A STAR IN THE DAYTIME
[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings]
A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame,
An illusion, a dew drop, a water bubble,
A dream, lightning, a cloud:
See all causative phenomena like this.1
I guess everybody has the text with the rest of the meditation in English. So, I’ll chant it in Tibetan, but you can meditate. The purpose of chanting is to be able to meditate rather than just saying blah blah blah. That is the purpose of meditating.
The first analogy is a star in the daytime. The star is there but the sun is so bright that it obscures the star. That is like ultimate reality, emptiness. Anything that exists comes from emptiness. Why it exists is because it is empty, because it is empty from its own side. It’s not empty in the way that our purse has run out of money—there is no money in our purse so it’s empty of money. It’s not like that. I’m talking about the emptiness of the hallucination, of what appears—the real money that exists from there—and what we totally entrust to be true.
The first mistake is that real money seems to appear from there, [from its own side] and then on top of that, the second big mistake, we totally entrust in that hallucination. In reality, it is not there. There is money. There is money in our purse, but not that money, not the money that appears as totally true to us and that we totally entrust, not that. If we looked for that money, we could not find it.
There is money, yes. The money that is in the purse is money that is merely labeled. Merely labeled money exists. Merely labeled money comes into existence, it abides and then it ceases. Coming into existence happens in mere name, it exists in mere name and it ceases in mere name.
There is no real I that appears from there and that we totally entrust in. That is similar to the hallucination that we have a billion dollars appearing in our hand—maybe not a billion; let’s say one hundred or one thousand dollars appearing in our hand now and we totally entrust in that; we totally believe in that.
For example, when we cross the sand in a desert and we look back, we see a mirage, the vision of water, but we know there is no water because we have just come from there. But the sunlight hits the sand in a certain way and when we look back it looks like there is water. It is a mirage. We know there is no water because we have just come from there, but we have the vision of water. If we didn’t know it was a mirage, we would have the vision of water and we would totally entrust that that is water. That is exactly the same as how we believe in the [real] I. That is exactly the same, and exactly the same as the money in the purse that we totally believe hundred percent. It is all exactly the same.
Say, in a dream we get married to the person we want and we have a hundred children. We believe that, but when we wake up we realize it’s not true. While dreaming, we don’t see the dream as a dream. (Although some practitioners do realize that.) When we are dreaming we don’t have that capacity to recognize the dream as a dream, so in the dream we totally believe we get married and have a hundred children or whatever. We totally believe everything that happens. That is exactly the same with the money in our purse or the way the I appears. We totally believe in exactly the same way. Only when we wake up, then we realize it is not true.
In a dream, after Trump, we become the American president. We get elected and become American president after Trump—or while Trump is president!—and we totally believe it is true. If we don’t recognize the dream as a dream, we totally believe it. We only know when we wake up that it’s not true. During the dream, we don’t know the dream is dream! This is a hallucination but it appears real, and we totally a hundred percent believe it’s true. We only know it’s not true when we wake up, but in the dream we don’t know. That is exactly the same! In our daily life, it is exactly the same.
We are not sleeping now. We can say we are not sleeping, but it is the same as sleeping. We are not sleeping but in some ways it’s like sleeping. I put in the word “like.” Of course, in meditation it’s good to think “this is a dream” even without adding “like,” to be effective for our mind, to recognize the hallucination, but usually we put “like” because it’s not a dream
As an example of “like a dream,” whatever we are doing at Kopan Monastery, everything appears as real, as real appearing from there. All these real thangkas, the real sky, the real trees, the real clothes, the real carpets, everything appears to us as real from there. You look at me—the real crazy Lama Zopa—and I look at you and see the real you from there. That is the same as the real money in the purse, the same as how I talked about dreams. The happiness and problems of daily life, relationship problems or happiness, whatever there is in daily life—samsara and nirvana, enlightenment and hell, the whole thing, is like that.
All these are decorations by our mind. True existence is decorated by our mind, projected by our mind, by our ignorance, by all the negative imprints left on the mental continuum from beginningless rebirths, which then project that true existence. From that, all these hallucinations are decorated.
I gave the mirage as another example. There is a mirage but, when we don’t recognize it as such, we believe it is real water. That part, the part we believe—the real water—is not there. From beginningless rebirths we have been believing that the hallucination is real. Because of that, we still have not been able to free ourselves from the suffering of samsara.
The Buddha has revealed the teachings and numberless sentient beings have become liberated. I mean this happened in Shakyamuni Buddha’s time, but even before that, there were numberless buddhas revealing the teachings and numberless sentient beings becoming free, becoming liberated from suffering, who realized emptiness, the ultimate nature, who recognized what is the hallucination, who recognized the dream as a dream. While you are dreaming, you recognize that it is a dream. That is like those who realized emptiness, recognizing that this hallucination is a hallucination. From that, they saw emptiness, ultimate nature.
So, even before Shakyamuni Buddha, numberless beings have become free from samsara; they have become enlightened. But because we—beings like me—have not had a chance or we have not had the luck, it has not happened so far that we can recognize the hallucination as a hallucination. We still cannot see emptiness, ultimate nature. Therefore, we are still not free from suffering: the suffering of rebirth, the suffering of old age, of sickness, of death, the suffering of dissatisfaction. We are still not free from that.
BECOMING FREE FROM PERVASIVE COMPOUNDING SUFFERING
Not only can we not become free from the suffering of pain, we have to know that the suffering of change, all the temporary samsaric pleasures, [is also suffering]. All the temporary samsaric pleasures: the pleasure of music, the pleasure of food, the pleasure of clothing, the pleasure of having a home. The pleasures that depend on others in so many ways, the pleasures people try to have in the world, such as the pleasure of sex, these are all the suffering of change. Unlike Dharma happiness, which can continue and become complete, samsaric pleasure can never satisfy.
For example, when we become liberated from samsara and achieve nirvana, at that time we achieve the complete Dharma happiness. And especially when we achieve full enlightenment, the total cessation of all obscurations and the completion of all the realizations, sang gye. Dharma happiness can be completed but samsaric pleasures cannot.
We have been trying to achieve samsaric pleasures from beginningless rebirths, again and again, again and again. There is no beginning and no end. We try and try but samsaric pleasures cannot continue, they cannot be complete. There is no way we can complete them. We have tried numberless times from beginningless rebirths up to now, but we have completed nothing. Why? Because the nature of samsaric pleasure is suffering. That’s why we cannot continue them, develop them or complete them.
[Samsaric pleasures] are the suffering of change, but afterwards they become the suffering of pain. Like, drinking alcohol. At the beginning we might find pleasure, but when we drink more it becomes the suffering of pain. And food. We get hungry and then we eat, but the more we eat, the more the suffering and discomfort increases. The pleasure stops and the suffering of pain [begins]. These two sufferings, the suffering of pain and the suffering of change, come from the third suffering, pervasive compounding suffering, which in Tibetan is khyab pa du je kyi dug ngäl. These aggregates are under the control of karma and delusions, so they are pervaded by suffering. Because of that, the five aggregates we now have, our mind and body, are under the control of karma and delusions. They are pervaded by suffering; they are in the nature of suffering. And not only that, they are compounding suffering because they are the contaminated seeds of delusion. From the seeds, delusions arise again, and then there is more suffering.
Once we become free from the third suffering, pervasive compounding suffering, we are free from the suffering of pain and the suffering of change forever. That is nirvana and nirvana is forever! Not just a few weeks or a few lifetimes. It’s not like going on vacation to Goa or Tahiti for a few weeks’ holiday, not like that! It’s forever. We are free from suffering forever. This is the whole thing. The whole thing depends on attaining a direct perception of emptiness. That is the only way to directly cease karma and delusions, the grosser disturbing-thought obscurations. Then, with the great support of bodhicitta, we attain unbelievable merits and then the subtle obscurations [to knowledge] cease and we achieve full enlightenment, the state of omniscience.
We do this not only for our own purpose but also for all sentient beings, so that after achieving the state of omniscience we are totally qualified to embrace every sentient being with great compassion: every single hell being, and there are numberless hell beings, and the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless sura beings, the numberless asura beings and the numberless intermediate state beings. I’m not only talking about the six realms of this world. There are numberless universes. I’m talking about the six-realm sentient beings in all the numberless universes. I’m not just talking about this world. So, that great compassion embraces every sentient being. Then, we have perfect power to be able to read every single sentient being’s mind directly at the same time without mixing.
For example, even just among the animals, there are numberless ants. Can you imagine the thousands and thousands of ants in even one nest? I don’t know how many people there are in a city, but even if there are millions of people in the city, in a few ants’ nests there are more ants than people in the city. So, like that, with omniscience, without mixing and at the same time, we will be able to directly read the minds of the numberless ants in the numberless universes, the minds of the numberless mosquitoes in the numberless universes, the minds of the numberless tiny flies in the numberless universes. We will be able to see their minds at the same time. And the same with the numberless human beings, suras and asuras—all the different levels of intelligence, the different karmas, all the different things, we will be able to see them so clearly, so directly.
Then, there are also all the different methods of how to guide each sentient being from happiness to happiness, to liberation from samsara, nirvana, ultimate happiness, and then to enlightenment. There are an unbelievable number of methods to guide even one sentient beings from the lower realms up to enlightenment. With omniscience, we know everything directly, all the methods to guide them, to bring them to the ultimate happiness, to enlightenment. When we have perfect power, we can guide them perfectly.
I have a guru, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche—the incarnation is teaching Dharma now—who was extremely well educated. In his past life, he was like the ancient Nalanda pandits, like Chandrakirti. He said that people who do not accept past and future lives because they do not have the capacity to see them is like saying the back of your head does not exist because you cannot see it. It’s a little bit strange. The doctor checks and says we have cancer. And because in the West people believe everything the doctor says—we believe the doctor is a buddha—so, of course, if the doctor says we have cancer, we believe it, but we don’t know it; we cannot see it. [Using this logic,] if we cannot see it, the cancer does not exist. That is not good logic.
If we were a buddha, we could say, “If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” Arhats who are free from samsara, of course, can see things too subtle for us to see. They still have the four causes of unknowing, still not able to see the subtle things that higher bodhisattvas, those on the eighth or ninth bhumi, can see. Even before they become a buddha, they can manifest in millions and billions—zillions—of aspects to work for sentient beings. For us, those bodhisattvas are like buddhas. Even if they have not attained enlightenment, it’s like they are buddhas. It’s amazing what they can do. I think maybe even arhats or before they become arhats, can see and count how many atoms there are in a big mountain. They can tell us. The higher bodhisattvas are like buddhas for us.
A STAR IN DAYTIME (BACK TO)
I should go back. To finish the prayers, we are going to recite Heart Sutra, which shows the ultimate nature, emptiness. That is what exists, but for our mind it is like it does not exist. What does not exist is the way that things appear to us, the real I, the thing we totally entrust in. Like in the dream, we don’t recognize the dream as a dream but we totally believe what appears. That is exactly the same. What does not exist appears as if it does exist. It appears as real, and we totally entrust it, we believe it. But we don’t see what exists. We don’t see the ultimate nature, emptiness. It exists but we don’t see it. It’s like that for our mind and it is totally wrong. The way the things appear and the way we apprehend them are totally opposed.
The first part of the verse, kar ma rab rib, explains emptiness, so meditate on that. It’s not that it does not exist in mere name. The hallucination does not exist at all. The way it appears as something real, the thing we hold onto, what we totally entrust as real, as true—that is not there. I gave many examples, so that is easy.
I’m going to lead the chanting, so please meditate.
[Rinpoche slowly recites]
Kar ma rab rib mar me dang
Gyu ma zil pa chhu bur dang
Mi lam log dang trin ta bur
Dü jä chhö nam di tar ta[A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame,
An illusion, a dew drop, a water bubble,
A dream, lightning, a cloud:
See all causative phenomena like this.]
[The umdze recites the dedication verse]
Can somebody start the Heart Sutra in English, by chanting, not just reading.
[Students chant the Heart Sutra, the prayer for dispelling obstacles, the mandala offering and refuge]
TALKING ABOUT KOPAN
At the beginning I didn’t get to say hello to you and to thank to you. Sincerely from my heart, I want to give numberless thanks. Even just for yourself, not only have you been suffering from this morning, not only from the time of birth and the life before. This life is suffering because in our previous life we did not free ourselves from samsara. Then, it goes back to beginningless rebirths of samsara. Even concerning ourselves, so far we have not become free from samsara. Can you imagine? Can you imagine all the sufferings that I mentioned before? Just concerning us, not thinking about helping others, liberating numberless other sentient beings from the suffering of samsara and bringing them to buddhahood, without thinking to bring them there, just wanting it for ourselves it is unimaginable. For example, although there may be some here who can remember past and future lives, most of us don’t remember, and me too, I don’t remember. Just like me, you don’t remember.
As I mentioned before, “That didn’t happen because I didn’t see it.…” Sometimes I even forget what food I ate yesterday. I forget what I talked to other people about. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! I have forgotten so many things, not just from childhood but even from yesterday and today. Some people can’t remember things because they have Alzheimer’s. They don’t remember they have done something. Somebody else tells them they have done it but they deny it because they can’t see it. So, we cannot put our trust in only believing what is evident—if we don’t see it, it does not exist; only if we see it, then we can trust that. Because I’ve even forgotten what I had breakfast yesterday or a conversation I’ve had with somebody, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do it, that I didn’t eat breakfast.
Now you have come to Kopan to help yourself. This is without talking about helping other sentient beings, just yourself. Compared to the West, this is a very poor country, a third world country. Compared to many years ago, it’s become quite developed but compared to the West it’s a very poor country. But despite that, you have come here to Kopan, to do the Kopan meditation course.
In Boston there was a man who ran Wisdom Publications. He ran it for twenty years, right? [Ven. Roger: Nearly thirty years.] Nearly thirty years. His name is Tim [McNeill]. Of course, it started from Dr. Nick, an Australian doctor who was asked by the great lama, Lama Yeshe, to start to print the books and make them available in the world to free the sentient beings from the suffering of samsara and bring them to enlightenment. Nick started a long time ago, working for the [Lama Yeshe Wisdom] Archive, publishing Lama Yeshe’s teachings and my gossiping, my chattering. Tim ran Wisdom Publications for nearly thirty years. He was one of the directors for the longest time. Now Nick is running the Archive. What am I talking about? I forgot. [Ven. Sarah: About Boston.]
Oh, Boston, yeah. Tim was driving a car. The city of Boston is so developed. How many million people are there in Boston? Although it is so developed, he alone came all the way from Boston to Kopan Monastery to do the course, only him. Only he came all the way here. Can you imagine? That is due to his karma, cause and effect. Because in a past life he created the karma to hear the Buddhadharma, to come here to do the course, to meditate and learn the Dharma. He had karma from a past time, so that is why. There are millions of people there; it is such a developed country, but only he came all the way to Nepal! I was so surprised to see the city. He has come to Nepal quite a few times. When you think about it, it’s very interesting.
Each person who comes to the Kopan course, for example, Dr. Nick and his wife, wife or girlfriend, I don’t know, Yeshe Khadro. Now she is a nun. Those two and Tim [Tom] and Kathy, four people, bought land in Queensland, Australia, which became the [first] center, Chenrezig Institute. That started a long time ago. There is a geshe teaching there and some monks but mostly there are nuns. They invested money and bought land there.
Nick and Yeshe Khadro planned to travel the world, to see the world. That was their plan. What happened, they stopped and were lying on a beach in Thailand when a man came along and told them about the Kopan course. He was not somebody they knew. Of course, he could have been a buddha or a bodhisattva. You never know who people are. He was just an ordinary person, walking around the beach, who told them that at Kopan there was a meditation course. They had no plans to come to Nepal. They were going to another place, but they changed their plan because the man said there is a course at Kopan. That is due to past life karma. That made them come here.
So they came here—I’m using them as an example. They came for the third course, which was in the old gompa. That was the first time we did a course in the old gompa. We did the previous two courses in the old British-style house. It was not built by the king who died but the one before. He had built it for his guru, an astrologer. The first two courses we did in the British-style house. The third course was done in the old gompa. Nick and Yeshe Khadro came. I did the course and Nick had already started his busy life. He was a doctor so he gave injections to Lama Yeshe. Then he started to work on books, even at that time. He kept busy working on the books, going to town. I had been translating with him, doing a course book I had been using in courses in earlier times. What is the title? [Ven. Ailsa: The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun.] The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun is the title.
I translated quite a bit with him. Since that time up to now, his life has always been busy with books. That is the way he has dedicated his life to the organization, to the FPMT, to make it most beneficial for sentient beings and particularly to this world, to the human beings in the world, because animals don’t read books, ants don’t read books!
[Tea offering]
Please keep drinking.
It’s very interesting how each person found out about the course, how they came here. It’s very interesting what people say. Of course it’s karma, but it’s very interesting how the karma to come here ripened. Due to past karma, having heard about Buddhism and meditation however many lifetimes ago. The karma could have been from millions, billions or zillions of eons before, but it has now ripened. Some conditions happened and they came to know about the Kopan course and came here. The story of how each individual happened to come here is very interesting.
What I want to say is this. Without speaking about taking the responsibility to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of realizations, to buddhahood. Without talking about that, just to come here to help yourself, to liberate yourself from samsara, whose continuation has no beginning—that is amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. What is happening to you at this time, that is really, really amazing. You are unbelievably fortunate.
You have the karma to have met the Dharma, which explains what is right and what is wrong. All suffering comes from that—not knowing what is right and what is wrong: all the global problems, all the problems of each country, society’s problems, the family’s problems, the individual’s problems, including those of the tiniest insects. It comes from believing what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. Besides the enlightened beings and the bodhisattvas, those who know the Dharma, for the rest of the world, it is totally opposite. It’s like they regard poison as medicine. They look at life and see what is right as wrong and what is wrong as right. And that brings all the suffering for the world, all suffering for you.
THE I AND THE AGGREGATES
The very basic thing is not understanding what the I is. We think about the I day and night—so many times even in just one day we say, “I this,” “I that,” “May I be happy.” But what is the I? We have no idea. Where is the I? We have no idea. Is our I in the head? Is our I in the… [Rinpoche points somewhere else]. It’s very interesting, where the I is. We just do not know, but we dedicate our whole life to the I, day and night, from kindergarten, primary school, college, getting married, having children, having to suffer in the world, becoming a millionaire or a billionaire—all for this I. We go here and there for this I. We go shopping for this I; we go to the beach for the I; we do everything for this I. But where is the I? What is the I? It’s really very funny.
Our whole life is totally dedicated to the I. We make children, not for the happiness of the children. We get married and have children so we can be happy. In the whole world, there are only a few people, only those who are bodhisattvas, those who have a good heart, who do it for the happiness of sentient beings, to give them a human body. But for us, having children is for our own happiness, to make us happy, for this I! For this I, we study at university and get a degree and then find a job, all so we can give happiness to this I. We become a millionaire for this I, whatever it is. But we don’t know what the I is or where the I is. We have no idea!
The root of the problems starts from that: global problems, a country’s problems, a family’s problems, an individual’s problems—everything comes from that, from working for the real I. We serve it all the time, working for it day and night, doing everything, spending all our money on it. Everything is for this real I. But when we look for where the real I is, [we cannot find it].
Is this real I the aggregates? We have five—the aggregates of form, feeling, cognition, compounding aggregates, consciousness—so if that is the real I, there would have to be five Is. There are five aggregates, so there must be five Is. Not only that, but the physical body consists of millions of atoms—I don’t know how many—so if the real I were the physical body, there would have to be millions and millions of Is. When we buy an air ticket, at present we buy a ticket for one person, but then we would have to buy millions of air tickets for the millions of Is. If we then think that the real I is only one, that would mean all the aggregates would have to be only one. That danger happens.
The mind has no color, no shape, no form; the mind is formless. So, if the real I were the mind, the real I would have no form, no shape, no color. Then we would have to say, “I have no color. I don’t have a body.” If we did not have a body, we would not have hunger or thirst. We would have no need for sleep, and we would not have to eat because we have no body. If the real I were the mind, because the mind has no body, the I would have no body, no shape, no color. Therefore, the I would not need food, the I would not need education to get a job to get money to get food.
Similarly, problems come if we think the real I exists separately from the aggregates. We usually call whatever the body and mind experiences as “I.” We say “I fell down” when the body falls down. When the body is lying down, we say “I’m lying down.” When the body is walking, we say “I’m walking.” Whatever action the body is doing is given to the I. If the mind is happy, the I is happy. If the real I were separate from the body, that would not happen, the I would not have hunger and thirst. The real I would not have death because it is independent from the aggregates; it would exist separately from the aggregates. When the body happens and ceases, whatever happens to the body and mind, the I exists separately, with no connection to the body and mind, so we cannot apply anything. We can’t say, “I’m happy,” because that does not depend on the aggregates; it does not depend on the mind.
If the I existed independently, the I would not have karma. Even if there was karma, it would not have a cause; it would not have karma created before, because there would be no cause. So like that, karma doesn’t exist. When we cease the cause of suffering, we cease suffering; when we create virtue, that is the cause of happiness. If the I existed separate from the aggregates, that would not happen. Ceasing the cause of suffering would not result in happiness. All these mistakes arise.
Also, if the real I and the aggregates were one, because the aggregates are the possession and the I is possessor, possession and possessor would become one. It’s like we are the owner of a house, so the house is the possession and we are separate, the owner. But here the owner becomes one with the possessed. Possession and possessor, those two are different. They have to be different phenomena. But here, the possessions, the aggregates, and the possessor, the I, would become one. So, “my body,” “my mind,” “my aggregates,” what are clearly possession and possessor, would become one. There is that danger in thinking like that. It is not possible.
Also, if the aggregates were the real I, then we would have to label “I” on the I, then on that I we would have to label a second “I,” and on that second I we would have to label another “I,” and so it becomes endless labeling of I on the I. That mistake also arises.
The real I is neither oneness with the aggregates nor does it exist separately from the aggregates. So, this real I is nowhere.
From the top of the crown, from the tip of the hairs down to the toes we cannot find it anywhere. We cannot find it anywhere outside or anywhere inside the body. Thinking it’s not in the head, not in the toes, not in the feet, not in the legs, we don’t normally think like that. It’s not in the stomach. We don’t think the I is in the stomach. Somewhere below the neck but above the stomach, that is where we might normally believe it to be, but if we check the details, it’s nowhere in the central channel and nowhere outside the central channel, it’s nowhere in the chest, nowhere.
Where does anger or compassion arise from? We don’t get angry from the head; we don’t get compassion from the head. No way. Not at all! Our experience is that anger, compassion, patience and things like that don’t come from the head at all. That is our experience. Anger, patience, compassion and all that seem to comes from here. [Rinpoche points to his heart] Even if we were to check there for the I, we still would not find it there. We cannot find the real I there. It’s nowhere at all. It’s nowhere in our home in the West; we cannot find the I there. We cannot find the real I anywhere in the world, if we check.
If we don’t check, the I is there. We believe the real I is there. And we do everything for this real I, everything, every movement we make! We do everything for this real I but it’s not there. We can’t find it. If we check, if we meditate, if we analyze, we can’t find it. It’s nowhere in the world.
But what exists is the merely labeled I. What exists is the merely labeled I. But even that, where is it? Where is it? We have to think, discuss and meditate on that. Where is the merely labeled I? That is what exists but where is it? That is good. So far, we have not thought about that, we have not analyzed that, but it’s very important we analyze.
WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE IN KOPAN IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
You have spent so much money to come all this way here to Nepal, to Kopan, so you have to meditate. The whole conclusion is that by meeting the Buddhadharma, by listening, reflecting and meditating, you have come to know more and more about what is right and what is wrong. First, you understand, listen, reflect and then meditate, and then you experience the path in your mind, in your heart. Then, the more you understand what is right and what is wrong, the more freedom you get in your life. Without mistakes, knowing what right is right and wrong is wrong in life is very scientific. It’s not blind faith. All the reasons showing what is right and what is wrong are very scientific.
Please listen. We have a monk called Thubten Sherab. He was one of the intelligent students when he was here many years ago. We asked him to go to France, to Nalanda Monastery. They do the sojong, the monks’ practice of reviving and purifying degenerate vows, to keep the vows pure, as well as yarne, abiding in the summer retreat, and then releasing from that. So, it’s a real monastery, it alone is a real monastery. A long time ago, it was used by a Christian group, but anyway, it’s a complete monastery.
What was I saying? I forgot. [Ven. Sarah: Thubten Sherab.] That’s right, Thubten Sherab. He studied well. He had to translate Lama Tsongkhapa’s very important teachings, Drang Nge Legshe Nyingpo, The Essence of the Explanation of the Interpretative and Definitive Meaning. He translated many courses for Geshe Jampa Tegchok, a great teacher who is well known in Sera, Ganden and Drepung Monasteries. Then, I think after eleven or twelve years, he disrobed and left for Spain. When I met him, he told me that his friends who were working with him had so many problems but he didn’t have problems because he knew the Dharma. He said that he didn’t practice, but he knew the Dharma, and even intellectually knowing it helps so much in life. Even without practicing, he knew what is right and wrong. He is very sincere. He doesn’t make up things, so he says whatever he feels.
Even if we don’t practice, just learning gives great wisdom, the wisdom that is able to check what is right and what is wrong. Do you understand? Then we can help ourselves and help others; our mind does not follow the hallucination. So, of course, if we really practice, then we are helping ourselves—really helping—and we are able to develop the essence, wisdom and compassion, so much. It’s so important to understand. It’s all scientific, mental science, inner science.
His Holiness has been working with scientists for so many years. What do you call it? [Ven. Sarah: Mind and Life.] What the Buddha explains about the mind and what Western science explains. The scientists also find it very interesting to learn about the Buddhist view. They help each other. For many years this has been happening and the scientists are understanding at a deeper and deeper level; they’ve kind of come to understand what Buddhism is. One scientist told His Holiness that Buddhism is not a religion, it’s science. Among the religions in the world, Buddhism, the Buddha’s teachings, is the only one that goes with science. They find this very interesting.
What time is it? [Ven. Roger: Fifteen minutes.] Fifteen minutes, OK.
What I want to tell you is what you are doing now, what you have been discovering through your experience since you came here, this is the most important thing. It is the most important thing. Of course, it’s the best thing to help numberless sentient beings, to be of benefit to them. It’s the real help. But first of all, just for yourself it is the most important thing. In the world, there is no more important education than what you are learning here.
What you are learning here not only helps you to stop suffering, it helps you stop creating the cause of suffering. Right away, you are able to see what is right and wrong and you are able to stop. The benefits you are learning here, you are experiencing here, bring happiness not only to this life, not only at death, but liberation from samsara and ultimate happiness, every happiness up to enlightenment.
Then, you will be able stop continuing to experience suffering without choice; you will be able to stop the oceans of suffering of samsara, being under the control of karma and delusions. First of all, you will no longer be reborn in the lower realms—the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm and the animal realm—which has been our residence for numberless eons in the past. And your experience here, the understanding you are gaining, frees you from lower nirvana, that blissful state of peace that you get caught in for eons and eons, making you unable to help sentient beings.
Even when the Buddha revealed four words and sent light [to cause you to arise from lower nirvana], it would still so difficult because your mind had become habituated in that blissful state of peace for eons and eons. It would be so difficult to feel bodhicitta; it would take a long time. It’s like when you take a sleeping pill and the mind becomes so slow; you are hardly able to think. It’s like when you put a lot of water in milk, like Indian milk! I was talking [about that example] in the past. The mind becomes so slow. What was I saying? I forgot again.
It is so important. You are unbelievably fortunate to have been able to come here at this time to do the meditation. The more you learn the Dharma, the more you will discover how fortunate you are. As I mentioned before, how many millions of people there are in Boston, but only this person came here. Like that example, not everybody has the karma.
So anyway, please enjoy. It’s so worthwhile to enjoy what you are learning here, what you are meditating on. This is incredible; it’s the most worthwhile thing to learn, to experience, to enjoy. This is real enjoyment. At other times, it’s just hallucination, hallucination with attachment. Now, this is real enjoyment, real happiness, inner happiness.
John [Ven. Yarphel] is not a scholar, not somebody who says, “I know this.” He worked as director of Vajrapani for how many years? [Ven. Yarphel: Twenty years.] Twenty years as director of Vajrapani. They were the ones living in the forest in teepees. You put the three branches together and [cover] them with a tent. How many people were living inside? [Ven. Yarphel: Five.] I couldn’t see how five people could live there.
We invited Kyabje Zong Rinpoche to do a puja and bless the land. At that time a snake came out. [Ven. Yarphel: Yes, many snakes.] Anyway, John divorced from his first wife, the one he made children with, and then the second wife didn’t last long. So, I told him to become a monk. Since then, he has been doing retreat in Washington, where we have a retreat house down below my house. He has been doing retreat and sometimes he teaches at the small center there, Pamtingpa. Like I said, he’s not a great scholar, “I know this, I know that,” not like that. But I think in correctly following the virtuous friend, he did better than me. His teachings can benefit you, you understand?
Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche was a great Gelug lama. Once, he said in Dharamsala that he never displeased His Holiness Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru, even for one second. And because of that, the teachings he was going to give would benefit us a little bit. That is what he said. I think [John] did much better at correctly following the virtuous friend than me, so his teachings can benefit you. Benefiting does not mean so many people come; it’s not necessarily by number but it means even one person deeply benefits, gaining a deep understanding, a realization. Benefit does not mean so many people come. Many people can come and listen to a talk about the wrong path, the hallucination, not what the Buddha taught, but that does not mean that many people benefit.
When His Holiness was in England, I don’t know which function, it was huge. A number of people gathered. It was raining and the ground was very muddy. His Holiness had mud on his shoes. He only said a few words in the meeting, adding to what the scientists said. He said, “Fear and anger eat your immune system.” That means when disease comes there is no protection for you. That is what Western scientists say. Even for that reason, you need to meditate, you need to learn what is right and wrong!
So, what you are doing is so important. It is the most important thing in the world. The most important thing in the world. First, it’s to help you. Then, it’s to help not only the human beings in this world but numberless universes’ human beings, the six-realms’ sentient beings. It’s the best.
Also, from your own experience, you know there are two types of happiness: physical happiness and mental happiness. No matter how many physical problems you have, if your mind is in a state of happiness, you can control the physical problems. That is a great thing to know in your life.
You can control physical problems; they can go away. You can have so much physically—wealth, swimming pools, so many Rolls Royces, so many TVs—you can have everything possible, but the mind can still be so dissatisfied, so unhappy. Physical comfort cannot solve mental problems, but if the mind is happy, it can solve the physical problems; it can pacify them.
You have come here to learn meditation. There are all kinds of meditation in the world. People teach all kinds of meditation, but the meditation you need to learn is this meditation, the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. You need to hear it, reflect on it, meditate on it. There are all kinds of practices called “meditation” in the world. Even in Buddhism there are all kinds. It’s very hard to meet the correct Buddhism. If you think about it, you have to have so much merit to really meet the right teachings. That is what I want to say. So, please enjoy. As I said, this is the thing to most enjoy, this is inner happiness, not attachment, outer excitement, but inner happiness, peace. This is a great thing in your life.
So, thank you very much. I’ll stop here.
HELPING OTHERS IS HELPING OURSELVES
Rinpoche: One question? One and a half?
Student: How do you find a balance between caring for yourself and caring for everyone else?
Rinpoche: Generally, when we work for others, whether it is animal, insect, or human being, when we help others, by the way it is a support for us, even if we are not thinking of it as a support. We are helping others, but in helping others, we are supporting, benefiting ourselves. But when we benefit ourselves without thinking of others, it’s very difficult, very complicated. Shantideva, the great bodhisattva from Nalanda, said in his teachings,
[8:131] If I do not actually exchange my happiness
For the suffering of others,
I shall not attain the state of buddhahood
And even in cyclic existence shall have no joy.2
Cherishing the I brings so many problems, making it hard to succeed in our own wishes and in the wishes we have for our family and other people. Obstacles always come from that, even for the works of this life. That is the advice.
There are numberless sentient beings. But even if there were only ten people, or even two people, we are one and therefore by number those two people are more important than us. That is why in an election the person who gets the most votes wins. It’s determined by the greatest number, and the more people, the more important. Here, I’m saying even if it’s one person, one other being, whether it’s an insect or a person, just us and one other, who is more important?
Cherishing the I is opening the door for all suffering. From beginningless rebirths up to now, we have been suffering because of cherishing the I. When we cherish others, even one, we achieve enlightenment. With cherishing the I, there is no enlightenment. It is the main obstacle to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings. So now, by letting go of the I and cherishing others, even cherishing one, we can achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. We have to practice compassion for one; we have to practice patience for one; we have to cherish one. Then, the result is that we open the door for all the happiness up to enlightenment. You have to know that.
I’ll just give you one example. Sorry, it’s a little bit late, but this is so important in your life. If we cherish one sentient being, it opens the door for all the happiness up to buddhahood. Whether it is a person, whether it is an insect, it doesn’t matter. Sorry, it’s a little bit late.
There is the story of Ngagpa Chöpawa, a great yogi who often flies with five hundred dakinis, females with attainments. He flies in the sky with damaru and bell. He was going to a place near Oddi to do the very last practice of tantra—not Hindu tantra but Buddhist tantra. Oddi is near Buxa, where I lived for eight years when I escaped from Tibet through Bhutan. I didn’t go there [to Oddi] but one of my teachers who led me to become a monk in Dromo Geshe’s monastery in Tibet and then took me through Bhutan to Buxa, he went there. Some monks who go there hear music, like pujas, chanting in the cave at Oddi.
Beside a huge river, there was a lady who was totally covered in pus with blood coming out, suffering from leprosy, very filthy and dirty. She was waiting on the river bank and she asked Ngagpa Chöpawa, “Can you take me to the other side of the river?” The yogi didn’t bother; he went straight to the other side. Later, his disciple, a monk with thirty-six vows, came. When the lady asked him to take her to the other side of the river, he had no thought of getting the disease, but instead had unbelievable compassion. Immediately he grabbed her and put her on his back.
When they reached the middle of the river, she appeared in the form of a deity, the enlightened being Dorje Phagmo. She was not an ordinary being, she was an enlightened being, but because of his karma, his mind was obscured, so when he met her, he saw her appearance as very filthy, dirty, full of leprosy. Normally as a monk he couldn’t touch a woman, but he had great compassion and he totally sacrificed himself and carried her. He didn’t have to cross the whole river, just half; his negative karma and obscurations were purified by carrying her. With his karma purified, he could see this enlightened deity in her pure form. So, Dorje Phagmo took him in that body to the Vajrayogini pure land, Dagpa Kachö, without him needing to die. That is just [the result of helping] one being. In his ordinary view, he never thought she was a buddha.
Even if we dedicate our life for just one being, taking care of them, we are able to attain a pure land and achieve enlightenment. That is the most important teaching today. Even serving one insect, if we want happiness in our life, we do that. That is the best life. That is the best way to achieve happiness.
So, I’ll stop here.
DEDICATIONS
[Rinpoche and students offer mandala]
“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, may bodhicitta, the source of all happiness up to enlightenment for us and for every sentient being, be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all sentient beings.
“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by numberless sentient beings and numberless buddhas, that which exist in mere name but do not exist from their own side, that are totally empty from their own side, due to that, may the I who exists in mere name, who is totally empty from its own side, who does not exist from its own side, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, which does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist in mere name, who do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty from their own side, to that buddhahood, which exists in mere name, which does not exist from its own side, which is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists in mere name, who does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side.”
Thank you very much.
Notes
1 See FPMT Essential Prayer Book, p. 79, which can be found in the FPMT Catalogue. [Return to text]
2 See A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (LTWA). [Return to text]
