Archive Result

20051008GRGRFRM4 4mind 4: 2.01 hours

Day 2

As the great Indian pandit Nagajuna said in his “Friendly Letter to the King", it is absolutely essential to cultivate and tame one's own mind -Shakyamuni Buddha has said this, so it is most important. This is the root of the Dharma, to tame one's own stream of consciousness. If we ask, why is this so important, it is because by doing this it is possible to become Enlightened. Also, it is the functions of the mind which cause us to be reborn in the three lower states of rebirth and to wander aimlessly and endlessly in samsara. This is all based on the functioning of the mind.

Kyabje Rimpoche is talking here about the mind. This is not the mind-only school talking. It is the mind which determines what our future is going to be, future rebirths and everything. That's why the mind is extremely important.

Shakyamuni Buddha in his time taught three different types of disciples and gave numerous teachings tailored to different levels of mentality, all aimed at taming and developing the mind. The mind is often compared to an elephant. While it is wild and untamed it can be very destructive and do a great deal of harm. When fully-tamed it can be very useful to society. Similarly, our minds are very destructive when allowed to run wild. When properly trained and cultivated, we can achieve Enlightenment or Liberation.

We have done teachings in Jewel Heart that use the comparison of the mind to an elephant. They are included in the transcript GOM and include a chart with descriptions of all the steps.

When we talk about liberation and enlightenment, we are talking about mental states. That does not mean that everything just happens in your mind and not in reality. It is real and that reality is mind. When talking about dharma practice it doesn't mean what color your dress is or how your hair is styled. What matters is mind and its improvement. That also doesn't essentially mean an educated, learned mind, but it is meant in more practical terms, to be more compassionate, caring and wise. Of course learning helps. Spiritual development to me is mental development, not physical development.

All of Shakyamuni's teachings are designed to suit the various dispositions, idiosyncrasies and levels of mind of sentient beings, according to their capacity. To those who are not capable of working selflessly for others, but only capable of gaining liberation for themselves, he has given the Hinayana method.

Buddha's teachings are designed to suit individuals on various levels. Some are very intelligent, and I talked to you earlier about the three different levels. And individually, everybody has specific capacities. Sometimes the Hinayana is wrongly referred to as "selfish". But the Hinayana's emphasis is self liberation, rather than liberating all others.

To those who arc more advanced and have the mental capacity to work for others, he has given the great Mahayana tradition. This teaching is for those who are most capable and who can take on the enormous responsibility and burden of liberating all beings and achieving enlightenment for their sake. In the Mahayana tradition there are both the vast and the profound teachings. This text combines both: the teachings on Guru devotion are part of the vast tradition. Please listen with the great Mahayana motivation of attaining Enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

The motivation is very important. It should not just be for my benefit alone, but for the benefit of all others. The difference between mahayana and hinayana is the motivation. The gateway to the mahayana is the bodhimind, the ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. When you have that you are a mahayana person, and if you don't have that you are not. All of us pretend to be mahayana practioners. But unless and until we have devleoped the bodhimind within us, we are not mahayana practitioners at all. We just claim to be. We do take vows. These have advantages but also equally, they have disadvantages of downfalls. Even then, taking mahayana vows doesn’t make you a mahayana practitioner. The dharma you practice does not make the difference. Yes, what we do here is called a mahayana teaching. But whether what you practice is mahayana or hinayana depends on the individual. Even giving a little food to a dog becomes a mahayana practice if it is done with bodhimind. Without bodhimind, even lavish offerings don’t become mahayana.

The earlier Indian kings would set up huge feast offerings in the villages. There were millions of pounds of food for the poor people. But it is only mahayana if the mind of the person making the offering is bodhimind. So it is only our own mind. When you have the altruistic aspiration your practice becomes mahayana.

Tsongkhapa says,

That the dharma is mahayana dharma it is not enough. The person must be a mahayana practitioner.

Mahayana is so great not just because of compassion, but because of taking the responsibility for liberating all sentient beings. Once you have bodhimind with you, that itself becomes the method for purification. The bodhimind itself automatically works for accumulating merit, unless you lose the bodhimind. For purification we talk about Vajrasattva purification and meditation on emptiness and so on, however, the bodhimind itself is what does it. Shantideva says,

Such heinous non-virtues, what else could purify it other than bodhimind?

Chandrakirti also states,

Once bodhimind is developed, no matter whatever you do, even sleeping the whole day and night, or fooling around, every minute of your activity becomes accumulation of merit and purification of negativity.

If you want to know more about the benefits of the bodhimind, read the first chapter of the bodhisattvacharyavatara. For example it says there,

Bodhimind is like a gold elixir. Any metal that is touched by this elixir becomes gold.

Shantideva is not talking about gold-plating. It is based on the old Indian stories - I hate to call them "mythological stories". They are similar to the biblical stories in the west. People can develop powers to develop nectar-like elixir that transforms any metal into gold. That is what Shantideva is talking about.

Mindfulness of the Altruistic Aspiration to Enlightenment

The second contemplation is the contemplation of the different types of sufferings of all sentient beings in cyclic existence, and being mindful of having compassion and mercy for all sentient beings.

“In the prison of the suffering of limitless cyclic existence wander the six types of sentient beings bereft of happiness; Fathers and mothers who protected you with kindness are there. Forsaking desire and hatred, meditate on endearment and compassion. Not letting your mind stray, place it within compassion. Making your attention unforgetful, maintain it within compassion."

To paraphrase it directly from the Tibetan: There is a prison called samsara, a place of tremendous torment. There you see the people who very badly lack joy and happiness. The sentient beings of the six realms are roaming around there. When I look carefully I realize these are my fathers and mothers, who have saved my life a number of times who have helped and saved me. I should give up hatred and obsession and develop compassion and love. Don't let the mind run away, keep it on compassion. Let your mind hold compassion tight.

We need to develop a proper understanding of what samsara means. It is not a place or a country; it means that one is forced by one’s own accumulated karma and delusions to take rebirth in the cycle of life and death. In simple terms, samsara is the continuity of our physical form, which is the product of karma and delusions. If we cut that continuity, we will no longer have to take a samsaric rebirth. No liberation is possible until then; we just have to wander along.

There is some problem with the translation or editing here. Normally, Kyabje Ling Rimpoche said when you talk about samsara, don't look outside. It is not a country. It is not a separate place, but is within us. Samsara is the continuation of the identity. As long as we have the continuation of contaminated identity, we have samsara. Deep down, samsara is not the individual but the continuation of contaminated identity. By saying "continuity of physical form", the editors tried to make it easy to understand. It doesn't mean the continuation of this particular physical form. We continuously take on new identities which are contaminated. That is samsara. The moment you cut that you cut the ego and with that, the samsara.

"Limitless cyclic existence" means we cannot identify or trace our origins. There are no past limits, no beginnings to samsaric existence but there are limits of the future. The samsaric existence is called a prison because, once trapped, there is no happiness, only suffering. What appears to be joy or happiness is actually in nature of suffering.

There are a number of crazy people who actually enjoy being in prison. They cannot live outside. There is free food, free accommodation, free medical care. You don't have to worry about anything. Nobody will chase you to pay the bills. So some people think it is great. But when we look at them we know it is a place of suffering.

That is how our delusions work with us. Many times we do things and think it is great, but actually it is suffering. Something always goes wrong. Even with the best thing you can get something goes wrong. Always. That is the clear sign that we are in samsara.

There are continuous changes, ups and down, good and bad. It doesn't go turn by turn either. All of a sudden anything can happen and it is always more on the side of suffering and less on the side of joy. These are the signs of samsara. If we keep on thinking that it is great we are like the people in prison who think that it is great, because they don't have to pay the bills.

"Wander the six types of sentient beings, bereft of happiness they wander helplessly and unhappily through the round of existence.

We wander around the six samsaric realms, just like feathers carried by the air. We have no idea where we are going. When the storm comes and picks up the leaves and feathers, there is no certainty where they will be dropped. You will be born alone again and again and wander through existence. That is how samsara is depicted by Buddha. The moment we die we have no control over our destiny. Storm-like karmic forces drive us, pick us up and we have no idea where we are going to be dropped. If we are lucky we will connect with good karma and the feather will be dropped in the United States. If we are unlucky the feather may be dropped into the hot or cold hell realms, the hungry ghost realms or animal realms. We are actually running all our lives, looking for happiness and joy. Materially, spiritually, we are running. We are running to make money. Most people struggle to make ends meet, some are running for a little extra. Some are running to make more and more. All are running, looking for happiness and joy.

We don't really know what happiness is. We have never experienced it. We don't know the joy that has never known suffering. But that's what we are looking for.

Although we fail to recognize them as our parents, in fact they have been our mothers and fathers time and time again, and when we were born to them they treated us as kindly as the parents of this life. Not being partial we should see that they are all equal. Each one has been kind to us as a parent at some time, but by failing to recognize this fact we form tremendous attachment to those who are dear to us and repulsion to others. We create attraction to some and hatred to others and this is grossly wrong, as they have all been equally kind and dear to us at some time. Without forgetting their kindness, thinking of them as our parents, we should place our mind in the state of great compassion and care for each and all of them without any exception.

We don't recognize people because of our transition through birth and death. Constantly, continuously, we die and get reborn. Sometimes we have short lives, sometimes we even die before we are born. Sometimes we die immediately after birth, sometimes we die a few years later. Sometimes we live to 60, 70 or 80 years and die. But constantly and continuously we go through birth and death, one after another. Birth follows death, death follows birth. We are hoping to grab some happiness and run all over the place and then death strikes us down. We wake up in the next life and start running around, looking for happiness again. Because of the shock and birth and death we do not recognize others. Because of the time that has passed we do not recognize them. In Buddha's view, all souls are old souls. There are no new souls. That's why from the limitless of beginning we have been existing but changing lives and running. Every life we change mothers and fathers. Some lives we are even born without father or mother. Some insects are born from heat or in other ways. But many times we did have parents, but now we do not recognize them at all.

Kyabje Rimpoche is talking here about great compassion. Great compassion is different from the usual compassion. When compassion is focused on all living beings equally, it is great compassion. There is no equivalent. It is very rare. A lot of people will have some compassion. Great compassion on the other hand is difficult because we have aversion and attachment.

'In essence: by developing proper awareness, being frustrated and depressed with our own situation in cyclic existence, we generate renunciation.

We have to renounce being frustrated and being depressed with our own situation in cyclic existence. It is not life that we should renounce. A number of buddhologists and tibetologists have told me that I shouldn't use the word "renunciation", because when people hear that they think they should give up everything and go somewhere in the forest or the Himalayan mountains, shave their head and leave their family. But what we really have to renounce is hatred and attachment and obsession. Being constantly frustrated and depressed with our own situation, that has to be renounced. However, we are not able to renounce that. We go deeper into depression and frustration. I have been accused of not understanding depression. That is true. I don't have the experience of being depressed. I am a happy-go-lucky person. I take whatever comes, no matter how urgent or sad something may be. I may be scared, but that's about it. Even scaredness doesn't last very long with me, perhaps a few seconds or minutes. After that, no matter how intense the situation may be I don't get depressed. I will think of a solution how to handle it and not give up. So I don't know what depression feels like personally, but I have seen people go through it and seen how much torture it is. They really go through tremendous torture.

I am sure that some people won't like what I am going to say now. But if you go beyond the psychology and psychotherapy point of view and go deep down, it is our own mind which is creating this problem for ourselves. We see what is going to happen and what the consequences are for us. So then you bring the future into the present and begin to worry. If you can handle it, that may be good, but if you can't, you are just going to create additional problems for yourself.

One of our friends was driving on the road and got a speeding ticket. She got hysterical and was worried that the police was going to raise her points, which was then going to raise the insurance and that would create so many problems for her. She was besides herself. I tried to tell her not to worry ahead of time, but stay calm and then when more information came, think of a way to deal with it. I said, "Just now you had an accident and got a ticket. So try to relax a little bit." In reality, her points didn't get raised, her insurance didn't go up - nothing. So she was worrying about that unnecessarily, and couldn't even breathe for a while. Taking the future suffering today - I don't know whether that makes sense or not.

Samsara is depressing and frustrating. We do get frustrated all the time - with our work, with out study, our practice. That is the sign we are in samsara. This is samsaric suffering. So if you don't like that kind of suffering, you should tell yourself, "I don't like samsara. I will renounce samsara." That's how practitioners should think, in my opinion.

Then transferring that understanding onto other sentient beings, thinking of their miserable existence and their sufferings, we generate compassion and love towards others.

Kyabje Rimpoche says that first we have to look into our situation, know and recognize our own sufferings and frustrations, and recognize them as samsaric symptoms. We have to know that we cannot get rid of them unless and until we get rid of samsara altogether.

Knowing that, then we transfer that to others. Then you don't have to ask, "What can I do? How can I help?" Look into your own situation and recall, "How did I help myself?" Now apply that to the other person, seeing their frustration and depression and again recognize them as symptoms of samsara. Then thinking of their miserable existence and suffering we generate compassion.

When looking at one's own suffering it is called renunciation, when looking at others it is called compassion. I remember when I once asked Kyabje Ling Rimpoche about love and compassion he showed me a handkerchief and said, "This side is compassion", then turned it round and said, "This is love". It sounds like a zen teaching, but what it means is that love and compassion is one mind with separate aspects. One mind thinks, "How can I remove the suffering of these people?" The other thinks, "How can I bring joy to them?" Similarly here, it is the same mind disliking and renouncing, almost hating samsara for oneself and for others. It is also one mind with different aspects.

Today the topic is different from yesterday's. What is the connection? Yesterday it was Guru devotion, seeing no faults in the Guru, seeing his Enlightened nature. If you wonder: "Oh, but my Guru does have faults, he has attachment and anger" -then wonder also whether it isn't the reflection of your own deluded thought. First of all, there is no logical pervasion: if from your own side you don't see any faults, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is faultless; if you see qualities it doesn't necessarily mean there are qualities. Take an alcoholic disciple and a teacher who drinks: they will be very compatible, and the disciple will see this fault as a quality. If a teacher is very diligent and stays up late reciting, but the disciple likes to go to bed early, he may see it as a mistake in the teacher.

This is self-explanatory. If you are an alcoholic and you have a teacher who drinks you will be happy and see that as a quality. If you are diligent and get up early, but you see your teacher gets up late and stays up late you will see that as a fault. If you are lazy and like to sleep in and you know that your teacher is getting up late, you will think, "Very good." Whatever we perceive is not necessarily true. That is what Kyabje Rimpoche is saying.

Also, regardless of one's own perspective, if the Guru manifests a mistake or a defect, here again it is not at all certain that he actually possesses such a defect. He may be manifesting it simply to relate better to the disciple. Shakyamuni Buddha is known to have appeared as a Mara. Then of course you have to act like a Mara, otherwise it defeats the purpose. In some Sutras such as "The Meeting of the Son and the Father", he is said to have appeared as a blind man; elsewhere, as someone angry, lustful, ignorant - all for the benefit of sentient beings, although he himself has no faults or physical defects. When contemplating Guru devotion, if you start seeing faults in the Gurus you should check whether it is not just a reflection of your own faults you are seeing in the Guru, or whether he is appearing to have such a fault just to benefit you and others. Then you can be grateful to him for showing you your fault, or for manifesting as he does in order to relate to you.

The purpose of having a Guru is exclusively to practice the Dharma. You may object that there are books which you can just pick up and read. This is for acquiring merely intellectual knowledge, but to develop insight and receive blessings we have to rely on proper devotion to a Guru; a Guru is essential. We think that having a spectacular Yidam is more important than a Guru. Take the example of Marpa and Naropa. The Guru, Naropa, manifested the full mandala of

Marpa’s Yidam and calling him over asked whether he would prostrate first to the mandala and deity or to his Guru. Marpa thought: "Oh I can always see Naropa, but this mandala is quite an unusual sight" and he prostrated to the mandala. Naropa said, "Without the Guru there is no Buddha" and snapped his fingers and made the whole mandala disappear.

At this point it is very important to understand that Dharma means to hold and to protect. There are three scopes: the smallest protects from falling into lower realms, the medium scope protects from falling into samsara, cyclic existence, and the great scope protects from all the obstacles to Enlightenment. By relying on and entrusting yourself to a qualified Guru, you should engage sincerely in the practice of the Dharma to protect yourself from falling into states of suffering. Through the practice of Dharma you can achieve happiness and joy in this and future lives. If you doubt your own capability, well, there is no real reason to hesitate; we have all the requirements, the eight freedoms and ten endowments, and suitable conditions. We must become convinced that we do indeed have all the suitable conditions and are free from all obstacles. Again, sometimes we may think, well, maybe it isn't so urgent or so crucial to practice now; I'm busy, maybe I will practice in another life. We procrastinate, but this is wrong. Perhaps only once in a hundred opportunities will we obtain such a highly-qualified birth; this may be our only chance! It's very important not to postpone our practice. In fact it's vital not to keep putting off your decision to practice -there is no guarantee that we will live forever. Today we are alive, but there is no guarantee that by tomorrow our body will not turn into a corpse and everyone will ignore us. The time does not wait, so there is real urgency about engaging in practice -considering the rarity and preciousness of this opportunity. The great Gungthang Jampalyang has said: "This endless mention of tomorrow, tomorrow, may bring the sudden guest of death. Then it will be too late, our chance will have passed. So engage now without postponing".

Literally, Gungthang Jampalyang says, "Whether tomorrow or the future life comes first is not certain. Therefore make the proper choice.”

To engage in the practice of Dharma we should enter the gateway of the Buddhadharma by means of going for Refuge to the Triple Gem: the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. The Buddha is the one who shows the Refuge, who gives the teachings; the Dharma is the actual means of obtaining Liberation and the Sangha are the helpers who encourage us to attain, to be on the path to Enlightenment. The reason why it is essential that we enter the practice of taking Refuge in the Triple Gem is that we constantly accumulate far more non-virtuous actions than virtuous ones. In a single day we accumulate enough to wander endlessly in samsara. So there has to be a force of protection to counteract all this negativity. That is why we take Refuge, which is like the gateway of entering the Buddhadharma.

Before we develop any love and compassion or genuine consideration for others, it is important to understand our own state of existence. Unless we understand its suffering nature, without an appreciation of what liberation from this recurrent cyclic existence in states of suffering means for oneself, it is very difficult to develop any sympathy for others. It is very important to have your own realization of the state of suffering. Suppose one is born into a lower state, say into one of the hot hells: there the beings have very large bodies and super-sensitive skin like an infant's. The further down the hells, the longer the life spans in eons. There are tremendous sufferings. Then you also have the cold hells, and the preta rebirths. Because there is the reality of being reborn into one of these states, we need the protection of taking Refuge in the Three Gems, with the true causes: (1) recognizing one's own suffering and fearing a rebirth in one of those realms by realizing the suffering there, and (2) realizing that the Three Gems give complete protection from such rebirths. The reason why we need to take Refuge in the Three Gems can be explained by analogy with a sick person. He needs a doctor, medicine and proper care from nurses for a complete cure. The doctor prescribes the medicine, but then the patient has to take it, he has to practice the Dharma. The nurses are like a guide, they encourage him on the path. If the patient does not listen to the doctor and take his medicine, it will take a long time to get cured.

Shakyamuni Buddha constantly advised refraining from virtuous actions and practicing to collect virtue, otherwise there is very little chance of avoiding the three lower realms. The non-virtuous actions can be synthesized into ten: three of the body, four of speech and three of the mind. It is very important to avoid collecting these. Insects and animals are constantly collecting non-virtuous actions, and we have bigger bodies and collect even more non-virtue, not to speak of that collected in previous lives. We have a tremendous accumulation; there must be some way of purifying it! The Dharma is not lacking in methods, primarily the four opponent forces, the main one being repentance or regret. Take the example of three people who have eaten poison. One has already died, one is very sick and one is still alive and well. By some chance we are still alive and we have a precious opportunity to practice the Dharma, to develop repentance or regret for all our past accumulations, realizing that we “took poison". The second force is the vow not to commit such non-virtue. Abstinence is very important. The two forces of repentance and abstinence are extremely powerful; with them we can eliminate any amount of negative potential. Just as Angulimala achieved liberation from the consequences of his own actions, we also can, by applying these two forces plus the force of accomplishing positive actions and the force of confession, eliminate past accumulations and take higher rebirths as devas or as humans.

The reason why I'm talking about these sufferings of the lower realms is to make a connection with the line that talks of suffering beings and how we should remain in a state of compassion for them. Before we can have true sympathy for the sufferings of others we have to realize our own suffering in the three lower realms and want to attain higher states of rebirth. Then one can begin to aspire to generate renunciation of samsara for oneself. Je Tzongkhapa said: "If one cannot develop goose-bumps from the extent of suffering and the imminent danger of falling to a lower rebirth, if one cannot be moved by that, then there is no question of sympathy or regard for other beings' suffering states."

Tsongkhapa says that when you think about your own states of suffering and the danger of falling into the lower realms, and if you don't make any mental, physical and emotional move, how can you expect to have compassion for others? Compassion, mindfulness, and bodhimind are absolutely necessary. Before we have bodhimind we can have love and compassion to a certain extent, but it is much harder to have great compassion and unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. And that is absolutely necessary to develop bodhimind. In order to develop that we have to recognize the kindness and compassion shown to me by all sentient beings at one time or another, equally. Therefore equanimity is extremely important. Without that we cannot acknowledge the kindness given to us by all living beings. Without that, we cannot have the commitment of repaying that kindness. Without that, we cannot have love for all living beings. Without such love we cannot have compassion. Without compassion we cannot have commitment and without commitment we cannot have bodhimind. One depends on the other.

There is not so much analyzing and logic here. You cannot point out anything that is wrong, but you also cannot see that it is right. The problem is that we can't see past and future lives. We can't see the limitless beginning. We can't see previous lives. We can't see reincarnation and future lives. We don't see what our future situation is going to be.

In Buddhism we recognize that there are certain points that we cannot see. We have obscurations, because we are not enlightened. When our experiences contradict statements by Buddha and other enlightened beings and when we cannot analyze it ourselves we refer to the scriptures. Buddha has been proved to be right many times and has not proved to be wrong so far.

Since we don't have a solid, reliable, empirical truth we do have to trust Buddha's words. Our mind is not capable of penetrating into this. It is extremely difficult to analyze.

In comparison, emptiness is easy to analyze. We can think and understand. With reincarnation we have that block of not seeing life after life. Nobody comes and says "I am back", except those Tibetan recognized incarnate lamas. But who knows what is really happening with that. We do have two Panchen Lamas now. And at one time the Khentse Rimpoche passed away and there were five recognized incarnations. The Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche was one of those five Khyentses. We don't know if that is all true. Who knows.

Incarnate lamas who are believed to be reborn, will usually tell you something like "Look into this area or that area, not so many areas. Pick a few kids that seem to be good and may become helpful for the people, and then ask His Holiness. If he picks somebody then that is okay, if he turns the candidates down, then there will be no reincarnation."

This is hard to understand. Buddha almost has to say, "Trust me on this." But once we have made our own break through we will see it. Then it will no longer be a mystery to us. It is perfect and straight forward. I mentioned in my book "Good Life-Good Death" that if you have a breakthrough with the subject of reincarnation you will have a panoramic view of life. If you don't have that your life is very limited, between birth and death. Even within that, we keep forgetting the past and what we remember is cut shorter and shorter. About the future we are very confused and we project and hallucinate about it. But if you know about reincarnation and have a break through, you will have a panoramic view. Total existence is much more than the time between life and death. It is huge. It is like getting into space and looking in all directions.

It is like going into a circular bathroom with mirrors all around. If you look into any of them you will see countless reflections in all directions. Like that you if could see past and future lives you would see lives after lives in past and future. It is all you, your rebirths and past and future lives. You will only be able to see this directly when you have a breakthrough on this. Until then we have to rely on reliable testimony and from the Buddhist point of view there is no one more reliable than Buddha. If you were able to see all your countless previous lives you would most probably see just faults and sufferings. That is samsara. Hot and cold hells are there. It is all true. We don't completely ignore that but we are concerned. We want to help ourselves and the cause of refuge is to seek protection from that. The Buddha himself had committed that at the time of transition from life to life it will protect you to just think about the Buddha. That alone can protect you. Thinking about Guru, Buddha, Yidam, compassion, wisdom, all of that will protect you. Buddha himself has stated that thinking about him will protect you. There are some twenty easy ways to make the transition and the easiest one is thinking about the objects of refuge.

One of my students from the Netherlands was Dr. Yet. She was a medical doctor and was diagnosed with cancer. She was operated on and stitched up straight away. They said there was nothing they could do. It was too late. They gave a prognosis of a few weeks. As a doctor she had to agree with that. But she did Tara practice and lived for five more years. These years were a healthy life, not in bed or in pain. She did everything, including gardening and shopping. She drove to Paris from Holland and bought a very expensive table cloth for me. It was ruined later by momo juice dripping all over it. During the late stage of her illness, Dr Yet fainted once and told me afterwards that the only thing she could think of before blacking out was Buddha. I said, "That is good enough". She thought she had not achieved anything, but I told her it was good enough. I hope that when she finally did pass she thought of Buddha. This is how the refuge protects you. Dharma is the protection. The best protection is the one you give to yourself. When a second and third person has to protect you, the result is not guaranteed. It is a little shaky, always. But if you can help yourself, it is best.

Dharma means to avoid negative actions and create positive ones. Dharma is not a mystical mystery, it is not some kind of mystical love-and light stage you can get. Rather we have to deal with reality. The protection is to constantly work with the negative actions and thereby cut the negative karma. Along with that we can do purification work and purify the negativities we have committed earlier. Side by side we try to build up as much positive actions as we can. That is what it means to become a good dharma practitioner.

Earlier I said that once we are involved in dharma it is very hard to leave. When we are stuck with pains and problems our mind will call for protection and help and this helps and that's why you cannot really get away from dharma. It is not a mafia gang that will not let you get off. Nobody is chasing you. When I started Jewel Heart I made it very clear in black and white: we are here to do a service of giving dharmic information. Whoever doesn't want to take it is up to them. We make one phone call if we notice somebody has not come for a while. That is our duty. But then we don't call. We don't chase anyone. Nobody should convince somebody else to remain or come back continuously.

If we do that we are no better than the Jehova's Witnesses. When I first came to the United States I didn't have that much work and I enjoyed the visits by the Jehova's Witnesses. I would listen to them and ask one or two questions and they would say, "We will come back with an answer." Then they would come back with answers and some booklets. In the afternoons I would watch "Days of our Lives" and that's how I learnt my English. So we shouldn't be like that. We should be of service and we should draw the line where we go. We can't cross the line and chase people and say, "It is my duty to help you", "It is my duty to say prayers for you". That is not right, it is like being an uninvited, unwelcome guest. You don’t want to be like that. Dharma is too precious to be used in that way.

Let me conclude the Mindfulness of the Guru in form of a short meditation

We know that the first thing in whatever we do is to watch our mind. We see a lot of translated Buddhist books from Sanskrit into Tibetan. When you open the book the first thing you see is ja kar ke du - that means: "In Indian language.". Then comes the title of the actual text such as madyamakavatara or vinaya sutra or Yamantaka tantra, Heruka tantra and so on. Tsongkhapa, in an open letter raised the question, "What is the equivalent in meditation to "In Indian language?" No one answered in Tsongkhapa's life. Some generations later, the First Panchen Lama, Panchen Losang Chokyen, replied: The equivalent is: to watch your mind.

The beginning of the meditation therefore is: to watch your mind - although here we first do breathing meditation, feel the breath on the nose and so on. But the main thing is to watch your mind in the sphere of virtue. The sanskrit for "sphere" is dhatu. That means "in the midst of virtue" or "under the influence of virtue", "in the mood of virtue" - or negativity, as the case may be. So if you find that your mind is in the sphere of virtue, be happy about it. If it is neutral, try to change it into virtue. If it is in a negative mood try to change it into neutral and then in virtue.

The idea of meditation here is to get the mind into the influence of positive, virtuous thoughts and keep it that way. The positive actions will follow from there. Then take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Concentrate completely.

After that you move your mind to setting up the mahayana thought. All enlightened Buddhas have said in one voice, altogether: All living beings without exception have been your mother. They have been our mother, father, enemy, friend, nearest, dearest, lover or anything. In Buddhism you usually focus on all beings as mother. All enlightened beings have stated this in one voice, again and again. We have to presume they are not telling us something wrong. We presume they are reliable. In that case, I see each and every sentient being as my mother. They have protected me and helped me. They have not only given me birth but protected and helped me. They have been extremely kind. The mother chooses to die herself for the sake of protecting the child. Up to that extent all sentient beings have protected me.

I would like to repay their kindness by generating equanimity. I think that all living beings may be free from hatred and obsession.

During the teachings on lo jong I told you about four types of equanimity. So I also think: may they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May they remain with joy and the causes of joy. May they remain with all different joys. May they also remain with the great joy that has never known suffering. If I could develop such a situation that would be repaying the kindness of all living beings, it would be great. I wish I could do this. I myself would like to commit to doing this. But I cannot do it in this situation, at this level. Therefore it is necessary for me to become fully enlightened. If I could do that, I would be able to effortlessly help all living beings.

That is the first meditation. This is not only the meditation of the first step but also the meditation that reminds us of the compassion to all living beings.

Then: you yourself as ordinary being, whatever you are, fat, thin, handsome or whatever, in ordinary human form, you meditate on your crown a lotus cushion. Above that, you visualize a moon and - sun disk. Above that sits your root master in the form of Manjushri. His body is orange in color. He has one face and two hands. The right hand is holding a sword, the left a book. Thus your root master - and all your gurus - are not in ordinary human form but in form of Manjushri. Above that Manjushri there are all the lineage masters, 30 or 40 of them, if you can think that. If not, just think there are a number of lineage masters. Each and every one of them is in Manjushri form, sitting one above the other. Don't think that the weight of them is so heavy that they are pushing down one on the other. This is a visualization. Finally above Je Tsonkhapa on the top is Manjushri again. Everybody in the lineage is in Manjushri form. If you look at a lama chopa tangka, there are various vertical lineages and one of them shows a line of Manjushris, one above the other. That is the lineage we are talking about here. Above the topmost Manjushri is Buddha Vajradhara, blue in color, one face, two hands, holding bell and vajra, sitting in vajra style, which in the west is often called lotus style. The lineage gurus are surrounded by all the gurus, buddhas, lineages of direct masters, bodhisattvas, arhats, dharma protectors, dakas and dakinis.

On Buddha Vajradhara's crown is a white OM, throat red AH, heart blue HUM. From the heart HUM light radiates. Simultaneously the continuation of the lineage masters in Manjushri form start radiating tremendous amounts of light into all directions, inviting all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They all dissolve into the root-and lineage masters and become inseparable.

If you have time you can take refuge to Guru, to Buddha, to Dharma and Sangha. You can even say: Buddha, the peerless master, Dharma the peerless protector, sangha the peerless helper. May we all make prostrations to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Normally we use that verse to make offerings, but you can use it for physical prostration too. If you can, make mandala offerings, but what you must do is the Seven Limbs: prostrations, offerings, purification, rejoicing, requesting to remain and dedicating.

What is the meaning of prostration? You know about their qualities and admire them, appreciate and seek these qualities. Just standing up and then bowing down is not enough to qualify as prostration.

Making offerings: These offerings are actually arranged and mentally created. In your visualization the offerings are endless, the whole space is filled up with limitless offerings.

Purification: I purify all negativities, those that I remember and those that I have forgotten, by applying the four powers.

Rejoicing: I rejoice in the great activities of the great beings.

Requesting to remain and requesting to teach: at different times you need different teachings. Not only that: Even at the 11th hour before becoming enlightened, you need specific teachings. At that time your guru will appear as Buddha Vajradhara and give the necessary teaching.

Dedication: that is obvious.

All the practices you are doing here should be done from the bottom of your heart. After that, all the root-and lineage lamas and particularly Buddha Vajradhara, release from their body tremendous amounts of light and nectar. This enters through your crown, fills up your body completely and dissolves into every part and parcel and particle of your body. This purifies all obstacles, negativities, illnesses, interferences. Your body is filled with nectar and you receive the blessings of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, especially Guru Buddha Vajradhara's blessings. Your life, luck, fortune, qualities and spiritual development all increase.

You can say the general Manjushri mantra: OM ARAPATZANA DHIH or the long praise of Manjushri that starts with:

kang gi lodro trim nyi de trin nyi dang nam tar dab sel wei

je nyi tum kun je si se chi nyi gyi tu kar leg bum drub

kang dar se pai...

Then you can also say White Manjushri's mantra: OM WAKYE DAM NA MA

Then you can say the migstema:

MIG ME TZE WAI TER CHEN CHEN RE ZIG

DRI ME KYEN PAI WANG PO JAM PAL YANG

DU PUNG MA LU JOM DZA SANG WAI DAG

GANG CHEN KE PAI TZUG GYAN TZONG KA PA

LO ZANG DRAG PAI ZHAB LA SOL WA DEB

When you say these mantras, visualize that one mantra dissolves to the other and then all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dissolve to the root and lineage masters. They all dissolve to Buddha Vajradhara.

You can then say more mantras such as OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNAYE SOHA, or more migtsemas and arapacanas. You can say the Foundation of Perfection here. If you say this, then at each of the key points you have to think that you have now developed the realization of that stage. For example: I have now developed the guru devotional stage. I have now developed the realization of the precious human life. I have now developed the realization of impermanence. I have now developed the understanding of the karmic functioning. I have now developed refuge. I have now developed the realization of the second scope, the four noble truths. I have now developed the now more learning stage of the arhat level. I have now developed compassion. I have now developed love, bodhimind, the six paramitas, the next four paramitas. I have now received the four initiations into vajrayana. I have now gained the realizations of development - and completion stage. I have now become a fully enlightened buddha.

Finally, Buddha Vajradharma dissolves down to Manjushri and all the Manjushri-lineage masters dissolve down to each other and finally into your root master in the form of Manjushri. Recognize that this guru is the collection of all refuge. This will help you to build the mindfulness of the guru. This is the meditation of seeing the lama as Buddha. Finally the guru dissolves into you, and your body, mind and speech become inseparable from the guru's body, speech and mind. No one and nothing can separate that.

Those of you who have received initiation, can visualize themselves in the Manjushri form on lotus, moon and sun. If you do this, not only you have covered the mindfulness of the guru, but also the mindfulness of the body as a deity.

This is how you have to meditate on the guru. Do this once today, once tomorrow before the next session and then once during the group practice of chanting the Seven Limbs, including the mantras of Avalokitesvara and Tara. That way you have the four repetitions. Make sure you say some migtsemas during the Seven Limbs period. That way the 24 hours of our activities are included into the meditative state.

Good Night

end of 4mind4