Archive Result

20051210GRMLLLR20

[Prayers]

0:13:02.2 Thank you and good morning everybody. Now I think we have completed the prerequisites yesterday and out of 6 prerequisites, the most important thing is seven limbs which we very detaily covered yesterday. I hope you remember that. 0:13:38.7 Chinese translation Now we have reached to the level 1. Chinese translation I think it’s the verse 9. Chinese translation And that is guru devotional practice. Chinese translation And this is a very controversial subject as you all know. Chinese translation Controversial because people, you know, it is very questionable and it’s a very big issue. Particularly, we have quite a number of experiences of what had happened with the guru activities. ​​0:14:53.8 Chinese translation Particularly in the West in the 60s. Chinese translation So there’s a lot of guru scandals as we call it. Chinese translation So it becomes very much questionable for people’s mind, particularly in the West because in the East, the master issue is something settled throughout the generations.

However, when you have this new English education comes in, when you read lot of English materials and it’s a very good thing to be open-minded and a very good thing to be questioning all this. 0:16:06.7 Chinese translation On the other hand, in our tradition, not only the Tibetan Buddhism but also every great Eastern tradition, wherever you look you have this master issue is very well accepted and it becomes fundamental root of development. Chinese translation The dilemma what people go through with the mind because one side you’re seeing the 0:17:38.5 [inaudible- abuses]. On the other side, your historical background tells you how beneficial it is and so I’m sure you go through with the dilemma, particularly the younger generation, I’m quite sure. You like to accept it and pretend not to have a problem, that’s very nice for you. However, if you watch in your mind, you’ve got to have it if you’re thinking. 0:18:10.8 Chinese translation

Some of you have already settled your mind on that but many of you have not settled and I think it’s a very good idea before you believe or do anything, analyse, raise questions, talk about it. Chinese translation If you read this particular verse here, it really tells you ​​0:19:22.1 tin em iji… So it is almost a source of all good fortune that ever happened in this life and future lives and all this, that is how they concluded here. But before you sort of swallow this bitter pill, you have to check with yourself, find out, raise all these questions ‘Why, why, why?’. I mean it’s just, there’s a lot of why’s that will be here and it’s better to raise the why now and check first and settle with your mind and then try to look into this. 0:20:18.7 Chinese translation

Quite a lot of information that I have put out in all, most transcripts you’ll see it and especially quite detailed in that big, thick Lamrim that I have and now I think they divided it into three volumes or four volumes or something. It used to be huge file and I’m not ready to publish those transcripts, I’m not looking for publishing book, not produce book like ‘Good Life, Good Death’ and things like that occasionally. I have to but this sort of thing is for people who are seriously looking into it. So long after I am gone, somebody may publish that, I don’t know but whatever. But if you look in that thick Lamrim book that’s divided into four, that should have quite detailed information in this. 0:22:14.3 Chinese translation I just thought of something- I should title that book ‘How to become Buddha’ menu. Chinese translation

Anyway, first and foremost struggle is this one. Chinese translation If you look in the Theravadan teachings and look in their requirements, they will say ‘Buddha-like masters’, ‘Buddha-like’. 0:23:48.1 Chinese translation The bottom line, they’ll come. Not straightaway but when you boil down to the bottomline they will become Buddha-like. Chinese translation And Mahayana level, if you look, they will come bottomline, they will come almost equal to Buddha, equal to Buddha. Chinese translation In Vajrayana, if you look, inseparable that of Buddha. Chinese translation Yet a human being that you’re dealing with, with all kinds of faults, all kinds of difficulties, all kinds of everything that you like, dislike, you hate and afraid and all of them will come in. 0:25:06.0 Chinese translation So that is the struggle. Chinese translation

On the other hand, all the teachings will tell you that is Buddha’s representative to you. That is sort of a link to the enlightened society for you. It also tells you that is your guide that is your role model, all of those in one side. And then on the other hand- okay, let’s do this one side first. 0:26:15.1 Chinese translation And in addition to that, you also see if you hear the word like 0:26:40.3 Lama Sangha… I don’t introduce that in Jewel Heart but lot of Dharma centres, I’ve seen that- they’re singing and chanting and they said this: Lama Sangha… meaning the Lama is Buddha, Lama is Dharma, Lama is Sangha and Lama is the creator of all then I bow to the lamas. So they say that and that is almost quite a number of Tibetan Buddhist centres that I went round they used to sing and chant and do all that. That’s also the essence of guru devotional practice is all about. 0:27:38.4 Chinese translation That’s why it has become 0:28:15.9 [inaudible]. Chinese translation

Why? And what for? What is the purpose? Chinese translation Can we do without? Chinese translation So these are the questions. Chinese translation When the teachings come out, teachings reveal- they will introduce you this as the root of all development. 0:28:54.3 Chinese translation So if that’s the case, how can you grow anything without root? Chinese translation If it’s a cut flower, you cut the flower and put it in the water, it lasts a few days, at most a week or two. Chinese translation That’s because there’s no root. Chinese translation And then there’s corruption. Chinese translation Misuse of this particular point. Chinese translation By variety of people, for variety of interest 0:29:54.1 Chinese translation which makes more confusion. Chinese translation So now, the question that I raised- why? Why? Because it is the link. Chinese translation What do I mean by this link? Chinese translation And you may think link is some kind of medium in between or messenger in between and that’s not what I’m talking about. 0:30:45.0 Chinese translation So then what I’m talking about? Link and medium. Chinese translation

As far as I know, what I’ve been brought up in my 65 years of Buddhist little learning, as far as I know, wherever you look, highest level of the Vajrayana or lowest level of someone who give you refuge or someone who gives you vows- self-liberation Pratimoksha vows, wherever it is 0:31:53.2 lay vow or obusheka or monk’s vow or nun’s vow of [inaudible] whatever, or from the lowest level of refuge and the morality points to ultimate enlightenment of the Buddha level. The union of body and mind, the union of relative and absolute. In between that, whatever happens to the individual- any yidam, any buddha, any master, anything and effect to the individual is in reality, it is my own root master in the form of this teacher, that teacher, that abbot, this Vajra master, that deity.

And ultimately, when the union took place, the union takes place in the mist and in the sphere of the mind of guru ultimately, merging the individual mind into the mind of the fully enlightened guru. And that’s what I mean, it’s a link. That’s why it is root and that’s why it is important. But it’s very hard to know at the beginning level, it is very, very hard to understand. So that’s why it has become important. You cannot get away without it and that is the reason why it is necessary, why, and all of those are answers for this short statement since we don’t have much time. 0:34:55.3 Chinese translation

This statement is confirmed by the word I said: Lama is Buddha, Lama is Dharma, Lama is Sangha, and all of this. And if you look in the Vajrayana, many of you are in Vajrayana, wherever you look in Vajrayana, the moment you open the mandala, if you say 0:37:04.0 Lama… it’s always Lama inseparable from that of principle of the deity, there’s not a single word where they don’t say Lama inseparable that of principle of the mandala. So that tells us, that confirms this statement what I gave you earlier. And I try to give everything in sort of a gist to you rather than try to take you through circles that we normally go through because why? Because the fear of misunderstanding and fear of disservice, that’s why it’s always the teachings will take a lot of circles around rather than getting straightforward.

When I received these teachings, you know, thirty forty times in my life, everytime, it is like one month, one and a half month time, we meet everyday at around about 11 or 12 0:38:26.1 [inaudible] 6 or 7 and that’s everyday. Now we do it three days, that also with the coffee break, tea break, lunch break and all of those so there’s no really time to circle round. So this is the gist, so whether it does service to you or even does disservice to you, my apologies. 0:38:55.0 Chinese translation And that’s the reason why the Buddha Vajradhara has said in the tantra 0:40:31.5 Kang ge tin… - ‘from whose kindness, the ultimate great bliss and joy state that one can obtain within the minute, and so I respect to the Vajra master to his feet’, that’s paraphrasing. All of them, because of that reason. Chinese translation

In another words, it is the Lama Buddha, Chinese translation it is Lama Tara, Chinese translation it is the Lama Yamantaka, Chinese translation it is the Lama Vajrayogini, Chinese translation It’s the Lama Kalachakra. Chinese translation So all of those different yidams’ names, body manifestations, and all of those in reality boils down to one point and that is the Lama. 0:42:12.1 Chinese translation That’s why in one of the essence of the Vajrayana it says 0:42:27.4 rig ge ri… all of this you know, the hundred different castes of yidam, or the trinity or our single and it’s all one so I mean this is the real essence of the Vajrayana too. Chinese translation So that’s the bottomline. Chinese translation

So once the bottomline established within our time- it takes a tremendous amount of time, it’s not so simple like praying Buddha, it’s not so simple like saying mantras, it’s not. This is very difficult one. So once you left, zoom, once we established. Then the question of problems that we see, the difficulties come in- it is too materialistic, too angry, too attached, whatever, all of those will come in. 0:44:10.2 Chinese translation Tibetans have funny sayings. It is the Lama who tells you not to do anything but who really does is the Lama himself does it. [Laughter]. Chinese translation 0:45:05.6 Seng gyu lama… And then also in the Tibetan culture where I come from, the culture, it says 0:45:15.8 ji su gat… means whatever you tell us, we’ll do it and that is how the Tibetan people treat His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So whatever he says, we’ll follow, that sort of thing. That is the culture itself will guide you that way. 0:45:34.0 Chinese translation

Then there’s a joke. The joke says if you have to follow exactly what you say, don’t tell me funny things. Chinese translation And if you want to me to see you everything impure, don’t add in pure things. 0:46:16.7 Chinese translation So these are how this has been carried in Tibet. So the bottomline comes to you, for all practical purposes, sort of I share with you what I do. I will generate- generate here I mean I will draw a picture, an image of a guru. Chinese translation Sometimes it may have different faces of different gurus, Chinese translation sometimes a Buddha lookalike, Chinese translation and most of the time, Tsongkhapa lookalike Chinese translation and I label them as my guru Chinese translation and so all other gurus from whom I have received teachings, something like 42 now, Chinese translation this is same guy, same person, same person, same person. In reality, this is the guru and in aspects of this and this and that. 0:48:14.0 Chinese translation

And as well as it is the same person in aspects of that yidam in the form of Tara, in the form of Yamantaka, in the form of this, Kalachakra, this and that is all in that way. Chinese translation And thus, guru yoga becomes the backbone of all practices. Chinese translation Even sadhanas that you have to do, it’s also do within the basis of guru yoga itself. 0:49:07.2 Chinese translation And the contact in our living, everyday living is also within the guru yoga, good, bad, everything. Chinese translation And contact in our death, when the time comes, it is also within the guru yoga. Chinese translation And that gives the meaning of not only root of development and it’s sort of really give you everything within the sphere of guru devotional practice. 0:50:12.5 Chinese translation I think that is much more important than getting up and folding hands and bowing down and whatever. Chinese translation

So thus, the conclusion of this particularly verse, ‘I the yogi has practiced just that, if you also seek liberation, please cultivate yourself in the same way’. Chinese translation This is the first development. Chinese translation The first development’s going to take a whole lot of time Chinese translation because then what happens is there’s a tremendous way of dealing with the mind, there’s why you have to look at lama as a buddha, can you look at lama as buddha, what benefits there and if you don’t, what disadvantages are there? They’re all very detailed, you have information you can get in English, everywhere, even on the internet you can get now. 0:51:58.7 Chinese translation After all that, after all this research, you have to draw a conclusion. Chinese translation The conclusion is the inseparable. Chinese translation Lama inseparable that of Buddha and all yidams. Chinese translation So instead of goes beyond each individual gurus but you’re not pushing the guru aside. If you try to push the guru aside and try to make a 0:53:09.9 [inaudible] it doesn’t work. Without putting guru aside, sort of going beyond scope of a human being, sort of going beyond that. Chinese translation