December 28, 1999

THE REQUESTING PRAYER TO THE LINEAGE LAMAS

Yesterday, I tried to finish the requesting prayer to the lineage lamas but did not finish it, so hopefully today I can complete it!

Normally, how it is done is from the Lama’s side, they also do some visualizations, the same visualizations as the disciple to absorb the lineage lamas. The meditation is done for the disciple to receive the Lama’s qualities within, and also, from the side of the disciple, to do the meditation, the visualization as I explained.

As I mentioned the other day, those who are not familiar with the merit field, you can just visualize Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, then that is all the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Then, beams of nectar are constantly emitted, purifying. The disciple receives all the realizations of the extensive, profound path, and all the qualities of the Buddha: the dharmakaya and the rupakaya. So, you can think again that you have been completely purified and have received [all the qualities.

Or, if you are not familiar with how to visualize the merit field with the lineage lamas in order, you can think that they are all there in front of you in space and they are all paying attention to you with their compassion and loving kindness. Then, beams of nectar are emitted from them, purifying you. Then a replica absorbs within you and you receive all the qualities. So, in essence, you can think like that.

For those who are familiar with how to visualize the merit field, it can be done as I explained the other time.

[Rinpoche chants the praise in Tibetan]

I didn’t succeed in reciting all the lineage lamas prayer this time. I left out quite a few things. I hope some of those lineage lamas that I left out are not upset! I’m just joking! Maybe I’ll try another time.

Not all the time but sometimes in the past I used this whole lineage lamas’ prayer in the morning as a tea offering or a breakfast offering prayer. To do that, you change the words, “I’m requesting” to “I’m offering.” Where it says, “I’m requesting”, you replace with “I’m offering.” Chö means “offering.”

SERKONG DORJE CHANG

His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche is one of the gurus I received so many initiations and many teachings and instructions from. He had so much hope for me and he cared very much all the time. He took care of me so much. Rinpoche passed away, and now there’s a reincarnation studying in South India in Ganden Monastery.

This guru, His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche himself and another one, the incarnation of his father, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, both of them are the same as those ancient great yogis like Marpa, Milarepa, Naropa, Tilopa. Similarly, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, who is the incarnation of His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche’s father, is actually the embodiment of Milarepa, the Tibetan yogi whose name became well-known in the world.

His guru, Marpa, caused Milarepa to become enlightened, not only within one life but within a brief lifetime of degenerated times, within some number of years. He did not become enlightened by extending his life, by achieving the undying realizations of immortality, by achieving those powers, like those siddhis who live for many hundreds of thousands of years and then achieve enlightenment. It was not like that, as it is explained in the lower tantras on how to achieve enlightenment, where it is still in one life, but that lifetime is lengthened by achieving the realization of immortality, where you can live for many hundreds of years or thousands of years, and then you achieve enlightenment in that life.

But here, it’s highest tantra and what practicing highest tantra offers is enlightenment. You can achieve enlightenment within a few years, in a brief lifetime of degenerated time. Marpa is the one who made Milarepa become enlightened within a few years.

Marpa himself is an enlightened being, Buddha Vajradhara or Hevajra. Similarly, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang is the embodiment of the great yogi, Marpa, and I also regard His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche as a great yogi. His Holiness Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche is also my guru.

I heard many stories of His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang when I was at Buxa, where I lived for eight years. This place was a concentration camp when India was under the control of the British. It was a place where so many people were put in prison and killed; this is the place where Mahatma Gandhi-ji was imprisoned. There was a very long hall there. When the monks from Lhasa, from Sera, Ganden and Drepung monasteries, escaped from Tibet to India in 1959, they wanted to continue with their studies. I guess maybe the official government heard the monks needed to live very far from everything. They must have had some idea that they needed a very secluded place. So the monks who wanted to continue their studies were put in this place. Then others went to work to make roads and to do different things.

It’s already chai time! Time for chai.

Anyway, this very long building, which was the building where Mahatma Gandhi-ji was imprisoned, became the nunnery because they put the nuns there. Before that time, it was a prison, but during the time of the Tibetans, it was not called a “prison.” They lived in the same style of building with bars on the windows and completely surrounded by barbed wire, so it was the same; there was no change.

Then, there was a very long building where Prime Minister Nehru was imprisoned which became our Sera Monastery, with Sera Je, the college Lama Yeshe and I belonged to, and Sera Mey, the other section. Sera is one big monastery, and within that there are two sections.

This long building where Prime Minister Nehru was imprisoned, which became Sera Monastery, housed maybe sixty to seventy monks. They lived inside with the beds lined up throughout. It was very long, not wide like this, and with many windows. Then, outside there was a verandah and then there were barbed wire walls and a ditch. Monks’ beds were all lined up along the verandah, so it was very crowded.

This was the house where the Sera monks stayed but they also lived in other buildings. This is where they lived and where all the Sera monks gathered to do their puja or meditation.

During the years I lived there, there were supposed to be 1,500 monks. They did extremely intensive study on the five major sutra texts that contain the subject of all the sutra teachings. They also studied tantra there, but it was basically these five major sutra root texts and the various commentaries by Indian pandits as well as by those great highly attained Tibetan lamas, pandits. They memorized all these and studied their meaning; they debated as well as practiced. On the basis of the Vinaya practice, living in the vows, they practiced morality, and on the basis of that, they did all this extensive study and practiced sutra and tantra.

I had some opportunity to have some imprints left during that time, receiving teachings from Lama Yeshe and from other teachers in Buddhist philosophy, the extensive scriptures. Some positive imprint was able to be left during that time. I spent most of the time playing; I didn’t really study. It was just a child’s study. I did some debating but it was just children’s debating. Anyway, that’s how I spent my life there.

So, that is an abbreviated story of my life in Buxa!

During that time I heard many amazing stories of this great yogi, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, who was in Nepal.

His previous life was as a monk and he completed study in Ganden Monastery as a lharampa geshe. It’s kind of like a doctor’s degree, extremely learned. Not only that, at the same time as living in the monastery and doing extensive study and giving teachings to others, he practiced. Even though he was living in the monastery and associated with many thousands of monks, mentally it was like he was living in the cave, in an isolated place.

After finishing his extensive philosophical study, he went into a hermitage and did a retreat, where he achieved very high tantra realizations.

Serkong Dorje Chang was one of the lamas that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had great respect for, and His Holiness very happily permitted him to complete his tantric path in order to quickly achieve enlightenment, to be able to quickly liberate or to enlighten other sentient beings. He was one lama that the Thirteenth Dalai Lama regarded as having reached very high tantric realizations and he happily accepted that he could practice with a consort or Wisdom Mother. Many lamas, even though they were high realized yogis were not accepted by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama to practice with a Wisdom Mother.

Anyway, I heard many stories at Buxa about His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, not the past life, the one who was in Tibet but the incarnation, who escaped from Tibet and lived in Nepal. So, when we arrived in Nepal, I had a strong wish to meet His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang after I heard the stories. Two or three years after arriving in Nepal, one day we went to see him. He was living on the top of the Swayambhunath mountain, close to the stupa. Three of us went to see him, Lama Yeshe, Zina and me.

Zina was the very first Western student. Her name is Princess Zina Rachevsky. Her father was a king, I think, in the past in Russia. The family escaped from Russia to live in France during a revolution, so I guess she was born in France but she spent the middle part of her life in America and many other countries such as Greece. She lived in many places and traveled to many countries. She had all different kinds of life experience in the West and in all the different places.

So, one day the three of us went to see His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang. At that time, there was a small house next to the stupa and he was staying there. As soon as we got to the door, there was a very simple monk coming down to the steps, so I asked, “Where is His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang?” He told us to wait a bit.

I think he went down, but he didn’t come through the door but through another door. I don’t remember if he came back or not. But when we went upstairs to see His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, we saw that that monk we met coming downstairs was Serkong Dorje Chang. That very simple monk was there, sitting on the bed.

Normally when we were living with her in India and in Nepal, Zina, this very first Western student, liked to visit very many high lamas, so we’d go together and she asked questions. Sometimes we helped her ask questions to the lamas and I used my few words of broken English to translate for her.

So, she asked His Holiness her question. I don’t remember now but I think it was something on guru devotion. Then, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang explained something extremely profound, with a very deep voice. All I can remember was that was extremely rare that when somebody asked a Dharma question, His Holiness would give an explanation. That’s not what usually happened.

What I can remember is that His Holiness said, “Even if the Guru is sitting on the floor down there, you think that the Buddha is sitting there.” That’s how you should meditate, that the actual Buddha is sitting there on the floor. This is what His Holiness explained. Among all the words, that’s all I can remember, all I could understand at that time.

His Holiness had many Dharma texts piled up next to his pillow, and Zina asked him to read one text from there. His Holiness said, “No, no, no, I’m completely ignorant, I know nothing.” That’s a very normal answer. I think it seems quite a common answer.

So, that’s the first time to meet Rinpoche. Then, maybe within the same year or the next, when we came to Nepal we stayed at the Gelugpa Monastery, maybe not the first one. The first Gelugpa Monastery is down in Boudha, near the stupa. While we were staying at this monastery, the Buddha’s day of enlightenment happened, which is the special day to celebrate the Buddha achieving enlightenment, passing away in sorrowless state and his birth, the three special days of the Buddha combined. The monastery was going to do the two-day Compassion Buddha fasting retreat, called a nyung nä, abiding in the retreat.

During the two-day retreat, you need to take the eight Mahayana precepts, so the benefactor who sponsored these the nyung näs, the Compassion Buddha’s retreat, wanted to invite a lama called Trulshik Rinpoche, who was living at Swayambhunath on the mountain where there is Manjushri’s or Buddha’s throne.

The benefactor wanted to invite that lama to give the eight Mahayana precepts, but the monks wanted Serkong Dorje Chang to be the lama to give the eight Mahayana precepts because they thought Trulshik Rinpoche was a Nyingma practitioner. They weren’t sure because he was practicing the same deity that Sera Je Monastery practices.

So, what happened was that early in the morning of the retreat, His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang was invited to give the ordination, the eight Mahayana precepts. He sat down, opened the text and said, “If you really want to practice Dharma, then if the Guru says, ‘You go there and lick the hot kaka,’ you should be able to immediately go and lick the hot kaka like this.” He did this with the tongue. “You should be able to go there and lick the hot kaka like this. That’s real Dharma.”

That’s all. Then he packed up and left! That was all the motivation for the ordination, nothing else. Then he packed up and left without even reading the prayer of the precepts. So, I think that was the very first time we met His Holiness there, that first day. And the last thing I heard from him was that instruction!

Just a few words but they were dynamic! It was a real teaching. I think in those few words, he gave a real instruction in what it takes to achieve enlightenment, to successfully actualize the whole path to enlightenment, from the perfect human rebirth, the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being and the graduated path of the higher capable being—the whole path to enlightenment. What makes us successful in all the realizations of the whole path to enlightenment is correctly devoting to the virtuous friend with guru devotion. It is, from the disciple’s side, looking at [the guru] as the Buddha, free from all the mistakes and having all the qualities, and with that, obeying the guru and obtaining his advice.

With that kind of pure thought, then obtaining the advice of the guru, that’s what makes everything successful. Then there is no obstacle and everything is successful from the beginning of the path, the perfect human rebirth—how this human body is qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses and is so precious—up to enlightenment.

This real heart teaching, the most important teaching that His Holiness gave in just a few words, I found very effective. Even though that’s all I heard, only those few words, I found it very effective, so I regard him as a guru.

SEEING THE GURU AS A BUDDHA

What caused this story was thinking of His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang, this great enlightened being. I used to go to meet Serkong Dorje Chang, even if there was no particular reason, just from time to time to get a blessing. I was so fortunate. It was so precious just to meet him, just to see him, so I went from time to time, even if there was nothing particular to ask.

Every time I’m with His Holiness, there is no question in my mind, no slightest doubt, that this is a buddha. There’s a deity called Yamantaka, who is the buddha of wisdom, Manjushri but in an extremely wrathful aspect. All the buddhas’ wisdom is manifest in a deity called Manjushri, and that is manifested into the most wrathful aspect to quickly eliminate ignorance, the root of samsara, the root of our suffering, as well as all other delusions. Yamantaka shows wrath toward that ignorance, the root from where these wrong concepts come, from where all our suffering comes—birth, death, old age, sicknesses, all sufferings. He shows wrath toward all the emotional minds like attachment, anger and, so forth, the delusions that constantly make us to be born in samsara, to die and to experience all the sufferings.

Without question, I have no doubt at all. There is a hundred percent feeling that this is the actual living buddha, Yamantaka, even though externally for our eyes he appears as a human being and some people, who don’t know that this is a great enlightened being or yogi, might very easily think that this is a very simple monk who knows nothing. People who don’t know who he is, when they meet him on the road or around the stupa, when he circumambulates it, see him as a very simple monk who knows nothing. It’s very easy for people who don’t know who he is to judge him from external appearance, maybe thinking there is something wrong with his mind or something like that.

Also, in the latter part of His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang’s life, before he passed away, I think for some years he showed the aspect of paralysis. Not paralysis, crisis? Anyway, suddenly bubbles come from the mouth. [Students prompt] Epilepsy. Yes, a kind of epilepsy. He showed this for some two or three years before he passed away. He showed it suddenly in a benefactor’s house when the monks were doing a puja or maybe on the road.

Each year the Tibetan Government in Exile requested His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang to do a very powerful puja for the cause of Tibet, for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to pacify obstacles. It is a very powerful wrathful puja where the lama who does it needs not only bodhicitta, the wisdom realizing emptiness and renunciation, but, on top of that, a very stable realization of generating highest tantra. I mean having tantric realizations, one-pointed concentration on the clear appearance, being able to meditate yourself as deity. This is the realization of the generation stage or, the best, the very high tantra completion stage realization. It means having a realization of clear light and illusory body. That is the best. I mean the highest is being a buddha, but there are also those sentient beings who are the best healers, who have these high realizations.

This meditation practice is a very, very important puja, so they do a retreat for a few days, then on one day they do this very wrathful tantric meditation, this puja. A monk from the monastery requested His Holiness, “Please don’t take this sickness today, this epilepsy.” And that day His Holiness accepted, saying, “Yes, of course it won’t happen, I’m Vajradhara.” Being Vajradhara means being the Buddha Vajradhara. No ordinary person could promise they wouldn’t get sick on that today. When it happens, it happens; you don’t have control over it. Whereas because a monk requested His Holiness, he could respond like this, accept the request, and on that day he didn’t have any obstacle like this, and he did the wrathful puja extremely well. That shows these manifestations are not normal.

Anybody who went to see His Holiness, as soon as they stepped in the room, he knew everything about that person, about their past, present and future. Once, when I came back from Lawudo in Solu Khumbu, I had a dream about a very small girl with a kind of angry face, showing me a dark, black angry face. A few days later, I went to see His Holiness. His Holiness used dice to do divination but before he threw the dice he knew everything, so actually he didn’t need the dice. The dice and the texts were just for show, as if he were an ordinary being who didn’t have an omniscient mind or clairvoyance. It was just to make him look ordinary, similar to the others, similar to us. Before he threw the dice, he asked me, “Did you have a dream about a woman?” I said, “Yes.” Before he rolled the dice, he knew everything. Then he said there’s a protector called Palden Lhamo, and she was angry, upset. 

Many times, if a person went to see him and the karma had ripened, if it was the right time, and I think also if the person had done something wrong, then he wouldn’t speak; he pretended not to know this person.

Sorry, this story’s becoming longer and longer.

There was a Tibetan benefactor in Kathmandu, I think from Khampa near Amdo. I think he became wealthy by doing business with holy objects, with statues and things like that. He was a major benefactor of His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang’s monastery. Every year he sponsored the monks to do a Tara puja for seven days in his house. The benefactor often went to the monastery. One day, while there, he went to His Holiness but His Holiness just said, “Who are you?” After many years of being a major benefactor of the monastery, that was all he got, “Who are you?” Then the man tried to advertise himself to His Holiness, “Oh, I’m the benefactor of the monastery, blah, blah, blah.” But His Holiness said, “Oh, I don’t have anybody like that.”

Then, the manager of His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang tried to introduce them; he tried to explain. He was getting quite embarrassed and upset because the benefactor had been very kind to the monastery, sponsoring the monks, and His Holiness said he didn’t know him. I think this was near the end of the time before the benefactor got very, very heavily sick and passed away. 

Now, going back, every morning before His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang drank his first tea, he had a big bowl and he offered tea to all the lineage lamas of the path by reciting each name as he offered the tea. Then, after that, he drank. That’s what His Holiness Serkong Dorje Chang did. His Holiness used to recite all the lineage lamas’ prayer, by changing the words, “I’m offering” in the place of “I’m requesting.” In the morning, before Rinpoche ate breakfast, he made offerings to all the lineage lamas like that.

Some time ago I also tried to make offering like that, and it was very pleasant. It is very good from time-to-time to try to make offering like that, but not every day.

When I recite quickly, many times it works but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it gets blocked; it doesn’t come out.

So that part of the story is completed!

Maybe it’s chai time. I think it’s break time. Today there’s a break! Today is crazy, like yesterday and the day before yesterday … and all the other days!

FOR ENLIGHTENMENT WE NEED THE WHOLE PATH

As I mentioned the other day, the purpose of our life is not just to achieve happiness for ourselves, to solve our own problems. The purpose of our living is not just for that. The real purpose of our living is to free other sentient beings from all the sufferings and to cause them happiness.

We make our life beneficial by causing happiness to other sentient beings, causing the happiness of this life. Then, it is even more beneficial to cause other sentient beings the happiness of all the future lives. By doing that service to others, we make our life more beneficial than the first one.

Then, causing other sentient beings to have ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, from the whole of suffering and its causes, that makes our life even more beneficial, more useful to others than the previous one.

Then, causing other sentient beings to achieve enlightenment, the state which is the total cessation of all the gross and subtle mistakes of mind, which is the completion of all the qualities of the realizations, causing other sentient being to have this peerless happiness, that makes our life the most beneficial. This is the service we can offer them that they need to achieve. By achieving full enlightenment, there is no higher happiness to achieve, no higher realizations to achieve; it’s completed.

To cause all the sentient beings to have this, we ourselves should be enlightened. For that, we need to actualize the steps to the path to enlightenment. To achieve full enlightenment in order to liberate and enlighten all sentient beings cannot be achieved without a cause. And that cause we create to achieve enlightenment cannot be a wrong cause, a wrong path. If it’s a wrong path, even if our aim is to achieve enlightenment, by practicing the wrong path, we cannot achieve the result that we wish for.

Even if the path that we are practicing is a correct path but if it’s not complete, again we cannot achieve enlightenment. We must actualize the complete path. We must do listening, reflecting and meditating on the whole path to enlightenment. And even with the realizations of the path, they have to be generated step by step, as the teachings are arranged, the gradual practice as it is set up for one person to achieve enlightenment by Lama Atisha.

ATISHA BRINGS DHARMA TO TIBET

Even though everything is contained in the Buddha’s teachings, very extensively in all those hundreds of volumes of sutra and tantra, Lama Atisha was requested to travel to Tibet by Jangchub Ö, the nephew of the Dharma King of Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö. The king sacrificed his life in prison near the border of Nepal because he went to look for gold to make offerings to Lama Atisha.

Lama Atisha was invited before but at that time he didn’t succeed. Then, the second time, the king went to look for gold for offerings, because there was so much corruption in Tibet, so much misunderstanding. People didn’t know how to practice sutra and tantra together. They thought that if you practiced sutra, you could not practice tantra and if you practiced tantra, you could not practice sutra. A lot of people thought that the two were opposites, like hot and cold. There was a lot of misunderstanding. Some pandits came from India wearing blue robes to spread many wrong views in Tibet and become rich. A lot of corruption was happening.

The king was very concerned and so he went to look for gold to make offering to Lama Atisha, to invite him from the great monastery that was like a university, Nalanda, where there were hundreds—maybe three or four hundred—pandits, all extremely learned, fully distinguished not only in Dharma but even in the other subjects such as art, logic and medical knowledge. They were highly attained beings, and Lama Atisha was the crown of all the holy learned beings in India at that time, especially at Nalanda.

So, in order to invite Lama Atisha to Tibet to make Buddhism pure again, the king went to look for gold. Then, an irreligious king captured him and put him in prison. The nephew of the Dharma King of Tibet, Jangchub Ö, requested the irreligious king to release the king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö, but the irreligious king [demanded gold the size of the king]. When the nephew did that, gold the size of the head was still missing, so the irreligious king would not release the king from prison. When Jangchub Ö explained this to the king, Lha Lama Yeshe Ö told him to not give even a handful of gold to the irreligious king. He said, “Send all the gold to India to offer to Lama Atisha, to invite him to Tibet to spread pure Buddhism. It doesn’t matter. I will sacrifice my life in prison to spread pure Dharma in Tibet for the sentient beings in Tibet. Pass this message to His Holiness Lama Atisha and request him, telling him, ‘May I be able to see him in future lives.’” So, he sent this message to Lama Atisha.

A translator was sent with all these offerings to Nalanda from Tibet. I don’t think there were cars at that time, so he went on foot. He went to India and explained everything—all the problems they had that were happening in Tibet and how the king had sacrificed his life in prison to spread pure Dharma in Tibet for sentient beings there. Then Lama Atisha checked by asking Tara whether it will be beneficial or not if he went to Tibet to spread the Buddhadharma. Whatever decision Lama Atisha had to make, he always asked Tara for advice; he always checked with Tara, who is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ holy actions, manifested into a female aspect. Tara said, “If you go to Tibet, it will be very beneficial for Tibetan people, but your life will be shortened.” I think she mentioned by seven years or something like that.

Lama Atisha replied, “If my life is going to be very beneficial in Tibet to spread Dharma, then I don’t care even if my life is shortened.” So, then he decided to go to Tibet through Nepal because if the other pandits there knew, if the public knew, they wouldn’t let him go to Tibet, because they also needed him in India. So, Lama Atisha very skillfully made as if to go for pilgrimage in Nepal. Then he went to Tibet.

When the king’s nephew, Jangchub Ö, met Lama Atisha, he explained all the problems that were happening in Tibet, saying, “We Tibetans are very ignorant. Please give us very basic teachings on refuge and karma.” That request made Lama Atisha very happy because Jangchub Ö had not asked for very high teachings or initiations but for very basic teachings. That made Lama Atisha very pleased. 

Then Lama Atisha wrote this special text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. He integrated the Buddha’s Hinayana teachings, the Buddha’s Mahayana sutra teaching, everything integrated as a graduated practice for one person to achieve enlightenment.

He made it very simple, like a meal, a lunch, already made set up in a dish on the table, so that anybody can practice without any confusion. All these teachings from the Buddha—all the Hinayana teachings, the Mahayana sutra teachings and the Mahayana tantra teachings—can be practiced without any confusion. He made it very clear, setting all these teachings up as a gradual practice for one person to achieve enlightenment.

This is what is called lamrim, the steps on the path to enlightenment. The title “lamrim” started with Lama Atisha, after Lama Atisha had written this text. Before that, the meaning existed in a very vast way, in all these hundreds of volumes of the Buddha’s teachings and the commentaries by pandits and so forth. In the lamrim everything is there.

THE LAMRIM SHOWS THE ENTIRE PATH

Studying and understanding the lamrim makes it very easy. Then we know what makes life most meaningful, and what is the most important thing to do to benefit other sentient beings and how to do that.

We come to know how to go about enlightenment by having an understanding of the lamrim, which is the integration of the whole of the Buddha’s teachings. We know where to begin. Having studied and understood the lamrim, whether we practice or not, at least we have a correct understanding of where to begin the path in order to achieve enlightenment and how to go about it. That’s an unbelievable protection. 

Otherwise, we spend our life just in one meditation, like watching the breath, and then one day our life is gone, finished, with nothing developed. Nothing has happened inside. We’ve done nothing to reduce samsara; nothing has become a remedy to samsara. It’s even difficult to protect ourselves from the lower realms.

If all these meditations are done with the attachment clinging to this life, they all become nonvirtue, whether it’s watching the mind or the breath or walking meditation, paying attention as we are walking. They all become negative karma, nonvirtue, if they are done with the attachment. They might be done with attachment to reputation, so that we can become a great master and teach meditation or something, reputation for the happiness of this life, to achieve some power, some mental comfort. Done with the attachment clinging to this life, all those actions of meditation become nonvirtue; nothing becomes special. Because it does not even become virtuous, it becomes the cause of lower realms, so it is difficult even to protect ourselves from the suffering of the lower realms with these meditations.

And especially when we meditate, if the motivation is never emphasized, if the motivation isn’t explained by a teacher, if we don’t know how to generate the motivation to meditate, that means we don’t know how to meditate. How to meditate doesn’t just mean breathing with the mouth, breathing in this way or breathing out that way. In and out is always there!

These instructions are not the real ones on how to meditate. How to meditate means knowing how to set our motivation before we meditate. That is the real way to meditate. Then, the next one is the technique itself, whatever the visualization is, how to concentrate, to focus on an object. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION: FOUR PEOPLE RECITE TARA PRAYERS WITH DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONS

In Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, the enlightened being, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo explained about four people reciting the Praises to the Twenty-one Taras. That is one I often use.

The first person recites the Twenty-one Taras prayer with the motivation to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. That person’s action of reciting the prayer becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

The next person recites the prayer with the motivation, not to get enlightenment, but just to achieve liberation from samsara, the mere cessation of suffering and its cause, delusion and karma. The motivation is to achieve that for themself, just for themself. That person’s action, reciting the Twenty-one Taras prayer, does not become the cause to achieve enlightenment, only the cause to achieve liberation from samsara for themself. 

The third person recites the Twenty-one Taras prayer not for enlightenment, not even to achieve liberation from samsara for themself, just to achieve the happiness of future lives, their own future lives. That third person’s action, reciting the prayer, does not become the cause to achieve enlightenment nor the cause to achieve everlasting happiness, liberation from samsara, for themself, it only becomes the cause of happiness of their own future lives. 

Now the fourth person recites the Twenty-one Taras prayer not with the attitude to achieve enlightenment, not with the attitude to achieve liberation from samsara, not with the attitude to even achieve the happiness of future lives, but just to achieve the happiness of this life alone. That person’s attitude is attachment, only seeking the happiness of this life, and that is a nonvirtuous thought, a nonvirtuous motivation. That transforms the person’s action of reciting the prayer into nonvirtue, like a white cloth that can be dyed many different colors and can be transformed into a black color with black dye. With this nonvirtuous motivation, the action of reciting the prayer is transformed into nonvirtue. Since the action is nonvirtue that means the result is only suffering. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION: THE TANTRIC PRACTITIONER WHO BECOMES A HUNGRY GHOST

That has also happened to meditators, to yogis, but not yogis who have realizations of highest tantra, the clear light and illusory body, and not even those who have the lamrim realizations, the renunciation of samsara, bodhicitta and emptiness. But it can happen to a yogi doing a tantric deity practice, doing sadhanas, meditating on the deity and reciting mantras. Lama Atisha said there were yogis meditating on Hevajra who were born in the hell realms. That has happened.

In Tibet, in a place called Pembo, there were two meditators who meditated for many years in their hermitage. One, who meditated on the deity Yamantaka, died. The story is that the other meditator who was still living did a special practice where you burn tsampa, barley flour, which is mixed with the butter and, if possible, crushed jewel powder and maybe some medicinal powder called men chey. Then, it is burned in the fire so the smoke coming from that makes charity to the spirits, to the pretas or hungry ghosts who live on smell. The practice is that this is offered to all the Triple Gem and to all the sentient beings, but in particular these spirits as well as sentient beings who have died but not yet been reborn, beings in the intermediate stage.

It’s for somebody we have karmic debts with, somebody we owe something to, such as somebody who gave us food and clothing in the past and so we have karmic debts. By making this charity, we are able to fulfill that.

For example, mice or ants eating our food or destroying our crops in the field, or rabbits or worms eating crops or vegetables in the field, even the insects who are biting us, lice or whatever, if they are getting into the food and making a mess, like the mice stealing food, all these things happen because there’s a cause. It’s because in the past we used them or we received food and many things from them, so there are karmic debts we owe them. Why are these things happening? Because there’s a karma that we owe them. As I was saying last night or the other night, if a karma has not been purified, there are karmic debts. We have karmic debts to them.

This practice is not the only means to pay those debts, but it is one way. By making charity to all these living beings, we can pay our karmic debts. This practice can make those sentient beings happy. They receive happiness from making the charity of the smell and this food. But this is not only the smell. What we visualize is what is wish-fulfilling from all this smoke, the five desire objects, objects of the five senses, filling the whole sky. Making charity like this, it’s not just the smoke from the food.

This practice also helps when we die. We can go to a pure land of a buddha, and not only that, it also then eliminates obstacles for our practice. If we have projects to benefit other sentient beings it helps to pacify obstacles. By making all those beings happy the country devas and the landlords and the many different beings, when they are happy, they naturally support us. So, it helps us be successful and prosperous, things that we need to practice Dharma, that we need to benefit others.

So, this has become a long talk again!

Back to the story, in the evening every day the other meditator did his practice, making charity to spirits. Then one day a very powerful spirit appeared, with many arms and heads, looking like the deity Yamantaka. It wasn’t Yamantaka but it looked like that. He spoke to the meditator, saying that he was the person who did the deity retreat before, and now he was born like this, as a spirit. He spent many years in meditation but he didn’t know how to meditate. He didn’t practice the lamrim meditations. Even the tantric deity meditations he did were not done with the lamrim, not done with bodhicitta, not done with the right view, with emptiness, and not done with the renunciation of the whole of samsara.

Even though the subject was the Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, a very high tantric subject, his very root mistake was he didn’t know how to meditate, how to practice. That’s why his actions did not become virtue, so [rebirth as a spirit] was the result that happened. Instead of being reborn in the realm of happy migrator beings, he was born in the realm of the suffering migrator beings.

Therefore, the fourth person reciting the Twenty-one Taras prayer, even though the prayer itself is Dharma, the subject Dharma, the person’s actions did not become Dharma because they were done with the motivation that was nonvirtuous. So, the action became nonvirtuous.

WE NEED TO RENOUNCE ALL THREE REALMS

Even if we have renunciation, even if we are totally detached from the sense pleasures of the desire realm, from forms, sounds, smells, tastes and tangible objects like in our human realm, even if we have no interest at all in the desire realm’s sense pleasures, all the sense objects that we use, even if we are totally detached from them, even if we have total renunciation, that’s not enough.

We might still have attachment to the happiness of the form realm, which is not about sense pleasure but mental peace. Even if we are totally detached from this desire realm’s sense pleasures, with no interest at all, but we are attached to the peace, the happiness, of the form realm, there’s still attachment to that. That is what causes us to reincarnate in the form realm, which is another samsaric realm.

Samsara is divided into three realms: the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. [Being born in any of these realms,] we continuously circle from one life to another. This is what is called the cyclic existence. It is these suffering aggregates under the control of karma and delusion, because of which we continuously circle from one life to another, having to experience all the sufferings again and again. So, there is nothing special about reincarnating in the form realm. It’s just another samsaric realm.

Then, even if we are totally detached from the happiness of the form realm, we still have attachment to the formless realm, thinking it’s better than the form realm. By thinking of the shortcomings of the form realm, we desire equanimity, with no inner pleasures. So, we think of all the qualities of the formless realm and how it is better than the form realm, how the form realm has more shortcomings.

If we are totally detached from the peace and happiness of the form realm but are attached to the formless realm, that makes us be reborn there. What makes us be reborn in all these states, the different realms within the form realm and the formless realm, is [the degree] of concentration, on the basis of the realization of shamatha, mental quiescence. Rebirth into all these realms happens on the basis of the realization of shamatha, calm abiding, mental quiescence. But even if we are reincarnated from the form realm to the formless realm, that is just another samsara.

There are four levels of the formless realm: limitless or infinite sky, limitless consciousness, nothingness and, the last one, the tip of samsara. The highest of the four levels in the formless realm is the tip of the samsara. 

We approach those levels by thinking that [the person in] the form realm has a longer life and no sickness. Whereas the desire realm has a lot of sicknesses, a lot of problems, here there is more peace and happiness. We look at many qualities of that. By analyzing how the desire realm has many sufferings, many problems, we cut our attachment to this realm. We no longer have attachment to this realm, but we have attachment to the form realm and on the basis of shamatha realization, then we are born there.

Within the formless realm with the four levels of concentration, we get born in each level by looking at how the next level of concentration has more qualities than the previous one. We think of the shortcomings of the first level and how the second level of concentration has more qualities. That’s how we approach the second level of concentration, by renouncing the attachment to the first level of concentration and thinking of the qualities of the second level of concentration. Then we get reborn there. We approach each of the levels like that.

There are six types of comprehension we have to go through in order to reach the first level of concentration, then from there, in order to reach the second level of concentration, there are six types of comprehension we have to actualize.

Then, thinking that the third level of concentration has more qualities, again, there are six types of comprehension we need to attain, so it’s like that up to the tip of the samsara, by thinking of the disadvantages of the previous stages and looking at more qualities of the next stage.

Finally, we attain the highest realm of the three realms of samsara, the formless realm, and among the formless realm, we attain the tip of samsara. When we reach there, there’s nothing higher. There is no next samsaric realm that we can compare it with. We can’t see that the tip of samsara has shortcomings and the next, higher samsaric level is better, it has more benefit, more qualities, because there is nothing higher in samsara.

Therefore, even though we are totally detached from the desire realm, the form realm and the previous three stages of the formless realm, we are not detached from the tip of samsara because there is no next samsaric realm to compare it to.

Even if we have great renunciation for our world, the desire realm, for all the forms, sounds, smells and so forth, and we are totally detached from the form realm and the three levels of the formless realm, even if we have that much renunciation, we are not detached from the last realm because there’s no other realm to compare it to, and that’s what makes us unable to enter the path to liberation. We might have that much renunciation but we are unable to enter the path to liberation because we didn’t generate renunciation to the entire samsara, which means even the tip of samsara.

Without talking about enlightenment, just liberation, we need to have total renunciation of the whole of samsara, including the tip of samsara, the last one. Unless we have that, it interferes with entering the path to liberation. By achieving the arya path with the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, only then can we cease all delusions including the seed. Only then can we be liberated totally from samsara, from all suffering and its causes.

Without this realization, when the karma of the being at that tip of samsara finishes, the same thing happens again. That being circles in the lower realms again, being born there again and going through this procedure again: [desire realm], form realm and formless realm.

Hindus have shamatha meditation and they can also achieve shamatha realizations, the perfect concentration free from gross and subtle scattering and sinking thoughts. Hindus and Buddhists share shamatha in common. So, they can also achieve this and go through the form realm and formless realm like that.

However, the important thing here is that we have been through this numberless times; we have been in the form realm and the formless realm numberless times in the past. It’s nothing special. That is one thing to understand.

Why are we still suffering in samsara like that? From the lack of lamrim realizations, from not attaining total renunciation of the whole of samsara. We have never had that, or the wisdom realizing emptiness or bodhicitta, these things. We have never developed these things in the past. That’s why we are still suffering in samsara.

Therefore, it is not enough to have a motivation that simply wishes for a peaceful mind. All these levels of the form and formless realms have peace. If all we are talking about is a question of peace, if that is all we desire, then we can create the causes to achieve that within those samsaric realms.

Even if there’s no wish for power or reputation—learning meditation we can teach it to others to gain some power, reputation and so forth—even if we don’t have that attachment clinging to this life with this kind of expectation or desire, simply thinking about the mind, about having peace for ourselves, it is said even that we need to analyze. Perfecting the kind of meditation where we stop all the thoughts is more or less like being spaced out. Rinpoche used to say that it is generally the cause to be born as an animal, that the best thing we can achieve is the third level of the formless realm, nothingness.

We have to understand these things. There are many things to understand when we learn how to meditate; it’s not just sitting and closing the eyes or staring straight ahead! Anyway, I’m joking! If we don’t know how to meditate properly, meditation can dull our mind, it can make our mind dull. We can lose our intelligence if we spend too much time in this kind of meditation, making us more forgetful.

Therefore, it’s unbelievably important to be educated about the motivation, to have the clarification about the motivation: what is Dharma, what is not Dharma; what makes virtue, what makes nonvirtue. What makes Dharma, what makes non-Dharma, that’s the very first thing to learn before we start to meditate, before we do any actual concentration. We have to learn, to understand the correct motivation, the correct attitude for the concentration. Without that, we can waste our whole life. We believe we have been meditating for our whole life, “I’ve been meditating for thirty, forty, fifty years,” but actually we have been wasting our whole life. Everything even becomes negative karma, nonvirtuous actions; nothing becomes Dharma.

[When we attend a meditation course,] if there’s no mention about motivation in the whole course, not one single word of motivation, [nothing becomes the remedy to suffering]. I mean it’s possible that some people naturally have a good heart, without the teacher introducing the topic. From the student’s side, some might think about enlightenment, liberation or the cessation of all the delusions even if they are not explained. It’s possible. But generally speaking, it is very difficult for the actions during those weeks meditating in retreat [to become positive]. If there’s no bodhicitta, nothing becomes the cause of enlightenment during all those weeks of meditation. If there’s no renunciation, no total renunciation—including renunciation of the tip of samsara—nothing becomes the cause to achieve liberation from samsara. Without right view, nothing becomes the remedy to cut the root of the samsara.

That means that all those months and years, a lifetime’s practice, all that meditation becomes just another additional cause of samsara. While every day, twenty-four hours a day, we are creating many causes of samsara. With each meditation we are creating another additional cause of samsara due to not knowing how to meditate.

AS HUMANS WE CAN UNDERSTAND THE CAUSE OF HAPPINESS

Therefore, the lamrim becomes so important, so important. The three principal aspects of the path become so important, not only in the attitude we adopt while meditating, not only at that time, but even in daily life. In daily life, the motivation becomes the most important thing.

I gave an example the other day of shopping, how even with shopping, if we shop with renunciation or bodhicitta or right view, it does not become harmful; it doesn’t become negative karma. In a similar way, we have to do all the other activities in our daily life.

Practicing the lamrim in our daily life means living in this attitude. Our attitude of life should be the lamrim. Our attitude becomes bodhicitta, renunciation and right view—the lamrim; we live our life with the lamrim, with the attitude of the three principal aspects of the path. If not all three, even just one, renunciation or bodhicitta or whatever—this tells us how to live our life; this is the education in how to live our life, which only causes happiness and doesn’t cause suffering.

To do that, we need to constantly watch the mind, to spy on our own mind. That’s how we have the opportunity to keep the mind in the lamrim. When it goes the wrong way, we can bring it back into the lamrim. The lamrim is what helps, what inspires us in daily life to always practice, to always watch the mind, to keep the mind in virtue, to keep the mind positive, healthy, peaceful. A mind kept in the lamrim is a happy mind.

We can do that by thinking of impermanence and death, how death can happen even today, at any moment, even within this hour, even within this minute. Thinking that death can happen today, at any moment, relates to the idea of karma.

If we don’t relate impermanence and death with karma, death just seems to be separation and nothing else, separation from this body, separation from our family and possessions. But with impermanence and death and, behind that, the idea of karma, because we have created so much negative karma in this life and in past lives, from beginningless rebirths, that makes us aware there is great danger. The minute death happens, we will fall into the suffering realms and we are not sure when we can come back again. We are not sure how many eons it will take there, because if we are born there, there’s no opportunity to collect virtue in that life.

We have received a human body now, a human body that can understand the meaning of the teachings, can understand the Dharma words. If something is explained to us, we can understand it. When we have explained to us what is the cause of happiness, the actions that result in happiness, motivated by non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance, within a few seconds, we understand what is the cause of happiness. And then, with this understanding, we have complete freedom to create the cause of happiness by ensuring any action we do is not possessed by anger, attachment or ignorance. With this understanding, we have incredible freedom to practice virtue, the cause of happiness in everyday life, as much as we want, even in one day.

Animals, even cats and dogs that live with us human beings, and cows, sheep, goats, even these animals, even if we tell them for a hundred eons that the cause of happiness is actions that result in happiness, motivated by non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance, even if we repeat that in their ears for one hundred eons—the cats and dogs, you remember the cats and dogs, maybe the cats left at your home!—and the sheep, goats, cows and horses, there’s no way they can understand, no way, even if it is repeated for a hundred eons to them.

Now look at the differences. You can see how this human body that we have now, today, at this hour, is so precious. It’s more precious than all those numberless other beings’ bodies. Even in the god realm it is very difficult to practice the Dharma because they are overwhelmed with so much sense pleasure, so much unbelievable wealth, sense enjoyments, their life is so full of distractions. Because of that, it’s extremely difficult to think of the Dharma, extremely difficult to have realizations, the renunciation of samsara. And then no question about the lower realms. So, in just a few words we can now realize how we are so fortunate having this human body that gives us all this opportunity.

When we die we cannot be sure where we will end up. It could be a place where there is no opportunity to practice Dharma at all. We just can’t be sure. And not only that, we might have to create negative karma so much. For example, birds must constantly kill. We can see them eating worms one after another all day long, except when they are taking a rest. But while they are taking a rest they are also cleaning insects from their body. It’s unbelievable suffering. We think those small birds are really beautiful, so happy or something like that, but actually they are full of tiny insects that are eating them, making them uncomfortable.

When I was at Geshe Sopa’s place in Madison, in my room, a girl brought a small bird. I think it had fallen down somewhere. It was not dead but she brought it in to pray for it. It was left for just a very short time on the carpet. I touched not the actual body but the container the body was in, and so many tiny insects ran over my fingers, just by touching it a little bit. They were even on the carpets. Because I carry the Buddha’s relics, and many photos of the Buddha and the merit field and stupas, as well as some statues, I asked her to take the bird around the room, to carry it around in circumambulation. She did that quite a number of times.

Anyway, you can see how animals create so much negative karma, harming others, all day long. But we human beings, even though we might create negative karma, we can also create good karma and we can purify the negative karma we have created. They are not like that.

What inspires us to practice in everyday life, to keep the mind in the lamrim, is using that method to spy on our mind all the time. And what gives us energy to do that, what supports it, is thinking that death can happen to us even today, that it can happen in any minute. But we should study the lamrim, we should meditate on karma, otherwise just thinking about death doesn’t mean much; it only means separation from things.

The awareness of the lower realms, karma, all this may not come. So, it’s not just death we need to think about; there are many things that make us aware. That’s the main point. One thing is karma and another is the lower realms. And even if we are thinking of our own future lives’ happiness, liberation and ultimate happiness, the other reason we practice Dharma now continuously is that, with this life, because we have this precious human body, especially this perfect human body, this is the best time to benefit other sentient beings. When we meditate on the usefulness of the perfect human rebirth, we see we can enlighten other sentient beings. As I mentioned, we can cause other sentient beings to have all these four levels of happiness, including highest enlightenment, by developing our mind in the path. This perfect human body gives us this incredible opportunity.

It doesn’t last a long time. It is not forever that we have this perfect human body; it can be stopped at any time. Like a water bubble on top of the water, it can pop at any time. Like the flickering light or the candle flame in the wind, it can be stopped any time.

Now, going back to where I came from, to achieve enlightenment ourselves in order to benefit other sentient beings, we need to do the practice of listening, reflecting and meditating on the complete path to enlightenment without missing anything, otherwise this cannot happen.

So, what I was trying to say before was that even if the path that we practice is correct, if it’s not complete, if it’s just a part of the path to enlightenment, again we cannot achieve enlightenment, we cannot cease all the gross and subtle defilements.

As I mentioned the Kadampa geshes’ example, even if we cannot do extensive study of the entire Buddhadharma, studying the whole path in a very extensive way, at least we must study the essence of the whole path, and then, with a correct understanding, we can practice. We can have a correct unmistaken practice, and then we can have a correct unmistaken realization. That way will lead us to enlightenment.

MEDITATION ON MIND AS CREATOR

What I would like you to do is a meditation, but this is one to especially practice at break time. It is to practice awareness, especially during these three days. If you can put more effort into this, that helps in two ways: one is the basic philosophy of Buddhism that you are the creator, your mind is the creator. There is no separate being who is the creator of your life; you are the creator of your life.

This is the principle of the Buddhist philosophy. It’s not just Buddhist philosophy, it’s your daily life experience. If you check, if you analyze, you see that you are the creator; nobody else is the creator of your life, you are. I just want to mention that one thing for you to meditate on. This is especially to practice awareness in break time.

I would also like to mention during these three days of practice to really practice mindfulness. It’s very good; it opens many things. Basically, it shows how things come from the mind.

Normally in our daily life, we don’t see this. Even though that is the real evolution—things come from the mind, anything that exists comes from the mind. Even though that is the reality, in our daily life we don’t think that way. We either don’t know this or we know it intellectually but we are not aware of it in our daily life, and so problems come.

We are not practicing mindfulness on this point, therefore we still believe everything comes from outside, all our problems come from outside. When we encounter a problem, such as a relationship problem, in our daily life we believe it comes from outside, it comes from other people. Then that disturbs the mind; that makes anger arise and all the emotional, disturbing thoughts. Then that makes us engage in negative karma, where we harm ourselves and we harm others. And that makes samsara endless.

MEDITATION ON EMPTINESS: WE LABEL AND BELIEVE THE LABEL

This meditation also helps us realize emptiness because it can really help us recognize the object to be refuted, the false object, the thing that doesn’t exist. It helps us to recognize what appears inherently existent, how that is false, and that realization then makes us realize emptiness.

For example, when we are not introduced by anybody to this statue—this statue, cross-legged, with the pinnacle on the head and hands held—when it is not explained that this is a buddha statue, because nobody has educated us, nobody has introduced this as a buddha statue, our mind doesn’t label “buddha.” Because our mind doesn’t label “buddha,” we have no belief that this is a buddha. Because of that, we have no appearance of this as a buddha. It is just a statue, cross-legged; we just see that as a statue or painting, that’s all.

Now, after somebody introduces us, pointing to this statue or painting, saying “this is a buddha statue,” or “buddha painting,” labeling it as that, we then follow that. Our mind also makes up the label, “buddha” “buddha statue” “buddha painting.” By following that person’s words, our mind also labels it as that and we believe in that. Now we have the concept, “this is a buddha statue” or “buddha painting.”

That’s very important. When we know nothing about it, there are no labels, “buddha,” “buddha statue,” “buddha painting.” There’s nothing about a buddha in our appearance and also in our concept. After that, then there’s the projection, then there is the appearance of the buddha statue, the buddha painting. So, to have this appearance that this is a buddha statue, this is a buddha painting, there’s a whole procedure, an evolution. The painting of buddha, the statue of buddha, the appearance that this is a buddha statue, that this is a painting of buddha, now we can see this came from our mind.

It is exactly the same, when we were a child, before we were introduced to numbers—number one, two, three, four, five—before we were educated by somebody… maybe letters might be easier If you find this difficult, you can use other letters like “Z” or different things.

However, before we were introduced to anything, before we were taught that “this is number one,” what we saw on the blackboard or on the paper was just this line. At that time, our mind had not labeled it “number one,” and there was no belief in that. We didn’t have the appearance that this was number one at that time. It was just a line like this. Then, on a certain day, on a certain hour, on a certain minute, when somebody explained that this is number one and we follow that, our own mind also labels it “number one” and we believe in that.

Then after that, we project the appearance of number one; it appears as number one, that this is number one. You can now see that this appearance of number one came from our mind a hundred percent because from the beginning we didn’t have this; we didn’t know it is number one.

The whole alphabet is like that. The whole alphabet from “A” to “Z” is like that. The whole appearance, “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” through to “Z” comes from our mind.

All the forms we see are the same. I see pillars, I see light, I see a floor, I see flowers, I see Tibetan incense, I see people, I see statues and paintings, I see other forms, all these things, “I see this and that.” All these appearances that we see, all come from our own mind. All these forms, colors, whatever we are looking at, all come from our own mind, including the “I.” I’m not saying that the I is form, but it is similar. The I, the body, the mind, all of these, even these things that we believe, come from our own mind completely. It is the same as I mentioned with the example of number one and the statue. All these appearances come from our mind.

It’s the same when we are outside. When we look at the sky, the appearance of sky also comes from our own mind. “That is sky,” but it comes from by our mind labeling it that. After we label it, we have the appearance of sky, that this is sky. And when we look at water, oceans, rivers, at the appearance of water, “this is water” comes from our mind, because [the appearance] happens after the label.

And the same thing with trees. When we look at trees, the tree that we see in our view, this appearance that there is a tree, that comes from our own mind. It happened after the label. Our mind labeled it and we believed in that. And similarly when we look at a road, that there is a road comes from our own mind. And the same with a car. And in our view, that this person is a friend and this person is an enemy, that all comes from our mind. That is easy to understand. That enemy and friend come from our mind is easy to understand because it depends on what kind of concept we build. It all has to do with the concept.

So, practice the mindfulness of this. There’s form and similarly there’s sound. Sound also comes the mind. All the sounds of people coughing, dogs barking, the sound of paper, these all come from our own mind. Forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects; do the meditation on how everything comes from the mind.

Especially in break time when you are outside, walk around and do this meditation. Keep the awareness of how everything comes from your mind.

As I mentioned before, this meditation leads to a realization of emptiness. It helps a lot to see the inherently existent appearance, the inherently existent object, that all these things appear there on the base as something real from there. This helps us to see how they appear back to us as totally opposite to [how they actually exist]. They come from our mind but they appear to us as if they exist from their own side, as if they never came from our mind.

Practicing awareness in this way, by analyzing according to the evolution, helps us see what appears back to us as existing from its own side is false there; it’s empty there, it doesn’t exist.

The other one is that this meditation also becomes a very powerful meditation for patience, for tolerance. Because everything comes from our mind, we don’t find any excuse to get angry at a person.

DEDICATION

“Due to all the past, present, future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the sentient beings, may loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta, which is the source of all the happiness, the success for myself and for all sentient beings, be generated within my own mind and in the minds of all sentient beings without delay of even a second. May that which is generated be increased.”

Please dedicate the merits to the Buddha of Compassion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the source of all the peace and happiness for all sentient beings. “May His Holiness have a stable life and may all his holy wishes succeed immediately, as well as that of all the other holy beings and all my virtuous friends.”

[Long-life prayer to His Holiness the Dalai Lama]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the sentient beings, from now on whatever action I do, whatever life I experience—ups and downs, healthy or unhealthy, having cancer or not having cancer, all those sicknesses happening or not happening, being poor or rich, gain or loss, receiving criticism from others or receiving praise from others, bad reputation or good reputation, even living or dying—whatever happens in my life and even reincarnating in the lower realms, even the hell realm, may all this experience and all the actions that I do from now on become most beneficial, causing all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. Whatever I do now, whatever actions I do or whatever life I experience from now on, the most important thing is, the main thing is not so much whether I have a long or short life or I am healthy or unhealthy, I have sicknesses or don’t have sicknesses, the main thing, the most important thing is to be beneficial for others. That’s the most important thing; that’s the main purpose of life. Whatever happens to me, whatever life I experience—even being born in the hell realm with its heaviest suffering—may all my actions and experience be most beneficial for all living beings; may it cause all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.” So, dedicate like this.

When you pray, when you dedicate, the other thing is normally you visualize your own root guru, oneness with all the buddhas, then you pray.

Or the other way is you can visualize Medicine Buddha, who is very powerful for success, and then you dedicate, you pray. Or you can visualize Compassion Buddha or any buddha that you want to feel close to, that you are practicing. You can also pray like that, thinking they are
oneness with the guru, with a guru yoga mind, you can also do that. Besides dedicating the merits, it’s very powerful to do it with the object of refuge if you pray.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the rest of sentient beings, may I be able to offer infinite benefit to all sentient beings like Lama Tsongkhapa, by having the same qualities within me from now on, in all my future lifetimes.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the rest of the sentient beings, which exist but do not exist from their own side, may the I, who exists but doesn’t exist from its own side, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but does not exist from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but do not exist from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists but does not exist from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but does not exist from its own side.

“I dedicate all the merits to follow the holy deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjugosha, Ksitigarbha and so forth, and I dedicate the merits in the way that the three-time buddhas and bodhisattvas highly admire.

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me, by the buddhas, bodhisattvas and all the rest of the sentient beings, may Lama Tsongkhapa’s stainless teachings of sutra and tantra be actualized completely within me in this life without the delay of even a second, as well as my own family members and all the students and benefactors in the organization and in the minds of sentient beings. May Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings and Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings exist, flourish and spread in all directions, and may I be able to cause all this to happen.”

[Rinpoche chants in Tibetan]

Thank you so much. Goodnight.

Student: Can I ask a question?

Rinpoche: Oh, yes, yes.

Student: When I look at something, does anything exist from its own side or is it all coming from my perception?

Rinpoche: The appearance that you see comes from your mind.

Student: Everything?

Rinpoche: Yeah, all the appearances you have come from your mind. Everything, yes, yes, yes. Your view comes from your mind, yes.