Kopan Course No. 50 (2017)

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Kopan Monastery, Nepal (Archive #2065)

These teachings were given by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche at the 50th Kopan Meditation Course, held at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2017. Transcribed and lightly edited by Ven. Joan Nicell. Second edit by Gordon McDougall.

The edited transcript is freely available for download as a PDF file. You can also visit FPMT Video Resources to watch video extracts of these teachings, or listen to MP3 audio files, available here.

Lecture 5: Guru Devotion
December 9, 2017
The Ignorance of Believing in a Truly Existing I

Don’t look at the hallucination as the truth. Don’t look at what is false as the truth. That is a huge challenge in life, to realize what is false and what is truth. All the suffering in the whole world—global problems, individual problems, even the sufferings of the tiniest insect, even a tiny fly, then the problems of human beings, families, society, the country, the world—all problems come from ignorance, not knowing what is false and what is truth in life.

This is important for those who believe in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, or in any religion. Everybody with any education has to realize the whole world’s problems come from ignorance. It all comes from initiation, sorry! I said “initiation,” but I meant ignorance. Ignorance. Any educated person should know that, although they wouldn’t know what ignorance is without a Dharma education; they wouldn’t know it’s the root of suffering. But intelligent educated people should know that suffering comes from ignorance.

That is big question in the life you need to discover—what is false and what is truth. This isn’t a small thing; it is a big thing. Kindergarten, primary school, college, university—you have to know that all this suffering comes from ignorance. Even the suffering of the tiniest being in the water—I forget its name—comes from ignorance.

As I mentioned in the past, this ignorance projects something false that is totally the opposite to the truth, something you have believed in not only from this morning, not only from birth but from beginningless rebirths. That which is false in life, that projection from ignorance, you have totally believed. It comes from your ignorance, not the ignorance of God or something, from your ignorance projecting everything as real, making everything appear real, existing from its own side. Then you believe a hundred percent in that! In that way you are living in that hallucination.

I will talk a little bit more on that.

Besides not understanding the Dharma, with this ignorance, what is false is projected as the truth, and then, after that, you believe the ignorance that things are real. That happens in the second instance; in the first there is the false appearance. And you never think of reality, of the truth. Of course, most sentient beings never get an education, so they have no understanding.

You don’t see the real truth that the I does not exist from its own side; you don’t realize it. It is like it doesn’t exist. Form, sound, smell, taste, tangible objects, and not only objects but the perceiver, the mind, also do not exist from their own side. They exist in mere name. But you don’t see that. For us normal sentient beings, it doesn’t appear in that way and we don’t see it. The only ones who can see that are those who have received teachings on what is false and truth in life, teachings on emptiness and the two truths, otherwise it can never happen. It’s like the truth does not exist for your mind. Even if you hear about it, if you receive teachings about what the Buddha explained, you are still unable to think correctly about it.

Still, it is very fortunate you are able to learn. It depends first on learning the correct words, receiving the correct teachings. Without that how can you learn? Whether it becomes part of your experience depends on receiving the correct teachings and that depends on words.

The Four Schools’ View of How the I Exists

During the Buddha’s time, four schools of Buddhist philosophy happened. The first is Vaibhashika, then Sautrantika, then Mind Only school, and then the Madhyamaka school, which has two sub-schools, Svatantrika and Prasangika. All the Buddhist philosophies are in these four. Only in the Vaibhashika school, which has eighteen sub-schools, is there one that does not totally refute the real I. That sub-school asserts that the I is not permanent, not impermanent [and not not impermanent]; existing alone, not existing alone and not non-existing alone; existing with its own freedom, not existing with its own freedom, not non-existing with its own freedom.

It is not exactly the same as Hinduism that believes that the I, the atman, is permanent. In reality the I is not permanent; it is impermanent. The I is changeable due to causes and conditions. As I mentioned before, it changes day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second; even within one second it changes. Only that sub-school believes it can have some permanence but it is still not totally similar to the Hindu idea.

What is believed, what is accepted by the others is that the I is impermanent, that the I does not exist alone, without depending on parts. The I does not exist with its own freedom. That is the basic Buddhist philosophy.

There was an Indian businessman from somewhere near Lucknow who became a monk. He was ordained by His Holiness, I think. He was very simple. His Holiness gave him alone a commentary to Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Life in His Holiness’ room or office. After His Holiness finished the whole commentary, I don’t know how long it took, he just had one question for His Holiness, “Is there atman or not?” That was his only question. Then His Holiness said, “No.” For him that was it; everything was solved. He was very sincere. He died a long time ago. He was a business person for a long time. I just remembered him.

Impermanence is the basic view of Buddhist philosophy, the foundation. In your view, when you think of the I, you have this hallucinated appearance that the I is permanent, that the I exists alone, that the I exists with its own freedom, without depending on causes and conditions. We all have this very basic hallucination. When the I appears, this is how we think of it. Then, on top of that, you believe that the I is self-sufficient, ran gya thub pai dze yo. Like a king existing without depending on the population, I exists without depending on the aggregates. The I is not self-sufficient; the I is empty of that self-sufficiency. Even for those lower schools, that is their view—that the I is empty of self-sufficiency. The Buddhist philosophical view is that it is empty of self-sufficiency, but you have this hallucination when you think of the I. That is how the I appears to you.

The Mind Only school believes in a seventh consciousness and an eighth consciousness [on top of the six consciousnesses that the other schools assert]. The seventh is the basis-of-all samsara and nirvana. According to their philosophy, that is how things exist. The color blue is a common example. The imprint, a substance, is left on the seventh consciousness, and it is experienced out in two ways, one as the object blue and one as the consciousness. Both the object blue and the perceiving mind seeing the blue come from that imprint, the substance, left on the seventh consciousness. When it is experienced out, it manifests as the two.

That school believes phenomena are like that. When the I appears to you, you also have this wrong view, opposite to that, that there is an I existing totally without depending on this imprint, the substance, left on the seventh consciousness being experienced out, the I as the object and the perceiving mind as the subject. The I totally exists from its own side, without depending on the imprint, the substance, experienced out. When the I appears to you that hallucination is there. Then, not only that, you believe in it, of course.

Then, with the Madhyamaka Svatantrika view, when the I appears to you, that school accepts that there is no I existing completely from its own side. There is no such thing. That is the refuting object of that school. Their view is that there is something from its own side but it does not completely exist. Why? Because it is labeled by the mind. They accept it is labeled by the mind but not merely labeled by the mind. There is a little something that remains. That is much better than the previous wrong views.

In order to be able to realize the view of the Madhyamaka Prasangika school well, you have to generally know the views of all the other schools but especially that one. If you know that, it is very easy to recognize the Madhyamaka Prasangika school’s view of the very subtle object to be refuted.

Labeled by mind is easy to accept because what is called “I” is a sound, so it has to be labeled by the mind. Of course, that is easy. However, accepting it is merely labeled by the mind is very difficult. Being merely labeled by the mind means it almost doesn’t exist. It becomes nihilism—not in reality but maybe because you don’t have enough merit at the moment to realize that it is merely labeled by the mind, that it exists in mere name. You don’t have the merit, you don’t have the intelligence, so you are kind of falling in nihilism, but it is not nihilism.

Merely labeled by the mind is the correct view according to the Madhyamaka Prasangika school. So, according to Prasangika, the gag cha, the object to be refuted, is the object that does not depend on the mind labeling it, that is truly existent. The I appears to you like that; that hallucination.

Of course, for you it has to be there! The Prasangika school’s subtle object of negation has to be there. When the I appears, even if you agree it is labeled by mind, there has to be something there. How can it exist only in mere name? No way. For you that is kind of nihilism. You think there must be something, a little bit that exists from its own side. So, you see, you have the appearance of the I existing not just being merely labeled by the mind. There seems to be something slightly more than merely labeled by the mind. So, the I appearing not just merely labeled by the mind is the subtle object of refutation of the Prasangika school.

That very subtle false I is what you have to recognize. If you realize that that is the false I, that is what doesn’t exist, that is what is totally empty, after recognizing that false I, it is just a minute to realize emptiness only, tong pa nyitong pa is emptiness, nyi is only.

In English it is not translated completely. The translation comes from a long time ago, I think, a very long time ago. The translators were not geshes. At the beginning, many hadn’t studied philosophy completely; they had some understanding of Dharma, but not a complete understanding. I’m not saying everyone, but at the very beginning some translators were like that. If you really study the philosophy well on the basis of the four Buddhist philosophical schools, you can understand the Tibetan words well. When you can understand completely, you can get the complete translation in English. But at the very beginning some were just half translated, even the title was not complete. Then the Tibetan didn’t come across completely in English. It didn’t give a clear idea for general people who haven’t done much study.

Guru Devotion
Understanding Emptiness Needs Great Merit and Strong Guru Devotion

Even if the words are explained correctly, even if the teachings on emptiness are received correctly, it doesn’t mean you can see clearly understand assertions like the Prasangika school’s philosophy. It doesn’t mean it is proved to you. Even if you are given correct teachings, it depends on a lot of luck. In worldly activities, like a football game or a lottery or something, you need good luck. If you have good luck you win. Therefore, you need so much merit to not only receive the correct teachings on the Prasangika school’s teachings on emptiness that introduce the subtle object of refutation, but also to realize them. You need a lot of merit and a high intelligence.

You also need very strong guru devotion, from your side seeing the guru who reveals the teaching to you as a buddha. Without that it doesn’t happen; it just becomes words for you. It remains something too difficult for you to believe in and you feel like you are falling into nihilism. Even though it is correct that things exist in mere name, because it is too subtle for you, you think it is nihilism. You think it is wrong, even though it is completely right.

When there is strong devotion to the one who reveals the path to you, when from your side you look at the guru as a buddha, you see no mistakes, only qualities. Looking at them in that way, as a buddha, you generate strong devotion and, through that, you receive the blessings of the guru in your heart, like a plant growing after having planted the seed in the ground and watering it and so forth.

Even though you might not have many merits, this is such an easy way to collect extensive merits. With devotion it happens naturally. In everyday life, with that mind of devotion, you live your life, following the guru with body, speech and mind. Your life is no longer under the control of the self-cherishing thought; it is under the control of the guru. As much as you are able to follow the guru, then unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits are collected in such a short time.

In the first meditation in the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, there are eight benefits mentioned by correctly following the guru, fulfilling the guru’s wishes or following their advice.

If you are ordained by the guru and you follow the vows, or the guru advises you to do a retreat or recite a mantra every day or something, each day, each hour, each minute, each second you do that, you become closer to enlightenment. It purifies all the defilements and collects extensive merits, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. Second by second you become closer to enlightenment.

I’m giving just a few examples. You have to relate it to your own activities, for instance, doing what your guru advises, such as making a meditation room in your home or being a secretary in a center and helping to spread the Dharma. There are many different activities to purify a disciple’s negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths and to benefit others. Each time you do whatever work the guru advises, you become closer to enlightenment.

If it involves traveling or whatever it is, even going back and forth for the work, each step is fulfilling the guru’s wishes and advice, so each step purifies unbelievable obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths and develops extensive merit and you become closer to enlightenment. Each word of each conversation you have with somebody to actualize a project—or whatever was advised by the guru—purifies unimaginable obscurations and collects extensive merits and you become closer to enlightenment. This is because the guru is the most powerful object of merit, the one that allows you to purify the most unbelievable obscurations and negative karma and collect the most extensive merits.

A much more powerful object to collect merit and purify than ordinary people are your parents, the parents of this life. If you harm them even a little, like physically harming them or scolding them or retaliating, something quite small, it becomes powerfully negative because the object is so powerful and you can start to experience problems and suffering in this life. It doesn’t finish; of course, there is rebirth in the lower realms, then you suffer for an unbelievable length of time.

Even when you are born a human being again due to another good karma, you experience the result of that negative karma not just in one lifetime, but for many lifetimes, for five hundred lifetimes. You have to know that, that there is unbelievable suffering from that small act which you can start to experience in this life. But if you do a small service for your parents, if you help them a little, the good karma is so powerful that you start to experience the result of happiness and success in this life. Then, that one small service you offered your parents, the small good karma you created with your parents, goes on and on life to life, for five hundred lifetimes. That is very, very important to know.

So if you do anything harmful to them, you should confess and do practices to purify the negative karma. It is very important that every day you do something like the Thirty-five Buddhas practice or Vajrasattva. Of course this is not only to purify negative karma collected with the parents, but to purify all the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth.

As I mentioned yesterday, I asked my teacher, Gen Jampa Wangdu, what is more important, to purify or to collect merits. He said from his experience it’s better to concentrate more on purification. If you do that you are a very wise person. Every day, wherever you are, on top of Mount Everest or in Africa, whether you are alone or with people, whatever, you must practice purification, either the Thirty-five Buddhas or Vajrasattva.

There are many other ways, such as working for sentient beings, bearing hardships with compassion. Working for others is unbelievable purification. If you do it with compassion, it’s strong purification. Then, there is offering service, doing hard work for the Sangha. Then, of course, no question about the guru—offering service, doing the guru’s wishes, following their advice. That is the most powerful way to purify and collection of merits. You don’t have to necessarily physically be with the guru, you can be very far away, but wherever you are in the world, you should always fulfill the guru’s wishes and advice.

Then, constantly, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, you are getting closer to enlightenment. When whatever you do is the advice of the guru, that is the most powerful way to purify as well as to collect the most extensive merits. The main thing is following the guru’s wishes and advice.

There is remembering the guru’s kindness, and the next one is fulfilling the guru’s wishes and advice. Then, the next one, if you have material things, if you offer them to the guru you collect merit and purify. From the guru’s side also, they accept the offering in order for the disciple to collect merit.

For example, even just offering a glass of water or tea or a candy or a biscuit to the guru, you collect the merit of having made offerings to numberless buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, of having made offerings to numberless statues, numberless scriptures and numberless stupas.

Sorry, I talked before about the parents but suddenly I went there. I didn’t get to mention the other ones in between. The next level after the parents is offering to ordained people, to a monk or nun. Harming an ordained person is more powerful than harming your parents, and offering even a little service to them, you collect more unbelievably more merit than offering to this life’s parents.

Then, one arhat who is free from samsara is such a powerful object to collect merit from. Of course, if you harm them, it is unbelievably powerful negative karma.

After that, one bodhisattva. It is mentioned in the sutra teachings by the Buddha, if you look at a bodhisattva with an angry mind, with the white side of the eye, what do you call it? [Ven. Ailsa: Glaring.] Glaring. If we glare at a bodhisattva, one bodhisattva, who has renounced the self-cherishing thought and actualized bodhicitta, cherishing others, the negative karma and obscurations you collect are so unbelievably heavy, it is like taking out the eyeballs of all the sentient beings of the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realms. The negative karma is like that or more than that if you look at one bodhisattva with glaring eyes.

Now, if you look at a bodhisattva with a peaceful mind and virtuous mind, if you calmly look with respect, you collect the merit of having given eyeballs to all the sentient beings in the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. By making charity of your eyeballs, you collect unbelievable merits by the power of the pure mind of bodhicitta that cherishes numberless sentient beings. Not one sentient being is left out, not one insect, not one black or white ant is left out. To get the idea, there is not one tiniest insect left out from the bodhisattva’s compassion realization. Because of that, you collect that unbelievable merit.

It is mentioned in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life,

Whatever wholesome deeds,
Such as venerating the buddhas and generosity,
That have been amassed over a thousand eons
Will all be destroyed in one moment of anger.18

If a non-bodhisattva, somebody without bodhicitta, gets angry for one second at a bodhisattva, you destroy a thousand eons of good karma that you have collected by having made charity to sentient beings and having made offerings to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. According to Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen, if you get angry at a bodhisattva for one second, a thousand eons of merits collected by having made charity to sentient beings and having made offerings to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, get destroyed instantly.

Now, of one buddha and numberless bodhisattvas, one buddha is more powerful than numberless bodhisattvas, so what happens if you get angry at a buddha for one second? Can you imagine? If a thousand eons of good karma are destroyed with a bodhisattva, with a buddha it could be ten thousand eons. I’m not sure. So many merits collected in the past from sentient beings and Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are destroyed if you get angry for one second at a buddha.

Now, of the numberless buddhas and one guru, one guru is more powerful than the numberless buddhas. Therefore, how much merit do you destroy if you get angry for one second at the guru you have a Dharma connection with? You are the disciple and they are the guru. The texts say the one who is followed, who is relied upon, is the guru and the one who is following, who is reliant on the guru, has the characteristic of the disciple. So, if you receive a Dharma connection from a teacher, they are the guru and you are the disciple. Even if all they have given you is two or three words, a mantra or even a lung, an oral transmission, that is a Dharma relationship, a Dharma connection.

There is a story about Serkong Dorje Chang, who passed away. I heard many stories in Buxa, where Mahatma Gandhi-ji and ex-prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru were imprisoned, where so many people were killed there during the British time. I heard so many stories of Serkong Dorje Chang who lived in Swayambunath. He was a great yogi. I had some karma to meet him after coming to Nepal.

[Tea offering and break to drink tea]

Compared with one second of anger to numberless buddhas, getting angry for one second to the guru is much heavier negative karma. I haven’t seen quotes about that yet but on the basis of what Shantideva advised in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life—that a non-bodhisattva getting angry at a bodhisattva for one second destroys the merits collected during a thousand eons of having made charity to sentient beings and having made offerings to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—on the basis of that, it could be millions of eons. Certainly unbelievable, unbelievable merits are destroyed by getting angry at the guru for one second. It might not only be that—being reborn in the lower realms, in the hell realm, and suffering for that many eons—it could be many hundreds of thousands of eons, or millions of eons. It could be like that on the basis of what the bodhisattva Shantideva said. Then, your realizations are put off for many hundreds of thousands of eons, for millions of eons, if you get angry at the guru for one second. It could be like that.

There are these three things—not only must you suffer for that unimaginable length of time but also your realizations are put off for that many eons and your merits are destroyed. The guru is the most powerful object, not the world guru, your guru, the one you have a Dharma connection with.

Serkong Dorje Chang: If the Guru Is Sitting, Think the Buddha Is Sitting

I was going to tell a story about Serkong Dorje Chang. After we came here, we went to Swayambunath. The first disciple, Zina Rachevsky, was called a princess because her parents were royalty a long time ago in Russia. Then there was a revolt and they escaped to live in France. She lived in America and in many places. We had some karma [with Serkong Dorje Chang]. When we reached the top of the hill at Swayambunath, (what tourists call the Monkey Temple because it looks like monkeys gather to do pujas inside the temple, or they built the temple for monkeys) we were outside the house when a very simple monk came outside down the steps. We said we wanted to see Serkong Dorje Chang and he told us to wait a minute. Then he went to do pipi or something, I’m not sure. Anyway, he didn’t come back. Then we went upstairs and met his manager.

When we were shown to his room, the person we saw on the bed, Serkong Dorje Chang, was the one we saw outside, the monk who came down the steps and who we told we wanted to see Serkong Dorje Chang. We didn’t know it was him.

Zina was very good. Because she always wanted to ask questions, we met so many other Kagyu and Nyingma high lamas. Rinpoche had quite a number of texts near the pillow, so Zina asked him to read them, not all, just some. Normally we wouldn’t ask that, but she was a Westerner and so she just asked anything she wanted.

Rinpoche replied, “No, no. I don’t know anything. I’m so foolish, I don’t know anything.” Then he gave a teaching to her in answer to her question. I don’t know if it was her question or not, but it was a very powerful teaching on guru devotion. He said, “If the guru is sitting on the floor, think Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is sitting on the floor.” There were many other things, but I didn’t have the merit to understand the rest.

That was the first time. After that, from time to time I went to see Rinpoche. Every time I went to see him, there was never any doubt—this was Yamantaka, the extremely wrathful aspect of Manjushri, the essence, the manifestation of all the buddhas’ wisdom. There was no doubt. He was always like that. I used to think he was a buddha, a mind-sealed deity, a yidam. I think Rinpoche knew everything, he could see all the lives—past, present and future—of anybody who came into his room. Sometimes I mentioned dreams that I had, and Rinpoche said it was Palden Lhamo, a wrathful aspect of Sarasvati or Tara, a little upset, angry. Before Rinpoche did the divination he knew, but he did the divination according to the level of our mind. He didn’t make it a big thing. He knew past, present and future. He appeared as a very simple monk who didn’t know anything, but even before he did a divination he knew. He started to tell you even before he threw the dice.

One time we were staying in Boudha, in the Gelugpa monastery built by a Mongolian lama who passed away in Mongolia. The monks came from Kyirong, near Nepal. Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s monastery was there. Remember I mentioned to you that this course, that we have now done fifty times, came from my reading his teachings; it was his inspiration. The monks came from his monastery. I think it was Saka Dawa, the Buddha’s day of enlightenment. In the past, in Bodhgaya, the Buddha showed enlightenment and showed the holy deeds. Not only that, Saka Dawa also marks the Buddha’s passing away into the sorrowless state and his birth. These three things are combined on that day.

In that monastery they were doing a nyung nä. One of the benefactors from the upper part in Tibet, followed the lama Drubtob Rinpoche from Swayambunath, who did the practice of Most Secret Hayagriva. The other monks thought Most Secret Hayagriva was a Nyingma deity, so they didn’t agree. As their guru, the monks had invited Serkong Dorje Chang and the next morning they wanted him to give the eight Mahayana precepts. The monks wanted to take them from Serkong Dorje Chang, not from Drubtob Rinpoche. In the morning, Rinpoche came. When we sat on our seats, he also sat on a normal seat, not on the throne. Rinpoche opened the text and said, “If you want to practice Dharma, if the guru says, ‘This is hot kaka, lick that kaka,’ if you are able to go there immediately without doubt, without any question, and lick it with the tongue,” (and Rinpoche mimed licking) “if you are able to lick it, that is how to practice Dharma.” Then he put the text down and left. That was the motivation for the ordination, nothing else. He didn’t give the vow; he just left.

Rinpoche’s teachings were normally just like that, but that teaching was very important; it is we call a “red teaching.” That is the most important advice for life on how to practice guru devotion, how to follow the guru, who is the root of the path to enlightenment, the most important one to achieve all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. So he said that and left. What he gave was a most important teaching. Just from that I took Serkong Dorje Chang as a guru.

I have many gurus, almost forty. My root guru is His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my first guru is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s younger guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, who was the first to give me the lamrim teaching, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, in Varanasi, in Sarnath. He is both my root guru and Lama Yeshe’s root guru. Then, the second is His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So I have two root gurus. I just wanted to tell you the words that Serkong Dorje Chang taught. A great enlightened being, Serkong Dorje Chang, in his past life, was highly respected by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. He completed the path to enlightenment, the tantric path. So as I said, he just said a few words and left.

Following the Guru’s Advice Is the Quickest Way to Attain Enlightenment

To collect merit and purify, if you have things to offer the guru, you should. Even offering just a glass of water, a biscuit or a candy, you collect the highest merit and do the greatest purification. And you get closer to enlightenment, even by making just that tiny offering, because the guru is the most powerful holy object.

For example, if you offer just a tiny drop of perfume, what comes on the tip of a needle, if you offer that scented smell to the guru’s pores, the physical pores, where the hair grows, you collect much more merit than having made offerings to numberless buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, numberless statues, numberless stupas, numberless scriptures. The merit you collect is unbelievable because he is the most powerful holy object.

It is mentioned that if you practice the six paramitas for a thousand eons, if you make charity of your head and your hands to sentient beings for a thousand eons, you collect the most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merits. But when you follow the wishes and advice of the guru, in that second you collect more merit than all those merits collected for a thousand eons by making that charity.

Sakya Pandita was a great holy being who one of the founders of the Sakya lineage of teachings. He said,

For one thousand eons, if you made charity of your hands, head and the limbs of your body to sentient beings, the merits you have collected by making charity to sentient beings like that is [much less] than when you follow the guru’s advice for even a second.

That is so powerful. That is the quickest way to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, the quickest way to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, and the quickest way to free sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and quickly bring them to enlightenment. All that depends on following the virtuous friend.

“Devoting” is only with the mind whereas “correctly following” is two ways, with devotion and with action. So I say “correctly following the virtuous friend.” It is so powerful, unbelievable, unbelievable. You have to know those things. You have to write them down in your diary or in your heart. It should be kept as the most important advice. The quick way to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings depends on following the guru correctly.

If you follow the guru’s advice, the guru’s wishes, for days, weeks, months or years, can you imagine how unbelievable your life becomes. You are the most fortunate person. By following the guru’s advice, his words, for years and years, you collect the greatest purification in every second and you collect unbelievable merits, the cause of success, the cause of happiness, the cause of enlightenment. It is the quick way to achieve enlightenment. Now you can understand how that disciple is most fortunate.

I’ve mentioned this many times. I haven’t physically seen soccer but I’ve seen it on TV, in the early times. The soccer player doesn’t smile; the nose is out, the hands are like this. [Rinpoche raises his arms up in the gesture of winning] He runs out, like this, the nerves are out. I thought maybe he had lost the game, running like that, not smiling. But later on I realized it means he had won. That is nothing; that is just an object of attachment. Following the guru’s advice well, on the other hand, in every second you become closer to being free from samsara and to buddhahood. It is the quickest. You are supposed to do like this, in every second, like this, [Rinpoche shows running with the arms stretched up above the head] all the nerves out, day and night. Day and night you have to run like this!

Winning at soccer is nothing; it is winning the lower realms. In reality it is winning the suffering of samsara, in particular in the lower realms. It is totally done with attachment to get power, to get money. I can’t say everyone, but most people who play soccer don’t have a bodhicitta motivation. Of course, if you play the soccer with an emptiness meditation, a mindful awareness of emptiness, or even just an effortful meditation, playing soccer becomes a remedy to samsara. Like the example I gave yesterday, it becomes a remedy to samsara, not a cause of samsara. It becomes a remedy to eliminate the root of samsara if you do it with a realization of emptiness or even with an effortful meditation on emptiness. And if you play soccer with bodhicitta, it becomes a cause of enlightenment. Yesterday I didn’t mention soccer; I gave another example.

The Guru Is the Magnifying Glass Allowing Us to Receive Blessings

I’ll give just one quotation, then we’ll go back to emptiness. Sakya Pandita mentioned,

Even though sunbeams are very hot,
Without a magnifying glass, they cannot ignite a fire.
It is the same with the blessings of the buddhas:
Without the guru, they cannot enter the disciple.19

There is a plant called dra that is dry, I don’t know the English word. You wrap it up and put it on wood to make a fire. Then you put a magnifying glass on it, and the light shines through the glass onto the dra and it produces a fire. Without a guru, no matter how many buddhas have compassion, no matter how many blessings of the buddhas there are, without a guru, we sentient beings cannot receive realizations, they cannot be received in our hearts.

The need for a guru is extremely important to understand. You need to check why there is the need for a guru. Then the quote says,

Like that, by pleasing the guru, all the ten directions’ buddhas are pleased.

The numberless buddhas are pleased by pleasing the guru. You have to understand that. That is a very important point.

For example, when you do something good that follows the guru’s wishes, his advice, something very positive, even if you don’t inform the guru, you might have a dream of the guru being so pleased with you, even giving you presents. The guru appears very radiant, very happy with you. Even if you don’t inform the guru, that can still happen. That is a sign that numberless buddhas are happy with you. There are numberless buddhas who guide you, but they do it through this guru you have a karmic connection with in particular.

If you did something wrong, then even if you didn’t inform the guru, becoming sick or something can be a sign the guru is displeased with you. That again means numberless buddhas are displeased with you, but the communication is through the guru to you. You have to understand that. By pleasing the guru you have a karmic connection with, you please the numberless buddhas.

Then it says something very important,

In reality numberless Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are embodied in one, the guru. To you, the guru, I take refuge.

The guru is the embodiment of the numberless Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and in reality the numberless Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are embodied in one—the guru. Sakya Pandita mentioned this. It contains important advice that you have to think about in your daily life.

The Ox with the Blue Horns (Pleasing the Guru)

I will just mention one more thing so you can understand. This is very important advice. Don’t forget.

There is a story about the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Kelsang Gyatso. There was a geshe from Drepung Monastery, Geshe Chenpo Sumra Mitupa, who was not only a disciple but also kind of a friend to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He always said everything very straight to His Holiness. One day, the geshe asked His Holiness to predict what he would be in his next life.

His Holiness said, “Oh, right away you will be born as a buffalo with blue horns.” The geshe laughed and laughed. “How is it possible?” he said, “How is it possible right away? First of all you have to die. Then, your future father and mother have to have sex, with the sperm from the father and the egg from the mother. Then you, as a bardo being, have to see them as parents, with attachment. Then, you enter in conception in the mother’s womb. It takes nine months. Then you gradually get born outside. Then, you have blue horns. It takes a long time to have blue horns.” The geshe then asked His Holiness, “How is it possible, therefore, to be born right away as a buffalo with blue horns?”

His Holiness laughed and laughed and then said, “Now you will be born as monk. Not only that but as a monk who is around me to serve me.” The monk was so surprised and asked His Holiness, “How is it possible? I was going to be born as an ox, and I haven’t done any purification or collected any merit. How can I now be born as a monk immediately?” His Holiness answered, “That is because I am the one blessed by Chenrezig.” He didn’t say he was Chenrezig, he said he was blessed by Chenrezig. Maybe, because the geshe was a disciple and he talked so straight to His Holiness, because that made His Holiness laugh so much by challenging his assertion he would be reborn immediately as an ox with blue horns, he purified his negative karma to be born an animal and created the karma to be born as monk right away. This was by pleasing His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Don’t think of it just as a story; bring it into your life practice. Whether you are with the guru or far away does not matter. That is not the question. By pleasing the guru, whatever negative karma you have, even to have a bad rebirth in the lower realms, gets immediately purified in that minute. Whenever you are able to please the guru, all those heavy negative karmas to be born in the lower realms at that time are purified, and right at that time you get a higher rebirth, like that monk born around His Holiness serving him. You should take that as very important advice in your daily life, that this is the source of happiness up to enlightenment.

You have great freedom in your hands at this one time that you have received a human body, and not just a human body but a perfect human body. You have met the holy Dharma, Buddhadharma, that reveals the unmistaken path to enlightenment. You have incredible freedom in your hands. In each second you have great freedom whether you choose to win or lose, whether you have profit or loss. In each second you can chose between hell or enlightenment, between samsara or nirvana, between the lower realms and a higher rebirth. In each second you have great freedom in your hands, the opportunity to protect yourself. In Calling the Guru from Afar it says,

NYE KA DÖN CHHEI TEN ZANG KHE NYEN KYI DUG DAM GA
   Thinking of this excellent body, highly meaningful and difficult to obtain,

MA NOR NYING PO LEN DÖ SAM KYIN LA MA DRÄN NO
   And wishing to take its essence with unerring choice between gain and loss, happiness and suffering—reminds me of you, guru.

By thinking of the guru’s wishes, even in every second, you take the essence of this perfect human body, Nye ka dön chhei zang khe nyen kyi dug dam ga means not to take loss and to take the profit. Ma nor nying po len dö sam kyin la ma drän no, the whole thing depends on remembering the kindness of the guru showing the unmistaken path. “Please guide me in this life, the intermediate state, and the next life,” all the time. That means all the time up to enlightenment, in every second, you request the guru to guide you, to bring you to enlightenment.

The Emptiness of the Z

Maybe I’ll mention this so you can meditate on it.

One thing you need to do is to realize how everything comes from the mind—hell and enlightenment, samsara and nirvana, happiness and problems, everything, like any relationship problems you are going through. That is the beginning, understanding how everything comes from the mind, how everything is created by the mind.

Here is a simple example. At the very beginning, when you were a small child, your teacher was the one who introduced you to the alphabet by writing the letters on the blackboard, like the letter Z [Rinpoche draws a letter “z” in the air]. The teacher drew three lines on the blackboard but, because she had not taught you yet that this was Z, you had no idea what it was. You had no idea this was a Z. It is Z but you didn’t see it. It was just [a horizontal line, a diagonal line and another horizontal line,] this, this, this [Rinpoche draws three lines in the air].

You just saw the lines. You didn’t see them as a Z because you didn’t have the appearance of this as a Z. Why? Because your mind hadn’t labeled “Z” on this. Then, your teacher taught you the label. So, there are these three lines that are the basis to be labeled “Z” and there is the label “Z.” They are not two separate things but they are two different things, like I and the aggregates.

In earlier times, when the teacher was young, she also learned that from somebody who believed that is Z, so now the teacher taught you what she believed. She taught you, “That is Z.” She put the label, and then you believed in what she explained because it was there on the blackboard. You believed it; your mind labeled “Z” relating to this base. You believed in that, and from that time on whenever there is that appearance to you, you think, “That is Z.” There is the whole evolution until you see the lines as a Z.

It is the same with the I, with the aggregates, with all phenomena—form, sound, smell, taste, tangible object, the mind, everything—it is the same as this example. That is how your mind creates things. Do you understand? Subject, object, everything, you create your I!

It is exactly the same. This is the meditation. It relates not only to Z but to everything, the whole of life—form, sound, smell, taste, tangible object, mind, subject, object, including the I, action, object, everything. So, meditate to enlighten your mind, not to make it more ignorant. Now you can see, the Z comes from your mind. It is very clear that it comes from your mind. It is not just blind faith. It is very clear.

Whatever you are trying to abandon, samsara, lower nirvana, and whatever you are trying to achieve, everything comes from the mind. The conclusion is that it comes from the mind; it is created by the mind. Like that, here, in the Kopan gompa, you see me, I see you, outside, inside, the sky, the trees—everything here that you see comes from our mind. Do you understand? Everything is like the Z, including you here taking precepts and the food you cannot eat.

So, meditate using this mindfulness, like how the Z comes from the mind. Actually this is a very important meditation. You need one month, one week. You can even do it on weekends. It can be weeks, months, years; it can be a lifetime practice.

This is the most important mindfulness practice, rather than “Oh, I’m walking,” “Oh, I’m doing this.” You can do the same thing with negative actions. “Oh, I’m stealing.” Whatever you are doing you can call that “I’m doing this.” The purpose of mindfulness should be to abandon negative karma, to transform the mind into virtue, to abstain from delusion and practice virtue to actualize the path. The purpose of mindfulness is that.

Even just that meditation is so important. In everyday life, wherever you are, West, East, not only in Nepal, to have this mindfulness is so important. Then if a problem comes to you, [Rinpoche snaps fingers] it doesn’t disturb you. It becomes insignificant. By thinking in that way, it gets pacified; it doesn’t become a big disturbance. It comes from your mind, so you can relax. Anyway, that is just the essence. So, 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 and suffering including enlightenment for me and for every sentient being, be generated in the hearts of all sentient beings who have been my own mother and have been unbelievably kind from beginningless rebirths.”

Of course, sentient beings who have met and who practice the Dharma are few, and those who do not know or practice the Dharma are numberless. The way they take care of you is with ignorance, anger, attachment, with the self-cherishing thought. They create unbelievable negative karma taking care of you and they have had unbelievable suffering from beginningless rebirths. In this lifetime, if you don’t practice the Dharma, if you don’t realize emptiness, you will get born in samsara and to them again, and then they will have to experience yet more of the most unbelievable suffering, without end.

Therefore, generate bodhicitta for all sentient beings, in particular the sentient beings of this world, in particular the sentient beings in Nepal, in particular in the hearts of all the students. “May all those who rely on me, who I promised to pray for, whose name was given to me, in the hearts of all of us here, including our family, those who are already dead, even including them. May bodhicitta be generated in their hearts and may bodhicitta be generated in any sentient being who sees me, who hears from me or about me, who remembers me, touches me, who hears my name, who mentions my name, who sees my photo or dreams of me; may bodhicitta to be generated in all their hearts, and in whose heart bodhicitta has been generated may it increase.

“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 we be guided by Lama Tsongkhapa; may he be our Mahayana virtuous friend in all lifetimes.”

This is to actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, [seeing them as] not separate from the Buddha’s teachings, as the most correct explanation of the Buddha’s teachings.

We pray for the world. “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 the wars that are happening now and will happen in the future be stopped immediately. May all disease and famine, including all problems coming from anger and attachment, be stopped immediately.”

For example, in California there is always the danger of fire, with even two or three fires happening at the same time. This has happened so many times. Can you imagine how many ants, how many insects, are killed? Even though their body is so small, their mind is just like ours; they want happiness and do not want suffering at all. Besides the big animals numberless tiny insects get burned. One young man caught a rabbit running into the fire. Normally when there are disasters like tsunamis, people don’t think of the animals, they only think of other people.

Yesterday there was a small earthquake here in Nepal. I thought sometimes with those small earthquakes it is because somebody has had a realization of bodhicitta, then the earthquake happens. Maybe it’s not an earthquake that destroys everything; it’s not necessarily bad all the time. All the global problems, ice melting, oceans washing away cities—there is so much danger, like what happened in Texas. Therefore, “May all those be stopped immediately. May perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s heart by generating loving kindness and compassion.

“May the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, from where sentient beings receive all peace and happiness, last a long time and may sentient beings meet the Buddhadharma, the Buddha’s teachings, and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.” Pray like that. We are responsible for the world. We have responsibility to pray for the world. We have to pray not only for our own happiness but the happiness of numberless sentient beings living in this world. It is very important.

“Due to all these merits, may we be able to cherish every single sentient being more than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels.”

There are numberless, numberless sentient beings, so, “May any sentient being who sees me, touches me, hears me, remembers me, see photos of me, dreams of me, just by that may they be free from all the sufferings and may they achieve all the happiness including enlightenment.

“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 but do not exist from their own side, which are totally empty from their own side, may the I, who exists but does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side, achieve buddhahood, which exists but does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty from their own side, to that buddhahood, which exists but does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side.”

Thank you very much.


Notes

18 Ch. 6, v. 1. [Return to text]

19 Quoted in Heart of the Path, p. 239. [Return to text]