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Afternoon: 1 hour 15

Origin of the Lamrim

Where has Lamrim come from? Who listed it? It is not something that somebody made up, and that a Tibetan lama a thousand years ago

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started writing down. No. It came from India where there was a traditional great Indian Buddhist Monastic University, called Vikramalashila, in West Bengal. Until Buddhism in India got completely destroyed by the Muslims, Vikramashila and Nalanda were the two most important monastic learning centers there. This is the source. The listing was done by Atisha7 , the Indian-Bengali scholar of the eleventh century. He brought the real, true Lamrim, organized in this manner, as a present for the Tibetans. It's a three-page thing, called Lamp on the Path8. And it was continually carried by Tsongkhapa, and thereafter. From Atisha through Tsongkhapa, it was about three hundred years. That period is called the period of the Old Kadampas. Tsongkhapa and below are called New Kadampas. (So when the question of New Kadampa comes, it does not really specifically belong to a certain group of people who identify themselves as New Kadampa.)

So, the listing was done by the Old Kadampas, and followed by the New Kadampas continuously. So it is from the tradition of India even, and carried through over a thousand years, and it has worked, and it helped people. It really works. You yourself will see this if you put in enough time and effort.

Tsongkhapa and his disciples were so very proud of this way [Lamrim] that they used to call it the essence of the essence of gold, so the purest of pure, no impurity left. It is able to prove each and everyone point with the quotations, experiences and statements of the earlier teachers, And it is organized in such a way that it can easily be used, together or individually. The experiences and gains will add up because of the organized manner in which it is laid out. They say,

It is the key to open the lock of the treasure of Buddha's experience.

It is the brush with which you can pick up any paint and make your drawings.

It is the ocean which has collected all types of pure rivers.

7 982-1054.

8 Lit. Richard Sherburne, A Lamp for the Path and auto-commentary, by Alisha,

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This is the traditional way of talking. If we don't say that from time to time, it is not good, if we say it too much is sectarian propaganda.

On the other hand, as I mentioned to you earlier, it all depends on the individual, on how much you can really focus, how much you can really put in. It is up to you to do that. We have a responsibility, particularly those who are leading the groups. That responsibility is to deliver the goods to the people you are leading. And the individuals have the responsibility to take it, make use of it and improve themselves. Within that, don't act like you are leading a cult. This is not a cult group, so don't function like that. The great masters have said, " This is the ocean which has collected all rivers coming from all the different villages" . Within your group you will have good ones and bad ones, you're bound to. Even between two people there will be a good one and a bad one. That certainly doesn't mean the one is good and the other one is bad, you turn around. That is human nature. The point is the sincerity and the actual need of the individual and the service one would like to render. That must be pure. And that is how we proceed.

How to learn

You may think, " If you have that much quality, if you have that much of a horn to blow, if you advertise that much, what am I going to get and how do I get it?" The first and foremost thing is, you have to learn it. Because without learning, you cannot think. Without thinking, you cannot gain experience. Without gaining experience, you cannot have development. You see the point? Learning comes first, analyzing or thinking comes second, meditation comes third, and affecting yourself, the spiritual development that you are going to gain is the fourth one. That goes for every point we're going to talk about.

The moment I say 'spiritual development', please remember it's not one development! It is very much a successive development, one after another, until the individual becomes fully enlightened. Up to that level, it is not one, not two, not three, not four, not five. Here it goes up to sixty-four and this is also cut short very much. In really

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getting liberated, it goes up to even a thousand different levels of development that you have to follow, one after another. But in a simple way we made sixty-four steps here.

When we say spiritual development, a lot of people will say, " Wow, yeah. I had an experience. When I was sleeping last night, a star fell on my head." We're not talking about that. That is the talk of 'love and light', not the talk of grounded spiritual practice. In really grounded spiritual practice, you have to learn what path to follow. Why do I have to follow it? What are the obstacles in it? How do I overcome the obstacles? Overcoming each obstacle is your spiritual development. Do you realize that? Your spiritual development is overcoming your negativities. That is the spiritual development. When that grows bigger and stronger, when that expands, your spiritual development is expanding. When that shrinks, your spiritual development is shrinking. That's it. It's nothing externally affecting you. It is internally making it that way. For that, you need to learn. Even Buddha said,

Learning is like a light which clears the darkness within ourselves.

In the darkness you don't see anything. No matter how big you open your eyes, if it is pitch black dark, you are going to see nothing. Even if you see a little bit of something, you won't be sure whether there is a human being's figure or a ghost standing there. For us to see clearly, we need light. The learning what to do is your light. Not the love and light, but the light to clear the darkness.

It is your best wealth, that no one can steal from you. It is your best friend, who will not let you down when you are in trouble.

When you are low, when you are in difficulties, a lot of friends will disappear. "I'm sorry, I meant to call you, but I've been so busy, blah blah blah." Which actually means, they are letting you down. Learning will not let you down. It is always with you.

It is your best weapon, through which you can destroy the enemy of ignorance.

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If ignorance is your enemy, when you fight with your enemy, what weapon do you use? You know, in Star Wars, they have a big light that comes out, a light saber, and you can fight with that, right? Such a light weapon is the information that you have. That is the real weapon which can destroy the ignorance, the ignorance of not knowing, or wrong knowing. To clear that, learning is most important.

What I am trying to get to you here is that the first practice you do is learning. Learning is most important here. We don't want you to become a scholar, though if you want to, if you have time, you're welcome. But at least you should be able to manage by yourself. I mentioned to you before, if you're thrown in the middle of the woods in Fenton, then you should be able to find out which direction to go, to be able to get home. That much learning is necessary. Without learning, if you keep on sitting there, with big open eyes looking at the sky, no matter how long you sit, you're not going to see anything. You may get some hallucinations sometimes, but that's not going to help you in any way. You may call that, "Ha, my great experience here," but that's all. If you close your eyes, and squeeze them and then look out, you'll see some stars, too. So, that is not the point. The real point here is knowing, "What do I do?" Tsongkhapa himself even said,

What I did first is I learned as much as I could. And second, I worked with what I learned, and I used it to cut down my neuroses, my delusions. Finally, I kept my awareness on that and I gained experience.

Now I dedicate that to the well being of all beings. We have an interesting thing in Tibetan:

Whatever the great masters, including Buddha, have done, is the role model for us to follow.

They are the role model. So, whatever they have done, if we follow that, we will get to wherever they got.

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How do I learn? Is it okay if I read a book, do good research, and prepare a good paper that I can submit, or a lecture that I can give? All this is not going to work. That doesn't mean don't read books. Do read books. But you do need a living tradition that has been passed from one human being to another. That is absolutely necessary. You can get any information from anybody. But to make it living, you have to hear it from one human being that has heard it from another human being. It is the human beings that make the difference. It's not a spirit flying in the air, or a ghost coming out of the door, or a devil talking out of a tree, or God speaking from the water. You can have all this information, no objection at all. But the actual learning has to be from one person to another. When the base is established, then you can read and add up, add wherever it fits. That is how you learn.

Buddha gives a very important point here. When you are learning, you have to sort of put yourself in the position of being sick. You are a patient who is very sick, so you are looking for a cure. You're willing to do anything. You will not leave any stone unturned. That sort of attitude. One of the great lamas said, " We are actually really sick. Sick with the chronic disease called attachment, sick with the chronic disease called hatred, or jealousy. We are truly sick with that." If you don't believe it, the example given is, you go shopping and you see some nice thing that you really want to have, and you look at it, you don't want to pay money out, you're also holding the money tight on this side; you don't want to buy it, but yet it draws a lot of your attention. Finally, you decide not to buy it, and go home, and you sit down and are thinking about it, " Oh, I should have bought it. This is really mine, I really wanted to have it." And then you go back, and it's sold. And then you blame yourself, " Oh, I should have bought it," and this and that. It's the clear sign of what one of the earlier Tibetan teachers has called the 'pain of attachment'. We are sick with attachment, because we have these symptoms. We all do. If you are wealthy, you have the bigger problem, if you are poor, you have the smaller problem. But we do have it anyway. It is real with us.

The same with anger. If anybody tries to say something, gives you a different look, or whatever, without knowing anything about

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what that individual person is going through, we say, " What's the matter with that person. Why is he or she upset with me? What did I do wrong? Did anybody tell him or her something about me? Who could it be?" All these are the symptoms that we have the illness of hatred, pride, jealousy, all of them. That is our chronic disease.

So we're looking for a cure. We want medication. We want an operation. We need that. What is the medicine I can take; which drug? Instead of Dow Chemicals, Atisha, Tsongkhapa, the Kadam tradition, has the drug called Lamrim. You can take that. And it works. (This is a little bit of joking, I'm sorry. )

The practice, whatever you do, is like a medicine. When you take the medicine, it affects your illnesses. When you don't take the medicine, it doesn't affect at all. For us, when you want to cure your illnesses, first thing, you'll go and get a diagnosis, whatever the illness is. Then second, you have to get the right drug which treats you. Third, you have to use the drugs or if you don't like drugs, you can have homeopathy, ayurveda, or whatever you want. But you do need an antidote for that, and you need to take it. If you don't take it, if you have all the homeopathic bottles filling up your whole room, from top to bottom, everywhere, you have boxes of bottles and you sleep on top of that, it is not going to affect you, right? Likewise, you can hear the teachings, you can get the information, but if you don't use it, it's not going to affect you. That's why I said, your cooperation, your efforts are necessary. You think, "My cooperation, my efforts are necessary for me, to help me." For each one of you, your own efforts, your own cooperation, and your own enthusiasm are needed for you to help yourself. (Otherwise, you do like I do sometimes, get all the prescriptions filed away, and it doesn't do any good for me.) Therefore it is said, "By constantly taking the medicine, you get cured from your illnesses.'

When you listen, when you lean, with that attitude, with that analogy, you learn. So, Buddha and your spiritual teachers are like a doctor.

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Refuge taking

Namo Gurubye, namo Buddhaya, namo Dharmaya, namo Sanghaya

When you look into your daily prayer9, this is the first thing you see. Actually it's taking refuge. Refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. I'd like to talk very briefly here, because refuge will come in the middle somewhere10. People may think, "I know that Buddhists take refuge in the three jewels. The three jewels means Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Where does this Gurubye come from?11 Simply, in Vajrayana, we take refuge in the Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Guru is a big thing; we call it the 'G' word. That 'G' word is a big problem, which of course I'll deal with later, but at this moment, who are we referring to? We're referring to the whole lineage, to all lineage-masters from Buddha onward. That is Guru.

Why is that necessary? Because it is our connection. It is our connection to the enlightened beings. When we work, not only do we work, but we also need support and help from the enlightened beings. We get it and that helps us. That gives us force. You know, in Star Wars it says, " May the Force be with you." The 'Force' is the force of the enlightened beings. Their power, their strength, their energy and our own efforts, combined together, make things function. That way it becomes powerful. So, what is the link between the enlightened beings and me? The Guru. The big 'G' one is the link. That's why it's important.

Then, with Namo Buddhaya, we're referring to Buddha. Not necessarily the historical Buddha alone, the Buddha that came in India two thousand years five hundred years ago, and did this and that. That is the historical Buddha, the symbolic Buddha. It's only a representation. Actually, what we're trying to deal with is the buddha within each and every one of us. It might not be a buddha yet. It might be the buddha seed [or buddha nature]. Or it could be the infant buddha, or

9 Prayers handed out at the retreat. To be found in the Appendices.

10 See step 32 at Day Six.

11 See the points 13 to 16 in Day Four.

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the teenage buddha. That buddha within ourselves, making the connection with that, getting that as our own doctor to give us the medication, that is what we refer to in saying "Namo Buddhaya" The buddha within ourselves. The historical representation is great, wonderful, it's there, it reminds you, it is symbolic, you can see it and think about it, you can remember it. But, the real buddha, when we take refuge, is the buddha within ourselves. That is very important.

So is Namo Dharmaya, the Dharma. People have a lot of confusion about that. The moment you talk about dharma, people will give you a million different answers. Those who claim to be Buddhist scholars and masters and teachers and so forth will give you ten different answers. Many will tell you the teaching is the Dharma, they will tell you the book is the Dharma. True, I'm not saying they're wrong, but the most important Dharma is your own spiritual development. That's your own dharma. Your spiritual development is your dharma. That is your medicine. That is your dosage, whatever you can take. The real medicine is your spiritual development.

When you look at the three or four things, Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha; the most important thing is the Dharma, because that is the antidote. How do you gain your spiritual development? You have the fight within you between your thoughts and neuroses coming out of ignorance, and your light coming out of wisdom. When you fight and you gain, when you defeat the dark side, you gain the positivity within you. And each one of these positivities is spiritual development. If you look for spiritual development outside, you're not going to find it. If you think spiritual development is flying in the air, well, all the birds fly in the air. If you think spiritual development is living in the water, all the fish are living in the water. If you think spiritual development is to remain underground, all the worms, the groundhog, including the moles do so. Spiritual development is really an antidote to your neuroses. That is the true Dharma. This is the information that you need to have.

Then, Namo Sanghaya. The sangha is the person who has the same interest as you, the person who is on the same path, who is on the same journey with you, traveling together. That is the true relative sangha. Traditionally, you have to say, Buddha is Buddha, Dharma is

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spiritual development, Sangha is a group of more than four monks or nuns, sometimes translated as the 'highest assembly'. Then the absolute sangha: if you can understand the absolute reality of our life, if you can solve the mystery of life, then you are an absolute sangha. No matter what you may be, man, woman, child, dog or cat, black, white yellow or green, that is the true absolute sangha. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas are the Mahayana sangha. Arhats and all this are the sangha of the Way of the Elders. Dakas and dakinis are the sangha of the Vajrayana. That's the way it is counted.

When you take refuge to Guru, to Buddha, to Dharma, to Sangha, traditionally there's a big refuge tree here [to visualize] 12 . We cannot use this right now, because, to identify who is who and what is what, is going to take three weeks. So then, can't I practice? You can. You can have one figure, right in front of you.

You build your mental image. Some people cannot build an image at all. If you cannot build an image, you can simply have a feeling there. You have the mental image right in front of you, sort of straight from your eyebrow, in that level. If you're inspired suddenly, and you want to get up and prostrate, then your body would fit in between, so at a distance of about 5-6 feet. No one here is 7 feet tall! So visualize that much space in between.

In front of you, in absolute reality is your own Guru, whoever it might be or however many it might be, in the form of Buddha Shakyamuni. (The big sitting Buddha statue here is Shakyamuni.) It looks like Buddha, but in reality it is your own spiritual master in the form of Buddha.

You take refuge. [Namo Gurubye, Namo Gurubye.. ] When you take refuge in the Guru, you are making a request to the Guru " Don't let me down. I rely on you, don't let me down." Visualize that the Guru accepts your request.

12 Also called supreme field of merit for taking refuge.

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If there is time, light and liquid comes from the body of the Buddha, who is Guru, to you. This light and liquid clears all obstacles in general and particularly the problems that we have with the big-G word. All these are cleared completely out of our system. The light and liquid also builds a strong connection.

That is what you can think when you are saying "Namo Gurubye" When you chant, you have time to think. If you put all your focus on chanting, then you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to think that. The same thing for the Buddha.

When you say "I take refuge in the Buddha" you may have one Buddha figure here, but that Buddha's body is Sangha, that Buddha's spiritual development is Dharma, that Buddha's mind is Buddha. So within one figure you have all of the three jewels of refuge.

Light and liquid comes, and develops within yourself. The light and liquid purifies all negativity in general and particularly the obstacles of lack of karma, lack of fortune to be able to utilize the teachings of the Buddha. All these are cleared and Buddha becomes your Buddha. We say "Buddha becomes your Buddha", but the deeper message is " Your buddha becomes a buddha." It goes both ways. Buddha becomes your Buddha, and your buddha becomes a buddha. That way, you are not only building the connection, you are also building the seed within yourself to be able to become a buddha.

So is the Dharma. Again, the picture is the one we have visualized. Light and liquid comes from there, washes away our obstacles, and particularly the negative karmas that we have created on the basis of the Dharma.

We've created a tremendous amount of negativity on the basis of the Dharma. Believe me. We say, " Ours is good, theirs is bad." This is one of the biggest problems within the Dharma. If you look back in

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this world, historically, how many wars we have fought on the basis of my religion and your religion, and [thinking that] I am better and you are worse. That is the negativity we create on the basis of Dharma. This has become an obstacle for all of us, collectively as well as individually.

Light and liquid coming from the body of the Buddha purifies all negativity of sectarian activities, and any other negativities, washes them away in the form of any color or any type of insects you don't like. It's going out of your system completely. You are washed inside, outside, and in between the skin and flesh.

Traditionally Tibetans tell you to visualize the color of dirty laundry water and forms like scorpions or spiders. You get completely washed (And if you can wash all your fat away as well, that's great. Just joking). Washing in the sense of making yourself absolutely free of that.

The obstacles washed away, you become clean like a crystal. You become pure, wonderful, filled with light.

(Here you get your love and light, plenty, if you like that.)

Ultimately, Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have accepted you to be under their protection, accepted me as a protege.

That is how you take refuge. If you are in your home, and you want to say the refuge a hundred thousand times, go ahead. If you want to say it only three times; fine, go ahead. If you just want to say it only once, even then it's fine. The words you say, and the thoughts you have, you have to have together.

As I told you earlier, meditation is now quite known, but everybody thinks that when you meditate, you have to keep your mouth shut, think nothing, and sit. That's wrong, in this particular case. You have to say the words, and you have to think. The prayer you say, namo Gurubye, namo Buddhaya, namo Dharmaya, namo Sanghaya, i s the shell, and the thought that you put in there is the cartridge. If you shoot that at the ignorance, it will destroy it. That's what it is.

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Practicing the Four Immeasurables

May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

You visualize yourself in front of your Buddha. You are sitting here and looking at the sentient beings all around you, filling up all of space, unlimited space.

When you talk about space, don't think of this room, don 't think of, a football field. That's too small. Think that you are up in a space shuttle, and looking through the window — the picture is one of huge open space.

Such a space is completely filled up with living beings that are your friends, that are connected with you. It's filled up. And looking at each and every one of them, you see what they want is happiness, joy. So, wishing them joy, happiness. And wishing to share your compassion.

May all sentient beings never be parted from freedom's true joy.

True joy is the joy that has never known suffering.

May all suffering beings dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.

Equanimity here is your wish. You might think it has become that way. That is okay. Also, you pray to the Buddha here,

This is what I wish. Please help me to materialize it that way.

So there's not only your thinking, but Buddha also helps you, by sending light and liquid, and each one of them becomes that way.

How do the four immeasurables work? Equanimity is like the ground, compassion is like the seed, love is like the water and joy is like the

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heat. If you have good ground, good heat, good seed, and you have water, the crops will grow and we can eat. Here the result will be enlightenment. If you want to have good food, you have to have good ground on which you grow the food. Equanimity works like the ground. You have to have a seed to grow the food. Compassion is like a seed. If there's no water, it's not going to grow. So, love is like water. If it's cold, freezing, you can't grow anything. So you need heat. Joy is the heat. That's how the four immeasurables have four different purposes. One represents the ground, the other represents the seed, another represents moisture, another represents the correct temperature. That's how we work with the four immeasurables.

Not only do you wish, but you also pray to the Buddha to be able to materialize that.

May I be able to do that by myself. I want to do it by myself. Would you help me to perfect my work, to fulfill my wish? Would you help me to do this? Give me your hand. Do you have a minute? Give me a hand.

That is actually praying. That's what refuge is all about. Getting help. "If you have a minute, give me help here. Give me your hand." That's exactly how it works.

Then you think you've materialized that.

Finally the object of refuge shrinks down and becomes like a little light, dissolves through your forehead, right in between the eyebrows, and becomes oneness with you.

Then — this is slightly Vajrayana now — when it becomes oneness with you, you become Buddha, Buddha is you, Buddha is inseparable from you. Then naturally, it will be like the first words of the Lama Chöpa,

From the state of great bliss I arise as the Guru-Deity. Light rays radiate from my body, blessing all words and beings in the ten directions. Everything becomes an exquisite array of immaculate pure good qualities.

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Just like that, you yourself become a buddha. And you carry out the activity of you, the Buddha. Just like we turned ourselves earlier to Buddha, who was giving light and liquid and all this, now it is your

You are in the form of a buddha, sending light, reaching all sentient beings wherever they may be. You reach to the hell realms and you free them from sufferings. You reach to the hungry ghost realm and give them food. You reach to the animal realm and give them wisdom. You reach to the human beings and free them from neurosis. You reach to the demigod realm and free them from jealousy. You reach to the samsaric god realm and free them from their wandering and lack of awareness. Free them. And all sentient beings become free.

That way you have completed your work as a buddha. That way you can sit down and keep on saying, Namo Gurubye, namo Buddhaya, namo Dharmaya, etc., or Namo Gurubye, namo Gurubye, namo Gurubye, one by one. You can simply say it one time, or say it a million times, it doesn't matter. The thought, whatever I have mentioned to you, has to go with that visualization together. Then, it works. You can have the shell by saying the words, and by thinking the thought you have the cartridge. If you don't have the cartridge and you just shoot the shell, it is an empty shell. And you know what that will do.