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Transforming Negativity 19920929GRAAon 02 JH

Tape 2

Before this we talked briefly on the nature of the person. Actually we try to focus on the transformation of the negativity into positivity. Before we do that, the basic question that arises is : what is it that we are trying to do? What are we looking at when we talked about individual improvement or upliftment of the individual ? We are talking of continuation of life from the Buddhist point of view, we are talking of reincarnation too.I am not talking from point of whether I believe or not believe in reincarnation, I am simply talking about : What is the individual being?

We always talk of the kind, wonderful nature of the human being. But what’s that? What is our beautiful nature? We are really tying to see deep down inside a person and find out what/who is the person inside before we can really talk of transforming from negative to positive. We must find out the basis on what we are talking about. We are not really trying to find out who/what you are. The question really is what kind of being are we talking about.

We said that there is a wonderful nature of a human being deep down. But that does not come out. Instead what come out is the delusions and this and that. In a very nice way, people just accept it. But the real point is do you know how to really go inside and find out really what that is. What is the being inside?

I talked to you last time about the individual being and buddha-nature. in a sort of little mumble-jumble way. I did not separate the individual being and the buddha-nature. I just said something like, ‘There is a beautiful nature which will continue, which ultimately will become fully enlightened and that is called buddha nature’. I should have gone a little bit deeper into it, ‘What is buddha-nature? What is the being? How does it work? All of you were very sweet, you just accepted it, agreed and smiled and left. So I thought, ‘Well, boy, I am lucky, nobody asked the question!’ (Well, I am joking.)0:07:15.

We are not very much concerned about what the person is: Male, female,or having a name or identity.

Question is what is this Buddha Nature and where is it? Is it oneness with the being inside or is it separate? If it’s separate, is it part of mind or is it part of something else? If we talk of the 5 skandhas, senses, consciousness, soul? What is it? I am not pretending I have answer for that but I think one has to think a little bit on that because it is on this basis that we do spiritual practice. We say we want to uplift the individual; we want to improve the individual.0:08:32.50

Which individual are we talking about and how and what is the scope?

What is Buddha nature?It is interesting as it is half sangskrit and half English.You just accept it.

When asked what it is, you perhaps do/do not understand it.I tried thinking and reading a little more,it is not normal Buddhist text but materials that maybe a geshe will read., debate and argue.

Does Buddha nature refer to just one person or many? These are the questions.What is the continuation of beings? These are very much interlinked with reincarnation.I am supposed to be incarnate lama. The person who labelled me,labelled it and the persons who have accepted it, accepted. But if you ask me what I know about it,I know nothing about it. I am like a normal human being like each one of you, nothing different.

Buddha-nature is the uncontaminated continuation of the being. That means, the pure part of the individual.

When we say ‘the pure part of the individual’, does it mean there is an individual with an impure part and a

pure part; two separates? Or is it two separate beings? All these are funny, little questions that come up. I

don’t think it is all this. Buddha-nature is the continuation of the individual being as nature and as basic

nature it is faultless. The basic nature of beings is faultless. No matter whatever whoever may say, the basic

nature of beings, the soul, the basic consciousness or the basic being, is definitely faultless. There is no

question about it. It is a pure being. However, we also have a tremendous amount of delusions come up, that

‘overpower’ the faultless individual being.

That faultless continuation of the being almost looks permanent. It is however impermanent, because it

changes. It is continuing and changing. It is like a lot of part and parcels of a changing continuity. For the

changing continuity, Trungpa Rinpoche used the word: a continuation of discontinuity. It is a continuation

of something changing. Therefore basically, if you ask, ‘Is this impermanent or permanent’? we have to

accept it as impermanent. It is not permanent. There is no permanent being, so it is impermanent. It has been

continuing and it will continue.

The delusions and faults that we gain as well as the benefits and developments that we gain, are temporary.

These are not permanent, not a continuity; they are temporary. Particularly delusions are temporary.

Therefore they are can be removed, they are able to be transformed. Virtues and positives are subject to

change as well. That is why we make it, we break up, we fall down, we make it, we don’t make it, we make

a little bit of development, we get a set-back. All these are an indication it is changing. It is changing.

The basic nature of the being is a continuity; anything whatever comes on top of it, whether good or bad,

positive or negative, is of impermanent nature, it are all temporary effects. Does it make sense to you?15:01.7

Then you raise the question: What is Buddha Nature? It is Basically the continuation of the being itself is the buddha-nature. It is buddha-nature because it is the subject to improve. It is the subject to be able able to reach the ultimate level. In plain language it is the subject to be able to get closer to God. That is it, the subject able to change, the subject able to improve.Therefore the basic buddha-nature is the continuation of the being itself.

However, the buddha-nature has basically been divided into two: the natural buddha-nature and the buddha-nature which is able to grow.

As long as the continuation of the individual as a basic being goes on, it will remain a natural buddha-nature. It may not grow, it may not become bigger, it may not develop, but it is possible to be developed and it remains there. It is the natural buddha-nature itself.

The second one: the moment you work with that and particularly using the application of learning,

analyzing and meditation, the nature of that individual buddha-nature changes into the buddha-nature of the

second category, the growing buddha-nature.

Otherwise it is buddha-nature, but it is not growing, sort of static buddha-nature, remaining as it is.

The moment you apply the methods of learning, analyzing and meditating on it, then that static buddha-

nature changes into the growing buddha-nature. That growing buddha-nature grows and grows and grows

and it finally clears all the obstacles, it clears all the delusions and then it becomes the awakened mind.

When it becomes the awakened mind,the all-knowing mind, enlightened, then, I think, it is called buddha.

Did I make it clear? That is, I think, how it becomes Buddha. Otherwise it doesn’t.0:18:42.

Then the question now rises: when you become a buddha, the virtuous works that you did, the

Contemplation you put in, the purifications or the meditations you did, are they becoming buddha? Or is it

simply the consciousness with buddha-nature, which is continuously growing, that does become buddha?

That is another question. I don’t have an answer for that, but what I do have, is: if a wrong answer comes in,

I’ll know it.

Basically we can say: all our contemplation, meditations, saying mantras etc. will become some part of

buddha. To ‘some part of buddha’ I have no objection. But to saying that ‘that becomes a buddha’, I have

objection. The objection will be: these are non-mind.

If you do something, it may be an activity of the mind, but it is not mind itself. If you meditate, the

meditation is action. The action is performed by mind, but it is not mind. Are you with me? It is not mind.

So, can non-mind become mind? That is the question. Can non-mind become mind? What will be the

answer? The Buddhist principle is: non-mind cannot become mind. If you really listen carefully, think

carefully, this is the total basis of the Buddhist idea of reincarnation. Buddha’s saying that there is no new

mind, Buddha’s saying that there is no new being, is all based on this:

Non-consciousness cannot become consciousness.

Buddhists hold this as a basic principle. Scientifically speaking I don’t think we know anything about it. The

scientists may think it is possible that non-consciousness can become consciousness. I don’t know.

But, the consciousness has certain qualities. The basic criteria for consciousness are: clarity and

Knowing and Lucid understanding The lucid understanding is the Consciousness. So, whether a non-consciousness can become lucid understanding, that is the big question.0:23:09.

If not, then the continuation of the mind has to be mind. Therefore, today’s mind is a continuation

of yesterday’s mind and yesterday’s mind is a continuation of last year’s mind and last year’s mind is a

continuation of the childhood and then of in the womb and then it goes beyond without any difficulty, all

because the continuation of mind continues as mind. Right?

So when the person is born from the parents when they joined together, what the parents provided is the

physical aspects of the individual being rather than its mental aspects. Its mental aspects come from the

continuation because the physical aspects cannot become consciousness. 0:24:39.9

If that principle has been established, looking into reincarnation is no problem. But for us that principle is a big

question. Neither we can say that it is true, nor we can say it is not true.

The Buddhist point of view is that reincarnation is based on the idea that non-consciousness cannot

become consciousness. It may help to form a being, but then it becomes the physical part and the mental

part. The physical part will provide the base for the mental part to be able to function.

That is why I say the life, the body that we have, is almost like an apartment, a rented apartment. The

consciousness inside is the occupant of the apartment. When the apartment is good enough, we live in it,

when we can afford to we decorate it, put on new clothes, jewelry, make-up, whatever. When the ‘basic

apartment’ cannot function, then we die.We cannot stay in the apartment we have to leave the apartment and go. When the consciousness cannot remain in that basic physical form which had been provided. It will look for another home to live, another apartment, another house.

The next one could be a good house, a bad house, an apartment or dormitory. That is how you go.

Likewise, this consciousness leaves this physical body and then you don’t have control; it is controlled by

different things. That is how the basic idea of reincarnation is explained. I hope it gives you a little better understanding of reincarnation.

Don’t think of a reincarnated lama or something which is not necessarily great either. According to Buddha,

everybody has his own reincarnation. Everybody is a reincarnation of somebody. True. Nagarjuna even says

(quotes):

So, if you try to have no reincarnation and if you can achieve that, great! So, how do we achieve that point?

The point of uncontrolled reincarnation.

Basically the mind, the consciousness inside, is not willing to leave this body. We drag our feet as

much as we can. No one likes to leave the body.They will like to remain as much as possible, Any possible foot you can drag, you drag. Right? It is a clear sign we don’t want to leave, with the exception of a few who like to commit suicide before. That is a different matter altogether. 0:28:23.6

Basically we would like to continue. Why we like to continue? Because we know we have control in this life to be certain extent. We know we can handle life, we can plan it, enjoy it, we can avoid a little misery, we can avoid a little cold or little heat or something; we have control over here.

But if you go away, you don’t have control. That is why. We don’t want to have an unknown thing happening to

us.We are not sure. That is the whole reason why we like to drag our feet as long as possible,even up to eighty years, ninety years, hundred years and even then you are not satisfied, you still like to drag your feet, if you can. That is the clear sign that we are not sure / are afraid of the other side and all this; that is why we like to continue. The reason why we are afraid, the reason why we are not sure, is because we have no control, because we can’t shape it.

Then who controls? Definitely no third person. Who controls though? We control again but indirectly. We created

the karma. We created all that is going to happen to us. We have created tremendous amount from the

limitless beginning, or the beginningless of beginning. The Buddhist word ‘the limitless beginning’ comes in

because of the idea of continuation. Because, you know, if there is no new consciousness, there is no new

beginning. So it has to be beginning-less.What else can it be?

Again, indirectly we control [our life], but [at the time of death] temporarily we lose the control and are

controlled by delusions and karma. Either negative karma or delusions control, or wisdom or positive

karma control31:14.8

Why we don’t have control? We lose control, because our consciousness will become a subtle

consciousness. At the time we die, we don’t remain this very alert and understanding, planning, thinking nature.

Our consciousness will shrink. That is why Buddha gave the 5 0r 6 senses which now expands into the different senses of hearing, seeing, touching . all these extended senses will shrink, because the apartment is broken, the communication is broken, we won’t know what is happening next-door.

The more the consciousness shrinks, the more it becomes subtle. At the time of death the

consciousness becomes most subtle! When it becomes subtle, we don’t have control, it becomes something

strange; you can’t control it, you can’t think, you can’t plan. The control goes back into the hands of either

the wisdom and the positive karma or to the negative karma and the delusions.

The idea now of improving is the idea of not letting the control go into the delusions, not letting the

control go into the hands of the negative forces. Instead of that you have to leave the control to the wisdom

and the positive karma.

In any case, at the time of the death, no matter whether you are a high incarnated lama or an ordinary

being like me, whoever you are, you don’t have control at that time, because consciousness

becomes so subtle, that Tsongkhapa even goes to the extent of saying that at the time of death the mind can

only be a neutral mind, not even a positive, not even a negative, nothing. So subtle it is! That is the basic

sense of the continuation of life.34:28.0

So there is the question of the negative and the positive, which is functioning on the basis of the individual.

That individual is the consciousness or the me, the individual. My delusions or my positive karma, or my wisdom or my ignorance, are the only things that accompany me. Am I getting to you?

Everybody has a buddha-nature within, but some buddha-natures are activated, waked up, some are not.

The question rises: How do you know whether your own buddha-nature is awakened or not ? Did you get it?

Put the question to yourself: How do I know whether my own buddha-nature has been activated or not? If it

is activated, there are signs.36:29.5

Even before you enter into the path, one who is having great compassion,one who would like to improve,

one who can bear to have good patience and who likes the positive energies these are the signs of the Buddha

nature being activated.

Looks like basically each one of us is exhibiting our buddha nature.

Basic human being,particularly in the West, people are kind, and when you look at them, you find most of us do have some kind of compassion. We always like to be compassionate. We want to be kind to people. To a certain extend, we do have patience. We always like to be good; no one wants to be bad.

What kind of a buddha-nature and what kind of wisdom, that is a totally different question. The sutra continues,

When you see the smoke, you know there is a fire.

When you see the seagulls, you know there is water.

Likewise, what good amount of buddha-nature is within the individual

you will see and understand by the signs.

One of Nagarjuna’s disciple’s, Chandrakirti, says,

Even ordinary beings like us, before we enter into the path,

when we talked about the nature of the individual, the nature of emptiness, the nature of bodhimind, of love-compassion, we’ll be happy. We become happy, we like to understand it,we like to get more of it, we like to be better.These are signs of the buddha-nature being activated within the individual.we like to get more of it, we like to be better.

Some people even will shed tears, some will have goose-pimples.

These are signs of the buddha-nature being activated within the individual.40.48.1

At certain times, certain individuals will experience some very special experience. We like it call it special experience. People do get it sometimes. People do get extra-ordinary experience. People like to keep that, hold on to that. They may think, ‘We hope we have understood emptiness; we hope we had developed something at that time’. I believe this is the one.

We did not really develop, we did not really understand emptiness, neither did we encounter with our basic consciousness face to face, but I think we have been given the sign of activation of our buddha-nature, strongly. These are the experiences. Whether you got it through the help of meditation or chemicals does not matter. Whatever it might be, when you have these feelings, these are the signs of the buddha-nature activated.

When you get these signs, it is the time and the opportunity for the individual to persevere. Such a sign of activated buddha-nature is not an everlasting sign. It is not something that continuously remains. It changes. Trying to get it back most of the time doesn’t work. Why? Because of the power of the delusions. So this is the individual signal, given to the individual by him- or herself, There are different things. You have to pick up, you have to grow, you have to develop.

And when you try to get it back and you can’t, it is also a signal and a message that you don’t get back those feelings, because there are obstacles – what we call delusions. The delusions are called obstacles. The buddha-mind is all-knowing, awakened and open – all the obstacles are cleared in the mind of a buddha.0:43:53.1

Basically, if I have not gone over-head, we have established: what is the individual? and: what is buddha-nature? That way we established the ground on which the individual can really work. We also included the signs of the awakened buddha-nature. Not everybody gets the same signs. Each individual may have different strong and weak signs. And some people may not even have any sign at all. What does that mean? That means buddha-nature is not awakened; that is all. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have it. You have to put in a little more activation. Some do get it without putting any efforts in it; they got what we call a simultaneously born effect.

Gains are not necessarily things you have put efforts in. You know, in the normal western language you say a ‘God-gifted nature’ or something: you don’t have to put much efforts in it, yet you get it. And some people have to put a lot of efforts in and still don’t get it. We do that. That is, I think, dependent on how much closer we are getting to that buddha-nature being awakened or how it has not be awakened yet. That is what it is. It depends on our efforts, but not necessarily of this life-time. Since we talked a little bit on reincarnation, we presume we know what we are talking about.0:45:53.2

Transforming habitual patterns

To activate the buddha-nature and to work with contemplation or meditation is basically fighting against negative and trying to gain positive. The moment you say ‘transforming negativity into positivity’ you may get some kind of strange idea of something like switching a light on and off, some kind of technique you apply and change all negatives turn into positives. I don’t think it works that way at all. We may use the word tranformation, but I don’t think it is like something we can switch on and off or a solution that can change and create. I don’t think it works that way at all.If that works that way, there should be instantaneous enlightenment. And I don’t think there is instantaneous enlightenment, neither even instantaneous transformation of the individual. It is slow, so slow!

When we look into life after life, we had them for so long and so many difficulties and so many of them. To get to change that into positivity in a very short period, is not that easy to do. It is really a long way. Particularly since we are so used to the negativities.

We have patterns set up. I call that habitual patterns. We do set up very strong patterns how we react with our thoughts, how we react to other people acting towards us. We have very strong patterns set up and to change those patterns is not easy. 0:48:35.4

Just look at your small habits. I’ll give you an example of what I noticed with a friend of mine. You moved in, say to Ann Arbor, you have work and you got a place to live. So you are getting settled. You started driving to work and you try one route and another route and one day you found the shortest easiest route. You take that road back and forth to your work. It becomes your habit. You happily do it. It becomes your habit. In the morning, when you get up, half awake and half not-awake, you get into the car, take the same route and go to the same place where you work at the same time. That becomes a sort of habit, if you set up that habit for two months. And two months later somebody says, ‘Would you mind to take the next street and pick me up?’ Out of politeness you may do it; probably you can’t say no, because it is so easy to do, but in your heart of hearts you get ten complaints, ‘I have to do it, but I have to get up earlier, I have to miss my parking spot, I have to do this..’ all these ten different things will come up. It is not going to be easy. You know why? Because you formed a little habit of going this way and when you want to change that habit, there is resistance. This is simple resistance, we see it, we can laugh at it, we can joke with it and appreciate the joke. But what we don’t see, what we don’t enjoy probably, is the big, long habits we set up. If somebody says something to you, you immediately know how to respond. I don’t think we hesitate to use the f-word. Right? These are how our habitual patterns are set up.

Changing that long set of habits is much more difficult than changing a two months’ habit and even then there is resistance and difficulties. So when we are transforming, if only the negative into the positive way, it is a gradual change. Instead of getting angry, try to learn to be a little more patient. Instead of getting more stingy, be more generous. Instead of getting more immoral, be a little more virtuous. Instead of being more lazy, be a little more enthusiastic.

Laziness is another one. Basically, it is another negative.It is negative energy.It is actually very strong negativity.Three categories of laziness0: 53:28.5

There are two kinds of laziness I see.: there is a difference between eastern and western laziness.

True. The eastern laziness Rimpoche said he had. If Rimpoche got a nice cup of tea with lots of caffeine in it and a nice little spot, Rimpoche would sit there and would not move. Maybe nice book to read or something else.

The west does not have that problem.They will sit when they want to sit and if they are in bed, someone will ask: are you sick? If you don’t move, they will think you are sick and you can’t move.In Eastern laziness you like to sit on a nice little cushion in a warm spot.The western laziness is different: you are busy.You have to keep busy so you don’t have to do something you are supposed to do.You try to avoid something you are supposed to do and you make yourself so busy by making 10 appointments, picking up 10 things to do and running here and there and give yourself a lot of tasks and deadlines. This is western laziness.

Whether it is idle sitting or busy lazy I think both are negative.( audience:It is better to be relaxed rather than keeping busy). I don’t know whether it is due to education or family or environment, people in the west have to keep busy.And you simply say that if I don’t keep busy, I don’t make it.

It is not really true that every time you run around you make money. So you said time is money but it is not in this case.Most of you run around and you don’t make that much money. Right? Under the pretext of being busy, you did not get yourself to pay your bills; you get yourself rushing.0:56:27.5

Whether it is Eastern or western laziness, Laziness is a Negative.

It has to be transformed by a) Diligence. It is direct. It is so interesting if you look at it. The anger is the direct opposite of Patience; Laziness is against Diligence.

Wondering Mind…..

Actually western laziness is not only laziness of keeping busy but it is a wandering of mind and physical

There is also mental wandering in the Eastern laziness: even if I sit in the corner nicely, my mind is going everywhere may at the movie, or Greenwich Village or downtown Detroit or a night club.The mind wanders and then if it goes beyond that you physically wander too.

So it could be physical wandering as well.

You can make it reason why you wander around as nobody wanders around without reason

You may call it valid reason or you may call it excuse.

It is the human being who made it and who put it and act on it.0:

Whether it is positive or negative, we create it. We put ourselves in it.58:55.8

So basically, what we have tried to establish today, is: the individual being and the buddha-nature and the reincarnation. What we did is we try to really establish the base, the basic being on which we work. If you don’t have the fundamental basis on which we are working , we have to go back when questions are asked. Hopefully we have a very, very rough idea of what the individual is and what buddha-nature is, what the static buddha-nature and what the growing buddha-nature is.

The static buddha-nature will never grow. We have to change from the static into the growing nature, and the growing nature will become a fully matured buddha-nature. That is what we called: the individual becomes a buddha. It is a very long way to reach that. There are a lot of steps: five paths and ten bhumis or stages.

The paths follow one another. Even if you don’t reach the buddha-level, you reach somewhere; it is not that one wasted one’s efforts. That is important to notice, one does not waste one’s efforts.

To reach Buddhahood, Buddhism says: becoming a buddha is the goal.

Fine, great, but it is a very long shot. But every day, every time that we put our efforts in it a little bit, we are contributing something, we are improving the individual. That is our main concern. We have to make sure we are contributing, we are moving. If you are moving, you reach somewhere. If we don’t move, we will not reach.

So the idea is now to change from the static buddha-nature into the growing buddha-nature. That is the basic principle of changing the negative into positive. We can talk about each negativity individually, deal with how it works, what is the anti-dote, and all this. That is the branch work; the basis is what we talked over here.

Questions and answers

Audience You said non-mind cannot manifest mind. But at the same time mind can manifest things which are other than mind, mind can manifest matter. There are stories about the Buddha incarnating as a flower, becoming a physical object that would not be apparently sentient. If that is the case, can these two really be separated?

Then the second question: From the point of view of becoming enlightened, of achieving the total integration of buddha-nature, often is spoken of limitless manifestations, that one can manifest limitless numbers of form-bodies. I assume those form-bodies all have some consciousness, some sentience, which activates them. Are they all somehow connected to that original source of buddhahood or are they all individual consciousnesses? If so, does that mean that new consciousness does arise?

Rinpoche:

I think this is a very important question. Number one about Buddha manifesting in different forms. These are well-known sutra-stories everybody knows about. I don’t know, I don’t have an answer for that. They say non-consciousness does not become consciousness. It does not say that consciousness does not become the other way round. But it is a very weak point that I am raising, because it should be the same way. Or maybe the manifestation is something different. In that case, all manifestations will become unreal.That is also another problem.

I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. It is something to think on and find out about.

Question number two about many manifestations. That’s there. You see those Lamas they can change, one change can become 5 changes.If asked, they said: one is body, one is mind…..This is Tibetan excuse. Who knows? Maybe it is Tibetan excuse, maybe it is connected , maybe it is possible .I think for people it may become possible to manifest and manifestation might not be a new consciousness. In Buddhist principle,Buddha made absolutely clear: no new consciousness. However, in the case of manifestations it may be possible to accept it,if you are able to manifest five consciousnesses, each one of these five consciousnesses is able to function by itself to a certain extent and then later, when one of these consciousnesses reaches to the level of a buddha, all of them reach at the level of buddha. It may be. You know, like emptiness. When you encounter with emptiness of one object, you encounter with emptiness of all objects. Maybe it is like that with manifestations. I don’t know what the word manifestation means in English, but the Tibetan word is drüba, which means: from one object you appear in different ways. Drüba means from this basis you form many things, but you will finally becomes this one. So under that sort of thing it may not be a new consciousness, it may be one consciousness able to manifest in different forms and finally dissolve into oneness. v58:55.8

Audience: You said there is a stream of consciousness and that this continuity of consciousness becomes very small when you di; it becomes very subtle, so do you say the buddha-nature is a part of the mind or is it a quality of that mind? As you said buddha-nature is a static thing, is it the potentiality of transforming that mind into something like buddhahood? Is that the thing?

Rinpoche: I hate to say it is the potentiality. I think the buddha-nature is the human consciousness itself. When it is activated by effort, it becomes a non-static, growing buddha-nature; when it is not activated or when it is mis-treated, it does not. When the person is not bothering, doing nothing, or totally doing the opposite, the wrong things, it is mis-treating the buddha-nature within the individual. So I hate to say it is a potential; I think it is mind itself.

The moment you say potential, it becomes something other than mind itself, some kind of capability, if I understand the language correctly. I have a difficulty to take that, because then a non-consciousness would become a consciousness of enlightened being. That is the problem. The problem lies not here, but at the end. Because then you will know where you went wrong. To a certain extent, to halfway through, you don’t know whether it is the right thing or the wrong thing, but when you reach at the end-level you know it was wrong. So probably this will become a problem.1:12:21.6

Audience: So buddha-nature is actually our mind? I mean, that which travels from life to life? It is not the delusions, so it is this kind of principle mind and that itself is buddha-nature?

Rinpoche: I also have a problem with that too. Buddha-nature has to be a virtuous nature. So when I say ‘It is mind itself’, it is another problem. When I say the mind has a virtuous nature,that is another problem. I think it is sort of the positive mind itself is the buddha-nature.

Audience: What I try to figure out is: is this buddha-nature a part of what I perceive as mind?

Rinpoche: At this moment we have to say it is the mind. I don’t think we can call it a quality of mind. Our positive mind is our mind, our negative mind is our mind. Mind itself might not be negative or might not be positive, but positive mind is mind, negative mind is mind. If you say, ‘Is it our mind, positive or negative?’ probably it is neutral.

Audience: You mentioned these qualities, where one can see whether buddha-nature unfolds. Qualities like generosity etc. show there is buddha-nature in an awakening process. So those states of mind finally make up the buddha. So before that there is the potentiality that those things can grow, do you see what I mean?

Rinpoche: I get you but the moment you used the word ‘potentiality’ this may be very technical to many people.. Sometimes we have to ignore the technical in principle but I prefer not to call it potential, because the moment you say potential I see something other than mind, a sort of a capability that accompanies mind. If that is so, then something else happens. So for practical purposes you can say that the being itself is our buddha-nature . We are human beings, we have to have something called ‘human being’ inside, and that being itself is a kind of buddha-nature; we may say it that way for the time being. When the individual develops, after a little while, I think they will make the distinction by themselves automatically. I try to be a little careful, because the tape is going everywhere and I don’t want the people to get misunderstanding. 1:16:12.4

Audience inaudible

Rimpoche; I think that matter cannot become a mind.In other words, the rocks and the trees and the materials cannot become mind.

Audience: our souls….(inaudible)

I hope it’s a little better than that.

Ultimately it’s one thing. Whatever it’s our present situation is another thing. If you accept the soul or the consciousness whatever you have called it, I can’t say that it is equal to the …of the trees. Slightly different.

So when you called down to emptiness and oneness, I think it’s different level altogether.

Basically we have to accept that as separate.

Audience: You were saying that when we die we are left with what good or bad karma we have built up. How can people then aid someone they know who has died? What can a normal person do? Are persons when they die separate from the living and only subject to their own karma or can we do something for them?

Rinpoche: I think we can do something for them. They are basically subject to their own karma, but every karma is also conditioned. This is not so simple as it is. Any karma has to have its own conditions. Without the right conditions the karma cannot function. Karma has its own check and balance. It is very complicated. The individual has its check and balance of karma, karma has its check and balance of time and conditions. So, what an individual can do when somebody died, is the question of praying. If for example, you are Christian you go to the church and pray, if you are a Jew you go to the synagogue, if you are a Hindu or Buddhist you go to a temple. You also say, ‘Please pray’ or, ‘Send your good thoughts’. This is the normal language we use. Even in the new-age movement you say, ‘Send your good thoughts’.

What does that really do? I think trying to intervene at the conditions. Though we as ordinary beings may not have that much power to intervene there, those extra-ordinary beings, God-level or Buddha-level, may have more power than us to intervene. The intervention will only be on the conditions, not on the karma. When the conditions of something are right, then you get that thing.

It is almost like what you see in these star-war movies; when the consciousness leaves the body, you are out of the space-ship floating into the big, open space, absolutely floating until you click onto something. If you click to a good karma, you’ll be hold there for a while and if you click to a bad karma you’ll be hold there for a while. To un-click is not easy. To click is very easy, because it is almost like you have a magnetic suit and you are floating and wherever you get stuck, you are stuck there.1:21:30.9

And then un-sticking that is going to be difficult. So the conditions are the other floating items, whether good or bad. These are the conditions and your own karma is pushing them. This is a sort of vivid example of how you can think , because we see them on star-war movies. where you go into open space, carried by the force of karma. Your next existence will depend on where you are going to click. Once you click you’re going to be stuck there and you function there. So these are the conditions and I think they can be intervened there, like the wind blowing. Like that the conditions have room for intervention. Some people try to rule out completely the third-party play, whether through enlightened beings or God,. They try to cut out that completely saying it depends totally on karma. Sure, it depends totally on karma, but karma also is taken by the conditions. This is really step by step, a lot of steps are involved in it.

Audience: How do you identify mind or consciousness as something different from the brain?

Rinpoche: I don’t know anything about that. I don’t think consciousness is physical. If it were physical it had to be born as part of our physical form. I think it goes beyond that. This physical brain you have I presume – maybe I am wrong – is something which grows in this form itself, which we basically got from the parents and then became bigger and bigger. Consciousness is something which may be using the brain as a tool, but is something intangible, colorless etc., something beyond that. It may be functioning through the brain as a tool, physically using it. The Eastern people say the soul or consciousness remains at the heart and the westerners tell it remains in the brain. Whatever it is, neither the heart, nor the brain is consciousness. It may be simply a tool through which it may be able to communicate to all these five other senses and the principle sense. The brain is nothing more than a communication channel or station through which all the messages go back and forth, being accepted/ rejected, movements, identified etceteras. So consciousness has to be separated from that and I don’t think it has any shape or color, because it is mind. I think that is the division: mind and physical being form, shape, color.

(audience inaudible)

The consciousness is the basis on which you carry all your previous experiences, even the memories. I don’t think the brain is capable of doing that much.

(audience inaudible)

We better leave it here. Mind and mental faculties is such a big complex topic. Roughly we discriminate the primary mind and fifty-one mental faculties, though there are in fact 84,000 or innumerable mental faculties. Who is going to know all this? The best thing for us is to bite what we can chew. It is an important question to think on. If you know the answer, fine. I don’t have an answer. Thank you. 1.2929

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