Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche: The Three Principle Aspects of The Path (Hong Kong 2013)

The Three Principle Aspects of the Path (Hong Kong, 2013) by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, transcribed from
podcast. http://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.html
THE THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS OF THE PATH (Hong Kong, 2013)1/14 by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
Im assuming many of you are Buddhists. Of course, those who have not decided to be Buddhists, its not that as if you are not welcomed. Im only mention ing this because I may use a lot of Buddhist jargon, technical terms which my translators are already worried. So for those who have not received Mahayana teachings in the past, you might find it a little dry at times. But actually there are a lot of familiar, familiar faces I could see. For most of you, you have heard this billions of times. Youre, you are not hearing anything new. But it is very encouraging and touching to see the sight of people like you who wish to spend your good weekend doing this rather than going out and shopping, and etcetera, etcetera because eh, (pause) the most important possession that we have is the spirit, not material.
If the, if the spiritual aspect of our lives is intact, healthy, then all the rest really matters eh, not, I mean doesnt really matter. I say it is very encouraging to see youre interested in coming to this kind of event because our world, this world, this age does not treasure the spiritual aspect of our lives as much as we should. And even the so-called spiritual paths are them, themselves prisoned or hijacked by material, material world. But its not as if we are not longing for spiritual path. You may be not a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Muslim, but somehow whether you term it as a spiritual path or not, somehow we all, consciously or unconsciously, pursue some kind of spiritual way.
Theres a lot of indication for that. For instance longing for romance is actually a good indication of longing for spiritual path. Poetry, relationship, and to a certain extent, music, dance, being able to express, being able to express and appreciate what is being expressed by others. These are important for us. Even the most hardline Wall Street CEO secretly longs for some sort of unexplainable romance.
Anyway this time as youve, you have noticed eh, we have decided to pay tribute to the great Lama Tsongkhapa. Ancient Tibetans, if you think economically or scientifically or even culturally - ancient Tibetans, I dare say have nothing much to be proud of. But theres something that ancient Tibetan kings, theres something they had done which is just beyond thinking. The great King Trisong Detsen, to spend ninety percent of his national budget importing Buddhism, is unthinkable from materialistic point of view. When the neighbouring nations pay more attention in defence, in economy, I dont know, foreign relationship; King Trisong Detsen was more concerned bringing the Buddhadharma from India and really planted the root of the Buddhadharma in Tibet.
One could almost say it is King Trisong Detsens vision and devotion to the Buddhadharma that we have managed to save some of the most important teachings of the Buddhadharma today. After the first arrival of Buddhadharma to Tibet, then came many, many great teachings from India. One of the latest is the great Atisha Dipamkara; one who promoted and one who really emphasized on kindness, mind-training, compassion, love, tolerance, and so on. Atishas emphasis on kindness is just so moving that among all his gurus, he revered the great Dharmakirti of Indonesia the most, purely because it was great Dharmakirti, from him Atisha learned the art of kindness.
From Atishas lineage came the great tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa. And personally myself I have received this teaching from my root guru, Khabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. I have, knowing that so many of you are here, to make your visit worthwhile, I have brought a Buddhas statue so that at least your time is not wasted (laughter). Because even the sight of a wooden Buddha could maybe implant some kind of subliminal influence of kindness and awareness within your DNA gene, so I put this in front of me. And this is actually carved with, carved in Gandhara tradition; and Gandhara, Gandhara style is probably the most ancient style of Buddhist icons. And for those of you who dont know, the Gandhara style is very deeply rooted to the Greek, Alexander the Great, so on and so forth. Even today, there are lots of Gandhara ruins in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Okay, now the title is (Lam-gtso rnam-gsum) the Principle Aspects, Three, Three Principle Aspects of the Path. Now path, path is a very interesting phenomena. It is something that a spiritual eh; it is something that is INDISPENSABLE for a spiritual person. But okay, so path is the way; path is the solution, so to speak. But it is also important to know that path is a deception and it is ALSO a problem. So juggling between how much of this path, how much should we really fall for the path, and how much we should not fall for the path is what makes a spiritual person mature, eh, interesting I should say, interesting.
Do you need a path? This, this question do you need a path? It depends. It depends on are you having enough fun and what do you mean by fun, anyway? Are you having enough fun and if, if so, if you do have fun is this REALLY the fun that you are envisioning or looking for? Or do you ACTUALLY know what is fun? After years and years, centuries of you know like development in this world, have we finally come to a conclusion what is ultimate fun?
Happiness, you know happiness same thing. So it really depends on you know, are you happy? And what is happy? Is it achievable? Should we just give up looking for happiness and that way, maybe we are more happy? So this is something that need to contemplate, whether you require a path or not. And YOU and only you can decide this individually. And for that you need to contemplate. Contemplation is very important. Our world does not contemplate enough.
Im going to sort of use the text but not you know, sort of in order. I will jump here and there, everywhere. Okay here I will read two verses. As you can see, many of you, those who have known me past twenty years; now I have to use reading glass. Therere so many changes you know, kind of sad. Im beginning to like tea; thats SO SAD (laughter). And Im beginning to like English garden and Im beginning to like countryside. Those are not a good sign, Im telling you.
(Tibetan phrase) So Im reading two verses, somewhere towards the end first. You know there is a certain order in our lives. This thing that is in front of me, the glass of water - if Im thirsty, by drinking it, it will help me; and thats not going to change. Thats not going to change for this life. I dont think so until I, I change my perception. Lets say if I become in my next life a fish, THEN that phenomenon, way it appears has changed. So there is a certain order, certain unruly is maybe not the right word, but theres a certain order in our life; and thats, thats non-deceiving in a way.
I can use this table as a table today, tomorrow, and maybe even after ten years, I use this as a table. And thats how things are usable. Coffee is drinkable, chopsticks for Chinese are utensil for picking up food that will not deceive Chinese, and many others now. So all of this, all of this that we are experiencing in our day to day life love, rejection, anxiety, four plus four is eight all of this, all of this functions. Its almost impossible that in about five years time, four plus four will become five. This thing functions, this, you, you know the way, our values, our projections; all of these, there is an unobstructed function. And many of them are really strongly supported by logic of cause and condition.
Expecting or hoping for marigold, if you plant a marigold seed; yes, if everything goes well, you will have a marigold, okay. Now its this next, next sentence (Tibetan phrase); yes everything functions as I have just explained but NONE OF THEM, even though they function as how they function none of them can be eh, none of them can be taken as the ultimate truth. This, okay what hes saying is that the truth and the non-truth are just completely together, like the shadow and the light. You cannot take out shadow and create a light, vice versa.
The truth and the deception exist; exist maybe not the right word, but it manifests together in one eh, in one, what do you call it? As one. Okay until we accept that this two cannot be separated, we will, we have not understood what Buddha is trying to teach. All our struggle appears when we separate this two or we attempt to separate. Now this needs to be explained a little bit. This is a little difficult to emotionally accept. Intellectually it might make sense but emotionally it is difficult to accept.
What Im saying is like the water and the moisture of water these two cannot be separated. But Im not also saying that they are one. It is possible to see the water but you dont necessarily get wet just looking at water. So in this way, moisture and the water it does seem to appear differently. Likewise, so you see, you cannot, you cannot have water that is, that is, you know like independent from moisture. Likewise we cannot the truth that got, that is, you know like independent from the non-truth.
As we look at this flower, it does function for you and me - it does function as a flower, projection of the flower, function of the flower, all of this is there. But this does not mean that the projection and function of the flower is the ultimate. So this is what Im assuming Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that until we know this, kind of magic; maybe I should use the word magic. This is the MAGIC of everything. Everything, even a grain of rice, is functioning as rice but actually it is not rice. It is functioning as this two, the inseparability of this two is the magic and until you know this, you have not understood the teaching of the Buddha.
I will also use the word mystery. This is the mystery that we miss. This is the magic that we ALWAYS miss as we walk in the street. This is not a magic, magic or magical power that is, that you can obtain it through mantras or through some kind of super, supernatural power. You dont have to obtain, it is THERE, the magic the magic of inseparability of fake and truth. But as I said, its not; its easier said than done.
As you are about to kiss your beloved one and as you, you know, look into your beloved ones face, the feeling, the picture, the sensation and this great ancient feelings, all this stupid thoughts like soul mate the realization that this is FAKE is not that easy AND okay, first finish that (laughter). The realization that this is also not truth is difficult for a lot of people.
On the other hand, there are people who think; who actually go to the other extreme oh, this is fake, complete rejection. See they have lost magic again. They SHOULD kiss, you know they should. Because then they are divorcing between this truth and non-truth, you understand. And forgetting the magic of this non-truth and the truth causes so much problems because it is because of no awareness of this, then as you are to embrace your beloved one, hope, fear, plans, jealousy, what next, all this arises. By the way, Im picking up this subject a little bit, a little bit; because I know in this audience therere many who are in love (laughter) and on top of that, traditional societies like you and me, we are in a prison. The prison is called Do the right thing, and of course this doesnt help.
Going back to the magic I overuse this example but probably this is really one of the best examples Like, like a rainbow again. Rainbow has a magic. Its there; you cannot deny its not there when you see one. But its not there also. This inseparability of there and not there is what makes rainbow magical. Just like that, everything we experience right now our fear, our hope, anxiety, all of it has its magic.
(Tibetan phrase) One who follows, one who has decided to follow a path, a journey; you know we are talking about the path, by the way, remember path. A person who has decided to follow a path has now decided to learn the inseparability of this and by learning the in, by accepting the inseparability of this. Of course in the beginning you have to have, because you are a beginner, you, you; okay lets say for instance
you sit on top of a meditation cushion. There you try to contemplate the inseparability of this two but as soon as you get out of the mediation cushion, you forget this. You get mingled with all the illusion and forget the inseparability of this two.
Like when you see something, when you experience something, something nice, something not nice, whatever; when youre experiencing, you actually, you have to contrive your mind and try to bring in the awareness and mindfulness. But a person who has taken this journey, gets accustomed to this slowly, and then one day without needing to contrive, as you, the moment you see and experience whatever youre experiencing or see whatever youre seeing or hear whatever youre hearing the moment you encounter the phenomena, IMMEDIATELY you experience, experience the inseparability of this two like watching the rainbow. And this is Lama Tsongkhapa said (Tibetan phrase) that is the end of the journey.
We will take a break, and we will eh, when we come back, you can ask questions if you have regarding these two verses because actually these two verses are the, probably the most important verses in the text. Theres one more verse that will be followed by that, which is also related to this one, which we will discuss after the break. Ten minutes.
To put into a context of path; you see this is after all path laid out in the form of three principles. So to put everything what we discussed earlier in the context of path; mm, one can safely say the Buddhist path or the path that is presented here has two elements the wisdom and the method. Wisdom should not hijack the method. Neither should method hijack or imprison the wisdom. Theyre necessary to apply twofold, you know wisdom and method, is because of what we have discussed earlier, because the truth and non-truth are inseparable.
This is rather an important statement if you think carefully because one would think that if youre following a Buddhist path, you will, you will expect some sort of moral, you know, moral, I dont know, line or ground. And we do also, you know I cannot deny; or we must; I mean we also do; in the Buddhist path, there are so many ethical and moralistic methods regarding outfit, regarding diets, you know Buddhists, being Mahayana practitioner, vegetarian, and things like that. But path is not a path if such method hijacks the wisdom of the Buddha.
But as I said, been repeatedly saying its not that easy because moralistic or ethical or anything that is tangible, physical, perceivable path are always more attractive. And moreover there is a fundamental insecurity that we have, theres a fundamental inadequacy, inadequate feeling. Theres also the habit of thinking that a persons responsibility is to do the right thing. And in many cases, idea of doing the right thing is always eh, coming from scriptures or the culture, culturally-bound society. Also you know culturally-influenced methods are the only way that we can handle. And many times, those methods that are, that are prescribed by the past masters tend to work better.
From the, from the wisdom point of view, there is really no reason why one has to sit still and straight in order to bring the awareness. Theres really no reason at all. One could invoke, one could nurture the wisdom sleeping, lying down, grinding a sesame seed, weaving clothes, ploughing fields; and in some cases, even doing things that are commonly known very immoral, such as drinking. If you are puzzled with what Ive just said, Im just thinking about many of the eight, eighty mahasiddhas of the past. One great mahasiddha actually achieved enlightenment by LYING. For many of us, it is a legend. For some of us, it may be very romantic and inspiring to hear a great mahasiddha, a great guy who actually achieved enlightenment through lying.
Among the great eighty mahasiddhas, one can single out the supreme of the supreme, royal Sahara, Saraha, Saraha, royal Saraha. And he was a great scholar of the Nalanda University. But unsatisfied with what he had known and learned in the great university, he, he quit, so to speak, the university; and finally met one of his most important gurus who was part arrow-maker and part prostitute. One of the first encounters, when he met her, she made the arrow so meticulously straight, so meticulously, but when she finally did her final test, when she needed to shoot the
arrow, she had no, she just shot aimlessly. Puzzled by this, you know event, Saraha asked her why are, you know after all that work, you have, you know, after all that effort you put, why you do this, aimlessly shoot? And she said this is the problem of the whole world, because everybody is trying to find the target, and I dont have (laughter).
Even in this story you, you learn that she has mastered the art of combining, not really - combining is not the right word; she has learned the art of inseparability of you know, the fake and truth. When she makes the arrow, she puts all the effort. Her making of the arrow is not hijacked by the knowledge of aimlessness. She was very meticulous. This is something you also read in the Vajracchedika Sutra, Diamond Sutra. If you recall, those of you who read Vajracchedika Sutra, you will hear Buddha put meticulous attention to how he folds the robe and washes his begging bowl and sit straight, so on and so forth. And Sutra ends with no Buddha, no form, none of that.
Just to kill the curiosity, the guy who got enlightenment through lying by the way, when he was a pathological liar, he just, you know he has to lie, this is his disease. When he met his guru, he said - this is your path, dont ever; you have to take a vow, NEVER EVER, EVER tell truth to yourself and others (laughter). The explanation is quite a lot in fact.
The master said - you know everything that people say is lie. So actually if you consciously lie, you are the ONLY person who is telling the truth (laughter). But I dont think Ill recommend this to you. I, I will not recommend this path to you. I mean do you know why? - Because we have the burden to apologise. As long as you feel that you need to apologise, yes you are bound by, you have, you have divorced between the truth and the non-truth. You have no magic basically, yes. But by all means, I want you to aspire to become like him.
You should have aspiration. We should all have aspiration not to be caught up by this burden of eh, doing the right thing. Thats a difficult one, you know. I dont know whether you know this to be, to be really free ourselves from the pressure of doing the right thing, eh, burden of being good. Burden of being good is a very big burden oh, my goodness. I should let you ask questions. Do you have questions? Yeah, do you have questions?
Student A: Ah, yes, in your interview, you mentioned we have to educate our children to be elegant. This is the second time Ive heard you emphasize elegance. What is the significance of elegance in our dharma practice? A few of your behaviour look quite outrageous in common peoples eyes such as what you did in ChampsElyses in France. As ordinary being like us, how can we combine elegance and outrageous without any conflict?
Rinpoche: Mm, I think, Im, Im only going to tell you what I know intellectually. The practical thing, you know, is inexpressible. I think sometimes that one has to come up with, as we go through the experience. And what Im going to say might also confuse you but that confusion may be good for you.
In order to become elegant, I think you need confidence. But confidence also needs flavour of naivety. Naivety as always known - not necessarily negative all the way. Many times, the children are quite elegant, for instance the kids, the three-old kid they do not have to think about writing a will. And I dont know; they can just cry anywhere they like. Theres that sense of not giving a damn about what who thinks what. Thats a very difficult one again; remember I was talking earlier burden of being good. Burden of being good is, is a big problem.
Again I will bring your attention back to the verses here. This is because we constantly lose the magic, magic of everything as it appears. How it appears is not how it is THAT MAGIC, that inseparability of this appearance and the truth. When we forget that, we forget our elegance. And more practically, you should do vipassana for the elegance. Because when we talk about elegance, physically, mentally, you know verbally, in everything; you know in appearance, in communication amount of the time you invest on self-contemplation will make a big difference.
For instance, like vipassana, part one, the body just contemplating on your body, accepting as it is, not thinking of your body in reference to a certain trend, certain fashion, certain look, certain, I dont know, idol gains confidence. Because the moment you think that I should like Tom Cruise, then we have a problem (laughter). And, and by the way, thats important to; really, its really important for the modern world. Already in Korea, most of the people look similar (laughter). And already in Hong Kong, everybodys wearing the same thing, which is SO just not creative. Then you become; and of course, the fashion companies, they love it because they dont have to stitch, you know individually. Okay, the next question.
Student B: How to overcome the pressure coming from other peoples e xpectation towards me? Im so afraid of the expectexpectations from other people like my family, my friends, my parents towards me. As I am afraid that I cannot fulfil the expectations, so I feel pressured and nervous.
Rinpoche: Yes, tell me about that (laughter). (Pause) Logically I should say dont make too much promises. I dont think I will say that. Many times, you know the fake promises are so good. I would say, mm, motivation is; pure kind motivation and then do what is necessary. If you need to promise, I guess you have to and then you will find a way to sort of bend the rule.
As Shantideva said to fulfil the wishes of ignorant sentient beings - just not exist, it doesnt exist to fulfil all their wishes. I mean forget many, even one persons many days and hours wishes is difficult to fulfil, okay.
Student C: I have taken the bodhisattva vow. If my family, family member carries on a business in buying and selling alcohol and it is very hard for myself not to do anything, to distance myself from it. What should I do to balance the conflict between the vow that I have taken and the karma that I will have to face? The second question: can lay Buddhists; can lay Buddhist practitioners preach Buddhism, for example by holding a public lecture? If the person is not yet enlightened and have something wrong and direct people to do the wrong direction,
would he or she face any karmic consequences? How do we choose between practising by ourselves and spreading the dharma to others?
Rinpoche: As far as teaching is concerned, theres really no difference between ordained or lay. Even in the historical, you know figures, there are probably more lay teachers than ordained. Ultimately theres only one perfect teacher, and that is the enlightened being. Not even the tenth bhumi bodhisattvas are supposedly perfect. But because not everyone is equipped with such kind of merit, situation and so forth, it is also good to receive teachings from those who wish well, those who have kindness and specially bodhicitta.
A teacher must teach, a Buddhist teacher must teach a person to one way or another, to enlighten this person; NOT EVEN to convince a person, not even with that reason, he or she should teach - convincing the person to accept your view, so to speak. And we will talk about motivation this afternoon, so well have a lunch break now.
Okay, so now Im going through the text, kind of from the beginning. Homage to all the venerable Buddhas, I mean venerable gurus; so as it is in the tradition, always paying homage to the embodying of all the Buddhas, which is the guru. Concept of the guru is very complicated. Guru always gets misunderstood as master. I dont know whether master is guru. We dont know yet. I dont think so, most probably not. Because I dont know, sometimes the master seems to have a connotation of learned one. So it has this, it comes within the context of sort of education, accomplished being, kind of, you know from the more like education point of view. Guru is not necessarily like that.
As I said, guru is quite, its a very complex, eh, its very complex; but I think this might help. Guru is not limited as the master but guru is the path also. Guru is everything. Guru is the breeze, breeze; the colour of this grape, the spaciousness of this room. But again as I speak like this, there is a danger to categorize guru as everything, which is like very abstract. So in this way, guru is also personalized.
So anyway in the Mahayana and especially in the Vajrayana tradition, guru is probably one THE most important method. You know we were talking about wisdom and the method; method, probably the supreme-most method - so before we begin, homage to the guru. And when we say homage, were not just talking about bowing
down but basically some sense of surrender. Its not mere respect but its a total surrender. We do this surrender because we are aware of the downfall of ego, egoclinging; so therefore total surrender to the guru.
(Tibetan phrase) The essence of all the Buddhas teaching, path that is venerated by all the bodhisattvas; path or the entrance to the path for those who are seeking the liberation. Which excludes, you know which basically if youre saying you are not interested in the liberation, this text is useless. You need to; you need to want the liberation, liberation from this delusion. Only and only with this kind of desire or longing for liberation, for those who have this kind of liberation, eh, those who long this kind of liberation, for them this is an entrance to the path. And I, Tsongkhapa, here hes saying, I, Tsongkhapa, I shall try to present as much as I can. And here Tsongkhapa, you know, is exuding, demonstrating the great quality of the bodhisattva, which is the humility.
(Tibetan phrase) For those who are already in this existence, in this samsara, but basically for those who are already existing or those who are dwelling in samsara, but for those who are, who has seen the true colour of this samsara, who has, who has had a glimpse of sort of un-repairable fault of this samsara. This line does not deny that there is no fun. Basically this does not, this is not denying in samsara there are actually some, you know, seemingly you know, pleasurable, I dont know eh, desirable situation but fundamentally this is all on the surface. You know on the surface, theres something desirable, I dont know something that is something that we feel, we like sort of, we cherish. But fundamentally there is incurable, incurable fault or a symptom, and therefore even though you see on the surface, you know deep down theres something has gone wrong. So for those, for those who have that kind of knowledge; hes, hes basically talking about to whom this is presented, so thats one type of person.
The other type is some of, some of, some of this people who have seen, who can see the potential of this human life. The potential of this human, human, human body, human life is just so powerful. It is incredible, what do you call it? - Powerful. Not merely, you know like animals; you know animals, they cant really plan for the next dinner but we can. But thats not just, thats, thats nothing. And not, not, not even the ability to, the human, human ability to, you know like raise family, lead thousands of people, manage big company, finish degrees, negotiate seemingly unnegotiable situations even these, all of these, still we may be not even using one percent of the human potential.
So some of, some people, seeing this amazing potential of human body and really wanting to make most out of it, not waste it for them, for this kind of people also this small booklet is presented - so here Tsongkhapa says, yeah. And also, there are other type of people also, those who eh, how should I put it (Tibetan phrase)? Eh, those who have the wit to choose the right model. Many of us, we always have a model; we always have a reference, a benchmark. We want to look like so and so; we want to act like so and so. We want to talk like so and so; we want to be, I dont know, as powerful as so and so. You know we always have that kind of reference. Thats what human beings do. We always refer to something.
And from people like Tsongkhapa or Atisha Dipamkaras point of view, our benchmark and our model are very mediocre. Like I want to be as rich as Bill Gates, I want to be as creative as Steve Jobs. You know for Tsongkhapa or Atisha Dipamkara okay, why not? You know like well, if you say so; its not, its not that a big deal. I want to be as beautiful as one of those anorex, anorexic models. So those who have the wit to choose the right model, right example, right reference, right benchmark, are those who aspire and those who get fascinated by; okay those who get so fascinated by words like, I mean the concepts such as compassion. And so much so that they would do ANYTHING, even the most, almost like a childish thing they would do in order to hear the word compassion.
Shakyamuni Buddha, the one whos sitting next, in front of me, and I want to tell you this because hes touching his ushnisha. In order to hear the, because he just LOVES the word compassion so much; you know like some of us like who is, who loves hearing like Beethoven or Eminem or Lady Gaga, I dont know you listen this again and again and again. And you line up for Lady Gaga in the day, in the rain, in the shine, I dont know. Its believed that when Shakyamuni Buddha was a
bodhisattva in the past, in order to hear the word of compassion, stood on one foot in front of the Lord Dipankara, this is the Buddha Dipankara, not Atisha Dipamkara, okay; stood on one foot and placing a, a lamp, butter lamp over his head for seven days and nights just to hear the word compassion. To illuminate the room of his master, Dipankara; he put; you know the light has to be higher raised. So he, the highest sort of spot was his head so he put the lamp over his head, seven days and nights.
So see this, for that bodhisattva, his benchmark, his reference, his value was different. The sound of the word such as compassion is what makes him happy. Anyway therefore this teaching is also for those who get fascinated and inspired by events such as what, what Buddha did in his past life. And this kind of people is what he calls, what Tsongkhapa calls fortunate one. To summarize, okay those people who are, who have seen the incurable, un-repairable but you know, seemingly kind of nice and you know like eh, nice situation but you know underneath something is gone wrong. Thats a fortunate one.
The other one is someone who has seen the potential, human potential SO MUCH, and realizing that we are not using even one percent and mean we are wasting time fortunate one. And someone who gets fascinated by different kinds of benchmark like the word of compassion. These are fortunate ones and these fortunate ones, Lama Tsongkhapa says (Tibetan phrase) come here, listen without any judgement and open mind; with open-minded, without any judgement listen.
(Tibetan phrase) Okay, this is actually the first principle. Hes, hes saying first, and most importantly we must look for, search for renunciation mind. And here you will notice renunciation; the meaning of renunciation is SO nicely explained. Contrary, contrary to many peoples belief, renunciation is not a practice of ascetism; like penance, its not a practice of penance. Its not really, you know like giving up responsibilities. Its not really, you know eh, surrendering to a severe kind of moralistic practice.
Maybe Im unnecessarily making it complicated but Ill try. Maybe Im making , making it a little complicated unnecessarily, but to appreciate the way the teachings are presented, Ill, Ill kind of follow some of this, the way it is expressed. You know its a bit like this; like nirvana or enlightenment in Buddhism is un-long able, unlonging, how do you put it in English? Mm, un-longing, not possible to long basically;
you cannot, it is not longing, longing-able (laughter), yeah longing-able; yeah, you cannot long. Yes, nirvana is not longing-able (laughter).
But the problem with us is we long for samsara. Thats why at times we have to divert your attention from longing the samsara and say you should long for nirvana even though it is un-longing-able. Because remember this morning we say, again here samsara and nirvana MAGIC. It is a magical very samsara is the very nirvana. You cannot get rid of samsara and try to find nirvana. You cannot get rid of water and try to find moisture. Okay so (Tibetan phrase) therefore you need to really mm, look at this unreasonable, unreasonable obsessive longing to the samsara. Because if you do long for this samsara, this obsessive longing of samsara will overshadow your, overshadow, defile your view. So thats why as many great masters of the past said no one wants to suffer, but no one wants to get rid of samsara. But if you dont get rid of the samsara; get rid is just for the sake of communication; if you dont sort of do something with samsara, if youre, youre still attached to samsara suffering continues and thats something you dont want. So basically you know, you are not making sense. Youre, you are loving the cause of the suffering and youre hating the suffering; so its a bit like contradictory. So this craving for the samsara binds you in this suffering. Therefore, first and most importantly, invoke renunciation mind; and how do we do that? Here he explains briefly. (Tibetan phrase) Think of this precious human body, this precious human life, this amazing ability that we have, this amazing ability to mm, how should I put it? (Pause) Ive already told you about animals, right. Anima ls have really almost; they, they have their own ability but you know they cant really eh, (pause) compare to us. But lets use the reference god, gods, goddesses, gods, heavenly beings. From the spiritual point of view, even the gods dont have, dont have the human ability because many, many reasons why the gods are, the human, human beings, the human body is just BY FAR more able than gods. See this is very interesting. Actually the gods, many of these gods; they even have some sort of clairvoyance so they should actually have the ability much more than us. We dont have, most of us, we dont have clairvoyance. But the main reason, one of the main reasons - many, many other reasons, huh - one of them is human condition is totally uncertain. Thats what makes human life, human body so ABLE; so, so, the ability so much whereas gods life is kind of certain; so certainty makes them weak. They dont think much, they dont need to think; everything is scheduled, everything is taken care of, so to speak. Just if you think of, if you think of what we have and how we have managed to deal with our partners mood swings, for instance, just THAT alone if you put it all together, this ALONE will show you how we are so good at it, so much ability. And how we forget things you know; forgetfulness is such a precious thing, you know
because its, you know it. A lot of the grudges you dont have because you have forgetfulness. So anyway, human potential is something that we need to contemplate. These are all how to, how to generate the renunciation mind.
If you can think about these things, then you realize our human body, human life is bit like you know, mileage points with an expiry date, you understand. You better use it soon otherwise you know its a waste. You cant even transfer it to someone else. So thats one, one, one way of generating the renunciation mind.
Then, uncertainty of life: we dont know whats next. Even between you and me, we dont know all these lovey-dovey situations can go overnight. You dont know my secrets; I dont know your secrets. Im never going to tell you my real secrets (laughter) and I dont want to hear your secrets. This, this distance is very comfortable. Some are getting a little bit closer than necessary. The first thing you begin to notice is smell (laughter) and occasionally, it can be you know, kind of uplifting and even erotic, but overdose with all those kind of things could also spoil your life.
And, yeah, and our values - what we like and what we dont like - changes; our principles, our, all of these changeable; and then eh, most painful fact is you know, we, we all have to just die. And even more painful is, you dont know; even more painful than the fact that we are all going to die is that we dont know WHEN were going to die. Now thinking these things will then make you (Tibetan phrase) this is kind of beautiful word, how to translate? Its like; theres a Tibetan word called jur bu thon par. Jur bu thon par means one that sees this side, one that sees ONLY this side. Thats, thats, thats the term only. One sees, one that sees only this side.
So by, by getting accustomed to, you know like precious human body and impermanence, what it does is it suddenly begins to not only see this side, then you begin to see other side. And thats beginning to, you know your vision, your view when, when its normal limited to only this side, this life - then you have renunciation mind. So thats why you will see people with begging bowl and you know, very ascetic looking and very renounced looking but theyre only looking at this side still. They are not necessarily renounced person. Anyway we have been told to drink lots of water which causes lots of results, so lets have a break.
Question: Rinpoche, in the news, we can often see some unjust things, which bring us anger, emotional turmoil, and yet we dont know what to do about it. Can Rinpoche please suggest how to handle these situations? When common folks like us face these unjust, unfair social matters what to do?
Rinpoche: What, what, what? (Laughter)
Question: There are, there are many news eh, about social unjust, un-justice, unfair things in the society.
Rinpoche: Mm, most practical thing, most doable thing is aspiration, I think. Beyond that, were just not capable and by doing meagre things may not be also helpful. You know, of course, I totally understand all these social injustice like rape case, recent rape case in India. These are just unbearable; of course if one can do something, one must. But to really wipe out all these problems, suffering right now, the best thing we can do is aspiration; prayers basically.
The biggest tragedy, the biggest tragic, actually its just not that. From the Buddhist point of view, theres a REALLY a big tragic thats happening all the time. The fact that all beings like you and me, and especially those who are walking outside here, you know sentient beings even though theyre adorned with Buddha-nature, you know wherever they go, Buddha-nature goes, they just miss it all the time. And that is the BIGGEST TRAGEDY. It is so near, you know. Its just so close. Its right in front, its even closer than in front of you, but every, most of us we miss it and that is the biggest tragedy.
And even for that, aspiration is one thing we can do. And actually, never one should undermine the power of aspiration. It is actually THE most powerful, single most powerful, I would say.
Question: Rinpoche - doesnt Buddhist disciplines teach us to do the right thing, and how should we contemplate impermanence in accordance with the text?
Rinpoche: Yes, the Buddhist tells us to do the right thing and, but its never abandoned by the wisdom, which we will be actually explaining; you know the rest of the text is about that. But anyway, the person whos asking this question is not coming back; I would say, in a nutshell yes do the right thing, but at the end, you know eventually, ultimately, you can never do the right thing until you embrace that magic, that we talked this morning. You cannot.
If you lose that magic of non-duality of wisdom and method, the truth and non-truth, illusion and reality, you know, the inseparability of illusion and reality; if you lose that, mere practice of doing the right thing will just become a burden. It actually becomes a BIG problem, a moral problem. It becomes really; when the morality becomes the cause of a problem, it becomes such a biggest problem. I mean cant you see, almost eighty percent of the worlds problems is a religious problem? - This is the RIGHT thing to do. This is the ONLY way to do.
Question: Rinpoche in the case of extramarital affair, how can one transform oneself to see this as an illusion?
Rinpoche: Until you are caught (laughter and applause). And then another illusion begins (laughter), okay.
Question: Rinpoche, in daily life, our mind has many thoughts; even worse, bad memories, confusion, emotions, unrealistic imagination, and the future is full of uncertainty. How can we settle our mind or heart without trapped by these?
Rinpoche: Okay, mmm, this is coming from a sutra but Im going to abbreviate, huh. You know potters, when they make pots, they have this spinning wheel. And once you start this wheel, then that particular spinning, a bit kind of; okay maybe its a bit too late, you know when once it is beginning to shape the pot. But what you can do is you can already plan the next spinning. What kind of shape of pot you are going to create?
Eh, what Im saying is whilst beings like us, those who are not on the highest bhumi, the highest stages of the bodhisattva level we are bound by our karma, karmic wind, karmic debt, karmic link; so in a way we have almost no choice. I say almost
but we can already CREATE OR NOT CREATE for the future generation of the karma. This is the best thing we could do - One more (question).
Question: I wish I can follow my guru to do to do retreat practice. However due to lack of cause and condition, Im still not able to do so. Can Rinpoche advise what can I do to get the cause and condition to make the above come true? He, he wishes for your blessing too.
Rinpoche: I think any kind of practice, you can dedicate towards that wish. Okay I think we will continue with the text.
(Tibetan phrase) Okay, so we talk about renunciation mind and one is like by remembering precious human body and impermanence and through that you, you begin to see the futility of this side of life. And then we should, we contemplate on the laws, laws of cause and condition. Cause and condition, when theyre gathered and when theyre not interfered by obstacles, result is guaranteed. You cannot avoid result. That may be not the ultimate fact but it is the relative fact. You cannot alter it. Its actually kind of related to one of the questions that earlier asked.
If you plant marigold, if theres all the necessary conditions such as, I dont know, fertilizer, you know fencing, enough water, space, sunshine - IF and if there is no obstacle even if you wish the marigold will not blossom, it will blossom. It will, it will grow, it will come and it will blossom. Just like that, whatever we do or we think, even a moment of thought has consequences or it gives birth to a certain situation.
When that wind of cause and condition blows and when there is no interference, as we have all experienced, things come, things arise, we experience things, and we cannot avoid it. We cannot escape from it. And we, you and I are very much controlled by cause and condition - all of us and every aspect of us.
Our, our physical circumstance obviously - you cannot rest assured by going to a whole body check-up today and find nothing. And you cannot rest assured - you should have another one tomorrow, actually every six hours. We never know within this short time. We, we dont know what has shifted, what we have accumulated. This MUCH we know even though we try to deny, this much we know; and this is due to cause and condition. And many of the cause and condition is not visible, its not perceivable.
And our mental, our mental state of course, its so much under the influence of cause and condition. Basically we, we have no control; cause and condition has control. Thinking this, contemplate on this game of the law or manifestation of the karma, again, again and again. By contemplating on this, it will then make you have; itll, it will then, you know, you know earlier we were talking about having a certain narrow outlook towards this life, this side; but by contemplating on the karma, youll also have a greater view or a greater outlook towards next life beyond this life, beyond, beyond this, you know this side. Then suddenly you may even plan much more than next life.
And then on top of that, contemplating on this suffering and the anxiety that we experience, that our realm, six realms altogether, especially hell realm that we have to have go through. When, so then the day will come that you will not really wish for the glory and the glittering and the shiny, you know experiences of samsara. You will not make a big, its not, its not a, its not something that you will long for. In fact, day and night when you begin to long for something other than this, all this sort of material gain, then you can consider you have a renunciation mind. Okay, so that is the First Principle, the Principle of Renunciation Mind.
(Tibetan phrase) This is important one. EVEN THOUGH you have renunciation mind, if your renunciation mind is not accompanied by bodhicitta - your renunciation, not only is not a path to the enlightenment, it will only become a cause of depression! I had a long conversation with my, one of my teachers, Nyoshul Khenpo, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, one of the great Dzogchen masters. The conversation was actually quite interesting. But it can be, you know like it can almost like really mmm, very easy to be misunderstood.
Once we were having tea and he was saying; you know were talking, you know, I know why we were talking about because I was reading a Japanese novel. I think its called Golden Temple. This was long time ago; it was written by Japanese author
called Yukio Mishima. Anyway like him so our conversation you know led to many Japanese authors like, theres another one called Yasunari Kawabata. Anyway they all committed suicide; right, you all know that. So Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche was saying, kind of like shocking he said - he said the mind-state of those who wish to commit suicide is very admirable. That was the thing he said. It was kind of like shocking for me to hear.
Because hes; you know and then we had; of course, Im cutting down a long conversation very short here. He said something very profound, I think. He said if you really think deep, every one of us would like to commit suicide. Because life is just SO SHALLOW AND MEANINGLESS; its just, just completely what do you call it? Pointless and empty. But most of us we dont even think of committing suicide because were completely blissed out by the fact that tomorrow, you know, it will be fixed.
People who are completely depressed and really wishing to, you know end their lives they have thought and thought and thought; and they have reached to this level where they are completely desperate. So that much fault of the samsara, so to speak, they know. But what went wrong with them, this is Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche saying, is because they have no way out. So theyre completely dead-end. And we, this is how he ended the conversation, we, the follower of Shakyamuni, we are blessed by a way out - so there is no reason to commit suicide.
See people who wish to commit suicide they got, they lost the magic. They were watching the rainbow and they just get so depressed by only thinking that a rainbow actually does not exist. Why cant they just watch and enjoy?
So this is why renunciation mind is not enough. It is one of the most important Principles but it has to be accompanied by bodhicitta. In other words, there is a very good reason to buy good lipsticks, good moisturizer, eat good food, do exercise all of that. Instead of this mentality of, you know, pessimism; and HERE AGAIN were talking about the union of pessimism and optimism you have to have both. See its ALL related to what we talked this morning the illusion and the reality. This, this is reality and illusion TOGETHER!!
Therefore you path should not be JUST renunciation. Because then you are only choosing the illusion bit. Your path has travelled renunciation mind. You know when you look at the rainbow or watching a movie, you do have that you know, you enjoy, you know you have that youre enjoying but deep down you know that its not really happening. So you have this; you dont sit in the cinema after, when the film is finished - you dont mind getting out and do the next thing.
So more reasons, why, why bodhicitta? Why not just renunciation? Because see, mmm, the word renunciation has something to do with getting rid of. On the other hand you need to acquire the wealth of, wealth of bodhisattva which is to benefit people, benefit beings, benefit oneself and others. To acquire, to accumulate this kind of wealth of the bodhisattva, and this wealth of the bodhisattva is not only; it does not only make you happy it also is the source of the happiness of others. Thats why ALL THE REASONS to acquire this wealth of the bodhisattva. Thats why here he said (Tibetan phrase), thats why the wise person must strive and generate, to generate the bodhicitta.
If, you know, you look at samsara, you see the total futility but for the benefit of sentient beings, you are ready to do anything. You are ready to do ANYTHING - that your principle that you used to have, your value that you used to have, rejects. Such as maybe in the past you think, you know, professionally being dentist probably the most horrible thing, you know but then huh, if it is benefiting what not? Politician, prostitution, businessman, I dont know, soothsayer, tarot card reader, eh, I dont know; or even including not doing anything and gives space to other people to do things (laughter). So we, we have to, we, we should try to generate the bodhicitta.
Eh, sem-kye, its a very beautiful word, sem-kye generating the bodhicitta. You know it is something that is you know, creatable, so to speak. It is something that you can generate. Basically if you are capable, if you, if you are capable of hating someone or getting angry with someone, then you are capable of having bodhicitta. So any, all beings not excluded they all have the ability to have emotion. Your anger, jealousy, pride, doubt, all of that didnt come out of the blue; you, you generate them. In turn, circumstance and the situations help generating them and maintaining them, nurturing them; then you begin to TEACH others how to generate these emotions. Just like that, we can also generate bodhicitta. And the main body of how creating, creating the bodhicitta we will be doing tomorrow. We, we continue from that, this point tomorrow, but meanwhile you can ask some questions today, yes.
Question: How should we treat the various ethnical and cultural differences manifested in different religions, thats right, different regions that conflic ts with Buddhist principles? For example some regions practice polygamy, or the woman would not have a fixed person as her husband. Do any of these practices conflict with karma? Do they breach the principle of no-adultery?
Rinpoche: Are you talking about, you know like some parts of the Tibetan region, a woman has like five or six husbands? Must be. And when I was growing up in EAST Bhutan, many ladies or what do you call it, wives, they have, I dont know what do you call them? What do you call them - mistresses? No, cant really;
officials theyre not really husbands but they are like, theyre like attributes basically (laughter). Yeah, if you are talking about them - yes, they are cultural, I think.
And I have to say, sadly even in Bhutan, its dying (laughter). I blame it to television. Somehow with the arrival of the television, Ive notice the girls in Bhutan they used to really not hide their breasts. Now they are beginning to wear bra and they are beginning to sort of cover it; before it was not an issue. So now the Christian value is slowly coming in.
Eh, this is an interesting question also because we should also remember Buddha, himself, before he sneaked out of the palace, he had many queens. This is where again lets go back to the magic that we were talking about. Never hijack the wisdom by method, vice versa. This is why again morality that is based on the culture is really preferred for the Buddhist. Its not most important, its NOT most important. It is, it is, it is useful tool. Whether it contradicts with the Buddhist precepts; again here the Buddhist precepts must ALWAYS be based on both wisdom and method, okay.
Question: The more I hope that I can be not to distinguish the phenomena I encounter, the more I would become more distinguished and even arise some negative thoughts on some very strange and messy thoughts. How to deal with this situation?
Rinpoche: Mm, non, non-discrimination that, that technique is kind of difficult; I would say before you try to attempt these methods, I would suggest you to actually try to stabilize and make your mind malleable through techniques such as shamatha or the one-pointed concentration meditation. Okay just one more question.
Question: The question about, the question about true or not true. Now what is the ultimate truth, for example a flower what is the true and not true aspect of a flower?
Rinpoche: (Long pause) isnt that one of the questions asked of the Buddha and never got the answer? (Laughter and applause). I think so; thats fourteen of them, right? Sounds similar. I almost fall into this trick (laughter). Okay, do you have one more? Okay, one.
Question: Many more actually. Eh, a venerable master has said when explaining the summary verses of Prajnaparamita that everything is blessed or empowered by the Buddha. It is because of the Buddhas empowerment or blessing that we can study the dharma. And it is the Buddhas blessing that we have breeze when it is hot; and sunshine when it is cold. Even when we can use a shaver to shave our moustache or cut our hair is part of the Buddhas blessings I, I cant understand why it is the Buddhas blessing?
Sorry, I can understand why it is the Buddhas blessing that I can learn the dharma, but the breeze and the sunshine and all those natural phenomena, aren't they? Eh, well how can he said, how can he say that they are the Buddha's blessing?
Rinpoche: That question is quite important question because actually the word 'buddha' is always get eh, misquoted. I think the 'buddha', the Sanskrit word 'buddha' for general audience, it always refers to a person. But actually the more important usage of the word 'buddha' is a state and also nature of the essence, essence. So within the second one, you can interpret all these blessings. In this case, there is no such thing as a giver of the blessing, the receiver of the blessing and all that.
Of course, otherwise if you are referring to the Buddha as a person, there is a danger of making everything into very theistic. Okay so we will end here today and we continue the bodhicitta, both the relative and the ultimate, tomorrow. So with that the 'Three Principles' will be completed (applause).
There's a fundamental insecurity that we all suffer from. The insecurity is mainly eh, with that; okay, to put it very kind of crudely or very gently, very generic sense - the insecurity is two-fold or two kinds. One is more sort of gross which involves in, which involves wishing to be happy basically and not finding the right happiness, not finding the, not finding enough happiness, not finding eh, long-lasting happiness, so on and so forth. And that, that kind of insecurity is really gross kind of insecurity.
More subtle and probably eh, something we should be really paying more attention towards is insecurity of not knowing who we are. You know, in the old sphere of outer and inner world, there is one thing that is most important, and that is myself, self, me, I. You have, from the time, unless you're in coma, deep sleep; eh, there are about five stages which I can't remember everything. One is deep sleep, coma, eh, meditative, deep meditative state. Did I mention 'faint'? - Probably not, faint; and eh, heightened bliss which is the result of sexual union, meaning organism, if you put it very, you know sort of crudely.
Apart from this, these five; during those five, then probably you don't have idea or the; you know, you are not conscious of self. You kind of, you know, eh, there is no notion of self. Apart from that, as you experience; and by the way I'm not talking theory here, this is quite hands on, this is very practical.
From the time you woke up this morning, the notion of self, whether it's a conscious one or a sub-conscious one - it goes on all the time, all the time. Sense of me, I - this is there, ever present. And THIS is the one that we have been slaving. And this is the self that we are trying to entertain, trying to make sure that it meets what it wants and needs. But even though it is the most powerful, most important entity in the whole sphere of our existence, none of us really do have a concrete idea of what the self is.
It's very clear when we say 'this is flower' - we can point it out. It's very practical, it's very clear. There is no, what do you call it? - No loopholes; but what is the self? When you say - I am so and so - what are you talking about? What are you saying when you say 'I'? What are you saying? You seem to be pointing out to a lot of things - sometimes the chest, sometimes the nose, sometimes the toes, sometimes, a lot of things, a lot of things. Your feelings, your ideas, your beliefs - what are you talking about?
So the 'self', most part, the idea of self, as you can experience - is abstract. But you can't really sort of not paying attention to this self as something abstract because as we talk earlier, it is one that from the time you wake up, from the time you woke up from a coma or whatever - it is very much there. So there is that paradox, the really STRONGLY present 'self', yet really not being able to point out what it is.
In trying to really articulate this sort of abstract idea of self, religion has appeared. Many times we acquire wealth, education, fame. Many times we are, we try to do what we do; even using, even a choice of colour of your shirt, even gel you use to straighten your hair, whatever - it's related to, you know, the struggle to articulate what the self is.
In, in the theist, from the theistic approach, we created notion of God so that we have; you know it's almost like God, we create a God so that we articulate the existence of the self. We create a higher, assumingly we, we create eh, supposedly a higher being, who then we believe, we like to believe that this higher being has created us. Here again we're, we are trying to prove our existence. And then the reward, punishment depending on how you relate to this God; all of this somehow helps you, helps you temporarily anyway, to feel your existence.
And ordinary beings, as I said earlier, we do a lot of things to prove its, its existence, but as we have known, as we are experiencing - none of them, all of this matters, not really manage to, you know confirm and make this abstract notion of self into something tangible. I am telling you all these things because I want to put this text that we are doing this time into certain context.
So you can say in ancient Indian philosophical system, you can say there are two groups of thoughts. One that still try to articulate this abstract self, still cling on to its existence, and trying to define this, this self. And within this, within this system, came a lot, you know yogas, just a lot of different practices to get in touch with this holy, mystical inner self, so to speak.
Then there is the other school of thought which does not actually accept the existence of the self. So this school of thought - self is just an idea that is created. It is a total hallucination. It's a, it's a baseless notion that we just eh, we just got so attached to it and based on this attachment, the habit became too strong. And Buddhism, the path of the Buddha belongs to this second category.
And I would say confidently, among all the Indian philosophical systems, Buddhism maybe the one that really ruthlessly and firmly negates the notion of the truly existing self. Therere, there are other schools, there are other schools also, those, those who also are very close to accepting the non-existence of the self, but they tend to sort of; okay, theres no really a self as we think but the self is something divine, you know. But they always end up talking some kind of existence, a higher self; not the self that were referring to - but they talk about a higher self. For Buddhists and especially in the Mahayana, not even the higher self exists. For Buddhists and especially Mahayana Buddhism, pain, release from the pain, path all these exist within the realm of relative truth, nothing else.
If you are having a nightmare while sleeping on a nice bed, this is what Buddhists would say. Before you even slept, the nightmare did not exist - of course not thats nothing you know unusual. But what the Buddhists are saying is EVEN as you are HAVING the nightmare, while, while you are having the nightmare, actually it is not happening. Thats a difficult to chew this one because youre; but I am, I am being, you know there isnt earthquake, there isnt monsters about to eat me, all of that.
But now there is another one thats even more difficult which is after waking up from the nightmare, to understand the nightmare that never existed - thats even more difficult because that sense of relief from waking up from a nightmare is just SO good. So how can you say that there was nothing? But, anyway if you are to study and follow the Mahayana path, this is the view that you have to be brave enough to accept.
Anyway we were talking about you know two thoughts, you know, two thoughts of schools - one that kind of believes in a self but not what how we are experiencing and therefore a path that, that involves around actually making this self comfortable, liberation they also speak about liberation so thats that.
And then one that talks about no-self and understanding the no-self is the liberation. So therere two thoughts, remember I was talking. The text we are doing obviously belongs to Buddhism; therefore it is the second one. But within the, within the tradition of the schools of thought that, that accept that there is no truly existing self theres also two methods, two paths. One has a greater attitude and the other has a lesser attitude; and this one belongs to the greater attitude. Both believe in nonexistence of self.
Okay, so now the question is what makes the greater - greater. Both of them accept you know non-existence of self. Self is a total deception. It is an illusion but what makes Mahayana the greater path? To put it very, sort of in a very common eh, language; in the Mahayana, okay, the lesser attitude people see because self is, self is hallucination; therefore everything that is related to self is ridiculous. So why should we do things that are ridiculous? Thats what the lesser attitude people think.
But the greater attitude people for them, their attitude is yes, self is a deception; it is a hallucination - therefore everything that is related to self is ridiculous BUT lets play with the ridiculousness. Lets dwell in it, lets use it because remember we talked about water and moisture cannot be separated; likewise ridiculousness and what is the opposite of ridiculousness? Meaningful - is actually after all not separate. So rejecting something as ridiculous is a burden, they think. And this, by the way, is complicated way of expressing what compassion is.
You know we always talk about unconditional love. Knowing something is so ridiculous yet enjoying doing it that is quite close to being unconditional love. Thats what mothers do when they play with their babies. All kinds of ridiculous stuff they do; and not only the babies, lovers, family members we all do ridiculous stuff because we have unconditional love for our beloved one. Things like New Years Eve, family dinner, BUT for instance like family dinners this has now been invaded by burden of custom and tradition then its no more, no more, its no more what do
you call it, unconditional activity. You know all the love. Many of them, Im sure you do it just for the sake of doing it.
Mothers can play this ridiculous game with their kids TIRELESSLY. It never makes them tired. They are ready to do anything, anytime, twenty-four hours; and joyful, so joyful to do those things. And also a lot of what do you call it? Eh, eh, judgement, self-judgemental, all of that also goes you know dissipate because your love for the child is so strong, it goes off.
Anyway, just trying to put you into context of this Mahayana path that, which this text belongs to. Then if I continued; this all related to what Im about to say anyway. Eh, (Tibetan phrase), I think we finished that. (Rinpoche read Tibetan phrases and quotes) - Okay, so we talked about renunciation mind; and that renunciation mind must accompany by mind, enlightened mind or the bodhicitta. Therefore the bodhicitta needs to be generated.
And to, to you know convince ourselves more by explaining why we should do that. Why should we have bodhicitta? Why should we have compassion to these beings? Because these beings; we, we the beings we are swept by powerful, four powerful currents all the time, river current. Therere four currents that are just swaying us, you know like, like if you are in a very strong river, you cannot swim. You can, you try but you know the current is so strong, you have no control.
And those four currents are birth, old age, sickness, and death. And out of this; they are like, like eh, the order is birth, old age, sickness and death. So according to the order, the first one is the strongest current. You know this is quite interesting because we, we fear the death the most and then the sickness, and then the old age but we kind of, since we dont really think about birth so much. But according to the Buddhas teaching, the, the most powerful current that that sways you, that sweeps you here and there birth - and then followed by old age, sickness and death.
And when we say birth, of course we are referring to the big birth, you know, the time that we came into this earth, of course, but not just that. Every minute, every second, every moment, we are stumbling into something. We are coming into existence every time, every minute. Or more crudely speaking, every minute, every moment, every second, we just cant stay out of problem, out of trouble. You know stay out of problem, stay out of trouble, but we cant.
We are, we have this attitude of run away, you know eh, criminal, just, just running away because youve done something wrong. You always hide, trying to find hideout even a corner will do. New ideas, new restaurants, new hang, you know hangouts, new music, I dont know, new this always, always looking for birth; swept away by the birth, swept away, influenced by new existence, new stumbling into - stumbling I think its a good word here. And we voluntarily stumble, try to. And we can, success, the indication of success in our life is how, how, how often we actually get, we manage to stumble into something.
Thats the big current, the biggest. Nagarjuna told his friend. He said; well in a nutshell, he said make sure that you will not be born again. You know, thats a big one. You know were all making sure that we will not die, but we dont really think that the biggest problem is being born again.
Then after that, old age oh, my goodness VISIBLE! Right in front of your eyes, its happening. Even as I look at my toes, the nails are not growing kind of properly. You know just everything, I dont know. Like right in front of you, this current of decay seems to be so strong that it sweeps us. And you know, yes of course the current sweeps us to foundation stores and stuff like that; foundation, right? You now, moisturizing, eh, stores and stuff like that, but it still sweeps, it still sweeps. Decay is SO powerful. Decay, the word decay is like rotten cheese you know. And cheese, some of them can be quite expensive when you get preserved - unavoidable this one also.
And sickness, which is basically eh, imbalance of elements thats going to happen, bound to happen; and the death, of course. And therefore so beings like us, all of us we are swept by the current of these four forces.
If that is not bad news enough, there is another one that is. If, if we get swept by currents and (they) really sweep and sweep, and you know like get disintegrated, then it doesnt really matter, does it? But NO, unfortunately there is a very strong string that still keeps you together. Thats really unfortunate one. Its like very gluey, sticky kind of, you know like it keeps, it keeps you intact. Not in a healthy way, but just keeps, keeps you so that you can, you get swept by the four currents more. Its a really bad, this one and that string is called KARMA. And it just, you know the string, the string doesnt let you disintegrate so it sweeps you, you and stumbling more and more, decaying more and more, endlessly sort of almost.
And if that is not worse enough, theres even one thing that is worse. You are bound by a net made out of iron which is clinging to the self. So just imagine you are bound a net, fishing net or something and you are swept by the current. You cant even swim because youre bound. And if you only, if you dont have a karma, at least you disintegrate, and then sooner or later youre going to sort of stopped being swept. But no! Theres this good glue that keeps you together.
And then the darkness of emotion invades us all time. We continue again and again into this infinite existence. As we continue into this existence, we have suffering of suffering, suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering of duality. And all these beings, one way, one way or another, we are all related. And when we were related, we have done everything that is possible to protect each other. We have sacrificed. We have forsaken things to protect each other. But then in our next existence we totally forget thats what we have done. And then we, we wage war, we have dispute, and we kill and destroy each other. And this repeats again and again.
Thinking these things, not only a path, not only a bodhisattva who wishes to follow the glorious ones must just think of renunciation mind but a bodhisattva has to generate the bodhicitta - and this is the Second Principle. Okay, lets take a break.
Were coming back now to where we actually started yesterday, at the Third Principle. In this I, you will; Lama Tsongkhapas Three Principles of the Path really is such a good sort of birds eye view towards Mahayana path. You, you know it
really sort of eh, it really eh, shows us the connection, so to speak, the connection between wisdom and method. And youll, you know you will realize what makes Mahayana so special; that actually Mahayana is not an extreme path. Its the other, its the otherwise. Its a very blissful path. Mm, it is a broad path that can be applied by everyone, and everyone who has different capacities, or time or energy.
Okay so, to again remind ourselves how; to make it cohesive, so to speak eh - we need to have, we need to have a longing for something that is not, something not, something that is not just this surface, this life, this thing that we have. We need to have longing for magic. We need to have longing for something thats inexpressible by these very limited tools of expression. We need to have a longing for something that is not just, you know money, power eh, possessions, and family. We need our longing; our benchmark of longing has to be higher. It should, it should be much more interesting than this thing that we have.
Otherwise mm, (pause) youre subject of all the limitations of samsara or our so called this existence. You have to become Bohemian, spiritual Bohemian. You have to become spiritual hippie. Its really about time now that you know Asia such as China, Hong Kong of course; its really time to you know, we have to think different. I dont know, maybe how you think but John Lennon, you know being able to sing Imagine There Is No Heaven thats, thats a, thats QUITE a benchmark that is high. You know thats quite a good way of contemplation and at that time, in that society. Its a really, very advanced thinking.
Must be quite hard for a, you know then really strong Christian-domineering society. I mean imaging, imagining theres no heaven thats kind of okay. But imagine there is no hell, now THAT for the religious people, thats really bad. You have to think there is hell. So we have, you know; Im going a little bit astray here, sorry.
We have to have a longing to something not JUST what we have, you know this. You can still wear Gucci shoes but you know something, something extra. Gucci shoes are fine really no problem but Im just saying you should aim HIGHER. I dont know like going barefoot in Parliament; something like that. Mm, and for THAT youll need to really watch out this obsessive longing to this mundane world of samsara, consumerism, you know this; you know we have to watch out. Watch out, really see the fundamental futility of this value, and thats called renunciation.
Then renunciation is not enough according to this text. We need compassion, bodhicitta, daringness. We need to, we need to care because caring, kindness, bodhicitta they are the epitome of common sense, the essence of common sense. And object of your compassion should be limitless. It should not be only targeted to you know eh, obvious destitute beings. Barack Obama is equally important as an object of compassion to some homeless Bangladeshi. Or your Hong Kong leaders they are equally compassion objects. Taiwanese, Chinese they walked in and out from their office without realizing they have the buddha-nature with them all the time. And your aspiration to these guys probably is even more worthwhile because they can make difference.
But now not only is the renunciation not enough, you need the bodhicitta; but bodhicitta is not enough, you need wisdom. (Tibetan phrase) Even though you may have relative bodhicitta like wishing well, wishing enlightenment for all sentient beings, so on and so forth IF you dont have the wisdom of knowing what it is and how it is, then you will still, you may able to, you may be occasionally or even to a certain period, you may experience calmness, clarity, I dont know, soberness, sanity. But if you dont have the wisdom, you still not cut the root of all this problem, all this suffering.
Appearing and even experiencing sanity but deep down if you are insane - can be very dangerous. And then more than EVER this world needs to promote sanity, sobriety because were just so drunk. We are just so, the only sobriety or sanity that we experience is eh, at times our - you know intoxication substance consumption is kind of slower or I dont know but theres so much, so much insanity. I, really we dont know economic down; you know downturn or decline of economy maybe, could be a window of opportunity to invoke sanity, eh sanity and sobriety.
But its kind of difficult because the sobriety or the sanity is becoming so alien. We dont experience so much. Occasionally when we are forced to experience, we are so afraid and we, we do EVERYTHING to drink. So therefore the bodhisattva who wishes to follow this path must invest time and energy to understand law and the rule of or the truth of dependent arising.
Dependent - NOTHING is independent; wish, you know like, you know everything is dependently arising. A bodhisattva must pay attention, invest time and energy to understand that. And by the way, this is the quintessential Mahayana path, AIM of the Mahayana path to understand the dependent arising. Wishing, longing, aspiring, working hard to understand the dependent arising IS offering to the Buddha. It IS the meditation. It IS the generosity. It IS the discipline. It IS what so-called meditation. It IS basically Mahayana path - dependent, understand, trying to understand dependent arising.
And here, towards the end of the text, weve already discussed this but we will do it again maybe after, I dont know, maybe afternoon or after few questions and answers. Here again we will briefly talk about how to understand this dependent arising. But I should let you ask some questions.
Question: Rinpoche, would Rinpoche consider to conduct Buddhist marriage ceremony or set up Buddhist ceremony?
Rinpoche: Oh, thats my what, its what eh, my, what do you call it? Eh, eh Plan B of my life (laughter). Its a; Ive, Ive already been experimenting a few guinea pigs sitting here actually. I think we have to come out with a good music.
Question: The vajrayana tradition is first and foremost an oral tradition handed down from master to disciple. The association and connection between the guru and the disciple is particularly important. As a Dharma Das student, we communicate with our teacher through emails. How do we ensure eh, the quality of learning as well as the informal connection lead to formation of lineage?
Rinpoche: Thats quite a relevant and important question. First of all this is important to clarify. Vajrayana primarily is not an oral transmission, oral transmission lineage. It is NOT. Just like you know Mahayana and Shravakayana, Vajrayana also has tantric texts. You know it also has that tantric lineage text, just like Shravakayana and Mahayana. Its not just oral.
Actually Tantrayana is a whole different world. It is very big. I would say probably bigger than Shravakayana and Mahayana put together just the whole culture and the text just everything, study. But Vajrayana has suffered a lot and for good reason.
Suffered eh, for instance okay: historically for instance Nalanda Universities have three times of attack. And the last one, when the Islamic invasion arrived in India, the last one basically destroyed probably ninety-nine per cent of the library and unfortunately big, big, big part of the original tantric texts were gone at that time. And this is a big loss. And but actually for the vajrayana, this is not the main reason why the vajrayana suffered.
The Tantrayana or the Vajrayana suffered mainly because of its own, what do you call it? Nature, so to speak; because tantric concepts are so unacceptable by the common people. So that is always, I dont know its very interesting to put it - like Tantrayana is its own enemy but Tantrayana likes that because Tantra wants to keep itself secret and profound; and in a way, its enemies its friends, because its like a self-defensive mechanism.
Historically it is very well known that the Shravakayana and the Mahayana always look at Tantrayana suspiciously. Even the great master such as Sengcan from China, was very suspicious of Tantrayana. This is totally understandable. You know it is understandable because you know here you are deity with a consort, skeleton, blood, weapons, I dont know, naked bodies, sex its all little you know, dodgy.
Spiritual path is, should be a process of pulling the rug out of your feet. Thats how it should be. JUST as youre feeling comfortable on one rug, pull that rug out and you got us, and the Vajrayana is probably the final rug that gets pulled out. And thats not always acceptable. Thats always difficult to accept. For instance; so even Buddha himself never taught Tantrayana openly.
I want to tell you that Vajrayana does have textual lineage. In fact it is more important than the lineage of Upadesa which means method - mengakde, pith instructions. Pith instructions must always have a base on the tantric text. So mm, for instance, okay Ill give you one example.
In the Vajrayana there are pith instructions such as you must visualize the guru in the form of Vajrasattva sitting on the top of your head, I mean sitting on a lotus and the moon and then hes sitting on that. Yes, I mean its very colourful. Its kind of tangible also. You know lotus, you know what lotus is; and moon, kind of you know. So Vajrasattva also doesnt look that far from normal human beings. He has one nose, two eyes, and all of that.
In the Mahayana they will ask you to meditate on emptiness. In the Vajrayana, lets say you, you meditate on Vajrasattva and they say, they claim that is emptiness meditation. And, and in a way Vajrayana will say thats kind of easier because you can visualize things. Of course, it has its own you know, loopholes and traps. So the pith instruction is lotus, moon and the guru Vajrasattva BUT this is the important part this has to be backed by the theory of the Tantra or even Mahayana text - because it actually rings the bell of non-duality.
Because THINK, you know physically speaking you cant place a moon over a small fragile lotus. It wont stand and then on top of that, theres a Vajrasattva sitting, quite heavy, probably above fifty, eighty kilos. And here we go - this is a really important, this is a skilful way of pulling the rug out of your feet again, asking to do, make things that are impossible to do but somehow you still can do it, you know lotus. No one asks this kind of question, Can, can lotus really hold, you know moon?
Anyway, finally answering the question eh, as far as the Dharma Gar or Dharma Das instruction is concerned, whether its becoming authentic and all of that we cannot guarantee (laughter). But this is your spiritual journey; you have to play with the trust and the doubt all the way. After, after twenty years, probably youll have less doubt, less doubt - but few doubts you have after twenty years may be VERY, VERY POWERFUL doubts. But powerful doubts are like the dawn of wisdom. That is wisdom testing you.
And by the way, since we are talking about Dharma Das and Dharma Gar - ah, I, I think we are repeating this a lot but its important to know that Dharma Gar and Dharma Das is not a separate lineage that we are coming up with or new teachings. There is no new teaching here. It is a format; it is a formula to discipline yourself, to practice at least half an hour or two hours a day. And the instructions, instructors occasionally, sort of update and all of this is to annoy you because you ask us to annoy you (laughter).
Its like alarm clock. Its like, you know were, you know the instructors are supposed to, you know sort of check on you; and say you know are you, are you. You know like if you are two hundred hours behind, lets say it does not mean that you are now not going to get enlightenment. Of course not; but it is to help your own discipline. And disciplines are always like that you know, its a reminder. Okay, we have lunch (applause).
(Recitation of Tibetan stanzas) These stanzas express the wisdom in a nutshell. We have already talked about this yesterday morning but we can try using different jargon or different expression today.
Eh, okay, lets talk more practically. Do you have an expression in Chinese - getting carried away? (Laughter) Getting carried away how do you say it in Mandarin? What? (Response from audience) Sorry, say it in Chinese ching? (Laughter) because I want to know actually word by word what does it mean? No, you just did it. You did it quite well. What did you say? Your heart is what? Your heart is robbed away by, robbed or carried away by something. How about you, whats in Cantonese?
Translator: I eat too much. (Rinpoche: What?) I eat too much.
Rinpoche: You ate too much (laughter). How do you say it carried, carried away? In Cantonese, how do you say?
Translator: Speaking in Cantonese phrases and words...
Rinpoche: What is that?
Translator: Carried away tat yee mong yen.
Rinpoche: I mean, can you word by word?
Translator: Eh, eh, you are not yourself; that means you are too excited, you are eh, too excited, youre not yourself.
Rinpoche: I like that, I like that. How do, how do you say it? How do you say in Cantonese?
Translator: (Cantonese phrase) tat yee mong yen.
Rinpoche: Tat yee mong yen (laughter and applause) I like that.
We are talking about the second last stanza actually. You know every time we experience something; it doesnt matter what a glimpse of colour, shape, smell doesnt matter, whatever. Every time when we experience something mosquito bite, hugging with someone who has arm-pit smell, kissing right after eh, after
Listerine or garlic-stuffed Thai food. You better translate this properly (laughter). Whatever, whatever you know like, whatever you are experiencing, there is ALWAYS, you always get carried away, you always. One, one aspect of that particular phenomenon is always going to rob you.
A particular aspect of that phenomenon is always going to distract you, hijack you, empower you, engross you, numb you; numb, numb? There must be good word for numb. Like in you know what do you call it? Anaesthetic, you know like injections, you know. So one experience always take out, take, take you away and then it numbs the rest, so to speak. So ALL the experience that you have, you never have a birds eye view; its always one-sided, lop-sided. This is what Tsongkhapas saying here.
(Tibetan phrase) Thats one. The other one is (Tibetan phrase). Every time when we look at something or experience something; when you experience the; okay the more classical language is when you experience the appearance, you forget the emptiness. When you experience the emptiness, you forget the appearance. You should print a T-shirt that, that says something like Oh, appearance and emptiness, why cant you two get along? (Laughter) Why do I have to, you know always choose one, you know like?
This is what we end up, we always choose one. This is a big downfall, by the way. And also this is actually the FULL description of what ignorance is. You know we talk about ignorance all the time. Ignorance thats how it functions. You are always carried away by one, one side.
And we talk about the magic yesterday. The reason why the magic is not happening is youre only, youre, youre, you are stuck with one side. And that one side numbs you. So this is why and that by the way, this, this getting stuck with one side IS the great, great, great grandfather of hope and fear.
Look right now; whatever youre thinking, there it has to be tinted by either hope or fear. And this hope and fear then, if it becomes theocratic then it becomes eternalism and nihilism. And then they produce religious people and scientists eternalist and nihilist, yeah religious Buddhists and scientists. And there is no magic, I guess.
Magic is so important. Even on the most mundane level, magic is important. Because magic is what transcends the norm, you know the normal, the normal whatever. Even on the most mundane level, when the time comes that Hong Kong does not serve tea and coffee together in one mug, and when Hong Kong has all these Starbucks, you know the proper coffee then Hong Kong has lost its magic.
When Hong Kong stops to serve in a restaurant, instant noodle in a RESTAURANT, opening right in front of you, putting in hot water and then serving it to you going, going beyond you know, norm this makes Hong Kong magical. I think these things are dying and then no more magic in Hong Kong. It will just be completely boring, clean; you know like sterile, still, you know what do you call it? Yeah very clean Hong Kong and very; just normal, normal, then, then there is no magic.
But these things come with a price, you know. The magic has a price. When you go to these restaurants, the waitress, waitresses whatever, the owner they you know like, Okay, so what do you want? You know like; they, they, they really kind of VERY rude its also magic (laughter). Its very magical. Here you are a customer; normally you should not be rude but its part of it. Even on the most mundane level, when you are not stuck with one aspect of appearance, smell, taste whatever, then you have the full picture. Dont worry; I wasnt paid by Hong Kong Bureau of Tourism.
Okay so, so here, so coming back to the wisdom, when something appears we get attracted to the appearance and we forget the emptiness of it. (Pause) So Ill just go through a few, few kind of versions of expressing this. So being able to accept the order of relative phenomena yet ultimately none, none of this order exists truly or independently; yeah being, being able to accept this two simultaneously. If you do that, then you are not that far from the Buddhas teaching.
Eh, you know, going back to the rainbow - the rainbow has a certain order of colour and its almost always, almost all the same everywhere in the world and shape of the rainbow. But that order does not make the rainbow truly existing entity. Rainbow appears beautifully, orderly and as it appears, we also know that it does not exist truly, tangibly, substantially. And our life, just like rainbow functioning, order, chaos, whatever order, chaos, function, all of that it, it appears unobstructedly but does not make the life truer or independent or substantially existing.
Of course this is what we have to get used to; this, this knowledge, this wisdom is what we need to get acquainted, get used to it, get accustomed to it. Intellectually it might make sense but when certain condition comes, you, you, you know for beings like us, beginners, you know we can easily forget the fact that emptiness and appearance is always together.
Of course its so difficult to accept the appearance, the union of appearance and emptiness if youve been diagnosed by a doctor some terminal disease or your friend with a terminal disease. DIFFICULT to accept of course; EVEN small things like wasabi experience is difficult to be accepted as union of emptiness and clarity. Wasabi, eh (laughter) because its just so real; wasabi is so real, wasabi is so present just as if your girl, if another man pinch your girlfriends bottom, its just SO REAL, you know. So you need to get used to this. And if you keep on practising, more likely you will still be affected by wasabi but you will not be that shocked if you see the sight of bottom pinching (laughter) and then at that time youre quite close to be out-casted.
So you should always be ready to be in harmony with the society but you should always aspire to be out-casted. If you still want to be in, that means you havent got the First Principle. If you just want to be out, you havent got the Second Principle. So must try to be both in and out (laughter) and I should say welcome to Mahayana Buddhism. For many of you I hope it is the journey beginning and I think thats IT. It says child; this is the last stanza (Tibetan phrase) child with steadfast vastness, with the pure, with the diligent concentration, pay attention and invest your
time and you know, energy in pursuing this path. So do you want to ask some questions?
Question: Yes; can I take the bodhisattva vow if I dont understand what it is about? What does the vow consists of and what should I do if I break it?
Rinpoche: If you are asking me, I would say this is one vow that there is no reason not to take. Theres almost no, there is really no loss. Its all win-win situation. Okay fundamentally when you take the bodhisattva vow, you are taking a vow to help ALL sentient beings according to your capacity. And you cannot, you should not think that thats just wishful thinking you know like help ALL sentient beings? How is that even possible? It is very possible because just practising aspiration alone, you are benefiting others.
If you break it, according to the Mahayana sutras, it says its like a golden pot. If you break it, with the right golden, goldsmith you will make it even better. Youll repair it even better. So I do, I recommend you to take the bodhisattva vow; if possible on daily basis. Not necessarily from me, it doesnt have to be necessarily from a person. You can take it from even a statue like the one in front of us.
Question: How to practice method of Zen together with Tibetan Buddhism like sitting meditation as well as reciting mantra?
Rinpoche: Actually thats good because you know I was talking this morning was it this morning? Like self is abstract yet its most powerful and it is the bringer of all the problems so how do we work with this self? This is good probably because at least eh, maybe we could; eh, could have, yeah mm, after a short break later we will also sit and do a beginning stage of vipassana.
Okay anyway so-called the self, when you say me, you must be referring to your form, feeling, your mind and then all the references like Chinese, Japanese, man, woman, I dont know, banker, you know whatever references. It has to be when you say me, it has to be four, three or two or at the least one of them.
So what we can do and this is related to the question here whether there is a meditation of course there is; you can contemplate on one of, or contemplate on these four. Not just analytically but with one-pointed contemplation. Analytical is more like they and me. Is this me, is this me, you know is this skin me, like that but more importantly, without analysis - just being aware of form or feeling or either one of them or three of them or two of them or one of them.
And I think maybe awareness is a better word than contemplation. And when I say awareness, I mean awareness, just that; not making big deal out of this. Just completely aware of your body, whatever you have body. And usually the body also has the feelings; you could also do both, two together quite easily. There must be some feeling, you know right as you; your, your body must have you know like itchiness, tiredness, I dont know, whatever body you have, whatever feeling you have being aware of that.
Now there is very good help to bring that awareness more sort of attentively or more powerfully. Theres no reason why you cant be doing the awareness of your body while you are walking, talking, dancing. BUT for the beginners like us, sitting straight for a certain period of time and really not moving out of that posture. Just that alone brings in the awareness of the present-ness of the body - sensations, experiences, ALL of that, whatever happens not making any judgement, just being aware of it. Just that alone has SO MUCH power. You know just being aware of that, you know what it does? It makes you not carried away. Remember lop-sided that thing? Were just watching.
By the way I stress this - that the technique is very simple and very ordinary; and it should be simple and it should be ordinary. PLEASE you should not make it interesting. It shouldnt; it should never become interesting. Interesting is not good. If it is interesting, you have already gotten carried away.
If it is boring, more likely you are doing it. But Im telling you, the more you do it, the more you try not to make it interesting, it will become interesting (laughter). And really SO interesting it will become that youll feel like I could have really, you know I could have a date with this table tonight (laughter). Im telling you this can happen. When this thing happens, you always come back to the base which is not getting carried away by all that - just simply aware of your body or feeling. We should not; the mind and the references are a bit, a little bit difficult, you know needs much more cooking. Question - okay, just one.
Question: Eh, a lot of, a lot of movie stars and rich people are followers of people who claimed that they have clairvoyance abilities, just; eh, clairvoyance abilities - just so that they could become famous. Does the use of such clairvoyance ability change any karma relating to the karma cause and effect - using this clairvoyance to help them to become rich change their karma? And how, how do you see people with clairvoyance abilities doing this kind of thing?
Rinpoche: Oh, by the way clairvoyance is not omniscience. Omniscience is nondual. Omniscience is not, omniscience is not gotten carried away. Clairvoyance, clairvoyance can be very much eh, carried away. (Pause) First of all we dont know, you know whether we have clairvoyance or not. Maybe there are some accidental successes but that doesnt mean much. And just imagine if you know what people think, even a roomful of people Wow! That alone can drive you crazy. I would prefer not to know that. Even if you know a roomful of peoples mind, what they are up to, this will drive you crazy. Okay we have a break (applause).
We continue with a few questions. Question: I have a friend who is married and has a child. In the past few years, she has been following a Tibetan lama and has had intimate relationship with this lama. This friend has great faith towards this Rinpoche but has deeply hurt her husband and child. Please advice how can I help to talk some sense into her? Or perhaps eh, what shes doing has some reasons?
Rinpoche: Mm, this is a very relevant important question. This is eh, this has happened in the past, its happening now and I am afraid its going to keep on happening. Mm, at the end of the day, it really you know this is what Buddha said you are your own master. And the tantric concept of you know guru is everything, EVERYTHING falls very much right into the, eh, you know this thing about you are your own master. It actually does not contradict.
This is why you know it is SO IMPORTANT for the serious follower of the path to really study the path, the view and its method. And based on that strong, firm knowledge of the view and the method of the path; then you choose, you choose a teacher or teachers. Of course again and again its up to you; you are your own master. This is why in the teachings there is an expression (Tibetan phrase) if you
do not analyse the guru, it is like jumping from a cliff. If you do not analyse the student, it is like drinking poison.
No one except someone who is a realized being is above the law of karma. Ironically I cannot also say so-and-so teacher is realized being, and the others are not. (Soand-so is a realized being and so-and-so is not repeated to translator) And therefore I cannot also judge that such an action is not a skilful means or it is a skilful means. Its SO difficult to judge. This is why you dont remember we were talking this afternoon; Vajrayana has so many things that actually you know, that, that, that actually sort of becomes an obstacle to itself.
But when Tilopa ordered Naropa to steal the soup that belonged to others, or asked Naropa to pinch the bottom of the princess who was actually in the procession, in the public he knew what he was doing and he has, he had no qualms, no regret. Tilopa had no regrets for asking Naropa to do that. Of course Naropa went through all kinds of consequences. Just imagine all the bodyguards you know like of the princess, beating him up. Tilopa, Tilopa had no regrets.
And, and one must say Naropas legacy is just unthinkable. Just the manifestation of the Karmapas alone is inconceivable. And this particular lineage of the Karma Kagyu came from Naropa and that ALONE justifies all the stealing of the soup, pinching of the bottom, this, that justifies (laughter). Karma Kagyu is not alone. This whole precious, incredibly you know precious lineage of the Drukpa Kagyu which also is responsible of Naropa, the Drikung Kagyu as well.
So I would like to, as a human being, want to really have a very clear court where this kind of, you know manifestation, this kind of activities are properly put into a trial, you know judged and said this is the right thing to do, and all of that. But if you are talking about the Vajrayana, these are just beyond us. But having said all of this, there is also thousands and millions of charlatans who pretend to be like Tilopa. And theyre usually very successful. Usually they are the ones who tend to have more followers. So at the end of the day, you are your own master. And I would STRONGLY suggest study the view, the method and watch your motivation and only you can tell these things.
If you are asking me, Khyentse Norbu, if you are asking me, a person, human being, me - I would beat him up (laughter and applause).
Question: On taking refuge, some gurus mention that we can only take refuge once and take refuge with only one person. Please could you give us some guidance on this?
Rinpoche: No, thats, thats a big misunderstanding; you take refuge in Buddha, dharma and sangha, you can do it really from many times, and you know really doesn't matter, I don't think so.
Question: Eh, for the young people studying in school, how can they practice? What kind of eh, attitude should they have and what are the important points that they should care about?
Rinpoche: That's kind of big question. (Pause) Well, I think eh, they should worry about becoming, they should worry about eh, they should be, they should, they should try to become more refined, refined and kind. They should worry more about that than degrees, degrees, points you know like examinations, but somehow we are in some kind of social trap that might not really work that way. I think eh, parents, eh, parent-home is a very important school. The home itself is the more, most important school. That's where the real learning seems, may happen. But then again, in the modern places, modern age, parents are very busy.
And both China and India used to have what the Indians call it 'Guru-shishya parampara', which is what you call it 'the tradition of guru and disciple'. We are not talking about dharma guru, huh, the teacher and disciple. I think both China and India used to have that. But probably we have lost it or losing it. (Query from translator) Not just; guru actually, you know the Indian word 'guru' means 'teacher'. Because in the modern structure, the teachers are just doing their job for salary. It's not, that's not much love and caring to the student, so that's not helping us at the moment.
And...most of our education is we learn things that, that, eh; our education system is very short-sighted. It's mainly to get a job. And that's VERY short-sighted. But of course, it's very practical, you know especially. You mention that to a Taipei or a Hong Kong or a Shanghai dweller, they will say - what's he talking about? You know this is the only way to survive.
Then our kids are losing in touch with nature. Many of the kids, if you ask where the water comes from - they will say from the tap. All these things need to be fixed. And this is what I have been telling; but most importantly the whole society, THE WHOLE SOCIETY must learn to appreciate the, the whole society...how shall I put it? The whole society must eh, (pause) learn to see the usefulness of 'uselessness', I guess.
Mm, it would be interesting if Hong Kong high school students, for instance, spend every day, an hour learning Cantonese opera, all of them. It might make Hong Kong really good. (Aside to translator: Studying an hour of Hong Kong, taking, no; Cantonese opera) Make the next generation Hong Kong people very refined - and even the way they move their fingers might, you know (laughter). But all this, all wishful, wishful thinking probably.
Question: How about the dharma practice for the younger children?
Rinpoche: Oh, that, of course. Meditation is always good, a short meditation. I saw in Bhutan a monk, one of my friends. He was leading a meditation with kids. And kids are all given a biscuit and they all are supposed to chew very slowly and then contemplate on the taste and then report back how the taste was. That's, that's quite good, okay.
Question: Eh, can you explain whether the sentient beings in the hell realm continue to create negative karma? And the second question is - is tathagatagarbha permanent or impermanent? Is the wisdom of Buddha permanent or impermanent? And is it true that Buddha doesn't make any mistakes, who knows?
Rinpoche: Okay, hell beings; I think they do. They keep on accumulating them, more bad karma. They are under the power of the past karma, so probably they are busy experiencing that. And buddha-nature is not a thing, so really doesn't matter whether it's permanent or not. (Translator: Wisdom of a Buddha ...?) Yeah, it's not, it's not a thing. It doesn't really matter whether it's permanent or not.
And as for the Buddha not making the mistake - mm, that's, that's quite a, what do you call it? (Pause) Due to kind of, what do you call it? Define the buddha, again as we talked yesterday, I think we need to define the buddha. And contemplating on Buddha never making a mistake is a path; contemplating and you know thinking on that quality is a path. Eh, it is a practice basically, it is a practice. One is encouraged so that one will aspire for that kind of stainless state. Mm, individually if you're asking, like if you are asking Devadatta - yes, Buddha made a lot of mistakes, okay.
Question: Rinpoche, I have tried without success to have an interview with you for several years (laughter).
Rinpoche: To what?
Question: To have an interview with you, without success for several years. I'm sorry for that. Is it possible for the teacher to destroy the student's ego if they have never officially met? If so, how does that work? - Your humble student, crying from afar (laughter and applause).
Rinpoche: Eh, I don't know. I have a feeling that this is going to keep on happening (laughter). Mm, probably, he should not give up. And who knows that this might end up actually - do something. Anyway, this is of course I'm not claiming that you are missing something by not able to meet me. Probably it is your good karma that's protecting you (laughter). You might realize now you have been SAVED (laughter).
Question: Then, maybe it had been that always but lately I notice that my ego is very big. And I have been arrogant in many ways. Can Rinpoche please advise how to improve?
Rinpoche: Keep on thinking that.
Question: I'm, I'm unhappy about that because I realize ...
Rinpoche: Yes, keep ON thinking that; that's really good. Keep on thinking that and genuinely think of that; not just you know intellectually but genuinely keep on thinking that. Sounds like you are getting somewhere. Okay, maybe one more; then I will give some 'lung'.
Question: Rinpoche, could you please explain about duality? Your explanation on non-duality equals the existence of truth and non-truth together. I am perplexed about duality; is it a difference or contradiction of mind and heart?
Rinpoche: Actually duality is not understanding the inseparability of these two - that is the duality. It is not truly existing duality, you know independently or externally existing duality. THAT ITSELF is non-existent. (Translator, confused: Rinpoche, can you speak slowly?) Not, not understanding the inseparability of truth and non-truth is the duality. Okay, so here there has been some requests. I am going to give you transmission - of ngondro, Du sum sangye, et cetera, et cetera. (Rinpoche gives transmission)
So, as we discussed earlier please sit straight and be aware of your form, just for a minute or two. (Meditation silence) Okay, so I like to; first of all, I want to really express my, what you call it? - Appreciate, appreciation towards the continuous enthusiasm towards the buddhadharma, which is very encouraging. Buddhadharma is the only source for happiness for oneself and others. As you; and try to put in the practice as much as you can even if it is a minute.
I like to say a few things here regarding eh, saving my own skin. Buddha said depend on the teaching but not the person who, who's teaching (Tibetan phrase). Please remember this. It is the teaching that's more important. I know for what it's worth, many of you and me have collected karmic link, if it is not a debt. We have this collection, looks like it's just going deeper. But I don't want you to; you know this is not an expression of humility. This is really eh, you know trying to tell you that, that I am a totally ordinary human being. Probably I have a slightly more information about the buddhadharma than some of you. I'm just telling you because I have this paranoia; because many of you, looking at me in a very different way, kind of pure perception, whatever. Eh, I may end up becoming the cause of the disillusionment and when my true colour comes out, you know (laughter). And this is really one eh, grave misgiving that I'm afraid of, that I might end up causing.
So, yes rely on the teaching. Rely on the absolute meaning, rather than the expedient meaning. Rely on wisdom rather than mind. And of course, you know if any of this information does help you, we should dedicate this for the longevity of the buddhadharma. I have here in Hong Kong, what I call my 'victims', not students those who have been doomed by karmic debt. And in the past, they have organized teachings.
Now there's a new group of people who are taking over. And I have, I must tell you eh, I make their life miserable - by never giving them clear direction, because ambiguity is my defensive mechanism. So I will have to say there's always going to be chaos. There's not, there's not much going to be like organized, you know easy, you know stuff like that. So I just want to tell you that it's coming mainly from me. But if there is some frustration, please vent it on them (laughter) (Translator: What...what?) Please just vent on them, you know like put it on them, if there is any frustration. (Translator: Who, the organizer, organizer?) Yeah, to the organizer (laughter).
But nevertheless, if this kind of event is helpful, let's us also thank them and also pray that they will be healthy and energetic so that we can keep on slaving them (applause). So that's the end of this time, and I am sure that I will see you soon (applause).
Organizer: On behalf of Siddhartha's Intent, Hong Kong and everybody here, I would like to thank Rinpoche for spending this weekend with us. Please continue to guide us in ambiguous, ambiguous manner. Please come back often and please take good
care of yourself. Have good health, long life, Rinpoche (applause) to turn the wheel of dharma. Thank you Rinpoche (applause). .
THE END OF "THE THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS OF THE PATH".
The Three Principle Aspects of the Path (Hong Kong, 2013) by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, transcribed from podcast. http://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.html
Dedication of Merit
ge war di yi nyur du dak Through this merit, may I quickly orgyen lama drub gyur ne Accomplish the level of the Oddiyana Lama and through that dro wa chik kyang ma l pa May all beings, without exception, de yi sa la g par shok Be established at that level.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche: The Three Principle Aspects of The Path (Hong Kong 2013)

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The Three Principle Aspects of the Path (Hong Kong, 2013) by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, transcribed from

Rinpoche: What, what, what? (Laughter)

Translator: I eat too much. (Rinpoche: What?) I eat too much.

Translator: Speaking in Cantonese phrases and words...

Rinpoche: What is that?

Translator: Carried away tat yee mong yen.

Rinpoche: I mean, can you word by word?

Translator: (Cantonese phrase) tat yee mong yen.

Rinpoche: Keep on thinking that.

Question: I'm, I'm unhappy about that because I realize ...

THE END OF "THE THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS OF THE PATH".

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