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19970827GRSRLR06

Review 1

Create a sacred environment. Here not only do you have a clean, nice and neat physical environment but also your thoughts and mind should be clean. If you have a mind with anger, or attachment, you clear those thoughts.

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Arrange symbolic offerings. If you have something, good, arrange it on the altar. If you don't have anything, use even a glass of water and bless it with OM AH HUM. Traditionally, you pour the water in the bowls and after that by using a clean piece of kusha grass you take a little drop of water from somewhere else, throw it up and say OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM.

This is Indian culture. Kusha grass is used in brooms in India, to sweep the floor. In every ritual you do, kusha grass is used because it is a cleansing material. I don't know whether kusha really has extra power to clean or not but that's the culture linkage. You know in India, the Brahmins do not allow lower caste people to enter a Brahmin's house, but they do allow them to do all dirty jobs, sweeping the floor, washing their toilets, etc. If any food or utensil has been touched by somebody of the lower caste, the Brahmins think they have been dirtied. So they run away from home to a field where kusha grass grows and sleep there for three days or at least one night. Then they think they are purified and come back to their house. Buddhism came from India and so this kusha grass gesture was brought with them. I noticed not many people do that in America. So maybe American Buddhism will be free of kusha grass blessing. Whatever it may be, the real power lies in the mantra, 0M HUM.

OM AH HUM is very important. In blessing with this mantra, three things come together: Audio messed up till here: 8.50 min

ting dzin, ngak, chakgye — concentration, mantra and mudra27 . What do these words mean? Ting dzin is meditation, visualization or imagination with disciplined thoughts put on it. Ngak is mantra, in this case M AH HUM, Chak gye is mudra; it's not the hands moving — people think that way — but the way of doing. You pick up a little water, throw it on top of the offering and say OM AH HUM. It's just a little symbolic gesture, you don't have to wet the whole altar. OM AH HUNG is necessary because you don't offer anything that has not been blessed. If it's not blessed, it's not pure, it's not

27 In the tsog offering we say ting dzin ngak dang, chakgye chin lap pei.

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good.

Position body and mind. As to positioning the body, you use the Vairochana style posture, or whatever is comfortable for you. positioning the mind is clearing your doubts, anger, attachment, all that is occupying your mind, maybe your next appointment, maybe your next business dealing, or whatever. Free yourself from that. To draw the attention away from there you use breathing exercises. Do it very gently. Try to breathe down to the abdominal region, nine times or twenty-one times or however many times you need. The idea is, you are drawing your main focus from your neurosis to a neutral state. When you get to a neutral state, then you can suggest to your mind a positive state. If your mind is on your neurosis level and you try to suggest positive things, your mind is not going to accept it and it's going to flatly refuse to entertain you. It will just walk away. So that's why you bring your mind to the neutral level.

How do you get your mind to a neutral level? First separate the intense locked-in emotions of anger or whatever. You separate them by introducing something in between, maybe counting your breath, or maybe painting something, or maybe playing music; whatever works for you is fine. Because I was taught that, counting the breath is what I use. Traditionally there are more reasons why the breath. They are to be discussed a little later.28 At the beginning level use whatever helps you, whatever makes you happy.

So separate the intense locked-in neurosis, especially your thinking that, "Oh, I cannot be helped, I have been neglected, I have been this, I have been that... ". You know, a lot of people think that way, "I didn't do it, I wasn't terrible, why should I have to be the target of everybody, why should I be sacrificed" , and all this. When you keep on thinking this, you get stuck with it; it's like glue, you cannot take you mind away. If at that level you try to introduce a positive thing to your mind it won't work. It never works. It gives you a bigger rejection. And you will probably be sobbing, crying, or screaming and yelling. Or if you are Japanese you may commit Hari Kari or some-

28 They are not in this Odyssey to Freedom teachings.

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thing. That's how the mind works. Just introduce something neutral whatever you enjoy, in the middle of your meditation. Put on rock and roll, it's all right, really it's all right, music is fine. It's also good to put on poetry or read poetry, do something you like. Or you may want to see slides of beautiful scenery; whatever. Then when you realize that your mind is not so much locked anymore, you should realize that it is time for you to do serious business.

Envision Supreme Field. Offer salutations. Then of course don't forget we have to salute General Buddha, (laughs) followed by presenting symbolic and boundless imagined offerings. With great respect. If you want to make offerings to a very respectable person you can't just bring the bowl to them and put it down bang on the table. By respecting them you're not making that person more important, it's not promoting or upgrading the person to whom you are offering, but you are accumulating merit and that will enable you to gain respect from people so that you can help. That is the purpose rather than the enlightened beings wanting you to give them respect. Respectfully giving or not doesn't matter to them, but you give it with respect so you can also earn respect from the people so you can help them. The way you help people through this particular path, or any path for that matter, is through the medium of communication.

If somebody likes someone or if somebody has the respect of somebody, then if you say something they will listen to you. And if they don't like you, and they don't respect you, you may yell, scream, shout, or stop their car in the middle of the road, whatever you do they are not going to pay any attention to you. Period. So offering makes people like you, and makes people think you have something to say, there is something to think. That's also the achievement of the merit that you have accumulated, and that's why here you offer respectfully.

Whatever arrangement of offerings you have made, say you have put down 21 bowls of water; if instead of that, you put 21,000 or 210,000 bowls of water here, it still is nothing. Mentally you fill up all the space with imagined offerings, you fill up the empty space with best

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quality water. Unlimited quantity. That's what you should offer. And remember, this is also an act of generosity.

To whom are you going to offer it? Your supreme field of merit. Absolutely your own root guru, all of your root gurus, oneness with Buddha Sakyamuni.

Why Buddha Sakyamuni? Because it's Buddhism. As simple as that. I mean, it could be anybody else, but as this is Buddhism you put the form of Buddha Shakyamuni as your supreme field.

Don't think your supreme field is a picture; don't think it's a poster; don't think it's an image. Think it's a living being, not only a representation.

It is in absolute reality Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, anybody, whoever has been enlightened, all oneness with this particular person here. That's the reason you clean your room.

You don't want to invite the Buddha in a room with a bunch of underwear lingering around. That's why you clean up the room.

Purify all that is negative. I mentioned the four powers to you yesterday 29. Almost everybody knows this, I have talked about it so many times. What you really need to have is

love-compassion, and refuge, that is already part of your practice, so it is established there. The cleaning that you are doing is the antidote action. Purification depends on how

sorry you are about what you did. If you are really sorry about the action you took, then purification works. If you are not sorry, I guarantee that even though you may say a million

Vajrasattva recitations and you may get some blessings, it will not purify anything. That' s because you don't feel sorry.

Things you purify are things that you have done wrong, knowingly or unknowingly. Knowingly is most important. Under the umbrella of things you know you did,

you may put the things you did that were not known to you; you make take that opportunity, but it really works on the known things. And if you really feel sorry for what you did,

if you really feel sorry for whomever you've hurt, then purification works. Just thinking, " Oh, I have a lot to purify, Vajrasattva Vajrasattva Vajrasattva....," that won't work.

The Indians have a saying, 'Vajrasattva welcome, Vajrasattva sit down, goodbye Vajrasattva'.

29 See page 78.

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That will not do much because purification is actually about how mind works. You have to feel, acknowledge, and be sorry about it. If you don't feel sorry, it does nothing. The feeling is important; that is that "I'm sorry". A lot of people put in a lot of efforts but didn't have a of results. That happens when you are disconnected from your feelings. The whole Lamrim is [thinking and meditating with] feeling; everything is done with what you feel.

Then one may think, "Okay, I keep on thinking about what things I did wrong and I get depressed". No you don't. Don't. You feel sorry about it and you act and you move on, you don't get stuck there. The feelings are not glue that joins you there. You felt sorry, you took action, and you move on. We say that keeping our schedules is good, being on time in wonderful, right? So this is your spiritual schedule. This is your spiritual timetable. Don't get stuck on something that doesn't have to be. You can repeat the purification the next day, or next session, but at the moment you should move on. If you just stay stuck on the feeling then the next question will be, "Well, now what can I do? How can I do it, what can I do?" Sure you can do something, you can purify! If that doesn't work the Buddhas are lying. They have been telling us for 2,500 years that purification works. Not only in the East, even in the West you have been hearing that purification works for close to 2,000 years now. Are they lying? Do you have that much power to say they are all lying? I don't think so, if you think about it. So there's something there. Therefore you apply purification and move on. Don't stay on it.

Does one purification clear everything? No. But if you build it up day by day, week by week, month by month, after a little while it will. Purification practice works just like water in a bucket; if you put a drop in every day the bucket's going to fill up. That's how purification works. Not just simply saying one word and forgetting about it completely; that doesn't work. It needs to be a day by day build up.

Rejoice in all that is positive. That is the good business or tactic, or strategy. It is cutting down jealousy and giving support to appreciation.

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Appreciation is the key to being able to rejoice. Appreciate what other people are doing. Appreciate what the Buddhas have done, appreciate how Dharma works, appreciate the help from the Sangha. Rather than getting jealous, appreciate. Appreciation will lead you to rejoice at the end of every day. Straightway you will be able to rejoice. Acts of generosity, morality and all of those you appreciate. When somebody is doing something good, you appreciate it. You know, the whole purpose is to relieve suffering. There's a tremendous amount of suffering. So anything that's done to relieve suffering, it doesn't matter whether you do it or somebody else does it, appreciate that; it is wonderful. The main purpose is to relieve the suffering; it doesn't matter who did it. Rejoice. It is profitable for you to rejoice.

Seek guidance. Sort of urge your Supreme Field, "Be there when I need you. Don't let me down". You request your Supreme Field to remain a long time, in the physical form that we are used to or in a mental form, whatever it may be. To safeguard all your good efforts you must dedicate; dedicate effort.

Ask for Inspiration and Blessing. That's forcefully pushing and saying "Hey, Buddha, Buddha, I am talking to you! Muni, Muni, Mahamuni! I am calling your name, shaking you, calling you for 200 times, Muni, Muni, Mahamuni, Muni, Muni, Mahamuni ye soha!" It doesn't have to be 200 times like we did today, but you may be able to do it 100 times or 21 or 7 or 3 times.

Now finally the Supreme Field dissolves to you or you can leave it there; either way is okay.

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13

Acknowledge the spiritual master

Somehow the actual Lamrim is now beginning. Not actually yet, but according to the traditional Buddhist teaching tradition the actual spiritual practice is beginning here.

To acknowledge the spiritual master is to acknowledge the big-G word. The word Guru in traditional Indian language means 'heavy'. Loaded with quality, that's really what it means. Loaded with quality. The guru is your guide, so if the guru has no quality where is he or she going to lead you? The quality to be shared is guiding you on the path. That is the guru's job; not guiding you by means of a book or a prepared statement, nor guiding you by a well researched paper, but guiding you on the basis of personal experience. That is why the guru has to have quality.

If the guru doesn't have compassion, then that guru can't guide people on compassion. If the guru doesn't have love, then that guru is incapable of guiding people on love. If the guru doesn't have development, then that guru is incapable of guiding you toward any development at all. So quality based on experience is important. Extremely important. It is unfortunate in my opinion, that, in this country, people have had a lot of miserable experiences on guru trips. Very unfortunate.

However, can you do it without a spiritual master? We say without a living tradition it's very difficult. A living tradition means it has to be passed on from one human being to another human being. If not, you may see Buddha in your imagination, but that doesn't work. It's not living tradition.

I would like to talk from my own little experience. Would I have been able to manage without the gurus? The answer in my personal case is, no. Without the gurus I don't have spiritual information, without them I don't have contact with the enlightened beings, without them I cannot really light the spiritual fire from the energy source, like the solar energy. The gurus function like a magnifying glass, bringing the en-

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ergy together and concentrating it into a pinpoint. I would not have managed without them.

Every spiritual teacher I had, 39 or 40, each and everyone of them was my guru and is my guru. That is how I look at them. Many of them have been more active, a few have been less active, but each one of them I look at as a guru. When you look at the person as a guru, whether the person's reality is enlightened being or non-enlightened being, is not the issue. The issue over here is my own perception. How do I perceive? If I perceive my guru as an ordinary human being, I get the blessings and the benefits of an ordinary being. If I perceive my guru as an enlightened being, I receive blessings and connection of an enlightened being. If I perceive my guru as a dog, I get the blessings and connection of a dog. That is why it is important. It is the connecting point.

Also, a spiritual teacher is supposed to be your role model. So being a spiritual teacher is a very big responsibility. Traditionally the teachings will tell you, if the teacher would like to sleep late, the students will also sleep late; if the teacher sits up all night, the students will sit up all night; if the teacher would like to smoke cigarettes, the students are most likely smoking cigarettes too; if the teacher would like to eat meat, the students will join him or her. So the teacher is a role model. (I am a culprit for eating meat). Therefore the teacher has to have quality. The teacher should know how to handle attachment, the teacher should know how to handle anger and how to handle ignorance, so that he provides a role model for the other people to follow. That' s why the quality of the spiritual master is extremely important.

It is not the teachings that are shared, but it is the person who shares them that makes a hell of a difference. You will find a lot of people who are talking about the Lamrim, but many of them will say, " Oh the Buddha generated the bodhimind first and accumulated merit and later gave teachings and the teachings got followers and blah, blah, blah." You may hear that teaching but it probably doesn't affect you. (I am not saying I am affecting you, don't misunderstand me).

It is not the message, it is the messenger that is important. And when you are taking the name of the big-G word you are becoming a

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messenger. As messenger you are not a postman; if you were a postman you would just deliver the letter and go away. But your letter includes the role model. So it is important that you have discipline, mentally and physically both.

Mental discipline is that you keep yourself free of negative emotions as much as possible. I know that it is our habit, it is within us, it is the most powerful controller in our mind. But even though you can't give your anger, attachment, etc. a black eye, keep on threatening them. Don't just submit. Don't submit. Don't be the doormat of your anger and other negative emotions. If you can't bite them, at least growl at them a little bit, grrr! That will do. Challenging them is the biggest problem, because we are so used to then-I, so used to submitting to them. I am talking about within ourselves, about what happens between my anger and me, between my attachment and me, my ignorance and me. You have to put up a challenge, don't be a doormat.

If you could manage to do that, then you can show somebody else how to do that, you can share that with them and you can become the role model for that person on how to handle their anger, how to handle their attachment. That's how you become a guru. In other words, because you have the quality, you can share that quality. And that quality is not a single quality, it is rich with tradition, it has the unbroken lineage behind you. That is important.

So far I told the relative part of it, the relative guru. The absolute part of it is the guru within you, the guru seed, the buddha seed, the buddha nature, the guru nature within you. That is within yourself. That guru you need to nurture, to make it mature. And how you nurture the guru nature is by cutting down your negativities. How you make the guru mature, is by building your spiritual development.

So, acknowledge the spiritual master and acknowledge the absolute guru, the one that is within you, that you have to develop. It's just like Buddha: the buddha within you, you have to develop and the historical Buddha is the external representation. The external guru is your source of information, your guidance, your role model. So certainly, when

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you begin to realize people are looking at you, you have to behave properly. And if you don't, you are creating a terrible thing.

You know, during Drugpa Kunleg's period Sakya Pandita was giving initiations all the time. So Drugpa Kunleg wrote a big note and hung it in a public space. He wrote, " Welcome Sakya Pandita, do you give so many initiations that you'll fill up the ground with broken commitments?" Sakya Pandita also had a very interesting way of functioning. He wrote poetry and in the good old Tibetan system of announcement, he wrote, " If I go to the upper part of the country it is only me, if I go to the middle of the country it's me, if I go to the lower part of the country it's me" . That's how he announced himself. (In Tibetan the word me or I is nga and if you put an u on the end of it, it becomes ngu, which means you cry). Drugpa Kunleg read that and said, "Oh yeah!" So he put one u at each 'me', so that the announcements read, "If you go to the upper pan of the country you cry, if you go to the middle part of the country you cry" . That's what Drugpa Kunleg did. He is some kind of strange crazy fellow running around, sort of like our bodhisattva John30. So even though Sakya Pandita was extremely well known and one of the most important teachers of Sakya, still he had pride. So Drugpa Kunleg was there to cut his pride down.

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Investigate qualities of the spiritual master

A spiritual master is free of pride and free of ego — that is the most important quality. Another quality of the spiritual master is compassion. If you are not a compassionate one, why should you work? Nobody's going to pay you. It's because you care that you sacrifice yourself for helping other beings. You have to have compassion! Also a spiritual master must have knowledge on which he's going to guide, and that also as an internal development, not as external information. If it is only external information you want, go to the university, and get one of the Buddhist professors to teach you.

30A well-known personality in the Ann Arbor area.

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When you become a spiritual master to many people or perhaps one or two persons, you must have something to share. I know, a lot of people would like to help. But the true help is this, really: share your experience and guide them on the path. Guide them on how you have gained development. That is how you help. If you have something to share, then you can help. If you have nothing to share, then you will be sharing your neurosis. And you don't want that. That will not help, that will harm. That's not service, that's disservice. That's why your guru, either your own future guru, or your present guru should have the quality of at least knowing the steps, knowing the path of how you can achieve freedom.

How do you select your guru? You have to study the individual. Traditionally the Tibetan teachings tell you, 'If you want to know whether you can eat something or not, at least smell it. If you want to know whether you can wear something or not, at least measure it'. If it is good and it fits you, then it's okay. If not— even if you have a suit of Tasmanian wool, tailored in Italy and designed by George Armani, if it doesn't fit you, it is useless. So you have to find out whether the guru fits you or not; that is an important point. You have to study what qualities the person has. Is that person compassionate enough? Is he or she a well-behaving person or a crazy one? Did that person work with his or her negative emotions? Is that person too conservative or too liberal? Will that person know how to handle my strong negative emotions when they rise? Has that person true understanding and experience of the path that he or she is going to share with me? Is it a person who really honestly teaches, shares on the basis of Buddha's personal experience in accordance to the lineage teachers' way? Can that person prove that each and every statement he made is correct, according to the Buddha? Is he or she a stable person or crazy, heavily depressed or disturbed? Can the person teach me something? Can he or she present the teaching according to what I can understand and accept; in other words, does he or she have the art of presentation? Is he or she willing to take a little hardship? These are a few points for you to consider.

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In the Lama Chöpa, there is a verse that tells you about the ten qualities of a spiritual master, and the ten plus ten of a vajra master31 . The recommendation is to give 50% discount, because you're never going to find somebody who has exactly all the qualities. However, there are some qualities on which you don't compromise. These are the qualities of compassion, information based on wisdom, and capability to function as a role model, which means being well-behaved. That is the basis on which you can think and make your choice.

The guru is your connection with the enlightened. The guru is the ambassador of the enlightened society, the representative of the enlightened beings. That is why the relationship becomes important; traditionally we say guru-devotion, but in fact it is relationship. Maintaining a good, pure, respected, close, honest relationship is necessary. Disrespect may not make much difference to the guru itself, but it affects the enlightened society. (It's like if you don't treat an ambassador of a country well, it'll be a diplomatic disaster.)

Devotion or no devotion, pure relationship is very, very important Honesty, straightness, good relationship are important, directly or indirectly; both are okay. Because you're not really seeking the individual being too much, you're really seeking the support behind that. That doesn't mean you cannot contradict your guru, or you cannot express your opinion. Expressing yourself doesn't break or destroy the pure relationship. The pure relationship gets broken if you really want to harm the guru, physically, mentally or emotionally, with hatred. Then the relationship is no longer pure.

There is one more point: what about visions? What about trance? Personally I don't know. I do know what Buddha said and what the line-

1 You who posses the ten qualities / Of an authentic teacher of the path of the Sugatas, / Lord of the Dharma, representative of all the Conquerors, / O Mahayana spiritual Guide, to you I make requests.

Your three doors are perfectly controlled, you have great wisdom and patience, /

You are without pretension or deceit, you are well-versed in mantras and / You posses the two sets often qualities, and you are skilled in drawing and explaining / O Principal Holder of the Vaja, to you I make requests.

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-age teachers have said. They say, you cannot. The guru has to be a living person. On the other hand from the historical point of view we talk about this lama had a vision or received a teaching that way. So there is a general decision, saying no, but occasionally there seem to be specific exceptions.

One thing, however, I know clearly; sometimes somebody may say, "Well, I made my deal with the Buddha, so screw you." That doesn't work. The way the enlightened beings work with us is through a living person. That's much more solid, and much more effective than visions or all these other types [of contact.] The moment you deal with a vision, you have to take at least 50% off, due to our own psychological, emotional condition. Maybe there is 20 % truth in there, or 30% if you are very lucky. So it is always a big question.

Then you have people who contact spirits and deliver messages back and forth. In such cases the people are not lying, they perceive it as truth, but what we don't know is whether the spirit is the one he claims to be. You have to see it this way; spirits are beyond our laws of physics. Many of them have unlimited access to any information, many of them might have been there when this or that happened, and many of them will identify with the name and the physical appearance of an individual. That way they can communicate with the ones that seek the communication. They are not lying, but it might not be the 'person' you think you are contacting. And there is no way of controlling that

There are eight benefits of having a guru, etc. I am not going to talk about this here. You can read Pabongka's Liberation in the Palm of your hand, or Geshe Rabten's Essential Nectar, or any Lamrim book. Read about the benefits and disadvantages, read about the qualities of the spiritual master, for one reason to internalize that process within you, and for another reason to understand whether the other person is qualified or not. So you have a double gain.

In short, recognize a respectable, reasonably good spiritual master. When I say recognize, I mean that after investigating the qualities of the person, you acknowledge that person as your spiritual master. One

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most important point here is: would you like to reflect his or her qualities? In other words, would you like to function, to deal with your problems, the way the other person does? It says here: reflect on the qualities of the student. Not students, but student; that is only one, that is me.

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Reflect on qualities of the student

As a student you should reflect the quality of the guru within you. You are building yourself to be a buddha. So the qualities of the buddhas have to reflect through you. In order for these qualities to reflect through you, the number one requirement is to have an open mind. If you don't have an open mind, you shut everything out, you have a prefabricated agenda and when it comes to what tallies with that you say, " Oh ya ya, right, that's wonderful" and when it doesn't tally with your prefabricated ideas then you say, Well, I don't know, maybe". Having an open mind is number one, willing to listen, willing to examine, willing to give consideration, that's is open-mindedness.

How to listen. Traditionally on learning or listening they give you the example of a cup with tea poured in. If you put the cup upside-down, no matter how much tea you pour on top of it nothing goes inside it. You are going to get everything wet but you are not going to drink anything. Likewise, when you have prefabricated ideas and you are not willing to accept anything else except your prefabricated ideas, you are an upside-down cup.

The second problem is being a cup with a hole. You keep on pouring tea in it but it runs out of it. And that is all of us, we all do that. We listen from one ear and it gets out from the other ear. As fast as it comes in, that's how fast as it goes. So it has no time to reflect through the individual. That is a problem.

The third problem is, yeah, you listen, you keep it in mind, you take notes, you study, and you ask. But your purpose is only that you would like to become spiritual master, or you would like to gain something material, whether fame or money, or power. If that is true

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then traditionally they give you the example of a most expensive beautiful china cup which has a little bit of filth in it. When you use such a cup and pour nectar in there, the whole nectar will become useless. Just because you didn't clean the cup, it becomes dirty and useless. The same thing occurs reflecting from the student's point of view with such a desire. Even though you may have changed your mind into 'I'm here to help, it's not for me to gain something, but I'm here to help', however, you must look deep deep deep in your mind to see what hidden worldly agenda is there.