Archive Result

19940511GRJHNLLR08 (with Dutch translation)

0:00:13.4 At the beginning level, even the spiritual guides and teachers are supposed to give you….at the beginning level it is like “ha, I understood karma”, but when you go deeper into it, it gets more and more confusing. It has to be. Karma is not that easy. When you get deeper in it you get more confused. That is nothing to get upset about. It is very normal. If you don’t have that then your knowledge and development will be limited.

0:01:34.3 That’s what I mean by saying if you get half way into the water, you understand half way better. I don’t think that’s confusion. You are picking up more. A number of people will say, “I thought I knew it, but now I don’t know it.” Now I think we should continue with the

“Common with the medium level”. If you look at the Foundation of all Perfections it says

CHE PE MI NGOM DUH NGEL KÜN GYI GO

YI TEN MI RUNG SI PAY PHUN TSOK KYI

NYE MIK RIK NE THAR WAY DE WA LA

DÖN NYER CHEN POR KYE WAR JIN GYI LOB

Sensual gluttony is a gate to suffering and is not worthy of a lucid mind .

Empower me to realize the shortcomings of samsara and to give birth to the great wish for blissful freedom .

0:02:59.2 We could also go to Tsongkhapa’s short lam rim, but let’s not go there. I like to make something absolutely clear. I don’t know about here, but quite a lot of people misunderstand in such a way that they think that everything is suffering. They think joy is suffering too. Some people have to feel guilty if they don’t feel suffering. That’s a mistake. Joy is joy, a good time is a good time. I am not saying it’s suffering at all. Having a good time is joy. Memorable opportunities and times are joy. If you have that, don’t feel guilty about it. Got it? That’s important. Some people think that all joys are suffering and some feel guilty if they have some joy. That’s not the point.

0:05:31.0 The point I am trying to raise is that “sensual gluttony…is not worthy of a lucid mind”. That’s the main point. Lucid mind is clear mind. It is not worthy of a sharp wisdom mind. It is unreliable. They are not saying it is not joy, but that joy comes with problems. The problem is that no matter how much you get you won’t be satisfied. If you let it go without control you will want another one, and another one and another one, until you lose control or get sick or whatever.

0:07:11.9 Also it brings misery. If you know how to limit it is nice. If not it will bring pain. Dissatisfaction is the problem. All the samsaric pleasures are pleasure, but it is hard to be satisfied. You always need another one and you need this condition and that condition, you need unlimited conditions. As a result it brings suffering. And itself it is unreliable too. It changes. It goes from pleasure to misery. It is important to know that sufferings are suffering and joy is joy. A number of people think that Buddhism tells you that every single thing you do is suffering, but then they do enjoy and feel guilty.

0:09:09.8 Don’t people feel that way? Maybe not.

Audience: inaudible…

Rimpoche: That’s a different issue, but some people think that everything should be looked at as suffering. A lot of people think that according to Buddhism you have to look at everything as suffering. These things you gradually pick up when you mix with Western people for a long time. You gradually begin to see it and pick up. Certain things I would have taken for granted that people know, which we will learn gradually. You know it’s joy, there is joy in this world too. Having fun is joy. Good, but a lot of people think they have to think it is suffering, but it is not.

0:11:03.9 That’s the meaning of Tsongkhapa’s verse “sensual gluttony is a gate to suffering…”, so in actual reality there may be suffering. That’s different. We have to remember there are two truths. Buddha always gave two truths, not one: relative and absolute. We must keep that in mind. But I am not supposed to talk about the joy part, but the suffering part. According to Tsongkhapa’s Short Lam Rim:

(13)

DUK DEN NYE MI SAM LA MA BE NA

THAR PA DÖN NYER JI ZHIN MI KYE ZHING

KÜN JUNG KOR WAI JUG RIM MA SAM NA

KOR WEY TSA WA TSE TSÜL MI SHE PAI

SI LE NGE JUNG KYO SHE TEN PA DANG

KOR WA GONG GI CHING PA SHE PA CHE

NAL JOR NGE KYANG NYAM LEN DE TAR GYI

THAR DÖ KYE KYANG DE ZHIN KYANG TSAL LO

If you do not make an effort to think about true sufferings and

their drawbacks, you will not properly develop a keen interest

to work for Liberation. If you do not consider the stages whereby

(true) origins of all suffering place and keep you in cyclic existence,

you will not know the means for cutting the root of this vicious

circle. Therefore you should cherish exuding total disgust and

renunciation of such existence, while knowing which factors

bind you to its wheel. I, the yogi, have practiced just that.

If you would also seek Liberation, please cultivate yourself

in the same way.

This clearly says: if you don’t think about the suffering of the faults of samsara, then the wish to be free of samsara will not arise. That’s it. In order to wish to be free from samsara you have to think about the problems of samsara.

0:14:05.1 That means you have to present and think about the sufferings of samsara, because this is not a great thing for you. It’s not the best thing that’s happening to us. We do need to get away from it, we do need to have the idea of change. We do need the idea of renouncing. We do need that and in order to get that we have to think about the faults. We must look from the angle of the suffering in samsara. That doesn’t mean there is no joy at all. If look from that angle, if you see this then you can’t say it is that natural. That is always available.

0:15:38.6 In India earlier – the Tibetans never quote this, but in the early Indian tradition they give this example. There are five totally blind people. They took them to an elephant and made them feel the elephant. After that they asked each one of them what the elephant looks like. One said, “It looks like a long tip”. Another said it is a flat, big thing. Another one said it looks like a tail. Like this people will give you all their angles.

0:16:40.3 So if you just look from one angle that doesn’t give you the total picture. But you can approach from that angle. The elephant may not look like a trunk, but there is a trunk. The trunk is there. But the elephant is not a trunk. So the sufferings are there in samsara. Like that there is joy too, like there are flat bits to the elephant. You really have to think that way. If you don’t, then it is expected in the Tibetan tradition, we take it for granted. We don’t have to talk about joy, because we know there are joys. But what happens in the West is that they say, “You can’t think of joy, you can only talk about suffering, suffering, suffering.” So you can’t have it that way.

0:17:51.3 So, when you approach samsara, what does that mean? Again, it becomes the Four Noble Truths, okay, but that does not mean samsara is the Four Noble Truths. Just like when we say “action is karma”, that does not mean karma is action. It’s not like that. Likewise here, when you look at samsara, let’s do this. Let’s do it totally different today. All right, forget about the general samsara completely. Take me as one individual person. Point the finger to yourself. Raise the question: what is my samsara? Am I in samsara or out of samsara? We all know we are in samsara. Before we even raise the question whether we are in or out we have to know: what is my samsara? Does anyone have any answer?

Audience: …..inaudible

Rimpoche: See again you jump on the suffering. It is difficult to say your answer is wrong but also difficult to accept your answer as it is.

0:20:08.6 What is my samsara? Let me answer the question myself. My samsara is my continuation, the continuity of my identity, without my control. According to the Tibetan tradition it says sa je me lam gi pungpho gyu – which means continuation of contaminated heaps, really meaning the continuity of contaminated identity. So it is contaminated. If it is uncontaminated then it becomes pure. The contaminated is impure. Don’t ask me what is contaminated and what is not. That is a very complicated philosophical subject, really.

0:22:04.0 Different Buddhist schools will give you different ideas totally. That’s why. Basically, even then the basic, general idea of what is contaminated and what is not is again, according to the Abidharmakosha there is a statement, which is then contradicted by the upper Abidharma Mahayana school.

0:22:59.7

sa che sa wa me chor ka la me cho to da nam

sa che kan gyi dö pa a la sa nam gö pei gye par gyur (spelling??)

When one has not reached to the path, anything created by the individual

that will not reach to the path is known as contaminated.

Why? Because it grows the delusions. Then the text goes on:

When it becomes uncontaminated, when you stop producing the delusions,

then it becomes pure and uncontaminated, because it is peace.

0:24:39.6 So “uncontaminated” really means peace, like nirvana is peace. That is not the peace we usually have, but here we are talking about a different level of peace. I hope this is not too technical, but when we ask: what is my samsara, the answer is: my continuation of contaminated identity. What will that do? It will make sure that I continue contaminated, because that’s their kind. They want to make sure it continues. By nature they will do it.

0:26:03.2 That means we continuously produce negativities. So when I produce continuously negativities I will continuously produce negative results. And that is suffering. So I continuously produce that and that is the truth. And that is called the Truth of Suffering. Then the question rises: is all my production contaminated? Maybe. We are not sure. Is all my production negativity? No, there are lots of positivities too. But overall, it’s more negativity.

0:27:15.3 That makes sure suffering continues. Get it? And that is really the Truth of Suffering, basically. If you watch your own mind and your own habit and if you watch how you act you will find that is true. You don’t have to rely on Buddha’s words, you don’t have to do anything, just watch yourself and you will know. Right?

0:28:07.1 Now, if you refuse to acknowledge that suffering as suffering, that is possible. People do that. There are people in jail who think they are happy in there. To a certain extent they have comforts too. They don’t have to pay bills and I am sure they have health care. In Holland you have no problems, but in America health care is a big issue. So in jail that is taken care of. You get food, enough clothes to change, you can watch television, play ping pong, talk with people and so on.

0:29:24.2 The most important thing is there is food. So if you look from that angle, there is comfort too. But, if you think that is comfort and joy, the rest of the world will not agree. When the rest of the world is contradicting you that means something is wrong with you. Remember this: if the rest of the world is contradicting you, even if you think you are right you are wrong.

0:30:18.4 It is the sign that you have become cuckoo. It’s true. You think whatever you do is right. It’s like the guy driving on the wrong side of the road thinking, “Everybody else is going the wrong way!” It is the same way in the positive way or the negative way.

0:31:24.2 When you look at that sort of suffering, where is that coming from? Pay attention here. You are going to here something interesting. It is not coming without cause, nor is it coming from a single cause. Then from where? From a lot of causes.

0:32:10.3 What are those? The different karmas. And where are the different karmas coming from? From delusions. Vice versa, joy also, good karma also. If you have a nice time somewhere, that’s also caused by a positive cause or many of them together. The same thing with sufferings too. So basically it’s the karmic cause and the delusion cause. Out of these two, which is the most important? Not the karma, but the delusions. Why? We can’t do it, but let’s say we can purify all our negative karmas. You become totally pure and wonderful, clean and clear, like crystal.

0:33:45.7 But since your delusions are not over you will straightaway produce more negative karma. So it becomes endless. Therefore, the recommendation here is not to work so much with the karma, but the cause of the karma. So the cause of the negative karmas are the delusions. That is anger, hatred, jealousy, attachment, lust – lust might not be, but attachment, possessiveness, anything, you name it. Actually, that may too big a statement. So these are the causes of the negative karma. It is also true that we can work against anger, jealousy, etc, one by one, but that’s also difficult.

0:35:51.9 Nagarjuna recommends to work with the root of all of them, which is ignorance. So the bottom line problem is ignorance. The first two Noble Truths which are part of our life are coming out of nothing but ignorance. So when you want to cut the ignorance that’s called “seeking liberation.” Seeking nirvana and wanting to cut ignorance is equal. Any problems with that? Is anybody uncomfortable with this? Anybody didn’t hear what we said?

Audience: inaudible, difference between with sin and non-virtue…..

0:38:14.5 Rimpoche: We call them the six root delusions. You know what I heard? They [Buddha and Jesus] had a conference some time ago and they agreed to call certain things delusions and 10 commandments and non-virtues and all this. I believe they arranged a conference. I am not serious, I am joking! That’s physically not possible, right? In those days the worlds were so much apart. Anyway, so seeking liberation and cutting through the ignorance is almost the same.

0:40:07.1 When you want to cut that and be free of it then you have to see how the second cause reverses: (Lines of Experience:)

KÜN JUNG KOR WAI JUG RIM MA SAM NA

KOR WEY TSA WA TSE TSÜL MI SHE PAI

If you do not contemplate the cause of suffering, the door to samsara,

You will never discover the means of cutting samsara’s root.

That’s right. Now they are talking the Second two Noble Truths. The first two we talked, now we are talking on the second, the cessation and the path to cessation. The path means how to cut the negativities, how to develop.

0:41:19.8 Then the cessation is automatic. We will probably deal with that tomorrow. Okay, I presume we don’t have any more questions now. If you do, go ahead.

[no questions, transcriber assumes what follows is already the beginning of next day’s teachings, starting with a review of main outlines up to the point of the teaching]

This path is leading you to the fortunate land, to total enlightenment level. It is the essence of the path which is opened by the great Mahapanditas, Nagarjuna and Asanga. It is the main path and practice of the great masters, Atisha and Tsongkhapa. It is known as the bodhi path of the stages of development. For that we have the four outlines.

In order to prove the authenticity of the lineage, talking about the masters and the lineage.

This is over.

In order to respect the quality of the Dharma, - this is basically over, but we talked a little more about the quality yesterday and today I would like to talk one particular point. Atisha and Tsongkhapa refer to this particular path as a wish-fulfilling jewel. A wish-fulfilling jewel will do what? Fulfill wishes. The wishes of the people are happiness, pleasure, joy, peace, harmony, freedom. That’s what we seek. And the Lam Rim is capable of delivering that.

0:44:50.6 It can bring peace because it can reduce delusions. It can bring joy, because peace brings joy. It can bring freedom, because it can cut negative karma. And it shows you the way and how to cut negative karma, and it is a proven practice to do that. If you look back at yourself and how you have been earlier and how you are today, you will know the difference. Do you agree?

Audience: I improved, but is it because of the Dharma or other reasons? I can’t know, because if I had not been in contact with the Dharma, I could have still improved too

0:47:17.9 Rimpoche: Very true, I thoroughly agree with you. Anyway, (laughs) you got me. These are the points where you can see it is like a wish-fulfilling jewel. Now I have to do the fourth point too, otherwise I have to do it tomorrow.

If you read the Pitakas or the Buddhist Canon, there are so many different levels and bits and pieces here and there and everywhere. If you know a lam rim type of teaching, either the lam rim in the Kadampa tradition or the Tengrim in the Sakya tradition that will provide the individual with a base to move through all these materials together and makes sense of them and make them work together. Tsongkhapa says that all the different thousand rivers and streams from the mountains will pour down together and become a great lake.

Not only that, Tsongkhapa says that the most important of the four points here is that by understanding this these bits and pieces of classical Buddhist teachings are not contradicting each other. For example, in the Buddha’s teaching, if you look at the classical teachings you have Buddha sometimes saying that the world is flat. In some places he says that the world is round. That was 2,500 years ago. If you look today you will say that they are contradicting each other. But that is not the case, because if at that time he told certain people who believed that the world is flat that in fact it is round, they would have thought he is crazy.

0:51:00.3 They would have thought he is out of touch with reality. And for the intelligent people he taught that the world is round. We as Tibetan, particularly my generation, the last generation born in good old Shangri-la, only knew the world is round after 1959, as far as I am concerned. We had no idea of geography. But for us, we know that the Kalachakra tantra says that the world is round. Somehow we have adjusted and adopted that. When we came out of Tibet, thanks to the Chinese, I learned that the world is round.

0:52:38.0 So it is the culmination of what the Kalachakra says. And the Kalachakra says that this is for intelligent disciples. So I must have become an intelligent disciple! But the lam rim provides the basis for these not contradicting each other because for intelligent disciples probably Buddha taught this way and for lesser intelligent disciples they don’t have to get afraid of the world turning upside down. The lam rim provides answers why all the teachings are not contradictory.

0:53:50.0 The lam provides the base for the two truths to function, the relative and absolute truth. That’s why it provides the base for the individual to use all of Buddha’s teachings and also different teachings as not contradicting each other. Not only that, it also gives you all the different ways of the Buddha, his teaching and meaning and method. Like the tradition we follow is called Kadam tradition. There is the old Kadampa tradition of Atisha and the new Tsonkhapa Kadam tradition. It remains Kadam tradition. Kadam means that every single word Buddha said has method and meaning. Ka – dam. Ka stands for words and dam is method and meaning.

0:55:35.5 Atisha says that the quality of my master, you can take all the teachings and they are just like a square carpet. No matter from what end you pull the carpet all the pieces of it come in. If you pull the carpet from this angle the whole carpet will go and if you pull from that angle the whole carpet will go. It is not going to go in pieces. Atisha said, “It is my master who knows how to take the whole teaching as one piece, one lump.”

0:56:58.9 In other words, the common with the lower level teachings will help and bring the common with the medium, and those will bring the common with the lower as well as the Mahayana and the Mahayana will bring everything together. So there is no separation. All three yanas can be combined together. Not only that, the art and religion will bring each other. Art and religion are inseparable. Also music, dance, all of the expressions and everything brings all the practice together. That’s what is really like a square carpet example. There is also no contradiction particularly between the Sutrayana and Vajrayana. In some places Buddha says that the parents are the most important people and you have to give the biggest respect and highest esteem. In another place he says that parents should be killed. The retinue should be destroyed and then you obtain enlightenment. In another place, the prajnaparamita he says there is no eye, no ear, no tongue, no smell, no touch – all these no, no comes, right? It seems he is talking about the lack of taste of this sugarless cake or something (laughs), but I can see and taste it and I can smell it too. All of them are there. But it is not contradicting? What makes you understand that? The lam rim and that is it’s quality.

1:00:06.0 The essence of the most important point is looking really closely at how Buddha is trying to convey the message. Get it? That is the most important. Because of that we can protect ourselves from our addictions. Those are the four major qualities of the teachings. Thus we have completed the qualities of the teaching, in order to develop the respect and interest and in order to appreciate the value of what you have under your own nose.

1:01:33.5 [quotes in Tibetan] Because of that reason, if you are an intelligent person, how can you not be interested in this gradual path of the three levels?

1:01:58.7 (quotes Tibetan) Even if we had just one session of teaching, listening, reading or thinking about this, you get the benefit of reading or thinking or practicing of all Buddha’s teachings A-L-L Buddha’s teachings.

3.Such a quality Dharma, how to listen and teach – that is over.

4: Actual training of the mind and how the individual is led on the path – that has two:

The root of all development, guru devotional practice

Look at your master as Buddha

Why should we do that? How should we do that? – All of them are over

Actual Practice

Embracing Human Life: Recognizing the quality of your life on the basis of the 8 leisures and 10 endowments, importance of this life, difficulty to find, from it’s nature’s point of view, causes point of view and example point of view. All three are over

Impermanence of such a life: Meditating on death and dying, three roots, nine reasonings and three resolutions. We covered that between the weekend and yesterday. In case death comes without any guarantee in our hands, what will happen?

Taking refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha: recognizing Buddha and his qualities, recognizing Dharma and its qualities, recognizing Sangha and its qualities. These are known as causal refuge. Then recognizing your own future Buddha potential within you, connecting that with the causal Buddha, recognizing your own Dharma and Dharma potential, connecting that with the causal Dharma, recognizing your own Sangha within you, and it’s potential and connecting with the causal Sangha, known as result refuge. The result refuge is more important than the causal refuge, because it is the real work.

Even among the three refuges the Dharma is the most important refuge. It is the real cure. Buddha is nothing more than the guide, like a physician – in traditional Buddhist terms. Dharma is the real medication. Sangha is the nurse. We need all three, but the real one is the medication, whether medicine, surgery or whatever it is. All the method part, like love, compassion, bodhimind, Four Noble Truths, Twelve Dependent Links, impermanence, death and dying, suffering, recognizing the life, guru devotion, all of them are like the conventional medication. Wisdom, understanding of emptiness, is like surgery. The surgery has the edge over the medicine. Medicine has to be taken. Surgery can cut through and that has the edge, the advantage over the medication. It can just quickly cut it and take it out. Dr. Yet should be telling that rather than me. You are not a surgeon, are you? Just joking. Like that, wisdom cuts out ignorance. So when you go to method and wisdom, wisdom has the edge over the method.

It can focus directly on the problem and cut it out. That’s why I was emphasizing yesterday that it is good to work on negative karma, but it is better to work on the delusions. It is good to work on each and every delusion, but one should really work on ignorance. That is the sharp wisdom is like laser surgery in the medical world.

After taking refuge, what does taking refuge mean? What is the individual expected to follow? Advice of refuge. There are negative and positive advice. We have briefly mentioned them yesterday and I will poin out one or two more. The most important point here: by taking refuge to Buddha one should be very kind to all beings.

1:12:35.5 That is the positive part. The negative part: we should not take refuge to every Tom, Dick and Harry. You have to see the qualities of the person to whom you take refuge. By taking refuge to Dharma, the nature of Dharma is peace and harmony. So we should maintain non-violence. Non-violence is not only applicable between nations or races. It is applicable to each and everybody, in your own dealings with anybody, in your family, in your community, in your circle, in your society, in your Dharma center, in your club, in your nation, in the world.

1:14:19.0 Today everybody likes non-violence. We look at that as a national activity, rather than individual activity. We think it is the duty of Mahatma Gandhi or in America, Martin Luther King, that national leaders’ job and business, or rather international business. It is not true. Non-violence begins with the individual. You dealings with your own companion, your own room mater, your own partner, your own children, your own parents. It has to begin there. If not, if you look at the international level, that is the not the non-violence symbol. They may try to bring non-violence. But it is not the symbol of non-violence.

1:16:33.9 It must begin with yourself, that is most important. We must maintain non-violence within ourselves. You should not abuse yourself and your companion, children, parents, relations, society – everything. So non-violence, peace, is within the individual. That makes Dharma within the individual. One of the Buddhist food offerings says (recites in Tibetan): Dharma is virtue in the beginning, virtue in the middle, virtue at the end. It is peace, it is harmony – and it goes on and on. So that has to be within the individual.

At the medium level is also says (recites in Tibetan) it is pure, because it can clear the attachment, etc. It is virtuous, because it can protect the individual from falling into the lower realms. It is absolute truth, it is best. That is the Dharma we bow to.

1:19:10.2 Even in our shortest food offering we say: Buddha, the peerless master, Dharma, the peerless protector, Sangha the peerless helper. So Dharma is the peerless protector, which has no equivalent. How does it protect? But cutting the negative down, but bringing peace within us, by bringing harmony within us, by bringing non-anger within us, non-attachment within us, making us free of anger and attachment, making us free of ignorance. That is meaning of “peerless protector”.

1:20:19.7 Now you see the qualities of Dharma. So by taking refuge to Dharma one should not be harming others. That means non-violence.

By taking refuge to Sangha you maintain harmony, right? Besides the usual list of non-virtues is there, like not killing, not lying, and all this. This is known by everybody.

That’s about it for what to do and what not to do after taking refuge. Now you understand what refuge really means. Up to here this is common with the lower level.

Common with the Medium Level

Here the standard of the individual of looking into reality is raised a little bit. It is not only looking at our life from birth to death and immediately after that. It is looking into the bigger picture of life after life, lives and lives and how that works; what principles, mechanisms and how it functions. So the mechanism here is either on the basis of the Four Noble Truths, which we talked about yesterday or if you look from the other angle, you can look at the circle of existence, which has twelve dependent links or twelve links of dependent origination.

1:23:38.1 Actually there are causal links, resultant links and present links and that’s how it works. The glasses we use to look into the bigger picture are either the Four Noble Truths or the Twelve Dependent Links. I am not going to talk about the Twelve Links, then our time will go and will not get through with the lam rim. But we do have a very good transcript of the Twelve Dependent Links here. It’s in English. It’s very good. It also brings in the Four Noble Truths and talk about them together. It has to be done together, otherwise it doesn’t work, actually.

1:25:11.5 Thus we see how the mechanism of life and lives works. Then of course acknowledging what is in there: is there more joy or more suffering? Is it all joy or is there something to look at that we need to get rid of? Is it jail or freedom? So you look in it, with open mind and open eyes. If you are open you will begin to see and let the air of freedom blow within you. Then you begin to see the faults of samsara and the advantages of nirvana. Then and only then you begin to see the true freedom. What does true freedom really mean? It is more than what we perceive as freedom. The western countries are of course free societies and no one will believe it if I say there is no freedom. It is almost like Buddha is trying to tell us that the world is round.

1:27:09.3 But we still have a lot of limitations, tremendous limitations, like where your freedom begins and when it becomes an intrusion of others’ freedom. Society obligations, the law, all of them have limitations. And the mistakes they make in the law, all of them are there. In addition to that you have the natural law. Naturally you get sick. That’s nature. Naturally we get old and older, then we die. I will stop there, I won’t go beyond that. Then we get reborn and these are all limitations. And there are pains associated with that.

1:28:43.7 We know when we get sick. We get pain. We know that. Otherwise we put Dr. Yet out of business. Then getting old is also painful. We know that. That’s why we paint our face. We call it make-up. We put color on here. Why? We try to hide something, which is painful to show. That’s why we hide it. It’s true. One good thing is that it comes slowly. You can get used to it. You put on a little bit of weight, get a little bigger and bigger and it becomes acceptable to you, because it goes gradually. If all of a sudden you blow up…..(laughter) you would want to hide under the house…that is how the suffering of ageing, getting fat, etc, are gradual processes.

1:30:54.5 We are fortunate they are gradual processes, really. If it came all of a sudden we would go crazy. Everybody would be running around in the street screaming. That is the reality. That’s why I said there are these limitations. These are the natural law limitations we have.

Then separation from those who want to be with and the people you want to be separated from you are stuck with. You are forced to be together. All of them are there. Those you want to meet you don’t meet. Those you don’t want to see you see them all the time.

1:32:06.8 These are the samsaric problems. That’s what we have. Each one of us will go through with every one of them, one by one, almost. Then another problem is uncertainty. You never know. Whatever is there can change. How inconvenient it is. How difficult it is. We will all go through with this. You always wonder: is Rimpoche coming or is he not? (laughter). That’s one example. But the most important thing is the uncertainty in our own life.

1:33:34.4 The style of life is uncertain. Health is uncertain, wealth is uncertain.

1:33:47.2 End of file