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Eight Verses of Mind Training Chicago, 2009

20090711GRCH8VMT02

0:00:02.6 Thank you for coming back in the afternoon. I hope you are not too hot here. I just noticed that the arrangement of the flowers here is very nice. Trungpa Rinpoche used to do this Japanese style Ikebana, earth and ground and all that. So that good to see around here.

So we have been talking about compassion and love and then the ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion is what we call bodhimind or bodhichitta or the bodhisattva’s way. This is not very commonly known in the west. In the west people talk about compassion and love, the combination of compassion and love and all that. The group of people familiar with Tibetan Buddhism are familiar with bodhicitta or bodhimind, but the majority not, it is not commonly known. The ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion is what we call bodhimind.

0:02:39.9 Bodhimind is now – in lojong, a)making you develop bodhimind and b) perfect the bodhimind. Developing, training and perfecting. Training makes it perfect. So lo stands for mind. This is not an ordinary mind, but the extraordinary compassion mind called bodhimind. Jong refers to training that mind. Training to become perfect. There are a number of different lojongs, a tremendous amount. There are collected lojongs of hundred different lojongs, called the bundle of 100. One of them has been translated in Thupten Jinpa’s series and they published it in the Tibetan version and the English version in their collected works.

Looking through this today – did I get to the point? Maybe not. I just mentioned bodhimind, right, I didn’t really say what it is. Does anybody have any questions? I also realize we have today and tomorrow. But also I need to know that I am talking to you. I don’t want to talk somewhere else. If I do that, there is not point. The First Dalai Lama said, “

0:05:30.5

De shar go sho zen me pa la

Yo non gu ta wa de ri song (spelling??)

The ghost is at the eastern gate

And you go and do an exorcism at the western gate – which is useless.

And this is exactly the same here. We are talking about bodhimind and if we have never talked that to you, it is like talking some funny abstract idea. That may not be a good idea. The best way to get through is two ways: either give a long lecture or through conversation, you raise question and we answer. But you raise some out of context question then we waste time. So we have to get a little bit to the point of the bodhimind. What would you like to do? Questions and answers or should I keep on talking?

0:06:51.1 All right, question and answers, good idea. You don’t need a microphone, you can shout. I can hear, this is not a big room. I don’t have much voice, that’s why I have a microphone. Who wants to ask what – anybody?

Audience: are there exactly 100 collected lojongs?

Rimpoche: I don’t know whether there are 100 or not. But it is known as the hundred lojongs. But traditionally there are old ones that slightly differ from these and I was actually looking for my old book and Jamyang looked through and he couldn’t find it but he found the new one and he definitely likes the new one, so he grabbed the new one and I couldn’t get myself downstairs. I have got my library downstairs, but I couldn’t get there. So he found the new one and brought the new one.

0:08:16.3 That’s this book. Any other questions?

0:08:32.3 Audience: I don’t think I have a lot of compassion for myself, I am very self-critical. Is there a skillful means to improve that?

0:09:05.5 Very interesting question. Skillful means of turning the poison into nectar. Ah, self critical mind – can I say what I think? I don’t think the psychologists are going to agree with me. Being critical of oneself to me is a good achievement. At the beginning we have always have the attitude of I am right and you are wrong. We have that always. Whatever I say, whatever I do I am right. We have the expression: my way or the highway. All of those we get at that level first. Then you begin to internally think a little more and talk to yourself, ”Ego is bad. This is your ego, it is full of BS and full of this and full of that….” Then we develop ourselves a little better, being critical, taking blame, saying, “It’s my fault, it’s me”. They are good and bad both. Good in the sense if you can utilize it. Langri Tangpa will tell you that’s what you need to achieve. But when you go to extremes, again, it is not right. Being critical of yourself is an improvement over “my way or the highway”. It is improvement, it is better. However, you raise such an interesting question: is there a skillful way to change that self-criticism into a nice path? I think there is. I really thing there is.

0:11:52.1 The thing is this: I don’t think we are trying to make ourselves not be critical of ourselves. But when you are critical of yourself, it is also helps you to see a lot of problems within ourselves. Some of them may be just blaming, but some of them may be genuine problems. If you recognize the problem and correct yourself, that’s better than not being critical of yourself. Take advantage of being critical of yourself. If you are critiquing yourself, what are you critiquing? Point it out. Don’t just say: I am horrible. That is dismissive. If you think you are bad, point it out, write yourself a note of what is so bad about it. Have a, b, c, d, e, f – wherever it goes. Maybe it goes beyond the alphabet. Whatever it is, that’s okay. Write them down, put them in front of you, look at them and find out which is the worst. Categorize them, and whichever is he worst, tackle that first.

0:13:39.1 This is an opportunity, being critical of yourself is something within Buddhist practitioners where they learn how to see their own faults. They meditate for years, trying to bring their levels of alpha and beta and so on down, trying to see their faults. Here you have a ready-made opportunity, being self-critical. Somehow the intellectual society, the people around, your understanding, education and knowledge have brought that to you. So now the question is whether you are going to take advantage of that or whether you are going to beat yourself up. These are the two ways. No point beating yourself up, because everybody else is doing that already anyway. Everybody else is going to beat you anyway. They have already beaten and will beat you up continuously. That is the general society rule. That’s what people do anyway. No need to beat yourself up. Take advantage. Taking advantage, see what’s is really bad, what’s the worst among them. Pick up each one of them and change it. Give yourself a great opportunity. If you take the opportunity it is a gem that you have. If you don’t’ you get yourself in a jam.

0:15:49.0 That’s exactly what it is. Don’t think that being critical of yourself is bad. It is not necessarily bad, if you know how to take advantage of it. If you don’t know, then its me, me, me, bad, bad, bad and then it can create depression and all kinds of different problems and then you are ready to pay the psychologists. Get your wallet out, you need to pay the psychologists. (laughs), I am just joking, but the reality is also this. Even the psychologists: the good ones will see it, the normal tendency is such that they will try to bring you appreciation, [they tell you to] appreciate yourself. Sometimes it will help to a certain level, sometimes it can become ego-building. So it looks like you are taking two steps in and another step back. That’s probably what happens.

0:17:35.0 Many times. There are great psychologists too. They may be able to help and guide you on that, but the normal tendency is that they trying to get you away from being critical of yourself and make yourself happy with you and they do all kinds of things. People make you laugh and happy. Jim did once this Indian thing where you have to laugh and you keep on laughing all the time. You clap and go ho ho ho. It has become a big therapy in India. We all know. So if you keep on laughing you can laugh, for sure. Normally, if you look at somebody is laughing, you will laugh. If you look at somebody who is crying you will cry. That is how emotionally people connect. That’s what it is and I am glad somebody thought about making you laugh.

0:18:49.8 No doubt that has effects on the individual and I am glad nobody told us “Let’s cry”. They could have! (laughs) They could have gone woo woo woo, you know, instead of ho, ho, ho. But in India they do that. Really, honestly, I have lived in India so many years, for 20 years or so. Their culture is that when somebody dies they go and hire ladies to cry for you. A bunch of ladies will come and cry, you know, nobody knows why, but they wail and wail all the time. I am glad they did not give us the therapy of crying but the therapy of laughing, which uplifts you.

0:19:55.5 But take advantage, take notes. You are not going to get it. The moment you start to look critically, you maybe get it once, twice, and after that it begins to disappear, because they know they are going to get caught. So they disappear – or they give you the idea that they may not be so important. Take a note and start looking at your notes and prioritize which ones you are going to deal with first. Taking advantage is the key. Honestly. Take advantage and change that into a great spiritual path.

0:20:56.0 Audience: It is said that the bodhimind is the best motivation: becoming enlightened for the benefit of all beings. But I always have a hard time imagining what that means: helping all beings. When I look at the suffering of all beings, I just feel helpless and can’t really make that connection of how my enlightenment actually helps them. We always talk about it in very broad, vague terms.

Rimpoche: You raised a very important point. Bodhimind will simply tell you “for the benefit of all beings this and that….”, because we are working at the level of the motivation of bodhimind, rather than bodhimind itself. That’s A. And B: it is very true, when you meditate and think of suffering then you see suffering and it is not so difficulty to see sufferings.

0:22:38.8 Some of you might be attending the Tuesday night teachings on nyur lam or maybe on Thursdays. Some of you may be listening online. If you are, you will know we talked about it on the last two Tuesdays and Thursdays. We talked about the suffering in the hell realms, particularly the hot and cold hells. We talked about the suffering of the hungry ghosts. We talked about the suffering of the animal realms. Amazing, that was only last Thursday, two nights ago, in New York, I was talking about the animal realms. Looking at in the nyur lam book they divide the animals into two categories. One is called the major inhabitants, the other is called scattered ones. The major inhabitants are all the different fishes or species or whatever we call them, but it very clearly says that they remain in the ocean, deep in the ocean in darkness and cold. It is so dark that they don’t even see the movement of the hand. Think about it. This is Buddha saying this 2600 years ago, in words. Later it was written in black letters on white paper. Printed, one after another, for thousands of years, there was no scientific experiment, nothing. 2600 years ago, some guy in India, in the middle of the heat of the Indian desert, was saying that this is what’s happening in the oceans, this is there, and this is that. It really sort of is incomprehensible. When I was talking about that, this thought came into my head. That’s really what it is.

0:25:42.4 So this guy knew that many beings were in the ocean. No ships went down, no scientists went down, no project was sponsored by anybody. Even Christopher Columbus was not sponsored to do that at that time. That’s what it is. But it looks like somebody went down and saw it exactly. So today we see them. We, the Tibetans or Chinese or Indians might have seen that written. We saw it every day for thousands of years, for 2600 years, but never paid attention. If scientists today see that somebody wrote about this in black and white 2600 years ago, - who said it and later it was written down – they begin to say: how did he know? So it is been proven to be right. That very person is talking about the suffering in those areas. Existence was divided into six different divisions. A few of them we see, most of them we don’t see with our naked eye. We don’t see the hell realms, maybe we see some hungry ghosts, most of them we don’t.

0:27:59.4 We see the animal realms, now we see everything. The human realm we see. We don’t see the demigod realms today, but I am quite sure we will encounter them very soon. As long as we keep on sending more rockets in the air, I am quite sure we will encounter them very soon. And thereafter we will see the samsaric gods. This fellow [Buddha] tells us that all of them, from the samsaric gods to the hell realms, they all have suffering. And just the day before yesterday, the subject where I talked was the suffering of the animal realm. Number one is being dull, naïve, stupid. This is very true. A number of people will say, “My pet, my cat, my dog is so intelligent.” Some will see “my snake is so intelligent”, yeah true, but I always say, “Give your pet the car key and let them do the shopping for you. Then you know how intelligent they are. They won’t even get out of your driveway, right? You know what you will say, “Animals don’t drive.” But why? Because they can’t, they don’t have the intelligence to be able to drive. That’s the bottom line. Yes, your pet is very intelligent, no doubt. It is in accordance with the dependent arising, the conditions. Compared with your neighbor’s cat, sure your cat is much more intelligent (laughter). They probably know how to pick up dead birds. Honestly. But that’s it, that is the suffering for them.

0:30:48.5 We have a traditional old Tibetan saying:

Whether you tell somebody is good or bad, people make no difference. To give that expression we pick up a handful of gold dust or sand and put it in the ear of a donkey. They donkey’s ear will move, whether it is gold or sand. The ear will move, they don’t want anything in there. The ear will move. The purpose is to throw the dust out of the ear. Whether it is gold or dust it is the same to them, they don’t that. It is the truth. That is their suffering. But it doesn’t end there. The major suffering the animals encounter is that one eats the other. We see that all the time. Turn on the animal channel or the discovery channel and you see it every day. You see that beautiful little baby deer minding their own business walking in the field and suddenly a big leopard comes, moving from behind somewhere and start running after it. The little deer will know it and run. They run, but how much can they run. The other powerful galloping and jumping leopard will catch them by the neck and eat them up. And that is suffering of one eating the other.

0:33:00.5 [Meditating on this] serves two purposes: one: let this be me. Will I be subject to that? Will I be the little deer? Will I be that jumping leopard? That is the number one question. Or you can say: Am I that little deer? Luckily I am not – yet. But I could be tomorrow. If I die tonight, tomorrow I could be that little deer. Then what can I do? This is compassion for yourself. I just give you that as one example.

0:34:31.9 What can I do? Luckily I am not. Today I can help myself – because we have that wonderful precious human life, because we have that mind connected with the human physical condition, because we have this human mind and physical condition and a condition that can express our understanding. That’s the idea. So today, if we cannot make a difference, it will be very difficult to get another good opportunity. So luckily today I can make a difference for myself, not to be that little deer, not to be that horrible leopard. So what am I going to do? That’s how you look in the suffering. If you look in the suffering, as people are suffering, if you think, “I am responsible, what can I do?” it is hopeless, helpless. That’s not the way. That’s not the way. I like to take responsibility, but that’s not my job. I will become my job if I know how to do it.

0:36:19.1 I will know if I know how to help myself. Then I can take the assignment. I can take the job. But right now I can’t. I won’t know what to do. If you want a position that is hopeless and helpless, go ahead. That’s called stupidity. That is the reason why compassion for self is important to have before developing compassion for others. Looking at the suffering, don’t think, “That’s hopeless, helpless, what is the use?” Better turn on the discovery channel and you will have a little relaxed time.

0:37:31.4 I think I am not done yet. Are you done yet? Done? It’s okay? It is a good question: how to take the advantage of the situation. Yes

Audience: I have two questions. The first one is about compassion. I have had a lecture that was very striking for me in Boulder a few months ago, between an atheist and a religious practitioner. The religious practitioner said the greatest gift that Christianity has given to solve conflict is the practice of compassion. To me that was quite surprising because Christianity is more recent than Buddhism. The chief idea was the compassion is a Christian practice and concept. It seemed that before Christianity there was no concept of compassion in any religion. Or no practice. He quoted an Indian saying: your blood and tears is my water. In other words: your blood doesn’t mean anything. What do you think about that?

0:39:34.0 Rimpoche: What I think about that? Nothing – I don’t even know what to think about it. You know every religion claims that compassion is theirs. But in my opinion compassion is universal compassion. Compassion doesn’t belong to the Buddhists. Compassion doesn’t belong to Christianity. Compassion doesn’t belong to Judaism. Compassion doesn’t belong to Hinduism. Compassion doesn’t belong to any other – ism or religion. Compassion belongs to mankind, to living beings. It is the treasure of living beings. It is the mind that balances. It is the mind that balances against hatred or obsession. It is a good thing I think we all have it and it is great. Some religions have it, including Buddhists, where they claim that compassion is a Buddhist thing. If you have a frog in a well, that frog will think the end of the world is the wall of the well. That’s it.

0:41:56.0 That’s what it is.

0:42:19.1 Audience: Can you say something about the difference of the Christian idea of compassion and the Buddhist idea of compassion?

0:42:19.1 Rimpoche: I don’t know the interpretations, but compassion is compassion.

0:42:24.3 Audience: Then how do you define compassion?

0:42:24.3 Rimpoche: We don’t have to define it. We have already defined it. We have already described it. That’s what we are talking about here. And I don’t know the Christian concept of compassion separate from….because I don’t know anything about Christianity. Honestly.

Audience: You seem to say that most think they know what it is, but really don’t know what it is.

Rimpoche: Maybe that’s true. Maybe I am telling the truth. I try to. Any other question? If not, I like to talk about bodhimind a little bit more, because compassion is the root of bodhimind. It is not bodhimind. Such a compassion, the root of bodhimind, is not just compassion. It is greater compassion. It is much more than compassion. From the focal point of view it is more, from the aspect point of view it is much more. From the result that you are looking for it is much more than simply relieving pain. So maybe I shouldn’t go so detailed, but I just have to say it, because if I don’t…..- in the Buddhist tradition they give you a number of different ways to reach to that level. There are at least two or three known ways of reaching to that level. One is called seven point or seven stage development. Another is called exchange stage of development. There is another one that is called the combination of the seven points and exchange stages together. That’s the eleven points of development. Each one of those is probably mentioned in a variety of Lam Rim books that are available. So many Lam Rim books are available nowadays and they will tell you all that. Either one or maybe two, maybe all of them, depends on the book. I may have to refer to that. I was always told not to refer to other sources, like “Whatever you have to say, you have to say it.” But I begin to realize you can’t say it all. You can’t, you have to refer and I refer you to the Lam Rim books. Sometimes people say that Lam Rim is a very preliminary thing. Sometimes they say that Lam Rim is a very great thing. To me it is a roadmap to Buddhahood.

0:46:09.1 It is the roadmap, the GPS to Buddhahood. If you put in the wrong address you go to the wrong place – which we did at lunch time. Both, going back and forth, we put the wrong address. So that’s why I was behind. It is the GPS, but make sure you put the right address. But, the Lam Rim has put the address already. The total goal of spiritual practice – enlightenment. Enlightenment is our goal. There is nothing better and nothing other than enlightenment. We cannot settle for anything less. This is the advice given through the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. We cannot settle for anything other than Buddhahood. To become a buddha is the goal of Mahayana Buddhism. All the Tibetan Buddhist traditions or schools or sects, whatever you call them, have that. If you like the sectarian point, call it Tibetan Buddhist sects. If you like to be gentle, call them schools, if you like to be even more gentle: philosophical points.

0:48:04.8 Whatever you follow, the goal is set at the buddha level. The purpose of spiritual practice is to achieve Buddhahood, because that is the best. If you can’t get that, even then you will get something, but why settle for less than best? What’s wrong with you? Why do you have to settle for less than best? Tibetan Buddhism does not entertain any other goal other than Buddhahood, because human beings are capable of becoming Buddha.

0:48:51.9 Everything, if you really look at it, everything is there. We have a path, we have ways and means, we do have support, the only thing lacking is the enthusiasm. We have been lazy. Laziness is such that we are not doing anything lazy. We are overprioritizing wrong priorities, we have wrong prioritized goals in our life. That is our laziness. Totally. It is true, it is fact. At least here, I don’t know, we have 60, 70 people here today, whatever you have, everyone is interested. Everybody is interested to be on the Buddhist path. Otherwise, what are you doing here? Make yourself miserable, sitting on a hard chair or cushion, squeezed in and can’t even get up and move and all that. So what are you doing here, right? Interesting. But who really has the right prioritizing? Almost none.

0:50:29.7 None, because everybody has something else important. A zillion different excuses. “I can’t do that just now, it will be done later”, or “I have to settle that first and then I will do it later”, or “Well, first comes first, I have to handle this, then I will do it.” We all have that and that is our problem. Otherwise our life is capable of delivering everything. There is this very, very short window of opportunity. Believe me, this is going to be very short. I think we have to thank Chairman Mao, honestly, for kicking out the Dalai Lama and all those Tibetan teachers from Tibet, including Trungpa Rinpoche.

0:51:49.5 Otherwise, this opportunity won’t be here. It is a very short window of opportunity. It’s not going to last that long. Yes, we have to look into the succession plan and this and that. All of them we will do, but it’s going to go anyway. So that’s the window of opportunity. Some of you happen to be in touch with it. I don’t know how deeply you touch it. Some of you are very deeply in touch. Some of you are superficially touched. Some of you are just looking at it out of curiosity. Whatever it is, you do have a perfect karma to be able to touch it. Whether you can take that further or not is up to you. Tibetan Buddhism tells us that the goal of spiritual practice is no less than becoming a buddha, because each and everyone of us is capable of doing that. Not only capable of doing it, but capable of doing within a short period of time.

0:53:21.2 In every tradition you see it, more so in the Kagyu tradition. They call it the three year retreat. The whole idea of the three year, three months retreat is that you are supposed to become enlightened at the end of that, a total buddha. That’s the whole idea. The tradition tells us that if you really work extremely hard and have no other consideration for whatsoever, if you put your total energy in it, then within three years and three months you can become a buddha.

0:54:08.9 That’s why there is the three year-three month-retreat. Everybody is doing it. A lot of people are doing it. Are we really becoming a buddha after the three years and three months? I don’t know. Some maybe, but most of them doesn’t seem to. Unfortunately. That is unfortunate, because we don’t put that much effort in. We are lazy. But we reach to a certain level, to a certain extent. So the purpose is to obtain enlightenment. So what does bodhimind do? Bodhimind not only gives you the motivation. We work on the motivational level, but bodhimind will be totally committed – committed – to becoming a buddha.

0:55:10.2 There is this step prior to the bodhimind called “special mind”. That special mind is totally committing yourself a) to become a buddha and b) to bring everybody to that level. That is the special mind. It is not an artificial mind that you can project and make. It has to be born naturally. It is the result of compassion. Real compassion and real caring, seeing that little baby deer eaten by that big, fat leopard. Not only seeing that on the television screen, but in real life. Then what can you do? And then realize that everybody is in that condition. This is a vivid, straight example. But in reality everyone is under that same thing. Each and everyone of us is under the threat of death, like it or not. Yes, you never know. You never know when you are going to get sick. We never know when we are going to die.

0:57:24.7 We never know. There is no pre-signal. It comes like that, suddenly. I saw you before you got sick, I saw you about lunch time. In afternoon, we were thinking and talking whether we are going to go to dinner or not together. I saw you at that time. You didn’t have a signal that you were going to get sick that night. Neither do we. So this is what happens. Illness comes without any pre-signal, without any preparation, without anything. Some people do and it is written all over the place, but we don’t get it. It comes in. Death is the same thing. We all are under that threat. It is true. The leopard is right over here with a big mouth, hanging there. We are already exhausted, can no longer jump anymore. That sort of suffering, in reality, in truth, we have it.

0:59:00.9 Now, the question does not become: what can I do for the leopard or for the deer? The question is: what can I do for me and for all? That’s the reality. That’s how you move. So, I need to help, but I have no capacity, only two hands, two legs, one mouth, that’s all. Limited. If I have a thousand arms and thousand legs…….you know this Avalokitesvara has 1000 arms and 1000 eyes. He can do more, because he has 1000 arms, right? So you see that and have the desire to be and that is the real bodhimind. Strongly committed to solving my problem and your problem. I can’t do it now, but if I become a buddha I may have 1000 arms. And it is not limited to 1000 arms. There is unlimited capacity. It is so much better to have it. It is like doctors who see things and when they are limited they want better gadgets, better things. Not only doctors, but everybody else does too. That is exactly that it moves. We see the best available gadget is enlightenment. So we are going to settle for that. That is briefly talking about bodhimind.

1:01:11.3 It is committing yourself totally because of the compassion in the service of all living beings, yet taking responsibility of your doing it and knowing that you don’t have the capacity and therefore like to become a buddha. That is the reason why you have to become buddha. There is no other reason. If you want to become free, you can become an arhat. Why go for Buddhahood? Why work hard, why? Why do you have to take the extra step? That is the reason why we settle for the buddha level, not just freedom level.

I better read it now, because it is almost quarter to four, 3.35. So what I have to say is that Chekawa said, “I heard this first from Master Chak zhimba. Then I carried this message till here. Then I used this in my traveling. Sometimes there are threats of robbers and thieves. At that moment I thought about this and it is helpful. Sometimes, when I am travelling from a good home to another home I thought about this. It is helpful. Sometimes I couldn’t find a proper place to stay, sometimes I found people honoring me, sometimes they are not honoring me and every time it has been helpful to me.”

So what are these eight verses?

The Eight Verses of Mind Training

(Lo jong Tsig gye ma)

by Langri Tangpa Dorje Senge

1 DAG NI SEM CHEN THAM CHE LA

YI ZHIN NOR BU LÄ LHAG PAI

DÖN CHOG DRUB PAI SAM PA YI

TAG TU CHE PAR DZIN PAR SHOG

1. With the wish to achieve the highest aim,

which surpasses even a wish-fulfilling gem,

I shall train myself to at all times

cherish sentient beings as supreme.

What is he talking about? This is an old Hindu-Buddhist mythological story. Even in the West you have it. There is this kid’s story with the genie that comes out of the lamp. You rub the lamp and the genie pops up. It’s like a kid’s story you have in the West. Similarly, the Hindu-Buddhist tradition tells you there is something like a wish-fulfilling jewel. It is interesting. If you find a wish-fulfilling jewel and you don’t know what it is you let it remain in the mud or some kind of dirty pit or something then it doesn’t serve any purpose at all, according to the mythological story. If you pick that wish-fulfilling jewel out of the mud, clean it up and make it nice, make offerings, put it on the highest place, pray to it then it will fulfill all people’s wishes, particularly if you do that on the full moon day, or you hang it at the highest point of your establishment, in this case your house. You may have a banner on top of your house and hang the jewel on top of the banner and pray. Then it fulfills your wishes. This is the story, right?

1:08:17.2 Likewise, all these living beings that we are meditating and talking about, if you let them be in the samsara, suffering, they can do nothing. They suffer and can do nothing. They will continuously suffer from the suffering suffering as well as the pervasive suffering, but if you try to help them, serve them, try to make them free from their suffering, that brings you positive virtues and those positive virtues automatically cut the suffering and give you joy and happiness.

Audience: Looking at the different translations there is a big difference in the meaning of the first verse. One says that the highest enlightenment is like a wish-fulfilling jewel. The other says the sentient beings are more important than a wish-fulfilling jewel. Which is it in the Tibetan?

1:10:24.8 Rimpoche: The Tibetan also differs. There are different versions. So, which is what? Nobody knows. That’s what it is. If you really go into that technical level it differs.

Audience: The difference in meaning is great though.

Rimpoche: It is. It is. That’s why I said right from the beginning these are the Kadampa lamas’ teachings. It’s always like that. It’s meant to be that way. It’s meant to be that way. And then it depends on your teacher whom you have received the teaching from and you follow that system. Even His Holiness was giving a teaching on one of those eight verses or something – one of the teachings and even he himself was saying that “I have my own book, I will go according to my book.” So the printed books are different. In these lojongs that happens all the time. Nothing surprising. You thought it’s a big question, but it’s not.

1:12:00.4 That is not worth interrupting my talk, sorry (laughs). Okay, so what am I talking about now? So, over here: dag ni sem chen tham che la yi zhin nor bu lä lhag pai – for all living beings more than a wish-fulfilling jewel, serving the best purpose. I always pray that I should cherish the others. That will be my paraphrasing. I even brought two books. Both books differ on these things. So since we are using Thupten Jinpa’s translation might as well use it.

I should train myself at all time to cherish sentient beings as supreme.

The first point is: cherish all other living beings, do not think they are not superior. Don’t think: I am superior. Don’t think: I am more important. Don’t think: I know better. When they say “I am superior” that means from every point; from the knowledge point of view, from the information point of view, from the birth point of view, from every point of view. That’s what they are talking about. Cherish all living beings as more important than me. That is the first point.

1:14:49.6 In other words point Nr 1 is to have always great respect for others. Don’t think, “I know him, I know her, they know very little. I know better.” Don’t ever think that. That’s what they are talking about. That is important, because all of us have that pride, the pride of me being better. That pride stands against our development. Traditionally, the Tibetan teachers will always tell you: where does it become green first after the winter, in spring, on the highest peaks or in the lowest valleys? So the green is going to come first in the lowest valleys, not the highest peaks. The highest peaks are standing up there. And what holds the most moisture, the sharp edge of the highest peak or the low valley? The moisture is definitely held at the lower valleys more than at the highest peaks. There may be ice or snow but if look at quantity as well as usefulness then definitely the lowest valleys will hold.

1:16:45.6 Another example they give you is this: at the time of harvesting, when you collect the crops of wheat, which stalk is better, the tall, straight one or the one bending down? So naturally, the more wheat you have the more the stalk will bend down, right? The less wheat you have the more the stalk will stand up.

1:17:26.9 [quotes Tibetan:]

nga gyel kye je chag gye kung po la

nyön den kyen gi chak pe chu mi char (spelling??)

If you have pride of being me, like a round ball of iron,

You will never be able to hold quality water or ice.

That’s because it’s round. So always think that others are important, others are more. Some people naturally do that. They always think that others will lose. The others will suffer. They don’t think about much about themselves. That is great. The first of Chekawa is established if you consider others are important. You know, particularly persons like me, there is a danger. People like you come and listen to me and you are all looking up at me. I am sitting here on Trungpa Rinpoche’s chair, you are sitting down. I am looking at you. I can really think, “I am somebody.” But I am nobody, nobody. I happen to be an old man. I happen to have the opportunity of learning Tibetan spiritual knowledge a little bit. So that’s really what it is.

1:19:18.0 And even the traditional teachings will tell you, “Whoever is giving teachings, that day, if you have a throne or even a higher seat, it is recommended to say

1:19:34.7

Ka ma rang ri ma me teng

Gyu ma se wai chu bur dang

Me long ru war ma don dang

de gye chö min de tar dar (spelling??)

It is like stars, hallucinations (I am paraphrasing), a mirage,

Like the dew early in the morning on the grass,

Like a dream, lightning, clouds,

All created phenomena are in that manner.

These are Buddha’s words, reminding us to think of impermanence, because then you don’t have pride. Pride is a big problem in Buddhism. It is not the pride of self-respect. This is more than pride, though we use the word ‘pride’. I think it is – there is a word I forgot. When I first came to the United States we used that a lot. The African-Americans before used to like a big car, big chains and all that. What do you call that? Not show off, but there is a word for that. I forgot, sorry. Not ego grasping, not self-cherishing. Superiority complex, yes. That’s what we are talking about.

1:21:58.9 Sometimes that happens. People have that automatically. The other people might not have any problem at all, but sometimes we do, individual, different people do have it. Even if it is not the case, they think people are looking down on them. They think they are just dismissing them. I just remember when my brother came and visited me. He wanted to send some kind of text message or email or something. He tried to get to the Jewel Heart office, trying to send it. And it was not their immediate priority. So it was left there for a few hours. After a few hours he came up to me and said, “They are looking down on me, because I am just from China or Tibet. I am not nothing. They are looking down on me, my fax still hasn’t gone.” I said, “No, no, no, nobody is looking down on you, just cool down.” That’s how people’s perception of people changes.

1:23:34.7 So we have both, a superiority complex and inferiority complex, combined together. In order to protect that you say “I am, so I have a bigger car than you or better gold chain than you” or however the time or culture changes, accordingly. Many times you may say, “I am more cool than you are.” People do that. All this is when they are talking about pride.

The second verse, I am sure will clarify that a little more:

2 GANG DU SU DANG DROG PAI TSE

DAG NYI KUN LÄ MEN TA ZHING

ZHEN LA SAM PA THAG PA YI

CHOG TU CHE PAR DZIN PAR SHOG

2. Whenever I interact with others,

I will view myself as inferior to all,

and I will train myself

to hold others superior from the depths of my heart.

This is going to totally make the psychologists crazy. (laughter). Their purpose is to build self-esteem. Here they are not pushing down self-esteem, but some kind of ego-boosting in between.

Wherever you go, whoever you go with, which direction you look, you always look yourself as less important than others. And thereby respect everybody else. When you look at His Holiness the Dalai Lama, what does he do? He comes on the stage with folded hands, almost ready to touch everybody’s feet. He goes down that low and he has definitely been thinking on these lines. But we don’t. We always try to figure out: what kind of person is that? What level is that? What knowledge, what information and what background do they have? Traditionally, we just try to figure it out, but nowadays we do research.

1:27:01.0 If we are going to meet somebody else, we look at their website, google them, find out who they are, what they did and all of those. Then, with all that background information you go, right? The whole idea is to make yourself superior, make yourself more knowledgeable, more informed, or at least make yourself not stupid. With that idea we go, but that is again this. We have to think always the others are… [higher than us]

So here you look at everybody as higher than you, like your guru. And if they are equal to you, then your friends. That is the higher, lower and equal level. This [commentary] says you shouldn’t have great pride of your own caste. This is Indian culture, they have castes, like the Brahmin caste and Harijan caste. The Harijans are not supposed to touch any Brahmin thing. If they touch their utensils, the Brahmins have to take a bath and straightaway go and run in the forest of kusha grass and sleep there for seven days, because they have become impure, because some lower caste person touched their shoe or something. That’s how they look. These are meant to be anti- -those are not only pride, not only superiority complex, but this is more than racism, worse than that.

1:29:41.6 The caste system in India has that. Always think that others are [higher than you]. And not only this one. All of this you can always back up with the bodhisattvacharayavatara. Each one of these statements, each one of these words, are backed up by the bodhisattvacharayavatara very easily. I didn’t get a chance to read there, but they might even have quoted from it. Looks to me like that… 1:30:23.0 [reads Tibetan]

1:30:31.9 Anyway, some people think, “My looks are better than yours”. I am not saying you look worse than others. I am saying you well, great, wonderful. Let it be there. Don’t say you are better than So and so. There is nothing you have to compete with anybody about. This is not a Miss Universe competition or something. You are not going there every day. Donald Trump is not here. Oh, they have that building here [Trump Tower Chicago], so maybe he is coming here, you know (laughs).

1:31:54.4 We always have to think about our own activities such as our way of thinking, particularly involving our way of behavior. Thought influences action. Whenever you think “I am superior, better than that one”, your actions and thoughts will create actions. Actions will show something physically. The others do understand your thinking, although you think it is impossible that they understand, because you think “I kept my face straight”, but no matter whatever you do, our physical gestures or words will indicate quite clearly our internal thoughts. People will know it. Those people who try to read others’ minds, the way they are doing that is through the physical gestures, movements and all that and what they say. These are the points that penetrate to your mind and how you look. You all know that. That is the thing. Whenever you think you are superior, there will be a physical gesture. That’s why they are telling you not to do it.

1:33:57.6 Within yourself, always think that you are less than others. If you keep on thinking that you are less than others, you don’t become less than others. As a matter of fact, you become better than the others. The way and how you become better than others is not by thinking, “How can I become better?” Keeping the lowest status, keeping lower, after a little while people will respect you. Some day some stupid fellow may think you know nothing. The second and third time the think,” Oh, that’s not right.” Gradually the quality within you is definitely shining in the air.

Ser sa wa le yö na ö nang ga

If you have gold, pure refined gold under the ground,

the sun shining sign will be up in the air.

1:35:16.6 That’s what people know. You keep yourself lower. That is quality and that will give a signal and if you want to make someone embarrassed, by saying, “I am superior, you know nothing”, that will not make the person embarrassed. That makes you yourself bad. But if you are very knowledgeable but tell the other person “you know better, I know nothing”, sometimes people may think you are playing a political game, but after a little while they will realize that person thinks that way and so that person will be very embarrassed. Many times they do. Even traditionally, even on the spiritual path, it happens.

1:36:14.0 I don’t remember exactly who the teacher was. It was in the early 1900s. Some teaching lineage was almost discontinued. An old monk who sort of doesn’t think he knows much about it has the better lineage. A very famous teacher, I don’t remember who the teacher is, extremely well known, with thousands and thousands of followers, asked that man, “Would you give me that teaching?” He said, “No, no, no, I know nothing, how can I give you, no way” and he got up and started prostrating and said, “Please, don’t ask me that.” After a while that teacher said, “No, I have to, because you are the only one who has that lineage, so I need it from you and then I can give it to the other people.” Then the monk said, “Yes, you can give it to the other people, but I can’t give it to you, sorry.” Then [that teacher] said, “Well, you don’t have to explain anything, just read it.” The monk said, “Oh no, I can’t even read well”, and kept on saying that. But in the end he agreed and when he agreed, he [the teacher] thought that this person doesn’t know anything, but that he may just be able to read through and then he himself could explain it better. But then the monk started explaining, and this particular teacher said, “I went down, down, down, almost wanted to go under the cushion, because he is accurate, he has the expression, he knows what he is talking about, very elaborate.” By the time the teaching was done, he couldn’t even look up to his face, he was so embarrassed because of his thinking, “He could just do this continuation of the lineage and then I can explain better.” His pride was completely scattered. He was so embarrassed. And I think he repeated a couple of Shantideva’s words too.

1:38:44.0 So this is what happens. People’s qualities are within the people, not for public exhibition. Some people have a great deal of qualities, some people like to exaggerate and go bla, bla, bla, bla, bla…right or wrong, whatever it maybe be. But some people will not exhibit, but keep completely quiet. But for us, for me, I should think that everybody knows better than me. I should think that everybody is superior to me. And you are, actually you are. I don’t have a high school degree of the western style, I don’t. I don’t have any mathematical knowledge. I don’t know how to write English. This is the honest truth. I might have read Tibetan a little more than you because I was born in Tibet. It is my mother tongue, that’s all. That’s what it really is. So if you keep on thinking that you are less important, less superior than others, people will not see you in that behavior. That is the best way to hide.

1:40:36.0 Otherwise, your bad behavior is out. That’s the best way to hide. Right? You may say we are spiritual practitioners, but then we may do all kinds of wrong things everywhere.

Shantideva said by the way and how we behave we are not even going to achieve a human rebirth. If we don’t receive a human rebirth we are not going to get any virtues. If we don’t have virtues, we have negativities, which bring suffering. Positivities bring virtue. So it is important. The traditional Tibetan teachers tell us – me – as incarnate lamas – and I am an incarnate lama and have teachers – and they used to tell us all the time, “There is nobody and nothing who is lower than you, except the sewage water.” That is the normal language they used: nothing lower than the sewage water. So reducing that becomes very important.

1:42:35.2 Lochö Rinpoche, one of my teachers, many of you know him, is also the teacher of some very well known incarnate lama. That young incarnate lama, as a young kid, was a little wild and crazy. So Lochö Rinpoche decided to beat him up one day. He thought, “I better beat him up.” He comes and tells His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “I may have to do that.” His Holiness said, “I have been waiting for you to tell me this” (laughter). So he decided to do it. He went to his house and he was playing somewhere outside there in the dust. Somebody told him that Lochö Rinpoche was coming and he quickly ran into his own room, sitting in there, trying to memorize a certain old Indian text, actually the Abisamayalankara, the Transcendental Wisdom root text.

1:43:52.7 Lochö Rinpoche went just into his kitchen door, looking round and thinking, “How do I insult him the best?” So he said there is no other place, in the kitchen door, the moment you enter in, there are dirty, little things, doormats, where everybody cleans their shoes. So he sat there and listened to him memorizing. Then he shouted to him, “Say a few more words”, and naturally he didn’t have them by heart, right?, so he tried to repeat a few words, but couldn’t do. Then [Lochö Rinpoche] said, “Don’t sit up there, come down here.” He sent some attendant to bring him down. Then he was standing there and told him, “Sit on this” meaning “Sit down on that doormat” and when he hesitated he shouted, “You are shameless, you can’t even sit on the mat”, and he tried to push his mouth to the doormat and spanked him a few times. That way he reduced tremendously his pride.

1:45:36.9 You know the incarnate lamas are normally put up there with all kinds of attendants and this and that, but sometimes they do that too. I got that beating a number of times. A number of times. So the whole idea is to reduce the superior feeling of “I am somebody”. You people may not have that much problem. You are well educated, you all know all about it. But people like me, picked up as little kids who know nothing but with a big name and retinue and all that, then you get that all the time. Until you get rid of that you are not going to get any quality at all. So the round ball cannot hold the water or moisture of quality. I guess that’s where I have to leave it today. What are going to take home tonight? We have to look back at what we did.

1:47:06.0 You are going to take home first of all compassion and love. We didn’t talk much about love. We talked about compassion. We talked about out-looking and in-looking compassion. Looking in, that little baby deer, is that me? Am I that baby deer? You begin with that. You can think on those lines and you can think all different sufferings of all the different realms. Each one of them, think: am I, am I, am I? So luckily, not. The possibility is that it will be there tomorrow, it is very possible. But today we can make a difference. That is building compassion for yourself. Also remember, helping others, giving respect, honoring others is also helping yourself. If you can remember, the compassion, love, special mind and bodhimind is what I talked about. If you don’t remember, that’s fine, but please do remember to develop compassion for yourself.

1:49:13.5 And then remember, when you develop compassion, you don’t become hopeless or helpless. Definitely, take advantage of that and improve yourself. If you are critical of yourself, take advantage and do a) correction – that is the easiest, simplest and b) try to be better than that, not trying to be that one. You know, seeing your own faults is a great achievement. The Tibetan monks have a system of confession. It is not like the Christian way where every single person goes into the box and tries to talk to somebody else, “I did this, I did this” and then you find James Bond sitting at the other end of the partition. I don’t know that, but the traditional Tibetan thing is that everybody says everything together twice a month, everybody.

1:50:39.9 Every wrong thing is in the words and somebody will start and everybody will say it together. Everybody does that. you do that to try to see your own faults. But if you are critical of yourself you don’t have to do this. You see your own faults. Once you saw it, you have to correct it. If you saw it and saw it and saw it, then it becomes hopeless and helpless. Once you see it, go immediately, “Here you are. I am going to correct you tomorrow. You won’t be here tomorrow. Okay, fellow, get up.” That’s what you say and do yourself. That’s how you should work. I think there are quite a number of different packages for you to take home tonight. If you are still not bored, come back tomorrow. We will be here at ten. If you have to go somewhere else then have a very good trip.

1:52:16.2 Dedication: By this merit…. 1:52:34.9 end of file