Lecture 15

THE NEED TO SUBDUE THE MIND

Do not perform any harmful action toward other sentient beings, that which is also harmful toward yourself.
Enjoy life by creating complete, perfect wholesome actions, virtuous actions, beneficial actions, toward all sentient beings, that which is also beneficial toward yourself.
Subdue your own mind.
This is the teaching of Buddha.

You’ve already heard quite a lot, at different times, about the different levels of paths that remove different levels of obscurations, the obscurations of the mind. On the right-seeing path, with the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, this uninterrupted path is the remedy to the [disturbing-thought] obscurations. These are abandoned on the right-seeing path in order to attain liberation.

The obscurations that are left are abandoned by the path of meditation. [After] the disturbing-thought obscurations are abandoned—there are about 108 or something of those, I don’t remember—what can’t be removed by the right-seeing path are the subtle obscurations [to knowledge] which are removed by the path of meditation.

When even the seed is removed, not only of the disturbing-thought obscurations, those exaggerated due to wrong doctrines and the simultaneously born wrong concepts, such as the concept of true existence and so forth, but even the seed of these disturbing-thought obscurations, the concept of true existence, after everything is removed by actualizing, by completing the right-seeing path and the path of meditation, only then have we achieved the complete cessation of suffering, because only then have we completely removed all the causes.

To subdue the mind, to completely purify the mind, to cease the disturbing-thought obscurations, we have to proceed on the path step-by-step, to make it impossible to experience suffering again. Even to achieve just the cessation of samsaric suffering and its causes, without talking about enlightenment, great liberation, the cessation of the subtle obscurations, we have to proceed through these five paths, step-by-step, from one path to another. Our mind has to proceed through them. That’s how we achieve the ultimate, everlasting happiness or liberation, the complete liberation having ceased all the disturbing-thought obscurations, even the seed that is left on the consciousness, on the mental continuum.

If our own aim is the wish to free everyone from all the sufferings, all the obscurations, to lead them to peerless happiness, to full enlightenment, to do that we need to achieve full enlightenment, great liberation. For that we need to actualize the Mahayana path, we have to proceed through the five Mahayana paths. Whether we practice the Paramitayana path, the Sutrayana path or Highest Yoga Tantra we have to proceed through the five paths. Even if we follow the two stages of the Highest Yoga Tantra we have to proceed through the five Mahayana paths to great liberation, full enlightenment. We ourselves need to achieve full enlightenment by ceasing even the subtle obscurations, that which interfere with the mental continuum becoming the omniscient mind, to be able to fully directly see all the existence, past, present and future, without any resistance.

In our present day-to-day life, of course, subduing the mind is dependent on practicing renunciation, controlling the dissatisfied mind, attachment, anger, ignorance and so forth, cutting off these things, diminishing these disturbing thoughts. We control anger by practicing patience, by practicing compassion, loving kindness, cherishing others, and that way we control the self-cherishing thought and so forth.

It’s best in our day-to-day life to practice some positive attitude, having some renunciation, having some satisfaction, controlling the dissatisfied mind, attachment. We need to cut off the dissatisfied mind, attachment and so forth, the disturbing thoughts. It does depend on these things. It does depend on these things, but subduing the mind is not enough. Just having a little bit of a good heart in everyday life toward others, that’s not sufficient. That’s not enough. Having some generosity, that’s not enough. To subdue the mind we have to pacify completely, we have to subdue completely all the disturbing thoughts that interfere, that make us suffer in samsara endlessly. We have to pacify them completely.

We have to completely subdue the mind because we don’t like problems. Since our aim is to not have problems at all, to never experience problems at all, to never die, since our wish is to never experience death, this is what we need to do. This is what Andrew said yesterday, “I never want to die.” He kindly expressed his wishes, that he never wants to die. This is the wish in our heart, that we never want to die, that we never want to experience death, that we never want to experience any problems again. It’s our own disturbing mind that interferes with us achieving the everlasting ultimate liberation, and then full enlightenment. Since this is the wish, then we should—we have to—completely subdue our mind in order to completely cease all these obstacles that are within, that are on our own mental continuum.

The point I’m making is this. To subdue the mind, of course, it’s good in day-to-day life to do even a small act of generosity, to have even a small good heart, but that’s not sufficient. When some animal has a problem, we can help that animal. When a cat or dog is sick, we can put it in hospital; when a person is sick, we can give some medicine. Those actions are very good, but we can’t be satisfied with just some generosity, some sympathy. Subduing the mind in that way is not enough. Completely subduing the mind, achieving enlightenment is dependent on these day-to-day things, even a small act of generosity, even some small compassion, it depends on these things, but just this is not enough at all for us to achieve peerless happiness, the cessation of all the mistakes, completing all the realizations, and especially for the sake of numberless sentient beings equaling the infinite space. Especially for the sake of them, it’s not enough. We have to complete developing the mind on the whole path.

When we see somebody who is poor, doing something positive for them, of course, is excellent, but just having some sympathy is not sufficient. Just having a calm mind, a peaceful mind, that’s not sufficient, especially if we really want to help other sentient beings, sentient beings equaling the infinite sky, to free everyone from all the obscurations, the whole entire sufferings, to liberate them and lead them to full enlightenment. For that, we have to cease every single stain of the mind and complete our own mind in all the realizations.

Saying we need to subdue the mind, this verse contains the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path [that leads to the cessation of suffering], all the four noble truths. This is the fundamental teaching of the Buddha, the essence. This is the fundamental teaching of all the teachings that the Buddha taught. And this verse, these four lines, contain the subject of the four noble truths.

To subdue the mind is the teaching of Buddha. This means ceasing the wrong concepts, the mistakes of the mind, like the non-devotional mind, the mistakes of the mind toward the virtuous friend, the one we take our Dharma contact from. We have to subdue all mistaken minds from here, from the non-devotional mind, the mistakes of the mind toward the virtuous friend, up to the last obscuration, the last dualistic mind, the very last obstacle to achieving the omniscient mind, the subtle dual view of the appearance, the white path, the increasing red path and the near-attainment dark path. The whole thing has to be ceased up to the very last obstacle, the most subtle obscuration. That is what is called subduing the mind. We cease all the wrong concepts by actualizing the whole graduated path to enlightenment, starting from the root of the path, the realization, the transformation of mind, the devotional mind, from our own side seeing the virtuous friend as an enlightened being, by doing analytical meditation then fixed meditation, by quotations and logic.

The one thing is the wish. If this is what we wish, we have to completely subdue the disturbing mind. Since these are our wishes—liberation from true suffering and the true cause of suffering, then great liberation, even the cessation of the subtle obscurations—since we don’t like having any problems at all, this is what we have to do. Since we don’t want to experience problems, this is what we have to achieve, the state of liberation, the state of full enlightenment, great liberation. This is what we have to achieve. This is what we have to achieve, since we don’t want to die, since we don’t want all those problems.

If we get cancer, once we have recovered we never want to experience it again. It’s the same thing with any other problem. There’s no way to do that without subduing the mind. Without actualizing the five paths, the remedy of the disturbing thoughts, without proceeding along those paths, there’s no way that we can. This is the only way to subdue the mind, by ceasing the wrong concepts, both those that arise due to wrong doctrine that we exaggerate and those simultaneously born concepts. Without ceasing those obscurations, which are the cause of the disease, which are the cause of the true suffering, there is no way to make it impossible to experience cancer, to experience AIDS and so forth.

Here the question is completely ceasing the three poisonous minds, and the root of the three poisonous minds is the concept of true existence, ignorance, which is the king of all the delusions. Here it’s the question of ceasing these ones, so that we are able to cease the karma.

As we proceed through these five paths, when we have actualized the right-seeing path, we don’t create any more new karma. Even on the Lesser Vehicle path, when we have actualized the right-seeing path, we don’t create any more new karma. We have crossed beyond craving, attachment; we can’t create new karma that produces new samsara, that forms another samsara. This happens even by actualizing the right-seeing path of the Lesser Vehicle path. By completing the path we completely cease the whole suffering of the samsara.

PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH

The conclusion is this. I mentioned yesterday how precious this perfect human rebirth is. How precious it is. It’s more precious than the value of the whole sky filled with dollars, with gold, with diamonds, with that much wealth. Compared to the value of this perfect human rebirth, there’s no comparison. As I mentioned yesterday, even if we don’t have the tiniest piece of gold, the tiniest diamond, possessions like this, if we have this perfect human rebirth we can do anything. This perfect human rebirth gives us the opportunity to practice Dharma. One of the richnesses is having met the teachings. That means having the refuge in the mind and so having the opportunity to practice Dharma.

Even if we don’t have any of those possessions, or even an atom of those possessions, if we have this perfect human rebirth, by transforming the mind into Dharma, we can control the three poisonous minds. Without letting the mind come under their control, we can stop the rebirth in the lower realms: rebirth as a hell being, as an animal, as a preta, a hungry ghost. We can stop this and receive the body of the happy migratory being: a deva or human body. With this perfect human rebirth we can practice Dharma, transforming the mind into Dharma, by practicing refuge and protecting our karma. This is what we can do with this perfect human rebirth.

By practicing the three higher trainings of the five paths of the Lesser Vehicle, with this perfect human rebirth we are able to achieve liberation. Then, again, by practicing Dharma, by transforming the mind into bodhicitta, we can proceed through the five Mahayana paths, and by completing them we are able to achieve full enlightenment, peerless happiness, for the sake of all sentient beings.

So, if we don’t have even the tiniest atom of those possessions, if we have this perfect human rebirth, we have the opportunity to practice Dharma and then we can achieve all these things. For example, those yogis, those ascetic meditators such as Milarepa, didn’t have even the tiniest atom of possessions such as these, but they had a perfect human rebirth, they practiced Dharma and they achieved full enlightenment. They finished their work. They crossed the oceans of suffering of samsara. Not only that, they enlightened numberless sentient beings, and even now, each day, each hour, each minute, they are still enlightening numberless sentient beings. Like this, they bring infinite benefit, they do infinite work for the sentient beings. They didn’t have one piece of gold, one piece of diamond, they didn’t even have one dollar.

Therefore, the whole sky filled with that many possessions, with that much wealth, the value is nothing compared to the value of this perfect human rebirth. Even if we have this perfect human body for one day, even if we have this perfect human body for one hour, for one minute, even for a second, the value of having it for even one second is no comparison compared to all the external possessions. Because even in one second with this perfect human rebirth, even if our life is one hour longer, one minute longer, one second longer, if we practice, even in that one second, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] if we meditate on emptiness, we accumulate incredible purification and gain inconceivable merit by meditating with the mind touching on emptiness for even one second. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers]

By generating bodhicitta, we accumulate infinite merit. Even if we only have that much length of life left, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] such a short life, even if that’s all the life that is left, [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] if we use it, if we don’t waste it, if we practice Dharma, if we practice bodhicitta, then we accumulate infinite merit, we create the cause to achieve enlightenment.

Meditating on emptiness with bodhicitta, or renunciation with bodhicitta, even during that second doing a practice possessed by any of these, it becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment. Without bodhicitta, we create the cause to achieve liberation, everlasting happiness.

AWARENESS AND CONCENTRATION ARE NOT ENOUGH

First of all, the perfect human rebirth, the precious human rebirth, is so precious. Even if it’s not a perfect human rebirth now we can make it become a perfect human rebirth, having all the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. This is so precious, unbelievably precious. While we have such an incredibly precious human body, we should not be satisfied with just one meditation, spending our whole life for example just doing the breathing meditation, spending our whole life just watching the breath, spending the whole life just concentrating on the sound of a mantra and so forth.

Of course, if we are meditating on the emptiness of the sound that is a very rich meditation. We can meditate on emptiness, on the ultimate nature of the sound, the ultimate nature of the sensation; we can meditate on sensation—how it’s impermanent, how it’s empty. Within sensation, there are many different meditations. We can do a one-pointed concentration watching the sensation. We can do very deep, very rich meditations, very powerful meditations. We can relate to the four qualities of suffering: the impermanence of the suffering, the suffering, the emptiness and the selflessness, meaning the non-truly existent I, the non-inherently existent I. There are the four qualities of true suffering; then there are the four qualities of the cause of suffering, the four qualities of the cessation of suffering and the four qualities of the true path.¹⁵

We can meditate on the four qualities of the true suffering so that the feeling we have is that this is true suffering. We can meditate on the four qualities, the characteristics of suffering. Maybe qualities is not an exact translation. Maybe it’s characteristics. There are four characteristics, there are four characters, to true suffering. If we meditate on sensation like this, it becomes a very rich meditation.

One of the most powerful meditations, the greatest purification, is meditating on the sensation that is empty. But to do that I think you have to understand exactly what emptiness means in the Prasangika’s view. Of the four schools, the last one is the Madhyamaka school, and within that there are two [subschools], Svatantrika (Tib: u ma rang gyur) and Prasangika (Tib: u ma thäl gyur.) I think you have to know this exactly without making it messy, without making a mess. Without getting mixed up or without making a soup. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.

Meditating on the characteristics of sensation, its emptiness, can really cut the ignorance, the concept of true existence, that is the root of the whole, entire samsara, the circling of our defiled aggregates. In order for the meditation on the sensations to become the remedy to cut the root of the whole, entire samsara, the concept of true existence, ignorance, we have to meditate on the emptiness of the sensation. Just any word, just anything that is called emptiness, any explanation on emptiness, that’s not enough. There are even many Dharma books that talk about emptiness, they use the word “emptiness” but any explanation is not enough. It has to be exact; it has to be the ultimate emptiness, the Prasangika’s view. Only that shows reality, only that can really cut the root of samsara.

Even though each school has its own view of what is the root of samsara, and its own interpretation of emptiness, in reality the ultimate nature is one. The ultimate view of emptiness is from the fourth school, the Madhyamaka school and of the [sub]schools, Prasangika and Svatantrika it has to be Prasangika’s view. That is the ultimate view of emptiness.

Meditating on the characteristic or the nature of sensation, we have to know that very subtle right view, the emptiness that is the Prasangika’s view, the ultimate view. That happens by meditating on subtle dependent arising.

While having such a precious, perfect human rebirth and then spending our whole life just meditating on the sensation of the body—the abdomen moving back and forth, the belly moving back and forth—is wasting our life. There’s nothing after that, besides spending our whole life just watching the mind, just watching the thoughts, nothing more than that. There’s no additional practice than that; there’s nothing to go beyond that. After watching the thoughts, what are we going to do? We watch the thoughts and then what? There’s nothing. Nothing after that.

Spending our whole life trying to meditate by stopping all the thoughts is similar to being in a deep sleep. There is no difference to a deep sleep. When dogs and cats and pigs are in a deep sleep there’s no differentiation for them, there’s no awareness of the object at all.

As I often mention, if after watching the action no other method is applied—if it’s just watching the action—that’s the same as the attention needed by a person who is planning to rob a bank. Especially a very professional thief who robs banks needs a lot of attention. He needs a lot of carefulness, a lot of awareness of how to climb on the roof and how to get inside. He needs to know the exact time, the place and how to get inside. He needs a lot of awareness in that. Without a lot of awareness he can’t succeed. While he’s stealing, the thief knows he’s stealing. When a person kills, he has the intention to kill beforehand, the preparation, and while he’s doing the act, he’s aware he’s doing it. The awareness of the action of killing is there. It’s the same for us. When we’re walking along the road, we have that awareness: “I’m walking on the road.” When we’re working, we have that awareness: “I am working.” It’s the same.

If we only have awareness and there’s no other meditation after that to apply, what’s the point? Like the Kadampa Geshe Ben Gungyal, in his early life, he lived his life being a thief at night and a robber in the daytime. He had many arrows, knives and other weapons he carried around, hung from his belt. He had so many weapons around his belt. At nighttime he was a thief and in the daytime a robber, robbing other people’s possessions.

He had a field that could harvest forty big sacks of grain. From his field he could get that amount of grain. Because of that people called him “Forty Sins” or “Forty Evils.” That was his nickname.

Later he began to practice Dharma, constantly watching the mind to try to protect it, to keep it free from the eight worldly dharmas, the attachment clinging to this life. I mentioned those eight objects the other day—craving the comfort, the happiness of this life. By watching the mind and remembering impermanence and death and so forth, he could always practice the remedy to the eight worldly dharmas. By watching the mind, as soon as he saw the eight worldly dharmas start to arise, without delaying even a second, he immediately tried to smash them, he tried to cut them, to destroy them.

When he began to practice Dharma, one day he was staying at a benefactor’s house. The benefactor, the owner of the house, went out somewhere and during that time Geshe Ben Gungyal went to steal some of the family’s tea leaves that were in a bag. His left hand was already in the bag of tea when he suddenly recognized he was stealing. Then he shouted, “Oh, there’s a thief in the house!” Suddenly he shouted, he made a big noise, he shouted, “Oh, there’s a thief in the house! Come quickly!” He shouted so much that the owner of the house came running back. So he showed benefactor his left hand in the bag and said, “Here is the thief.”

[In that way] he was practicing the remedy to the eight worldly dharmas as well as stopping the negative karma of stealing. He did many practices like this. As soon as he found out, as soon as he became aware, he recognized that he was creating negative karma, then he immediately stopped.

After watching, there’s something else. If it’s just practicing awareness of the action we are doing, only focusing on what we are doing, it can still become negative karma. Just being aware of something like walking without watching whether negative thoughts arise, it can become a negative action. We need to watch the motivation. If we’re practicing awareness just paying attention to our walking, that can still become negative karma if we don’t watch the mind, because whether it becomes positive or negative karma, virtuous action or nonvirtuous action, generally depends on the motivation. If the motivation of the action is virtuous then it makes the action virtuous; if the motivation is nonvirtuous it makes the action nonvirtuous. Generally it’s like this.

Therefore, simply observing that we’re walking, that alone cannot stop the action of walking not becoming negative karma. We have to watch the motivation. Only then can we recognize whether our action of walking, eating, sleeping, whatever it is, is negative karma or not. Only then can we recognize the negativity and then we can eliminate it by applying the meditation that is the remedy. If our aim is just focusing on the actual walking, we can do that all day long and all day long we can be creating negative karma. Even though we believe we’re doing a meditation all day long, we’re still creating negative karma. A walking meditation, a breathing meditation, watching the mind or whatever it is, if our main aim is just that, if our main concern is not for the action to become virtuous, the action doesn’t become the cause of happiness, virtue. The essential point of meditation, the purpose of meditation is not for suffering, it’s for happiness. We don’t need meditation for that; we don’t need an additional method to create suffering. We don’t need to use a spiritual practice to have more suffering. There’s enough already. There’s plenty.

If we don’t know the real aim of meditation we could spend the whole of our life doing negative karma. We might have been concentrating on something, but that doesn’t mean it’s virtue. That alone doesn’t mean it’s virtue; it doesn’t mean we’re creating the cause of happiness. If we don’t know how to meditate, if we don’t know the real point of meditation, if we don’t have the aim that the action we do becomes the unmistaken cause of happiness, virtue, if we simply concentrate on something, there’s a danger that we waste our whole life. Not just waste our whole life because all those actions didn’t become positive karma, the cause of happiness, but we have used our whole life to create negative karma, additional negative karma.

There are many negative karmas. Every day, day and night, we create them, and then, on top of that, even our concentration practice becomes negative karma due to impure motivation. Because there’s no bodhicitta motivation, because there’s no renunciation of samsara, there’s no wisdom, because the meditation is not possessed by the right view. These three very important things are not there. These three very important things cut the greatest obstacles,
continuously stopping the action becoming heavy negative karma, the obstacles to achieving liberation, the obstacles to achieving enlightenment, and they are not there.

THE THREE PRINCIPAL ASPECTS OF THE PATH

This is the importance of the common path, the general path, the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. Its essence is the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment: the determination to be free from samsara, bodhicitta and right view.

Without the renunciation of samsara, the determination to be free from samsara, even if we meditate on the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra—meditating on the chakras, winds and drops, doing tummo meditation and the like—even if we are able to do it during our sleep, moving the subtle wind-mind, having those experiences; if it is not possessed by the thought of renunciation, the determination to be free from the whole, entire samsara, then that action of meditation, even if it’s Highest Yoga Tantra, Secret Mantra, it does not become the cause to achieve liberation, even for ourselves. Here we’re not talking about enlightenment but the liberation of the Lesser Vehicle path, achieving liberation for ourselves. This meditation does not even become the cause of that.

That is an extremely important point to understand and to remember when we devote our time doing a retreat, doing any practice, doing any meditation. It’s very important, this one analysis: to remember this and to check whether our action of meditation, doing this practice, is done out of renunciation or not. We need to check, to be aware of this. That is an extremely important point. If it doesn’t become the cause to achieve liberation even for ourselves, that means the meditation we’re doing, the practice we’re doing, simply becomes another additional cause of samsara. Every day, with our body, speech and mind, we are constantly creating so many causes of samsara, so many causes of the suffering realm. And then, even when we do our meditation practice, it becomes the cause of samsara.

And the other thing, even if it’s a very highest tantric practice, if it’s not done with the motivation of bodhicitta, the meditation doesn’t become the cause to achieve enlightenment. This is another extremely important point to remember when we do meditation practices or retreats. Whenever we do a session we need to check whether the session, the meditation, is possessed by that motivation or not, whether it is done to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings or not. We need to check and if it’s not possessed with renunciation then we should generate the thought, the determination to be free from samsara. If it’s not possessed with bodhicitta, we should generate the motivation of bodhicitta. Then we do the practice. We must try to do the practice possessed by that.

Even if our practice is Highest Yoga Tantra, if it’s not possessed with the wisdom realizing emptiness, right view, then no matter how secret it is, no matter how high the tantra it is, it can’t become the remedy to cut even the root of the samsara. It doesn’t even become the remedy to cut the root of the samsara, ignorance, the concept of true existence, that which is the cause of samsara.

If the practice is done without being possessed with right view, even if we are visualizing a deity, meditating on a deity with mandalas and so forth, then there’s a danger that it becomes the cause of samsara, that it becomes another additional cause of samsara. That’s the third point to check, and then to do the practice with that.

In the same way, from morning until night, if our twenty-four hours’ activity—walking, sitting, sleeping, eating and so forth—if these actions in our daily life are done with bodhicitta then they become the cause of enlightenment. If they are done with the renunciation of samsara then they become the cause to achieve liberation, and if they are done with the right view they become the remedy to cut the root of samsara. Besides our meditation practice, even our daily actions create the causes like that.

If the actions of our daily life are done without the three principal aspects of the path, every single action done with the body, speech and mind for the whole twenty-four hours becomes the cause of samsara. Since there’s no renunciation, they all become the cause of samsara. Since they are not done out of renunciation, they all become the cause of samsara, circling from one life to another life. Because the aggregates are defiled, we must experience the suffering rebirth and death and so many other problems, we must constantly experience the three types of sufferings. Every action we do becomes the cause of that, the cause of samsara. Rather than becoming the remedy to cut the root of samsara, they become the support for the root of samsara, the concept of true existence. Every action we do in every twenty-four hours becomes an obstacle to achieve the ultimate, everlasting happiness, liberation and full enlightenment.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION: FOUR PEOPLE RECITE THE TARA PRAYER

At this point I’ll mention about motivation. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo was one of the quite recent lineage lamas of the graduated path to enlightenment. He did extensive work for sentient beings, teaching and completing the whole path, experiencing the whole path and becoming enlightened. He did extensive work and benefited the teachings for sentient beings. From his experience of the teachings, uncountable numbers of sentient beings such as my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, became holy beings, actualizing the path. Innumerable numbers achieved the graduated path to enlightenment; this happened from his teachings, by hearing the teachings from this great enlightened being and studying his experienced teachings. Innumerable numbers of meditators achieved realizations on the graduated path and the two stages of tantra. Not only in the past but even nowadays there have been so many who have developed their mind on the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages of tantra, by studying and putting his teachings into the practice, which are experiential teachings. They come from Pabongka Rinpoche with his own complete experience.

Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo wrote Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, one of the most effective commentaries on the graduated path to enlightenment. In it, he explained the importance of motivation with the example of four people who recite the Tara prayer.

For those of you who have heard lamrim teachings before, who have done courses before, this is not a new subject. It’s just to remind you and to persuade you practice. For those of you who haven’t heard lamrim, the teachings of the graduated path to enlightenment, before, it’s very important. Knowing this advice, knowing this instruction is the greatest gift. Coming to the Kopan course, even if you can’t understand any other subject, as long as you can understand this example that Pabongka explained, the importance of the motivation, that is enough. That determines what becomes Dharma and what doesn’t become Dharma, which action becomes Dharma and which action doesn’t become Dharma. It determines which action becomes the cause of happiness and which action doesn’t become the cause of happiness. Even if the only thing you get out of the course is this, you have understood the very heart of the practice, the very essence of the Mahayana practice, the very essence of the Buddhadharma practice.

Of the four people reciting the Tara prayer, the first person recites it with the motivation of bodhicitta, to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Because of that, this first person’s action of reciting the Tara prayer becomes the cause of enlightenment.

The second person recites the Tara prayer with the motivation to achieve liberation, the cessation of samsara for oneself. Reciting the Tara prayer with this motivation, the determination to be free from samsara, to achieve liberation for oneself, this doesn’t become the cause of enlightenment because there’s no bodhicitta motivation. It only becomes the cause of achieving liberation for oneself.

The third person recites the Tara prayer with the motivation to obtain happiness in the future lives. This person’s action of reciting the Tara prayer doesn’t become the cause to achieve enlightenment, nor does it become the cause to achieve liberation, it only becomes the cause of happiness of future lives, only to obtain that happiness. This is because the third person’s motivation for reciting the prayer wasn’t done with bodhicitta, it wasn’t done with the determination to be free from samsara, but only to achieve the happiness of future lives.

Then the fourth person recites the Tara prayer with the motivation that is attachment, clinging to this life, to have a long life, to be healthy, to have power, wealth and so forth. The motivation is clinging to this life, to the comfort and happiness of this life, so that is attachment.

With the wish to achieve liberation, the wish to achieve enlightenment, the nature of the mind is calm, peaceful. The nature of the mind is calm, peaceful; the nature is not painful. The wish to achieve liberation and enlightenment does not obscure the mind to see reality, to see how causative phenomena are the nature of impermanence, and to see the ultimate nature, emptiness. This wish to achieve liberation or enlightenment does not interfere, it does not obscure the mind to see emptiness.

Clinging to this life, clinging to the black eight worldly dharmas, is a very painful, uptight mind. The thought clinging to this life, to these eight objects, the eight worldly dharmas—craving comfort, receiving materials, friends, interesting sounds, reputation, praise and so forth and not wanting discomfort, not receiving material things or friends and so forth—the nature, the characteristic of that mind is uptight, painful. It’s painful because it’s extremely difficult to separate the mind from the object. Like when we drop oil onto paper it’s so difficult to separate the oil from the paper, the mind of attachment is like that. That is the nature of the attachment toward the object. That’s what makes it so painful, so difficult to separate from the object.

It’s not just that. Besides the nature of attachment being unpeaceful, kind of painful, if we analyze it, it’s like pulling the heart from the object. The mind gets stuck to the object and then the nature is painful, not peaceful. During that time our mind doesn’t feel clear; it feels obscured, like a clear sky filled with fog, with thick clouds. During that time the mind is not like a clear sky or calm, clear water. It doesn’t feel free, relaxed, tranquil; it doesn’t have that nature. That sense of being very peaceful inside, in the heart, that experience is not there. Strong attachment is there instead.

Attachment obscures us from seeing the nature of the object. It obscures us from seeing the impermanent nature of the phenomenon, to see that is the nature it has. It blocks, it obscures the mind, it distracts us from that mind. It doesn’t allow us to see that the nature of the object is impermanence. That is the conventional nature of the object.

Then especially the function of attachment is to obscure us from seeing the ultimate nature of the object, especially from seeing the ultimate nature of the I. First of all, it doesn’t allow the mind to meditate on emptiness. It doesn’t give us the freedom to meditate; it doesn’t give us freedom to reflect on emptiness.

The wish to achieve liberation and enlightenment, the wish to realize emptiness, the nature of those things is a calm, peaceful mind. They don’t have the function of obscuring the mind. The function of these wishes is completely the opposite of attachment.

If we analyze our own thoughts, there are big differences between the mind wishing to achieve liberation, enlightenment, wishing to realize emptiness, all these things, and attachment, which is also a wish, to receive these eight objects. Clinging to the happiness of this life is a wish in the same way wishing for enlightenment is a wish, but, if we analyze, there are big differences in the characteristics of the two minds.

Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo clearly mentions in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand that the fourth person’s action of reciting the Tara prayer with the motivation clinging to this life, to have the happiness of this life—to have long life, health, power, wealth, these things—that fourth person’s action of reciting the Tara prayer does not become Dharma. It is very clearly mentioned there. That’s one of the texts that clearly mentions this. Even though the subject that the person is reciting is Dharma, the person’s action doesn’t become Dharma. The lowest definition of Dharma is that which protects us from falling into the lower realms. It holds us up from falling into the suffering lower realms. That is the lowest definition of Dharma. That fourth person’s action, even though the subject is Dharma, the action of reciting the Tara prayer doesn’t become Dharma because the motivation was not Dharma but simply attachment to this life, simply worldly thought.

We don’t have to live our life concerned with the eight worldly dharmas. There are many positive thoughts we can have. This is not the only motivation of life, this is not the only attitude of life. There are many other positive attitudes of life, there are many other ways we can live our life. If we have life it doesn’t mean our attitude of life has to be one of worldly concern. It doesn’t mean that. We can live our life with those other positive attitudes that bring happiness, whereas this one only produces suffering.

Lama Atisha was the one who re-established the Buddhadharma in Tibet. When it had become corrupted, Lama Atisha made pure again. He was invited by the king of Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, to come to Tibet from Nalanda, the great university in India, where there were many hundreds of pandits. Lama Atisha was one of the most respected, one of the greatest masters there, even in India. Lama Atisha was invited to Tibet to re-establish pure Buddhadharma.

One day his translator, Dromtönpa, asked what results there are with actions done out of the motivation of worldly concern, the mind clinging to this life. Lama Atisha explained that for actions done out of the motivation clinging to this life, the result will be rebirth in the naraks—the hells—as a preta or hungry ghost or as an animal.

So now you see what makes an action become Dharma. The fourth person’s action of reciting the Tara prayer does not become Dharma. It becomes worldly dharma not holy Dharma. It does not become holy Dharma, it becomes worldly dharma. It doesn’t become the cause of happiness of future lives. Even though reciting mantras and prayers like this has power, even though when they are recited with the wrong motivation, with a negative motivation, they have power to heal disease, to stop the life obstacles, to gain power, to have wealth, to have success in business and so forth, success in the work—even though they can stop obstacles to success, that does not mean the action of reciting those mantras or prayers becomes holy Dharma.

Similarly, when we take medicine, it can cure the disease, but that doesn’t necessarily mean taking medicine becomes Dharma. It doesn’t mean that. Just because the medicine can cure, can solve some problems, that doesn’t prove that the action of taking medicine becomes Dharma.

What we have to understand is that what makes our daily life’s actions the unmistaken cause of happiness is made by the mind, by the motivation. There’s no virtuous action from its own side. There’s no cause of happiness from its own side. The mind has to create the action, the mind has to create the cause of happiness, the mind has to make the action become the cause of happiness.

It’s the same in anything we do. Not only when we do retreat, doing those particular practices, even in daily life, from morning until night, for all our actions—eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, those four actions, and so forth—even for those daily life’s normal activities it’s the same. If they are done with bodhicitta they become the cause of enlightenment. If they are done with the motivation of attachment clinging only to this life, then they only become nonvirtue, they only become the cause of suffering, the cause of the lower realms. If they are done with the motivation of obtaining the happiness of future lives, [they become the cause of that, and if the motivation is freedom from samsara] they become the cause of liberation for the self. If these actions are done with bodhicitta, then they become the cause of enlightenment, even the daily life actions: eating, walking, sitting, sleeping and so forth. Depending on the motivation they become virtue or nonvirtue, the cause of happiness or the cause of suffering.

Since happiness and suffering depend on the action and the action depends on the motivation, we need to know what kind of motivation. If the importance of the motivation is never taught, if it is never explained at all, then even a whole life in retreat can be wasted. A person can be taught some meditation and spend his whole life in meditation, doing retreat in an isolated place, not meeting people, not eating food or drinking water, living in silence, even doing a Highest Yoga Tantra meditation, but if he doesn’t watch the mind, if he doesn’t attempt to transform the mind, to generate positive attitudes such as bodhicitta, if he doesn’t transform the mind in renunciation, cutting the attachment clinging to this life, then none of his actions become Dharma, no matter how many years he spends in retreat. None of his actions become Dharma at all, since they are all done with attachment, clinging to this life. Therefore you can now see how his whole life has been wasted. Not only that, he has used his whole life only to create another cause of the lower realms, another cause of samsara.

There are some stories from India and Tibet that show this. Once there was a person who spent his life meditating on a deity, Yamantaka, doing a retreat on the deity. After he died, he was born as a spirit. He did a Yamantaka retreat in Tibet. He lived in a hermitage and meditated on the deity, Yamantaka, but after his death he was born as a very powerful spirit that had a similar shape to Yamantaka, the deity the meditator had visualized in the past life. There are many stories like this.

This is something to think about. It means that if we miss out renunciation, bodhicitta and wisdom, we don’t know how to meditate. We don’t know how to meditate; we don’t know how to do a retreat. We don’t know the lamrim. We don’t know the lamrim practice; we don’t do the lamrim practice, the three principal aspects of the path. That’s why these problems happen. Meditators can do a high tantric practice but that action of practicing tantra doesn’t become the cause to achieve liberation or enlightenment.

So, I’ll stop here.

 

LECTURE 16

PHENOMENA DON’T EXIST AS THEY APPEAR

Do not commit any unwholesome actions, any harmful actions toward other sentient beings, which are also harmful toward yourself.
Enjoy life by creating perfect, wholesome actions, virtuous, beneficial actions toward other sentient beings, which are also beneficial toward yourself.
Subdue one’s own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

Reflect on the nature of causative phenomena such as the self, your own life, your body, your possessions, friends, enemies, strangers—the whole thing—that they are in the nature of impermanence. Reflect on their conventional nature, which is transitory, and that these things can be stopped at any time. These things do not last, even within a second; in every second they are changing, they are decaying, and these things can be stopped any time.

[Meditate]

Therefore, there is no reason to follow the dissatisfied mind, attachment. Similarly, there’s no reason for deluded minds to arise toward impermanent phenomena such as anger, ignorance, the concept of permanence. There’s no reason, there’s no space to arise any harmful thought or any ill will, jealousy and so forth.

By reflecting on the nature of phenomena, such as impermanence, this way you see more reason to generate a good heart, to generate compassion, the positive attitude. There is a valid reason. This way you see more reason to generate the positive attitude, and no reason to follow the negative thoughts, the disturbing thoughts.

Besides that, I, action, object—the whole of existence—while they exist by depending on the base and the thought which labels, by depending on those two, at the same time they are empty. At the same time, while they exist by depending on the base to be labeled and the thought which labels, by depending on those two, while they exist, all these existent phenomena are empty. They are empty of existing from their own side. These existent phenomena that appear as real ones, existing from their own side, are empty, they are empty from their own side. They are empty from their own side in reality.

The way they appear to our hallucinated mind, our dualistic mind, is inherently existent, that they exist from their own side. But the fact, the reality of all the existence is that they do not exist in this way. They do not exist in the way that they appear.

[Meditate]

If they did exist as they appeared to our hallucinated, dualistic mind, then they should be findable by analysis. By searching, by analyzing to see whether a phenomenon really exists or not, it should become clearer, it should be able to be found. But when we analyze, it cannot be found.

Like the existence of past and future lives. Because they exist they can be realized, whereas the non-existence of past and future lives, the non-existence of the continuation of the mind before this life and after this life, doesn’t exist and so can’t be found. That’s why there’s nobody who has discovered or who has realized that there is no continuation of the mind before this life and after this life. There’s nobody who has realized this. There’s no omniscient one who has realized this.

Similarly, there’s nobody who has realized that things have inherent existence, that things exist from their own side. There’s nobody who has realized this. There are numberless beings who have realized that things do not exist from their own side. Similarly, there are numberless beings who have realized that there’s reincarnation, that there’s a continuation of the mind before this life and after this life. So this is similar.

So, all these things, while they exist, they are empty of existing from their own side. 

[Meditate]

Be aware of the impermanent nature of these phenomena, that these causative phenomena, including the self, life, are impermanent by nature and besides that, all existent phenomena are completely empty from their own side. How they exist is completely the opposite to how they have been appearing to our own hallucinated mind.

So, suddenly there’s no reason at all, no purpose at all to follow all these wrong concepts, all these disturbing thoughts, the three poisonous minds and so forth. Even cherishing ourselves, even clinging to the I, cherishing the self, suddenly it doesn’t make any sense. Suddenly we become aware that following these disturbing thoughts is completely unnecessary in life because in reality these things are not how they have been appearing so far.

By being aware of the reality of things, suddenly the old life is stopped and the new life is started. The old life is stopped and we begin a new life—a new life, a new mind, a new awareness, a new wisdom, a new action, which is not the cause of suffering. A life that produces peace, especially ultimate happiness, full enlightenment.

[Rinpoche chants Lion-face Dakini practice in Tibetan.]

KARMA: THE FOUR SUFFERING RESULTS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Rinpoche: Is there some question regarding motivation? Something I mentioned yesterday?

Student: There’s one. What is the cause of phenomena arising?

Rinpoche: The cause of phenomena arising? You mean, generally existing? Ah lay. Generally speaking, permanent and impermanent phenomena, everything, what makes them exist is because they’re empty. They are empty of independence, so that’s why they exist. That’s why they exist. That’s the general thing. Everything comes out of emptiness. The whole of existence comes out of emptiness, the emptiness of inherent existence. It is not saying it begins from nothing, it’s not saying that. Everything comes into existence out of emptiness, the emptiness of inherent existence, the emptiness that is the opposite to how things appear to us now, as something unlabeled. Things—people, places, sense objects—appear to us here and now as unlabeled, they seem to exist unlabeled by the mind, to exist from their own side, not merely labeled by the mind.

The other thing is, for example, the various worlds are born from karma. There’s individual karma and collective karma, the intention or karma that is an individual person’s mind, and one that is a collective action, an action that is done by a group. So, various worlds are born from the living beings who use that world, who experience that world, who own that world. This comes from their karma, from their intention.

You’ll understand the explanation to your question when we go through the subject of karma in more detail, with more specifics. For example, sexual misconduct. Since you’ve brought up this question, I’ll give a particular example to show how things come from the mind, how they are born from karma, which is mind, the intention.

First of all, because [the act of sex] is done out of self-cherishing, it becomes sexual misconduct; it becomes a nonvirtuous action. Because of the attitude it becomes a nonvirtuous action. In order to become a complete nonvirtuous action, it has to have four things: base, thought, action and goal.

The complete sexual misconduct becomes nonvirtue because of the self-cherishing thought. Even if the action is done with attachment, from the three poisonous minds, it’s done out of self-cherishing and so these four things are completed. Then it becomes a complete nonvirtuous action and this has four suffering results. This has four suffering results. Due to the action, the ripened aspect result determines the rebirth, which is rebirth in the lower realms—the narak or hell realm, the hungry ghost realm or the animal realm—one of these realms.

Then, creating the result similar to the cause means, even when in a future life we are born as a human being, we do the same action again. We do the same action again because of our past habit, the imprint of the past habit. Even if it’s not taught by somebody else, we do it out of what is called by science “instinct.” However, this has a cause. It is due to the past habit or imprint that was left on the consciousness. Depending on how much our mind was habituated to that action in the past, how much karma to do it we have created, at some time, when some positive karma ripens due to having practiced morality, we are born as a human being. During that life, we experience the result of the past negative karma of committing sexual misconduct by doing it again. That’s why it’s so difficult to control. Even if we wish to control it, even if we wish it to not happen, it still happens uncontrollably. It’s because of having become so habituated to creating this karma in the past, being so habituated to it. This is one result of the past negative karma of sexual misconduct, called creating the result similar to the cause.

The third result, the third problem, is called experiencing the result similar to the cause, which for sexual misconduct means that we don’t have a peaceful, harmonious relationship—the wife can’t control the husband and the husband can’t control the wife. The relationship is not harmonious and we lose our companion; our companion gets possessed by another person. This problem is called experiencing the result similar to the cause. We have done similar things in the past, so now the result is similar; what we experience is similar to what we did to others. This is experiencing the result similar to the cause.

The fourth problem is the possessed result. In the future, when we are born as a human being, the place we get born into is very unclean, very dirty. It’s very filthy, dirty, muddy. Where we live there’s a lot of mud; it’s very dirty, very filthy. Therefore, whenever in our life we have to experience certain places that are filthy, dirty, smelly—when we approach such a place, a village or a city, whatever, when we have to go through such a place, when we experience such an environment, this is the fourth problem, the result of the complete action of sexual misconduct.

When we experience those other problems, we’re experiencing the result of the past karma of sexual misconduct.

KARMA: THE FOUR HAPPY RESULTS OF ABSTAINING FROM SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Now, the good news, the pleasant part. Because in our past life we have practiced the morality of abstaining from the negative karma of sexual misconduct, we have completed the action that again has four positive results. By abstaining from sexual misconduct there are four positive results, four results of happiness. Instead of taking the body of a suffering migratory being, we receive the ripening aspect result of a deva’s or human body, the body of a happy migratory being. Then, creating the result similar to the cause, again we create good karma, again practicing the morality of abstaining from that negative karma, sexual misconduct.

For experiencing the result similar to the cause, the temporary result is that there is so much harmony in our relationships. In other words, the other person listens to us and follows whatever we wish. There’s a lasting harmonious relationship, which is the complete opposite to experiencing the result similar to the cause for sexual misconduct.

The fourth happiness, the possessed result, is that when we are born as a human being the place where we live or travel to is clean. We are able to enjoy a clean place which is not muddy, smelly or filthy. It’s a clean, beautiful place. So in our life, even in one day, whenever we experience a place that is clean, nice, beautiful, that is the result of the past good karma of having practiced the morality of abstaining from the negative karma of sexual misconduct. We are experiencing what is called the possessed result. Instead of a place that is filthy, smelly, it has a scented smell; it’s a pleasant, desirable place.

So, you can see now that all these four happinesses come from our own mind. They come from our own mind, the karma, the intention. There’s positive intention, positive karma, and negative intention, negative karma.

This is to give you an idea how everything in our life is a creation of our mind. From birth to the death, whatever pleasant or unpleasant experiences, whatever miserable or happy conditions, whatever happy or unhappy life, whatever we experience—the people around us, the place, the environment—whatever we experience is all a creation of our own mind. It all comes from our own mind, our own past positive or negative intentions. Even in one day of our life, all the undesirable things we experience have come from our own past negative karma, our negative intention. And even in one day of our life, all the pleasant feelings or desirable conditions, all the experiences of happiness have come from our own karma, our positive intention.

INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE KARMA: THE DROUGHT IN AFRICA

There’s individual karma, action, and there’s collective action, action that is done together, action that is done by the group. We can expand this to the whole world, including the sun and moon and all the enjoyments [experienced by beings], growing things by the heat of the sun—all the things that are the enjoyment of the beings, including the planets, the living beings on this earth, the waters, the mountains, the plants, the crops, the world. As I explained, just as our individual life—a happy one or an unhappy one, the environment and so forth—comes from our individual past karma, in the same way the whole world comes from the collective karma of the living beings who enjoy this world, who use this world.

It’s the same thing with one particular country. For one particular country, the millions of people who live there have a beautiful, developed country, growing good crops and with a strong economy. There’s no scarcity of food and things like that; everything is plentiful for the people. There’s plenty of enjoyment and a good standard of living. Of course that may depend on the policy of the government, how the country is managed by the people. Of course it can also depend on having a good standard of education—it can depend on these conditions but the main cause of the economic development, of having plenty of enjoyments, of the standard of living of the people, comes from the good collective karma of the people, the morality practiced in the past by all these people. That is the main cause. The main cause is having created good karma, practiced morality, abstaining from creating negative karma. Having wealth is especially a result of morality, the morality of abstaining from the negative karma of stealing. And also having made charity to sentient beings in the past, which is opposite of miserliness, which is abstaining from the negative karma of miserliness.

Those are the main causes of economic development—having made charity to other sentient beings in the past and also having made offering to holy objects. That is also one practice for economic development, to not have difficulties, to not have a poor life, to have a means of living. Not having possessions, not having a means of living, is the result of the negative karma of stealing and miserliness, not having made charity to other sentient beings, being miserly. Those are the basic reasons, the basic karma, why we are born to a life that has difficulties earning a living, such as in places like Ethiopia, where millions of people are starving to death. Is there any explanation for these problems?

This is not a problem for the whole southern Africa. I discussed this with a South African person I met at Sydney airport. I asked him about the problem. He was a businessperson living in Hong Kong, and doing business in Thailand and Hong Kong. I think he travels around. I had my mala in my hand and he was very impressed to see it. He took his mala from his pocket and showed me. They kind of looked similar, not the color, but other than that similar. It was also used for counting. I tried to find out from him where they have the particular problem in southern Africa. He said it wasn’t the whole of Africa that didn’t have rain, just one part. I was trying to find out from him whether the problem was mainly because of the drought. I explained how I had seen it on television.

Then the thought came in my mind that maybe somebody could do a meditation and make it rain. I told him that I’m not a good person but there’s the possibility that lamas can do a meditation that can make rain. He said he was very surprised that meditation can make rain. He was very surprised to hear that. He was asking, “Really? Meditation can make rain?” He was very interested. He appreciated meditation very much. I think just generally. From his heart he expressed how practicing meditation was very good. I think he himself did it, I guess, maybe when he went to Thailand.

When we talked about the drought he explained the place he came from didn’t suffer from it.

I saw on TV during my retreat that so many people, including babies and children, were having such a hard life. Lack of rain was their main difficulty. Then the thought came to me to maybe send some students who had done a lot of practice there to make rain. They would have to be people who were very devoted to the method, to the practice, otherwise it wouldn’t work. There’s a couple I thought would be good. I did a translation of a naga puja for a sick person, an Australian woman, quite a number of years ago. I asked a Tibetan person to translate it into English so she could practice by herself. I think this translation must have been hanging around in Vajrapani, the meditation center in Boulder Creek, near Santa Cruz. This couple, somehow, found it while they were looking in the office and went to a mountain, I think in Colorado or somewhere, to a place like it was described in the text, and they did the practice. There were some difficulties of not having rain there, not too much I think, but as soon as they had done the naga puja practice, as soon as they finished, the rain came.

Since there were so many hardships in Africa, with no crops growing and people dying, I thought it might be good to send somebody like that to spend one or two months there, to do the practice, the meditation, and to make rain, or even sponsor a lama who was qualified to do this, to sponsor the expenses of going there for a few weeks or one month.

But then the other question came up. If these people don’t have karma to receive rain, if they don’t have karma from their side, and if they haven’t created the karma, then the rain won’t happen. There has to be an inner cause. There has to be an inner cause to receive the rain. The inner cause is the main cause of wealth, of enjoyment. The inner cause means the karma, the positive intention, that I mentioned before.

What they were experiencing was the result of stealing. While they are experiencing difficulties in life, again they’re doing stealing. So it goes on and on like that. Even externally, if others tried to help there would be obstacles, because of the inner cause, the main cause of the difficulties of life, the negative karma of stealing and so forth, of being very miserly, of not making charity. They didn’t make charity to other sentient beings. This karma is very strong. Therefore, even if someone tried to help in some way, it would be very difficult to solve the problems. Even if externally they tried to help, it wouldn’t work; somehow there would be a lot of obstacles.

I heard they tried to bring fresh water from another country by airplane, but as soon as it reached the airport, the water completely changed. It became very filthy, with a very bad smell. Immediately, as soon as it landed, the water became very smelly. It completely changed even though it was fresh water. When it arrived at the airport, the water became undrinkable. It became very filthy, dirty, smelly.

It’s like the suffering of the preta beings, the hungry ghosts. The type of suffering they experience is much heavier than what human beings experience but it’s a similar type of problem. What they experience is heavier.

So even if someone tries to bring in fresh water, when it arrives there it becomes dirty. I don’t remember the person who told me. Maybe the person is here, I’m not sure. The water becoming bad, undrinkable, when it arrived at the airport, the appearance of dirty, smelly water, is a creation of, a production of those people’s negative thoughts, their negative karma, their negative intention.

The main cause of all our daily life’s difficulties comes from our mind, such as stealing, miserliness, not making charity to other sentient beings. Then, not having made charity to sentient beings, not having made offering to holy objects, means not having created the cause for having enjoyment but having created the opposite cause, the cause of having difficulties in life.

So, I thought that it would be good to maybe even sponsor a lama, to pay the expenses to go there to spend some time doing puja, doing meditation. But from their side if they don’t have the karma to receive rain, [it wouldn’t happen.] They need to create the karma, which means depending on changing the mind, which means generating a positive attitude, doing positive actions. It all depends on their attitude, on changing from a negative attitude into a positive attitude.

I thought about that for some time. I asked a few people what the main problem was there. I suggested to a student in Tara House, Australia, whose family is from South Africa, that the best way to help them is to help the mind. Because their life, to change from having a difficult life to a wealthy one for the whole country, that has to come from their mind. Having much enjoyment mainly has to come from their own mind.

The best way to help is if some practitioner, somebody who is also practicing, a very good-hearted person, with the sincere heart, goes there and talks to them about compassion. He could teach the people how compassion is the source of happiness. By talking to one person, by educating one person, two people, three people, four people, gradually he could teach them a good heart, how to live life with the good heart, with a positive attitude. How to live a right life, a correct life, which means not using life to create the cause of suffering, but using life to create the cause of happiness. That it is the right life, the correct life. Mainly, teaching how to live life, how the best thing is compassion, universal responsibility, from morning until night; how to live life with a generous mind.

He could basically talk as much as possible, giving these understandings and giving inspiration to practice. He could also teach by his own example, by himself also practicing, so giving also his own example to them, showing them how he himself practices, giving that vibration or giving that positive feeling toward others.

This is the only way they can become harmonious, bringing a change into their lives, stopping life’s difficulties, because this way they can create the cause for success. This way they create the causes, otherwise they live constantly with minds such as jealousy or ill will. Life is used to create only the cause of problems, so even when they die and the next time, due to positive karma created in other lifetimes they are born as human beings, but again the same thing happens. They must endure a difficult life, with no rain, with drought, no food, disease and all these things. As long as they don’t change their mind, their problems go on and on.

We need to give people education, showing them that happiness depends on others, it has to come from others, and how others’ happiness is dependent on us. These are simple things, but practical. It’s very simple but very logical. We all need to do this rather than living our life with a primitive mind, with an old mind, with jealousy, ill will and so forth. With all these bad thoughts, with the old mind, the primitive mind, the undeveloped mind. So anyway, discussing something like that would be extremely beneficial.

We can all practice this, we can all practice universal responsibility, compassion, all these things. While their religion might be Christianity, they can practice that. There are no interferences to that. They can develop a good heart. We can make it clear that this is the way to practice, by developing the good heart. This is precisely how to live the daily life.

At the same time there was a problem of floods in Bangladesh, where so many people died.

So, even though a positive attitude within my mind is like stars in the daytime—it’s extremely difficult to see stars in the daytime and likewise for a positive thought to arise in my mind—but still, at that time, because of what I saw on TV, I felt some responsibility. Even though it was nothing, even though it was just a few hundred dollars, I donated that to the Ethiopian foundation. It was nothing compared to what they needed but I felt somehow if I didn’t do something, I’d feel guilty. But of course, giving material things alone is not enough, as I mentioned one time before.

You have gone through some of the meditations on lamrim, but we haven’t really gone through the lamrim subjects, like we have at a similar time on other courses. I’m mainly kind of just talking about lamrim but more just giving an introduction. That’s what I have been talking about. However, this is mainly for new people who haven’t got a very definite understanding, a very clear understanding of how things come from the mind, how things are dependent on the mind. With these details we haven’t yet gone onto the other lamrim subjects.

Externally helping is not the ultimate solution. Of course they need help and we should help them, but this is not the ultimate, the main solution to solve their problems. Their problems have to be solved from their own minds. Therefore, they need education; they need to have the mind explained to them, how happiness and suffering—the happiness and problems of life—come from their mind. As long as they don’t change their minds, even if we try to help by sending them things, somehow it goes wrong, or if we try to help them develop their land, somehow it doesn’t succeed, there are many obstacles.

Well, has there been any benefit so far from what I’ve talked about for how many days? Since the beginning of the course so far I’ve talked, so has there been any benefit? Yeah? Was there some benefit to the mind, or not? No, I’m not obliging you to say this.

So, for the last few days I’ve spent time talking about the good heart and at the beginning of the course, about the need of compassion. There’s so much to learn. There’s so much to study. There’s so much to study, to learn, to practice. But even these last few days’ talk, if you practice it, it will help.

THREE BEINGS SEE A BOWL OF LIQUID DIFFERENTLY

When a hundred people look at one person, to each of those hundred people the appearance is not the same. For some, that person appears ugly, for some she appears beautiful, for some she appears indifferent. This is one person, but for each of the hundred people none has the same appearance; they each have a different appearance when they look at this one person.

It’s the same thing even if it’s a house, a place or a mountain. Some see it as nice, as beautiful; some see it indifferently and some don’t like it. So, there are different appearances. There’s one object but there are different appearances. We have to study to see where these different appearances come from. There’s one object but when different people look at it, they have different appearances.

Now you can understand how all those appearances—beautiful, ugly, indifferent—all those objects come from the mind. They come from the perceiver, from the minds of the people who are looking at the object.

Here is a bowl. We see water, but those who have much more merit, much more positive karma than us, such as devas, even worldly devas, and buddhas who have completed the merit, they see nectar in this container. They have a much better, much purer view than us human beings. Their view is much purer; they have greater, better quality enjoyment.

When the preta beings, who have much less merit than us, look at the liquid in this bowl, they see the liquid as pus and blood. The object they see is much worse quality than the object we see. What they see is worse, more impure.

So you see, the worldly devas see the liquid as nectar. The buddhas see and can taste the purest enjoyment; they can experience the highest bliss, the highest happiness, by tasting the nectar.

So, depending on the level of the mind of the perceiver, one object appears as having different qualities. In this one bowl, nectar exists, water exists, pus and blood—which is object of the preta beings—exist; all these three exist. For all those three beings who have different levels of mind, depending on how pure or impure the mind is, how much merit has been created, they see different objects in this one container and for them it exists. It exists because that valid mind has discovered it.

The point of this example is to understand that the way this one object appears is dependent on the perceiver’s level, on the nature of the mind, how pure or impure it is, how much merit there is. The point is to understand how it comes from the mind.

It’s exactly like this for us observing this place, this gompa here, this meditation hall, this Kopan place. What appears to us is one type of appearance; the Kopan that appears to us is one type of appearance, according to the nature of our mind, the level of our mind. For those who have less merit, such as preta beings and so forth, this same place, Kopan, would appear much worse, as someplace horrible, much filthier, much dirtier. And for those who have much more merit, those who have a much purer mind, this Kopan place would appear more purer, with better, greater enjoyment. For buddhas, who have completely purified the senses, whatever appears, appears as only pure and is the purest object of enjoyment. What appears to the holy mind are only the purest appearances. This shows how things come from the mind, how things are a creation of the mind.

THE APPEARANCE AT DEATH COMES FROM THE MIND

At death, when we are dying, this liquid can appear as pus and blood. It’s the same thing. Kopan can appear like hell for some beings. What I am describing now, how things come from the mind, is also an explanation of how the three lower realms come from the mind. There’s no hell, there’s no concrete hell, there’s no inherently existent hell, one that is permanent, forever; there’s no such thing. A permanent hell is not accepted in Buddhism. When the negative karma to experience hell is finished in the mind then we don’t see any more hell. When the negative karma is finished, when the inner cause is finished, in that same place we no longer see hell.

The cessation of suffering is permanent in the sense that it can never decrease, it can never change from that. However, things such as hell are not permanent. When the inner cause, the karma, is finished being experienced, right there we no longer have the appearance of hell, the hell that is the appearance of the negative mind, that is the production of the unsubdued mind.

Everyone, all sentient beings, have the potential to be a buddha. There is buddha nature in everyone, in every sentient being’s mind. I have been waiting a long time to go through buddha nature but somehow it didn’t happen. Because of buddha nature, all sentient beings can become enlightened; there’s the opportunity to be enlightened. There are different explanations, different points of view, but every sentient being will become enlightened in time.

What am I saying? That is the main thing to understand about the lower realms. Once we’re born in hell then we are forever in hell, that’s not logical. It’s not logical but that explanation can be beneficial for some people. It’s not logical, it’s not true, but that explanation in the Bible can be beneficial for many people. Once born in hell, there’s no change for that person, therefore he or she puts every single effort into trying very hard to not create negative karma or sin or whatever name that’s used, for those actions that harm oneself and harm other sentient beings. That person puts all the effort into protecting him- or herself. So, even though it’s not logical, it benefits that person, bringing peace and happiness in life.

Also, at the time of death, people can look like they’re having a hallucination, like they become crazy, screaming and saying things like, “I’m seeing this,” “I’m being burned by fire,” “I’m being eaten by animals.” This and that. They say they’re experiencing all sorts of things that other people can’t see, that only that person can see. People can have terrifying, fearful, unpleasant, suffering appearances happening at the time of death. This can happen to a person who is going to die with a nonvirtuous mind, a nonvirtuous thought, and who is going to be reborn in the lower realms.

Some good practitioners have done some heavy karma in this life or other lives, such as degenerating samaya vows, or some heavy karma created with the relationship with the virtuous friend. However, instead of reincarnating in the lower realms, because of the strong practice, strong purification, that is done, the karma to be born in the lower realm has been purified so instead of that, they have to go through some problems. Instead of being born in hell and so forth for such an incredible length of time, the heaviest experience of suffering, instead of that the karma does not become completely nonexistent so that they never have to experience the suffering result at all—it doesn’t become like this—but due to strong purification practice there’s only a little bit left, and in the place of the lower realms that person has to experience some problem at the time of death. It’s the same. It’s the appearance of the impure mind, the karma.

A nurse told me about one of her relatives, her aunt or mother, who died while she was there. She said she was screaming and having a lot of hallucinations at the time of death. There are many examples like this of how objects appear differently to different people, how the object comes from the mind. As I have given many of these examples, so it’s same here. This girl’s relative was seeing many terrifying appearances that were the production of the negative karma, the impure mind.

Some time ago in Dharamsala a person from Kham died. As he was dying, he was shouting so much that many sheep were coming and attacking him. He was so scared and shouting. Nobody else could see sheep in the room, but for him it was real. For him it was real.

One of my teachers was one of the old meditators, Gen Jampa Wangdu. He gave teachings on doing the pill retreat, where instead of food you live on pills. If you’re going to live in a solitary place, this saves time and keeps you away from distractions. Living on pills helps to make quick progress in the practice, quick realizations. He taught this to many of the Sangha as well as many lay people during the first Dharma Celebration.¹⁶

Genla went to see this person, who was shouting and screaming. Later, Gen Jampa Wangdu found out that this person used to be a butcher in Tibet and he had killed many sheep. This was a sign that he was going to the lower realms. At the time of death, there’s a kind of preparation, there’s already a sign, these terrifying appearances are happening. For that person it’s real but nobody else could see it. Nobody else in the room could see one sheep.

A similar thing happened in Kathmandu to a big business person from Amdo many years ago. Several weeks before he died, before he was taken to hospital, his body became like a preta, with a huge, huge belly. It became completely black, very dark, with a huge belly and limbs kind of very thin. He feel so thirsty, incredibly thirsty. His wife brought a bottle of water but he could only drink by slowly taking one drop at a time; it was so difficult to drink. He could only swallow one drop and he couldn’t eat any food. The doctors couldn’t do anything, so he went back home. When he was climbing the stairs, he took a long time to climb each step. It was so difficult to go up.

During those seven days when he was in the room, he saw ants coming in the windows; his room was full of ants. It looked like my room, the same. It reminds me of my room. He saw crowds of ants coming in like this, from the windows. Where there was a window, from all the windows, crowds of ants came in. He was shouting so much, “Close the windows, close the door.” So he stayed for many days keeping the room completely dark, but he still saw his whole bed completely filled with ants. But nobody else could see one single ant. The servants couldn’t see one single ant on his bed. He experienced this for many days. This was the result [of an impure mind] like that container that appears as water, nectar or pus and blood, depending on the different levels of mind of the different beings experiencing it, whether pure or impure.

For him, the negative karma, the negative thought, the unsubdued mind, the negative intention, that caused him to be reborn in the lower realms was manifesting at the time. It was becoming actualized, experienced, so even before he died these terrifying signs were happening.

EVERYTHING COMES FROM THE MIND

There’s nothing concrete, nothing inherently existent from its own side. Everything comes from the mind. What is called the three lower realms, this whole world—everything comes from the mind. Therefore, by practicing, keeping the mind in a positive state to whatever capacity we can—one of those three different levels of motivation I explained yesterday—becomes the cause of happiness. The three levels of motivation become the cause of happiness but the fourth one doesn’t become the cause of happiness.

I’m expressing this from the different levels of positive motivation, according to the practitioner’s level, the capacity of mind. I’m not saying that you should have this motivation of seeking the happiness of future lives. I’m not saying that this one is more important than the motivation seeking liberation for yourself or to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. I’m not saying that. I’m explaining the different levels of positive motivation, the motivation that happens according to the capacity of the mind.

Even in Christianity reincarnation exists. Christianity talks about resurrection. Christianity talks about heaven and hell. After this life, there is heaven and hell. It doesn’t bring up reincarnation as one of the important points, it’s not emphasized, but otherwise it’s the same. It talks about hell. It is not talking about hell and heaven in this life. It’s talking about hell and heaven after this life so that’s talking about reincarnation.

Also, the Hindu religion talks to a certain extent about karma and reincarnation. It talks about reincarnation but karma to a certain extent, not exactly, I think, what is explained in Buddhadharma, but to a certain extent karma. Therefore, reincarnation is not a particular Buddhist thing.

There are those who don’t accept any religion, who don’t have any religion, but who in their daily life have a compassionate, generous mind toward the people and animals around. Their actions are done with that sincere mind, only thinking of the other person, only caring about others. This is the purest virtue because it’s unstained by the self-cherishing thought. Only concerned for other sentient beings, with a sincere heart they do service or help. That is the purest Dharma, because it’s unstained by the self-cherishing thought. It does help but the action itself doesn’t become bodhicitta. It’s similar to actions done that become the direct cause for enlightenment but it’s not exactly the same as bodhicitta. However, that action done out of compassion has great benefit. The greater compassion there is, the greater benefit. That is part of what makes bodhicitta.

Therefore, the conclusion is we should keep our mind in these positive attitudes, which are the cause of happiness, which are the source of the happiness of life. This comes from the lines of this verse: “Subdue the mind. This is the teaching of Buddha.” This instruction by the Buddha becomes an extremely important instruction for us to practice.

So, I’ll stop here.

Yesterday there was a request for me to give Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s mantra, so please think as the motivation, “I am responsible to free every sentient being from all the obscurations, sufferings, and lead them to full enlightenment. As I have this responsibility, and this is the meaning of my life, I must achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. For that I need to develop my mind in the graduated path to enlightenment. For that reason, I need to purify and accumulate merit and receive blessings, and I need to receive blessings from Shakyamuni Buddha. Therefore I’m going to take the oral transmission of the mantra.”

[Rinpoche recites prayers and gives the oral transmission of the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha mantra.]

Due to the three times’—past, present and future—merits accumulated by me and by other beings, may bodhicitta be generated within my mind and in the mind of all sentient beings. For those who already hafve it, may it be developed.

May I achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and lead all sentient beings to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment as quickly as possible.

I recited this, La ma tonpa chom den de … chhag tshal lo. By reciting this one time it has the power to purify 84,000 eons of negative karma. This benefit was already explained by Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s tutor, who gave the commentary of Bodhicaryavatara¹⁷ to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and from whom I received the oral transmission of Bodhicaryavatara and the commentary and a few other teachings. Rinpoche is exactly the same as those ancient pandits such as Nagarjuna, Asanga and so forth. He’s not only extremely learned in the whole, entire Buddhadharma but even in other subjects such as Sanskrit and in other educations, other forms of knowledge. Rinpoche quite often gives this mantra to people to recite. The mantra contains the whole path to enlightenment, the whole lamrim.

[Rinpoche does the dedication in Tibetan.]

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Notes

¹⁵ They are: for the truth of the cause: causes, origin, strong production and condition; for the truth of cessation: cessation, peace, contentment and definite emergence; and for the truth of the path: path, suitable, establishing and definitely emerging. See Geshe Jampa Tegchok: Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage, pp. 136–148. [Return to text]

¹⁶ There have been four Enlightened Experience Celebrations organized by FPMT, featuring extended teaching by great teachers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The first one was in 1982 in Bodhgaya, India and the fourth in 2004 in Mongolia. [Return to text]

¹⁷A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, by Shantideva. [Return to text]