Archive Result

Sound file:19990830GRSROF03

Speaker:Gelek Rimpoche

Location: Camp Copneconic,Fenton,MI

Topic:Odyssey To Freedom

Transcriber: Jayapushpa

Date: 15thSeptember2022

(Prayers…Heart Sutra in tibetan, , Lineage prayer, mantras….) This is path that is sort of really cleared and travelled by great Indian saint and scholars. When I walked in this morning, Nancy is raising hand and I asked ‘What’s the matter?”. ‘Explain those thangkas, the thangkas behind, and I don’t know what her business in that to tell me that. But whatever maybe, when you put it up there, so maybe she had business in that. So..when you are looking at these thangkas, you see in the middle that Buddha . Then you see Jetsun (Rimpoche mentions in tibetan) Then you see Tsongkhapa in the long life form, which means holding the vase in the hand. So Tsongkhapa in long life form, rather unusual.Incidentally Anne Warren from Cleveland, is making one through beaded work and she wanted to finish before my birthday, so for that reason she can’t even attend retreat or Kalacakra both she has to sacrificed to make that work. So just wanted to …bead, you know on beads. So that’s the Tsongkhapa in long life form. And then the other side you have white Tara, that you know. But other side of White Tara (*Rimpoche spoke in tibetan) ..So then , this side when you see the two , one this side..I don’t see I am asking Jamyang, (Rimpoche spoke in tibetan) so, the first is Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna…these are the set of thangkas ….they have been weaved in China, it is the brocade, weaved brocade,it is not painted, it is weaved. You called ‘weaved’ right? …(Audience: woven) woven brocade. You have Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna always have snake on head , that’s how you know. Snake represents naga. Naga is a category of another being. So that’s why is called “Nagarjuna’. So there’s always snake umbrella type of thing over there. Why? Because after Buddha’s death, Mahayana people explain all the time after Buddha’s death, the mahayana principal which is the Prajnaparamita text, which is the…You know the Prajnaparamita text is available in tibetan in 12 volumes. Then the shorter version of this is 8000 verse in one volume. Even shorter version is the Heart Sutra. There are tibetan version of Heart Sutra, and the Japanese version of Heart Sutra. Even version of Japanese heart Sutra is also is available in tibetan translation but is much shorter, much shorter. The tibetan normally use is a little longer than this Japanese..that’s why we have one translation which Allen introduced which is coming out of the Japanese tradition. Suzuki Roshi worked with that, that’s why we have that too in English translation. But this tibetan one is longer than that. The translation of that is also available in Donald Lopez book. Donald Lopez has a book on Prajnaparamita or just Heart Sutra alone. That’s a book available by Donald Lopez on that. The translation is available in that too if you want to know what we are saying in the morning. 0:24:21.5

So that is the essence of Prajnaparamita which is the mahayana principle sutra. According to the Mahayana that was lost in India because of the muslim war and all that. So what happened is, it disappeared from the human land and taken by nagas somewhere to nagaland. Not the Nagaland in India but something …there’s a nagaland in north east India, not that one. But actually Naga’s Land it’s sort of mythological mystical world anyway. If you are interested with close encounter with the third kind, probably you get first connection is nagas. So the pictures drawn in that ‘Close encounter withtnhe third kind’, that movie , that big head and small little person, is the very version the tibetans described nagas. So very much in that. So I don’t know they have agreed … they got information from the tibetan tradition and made it that way, or is coincidental. It is so funny …you know I was in Malaysia, I saw those CD. You know Malaysia is slightly out of the world. So you can see everything in the CDs ; every single thing! Even this latest movie, Richard Gere’s what is it…Runaway… (Audience: Runaway bride) …all of them, they are all in CDs. And every thing over the night is produced. The moment you released here, they are available there you know. So, it is such a way, they made in the middle of the sea somewhere, so it doesn’t come under Malaysian jurisdiction, you know. That’s very funny, they do. They made in middle of the sea somewhere. So, anyway, it’s available. So I saw the Star Wars during that (Laughters) in the CDs. So those Ewoks over there speaks tibetan (Laughters) Tibetan kids in Dharamsala , I think that’s what it is. They are saying,’ you have to say something, they give you 10 rupees’. (Rimpoche laughs) in tibetan language. ..those kids. So, funny. That’s not the only point. The point when I came back then Aura tells me, that Yoda is produced after Geshe Dhargye’s picture or there might been Dharamsala because they recorded that in the nursery because those tibetan kids talking. So they might have seen Geshe Dhargye giving teaching in Dharmasala Library. He got this pointed ear and all that. They compared pictures yesterday and Yoda looks like Geshe Dhargye.(Laughters)..very much look like Geshe Dhargye who unfortunately passed away two years ago in New Zealand, right, more than two years ago. Both Aura and Sandy have received teachings from Geshe Dhargye as well as very interesting experience as well. I don’t know they did asked something and so he chased them out. They have to run away and hide under a bed somewhere because he is yelling, screaming, chased them out. So, does Yoda do that too? (Laughters). 0:28:44.6

Anyway, so it is funny. So, Nagarjuna went into the nagaland, …Nagaland, because there is a place in India…so, I don’t want you to misunderstand, particularly if the transcript comes out . Then they put ‘Nagaland’, sothen they think it is in India a state called ‘Nagaland’ up in the north east frontier area. It is not that. It is Naga’s Land and rediscovered Prajnaparamita text. So thereafter the mahayana teachings flourish in India. So when the Western scholars say mahayana is creation after some like 300 years after Buddha, they have a point there. According to mahayana Nagarjuna rediscovered the text from the nagas who have been managing that while the human beings are busy fighting among themselves, having a war destroying themselves. So the nagas kept it. Just like Vajrayana text, Yamantaka tantra, is rediscovered in dakini’s land by Lalitavajra. So very similar to that. That’s why Nagarjuna is considered one of the four forerunners of Indian earlier teachers and saints. That’s why Nagarjuna and next to Asanga. Asanga also…this is funny thing. Asanga also discovered, rediscovered Prajnaparamita teachings from Maitreya Buddha when human beings are busy fighting, so these teachings disappeared. So the non human beings living beings took them . So the nagas took them to the naga’s land, and the samsaric ..non samsaric gods took them to the purelands. So Asanga is the one who spent 12 years in the cave try to see Maitreya. So every three years he gave up , remembered, have another incident , goes back and finally saw a little dog. That’s the story. That is Asanga. These two are considered front runners. The rest of them including these two are called ‘Six Ornaments of the world ‘. One of them is Dignaga, one is Dharmakirti, they are the founders. One is Vasubandhu, they are the founders of metaphysical that’s available in Buddhist tradition. That includes psychological things is the Vasubandhu, is nephew of Asanga. The Dharmakirti is all the logical studies in Buddhism. Dharmakirti and the (in tibetan) teacher of Dharmakirti, both of them up there..unless I have a mirror, I can’t see it (Rimpoche spoke in tibetan). Okay, he said the teacher of Dharmakirti, Chola, is behind the Asanga. (Rimpoche spoke in tibetan) Okay, then, next to this side, is Dharmakirti. He is the one who introduced the analytical meditation which buddha emphasized so much…analyzing logics…. the logical study of buddhist’s teaching all coming from him. So the brains that we have to think about the subject of spiritual path and overcoming the negative emotions, studying within ourselves is is introduced….the logical thing been introduced by Dharmakirti and his teacher, the Chola , over here. (Rimpoche spoke in tibetan) Then the young looking one over there (Rimpoche spoke in tibetan) ..that is the mistake of that thing..(Rimpoche spoke in tibetan)…Normally Vasubandhu is the young looking one. Probably when the Chinese was weaving, their wove wrongly between Asanga and Vasubandhu. One is uncle, the other is nephew. So, they made mistake. The nephew is younger one, the uncle is older one. I think they wove uncle is younger one and nephew is older one. I don’t think it is Jamyang’s mistake. It is the mistake of the ..when they were weaving. So anyway Vasubandhu is the founder of metaphysics, I told you. Then the two right and left, are they called the Two Excellences. These two are the examples of the moral, the moral discipline. Really the ethics and the moral. They are really…these two are the banners. Banners…like the banners they hold principles of morality. So these two, the two last ones. So Six Excellences and Two …oh, no., Six Ornaments and Two Excellent Ones. Both Excellent ones are the moral part of it, the morality part of it. So these are the traditionally tibetan consider them the outstanding Indian saints and scholars that we consider authentic, real …mean real business. These are those thangkas. And then, might up, those brocading work has been done by Jamyang here for the last day (Claps) . I got them from Tibet three years ago, all stitched badly, one little long thing. I put it in my room in my house but then I thought I cut them out completely and we separated them, and Judy is going to stitch, and she did one and then I realized it is not going to work. We stopped and Jamyang came along and he did all of those. So that’s that part of it. (Loud noise) Oh, Chandrakirti, thank you. Chandrakirti is the Madhyamika, the principle…Nagarjuna’s disciple. The principle person who really clear the what Nagarjuna’s teaching on Wisdom, is Chandrakirti. Thank you , Cho la. I think that’s about it. And when I am talking about Prajnaparamita, nagarjuna is connected. So might as well answer that very..what you called it…very abrupt and disrespectful question by Nancy been answered (Rimpoche laughs) So anyway, so what else? 0:38:39.4

Okay, so the teachings what you are listening to, is not only all the buddhas have travelled on this path, but is also cleared by Nagarjuan and Asanga. And followed, practiced and developed and shown clearly by Six Ornaments and Two Excellences, given examples. Followed by two great universities or learning centres in India, Vikramashila and Nalanda. Nalanda and Vikramashila,which introduced to Tibet, by Atisha in the 1100s, which really formed basis on which Tsongkhapa to …what should I say,..to revoluntionized… Tsongkhapa to revolutionize the essence Buddha’s teaching in Tibet, is possible because of these great teachers, these saints and scholars. Otherwise the Buddhism that is available in Tibet before in 7th century onwards… in 7th century tremendous amount of really really wonderful teachings and pure buddhist teachings been introduced during King Songtsen Gampo’s period and Guru Padmasambhava came in and giving tremendous amount of pure,wonderful teachings of Buddha. Then thereafter in 200 years, all kinds of Indian magics have come up to Tibet. The tibetans almost lost the total principle teachings of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths nobody even bothered. Everybody is for mantra and magic. ‘You know I have this magic power ,I can produce this, what can you do?’ Or, I can produce that, what can you do?’ In this sort of magical competition become so powerful in Tibet, because of that the essence of Buddha’s teachings was really lost in Tibet. And it is responsible for a number of Indian teachers such as Blue Skirt Pandit . There was a pandit, called Blue Skirt Pandit, and all of those came up and they did all kinds of funny magical things and combined with the traditional tibetan Bon teachings there , pre buddhist religion, sort of shamanistic religion called Bon …that is B O N with an ‘..’ on that. So they mixed them up and become very difficult. So in the 1100s, then the…even the ruler of that time has to sacrifice his life I n order to bring the pure teachings of the Buddha . and 21 young guys has been selected to go to India, to learn but many did not return at all,only two or three. They managed lots of those translations. 0:42:47.0 And the tradition of translation system is one Indian pandit and one tibetan translator and committee of editors sit together and translations gone through and finally the translations are presented to another committee headed by the ruler of Tibet. When they passed through with that and then it is allowed to publish otherwise none. That is took care for about 100 years because the translations never worked well for 100 years because every translators used a different vocabulary, for different things which we are experiencing today in English, not so bad at that time. But we are having the same problem. So every translators we see, I am talking about the good ones, they never agree each other. I don’t think we can make them agree each other so that’s what it is. Everybody has its own principle, I like to call ‘principle’ rather than ego (Rimpoche laughs). So little own principles and they stick to that.probably going to take another 100 years to settle it down. So that’s what it is.these are the people who are responsible. So in the lam rim teachings they will tell you not only the enlightened beings travelled but also cleared , clarified open by Nagarjuna and Asanga, and it is the essence of the practice of these great teachers, and it is the main message that Atisha brought to Tibet. And if you read some of Tsongkhapa’s letters that he wrote to some of his teachers, he said,’I have studied very detail everything under so many masters such as yourself, but I found to help others, is the main message from Atisha , is the most helpful’. So I am following his footstep of his teaching’, which is what we called it, Lam Rim. So it comes out of Atisha and this is really gift of Vikramashila and Nalanda, the two great learning centers of India , what they presented to Tibet was this. So that’s why we make very strong emphasis for this Lam rim tradition of teaching. It is not simply one picked up a book and just started writing. Or, simply just recording one person’s experience. It is based on the personal experience of the Buddha, confirmed, clarified, more confirmed, more clarified by eight those people up there , plus I was the main theme subject they studied with two great learning institute. The top at tat time is the Vikramashila and Nalanda. The Vikramashila in Tibet they called it ‘Vikramalashila’ rather than ‘Vikramshila’. But Indians…tibetans have very funny way of pronouncing the Indian Sanskrit …never ever agree with the normal Sanskrit. And so there is a very funny way they pronounce. And the tibetans themselves very proud of that too. But however it never goes well with the Indian Sanskrit at all.But on the other hand, I do remember very clearly, once I was receiving a teaching on Heruka in Dharmsala…Heruka body mandala from Song Rinpoche. There’s translator on that. This translated into English. The translator is a Sanskrit scholar,comes out of Benares. Song Rinpoche is saying tibetan version of the Sanskrit and this guy goes on talks in the version of Sanskrit and he kept on waiting for a few days.It is unusual for Song Rinpoche, because Song Rinpoche would burst out straightaway, you know. That is Song Rinpoche’s character. Every individual personal …like Kybje Ling Rinpoche or Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche, ..Kyabje Ling Rinpoche sometimes does; Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche will never say whatever you do. What mistakes you made, you kno all these young rinpoches in front, you know whtevr they do, they collapsed the table or rolled down, Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche pretends he sees nothing, you know, ‘See no evil, hear no evil,..’ he took that position. But Song Rinpoche is different; he burst out straightaway. There’s one person called Pari(?) Rinpoche, I never took teachings. Pari Rinpoche normally they say used to keep one stick here. Because anybody in the front rolls out, he picked up and hit . Whatever reason is, I never took teachings from Pari Rinpoche. 0:49:14.8

Anyway, so Song Rinpoche normally burst out and he sort of being patient and after two days he told me, “I have to say something to this translator “ and in the morning. I said, “What’s the matter?” He said, “I say in this way, and he said in that way the Sanskrit words.”. Then one day he bursted out, “Alright I can quit , would you like to do the teaching?” (Rimpoche laughs) And then the translator goes like this . And then he said, “It is not only the Sanskrit. There is so many vowels…the West Bengal vowel ….vowel, right? (Audiences: vowel) Vowel. There is so many languages mixed together with the Sanskrit, particularly in the Heruka. And he said, “You cannot read like the Sanskrit scholar reading Sanskrit and if you don’t know that, it shows you the stupidness. And if you don’t know that, it shows you that a little knowledge is dangerous” (Rimpoche laughs) He went on and on , this translator poor guy was sort of smashed completely (Laughter). Anyway, that’s the reason why it is not 100% Sanskrit ,many times there is a mixture of different languages. And so…in India traditionally it is supposedly to be foremost important language , many of them mixed together, so that’s why. Not only the Pali Sanskrit but the vowel…..B owel, right? (Audience: V..vowel) So, anyway all of them are mixed in there. So, it is not necessarily pure Sanskrit. So, it must be that reason. 0:51:58.2

Anyway, so we consider it is authentic if these guys experienced. So, …and the teachings of Atisha and Tsongkhapa . And in order to do this teaching, you basically four important points. First, to prove the authenticity of this, we have to talk the life stories of those great teachers. Normally you know those in the Lam Rim. So when you only have 7 days here and that also a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, which is not enough. I was complaining Kathy, give me more time, because I am not going to finish this. So, she is going to find out what she can do. So, anyway it is not going to happen telling the stories of the teachers’ lives. But anyway we just briefly told you. That is enough. Otherwise you read Atisha’s long detailed biography is available in the lam Rim books particularly Liberation In Palm Of Your Hand, as well as …do I have it ? (Audience: Yes)…in that little book. I have, that’s also available. And Tsongkhapa’s life story, there’s Life and Works of Tsongkhapa, published by Library in Dharamsala, translated by Thurman, I believe. It is an old edition ..I don’t know whether you have it? (Audience: affirm*) You do. Only one copy available, she said. Are they republishing or not? (Audience: unclear reply*) They are, so (Audience: *Unclear) Yes, the little one is available. So, Tsongkhapa’s life story. And then all of those zi don’t think we should take time, when we have limited time here talking about it. You can read about it. The biographies are biographies, there is no meditation or anything. The idea is to give you inspiration. The (in tibetan…nyun jor ten pa nam …..nyam le), the stories, the life stories of earlier teachers, are examples given to ourself how to deal with it. It is actually WWBD that’s what it is , okay. I forgot to wear today. So WWBD is the idea ..the ..What would Buddha had done, that’s what it is. So, anyway, that is the idea of biographies. So you can read it and understand and appreciate their lives and see you can adopt certain principles within your life, whether suitable or not suitable. So that’s the whole idea.0:55:14.7

Then, (Rimpoche recited in Tibetan…) So the first point is in order to show your authenticity, give you the background, that’s what it is. Second point is, in order to develop respect, gives you the quality of the teaching. So read those in Lam Rim books, okay. Qualities of teaching, there are four of them, anyway. So, read them in Lam Rim teachings. (Rimpoche recited next outline in Tibetan) How do you teach and how do you listen. That also important. ‘How to listen’, right now relevant to you. But ‘how do you teach’, will be relevant to you later, because I don’t expect all of you to be just simple only practitioners, many of you. Hopefully all of you but at least many of you. Most of you will not only become good practitioners yourself, but helping others to show, to guide and to teach on your own way, rather than maybe just follow exactly what we do , but many of you do by your own way. So hopefully you will do that. That’s why ‘how to teach’ also become important. Specially in Holland, we have teachers’ training already set up. We don’t have them here because the Dutch and German orientation are more disciplined (Rimpoche laughs) …Ah? You have nothing to do with Germans, okay. (Laughters) I remember Marianne’s husband, Piet Soeters, telling with Alfred together one morning we were driving round. Piet told me, “Rimpoche..” I said , “What?” And he said Alfred’s grandfather or father…Alfred’s grandfather came in marching from Germany took over the Netherlands on half day(Rimpoche laughs) So the Germans came down and took over the Netherlands ; they took half day to get over. That was the joke of that time, anyway. So, anyway, the Dutch are so disciplined and not only, all our transcripts come from there so far. Even though Tony and Cho la try to make into book form, however, original transcripts not available, there won’t be anything to do. So all of them are coming from there and they already started the teachers’ training there. So they are going through. So hopefully we’ll be able to do the same thing. We have good teachers there…here, but they are not sort of trained how to do it. So ‘how to teach’ is total subject in Lam Rim available. 0:59:15.0

But I am going to tell you the most important point here. Because you are not…whenever you are teaching, you are not great. You are terrible, you have to think that. Because look here me, I am looking down , sitting on higher plat..whatever this is ..(Audience: platform) ..platform. Originally it is a throne, you know. But now I made it easier too. I am more comfortable in that way . It serves both purposes, you have to be higher because you have to see it because you have to see me. That’s what it is, bottomline. But in the tradition., there’s big throne. You may begin to think, ‘Hey, I am the great person and everybody is listening to me and looking up at me ‘ You know what? You really in soup ! (Laughters) If you make one mistake, you going to mislead all these people. Not only what you say, but what you do. You know what Buddha used to tell? He said if any animal get stuck in mud, it is easy to pull out. But if elephant get stuck in mud, it’s difficult to pull out. So that’s your position. So whether people like or not, they will look at you. The critics will criticize, no problem, it is great. It is great help. It is wonderful But specially when there’s no critics who knows how to criticize you, and you are responsible. Not only what you say, but what do you do. Because everybody will watch you and if you behave crazy, so everybody will behave crazy; half the people at least. So it is important. The criticism we face earlier teachers in the United States, the teachers who come in 60s, just because they didn’t pay much attention or they purposely did, whatever the reason might be, it is beyond my subject, but because of certain behavior, we forgot that everybody’s watching you. So you really in hot seat and then, that’s number one. And number two, whatever you say, it becomes guidelines for so many people. If you receive criticism, it’s not a problem, that’s fine. But when you don’t receive criticism, then it is a big problem, because they are watching nyou, they are following you. So not only you…you know it is like the monkey story, remember? There’s a woman and I really like her. I forgot her name., come from middle Eastern or Russian or something…comes with Ram Dass. She does a little dancing …do you remember her name? I am trying to get her over here but never worked. (Audience: *unclear) No, no, no. She doesn’t do Tara dance. I am not interested in somebody who does Tara dance. But you know, what she really does is she dance that monkey dance. She did a lot of different dance but she does the monkey dance. You know what the monkey dance is? This is story dealing with the Buddha’s life time.

So a leader of monkey, monkey leader…went round by the sea and looked down by the sea saw the moon reflection over there. So she got big shock saying “the moon has fallen into the river ,in the lake..so we have to pick the moon up “.she started talking to the group of monkeys. So they say alright and all decided to pick the moon up. So what they did, all the monkeys climbed on the tree . The monkey leader goes down and her tail hooks up with another monkey there , another monkey they have to hook up one hand and tail with another monkey. So one monkey is holding the branch of the tree, and the rest of the monkey is holding each other, try to go in the lake and try to pick up the moon. That’s what it is. And they are not reaching the moon and going longer and longer , and finally the branch breaks and everybody falls in the lake. So that dance she does. Makashi …Jonathan , you know that, the woman who comes with Ram Dass, who does the dance from Colorado. Anyway, she did that in Omega, she lives in Colorado somewhere and (Audience: tsultrim) No,no, no,no. Tsultrim doesn’t dance; Tsultrim only plays Chog.. Mersheka? (Audience: voices) No, no, forget it. So that’s the…you are in that position. And if you are stupid, and then you are going to lead all these monkeys falling in the lake.So that position . That’s number one, you have to remember. Number two, impermanent. It is always impermanent; it is changing world. It is changeable. Number three, no personal agenda. No personal agenda for whatsoever. Every action whatever you do should be coming to benefit others. Total dedication, at least your motivation is concerned. These are the… and you should know what you are talking about it . If you don’t know what you are talking about it and then it is not good. It is the most horrible thing actually . And so, you create confusion among the people because you are confused. And so you are going to confuse everybody else. These are the uncompr0mizable ..you cannot compromise. Quality one has to have. And then during the teaching you may visualize little bit occasionally you are not the person who is doing the teaching, it is the whole lineage, particularly your own root master. 1:07:13.6

Root master… the question of the root master is very important. We’ve been here,so I am not going to talk right now. So that’s that. So what else now? (Rimpoche recites in tibetan) Tama ….nyen pa. The actual teaching method which really leads the students to practice. So, these are the basic principles in which this Odyssey to Freedom has been worked out. So, yesterday we have done up to ‘7’, ‘purification’. Purify all that is negative, which is very important. So I am going to spend little time on that. But do read the book please. Do read the transcripts because that will really tell you. I would like to talk to here the purification now. There is no such negativity that cannot be purified. There is none. Even you have killed hundreds of people by you, for you, even then that negativity can be purified. Are you with me? So Buddha showed us that with the story called Angulimala. There was a guy during the Buddha’s time had a misleading teacher. The teacher told him”If you can kill 1000 human beings within one week, and chopped their thumbs and put them through string and wear it, and come back to me, I will liberate you”. Are you with me? Misleading teacher mislead followers. He did that. This guy with sincere desire went all out and try to kill 1000 human beings a week. Got 999 people.One he could not get it. Because everybody run away from him. Nobody comes near by because he kills them,right? So it is a small little village in India that time, so what else can be, you know. So it is amazing he could get 999 people even at least. Anyway, the last person happened to be his own mother. He had little hesitation of killing mother, but his mother is only person coming by try to help him. The mother thinks she can help him. She won’t run away. And that shows how mother care their child. From the mother’s window not from our window and looking at the mother. ‘Oh my mother was angry “ or whatever; not in that angle. But if you look yourself as a mother and look from the mother’s window for your kid…love and caring what you give to your kids. From that angle you see it.So the mother who is afraid of her own life yet she won’t completely run away. But she can’t come very close either.When that going on, then the Buddha appeared. So suddenly he said, “Oh great! Now I don’t have to get my mother. So I can get this guy”. So he started following the Buddha and the Buddha walked very slowly, he tried to run.but he couldn’t catch him. So finally he went out of breath. So he said, “ Wait!” So the Buddha said, “I am waiting, why don’t you come? “ He said, “Wait, I am coming”. And Buddha said, “I am waiting”. That’s how they broke the glass or broken the silence or broke the ice. So broke the ice, that’s how the conversation took place. And finally been able to guide him and he’s been purified and became arahat. So that’s been example given. And the Buddha said “The sun and moon can be covered by cloud but cloud will go, sun and moon can reappear. Sun and moon can be covered by the eclipse , total darkness is possible with the solar eclipse but sun will shine again. So the natural beauty of the human being ..the being nature, the Buddha nature is pure, wonderful, is all there. It can be shadowed by the emotions and by the negativities. However it can be cleared. So there is no such a negativity that you cannot purify, period, according to Buddha’s experience. And according to these guys experience. According to lineage masters in tibetan tradition, from Atisha to my late masters, there is none such a thing called negativity which cannot be purified. Period. 1:14:16.9

So the question now rises, how. Four most important things, four most important things. We called that Four Powers. Number one, the power of regret. You have to show remorse. You called that ‘remorse’,right, of your bad deed. If you don’t have that, you cannot purify because you really don’t regret deeply. So the question of purification does not arise for that individual. Because you don’t regret for whatsoever. You might even don’t know anything.We hear all the time people talking about it peoples’ mistakes and they talked to each other, the person just don’t get it,right? How many times we talked to each other . We say, “I told him or her ,they don’t get it” That’s what it is. You don’t know you made mistake or you don’t care. So that’s why you don’t have remorse. You don’t have that. So when you don’t have that , when you don’t have remorse, what are you going to purify because you don’t regret what you did. Maybe you are proud of what you did like the generals are proud of killing enemies soldiers or something, you know. So there’s no remorse, there is no purification. So remorse is absolutely , regret is necessary. If you don’t have that you cannot purify anything. That’s number 1, power of regret. But power of regret will go to certain extent. It will not go into a guilt and then goes down to depression and all these. When you go that far, that’s gone too far. Okay? That’s gone too far. There’s no reason why you have to go into guilty feeling and there’s no reason why you have to regret…sorry, in depression. Remember Shantideva , (Rimpoche quotes in tibetan..) meaning if you can correct, why you have to be so depress about it; just correct. And if you cannot correct, what is the use of going into depression. You added up one more problem for yourself by you uncalled for . that’s what Shantideva says. We read that on Tuesdays, remember? So no reason why you have to go in that far in depression because it is not going to help you at all. The depression is self torturing . That’s not going to make you better, nothing. And that going to make you miserable physically mentally emotionally. And if you don’t take care of, you become cuckoo too. Okay. That’s important point. So you have remorse, you regret what you do, don’t go into depressions. People may think ‘Hey, it is not in my hand, nobody wants to do’. Sure, nobody’s want to do but it is in your hand, nobody’s else’s hand . No one can send you in that hole unless you yourself will drag yourself in that hole. You drag yourself because you think ‘I can’t be helped, I am miserable, I am terrible, I got to go, I got to suffer’. That’s you yourself is leading yourself in that hole. I remember few years ago Brenda had a dream. Some paper flying out. Do you remember? (Audience: *unclear) I remember very clearly how you told me. So indicated there’s a way out. So it is yourself, you are responsible. And the way and how you do is regret and then purify and try to put full stop over there. But purification once you doing is not necessarily enough. But you do that try to do that every day, every day. You have something else to do, it is not that you are helpless. It is not that you are hopeless. You got have something to do; you do have something to do. So you got to do that rather than getting into the hole, and try to remain under there., and saying ‘I am hopeless, no one can save me, I am here, I belong here’. Really, certainly you don’t belong there. You are a human being, you have Buddha nature within you. And you are the person going to become a buddha. And buddhas doesn’t remain in the holes. (Laughs) so don’t forget that, okay. So that is important. That is the point 1 of regret. Most important point here is antidote. 1:21:22.8

What would you do? Save life for killing;generosity for stinginess ; stealing…or any of that type.There are people not necessarily doing it by voluntarily or willingly or decidely but somehow people have the habit of picking up extra((Laughs). You see some ladies picked up extra piece of butter in the supermarket and slipped through(Rimpoche laughs) I saw number of times, anyway. (Rimpoche laughs) When they go to the supermarket somehow they liked to…cookies in their bags, things like that, you know. We even have a commercial on that,remember? Anyway, that type of things. Some people in habit. Not necessarily doing it and some people in habit, they have to lie all the time…exaggerate. I had that habit for a long time,really. And took me long time for me to correct.But you need awareness and you need determination. So one has to be really careful not to blow up the story, if you have that habit. That’s where it comes in, okay.Then, certain people have the habit of killing. They can’t help it. If you watch the kids, some of the kids would like to help insects and little animals they would like to protect them and they would like to help them even though they may hurt while they are playing but their desire and their motivation and their idea is close feeling. Some kids in of hitting them and killing them, you know. That’s the addiction that we carry from our previous lives. No one told their own kids kill all those. Some do, some don’t. That’s what it is. They do…we do, we create many negativities, by virtue..Most of them, by virtue of having addiction to that. We bring our addictions from our previous lives. Sometimes I like to joke with psychologists. When they say, ‘I am going to get to the bottom of that problem’. The bottom of that problem is in previous life, not here. That’s for sure. We have lots of psychologists and psychotherapists here, you know.(Rimpoche laughs). But the bottom of that problem is maybe previous life. You maybe able to hypnotized them and bring them to the previous life, I don’t know whether you can or not. But, if you really want to get the bottom of the problems, they come from many lives. Those addictions make us automatically ‘can’t help it’. You already done it by the time you realized, “Oh, did I do that again?’, extra piece of butter or whatever (Rimpoche laughs). Lucky didn’t melt in your pocket. So, anyway, that’s an example. So that’s what it is. So all those negativities we do that very often. Okay. So then, what else? So the antidotes., antidotes. 1:26:23.1

Most common antidote for everything, (Rimpoche quotes in tibetan…mi cho pa…) Shantideva says ‘such a powerful negativity such as this, beside bodhimind, what kind of virtue can overcome this?’ Generating bodhimind isvery simple, applicable for everybody; it is the wonder drug. That is the aspirin. Bodhimind is the aspirin. As well as the absolute bodhimind, emptiness, the key. Otherwise reading sutras, saying mantras, saying prayers, doing prostrations, circumambulations, mandala offerings and saving lives, all of that thing counts in. But really the general thing applicable for everything is relative and absolute bodhimind. These two are the real antidote for it.You can do retreat, you can say mantras, and very popular with the earlier tibetan followers, that means the people…you know the…among the tibetan buddhists you have the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug. And it is always the kargyupas come first, the nyingmapas comes in and mixed together and the sakyapas pops up here and there and finally the gelugpas come in. That is the trend ever since 500 years even in Tibet. That’s what it is. So the earlier tibetan buddhist practitioners in the West goes for 100 000 Vajrasattva recitations and this mantra and that mantra and all that type of business, great. But the real antidote commonly used helpful, most efficient is the two bodhimind, relative and absolute bodhimind. Okay. That’s that. Antidote. Then what? What else. Aura, did I forget something? Ah? (Audience: Refuge…unclear*) I heard that. What else? Ah? (Audience: ..not to repeat) Oh, not to repeat. If you keep on repeating, what is the use. So non repeatable. Non repeatable. You know Alan used to use 4 words, 4 ‘Rs’. So remember those okay? Recognition, non repeatable, regret and ..(Audience..redirecting) redirecting, okay. So, anyway, 4 ‘Rs’ Alan used to say . These are most important point in our life. Then one which I did not mention is the foundation on which you work. The foundation on which you really work is taking refuge and creating love compassion together. So during your practice you took refuge already, you generated bodhimind. So what we called it, base on which we work …power of base is established , you don’t have to do it separately. Are you with me? 1:31:04.8 So these are the Four Powers.

So with the Four Powers if you apply on your negative actions, no matter whatever maybe, it will purify. But that doesn’t mean you doing once is good enough. You repeat that, make it daily chore for yourself. Doesn’t take much if you read in the Seven Limb, it says, “ I regret all my negative actions ‘. One verse, think , meditate all four of those and that’s good enough. Do it as your daily chore. So daily doing is big difference. It builds up. It is like saving drops of water. If you keep on saving a drop of water, the bucket fills up. Just like that if you do daily, it takes its own effect.That’s how it works, okay? That’s a very important point. So that covers the ‘purification’.Right? Did I forget anything about it? So I emphasize this purification so much here, at least whatever I could on this point. Because number of my friends here like to go into the hole. There is no need , no need! Please step aside , don’t get in there. If it is cricket or what you called that …the ball that you throw..(Audience: voices….golf) Golf, ya, if it is golf ball, you have to get in that hole. And you are not a golf ball. (Laughters) And don’t throw yourself in there. Don’t kick yourself, okay. (Rimpoche laughs) Remember that, you are not a golf ball. Okay? That’s it, okay. And that’s supposed to be joke. (Laughters) But the jokes are important because you’ll remember it. So remember you are not a golf ball. So that’s it. Thank you.

So the next will be..(Audience: Rejoice) Rejoice. (Rimpoche quotes in tibetan …)Now I don’t remember…forgot. The thief has come. The thief of forgetfulness. So anyway, the easiest way…the easiest way to build up luck what we were talking yesterday, is rejoice, not jealous. Rejoice. That’s very important. If you keep on jealousing person, you are exhausting your positive karma, you are building your negativity more, you are serving your ego, nothing else. Instead of getting jealous if you rejoice,’ how wonderful the person could do that!’ “How wonderful the person could do that!’ So what you are gaining, is let the person work and you are enjoying the fruit. And when you are stupid and when we are controlled by ignorance, we don’t know that. So we only know, ‘That has to be me who is doing that , not him or her’. So I get jealous. So not only I don’t gain any yield, but I lose my virtue.So these are the important tricks that you apply in your life. Keep on rejoicing when people is getting great. When somebody else is doing great, you keep on rejoicing from the bottom of your heart. Not passive aggressive. So you wanted gain, you don’t want lose , so you do that. You wanted to rejoice but at the bottom of that rejoice, you wanted gain. That is passive aggressiveness. You know people say , ‘So and so he lost and I kept cool, and the more I get cool, he got more angry’ and then you say ‘Hey, hey, hey’. That is passive aggressiveness…passive aggressiveness. So you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to do that. Passive aggressiveness is negative, negativity; it is not positiveness.Okay? So you keep on rejoice ; let the people work. You enjoy the fruit, what more you want? (Laughters) Ya, really. So the trick is when you say ‘My neighbour is doing some thing , some thing..great, wonderful. But she has a motivation, blah blah blah..she has agenda’ Cut the ‘but’ out! (Laughters) ‘She is doing great!’ Period. ‘She is doing great, wonderful! I wish I could do the same thing’. Maybe you allow that much, nothing more than that. ‘It should be me not her’ . That’s gone too far. And then you know …it makes two right turns makes one left turn, you know. (Rimpoche laughs) So that’s what happens. Are you with me? I am going to cut this short because you got a big long thing. There is a lot of teachings on that available. But this is one of the important trick that practitioners could build their virtue, luck even fortune by doing this. You will be able to cash that when you need it. So this is a great investment, risk free. You know you don’t have to depend on the brokers …what you called it..shore…(Audience: *voice)..ya, stock brokers. You don’t have to depend on that. This is a great way to make investment and risk free. Good investment! (Rimpoche laughs) Alright. So..I believe Kathy is pointing out to the clock…till 12.30 or till 1? 12.30, okay. You have to give me more time, Kathy. Lunch is ready we have to go but…you really to have to do something. Then 12.30 to…then lunch comes to 12.30? (Audience: Lunch ready at 12.30) I am sorry, I didn’t look here. (Audience: *discussion ..) 10.00 to 12.30, alright; 12.30 to 2.30 lunch. Alright. So that’s it; we covered two. Out of 64, you know, we have covered 7, knows that’s not that great. So …1:41:03.8