Archive Result

Sound file:19940830GRLR

Speaker:Gelek Rimpoche

Location:Ann Arbor

Topic:Lam Rim

Transcriber:Jayapushpa

Date: 28th,January,2023.

Before we go and talk on today’s subject, I would like to say, it is very nice that Allen’s here, Allen Ginsberg. And with Allen, two outstanding Chinese poet, who somehow connected with University of Michigan, who teach in the poetry department. (Audience voice in reply * not so clear…study comparative..) Ya, it is very nice and we are very happy to have you here. Welcome, thank you. And(*interruption) ..Before we go to continue with the subject, I like to remind you, the new ones here, what we are really doing is the Lam rim teachings here. The Lam rim basically means the stage of development, meaning what stage ..what sort of spiritual steps that one has to take and how it goes. I am totally talking from the buddhist point of view, so,therefore with a total buddhist background, with ordinary person like ourselves, you and me, to become…to reach at the extraordinary level, (*interruption) ..to be able to reach to the extraordinary level, and what steps do we take. And what we’ve been talking in there like three things. Basically the preliminary, actual practise and at the end, how we do. We talk here, normally talks are really talks. But it is not alone a talk, but it also gives you material to meditate. So, basically what you really meditate is what we are talking here, is you meditate that, either analytically, and when you find the reasons, and point what you are looking at it by those reasons, then you concentrate. The combination of analytical and concentrated meditations is actually how to go. So, out of that we have the basis preliminary, actual and conclusion. The preliminaries are over. We all already talked the Six preliminaries, including 7 limb practise, and mandala offerings, which is completed. So, we are at the ‘Actual’ level.0:03:08.8

Actual practice also has ..Doctor, you are on it? Actual practice also has three scopes actually. Basically Lam rim is divided…it corresponds with Three Principles of the Path. Because when Tsongkhapa started writing the Lam Rim, and Manjushri (*interruption) …When Tsongkhapa started talking the Lam rim, then writing the Lam Rim, Manjushri joked to Tsongkhapa saying, “ Hey, you did not satisfy what I told you ; you have to rewrite what I told you” and Tsongkhapa sort of said very polite way, “I did not. It is not that I dissatisfied what you taught, but your teaching The Three Principles of the path, is the backbone of my writing Lam Rim ,and the stage I picked up Atisha’s path.” And that’s what we are doing. That’s what he said. (*interruption) so, it is basically, Three Principles. It will correspond with this. Anyway, in the outline what you have is basically three, in ‘Actual practice’. We called it ‘Common with the lower, Medium and Mahayana’ or you can call it ‘Lower scope, medium scope and the higher scope’. You know the scope like. So, basically you can make three base things. And out of which, the first lower scope, we are talking there. And we are talking about the ‘guru business’, remember? Remember last time we are at the guru devotional practise. We even did mentioned, ‘root of all development , guru devotional practise’.and that’s what it is, we are there.0:05:44.3

For which we have quality of guru or masters. And there we divided into hinayana and mahayana, right? We talked about …I mean the word ‘hinayana’, I know people don’t like it. So, you have to say, ‘Theravadan’. Okay, theravadan we talked the other day. Quality of the theravadan buddhist masters. What sort of qualities they should have. Basically two , remember? Stability and knowledgeable. And sort of basically, two. ..teng keng nge den geng ne? Stable and knowledgeable. ‘Stable’re we have told you the vows they have taken… the vows of monk or nun or bhikshu, or whatever vows they have taken, they have not broken vows for ten years. One year is not enough, two years not enough, five years not enough, 10 years . Then you find the quality of the(Audience: stability.) stability. The stable quality is only you find when the person is not broken their vows for 10 years ! That is the quality. And knowledgeable. That is the .. we mentioned the other day. So, actually today, those who claims to be guru , are going to fail everywhere, even though the Buddha is kind enough to give 50% discount. Even then every body is going to fail everywhere, most anyway.

So, that’s are the really qualities. And when you look for guru, when somebody says, “I am a great guru and come and see me, listen to me, I guide you”that’s not right. So, what you really do is whether that person has these qualities or not. So, who chooses guru if you need it? And Buddha says you do, you do need it, yes. Who chooses? It is you, the individual. I choose my guru. My guru doesn’t choose me at all. I choose my guru. I was a different circumstances then you are. I was fortunately good old tibet, those days. You get plenty plenty 0f guru, some of them are outstanding like Kyabje Ling Rimpoche, and Trijang Rimpoche, and all these types that period. It was outstanding. Many of them, you can pick them , choose. And some of them very famous gurus during that period,like Pari(?) Dorjechang, like Kushok Choedak Rinpoche had ..(Rimpoche asked Kushok Cheodak Rinpoche in tibetan..) He also did not have teachings from Pari Dorjechang. But most of people had teachings from Pari Dorjechang. I did not. Simple reasons . He is a great teacher, no doubt. And everybody respects him and all these, and simple reasons he is not very open like Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche or Ling Rinpoche type of thing.If you started moving during the teaching, I was told he kept a long stick and hit you, or throw at the things.Or, some times (*interruption), even this afternoon , Kushok Choedak Rinpoche, we’ve been talking, that Pari Dorjechang when he was doing (Rimpoche talks in tibetan to Kushok Choedak Rinpoche) ..oh, ya, Pari Dorjechang was giving some oral transmission of some teachings and this young little incarnate lamas are playing round, and started throwing some thing, they do have little bags, they put little tsampa in. When they served tea, they make little bun and eat them. They sort of started throwing tsampa back and forth and make noise. And one of them hit his table, pah! It went. And all of a suddenly he said, “Alright whoever is going to read the rest, I am not reading” and he got up and left. There were a thousand people are attending. So he left , he won’t come back . He not only left his ceremony, went to his native place. And one of the well known geshe teacher who was there got so upset, got sick that night, and almost dying. So everybody had to go and begged him to come back. He went to his retreat area. So, after a little while he came back and finished it. That’s Pari Rinpoche had that sort of thing. So you choose. The choice is you do. So, what you do is, you can’t choose , if you don’t know what to look for. So that’s why the quality of teacher to knowing is very important. So,if you are looking for Theravadan teacher sort of thing, teacher who really teach you the Vinaya rules, the rules of the monks and so and forth; sort of discipline oriented teaching. It is two quality….quality of stability and knowledge.That is 10 years! The first is ten years unbroken vows. It is very hard, okay. That is 10 years and knowledgeable. 0:11:59.0

Now, for Mahayana it is more than that., ten qualities. For mahayana teachers, there are ten qualities. I thought I will pick up the book on that, and got the wrong book. Just before I came, grabbed it and got the wrong one (Rimpoche laughs) If you look in the Lama Chopa, those people who have the Lama Chopa with you. Gang dhang dhen na dhe war shek pei lam. Ton par o pei yon ten chu den pa. Ma lu gyal way dhung tsob cho kiy je. Thek choh ge wei she la sol wa dep. (Rimpoche read through again) Gang dhang dhen na dhe war shek pei lam. Ton par o pei yon ten chu den pa. Ma lu gyal way dhung tsob cho kiy je. Thek choh ge wei she la sol wa dep. (Rimpoche spoke to Kushok Choedak Rinpoche in tibetan) Okay, can you read that English so that people will know. Anyway,so in the Lama Chopa, if you look , there is a verse. One verse will tell you the quality of the Theravadan teacher’s quality, another verse will tell you the mahayana teacher’s quality. Gang dhang dhen na dhe war shek pei lam. Ton par o pei yon ten chu den pa. Ma lu gyal way dhung tsob cho kiy je. Thek choh ge wei she la sol wa dep. It says, ‘One who possess these ten qualities who are fit to share the path of the Buddha, ‘ Ma lu gyal way dhung tsob cho kiy je ‘who is representative of all the buddhas , I bow to you’. so, that’s what it is. Anyway, you found it! (Audience: ya, it doesn’t have ?) I know that but you can read it out loudly. (Audience: (reads) ) Loudly. (Audience: gang dhang dhen? ) No, above that., first one. (Audience: Yon ten?) Ya, Yon ten jung nay..Read the English one. (Audience: (reads) ..We request you holder of vinaya , (unclear) saffron, (Unclear with noise interruption*) excellence of ocean of moral discipline. We make our request…) Okay, that is the first verse talking the quality of the Theravadan teacher. Basically two. Then, (Audience: (reads) We make request to you mahayana gurus who possess the Dharma, representing (unclear) . You possess the ten qualities (*noisy and unclear) ) Now, the question comes, what are the ten qualities? Ten qualities. Ten qualities is not mentioned in the Lama Chopa, but Maitreya Buddha mentioned in one of the books called Uttara tantra…no, in Uttaratantra, so, I was try to grab the book, I missed it. But..shin ne tu wa ne she wayen ..lung ji cho? ….pa la di..? Are you ready to write? The first quality is dul wa means well behaved., out of these ten; that’s (a)., well behaved. Peaceful , second , peaceful. The third one is, very peaceful. (Laughter) Fourth one is, possess better quality than you do. (Rimpoche laughs) (*interruption) What do we have…shi ne dul wa she wa ne she wa..yon ten lap pa ? The fifth one is one who has diligenc. Sixth, better educated than you are ; better learned than you are. Shi ne dul wa ne she wa..lung gye chok..? …cho lak..one who understands subject what you are teaching. Shi ne dul wa she wa ne she wa..? Eighth is, who can present wisely. Ninth is , compassionate one. What’s happening? Ah? Compassionate one. I think I am already there.. I’ll be able to count it out now. Shi we cha..? the tenth one is who can take some hardships. Can take hardships without difficulties. So, ..Steve , you don’t have to write. 0:19:34.3

So, the first one says, what? (Audience: Well behaved) Well behaved. What does that mean? I mean you have to explain it, you know. It doesn’t mean how you behave properly. That doesn’t mean that. Well behaved ..you know in the Buddha’s teachings, Three basket teachings, the teachings of all the

Vinaya part, and teachings of the samadhi or concentrated meditation part, and the teachings of Wisdom. That’s called the Three Basket teachings. So three basket teachings, the first three is corresponds with the Three baskets teachings, which meaning the number 1, well behaved here really means all the delusions are well controlled. But if you are looking for mahayana master, if the mahayana master is an angry person, then he is missing the quality number 1. If the mahayana person is overpowered by attachment, he is missing the quality number 1. Are you with me? If the mahayana teacher is the hatred guy, who always behave ,you know, in a hatred way, then he is missing the quality. So, the quality number 1, ‘well behaved’ here, really means ‘person who well controlled the delusions’ . Normally what we talk? What does Buddhism mean? Buddhism really mean …do you remember di pa che yang …gyal wa ku sum…Buddhism really means avoid negativities, build the positivities, and control your mind or don’t say control your mind…watch your mind , alright. Watch your mind. And that is Buddhism ..Buddha Himself said. So watching your mind here meaning we don’t let ourselves function under the control of anger,attachment, hatred, etc .delusions which is our habitual way of doing it. To correct it is Dharma, ‘cho’. ‘Cho’ means it is making a change, correcting it. ‘Well behaved; really means if the buddhsit teacher ..if the person he or she has not corrected his or her own behavior , functioning and then how do you expect another person will get from him or her, to change that. You can’t,right? So, that is the number 1 quality. Well behaved really meaning the person who don’t just let everything do..just ,you know, under our habitual patterns. So from the negative actions we have corrected into positive actions. That means really the first basket of Buddha’s teachings mean how to correct. Remember? We used to say ‘if you do not know how to deal with this, and then better not to deal’. So they give you all these big discipline type of things. We always talked, remember? And if you can deal with this, you can maybe play round and do something little bit. And that is mahayana style . We used to talk, remember? And Vajrayana we say you transform. If the situation is not under control, how can you expect to be transformed? No way! So that’s why basically all the Buddha’s teachings and way and how the individual practitioner follows, has to be the person whose teacher has to have that path, and that quality to show. That’s what the ‘well behaved’ really means. So if the person doesn’t have the quality , and if you try to follow and try to see , and how he or she functions, and if she or he has bad qualities, you going to get that, right? Ri gyi sum nge..?..like if you be near a golden mountain ..we are tibetans, comes from mountains only…so if there is a golden mountain, and nearby, there will be a lot of gold. Because it is gold treasury area, right? If there is a poisonous farm, which growing only the poisons, anything nearby will get lots of poisons. So, like this. If the spiritual master , if he or she has good quality, it is going to benefit people who are around with it. It is like to ourselves. I always tells you Dharma begins with ourselves. I always say the Americans say ‘Charity begins at home’. These are all same thing. So if you have to behave, you have to get better, you correct, and then it will effect the person who is with you. If you are good, the other person will be good., will become good. If you are bad, it doesn’t take time even the other is good, it will drive them round. You will put them down. Though like teaching traditions, they will give you stories, Anyway, I forgot. There is a guy who doesn't drink and who was in the village called Penbo, at the back of Lhasa. …back I mean, north side of Lhasa. And there is another person, who is butcher who mis from the same village. One day butcher went to Reting, a little north area, where a lot of Kadampa teachers are there. The other fellow who is good person, went to Lhasa. And so, they all spent three months in each area. The butcher who went to the Reting, he saw those kadampa teachers and they’ve been talking how bad the killing is, and blah..blah..blah…blah..and he come back and he is no longer doing the butchering work in the village, because that is bad ,” I am killing animals and this and that. I don’t want to do it. “ (*interruption) so, the butcher came back and is no longer butchering and become compassionate one. The guy who went to Lhasa, went around and met lot of people , and started drinking and doing all sorts of things, becomes his habit. And when he came back, he doesn’t know what to do in the village. The butcher is no longer butchering, he took the job. So, that is the basic simple example how if you look at the persons, the quality of the spiritual master makes difference to the individuals. And that’s why ‘well behaved’. I think that is good enough for explanation. 0:28:14.2

Second quality is peaceful. The peaceful here does not necessarily mean ‘Oh, it is very peaceful, quiet and nice’ and sitting in a quiet area ,retreat area. No, it doesn’t mean that. Here the ‘peace’ is referring to the individual mind. The mind which has taken away, retreat …the mind retreat from the addictions. Do you get me? ‘Addictions.’ The attractions are the addictions. Right or wrong? We do. If you are addicted to smoke cigarettes, and if want to cut, because everybody will say everywhere it is hazardous to your health, including the packet. So, you wanted to cut. And how much hard time you have to go through. Because you would like to go back because you enjoy the kick. ? puff up(?) Similarly that’s what it is, right? So how difficult it is because it is the attraction. Attraction to the addiction. So, that is difficult to get. So what peaceful means , the mind has retreat from the addiction attractions, which means samadhi meditations. You know the Zen tradition, how they make you sit and sit and sit and hit you from the back, and sit and sit and straight , all the time.Doing this because they try to retreat your mind from the addictions. That is the total meditation which is sort of west..well known in the West. Just sitting down together and try to remain peace within the mind. And that’s why Kushok Choedak teaching in ..going through on Thursday evenings here. It is that’s what we are doing, right? And that’s what it is. So, that is the ‘peaceful’. Peaceful ,one has to retreat..one retreat from the attractions of the addictions. That is the ‘peaceful’ means. Get it? It is also the second basket of the Buddha’s teaching. All the meditations teachings, all fall in that., whether it is mahayana, hinayana or vajrayana, whatever it might be. Okay? 0:31:02.5

Nir she wa..(?) Nir she wa..what did we say? Very peaceful? Okay, very peaceful. (Laughs) What’s that mean? What do you meditate for? We meditate for cut our delusions. Right? To correct our habitual functionings. So where are all the delusions coming from? Where anger coming from, where attachment coming from? All of them coming from where? Within ourselves. When you go deep down we called that ‘ego’. And even you go down basically it really comes from ignorance. Ignorance. So one who has overpower the ignorance …one has overpower all the ignorance is very peaceful. Not only peaceful but very peaceful. Why? The internal enemy , you have conquered completely. That’s why it is very peaceful. And that covers the basket of Wisdom teachings. All the teachings of the Buddha on Wisdom is directed towards to overcome ignorance within ourselves. Okay? So the peaceful, ..well behaved, peaceful, very peaceful..three of them is actually dealing eith Three baskets of the Buddha's teachings. So, if you can get somebody with this much qualities, you are lucky enough. You don’t need rest of them. Really true. This is great quality. You don’t need rest of them. 0:33:15.7

Yon ten la ..chun je(?) The next is….yun dang..(?) What does it say next/?(Audience: ‘Better than you ‘) That’s right. If you have to learn something, the person has to be better than you. Otherwise, what are you going to learn, right? So, nyi …lang pa(?) and that is the same thing, actually it is a quality. Who has better quality than you do. Right? Right? And your master ..if you are going to choose your spiritual master, that spiritual master must possess better quality than you do.if he has worst quality than you, and if you try to treat that as spiritual master, your qualities is going to go down. Nyen pa …jo (?) The Buddha Himself said, if you have somebody worst than you, you going to get that effect. Actually that is applicable to the sangha too. When the sangha group comes, the sangha is always look for sangha, means sangha who helps you to improve your quality. But not to encourage your addictions. That is the quality of the sangha also. It is the quality of the teacher but at the same time it is quality of sangha as well. The sangha really means …what does that mean? One gets together, discuss difficulties, and that’s what the whole sangha is for, discuss difficult …contribute more in that.The gains that you gain to overcome your difficulties. The contributions that they put and that is the sangha contribution. When the sangha members contribute you better quality, it is good sangha member; and if they contribute you the worst quality, it is bad sangha member. That’s what it is. I am not directing to any individual. Do not misunderstand, okay. I am just simply making straightforward; really I mean that, honestly. (Laughs) gyen den lan pa(?) What is it. Even that much you if you demand within the sangha, then spiritual master must have it. Right? Shun je (?) 0:36:02.9

And then there should have little diligence. If the spiritual master is not diligent person, then you will also become lazy person. Right? The laziness is very, very difficult obstacle. Obstacle. It is important to overcome the laziness. Basically I talked two laziness, right? Western laziness and eastern laziness. I am not going to go over that today. So you all aware of it. So to overcome the western laziness and eastern laziness, both is difficult. And you have to do it. Otherwise, the laziness is very funny. It is like if you keep on watching television, you can sit and watch television day and night. Nothing happens. And the television will not go off. Another one program will follow by another program. I experienced that. So, I know that, but you are stuck there (Laughters) You sit and watch there, 3 in the morning, 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning, it’s there; it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop, right? That’s what it is. And that is one example , and there are so many others. So many others, right? You behaved like hypnotized. Allen was reminding me last night. He said, “Television will hypnotize you”(Rimpoche laughs) That’s what I remembered. That’s what it is. It is true; it is almost like hypnotize. You can do that. And that is the laziness Addiction as well, it comes together. Right? Gyen nden lan pa zhun nje (?) so overcome laziness is diligence. Good or bad, whatever maybe if you diligent enough, you will overcome. The western people may not have much difficulty to overcome the eastern laziness. You don’t want to move, you sit there comfortably and don’t want to move, everything you want push in, you know, that sort of thing. You may not have it. But you have a different laziness. Try to avoid the things you are supposed to do by making up so many date lines for yourself. You have so many datelines you make it. Make yourself absolutely busy. You have to go here, you have to go there, you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this. You ran from the east to the west side of town, and west to the east side of the town, north and south and get in everything busy. So that if there are extra 15 minutes, you don’t know what to do with it. That is western laziness. So the sangha member must help each other to overcome that laziness. If you have 15 minutes, you think about your life. Think of the quality of the master if you needed. Think about it. Think about your own quality. Why not? One thing, the members of the Jewel Heart, one person a sangha member in New York, she is absolutely …we have very interesting people min New York, really. ..lot of those. But she is absolutely funny little thing, but very shrewd business woman. And like when I know her like 5 years ago, she is absolutely restless. She has to occupy all her things completely. Oh, she is good. She came here and tries to buy furniture for Jewel Heart, and she went to 13 different stores in Ann Arbor. One day she not satisfied, she rented a car, went to Grand Rapid, and next day she bought furniture from there. That sort of thing she does. But she has to keep herself absolutely busy , otherwise she has a problem, five years ago. And this year, she has separated with her boyfriend, and the thought came off my head. I said, “ Oh, my god, how does she spending the evenings? She must be miserable, you know. “So, I called her and that’s about a month and 45 days after he moved out. I called her and said, “How are you doing?” She said, “Fine”. I said, “What do you do in the evening?” she said, “Rimpoche, I am so glad I have the time “ I said, ‘Why?” She said, “I can do my sadhana very slowly and think about it. And the time I have been serving him , cooking for him, and try to put his business together, I have been able to put on my sadhanas.I feel so great!” I sort of ..”Don’t you ..” I almost said, “Don’t you miss him..” but (Laughs) ..”No, but I am very comfortable “, she said. “without anybody ‘. I said, “do you turn on the television and watch?” “Only occasionally” she said, “I am very happy with it” So that is actually benefit.0:42:33.2

So, now, where are we? Well behaved, peaceful, very peaceful. Did I say that yet? Very peaceful done. Then, (Audience: We just covered ‘diligence’) Oh, diligent. Okay, then what is next? (Audience: Better educated than you are) ‘Better educated than you are’, is that right? If you have to learn buddhist path or you learn something practice or something, if the person knows..if he knows less than you do, what you going to learn from that person? Nothing! So, it has to be better than you. (Rimpoche laughs) . That is simple. 0:43:08.8

Then, what is it? (Audience: ‘One understand the subject to be taught) That’s right. One understands the subject here. It does not mean knowledge type of thing. ‘One understand’ really meaning the subject or the path whatever you going to be guided, the person must have personal experience. Person should not be talking out of book knowledge. Person should not be talking out of information chart, or the data basis. Data basis, right? If you just need data basis, you can put up your computer up. They give you all the data basis or even if you needed it, if there is not enough data base, you can put CD Rom up, and they will show you all these,right? CD rom will show you everything. That’s not the point. The point here is, whatever the path the person is guiding, the person must have personal experience . Even you don’t have gain experience, but at least the person has tried and keep on trying, and continuously moving. And that is important. One time I was in Washington in one of those conference. ..Buddhist Psychology whatever it is. They called it ‘Think tank conference’. interesting what happened in that , is two things. People who are there, they always criticized the Goldstein dictionary. But everybody is using the Goldstein dictionary. At least they say ,”We look at least 10 times a day “ They criticized that, but they look in that. They also critizing Trungpa Rinpoche and they also criticizing that Rajneesh. But Trungpa Rimpoche was refereed 10 times a day in the conference. And one of the reference I remembered they saying “When we beginning to teach… Allen was there, right? When you begin the summer school in Naropa. One of them..you have Ram Das , right? And Joseph Goldstein ,and those people are there, they came in. And when they wanted to teach, Trungpa Rinpoche rasied questios, “Are you still practising, if you do so, you can teach. If not, you don’t. So, that is this quality. What do you call here? Better knowledge than you are or something. (Audience: ‘one who understand the subject) So, it is not understanding the subject, the path. The spiritual path is not knowledge. The person must have experience. And shares with the friends. The friends must meditate , gain experience and become a part of the (* recording error).., you ? get or not, doesn’t matter. The subject and talk what you get is you must think. You must mature, get a taste out of it. It is very hard to correct. It is like chocolate wrapped in rubber You keep on showing, when you see the break, then you feel the taste. So likewise, you have to chew these. Thinking about it. And put thoughts . Romantically, I should say, you should meditate. But actually what it means, you think about it, think about it, think about it, think about it, and then you will really feel the taste within you. Then you say, “Hah, that’s what it is ‘ “Hah, that works against this sort of emotional problems”so all your emotional problems is nothing, but result of delusions. Each one of those points will hit right on that. It makes life much easier. And that is possible if you taste; if you really taste. By hearing one’s reading loud, little bit, it is not going to taste. You going to hear it, fine. But if you keep on thinking, you have one week gap. At least you can think about 10, 15 minutes every day about this. You will have million different questions here. You don’t have it. And that all because you are not really chewing it. If you don’t chew , you are not going to taste. If you are not going to taste, you are not going to gain it. If you are not going to gain it, you don’t have this quality left. This quality going to miss with you.It is not knowledge, it is experience. Okay? It is not mystical experience. Do not misunderstand. It is not mystical experience. Mystical experience, it occasionally comes. But that’s not the thing. Okay? It is not mystical experience ; it is on the ground experience. Okay? It is not ‘flying in the air’. It is grounded. That is important point. 0:49:53.0

Now, what is it? What is next? (Audience: Art to present, skilful means) Now, skilful means here …when you understand, when you taste within you, then you can present to the other individuals who can fit with their thoughts. Who can fit with their understandings. Who can somehow make sense to them ; you can talk with them. Right? If you come out here, if you being a great traditional over here, and you came ans said, “Well, first Buddha Sakyamuni generated bodhimind, , second for hundred of aeons he had purified and accumulated merit, and finally obtained englightenment”. So that what’s going to happen to you? Nothing. “Oh, ya, okay, good.” That’s it. So, it is, you know, the presentation is something which work with the individual who is listening, who mix with your culture, who mix with the mind of the people, who also can hit with the needs of the individual….needs of the individual. And that’s called ‘way of presenting’. che wei dang nyi(?) 0:51:21.9

The next one is ‘who must be compassionate’.A) That’s not possible to have a spiritual master who is not compassionate. But in case if you have it, the compassionate is becomes a quality. If the person is not kind enough, they are not going to bother you. All the buddhas will go to picnic (Laughs) ; they all will go to picnic. Right? Everybody has summer holiday, so the buddhas will go too.So that’s why it meant. Okay? Che wei dang ne(?) , one who has compassionate . One who has compassion means who can feel the needs of people., who can help, who can work with that. Who will not cut distance, who will not behave supernatural behavior, who will be with individual, who can work with that . These are the qualities , the compassionate ones. Right? 0:52:30.9

And then the last one, ‘who can take a little hardship’. if the person cannot take hardship, it is a problem. Maybe have to move five star to five star, which is you cannot afford to do it. Get idea? Ya. (Audience: No, misunderstood) You misunderstood. Well, then you may have to bring the spiritual masters put them in five star hotels. From five stars to another five star. Okay? Five star to five star. (Laughs) That’s what it is. That’s the idea. Thank you for asking. So, basically these are the ten qualities. Whether the person is fit to be mahayana spiritual master or not, these are the qualities. And if you see advertisement so and so is giving a spiritual teaching and come and attend, and when you see this advertising and pick up that spiritual master, and who has this quality or not, that’s the what you have to do. When I choose my spiritual master, I see all these qualities, whether that person have or not have. When you see these qualities and when you know it, you can benefit with these , then you go with that. And if you think the person doesn’t have those qualities, and ‘I don’t think I am going to be benefited’, you withdraw. So, this the basis on which you choose.0:54:21.2

The guru trip in the West, has been big trip. A number of people whose those gurus , who have taken granted everybody will follow him, whether it is Indian or Chinese or Tibetan or American guru, whatever it is, they sort of taking granted , followers or disciples has taken granted, those who go and attend and follow them, is taking granted the person, and nobody knows what quality the person has or not has. You can very well see, look at these televangelist, right? In the television we can see that everyday how they function, how do people blindly follow. And that’s called ‘blind faith’. We don’t encourage that. If you are following blind faith, you are not intelligent person at all. Don’t think you are educated, if you are following blind faith. You are not! You don’t have good common sense at all. You know, even ordinary dog, if you throw a piece of meat at the dog, the dog will smell it first. (Laughs) Right? Whether it is edible or not edible, right? Unless the dog knows it is the real master who he or she can trust. Then the moment they throw, the dog will just go boom go. But otherwise, they will smell it. Whether the clothes can fit to you or not, you go to the dressing room, and put it on, and look in the mirror, come out and turn around and say, “How do you think about it?” Don’t we, right? If you buy a secondhand car, okay, what do we do? We started the engine , drive around, asked ten different persons, then they give you ten different answers…you maybe totally confused., who knows. But, still we do that,right? So, we just don’t buy. So, if you make mistake, of a secondhand car, what? Not big deal. Eight months later anyway maybe you have to drop out. (Rimpoche laughs) You have to change. If you make little mistake on shirt, so what? Two, three washes, that’s it. Right? But the spiritual guide, and spiritual practise, is lifelong…life after life. You probably have to choose better than choosing a wife or a husband.(Laughs). Anyway, so, that is a little bit of idea on which you can make your judgement these are the qualities. The Buddha really has presented all these. But this is mahayana, not the vajrayana.0:58:01.

The next..or we don’t have next week, Week after that, when you come back next meeting , we will give you the qualities of the vajrayana teachers. Ten more on that , on the basis of . All of those will go, shrink into one, and then comes ten more. So, that’s what going to happen. So, you do have some basis to see about spiritual masters. The problem with the guru trips is in never check the guru quality and just went along with it. So wherever, whoever is blowing trumpet, they just follow it, I mean maybe that’s the Western style. The harder the trumpet you blow, (Rimpoche laughs)probably people will go in that way. ‘Blow your own trumpet’, you know that story, okay. If it is a good spiritual master…you know earlier kadampa lamas, those who have great spiritual developments, they will say, “I know nothing” , “I know nothing”. They will never say, “I know this, this, this., this, this”. They say, “I know nothing” But ‘out of’” I know nothing”, you can see they know this, this, that and qualities, you can see. That is the what you called it…(Audience: humility) Humility. And it is one of the great quality of the guru to have humility. If you don’t have humility, it is very difficult. Look at Dalai Lama today. Even he is kicked out of Tibet, he lost Tibet, but he’s still Dalai Lama. And he is very humble, very humble. This is a quality. 1:00:27.4

Anyway, I guess that’s about it. I believe next week we are not meeting here because of the retreat. And our summer retreat begins on (*noisy background…) (Audience: Saturday, Sunday, Monday..)

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