December 27

There are many Kadampa teachings. Mind Training: The Great Collection is a collection of about fifty teachings and instructions from various Kadampa lamas, which Geshe Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator, has translated into English.¹ The text I have here, The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings: A Fine Vase of Nectar, was actually composed by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, but it is regarded as a Kadampa teaching. It is a Kadampa teaching.²

I requested the previous Root Institute directors to obtain statues of some of the Kadampa geshes. You don’t normally see these holy objects. It’s a little more common to see statues of Lama Atisha, but not so common to see statues of the others. My idea was to give some teachings on different Kadampa texts. That was my motivation, anyway, though it could just be an ego trip.

At this time, I thought to give just the oral transmission of this text by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, as I recently received the oral transmission of almost all the teachings composed by this great lama at Lama Ösel’s house at Sera Monastery in south India. Quite a number of other monks attended, including some incarnate lamas and ex-abbots, including the ex-abbots of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the Panchen Lama’s monastery, and of the Tantric College. I missed about three days of the teachings when I had to go to Bombay because we had invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama there to give teachings to the Indian people.

However, in New York I recently received the teachings I had missed from Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, an elderly lama who became a geshe in Tibet but later took the lay aspect. He has lived in New York for many years. Rinpoche is a great treasury of lineages, holding the lineage of the entire teaching of Buddha, the Kangyur, and the Tengyur, as well as lineages of the collections of teachings and commentaries of all the pandits, or great scholars. Rinpoche has received the oral transmission of the Kangyur two times, first from his teacher at the place where he was born and the second time from, I think, Pari Dorje Chang, one the heart disciples of the great enlightened Pabongka. Pari Dorje Chang is the past life of this present incarnation, Pari Rinpoche.³ I think Khyongla Rato Rinpoche may also have received the oral transmission of the whole collection of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings two times. In Tibet and afterwards, Rinpoche received oral transmissions from many great lamas, who were like the sun rising in this world, bringing unbelievable benefit to sentient beings and to the teachings of Buddha. I and the other incarnate lamas who have the time are trying to receive the lineages of many teachings, especially the rare ones, and not only from Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. Otherwise, after some time, the lineages might end.

HOW THE KOPAN COURSES STARTED 

Here at the beginning I want to say that the Kopan courses happened, basically, because of Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s great teaching on thought transformation, Lojong Chenmo, which I spent a few years reading while I was building the monastery at Lawudo. (Lama Yeshe was building Kopan Monastery at the same time.) I was supposed to be outside watching the workers to make sure they were working—I mean, there wasn’t much they could do except work on building the monastery—but I spent most of my time in the cave reading Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s text. Sometimes, when I went outside to go to the toilet, I would check whether they were chatting or working. But even if they were chatting and not doing any work, I would just go to the toilet and go back inside.

I spent a few years reading Lojong Chenmo, a very extensive text on Kadampa lo-jong, or thought transformation. How did I come to get this text?

Our very first Western student was Zina Rachevsky, who had the title of “princess” in Russia. At one time I had TB, so I spent a lot of time in Darjeeling for treatment and for vacation, and I met Zina there.

I had a teacher who took care of me in Tibet, helping me to become a monk in Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery. Domo Geshe Rinpoche was the great lama who was Lama Govinda’s guru. Lama Govinda, a German professor, went to Tibet and met Domo Geshe Rinpoche there.⁴ This is not the Domo Rinpoche who passed away in the United States [in September 2001], but the previous incarnation. I don’t know how much teaching Lama Govinda received, but it seems that he did meet the great yogi, Domo Geshe Rinpoche.

There were a few lamas, including Domo Geshe Rinpoche, who received complete teachings on the path to enlightenment from a guru in Tsang, the upper part of Tibet. They lived and practiced with their guru until one day the guru gave predictions about each disciple then sent them to a different part of Tibet. To one of them, the guru said, “You’ll go to this part of Tibet, and it will be enough for you to be able to practice yourself.” To Domo Geshe Rinpoche he said, “You should go to the eastern part of Tibet, and you’ll be able to benefit many sentient beings.”

Domo Geshe Rinpoche then went to eastern Tibet and lived there in a forest. A shepherd from a nearby town saw a huge creature, a yeti, or abominable snowman, bringing food inside a cave to a monk. When he told the family he worked for what he had seen, they asked him to invite the monk to their house. It seems this was a wealthy family in that area. The shepherd then went to the cave and requested the lama to move down. The lama then came down from the cave and lived in their house. The family took care of him for about a year, and when he then asked them to build a monastery, they built Domo Geshe’s monastery near Phagri.

The main monastery had many branches in Tibet and also had branches in Darjeeling and Sikkim. When Domo Geshe passed away, he reincarnated in Sikkim, and it was the incarnation born in Sikkim who passed away in the United States. There were two branches of the monastery in Darjeeling, one of which was in Ghoom, a town about five miles from Darjeeling. I went to the Ghoom monastery quite a few times and spent a long time there.

It seems that Domo Geshe Rinpoche benefited many sentient beings during his life. I didn’t hear that he gave many teachings, but he made special blessed pills that were famous in Tibet. The pills were very good for people who had eaten poison by mistake, and were good for many other things. They were very powerful in blessing the body, the chakras and, of course, the mind. And if the pills were kept well, with good samaya, they also multiplied.

Domo Geshe’s monastery in Tibet was where I became a monk. A senior monk from that monastery, who became the manager of the monastery, took care of me and guided me.

My story is getting longer and going deeper and deeper. I didn’t mean to do that….

I don’t remember the exact purpose of going to Tibet when I was young. I have many uncles: many paternal uncles, or akus, and many maternal uncles, or ashangs. One uncle lived in Tibet at Phagri, which is very close to Domo Geshe’s monastery and to Bhutan. I heard that this uncle had been in the Indian army and had then gone to Tibet and married a Tibetan woman, Tsangpa. He did business in Phagri and invited us to visit him there.

At that time I was not at home with my mother but had already been away from home in Rolwaling for about seven years. Jinpa⁵ is from that same place, Rolwaling. This part of Solu Khumbu is much more primitive than the Namche Bazaar area. It’s a hidden place of Padmasambhava, but very primitive.

I was taken to Rolwaling because I used to run away home from Thangme Monastery. I was only small, maybe four or five years old, when I was taken up to Thangme Monastery from my home in the village. I had to stay there to learn the alphabet from my aku, or paternal uncle, who was a monk in Thangme Monastery. I would stay there for a few days then escape and run down to my home. I would just rush down the hill. Because there were some caves and dark places at the side of the road, I would run non-stop until I reached home. After a couple of days, someone would carry me back up to the monastery. I did this a few times.

Since I wasn’t doing a good job as a student, I was sent to Rolwaling. To reach Rolwaling, you have to cross dangerous snow mountains where there are avalanches, crevasses and many other obstacles. I crossed those mountains several times, though not by myself, and nothing much happened. There was an avalanche only one time.

I didn’t have to walk; I was always carried by somebody. One time I was carried by my teacher, Aku Ngawang Gendun, the uncle who took care of me and taught me to read texts at Rolwaling. My teacher carried me on his back and would pass food to me over his shoulder.

There’s one dangerous mountain that you have to cross when you go from Rolwaling to the Namche Bazaar part of Solu Khumbu. I remember crossing it a few times. I don’t remember crossing it going back to Rolwaling, so maybe there was another road. Before crossing this mountain, all the people would put down their heavy loads. They would drink whatever alcohol they had and rub their hands together to generate heat. Everybody carried a huge load. Sometimes they used yaks, but because there was no proper road and there were large rocks, dealing with the yaks was unbelievably hard. They had to push the yaks in some places.

At this place, rocks, big and small, would come down from high up the mountain, and you never knew when they were coming. We would rest before crossing, and when we couldn’t hear anything, everybody would lift their load and go quickly. You couldn’t wait— it was a very uncertain time. At the beginning, there was a sound like “wooooohl,” but I wasn’t sure what it was. Later I realized that it was everybody chanting mantras and prayers. Since Sherpas are usually Nyingmapas, everybody continuously recited Padmasambhava mantras until they reached the other side. I think that’s a good definition of having refuge.

If we had realization of refuge and of impermanence and death, we would never waste our time; we would never waste our life. Our mind would be in the same state as those Sherpas if we had those realizations. That day, because of the rocks coming down, the Sherpas were afraid they might die, but it is the case that death could happen any day, at any moment. If we had the realization that death could happen at any moment, our mind would be in that same state. If we had the realization of impermanence and death, we would continuously practice Dharma with our body, our speech and our mind in accordance with the level of our motivation, whether for the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara or enlightenment.

Knowing that death could happen today, at any moment, we would prepare for it. Our mental state would be similar to that of the Sherpas, though theirs was because of the falling rocks.

If we had the realization of refuge, that Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have the power to completely protect us, we would totally rely upon them and do requesting prayers to them and prayers praising their qualities. We would also recite powerful mantras for purification. With devotion to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we would constantly do this with our body, speech and mind. With useful fear of samsara and especially of negative karma and the sufferings of the lower realms, we would constantly do practices to purify our defilements and negative karma and to collect extensive merit; we would do practices that become causes to achieve enlightenment, liberation from samsara and the happiness of future lives. We would never want to waste our life. Constantly, day and night, all the time, we would practice. Of course, when we slept, we would be sleeping in virtue. Because of our virtuous motivation, our sleep would be virtuous. Everything would become Dharma, pure Dharma. Even if we didn’t have realization of bodhicitta or renunciation of samsara, we would still have detachment to this life and the wish to seek the happiness of future lives. That’s the very minimum motivation that is Dharma.

The interesting thing here is that whenever our group had reached the other side, the rocks would then come down. The small stones would come tinnnnng–kah! And the big rocks would also come. When I had crossed I would think, “Someone must have died!” But the whole group would have completed the crossing. It was like that every time. Maybe it had something to do with the strong devotion they had to Padmasambhava, as well as to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; but I think it might also have had to do with the protection of a protector or deva at that place.

I think I made that crossing four times, but nothing ever happened to anyone in the group. It was extremely dangerous, and I don’t know why they had to go through that.

Why was I telling you about this? That’s right—I was telling you the story of why I went to Tibet.

I lived in Rolwaling for seven years. In the early morning, at dawn, I would recite by heart the prayers I had memorized: various prayers to Padmasambhava, the Seventh Chapter (lu-dunpa in Tibetan) and other things. All day long I would recite texts. After learning to spell, I did other reading called jo-log. I could stop early in the evening. And we ate three or four times a day. When I went out to pee, I would hang around a little while outside.

During those times there was no sweet tea because there was no sugar. I got rice, which was regarded as a very special food, maybe two times a year. Now it has totally changed in Solu Khumbu. (I don’t know how it is in the more remote parts, but they must also have changed a lot.) There have been unbelievable changes, with so many things coming in from the West. It wasn’t like that when I was small, before I went to Tibet.

Rolwaling, where I lived with my paternal uncle, was a primitive place. You got rice only when a Nepalese man from a hotter place came for a few days. You might get rice to eat at the new year and during a nyung-nä. I never did a nyung-nä in Rolwaling, but my teacher would go for the nyung-näs. He would eat half of his food, then bring the other half for me to eat, so I got rice at that time. I think I ate rice twice in a year. There was no coffee or sweet tea. Nothing. In its own way, Rolwaling was completely pure before I left to go to Tibet.

I lived in Phagri for three years, and during that time Tibet was taken over by mainland China. About nine months after the takeover, we escaped to India from the Domo area. We were still doing pujas in Phagri. Every day we went to do pujas in different benefactors’ houses. In one year there was maybe one day when there was no puja at all. That day seemed like a very long, very boring day. It was a strange day.

I’m not sure whether she’s here in the gompa at the moment, but there’s a Tibetan woman from Phagri here at Root Institute. Her name is Dekyi-la, and she has three daughters and a son. I’ve met her a few times in Bodhgaya. She now lives in Bhutan, where she has married into quite a wealthy family. Dekyi-la’s family was one of our benefactors in Tibet. I would do puja at her family’s house with my teacher at least once a month, and sometimes there were extra pujas. They could request extra pujas if they wanted.

I was young when I was there in Tibet, but what I heard was that Dekyi-la’s whole family were female—even the cows and other animals were all female. One elderly woman in the family dressed up as a man and carried a small knife, Tibetan style, hanging from her belt. She owned a truck with some other people and did business in Lhasa. Her body was also a little broader, like a man’s. It was only later that my teacher and the other monks told me that it wasn’t a man.

There were branches of different monasteries in Phagri. One monastery was a branch of Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, another was a branch of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery and my monastery was a branch of Domo Geshe’s monastery. Each monastery in the town (though in Tibet it might have been called a city) had its own benefactors, though families could be benefactors of two different monasteries.

I spent my time there in the following way. In the morning I had to memorize the texts that were recited in Domo Geshe’s monastery. Then, around eight o’clock, we would pack all the things we needed—dorje, bell, damaru, text—in a bag, then go for puja. After puja, we would put everything back in our bag again, then return home. We would come back around four or five o’clock, with a stomach filled with food. So, that’s what I remember.

I lived there in Domo Geshe’s monastery for six months, but I think that Tibet had already been overtaken by mainland China at that time. I then escaped to India with the teacher who took care of me. After we arrived in India, because my teacher was called changdzö-la, which means manager, everyone thought that he was my manager. But he wasn’t; he was the manager of the monastery.

The uncle who lived in Phagri invited us to come from Solu Khumbu to visit him in Tibet. That’s why we went. We traveled every day on foot, apart from one day when two Tibetan men on horses had a spare horse or donkey that they let me ride for a few hours. That was the only time that I didn’t have to walk. That day I arrived earlier at the house where we were to spend the night than my teachers, who had to walk with all the luggage. My two teachers, the ones who taught me to read Tibetan, were my uncles, both monks. The elder one later changed his life and took the lay aspect, but at that time he was a monk. There were one or two other people in our group.

We went to Tibet on foot, crossing the snow mountains from Solu Khumbu to Tibet, but it wasn’t dangerous. It took many days, or maybe even weeks, before we arrived in Phagri. My uncle who lived in Tibet then took my two uncle-teachers to Lhasa to see Sera, Ganden and Drepung Monasteries and the Shakyamuni Buddha statue blessed by Buddha himself in the Lhasa temple. There are so many precious things in Lhasa.

I was left behind in Phagri, maybe because they thought it would be too difficult to take me to Lhasa. While they went to Lhasa, I stayed at my uncle’s house in Phagri. He had married a Tibetan woman, and one of their sons was a monk in the branch monastery of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. I was hanging around just outside the house one morning when, because of past karma, a tall monk came along and asked me, “Do you want to be my disciple?” I said, “Yes.” He then went inside the house to see my aunt and told her, “He wants to be my student.” They then talked together for a while. The next morning my aunt took me to his monastery, which was about fifteen minutes walk away. My aunt, who was a very good cook, had made some Tibetan tea, which she had in a thermos, and had some Tibetan bread in a Bhutanese bamboo container. She then left me there at the monastery.

My aunt had taken me there in the morning, and the monks then took me along with them to do puja that day. That first day I was asked to sit outside where the family dog was sitting. I think I was given a Yamantaka sadhana to memorize, so I sat there and memorized that. The next day I again went with them, and we did the puja together.

The idea was for me to go to Sera Monastery in Lhasa to learn debate and study. The teacher who took care of me wrote to the incarnation of Domo Geshe Rinpoche about this. The great yogi whom Lama Govinda had met had already passed away, and the incarnation, from Sikkim, was studying in central Tibet. My teacher also asked the protector of that monastery for advice, and the protector advised that I shouldn’t go to Lhasa but should stay in that area.

My teacher and I then went to a small monastery called Pema Chöling between Phagri and Domo. It was a very nice place, with mountains on both sides of some flat ground and a river fl owing through.

I was advised to do Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga retreat by the protector of Domo Geshe’s monastery. I had never received a commentary; my teacher just gave me a text, and I chanted migtsemas. I can’t remember, but it seems that I did complete the required number of mantras. I offered tsog at the end of the retreat, and that night we escaped from Tibet.

Some monks from Domo Geshe’s monastery had come from Phagri with a horse and cart. They brought a message about the punishment called “change by punishing,” which involved beating people. It had almost arrived at Phagri and would reach our monastery after three days. So, the monks from Phagri, my teacher and I escaped that night. There were many other people working in the monastery, and some of them were spies. My teacher did a divination in front of the protector statue and said that we would be able to pass through to India though we would lose some things.

That night, my mind was very happy. I had no worry, no fear— none. In the middle of night we did some short prayers and without the rest of the people knowing (there weren’t many monks in the monastery, but there were some lay people), about ten of us just quietly left. There was a little bit of snow on the ground, so when we walked, there was a crack, crack, cracking noise. Near dawn we came to some mud and some people fell over and others missed the road, but there wasn’t too much trouble. Early the next morning we reached the Bhutanese area, very close to the pass. We then came to the camp of some Bhutanese nomads. We knew one of the nomad families as they used to come to Phagri, so we stayed there for seven days. From there, we went to Paro, the main city of Bhutan, where we stayed another seven days. It was there in Bhutan that I started to give out blessed strings. When we arrived at a very old temple called Kyichu Dzong, related historically to Padmasambhava, the monks from Domo Geshe’s monastery went to buy some of the very cheap cloth that is used for prayer flags, and the dance of the lama started from there with my giving blessed strings to people.

My uncles took some time to make their pilgrimage to Lhasa, and while I was in Phagri, changes had already started to happen. I was doing pujas every day, and although people didn’t know me as an incarnate lama, there were some rumors. My teacher then checked with the protector, and the protector responded that I was an incarnate lama and that I shouldn’t eat meat or eggs.

When my uncle-teachers came back from Lhasa after some time, I was with my other teacher. My uncles then asked me whether I wanted to go back to Solu Khumbu or not. I didn’t say anything, but I wrote down my answer. My elder teacher, the one from Rolwaling, then boxed my ear and made it bleed.

This uncle beat me many times when I was with him in Rolwaling. I think that all those beatings were great blessings, helping me to purify my mind. Sometimes when my teacher had gone out, I would pretend that I had read some of the text by just turning a few pages over. My teacher, coming back sooner than I expected, would know that I hadn’t read all the pages I had turned. He would then beat me. He would usually hit me on the head with a piece of dry bamboo, which would shatter into pieces.

One time there had been quite a bit of rain. I don’t remember what it was, but I must have done something wrong. My teacher forced my mouth down into the rainwater on the ground outside. There was a bush of nettles growing outside the door, and another time my teacher grabbed me and rubbed my back against the nettles. I don’t have the impression that I found it disturbing, but it was a long time ago, so maybe I’ve just forgotten. I remember only a few things like that, but I think all those were great blessings, a quick way to purify my negative karma and defilements. It was a special skillful means to purify my mind.

My uncle got me to read the Condensed Sutra, an important Prajnaparamita text, as well as the Vajra-Cutter Sutra, which I read for many months. He didn’t give me any commentary on it, but just got me to recite it many times. From that, I think that much purification was done and much merit collected. I think it helped me to have now some idea of what things are empty of and of the meaning of dependent arising. I think that the tiny bit of understanding that I now have comes from those times, from the way my teacher guided me.

Of course, because I was staying with my other teacher when my uncles came back from Lhasa, things then became difficult. My uncles went to check what they should do with the secretary of a wealthy, well-known local family. The secretary, who was also a powerful benefactor of Domo Geshe’s monastery, said that I should go back to Solu Khumbu. It wasn’t decided by that, however, and my case then went to the district judge. All my teachers went to see the judge and discussed my case with him for some hours. The judge then asked for me to be brought there. They had taken my clothes and locked me in a very cold place, so I was shaking like a leaf in front of the judge. (I’m not sure why they took my clothes away.) The judge then gave me the right to choose whether to stay there in the monastery in Tibet or go back to Solu Khumbu.

So I continued the memorizing, pujas and other things I was supposed to do in Domo Geshe’s monastery.

After we had escaped through Bhutan to India, we ended up at Buxa Duar. We weren’t planning to stay at Buxa, the concentration camp where Mahatma Gandhi-ji and Nehru had been imprisoned and was a very unhealthy place. Where Mahatma Gandhi had been imprisoned became a nunnery; some nuns from Kham were put in there, I think. Where Prime Minister Nehru had been imprisoned became Sera Monastery, though not all the Sera monks could fit into that building. Both Sera Me and Sera Je monks lived inside and outside of that building. It was a very long room, with bamboo beds lined up side by side. Outside there was a verandah, and outside of that was a ditch with barbed wire. There was very little space, with the monks’ beds jammed together all the way to the main door. There was one high bed outside where Geshe Rabten slept. Geshe Rabten was the first teacher to teach me Buddhist philosophy; he taught me du-ra, the introductory subject of Buddhist debate.

We had no plan to stay there in Buxa and intended to go to Domo Geshe’s monastery in Ghoom, but the head policeman, who might have been Tibetan, stopped me from going. I’m not sure exactly why he didn’t let me go to Darjeeling; it’s a very interesting point. He said that I should stay there with one monk and that the other monks could go to Darjeeling. If he hadn’t stopped me from going, I wouldn’t have had any chance at all to hear and study a little bit of the Buddhist philosophical teachings and to see some of those texts. I wouldn’t have had that chance to leave a little imprint. It was because that policeman didn’t let me go to Darjeeling that I had the opportunity to live at Buxa for eight years and to do a little bit of study. We studied part of the Abhisamayalamkara, then a school was later established for study of the five major philosophical texts.⁶

I then got TB and went to Darjeeling for treatment, and that is where Lama Yeshe and I met Zina. She spent one month coming to the monastery where we were staying almost every morning for an hour of teachings from Lama, which I tried to translate. She then asked us to come to stay at her house so that we could more easily teach her Dharma. I think we did that for nine months. We didn’t have to do much, just a little teaching in the morning.

We had only one bathroom, and Zina would spend hours there in the morning. In the early morning, she’d look like a sixty- or seventy-year-old woman. She would then spend one or two hours in the bathroom. Afterward, when she came for the teachings, she had become like a sixteen-year-old. She looked like a totally different person.

Even though she came for teachings, much of the time was spent on her telling stories of her life, of what had happened to her here and there. Some of the time was spent on her life story and some on teachings.

Zina then went to Sri Lanka and had the idea of starting a Mahayana center there. She spent a year in Sri Lanka, then came back to pick us up. We went to meet her in Calcutta; that was the first time Lama and I had been in Calcutta. We then went to Dharamsala to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama. That was the first time we had a meeting with His Holiness in his room for instructions.

At that time Russia and India had fallen out, so there were a lot of spies following Zina. When we were traveling by train from Calcutta to Delhi, there were six Indian spies in the same compartment with us; we sat on one side and they sat on the other. They were also at our hotel in Delhi. Wherever we went, they would follow us in cars or on motorcycles or bikes. They would change vehicles according to where we were going. We met the head spy, who had a beard and a curled moustache, at the train station when we arrived in Delhi.

When Zina was ordained at Tushita, we hadn’t yet bought the property. Our root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, had lived at Tushita for seven years but then moved down to lower Dharamsala. We asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama to ordain Zina, but His Holiness was very busy and said that Lati Rinpoche should ordain her. We went to Tushita, and Lati Rinpoche ordained her there. At that time the head spy was walking back and forth, back and forth, on the road down below Tushita.

I’m not sure what happened, but we weren’t able to go to Sri Lanka. It was Lama’s idea that we instead go to Nepal. In Nepal, we stayed in a monastery at Boudhanath for nearly a year, then stayed in the house of Chini Lama’s son. (Chini Lama was the caretaker of Boudhanath Stupa, the most precious, holy object.) There were two houses, one of which, the Double Dorje house, was near the road. Maybe it doesn’t exist now—this was many years ago. There was another house near the Sakya Monastery—not His Holiness Chogye Trichen Rinpoche’s monastery but the one on the other side. We stayed in that green house for almost a year.

One day a Sherpa man called Ang Nyima came to see us. He brought me Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s Great Thought Transformation text and offered Lama Yeshe the Heruka commentary composed by Pabongka’s guru, Dagpo Rinpoche. Even from that time Lama never read about the generation stage; he read only about the second stage, the completion stage. I know because when Lama was out I would sometimes go into his room and check what part of the text Lama was reading.

One time we came to Bodhgaya to receive a Yamantaka commentary from His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s senior tutor. At that time a Zen monk had come from Scotland, and we went to the place where he was leading meditations. We all sat there for half an hour or an hour. From my analysis, I couldn’t see any difference between that meditation and deep sleep.

Zina, our very first Western student, was there with us at that time, and she wanted very much for us to lead meditations like the Zen monk. She didn’t want the same subject, but for us just to lead a meditation course. She requested this a few times but Lama never accepted her request. However, because I had been reading Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s Great Thought Transformation text for quite a few years, I had great interest in doing a course. When Lama wouldn’t agree to do a course, Zina then asked me if I would do it. I said that I would check with Lama, who said, “If you think it will be beneficial, do it.”

I did the first course in Kopan over three or four days. Basically, I was talking from Great Thought Transformation by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, who composed this Kadampa teaching that I have here. There were one or two pages of material for people to meditate on: one or two lines on the usefulness of a perfect human rebirth and the difficulty of finding one again and six or seven lines on the sufferings of the lower realms. I think most of my talk was on perfect human rebirth.

The teaching on the last night was on bodhicitta, and somehow it seems the people liked it very much. When I later went to have dinner with Lama, Zina came up to see Lama and expressed how good the talk had been. Actually, she couldn’t completely express what she felt; she couldn’t believe the teaching she had heard. That’s how the second and then the third courses happened.

Basically, it all came from this great lama, Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, who, I think, is the incarnation of Milarepa. This is according to the great yogi, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, who was the incarnation of the Serkong Dorje Chang who, in Tibet, was officially recognized by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama as a great yogi who had actually reached the level where he could practice with a wisdom mother. Before that, Serkong Dorje Chang had finished all his studies and completed his geshe examination, then later he practiced with a wisdom mother. Though there were some other lamas that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama didn’t accept as qualified to practice with a wisdom mother, he did officially accept Serkong Dorje Chang. There are stories about how the Thirteenth Dalai Lama punished those lamas who practiced without being qualified.

Serkong Dorje Chang, the great enlightened being who lived and passed away in Nepal, was the incarnation of that great yogi who passed away in Tibet. The incarnation of the Serkong Dorje Chang from Nepal is now studying in south India.

One time Serkong Dorje Chang was returning to his monastery at Swayambhunath after doing a puja at a benefactor’s house in Kathmandu. With him there happened to be a monk from his monastery who had originally been at Sera Monastery in Tibet. It depended on the circumstances, but if it was a good day, Serkong Dorje Chang would tell stories. That day Rinpoche told this monk, “Actually, I am Marpa; Tsechokling Rinpoche⁷ is Milarepa; and His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche is Marpa’s son, Darma Dodé.”

The courses at Kopan have continued for many years—this year we had the fortieth course. After some time, it became a one-month course, and in the early times we used to do two courses a year. Then, because of traveling to the West, we could no longer do two courses, so we did only one. That has continued up to now.

The FPMT centers have basically developed from those Kopan courses. Because students found benefit to their hearts and to their lives, when they went back to the West, they wanted other people in their country to also receive the same benefit. They wanted others to not only make their lives meaningful but meet and practice Dharma and achieve enlightenment. They wanted others to see that they didn’t always have to be caught up in just temporary happiness; that there are much greater things to achieve in life: the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment. That’s how the centers started, and there are now about 150 or 160 of them, mostly meditation centers.

Up to the sixth Kopan course, no matter what people said to me about how good a course had been, how useful for their lives, in my heart I always felt that all the benefit came from Lama Yeshe, not from me. This I what I felt from the first to the sixth courses whenever people said how beneficial the course had been, blah, blah, blah. In my heart I felt it was Lama Yeshe, not me. I had that feeling up to the sixth or maybe seventh course. For the sixth course there were about three hundred people at the beginning, more than for other courses. I spent a lot of time on the hell realms. I talked about the lower realms and the eight worldly dharmas for two weeks, I think. Anyway, up to the sixth or seventh course, in my heart I felt that all the benefit people talked about came from Lama Yeshe. I don’t know what happened after that—something must have gone wrong.

THE HEART ADVICE OF THE KADAM TEACHINGS
Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen was the Ninth Dalai Lama’s guru, and there have been many incarnations. There’s a monastery built by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen at Kyirong in Tibet, close to the Nepalese border. It’s an excellent monastery that is famous for its moral discipline. Its vinaya practice is incomparable. The main focus of this monastery is the study and practice of vinaya.

I’ve received the lineage of the oral transmission of The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings, though not the commentary, from Kyabje Khyongla Rato Rinpoche. The first copy of this text that I saw was given to me by Geshe Jampa Tekchog, who is the ex-abbot of Sera Je Monastery and also of our monastery in France, Nalanda, where he lived for eleven years.

The title of this text in Tibetan is kadam leg bam gi nying po men nga dutsi bumpa tsam shi che wa shug, or The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings: A Fine Vase of Nectar. Bumpa tsam, a fine vase, means the wish-fulfilling vase, and shug means “here it is.”

Generate a bodhicitta motivation by thinking, “Before what is called ‘death’ happens, I must ensure that I am not reborn in the lower realms and that I receive a higher rebirth. Not only that, but I must free myself from samsara. And not only that, but I must achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. Therefore, to achieve enlightenment, I am going to take this oral transmission to receive the lineage of this teaching.”

The first chapter describes the qualities of the lineage lamas.

[Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of the first chapter of The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings in Tibetan. (See appendix 4 for the English translation.)]

There are eight chapters, and this first chapter contains the requesting prayer to the lineage lamas and advice on how to devote to the virtuous friend. Since there are eight chapters, I’m sorry I didn’t get to start earlier.

I mentioned that the title of the text is kadam leg bam gi nying po men nga, The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings. Ka means Buddha’s teachings and dam means the instruction that is to be practiced. So, this text is the heart advice, or instruction, of the teaching.

DEDICATIONS

Dag gi ji nye sag päi ge wa di
Tän dang dro wa kün la gang phän dang
Khyä par je tsün lo zang drag pa yi
Tän päi nying po ring du säl je shog

I dedicate whatever virtues I have ever collected
For the benefit of the teachings and of all sentient beings,
And in particular, for the essential teachings
Of perfect, pure Losang Dragpa to shine forever.

[The group recites the short mandala offering.]

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may bodhicitta be generated in my own heart, in the hearts of all the organizers, students and benefactors of the FPMT, especially those many people in different parts of the world who sacrifice themselves to the organization and bear so much hardship in offering service to sentient beings and the teaching of the Buddha, in the hearts of all the people who rely upon me, for whom I have promised to pray and whose names have been given to me and in the hearts of all the rest of the sentient beings.

As I mentioned the other day, when you look at the ocean from a plane, you know that inside the ocean there are all those whales, sharks and other large animals, as well as many tiny ones. The ocean is full of animals, including all those tiny animals that you can see only through a microscope. It’s unbelievable. And there is so much suffering, with all those animals looking for food and killing each other.

It is similar with the animals in the air and on and under the ground. Just among animals there is unbelievable suffering. Also, there are the hungry ghosts, who are as numerous as trees in a forest or blades of grass in a field. And the hell beings are like the dust of this earth. Human beings are experiencing the oceans of suffering of the human realm, and the asuras and suras are experiencing the oceans of suffering of their realms.

Dedicate that all these beings generate bodhicitta in their hearts without even a second’s delay, and that those in whose hearts bodhicitta has already been generated increase it. Please pray in this way.

Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe
Ma kye pa nam kye gyur chig
Kye wa nyam pa me pa yang
Gong nä gong du phel war shog

May the supreme jewel bodhicitta
That has not arisen, arise and grow;
And may that which has arisen not diminish
But increase more and more.

Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me and by others, may bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all the world leaders.

In that way the many millions of people in each country won’t suffer and will be led in the correct path to peace and happiness.

May the loving, compassionate thought of bodhicitta be actualized in the hearts of all the believers, the people of different religions, and of all the non-believers without even a second’s delay.

[Everyone recites Jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe…. two more times.]

Gang ri ra wäi khor wäi zhing kham dir
Phän dang de wa ma lü jung wäi nä
Chän rä zig wang tän dzin gya tsho yi
Zhab pä si thäi bar du tän gyur chig

In the land encircled by snow mountains
You are the source of all happiness and good;
All-powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso,
Please remain until samsara ends.

We will now dedicate all the merits collected in the three times by ourselves and by others, which means all sentient beings and all buddhas, for all the holy wishes that His Holiness has to be completely actualized without even a second’s delay.

Tong nyi nying je zung du jug päi lam
Chhe chher säl dzä gang chän tän droi gon
Chhag na pä mo tän dzin gya tsho la
Sol wa deb so zhe don lhun drub shog

Savior of the Snow Land teachings and transmigratory beings,
Who makes extremely clear the path that is the unification of emptiness and compassion,
To the Lotus Holder, Tenzin Gyatso, I beseech—
May all your holy wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.

Make the same prayer for the other gurus. May all their wishes be fulfilled and may they have stable life.

Je tsün la mäi ku tshe rab tän ching
Nam kar thrin lä chhog chur gyä pa dang
Lo zang tän päi drön me sa sum gyi
Dro wäi mün sel tag tu nä gyur chig

May my perfect, pure lama’s life be firm,
His white divine actions spread in the ten directions.
May the torch of the teachings of Losang always remain,
Dispelling the darkness of all beings in the three realms.

[The students recite Rinpoche’s short long-life prayer.]

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may all the father and mother sentient beings have happiness, especially the ultimate happiness of enlightenment; may the three lower realms be empty of beings forever; may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately; and may I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, in all lifetimes may I, all my family members, all the students and benefactors of the FPMT organization, especially those who bear so much hardship in dedicating their lives to this organization to serve sentient beings and the teaching of Buddha, and all the rest of the sentient beings meet only perfectly qualified Mahayana gurus. From my side and from the side of each sentient being, in all lifetimes may we be able to see the guru as only an enlightened being, having ceased all faults and perfected all qualities; may we be able to do actions that are only most pleasing to the holy mind of the virtuous friend; and may we be able to accomplish the holy wishes of the virtuous friend.

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, may all the projects to serve monasteries and nunneries and those who preserve and spread Dharma by providing food, money, education needs and so forth continue and fl ourish forever.

Due to all the merits of the three times collected by me and by others, may all the projects to build holy objects such as statues and stupas, and especially all the Maitreya Buddha statues in different parts of the world, be completed as quickly as possible and be most beneficial to all sentient beings. (This is the quickest way to purify the negative karma and defilements of sentient beings, enable them to collect extensive merit and bring them to enlightenment.)

May all the various social service projects in different parts of the world—Liberation Prison Project, Essential Education, the hospices, clinics dispensing medicine, Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth—be accomplished immediately by receiving all the necessary funding and other needs. May all these projects be accomplished and be most beneficial for all sentient beings, causing compassion to be generated in the hearts of the people who receive their services. (By generating compassion, they will collect merit; they will then change their mind and their actions, creating good karma, and then achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.) May they achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. May all the various social service projects in different parts of the world receive everything they need to be most beneficial to sentient beings.

May all the meditation centers be most beneficial for all sentient beings, and may whatever social service and other projects each center has be accomplished and be most beneficial for sentient beings. May they cause sentient beings to generate faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and in karma, action and result, and, especially, to generate loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta in their hearts. Especially, may the centers spread the complete teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa in the hearts of all sentient beings. May they be most beneficial in this way.

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me and the merits of the three times collected by others, which exist but which are totally empty from their own side, may the I, who exists but who is totally empty from its own side, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is totally empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who are totally empty from their own side, to that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is totally empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but who is totally empty from its own side.

I dedicate all these merits in the best way, that I may be able to follow the holy extensive deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjugosha, who realized things as they are.

I dedicate all these merits in the same way the buddhas of the three times dedicate their merits.

Tonight we will recite the lam-rim dedication. Dedicate in the way that you see there in the English translation. Dedicate the merits for the lam-rim to be generated within your own heart, in the hearts of your family and in the hearts of everybody in this world, so that everyone has perfect peace and happiness.

[All chant Final Lam-Rim Prayer in Tibetan.]

Chhö kyi gyäl po tsong kha päi
Chhö tshül nam par phäl wa la
Geg kyi tshän ma zhi wa dang
Thün kyen lü tshang war shog

By pacifying all the signs of obstacles
And by perfecting every single required condition
May the Dharma tradition of the Dharma king Tsongkhapa
Be preserved and developed.

Dag dang zhän gyi dü sum dang
Drel wä tshog nyi la ten nä
Gyäl wa lo zang drag pa yi
Tän pa yün ring bar gyur chig

Due to the two types of merit collected
Over the three times by myself and others,
May the teaching of the far-famed
Victorious One’s pure wisdom blaze forth.

So, good night or good morning. No, good night!

December 29

I must apologize that at this time I didn’t get to do much teaching, though I did begin the oral transmission of the Kadam text, The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings. I think I will first translate it into English, and then teach on at another time. Since I have received the lineage, I thought to give the oral transmission of the text, which will plant the seed of the whole path to enlightenment.

I gave the oral transmission of the first chapter, which contains the qualities of the lineage lamas and guru devotion. As the subjects covered in this text are quite extensive, I will just pass the oral transmission. Or maybe I will read just the section on guru devotion, as it’s not too long, so that there’s some teaching. I’ll leave out the part on the qualities of the lineage lamas.

We’ll start with a short motivation. As I mentioned before, the whole point of our life is to benefit others. Therefore, we must free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them happiness, especially the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara and especially full enlightenment. Think, “To be able to do that, I must achieve the state of omniscient mind. For that, I need to actualize the steps of the path to enlightenment, and so, as a preparation for those realizations, I’m going to take the oral transmission of the great enlightened being Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s The Heart Advice of the Kadam Teachings: A Fine Vase of Nectar.”

GURU DEVOTION

Please grant me blessings to be able to correctly devote to the virtuous friend, who reveals the excellent, unmistaken path and upon whose power depends every single collection of goodness of samsara and peace.

Here peace isn’t what is normally regarded as peace in newspapers and on TV. Here it refers to ultimate happiness, to liberation from samsara and enlightenment. In the Tibetan expression si-zhi, si means samsaric existence and zhi means the peace that is the opposite of samsara, the ultimate happiness of liberation and also enlightenment.

Every single collection of goodness of samsara and peace definitely depends on whose power? The power of the virtuous friend. It is for this reason that we need to correctly devote ourselves to the virtuous friend, who reveals the excellent, unmistaken path. Therefore, we request to be granted blessings to be able to do that.

Many of you have heard teachings on guru devotion many times, but I think some people are hearing Buddhadharma for the first time, so this subject will be new to them. Some people might have some difficulties understanding guru devotion, but you should know that there are many new things awaiting discovery. On TV there’s the Discovery Channel, which has programs about discoveries in Africa and many other parts of the world. There are so many things in this world (I’m not talking about in other worlds) that we are not aware of, that we have yet to discover. Now this Discovery Channel here is showing the path to be actualized in your heart, the path that removes all the sufferings, all the different levels of defilements, all the faults of the mind, and enables you to achieve full enlightenment. There are many stages that you have to discover, that you have to learn about. You must expect to make many discoveries on this Discovery Channel, the enlightenment channel. Since the path to enlightenment is a whole new path, you must expect to have a lot to learn, and you must open your heart to that. You shouldn’t have a closed mind, thinking that just knowing one or two meditations in your life will be enough. You shouldn’t think like that because you have so much wisdom, so much intelligence. If you think like that, you’re wasting your intelligence; you’re not using your capacity.

Since you normally check whether you can trust some-one who will guide you through a dangerous place even for a single day, how can you be satisfied to trust just anybody to show you the path that goes to the heart of enlightenment?

The first part of this verse isn’t talking about the virtuous friend. It’s saying that even when we travel for a day along a dangerous road, we check the person who guides us.

The qualities of a guru who reveals the path are mentioned by the Victorious Ones in many sutras and tantras. Having examined him well with an impartial mind, rely on a virtuous friend who has the ten qualities.

An impartial mind means one that isn’t biased by discriminating thoughts of anger or attachment. It’s a straight mind that doesn’t take sides. With that mind you examine the guru well.

The ten qualities are normally used as examples of a guru’s qualities:

Rely upon a virtuous friend who is subdued, pacified and highly pacified,
Has greater knowledge, has perseverance, is learned in scripture,
Has realized emptiness, is skillful in teaching,
Has a compassionate nature and has abandoned discouragement.⁸

Has greater knowledge can mean having greater education but it can also mean having greater qualities.

Of course, I myself don’t have these ten qualities—it would be hard to find even one of these qualities in me. I think it’s just that it’s such a degenerate time and there’s some karma….

Here it’s saying to rely on a virtuous friend who has the ten qualities. That’s the normal instruction, but these days, as we don’t see gurus with all ten qualities, it’s advised to rely on a guru with seven, six, five or even fewer of the qualities.

The first quality, subdued, refers to the higher training of morality. The second, pacified, refers to the higher training of concentration. The third, highly pacified, refers to the higher training of wisdom. 

The following qualities are having higher qualities, having perseverance, having a holy mind that is enriched with understanding of the teachings, having realized emptiness….

The reason that having realized emptiness is mentioned even though the higher training of wisdom has already been mentioned is that here it refers specifically to the Madhyamaka, or Middle Way, view. There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy: Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Chittamatra and Madhyamaka, and the Madhyamaka school has two subdivisions, Svatantrika and Prasangika.

To be completely liberated from the entire ocean of samsaric suffering and its cause, actions (or karma) and disturbing thoughts, you have to cut the root of samsara: the ignorance that holds the I and the aggregates on which the I is labeled to be truly existent. (The Tibetan term nyon mong is often translated as “disturbing thoughts,” but I prefer to translate it as “obscuring, disturbing negative attitudes.”) So, the root of all those obscuring, disturbing negative attitudes is the ignorance that holds the I and the aggregates to be truly existent, that holds them to exist as they appear to exist, which means as real in the sense of existing from their own side, or existing by their nature. We need to cut, to eliminate, this ignorance. However, it can be eliminated only by the view of the second Madhyamaka school, the Prasangika. The Prasangika understanding of emptiness, which unifies emptiness and dependent arising, is the only one that can eliminate this ignorance.

For example, while I, action, object and all other phenomena exist, they are empty, empty of existing from their own side. To explain how things exist, His Holiness the Dalai Lama often uses the term ten jung, and this term is also often mentioned in the philosophical texts. Basically, these two words, ten and jung, describe how things exist. By understanding ten and jung, you see the Middle Way devoid of the two extremes;⁹ you see how things exist.

My talk is becoming a little long, and this is extra explanation, but anyway….

EXAMPLES OF DEPENDENT ARISING

Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche was the great bodhisattva from whom His Holiness received the elaborate commentary to A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Many years ago Rinpoche was teaching A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life in the Tibetan Monastery in Bodhgaya, not in the main gompa but in a room upstairs where he and many other incarnate lamas used to stay when taking teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama or from Ling Rinpoche. Many of us stayed upstairs in that room. Lama Yeshe was there and also Geshe Jampa Gyatso, resident teacher at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy for more than twenty years. There were many other incarnate lamas and other geshes, including Geshe Jampa Gyatso’s teacher, Geshe Tashi Bum. Geshe Jampa Gyatso was cooking for and serving Geshe Tashi Bum. This was many years ago.

Anyway, when Kyabje Khunu Rinpoche was giving a commentary to A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, attended by many incarnate lamas and geshes, Rinpoche used his fingers to illustrate dependent arising. When you hold up just your middle and ring fingers, the middle finger is long and the ring finger is short. But when you change and hold up just your ring and little fingers, the ring finger becomes long. This is how Rinpoche introduced the concept of dependent arising, ten jung.

If the ring finger were a real long finger, in the sense of one existing from its own side, it should always be a long finger. When you hold it up with the middle finger, it should still be a long finger. Do you understand the point? If the long ring finger weren’t merely imputed by the mind, if it existed from its own side, it should still be a long finger when you hold it next to the middle finger. But it’s not. When you hold up your middle finger with your ring finger, it’s totally different. The middle finger is then long and the ring finger is short. So, this shows that nothing exists from its own side, that long and short are merely imputed by the mind.

Here the meaning of “merely imputed by the mind” is clear; it means there’s nothing existing from its own side. That’s what we have to discover, to realize.

Take the example of a family, with a father and mother and a child. Let’s say the child is a daughter. That child is the daughter of her mother and father, but when she herself has a child of her own, she will be the mother to that child. Again, if a real daughter existed from its own side, she couldn’t become a mother; she couldn’t change. But, since “daughter” is merely imputed by the mind, when she has children, she can become “mother.” So, it’s dependent. The label is merely imputed by mind in dependence upon conditions. There’s nothing real there, nothing that exists from its own side.

That child is a daughter in relation to her mother and father, but when she gets married and has children of her own, she becomes a mother in relation to her children. So, what exists is what is merely imputed by the mind.

It’s the same, of course, with fat and skinny, though maybe it’s better if I don’t use actual people as the examples. However, I’m fat compared to somebody thinner than I am; but if somebody is fatter than I am, I’m then thin. Again, the label is imputed by the mind in dependence upon conditions. There’s nothing there existing from its own side, nothing at all. Not even an atom exists from its own side.

It is the same with beautiful and ugly. Whether it’s a drawing or a person, if it’s ugly, when there’s another drawing or person that is much uglier, that drawing or person becomes beautiful. The person becomes beautiful in dependence upon somebody else who is more ugly. And if somebody else is more beautiful, this person becomes ugly. So, what exists is what is merely imputed by the mind. There’s nothing there that exists from its own side; it’s simply labeled.

It is like this with all phenomena. Nothing exists from its own side, nothing exists apart from what is merely imputed by the mind. You can find many similar examples.

HOW TIME EXISTS

The next example that I’m going to mention is a very good meditation on emptiness. It’s simple but profound, and gives us a clear understanding.

When we hear or think of one year, “Oh, it takes one year to do that,” whether it’s study or travel, it’s a real one year, one that exists from its own side. Now, when you analyze that one year, you find that it is labeled on the base, twelve months. “One year” is imputed by your mind to the base, twelve months.

So, what is one year? Twelve months. Twelve months is what is called “one year.” When we think of the base, the twelve months, it’s not that one year becomes totally nonexistent. One year exists, but it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind. It’s not that it becomes totally nonexistent. It’s not that there’s no one year. There is one year, but it is something unbelievably subtle. What one year is is extremely subtle. It’s not that it doesn’t exist at all. It exists, but what it is is unbelievably subtle, unbelievably fine. Thinking of the base, the twelve months, gives some idea of how very subtle the one year is.

The one year that you thought of at the beginning doesn’t exist. The real one year that you thought of without thinking of the twelve months, the real one year existing from its own side, is not there. It doesn’t exist. That one doesn’t exist at all, anywhere. It’s not on the tip of your nose, nor anywhere else. I’m joking. It exists nowhere.

When you think of the base, the twelve months, your understanding of one year is something totally different from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s not that real one at all. The one year still exists. It’s not nonexistent; it exists, but it’s empty, empty of existing from its own side. It’s empty of the year that you first thought of, that first appeared to you and in which you believed. When you think of the twelve months, the one year exists but it’s now something totally different from what you thought before, from what appeared to you and what you believed before. It’s totally different. It exists but it’s empty. It exists but it’s unified with emptiness. So, this is the Middle Way.

It is the same with the month. When we think of a month, what comes to our mind is a real month in the sense of one existing from its own side. If we had to describe the meaning of real, we would say “existing from its own side.” Now what is that month? It is imputed to four weeks. Again here it comes to the same point: a month is imputed to, or labeled on, the base, the four weeks. It is never the month that appeared to us and that we believed in before, the real month existing from its own side. It is never that at all—it is totally something else, something that is labeled on the base, the four weeks.

Again here, the month is that which is merely imputed by the mind to the valid base, four weeks. It is not that one month becomes nonexistent, but for your mind it becomes extremely subtle, unbelievably subtle. It exists in mere name, merely imputed by mind. Again, it exists but it unifies emptiness and dependent arising, which is the Middle Way view. The one month you believed in previously, something that appeared to you as existing from its own side and that you believed existed from its own side, is the eternal one. Now, when you think of the four weeks, of how the one month is merely imputed to the valid base, four weeks, the one month is empty of eternalism and nihilism. It’s empty of eternalism, the real one month existing from its own side, and also empty of nihilism, the nonexistence of the one month. This is the Middle Way. The one month exists but at the same time it’s empty; these two are unified.

The previous one month that appeared to you as something real and in which you believed is false; that is what doesn’t exist. The second one month, the imputed one month, exists. It is not nonexistent; it exists, but it exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind. So, it unifies emptiness and dependent arising. That is what exists.

Now, the week. When you think of a week, “Oh, this course takes one week,” you think of a real week existing from its own side. A real week appears to you and your mind also believes in it. Now, the week is merely imputed to the valid base, seven days. Again, what you discover here is that the week is totally different from the one that appeared to you and in which you believed before when you didn’t analyze it. That week is a false week, that week is totally non-existent. When you don’t analyze, when you don’t check, it looks as if the week is existing from its own side; but when you analyze, you find it’s the total opposite. When you analyze, there’s no such week there. The week that exists is what is merely imputed by the mind to the seven days. That’s the week that exists. The week exists in mere name, merely imputed by mind, because there are the seven days. So, the week exists but it’s extremely subtle. While it’s empty it’s existing.

Now, the day. When you think of a day, how does the day appear to you? How the day appears to you and how you believe it to exist is as a real day in the sense of one existing from its own side. It doesn’t appear to you as existing from the side of your mind, but from its own side. There is a real day. But the next question is, What exactly is that one day? It is what is simply imputed by the mind because there are the twenty-four hours.

Now, here, when you think of the valid base, the twenty-four hours, to which the day is merely imputed by your mind, you see that one day is totally empty of the day that first appeared to you and that your mind believed in. It’s completely empty of that. The day that appeared to you and in which you believed at the very beginning is false. Ignorance believes that it exists, but in reality it doesn’t exist at all; there’s no such thing. The second day, the imputed day, is extremely subtle, unbelievably subtle. It’s not completely nonexistent; it exists, but it’s empty of existing from its own side, as you first believed. So, that’s the day that exists.

Now, the hour. When you think of an hour, again you think of something existing from its own side and believe it to be true. So, what is an hour? It’s what is merely imputed by the mind because there’s the valid base, sixty minutes. When you think of that, your understanding of an hour is something totally other than what appeared to you and you believed in before, that inherently existent hour, that hour existing from its own side, that real hour from its own side. It has totally changed. The previous one becomes totally nonexistent when you come to analyze what an hour is and find it is what is merely imputed by your mind because there is the valid base, sixty minutes. So, the hour becomes extremely subtle. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but it becomes like that, like it doesn’t exist. Saying “like that” makes a big difference. It is something extremely subtle. It’s not that it doesn’t exist; it’s not that it’s nonexistent. It exists but it’s something extremely subtle. It exists in mere name, merely imputed by mind. It’s empty of existing from its own side.

So now, the minute. A minute has sixty seconds, but when we think of a minute we think of a real minute existing from its own side. So, that’s the gak-cha, the object to be refuted. When we analyze what that minute is, we find that it is what exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, because there is the valid base, sixty seconds. It’s extremely subtle. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but it’s like it doesn’t exist. There’s a huge difference between this one and the previous false one, which is the object to be refuted. This is the reality. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but it’s like it doesn’t exist. The way it exists is unbelievably subtle.

Now, the second. The parts of a second are extremely fine. In his teachings, the great, enlightened Pabongka explained that according to the first school, the Vaibhashika, a Lesser Vehicle school, the duration of a finger-snap is sixty-five moments. But according to the Mahayana, there are 365 moments in a finger-snap. The four schools of Buddhist philosophy have different explanations, with some believing that atoms don’t have parts, for example. However, the Prasangika-Madhyamaka school believes that the continuity of consciousness has parts, that there are 365 moments in a fingersnap and that atoms have particles. The different schools have different ways of explaining things.

Anyway, a finger-snap exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, because there are all these sixty-five or 365 moments. (You need to check whether or not the divisions of a second can become much finer still.)

However, the main point here is that when you analyze in this way, you come to know what is false and what is the reality in relation to one year, one month, one week, one day, one hour, one minute, one second. In this way what exists and what doesn’t exist become very clear.

So, I think we will just leave it there….

NOTES

¹  Since Rinpoche gave this teaching, Geshe Jinpa has also published The Book of Kadam, a collection of texts closely associated with Atisha and Dromtönpa. [Return to text]

²  See The Book of Kadam, pp. 529–58, or appendix 4 of this book for a translation of the first chapter. [Return to text]

³  Or Dakri Rinpoche. [Return to text]

⁴  See The Way of the White Clouds. [Return to text]

⁵  Thubten Jinpa, a Kopan monk, is one of Rinpoche’s attendants. [Return to text]

⁶  The five major philosophical scriptures are Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations, Dignaga’s Compendium of Valid Cognition, Chandrakirti’s Entering the Middle Way, Vinaya and Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Knowledge. [Return to text]

⁷ The lineage of incarnations from Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen. [Return to text]

⁸ From Ornament of Mahayana Sutras by Maitreya Buddha. For further details see The Heart of the Path by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, pp. 32-33. [Return to text]

⁹ Eternalism and nihilism. [Return to text]