Archive Result

Sound file:19940809GRLR

Speaker:Gelek Rimpoche

Location:Ann Arbor

Topic:Lam Rim

Transcriber:Jayapushpa

Date: 13thJanuary, 2023

The last Tuesday and this Tuesday, we had..I went to Columbus, Ohio and there is one of our ..actually two friends. One is a woman named Molly Hasting and another Aikia..what is her name? Anyway, she is a Japanese origin Brazilian American who used to be come here on Tuesdays, and some Lam Rim teachings, and who moved to Columbus, Ohio. So, they organized some group meetings. I have been there for Friday night,quite a number of people. I think Anne came and it is interesting just to share because they are all totally new. So, I didn’t know where to speak about Dharma what. So, I started talking about Jewel Heart. I started talking about Jewel heart.at Jewel heart do, what is our aims and goals are, and why we exists and how we started and all these. So I started talking Jewel Heart and so Kathy sent me a few T shirts with me, and most of them sold that night. Talking about Jewel Heart. (Rimpoche laughs). Anyway, I did mentioned the purpose of Jewel Heart is, as we do have Jewel Heart mission statement. What does that say? Do anybody has that by heart? Maybe Supa can look behind you and see if there is one there. I am sure it is in there. Anyway, what I said is to share the traditional Tibetan and all these in the contemporary American life. (Supa: Jewel Heart is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism and to bringing the practice of this rich tradition within the context of contemporary life) That’s it. Sometimes we like to hear it because you will say “Why? What is Jewel Heart existing for “. So that is what I did over there and talked about it, the purpose. And then we say how we bring the traditional Tibetan buddhist practices in the context of American life. So, normally teachings and how we handle with life. That’s how we started. Otherwise don’t know where to start with Dharma because completely new set of people. Don’t even know where to talk.So, that is how I started. And it went on well and as usual, Saturday in Cleveland group meeting. Went on well and Sunday, New York city group and that also went on well. And In New York I made a change this time. Instead of going 10 to 12, 2 to 5, I made 10 to 2 and stopped because afternoon is very hot. That’s it.

And teachings what’s going on in Cleveland is The Three Principles of the Path and as usual there is a lot of new people. So, instead of going all the way down, I went to Three Principles separately what is it. Could not really reach to the bodhimind or Love Compassion. Sort of stuck first level.And that’s what happened.So as New York. What we do is the same Lam Rim what we are doing and also there is a lot of new people , so we have to start over very briefly from the beginning. Also did not go down to bodhimind level, which was there before, couldn’t go anything beyond. That’s what happened. So, coming back on Tuesday here , and so..what did we do last week? Can somebody tell me what did we do last week? (Audience: We talked about invocation ?) Talked about what? (Audience : The need for visualizing the objects of refuge before you can nature of wisdom beings within the objects on the altar and visualized..) Hm..hm..So anybody has any question about it? (*interruption) So, now, what? Any questions, anybody? (Audience: Could you talk about the generation of supreme field of merit? Is it important to generate the supreme field of merit or the field of refuge at the same time? ) What do you mean by same time? (Audience: for..) It is very important to generate to correct motivation. And that is important, as you know.And over here it is also important to visualize or create supreme field of merit. Field of merit is important because on that basis, you know, I talked about business. I also talked about the field where you can grow lots of food and if the field is good, your yield can be good. If the field is bad, the yield can be bad. We talked about that and so it is important. Well, is it necessary…the question is “Do I have to do both together simultaneously?” Maybe not. Because our mind might not be capable of doing it simultaneously, two separate things together. So, you may not have to do simultaneously two together. But in one sitting or in one session , both are necessary. Particularly this particular practice what we are talking about it. It is absolutely necessary. Okay, anybody any other questions anybody have it? Nobody. Hm, you have questions? (Audience: No). Okay.

So, if you don’t have questions, then we probably continuously to go .As you remember, first I like to remind you to correct our motivation. So at least artificial bodhimind ‘for the benefit of all sentient beings I would like to obtain the stare of buddhahood for which will listen to this stage of development practice and then practice for the benefit of all beings’. At least that much generated thought. So, basically we are talking about …we are talking here now, Lam Rim, basically, the stage of development. What steps what stage follows. So we.. I am not going to repeat all the time as usually we should. But I am not going to repeat all the time, so just go very shortly. Like three sort of divisions, preliminary, actual practice and conclusion. So, we are at the preliminary level. Preliminary also have Six preliminaries., which I think we talked about the six preliminaries. Cleansing, right? Cleansing point. And cleansing point we talked about outer, inner cleansing and also we are not only talking about the room but also environment and all these together. So, that is the first preliminary part of it. And then second, also laying the altar. And then second, making offerings. The offerings also pure. ‘Pure’ in the sense of the pure material point and also the motivation point and actual reality of it. So, we talked that. Then the third point. Meditate..how you sit and meditate. And then generating a pure thought and taking refuge and generating Four Immeasurable. Compassion immeasurable…immeasurable Compassion, immeasurable Love, equanimity and Joy. So this is the ..third or fourth? (Audience: fourth) And fifth , is generating the supreme field of merit. And I basically talked how the Lam Rim lineage was come through and that’s why we talked through that page here, ‘ Gya chen cho pei gyu la sol wa deb. Zab mo ta wei gyu la sol wa deb. Nyam len jin lab gyu la sol wa deb. Gyu pei la ma nam la sol wa deb.’ So we went throguh that. Remember that? So, Gya chen cho pei gyu is the lineage coming through the Buddha to Maitreya Buddha, Asanga and all these . Actually the direct, the word ..direct teachings of the (pause) (*interruption) Anyway, the direct teachings is supposed to be the Wisdom part of it. And so which comes through Manjushri and Nagajuna to Atisha. And indirect meaning there is a Love Compassion , etc lineage coming through Maitreya Buddha and Asanga and all these, to Atisha. These are the first two lines ‘Gya chen cho pei gyu / Zab mo ta wei gyu ‘ ThenNyam len jin lab gyu is the Practice oriented..Practice Blessings oriented lineage from Buddha Vajradhara, through Tilopa , Naropa, Dumbipa and all these to Atisha and Tsongkhapa. Like three major different lineages combined together to Atisha. Thus this becomes Kadam tradition. So basically we have mentioned. If you look in the picture of the .. I meant to say to bring the picture here , I also forgot. Would you please remember next time, just bring next Tuesday, the lineage tree picture here. So, anyway, if you look in the picture you see groups of teachers. Group of teachers here, group of teachers there . You see all these different divisions, sort of lump here, lump there..and then all joined. And that is how these lineages has been working. And finally from Tsongkhapa , which is Kadampa sarva ma , or New kadampa tradition. And Tsongkhapa onwards to my late masters , unbroken lineage, living tradition, how it been continued. And that’s why you have all these lineage masters and their prayer together. So that covers actually the supreme field of merit.However for our practical purposes, we have said ‘Jewel system’, which is ..it is not the Jewel Heart jewel system…but traditionally it was also taught that way. Jewel system, everybody whatever the different physical appearance might be in reality, but in one’s own meditation, it is sort of your own spiritual master look like Tsongkhapa look like ..all reality, all the buddhas, all the lineages masters, all yidams together, oneness. That also the body is the Sangha , the spiritual development is Dharma and their mind is Buddha. So the combination of that, body, mind, speech combined together which makes all Buddha, Dharma and Sangha together in one sort of thing. And I did ask this particularly Song Rinpoche, ‘how does the jewel look system ..jewel look like system , what should be?’ So Song Rinpoche told me at that time, ‘Well, Tsongkhapa look like. You don’t really have to have the physical face clearly, if you don’t. Because we have a number of different teachers’ So, it is Tsongkhapa look like, some thing monkish look like something, whatever picture you can get it and stick to that. And actually the word what Song Rinpoche used at that time is ,”like ma do do, sa do do” which means something like red lump or yellow lump of thing, whatever you can get it. And so that is how it really works. And so, that’s that. 0:24:36.2

And also we covered last Tuesday and then the Six.. Sa dang nyen la(?) The essence of all accumulation of merit and purification, Seven Limb Practice, including mandala offerings. That also has Seven limbs, seven of them and mandala makes eight. Okay, mandala offerings makes eight. And sa dang nyen la..(?) So, that is, earlier masters have said ‘It is essence of contemplation and accumulation of merit and purification’. These seven it seems to be very simple. You know those of people earlier here we insist to say Ganden Lha Gyema . So, they have this long Ganden Lha Gyema you have. So now in the Tuesday group like this, Ganden Lha Gyema also becomes too long, for busy American life. So, we have this very short verse here .. I send my book here somewhere..not this one,,it said, “ I bow to something something..” What do they say? (Audience: I bow down in body, speech and mind..) That’s right, I bow down body, speech and mind. So, that is the first limb, out of the seven. Out of seven, Steve Kronenberg put here, ‘Salutation’, sounds very traditional ..authentic… sort of Chinese translation type of thing. ‘Salutations’, the Chinese has very much emphasize salutations and incense offerings. So they keep on chanting for days, you know.When you go and teach Chinese group, and before you speak a word, it is four hours they keep on bowing, chanting , what they called ‘salutations’., which is actually bowing down. I explained the other day , so I don’t think I am going to repeat again. So, unless somebody has some questions, somebody did not hear it earlier, you still like to hear it, then better raise your hand. It is your opportunity. So, there is no hands raise, so I continuously go. Did you raise your hand? (Audience: No) Okay. Don’t call me ‘Sir’. Just say “No” . Good habit too, but not to me. Okay. 0:28:03.5

And next, what did it say? (Audience: Offerings both actually arranged and mentally created). Okay, so now ‘Offering’. Did I talk on offering the other day? No, I didn’t talk. I did talk (Audience: Ya) And then, that ‘s good. Then I don’t have to talk again. That’s great. Any questions anybody on offering business? (Audience: Could you explain a little bit?) Which one? (Audience: Offering) Offering means ‘give, give, give’. (Laughs) problem we don’t have a hat to send round. (Laughs) maybe we could borrow from somebody. Just joking. Offering, what would you like to know? Actually it is act of generosity. It is funny..it is also ..it maybe true, but it also creates lots of problems. I tell you what because I am thinking just now. I always speak what I think straightaway. So what happen is, offering is act of generosity. So the act of generosity considered very important practice and we don’t have to raise that because everybody knows. But generosity to be more effective, they say it also depends on the object to whom you give offerings.Supreme field of merit is considered best object to make offerings. This is the traditional eastern religion background. I think it goes same Hindu, Buddhism ,Jain, Sikh..everything. I think everybody will say the same thing in this. So what happened , you maybe making the same offering to different people, but object to whom you offer makes the different yield for the individual from the karmic wise or purification wise or even building merit wise. Or, even building a particular karma to become wealthy. So what they recommend is the object of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,considered the top most level object. That means making offerings to connecting with the Buddha, offerings connecting with the Dharma, and offerings (*interruption) …So, offerings to Buddha, offerings to Dharma, offerings to Sangha is considered very very important. Even more important than just be very generous in public or particularly even sort of needy things to do. As a result, the consequence of that, you also have to look , that’s why I say it is a problem. It may be the individual getting benefit, no doubt, I don’t question that at all. But as a consequence of that, In the East, there is tremendous amount of money being poured in the temples and individual teachers, and the lamas and all these. And have neglected, quite a lot of neglected for the need of the public. That may be the fault of this. You have to see the problems. And everybody wants better benefit, right? And particularly if you look at the Chinese community, and all these sort of things..(*interruption) So, that’s what happens. That might be a fault of this. But on the other hand, generosity is very important. And object of refuge, if you could give anything, give of that is really tremendous benefit. It is recommended to be the best way of purifying our negativities. One of the best ways of accumulation of merit; one of the best ways contemplation, collecting..sort of boosting up individual’s spiritual path. So generosity is considered offering. That’s why they don’t put ‘generosity’, they put ‘offerings’ there. That’s what it is. 0:34:09.7

But the question arises, if I am poor , I have nothing to offer, so therefore I don’ have the chance to boost myself up. Sort of boosting power is not there. But you don’t have to think about it. Because offerings is not necessarily to be wealthy…you know the monetary wealth or anything. It can be flowers, incense, water..anything of that. And particularly water. I did think I mentioned earlier. Atisha recommended poor Tibetans to make offerings of water offerings. Telling them it has eight qualities in water. I do not know whether the running water in the Mid West has eight qualities or not. (Laughs) But Atisha counted Tibetan waters has eight qualities. (*Rimpoche quotes in tibetan) So, it is light, cool nature, not heavy water. I don’t know, maybe they don’t have minerals there. Light, cool nature, clear, doesn’t smell, doesn’t harm your throat, doesn’t harm your stomach. Anyway, that sort of eight qualities. And eight qualities, if you make one glass of water offerings to ..with the eight qualities, even you get the benefit of eight different offerings and all these sort of things. And in addition to that, those of us who do the Six Session Yoga, (…che nang da wa yi?…) So whether it is owned by somebody else or not, and it is mentally…actually arranged and mentally created…don’t we have that? There is that verse in the Six Session Yoga. Can you say it? (Audience: flowers, incense, light and scented waters..) Not that, not that. That is Genden Lha Gyema. In the Six Session Yoga, long Six Session Yoga. (*Audience:8voices) okay, can you remember? Anybody? (Audiences*) No, no, Ganden Lha Gyema has water, incense, flowers, and all these…The Six Session Yoga..(Audience:..jewelled vase, these offerings I present unto you…) Then.. (Audience: Powers supreme, powers…) Okay, we don’t need ‘powers supreme., powers mundane’…land, jewels and all these…Above that, whether it is shorter …earned by me or not, whether it is owned by anybody else or not, so I make offer to the great supreme field of merit. I take and make offerings. That’s the way how you do it. So though you may have just a little piece of dead flower, or something but in your visualization it is sort of fresh, lapis lazuli flower, whatever you know , of huge filled universe, in that manner. So, don’t think, even you pour one cup, or maybe seven cups of bowls of water, over there. But in your visualization it is pure, nectar, universe filled with that. The vessel in what you put the nectar offering the whole universe is a little too small. And that way, filled up everything. Or, either, it is one huge bowl, the whole universe filled in, or billions of small little things, or equal number of countries, or equal number of States like United States, you have 50 States, you have 50 bowls in it. Not the State itself, but offerings representing that, filled up the whole , in that way. That is how mentally created, you do it. That’s how. So even you don’t have anything. And I do, if you read ‘Liberation In Palms..’there is a story about Kelsang or somebody, who is making the incense. And who beginning who does not have anything, so poor, and doesn’t have anything to make offerings. Have only one wooden bowl..did anybody read that? Only one wooden bowl he has, so he makes the offering of water in the morning, and put near the altar and that is his offering. By the time when he has to take breakfast, he goes and “May I borrow your bowl, please?” and take it down, and use for himself for drinking tea, or any hot water he could get. And afterwards, he washed them back and again , make the water offerings there. I think it is Ketsang ? or somebody. Did anybody read it? You did, okay. So, it is Ketsang Jaya monlam? Who did that. But by virtue of that offering itself, later, he become very wealthy too. And he did clearly stated that “My wealth is coming from this one wooden bowl of water offering”, he said. And he becomes very wealthy. Incense that he made first was just simple little grass that he cut and burnt it, maybe horrible smelling. And he probably thought that is best he could get and that is his offering. And at the end, later on he is making millions of worth of incense ever possible. He could do it. He becomes that much wealthy. So he tributed to all these offerings. So, that is how offerings it works. 0:41:22.2

And also and then if you go in the Vajrayana, then the whole offerings has more than that.here we are only talking about outer …sort of actually arranged and mentally created. And when you go in the Vajrayana practice, there you have more than that…outer, inner, secret, suchness offerings. The whole door opens totally different. At this level, that much. And when you go later, it becomes huge difference; huge amount of door opens on that. So, since you raised the question, I think that much for the offering part of it.

Now, the next…what else? Purification, there you go. So, that is the third of the Seven Limbs, purification, which is very important for everybody. We all do need purification. (*interruption) So, purification is one of the most important in our life, really true. It is most important in our future lives. And because negativities is the problem. The bad karma is the source of our problem, remember? I talked with this Four Noble Truths combined . Did I talked here? Four Noble Truths and this together..probably not; I didn’t do that. Everybody giving me very strange look; probably didn’t do that here, right? Didn’t I do it? Okay. It is interesting. If you look in the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha’s teaching of Four Noble Truths, the first is the truth of suffering, right? What is.. I talked here, I remembered. Truth of suffering..I said the purpose of the truth of suffering, to acknowledge, and not just to say ‘Life is suffering’. It must be one of the traditions, Zen, or something or somebody must be teaching it. The first Noble Truth is life is suffering. Because you know why, this time in New York, three people are saying ,…I said what is the first Noble Truth? They are three said together, “Life is suffering”. (Rimpoche laughs) Maybe there is a tradition that teach somebody , ‘Life is suffering; somewhere. Anyway, so, but , remember, life has suffering, life has joy…I said, “Hold it, life is joyful” I said to them ..that is in New York, yesterday…day before yesterday, sorry. Sandy, that’s what happened, ya. Anyway, suffering. And the sufferings what we experienced is not just came by itself from nowhere. Nor, it landed somebody given a judgement and punished on us. It is the only result of our own deed and our own negative karmic deed results. Remember that? So the cause of the suffering is the karmic cause and the delusion cause. The delusion cause is the most important cause because it generates negative karma. You may purify all negative karmas but if you don’t get rid of the delusions, then delusions will keep on creating more and no matter how much you keep on cleaning, they keep on making more. So there will be endless game. So the negative karma and the negativities, are one quality. Even the negativity has one quality. The quality of that is because it can be purified. Any negative whatever it maybe, can be purified. There is no negativity that cannot be purified at all. Period.There is no question. I give you the example , remember, the Angulimala story. Do you remember those? The new ones, do you know the Angulimala story? Ya, there’s Angulimala story. Rory? You don’t? So, during the Buddha’s lifetime, one message..the spiritual practise whatever you do has to be proper and pure. If you go wrong way, you will have lots of problems. Two, it will give you no matter how heavy the negativity maybe , it can be purified. So, during the Buddha’s lifetime, there was a guy who would like to liberate himself. Went to some spiritual teacher , unfortunately happened to be bad one. So he went and said, “Look, I am interested …I am not very much actually if you go in very much detail…I don’t really think I can do too much things, but I really want some thing very short way , how can I get better. And I really want to be liberated quickly. What should I do?” “I am totally dedicated, I mean business. What can I do?” So, this guy said, “Alright, you go and kill 1000 human beings in a week and every time when you kill one, make sure you chop their finger and put them through a string, make a rosary, wear it and then come back to me, and I will liberate you” So, this guy carrying this big heavy chopper on the shoulder and started chopping everybody..(Laughs)…chopping everybody. So he chopped 999 human beings…chopped and he couldn’t find.. so, he can’t get the last one, because everybody ran away, naturally is near. (Laughs) So everybody ran away. So, he is running for the last one, and he is not getting it. So, he thought …his .mother is round. The mother somehow sort of hiding between something little scared, tried to show her face, tried to hide, do something. Because she really wanted to help him somehow. So, she couldn’t let him go. So, she’s around. But he also has little hesitation that he doesn’t want to chop his mother. Incidentally during the last weekend, when we had this workshop on the Tibetan Book of Dead, Thurman did tell this story. And Thurman said, the teacher demanded killing 1000 people including mother. And I thought about it, and I checked again, maybe since many years, I have been saying it, but I read it, it is not including mother. The mother is the one he intended to kill. So, he hesitated to kill the mother. By about that time, when he is hesitating what to do, and if he is not going to get it, he is going to chop her too. So, then, Buddha appeared there, as a monk or something. Buddha appeared there. So moving slowly, moving round, he thought, “Ha, now, I can spare my mother and get this guy”. So, going after him, and slowly moving and he couldn’t catch up. The problem is he doesn’t talk. He just straightaway killed people, like those from the back. We had some worries here in Ann Arbor, the last couple of time, right? So that. So he does that from the back. So, the Buddha was going slowly, he couldn’t catch at all. So after a little while, he couldn’t help it and started shouting, “Hey, wait! “ So Buddha replied, “I am waiting, come faster!”. That is how the conversation started, begin. That’s where the ice broke, when they started talking. Finally Buddha convinced him and what he is doing is wrong. So, finally Buddha took him, throw all these malas off, the fingers off, and took him and taught and made him do the purifications, and he became one of the arahats. Arahat is the fifth level, no more learning business. Arahat, totally liberated. He became arahat. That is the story. The person who killed 999 human beings a week can be purified. And why not us? We didn’t do that. We can definitely purify. And purification works.0:53:20.7

So, the question comes how? The how one should purify. How the purification works? So the way and how one does purification is by application of the Four Powers. There are four powers you have to apply, Four Powers. Okay. Power no.1, we called Power of Base. Like base, the foundation. Can you spell it? (Audience: B A S E) Aura said, “B A S E”, power of base. So what does that mean? Is different, let’s go. Power of base, no.1. No. 2? No.2, power of regret or antidote, whatever you put , doesn’t matter. Power of regret. You don’t spelling on that. ‘Base’ , I do, because people don’t understand sometimes when I said ‘base’. Okay, power of regret. No. 3, antidote action. No.4,I will not use the word of ‘repentance’ but what? (Audience: The wish not to repeat) You are very soft. Tony? (Audience: Promise not to repeat) Little harder than him (Rimpoche laughs) Little more fine. (Audience: Bow?) (Audience: No) No, he says. John says “No”. Anyway, promise not to repeat. It did works. Anyway, the question comes how. No.1, what do you mean by ‘power of base”? What does that mean? Meaning, any negativities that we created …what does ‘negativity mean? I mean this is really true. People raise lots of questions ‘What is right and what is wrong?” , you know. Sometimes they raise the question. But what does negativity mean? The negativity mean when you hurt somebody, right? When you abuses somebody. When you hurt somebody…mental, physical, emotional,…verbal not bubble…verbal abuse, whether within the verbal or verbal within you(?) whatever it is anyway. Anyway, so these are abuses…when you act abuses, the other side gets hurt, right? The person gets hurt, including yourself. You can abuse yourself. And that’s also negativity. Remember I used to say, those people who have Vajrayana initiations, if you commit suicide for nothing, or something which you think great, but not worth for it, you not only have commited suicide but also have negativity of killing a deity. Negativity of killing a deity. That means abusing yourself. Though you may have right to do whatever you want for yourself, but you do not have right to abuse yourself. Really true, that is negativity. So abusing, hurting…actually the hurt, if you hurt, that creates negativity. So, we do have lots of negativities all the time, that is. So, now if you did something, so how can you purify? First, you have compensate, whatever you did to that person. That person whoever whatever you have hurt the person, the person is either enlightened or not enlightened, can’t be both, or can’t be either, right? Anybody whoever might be, whether that person, whoever you pick up, either the person is enlightened or not enlightened., right or wrong? Did you get what I am saying? Can you hear me, alright? Thank you, I am glad you hear me. So, when you compensate or do something for them, so what can we do? We can either take refuge, if it is enlightened ones, we take refuge to them. If it is not enlightened ones, we cannot take refuge, because even you take refuge, they have no power to give you refuge. So, you meditate Love Compassion, right? So, since you don’t know whom you have hurt, and whether the person is enlightened or not enlightened, so to make sure, to safeguard, the earlier masters recommend you to take refuge to the enlightened beings, and generate Love Compassion, to do both. So, like practise the little sheet we gave you, and if you look in that, you do have generating Love compassion; you do have refuge taking in that. So, it automatically by structure of the practice, you have generated the power of base, already. Get the idea? This is important. So, I am taking time…even I do not finish purification today. But to have some understanding, it is important. So simply I am giving you taking refuge and generating love Compassion, will provide power of base. Just by saying the word, is that enough? I don’t know. But if it is from the bottom of your heart, it really makes you real move of taking refuge and real move of generating Love Compassion, as much as you can, real from the bottom of your heart, and not lip service.Not lip service but from the bottom of your heart, it will work.it will establish the power of base. You do need to practise, do need to repeat again and again. Just because saying one time, is that enough, bye bye, it will not work. But constantly, continuously, work with this. By the time for us to go, we will be okay. These seven little pieces, and seven little things, are not a joke. This is really important. Shantideva had stated to this, in the Bodhisattvacaryavatara, “ ..kye par..di yi ..?” The Buddha..he is a poet, so he exaggerated a little bit… So the Buddhas sort of put their heads together for hundreds of aeons, to find out how easy way, we cn show the path. So, they draw conclusion of the seven points. That is what Shantideva said. You know..poet..exaggerate. I don’t know whether buddhas put aeons thinking what to do!They probably did it actually. So, that’s why one of them is the purification. 1:03:19.2

So purification does need, application of the Four Powers. If one of them missing, it doesn’t work. So, the power of base. If you read books, they will tell you power of base, different explanations, by different teachers. You cannot say they ar wrong but this is right. You cannot say they are wrong, this is right,okay? So, stick with this. Power of base. Get it? That’s why you have Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmaya, Namo Sanghaya. Or, even that short verse, we say, “I take refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha ,until I obtain enlightenment. By practising generosity and other perfections, may I be able to obtain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings”. We said that all the time, right? And that will do for this. Not the word alone. Every word that you say, has to have a mental backing up, really. So the chantings you do here or the prayers you say, whatever you do, the thought must come behind. If there is no thought behind the words, the it is empty shell. Matter how much you shoot, keep on making more noise, doesn’t do any good. Right, empty shell…American way of saying. \…’empty shells’…make lot of noise. That’s what it is. But each word what you say they should have a mental force behind that push through .when you have that, the words and the mental force put together, it works. So that’s why it is important. But in America so far, when you say ‘meditation’, people normally have to shut their mouth, shut their eyes, and sit…that sort of..That’s what they learn that way. But that is okay not the best.You say the word, you say the mantra, you prayers, and then you meditate. So put both physical body , the mind the mental body, the sound…body, mind and speech., put together. And that is perfect practise. If one of them is relaxed, and then it is not great practise. Meditation can help you to relax. But meditation is not for relaxing tour. If you want relaxing tour, go and sleep in that floating tank or something. (Laughs). Ya, really…floating tank or do a massage therapist. That give you good and relaxing. Get it? So that’s really true. Meditation will help you to relax at the end. But you have to work. Because it is not for laziness tool. It is effective work you have to do. Because the opponent what you try to overcome, the negativity, the negative karma , is not a joke. It is not a paper tiger; it is not. It is serious business. So therefore, the word, the thought, the body action, all combined them together, and get things together and work. It has power. So, that is the power of base.

Second, what did we say? Regret. Power of regret. Okay, there is two different things to me. Power of regret, the regret is very important. If you don’t regret what you did wrong then you will do it again and again and again. No matter how many people you hurt, doesn’t matter. Keep on doing it as long as you don’t hurt. The problem arises because there is no regret. Get it? But there is no reason one has to feel guilty about it. I am making the distinction between regret and feeling guilty, guilt feeling. Guilt feeling is something which very heavy with the Western ?.I do not know whatever the reason is ..whether is it you are brought up , or background or whatever relations reason, whatever the reasons might be, the guilt are very strong with the Western people. There is no reason why you have to feel guilty about it. You know Shantideva said, and the Dalai Lama when he was here, in Ann Arbor, he quoted..remember the word? ‘Gang shi ya na ni..? “ If something to be corrected, why do you have to worry about ? If there is nothing to be corrected, what is the use for worrying for it?” That is Shantideva. Shantideva, one of the greatest Buddhist teacher who wrote this Bodhisattvacaryavatara. Actually Shantideva is known as person who knows three things. During the Buddha’s lifetime, he is a great master, great teacher… great master accomplished by himself, doesn’t teach, probably keep his mouth shut all the time. So the people normally says he knows three things…how to eat, how to go to toilet and how to sleep. So, he is known with that name. He is known that name. So, somehow, what happened is, the male monks ..the fully ordained male bhikshus, and the bhikshunis, the have sort of half month… every half month they have one bhikshu, one male monk goes and give teachings on the female nuns place. So one time, somehow they chose this person who known for three things only. So he also did not decline and said he would go and teach. So, the ladies in the nunnery thought, “”What the hell thy are doing this? Are they insulting us because we are women? Alright, let them insult us. We will insult him back.” so, what they did is they put all their robes together, made a huge throne very high…you know they have very high ceiling. So, maybe it is outside, so a huge throne, there is no way this fellow can get up there.. like almost one and a half storey high throne, and did not provide any steps. (Laughs). So, this guy came in, and suddenly he realized he got a huge throne, he doesn’t know what it is , so he sat for a minute and meditated, “Is this done through respect or insult?” So, he came to know it is done for insult for him, so he sort of went near there and sort of raised his hand up. His hands went such a long way …they said it is longer than elephant’s tusks or something, went over there, reached on the top, and pressed it down. So it went shrink down up to this much…sort of magical power..sort of shrink down there and then he sat on there. And then it started going up and up and up and then he gave the famous Bodhisattvacaryavatara, as a teaching there, ? teaching. He gave that as a teaching, ‘wo je ma ju wa yang..?” he said, “I have nothing new to tell which no body has told before. Nor I am good poet but I am going to share whatever little I know “ and there are ten chapters. The tenth chapter is dedication but by the tenth chapter time, people can hear it, his throne is going beyond the cloud. And this fellow disappeared thereafter. He didn’t come back. That is how he obtained totally disappeared. But he done the teaching completely and that is the Bodhisattvacaryavatara. So the tenth chapter, the dedication is people can only hear him but not nobody can see him, he is already gone. So, that Bodhisattvacaryavatara says, ‘Gang shi che so ying..?” If there is something to be corrected, then why you have to worry about it; then correct it. Stop worrying, correct it. And if there is nothing to be corrected, don’t worry about it; it is additional problem. Forget it!That’s what Shantideva says, while he is going up. He left the word with us. 1:14:56.0

So, the same thing, if you have to feel guilty , if there is something to be purified, why don’t you purify rather than feeling guilty about it. And if there is nothing to be corrected, what is the use of feeling bad about it. Nothing! Sometimes people habitually do that. You have to torture yourself for a number of times, you can’t give up, you will keep on worrying about it, you can’t..you know that there is no reason why you have to worry about it, but still you can’t get out of it because you are habitually, torturing, abusing yourself. It is our own habit, so that’s why you can’t get out of it, though you know it intellectually or even otherwise. Even then you cannot get out of it. It is the habitual that we set up by abusing ourself repeatedly one after another. That is the habitual pattern. Recognize, acknowledge, and fight with that! Don’t surrender. You may lose a couple times, you may shed more crocodile tears, doesn’t matter. Keep on fighting it, you will win! Really, remember that. Anyway, that’s why regret is needed but guilty feeling is not needed. Anyway, if you don’t have regret, you are not going to improve. You are going to go on doing the same thing. Maybe you feel good, even then, sometimes. Right? So, that’s what it is. The ? like to kill. True, why? I must say, ‘Why?” When you kill somebody, or animal…the butcher would like to butcher all the time.You know why? Because there is a karma ..killing karma. Killing karma has two or three different result. One result called direct result, you may lose your life. It doesn’t settle there. Another result called ‘tu keng de bo?’..means similar type of action.So, you would like to repeat again and again. That is the karmic result. And that’s how the negative forces guarantees themselves to continue. Because you are hooked in that, somehow. So somehow you get kick out of it, and you would like to do again and again. So, that’s why regret is important. That makes sure don’t go too far to have guilt feeling. Remember Shantideva who is flying on the throne in the air, from the cloud, left these last words with us. If there is something to be corrected, why worry. If there is nothing to be corrected, what is the use of worrying.That’s it.So, that is the regret is needed. 1:18:52.6

The next comes ..what is it now? (Audience: Antidote action) Antidote action is important . Killing, saving a life. Stealing, generosity. Abusing, Love and compassion. Not abusing…’abuses’, you say, right? Abuse, love and compassion. And do whatever service. Service, that is total service. Whatever needed. Service is a general word., right? So, like that , so you learn anti..negative..each one of those negative has positive, and each one of those positive, has its own negative. So, it is fights like this. The problem is they are fighting for me , for you, for each one of us, within ourselves. The negative and positive force really fighting. So who is going to have control over? Even they have control issue, not only us. The negative and positive karmas have control issue. That’s why they are fighting among themselves. So, anyway, that’s what it is. So, antidote action. Generally, the outstanding action is Wisdom., the emptinesss, understanding of emptiness. And that’s why the direct understanding of emptiness is called mahamudra. There are lots of different names, so that is one thing. The second best, or another best is Bodhimind, the ultimate unlimited unconditioned Love and compassion. That is called ‘bodhimind’. Unlimited, unconditioned Love and Compassion. Our love and compassion…we all have it. I always say that. With each and everyone of us, has love and compassion. But we have limitations, we have conditions. Remember the famous American phrase, “What is in there for me?” (Laughs). That is the clear sign where we have conditions. Love has condition, compassion has condition. All these questions rises ‘What’s in there for me?” It tells you there is a limit. And people always says, ‘there’s a limit’, right? They say there is a limit, ya. Bodhimind is really unlimited, unconditioned Love and Compassion. That’s called ‘bodhimind’. ‘ di pa …kang …’Again Shantideva who says ,’Such a heavy negativity cannot be overcome by any other action than that of bodhimind”. So, bodhimind is one of the best way of purification, antidote action. So, Wisdom Compassion is the best action.And those of us who doesn’t have that, then we do all sorts of things , you say mantras, you do prostrations, you do circumambulations, you do any service., you do any act whatever it is you can do, all of those. And then the recommendations will come like 100 syllable Vajrasattva recitations, all these types of things will come for that. These are not because now it is not because A Class, but B Class , C class actions. Don’t look down even the C Class actions are perfect. We can’t do it. Just because I said ‘C class’, do not look down. There we can’t even say mantra properly, can’t even say the numbers properly, can’t even do that. But even with a good attitude, say a few little Om mani padme hung, will probably get C minus. (Laughs) But still within the ‘c’ control. Okay, now, I just briefly antidote action. But then if you think you did once, you are going to clear everything, no.Repeatedly do it, repeatedly, constantly ..these are simple little things if you do it everyday, not a big deal, it will take five minutes, really. So not a big deal. So, I mean it is worth. Believe it, look at it! If you could purify all these negativities that we do, and we will continuously doing it. Don’t think you’ll be going to be enlightened and stopped. No, no, no. We continuously doing it. So, we keep on purifying it, it helps not to accumulate , multiple, not to become strong powerful. And that’why. If you do it everyday, you know what happens? If you ..when water drop comes and if you try to collect in the bucket, it looks one drop coming, doesn’t look it is going to fill up. If you leave the bucket there, drop after drop, day after day, hour after hour, the bucket fills up in no time, right? So, everyday you keep on doing something little bit,so one day when the day comes you got quite good thing in there. That’s what it is. So, that’s antidote action. Right? The best still remember Bodhimind and Wisdom. That is the best., no equivalent. Really the best.1:26:30.2

Then the regret, you need a strong regret. If you have weak regret, your purification also weak. As much as strong regret, the earlier tibetan masters gave you example. It is very interesting example. Three people went together somewhere and ate some food. And it happens to be problem with food and one of them died immediately. One is about to die,. The third person is not even sick. But the third person has no peace of mind. One is dead, one is about to die, nothing happened to you but you ate the same food. So you will probably be worrying next minute you going to drop dead or some thing…dead drop or whatever. So, you’ll be worrying with that. Like that. Many of us created negative karma together. A number of them is gone and gone to lower realms. Some are going, and we are still in picnic here. So we should not leave any stone unturned. And that is recommended regret, with that example. But whatever you could strongly generate, it helps. If there is weak regret, there is no good purification. But then, any negativity you have done, you have created, from the limitless of beginning, knowingly or unknowingly, remembering or not remembering, we can regret together. You can generate power of regret by our own thoughts. Those we remember strongly,have a stronger thing; then along with that, those you know you don’t know, and those you remember , you don’t remember, all together. That’s true. In India, I remembered once they have this cartoons…and they draw cartoons. And so the VIP, ‘very important person’, you know the Indians wear dhotis and they have this long dhoti tail going and covered a couple of people under that and taking them together, which means cartoon is saying accusing the politicians they are giving sort of umbrella protection to certain people, going together. But whether that VIP do or not, over here we could do it. Strong regret of some thing under hat shelf, you could shuffle them any as much as you want to. Push them together so that all the negative that you have, knowing or not knowing, or together, and have a strong regret, covered it up, like umbrella type of regret. And if you have strong regret, you won’t do it again. You will not go back to the restaurant again. So, that’s about it. 1:30:03.3

When I was a kid, ate one of those orange thing come from China. They smashed orange with the skin and have lots of sugar and sort of you know, started eat again. We get them in Tibet some times. And I had one of them, I was sick, really sick for a while. And I could not touch orange … the total orange fruit, for almost 15years, really true! It almost last maybe five , six or tn years or so, I begin to ate orange, sort of totally. So like that and you would not like to go back. You don’t have to work, it is automatic. It is automatic there if you have the regret. Thus we complete Four Powers. With application of Four Powers, it will work. Saying your mantras or doing your practice or meditating it, or whatever you do, repeatedly doing it, will make a big dent on our negative karma; big dent. Every time when you hit with that, it makes big dent. And one day, it will be cleared.I supposed I have to stop here because it is 9.30. I am sorry I over went . That’s that. (*Announcements of Loseling monks,etc)1:33:56.7