THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
[Chanting]

So last night, responding to a question, I was trying to explain how to generate effortless experience. There was the question of how to meditate on the lam-rim, the steps of the path to enlightenment, on the basis of the teachings of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo and the different gurus, according to their instructions.

The purpose of our life, our survival each day, each hour, each minute, each second, is to free others, to pacify, to eliminate the sufferings of all other the kind mother sentient beings, to eliminate the sufferings of all the kind mother sentient beings and to lead them to happiness, to obtain happiness for them. This is the purpose of our life, the reason for living, for our survival each day, each hour, each minute, each second; it is infinite. It is not a narrow reason; it is infinite, like the limitless sky. This is how important the purpose of our living is. This is the fundamental reason. In other words, this is the purpose of each breath, breathing in and breathing out. Now we can understand, living our life with this attitude, with this view, gives it meaning. Living our life with this attitude gives meaning to everything, changing how we see what we are doing: eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working, doing our job, studying Dharma. We see living our daily life with this attitude and it gives meaning to everything.

So much money has been spent on us, since kindergarten or however long, from childhood, from the time of learning the alphabet, for that many years, so much energy has been spent and so many expenses have piled up getting us all this education—kindergarten, primary school, high school, college, university, all these things. Then, after we found a job, we have had to earn and spend so much money. However, that money that has been collected after many years of preparation and education, that money and that life have been sacrificed. See how much money and effort we have has spent, we have sacrificed, into that. After finding a job and earning a living, we have had to spend so much of that for shelter, for taking care of ourselves, for protection, for living, for survival, and so much on clothes, on food, spending so much on these things. Then for health care, we have had to spend so much, an unbelievable amount, on sicknesses and diseases and expenses for their treatment, operations and so forth.

Trying to live even one day longer, even one hour longer, we need to put so much effort into surviving, to being healthy, doing everything that we know how to have the best health, knowing what is healthy food, what is not healthy food, what are the yin and the yang! We have to spend many hours running in the mountains. Or under the very hot sun running or jiggling. Is that the one? [Rinpoche laughs] Joggling? Anyway, whatever it’s called. We have to do everything we know how to, everything we’ve heard of, to ensure our good health.

Living our life with the attitude of living for other mother sentient beings gives meaning to all this, to all the expenses and having all this comfort and enjoyment. It gives meaning. Otherwise, living life without this attitude of benefiting other sentient beings, without understanding what really is the meaning of life, the purpose of living—without the attitude of eliminating the sufferings of sentient beings and obtaining happiness for them—without knowing the ultimate goal of life, then all these things become completely meaningless. Empty.

There is no meaning, these things are empty, because all of this time, all this life we have had so far, all these expenses, all the time and effort we has put into getting and education—no matter how much education we have—doesn’t give meaning to our life. Without knowing what’s really the meaning of life, the ultimate goal of life, without the attitude to obtain benefit, happiness, for other sentient beings, without this, no matter how much education we have doesn’t give meaning to our life. No matter how much education we have, how much understanding or knowledge collected like a computer, like a machine collecting many things, there is no meaning. It doesn’t matter how much money we have, even if we become the richest person in the world, even if we achieve our goal of being a millionaire. When people see on TV and in the newspapers that we are a millionaire, they talk about us. If we become the wealthiest person in the world and gain a reputation that everyone knows, where young and old, even children, know our name—we have such a reputation that the whole world knows us—without knowing reality, the true goal of the life, without living our life with this attitude of obtaining benefit and happiness for others, our attitude becomes one following the ego, the self-cherishing thought. Becoming the wealthiest person in the world, the most famous, somebody that everyone knows, none of these things gives meaning to our life. In the reality own life is empty, completely empty.

For example, I have seen the movie about the feelings of Elvis Presley. [Rinpoche laughs] It showed how he knew he was going to die after six months or after one year. Maybe six months. Many times it happens even to us ordinary people that we have some intuitive feeling that we are going to die within a year or something, some feeling, “I may not live.” When he was doing his last song, the people around in the audience, they were so excited, and how do you call, ecstatic. The people in the audience became ecstatic, while he himself was singing the song and expressing the words, expressing the feeling that he may not live long in the song. While he was singing the song he was crying; tears were coming from the ears. [Rinpoche laughs] Tears were coming from the ears, tears were coming from the eyes. That might be a different tear. While he was singing, tears coming from the ears, his eyes. I don’t know why the ear came. Somehow it crowded in, the idea of the ear. Anyway, so you see, there must be a reason why, when he was expressing that he felt he was going to die soon tears were coming from the eyes. [Rinpoche laughs] There must be some reason.

For example, Lama Yeshe, whose kindness is incomparable, more than all the past, present and future buddhas, towards myself and other students. For example, the external appearance was that Lama passed away due to heart things, due to heart sickness. However, there was no personal regret. There was no regret; there was no personal regret regarding his own life. There was no regret. Before going to America for the operation, when Lama was staying at a farmhouse just outside Delhi to have quiet time, Lama mentioned to me he wouldn’t mind even if the operation didn’t succeed. We were trying to get observations done, checking from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from other sources, when to do the operation and so forth so that it could be successful without danger. Lama expressed that he wouldn’t mind, even if the operation didn’t succeed, that he had served others enough. That he had had a chance to serve, and so he had no regret; he had had enough opportunity to serve others. “Therefore I don’t have regrets.”

Lama actually said about the length of his life, “There is still another ten years that I can live, another ten years, but that depends on my students.” That’s what Lama mentioned to me, one evening, that he could live another ten years, the length of his life itself could be ten more years, but it depended on his students. However the point that I’m expressing is that in regards to his own life there was not one single regret. only satisfaction, only things to rejoice in.

Many of my gurus took cancer. In Lama’s case it was the heart. The external appearance, what the doctors said, was heart disease, but this is because this was used as practice, to develop the mind on the path to enlightenment. Not lam-rim, not the three principal aspects of the path. These were already established in his mental continuum, in his holy mind, a long time ago, even while Lama was studying in Tibet, in the monastery. Renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness were already established in Tibet. Lama was using the heart disease to take the opportunity to actualize the completion stage of the Highest Yoga Tantra path, the completion path such as the clear light and illusory body, which makes it possible to achieve enlightenment in that life, within some number of years to achieve full enlightenment on that body.

Many of my gurus other than Lama took cancer. Even in the ordinary appearance, the external appearance, they knew everything, the whole procedure, before passing away, before actually experiencing the passing away—using the ordinary term, death—the whole passing away, they knew how it was going to be. All these experiences were used on the path to achieve enlightenment quickly by applying the experience of the completion state, of clear light, of the illusory body and the unification of these two, the very highest path of the Maha-anuttara Yoga Tantra.

They had not one single regret, not one tiny doubt or regret regarding their own life, how their own life had been, not one single doubt about what was going to happen, the procedures, in the future at the death time, after death and in the next life. They clearly know before what was going to happen. They used these conditions to leave the old body and to take new body in the most suitable situation, the perfect family that has good samaya, or a karmic connection. This was the motivation, as it was already planned in the other life. Then, after passing away maybe some went to the pure land of deity that they had practiced before coming back to the world to benefit sentient beings by being born where there are suffering sentient beings, and where the time, the karma has ripened to benefit them. Then, they reincarnated in that world, in that country, in that beneficial place. By taking a new body again, they can again benefit by being an example to others, this method being the most benefit to the numberless sentient beings.

Even without using the example of many of my gurus who have passed away through taking certain cancer or different sicknesses, we can even use ordinary people as examples. There are many people who don’t feel upset, even though they get cancer and so forth. Even though they know that they’re going to die soon they don’t have sadness in the heart. They don’t have regrets, worries or fears even if they have a life-threatening disease and they know that they’re going to die soon. There are many ordinary people in the world like this.

Some years ago when I was in Adelaide, I was trying to do a retreat but my retreat was actually watching TV and listening to the radio. There was one student who was doing radio work, listening to maybe sixty or seventy people talk, interviewing people or discussing problems of people in the city, what can be done, all these things. I found this interesting because they talked about all the different problems people have in a city. Some problems they discussed for two days, but many discussions just lasted one day.

One of the discussions was that there was no more space left in the graveyards, the places had run out. There was a shortage of places to put the bodies. There was some discussion, and she interviewed the person who was in charge of the cemetery, who was looking after the land. While she was interviewing different people, time to time some Dharma words get slipped out. “Meditation,” she said, “is to think of death as a very important thing in the life,” something like that. That is a very important point, something that she just let slip out. The other person didn’t know what to say. There was a short silence since the other person didn’t know what to say. There was a break; there was kind of a short silence.

At that time a recession was happening in Australia. Many childcare centers were unable to run, things like that. That discussion took maybe two days, discussing how parents don’t know how to bring up their children, how to guide their children, not knowing what is right and what is wrong, what is to be practiced and what is to be abandoned. I think a lot of the discussion had been that they’re becoming very violent, very wild, becoming difficult, even for the government.

Anyway the point I’m making is this. Her friend, a researcher or something, the person who was doing work after her, was interviewing, responding to the people who were ringing to express their opinions. There was one lady who said that because there was a recession there was so much talk about how bad and difficult life and everything was, but that she was quite happy with her life. And she said, “Because I know where I’m going.” She said, “Because I know where I’m going.”[Rinpoche laughs] I think she meant when the death happened she knew where she was going very clearly before the death. Normally the interviewer asked questions for people to explain themselves but when she expressed this he didn’t ask any questions. So I was very disappointed. He just kept quiet then he changed the subject.

So what I’m saying is that even among ordinary people there are many people who have no problems, even if they get a life-threating disease. Most of the ordinary people don’t want this life-threatening disease but for other people, for that individual person, her mind was happy, there was no regret, there was satisfied mind, even at the time of death.

As I mentioned, Elvis Presley, the most well-known person to the young and to the world, one person who achieved the greatest reputation, but he was feeling sad because he had not much life left to live. He saw that death was going to happen, that he was going to die soon. This shows that he felt his life had not been meaningful.

The purpose of living, or the ultimate goal of life, is to free all sentient beings from all the sufferings and to lead all of them into happiness, and especially to lead them into the peerless happiness, full enlightenment. It is living in regards to doing service for other sentient beings, causing them to obtain the happiness of this life, the comfort of this life. Those who are sick are given medicine; those who are starving or who don’t have a means of living are given food and money. Giving money to those who are poor, obtaining the happiness of this life, the comfort of this life for others, we should do this as much as one can. We should do the service, obtaining the comfort and happiness of this life for others. But now what is more important? If we compare this first one, we should do as much as one can. There is great need to help others in this life. But there is also the causing other sentient beings to have long-term happiness, the happiness beyond this life, the happiness of all the coming future lives, not just this life’s happiness and comfort which is only a few years, or a few months or a few days, which is very short time. Causing others to have long-term happiness, the happiness of all coming future lives, this service becomes more important compared to the first service.

Now, more important than this second service that we do for other sentient beings, more important than this, is causing other sentient beings to be liberated from the whole, entire suffering of samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth and all the problems in between, by ceasing completely karma and delusions, including the seed of the delusion. To cause all sentient beings to cease completely the whole, entire suffering of samsara, so that they never have to experience the suffering of samsara again, forever, this service becomes more important than even the second one. Just only causing the happiness of future lives, this is still temporary happiness. Now here this is the ultimate happiness.

But even more important than this third one, a more important service than even the third one, is the leading all sentient beings on the steps of the path to enlightenment, causing them to complete the two types of merit, the merit of wisdom and the merit of fortune. It’s more important to cause them to complete the two types of merit by completing the path to cease even the subtle obscurations, not only the disturbing-thought obscurations, the gross ones, but also the subtle obscurations, the subtle mistakes of the mind. They need to cease these subtle obscurations to bring about a state that is perfected in all the qualities of cessation and in all the qualities of the realizations. To lead them, to bring them into this peerless happiness, full enlightenment, this great liberation, now this one becomes the most important thing. This one became the most important service among all these services that we can do towards other sentient beings. For the success of this work for other sentient beings, to lead them into full enlightenment, which is the cessation of the all the mistakes of mind and the attainment of all the qualities of the realizations, to be able to decide on this perfect work for other sentient beings, then first we should achieve full enlightenment ourselves. For that we should actualize the graduated path of the higher capable being.

THE FOUR HARMONIOUS BROTHERS
As Lama Atisha explained that one who wishes … [Short gap in the recording. Rinpoche is undoubtedly telling the start of the story of the four harmonious brothers, where an ancient land (Kashi, what is now Varanasi) suddenly becomes very peaceful and prosperous and neither the king nor his ministers can understand why, each deciding he was the cause.] …so the whole environment changed, things developed very much.

So the king thought, “I did it. All these progress, all the development in the country happened because of me.” Then another minister thought, “I did it, I caused all the development in the country.” Then somebody suggested to the king that there was a sage with clairvoyance who could tell who caused the sudden development of the country. They all agreed and went to see the sage, and the saint told the king why the country had developed so much. The sage said, “It’s not because of the king or the ministers, none of you. It’s because there are four brothers, animals, in the forest. There is an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a bird.” I think the bird was the embodiment of Shakyamuni Buddha and the other three animals were embodiments of his attendants, his disciples, called Ananda, Maudgalyayana and Shariputra.¹ The bird advised them to each take a responsibility and so the elephant spread the practice of the five precepts to the other elephants, the monkey spread it to all other monkeys, causing them to practice the five precepts, the rabbit caused the other rabbits to take five precepts and the bird caused the other birds to take the five precepts. The saint told the ministers this, saying, “The reason why there has been a big change in the country, why the country has become so well developed—the plants, seeds and all these things—is because the four brother animals who live in the forest live in precepts. It is because of this.”

In the teachings it is explained that if we keep this drawing of the four brother animals, the four harmonious brothers, at home it brings harmony and it helps to develop virtue, to practice morality, to create much good karma. That’s why this drawing of the four harmonious brothers is done in the Tibetan monasteries. Many times we can see it outside of the door of the temple where the Wheel of Life is also drawn, the drawing that shows all of samsara, the suffering, cause of suffering and then the solution, the achievement the sorrowless state, then the path, the true path, the true cessation of the suffering. The Wheel of Life introduces the suffering and also what we can do, showing that there is a solution. There is also often this drawing of the four harmonious friends there to help develop virtue. If it is kept in the home or at office, due to the story of what happened, it helps to bring harmony among the people working there. There is an incredible benefit to the country, to the world, to that area, to that country. It’s a great blessing. It becomes a source of happiness and peace to that country, to that area for those sentient beings, to change the environment, to make it better. It benefits the environment so much, and not only for human beings but even for the nagas, even for devas, for other beings who are in this world, who live in that area; they also get a lot of benefit, a lot of peace and happiness, from those who are living in the ordination.

I heard that there is so much difficulty in the life in Russia in these recent years, so many difficulties with the means of living and so forth. I haven’t been there recently, although there have been several invitations a few years ago, but not in recent years. What I thought was that to teach lam-rim at many different places, in many cities or places, and then while the teaching is going on there is an organized group meditation on the lam-rim at the same place. At the same time taking the eight Mahayana precepts could be emphasized, causing as many people as possible to take the eight Mahayana precept and then especially to recite the Compassionate Buddha’s mantra, to spread this as much as possible. Reciting the Compassionate Buddha’s mantra, OM MANI PADME HUNG, develops compassion in the minds of many people, many sentient beings. By putting this emphasis, this can definitely change the environment; it can definitely develop the economy, help the crops and plants grow well, all these things. It is able to stop the recession. By creating the inner cause, the good karma, if there is inner cause then you can have the outer cause to develop country. If there is no inner cause there wouldn’t be an outer cause to develop the country. There is no way. Then if possible one monastery could be established from the very beginning, starting as very pure, from the very beginning of the monastery. That would be a great blessing. Anyway, as I explained before, that could help that country a lot.

So far I didn’t get to go but I asked one of the elder students, a member of the Sangha who has had the chance to extensively study the Dharma, the different philosophical texts, an American monk called George Churinoff. I think through the generations, he has some connection, something to do with Russia. I think he looks like a Russian, he himself looks more Russian than American. [Rinpoche laughs] So I asked him to go there to teach Dharma. The people liked it very much. They enjoyed the teaching very much. Maybe they enjoyed the clarity, the clear explanation. Some people send me letter saying how beneficial they found the clear explanations. So again there is plan. I could not go, but I think there is plan, hoping that he can go again to give more teachings.

ACTUALIZING THE PATH DEPENDS ON ALL THREE SCOPES
To actualize the path depends on the graduated path of the middle capable being, and that depends on actualizing the greater path of lower capable being. Like Lama Atisha explained, a capable being seeking only the happiness of samsara for himself with the method is called the least capable being. The way I have translated this is not very strict. The way it is written in Tibetan, word by word, what it is saying is that this is a person whose attitude is detached, who has renounced this life. What it is saying is that even if he has comfort, enjoyment, happiness, he is still detached. Even if he has the comfort, enjoyment, happiness of this life the mind is detached, renounced. This is the attitude.

The preliminary for this is knowing karma, having faith in karma. In order to achieve the aim, the happiness of samsara, the happiness of future lives, the method is abandoning the ten nonvirtues and living in the ten virtuous actions of morality. Somebody who does this should be known as the least capable being.

What he is implying is that the “least capable being” means that no matter how much education that person has—he may be able to speak hundreds of different languages, have so much education, so many degrees—no matter how much wealth the person or how much fame or comfort he has, any happiness of this life, any enjoyment he is able to achieve, he is not considered any of these capable beings, since he doesn’t have renunciation of this life, his mind isn’t detached from this life. No matter how much other success the person has achieved in this life, from a Dharma point of view, in reality it’s ordinary. In the world ordinary people think that all other rich people, the business people, all those different famous people, these people are the successful people in the world. But the person who makes millions of dollars profit every day by having so many companies, from a Dharma point of view is just an ordinary capable being. He doesn’t even come into the category of any of the three levels of capable beings.

He is similar to a tiger who uses her skillful means, or by using her politics, to catch other animals for her own happiness. He is no different from the mouse who in knowing ways to harm others or to collect materials, or the cat who can catch a mouse so skillfully without making any noise at all, for his own living, for his own happiness. Even the ants, the tiniest insects like ants, if there is any food left, like some sugar or some food left about without being covered tightly, they find it so easily. They come to the place where there is food, ad soon all the food is covered in ants. Even ants have so many skills to achieve their own means of living. All these are ordinary capable beings, even the millionaire, all their capacity is only to achieve the comfort of this life, so they are all ordinary capable beings.

To succeed in attaining all three levels of the path—the graduated path of the lower, medium and higher capable being—depends on the root of the path, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend.

This is another emphasis from last night on how to meditate on the lam-rim, how to practice Dharma. The most effective way to practice Dharma, the most successful way, is on the basis of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. Practicing dharma on the basis of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend is the way to practice Dharma successfully. Then it has success. This way, there is no obstacle to continuing Dharma practice and to completing Dharma practice, to actualizing whole path. On the basis of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, that’s practicing Dharma. If one’s own practicing Dharma, one is practicing Dharma, we try to practice Dharma but it’s not based on correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, even though we might be practicing Dharma all the time, and we can understand from the outline of the shortcomings making mistakes of correcting devoting to the virtuous friend—there are eight shortcomings outlined—we can’t succeed. Even if we practice tantra we can’t achieve sublime realization. That means if we make mistakes in devoting to the virtuous friend and we are practicing very high tantra we cannot achieve sublime realization, we can’t have success.

Then next outline, even with much effort we try to practice the meaning of the tantra day and night, day and night, by not sleeping, by not talking, by not meeting people, by living in a solitude place, bearing so many hardships, day and night we practicing tantra but in reality it’s like achieving hell, it’s like achieving hell. Why? What the outline is saying, it’s because we didn’t change, we didn’t really think about the most important point where success comes from, right up to enlightenment. We didn’t know that success comes from correctly devoting to the virtuous friend. The thought of mistakes arising towards the virtuous friend is the opposite to success. The thought of mistakes arising towards the virtuous friend is left if nothing changes. If nothing changes it’s always there, nothing is done, nothing changes, the mistakes didn’t change. Then while we are making the mistake, at the same time we are doing so much practice, even highest tantra practice with so much effort, with many hardships.

This is because the virtuous friend we received Dharma contact from is the most powerful object. He is the most powerful object even if from the side of the virtuous friend he’s an ordinary sentient being, because of the relationship we have established with him, with recognition of guru-disciple when we have received even one stanza of teaching, or even one verse of teaching, even three or four syllables of a mantra or an oral transmission—due to having received this Dharma contact, the minute, the second we have established this Dharma contact, it created the power, the power has been actualized and that person becomes the most powerful influence in our life. It happens the minute, the second, we have the recognition of the guru-disciple relationship, even with receiving the oral transmission of two or three syllables of a mantra, the Dharma connection is established. That creates the power, that makes the person more powerful than all the past, present and future three times’ numberless buddhas. There is no question of being more powerful than all the bodhisattvas and other powerful objects, there is no question. By having established the Dharma contact between that person and us, by making this, depending this and the power that comes in existence, that the person becomes the most powerful being, the most powerful object—not to every other sentient being, but to us because we have established this contact with that person.

Like a battery needs a positive and negative polarity to create a charge and light a bulb, the power comes from the Dharma connection we make with the virtuous friend. Only when the positive and negative terminals are connected can we have light; only by having this connection with a virtuous friend can we have Dharma success.

[Break in recording.]
“…a person who wishes to cease completely the sufferings of others by realizing the suffering experience belongs to one’s own mental continuum.” Maybe it’s easier to understand “experienced by one’s own mental continuum is called a sublime capable being.”

What this is saying is that we attain the graduated path of the higher capable being of sublime capable being on the basis of having trained well in the graduated path of the lower capable being in general and graduated path of the middle capable being in general. In other words, we attain the general renunciation of this life and the general renunciation of the whole of samsara. Then, by realizing how we are tormented by the three types of suffering of samsara, we see that the numberless other sentient beings are also similarly constantly experiencing the suffering of samsara, experiencing oceans of the samsaric sufferings. We then wish to cease all the sufferings. We then generate the precious sublime thought to achieve enlightenment which is similar, with that thought, with this bodhicitta then we practice, following the bodhisattva’s deeds, the bodhisattva’s conduct. This is higher capable being.

In other words, we have the attitude having completely abandoned the thought working for the self. There is no thought of working for the self at all; we only have the thought to work for other sentient beings. We have the aim to achieve full enlightenment for others, and for the success of that we follow the bodhisattva’s conduct, the six paramitas.

In order to become a higher capable being we should actualize the graduated path of the middle capable being.

Then Lama Atisha explained a person who has left samsara behind, who has turned his back on samsara, engaging in actions changed from the negative and seeking only peace for himself, seeking only his own peace. This is called a middle capable being. This is a practitioner whose attitude is detached from the whole of samsara—from the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm, from the lowest realm of the hell, what is called the unbearable suffering state, and from the highest state in samsara, the fourth level of the formless realm, called the tip of the samsara. He finds no attraction to any of these, to the pleasure, to the happiness of samsara, from the lowest realm of the hell to the tip of the samsara. To all these realms of pleasure, he doesn’t find any attraction at all even for one second, even in a dream. His aim is to achieve liberation from samsara, the blissful state of peace for himself, just for himself.

THE VARIOUS VOWS
For the success of this we need to live in morality, with the pratimoksha vows, the vows that are the path to achieve liberation for ourselves, the pratimoksha vows, the five lay precepts and the complete upasika vows, the five lay precepts, the eight precepts, the near-abiding, which means living in the eight precepts then we become closer to liberation, which is called nyen-ne in Tibetan. Living in these eight precepts brings us closer to liberation, to the complete cessation of the whole entire samsara.

Then there are the thirty-six vows, ordination of renunciation and the full monk’s ordination. There are the male and female thirty-six vows, the ordination, the full monk’s vows, but for the female beings there is another set of vows between, which is for checking, before taking the full ordination , what is called gelongma or bhikshuni vows. After the thirty-six precepts, there is another vow of ordination called gelongma.

There are seven types of pratimoksha ordination to achieve liberation for the self. For the success of achieving liberation for self we engage in this path of morality, the path to liberation. This is what Lama Atisha says in the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, how we can change from doing negative actions by living in this whatever number of vows we can take, By living in whatever number of vows, that means [we cease] the number of negative karmas harming ourselves and harming other sentient beings. If we are living in the five precepts, the five lay vows, then we have stopped, we have made five less negative karmas, which harm ourselves and which harm all the other sentient beings.

That means, if we are a lay person and we have taken the five precepts, they are taken until the death time, and they have five merits, so there are five merits accumulating all the time. Even if we are living in a coma for many years we are constantly accumulating the five merits, constantly, every minute, every second, we are collecting the five merits, the good karma, the cause of happiness, the cause of the body of a happy migratory being, the cause of the liberation, the cause of ultimate happiness. While we are eating, while we are sleeping, we are constantly, all the time, accumulating the five good karmas, the five merits.

Now, at the same thing, if we are a lay person who has taken the eight precepts, it’s the same thing, all the time we are accumulating the eight merits constantly. And the same thing for somebody who has taken the thirty-six vows, even more constantly, every minute constantly accumulating the thirty-six merits.

A person who is living in full ordination, with 253 vows, one who is living in the fully-ordained vows, who is living in full ordination, that monk’s ordination, that person is called a virtuous beggar, a gelong, a virtuous beggar. That’s not a beggar of food. It’s very easy to think that’s the meaning if we doesn’t know, that it means begging for food. But it means begging for nirvana, a gelong, a beggar, one who is seeking liberation, begging for liberation, the ultimate happiness, the beggar of liberation. It has the complete opposite meaning to begging for food. A person who has taken the 253 vows, the precepts, from the second those vows are taken, from then until the death time, as I mentioned before, even if he suddenly falls into a coma or even while he is sleeping every day, during all those many hours of sleeping or while he is eating, walking, talking and so forth—he is constantly every second, every second collecting the 253 merits. Even if all that person does is just eating, making kaka and sleeping and he doesn’t do prostrations or study the Dharma, not reading Dharma books, not doing specific performed practice, he is still collecting merit. That person who has taken the vows and lives in the vows, even though he does nothing else, not doing any particular performed practice, just eating, sleeping and making kaka, that person still constantly makes profit, good karma, the 253 merits, constantly. Therefore in reality he is actually very rich in good karma, in merit, even if he doesn’t do any other activities, just by living in these vows.

It’s similar with the bhikshuni or gelongma vows for the nuns. There are about 360, or 363, or 366—I’m not sure, I don’t remember exactly, but there are a bigger number of vows, there are much more vows. It’s the same with the merit as I mentioned for the fully-ordained monks who doesn’t perform any practice other than having taken and is living these vows, it’s the same thing with a full bhikshuni, she is constantly accumulating that much merit in every second.

Usually people who don’t know karma, even if they think they are Buddhist but they don’t know karma, they haven’t studied karma, many people criticize the Sangha because they think that their connotation of service to others means to mix with other people, to live in the city, to work in hospitals as nurses and the like, that kind of work. Even if they believe they are Buddhist they have no understanding of karma, the teachings on karma, and because of that lack of understanding, they can’t see the importance of living in the precepts, in morality; they can’t see how important it is living in the vows, living in the precepts, being an ordained person. They can’t see that the Sanghas’ life is important, and think that they are just lazy. Many who don’t know just think that they’re lazy, just living, just eating, just sleeping, making kaka, making pipi, just living in a monastery or in an isolated place. They can’t see how that is doing service for others, living in an isolated place, living in a monastery or nunnery, living in the vows by living in the right environment, a protected environment that helps their practice, that helps develop the mind on the path and being away from a disturbing environment, a dangerous environment, an environment dangerous to their own practice, and so they are able to protect their karma or morality.

Somebody like that is developing his or her mind on the path, month by month, year by year, by being in such a conducive place, developing mind on the path month by month, year by year, but this isn’t seen by many other people who don’t know what karma is, who don’t know what exactly the teaching of the Buddha is, the benefit of the teaching of the Buddha towards sentient beings, from where all sentient beings’ happiness comes, from the teaching of Buddha. It all comes from the two types of teachings of Buddha: the scriptural understanding and the other one, the realizations. Living in morality is the path of the teaching that is the attainment the realization one of the three higher trainings: the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom. Of the two types of teachings of Buddha, this belongs to the realizations.

For us ordinary beings who do not have realizations of calm abiding or great insight, the teaching we have is morality. Morality is only realization we can attain from the scriptural understanding and the realizations.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MORALITY
Many people, even if they consider themselves Buddhist, haven’t studied the Dharma well and can’t see the importance of living in the precepts, of living in morality, abstaining from negative karmas, from harming ourselves and harming other sentient beings through the ten nonvirtues. All those negative karmas are the opposite to the precepts, whereas the precepts are the practical means, the source of happiness for ourselves, for our own current life and all the coming future lives, as well as for our own ultimate happiness. Morality is the basic source of not only this life’s happiness and peace, but all the future lives’ happiness and peace, and especially our own ultimate liberation, enlightenment.

By living in morality, abstaining from that many negative karmas that harm other sentient beings, numberless other sentient beings don’t receive harm from us, they don’t receive that many harms equaling the number of precepts we take. Depending on the number of precepts we are living in, abstaining from that many harmful negative actions, karmas, all other sentient beings don’t receive those harms. And so the harms they receive from us become that much less, the greater number of the precepts we live in. The more precepts we live in, the less harm that the rest of the numberless other sentient beings receive from us. That itself is peace and happiness; the numberless of other sentient beings receive that much peace and happiness from us. This is what we are offering. This is what we are giving them.

That is a very logical, a very practical service we are giving them; it is the basic source of all sentient beings’ happiness. Living in morality, abstaining from those numbers of negative karmas is the basic source of all sentient beings’ happiness.

[Break in recording]

WITH POWERFUL OBJECTS, WE EXPERIENCE THE RESULT IN THIS LIFE
[…] Depending on the action and the recipient of the action, it could become the very heaviest karma. Even a very service or a small respect done [to a powerful object such as our parents or guru] could become very powerful positive karma which we can start to experience quickly in this life. But, similar to the vastness of the result of a positive action to a powerful object, the suffering result of negative karma, a small misdeed done towards a most powerful object brings great suffering, starting from our parents of this life, to ordained people, the Sangha, up to the arhats, the bodhisattvas, then the buddhas up to the guru.

Starting from the parents of this life it’s the same. A small disrespect done to them becomes very heavy karma and we have to experience the problems in this life. Similarly, any small good things done, small services towards our parents up to the guru, we will start to experience result as happiness in this life. We create the karma in this life and we see the result in this life.

Therefore, even if we practice tantra with so many hardships—not seeing anybody, not talking, doing so many disciplines—even if we practice tantra, but we fail to observe the root of the path to enlightenment, correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, because of the mistakes we make, the arising of thoughts of mistakes to the virtuous friend not having been recognized not changed, this becomes the greatest obstacle to success; it becomes a very heavy negative karma. It is like we are taking some medicine but at the same time taking a very powerful poison that completely cancels the medicine. At the same time as taking some medicine, we have taken so much powerful poison that we have to experience it results, going through pain or death or the danger of death. We have to go through this because the poison that we have taken is so powerful, and we have taken a lot and it is a very powerful one Even if we are taking medicine it can’t be effective; it can’t really stop the whole problem, whole danger.

That’s why it says that even when we attempt to practice tantra it is like achieving hell. On the one hand we are studying Dharma so hard, learning so much Dharma, or trying to do so much retreat or so much practice but, on the other hand, we have not recognized the mistakes that we are doing that hurt us, not correctly devoting to the virtuous friend and so nothing changes. This means we are creating the heaviest obstacle all the time and so we can’t really succeed in that practice; we can’t achieve the realization.

Sooner or later we meet some heavy problems, lot of damage to the mind, there’s so much lung [wind disease]. There is a lot of damage to the mind. Even if we start retreat, in the middle of the retreat the mind becomes much worse—instead of getting better the mind become worse and worse, with less and less devotion, less and less compassion. Even the little experience of compassion or devotion we had before is all gone. We are unable to complete the retreat due to health or due to mental damage, or we are unable to continue holding the vows. We meet very heavy obstacles and are unable to develop the mind on the path to enlightenment. Many problems arise as a result, even in this life.

The most successful way to practice Dharma is on the basis of correctly devoting to the virtuous friend, practicing Dharma not according to what we like but according to what we are instructed to do or according to the holy mind of the virtuous friend. Without being based on the holy mind wishes or the instructions of the virtuous friend when we practice Dharma according to what we like then obstacles arise if according to what we like is the opposite to the instructions or the wishes of the virtuous friend.

THE NEED TO PRACTICE DHARMA BETWEEN SESSIONS
As I mentioned last night, the other really effective thing is to remember what we have done in our meditation session while we are doing our daily business. Whether we are doing meditations to have effortless experience or we are doing effortful experience by remembering quotations and reasons, then the rest of the day life, if there is no connection, we are not making it meaningful. We do meditation on the lam-rim for one hour or half an hour but the rest of our day has nothing to do with the lam-rim meditation of the morning, with what we meditated on during the session, if the rest of the day’s life if it is the opposite to the lam-rim meditation, if we fail to take the essence into the rest of the day, we are not making it meaningful. The rest of the day’s life becomes empty, meaningless, by doing meaningless actions, meaningless work. Because the motivation for what we do in the rest of the day is not related to the morning lam-rim meditation and it is not a bodhicitta motivation, or right view, or one of renunciation, it therefore becomes ignorance, anger, attachment, clinging to this life. That means that the rest of the day’s activities become meaningless. While eating, sleeping, doing our job, talking, whatever we do, all this becomes meaningless because the motivation is nonvirtue: ignorance, anger or attachment clinging to this life.

Whatever meditation we have done that day in morning, if the morning meditation is impermanence, the rest of the day’s working life, the active life, our break-time’s life, the experience that we generated in the morning during that one hour or half hour session will continue. We try to keep the experience we have generated in the morning, that experience, that thought; we try to keep it for the rest of the day. In this way, that itself becomes our motivation. If it is the thought of impermanence then the motivation becomes renunciation to this life. So this way, whether we are talking, whether we are working, doing our job, studying Dharma, going to sleep—all these activities—for the rest of the day’s life activities, they become Dharma. They become pure Dharma because they are all done with a mind which is in this same experience, that death can happen anytime, that the appearance of this life is very short.

By keeping the mind, by keeping that experience which we generated during the meditation session, on impermanence and death, then the rest of the day’s life activities become pure Dharma. How many hours of job we do all becomes Dharma. If the morning meditation is compassionate loving bodhicitta, then we try to keep that experience we generated towards other sentient beings, we try to live our life by keeping that experience. Then the rest of the day’s life activities become the cause for enlightenment. They become the cause for the happiness of all sentient beings.

If the meditation in the morning was emptiness then we try to hold the experience, to look at the I as empty. We have to look at the aggregates as empty; we have to look at the form as empty. We have to look at the form which exists, is merely labeled by mind but appears not merely labeled by the mind, which is the object to be refuted, which is the hallucination. In the morning we look at all these things as hallucinations, or we meditate that they are all empty, if that was our morning meditation, and we try to hold the experience we had in the morning, by continuing that experience even in the break time, while we are doing our job, working, talking to people, eating, sleeping and so forth—by continuing that same awareness for the rest of the day, experiencing what we generated in the morning. As much as we are able to do that many Dharma activities during the rest of the day, in the break time, they all become Dharma, become the direct remedy to cut the root of samsara, to eliminate the root of delusions, ignorance, the concept of inherently existence.

If the morning meditation was guru devotion, then we try to keep the devotion that we generated during the session, we try to hold that experience, we try to live the rest of the break-time life with that experience. In this way it also helps everything we do very much with our body, speech and mind to not become the opposite to guru yoga. What we do in the break time with our body, speech and mind all becomes guru yoga, so it helps. With the guru yoga mind, with devotion, the mind that transform into devotion from the thought of mistakes, whatever we do becomes service, becomes guru yoga practice. Then the rest of the day we constantly take the essence, even in the break time’s life, all the time we take the essence, day and night. As Lama Tsongkhapa explained in The Songs of Experience of the lam-rim, as it is mentioned there, “one should take essence all day and night.” The meaning is like this.

From the strong, intensive preliminary practices, purifying and accumulating merit, from those two then we put more effort into purification, purifying the obstacle to realizations. From those two we mainly put effort into purification. If there is no obstacle then we are able to achieve realizations; if there is an obstacle then the mind can’t be changed, the mind can’t be developed.

Among the meditators in Dharamsala, quite a number who have a lot of experience not only in lam-rim but also the tantric path have already passed away. One older meditator who achieved not only the three principal aspects of the path, calm abiding, and the generation and completion stages of tantra, such as the clear light and illusory body, was Gen Jampa Wangdu, the chief disciple of Geshe Rabten and a close friend of Lama and myself. Before he passed away, I took some advice and I took the lineage of the oral transmission of “taking the essence,” the pill retreat where if a meditator lives in a solitary place where it is very difficult to collect food, he or she can live on pills, to save time and also to have a clear mind, to more quickly achieve shamatha, calm abiding. According to this great meditator Gen Jampa Wangdu, from his own experience, this is his advice. That is similar to what he used to explain with the meaning of  “taking the essence” in the whole day and the whole night. In this way day and night, the whole of our life becomes fruitful, meaningful.

I’ll stop here.

[Tibetan prayers and mandala offering]

DEDICATION
Due to all the merit accumulated in the past, present and future by me and three times’ merits accumulated by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings, may bodhicitta be developed in my mind and in the mind of the all sentient beings without delay even a second and that which has been developed, may it be increased.

[Tibetan prayer]

Due to all the three times’ merits accumulated by myself, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings, may I, my family, also students and all the sentient beings be able to meet only perfectly qualified Mahayana virtuous friends in all lifetimes and from my own side and from each sentient being’s side may we be able to see only enlightened beings and to do only actions which are the most pleasing to the holy mind of the virtuous friend and to be able to fulfill the holy wishes immediately by myself and by each of the sentient beings.

Due to all the three times’ merits accumulated by my, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings, may all the father mother sentient beings have happiness, may all the three lower realms be empty forever, may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers be succeed immediately and may I be able to cause all this by myself alone. As the bodhisattvas, the three times’ buddhas and bodhisattvas dedicate their merits and as Manjugosha and Samantabhadra actually realized how to dedicate, may all my merit be dedicated in best way to fully enlighten all sentient beings.

Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by myself, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and sentient beings, due to all this merits, that which is empty from its own side like space—not space but like space, empty like space—may the I who is empty from its own side, like space, achieve Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which is empty from its own side, empty like space, to lead all sentient beings, who are empty from their own side, who are empty like space, to that enlightenment as quickly as possible by myself alone.

Then dedicate to actualize in this very lifetime, to complete Lama Tsongkhapa’s pure path unified through tantra in the mind of one’s own family and in the mind of all the students and then to be able to spread in the mind of all sentient beings.

[Tibetan prayers]

Notes

¹ In other teachings Rinpoche elaborates, saying Shakyamuni was the bird, Ananda the rabbit, Maudgyalyayana the elephant and Shariputra the monkey. Read more about the Four Harmonious Friends in Mandala magazine, January 2014 edition.  [Return to text]