Lecture 2
November 10, 1980
Lecture One was a talk by Lama Yeshe.
The need to practice for other sentient beings
You have come from various distant places. Maybe you are dissatisfied with your selfish attitude or with worldly pleasure, with this limited idea that there’s no happiness to experience beyond all this. You might think, “There must be something beyond what I can feel, what I have been experiencing with this human life, with this body. The happiness I can experience can’t only be this—what I see, what I experience.” You might have the faintest idea there must be something more than that.
Being dissatisfied with just the worldly, temporal pleasure, you are here seeking ultimate happiness, thinking there is something else besides this. You are here for a reason, seeking a method to attain that. Any method to attain ultimate happiness can never be a normal method, something you do in your everyday life; it must be something else. It must be a new method in order to seek mental peace, everlasting, ultimate happiness. Therefore, having that reason, with that thought to achieve enlightenment in this very life, you should listen to the teachings and study. That is very worthwhile.
Training in the methods to obtain ultimate happiness is greatly worthwhile because it brings the greatest result. Just having the thought to practice Dharma, the result is amazing. It’s kind of an impossible thing to happen, but it’s happening. For such a thought to arise is extremely rare. Leaving aside the thought to seek liberation or enlightenment, just the wish to practice Dharma is amazing. Just having this wish arise is so fortunate, because you are giving yourself the opportunity to find the door to your own wisdom.
Through this you can achieve mental peace, inner happiness. Whatever your initial wish, there can also be the opportunity to achieve inner happiness, to achieve ultimate happiness such as nirvana or the omniscient mind, buddhahood. This won’t happen unless you give yourself this opportunity to understand the methods on the path to ultimate happiness.
You should be pleased with what you are trying to achieve, not just a few days’ peace and happiness, not just one month’s, not just one life’s—just this single life’s happiness—not just several lives’ happiness. This is happiness beyond this life, right up to the state of the omniscient mind. The main aim is to achieve the omniscient mind.
Who should you achieve this omniscient mind of enlightenment for? For other sentient beings, to eliminate the suffering of other sentient beings and, through that, to allow them to reach the highest state of omniscience. That selfless goal is the goal you should have in your heart whenever you listen to teachings, study or practice meditation. That is the purpose. It is not for your sake, not for attaining pleasure for yourself, not even for attaining ultimate happiness for yourself. This is the main goal you should have in your heart, whatever other goals you might have.
Some of you might think I’ve just explained the motive to obtain a miserable mind, instead of benefiting other sentient beings! Some of you might have come with some goal of developing peace, some kind of realization in the mind. Some of you others might have no clear goal what you want to achieve, no particular wish to pacify the mind or to achieve ultimate happiness. Maybe some friend was coming to this course and so you also decided to join in. Or maybe you’re already a great master of chulen meditation—living for months on the essence of a flower or a rock—and you’ve come to teach others! You can earn a lot of praise teaching others. I’ve also come with that motivation!
Even if your attitude is to achieve temporary or ultimate happiness for yourself, that should be transformed into the wish to benefit all sentient beings, to eliminate all the sentient beings’ suffering. Instead of happiness for yourself, the attitude becomes trying to obtain happiness for others. However, you cannot do this great work for others without having attained the state of omniscience. Becoming omniscient is difficult; it cannot be attained without generating the entire path to enlightenment in your own mind. To do that, you should listen and understand, study and meditate on the complete path to enlightenment.
There are many hindrances from the inside, from the mind. And, because of that, there are many hindrances from outside, many external things that disturb the mind, blocking you from accomplishing the path, from studying and meditating on the complete path to enlightenment.
There are many conditions necessary for you to succeed in even some small work to attain a few days of pleasure, even to do the work of this life. And because there is no greater work than attaining the highest state of omniscience for the benefit of sentient beings, there are many hindrances from inside and outside.
There are different prayers that can be recited to overcome these hindrances. They are not just some ritual without meaning. They don’t have to be perfect, but they should be prayers that are meditations to prevent the difficult hindrances arising. Listening, studying and meditating become effective means to benefit your mind.
Some of you have already been doing some prayers and meditations that we will do in the course. Because you have to understand the meaning of these prayers, they will be explained during the course. To even have a rough idea can take years of study. However gradually, gradually you can understand the prayers, even though you can’t understand them in the beginning. If you do not wish to do the prayers, you don’t have to; you are not obliged to do it. Whenever you feel like it, then you can say the prayers. As you hear it in English and you meditate on it, gradually you will understand the meaning of the prayer.
The Heart Sutra
This time the prayers are done in a different way, not as in previous courses. How it is traditionally done is we recite the Heart Sutra at the beginning, then, after that, we normally do the lamrim teachings, when the lamas give the teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment. There’s a very long preliminary practice to do. So here, we’ll cut a bit out. As well as doing the Lama Chöpa, the Guru Puja, which is the guru yoga of Lama Tsongkhapa, along with the Jorchö practice, at this time what I’ve planned to do is study Lama Tsongkhapa’s short lamrim prayer, Hymns of Experience,1 Lama Tsongkhapa’s own experience on the path to enlightenment. Even though this text is short, it explains the complete path from beginning up to enlightenment. Also, because of the way it is written, just reading it is very beneficial for the mind.
That is one reason why Lama Tsongkhapa’s biography was read this morning. There are many texts that contain different biographies of Lama Tsongkhapa. One text only talks about how extensively he studied, whereas some others contain all the experiences Lama Tsongkhapa had, all the incredible realizations he attained. There are different biographies. I don’t think all are translated into English.
So, we’ll read together and those who have copies can help.
I think the Heart Sutra is probably enlightenment’s good news! This teaching is the essence of all the sutra teachings, which is why it is called the Heart Sutra. The subject of this prayer is emptiness only—shunyata. Shunyata is the essence of all the Buddhist teachings, both sutra and tantra, the essence of the whole teachings from the Buddha.
The best method to prevent hindrances such as sickness is to explain the Dharma, to listen to it, study it and meditate on it. This prevents both inner and outer hindrances—outer hindrances such as the black side beings, the maras, who dislike you practicing the Dharma and try to disturb you and prevent you from doing it. By the power of reciting emptiness prayers like this, they cannot disturb you.
[Rinpoche and the students recite the Heart Sutra]
We need to taste the Dharma to understand its importance
This is according to my limited understanding, which comes from no practice, no experience. My practice is the opposite to Dharma; it is the opposite to the actual irrefutable practices. The Dharma teachings as explained by the Buddha are like the Earth, like space, like the oceans, so extensive, whereas my understanding of the teachings of the Buddha is like a single atom, so limited. With no inner practice, no experience, my practice is the opposite to the Dharma. How is it possible to teach meditation when I myself don’t practice, when I have no experience, nothing? Teaching meditation to others seems an impossible thing.
I was wondering what benefit you will receive here. But here there is not only me. Here, nowadays, we have many geshes who are all well-educated. They have studied and practiced for their whole life, in order to be able to give teachings. So, I think you are not completely without hope! You will certainly receive something, so it is not completely hopeless.
There must be some reason why we have met, why you have come from far and different places and we are all gathered here. There must be some reason. Also, by listening to the advice of Lama Yeshe and not breaking his advice, I can then give teachings of the Buddha from the little I’ve heard from the holy mouths of my gurus. As much as possible, according to the time we have, I will try to go through the teachings and explain them. There will sometimes be misunderstandings, due to my bad pronunciation, my broken English. We can discuss those points you are not clear on; the misunderstandings can be clarified by discussing. The geshes will also be coming to the discussions. Also there are people who have heard the teachings and studied before, so you can discuss things with them and clear up the wrong understandings.
It is very important to study first, to listen and to understand. Without understanding, how can you discriminate what is the right path and what is the wrong path? There is no way. Before studying the teachings, it’s impossible to decide from your own knowledge.
Even if you don’t practice, the first thing is to have an understanding of the teachings of the Buddha. That is extremely important because, by understanding them, you can understand how they are true, unbetrayable teachings. If you practice, if you follow the path of the teachings, you will never be misled; it will definitely lead you to the goal, the state of omniscience. You will definitely reach the enlightened state. And by discovering that the teachings of the Buddha are true, unbetrayable, you can discover that the founder of the teachings, the Buddha, is the true founder, the unbetrayable founder.
Through listening, understanding, studying and meditating—especially through meditating—you get the experience of the path. Then, as you gain the experience of the path to enlightenment in your own mind, at that time you can clearly see how it works, how the teachings are unbetrayable. Through the experience of meditation you can clearly feel how it is definitely possible to achieve the state of nirvana, to achieve the omniscient mind.
It is written that the most important thing to understand is why you do the practice. The more you understand the teachings of the Buddha, the more benefit there is for your life. Try to understand, to check as you study whether the path is a pure path or not. It’s like with the food. If there’s delicious-looking food in the store, without tasting it yourself, without your experience of it, you cannot tell what kind of taste it has, whether it is delicious or disgusting.
It’s the same with the special quality of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings. The more you study, the more you understand, the more you can check whether or not the teachings are pure, logical, valid. The more you check the deeper your understanding will be; the more you check the more you will find the teachings are pure. That’s the special quality of Buddha Shakyamuni’s teachings. They are not something you have to just believe in without ever checking.
For some other paths, the only way to practice is by following with faith, without checking what is right and wrong. If you question it, there’s the danger you will discover mistakes. Any path that needs to guard its reasons, that doesn’t allow you to question it, that insists you accept it and follow it with faith, such a path is not a pure path. Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings are never like that. They are very practical, very rational; you are encouraged to check them. And the deeper you examine the teachings to see whether they are pure of not, the more you will perceive how pure they are.
You can tell yourself how pure and logical the Buddha’s teachings are, just as the texts say, when you study them deeply enough. That’s one thing to emphasize. First, check them out as you are trying to understand them. At first certain subjects will seem unclear, difficult to understand. The path you are going to be listening to, and studying and meditating on, will be difficult at first because you’ve never heard it before. It’s a very new thing, something you have never experienced from beginningless past lives.
So, you definitely shouldn’t expect to easily understand and generate the realizations through meditation within a few days or within a month. Realizations only come gradually. You should not have a small mind, thinking, “I am hopeless. I cannot understand. This teaching is not for me. I’m hopeless.” Thinking like that only causes you more wind disease! Instead of bringing you peace, practicing the Dharma only disturbs your mind, making the mind more unpeaceful. So, you shouldn’t feel like that.
Gradually, as you listen to the teachings, and study and meditate, you will have a clearer and clearer understanding. You should determine that however long it takes and however difficult it is to understand and experience the realizations of the path, you will do it! For example, if there is a tree that produces fruit that has an acid taste, just putting something sweet, like honey, around the tree a few times won’t transform the taste of the fruit to sweet. Even doing it several times can’t transform the taste.
Similarly, just doing one or two days’ meditation, or even several years’ meditation, you shouldn’t expect to easily transform the mind into the Dharma, to easily generate the graduated path to enlightenment. It might be easy without bearing many hardships to have an experience of meditation right away—within a few days or within a week or a month—but then the mind becomes disturbed. That is because you expected too much at the beginning. Only after some time, after several months, something happens in the mind, and slowly, slowly, you graduate to junior class then to senior class!
In order to achieve the state of omniscience for the sake of sentient beings, no matter how long it takes, even if it takes a hundred eons, make the determination, “I will do it. I will follow the path in this life for the benefit of sentient beings. No matter how long it takes, no matter how difficult it is, I will do it.” If you have such strong will, if you make long-term plans like this, you will be able to follow the path and transform your mind into the Dharma. A person with such great will can generate the realizations of the meditations within three months or within three years. You can definitely have realization of the graduated path to enlightenment.
It’s difficult for a small-minded person—somebody with no plans for long-time practice—to bear the hardships and even any pain. They might expect to become enlightened very easily, very comfortably; they might think within a few years, a few months, a few days they can reach a high level of realizations of the path. It is difficult for such a small-minded person. They encounter more hindrances and it becomes difficult for them to become successful in generating the complete path to enlightenment.
So, if you have come from very far away and at great expense, it is very important that this time here is not a waste of time. You haven’t come here because it’s the law. Coming to this course is not part of your country’s law and you’ll get punished if you don’t come. You won’t be put in prison. It’s not like that. The fact you have come here of your own choice, that you are here, is great.
As I mentioned before, attending this course must point you on the path of the good heart. It must give you the good motivation to always meditate on the teachings as much as possible, to attempt to listen, study and meditate with a good motivation, with a good heart. Even if your early life was utterly without meaning, during this one month you must try to make your life as meaningful as possible, as beneficial for all the sentient beings as possible—not only for yourself but for all the sentient beings. That’s extremely important.
[Mandala offering]
Lecture 3
November 11, 1980
Happiness and suffering come from the mind
I’m going to read some parts of the prayers in Tibetan, so those who know the visualization can do the meditation with the prayer. Even if I just read this prayer or something similar, like the Heart Sutra, just listening plants the seed in your mind to quickly generate the realizations on the graduated path to enlightenment.
[Rinpoche reads a prayer in Tibetan]
In order to attain your wish to have happiness and to not have suffering, there are the wisdom teachings. The principal cause of happiness or suffering is not external, it is the mind. Happiness and suffering are products, produced from causes that come from the mind. All happiness and suffering come from the mind. All suffering comes from which type of mind? The unsubdued mind, the mind whose nature is wrathful, angry, untamed. Such a mind is disturbed by selfish thoughts. The root is the self-cherishing thought. Conversely, all happiness comes from the subdued mind, from the peaceful mind.
Because of that, if you wish for happiness or if you do not want suffering, what you should do in everyday life to obtain happiness and eliminate suffering is to take care of your mind. You must protect your mind, always watching it and keeping it peaceful, virtuous, never letting it be disturbed. You should not let yourself become under the control of the unsubdued mind.
If you protect your mind like this in your everyday life, there’s always peace in the mind, there’s always harmony, there’s always happiness. If you let your mind come under the control of the disturbed or unsubdued mind, then there’s no peace. In that way, the mind is compared to an elephant. If you let it run wild, it can disturb you, it can harm you and others. Unless you tame it, tether it, unless you take care of the mind, like taming an elephant, a mind controlled by delusions, an unsubdued mind, becomes very dangerous, very harmful to others and to yourself. Unless you tame the crazy mind, it gets more and more unsubdued, more and more violent; then there are more and more problems in your life, and your Dharma practice becomes less and less.
Unless the mind is subdued, no matter how much education you have, there can never be any peace. Somebody who has very strong self-cherishing, very strong pride or anger, who is very impatient or has a strong clinging mind full of attachment or jealousy, no matter how much education that person has, there is no peace. No matter how rich they are, no matter how many possessions or how great a reputation they have, there is still no peace and there are always many problems. The stronger the clinging and attachment to reputation and such, the less peace there is.
Even if they are religious, even if they are studying Dharma, without subduing the mind there is no peace. If they do not attempt to use the Dharma they have studied to subdue their mind, if they don’t use it to eliminate their pride, there can’t be any peace. No matter how much they understand the Dharma, how much they are a great scholar, there is no peace in their mind, no happiness in their life.
Cutting off the four clingings
What blocks you from having peace and happiness in your life? There are four clingings that don’t allow any peace at all. So many of the problems of this life come from these four clingings: the disturbing thought that clings to this life, that clings to samsara, that clings to a sense of a true self and that clings to cherishing yourself rather than cherishing others. The self-cherishing thought is the most harmful attitude; it is something that you definitely have to transform and to eliminate.
The very root of the whole of suffering is grasping the I, grasping on to it as if it is truly existent. While the I doesn’t exist from its own side, you grasp on to it as if it does. All of your suffering comes from this source.
These four clingings cause so many problems in your life and block you from experiencing any happiness. Whatever you do when you practice the Dharma should be an antidote to these four clingings. Unless the meditation has the energy to eliminate them, it doesn’t make sense. There is no way that Dharma practice can become the cause of happiness, the cause of peace of mind.
At this time, before receiving the excellent teaching of the graduated path to enlightenment, we will do the very precious motivation of the four clingings. I’m not saying the four clingings are precious! Cutting off clinging to the four clingings—that’s what’s precious.
If you look you can see that you are not separate from the four clingings; you are kind of at one with them. That’s why life has so much confusion. These four clingings make you frantic because whatever you do is always accompanied by them and therefore whatever you do will have many problems. No matter how you try to lead your life differently, problems never cease because you are always friendly with these four clingings, your actions are always accompanied by these four clingings. If you really seek happiness, what you should do is practice separating yourself from these four clingings that always give you so many problems and always disturb you, never letting you succeed in your wish for happiness.
There is a story of these teachings about cutting off the four clingings. When the great Tibetan yogi whose mind gained great realizations, Sakya Pandita, was only twelve, he followed a translator, his guru, Dragpa Gyaltsen, the great compassionate one. His guru told him that because he was the spiritual son of Lama Atisha and Lama Dromtönpa, he should be able to study. His guru advised him to do a retreat on Manjushri, the special buddha of wisdom. All the buddhas’ wisdom is manifested in this special aspect, so those who practice Manjushri as a special manifestation of wisdom can receive each of the seven wisdoms. You can achieve great wisdom to comprehend and memorize both the meanings and the words of the extensive teachings, and clear wisdom to be able to understand the subtle meaning. You can have quick wisdom to be able to immediately understand any difficult points, any unknown subjects, and to immediately eliminate wrong conceptions, and you can have things like profound wisdom as well as the wisdom to explain the Dharma, debating wisdom and writing wisdom.
His guru advised him to do a retreat on Manjushri. At the beginning of the retreat there were some hindrances. Then, Sakya Pandita meditated on a wrathful deity and the hindrances were prevented. He did the retreat for six months and then one day during his meditation he saw the deity he had been trying to achieve, Manjushri, sitting in front of him on a throne with two bodhisattvas beside him. Then, from his holy mouth, Manjushri gave this short teaching on the four clingings to Sakya Pandita:
- If you cling to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner.
- If you cling to the three realms [of samsara] that is not renunciation.
- If you cling to cherishing the self that is not bodhicitta.
- If you cling to the self as truly existing that is not right view.
After Sakya Pandita had been given this teaching by Arya Manjushri, he kept this advice in his heart and meditated much on it, realizing that the importance of the practice of all Buddha’s teachings is contained in these four advices. He discovered these four advices were extremely profound and put them into action.
Clinging to this life
The first advice is that if you cling to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner. It’s like wishing to drink mirage water, which is just a hallucination. Seeing the appearance of the water and believing it to be real water, you wish to drink it, but you are just attempting to drink mirage water. When the motivation of people trying to practice Dharma is clinging to the happiness of this life, no matter whether they say prayers, do retreats or do whatever different forms of practice, the practice does not become pure Dharma. Even if they think they experience bliss while practicing Dharma, their action doesn’t become Dharma; it doesn’t become virtue. Because of that, it doesn’t become the cause of happiness.
When Dromtönpa asked Lama Atisha what the result would be if actions were done with the motive of clinging to this life, Lama Atisha answered that the result would be rebirth as a hell being, a hungry ghost or an animal. For actions done without this motive, the result would be rebirth as a happy transmigratory being, as a human being or a worldly god. Even if the practitioner did a retreat for eons in the holiest place, where there were no people, not even animals; if their motive was completely for the happiness of this life—for the enjoyment of pleasure or reputation or good clothing and so forth—they would end in hell. The retreat wouldn’t become holy Dharma but worldly dharma because it was done with worldly concern, just seeking the happiness of this life.
Not just in retreat, whatever actions you do, if they are done with this worldly concern, with the thought of seeking happiness for this life, they are nonvirtuous because they are done with a nonvirtuous thought. The result is suffering. The result you experience is confusion in this life and even after this life. The highly realized pandit, Chandragomin, described it as like an ox who is attached to a few clumps of the grass growing at the edge of a precipice. Running to get the grass, the ox trips over the edge without receiving the grass and dies. Worldly beings who have attachment to this life are similar to that example.
The actions of worldly beings whose aim is to seek the happiness of this life are nonvirtuous because their motivation is attachment. Attachment is nonvirtue. So, with the motivation of worldly concern, however much work they do to achieve happiness, because all those actions become nonvirtuous, the result is suffering. That is similar to the example of trying to drink the mirage water to quench the suffering of thirst.
When you are trying to practice Dharma, as long as you are clinging to this life, the nonvirtuous thought dwelling in your heart always comes to disturb you. When it arises, it doesn’t let your actions become pure Dharma. Even if you meditate for an hour, this worldly concern of clinging to this life doesn’t let the mind stay on the object of meditation. Strong clinging to the happiness of this life brings many other distractions that disturb the meditation. It never lets your mind remain quiet but is always looking for the desirable objects, the things you have attachment for, like possessions, friends and food.
When you try to do some good action like helping others or you try to practice Dharma by making offerings, doing prostrations and so forth, the thought clinging to this life arises and pollutes the action, so the motive becomes nonvirtuous, making the actions worldly dharma not holy Dharma. There are eight worldly dharmas: craving happiness and unhappiness, good and bad reputation, receiving material things and not receiving material things, and admiration and criticism. There are the four desirable and the four undesirable objects.
Because there is great attachment, clinging to the happiness of this life, unhappiness comes. And as the attachment to the happiness of this life becomes less, there is more real happiness in this life. With less attachment, less clinging, even when you experience discomfort, there is less confusion in the mind, less concern for the comfort of this life. When you meet discomfort, there’s a lot less fear, worry and aversion to that discomfort. Whether you suffer or not from an uncomfortable situation depends on how much concern there is clinging to the comfort of this life.
Why is there so much concern for comfort? Even if somebody doesn’t get exactly the food they want or if there is some small problem with the food, it becomes a huge problem in their mind. The whole day becomes filled with anxiety, from morning till night, “Today I didn’t get the good food I wanted.” It becomes a huge problem. Or if somebody finds a bug in their room, a bug or a mosquito flying around in their big apartment, around their comfortable bed, they become terrified and completely freak out. “Oh, this is my room and there is this terrible bug on my bed!” Even though the bug is so small, they cannot relax—not even their friends can relax because they are so wound up. For them it is a disaster.
So, Manjushri, the buddha of wisdom’s advice to Sakya Pandita was to separate from the four clingings. If you cling to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner. What happens is you believe the mirage water is real water and you grasp onto it, attempting to relieve the suffering of thirst. Unless you renounce that, it is unresolvable because you are clinging to this life’s happiness with this evil thought, therefore whatever you do—living in the moral conduct, listening, studying, meditating—doesn’t become pure Dharma.
The danger of clinging to this life is true of those who practice the Dharma and those who don’t. You can easily understand this if you examine your own experience and that of others. Checking out others, you can see how a person who has very strong clinging to the attachments of this life has more problems, and somebody who practices Dharma and has less clinging to this life has less problems. Whatever situation they encounter, whether it’s a good situation or a bad one, nothing becomes a big disturbance. It is less of a shock, less of a problem. It depends so much on the strength of the clinging a person has to these four desirable objects and the strength of the fear, worry and anger that arises when they meet the four undesirable objects.
For instance, a person who drinks too much finds it very difficult to be satisfied no matter what situation they are in. There is always something missing, always something wrong; the mind is always difficult to satisfy. Even food and clothing and other enjoyments don’t bring satisfaction with such a difficult mind.
You can see this with a person who clings so much to a good reputation. (I think it’s very good to cling to bad reputation!) Somebody might have a good reputation, but if they cling to it, they are always worried they might lose it. Also, when they cling to it, they have to work very hard, putting so much time and effort into it, spending millions of dollars—all for their good reputation. At the same time there’s great fear of losing it. I think when such a person faces criticism there is great pain in the heart. There is so much worry they will not receive the reputation they want.
It’s similar when you cling to the admiration of others, wanting other people to compliment you for the work you have done or the help you have given. If somebody doesn’t thank you after you have given them a piece of chocolate or a cup of coffee, it becomes a huge problem. If they just took it quietly without offering a word of thanks, you suffer greatly because their admiration is so important. Then for days and days you show a black face to that ungrateful person.
Similarly, when you work together as a team and you helped somebody and they thank all the other people but not you, when you are completely left out like that, it becomes like putting a needle in the heart. You feel great pain.
All this is kind of nonsense. These are useless kinds of worries. There’s no point at all to get worried; there’s no point to suffer; there’s no point to get angry. It just doesn’t make any sense. But for the person full of clinging, it does! The problem comes from the clinging, from not facing and averting the attachment and clinging during this life for things such as the pleasure you receive from admiration.
The fact is all this is suffering—the worries and dislike and so forth—when you meet these four bad circumstances comes from the clinging. Even if you have the four desirable objects—comfort, possessions, good reputation, compliments— when you cling to those four objects there is also suffering. There’s no peace as long as you are clinging. That thought itself of clinging to a desirable object is a confused mind; it is suffering. The nature of that thought is not relaxed, not peaceful. Its nature is uptight, it’s a tightness; it is tied to the object, bound to the object.
All the unbelievably many problems in the West basically come from not having renounced clinging to this life. From the root of clinging to this life come all the many problems, like branches coming from the trunk of a tree.
For instance, the company you worked for has closed down, leaving you without a job, and you are unable to find another one. Once something like that happens, there is so much clinging to receiving material possessions. There is the fear of losing what you have and not finding more. There is tremendous fear that you have failed in some way. There is such unbelievable worry you can have a nervous breakdown or go completely crazy, going back home with your whole body shaking, full of sweat, utterly unable to relax at all, becoming completely berserk. Then, in your own mind, there’s no other solution—the only way is to go and see a psychologist. You take refuge in a psychologist!
If the psychologist is skillful, it might work sometimes. Certain words they say might help you relax a little. Maybe you’ll be better for one day but then, the next day, you’re back to the same worry, and again you have to go to see the psychologist. It starts to become tiresome like this but you can see no other method, so what can be done? Talking with them for just a few minutes is a huge expense, but you have to go back again and again. Then your partner also goes crazy because things didn’t work in the business and you no longer have a job for life. Your whole life becomes crazy. You seem completely useless.
When a person becomes crazy, they create problems in their relationship. There is disharmony and it might even lead to a separation. The husband leaves the wife for another woman or the wife leaves the husband for another man, and when they separate they create further unbelievable fear and worry. Even the thought of leaving the beautiful apartment or house, leaving the luxury, no longer eating very expensive and delicious food, is like living in a hell realm. They are so completely overwhelmed by the fears and worries and all these things to do with the separation, it doesn’t make any difference whether they are living in a hovel or a mansion, living in a beautiful house, wearing beautiful clothes, eating delicious, expensive food. There’s no peace in the mind; there’s no sleep, no happiness.
The tradition is to then go to the bars, to take refuge in some bottles! They take ten or fifteen bottles into their bedroom and take refuge in drink. That only makes it worse. Life is very untogether. Some people sleep if they drink; they don’t become violent, so that’s a good thing. If you go to sleep on beer, there’s no danger, but others become violent when they are intoxicated. They fight the whole family, destroying the possessions, beating the children, quarrelling with the neighbors without any reason. All the bad thoughts they have about others’ mistakes that they usually keep silent about come out. Everything comes out. Then other people fight, creating great disharmony.
When there is no peace, when whatever wish you have is unsatisfied and you don’t get what you want, the final decision comes to commit suicide. You have to climb a very high tower, the highest one, and you jump from there. Or you go around to where there is a big bridge. That’s the only thing some people can think of. It’s the immediate way to solve the problem. They can see no other way out. No other thought comes in the mind, so they just accept it. Like that, they completely waste this precious human life, this life that can be highly meaningful, highly beneficial for themselves and for all sentient beings. They completely make this life meaningless; they waste it completely.
This life is like a wish-granting jewel that is extremely difficult to get, allowing you to obtain whatever you wish for. Wasting this precious human life is like having a wish-granting jewel but not recognizing its worth, and, instead of making it useful, just throwing it away, throwing it over a precipice.
Not able to gain satisfaction from the first relationship, you divorce and marry again, but then, after some time, you get divorced again—and then there is one marriage after another. You continually experience the same problem, like a wheel turning endlessly on and on. That is due to the dissatisfied mind. All these are mistakes come from clinging to this life.
The great Kadampa Geshe Sharawa said that because the cause of the suffering is the desire for this life, you should therefore renounce trying to attain this desire. When you do too much work for this life, when you cling too much to this life, the mind is not happy. All you do is make yourself completely busy. You work very hard in order to satisfy your desire but satisfaction never happens. Why? You are always dissatisfied because you are always following the mind of dissatisfaction, the mind that clings to the happiness of this life. If the purpose is to get satisfaction but the method is wrong, it can never work. You might face many difficulties and dangers to gain this life’s happiness but, no matter how dangerous it might be, no matter how much you keep on and on, it can never work.
This is why Kadampa Geshe Sharawa said a person who clings to this life is always looking what to do, where to go, where to run in order to satisfy their desires, and in doing that they accumulate so much negative karma and receive so much suffering, such as getting a bad reputation or experiencing so many undesirable things. That happens when there is incredibly strong clinging like this.
In this world, even when people have enough to live comfortably, even though they are not in danger of starvation, they can be even more plagued by the dissatisfied mind. Clinging to pleasure, they always want more, even though there is enough for their life. And if there’s no peaceful way to get the possessions they want from other people, then they steal them. That’s how the thought to steal comes about. When they see how rich another person is, how much money they have in the bank, they might even decide to kill them in order to take the money. In that way, all the negative karmas are accumulated.
Then, they are caught and punished by being thrown into prison, and their name is in all the newspapers, giving them a bad reputation and creating much criticism. All of this—the punishment, the bad reputation, the criticism, the fear and worry, all the negative karma and so forth—fall like heavy rainfall. Therefore, Kadampa Geshe Sharawa said that clinging to this life is the root from which all these branches grow, the problems you encounter in this life. Therefore, it is necessary to overcome the desire for this life’s happiness. Whenever you are able to do that, happiness begins.
Renouncing the eight worldly dharmas is the best Dharma
Nagarjuna explained that to completely overcome all worry and anxiety you need to equalize all your feelings of happiness and unhappiness, comfort and discomfort, the wish for possessions and the fear of not receiving them, and the wish for a good reputation and admiration and the fear of a bad reputation and criticism. For the great yogis, the meditators, their minds are not that much disturbed whenever any of the eight conditions arise. There is no attachment to comfort, possessions, reputation or admiration and there is no aversion to discomfort, lack of possessions, bad reputation or criticism. Even if they meet the four desirable objects they don’t cling to them.
Whatever conditions arise, however things change, there is always peace in the mind. Wherever they go, there is always peace in the mind. Not clinging to the pleasures of this life, different circumstances don’t bother them at all, and there is great peace. Since clinging to these eight worldly dharmas is the root of all faults, it is easy to see that when that is overcome there are no longer the problems that come with the eight worldly dharmas, like branches stemming from the trunk of a tree.
Otherwise, your life is so busy, full of expectations you’ll get this and that, and full of worries and fear you won’t get what you want. It’s easy to see that by overcoming clinging to this life, your mind becomes very peaceful. This is actually the meaning of practicing the Dharma. It means renouncing this life, separating from the evil thought clinging to this life that, until now, you have always been together with. You can see that practicing Dharma means renouncing suffering. When whatever action you do becomes the cause of cutting off clinging to this life, it becomes pure Dharma.
As the Kadampa geshe, the yogi Chekawa said,
Not being attached to happiness is the best happiness,
Not being attached to possessions is the best possession,
Not being attached to a good reputation is the best reputation,
Not being attached to admiration is the best admiration.
Even though the great beings like Shakyamuni and Milarepa didn’t try to receive things like offerings or reputation, even though they didn’t expect such things, by completely renouncing them, they had the best offerings, the best reputation, the greatest respect.
It is like Kadampa Geshe Ben Gungyal. I’m not going to mention the whole story. Before he met the Dharma, he was a thief in the daytime and a robber at night. He had his own land where he grew barley. Even though he got a big load, many sacks of grain from his field, he still stole from others in the daytime and at night. Day and night he worked so hard! He carried many weapons around his waist, tied to his belt: knives, arrows and all kinds of weapons. I don’t think he had bombs! This is how he lived his early life. People in that area gave him the nickname “Forty Evil” because even though he obtained forty big sacks of barley from his field, he would still steal things from other people day and night.
Later, his mind was completely changed by hearing the Dharma. Then, he did much practice in a cave, examining his mind the whole day, practicing the lamrim. He completely renounced clinging to this life. Afterwards he became a great practitioner and achieved many realizations. Previously, he had been famous but now he was famous in a different way, for being a great practitioner and benefiting so many sentient beings. So many people came to see him and make offerings, and because of that, he said, “Before I practiced Dharma my mouth had trouble finding food, but now food has trouble finding my mouth.” Previously, even though he worked so hard to get what he wanted, no matter how much he worked, he never had enough. But after he became a great yogi and reached the experience of the path, so many people made offerings to him that he couldn’t enjoy all the food people offered.
When Kadampa Geshe Kharag Gomchung was living with a family, he got leprosy and the whole family became fed up with him and nobody wanted to take care of him. They were scared of him. He became very upset and somehow the thought of renunciation arose in his mind. Totally giving up his family, he decided that it didn’t matter what he did. “I will just live on the road and recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM. I will live by begging.” He did this, completely cutting off clinging to this life. One night, as he was asleep on top of a big rock, he had a dream that he was drowning and a white-colored man picked him up out of the water. After this dream his whole body felt soaked. What happened is that his leprosy was cured because he had made such a strong determination to purify his negativity and therefore practiced such pure Dharma. It was the result of negative karma and, with his purification, all the liquid contained in the wounds poured out while he was asleep and he completely recovered. There are many examples like this.
The Kadampa Geshe Gampopa said that possessions are like a bad person; they cannot be trusted. For instance, when poor people look at the lives of rich people, who have cars, a good house, a garden outside, travel and so forth, they see a kind of happy life. People who work in a circus and cabin crew or pilots of planes give the impression of leading happy lives. Some people might even seem to have a happy life in prison, having shelter and all their food provided! With examples like this, from one perspective, their lives seem happy. Maybe you think it would be very exciting to be in that group or have that role in life. But after you start, you realize that style of life is in the nature of suffering, full of problems Seeing how wrong your previous view was, you feel upset, you feel great disappointment. You trusted one view and you were cheated by it.
You might decide because you have tried the rich life trying to be a straight person and that didn’t bring you happiness, you then become a hippy. Maybe that can bring happiness in your life. But again, after trying that you see there is no happiness there, only disappointment. That’s what Gampopa means, that possessions are like a bad person, totally untrustworthy. Even this body, this illusory body, is like it has just been borrowed. It’s like it’s something that doesn’t belong to you. It is just with you for a short time and then you have to separate from it again.
This illusory body easily decays, and you must separate from it. Similarly, other possessions are like illusions conjured by a magician to cheat you. They are the cause of suffering. You see what a magician has transformed and given to you—beautiful clothing and jewels and so forth—and you completely trust them. Then, afterwards, when they don’t stay as they are, you get upset. Like this, the nature of possessions is like a magician’s trick; they are the cause of suffering. What is emphasized here is that there is no point in being attached. Tying yourself to the object, clinging to it, you circle in samsara forever. Therefore, you should cut off the I-grasping, the root of samsara. Remembering this advice is very good for the mind.
Lecture 4
November 13, 1980
Holy Dharma and worldly dharma are complete opposites
The great bodhisattva who wrote the Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattva, Thogme Zangpo, gave this advice:
There is nobody who has accomplished
Both the holy Dharma and the desire of this life.
There is no doubt that one who wishes to accomplish both cheats themselves.
I have nothing else to say to whoever I meet, even if I needed to.
Nobody can achieve the holy Dharma and cling on to the desire for this life. This is what Milarepa was advised by his guru, Marpa. Because of that, he renounced his worldly life. When you mix worldly dharma and holy Dharma, you lose the holy Dharma. Even if somebody is a great scholar, extremely learned in the extensive teachings, if they try to achieve both worldly dharma and holy Dharma together, that is the mistake they make.
You want enlightenment but you also want the comfort of this life. When you seek both together, you must lose one and Lama Marpa told Milarepa that it is the holy Dharma you lose. The Kadampa Geshe Potowa said that “a two-pointed needle cannot be used for sewing cloth.” Like that, worldly dharma and holy Dharma cannot work together. Nobody accomplishes both because those two are complete opposites.
You are just cheating yourself because you think you are working for happiness but in practice the work that is done is work for suffering. What is holy Dharma? What is worldly dharma? What is the thing to practice, the thing that benefits you, that brings peace in the mind? And what is the thing to renounce, the thing that bothers you, that makes you unhappy? This is the point. I have nothing else to advise you other than this. I have nothing else to say as important as this.
Therefore, wherever you are, try to transform your body and speech into virtue. Try to understand the very big difference between worldly pleasure and the pleasure of enjoying the Dharma. The great pandit Asanga said,
There is no way to compare the pleasure of eating, drinking, dancing, singing and so forth with the pleasure of enjoying the Dharma.
For example, let’s say you eat the most delicious food, even if the tongue experiences that taste, the feet don’t! Worldly pleasure is always limited in this way, whereas the pleasure of the Dharma is not. The experience of the pleasure of taste doesn’t cover the whole body but the pleasure of the holy Dharma does. Worldly pleasures are only external conditions. When your object runs away, your pleasure stops! Or if you are far from the object, your pleasure stops. The enjoyment of the holy Dharma, on the other hand, doesn’t depend on external pleasures.
Worldly pleasures don’t cover the whole three realms—the desire, form and formless realms—whereas the pleasure of the holy Dharma does. The enjoyment of worldly pleasures does not benefit you or help to achieve realizations, either in this life or in future lives. There are seven jewels of the arya beings such as wisdom, devotion and so forth2 and worldly pleasure does not help you attain these. But enjoying the pleasure of the holy Dharma causes you to generate realizations, attain the seven jewels of the arya beings and attain enlightenment.
Once you have enjoyed an external, worldly pleasure it finishes. The more you use something like food and drink, the more you enjoy it, the quicker it finishes. The enjoyment does not increase as you use it but rather it diminishes and then ceases. On the other hand, the pleasure you experience from the Dharma does not diminish or cease; it always increases. However much you experience, however much you enjoy the holy Dharma, it always increases. The more you practice, the more your peace of mind increases.
The worldly pleasure of having things such as possessions or friends can also be disturbed or stopped by an enemy. Getting jealous of your possessions, thieves can come and steal them; other people can come to beg. The more wealth you have, the more likely many enemies will try to disturb your enjoyment of that wealth. Whereas possessions, even friends, can be taken by enemies, causing you to lose your pleasure, Dharma pleasure can never be stolen by an outside enemy. You cannot carry worldly pleasure into future lives, but you can carry the pleasure of enjoying the holy Dharma into future lives. It can be carried all the time.
The enjoyment of worldly pleasures is not unceasing; it is not a continuum. The act of enjoying a worldly pleasure causes it to end. But the pleasure of enjoying the holy Dharma is unceasing; it doesn’t finish, it doesn’t end. The more you enjoy the holy Dharma, the more the pleasure increases, and it becomes unceasing.
Further, no matter how much you enjoy worldly pleasures, they can never give satisfaction, whereas the pleasure of enjoying the holy Dharma gives satisfaction. Worldly pleasures bring you many problems in this life and lead to many sufferings in future lives. The pleasure of enjoying the holy Dharma not only pacifies the problems of this life but also pacifies the suffering of the future lives.
Worldly pleasures, such as eating, drinking alcohol, the company of women or men, are like the pleasure of scratching a leprosy sore. To relieve the itching you scratch it, but that scratching is itself only suffering. You just label it “pleasure.” It is just given the name “pleasure.” Somebody with leprosy feels terrible itching, but when they scratch that is still only suffering—the basis is suffering. The relief caused by the scratching is just a different feeling, but it is still suffering. However, because it brings temporary relief from the itching of the leprosy sore, it seems like pleasure. Similarly, all worldly pleasures are only suffering; they are just given the name “pleasure” by the superstitious mind. The pleasure enjoying the holy Dharma is not like that. With ultimate happiness and peace, the cause of suffering, the delusions, are pacified. Ultimate happiness, unlike worldly happiness, is not just a base that is in the nature of suffering but is labeled “pleasure.”
Then, enjoying worldly pleasures causes attachment to arise. However much you enjoy them, rather than giving satisfaction, they always give rise to attachment. On the other hand, the pleasure of enjoying the holy Dharma pacifies the disturbed, unsubdued mind of attachment. Worldly pleasures create negative karma and make you do harmful actions, such as taking the life of other creatures. Because of your need for worldly pleasures, you might uncaringly even take the life of another human being to obtain what you want.
The confusion of the clinging to the happiness of this life blocks you from achieving enlightenment. Even if you have the wish to achieve enlightenment in this life, it doesn’t allow that to happen. Even if you wish to achieve nirvana, it doesn’t allow it to happen. Clinging to the happiness of this life doesn’t allow you complete happiness in future lives; it doesn’t even give peace in this life. That’s why Manjushri said that if you cling to this life you are not a Dharma practitioner. You also have to understand that actions done with that motivation are not pure Dharma. Mostly actions done with this thought become the cause of samsara. There are certain exceptional actions that become the cause of enlightenment without a particular motivation. Otherwise, most of the actions done with this thought, clinging to this life, do not become holy Dharma.
You should listen to the teachings of the Buddha that show the path to attain enlightenment that explain how to separate yourself from clinging to this life. Then, you should reflect on the meaning of what you have listened to and studied. You should resolve to cut off the wrong understanding through studying what you have heard. After you have become clearer by studying and examining like that, you should then meditate on it. With that resolve, your doubts will definitely be cut off and the subject will become clearer. When the meaning is clear, you meditate on it to generate the realization of the path.
To reach enlightenment for the benefit of other sentient beings, you should reflect on the usefulness of the precious human body, with its freedoms and richnesses. This allows you to take the essence from this life in order to achieve enlightenment by listening, understanding, studying and then meditating on the path.
The perfect human rebirth
In order to follow and complete the path, to work toward attaining enlightenment, you should generate great energy and reflect on loving kindness. How important that is! From beginningless lifetimes until now, there has been no single suffering in samsara that you have not experienced and no samsaric pleasure left that you have never experienced. Whatever problem you see, even though you might not have experienced it in this life but have just seen other sentient beings experiencing, you have certainly experienced it in past lives. There is not one samsaric suffering or samsaric pleasure left that you can point to and categorically say you have never experienced.
Even the Buddha’s holy enlightened mind which can see every single thing that exists cannot count how many bodies you have taken. You have had numberless bodies throughout your beginningless past lives until now. However, of all the bodies you have had, you have never once realized its true essence. There hasn’t been one body in which you have attained the path and realized emptiness. Of the uncountable bodies you have had, there hasn’t been one single body where you have experienced generating bodhicitta.
At this present time you have found a precious human body, with the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses. While you have this precious body, this perfect body with its freedoms and richnesses, on this body you must do whatever you can to take its essence.
Generally, people feel there is nothing special in having such a precious body, whereas they feel great happiness if they make five dollars profit in their business. When you think there is no money in your pocket, that you have completely run out of money, and then you find a dollar on the street, you feel so happy! Amazing!
Conversely, on the way back from the shop after buying chocolate, if a dollar drops out of your pocket or you find the shopkeeper has shortchanged you, you would be miserable; there would be a huge sense of loss. On the other hand, no matter how much you waste this precious body with its freedoms and richnesses, there is not even a tiny sense of loss. The feeling of loss is even greater when you lose possessions and the feeling of happiness of having them is much greater.
At this time, this precious human body you have received is much more valuable, much more excellent, than a hundred wish-fulfilling jewels. And one wish-fulfilling jewel is much more valuable than billions of dollars. Dollars we understand!
In previous times bodhisattvas who had great qualities were able to find wish-fulfilling jewels in the ocean, like the Atlantic Ocean. They got them from the ocean by going in a boat. I think it is of great importance that they were able to find them. After they were found, the jewels had to be washed in three ways with different materials such as soft cotton because they were covered in mud and were very filthy. Then, when people put a wish-fulfilling jewel on top of the house on a special day, such as a full moon day, they would receive whatever material possession they wished for without any effort, just by the power of that jewel. While it is extremely rare to find even one wish-fulfilling jewel, if you found a hundred billion, even a trillion, they would not be able to help you in the slightest in avoiding migrating to the evil-gone realms, the lower realms, after this life. Only with this precious human body can you avoid these realms. Only by using this precious human body meaningfully can you avoid migrating to the lower realms and becoming an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell being after this life.
With a precious human body you can achieve anything you want. If you wish to receive the body of the king of the worldly gods, you can. The worldly gods such as Brahma or Indra have incredible powers and material possessions. They are incomparably more powerful and richer than the most powerful and richest king or leader of the human world. If you wish to attain the state of the most powerful god like Indra you can, or you can attain another good human body where you can succeed in whatever worldly business you want. If you wish to be born in a pure realm of a buddha you can, such as the pure land of Milarepa, Heruka, Amitabha or Lama Tsongkhapa, the pure realm of Tushita. After this life, if you wish to travel to one of these pure realms, you can achieve that with this precious human body. Beside all those things that you can achieve with this precious human body, you can achieve peace, the sorrowless state of nirvana, and the state of the omniscient mind.
You could achieve all this with this precious human body, except that from your own side you haven’t practiced. From your own side you haven’t worked for that. You have the potential to achieve nirvana and the state of the omniscient mind, if only you had done the work, but you haven’t practiced.
With this precious human body, you can even achieve the unified state of Vajradhara, enlightenment, in this very lifetime, the supreme state that normally has to be accomplished by accumulating merit for three countless great eons. That’s why this precious human body is the most valuable thing there is. If somebody gave you a choice between big piles of jewels, piles of dollars, like Mount Everest, and a perfect human body with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, without any doubt, without any delay, you should immediately say your choice is the perfect human body. You shouldn’t have to think for even a moment.
With this precious human body, within every minute you can work for the happiness of future lives, you can work for the sorrowless state of nirvana, for the omniscient mind. Whatever you wish to achieve can be done with this precious human body.
Without utilizing it to achieve the body of a happy transmigrating being in your future life, or nirvana, or enlightenment while there is this great opportunity, each minute wasted in this perfect human body is like having lost big piles of dollars or wish-fulfilling jewels the size of Mount Everest. Every minute you don’t make the most of this human life, you don’t make it meaningful, is a dreadful loss, much worse than losing those wish-fulfilling jewels or that uncountable number of dollars. There is no greater loss than this. There is no greater ignorance than this. There is no greater cheating than this.
The great bodhisattva Shantideva said,
So if, when having found leisure such as this,
I do not attune myself to what is wholesome,
There could be no greater deception
And there could be no greater folly.And if, having understood this,
I still foolishly continue to be slothful,
When the hour of death arrives
Tremendous grief will rear its head.3
Death Is Definite
You must attempt to take the essence of this perfect human body right now because, if you don’t, death is definite and the actual time of death is indefinite. Therefore it is most skillful to take the essence, to practice Dharma right away.
On this body with its perfect freedom that you have received just this once, you can achieve whatever great work you wish, therefore, you must attempt to take the essence, you must start right away to accomplish the three great meanings. If you don’t, death will certainly happen but when death will occur is uncertain. After a hundred years it is sure that none of us who are presently here at this retreat, gathered here at Kopan, will be left. Even after fifty years so many of us here will already have left the body.
In the past times, even our founder Shakyamuni Buddha, who achieved the vajra holy body created by the accumulation of merit for many eons, showed the aspect of entering the sorrowless state. After him, of the numbers of pandits, the great yogis, who came from India and Tibet, what is left now is only their holy names and the teachings they left. They have all shown the aspect of having passed away in peace. What’s left is only their holy names, their caves and some ruins, like the great monastic university of Nalanda, which is now just a few piles of stones. This was the great monastic university where the holy minds of thousands of pandits attained the high paths. Now all you can see are old piles of stones, just remnants of what was there before.
From the time human beings started on this earth until now, there is nobody you can point to who has never died. You can’t go to see somebody who from the first eon of human beings’ existence until now didn’t die. There is not one single example. And there is no hope that anybody in the future will not have to experience death. If that is true, that there has never been anybody who has ever escaped death, how can it be possible that you alone will be able to live on this earth without dying?
And whereas death is definite, its time is uncertain. By this time next year or even this month, you can’t be sure this body will still be alive, wearing a coat and tie and pants, comfortably relaxing. By this time next year or even this month, your body could have hundreds of legs and you could be living under a stone, or you could have antlers, like a deer, living in great fear of being hunted by hunters. Or by this time next year or even this month, you could be one of those sentient beings that have great difficulty finding even a drop of water.
For example, even on this earth there are certain places where, because of drought, there is no water even though there was water before. It is very difficult. You have to buy water from other countries and have it transported by truck, like what happened in South America.
Even with a human body like this one, there are problems. The main suffering is hunger and thirst. In many places, like South Africa and India, even though somebody’s early life was rich, in later life they became poor, becoming homeless and even dying of starvation. There are many examples like that. However, hungry ghosts have far greater suffering of hunger than any human being. It is uncertain whether by this time next year, you might be born as a hungry ghost, having great difficulty finding even a drop of water.
Similarly, in a place where it is normally very easy to discover water, there will be some people who are unable to find it, no matter how they hard they try. This is their karma; even if there is water there, they cannot see it.
The continuity of the consciousness
By this time next month or next week, you might have left this human body on this earth and been reborn as a hell being, experiencing the suffering of the mot unimaginable heat or cold, being burned in a karmically created fire. After death, the consciousness does not cease. Even though this body can no longer be seen at all after the flames of the cremation, the consciousness does not cease; it migrates throughout the three realms: the desire, form and formless realms. You definitely have to take birth in one of these realms.
For those of you who haven’t studied this subject before, all objects of knowledge—the whole of existence—are divided into two: permanent and impermanent objects. All objects of knowledge are clearly differentiated in this way.
Relating to the self, the person, the base on which the self or “I” is labeled is divided into body and mind. This body is matter, form; it is composed of atoms. The mind, which is the knower, that which knows, is formless, colorless, shapeless. One, the body, has form and is the object of the eye sense, whereas the other, the mind, is formless and not the object of the eye sense. Its nature is clarity and its function is the ability to perceive an object, therefore it is called a “knower.” Those phenomena such as feeling, recognition and wisdom are consciousnesses; all those different types of consciousness are labeled “knowers” because they have the nature of being clear and being able to perceive the object.
So, there are two completely different things: the mind that is colorless and shapeless and has the function to perceive objects, to remember, discriminate and understand meanings; and there is the body, which is matter, form. Those two are completely different. One is tangible and one is intangible.
How is the consciousness of this life a continuation of the consciousness of the past life? That is similar to how today’s consciousness is a continuation of yesterday’s consciousness. If there was a break between yesterday’s and today’s consciousness—if there was no continuation of consciousness between them—there would be no way that we could remember what we did yesterday, what meditation we did yesterday. There would be no connection to yesterday’s mind.
Like that, if there was no continuation of consciousness, today’s person would have no connection to yesterday’s person. Today’s Linda would have no connection with yesterday’s Linda. Yesterday's Linda would be a completely separate person. Just like my consciousness is not your consciousness, these would be two separate people.
If that were so, there would be no way you could remember how you came from the West, which flight you took, being exhausted at the airports—especially in Delhi and Nepal, where it takes more time to collect the luggage at the airport than the whole flight from the West! There would be no way to remember all those things if there was a break. The reason you can remember the work you did yesterday, or last year or the year before, or as a child, is because there is a continuation of previous consciousness.
This is similar to those who are able to remember when they were in their mother’s womb, and even those who are able to remember beyond that, to things from past lives, such as the place they had lived in or possessions they had owned. They are able to recognize things like that.
Lamas and lay people who remember previous lives
There are many lamas who can remember their past lives, who are able to recognize the things they had in the monastery in their previous life, ritual things such as cymbals, bells, rosaries—all things for their practice from their past life.
In Tibet, as well as in Solu Kumbu where I was born, they do a lot of checking in this way when there is a reincarnation they have any doubts about, whose childhood thoughts suggest that he is an emanation of such-and-such a lama. Then other people—the servants, the caretakers of the monastery, the lamas—do an examination using the possessions, the instruments the previous lama used to practice the Dharma. They bring that lama’s things and mix them with other lamas’ things from other monasteries. The cymbals, rosaries and all the things are very similar. They lay them all out like in an American shop, putting them all on a table, and all the examiners sit around and ask the child which are the things from his past life. He is supposed to pick them out without mistake. There are many who are able to recognize the things in this way, proving they are a reincarnation of the past lama. There can also be texts that mention which past life he had.
If you read His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s biography and how his reincarnation was examined by many lamas in many different ways, you can see how it is amazing. I don’t remember how old His Holiness was, but as a very small child he was even able to tell you the names of the servants in his past life. He was able to recognize some high lamas in disguise who had traveled from Sera Monastery to examine the reincarnation so there would be no doubt. Even though there had already been many signs that they believed, they still went there disguised as beggars to check. Amazing things happened. He was able to recognize and pick up all those things that had belonged to him in his past life.
You Westerners are different. You think you don’t have past lives because you were born in the West! Because you have no previous experience of being born in Tibet, you conclude past and future lives don’t exist. It’s not like that. In the West and in almost in every country there are many children, and many old people, who can remember past lives. You can check by reading a book in the library here by an American professor from Harvard University,4 Dr. Stevenson. He phoned me when I was taking teachings from Geshe Sopa from Wisconsin University, asking me whether I remembered my past lives. I found the experience very strange.
I think he went to several countries and went out to villages and wrote down all the stories of the villagers’ children who could remember their past lives. There were so many in number. There is one book only about people that he found in the West. He went to see other lamas here to get their stories, to see how much they could remember. I think some lamas explained things very extensively and some didn’t bother. I didn’t pay attention and gave a simple answer.
In the West, because of the culture, the idea of reincarnation isn’t common like it is in India and Tibet. Because of what is taught, what is written in books, there is a kind of different philosophy, without concern for the real experiences that people have had. Philosophy comes from people who have a reputation not those with clairvoyance, not from those who know fully, without mistake. If you ask different people in the West you get slightly different answers because their criterion is always something physical. They are the ones who say there are no past lives, having no trust in the mind, such as the memories of people who remember past lives, who have clairvoyance. They don’t trust those you can completely trust without slightest mistake. I think it is hard. Even though there are people in the West who can remember their past lives, they have to be careful. If they talk a lot about their real experience, they could endanger themselves; they might even be put in an institution or a prison! It’s cultural, due to the way of thinking of those who wrote the philosophical texts.
Those people cannot say. Not remembering past lives is similar to not remembering yesterday’s things. People can’t even remember what meditation they did yesterday or how much money they spent or how many cigarettes they smoked! Not remembering past lives is similar to that. Just because you cannot remember, that is no reason to say it never existed. Because you can’t remember it, you can’t say, “I didn't smoke yesterday. I didn’t smoke three packets yesterday—one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at the night.” You cannot say, “I didn’t smoke,” because you can’t remember. Similar, even though you don’t remember your past lives, you can’t deny that you don’t have past lives.
You can’t remember past lives because you do not have enough merit. There can be obscurations, also deep shocks, like heavy suffering in the womb, which is like when you have a car accident. You don’t remember; you are kind of unconscious. However, even though remembering your past life is not your experience, it is the experience of other people; it is the object of knowledge of those who have clairvoyance, the state of omniscient mind. You cannot contradict that knowledge, denying there’s no past and future life simply because it is not an object of your own knowledge.
Denying past lives is similar to denying karma. Whatever results of suffering or happiness you experience in this life are all due to causes created in the past lives. It’s not necessary that all the causes have to be created in a past life but many were. Similarly, even though you do not understand your own karma, you cannot say that there is no such thing as karma. From virtue, the result is happiness; from nonvirtue, from negative karma, the result is suffering. Having accumulated those causes in a past life, you cannot say “I didn’t do it,” because you can’t see the cause. You can’t say that there’s no such thing as cause and result. Even if it’s not your own object of knowledge, it is the object of other being’s knowledge.
You might not accept that you have created the cause, the karma, of what you are experiencing; you might say there is no such thing as this, even though there are beings who are able to see and understand what the causes are. You can’t say such things don’t exist. That is not a straight answer. You should at least have some doubt, accepting that it might be yes or it might be no. If you check with an unbiased mind, without following dogma, without following somebody else’s idea that there is no reincarnation or no karma, you can at least have some doubt, where you can’t say yes or no.
You are able to remember yesterday because the very first second of consciousness of this morning is the result of the previous moment of consciousness, the last moment of yesterday’s consciousness, the previous second. That first moment of today’s consciousness becomes the cause of the next, later second’s consciousness. And that continuation becomes the cause of the next second’s consciousness. In that way, there have been numberless moments of consciousness we have experienced, even just from yesterday. Similarly, the very first second’s consciousness that we experienced in our mother’s womb is the consequence of previous causes, of the very last consciousness of the intermediate state, the consciousness that was about to enter the fertilized egg.
If the consciousness came into existence all of a sudden, without depending on anything, it would be truly existing, existing without having causes and conditions. If that were so, then things like karma, attaining the path and so forth would be impossible. However, it is not like that for consciousness or anything else. Not the slightest thing exists from its own side. Nothing exists except as being merely labeled by thought, the name imputed on the base, all the gathering of causes and conditions.
Notes
1 This is more commonly known as A Song of Experience (Lamrim Nyam Gyur) but as Rinpoche invariably calls it Hymns of Experience we will use that name. (See FPMT Retreat Prayer book. pp. 258–65.) [Return to text]
2 The seven jewels of the arya beings are wisdom, devotion, ethics, learning, generosity, integrity and consideration for others. [Return to text]
3 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Ch. 4, vv. 23 and 24. [Return to text]
