Archive Result

Soundfile 19870100GRRTOMLOVCOM (03)

Speaker Robert Thurman/Gelek Rinpoche

Location

Topic Vimalakirti Sutra

Transcriber Barbara Ferrari

10:46:44 GR: Your own approach to life, to daily life. Your own way of thinking. To utilize that, to reflect. You know what I mean, reflect. Use like a mirror. Ladies sit in front of the mirror and what do they do? They put on the make up, if its too much white they remove it, if its too much red they remove it, right? So if too little they put it on. Similarly, here when we talk this, use this as a mirror. Look at your own way of thinking. Your own mind is know to you, nobody else. So, since it is known to you only, only you can correct. Nobody else can correct. 10:47:32 The teachers, the guides, the gurus whatever you call that cannot correct your own mind. They can only suggest. They can give you an idea. They can show you the path, even the Buddha but they cannot correct your mind. Only you can correct.

That is the reason the Buddha said non-virtuous cannot be removed by hand like a thorn being removed from the body of a somebody (?10:48:06.7). Buddha has said that. Buddha have emphasized they cannot wash the non-virtuous by water. You can pour the water on, but you cannot, okay?

Most important, spiritual development cannot be transferrable. The Buddhas have great spiritual development. They cannot transfer that to the others. If that can be transferrable everybody can be transferred by Buddha because they love all living beings. They don’t want them to suffer so they would have transferred already long ago, but they cannot. It is non-transferrable. I always think of it like American Express card. That is what it is.

So only what they can do is (? Unintelligible 10:49:12) only by telling you the truth. Only by telling you the truth. The true path, true situation so by that only they can help. So when that is done you have to utilize that to look at yourself. Atisha, the great, the Mongolian famous scholar was sitting at the right of Maitreya here in the 1100s who had come to Tibet was very, very important. One of the most important pundit. Not so much for India but for the Tibetans and now for the west. Because without him it is impossible survive all the teachings. All the teachings are in Tibet purely. It is he who had purified or corrected a tremendous amount of magical and (?10:50:32) moved, sort of stuck in with the spiritual practice and early Tibetans are very full of magical power. It is so much mixed and it becomes the purity of the Buddhism is even shaking. So it is Atisha who is able to purify and give. Able to survive this pure teaching of so much of all the people. Everyone of us can benefit. Tremendous amount of benefit. Not a magical, but permanent spiritual benefit. This is all because of Atisha that it really has been able to survive.

Atisha very often says (Tibetan 10:51:29) Whatever we call it spiritual path or teaching it is something that really is hitting on the point. Hitting on the point means whatever you don’t want to be hit. The point that you like to hide. The point that you don’t want other people to know. That is the point you really have to hit. If that is hit, that is helping spiritually. If that doesn’t hit which really doesn’t do too much purpose like (10:52:09 Tib.) If it is smoothly printed, like a glass printed if you pour the water on that you will get natural color. Another words whatever color you printed it is washed away. Similarly, if its printed you meet with obstacles, delusions, it will go away. It doesn’t serve that purpose. When you hit it on the point it cuts the delusions. It cuts the ignorance. It cuts attachment. It cuts anger, the ego. That’s what it is.

So in order to do that the person who pointing will always talk to your (? 10:52:55) and you always use that as a mirror. Do I have that? Is it talking to me? That is the question you always keep it, be mindful on that. If that happens, we may achieve something. If that is not, nothing can be achieved. Number one. Number two-we may talk a tremendous amount of variety of things, but every point please think I am not making jokes. Jokes will be made, however these are the material for you to meditate. It is the material for you to think.

The meditation is the only answer for cutting our delusions. Meditation is the only answer for achieving our goal for developing the spiritual path. That meditation is not the empty, blank sitting. Empty, blank sitting will not help you much I tell you clearly here. It will help you in the beginning, give you good harmony, wonderful feelings, help reduce your blood pressure and give you stability or if you like to call it give you a little bit of insight when you are communicating with yourself. However, it will not reach you very far. Beyond that you cannot reach much. You may be able to develop samadhi, concentration power. You may be able to concentrate on a certain object for a long, long period. When I say a long, long period I mean a hundred years. I don’t mean a couple of hours, okay. That is a very, very short period. I mean hundreds of years you may be able to concentrate on that, but after that what is the result that will produce? That is the question, not much. What will happen to concentration power will it be able to make you to concentrate and sit on it. That will reduce delusions and illusions, whatever you may call it. Temporarily reduced, temporarily. It doesn’t get rid of your system completely. It temporarily reduce. As a result of a temporarily reduce it can come back. It not only can come back, it will come back. (10:56:29) When it comes back what will happen is you get fall back. You get tremendous fall back. That fall back is terrible, really horrible. That reduces your intellect tremendously down because you are sitting for a long, long time. Inactive of the mind. Mind is not active, just sitting. So that will reduce your intellect. So, you really cannot get to the point. I am not criticizing sitting meditation, but just sitting idle will not help.

What you really need is a combination. The combination of thinking, active what we call analytical meditation. Finding the true natural points, thinking active and once you find the point concentration combined. This combination of the practice which will really give you results, spiritual results. (10:58:05) Otherwise one single without the other will not do any good for you. Except a little harmony and pleasure and keep on sitting for a couple of years 2 years, 4 years, 5 years, 10 years and that is about it. So what do you reach? You reach the same level that you begin to spiritually. That means if you look back all these years what you did, you wasted practically. Except you might have gained a little bit of power of concentration. Otherwise mostly wasted. So, that is really a waste. If you waste a couple of hundred dollars it will not really waste, but if you waste that much time out of your precious time, limited time. Time what we have is very precious and limited. Out of that you waste a couple of years that way is a terrible waste. So that is why whenever we are talking and giving material to think to meditate, active meditation, analytical meditation. Concentrated meditation you don’t need, everybody knows how to sit at each level by now. Everybody by now will know how to sit and how to concentrate on anything, right? Based on what you concentrate is the most important, you need it. That has to be some subject otherwise how do you bring spiritual development? You can meditate, concentrated meditation on object that will bring concentration power only that will not bring spiritual development. (11:00:05.2) Another words it will not bring solid development. Something solid that guarantees you not a permanent pleasure or way to enlightenment. It will not be able to bring it. That what you need it.

11:00:51 Every material, whatever we try to pour on you try to use them in the spiritual meditation material. Another words you think on that. Analyze. Try to find a deeper meaning in that and try to put that in your way of thinking and way of living. Particularly in your daily life. Whenever we try to talk to you-this is bad, bad, bad, bad so it doesn’t matter, you may laugh but when you laugh, laugh within yourself. Look at yourself and when you find yourself in that try to correct. That is what I really mean it.

First let me go on this one word-reverence to the holy gurus, right? That is the first word. Okay. That is very important. I am not trying to introduce you to Guru trip. We have enough Guru trip in the west, I believe. We are not interested. However, what we call that spiritual friend, spiritual guide it is one important step here. Very important step because as I’m telling you this morning, the spiritual path, what we are going to be traveling is an unknown path. Even knowing things is like daily work, carpentry or any other odd work that you do even for that you need a teacher who shows you how to do this. You need someone to show you how things work. (11:03:05.9) Even cooking you need a teacher to show you how to cut vegetables, how to cut the meat in certain ways. Even the artist, you need someone to teach you how to hold the pen and how to draw things. Everywhere you need a guide, you need a master and the spiritual path is especially unknown so you definitely need one very important guide. Without that you read certain book here you read certain books there, you follow certain lecture here, you follow certain there and what you do is spiritual shopping is what I call it. Good spiritual shopping and when you go home you have nothing. You go very big shopping and you have very good trips here and there and in the end what you really have is nothing. You really have zero level. That won’t help.

Another thing, spiritual practice, I am going to tell you here frankly, by reading a book you can never get it, never get it, never. Spiritual practice you can never get from reading a book. Why? I will tell you the reason otherwise you might think-“what is this fellow try to tell me.” Why won’t that work? As I told you enlightenment and how difficult it is to achieve that. It is not a technical thing. If it was a technical thing – you put this switchboard here, this screw here, that screw there and it starts moving, right? But this is not a technical thing, you have to have…how does spiritual development happen with different people? Important is the path, you have to practice which means concentrated and analytical meditation. Side by side you need purification. Side by side you need accumulation of merit. Side by side you need spiritual support. Spiritual support is the only through a spiritual friend you can get it. It is the support. When I try to talk to you here, its not me I’m talking to you, truly (?11:05:51) my backbone is my spiritual lineage. The spiritual lineage behind me is my backbone. I’m nobody, I know nothing. When I try to talk to you or anybody on the spiritual path I get something to say, I will be able to communicate, I may be able to help a number of people. I have been able to help and I hope to be able to help to. It is all because of these backbones of the spiritual lineage.

11:06:30 It is important, no doubt. What we don’t need is the Guru trips of what we have or what has been introduced by the cultural influence that we just talked about. That’s what we don’t need. However, we do need the big bones. We don’t need the instant way of the Guru trip but we do need the western way of spiritual friendship, its definitely needed. Without that again we won’t move. All these things are dependent, the major meditative practice both analytical and concentrated. Accumulation of merit, purification, spiritual support all links together, then the person moves. If one is missing its like a flat tire. If the car has four tires and one goes flat you won’t move in that manner. It is important. (11:07 talking about timing and sessions with Thurman).

11:08:12:8 That spiritual friend important. That is why the evidence to the whole Guru business comes first. You have to understand it. The language is the one language. You have to borrow it. You have to use it. The word of the Guru, you have to use it because that was the available word, but you understand differently. You know what I am talking about I hope. Now the question arises. If that is so, as a matter of fact this was referred to as root of spiritual development. This very practice that we call Guru Yoga is the root of all development. It’s called the root of all development, so very important. Then the arising question, what kind of Guru? What are the qualities needed? What are the qualities that I look for? If every single human being who claims to be a spiritual master is that the right, I don’t believe so. Traditionally what we do is, even from Tibet, we used to select the best, young, intelligent people available. Twenty or thirty of them selected goes to India to find a good spiritual master who look everywhere. Very, very difficult to find even at that time. In Tibet there are very famous maters, but every famous master may not be the right spiritual master for you. The spiritual master is definitely not going after a big name, for sure. The big names will not help, definitely. 11:10:45 Especially the spiritual master whoever tries, him or herself in the newspapers are bound to be a fraud. Traditionally people used to carry a lot of that and go and search for year after year for a perfect master. Nowadays you have the perfect masters available in the New York Times or any other bulletin that goes out, right? Anyways, that is a joke, forget about it alright? But it is very important to choose a good spiritual guide. If the spiritual guide is good and will be able to lead the friend to enlightenment, you have a very good spiritual friend. It is almost like duplicating. It is like a mold, like a mold whatever that shape, picture that you are going to be duplicating it. So it is very important to have a good one. If you have the wrong spiritual guide it is bad, really bad. For example, during the Buddha’s period this famous story of Angulimala, which is very familiar with a number of people, I believe. Particularly those who read (? 11:12:43) stories. Angulimala that somebody had a spiritual master who tells them if you kill on thousand human beings in 1 week and cut their thumbs and make a mala, a mala is a rosary, and wear it and come back to me and I will liberate you. This fellow goes and kills everybody, every single human being that he can catch. He killed 999 human beings in a little town in India, everybody ran away. It was getting more and more harder for him. He had nobody around, he cannot see any human being. The moment he comes, everybody runs away. He can’t see anybody, he can’t encounter with anybody. He doesn’t want to kill his own mother. The mother is the only one who is left so he hesitated that for a little while. If nobody gets he has to do that, he is going to do that. By then the Buddha appeared in front of him as an ordinary guy. He started walking slowly in front of him and he’s running saying “oh, I saw this fella and I can get him so I can spare my mother.” He started running after him, he’s going slowly. He’s running, running and couldn’t catch him. He said “hey, wait!” He said, “I am waiting, you come faster.” He is not catching him. That is how it started he saying hey wait and you come faster, that is how it started. The Buddha started talking to him, he couldn’t catch him. Finally, he was able to convince him what he was doing was wrong. I tell you this story for two purposes. Purpose 1 – if you have the wrong spiritual friend, you get the wrong path. You get tremendous amount of, instead of help, you get tremendous amount of disadvantages. (11:15:05) Instead of positivity you get tremendous negativity. Two – even though one killed 999 human beings in one week, but that person was able to purify his wrong doings that we call negative forces. Being able to purify and when you purify it, be able to purify and he had become arhat. You know what I mean, arhat? Arhat is born beyond the samsaric circle. The circle of life after death and stops you going around. I will come to that later. So, he was able to purify that. It shows you two purposes. Purpose 1 – spiritual master has to be a good one. I will give you the qualities when I talk to you next. Purpose 2 – no matter even you created non-virtuous of killing that much human beings, even then you can purify. Negative forces that you committed you don’t have to feel guilty about it another words. You don’t have to carry the guilt around with you all the time because it is not permanent. Guilt, negative act, everything is impermanent. When it is impermanent it is changeable, it can change. If you do something bad you don’t have to carry the guilt around. You can purify and you become pure. Guilt is not permanent, okay? So these two purposes, I give you that example 11:17:14. My time is more beyond up so I will stop here. (GR and Thurman talking about how to proceed).

11:18:18 Spiritual talk always you have to use as a (?) always. Using as a (?) whatever the person is talking about, do I have that? Aknowledge and try to reflect with your character and what the person is saying. Whether you are going in that direction or going in opposite direction. That is so important. That is the usage of the spiritual path. If you build intellectual knowledge that is intellectual knowledge. That builds up tremendous knowledge. That won’t help you for spiritual development. That knowledge, if you utilize that to reflect your way of thinking character that is the how of spiritual development comes. First learning, second thinking, third meditating. That is one of the main things. Another thing is that I did mention is the reverence to the Gurus. The Gurus are, I don’t want to use the word Guru. I would rather use spiritual friend. Spiritual friends is important because it have to show you the path. If you don’t have the path then you cannot do anything. You just sit empty, sitting empty you can sit for years together but that won’t help you much. You need material to think. Material from the books alone will not help you because you don’t have the spiritual lineage support. All these are you have to think, if you lose that it is the flat tire. Think about that, okay. Analyze that and put little thought on that and then we can continue, thank you. 11:20:05

11:20:41 Questions from the audience:

Audience: We talked about the spiritual guide being and the problem is you didn’t really tell us how to get one. Which qualities.

GR- I told you how to get, look in New York Times (laughs) I haven’t gotten to that yet.

Audience: when you talk about analytical meditation are you referring to a type of disciplined, set pattern of things you might think about GR- yes. Audience- or free form GR-No. No no. There are freeform however there is a framework of discipline. You can’t just think every single thing. Guided points wherever you have to take steps. Wherever your spiritual development. You can do analytical on anything. From the enlightenment to the donkey’s tail however what we recommend and what I am recommending here is the point wherever the spiritual steps wherever you going to take. There are steps 1,2,3,4,5 steps. You go the first step, the second step so on each step you take you do analytical so you can understand better. First you listen, you hear it, you get an idea and do analytical, get to understand better and you concentrate, meditate.

Audience: you talked about this idea that the dharma is really effective when the teaching is really effective that sort of pushes you in a direction that is difficult. Sometimes it seems as if people get this austerity and almost over doing of austerity too. Sometimes people will actually get into a self-torture kind of a mode where they really want to be hurt in a way.

GR: I don’t think I would call it self-torture. I think that would be to extreme a word. You may call it invasion of privacy. You know what I am talking about. If you go through it certain people are doing it how, sort of type of manipulation or certain way that you don’t want…anything you don’t want others to know what your thinking and when someone tries to pulling that and touch that you feel uncomfortable. In there your privacy, for sure. I don’t really call it self-torture. That is too extreme. Your not torturing anything but whatever you are hiding and holding is shaking. It is better, why? Because you cannot hold that anymore. If you are going to hold on to that you are going to fall it. It is going to be shaken without your falling 11:24:13 It is showing you whatever you are holding you is wrong, its shaking, it’s unreliable. It maybe a little invasion of the privacy, but it is good for you. That’s what it is. (To Thurman) you want to comment?

Thurman: no. only that he also meant that he agrees with that. He didn’t say that was not important to have critical balance he is saying that some people seek out to be put down. It means something great if they can get someone to put them down. GR: no, no, no. not that way. Thurman: the biggest thing is putting everybody down and say your all a bunch of GR: definitely no. (talking at same time 11:24:57) GR: don’t go for the thing like that. That is not right. I would not like to see that develop in America. Especially a democratic country with a democratic values. Really here you need the principles to help, but you don’t need those different cultural influence you don’t need.

Audience: you said that you were going to be talking about the path to self love today focusing on the point as you call it. Is that part of that?

GR: no. I didn’t hear (?)11:26:10 It will be 3rd verse or 4th verse it will come on that.

Audience: On the analytical meditation, I do it a slightly different form but when I, its similar but there might be times when I am kind of doing this mentor or analytical but then I might also have a moment of feeling ecstatic or feeling very warm at the moment real love and then so I kind of break out of that and feel very ecumenical and I just find myself spontaneously talking or feeling closer to god in those moments. Do you go with that or is it better to just try to be more mental…

GR: That is what we call an angel (?)11:27:04 that is we call it the heavey renunciation.

Audience: Heavy?

GR: Heavy. Heavy renunciation. Do you know what heavy renunciation is? When you have something that happens where your hair stands up, you know. That subtle thing, which I don’t call it, its not bad it is good. It is with a lot of help and a lot of effort it comes in. However, I don’t think that is reliable. I’m sorry to say that, but it is not a reliable, that is why we call it heavy renunciation. Suddenly your hair starts to rise like that, but if you love if few, few minutes, short period. Maybe it will go away. It doesn’t mean thirty minutes it might be last for a while but it is short period, short lived. It doesn’t permanently go on. The spiritual development doesn’t go away. Once it comes, it remains. Also on this sort of thing we already refer to as a heavy renunciation. That’s good, you don’t need to throw it away, but try to utilize that opportunity and try to stick to it and try to get a little deeper into it and stick to it.

Audience: You should go with it when you…

GR: Yeah, for like if you feel closer to God or something like that then go ahead and see how far you can go.

11:29:07 Audience: If you are in a difficult situation will you think that there is nothing you can possibly do at that moment. The only thought that you can think is that you can pray do you believe that there is a miracle or something like…

GR: Yes. Definitely. There are times that you can do nothing. If you try to read you don’t understand. If you try to listen you cannot get it. If you try to talk you cannot speak. If you try to meditate you cannot think. There are times then the technique for that is a sick intervention. (11:29:55.2 says something in Tibetan). If you try to memorize you can’t memorize. If you try to visualize you can’t visualize. (Tibetan)That period you have the sick intervention (here the tape sounds like it stops then picks up seems to be a gap but still related to above question)

11:30:25 GR: True spiritual master. True lineage. If you don’t have it…from outside. When you have the lineage, you become part and parcel. When you don’t have that it is like shouting from outside the door. When you have certain lineages through which you developed, through which you have to take initiations, through which you have learned and been introduced you become a family member, you can come in and talk. When you don’t have that you can’t come in but you can shout from outside.

Thurman: I think we will take a break for about 10mins 11:31:24.8

11:31:26 Thurman: Root of the Master, the spiritual amster. Reading: “and our teacher said, to know the word of the spiritual master is more important. Even if you know by heart all of the sutras and all of the shastras,” he said, “if you do not have the word, if the word of the master has not entered into your heart then at the time of practice person and dharma will go separate ways.” This is a famous statement by Atisha and it relates to the special one of the special greatness of Tibetan Buddhism that in Tibetan Buddhism the personal relationship, this is what Rinpoche was talking about, the personal relationship between teacher, whether teacher is monastic preceptor or whether teacher is what they call kalyana-mitra which means spiritual friend. In the ordinary Mahayana, the universal vehicle, the teacher relationship, the authority aspect of it is deemphasized and the teacher is talked about as a spiritual friend. Kalyana-mitra, one who emphasizes that you have to travel the path yourself. You have to have the realization yourself by calling the teacher a friend in that way. However in Tantrayana the Guru as a symbol is very, very important not only as a person but even the Guru can be an idiot, a fool, a charlatan even, if the disciple in Tantra has great faith in that Guru and is looking for the Buddha in even the idiotic behavior of that Guru it is said that the disciple can find the Buddha’s teaching in the idiotic behavior of the Guru. So in Tantra, the Guru relationship is very crucial because the Guru becomes the gateway or symbol of the Buddha to which the disciple by using that Guru as a lens to see through which to see the Buddha. The disciple can really receive the blessing of the Buddha by that disciples faith. 11:33:29As I say, even the Guru might be an idiot. However, of course, even in that case not to pick an idiotic Guru or just casually just grab the first Guru who wanders down because the thing is that while you are trying to use the Guru as the lens to see the Buddha an idiotic Guru will think up a lot of stupid activities for you to engage in. And he will make you go out and do a lot things and give him a lot of money and going a lot of round and march around and do a lot of asinine behaviors. These things will distract you. You are trying to look at the lens meanwhile they are having you run up and down digging ditches and having you do many stupid things. Actually, they say there is a Tibetan parable that is very amusing about this very special tantric Guru who you must, it is very important, if you do receive initiation you must see as Buddha even if, I say, if on a ordinary level they behave like a fool.

11:34:19 as (?) says gather initiation from a Guru who lives at least three valleys away because apparently come the proverb, I think, at least three days journey by yak so you don’t see too often. You don’t have to see some of the ordinary behaviors. You just see them on special occasions, ritual when they are very nice and this is Buddha’s lens towards me and you don’t have to all the time deal with all the daily because then the idiotic things might come out and you would have to have really strong faith indeed to see the Guru in this sort of pea brained character who is behaving like a fool. There are a few pea brains even in Tibet, one or two. Present company definitely accepted. Our Rinpoche is kind of a child prodigy in Tibet. He was the youngest to every receive the Geshe, first degree national Geshe degree, that is spiritual teacher degree. He received it at the youngest age in Tibetan history. Of course, we are not too sure about that because Tibetans never know how old they are (laughs) because they have no birth certificate. In any case, he is known as a real prodigy, our Rinpoche.

11:35:30 There are these levels and layers of Buddha relationships depending on which layer you are. That statement of initials I understand and that is totally agreed that when you want to talk about book learning as something as one can use to manipulate you know. Like I know a lot about the dharma because I read this and that book like the bad professors do. They read all these things and they think they know a lot because they have a lot of footnotes and so forth, but because their keeping intellectual control of that. They are not letting it touch their heart. They are not practicing it and it is from that point of view someone like Atisha or that you generally hear in the tradition that there is something wrong with the book. Books are like mere books, but it really isn’t the book that is mere it is the way that people treat the book. They use it to enhance their ego trip rather to erode their ego trip, but that is not the books fault. As the final proof to defend the book I’m going to point to Manjushri left shoulder, on the lotus there is a book. That is the book of Prajnaparamita and that book, in fact, even in the book says the only book that is any good is the book that is no book. Prajnaparamita says is the book that says there is no book. It the wisdom that says there is no wisdom to obtain, like in the Heart Sutra it’s that kind of a book. It’s the bookless book, but it is a book. He holds it as a book. Of course, on the other hand one of the dangers in Tibet, for example, the great masters in Tibet such as Atisha. Atisha also said that thing. Atisha also worked his life to translate the Indian books into Tibetan. He always said somebody comes along, some Guru they say they have new teaching. Oh yeah, this new thing oh Buddha didn’t really say this, you don’t know, this is an unspoken thing. I heard it and found it under a rock and what it is do this and do this and do that. A lot of weird things came out in ancient time in Tibetan not just in modern times. 11:37:23 A lot of very strange things. This is the dharma and that is the dharma and who is there to control this if anybody says “I am a Guru and I say and some Buddha told me last night in my dream or I found it someplace in the dream or something. The thing is Atisha says what is in the sutras of the Buddha. What is preserved by these arch angels, Manjushri and Maitreya who are not disturbed by political events, by burning (? 11:37:48) they can recover the books from their own heart. What the Guru says, I am a Guru yes the Guru precept is good because they personally apply it to you, but if what they say does not agree with what is in the authoritative sutras and tantras, reject it. I just said to do that before we get back to the book otherwise there is some nervousness about this sutra. Anyways, this sutra is most amusing sutra and the most interesting. I wanted to go on and jump around a little bit. I’m going to move into the 3rd chapter and then I’m going to go backwards a little bit to the pure lands. I’m going to go back and forth. Because of what Rinpoche was saying about empty sitting I wanted to show that Rinpoche is very much according to the book.

11:38:38 Vimalakirti is sick, remember. At first he gives long talk about how awful it is to be sick. How the human body is such a let-down. How you really shouldn’t be attached to the ordinary body and don’t over fuss and waste your budget on it because it is not very worthwhile, it’s not reliable, illness is its fundamental nature. It’s just a balance of different illnesses, all those viruses running all up and down your blood, in your liver. It will only just stay in balance you know just the rodeo of viruses that are running around and everything is alright. One get a little much than we think we are sick but in fact the sicknesses are there all of the time, he is saying that, Vimalakirti is. The last thing that he says after he delivers this talk to his friends in the beginning of the 3rd chapter of this translation, he thinks to himself. He says, “I am sick, lying on my bed in pain yet the Tathagata”, that means the Buddha-the one that has realized the ultimate nature of reality, that particular name means. Our translation nowadays is transcendent lord, he realizes the transcendent reality of the world. “yet the Tathagata, the saint, the perfectly accomplished Buddha does not consider me or take pity upon me and sends no one to inquire after my illness.” So he is blaming the Buddha there. He is saying this is really nasty, the Buddha is supposed to be omniscient, Buddha is omniscient by definition, supposed to know everything. I am so sick. I’m a nice old, Buddha is lame and I have been supporting this monk for years feeding them lunch and so on. Now I’m sick and he sends no one to see me. Of course, he is only pretending to be sick and now he is pretending to be piqued because Buddha does not send anybody to visit him. So, Buddha reads his mind from 40 miles away out there in the (11:40:31 omega?). He says, the lord knew this thought in the mind of Vimalakirti and said to the venerable Shariputra, “Shariputra, go to inquire after the illness of the Licchavi Vimalakirti and this is a formality in Buddhist culture, it’s a set thing that they are supposed to say when someone is sick in the community everyone goes and pays a call on them and bothers them in various ways and says “how are you?” “not too bad.” “Can I do anything for you?”and usually gives them some type of a lecture like “well sickness is bad karma, so you should meditate and purify”, blah, blah, blah, this type of thing. This is like a formality. To use the sickness as a part of the path. Shariputra really can’t refuse when the Buddha says go inquire after Vimalakirti. It is his duty as a saint of an elder, besides the Buddha asked him to go. You would think he would run right away, but you notice he does more or less refuse. He says, oh no, Buddha. He says, “Oh lord, I am indeed reluctant to go ask after Licchavi Vimalakirti about his illness,” he said. Why? Because he is not supposed to refuse this. He is supposed to go impartially to all beings even like enemies, vipers, snakes, anything. He won’t go see Vimalakirti? Now you see why people, about what you mean about Dharma talk that hits the point. That maybe hurts a little. Here this great saint doesn’t want to go see this guy and why? He tells this story, why. I will read this story because it’s so much on the point on meditation.

11:41:59”I remember one day when I was sitting at the foot of a tree in the forest absorbed in contemplation and Licchavi Vimalakirti came to the foot of that tree and said to me”, I want you to know that this is Shariputra talking, he’s a saint, he’s an arhat, okay? As an arhat this means that he really has attained kind of enlightenment that they call Shravakabodhi, the enlightenment of a disciple, he has attained that. He has realized a level of selflessness. He has experienced himself as completely selfless. He has definitely had that experience. Not only that, but he has such a great power of samadhi that there was a famous story about how one time he was meditating and Mahamaudgalyayana saw there was a little devil kind of some evil ogre like a gremlin who’d come out of the forest and was hitting on his head with a hammer. Hitting Shariputra on the head, banging on him with a hammer, like one of Steven Spielberg’s little gremlins, going like bang, bang on Shariputra’s head. Shariputra was not budging on his samadhi. He chased away the gremlin, Mahamaudgalyayana did and then he woke up Shariputra and said, Shariputra how do you feel? What’s the matter with you? Didn’t you know someone was beating on your head? Shariputra said, no I didn’t. Oh gee I have a headache. Shariputra had a headache that kind. This, to those of you have done some sitting will recognize, is a real achievement of trance. If you attain such a…It isn’t even that hard to attain actually. You can actually withdraw from your senses, your mental energy and go into internal mental realms of samadhi and you really won’t feel when someone talks to you, when someone…it’s not that hard after all. Every one of you have probably had the experience when you are watching the baseball game, the New York Yankees, the Red Soxs or whatever city you come from, as somebody was talking to you, you didn’t hear what they said. 11:43:43 Even if they are shouting loudly. Children and wives sometimes or husbands they get this frustrating experience. They say “dear, dear” and the guy is just staring at the tube. This happens to me a lot. There you have withdrawn your attention from that sense because it is associated with the visual sense in that occasion. It’s not that hard to absorb from all of the senses including the touch sense and somebody could hit you on the head you wouldn’t know. It’s not that easy, but anyway. I’m just saying that Shariputra is an adept yogi and meditator. He is no lightweight. He is not just sitting there sitting on his pillow. He really can go into samadhi so when he says, when I was sitting in the forest absorbed in contemplation he really was absorbed in contemplation. What we would consider great Yogi. “Licchavi Vimalakirti came to the foot of that tree and said to me,” shook him probably. “Reverend Shariputra this not the way to absorb yourself in contemplation.” Without even being asked, Lord how rude the fellow is. He comes up to this famous monk, great saint. This is like St. Peter, St. Paul or something. This is a great Saint, stands on the Buddha’s left hand. Shariputra is not just some wondering monk. He says, “that is not the way to meditate. You should absorb yourself in contemplation so that neither body nor mind appear anywhere in the triple worlds.” That’s a very radical statement. That the only way to meditate, that neither body nor mind are appearing anywhere within the triple world. Actually, those of you that know about Zen probably will remember the famous statement which calls Dogen’s enlightenment. Where he heard his Guru tell another person that had fallen asleep in the long zazen meditation sitting session in China, “you should cast off body and mind.” You are only practicing zazen when you cast off body and mind, he said to him. That is an enlightened Dogen. If you were practicing…it also ties back to another famous zenzing where there was one guy called (11:45:46 ?) famous meditator…no, no (Bijung?) he was meditating outside in the mountains in China and he would, the snow would fall on him, rain, thunder, lightning, hot, anything, he sat there. He didn’t care. Bugs could eat him up. He didn’t care. He had one Guru who’s name was Master Ma, Mazu and this Guru used to come out and he is a very irritating fellow, this kind of Guru. He used to sit next to him, he would come out and sit sometimes, occasionally while the guy would sit there day and night. The Guru would come and he would pick up some piece of tile, like broken roof tile, terra cotta. He would rub tile like this (clacking noise) for a long time. The guy would think, he is trying to disturb my samadhi but he wouldn’t budge, just sit there. Finally, after many weeks, like everyday someone would come out and do this, he became irritated and said, Master Ma what are you doing rubbing this tile! The guy looked up very offended and said, “why I am making a mirror.” The guy says, “you can’t make a mirror polishing a tile.” Then the Guru raised himself up and said, “you can’t make enlightenment by meditating.” This is similar. If you think your sitting meditating, if your body is sitting down and your mind is now I’m meditating, I’m the good Buddhist, I’m the Yogi, I’m going to get enlightenment, I’m concentrating…This is not the way to meditate. Only meditate when you aren’t even appearing there. When neither body nor mind are apparent or anywhere within the triple world. Body and mind have been cast off. That’s very, very radical he says. It gets worse 11:47:32. That’s just the beginning he says “you should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that you can manifest all ordinary behavior without forsaking Nirvana.” You don’t have to go and sit on some pillow and look rigid and be uptight.

“You should be so absorbed that you can go around and do anything and you never leave Nirvana.” This is the non-dualistic type of absorption that you should practice, he says. “You should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that you can manifest the nature of an ordinary person without abandoning your cultivated spiritual nature.” Of course, this is difficult for Shariputra, he is saying to Shariputra, “I know you are a big Saint; I’m not asking you to quit being a Saint, but you could be totally ordinary as well. What is the subtle egotism that I am a Saint? Why can’t you just be an ordinary person? That is the way you should absorb yourself in contemplation so there is no duality between even Buddha and an ordinary person much less you the Saint and an ordinary person.” “You should absorb yourself in contemplation so that the mind neither settles within nor moves without toward external forms.” “You should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that the thirty-seven accessories to enlightenment,” these are things like faith, mindfulness, concentration, effort, alertness, there are many things, there are thirty-seven of them. “The thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are manifest without deviation toward any false convictions.” “You should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that you are released in liberation without abandoning the passions that are the provinces of the world.” Here also Shariputra is nervous, Shariputra has no passions, has no anger, has no delusions on the conscious mind at all. Perhaps, the Mahayanist would say he had in his unconscious mind something still, some seeds, but as a Saint he truly genuinely has no such thing. This again is a very radical statement that he should rediscover the energy of the passions that actually are still latent within him and make him no different from an ordinary person and he should be liberated without having to abandon those. This is very difficult business he is talking about. “Reverend Shariputra, those who absorb themselves in contemplation in such a way are declared by the Lord to be truly absorbed in contemplation.” Then Shariputra goes back to his own discourse and says “Lord when I heard this teaching, I was unable to reply and had to remain silent. Therefor I am reluctant to ask that good man about his sickness.” He’s so scared he might go up and say how are you and Vimalakirti said why are you asking me, who are you? Vimalakirti might just start out in this ultimate reality binge and drive poor Shariputra mad. (11:50:12). So this is tremendously radical things, especially Shariputra. You have to know from a Buddhist perspective Shariputra is like St. Peter or St. Paul. It’s like coming up to St. Peter and saying, you’re a jerk. You’re not a Christian. Somebody saying to him, like some guy from downtown Jerusalem, saying to him. It would be equivalent in Christian literature like that. Incredibly radical thing.

11:50:38 Another one I like is Mahamaudgalyayana. Shariputra was famous for his wisdom and for his ability to meditate. That is what Vimalakirti sought him out, sneaked around, found him meditating and jumped on him. Which Shariputra did use as a mirror. Shariputra did feel silenced, he couldn’t respond but it made him so uncomfortable that he didn’t…it wasn’t that he was afraid to see Vimalakirti, but he rather wouldn’t that day. Now, Mahamaudgalyayana who has great psychic powers, famous for his clairvoyance and for his magical abilities and also famous as a teacher. So then Buddha turned to Mahamaudgalyayana, the next great disciple and said, “Mahamaudgalyayana go to Licchavi Vimalakirti and inquire about his illness.” Mahamaudgalyayana replied, “Lord, I am indeed reluctant to go to Licchavi Vimalakirti to inquire about his illness. Why? I remember one day when I was teaching the Dharma to the householders in the square in the great city of Vaishali and Licchavi Vimalakirti came along and said to me,” now here’s the great St. he is teaching just like here he is giving teaching. Dharma teaching, I am teaching the Dharma. He’s in there, asked him to, he’s invited, he’s doing it, this great St., (?11:51:51) right. The rude Vimalakirti comes there he says Reverend, he says Reverend, he says Reverend Mahamaudgalyayana that is not the way to teach the Dharma to the householders in their white clothes. The Dharma must be taught according to reality. “Reverend Mahamaudgalyayana the Dharma is without living beings because it is free of the dust of living beings. It is selfless because it is free of the dust of desire. It is lifeless because it is free of life and death. It is without personalities because it dispenses with past origins and future destinies.” Like you where saying Rinpoche, you didn’t want to know that I am David, you can prove that so and so wasn’t David that was very good that might pass the Vimalakirti test in saying that. That is a very shocking thing, for example but that is also great. Isn’t it nice? Here we thought we are a living being. We are worrying about dying. We thought we were such a personality. We paid our registration fee. We have our driver’s license. We are worrying about having a self. I’m too selfish, I have a bit self. Worried about life and death, about birth and death. Worried about all these things then suddenly we discover in reality there is no such thing. There is no such life. Not just the fact that we say this, it sounds like such a cute thing, oh yeah no life, but that means on some level…no. When someone says it according to realities like the Buddha says or Vimalakirti says or Manjushri says meaning that’s how they see it. They actually don’t see any living beings. They don’t see any Davids, they don’t see any Thurmans, they don’t even see any Rinpoche’s, they don’t see any Brenda. This whole process that thinks it’s a Brenda is just a process. It’s not even a process. It’s an inconceivability. It’s a sunyata, an emptiness. In reality that means. In reality there is no worry. There is no problem. There is no tenuous egocentric life that fears death and there is no death. There is no suffering, there is no cure of suffering like the Heart Sutra says. That is why we read the Heart Sutra. There is no attainment of enlightenment also no non-attainment lest we think we can just indulge as we are. There is no non-attainment meaning we are, it is all a realm of enlightenment therefor no excuse because one is not enlightened. Because one has realized selflessness. There is no excuse in not behaving altruistically. There is no excuse in not attending to reality at least. So that is why the Indian expression Darshana to go to meet the Buddha, the Dalai Lama, some great master for their Darshana, for their sight literally. Doesn’t mean to go and see just that master. Does not mean that you go there because you want to see the Buddha. It means you go there so the Buddha can see you. Darshana means to go and be seen by such a master because the Buddha sees right through you. The Buddha sees you as every atom of you as a dance of total bliss. He sees you as an integration body. Total bliss, bliss void indivisible let us say. Then at the same time, simultaneously being a Buddha luckily and not a one track mind a multi-track mind, the Buddha is also aware that you think you are such a vulnerable, worried, little chipmunk of a person “I’m going to die. Something is going to happen to me.” Or “I want something. I hate that.” “oh, I worry about this.” “I am jealous of that.” “oh I’m so proud of this.” He sees that you are engaging in this self-hypnosis this theater and he interacts with that too. On some level he sees you as perfect. So you are relieved by being seen that way. We are relieved because suddenly we realize we are a part of his environment because the enlightened mind is more powerful than the unenlightened mind. That is why today’s course is really on faith subject is really about faith. All the dancing around is all having to do with faith. One can have faith because enlightenment is more powerful than ignorance. Truth is more powerful than untruth. Goodness is more powerful than evil. Love is more powerful than hate. Why? Because it is in accordance with those positive ones are in accordance with reality. The unpositive ones are desperately trying to distort reality. It is so much harder, reality prevails. You can build something on false foundation it’s always unstable. A real foundation is more stable. The two collide and the one on the false foundation crumbles.

11:57:04 Since there has been infinite universe with infinite no beginning ever. All that is going on since infinite number of beings sought that truth since there is reality that infinite number of human beings have discovered that reality. Having discovered that reality they have developed the love and the ability to introduce others to that reality. Therefore, we can kind of relax. We may feel infinitely lost, but it stands to reason there are infinite beings who are out to find us. At least is such of the Mahayana view. This is why, for example when he puts his toe down the Mahayana are not shocked totally that this might actually be the perfect world. They are ready to…the mind of unfix. The mind of doubt. The mind that…there is no mind of unfaith, by the way. There is no mind of the unbelief, no such mind. When you think you are having a mind of the unbelief of some sort of weird story about compassion and love in the universe is because you are having a great faith in yourself. You’re thinking that your habitual sight, your habitual notion that I am me and this is my driver’s license and I’m American and this is planet earth and this is the year 2000 and so forth. I am David. I am Rinpoche. I am Bob. You are having great faith in that. You think that is a great thing. You don’t question that. Rinpoche claimed, no one took him up in the questioning. Rinpoche claimed that he can prove that you weren’t you. I was surprised. You just rolled over or else you just didn’t know what he meant. In fact, you have tremendous faith that you are you. So there is no question of no faith it’s just a question of whether you place your faith in what is worthy of having faith placed in it or whether you misplace your faith. Therefore, Vimalakirti for example in his lecture here about the body, when he talks about the body he is trying to tell the good citizens of Vaishali that the faith that they are placing in their in their body is misplaced. I love this one, (11:59:10 ?name) used to do this. Rinpoche, I have heard do this in talks. Just count up the hours of your life you spend for your body. Throw in sleep, “oh, I have got to rest now. My body is so tired.” Throw that in. Throw in no eating. Then going and getting the food. Then preparing the food. Then earning the money to buy the food. Then there is shelter, there’s the house, then there’s the clothes, then there’s the doctor bills, then there’s all the health spas, the exercise, the jogging shoes, the weights, the nautilus machines. How much of your time from birth to death do you spend in your own body, your material body of this life. Just count them up, the hours. How much time do you spend on that which is something more than the body? Well, if you’re like me raised as a materialistic American, it’s actually 100% misplaced investment because you accept an ideology that tells you that you are nothing more than your body. You accept an ideology that tells you that there is no future existence, no spiritual continuum at all. It’s 100% whatever I can fill unto here, whatever I can swallow, touch, feel, taste, possess. And then you die. What did you get out of all of that effort? All that time you spent, you got what? Nothing. Therefore, people die regretfully when they live materialistically. When they are going out there and suddenly as Hamlet says, “Dreams are eyes.” They enter into the dream state. They regret. Anyways, I get distracted. This is a bad habit that Rinpoche and I both have. We are trying this experiment, you understand. Either Rinpoche or I can talk much more than any of you can ever listen. We will drive you all mad. You would run away, leave. We can both probably talk more or less non-stop ten hours. It is a Tibetan habit you know. In Tibetan when they teach dharma, they feel dharma is important, they will teach from dawn to dusk. The lamas will teach. They just go on and on and on, your legs are hurting, your butt is sore, you have to pee, they never stop just go. They feel somehow, both the speaker, the speaker is nothing Rinpoche has said, the word coming from very ancient time, come from beings who really knew what was going on. The speaker gives up their own mind and their own vision and channel those words. The hearer can get out of their own little minds, “my driver’s license, what’s going on, what’s happening,” and they can go into those words. They all can live in the samadhi of that speech. The subtle realm of speech itself which itself is associated with the deitific body. Associated with the dream reality. Associated with a lot of interesting things actually, speech itself. Don’t think that there is something about book learning that there is depreciation of words. Even, you hear, wordless tradition, beyond words, you hear such things. Enlightened beings loved words. 12:02:28 Manjushri, is the wisdom Buddha, Manjushri is the word of all Buddhas. Manjushri is the living word. What is it when you say “Buddhas do not cure sin by laying on of hands. They do not heal by laying on of hands. They do not transfer their enlightened consciousness into another. They liberate by introducing beings to reality.” But how is that done? Take their face and stick, no. The way someone is introduced to reality is you speak to them. Buddhas speak to those beings. When you speak, in the Buddhist cultures, karma has 3 levels. Body, speech and mind. Speech is an independent level of evolution. It’s an independent level of life. When you speak you are automatic, talk about an invasion of privacy, when you speak you are in another’s mind. Another’s mind is now following your words. You have to be responsible for your speech. Of all of the four bad paths of speech its frivolous, meaningless speech because you are filling another’s mind with meaningless nonsense. Not only are you having meaningless nonsense circulating in your own inner monologue you are blabbing and filling other’s mind with meaningless nonsense. It is safer to talk about the dharma in the Buddhist cultures. They prefer, or if you can’t say anything about the dharma, say some mantra or something. Speech is a powerful action as powerful as bodily action; as powerful as mental action. Speech is very important.

12:04:05 Now Mahamaudgalyayana is teaching the dharma and Vimalakirti puts it into this ultimate reality context. He says, “The dharma is peace and pacification because it is free from desire.” The dharma does not want anything. The dharma is freedom from want. If one gives one’s mind to the dharma then so much as one has given up one’s own mind, one’s mind has become the dharma in some sense one’s mind has become that much free. The refuge of the dharma is the refuge in one’s own release of understanding something. Becoming free by knowing what it is. So, the dharma is essentially peaceful. It does not become an object. It’s not something you get because it is free of words and letters, it is inexpressible and it transcends all movement of mind. The dharma is omnipresence because it is like infinite space. It is without color, mark or shape because it is free of all process. It is without the concept of mind because it is free of the habitual notion of possession. It is without ideation because it is free of mind, thought or consciousness. It is incomparable because it has no antithesis. It is without presumption of conditionality because it does not conform to causes. It permeates evenly all things because all are included in the ultimate realm. It conforms to reality by the means of the process of non-conformity. It abides by the reality limit for it is utterly without fluctuation. It is immoveable because it is beyond the six objects of sense. It is without coming or going for it never stands still. It is comprised by voidness it is remarkable by signlessness and is free of presumption and repudiation because of wishlessness. It is without establishment and rejection without birth or destruction. It is without any fundamental consciousness transcending the range of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and thought. It is without highness and lowness, it abides without movement or activity, the dharma. The reality that is reality. Another words, all this here is reality, you are all reality this means. All of you are the dharma. Even your confusion is the dharma. Much less enlightenment is the dharma. Every atom of your being is the dharma. It pervades everything. If any Guru acts like they have the dharma its ridiculous. You have the dharma. Everyone has the dharma. It is open, free, accessible to everyone. It is the stuff of everyone, even. So therefore, Rev. Mahamaudgalyayana says Vimalakirti, “how can there be a teaching in regard to such a dharma? Rev. Mahamaudgalyayana, even the expression quote, to teach the dharma, is presumptuous and those who listen to it listen to presumption.” I love this one, when I’m teaching because it is like a confession (laughs). It’s presumption, that is, if I’m teaching and thinking “I am teaching the dharma. I know the dharma, they don’t.” The authoritarian pattern of teaching, the teacher knows, he’s got it. They don’t got it. We will let out a little at a time, pay a lot, do a lot of service, do this and that, act inferior. The Guru trip is that because Guru’s have something that you don’t have. So this is why I love this one because we all have it. “I’m the dharma teacher” is presumptuous and those who listen to it listen to presumption. Rev. Mahamaudgalyayana, how embarrassing for Mahamaudgalyayana in the square with all the laypeople. “Rev. Mahamaudgalyayana where there is no presumptuous words there are no teachers of the dharma. No one to listen and no one to understand. It is as if an illusory person were to teach the dharma to illusory people, in a dream. Therefore, you should teach the dharma,” now you see, Vimalakirti never lets…so then you would think, oh, Mahamaudgalyayana should just shut up and go be a silent sage, but he doesn’t mean that actually. 12:08:21 It’s more complicated, that’s what is so wonderful about it. I know everybody wants simplicity, but it’s always delusory or is expected. Do please expect simplicity. We always want the answers; there is no answers. Life is always complicated. It’s always different things about it. At the end of all of this you would think he would say then Mahamaudgalyayana should retire, go in and give his resignation to the Buddha, but no he says, “therefore you should teach the dharma,” he says “by keeping your mind on this. That you are not teaching any dharma. That no one needs to hear any dharma. That everyone has the dharma. That everyone is fully liberated in the dharma. That is how, with your mind in that you are no better than (?12:09:06?) then you should teach the dharma.” “You should be adept in regard to the spiritual faculties of living beings. By means of the correct vision of the wisdom eye manifesting the great compassion. Acknowledging the benevolent activity of the Buddhas. Purifying your intentions. Understanding the definitive expressions of the dharma you should teach the dharma in order that the continuity of the three jewels may never be interrupted.” The three jewels are the Buddha, dharma and the sangha. The teacher of reality. The reality itself which is really this core of every being’s heart. That’s why it’s not some outside things Buddha imports things that are stuffed in somebody’s heart. It is in fact the nature of everyone’s heart is what the dharma is really. When you take real refuge in the dharma you are taking refuge in the highest reality of your own heart which itself is safe. Which itself cannot suffer. Which itself cannot be destroyed. That is what you are taking real refuge in. The sangha is the community of those who help us get to realize what we really already always were, isn’t that nice? I feel that’s very nice. Religious teachings in general what your question was relating to you. I love bringing (?12:10:24)Mr. Fuller in this. Mr. Fuller blamed religious teachings. He’s a little materialistic. He was actually quite religious too but he blamed organized religion, all of them, including Buddhism for creating what he called an inferiority complex in the human beings in all the cultures of the world. By somehow telling everybody that there is something wrong with them and wrong with the world they had everybody completely brainwashed in a certain kind of…that the world is insufficient, something wrong with it. It was badly made. If they are theistic, God botched it. If they are non-theistic they think the random jumping’s of atoms didn’t jump right. Therefore, they have to have wars. They have to kill off a whole bunch of people because they don’t have enough food. There isn’t enough food. The planet is not well designed. Life is wrecked and miserable. They should take drugs or something to get through it. They do all sorts of destructive things and Fuller used to say, by doing that they will destroy themselves. They will create scarcity by hoarding. By thinking there is enough, they will create scarcity. By thinking that others are after them, they will kill others then others will be after them. He used to blame religions. He used to say religions teach faithlessness. They teach that because they want to control mind within their institutions. They tell them there is something wrong with you, something wrong with your world. In Fuller’s language, the cosmic mind, the cosmic design mind of the universe of it’s own self design is inadequate. You need to go to church or to temple or to the monastery or to synagogue or whatever religion it may be and go do some weird thing and worship some priest and get them to boss you around. In conjunction with some weird king or president or prime minister (End of Tape )