Archive Result

19980723GR1_01                                        15th May 2023

Looks like quite a big crowd here. Welcome everybody. Should I talk straight or you want to say something? Okay. Welcome everybody here. How many months I missed last? Two months? Since March. April, May, June, I am here in July. So, three months. April, May, June. Well, I am here in July. It is mot August, right? It is July. What I did, I should share a little bit with you all. Why did I miss three months. It is because I had to go an teach in Holland. There is a jewel Heart in Holland. About a hundred, little over. Hundred people. Regularly. Almost every day of the week. Meeting and doing something. So, constantly. I don’t get there so often. I try to get there twice a year. That’s what, first I went there in Holland for about four weeks. And talked, give teachings on the Lamrim stage of the path and at the end of that, they wanted the Heruka initiation. Some of them made sense to some people. Some of them doesn’t mean anything. But that’s what it is. And Heruka initiation. I don’t think they asked Heruka teachings. So Lamrim teachings and Heruka initiation. That covered Holland. And I haven’t been to Malaysia and Singapore. There is a number of people in Jewel Heart. But it is slightly different. Like people in Holland and all these will totally depend. People in Holland, sort of totally wait for me and depends totally. So it is really have to go, feels obligated. But on the other hand in Malaysia and Singapore, we do have quite a number of people in Jewel Heart. But that area there are a lot of Tibetan teachers go and so they have different teachings and whoever comes, that’s fine. So I don’t really have been obligated to go there regularly. But on the other hand, I tried to get there as much as possible but I think it is like three years later. Sort of three years gap. And even in Singapore when I was doing a workshop, from Sakya centre there is a great, very good translator and even announced, at the end of the session, well we will not see again for another four years. And things like that. So, I went there and spent four weeks between Malaysia and Singapore. And I making sure, don’t want to include any new people in Malaysia and Singapore because the moment you make that open, there is seven or eight hundred or thousand people comes in. So, it becomes very difficult to handle. So what I did was I taught the Lama Chopa , that’s what they wanted. And I taught Lama Chopa without any initiation. So therefore those who have received initiation before can only come. So, that’s about it, I think. Some, a hundred, that was easy for me, otherwise the moment you open up, it is just like seven, eight hundred, so you don’t know what to do. That is what happened. (0.05: 12.8)

And then for the first time, I went to Beijing. My idea was I wanted to go Tibet, but I just wanted to test the water, how it is going to work. So I went to Beijing. Got the usual visitor’s visa and went to Beijing. Over there it is funny to me. Actually, everything, what I expected to be in Beijing is not. And everything what I did not expected to be, it is. It is very funny. The first time where I went from Singapore to Beijing. At the Singapore airport, I changed the Singapore dollars into the Chinese Yuan. And that was at midnight in Singapore airport. And all the money they gave me has Mao’s head. You know, Mao’s head. It is funny. It makes you unhappy. But anyway, you have to have that money. Later I came to know every Chinese’s money doesn’t have Mao’s head. It happens to be the ones I changed. All of them had the Mao’s head. I mentioned I was a little unhappy with that. On the other hand when I saw the Chiang Kai-shek’s head on the Taiwanese dollar I was happy. I don’t know why. But now I was not happy. But then I went into the plane and I expected that the airport in Beijing is something, is reasonably good. Something like, if not like Singapore but should be like Malaysian or Hong Kong or something like that. But when you landed there, is such a, I can’t say terrible, but it is not a good airport at all. Looks like they did not complete construction. Sort of nothing’s happening. Like old fashion, you have to get out of the plane and get into a bus and move. And all of them are like that. And the person who sat next to me was a Chinese guy. I asked him, do you come here very often or you lived here. He said I lived in Singapore and I came here for business. I said, is the airport like that. He said, oh yes, China it is not Singapore. When I asked him, I changed the money, and he said what is the value looks like. I said, the value is this but don’t give any tip to people. When you give tip, when you give don’t give more than 10 or 20 yuan. And don’t go on giving 50. He said, add in value, don’t give that. Don’t think it is five dollars. Think in the country, they gives 10, at the most 20. If you give 20, they will say he is a wealthy American. That was what he said. And then I asked back, big restriction, through the customs, through the immigration. Immigration, we go through line but not a single person looking at the Customs. Nothing. And I was a little worried. I had ritual implements that I brought from here to Malaysia. And if you turned around to Beijing, I thought by the time they leave they may accuse me of smuggling or who knows, right? Old, antique rituals, so. I melt them in Malaysia to directly here. And there, they won’t even look in my luggage. They don’t even look. They were not there. They just said Immigration will give you a little piece of paper and that’s it. And you just walk by. Nothing else. And then finally, I landed in the hotel where I stayed. Suppose to be a nice hotel. So, landed in there. And I was expecting a lot of fear and restrictions. Nothing. So funny. There isn’t nothing. (0.10:35.8) Nothing there to be scared. I don’t know. So, very strange. The hotel that I am staying, 90% of the people, including portals, spoke quite good English. So, you can communicate without any problems, which I did not expect. That’s it. There is nothing. And at the night, then the night came. I was thinking it is safe. Really good hotel because somebody in New York, really wanted to pay for the hotel bills because telling me not to go to other hotels. So I was thinking it is safe. There was a big sofa. I was pulling the sofa and pulling on the carpet. I locked the door, did everything. But I still wanted to put the sofa against the door. Such a stupid thing, what I did. I pulled the sofa. At the middle of the room, it was quite a big room. I pulled the sofa with great difficulty because the carpet and it was a heavy one. In the middle of the room, I sat down and thought, what am I doing? I was trying to put the sofa against the door. For what? Is the thieves, am I worried? No. Then I started to seat down and say what am I afraid of? What am I afraid of? And you know what I realized? I am afraid of the, you know the Richard Gere’s movie on the red corner. Is it red corner or red flag? Red corner, right? And they have some nice, young Chinese girl murdered and he was blamed. I was nor really thinking that but I was thinking those soldiers coming in and breaking the door, with guns and walking in and. That’s what I was afraid of. That is not going to be helped by the sofa. So left the sofa in the middle of the room and went to sleep. And tomorrow I think they pushed it back. Whatever they might have thought. So, I was scared. And then like four, five days, I was very scared. Then my brother, from Tibet, they came down to see me. Then we were together, we were moving. It was a little bit better because they speak Chinese. Whenever you go outside it was also better because if you are out of the hotel, there were the so called Friendship Stores. If you go in those, and they all spoke English. If you go beyond that, if you don’t know how to speak English, you can’t get a taxi even. Even if you get a taxi you have no idea where you going to. It is very strange and very intense even though there is nothing visibly there but there is sort of heaviness in the air. That may be my psychological thing. But very heavy in the air. That’s there. Then every Chinese from the picture what I have of Chinese. Normally they will say, do you have something. They will just simply “ Mei You” means not there. That is the normal image we get. I got of the image of the Chinese. You go to shop, do anything or ask something, the expected answer is mei you.( 0.15:15.0) Not there, so doesn’t matter, sort of thing, you know. But completely opposite. Whenever I went to shops asking, do you have something like that. What they have it, they say yes, they show you. When they don’t have it, they will say I don’t have it but I know somebody else have it, I will get to you for you, tomorrow. And then tomorrow, they will call me at the hotel, saying that what you asked yesterday, that person doesn’t have it but someone else have it, I will let you know tomorrow. Tomorrow, they said that they got the thing, would you like to come over and collect by yourself or should they come over to deliver to you. If deliver to you, you have to pay the taxi charges and one hour delivery, pay for, I don’t know, twenty dollars or something. And plus the taxi charges. Rather unexpected what’s happening in China. It is totally different from what we expect. Everybody in the city is totally in for the money. Nothing else. There are millions of rules and everybody breaks every law. Really, it is absolutely terrible, to me. Because everybody, the law is really nothing. It is almost like a lawless state. It is as far as money is concern. The moment you involved in politics, then, everything what we are expecting earlier, it sort of invisibly catch you. So, nobody talks about politics. Not the students, not the scholars, not the business people, not the normal people. They don’t talk about politics. Politics is almost out of their vocabulary. They always talk about making money. Market, economization. Somebody, everybody try to say out something, all the time. All the time. There are some, you know in one park, they said they are Tibetans. So I walked by. They are definitely not Tibetans. Even my brothers who came from Tibet said , oh, no, they are not Tibetans. And there was a bunch of people seating in the park, tried to sell some bones. Some said, yak’s tail or yak’s horns, or something. They are type of horns, bone ornaments which you can wear like a thing. And they said they are Tibetans. They also wanted to get as much as they could. Just on the street, selling and screaming and yelling and some people even climbed on the tree and they go like this, almost in your face. They said Tibetan bones. Tibetan bones. All sorts of things. This was very strange thing I saw in China. And really what I did not expected and that’s there. Then also I saw, like I said everybody breaks the rules. I had a friend who is a Rimpoche, a very good, steady, very good person. And quite learned. And I had a connection with him. Meaning we talked, we wrote and things like that. So, I didn’t tell him I am coming to Beijing. I thought it might not be right or I don’t know. So like three, four days later, I sort of receive a lot of telephone calls from Tibet because some of them came to know. Many of them, they come to see you. So when you don’t come. No, no, no, we are coming to see you. Well I will buy a ticket tomorrow and I will be in Beijing tomorrow, like in the evening. I will be in Beijing tomorrow , three or three thirty. So, quite a lot of people came that way. Seems like there was no restriction if you can afford to buy the plane ticket. No problem, you can go up and down. Doesn’t seems to be any problem at all. So, then they started telling, oh ya, you can call him, this Lama, this Rimpoche. There is no problem. Are you sure? We don’t want to get him getting into trouble. They said, oh, no problem at all. They said not only you can call from here. You can call from America, there is no problem whatsoever. So, I called him and he said I didn’t know you are coming, but would you like to come over his office today? I said, ya, I don’t mind because I am not doing anything. Then I went over to his office. The moment I got to his office, and that office was called Higher Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Learning Centre. And there is a big sign. It was one of the old monastery in Beijing. It was an Institute. And there was a huge, big sign board in red, no foreigners. Big one. So, I thought well I can’t go in, I am American. So I can’t go in. My brother said, if you keep your mouth shut, I will talk in Chinese, and nobody will know whether you are American or Tibetan. I said okay. And the moment the taxi pulled up, there was a guard. They came out and said something and he said that type of thing. The guard asked my brother, are you the two people from Tibet? And he said, yes and he said go. So, sent in. So, I went there ten times and they said this Rimpoche told me, so I told them you from Tibet. (0.22:17.4) It’s just joking. True, you are from Tibet but what you did not tell is you are American but I told them that I am from Tibet. So, nothing happened. You are not going to get into trouble. No way. I said, okay, fine. So every time I am Tibetan. So, it might not true. And there are about fifty five incarnate lamas, young incarnate lamas are given training in traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings. The school was established by the late Panchen Lama. And there were fifty five of them receiving all trainings including Vajrayana initiations, meditations and everything. And they also had best selected teachers, whatever available throughout China. They had selected there. They were very famous people from Amdo area and they are all there. And when I went in he said, today we were a little bit busy and would you mind go in my room. He had an office and then he had a little apartment at the back of the office and that was not his residence. But his apartment inside his office, at the office complex. He sent me there and he said he is a little busy. He didn’t tell me why he is busy. But lunch time will come soon and then I will excuse myself . I will come out at lunch time and join with you. Meanwhile we had made the old Tibetan momos in the apartment so you go and wait there. So I went up there and wait. At lunch time, to my surprise another old friend of mine, Rimpoche from, very well known Rimpoche. I think he was the first cousin of present Dalai Lama too. I think so. But he was a very well known Rimpoche. He walked into the room. I knew he was somewhere but never expected him there, you know. Jeshe Rimpoche. He said, ya, now that I am old you don’t recognized me arh? That’s what he said. He said, am I became such terrible? I said, no, no. Then he said this secretary, he excused because he happens to be the Head of all this Institutions. So he was excused. He said I had some people in my room so can I be excused for lunch. He said, who is in your room? And then he told him I am there. He said, you seat here, I excuse myself , I will go and see him. That was how he came in. he came in and did you had lunch? And he told me today it was very busy for them because the young Chinese Panchen Lama is here. So the Chinese Panchen Lama was brought there to receive training. That was why everybody had to be very busy that day. And then later I was talking to them , how does this Panchen Lama does, what does he do? What does he do and all these. And they said a lot of teachers been selected and they are all waiting there, training those fifty Lamas, but more to train the Panchen Lama. And they said they had such a high security. As high as Jiang Zemin had. That is the President of China. He said they had equal security, plus this Panchen Lama move his residence every third or fourth day. They said the whole, from the east of Beijing to the west. From south to the north. From different areas to different areas. Even coming for the training there, they said they will never know when he is going to come. So the teachers have made very thing ready. And if he suddenly pops up around about 10.30 or 12.30. Around between somewhere there and then they had initiation going, teachings going, ready to go. If it is not, then the Panchen Lama will go away and they said they don’t know whether he will be coming back tomorrow or day after tomorrow or two days later or even a week later. They have no way of knowing it until this very minute. It is such a strange thing. I never heard. And I said, why are they worried? What are they trying to protect? And this Rimpoche, he is very jolly and he is very straightforward. He said, ya, they think the Dharamsala will going to come and kill this Panchen Lama and kidnap the other Dalai Lama recognized one. So he was under the same condition. He said he moves every third of fourth day in different province. Not only Beijing alone. But different province, they are moving. So, that’s the funny situation they have at this moment. So, it is interesting for me to discover that. And then there are a lot of underground. Underground practitioners. Underground Christian churches, and so many underground Muslims, underground Buddhists, underground Taoist practices, and a lot of underground Tibetan Buddhists practitioners like a group of two hundred, three hundred, five hundred, they meet in some corner somewhere. All these and there have those. And I think Bakula Rimpoche came here, right? One of my old friend and very senior Tibetan Rimpoche called Bakula Rimpoche, who was, who is Indian Ambassador to Mongolia. So whenever he go to Mongolia and get out, he has to go via Beijing. So he spent like a week, ten days or even two to three weeks in Beijing and giving teachings to those underground people. And it was very strange and I am sure the Chinese will know. And particularly Indian Ambassador giving teachings in Beijing. It seems to be very strange. But it is going on and he said nobody said anything. He says it has been like seven years. It has been seven years, that going on. He gave Yamantaka initiation just three days before I reached Beijing. He said, would you give some teachings. No, thank you. I don’t want into. Absolutely not. So we didn’t do anything. But then some people came to see me, like thirty, forty people. No problem. That was shocking to me. Then I discovered those Rimpoches that I know. They were doing a fantastic job. Not only training these fifty young incarnate lamas, but they are also giving teachings in their native areas. Like Jushe Rimpoche who I said, head of that. Did give twice Kalachakra initiation which Dalai Lama giving around here. Kalachakra initiation in Mongolia, that is the inner Mongolia. Chinese part of the Mongolia. Not the outer Mongolia. Inner Mongolia. First time he said he had two hundred thousand people attended. Two hundred thousand people. The request is from that monastery that he will give Kalachakra for three years in a row. And then he said second, that was last year, he gave. And he said he got only thirty thousand people. I said, what happened? He said, well the Monguls thought when they received one, that’s good enough. So this year, this year’s period. He said, this year he cancelled the Kalachakra, I said why? He said, we wont even get ten thousand. Not even ten thousand will come. (0.32:18.8) The first year it was two hundred thousand. I have the photographs taken by him. He gave me a copy. I sent it by mail. Still not received yet. So, bring that later, share, show to you people. But as usual every picture is photograph on him. Not photograph on the audience. That is the Tibetan old mentality. He was more important so if he moved that way, there is a photograph , if he moved that way, there is another photograph, if he gets up, there is another one. You know , all like that. So full of photos of his movements. Not so much of the audience. And it is really strange. So, they were doing a fantastic job. And each and every lamas are also commissioning different artists to drawing the tangkas. So, this ? Rimpoche, he has a commission to one artist to draw three hundred sixty five deities of collected initiations, which was never done in Tibet before. They had this much size. Never in size of tangka. And he is doing that and he has done like forty five already done. He showed me each and every piece. And whatever they going on. And then you know what? So many Tibetan books available. You have no idea how much. I bought over a thousand dollars for Jewel Heart. Over a thousand dollars. Even in old times, I don’t have to. Not old times. Since 1959, if I get a Tibetan title or book, I am happy because you can’t get it. The question of selection does not rise. And over here, you got to select because if you don’t select, and you buy everything, it is going to be hundreds of thousand dollars. So, I really have to select. And everything available. Some place, you get in Chengdu, some you have to get in Qingtao, some you have to get there, there and here. But everything. It is an underground market but we have everything available. I was so shocked about that. Then look into the fifty incarnate lamas’ school and I asked him, how many from Tibet proper? And both of them said, little. And I said what happened? He said, we thought some Lamas will be useful and we sent their names. He said, the Chinese Government agreed and they sent it to Tibet. The Government in Tibet is not agreeing. They rejected their selection and suggested their own new names. They said they looked through. You said it is totally useless, it defeats our purpose, so we did not take anybody from Tibet. He said, originally there are about fifty comes from Tibet and fifty from the other areas so we only have fifty rather than a hundred. If somebody useful for Buddhism and helping people, that’s what we wanted. We don’t want somebody who already brain washed, do this and that. We don’t want that. They said they rejected Tibetan government list. So, none. Not a single Tibetan available in that from Tibet. Then they told me, if you are in China or any other province. Any other province and if you are giving any teachings, of Buddhist’ teachings in underground style. Doesn’t matter how many thousand people show up. Doesn’t matter, you don’t need permission. They said, you just do it. They will come , as long as you don’t start demonstration or start fighting or killing people. As long as you don’t involve that, you can come and do it and go away. And in Tibet, they told me, it is a unique in Tibet. If you have fifteen people get together, you have to get special permission. And always the permission, the first thing they will say no. And thereafter if you know somebody and then they may help you and get permission and say don’t collect more than thirty or ninety or something. This is unique in Tibet. So the situation in Tibet is really bad. Extremely bad unlike any other province. Particularly on Buddhism. It is really bad. Particularly on Buddhism. Anyway, really bad. Bad because they thought , Buudhism is. They don’t think it is Buddhism. They made it in such a way in Tibet. They call it Lamaism. And they always called it Dalaistic. So, every Buddhist activity, whatever happen, they look at it as a political thing, with Dalai Lam’s politics. And they don’t consider anything else. So, people who carries the malas in hand going to Tibet. In China you can shout and chant and do anything. Nobody bothers. I carried a big mala purposely, went like this. Nobody even look. Nobody even looking, So nothing. But in Tibet , if you are working for the government, if you have a mala in your hand, you lose you job. So that is the situation in Tibet. It is really bad for Buddhism. And I am fortunately, on top of that, there are three great teachers in Tibet, all died last year. One was called the Lamrima, who during the culture revolution, lived without eating any food. Chinese told him that he as to work. If you don’t work, you have no food to eat. He said, okay, I don’t need food. There is a traditional Tibetan way of learning, either eat a little pebble one a day. One little pebble a day or flower essence made into pills. The two of them. For him, it works easier, pebble. So he ate a pebble a day and no problem. (0.40:45.9) Later he became very famous and he was giving teachings in Drepung, but over there very famous in Drepung. Only a thousand monks. Thousand people came and attend his teachings, though it was a month long. But thousand. And in the other areas, hundreds of thousand. Not thousand. Because there was a restriction in Tibet. That’s why it was made difficult. And even in the internet when he died, it came on the internet. Some Chinese scholar put it up saying that it is not only stated, but I saw it, he walked through the walls. So, that was one guy. They have to let him out. Put him into jail, he walked out. Put him into jail, he walked out. They said, we won’t give you food. He said, fine, I will eat the pebble. And so, later he was in Drepung and almost like no status from the Chinese. But he was the most important teacher. He died last year.

Then there was another great teacher and scholar called Thunga Rimpoche who was also a professor too. He died in America last year because he was very sick with cancer. Appealed to Jewel Heart whether we can help him to get some treatment. You know what happened? It was lack of communication. The Tibetans, his family said Chinese not treating him. But what they really told him there was no hope, go home. I think that was what happened. Then, we tried our best, and we got him to the Cedars Sinai hospital and he stayed like two months. A little over two months in intensive care unit. He couldn’t speak. And Cedar Sinai and Beijing hospital has a connection. They asked them to send all the papers. In their papers they said the family refused treatment and took him to Tibet. Family said they refused to treat and tell them go home. So wherever the misunderstanding came. That’s what happened. Anyway, unfortunately he died. Another teacher who also like five, six hundred people comes, giving teachings. His car fell from some mountain top. And fell into a ditch, into the river, somewhere and he died there too. So three great teachers been lost in one year plus all these restrictions. More new teachers can come up nicely. Also Tibetans are very skeptical. They would not go and listen easily to anybody. And if it remains the present times. In ten years time, if it remains in present situation, I am afraid Buddhism might not even survive in Tibet in ten years from now. It is really bad in central Tibet. But other areas, okay. There is no problem. Right now? But I will come at eleven o’clock. It is eight in the morning. So, eleven o’clock. Then I went there and he is there, perfect, very nice. Living there. And he said, how would I, 89? And very strong, perfect. And after a little while, he said “ now , I have something to talk to you. Don’t scream. Don’t say anything.” I said, okay. And he said, I was a monk. He said, he himself. He said I was a monk till 1997. He said, for 86 years he was a monk. At 1997, he had a girlfriend. Wait, wait. One year old baby. 89. Can you feel it? One year old baby. He said, right from the beginning he said don’t shout, don’t scream, don’t say anything. I said there and I said, how? It was so funny. I said, how? He looked at me and he said, do you attachment has a hand to it? So anyway, it was so funny and I had a very, very interesting experience in Mongolia. And the worse thing after that you know what? All the monks in all the monasteries are married. It was shocking. In Mongolia, every monk is married. Bakula Rimpoche told me , he is building a new monastery , small on, and the corner where there is a huge , old, old, really hundred of years old monastery, outside there in kitty corner he is building a monastery where there is like forty or fifty people there. I said it is great you are building a monastery but there is a big monastery right over there, why you doing this? He said you don’t know the reason. All these monks have wives and I want the monks who doesn’t do, who doesn’t have a wife. He said I am doing that , is not anything doing for me or anything but I am doing that really for a monk to be monk. Oh. Then I said I am going to see the monastery and Bakula and Guru Deva, both said they are going to let the monastery know and I said, please don’t . I am going to go as a tourist and see what’s going on there. So I walked through and all these monks were seating there doing prayers. And they were having higher thrones and somebody less seat there. There were maybe a hundred of them. And they were saying prayers, very good. And most of the senior people when I walked in. I went in like this, a couple of westerners and then Mongolians. I walked behind. They started looking at me. They started looking up and down. They couldn’t figure out what is it, but the young ones never notice anything. And also, sure enough, there were a lot of ladies seating on that side of the wall, facing up and kids running around. It was so funny. They said this has been going on for about a thousand years. It may be their rules, whatever it is. And Guru Deva told me there was this old lama and he was suppose to be the head of the whole thing because the Mongolian government giving him everything. He was stateless for a long time in India among the Tibetan refugees. And all those Tibetans rejected him because he was not a Tibetan. He was a Mongolian. The Indian government would not allow him to stay there because they don’t have a Mongolian refuge. He cannot go anywhere because he was from inner Mongolia, not outer Mongolia. He had big trouble there. He said I have something to show you. I said what? He took out his passport, I have passport. He suffered like for fifteen years of lacked of identity or you know, anything. He said I have a passport. Since Mongolia made me a Mongolian citizen. And he had a diplomatic passport because he was suppose to be the head of everything. (0.50: 30.2) He showed me passport. So it was very nice and he had a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful yurt. Yurt, tent like thirty minutes from the city. I had been there. There was a little valley and there was nobody else except he and his girlfriend and girlfriend’s family. And a beautiful yurt there. And then like twenty hours drive up there, he said he had a huge monastery. The oldest monastery in Mongolia, he rebuilt for four years. It was very good. So he invited me back for next June, July. I thought people like to go, you can come with me. Will be nice to see. And then I got back to the States. That covers the little stories that what I did in those three months that I didn’t show up here.

And now, to go back to our own thing. If I understand correctly before I went out, we been talking the Odessey to Freedom, right? And I was also told we are in the level of human life. Am I right? We shouldn’t talk and deal with that. You don’t need to bring Odessey to Freedom, it’s okay. What happened in Mongolia and Bakula Rimpoche invited me to his monastery one Saturday. I thought it was like the usual visiting, so I didn’t pay attention. His car came, his car picked me up. When I went there, when I reached the monastery and they started blowing trumpets from the top and all the monks lined up in that old Tibetan style. And I came in with the suit and coat and walked through. Bakula Rimpoche himself normally had a big throne facing down. He changed his throne, put aside and put my throne there and seating all the monks, gathering saying all different prayers. I told him, Rimpoche, you done disservice for you. He said why? I said, you wanted to have pure monks here and now you put me on the throne. You defeated your own purpose. So, anyway, in the middle of that, after tea drinking, and then prayers started. And suddenly Bakula Rimpoche told me , now you give some teachings. All of a sudden. I said, well I don’t know Mongolian language. He said I have a good translator. So one young monk who had been in Dharamsala for seven years. Spoke perfect Tibetan. And he said, I am the translator. He got up, middle of line form there and stood in front of me. Then all of a sudden he said, give teachings. So, I didn’t said no. And I just talked and seeing what I should talk. What is going to be helpful to them. So thought came up in my head. One burst. What the Buddha said, ( Rimpoche spoked in Tibetan) Meaning all the negativities, avoid it. Now this is commentary. No matter how small it might be. It will give you a problem and suffering. I don’t know, small is my word. Quote again. Build all the positivities. Unquote. No matter how small it may be. It will make a big difference in one’s life. ( Rimpoche spoked in Tibetan). These are the first two lines. It is not difficult to understand, I said. Not difficult to understand because any negativities , try to avoid. Any positiveness, build up. That’s no problem. The third word said ( Rimpoche spoke in Tibetan) Tame, training, tame your mind. Tame your mind. Tame, right. When you tame elephant, animal, you tame, right? How do you spell it. Tame . Tame your mind, that is Buddhism. So, I have to focus on tame your mind. That’s what I said. So, why? They don’t say behave yourself. They don’t say seat straight. They don’t say, do circumambulation. They did not say seat down and meditate. They did not say prostrate. They said tame your mind, and this is Buddhism. So this is very important point, I elaborated that. I can never repeat myself what I said. That is always problem with me but I will go through. Not necessarily repeating but I said that. That was the subject I talked. So it is very relevant and important to all of us. That is why I don’t mind picking that up again here. When you look into ourself and when you are looking at the spiritual path as one goal or whatever. When you are looking in ourself, anything, spiritual, non spiritual. When you have to do and act, something. Look into ourself what do we have. Two points, physical and mental. And I like to include the emotional part as part of mental. So, like two rather than three. Mental and physical. So the physical is not the correct base for spiritual activities. That doesn’t mean , you know those people who have physical like martial arts and yoga, and all those. I am not saying they are not good. I don’t mean that at all. I am looking at the spiritual path. That the Buddha had shared experience and shared with us. And that spiritual path is definitely focussed on mind rather than physical. One reason, there are two reasons. Number one reason is the mind’s capacity is limitless. There is no limit what your mind can do or cannot do, both. Your mind is capable of doing anything you want to. Einstein is an example. Gandhi is an example. Doctor King or Robert Kennedy, they are all examples. They can do. If you don’t want it, it is also, there is no limit. How much dull you want to go, how much stupid you want to be. There is also no limit, both sides there is no limit. That is one. Now this is the reincarnation talk. This body we leave one day. We really do. I don’t know when. But sooner or later, we all leave the physical aspect of it. No matter how great, how healthy, how strong, how wonderful it might be. Still. Unless you can produce baby at 89, then I don’t know. Otherwise it is limited. I have a very dirty joke, it is coming up in my heart. I have to say it is not a good joke. It is sort of, almost a sexist’s joke. There was another friend of mine, very high reincarnate Lama who is presently occupying the Dalai Lama’s position in Tibet, in the Chinese government. He is the deputy speaker of the National Assembly of China. So he came to Beijing and he called me. He said, that was the last, I was leaving on Monday and that was on Saturday. He said I came to know you are here only today and how come you didn’t even call me, what happened? I said, well, you big shot, how can I call you? He said, don’t be silly. He said, I am coming tomorrow to Beijing, I will be there at 3 o’clock. If you have told me I would have come earlier. 3 o’clock but please cancel all your engagements tomorrow evening. Don’t keep anything busy. I have to treat you for a feast. That’s what he said. So, then he came and I met him that day and spent some time. By joke, I said. His name was Baguala Rimpoche said, you have to, these are high Incarnate Lama, we normally address as Kundun. I said, Kundun, I met Guru Deva. He said who is Guru Deva? There is a Mongolian Lama. He said, oh ya, ya, I heard about it. And I said, he had a baby at 89. He looked at me, what? He had a baby at 89. He looked at me, he said, Rimpoche. I said yes sir. Only the mother will know who is the real father. I couldn’t help but laugh He was not going to buy that at all. That was the joke. I am sorry. It is so funny. Even he broke law. You know why? He gave me a treat, really great treat. And the dinner he gave me, the reception before dinner. Not a reception but we had a seat down. We have been together in Tibet. He was very high but we sort of, you know, mixed up together, receiving teachings and everything together. He is a wonderful person, really. As a person he is great. Very very nice one. He didn’t even change at all. Didn’t even change. But he is also, what you call those? Some people who has to wear very very nice dresses. Have to dress well. He is that type. He was wearing Giogio Amani suit. Designed and measure for his body. That’s where you know. He is like that. And he gave me a treat and again the same thing. Five o’clock, his secretary called my brother , saying that they want to give the dinner in some place and then they want to know my car’s number. He told his secretary that there is no car number. We are coming by taxi. Don’t have car. (1.05:19.5) Then they hung up immediately and called back ten minutes later, they sending a car. So car will be there, six o’clock sharp, down at the hotel. Car was fifteen minutes early. Came to the hotel and told the hotel, in this room number there are two Tibetans I am suppose to pick them up. And the hotel told him there is no Tibetans, they are Americans. You cannot call them. He is not allowed to call this room because they are Americans. That’s what I thought was the restriction. And I came down, there was a young Chinese guy and another Chinese guy with a suit and tie. They looked at us and said, “ ni how mah” , meaning how are you, right? So I did not speak Mandarin and simply “ how”. Then my brother talked to them and he said I am suppose to pick up two Tibetans but this hotel told us they are Americans. What is it? So my brother told him that I am from Tibet and he is from America. He is American and I am from Tibet. He was originally Tibetan too. They didn’t argue and took us. And you know where they took me. It was the same room where Clinton met Jiang Zemin. Same room. They took me to that for dinner. He couldn’t get through the door because in the south there were two doors. He was suppose to go to door number 1, he went to door number 2. He was stuck but anyway. And so suddenly the car pulled up. There were eight young guys, yellow jackets with the bow ties. Came in, eight of them opened the door. (1.07:20.7) Every door has one person, two each. They looked at me, I was seating in the front and a little bit older. They straight away put arms like this so you can lean on their arms and get out of the car. They are so well trained. The moment you got out they started to say something in Chinese. My brother replied and I asked what did they say. He said who is he meeting? And he said, Baguala. And they said this way. So they put me through and that’s it. Sixteen girls, all wearing yellow jacket and black pants, spoke perfect English. Standing in a row and then got into the room. Isn’t it funny? And just the moment you entered the room and we sat on the chair and these people came and want drink or not, they all brought tea and all these. Then Baguola Rimpoche came. He came by that time. So, we normal exchanged of scarf etc and he said, I did this special arrangement for you. This is where Clinton going to meet Jiang Zemin. So let me seat on Jiang Zemin’s chair and you seat where Clinton going to seat. So he sat there and had a cup of tea. And I looked back. At the back of those chairs there was a translator’s chair available. And I still thought it was a joke, to tell the truth. I already thought it was a joke. I looked at the picture which had a cherry blossom picture that was hanging on the wall at the back of that. And then later in television I saw really Clinton seating there and Jiang Zemin seating there because the cherry blossom and all these furniture, everything were the same thing. It is funny and that also you are not suppose to bring any foreigners there without any special permission. My brother told his secretary this was what happened with the driver. And he immediately took out two hundred Chinese yuan and please give them when they return, when they drop you back, give them money. So we gave these two hundred Yuan for these drivers and then they took it. The secretary called did they take it. Yes, they took it. Thank you, now we have no problem. Otherwise the driver can say an American was brought in there. But he said they took two hundred dollars , cannot accuse anybody. If he does we going to tell him he took bribe. He took bribe. That is how they break each other. That is how they break the rule. That’s why I said there are a lot of rules, but they break all the time. That’s what it is.

So, going back to how mind works. Baguola Rimpoche’s mind immediately said only the mother will know who the real father. And I never thought about it, right? But each and every one of us, every point, our minds work differently. It is never unified, never same, always different perception, always different way of projecting, and perception. And that gives us joy or suffering. I should have said a little bit better than that, but believe me, this is where we get suffering and we get the joy, both. It is the perception of the mind. Physical suffering is different. I am talking about emotional suffering and the mental suffering. It is mostly perception. That different mind, different person, has a different way of work. But it is the mind, it is not the body. So what Buddha did, when you want to work in the spiritual way. Buddha didn’t look spiritual as something holy, what we get, you know, something sacred and holy. Sacred and holy is there but sacred and holy, what Buddha looked is not the sacred and holy that produced by burning incense or banging cymbals. The real value within individual, the sacredness and the holiness, the individual. That’s what Buddha really looked. And that holiness and that sacredness can only produce by our mind. Nothing else. Cannot base on our body. You can do it, exercise, yoga , everything , fine but it must be done mental work. Physical has limitation. We have to leave the body, we go away. It decay, it get old, it decays. It cannot, no longer be serviceable to us. We die. But the mind is the one who don’t get older , who get mature little bit but don’t get old. It is always young, always active and every physical or action has come out of mental action. Right or wrong? Mental action. So if you don’t think of doing something, you won’t do it . Even though there are lots of them, they looks like automatic. But every automatic thing also has thought process gone through. Like bing, bing, bing when you start doing done, done, done. That is exactly how it happens. So every physical action that we have taken it is influenced by thoughts. Therefore the source of all our actions is the mind and thought. So the mind training is extremely important, training the individual’s spiritual path is that. Because every action is coming out of our ideas and thoughts, right? So it becomes important. And why actions are important? Actions makes a difference to ourselves and to other people. Harm or help is all action, right? If you have a good idea, a good thought of sending your, like new age gurus send you good thoughts. Good, we can send our good thoughts. That is fine, I have no criticism. But doesn’t good thoughts, I don’t know what they do? But if you really want to, physically help, then it is good. We know it, at least our level. We can understand that. So it is action is more important. Either you helping or harming rather than thoughts. Yet, thought is the one who makes the individual act. Since the Buddha’s most important point is we are responsible for ourselves. Totally. I am responsible for all my deeds. So that’s each and everybody. So, the deeds that we have makes a difference for me. So that’s why the mind becomes important because the mind can change from negative to positive, from positive to negative. So all the figuring points, training points, is on mind level, not on the physical level. That’s why Buddha said tame your mind. This is Buddhism.

So, how? That’s all these teachings we been doing is actually how. However I give you three points here. Three points. Our thoughts are again limitless. You can think of anything, any minute. Impossible things, right? If I want to think my half body is elephant and my half body is rabbit. That’s also can come up. That’s what thought came in my head right now. That’s why I said that, right? And such etc, good, bad, unlimited thoughts can pop up. If you accept, acknowledge and accept thoughts that comes up, every thought that comes up, then we becomes crazy. We are crazy, right? I really believe. Not believe, I really think the division, I am going back, back towards traditional Buddhist way. But going back. The division between the wise and the fool, where do you make that division? The fool accept every thought that pops up in your head. Say it or do it or act. No filtering, no screening. Such true and act straight away. But the wise people, I am going back ancient. That’s why wise and fool. The wise people will read all their thoughts come up, they look through, they accept certain things and they rejects certain things. So, when Buddha said, tame your mind, meaning train your mind, give training to your mind, you act like wise guy. Wise person, sorry. Wise person. Today I am going to be in trouble. Like a wise person, don’t act like a fool. So, thoughts unlimited. And every thought don’t follow it and think carefully whether it is going to help, harm or no harm done or whatever. Go through carefully. And that’s what you are training, number one. So, to me the spiritual path really, absolutely lies on the mental level. Not on the mala, not on the mantra, not on praying, refuge, whatever. Not on temple, no way. It is on our mind level. Because mind is the only one to make a difference. If you are not trained or at least have some discipline. That may be a strong word. Some regulation for your mind, And traditional teachers gives examples. You let your mind functions like a monkey in the temple. If you let the monkey loose, the monkey will jump from image to image, knock down the butter lamps, throw the water offerings, all sorts of things, right? So, one thing we don’t do is do not let our mind like a monkey in the sacred temple of ourselves. So we have some rules at least, somewhere to function. The rule is every thought just do not perceive as every idea that pops up. Analyse, think a little bit and then accept or reject. So I do not see anybody unless like the Mongolian 89 year old lama was telling me the Buddhism in Tibet was based on the understanding and a group of monks and nuns and Buddhism in Mongolian is based on faith, he said. Maybe that is true, I don’t know. If that is so, it is a different story. But mostly, really it is the mind that in these words it says tame your mind. This is Buddhism. So, watching your mind is important, taming your mind is important, training your mind is important. Once you trained your mind, your mind will automatically function in positive way so effortless positive karmic creation all the time is because of that. No other than that. There is no miracle that hits you and everything you do becomes positive. It was never heard before two thousand five hundred years of Buddhist history and I don’t think you will ever hear in future. Some stupid people in between that will say ya, ya, ya, everything will happen, blah, blah, blah without any reason or without any, you know some fat guys makes big deal. That’s okay. Doesn’t matter. In absolute reality, in truth, it doesn’t happen. What will happen is only your mind when you bring to that level, that’s what happen. So Buddhist point of spiritual path is totally remain on mental level. Physical contributions are there. It is not based on physical. It is the mind. And mind, even that you look, almost you have two points. Most of the time, our mind is such, it is there to protect my ego. No matter, whatever you are doing. If you look deeply, in our mind is also, always to protect my ego. To protect my look, to protect my impression, to protect my desire, to protect my wants, and me, specially. With all the denials we put up, still when you look deep down, we have that. So, in order to protect me, I will sacrifice you. If you really look carefully it will get there. You may make a lot of zig zag, right, left turns and after that you going to find that. Bottom line, I am willing to sacrifice anybody to protect me. And that idea, thoughts produces negative actions. That is the fundamental basis of negative thoughts. If you can go away from that as far as you could, as much as you could. Try to at least treat everybody equal. Forget about it what the Tibetan Buddhists say, treat others like mother sentient beings more important than you. But we are not going to treat all mothers more important than ourselves. So mother sentient beings, forget it. But at least treat them as equal. Equal human beings, equal living beings, equal persons. Try to treat that. And when you try to shift a little bit, what you really have done is shaking the ground on which we built negativities. Really shaking that. Whether you take Odessey to Freedom and try to shake that or traditional Lamrim and try to shake that or the Buddhist psychology points, try to shake that or go become a monk or nun and do whatever, change your clothes and do whatever to shake that. Doesn’t matter, the result is the same thing. The result is the same thing. So if you can make that shift, shaking the ground of the solid ego, then you are getting somewhere. We are moving to the true spiritual path. True spiritual path is the helping path, helping me. Helping you, helping each and everyone of us. I am sure there is a miracle and all this. I am not looking for that. I am looking for something real. Something really real. On the ground, solid and that realness. That comes only from you, yourself. That also from your mind. That also by training. The total reasons why they teach you how to meditate. That is the opportunity for you to see what’s in your mind. One of our friend from Ann Arbor for the last two months or so. When I got back, she started crying. She is a really intense, intense personality. And going to a lot of family complications. Not only a problem with husband and wife. And also like two (1.29:01.8)