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Now you may think, " Well I have done some bad things; I don't know anything about purification, but let me do something good here and say 'let's square it up' or say 'let's call it a day and let's make it even'." That doesn't work. It absolutely doesn't work. Because karma is definite; whatever you do, you get the result accordingly. The example given here is: a sweet fruit seed will give you the result of sweet fruit, and a hot Jalapeno pepper seed will give you hot Jalapeno pepper. If you put them together, it is not going to provide sweet and sour fruit. That is what 'karma is definite' means.

Whenever we hurt people, the consequences of that are that we are going to be hurt as a result of that. Maybe ten times more, maybe a thousand times more, because both positive and negative karma is fast growing. It is like a terrible loan where you pay 17, 18, or 60, 70, maybe 100% interest per month, that type. That's what it means, fast growing.

You can change it. You can purify negativities and you can lose your positive karma by your hatred, all of those are possible, it is changeable. If you try to change it, karma will adapt immediately, it's very adaptable. You are the creator of your karma, nobody else did it. And you are now shaping your future karma. That's why it is so important. What is going to happen to me tomorrow depends on how I am functioning; how I am going to shape my tomorrow by myself

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today. Whatever I plan, whatever I shape, I may be able to use tomorrow. The same goes for whatever is going to happen: my tonight's bardo I am going to shape right now, and with the consequences of that, my tomorrow's rebirth will be shaped. So right now is the most important time in our lives!

You have a mission in your life, you have a purpose of your life: to obtain freedom. How do you obtain freedom? You take this adventurous journey. You go through that adventure and you get there. That is what we mean, when we say: do it now, do it now, do it now.

Do it now is because you never know about tomorrow. Karma is such a strange thing. There is a Tibetan analogy that says that when you die you go and meet the Lord of Death. The Lord of Death has a mirror called the karmic mirror and he looks at it. (Probably they were thinking of a computer!) All your records are being saved in the computer and what the Lord of Death has to do is to punch the key, and he sees everything. You provided that record.

You may remember, in a video tape of a performance about the bardo, the Lord of Death comes out, but doesn't know where his book is. He has to tell one of his attendants, " Bring my book." The attendant runs round looking for the book and finally finds the book, which is in alphabetical order. They ask, "Who are you, where are you from?". She gives her name and he starts looking, "It is not yet time for you to die, go back." And she says, "Well, I went up there and it is so miserable, please don't make me go back." Then he goes on to say, "Life has a purpose, life has meaning, you haven't completed your work. Think of your little baby, children calling you all the time, crying after you, think about the public who have trust in you, you are letting them down. Do not talk nonsense, go back!" Then she circles around and goes up and pops up somewhere in the human land.

That is how it works, [as if] certified accountants are auditing your life account and saying your total is wrong or your total is right, you have more negative or you have more positive. That is how we function and that's how we shape our future lives.

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35

Recognize suffering

Wherever we are born, wherever we are, as long as we are not totally free of suffering, the sufferings continue. We know that for sure. When we are experimenting with chemicals we think, "Ah, we have joy here, wonderfulness." And everybody would like to smoke a little bit and be high and nice, Then, sometimes, you also have a horrifying experience while you are high. Even if you don 't have that, when you come down it is miserable.

There is suffering even in what we consider pleasure; every single thing in our lives that we consider pleasure has pain, produces pain. Everything. Friend, family, everybody has problems in the family. Why? Because this is samsara. It would be interesting if you didn't have a problem. Ihat would be interesting. But people do have problems; companion, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, you name it; every single thing we consider as some pleasure or kick in life has a reverse side effect along with it.

We have a strong attachment to the samsaric delights. We enjoy them, we even get an itch to be able to get them, and we have a constant, continuing desire, too. But, no matter how many times you have these experiences, you are dissatisfied, and dissatisfaction itself opens the door for suffering. The things we are looking for or itching for have no true meaning or reliability at all. The problem that we face is that we do not see that. So the samsaric delights that we enjoy are almost like drinking water out of the sea. The more you drink, the more you want, because it is salty. Dissatisfaction.

Buddha said, "This is the truth of suffering 78 .” That's what Buddha discovered in his lifetime, though he might have been enlightened before. The dharma that Buddha showed to us, he showed us through his life's events. He had been put in an artificial structure: a wonderful palace with handsome, cute, young-looking men and women; not a single old or sick person available; beautiful music

78 The first one of the four noble truths.

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twenty-four hours a day and wonderful light everywhere, beautiful scented saffron water, a running river leading to a swimming pool, and all these; a continuously provided wonderful artificial life. Then he discovered there was something else out there called the truth of suffering. Not only did he discover the truth of suffering, he also discovered that those artificial pleasures, the people in there as well as the pleasures itself, are subject to change, they change into suffering. So he called that a noble truth.

36

Thus all contaminated phenomena are suffering

What is contaminated, what is uncontaminated? Here we say all that is contaminated is suffering. What does Buddha mean by contaminated? Something that has been produced by a delusion-oriented karma. There are sort of two layers in that. a) It is delusion-oriented karmic production, i.e. it is under the control of the karma and the delusion that created it. b) Whatever is happening is caused by and is under the control of the previous karma and the [present] delusion 79.

Many of our sufferings we don't have control over. We can't do much. If we'd have the control in our hand we'd not experience suffering, we'd change it. The dharma practice that we do is actually struggling how to gain control over that. Contaminated means it is being produced by a neuroses-oriented karma and we have no control over it; it is controlled by that karma. That is really contaminated.

When you lose the power of neuroses and when you lose the negative karmic control, then it becomes uncontaminated; it becomes pure; the wrong part is cleared. So, every contaminated phenomenon is suffering, because it is not free. That's another one of the four Buddhist seals 80

If it is all suffering, is there a way out? Buddha said he found a way out. The way out is working with the cause of the suffering, not

79 The karma created the seed for a particular result to happen, and the delusion provides the conditions for that seed to ripen so that you experience the results,

80 The other three seals are: nr 21, nr. 39, nr. 40.

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with the result. Once you cut the cause of suffering, you can purify whatever suffering is left over. We used the example of the river dam. In order to get that to that level, what you really need is to liberate yourself from the control of neuroses, to liberate yourself from negative karmic activities. That's why the next step is: seek liberation.

37

Determine causes of suffering

When we look at people we will see that a number of people have a big disappointment in life. They are dissatisfied with life. A number of people have a very deep depression. If you try to meditate on what caused that for each individual, what caused it? Psychologists will look at what happened in childhood, like child abuse or whatever. But there is a constant, continuing force, supported by other negative emotions, and further supported by the conditions that you are in, and that is the one that is giving all the trouble. I am not saying the psychologists and psychiatrists are wrong, but if you keep on brooding on that sort of psychological trouble all the time, you are bound to have troubles. If you have two people living in a family, and if they keep on telling each other, “You are crazy, you are mad," all the time, they will become mad - halfway at least! It is a mental power. Your major focus and total concern was on you yourself, saying, ' What can I do, what can I do?" That is really strong and comes all the time, in the middle of working, in the middle of walking, in the middle of eating, in the middle of sitting; whenever you have a little time, that question of 'what can I do' comes up. That is your major worry and concern. In the meanwhile you are making yourself absolutely busy: "Maybe I'd better do this, I may pray, I may do a social service"; we make ourselves absolutely crazy because our concern is: "What can I do?" There lies our biggest focus. What the Buddha expects us to do is to recognize, to understand. And then you pass your resolution whether you like it or dislike it, and you leave it there. And you look for a solution, rather than insisting on the question: " what can I do, what can I do?"

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What Buddha thought was, "Wow, if I am going to suffer like that, is there a way I can avoid it?" That was his question, "How can I avoid it? Is there a way?" So he searched for a way. While searching for the way to avoid suffering, he looked, " Where is this suffering coming from? I want to find out right from the source." Then he began to see, the king has not created the suffering, nor have the people created the suffering, it is sort of in nature there, almost uniformly, yet with slight differences. So he began to search for where it is really coming from. Then he began to realize it is karma.

The Buddha did not leave it, saying, "It is karma, I can't do anything." He didn't. He said, " All right, it is karma, fine. Where does the karma come from? How do I control this karma? How do I make use of this karma, what do I change?" He began to look carefully. He saw that there is positive karma, there is negative karma. Positive karma gives positive results and negative karma gives negative results. Then he began to wonder, " Why do I create negative karma? Why do people create negative karma? What for? Do they know what they are doing? No, they don't. Why not? They are drunk, they are high; they are high with anger, high with hatred, high with jealousy and attachment." So the real culprit within ourselves is our neuroses. That was his discovery. He said, "If we stop that, it will be like a dam without any more water coming from any hilly areas. So whatever you have in there is going to be finished." So Buddha found that the way out is to cut our neuroses. That's why he said he found the truth of the causes of suffering, the deep truth being our neuroses.

How can I cut it? How can I nip those neuroses in the bud? How? If you have a method, you can; if you don't have a method, you have to learn. Buddha gave the fourth truth, the truth of the path. What the Buddha gave is his own experience of handling the neuroses, leading. the individual to total freedom from those neuroses — what we introduce here and call Odyssey to Freedom. That's the way you stop those neuroses; this is the method.

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When you stop the neuroses, the neuroses' production of the negative karma will stop, and whatever is left over there you purify; no more is coming up. So you will gain freedom from negative karma. [the truth of the cessation of suffering]. It is possible because of how it works. That is our life, that is what we are in and that's how we look for a way out.

I remember a few years ago, A friend who was had a dream; a dream of being stuck in a huge pit or some kind of a well. Somehow there was a paper flying in the air showing the way out. This is the way out. Buddha went and found it, Buddha shared that, millions of others went and they found it. And if we make an attempt — that's good. This is a comfortable shoe that we can put our foot in, there is no toe jam and cheese.

38

Seek liberation

Buddhists recognize two types of liberation: ordinary liberation and extraordinary liberation. Ordinary liberation is what is normally referred to as the arhat level; those who are free from the samsaric problems — just that much. Extraordinary liberation goes beyond that; it is to be able to not only free yourself, but also free others and help them to reach the stage of buddhahood. So when you say seek liberation, there are two things there. But the goal we're interested in is to seek total enlightenment. In this particular case, this list of 64 points, seeking liberation is seeking total enlightenment because it is geared toward the ultimate achievement, the buddha stage.

In Buddhism, there are three different yanas or vehicles81 , and each one of them presents its own liberation state. Hinayana will say Nirvana is the ultimate achievement 82. It is not bad; it is a great state, free

81 There are two Hinayana vehicles, the way of Hearers and the way of Solitary realizers, both of which reach the state of Nirvana, plus the Mahayana way of the Bodhisattva, so this is how three yanas are counted.

82 Hinayana literally 'small vehicle' is also called 'Way of the Elders'.

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of all pains and everything and it gets you to a good picnic spot; wonderful relaxation and nice resort, you can stay there for a while. According to the Mahayana, however, then, once again, you have to move and you have to go through. In the Buddha's lifetime and even afterwards, there were two different viewpoints, both accepted by Buddha. First is the Way of the Elders' viewpoint: " If you can liberate yourself that is good enough, don't worry." Mahayana says, "No, that's not good enough, how can you walk away from the people you love, the people you care about, you are concerned about, who are connected with you; how can you walk away?" Even if you do walk away, and you stay in nirvana a couple of thousand years, in the end you have to move again, you have to start all over. That's why there are two types of liberation. Truly speaking, the ultimate enlightenment is the buddha stage, nothing less than that. From either the mahayana sutra point of view or the vajrayana [or mahayana tantra] point of view, we will not settle for less than the best (unless you want to). So seek liberation.

39

Thus all phenomena are Empty

Wherever you look, all existence has only dependent arising. Things become possible because of a combination of many things happening together. And the worry: 'what can I do?' is also a part of that. How does that work? We have natural dissatisfactions; physical disappointment, mental disappointments, inconveniences, there is no shortage of them in our lives. That opens our mind, and we would like to reverse that. Whether you are on a spiritual path or not, everybody would like to reverse the things that he dislikes. That is almost fundamental. Besides that, when you think, "There is nothing I can do," you have another additional disappointment. A combination of all this together makes you very disappointed. But if that whole combination is not there, if certain things are missing, our sufferings will be a little less. If you try to look among the collection and point a finger at something and say, "Ah, this is the cause!" you cannot find it. This is

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because it is natural, it is emptiness. Just getting together is good enough to be able to function.

It is just like Jewel Heart. The people in Jewel Heart get together and Jewel Heart functions. If you ask everybody, "Are you Jewel Heart?" everybody is going to say, "Well, I am in Jewel Heart, but I am not Jewel Heart." Even when that question comes to me, I will say that I am a Jewel Heart teacher, or maybe I am a Jewel Heart Rinpoche, but I am not Jewel Heart. Jewel Heart exists collectively. Likewise our sufferings, our depressions, also exist collectively. They are only able to function because o many things coming together. That is why it is possible and it is easy to work with them. You simply have to take one particle out of the whole creation; when it loses that particle, it is no longer there.

Take a table. Take the top of it and, unless you are crazy, nobody is going to say it is a table. You may say it is the parts of a table, or it is a broken table, but you are not going to say it is a table. Take the legs off it and you end up with a piece of wood. Nobody is going to say it is a table, it is a piece of wood. Just putting them together provides this thing we can label: table. That is what emptiness means.

Emptiness really looks into how we exist. Is there something really called: this is it? Physicists tried to establish emptiness. When they started looking scientifically with their capable modern machines they began to divide everything. For a while, the atoms were the most subtle you could go. Then they discovered that those could also be divided. So there is no end to this division. The Buddha has been saying [this] for two thousand years: the eastern part does not touch western part; there are always different directions to a thing, so, it does not become one, So far, physics has proven that every piece of existence, no matter how small, is still dividable. Though we do not see it with the naked eye, the machines do. That tells you that we exist collectively [as a collection or combination of parts, causes and conditions, and labels], we function with the togetherness, and we depend on this togetherness in order to function. That means: when there is no togetherness, we cannot function because we depend on that. When something is called 'empty', it doesn't mean empty like our bank-account is empty, but a lack of independent existence, that is, collectiveness or

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dependent arising. When you understand that, it gives you a tremendous amount of freedom.

So, how do you get liberation? By your understanding of emptiness, the wisdom that you have. Wisdom is the key for everything. What is wisdom here? The wisdom that we are talking about is the real true nature of what is. In normal American language you can almost say it is about the mystery of life, the mystery of everything that we don't understand and about how to solve that mystery. When you begin to solve that, you begin to get the real wisdom that will know. The Buddha says: that is the wisdom of emptiness. All phenomena are empty. 83 That is another one of the Buddhist flags or seals.

Truly, if you really search, it is empty, it is not there. Then you may say, " Well, we do exist." Yes we do exist, we exist dependently and we do not exist independently. That is the true thing. We depend on our body, we depend on our consciousness, we depend on everything. So identification of Joe Blow requires Joe Blow's body, and Joe Blow's mind, and the mind inside that body, otherwise it would be Joe Blow's dead body. So it requires the combination; combination of the name, Joe Blow; and the body, Joe Blow's identity, that which we can see, and the mind with which Joe Blow can communicate with us —e all three need to be there, otherwise you would say, "An unidentified person is found dead somewhere." So we do exist, as combination. If you are missing one, you don't exist. Therefore, there is no independent existence. Non-availability of independent existence might not be real true emptiness, but it helps us toward gaining the wisdom and understanding of emptiness.

Through the way of seeking the understanding of emptiness we should try to solve our problems once and for all. Buddha labeled the root of the problem as ignorance. The word ignorance means not knowing, wrong knowing, being stupid„ all of them. That is the root of all

83Empty of inherent existence; there is no independently functioning 'self or 'it' to be found.

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problems, according to the Buddha. In what way are you ignorant? You are ignorant in not knowing collective existence, in not knowing there are no single [independently existing] things, in not knowing what causes what. You are ignorant in not knowing karma and reality.

40

Nirvana is peace

Everything that happens in samsara will cause pain; it is pain by nature, and its consequences will be also pain. When we get to nirvana, we can be free of pain. That pain-free status is nothing outside, it is very much within ourselves. It is a matter for us to utilize it. So samsara and nirvana are both within us. We are right now engaged with samsara and when we see truly what it is, we are beginning to engage ourselves with nirvana and to disengage from samsara.

If we understand the true nature, if we solve the mystery of our existence, we get into nirvana, which is peace. In other words, Buddha is frying to tell us: samsara is suffering, nirvana is peace. We have suffering because it is created, created collectively by karma and neuroses, and controlled, managed and run by that very karma and neuroses. Therefore, everything, whatever we have, is contaminated. Once you are able to get free of that, you reach nirvana, which is peace. It is peace in the sense that you have freedom. You do have freedom for sure, at that level, and if you are satisfied with that you can sit there, but Buddha did not recommend that.

41 Expand your scope

Buddha goes on and says, "Expand your scope." Don't just sit in the corner of the room with a lukewarm status. You're free of pain, sure, but you just don't want to sit for that long. There are so many other persons that need help. So expand your scope.

How do you expand your scope? Just don't be concerned with yourself alone. Think about others. The way and how you think about Others is not in the traditional Buddhist way. In the traditional Bud-

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dhist way, we say, "For the benefit of all sentient beings..." . Who knows who are all these sentient beings, anyway. True. If you just close your eyes and say, "For the benefit of all sentient beings.. , some people may not think anything; some people may think of a couple of nameless, faceless dots around, which you identify as all sentient beings. A lot of people do that — that is fine, but it also has problems. The problem is this. You are training your mind; you are serving all sentient beings with no name, no face; they are little dots and you are the big guy in the middle telling them what to do; and they listen to you; and do exactly what you say. You say bow down, they will bow down; you say get up, they get up; you say, receive blessing, they receive blessing; you say, make offering, they make offering. That's that. You become their sole dictator. Then, what happens afterwards is, if you see another face with another name, and that one tells you, "No I don't think so," you will get a shock. You will freak out completely. We encounter so many Buddhist practitioners, Western or Eastern, who have done this practice for years, yet have such pride, such arrogance. Traditional Tibetan teachers will tell you, "You are wearing the sky as your hat and using a cloud to tie your hat down." A lot of them are like that, especially Western dharma practitioners. The problem is, you don't meditate on love compassion with a face, with a name, with a person with feelings, but you simply sit up there with all these little dots like dolls playing and dancing around you. That is the problem.

The traditional way of meditating with all beings over there is fine for temporary usage. It is not for penetrating meditation. For penetrating practice, you can't do that. You must do it with a name, with a face. So when you expand your scope, you begin with a person for whom you care. Like the good old American saying, 'Charity begins at home', compassion begins at home, love begins at home.

Really you have to start at the nearest person, including yourself. When you can manage that you expand it a little bit. You can bring in all your in-laws, except for your mother in law, maybe (joke). What are you expanding, what are you thinking, what is your concern? That brings us back to what my sufferings are. When I look at you, I see

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you have the same sufferings. So you have the same reasons, the same problems that I have. When we begin to understand that, our relationships, understanding and concerns will have a big difference. So far we shut the door to their same difficulties. We opened up our problems, expanded them and exaggerated them until they became so heavy that we cannot even move. For once, just look at the other person. It is exactly the same thing as I have. I care for myself for that reason, so why do not I care for her? Think about that by yourself. Do not talk to him or her about it, just think. There is a very important purpose and very important message in there!

That is the beginning of truly being concerned for others. When you bring up this state of mind, and you fry this method, it will help. Even when it is not part of your practice, in your daily life it will be very helpful. Husband and wife will be getting on better and there will be fewer divorces. It can improve not only the relationship between two people, but also the relationship between children and parents. All the time you can hear the young children say that their parents do not understand them. That is because we do not look at the right angle. We have pre-fixed ideas, that it should be like this, and then we try to impose that on the kids, whether it is right or wrong, whether they like it or not. That is the cause of the problem. It is not only the problem of parents, it is the problem of teachers as well, in particular spiritual teachers, guides and group leaders.

In short, if you are incapable of loving yourself or your family, it is very difficult to believe you are capable of loving anybody else. Not only it is difficult to believe, but it is not possible. Period. If you are not capable of loving yourself and whomever is close to you, the person that you care about, then you are not capable of loving others, for sure. Then there is something wrong with you. Better go back and see a doctor. Go and see Doctor Buddha.

In order to expand your scope, it is important to care for others. If you don't care for others — well, your work is done, you are free, go to a picnic, go to sleep; it doesn't matter. But if you have caring — forget about all sentient beings, just caring for a couple of sentient beings, or

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even for one other person — then you can't walk away. Walking away is a big problem here. Here, in this particular point, compassion is extremely important. Compassion is the motivator; otherwise, you get yourself free, and then, " Well, I sympathize with you, bye bye." You can't do that. So the point is not to walk away and the motivation is compassion. Compassion, caring for others. That's why compassion is important right from the beginning. Compassion is like a seed of the food that you are growing, compassion is like the water that you give in between, compassion is like the fruit that satisfies or nourishes other beings. That's why compassion is important at the beginning, it is important in between, it is important even at the end. Compassion is extremely important! In the beginning, during your period of working and even after you have become totally enlightened, compassion is the motivation.

The way and how you expand caring for others is by caring for one person, somebody you know by name and face. And then expand it. Expanding is not that difficult. If you care about a person, that person will care about somebody else and then you have to include that one. That's how it goes on and on and on, and finally one is capable of handling all sentient beings. That is one way of how we expand our scope. Another way, our achievement only of nirvana is not good enough, and therefore we expand up to total enlightenment.

42

Cherish others

Cherish others. Before you cherish others, you care about others, you appreciate others and treat others like human beings. In normal American language, treat other beings as human beings. How do we treat other human beings? We treat them well; we are not animals. So treating them well comes first, and then cherish.

When we talk about cherishing others, we are talking about a little more: may I care about their well being be at a level that is almost equal to my caring about my own well-being. Right now in our

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mind we don't have that; my well being is my priority. If I have to sacrifice you to protect my well being, I will have no hesitation. Even if I have a little hesitation, I will choose to protect me. That is because we don't consider the other being and me at an equal level. We don't have the equality there. Always 'me' is more important, and others are of lesser importance. When you really cherish others, when you want to treat one human being as another human being, the level of the inequality should be smoothed out. There should be this equality: my well being is as important as your well being; I must respect that.

When we talk about equanimity, we normally will say, "All enemies and friends are equal and blah blah blah." It is true, but the real message is equal respect. As much as I respect my needs you respect your needs; that is equal, there is no question that is equal. But do we acknowledge each other's needs? Do we respect each other's needs and desires? We don't, So equanimity begins here. My feeling is, equanimity begins at the point that we respect each other's wishes, each other's priorities, each other's needs. That is the beginning of true equanimity. It is much easier to work with human beings first, with your family, your children, friends and lovers or companions, somebody you go along with. Learning to respect each other's desires or wishes, that is the beginning of cherishing others. That is actually the first layer of the foundation you put under the bodhisattva palace. The first foundation stone that you put is respecting other's wishes. As much as I respect my wishes, they do the same thing. The only problem we have is that we don't respect each other's. You respect yours, you defend yours, I defend mine, I respect mine. If you don't listen to me, I can beat you up, or if I don't listen to you, you can beat me up. That's how it goes, right? So instead of going that way, learn how to respect each other's needs and desires. Give equal respect: how I respect my needs, I should also respect your needs. You should also respect my needs as much as you respect your needs. This is the beginning of the establishment of equanimity. Then you can expand it beyond that, but we don't have to talk about that right now.

You know, it is really important to be able to learn love and compassion on the basis of people you deal with everyday, in your everyday life, your family, your children, your lovers, companions, boy-

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friends, girlfriends, colleagues at work. If you learn everything on that basis, you will be much better off. You won't become arrogant. You will not. You will be down on the ground, dealing and working with real human beings. You will see all your neuroses, you will see them as faults, and then you can think, "How can I function free of those neuroses?"

We talk about compassion, we talk about love, it is a beautiful word that people cherish all the time. Nobody dislikes love and compassion. Everybody is a friend of love and compassion. But love and compassion really depend on how much caring you have. Do you really care for the other people around you as much as you care for yourself? This is a good question for us to go off and ask all the time to ourselves. Do I really care about you as much as I care about myself?

We always have some kind of stage where you yourself get behind the other person, meaning if there is some enemy or somebody who is going to attack you, you push that other person in front of you, so that you get protected and that guy 'takes the bullet'. That is how our neuroses function. That will show you how much you really care about the other person. I remember that I did a very vivid teaching on that, saying that there is some guy coming in with a gun, shooting randomly; who's going to hide behind whom? We went round about that quite a lot 84 . Everybody would like to hide behind somebody else, which means we care more about ourselves than about others. As long as we have that, we don't have equanimity. We don't equally value you and me. Forget about ants and insects and dogs and cats, even when it concerns a human being, a family member, if you look in there you will see the big difference. Smoothing that out, ironing that out, is the first responsibility of growing compassion within us. Why am I so superior to others? There is no reason. It is a human life they have, a human life I have, human capacity they have, human capacity I have, maybe you have a white skin, I have a yellow skin, that doesn't make a difference, does it?

84 To be found in: Gelek Rinpoche, Lam Rim Teachings, ch. XXI, under the heading 'Equalizing self and others'.

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43

Foster Love

Once you have equanimity, you don't think about it, but it'll be like the books tell you: no different feeling with enemy and friend. That is way beyond our reach. We begin with human respect to each other: I honor your needs, I respect your needs. Gain respect for other human beings' needs as much as you respect your own needs. As much pride or sensitivity as I have, they also have the same thing. The buttons that get pushed in me, whenever I feel pain, they will feel the same pain. This is the beginning of equanimity, in my opinion. It is based on the human being level, based on your friends, and persons that you care about.

Once you have equanimity, you begin to appreciate other people. Even if you can't think [in the traditional way, 'Everybody is a mother-being... '], once you are appreciating them, you can further strengthen that by acknowledging the kindness they have extended to me. When you notice that they really have been great to me, then you feel almost indebted; you are indebted because of their kindness. Then your caring will be much stronger. Instead of 'caring' here, we are 'wishing them well.' These steps are automatic; one comes after another. When you have the strong wish for them to be well and better, you have the beginning of fostering your love.

If you look at it, what is love? I think love really cherishes you and appreciates you. I don't think love wants you. Normally we say, "I love you, I want you". The moment the 'want' comes in, I think the quality of the love begins to change. It is just like appreciating a tulip. You see a beautiful tulip, you see it bloom, you really like it, you enjoy and appreciate it. But the moment you have the idea "I want that", then you have a problem. You have to cut the flower or do all sorts of things. All these problems you have to deal with. That also is not that bad. But then you want to alter things; you would like to change the hairstyle, you want to change the make-up, maybe you want to change the dress. All sorts of demands come one after another in the form of love. But what really happens is, you're not appreciating it enough,

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therefore you feel the need to change it. The moment you want the other person to look different, to feel different, then what you are advancing is control, "I want you to behave this way." There is no love by that time. It is a question of who is right, who makes what decision. It might have started with attraction, but then it went over to attachment and then it brought the control-issue, which is certainly no love. Love admires and appreciates and wishes others well. It is willing to contribute to the well being of whatever you love. That willingness to contribute even goes beyond a manageable level. Such a feeling makes you want to go even beyond your limit; you are willing to go, you want to go, you must go and make the other free of pain. That then becomes compassion.

44

Ripen Compassion

Unless you have love, you are not going to have compassion. Take it from me. You may have a little artificial compassion — " Oh, the poor cat was knocked over." That's a pity feeling, and that may or may not be compassion. It's is not the compassion we are talking about. The compassion that we are talking about is very strong, has a single focus: wishing them to be free from suffering. " How best can I separate them from their suffering? How can I make them free of suffering, of their mental, physical and emotional pains?" You don't have concern for the other person if you don't have love for the other person; that is why I say without love you cannot grow compassion, none whatsoever. You may have simple caring, "Yeah, I'm sorry about it, yeah I am sorry that incident took place. I really meant to come and see you but I've been so busy — I am sorry." This is the usual white-washing language that we apply to people, which really indicates the limitation of our caring. By saying this, a lot of people may get upset, but please don't. I don't mean any individual; I am just talking generally about it.

So without really having strong love, you will not be able to go and help a person, because helping is not that easy. It requires effort; it

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requires a lot of things. So unless there is a strong motivation, you are not going to go out. Especially if you are a selfish person, you simply think, "What I am going to do, how I am going to benefit? Will I be happy, if this is the condition, how am I going to spend my day? If that is the condition, how am I going to spend my old age?" When things like this come up in our head, it is narrow selfish interest, narrow selfish thoughts.

In the Lamrim we have to talk about every worst possible case. I don't mean to talk to any individual, but if this is getting to you, if it is pushing your buttons, it is good. It should push here because that is what it is meant for. That is how 'selfish' works. Compassion works the opposite way. Compassion asks, "How I can I help? How can I help you?" Isn't there a book called How Can I Help?

Actually, when you are practicing, normally love grows first and compassion follows. Unless and until you really have a total dedicated wish for them to be well, you will not have a powerful feeling of removing their suffering. That is why love comes first, and compassion follows. When you talk about great love and great compassion, then it must be focussed on all sentient beings. In order to develop that properly, you first have to develop love and compassion on the basis of yourself and on the basis of your companion, and it has to be gradually extended to all beings.

45

Commit wholeheartedly

Once you have strong compassion based on strong love, you have to remember that love-and-compassion is one mind with two different aspects. One aspect will say, What is the best way to make the person – yourself or the other person happy, joyful?" On the other hand, the other aspect, "How can I separate them from the sufferings that they are suffering?" Both aspects are reinforcing, complementing each other, making the mind strong enough to be able to develop a caring that is willing to go beyond your capacity, no matter what. It is almost like an American commitment, " Well, no matter, whatever it takes, I will do it anyway; we will figure it out somehow. We'll go that way."

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I do remember, this very example of American commitment and Russian commitment been given by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. Actually it was during his last teaching in Tibet House, New Delhi, in 1981 or 1982. I was a little shocked. He said, " Well, I was told once if the Americans agree to help, they will do anything whatever it may be. When the Russians are asked to help, they like to turn it like a hamburger; turn it upside down, look from the bottom, look from the top, look from the side and when they find profit, they will do it." That's what he said — I was very shocked.

It is the commitment that you are willing to go beyond your capacity, in order to help and remove the suffering of beings. Such a strong compassion is not going to be there unless you have that very strong love and affection and appreciation, based on understanding. If you don't understand, then you don't have the base; you will lose the ground. Understanding, caring, respect, all of them build up.

Finally, it is not only compassion, but a special mind of commitment, of giving the commitment that, "I will do whatever needs to be done. I will do whatever I need to do to have you remain in joy, which is love; I will remove the suffering, which is compassion. That mind of commitment is gone beyond compassion and is gone beyond love; it is taking responsibility. I will do everything to make it right." That willingness of commitment is what you need. When you reach that level, don't get scared. What is the normal American expression, 'you got the shit scared out of you'. Don't do that.

So, the commitment is committing yourself to liberate or to eradicate suffering once and for all totally from people.

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Aspire to Enlightenment

Then, you begin to raise the question, "Wow, I made a big commitment right now; do I have any way of doing it, can I do it? I really

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signed that big contract here, giving a big commitment. How am I going to fulfill my commitment? Is there a way out or should I get out of the way, should I quit or should I fulfill it? Well I just committed myself so I can't quit, I got to do something. So what can I do? I am very limited right now. My capacity is limited; forget about all these people that I am concerned about I am not even really capable of helping myself right now. But I have that big commitment. In order to fulfill my commitment, in order to be an honest person who gives the commitment, to honor my commitment I must have a stage better than this, I must have better capability, so how can I get it?"

Look around, who has it, who does not have it? You may look for some kind of spirit. They don't have the capacity to help us. They do have enough capacity to harm us. They may have the capacity to talk to us, if you are psychic. But if you listen to them they will talk to you about the suffering they have. It is absolutely true. Therefore, ghosts and spirits can't help.

Then who has the capacity? The enlightened beings. That's why they are called enlightened beings; they have the totally awakened state, total knowledge level. If the total knowledge person doesn't know, there is nothing to be known. Therefore, I would like to become a totally awakened, enlightened being. So then you have your bodhimind. Whether it is developed by seven or eleven stages85, this is briefly how you generate your bodhimind.

To summarize, I don't see how any equanimity can develop in people without their learning how to respect each other, believe it or not. And if you don't have compassion, love or caring, there is no way to have bodhimind. Even if we have compassion and love, if we have it in the wishing form only, then it is very difficult to grow bodhimind. It will be a beautiful thought„ but it will have a lack of substance. If you look at the majority of people today, basically you will find them wonderful persons; kind, compassionate, also have some caring and love. But most of us are wishing to do well, doing whatever little we

85 For the detailed description of the development of bodhimind, see Gelek Rinpoche, Lam Rim Teaching, ch. XIX— XXII.

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can do for other. Maybe you write a check, or maybe you give away some vegetables that are growing old, or maybe you do a little more than that. However, there is no commitment. When you don't have a commitment, you don't have substance in there.

Not everybody will be able to commit. You don't have to think, " Oh, I cannot commit, so I have no opportunity for love and compassion." That is not true. Whatever you can do is okay. I am talking here about the best possible. I am not talking here of a compulsory level. When people hear that, they sometimes think that it has got to be only that.

The wholehearted commitment is, " Whatever needs may rise, I will do whatever needs to be done, for the benefit of this one or those ones." To be able to commit yourself to that much is not easy. It definitely must have a strong foundation of love and compassion. We can pretend to be practicing compassion, we can pretend to be practicing love, we can pretend to be developing bodhimind, but to truly develop that within us, first we need caring, then consideration, then love, then compassion. In the Mahayana scope of all sentient beings, we are supposed to be expanding that beyond human beings, to animals, insects and so forth. Well try. It will get there, gradually. But learn first. That's why we say, " Aspire to enlightenment."

So, your commitment earlier, "I will do whatever needs to be done" becomes now, "I would like to become enlightened so that I can fulfil my commitment." Without being enlightened you will not know what to do. At the enlightened level, you have everything working effortlessly. You have total knowledge, you have total understanding, you have all the methods. So that is the only level where you can help all living beings.

That is what we call bodhimind: aspire to enlightenment. Bodhimind within ourselves, within our principle mind, is making the shift from the normal I, — I, my, my business — into compassion, love, caring for one and then for two persons. And then expand it to five, ten, fifty, hundred, and finally to all the infinite number of the people whoever

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they may be. Because they are all in same condition, they are all in the same way, and I am here, I have the opportunity, let me do it. When these thoughts come from such a strong and powerful mind, they overtake you, and that is called developing bodhimind. Once you have that mind within you, it is a natural process.

47

This great mind is the doorway

When you have developed that mind, it has fantastic values by itself. Just developing it, Shantideva said, it is like a gold solution86, you can change all your matter into gold. Whatever it may be, this is the change we are looking for. This is the change of attitude of the individuals. Once you begin to get that, you have achieved a tremendous purpose of your life. Shantideva also says: no matter who develops this, whether man, woman, children, dog, cat, whoever you may be, the moment you develop this mind, you are fit to be prostrated even by the Buddhas87.

This is the how you enter the mahayana. As to refuge, if you take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we say you are Buddhist and when you don't take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we don't call anybody Buddhist. Likewise, if we have this sort of mind strongly established within the individual, and we have this aspiration always with us, then we have entered into 'the path that pleases the Buddhas', as it is said in The Three Principles. It is the fortunate one who can enter, and then you become a fortunate being88 . In other words, if you

86 Shantideva, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, CH. l, vs. 10: 'It is like the supreme gold-making elixir / for it transforms the unclean body we have taken / into the priceless jewel of a Buddha-Form / Therefore firmly seize this Awakening Mind'.

87 Shantideva, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, CH. l, vs. 9: ' The moment an Awakening Mind arises / in those fettered and weak in the jail of cyclic existence, / they will be named 'a Son of the Sugatas", / and will be revered by both men and gods of the world. '

88Tsongkhapa The Three Principles of the path to highest enlightenment, vs. I and 2.

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have the bodhimind within you, you are a bodhisattva. Even if your name is not 'bodhisattva John', you are a bodhisattva. That is how you enter the mahayana path.

There are two types of bodhimind. One is called the wishing fom of bodhimind, the other is the action-oriented bodhimind. Wishing is very simple. We can sit there and wish and do nothing. Is wishing alone capable of delivering the goods? No, it is not. You do need to take action. Whether you can do it or not is a different issue, but you have got to take action because you have a big commitment. You also realize to fulfill your commitnent you have to become enlightened. That means you have to work along that line. So what do you have to do?

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Be generous

The first recommended bodhisattva action is to be generous. That is very important. Even in the West, when you talk about generosity, there is no question it is a profound and good thing to do. Everybody will acknowledge that, right? I don't think there is anybody who will say that generosity might not be that good. (a) We see, or somehow we have the knowledge of this being a basic good human quality inside, and (b) you see it helps relieve pain and suffering. These are the reasons why we consider generosity to be an important action.

Buddha goes beyond that, saying that if you want to be wealthy and happy, you have to be generous. Chandrakirti in his root text tells you that human pleasure and joy depend on having enough wealth to support that, and if you don 't have wealth to support the lifestyle you enjoy, then there is additional suffering89. Knowing that, Buddha has recommended the bodhisattva's first action to be generosity.

89 Chandrakirti, Guide to the Middle Way, verse 11: 'Even for those with little compassion and very rough minds, / who pursue only their own interests, / desired enjoyments that cause the alleviation of suffering / arise from giving'. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Ocean of nectar, pg. 451.

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Buddha recommended three types of generosity. a) The generosity of Dharma, actually the way that one gets free; b) the usual generosity of food and shelter and all that type of thing; c) giving protection against fear.

When you say generous you maybe think that you have to give money all the time. Some people do think that way and that is generous, no doubt about that. But that is not the only one. Giving whatever is needed. Giving protection against fear. Giving patience against hatred or anger or even temper tantrum. Giving patience, and being intelligent enough to continue. Concentrate on what you give. Have wisdom on what you should give or should not give. You don't want to give hundred guilders to a drug addicted guy in an Amsterdam street. What to do will be known by the discriminating wisdom. So each of the six [paramitas or perfections] here will work within each one of the six itself.

49

Embody discipline

Embody it. What works is that it is coming within yourself. Understanding that if I behave in this manner it is not good, so I should behave this way. If I don't say my prayers on time, it will be difficult later, so let me do them when I have the opportunity. Whatever you have to do, do it in an organized manner. That is the embodying. It is that type of discipline we begin with. The reason why you organize is because you want to fulfil something. You want to take your responsibility. You want to guide your life the way you want it. So first and foremost you have a purpose and an aim. In order to fulfil that aim, you organize your life, your time and your energy. That is normally what we do, right? Here you do the same thing. You organize your life to achieve enlightenment. First as wishing. Second as praying. Third actually trying to have it. What it means is keeping your discipline and keeping your commitment.

When I say commitment, it is not only simply saying your prayers. We are talking about the commitment to free ourselves from neu-

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roses. And we are talking about the commitment of love, caring and compassion. And we are talking about that we try to bring that discipline within the individual who you want to help. Because of your love and compassion, your commitment.

Normally, in the Lamrim book they will call it morality. Morality is such a word; it can get into all kinds of tangles nowadays. So we chose to call it discipline. Actually, true morality is discipline, If you can discipline yourself, then you have morality. Remember, in the teaching we always say, when we talk about morality, that we are not talking about your sexual orientation; we are not talking about that type of thing at all. True morality means keeping your own commitments properly. If you take vows, keep your vows intact. Whatever vows they might be, self-liberation vows, bodhisattva vows, vajrayana vows, common usual human being's commitments, or marriage vows, keeping your vows and commitments intact is perfect morality. It is the ethics of the bodhisattvas, it is the ethics of Buddhism and buddhists, so embody discipline. The discipline that you would like to have is not forced on you, but sort of becomes a part of you, you embody it. When you have that, then you have perfect morality and ethics. Basically, again three types of discipline: a) refraining from bad actions, b) doing good actions and c) helping others. Those are the ethics of Buddhist practice.

Questions from the afternoon discussion groups

Audience: Would you define clearly what refuge is and what effect taking refuge has at the time of death.

Rinpoche: To me, taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is, a) I see the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have the qualities to help me; b) I see I need help. I put the two of them together and I seek protection. I say, " Would you be my object of refuge? Would you take care of me? I am going to rely on you so would you help me?" It is so wonderful to find an object of refuge who has personal experience of the sufferings that we go through, somebody who is in touch with reality, some-

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body who went out of the sufferings and found a different position. It is really rare to find such an object of refuge.

Refuge to me is simply relying on how they guide you on the path. I don't think by taking refuge you get protected from a car crash or plane crash — maybe it'll help a little bit, but that's not the purpose; that's not the point. Nor by taking refuge does your business improve; nor do you get a promotion, or a pay increase; I don't think that is the point. The point really is, by trusting that refuge, you'll be able to make yourself a good person, to have goodness in nature, to develop into a perfect being. Taking refuge is building that connection. It is not surrender; nor is it simply putting trust in something; it is a point that you establish.

At the time of death, does it help? Positively, it does. Because if you think of Buddha and die, you're guaranteed, according to Buddhism, not to take a horrible rebirth as your immediate next one. That's why in the Tibetan tradition, when people die, they bring an image or a thangka of Buddha. That's why people read books, say prayers, all because of the dharma being present, being connected at the time of death. So it does definitely help. No question. And, in this life, it helps you be a good person. When you try to become a bad person, your refuge will remind you, "Oh oh, can I really do that?" That's how it helps you. Materially even.

There are a number of people who have requested to receive the refuge vows. At the end of the retreat we would like to have the White Tara longevity initiation for everybody. Because you've been doing Tara practice for the whole week and I am sure a lot of you are doing it continuously, I would like to do that. In that, as part of that process, you have refuge taking, you have generating bodhimind, all of them there, so we can do that together at that time.

Audience: A question about karma. Does purification affect karma directly or does it simply change the conditions? Rinpoche: Both. Purification weakens the karma and changes the conditions. That's why when it is purified, it doesn't materialize.

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Audience: What is the relationship of the Buddhas to karma? Did they participate in it? Did they set it up?

Rinpoche: Yes. They participated [in it, are subject to it]. And how you become a Buddha: you cut down all your negative karmas and you gain a tremendous number of positive karmas; finally you clear all your negative karmas, including their imprints. That, then, is called the awakened state, since you only have positive karma left. Some people say Buddhas have no karmas. I disagree with that. Buddhas have all positive karmas. If Buddhas don't have karmas, why did they work earlier? The earlier working was accumulating positive karma. By building positive karma, negative karma is reduced and finally you are left with only positive karma. That's called enlightenment state. That's called awakened mind. That's called enjoyment body, all these. That, I believe, is how it does work.

Audience: Could you explain what collective karma is?

Rinpoche: Collective karma is something people create together. There is a story here. During the Buddha's lifetime thirty-two children of one family were killed, their heads were put in a little box and delivered to the mother. She freaked out completely, went to Buddha to seek help. In the process of the conversation she said, " What kind of karma did I create to have this happen to me?" And the Buddha told the story. "A long time ago you were running a guest-house, where thirty-two thieves used to stay. They went out and stole some neighbor's cow and you enjoyed the cow's meat and things like that together. Your thirty-two children happen to be the former thirty-two thieves and you were the landlady." That is an example of collective karma.

We create lots of collective karmas together. Like here in Jewel Heart: Jewel Heart carrying on its activities, such as supporting the handicapped children in Tibet, feeding fifty of them every day in Lhasa.

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And we tried to set up a village school in Kongpo area90, we are supporting twenty-two village schools91, and also we are building an image of the Buddha, an image of Tsongkhapa, an image of Guru Padmasambhava and an image of Demo Rinpoche, my late father, all of them in the Kongpo region. All of these, all money and efforts that you put in, we are building up in common, creating positive common karmas.

At the same time, we also pay our taxes to Uncle Sam. When your tax dollars are being utilized for truly benefiting individuals, or the country, or society or groups of people, particularly within our own society, helping the homeless, building better roads, how wonderful it is. It is the creation of common positive karmas. It also goes in the opposite direction; when our resources are used for destruction or building bombers and bombs, we are also building a common negative karma. How can we protect ourselves from that? One great quality of being in the United States is that each and every one of us can make a difference. If you speak to your representative in the House [of Representatives], or to your senator; if you can bark enough, it does make a difference. That's how you can protect your common karma. You've got to pay your taxes, otherwise they will catch you, lock you up; you don't want that. But you definitely can say it, and do and undo the money that you pay to the government. At least you can voice your opinion. And if another voice comes, they have to listen because they have to come back and get your vote. That's probably the way that you can help.

90 Kongpo is the region in southeastem Tibet where Gelek Rinpoche's father's monastery was located, and is a poor rural area where children have little or no access to schools.

91 The Namling County Schools Project, which builds schools in remote, underserved areas of Namling County, Shigatse Prefecture, Tibet. The schools teach village children Tibetan language and basic mathematics, and open the door to government schools and higher education. The Project aims to promote literacy, preserve the Tibetan language and culture, and enable Tibetans to compete and survive in greater China. Information to be found on the Jewel Heart website: jewelheart.org/humanitarian.html

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Audience: Is there anything you are willing to share about organ donation.

Rinpoche: Well, if you are a bodhisattva, go ahead. Make the organ donation. But then, you should remember you have to go quickly when you go. You don't linger around; that would be a big problem.

Apart from that, you have to think a little carefully. It depends. Most probably if you are going to die in the hospital, then you really don't have much time to stay there, and if your organs are useful to somebody else, why not. Not only why not, if it is of great use for somebody else, it is a wonderful thing. But if you think you would have time to go slowly [through the death process], then organ donations are a big problem, because, in the traditional Tibetan system, we try not to touch the body at all. A little touch here and there may disrupt the process and make people go, make the consciousness to go out [through the wrong door]. That's the reason to try not to touch. So in that case organ donation will be a little difficult. These are my thoughts.

How to meditate on the points — Guided meditation The subjects that we have covered today, we meditate on.

I meditate and pray to Lama Buddha Shakyamuni to realize that the time of death is uncertain. Light and liquid comes from the body of Lama Shakyamuni, purifies my negativities in general and particularly [obstacles to] realizing that the time of death is uncertain. Finally, a duplicate Lama dissolves to me, and I gain the realization that the time of death is very uncertain. I never know what's going to happen in the next minute. Therefore, whatever time and opportunity I have, may I make the best use of it. May such a power develop within me.

When I die, may I be able to die with positive thoughts and a positive attitude; may I be free of all negative thoughts, negative conditions. May Lama Buddha Shakyamuni help me and be with me, be my guide, and hopefully I will be received by

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the great masters, great yidams, great enlightened beings with their reception parties. May I be received, may I hear the music of the pure land, may I be lead and carried to, uplifted to the pure lands or to the great human rebirth. May I be free of all these narrow passages of the bardo. Even if I have to go through the narrow passage of the bardo, may I be able to go through properly. A duplicate Lama comes and assures for me to be able to do that if I follow the karmic principle.

I also pray and seek assurance to be able to avoid rebirth in the hell realm, rebirth in the hungry ghost and animal realms and even to avoid a human life with all kinds of limitations. I do not want to take rebirth as a demi-god or samsaric god. I must have the wisdom of knowing what harms and what helps in my life and my death and my bardo. The first priority I have is: what helps in my life, what harms in life. What harms in life harms in the future, and that automatically harms my bardo. May I be free of all these negativities that ham me, that destroy my life, my death and my bardo. May I be free of them.

I realize that positive karma gives positive results, I realize negative karma gives negative results. I would like to purify all my negativities, my negative karma, by applying the four powers. May I be able to do that. Lama Buddha Tupwang 92 please bless me to be able to do that. Light and liquid comes from the body of the Lama and reaches within us; we gain realization of karmic functioning and at the same time purify all negativities. A duplicate Lama dissolves to me and I achieve permanent awareness of negative and positive karmic consequences and ability to make the right choice.

If I cannot make the right choice, as long as I am born again in samsara, there is a life full of suffering. Everything has suffering in nature. It is contaminated and I am in it and I would

92 Tupwang is Tibetan for Sakyamuni.

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like to be free, but how can I do it? Where do I look? Where do I begin to work? Ha, the message from Buddha says begin to look at the cause. What causes me to do these negative actions? Of course it is my thoughts. Where do my thoughts come from? These thoughts are produced within me by my neuroses, therefore the real source of my sufferings are the neuroses that I have. So I must be free from those neuroses, I do need liberation. May Lama Shakyamuni bless me to be able to have that liberation.

Light and liquid comes, purifies all negativities in general and particularly [obstacles to realizing] the basic understanding of life that Buddha presented in the form of the Four Noble Truths. That is absolutely relevant to how our lives are functioning. To understand that clearly, a duplicate Buddha comes and gains for me the realization of the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. With the protection of taking refuge, may I be able to insure that my next life may not be that much of a suffering nature.

But I am not sure what happens thereafter. Therefore it is necessary for me to have that total eradication of suffering. So I seek liberation.

If I alone am free, that is not good enough. When I look at the persons that are connected with me; my nearest, my dearest, my companion, lover, family, children, parents, great-grand parents, all of them, we are in the same condition. We are in the same boat. As much as I recognize my suffering, they have equally as much; they have suffering, but more than I do; not equal but more. In particular, they don't know they are suffering, in particular, they have no way of knowing how to get free themselves. So here I am, a person, friend, companion, committed, having some idea about it. If I let them down, will I be a nice person? No I won't be a nice person, I will be mean, I will be selfish. Therefore, I must be a nice person. I must take care of at least those people who are my concern,

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and expand it to all human beings. Expand it, first to the room, expand it to the country, finally expand it to the whole universe. Then shrink it back, shrink it back to the concerned person, checking within me: do I respect that person, do I give this person equal importance and equal respect as I give to myself? Then I begin to see the inequality. This inequality that I perceive is actually baseless. There is no basis for it whatsoever. I can simply say, It's me!" so that I seem more important, but that is not true. The other one Will also say the same thing. It is baseless, it is false ground on which I am perceiving. So I must gain equal respect, equally honoring the wishes of other beings that I am concerned about.

I also have to remember the kindness they share with me. I also have to help them because they help me. I appreciate what they have done, what they are doing, I generate my love, through which I wish them to be happy and joyful.

Simply wishing them to be happy and joyful might not be able to materialize what I am wishing, so therefore I must act and function. I must do something to make them free from their suffering. In order to act to free them from suffering I must desire the inspiration of freeing them from all their suffering. I generate a strong motivation, motivated thoughts to free them from all sufferings. May Lama Buddha help me to be able to grow this.

Light and liquid comes from the body of Buddha, purifies the negativities in general and particularly those that prevent me from developing compassion and eliminating selfishness, the uncaring, inhumane attitude that I have. I get purified completely, and develop equanimity, love, compassion within me.