Archive Result

[0:00:05]

Do you have a Lamrim with you? I am not talking about “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand”, but the short version, “The Abbreviated Points of the Graded Path”, by Tsongkhapa.

[Men from the audience reads]: “After death, there is no assurance of avoiding being born in the worse rebirth states; yet, it is certain that the Three Rare Supreme Gems provide safe direction away from dread (of this fate). Because of that, let me be extremely steadfast in taking their safe direction in life and not let their points for training decline. That indeed will depend on having well considered the noble and dark (pathways of) karmic cause and effect and then practicing properly what’s to be adopted and what’s to be abandoned. (11)]

Good. Thank you. Now we are at that line, what number is it?

[Men answers] The verse number is 11.

Now, everything before the number 11 we have covered. The last time we discussed that death is impermanent with 9 rounds of meditation. That portion consists of 3 roots, 3 reasons, and two resolutions. I don’t know why it is called nine rounds, but maybe 9 reasons there. Anyway, in addition to that, you also have a meditation on an actual “sort of stage” of death. We didn’t go into that. If you want too, maybe one or two pages on that is in the “Liberation in the Palm of your Hand”, I think. Do we have it there?

[Men answers] Meditation on the aspects of death, yes, page 150

Basically, if you meditate on death that way, you appreciate the whole idea of embracing a human life, its importance and difficulty to find, as well as its impermanence.

[0:03:06]

All of those points urge you to overcome laziness. We have a lot of laziness. Remember, we talked about Eastern and Western types of laziness. What does meditation on death bring to the individual? It gives a person a sense of urgency. Although it is one of the most important points, it does not mean the person should die with crazy thoughts like, “I am not doing things in time, I am not going anything great, everything is terrible”.

By succumbing into those thoughts, you are overdriving, overloading yourself. That is why you need to learn to balance between sense of urgency reflecting on death as well as embracing and appreciating current human life. By balancing, you will reach two points: enjoy your life and don’t waste your precious time, get some future benefits for yourself. If you lose this balance, then everything goes crazy. Every single thing is not good, nothing is right, everything is terrible. You have thoughts on wasting your time, and so on.

By fixating on those thoughts, you lose balance on one side. Alternatively, if you totally immerse yourself into everyday chores and nothing else, you lose balance on the other side. The art of balancing is important. You should know how to enjoy life, and at the same time take advantage and be able to practice. If you lose it, then you lost it. That is an important point.

Somehow you need to know how to balance. Tell yourself to relax and that everything is okay, but at the same time do something with the sense of urgency. Both feelings need to go together. After this level, a person will be able to integrate it. After that, if the sense of urgency becomes dull and relax, and you don’t get much out of it, then meditate on aspects of dying as if you are truly on the death bed. You will go via each stage and feel what you are going to feel.

[0:06:00]

It is almost like visualizing yourself in the form of yidam, where you do this and that. Very similarly, you put yourself on the death bed at the dying stage. You can imagine, visualize that all that death science is coming up and you know you are going to die. Then, watch your mind and what your mind tells you. That will sort of prepare of how you will go, right? One day you are going to go anyway. We have talked about it, we all are going to go. Like it said in “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand”, “In a mere hundred years, all those sitting in this assembly will be dead, and the only remnant will be the report that something happened on this spot” [p.306]

They probably sit there, and so many people have come and had that Lamrim teaching. However, nobody will be left in one hundred years. That is almost true. I don’t think it will take even one hundred years; it will be less. The same thing here, no one will be here in one hundred years, maybe only those little kids. Otherwise, nobody will be here, none of us, we all will be gone. Sooner or later, we will go through that. If you visualize now that you are going to die, what is wrong with that? Do it, reflect on it and look deeply inside yourself. What kind of feelings you get from that reflection, what kind of worries come up, how does your mind react?

You will definitely see your very strong attachment, because you don’t want separation from a life and friends, separation from things you get used too. You don’t want it to happen. Then, you can do an internal polling, to check the state you are in. It is similar to polling in the election. For example, who is going to win, democrats or republicans?

That poll will give you a prediction, and you do the same thing. You will do your own survey. During the meditation on death, observe what happens, how your mind reacts. You get the same sense. You won’t be one hundred percent right, but you will get some idea how much you are going through. That assessment will tell you if you need to work more on attachment, anger or disappointment, or discipline.

[0:09:03]

So that is this little thing. Now, another thing is what happens after death. We talked about dying itself, I think we briefly talked about it. We don’t want to talk Vajrayana points here, many if it will come during Vajrayana teaching period.

One most important thing you need to remember is a public outlook on death. Normally people say that a death is a natural phenomenon, and it is a nice thing. It is a natural process and it is beautiful. All of this we say, and people like to buy it that way, go that way and be happy. If you say it is difficult and miserable, then people won’t like it, they will get disturbed and worried about it.

So, a lot of people will tell you death is a wonderful, beautiful and natural process. Sure, there is no doubt. Wonderful or no wonderful, it is a natural process. In the Lamrim, we will tell you the worst things.

The intent of the Lamrim here is not to depress you, but to point to the faults, try to introduce the faults of the individual to the individual. That is Lamrim major job. You are not going to hear that death is wonderful, nice and beautiful. You are going to hear that it is horrible, bad, miserable, you are going to hell, nothing else. The reason is to point finder on the faults, so you can correct it.

If you already have it right, be happy about it. However, if something could be corrected, you should correct it rather than worry about it or ignore it. Even Shantideva said, [Speaks Tibetan], “If something can be corrected, then there should be no reason to worry about it”. There is no reason to sit here with a long face or sit in the corner. Just correct it. If nothing to be corrected, why to worry? It is an additional problem.

[0:12:02]

It is easy for Shantideva to say. The other thing, when you will reach a certain level of practice, I believe, you will be checking that way. Again, if nothing to be corrected, why is to worry? It is an additional problem. And Lamrim will tell you this is wrong, that is wrong, this is terrible. It is not done to reprimand an individual, but to point to the faults so you can correct them.

Each of you might say that different people have different faults. Therefore, it is not necessarily pointed towards you, but it is nice to take in everything that is being taught. If it is pointed to you, then all your hidden things will come out. In that way, if you realize faults, it is very useful. If you see faults, you can change the whole outlook. The main idea is to make a change within an individual. That is why all faults are pointed out.

If there is something nice, there is no reason to point it out. You already have it, and nobody will take it away from you. One of the advantages of the human’s qualities [speaks Tibetan] is that it is the best wealth. Nobody can steal your qualities from you. It is your best friend that won’t let you down, even if you are at the bottom. [speaks Tibetan]. It is the best weapon to destroy an ignorance, and is the best friend to give yourself suggestions. Those are your qualities. That is the point of the qualities.

There is no point to say, “Hey, you have great qualities in this and that”. It is called buttering. You do that in politics, but not in Lamrim. Lamrim points a finger at the faults, so you can change it. If you don’t have a fault, be happy about it. Remember, [speaks Tibetan] a point of Lamrim is a mirror to look at your reflection.

Any fault that you notice, you will remove it. It is similar to putting a makeup on your face. If you look into a mirror and notice that you applied too much, you correct your mistake. Likewise, you should do that in your Dharma practice: watch for your residual faults and remove them.

[0:15:00]

To summarize, the first point is be happy if you don’t have listed faults. That is the main point. [Separate what is and what is not applicable to you]. Don’t pressure yourself needlessly by applying all faults to yourself. Avoid telling to yourself, “This is wrong with me, that is wrong with me, everything listed here is what is wrong with me”. The point is to get rid of faults, not to put yourself down.

The second point is to take “Liberation in the Palm of your Hand” in retrospective. I encourage you to read the text and to remember, that the teaching was given by Pabongka Rinpoche in 1921 in Tibet. If you could visualize the event, you would notice that people in the front rows were dressed in red and yellow robes. That means mostly monks and nuns were present at the place. The Lama was siting on the throne and teaching with focus on monastic audience. That is why that type of rules were taught. You have to understand, this is the note of teaching.

It is not like somebody just sat down and wrote a book relevant for everybody. This teaching is focused basically on the monks and nuns from their point of view. Here we bring an American culture on top. Pabongka Rinpoche have done it for Tibetan monks and nuns’ culture. He mentioned how momos are made, how tea was made, because it was relevant to that culture. Similarly, it was addressed on what was idea oriented. You need to make adjustments yourself, because is what you have to do.

[0:18:06]

“Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand” brings a development within an individual, facilitates change in one’s attitude, changes outlook on the ways you function and deal with life. It is one of the best teachings available right now. This is why we emphasize and insist so much on studying it. However, you need to realize that not everything is relevant to you, because it was originally addressed to Tibetan monks and nuns. This is why need to know how to separate the teaching from mentality, how adjust it to your current environment, and don’t take everything as it is written.

Again, the purpose of Lamrim is to point to the problems, not to press the individual. Therefore, it lists all wrong doings. Basically, if somebody is telling you what is wrong all the time, it keeps on yelling all the time, but if you look at it, we have them. That is the funny part of it. We don’t like it but we have them. When you notice that, we have to make a change. The whole purpose is to make a change.

That covers that stage. The new series of questions arise, “What does happen when you die? Nothing, you die, what else? You die when you die, right? What does it mean? Does it mean the end of this life?” Basically, when you die, you are no longer there, you are gone. You don’t see the things as others, alive humans, see it. Whoever is dying, he or she might see us for couple of days or weeks, but we don’t see that person. For alive people, once somebody is dead, he or she is dead. That is the difference.

What does it mean for the deceased person? For sure, it is an end of one chapter. Now, that sounds very nice, right? Then, it will open another chapter. People often ask, “Is it similar to tomorrow’s morning?”. The answer is, “No, it is not”. As I have been repeatedly saying, reincarnation is something very important. I don’t know if you believe in it or not, but some people have accepted it for whatever the reason might be.

[0:21:09]

A lot of people don’t want to die. The reincarnation is another way of hiding from death, another way of clinging to life as we know. The question is, “With reincarnation, can I come back?” Unfortunately, I believe it is not that way. Yes, we do come back, but almost totally in different way. As I was repeatedly saying, that means disconnecting, forgetting [your previous self as you know it]. Forgetting is almost like not knowing. We forgot, meaning we don’t know. I forgot you completely, I don’t recognize you and I don’t even know you at all. It means a brand-new introduction. When this happens, some people say, “I don’t know anything about you, forgotten”.

That what it is. After reincarnation, you forgot everything. It almost feels that you are de-attached. A new life means completely new development, because you can’t bring an old thing back. It is not like you went to the bathroom, took a shower, changed clothes and came back. It is not. You need to rebuild everything: every experience, connection, and knowledge. Maybe some kind of imprint is still there, and it could be able to connect dots, and get it better for individual here and there.

Another question is commonly asked about the “soulmate” and all of that. Where did it come from?

[0:23:02]

Those are life after life connections. Somehow when you sort of inclined, you see it. Otherwise, everything is new, you have to build it up. “Dissolving” is the nice way to describe the death process and forgetting portion. In reality though, all gross things have disappeared.

It became unserviceable, intangible, it has been reduced to the very subtle thing. It is subtle, very subtle continuation. It is not even a subtle mind, but a tiny bit of continuation. You reduce yourself to that subtle level. Total gross point of moving, talking, dealing, seeing, hearing, understanding are completely reduced to some kind of a very subtle some continuation. Maybe about a hair of the whole body, maybe that level. That might not be the right example, but maybe that level that you have reduced and you got out on that level. This is almost like a seed, and then you are starting to growing up again, and the whole thing [“cycle of inherent existence’] continues.

When you are going through that process, it not like you have gone and come back. You come back, but very subtle, so it is almost like everything new. That is why number of teachers say there is no reincarnation because it is too subtle point.

When you go through that, as I have told you the other day, it is not that simple, it is very difficult. What do we call it? We call it a “narrow passage of bardo”. It is difficult even at dying stage because of possibility of terrible hallucinations there.

[0:26:01]

Remember, this is a Lamrim, so it describes terrible things and all sorts of things. You can compare it to the dream during your sleep. Something could go wrong in a dream, and we got troubled and got an experience. Likewise, during the death process, it could go wrong or could be very pleasant and nice to some people. It is almost like a trip that you take it as such trip.

[audience starts laughing]

What is happening? If you going outside with a little one, could you please keep a door open? We need that too. Can you open a door for a little while?

That a lot of those terrifying experiences, which are very clear and, unfortunately, very lucid. It is so clear and very frightening to people who are going through.

Alright, let’s talk about a next life. What actually happens after we reborn again? That little tiny continuation will begin to pick up gross feelings, perceptions at the gross level. Then it forms, a life starts over again in whatever shape, form or, level. It could be any of those pictured levels provided on the chart. Dr.Kim came with the chart, remember? That chart has 52 different levels people could go. Either one of them can be.

[0:29:04]

Here I must bring a very unfortunate news. Normally a lot of people, particularly former Catholic people, who turn to the Buddhism and say, “There is no hell in Buddhism”. Unfortunately, there are a lot of hells in Buddhism. Basically, in Tibetan Buddhist tradition they talk about six realms. Certain other Buddhist traditions can derive in 10 different realms, but in Tibetan tradition we talk about six. Three are upper better levels, and three are more miserable levels. Hell realm is one, hungry ghost is another, animal realm is the third realm. Those are three lower realms.

A lot of people will say, we are human beings, we are not going to go down. This is not true because there are no guarantee. Buddha said there are no guarantee. We always want to go up, all the journeys are up. But it is not necessarily that we always go up, we can fall down. That is like falling asleep. When you wake up, you might find yourself at the different level. Actually, we talked about death. It is big deal, very big deal. When the present goes through, you just go. You don’t need a password or a visa, you just get it there. That is what we are going through. When you wake up, then you wake up. Then you can be different, when you wake up, you begin to see yourself as a little animal, little insect or that skunk. Yes, it can be, you never know. Nothing stands between the previous human life with all sorts of body perfumes, including Channel #5, and that skunk.

[0:31:57]

Between that, there is no mountain to be crossed, no visa or password to be obtained. It is just tiny a little air that you breath in and out. When this in and out function stops, if it holds back 10 or 5 minutes, that is it. That “Channel #5” could be the skunk’s thing, you know?

That is what it takes. Just hold your breath. If it goes out and doesn’t come back, or it runs in and doesn’t come out, that is it. Please try to understand how fragile we are. This is why people choke, right? The air can’t move, that what it is.

There are a lot of low realms: animal, hungry ghosts and hell. I am not going to talk very long, people don’t like it. However, as I told you the other day, now your view is much bigger than before. Your view is not from birth to death. You are looking at the bigger picture, a life after present life. Your concern is broader, your view is far sided, rather than that old, narrow, selfish interest from birth to death only. With an old narrow and selfish view you didn’t have concern for others, didn’t have compassion, only had your own selfish interests at heart. That worked only for that tiny segment from birth to death, when you were seeking short pleasures and were doing whenever you feel doing.

[0:35:02]

Our view is bigger now, we are opened. We are concerned now with life after life, we are concerned after death as well as before and after death. This is why our view is bigger. A view is bigger, we are much more worried, more opened, so more worried as well. More concern, more worry because you see a bigger picture. People who see a bigger picture, will always have more responsibility, even in the business setup.

For instance, somebody gave a simple assignment to keep the notes during the meetings. However, because a person has only a limited understanding of the business, he might not capture the whole picture. He might write it down, but it might not go well with others. He might need to rewrite it in such a way that it reflects everybody’s opinion. The supervisor, on the other hand, might have a broader understanding and would capture different things. The bigger you get in the business world, the more concern and responsibilities you get.

Our view is now bigger, and we look differently at life. Now we have a responsibility in the different life for ourselves. Don’t worry about others for now, just focus on ourselves.

Let’s talk about Buddhist hells. There are eighteen of them. Eight hot hells and eight cold hells, that is why we have done exercise with Roshell here earlier. Unfortunately, I tried to shrink it into one hour, but it didn’t work very well. During a retreat, it was two hours of the lower realms, and you got some feelings and understanding. But when you shrink it into smaller timeframe, you don’t get that much feelings. I am not going to go into details, but please read “Day 11” in “Liberation in Palm of your Hand” and meditate, visualize that you are born in there, you have all of this.

For example, imagine all insects that you have killed in your lifetime. Now, they are formed into the mountains and coming from all directions toward you. Visualize those cockroaches’ mountains, and you can literally get frightened!

[0:38:00]

It doesn’t matter that it is frightening, we need it. Sometimes some fears are useful, and that fear is useful now. If you do this exercise, you will get useful experience out of it, learn a new response. However, if you ignore an exercise, hide those thoughts and resist to think about it, then you might regret it later. If in the future you are faced with it, you will be helpless. You won’t be able to do anything, [you will be frozen]. So right now, visualize it. You are not born there yet; you only imagine that you are there.

Imagine yourself in that situation, what are you going to do? Visualize that you are standing in the middle of two big mountains of cockroaches, moving towards you with an intent to crush you. They ae coming from right and left, back and front, and they are crushing into you. What are you going to do?

Usually if we can’t help it ourselves, we rely on someone who can help us. Visualize eight hot and eight cold hells, two animal realms and three hungry ghost realms, plus two hells on the human land. Those are called “near and next” and all of this. Again, visualize each of them, and when you are getting frightened, don’t close a book and run away. Instead, tell it to yourself, “Hey, I am not there yet. It is in my own hands, and right now I have a choice to make sure that I won’t experience it ever. If I don’t do it now, then I might experience it. If I fixed that [karma], then I won’t be in this situation. I will handle it now. If I can’t help it, then I will take a refuge and follow it. If I can help it, I will handle it myself”.

That is an advantage of meditation on hells, hungry ghosts and animal realms. That will make you feel it. Also, there are a lot of qualities in that. First, it will shrink your pride, and make an empty stoke. If it is empty, it stands up straight, and a lot of weeds will bow down. If it is empty, will stand straight up.

[0:41:17]

That is the pride. The people are moving like this, [showing with hands], that means nothing up there. No quality, maybe there is a knowledge, information, but there is no quality. [speaks Tibetan]. I tell you that all the time. You wear the sky on your head, and tie it with this cloud down here. That what it is, empty stocks [?]. It will stand up, so that will be cut down, come down if you meditate on the sufferings. That will bring you to the ground, you will not fly into the air.

You are flying in the air because you don’t think enough about the suffering. Forget even about suffering of others, think of your own suffering. Point finger to yourself. “I did not think of myself being a subject of all those conditions”. If you think about that, you will not be going to fly in the air.

This is one of the keys that brings people to the ground and not make you fly into the air. It is the meditation on the sufferings, lower realms in particular. You are subject to it. We have not developed an immune system for that at all.

An immune system is only developed during the second part, part of action. Remember, part of action has four levels. Can anybody recall it? Those four parts are heat, peak, patience and the best, dharma. When you reach the third level of the patience, then you get an immune system for lower realms. Then, you can fly into the air. Then you will be actually flying, and not falling down. Otherwise, you can fall. That is the main problem.

[0:44:02]

Then, it can be handled if you can meditate enough. It is very easy to look into other people and talk about it. Talk about different problems, give different suggestions, solutions, pull information from here, pull information from there, it is very easy.

When you point finger to yourself, and think that I, myself, is subject to that, then it will make a difference. That will make you grounded. When you meditate on suffering, for example, on hells, don’t go into museums. You know what I mean? I don’t mean go to the museum physically, but don’t look into other people who are suffering. Oh, there is a window number one, and she calls it, and then again and again, the window number two. That is a museum.

Instead, get yourself in there and feel it. Put yourself into the subject, and then look in. that will make a difference. If you go into museum, there is no use. It is like making a video game of hell and watching it. How does it make any difference? Nothing, right. However, if you get yourself there, it does make a difference by feeling. With that feeling, take a refuge.

[break in record]

[0:46:02]

If you visualize that way, you would feel it. Then what you do, if you can’t help it. Visualize yourself dying, with possibility of taking rebirth in each of the lower realms. Give yourself time to experience visiting each realm for a minute or two, each of those holes. Then, feel it. From there, with feeling, take a refuge. Refuge two in Dharma and Sangha. [Speaks Tibetan]. After that, there is no certainty if you go to the lower or higher realms. In order to protect from those fears, the only refuge is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Why do they have a power to protect you? Why can’t I take a refuge in a powerful spirit who will make a difference now? Why should I take refuge in Buddha? Why couldn’t I go and get some kind of spirit that will make a big difference. We see in the movies this Chinese thing. I saw in one of the movies, is it “The life of Bruce Lee”. During the movie, some kind of thing comes out, very powerful spirit come in. Why can’t you take refuge in one of those spirits? Then, if you don’t like somebody, you can just send that guy. If you like, you can send that guy to hell, why not?

Why do you need to take refuge in Buddha, who hardly moves? Why, why, why? Why take refuge in Dharma? Why take refuge in Sangha? This is a very important point. If I take refuge, to whom do I need to take refuge? That is what you need to find out.

That powerful spirit we see in the movie “The life of Bruce Lee” is not going to take you out of lower realms at all. He can send you there, but won’t be able to take out.

[0:49:15]

Why? Because he himself might not be free. Do you get the picture? Those powerful spirit that had appeared to have a power, its power is limited. Time, area, period, a lot of limitations. Those limitations tell you that their protection is not right. They themselves are looking for protection. It is very easy to make harm to people, they can do it. On the other hand, it is very difficult to help you. Harming is easy, helping is difficult.

Most of those spirits have limitations, and above all, they themselves are not free. I came across with number of different ghosts in my fifty-five years of life. A lot of them. I always tried to avoid them, whenever I go, I try to avoid them. Somehow, I came to counterweight [counterbalance] with them. Sometimes you can’t help it.

Particularly I recall one time when I have visited Malaysia. As I said, normally I try to avoid spirits. When I see that funny little thing is going on, I run or walk away as fast as I could. Sometimes you can’t help it. It happened in the place called “Kwantang” in Malaysia. I was giving a talk at the Buddhist society. There were a lot of people there. Then, in the middle of the talk, somebody brought an eleven years old girl into the audience. Then, some kind of spirit comes into the child. People brought her in in while I was talking, and I couldn’t run away. I had to sit there.

[0:52:03]

They brought her in and sort of tried to talk to me. I have said, “Sit down”. Until I had finished, I didn’t listen to them. I know, I can see it, the eleven years old girl with the eyes almost like this, you know. So, when the talk was over, they had a little room for me on the side. I went into the room, and I asked to bring a girl along into the room. I thought, maybe I don’t need to bring a lot of people into the room, because I might disgrace myself [by not able to help her]. So lesser the people, [the better].

Tokten Chengbig was there with me when they brought the girl. The girl’ father refused to send a girl along into the room. I said, “Why? They speak Chinese, I can’t understand”. Then, the translator came and said, “Rinpoche, you can’t help a girl along there because she will slap you”. Apparently, this family came here prior to see another Rinpoche, and the girl slapped him three times. Therefore, they were not going to let you in with her along. The poor people were holding her. when she moved, four strong men needed to hold her.

Finally, I agreed for two people to be present in the room. I was a little scared too. Then I pretend to be somebody, subtly. There was a bed in the room, I set on the bed with legs crossed. Then I had said to the girl, “Come up, come in here”. She moaned, she looked and started running out of the door, but the door was closed. She couldn’t run anywhere. She started to scratch wooden cupboard, sort of wooden covered closet. She tried to get into the cupboard. My pride went up, “I am not worried about it”. I grabbed her leg and pulled her out.

Then, the father said to the girl, “Rinpoche, go to Rinpoche”. She said, “There is no Rinpoche here. There is a terrible blue terrifying man with the halo sitting up there. I am not going up there”. I got more pride, as I was trying to catch her.

[0:54:58]

To make the story short, the poor eleven-year-old girl had twelve or thirteen different ghosts stationed within her. During the session, one coming out one after another. One was rich old lady of the area, who has been murdered by one of the servants. The whole purpose was to take revenge. This old lady’s protection was the prior monk, a monk from Thailand. There were twelve or thirteen of ghosts, including a ghost of prior monk, who came out one after the other. I made a deal with the ghosts that they will not disturb the girl, nor harm anybody else. I promised to do the fire puja the next day, and to evoke Avalokiteshvara, and dedicate all merit for the benefits of those ghosts.

I was told later that it worked. So, it shows that those powerful spirits can came into the trans and overtake a total consciousness of the human being and do all of this. However, they themselves are not free from the suffering. Therefore, they are not fit to take a refuge, because they themselves are not free.

Buddha went through that, he passed through that and he is free from that. This is one of the reasons why Buddha is fit to take refuge in. There are a lot of other reasons, such as kindness, compassion, caring, all of the read. Read, is it in “Day 11” again, or maybe in “Day 12”? Refuge will be in “Day 12”. I think “Day 11” deals with suffering part of it, and “Day 12” should be the refuge, right?

Please read “Day 12”. Each of those reasons of why Buddha is fit to be an object of refuge, why Dharma is fit to be an object of refuge, and why is Sangha is fit to be an object of refuge. Mostly the important reason is that they have to be free, if they are not free, we can’t take refuge. If you are taking it away, if you are cycled by current, and both of you are going and slipping away, and one can take refuge in the other, both are going, and one can’t help the other. That is the example.

[0:58:10]

Remember it. Read it and contemplate on why you need to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. For the next Tuesday, I will introduce Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as a historical part, and within yourself and the connection in between. That will be next Tuesday. But please read “Day 11” and “Day 12” in “Liberation in the Palm of your Hand” and meditate through that if you can. If you are done, then you are done. I don’t care. [everybody laughs].

[starts prayers in Tibetan]