WHAT RENUNCIATION MEANS

… to not engage any unwholesome action, any negative action, which not only results in the problems in this life and rebirth in the lower realms but also produces samsara and all the sufferings of samsara.

So, here we have to think of all the delusions, to not engage in any negative emotional thoughts and negative actions that cause problems in everyday life—on the same day, in the same hour as we generated the negative thoughts and the negative actions. Not only that, they cause problems at the time of death and in the life after this. Here we are not just talking about the lower realms but the whole of samsara, the general suffering of samsara, you can think like that.

The only result unwholesome actions produce is suffering, which is very extensive. That means every day of our life we need to not follow the painful mind, the negative emotional painful mind of attachment, which makes us engage in many negative karmas, harming ourselves, harming others, creating great confusion instead of bringing peace in many others’ lives. Then also in our daily life it brings another suffering, anger.

We need to abandon the dissatisfied, painful mind of attachment by practicing contentment, renunciation. For those who understand it, the word “renunciation” means something joyful; it refers to happiness and peace for ourselves and others. For those who understand exactly what it means, this is the meaning. But for those who do not understand “renunciation,” there could be a kind of fear, thinking it’s like putting ourselves into prison or torturing ourselves or sort of like losing something. That could be the connotation when we hear “renunciation.” If we don’t know what it really means, it could have a different effect.

Those who really understand “renunciation” understand that what has to be renounced is the cause of suffering, the negative emotional thoughts and actions that bring all the problems, all the confusion in this life and cause so much harm to others. For those who really understand, that is great joy; that is liberating ourselves from problems, from troubles. We renounce the negative emotional thoughts that bring so much confusion, disturbing our mental continuum and obscuring our mind. They do these two things that harm us: besides disturbing our mind, instead of enlightening us, awakening us, they obscure us. They obscure us from developing our mind and from seeing the reality of our own life, of our own mind, the ultimate nature of our mind, of the I, of phenomena and so forth. They only cause us to hallucinate more.

I think some translate renunciation as “emerging.” It has some meaning, like the lotus emerging from the mud. We were discussing the translation of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path, where sometimes they translate nge jung as “emerging.” There is some meaning, because after we let go of the attachment, we get liberation. We let go of our emotional, painful mind, the negative emotional thought, and by letting go, immediately, right there, wherever we are—sitting in the office or at home or on the meditation cushion, walking or eating—whenever that happens, immediately there is peace and contentment. We achieve satisfaction. We give ourselves freedom right there; we find peace and happiness in our heart right there, wherever we are.

Even in the middle of so much confusion with people, when our mind practices Dharma, we suddenly let go. We find peace right there, even though a lot of people are in chaos, even though there is mental war! People are completely confused, but we have found peace because we immediately practiced Dharma in the middle of that confusion. And, having found peace and happiness, we don’t have a problem. 

THE SHORTCOMINGS OF ATTACHMENT AND OTHER DELUSIONS

By letting go of the eight worldly concerns, the painful mind of attachment to this life, there is immediate peace and happiness right at that moment. And from there we go to liberation. Our mind achieves freedom from obstacles, this mind that is sticky like glue. That is another way of expressing attachment, like flies being attached to light and getting stuck when they jump into the candle wax. Their body is completely wrapped up with the hot wax. Like that example, that is what happens with attachment, the trouble we get into; we get attracted to the flames or the fire; we are drawn to it, not knowing its reality. I’m not talking about the flies not understanding emptiness, I am not talking about not understanding emptiness of the fire, but not understanding that the fire is so hot it burns. Hallucinated, they jump into it and get burned, and that’s the end of their life.

There are many examples like that illustrating the shortcomings of attachment. These are very good to meditate on. You should write down as many examples as possible and make a book of them! All the examples show how with attachment, we are trapped; we get completely—what is the word—consumed? We get consumed. Our whole life is like that. It’s like the fish which is so attached to the food that it doesn’t know there is a hook there and so it gets caught because of its attachment to the food. There is attachment to the food on the hook, it grasps at it, gets hooked and can’t get away. No matter how much it moves, it can’t get away. Then its body is cut into slices, even before it is dead. It happens many times like that because it is very important to have fresh fish.

We have a center in Italy, Muni Gyana Center. Is there an Italian here? I don’t think you would know the center. Do you? The Muni Gyana Center, a nice place, in Sicily or somewhere? [Student: Pisa.] Not Pisa. Anyway, it is a nice place.

There was a family I stayed with. The son used to sail a boat to catch and eat fish. He was talking about how he can get fresh fish. I don’t eat fish, I’m normally vegetarian, so I didn’t have any. Anyway, he was talking about how people don’t like old fish, only fresh ones. They should not even be completely dead. You just cut them and fry them or whatever, even when they are not completely dead.

Anyway, what I am saying? We are cheated by attachment; we have problems all day long. There is also an example explained in the teachings of catching an elephant. They put a male elephant or a female elephant there and it attracts the elephant they want to catch. I don’t remember very clearly. Anyway, that’s just an example from the teachings of the Buddha. There are many examples we can use in this life, for human beings, how attachment cheats us. We could make a whole book, even from our own experiences.

That would be very good. It would be a sort of very encouraging lamrim teaching, giving us inspiration to overcome attachment by seeing all the mistakes and shortcomings of attachment. Like if somebody tells us how another person is bad, we think of all the ways they harm us, and as we think more and more of that person we feel more and more aversion for them, instead of more attachment. When somebody we know has been cheating us our whole life, harming us so much, we feel more and more aversion and we don’t follow that person. Similar to that example, this is how we overcome attachment and the other delusions, such as anger. We need to meditate as extensively as possible on the shortcomings of those delusions. I think you probably have done some meditation on that.

Meditating as extensively as possible, as deeply as possible, on all the shortcomings of attachment and anger, we really feel disgusted, as I mentioned, like used toilet paper or like kaka, poopoo, or like a poisonous snake. We don’t go near it; we run as far away from it as we can. Those poisonous snakes or poisons or whatever, those external things, might cause death, but that just separates the consciousness from this body; it doesn’t mean we go to the lower realms. We could still go to a pure land where we can become enlightened. We never ever get reborn in the lower realm after we have been born in Amitabha’s pure land; we can develop the mind there and achieve the bhumis, and then be of unbelievable extensive benefit for sentient beings. We can come back in the world with total control, benefiting so many sentient beings in the suffering world. Or again we can take a perfect human rebirth and practice the Dharma continuously. So, even if it causes death, that just separates the consciousness from this body. That’s it. It doesn’t cause us to be reborn in the lower realms. But these negative emotional thoughts such as attachment are nonvirtue. Clinging to this life is pure nonvirtue.

As I mentioned the other day, all activities done with body, speech and mind clinging to this life become negative karma. In every twenty-four hours, whatever is done which is possessed by that mind, all activities of body, speech and mind. I wouldn’t translate the term as “accompanied” but “possessed” or “stained” by the attachment. Some translators use accompanied but that doesn’t make it clear. It comes over as a little bit strange—then you can’t transform nonvirtue—but with possessed, because they are stained by attachment, all the activities become negative karma, nonvirtue.

If our activities are possessed by non-anger, non-envy, non-ignorance, non-attachment and especially based on bodhicitta, compassion, of course whatever activity we do becomes the cause of enlightenment.

[Doing activities] with these negative, emotional thoughts is pure nonvirtue, which throws us into the lower realms. If the action is heavy, we can go to a hell realm, which we will have abide in and experience for what could be many, many eons, like billions and billions of years in the human realm.

So, when we meditate, it is very important to think of all the shortcomings of attachment. If we have problems with anger, it’s also similar. Or if our problem is jealousy or pride, in the same way, we can analyze the shortcomings, seeing all the problems they cause, how they obscure our mind from having realizations of guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages [of Highest Yoga Tantra], how they block us from actualizing the path.

Pride, for instance, has its own negative results, many things. It is said in the Buddha’s teachings that we will be reborn in poverty, as a lower caste being, lower than everybody, and we will have very little freedom. Everybody puts us down. We can be born blind or with little power, little capacity; we can have a bad color. Pride is a big obstacle for us to progress mentally, even to getting a general education, not only a Dharma education. It becomes a big obstacle for attainment. Pride doesn’t even allow us to become a better person. We don’t want to learn from others because of pride. Because of pride, we don’t want to respect others who are more educated, more experienced than us, and we don’t respect those on the same level or lower than us. With pride, we are so arrogant, which also disturbs others.

In this way, each delusion has its own problems. We can meditate on the many shortcomings of the delusions from not only the texts but also from our own experience and from seeing others, how they must suffer and experience all the shortcomings of those delusions. It is very good to write down these shortcomings when we do the meditation. In other words, we should research the shortcomings to be as clear as possible. This is very useful, very inspiring to develop patience and to be able to overcome anger.

Similarly, with compassion, doing very sharp and profound analysis of all the shortcomings of the self-cherishing thought inspires us to have aversion to it, which means we can overcome it and develop loving kindness, compassion and the thought of cherishing others by seeing all their benefits.

This is like following a friend with many mistakes, who engages in many negative karmas, and becoming like that friend. By following a good person with lots of qualities like wisdom and compassion, who engages in positive actions, who practices contentment, who benefits other sentient beings, we are very inspired by their positive example and we become like that, a good human being.

In Tibet, there is a story of two people, one who was an alcoholic and one who didn’t drink alcohol. Both of them went to Lhasa and the one who didn’t drink at all met a friend who drank, who was an alcoholic, and he became an alcoholic, whereas the other one who drank alcohol met a friend who didn’t drink and he stopped drinking alcohol; he became a non-drinker. This shows the influence of friends.

Just to conclude, meditating on the shortcomings of the negative emotional thought of attachment and being able to see it as disgusting, we develop aversion for it; we are able to let it go. Then, as I mentioned before, there is such great peace in our day-to-day life. The profit we get is that in that moment we have so much peace and happiness, on that day, in this life and then in future lives. That positive imprint left on the mind affects our future lives and from life to life we go from happiness to happiness, closer and closer to liberation and enlightenment. This is the benefit we get.

If none of these negative emotional thoughts are there, by cutting the attachment scattering thought and sinking thought, there is no obstacle for meditation, no obstacle for achieving shamatha, calm abiding. This is true of general meditation but especially this one. It is very easy to achieve this.

WITH ATTACHMENT SHAMATHA IS IMPOSSIBLE

Once we are able to overcome worldly concerns, attachment to this life, with a realization of impermanence and death—with a meditation on these three basic things—this is the method to overcome attachment and we are able to practice pure morality. Our morality doesn’t degenerate; our mind is always kept pure, so it is very easy to achieve this perfect meditation. Then, after we achieve this perfect meditation, shamatha, it is very easy to keep our mind in virtue in our daily life, without much effort at all. Then, it is very easy to achieve the realizations because we have perfect concentration with anything we meditate on.

Not only the Buddhist path has shamatha, zhi nä, calm abiding; even Hinduism has it, and not only a similar method but even a fully characterized one. When Hindu meditators go through this, they can be reborn in the form and formless realms through using these meditations as the basis.

In Hinduism, they can go to the form and formless realm through meditation but here, as a Buddhist, the experience becomes very special. Why? Because it is done with refuge, with reliance on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. That makes the meditation on that very special and it makes the experience of it very special. And also, if it is done with bodhicitta, it becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment, or if it is done with renunciation, it becomes the cause to achieve liberation from samsara, so there is a huge difference between this and the Hindu meditation.

Even though it is the same meditation, it is how it is used, how it is done, with these other mental qualities—renunciation, bodhicitta and refuge—which are not there in the Hindu meditation. It becomes the antidote to cut the root of samsara if it’s done with right view. That helps very much to achieve great insight, derived from the extremely refined virtuous ecstasy of the body and mind, while analyzing in equipoise meditation, like a fish swimming in the water without disturbing the surface. Meditating on emptiness unified with the shamatha, derived from those experiences, leads to the direct perception of emptiness, the exalted arya path, which ceases the defilements, the gross, disturbing-thought obscurations. Then, if it is done with bodhicitta, it also ceases the subtle obscurations as well. Continuing that direct perception of emptiness with the support of bodhicitta, we are able to achieve full enlightenment.

We cannot achieve this perfect meditation, shamatha, if we have a mind full of expectations and worldly concerns, seeking the pleasures of this life. I can use the example of thinking about getting married. If we are meditating, trying to achieve zhi nä in a very isolated place, but at the same time we are thinking about getting married to somebody, our life becomes very confused. We are trying to achieve this perfect meditation to achieve shamatha, where we need to cut off all these things, but at the same time we are engaging in these distractions as well, distractions that won’t allow that. It’s like trying to walk with our two legs but putting one leg in one direction and one leg in the other! When we try to achieve zhi nä in an isolated place but at the same time we are thinking about all the things we want, what happens with that kind of thought is that we get lung. We get luuuuuuung! That’s probably a new term for those who have come for the first time. The Tibetan term lung—today is the day to hear about lung, wind disease.

Our mind becomes very confused and we cannot achieve shamatha; we cannot achieve perfect meditation at all. We get lung and we get angry with the guru who told us to do the calm abiding meditation; we develop heresy and anger with the guru who gave us the instruction, because our mind is clinging to some other things of this life’s pleasures, which disturbs us from achieving this realization. This is not what we want! We have some other goals but what guru said was opposite to our goals. It becomes like that. We can’t have both.

Another example a Kadampa geshe uses is a two-pointed needle, one with two points but no eye. Such a needle can’t sew! I am using this as an example so you can understand clearly. Then, we get angry at the guru or we develop heresy because what we wanted was [zhi nä] and also the samsaric pleasure of this life, both those things. Clinging to that, we create the very heavy negative karma of heresy and anger, which becomes an obstacle, blocking us from achieving realizations. Then, we can get lung and then many things happen, and we have to stop the meditation. I have heard quite a number of stories like that.

I am talking here about the shortcomings of attachment to this life. We let go of worldly attachment by thinking of its shortcomings. Thinking of it as a spear stabbing us powerfully, we feel disgust, aversion for it, and that encourages us to abandon it. It’s like having eaten poisonous food; as soon as we feel the pain of the poison inside us, we want to get it out. Or like a fire spark jumping onto our body—when we feel the pain, the shortcomings, we immediately want to throw them away. I think these examples are used in Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend. He used those examples of how to let go of the delusions when they arise.

Without them, we are able to go from happiness to happiness. It is so easy to achieve the realizations of the path, including shamatha and pure morality. With pure morality we are able to practice without any difficulties. Then, we can have a good rebirth in our next life and go from happiness to happiness. We are able to achieve liberation, the total cessation of the oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, karma and delusions. This helps us to achieve that huge goal. Then, even more important than that, we are able to attain enlightenment for sentient beings.

This is what we get by letting go the negative emotional thoughts. What we get is like skies of happiness up to enlightenment. We have happiness from life to life; we have all the realizations, pure morality, perfect meditation, all this success, all the realizations of the path to liberation and enlightenment. This is what we get. If we think in a business way, by letting go of attachment this is what we get.

We have to remember that all the time; we have to remember it every day, otherwise our mind will be full of delusions, delusions that are so powerful, like a waterfall, like a hailstorm. They are so strong and we are so weak. If we don’t think of this every day, even we don’t achieve liberation now, even if we cannot control delusions now, immediately, we have to continue every day. We might miss but we have to put effort into this; we have to continue and try.

DON’T BE SHORTSIGHTED

My teacher Geshe Sopa Rinpoche told the Sangha, the monks and nuns, that our morality can degenerate so easily, like rocks falling down a mountain. He advised [maintaining our morality] is like pushing a heavy rock up a mountain; we have to push a little bit and then a bit more, then gradually, little by little, we can get it to the top! We have to try like that. It is not easy because delusions are so powerful. That is why so far, from beginningless rebirths up to now, we haven’t become totally liberated from the suffering of samsara.

But if we put effort in like Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, we can gradually change the mind into bodhicitta from self-cherishing thought. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha put effort and collected merit for three countless great eons, practicing the six paramitas. He worked so hard for us sentient beings. For three countless great eons he sacrificed his life. Even when he was born as a king, he gave up his life, his family, his children, his wealth. He gave it all up for us, making charity to other beings, even making charity of his family members and wealth to others, not just during one life but in many lifetimes. He made charity to many sentient beings in many millions of lifetimes, giving even his whole body to ants and tigers. At Namo Buddha in Nepal, the Buddha gave his holy body as charity to the tiger. It is still a holy place we can go to see.

He sacrificed his life like this for three countless great eons for us sentient beings, for every one of us here. The Buddha worked so hard to complete the two types of merit—the merit of fortune and the merit of wisdom—and achieved the two kayas, to be able to reveal the Dharma, the path, to us sentient beings without any mistake. With perfect compassion and the power of omniscience, he revealed to us the unmistaken path to liberation and enlightenment. Even though we cannot see the Buddha, we can see his teachings. We can study his teachings that he himself experienced, that he himself went through and proved they worked.

As I have mentioned at other times, there are numberless sentient beings who have achieved enlightenment in different countries. We can read their life stories that tell how they practiced, how they achieved realizations, stories like Milarepa’s life story, like Lama Tsongkhapa’s. There are many life stories from the four Tibetan Mahayana traditions, stories of the many great pandits who achieved realizations.

I must bring my talk back to the original topic!

Already numberless sentient beings, not only Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, have become enlightened. They were the same as us; they all had delusions, difficulties, problems, but they continuously put effort into developing their mind in the path from life to life, just as the Buddha had for eons.

We should plan in the same way, instead of thinking that by doing some meditation we will achieve enlightenment within few years. Or after a one-month’s meditation course we will become enlightened! At the end of his teachings to Tibetans, His Holiness the Dalai Lama specifically often advises Western students that we shouldn’t be shortsighted, thinking that we will achieve enlightenment after practicing for a very short time. We shouldn’t think like that; we must plan for many hundreds of lifetimes. I don’t remember what he said word-for-word, but it is something like if we plan to practice Dharma for a long time, if we put effort in for a long time, then it is possible to achieve enlightenment in a short time, without taking much time. But if we don’t have a plan like that, if we are shortsighted, thinking it is very easy and quick to have realizations and achieve enlightenment, that becomes an obstacle. When we can’t, we get disappointed and we give up. This is more or less what His Holiness said.

Therefore, as Geshe Sopa explained, if the rock is heavy but we push it up little by little, by continuing every day, after some time we will be able to reach the top of the hill. Then, when we achieve the exalted arya path, by achieving the path of meditation, we are able to remove even the seed of delusion, making it impossible for karma and delusions to arise. After that, there will be no more rebirth, no more death, no more suffering forever.

It needs continual effort. Because our mind is habituated to anger, attachment, delusions, being under their control from beginningless rebirth, it is not easy. We have to understand why it is not easy to practice patience. It is even difficult to remember when a delusion is about to arise. Even though we might know every Buddhist text very well by heart and all the meditation techniques, when we encounter a situation that causes a delusion to arise, it is still hard to remember the meditation technique at that time. Totally overwhelmed by delusion, besides applying the technique, we can’t even remember it. It’s not easy but we have to put effort. Then the mind becomes more conscientious, more thoughtful; then we are able to remember more and more of the meditation techniques and are able to apply them more and more. Even though we do miss sometimes, we are also able to practice sometimes, and if we continue we will be able to practice more and more. We won’t miss so much, we will be able to practice even more, and then we will win over the delusions more and more.

THE MIND CAN BE TRAINED

The whole thing is that we need mind training. From beginningless rebirths our mind has been trained in the delusions, and now we have to put in so much effort to train our mind in the path, in virtue, in the Dharma.

It is said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by the bodhisattva Shantideva,

There is nothing whatsoever
That is not made easier through acquaintance.

That is the nature of the mind. The mind can be changed because the mind is a dependent arising; it is dependent on causes and conditions. Dependent on negative causes and conditions, the mind becomes deluded, angry, and all those poisonous minds arise due to self-cherishing. And dependent on positive causes and conditions, the mind becomes positive. Instead of ignorance, there is wisdom, contentment, renunciation, patience, bodhicitta and so forth. Because the mind is a dependent arising, depending on causes and conditions, it can change. If it was not a dependent arising, if it didn’t depend on causes and conditions, it would be permanent, it would be unable to change. Because it is impermanent, it can change, it can be made better—all the way up to omniscience.

As I am mentioning this part, I think there is another extremely essential advice. What we have to remember is that our mind has been habituated not just in this one life. The continuity of our mind did not begin with our birth; it has no beginning, so it has been habituated with delusions from beginningless rebirths. Therefore, how can we expect it to be easy to have realizations or even to change the mind? We must train for eons, for many hundreds of lifetimes, to work for it to become better from life to life, and then to achieve liberation and enlightenment.

With continual effort, even though we might miss some practice, doing the commitments or doing those lamrim practices, transforming the mind, if we miss sometimes, we must try to continue. I think that is the most important thing. Our mind can be so easily affected and then we can become discouraged. Then we become so weak and depressed and we can’t do anything. We cannot let ourselves put ourselves down like that. That is not wise. We need continual effort.

I’m not sure whether there is a good example. Do you see a flea here? Anyone who has seen a flea here is very fortunate! I am joking. Anyway, a flea jumps all over the place but doesn’t reach [its destination], whereas a turtle goes very slowly, but it can climb over the mountain. It goes slowly but it can make it by going continuously, whereas the flea jumping all over the place can’t make it! It’s similar to that.

What is the time now? My watch says it is after HUM! Twenty-three minutes after HUM!

[Rinpoche speaks to someone in Tibetan]

Exactly like that! This is the same!

How I see it, I think to progress, we need continuity. That is another extremely important instruction, something that we have to keep in mind and remember. It helps us to not get discouraged and depressed, to not feel we are hopeless. Through continual effort we can overcome (the delusions). As I mentioned before, not only Shakyamuni Buddha, but numberless sentient beings have achieved liberation and full enlightenment, even though they were same as us with all the delusions, all the problems.

THE SIGNS ON RINPOCHE’S CAR

Do you remember, I put these labels on the bottom part of one of the cars we have in America? Remember? Not the front. “By letting go of desire you achieve happiness.” I can’t remember now but I put this label around for advertising! One of the cars has this. There are many messages around the car. “The source of happiness is cherishing others” is one message on the car. Another one is what His Holiness said, “My religion is kindness” but I added the words, “to all,” “kindness to all.” That means without discrimination against animals, human beings, any other being, whoever they are, kindness to all. And on the back of the car, “Anybody who sees, touches, remembers or thinks about this car, may they be free from hardship, may they be free from all the sufferings and may they achieve full enlightenment.” That’s how it’s dedicated.

I heard at the airport, after seeing that, an elderly lady touched the car and copied down the whole thing. I think many people have copied the signs. On the road, while they are driving, they see it from behind and become very curious about who the driver is. Then, they come this way to check the driver. Many times it is Roger. They are very curious; maybe they think Mickey Mouse is driving the car!

And at the front there are lots of mantras—I think it might look like another toy—all for education on how to benefit sentient beings. It is not a waste of time to put a lot of mantras there and also inside. We drove to Wisconsin to take teachings from Geshe Sopa Rinpoche. As soon as Geshe Sopa Rinpoche retired from university, he started giving courses every year. Not every time, but I went to a course there a number of times from California.

At certain times, day and night—of course, at nighttime there are more flies at the farm places—many insects crashed onto the windshield and died, even in the daytime. The first time that happened, there was another monk there, Roger Munro, who did a three-year Heruka retreat and then a three-year Yamantaka retreat, reciting many hundreds of thousands of mantras and a hundred thousand fire pujas. He has done many other retreats, but these were the two major retreats he has already done. Now, he wants to do a Guhyasamaja three-year retreat. He was there with us, and sometimes Roger would drive and sometimes he would drive.

At night in the hotel, we lit a lot of candles and he did a self-initiation to help all those insects who died. I did other prayers for those who died, to purify the negative karma, but I didn’t get the self-initiation done.

We were discussing what could be done. Roger suggested putting something in front of the car, like plastic, but it didn’t seem to help much. Anyway, we sometimes tried to visualize the wind going from the car or from Chenrezig, sending wind to the insects to keep them away! It looked like sometimes it could help. I’m not sure; it might be my superstition.

So, the idea came to put those very powerful mantras for purification on the car so when the wind touches the mantras and then touches those beings, their negative karma gets purified and they get a higher rebirth. I think we had maybe eleven different mantras printed on the car. When we were in Wisconsin, we wrote the mantras and somebody put them into a computer [file] and we gave it to the shop. The mantras of all these deities, Buddha, Tara, Chenrezig and so forth, were put in different places around the outside of the car. It was a shop in Madison that did all this work, and I heard that the lady in the shop said that this was the only time they had done something meaningful. I heard that through Roger Munro, Paula or somebody who went to pick up those things from the shop. The shop lady said this was the only meaningful thing she did in her life. That’s quite interesting; I think maybe it benefited her too. 

The pictures of the Buddha and other deities were placed around to purify other sentient beings when we drove in the city. When the car went to many places, others got the chance to see the buddhas and the holy objects, purifying their minds and planting the seed of enlightenment on their minds. It purified their defilements and created inconceivable merit and planted the seed of enlightenment for those other sentient beings who saw it. It has unbelievable skies of benefit just seeing enlightened beings, the holy objects, even pictures.

GURU DEVOTION AND PURIFICATION

I think maybe I should tell you this. It is important to understand. I want to mention two things, so you get to understand the importance of the practice of offerings when you do a sadhana or a meditation, when so many different offerings come. You have to understand why it is so important. It also becomes an explanation about good karma, how it creates the most powerful, most extensive good karma, or merit, or good luck or whatever you want to call it. It is very important to not only know the negative side, the negative karma, but also to know the positive side as extensively as possible. Life has incredible opportunities for us to change for the better. I think it is very important to know these values, otherwise we just think, “Oh, I am going to meditate.” We sit like this, trying to concentrate on something, but it doesn’t get us anywhere; nothing much happens. Then, sometimes in our meditation we get discouraged. Not knowing how to meditate, our mind becomes dull; we lose our intelligence. If we don’t know how to meditate, the mind spaces out, staying in that state for a long time, and we lose the sharpness of wisdom. The mind becomes duller, more forgetful, when we meditate on nothingness, when we meditate on stopping all the thoughts. We stop the intelligent path, analyzing, we meditate on nothingness, we stop thinking, and we think that is the dharmakaya or something. Then, we have achieved nothing, and many other mistakes arise. Then, we can take rebirth in the animal realm; the result is we are reborn as a very foolish animal. 

My guru, His Holiness Zong Rinpoche, who has already passed away, was a great scholar and a highly enlightened being. He has now reincarnated and is studying in the monastery. Rinpoche said that meditating like this, you get born as a foolish animal or the best thing that you can achieve is the formless realm where there is one realm called “nothingness.” You can get born there.

So anyway, just meditating on words, we neither collect merit nor do any purification, so we cannot really progress; we cannot really change the mind. To even plant a seed in the ground, we need the right soil, we need water, we need many conditions so the seed can sprout when everything comes together. It’s the same here. To have realizations, because it has all the potential, like the seed, we need to receive the blessing of the guru in the heart, therefore we need to develop guru devotion. From that, we receive the blessing of the guru, and from that we receive the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

So, guru yoga is a very, very essential thing. And the other one is purifying the obstacles, the defilements, negative karma, by practices such as Vajrasattva. Tonight, I am supposed to give the permission to practice Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva is a purification practice to pacify all defilements and obstacles and the means of collecting the necessary conditions, the means to collect merit. These methods are usually mentioned with the mandala offerings and those things.

Here, I want to say, if we can keep it in the heart. I will mention this first. First is guru devotion, one-pointedly requesting the guru to grant blessings, realizations. Second is purification, purifying the obstacles and defilements, the negative karma, as well as collecting merit, which are necessary conditions. Then third is the actual body of the practice, meditating on the path. 

The actual body, meditating on the path, becomes successful if we do the practice to receive the blessing of the guru, with guru devotion single-pointedly requesting for blessings to attain the path. That is the cause to receive the blessing of the guru in our heart, like pouring water on the seed planted in the ground. Then, our mind becomes soft. Our heart becomes softened, given a chance to change, by the wetness, by the blessing of the guru. Then, there is the purification and collecting merit. So then, even if we do very little of the actual body of the meditation, we make great progress. We go very fast and have great success; we achieve many attainments. If we do these other things, if we then put effort into the actual meditation on the path, the actual body, even if very little of that is done, it has great effect to make great progress.

Since I brought up this issue, even though there are so many practices to purify and collect merit, what I would like to mention is where you should focus your mind, which has the greatest benefit for all this—purifying defilements, collecting extensive merit and helping us have quick realizations. What has the greatest profit? Maybe you haven’t heard much about the subject of guru devotion, I am not sure. It might be new to those who are here for the first time.

CHERISHING OTHERS IS THE CAUSE OF ALL HAPPINESS

The one thing is compassion, bodhicitta, the thought of cherishing other sentient beings, as is mentioned in the Guru Puja text:

LC 92: The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

That includes all the realizations up to enlightenment, the qualities of cessation of all the wrong concepts, all the defilements, and the qualities of all the realizations up to omniscience. From the root, the realization of guru devotion, up to the state of omniscience. The quality of cessation is having ceased the negative thoughts, from the thought of mistakes toward the virtuous friend, from there up to subtle dual view, the last defilement.

So “cherishes mothers and places them in bliss is the gateway leading to infinite qualities” means all that. It means all the happiness including day-to-day peace and happiness—from there, everything, the happiness of all the future lives, up to liberation and enlightenment. Cherishing others, the thought of leading others into happiness, is the door to receive all this happiness.

“Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these migratory beings more than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies,” means not only in our family but everybody, even those who become our enemy, at home or in the office, somebody who harms us, abuses us, whatever, not just our whole family becoming our enemy, which would be so sad; but the whole neighborhood, the whole country, however many millions of people there are. Even if they are all angry with us, even if they are all our enemies—everyone in this world—this prayer is that we are able to cherish them all more than our life. This is the prayer we do in the Guru Puja.

When we do prayers such as those in the Guru Puja, we should meditate on the meaning, not just recite the prayer, because of the benefits. As I explained before, no question if we cherish all sentient beings, if we cherish one person, one insect, the thought of bringing that sentient being into happiness is the door to receive infinite qualities and all the happiness up to enlightenment.

That means that we get this from each sentient being, by cherishing each of them with the thought of leading them into happiness. Therefore, the benefit we get from just the thought to cause happiness to somebody is the door to receive infinite qualities and all the happiness. So, you can see here, that being becomes the most precious one, the most precious one. That being becomes wish-fulfilling for us, bringing us all our wishes, all our happiness. This includes the being we call the enemy, the one who abuses or criticizes us, who dislikes us or whatever. Therefore, here the practice is to ask for these blessings. 

To harm or hurt that most precious sentient being, that kindest sentient being who fulfills all our wishes for happiness, to take revenge or to hurt that being is most foolish. We are harming the root of our happiness, where we get all these qualities, all this happiness up to enlightenment; we are harming that foundation or that root. That is most foolish, most ignorant.

So here, requesting the blessing of the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, it makes sense when we say we should cherish sentient beings more than our life, even if they should rise up as our enemies.

With the self-cherishing thought we renounce all these most precious sentient beings. To be happy ourselves we renounce them, we harm numberless others of these most precious sentient beings. With the self-cherishing thought it is like that. It is what prevents us causing all the happiness up to enlightenment for sentient beings with bodhicitta. And also achieving all happiness up to enlightenment for ourselves is blocked by the self-cherishing thought, cherishing the I and renouncing others. That is the opposite to this prayer.

There is another prayer in the Guru Puja,

LC 94: Cherishing myself is the doorway to all loss,
While cherishing my mothers is the foundation of all qualities.
Hence, I seek your blessings to make my heart practice
The yoga of exchanging myself for other.

There are so many practices but this is the heart practice.

As I was saying, in order to develop the mind in the path to liberation and enlightenment, and then to liberate numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment, which is the purpose of our life and our goal, we need to purify the defilements, the obstacles, the negative karma and we need to collect merit. There are so many practices we can do for that, but I want to mention the one thing is bodhicitta. It is the most important thing to concentrate on in our life. That is the one thing; cherishing others, the thought of seeking happiness for others is that which does everything.

As I mentioned before, there is no question about cherishing numberless others, even cherishing one sentient being, one insect, the advantage we get from that—the happiness and qualities—is like the limitless sky. So, doing this practice becomes incredible purification; it purifies many lifetimes of negative karma and collects extensive merit.

GURU DEVOTION

That is one thing I wanted to say that we should concentrate on. There are so many practices but the most profitable thing we can concentrate on, the one that allows us to achieve all other things, is bodhicitta. The other one is the guru devotion practice. This is just very short, just the essence.

Looking at the guru devotion practice from the disciple’s side, first we need to analyze the guru. Then, after we have found our guru, we need to make a Dharma connection by receiving any teachings, whether it is oral transmission or commentary or the vows or initiation, whatever. Now, a good way to practice is by looking at our ordinary mind, the mind that sees the guru and the Buddha as separate beings. We prove to that ordinary mind through reasoning and quotations what Buddha Vajradhara has said, in many quotations, such as,

I will work for sentient beings by manifesting as Indra and Brahma and sometimes in the form of a mara, but people in the world will be unable to recognize me. I will also manifest in the form of women and even in the animal realm. Even though I don’t have attachment, I will act as if I have attachment; even though I do not have fear, I will act afraid; even though I am not crazy, I will act crazy; even though I am not blind, I will act as if I am blind. With various forms, I will subdue sentient beings. To sentient beings with strong anger, I will manifest as having strong anger. To sentient beings with great attachment, I will manifest as having great attachment in order to guide them. Like this, I will manifest in whatever form fits sentient beings.

There are so many quotations like this. And then we should analyze our own experiences and prove to ourselves that they are one. When we see this, we see the guru only has qualities, having no mistakes. Then, the pure mind of devotion arises. As I mentioned before, that becomes the cause to receive blessings and from that we receive realizations of the path to enlightenment. 

After we achieve the perfect quality of cessation of all the mistakes of mind, all the delusions—from the thought of mistakes toward the guru up to the subtle dualistic view—and we achieve all the qualities of realization, then we can do perfect work for sentient beings, freeing them from all the suffering and its causes, bringing them to enlightenment, just as when the sun rises it is naturally reflecting on wherever there is water, in the ocean, the streams or rivers, on dewdrops on plants. The sun reflects everywhere without any motivation, without any effort. Like that, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] we are able to work for sentient beings spontaneously, until every single suffering being is brought to enlightenment.

This is the main reason to practice guru devotion. This is the point we have to understand. This is what we have to practice for the success of all the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

We don’t need to practice guru devotion if this is not our goal. If it is not to benefit other sentient beings, if this is not the object of our life, to be free from samsara and actualize the path, to achieve ultimate happiness, then we don’t need to actualize the path, we don’t need to practice guru devotion. This is something I want to clarify. It is important to understand why this meditation has to be done.

It is a process. To be able to complete a function, even for a machine, there must be a process. Even if we are making a painting, there is a process. First, we have the base, then we take a pencil and draw the outline, then we complete it [by coloring it]. There is a whole process. Like that, for the mind to be enlightened, there is a process. That is how it works.

The mind of pure devotion protects us from all those wrong concepts, from heresy, anger and so forth toward the virtuous friend, who is the most powerful holy object in our life. The person we have received the Dharma connection from is the most powerful object, more powerful than our parents, than an ordained person, than the arhats, than the bodhisattvas, than the buddhas, more powerful than even all the numberless bodhisattvas and buddhas. If we obey the guru’s advice even a little and please the holy mind, or we do a little service or pay a little respect, because it is the most powerful holy object, the good karma we create is most powerful, the result is unbelievable; the happiness that results is the greatest. Then, if a little negativity is done, the negative karma is also so powerful; we have to endure the suffering for an incredibly long time.

It is not like the Christian way, that even if we don’t believe in God we are in hell forever. Here in Buddhism we can change, we can purify. The difference is that, because this is all to do with our mind. We can purify, we can achieve enlightenment. All sentient beings can achieve enlightenment.

I also want to mention, it is said in the teachings that those practicing Buddhadharma at this time—taking the eight Mahayana precepts and so forth—will become enlightened. There are a thousand buddhas of this age, and those who practice will become enlightened during these times. Of course, we have to put effort in from our side, that means to practice. Then it can happen. This is mentioned in texts by some great lamas. We are unbelievably fortunate. There are so many things we have yet to discover to show us how we are so fortunate. We have met Buddhadharma in general, and especially Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, and specifically the lamrim, the heart of the Buddhadharma. There are so many things to discover, showing how we are so fortunate.

Coming back to what I am saying, whether we need to practice guru devotion or not depends on our objective. If those are the objectives of our life, we need to do it. As I mentioned before, there are many processes, even making a painting or using machines, so it’s similar here. Inside the process for the mind, the way our mind develops up to liberation and enlightenment, we need that. It works like that; this is how we can remove all the sufferings that I mentioned and achieve all the qualities and attain omniscience. Whether we need this process or not depends on our objective, the goal of our life, the purpose of our life.

One thing. To concentrate our life so there is the practice of guru devotion every day, by following the guru’s advice with guru devotion and offering the guru service, whatever, this is the most powerful thing in life we can do.

This is important to understand. Normally, we feel that this life’s parents are more powerful than outside people; those who gave us this body are more powerful objects than others, so to show them some small respect or give them some small service is very powerful good karma. Because of that good karma we can see the result of happiness in this life. You might have gone through this in the teaching on karma. In Tibetan it says, “You create the cause in this life and you see the result in this life.” We will not see other results until our next lives; it may be only after many billions of eons that we experience the results. So, our parents are powerful, and even a small disrespect or small harm, hurting our parents of this life, that negative karma is so powerful that we will experience the suffering result, the problems, in this life.

A more powerful object than our parent is an ordained person; it doesn’t have to be an arya being, just an ordained person. Similarly, every small harm or whatever, any disrespect we show, that negative karma is very powerful and we receive the suffering result in this life. That doesn’t mean only this life, we will experience it in many future lifetimes, but we start to experience it in this life because the karma is so powerful. And even a small, good thing, doing service, making an offering with respect or whatever, the good karma is so powerful that we start to experience the result in this life, and then for many eons, for many hundreds of thousands of lifetimes.

Of the numberless arhats and one bodhisattva who has just generated bodhicitta, that new bodhisattva is more powerful than all the numberless arhats. It is said in the lamrim teachings, if we look at one bodhisattva with... I always have difficulty with this... looking at one bodhisattva piercing huh, huh? [Student: Piercingly.] Looking at one bodhisattva piercingly. When we are angry at somebody, we look at them like this, piercingly! If we glare at a bodhisattva like this, this is more powerful negative karma than taking out the eyes of all the sentient beings of the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. Looking at one bodhisattva like this, piercingly, disrespectfully, in anger, is much heavier than taking out the eyeballs of all the three-realm beings, and in each realm there are numberless sentient beings. It is that heavy because of the bodhicitta of the bodhisattva, who is therefore very holy and very powerful. Looking at the bodhisattva with respect, with a devotional calm mind—I don’t know how to do that look!— creates far greater merit than making the charity of the eyes to all the three-realm sentient beings. It is extremely powerful.

Then, of all the numberless bodhisattvas and one buddha, one buddha is far more powerful, because of having ceased all the mistakes of mind and completed all the qualities of realizations.

Now, between the numberless buddhas and one guru, one guru is more powerful.

That power is not truly existent; it is a dependent arising, existing by depending on causes and conditions. The minute we think of somebody as a guru, with the recognition of them as guru, and we receive even three syllables of mantra or a stanza of an oral transmission or commentary or vows, whatever—with that recognition of guru-disciple when the Dharma connection is made, at that time that person becomes the most powerful one. The teacher becomes our guru and they are the most powerful person in our life. It is a dependent arising, dependent on causes and conditions, not independent, not truly existent from its own side. Understand?

Therefore, what I am saying here, following even a small advice of the guru or offering a small service, done with guru devotion, with that positive mind, becomes the most powerful good karma. It has more merit than having made offering to numberless buddhas. I didn’t get to explain! I was going to explain before the power of making offering to Buddha, even seeing the Buddha’s pictures, but I got started on the car and was distracted. My mind went some other way!

However, with devotion, following even a small advice, doing a small service or offering—even a small offering—is more powerful than having made offerings to all the numberless buddhas, the numberless Dharma, the numberless Sangha, the numberless statues, the numberless stupas, the numberless scriptures in all the directions, not only in this universe but also other universes. Even offering perfume to one pore of the guru, a drop of perfume, the merit we collect is like having made offering to the numberless buddhas. As I mentioned before, it is more merit than having made offerings to numberless Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the numberless statues, stupas and scriptures. Even a drop of perfume on the pores—not the money purse, the pores!—even one drop offering on one pore. There is a quotation in the teachings, I am not just making it up. It is a quotation from the major tantra text.

Therefore, this is the easiest way to collect the most extensive merit and receive the greatest purification.

With this devotion, the main thing is following the advice. It doesn’t mean to be physically with the guru and doing service. The main thing is following the guru’s advice with body, speech and mind, always pleasing the virtuous friend. The next one is service, respect. The last one is to make offerings to the guru if we have offerings we can give, but that’s not so important. Milarepa, who didn’t have anything, said, “I don’t have any material possessions to offer but I offer my practice as an offering, repaying the kindness of the guru like that.”

So now here, I already mentioned bodhicitta, which is what we should concentrate on in our daily life for great success. The other one for great success for all this is purification and collecting merit in order to achieve realizations and attain enlightenment, to be able to do perfect work for sentient beings. Another one is guru devotion. There are many other practices but I want to say what is the most profitable, the heart practice.

With guru devotion, everything else happens. We are able to accomplish everything, gaining the most extensive merit, doing the most purification. It’s the quickest way to have the realizations of the path to enlightenment. There are many stories of the yogis in the past, the lineage lamas of the lamrim, who had great realizations from the guru devotion practice.

When somebody has very strong devotion, everything they do is guru yoga. With very strong guru devotion, everything they do is according to the guru’s wishes, according to the holy mind of the guru, not according to their own self-cherishing thought but only according to the guru’s wishes, dedicated to that. Whatever that person does—eating food, sleeping, whatever they do—everything is guru yoga. It becomes like that.

That is part of the subject at the moment. I think I’ll stop here. I am not going to continue about the car, about the buddhas, all the benefits. Another time maybe. But it is important, very important; we should all know how important it is, otherwise we become ignorant. There is something in our life we can do which is so unbelievably easy, the greatest way to create the cause of happiness. It is so easy to achieve realizations, so easy to achieve enlightenment, so easy to benefit other sentient beings. If we don’t know that we can do this, if we don’t know about this great opportunity and we don’t get to practice; this life is not long, we don’t have this precious human body all the time. Death can come at any time. If we don’t know this, we miss out on this incredible opportunity.

DEDICATIONS

[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

“Due to all the three-time merit collected by me, the three-time merit collected by others, may the gurus have long and stable lives, especially His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Buddha of Compassion, and may all their holy wishes be actualized immediately.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, that which exists but which is empty, may the I who exists but who is empty, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is empty, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who are empty, to that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is empty, by myself alone, who exists but who is empty.

“Due to all the merits, may I be able to follow the holy extensive deeds of the Buddha Samantabhadra and Manjugosha as they realized them. I dedicate all the merits as the three-time buddhas dedicated their merits.”

[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

Thank you very much. Please enjoy the nectar.