WE MUST RENOUNCE THIS LIFE

[Rinpoche and students recite Prayers Before Teachings]

The purpose of listening to the teachings is not just to achieve happiness for ourselves, including nirvana, liberation from samsara, not just that [but to bring happiness] to every single hell being [and all the beings of all the realms.] There are numberless sentient beings in each realm, so we are listening to the teachings for each single hell being, those with the most suffering right now, as you went through.

I think it’s from the section of karma—I don’t remember exactly—but I think once when the Buddha went for alms, a girl made an offering of a handful of grain into the Buddha’s begging bowl, and the Buddha said due to that she would become the buddha Sanggye Tseme, [Supranihita]. I’m not sure, but I think this story is also about karma, how it is hard to believe what the Buddha predicted about karma, how from a tiny virtuous action the result can be so huge.

Then, the Buddha said that the seed of a bodhi tree is very tiny, but if you plant it, it becomes a huge tree, with so many branches that it can spread to cover five hundred horse carriages underneath. India is very hot so carriages naturally go under the shade of a tree, and [from a tiny seed] this tree can shelter five hundred carriages. The Buddha asked the one who doubted karma, “Did you know that?” The other person [Gelong Lekpai Karma, Sunakshatra] knew that, so the Buddha said it is similar with karma, how one tiny virtuous action can bring an unbelievable, inconceivable result, for example, that the girl will become the buddha Sanggye Tseme just by offering a handful of grain into the Buddha’s begging bowl.

I’m not a hundred percent sure the example is about karma. I’ve forgotten a little bit, but it’s the same for karma—one tiny virtuous action brings an incredible result. In life, we cannot understand how great pleasure or unimaginable suffering happen. We are experiencing them but we cannot understand why they happen.

In France, we have a translator who translated Dharma books at Institut Vajra Yogini for many, many years. She was young and kind of pretty, but then her whole body got this sickness. What is it? [Ven. Ailsa: Rheumatoid arthritis.] Rheumatoid arthritis. Her body, her fingers became like that. Her whole body changed. She couldn’t believe it. It’s something she would never think could happen to her in her life. She has been translating Dharma for a long time, [but the sickness] was caused by negative karma. She didn’t think she had created so much negative karma. I think for her that meant killing people, stealing valuable things, that kind of thing.

Of course, negative karma depends on the motivation. Whether it is negative karma or not, if the mind is one of worldly concern, of attachment to the pleasures of this life, whatever we do—even meditating, studying Dharma, listening to teachings, working—whatever we do all becomes nonvirtue. It is worldly dharma not holy Dharma. Even if we are retreating in the Himalayas, on top of Mount Everest, not seeing people for our whole life, not even seeing birds, just retreating, reciting mantras, even doing meditation, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, doing our job with that motivation, because the motivation is nonvirtue, it all becomes negative karma. As long as the motivation is worldly concern, the attachment clinging to this life’s pleasures, even though we might be living our whole life in a cave in the Himalayan mountains, doing retreat, doing meditation, not seeing people, that is nonvirtue. Every action, even studying Dharma, reciting mantra or doing meditation, whatever, doing a job, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping—everything becomes negative karma.

There is a story you might have heard about Reting in Tibet. When Lama Atisha went from Nalanda Monastery in India to Tibet to revive Buddhism there, he advised his translator, Gyalwa Dromtönpa, to start a monastery, which was Reting Monastery. The third time I went on pilgrimage to Tibet, we went to see Reting. We stayed a few days in a tent, but before we arrived the Chinese authorities had announced to the Tibetan villages that nobody could come to see us. One morning, at about nine or ten o’clock, a Tibetan lady collected some plants to make incense and she came to give them to me. I don’t know who she was; she was very ordinary looking, but I can’t really say, just that she was not allowed to come. So nobody came.

Underneath there is water. Anybody who drinks that water from the earth will not be reborn in lower realms. It purifies all the negative karma so you do not get reborn in lower realms. On top, there is a holy object of Lama Atisha, I don’t remember exactly, I think there’s a statue this size of Sangdu Mikyo Dorje, Guhyasamaja or something. The statue belonged to them and it’s unbelievably precious. They brought it to show us. You can offer gold, so I offered a pearl mala to it, and a student, Massimo Corona, from Italy, offered gold. On every special day [you can] offer gold.

The Chinese had appointed the head monk to look after the monastery. He invited us there as a kind of welcome, with tea and things to eat. We went up but we were a little bit late. It was where Lama Tsongkhapa wrote his famous lamrim teaching, the Lamrim Chenmo, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, that precious, incredible teaching. There is a ruined house where he wrote it; you can only see a side wall. I should have asked the monk to give me a stone from that to bring as a relic but it did not happen. We did a puja, Jorchö, the preliminary practice of the lamrim, and it became late. I don’t know where Lama Tsongkhapa used to give teachings but there was another place which was his guru Lama Umapa’s house, but we had no time to go there.

Then we came down. It was dark but nobody fell. All the trees are supposed to be from Dromtönpa the translator. Dromtönpa is Chenrezig, and from his hair sprinkled on the mountain these trees grew. It’s like at Swayambunath, where it is said that Nagarjuna cut his hair and sprinkled it on the mountain and the trees grew. This is a similar story. The trees are very old and kind of very expressive, not like normal trees.

I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, yes. Gyalwa Dromtönpa was walking in the forest when he saw an old man going around the temple. Gyalwa Dromtönpa said to him, “It is good you are going around the temple but it is better to practice holy Dharma.” The old man thought that he might mean reading Dharma texts, so he stopped that and read Dharma texts. The next day Gyalwa Dromtönpa came and said, “Yes, it is good you are reading Dharma but it is better to practice holy Dharma.” So, the old man thought he should practice meditation, but later Gyalwa Dromtönpa came and said, “It’s good you are meditating but it is even better to practice holy Dharma.” Only at this time the old man asked him what he meant by practicing Dharma. (He hadn’t asked before.) Gyalwa Dromtönpa replied, “Renounce this life!”

That means all problems come from attachment, from worldly concern, from the attachment clinging to this life, to this life’s pleasures. It is like the roots of a tree. There is a tree and then there are the roots, and more roots and even more roots, spreading out further and further. The problems in this life come like that, from the attachment clinging to this life. So, that means we must renounce that. Then, when we rely on that, we can experience unbelievable peace, inner happiness. All our worries and fears comes from that, so renouncing that brings incredible peace and happiness, incredible satisfaction. It’s like Milarepa’s life, if you have read his life story. So Gyalwa Dromtönpa said that.

Maybe you have not heard about it yet but there are the ten innermost jewels that give us a real understanding of what Dharma really is. They show how we are supposed to practice Dharma. That is another subject.

Without understanding that, we think we are practicing Dharma but we are not. Many times it is totally wrong. Many times, what we believe is Dharma practice is not that at all. We do not know what practicing Dharma means. For example, for our whole life we live in a cave in the Himalayas, not seeing people, retreating or meditating, thinking we are a yogi meditating in the Himalayas—I’m just putting it this way to show what normal people think—but if we meditate with the attitude of worldly concern, that is not Dharma because the motivation is worldly concern, attachment to this life, to get power or to be famous so that people will say we are a famous meditator.

That is similar to politicians who are supposed to work for the population, supposed to serve the people’s happiness, but instead use the population to get power, wealth and reputation for themselves. So, it is the other way around; they are using the population for their own ends. That is why in Syria and many other countries, people revolt against the president or king or whatever. There are so many problems, with hundreds of thousands of poor people getting killed. It is mostly the poor people trying to escape who get killed.

They are supposed to work for the people’s happiness, but instead they use the population to get power, causing thousands of people to become refugees, crowding onto boats that cannot carry them, so they sink. And then, even if they survive and seek asylum in other countries, even if they travel for months and months, those countries do not accept them. Like that, so many people are suffering terribly. So much like that is happening now. The people are suffering so much!

And people working for the government, even the president or someone like that, cause so many problems. They use all the wealth for themselves and their family, and the country does not get developed. They get richer and the poor people get no help. There are so many sick and poor people who need help so much, but they do not get help. They suffer so much. That is because of the motivation of the rulers.

Even doing a retreat or a lifetime meditation or something like that, unless we know what it means to practice the holy Dharma, we can waste our whole life. Everything becomes negative karma, even meditating, even reciting mantras. We could stay in one of the large monasteries where there is so much study of the extensive philosophical subjects, the Pramanavarttika, logic, Abhisamayalamkara, the path to enlightenment, Madhyamaka, talking about the two truths, then Abhisamayalamkara (Abhidharmakosha), about the mind, about mental factors, and the Vinaya, the precepts. But even if we studied those extensive subjects, memorizing them every day, reading all those texts with such deep logic, proving the path—the base of the two truths, the path of method and wisdom and the essence, what is to be achieved, dharmakaya and rupakaya—even if we studied all that and debated so many questions day and night, negating wrong views and explaining the right explanations, even if we spent our whole life like this, unless we know what the holy Dharma is, we can waste our whole life. All our actions can become non-Dharma, even though we are in a monastery where we hear, memorize, read, study and receive teachings day and night. Unless we know the ten innermost jewels, unless we know what the holy Dharma means, we can waste our whole life. Gyalwa Dromtönpa said, “Wouldn’t it be better to practice holy Dharma each time?” Unless we know that, nothing becomes holy Dharma. No action becomes Dharma, so no action can bring any happiness in this life.

A monk who had been studying a long time went to Bodhgaya from one of the big monasteries, from Sera, Ganden or Drepung, I don’t know which. Maybe from Sera. He went to His Holiness’ teachings and found out what the holy Dharma is. He was very surprised that he had only come know what worldly dharma was after many years of study of the extensive Buddhist philosophy in the monastery.

I didn’t finish telling you about the translator at Institut Vajra Yogini who has been sick now for so many years. How many years? [Ven. Ailsa: Thirty or forty years.] She has been very heavily sick for almost thirty or forty years. Sometimes she cannot move with the pain. Now, she says it’s kind of easy to die. She mentioned that maybe she will wait until I go to Institut Vajra Yogini and she will die at that time. She mentioned that. It happened like that, but she cannot believe why she has had to experience all this. She didn’t think she had created the karma to be sick like this.

First, we only think of this life, but that is not the way to think. We have to think from beginningless rebirths, not just this life. The reason I’m saying about the Dharma is because when we live our life with worldly concern, with attachment to this life, all the actions of our body, speech and mind become nonvirtue. Even when we’re meditating, even reciting mantras, even studying Dharma. That is why I’m give this example. Even studying extensive Dharma in the monasteries, unless we know what the holy Dharma is, our actions do not become the holy Dharma. Yes, we are learning the words, getting so much information, putting that information in our human brain like putting it into a computer.

First of all, she only thought of one life, this life; she did not think about beginningless rebirths, she did not think about karma. Why do we need to think about beginningless rebirths? Because we never know. We have created all kinds of karma. We have created good karma as well as negative karma. We have no way of knowing what karma we have created in past lives, billions, zillions and trillions of eons ago. It looks like she failed to see why she was suffering because she only considered this life; she never thought about previous lives.

Even in this life, we do not know all the karma we have created. How can we say we did not create the cause of this suffering instead of happiness? How can we say this if we do not know every karma? When people in the world experience something like that unexpectedly, they cannot believe it. Even if we suddenly experience great happiness, realizations, we cannot believe it is happening to us. Also suffering—we cannot imagine it, but it is still happened to us. Many people in the world are like that.

I’m using that example of hell. You have many questions about hell, whether it exists or not, so I’m using this as an example. I have a picture on my iPad from the West. I’ve never heard of anything like this in Tibet. But some people had just made a cake and they were about to eat it, when suddenly they were consumed by fire. The fire didn’t come from nearby. The fire came from the body, burning the body so just the legs were left. I have two or three pictures like that. If you see things like that, then you can understand that hell exists. Otherwise, if you do not see it, you think it does not exist. Maybe it’s just a Tibetan trip or Lamaism. Tibetan Buddhism comes from what the Buddha taught. It is from India, from Nalanda. What the Buddha taught was taken from the sutras and integrated into the lamrim when the Nalanda pandits took it to Tibet. It is like that, not a Tibetan trip; it is not Lamaism, the lamas’ trip.

I have three pictures on my iPad of the people in the West who died like that, in the fire. I remember, it even happened to me, in Indiana, in the early times. It was the first time I went to America. I was staying in Louie Bob’s house, upstairs. Suddenly fire came, very briefly. It was just a few seconds, but even I have had my own experience. So, you should know that hell exists. There are many times like that, where fire comes and burns the body, just leaving the legs. There was a cake made and there was a gentleman still sitting there, but the lady was burned by fire. The fire did not come from the fireplace. Even upstairs in Louie Bob’s house, in my bed, there was suddenly fire. Just a few seconds.

I have already told you about the last of the neighboring hells, Chuwo rapme [Vaitarani, Uncrossable torrent]. It’s not one of the main hells but the last of the neighboring hells, where lava flows, coming like a filthy septic tank. We are born inside that and attacked by insects, very tall with very long beaks that go through the body. The ground is full of swords that cut the legs, but when we pull our leg up, the wound is healed. We are revived again but must repeat this continuously until the karma finishes. Again, I have already told but there is also [the plain of swords], where our loved ones call us from the top of a tree, but as we try to climb, the branches become swords pointing down that go through the body with each step. When we reach the top, our loved ones call us from the bottom of the tree, but when we try to go down, the branches that are swords now point up. Chuwo rapme is the last one. It is water but it is oneness with fire, extremely hot fire, so I think it is like lava coming from the mountain.

In Hawaii I went once to see lava—I told you—from a distance. It was so hot that the rocks were molten. I think that lava coming from the earth is part of Chuwo rapme, the last neighboring hell. It is impossible to imagine the hell beings’ suffering.

So, we must think, “May the numberless hell beings be free from all their sufferings. And may all the numberless hungry ghosts be free from all their sufferings.” For even ten thousand years they cannot find even a drop of drink, but their karma is so heavy that they do not die; they just have to suffer like that for all those millennia.

The people in Solu Khumbu, in Namche Bazaar, go to Tibet for business. Once, the main person of the family had just left and he was walking through the snow. He did not look after his porter and the porter was under the snow for a week without food, with nothing, unable to move. But the man had just walked away, leaving him trapped in the snow. I know the porter. Because of the snow, his feet were damaged; they became like this. Yes, people who have heavy karma do not die but must experience great suffering for so long.

So, we must pray, “May the numberless hungry ghosts be free from the oceans of suffering. And for the animals to be free from the oceans of suffering. And for the human beings, the suras, the asuras and the intermediate state beings to be free from the oceans of suffering. May I bring them all to peerless enlightenment by myself alone. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to listen to teachings.”

ALL PHENOMENA ARE LIKE THE REFLECTION OF THE MOON

I thought I might read from Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim teachings, the part on wisdom, on emptiness. The main quotation comes from a sutra. I think it might take some time, but I’ll read some from here. The sutra is called the King of Concentration (Ting nge dzin gyi gyal po do), a very effective teaching. I took it from there.

I’ll chant this verse so we can meditate. [Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

[Phenomena are like an illusion, like a dream,
Like a mirage, the city of the smell-eaters.
They appear truly existent,
But they are empty, empty by that.
You should know that all phenomena are like that.]

Phenomena, jitar means “like,” mig gyu is “illusion,” therefore “like an illusion.” We meditated today on that, “like an illusion.” [Rinpoche reads Tibetan] The “city of the smell-eaters.” Smell-eaters are people who are killed in a war or just died, and are born into the intermediate state. Smell is food for them. We can give them sustenance by practicing sur, where [we burn] tsampa, flour from grain, if possible mixed with the twenty-five substances. It is very rich, very powerful, when we do that practice in a retreat or in a puja, mixing the twenty-five substances with the torma and offering to the deity. That makes it very powerful to bring success.

We made it like this when I was in America, but I was not able to get mumen. It needs mumen. I think it’s called lapis lazuli, but there is a Tibetan name. I didn’t recognize that, so the first time it was not included but the second time it was. In retreat, when it is put in the tea offering to the protectors, the deities, or in the tormas, that makes it very powerful for success.

In the sur practice, you burn the food, the tsampa, in the fire. You grind the grains, barley and things, into powder but it must just be food. You cannot use powdered wood or incense or things like that. It must smell of food. For those beings, that smell is food.

There was a prisoner in Tibet. The food they got was so little, maybe a tiny steamed bun, so they were always starving. Geshe Losang, the abbot of our monastery, Sera Je, was also a prisoner. He was one of the experts in the Madhyamaka, in the Abhisamayalamkara. He became the abbot but he passed away a long time ago. He was in prison for a long time in Tibet. The prisoners were so hungry they would go outside and find pieces of bones and chew on them if they could find them. The bones were not easy to find, but chewing on them helped give the body some strength. And kaka. The Mainland Chinese who worked in the prisons [ate soybeans] and then made kaka, so the prisoners opened their kaka to try to find beans inside. I think the soybeans did not absorb that well so the prisoners could find them in the kaka, and they would eat them.

It seems Geshe Losang had to eat them. Sorry, my talk has expanded. I think if he had not eaten human kaka in prison, he would have been unable to go to India and teach so many hundreds of young monks. There are so many of his disciples, monks who have been highly educated by learning from him, like Geshe Chonyi. We have geshes in the West nowadays who are his disciples. By eating human kaka, he was able to go and educate so many thousands of monks, then those other monks had many disciples. So, he has been of great benefit.

How long Buddhadharma lasts in the world depends on these big Tibetan monasteries. After being destroyed in Tibet, they started again in India and Nepal. So, how much the Buddhadharma can be spread in the world and how long it can last depends on these monasteries preserving it and continuing the education, with elder ones teaching the younger ones. All this knowledge comes from the great top lamas from Tibet. Keeping that lineage depends on that, on study and practice. By eating kaka, Geshe Losang was able to survive and go to India, to teach so many monks, who then became experts and were then able to spread Dharma in the world, especially the lamrim, the essence, and the deep philosophy behind it.

This lay person who was in prison in Tibet was also unbelievably hungry, but when he smelt the food that was being cooked by the Chinese workers who were looking after the prison, the smell of the food helped him so much to get strength, just smelling it. It benefited him so much that after he got free from prison he has been doing sur practice for those people who have died and are in the intermediate state, where the smell of the tsampa is food for them. Through his experience in prison, finding the smell of food so helpful, he has been doing sur, practicing charity by giving the smell to the smell-eaters. He has been doing this for many years.

Sorry, I made the wrong translation. The first one is not “like an illusion” but “like a mirage.” “Like a mirage, the city of the smell-eaters.”

I used to do water charity for the hungry ghosts every morning. For the hungry ghosts there are three types of water charity and food, but although I did it in the past, I don’t get it done these days, so I try to do sur but sometimes I forget. I try to do what I can, in the evening.

[These verses are from the King of Concentration Sutra.¹⁸]

[9:20] When the moon is in a clear sky,
Its reflection appears on the sea,
But the moon has not moved onto the water.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

[9:22] Echoes are produced
By songs, music, and weeping,
But the song that is heard does not exist.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

“Know that all phenomena are like that.” That means they appear real but that reality does not exist, as I said. It appears real but it is not there; it does not exist, not even an atom. There is no moon transferred in the lake; it is a reflection. That is not the real moon; it is a reflection. This is like we meditated on, that things exist in mere name.

[9:23] Although pleasures are enjoyed in a dream,
When the person awakes they are not be seen.
The fool, though, becomes attached to those pleasures.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

In a dream we are having sex with somebody we like, but we wake up it has not happened. All phenomena are exactly like that. After we wake up, we don’t see them. “The fool becomes attached to those pleasures.” To sex. Whoever sees that desire is empty, that it does not exist from its own side, that person is not a fool, not a child. The person who realizes emptiness, the ultimate nature, is not a child. But whoever does not see that, who totally believes what appears is real—the body, sex and so forth—who totally entrusts in that as true, they are a “child.” This does not refer to a child’s body but the mind that is childish, the mind that totally believes the hallucination is true. “Know that all phenomena are like that.” That means that although everything appears real, there is nothing there.

[9:24] A magician causes forms to appear,
Creating horses, elephants, chariots, and so on.
But though they appear they do not exist at all.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

The magician’s trick appears but it is an illusion; it is not there. Nothing is there as it appeared.

[9:25] In a young woman’s dream
She gives birth to a son and then sees him die.
She is happy when he’s born and sad when he dies.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

I think this is not according to the West, but in India, China or Tibet, people think it is better to have a son, so that is why it is used here, or something like that. A young girl is so happy when she has a son in a dream, but she is miserable when he dies. But it is a dream; it never happened. In reality there is no son. “Know that all phenomena are like that.”

Today we did a walking meditation on that, as it is explained here. I’m not reading everything, just some verses, so it is easy to understand.

[9:27] A thirsty person traveling
At noon during the summer
Sees a lake that is a mirage.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

[9:28] The water that is a mirage cannot be found.
Foolish beings want to drink it,
But water that is not real cannot be drunk.
Know that all phenomena are like that.

A mirage is not water, but an ignorant sentient being thinks it is, because it appears as water, and wishes to drink it. Water that is not real cannot be drunk. In the mirage, what we believed to be water is untrue, unreal water; we cannot drink it. What we believed in the mirage is water is untrue water; we cannot drink it. “Know that all phenomena are like that.”

Is it time? OK, we’ll stop here.

[Ven. Tsenla starts to chant the mandala offering]

Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I’ll do the lung [oral transmission]. I was thinking to do the lung of the mantras, but this is quick. It’s called Phagpa Sang gye… Zung, “the mantra having branches,” not branches, limbs I think, the Mantra Having Limbs of All the Exalted Buddhas. This is the name of the mantra.

I did this lung at Sera Je, our college in South India, before I did the Secret Hayagriva initiation. This has so many benefits. One benefit is that you maybe will not get cancer or sicknesses. There are many other problems this mantra protects you from. One thing is cancer. Maybe the text doesn’t mention cancer in particular but it says it stops you getting sicknesses, so because more and more people in the world are dying of cancer, I just mentioned that. It frees you from these diseases and the condition of spirit harm, but of course the main cause is karma and delusions, your obscured mind and karma. That is the main cause; the condition is spirit harm.

So, for our lives to become meaningful and to achieve enlightenment, I’ll do the lung of the mantra, the whole text. Listen to this to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings.

[Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of The Dharani Called “Possessing the Attributes of All the Buddhas.”]

There are other explanations, about the evolution and so forth, but the main thing is to recite the mantra. [Rinpoche recites the mantra] So, that’s the mantra.

There are different mantras to protect our life from different harms, sicknesses, many things. Many more people in the world are dying from cancer now, although cancer is not the only disease. There are others. The practice you need to do is purification. One example is the Vajrasattva initiation, which is a very powerful purification practice to purify negative karma in order to not suffer from cancer, for example, but also from any problems. But these problems are only the problems of this life. We don’t think of the life after this, as a hell being, a hungry ghost or an animal. We don’t think of those heaviest, endless sufferings, only the problems of this life.

We cannot know how many years, days, minutes or seconds [before we die], so these very powerful mantras are to protect our life. If we enjoy the problems we face in life, then we don’t need to worry. For example, if we want to experience sicknesses, cancer and so forth, if we enjoy having problems for sentient beings—I’m not talking about people who want to commit suicide—if we enjoy experiencing problems for sentient beings. Instead of them being sick, if we prefer being sick for them—so that they achieve enlightenment and we experience their suffering for them—that is the particular bodhisattvas’ excellent conduct of benefiting sentient beings.

Kadampa Geshe Chekawa prayed all the time to be born in hell, to experience hell for the numberless other sentient beings. He was always praying, praying, praying, but on the day he was going to die, a pure land appeared, so he told his attendant that his prayers had not worked. He really wanted to be reborn in hell because of his bodhicitta, but when we have unbelievable dedication to sentient beings, we do not get born in hell, we achieve enlightenment quickly and get reborn in a pure land. This is by the power of the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta, even though the prayer was to be born in hell to experience sufferings for other sentient beings.

I think I might have already told you this. In Tibet there was an animal-skin boat sailing on a lake. There were too many people on board, so two people thought to give up their lives for the rest of the people on the boat. They gave up their lives for the others, by jumping in the water. But something amazing happened. A rainbow with different colored clouds came and they didn’t sink in the water. That was due to having a good heart, dedicating their life for others. That itself is protection. That itself is the best protection. And because of that, they didn’t sink in the water. There are infinite examples of the good heart.

Of course, it depends on how much our mind is well-trained in lojong, thought transformation. We can do this while we are sick, while we are having problems. With lojong, we experience the problem for sentient beings. Rather than crying out that we have so many problems, suffering with our selfish mind, instead of that we experience the suffering for sentient beings, to free sentient beings from their problems and achieve enlightenment. We experience the problem for the numberless sentient beings, for them. Depending on how well-trained our mind is, we have incredible happiness when we experience problems for sentient beings. Unbelievable happiness, incredible joy. However, if the mind is not so much trained—we are practicing but not much trained—because we have not developed much, we need to use other methods, such as taking medicine, while we are experiencing the problem for sentient beings. This is how we do it if our mind is not that well-trained.

It is very important, especially now we have met the Dharma, not like before, to know how to make our life meaningful, to use our precious human life to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, to free sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment. We have met the Dharma, the Mahayana teachings, so now we know what we can do with our life, how we can make it meaningful. Having met the Dharma, having met the lamrim teachings, our life is unbelievably precious, so it is very important to take care of it.

Of course, taking care of it does not mean with attachment, anger or ignorance. It does not mean that. The best way to take care of our life is with bodhicitta. That takes care of all the harm, all the sickness. The best way is with bodhicitta, renunciation and right view. That is the best way to protect our life, the best medicine, the best psychology.

There are mantras to protect our life from sickness, harm, all these things. We can get cancer anytime, therefore purification is so important, purifying negative karma. One thing is to purify the negative karma collected not only in this life but from beginningless rebirths. That is so important. In the seven-limb practice we do every day there is confession. The main thing is to purify negative karma so we can achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings.

[Rinpoche continues the oral transmission of the text]

Here it says “Serving sentient beings is serving the Buddha.” I was telling Holly the other day about a Kopan monk who was a cook, Thubten Monlam. He was a very young monk but he cooked for Lama Yeshe and me for many years. Then, Lama went to America to have the operation for his heart, for his heart disease. Lama requested His Holiness to do an observation, and His Holiness said he should go to America, even though the hospital did not want him to because they said he was too old. We couldn’t go inside, so Lama came out and said he had difficulties. Then, the next day Lama passed away, on the morning of Tibetan New Year. Lama had called the cook to America, so he went. Then, after Lama passed away, he went to school there and disrobed, working as a carpenter for many years. Then, he got some disease, not a common disease. What is it called? [Ven. Holly: ALS, motor neurone disease.] ALS. It’s not a common disease; it’s a very rare disease. I met him and we discussed it.

That was a long time ago, but now, it’s got worse. I was telling our nuns at the Aptos house—Anet, the Swiss nun who has been cooking at Aptos and two other nuns—that there was a monk there before but he is now at Land of Calm Abiding. They make water bowl offerings every day. There are so many offerings in the rooms, upstairs and downstairs. So, I was telling Holly that his wife had to give up her good job doing make-up because she had to serve him. There is nobody else in the house and Thubten Monlam needs help with everything. So I told Holly to tell the nuns that they needed to go to help him, even if it meant they could not do the water bowl offerings every day. What most pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas is serving whoever needs our help, so rather than doing water bowl offerings, they should help Monlam. That is what pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas the most.

I mentioned him but it means every sentient being, not only people, but even animals. I don’t know how many animals we have here. We had twenty-five goats before but I don’t know how many now. I buy them from a man from below who would have killed them. Each time I see him I buy some. They come from the nunnery in India. Before we had twenty-five but now I don’t know how many. The road is very bad but I had to go there. Last time I went there to recite mantras and put blessing strings on them to purify their negative karma. There were mantras that Sherab had made, which he put on their heads. I don’t know how many times he goes a week, maybe every day.

So, generally serving others means any sentient being. I’m not just talking about Thubten Monlam. I told the nuns to serve him because he needs help. That is what pleases the buddhas and bodhisattvas more than offering water bowls. On the basis of that, we offer. On the basis of helping sentient beings, our motivation is to help sentient beings, then we offer water bowls. We might make a hundred thousand offerings, but that does not please the buddhas and bodhisattvas if we harm sentient beings.

[Rinpoche continues the lung]

If you write the mantra and put it on your arms, it protects the arms.

[Rinpoche finishes the lung]

You have the lineage of the mantra. It is in English.

So, I’ll stop there.

[Students offer mandala]

DEDICATIONS

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas, may bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart, the source of all the happiness, including enlightenment for me and for every sentient being, be generated in my heart, in the hearts of the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless suras, the numberless asuras and the numberless intermediate state beings. In those who have generated it, may it be developed.

[Dedication prayers in Tibetan]

We are responsible to pray for the world. “Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas, may the wars happening now and happening in the future be stopped immediately. May all the famines, all the diseases, be stopped immediately. May the dangers of fire, water, air and earth, all those problems, be stopped immediately. May all the global problems—the ice melting, everywhere becoming warmer—be stopped immediately.”

Lhasa was cold before but now it’s becoming warmer. One thing is people smoke impure substances. It not only harms other human beings, causing them to develop delusions like attachment, it harms many other beings, nagas and devas. When the smoke spreads, cities are destroyed, like being bombed, kind of like that. The city is destroyed by pollution, by bad substances. There is so much smoke, which brings pollution. Then, the weather changes. Before it was cold, but now it’s getting warmer, hotter. In many parts of the world the weather is changing. The ice is melting and the ocean levels are rising, destroying cities. Tsunamis cause many billions and zillions of dollars [of damage]. It’s already happened in America a few times.

So we dedicate. “May all the global problems be stopped immediately. May perfect peace and happiness prevail in everyone’s heart by generating loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta. May the Buddhadharma, where sentient beings receive peace and happiness from, last a long time. May sentient beings meet the Buddhadharma as quickly as possible. May we be able to cherish sentient beings more than the sky filled with wish-granting jewels.

“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me, all the three-time merits collected by the numberless sentient beings and the numberless buddhas in the three times, who exist in mere name, who do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty from their own side, may the I, who exists in mere name, who does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side, achieve buddhahood, which exists in mere name, which does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist in mere name, who do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty from their own side, to that buddhahood, which exists in mere name, which does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists in mere name, who does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty from its own side.”

I didn’t get to continue the Wheel of Life, so tomorrow afternoon, instead of a discussion there may be a teaching. But I’m not sure!

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Notes

¹⁸ See the King of Concentration Sutra (Samadhirajasutra), ch. 9, at read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-055-001.html. [Return to text]