Archive Result

20160528GRAAST49

0:00:00.0 Welcome everybody. First thing I have to apologize for the many weeks and months that I was not well. You people have been entertained by recordings while I couldn’t talk to you live. Very sorry and welcome today. I hope I will be able to continuously talk in the retreat. Maybe a few occasions I will miss.

0:00:50.5 So you are joined with our summer retreat. I am here to address you for an hour or so, but I will be continuing a little more. So we have been talking about embracing the human life, meaning how important our life really is. I just said it: the value of how important it is and the appreciation is only coming when we understand the threat to our life. I just said it earlier. When there is a danger of dying and complications of sickness and when family and doctors start talking behind you and all that is happening, then you understand there is a danger that you are dying. Then the fear of death comes, actually the fear of not knowing. Death is death. That is process that you go completely through the darkness. Then a little light, and then a little bigger light and gradually you come back. It is a procedure. I just made it simple, but Vajrayana practitioners do meditate on that every day in the Dharmakaya practice.

0:03:13.3 So it is a procedure. However, what will happen thereafter? That is unknown. Some people have a very strong mind, thinking, “I am going to the right place, a pure land.” Some people think, “I am going to be with God.” Some people think they are going to the pure land. All this positive thinking is always very good and very nice. So dying is something not horrible. A lot of people go through with dying. Very recently, this year I saw a person, not a Buddhist practitioner, but a new age woman, who announced that she was going to die in 9 days. Three days before that she packed up and closed her eyes and all that and then died 9 days later. That does happen.

0:05:11.6 Also very recently, we lost a number of our Jewel Heart friends, quite a lot of them this year. So death is a procedure. But what will happen thereafter is not known. That’s why the fear is there, the fear of the unknown. Fortunately or unfortunately, most of us understand that we do not disappear. We do not evaporate. So we will continue, but how we continue, that is unknown. That’s why the fear comes in. When the fear comes in, then sometimes it brings clinging to life. That is very difficult. If there is a strong personality, with strong clinging, it makes it very difficult to let go. That makes it harder to die, more painful, experiencing unnecessary suffering in this life and because of the clinging, even in future life it is slightly difficult to connect with good karma.

0:07:47.4 Deepak Chopra once told me that in hospitals so many people scream and kick and all that, trying not to die. But when those things happen, then it is very difficult to connect to a good future life. So what I have to touch on is not only the precious human life. I did say earlier that I may have to repeat because of the webinar people. The most important thing in our life is opportunity; not only the opportunity to make money and make a life. That’s not the opportunity we are talking about. That is also there. It is. But there is more than that. We try to make our life right, with the right job, the right income, the right living, the right conditions. Just like that, we have the opportunity to make our life and lives thereafter right and good. That is the opportunity we are talking about.

0:09:56.4 That is not only guaranteed by Buddha and all great earlier spiritual founders, almost all. It depends on the individual mind. Some people will talk to you that full enlightenment is possible for us human beings, like you and me. Some people will tell you that may not be possible, but you can worship. Some people will tell you that you can do good and all kinds of teachings are there. I know nothing about the Judeo-Christian religion or Hindu-Muslim religions. Better not to pretend to know something that I don’t know. But looking at our friends in the Judeo-Christian traditions, it seems like it is more service and worshipping and doing the right thing, so that God will not be mad at you. God may not get mad at you, but you should not the wrong things that God doesn’t like.

0:11:47.1 So then God’s good wishes will give you a better life. I see a level of people, to be honest to you, today’s people like you are much more intelligent than the people of 2000 years ago. You are much more intelligent. You have much greater intellectual capacity. So enlightenment is possible, within yourself. You can make the attempt. Your intellectual capacity is so much. Really, truly, western education is great for developing the intellectual capacity. It is really, really, tremendous. Many times I thought that western education brings you to almost a similar level as the monks who have become ordinary geshes. It is an almost similar intellectual capacity. Your subject is different. That’s why your understanding is different. But the intellectual capacity is almost the same. I cannot teach western friends like we are teaching kids. We have to teach you like educated people. That’s why your education level brings your intelligence levels up tremendously.

0:14:23.2 So making the attempt to becoming fully enlightened is very suitable for you people, honestly. When you don’t have that capacity, then it becomes worshipping, purifying and doing the right thing and avoiding negativities. That then becomes the key for people. When that is not possible, then you simply pray and worship and do the right thing, whatever you can. So those seem to be the things the the earlier founders of different traditions have done. Fortunately the earlier Indian founders in civilization brought tremendous intellectual capacity throughout India. That’s why Buddha could speak and teach Buddhism. Even among Buddhism, we have levels of understanding of intellectual capacity. That’s why there is the Theravada tradition, which is self-discipline, self-liberation. You discipline yourself and do it.

0:16:29.8 Then you have the Mahayana level, which is a little less about self-discipline, but more about worrying about everybody, handling things with love and compassion. Then you have Vajrayana, transforming negativities into positivity. I was talking earlier about the story of a great earlier teacher, who was hunting animals and eating the flesh, keeping the skeleton together and putting a mala inside, putting the skin back and the animal walks. I told you about the level when you develop your spiritual capacity to be able to look at a fruit tree and just by looking, drop the fruit, which develops easier. The next one that I am going to say is to put the dropped fruit back on the tree, continuously process of arriving. That is difficult. But there have been many who are able to do that. Those people may have the power to bring back [somebody from death] – I am saying may – though it may not be possible, but that explains what they say about the inner offering that it can bring somebody back to life even after they have been dead for seven days.

0:19:22.4 So that makes sense. It is not the inner offering, but the capability of that person. So we are talking about that type of development, which is unfortunately a gradual process. It is not instantaneous. Instantaneous development is mostly not good. In Tibet, we had one instantaneous development. Somebody claimed, “If you give all your property to me, I will enlighten you within seven days.” A number of people did give that guy all their belongings. I remember a few years ago in America somebody predicted doomsday and people from various places reservations for a bed and paid money and drove through the streets ignoring all speeding tickets, saying, “What are you talking about? After seven days there will be doomsday.” Very similar to that it happened.

0:21:29.0 This guy took people’s property and kept them in a little cave, tortured them and make them hallucinate tremendously and at the end of the 7th day he threw them out of the cave dead. He was busted by the founder of the Drukpa Kagyu tradition, Drukpa Kunleg. One time he was processing that, waiting at the end of the shoot where the body would come down. He was waiting there, caught the body and tried to bring the person back to life. And that’s how that guy got busted. This has become known as the “Seventh Day Enlightenment.” So anybody who tells you that there is instant enlightenment, you have to be always very cautious. It is not possible.

0:22:51.6 According to Mahayana, Buddha first developed bodhimind, then contemplated for 3 countless eons and then finally obtained enlightenment. Three countless eons! That’s according to Theravada and Mahayana. Only in Vajrayana is there there the possibility of obtaining enlightenment within the life time. If you don’t get it, there is hope at the bardo. I am supposed to touch on the bardo too, right?

0:24:07.0 The bardo is the stage in between death and rebirth. That is commonly known as bardo. If you look into the bardo teachings they talk about six different bardos. Even this period where we are in, ngön to gi si pa, is also referred to as bardo. It is between birth and death. But the commonly known bardo is between death and rebirth. If you look carefully, most of the monasteries have a si pai khor lo, and we also have one in Jewel Heart in the hall. That is a drawing of samsara. If you look in there, in order to show that samsara is suffering, there is a very fearful person, the Lord of Death or something, huge and within their chest you see a wheel. That circle’s rim is the 12 links. Don’t let me talk about the 12 links. Then we will be nowhere. Actually the first link is the root, ignorance, shown by a blind old man. Then the other links are depicted.

0:27:05.5 Within the12 links you have the 6 realms, hell, [hungry ghosts] animals, human, demigods [and gods]. At the center of that there are 3 animals: peacock, pig and snake. They are the three poisons: hatred, attachment, jealousy [should be ignorance]. These three roots develop all kinds of activities that are negative, which will produce the human realm’s death. That will produce the bardo. You see 3 people looking up and 3 looking down. That is the depiction of the bardo. Thus there are good bardos and bad bardos. Bardo is full of hallucination, no doubt. I don’t know if you really meet these threatening deities like the Tibetan Book of the Dead describes. I am not so sure. I personally don’t think so. That’s my opinion, not anybody else’s. I have my right right to have my opinion. I don’t say the Tibetan Book of the Dead is not true. I don’t say that. But not necessarily [exactly as described].

0:29:36.2 If you are good, you will be led by your yidam, the Lama Yidam inseparable. Again, see? The lama is guru, so Lama Yidam inseparable, whatever form it maybe, if it is the right form, then like Heruka says

Chi tse gön dang pa wo ma sog kyi

Me tog dug dang gyel tsen tog ne su

Röl mo sil nyen dra nyen sog chö ching

Ka la chö pa nä su tri par chog

At death, may the Lords, Heroes, and Dakini hosts

Offer me flowers, hold up umbrellas and banners,

Play music of cymbals and sweet voices and so forth

And take me to the Heavenly Land of Dakinis.

At the time of death, Lama Yidam will receive you with the dakinis and with flowers, banners and music and lead you to the pure land. So they won’t have time to meet threatening, fearful deities in between. And people with some very strong negativities may not have time to see so many good things. They may be taken straight away. So there are good and bad bardos. That’s really what it is.

0:31:23.5 Bardo is not necessarily an opportunity. The opportunity is at the dying process. At that time you can meditate. I have to say it here: bite whatever you can chew. Do not make the attempt to bite what you cannot chew. Okay? It is easy to think about the example clear light or absolute clear light, but if you don’t know what clear light is, how it works and functions, then you can’t chew. So don’t bite that. If you can understand emptiness, then bite emptiness. That is one of the best things you can do. And if you can’t, you can bite bodhimind, if you understand compassion and love. Bite with this. Only bite what you can chew. You know why? Because the opportunity doesn’t come back. Even if you can’t do that, it’s okay. You can think of Buddha. Think of refuge. That’s good enough.

0:33:25.9 Yesterday Naomi mentioned Dr. Yet. She was a Dutch doctor who spent a couple of years with me in Holland. Later she got sick with cancer at a very bad stage. The doctors gave the prognosis of about a month. She herself being a doctor, knew. But then she did White Tara practice and she lived another good five years, living a good life, living in her home. Of course she had to resign from her job, but she lived at home, growing flowers and vegetables and doing all that for five years.

0:34:41.6 One time I went back from here to Holland and she told me that she had fainted and thought she would die. She said, “I couldn’t think of anything else, except Buddha.” I said, “That’s good enough. You are lucky. Many people will not be able to even think of Buddha.” So you can think of Buddha, Guru, Yidam inseparable. Anyone will do. That is easy and Buddha guaranteed that if you are thinking about Buddha when you die, the next life will be a good one. That’s guaranteed by Buddha, not anybody else. So it must be true. And that is good enough to bite. That’s what you should be able to do, before you are hoping of some future. Whatever you have in your own hands right now is the great human life.

0:36:09.6 The wonderful thing is our capability to understand. Whatever you understand you have to be able to translate into your character. Whatever you have in your character controls your karma. As I said, there is good and bad bardo and likewise there is good and bad karma. Bad karma brings bad results and good karma brings good results. So when your character, your personality is controlled by your intelligent mind, you produce always positive, good karma. So good karma guarantees good results. You never get bad results. It is impossible that good karma could bring bad results.

0:37:21.1 There is no incident of it. Karma is so powerful and strong. It cannot go wrong, although your motivation and thoughts at the death period can make a big difference. Anger is a horrible thing. Many people get angry at the time of death, which is bad karma, really. Good links to good, bad links to bad. So anger and hatred, etc, will link to bad karma. That will give you bad results. That is not good for you.

As I said earlier, we have so many senior people, who have spent over three decades with me. They are all very good and very strong and when we were putting the schedule together we realized we didn’t have enough spaces to put people. So we put four people on the panels and we are even thinking of putting five there. But then that’s maybe overcrowded. Then there are the moderators, meditation leaders, key note speakers. We have so many. So I am very, very proud of our sangha. You are going to figure out what to do, like Allen Ginsberg sang, “Sangha Death you’ll figure out” [literally: Sangha Death, we’ll work it through].

0:39:31.8 So he said,

Buddha Death, your words are true or Guru Death your words are true and then later:

Buddha Death, I wake with you

Dharma Death, your mind is new

Sangha Death, we'll work it through

So you will definitely figure it out, both here in the United States and in the Netherlands. They did their retreat this time, run by their own sangha members, including Hartmut, who did a lot too. But here my idea is like this: a group of people will carry on. And then we have Joe Loizzo, who is part of Jewel Heart, our fellow and he is a good, good old friend. Professor Thurman was coming too, but then Nena had a problem. So I sent him a message: please don’t come. Because when Nena needs him you can’t take him away. So, he was willing to come at least for one or two days.

0:41:08.5 So when you look at our sangha, these are extraordinary people, actually; Joe and Thurman and all of them, but also all of you are fantastic and great. So it’s wonderful. You will figure it out.

So that means I took Brenda’s spot. Did I miss anything, Brenda? Good. When you are coming here, listening here, you have the idea that your life, whatever you have, is not really answering what you need. So you are really looking for something and this is the beginning of your opportunity. Whatever you look for, you should look for something extremely useful. Maybe not extremely useful, but something that can deliver you all the way through. That is important for you to know. Otherwise there will be little things that make a slight difference. You know, there are a lot of methods these days. You can even take mushrooms. You can take chemicals and alter your mind a little bit. You may be thinking you are doing something spiritual. Maybe not. You have to make sure. The true spiritual path really is from Buddhist point of view, there was an 18th century scholar and teacher called Shamar Gendun Gyatso. That is not the Karma Sharma Rinpoche, but the Amdo Shamar. Sharmapa said,

ka ten tse me nying tu yin

rang su tsön kyu ge ma yin

shing ta che nam che shu yin

lung bü nga dön de ma yin

ke drup da me nyam nyu yin

sa se tru nam de ma yin (Spelling????)

This is not false, invented Dharma,

Because it is the pith of authentic oral teachings.

This is not foolish talk, because it comes

Classical texts by the great forerunners.

This is not a shimmering mirage,

Because saintly scholars and adepts have tested it.

This is not a perilous cliff,

Because it is the highway to highest enlightenment.

0:44:50.7 What is a true spiritual path? From the Buddhist point of view, the essence of Buddha’s teachings, both sutra and tantra. You know sutra. Buddha’s teachings are called sutra. Tantra is of course also Buddha’s teaching. And then there ae the shastras. They are very important. Many people, many traditions, even ignore the shastras.

0:45:39.1 They just simply hold sutras and tantras. But the shastras are the ones that give you all the reasonings, everything, proving to you that what Buddha’s sutras and tantras say is right. The shastras are the earlier Indian pandits and adepts. They are their personal experience put into words. They explain how true Buddha’s teaching had become to them. Also, wrong views are presented and defeated and denied and argued. This is so important. Today we are talking about the Nalanda tradition. Mostly the shastras are written by early Nalanda teachers. It is not only Nalanda, but Vikramalashila too and also the adepts tradition. These are the great early Indian mahasiddhas, commonly known in the Tibetan tradition today. There are 80 Indian mahasiddhas and 4 Tibetan mahasiddhas.

0:47:52.2 But the major tradition is the Nalanda tradition, because of the reasoning, the logic, which is coming from there. That’s why, when you are looking for the opportunity, and opportunities are presented to you, make sure that opportunity will deliver you to the end. It is difficult to know the end. But there are good examples, like Buddha, like Jesus, like so many great founders of great many traditions. That is where you begin to imagine you end up. If you are following Buddha your goal will be to become Buddha. So your path, your practice, is capable of making you a buddha. If mushrooms are capable of making you a buddha, enjoy!

0:49:37.0 Have them day and night, and make sure you get up the next day. So that’s how. Here people may go wrong. Yes, I am not satisfied with the answer I have in my mind. I need something better. But how good is that “something better”? That is your challenge, your responsibility. As I said earlier: this is a living tradition. I think yesterday Kimba mentioned Vulture’s Peak and the reflection of the Prajnaparamita teachings Buddha gave at Vulture’s Peak, reconnected with what we did in “Wisdom House” a few years ago. That sort of thing. To be able to reflect that to the total enlightenment level, that’s how you should check the path you want to practice, that it is leading to that. If it is not leading there, then that’s not right for you. If you choose something worse than the best, then you are wasting your opportunity.

0:52:13.8 That is your challenge. That is what you should do. That is your responsibility. Many of you are spiritual seekers. When you are seeking, you seek that way. That’s how you do it. From the Buddhist point of view the goal is to become Buddha. I just quoted the Amdo Shamar. From the Buddhist point of view, the path should be the essence of Buddha’s tantras and sutras and shastras, not somebody’s made-up stories. When we talk a lot about our personal experience, sometimes there is a danger of losing the authenticity too. Be aware of it. The point, the conclusion you are getting, is that the shastras accept that, like the ones by Nagarjuna, Asanga, Chandrakirti, Buddhapalita, those great scholars have accepted it. It is not simply the gossip of a few stupid people. Finally, this should be the highway that leads you directly to total enlightenment, and not leading you down to samsara in general and particularly to the hell realms.

0:54:46.4 These are your guidelines when you choose what you are going to do. Many of you have chosen already. Welcome, good. Many of you are at the stage where you are going to choose. So that’s what it is. With this, my biggest apologies to Brenda. I have taken all your time. But Brenda is great, wonderful, honestly, both in practice and knowledge and every one of you too, honestly. I am really proud that you could do this, so my service of more than 30 years is not completely wasted. Still, we have so many people that are not included in being presenters at this retreat, because some are not here, some are not coming, like Sandy and Aura and Matthew and Mark Magill, Anne Warren and so many others. Many names I may not remember at this moment. This really shows that this tradition will continue. Also remember, we emphasize that we are a lay sangha, not necessarily a lay-ordained sangha. We are not ordained people. This is geared towards a lay sangha. That’s why even in our trainings, like the chaplaincy training, we don’t have ordination. There will be no ordinations.

0:57:26.1We are also a “feminine principle” organization. In order to show that, yesterday all presenters were women. That’s my way of expressing that this is a feminine organization and lay sangha principled organization. I myself am a lay person, so this is how the lay people can work.

0:58:10.3 Somebody said,

gang zhi kim ne lhen ja thar pa yö

tag pö gyal lo mar pa la so chen….(Spelling???)

Even if you remain as a householder with family

Liberation is available to you,

for example, earlier kings, ministers and Marpa Lotsawa

That is Marpa, the founder of the Kagyu tradition and also the earlier Tibetan and Indian kings and ministers.

But if someone sits and meditates so long, it is not necessarily that great, because when the groundhogs see their shadow, they go back. So if someone sits in meditation for so long, it’s not that great. And the path you learn and meditate should be able to be practiced and translated into reality.

1:00:07.5 It should be able to actually, physically be able to deal with people’s lives. That is absolutely important. So that’s all I have to say. I also have to welcome everybody who has come from so far away. We have so many Malaysians and a Singaporean. People come from as far as Beijing. And there are so many of you from Netherlands and welcome and also very happy to have you here, Moira. Your father has done so much for Tibet. Thank you. So that’s how we get along well and get together. Thank you.

1:01:51.1