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19940511GRJHNLLR09

0:00:03.2 That goes for everything, from dress to food, you name it. That is dissatisfaction. Even if you get what you want, your dream may materialize, your satisfaction will only be short-lived. Thereafter you are not satisfied, you want more.

0:00:45.4 Food, cigarettes, drinks, joints, sex, what else, everything – you want more, you want more. That is dissatisfaction. Then the ups and downs. We are up, then we are down and then we make a long face. It goes up and down all the time. And then we die and are born again, die and are born again, on and on and on. That is basically the reality of the bigger picture of samsara. Okay, there is also joy in there and the joy is also there. That’s what I emphasized yesterday: that joy is not suffering. If we enjoy good company, a nice environment or whatever, we don’t need to feel guilty about it. That’s joy. Everything is not suffering. There is joy too. People misunderstand and think that everything has to be suffering.

0:02:53.8 They say: I did not suffer, I had quite good joy, sorry. That is stupid. Joy is joy. If you get it, enjoy. But don’t have attachment. Don’t seek more. Be satisfied. That is called balancing. I better stop talking about these things. Anyway, that is the bigger picture of life and lives. That’s our life’s melodrama. If you look back at what we did and what happened, how much we enjoyed, how much we suffered, how much we have been up this way and down that way, that is the unfolding of one’s life’s melodrama. That repeats again and again and again, sometimes better, sometimes a little worse, sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse. Some are quite good, some are quite bad, some are very good and some are very bad. Neither do these come one after another, nor do they come turn by turn or group by group. That is the uncertainty.

0:05:20.7 That is basically human life and it’s nature. There is much more that I have not mentioned. But as much as we have the animal realms have too. Much simpler, but equally painful. The hungry ghosts are worse and the hell realms are even worse, the worst ever. I have a chart here, we call it “General Motors Chart”, showing the six realms, with the desire realms and form and formless realms. There are 52 or so different realms within that. So that is the cycle of existence, samsara.

Seeking freedom is knowing the true reality of samsara and then we dislike that. There is a number of people who say, “I didn’t like it.” That is true, that is samsara, that is your personal problem. It is a samsaric problem. Disliking samsaric problems and seeking liberation from them is what we call determination to be free, traditionally called renunciation. You see the problems and make your mind up and determine that you want to cut across. That’s determination to be free.

0:09:20.2 Traditionally it is called renunciation. To symbolize that, the earlier Buddhist tradition associated all the problems in the family. We have to bring up the children, we have to run the household. Who didn’t like it ran into the forest and shaved their head. So they called that renunciation. This is a funny way of putting it. The nice way of putting it is to give up attachment. Then totally dedicate that. The reality really comes down to it that it is not necessary for dharma practitioners to run away. The real technique, the real beauty here is that we must learn how to handle it together: the normal life, the family life and responsibilities, the society’s obligations, the personal obligations - and liberating the individual – all together. This method is available. A number of people have done it and it can be done. The earlier Tibetan masters said (recites in Tibetan):

The ones remaining in the home can still attain liberation, like Marpa and a number of others.

There is more to that quote but I forgot, but the example is: if you run away into the forest it does not necessarily mean you get liberated, because the groundhogs and moles run away all the time in winter and remain for six months under the ground. In America it’s the groundhogs and in spring they come out and then it’s Groundhog Day. There is movie too, right?

0:14:12.2 They go under the ground in the same condition. After six months they come out, still in the same condition. So then it’s useless, even if you go into the forest. So the beauty here is to remain in the home and to be liberated. Okay, that should be enough for the Common with the Medium level. Any questions?

Audience: (inaudible)

Rimpoche: Interesting question. True, it is so much emphasized to be a human being and it is at the human level where one obtains Buddhahood – in one way. In another way, in the Abidharmakosha it says (Quotes Tibetan) No one obtains enlightenment in the desire realm or formless realm. Everybody obtains enlightenment in the form realm in a place called Akanistha or Ogmin. According to the Sutra Mahayana, the last minute person on the 10th bhumi who is going to transfer to the 11th bhumi will leave their body in that area and somehow they go to Akanishta and obtain enlightenment and come back to their own body. When you raised the question that came up in my head.

0:17:57.6 On the other hand, the Vajrayana emphasizes the human body so much. In the Vajrayana, the way and how we attain enlightenment is through the combination of the clear light and illusion body. The illusion body is rising out of the clear light. That is the process and that can only be done at the human level, nowhere else, just because of the nadis and all other systems. That is the major question rather than the buddha field itself. Buddha field is buddha field. There is no geographical difference. A buddhafield is where a buddha is and there is pure retinue, pure environment. All of them are called buddhafield. That is applicable anywhere.

(Klaas translates answer back into Dutch)

Rimpoche: Then I have another question: how did Shakyamuni Buddha attain enlightenment under the bodhitree? Is that in Akanistha or in Bodhgaya in India? These points are there. I have no answer for that. I can only raise doubts or questions. I don’t have answers. Does anybody have answers? If so, go ahead.

0:22:08.1 Audience: Isn’t the environment relative? Then you can make your pure environment. Then Akanistha can also be there, because you are able to make that exist in your mind.

Rimpoche: That may be a little too extreme. In reality, then everything should be pure and even the impure is pure. Then you can buy air tickets with pebbles. Good thought, good try, but maybe not. What’s happening is that in Buddhism there were different schools traditionally in India. There were two self-liberation schools and two Mahayana schools. And then the theoretical points differ. I think that’s what really is happening.

(students among themselves in Dutch)

Audience: What do you do with such inconsistencies?

Rimpoche: It’s not inconsistencies. What do you do? Whichever is easier.

Audience: (inaudible)

Rimpoche: Then another question comes: what will happen to me when I become buddha? Probably when you become buddha you won’t have that problem, because a) you are following the Vajrayana path and that will deliver Buddhahood to the individual much faster than anything else. Therefore, it is within the individual, within the body, within this life. So therefore, it is irrelevant.

0:27:34.2 The traditional Tibetan teachers present these points as the accepted different schools’ views and leave it there. Except emptiness and certain relevant points they will overrule the other schools. But these sorts of technicalities they leave them there. The reason they do that is because it is irrelevant. My gut tells me that.

Audience: (inaudible)

Rimpoche: yes, that’s right.

Audience: Then what’s the point of presenting it in the first place?

Rimpoche: Well, it’s knowledge.

Audience: Many teachings are merely models. They cannot explain everything.

Rimpoche: But the way you explain is according to this school or that school. You have to see which school you follow. Then if you are following through in that manner it will probably materialize that way too. Each one of them are capable of delivering Buddhahood. If you follow that this system and that system, how is it going to happen? It might not be like someone said before, “You visualize and it will materialize here.” Visualizing and materializing are only Vajrayana techniques. That doesn’t happen everywhere else.

0:30:23.1 They call it the extraordinary quality of the Vajrayana. If you meditate your body in the form of a yidam it becomes actualized and becomes a yidam. That is the Vajrayana extraordinary quality. That does not apply to the sutra Mahayana. But people will tell you about positiveness, like if you keep on thinking positiveness, it will become positiveness. They are trying to hold on to certain Vajrayana techniques. Whether they are really going to materialize or not is another question. It is holding on to a little tail of the Vajrayana. In the west there is a religion or spiritual group they will teach you positiveness. They are holding onto that tail. That’s what it is.

0:31:52.1 Without Vajrayana it is possible for the Mahayana alone to deliver Buddhahood. It may take a couple of eons. But it is possible. That particular person who particularly is following pure sutrayana alone, for them it will probably materialize that way. Although the Vajrayana will tell you that all the buddhas have obtained enlightenment through the Vajrayana. You will even hear that during the initiation. That is the Vajrayana way of expressing. But in reality the sutrayana is capable of delivering Buddhahood – alone, without going through Vajrayana. So that person particularly at that path, for them it materializes in that way. That’s why it is not an object of refutation. So just leave it there. And it is not to be left out either. So you have to bring it up.

0:33:00.7 So if we have time we should talk here also about how the delusions grow within us and how they work, why it is called negativity, how you handle those. That should come in here. But now there is a time limit.

Audience: some of your teachings have now been transcribed and published, like Transforming Negativities and the Lam Rim teachings.

Rimpoche: That’s very good. I did that teaching in America and I heard someone was transcribing that. So anyway, so that’s it. From the Commmon with the Medium level what we have left is the development of the delusions, how they affect the individual, which is of course a very important point and how they create karma and death and taking rebirth. Death and taking rebirth is already covered. So what is left is recognizing the delusions and causes of the delusions and the faults of the delusions.

0:36:31.5 From the point of life: how to take the reverse of the Four Noble Truths. Instead of saying how the cause of suffering is bringing the suffering, we talk about how the path brings the cessation. Look in the Foundation of Perfections on that.

0:37:47.0 Audio is getting very bad – when you get that sort of understanding and that sort of level, what you have gained is seeing the problems of samsara in general and looking for the nirvana. According to the Buddha, according to the Mahayana practice, even nirvna is a problem. There is fear. There are two kinds of fear: samsara fear and nirvana fear.

When you are free from samsara you have cleared all the delusions but you have not cleared the imprints of the delusions. The delusions and their imprints are often compared to garlic and the smell of garlic left in the utensils in which you used the garlic. If you chop the garlic and you wash the plate then the f the garlic is gone. However the smell of the garlic is still there, unless you wash the utensils properly. At that level we are totally free of delusions but not of the imprints.

0:40:07.2 That shows how difficult it is to get rid of fear. Until you get totally free of ignorance I don’t think you become free of fear at all. The intensity of fear has been reduced tremendously. If one individual obtains that level, where you are free of delusions that is not enough. Why? Probably you have almost completed your own purposes. You are okay. But what about the people who you care about? What about your companion? Your friends, children? Those who care about are still suffering. So can you just leave them there? You let them go to hell and you go to picnic, have a good lunch?

Unless you are a strange person you cannot do that. (quotes Tibetan) One thing we have perhaps not covered from the common with the medium is that in order to gain the renunciation you need to know what makes you stuck in samsara.

Base yourself in renunciation of samsara

Be tired of it. Cherish knowledge of the chains that bind you to cyclic existence.

0:44:28.9 We probably have not explained that yet. I told you earlier about the continuation of samsara. What makes you continue? The same thing makes you continue. The fuel of that – or the earlier Tibetan masters called it the glue – that is attachment. The attachment makes you stick. Once you stick you can’t separate. It holds you together. And out all the delusions the sticking point here is the attachment. That’s the most important. Attachment is sticky. That’s the main responsible one. But what really ties you it not the attachment, again. The attachments do chain you but the root is ignorance.

0:46:10.5 Attachment is difficult to cut, even if you know it’s there. No matter how much you cut it’s still there. It continues on, because it’s attachment, until you cut the power of ignorance that makes attachment work. Until ignorance has been at least a little bit dented or pushed down a little bit, no matter how much you try to cut attachment you can’t. So you want to cut, but something happens and it continues, you have all this pull-push, because that is the mechanism of attachment. It makes you pull and push, pull and push, pull and push. We recognize the difficulties we are trying to pull out, but attachment pulls you back. That’s where people are caught up in all the time.

0:48:20.7 All of them are relying on ignorance, that’s why Tsongkhapa said you have to know ignorance, the root of attachment is ignorance. It’s like electrical wires. You see the red and black plastic or rubber around the wires. If it is only the rubber or plastic you can just cut it. You can put in a fire also and it will burn. But there are the wires inside and they are difficult to cut. That is the ignorance that goes through. But if you see the ignorance in there it is easy to cut. The problem is that while the ignorance is very pervasive in there. it is no vivid. So you cannot cut it. That is the problem. That’s why you need wisdom. I think I covered that and that’s enough. I think I left nothing in there.

0:50:28.7 Then the next is: Now we are moving into the Mahayana. The common with the medium is over out of the basic root outlines and now comes the Mahayana.

I like to say one thing here. A number of people ask me: where do I begin and how far should I go? You need not only external information but also internal information as well. Wherever your problems are apply that.

You are not expected to apply everything from guru devotional practice to Mahayana in one sitting. It is impossible. Extremely difficult. So, apply what you need. All your needs are equal to begin with. In the beginning you start with embracing the human life, then impermanence and so on and get into the suffering. Take whatever you need. Work from there. Then step by step move on. One step will push you to another step. And that is relevant when you are thinking. If you don’t think it is not relevant at all.

0:53:17.0 When you think you begin to look into it. When you look in you begin to understand. When you understand you can comprehend and when you comprehend you can meditate. When you meditate you get development. Can you see the chains of this link? That is how you begin. That’s what you have to do. Then you do the same thing on the Mahayana level as well.

Quotes in Tibetan (Lines of Experience)

The development of bodhimind, the thought of enlightenment,

Is the central pillar of Mahayana practice.

The foundation of all bodhisattva activities, an elixir producing the gold

Of merit and wisdom, a mind holding the infinite varieties of being.

Knowing this get hold of this thought of the buddhas, hold it tightly

At the center of your heart. I, the yogi, did that myself, you, oh liberation

Seeker, should do likewise.

“Hold it tightly in the center of the heart” – this is the translator’s problem. In Tibetan it means “mental commitment”. What your mind is committed to that is the essence of your practice. It is your deepest essence commitment.

0:57:00.5 The reason why this should be held as essence of the commitment is because it is the backbone of the Mahayana path. It is the foundation of the immeasurable activities of all the bodhisattvas. It is the elixir that transforms all metals into gold. It is the source of all good fortune. It is the main heart essence of all commitments.

It reminds me of an interesting thing. Lochö Rinpoche was in Drepung in Lhasa and Dagyab Rinpoche was very young. He had just come from Dagyab to Central Tibet. He must have been 12 or 13. In one of the gatherings, all of a sudden Lochö Rinpoche asked Dagyab Rinpoche, “What is essence of your practice?” Dagyab Rinpoche for a little while and then remembered the “Foundation of Perfections”. Then all of a sudden he said, “Bodhimind”. Lochö Rinpoche was very happy. That’s what happens.

0:59:53.5 Now the question is: you can solve your own problems, but what about the persons you care about? The moment you begin to care about others then it is not enough to liberate yourself. You would have to say, “Let my people suffer, I am okay.” When His Holiness came to Ann Arbor this year I had to introduce him. Someone put words of instruction on a piece of paper for me. In that it said, “We lost our country and our people suffered tremendously.”

1:01:29.1 Then the next sentence said, “Yet His Holiness is totally committed to non-violence.” Then I thought it sounds like, “Yeah, His Holiness is going to a non-violent lunch.” (laughs). That’s true, that’s how it sounds. So like that we could go for our lunch and think, “Well, they will figure it out.” So we can’t do that. The moment you know you can’t just do that, then you feel responsibility. It is very easy to say that bodhimind is committed to the welfare of all sentient beings. It’s easy to say. But to do it is extremely difficult. It begins here. In America they say, “Charity begins at home.”

1:03:22.2 It is true. The caring begins in the home. Compassion begins here, first me, then my and then you gradually expand it. If you don’t expand it in that way but jump straight away to “all sentient beings” that doesn’t work. Normally, what happens? In the Buddhist practice we meditate. Wherever it may be, purification, taking refuge, saying mantras, whatever it maybe, we meditate me, the big guy, in the center. I am surrounded by all sentient beings. All these beings that I care for, we take refuge together and we meditate love and compassion together.

1:04:59.3 We give all our virtues back to them. We collect all their sufferings in. Whatever you do, they listen to you, right? That’s what we do. We don’t see their faces. There’s just a lot of dots. The space is filled up with little dots. No face, no name, however you lead them they are there. They don’t give you trouble, right? We do that all the time, especially a lot of senior Buddhist practitioners, whether they monk, nun or lay. So as long as they all listen to you, you are okay. But the moment they have a face and a name, the moment they speak, they disagree. Then we freak out. They say something back and we think, “You are not supposed to. You are supposed to go along with me. You are not supposed to have your own thoughts.”

1:07:18.9 That is a problem, if you meditate too much on that sea of nameless, faceless dots, who we call “all sentient beings”. Instead of that, love and compassion and caring has to start from one individual. My friend, my children, my family, my dear ones, near ones. You start that way and then it is really relevant. And you will not become arrogant, but become a really caring person.

Otherwise, Stephen Batchelor, I met him at one of the Theravadan organization’s conference in New Jersey. He said that after some time they developed a new terminology. That is: “You are not all sentient beings, so get out of my way.” Did you get the picture?

1:09:28.3 You are a sentient being, not all sentient beings. We care for all sentient beings, not a sentient being! Do you understand now? So since you are not all sentient beings, get out of my way. So that problems begins here. So it is one thing to think of all sentient beings as dots and you are the big leader over there. That’s okay. But it is also necessary to know there are names, there are faces, there is caring, there is bonding, there are relationships, there is concern. That’s how you develop love/compassion. Otherwise, you think, “I am the biggest guy in the world under the sky and no one is like me.” and “Who are you to talk to me that way?”

1:11:08.6 That is not good. So, now comes the famous bodhimind. What makes the individual become a Mahayanayin? What makes your dharma practice becomes Mahayana dharma? Is there something different than what you do than at Theravadan level? Not so much. What you do is almost the same. But how you do it is different. At the Theravada level you yourself are the main object. Theravada means common with the medium and common with the lower level. The goal is: how can I free myself? How am I suffering? Am I suffering or not? How can I get free? Is there something called freedom? These are the main things in there.

1:12:54.9 And over here it is different: how did we get into suffering? How is the suffering working with us? What can we do? How can we get free? That’s the difference: I and we. In the basic, normal, usual language that is called “I and we”. On the other hand how can we do it? How can we free ourselves from suffering is only possible when I know how I am suffering and how I can get myself free. It is so important to listen to what Tsongkhapa says (quotes Tibetan)

When I am thinking of myself, deprived of joy, with lot of suffering, if I have no feeling for myself, then I cannot expect to have feelings for others.

Furthermore, if I am incapable of loving myself, then I cannot possible be loving towards others. Caring for others, loving others is based on how I care for myself, how I love myself.

1:15:38.9 It is true. In our normal life, if someone one doesn’t care about themselves, how can we expect that person to take care of others – with the exception of a few people. Otherwise, that is normal. Love and compassion you can only generate for others if you can generate it on yourself.

1:16:12.4 When we are thinking of our own problems and sufferings and if we are numb, with no feelings, then can’t feelings for others either. So love begins here, compassion begins here. Charity begins at home. Now, what is this famous bodhimind? What makes you become a Mahayana practitioner? Maitreya says about the line that is drawn or the door. If you are inside the door you are inside, if not you are outside.

The doorway to the Mahayana is the bodhimind.

Remember the doorway to Buddhism is refuge. If you take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha you become a Buddhist, whether you are man, woman, child, white, black, green, blue, yellow or whatever.

1:18:55.7 Likewise here, if you have bodhimind, no matter whatever you might be, you are a Mahayanayin. If you don’t have bodhimind, then no matter who you are – you may have three homes, but even then you are not Mahayanayin. You are outside. That’s why bodhimind is called backbone of the Mahayana.

What is this mind? Bodhimind is a big name, but very simple, extremely simple. Maitreya Buddha said

Seeking enlightenment for others

That means it is a two-pronged mind. One prong seeks total enlightenment, the other gives total altruistic dedication. When you are totally committed to helping all beings then you have to help. But how can you help? Only through communication. There are a lot of others ways of helping, but the most important is through communication. Why do you have to communicate? Because you have to clear the darkness of ignorance of people. One bodhisattva who died in the 1960s wrote a book in India in which he says

The moon, the sun, the light from electricity, how bright they might be, they could not clear the darkness of ignorance inside. But the light of bodhimind can clear the darkness of ignorance inside beings.

How can you do that? Only through communication. You may show people all kinds of wonderful things. That is easy and has some effect, but it will not penetrate through with the individual. The only way to do that is through communication. That is the biggest problem. We all know that. Don’t we?

1:23:34.6 It is extremely difficult to get understanding, to communicate. How difficult it is to communicate with and convince even one person! Especially if the person is stubborn. How difficult it is. And there we are talking about communicating with all sentient beings. It is almost impossible. True, you can communicate with one, two, three, four and then it becomes very difficult, especially if the person is stubborn. How difficult it is to convince politicians. In every country we have those problems. So we do need all the best tools we can get to be able to convince, to communicate. You will see this when you are frustrated with convincing even one person.

1:26:44.3 Then you can see the difficulty of convincing two persons or more. Four is even harder, eight is so much harder and that’s how difficult it is. So you need the best tools. That’s why Buddhahood becomes necessary. Buddha is supposed to be all knowing and is supposed to have the best tools. From the Buddha’s point of view there is also no limit. From our point of view the limit is there. That’s why we sometimes ask, “What happened to the buddhas and their compassion?” That’s because we have limitations ourselves: not have connection, not being open, etc. What happens every day, in everybody’s life, when we want to do something good for somebody, we try to convince that person to do that but they won’t listen.

1:28:26.5 Even if you know what to do, you can’t do it for them, you can’t beam them up. You can’t push them in, so you have to leave it there. So that is the limitation. If you try to go beyond that you need a method, you need wisdom. And the ultimate method and wisdom lies at the buddha level.

1:29:03.7 So the buddha stage becomes necessary. Truly speaking, up to this level it is not necessary to become a buddha. From now one it becomes relevant to our practice. Then you begin to say: that is a great thing and I want that. It will help me to do my job. When you see that it is necessary. Even the materialist corporate world sees when a computer is necessary and they will not question it but give you a computer. Likewise, in order to help all beings I need enlightenment. So then it becomes necessary and relevant.

1:30:30.7 And a good idea. Alright, so that’s enough. So the mind seeking enlightenment committed to helping beings is the bodhimind. Do I have that? No, we have an artificial one, we are fortunate to even make an artificial one. That artificial idea has hundreds of questions with it. So how do you grow that? It grows out of great compassion, which has grown out of love. So it grows out of love and compassion. What does bodhimind really mean in the normal western language? Forget all the traditional ideas, take it on the ground. It means unconditional, unlimited love and compassion.

1:32:27.7 Our love today is limited. For some we have it, for some we don’t. it is also conditional. If I get something back, I may have it, if not I don’t. We have the American saying: what’s in there for me? That is a clear sign it is conditioned love. Not only that, but even conditioned name. So when you talk about unconditioned bodhimind, gone beyond conditions, it becomes unlimited. That’s true bodhimind. How are we going to get that sort of big mind?

1:33:52.7 end of file