Kopan Course No. 38 (2005)

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kopan Monastery, Nepal (Archive #1544)

Lamrim teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 38th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2005. Lightly edited by Gordon McDougall.

Go to the Index page to view an outline of topics and click on the links to go directly to the lectures. You can also download a PDF of the entire course.

Anila Ann and Max Mathews on the roof of Kopan as the second floor is in progress, 1972.
1. The Kopan Experience

December 4, 2005

NOT UNDERSTANDING KARMA, WE SUFFER

[Rinpoche and the students chant The Foundation of All Good Qualities]

Good afternoon to everyone. Sorry I didn’t come earlier. But all of you who have been continuing the course to learn and experience here, I think has been extremely worthwhile. It seems it has been worthwhile coming for this course all the way from afar, with all the expenses, having to make money and then quit your job and coming here to Nepal, to Kopan, to do this course.

There are so many problems in the world. The individual beings on this earth suffer; the whole globe suffers with the war, torture, famine, disease. Last time there was SARS, now there’s bird flu. All those many millions and millions of birds being killed. Human beings have so many opportunities. If we are sick, we can go to a hospital or see a doctor. There are so many possibilities, whereas animals just get killed. In many places, many millions are put in plastic bags alive and put in the fire or things like that. Even though they are the same as us; they also have a mind like we have and like us they do not want to suffer and they are looking for happiness. It’s very pitiful.

There is torture, sicknesses, famine and on top of these things there is so much danger from fire, and water, such as either floods or the scarcity of water, drought, with no crops growing and no water for people and animals to drink. I saw on TV a few times how in Africa, because the water had dried up, the animals had to go very far to get water but when they reached the water holes, they had dried up. There were very skinny monkeys around trying to get water. I heard that when they didn’t find food, they ate each other. Many other animals came from afar to get water—elephants came, buffaloes came—but there was no water, the water had dried up. It is very pitiful, very sad.

In many parts, human beings either don’t get water or they don’t get healthy water, or there’s too much water, with floods and so forth. Then, there is the danger of fire and water, like in the United States. I have been living there, and there’s always the danger of fire. I never heard it’s like that in Nepal or even in Tibet. In different parts of the United States, there is always the danger of fire and then tornadoes. Not tomatoes, tornadoes! A whole city can be destroyed within an hour, everything, with pieces everywhere. You can’t do anything.

What was the city that was completely destroyed in the United States? Huh? New Orleans. You can remember that; you all saw it on TV. New Orleans was completely covered by water. Hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, were made homeless and so many problems happened. The state asked them to leave and everybody had to pack into one large house, doing pipi and kaka there. There was no other place for them to stay, so they stayed in the same house. It was so difficult; they didn’t know what to do.

And then there was the tsunami that happened some time ago in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka.

More recently, after New Orleans, I think something else happened in the United States. Now I’m forgetting. Something else happened! Disasters, one after another. Then also in other places. India, Pakistan, near Kashmir there were earthquakes. Anyway, there are the dangers of fire, water, air, earthquakes, besides all the sicknesses and the other dangers of violence or dangers of the elements.

These are due to the lack of understanding of karma, the lack of understanding of the unmistaken cause of happiness and unmistaken cause of suffering. In other words, the actions that result in suffering, and the actions that result in happiness. There is the lack of this understanding. What’s the right thing to practice? What’s the right thing to practice that benefits ourselves and others? What’s the wrong thing that is harmful to ourselves and others? It’s a lack of understanding of these things. That’s the biggest mistake; that’s where all these problems come from. All the problems come from the ignorance. Ignorance, not knowing this is the most important point.

When we understand this, we can achieve happiness and abandon suffering. This lack of understanding of karma comes from the ignorance. All these problems come from ignorance of the living beings who are experiencing the problems. It comes from their own mind, from their own impure mistaken mind and mistaken action.

The other thing is that none of these problems come from compassion; they come from the opposite of compassion, the self-cherishing thought. All these problems come from the self-cherishing thought, from lack of compassion. All the global problems, all individual personal problems, come from the self-cherishing thought, from the selfish mind.

THE EXPERIENCES OF THE EARLY KOPAN STUDENTS

That’s why I say [it is so good that you] came all the way from home to here, to Nepal. It might seem primitive compared to West but maybe twenty or thirty years ago it was much more primitive, both Nepal and Kopan! Compared to so many years ago, now it’s five-star! Five or six-star? The only choice is five-star. Now Kopan has become five-star. The facilities have gradually been getting better, being developed year by year.

It started many years ago with the help of a nun who was the benefactor, called Mummy Max. An American. How do you say it? Huh? Black American, Mummy Max. With her help, Lama Yeshe, who was kinder to us than all the three-time buddhas, quickly built the first building. Now that building, Norbulingka, the old house, is only a memory. Those who were at Kopan at that time might have seen it, right?

[To Venerable George Churinoff] Which year did you first come to Kopan? Seventy-four. Venerable George came to Kopan for the seventy-four Kopan course. Anyway, they quickly built a building down below there, below the office. They didn’t even have a cover. People were staying in the room but even the door or the windows didn’t have a cover.

It’s not there now but we did the course at the back. Before there was some ground behind the temple where we put a tent and some grass inside the tent. Our monks slept on grass, on the hay.

We did the course there. After that, for a number of years, we did courses above the stupa, I think, just here where there are rooms now. They maybe put a sheet around and the tent and on the other side of the hill they put some old cloth around. We did courses there for many years.

One of my favorite subjects in those early courses was the eight worldly dharmas. I spent weeks on that. I think Venerable George introduced me at the beginning! I talked on cutting attachment, on the lower realms, on the eight worldly dharmas. Then it was lunchtime, so the students went for lunch under the bodhi tree. And while they were eating lunch, all the smells were coming up from the toilets! The toilets were down below, and all the smells came during lunchtime. It was an interesting combination! After my subject, what happened when they went out—all enjoying their lunch when all the bad smells came from the toilets.

At that time, the facilities were poor, very, very poor. It took a very long time to get better, with better facilities and more comfort.

In the past all this happened. I don’t know which number course this is.

Thirty-eight. I’m sure Karin knows very well. Thirty-eight? But this is without counting the other short courses. This is only counting the one-month courses. In early times, when Lama Yeshe and I were not traveling so much to the West, we used to do the one-month course twice a year. But then we started traveling more and it became just once a year.

In those early times, the students really had to bear a lot of hardships. The facilities were very, very poor. People really had to make a big sacrifice to do the course, to meditate. But I think because of that, because they had to sacrifice their life to practice Dharma, they were able to develop themselves, their inner selves, and to benefit others.

When we benefit others, when we renounce all these sensual distractions and look for the Dharma, we experience inner growth. Our mind that has been empty, not only from birth but from beginningless rebirths, has some experience. Coming here to Kopan there can be inner growth. The heart, which has been empty, begins to fill up, to experience the path to liberation and enlightenment. The main purpose of being here is to benefit other sentient beings who are numberless, who want happiness and who do not want to suffer, the same as us.

Those early young people coming from the West had to sacrifice their life and I think really study, meditate and practice as much as they could. And they found so much peace and happiness. They found the meaning of life, and when they went back, they found it so useful for their life.

They wished other people in their country could share the same experience, could achieve the same experience of peace and happiness, of having a meaningful life. So many people in the West think their life is meaningless; it has no meaning. They have no idea why they are alive, why they survive, and not only that, there are so many problems.

They might be materially rich, externally rich, which is not so much the cause of the problems. The problem is the mind, the negative emotional thoughts that they are always tortured with. Nobody tortures them but because the person doesn’t know meditation, doesn’t know the lamrim, doesn’t know karma, doesn’t know bodhicitta, they have no idea, no method [to overcome their problems]. They are completely overwhelmed, completely lost like in a thick fog, like that city in the United States covered by the water. New Orleans? Like Indonesia when the tsunami happened, when even the hotels and the people were taken by the water. They are totally overwhelmed by the negative emotional thoughts and they have no method to overcome them. They don’t know what to do. There is so much suffering and this is not through the lack of material possessions. It’s not like the suffering in Africa, where there is no food or water.

For you people of the well-developed countries in the West, the suffering is due to the wrong concepts. You suffer with your wrong way of thinking. You are constantly tortured by that. In other words, you torture yourself by keeping the wrong views, by keeping the wrong concepts, the wrong way of thinking. Constantly. That’s the fundamental suffering.

Why is there no real inner happiness? We try to get satisfaction, but the heart is still empty. We try one thing and then another, another style of life, another excitement, but we are still not happy. Then, we try another excitement. But even trying a different one, we still don’t get any happiness! Life goes on like that. We continue to suffer, with one thing after another, dis-satisfactory.

I was saying before how those young people came to India and Nepal. Of course, life started with the drugs, with buddha grass. Buddha grass? Maybe only Australians know buddha grass, anyway, LSD, buddha grass, what else? That’s due to karma in the West, without some external thing that breaks this fixed mind, this very fixed, hard concept. It’s due to karma.

Some external conditions like that happened! It led to all kinds of experiences—that the mind can travel out of body or things like that, or the mind can exist without the body. All these kinds of experiences were due to karma.

At that time there were only a very few books on Tibetan Buddhism. One was the Bardo Thodol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. That existed. One was Milarepa’s life story, which I think also still exists. There were only two or three books. There was one book written by a German professor, Lama Govinda, called The Way of the White Clouds, which was kind of mystical, something like that. I think he tried to put together Western science or psychology or maybe Western science [with the spiritual path], I’m not sure. I haven’t actually read it. Maybe there was something on the death experience and maybe a little bit on tantric subjects, how, when you’re dying, you can use those high tantra practices to meditate, maybe those. Anyway, there were only a few books like that available.

So, due to the individual’s karma, they took drugs and had all those experiences, and then went along and saw Milarepa’s book in a shop. And some had The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Lama Govinda’s book.

DHARMA IN ITALY

We had an Italian student who had taken drugs before that, of course! Then, he read the book of Milarepa’s life story and gave up everything. All his possessions, whatever he had—he gave away everything and he came here. I think he understood some things but he didn’t understand completely. He gave away everything and came looking for a guru so he could become Milarepa, I think. He traveled in India and Nepal. As far as I can remember, we had one Italian student who did that. According to his karma, the first thing that made him interested in learning Buddhism was Milarepa’s life story.

Originally, there were three or four Italian students. They came here, did the course and studied, and then they went back to Italy. Then, they invited Lama and me there. That’s how Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism was spread in Italy, through these two or three original Italian students. There was one geshe, one very top learned geshe from Tibet, who was very famous from Tibet, teaching at the Rome University. But he only taught at the university; he did not teach Dharma outside.

They organized a course in a church. I’m not sure if it was called a church or not. It was where Catholic people went to do a retreat. Catholic nuns cooked for us and there were priests who sometimes attended our teachings. Then, at the end of the course we attended the Sunday church. Some students were circumambulating outside while we were inside doing the Sunday mass! They didn’t attend but circumambulated outside the building. Some joined. When we had to go up there on the stage, we had to take a piece of radish and some alcohol. Lama and I were the last people to go up, so there was no alcohol, the bowl was empty. Lama didn’t have any superstitious thought of the radish being dirty, or [black food], so Lama went into the bowl like this. But I grew up with a lot of superstitious thoughts, so I just did like that!

This was the first course in Italy. That’s how the main Buddhist center, called Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, started in Italy, near Pisa. You know Pisa, where there is this building about to fall down? Then, many branches happened from that gradually in many different cities. Since that time, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism has spread very widely.

In that way, so many Italian sentient beings have been able to meet the Buddhadharma and make their lives meaningful. They have been able to find the answer in their lives that they could not find in Western culture. There were holes, meaning they could not find any answers, any peace. Now they have the opportunity to follow the path to enlightenment, the state which is the completion of all the qualities and the cessation of all the mistakes. In many different parts of Italy they have the opportunity to follow the path to enlightenment, to make their live meaningful, to benefit numberless sentient beings. That is because of these two or three Italians who came in early times here. Because of them, this is what happened in Italy.

Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa has just finished a seven-year program studying Buddhist philosophy, which was put together by Lama Yeshe with the resident teacher, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. It was made by Lama along with him. Lama really wanted this to happen. It was his wish to actualize this study course and he really put effort into it. Now, it’s already finished, and it’s been very successful. I think there were about thirty graduates. They will start the second one soon.

Besides that, a five-year program is happening, still studying the extensive teachings of the Buddha, the philosophy, the path to achieve liberation and enlightenment, taught by Buddha. It’s a five-year program and, because the center is not in a city but isolated, the students can live there. Because of that, they have made the five-year course into a full-time two-year course. But in other centers where there’s a city, because people have to do jobs and can only come in the evenings to study, the duration is five years. [At Instituto Lama Tzong Khapa], however, they are just there to study and they can do the five-year program in two years. I think it’s doing very well with another younger resident teacher, a good teacher, and there are also senior Western students helping with the subjects and guiding them. It’s doing very well.

With the seven-year program, there are these very extensive philosophical teachings on the path, on the four noble truths, on the path to liberation, how to achieve liberation and enlightenment, with extensive teachings on the Madhyamaka. They study the root text commentaries: the Abhisamayalamkara taught by Maitreya Buddha; the Madhyamaka teachings composed by Lama Tsongkhapa; Chandrakirti’s teachings on Madhyamaka, and the teachings written by Nagarjuna, with the root teachings taught by the Buddha.

Then, there is the Abhidharmakosha and the very extensive teachings on tantra, the graduated Secret Mantra, the clear light of the five stages, the completion stage path to achieving enlightenment within the highest tantric path. This very intensive way of learning the highest tantric path is the quickest means to achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime of the degenerated time. These are the main subjects they study in the seven-year program.

During the study, those who are lay students have to observe the five lay vows. It is not only intellectual study but, at the same time, they must lead an ethical life, observing the five lay vows. That’s the idea. And then, at the end of the day, they check their life, seeing from that morning when they woke up how many actions they did for others and how many actions they did for themselves. They write this down in a diarrhea! They make a diarrhea book [diary]. But they don’t have to report that; it’s just for their own understanding.

This is similar to the Kadampa geshes, those early practitioners, such as the Kadampa geshe, Ben Gungyal. When he began to practice Dharma in the hermitage, when he began actualizing lamrim, at the end of every day, he reviewed his life from morning until night, checking every action. Any action that became Dharma, he put down a white stone; any action that did not become Dharma, that was nonvirtue, he put down a black stone. At the beginning there were hardly any white stones, mostly black, but then gradually there were less and less black stones and more and more white ones. Through that, we can see how our mind develops. It’s a little bit like that. We ourselves can discover how our mind is doing, whether it’s going down or going up, whether it’s progressing this way.

The other thing I just added is that they have to report how they combine study and practice. They are studying but at the same time practicing. Rather than, “I’ll study now and practice later. I’ll practice patience next year or I’ll practice patience in the future!” Bodhicitta, patience, these are put off until the future. Instead of that, while studying they do real practical practice, training the mind at the same time. I said that if they get angry twenty times a month, they’ve failed! It means if they’ve missed out practicing patience that many times, if they’ve become angry that many times, they have to report to the spiritual coordinator, not the actual teacher, but whoever is doing the job of spiritual coordinator. At the examination at the end of each year, when they do the examination, that is also included—how many times they became angry and were unable to apply the meditation techniques to practice patience.

That goes together with the other examinations, then that student gets their degree. The idea is that later, when they finish all these studies, either they spend their life doing retreat or they go into the world to teach, having become a qualified teacher. They become a good example for others, good- hearted and tolerant, rather than a bad example, where they get easily irritated or disturbed or angry. That is not a good example for the other sentient beings, the students. They become not only rich in the words to teach the Dharma, but also rich in good feeling, and the students are inspired by their good example, their good heart and tolerance.

These are the three qualities [they should have]: being learned, being good-hearted and pure; and leading an ethical life. They should try to have all the three qualities. Sometimes billions of words don’t mean much, but our example, our good heart, does. People may criticize us, saying nasty things, but our mind remains calm, compassionate, patient. That is so effective; many people get much more inspired by that than by billions of words. Seeing the teacher is practicing, living in the practice, living in that experience of what they are talking about, the student gets so inspired and they become like the teacher.

So anyway, this is talking about the subjects at the Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, how that center is able to benefit so many sentient beings there in Italy, not only Italian people, but also the other countries’ people who go there to learn.

What I was saying before, in those early times many young people who came to India and Nepal sacrificed their lives with poor conditions, bearing all the hardships to learn the Dharma, to meditate. Then they went back and started centers. They taught others. That’s how the Buddha’s unmistaken teachings, the teachings of the one compassionate to all sentient beings, the omniscient one, how the Buddha’s unmistaken teachings and especially Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism was spread in the West by the young people, after they broke their biggest concept about drugs! I’m talking about generally. I don’t mean everybody, but generally. Like Spain and many countries.

Basically, it was like that. They invited lamas and resident teachers to spread the Dharma. And of course, another great thing was that His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave teachings. Like that, the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha were spread, particularly Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, the teachings that were taught by the Buddha and practiced by all those great yogis, who analyzed them and brought them to Tibet, translated into the Tibetan language. They not only preserved the scriptures, the texts, but by learning extensively, many Tibetan people achieved the path. Many buddhas and bodhisattvas happened in Tibet. These teachings, which so many Tibetans themselves practiced, studied and attained, then spread in the West due to these young Western students, due to their effort, their devotion and their compassion to help others. 

Anyway, chai time.

Do you need to go for a pipi?

ATTACHMENT MAKES LIFE SO EXPENSIVE

[Rinpoche chants prayers]

I didn’t mean to talk about all that, but it just happened!

What I want to say is this. You know how much the world is suffering globally. Even if we look at individual human beings or animals, even just one sentient being, we can see how much they are suffering, we can see how much even one human being is suffering.

You have already gone through the various subjects [of the two lower scopes]: impermanence and death, the lower realm sufferings, karma, as well as the general sufferings of samsara—the six types, the four types and the three types—and the individual realms’ suffering, particularly the human beings’ suffering, the eight types of sufferings. Even if we are born as a god, in the form realm, that is still in the nature of suffering. The desire realm gods don’t have the suffering of pain but like all samsaric beings they have pervasive compounding suffering. Our body and mind is in the nature of suffering, it experiences suffering, because it is the product of karma and delusions, the obscuring, disturbing negative attitude. This body and mind is in the nature of suffering and, because of this, it is contaminated.

This pervasive compounding suffering—these aggregates contaminated by the seed of delusions—is compounded; it produces delusions, the mental and physical problems of this life, and it produces future lives’ sufferings. That’s how it compounds suffering. It is both pervasive and compounding. Not only does the aggregated, contaminated seed of delusion compound this life’s sufferings and compound future lives’ sufferings, it creates future suffering rebirths that are in the nature of suffering, whether it’s only the consciousness [as in the formless realm] or the body and mind. So, this body and mind are both pervaded by suffering and compound future lives’ sufferings also. That is the fundamental suffering. If we look at one sentient being, one human being, that is the fundamental suffering.

On the basis of that, there is the suffering of change, which are the temporary samsaric pleasures that doesn’t last because the nature of that feeling is only suffering. It appeared as pleasure to our hallucinated mind, but when we analyze that feeling, our wisdom sees that it is only suffering. Because it appears to our hallucinatory mind as pleasure, we label it “pleasure” and believe it to be pleasure, pure happiness. That is just our hallucinatory mind, our attachment. In reality there’s no such thing as real happiness there; it is only suffering. If we examine the feeling, what we discover is only suffering, no happiness. However, in the ordinary beings’ view of attachment, it is pleasure. But the exalted beings, the arya beings who have the realization of the renunciation of samsara, have discovered that these feelings are only suffering. From the point of view of unrealized beings, from their attachment, it seems pleasure. That is one type of suffering.

On top of that, there is the suffering of pain, the heaviest, dissatisfied mind. Whatever we do, we can never get satisfaction. As I often say, there’s that famous rock and roll singer. Not rocking roll, what is it? The Rolling Stones, sorry, I must memorize that one. Rolling Stones. So, it is as that Rolling Stone, that famous man said. I think he was killed right at the end, he committed suicide?[Aside to students] What? Not that one? What I heard was in the end he committed suicide, or somebody killed him. [Student: Kurt Cobain. He was a singer.] Kurt Cobain! Sorry, it’s too profound for me! However, the Rolling Stone said, “I can’t get satisfaction” or “I can’t achieve.” How is the word? [Student: “I can’t get no satisfaction.”]

Oh, sorry, I can’t get no satisfaction! I mean, that’s a great teaching! That’s great lamrim. That message is an exact lamrim teaching, a very important one. It’s the very first lamrim teaching, the very first one. Because when we follow the eight worldly dharmas, we can never get satisfaction. So, that’s the first lamrim, to free ourselves from the eight worldly dharmas, these negative emotional thoughts. That’s the first lamrim of the graduate path of the lower capable being in general.

That’s the mental suffering that is the suffering of pain. There are various gross sufferings, but that’s the suffering of pain. There is loneliness and depression, and it’s very difficult to let go of all the pain of attachment. It drives our life crazy. And attachment builds a lot of debt in our life, money we don’t need to spend. But because of attachment, we make many million-dollar debts. Actually, there is no need; it’s just attachment that makes life so expensive.

Attachment is so unnecessary; it makes us work so hard. We have all these worries and fears because we want this and we want that. Even leaving aside our house and food, even just for this body; how much money is spent for the body? For the eyes, for the nose—I don’t know, are there expenses for the nose? I don’t know. There are a lot of expenses for the hair. There are unbelievable expenses for the hair and unbelievable expenses for the mouth—all these expenses from the top of the head and down to the feet, with the toes and nails. There’s so much.

And because of the many expenses, we have to work very hard day and night. We worry about not finding a job, and even if we find a job, we don’t get enough money. But we have all these expenses that attachment wants. We think we need them, but actually it’s our attachment that says we need them! Attachment tells us we should have this and this and this—many beautiful cars and one apartment after another, always a new one again and again. And a new TV, a new car, a new whatever, all that. Attachment makes life so expensive!

[Whether we consider somebody beautiful] depends on the size and shape of the face. It’s a concept, an idea. The eyes shaped this way means nice, beautiful. This is just an example. A nose like this means beautiful, a mouth like this means beautiful. This is the idea that sometimes [comes from] the culture. It’s what people of a particular culture believe. Big muscles mean beautiful, big arms. Or skinny arms! Skinny is beautiful. It’s the culture of the country. It’s not the idea of the people of a different country. There’s no real true beauty existing from its own side. You can see that very clearly. This is culture; this is people’s belief. When you follow the same culture, you think that thin means good or fit, or whatever you call it, or big muscles means beautiful or handsome, something like that.

Maybe I’ll give another example. In a country where most people don’t have goiter, goiter is considered ugly by the people. But in a country where most people have goiter, it’s considered beautiful. Most people have goiter [so it seems beautiful], but in that other country, most people don’t have goiter, so it seems ugly. You can see it’s people’s belief, it’s the culture. There’s no truly existing good and bad, there’s no thing that is real, existing from its own side. It’s just people’s belief; they make up the label. You can see that very clearly. Nothing is there. Beautiful and ugly are like that.

If a face is small like this, with eyes like that, this way means it is beautiful but if it’s that way, that means it is ugly. A nose like this is beautiful; a nose like that is ugly. A mouth like this is beautiful; a mouth like that is ugly. Hair like this is beautiful; hair like that is ugly. Some people think this face is beautiful but the same face, in the view of other people, is bad, is ugly. Not everybody believes it is beautiful.

This is an example. What appears to us, what we believe, is something beautiful existing from its own side or something ugly existing from its own side. That’s not true at all, at all! That totally doesn’t exist. It’s only a creation of the mind. It’s our interpretation and we believe in it. After we belief that, it appears that way. Our mind labels it, we believe in that, and then it appeared that way. It’s not true. If it were to appear as merely labeled by the mind, that would be the reality. But it does not appear merely labeled by mind, it appears as if it never came from our mind, it never depended on our mind labeling it. That is totally wrong. You can see very clearly that that view is totally wrong. While we were looking at the object, we labeled it. Our mind made up the label and we believed in it.

It proves that the way something appears to us, as something real—as real beautiful or real ugly existing from its own side—is not there at all, in fact. That is a total hallucination; it is nonexistent. If it did exist from its own side, it should appear the same to everybody. That ugly should appear ugly to everybody, to everybody in the world; and that beautiful should appear beautiful to everybody in the world, but it’s not like that. Not even for animals! I mentioned the animals. I’m joking!

From just this common experience, that face appears ugly to some people’s mind and beautiful to some people’s and for some it appears neither ugly nor beautiful. So, you can see, it comes from the mind. What we see is what our mind labels.

WE HAVE NO CONCEPT OF “MOTHER” IN THE WOMB

For example, when our consciousness took place on the fertilized egg in mother’s womb, we didn’t know at that time that this was our mother. Even after our consciousness took place on the fertilized egg in the womb, even when we came out, we still had no idea this was mother. Some beings know, but that’s not the common experience. That’s not what common people recognize. So, when we are a baby, we don’t recognize it. I mean, when I was just born, I had no idea who my father and mother were. 

Say, we are taken from our parents when we are a baby, and then later we meet them. We wouldn’t recognize them as our parents unless somebody tells us this is our father and our mother. Before that, we would have no idea; they would just seem to be two human beings, a woman and a man. When somebody later tells us they are our parents, then we are educated or introduced to the label.

After we educated by being introduced to these two people as our parents, after we are taught that, we believe what the person said. We believe in the label we have been given of “father” and “mother.” Our mind labels, “This is father, this is mother.” Our mind thinks like that, and right after that [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] we believe in our own label. Right after that second. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] Right after that second, we have the appearance that this is our father and this is our mother.

Before we believed what the other person said, before our mind labeled “This is my father; this is my mother,” we didn’t have appearance at all that this was our father and mother. Because we didn’t have the appearance, this is my father and mother, we didn’t see them as our father and mother. “This is my father, that this is my mother”—we didn’t see that.

Seeing them as our father and mother comes from appearing as our father and mother. And that appearance comes from the preliminary, our mind making up the label just there. Just there making up the label, “This is my father, this is my mother,” because this is what we were taught. This is what we were told by somebody else. So, you can see, it comes from our mind. It is a creation of our mind.

That’s why I’m saying that what we see is something that just comes from our mind. In our daily life, what we are looking at is something that comes from our mind, something our mind has labeled. But when we are not aware of this, when we are not meditating and not aware of the evolution, how it has come from our mind, it looks like it has come from its own side. This is totally wrong, totally false. This is a hallucination. It is totally empty. The absence or emptiness of that is the ultimate reality of phenomena.

So, now going back to the introduction of what is false and what is the truth in our life. That’s a very big subject.

WE BELIEVE IN THE HALLUCINATION

As I often say, why we are suffering? It’s because, due to ignorance, we are unable to discover what is truth and what is the false in our life. To our hallucinated mind, truth doesn’t exist. To our hallucinated mind, the emptiness doesn’t exist. I gave a few examples of what is false, of things that have nothing to do with our mind. What we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste—all these tangible objects, the sense objects, never came from our mind; they seem to have nothing to do with our mind.

Having nothing to do with our mind includes karma; they have nothing to do with our karma, they never came from karma. It’s the same. They seem to have nothing to do with our present mind, our present concept, the way we think. The present right now labels something and what we have labeled appears back to us; that is what we see. It neither appears as labeled nor that it comes from karma, due to our mind. There are these two things: how things come from mind. Right now, there is this present mind, that which constantly labels, and the other one is the long evolution that is karma, which is our own mind, the mental factor of intention. 

We never think this has come from karma, never. Nor do we see that it comes from this present state of mind that is always labeling, from the discriminating thought labeling “this” and “this” and “that” constantly. It seems to exist from its own side, without depending on either the present mind labeling or on karma. That thing that really exists from its own side is not there at all. 

The Buddha’s omniscient mind, whose holy mind is free from all the defilements, cannot see that. He can see the sentient beings’ appearance, the view, but he doesn’t have that hallucination. Somebody who has clairvoyance can see the other person’s hallucination but they themselves do not have the hallucination. This is similar. It is like somebody who can see our dream even though they themselves are not dreaming, that we are falling down from a mountain! We are skiing and falling down from the snow mountains! Somebody can see our dream.

The Buddha sees all this, the Buddha and those exalted arya beings, the bodhisattvas and arhats. They see what we see—people, pillars, flowers, all these things—but whereas we see them as something real, in the sense of existing from their own side, they realize all these are total empty, totally nonexistent. In our view, they appear truly existing and we believe a hundred percent that their appearance is true.

There are people who are able to recognize a dream as a dream, but most of us don’t recognize that a dream is a dream when we dream. When we’re dreaming, everything seems real. Things really exist. When we are not aware we’re dreaming, the dream objects seem real in the sense of existing from their own side. But when we are aware that it’s a dream, even though we have an appearance of things that are real, we realize it’s not true. We see it doesn’t exist. We still have the hallucination but we have the realization that it’s not true. We discover that it’s not true and we don’t cling onto it.

Perhaps in the dream somebody criticizes or provokes us, or somebody beat us, shouts at us, whatever they do, when we recognize the dream is a dream we don’t get angry at all. We don’t see the point of getting angry because there’s no such thing there. Even though there’s the appearance, it’s not true. There’s no such thing there. We discover that. 

Even if somebody highly praises us, saying we are a god or omniscient or something! They praise us, saying how beautiful we are, how sweet we are, how generous we are, how kind we are, and this and that. However much that person praises us, when we recognize the dream is a dream, it doesn’t bother us at all. It doesn’t disturb our mind at all. Our mind is calm, peaceful. We have this hallucination, but we are able to recognize this is a dream. That means we know this is nonexistent even though we have the appearance.

Whatever happens—somebody praising us, somebody criticizing us, somebody making offerings, somebody cutting our flesh or limbs or beating us—because we recognize the dream is a dream, we have the appearance but we don’t have the clinging, believing that it is real. The moment we believe it is real as it appears, when the belief is there, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] that the concept is real, it destroys our mental peace, our calmness. Then we get angry or attachment arises—either angry or attachment—robbing us of all peace. Then, it involves some karma.

When we are not sleeping, it’s like this. In the dream, when we believe that it’s real, that it’s true, it affects us. In the dream, we are unbelievably scared or so attached! When we wake up, we don’t have that friend or whatever and we miss it so much. Not realizing it was a dream, we were so attached or so frightened because of believing it was real.

We haven’t realized emptiness, that all phenomena are empty, so the way things appear—the I, action, object, forms, all these things—is something real. The white light, the red color in the paintings, the yellow flowers, those colors, the white, the red, the yellow, all appear as something real, in the sense of existing from their own side.

The minute we analyze them, we can’t find them there. What we discover is that they are nonexistent there. They are totally empty. When we analyze, this is what we discover. When we don’t analyze, it looks like they are there. When we analyze and can’t find them anywhere; we realize they are totally nonexistent. That shows they are false. When we analyze they exist nowhere. That’s what we discover. What we apprehend as true is totally nonexistent. There’s no such thing there.

When all these hallucinations appear to us, especially those of us who haven’t realized emptiness, we believe the apprehended object as reality. That is the reality according to our ignorance. Not according to wisdom. According to ignorance, we believe it as reality, as the truth. We don’t see the actual truth, that it is like it doesn’t exist. We don’t see the emptiness, the dependent arising, how things exist being merely imputed by mind, depending on the base and depending on the mind that labels them. They exist depending on these things, but we don’t see it. That’s the reality but we don’t see it.

Things appear as independently existing, without depending on any of these things. They appear that way to our hallucinated mind and we believe that is the reality. Although it is false, we believe it is reality. That concept, that delusion, is the basis of all the other obscuring, disturbing negative attitudes that arise, such as anger, attachment, and then there’s ignorance. These are the basis, but there are many other delusions as branches from this.

Now I’m coming back to the face! I’m returning to the face. This face, this small face, we don’t hold the feet as the face. We don’t call our feet “face.” We have to see a particular shape. We don’t call this thing the face. This is the eye, this is the nose, this is the mouth, and like this. These things together [make the face]. Well sometimes not necessarily all of them. Sometimes some are missing! However, that’s the base. This shape is the base. Seeing the eyes, mouth, nose and so forth causes the mind to make up the label “face.” Seeing this phenomenon that has a certain shape causes the mind to make up the label “face,” and then we believe in that.

In reality, the face is merely imputed by the mind, and we believe in that. We look at the face that our mind has labeled, and after that comes discrimination, “This is beautiful,” due to the shape of the eyes, the hair, the nose, cheeks or ears or whatever. Then, attachment clings on to that, grasps on to that.

For example, if somebody praises us or give us a gift, something that our attachment likes, we call them “good” or “nice,” and attachment arises from that. And if somebody criticizes us, behaving in a way that our attachment doesn’t like, we call this “harm” or “bad.” By thinking that the way the person acts toward us is bad, anger arises. That is how it works. 

First of all, the mind labels “friend,” and in the next moment there’s the appearance of a real friend. Then there’s the concept of a truly existent friend. On that, attachment exaggerates “beautiful” or “nice,” or something like that and we grasp on to it.

The mind merely imputes “enemy,” because this is what our attachment doesn’t like. We are following attachment and it is bad according to our attachment. Our attachment says it is harmful, bad. If we were not following attachment, this would not be bad for us. When somebody gets angry at us, criticizes us, physically brings us down or disrespects us, it doesn’t bother us. It is nothing if we are not following attachment. But because we are following attachment, because we are friends with attachment, we are shaking hands with attachment, when that person acts in that way, what is the bad one? This one? Oh, this is the bad one, right?

THE MANTRAS ON RINPOCHE’S CAR

Our car has messages all around it—mantras, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and many different deities. One side has the message by His Holiness, “My religion is kindness, kindness to others.” They added the word “others” to make it clearer. The other side says, “Cherishing others is the source of happiness.” There are many mantras in front of the car because there are many insects that crash on the glass and die. When you drive along, at certain places many insects get crushed.

The first time it happened, I thought we created so much negative karma to be born in a hell realm, the hell of being alive again and again, or the black line hell or the third one, gathered and being crushed, where there are big mountains that come together and crush the hell being in between. Then the blood of the crushed being comes like a waterfall from between the two mountains So maybe it was that one because when you drive a car, so many insects are crushed on the car. I thought we had created so much negative karma to be born the third hell, the gathered and crushed hell. I was driving to Geshe Sopa’s place to take a course. It was a very long drive, and in some places this happened a lot and some places not.

Sometimes I tried to visualize sending wind from the car to chase them away. I don’t know, but sometimes it looked like hell. I asked Roger, who suggested we put something around the car. When there are a lot of those powerful mantras for purification in the front of the car, if insects crash into the car, they touch the mantras. Then, even if they die, their negative karma is purified.

Inside the car, there are quite a number of Namgyalma mantras and mandalas. If you have this in the car, any animal you don’t see who is crushed under the wheel and killed, because the mantra is inside the car, the car is blessed, so the minute it touches it, the being’s negative karma gets purified. Even if they die, they get some benefit because it is a very powerful mantra. It is said that if that mantra is on top of a mountain, the people and animals climbing the mountain or touching the mountain with their body have their negative karma purified. It saves them from being reborn in the lower realms. If it’s inside a banner, even when the shadow of the banner touches anybody, their negative karma gets purified. It’s the same when it’s in a house; everyone in the house gets blessed. Even when the shadow of the house touches anybody, their negative karma gets purified. It’s the same if you have these mantras in the car, because there are so many insects, especially ants, on the road that we can’t see, we have no choice. At least their negative karma gets purified and they get some benefit.

Anyway, when we drive the car, many people see it and rejoice; they’re so happy to see the car with those messages. Some people—some young but all sorts of different people—copy the messages when we park the car. They are so happy.

Once, somebody in a car drove all the way around while we were driving. Maybe that was some student. I’m not sure.

From time to time, you see people who pass making a rude gesture. Maybe [they follow another religion] or something. You can see the deities, the buddhas, all around, so maybe they think we are Buddhists. From time to time, through their car window, they bring their arms out! [Rinpoche demonstrated a gesture]

Sorry. It’s become a long talk. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

THE OBJECT OF ANGER DOES NOT EXIST

Anyway, because at that time we are following attachment, we are the friend of attachment, whenever some angry person does what attachment doesn’t like, we label it “bad” and the person as “enemy.” But as I said before, if we do not follow attachment, this is nothing. It doesn’t bother us; it doesn’t hurt us.

What the harm actually hurts is the attachment. It’s good to know it’s not hurting us; it’s just hurting our attachment. It’s good to think that way. This is very good psychology. It’s not hurting us, it’s hurting our delusion, so that person is very kind. They are very kind because they harm, they destroy our delusion. In this way, this person is the most kind because they are the antidote to delusion, the destroyer of delusion. By destroying delusion, we can achieve liberation and enlightenment. By practicing patience with that angry person, we can achieve liberation and enlightenment. This is what the person is giving us.

By following attachment, we label that person “enemy.” The moment we believe the label, they appear as the enemy; we see them as the enemy, as an enemy who doesn’t appear to be merely labeled by the mind but who appears to be not merely labeled by mind, which is totally the wrong view. On top of that, thinking they are harmful, bad, we get angry and we wish to harm them.

In reality, the object of anger doesn’t exist. What anger projects, there’s no such thing there. Because there’s no foundation, there’s no such real enemy there, no real enemy not merely labeled by our mind. The foundation is totally false. First there must be a foundation, but that is totally false. There’s no such thing there; it’s totally empty. How can the object of anger be true? No way.

In the same way, the “friend” from the point of view of attachment is not merely labeled by mind. There’s no such thing there. Then, on top of that—the real friend, not merely labeled by mind—attachment projects that and exaggerates the qualities, clinging on to that. How can the object of attachment exist? It doesn’t exist at all.

That’s the reality of life. In life, all this that is false we believe is true, that is the problem. All the problems of life build on that. The whole problem of our life is believing that the false view is the right view, believing false phenomena as truth, as something that exists. And what exists—emptiness, things existing merely labeled by mind—that becomes nonexistent. It exists but it becomes nonexistent for our ignorant, hallucinated mind. It’s like that.

EVERY TIME WE HOLD ON TO THE I AS TRUE WE ARE CREATING IGNORANCE

By listening to the Buddha’s teachings—the lamrim teachings, the teachings on the perfection of wisdom, the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment, right view—and then reflecting on the meaning and meditating on it, we actualize it. So, you can see how important it is to practice the Dharma in our daily life, how it is so essential, especially to learn and meditate on the Buddha’s teaching of the perfection of wisdom, as well as the lamrim teachings on the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment: the practice of renunciation, the practice of bodhicitta and the practice of right view.

Now, the conclusion! Life without Dharma practice is suffering. You can see that very clearly. Life without the lamrim practice, life without the practice of the right view, is suffering because we believe all that is false as the truth.

The I and the aggregates exist; they are what is merely imputed by the mind. The basis of the I, the basis to be labeled “I,” are the aggregates. The I and the aggregates exist in mere name, merely labeled, merely imputed by the mind. They exist in this way, in mere name, merely imputed by our mind. There’s no such “I” existing from its own side, not merely labeled by mind; and there are no aggregates not merely labeled by the mind, existing from its own side. 

While there is no such thing, while it is empty, completely empty, totally nonexistent, every day of our life, when we let our mind hold on to this as true, we are creating ignorance, the root of samsara. How many times do we do that in one hour, letting our mind hold on to this as true? How many times do we do that in one minute? This concept is the wrong concept because there’s no such object that exists.

Each time we let our mind hold that it is true, we are creating ignorance; we are creating the root of samsara. We are creating the root of all the karma and delusion and all the suffering results each time we do that. That’s where all the problems come from; that’s where death comes from.

Death does not come from outside; death comes from our mind. It comes from that ignorance, that hallucinatory mind, that concept. Instead of meditating that the I is empty, that the aggregates are empty, that they exist in mere name, merely imputed by mind, instead of that, we let our mind hold on to this I that appears as something real from there, not merely labeled by mind. We believe in the truly existing I and aggregates that appear as real in the sense of existing from their own side, not merely labeled by the mind. We hold onto that as true.

Holding that concept, the suffering of death is very frightening. Even if we don’t think about death, [all our suffering] comes from there, including the fear of death. Old age comes from there, all the sicknesses come from there, even the bird flu, SARS, or whatever, whether they are curable or incurable. Even diabetes comes from there! (I have diabetes.) Colds come from there. (Actually, my cold came from Tibet! Not from Iraq or Africa, from Tibet.) I’m joking.

What was I talking about before? So, you can see that Dharma practice, lamrim practice, is like money, like food. It’s more important than money, more important than food, more important than our job. It’s the most important thing in life. Just from this brief explanation, you can see this is the most important thing in life, more important than anything else if we want happiness, if we want liberation, if we want to be free from death, free from the cycle of death and rebirth, from karma and delusions, and there is no question about enlightenment for sentient beings. There’s no question if we want to liberate sentient beings from suffering. That’s one thing to emphasize.

BELIEVING IN THE REAL FACE, ATTACHMENT ARISES

So, going back to the face! It took a long time, but we are going back to the face. Now, you can understand clearly, the merely labeled face, the face that has been labeled by our mind, after it appears to us as the real face, not merely labeled by mind, and after we hold onto this and this [as true], and think, “This is good,” due to our exaggeration, attachment arises. This small face becomes very expensive! We end up spending a million dollars on it.

This is just describing what happens to our life by following attachment. The reality is like this. From the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment, this also becomes a teaching on renunciation. We can see how this is incredible suffering when we think of others, how other sentient beings are trapped in this wrong concept of true existence. The mind is possessed by this, trapped in this hallucination, trapped in the hallucinated view projected by attachment, as well as the hallucinated view projected by anger, causing so much suffering.

Without thinking about animals, when we look at other humans, we see how there is so much suffering. That makes compassion arise. We want to help them. We want to liberate them. From there comes the thought to achieve enlightenment so that we can do perfect work for sentient beings.

If I speak about how this is what happens, it goes on and on, like water in a river. OK, I’ll stop there.

DEDICATION

“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may bodhicitta—the source of all the success and happiness, of all success for ourselves and all sentient beings—be actualized within our heart, in the hearts of our family members, in the hearts of all the students in this organization and all the supporters, those who give up their lives for the organization, doing service to human beings and the teachings of the Buddha. May bodhicitta be generated in all their hearts, as well as in the hearts of all the sentient beings.

“May bodhicitta particularly be generated in the hearts of everyone in this world.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant more dedication prayers]

Then most urgently, “May bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all the leaders of the world and in the hearts of all the terrorists, all those people who have vicious thoughts to harm others.” That is most urgent. Pray for that very strongly.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others …” Here we have this incredible opportunity to learn, to meditate, to actualize the unmistaken path as shown by the Buddha. Within Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, the essential teachings are the lamrim, and we can learn, meditate and actualize these and be able to liberate all sentient beings from all the oceans of suffering—from the oceans of suffering of the hell beings, the oceans of suffering of the hungry ghosts, the oceans of sufferings of the animals, the oceans of suffering of the human beings, suras and asuras, from all their sufferings—and bring them to enlightenment. That is all by the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is embodiment of all the buddhas’ compassion, and particularly by the kindness of Lama Yeshe, who is kinder than all the three-time buddhas. So, “May His Holiness have a long life and may all his holy wishes succeed immediately. Whatever holy wishes he has, may they succeed immediately, for us, for the organization and for the world.” Then, similarly, “May Lama Ösel Rinpoche have a long life and show the same aspects as Lama Tsongkhapa, offering extensive benefit to sentient beings and the teachings.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant more dedication prayers]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may I be able to offer limitless skies of benefits to sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha, like Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within myself as Lama Tsongkhapa has, from now on in all the lifetimes.” This prayer is extremely important.

Then, please dedicate the merits. “Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may the five-hundred foot Maitreya Buddha statue, which helps the teachings of the Buddha last a long time in this world and which shortens the suffering of the world—the eons of famine, the eons of disease, the eons of war—may it be able to be actualized, able to be constructed, able to be completed as quickly as possible, and may it abide in this world until Maitreya Buddha comes. May it be most beneficial to all sentient beings, causing them to purify all their negative karma and defilements and to collect extensive merit. May it especially cause bodhicitta to be generated in everyone’s heart and, through that, to bring perfect peace and happiness in this world, and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. May the Maitreya statue receive all the funding it needs to be completed as quickly as possible and to continue to be of service to the monasteries, to preserve and spread the Dharma for sentient beings, to build up monasteries in different parts of the world to benefit for sentient beings.

“May the various social services in different parts of the world lead to sentient beings generating the good heart.” That is the most important. “May the sentient beings who are receiving help from the organization’s social services generate a good heart.” Otherwise, it’s not much help. It just helps them survive, but until they practice the Dharma from their own side and actualize the path, they cannot overcome death. They have to die anyway. So, if everything becomes the cause to generate a good heart, that makes life meaningful. Young or old, rich or poor, if they generate a good heart, it makes life meaningful; their life becomes beneficial to the world, starting with the family, or even starting with themselves.

Then, “May all the holy objects in different parts of the world be able to be completed because they are the quickest way to purify sentient beings’ minds of defilements and negative karma and to collect extensive merit and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“May whatever projects the centers have be actualized and do the most benefit for all sentient beings. May they be the cause to generate faith and refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and [an understanding of] karma in the hearts of sentient beings. May they be able to generate bodhicitta in the hearts of all sentient beings, and in particular spread the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa in the hearts of all sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

“Due to the three-time merits, by actualizing the path, by dedicating the merits, by actualizing bodhicitta in the hearts of everyone in this world, may war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sicknesses, the dangers of fire, water, air, earthquakes—wherever these are happening—may they be stopped immediately. May nobody in this world experience war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sicknesses, danger of fire, water, air, earthquakes, forever.” Dedicate this very strongly.

“I dedicate all these merits to be able to follow holy extensive deeds as Samantabhadra and Manjugosha realized. I dedicate all my merits in the same way all the three-time buddhas dedicate their merits. May the general teachings of the Buddha, and in particular Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, spread in all the directions; may they flourish forever in this world by completely actualizing them within my heart, and in the hearts of my family members, in the hearts of all the students and supporters of this organization, and those who give up their lives to the organization, doing service to sentient beings and the Buddha, and in the hearts of everyone in this world.”

Good night. Thank you very much.