December 13, 1993

Base and label and the queen of the Netherlands

In our daily life, for most of the actions we do, whether it becomes the cause of happiness or the cause of suffering depends on our attitude, our general attitude in life and our attitude when doing the action. There are some exceptional actions done in relation to holy objects, like the merit field. Anyway, I would like to ask this. What is the definition of a negative action? And does negative action exist? Is there such a thing?

Student: Conventionally there is. [Students laugh]

Rinpoche: So, everyone believes there is negative action? Does everyone believe there is negative action? What? [Students reply: inaudible] Not ultimately? But emptiness exists? [Rinpoche and students laugh] Huh?

Student: There is a label.

Rinpoche: So it doesn’t exist? Anything that is imputed doesn’t exist? Huh? [Reply inaudible] Do you have nose? Huh?

Student: I can feel it.

Rinpoche: So, you have nose. Do you have a stomach? [Replies inaudible] You think all are merely labeled except your nose and stomach? [Rinpoche and students laugh] Yeah? Your stomach is not merely labeled by mind? What is called “stomach” is not merely labeled?

Student: I think it’s labeled by mind.

Rinpoche: It’s labeled by the mind, so the stomach doesn’t exist? It doesn’t exist? [Students agree] So, you don’t have a stomach! Please don’t eat lunch tomorrow! [Rinpoche and students laugh]

You don’t need food. You don’t have a stomach, you don’t have a body, so why do you need food? And if you don’t need food, you don’t need money. Are you going to have lunch tomorrow? [Student: Yes.] Why? Why do you need lunch?

Student: Tomorrow I don’t know, but today I need lunch.

Rinpoche: Today you need lunch? Do you need dinner or lunch today?

Student: No, I need lunch. There’s no dinner today.

Rinpoche: What? No dinner? Anyway, tomorrow, if this still exists, do you need lunch or not?

Student: Tomorrow I’ll take lunch, yes.

Rinpoche: But why do you need lunch tomorrow?

Student: To keep me alive.

Rinpoche: But if you don’t have a body, you don’t need food.

Student: I feel I have a body. [Rinpoche and students laugh]

Rinpoche: “I eat because I have body.” [Rinpoche and students laugh] “I have a body so that’s why I eat.” But you don’t have a body and yet still you eat. That becomes very confusing! Anyway, you don’t even exist.

Student: Where does this voice come from?

Rinpoche: That’s a question to ask yourself. [Rinpoche and students laugh] Anyway, what is called “you” is also labeled, right? What’s called “you,” this is a label, no? [Reply inaudible] No, you! What is called “you.” Pointing here, what’s called “you,” here. What’s called “you” is a label. According to your point of view, anything that is labeled doesn’t exist, so you don’t exist. So, there is no eater. There is no you, the eater, the subject—eater, right? So, tomorrow, your lunch should be given to somebody else? [Rinpoche and students laugh] Because you don’t exist, because you, the eater, don’t exist. So, the lunch should be given to somebody else, somebody who exists!

Anyway, who is talking now? [Reply inaudible] Your throat is talking? Your skin is talking? [Reply inaudible] Do you want suffering or do you want happiness?

Student: I want a balance.

Rinpoche: Balance? I thought you want to dance. What? Huh?

Student: I love dancing. If I have only pleasure, if I have too much pleasure, I think suffering comes from somewhere.

Rinpoche: So, you want pleasure most of the time, and sometimes suffering? [Rinpoche and students laugh] Sometimes a little bit of suffering.

Student: I think suffering is what we do here on earth.

Rinpoche: But why do you need pleasure? [Reply inaudible] Why do you need pleasure? You don’t exist, so why do you need pleasure? [Reply inaudible]

Rinpoche: Next year you can answer! For example, there are those figures in shop windows where they sell dresses, the figures of men and women, mannequins. According to their appearance, on seeing the mannequin, there appears to be an actual person and we merely label “person.” On the other hand, there might be a person there, but we label that appearance “mannequin.” Just as the mannequin is merely labeled “person,” the person is merely labeled “mannequin.” But as we get closer we see that what we thought was a mannequin is a person. They are the same in that they are both merely labeled by the mind. The difference is that one exists and one doesn’t. The mannequin that was merely labeled by our mind does not exist whereas the person that was merely labeled by the mind does exist. Do you see now?

What’s your name? [Student: Mark.] So now Mark, concentrate, OK. There are a few who say that negative actions don’t exist. In order for something to exist, it should be devoid of three harms or the three mistakes, and it needs to have the three qualities—not exactly qualities but three things.

The first is having a valid base. Continuing that example that I mentioned before, the base on which we label “person” must be a valid one. So, we thought it was a mannequin from a distance but as we got closer we saw it was a real person. As I mentioned, both “mannequin” and “person” were merely labeled on the base, but afterwards we discovered it was a person, so it has both the appearance of a person and is merely labeled as a person, whereas the mannequin that we labeled does not exist.

I’m talking here about how things exist. The person is merely labeled by mind but how does it exist? What we label “person” has a valid base. Why? Because it is the association of body and mind. Without the body, if there was just the mind, such as in the formless realm, it could also be a valid base, but just a valid base for something to be labeled “mind.” But here the valid base is the aggregates, the association of both body and mind, which makes it suitable to receive the label “person” or “living being.”

Can this particular base, the aggregates, the association of body and mind, receive the label “football”? Can it receive the name “kaka”? [Rinpoche and students laugh] [Student replies inaudible]

It looks like you meditated too much on emptiness! [Rinpoche and students laugh] It looks like you’ve lived too much in emptiness and then you went beyond. You’ve slipped out from beyond the Middle Way. Which country are you from?

Student: The Netherlands.

Rinpoche: Does the Netherlands have a king?

Student: No, we now have a queen.

Rinpoche: So, if you told other people that you were the queen of the Netherlands, what they would say?

Student: They would be happy! [Rinpoche and students laugh]

Rinpoche: No, no, if you advertise to the people of the world, if you tell them, that you are the queen of the Netherlands, would they accept that? Would people recognize you as the queen?

Student: People would say no. They would think I was crazy.

Rinpoche: But why would they think you were crazy if you told them that you were the queen. That is very important point to understand.

Student: Emptiness—because there’s a label.

Rinpoche: Because there’s a label they think you are crazy? Then? [Student: inaudible] But why do they think you are crazy? If you announce that you are the queen of the Netherlands, what makes them think that you are crazy?

Student: Because they know what the queen looks like, and how she behaves.

Rinpoche: Quite a person! [Rinpoche and students laugh] But why do people accept that she is the queen and not you?

Student: We had another queen before, and there was a crowning, and she’s the old queen’s second daughter.

Rinpoche: That’s why. What you’re explaining is the base. She receives the label “queen,” but you, this association of body and mind that is you, does not receive the label “queen.” Your base, your association of body and mind—the aggregates—doesn’t have all those stories that are connected with her particular aggregates, being born in that royal family, being crowned and so forth. Your base doesn’t have those qualities or that function to receive the label “queen,” but her association of body and mind—the one that people crowned and so forth, that involves all those connections or stories—can receive the label “queen.” Right?

That base receives the label “queen” and people accept it, they agree with it because the label has a valid base, that particular association of body and mind connected with having been crowned and all the stories. The base has the function [of being the queen] so when she tells others that she is the queen, people don’t think she’s crazy. But you don’t have that valid base, all those stories such as being crowned and so forth, therefore even if you label yourself, “I am the Queen of the Netherlands”—even if your friend labels you—because the base is not valid, it cannot receive the label “Queen of the Netherlands.”

The three criteria for an object to exist

Anyway, it’s enough. So, we see a person from a distance who is not moving and we label that person “mannequin.” Afterwards we realize it is not a mannequin but a person. It appeared to be a mannequin but that was wrong. We realized the mannequin didn’t exist, that it was an actual, real living person. The mannequin and the person are the same in that they were labeled by our mind, on that base, but the mannequin doesn’t exist whereas the person does, because the base of the person, the body and mind, is valid for it to be labeled “person” but not “mannequin.”

The person exists because it has a valid base—the aggregates, the association of the body and mind—that can receive the label “person.” That is the main reason, the ultimate reason, why the person exists and why mannequin doesn’t exist.

That is the main reason. But now there is more. Whether anything exists or not is not just up to the mind labeling it. It’s up to whether there is a valid base. If the only criterion for it to exist depended on it being labeled by the mind, without needing a valid base, then hallucinations would be reality. There wouldn’t be any hallucinations. If things only exist by depending on the mind that labels them, there would never be any false views or any hallucinations. Whatever the mind labels would have to exist.

In that case, just as I was asking, whenever we announced we were a king or queen, while we were not, just by announcing that to others, “I am the king of Nepal” or “I am president of this and that,” just by labeling, then we would become that. Of course, that doesn’t happen, because we don’t have a valid base. To be president we need a democratic vote where the biggest number of people voted for us. Then we have a valid base to be labeled “president,” and people will accept we can take on that responsibility. Without the majority of votes there is no valid base and we can’t be labeled “president.” Even if we still label ourselves like that, people will not accept it because we didn’t get the majority of votes. When we say, “I am the president,” people will think we are crazy! We have labeled our aggregates “president,” but that president doesn’t exist.

So, whether any phenomenon exists or not is not solely up to the mind labeling it so. Each of these words has much meaning—it is not solely up to the mind labeling it; it is also up to whether there is a valid base or not.

There is another criterion needed for something to exist. For a person to exist, for instance, as well as having a valid base, the association of the body and mind, it cannot receive harm from another valid mind. We can also say from another undeceptive mind or unbetraying mind. The main criterion for a person to exist is having a valid base but it must have the support of not being harmed or negated by another valid mind, one that realizes that the person does not exist. Another undeceptive, unbetraying mind sees there is a person and that therefore does not contradict the other valid mind.

Then, the third criterion is that it does not receive harm from absolute wisdom, the wisdom directly realizing emptiness. If the person labeled on the valid base, the association of body and mind, receives harm from or is negated by the wisdom realizing emptiness, that means the person has to be false. It is a false view.

By analyzing this, what our wisdom discovers is the absolute truth, the absence of the person existing from its own side, how the person is empty of existing from its own side. When that valid base is not harmed by this absolute truth, we can say the person exists.

To exist, something must be devoid of these three mistakes and have these three prerequisites. In the case of a person, what we label is related to this valid base, the association of body and mind, and is devoid of these three mistakes and has these three prerequisites. When we think about the person we mistook to be a mannequin, we labeled it “mannequin” in relation to the base of body and mind, but that is not a valid base to be labeled “mannequin.” It hasn’t got a valid base. Why?

Student: The mannequin is different from a person. It doesn’t have mind and the different aggregates.

Rinpoche: There’s no aggregate of form? The mannequin has the aggregate of form?

Student: I think so, yes.

Rinpoche: So, the mannequin has a body but no mind? Like a dead person?

Student: Well, not really.

Rinpoche: Anyway, the mannequin doesn’t exist [on this body and mind] because it doesn’t have a valid base. The base is not the association of body and mind, OK? Then not only that, the person exists because it has a valid base of body and mind, but the mannequin, what we first thought was the person, doesn’t exist because it doesn’t have a valid base. It just existed according to our point of view, our perspective, [when we were far away]. How do we prove this? We can prove the mannequin does not exist because of the other valid mind. Another undeceived or unbetrayable mind realizes it does not exist, therefore it receives harm from that valid mind. How? Because that other unbetrayable, valid mind discovers that the mannequin does not have a valid base and therefore does not exist. This supports what we have discovered.

I think that is a very big confusion in Western culture in the definition of what is truth and what is false. Truth or false is not a small subject; it is like the sky. It looks like it’s simple but it is not. It includes so many things, all the false views that sentient beings have, all of reality—it covers so much. What is truth and what is false is the most important study. The reason there are so many problems in life is due to the limited knowledge of what is truth and what is false. I think that becomes the biggest problem, so it is a very important point to reflect on, to study, to meditate on, to research on this.

I think that the third criterion [not being harmed by absolute wisdom] might involve more details. The merely labeled I exists, but what appears on top of that, in addition to that, is the inherently existent I, that one that appears and we believe in totally. That doesn’t exist at all. The merely labeled I exists but the inherently existent I doesn’t exist. So, I think the third criterion involves more specifics, in aspect of the merely labeled I which exists and the I that is the object of ignorance, the I that doesn’t exist. I think the third one is specifying more, bringing more to that aspect of the I that doesn’t exist. That is my conclusion but maybe there are other explanations.

We discover the mannequin doesn’t exist because it doesn’t have a valid base but not only that, another valid mind discovers the same. So, the knowledge that this is a person and not a mannequin is not harmed by another valid mind. I’ll put it this way. The mannequin doesn’t exist due to the first criterion, that it doesn’t have valid base, but it also receives harm from another valid, unbetrayable mind, proving that this is not a mannequin, that it does not exist.

Even if we believe that this is a mannequin—our mind has labeled it “mannequin”—when another valid mind harms our belief, we can then discover that it is not a mannequin. It’s the same as having met a friend in a dream and in the daytime when we are awake. Both are merely labeled by the mind in the same way, but the dreamtime friend does not exist because it does not have a valid base, whereas the daytime friend, although also merely labeled by the mind in the same way, does exist because it has a valid base.

The appearance of the body of the friend in the dream doesn’t exist; it is a hallucination. Unless it is influenced by some material substance or mantra by the power of a magician, causing us to hallucinate, the appearance of the body in the daytime does have a valid base. It’s the same as the dream in that it is merely labeled, but unlike the dream in that, because of the valid base, it exists. Even without referring to another person’s valid mind, we can discover how the dream friend does not exist. It seemed real in our dream. We completely believed it while we were dreaming, but once we woke up, even our own mind can discover how it is not true, how having that friend there in the dream didn’t happen.

The friend we met in the dream receives harm from our own valid mind when we wake up. We realize it is not true. For the duration of the dream we believed it but on waking we can prove it’s not true.

To give another example. In a dream we won a million dollars in a lottery. We bought a lottery ticket and won. But when we wake up there is no million dollars. Let’s say, though, that we did actually buy a lottery ticket and win a million dollars. Both the dream winning and the actual winning are the same in that they are both merely labeled by the mind, but the big difference is that we can’t spend the dream million dollars whereas we can spend the money we won in the daytime. If the million dollars we won in the dream were real, when we woke up we should be able to relax, knowing we would never have to go to work again! “Now I don’t have to go to work. Now I don’t have to keep busy all my life. I can have years of holidays.” [Rinpoche and students laugh] After waking up, however, we don’t have the million dollars to spend. But the million dollars we win from that daytime lottery ticket is functionable. With that money we can buy a house or property or something. Even after we die, what we bought with that money would still exist, the property or house or whatever. If we left a will, then it could be spent by our family members or other people. But when we dream of winning a million dollars, we can’t use it like that.

Recently, when I was travelling in Italy, there was a plan to meet the pope. Some students succeeded in getting an interview, so I mentioned that only if they thought there was some benefit for me to meet him, [they could arrange it]. One thing I thought to request the pope was to help bring as much peace as possible in the world. And the other thing I thought to ask was his definition of what is truth and what is false. I was curious to hear what the pope would say. In that way, I thought the meeting might have some fruitful result, just talking like this. However, it was not possible and it was cancelled.

Dying with the five powers

If there are one or two questions, maybe during teatime.

Student: If there’s no clinging to the self and someone else wanted to kill you, would that be suicide?

Rinpoche: No, it doesn’t become suicide. It doesn’t become killing yourself. You can use a similar example even subtler than that. If you are completely unconscious, if somebody kills you at that time, does that become suicide? [Student: inaudible] Which action are you talking about? Becoming unconscious or the person killing you? [Student: inaudible] So, now you’re talking about the motivation for the action—the other person killing you or which one? [Student: inaudible]

There’s no attachment to that fear? You said, “no attachment to that fear”? I don’t think there would be attachment to fear. [Student: inaudible] So, there is lot of fear, but what you are saying is there is no self, there is no thought of self? [Student: inaudible] OK, then.

If it is empty, if there is no thought of the self but [the mind] is in a state of emptiness, then if we definitely die with that thought, it is said in the practice of five powers that is the power of training. There is the power of the white seed, the power of the prayer, the power of the attitude or intention, the power of putting the blame on the ego and then the power of training.

These five are really how to die. This is really how to make preparation for death. When we know we are going to die, that we are going to die this week or on any of these days, then there is the practice of the five powers near death time. Of them, the last one is the power of training, but maybe a clearer translation would be the power of transformation, the power of transforming the mind.

We begin with all the other practices, and then, when we know we are going to die, we lie down in the position of lion sleeping, which is the position that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was in when he showed the aspect of passing away. This is how the Buddha laid down his holy body. He lay on the bed on his right side, with both his legs stretched out and his left arm stretched out on the top of his body. By remembering that position, we are also remembering the Buddha, so it becomes a refuge practice; the position itself becomes a way to be guided by the Buddha.

It is normally advised in the teachings that when we go to bed, we should sleep in this position. It is a sleeping yoga practice. There is a way to do it in the lamrim and it is especially explained in tantric practice, where the explanation is much deeper, where there are more transcendental or higher meditations explained. We can practice sleeping yoga when we go to sleep.

In this position, first of all, we remember the Buddha, so it becomes the cause for liberation and enlightenment. That thought itself leaves an imprint. Then, in this position, other beings, spirits cannot harm us during the sleep. Then also, remembering Buddha’s position, lying down in that way and then going to sleep helps us not to die with the delusions. It helps our very last thought to be virtuous, whether it is devotion, compassion, wisdom, or whatever.

When the very last thought before we die is Dharma, our mind becomes Dharma, and that Dharma protects us from the lower realms. Even though we might have created many negative karmas, if we are able to transform our mind into Dharma with our very last thought, we are saved from being reincarnated in the lower realms. If it is more successful to be reborn in the pure realm then there could be the karma to transfer there, however it is definite that we will at least receive the body of a happy migratory being, a human or deva’s body. So, the physical preparation is like that.

The mental preparation is by first doing the special bodhicitta practice, taking all other sentient beings’ sufferings on ourselves and giving all our happiness and merits to them. We try to die with the bodhicitta mind, the purest attitude, the thought of benefiting all sentient beings, a mind as vast as the infinite sky. That is one thing. The other thing is emptiness.

This is the answer to your question. We should meditate on the emptiness of the I, that the I does not exist at all from its own side, that it is completely empty of existing from its own side. During that time, if we are really able to meditate on emptiness, with no thought of the self or I, the is the best way of dying.

The best way to die is while the mind is transformed into bodhicitta and while meditating on emptiness. That is explained in the commentaries on thought transformation where they talk about this practice of the five powers near death. To die while meditating on emptiness becomes a very rich, very powerful way to die. While we are meditating on emptiness, because neither attachment nor anger arise, it is like an atomic bomb. Emptiness is the most powerful meditation to directly eliminate the root of all karma and delusions, ignorance, the concept of true existence. It directly eliminates the root of samsara, ignorance. Therefore, there is no question that there is no opportunity to generate anger or those other delusions during that time. So, that mind becomes very powerful Dharma, very rich Dharma.

While our mind is in this state, if we die with this mental state, whether we are killed by somebody or not, it cannot be suicide. I think committing suicide means having the intention to kill yourself. That is my definition of committing suicide. The person has the intention to kill himself and then does the action, otherwise it does not receive the label “suicide.” Did that help a little bit? [Student: inaudible]

If you die in meditation? [Student: inaudible] You mean you are not doing meditation? [Student: inaudible] So, because you are meditating, you are now aware, and then somebody kills you? [Student: inaudible] You don’t see the person who is killing you as solid? [Student: inaudible]

There could be the possibility that if you lived longer you could have more success in this life. For some people that is possible. But since the person died in meditation, with either renunciation or bodhicitta or emptiness or guru devotion or something, if they did it with faith, with devotion to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, if the person died with a Dharma mind, there is no question; they would definitely attain a good rebirth.

Maybe, if the person had lived longer, there would have been more success, realizations and so forth, but even if there was an untimely death, because they died with a Dharma mind, because there had been a lot of preparation done and imprints left, it should be possible in one of the future lives, sooner or later the person will have realizations. Because there was an obstacle, it was just delayed. This can happen. Of course it is better that in this life we don’t die now and receive the realizations of the path more quickly. That is more meaningful than taking a longer time, because the more quickly we can achieve realizations, the more beneficial it is for other sentient beings.

Enjoy the tea.

Rinpoche almost drowns

What is your name? [Student: Melinda] So what Melinda asked, whether it becomes suicide if somebody kills you during that time. Does this question stop there or is there something else after that? [Student: inaudible] If you are drowned? [Student: inaudible]

That’s my aim, to have bodhicitta! [Rinpoche laughs] That’s my aim. I wish that could be my aim for many, many thousands of lifetimes.

I don’t know why, but in one part of Solu Khumbu, in autumn and spring, tourists used to come for trekking and climbing, using the Sherpas for porters. They camped with their tents. The place is called Rolwaling. It is regarded as the hidden place of Padmasambhava. It is a very strong place for Dharma practice, this is without question for meditation. There are huge mountains and in the center there is a river with green ground around. There is the monastery where my alphabet teacher was a monk. There weren’t really other monks, just lamas doing pujas and rituals. They also did retreats from time to time and did service for others, pujas for sick people, this and that.

So, there is the monastery, with the temples and the houses for the lamas below, and then there are the huge rocky mountains all around, where Padmasambhava’s cave is situated. There are five different colored lakes in front. From there you can see the five pointed mountains where there are many caves with a lot of footprints left by those past great yogis and Padmasambhava’s natural footprint left on the rocks. There are many small footprints left on the rocks from previous times. It is Padmasambhava’s holy place and there are many caves and many stories, many things related with Padmasambhava, such as the holy water, the long-life vase and so forth.

When I was very small, I sometimes saw foreigners. They might have been Americans, I’m not sure. I couldn’t judge where they were from, because I was so young. They seemed to have a completely different appearance than the Western people have now! At that time they seemed to come from a different planet! [Rinpoche and students laugh] From some place very far away, from some other planet or star. When I was very small, what I saw was the yellow hair and blue eyes, and the language, which I remember sounded to me like something made by a movie projector, as the film goes around, you know, sort of sic, sic, sic, sic, sic! [Rinpoche and students laugh] That’s what I remembered, the yellow hair and eyebrows and blue eyes, and the language that was something like, weesh, weesh, weesh, weesh, something like that. I was very small, watching their lips, and that seemed to be the sound coming from their lips! And I saw them taking some round tablets, probably iron pills to keep healthy or something. [Student: Vitamins?] Vitamins or something like that. I remember I could see them taking two white tablets.

Anyway, I found those people very strange, like they had come from very far away, from another planet or something. What I remember from that time is I didn’t think their appearance was particularly attractive in any way. They were kind of strange, very hairy. That’s what I remember.

We used to really like collecting the jam jars they gave us, still half-full. We had no interest in the red stuff inside, which I presume must have been jam, but we liked the containers very much. When somebody threw the jar away, we would take it. People used them to drink chang from because they were kind of neat-looking. There were also brown square things that I guess must have been chocolate. Brown square things that were kind of sticky. We found that strange and didn’t like it.

I stayed in that place for seven years, then I went to Pagri in Tibet, to Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery, where I memorized texts and did many, many pujas, participating with my teacher and others. For many years, I read many texts, the hundreds of volumes of the Kangyur and Tengyur and I did puja for other people, who requested them for their health or success or whatever, or when somebody had died. And so my teacher and I had to read the texts every day.

Afterwards, I was ordained in Tibet, in Domo Geshe-la’s monastery. I think it was around the time Tibet was overtaken by the Communist Chinese. I spent three years in Pharping. I went to the monastery there to offer examination. Whatever was memorized, you make offerings of that to the monastery in order to enter the monastery, to be a monk of that monastery. I think that was done after I was ordained along with the many other young boys by a very good abbot of that monastery, a very good practitioner, a very good geshe from Sera Je College who was sent by Domo Geshe Rinpoche to be the abbot of this monastery in Tibet.

In Sherpa country, drinking chang remained an enjoyment, a reward for working. But there were some people who didn’t drink. Anyway, even though my teacher told me not to go, I wanted to go where the Western people camped, to give them a present of some potatoes in a brass container we used for eating food and drinking chang. Potatoes are the main food in Solu Khumbu; that is the main product over there. My teacher told me not to go, not to give them a present, but I insisted. So, I filled up the pot with potatoes to give them.

There was a wide river with a bridge of two trees, not big like this one but small. The two trees put together were the bridge. When I reached the middle, the bridge was going up like this, and then I fell down. It was an obstacle because I didn’t listen to my abbot, my guru, so the river went down like this and then the bridge went like that, and I fell into the river. I think my head must have been upright. I didn’t realize it at the time but that’s what I heard after. A little bit further there was very deep water with the water waves [rapids?] like that, which I was about to reach. My head kept coming out of the water, and I could see my teacher running to catch me. He was in a house and saw me fall in the river from the window, so he had to run down all the way from there. I think some other people saw me from their house and maybe shouted. My teacher was running toward me and as my head kept coming out of the water, I could see the mountain and the ground with the huge stupa in the center, quite far away. I could see my teacher trying to pull up his pants as he was running toward me. Anyway, the reason I have survived until now is because of the kindness of my teacher who grabbed me at that time.

At that time I didn’t know any Dharma—nothing. I just memorized the words, but I didn’t know any Dharma. I had read Milarepa’s life story three times, I think. Because it seems very clear now, having read it in childhood seems to have left a very strong imprint in the mind. What I do remember from that time [of being in the water] is that there was definitely no fear. And although I didn’t know anything about emptiness or the three principal aspects of the path, as I was going under the water, I had in my mind, “What people call the Lawudo Lama is now going to die.” The “Lawudo Lama” was more like a label, a name. This was there but it was somehow strange because I hadn’t memorized any texts or had any understanding of the scriptures. I think it might have been to do with past lives’ imprints. I think in a previous life I must have done a good job, but I think in this life I’m doing a very bad job! [Rinpoche and students laugh] Maybe at that time it was like that, the childhood mind was kind of fresh, but now the mind has degenerated.

Anyway, the main thing I meant to say is that my teacher saved me. I don’t remember being scared, but the fact that my teacher saved me was the main thing.

The mind at the time of death

I don’t know whether this is particularly related to your question or not, but it just came out of me talking about somebody dying and emptiness. Probably your question wasn’t about that, maybe not related to emptiness, but more related to not having a strong thought of self, like for example, when we try to meditate and sometimes our mind becomes blank. We’re not actually meditating, but stuck, blank, like seeing a white cloud from a plane. Not quite like that, but stuck. At that time, there is the self-cherishing thought but it’s not strong, not visible.

Similarly, during a meditation like a zen meditation where you are supposed to think of nothing. At that time there is the self-cherishing thought, but it’s not visible. Just because negative thoughts like attachment or anger are not manifest, that does not mean we are free from them. So, we can relate that to the mind as we are dying. I’m not sure whether that’s related to your question or not. Certainly, during that time, there is no visible attachment or anger. When the mind is in that state, we are blank and thinking of nothing.

According to His Holiness Zong Rinpoche, with such meditations, when we meditate on nothing, we create the karma to be a fool or an animal, whose mind is very foolish. The highest we can achieve in samsara is the formless realm, where there are four categories: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness and the tip of samsara. With this kind of meditation, the best we can achieve is the third level of the formless realm, nothingness, which is still samsara. During the courses he gave in the Western centers, His Holiness Zong Rinpoche used to quite often say that when you are bored with thoughts and look at nothingness as peace, if you cling on to that idea, the highest state you can achieve is the third level of the formless realm, nothingness, which is still samsara.

Rinpoche also used to say that continuing that kind of meditation makes the mind dull and forgetful. Sometimes you meet people who have more problems the more they meditate. They become more and more forgetful, duller and duller. The mind loses its sharpness. That shows there have been some mistakes in the method of meditation, in the way of concentrating.

That is one thing, but forgetfulness can be due to other causes and conditions, such as how well we protect our karma. It can also depend on how much we have been correctly devoted to the virtuous friend in this life and in past lives. So, forgetfulness can also result from having made mistakes in correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, degenerating our samaya vows and so forth, as well as not having protected our karma well. Not having protected our karma well is the main thing, whether we are Buddhist or not. Then, for somebody who practices, it also depends on those other details.

The other thing is making mistakes in the way we meditate. Instead of developing wisdom, alertness, sharpness of mind, the mind become duller and duller. If that is happening, that means we have to check our practice to see what mistakes we are making. We do that by studying the Dharma, especially the lamrim, which is the essence of the whole Buddhadharma, and then the other scriptures. The more we study and listen to qualified Dharma teachers, especially experienced ones, the more we check and analyze and gain understanding about the path, the more wisdom we will have to judge whether we are meditating correctly or not. And if we are doing it wrongly, we will know how to stop and practice correctly. So, it is very important to listen to as many teachings as possible from qualified virtuous friends, especially experienced beings, and to study and check. By consulting and expanding on what we know, we will be saved from that danger. Therefore, the three principal aspects of the path—renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness—become extremely important.

This gives you some idea of what happens when a person dies with such a mind, what happens with the rebirth. That is the conclusion I was trying to make.

[At the time of death] the four elements—earth, water, fire and air or wind—absorb. First, the earth element absorbs, then the water element, the fire element and finally the wind element absorb into the consciousness. Then, the gross mind stops; it too absorbs. I guess by that time the brain function and everything has stopped.

But there is still the subtle consciousness as we go through the meditation of three appearances—white, red and near-attainment dark appearance. There is the subtle consciousness and then the extremely subtle consciousness, clear light. That means the mind is still there in the body. Death finally happens only after the clear light has stopped, when the extremely subtle consciousness leaves the body from the heart.

Of course, there is no question that if we are able to recognize and use the clear light for meditation, that is a virtuous thought, but generally that is not possible and those subtle thoughts can be indifferent.

After the wind element absorbs into the consciousness and the gross consciousness absorbs, if that mind can be transformed into virtue, we will not reincarnate in the lower realms. But if that last thought of the gross mind is nonvirtue, that is what causes the consciousness to migrate to the lower realms.

It is explained that when the person is dying the signs of reincarnating in the lower realm are that heat starts to absorb from the head and the head starts to become cold before the feet. The eyes roll up and there can be a lot of terrifying karmic visions. The person can scream so much, opening their mouth, thrashing their limbs and emitting urine and kaka, things like that. It is an unpeaceful death, and very frightening. I think Lama Tsongkhapa in his lamrim explained five external signs of reincarnating in the lower realms, but a person does not necessarily have to experience all five. It depends on how heavy the negative karma is. There is also blood coming from the mouth, nose and ears. It depends on the heaviness of the karma.

Even if the person is already on their way to the lower realms, already in the intermediate state, if the family members have Dharma wisdom and if they are generous and kind, they can change that person’s rebirth due to the power of tantric practice, such as the jangwa purification done by a good meditator, a qualified lama. This is a special practice that hooks the consciousness and purifies it, shooting it into a pure land. If the family members request a qualified meditator to do that practice, the person’s rebirth can still be changed and they can attain a human or deva body or be born in a pure land.

This is similar to a person who becomes unconsciousness and stays unconscious for a long time in a coma. During that time, although there is no conscious thought that strongly thinks “I”, there is still the self-cherishing thought. The person may stay in the coma for one or many days and then die. I don’t know how much their mind was able to function in the coma, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’d say that before they became unconscious, whether the last gross thought was virtuous or nonvirtuous would determine their rebirth. Generally, in an unconsciousness state, there are many invisible [subconscious?] positive thoughts or thoughts of attachment or anger. This is just to give you an idea; it’s just my point of view.

The two practices: Not harming and benefiting

We’ll just do Vajrasattva. So Visualize Vajrasattva on the crown.

Think that you have attained this perfect human body, and from your own side you have met the virtuous friend who can reveal the whole, unmistaken path to enlightenment without missing anything. And you have not just met the Buddhadharma but you have also met the Mahayana teachings, the teachings of the Great Vehicle as well as, for some of you, the Vajrayana, the Secret Mantra teachings. For those who haven’t yet met the Vajrayana, the Secret Mantra, there is the opportunity to meet and practice that which is quickest path to enlightenment.

At this time, it is not sufficient just being satisfied with having peace of mind in daily life. Just living life with a quiet mind, some peace of mind, is not sufficient. We should be able to make preparation for death, whenever it happens, ensuring we won’t be reborn in the lower realms but will receive a deva or human body, the body of the happy migrator being.

But even that alone is not sufficient. While we are not liberated from samsara, we have to constantly experience suffering without a break of even a second. In other words, until we are liberated from samsara, there is not even one second’s break from the suffering of samsara. We are constantly attacked, overwhelmed, by the cause of samsara, karma and delusions. We are not only being constantly attacked by the true cause of suffering but we are also being attacked by true suffering: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. This happens even if we are born in a deva or human realm. We can understand that by looking at our present example, our own experiences, and by remembering what the Omniscient One has explained.

Therefore we must be liberated from the entire suffering of samsara. Once that is achieved, it is impossible to experience suffering again. Practicing Dharma, following the path to be liberated from the entire suffering of samsara is one-time work.

But even if we can achieve liberation from samsara, that is not sufficient. As I mentioned at the beginning of the course, in the very first introduction, the purpose of our life is not just to obtain happiness for ourselves, to only solve our problems. The purpose of our life is to free everyone from all suffering and lead them all to happiness, and especially the most important service, which is to bring all suffering sentient beings, whose minds are obscured, to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. What is the ultimate goal of life? It is to make our life useful to others, to be beneficial to other sentient beings, to obtain happiness for others. To allow our body, speech and mind to be used by others for their happiness—that is the ultimate goal of our life.

In the teachings that are the collections of Kadampa geshes’ advice, the advice of those great yogis, those hidden tantric practitioners, those highly realized meditators, it is said that they see everything as an instruction. Not only the Lesser Vehicle teachings, the Hinayana, not only the Mahayana Paramitayana teachings or the teachings of the Secret Mantra, besides all these different levels of teachings taught by the Buddha, any verse, any line, even any syllable that they see anywhere appears to them as an instruction for practice, for them to achieve full enlightenment.

Because we practice Mahayana we reject the Lesser Vehicle teaching, or because we practice Vajrayana, the Secret Mantra, we reject the Mahayana Sutra teachings, or because we practice Mahayana Sutra teachings we reject the Vajrayana, thinking that this is not for us. The Kadampas never have such thoughts. To them, everything appears as an instruction for them to practice in order to attain enlightenment. Even one line, even one verse, even one syllable they see anywhere appears to them as an instruction to practice. That is the meaning of the title these meditators have, “Kadampa,” Ka is any advice, any teaching of the Buddha, and dam is instruction. So, in the collections of Kadampa geshes’ experiences, they explain that this is how they practice Dharma, how they develop their mind.

I don’t exactly remember the name, but probably Kadampa Geshe Chekawa said that the entire Buddhadharma is integrated in these two practices—to avoid giving harm to others and to benefit others. All three baskets of teachings, the Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma are contained in these two instructions, abandoning giving harm to others and benefiting others. As far as the three vehicles of teachings, the Hinayana, Mahayana Paramitayana and Mahayana Vajrayana, abandoning giving harm includes all the Hinayana teachings and benefiting others includes all the Mahayana teachings. On the basis of avoiding giving harm to others, on top of that, we benefit others.

The main aim of the Lesser Vehicle teachings is to stop giving harm others, to change our actions of body and speech that harm others. In the Mahayana teaching the main emphasis, the attitude to adopt, is to not only stop giving harm with the body, speech and mind, but on the basis of that, to transform the mind into bodhicitta, the altruistic mind that renounces ourselves and cherishes other sentient beings and, because of that, to make our body, speech and mind most useful for others, to offer most extensive benefit to other living beings.

Relating this to the lamrim, the graduated path of the lower capable being and the graduated path of the middle capable being are included in the first instruction, to stop giving harm to others, and the graduated path of the higher capable being is included in the second instruction, to benefit others. So, the whole lamrim practice, the whole path, is condensed into these two instructions.

As I mentioned, every one of us here has the universal responsibility to free everyone from all suffering and to obtain happiness for all the living beings. We can offer all these extensive benefits to other living beings if we generate compassion toward others. If we develop our mind in the path, we are able to offer these extensive benefits to all living beings, to bring them peerless happiness, full enlightenment. It depends on ourselves, on how we want to use the mind, whether we want to use the mind that way or not.

Not only that, now we have opportunity to generate compassion for all other living beings, to develop on the path to enlightenment, to achieve the infinite qualities to be able to guide all other sentient beings perfectly. At this time, we have all the opportunities. While we have this perfect human body, we are able to offer extensive benefit to all other living beings. That is why I say that everyone of us has the responsibility for all other living beings’ happiness.

Therefore think, “I must achieve full enlightenment, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it is, because there is nothing more beneficial than this, there is nothing more worthwhile to do in life than this, there is no higher success, no higher goal to achieve in life than this. Concerning both others and myself, there is no other higher achievement. Therefore I must generate the stages of the path to enlightenment. For that reason, I am going to listen the profound holy Dharma, the lamrim teachings.”

Following these two practices is the essence of the Dharma

So, just a little bit about karma to finish, just the last part. These two instructions are about karma; these are the fundamental Dharma, the fundamental practice.

As I just mentioned and as it is said in the teachings, the essence of the whole Buddhadharma is to abandon giving harm to others and, on top of that, to benefit other sentient beings if we can. Therefore if we do not understand karma, the various things [to abandon and practice], and if we don’t do the practice of protecting our karma, no matter how much we intellectually understand the whole of Buddhism, [it is worthless.] It is like when we want to eat a pizza then we just look at a picture of a pizza! [Rinpoche and students laugh] Just having a picture of a pizza without actually having a pizza we can eat doesn’t fill our stomach. We have to actually buy a pizza or make one. Making a drawing of a pizza when we are hungry doesn’t help.

Similarly, without this basic understanding of Dharma practice, and especially without protecting our karma, without abstaining from negative karma, only having an intellectual understanding of the subject without practicing it doesn’t help. No matter how much knowledge we have, our life won’t change; it will be the same as before, when we didn’t know anything about Buddhism. We will continue to constantly have all the problems, all the confusion; we will continue to harm others. There will be no change in our mind and so no change in our actions and no change in what we have to experience: the confusion, the problems and so forth. So these basic understandings are essential; they are the practices we need to do down on earth, the ground practices, not just something insubstantial in space or in some hallucination.

Dharma practice involves benefiting others or at the very least abandoning giving harm to others. If we cannot do even that, there is no Dharma practice. Abandoning harming others means abstaining from the negative karma that harms others and ourselves, abstaining from these harmful actions as much as possible, watching the mind and protecting the mind from delusions. That’s Dharma practice. No matter how many extensive sutra and tantra teachings we have studied, many hundreds of volumes with very technical explanations, with many very involved philosophies that are difficult to understand, that simple advice—abstaining from harmful actions—is the very heart of the Dharma; it is the essence of what it means to practice the Dharma. It is simply just abstaining from those harmful actions and protecting our mind from the delusions that endanger us and other sentient beings. That’s all it is; that’s the very heart.

Whenever we do this, at that time we are practicing Dharma. When this does not happen, we are not practicing Dharma, we are not doing the real meditation, even though we might sit for many hours without talking, without eating, without meeting people, just living in a cave or hermitage, being away from the world, from cities, from other people. Unless this is happening, we are not practicing Dharma. No matter how much we might believe we are meditating or practicing Dharma, that doesn’t mean that we are. But when we are able to do this, there is development, progress, in the mind, and then there are realizations. Then we are able to benefit other sentient beings. Then everything comes, including the highest realization, enlightenment.

So, these are the real subjects we must listen to again and again, again and again, we must meditate on and realize that the practice starts from karma, changing our actions from harmful ones into beneficial ones, from actions that become the cause of suffering into actions that become the cause of happiness, that result in peace and happiness for ourselves and others. This is the real Dharma, the fundamental Dharma to listen to, to study, to meditate on and to realize.

Anyway, now we’ve finished. I think it’s a good time to stop. So again it didn’t happen. Maybe in the afternoon! [Rinpoche laughs]