Archive Result

20150626GRAASR11

0:00:00.0 Mandala Offering

0:04:54.1 Do kindly generate a pure motivation, as described in the lam rim tradition and then listen to the teaching. The teaching you are listening to is the essence of all the buddhas’ teachings. When I say “all” I am referring to Theravada teachings, Mahayana teachings, Vajrayana teachings, teachings, of which not even a solid alphabet is left out. So that is the essence of all the buddhas’ teachings.

0:05:39.4 These teachings have been emphasized and protected and promoted by the two great frontrunners of the early Buddhist teachers, such as Nagarjuna and Asanga. The heart practice of the great Atisha and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, known as jang chub lam gi rim pa, smoothly reaching perfection, really the roadmap leading perfectly to the perfect level by a smooth path. That also has qualities and tremendous advantages, etc., which are known to all of us. So need not repeat. But basically, there are four great outlines:

Trying to prove that this teaching is authentic – talking about the qualities of the teachers, including Buddha, which you have heard many times. Whenever we do lam rim teachings nowadays we are always short of time. When I was receiving those teaching, I received the Delam for the first time from Kyabje Yongdzin Ling Dorje Chang in Drepung Loseling, in the early 1950s and thereafter I received it also from Kyabje Dorje Chang. With that I am referring to Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang. I received it from him a number of times, including the last one in Tibet in 1957, next door to our house. There is a monastery called She de. There Kyabje Rinpoche gave teachings on Kyabje Pagongka’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, along with Delam and Nyur Lam and the 5th Dalai Lama’s Jambel Zhel lung, both the central and southern systems, plus I don’t think he gave the 2nd Dalai Lama’s Refined Gold at that time, but he gave Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s Short Lam Rim, etc. – almost nine different lam rims together at that time. That was the last, big public teaching Kyabje Dorje Chang gave in Tibet. So at that time I was able to receive that.

0:09:33.9 Because of the time, this time here we could’t do the 6 jor chö, the 6 preliminary preparations, as that would take a long time. Also we made the lineage shorter. From Buddha we jump to the wisdom and compassion lineages combined together, then Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa and then we say in the next verse:

yab se gyü par che la söl wa deb – the continuation of the lineage up to Kyabje Ling Dorje Chang, so what’s how we do it and even the tune we are using is the tune of the ganden nying gyü, the Chubsang style or Pabongka style, which both Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trjang Dorje Chang and also Kyabje Lhatsün Rinpoche and all these people used in Tibet during the teaching. So we try to maintain the continuation of that.

0:10:42.1 But also, what I am talking about is; I couldn’t tell you many stories about the lives of all the teachers, but we tell you the life stories of the teachers in order to prove that the teaching is authentic – although Pal Chöje Drakpa (Dharmakirti), the great Indian pandit of logic, said that you prove that Buddha is correct because of the teaching. I don’t know whether this system says that the teacher is correct because the teaching is authentic.

0:11:47.9 Pal Chöje Drakpa says, because the teaching is correct, therefore Buddha is right and authentic. But here we go the opposite. The teacher is great and you see the life story of the teacher from whom that person received their teachings, what practices they did and what they gained and all this; particularly if you read the spiritual biographies of those teachers. But normally, in the lam rim teachings

they give you at least Buddha’s life story a little bit and Atisha’s story a little bit, the pure early Kadampa’s stories a little bit and Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s life story and a few of the new Kadampa teachers. When I say “New Kadampa teachers” I mean all of Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa and below, the Ganden nying gyü tradition. We are not necessarily referring to Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s group, though they took the name. That’s fine. They are entitled to take the name, because they are part of it. But when I am referring to New Kadampa I am referring to the period after Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa. Before that it is known as Kadampa. So we have Kadampa and New Kadampa.

0:13:59.9 They are supposed to be part of it and if we go into the life story of even only one, it is probably going to take 4 – 10 days, all the time we have here. So that’s why we refer you to read the biography of Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, read the story of Atisha, read the activities of the Buddha as well as the Jataka stories. It is sort of casual reading that you can do over a cup of coffee or even sitting on the throne – I am sorry, or wherever. Occasionally, if you read those, it will help and then in order to gain respect to the teaching, think about the qualities of Dharma, and then about how to teach and how to listen to the Dharma with such qualities.

0:15:33.2 Then, the fourth one: the actual way how the individual is led to the path. That is the most important and that has two:

the root of all development, guru devotional practice and after developing guru devotional practice, how to think and move forward with that. Then the recognition of human life, it’s importance, the difficulty to find it and how easy it is to lose it. That includes impermanence. In case we didn’t gain the power to control our life, what to do? As emergency measure, take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. What happens by taking refuge? We follow the positive and negative advice of the Three Jewels.

0:16:54.9 Most important is the karmic advice: positive karma always gives you positive results. Negative karma always gives you negative results. This is the basic karmic system. Then think about the four qualities of karma: karma is definite, fast growing, you never meet the result if you have not created the karma and you always meet the result, not matter how many life times it may take, if the karma is not destroyed or neutralized. You can’t destroy it, but neutralize and if it’s not neutralized, it is bound to give the result. Also karma is fast growing, etc. That’s common with the lower level. The Common with the medium level tells you that karma is functioning within the samsaric life cycle, within the 12 links of life. I am not going to count the 12 here, as you all know them. You can look at the common with the medium level either from the Four Noble Truths point of view or from the point of view of the 12 Links of the Interdependent system, or both.

0:18:37.2 Gaining renunciation against samsara is the point. Here I can definitely use the word ‘renouncing’. Renouncing the samsara.

0:18:52.9 And admiring nirvana. Always, one of those Buddhist logos or resolutions says: samsara is suffering and nirvana is peace. So we are renouncing the suffering. Renunciation is also not so easy, because we have very strong attachment. Attachment is somehow engraved in our life, in our character. It is one of the hardest addictions that we have. It is very, very hard to give up. Even if you clearly know you are going the next minute, or in the 11th hour, it becomes difficult. It pinches you. The Buddha says, “There is no negativity such as hatred.” Yet hatred is not the main problem in samsara. The glue which is attaching the individual to samsara, is attachment, obsession. This is the hardest to give up.

0:21:11.6 That is because self-cherishing and ego-grasping is so strong within us, especially ego-grasping, the idea of me, me, me holding is so strong. Because you can’t let “me” go, you can’t let “I” go, so “me” holds you and “my” holds you. You cannot let “I” go and “me” go, so you cannot let “my” go. So everything is holding and that’s why attachment and obsession becomes such a powerful addiction. It is really hard to give up. As I said earlier, even though you clearly know that you are going in the next hour or minute, even then it is hard to give up. We always have hope of looking back, even after we are gone. So that’s why we talk about legacy.

0:22:51.9 Anyway, Obama has a good legacy, not only as the first African-American president, but also the Obamacare was saved by the Supreme Court. That’s a very good legacy. I was briefly listening to Rachel Maddow and some people accuse me, “So you are looking at your girlfriend” – she is not here today, anyway, she said that Obama had achieved this thing which so many Democratic presidents tried to achieve, but could not completely succeed from Harry Truman onwards. So it’s a great legacy, no doubt about it. We are happy with that. So we all look for legacy. Actually, if somebody else is doing the legacy, that’s fine. Carole is trying to build my legacy. It’s fine if she does. I don’t to build my legacy. I don’t want to look back.

0:24:26.5 Gendün Chöphel said, “

shi ya chi me ta wai rang wa yi

kye wa tham che rang gi lak je she

shü de lü be bä pa nen ge chir

me se yü ring se pai rim bab tu

de tong ding yi mi yi yö de sha

di nam ka yi rang gi gyPu dan le log yin yu shag g the y. to look back, th that. So we all look for legacy. Actually, if somebody else is doing the üntsen

Pu dang lo ma je su shag

La la che nyie chü je de ta

Dam pe de nam shing nen di

Zhen kyi lag je sag pe no da

Ze pai kang ni di ta la

Chö na nyi me drang pu lü yo la

Kong du me pa di ta ma che pai

Mi se yün ring se pai ring bab du

Tek chog de nyi mi yi yü de sha

He wrote that in Geshe Chödrak’s dictionary his beautiful poetry of the 1900s, Pu dan le log yin yu shag g the y. to look back, th that. So we all look for legacy. Actually, if somebody else is doing the

People, even after dying, would like to look back,

everybody tries to build a legacy.

Many of you know who Gendün Chöphel is: a great scholar who tried to modernize Tibet. He was mixed between communism and democracy. It is almost like Sun Yat Sen’s ideas, that type is what Gendün Chöphel carried. Sun Yat Sen was the Chinese person who tried to modernize China from the dynasties and emperors. Sun Yat Sen really wanted to modernize. He talked about democracy, but he was not necessarily creating democracy. After Sun Yat Sen came Mao who created communism and Chiang Kai shek who created what was supposed to be western-style democracy. We call that National Chinese and Mao the Communist.

0:27:41.9 Gendün Chöphel, to himself, though he was in India for a long time, he experienced everything. He tried to do all kinds of things. He worked with the Russian David Roerich, as well as Jessica Roerich and the other younger brother, the painter Nicholas Roerich, who has a museum in New York. They were brothers and Gendün Chöphel worked with them too. He was a Tibetan scholar and teacher. He was a monk and later became lay. He wore the yellow monk’s robes for a while, though he was not a monk. He was experimenting in every brothel place and red light area and wanted to see how things are working. But then he wore robes in the day time and went with the Sri Lankan and Burmese monks to Sri Lanka. The new formation of the government of that country, then known as Ceylon, asked the monks to compose the National Anthem. The best poet among those visiting monks from India was this fake monk, Gendün Chöphel. So he wrote the National Anthem of Sri Lanka. He composed it in Tibetan, translated it into Sanskrit and then it was translated into the local language.

0:29:58.1 Anyway, he was a great scholar. So he wrote this:

Everybody is looking forward to looking back.

Some people will leave followers.

Some people will leave children behind.

Some will build temples, centers and monasteries.

Some will build images and some will build up money.

They will build beautiful buildings.

He actually wrote this for one of his friends, a Mongolian monk – or not monk, Geshe Chödrak, who was very, very good in grammar and was the first person to write an alphabetically ordered dictionary in the Tibetan language history. At the end Gendün Chöphel wrote,

Neither I have dharma nor wealth. I am a big beggar.

So I don’t have any legacy to leave, such as those mentioned before.

But I ate so much food of human beings for so long

And I have to pay for it, so I am leaving my little book to pay that.

So that’s how he wrote the first alphabetical ordered dictionary in Tibetan. Anyway, why did I talk about legacy? Self-grasping is so strong that we are always looking at “me”, trying to leave “me” even after we are gone. So you don’t know. It is easy for the Tibetan Rinpoches, the incarnate lamas. We can come back. Like Demo Rinpoche, this time, happens to be the reincarnation of my father and my nephew. So that’s very strange, right? So the Tibetan lamas are easy – so the legacy is to look back. They just come back. But sometimes you make mistakes and there are two of them or maybe four of them. Like we have two Panchen Lamas, two Karmapas, two Domo Geshe Rinpoches, and two this and two that. And that sometimes happens. But there are no two Demo Rinpoches. Actually, there is, there was. But somehow he established himself.

0:33:58.3 So the ego is so strong and the power of self-cherishing is so strong that we have to really challenge it. Really challenging the ego is wisdom. Wisdom is the direct antidote of ego. That’s why in the Buddhist tradition it is so important. You have to have the combination of love/compassion and wisdom. Let me repeat that: the combination of love/compassion and wisdom, not either or. You need both.

I was told that one of our problems is that many American Buddhist teachers presented it as either-not, not the combination. My assessment is that this is why we can see that a lot of contemplative work these days is mainly oriented towards the service point of view. As we look around, within ourselves, even our sister institutions, you see that the contemplative work is mainly engaged in service. That might have been a problem of either-or. But the Buddha, right from the beginning, at least in the Buddhism that comes through Tibetan Buddhism, really tells you both together.

0:36:56.8 I don’t need to repeat Chandrakirti’s metaphor of the bird flying with two wings, cutting across the ocean. Also Nagarjuna’s verse

ge wa di yi kye bo kün

so nam yeshe so so sha

so nam ye she le jung wai

dam pa ku nyi thob par sho

Really, merit is divided into two: merit and wisdom merit. Basically, in the Mahayana path, the base on which we function is the two truth. The path we utilize is wisdom and compassion and the result we will obtain is dharmakaya and rupakaya, the physical and mental aspects of enlightenment. They don’t go separately, but together, otherwise all the buddhas have to be without body or without mind. But they don’t. It goes together.

0:38:20.1 It is either-or, but definitely both. The development of bodhimind, compassion/love we done quite in detail based on the seven instructions and we also completed Manjushri’s and Nagarjuna’s wisdom lineage of the way of developing bodhimind through the exchange system and as for the 11 stages of developing bodhimind by Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa nying gyü tradition, I refer you to Pabongka’s Liberation in the Palm of your Hand. Thus all three known to me ways of developing love/compassion are completed.

0:39:38.5 After developing love/compassion you move further into helping oneself through the six perfections and to help others, four perfection. All 10 of them are completed. Then the last chapter is talking specifically about developing shamata and wisdom. Shamata was completed and wisdom is what we are dealing with today and tomorrow morning too. That completes what we have done so far.

There are a lot of things today. During the summer retreat we told Amy to look into the 21 Taras praise. Sean wrote something, which we repeatedly said; however, some people thought quite strongly that the language still needs to be improved. So if it improves, fine. Amy was given that task and she consulted the people that I recommended. Most of them responded, some said they are too busy. Many couldn’t do it, but many did. So we do have a result. We consider Tara as very, very important to all of us, our organization and our study, our practice and she is almost our tutelary yidam. So a number of things are happening with the Tara. I might as well say it here. We do have this Tara praise in 21 verses, in reasonable English in Rock’n Roll form. It isn’t? That’s okay, but if it is, that’s also fine, because some people thought that Rock ‘n Roll is not necessarily that great and maybe anti-woman, but if it sung by women and is a praise to women, then even if it is Rock ‘n Roll, and even if you are raising up one hand and one hand touching somewhere else, even then if done by women, it is an advantage, if women are taking that over. That’s one thing.

0:43:28.7 Another thing is that there are a lot of urgent needs for a number of people who really want to help to have healing done in the home as well as – not necessarily gatherings like this, but smaller groups and everywhere people need to have help. It was really a strong, urgent request. Particularly there are those who are not well, particularly those who are sick and those who are dying, they want to have a connection, and they want help. I thought we should have a group of people. Kimba will be writing to you individually. I have selected a few individuals to be able to participate in this and I hope to give you a little bit of time to talk with you, and your job is to go to whoever needs help in their home, if invited. And help. There are a number of criteria. First and foremost: love and compassion – absolutely, nothing else. Two, in order to help them, you have to have a little more impressive and respectable. That’s why it has to be quite professional. Number three: never, never create any problems, where you go. In other words, you to there for a purpose. Go for that purpose only and walk out. Walk away, rather than interfering in their home or fishing for your own something. We don’t want that.

0:46:25.4 So, most of you already have a good background of No 1 lam rim, No 2, Vajrayana and No 3, Tara. It is almost like the chaplaincy we have. People raise question: is that contradicting or defeating or competing with the chaplaincy? Many questions have been raised. But it is neither competing nor defeating. Those people who are trained briefly in the Tara healing work go individually. Also we thought that we will charge those who would like to have service in their home. We should charge quite reasonably. We may or may not be able to charge like Deepak Chopra’s group. They do. They give you three meditations and one mantra and first you have to pay $400. That is common, usual; nothing unusual. So we should reasonably. I think our administration and directors will look into this and make a reasonable charge. We also want the individual service person to take half or whatever the percentage comes out to be and the other half goes to Jewel Heart.

0:48:35.5 So, I am not putting money into my pocket, but helping is our goal. Money is not the goal. But when you are having that opportunity there is no point of not taking it either. Jewel Heart also needs money. Jewel Heart doesn’t run free. We don’t have somebody rich paying our bills. A lot of our people thought for years that there is some kind of invisible rich person behind paying all. It’s not true, not true, absolutely not true. People in Jewel Heart who are paying their membership dues are. I was hoping that our membership would go into the thousands, so that every teaching can be free. But the membership doesn’t move beyond around 400. So it is not going to achieve much. Plus your money paying for retreats and the money you give as donations [carry the organization]. Jewel Heart really runs on your individual donations. However little it might be, it is great help and Jewel Heart is surviving because of your donations, honestly. It is really how it is. There is not somebody with a checkbook behind, writing everything.

0:50:51.8 I think the biggest donor so far is Carole. She works day and night and puts money in. And that’s how it is surviving. All your little extra change in your pockets, make sure you donate it to Jewel Heart. Don’t waste it on smoking cigarettes. That will harm you. Honestly. That will harm you. Cigarettes make you cough. Remember, Ginsberg’s poem: cigarettes make you choke and clog your lungs, your girlfriend will kick you out, because you smell. And you have to say “AHHAA”. So instead of wasting your change on cigarettes or movies or something, just donate it to Jewel Heart. It has to survive, not for you, but for the future generations. The path through which somehow a little bit everyone of you has benefited. If you are not benefiting, why would you be here, year after year? New ones, old ones, because you are benefiting. And whatever you are benefiting from, that should be available for others in future generations. That is why survival of Jewel Heart is important.

0:53:09.3 We are not in the old Buddha’s time, but in the modern time. In modern time it all depends on finances. Even this building we are enjoying, sometimes you suffer from too much heat, because of the sunshine through the windows. Sometimes, in winter it is too cold, but even then there is a beautiful room, there is shelter over our head and there are beautiful windows with good views and light. That also costs money. As far as I know, we bought this very quickly, in emergency mode, because of His Holiness coming to Jewel Heart. At that moment, whether you are buying or not, it was just coming up here and we also paid quite a lot of money – which we don’t have and we still owe a lot of money to our bank. All of that depends totally on you people, not anyone else. Some of the wealthy members don’t even donate a penny per year. I don’t know whether they pay their membership or not, but they have been very kind to me. And that is a different story.

0:55:07.4 Me and Jewel Heart. Anyway, so that is our situation. Then, what we can offer to society is service. One thing, this chaplaincy training is going very well, very well. And hopefully that will be very helpful. And this new Jewel Heart service – I don’t know the name we are going to call it – I thought of Tara Troopers – but maybe that’s not appropriate. There will be overlap between the chaplaincy and that. Some people will be doing both, some only chaplaincy and I don’t think the training is that difficult. I wanted Mark Magill to start that in New York, but it is my fault. I said that we need training. So he asked, “Who is going to train us?” I said, “I will.” Then he said, “I am not going to go now, I am going to wait for the training.” So we do need it quite urgently. So fairly soon, maybe immediately after 4th July or somewhere we will begin to have a few sessions via webinar. Everybody will not be here. So we use webinar. I hope to do that. Originally I was hoping to do two or three weekends, but whatever it is, we will work out the first meeting and from there work out the time for the next meeting and so, a couple of times, in the sense or 4, 5, 6 or 7 times we will have to go over that.

0:57:39.0 We do need interaction. People will have questions and want to talk. So therefore I don’t GotoMeeting won’t be able to handle that.

Kimba: On GotoWebinar we can do live audio interaction. Both have limited video interaction, numbers-wise.

Rimpoche: Whatever the best will be, I think Kimba will let you know. I think we should start soon, immediately after 4th July, not the 5th, but 6th or 7th or so. Some people are still travelling, like the Europeans, some of them are still traveling. So that’s what I hope.

0:59:03.4 And now, those people who worked on the 21 Taras Praise are going to present it now and then we try to say it together and see how it happens. Thank you

1:00:43.5 Amy: it’s still a bit of a work in progress, but Sean and Norbert were also involved. Most of this started with Sean’s re-written verses and everybody up here wrote big chunks and all contributed. It’s not perfect, we did our best and here it goes:

1:01:31.2 (group of 5 chanting, Amy, Rochelle, Kathleen White, Dimitri, Hartmut)

21 Taras Praise as of Summer Retreat 2015

1. Chak Tsel Tara

Swift and fearless.

Eyes flash lightning,

Born from the tear

Of the loving seer.

2. Chak Tsel Tara

Your beautiful face,

Like a hundred full moons,

Radiates light--a galaxy of stars--

Clears the darkness from our hearts

3. Chak Tsel Tara

Golden blue,

Hands lotus adorned

Six Perfections born.

4. Chak Tsel Tara

Buddhas’ crown jewel,

With ten perfections.

To reach ten bhumis

You give directions.

5. Chak Tsel Tara

TUTTARE and HUM,

Seven-world demons

Are quickly doomed.

6. Chak Tsel Tara

Whom gods love most,

Praised by demons

Zombies and ghosts.

7. Chak Tsel Tara

TRAT and PHAT

Right leg in, left outlaid;

Shattering illusions,

Wisdom fire displayed.

8. Chak Tsel Tara

TURE destroys fears.

By your lotus face,

Our enemies are cleared.

9. Chak Tsel Tara

Three jewel sign at heart,

Your right palm chakra,

Radiates sparks.

10. Chak Tsel Tara

Bliss light from the crown.

Your TUTTARE laugh

Brings evil down.

11. Chak Tsel Tara

Fierce frowning face;

HUM at your heart,

Summons protectors,

Poverty departs.

12. Chak Tsel Tara

Your crown’s crescent moon,

Ornaments bright.

Amitabha at your hair knot

Beams endless light.

13. Chak Tsel Tara

Your dharma dance

In a ring of fire,

Fills friends with joy,

And enemies expire.

14. Chak Tsel Tara

Feet and palm,

Press and pound.

Your sound of blue HUM,

Holds seven worlds down.

15. Chak Tsel Tara

SOHA and OM,

Give peace and dharma,

Beyond Nirvana

Beyond Samsara.

16. Chak Tsel Tara

Ten heart letters turn;

Enemies frozen

Once and for all;

The sound of your HUM

Is true freedom’s call.

17. Chak Tsel Tara

Wrathful essence of HUM

Your stomping feet make things shake

Hell, heaven and earth begin to quake.

18. Chak Tsel Tara

Moon in your hand

Like a celestial lake;

Poisons purged

With TARE TARE PHAT.

19. Chak Tsel Tara

Whom ruler Gods trust;

With your shield of joy

Bad dreams, quarrels,

Quickly destroyed.

20. Chak Tsel Tara

Eyes like sun and full moon,

Wrathful, peaceful, to evil immune.

HARA HARA TUTTARE,

Fearful diseases, swept away.

21. Chak Tsel Tara

Devils and zombies,

All ghosts cower.

Body, speech, and mind,

O TURE!

Complete supreme power!

This concludes the twenty-one OMs to You.

By the force of my offerings and requests,

Please stop disease, poverty, war and fights.

Increase dharma and everything good,

Everywhere for everyone.

1:04:20.5 Sounds okay, I don’t know, because my English is extremely limited. But it sounds okay. As Amy said it is a work in process. Somehow we also have to stop somewhere, because there is no perfection until we become totally enlightened. There is always room for improvement.

1:05:10.0 So there are two points. This 21 Taras Praise. When we do that it is very easy to say rather than the lengthy translation. Remember, when we used to try to say that it took very long time, so we try to make it easier to say. You may not be able to say all praises, but this 21 Praise is always important to say very often, in case of even an emergency, you can say this and think about it and Tara’s protection is always around, because not only is she a feminine Buddha, but also right from the beginning she has committed to be helpful way beyond her capacity even. And she is always around and always available and very specifically those of us who are following the Kadam tradition, Drom Rinpoche, Atisha’s disciple, has so many stories of Tara helping. Many of the Dalai Lamas incarnations were helped by Tara. Particularly the 1st Dalai Lama wrote so many praises to Tara, including the protection of the 8 fears, out of which we quoted a verse yesterday, the fear of hatred, fire.

1:07:25.2 So in this lineage Tara has been extraordinarily special. Even in Jewel Heart, right from the beginning, always she was extraordinarily and unusually helping and protecting. Even the first ever image we got was this Tara image over here, painted by one those Mariannes – Marianna Rydvald. Anyway, she did this and ever since, we have utilized this and used it in our prayers and practices and even on the cover of Tara Box and we have both, a front generated short practice, which is available on the other side of the Tara postcard, which we still have in the store. Then we have the self generated longevity practice also.

1:09:22.0 In other words, this is proving to be helpful. Don’t let me say too much. I has repeatedly proved to be helpful. We will also like to continue that and try to help and share with others to help. These are the two main points I wanted to talk to you.

1:10:00.5 Now, if there is a little time we would like to talk specifically about wisdom. Today, we are supposed to have a tsoh in the afternoon. I have miscalculated a little bit, because people pushed the tsoh so much, so I agreed. A number of times, during the retreat, I denied, because it takes a long time. Of course, it is accumulation of merit, but you people came here to study and be in retreat, rather than have a talking retreat. So anyway, but we agreed. But we still have tomorrow morning. And tomorrow afternoon we are supposed to have a picnic and barbecue in my house, with a little smoke puja, but if it is going to rain I don’t know what’s going to happen. Make sure you bring your raincoat and umbrella. You don’t want to get soaked. But in summer, getting a little bit wet is fine. I think the Californians will appreciate the rain here (laughs), or maybe the more it rains here the less it will there, right?

1:11:42.1 Joe is telling me this morning, “We are not used to this much green”. Anyway, that’s Joe Blo. As we talked yesterday for shamata, the prerequisites are all same. Especially here, we have three things:

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.a) The preliminaries

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.b) The actual meditation

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.c) The conclusion

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.a) They are as explained in the context of meditative serenity. More specifically, while correctly relying on a learned spiritual master, you should receive instruction on special insight, ardently supplicate the masters inseparable from the deity, strive to purify [sins] and accumulate [virtue] and so on. Combining the three is the indispensable prerequisite to the realization of views.

Learning from a perfect master, the lama inseparable from the special yidam, in this case Manjushri. The tradition we follow is through Lama Tsongkhapa. So our lama is Tsongkhapa, Jamgön Lama Chöje Gyalpo Tsongkhapa, the Dharma King Tsongkhapa. That is the lama, that is Manjushri. The Lama is inseparable from the special yidam. This is very, very important. Many of us will think, “Well, the lamas and teachers are great, and also I respect them, but I make my deal with the yidam.” Good, very good. People think that way, but it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. The lama inseparable from the yidam is extremely important.

1:13:45.9 Make a heartfelt requests all the time. We say request, but heartfelt, intelligent faith is really what you do, as well as you have to have a little sa je lam be la so - a little purification and accumulation of merit. So these three things together. Without any of these missing, it will be difficult to encounter wisdom itself. That is the prerequisite, the true prerequisite. It is something one cannot do without. Learning: you learn from reliable books, from reliable teachings and particularly you really have to depend on reliable books, such as Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lam Rim Chenmo, the later part in there is the Lhak tong Chenmo – the Great Insight. In the three volume translation of the Lam Rim Chenmo, the Lhak tong Chenmo must be the last volume, isn’t it? It is Volume 3. It contains the last two paramitas, concentration and wisdom. This is the most important reliable text. It was translated by so many people together, but Joshua Cutler put them together and also he went through with Geshe Yeshe Thapkhke through every point of difficulty for the last so many years. Hopefully there is no problem between the two languages. But it is the most authentic and absolutely reliable.

1:16:56.3 But if it is too long, too big, then you can use Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s medium lam rim, which also has all that at the end. This is really unshakable, un-interpretable, straight away you can take it. Learning from such is good. And if you have great teachers, that will be good. Learning is the most important and then I told you yesterday, it is not learning as in getting the knowledge, but also the continuation of the teaching, which all of you have anyway. But I have to emphasize this for the future people.

1:18:05.8 Now the Lama inseparable from the yidam is absolutely necessary. Absolutely necessary. It is Lama Chöje Gyalpo Tsongkhapa, in reality all your own great masters, in the physical form of Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa and he himself and all lineages into one, direct as well as indirect lineage. All in one human being, who looks like that and that is also the yidam Manjushri or Yamantaka. One of the qualities they talk about it: Lama Manjushri, Yidam Manjushri, Dharmapala Manjushri. That Dharmapala here is the Dharma King, Damchen Chögyal. We are not talking about any other dharmapalas. Actually, Dharmapalas is plural. Some people think that Dharmapala is only one and that is Dorje Shugden. That is again, a little too extreme. Mahakala is a dharmapala, Dharma King is a dharmapala, Palden Lhamo is a dharmapala, Vaisravana is a dharmapala and everybody is dharmapala in that category. So it is dharmapala with plural, not singular.

1:19:58.9 But in this case, Lama Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, Manjushri or Yamantaka as yidam – either wrathful or pacified Manjushri. The Dharma King is Manjushri in the form of a protector. Thus it is la ma jam bel yang, yi dam jam bel yang, sung ma jam bel yang. With that attitude, with that trust, with that profound feeling, make heartfelt requests. That is very, very important. Then also, one should not take empty-handed refuge, but the essence of accumulation or merit, the essence of purification, included in the 7 limbs practice, including the mandala offering and in addition to that, whatever you can do for purification, like circumambulations, prostrations, 35 Buddha purification, 100 syllable mantra purification and also meditation on bodhimind, meditation on emptiness.

1:21:49.4 The meditation on bodhimind, as Shantideva said,

dig pa tob che shin tu mi se pa

de ne dzog pei jang chub sem mem pai

ge shen kang gi si gyi nam par gyur

Such powerful negativities cannot be overpowered by

anything other than such a powerful virtue as bodhimind.

So the bodhimind is great. And then the 400 verses say:

Te tsom sö pa sam gye gyas

Si pa lhu bur che par gyur

Even developing doubt alone

Will tear samsara into pieces

That is wisdom. These are very, very powerful antidotes. Then of course, Vajrasattva recitations with the 100 syllable mantras. Vajrasattva is supposed to exist in order to have purification. All these are the essence of purification. And the essence of accumulation of merit is really rejoicing.

1:23:11.

Be pa chung wa lab se tso du wa

Gye la chi so yi rang cho du nga

Kye pa rang gen ngön dze ge wa la…

All rejoicing is the effortless way of collecting virtue…

Especially if you have done something good, rejoice in it again and again and every time you get positive karma. Even today you should rejoice in the buddhas and bodhisattvas in general, no doubt, but also rejoice in the great beings, such as the activities created by the Dalai Lama, by Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and all of those, these are stories in our life time and if you rejoice in them, that will be great. There is no shortage of what you can rejoice in. And also appreciate your friends and colleagues and peers, rather than trying to be jealous, suspicious and all that. That is not the dharma practitioners’ way. It may be the politician’s way, but not the dharma practitioner’s way. Even if that person is doing something with an agenda, ignore that agenda and rejoice in the good work they do. Leave the “but” out. That will be helpful.

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.b) The actual meditation has two parts:

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.b)1. The way to meditate once the selflessness of persons is established

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.b)2. The way to meditate once the selflessness of phenomena is established

II.2.3.2.2.2.1.b)1. Although in his discourses, the Conqueror taught innumerable logical reasonings to establish selflessness, since ascertaining it through the four key points is easier for beginners, the way to do so is as follows.

1:25:19.4 Now the actual practice has two outlines:

Establishing the emptiness of self

Establishing the emptiness of phenomena

Emptiness of the self

You begin to look in yourself and the books you read, the information you receive, Buddha’s teachings, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, and everywhere there are a tremendous amount of logical points through which you try to prove to yourself through all these books the selflessness. Remember the King of Logic: every phenomenon, including the self, is empty, because it is interdependent – or dependent origination. That is called “King of Logic”. If the self is interdependently originated, then it can’t be independent. How can that be? You are dependent, so you can’t be independent. So the reason of dependent origination establishes that it is not independent. We are talking about all phenomena, including the individual self.

1:28:06.1 That is a simple way of looking and is called rig pai gyal po, the King of Logic, the interdependence or interconnection. That may have be very difficult to go into your ears 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago. But thanks to so many great scientists, such as Einstein, etc, today, when we talk about interdependence, it is acceptable, even if we don’t understand what it means. It has become acceptable to the educated society. And Buddha has been saying this for 2600 years, shouting, screaming, but nobody wants to hear it.

1:29:39.5 For one reason: it came before the time. Then, maybe Buddha was not a Caucasian. I am joking, okay, don’t take it seriously. I always joke, so that you laugh and remember more. I make a fool of myself. I make many jokes at my own expense, because you will remember. Actually I am sacrificing myself for you sake (laughs). Then there is another logic called “Vajra Thunder”. There are so many logical points Buddha has presented but in this case, in the Delam, basically it goes through four important points.

The first important point is to recognize the target.

The thought, "Me, me" that your mind tightly apprehends from the depths of your heart, even when sunk in a deep sleep, is the innate apprehension of self. When someone accuses you falsely of making a mistake that you have not made, you think, "I didn't make that mistake yet I am being accused of it." Then a strong apprehension of "I" appears from deep within you and the way innate grasping at self apprehends the "I" is clear.

That is the time for a small portion part of your mind to examine the "I" that the mind grasps and how it grasps it. If the [analytical] mind is too strong, the former perception will disappear and as there will be nothing left [to examine], you will not succeed. Hence the major part of the mind should consistently produce me awareness of the "I" and only a small portion of it examine it.

1:31:00.9 If you are going to shoot an arrow you have to recognize the target. If you don’t know the target, you will shoot everywhere. Then it is like shooting arrows in the forest without knowing anything and a tiger may jump on you. If you just keep on shooting it doesn’t do any good. That’s why first you introduce the target. So gag gya ne pai nä – the important point: recognize your target. That’s the point of negation. What is it? What is your target?

When we watch our mind, even during sleep, all the time, there is something continuously that we hold and hold tight. That is “I”, “I”, “I” – something tight deep in ourselves, very tight. We have that all the time. Sometimes it is vivid, sometimes it is relaxed, sometimes it is very low key, but it is there, all the time, even when fall into deep sleep. It is still there. How do we know? When somebody accuses you of something false that you never did, at that moment you have a feeling. “Why does this person accuse me like crazy? I never did this.” Delam doesn’t mention, but at this level, Dorje Chang Pabongka, in his Liberation in the Palm of your Hands, very clearly mentioned: if you are with a group of friends, 10 or so, a number of friends and suddenly someone calls you out to be a thief, “Hey, you thief.” Must be Tsarong (laughs). Immediately you are embarrassed. You know that you didn’t steal anything and you are not a thief. But why is this person making such a huge accusation in public against me? That “me”, against “me” – that “me” feeling is actually the perception of this ego-grasping.

1:35:24.0 How do you recognize that “me” perception? At that very moment, before this shock is weakened, if you have some tiny, little or some kind of mind observing your own mind, how you have taken it, how it has affected you, why it is so bad for you, how it hurts you – and then that ego perception is the one who really hurts. So if you analyze to strongly, you lose the previous hurt and that disappears. If your analyzing mind is weak you don’t catch it. So you need a reasonably good, alert enough mind, trying to find the perception that you have. It is vivid to you at that moment. The hurt that you received by the insult of this friend of yours, among your friends, in public, seriously, that perception, if you can catch it, that is ngön dzin lhen gyi kyi dzin dang – the real perception of this self-grasping, simultaneous and always available within us. That is how this particular mind is perceiving the self. That is the perception and that is the target.

1:38:29.9 If somehow you can find it, [hang on to it]. You can easily lose it, because you are shifting your focus. You try to observe that mind. The Tibetan tradition tells you to observe that with part of your mind, - part of this, part of that. Whether you can divide your mind like that or not, take the immediately following thought. If that is too strong, you forget that perception. You are going to weaken the vividness. The vividness is not there. It also depends on how hard you are hurt. If you are hurt very strongly, it is not easy to forget. If you are hurt, but not that strong, then it is easy to forget. But that shows you, really the perception of what we call ego-grasping mind, which always remains with us and without any effort, without any push, it pops up very often and it somehow hides behind everything and manipulates all mental faculties, all kinds of mind, even your functioning, your living, your socializing and everything is somehow managed, administrated and manipulated from that deep mind.

1:40:46.0 So now maybe I should stop here. This is simply the introduction of the target. And we stop here and if I go beyond the time it is not right. We are not going to touch it till tomorrow. So you have lunch and after that you have Tony talking and how are you going to talk?

Tony: As long as they tell me to. I can make it shorter.

Rimpoche: If you can make it 45 minutes and then we will have Geshe-la (Nyendak) talk. So instead of meeting at 4.15, maybe we make that a little bit later, 4.30 and really try to be sharp and start straight away with the Lama Chöpa. Then Karla will take over.

Thank you.

1:43:12.1 Mandala offering - 1:43:29.9 Thank you. 1:43:35.6