Archive Result

20150901GRGR5P08 (110:58)

0:00:02.7 Good morning and welcome everybody. So today is Tuesday, the third day of the retreat. Yesterday, when Richard Gere said it’s his birthday I forgot it is my birthday too. According to my passport it is my birthday. Every driver’s license and document says it. So I completely forgot about it.

0:01:08.8 We had an interesting talk yesterday given by Joshua in the afternoon and I think it was very good. He really talked about the lam rim basis nicely and how did Diana Cutler’s talk go?

0:01:31.3 Audience: Very nice, she talked about guru devotion and a little bit about this history of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center and Geshe Wangyal.

0:01:43.0 Thank you and looking at what we began to talk yesterday about the Four Noble Truths and guru devotional practice. And I think that has been further built. Then we had this wonderful pouring tremendous thing by Professor Thurman and now you really know how much he knows. Really fantastic, you know – beyond.

0:02:24.2 I was thinking last night that he really gave the total image of Vajrayana, the totality. He didn’t talk about the initiation, the doorway, very much, but then he talked about creation stage – he doesn’t call it development stage – and the essence of the creation stage, which is of course utilizing our everyday life, living, dying and the stage in between into dharmakaya, sambogakaya and nirmanakaya, which he did really beautifully, with beautiful language and scientific explanation and then he went into the completion stage of body retreating, mind retreating, speech retreating and all that. Finally, he even went into the release of the chakras and channels and the dripping of the drops and opening of the chakras and then the three different colors of white, blue and red and the appearance of whiteness, darkness and redness and all this and the real essence of completion stage. Then he talked about Marpa’s special nine mixings. This is the Kagyüpas hidden treasure, the base, path and result. That is considered to be the Kagyüs greatest treasure you can ever touch.

0:05:06.6 And all of them, he poured in like a snow storm. I hope you people got something. Even then he talked about Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s special way of rising the illusory body, which he calls ‘magic body’. Then he also talked about the clear light, both example and meaning clear light and went up to the union. That is almost the complete Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s ngag rim chenmo he poured out last night. That’s very nice of him. I hope it will be helpful to a number of people I know. And I hope it will be a little bit too advanced for a number of people, but it is great that you have a good connection. You need it – you will need it later. If you review it and think about it some time, there will be a time that you will be needing it and it is a real treasure he put in and without really thinking about himself and losing secrecy and losing any of these downfalls, he completely just poured it in.

0:07:03.2 In a way it is very good and we are grateful for him doing that and I am supposed to be putting these talks together. Many of you have good information and I am sure you can use it. Many of you. But for some of you it is a little too early, but it’s okay. At least you know how much there is in the vajrayana. So I don’t really have to convince you that you should join vajrayana, that you should really enter the vajrayana. He really did everything. How wonderfully he presented. That really confirms for us that at least ultimately our path will be in the vajrayana practice. And so, that is the vajrayana practice.

Start Talk I

0:08:15.0 Let me go backwards today: the vajrayana practice is part of Mahayana. A lot of people talk about the three yanas as Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Nothing is wrong with that. There is this way of counting that. It is known and accepted in the American Buddhist field. I don’t know where it started. Probably with Trungpa Rinpoche. I don’t think it is Geshe Wangyal. Trungpa Rinpoche might have started talking that way. Anyway, people accept it that way and I don’t argue with it. You can count that way, because from the practitioner’s point of view that’s how it is.

0:09:13.3 But generally, when you talk about the three yanas, they are the Sravakayana, Pratyekayana and Mahayana. Sravakayana is the way of the Buddha’s disciples. The other day, when Geshe Yeshe Thapke Rinpoche was talking about Buddha’s disciples, he talked about Shariputra, Maudgalputra and even Ananda and all of those. These we categorize and call Sravakas. Don’t listen to the Tibetan pronunciation of Sanskrit, which is terrible, you know. When listening to Thurman last night, remember for example we say OM SVABHAVA SHUDDAH SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDOH HAM, but he was saying OM SVABARVA SHUDDAH SARVA DHARMA SABAWA ATAHATE HIM KO or something, anyway, he speaks Sanskrit and we have a Sanskrit professor still here today. So they know. But don’t listen to the Tibetanized Sanskrit, because it is not good.

0:10:42.3 Even the name of Nagarjuna is pronounced differently. One friend of mine went to the Buddhist studies department in Chicago and she was saying Nagarjuuuna the way I do and the professor started scolding her, “Say it properly”. I think they say Nagaaaarjuna. Anyway, that’s right. Tibetanized Sanskrit is mostly not very nice, anyway. But for 1000 years it has been done by thousands of people, actually hundreds of thousands of people. Anyway, the Sravakayana is the self-liberating vehicle. So Vajrayana, out of the three yanas is part of Mahayana. Vajrayana is not separate from Mahayana. Some people do not accept Vajrayana at all. The majority of Buddhists other than Tibetans mostly don’t accept Vajrayana. Vajrayana is available in China and Japan, but they don’t consider it really as Buddhist. In China it is very much Vajrayana, but it is mixed up with some kind of Daoism and they couldn’t separate it very clearly. Am I wrong Professor?

Audience (David Mellins): I didn’t study Chinese Buddhism very thoroughly.

Rimpoche: Okay, anyway, that’s China and in Japan it got mixed up with Shinto. So really the Vajrayana, even though it is very much there, it is not there as Vajrayana. Yeah, a little, but…yes, it’s there, but not there; that sort of category.

0:13:27.1 Thailand, Cambodia and so on, the Hinayana, the real disciples of the Buddha’s path, never accept Vajrayana. The Theravadan people do not even accept the Mahayana at all. So they really only accept the Theravadan level and that’s it. That’s it.

0:14:00.2 Now, according to the Tibetan Buddhism, we also have a problem. The Theravadan level we will call the “self-interest people”. Why? Because they want to liberate themselves. They want themselves to be free. The self purpose is more important than the purpose of serving and helping others. Self-liberation is their goal. And of course the base is the Two Truths. Always Buddhism works with base, path and result. What you want to get, how you are going to get it, on what basis you think you are qualified to get it. Base, path and result – everybody knows that. I have said this maybe for the benefit of some people.

0:15:24.6 So, the goal of the Theravadan is self-liberation. The goal of Mahayana is total enlightenment. The base is almost the same – ourselves. The path is also the same, but that I have to talk later, so I am not going to talk just now, but the main purpose is what we were talking yesterday: the Four Noble Truths, and out of that the two negative truths: how did we get into this terrible mess? There is so much suffering, really. I almost like to say: you have no idea, how much people suffer. Individually they suffer tremendously, though they come with a little smile and look nice, with make-up and all that, but it is pain and torture inside. So much. What you want you are not getting; what you don’t want you are getting it. You are getting older, which you don’t want to, day by day. You are getting sick and then, whoever you want to be together with, friends you don’t get, and what you don’t want is available around. They bug you and there are all kinds of things and there are different sufferings for different people all the time, really tormenting us. We have that, honestly.

0:17:42.3 But yet, we are human beings and we know how to behave a little bit, you know, that sort of suffering, plus the lower realms. There are the hell realms, hungry ghost realms and animal realms. Even the samsaric god realms have tremendous sufferings. I think either Geshe Yeshe Thapke or Thurman or somebody mentioned it yesterday. We call them god’s realms, lands of joy and wonderful, and they also have tremendous emotional pain. For example, I think Thurman mentioned last night that sometimes – I don’t know who said it – but the story is this. Shariputra was one of Buddha’s outstanding disciples, along with Maughalputra. One is wisdom, the other is magical powers. Sometimes you see pictures with the Buddha and two monks standing right and left. These two are Shariputra and Maudgalputra.

0:19:28.6 Shariputra had a disciple who happened to be the son of a rich family, maybe a king or minister, I forgot, or business man. That guy died, so Shariputra followed him to be able to complete his path in his next lifetime. So Shariputra followed him and went up to the samsaric gods realms where he was reborn. Normally, in his life, whenever he saw Shariputra from a distance, he would jump down from his elephant. Normally, he was riding and elephant. We would jump down and touch Shariputra’s feet and do all that. And then when you are born as samsaric god you have three qualities. You see your past life absolutely clear, like you are living today and your present life you are seeing. And your future life, if you look, you will find it, but you will never look. So these are the three qualities they have karmically. So they are known as “Three Timers.” So Shariputra knew where he was and he appeared in the samsaric gods realm to help him.

0:21:22.2 He was running around with plenty of young boys and girls of samsaric gods and when he saw Shariputra he raised one finger, just to acknowledge him and then went away. So instead of jumping from the elephant he raised a finger and ran away. There is so much entertainment, withdrawing the mind and the suffering they get is by the time they are about to die, their natural flowers are getting old and droop down. The moment that happens everybody will notice that this fellow is going within seven days or so. So everybody avoids them. Some good friends will bring new flower garlands on the tip of a long stick and throw it at them. These are local flowers, because the natural-born flowers are going bad. So you can wear the local flowers for a few seconds. I say seconds and a week [before the person dies], because in that level, their weeks are so long – a couple of years for us, maybe more. Very long. So then they notice where they are going to be reborn.

0:23:21.9 Last night in Thurman’s talk about the ten virtues and non-virtues he said, “Don’t call it virtuous. It is skilled and unskilled.” He presented it so beautifully. He has his own mind, this brilliant mind of his. I don’t know whether we can copy it or not.

0:23:56.5

Their good karma is finishing, so the result of bad karma is left, so they probably notice they will be taking rebirth as a pig in the slums of Calcutta or something. Terrible. So they have so much unbearable worry – in our time, years, in their time, seven days, seven long days. They suffer tremendously. And the natural-born flowers have decayed. It is sort of reminding them every minute that they are going to go. So they see the next life and they suffer tremendously. So samsaric gods also have tremendous suffering. As long as in samsara, there is suffering. So you like or you don’t like it? We don’t like it. Nobody likes suffering. Nobody wants suffering. When you don’t want it you don’t say, “You are born with it, so you have to suffer.” You don’t do that. That’s not a wise way.

0:25:52.9 We have this wonderful mind, and this wonderful, capable body and the question is: what can I do? Yesterday I talked to you: from the First Noble Truth, move to the Second Noble Truth; from the karmic consequences to where the karma comes from. I created my karma by engaging in positive or negative deeds. “ Skillfully” – that is how Thurman mentioned last night the ten non-virtues. The opposite of that is perfect morality. Perfect or not, it is good morality. Those negativities are creating samsara. So reducing it, purifying it, whatever you could cancel, cancel it. Whatever you can purify, that is cancellation. And continuously build positive, so that you will have positive results. That’s the very simple way on the ground. The Vajrayana way is what Thurman talked last night in a very, very profound way, honestly. That is very different, but this is simple, straight forward. It is the normal path, which we, without any difficulty, can do; without any difficulty. We simply bring awareness, alertness and follow it, even though you will fail. For sure you will fail. It doesn’t matter. If you fall 300 times, make sure you get up 300 times. Don’t let it go down. Continuously keep on going. If you do that, on the one hand you reduce the cause; on the other hand you utilize the purification and accumulate good karma together. Then the negative karma gets exhausted. When the negativities are completely exhausted, the exhaustion of the negativities is the Third Noble Truth.

0:28:53.4 Thurman mentioned that last night and he also said, “Rimpoche didn’t get to it yet” or something. For me it is a matter of just simply saying: with the exhaustion of the negativities you are left only with positive.” Either Thurman or Geshe Yeshe Thapke also used the term gog den, remember, the Truth of Cessation. It was Thurman and he even used karuna as den go and all that. Anyway, the exhaustion of negativities and the causes of negativities, that’s the cessation. What is finished is our negative emotions and their causes. They are finished, so you have got their cessation. The cessation could be total enlightenment, it could be the state of an arhat or at every level of the work you do and that is the Third Noble Truth.

0:30:11.6 Now the Third Noble Truth is the path. That means: what do we do? What can we do? What should I do? That’s the question. So normal teachings will tell you that the Fourth Noble Truth, the Truth of the Path to the Cessation, is the 8-fold path or the Four Noble Truths or something. But let me talk to you this way:

0:30:40.8 According to the Buddha, he has given a tremendous amount of different varieties of things to do for different people to suit their minds. And to many people simply it simply suits to think, “I wan to be good. I want cessation of my negativities.” Fro that Buddha gave the Theravadan path. So the goal of the Theravada path is simply to get freedom from suffering. So you have the statement: samsara is suffering – nirvana is peace. You hear that. When you have exhausted the samsara including the causes, then you get nirvana. Cessation is nirvana. People sometimes use nirvana as death and samsara as life, but that’s not true. It is simply an expression, but the truth is that when everything samsaric is exhausted, then you get nirvana.

0:32:49.4 How that gets exhausted is a different story. I am not going to talk that tonight, or this time even. I briefly just want to mention this, but I am going to talk about the Mahayana path. That’s why I don’t want to talk that here, because time won’t permit me and also, no point.

0:33:13.8 The most important point over here is recognizing the suffering and acknowledging it, disliking it, being disgusted with it. Then develop the desire to be free of it. We call that renunciation. Renunciation simply does not mean to give up and run. No, people sometimes misunderstand that. If you really can give up everything and be celibate, and if you can maintain celibacy, then do it. Great. But if you like me, and cannot maintain celibacy, then you don’t have to. But it is the mind. At the mind level you really should not have strong attachment to samsaric things. Renounce that attachment. It is very difficult to renounce. Why? Because there are beautiful picnic spots everywhere. Yes, you are suffering. Yes, there are beautiful beaches. There are beautiful hill tops. There are beautiful things here and there, everything. So these little picnic spots, in our normal conversation we say – keep us in life. But really, they are maintaining our attachment to the samsara, the circle of existence.

0:35:52.7 If you want to renounce that, it is a great desire, but nobody can really give up the circle of life’s repetition. No. Whatever you do, it will continue. Some people suffer so much that they would like to commit suicide. Suicide doesn’t end the suffering, because your life doesn’t end. This life may end, but your life doesn’t end. It will continue. For none of us life begins at the time of conception or birth and it never ends at the time of death. This life, yes, begins at the time of conception or whatever and ends when you die. When our mind separates from the physical identity, then that’s called death. That ends this life, but this life is part of life, part of zillions of lives continuing.

0:37:15.5 So it doesn’t end at all. So committing suicide gets you only additional torture. It is not easy. It is very difficult and very painful and suffering. It is additional torture. If it ends suffering we could all commit suicide. But it doesn’t end there, not at all. Not only it doesn’t end, but also it creates more completely terrible negativity. Whether you are killing yourself or other people, it is killing of a human being. So you cannot, should not and will not do it. Honestly. That doesn’t help, but it will harm you much more. You have more sufferings of things you don’t like, even more. So that is not the solution. The only help you can help is reduction of negative karma. Purify the negativities and build more positive karma. How do I build good karma? That is really a moral issue. Really, ethics or morality. Thurman mentioned last night, the ten negativities. Avoid them, at any level, wherever and by avoiding those ten negativities you have the good morality of the 10 positive virtues: three by body, four by speech and three by mind. That makes ten, right? That’s how it works.

0:39:36.8 In the Theravada path, you maintain morality properly, plus purification. By maintaining the good morality, automatically you are building the ten virtues, the ten skills. By avoiding the 10 unskillful activities you have the ten skillful activities and that will help and that’s how it is done.

0:40:24.2 When you maintain that, your own personal suffering is going to be exhausted and the cause of suffering is also going to be exhausted. Is that enough? How long is that going to take? These are totally different questions. Actually, it takes a long, long, long time, not only this life, but many lives. So what to do? So then actually, the Mahayana path is there. That’s because of the Vajrayana. The Mahayana path will give you a quicker way, actually, Vajrayana, very definitely. Here we are talking about obtaining enlightenment even within a lifetime. I don’t whether anybody can today or not, I don’t know. But there is no talk of cessation in the life time at the Theravada level, nothing. I am not looking down either. Sometimes people think that Theravada is a little useless, because it is not like Mahayana or Vajrayana. But do not look down on it. You know why?

0:42:41.8 Theravada principles are the basis of Mahayana and if you don’t have the base you cannot build. When there is no foundation you cannot build anything. If you build something it will become an ice castle and when the heat comes, like these days, the whole ice castle will go into the Hudson River. It doesn’t stay, right. So you really need the base. The base is in the Theravada teachings. The total practice within Theravada is the morality issue with a little wisdom and concentration. Those are the three major things. Wisdom is the same thing in Mahayana and Theravada. It’s the same wisdom. Concentration meditation is the same thing. So this is what Buddha calls the Three Higher Trainings. So the Three Higher Trainings is the practice of the Theravada; the Four Noble Truths, etc, these are the major path of Theravada. So that is the base.

0:44:14.8 When you don’t like suffering and are disgusted by it, you just don’t want to bear it for even a minute, actually this can be taking advantage of. You think, “All right, I don’t like it. What can I do? What can I do for my loved ones? What can I do for those I care about?” So you have to think that the dislike that you have is something that everybody will have. No one like to voluntarily accept that. When you begin to think that you notice that your mind is not equal towards everybody. We don’t have that. We don’t have equality of equanimity.

0:45:31.9 We are Americans and that everybody is equal is the greatest American thing. But it’s not. Me – superior. My – after that. You – inferior, yours – not so important. That attitude is what we deeply have within us, deeply. We are bringing that addiction with us from thousands of lives. It is very deeply engrained, though educated, intelligent persons like you will simply deny that, saying, “I do think about equality.” But your mind is direct knowledge to you, so think deeply and you find there is tremendous ego-grasping self-cherishing within you and that makes you think that you are superior and that others are inferior. Equality is not there. When there is no equality you can’t treat everybody the same. You can’t care for everybody the same. Me and my – we all say that and do that. It is my family. That is quite an extension, but it is only me and my spouse maybe and then family is a little extension. You have extended your mind.

0:47:54.9 Others, well they are there. Others, it’s okay. That’s how our mind is. The equality is not there. You have to put in lots of effort to think about equality. I want my happiness, so do they. From their point of view they want exactly the same that I want. What I don’t want, they don’t want. I don’t have much time to talk, but all of you are very familiar with this. So on the basis of equality and equanimity, then develop compassion. Develop love. You really have love for yourself. You do. Your dislike of your suffering is because you love yourself. Developing love for others is your task, your challenge. Not attachment, but just love. The nature of love is appreciation. The nature of attachment is the desire. I want something. I want it. It is by me and for me. That is becoming desire and attachment. Appreciation is love. Appreciate as it is. When someone tells you, “I love you as you are”, this is great love. “I love you as you are, but I wish you could change your hairstyle or make-up.” “Maybe you should have a little operation” or something. When you are getting to that level, there is no pure love.

0:50:51.0 There is no love. It is desire and attachment. It is quite hard to make the distinction between real true love and attachment. They are very close. So you know now. What do you really want out of that person? If you appreciate that person then it is great. Allen Ginsberg used to recite a poem here by William Blake:

He who binds to himself a joy,

Does the winged life destroy.

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

lives in eternity’s sunrise.

That’s really what it is. You really need appreciation. Yesterday, Geshe Yeshe Thapkhe quoted from the Bodhisattvacharyavatara that between the Buddha and the people there is no difference. Then why do people respect Buddha, but not people? People cannot develop compassion without people. People cannot develop love without people. So forget about developing bodhimind. Bodhimind is developed on the basis of the people. So as you respect Buddha you should respect people. Remember that?

0:53:06.0 So these are the ways to improve your mental attitude. Then you develop love. When you love someone you really want them to be happy. You really don’t want that someone to suffer. If you could remove the suffering by hand you are willing to remove it, because you love the person. And that is compassion, general compassion. When you are talking about bodhimind you are talking about greater compassion, equal to every being. That is almost impossible in our mind right now. That’s why we need equality and equanimity. When we see the enemy we feel unhappy. When we see friends, we feel better. Even in political dramas that we see like in this election time, if you are democrat and you see a democrat candidate you like them. When you see the Republicans you feel “uhhhhh”. Vice versa, when you are Republican and you see the Republican guy like Ted Cruz or Trump or Bush you like it. When you see Hillary you go, “Aaah, problems, terrible, liar, thief, murderer” and whatever else you can see altogether put on her. Vice versa it is also the other way round.

0:55:50.7 That’s because there is no equality. That’s how we look into it. Without equality you can never get greater compassion, no way. Greater compassion is necessary. You may think, “I have good, strong compassion. I feel for everybody I come across.” But that is not enough. You really need greater compassion because this is the root of bodhimind. Bodhimind is grown out of greater compassion. If you don’t have greater compassion you don’t have bodhimind. We call it bodhimind. It is the unlimited, unconditioned, ultimate love and compassion. So there are ways of developing bodhimind within the usual teachings. There are the seven stages of developing bodhimind or the exchange stages of developing bodhimind or the combination together, the eleven stages of developing bodhimind. Whichever you follow, it gives guaranteed results.

0:58:21.2 If you don’t follow any of them, nothing happens. You can read about it. You can talk about it, but if you don’t mediate and don’t practice, nothing will happen. If you don’t have bodhimind or greater compassion, which is the root of bodhimind, then no matter how much you keep busy and think it is good spiritual practice it is like chicken without head running around. Honestly. So you need a head. That is this. So either of those, the seven or exchange stages can do that. You can look into any good Tibetan Buddhist Mahayana teaching and anywhere you can find this. Even if you look in my transcripts, there are the seven stages mentioned everywhere, in lam rim and in every little talk here and there or in detail in the lama chöpa teachings and everywhere. Even in the Vajrayana teachings you also find them.

1:00:12.4 Then you have all the choice of the exchange stages, which is Shantideva’s wonderful way. It’s not only Shantideva’s, but Manjushri’s way that came to Shantideva and others. That also is available everywhere. Don’t let me talk that to you. If I do, it will take time. It is important and I should, but on the other hand, my theme is the five wisdom points. I have not even reached there. I have not even begun yet. So, if I talk too much on this, it won’t be. So really, all these wonderful lojongs, like the Seven Point Mind Training, the Eight Verses and Dharmarakshita’s Wheel of Sharp Weapon, anyone of those have that. But the Seven Point Mind Training is very, very easy and convenient and good.

You give training to your mind, training in compassion, training in love and developing bodhimind. That is absolutely essential, the fundamental basis of the Mahayana path. You will hear that bodhimind is the gateway, the doorway, like we say that refuge is the gateway or doorway to be Buddhist. Just like that, bodhimind is the gateway or doorway to the Mahayana path. To tell you the truth, without the Mahayana path, no matter whatever you do, it’s going to take a zillion years to get you results. So our only hope, honestly, is the Mahayana and particularly, Vajrayana. So the reasons why we have to put in efforts to develop love and compassion is because of that reason.

Start Talk II

1:03:13.2 By nature, we as good human beings, in our own nature, have compassion. In our nature you have love. It just simply needs to be polished. Honestly. It is there. If it is ignored it is going to go away. If it is looked after it is going to be great. That’s what we, as intelligent, kind persons, have. We all have it, unlike other lives.

1:04:08.6 Okay, then on the basis of the seven stage development, with the bottom line equality/equanimity, you recognize everybody as the most nearest and dearest, way beyond respecting people, but see them as the most important, closest and nearest and dearest, Buddha says to look at them as “mother beings.” Then you remember their kindness. You remember to repay their kindness, then love, then compassion, then the special resolution. You have to resolve that “I am going to do this liberation of all these people, because they are not only somebody, they have been the closest and dearest. You may have one or two persons that are specific, but then you have all others along with that. Take personal responsibility to liberate them, no matter whatever the consequences may be. We as Americans are good at it. We can make that sort of commitment, without looking much.

1:06:12.4 I remember, I used to talk in India and gave this example, “Americans, when they do want to help you, then without looking too much they will help you. They commit. Russians will turn the hamburger up and down and look from any angle and if they sure it’s going to help themselves, then they will help you. I used to think that way and say it that way. But Americans are good at committing. I hope it lasts long. If you want to help one individual that’s fine. Don’t ignore the others. Help them. What can you do? Free them from suffering. Okay?

1:07:23.7 Now, let’s say someone is missing in your life. There are two things: one is that you want to help that person in whatever way you can. The second is that you want to bring it back and be together. Bringing back and be together is selfish. That is self-desire. Wanting to help is the mind of helping. It is compassion. Now helping doesn’t mean material help alone. The most important help is spiritual help. And that of freeing that person and freeing everyone else from suffering and that is the biggest gift you can give. This is the biggest way to repay the kindness of people we love. So, can I do it? I like to, but I can’t, because I don’t have the capacity. Therefore, I need the capacity. I like to become Buddha so that I can do that. We don’t have to wait till you become Buddha, but after a little while it will be; not after a long while, but quickly you will be able to do it.

1:09:54.7 “I would like to become Buddha”, totally out of love, out of compassion, totally dedicated, yet the desire to become Buddha. Such a double-pronged desire mind is called bodhimind. So our purpose is to develop that. It can only develop by practicing, by meditating, by purification, by accumulation of positive deeds. The moment that mind is grown with you, even artificially, that means corrected, reshaped thoughts, even then, a tremendous amount of purification has been done. Tremendous.

Shantideva said,

Dig pa tob she zhin tu mi se pa

De ne dzog pai jang chub sem men pa

Ge zhin gang gi se gye nam par gyur (spelling???)

Such a powerful, unskilled negativities,

Any mind cannot destroy them other than

Such a powerful bodhimind

Who else can destroy it? It cancels tremendous amounts of negativities by a minute of even artificial bodhimind. And when you are getting used to it, when you are trained in that way, then there will be a time that bodhimind develops naturally with you, without making it, but naturally becoming a part of you, a part of your thinking. When that happens for the first time you enter into the path of Mahayana. You enter into the path of Mahayana.

1:13:10.5 There are five paths in the Mahayana – or even in Theravada it’s the same thing. They have the same names:

Path of Accumulation

Path of Action

Path of Seeing

Path of Meditation

Path of No More Learning

Thurman touched on all of them, actually. The Path of Accumulation is the first path. How and when you get I told you. This bodhimind, artificially generated by you, when it becomes natural to you, then you entered the path. Until then you are lay. When you have that, you are on the path of accumulation. The major job at the path of accumulation is to build more positive karma, positive deeds. When you talk about positive deeds there are two types: with wisdom and without wisdom. Remember, a lot of Tibetan Buddhist centers say Nagarjuna’s dedication words:

ge wa di yi kye bo kun

so nam yeshe tsog dzog zhing

so nam yeshe le jung wai

dam pa ku nyi thob par shoh

Due to this merit

may I and all sentient beings

achieve the two holy bodies

that are formed by the accumulation

of merit and wisdom

They talk about two merits: wisdom merit and merit merit. At the path of accumulation it is not wisdom merit, but merit merit is more emphasized and more our job. Until you get to the path you have still not entered the path. You are a lay person. Once you entered the path you are an ordinary person, not an extraordinary person. So your stage has changed from lay to ordinary. These are traditional, Indian culture-based terms. Sometimes these names are a little bit…..nobody would like to be ordinary; nobody would like to be lay. Everybody wants to be special. So it is interesting, but that’s how it is.

1:16:36.2 So the first path you enter is the path of accumulation. It’s called ‘accumulation’. Accumulate merit as much as you can. That’s what it is. I am not sure how much in detail I should talk, but now the major emphasis is now totally on developing wisdom. When you talk about wisdom, we say this is wisdom and that’s easy. But if you really try to gain it within you then it is difficult. All the challenges and difficulties will come. So that path of accumulation also has three different stages. Sometimes we say, “I have been practicing and practicing and there is no measurement. Where did I reach? What did I do? Did I reach anywhere?” Right? So mostly we didn’t reach anywhere, unfortunately, honestly. We really did not reach anywhere. But it is not like there is no measurement. There is.

1:19:00.0 Normally, all these teachings, all these practices, ultimately every Tibetan Buddhism, no matter whatever tradition it is, is geared towards Vajrayana. So many people do not emphasize these five points of wisdom stages to reach the Buddha level. But it is not that it is not there. It is very much there. I wanted to talk a little briefly, so even that path of accumulation itself has three different levels.

The names are: small, medium and big, just like our shirts: small, medium and large. Let’s not talk about extra large or XX large or extra small. The example given here is when you get sick and go to see a doctor and the doctor gives you medicine you take the medicine but you are not sure whether that medicine is going to help you or not, whether it will cure you or not.

Tibetan medicine, like traditional Indian aryuvedic medicine are not like aspirin, which you eat and 20 minutes later your headache is cured. It is not like that. It is tedious medicine. Somehow personally I don’t take the traditional Tibetan aryuvedic or Chinese medicine. Every old culture does have it’s own healing, right? Even the native Americans have their own healing. But when you take those medicines, when you first take them, you never know whether they are going to help you or not. You never know if they diagnosed you correctly, if they give you the correct medicine. It is also not like today. Today, if you have this symptom, take that medicine and that symptom, take that medicine. It is all written down and has become written knowledge and the knowledge of that individual both. In the old times, it was the personal experience of the doctor and never written. Something very little is written, but not much. So when you first take medicine you are not sure if it’s going to help. That is the small stage.

1:22:57.1 So, when you are eating the medicine and you are sure it’s going to help you but you don’t know how long it’s going to take, that is the medium level.

Then finally, you are going to recover very quickly and that is the big level. That’s how the big, small and medium levels are divided. Also, now everything, every positive deed that you are building, based on the bodhimind – without the bodhimind there is no base – it really has to be based on bodhimind. They give you an example: whatever grows out of the ground depends on the ground. Whether it is a fruit, vegetable or flower or even chilli. I got beautiful chillies. Jampa Norzum la and Robert gave me green and red chillies, really wonderful and hot like hell, but great. Anyway, whatever it is, as hot as chillies, as sweet as the local peaches, which you gave me yesterday and I gave to Richard for his birthday, all these sweet-sour, hot, beautiful flowers and beautiful environment, everything depends on the soil, the ground. With soil I don’t mean where your field is but the total ground. If there is no ground nothing can happen.

1:26:08.3 Am I right or wrong? Totally. Everything, whatever we grow and eat, everything is coming out of the soil, the ground. So every good deed of helping has to come on the basis of bodhimind. That is like the ground. Over here it is a struggle for us to get it, but when we get it, it is the ground that we have. So everything depends on bodhimind. How important it is! This is the total, fundamental basis. Before we said that the guru devotional practice is the root of development. Now here we say that bodhimind is the total fundamental basis. So everything is grown on that basis. So, even if you obtain the great, precious bodhimind, I am not sure whether we can maintain it or it is going to decrease and get lost. When that is not certain, just like medicine is going to help or not, whether you can maintain it or not. Many people a) find it very difficult to develop and b) even if developed, even artificially, it is difficult to maintain. The chances are that you are going to lose it. There is more chances of losing. When it is not certain, that is the small level of accumulation. When you become a little better and the medicine is going to help you, maybe you are not going to lose it. And if you are not gong to lose it, it is like gold. No matter how much it is remaining under the ground, it is not going to be tarnished.

1:29:18.8 Likewise, when you reach to the medium level, then no matter whatever happens, you yourself are going to be transferred to the action path, from the accumulation path. But not very quickly. When you become the big level of the path of accumulation, you develop automatically a tremendous amount of magical power, so that you can travel to the various places to listen to the teachings of various living buddhas – as official buddhas. By that time you have been traveling to pure lands and pure lands, to different buddhas. Yesterday Geshe Yeshe Thapkhe was talking here and the Buddha’s disciples and bodhisattvas were coming to inquire after Vimalakirti’s health. Shariputra was thinking that there were so many people and one thing I was sure and Thurman clarified what Geshe-la was saying and Joshua didn’t really clarify. Joshua was saying that Buddha said that Shariputra should go and this person should go and that person should go and so on. But it is not that Buddha was saying: you go and you go. It means he was asking: you lead the delegation as the leader. So he asked Shariputra to be the leader of the delegation and the delegation would go.

1:31:49.0 It went the same way with all others and even Ananda and each of them had a different excuse. Finally, Manjushri went and then everybody joined in the delegation, thousands of them. Thousands of Buddha’s disciples went there and then the time was 12 noon and the reason is not that they cannot miss lunch, because they want to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. No. That’s not the reason. Buddha’s disciples only eat once a day. They never eat after noon. That’s the reason why Shariputra worried, not because they were missing lunch. Sometimes we may think, “If you miss lunch, so what?” But then they don’t get any food for 24 hours. So then Manjushri led the delegation and he talked so much detail yesterday, right, so when Shariputra worried about lunch, he looked around and said, “There is nothing here, except his cushion, bed and furniture. How are these monks going to eat? There is no food, so we better do something.” So the moment Shariputra thought this, Vimalakirti said, “Oh, don’t worry, Shariputra, I will get you a beautiful lunch, like you never had before.” Oh, okay, how was he going to do it?

1:33:45.2 Naturally, Vimalakirti travelled to this pure land of the incense smell Buddha. He went thousands of miles in a matter of seconds. He told that Buddha, “Could you give a little extra food for us?” And these bodhisattvas asked, “Where does this bodhisattva come from? Who is he?” He happened to be a midget in that pure land, because human beings are small compared to them. Over there they are all huge. So they asked, “Where does this midget kid come from?” Then that Buddha explained that he was a disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha in this and that place. So he wanted a little food and that Buddha gave a little food to him and then he said, “I am going to feed all the disciples of Buddha.” Then their bodhisattvas wanted to go with him and that Buddha said, “You can’t go like this. You will be looking down on them. They all look like midgets, tiny little ones. So you can’t go that way. You have to shrink your body and go.” So that’s how they came.

1:35:18.3 So traveling from pure land to pure land is reality. When you listened last night to Thurman’s talk, when you really getting into the clear light level and the illusion body level, which he calls magic body, you are gone beyond the limit of the law of physics. Then you can travel everywhere in a minute, anytime anywhere. That’s how it works and that’s why Vimalakirti was sitting here, went over there, collected the food and brought those people together with him over here, physically. And even that deity, the goddess who changed her body into a human body and then into the body of Shariputra and all these things are possible because of that level. You have gone beyond the laws of physics.

1:36:39.2 Even some scientists today talk about string theory and break that law and send materials through walls. They do it today at some level, so this is reality. This is not a fairy tale. This is reality, which we all will be capable of. It is only a matter of reaching there. In order to reach there you have to build this basis first – the bodhimind. Then enter into the path. So now you have to make up your own mind. If you have developed bodhimind without making up, without correcting, but bodhimind naturally developing in you, you have entered the path. If the bodhimind is not developing with you without effort, you have not entered the path. That’s it.

1:38:13.4 So you have to make your own judgment. That’s the first step. Even if you enter the path, small, medium or big, again you have this measurement. Exactly. Whether the medicine is going to help or not, whether the bodhimind is going to be maintained or you are going to lose it. And then if you are going to maintain it, your medicine is going to help you, how long is it going to take? And then you realize it is going to happen quickly and then you reach to the big level. At the big level you have all these magical powers. You can do it without telling.

1:39:09.4 But the difficult part is before. Once you get over there, everything is almost available. It is not that you have to put in efforts. You do, but very little. Before it is difficult. When you renounce the suffering, when you develop compassion and greater compassion, and when you develop bodhimind. Bodhimind also has two: prayer form and action form. I think we are talking about action form here. Anyway, then when you are meditating, you go on meditating on wisdom emptiness.

1:40:27.2 So I am asking (Demo) Rinpoche what at what level we transfer from the path of accumulation big level to the action path, and he said, “The combination of shamata and vipasyana together, when you develop that, then you get to the path of action. The combination of shamata and vipasyana. So you are meditating on emptiness. You are developing shamata on mind.

1:41:31.1 So that’s the level, indicating to you that at this accumulation of merit level you have to have developed shamata. You have to develop vipasyana. I should talk to you a little bit about shamata, but in my opinon shamata really begins with mindfulness, as we said this morning. The usual American mindfulness, don’t look down on it. A lot of senior Mahayana Buddhists begin to look down on the usual American mindfulness, saying that it is a waste of time, it’s doing nothing, waiting there till the cows come home and these expressions they have, meaning that they are looking down a little bit. That also may have reasons, but it is very helpful to us in the beginning, because we never deal with our mind. Everything is thinking, learning and not learning and the Tibetans are in the habit of saying prayers.

1:43:18.4 If you just say the words, then it is just bla, bla, bla. No difference than a parrot repeating after a human being. But if you back up the words you say by your thoughts, then it is meditation. When a group says prayers together, the meditation is left for the individual person and the group joins together, saying the words. Actually, if you know the words, the words will convince you and give you the message. Like, “I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.” So you are talking about Buddha, about Dharma and about Sangha and taking refuge. “I purify my negativities.” So you are talking about negativities, which are misdeeds, three by body, four by speech and three by mind, those ten negativities, plus broken vows, commitments, etc. Purifying them means you are applying the four powers of regret, no repeating, antidote activities (which is meditating and saying prayers here) and so by the application of four powers it purifies. If you are thinking the words then there is meditation. If you are not thinking and just say the words it means nothing, even if you say, “In order to help all sentient beings I will become a Buddha.” Kids will say that and not think anything.

1:45:48.6 Then it becomes a funny thing. Anyway, no point of wasting your time here. Then you say, “I rejoice in the good works of every being”, meaning the works of Sravakas, Pratyekas, bodhisattvas and buddhas. They have done great work and I rejoice. If you say these words and think that way, then meditation and saying prayers go together. Then “I will hold bodhimind in my heart.” And with that you generate bodhimind. If you keep on thinking that then you meditate together, and if you don’t then bla, bla, bla doesn’t do much. And every young Tibetan kid will say that prayer:

I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha until I become fully enlightened.

By practicing generosity, etc, the six perfections, may I become a fully enlightened Buddha for the sake of all beings.

Actually, it is the complete practice in there. You are just saying a few words and if you don’t think it doesn’t mean anything. Dro la pen chir sang gye drup par shoh – may I become a fully enlightened Buddha for the sake of all beings – that becomes some useless thing.

1:47:39.3 I remember a story. In a Tibetan refugee school in Mussorie, India with the homes foundations, about which we talked yesterday, Mrs. Taring, there was an Indian medical doctor, which the school had employed. So he didn’t do any checking or anything, but just had the kids lined up, asking, “Are you okay? Bye – are you okay, bye – are you okay, bye.” Then some kids may say, “I need an injection.” “Oh, you need an injection?” So then he will give them a water injection, so mentally they will think, “Oh I got the injection. I am okay, no sick anymore.” So the kids would call that doctor, “Doctor Dro la Pen Chir.” That means “in order to help all sentient beings”, so they called this guy “All sentient beings’ helper.” I don’t think you got the joke and anyway, it’s lunch time and there we are, okay?

1:48:51.5 So today we have the Theravada path of the most important renunciation, based on suffering. Then as you suffer, all beings equally suffer and we very briefly touched on the development of the seven stages of bodhimind. When the bodhimind is developed, you begin to enter the path of accumulation, without effort. With efforts is different. It has to be without effort.

1:49:37.1 And that path has three stages: small, medium and large. At the small level you are never sure if you going to maintain it. At the large size you are going to maintain it. You are not going to be too small and throw it away. So then the big size you are going to go quickly. Right? But everything is built on bodhimind like the ground. The base of you work is bodhimind. So the biggest challenge is for us to develop that. Okay, thank you.

1:50:29.8 Announcement 1:50:57.2 end of file