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20160214GRAAST47

Good morning and happy Valentine’s day, everybody as well as wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year and Tibetan Losar. All happened last week. Welcome here today and we are very happy to have Glenn Mullin here and last time Glenn was here he sat with me and talked and today he is hiding in the corner somewhere. But he is here doing a wonderful workshop for the weekend and I am wasting your time today, taking away from that beautiful, wonderful talk that Glenn has given over the last two days. So I am wasting your morning and I am very happy to have him here.

0:01:29.2 I vaguely remember, last time he was here we had a conversation about somebody writing a book about Michael Roach. So I am happy that everything is good.

So Glenn was supposed to also teach in Jewel Heart Netherlands in 2015, but somehow that did not materialize, so I hope he will be going there in 2016. Apparently he will go there in June 2016. Please look forward to that. It is beautiful, wonderful and he gives you wonderful teachings and you can ask any questions and he will answer.

At the same time I have to thank John Madison, playing here all the time, until I reach here and filling up the gap with wonderful music, almost all the time, and also Pam Stuckey. Anyway, thank you Pam too. So, I can see this beautiful young girl sitting way back there. Normally she sits in the front. Are you late or what happened to you? There is more empty seats up front. Good.

0:03:57.9 So I thought I will talk about life today. As we all know, our life is so important. Really, it is something very, very important. It is very easy to say that life is important and very easy to agree, that by all means, it is. But you don’t really understand, unless there is a threat. When there is a threat you begin to think, “Wow, what’s going to happen?” and you begin to worry about it. Like in my case. Already in Holland during the teaching there was a little cut in my toe and I thought, “Well, it’s a little cut. Nothing to worry about.” Then it got worse, but even during the winter retreat I thought, “It’s just a little piece of toe, so what a big deal.” And then after the retreat was over, I went to the doctor and they sent me to the ER immediately, meaning the next morning. And they said, “Maybe we have to amputate your leg.” Then you think, “Wow, what’s happening” and you begin to worry about it.

0:06:09.9Just like that, when there is a threat in life, you appreciate and cling to life. Otherwise, normally we take it for granted and don’t bother much about it. It is there. You went to bed, you get up and the days are functioning as it is and in the nights you are going to busy, I don’t know what you are doing, plus sleep and dream and all that and then next morning you wake up. So you take that routine for granted. So really we don’t appreciate the importance. How important and valuable it is! It is really the basis of all – that is a-l-l - our functioning. If there is no life, then that’s the end of everything as we know it. That’s what it really is. But we don’t think about it. We don’t appreciate that. I don’t think we understand that. We take it for granted. Ever since we were born we went to bed and slept at night and woke up in the morning. So we take that for granted. I don’t know how many times it happened. I am 76 years old according to the Tibetan counting. According to the Tibetan counting I am 78. I think the western counting is right, because they really count day to day. The Tibetans have some extra month when you born and count something and sometimes when you are born the next day you are one year old. So we don’t know exactly. But the western counting is really from birthday to birthday. So it is and that year I have been sleeping and getting up every morning without any problem. So we take it for granted. Also, when you get up, everything is taken for granted, because it is functioning as usual. We don’t think about it.

The teachings tell us: think about it and when you begin to think about then you may still think, “Yes, yes, you are right, it is important; yes, yes, you are right it is difficult to get; yes, yes, it is very valuable.” That’s just saying yes, yes, yes, because you don’t want to contradict. You almost say, “Yeah, I know, I know, I know.” But we really do not appreciate our life. And then although the traditional teachings will tell you about the importance of life and life itself and the difficulty to find separately. That’s also true, but if you think together, it makes a hell of sense and a lot of difference. It really adds up to the appreciation of the life, the opportunity that particularly this life gives to us. It really is something wonderful. When you begin to limit it, then you begin to appreciate it.

0:11:16.4 Like in my case, look at my eyes. I used to see everyone and everything without any difficulty. The sight in my left eye is 22. Something. Overnight, my blood pressure dropped, it somehow disconnected from my eye and in the morning I saw nothing, nothing. This one was already damaged by diabetes and I can sort of vaguely see. And when I don’t see, then I think of how I used to see and how wonderful it was. I appreciate what has gone, by losing. It is a good thing. Because there are two eyes, one sees nothing and the other one still sees a little bit something, yet I am still intact, so I have the opportunity and chance to appreciate what I used to see. Though we complain that we need glasses and this and that and say all kinds of things, but really it is wonderful. There was no problem reading books. There was no problem to recognize anyone of you in those days. So I appreciate that now, but a little too late, right? Because this is not reversible. This is not cataracts or anything. It happened because the blood flow didn’t get in and I can’t repair that. But then you appreciate.

0:13:26.0 With life it is also the same thing. By the time you really appreciate it, you are almost gone. I don’t know whether we can think back and appreciate. Perhaps you can, because I have always been very grateful to whatever my previous life was. Forget about the incarnate lama status and that my previous incarnation was the abbot of Gyütö monastery, Tashi Namgyal, the greatest scholar. Forget about it. As a normal human being I appreciate my previous life tremendously because this life I had a wonderful life, really a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful life. No 1 I was born in the land of snow, Tibet. And I had the greatest opportunity of Buddhist studies under the greatest masters available then. There was Gen Yungdrung Rinpoche and then Gen Gyüme Rinpoche and then Lochö Rinpoche and then Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, Trijang Dorje Chang and all of those, Kyabje Lhatsün Dorje Chang. And of course my father was one of the greatest Tibetan incarnate lamas. He is one of the very few incarnate lamas who substitute the Dalai Lama during his young age or time of disease and all that. There are only two or three and he happens to be one of them.

0:15:54.9 Briefly speaking, my father’s previous incarnation was so big, in the sense of becoming a very big lama. We had some kind of civil war between the Tibetan government and my father’s labrang and monastery. It went on for 10 years in Lhasa. Lhasa was divided into north and south. He was that big. Finally, of course, we lost and then Tengyeling was destroyed into ruins. The government of Tibet declared that my father’s reincarnation could not be recognized. They announced that everywhere with big announcements. It is not like today. Today, if the United States government makes a statement it is covered by TV, radio and everywhere on twitter and everywhere else that very minute. But in those days the message had to be literally carried by people from day to day, month to month, everywhere throughout they had to announce. They also hung big letters in public squares and in public gatherings they would read that and explain. That’s how the news got in in those days. So they made that rule that his reincarnation couldn’t be recognized.

0:18:24.4 Then the funny thing is that my father, that is Wangchuk-la’s – my brother who is here today visiting from Tibet and my father was born as the 13th Dalai Lama’s nephew and not only that, but without formal recognition everybody somehow knew this is Demo Rinpoche. Somehow everybody knew. It was the common public talk. Then the Tibetan government reversed its decision of not recognizing the reincarnation, but they permitted the recognition. But they gave a very limited estate, very little and very little accommodation. Everything had been confiscated and divided and distributed throughout Tibet. Today many of the old monasteries do have a lot of materials from our house. They have religious objects, decorations, ornaments, paintings, tangkhas and everywhere throughout Tibet. They would very proudly show that this or that item was part of Tengyeling. That was my family. It was due to my previous life’s deeds. So I appreciate.

0:20:37.6 Lochö Rinpoche wrote in my long life prayer

RING NE SÖ NAM YE SHE SAK WEY THU

KYAB GÖN GYAL WANG CHU SUM PA CHEN POI

KU TSA TSUNG ME DE MO TRUL KU YI

RIK KYI SE SU TRUNG LA SÖL WA DEB

By force of long accumulation of merit and wisdom

You were born in the clan of the Demo Tulku,

Peerless nephew of the Savior Great Thirteenth,

We pray to you, (O happy Lama)!

Even Lochö Rinpoche says that because of long accumulation of merit and wisdom merit you were born as the son of the 13th Dalai Lama’s nephew, the equivalent-less Demo Tulku. So this is the No thing why I appreciate my previous life.

0:21:49.0 No 2, because of this I automatically became engaged in Buddhist activities and Dharma and particularly Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s followers.

No 3, my mother was known to be a living dakini; not only a living dakini, but also when she finally passed away under very difficult circumstances during the Cultural Revolution, her body gesture shows that she is living Vajrayogini. I will not tell you the details. But somehow I really appreciate my life tremendously. I credit it all to my previous life. As Lochö Rinpoche said, “ring ne sonam yeshe sag we tu”.

0:23:05.9 It is a long long lives’ accumulation of merit and wisdom merit. Today we talk about accumulation of merit and wisdom merit and some of you think it has value and is important. Some of you think, “Well, it is part of this Buddhism; maybe it is important, maybe not. Whatever it is, when I need it, I will have it.” But that’s not the case. I am a living proof of that. Yet, my life has had a lot of interruptions. I was talking to somebody yesterday. In Tibet we used to have a station wagon, a truck and somewhere there was a Donna Fiat Ferrari, when I was a kid. And in Tibet there were only 4,5 cars in the whole country. I had that sort of interesting life. However, in 1959 I just had to run without even a begging bowl in the pocket. The beggars will have a begging bowl. We didn’t.

0:25:08.1 I had to run. Also my father, mother and brothers (my sister was not born yet), all our things were sealed and confiscated and they were put in jail and then had nothing, penniless beggars – in one day. That sort of transition took place in my life, but somehow I managed living from hand to mouth throughout. The other day I did share a funny story. I was told yesterday that Glenn was talking about biographies, secret biographies and dakinis and all that, right? This is part of my secret biography. I did share with you what had happened above Tawang up in the mountains in the rocky area up there. A group of nuns came and took us and they took all these donkeys up there, I don’t know how. But when we got there, all the animals exactly fit. There was no more room, not a single extra room and they got plenty of grains and peas and we were given wonderful dinner, and had a beautiful sleep and next morning they saw us off to the road and when you look back, there is non-existence of anything. So this sort of thing, when you have a secret biography, it goes in there.

0:27:35.0 If you write that publicly it is not right. Some people will say that there is no such thing at all. They will say, “I know that geographic area very well and there is not a single building. How can it be possible? This is just made up stories.” And that creates more negativity than a positive appreciation. I appreciate it tremendously. No1 I was hungry and totally sleep deprived and got a wonderful rest over night and the animals were fed and everybody was fed and they even gave us 25 silver coins and a little food which lasted up to Tawang. That’s how we managed and this somehow unusually happened to me. So I appreciate all of that. I appreciate my life in Drepung monastery and I also enjoyed my life in India, no matter how crazy it might have been. It was crazy and wild. I was smoking and running around and being the worst possible person. Well, I didn’t steal or cheat anybody, but besides that, it was no lama’s behavior at all. It was just a crazy, crazy life. That’s what I enjoyed. I didn’t want to get back into Buddhism, though my faith in my teachers and in my practice was unshakeable. However, I didn’t want to get back in and do it and say it and all that.

0:30:13.2All my great teachers were so kind, including both, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, Ling Rinpoche, Lochö Dorje Chang and Gen Pema Gyaltsen. He constantly followed me, wherever I was. When I was in Kangra school, Gen Pema Gyaltsen came three, four times. When I was in Delhi, Gen Rinpoche came three, four times and tried to push me to go back to the monastery and do the geshe degree examination. They did give me the Geshe Lharampa title in Dharamsala in Ling Rinpoche’s house, with a little ceremony. Gen Rinpoche was the Loseling abbot. I had done my geshe distribution before I left Tibet. So I am a geshe that way. But he wanted me to go and sit in the big exam and take a number and all that. He was pushing me all the time. Even later, when I was married he would say, “Now, get divorced and go back to the monastery.” Gen Rinpoche was in that habit. He did that not only with me, but also with Tarab Rinpoche in Denmark. He want to Denmark twice to persuade Tarab Rinpoche to drop his wife and get back to the monastery.

0:32:03.0 Anyway, they were such great teachers. My first teacher, Gen Yungdrung Rinpoche was so great. He was one of the four outstanding students of Pabongka on Lam Rim, one of the four pillars of Lam Rim. If I look back in my life, it is all so great, including getting kicked out from Tibet in 1959. If I had not been out of Tibet, I wouldn’t have learnt English. Whatever little English I know I would not have learnt. I would not be communication with you people. My karmic responsibility is to serve you people in whatever manner I can. I would not be able to do that without knowing a little bit of English, through which is can at least very terribly communicate with you. Whatever English I learnt I did not study. That is my regret. I had so many opportunities to study. His Holiness put me with English teachers to read, write and speak English. I didn’t study. I just carried the bag and then went back and didn’t do anything. Thereafter there were so many opportunities to learn English and I didn’t. Allen Ginsberg tried his best every second he had with me, trying to teach me English.

0:34:30.1 For every word he would give me the background, spelling it three, four times, making me repeat. And I heard the words but didn’t learn. Every new word that came up he told me where that word came from, what the Latin and Greek roots were. But I paid no attention for whatsoever. I was such a wasted opportunity for me. This sort of thing happens in life, how we waste our opportunity. Who else is going to get Allen Ginsberg to teach you English? He came to my house, standing here, trying to tell me what is this and that and day after day he did that. But I never paid attention, which is absolutely my loss, honestly. Being able to communicate something is good enough for me – that was probably at the depth of my mind. So I have been lazy and never studied, otherwise I would have been a good English scholar today. I could have been, it’s possible. Why not?

0:36:25.5 But that’s my fault. So things like that I appreciate. And my life today I appreciate tremendously. Yes, I have difficulties. Yes, I don’t have functioning kidneys. Yes, I am half blind, but I can still see, I can still live, I can still function. I have no pain, nothing. So I appreciate it again, tremendously. I don’t feel, “I am sick, I am terrible, I am this and I am that.” I think that I am fine, I am well, I have no pain and I can function and talk and think and communicate. I can still serve, whatever little I know I can share with you people. I can do my job. So I appreciate that and this is because of the accumulation of wisdom and merit in many lives. And being able to communicate and help people, whatever little it may be. Always everybody gets some benefit for connecting with me. Many people reduce their neuroses. Many people reduce their anger. Remember Ginsberg, when he first came, he was not that mellow, kind gentleman. He was quite an angry person. You read “Howl!” and you know how he was. Within a couple of years, since I have known him, he probably came four or five times to Michigan every year. And he sat there at least for four, five days. Then I went to New York in those days quite a lot. So we had a close association and somehow it affected him and he became such a kind, mellow, compassionate gentleman. Even the day he died, he was saying, “I thought when they will tell me that I am going to die I am going to hit the ceiling, but now it is totally different. I try to help the doctors to tell me, by looking at their faces I knew that they knew that I was going. So I said, “Going?” They nodded their heads. I asked, “Is it fatal?” They said yes. So it made it easier for them. So now I am preparing to go.” That’s how he was; so kind, so gentle.

0:40:26.4 He was kind to everybody else too, not to himself alone. People somehow get connected with me and there are a number of people. There is a woman named Louise Bodhi and she was a little difficult person, an African-American lady in New York. One day she told me that, “thanks to you, people in the supermarket are treating me much better. They never treated me like that before.” Now she is very old and I haven’t seen her for a couple of years, but she somehow contacts Jewel Heart all the time and very recently, I think last week, she sent me a huge amount of money too, quite a lot, as a gift and wrote, “You have been kind when I needed it and you brought me compassion when I needed it.” So I thank her for the gift, but it shows how people’s lives get affected somehow. I didn’t spend that much time with Louise either, except when I went to New York a couple of times. One day we had a little workshop in New York and she asked me, “You talk about Buddha a lot. What is really Buddha?” So we were on a walk after the morning talk, before the lunch break, so to make it easy for her I said, “Well, Buddha is almost like God.” Okay, she didn’t say anything and two weeks later she wanted to talk to me and said, “Well, if Buddha is like God, then I am not interested.”

0:43:24.5 So I realized I had a made a mistake, right? I thought it would be easier not to talk too much and said Buddha is like God. But that didn’t work. So things like that happen. Anyway, I appreciate every part of my life that is connected with people and contributed to their life. When I talk like that about my life, you should think about your life. Each and every one of you helped people and contributed to people’s lives, children’s lives, spouses’ lives. And that is the because your previous lives’ collection of wisdom and merit. Wisdom merit and merit. The result is you are enjoying whatever your life today is. So appreciate your previous life. Particularly the American life, no matter how difficult or poor you may think you are, if you compare that with the life in the slums of Calcutta or anywhere else, this American life is much, much superior. Who bothers in the Third World nations, when somebody has to sleep on a bare cement floor or somebody has to sleep in a rocky area. We used to be proud of saying that we used the cold ground as bed and a cold stone as pillow and that’s how we put effort into dharma study.

0:46:11.4 We used to say sa kya la ten do ja la nyen – that is purposely said. But if you look at the life of Third World nations, it is very difficult for poor people. They don’t have beds. For the first time I saw in Japan homeless people in the parks having beds and buildings to go to. No one has beds otherwise, they simply sleep on the bare ground, just lying down and using the cold stone as pillow. Compare that life with your life, the American and western life. Of course it is your karma. Of course it is your deeds. But it is much better. So appreciate it rather than feeling bad about it and bringing sadness and depression and all that. Appreciate it and compare it and you know you are great. But actually we are equally human beings, whether you are born in the east or in Africa or here in the west. We are all equally human beings. However, you have better natural facilities. They have naturally poor facilities. We may call that civilization or economic development of the country, but it is your karma and your deeds and yourself. That is why you should appreciate your life.

0:48:43.5 Never look up there at the billionaires who are wasting money for nothing. They spend multi-millions dollars on the election. Yes, in the trickle down economy that may be helping a lot of people too, but it is sort of really a huge waste of resources. Look at the wars. How much we waste – and that’s a total waste, a total waste. But all this is here because of your good karma. That made your life happen. So this is your life. So you should appreciate it. Don’t look down on yourself. Please appreciate it and embrace this life. Not only that is your life, but it is also very important, really extremely important, more than anybody else. More than others, the life you have is special because of your open mind, because of your karma, because of your connection. Somehow you can do something for yourself and others that none of your colleagues and peers can. You have that superior opportunity. If each one of you goes back into society you are dealing with, how many people think about their future life? Almost none. You are the strange fellow who does.

0:51:50.3 Forget about past and future life, but caring about others. If you go back to your colleagues, think about it. Everybody is caring for themselves more than anything else. Nobody will be caring about others. If your economic level is a little bit higher, if your educational level is a little better, you may begin to think about helping others, beginning with humanitarian disasters you are very sympathetic and forthcoming. But that much it is limited. Even if you look today at American society, the wealthy class are very generous, no doubt about it. They always want to help and give back to the society. Many of them do. But that also, if you look carefully and examine that mind, that has not so much depth. The thought is, “I have plenty, so I want to help.” I don’t even think that many of them see that helping others is the way to help yourself. I don’t think they see it. A few may, but many don’t. So you somehow are well-informed. You have a much better opportunity than even those people. You may not be rich in terms of money or wealth, but you are very rich in terms of spiritual information. Remember, information is power.

0:54:49.6 So you have tremendous spiritual power. At least to make yourself right, at least to protect yourself from negative karma, at least to help others a little bit, which depends on how much development and knowledge you have. But you can. You have power. So this is one of the greatest opportunity. But if you according to the Buddha you can make yourself and others happy forever, forever. You can become fully enlightened. The word ‘enlightenment’ is called sang gye in Tibetan. Sang means to clear – clear what? The two obstacles, the delusional obstacle or nyong drib and the imprints of those, she drib. When you clear these two, that’s sang. Gye stands for fully building knowledge of the total existence. These two words mean that. So you have the possibility of leading yourself towards that. You have the possibility to take your friends along with you on that journey to be able to reach to that level. That is the greatest opportunity.

0:57:37.0 Along the way you have the opportunity to develop love, compassion. Along the way you have the opportunity to overcome your neuroses, anger, hatred, obsession, those disturbing afflictive emotions. You have the opportunity to handle them, control them, eradicate them. These are the greatest opportunities open to you. They are not open even to some of your spouses, children and other colleagues. They simply don’t believe it or are not interested or whatever the reason maybe. But it is you who have the greatest thing, honestly, in your hand.

0:58:59.5 Now the question is: what would you do with it? If you are going to take life for granted, as I said in the beginning, the sun rises, the sun sets and night comes and goes and the sun rises and sets and there are just the routine, usual activities and that’s a big waste.

0:59:26.9 It is a waste, because you have the opportunity, the capability, the understanding, but if you let it pass, it’s gone. It is like the Indians say “aya ram gyia ram”, Ram has come and Ram has gone. If you do it that way, that’s how we live life the lazy way. Anyway, that’s why you are here and you don’t want to waste your life. That’s why you are here. Good. So let’s see what we can do and let’s continuously talk. I will talk to you next week and I will be here.

Any questions today? Doesn’t look like. If you have any, send them to hartmut@jewelheart.org. One time I was talking with Carole and she was saying Hartman and I said, “Who is that?” and then said, “Yes, Rimpoche, yes, Rimpoche.” Then after a little while she said, “His wife knows his name and she calls him Hartman.” (laughs). So then we got a Hartman from Pennsylvania who came here and they look the same too, both bald-headed. So I thought maybe his wife made a mistake between the bald-headed. I am joking. Thank you. Very nice to have you Glenn here and thank you for sharing your experience with our wonderful people and we have a wonderful person sharing wonderful experiences with wonderful people. Thank you and please come back every year. Thank you and don’t forget the Netherlands. There are also beautiful people there. Thank you

Glenn Mullin: Rimpoche, I think you could tell us one more sang wai nam thar (secret biography) story.

Rimpoche: I don’t know. I don’t remember right now honestly. Maybe, because when I talk about appreciation of life I can’t go on talking about how you should appreciate your life. That doesn’t work. I rather say “I appreciate my life”, so somehow a couple of them leaked out, sorry. Oh yeah, I can tell you one story. I just remember one. It is funny, funny, funny.

1:03:52.8 When I was a younger kid we would go to a little village called Jang, which is a few miles away from Lhasa. We went there in winter, in the coldest time actually, the 11th month of the Tibetan calendar. We go there to study logic. That is the subject we studied in the monastery, but the usual Drepung, Sera, Ganden don’t study it there. It is in the curriculum, but they don’t study it in Drepung, Sera and Ganden, but for one month a year we study that in the place called Jamyang or Jang. That’s Manjushri’s place. When you get there, the administration of all the monasteries will fall for that time under Ratö monastery. Ratö’s protector is the same as ours, Setrapa. Somehow it is one of the Setrapa’s retinue or something, there are a number of different ghosts. One of them is very well known in that area and is called pung gu so tsik – donkey showing the teeth, but people say pung gu sub ti – which sometimes sounds like a heap of donkey or something. People talk about it a lot, saying they saw it and most say they saw it as a monk at night, covering his head, yet the two tall ears are standing up under the blanket.

1:07:12.5 One day I was late for Gen Pema Gyaltsen’s teaching. There is a Loseling house up there somewhere. I was in the Nyare Khamtsen of Ratö, teaching a group of people, so that when they go back to Drepung they had to debate. Those who are sitting behind, have to debate. So we went through the preparation of their debate. And Ratö had some funny gatherings, in which they give you huge pieces of dough and soup. They will drink the soup and save the dough and eat it. Also there is money distribution. So everybody goes there and their assembly hall is not big enough, because Ratö is not big, so everybody will be in the courtyard and even in the street. I was late for Gen Pema Gyaltsen’s teaching. So I wore my shoes, put my book on my shoulder and walked across over the monks’ gathering, jumping over people and went to the street leading to Loseling.

1:08:40.4 The monks were all gathered down there, collecting the soup as well as the money, but people wanting to go to a teaching would give that up and go the teaching, in this case Gen Pema Gyaltsen’s teaching. So I was late for that. I was walking through that street and there was nobody. This street was L shaped. Up to the L’s corner I could see and I walked up to that building and there was nothing. Then I made the turn and on the other side was a little open field and I saw a beautiful donkey, a beautiful donkey, with red, green and yellow colored skin. He looked like a peacock. But it was a donkey, not very big. It reached up to my chest and I was 14 then. When I walked there, the donkey looked at me with opening and closing and looking at me. It was so wonderful. So went near the donkey and try to pet it. When I got close, there was nothing. The beautiful donkey was gone and suddenly I heard somebody walking. I looked back at the L shaped corner and there was some village guy carrying a huge load of cow dung on the back walking by. So the donkey had disappeared and that’s what I say. Glenn told me to tell one more story and that was it. Thank you and have a very good teaching with Glenn in the afternoon and tomorrow Glenn will go to Bloomfield Hills, so that’s wonderful and I see you next Sunday.

1:11:21.5 May all beings……1:11:58.3