHU BU JANG BAN DU, Just developing doubt alone it will tear samsara into pieces, just doubt alone. So these are very, very powerful antidote actions that is readily available at our disposal even you can't say 100 syllable mantra 21 times, even though there are shorter mantra, OM VAJRASATTVA AH HUNG, OM AH HUNG and VAJRASATTVA put the two together that shorter version of it, it will help but even then you can't do that, bodhimind, antidote action bodhimind, wisdom. Everyone of those positive deeds that you do will be helpful but use...do please do purify, purification. Even though you don't believe in negativities, even though you don't believe in positivities you don't have to prove there is no negativity there is not positivity, you don't have a proof, so if it is true why should you suffer yourself? You know this life is wonderful, fantastic, great, and we enjoy the life, at the end of that if we have to suffer that is the worst, total life wasted, there is no bigger waste than that, no bigger waste than that. This is an opportunity for once forever you can build positive life and lives thereafter so if you waste that and then goes and then after the end of life and if it becomes same old groundhog goes down then what is the use? Whether it sees the shadow or not that's what it is so make sure life worthwhile, have a meaning of life or really meaningful life is you know if you really look in yourself you not only born as a great intelligent human being, educated, great intelligence in addition to that you have great interest for spiritual development, in addition to that you fortunately met with the teachings of the Buddha and that of teachings of Jamgong Lama Tsongkhapa, refined gold like, honestly, essence of all refined gold like, Jangong Lama Tsongkhapa's purity and that of Mahayana master, Mahayana guide and understanding negative, postive, heard about it, know about it and if you wasted your life it is more waste than that yuppie fellow downtown Grosse Pointe (laughs), I can't find any other downtown, Grosse Pointe or something you know, and this hippie fellow who lives in downtown Ann Arbor, should be better than those yuppie guys in Grosse Pointe, don't you think so? Honestly, so the difference is you make this and that is why I repeatedly try to say everytime to my friends that you do something worthwhile no matter whatever it is, it's not so much that you say mantra, not so much you pray so much, it is not that much but really real essence of practice, something solid you need, something solid, there is no better solid practice than that of Lam Rim not anywhere, anywhere you look, nowhere. There are a number of people will tell you, "This is greatest, you meditate tonight, you become Buddha at night; you meditate in the morning you become Buddha in the morning." I don't think it will happens, sorry, it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. If there is such all the Buddhas should have leading all living beings in that, it could not. You really have to put efforts, solid efforts, then work. That solid effort doesn't mean you have to spend two, three hours a day, it doesn't mean that. It means you organize your practice, not the word that you say, the mind what you think. Words what you say is this great Tibetan teacher, since people make a lot of commitments so we don't think properly so they're made into words just by simply saying words alone will not break the commitments, that's why you have so many blah, blah, blah to say. However if you think very carefully, organized manner then it will make a dent in your ego, in your negative emotions and when you are having that, that is making difference in your life and that's really called practice. It's not simply repeating word again does not mean practice, true practice means true making dent on your ego and negative emotions, changing yourself. I always tell you dharma in one understanding means change, change from negative into positive. When the word in Tibetan called it CHUR it is the past tense of JUR which means corrected so you are corrected, your character corrected your negative addictions and that is true CHUR, it is correction. When you do that that builds up solid spiritual development, when you have that by the time when you go, when you actually go you're rich with the positive karma, you're rich with spiritual development even though we did not gain control of life, when I'm going to die, where I'm going to born even you don't but you have solid positive deeds to count on not even to be worried what's going to happen in future life and lives. Remember what the Kadamalama tells you, if you are good dharma practitioners you should be looking forward to the end of your life because you can happily go and if not you should not be afraid of it, at least you don't have regrets. Remembet those three categories: A, B and C. So if you can get ourrself within the A group it is a great achievement, if not try to be in the B group at least don't fall below C otherwise you failed as we all know, rigth? So that is where the karmic work and that is how our life living and that is how we function and that makes whole difference. So anyway, positive karma never give you negative result, negative karma will never give you positive result. By knowing that building positive karma, purifying the negative karma makes you feel confident to be able to travel, becoming true dharma practitioners.

SHI WAY JE SU LU DANG DRI MA ZHIN

KAR NAG LE DRE CHI ZHIN DRANG WA LA

NGE PA TEN PO NYE NE NA PAY TSOK

TRA ZHING TRA WA NAM KYANG PONG WA DANG

GE TSOK THA DAK DRUP PAR JA PALA

TAG TU BAK DANG DEN PAR JIN GYI LOB

That covers the foundation of perfection at that level.

CHE PE MI NGOM DUH NGEL KUN GYI GO

YI TEN MI RUNG SI PAY PHUN TSOK KYI

NYE MIK RIK NE THAR WAY DE WA LA

DON NYER CHEN POR KYE WAR JIN GYI LOB

So by then now the next is you be able to realize no matter how much suffering or joy that we use in samsara, no matter how much joy we use there is no satisfaction, never ending never satisfy. Not only not ever satisfy, creating more difficulties, sufferings.

CHE PE MI NGOM DUH BGEL KUN GYE GO

YI TEN MI RUNG SI PAY PHUN TSOK KYI

So unreliable the samsaric goodies and it is important to see the faults and then admiring for liberation, admiring for nirvana, Remember samsara is suffering, nirvana is peace, so looking for nirvana, disatisfied, rather disgusted with samsaric events and if you really look truly it is not only on our own personal experience of our life but looking at other people you see the same old drama circle, circle, circle, ups and downs, ups and downs which even not only one life but life after life, that's what it does so it is definitely as long as we are in samsara we will continue no matter whatever, suffering, so therefore interested in liberation and work for and that is working with the three higher training of mind that is morality, that is concentration and that of wisdom. Morality, which is really very important. This morning I mentioned to you three types of morality by restraining the wrong doing, collecting virtue, helping all beings, these are the important moralities that we should always engage. These three higher training will actually liberate us. Keeping proper morality give us the result of good and better life. Having concentration will take us beyond samsara beyond desire realm etc., By having wisdom, cut the root of samsara's net and going beyond. So really three higher training mind is the key for liberation. So you simply even pray that we may be able to do that and develop that. And then the next step.

RANG NYI SI TSOR LHUNG WA JI ZHIN DU

MAR GYUR DRO WA KUN KYANG DE DRA WAR

THONG NA DRO WA DROL WAY KHUR CHER WAY

JANG CHUB SEM CHOG JONG PAR JIN GYI LOB

in the Foundation of perfections

RANG NYI SE TSOR LHUNG WA JI ZHN DU

As you realize yourself falling into the ocean of samsara, all other living mother beings are involved the same way. By seeing this, taking the responsibilty of liberating all and then I may develop bodhimind. We pray not only we pray we work, not only we work we work hard and try to develop. So thus I have brought you up to the level of the Mahayana path just a little sort of you know there's no huge gap left sort of little common with the lower and common with the medium, have brought up to this level. Now it is time that we be observing the compassion and we will be observing the love. So now we reachour point, compassion and love and its development. General compassion and the very specific compassion what we are talking here are slightly differ. Our compassion here what we talk about it. Well let me talk about general compassion a little more. As we all know we think compassion is great and you are right. Compassion is great, compassion brings joy, compassion brings happiness, compassion brings service, compassion makes indivdual better person, compassion helps people, it is all great. Compassion does not bring hatred, compassion does not develop violence as a matter of fact compassion goes against violence, compassion goes against hatred, compassion goes against obsession, it is great. Simply selfless compassion alone is not enough for the Buddha. I said selfless compassion alone is also not enough, we need greater compassion. Greater compassion is based of equanimity, equally looking at all living beings. It is almost looks like justice, we say justice is blind. The greater compassion should be blind, should not be discriminating, near ones dear ones and enemies. Greater compassion must be focused to all living beings, must be focused to ALL living being, that's A L L, not a living being but all. Aspects of the mind also want to help and want to bring the best, that is sort of definition. So can I do that? No, I don't. When I think of my enemy, I get darkness, horrified, angry, dislike. When I think of my friend I like it, I have attachment. I like to go forward, I like to be closer so we have this unequal desire driving our mind, pull push. First and foremost you have to deal with that because as long as we have that unequal view or perception then we have pull and push very strong. When there is pull and push very strong there can't be equanimity, equality. Equality is important, we all know. The American life democracy is built on the basis of equality, equanimity we all know. When there is no equality or equanimity then the hatred becomes so strong so that people commit hate crime even just two days or last Wednesday nine people, unarmed, peace loving, simply doing a religion study just been murdered because there's no equality, there's hatred. This is true hate crime no doubt about it. Person came in, sat an hour long thought about it and suddenly got up and shoot. With all these words that person said, if that's not hate then what is hate crime, honestly. People commit hate crime because there is hatred, there is hatred because there is no equality. I'm better, you're worse or vice versa, you're better I'm worse. So as long as we have that view entertaining our mind there is no equality, there is no equality between man and woman, there is no equality between Caucasian and Africcan American or minorities. So how can there be greater compassion? The earlier great masters tried to gain equality between enemy and friend, we are at a much rougher stage than that, simply race or caste for that matter or color of the skin or economic status, education, all kinds of reasons will bring in our mind that not to have equality, not to have equanimity, all kinds of reasons we do. As long as we have this huge black and white difference, I don't mean black and white races, but it really like big black and white differnce in our mind there will be no equality, Think about enemy and friend, if you think about somebody even you don't have enemy somebody you dislike, if you think about that person's face or name seeing your own mind how you see it, you will begin to see it dark, you will begin to see it unhappy, you want to move and then suddenly you draw up the idea and think about someone you're in love and then it is beautiful, it is wonderful, it is gentle, it is sweet, all these we see. Such a huge difference. So the first effort is to try to bring little better equality, race, religion, color of skin etc., is mostly to most of us is little easier because society demands, little easier. Even if it's not a little easier you cannot give the reasons what you think about it, then you become better social, you become racist. And here we are going beyond human beings, here we are going beyond, we are even poking our nose within the lives of animals, our pets and others, other creatures, insects. It is not possible to be able to look equally as human beings and these animals and these insects, very very hard. We may even feel stupid to be able to think that way, silly, stupid. So this is our challenge, our challenge is to make, to bring equality as much as we can as in our life to bring equality between the races where challenged and more the people are educated, more people become intelligent and that's going less and less and less. As just like that more you become intelligent, when you become more spiritual that should become less and less. I don't mean you have to equalize insects and human beings. I mean you caring for insects and human beings again that also of course you have to care more about human beings than insects, of course but not so much hatred towards those insects. Even among the insects if you are looking at scorpion, if you are looking at spiders, or if you are looking at Daddy Long Leg, your feelings are different, we all have it. Daddy Long Legs, everybody is happy to see, easy to pick up and do all that and if you see spider or scorpion you are not going to go nearby. You know why? Because you have self-cherishing, self-ego within you. you don't want to be hurt which In a way, you are right, in a way it is right. If you don't protect yourself who else wil protect you? In a way you are right but that doesn't mean you have to hate the spiders or the scorpion or cockroach for that matter. You have a natural dislike for these creatures, we have a natural a little liking for our pets or rabbit or deer although deer can give you tick. So this is unequal mind particularly between the enemy and someone you labeled as enemy someone you labeled as friend and someone you labeled as neutral, So there is a huge even among the human beings even among your own families we have that. So this is our first challenge. Closest to you, you on your own knows. Equality within the family. Not only between the enemy and friend, between you and your friend, between you and your enemy huge difference. There's a joke that one kid says, "When I see when my father was fighting with somebody else I like my father to win because he is my father but when I'm fighting with my father I like to win because it's me." You get that? And that is how we have that feeling, that is our challenge. A lot of people may not like this, People say, "I'm fine to develop compassion and love, why should I have to have equality here? " I'm sure many of you think that way. Watch your own mind, don't answer it, but watch your own mind and see if you are in that category. I bet a lot of you are in that category. Why should I bother equality? That is beyond. Of course I support equanimity, of course I bless the equality but why should I have to bother? That's not my job, that's the job of the constitution or the Congressman or the court. A lot of people think that way. It's not the point, the point is watching your own mind, perception of your own mind, how you perceive people. That is the point. As long as there is a huge gap that's not very good. So developing equanimity, Buddha introduce the next step is development of recogniziing every living being as mother being. This is very difficult to so many people. In one way it is figurative mother, on the other hand it is also talking about true mother and why choose mother? Because mother is the most important person in your life no matter whether you like or not your mother is the most important person in your life because not only it give you birth it nurtures you, brought you up, protect you from so many threats to your life, when you don't know what it is. When you were infant when you were moving around, crawling around how many times you put your finger in electrical socket your mother had protected you by locking or by blocking the sockets, or taking you away or protecting you and when she saw you falling from the gap or hedge or step, how many times she has protected you? Otherwise you would not have survived today, many obstacles, try to making life is very difficult, there are tremendous amount of diseases, difficulties, threat to life, the mother has protected. And not only protected, nurtured and brought up, educated, made a human begin who can sit among the human beings, who can talk among the human beings, who can function among the human beings, mother has done that whether you like it or not. Mother has given you the life, mother has given you food, mother has given you a degree, education or degree, done so much. And many mothers choose to better to get sick themselves than the child, ready to suffer anything for your own child. Who else does that? Nobody. So anyway, it is the mother and it is very, very difficult to think every living being as mother being, it is very difficult. In one way it loses the quality of the mother, on the other hand, it is impossible. How can it be? Never. My father is not my mother, it's my father. My brother is not my mother, it's my brother. My sister is not my mother, it's my sister. My enemy is not my mother, it's my enemy. My friend is not my mother, it's my friend. So it becomes very difficult, big challenge. However, the Buddha's idea is if it's mother it doesn't have to be mother of this life, mother of a number of lives. Yes it may be true but I have to establish myself lives before I establish mother of life. I don't even know whether I had previous life, future life. Present life I can see it, I'm living on it, I know it. I don't even know my previous life whether if there is something or not, I don't even know whether there is future life or not. That is the reality to us. Truly speaking this is truly I don't mean you have to. Truly speaking, in order to develop this development of recognizing all sentient beings as mother beings you really have to know your past, present and future life, has to be known, has to be developed without which there is only one mother but my mom is my mother no other, aunt is aunt, uncle is uncle, father is father, there is only one mother. So have to know the reincarnation first. How are we going to know reincarnation? It is very difficult, there are logical reasonsl like JUN WAN ON DOH LO SANG NGE etc., and there are continuation like you know like the immediately born child his mind as subject and then says it has continuation of previous because it is mind. (Speaking in Tibetan) There's all these ideas in the logical text of the Parmanumatika, they are there. But truly...they are all difficult points, this one as well as the...KA SA NUM JIN MEN BE NUM ZHIN GIN NE LEN ME WAY GEN EH JA and all of those are quite difficult to establish because there's teaching goes and the saying continuation of the mind has to be mind, the matter cannot be continuation of the mind and we are so used to it by quotation. We say it's true because that Trijang Tsawa said so, so everybody had to keep quiet, But when we are talking about it here in open society, open mind so they will say, " So what?" Trijang Tsawa said. So what? They will say that. So then that's the end of it. So all this are logical points are a little difficult but if you really look into the Vajrayana point of view you may really see the continuation of mind. Mind is such that it is really it has its own quality, it has its own character, it has its own continuation and our physical bodies never become part of that mind. And that mind doesn"t become part of our physical body, mind becomes mind continuation. So I don't need to talk much here because this in not the point of establishing. Establishing this point is in the Vajrayana Mahamudra. When you talk about the Vajrayana Mahamudra, when you talk about the clear light points and the continuation of illusion body and continuation of clear light and over there you really see very different, very different, otherwise it is a little difficult. Anyway, I just mention. So there are seven stages of development of bodhimind and exchange stage of bodhimind. Whether you do seven or exchange it doesn't matter. Whether you can do either or nothing will function but Jamgong Lama Tsongkhapa's one of his very special quality is eleven stage of development of bodhimind which is in essence the combination of both seven stage and exchange stage which is very well explained in the Pabongka's Liberation in Palm of Your Hand, Here I'm going to follow the Delam stage. So in Delam they talk seven stage of development and exchange stage of development separately. So first seven stage and that also has actual session and in between session, two different activities. Actual sesstion comes first, that also has pre, actual and conclusion. Pre-session here it follows everywhere remembering your own guru, either on your crown or in front of you and that looking at it whatever the physical form you are looking, in reality guru in Buddha's form or reality guru your own guru in the form of Lama Tsongkhapa or yidam, anything, doesn't matter. So you label them as collection of all refuge,

KYAB NE KUN TU LAMA LHAK PAI LHA

TUBWANG DORJE CHANG LA SOL WA DEB

So you label them collection of all protectors, collection of all refuge, Tubwang Dorje Chang is Buddha Buddha Vajradhara in Lama's form. in Buddha's form or in Buddha Vajradhara's form , doesn't matter, it's individual choice, whatever you feel comfortable to be the field in which you gain all developments and it is recommended every session that you sit down you make offerings to that field of merit and is particularly recommended to have seven limb offerings. So I'm not going to talk to you about seven limb because you all know seven limb. Seven branches or seven limb whatever you do which is very, very good practice even we have it very short verse that we do in the Jewel Heart prayer,

I bow down in body, speech and mind, it is prostration, what is the next verse? What is the next verse?

I offer the best I have to give both real and imagined

So anyway, first is prostration remember? Prostration and I explained to you prostration is actually seeking. The word prostration in English does not justify the word of the CHA TSAL, the CHA TSAL is something very unique word. CHA is admiring the qualities of subject to whom you are addressing and TSAL word also gives you understanding of seeking, seeking the quality whatever you are admiring. You're admiring for the field of merit, their quality, you admire because of their quality, you also seek those quality for yourself and that's why certain tradition particularly like Chinese tradition when they bow down they will touch their body on the ground and open their hand, open the hand means give me, right? Asking give me, so seeking. What they are seeking, not seeking your money, they are giving you their money but what they are seeking is their quality so really prostration doesn't do justification of CHA and the TSAL and that is really the very briefly talking. Second, offering. Offering should not be limited to physical offering because physical offering is very limited for us even you make hundred bowls water offering it is just hundred bowls of water offering, even you make thousand bowls water offering it is just thousand bowls water, it is not big deal. What is big deal is and when you multiply it by your mind in the Samadabhadra offering style like one mouth so many manifest hundreds of thousands of tongues, each tongue is present, each head has present, each body has hundreds of thousands of heads and present, like that, object, whatever you offer multiplied, it is countless picture, every ground has been filled up by offerings, every space has been filled up, every sky filled up by subjects to whom you offer and without any hesitation,without any attachment, from bottom of heart without any hope of returning etc., so offering from the bottom of the heart, it is true offfering. True offering is true generosity, offering is generosity activity, true offering is true generosity, true generosity brings wealth. CHIN BE LONG CHERG. So generosity brings wealth, honestly. You don't make offering to bring wealth, then it is limited. You make offering to become every living being to reach to the state of a Buddha even though it is simple glass of water but multiplied by million, zillion times, finally space has been filled up by offering and offer. Likewise, every other, water for the mouth, water for washing feet, flower, incense, light, food, music, everything. Then not only that there is cloth, medicine and outer, inner, suchness, secret offerings, all of them. Delam is slightly combined with the Vajrayana so all these offerings are used in the Delam too. So when you simply say I offer whatever I have that I have to give, that includes outer, inner, secret, suchness offerings. So anything, whatever there are without hope of return, without any hestitation, true generosity without the fear. Many times we say I can't offer this because I'll be needing it. When you need it. When will you be needing it? Well, sometimes. One time in a year Ineed it, once a year I need it. So forget about offering, we cannot get rid of things. How much things we accumulate? There are people who collect everything, can't even walk through living room. I'm sure you know many people do that. So you know generosity is actually cutting through the stinginess, stinginess brings poverty, difficulties. Generosity brings wealth. So one of the best generosity is offering. With that I will close for today and tomorrow the schedule is same as today and I heard from few people that you did great work, thank you and whatever we are able to talk do kindly...you don't have any meditation today, Think about it, equanimity, think about it the object of refuge we are talking about, Lama Lhak Pai Lha or Lama ..KYAB NE KUN TU LAMA LHAK PAI LHA, collection of all refuge, Lama special God, LHAK PAI LHA special God, KUA JE LIN means god, I don't know whether it's capital "G" god or small god, if you translate it. But our today's translators try to avoid translating as god because it is only the connotations so try to visualize that and try to learn offering and generosity. So you have three homework, equanimity as well as field of merit in the single form and first offering and whatever we taught you please kindly have it in your practice.