Delam

The Smooth Path to

Enlightenment

Gelek Rimpoche

Jewel Heart Transcript

2013

©Ngawang Gelek, 2013

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CONTENTS

I Preliminaries 5

II The Lam Rim Field of Merit 37

III Guru Devotion 53

IV Precious Human Life 77

V Common with the Lower Scope 87

VI Common with the Medium Scope 107

VII Development of Bodhimind 118

VIII Stabilizing Bodhimind 142

IX Bodhisattva Activities 158

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I

PRELIMINARIES

SETTING YOUR MOTIVATION

Welcome. First and foremost is our motivation.

Very briefly, for your motivation, everybody would like to

be happy. Everybody knows how to make themselves better

and whether they know it or not, that is their desire. That’s

what people go for. However, this particular teaching

requires a little more than “I am happy and I am better”.

There needs to be a little concern for everybody. So I am

going to throw out the usual official line, and that is, “for the

benefit of all living beings”.

“Benefit” is a strange word. Even if you get a glass of water

it is a benefit. I don’t think that is what we are looking for.

When we say “benefit” we are looking for the ultimate need

of the individual. As I want to be happy and have no

suffering and misery, likewise everyone wants to be happy

and have no suffering and misery. So I would like to bring

that, deliver that to those people.

For that, I will learn about this, get the expected result and

lead everybody. The expected result is way beyond our

comprehension. This one demands, and the result of this

practice is, to become perfect. That means perfect

knowledge, perfect behavior, perfect everything. There is

nothing beyond this, nothing better than this. That is the

result we expect.

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In Buddhist terminology it is to become “Buddha”. From the

Buddhist viewpoint there is nothing better than Buddha.

That’s why Buddhahood is the goal for this. There are lots of

questions. Can it be really fulfilled? Is it possible? All these

questions are there, but I am not going to deal with them just

now.

Just now let us say that we can all become Buddha. This

particular teaching that Buddha has shared with us, coming

through so many lineages of early India and Tibet, is capable

of delivering the goods. That is our goal and purpose. I

would not only like to become a Buddha, but the reasons I

want to be a Buddha is so that I can bring Buddhahood to

everybody else, to all living beings. That is the goal, that is

the purpose, that is the motivation.

At least for a short period, imagine that you are going to do

this. That this is going to be your goal, your purpose. By that

motivation, you gain a tremendous amount of positive merit

or, in other words, positive karma. The thought alone does

that. That is why, right from the beginning, the motivation is

important. The motivation is not just any thought. It is not

just any good thought or virtuous thought. It is the very

specific thought of helping deliver the Buddha stage to all

living beings. This is one of the keys to move yourself

forward on this spiritual journey. It really pushes you so

much forward.

This type of mind is known as bodhimind. It is the mind that

seeks Buddhahood. Bodhimind brings tremendous advantage

in the spiritual field. The early Indian master Shantideva

wrote a book called “Bodhisattva’s Way of Life” (Tib:

Bodhisattvacharyavatara ) and the first chapter is totally

about the advantages you have by developing this mind. It is

tremendous. They tell you things that seem unbelievable.

That may come a little later. I just wanted to tell you this

much and now we will move forward. The first step, the

motivation alone, has tremendous advantages.

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TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THESE TEACHINGS IN TODAY’S

WORLD

In Tibetan I quoted that there are four qualities and

extraordinary advantages of this teaching. Every lam rim

teaching has those very specific qualities, particularly

according to the Buddha, to Buddhism and the Mahayana

Buddhist path, the only path travelled by all the buddhas of

the past.

This will be the only path that all the buddhas of the future

will travel. Not only that, during this particular period of

Buddha Shakyamuni’s teaching - the last 2600 years, and

whatever there is in future, in all that period - everyone who

has made it through this path has utilized this particular way

of teaching. Whether it is named lam rim or not, doesn’t

matter. What they teach and share with you is the real

essence of all the Buddha’s teaching, no matter what the

tradition. Each tradition will have its own different titles and

styles but the stages are the same. Whatever you do, it is the

same thing.

Basically, it is the present situation of the individual, where

we are, what we are, how we are. That is the reality we are

in. Everybody will say: I am a human being. Yes, we are, but

what kind of person, a happy one or a one who is suffering?

The truth really is that we are struggling, each and every

individual has a different way of struggling. Some are

struggling for money, some for name, some for power, some

for independence, or whatever. But in reality, we are

struggling. We are suffering. We are not happy as we should

be. That is the reality. That is what we are. Whether you

follow any tradition or you are not a follower of anything.

Whether you are a Judeo-Christian follower or a Hindu-

Buddhist follower or a follower of Mohammed. Whatever

you are, even if you are not following anything, and are an

atheist, a hard core scientific person or a hippie or a yuppie,

whatever we may be, that is the reality. That has nothing to

do with a belief, or an economic standard.

We all think the richer you are the less you struggle, but that

is not true. The more you make, the more you need. You

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have to struggle more and suffer more unnecessarily. In one

way it looks like it is necessary, but in true reality it is

unnecessary. Honestly, what do we need? We only have one

body to cover, one little stomach to fill up, right? That is the

basic necessity. Beyond that, it is a struggle.

2600 years ago Buddha was in this world as the official

Buddha and thereafter so many other great beings came, all

the way up to today. All these enlightened beings in different

forms, in different ways, all of them have struggled, travelled

and experienced life with us. This is not because they have

to, but because they want to. Why? Because they give us

some support here and there. In the earlier times, life was

much simpler. In those days everybody had simpler lives.

Nowadays it is much more sophisticated and complicated.

However, all of us still have the same thing. That is, the basic

human beings’ level of functioning. All these buddhas and

bodhisattvas, all great beings, function with us as

respectable, as reasonable. You too have to function that

way. Otherwise you will defeat your purpose of serving and

helping.

If Buddha appeared here today as the traditional Buddha,

wearing a little sarong and dusty chappals, are we going to

listen to him? No. We will say, “Who is this guy?”, or pay no

attention whatsoever. This is how people’s sophistication

moves and accordingly, our path moves. Every time our

sophistication moves, that much our emotions move, either

negative or positive. As much as we advance by dealing with

our negative emotions, the path also moves forward.

Otherwise, it will be like trying to deal with 21st century

problems with 12th century solutions. That won’t work. That

is the difficulty we face today.

There is no shortage of great teachers, of practices, but

somehow solutions and practices remain in the 11th century

or the 14th century or at most in the 1600s. The problems we

are facing are 21st century problems. This is our biggest

challenge. The question remains: Can we really do without

tradition? To me the answer is no. This is not just one person.

This is the Buddhas and their many, many disciples, and the

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mahasiddhas and adepts of Buddhism. It is their experience

and that is the fundamental base, and then you need the

technical applications of the 21st century. That is a very big

problem. All the experiences we share are built in the old

centuries. So dealing with that is also old. It doesn’t tally

with our problems today. This is the challenge.

Without the foundation of the earlier master we have no

foundation. We must maintain that and then apply it suitably

today. When doing that, again there is a problem. If we

modernize too much it becomes like a new age type of thing,

a little bit from here, a little bit from there, putting them all

together. That is another problem.

If we don’t modify a little bit, it doesn’t answer today’s

questions and problems. It requires the skill and techniques

of both those who are practicing and those who are

preaching. Both are needed. Otherwise, we are trying to deal

with the 21st century problems with 11

th century notions.

That may not work. Time goes, the sophistication of people

goes and even their ideas, atmosphere, everything goes. It

goes much faster than we think.

THE SMOOTH PATH – A MEDITATIVE LAM RIM TO APPLY

TO YOUR LIFE

So we chose the subject here to talk to you and it is the

Smooth Path, in Tibetan de lam. Actually, there are two; one

is called Quick Path and the other, Smooth Path. The Smooth

Path is more or less meditative, rather than explaining. The

Quick Path explains much more than solely the meditative.

When I obtained these teachings I obtained them together.

Many times they are given together. I obtained this teaching

a number of times, separately and together. The first time I

remember receiving it, it was given together. When you do it

that way, the Quick Path has a lot more explanation. The

little book I have here is more or less Quick Path. We will

not be able to cover it in this short period.

Whatever we can cover, it will be something nice, something

solid for you to be able to make a difference in your life. For

you it will be something that you think “I got it”, something

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that you feel “I have it” and something that you can also see

that it changes your attitude towards dealing with difficulties.

Most of our difficulties are actually man-made or self-made.

We make them in order to boost our ego, our own selfish

feelings, in order to boost self-proclamation. By all of this,

we make our own problems. This particular lam rim teaching

should introduce you to, or rather point out to you, “Here is

your problem”. And it will be easy to do so, because we are

not talking to one individual one-to-one. We are talking to a

group of people. So without saying “You did this, this is your

problem.”, without pointing, we are pointing it out. That’s

where you will see your own problems and if you correct it

sincerely, truly, then you will help yourself.

If you don’t, and sometimes these sorts of teachings, instead

of helping will boost your ego even more. It will help the

negative emotions to grow stronger. If that happens then

dharma becomes an evil activity. That happens very often.

There are a couple of problems.

One is that sincerely, whole heartedly you are engaged and

dharma becomes an evil service. The other problem is when

no matter whatever it says or does, you go on and on as

though nothing has happened. Every arrow goes here or there

[without landing the target] and there won’t be any benefit at

all.

Lam rim teachings are such that they are like arrows that

really hit you and if those arrows can’t hit you it is the fault

of the teacher. If the arrow hits you and you take it then you

can make a difference within you and benefits will come. In

normal lam rim teachings it looks like it is pointing out your

faults. It looks like yelling at you. But remember it is not

you, the individual. We are talking in general. When we talk

about these things in general and you realize it is your fault,

then you pick it up. We have the saying in Tibetan, “We

throw a dirty, smelly word in the air and someone who feels

guilty will pick it up and take it personally.” They will think,

“He is talking about me.”

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So if that happens to you, then what do you do with it? If you

think about it and deal with it positively, then you will get

benefits. If you don’t think about it, it will be like a little

child sitting there and it goes in one ear and out the other.

The traditional Buddhist teachings tell you that when you

obtain teachings you have to be free of three faults. They

give the example of drinking from a utensil, like a cup.

LISTENING WELL

If the cup is dirty, then no matter what you pour in there you

won’t be able to consume it, because the cup is dirty. There

is something in there which should not be there. If you pour

nectar into a dirty cup, even though you know it is nectar you

can’t use it, because it is dirty.

Another fault is that you keep on hearing, but you don’t’ get

it at all, because the cup is upside down. No matter how

much you pour it doesn’t go inside, because it is upside

down. Many people have that problem for sure. You will be

sitting here, listening because maybe you like me, maybe you

like dharma, maybe you like Buddhism, or maybe you are

looking for some friends who are here. Whatever the reason

is, you are hearing all this and it is not going in. That’s like a

cup that is upside down.

The third fault is when the cup is clean and not upside down

but there is a “hole in the bucket”. If you don’t fix the hole

then whatever you pour in there will pour out, right? When

that happens, those are the three problems of listening. So

make yourself free from those three. Particularly, when the

arrow is hitting you, you will know it clearly. It doesn’t mean

you personally. It doesn’t insult you or downgrade you or say

something about you that you don’t like. It is not that. It is

our human problem and that is what we have to deal with. In

other words, don’t take it personally on the one hand, but on

the other hand, take it personally and correct it. Honestly,

that is how we should do it.

LEARNING THE METHODS TO REACH BUDDHAHOOD

If you are a fortunate person you will be able to travel to the

stage of Buddhahood. How are you going to travel? The

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method of how to function is normally known as a lam rim

teaching.

This lam rim has two major outlines.

1. Root of all development, guru devotional practice

2. After developing guru devotional practice, how to

train oneself

The first major outline of Guru Devotional practice has the

point of .

a) How to do a meditational practice which has two

points.

1) What to do when you are in a practice

session.

2) What to do when you are out of a practice

session.

1) So there are three points to support the first point of

being In an actual practice session. They are:

a. Beginning

b. Actual meditation

c. Conclusion

BEGINNING A PRACTICE SESSION - CHOOSING A GOOD

PLACE TO MEDITATE

So it is very simple.

a. The beginning tells us the necessary requirements for

meditation which is -

i. You need a good place.

That means a place where you are happy. It doesn’t

necessarily mean an elaborate or luxurious place, but a place

that can give you happiness, where your mind feels

comfortable and relaxed. If you feel miserable in the place

where you want to meditate, your meditation is also not

going to be very good.

If you will feel miserable, suffocated, can’t move, stuck and

disturbed, that place might not be suitable. If you find a

suitable place it doesn’t matter wherever it is. It could be

under a tree or wherever. This text is quite short, but the

longer lam rims tell you to go to a place that has good water,

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no danger to your life, so it can be under a tree, in a cave, in

the forest, or in the midst of a public place. Wherever you

feel comfortable, that is actually a good place. Many of us

today do not have the luxury of having a separate house or

place where you can do your meditation.

Traditionally, people do have that. You know why? Even if it

is a little cave or a little hole in the ground, but it your

meditation hole and you are happy in it. If you have a

reasonable place, then one room is the meditation room. But

what I noticed is that you don’t use your meditation for

meditation! It becomes what the Chinese call a “Buddha

room”. That is like a temple in your house and that’s about it.

Some people have that problem and I do too. I do have a

little room, but unless I am doing some retreat when I have to

force myself to be in that room, I will be sitting wherever I

feel comfortable. So that little meditation room becomes a

“Buddha room”. I don’t mean a Buddha room is bad, but the

purpose of the meditation room is defeated. You are going all

out of the way to get one extra room to meditate and then

don’t use it and it just becomes a "Buddha room".

SETTLING INTO A COMFORTABLE POSITION

Then what should you sit on? Most of you have heard this so

many times, so you know it. But still, to remind you a little

bit, I will briefly mention it. You need to have a comfortable

seating arrangement. If you feel comfortable sitting on a

chair or sitting cross-legged or sit kneeling down – whatever

is comfortable to you, that is what you should do. Unless you

are doing certain completion stage practices, where you have

to have a certain style of sitting, but other than that and

particularly at our pre-level, it is very important to be

comfortable.

Also when you become older and older, comfort is

necessary, because discomfort will create another problem.

That will limit you from sitting and doing whatever you want

to do. So being comfortable is important. You can sit on your

bed. That’s fine, although some teachings will tell you that if

you are doing certain retreats you should sit separately from

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your usual places. But these are minor things. The major

thing is to be comfortable.

Then there is Naropa’s style of sitting and all those. I am not

going to spend time talking to you about that, because every

meditation teacher will make very strong emphasis on how to

sit and how to keep your physical body posture. There is the

8 Naropa - style sitting. If you can do that, great, but if not,

then whatever you can is fine.

WATCHING YOUR MIND

Now comes the important point. Begin to watch your mind.

You really have to watch. When you do meditation or

dharma practice the foremost thing is our mind. As a human

being we have our physical body and our mind. Physically

we already talked how to sit, in Naropa style or whatever is

comfortable. Now the question is the mind. What do we do

with it? Many people will think, “I have to control my

mind.” Maybe that is true, maybe not. But the first thing you

do should not be dealing with control issues. If you begin

with controlling yourself, even if it is by yourself, your mind

is going to reject this as much as it can. It will yell and

scream and drag its feet and do everything. You will push

your mind and then there is a new struggle between you and

your mind. Some people lose the struggle, honestly. The

mind will say, “No, no, nothing.” Then you face a problem.

Either you submit to your mind and completely forget about

it or you struggle with your mind.

A lot of people come and talk to me, saying, “I have that

problem. My mind is giving me very negative reactions.”

Some people don’t even want to say it – so many negatives,

they don’t even want to mention it and don’t even want to be

associated with it. That is because we try to control it. In

traditional Chinese and Tibetan culture, those reactions were

pushed away, suppressed, and disciplined. If you didn’t

listen, you were beaten up. We did that. It was not unusual.

Will that help? Not in the 21st century. Back in the 16

th, 17

th

century, yeah, it worked for some, but even then, some

people’s [opportunities were totally wasted in that period.

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People will rebel against discipline, particularly kids. They

have their own mind and want their own choice. Our own

mind will rebel against our own discipline. If not, then none

of us would have the habits we have. We do entertain and

enjoy our bad habits. That is because our mind does not

agree with our own attempts to control. Some people, for

example, like to smoke all the time. Some people would like

to drink all the time. Some people like some funny things all

the time. They do that because our mind will not submit to

our attempts to control.

BE GENTLE AND NEW HABITS WILL COME

So if you want to help yourself, don’t try to deal by

controlling your mind. Yes, discipline is key, no doubt, but

straight away trying to put yourself under the thumb won’t

work, even if you do it for yourself. Some people are very

obedient and go along and are fine with whatever it is. At

most they give a little smile and go along. But some people,

no. So the less risk the better it is. Do not try to impose a

discipline that is not acceptable to your own mind. You have

to have discipline, otherwise it won’t work. But that has to

come very gently, as though nothing has happened, like

something that becomes an everyday habit. If you keep on

drinking tea, tea drinking becomes your habit. Without

realizing you are drinking eight or nine cups at a time. I do

that. I notice sometimes, “Oh, I have been drinking too much

tea”, particularly in the morning. If they give you one mug of

tea that gets me nowhere. I have to have four, five or six of

them. That is a habit that I developed without realizing.

That is exactly how you built up discipline, without realizing,

in a very smooth way. So you are there already! Yes,

discipline is necessary, but not by force. When your mind is

watching, your mind is direct knowledge to you. It is not

indirect knowledge. Nor is it a secret to you. You know your

mind absolutely clearly, more than anybody else. So you

have to watch it. That doesn’t mean you turn around and look

inside. You don’t have to open your eyeballs and try to see.

Watch in the sense of what is your mind thinking about? Just

try to see. What is your mind engaged in?

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All of you are sitting here very patiently and nicely. But if

you watch what you are thinking for just a minute, many of

us are not thinking about what we are talking about. Many of

us are thinking something else. So watching your mind

means watching what your mind is engaged in right this

moment. Are you thinking about durians at the farm or about

mangosteen? You have this huge mango-papaya mixes and

the tree can’t hold it. You have to have chairs put underneath

to lift them up. If you are thinking along those lines, these

thoughts are neutral thoughts. They are neither virtuous nor

non-virtuous. But if you are thinking how we will overcome

this and get the upper hand over that, if you notice, these are

negative thoughts, according to Buddha’s idea of positive

and negative. Actually, truly speaking, positive and negative

are both dependent origination. There is no black and white

cut, honestly, unless you think about killing or some other

horrific thoughts. Then of course, that is obviously negative.

Fantastic, nice thoughts of helping are positive. Other than

that, most of our thoughts are neutral. Whether they are

influenced by positive or negative, we don’t know.

Previously we emphasized bodhimind motivation very much.

When you have that motivation then all your neutral thoughts

have a better chance to become virtuous rather than non-

virtuous. More virtues are more helpful to us. More non-

virtues are more harmful to us. Sometimes circumstances

force you to think non-virtues. You are facing a difficult

situation. Somehow you have to deal with it. Many times you

are simply disturbed by some insults – they may not be

insults, but you interpret them as insults. Sometimes all these

thoughts will come. They will force all your energy to be

directed towards this, in the name of self-respect, self-

protection. But in reality, circumstances are pushing you to

engage with negative thoughts.

Then there is the opportunity for us to change them. So if

you watch your thoughts you may find, “Oh my God, I am

thinking about negative things. That’s not right. So I will

change and think about something positive.” That is not

going to work. For some people, yes it may. But for many

people it won’t. You have to take your mind away from that

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negative, into some neutral. That’s why many people will

teach you to count your breath, going out, coming in, one

gone, two gone, three goes out, four comes in, count up to 21

or something and then start all over again. All of this is

trying to take away your stronghold of attention on negative

thoughts, thoughts on something that has nothing to do with

you. Meditators will teach you to use your breath and follow

the movement of the sensation of the breath going in and out

from the nostrils. The physical movement will draw your

attention a little bit more. We do all kinds of things to draw

more attention away. We even pull the hair out of our nose,

trying to wake up. We do all that, don’t we? Physical

sensations help us to draw our mental attention.

OUR MOTIVATION WILL SHAPE THE OUTCOME OF OUR

MEDITATION PRACTICES

There may be higher reasons than that, but most meditation

instructors teach us to count the breath, out from the right

nostril and in through the left or vice versa or both together

in and out. That is a simple way to draw your mind away

from the negative and engage in a neutral level. When you

come to a neutral position, it makes moving to the positive

easier than trying to transfer from a negative mind, just like

that. That won’t work. So the real reason why you have to

count your breath - yes, it is part of meditation - but simply

counting breaths in and out, right and left, is more or less for

the purpose of directing your attention. A good meditation

instructor will tell you to take the breath in and out by

utilizing OM AH HUM. At the level of OM you are taking

all your energy in through your nostrils, at AH you hold it in

and at HUM release it out. So you have OM AH HUM that

way. Then it has way beyond just simply counting and

simply drawing physical attention, but goes into mind

attention more than that.

Most people don’t do that anyway. If you are doing OM AH

HUM, then OM is taking all energy from outside, AH is

holding the energy in and HUM is releasing it out. In – hold

– and out. That can also go beyond. Many of you are

vajrayana practitioners. The de lam is combined with

vajrayana. That’s why. When you are taking in the

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manifestations of the body mandala, or the yidams, doing

many activities outside, you take them in with OM. With AH

you are holding in, not only in your body, but even in the

central channel.

Then HUM is manifesting out. If you are doing it that way it

is more than physical sensation trying to draw mental

attention. It is doing much more important activities.

Other than that, you just watch your mind and if it is

engaging in negative, try to make it neutral and then change

it into positive. This especially demands a very special,

virtuous mind, which is nothing but bodhimind, as I told you

earlier. It is “for the benefit of all beings that I would like to

become a fully enlightened Buddha and deliver everybody to

that stage, and for which I will do that practice.”

BODHIMIND AS OUR BASIC MOTIVATION

The most important thing is observing your own mind. The

mind is either controlled or influenced by negative thoughts

or neutral or positive thoughts. If it is positive it is good. If it

is negative it is bad. If it is neutral, it is okay. You can work.

But the requirement here is not only the positive, but a very

special mind. That is the generation of the ultimate,

unlimited, unconditional love and compassion. If we say

bodhimind, it is a technical name. People will have to know

what Bodhi is and what mind is in order to make it

bodhimind. The mind seeking the Buddha state, the mind that

desires to become Buddha is called bodhimind.

Why does one want to become Buddha? If your purpose

simply is to make yourself free, to be okay yourself, then the

requirement to become Buddha is not really called for.

However, we have not only the compassion, not only the

love, but we are looking for unlimited, unconditional love

and compassion. All Mahayana paths always have bodhimind

as the basic motivation. You are seeking Buddhahood

because you are seeking something more than you can

manage. You want to liberate all beings and you want to

bring them to the state of Buddha. Who else can do that

besides someone who is Buddha?

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That is why seeking the Buddha stage becomes necessary.

That’s why it is called bodhimind. That is basically required

here. I am just briefly mentioning it here. I did not explain

how to develop this mind. That will come later. Right now,

that is what you need, at least at the artificial level. I am

using the wrong language. It is not artificial, but it is created

thought. One individual will create the thought that “I would

like to become Buddha for the benefit of all beings.” At least

project that thought. At least say the words. At least presume

that is what you are thinking. This is what I call “created”. It

is not natural, it is not uncreated, it develops with all kinds of

efforts put in. You can do it temporarily, but you cannot do it

for a long time. Your mind will demand an explanation from

you, “Why should I do something like this which doesn’t

mean anything to me?” Once your mind starts demanding

that maybe it’s a little too late. Hopefully not. You have

enough reasons to justify why you think that. But before you

can do that you have to get yourself convinced and then

come to the point where bodhimind is not a created thought

but is natural, uncreated, within you. That is very possible,

because once you get used to it, it is very easy. Once you

adopted that as your daily chore it is very easy. But when it is

a strange thought, when it is a foreign thought, then it is very

difficult. Once it becomes part of you then it is easy.

We don’t question ourselves in the morning when you drink

hot water, tea or coffee. You don’t ask yourself, “Why do I

do that?” That’s because it is natural. When you eat food,

you eat rice, it is natural. You don’t ask yourself, “Why do I

eat rice?” But if eating rice is foreign to you then you will

raise questions, “Why do I eat rice? This is carbohydrates. It

will make me fat.” All these reasons will come. When it is

natural to you there is no issue. So with bodhimind it is the

same thing. When it is foreign to you there is an issue. When

it is natural to you there will be no issue. So that’s why I say

that first we make a made-up mind and afterwards that made-

up mind will become natural to you. When that happens,

without thinking you will do it. That’s what we try to gain as

part of a daily chore for us.

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A DAILY DOSE OF MOTIVATION

The moment you wake up in the morning there are actually

three things we can do. First, you should appreciate that you

are alive. Be thankful to the objects of refuge, in our case,

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We are grateful to them that

we are still alive. The second thing is that we will not waste

this precious life in general.

It is important to recognize this. Otherwise we don’t

appreciate our life. It could have easily ended when we were

asleep. It could have gone away yesterday. But today we are

still here. So we are grateful. So we don’t want to waste our

time in general and in particular, today. Then, while not

wasting time, what do I do? Whatever I do I will try to

benefit all living beings, trying to bring them to the state of

Buddhahood. I myself need to become a Buddha so that I

have the effortless, unlimited capability, so I can fulfill my

commitment. Such a thought will push the individual a very

long way on your spiritual journey. Such a thought will make

positive whatever you do during the day – not only the

virtues, but even neutral thoughts.

Simply sitting there and day-dreaming, simply not doing

anything, just relaxing, all of those will become virtue,

because of the power of the thoughts of that morning. That’s

why mind is important. That’s why mind makes a difference.

That’s why one individual has to be good and kind minded, a

kind person. How does one become a kind person? If you say

“poor thing, poor thing” alone when you see someone

suffering, that just becomes “po ting la”. It doesn’t really

become compassion. It doesn’t become kindness. It almost

becomes lip service. But whether you say “poor thing” or

not, if you have developed such a mind every day, as a

religion, for your own benefit and for the benefit of those

who are connected and particularly your own family, your

spouse, your children and so forth, if you do that, and

particularly for yourself, you can do nothing better for the

day, actually. That is what this lam rim demands. They even

call it ge sem kye par je – a very special, virtuous mind. It is

really referring to bodhimind.

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GENERATING YOUR BASE OF REFUGE

Now what do you do? Generate the object of refuge. There

are cultural things too. What I have in this particular

teachings begins with “In the space in front of you…” In the

open space, slightly above you. We are in the habit of

looking up for betterment. Looking down is not necessarily

that great in our background culture. That’s why. Actually, it

doesn’t matter whether you look up or down or straight. But

the Tibetan and Indo-Chinese and Asian culture and our

custom is like that. We always looks slightly up. We don’t

put the altar down there, do we? But some cultures do. I did

attend some retreat done by a western Hindu-Buddhist

teacher. It was a very well-known person called Baba Ram

Das. He was a professor at Harvard, the youngest professor

ever to get tenure at Harvard. But he got fired, even after

having tenure. They were all experimenting with LSD, so a

bunch of them got fired. Then he became a very famous

Hindu-Buddhist teacher in America. When he does retreats

he puts the altar down there and everybody brings everything

they ever want and put it on the altar. Then after seven, eight

days it collects dust and everything and I always feel funny.

But that’s their culture and they put the altar way down there

and everybody is sitting up somewhere. The altar will be

right in the middle, below, nothing but a small, little table

and everybody puts photos, flowers, money and everything

thrown there. So it was a little uncomfortable for me. It is

just my culture that we look up to the altar.

Also, putting everything, photos of family members and

people who are passed away or who are sick, everyone was

brought to that altar. Sometimes the pictures would pile up,

photo over photo and you don’t even see them. That looks a

little funny to me but that is because of the culture. For us,

we look slightly up. Now here, I am not telling you to make

your altar up there. Mentally we should create our object of

refuge, the Field of Merit. It is not something we physically

make, but mentally. It is not way up there, but more or less

straight, but slightly up. From where I sit it would be where

the second last row of seats are. That would be a perfectly

suitable place, not looking down, but more straight and not

too much up.

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Who is your object of refuge? Who do you want to be up

there? Nobody but Buddha – honestly - but Buddha is not

going to be hanging in the air up there. He needs a place to

sit and our culture tells us to put him on a throne. It is also

Indian and even western culture. The western thrones are not

like the Indian or Chinese ones, but they are thrones. Maybe

they are chairs. Queen Elizabeth has a throne. But it is not a

square box like what we use. It is a chair and they call it

throne. We may say that this is not a throne, but a chair.

That’s all fine. Let’s not argue about that. It’s a waste of time

and intellectual capacity and a waste of our intelligence. Why

don’t you accept that whatever is called a throne is a throne?

Period. Some people will not, but argue that a throne has to

be a square box. Some people will say that a chair is a

throne. I am wasting time by even talking that to you,

actually. So whatever is convenient for your mind is fine.

You may like a throne like that of Queen Elizabeth or of the

emperor of China. In the Ming dynasty and Ching dynasty

they also had chairs. Some had thrones like boxes. The

Tibetans have the boxes. It is really culture, not very much

religious significance, except the lion throne.

We say that the lion throne has religious significance. But

then it is the same as a dragon throne or peacock throne or

elephant throne. They also have their own religious

significance. That is more or less the explanation rather than

really a religious significance. The throne should not be

small, but big and spacious. And according to Tibetan culture

eight lions are lifting it up. Each direction has two lions

lifting up the throne. When people draw they will draw them

as decorations of the throne, but when you visualize you see

actual lions lifting the throne rather than seeing the throne as

decorated by lions.

Above that is a multi-colored lotus. Above that a moon disc

and above that a sun cushion. These three cushions really

have a very significant religious meaning. The lotus is purity,

so it is renunciation. The moon is compassion, so here it is

bodhimind. The sun is shining light, so it is wisdom. So these

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three are here on top of each other as cushions. What does

that mean? I is giving you a message.

The person who is sitting on that cushion has not only

mastered the knowledge of but has the full development of

renouncing samsara, the ultimate love/compassion or

bodhimind, and the wisdom of dependent origination. He has

not only fully understood that as knowledge, but developed it

as quality. That becomes the character of this individual.

That’s the real message of the lotus, - sun and moon

cushions. Sometimes we are wondering: what is spiritual

development and that’s what it is, honestly. This is spiritual

development. The individual is no longer subject to the

control of desire for something or someone, obsession or

hatred. These are basically causes of suffering and they have

mastered them and gone beyond. They not only have the

knowledge of compassion and love, but they themselves are

compassion and love. They not only know about dependent

origination, they live with it and it is their character. So then

you have a really good spiritual development. It does not

depend on clairvoyance or some kind of magical power that

we see in kung fu movies, where something goes zoom,

boom and pops up.

You have so many kung fu movies. I used to see them in Ah

Seet’s home earlier. When I used to come early on, they had

24 hour movies running in that house. Everything was going

zing, boom, dumm. The family was very kind and we were

all there, and there was an open door for everybody. That

sort of kung fu style magic is not necessarily spiritual

development. The sign of spiritual development for the

individual is really becoming a better person, kinder, gentler,

more caring, more compassionate. That becomes the

character of the individual and that is really development.

Knowing about it and pretending to be that is working

towards it. When it becomes your character then it really

becomes fully mastered.

That doesn’t mean that the individual will not have anger or

some jealousy or hatred. It doesn’t mean that it is not there at

all. Sometimes it pops up quite strongly. But it doesn’t last

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very long. When you observe people you see that happening.

Sometimes people project that they make it, but otherwise

nothing happens. So sometimes you can have confusion

between quite well developed spiritual people and some guy

who doesn’t know what’s going on. That is not very nice, but

it happens.

So on the lotus, sun and moon cushions sits, in reality, my

own guru, my own kind master, but in the physical form of

Buddha. You know the color of the Buddha, pure golden,

with the ushnisha, the extra sign of enlightenment, that

additional lump above his head. According to Buddhist

information that is supposed to be extremely expensive to

develop, not in the sense that somebody is buying or selling

it, but in the sense of taking a tremendous amount of virtue to

develop it.

He has one face, two hands and the gesture of his right hand

is that of touching the ground. Most of you know the story of

the hand gesture.

There was an argument between the evil forces and

Buddha. The evil forces threatened him and tried to

get him away from his sitting meditation on ultimate

compassion and wisdom, which delivers

enlightenment. They tried their best and you can see

it in many depictions everywhere. First they

manifested as attractive people as a weapon in order

to attract his attention away from the meditative

state. The drawings and pictures are very physical

with young, beautiful, attractive girls trying to draw

his attention away. When that failed, the second

threatening thing was that they physically tried to

hurt him by throwing weapons, fire balls and all

kinds of things. These didn’t reach Buddha. Within a

certain area around him every weapon thrown

became a flower. So that attempt also failed. Both

attraction and threats didn’t work. Finally, Mara, the

evil force appeared to Buddha and asked why.

Buddha said, “You had some positive virtues, but I

have millions more than you. Therefore you cannot

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hurt me.” Then Mara said, “All right you admitted

that I have huge amounts of virtue. You are my

witness. You said you have millions more than I. So

who is your witness? You have no witness. You

simply say that, so you lost and I won.” But Buddha

said, “No, I do have a witness.” And he touched his

right hand to the ground. The goddess of Earth

appeared. In some cultures we call her “Mother

Earth”. She said, “I am the witness.” That’s why

most of the Buddha images show his right hand

extending over his right knee and touching the

ground. The gesture is called sa nö - pressing on the

ground. It is not a threatening gesture but calling the

Earth as witness. That is the right hand gesture.

His left hand is in the meditative state. That is pacifying,

peaceful, meditating. The meditating gesture is a gesture of

peace. The hand is not just empty, but Buddha carries a

begging bowl. Originally that is to beg food. Now we are

changing it to something unique: a bowl filled by nectar.

When you say nectar, what are you talking about? There are

three nectars in Buddha’s begging bowl.

Na wa me pa - men kyi dü tsi

Chi wa me pa – tse yi dü tsi

Sak par me pa – ye she kyi dü tsi

To overcome disease and illness – the nectar of

medicine

To overcome untimely death, etc – the nectar of life

To overcome contamination – the uncontaminated

wisdom nectar

So at the appropriate time the appropriate meditation can be

done. You don’t have to fit all three different nectars every

time into the one bowl. That doesn’t look good. If you are

very capable, sometimes in Europe they give you a soup that

is in one bowl and you do have green peppers, red and

yellow peppers. That is capsicum for the British. They roast

them and make them into soup, yet they remain separate and

won’t merge until you put your spoon in and start taking it.

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Until they remain. Unless you can do that you can have all

three nectars. But otherwise you don’t have to push all three

different nectars into one bowl simultaneously.

If you are working for longevity, the nectar can be longevity

nectar. If you are working for healing, the nectar can be

medicinal nectar. If you are really working on getting rid of

contaminations then it is uncontaminated wisdom nectar.

Sometimes it corresponds with whatever purpose you are

emphasizing, along with your object of refuge, whatever they

are carrying. Sometimes the hand implements have different

gestures. In Buddha’s case, these three can be adjusted to

whatever we want. In short, that is the nectar-filled begging

bowl in the left hand.

Buddha is wearing three different saffron robes, with all 80

minor and 32 major signs of enlightenment. He is light

natured. You have imagined and created this. You don’t

mentally create a Buddha that is made out of metal or clay or

wood or stone or mud. Mentally you create a light natured

Buddha, translucent. So he is radiating light from his body.

He is sitting in the midst of that. Very often in some of the

Chinese centers you see where they have electric light

generating out of the Buddha statues. Whether it is electric or

not, in your mind your own generation of light comes from

the body of the Buddha, illuminating and shining through the

body. I don’t know whether you have to polish it or not.

Sometimes when you want your shoes to shine you have to

polish them. If you are a bald-headed person you can polish

your head by putting on a lotion and rubbing it with a piece

of cloth. So, then the Buddha sits cross-legged. This is of

course culture, but it has become Buddhist culture, not just

Chinese or Indian culture. That will be the real object of your

practice.

BUDDHA, DHARMA AND SANGHA

Then, that Buddha you have generated, in reality, is your

own root master in the form of Buddha. Actually it is

Buddha, it is your own masters and root master, altogether.

He is surrounded by the direct and indirect lineage masters,

then yidams, buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis and

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dharmapalas. All space is filled up completely. That is part of

the Buddha. Then each one of them, like the lineage masters

or yidams, have their own work represented in book form.

For me, it is my culture to have the traditional Tibetan folio

style books. In early Indian culture it was also folios. The old

Indian texts, Hindu – or Buddhist, were written on palm

leaves and so forth and then filed together, like we keep the

Tibetan folios together. That was the earlier culture. Later, it

was put on paper, which was first very thick paper and later

became lighter and lighter. Now it is electronic. As I told you

earlier, the culture moves and we all move together.

I have a little I pad here. It’s amazing. In it I have hundreds

of volumes. Earlier we used to carry huge volumes around

with us. Luggage became huge whenever you traveled. Now

it’s one little i- pad. I have 38 gigabytes on that i-pad. That

many books would fill 6 or 7 suitcases. You may have

difficulty giving all those people up there [in the refuge field]

with all their books in folio style, so it might be easier to

hand them each an i-pad or an Android or a Samsung Galaxy

or whatever. If you don’t like Apple, give them a Samsung. I

am just joking. Anyway, their speech, their teachings are the

true representations of dharma. The figures you have are

Buddha and the dharma is their spiritual development. Their

spiritual development we can only see and understand

through their expression, which is the art of their

presentation. Some poets may write poetry, some artists may

draw and musicians make it into musical form and scholars

may write a book. Whatever they do is the expression of their

internal understanding and development, which is true

dharma, and true dharma is the true antidote of our

negativity. Buddha is like a doctor who sees you and who

gives you the diagnosis and prognosis, plus the prescribed

medicine.

Dharma is the real medicine, the pill, surgery or treatment

you take, which will directly work against our own

negativities. That is the dharma.

Then the sangha is the one who will help us to move forward

with our goal and purpose. This is how we have Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha. Bodhisattvas are the sangha of

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Mahayana. Dakas and dakinis are the sangha of vajrayana.

The arhats are the sangha of the Theravada tradition. That

doesn’t mean that Mahayana and vajryana don’t accept

arhats. They not only accept them, but appreciate them with

highest respect. Bodhisattvas as well as dakas and dakinis are

sangha too. They all come in with the sangha. That includes

the dharmapalas.

APPRECIATING AND SEEKING THE QUALITIES OF THE

REFUGE FIELD

Everybody in the whole field you have generated is very

happy with us and we ourselves are also extremely grateful

to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That’s because we see

and admire their qualities. We appreciate and seek their

qualities. That’s why we remember their kindness. We also

develop faith – faith of happy expression, of seeking their

qualities and a faith that is associated with total trust. Each

one of these three types of faith are developed by us with

reasonable reasons and values, not because you should have

faith and then say, “Okay, then I will have faith”. That won’t

do. That is rather naïve stupidity. That sort of faith will

mislead people.

If you look in the west there are so many problems created

by faith. You all know. The story of Jim Jones, Heaven’s

Gate and similar horrifying stories we have seen one after

another, constantly. Even David Koresh and all of those have

come, not because of intelligent faith, but because of a

simple belief system. They say that if you don’t believe it

you will go to hell. What does that mean? Nothing. That is a

very different way to develop faith than what Buddha

recommended. Buddha recommended faith very strongly.

Not only that, he says that faith is like a mother who gives

birth to a child. No matter how very efficient the father may

be, the father won’t give birth to a child. It has to be a

mother. No matter how much intelligence, how much

compassion you may have, it is not the mother who gives

birth. Faith is what gives you the birth of your spiritual

home.

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But that is not naïve faith. It is not stupid faith, but intelligent

faith. That is the difference between the followers of the

Buddha and some others who say that “faith is faith, you

should believe it and if you don’t you go to hell.”

When I first got into America in 1966-88, I had nice visitors.

I was not busy and was doing nothing right? They were the

Jehovah Witnesses. They were very nice people, honestly.

They told me, “You have to have faith in God.” I said, “Fine,

yeah, yeah. But what is God? Who is God?” Then they said,

“You know who is God!” Then I said, “No, I don’t. That’s

why I am asking.” Then they said, “We will let you know

within a couple of days.” Then they came back and said,

“God is something very superior, way beyond us”. They

gave me some funny expressions.

That reminds me of an old Tibetan story. There was a very

famous historical figure in Tibet, the governor of Eastern

Tibet, Kham. He was stationed in a place called Chamdong.

He was a monk official, basically someone with zero

knowledge of Buddha-dharma. He was famous, because he

was a fighter who never surrendered, in stupid, old style

fighting, where you fight till you die. He was that sort of guy.

He began to deal with anti-social elements through

negotiations, which was unbelievable, but that guy did it.

There was a group of robbers and their leader was quite well

known. He came to visit him and the governor welcomed the

robber leader. Then they started sharing food and mixed the

Tibetan barley flour with butter tea. The robber asked him,

“Where are the Lama-Buddha-Yidams-Bodhisattvas these

days and how are they?” The robber had no idea. He just

knew that the objects of refuge were something great. He

thought they were somewhere in Central Tibet. The governor

didn’t really know what he was talking about. His excuse

was that he was rolling the dough around and started eating

one, so he had something to chew for a little while. He was

buying time. After a little while he said, “All of them are

staying in the invisible glass house in the space with shining

lights.”

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That reminded me when talking about what is God and

where is God. While you are remembering the qualities of

kindness and compassion of the objects of refuge, now you

have to make up your mind to begin to engage in practice.

While I am looking at me, while I am looking at my friends,

my dear and near ones, what I do see all the time is that we

have suffered tremendously, under the general conditions of

samsara, especially the threats of lower realms, such as hells,

hungry ghost and animal realms. Yet, we have no immunity,

nothing solid that we can say, “I don’t have to be afraid

anymore”. We don’t have that. You can make up your mind

and say, “I refuse to accept that”, but that will be a stupid

statement. Solidly, we have nothing, honestly. We are all in

that boat. Why? Somehow we didn’t get it done, whatever

the reason may be. Many times the conditions have not been

right. Many times, the conditions were right, but I was not

ready. Many times I was ready, but there were no appropriate

conditions. But today it seems that conditions are better.

Why? I have such a precious life, which is very difficult to

find, according to the Buddha. If you find that once and if

you don’t waste it, it will be very helpful.

Such a precious human life we have found. At this moment

the capability of our life is such that if we can fulfill our

desire to overcome the difficulties and possibilities of falling

into the lower realms or even human realms with a lot of

suffering. We can completely be free of those and attain the

stage of the lama, the stage of the Buddha. I most obtain that

now. If not, then the same old thing will continue for eons,

life after life. The possibility of help, of protecting myself

from these sufferings are within Buddha, Dharma and

Sangha, who are right in front of me. With total dedication

and total trust I now take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and

Sangha.

GENUINELY TAKING REFUGE

Whether you say the words or chant or not, you need that

total trust, relying on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, as well

as to follow Buddha’s most important recommendation of

generating bodhimind. Then also the Four Immeasurables.

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For all of these you can either say the words and think the

meaning or without saying the words think about it. Total

trust, total devotion, total intelligent faith is what is really

needed.

Intelligent faith is not a faith that doesn’t ask questions. It is

a mind that asks a lot of questions. These will be answered

by reasonably acceptable intelligent answers, not just

answers that are brought to the level of a person who has

nothing to say, but intelligent answers that convince you.

Sometimes you have a dialectic debate where the purpose is

to keep the other person mum, but that’s not the point. The

point is to convince yourself so that your mind will not come

out in the middle of nowhere and say, “Wait a minute, what

have I been doing here?” So ask the questions early. Think

about it and answer them. Sometimes it will be satisfactory,

sometimes it will not. Why? Because of our human mental

level. Even if you don’t get the answers today, hopefully they

will come tomorrow. Sometimes answers are not there

because of our negativities. Therefore we need some

purification. Purification, accumulation of merit, intelligent

thinking – all three together makes the individual move

forward with the subject.

The point really is: answer your question, by yourself, for

your satisfaction and when you have that then you won’t

have doubts or something that will rob you later. That is the

important point.

So we have taking refuge, generating bodhimind and the

Four Immeasurables, plus especially – underline that – the

thought that “I would like to become a Buddha as quickly as

possible.” The traditional teachings say “quickly, quickly” –

so they say it twice. For that reason, in order to materialize

that, I am now going to practice the profound practice of

Lama Yoga or Guru Yoga. Through the guru yoga I would

like to practice the stages to Buddhahood. These stages are

actually a roadmap that guides you and leads you to the

Buddha level.

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What does a map do? What does the GPS do? They tell us to

turn right or left, do this or that and finally you arrive.

Whether you go straight or around, sooner or later you reach

the destination you wanted. Some GPS will take you straight

and some will get you to circle around. Whatever they do,

they make sure you don’t get lost completely and you get

there.

Likewise, this lam rim serves the purpose of a road map,

leading you to the goal. The roadmap so far shows us how

ordinary we are, what we don’t have. It also shows us where

we want to go. It shows us the first step, the refuge,

generating bodhimind and Four Immeasurables.

I am not explaining the generation of bodhimind in detail.

Basically you have all heard it before and the actual

generation of bodhimind will come later in this teaching.

Then the Four Immeasurables you know, which is wishing

all beings to be free from suffering. How wonderful, if I can

make them free from suffering and its causes. I would like to

do that. I may be blessed to be able to do that. So you circle

each of the Four Immeasurables three or four time. How

wonderful it would be. I want to do it, may I blessed to do

that. All beings may be free from suffering and its causes.

How wonderful it would be. I will make it happen. I may be

blessed to be able to do that. That way each of the Four

Immeasurables will become deeper and deeper. Wishing

them to be free is one thing. Thinking, “How wonderful if

this were to happen” is deeper. “I would like to do it” and “I

may be blessed to be able to do it” becomes even much

deeper.

Simply saying the words is one thing. Thinking and wishing

that is another thing, making it even more serious is

something else, and seeking blessings to be able to function

that way makes it much stronger. So each of the Four

Immeasurables can be circled around 3 times to make it

deeper and deeper.

In order to bring all living beings to the stage of the Buddha

quickly quickly I would like to practice these stages of

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development. You can say that three times or 21 times or

seven times. You may repeat these words until they put some

sense into our own mind.

If you totally disconnect the words you say and the things

you think then that’s not that great. Then, between the

practice and the individual you can run a horse cart. Thinking

is somewhere else and the words you say are just by mouth

and in between whole horse cavalries can run. That’s a big

gap. This is nothing but cheating yourself. Many times we do

that, especially if you have too many commitments. These

have to be said and then you go blab la bla and you may not

be thinking anything. You may be busy going to the toilet,

washing or cooking, but your mouth is saying the words.

That’s totally disconnected. While that will not break your

commitment and you don’t have a downfall of breaking your

commitment, your practice is of such a low quality that there

is no value in it. So even if you do it very short you have to

make it so that you mean what you say. Do something that

you think, otherwise, doing is something other than what you

are saying and that is our problem.

Particularly for those of us who have the vajrayana

commitments of saying sadhanas. That becomes a unique

problem that others don’t have. It is great that we have so

many things to say, but not so great if we are so

disconnected. Whatever little you say should be connected.

Even if you can’t connect the whole thing, at least you

should connect at the beginning, in the middle and at the end.

Otherwise, the words come automatic and all of a sudden

you think, “How did I reach here?” You have no idea how

you came to the end of the practice. When you began you

started with praise and by the time you realize where you are,

you are at the auspicious prayers at the end! Then you think,

“How did I get here? Anyway, now I am finished.” That is

not that great. At least connect, if possible all the time, but at

least 3 times or more, but at a minimum 3 times. Honestly.

This happens. It is a disadvantage. The advantage is that we

have so many things to say and do. The disadvantage is that

the words are going somewhere and the mind is going

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somewhere else and there is a huge cavalry of horses running

in between the mind and the dharma. Then you get nothing.

A QUICK REVIEW OF THE 7 LIMBS

We should have talked about the 7 limbs earlier but we

didn’t, nor is it part of the de lam, but it is a prerequisite of it.

The 7 limbs come after the invocation and starts with making

prostrations, which really means admiring their qualities and

expressing our admiration and gratefulness, then also seeking

their qualities. Then comes making offerings. They are

actually arranged and mentally created. They fill up the space

between ourselves and the objects of refuge. There are all

kinds of offerings.

Then comes purification of our wrong deeds, through mind,

speech and body. I am not dealing here with the details of

whether we can purify, whether it is possible. We do purify.

If you cannot purify Buddha wouldn’t tell us to do this. So

we can. We may think, “If I have killed somebody I cannot

bring that person back. So how can I purify?” You don’t

have to bring the person back necessarily. But your

negativity can be totally eradicated and if that’s not possible,

at least reduced and even postpone the consequences.

Purification can do that.

Next, the best method to build positive merit is through

rejoicing, rather than through getting jealous or threatened.

Then we make requests to the enlightened to remain and

requests for teachings and then dedication. These are the 7

limbs or branches, the 7 most important activities of

contemplation. Actually, when you talk about puja or

service, that’s what this does. I am talking to you very

briefly. The Jewel Heart prayer has just one line for each of

these subjects. It is the briefest of all. If you make that in

detail it becomes huge. You have seen it. There are many

lam rim books. There is Pabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm

of your Hands and if you look at the 7 limbs, there are

probably a hundred pages just on that. And this is not even

that detailed. Look in the lam rim chen mo. There is even

much more. If you look at others, there are many, such as the

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King of Prayers. There are many, no matter in which

tradition you look. It’s all there.

DELAM – OUTLINE AND REVIEW

It is the dharma system of the Mahayana. It also is the

essence practice of the great Atisha and Jamgön Lama

Tsongkhapa. It is all the different scopes, which includes all

the necessary practices. That is the lam rim teaching. That

has pre – actual and conclusion.

These, as you know, have the outlines of the root of all

development, guru devotional practice and the development

of the individual thereafter. As we mentioned earlier, the root

of all development has three - beginning, actual and

conclusion.

We were talking about the prerequisites. Basically we talked

about the 6 preliminaries, including sitting and posture and

requirements of the area, etc. We briefly did that. Most

importantly, we went into the mental activities. First and

foremost we have to make sure that our mind is not occupied

by negativities or negative emotions. If possible, there should

be a very positive, virtuous thought of bodhimind. At least

one should have virtuous thoughts. Within that nothing

changes. That always remains the thing to do by the

individual every day.

Then we visualize the field of merit. It is in the space before

us. There is a big, open, spacious lion throne and above that,

the multi-colored lotus, the moon – and sun cushions. They

represent renunciation of samsara, ultimate, unlimited,

unconditional love and compassion, which is bodhimind, and

then wisdom, the understanding of true reality through

dependent origination. These three are the three most

important tools that the individual has to improve

themselves.

The field of merit is your mental altar. In your own mind it is

that object to whom you take refuge, on the basis of whom

you accumulate merit, on the basis of whom you purify your

negativities. That’s why we call it “Field of Merit”. The

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farmers utilize the ground as field to grow food. Likewise,

spiritual practitioners use the ground-like base on which they

do their spiritual activities. The crop you grow there, instead

of maize, rice, corn or barley, is the merit. That is almost the

same as positive virtue or good karma.

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II

THE LAM RIM FIELD OF MERIT

REFUGE FIELD OF MERIT

In reality you are using your own master here. When I say

“in reality”, what does that mean? It really means in the

deepest aspect of personality it is your own spiritual master.

He is inseparable from Buddha and all gurus and from all

yidams. That is the collection of all of them. But physically

he looks like Buddha, in the usual physical form, golden

yellow, with all the special looks of Buddha. That makes us

feel that this is Buddha. Culture influences human beings. In

Thailand, all the Buddha images have this very tall, pin-

pointed ushnisha above their head. Then when you look at

the northern countries, like China, Tibet, Mongolia and even

India, that ushnisha is not pin-pointed and sharp, but like a

little lump. When people who are accustomed to the

pinpointed sharp ushnisha see one with a little lump, they

will think, “That Buddha is not exactly right.” When people

are used to the flat lump and see the tall, pinpointed thing

they will also think there is something wrong. We now know

that one is Thai-style, another is northern Indian style or

Chinese style but if you are not familiar with the different

styles you will think there is something wrong.

To avoid being uncomfortable, you can go with whatever

you are used to and utilize that as your object of imagination.

This is not like the imaginative friend some kids have and

who comes and talks to them. Actually, as long as it serves

the purpose that is fine. We may like to dismiss the kids’

imaginative friend, saying that in reality that’s not there. But

we don’t know that yet. Again, our culture tells us to dismiss

this as kids’ confusion. We tell them, “When you grow up

you will know it’s not there.” That is our reason to say it is

not there. But truly speaking, at the kid’s level, that friend

may be there. At that age the custom and understanding of

life is not actually built solidly, so therefore they may be able

to see somebody and somebody may talk to them.

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Similarly, when we become older sometimes we do get that.

When you get that we call them visions, because these are

elder, respectable people. But when kids see them we say

“imaginative friend”. That’s how we dismiss it.

But everything is in emptiness nature. Circumstances and

conditions make things right or wrong and things happen.

Therefore here also, your imagination and your building up

and the ritual, plus your karma and the power of Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha, plus the power of the truth, all

combined together, makes something happen. You cannot

dismiss it as nothing happening. Something is happening,

because it is the reality. Honestly.

Ka la mö pa tso kye wa - de yi dün do thub par sho –

wherever you have strong devotion and faith to Buddha,

Buddha is there, wherever it is, it doesn’t matter. It can be in

the middle of a slum, hell realm or paradise. That’s because

of the truth of reality, the truth of interdependent nature and

the truth of our devotion and the commitment of the

enlightened beings. When all of that is put together

something happens. Then utilize that as best, convenient and

best possible. That’s why we use Buddha as best

identification to see the object of refuge. In reality it may be

your root master, no doubt about it, plus all gurus, all

yidams, all buddhas and all of them. The physical identity

they carry is in this case Buddha.

You think it is right in front of you in space before you. It is

there. Normally, we say this is while you are sitting and

meditating, but let’s say you get up and walk around. Then

your object of refuge will travel with you wherever you go, it

does travel with you. Otherwise, the objects of refuge would

be powerless, just an image. An image doesn’t travel. You

have to carry it around. I got a Buddha image and I asked

Lagön Rinpoche to bring it from Nepal and he carried it

around. If he didn’t carry it, it wouldn’t be here. That’s

because it is an image. But you don’t carry the actual Buddha

around. Buddha has the power to go, right? So your object of

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refuge, whoever and whatever it may be, has the power and

capability to travel. So it is not just imagination. It is reality.

You have to be a little more careful at the beginning.

Otherwise you get a lot of doubt and inquisitive thoughts that

interrupt you quite badly. It is going to take years to be able

to materialize, but it is not impossible. It is not that it is not

happening these days. The object of refuge does become

reality. It appears an actual being and talks to you. You can

ask questions and they engage with you in conversation and

even guide you and help you. This is happening even today

with some people in Jewel Heart. It becomes reality to them.

That object of refuge talks to them. It really becomes an

actual conversation. Not only that, sometimes it merges

together as one person, sometimes it is separation. I am

sharing that with you after years of observation and it is still

happening. The person must be a very good person. Some

people who are with that person say, “Why not me? Why

him?” But then you see the personality of the individual who

says, “Why not me?” and that is a different personality than

the person who sees. So it does happen. It is not just

something that happened in history a thousand years ago in

the mountains of Tibet or the forests of China or India. We

may think that but it is not. It is really happening today, in

the midst of New York City. That’s what’s happening. That

is the reality.

In the beginning you have to be careful. Whatever your mind

is able to comprehend, that much appearance seems to be

appearing. Whatever identity you are giving here, it is the

pure Buddha who is comfortable with you. If you are very

used to the Buddha with a flat ushnisha and then you see the

sharp ushnisha as in Thailand and then you really have a

vision you may think, “What’s going on? Did I see a Thai

movie or something or a Thai tourist advertisement?” You

may begin to think that way. So whatever is comfortable to

you to visualize, that’s what you should do. And remember it

is light nature. It is not a physical body like ours and then

when it sits on your head it is so heavy you can’t lift your

head. It is not in that way. It is light nature, luminous. It is

surrounded by the direct and indirect lineage master,

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buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakas and dakinis, and dharmapalas.

Along with is their own spiritual development represented by

their products. That is, whatever they taught and presented,

through art, through teachings, through poetry or whatever

means and expression of their experience and development.

That is true dharma. And the field of merit is very happy

with you. You remember their kindness and quality and you

are very grateful. It clicks with each other. There is me as

one individual here and my field of merit is the other one and

we click completely. This is how you generate a basic field

of merit.

WHY WE TAKE REFUGE

Then, remember their qualities and remember your situation.

Think, “I and all mother sentient beings, from the limitless

beginning till today, have suffered tremendously, generally

in samsara and particularly in the lower realms.” The threat

of falling into the lower realms is there. Today we try to

avoid talking about that threat, because of our education, our

understanding, our own mental capacity. We reject that

threat. But a number of people still do carry the threat. Right

or wrong, that’s a different story. Today we say that carrying

that threat is wrong. May be. Many say that it is wrong

because there is nothing. The true reason why they reject it is

because they think there is no such thing. We are denying the

hell realms, hungry ghost realms and maybe also animal

realm and we are denying reincarnation. I am not saying that

is wrong. But all of you are educated and intelligent. Think

about it. Indirectly we are not only denying it, but also the

experiences of all the earlier teachers of all traditions, Hindu-

Buddhist, Judeo-Christian and all of those who talk about

hell realms. So are they all lying?

Our modern education has a lot of advantages, but there are

also funny things. We say, “That’s just their style or

tradition.” We can leave it as “their tradition” and feel it has

nothing to do with us. We do that. If you trace the mind of

denying, it is simply ignoring reality. That is me. That’s not

the Tibetan Buddhist view. Denying everything is a little

difficult. Do I have to be frightened with fear and paralyze

myself to be unable to do anything? No. That’s a silly act.

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Absolutely silly. But what do you do? Think there is a

possibility that it may happen. Buddha said it can happen.

Almost all spiritual teachers known in the world say it. Jesus

says it can and everybody says it. Who am I to say that no, it

is not right? I am nobody. So we cannot just deny. But we

also don’t want to be paralyzed by fear. Some fears are

necessary. If you think nothing is going to happen and you

walk fearlessly into downtown Detroit, chances are that

somebody will shoot you or hit you in the head and rob you.

Then it is too late. So fear will help us to take precaution.

Besides, Buddha says that the reason to take refuge in

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is because we need help. Why

do we need help? Because there is the possibility of falling

into the lower realms. There is the possibility to take rebirth

tomorrow morning in a hell realm or hungry ghost realm or

become a little, cute baby piglet. All these are possibilities.

That’s why we take refuge. Today we don’t have the

capability of switching it around. Each one of us has to think

that way. Can I make sure that I won’t be a piglet tomorrow

morning so that somebody may not be eat me as a suckling

pig? Do I have a guarantee that this will not happen? No, I

don’t. So who has it? So we have to take refuge in Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha to make sure that doesn’t happen

tomorrow morning. So sometimes those fears are necessary.

Generally we don’t like any fear. We don’t want it. But

denying the possibility does not make that possibility

disappear. Saying that there is no such thing as this is not

reality either. The reality is that it could happen. So I want to

take precautions that it will not happen. That is fair and

reasonable. It is not against scientific education. It is not. It is

the reality. So I don’t want to fall into the lower realms, nor

do I want my friends, relations, family and everyone else

having anything to do with me, none of us, to fall into the

lower realms. This “us” can be huge. How many beings are

known to me and connected to me? Sometimes I had dealing

with them, sometimes my life depended on them, and

sometimes they depended on me for their life. For none of

these people related to me in this way, do I want something

bad to happen to them. I would like to liberate all of them

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from suffering, particularly this type of suffering, but also

any suffering of samsara in general. I would like to deliver

them to total freedom. I myself must obtain total freedom

and enlightenment, otherwise how can I bring them to that

state? Therefore I must become a fully enlightened Buddha

to help and liberate them. I take responsibility of liberating

all of them. For this I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and

Sangha. For this I generate bodhimind and for this I wish and

practice and commit to the Four Immeasurables.

PRACTICE SESSION: ACTUAL MEDITATION

THE LAM RIM FIELD OF MERIT

Up to here is the Field of Merit of Refuge or the Refuge

Field of Merit. I have to make sure that you understand this

clearly, otherwise all fields of merit become one field of

merit and that will be a problem. This is called refuge field of

merit and it is Buddha surrounded by direct – and lineage

masters, buddhas, bodhisattvas and everybody.

Either you forget it’s there now or you can dissolve that to

you. It doesn’t matter, but according to the de lam there is no

dissolving here. Certain other teachings tell you to dissolve

the refuge field to you, because then you take refuge in

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Your wishes are successfully

granted and then the surrounding ones dissolve to the

Buddha and then Buddha dissolves to you. That you can do.

If you do that it will be clear-cut, otherwise it will be mixed –

although the direct words of the de lam don’t tell you that.

The Field of Merit is so important. Earlier we had the refuge

field and now we generate the actual lam rim field of merit.

As one has dissolved to you, now you generate a field of

merit again. It’s the same throne, the same space, same lotus,

same moon – and sun cushions. And also on top appears, in

reality, your own root master, and the physical appearance is

again Buddha, sitting cross-legged. Up to here it is the same

thing. The choice is yours. Either you dissolve the earlier

field and generate a new one or you keep the field of merit

generated earlier and then add up whatever the new things

you are supposed to add up. So do whatever is easier.

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For some people it is easier to dissolve and for some it is

easier to keep the old one and then add up. Adding up is a

new thing. You are not going to add up a Lama Buddha on

top of another Lama Buddha. You keep the lama in Buddha

form as field of merit.

Above the head of the Buddha, slightly at the back but

higher, is the guru group of masters, with Buddha

Vajradhara, who is surrounded by the lineage masters of the

siddha level, known as nyam len jin lab gyü. That has

Buddha Vajradhara, Tilo, Naro, Marpa, Mila, Dhombipa and

all that lineage. On the right hand side, another group:

Maitreya Buddha surrounded by the lineage masters of

compassion/love. If you start looking at our lineage prayer

you will see some verses that relate to that.

The first is referring to your root master:

PAL DAN TZA WAI LA MA RIN PO CHE

DAG GI CHI WOR PÄ DÄ TING ZHUG LA

KA DRIN CHEN PO GO NÄ JE ZUNG TE

KU SUNG TUG KYI NGÖ DRUP TZAL DU SOL

The words pal den tsa wai lama means the ”Oh, great

glorious root master, come take your lotus seat on my crown,

keeping me safe in your great kindness, bestow on me the

powerful attainments of body, speech and mind”.

So your focus is Buddha Vajradhara up there, surrounded by

all the great adepts or siddhas. Then the next is:

PHÜN TSOK GELEK JE WAI TRUN PÄ KU

THA YEI DRO WAI REI WA KONG WAI SUNG

MA LÜ SHEI JA JEI ZHIN SIG PAI THUG

THUB WANG DORJE CHANG LA SOL WA DEB

We refer to that as Thubwang Dorje Chang, rather than

Shakyamuni. But Thubwang refers to Buddha and Dorje

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Chang is Buddha Vajradhara. Again, the principal

inseparable from Buddha and Buddha Vajradhara in the top

circle and the master are all inseparable. We are making

supplication to that.

GYA CHEN CHÖ PEI GYÜ LA SOL WA DEB

ZAB MO TA WEI GYÜ LA SOL WA DEB

NYAM LEN JIN LAB GYÜ LA SOL WA DEB

GYÜ PEI LA MA NAM LA SOL WA DEB

The first line gya chen chö pei gyü la sol wa deb refers to

Maitreya Buddha and the compassion lineage teachers at the

right hand circle. He is the Buddha of Love.

It is almost the same as Avalokitesvara, there is not so much

separation anyway. So the Buddha of Love is surrounded by

all the lineage of compassion and love. The second line zab

mo ta wei gyü la sol wa deb is the profound wisdom lineage,

with Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, in the center.

Surrounding him are Nagarjuna and others of the profound

wisdom lineage. The third line nyam len jin lab gyü la sol wa

deb is your own root master surrounded by the practice

lineage, which are all other teachers from whom you have

taken teachings. That is this circle. That can be from any

tradition, it doesn’t have to be restricted to any sect. It is

whosoever you have taken teachings from and you consider

them as one of the teachers from whom you have taken direct

teachings. If you are missing someone it blocks your

development.

There was a great Tibetan teacher. I am not sure if it was

Purchok Nawang Jampa or one of the earlier teachers. He

was doing this meditation for so long, but nothing happened.

No development was coming at all. Then his teacher was

reviewing his practice with him to find out what went wrong.

They could find nothing wrong until they started going

through the list of masters from whom he had taken

teachings. That was also correct, no one was missing. His

teacher said, “Are you sure you are not missing anybody?”

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He said, “Nobody is missing, except that I learnt the alphabet

from So and So, but he is not really a respectable person. He

looks after the animals in our farm.” Then his teacher said,

“Wow, so here we have the problem. Bring this guy in as the

most important teacher in the group of your teachers, even

above the Buddha. Then do your practice.” Then, within a

very short time, the development was taking place for him.

That’s why you can’t miss anybody. No one can be left out.

That’s important. Once you have taken proper teachings,

whether that person was right or wrong, good or bad, you

have to think, “That is not my problem. But if don’t treat him

as a great teacher of mine then that will be my problem.

Whether that person is enlightened or is full of sin that is his

problem, not my problem.” This is very hard to swallow for

many of us. Luckily, personally, I never had any teacher who

was not right. Of course, I had a number of teachers who

behaved a little silly, but that is a different issue. But I never

had a teacher where I had to swallow the bullet. But some

people have to. It is important to include them in the circle of

the direct teachers.

In the Buddhist tradition, when you obtain teachings with

great sincerity it is important not to treat it like listening to a

lecture, but as obtaining a teaching. If you do that you have

to consider them as one of your teachers, right or wrong.

Even if you see their problems and notice them, you have to

leave them alone and think, “Not my problem, don’t talk

about it.” That is not hushing them down or sweeping under

the carpet, but you have to think, “That’s not my problem.”

That’s it. You don’t have to stand there and argue and defend

them or anything. Just respect, give your bow and go. Once

you have taken them as teacher, don’t accept that as fault

either. Whatever the reason why he or she is doing this, think

”There must be a reason that is beyond my comprehension

and whatever it may be, all the best to you.” That’s how we

move. This is a little tricky and difficult. So these are the

direct masters.

This is a very simple lineage, unlike the lama chöpa tree,

which is huge and even many other trees that have six, seven

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or more [layers or circles]. Actually, this also has five or six

circles and the Lama Buddha is in the middle. So this will be

your Field of Merit throughout your practice.

So if you can, all these groups don’t become separate groups

where one has nothing to do with the others. Like a family,

sometimes you sit together and sometimes you don’t. It is

just like this. The groups are interconnected, but not

necessarily sitting all in one circle. The circles are

interconnected. In other words, the right hand does know

what the left hand is doing. They are very much

interconnected. Also, they all have activities of generating

manifestations to serve all living beings. Some are going out,

some are coming in. Some have completed their work and

are returning home, some are going out to do new tasks. All

these activities are continuing.

Earlier I mentioned to you about OM AH HUM, that you

take in energy with OM, hold it with AH and with HUM

release it. They are all functioning according to the same

principles.

Activities are going out, then done deal, they are returning,

and then they remain there in oneness with the principal or

whoever manifested them. Then they re-manifest.

All the beings in the merit field also have a white letter OM

at their crown, a red letter AH at their throat and a blue letter

HUM at their heart level, and a yellow letter SO at the navel,

and a green letter HA at secret place, so these 5 different

colored letters at the 5 different points of the objects of

refuge. From the heart of Lama Buddha Vajradhara light

radiates out, invites the wisdom beings similar to what we

have meditated. They dissolve to whatever we have

imagined. Imagination has brought them to life by bringing

the wisdom beings. The wisdom beings are dissolving to

them and each object of refuge becomes all objects of refuge.

None of them are separate. Everyone is everything.

Everybody is a total object of refuge. That’s what you do.

Then when you look at the lineage prayer you have this

verse:

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GANG CHEN SHING TEI SOL JEI TSONG KHAPA

NGO TOB RIG PAI WANG CHUK GYAL TSAB JEI

DO NGAG TEN PAI DAG PO KHAI DRUBJE

YAB SAI GYU PAR CHAI LA SOL WA DEB

Now we come to Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, because I

follow his Gelug tradition and that’s why in this verse we

have Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, followed by his two

disciples and all the other lineage since then. So from

Buddha to Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa we have the

love/compassion lineage, the wisdom lineage, combined

together in Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa and all the lineage

after him. If you read the traditional lam rim lineage there are

a number of guys up there. I thought that would not be so

relevant to us to read all their names, like Tashi this and

Lobsang that, Dondrup this and all of those Tibetan names.

That doesn’t mean much to us and also it takes a tremendous

amount of time to say all of those and we have a limited

amount of time.

Yab se gyü par…in the last line means the father, the sons

and continuing…which means the teacher, his disciples and

then their disciples and so on, which contains all the lineage

completely.

Then the lineage reaches to:

TUB PEI TEN LA TUP WANG NYI PA ZHIN

LUNG TOK TAM CHO DZIN LA DA TREL WA

NAM PAR GYEL WEI TRIN LAI SA SUM LA

WANG GYUR JE TSUN LA MAR SOL WA DEB

That is Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, from whom I received this

teaching the first time. After that the verses include Kyabje

Trijang Rinpoche and HH Dalai Lama, but when you go the

direct lineage you don’t have to say that. So then finally it

goes to:

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RAM JAB SUNG RAB KUN LA TA WA MIG

KEL SANG TAR PAR DO PAI JUG BGAG CHOK

TSEI WEI CHO PAR TAB KHAI ZAI PA YI

SEL ZAI SHEI NYEN NAM LA SOL WA DEB

That is to all teachers and then the last verse is dedication:

KYEI WA KUN TU YANG DAK LAM MA DANG

DREL MEI CHO KYI PEL LA LONG CHO CHING

SA DANG LAM GYI YON TEN RAB DZOK NEI

DORJE CHANG GI GO PANG NYUR TOP SHOK

So that is the lineage prayer and the visualization of the

lineage. They work together. I don’t know if it fits like a

glove fits your hand or not, but you get the idea and it is for

you to fit it in. If you try to fit everything completely it is

going to take a little time. So read it, think about it, meditate,

visualize, ask questions and then you may be able to do

something.

SEVEN LIMBED PRAYER, MANDALA OFFERING , AND

DISSOLVING

Then comes the 7 limbed prayer. That is also very

important. I did talk about that earlier and I am not going to

over it again. In the practice the 7 limbs are repeated so

many times. Shantideva said, “Buddhas thought for eons and

concluded that the best is the limbs is the best for easy

practice to do purification and building merit and

contemplation and regenerating the Spiritual Field.” So it is

like Buddhas met for eons and drew that conclusion.

At the end of the 7 limbs you make a little mandala offering.

The word “mandala” means center. Even the yidams all have

their mandalas. It is the center of their universe. So when we

make a mandala offering like in sa zhi pö kyi jug chig me tog

tram….we offer the ground, the mountains, and so on and

that means the total universe with environment and

inhabitants. There is the 7 heap mandala, the 23 heap

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mandala, the 37 heap mandala, but they are all the same. The

shortest is the 7 heap mandala, which is the sa zhi pö kyi jug

chig me tog tram… Mandala means the whole existence, me,

my body, my wealth, my virtues of past, present and future

and the existing universe. All of that I offer to Lama Buddha

Vajradhara, the Lama who is inseparable from Buddha and

from Buddha Vajradhara.

Then the lineage circles, the teacher circle, the compassion

circle, the wisdom circle, the siddhas circle, all of them

dissolve. Traditionally, each circle dissolves to their principal

and there are 5 figures left, but you can do it easier. Maybe

you can leave the blessing lineage for later. So the wisdom

lineage dissolves, the compassion lineage dissolves, the

living teacher lineage dissolves and they all dissolve to Lama

Buddha Buddha Vajradhara. Then the siddhas lineage

dissolves to that Buddha Vajradhara. Then those who are

used to this practice can do one more circle. But for you it

will be easier to keep the Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara

as object of your practice, your Field of Merit, as protector,

guide and it is yours for 24 hours to use.

MAKING REQUESTS

Then you make a single-pointed request to this very lama

lhag pai lha. If you do the word translation this becomes

‘god’. But nobody translates it as ‘god’, because that

becomes something else in some other traditions. But it is

Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara.

So you focus on that and say

Ku zhi da nyi la ma lhag pai lha

Thubwang dorje chang la sol wa deb

You who are the nature of four kayas (dharmakaya,

sambogakaya, nirmanakaya and nature kaya). I supplicate to

you, Buddha Buddha Vajradhara.

So the lama is guru and Buddha.

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Then

Dib drel chö ku da nyi la ma la

Thubwang dorje chang la sol wa deb

You are the nature of dharmakaya, I supplicate to you…..

You are the nature of Sambogakaya, I submit my request to

you….

You are the nature of Nirmanakaya, I submit my request to

you…

Dharmakaya is the first when you become Buddha, it is the

mind level of Buddha. When you take the first exclusive

physical experience that is Sambogakaya. When you then

manifest for everybody, that is nirmanakaya. So each one is

pointed out here.

And then

Kyab ne kün tu la ma lhag pei lha

Thubwang dorje chang la sol wa deb

You are the collection of all objects of refuge,

I submit my supplication to you, Thubwang Dorje Chang

You are all the yidams, whatever yidam you are

practicing, like Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara,

Vajrayogini, Avalokitesvara, Tara or any other

yidam, like Hevajra, Kalachakra. You are the

collection of all the yidams and I submit my

supplication to you.

Sang gye kun tu la ma lhag pail ha…..You are the

collection of all buddhas, Lama Shakyamuni,

Medicine Buddha, Maitreya, Amithaba, and all

buddhas. I submit my supplication to you.

Dam chö kun tu la ma lhag pail ha….You are all

dharma, I submit my supplication to you. You are the

collection of all sangha and I submit my supplication

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to you. Then you are the collection of all

dharmapalas and I submit my supplication to you.

The last one is very important. We as usual practitioners can

do all of those, but in a teaching I have to do. But usually we

think

Kyab ne kün tu la ma lhag pei lha

Thubwang dorje chang la sol wa deb

You are the collection of all objects of refuge

I submit my supplication to you, Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara.

So to review what we have done, we are visualizing the Field

of Merit right in front of us. There is Lama Buddha Buddha

Vajradhara, in reality your own root guru or master, in the

form of Buddha Shakyamuni, inseparable from Buddha

Vajradhara. He is the collection of all lamas, yidams,

buddhas, dharmas, sanghas, dakas and dakinis and

dharmapalas. In short, it is the total collection of total refuge.

By making these strong requests, not only to be my witness,

but to be my guide, my teacher, my master, then I observe

that I or most of us, including me, for a long time have

suffered a lot. Why? There are a number of reasons. You

know why. However, at this moment we are focusing on the

guru devotional practice. In the outline it says that guru

devotional practice is the basis of all development. After

developing that comes how to develop the path.

So we are looking at this level at this moment: the basis of all

development, guru devotional practice. Until now I did not

have a perfect opportunity that really clicks me along with

enlightened beings, because my relationship, my connection

to my guru devotional practice has not been strong enough,

particularly the relationship of thoughts and actions. When

you talk about the relationship between the guru and myself

we are talking about two, three different points, particularly

mentioned are two: the mental relation and the action –

relationship. These have not been perfect for me. That’s why

I do have these problems. So I seek the blessings of Lama

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Lhag pai Lha, the special lama who is also Buddha and

Buddha Vajradhara. I see your blessing to have a strong guru

devotional foundation with me. So I make very strong

requests.

RECEIVING BLESSINGS

While doing that, light and liquid are coming to me. This

means that the object of refuge starts generating light that

reaches to me, to us. Also, through the light, which is like a

media through whichand within it, there is liquid nectar that

reaches to me and washes away all negativities. Actually if

you are wondering what type of light it is, it is a five colored

rainbow type of light: white for pacifying, yellow for

prosperity, red for power, dark-blue for wrathfulness.

Combined together it is becomes a rainbow type of light. It

comes from the guru and reaches me and the nectar flows

through, washes all my negativities in general and

particularly those of having a wrong relationship between my

guru and me, and praying that I may be able to have a perfect

mental and action relationship, and whatever the obstacles,

they are washed away by that nectar. I develop the capability

to have such a great mental and action relationship. It also

purifies my body. My physical body becomes like crystal, a

clean,clear physical body. My longevity, my fortune, my

luck, my knowledge, spiritual qualities and development all

increase tremendously. Especially, the capability of

developing the mental and action relationship between me

and my master completely develops. I qualify and am fit for

all of them.

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III

GURU DEVOTION

ACTUAL GURU DEVOTIONAL PRACTICE THROUGH

PROFOUND FAITH, REMEMBERING THE KINDNESS AND

BUILDING RESPECT

Thus we have completed the prerequisite or beginning level

of guru devotional practice. Now from this level we move

into the actual guru devotional practice. Here you have to

look at the two most important outlines. One: the root of all

development, developing profound faith. Two: remembering

his kindness and building respect.

The first is the actual guru devotional practice. The Lama

Lhag pai Lha on your crown in the Buddha’s form starts

generating – you have to think and visualize this and spend

time to get your mind used to it. Otherwise we will be just

simply talking. You will think, “Oh yeah, he said something

like that” and that will reach nowhere. Until now, most of us,

whatever we have done, our dharma practice is more or less

just words and reading. If it remains as reading sutras or

chanting mantras or saying some prayers, that’s fine but it is

not going to make that much difference to our life. On the

other hand, what is most important? This practice has to

affect us. We need to develop ourselves. In order to do that

we have to do something. If we don’t do it, it is just

knowledge. Then you can ponder the knowledge and wonder

whether the total calculation tallies or not. That is not going

to get you very far. It gets you somewhere, but not that

much.

The way we talk “that’s not going to get you anywhere” may

seem like looking down. But it’s not. It is showing these

special qualities. In order to show this special quality,

sometimes the speaker is in the habit of saying, “It gets you

nowhere.” It’s not that it gets you nowhere, but it can be

much more than simply reading sutras, more than simply

praying, more than simply chanting. It is mental and physical

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action that we take. It is our mind that is actually – I don’t

want to say ‘training’, because mental training can also be

some funny thing.

MAKING A REAL IMPACT ON OUR LIFE

This world today is a tremendous world and there are all

kinds of things. For example there is this “Silva Mind

Training”. That’s all there. Also you have all kinds of

spiritual or semi-spiritual paths. There are lots of

psychological things combined together with some spiritual

thing. One has to be very careful with the words that one

uses. That’s why I hesitate to use even the word “mind

training”. Actually, it is the training of one’s individual mind,

not brain washing, not even redirecting your thoughts. The

reality is that without this we almost get nowhere. Most of us

are stuck on the path, many of us. That’s not the fault of the

dharma, it is the individual’s fault.

It is not that the dharma is not able to deliver the goods. It

does and many early great teachers got it one after another

and even today it is being delivered for people. Then, why

isn’t every one of us getting it? Because of our own way,

how our mind works and what our personal attitude is. Our

ordinary usual perceptions, the ordinariness of our life’s

reality really overpower us in so many ways. Anything

unique and special somehow doesn’t click with us. Almost

anything is like a sale and doesn’t make much immediate

impact, particularly profound dharmic things don’t make a

quick impact on the individual’s mind or attitude or

functioning. We look for some kind of sign. We always look

for the result of the development first, rather than truly

developing ourselves. We are here to improve ourselves. We

don’t look for improving ourselves. We look for ourselves

becoming special, rather than somebody else. We always

look for some very unique super power that develops with

me so that I will become superior above everybody else.

That’s what we are looking for rather than truly looking for

building ourselves. Maybe that is one of our biggest

problems, that is one of the reasons why so many of us get

stuck.

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ROOT OF ALL DEVELOPMENT: DEVELOPING PROFOUND

FAITH AND RESPECT

Here they really tell you exactly, almost like spoon-feeding.

What to do first? First we must bring this incredible faith, the

profound respect, to our master. They even chose to call this

the root of all development. A tree has roots. If the root

doesn’t take root properly you can’t expect the tree will grow

well and give lots of nice fruit. The root is not properly

established, that’s why. So the root of all development is the

guru devotional practice.

From the heart of Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara you start

generating your own teachers’ pictures for you. It is like a

slide show coming out, like a computer presentation. They

will project in the air. So you are building them up, one

above the other, one, two, three, four, five, six, however

many you have, 30 or 40. You can’t have more than that.

Some people may have a lot, but whatever the number is,

make sure no one is left out. See everyone there. Then

observe your own mind. Look at your own mind. See the

projection of that master and this master and then see your

own thoughts on that. Many of them we think, “Yeah, that

teacher is or was very short-tempered”. So we see the fault of

anger or hatred. Or we think, “That teacher is a little crazy”.

Each and every individual teacher, your own masters, you

begin to see them and see their problems. “His knowledge is

limited.”, “He is an awfully kind person, but his educational

knowledge is limited.” “He is great, but he is lacking

charisma.”. We see all kinds of faults and shortfalls.

Some people may think, “This guy was an absolute crook” or

something. All these faults will come. That is the

individual’s perception of that individual person. True or

false – it is not my business. Perceiving the faults of my

teacher is my problem, because it stands between me and my

spiritual development. So I have to clarify that. I don’t mean

that I may have to find out what is the truth at the bottom of

that. I am not talking about that. When I say “clarify” our

mind may work that way. But that’s not it. But I have to

figure out whether these problems that I see, including some

people who have eye problems, ear problems, nose problems.

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As a matter of fact, this type of lam rim teaching tells you

that even if your spiritual master is blind in one eye it is not

my business to meditate and project that. If I do, even though

it may be true, I get unnecessary negativities of developing

problems with my one eye.

From Buddha onwards, the advice is that if your teacher has

any of those physical conditions, when you meditate, you

don’t project those. You remove them. You don’t have to

hide it or anything, but don’t think about it; don’t spend time

on focusing on it. Don’t look from the fault – point of view.

Look from the quality – point of view. If we start looking

from the fault – point of view, we will see all the faults, one

after another. They will come more and more.

Our mind is such that we are so good at looking at other

peoples’ faults. We are good at seeing faults, right or wrong.

That’s why we don’t think from the faults’ point of view.

Then I have to convince myself that these masters of mine

are actually true Buddha. Why? Buddha himself said, “I will

be there to help all living beings.” So here today, it is my

time to practice, to have a path. I have a teacher and a path. I

do have a practice. So it is my time to do something today.

But if Buddha is letting me down that’s not right. Buddha

shouldn’t and will not let me down. Buddha will be there and

he is here. If Buddha did not appear as these teachers who

else could? Buddha appeared to me to help me, to guide me,

to push me. So the closest thing I can think of is these

teachers. In reality they are all here, because of Buddha

pushing them. Buddha manifested for me. This may be my

karma. I can see only that much, nothing more.

If Buddha truly appeared as Buddha to me I would be afraid

to death. I would be running out screaming. I would not be

able to take advantage of him being here. If Buddha really

appeared as Buddha today I would be behaving absolutely

crazy. For me, number one, I am too late to see Buddha as

Buddha, 2600 years too late. Two, if Buddha actually

appeared here now, I would be afraid to death. So that’s not

going to happen. So what is really suitable? Something

comprehensive, something reasonable, someone I can talk to.

57

Something I can think of, something that helps me to

improve. Something that I can digest. It has to be this way.

Otherwise it won’t fit.

Therefore these master of mine are these ones. So I will

strongly pray and request that I and all sentient beings who

are left out will see their own spiritual masters as true living

buddhas. I may be blessed to be able to see that.

While making that strong request you see light and nectar

flowing from the physical body of Buddha and it reaches to

all of us. Just the touch of the light and nectar purifies all

negativities, particularly seeing your own masters as true

buddhas. And our negative karma, negativities, illnesses,

diseases and all other obstacles are washed away completely.

My life, luck, fortune and quality is rebuilt, especially the

stage that I will be able to see my own masters as true living

Buddhas.

So this is the major practice of guru devotion. There are more

thoughts and ideas in here. Our mind is such that if my

masters are true buddhas, why do I see this fault, why do I

see that fault? I am not crazy, I see him and I am not going to

be brainwashed. I am not going to ignore these thoughts or

sweep them under the carpet. I am not there to hide their

problems and faults. All these thoughts are genuine concerns

we will have. But at this moment they are not the real thing.

For example here it says: If it is true Buddha, he should be

free of faults. These teachers of mine however, have the three

poisons, such as attachment, hatred, anger. I see this and that,

so maybe they are not really true Buddha. Maybe somehow

they are Buddha’s agents or something.

These thoughts will definitely come. Are we supposed to

suppress these thoughts and push them away? No, we

shouldn’t. You may get the idea that not doing so is very

heavy negativity and so you don’t want to think about it. But

that is not going to get you anywhere.

58

ASANGA AND BUDDHA MAITREYA

It is going to come up, because it is human, we are human.

You have to think about it. Yes, I do see these things, but that

doesn’t mean it is reality. For example, remember when

Asanga first saw his teacher, Buddha Maitreya, after 12 years

of hardship and meditation. He didn’t see him as Maitreya

Buddha, but as a wounded bitch, a female dog. Maitreya

Buddha is not a wounded dog, but Asanga did encounter him

that way. Most of you know the story. If I don’t tell it, it is

not right. If I do it takes a long time but to make it short,

Asanga was one of the greatest earlier Indian Buddhist

teachers.

There are eight of them, the Two Excellences and Six

Ornaments. These include Nagarjuna, Asanga, Chandrakirti

and so on, the biggest names we hear today from the earlier

Indian great masters. Asanga and Nagarjuna are the road

openers of the Mahayana path. Asanga was looking for a

true, perfect teaching of Buddha on the perfection of

transcendental wisdom. The things he could see and read

didn’t really tally well with his mind. He was one of the

greatest mahapandits even at that time. According to the

tradition, Buddha’s Mahayana teachings had totally

disappeared. They say that the nagas took them to the nagas’

land. Nagas are snakes and dragons and so on. They are

creatures, not human beings and they took all the Mahayana

teachings to their land. Nagarjuna supposedly travelled under

the ocean somewhere and picked those teachings up. Asanga

spent time looking for a living teacher. At the time of the

Buddha there were two main ones and he found it convenient

to look for the Buddha of Love, Maitreya Buddha.

Asanga chose to go into a cave and meditated and tried to see

Maitreya Buddha for 12 years. Don’t let me go into details.

There were a lot of zig zags there. He had a number of

inspirations. Some of them are a little silly. One time Asanga

was totally fed up, ready to give up and ran away from the

cave down to the village. He saw an old India man who had a

huge metal pillar and with a cotton cloth he was rubbing this

huge metal beam. Asanga asked him, “What are you doing?”

He said, “I am going to make needles out of this.” Asanga

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thought, “Wow, the three years I spent here on trying to see

Maitreya is not enough time and effort. This guy has spent

years and maybe decades to makes these needles.” So he

went back to meditate for another three years. This happened

four times.

After 12 years he saw that terribly wounded dog. Half the

body was getting totally eaten up by worms. The other half

was still alive and he was dragging that other half around. So

Asanga developed unimaginable strong compassion that

made him take care of this wounded animal. He was

thinking, “How can I do it?” He wanted to pick up each

worm and put it somewhere. But if you throw the worms into

the rocky mountain area they are going to die. If you don’t

pick up the worms the dog is going to die. So he had no

alternative, his compassion allowed him to cut a piece of his

own flesh from his thigh and he was going to put the worms

on that piece of flesh. Then he thought that if he picked up

the worms with his fingers he might smash them. So what to

do? Finally he decided to pick up the worms with his own

tongue. He closed his eyes and pushed down his tongue as

much as he could but no matter how much he went down he

couldn’t reach the worms and the dog. He opened his eyes

and suddenly there was Maitreya Buddha as he had imagined

him, just like he was described.

Asanga said, “How unkind you are! It took me 12 years.”

Maitreya Buddha said, “I was with you the day you sat down

in this retreat. It was your own obstacles that made you

unable to see me, but today your compassion was able to cut

your own flesh and without hesitation try to lick the worms.

That made your purification very strong and therefore you

are now able to see me as Maitreya Buddha.”

So compassion and bodhimind are so powerful to cut

negativities. As Shantideva said,

Dig pa to pei shin tu mi se pa

Te ne sog pei jang chub sem mem pa

Ge chen gang gi se gi non par gyur

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Such a powerful negativity,

which virtue can overpower this besides bodhimind?

So compassion, bodhimind is the most powerful method to

cut negativities. Many of us will say Vajrasattva recitation.

Yes, it is true, Vajrasattva has manifested for that. It is his

job, it’s true. However, what makes it much more effective

for the individual is bodhimind. Asanga’s story proves this.

After seeing Maitreya Buddha Asanga said, “I want the

whole market place to see you and show you to the people.”

Maitreya said, “You won’t be able to do it.” Asanga said,

“Still, I will carry you on my shoulders and run through the

market.” He did that and carried Maitreya Buddha on his

shoulders, running through the market and shouting, “Hey,

everybody look here. I got Maitreya Buddha.” But no one

saw a single thing – nothing. Everybody thought he had gone

crazy, saying that he spent too much time up in the cave and

now he had gone totally senile. Only one old lady saw him

carrying a dead dog’s body. No one else saw anything.

That is the reality. That’s a true fact. So when the time has

not yet reached us we don’t even see the true Buddha as

Buddha. Even a person like Asanga just saw a wounded

female dog.

Likewise, Maitripa saw his own teacher Shawari as some

crazy guy butchering pigs. Even Naropa saw Tilopa as

someone who was eating live fish that he had picked up from

the water and roasted alive on the fire. Naropa thought, “Are

you Tilopa?” when he thought he may be and then Tilopa

answered, “Yes I am.” When Naropa thought that he wasn’t,

he answered, “No, I am not Tilopa.” So it kept going like

that. So many earlier great teachers have gone through this,

it’s not only us.

At least today we see our teachers as human beings. Many

earlier teachers used to say, ”When looking at our

negativities we can be fortunate that we see our teachers as

human beings. We are lucky we don’t see our masters as

donkeys or pigs.”

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While you are meditating, imagine kyam ne kun du la ma

lhag pail ha Thubwang Dorje Chang, that is Buddha

Vajradhara who is the collection of all objects of refuge. We

are talking about seeing faults in the guru and whether that is

actually the reality just because we saw it. That does not

necessarily mean it is true. We talked about Asanga and

Shawari, the great mahasiddha and Naropa seeing Tilopa and

many others. Even Milarepa saw Marpa first not as a great

teacher, but as a farmer growing food. Marpa did have a

farm, but he was not necessarily a farmer. There was a

farmer in Marpa’s household who was growing the food. But

the day when Milarepa arrived at Marpa’s place, Marpa

pretended to be the farmer. He even demanded from his wife

or consort Yum Dagmema that “I want chang (Tibetan barley

wine) for my coming guest Milarepa”. So Milarepa first saw

him as a filthy farmer in the middle of the farm, completely

covered with dust. So Milarepa asked him, “Do you know

Marpa?” And Marpa said, “I heard about him. Some kind of

crazy old man who sits here somewhere.” That’s how he

received Milarepa and gave him the drink and some food.

Then he quickly went up, cleaned himself and sat in his own

room and then let Mila see him. So then he saw the same old

guy from earlier on, cleaned up and sitting there.

Things like that happen many times. When you see things in

that way that’s not necessarily correct. On the other hand we

have to be also very careful. In one way the guru devotional

practice is extremely important. On the other hand it can be

misused by anyone for any purposes. My personal way is

that for the first 20 years of teaching outside of India, I never

talked about the guru devotional practice in detail. Perhaps

many of you are aware of it. But if we don’t talk at all, we

are depriving you of the fundamental basis. Even if it is only

one person it is a big failure.

It is not that what I see or perceive is wrong. Nor is what I

see and perceive absolutely right either. The benefit of doubt,

the benefit of helping yourself and giving yourself the

opportunity, that is important.

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This guru devotional practice is something very funny. If you

don’t follow, you have no development. If you follow, it is

sometimes difficult. In my personal case, as I told you,

luckily I didn’t have crazy teachers. But I did have

sometimes teachers who behaved a little silly. I did mention

that a number of times too. They are great teachers, honestly,

but somethings they did were silly.

One of my teachers is Kyabje Gomo Rinpoche, the one from

whom I received the Vajrayogini and Cittamani Tara

teachings. He sometimes behaved a little funny. Of course

later Rinpoche was invited by FPMT to teach throughout the

world everywhere. So then he put on a little nicer dress.

Otherwise he used to behave like the father of House NO 14.

That was the Mussorie homes foundation and he was one of

the foster parents. Rinpoche also did some silly things too.

For example one day I was in Dehli and in those days it was

very difficult to make a telephone call between countries. So

one day I got a call with Rinpoche saying, “I am coming

back to Dehli from Nepal and I have some turquoise to bring

in. Would you make sure that I don’t have to pay customs

duty and the customs don’t catch me?” I said “All right.” I

was in Dehli and I was doing things for my teachers who

were travelling, also Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje

Trijang Rinpoche, trying to show a little nice face to the

customs officers. I worked in Tibet House then and in the

name of HH Dalai Lama you could get a little leeway here

and there.

I also used to know some of the custom officers with whom I

had to do some bribing. So I got a couple of bottles of Scotch

Whiskey, which was very hard to get in Delhi. I made sure I

knew what time Rinpoche was coming and which officer was

on duty. So I had to do all kinds of complicated things. I am

sure here it sometimes happens like that. I was surprised

Rinpoche could get those turquoise. He was economically

not very well to do at all. So I thought it was probably very

good for him to have some turquoise. So Rinpoche came and

he did have turquoise. The customs officer didn’t check him,

but let him go. So I picked him up and brought him to my

house in Delhi. He unpacked his bag and said, “Here is my

63

turquoise.” It was a nice, big bag. I said, “Oh good, Rinpoche

now you can have at least enough money for a while.” But

then he opened it and it was not his. A little big had to be

delivered to somebody and another little bag had to be

delivered to somebody else and there were all these bags for

other people and he himself had just a tiny, little handful.

The rest was all for other people.

Then Rinpoche said, “Now I want to deliver them”. So I had

to drive him and deliver them all by hand to all those people.

One was way in the north of Delhi, one way in the South of

Dehli. It was two days of driving all over the city. I thought

that was silly. That’s what I mean by silly action. Maybe it

was for me to have some purification, maybe not. Whatever

it is, it is. I am not going to worry about it.

The same thing: the faults of the teacher will come and you

see them. That’s that. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, in short, we

pray again to the kyam ne kun tu la ma lhag pail ha

Thubwang Dorje Chang, the total collection of all objects of

refuge, to clear all our obstacles in general, and in particular

that of guru devotional practice, particularly seeing the faults

of the teachers, the living and no longer living masters. We

seek the blessings for purification. Light and liquid come

from the physical body of the Lama Buddha Buddha

Vajradhara, reach to me and all sentient beings, washing all

our obstacles in general and particularly those of seeing the

faults.

Seeing the faults is really nothing that is wrong, but

perceiving it as true reality will create obstacles for our

development. By receiving the light and nectar, our physical

body becomes light nature, clean-clear. Our longevity, luck,

fortune and all qualities are developed, especially

remembering wrong ideas of perception of our own masters

and not entertaining them and, if possible, seeing every

quality and seeing them as quality. Such a possibility of

development has now developed with us.

That is the first point, the perception of wrong activities of

your own spiritual masters.

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ROOT OF ALL DEVELOPMENT: REMEMBERING AND

ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR KINDNESS

Now the second point is remembering and acknowledging

their kindness.

Sometimes we do not acknowledge their kindness, because

we don’t know and don’t accept it. Sometimes our ego is so

powerful that it thinks “I am more important than my master.

I have helped them to do everything and what have they

done? Nothing.” Our ego can think that way. As we said

earlier: you are looking at each and every one of your

masters and realizing how kind they have been. For me, I

have no idea about liberation, the ultimate enlightenment,

total liberation from suffering. I never even thought it was

possible. I never even imagined that one human being can

achieve that much. Here of course, because of Buddha and

the lineage masters and particularly because of my direct

masters and their kindness, I now see that possibility. I gain

hope, and not only hope but realize that it is actually possible

that I can do it. Not only that it is a possibility but also I see

how I can do it. The living tradition of Buddha’s teaching

from Buddha till today was brought by this pure, unbroken

lineage and I have been able to utilize , study and practice

this. I may even be able to do it. That itself is tremendous

kindness. For that I should have tremendous gratitude. So I

and all mother sentient beings do remember and not only

that, we accept that kindness and develop gratitude to all

teachers. Because of their kindness the gratitude and respect

may develop. Such a strong request I make to the Field of

Merit, Lama Lhag pai Lha Thubwang Dorje Chang. Then

again, light and nectar flow through the physical body of the

Lama Lhag pai Lha Thubwang Dorje Chang, reach to us,

purifies all negativities in general and particularly make us

gain respect and gratitude for the kind masters. All obstacles

are cleared. Our physical body is purified like light nature.

Within us, our longevity, luck and fortune, the knowledge

and the quality, all develop and especially profound respect

and gratitude to all our masters.

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These are the meditations you have to do. Particularly, when

you are practicing lam rim in this style you really have to do

that. If you do it one time and then forget about it for days,

weeks, months and even years and then try to do something

is not going to get you anywhere. But if you constantly try to

do that without a huge gap then it will work. In good old

Tibet people would do it three, four times a day. But over

here I don’t know whether we have time or opportunity –

unless you are doing a retreat. Then you should do it. Other

than that, at least if you can do it once a day it would be

good. The whole idea is that it won’t become stale and old

but will continue to bring life. So at least do it for a short

time. It doesn’t matter what lam rim practice you do, either

on the basis of the Foundation of all Perfections or on the

basis of the Lama Chöpa lam rim stages or Jamgön Lama

Tsongkhapa’s Lines of Experience. But whatever you do, just

don’t leave it at the words alone. Have some thoughts. Even

if you can’t get the thoughts right from the beginning, say the

words and think that whatever words you are saying are what

you mean and it is true. Then imagine and then try to

visualize. Put mental, physical and emotional efforts

together. That will make an impact on your consciousness,

on your soul, on your person.

Repeatedly doing it will change your way of thinking and

your attitude. Ultimately it becomes your character. When

that happens it becomes part of your life. Then you actually

begin to gain some kind of development with efforts. When

you put that development with efforts together with

repeatedly thinking and reasoning, bringing ideas and

quotations from the earlier teachers and Buddha, then it will

change into effortless experience. That will not even be

questionable. It will totally be what it is. The moment I think

of my teachers it will develop my gratitude and profound

respect and appreciation that I have that opportunity,

appreciating their kindness, how kindly they have accepted

me.

To some teachers you have a very personal relationship, to

some you don’t, but it is public relationship, as far as your

actual dealings are concerned. It doesn’t matter whether they

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are public or private relationships. To me, to my mind, they

are all very personal. Circumstances are such that like His

Holiness who is in such a position that we can’t go and talk

to him. We cannot sit down with him and have a meal. We

can’t have that sort of personal relationship in physical

condition. However, in our mind we should bring the

ultimate, close atmosphere. In other words, the teacher with

whom you have a very close relationship and the teacher

with whom you have a distant relationship, should not be

treated differently in your own perception. Visualize them

right in front of you and when you go to sleep they are there

and when you wake up they are there. You acknowledge

their kindness. Whenever your mind thinks of them they

appear there with all your gratitude. And for the persons with

whom you don’t have much personal dealings it is easier to

develop profound faith and all that, because you don’t see the

personal faults. But for those with whom you have a personal

relationship it is easier to see their faults, because you are

dealing with them every day.

We have mentioned all of that earlier. Utilize that and don’t

let seeing the faults become an obstacle for you. It should be

the mental relationship.

ROOT OF ALL DEVELOPMENT: ACTION RELATIONSHIP

You think: I should be able to serve and do everything for

them, particularly following the instructions. To me, the

teachings are instructions. Some people will say that

teachings are teachings and there are transmissions and this

and that. But to me the teaching is transmission, particularly

in an unbroken lineage. Oral teachings and explanations are

all transmissions to me. To be able to follow the instructions

is the most important. What makes the individual become

fully enlightened and develop? By following the instructions.

Milarepa said,

nor sam sing ge bo wa da la me

pa lam ne shab dro du ben gye

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I have nothing to give in terms of articles, money or

wealth

But I like to repay the kindness of the teacher by

practice.

Milarepa, at the beginning, when he tried to get the teachings

from Marpa, how difficult it was!

Later, when he purified his negativities, after developing,

even today we call him the “great yogi”. All of them are

possible because of this practice. When Marpa gave a hard

time to Milarepa, he could have given up and run away

somewhere, he could very well have done that, but he didn’t.

If he had done that he wouldn’t have become the great yogi

we know today.

Anyway, I am just telling you funny stories. But the earlier

teachers’ way of functioning is our guidance today. We pray

to the Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara very strongly,

single-focused, with strong requests that “ I and all mother

sentient beings not only are able to see these masters as true

enlightened beings, but be able to serve them and follow

their instructions. I may be blessed to be able to do that.”

Again, light and liquid are coming from the physical body of

the lama. They purify negativities in general and particularly

to have perfect guru-devotional practice. All obstacles are

cleared, etc. This is like we have done earlier a couple of

times. So this has to be repeated.

ROOT OF ALL DEVELOPMENT: PRACTICE SESSION -

CONCLUSION

Then finally, now is the third outline: the conclusion.

While remembering the lama, while focusing on your point,

then you meditate either single-pointedly or say mantras and

even dedicate the virtues for the benefit of all – and not just

benefit, but for all living beings to become fully enlightened

Buddha. For that purpose all will have spiritual development

and particularly the guru devotional practice. That is the

conclusion.

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IN BETWEEN PRACTICE SESSIONS

In between the sessions, when you are not meditating,

particularly when you are in retreat, it is important not to

waste time in engaging in some kind of interesting,

entertaining crazy shows or something. Some people can’t

help it. They have to watch it. You can’t be completely

restricted, but you can’t be completely open either. So in

between sessions it is recommended not to waste your time

by watching idle shows or gossip or play majong or

whatever. Instead try to read about the subject you are

dealing with. Focusing on the subject is important. Reading

about different materials and different subjects is not wrong

but it is not recommended. It is recommended to read about

that very subject and think about it and talk about it.

Particularly, be mindful, be aware of what you are doing and

thinking. It is the same thing for all in between sessions.

Don’t overeat. Eat reasonable right food. Don’t spend huge

amounts of time sleeping. Yes, you have to sleep, but you

don’t have to sleep nine or ten hours.

While you are sleeping, whatever practice you have, each

and every practice will have its own little way of sleeping.

Many of them do, particularly if you have a vajrayana

practice and do a vajrayana retreat. They have their own

systems, so follow that. At least, remain grateful to the Lama

Buddha Buddha Vajradhara and make requests to him to

look after you and while you are sleeping you may utilize

Lama Buddha Vajradhara’s lap as a pillow and sleep there.

As for the style of sleeping and all that the usual instructions

should be followed.

Similarly, when you wake up. There are waking up

instructions. Since the de lam is mixed with vajrayana I can

talk a little bit here too. Each one of these [vajrayana]

practices has a yoga of sleeping, a yoga of rising and all of

them are there. Those who don’t have a vajrayana practice

don’t have to learn that and try to do that. But then do try to

sleep with positive thoughts. Don’t sleep with anger, hatred,

jealousy or obsession. Sleep with appreciation, faith,

compassion, love or wisdom. Try to wake up the same way.

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Appreciate that you are alive and resolve not to waste your

time in general and particularly these 12 hours or whatever.

If you are sleeping in the lap of Lama Buddha Buddha

Vajradhara, rise up, do three prostrations and thank Lama

Buddha Buddha Vajradhara for looking after you while you

were sleeping. If you can’t do prostrations due to physical

conditions like I have, then you can make a gesture of respect

with folded hands and total devotion and bow down or

whatever – some acknowledgment. Most important, make up

your mind not to waste the day. That will basically be the

guru devotional practice.

Remember the outline:

The root of all development, guru devotional practice

That has faith, the root of all development and remembering

the kindness.

Both are completed.

Whatever you have learned, even if you can’t sit and

meditate in a session, those things we mentioned to you,

either at the meditative level or in general, remember them

and see whether you yourself personally have those problems

or not. If you do, apply whatever you can. The most

important thing is to not let yourself be controlled by wrong

misunderstanding or misinformation about the practice of

your own master. Remember, the guru devotional practice is

the root of all development.

If you could do this well then

la me kye na kan dö ne su leb

kang lar mö gu chu she ding dri wa

If the lama delivers you, you can reach anywhere

In order to pay for lifting you, have profound

respect.

That’s what one of the earlier masters said. Whatever is

happening in our life is not so much the individual. It is

mostly due to the kindness and the grace of the guru and

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Buddha, up to the late masters. These are the direct and the

lineage masters. It is their kindness, their compassion, their

deeds make things happen – at least for me. I as an

individual, have no qualities, nothing. Whatever little help I

could render to a number of people is all because of the

kindness and compassion of the lineage and the direct

masters.

In my personal case, I had the first Vajrayogini initiation

from Kyabje Lhatsun Rinpoche. He was a very old teacher

who had accompanied the 13th Dalai Lama to China. He is

also known as living White Tara. I am just giving you one

instance. I had the first Vajrayogini initiation from him. I

remember that very clearly. It was in the second month of the

Tibetan calendar, during the prayer festival called tsoh chö. I

went to see Kyabje Lhastsun Rinpoche and he said, “Oh,

good you are here. Today I am giving the Vajrayogini

initiation at a government official’s house on the west side of

Lhasa. Come.” So I went and followed. Kyabje Rinpoche did

his own personal preparations and he told me, “Come and sit

down with me and say it together.” I never even received the

Vajrayogini initiation before and there is a restriction. Not

only do you have to have received the initiation, but you also

have to have done the retreat and fire puja and all this, before

you do a self-initiation. So he told me, “Sit down and do it

with me.” I said, “I did not even receive the initiation

before.” He said, “It doesn’t matter. I give you permission.

Sit down.”

I was a little hesitating- stupid of me, right? So Kyabje

Rinpoche looked at me and said,

la me kye na kan dö ne su leb

kang lar mö gu chu she ding dri wa

If the lama delivers you, you can reach anywhere

In order to pay for lifting you, have profound

respect.

I sat down and then he told me to help in the initiation, to

carry the vase and all that. During the initiation I was holding

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the vase. This family had electric light, which was very rare

in Tibet in those days. It might have been battery operated.

Anyway, the light wasn’t working. I was holding up the vase

during the vase initiation and all of a sudden the light came

on. It was coincidence, of course, but still, it was good

omens. Not only that, huge thunder came, which is not even

possible in the month of February in Tibet. It never happens.

I looked at Kyabje Rinpoche and he said again:

la me kye na kan dö ne su leb

kang lar mö gu chu she ding dri wa

If the lama delivers you, you can reach anywhere

In order to pay for lifting you, have profound

respect.

This is one example. There are so many. In my case I was

very fortunate to have so many great masters, one after

another. They very kindly accepted me. That’s what guru

devotional practice is all about.

Whatever we have talked about here, please to bring that in

your practice

REVIEW

Remember, we are talking about the root of all development,

guru devotional practice and after developing that, how to

develop oneself. There are three basic outlines. Pre, actual,

and conclusion.

For pre- we talked about the Six Preliminaries

At this level we particularly talk about the lama who is the

collection of all gurus, all buddhas, all yidams, all dharmas,

all sanghas, all dakas, all dakinis, all dharmapalas and thus

the collection of all objects of refuge – Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara. That’s what you have. In Tibetan we say

lama thubwang dorje chang. In the lama chöpa it is lama

losang thubwang dorje chang. The other lam rim teachings

mostly have lama thubwang dorje chang. In reality it is all

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the same thing, the same person. It is your own spiritual root

master, in the physical form of Buddha, in that appearance.

That is the Lama Buddha. Then you have Buddha Vajradhara

either at the heart level of Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang or

Lama Thupei Wangpo or you can have him in reality as

Buddha Vajradhara. It is always better to be Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara.

Every meditation you do here has to have this. In the space in

front of you are these objects of refuge. That is the field on

which you grow your luck, fortune, good karma. That’s what

it is.

MANTRAS

Earlier we did that with the practice of guru devotion and

now we will go into the precious human life. Before we go

there I have to review the conclusion of guru devotion. We

said that you can single-pointedly focus or say mantras or

anything. The mantra you would be saying here will be the

Buddha’s mantra om muni muni maha muniye soha. You can

also pronounce that …munaye soha. It doesn’t matter, both

are okay. Traditionally, back in Tibet we used to say

…muniye soha. Later, when we came to India, many great

Indian Sanskrit scholars and teachers said this was Tibetan

mispronunciation and that it should be ….munaye soha.

When we do explanations on that we say this: thupa thupa

thupa chenpo. Even in Jewel Heart we used to say ….muniye

soha. We didn’t emphasize anything. Then Kyabje Lochö

Rinpoche came on his second visit to Jewel Heart and first he

gave teachings in New York City in Jewel Heart, where we

said the usual Jewel Heart prayers and they include that

mantra. He said, “Everything is wonderful, great. I have

nothing to say, except this …..munaye soha. I don’t know

anything. I am not a scholar” – (actually he is one of the

greatest living teachers today in the Gelugpa tradition at

least) “but Kunnu Lama Tenzin Gyatso Rinpoche, who is a

great shiddha and Sanskrit scholar and a great being said to a

group of earlier Tibetan teachers, including His Holiness the

Dalai Lama and His H’s teacher, Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and

others that ….muniye soha is a mistake and should be

….munaye soha.”

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Then the next day our umdze started chanting …..munaye

soha. So that’s what happened in Jewel Heart. So now we

always do that, because of Kyabje Lochö Rinpoche’s

remarks when he quoted Kunnu Lama Rinpoche. Kunnu

Lama Rinpoche was teaching the teachers in Mussorie in

1960. There must have been 10, 15 teachers there. If His

Holiness the Dalai Lama was present as a student they tried

not to put so many people in that teaching. So only a few

were there. So I don’t know who else was there, but that’s

where Lochö Rinpoche’s comment came from.

Anyway, you don’t have to change how you say the mantra.

Whatever you say is fine.

Mantra is such that whatever you say, if you believe it, it

works, rather than doubting. During the part on the guru

devotional practice I didn’t get time to tell you the stories,

but now, since we are talking about mantras, I might as well

tell you.

Buddhism went from India to Tibet. It was developed in

Tibet over a long time. Earlier there was a challenge from

earlier Indian anti-Buddhist teachers. Tibet was a fertile

ground for the spiritual field to grow. So both, Buddhist and

non-Buddhist teachers were there to grab the land, trying to

do a number of things.

There were a number of debates too. Finally, for a long time,

the debates were completely over. Then the last anti-

Buddhist teacher from India came and challenged the

Tibetans, saying “you are following a misguided path. I am

coming to debate with you, since you people are not inviting

me to be a teacher. Be ready.”

The traditional Indian system was that whoever loses a

debate has to follow the winner. If you lose you follow my

path. If I lose I follow your path. That last debate was during

the time of Sakya Pandita. At that time the great, outstanding

scholar in Tibet was Sakya Pandita, one of the early five

great Sakya masters. There are three white and two red.

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White refers to lay people, wearing white skirts and red to

monks. One of the red was Sakya Pandita, Kunga Gyaltsen.

The Tibetan rulers at that time chose Sakya Pandita to debate

on their side. Along with Sakya Pandita they selected another

person, an adept, a siddha type of person, a yogi. These two

went to the debate. Sakya Pandita was learned and was

responsible for the debating and answering questions. In case

there was some magical power play or something, that would

be this yogi’s job. This yogi had a little dagger on his skirt.

He practiced one yidam called Lhamo Tsundi. A lot of

Chinese also practice Tsundi. Her mantra is om tsale tsule

tsundi soha. But this guy didn’t say that. He said om chale

chule chuliye soha. In Tibetan chale chuliye means crazy

dancing.

After the debate which Sakya Pandita won, he tried to catch

the other guy and said, “Now we are going to cut your hair

and put you in monks’ robes.” But when he tried that the guy

flew in the air like a bird and Sakya Pandita couldn’t do

anything. At that moment the yogi pulled out his dagger and

said om chale chule chuliye soha and put the dagger in the

ground right on the shadow of the guy who was flying in the

air. So the guy fell down. Sakya Pandita got a little shock,

“That is not Tsundi’s mantra. He is saying such a funny

thing. If he can do that much with saying the wrong mantra,

if he would say the proper mantra he must be something very

fantastic.” So he thought he would talk to him. So he went to

him and said, “What did you say there?” And the yogi

repeated it. Sakya Pandita said, “That is not the right mantra.

The right mantra goes like this…..” Normally that yogi

would not have paid any attention whatsoever, but he was

very impressed with Sakya Pandita, so he said, “Okay, I will

try.” He said om tsale tsule tsundi soha and thrust his dagger

into a rock. But it didn’t go in. He hurt his hand. After that he

said, “Before I said chale chule and now I am going to say

chale chule and in future I will also say chale chule” and he

put the dagger in the rock again and it went through the rock.

So his strong belief and the thinking he built up worked. So

the mantra is such that the correct mantra is important but if

you are so used to it and so happy with it and you have faith

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in it, better keep it that way, you don’t have to change it. So

Tsundi practitioners sometimes even boil rocks and eat them

by using that mantra. For this guy everything was working

with the incorrect mantra. So when he tried to do the correct

mantra it didn’t work. That’s how mantra is. So whether you

say om muni muni maha muniye soha or om muni muni maha

munaye soha or probably if you said om mum mum mum that

would also be fine. It really doesn’t matter. But it has to

sound something close.

Actually om muni muni maha munaye soha actually means

“victory, victory, greater victory”. The first one means

victory over narrow selfish interest. The second is victory

over negative emotions. The third is great victory, over even

the imprints of negative emotions. OM as you know is the

beginning of the mantra as well as there are other

explanations. The most important and relevant to us is A-O-

M. These three syllables combined together becomes OM,

which is the body, speech and mind of individual

practitioners and the object to whom you pray. So there are

these two sets of body, speech and mind. Muni refers to the

Buddha and soha means ‘lay the foundation’. The foundation

of this body, speech and mind may be laid in that body,

speech and mind. In other words put the basis of

transforming your own body, speech and mind to that of

Buddha’s body, speech and mind. Laying that foundation,

laying the seeds, that is the transformation.

I remember what Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche told me one day

in Dehli. There was an American woman called Mrs. Night.

Her husband was a major in the British army in India, ex-

combat. So Kyabje Rinpoche told me to teach Mrs. Night.

He told me that as he was leaving the airport. I asked him,

“What do I teach?” He said, “Something like om mani padme

hum and om muni muni maha munaye soha and om tare

tutare ture soha. I said, “I don’t know what om muni muni

maha munaye soha means. Kyabje Rinpoche gave me a big

look, “You don’t know? Thub pa thub pa thub pa chen po.”

That means ‘victory, victory, greater victory’. And then A-O-

M. You know about that right?” I said yes. “And then soha is

zhi sung.” He told me that at the airport as he was walking.

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Thub pa is a word often used for Buddha. We say Shakya

Thub pa.

Anyway, the conclusion is that either you say mantras or you

dedicate and for the in-between sessions I already have

shared what to do.

After this teaching you can read the nyur lam transcript and

it should build nicely. De lam and nyur lam go the same way.

There is no difference. Actually, Panchen Losang Chögyen

wrote the de lam first. Then Panchen Losang Yeshe or

Palden Yeshe, one of them, wrote the nyur lam as a

commentary to the de lam. So it really goes the same way.

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IV

PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE

HOW TO MAKE MY LIFE WORTHWHILE

We are now on our second outline. After guru devotional

practice, how do I make my life worthwhile? That also has

two points:

1. Why one needs to make one’s life worthwhile..

2. How to do it.

The first outline emphasizes that we need to make our life

worthwhile. That also has two:

1. Actual session

2. In-between sessions.

All the outlines follow in the same way.

The first point, the actual session also has three:

1. Pre –

2. Actual

3. Conclusion

Pre – is the same thing: kyab ne kun tu la ma lhag pail ha

thubwang dor che chang la sol wa deb

You make strong supplication to Lama Buddha Buddha

Vajradhara as the collection of total refuge. Then you begin

to think: I and all mother sentient beings, right from the

limitless beginning, until now and for a long time, have faced

strong, constant difficulties. Even in this life itself, if we look

back, we see how much struggle have we engaged in. It is

way beyond our comprehension. It is way beyond being

possible to do, but we have done it. Whether you have it or

not, whatever, we have those difficulties and struggles and

we went through. This is one life time. But it is much more

than that. Sometimes more sometimes less. In a number of

lives we have had the same struggles. Why? Because we

couldn’t take the opportunity.

A – We didn’t have any opportunity [most of the time].

B – Even if we had it we couldn’t use the opportunity.

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We missed it. That’s why this struggle is continuing. Why

did we miss the opportunity? We couldn’t get it on time.

Why?

A – Sometimes we don’t even have the knowledge or even

the information.

B – It didn’t seem to be that important.

C – The priorities we had very different.

For all these reasons we missed the opportunity.

In one sense we do say it is me alone who is struggling and

working for me. Yes, but we are always advised to think “all

living beings”. Why? There are many advantages. That will

come later and I cannot go on postponing everything till

later, but you know, there are a lot of advantages. Even my

little happiness is the result of the deeds of other people. Not

only that. If I can do something like saving somebody’s life,

how happy I will be. So benefitting others is the cause of

individual happiness and satisfaction, joy. Really. That’s why

we always think about others. Not only is that the Mahayana

system or culture, but there are reasons such as this. This is

the time where I will make sure that I don’t miss the

opportunity.

PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE: IMPORTANCE

How can we make sure we don’t miss it? If I realize this is

important and rare, these two together will help me to not

miss it. It is like an alarm clock. If we don’t want to miss

something we set an alarm clock that will make noise and we

will be alert and aware. Our awareness comes back. If you

have a strong understanding of the importance and rarity of

your opportunity, you are not going to miss it. You are going

to be very, very prepared. That’s why recognizing the

precious human life and its importance and the difficulty to

find it are necessary.

So I pray and supplicate my request to the Lama Lhag pai

Lha to develop these particular developments within me.

Development is nothing but a strong awareness, constantly

reminding about this precious human life. That’s Point 1.

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Point 2 is its importance and Point 3 is the difficulty to find

it. These are the three things.

By making this request light and liquid are coming from the

Lama Lhag pai Lha. It purifies my negativities in general and

particularly those that are obstacles to this, like not paying

attention or laziness or forgetting and those types of things.

After purifying, not only the obstacles are purified, but you

do look crystal clean, light nature. You build your life, luck

and fortune, etc, and all the qualities. Especially you develop

the stage of the precious human life.

After the guru devotion, that is step one. So your mind is sort

of engaging in that way. That, up to here, was the Pre level.

Now the Actual includes importance and difficulty to find.

Thinking about the importance of life and the difficult to find

such a life - Why is it difficult to find such a life? Many of us

will say, “Well, this time I couldn’t do it, hopefully next time

I will. I will pray very strongly that I will do it next time.”

People say that, don’t they? Why do you pray strongly to be

able to do it in the next life? Just do it now!

Praying strongly “I may be able to do it better in future”

takes the same effort as actually doing it. Start thinking:

What is this precious life? In Tibetan it is dal jor, two

syllables. (Don’t try to learn Tibetan. That’s not going to

help you.) But dal means leisure and jor means richness.

From our usual point of view we have neither. We don’t have

leisure. We are so busy. We have to take time off from work

and can’t get it. It is so difficult. So where is the leisure? We

don’t have it. And jor – we are not rich. We don’t have all

the facilities. So both, leisure and richness, look like they are

not applicable for us. It doesn’t seem to be for us, but only

for princes and princesses. That’s what we think. But the

reality is that we do have opportunity. We do have time.

Honestly speaking, if we look in our life, we have done so

much and we are doing so much and will continue doing so

much. Look at our own background. For me, I have spent my

first 20 years in old Tibet, which turns out to have been the

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best part of my life. That’s just by virtue of being in the

monastery and having teachers, by virtue of having

attendants who pushed me like crazy. If I didn’t do

something they would beat me up. With all that, it came out

to be the best.

Thereafter I was in India for 20 years. I did all kinds of

things, good, bad, ugly, everything. Then I spent 20 years in

all parts of the world. Let it be 30 years by now. I have done

so much, so much good, so much bad and most I have

wasted. I wasted my opportunity, my life and everything. So

I had the time and I will have time until I die. So we think we

don’t have any time, but we do. I am talking about myself

and you think about yourself.

For the first 20 years we went to school and this and that,

then off to university, getting married or not, producing kids

or not, but maintaining family. All of us have done so much.

That’s because we had time. But with all that, did we do

something solid so that we don’t have to worry about our

future and future lives? No, we haven’t. We might have

contributed something here and there, some virtuous good

thing here and there. But truly speaking, we didn’t. Even

those people who are doing great and who claim and think

they are doing great, and actually they are doing great,

however, very few of them will really have a solid thing –

very few.

Particularly people who are considered to be good and who

think “I am doing great”. When you look at them, their

greatness, their goodness, it is very limited to some service,

some help. I am not criticizing them, they are all great. They

give food and shelter, and medicine and all that is great, no

doubt. But they could have done much better, but they didn’t.

That’s because they have no idea, honestly.

Today’s western education doesn’t really accept this.

Contemplative work is the greatest they can accept. No one

will ever think about becoming a Buddha or a bodhisattva. If

you and I think that way and we talk to somebody about it

they will probably consider us crazy and cuckoo. They

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probably think you are not serious. They probably think

“This is just how the Buddhists think, that’s how the Buddha

presents, that’s how people do, but you really don’t mean

that you yourself are doing to do this, are you? Are you

crazy?” That’s in today’s educated world. And they are

genuine. They are not looking down on us. They probably

don’t believe it. That’s why the opportunity is so limited.

There are lots of people, actually most people, who are really

trying to do their best. The best is only that much. That is our

problem. That’s why we didn’t have the opportunity before.

Maybe we had the opportunity to be crazy. Maybe. You

cannot say it’s not. It could very well be crazy. We all could

be crazy. If we are crazy, the Buddha is also crazy. We are

all following the same thing.

Anyway, so we do have time and opportunity. Leisure

doesn’t mean having nothing to do, but it means the

opportunity to do something.

Then, richness. We do have richness. They are not talking

about richness in terms of money. They are talking about

being rich with opportunity. Actually both are talking about

the possibility and opportunity. We do have it. That’s for

sure. Our life is really capable, capable of delivering

whatever you want.

MORALITY

This life can deliver and give us the opportunity to deliver

exactly whatever great future life you want. You can deliver

that. To become rich, there has to be a cause, such as

generosity. You can do that in this life. Even if you are the

poorest of the poor, even then you can be generous. We talk

later about that. You can be very moral. You have to be

moral. You are moral. We are not immoral at all. We don’t

entertain or admire immoral people. Morality is extremely

important.

Morality is one of the most important things for us. Ngon du

je ne tsultrim le she mä…. - The great Indian mahapandit

Chandrakirti said that the direct cause for us to have a good

future life is morality. There is no other than morality. This

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life is capable of maintaining good morality. I hope I will

have time to talk about morality in the future but if not, I can

mention a little bit here.

What we think of as morality and what many in the west talk

about in terms of morality are two different things. In the

west, morality often only refers to sexual orientation and

sexual activities. Here, when Buddha talks about morality it

means doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing.

That is morality. It doesn’t really mean whether you are

straight or gay. It doesn’t mean that at all. If you are killing

people, hurting people, that is immoral. Particularly killing,

causing people to lose their lives in war, all of those are

immoral activities. Unimaginable profiteering is an immoral

activity. Creating such powerful weapons to destroy life and

civilization is immoral activity. The problem is that people

don’t emphasize that in the west, because it hurts business or

government policy or whatever. So they don’t want to talk

about it. They like to talk about whether you are gay or

lesbian or straight or crooked or whatever and make a big

deal out of it. But that’s not the point. We are misusing very

powerful moral conduct for some sheepish thing. That’s not

morality. Morality is applicable to everybody, to everyday

life people, to scientists who make decisions in the laboratory

right now about what our future will be 25 years or so down

the road.

To the politicians sitting in their office and make decisions

about the lives of hundreds and thousands of people, morality

is applicable to them. The generals on the war front or rather

back wherever they make the decisions, for them morality is

applicable. That doesn’t mean that sexual issues are not

important. I am not telling you that. But that’s not the only

point. Morality is so much bigger than that.

In short, it is every moment of our life, every move that we

make, every thought we put in. To all of them moral issues

apply. That’s why not only in Buddhist culture but in the

culture of Mahayana, it is not only about me but all living

beings, who are somehow stuck to us, like the shadow and

the body are stuck together. In every practice we say “I and

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all mother sentient beings….” From the moral point of view

that becomes so important.

Then whatever you do becomes so efficient and effective.

That difference we can make in this life. We have the

opportunity, because we have this mind. Here they say

“patience, enthusiasm”, etc, but the bottom line is the mind

we have. Our mind is capable of doing anything you want,

everything you want. I complain that it is too hot, you up

there complain that it is too cold. We are all able to complain

because of that human achievement called ‘air condition’.

When it goes too much in one direction and you sit high up

closer to the ceiling you get a little bit more cold air up there.

And I am deep down here with all the lights on above me, it

is hot and I am sweating. Plus yesterday I had low sugar, plus

somebody shut off the air condition and also opened the

door. That made it very miserable yesterday. We are able to

complain because we have the opportunity. Human mind

delivered this. The capability of the human mind is such that

you can make it very cool in Malaysia. You can control the

temperature. Who did it? Our mind. A machine by itself

won’t work if human beings don’t produce it and manage it

in the first place.

That shows what this human mind is capable of. We made

bombs too. Einstein didn’t have a supernatural mind. It was a

normal, human mind. He could explore and develop nuclear

energy. And then an additional mind can come and put it to

good use or bad use. We can switch them round. This is

human capability. You and I have it, we all have it. But if

you want to turn that mind rotten by using only the limited

possibilities that we are already used to then, that’s about it.

The rest of our capacity remains asleep. That is called waste

of time, waste of opportunity. That is actually true.

When they talk about the precious human mind and its

importance, that means you can generate morality, generosity

and so forth. It is actually your opportunity. From the

spiritual point of view, even in our short life time we can

obtain total enlightenment in this life with this mind. We are

capable. You may think, “Not me – la, maybe So and So”.

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But with that you are putting yourself down. We all have the

same mind. Buddha himself said, “First you and I were equal

and then I put a little effort in and became Buddha. You

entertained laziness and remained there.” That sounds like I

am yelling at you, but I am not. This is what it is. This is the

importance. You have it, I have it, we all have it. How long

we will have it, we don’t know. But we have it.

Now I pray and meditate and seek the blessings from Lama

Thubwang Dorje Chang that I may be able to utilize this life,

so that it doesn’t become like an article in the Smithsonian, a

museum piece that you just watch and that’s about it. If it‘s

our own we can use it. We pray that we will be able to utilize

it, that the opportunity I have now may not become a

museum piece. Honestly.

After making that request, light and liquid come and purify

all negativities and particularly developing the real

understanding. To understand is one thing, but to make it

have a real impact on us is another. When you really have an

impact of how important it is, that will cut down our

laziness, like sitting idle, lounging. We do that a lot. We like

to do that in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at

night. We like lounging. We do it all the time, even in the

shower or bath. We complain that there is no time, right? But

if our lounging time is cut down we feel a pinch of

discomfort and even being upset. That is because we are

enjoying lounging around and that makes us lose our time.

Meanwhile our important life is going and we pay no

attention. There is no impact on us.

The development we are looking for here is to have that

impact. Laziness very nicely divides our time and takes it

away. It goes on, without putting efforts into cutting. To

decide “I can’t afford to lounge, I have to go” is not easy.

That is pushing and forcing and that is difficult. When you

are really busy and have to do something, your lounging time

is cut out. You don’t feel miserable or disturbed or cut off,

because you have given the importance to something else. It

is the same thing here. This life is important because it

allows us to do so many things.

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It is very true. Not only do we have to understand but we

have to make an impact on ourselves. We call it ‘spiritual

development’, but it really looks like organizing our life,

cutting down laziness, cutting down on the waste of precious

time. Everybody will accept that time is precious. Nobody

will argue with that. But why is it so precious? There we

differ. We all agree that with time we can do so many things.

But what kind of so many things? There we differ. Buddha is

telling us about the total freedom, the total control of your

own life, your own destiny. That’s what it is all about.

Thinking about those things is meditation within the

framework of the Lama Lhag pai Lha as preliminaries, actual

practice and concluding with light and liquid developing that

stage. That covers the importance of the life.

PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE: DIFFICULT TO FIND

The second point of the precious human life is: It is difficult

to find. Again, you have the Lama Lhag pai Lha on your

crown. Not only is this life important, but if I have to find it

again that will be extremely difficult.

One of our lazinesses will say “Today I am so old, so sick, so

dull, so busy, so this, so that but in future I will definitely do

it. I pray that I will be able to do it in future.” But the future

is difficult. Buddha said that human beings taking rebirth as

human beings is very rare. That’s because the cause of taking

such a good life like we have, the basic foundation for that is

perfect morality. When we look at our own morality we

know how much perfect morality we have. Every place,

wherever we look there is something that no one should

know about. We have lots of sensitive areas that we want to

hide and don’t want people to know about. That shows our

morality. So the base is gone. On top of that we need

generosity and all the others. We all try to be a little generous

here and there, but perfect generosity is questionable. That is

difficult. Then our own patience, enthusiasm, concentration

and wisdom and even trying to be a good, kind person,

gentle, caring – all of them have some little difficulty here

and there. So talking about the future is very difficult.

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Particularly, we have that life with us right now. Why should

we have to hope and look for the future? Just try to make the

best use of what you have now, rather than hoping, “Can I

get another new life, exactly like this one?” Better make use

of it now. If you could easily buy one or make one available,

sure why not? But you don’t know that. You have to put a lot

of efforts in. So why not make use of this life right now?

Honestly.

So what do I do? Well, first learn the path through your great

master who is like Buddha and through Buddha’s teaching,

particularly the Mahayana path and particularly the vajrayana

path, which is capable of delivering Buddhahood within this

life time. That’s what I like to do, that’s what I should do. I

may be able to do this. I may be blessed to be able to do this.

Make these strong requests.

Now, what to do is introduced next. Follow the Buddha’s

instructions, the ones of Mahayana and vajrayana. Light and

liquid are coming from the physical body of Lama Lhag pai

Lha, enters into my and all sentient beings’ life systems, the

physical-mental-emotional stream, purifies all negativities in

general and all obstacles. Our physical body becomes

luminous and pure. Life, longevity, luck, fortune, quality,

knowledge, all build up. Especially the development of the

importance of life and difficulty to find make a very big

impact on us. Then finally, in conclusion, say mantras, do

single-pointed meditation and do the dedication.

In between the sessions also focus on the subject you are

meditating on.

Now comes the major teaching. The actual practice with how

to follow Buddha’s teaching

Although we did talk about actual earlier, it is almost like a

prerequisite, like the guru devotional practice. It is the

fundamental basis of development. Then the appreciation of

life, the importance and the difficulty to find it. Although all

part of practice, it is a prerequisite. So now we move to the

actual practice, the real essence: what to do.

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V

COMMON WITH THE LOWER SCOPE

HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF: FOLLOW THE

BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS

How to follow Buddha’s teachings has three outlines:

Common with the lower scope

Common with the medium scope

Mahayana

Officially you would have to say ‘training your mind’

according to the “Common with the lower level”. But

‘training your mind’ can be misunderstood. Earlier we said

that the moment you use mind training it is bound to be

misunderstood in the west. There is ‘Silva Mind Training’

etc., and there are so many. There is something called

‘positive religious thinking’ and there is scientology and you

can get confused. We are not even clear and don’t even

understand quite well and then we get all this confusion. That

is not necessary.

So we have basically these three. ‘Common’ means together,

joined. Actually what we are talking about is the Theravada

path. It is the basic foundational requirement in order to build

up the Mahayana path on top. That’s why it is called

‘common with the lower scope’ and ‘common with the

medium scope’. Then there is the Mahayana, these three.

THE LOWER SCOPE - SUFFERING OF IMPERMANENCE

Common with the lower scope has

During sessions - When you are actually practicing

what to do

In between sessions

It is the same outline names as before, but what you do here

is different.

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During sessions

Pre

Actual

Conclusion

Pre is as usual. Kyab ne kun tu la ma lhag pail ha – thub

wang dor je chang la sol wa deb…generating the field of

merit, Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara, making the 7

limbed offering, mandala offering, making requests and all

that. That is the usual practice in every session. In Tibetan

practice, the moment you sit down you say

Sang gye chö dang tsog kyi chog nam la……

I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

Until I become fully enlightened.

By practicing generosity and the other perfections,

May I be able to obtain enlightenment for the benefit

of all beings.

We say that all the time, in any language. Just like that, for

every meditation you have to have this. That is the

preliminary aspect of each and every individual session.

A CLOSE LOOK AT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE

SPIRITUAL PATH

Now you want to actually observe why do I have these

continuous difficulties and why do we do dharma practice?

Why do we follow anything other than making dharma. Why

go for material things? They don’t fully answer our curiosity

or satisfy us and that’s why we need it. That portion is

lacking. That is because material things, money, wealth, and

all of them, even education, although great and nothing

wrong with it, these all are not ever-lasting. They are not a

permanent solution. It is permanent as long as our mind is

functioning okay. If we have a problem with our mind or the

basis of mind, the brain or heart or anything else, then the

relationship between the outer physical body and the inner

occupying mind will have a problem.

The problem will be that the communication doesn’t work.

The messages don’t go through. The signals don’t get passed

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through. You get the wrong signals and all that. Why am I

bringing that up today? Because I saw a movie last night. I

had jetlag, so I was watching a movie last night.

In the movie I saw two American guys flying up in

Alaska somewhere. They crashed and lost their plane

but somehow were able to drag themselves through

the forest. While doing that, the younger guy was

first much stronger and helped the older guy, pulling

him up and doing all that. They had no way of

communicating to the search party. The search party

didn’t go that high up. The parameters for the search

was much lower than where these guys were up in

the mountains. They were coming down, half

walking, half falling, moving in the wrong direction,

climbing back and so on. Finally the younger guy

who was much stronger had problems of confusion.

He got mixed up between south and north and east

and west. They began to argue. One said to go this

way, the other that way. The older would say, “Why

do you want to go south?” and the younger pointed

north and said, “This is south.” Then the elder guy

realized the younger guy had a brain injury.

When the mind is in the brain and the brain is injured, then if

the container has a problem that is reflected to whatever is

contained in there. So mental problems are not necessarily

because the mind is damaged. Wherever the basis for the

mind’s functioning is, nerves, brain or whatever, if that is

damaged, it is a very much an interdependent relationship

between the contained and the container.

So whether the mind has a problem or the base on which the

mind is functioning has a problem, one of them can be the

cause. If there is no problem with either of these, then your

education will function well, but then, when that problem

comes, even the education will give up. That’s why probably

out of all the answers we are looking for the best available is

education and that is also limited. That doesn’t mean not to

get educated. Don’t misunderstand me. I am just pointing it

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out rather than criticizing education. I am not criticizing. But

it is the reality.

Everything else, whatever we can obtain or manage, will not

be 100% satisfactory to suit our needs. Many will say,

“There is no satisfaction.” But that’s not true. Buddha says it

is not true. There are many great beings who have obtained

ultimate development and they do have satisfaction. Just

because we didn’t get it doesn’t mean we can’t have it. We

haven’t seen anybody who has got it, but that doesn’t mean

there is no answer for it. That’s the reason why we look at

Buddhism or the spiritual path. Some people don’t like the

word ‘spiritual path’, because the word ‘spiritual’ is

associated with some kind of new age-y language and some

people are allergic to it. But then some people are allergic to

the word ‘religion’ too. They will think that ‘religion’ is only

the conservative Christianity. They will not think that

Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and so on are even

included. It is just language, however and any terminology

we use will have some of these problems.

Even Buddh–ism is something different. Buddha never called

his teaching Buddhism. All the –isms are a British invention,

including Buddh-ism. They tried to organize all the different

faiths and that’s how the –isms came up, Buddhism,

Hinduism and so on. They did that in order to categorize

them. It was not done by Buddha or Buddhists, but by the

British. That shows you how unreliable labels are.

But we utilize them today and are satisfied with saying “I am

a Buddhist.” People don’t go beyond that and question,

“What is it? Who made it? And where is it?” They don’t,

they know where to put the full stop. But in our case,

sometimes we don’t and we will go even further. Anyway, it

doesn’t matter. I am just wasting your time.

The thing is this: There is something beyond our

comprehensible, man-made world. However, we also have to

see that almost all the religions are also man-made. Even if

God made it, it is still man-made. So maybe I shouldn’t use

the term ‘beyond man-made’. Last time I was here Colleen

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was talking to Suan Phaik and calling her Wee Lin. Then

someone told her but she said, “You know who you are,

anyway.” I may have to follow in her footsteps and say,

“You know what I mean.” You come to that point because

you lost the base on which you can identify, because the

critically analyzing mind is pointing and any name you use

and if you are thinking on those lines, will straight away

point it out and you lose your base. Then there is no other

answer but “you know what I mean”.

We go for the spiritual path to get our fully satisfied answer.

Honestly. If some people follow this religion or that religion,

because it is the tradition and a family thing, blab la bla then

that is indeed just blab la bla, honestly. It is just a bunch of

sheep on the same highway. Like where I live in America,

everybody is driving on I 94, so that means all the sheep are

moving along on 94. But there may be one sheep what is

doing in a different direction and wants to find out and

doesn’t want to go along with that big group of sheep

pushing along. So we happen to be that one. A whole yard of

sheep are going in one direction, but one goes in a different

direction. That is like the genuine people who are looking for

some practice. And that doesn’t have to be Buddhist or any

tradition anywhere. The label you put on doesn’t matter

whatsoever, but your mind, your sharp analysis, trying to

understand what really is, that does matter. So here, what

Buddha and his followers in India and later in Tibet and now

everywhere else (whether it is called Tibetan Buddhism or

whatever) - shared with us and suggest to us is the path of the

three scopes which is easy to organize.

What is ‘scope’? Something like ice cream scoop?

Audience: More like ‘range’.

Rimpoche: Actually, for me ice scream scoop is good

enough. You can have a smaller scoop, a medium scoop and

a maha – big scoop. That makes three ice cream scoops on

top of each other.

The first level is really very fundamental. It is really

interesting to see this. How do I meditate on the first scope?

People ask, “Where do I begin? I want to do something.”

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Truly, the beginning is here. The Pre- part, like the 7 limbs,

generating the Field of Merit and so on, are definitely

absolutely necessary. Without that we will not be making

much of an effect. Although you repeat the same old thing

again and again, but still, it has its own value.

IMPERMANENCE - DEATH AND DYING

So then we begin to think. Why are we in this samsara? In

other words, why do we suffer? Why do we get older and

die? Why do we get reborn? Many of us say, “We just get

older. That’s it.” And “Yes, people die, because the body

doesn’t function anymore and there are diseases and organ

failures.” and whatever other reasons you may give.

But these are not the deeper reasons. They are just the

temporary causes and conditions. The real cause is the

continuation of the individual and the problem is there: when

you are born you are going to die. It is almost like you are

born to die. We are born to live but that is concluded by

death. Many of us will say, “How do I know that I will be

reborn again?” It is true, we don’t know. We have the idea

that we are going to die and we have some idea or perhaps

hope that we will not disappear, but appear again. But we

don’t really know. This is our true situation. This is one of

the major sufferings. Once we are born, our body is such that

it decays. No matter whatever you may do, it decays. It is

going to fall apart. This is another pain that we go through.

No matter how much we try to maintain the youthful look of

being 20 or 30 it is not going to work. We try to do all kinds

of things. We wash and polish and paint our face. And we

don’t use those words. We say, “I am putting on some

moisturizer” and “I am putting on some make-up”, but

actually we polish and then we paint it. Too much paint

doesn’t look good and too little paint doesn’t work. If you

put on too much it looks like a mask. Why do we all do that?

Because we don’t like the reality and want to cover it up.

That is our suffering. These are the major sufferings.

On top of that we have the suffering of our wishes not

coming true. We would like it to be this way, but things are

happening that way. All these struggles we are put through,

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everything, everywhere, in the house, in the family, in the

group, in society, in general, in the office, in the world, in

existence, everywhere we have all this. This is reality. It is

nobody’s individual special problem. It may look like “It is

my problem, I have to solve it”, but still it is the true reality.

Yet all of these are truly a joke in comparison to the bigger

problems. Imagine you find yourself born in the hell realms

and every ground is burning. Forget about being a little too

cold or too hot. It is burning. Or like in the cold hell realms

everything is cracking into pieces because it is so cold. That

is equally possible. These are our bigger problems. When

you compare those problems with the usual man-made

problems, then those are very little compared with the major

ones.

We are looking to overcome them. These little sufferings we

have become unbearable mentally. “I have been bullied”, “I

have been undermined”, “I have been ignored”, “They don’t

count me in”, “They want to shackle me” – all of these, truly

speaking are nothing. In reality it is nothing, if you think of

those other problems. Really. So why do we always have

them? All these combinations of suffering?

What did we do wrong? Why are we subject to all this

suffering? I feel I did nothing wrong. But what I engaged in

was actually the wrong things. I entertained my negative

emotions. I acted according to the directions given by my

negative emotions. That’s what I did. For me, sometimes it

may simply be minding my own business. That’s also true.

But that’s what is happening.

Remember Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara on your crown

and think, “I want to end my suffering. What did I do wrong?

Where do I go from here now?” The ‘Common with the

Lower Scope’ teachings tell us that this is because we never

think of impermanence. We think of everything else, “if you

play this card, I will play that card”, “if this person does that,

I will do this”, “I will direct my resources here”, “I will not

overspend” etc, We think of everything, except

impermanence in general and in particular, dying and death.

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That is the reality. It is here and it is everywhere, and can

happen anytime. There is no pre-announcement. If you are in

the Northern Continent you are supposed to live for a

thousand years. When the time comes they will give you a

warning, long enough before. Also, if you are in the samsaric

god realms, your flowers will start to deteriorate and die and

you will start sweating. So you know something is

happening. Actually, in the human land we also have these

diseases like cancer and you go through stage 3, stage 4 and

at that point that is a big warning. But other than that death

can just happen and many people just go. That’s nothing

unusual. It is naturally what it is. But we don’t think that.

That is a problem.

Another problem is that we don’t think it is possible that we

can be reborn in the lower realms, the hell realm, hungry

ghost realm or animal realms. We never thought about it and

we don’t think about that today. Even when we are talking

about it here some minds are thinking, “What??” and some

others are thinking, “Oh well, it is part of this dharma

teaching, in lam rim they say that all the time anyway, that’s

the usual language” and that’s how we begin to dismiss it.

Even though your physical body is here or you may be

listening to a recording or reading a transcript or book, but

still, even though you are hearing and reading about it, still

you think it is the usual language, the usual thing. That’s our

problem. If we think that is actually possible, then we should

do something.

WHY TAKE REFUGE

Sometimes people don’t want to think about these

possibilities because that will force them to do something. So

better not think about it. All of these are our problems. If we

think about it and even if we can’t immediately do something

out of our own power, at least we can take refuge in Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha. But we don’t think about that. Many or

most of us do take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

but only because “I am Buddhist” or “it is my parents’

tradition and religion”.

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The reasons we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

are because we want to. Why? Each and every one of us have

to think about it. Why did I personally first take refuge in

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha? Because I didn’t know

anything else. They just took me there and pushed me

through. But why did you? Think about it. Buddha tells us

the reason we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is

because there is a sense of urgency. In case I die today

without having any preparation, at least I can rely on

somebody. I can trust Buddha, because Buddha has these

qualities. I can trust Dharma and Sangha, because they have

these qualities.

FOLLOWING BUDDHA’S ADVICE – BUILD POSITIVITY,

END NEGATIVITY, WATCH YOUR MIND

Buddha’s qualities are that he himself is free from all these

problems I face. He has kindness and compassion and

enough care for others. He has the knowledge of how to help

and protect. Our problem is that we don’t really think these

things and we don’t really take refuge. Even if we take

refuge we don’t buy what the Buddha said. Buddha said that

if you do good you get good results and if you do bad you get

bad results. He tells us about karma. We don’t buy that at all.

We say, yes, yes, yes, it‘s true, but we don’t buy it from our

heart. We still think that we can very cleverly manage

something in between, rather than truly following. Honestly,

all of us will think that. We think there is something special

for me, something that I can manage in between. That’s what

we do almost all the time. Neither do we want to ignore the

karma, nor do we want to pay much attention. We say, “Yes,

yes, yes, it’s karma.”

We have a friend in Jewel Heart in Cleveland, a child

psychologist. The lady herself is interesting and a damn good

child psychologist and she had a dog named “Karma”. So

often karma becomes like that for us. I don’t mean that she

doesn’t pay attention to karma, but many of us will sort of

respect karma, but at the same time never think that “I am

governed by my own karma.” If you are asked, most of you

will say yes. But do we normally think that? No, we don’t. If

we did then we would begin to realize that every action of

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ours makes a difference. That very important understanding

is coming from our own tradition, whether we are Chinese,

Tibetan or whatever. But we are learning it from a western

example. We notice that many western educated people are

paying attention to actions and deeds of individuals, thinking

that will make a difference. Sometimes they emphasize so

much the environmental issues or child care. They point out

that children are misused, financially, sexually or whatever

and those acts are very strongly condemned so that they

don’t become habits and don’t repeat. Sometimes their

awareness is so much that – forgive me the choice of words,

I don’t really mean it, but – they obnoxiously push them

through so much. But that awareness actually comes from

Buddha and in our own tradition we dismiss it under the

umbrella of karma or whatever. Maybe karma is a little dog

in Cleveland. We pay no attention. Then we are learning

from those people. Sometimes it is definitely worth learning

from Mother Theresa or people like that.

Non-violence is one of the basic principles of karma. Buddha

observed it. Many other great earlier Hindu-Buddhist and

western scholars have observed it. Gandhi made best use of

it. But now we are learning about the importance of non-

violence from the western media and leaders. I don’t know

what I am talking about. I don’t know where I am going, but

these are our problems. It is not that we don’t know. We very

much do know. But we don’t consider that this is our

problem. We don’t consider that we suffer today because of

these things. But not religions, not Buddhists, not Hindus,

but normal, well-educated people in the west emphasize all

of that. We ignore them. We pay attention when they pay

attention. When they make noise we begin to realize it is

important. But truly, why do we suffer today? Because we

ignore it.

The black and white guidance Buddha has given is to avoid

negatives and build positives as much as you can and watch

your mind. We do write that on the walls in our temples, but

it is left on the walls of the temples. The members of the

temple don’t associate their minds with it. Yet we will go to

a Buddhist scholar and say, “Hey, you are a well-educated

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scientist and Buddhist, would you give me a brief statement

of bus stop Buddhism?” What can they tell you? They will

say, “Avoid negativities, build positivities and watch your

mind.” That’s what Buddha said to us 2600 years ago. That

is hanging at various temple doors here and there. But when

it is told by western scientists you think it is great and

wonderful. Ignoring is our problem.

Recognizing this problem now, may I and all mother sentient

beings have the development of remembering impermanence

all the time. I may have the development of a sense of

urgency to protect me and all sentient beings from falling

into the lower realms and take refuge in Buddha, Dharma

and Sangha.

DEATH IS DEFINITE AND THE TIME IS UNCERTAIN

Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara is on your crown and you

are continuously expressing those thoughts and making

requests that ‘I may develop the appropriate way of knowing,

managing, functioning in my life’. While making requests

the first we have to deal with is impermanence. That is no

question. We may not realize the subtle impermanence that

we are changing every second,we do know we are changing.

We change our physical appearance, we change our mind,

we change everything. So we will also change our physical

body. It is important that we remember that and think about

it. It is definitely going to happen. It has happened before, is

happening now and will happen in future. Within that future,

I too, each and every one of us will go through that too.

Can I avoid that? We always think that we will manage

somehow. We think, “Maybe it’s okay today. Maybe I will

manage today and escape.” We always do that. It reminds me

of some very funny poetry that Allen Ginsberg wrote. I saw

the performance of this poetry. With a huge noise someone is

coming and the individual says, “He is coming, he is the

Lord of Death.” The individual runs into the toilet and hides

there, even lifting up his feet so they cannot be seen from

underneath. So Death comes and catches an innocent kid.

Then the man on the toilet says, “I escaped but he killed an

innocent kid. And he is coming back for me.” That reminds

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me how we can think that we can avoid death. Running in

the toilet and hiding, maybe death will come and get

somebody else. But that’s not true, because neither is death

blind nor does it not recognize the person, nor can you avoid

it.

Buddha said,“There is no such a place where you can hide

from death, not in space, not in the ocean or under the ocean,

not behind the mountains. Wherever you are, when the time

comes you go.” We all go. That is nature. That is reality. If

you don’t go that is funny. But we all go. The problem is we

don’t know when. There is no certainty at all. The Northern

Continent’s people are supposed to have a 1000 year

guarantee or something. Other than that there is no certainty

at all. Not only that: we have so many conditions for death

and many less for living. Honestly, we consider taking care

of ourselves physically a good way of living. But then

sometimes that turns out to be a cause of death. People

exercise, taking care of themselves physically. But exercises

are not necessarily accident-free. Even the method of healthy

living can change into a cause for dying, but the cause for

death doesn’t change into living much. We can see that. It is

clear. In one way our physical body is nice and strong, but it

is very weak. If only a tiny little thing happens you can die.

Even Nagarjuna, the great early Indian sage and master, who

is supposed to have lived for 600 years, is supposed to have

died from having his throat cut with some little blade of

grass.

Somebody tried to kill him and they couldn’t do it at all. So

they asked him why. He said, “I don’t have a karma of dying,

except one. If you use a little blade of grass you can cut my

throat and I will die.” So that’s what happened. So really,

death is something very definite. It will come and there is no

way you can avoid it at all. Also when it is going to come

you never know.

RECOGNIZING DEATH IS DEFINITE WILL MAKE A

DIFFERENCE

What difference does it make if I knew? The difference

would be if I have the impact of death in my mind I would

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not have much attachment, forget about obsession. I

wouldn’t have attachment for samsaric goodies. Our problem

is the samsaric goodies. If I knew that death is definite and

there is no certainty [when it comes] then I would not

develop such attachment. It could even happen tonight or in

the next minute or hour. I don’t want to frighten you, but that

is the reality. So what do I do? Well, give up attachment,

honestly. Give up attachment to the samsaric goodies. That is

our problem. Samsaric goodies can be anything. Making that

strong request to the Lama, light and liquid are coming from

the body of the Lama, washing our negativities in general

and particularly attachment. They purify it and extend the

longevity, luck and fortune, etc, as usual.

The attachment-free mental state is the perfect ground of

dharma practice. Think that you have developed that through

the blessings of the Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara. That

is dealing with impermanence.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH

The second point now is this: requesting the Lama: kayb ne

kun tu lama lhag pai lha thubwang dor je chang la sol wa

deb – the Lama who is the nature of all Buddha, Dharma and

Sangha and every object of refuge, making strong requests.

The purpose of that request is: I have found the life which is

important, with all the opportunities and capabilities and

which is difficult to find. I have the understanding that this is

impermanent and I can lose it any minute. What will happen

if I lose it? What will happen to me after death?

Begin to think about it. Am I going to be completely void

and disappear? I don’t think we would like to accept that. As

an intelligent person I don’t think anyone of us will accept

that we are going to be void. No. Many of you may say, “I

don’t know.” It is true, we don’t know, but most probably a

void is not going to happen. So something else will happen.

That can only be the same old thing: taking rebirth, what

else? What type of rebirth? We have no way of telling. It can

be good, it can be bad. All right, if it is bad what can it be?

Hell realms, hungry ghost realm or animal realms. Wherever,

whatever, in all these three we have tremendous pain. Hot,

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cold, hungry and dull. If I happen to fall into that it is

tremendous suffering. I will not be able to bear it. So let’s try

not to be there. Try now. It is not too late. This is nothing but

the perfect position in life to get, if possible, even the

Buddha stage. I may be blessed to be able to do that. I make

up my mind that I am going to become a fully enlightened

Buddha so that I don’t go into those suffering states. I can be

immune from those sufferings. I rely on Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara not to go there. Light and liquid come

from the physical body of the Lama, reach to me and all

living beings, purify all negativities in general and

particularly the negativities of getting reborn in the lower

realms, all are completely purified. The possibility of

obtaining the perfect Lama Buddha state has been

established.

ACTIVITIES WITH TAKING REFUGE

Now, let’s talk about the refuge. Meditating Lama Lhag pai

Lha on your crown, he manifests Lama, yidams, buddhas,

bodhisattvas, dakas, dakinis and dharmapalas, like earlier in

the refuge field. They all settle around the Lama Lhag pai

Lha. Look very carefully. These are the objects of my refuge.

I remember their physical, mental and emotional qualities

and their knowledge. I make strong requests that “I and all

mother sentient beings may not have samsaric suffering in

general and especially not have the threat of falling into the

lower realms. Please protect me, help me this very minute.”

With that mind you can say the refuge. Either you can say

Namo Gurube, Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmaya, Namo

Sanghaya or Buddha Charama Gacchami….

Also sometimes people like to say I take refuge in Guru, I

take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dharma, I take refuge

in Sangha 100x. You can say 100 each, or 1000 each or

100,000 each. The whole idea is that I and all mother sentient

beings shall be protected from this very moment onwards

from falling into the lower realms. Now again light and

liquid. The delam has so much light and liquid coming. Light

and liquid come from the physical body of the objects of

refuge, dissolve to me and all sentient beings. Just by

dissolving the light all our negativities are purified and the

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blessings of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are obtained, our

life is made worthwhile and our fortune, quality, etc, is built.

We truly take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and

follow the advice of the refuge. So that is the refuge aspect.

TAKING REFUGE AND KARMA

Then the karma aspect comes. Not only do we take refuge.

When we go to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they will tell

us, “Yes, we will help you, but you have to follow the karma,

you are responsible for yourself.”

What do you mean by that? Buddha tells us that if we create

positive deeds we get positive results. If we create negative

deeds we get negative consequences. Both, good and bad

karma, however small they may be, they can become huge,

provided it is not neutralized. So the consequences of joy and

suffering will very definitely be given. That also is on what

basis? On the basis of a very important field. If we do

positive deeds based on that field, they will be much more

powerful. Whatever you make, that makes karma stronger.

Karmic detail is important but difficult to know.

Buddha himself said that karma is more difficult to

understand than the wisdom of emptiness. Sometimes karma

gives its result definitely, but it also depends on the base on

which it is committed, what is your motivation, the actual

deeds, for whom you do it – all these make a big difference.

Karma is very sophisticated and complicated. The most

important thing is the faith, that relying on karma is very

definitely an intelligent faith, and you have to develop this.

Otherwise, we will lose the fundamental basis of virtue

within us. By doing this we should be avoiding even the

subtlest and smallest of the 10 non-virtues and building even

the smallest, subtlest of the 10 virtues. I may be able to do

this and blessed to be able to do this. I make strong requests

to Lama Lhagpai Lha and their physical body will give light

and liquid and purify all negativities in general and in

particular negativities of not trusting, not believing in karma.

It is not that karma is another person over there that you have

to believe in. Believing in karma means taking your own

personal responsibility.

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KARMA AND TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

I take my own responsibility. I do good things for me and I

don’t do bad things for me. Really trusting karma and

believing in karma means to take responsibility. In one way

we will pray that way. On the other hand what you are really

building is taking responsibility for yourself. That is an

important impact in one’s mind. Always remember the

negative causes of suffering, the positive causes of good

things. I don’t want suffering. I want positivity. I want good

things.

Even if you do that, negative things will happen. Even

though you don’t want to do them, sometimes you can’t help

it. Sometimes negative things are impossible to avoid. Our

life is such that it cannot be completely right, very definitely

not. Righteousness is not necessarily possible. If something

goes wrong, make sure you purify. Purification is the

modification of your negativities. If you leave the negativity

as it is it will give you its negative result. But to deal with it,

if you purify it, that is the only answer for us. Otherwise we

carry a tremendous amount of negativities and positivities

and each one is richer than the royal treasury – as the

traditional teachings say. That is supposed to be the biggest

and richest.

Always remember. I might not be able to tell you here in

detail how to purify, but you know. Even in our Jewel Heart

7 limbed prayer there is a line about purification: I purify all

my transgressions. This is important. It is not that when

something is done it is a done deal and you can do nothing

about it. You can do something and that is purification. That

basically covers the “Common with the Lower Level.”

Here you establish your purpose to get freedom from

suffering. You apply the prerequisites, guru devotional

practice, importance of the life, the difficulty to find it,

impermanence, death, and what happens after death and

karma. All these thoughts are applied. First you learn it,

second you comprehend it and third you keep on thinking

about it. Fourth, make that your own character. When you

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are able to do that you have done this “common with the

lower level” practice. The goal is to get freedom. The objects

to throw out are the negativities. What you are building are

positivities. And don’t forget impermanence. Don’t forget

what happens after death. Don’t forget our life is managed by

our own karma. Especially, don’t forget that our karma is

managed by us. That means each and every individual,, by

yourself. Avoid the wrong, build the positive, whenever

negative comes, purify it.

REVIEWING AND UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF

GURU DEVOTION

Remember, the root of all development, guru devotional

practice, then developing oneself afterwards. The root of all

development, guru devotional practice also has the actual

session and in between sessions. The actual session has pre,

actual and conclusion.

Actual is guru devotional practice on mental aspects and on

physical aspects. The mental aspects also have: root of all

development, developing faith, remembering the kindness

and then the action relationship, what do you do. And then

conclusion.

The whole idea is that all your gurus, including the root and

other gurus and lineage masters, all of them really combine

together and you see them as fully enlightened beings.

People who have no idea, if you show them this first, it will

be nothing but someone trying to brainwash them. Then,

instead of helping them, we are creating big harm from them.

So although this is the root and the beginning, we have to be

very aware of it. Someone who is interested and desperately

needs this path and the help from it, if you present it to them

that way, you may be doing them a big disservice. It may be

very harmful for that person – forget about yourself. So be

very aware of that.

For me, as part of the teaching, I talk a little bit, but in the

west, for about 10, 15 years I didn’t talk much about guru

devotional practice, because there is a danger of

misunderstanding and that can weigh more than the benefit

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that one can get. But in the east the story is slightly different,

because eastern culture and customs do have that and do

permit that. There is less danger of misunderstanding. But

talking about being Buddha may be a little too much to

swallow even in the east, for someone who doesn’t have

much of an idea about it.

The bottom line is that if we are looking at Buddha and we

are receiving teachings and the opportunity to build merit on

the basis of Buddha, then we get much more advantage and if

we do it on the basis of a bodhisattva, we get the bodhisattva

advantage, just not like Buddha.

Similarly, as it came up in earlier in the teaching, the

negativity and positivity we build karma-wise, what is going

to be most powerful depends on what you build: shing dang

sam pa dang ngo bo dang jo wa. The base on which you

build, the motivation you carry and the actual practice you do

– all that makes a difference. For an individual person like

me, whatever I could deal with Buddha and a living Buddha I

get that much benefit. We all want advantages, no one wants

disadvantages. Therefore, for me looking at all my gurus as

living buddhas is a total advantage and no disadvantage. That

is the reason why this teaching is called “root of

development”. Then thereafter, everything becomes a little

easier than expected.

That is because this path, the practice, is really a big struggle,

whether you like it or not or accept it or not. The perfect guru

devotional practice makes it much, much easier. It uplifts the

individual far beyond what we can comprehend. It is very

important.

Then after developing guru devotional practice comes the

actual practice: recognizing the life, the importance and the

difficulty to find it. So with that the base has been

established.

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Then what does one do? The major things are: ‘common with

the lower scope’, ‘common with the medium scope’ and the

mahayana path.

CONCLUDING COMMON WITH THE LOWER LEVEL

So actually three things. The ‘common with the lower scope’

really tells us where we are and what we are. Where we are is

actually in samsara. That is what they introduce. Most of you

people who will be reading this transcript or will be listening

on the internet if it is put on there, most of you have an idea

what samsara is. It is the life we have today, uncontrolled. It

has a mind of its own and it has lots of ups and downs. Most

of them are pain and suffering. Yet, there are some nice little

goodie spots. Otherwise everybody will not be interested.

Somehow we can get hooked by this mind. We get addicted

to samsaric life. What we get addicted to is the goodie –

aspects of samsara and in order to get these goodies we will

tolerate so much suffering and pain. We are looking for that

tiny, little goodie thing, wherever it is going to show up and

that is the only thing that gets us hooked in samsara,

honestly.

Like we all know, nicotine gets us addicted. Those who are

smokers, know. Likewise, attachment within our life makes

us addicted to samsaric life. It is only the attachment. Not

anger or hatred, not the misery, but we are looking and are

willing to bear the pains and misery, knowingly, because we

are hooked on the samsaric goodies by attachment. So this is

samsara.

In absolute reality there is nothing good, only suffering. Even

the joys that we think are great, are in nature suffering, in

their action, in their consequences. It is pain, suffering and

misery. Honestly.

Some people may think, “Oh, if that’s the case I am going to

just end it.” And lots of people do. They jump from high

buildings or take overdoses and do all kinds of things. The

pain becomes too severe so they think they can just cut it.

But the problem is that by ending this life the pain doesn’t

end. That is our biggest problem. If life was the only problem

we could just end it, but unfortunately, one life ends and

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another begins. That’s why it is called samsara. It is the

continuation. Nothing good, all misery, continuing and never

ending. Sounds like extremely depressing and may be it is.

But the truth is that it can end – but not by ending your life

and not by torturing yourself, not by the engagement in

violence against oneself or others. Instead of ending it, it

increases and intensifies it. This is our biggest headache.

Somehow we are caught in this. We are in this and that’s

why this is samsara and Buddha said that samsara is

suffering and nirvana is peace.

So we have to introduce that to ourselves and recognize

where we are. This is samsara and knowing the samsara’s

problems and truly disliking it, building that mind that is

really working against attachment. Building that up is the

purpose of the ‘common with the lower scope’. At the same

time recognize the value, importance and capability of life

and also know that it is impermanent and that there is

continuation even after death. One life ends, another begins

and the same old stuff continues, sometimes a little better,

sometimes a little worse, sometimes much worse, sometimes

much better, yet the same old thing continuing. That’s what

we call samsara.

Yes, we have a life, this beautiful mind, which is very

capable. But that mind is not going to be there all the time. It

is impermanent and even afterwards continues, but it is not

certain that whatever we have now we will have in future.

Chances are not likely. How much virtue do we have within

ourselves and how much non-virtue? We begin to see that.

You don’t need a rocket engineer to figure out how it’s going

to be. Knowing our own mind, our own positive and negative

karma, how much we build and how pure it is, it is quite

clear that we have difficulties. So what is really needed is

liberation, liberation from samsara. That’s it. But the

‘common with the lower’ will say that, in case I don’t make

it and death comes before, right now immediately what

should I do? So the answer is to take refuge in Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha. After taking refuge, follow the advice,

which is karma. That much is the ‘common with the lower

level.’

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VI

COMMON WITH THE MEDIUM SCOPE

Now we are on “Common with the Medium Level”. The

“Common with the Lower Level” has brought us up to the

refuge and understanding of karma. They also introduced

you to how horrible samsara is. But the emphasis is not so

much on getting out of samsara in “common with the lower

level”, but more or less emergency measures like taking

refuge and then following karma.

It is actually very important as the fundamental basis. Even if

you look at Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths,

Buddha taught first suffering, then the cause of suffering.

That really shows the two circles of negative noble truths: the

result, suffering and the cause. That is more clearly used as

principle to show how our life really is. Both the lower and

medium scope do that, but the lower scope shows the

suffering more. And then the cause of suffering. It doesn’t

come without cause, it doesn’t pop up from nowhere. It is not

that somebody somehow decided to give it to you. It is not. It

is our own deeds. We created the causes through our own

deeds. We are responsible. Without spelling it out, it is

clearly shown there.

The “common with the medium” level asks: is there some

way out of this? Is there something outside that? And

basically they tell you: yes. How they present that here is

with two basic outlines:

1. Generating the desire to obtain liberation

2. Actual way to obtain liberation

GENERATING THE DESIRE TO OBTAIN LIBERATION

In order to generate that interest they have to tell us: yes,

there is something beyond this samsara. There is something

called ‘nirvana’. That is a Sanskrit word for the continuation

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of life. That’s about it. Nirvana is also a Sanskrit word,

which really means peace, free of those sufferings. When

there is violence, misery and problems, there is no peace.

When you are free of that, it is peace. So nirvana is peace. So

the Buddha tells us: I found out that this is what we are. I

also found out that there is another state called peace and we

can get it and here is how.

These are basically the two outlines. Looking at the time we

have left and how much more I have to get through I am

going to make it a little shorter. But please remember the

prerequisite meditation of Lama Lhag pai Lha, Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara on your crown, making the seven limbed

offering, including the mandala offering, making requests,

light and liquid are coming and purify me and all mother

sentient beings and purify all negativities in general and

particularly obstacles to this development.

THINKING AND MEDITATION

Now the actual session is the thought process – meditation.

Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang is staying with us as witness,

guide and leader. So we keep on meditating him on our

crown and then engage in the thought process. Meditation is

thought process, right? We are thinking. Not thinking and

just sitting there may or may not be meditation. That is a

different story. We can talk more when we get to the level of

the perfection of concentration. If there is no time to do that,

I have a very good transcript called GOM. That is

meditation. It is a really good one. It is available in Jewel

Heart everywhere and really tells you about meditation. It is

a really good one.

But it is really thinking. There are people who teach you

meditation – I saw that in the west. It is a very famous, huge

group of people. They really have this meditation thing that

lets the thoughts take you, rather than you guiding the

thoughts. You can think anything. Let the thoughts go and

they take you wherever they go. You sit there for hours and

then they say, “I have gone very far today.” Actually, the

thoughts have just been taking you. That is John Rogers and

another teacher who teach that. They have seminars all over

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the world. Every time you look at their seminars they are

completely oversold. You can’t get in. They are sold out two,

three years ahead of time. I know some people within Jewel

Heart who do that too. They enjoy doing that. Not only that,

the people that I know and who are very strongly a part of

Jewel Heart are also responsible for John Rogers’

organization too. They will sit on the roof garden of their

apartment in New York and come out and say, “I have gone

very far away today” or something. That is where the

thoughts take you. I have no idea what you get from that. It is

not for me to criticize, but what Buddha told us is that we

shouldn’t let our thoughts take us but we should take our

thoughts. We should lead our thoughts.

Buddha introduced the subjects we should think about. If

people can’t manage their minds then of course they tell you

to concentrate on the mind or on a Buddha image or

something. That is the training of mind to be able to focus.

You know these meditations are very useful for health too.

Jon Kabat Zinn is a Buddhist from Zen background. He is

very famous and you can’t get ahold of him. His meditations

are very helpful. Now they are used by many hospitals. He

himself is extremely busy and he said that while he is very

famous in the United States, he is more active in China than

anywhere else.

If the mind doesn’t manage, you have those things. There are

lots of benefits because of the meditation. It is part of

meditation. It is not so much a blessing or anything, but

mental relaxation will make a huge difference. The way the

Buddha taught, it is making mind more active rather than

doing nothing. Relaxing is one thing. Not being active is

another thing. So here the Buddhist meditation tells you to be

more active. We guide the mind. We introduce the subject.

We give the direction to mind to think. The subject

introduced here is to make a very strong impact.

Again, the emphasis is that as long as we have attachment to

samsara we are not going to be interested in liberation at all,

because attachment is going to hold us back. We dislike

suffering and we have plenty of them, but we don’t think

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about suffering, we think a lot about joy and happiness. That

is the true reality and many think that thinking about joy and

happiness is a good thing. It is really true. It also is a good

thing. But thereby the thinking about suffering and dislike of

samsara will be weakened. Attachment for samsara is

automatically there and the feeling is very comfortable for us

and we like to remain there. Somehow we have to make that

change. If we can’t change that we are not going to have

desire for liberation at all. If we don’t have that, then we

don’t seek liberation. When we don’t seek liberation we are

not going to get liberated. And then our suffering will

continue life after life. Not only our suffering will continue,

but the wonderful, effective and very efficient life we have

gotten, that opportunity will all be wasted.

So this is the reality. We have to change it. It is not

something we are telling ourselves which is untrue. We are

pointing out the truth of suffering within us. So, first is

thinking about suffering in general in samsara and

specifically different realms.

SUFFERING IN SAMSARA AND THE DIFFERENT REALMS

When we have all the time we can go through suffering in

general and specifically human suffering and the suffering of

samsaric gods, demigods, animals, hungry ghosts and hell

beings. All of them we can do. We can also think about the

three types of suffering, eight types of suffering and sixteen

types of suffering. But we are limited with time. And if you

read the transcripts read all the lam rim transcripts you can,

not only de lam. So I am going to cut it short here and put all

suffering of samsara together. The meditative state, thinking

about the lama, light and liquid come, purify and you obtain

blessings to be able to develop the “common with the

medium level” scope.

Then think this way: as we see in samsara, whenever,

whatever, as long as we remain in samsara there is so much

pain and so much difficulty. There is so much change,

change between the relationships between individuals. For

me, personally, my friends, my enemies, those who care and

those who don’t care, we have so many sufferings, losing our

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friends, companions and friends become enemies. It changes.

There is no valid or solid reason. Sometimes a simple little

thing happens and a friend becomes an enemy or an enemy

becomes a friend. When you lose a friend it is the suffering

of losing a friend. When you build more enemies it is the

suffering of having more enemies. Either way it gives you

suffering.

Not only that. Even if you obtain a little bit of joy in samsara

there is no satisfaction. Continuously we are looking for

more. In order to get that we sacrifice so much and

experience so much misery, hoping that some little joy that

we are addicted to will come back. But instead, so many

sufferings will come and we go through with them. Every

good thing we have, including our physical body, changes

and we will lose them and they will go away. So today I have

this wonderful life, this wonderful opportunity. I have the

teachings of Buddha. I have guidance. If today I cannot

completely eradicate the samsara out of my system then

when can I do it? I would like to do it and do it now. I may

be blessed to be able to do it. Again, light and liquid come

from the body of Lama Thubwang Dorje Chang, enter me

and all mother sentient beings, purify negativities committed

from the limitless beginning and particularly become free of

samsara’s suffering and obtain the state of Lama Buddha. If

there are any obstacles may they be cleared. Our physical

body becomes light nature and luck, fortune and all qualities

and knowledge totally increase. I may be able to obtain the

development stage of seeking and obtaining the Lama

Buddha’s stage, free of samsara.

That will be one general samsara-renouncing meditation.

Specifically, you can renounce the suffering of cold and heat

in the hell realms, in the hungry ghost realms the suffering of

hunger, in the animal realm the suffering of dullness, in the

human realm the suffering of all the three poisons. In the

samsaric gods’ realm you can renounce the suffering of the

signs of death and the knowledge and the clarity of seeing

your next rebirth, etc. Other than that there is no direct pain

in the god realms. The demi-gods have their own suffering

too. So purify that. In short, the basic identity of our own

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identity, the physical body, combined with this mind that is

occupying it, this body, not necessarily as a human, but

sometimes as an animal or hell realm person, sometimes

samsaric god, but that continuation of identity is the real

problem of samsara.

If you really want to know what samsara is don’t look

outside, like the place where you live. The true samsara is the

continuation of the identity and its continued relationship

with the entity. The physical identity whatever it may be and

the occupying self within that – that is the problem.

That is the base for all other sufferings. This provides the

base for the suffering of birth, aging, illness, death. This

provides us with the possibility to be tormented by the

suffering of suffering, the changing suffering, not only in this

life, but even in future lives. This entity-identity, just by

establishing it, all the pains are attached to us, completely.

They become inseparable from us. It is not like some new

program attached to your cell phone. This you can throw out

and separate out. But these sufferings are not separable. They

are strongly put in there. As long as we have that entity-

identity, we are going to have the continuation of these

sufferings. That’s the problem. When we want to liberate

ourselves we really want to liberate the basis of suffering.

That is the continuation of contaminated identity. That is our

samsara and that is what we have to be free of.

RENOUNCING OUR CONTAMINATED CONTINUATION OF

IDENTITY

In the “common with the lower” level you not only know

that is there something called samsara and nirvana, but you

really have to know what samsara is. You know, you keep on

thinking that the human land has suffering and the human

beings and animals, etc, are suffering, are circling, but it is

good to pinpoint what that is. That can sometimes be the

advantage of shorter teachings. In the longer teaching, when

you have time, you go around, pointing out everything. But

when you don’t have the time and you want to get to the

bottom line, the bare bones, you can just say what it is. That

what you are renouncing is the contaminated continuation of

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identity. That is your samsara, honestly. I have my samsara,

you have your samsara. I have my object of renouncing and

you have your object of renouncing. That is your samsara,

my samsara. My samsara is my object of renunciation and

your samsara is your object of renunciation. My samsara is

the continuation of identity which is contaminated. That is

the total samsara. Don’t look for something else. That’s it.

When you want to renounce, that’s what you renounce – not

a place, not a house, not the food, companion or anything

else, but the contaminated identity which is continuing. As a

continuation it doesn’t necessarily even continue as form.

Sometimes it is so subtle. When it goes from one life to

another, it becomes so subtle that it almost doesn’t exist. And

sometimes it is so huge. You have such a huge ego. But

that’s it.

I am thinking about a funny thing. Remember, years ago

there was a movie called “Little Buddha”. A group of people

were looking for the reincarnation of somebody. They found

a boy in Nepal, one in Seattle and one in India or somewhere.

Then there is a Chinese movie actor who really looks like

some senior Tibetan geshe. So he was sitting there, dressed

up. He was trying to explain to the Seattle kid’s parents about

the reincarnation. Tea was being poured into a cup.

I don’t know whether he broke the tea cup or the tea pot, but

he broke something purposely in the movie. So the tea fell on

the table and he got a towel to soak up the tea. Then he

squeezed the towel and the tea came out of the towel. At that

moment I didn’t get much impact from that. But later I

thought about it and actually somebody who knew what they

are talking about planned that. When I say “continuation”, it

is the hot tea in the tea pot, drinkable and good. Then the tea

from the tea pot went into the tea cup. The tea cup broke and

the tea went on the table, was soaked up by the towel and

then squeezed out of the towel. It is no longer the nice, hot

drinkable tea, but it is still the continuation of the tea. By

now maybe it is dirty and no longer drinkable, but still it is

tea. So the transition, the identity, continues. The

continuation is not like carrying the tea pot with the nice, hot

tea from here to there and pour it into another nice tea pot.

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The tea cup broke, the tea fell on the table but continued,

was soaked up in the towel and squeezed out of the towel and

still, tea comes out. That’s how the transition goes.

Sometimes it is so subtle.

Buddha gave an example that is almost very questionable.

The transition from one life to another he described as being

like transferring a flame from one candle to another. You

touch the new candle to the old candle and the flame goes to

the new candle. They are two different candles. How can the

new candle be the continuation of the old one? But think

about the Olympic torch. There are so many torches being

carried, but they are all lit from one and then carried out

through the different areas and then [to the Olympic

Stadium]. By the next Olympics they will light new torches

from that one. So everybody calls that the “Olympic Torch”

being carried around. Nobody says that it is no longer the

original Greek torch. So sometimes it is so subtle, just the

continuation. It is not the same tea pot and likewise, it is not

the same physical body, not even the same personality, but

still the continuation.

When we talk about samsara, the identity, that’s what we are

talking about. When you want to renounce, that’s what you

want to renounce. When we are talking about liberation, we

want to be totally free of contamination, yet continuing. We

need to be free of all contamination, a real, good, brand new

one. That’s what we are seeking liberation for, that’s what

we mean when we talk about nirvana.

This mediation should be enough for us to find what we want

to seek and what we want to renounce. That should be good

enough for the first outline: seeing samsara as suffering and

developing the desire for liberation.

HOW TO ESTABLISH LIBERATION

Next is how to establish the liberation. That also has pre-

actual and conclusion, as usual.

What gets one individual liberated? What makes an

individual change the identity from contaminated nature to

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uncontaminated nature? That is truly what liberates you. We

are looking at our mind. We as a person exist as outer

physical body and inner mind. The outer physical body

changes. Now we look at the inner mind. What is that mind?

Is it virtue, non-virtue, black, white or neutral? What is it?

The nature of the mind is not virtue, not non-virtue, but it is

neutral.

But when we begin to think and look we see “I” and “my”. I

begin to feel close to me and my. Naturally I feel distance

from others and their others’. When I feel close to me and

my, I develop attachment. When I feel distance from others

and their others’ – with that I mean other people’s hands,

legs, desires, wishes – the distance pushes me and my away

from others and others’. That will bring dislike. That brings

ultimately hatred. So we develop the pull of attachment and

obsession and push of anger and hatred. Then you have the

superior feeling of self. Everything about me and my is right

and everything about others and others’ is wrong. So I am

looking down. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition describes this

as pride.

PRIDE AND CUTTING THE ROOT OF OUR SUFFERING

From the western language point of view that is not pride. I

think it is some kind of superiority and inferiority complex.

We have that. The less educated we are the more we have the

superiority and inferiority complexes. If you are well

educated you won’t have those. You have much less. Both

usual education and spiritual knowledge help with

recognizing this. The superiority-inferiority complexes are so

much that sometimes we ignore Buddha and his teachings on

karma, Four Noble Truths, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, etc.

We have wrong understanding and wrong doubt and these

provide the basis for us to grow all our negative emotions.

Because of that we create all sorts of negative karmas and

because of that we create all sufferings. So if I trace all my

sufferings I am going to trace them to the root of all of them,

which is traditionally called ignorance. It is this ego –

superiority complex, combined with hatred, obsession,

confusion and fear. This is the root of samsara. I must not

give myself over to this. If I do I will continuously suffer. I

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don’t want to continuously suffer. This is the time for me to

cut it. So I am here to proclaim my own independence from

my own ignorance. That’s how we really proclaim our

liberation. We will trace where it is coming from and how to

manage them. It is quite simple, actually. Buddha gave us the

three baskets of teachings. Each of them is also called a

higher training. So Buddha gave us Three Higher Trainings:

Higher Training in Morality, Higher Training in Sutra and

Higher Training in Metaphysics.

First and foremost is morality. Vows and commitments are

given a lot in Buddhism. Each and every vow that we have, if

we protect them, is helpful. If we don’t, it is harmful. Really

maintaining my own vows and commitments is important in

general and particularly, the basic 10 non-virtues. They

include not killing, not stealing, not committing sexual

misconduct, not lying, etc. Their opposites are the 10 virtues.

Simply following these straight away will establish the

Higher Training of Morality very well. That is the essence of

Buddha’s basket teaching on morality. Vows and

commitments, following the karmic advice in short is to

avoid all negativities, build positivities as much as you can

and watch your mind. This is Buddhism. Buddha himself

said that. That is basic morality.

The real path that delivers liberation to us is three: morality,

wisdom and concentration. So I pray to the Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara that I may have the perfect Three Higher

Trainings in my life every day, every minute. I may live with

these Three Higher Trainings. I will sleep with these Three

Higher Trainings. I walk with these Three Higher Trainings.

I will think and I will die with these Three Higher Trainings.

If you can put that much effort and emphasis and hold that

much mind as your principle,, then liberation is not only not

impossible, but it is possible and not that far away.

These are the advantages of Buddha’s teaching. If we do

nothing, think nothing, if we submit ourselves totally to

laziness, wandering, entertainment, then it is our problem. I

guess that should be enough for this part. If I go in more

detail here it is going to take a long time.

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The conclusion will be the same thing: Focus on the Lama

Buddha Buddha Vajradhara single pointedly or say mantras

and think about it. That should be enough for the medium

scope.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Audience: When you go from samsara to nirvana, what

happens to the tea or the torch?

Rimpoche: I think it is continuing. If you leave cyclic

existence, or let’s call it samsara, and if you are out of

samsara, then you are free of those negative emotions and

particularly ego. Perhaps it could be for the first time that the

individual self begins to function. Until then there are lots of

other conditions. Everything is dependent origination.

Everything becomes conditions and causes. Even the

functioning of the individual human beings – many times we

are functioning based on negative circumstances and causes.

All of those, when they are free, your question is when

transferred from samsara, then what happens, right? Probably

the pure being is beginning to pop up. The self begins to

show and it is the pure aspects, without the influence of

negative emotions or influences. It is the pure individual

showing his face. People talk about meeting yourself or the

true nature appearing. They are really talking about the true

self being not so much influenced by negative conditions and

causes. Who really obtains liberation? The true self. What is

the difference between true self and true wisdom on self?

The bottom line is the same – not so much difference.

Theoretically, if I say there is that much difference, it may or

may not be right. Theoretically, it is the same thing: the self,

the individual, the true nature. People talk about

encountering the self and self-nature, that’s all fine.

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VII

DEVELOPMENT OF BODHIMIND

THE MAHAYANA SCOPE

Now we have the Mahayana path left. That is development

of the bodhimind and its practice.

To develop the bodhimind there are the seven stages and the

exchange stages. Either of them work. The Mahayana path

has the two basic outlines:

1. Developing bodhimind

2. After developing bodhimind, how to function – the

activities

Developing bodhimind has two:

a) Developing bodhimind through the meditative state

b) Developing bodhimind through ritual

DEVELOPING BODHIMIND THROUGH THE MEDITATIVE

STATE

There are 2 systems for developing bodhimind:

1) The 7 stage development with 6 causes and the

result

2) The exchange stage development

Actual bodhimind has to be developed through the mind

level. Rituals and vows, etc, are there, but attending

ceremonies where the vows are given and taken, are not

necessarily a guarantee that the individual has obtained

bodhimind. It is unlike vajrayana initiations. There, whether

you obtain that initiation or not, it authorizes the individual

to practice vajrayana and [they are able to do the activities]

and that is somehow obtained. The bodhisattva vows are very

important and people take them with great enthusiasm and

carefully, but many times people don’t do it. It is not like an

everyday thing and they do it very occasionally. That doesn’t

really guarantee that the individual grows the bodhimind. It

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may lay the seed, it may help to develop it. I am sure it does

help, but other than that I don’t know what it will do. It

doesn’t guarantee that you have developed bodhimind. So if

you want to develop the bodhimind it is really, truly through

the meditative state. It is some kind of mental state that the

individual gets to. That is bodhimind.

Before we even talk about developing bodhimind, we have to

talk about what is bodhimind. We talk a lot about how

powerful and helpful bodhimind is and how beneficial it is,

but what is it really? What type of mental state are we talking

about? These are the questions we have to deal with first.

Particularly among those who are dealing with the Buddhist

field for a while, everybody has heard about bodhimind and

bodhisattvas. Sometimes we even say po sa, as in Kuan se

ying po sa….That is really talking about bodhisattvas. What

does that really mean? A person who has the mental state [of

bodhimind] is called a bodhisattva. What type of mental state

is it? It is actually an ultimate; there is nothing going beyond

it. It is ultimate compassion, ultimate love, which has no

limitation, no condition. So it is unlimited, unconditional,

ultimate love and compassion.

That is bodhimind. So do we hope to gain bodhimind? Sure.

Is it possible? Buddha says yes. Is there another person who

has that mind? Quite sure, yes. It is sort of a mental state. So

how does it develop? Yes, it is ultimate compassion,

unlimited, unconditional commitment. But it is just a simple

mind. How does bodhimind feel? How do I recognize my

bodhimind? Because the aspects of the mind and the mental

attitude of the individual we can recognize. What kind of

attitude? There is one thing. When talking about mind we

talk about what mind is focused on and the aspects and what

the mind wants to do. Normally, most of us do have a very

strong compassion aspect in our mind. Whenever we see

suffering we draw a tremendous amount of attention. When

we see social injustice we draw the attention. It differs from

place to place and person to person. Most of us, when we see

suffering, we draw a lot of attention. Sometimes so much so

that the news media outside don’t report anything good, but

only whatever is miserable, because that gets people’s

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attention. They are trying to catch the compassion aspect of

people and take advantage of that. That’s what we do have.

However, this compassion we have is limited compassion. It

is very limited, as well as very conditioned.

It is limited because for it is for the people we know. Those

who are close, we pay more attention and we do whatever we

can, more so than those we don’t know personally. That is a

fact. It is not unconditioned compassion, but conditioned.

But it is not bodhimind, which means the nature of the

compassion we have is restricted and conditioned, focusing

mostly on those people who we know. Those we don’t know

will receive less attention from us. Sometimes we pay lip

service, but mostly not so much attention. Bodhimind is way

beyond that, not really having those restrictions. That means

bodhimind focuses on people you know and those you don’t

know. Knowing them does not become the criteria to pay

attention. The criteria is simply that they are individuals.

EQUALITY OF MIND That is a big Difference. Not only that, but also it gives you

the working of the mind. Paying attention because we know

somebody is some kind of attachment. Maybe not

attachment, but it is closeness. It is “ours”. It is a friend,

someone I know. That’s what I mean by conditional.

Because it is “my friend” or “my friend’s friend”, or because

it is “one of us” – that shows that there is a little unequalness

in the perceiving mind. There is something lifting. That

might not be attachment, but it is attachment–oriented. It is

working under the category and influence of attachment. But

the other mind, bodhimind, pays attention because these are

sentient beings. The reason why the individual pays attention

is not because it is one of us, but just because it is a sentient

being. We always have problems with that. Why? Because of

the inequality of how we perceive people, whether we

perceive that as a problem or not – but from the perspective

of bodhimind, that is a problem. We do have a problem with

equality here. Normally, equality is not a problem, it is a

welcome point. Many people think that way. Truly we all do

– it is reality. How do we know? We always claim, “I am

fair” and that we are genuine and this and that. Maybe we all

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are. But if you look carefully, we don’t have that fairness. If

it is our friend, someone we know, we favor that person. If it

is somebody who is our enemy, we will certainly not favor

that person. We will pick up a little bit of a rough edge at the

least.

Even in our mind, if we think of somebody we know we like

very much, and we watch our mind, we will have a happy,

smiley face. If you draw the face of the person you make a

circle with the ends of the u going up. If we think of our

enemy, then we draw it the other way round. We are not

happy, but angry and upset. We call that human nature. I

don’t know whether that is human nature or not. It is not.

Sure, it is our nature. It is ignorance-nature, attachment-

nature. It is hatred-nature. That’s why we don’t have the

equality. As long as we don’t have that, we are not going to

get the perfect compassion. By the way, in the Mahayana

Buddhist texts, the perfect compassion is called ‘greater

compassion’. Actually, bodhimind is grown out of a very

special resolution that the individual draws. In the Buddhist

texts that is sometimes called ‘special mind’ – lhak pei sam

pa (or in short: lhak sam. It is special, because you may not

be able to do it, but you are committing to do it. You are

committing to do whatever it takes. “I will deliver all those

who have not been delivered. I will liberate all those who are

not liberated. I will console all those who have not been

consoled. I will deliver all these people to enlightenment.”

That has to be a very special commitment, a genuine, not

artificially made up mind. I mean it has to be naturally

coming, not suggested, trained and then made up in the mind.

I mean it is without pushing, without effort, almost naturally

developing.

That is only possible if you have compassion and not just

compassion, but greater compassion. The nature of the mind

of compassion is actually seeing the suffering and perceiving

that as unbearable. Not me suffering, but whoever is

suffering, that is unbearable in my mind.

LOVE AND GREATER COMPASSION Compassion cannot bear the people’s suffering. Compassion

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is a mind that seeks separation of the individual, let’s say a

loved one, from their pain. When you see the suffering it

becomes unbearable. Not only a mind of wishing freedom

from suffering but really suffering cannot be tolerated. It is

unbearable. That powerful mind is compassion. When you

think about compassion you have to think about something

like that. Such a compassion is only possible if one loves that

person or these persons. Without love such a compassion

cannot be genuine. It is possible theoretically. If it is possible

to be framed by words, not by feelings, not by feelings felt

from the bottom of one’s heart. Without love that doesn’t

happen.

So love makes a huge difference. Without love, compassion

will be only dry academic information. Maybe that’s not

true. Maybe I am overly exaggerating. But without love

compassion doesn’t work that well. It is very obvious within

us to see the difference between seeing somebody we know,

our friend, a near or dear one, suffering and someone we

don’t know anything about. Then that pity feeling of sadness

and concern will be there, but compassion itself is very

different. To elaborate more in a more vivid way:

You are sitting there and suddenly something happens. There

is some incident on the roadside. There is a car crash. You

are watching that car crash in your mind and you think, “Oh,

that was a crash, I hope nobody is hurt.” Then someone

comes in and says, “There was a car crash and a dog has

been wounded.” Then you think, “O, poor thing, wonder

whether it will die or stay alive.” That is the concern. Then

somebody else comes in and says, “No, no, it was not a dog,

it was a human being.” Then you think, “Oh, a person got

hurt.” That is more than a dog and you are more concerned if

they died or not. Then somebody else comes and says, “The

person who got hurt in the car crash is So and So.” Now you

have a name and a face and you are much more concerned,

“Oh, it is So and So.” Then somebody else comes and tells

you it is somebody you really know well. Then your feelings

are much more. And then finally it is not only somebody you

know, but one of your family members. Then wow, it is

really affecting you.

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Like this, when you get to that level of family or even a

spouse, then the feeling between the dog being hurt or a man

getting hurt and So and So getting hurt, a family member

being hurt and a spouse getting hurt, if you watch these

feelings there is a huge difference. Why? Because of the

love, nothing else.

Compassion without love is simply a pity feeling.

Compassion with love and care is definitely genuinely

concerned, with a real feeling. True compassion is born out

of love, not anything else. Love is born out of appreciation,

gratitude, feeling of indebtedness to kindness,.and that is

born out of some closeness, feeling very close. Buddha tells

us to look at all living beings as mother sentient beings. That

is the closest relationship in our life, when our life totally

depended on the care of the mother. Not only has she given

us our life, but she has also nurtured us and brought us up.

Not only did she do that but she saved our life many times

per day, per night. That sort of gratitude, that sort of indebted

feeling can bring or will bring that love. That love brings

compassion. That compassion brings that special resolution

and that special resolution can bring true bodhimind. So it

really has seven layers.

SEVEN STAGES TO BRING BODHIMIND Officially these are: recognizing all beings as mother beings,

recognizing their kindness, repaying that kindness, love,

compassion, the special resolution and then bodhimind.

Actually, the way you develop that mind is what I shared

with you earlier. That is what bodhimind is really all about.

Then again, just simply wanting to bring all beings to

enlightenment is not enough. Bodhimind also seeks

Buddhahood for oneself. That’s because I take the

responsibility. I need to fulfill this aim. For me, just for my

own joy, happiness and freedom from suffering I don’t need

to become Buddha. But to be able to liberate all who are not

liberated, to deliver all those not yet delivered to

enlightenment, I need the best possible tool to make it

happen. I need to become a Buddha so that I can do it.

Seeking Buddhahood by me for all living beings, that is the

totally altruistic mind, yet the desire is to become Buddha

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oneself. That is called bodhimind. That is how one develops

it. That is one of the ways, the 7 stage development.

The way to do the meditation on this is exactly the same as

we have done since the beginning of this teaching. We

generate Lama Buddha Vajradhara in the space before us,

make strong requests and think, “Until now, why have I not

become Buddha? What is the problem? The problem is that I

never did seek Buddhahood properly. I never even thought

and talked about bodhimind. I don’t mean the language or

technical term, but I never had that strong commitment to

seek the best tool. Because I would like to do it and not only

like, but I have to, I have no choice. I never did that before.

Yes, I had a little compassion, but my compassion before

was limited and conditional. Yes, I care, but I have been

concerned about what was in there for me. I never went out

of the way without a concern for what was in there for me.

Always something had to benefit me. Always something

ultimately had to uplift my happiness. I never went out truly

to serve, to help, with the commitment and dedication. And

that was the problem.

So today I have this wonderful life and opportunity, this

wonderful mind and if I don’t make it, then not only I am not

making it but all these living beings that I would like to

serve, I am letting them down. So I may be blessed to be able

to develop this mind. I strongly pray and light and liquid

comes from Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara, reaches to

me and all sentient beings, purifying our negativities in

general and particularly that narrow, selfish self-cherishing.

This is not only purified, but is completely washed away,

even its influence, impact and result, cause and everything.

All is completely washed away and purified and not only

from my system. Light and liquid come from Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara, go inside my body and outside my body,

in between flesh and bones, in between skin and flesh

everywhere, through every layer of my body and they wash

away these things completely, once and for all. Inside,

outside, in between, there is no place to hide, nothing. All is

pushed down, from the crown down through the throat and

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towards the heart level. From the heart level to the navel,

from there down all that goes out, including the back and

front doors as well as the toes and everything. All goes out of

my system completely. I become pure, clean, crystal-like

looking.

At the same time my luck, my fortune and everything

develops as well as my qualities, knowledge and especially

the blessings of Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara to develop

this very special mind within me and all sentient beings. So

the meditation is with these suggested ideas. First

understand, secondly familiarize yourself, third keep on

doing it and by fourth, it becomes your character. When that

happens, it becomes part of you. Then with a little effort it

will come. If you continuously do that, then it will even

develop effortlessly. When that happens, then bodhimind has

grown with you. Then you become a bodhisattva and then

you get all the benefits that are mentioned in Shantideva’s

Bodhisattvacharyavatara Chapter 1. That’s what it is.

Then there is the exchange stage of developing bodhimind.

Now the development of bodhimind is the 7 stage

development, which is all these meditative ideas that you

visualize, as I mentioned. Finally, from the Lama Buddha

Buddha Vajradhara’s physical body a lot of light and liquid

come, purify everything and you obtain the development.

Then Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara sends a duplicate,

like one candle light lighting another candle light. That

duplicate dissolves to me. By dissolving, you sit on the lion

throne like Buddha. You also have a multi-color lotus

cushion and a sun – and moon cushion. I shared at the

beginning of the teaching about the reasons for the three

cushions. Above that you yourself become Buddha

Shakyamuni, golden color, with ushnisha, one face, two

hands, just like Buddha, with right hand touching the ground,

left in meditation posture, holding the begging bowl filled

with nectar. You are radiating light from your body. You are

sitting inside a huge dome of light. From your body you

generate a lot of physical bodies, wealth and virtues –

everything, in the form of 5 colored nectar. You send that to

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all living beings – to A-L-L beings. There is no one left

without nectar. By reaching to them, they obtain whatever

they need, like temporarily a wonderful life, and ultimately

liberation.

In other words, you solve their problems. Although it doesn’t

really happen, it is part of the practice here, so that when you

become a fully enlightened Buddha you can effortlessly help

all beings and you try to function in that manner already right

now.

In between sessions, read about bodhimind, try to understand

it, read about Buddha’s life stories, etc, anything that

connects with the development of bodhimind.

REVIEWING COMMON WITH THE LOWER, MEDIUM AND

MAHAYANA UP THROUGH DEVELOPING BODHIMIND

THROUGH THE SEVEN STAGES

We completed the ‘common with the lower level’. That

should introduce you to where we are, who we are and what

we should do. And finally what can we do – it tells us that

virtue brings virtuous results and negativity brings negative

results. In case there is no time or opportunity for us to

manage, then as an emergency measure we take refuge in

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Simply taking refuge is not

enough. We have to follow the advice. And that is just one

thing: the karmic functioning. Karma is also nothing but that

virtues bring positive results and negative deeds bring

negative results. We are responsible for ourselves. That’s

why our thoughts, actions and conclusions make a difference

to our life and lives. That’s following the Buddha, Dharma

and Sangha’s advice. It introduces us to the goal to have a

stable and good next immediate life.

Then we will shift from that goal to liberating ourselves

totally from samsara. What is truly samsara? We are not

talking about human or non-human environments or galaxies

that we are used to or what we are going to uncover. We are

not talking about that as samsara. Nor are we talking about

our individual life. When you recognize samsara it is nothing

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of that sort. These are the functionings and events within

samsara. We now know what samara is all about. It is the

continuation of contaminated identity. We function as entity

in connection with this identity. That contaminated identity

really continues, sometimes at a very gross level, sometimes

at an extremely subtle level, almost invisible, just like the

continuation of one candle light to another. It is visible to see

the dying candle being brought together with the new candle.

We can see two candles. There is no mystery and no secret to

continue the fire from one to another. You touch it and it

picks up. So the flame is continuing. The identity changes.

The old, dying exhausted wax candle goes out and a new

candle comes in. The transition is subtle. Bringing two

candles together is not subtle. But transforming the flame

from one to another is. You cannot deny nor accept that

easily with normal straight thinking. We use the Olympic

torch. You can’t say that it is not the Olympic torch. You can

say that the original torch is in Greece. But you can’t say that

the current one is not the Olympic torch. Everybody says that

this is the Olympic torch and they bring it around the country

and then do the games around the torch. But they didn’t bring

the original one here from Greece.

Similarly, that is how our identity changes. That is the

change on the subtle level. That continuing thing is going on.

That is the individual’s samsara. That is my samsara and that

is your samsara. Since this very root, this very basis, is

contaminated, then everything dealing with this, coming

along with this, becomes contaminated. Our spiritual

people’s job is to try to decontaminate this contaminated

identity, either by dropping it and picking up a new identity,

but yet it has to be your identity. Actually it is hard, because

you try to purify the contaminated identity and try to make it

uncontaminated. If you make it you succeed. If you don’t

make it we don’t succeed. I don’t think we fail, but we don’t

succeed. This is exactly the struggle on the spiritual path.

That’s how we recognize samsara and work for something

beyond that, a state of non-suffering, peace, known as

nirvana. You may not even call it nirvana. It is just a Sanskrit

label. We may not use it. Tibetans call this thar pa. But

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whatever you call it, you may even call it jabba jabba jabba

or something. There was this movie with a big African

American actor who tried to play a king of and African

country and he called himself King Jabba Jabba. Whatever

you call it doesn’t matter, but that is our samsara and the

question remains: if it is that deep and subtle, how can we

purify that? The answer is quite simple: even that subtle

identity is dependently originated. It is not a permanent or

solid thing. Since it is dependent nature, since it is

impermanent, change can take place anytime, anywhere and

at any moment. Since it is changeable it can change from

contaminated to uncontaminated. Can it go back? The

general idea is yes, it can go back. But when you change it, if

it is good it doesn’t go back. Otherwise there could be a fall

from liberation. Then all our efforts would be wasted. There

should not be a fall from liberation.

That’s the reason why the spiritual path has to be right. If

there is a fall back, then after eons, after lives of dedication,

you would see all that as consequences. That would be the

biggest fault. A big cheat, a big letting down.

We rely on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and Buddha’s

disciples, followers and great masters. Why do we rely on

them? Because we think they don’t cheat us. We think and

believe that they don’t cheat us.

We think and believe that they won’t cheat us, hopefully. We

presume it is true, right? That’s why whether the spiritual is

right or wrong, we know that much. We only have ways of

knowing that much. When you really get to the result level

you will know. Even if there is as little bit of a mistake here

and there that doesn’t make the individual fall down very

badly either. Basically, positive and negative, helping and

hurting, harming and helping. That is the basis on which we

make judgments of right or wrong. Unless we are fully

enlightened we have no way of knowing everything right or

wrong. Traditionally, Buddhist teachings will rely on

Buddha’s words. We will try to prove that Buddha will never

let you down. That is true. And all traditions do that.

Basically, all traditions are fine. So then there are some

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practices that are built on principles of power struggles. I am

thinking of black magic and that sort of thing. That is

harming others people and yourself. Anything that brings

violence, including against ourselves, that is a very thin line.

You can think of self-sacrifice for purification and hurting

yourself. That is a very thin line in any tradition: Hindu-

Buddhist, Judeo-Christian, Islam, Sikkhism, Jainism and all

of those. It is very hard to draw that line.

To a certain extent it can be purification and to a certain

extent it becomes violence against oneself. Buddha went

against certain Hindu traditions, the theoretical points of

view and practically, against the practices of sacrificing part

of your physical body, like burning it or jumping over a

trident and drawing blood and so on, although in a previous

life, Buddha himself drew blood from his body to save a

family of tigers. You can read that in the Jataka Tales. But

Buddha is very much for non-violence. Extremely so. For

example, if you look into Buddha’s teachings, the disciples

who are celibate in his order were ordered by Buddha not to

eat in the afternoon. That was the basic rule. But then you

will see hundreds of exceptions given by Buddha himself.

One guy had a stomach ache, another guy had a problem

with his throat and so on. Because of all these reasons they

got exempted from that rule. Anything that brings pain and

misery and is a little harsh, Buddha gave exemptions to them.

There was one guy who had a funny build up in his throat.

Whenever he ate, the food went into some side pocket – like

a monkey. He couldn’t swallow straight and had to store the

food there. Then gradually he would chew slowly and nicely.

So everybody was supposed to eat before noon. So this guy

couldn’t finish chewing before noon. Buddha said, “You are

exempted, because you got that problem. So you can eat any

time that you can digest it.”

We may say that Buddha is so much for non-violence and

kindness. Anything that physically or mentally or

emotionally hurts, Buddha totally tried to avoid. So almost

everything that is right or wrong according to Buddha is

based on what helps or hurts. That’s not a perfect, 100%

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proof line, but that’s where we can mostly draw the line if

something is positive or negative. If it is hurting, yourself

included, then it is violence.

Then it is non-virtue. If it is helping or not hurting then it

could be non-violence and it could be virtue. That’s not only

against human beings but all living beings. That’s why you

see many, not only in the Buddhist but also in the Hindu

tradition, emphasize vegetarianism. Similarly, environmental

issues. Basically, we need something to draw the line

between what is right and wrong. Hurt – help, oneself

included, that’s the line. Do not exclude yourself. A number

of people say, “For me it doesn’t matter, but for others…”.

That is not a genuine statement. You may sometimes think

that, but truly it is for yourself too. So saying, “For me it

doesn’t matter” is not really genuine talk.

Let me conclude. Anything that is hurting and harming

anyone is basically violence and non-virtue and non-dharma.

Helping, serving, most of these are non-violence, dharma and

service. We draw the line in this way, basically. It is not 100

per cent right, but sometimes helping someone is hurting

someone else. All these issues are there. Then some people

may have the question: “If it is hurting me but helping 10

others, what should I choose?” If you really see deeply how

many it is hurting and helping it may be different. Maybe

hurting me and helping 10 others is a wrong perception.

Make sure it is not a wrong perception. Then you can choose.

Buddha has shown us an example. He himself was the

captain of a ship [in a previous life]. According to earlier

statements there were 500 people on board. I don’t know if at

that time there were ships that could carry 500 people.

Maybe. I always think that an extra zero can come in. That’s

because it has been 2600 years. There is an example of how

karma functions inside and outside. Buddha gave the

example of a tree. Buddha said, “Look at that tree, how big it

is. But the seed of the tree was tiny. Now the tree has grown

so big.” The text actually says that there are 500 horse carts

parked under the shade of that one tree. 500? Maybe it is the

usual poetry style and they put an extra zero there. People do

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that, even politicians do that. George Bush Sr. talked about

the “thousand lights and thousands of law enforcement

officers”- and I don’t know, they may have got an extra 10

policemen or whatever. Maybe that is a matter of style. But

500 horse carts in the shade of one tree? At noon it may work

a little better, there is shade everywhere under the tree, but in

the morning or afternoon, all the shade will go into only one

direction. Maybe it will go a little longer, but I can’t imagine

500 chariots parking under one tree! But that statement is

there and has been printed for generations, in Sanskrit,

Chinese, Tibetan and every other language. Maybe it’s the

style or whatever.

So it has to be a very wise decision. It is not simple to hurt

yourself. You may think it is simple, “I can make a

decision”, but probably not. Then there are some people who

say, “I brought So and So into this world, so I have the right

to terminate them”. Some crazy people will think that. That’s

absolutely wrong. We all know that, but crazy persons will

claim that anyway. So we don’t entertain that crazy person,

give them a little smile, don’t agree and don’t deny and let it

go. Why? The person who is crazy is not as crazy as the one

who is engaging the crazy person in an argument. So alright,

fine, let them be.

One very good answer is “I don’t know”. That is not lying,

because truly you have no idea what that person is really

thinking or talking about. So “I don’t know” is a true answer

and the best answer. No one can say, “You have to know” –

unless you are claiming that you are totally enlightened.

So we need a basic line we can draw, particularly in a time

like this. Traditionally, there is a community, a sangha,

monasteries, monks and nuns, abbots, abbesses, teachers,

masters, but nowadays I am almost responsible for myself. I

may or may not have a sangha or a teacher or an abbot or

abbess, but I have to function. So you need this self-

governing, self-determining basis. It is not a 100% per cent

correct, but helping and hurting – that is where you can draw

the line. That also agrees with karma. Karma tells us that

hurting anybody brings suffering. And then similarly,

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negative actions bring suffering. That negative must be

hurting. The consequences it brings is the same – suffering.

Whether we know the terminology of virtue and non-virtue,

whether we know the true identification of right and wrong,

we try to make a decision on the basis of hurting and helping.

I found for myself that is the best way to go – for everybody

and particularly for those who are connected. It is not me as

an individual that is the principal, but we. Somebody may

say this is attachment. Maybe. But it is not a singular me but

we.

The bottom line is renouncing samsara, the contaminated

identity. That contaminated identity influences every action.

Mostly actions are negatively influenced. In the practice of

self- protection, most negatives we engage in is under the

pretext of helping ourselves. The deepest motivation of a few

individuals may be selfishness, but people never say, “We

want to go to war because we want victory”. People say,

“We want to go to war because these people are suffering

and we want to help them.” That has been happening in our

own experience in the last 12 years that we have been at war.

Everybody says, “Those people are suffering, so we have to

go and help them”. 9-11 was one exception. There they said,

“We have been hurt and we have to make sure we are safe.”

Other than that all the other wars are done with the excuse

“They are suffering and we have to help them.”

You know why? Because people’s individual mind and

individual thoughts and calculations are not direct “I”

perceptions. Whatever people may think in their head,

neither can we see them nor hear them. That gives the

opportunity for them to manipulate.

The bottom line is that the entity feels “My identity is getting

hurt, so therefore I must destroy them.” or “My identity will

be hurt, so therefore I most destroy them before they can hurt

me.” This is truly what’s happening almost in every part of

the world everywhere. The Americans are not the only

culprits, everybody is. In your own home everybody plays

that game. It goes on between family and everybody.

Everybody does that. I believe that’s why it is samsara.

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That’s why it is suffering. If you are nirvana-oriented people,

don’t do that.

So renouncing that is key. You may temporarily identify that

as the root of samsara. When you are talking about wisdom

then it might not be the case, but temporarily you may do

that and label it as the root of samsara and the root of

suffering and label it as ignorance or ego or whatever,

knowing that this is the target.

BRINGING ABOUT CHANGE IS OUR REAL TARGET

The target is not there to destroy. That’s another thing. Many

of us will think that it is the target that we have to destroy.

But the wise way is not to destroy the target but change it.

The ego grasping and self-service that the entity entertains

should be changed into not ego grasping, compassionate,

loving and serving the beings. So the changing is the way,

not destroying. But our perception will say, “Yes, I will

destroy it.” And no one will argue with that either. But

destroying will be very difficult. That will be an additional

problem. I keep on thinking that when the Americans went to

Iraq, if they did not destroy the Republican Guard, but

instead just changed the boss and the policies, things would

have been much easier. There would not have been the

completely disorganized chaos. There would not have been

so much killing and bloodshed. There will not be so much

difficulty of rebuilding the government. That is stupidity.

When you look at it, in our vajrayana yidams, it is changing

that works. The Heruka yab yum came to the civilization and

took over the 24 holy places and they didn’t go there to

destroy the 24 holy places. They changed the person in

charge and didn’t even change the physical appearance. It is

still the same thing. But the policies and the ideas have been

changed.

We, the vajrayana people, have known this for 2600 years.

George Bush still didn’t know.

Similarly we have introduced the target as samsara. It is not

the point to destroy the target. If you do that you are killing

yourself. You change it. Virtue and non-virtue is the matter

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for us to change, changing the nature of non-virtue into

virtue. I am sorry, we call it a different name:

Transformation! Right, but truly it is changing. So the target

of spiritual practitioners is not to destroy but to change.

But you have to say what you are going to change. Without

saying what you are going to change you can say “change”

all day and nothing happens. When Obama ran for president

there was something I didn’t like, right from the beginning.

Everybody was crazy about it, “You and I will go and change

history” – but to what? Time will change for sure, everything

will change anyway, but to what? They never said that.

That’s what I don’t like. Since then we have been hearing,

“change, change, change”. Sure, you have to change your

shirt every day, because if you don’t it will smell. You have

to know what you are changing and to what. Otherwise you

have no purpose, no goal. If you are goal-less then it

becomes like the Indians used to say aya ram, gyia ram –

Ram has come and Ram has gone. That is the same as the

sun rises and then it sets – it comes and goes and comes and

goes. The western expression is you are taken away by the

current, but you still think you are in control and you are

swimming. The woman who tried to swim from Cuba to

Miami kept on swimming, but everybody tried to stop here

and pull her out because she was actually failing and would

have probably died. She was yelling and screaming and

wanted to continue. We do that type of thing too. You think

you in control and managing, but you are actually sinking. If

that happens, the spiritual path is going wrong. There is no

goal. At least that woman had the goal to get there, but there

was no way she could manage it at that moment.

Now we better conclude this. The conclusion is the usual

with meditating on the lama and saying mantra, etc. Then, in

between sessions we have to pay attention to compassion,

love, bodhimind, etc after the development of the 7 stages.

MAHAYANA SCOPE

Now we are going to talk about the exchange system.

Bodhimind is the gateway to becoming a Mahayana

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practitioner. It is very important to remember this, I think. If

you read Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s lam rim chenmo it

says chö thek pa chen po chö ying pei mi shok gi kang sar

thek pa chenpo dre du tse pa chir go.

The dharma you practice is a Mahayana dharma but that’s

not enough. The person practicing it must see that they

themselves are a Mahayana practitioner.

The person being Mahayana doesn’t mean claiming to be one

or wearing a Mahayana costume, like monks’ robes or nuns’

robes, or a vajrayana deity costume. Whatever you wear or

claim doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t mean you actually are a

Mahayana practitioner.

What makes the person be a Mahayana practitioner? If you

are not a Mahayana practitioner you can’t be in vajrayana.

Truly speaking, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, Buddha’s

teaching that is being transmitted through Tibet, there is no

vajrayana without being Mahayana. Not at all. There is no

Mahayana without incorporating the principles of Theravada.

The bottom line comes to the Tripitaka teachings, the Three

Basket Teachings, also called the Three Higher Trainings of

Mind. That is the basic fundamental Buddhist teaching.

Without that there is no Theravada or Hinyana. Then without

that there will be no Mahayana or bodhisattva path. There

will be no vajrayana or vajra practitioners or diamond path

followers. There won’t be. It all builds on top of one another.

The Tripitaka serves as the fundamental base. The Mahayana

sutras serve as the uplifting ornament and the vajrayana

tantras serves as the icing on the cake.

One of the eight qualities of the lam rim according to the

earlier lam rim practitioners is that all of Buddha’s teachings

can be taken as one square cloth. No matter whatever

direction you pull, from any side or corner, the whole square

cloth is going to go. You cannot separate any part of it. So

the quality of the lam rim should be for the individual to be

able to get in touch with any teaching of Buddha, and to be

able to bring all the teachings of Buddha together. That is

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important. You don’t look down on certain teachings and call

them whatever name. You don’t feel a superiority complex

about certain teachings. You may feel that you can’t say

what you are doing, and maybe thinking , because of secrecy.

That will be an excuse, but in reality you feel embarrassed

that you are not in the main stream. All of these are mistakes.

Yes, you want to keep the secrecy part, but that’s not because

there is something to hide. Rather it is to avoid some

unqualified people have exposure which may harm them.

That is the only objection. That is why we get downfalls of

losing secrecy. [Out of concern that] you may harm the other

person. It is not that you didn’t keep your secrecy by

speaking to somebody. It is funny. In this world today there

is no such a thing called secrecy at all. The WikiLeaks guy

will tell you everything. Yet we pretend to have it.

It is a matter for the person whether they respect the decision

of others or not. Otherwise there is no such thing called

secrecy. Vajrayana practitioners have no secret to keep, but

the decision of the deity or yidam or earlier practitioners

specify not to make that available to those who have not

obtained initiation or sometimes not to those who although

they have obtained initiation didn’t receive the teachings or

something. It is a matter for the individual practitioner, let it

be me, to respect that or not. That is the only thing. Other

than that there is no such thing called secrecy. And there is

no such thing called Mahayana superiority. There is no such

thing called Hinayana inferiority. It is the teaching of the

Buddha in completion. There has to be the base, the walls

and the roof to complete the mandala. That goes for the

Mahayana – Hinayana business, the lower, medium and

Mahayana scope. Everybody would like to be in the big

scope, but without the Hinayana scope there won’t be a

Mahayana scope and without that there won’t be vajrayana.

So all three are in one.

Truly speaking, without looking for a better life, for

improvement, how can there be a practice? Without looking

for liberation, without rejecting and renouncing samsara,

how can you embrace liberation – technically called nirvana

or the arhat level. Without that principle, how can one be a

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bodhisattva? Basically, it is not possible. Then the

bodhisattva may have to say, “How can I help you?” When

you come to that point it is very nice you are willing to help,

but it also shows you are not qualified to help, because you

don’t know what to do. You don’t know how to deal with it.

If you have dealt with the Theravada level you have

experienced that and you know what you are going to do. So

they all build on top of one another. There won’t be

bodhisattvas without bodhimind. There won’t be bodhimind

without compassion. There won’t be compassion without

knowing the reality and the suffering nature of samsara.

The knowledge of the suffering nature of samsara will

develop dislike, which will reject samsara. That becomes the

desire to be liberated. That desire to be liberated is then

extended not only to me and my family and relations, but to

everybody. That is bodhimind. That is Mahayana. So we

talked about the development of the bodhimind through the

seven stages.

DEVELOPING BODHMIND THROUGH THE EXCHANGE

STAGES

Now we have the exchange stages. The seven stage

development comes through Maitreya Buddha, Asanga, etc.

The development through the exchange stages comes

through Manjushri, Shantideva, Nagarjuna, etc. Whichever

you follow doesn’t matter. They both develop the bodhimind.

In addition to that, Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa made the

combination of the exchange stages and the seven stage

method and that is the eleven stage development.

Remember, right from the beginning I used to joke about “7-

11, open 24 hours”. In the early days I used to make that

joke. It is still the same: “7-11, open 24 hours”. So if you add

up the exchange stages onto the seven stages, it becomes the

eleven stages. For practical purposes you can follow either

the seven, the exchange or the eleven and it will work. Other

than that, whatever you do, it won’t work. I can tell you that.

Don’t waste your time. If you want to waste it, go ahead.

And if you find you got something else that works, come and

tell me that there is a third way or fourth way.

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Now the normal outline is: actual session and in between

sessions. The actual session has pre – actual and conclusion.

The pre – level is the same as before. You meditate Lama

Lhagpai Lha Thubwang Dorje Chang and make requests .

Then the thoughts you generate are: I and all mother sentient

beings may be blessed to be able to develop the wonderful,

precious bodhimind, the crown jewel of minds. Light and

liquid come from the physical body of the lama, reach to all

of us and purify negativities in general and in particular

develops the mind that holds other people more precious than

ourselves. Any obstacles to developing that, my negativities,

other obstacles, illnesses, etc, all are purified. My physical

body becomes clean-clear crystal like nature. Life, fortune,

qualities, knowledge, etc are all fully developed, especially

the mind that holds other beings as more precious than

oneself. That is the pre – meditation.

EQUANIMITY

Now the actual practice starts with equanimity, even for the

exchange stage, also recognizing all beings as mother beings

and remembering their kindness and committing to repay that

kindness. These three are basically your character, whether

you are focusing on mothers or not. You appreciate those

who have done good things for you, remember what they

have done and we are not shameless persons, so we want to

repay their kindness through whatever ways I could. That is

good, normal respectable people’s behavior.

You have the equanimity of self and others. You recognize

that every sentient being is one of your nearest and dearest

and you remember their kindness. Then visualize once again

that you are surrounded by all living beings and now figure

out in your mind who is more important, the living beings

who are surrounding me or me at the center. Naturally the

thought comes: I am the most important and others are less

important. That comes through the way they are all sitting

already. I am in the center and all others are surrounding me.

It is automatic, without any efforts I think that I am more

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important. When I am the most important and precious I

begin to ignore the others.

So I am telling myself that ignoring the others and

considering myself to be most important is not right. Why?

Because I and others all want happiness and joy. Others and I

don’t want misery and suffering. We are suffering equally.

So why should I consider myself more important and ignore

all others? Therefore I should consider others to be equally

important. Why? If others make me feel more important I

will be very happy. Likewise, if I can make others more

important they will be happy too. So why don’t I do that and

make them happy? That’s one point.

Another point: There is limitless beginning. I have always

had that idea of cherishing myself being more important than

cherishing others and trying to be the best of all. But until

now what did I get? Nothing, so much misery, so much

suffering, maybe a reasonable life now. So cherishing me is

the source of all misery, all problems of samsara in general

and in particular, the lower realms. Even in the human land,

this is the creator of suffering. All downfalls come from here.

The whole idea is to make me better and superior, but the

consequence is suffering. The source of all my suffering is

actually this one. Therefore, whatever self-cherishing I have,

I pray that it will not grow again. If it is already growing and

functioning with me,I pray that it will decrease and diminish.

To change that, I may develop the cherishing of others. If I

don’t have that thought, may it develop. If I have it, it may be

strengthening. I may be blessed to be able to do that. I make

strong requests to Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara and

light and nectar comes from the physical body of Lama

Buddha Buddha Vajradhara and all beings and I receive this

nectar shower and light through our mind stream, purify all

negativities, particularly obstacles to developing cherishing

others and to developing the precious mind. My physical

body is clean, clear like crystal and luck, fortune, life,

knowledge, spiritual development all develop. Especially, the

cherishing of others as more important than me. Such a mind

of precious bodhimind may develop with me.

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In short, Buddha, ever since becoming Buddha and even

before, cherished others as more important. For him others

are more important than he himself and he completely

dedicated himself to the service of all living beings. Thus he

has become a Buddha. On the other hand I have been

cherishing myself and ignoring others. Thus I have been

suffering in samsara all the time and even today, with all

these possibilities and opportunities and facilities that I have,

I am still going for the self-cherishing. So I wish and pray

that I will not be so stupid and will choose at least what the

buddhas have chosen: cherishing others. I hope that I will be

able to do what the buddhas did: collect the suffering of

others on myself and give my virtues and good deeds to

others. Buddhas, by doing that, separated people from their

suffering. Buddhas have been able to bring joy to so many

others. Right now, I would like to act like Buddha, but I

don’t have the capability. So, if I become Buddha then I can

do the same thing. Therefore, in order to do this I would like

to become a fully enlightened, perfect Buddha. I may be

blessed to be able to do that. Please deliver the state of

Buddha to me.

In this way make strong requests to Lama Lhagpai-la and

light and nectar flow from the physical body of the lama, as

well as a duplicate Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara comes

and dissolves to me. Then I sit on the throne, lotus and moon

cushions, a living Buddha, looking like Buddha, with a

golden yellow physical body, with all the major and minor

signs of enlightenment, an actual living Buddha. My actions

will be giving away my virtues, the results of virtues, my

physical body, wealth, good life, enlightenment – all of that –

to all living beings. All of them become fully enlightened

buddhas. Meditate that for a while.

This is a very brief way of developing bodhimind through the

exchange stages. It is simple and easy and you can do it.

This corresponds with many different practices, such as lama

chöpa, which begins with this. The first verse itself says de

chen nang ne rang ni lama la…

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DHE CHEN NGANG LAY RANG NYI LA MA LHA GANG DER SAL WAY KU LAY Ö ZER TSOH CHOH CHUR TRÖ PAY NÖ CHÜ JIN LAB PAY DAK PA RAP JAM BA ZHIK YÖN TEN GYI KÖ PAY KHYE PAR PHÜN SUM TSOK PAR GYUR

From Great Bliss I arise as the Lama-Yidam.

My body radiates light, transforming all existence.

Everything becomes pure.

So this practice corresponds many lam rim practices, with the

lama chöpa practice with vajrayana combined. This is the

essence of vajrayana and sutrayana, all combined together,

developing bodhimind through the exchange way. It is

simple, and you can easily do it.

The conclusion is the same thing. It is focusing single-

pointedly, saying mantras, etc. Keep on listening, reviewing

your notes, get familiarized with this and then comprehend.

Then visualize 10 - 15 times, do it without looking at notes

or listening to tapes. Do it independently by yourself. If you

still have problems look on the point wherever you are

having problems. Do it by yourself. Keep on practicing along

those lines. Once you have some basic work worked out you

can do it by yourself, anytime, anywhere. When you get used

to it, it doesn’t take much time. Even between sipping your

tea or maybe while toasting with a glass of wine, if you have

these thoughts pop up, utilize them. Drinking wine may or

may not be negative, but that way whatever you do becomes

virtue. Even the toast you do becomes worthwhile and

dharma work. It is a really good wish for you and others and

very good. Even dreaming about it, those dreams will be

good dreams and worthwhile dreams.

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VII

STABILIZING BODHIMIND

BODHIMIND THROUGH RITUAL

Now, the second part of this is taking the bodhisattvas

through ritual. That is not so much relevant, but since it is

part of the teaching I have to talk to you about it.

Again, it has actual session and in between sessions, with

pre, actual and conclusion.

The pre section begins with kyab ne kundu lama lhag pail ha

thubwang dorje chang la sol wa deb – just like before. You

request to Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara that “I and all

sentient beings may be able to develop the bodhimind in

wishing form and action form together simultaneously and

also practice and continue.”

Wishing and action bodhimind are the two things here. Those

who are familiar know what I am talking about. Those of you

who are not familiar, when you develop bodhimind, for most

people it is easier to first develop the wishing bodhimind.

You simply wish. Then secondly, wishing alone is not good

enough. You have to act and do something. So the

bodhimind is divided into these two: wishing and action

bodhimind. When you take the vows you take the vows of

both. You wish and you commit to take action. Taking the

vows is ritual-oriented, however it is offering your

commitment.

Sometimes we do the ceremony too, but it is rather an

elaborate ceremony. Anyway, elaborate or not, the

arrangement is one thing and what you actually do is another

thing.

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The actual practice is to try to develop the vows that have not

been taken yet with ourselves. Whatever vows we have we

should protect.

What is a vow? I am not going to go into detail. You know.

You know what you are doing. You know what a vow is. It is

a commitment. Some Buddhist schools even say that the

vows have physical form. When you go to the higher

Buddhist theoretical viewpoints they don’t accept that vows

have physical shape. But whether you accept that or not, vow

is vow, a solemn commitment offered by the individual,

whole-heartedly in the presence of extraordinary witnesses,

such as buddhas and bodhisattvas and the vows are also a

continuation, almost like a transmission. It continues from

one living being to another living being. So it is living

tradition, not from one dead person to another living or dead

person. It is from one living human being to another.

To make the transmission work better you do the ceremony.

It makes the feeling of the individual change. It is an

emotional thing. We in Asia we do much more of that than

anywhere else, especially the Chinese-Tibetan tradition

utilizes everything, space, decorations, sound, music,

instruments, performances, in order to draw in all the five

senses: eye, ear, nose, body and tongue. The five senses are

the gateways connecting us to the major sense experiences.

All of the five senses are entertained by forms, sounds,

smells, tastes and touch. The sensory utilization is moving

the principal consciousness. Performance for me is that.

Whether it is a spiritual ritual or an entertaining performance,

it is trying to draw a little emotional attention. When you

have that then whatever the message comes in. In this case

you are giving a message to yourself. In order to develop the

bodhisattva vows the message is everything from the guru

devotional practice to the development of bodhimind, all that

we have been discussing. That’s the message. It is very well

selected, well chosen, well designed, by you and for you to

fit you and suit your consciousness, so that you can sell that

idea to yourself.

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If you sold it then actually you are affecting your own

consciousness, your own mind. You are not only influencing,

but almost altering and changing it. Then you are ready to

receive something. Then give yourself the opportunity again,

with Lama Lhagpai Lha Thubwang Dorje Chang as witness

and say that “For the benefit of all mother beings, I would

like to become a Buddha as quickly, quickly as possible.

From this time until I become a fully enlightened Buddha, I

take the bodhisattva commitments as my solemn

commitments and I will practice them.”

That is your thought and motivation and you visualize that

you repeat that after your own Lama Buddha Buddha

Vajradhara – Lama Lhagpai La Dorjechang.

The words are like what is in the bodhisattvacharyavatara:

“Like the earlier buddhas have generated bodhimind, and

practiced the bodhisattva actions, I also, in order to help all

beings, develop the bodhimind and practice the way of the

bodhisattvas.” That is paraphrased. So you repeat this three

times, thinking that yes, these vows have developed within

you. Then you reward yourself by saying “Today my life has

become worthwhile. I am born as a human being this time

and it serves the purpose. I now belong to Buddha’s family. I

have become a child of Buddha today. I will do whatever I

am supposed to do to respect and honor my belonging to this

family.” That’s about it for taking the bodhisattva vows.

MAINTAINING AND INCREASING BODHIMIND AND THE

ROOT AND SECONDARY DOWNFALLS

The next outline is: maintaining the bodhimind continuously.

Recommended by earlier masters is to think about

bodhimind, trying at least to pretend to think like a

bodhisattva: “For the benefit of all beings, I would like to

become a Buddha and would like to function like a Buddha.”

So think that at least three times a day and three times a

night. That will be good maintenance.

In addition to that, to increase our bodhimind and to decrease

our obstacles we make offerings to Buddha, Dharma and

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Sangha and do purification, accumulate merit and wisdom

merit. If you put efforts into that it will be helpful.

Avoid the four black or dark activities, those that are not

good.

1. Not telling the truth, telling stories - even for a joke

or just to have a laugh – to lamas.

2. If somebody did some good thing, making that

person regret it. This is like saying, “I wish you

would have told me before, I would have advised

you to do something better than this.”

3. Other bodhisattvas who are entering the bodhisattva

path - you dislike them and are jealous or hateful

and tell stories behind their back.

4. Applying different wrongly motivated tactics to get

your point – not just pure motivation, but getting

people to agree with you and giving them the run

around.

These are very specifically called the four black ways of

thinking or doing things. One always has to be watching that.

Anyone of those four, whatever is popping up, even in

dreams, you should completely reject and renounce that and

not do these things. These four are negative and the four

positive deeds are to not do them. Avoiding the four

negatives and building the four positives is the way to

maintaining the bodhimind properly.

Then there are the 18 root downfalls and 46 secondary ones.

Protecting yourself from these is called maintaining the

bodhisattva vows.

We pray to Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara to be able to

do that. Light and liquid come from the physical body of

Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara and enter the physical and

mental state of I and all other sentient beings. They purify all

negativities from the limitless beginning and especially any

obstacles to developing the wishing or action bodhisattva

vows and to maintaining the bodhisattva commitments.

Your body becomes clean, clear like crystal, your luck,

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fortune, life, quality and knowledge, etc., increase, especially

the capability to obtain and maintain the bodhisttva vows of

wishing and action together.

That is the development of bodhimind, both mental through

meditative stages and through ritual. So this is completed.

Are there any questions along those lines here?

Audience: what do you mean that vows and commitments

can continue from one being to another?

Rimpoche: Did I say that?

Audience: You said that there is a transmission of vows from

one person to another.

Rimpoche: Oh yes, vows are a transmission. There is oral

transmission and teaching tradition. When I talk about this

teaching you receive something. That is the transmission

from one person to another. It is the same thing with the

vows.

Audience: How long does that commitment last for one

individual?

Rimpoche: Actually, vajrayana vows are supposed to keep

going until you become a fully enlightened Buddha. It

doesn’t disappear. But the monks – and nuns – vows, if you

break them or if you die, then they are gone. They become

non-vows. Vajrayana vows are not interrupted by death nor

by breaking them. Celibacy vows can cease. If a monk sleeps

with a woman, whether he admits or not, the vow is broken

and gone. It is no longer there. Some, even if they break the

vow, still keep wearing robes and pretend to be monk. There

are a lot of those too. That’s how it is.

Audience: With the vajrayana commitments though, if you

get born in a lower realm and you can’t do any of your

commitments, then what happens?

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Rimpoche: Nothing happens, but you do have the vow and

that gives you the possibility and capability of connecting

better. That’s there. Somehow it clicks in. It is almost like

this: - again I am thinking of an absolutely funny thing and

the analogy may not work –very few people will have a

proper vajrayana vow. I am not talking about somebody who

attended some initiation where millions of people attended. I

am not talking about that. I am talking about a proper

vajrayana vow. If nothing happens in this life, that person

carries that seed along. It is like you have found some aliens

left in our land and those alien ships come and they somehow

find these persons again and pick them up. That’s what

probably should be happening for the proper vajrayana vows

that are properly attended. There must be a reason why the

vajrayana vows – and even the bodhisattva vows – don’t

break when the person dies. Yes, you can damage them and

have the biggest downfalls, but even then they don’t become

useless. If you have a big fall from a scooter, the scooter may

have a big dent somewhere but it will still go.

The self-liberation vows, on the other hand, if they are

damaged through a big downfall, they don’t work anymore.

So you take off your robes. Even if you don’t want to take

the robes off that’s fine, but if you are really are still a monk

that’s a different question. That is only known to you and

only relevant to you and nobody else’s business.

REVIEW BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE BODHISATTVA

ACTIONS

There are so many methods, so many paths of delivering

enlightenment, the ultimate spiritual development. There are

so many paths. Everybody will say that every path is the

best. Every tradition, wherever you look, will say theirs is the

best and perhaps even “this is the only path which will

liberate.” All these great religious traditions are there. Then

within the Buddhist traditions there are Theravada,

Mahayana and the Buddhism that travelled to Tibet and so

many. The Theravadan tradition has so many different

traditions and so does the Mahayana. The Tibetan Buddhist

tradition, vajrayana, has also so many different traditions,

basically Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug. These are the

four big ones. Within the big ones, if you start dividing, you

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have within the Nyingma the Southern Treasury and

Northern Treasury traditions. Then there are divisions

between treasury – and non-treasury traditions. Then in the

Sakya, you have the Sakya, Tsarwa and Ngorwa, those three.

When you look in the Kagyupa tradition, there are four big

ones and eight small ones and four very small ones. So there

are 16, without talking about subdivisions. When you are

looking at the Gelugpa tradition, each and every different

great monastery has their own little tradition, theoretical

acceptances, ritual differences and all kinds of things. So

divisions are almost limitless. But if you look at the practice,

and which one really does what, if you go beyond those

sectarian emphases then you are really going to find that all

of them come from one Buddha. They are all Buddha

Shakyamuni’s teachings.

They are all traditions accepted by the early great Indian

saints and scholars and great mahapanditas, such as

Nagarjuna and Asanga and they are all coming out of the

Nalanda or Vikramalashila traditions. These are accepted by

all and not only accepted, but everybody will say that their

way of functioning and meditating, their way of accepting

reality and truth are the ultimate view or acceptance.

Nagarjuna, Asanga, Dharmakirti, Chandrakirti, Kamalashila,

Shantideva, they all say the same thing. Then you at the early

Tibetan teachers. We all accept Guru Padmasambhava,

Atisha, Shantideva, Shankarakshita, Marpa, Milarepa. In

conclusion, the author of the Smooth Path or de lam is the

First Panchen Lama. According to the official Chinese

statements he would be the Fifth Panchen Lama, Panchen

Losang Chögyen. The Chinese count Khedrup-je, one of

Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa’s two main disciples, as the First

Panchen Lama.

According to the old Tibetan system, the line of the Panchen

Lamas starts with Panchen Lozang Chögyen, because the

name “Panchen” was obtained by him first.

So the old Tibetans will say he was the First Panchen Lama,

but now officially, he is the Fifth Panchen Lama. Our old

reason was that the name of Panchen Lama was given to this

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lineage in Panchen Losang Chögyen’s time. If that is a valid

reason then the First Dalai lama should be called Third Dalai

Lama, because the name of Dalai Lama was given to the

Third Dalai Lama by the Mongol king Altan Khan. But then

history is history. There is nothing to argue or validate.

Whatever people accept that’s what it is. History is history. It

is interpretation. So that’s that.

In any case the First Panchen Lama said that when you look

at it you will see all kinds of different names like the Great

Mahamudra, Dzog Chen, Uma, and so on. There are different

names and proclamations. Then he says

nam nyung zhen jen nel jor pai – pe na gom pa cheg

du pab.

An experienced yogi will see everything as one.

He said this in his Mahamudra text.

I don’t remember the counting of all the different views, but

that was his conclusion. In short, whether you call it lam rim,

like the Gelugpas or ten rim like the Sakyas, or ku zang la me

zhel lung like the Nyingmas, etc, but when you look at it the

real essence is only one thing and that is what Buddha taught

in his Prajnaparamita, the Transcendental Sutra. There is

nothing beyond that. When you look in that, the essence is

the Four Noble Truth, plus wisdom and compassion. That’s

it. The Prajnaparamita is the direct and indirect wisdom

teachings and the stages of development. And that is what

lam rim is all about. Different names, different styles, a little

different ways of presenting, but the bottom line is one.

Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa, while giving teachings, had

many living teachers. All those teachers were either Sakya,

Kagyu or Nyingma, probably Lhodrag Drubchen Lekshe

Dorje was Nyingma.

One of the teachers asked him in writing what he was doing

these days. He replied, “I am practicing the essence of what

Manjushri taught me and teaching people. I found Atisha’s

way of teaching is extremely effective and helpful. So I am

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following in his footsteps.” The message he was delivering

was what Manjushri taught and the organization of the path

is the way Atisha did it. That is what we call lam rim. Not

only that, when Tsongkhapa was writing the huge volume of

lam rim chenmo, Manjushri told him jokingly, “It seems that

my teaching to you is not good enough. So you have to write

this huge volume, ha?” Tsongkhapa got up and bowed down

and said, “No. Your teaching of the Three Principles is the

backbone and essence of my lam rim. Without that there is

no lam rim.” So really, truly, from Buddha onwards, in the

Buddhist line, they have practiced this path and obtained

enlightenment. It is absolutely real, absolutely profound.

But we have to break it into pieces. That’s why we have the

outlines. To review what you have been taught, basically we

talked about two important outlines first and the first of these

is:

The root of all development, guru devotional practice.

Here we talked about to practice guru devotional practice.

We made it into session and in between sessions, presuming

that people are meditating. Some people will not be

meditating. But you have to develop profound respect and

perfect mental and activity relationships. For that you don’t

have to meditate. But a person like me has to meditate and

learn. Learning is necessary in the sense not as just

information, but in gaining the quality. Without learning the

information you can’t gain the qualities. Gaining the qualities

means that it becomes your character. That is what it means

on the spiritual path, in the Buddhist field.

Learning is basically divided into two: learning with effort

and learning without effort, effortless.

Learning with effort is meditating and putting all your

thoughts in. Effortless learning means it is already there,

without questions, as large as life in your character, in you.

In one way we call that learning effortlessly. In another way

this is called experience. Another way of expression is

development. So information has been given, effort was put

in to understand that information, then effort was put in to

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digest that information, then effort was put in to try to merge

that within you and whatever you have learned. When it is

merged you will see that it becomes your character and then

it becomes automatic or effortless. Truly, that is how all this

development takes place. The symptom is the behavior and

the capability of the individual. You don’t work for the

symptoms. You work for the basic, major thing – unless you

are training yourself to be clairvoyant or a healer. In that case

it is a different path, a different way of learning and doing it.

Other than that, with spiritually that is how you go.

The guru devotional practice itself in the session has three:

pre, actual and conclusion.

The pre is with the Lama Buddha Buddha Vajradhara, the

seven limbs, mandala offering, requests and then the actual

meditation comes. That has the root of development,

profound faith. After developing faith, building the

relationship. That has the mental relationship and physical

action.

After developing the guru devotional practice, comes training

your mind. That has reminding ourselves of the importance

of life. The tradition calls it del jor, which means leisure and

richness. Leisure here means you have a lot of chances. It is

rich in the sense that it has so many opportunities. It is rich

with opportunity and so many chances. Recognizing this is

very important, otherwise we will waste this life. If we

realize we had such a wonderful thing when everything is

already a done deal then it is a little too late. Traditional

teachers give us the example:

There was a little mentally challenged, very poor

person who found a bag full of gold dust. Somehow

he understood that this was gold and very valuable.

He carried it around and told everybody that he had

found gold. What he didn’t know was that there was

a hole in the bag. When he was carrying it around the

gold dust was leaking out everywhere. By the time

he had realized what had happened all the gold dust

was gone.

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So that should not happen to us. We have this precious life.

When we don’t know its value, or we do know but don’t

utilize it, the time will click and it goes, like the sand in an

hour glass. Remember the soap opera “Days of Our Lives”.

That is a true waste. To avoid that, to make an impact in our

life, we meditate on recognizing the quality of this life, its

importance and the difficulty to find it. These are the

preparation for practice, actually.

Then after developing that, the actual practice comes. What

do we do? There are three different layers:

First is: Small Scope – or common with the lower. This one

begins with impermanence until what to do at the end of this

particular life as an emergency measure, which is taking

refuge and following the advice. The advice is to honor

karma.

The Second or Medium Scope is seeing everything, really

seeing what true samsara is. True samsara is not external, but

internal. Not only internal to our physical body, but how the

deepest “me” in the deepest part of my soul is connected and

not only connected by soaked completely with

contamination. That’s almost what we are. Recognize what

this is and how we got so soaked in that “samsara”. Look in

your own samsara and recognize it and make no mistake and

reject it. That means transforming the contaminated identity

– making sure our entity is not associated with contaminated

identity. The continuation of contaminated identity is

samsara. It is called ignorance, confusion and it is the source

of all the hatred, obsession, jealousy, superiority-inferiority

complexes. The meanness of the individual comes from

there, showing the temper comes from there. In short all what

we don’t want, all that makes my and others’ lives miserable

is coming from there. This is the culprit. Recognize that.

Transform that. Do both together. Safeguard the immediate

future and change this identity.

Safeguarding the future means following the morality.

Changing the identity is following concentration and

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wisdom. These are the Three Pitakas or Three Higher

Trainings or Three Baskets. They are meant for each and

every one of us to be able to handle these very chronic

problems. I did talk about morality, but not yet much about

concentration and focusing, but referred you to the transcript

GOM. That is the same as the fifth perfection.

WISDOM

Then the wisdom is also the sixth paramita. The bottom line

with that is that whatever we have been seeing and

experiencing is not real. It all seems very real, but it is not. It

is like we are living within a sorcerer’s performance. Why is

it not real? I don’t mean that somebody made up stories and

dragged us in there. Neither is it somebody putting a spell on

us. I don’t mean that at all. That is not the bottom line.

When all the conditions and terms are right, then things

happen. Is this going to be permanent? No. When conditions

are not right, things are not happening. That’s why the idea

of not being real, of being false, comes in. Some people use

the term “dualistic” , some call it confusion. Actually, it is

not right, because it just takes all the conditions to be just

right for things to materialize. It is materialized. It is

happening. Yes it is. Yet, it is not real. It is not the bottom

line.

Is there a bottom line? Probably not. That is why everything

is conditioned. And who provides the conditions? We do. I

do. When I have made the conditions then things are

happening. This is the basic idea of wisdom. Since it is

nothing that somebody else made to apply on us, it is just the

conditions that we made being right, and then it is happening

and it will change.

So we can make it happen a different way. That’s why we do

all our practices, trying to make it into a different way, trying

to make it uncontaminated, trying to make it non-samsaric.

So the possibility is there – and not only the possibility, but it

is definite that we can make a difference. We can change.

Things are happening because the conditions are right.

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Out of the Three Higher Trainings, Morality, Concentration

and Wisdom, this is wisdom. After developing that, when

you have the basic understanding of that, you begin to see

that not only is everything transitory, but everything is made.

Some people say “it is meant to be”, but there is no such

thing. It is all transitory. And who manages that? So far, our

own karma, but we would like to take the control in our

hands. We would like to be in the driver’s seat and drive

ourselves. That is the whole idea.

Then we not only see the possibility, but the probability that

we can change the conditions. We can get out of samsara.

We can change the contaminated identity into an

uncontaminated continuation of “me”. That me is capable of

developing perfectly and can become a buddha, because you

keep on changing the conditions. So you will reach there.

You are moving in that direction. You continuously keep on

changing the conditions. Practice to me is all about that. It is

not necessarily 2 or 3 hours. But when you have

commitments then it does take 2-3 hours, particularly these

days for me. Somehow I always wake up around 5, 6 these

days, like this morning and start doing my prayers and by the

time I am moving out of my bed, Colleen tells me it is 9

o’clock or something. That happens every day for me, not for

you, I am sure you don’t have to. I am doing the

Guhyasamaja sadhana since I did the retreat. I completed the

retreat but didn’t stop saying the sadhana. For 2, 3 days I

tried to say the short sadhana, but it felt very uncomfortable.

When I first started saying this is took 3 hour by itself. Now

it doesn’t take that long, but still, it takes time.

Whether you cut the time of doing your prayers and

meditation or not, the whole thing becomes a habit. “Habit”

may be cheap language. Try to make it your character so that

everything you do will become positive that way.

Khedrup-je praised Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa

Wang po chö je zhe je u tsam yang

Ta da dro la mem bei gyu gyur na

Tso nyi chö pa zhen ta mö je tse

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So sum zhin gyur nye la sol wa deb

If even the intake and out-take of your breath

Becomes extremely beneficial for all living beings,

What need to talk about all your other activities!

In one way Khedrub-je does have perfect guru devotional

practice and that’s why he may have mentioned that, but on

the other hand, if you yourself are perfectly dedicated,

knowing the way, then bodhimind becomes part of your life

and then every breath you take, every movement you make,

even silly jokes, becomes beneficial, not only to yourself, but

to all beings who will become buddhas in future. That’s a

very important point.

That is bodhimind. If you develop that with you, that itself

purifies your negativities. That itself accumulates merit. It is

really the best way to accumulate merit and the best way to

purify. It is like a treasure of good fortune. That is totally

dedicating yourself for the benefit of all beings, seeking

enlightenment for the reason to benefit others. Such a mind

either develops through the seven stage or the exchange stage

development or even by taking vows ritually. We have

completed all three.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Now, you have some treasure within you, honestly. Even if

you don’t talk much about it or count exactly all the points,

but think very simply about it, even if you don’t think much

about guru devotion and the precious human life, that’s fine.

You at least need a strong knowledge of it. The bottom line

is that you need to practice these three things:

Common with the lower, scope, common with the medium

scope and Mahayana path.

Practicing the lower and medium scope you will know who

you are and what you are and where you are. Clearly

knowing and understanding where the real source of the

problems is and clearly making up your mind to reject that

with a variety of reasons. Clearly knowing the circumstances

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and conditions, you are the master of the very conditions you

want to build. If I say the words, “I am dying”, to say it now

, some people may get offended, but truly speaking you have

to look at yourself as your own creator. Your future is

created by you, not anybody else. Then I will know that

everything I do today makes a difference in me and the

people who are associated with me and the people who are

connected with me, who share the air I breathe, the ground I

walk on, and they are all connected with me and truly they

are all my mother sentient beings. Then it is really true.

Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense to say that your father is

your mother and your son and daughter is your mother.

Then comes love, compassion, caring and concern. Then the

temporary things in life come and go and come and go. They

are the true melodramas of samsara. Sometimes you are very

much involved, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Sometimes not only that, but it is life and death. But again

the reality is that it is not. Only time will tell you that it is

not. The melodrama of life happens. It is human character.

We go along with that, we suffer a bit and a wise person will

understand that this is part of a melodrama and won’t totally

fall into it, yet will move along with it. If you don’t move

along with it you become crazy. If you move completely into

it you become stupid. Life can be managed in that way. The

total mind and the total efforts are put into this, plus a few

vajrayana practices of this and that sadhana and mantra here

and there, keeping your commitments. That will deliver you

to total enlightenment, particularly if you are connected to

extraordinary yidams.

When I think back to the days when we started Jewel Heart,

there were a number of wonderful people. I am talking about

those who are gone, who have passed away. It began with

Helen from Holland, then Gelong-la, Octavio, Mama Nancy,

and we lost Peng Khong. From those who are connected with

Jewel Heart, as far as I know, no one is lost. They are all

connected with the Lama Yidam. Hopefully everyone will

be. Plus, our own efforts contribute to work with these three

scopes. Bottom-line them, make them into bullets and

swallow them so they become part of your character. This is

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real practice, whether you sit there will rolling eyes or folded

hands or not. I mentioned a few names and a few others I

didn’t mention, but that doesn’t mean I am letting them

down.

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IX

BODHISATTVA ACTIVITIES

So after bodhimind development is the actual bodhisattva

activities. The actual meditation includes two: in order to

ripen your own personality, the six perfections, and to help

others, the four other perfections. These are the two main

outlines.

THE SIX PERFECTIONS

After developing the bodhimind through whatever you do,

then you practice the six perfections. They are very simple.

Generosity, morality, patience, enthusiasm, concentration

and wisdom.We are now more concerned with ourselves. So

the first is generosity.

GENEROSITY

I will give you a little explanation of the perfection of

generosity. The meditation is the same format, pre, actual

and conclusion. Pre is generating the Lama, doing seven

limbs and mandala offering and then we do the actual

meditation.

We have to think there are three types of generosity:

1. Generosity of dharma, of the way the individual can

develop and become perfectly enlightened. Sharing that,

leading people; that is the first and foremost and

wonderful generosity.

2. Protecting individuals from threat and fear, etc. Fear

comes in because there is a threat.

3. Material generosity, like giving medicine to the sick,

shelter to the homeless, food to the hungry, helping kids

with their education, helping old people who need help

and so forth.

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Practice for us is all three generosities. What is true

generosity? It is the mind of giving and sharing, mentally

sharing and giving. But if you just think, “Mentally I give,

literally I won’t give”, then it is not generosity. You have to

mean what you say. But in essence it is the mental activity.

We as a society understand and appreciate people’s

generosity, not only in terms of giving money or wealth, but

sharing. That includes appreciation, rejoicing and all of

those.

The concluding meditation for this is to get light and liquid

from the Lama, purifying negativities in general and

particularly the negativities that cause poverty, and not only

the poverty of wealth, but also the poverty of dharma, of life

and whatever is lacking in any way. All is purified. Thinking

only of money-generosity alone is not worthwhile. You have

to think of all three. That will be helpful.

MORALITY The meditation works the same way. Morality has also three

types.

Okay, now this one says: the morality that has not grown

before will be grown, that already grown with us will remain

and increase. The three moralities are:

1. Protecting yourself from wrong doing

2. Accumulating positive karma

3. Commitment and action to help all beings

The meditation is the same thing.

PATIENCE:

The request and the meditation is the same as before,

particularly, while meditating, keep the Lama Lhagpai La

Thubwang Dorje Chang on your crown and say that even if

not only one or two people, but every living being on earth

and every enlightened being in heaven became my enemy, if

everyone looked down on me and treated me like an enemy,

even then I will not return their meanness. Of course

enlightened beings never look down and never treat you

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meanly, but as a way of talking, I will not return any

meanness and will not react with anger. I will not measure

that with hatred. No matter whatever happens I will not do it.

On the contrary, if I can, I will develop compassion and love

and care. The sufferings that I have, even a headache or

toothache or a slight inconvenience or discomfort that I may

have, all are the results of my negativities that I committed

from the beginning. Especially for the sake of dharma, if I

have to take a lot of hardship, this will bring me closer total

enlightenment. So I welcome it. This is my opportunity to cut

the cause of samsara and the causes for falling into the lower

realms.

Also there is the truth of karma and the truth of Buddha,

Dharma Sangha and there is something called the blessings

of buddhas and bodhisattvas. This is actually inconceivable.

So I strongly focus on that. I will also read the messages of

Buddha, the development of bodhimind, particularly I may

be able to be blessed to be able to do that. So then I purify all

negativities, particularly the obstacles to the three types of

patience.

The three types of patience are when people are hurting you,

don’t take it personally. Even little sufferings like, for the

sake of dharma and the benefit of others I welcome them.

And I develop the patience to understand. These are the

three.

ENTHUSIASM The meditation here is the same way, generating the Lama,

purifying negativities in general and in particular impatience.

If there is no enthusiasm, then no matter how much

intelligence you may have, it is just like a dead body. You

get no success at all. If you don’t have enthusiasm, then even

a huge intelligence is almost useless. It is like having a dead

body around, an additional problem, rather than help. So

clear the obstacles to develop enthusiasm and think of

developing the three types of enthusiasm. They are not

mentioned here, but they are:

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1.Armor-like enthusiasm – No matter how many people may

attack you, the armor will protect you.

2. Collecting virtues

3. Helping others

The second and third are same as in morality. In the lama

chöpa there is a verse:

SEM CHEN RE REI CHIR YANG NAR MEI PEI

MAY NANG KEL PA GYA TSOR NAY GÖ KYANG NYING JEY MI KYO JHANG CHUP CHOG TSÖN PAY TSÖN DRÜ PHAR CHIN DZOK PAR JIN GYI LOP

Inspire me to perfect transcendent joyous effort,

By striving with tireless compassion for supreme enlightenment,

Even if I must remain for many aeons

In the deepest hell fires for the sake of each being.

For the sake of one sentient being, even if I have to remain

for hundreds of eons in a hell realm, my compassion and

enthusiasm is strong enough to continue. That is the example

of enthusiasm.

CONCENTRATION

I do remember the six perfections in the delam are very short,

but I didn’t remember them being this short. Without any

concentration one can never get the results.

If you focus then you get it done. If you are not focused, I

even notice myself, when I say my prayers and I am not

focusing but talking to somebody or watching TV or reading

a book, then it doesn’t work very well, although it is

permitted, particularly it is permitted to read a book about the

same subject, but my practice then never finishes. Three

hours will become nine hours. It will go into the evening and

still not be finished. So clearly, focusing is necessary. We all

know that. There are a variety of types of focusing. There is

samsaric focusing and non-samsaric focusing. There is focus

of shamata and the focus of vipasyana and there is the focus

of the combination of these.

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It is interesting to know that Tibetan Buddhism is the one

that talks about the combination of shamata and vipasyana.

Shamata is single-pointed focusing and vipasyana is critical

analysis, sometimes called ‘insight’. So it is the combination

together. All the Tibetan traditions talk about that

combination. Focusing is like the horse and analysis is like

the man on the horse. So the combination is a horse man. A

horseman can fight better than a man on foot or a horse

without rider.

From the result point of view, in order to have physical and

mental comfort, there is meditation. Most of the meditations

known to us in the west are for physical and mental comfort.

That’s why these meditations are now used in many hospitals

in the west. They spend huge amounts of money to treat

patients to have meditation. A number of people even have

jobs in the hospital doing that.

Audience: Some of them are called “bio feedback”.

Rimpoche: Many doctors hire people to teach you to

meditate. Especially famous doctors, before you see them,

you see these people first. There are the dieticians and the

meditation instructors. The dieticians will give you long

lectures that you don’t want to hear. Before you see the

doctor, the dietician takes about 45 minutes to give her input.

For the quality of the individual you can do many more

meditations, meditations for helping and serving living

beings and most importantly, the bodhisattvas meditations.

There are so many varieties of meditation given by Buddha

and the Buddhist teachings for different purposes.

The big meditations in various hospitals like those of Jon

Kabat – Zinn, are very much part of Buddhism. Then the

practice of light and liquid from the lama is as usual.

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WISDOM

I did mention to you what wisdom is all about. But over here

they talk about three wisdoms:

Nyi lu rig pa don dam tob pai sherab – ultimate reality-

knowing, absolute wisdom

Ne nga rig pu kun dzob tob pai sherab – knowing all kinds of

relative information, relative wisdom

Sem chen che dön she su tob pai sherab – wisdom of helping

all beings

Mostly we refer to the ultimate reality-knowing, absolute

wisdom. That covers the six perfections.

THE FOUR OTHER PERFECTIONS

In order to help all other beings, there are the four other

perfections.

1. The presenter should be generous. Whatever you talk,

you make sure they practice. That is the first.

2. The presenter should not only be generous, but should

also be able to talk very nicely and present the subject.

“Very nicely” does not mean sweet talk only. Sometimes

you may be able to show your temper and push. When

you need temper, you are able to show temper. When

you need sweet talk you should be able to give sweet

talk. If they are doing wrong, you should be able to point

it out and correct.

3. Accumulate the subject in order to be able to help,

4. Whatever you teach to others, you have to do the same

thing. If you teach others something and you yourself do

something else, that’s not right.

Then you make requests to the lama to be able to do this and

be able to deliver all living beings to total enlightenment and

particularly those who are following you.

Light and liquid from the Lama reaches all living beings.

Everybody develops understanding and particularly this

understanding.

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CONCLUSION

So basically, this is the de lam, a very brief lam rim. You can

do this every day. You don’t have to have all these outlines.

It is good if you can, but otherwise, as I told you, the three

scopes, the essence of ‘common with the lower’, ‘common

with the medium’ and Mahayana. Then generosity, morality,

patience, enthusiasm, concentration are the way of life and

you should pick it up. Generosity is commonly accepted as

virtue, even by non-Buddhists. Everybody accepts that as

virtue. But you have to know that true generosity is a mental

activity. That has to tally with your actions. Morality again is

a mental activity. That mental activity, again has to tally with

your actions, particularly actions like pretending will not be

good morality. It is more harmful than helpful if it is only a

performance. Then patience and enthusiasm, focusing and

wisdom. The absolute wisdom is the knowledge of absolute

reality, knowing other artistic things is relative wisdom. The

wisdom of helping other beings is the third type of wisdom.

Then one has to be very good to be able to present whatever

little one knows to the people. It has to be suitable to their

minds, to their culture, to their style or skill. That’s really

nyem pa ma wa. Whatever you say, make them do it, make

them learn. The third is that you do whatever you are

teaching. These are the ten perfections.

Just critical analysis alone is not going to bring wisdom,

neither is learning and meditating without critical analysis

sufficient to develop wisdom, First and foremost to develop

are the three scopes, then maintain them with the 10

perfections, but at least the 6 perfections within you.

You have completed the lam rim delam. It is important to

learn. It is equally important to practice what you have

learned. The essence of practice really begins with yourself.

Whenever your ego is hurt you know that your ego is

hurting. That is a wonderful opening, a wonderful practice

for you. Practice really means looking in, rather than looking

out.

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Non-spiritual practitioners can look out. Spiritual

practitioners must look in. That makes the difference. I guess

all of you do very well.

Whatever you have learned, take it with you. Don’t waste it.

Even if you don’t get it completely, whatever you do get, bite

what you can chew and chew it well. It will nourish you and

your spiritual path.

Finally, all of your kindness and generosity, time, efforts and

everything, we dedicate for all of us obtaining total

enlightenment together. Like Milarepa said,

Pu drub par che pai lama dang

Da tso wa pö bei yön tang nyi

Sa nyam pa gye pei teng de yö

The person who is meditating in the cave,

The family providing the needs from the towns and

cities,

have omens to obtain enlightenment together.

We dedicate as Milarepa did and follow the same footsteps.

Then we all pray for the longevity of all of us and that we

will be able to do the lam rim and vajrayana teachings

together again and again.