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Soundfile 19940905GRSRWT_01

Speaker Gelek Rimpoche

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Transcriber Wee Lin

Date Oct 22 2020

Absolutely true and it is also true not only America in particular but in the west people don’t want to hear about the lower realm and they don’t want to think about the lower realm. But it is reality , absolute true and it is there. And there is no guarantee we don’t fall into lower realm. And I was particularly happy with the Rochelle’s presentation of six realms and really happy I must say it here clearly openly and loudly so that people may not say well he doesn’t really prove it he doesn’t like it but he just going along with it. It is not really true, it is really nice. Nice in the sense if you watch how it is functioning they exactly where you move around and if you are following one person you are not going to find it because it is gone. That’s exactly when you die your consciousness move in that way . It is extremely hard to follow it. You get lost in a little while. Somebody’s following and why it is is going . That’s exactly what happen in reality. And then talking about the lower realm and felling about it particularly cold hell realm and hot hell realm and particularly those of the where the raksasha lives in trees and all these and the rogyedadum that is where there are the swamp and all these and people pick up this feelings of it and it is really good. And then sense and if you experience you don’t experience. You know the traditional Tibetan teachers we don’t present that way sand they will talk and expect people to meditate until you feel it. So here it is another way through theoretical way of presenting, it is great. At least if you really go through with this and then that is good. And then she reads out the causes, you take rebirth in each one of these afterwards. And through mantra power if it can be destroyed , this is the mantra. This is called Lower Realms destroying mantra. So that is why people say this mantra and some of them say Mintupa mantra and some say this Lower realm destruction mantra and all these and the Mintupa mantra , some people say million times , millions of times in their life. People fo that.

Like the attendant of Trijiang Rinpoche Aura and Sandy call them Egghead. Obviously it was Kyabje Rimpoche’s advice, he got up 4 in the morning and said Mintupa mantra 1000 times every single day. So people do that. This is one example.

0:04:40.4 These are the mantras. Works in that way. Let’s do the mantra first. This mantra is written in English by Ribur Rimpoche. There are actually five mantras which are called Destroyer of lower realms. And the second one is called Namjung……. It destroys the negative karma and delusions. This is shorter version of the Urnishva Buddha, there is a long one which is a very very long one. This is the shorter version. Om Bhrum Soha, Om Amrita Ayur Da de soha. Actually this is what is called Three principles of the path. This is the total root basic root text of development of spiritual path. Whether you look any tradition, Tibetan Buddhism, whether you are following Ngingma, Kagyu Sakya , Gelug whatever you are following, even among the Kagyupas if you are following Karma Kagyu , Dripung Kagyu Shampa Kagyu , Takpu Kagyu , there are like 16 of them .

So whichever you are following , they give you different names like example, Gelugpa will call it Lam Rim, the Sakyapa will call it Pae Rim and the Kagyu will call Takpe Gen as sort of liberation by the Kamapa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation and the all of those. And when you reach a little bit of higher level then some will call it Dzgochen, some will call it Mahamudra and the Gelugpa tradition will call it Uma. So all of those is the Chakpo Usu, whether it is dzogchen, uma or Mahamudra or whatever it is. The basic foundation, from the beginning , some of them will tell you , you need not do anything else except concentrate and , that’s the little different techniques like five dakinis coming in the air and watching them and things like that. This sort of things are there but besides that they will tell you don’t have to do anything else, just go out and do this and that will be ok and gradually lead you back and to the same path.

0:09:10.1 So ultimately what will happen is this is the path through which the Buddha have travelled and reached . So without which you can’t. So the Three Principle path is the shortest, easiest and explained. Manjushri chosed to explain this through Tsongkhapa. That’s where the scopes come, Common with lower scope, medium scope and the Mahayana scope. Basically at the lower scope, they are encouraging us to seek freedom, seek total freedom of suffering and cause of suffering. First two noble truths is what you call Lower scope or small scope. It is the first two Noble truths. The lower scope will teach you up to protecting yourself from falling into the lower realms and the freedom, seeking freedom is the two scopes, the lower and the medium scopes. And then divided into two and the first lower scope will tell you how to protect me and how and why and to protect yourself from falling into the lower realms. And that they give you, in order to overcome the laziness, they give you meditate on death , dying and all these. In order to appreciate life they give quality of life, what it is , how one should embrace life rather than reject. That is basically the small scope. Then they give you , if you cannot help it there are some who can help, seek help and introduce the refuge. That covers the small scope and that the first half of the first Principle.

0:11:45.5 Then goes on top of that, ya if you are free from one lifetime falling into lower realm , that is not enough, that’s not total freedom . Because it is constantly repeat so what are you going to do the next time. So better do it once and for all. Rather than try to cut the river twice, better cut it once and for all. So let’s get out of the total samsara which is controlless , circling round after one another without, like what Rochelle said yesterday, suddenly you move right to the left and close your eyes and go anywhere wherever you are going and she adds up one more thing, make sure you don’t bump into each other. That’s exactly what happens. You get back to the same place or you go somewhere else but same condition.

Then they say , why, while you are having the opportunity , while you are having the method, while you are having on this, why don’t you cut once and for all. Either in the principle of the Four Noble Truths again like the two last truths or the 12 links of the interdependence arise which means you really understand how you move. Try to understand what pushes you. 12 links of interdependent , if you know, when you look at one push to the other. It sort of very systematically works, right? Those of you know. One link push to another link. You don’t have control, you don’t have choice, it just goes on. It’s like automatic. If you look in the watch, there is a little wheel that goes through and one goes this way and they push the other one. That’s because one is going that way , the others push through, that’s exactly how the 12 links throw you around. Let’s get free of that. So that is the medium scope.

0:14:07.5 Then the Mahayana scope, the third scope or the big scope or whatever it is, say hey if you are free, how can you walk out by yourself? What about the others? And the others will say, what about me? Take me with you, don’t let me be here. Don’t leave me alone here, don’t leave me alone here. That’s what it is. So then that’s why the bodhimind and all these come in. That’s what three Principles really is. And that is total spiritual path. You may talk big way from here to there, sort of down the way thousands years or something , you may put in very small way and the very comprehensive small way and that is spiritual path. That is journey that you are involved in. And that’s it, as simple as that and keep that in mind and then you will comprehend everything. And single thing wherever you read about dharma , anywhere and then you will find, huh, this falls in this category and that will help me to advance at this level, at this stage, at this point.

And that’s is really what Kadampa means. Meaning of the Kadampa. Where others simply said Every teaching of the Buddha has practice. That is really what it means. If you read anywhere, whatever it is , unrelated spiritual teaching, path and you can bring it over here within your organized structure then you know where it fits which can advance. And that’s what really Kadampa style, Kadampa way. Example they give you traditionally, old Tibetan example , they give you food containers, If you have container of salt , tea, sugar and butter and if you find from somewhere else some food , and if you find from somewhere else , if you find handful of these and you can bring it home and put it in your own sugar container or tea container. It is within that and that’s what Kadampa really means.

0:16:41.1 That’s how what should follow on spiritual path. There is no better organized way than that of three principle way or the Foundation of perfection or the Tsongkhapa shorter Lam Rim and that I can tell you with my limited knowledge of Tibetan Buddhist information, not only in the Gelugpa tradition but in Ngingma, Sakya, Kagyu and all these and if you really look in, that’s really boil down to, that will work with individual , that will make sense, that will organize your spiritual path. That’s what it is. I just want share that with you. That’s why we provided this and you may read it. It may make sense, may not make sense. But keep on reading it , keep on reading it about a hundred times , read some commentaries here and there , listen to people here and there and then you do it and then it will come in and that is how it goes. First learn , second comprehends , third meditate. That is the way how you work. Don’t do something that you don’t know. Really true. If you do something which you don’t know , you get into trouble sometimes , not so many times, sometimes you do.

0:18:39.1 This Three principle of the path what we have here is Glen Mullin’s new translation. And I am try to, every time I do this in Cleveland, every time when I get to Cleveland I said, Do you have this translation , Yael will say , No , Kathy never give me that. I called and she never gives me. Every single time. True. Every single month. ( laughter ) And so that’s what happened and this is it. So then what we are doing in New York is the shorter Lam Rim of Tsongkhapa. And the Three Principle of the Path in Cleveland and those who are in Ann Arbor they have this Three Principle once , twice teaching as well as these days we are going through the Lam Rim every Tuesday night. So they been a little bit of privilege compared with others , I am not sure whether they appreciate or not. But that’s what it is.

0:19:50.3 Chicago, I have not been for a while though we started Three Principle of the path in Chicago but somehow never been there. Incidentally talking about Chicago , (Kyabje Chenshen???) Rimpoche, a very very nice Lama , I know him in Drepung Monastery. He is coming to Chicago , the posters are there doing Kalacakra initiation , the posters are available. Where are your posters. By the registration desk. If you are interested , that’s going on in Sept. I was originally scheduled to go to Chicago sometime around Sept 16 or 17 , I cancelled that because of that reason. So that is same period where Kyabje Chenshen Rimpoche is going to be there.

0:20:55.9 Now is totally hocus pocus or things like that. If you don’t understand you don’t understand. But if you give benefit of doubt, that is fine. Past, present, future lives etc. But without knowing anything , just because I didn’t see it so it is not there. It is a little too much statement. I have not seen Beijing and Beijing is still there. So far I have not seen it. Other people have seen it, yes, that is true, if you buy that, the other buddhas and Bodhisattvas have seen it karma too. But I haven’t seen it, that doesn’t mean it is not there. So if you give a benefit of doubt that’s fine, if you draw conclusion completely saying , well that’s not reality, just because the scientists cannot comprehend or something or any reason, whatever the reason may be.

0:23:16.9 What does this do. This destroys and if you totally take for granted karmic , past, present and future lives is not there, that destroys the fundamental basis of the spiritual path, the positive, negative karmic system which they will rob you completely . You get the idea? So what does the thief do ? ( Tibetan quote ) It is very simple way, it is not very difficult to understand , it is simple and the Buddha calls that, that is sort of bad character. Bad behaviour, so it is easy to be picked up by everybody. You don’t have to put much effort. So easy to be picked up. So it is popular. What do they do? They will really destroy your spiritual life. It destroys the awareness, it destroys the inner peace, it destroys the inner quietness . This inner quietness might not be right. They destroy the place where you can retreat inside , the mind can be retreat in the deep quietness , the body can be retreat in, these are the stages in the completion stage in Vajrayana practice. You have those big quietness where you can retreat and all of them will be destroyed and they rob you of that.

0:25:37.0 So ( quote) This is the fear of thief. The spiritual practitioner if they lose your things, does not matter, can replace them but if you lose that then you really lose. Your precious life is only once we get and if you a great opportunity and that is why . OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA. In the space is stinginess. And this is the iron chain, when you have prisoners, when you don’t want them go anywhere, they put chains around. So they chain their hands and legs , they cannot run around. So the stinginess does that. ( quote) The individual been kept in the prison of samsara without our control, without our wish. Without our control we have been kept there.

What makes us to be there? Is the attachment, the lock of attachment which is very hard to open is the lock of the chain of the stinginess because you don’t want to share it , you don’t want give it, don’t to open, you want to be in corner somewhere , it is not only stinginess you may only think of on the wealth, you have to think of everything , your ideas, openness, sharing the wealth of spiritual , dharma material , everything. It applies on everything. Maybe the English language may only apply on the money and wealth but it is for , this one particularly in the Tibetan , covers everything. You are opening, you are not sharing with people and all these are the stinginess part. And these are the real chains that tied you and you can’t get free of the chains because attachment has locked them. Oh I can’t part with this, it is mine. I really can’t, attachment will tie you. That’s what they are talking here.

0:29:02.1 ( quote ) I may be protected from the fear of the iron chain of stinginess. OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA. The [ opposite of ] stinginess is the generosity and even in the normal Western understanding you say generosity does not only apply to wealth alone. You always say, It is very generous of you.

0:29:47.2 The next is attachment. ( quote) . Attachment is given like fear of water. What does water do? When rough air comes , it shakes you, throw you , do all sorts of things. Where does the air come from ? The air is our karma , karmic air. When the wrathful karmic cyclones air throws then the water shakes and give you birth , age, illnesses and death. These are the four waves they will throw and with that karmic air , so which is provided by attachment. Basically, remember we always say attachment is the glue for samsara. I will come back to that a little bit in the afternoon. Because I would like to talk three essence of life in the afternoon so in that I will talk a little bit on that. The example , attachment and water. We may be protected from that fear by the unlimited power, kindness, compassion of Tara, we may be protected from this. OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

0:31:56.8 Now the next is doubt. The first Dalai Lama was very interesting. He has given example here as ghost. Intelligence faith is one thing. The doubt is another one. So the doubt here is basically the doubts are based on the ignorance. Doubts are based on ignorance. And particularly ignorance of not knowing or wrong knowing. Both. It is particularly harmful for the people who try to find the truth. It takes away the backbone and the life of the liberation. That is the doubt. It is ghost. When the ghost come, they will do all sorts of things and harm you or chase you away. Right? People have to even move house and do everything , you have to give up and do all sorts of things, if you are luckily enough, if you are still alive.

Here the doubt will be questioning everything because you don’t know. This may be not right, that may be not right, this not right, that not right and at the end everything is not right. Before you find something right , something called death is there. These sort of doubts are a very harmful for a lot of people , it is very harmful. Because people are totally confused. Remember we are based on the ignorance so we are totally confused. When the confused state when they find somewhere to go somewhere and additional doubts will arise and a little hope of that white light shinning is also blown away by the doubt. That is it what it means. It destroys the life of liberation. So everything becomes doubtful. Then you lose the faith completely. The intelligence ones. You lose completely because the doubt overtakes and you doubt everything . Which is very common with us. The earlier Tibetan teachers will give us the example of flag. When the wind blows from the left the flag will go here, flap, flap, flap and when the wind changes it will go [ towards the direction of the wind] But you don’t have any principle left. Because that’s what it is.

0:35:38.2 The first Dalai Lama said ( quote) So by saying this praise, by making request , by practicing this through you , the Tara , do help us to have , to clear the obstacles to develop through the spiritual path and needs of longevity , luck, wealth etc, whatever the needs may be, please be make it available , fulfilled. The next one also says ( quote ) The next word will say, by this everybody may be lead to the Pureland of Buddha Amitabha’s Pureland. And we may be protected and be given guidance and teachings by Buddha Amitabha and without much difficulties we may be able to complete all our path and reach to enlightenment.

0:37:12.2 Now how to get there, is the question . The question how to get there is two ways. One way, by practicing by yourself and taking rebirth or obtaining Buddhahood within your life time. That is through practice. And if you cannot do it , Vajrayana provides this opportunity. If you cannot obtain the Buddhahood before you die, at the time of the death, the death may be substituted by the practice of dharmakaya . That’s what those people who say sadhana everyday have the dharmakaya practice. That’s what it is. By substituting the ordinary death by dharmakaya and while you arise as sambogakaya , you may be taking rebirth in the Pureland in that and this form. Like we always pray our self , at the time of death, at the end of Vajrayogini, ( Tibetan), By the time of death, the great protector, dakas and dakinis may receive me with banners and music etc, and lead me to the Pureland of the yogini or whatever. Normally people who says the sadhana have that. That is one way and the best way.

0:39:48.2 And if you cannot , then just before the death comes you eject your consciousness through the practice of powa. The powa practice is available with every tradition, everybody. And there are millions of different powas in every practice even in the Gelugpa tradition , we have tremendous amount of powa practice. Basically those who are Mig me tse wei chen rigzi all the time is very easy, Close, near to go is the Pureland of Tushita. Tushita Pureland which is, actually out of all these Purelands there is one person called , a Mongolian Lama, Zamba Numen or somebody who wrote all these physical description of all different Purelands. Like the Western Paradise Pureland, Dakini land etc is a Mongolian , 17th century, I think or early 18th century, In that he mentioned that Tushita is the nearest to the physically nearest to the people who are on this planet. So we do have the powa of Tsongkhapa , Maitreya Buddha and all of them are directed to Tushita. Any powa practice can direct to any Pureland, it doesn’t matter. But basically each one of them has like this, Like Tara, Avalokitesvara , Anmitabha and all these are directed towards Western Paradise. And the yoginis and dakinis and Heruka and so and forth are dakiniland. All these sort of different , there.

0:43:13.0 But the most important practice, of the powa type of practice is the uncommon inconceivable practice of the Vajrayogini. Which has no equivalent . That’s outstanding. If incapable, then one of those powas. Powa is basically very simple . Simply leading , mixing your mind to the mind of Lama whoever that might be. That meaning, Lama Amitayus, Lama Tara , Lama Avalokitesvara , Lama whoever it might be, mixing your mind with their mind and another words, is the vehicle what you use is eject your consciousness from your body by air and energy and once it goes out of your territory then the vehicle what you use is Lama’s mind, the mind of the Lama and Lama in this case, all your gurus are Lamas. It doesn’t mean a few individual here and there. And transferring that. That is the second way of getting to the Pureland. I guess that’s it . We better stop here and conclude. OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

0:44:53.1 Including all these is probably a not even 2% of White Tara practice, different things available. For this purposes but just like to share that. This afternoon I would like to devote little time to people basically very very little time, that is us . We have very very little time and to do anything yet we will not like to miss the opportunity and we will also not be able to spend much time and can’t do much and don’t like to miss the opportunity. What can you do ? Number of things are there. There is no shortage of a spiritual practice but most important thing is three essence, which I would like to share with you. Three essence practice. I have asked those number of different zerox from Indiana and so try to remember the volumes by so and so and on this. I have got all these. Maybe this is on that.

0:48:03.0 What will be the three most important things. Will be one practice for life , one practice at the time of death and another practice during the bardo. So living, dying and bardo period. So these are called three essence practice, Living , bardo and dying. You may put it as art of dying , art of living and how to handle bardo. Normally all our practice, whatever the Tibetan Buddhist practice, all of them, are art of living and art of dying. No doubt. There are all there. One way or the other there are there but the art of living here, the living practice whatever you may do it, all your practice are that. In the essence what you really need is object of refuge, and whichever that might be, Those people who have sadhana practice , who are meditating Lam Rim , who have Dzogchen practice, who have Mahamudra practice and all of those do not have to go out of their way to find another small little thing called art of practice, ok ? You don’t, you have them with you, only what you have to is you have to recognize.

And those who do not have anything mentioned and those who need it is basically object of refuge, whether it can be Tara, Avalokitesvara or whatever, Buddhas or gurus whatever, object of refuge and taking a proper refuge to these pure object of refuge along with all sentient beings plus seven limb practice and then particularly making requests, making seven limb offerings and then chanting mantras whether it is Avalokitesvara mantra or Tara mantra or whatever it is and all those of you who are saying the Migtsema and you really don’t need anything else. Migtsema is much more than enough for anybody whoever needs for whatever, it is sort of known as King of all the prayers. It is very very important and then Migtsema will do.

0:52:12.3 And to some people , you know it will boil down to , let me put it. I am trying hesitate to say something but that hesitation will not do. If you read it, all the practices, picked up from everywhere and essence of them you will fall on the Kusali practice. Everywhere, wherever you look and they talk this way, that way , this way , that way , accumulation of merit , here, there, here, there this, this and that , all of them will really boil down to Kusali practice. Kusali practice, those who are doing Kusali practice you do not, that is the real essence. Accumulation of merit and purification , all of them is the really best practice, the essence will boil down to Kusali practice, however they present different ways , it is really boils down to Kusali practice. And those of you who have Vajrayogini practice , and you know what Kusali practice is. It is in there sadhana and those who do not have Vajrayogini practice, Kusali practice is actually making offerings and offering of your body. That does not mean you have to go to , don’t misunderstand. Ok ?

Actually my hesitation is between the initiated and non initiated, that’s why I am hesitating to talk . And I am sort of jumping around , flying round, flying round, not getting anywhere. That is the thing. So hopefully with the permission of Lamas and yidams, may be able to share that. I am not sure everybody can do it or not. But basically Kusali practice is visualizing sort of your body into a purifying and transforming and by the blessing of purification , transforming and multiplying it, and making offerings to the object of refuge, guru, yidams , Buddhas, Bodhisattvas , and invited guests, protectors and all these. And that is the basically Kusali practice. Those who are doing the tsoh offerings, which is almost similar to that but in the tsoh, you actually offering the materials that you arrange and mentally created and you offer them to the object of refuge, guru, yidam , Buddha, dharma, sangha , dakas , dakinis and all sentient beings. That’s what during the tsoh offering. If we have opportunity we will do one tsoh offering here too. If there is opportunity. You do have Lama Chopa here, right ?

0:57:17.9 The three principles of the path that I mentioned this morning , this are the basically the how you deal with your life. It really gives you the art of living. Now the dying, the second part. Dying part. What would you do and that is the period and we give you some mantras to say here. Those of you who have heard Lam Rim and they said the great practitioners should be looking forward for their time of the death. Looking forward. Meaning that person is sure that you are going to have great future life. So that’s why it’s looking forward. Like the Lamdo Lama Rimpoche , Chodak Rimpoche’s reincarnation and you have been saying that yesterday. Lamdo Lama have been saying ( Tibetan ) He said that old broken monk’s body will in the morning, in the evening I am going to change that into beautiful young goddess or something., That is the really when you have that much power and when you are sure that and you are looking forward.

0:59:10.8 Medium level of dharma practitioners hesitation to going through because if you are quite sure you may not be looking forward in, You are quite sure that you will be alright. So you are quite sure you will be alright. And that is the medium level of dharma practitioner. And that’s what you expect to achieve at least the last one will at least ill have no regret at all. And just by saying “ I have no regret, I had a long life, I did everything living whatever I could , I had good life “ I don’t think we are talking about that. Regret here is knowing exactly how the karmic will function, Knowing how the past and present and future life function. Judge it , out of that and they say well, I had a long life, I had enough, I have done lots of non virtuous and I also have lots of positive work done and I have been able to purify all my negativity and that is not going hunt me down and as accumulation of merit , I have collected quite a number of them and those are not been burnt out by the fire of anger and so I am ok. So that person will have no regret.

1:01:02.6 And that person. That is the three sort of tasks they give you as spiritual practitioners . If possible, looking forward, and going and transforming everything. Transforming the death as , Actually you are cheating the death. Instead of dying, you are obtaining enlightenment , so you don’t die, you cheat death. Then the second , even you go through the process , you are ok, I am quite sure I am ok, well at least I have no regret , let the process take its place and I won’t have problem, let it go through. That’s what it is. And if you don’t have all of them, then the number of different powas or the transferring of the consciousness , earlier I talked to you a bit on that and there are a number of different ways of doing it and like one powa, those who are practitioners of the Lama Chopa, Lama Chopa practitioners , guru yoga Lama Chopa practitioners , within the Lama Chopa practice there is one powa, that powa is the thought training powa, it is a lojong powa. And lojong powa does not depend on the hick and the phat. It is the hick phat less powa. That is one way of doing it. Hick and Phat.

1:03:09.3 Hick and Phat is powa practice. Powa practice, what really happens is I can give you a watered down version of powa which I would really to do because people should have it. That’s why we have His Holiness Drikung Jango Rimpoche is coming , participating in our summer retreat. He is the head of the Drikung Kagyu tradition and at this moment the Gyalwa Karmapa , His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa , the reincarnation is young and I think he is the senior most head of all Kagyupa Lamas . Maybe I am wrong. There is a Drupa and there is Drikung and I think he must be the senior most, head of the all Kagyupa Lamas, I think so. Maybe I am wrong. There is always trouble, they will argue who is going to be the head of the Kagyu , argue between Karma Kagyu and Drikung Kagyus and Daramsala tried to make one head a couple of years ago and then they talked to each other and they said, If you accept Karmapa as head of whole Kagyu, during the absence of Karmapa will accept others. They had a big talk two, three years ago when I was in India. And I don’t what they resolve or not. So whether he is the head of whole Kagyu or not , he is head of Drikung Kagyu for sure.

1:04:43.2 The head of the Drikung Kagyu actually have two Rimpoches. One is Chetsang and one is Chungsang. For Drikung, they accept both as equal rank and equal. The Tibetan government in old Tibet, not the government in exile , they accept Chetsang as big and Chungsang as junior rank That is the government view point. So that’s why it goes by his Holliness Gyalwa Drikung , Chetsang Rinpoche. So in that manner. At least old time they use to call Gyalwa Drikung but nowadays I saw couple of them , they just wrote his His Holliness Chetsang Rinpoche or something. So maybe the skip the Gyalwa. Old time they use to , Drikungpa used to say the Gyalwa Drikungpa controls what, 18 days of the bird flying area or something. Old history , it goes like that.

Anyway the famous for the Drikung tradition is the powa, the transferring of , they have own little special thing, Powa is considered very special for Drikung. So he is coming here during our summer retreat , so I have requested the powa for everybody. Whether you would like to take powa as a total practice of powa or take as a blessing , whatever it is. It is up to the individual. That has been requested and he will be doing it and normally in Tibetan they used to do this famous powa for every 12th year . Once in every 12 year. And during that period all folks from Lhasa will all go to Drikung. Almost whole Lhasa people will be , couple of days in the special function and ceremony in Drikung. They all go up there and stay there. And then they will do both Chetsang and Chungsang , I believe , used to sit on the throne and do the powa together. And a lot of people used to faint , that period. I do not know whether it’s fainted because of the sunshine or sitting on the sun’s loft or because of the powa or whatever. But people do fainted and the Drikung monks will go down with little water and throw at those who had fainted and they will wake up.

So anyway, powa transmission, he will be doing it. Then you never end the powa at the end of practice. That’s considered not good omen. And so the powa if you do powa practice at the end you must have a long life practice, all must do, considered a good omen you don’t end that way. That’s why he will do the last day the longevity initiation of White Tara since we have been doing practice White Tara all the time. I hope he won’t change mind like His Holiness , Dalai Lama did . People saying oh no, no, no White Tara , we do something else. Anyway so that’s about that.

1:08:27.1 The sort of watered down version of powa basically, I was talking that the other powa. Basically powa is as I told you this morning , you sort of visualize yourself , your consciousness is sort of very light like feather. I was here a couple of days ago, a little white feather around here. In that sort of style , there you go. Even smaller than that. And be able to fly and then it somehow it’s been pushed up by the air of energy and bumps up through the central channel and then transforms to the , I don’t think I should everything in detail, so , during the powa teaching it will come. So anyway there are sort of connection builds and then transforms and consciousness stuck up there. So during the practice , you will be sound called Hick which is probably putting all the energies and pushing the consciousness up with the power of Hick and the Phat will bring it down. Otherwise you will die. Right. So that is basically pumping up by Hick and settling down by Phat. Pumping up Hick and settling down by Phat. It is the basic practice you do and when you keep on doing that practice you will have some softness on your forehead here and sometimes even you get a little holes there and one of the monks I used to , I don’t know myself personally , I used to hear and been practicing that you can take kusha grass and stick on his head and it will just stand there. He had a head like that.

There are certain practitioners who sees anybody who die , they will get down the horse even we are going down and they will do powa practice even they find a dog dead on the street , they will do the powa practice. The good powa practitioners if you practice very well , and you get a little piece of skull, break and even fall out, they are all there. That’s not myth it is reality, they do that. But once you have some kind of sign , a softness or something , then you don’t practice that all the time. Just keep on reminding yourself not to forget. You don’t do that all the time. Because there is omens that you are longevity may be shorten , that’s why you don’t do. Even you . As I told you earlier , the uncommon inconceivable practice is the superior than powa. If you have that and then the second category is the powa. Then the lojong powa is the powa which does not depend on hick or phat but it has its own little five powers which I am not going to talk now because it is not my subject right now but I will be talking that in our winter retreat. For the winter retreat I have decided to go through the Lama Chopa.

So for those who are attending Lama Chopa, they will have those, a part of the Lama Chopa. Also like to tell you, in order to attend the Lama Chopa teachings, you have to have Vajrayana Mahaanuyoga tantra full initiation. Otherwise you cannot attend. So I will like to take the opportunity here and say the same thing. And the winter retreat is from the 27 Dec to 2 And 7 days going through the Lama Chopa and I think 99.9 % will be the same area because some people are insisting that we may have them in Ann Arbor. Doesn’t look like we can arrange the accommodation down there. People simply talks a lot. They say, why the school will be closed, all the fraternities are available . And we say alright, please find it, and then the , some people worked very hard , go round and try to get it, no. They are not available , they shut down. That is what happens. So probably we will land back to the same area if this is available.

1:13:48.2 So lojong powa is different. And so basically powa here and so it is very simple. At the time of death, what do you do ? I am going to go according to Rongto Tamtu Gyatso?? Vol 4. Very sdimple. You take refuge to Buddha, Dharma and sangha , like the usual Sangye Cho dang Tsoh kyi chohNam la, taking refuge to Buddha , dharma and sangha, generating bodhimind and then on your forehead, ( mantra) this was done through Manjushri. So whether it is Manjushri, Tara , Avalokitesvara , Lama Vajrayogini , Lama Yamantaka , Lama Buddha Sakyamuni , Lama Buddha Amitabha, whoever , whatever you do, that is daily practice whatever you feel comfortable with that. That is how you pick up. Nobody will give you this is your yidam, that is your yidam. Don’t say that.

People go and ask some Lamas , what is my yidam , Rimpoche and I get that people. Ya, I can throw some dice and tell you your yidam is this and that or I can do , I can feel. You know it is better that you should chose your own yidam rather than asking someone , total enlightened being and then they may be able to tell you something but everybody can say something too. But it really thing is whatever you feel comfortable, your practice different yidams which is normally the Tibetan Buddhist tradition always do and Atisha did not like it. Atisha told the Tibetans , ( Tibetan ), he said in India earlier practitioners you have only one deity and they master everything. And you Tibetans , you have hundred different deities and you do not master a single one. That’s what Atisha used to scold earlier Tibetan Masters. That is how Atisha expressed.

1:16:20.4 So anyway that is the Tibetan tradition, you practice different things but basically you do need three yidams. Since we are sharing that, might as well share it. Absolutely what you need is two, one to fulfill the needs of the development of the father tantra, the illusion, development of illusion body , second you do need to fulfill the development of the wisdom. The enlightened Buddhas have body and mind. We also have body and mind. Speech comes , if you have body and mind, unless your other half brain does not work, the speech will come. So body and mind is most important thing. So the mind is the wisdom part of it, which is clear light and all these type of practice will develop fully enlightened mind. The body has been developed through illusion body , the development of the body part of the enlightened. So the father tantra and the mother tantra both are the actually , father tantra is normally geared towards developing illusion body and mother tantra is geared towards, each one of them are capable of delivering and then some people says there isd a neutral tantra , some say no neutral tantra, all tantras are neutral tantras blah, blah, blah. That is philosophical problem and leave it up to them to solve it. So but really individual needs are these two.

1:18:24.2 So the gearing towards the illusion body. It is according to Tsongkhapa tradition, Guhyasamaja is considered the King of Tantra, King of father tantra as well as all these of whole tantra. Guhyasamaja present a major part of the development of the illusion body which covers almost all father tantras have the same thing. And the King of the Mother tantra is Heruka tantra or Cakrasamsvara Tantra, Vajrayogini, all of them fall in the same category. They develop Mother tantra. Which is the development of the wisdom part of , clear light, etc. So that’s what the two absolutely necessary. That way one can obtain enlightenment within one’s lifetime. You have all the tools completed that way.

So whatever, if you are not capable of doing that, whatever you feel comfortable with your yidam , whichever the yidam may be m Tara, White, Green , Blue, Black, Yellow , Multi colour whatever and Avalokitesvara , similarly male, female , thousand eyes , thousand arms, four hands , five hands, eleven heads whatever. All of them are there, there is no shortage. And Manjushri, one face, two hands, with one face, five hands , with five faces with on lion , off the lion, sitting down, standing up , all of those, there is no shortage. There are hundreds of those. Anyway, whatever you feel comfortable and closer, it is also change from time to time to the individual person. And that is also fine. Whatever the time , whenever you need . closer to it, the most important point is inseparable that of your own spiritual master and enlightened beings. No matter whatever the physical form of this Buddha, that Buddha , all in one and inseparable that of your own spiritual master. And inviting them , meditated on your head, inviting them . Here it says, ( Tibetan ) invite, sit, meditate on them , light goes , invite the wisdom beings , dissolve to it, and make seven limbs offerings which we did in the morning. I bow down and all these verses that we have here.

1:21:49.8 Seven limb offerings and then at the end, now here is according to Lama Jampelyang , Lama Manjushri ( Tibetan ) I have no other place to go to seek protection so you are the only one so please protect me from suffering of illnesses by the time when you die you have lot of pains, please protect me from those pains , from the fearful feelings by actually not reality, it is not true, but we get very fearful feelings. Normally when we talk about death and dying , particularly in Lam Rim you say you die, we leave it there. But it is not so simple as dying going , nicely , no. You may look at them. You say some people have very fearful even before they die. And some people don’t, some people have looks very smooth. But however it is very difficult. There is a lot of pain and difficulties.

Most of us here do have experience with either Marijuana or bung or something. You know what a bung is? It is not in America. It is supposed to be getting out of almond seeds. So you can , the thing is I had that experience because somebody gave me in Indian sweets in India, that’s why I do know. So what happened is , everybody has experience, how sensitive the individual becomes. How clear you can hear, how loud the sound is as though somebody maybe talking in the other room, you hear them almost talking inside your ear. Right or wrong? That sort of thing , multiplied by a hundred times or thousand times and that’s what you hear. So a tiny little fly must be flying around but that sound will multiply thousand times in your ear and so becomes very very fearful. That is what really , these are actually becoming sort of reality to that person. To that person who is going through, it is reality. Right or wrong. When you have those experience, it is reality for you. You can’t figure out whether , it is what it is and same way people get that. And the little fearful things are exaggerated by thousand times, that’s why it becomes very fearful.

So what we try to do is we don’t try to go through that. So say, look, I don’t want these pains that are getting to me, try to separate my consciousness and body, What is that/ It is the separation of the consciousness and the body. The disconnecting the connection you build your body and mind. It is separation and it is not easy to do it. When you cut that connection, it is painful, it is not easy, people go through that. And if you don’t have control over your death, we don’t want to experience that. We would like to escape that. One way of escaping , transforming it. Get it out before they clear the elements in your body. That is what really cause . All the elements are unserviceable . Remember during the Lam Rim teachings , I talked the body is like apartment. And the person is the occupant. The apartment becomes unserviceable. There is no water running , then the leaking, the water is coming in , there is a fire, you have to run , it is the falling parts and that is the body decaying and the decaying these four elements or five elements within our body which cause consciousness has to go.

1:27:53.0 So that is painful so that is the pain of the dying pain. Then when you disconnect what we call this life is ended. You have gone somewhere else and you find new apartment, new neighbourhood and new body and new companion , everything new you are going to get. So it causes pain. And here what you are trying to do is we don’t want experience those pains when it is certain it is going to come and I cannot control it then I have to go. I have to go pack and go faster. It’s like somebody try to come and catch you and you get tip and you run away before the police come. In that manner, this is escape, this is how it works. I think it is clear enough now. ( Tibetan ) Protect me, protect me protect me from those, please watch your kindness and compassionate eye, watch me.

( Tibetan ) So very difficult bardo period . You know bardo there is a lot of difficulties, not easy , simple thing. When you dissolving system , those who know , dissolving, the earth element dissolves to the water, water dissolves to the fire, fire dissolves to the air , air dissolves to space, space dissolves to consciousness. So these how you go backwards that is how you die and then you take rebirth all reverse . Reverse , reconnect , reconnected, reconnected. It is like a new neighbourhood and then you reconnect with , if you have a trailer home…..( end of audio )