December 8, 2017
[Students recite Prayers Before Teachings]
Attachment Obscures Conventional and Ultimate Truth
The purpose of your life is not just living for this life. If that were so, there would be no difference between your way of thinking and that of insects, the fish you eat, the chickens you eat. There would be no difference from them in your way of thinking, being attached to this life. It would be exactly the same. Only the body is different but other than that there is no difference from the insects, from the maggots, from those ants keeping their lives so busy. Even if externally you look different, even if you have a million, a billion, a zillion dollars, and you own gold and skies of wish-granting jewels, if your attitude is only attachment to this life, only working for this life’s happiness, you are no different from the maggots, the ants and the mosquitoes.
You are supposed to be very special, you are supposed to have a very special way of thinking, especially if you have a human body. But just having a human body does not define you as having a special way of thinking, even if you can fly. As I mentioned yesterday, there are numberless beings that can fly, even insects and birds going for water. That is just an ordinary capable being; it’s the same as a tiger or the tiniest insects, such as the tiniest flies in the grass that jump and run away when you walk. Ordinary capable beings are capable of just obtaining food for this life, just the happiness and comfort of this life; there is no difference from the animals.
Besides the three special capable beings, the ordinary capable being is the one who is attached to this life, just working for this life, only thinking of the happiness of today, not the happiness of tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. You can see how the people in this world who only think about working for the happiness of today are so silly. Not working for tomorrow’s happiness, or next week’s, next month’s, next year’s, only today’s. That is so silly. If you don’t make preparations for the happiness of the next day, when today finishes and tomorrow comes you have a problem. Such a mind is like a child’s mind, so silly.
Similarly, only being concerned with the happiness of this life, only working for the happiness of this life, is so silly, so meaningless. The root of life’s problems is attachment to this life. That is nonvirtue, and the attachment itself obscures the mind. It doesn’t enlighten the mind, it obscures the mind. You have to know the difference between what attachment does and what wisdom does. Wisdom is the opposite of attachment. You have to know the difference. This is just my simple example. Attachment obscures the mind from realizing the ultimate nature of the I, the self, the person.
Not only that, it obscures even the understanding of the conventional nature of the I. It is the same with phenomena. This is a very important point. Attachment obscures your mind from seeing the ultimate nature of the flower, shunyata, the emptiness of the flower. Not only does it obscure you from seeing that, it also obscures you from seeing the conventional nature.
Looking at a flower, what is the truth for the all-obscuring mind? It is the nature of impermanence. It changes from morning to night. At night it is different, tomorrow it is very different. The color alters; the shape changes. [The perceptible changes] happen gradually, not all of a sudden, but the flower changes within hours, it changes within minutes, it changes within seconds, even within the shortest period of a second. Right now, you don’t notice it but in reality it is changing. It is changing within every minute, within every second, but you don’t notice it.
It appears as permanent and you believe it to be permanent. That is totally wrong, a total hallucination, even without talking about the ultimate nature. You understand? It is like that, changing within a second, second by second, minute by minute, day by day, all that happens.
While you are analyzing the conventional nature of a beautiful object, attachment doesn’t arise; when you don’t analyze it, attachment arises. You believe it is permanent and attachment arises. But when you check the nature of the object—not the ultimate nature, but the conventional nature—there is no object for attachment. It’s lost; it’s a hallucination. The object of the attachment, the hallucination, is not there, because you are checking the nature that is the opposite of the attachment, the beauty existing from its own side. There is the hallucination of existing from its own side, then on top of that there is the beauty and you get so attached. Then it is difficult for the mind to separate from the object, like oil stuck on paper.
While you are doing the analysis, the attachment doesn’t manifest, at least not as much as before, when you didn’t analyze. That is not the function of attachment. Therefore, attachment even obscures you from realizing the conventional nature, besides the ultimate nature.
The ultimate nature is that it does not exist from its own side. It exists but does not exist from its own side. It is totally empty of existing from its own side. It is not that there is no flower. It’s not that there is no flower even in name. There is a flower but it doesn’t exist from its own side; that is its ultimate nature. The flower that appears as something a little more than what is merely labeled by the mind, that is what is not there. That is the subtle object to be refuted.
There are the four schools, Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind Only or Cittamatra, and Madhyamaka, which has two sub-schools, Svatantrika and Prasangika. The Prasangika’s object to be refuted is very subtle. Only by recognizing that, then it just takes a minute to see emptiness only, tong pa nyi—not only tong pa, but tong pa nyi—the emptiness only of the flower, shunyata. It becomes easy to realize that.
Attachment not only obscures the mind, it becomes the basis for many problems, for many sufferings to arise. That is the definition of attachment. When the mind is unstained by attachment to this life, it is free. Unstained by attachment of this life means it is pure. That means you are free from all the problems, the hundreds of thousands or more that come from attachment. You are free from all the rest of the problems. You have to understand the evolution, how all of life’s problems are connected to that. Now you understand what practicing Dharma means, and how you can achieve inner peace and happiness.
The Four Clingings
Dharma doesn’t mean just reciting prayers or changing the body, it doesn’t mean just that; it means to subdue the mind. “Subdue the mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.” I mentioned before that even if you are able to recite by heart the more than one hundred volumes of the Kangyur, the Buddha’s teachings, and the more than two hundred volumes of the pandits’ and yogis’ commentaries, even if you are able to do that, your mind could still not be subdued. Fundamentally, not subdued means being attached to this life. That mind is not Dharma.
Even though you can explain so well by heart, if your mind is not free from attachment to this life, your mind is not Dharma. Then, your action of explaining the Dharma is not Dharma. You are explaining the Dharma, the path, but your action is not Dharma because it is done with the mind attached to this life.
Similarly even if you do a lifetime retreat in an isolated place, never sleeping, your mind is not clear, not pure, because the motivation is attachment to this life. Even if your whole lifetime is retreating in the Himalayan mountains, the mind is not Dharma. You might be totally silent, never seeing birds, dogs and cats, let alone humans, but it is still not Dharma.
The motivation could just be to get so much power and reputation in this world. That’s why you are on the mountain doing retreat. Your whole life is retreating on the Himalayan mountains, not even seeing yetis, the snowball men, (I’m joking) but it is not a retreat; it is not a Dharma practice. Do you understand?
Of the four Tibetan Mahayana traditions—Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug—the Sakya have Parting from the Four Clingings.13
If you cling to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner.
If you cling to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner. By examining your mind, you can tell whether you are practicing Dharma or not. It is not just external appearances, like reciting mantras and doing a lot of prayers, not just some external change, not that, as I mentioned before.
You have to examine your mind as to whether you are practicing Dharma or not, whether it becomes Dharma or not. Who is practicing Dharma? Whether it’s the person who doing business or working in a hospital or an old folks’ home, or whether it’s somebody who lives in the high Himalayan mountains in a cave—you cannot judge who is practicing Dharma and who is not practicing Dharma from the outside. You can only understand if you understand the motivation of the person. The person doing business, working in the city or for the government, living a family life, or someone seeing nobody, living in cave, only if you can read their minds can you see who is practicing Dharma and who is not practicing Dharma.
If you cling to the future lives’ samsaric perfections, your mind is not in renunciation.
You have not renounced the whole of samsara while your mind remains attached to samsaric pleasure, to samsaric perfections. You must free yourself from the attachment clinging to samsaric happiness.
If you cling to working for the self, that is not bodhicitta.
If you are clinging to working for the self, if you have the self-cherishing thought, it is not bodhicitta, cherishing others; it is not seeking to achieve enlightenment for others.
If you are clinging believing the I is truly existent, that is not the right view.
When you believe that the I exists from its own side, that it exists by nature, it is real, that is not the right view. A simple way to think about this is to see how when we normally say “I” we automatically think this is a real I. Here it says clinging to the real I is not right view. It is not emptiness, it is not right view.
That is from the Sakya tradition. Manjushri taught it to Sachen Dragpa Gyaltsen. Then there is a similar teaching in the Nyingma tradition where it says,
Change from clinging to this life.
Change the clinging to samsara.
Change from cherishing the I.
Change from holding the real I.
In Uttanamche, Kagyu-Nyingma, it is exactly the same. Lama Tsongkhapa’s way is the three principal aspects of the path, where instead of the two renunciations—of this life and of future lives—he just calls it renunciation. Then bodhicitta and right view make the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment.
Whether an Action Is Dharma or Not Depends on the Motivation
Whether it’s a person who begs for food every day of their life or a rich person doing business—working for the government, for the population—if their motivation is renunciation of this life by seeing that working for this life has no essence and attachment is the root of suffering, then the motivation of both the beggar and the businessperson is Dharma. Their actions don’t look like Dharma but they are holy Dharma.
Then, there is a person living in a cave, meditating, not sleeping, not seeing anybody, trying to not even meet a mouse in the cave (I’m joking), but the motivation is clinging to this life, to their reputation. “Everybody will praise me. I’ll have power. I’ll have a reputation.” Then their whole life doing retreat and reciting prayers is not Dharma. It is not holy Dharma; it is worldly dharma, nonvirtue. You have to understand that.
Because the motivation of the beggar and the businessperson is not clinging to this life, it is holy Dharma. Every action becomes a cause of the happiness of future lives, to have a good rebirth as a human being or even in a pure land of the buddhas. It doesn’t become a cause to be born in the lower realms; it becomes a cause to be reborn as a deva or human.
If the motivation is not even attachment to their future lives’ pleasure but renunciation of samsara, freedom from attachment to samsara, whatever they do—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing a job, listening to teachings, reflecting and meditating—everything becomes a cause of achieving nirvana, total liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings including the cause, delusion and karma. It becomes a cause of achieving the blissful state of peace for themselves forever. Any action of the beggar or the businessperson running the government becomes a cause to achieve liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness.
But a person who lives in the mountains doing retreat for their whole life, trying to bear hardships, if the motivation is attachment to the future samsaric life, to samsaric happiness, that becomes a cause of samsara. Whatever mantra they recite, whatever prayers or meditation they do, it all becomes a cause of samsara. You have to know these things.
If the motivation of the beggar and the businessperson running the government is bodhicitta—not cherishing the I but cherishing others instead, wishing to achieve enlightenment to free the numberless others from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to buddhahood—then everything becomes a cause of enlightenment, of buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations.
Now for the meditator living on the mountain alone, whose motivation for their whole life has been the self-cherishing thought, not bodhicitta, then nothing they do—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, meditating, saying prayers—nothing becomes a cause of enlightenment. It doesn’t become a cause of buddhahood. They might believe that is so because they have been practicing Dharma for so many years, their whole life, thirty, forty, even seventy years. Perhaps they think like that, but it is not so.
There are many people who do like that but don’t really know what Dharma practice is. If you are like that, then you do outside things and your whole life you are cheated. Because your whole life you didn’t know what Dharma is, you think these outside things are Dharma. You think, “I am practicing Dharma.” Then, you have so much pride to show other people, to advertise that you have been doing Dharma. I’m so sorry. What to do? There are many people like this, unfortunately.
You are in a retreat place and people think you are practicing Dharma, leading a renounced life, but you are not. You don’t know the definition of practicing Dharma, thinking only these outside things are Dharma. Your definition is that, not freeing your mind from these negative thoughts.
So, it is possible that for your whole life you don’t understand what it means to practice Dharma. Your life is cheated. It is totally cheated by your mind, by attachment, by not learning. Therefore, what it comes down to is that it’s so important to learn Dharma, to learn the unmistaken teachings, to receive them from a qualified guru. Otherwise, if you don’t do that, you can cheat your whole life by your wrong concept, by attachment. You believe you are practicing Dharma but you are not. You have to understand that so you don’t cheat yourself.
Holding on to the I as Truly Existing
There are all these people, beggars, businesspeople, mixing with people and helping others, or working for the population or the government, but the mind does not hold on to the I as real, as truly existent from its own side. That real I is not there. They are like the Buddha, who totally ceased the gross defilements, the negative imprints, and the subtle defilements left by the ignorance believing in a truly existent I, the subtle negative imprints that decorate, that project the dualistic view—the real I, real action, real object, real hell, real enlightenment, real samsara, real nirvana, real problems, real relationship problems, real happiness, and so forth. These subtle negative imprints that project, that decorate, are totally ceased. A buddha doesn’t have the dualistic view of truly existent appearance.
As long as you are a sentient being, there is delusion, there is the negative imprint that projects, decorates, the hallucination of a truly existent I, a real I. It can be there, but by either having realized emptiness, shunyata, or even indirectly perceiving emptiness, because you are still not enlightened, you might still have the appearance, the hallucination, of a real I and so forth. You might still see everything as real, but you don’t believe it. There is no belief.
It is like in a dream where you found a million or a billion dollars, or you had a wedding. Some men and women don’t like having weddings, so let’s say while you are dreaming, in your dream you have a wedding and you don’t like it, but you recognize it is a dream. Because you recognize it as a dream, even though you have the appearance, you don’t believe in it.
It’s like when you walk through the desert and look back at the sand. Where the sunlight hits it, it looks like there is water running. You have a vision of water, but you know there is no water because you just came from there. Like that, you have the vision but you don’t believe it. You don’t have the wrong belief that it is true even if you have the appearance of a real I.
I mentioned about a wedding but there are many examples like that. Say, you had a dream that you won the vote and became president of a country, like America, but you recognize this is a dream, as I gave those other examples. Therefore, even though you have the appearance, you don’t believe in that.
Sorry, what I’m saying is that for somebody who has a realization of emptiness, even if there is the appearance they don’t believe it. They know this is a hallucination. So, with that mind listening, reflecting, meditating, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working for the government or the population, doing business, begging food—all this becomes an antidote to samsara. You have to know that all this becomes not a cause of samsara; it becomes an antidote to samsara. All this becomes a remedy to cut the root of samsara, the ignorance holding a truly existent I, the root of samsara, the root of all the problems, such as cancer. You think, “Oh, I have cancer,” and there is so much suffering, but this is nothing. The oceans of hell beings’ suffering, of hungry ghosts’ suffering, of animals’ suffering, of human beings’ suffering, it is the root of that.
If you do all these actions with this mind understanding emptiness, seeing this is a hallucination, then it is an antidote to eliminate the root of samsara, that ignorance holding the I as real while it is not. The direct perception of emptiness is one of the best medicines. All these activities you do with that mind become an antidote to the root of samsara, to ignorance. This is one of the best medicines, the other one is bodhicitta.
Everything becomes a remedy to samsara, not a cause of samsara, a remedy to samsara and a remedy to cut the root of samsara’s ignorance. On the other hand, a person who lives on a mountain in a cave for their whole life, doing prayers or meditation, if their motivation is clinging to the I as a real I, then everything—their meditation, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping—becomes a cause of samsara. It becomes a cause of developing ignorance, the root of samsara.
Sorry, it was meant to be the motivation, but anyway I should mention one thing.
Geshe Ben Gungyal Breaks His Attachment to This Life
Geshe Ben Gungyal was a Kadampa geshe and a great meditator. When he began to practice Dharma, on the day his benefactor was coming to see him in his hermitage, he cleaned the room and made beautiful offerings. Then he sat down to analyze, checking his motivation, which is usually how the meditation on the graduated practice is done. Suddenly he found that cleaning the room and making beautiful offerings and water bowls was not holy Dharma, it was worldly dharma. Because his benefactor was coming, he did these things so nicely to impress him, which was attachment to this life. So, he suddenly got up and took a handful of ashes. Not hashish, ashes! I’m sure some people think he does hashish. This is old, so many years ago, when meditators took hashish, so maybe some want to hear that. But not that, ashes. He grabbed the ashes and sprinkled them over the nice, beautiful water offerings and made a mess.
At that time there was a great yogi in Tibet, in Tingri, which is not very far from here. You have to go through the border and maybe on the same day or the day after you arrive by car. So in Tingri there was a great yogi, Padampa Sangye, who went from India to Tibet during Milarepa’s time, Milarepa, who achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate times. He was a layperson, not ordained. As Padampa Sangye was going into Tibet through the mountains, Milarepa was coming down. Milarepa manifested as a flower. Maybe it was a yellow flower; I have some kind of yellow or orange flower visualized. He manifested as a yellow flower in the road to check whether Padampa Sangye would recognize him or not, but of course he recognized Milarepa.
So, at that time Padampa Sangye lived in Tingri. He put his arms like this [Rinpoche shows prostration mudra with hands], “Today in Tibet, Kadampa Geshe Ben Gungyal did the best offering.” It was “the best Dharma” or “the best offering.” He made the room beautiful with the motivation so that his benefactor would praise him—attachment to this life—and after he recognized this, he grabbed ashes and sprinkled them, making a mess. He put ashes on his attachment to this life. He sprinkled ashes on the eight worldly dharmas of this life; he made a mess. Padampa Sangye could see this with his clairvoyance, so he said, “Today Kadampa Geshe Ben Gungyal did the best offering, the purest offering.” Ben Gungyal’s action became pure Dharma whereas before it was worldly dharma. You have to know that. Write it down. It is very important to know that, then you will be able to tell yourself whether what you are doing is holy Dharma or worldly dharma.
[Tea offering and break to drink tea]
Rinpoche First Reads Opening the Door of Dharma
I just want to tell a story. I was born in Solu Khumbu, in the Himalayan mountains close to Mount Everest. The place is called Thangme. As I mentioned yesterday, I went to Rolwaling. The people are not so clever there as on this side in Solu Khumbu; they are more primitive. I lived there for seven years with my teacher, my uncle, who at that time had the aspect of a monk. That time in Tibet, we read texts all day long; in the morning we memorized and in the evening we recited, all day long reciting the Buddha’s teachings, such as the Diamond Cutter Sutra, which we did many times, then Do Düpa. Unbelievable, unbelievable, such precious teachings, because of the great kindness of my teacher. I didn’t do extensive studies but if I just have a little idea of the word emptiness, that all came from my teachers when I was small, reading Diamond Cutter Sutra, Do Düpa, Condensed [Good Qualities] Sutra, over and over, for months and months. Then, when I lived in Tibet for three years, I did puja in different people’s houses.
The temple where I stayed belonged to Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s main monastery. The elder monk who came from there ran the small temple in Pagri for three years. Pagri is very close to Bhutan, then Domo, then Sikkim. So in Pagri, where I lived for three years, I did puja every day with my teacher and other monks, except maybe two or three days at new year, I’m not sure. Otherwise, every day I had to go in the morning and memorize texts to offer examination in Domo Geshe’s monastery in front of all the monks. I had to recite from here to there while the umdze sat on a throne. I got the first examination done but not the second because I escaped to India.
The pujas were fixed because of different benefactors. Sometimes we recited Twenty-one Tara Praises all night. My teacher had a long stick with a needle on top. I didn’t get the needle, but there was a monk behind me from Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, I forget his name, but he got it twice when he fell asleep at night. I didn’t get it, unfortunately. Then, I escaped through Bhutan to Buxa, where I stayed for eight years. I was a small boy; I just thought about playing, but I had to memorize texts and debate. Then I came to Nepal and started Kopan.
At Lawudo, of the Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug, and Nyingma texts, there were mostly Nyingma texts and deities. There were many, but there was one text that all the four sects could use, a collection of Kadampa geshes’ the very first thought transformation teachings, called Opening the Door of Dharma.14 I was reading that. I was supposed to look after the workers outside building the monastery, but I spent most of my time in the cave. I only saw them when I went outside to do pipi. They were only talking, not working, but I didn’t have courage to tell them off.
While I was reading this text, I found out what holy Dharma is. Then I checked whether what I had been doing was holy Dharma or not. I checked back to the old times, at Pagri, then at Buxa for eight years, I checked back if anything had become holy Dharma, but nothing had become holy Dharma. I was so shocked, so surprised! By reading that text, I found out that nothing had become holy Dharma.
The offerings the people of Solu Khumbu brought were very simple. They brought big radishes in baskets. The smell was so strong. If you ate them you had very terrible smelly gas, then your body becomes sort of ordinary. Of course, they could be very tasty. The people filled up a container they ate from with potatoes and another with rice, and then some rupees. Those were the offerings. By reading this book, when I got these offerings, even though they were nothing, I get scared, my mind got scared. Of course, now I’m totally degenerated. Totally degenerated. The offerings were nothing, but even getting the offerings scared me. I think maybe I was scared of attachment arising for the offerings.
After that, I did another retreat, but I had to come down. Because reading that text cleaned away the garbage in my mind, the attachment and those things—of course I’m not talking forever, just that time—I did the retreat with a clean mind, which became holy Dharma. Then you can really do a deity retreat. On the first day I thought, could you imagine if your life became like that, what happiness! If my whole life could have been like that, I can’t imagine what happiness. Because I read the text at the beginning of the retreat, it cleaned my mind a little bit. I began the retreat with a clean mind, a mind that had become Dharma.
I did a book called The Door to Satisfaction, where I put the collection of advice from the Kadampa geshes into English. I’m not sure every single thing is there but much of it is. Also there is another book from London, How to Practice Dharma. If you read those books before you begin a retreat, Vajrasattva or anything, it would be so good. Then you can enjoy the retreat so much. Any deity retreat can become pure because you begin with a pure mind, a clean mind. That is just my suggestion, to do that much.
Life is to benefit others, not just to achieve a blissful state of peace for ourselves, not only that. It is to benefit others, to free numberless sentient beings of each realm from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and the cause, delusion and karma, and then bring them to peerless happiness, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations, buddhahood. It is to bring everyone there. To do that, you must first achieve the state of omniscience. Then you can perfectly guide sentient beings, you can do work for sentient beings. Therefore, please listen to the teachings.
That is the motivation to listen to the teachings. You can also think the teachings you listen to become actualized in your heart, now, so that you can be most beneficial for all the sentient beings. You can make that motivation, that every word of the teachings that you listen to becomes most beneficial for every sentient being. If you think like that, it will become like that, due to the power of the mind.
“My Karma Persuaded Me”
In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva mentioned,
Previously I must have caused similar harm
To other sentient beings.
Therefore it is right for this harm to be returned
To me who is the cause of injury to others.15
There is always a reason why others harm you, even if it’s fleas or mosquitoes biting you, ants biting you, bees stinging you, others getting angry at you, abusing you. Whatever happens, there is always a reason. The reason is you harmed others first! You harmed others first! In the past you gave a similar harm to other sentient beings, therefore, you deserve the harm others give you in return. By remembering the reason it happened, you can see you deserve receiving it.
Usually what we all do is think, “I’m totally perfect, I’m never wrong; others are wrong.” You blame others, then somebody harms and abuses you, somebody looks at you badly, somebody says something bad, and you harm them back. You crush the person, you disintegrate them or whatever. Whatever you can do, immediately, thinking, “There is nothing wrong with me. I’m perfect. All others are wrong.” You put the blame on others thinking you are perfect. They can’t tell you that you have made mistakes. You think it’s outrageous that that person got angry and abused you.
I went through a long story explaining how those people are most precious, most kind, remember? By finishing past heavy negative karma, you ensure future happiness up to enlightenment, so you should remember the kindness of that person. What am I saying? Normally, we say, “I’m perfect. They are wrong.” Whatever harm they did, whatever you didn’t like, then you harm them back as quickly as possible.
This is not an educated person’s action. This is not an educated person’s personality. No, it’s the action of an uneducated person, someone the same as an animal, a tiger, a dog. If somebody harms them, they bite back; it’s the same. That’s an animal’s character. Do you understand? That is not wise. But this is what we normally do.
Whatever happens, there is always an evolution for that, there is always a reason for that. The reason is that in the past you cheated or you abused others in that way. You abused others in that way, so this time it has happened to you. Why did this person abuse you? Because in the past you abused them in that way. That is why it happened. Even if a flea bites you, it is the same. Everything is the same.
The great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “It is right for this harm to be returned to me.” It is justified. What you do, though, is you think you can do anything, you can harm others, but you can’t receive any harm from others. That is an uneducated person’s personality. That is an animal’s character. That is totally illogical, totally—you can harm others in any way but others can’t harm you. It looks like that’s how most of us think, that’s how we lead our life. Do you understand? It doesn’t make sense.
There is something good to know. Please write it down in your notebook; it is worthwhile to remember. [Rinpoche recites in Tibetan] That is so important to write down! [Everyone laughs because Rinpoche said it in Tibetan] You can write down the Tibetan!
Having been instigated by my own actions,
Those who cause me harm come into being.
If by these (actions) they should fall into [the hole of] hell
Surely isn’t it I who am destroying them?16
My karma persuaded me, then I received the harm. Then I received this harm. By that, didn’t I push that sentient being in the hole of the hell? It means in the past you harmed them, so your karma persuaded the person to harm you in return. The result is that person harmed you. That happens from that cause— you harmed the person in the past so in this life you are harmed by this person.
Because of that harm, it stops them remaining in the human world, where they are now, and causes them to reincarnate in the lower realms, falling down into the hole of the hell realm. The hole is an example of hell.
That is a way of generating compassion. Instead of getting angry and harming back, you generate compassion, the root of happiness for yourself and all sentient beings. To generate compassion back is very important. When other sentient beings abuse you, whatever harm they do, use that to develop compassion. Instead of violence, develop compassion and peace. If you can’t help others in other ways, at least you can pray, dedicating your merits and reciting mantras for that person to not be born in the lower realms due to their negative karma. As you recite mantras like OM MANI PADME HUM, nectar comes from the hand of Chenrezig, the Guru Compassionate Buddha.
That is just one way, but there are many. At least pray to the root guru, Chenrezig, the deity, for that person to not be born in the lower realms. Dedicate all your past, present and future merits, all your past merits from beginningless rebirths, all the merits now and in the future, all good things to happen—dedicate that they will not be born in the lower realms at all, and that they will generate bodhicitta and stop harming sentient beings, bringing peace and happiness to numberless sentient beings. At least pray. That prayer has power.
In [the oral transmission teachings on the Vinaya,] Dulwai Lung, it says,
All dharmas, all existent [phenomena], are like the conditions; everything is up to the point of the wish. Whatever prayer you do, the result will happen like that.
That is explained in the sutra teachings—we pray by generating compassion like that. If we rely on Medicine Buddha, we should completely rely on him to help, or we should rely totally on Tara to help. Those things can help. This practice is so important to keep in the mind. Don’t forget it. Otherwise, even if you learn Dharma philosophy, learning many texts of sutra and tantra, when somebody complains about you, when somebody is angry with you, you get angry back. If you offer somebody something and they don’t thank you, they don’t show you appreciation, you suddenly get angry.
Even though you know a lot of Dharma intellectually, the practice is not there. Then, in everyday life if somebody does something like that, anger arises, and it destroys all your merits, all the merits from where happiness comes; it destroys the realizations and enlightenment. Therefore, it is very important to persuade yourself to practice this. Otherwise, even if you know so much and can explain so much, there is no practice in your daily life, then when something happens, even a very little thing, you get so upset and destroy your merits, the causes of all happiness. Although you learned the Dharma words, you don’t practice; you don’t subdue your mind. This is the problem. You either still have problems or you have even more problems than before you met the Dharma. You have more ego, more pride, than before you met the Dharma.
The Lamrim Is the Remedy to Self-Cherishing (Gen Jampa Wangdu)
Sorry, I want to say one more thing. I didn’t get to mention it yesterday. I had a teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu, who achieved shamatha, free from the gross and subtle sinking thought and the attachment-scattering thought, the gross and subtle obstacles to meditation. Shamatha, mental quiescence or abiding in peace is zhi nä in Tibetan. He achieved zhi nä in Dalhousie, and bodhicitta near Dharamsala at the back of Tushita, in a retreat house on the mountain.
Then he realized emptiness near the house of Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, His Holiness’ tutor in past life. Down below there is cave in a rock where he lived for seven years and where he realized emptiness. Then, he also achieved the tantra path, the generation and completion stages, the six yogas of Naropa, all these things; it was very fortunate. His teacher was Geshe Rabten, after His Holiness, who always admired Gen Jampa Wangdu.
Before Gen Jampa Wangdu passed away, the year before I think, he told us he had knee pain, I think for a month or two. This is what he said. But, of course, relating to me he is my teacher, my guru.
I took the lineage of the chulen, “taking the essence,” from him. If you are living in an isolated place, too far from a market or a place to get food, you have to abide without having need for food, therefore you live on the pills with meditation. Every day you do like that. When I took the lineage of chulen of flowers, I asked him how to actualize lamrim realizations quickly. His answer was to practice the remedy to self-cherishing thought every day. That is the way to actualize not only bodhicitta but also all the lamrim realizations. This came from his own experience.
He said that he had knee pain for one or two months. During that time he was reminded of an old monk when he was in Tibet in early times, in the debating place outside who lived his life as a dobdob. The early books by Westerners mistranslated that as “monk police,” just as they called Tibetan Buddhism “Lamaism.” He said the old monk did not learn Dharma but kind of lived life like a dobdob. They do service to the monks, things like tea and food offerings, and they do their own competitions, running, carrying stones and things like that. There was no particular reason why but Gen Jampa Wangdu harmed the old monk. He took a stick and hit the old monk on the knee. He thought that is why he had pain in his knee for one or two months.
Taking the Pain of Others
As I mentioned yesterday, in Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Lama Atisha’s guru, Dharmarakshita, said,
When our bodies are aching and racked with great torment
Of dreadful diseases we cannot endure,
This is the wheel of sharp weapons returning
Full circle upon us from wrongs we have done.
Till now we have injured the bodies of others;
Hereafter let’s take on what sickness is theirs.17
That is the wheel of the negative karma turned on us. You think, “It turned on me this time.” That is the evolution. Then it talks about practice where you learn to take all the sentient beings’ suffering on yourself. It means you take others’ suffering on your ego, the self-cherishing thought, and, by doing that, you destroy it. All the harm from sentient beings comes from the self-cherishing thought, so you take all the suffering on your self-cherishing thought and destroy the enemy, the demon of your self-cherishing thought. Gen Jampa Wangdu said that. Probably, for many of us who have physical pain, it might be that we badly treated animals or beat people. It could be the result of that in this life.
This is just a side talk. I will just say this. There was a Kagyu lama, I forget his name. I think it was Gyalwa Gotsangpa. He was unbelievable. I read his life story. Although so many lice attacked him, he purposefully made charity of his body to the lice. Two times or three times he almost passed away. He bore the most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable hardships to practice Dharma. He didn’t just bear hardships because he was very poor (although he was), he purposefully chose to bear hardships. He practiced without monasteries or organizations. We can’t start to compare our Dharma practice to his. Our Dharma practice is just between our lips, but his was unbelievable. He bore unbelievable hardships.
Dharmarakshita’s advice is very nice. Whenever you experience sickness, such as cancer, or you have relationship problems or anything, you pray like this. “By my experiencing this, may all the sentient beings be free from all the sicknesses, spirit harm, negative karma and defilements—the negative karma and defilements they have collected from beginningless rebirths.” You should pray like that with every sickness, every relationship problem or whatever it is. You can add, “May they quickly be free and achieve enlightenment.”
You can recite that prayer like reciting a mala of OM MANI PADME HUM. Meditating like that and reciting like that is unbelievably good. Even while you are walking, sitting, whatever, you can recite like that. Then you collect merits more than the sky. When you do this, it becomes the greatest purification, purifying the defilements and negative karma that you have collected from beginningless rebirths. Then, it becomes a quick path to enlightenment for you.
In other words, you use everything, including your problem, for the numberless other sentient beings, to free them from all the suffering and to achieve enlightenment. It is amazing. If you do it like that, like reciting a mantra, the cancer or any other disease can be cured even if it is a disease that there is no medicine for.
Sorry to say this, in my experience, for some dangerous diseases there is no medicine. I gave some Tibetan medicine and some practices to somebody once and they recovered in about two weeks. Things like that have happened, just with some simple practice and sometimes Tibetan medicine, even if there is no medicine for the disease in the West. That has happened at different times.
First, there was a lady from Canada who did fashion shows; she makes a thousand dollars an hour. I hadn’t had contact with her for a long time. She wasn’t really interested in Dharma, although she was sometimes around the center. I got a message from her that she had cancer and I sent an answer to liberate a lot of animals. She liberated a lot of chickens, but because they are not easy to look after she hired a lot of people to look after them. Then she took the eight Mahayana precepts and recovered from her cancer. After that her life got kind of messy [and the illness returned]. Then she took the eight Mahayana precepts and liberated animals again and she recovered. She is one I remember but there are several stories of people who have recovered with different practices.
I think maybe I’ll stop here.
Dedications
[Mandala offering]
“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, including enlightenment for myself and for every sentient being, be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings who have been my own mother and have been unbelievably, unbelievably kind from beginningless rebirths. But they took care of me with ignorance, anger, attachment, and the self-cherishing thought, so they have created negative karma from beginningless rebirths, and have experienced unbelievable suffering for me. So now, if I don’t practice Dharma, if I don’t actualize a good heart and emptiness, I will reincarnate again in samsara, I will have to be reborn to sentient beings and they will have to suffer again without end and endure the endless unbelievable suffering of samsara.
“May bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings in this world, and especially in Nepal. May bodhicitta be actualized in all the students, in all those who rely on me, who I promised to pray for, whose name was given to me, the dead and living, everyone who is here, in all my family members, the living and dead. May bodhicitta to be generated in everyone’s heart, those who see me, hear me, remember me, touch me, talk to me, dream of me.”
I’m talking about myself but you should relate it to yourself. “Whoever dreams of me or sees photos of me, may bodhicitta be generated in all their hearts and in those who have generated bodhicitta may it increase.”
We must dedicate for the world, for perfect peace and happiness to happen in the world, to be guided by Lama Tsongkhapa, being our Mahayana virtuous friend in all lifetimes, and actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings in this life.
“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 all the wars happening now and in the future be stopped immediately; may all disease and famines, all problems be stopped immediately in this world, any problems coming from anger and attachment, the dangers of fire, water, air, earthquakes, tsunamis—all the global problems, like the ice melting, the ocean levels rising and washing away the cities—may all those dangers to be pacified immediately. May perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s heart in this world, by generating loving kindness and compassion in everyone’s heart.
“May the Buddhadharma from where sentient beings receive peace and happiness last a long time; may sentient beings meet Buddhadharma and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
“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, which exist in mere name, may the I, who exists in mere name, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist in mere name, to that buddhahood, which exists in mere name, by myself alone, who exists in mere name.”
Thank you very much.
Notes
13 See The Way of Awakening by Yeshe Tobden, Wisdom 2005, p. 359. See also Mind Training: The Great Collection, p. 517 for the root text and pp. 521–566 for commentaries. [Return to text]
14 A fifteenth century text by the Tibetan yogi Lödro Gyaltsen. [Return to text]
15 Ch. 6, v. 42. [Return to text]
16 Shantideva, ch. 6, v. 47. [Return to text]
17 V. 10. [Return to text]
