December 7, 2007

BUDDHISM IS EVEN FOR NON-BUDDHISTS

Why do we need to do something extra, something more than what we normally have in our life? Why do we need to do that? Actually, I don’t need to say why! You have been experiencing this, discovering this during this one-month Kopan course. I don’t need to explain why we need to meditate, why we need to practice the Dharma. I think you have experienced, discovered, realized during these weeks why there is the need to practice Dharma, the need to meditate.

By listening to the teachings and meditating on them gives the experience, the inner discovery, that we normally have no opportunity to see, to realize, even to think of. We are not normally aware of this in our daily life. We are now discovering by hearing, by opening our heart; we are learning new things in life. We are no longer imprisoned. Just having one limited way of thinking, we put ourselves in a prison. Now, we do not have a closed mind; we are not caught in one philosophy, one way of thinking, one way of living our life. We are waking up, opening ourselves, opening our heart, seeing things beyond that.

Now, we are starting to be able to break those concepts that give us trouble all the time, that harm us, that cause problems for others. We can break those fixed ideas and think in better ways that bring more happiness and peace, more success in our life and, of course, bring others more peace and happiness—our family and the other sentient beings in this world. Now we are taking the opportunity to open our heart, giving ourselves freedom, liberating and enlightening ourselves. It is unbelievably fortunate.

Normally I think that even practicing meditation, Dharma, is not only for Buddhists. Meditating, practicing Dharma, is even for nonbelievers, for people who have no religion, no particular faith. Even they need to practice Dharma; even they need meditation, not just Buddhists, people with a spiritual faith. Meditation and Dharma practice are extremely needed even by those who are nonbelievers. They might only believe in one life, not believing in reincarnation and karma, but there is still an incredible need for meditation and Dharma practice in their life. Why? Because they want happiness and they don’t want suffering. Happiness must come from the mind; it cannot come from outside. If it were the other way round, if they didn’t like happiness but wanted suffering, that would be different. That would be totally different! If that is what they wanted, if they did not want happiness, just suffering, that would be totally different. But that is not the case. That is not what they want. Even for nonbelievers, all they want is happiness. They are all looking for happiness, twenty-four hours a day, day and night. They are looking for happiness and they don’t want suffering.

This is an example I often use. Say, we want to have a long-lasting relationship, we want to live harmoniously in the family. For that, we need to practice patience, tolerance. Without practicing tolerance how can we have long-lasting, harmonious relationships in the family, between parents and children, between husband and wife. The person we practice patience with cannot be a saint. If we have no anger, there is no opportunity for others to practice patience with us. While somebody is our friend, without any anger toward us, there is no opportunity to practice patience, to learn patience from them. And strangers, those who are neither friend nor enemy, don’t have anger toward us, they don’t wish to harm us, so we have no opportunity to practice patience with them, we don’t learn patience from them.

THOSE WHO HAVE OMNISCIENCE

By using Buddhist terms, among the numberless beings, there are numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas. A buddha, or to use a general term, a fully awakened being, is one who has completed all understanding and gained omniscience. There is no ignorance, nothing more left to learn, nothing left that that being does not understand, that they have not discovered. Among the living beings, there is somebody who achieved this, somebody who has completed this quality of mind.

Even in a family, there is somebody who has more education, more understanding than the others. Even in a city, there is somebody who has greater understanding than the majority of other people, who has a higher education than all the other people in the city. Then, there is somebody with the most understanding, with the most knowledge in the country, and in the world, and in the universe. There is somebody who has completed the understanding, who has omniscience.

Similarly, in regards compassion, there is somebody who has more compassion than others in the same town, in the same city. There is somebody who has more compassion than others in the same country, compassion not only for human beings but also for animals and all the different sentient beings. There is somebody whose compassion covers most living beings. And there is somebody who has compassion for all suffering living beings, who has nothing more to develop. This is logical.

From this ordinary example, we can understand that there must be somebody who has compassion for all living beings. First of all, a person may have compassion for a friend or maybe some dogs or cats or some animal that they like, maybe some very limited compassion. But that little compassion can be developed more and more, from one sentient being to include all sentient beings.

And having power or capacity is the same. There is somebody who is fully developed in all this, just in a simple way. Without going through each level of the path, how many defilements each level removes, we can see that with more and greater understanding, as well as developing compassion, we also develop the capacity. The deeper or the higher our realization, the greater and greater capacity we have. As we have more [capacity], we develop more compassion, more knowledge. I’m not just talking about intellectual knowledge. Along with that, we have more and more capacity, so that we can go deeper, having greater and deeper benefit for the sentient beings. The higher the path we achieve, the more realizations we have, the more we develop this power, the more we are able to offer extensive and deep benefit to sentient beings. Everything progresses together, like that, up to those bodhisattvas on the eighth, ninth and tenth bhumi.

Of the five Mahayana paths to enlightenment, even the qualities of the meditator who enters the path of merit and the preparatory path, even though they are not yet an exalted being—they are still an ordinary meditator but they have actualized those two paths, the path of merit and the preparatory path—even the qualities they have are unbelievable. And this is without talking about an exalted being.

No matter how much education we have, even the highest university degrees, compared to the knowledge, the experience of those beginners who have attained this first path or second path, any other education is nothing compared to this. Even just having the five types of clairvoyance overwhelms all those other types of education.

When the bodhisattva reaches the eighth or ninth bhumi, for us it’s like they are an enlightened being. They have limitless skies of qualities, beyond what we can imagine. It’s hard for us to believe; it’s beyond our capacity to conceive. This is leaving aside the skies of qualities that the Buddha has, the extensive benefit he can give sentient beings, how the Buddha guides sentient beings—that is just unimaginable. The way he can guide sentient beings from happiness to happiness, up to enlightenment, is so extensive; there are so many, hundreds, billions and billions of ways he does this. It’s just amazing. But for us, those bodhisattvas are like enlightened beings.

I don’t remember the numbers, but those eighth and ninth stage bodhisattvas can manifest many billions and trillions and zillions of forms. In each of their pores, whole realms manifest, covering the realm, pervading it. And this is before becoming a buddha. It’s just unbelievable what they can do for sentient beings. With all those different manifestations, they are able to reveal many different teachings at the same time to different sentient beings, billions, zillions and trillions of them. They are also able to go to many different pure lands and with all those billions, zillions and trillions of manifestations, prostrating and collecting merit, praising the Buddha’s qualities by manifesting in numberless pores. They are able to do different meditations at the same time, many billions, zillions and trillions.

There are eleven different sorts of things the bodhisattvas who have reached those stages can do, all of which increase so many billions, zillions and trillions of times. And they are able to manifest also according to the needs of the sentient beings, let’s say, as a bridge or a river or all sorts of things. This is even before becoming a buddha. It is unimaginable how they can benefit sentient beings, how they can manifest and benefit them in such extensive ways. It is explained in the last chapter of the Madhyamaka commentary and in so many other texts as well.

WITH SELF-CHERISHING, THERE IS ONE PROBLEM AFTER ANOTHER

All of us sentient beings have the same buddha nature as those bodhisattvas, those beings who have changed their mind from self-cherishing to bodhicitta, the mind cherishing others. For these two days you have been hearing about bodhicitta. You have reached that subject: the seven-point technique for developing bodhicitta, how to develop compassion and loving kindness and how to develop bodhicitta. The root of bodhicitta is compassion; it is the cause of actualizing bodhicitta. You have heard all those things about how to develop bodhicitta through the seven techniques of Mahayana cause and effect and the other one, equalizing and exchanging oneself for others.

With bodhicitta, instead of renouncing others, we cherish others. Instead of cherishing the I, we let go of the I, because renouncing ourselves is the door for all the undesirable things—all the sufferings, all the problems, all the obstacles, all the things we do not like. All these undesirable things are received from the self-cherishing thought. And all the desirable things, all the collections of goodness, come from cherishing others.

In our everyday life, when we cherish the I, it is opening the door for all the problems, all the sufferings, all the obstacles, not only obstacles to achieving enlightenment for sentient beings, but even to achieving liberation from samsara for ourselves, and not only that but also achieving even temporary happiness, the happiness of future lives for ourselves. It becomes an obstacle for that. And not only that, the self-cherishing thought, the ego, becomes an obstacle to achieving even the happiness of this life.

That’s why the great bodhisattva Shantideva says,

[8:131] If I do not actually exchange my happiness
For the suffering of others,
I shall not attain the state of buddhahood
And even in cyclic existence shall have no joy.

If we think of just one example, such as relationship problems, it is very clear that all problems are rooted in the ego, the self-cherishing thought. Just taking one type of problem in life, relationship problems, if we examine the attitude of a person who is experiencing a relationship problem, there is always the thought that the other person doesn’t love them or even like them. They may even feel the other person hates them. The root of that is because they cherish themselves. They do not care for the other’s happiness, only for their own happiness. That makes life uncontrolled. Any relationship they try to have with others becomes unbelievably confusing. They create enemies; they create so much unhappiness. Somebody who was a friend becomes an enemy. There is unbelievable confusion in their life.

Because they become unhappy with that person, their friend becomes an enemy, making their life seem like hell. They have not been born in hell yet, but it seems like that. This has all been created by their mind, not by God, but by our own personal god, the self-cherishing thought!

This god, the self-cherishing thought, is the one that we always follow, that we always obey. We obey the self-cherishing thought like a guru, offering service all the time, working for it day and night. We make huge plans to offer service to the self-cherishing thought, to feed the ego. Huge projects, huge plans! As life goes go on, we make huge projects for the ego! Life is like that, generally speaking. I’m not saying everybody, but generally speaking, people work to feed the ego; they become slaves to the ego, doing everything for the ego.

We haven’t been born in hell yet. This precious human body we have taken is for happiness, but by following the self-cherishing thought, by being a student of the self-cherishing thought, a disciple of the self-cherishing thought, a slave of the self-cherishing thought, we totally misuse this life. Our precious human body is so rare. You have gone through the very beginning meditations of the lamrim: the perfect human body, its usefulness and how it is so rare to achieve and once you have achieved it, how it is incredibly meaningful. We have this precious, extremely rare body just about this once, but then we totally misuse it. We use it only to create problems in the life and to suffer constantly, with one problem after another.

Just as one package of relationship problems finishes, another package starts. Another package is opened! That one is gone but another package is opened! A package means that everything we need is inside, like when we buy a package from a shop there are so many items. That’s the same with a package of relationship problems. But no matter what package we have, it is the same story. The problems repeat themselves again and again. It goes on and on like that.

If there is no lamrim in our life, if we don’t live our life in the lamrim, we miss the very essence, either renunciation, (or another way of putting it, contentment) or compassion and loving kindness. We do not know what bodhicitta is, how it is caring for others, cherishing others. And we miss out on right view as well. Without the lamrim, without these most healthy, positive thoughts, we miss out on the source of peace and happiness, of all the happiness up to enlightenment. [We miss out on] the peace and happiness of this moment, from here up to enlightenment.

Without this psychological method that the Buddha explained, without this most peaceful, healthy mind that gives all the peace and happiness to us and stops harming both others and ourselves and brings only peace and happiness and then stops harm to ourselves and other numberless sentient beings, without that, we have all these problems.

The lamrim, the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment, is very vast. You have now gone through many of the subjects and you have some idea what happens in life without the lamrim. Using relationship problems, I’m just giving an example, but there are so many other problems in life, not only that.

What happens without the lamrim, without the mind living in the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment? Life becomes crazy. We have no freedom at all; we are totally possessed by spirits, by demons. We are totally overwhelmed, totally overpowered by the delusions, by ignorance, anger, attachment, by the self-cherishing thought. We are totally overpowered by them, controlled by them. There may be other nice English words, but I don’t remember. Anyway, we are totally, say, swamped. [Students help with the pronunciation] Swamped? Anyway, whatever you said! Totally swamped by a quagmire of problems, drowned in an ocean of problems, but it’s a quagmire, a sea of mud, a quagmire of problems. We totally sink into it. It is so difficult to get out of.

Generally expressed, without the Dharma this is what happens in our life; what happens to us is totally suffering. Without the Dharma, we are a slave; we are totally controlled. We talk about democracy and human rights, but there are so many sorts of rights, so here maybe it’s better to take control, to fight for our right [to be free from being] totally controlled all the time by the ego, by the self-cherishing thought, by the three poisonous minds.

The mind is totally dark with ignorance; there is no light of Dharma, to see what is right, what is beneficial for us, what brings us happiness and brings others happiness, and what harms us and others. There is no light of Dharma at all; the mind is totally dark with ignorance, with the ignorance of karma.

We always want happiness but due to ignorance, what we do to obtain happiness is totally wrong; it is the opposite of what we should do, because the motivation is ignorance—either anger or attachment—besides the self-cherishing thought. It is not only that we don’t know the root, the ignorance that does not know the meaning of selflessness. As I mentioned last night, there is the selflessness of person and the selflessness of phenomena, which refers to the aggregates. We don’t know the ultimate nature, emptiness.

And there is ignorance of karma; we are ignorant in what is right and what is wrong, not knowing what is right, that only brings happiness, and what is wrong, that only brings suffering. We are totally ignorant of this. Then, with the desire to always have happiness, what we do is only the wrong action, creating negative karma, which only results in suffering. Looking for happiness, we are only creating the cause of the suffering. You can see here what happens to our life without the Dharma. We continuously create the cause of suffering and therefore what we experience is only suffering, even though we always wish for happiness. So, you can see the difficulties here. There is so much suffering; there is no freedom.

That of course causes anger, attachment and all the other deluded emotions that obscure the mind, that bring so many problems in our life, making us engage in all the ten nonvirtuous actions, harming other sentient beings, not only this life but from life to life. Unless we change our mind, unless we practice Dharma, it is like this in this life, and then from life to life.

Anyway, I should go back to where I came from! And not go on and on.

WE CAN ONLY DEVELOP PATIENCE WITH SOMEBODY WHO HARMS US

What was I saying before to conclude this blah blah blah? What I was saying was that even as a nonbeliever, we need to practice Dharma, we need to practice meditation. We all need to meditate on patience, and the only one person we can practice patience with is somebody who has anger toward us, who harms us. We need to learn patience with that person. They are the only one.

Not everybody gives us the opportunity to develop our inner qualities, especially this very precious quality, patience, which gives us so much peace and happiness and makes us so harmonious within our family and within our relationships. When we don’t get angry, we don’t harm our companion, and we bring so much peace and happiness to ourselves and in the heart of the other person and the family.

And not only that, by training the mind in patience we have patience with the rest of the living beings. By training the mind in this, we have patience with anyone who gets angry at us, anyone who harms us. We continuously have so much peace and happiness and we are able to offer peace and happiness to the other person. By not retaliating, we bring peace and happiness to the other person.

That causes the other person to not harm us back, over and over. If we harm somebody, they will harm us back, and then we will retaliate and it goes on and on, continuously making the other person get angry at us and harm us and they continuously create negative karma. We cause the other person to continuously create negative karma and to continuously create the cause of the lower realms. By our anger, we are making that person be born in the lower realms, instead of helping lift them to a higher rebirth, liberation or enlightenment.

The conclusion is that with patience we don’t harm other living beings and we bring peace and happiness to all other sentient beings. This incredible peace and happiness that we give numberless living beings comes from not getting angry and harming them, and in the place of that, having patience. This incredible thing we can do with our patience [is our gift] to the world, to the numberless living beings, and this patience only comes by the kindness of this person, the one who is angry at us. They give us the opportunity to learn patience, allowing us to develop our incredible inner qualities and give so much peace and happiness to the numberless living beings. It is by their kindness, the one who is angry with us. Therefore, this person is the most precious, the kindest person in our life. They are a wish-granting jewel. a diamond or gold, something very rare.

The fourth verse of the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation composed by Kadampa Geshe Langri Tangpa Dorje Senge says,

Whenever I see sentient beings who are wicked in nature
And overwhelmed by negative actions and heavy suffering,
I hold such rare ones dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure.

When we see a person whose attitude is very wicked, very mean to us, who is very selfish, possessed by negativity, like a heavy sickness, like the contagious sicknesses such as leprosy or whatever, engaging in very heavy negative karma, not doing any positive actions at all, we should think that we have found a jewel. Having that person is like finding a jewel in our life. We should realize that. That person is something extremely difficult to find, something that is very rare, like a diamond or gold. We should regard that person as so precious.

Even though their motivation is so selfish, so mean, even though they are so angry with us and they do negative actions, harming us and causing us many other problems, we have found this person. It’s not as if we have gone out searching for a precious jewel, but here we have just found this person. We should know that they are so precious in our life, like a wish-fulfilling jewel, because from them all our wishes for happiness can be fulfilled.

How? By practicing compassion for that sentient being, we are able to achieve bodhicitta and enter in the Mahayana path. Then, we are able to achieve the five paths, the ten bhumis and enlightenment.

On the basis of bodhicitta, instead of following the Paramitayana path, we can enter the Vajrayana, the tantric path, which means we will be able to achieve enlightenment much more quickly. This means that the numberless sentient beings will not have to suffer for such a long time—those numberless sentient beings who have a karmic connection with us, who can only meet the Dharma when they meet us. Only after they meet us can they have the opportunity to practice Dharma. There are numberless sentient beings who have a karmic connection with us. In order for them to not have to suffer for a long time, for many eons, so they can be liberated quickly from the oceans of samsaric suffering and be brought to enlightenment in the quickest time, we need to attain enlightenment ourselves, and that will only come if we generate compassion for this person.

Then, we are able to achieve all the other realizations of the path to enlightenment and we are able to achieve skies of qualities of the Buddha’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind. All these unimaginable, infinite qualities where we can do perfect work for sentient beings come from this person who has a very weak mind, who is bad, mean, who creates very heavy negative karma and so many problems by trying to harm us.

Having this person is not only like having found a jewel treasure, it’s more than that. Even if we have mountains of gold, diamonds the size of this earth, even if we own all the wish-granting jewels there are—where whatever material possessions, comfort and enjoyments we pray for are actualized—this treasure is much rarer than that. With a wish-granting jewel, although whatever we pray for is immediately actualized, it is by the power of the good karma we created before. It’s like somebody who is a billionaire; that is only because that person created all that good karma in the past, practicing generosity and doing so much charity.

Having collected so much merit in the past, we can have such a precious treasure, this wish-granting jewel, which is the rarest among all material possessions, that gives us any material possession or enjoyment we need just by praying for it. So, we have not just one wish-granting jewel but numberless, filling the whole sky. Instead of a wish-granting jewel, we can think of zillions of euros or trillions of dollars, whatever we think is precious. It could be some old bone from thousands of years ago or some broken antique, something we think of as so precious. We don’t have to stay with a wish-granting jewel. We can think of whatever is most precious such as that example, an old broken antique cup or an antique bone or whatever! Or stones or something! Anyway, the idea is a wish-granting jewel, something that is the rarest among all the rare, precious materials.

Whatever we can think of, something that is most rare among the material possessions, like skies of wish-granting jewels, still doesn’t compare with how precious and kind this one sentient being is to us. We can generate compassion for this sentient being who is so mean, with such a wicked nature and possessed by so many problems and sicknesses, who engages in very heavy negative karma, harming us. But we cannot generate compassion [for the material things] for example, these skies filled with wish-granting jewels or these zillions of dollars, even if we have mountains of them. They don’t suffer; they don’t have bad thoughts for us; they don’t harm us. They don’t have a wicked nature or become angry with us, so there’s no opportunity to generate compassion for these material possessions. But we can generate compassion for this sentient being.

So, you can see the huge difference, like the sky and the earth, how this sentient being is so much more precious than all these materials things, even wish-granting jewels. Their value is nothing compared to this one sentient being who has a wicked nature and who is possessed by many problems, who engages in very heavy negative karma, harming us. From this person, we can generate compassion, loving kindness and bodhicitta, and then as I mentioned before, we can attain all the realizations of the whole path to enlightenment, the skies of qualities of the Buddha’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind.

Then we are able to do perfect work; we can liberate the numberless suffering living beings in the hell realm from the oceans of those sufferings; we can liberate the numberless hungry ghost who are experiencing the oceans of the sufferings of their realm; we can liberate the numberless animals who are experiencing the oceans of sufferings of the animal realm; we are able to liberate the numberless human beings who are experiencing the oceans of suffering of the human realm; and the same with every sura and asura, bringing them all to enlightenment. We are able to bring every one of the numberless sentient beings in each realm to enlightenment.

Because of this person who has a wicked mind, who is possessed by so many heavy problems and then engages in heavy negative karma, we are able to bring numberless sentient beings to enlightenment. This all comes from the kindness of this person. This person is the root. We think money is so precious, we cherish money because of what we can do with money. We can buy food; we can buy drugs! I’m joking! Anyway, I’m joking about that one. We can buy food; we can buy a house; we can get all the sense enjoyments. With money, that is very clear, so we have this feeling that money is so precious. We want to have gold or silver. We have that strong feeling because we know what we can do with that. We can get all these things that cost so much; therefore we cherish it. In the same way, we cherish and take care of the field we get our crops from, because all our food comes from there.

We don’t have this same feeling with this sentient being because we are not aware of how precious they are. As I mentioned before, even the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels or millions, billions, zillions of euros or dollars—or antiques—that value is nothing compared to the value of this one sentient being. 

The value is more than that of a wish-granting jewel that we have found by good luck! As I mentioned yesterday, when there’s some success, when people win a soccer match or win a million dollars in the lottery or something—when something like that happened, the term used is “good luck.” Even nonbelievers use the term “good luck,” saying something is lucky or somebody is a lucky person. Even if they don’t believe in reincarnation and karma, when something happens, when there is some success, they say it is lucky and the person is a lucky person. Actually, it means good karma, but they don’t know what they are talking about. Not knowing, they say, “I have so much good luck, so much fortune.” These terms are used.

Actually, it means good karma. If we have good luck, we will win. Even for a nonbeliever, if we have good luck we will win the lottery and get all those millions of dollars, but if we don’t have good luck, if we have bad luck, we won’t win. With bad luck, we won’t win the race in our racing car or the soccer match or whatever. It’s interesting. Nonbelievers use these terms, “good luck” and “bad luck,” but they don’t know what they are saying. I think that shows dependent arising.

Anyway, what it says is that we should cherish this wicked person as something extremely rare to find. With our heart, we should cherish them, and then, with our body, speech and mind, we should benefit that being. That’s what the fourth verse says.

This has become a side talk, an extra side talk!

WE NEED PATIENCE AND RENUNCIATION

What I was saying before is that by training our mind in this way, we are able to develop our inner qualities, especially the most precious quality, patience. When we can do that, we won’t get angry with all the other sentient beings. Then they won’t receive harm from us and will only receive benefit. The numberless sentient beings will receive peace and happiness from us. We are able to offer this incredible thing to the numberless sentient beings, to the world. And this comes through the kindness of this person who is angry with us.

By training our mind with that person, we are able to bring happiness to our family, to our children, our parents, our companion. With patience, with tolerance, we are able to bring peace and happiness, not only to ourselves but also to whoever we are with, having a harmonious, long-lasting relationship with them. This is Dharma psychology. This meditation is Dharma psychology. Since we wish to have happiness, there is no other means than practicing patience. We have to meditate on patience.

We also have to practice renunciation, even if we are a nonbeliever, with no faith in a particular religion. Since we wish happiness, we need to practice renunciation, contentment. We need to practice contentment. If we don’t practice contentment, we will continuously follow attachment, desire. There so many people in the world who do this. You always see on TV, in newspapers, how so many millionaires and billionaires get into trouble. They have wealth to last them many lifetimes. They could reincarnate many times and they would still have enough money to do things. They could live for so many years, then die again and be reborn, over so many lifetimes, and they would still have enough money for so many lifetimes. However, without practicing contentment, which is the same as renunciation, they just continuously follow desire, always expecting to get satisfaction but never ever getting satisfaction. Through following desire, they always want more and better—more and more. That is the main thing.

They even get involved in breaking rules or illegal. Not breaking illegal! I said “breaking illegal,” but it’s not breaking illegal! In the United States, there’s so much talk on TV about illegal drugs coming from Mexico. It’s driving people crazy. Anyway, by following desire, they always look for satisfaction but they can never find satisfaction. Then, they want more and more and more, more power and more wealth, more of everything. Then, they engage in many illegal things, maybe killing other people or cheating other people. Those people create problems. They get sued and end up in jail. After being so wealthy and having all that power, they end up in jail. What put them in jail is attachment, self-cherishing, making the mistake of following attachment. Attachment cheated them and put them in jail. Actually, their ego put them in jail.

If we practice contentment, if we stop always following attachment, we can stop thinking we always want more. We feel we have enough. Practicing contentment means having renunciation. We renounce always following desire and wanting more and more and more, wanting what is better, what is more, whether it is a relationship—a friend or companion—or whether it is wealth, material things, reputation, whatever. We want more and more reputation, more and more power, whatever it is. We can see on TV there are so many famous people, rich people—billionaires and zillionaires—who go to prison. After being so famous, after all this wealth and power, they go to prison for many years.

So, we need to practice contentment. We need to learn how to practice contentment, renunciation. We need that meditation, that Dharma, to stop following desire. That’s the purest Dharma, the real Dharma.

AFTER MEETING IS SEPARATION; AFTER BIRTH IS DEATH

One method to do this is by reflecting on the nature of life, how after birth there is death, how at the end of collecting material possessions there is finishing, how after meeting there is separating.

The Buddha said,

The end of all that has been hoarded up is to be spent;
The end of what has been lifted up is to be cast down;
The end of meeting is separation;
The end of life is death.

These are the shortcomings of samsara. Now we are meeting here, but I don’t think it will take a long time before we separate. We meet now and then separate. After meeting, it ends up with separation. A family meets and then separates. The consciousness comes from different realms, and somehow, due to past karma, gathers in this house for some months or some years, clinging to somebody, thinking “my this,” “my that,” “my this,” “my that,” but in a very short while, there is the end of this meeting, the separation. For however many months or years we are together, we cling to it, believing we are always going to be together like this. But at the end of the meeting is the separation. That is the shortcoming of samsara. And again the consciousness has to leave the body. The consciousness has to migrate to all sorts of realms. There’s a family here, but after some time the consciousness leaves to a different realm, after having just spent a short time together. That is the nature of samsara.

After becoming high in samsara, you see, we end up being lower down. It changes. Even within one life, we change from a high position to a low one.

Anyway, without expanding, after birth there’s death. That is the nature of life, that death can happen. There are so many people on this earth, even today, who are dying or already dead. So many people on this earth who are the same age as us, even those born on the same day, are dying today or already dead.

Therefore, death can happen to us any day, even today. Death can happen at any moment. If we think that death can happen at any moment, that many people exactly the same age as us are dying today—the minute we think that death can happen today, at this moment, suddenly there’s peace in our heart. We find peace. We suddenly find there is no meaning to all this expectation of getting more power, more wealth, more reputation. When we have a business worth a million dollars, we want a billion, and after a billion we want a trillion—this want that goes on nonstop. Suddenly, all this doesn’t make sense; it has no meaning, we find no purpose in it. Then, we suddenly find so much peace in our heart. Immediately we think of death [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] it cuts following desire, the negative emotional mind. Only when we think of the death, how death can happen even today, even this moment, we can immediately [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] cut it; we can stop following desire. Immediately, there is unbelievable freedom. We achieve incredible peace in our heart.

It instantly stops us following desire and we have contentment. Right here and now we achieve contentment. The nature of the life is impermanence and death, and death can happen any day, even today, even this moment. This meditation on the nature of our own life, which is true, is the Buddha’s psychology. This meditation is the Dharma that protects us from desire, that frees us from all the confusion, all the problems caused by desire. We are protected. The meaning of Dharma is to hold, and here remembering impermanence and death protects us, it holds us, it cuts desire immediately. It protects us not only from desire but also from the cause of desire and from all the problems that spread out more and more from that. We are protected from all of life’s problems and confusion, more and more.

The general meaning of existent, phenomenon, in Tibetan is called chö, which means holding its own nature. That is the definition of existent, chö, in Tibetan. Now here, this chö here, Dharma, means that which protects us. When our mind becomes Dharma, it protects us from all this confusion, all these sufferings such as depression, loneliness, suicidal thoughts. When our problems seem so heavy we can no longer handle them, we become suicidal. It protects us from all this and it protects us from killing and causing so much harm to other sentient beings.

You can chant.

[The group chants the tea blessing]

While we are having tea, we are going to recite the Praises to the Twenty-one Taras for our own success in developing our heart or mind in the path to enlightenment, as well as for world peace, for the peace and happiness in Burma, for all the monks, for everybody, for all the leaders and everybody to have peace and happiness, to have freedom. And for Iraq and all the many different part of the world where there is so much violence to have peace. And for the success of all the projects in the organization, making offerings to the Sangha who preserve and spread the Dharma for sentient beings, and for the success of all the projects of the FPMT to collect extensive merits and bring sentient beings to enlightenment, including all the Maitreya statue projects and all the social services done in many different parts of the world. For all the centers to be most beneficial for sentient beings and for the success of whatever project they have, such as the social services, having facilities, receiving a perfect teacher and translator in order to spread the Dharma, and for sentient beings to meet the Dharma and to have attainments of the path to liberation and enlightenment. So, for all that.

[Rinpoche leads chanting of Praises to the Twenty-one Taras in Tibetan]

“Due to these merits, may I achieve the arya liberator, Mother Tara, and lead all the sentient beings to the Arya Mother Tara’s enlightenment by myself alone.”

LOOKING FOR THE I

This part is just short, but I also want to mention this. Even if we are a nonbeliever, with no religion, with no particular spiritual faith, if we look for the I that we believe in twenty-four hours a day, day and night, we worry about all the time, always concerned that something is going to happen to this I.… No, I am not talking about this eye!

When I first went to Mexico, I gave some teachings in a kind of Japanese temple or something like that. I was talking about the I. The organization selected an old man and lady as translators. I think they thought they were familiar with the Dharma because there was a monk who came from a Gelug monastery who lived with them for a year. So, the organization assumed that they were able to translate. So, I was talking about this I, but they were translating it as “this eye.” There was this one girl who had spent a little bit of time in Dharamsala, so she knew what I was talking about. The old man kept translating this I as “this eye.” When I was talking about the other I, the self, he was talking about this eye. After some time, the lady from the audience corrected them, saying they should not talk about this eye but this I!

So anyway, we have so much expectation, so much concern about this I, worried that something is going to happen to this I, that this I won’t get something. There is so much worry and fear about this I’s reputation and power, wealth and happiness. There is so much we expect this I to get.

Even as a nonbeliever, if we look at whether that I is really there [can we find it?] Is it really there, above the belly, down below the neck, somewhere there, somewhere here? When we are happy, we do like this, “I am so happy.” We don’t do this! [Rinpoche points to the head] If the brain is really the center of the mind; I don’t know if the brain is mind, but I heard somewhere that the wave in the brain is mind. Anyway, even if we think everything is here [in the brain], in daily life we don’t express it as being there. When we say, “I am so happy,” we normally do like that. I’m not sure about “I am so unhappy.” I didn’t see the mudra for unhappiness. I saw the mudra for happiness but I don’t remember seeing the mudra for unhappiness. When we think “I’m so glad,” we don’t hold our stomach, “I’m so glad.”

The day I came here, I met a Japanese person who said that when the normal Japanese people are told something bad, if somebody is calling them names, they ask, “Is he calling me?” If that happens, they point to their toes!

In our daily life, we express ourselves with our hands. Even though our philosophy talks about here, that the mind is here [in the head], that is not what we feel in our normal life, not what is natural. I wouldn’t use the word “instinct.” In the West, when there is no answer, you use the word “instinct.” When you don’t have any more answers, when you can’t explain it anymore, you call it instinct and leave it at that! No more questions! After answering two or three questions, then it’s instinct. Anyway, it’s not like that. I don’t think it’s instinct.

There is a reason why we put our hand here to express the I. Normally, in daily life we put our fingers here when we express the I. We point here [to the heart]. Why? Anger doesn’t come from here, from the brain. Anger arises from here [from the heart.] And when we feel very strong attachment, strong desire, we don’t feel it coming down from here. Attachment does not drip from the brain; attachment arises strongly from here [from the heart.] Pride doesn’t come from here; we feel it here. That’s the normal experience, whether biologists or scientists say it or not—I’m not sure what you call them. Whether they say it or not, even for them strong emotions arise from the heart. The experiences of daily life and philosophy are contradictory.

However, that is just a side talk, just something to be aware of, because in the tantric teachings within Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, in the Vajrayana teachings, there is the central channel. Actually, you may have gone through this, I’m not sure. Did you do the death bit? [Ven. Kaye: The death process.] Huh? [Ven. Kaye: The death process. The eight stages of death.] Death enterprise? What did you say? Death enterprise? [Ven. Kaye: Death enterprise.] I thought you were talking like it was a company, the death enterprise!

By measuring halfway between the two breasts, at the central channel, there is the heart chakra. In meditation when it talks about something happening at the heart, it is not talking about this physical heart, the one beating here. We do not visualize the deities going down there, to that heart, the guru is not going down at that heart! It’s not that they go down [to the physical heart] and then have to change there!

The heart chakra is where there is the indestructible seed, with the upper part white and lower part red. It is indestructible because [it remains] from birth until the complete death, when the subtle mind of death, the [extremely] subtle consciousness, leaves. It is the size of a bean, like a dal seed. During the total death, there are the twenty-five absorptions, with the five aggregates or the four elements, and the base-time five wisdoms gradually absorbing. Then, there is the white appearance, the increasing red and the near-attainment dark path. After that, there is the extremely subtle mind, the subtle mind of death. At that time, the meditators who practiced during their life, who protected their morality well, and especially those who practiced tantra, are able to use that subtle mind to meditate.

THE DEATH OF GESHE JAMPA GYATSO

Just recently, there was the death of Geshe Jampa Gyatso, the resident teacher of our largest center in Italy, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa. Since it was founded, there have been many branches started in different parts of Italy. His Holiness has already gone to Lama Tzong Khapa five times to give teachings. In recent years, many people attended, three thousand, five thousand, I’m not sure. His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, as well as many other great lamas, have gone there and taught over many, many years.

There is a resident teacher, and the institute offers the seven-year Masters Program, studying Buddhist philosophy, including Lama Tsongkhapa’s most elaborate lamrim, tantra, both generation and completion stage, and Abhidharmakosha and Abhisamayalamkara, Maitreya Buddha’s teachings. Those extensive subjects were studied as part of the program. And at the end, there is a one-year retreat on what the students have studied, by integrating it in the lamrim. A whole year was difficult for some, so they did nine months. Many of the students found the course unbelievably beneficial. They thought that the meditations on the lamrim they had to do not only after but during the course were extremely important, because it benefited their hearts so much. That first seven-year program has finished now.

When Geshe Jampa Gyatso was here at Kopan, he was a teacher here for many years. Lama wanted to make such a program, so Geshe-la helped. Lama really wanted to accomplish this, so he did it. Now the second seven-year Masters Program is about to start, although it might be eighty years. I think there are eighty people waiting to do it, not eighty years!

Geshe-la had cancer which got better, but then recently he passed away in a hospital. They still haven’t got the religious rites to keep the body according to Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, according to tantra, where you are supposed to keep the body until the meditation is over, things like that. In Tibet, they generally keep the body for three days. However, there are many things that can be done to help, whether it’s a meditator or an ordinary person, somebody who is unable to meditate at the time of death.

He didn’t change his dress for the last two or three weeks, but suddenly, when they offered him new robes, he decided to meditate. He tried to sit in meditation when the new robe was put on, and then suddenly the breath left. It was his choice, according to his wish. When they put the new robes on him, he wanted to meditate, so he tried to push to sit up and then the breath left. I think he was maybe in the meditation state for a week, I don’t remember. The director said that the hospital usually burns the body, which I thought was very strange, because I thought normally the families took care of that. I thought that was part of their business. However, I told the director to fight—I don’t mean fight but explain the religious rites. I think Italy is not as hard as the United States or other countries. If you explain, I think they are not hard people; they will understand!

She explained that this was a holy being and they needed to keep the holy body and during meditation there are rituals and so forth. So, she asked and was given permission. This was the first time they permitted this. They were able to bring the holy body to the center. Only recently, the day I left San Francisco, his meditation was over, just a few hours before. The next day, there was the cremation. They invited a high lama from Germany to do the burning offering puja, to guide the whole ceremony. But basically they had all the advice on what to do. They built a stupa for the quick return of the incarnation. According to my experience, you should build the lama’s stupa quickly, a small stupa with silver or gold or copper already inside, and then build a bigger stupa outside.

They have many stupas there for the different gurus who have passed away. I asked them to build a few stupas for my gurus and other gurus who have passed away, so there is a whole line of stupas there, outside the center. This helps the incarnation come back quickly. Having seen other gurus pass away, there are many procedures to do it the correct way, according to the texts.

Geshe Jampa Gyatso was a great teacher, very learned, good-hearted, and with very pure morality. He has those three important qualities. In his case, he was able to meditate, which means he had total freedom. There is no question he could go to a pure land. Then, dependent on the level of the mind, some achieve enlightenment, not within the life but maybe after death, in the intermediate stage, like Lama Tsongkhapa, who chose to become enlightened in the intermediate stage. He could have become enlightened within his lifetime, however he especially chose not to do that but to be enlightened in the intermediate stage.

I’m not going to expand on that, with the usual blah, blah, blah! When the period finishes, the subtle mind becomes the cooperative cause of the continuity of the body. Then, the appearances go in reverse. There is the dark near-attainment, then the red appearance and then the white appearance, and the consciousness becomes the intermediate state being’s mind, again becoming grosser. Then that becomes the cooperative cause for the body, for the subtle wind, the subtle mind that abides and becomes the main cause of the intermediate state being’s body, the gross wind. That becomes the cooperative cause for the mind. Even within the intermediate state being’s body, the indestructible seed opens and the consciousness leaves as the intermediate state being comes out of the body.

For those who go to a pure land, the consciousness comes through the crown. If it is a hungry ghost, it comes from the mouth. So, it depends on the rebirth. For somebody who has meditated, there is no question, but for the others, for those who are going to reborn as an animal, the consciousness comes from the sex organ, and if the consciousness leaves from the anus, where the kaka is, it will be born as a hell being. So, where the consciousness leaves the intermediate state body is determined by the realm the being will be born into.

Anyway, that is just a side talk.

IGNORANCE IS THE KING OF SUPERSTITIONS

So what I was going to say is that even as a nonbeliever, if we look for the I, we believe it is here. [Rinpoche points to the chest] We always point here. When we see people pointing here, we know they are pointing at the object to refuted, the gag cha, the false I, that which is object to be refuted. I already mentioned that yesterday.

If we look for that I, we can’t find it. What we believe is here, if we look, we can’t find it anywhere, not in the aggregates of form, feeling, cognition, compounding aggregates or consciousness. None of them is this I, this real I that we believe is there; even the whole collection is not this real I that we believe is there. We can’t find this real I from the top of our hair down to our toes. If we look, we can’t find it anywhere—we can’t find it anywhere in the world. That is the proof that it doesn’t exist, that it is the false I, not the I that exists. It is not the I that goes to hell or to enlightenment, that experiences samsara and nirvana. It’s not that I.

The I that experiences all that, the I that reincarnates, the I that goes to sleep, that is tired now and wants to go to bed, that I exists! But not this I. The I that exists is extremely, unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably subtle. It exists but it’s extremely fine, unbelievably fine. It exists but it’s borderline with not existing. Therefore, many meditators make the mistake and slipped into nihilism or eternalism. The I that exists exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, because there are these aggregates. Because of that, the I exists. But what the I is, is nothing except what is merely imputed.

What I am saying is that even as a nonbeliever, we need to do this research, like a scientist. Scientists do research on how many people have goiters in the world or how many people have long hair or have a long nose! That’s just a little bit of an exaggeration, but anyway there are lots of studies done. People spend many years studying one insect. So, it is very worthwhile, even as a nonbeliever, to do research, to do the analysis to check whether the I, the self, is really there. Discovering what it is exactly is such an incredible discovery, an incredible insight. People spend their whole life studying one insect or something, to find all the stories of that insect, but not its past and future lives!

So then suddenly we don’t see any reason why we should be angry because there is no such real I there. Why should we be angry? This person harmed me, this person doesn’t like me, doesn’t love me but this “me” is not there. It is not in this particular location here, this “me,” so we can’t find any reason to get angry at that person. And it’s similar with desire. With all these unbelievable disturbing heavy negative emotional thoughts, suddenly we can’t find a reason to have them, like in the example of being angry with that person and having to retaliate—to kill in revenge or to sue or to put them in prison. I mean, this me that they have harmed is not there. It becomes a very interesting discovery. It is the most important discovery in our life, the most important realization.

When we have a realization of emptiness, that is the time we find full confidence that we can achieve liberation, because we have realized the root of samsara, the ignorance, the object that we believed in, is not true. We have realized it’s totally empty, totally nonexistent. We know we can eliminate that. We have full confidence that by developing this wisdom we can directly cease all karma and delusions and the king of the delusions or the king of the superstitious thought. We see that attachment is superstition, anger is superstition, all these are superstitions because there are no such things existing as we believe them to exist. We apprehend them as such, we believe them as such, but there’s no such thing there; it’s all superstition.

Ignorance is the king of superstition. We apprehend [a real I] and we believe in it, but there’s no such thing there. It’s totally false. So, this is the king of superstition. We should not believe this superstitious mind; we should not follow it, because things are totally empty. There is no such thing as what we believe.

This is how we are liberated from all suffering. This is how the Buddha liberates us sentient beings—by revealing the truth, not by washing the negative karma out with water, not by taking it out like thorns from the body. This is the way the Buddha liberates us from suffering. Also not by transplanting his realizations within us, but by revealing the truth. That means teaching on emptiness, showing us what our ignorance believes, that things are not merely labeled by mind, that they exist from their own side, and helping us realize that which is totally nonexistent.

As I mentioned before, this is the way to cease our ignorance, to overcome all the negative karma, all suffering, and become liberated. And that’s how we can liberate numberless other sentient beings from the oceans of suffering and its causes.

THE WAY TO ACT WHEN SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT

There are just a few things to mention. There are four very important points [in training the mind]. Somebody may have already explained this. If you want to write this down, you can do the practice.

If a person is seeking liberation, the state of the omniscient mind, they need to collect merit and purify the defilements. There are so many different methods. How do [we follow] the methods [to achieve] the omniscient mind? What am I saying! The Omniscient One who is so skillful and so compassionate, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, revealed how to collect extensive merits, unimaginable merits, even in the course of our daily activities. Of course, those who have a realization of bodhicitta, there is no question, but this is for us, we who are undeveloped, the lower intelligent beings. With these activities in our daily life, this is how we can collect extensive merits and purify negative karma by the way.

Here, the Buddha explained these methods in the sutra, Konchog tseg kyi do, the Sutra of the Heap of the Rare Sublime Ones. I got mixed up with the two names. He said this. In the morning, the minute you wake up, the first thing to think is, “May all sentient beings achieve full enlightenment.” Here, in the text it says the “holy body of the Buddha.”

Then, when you get dressed, think, “May all sentient beings wear the dress of shyness and shame. With shyness, if you kill or steal every day, for example, engaging in these things due to negative karma, it obscures your mind. You can’t attain realizations and you will also get reborn in the lower realms with all the heavy sufferings. Shame refers to others, how you cause others to get angry and create negative karma, and then they suffer. So, the lack of shame becomes an obstacle for them to achieve liberation and enlightenment. So, when you get dressed, think, “May sentient beings wear the dress of shyness and shame.” In that way, their lives become pure and they are able to attain liberation and enlightenment. The benefit is that.

Then, when you put on a belt; I am not saying you need to go out to buy a belt tomorrow so you can do this meditation. I’m not saying that. Anyway, if you are using a belt, as you tie it, think, “May all sentient beings’ minds be bound with three higher trainings: the higher training of morality, the higher training of concentration and the higher training of wisdom.”

You have to understand the point, that every single activity you do is dedicated for other sentient beings. That’s the psychology here. Whatever you do, everything is for all sentient beings. That is the main thing about this meditation practice during daily life activities. By always keeping the thought to always benefit others with every single activity, which is an unbelievable thought, your life is transformed, from kaka—you know, from poopoo—into gold. You change your attitude from self-cherishing into benefiting others.

Then, when you go to bed, when you go to sleep, think, “May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.” The text mentions, “May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya of the Buddha.” It says when you go to sleep you should think that. With that dedication, with that thought, you then fall asleep.

Then, when you get up, think, “May all sentient beings get up from the great oceans of samsaric suffering.” You can also think that each time you get up from the meditation cushion, “I’m going liberate sentient beings, I’m going to enlighten sentient beings.” Each time you get up, thinking like that is very good. “I’m going to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering.”

Each time you sit down, think, “I am going to bring sentient beings to enlightenment.” You can think that.

I’m sorry, I said Konchog tseg kyi do, but I think I made a mistake. I think the sutra, The Clouds of the Rare Sublime Ones is Konchog trin.¹ 

Each time you open a door, such as when you enter a temple or your meditation room, think, “I am leading all sentient beings to the city of the sorrowless state, to nirvana.” That means the total cessation of all suffering and its cause, karma and delusions, including the seed of delusion. With the total cessation of that, when the mental continuum is separated from all that, that is the ultimate nature of that mind, the sorrowless state.

Then when you open the door to go out, think, “I am leading sentient beings out of the prison of samsara.” Here, the text says you are opening the door of the transcendental wisdom that is beyond the world. I think that means you are opening the door to the realizations, the transcendental wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. You are opening the door for generating this exalted path in the heart of sentient beings.

Then, when you close the door, think, “I am closing the door of the lower realms for sentient beings.” Or you can think you are closing the door of samsara, so sentient beings can be free from the whole of samsara.

While you think you are doing this, it also becomes a prayer and it may happen. For example, when you open the door of a temple or a meditation room or something and you think, “I am leading sentient beings to the city of sorrowless state, to nirvana, to liberation,” you should then think, “May it happen.” First, you think you are doing this, and then you make the prayer, “May this happen”—may all sentient beings be led to the city of liberation. For each one, you think you are doing this, and then you also make prayer at the end. like that.

When you wash yourself in the morning, think, “I am washing the stains of delusions of all sentient beings.” First, you think you are going to wash their stains and then, while you are washing, also try to think as much as you can that you are washing the stains of delusions of sentient beings.

It’s the same thing when you are cleaning your teeth or when you are washing your clothes or washing the pots, for example, when you are cooking or washing the pots, it’s the same. It’s like the meditation you do with the first of the six preparatory practices, cleaning. Before setting up the altar, there’s cleaning the place. It doesn’t depend on whether there’s dust or not; it is part of the practice. It’s cleaning the mind, so as part of practice, it doesn’t depend on whether there is dust. It doesn’t have to be dirty to do the practice of cleaning. There are the six preparatory practices before you do the actual meditation, to collect merit and to purify the defilements and to receive the blessings of the guru in your heart, and the first of the six preparatory practice is cleaning the place. I think you may have gone through that, when you do cleaning, right? You might have gone through that meditation.

Anyway, it’s the same, when you clean your teeth, when you wash the mouth and so forth, imagine you are cleaning all the defilements of all sentient beings. See the toothbrush as bodhicitta, conventional bodhicitta and ultimate bodhicitta, the wisdom realizing emptiness, the whole path to enlightenment of method and wisdom. And what is being cleaned are the defilements of all the sentient beings. And it’s the same when you wash a dress or when you wash pots. When you make water bowl offerings and you clean the bowls, think of those pots as the minds of sentient beings, and whatever dirt you are cleaning from the bowls as the defilements. Then, think of the water or the cloth, whatever, as the path of method and wisdom, the whole path to enlightenment. In that way, whatever you do, every action is dedicated for sentient beings.

Or if you are making a fire, think whatever is going to burn is burning the delusions of sentient beings with the transcendental wisdom realizing emptiness. This is the fire that burns the sentient beings’ delusions. Even if it’s not firewood, just a gas stove, you can meditate in a similar way.

When you light incense, think, “May all sentient beings have pure morality, eliminating all the bad stains of the negative thoughts.” All sentient beings eliminate all negativities and have the pure morality of tathagatas. You can also pray like that.

In the same way, when you switch on a light or light a candle, think this is the wisdom realizing emptiness or think it is the dharmakaya, ultimate wisdom, dispelling or eliminating all the darkness of ignorance of sentient beings. You can think it is the dharmakaya, eliminating the five delusions of sentient beings and generating the five wisdoms in the hearts of sentient beings. You can think like that.

Of course, there are other meditations you can do to make offerings, but this is according to the practice the Buddha explained in the sutra of the Clouds of the Rare Sublime Ones. There are some that the Buddha explained and some I elaborated from what the Buddha explained. This is a way to practice mindfulness in whatever activity you do, dedicating every activity for sentient beings, thinking of sentient beings.

When you are walking on the road or driving a car, think, “I am leading all sentient beings to the pure land where they wish to be born,” either to there or to enlightenment. Remember to think like this at the beginning of the journey and while you are travelling, either walking or going by car. Remember it again and again. Always keep in mind the thought of benefiting others.

As Milarepa said,

Wherever I am going, it becomes a circumambulation.
Whatever I’m eating, it becomes a tsog offering.

Milarepa is saying that everything he does is the Dharma and the cause of enlightenment, and it is the cause of the happiness of all sentient beings. That’s what this verse is saying. While he is walking, by seeing it as a circumambulation, it becomes the means of collecting inconceivable merit and doing incredible purification. Each step becomes Dharma and is an unbelievable way of purifying negative karma and collecting merit. So, while you are walking or driving a car, think that you are circumambulating all the holy objects in the world, imagining them on your right side. This is Milarepa’s instruction. Then, walking or driving always becomes Dharma. You are circumambulating for sentient beings, leading the sentient beings in circumambulate. Think like that.

Wherever you are, think that this is a pure land. If you want to be born in Amitabha pure land, think this is Amitabha pure land. If you want to be born in Vajrayogini pure land, think this is Vajrayogini pure land. Wherever you are, think like this again and again. And when you are travelling or walking, always think that you are going to that pure land. That trains the mind and you are making preparations for the day when death comes. Then, you can very easily die without any fear, but with great joy, with great happiness, and go to a pure land.

And in the case of Vajrayogini pure land and Heruka’s pure land, you definitely become enlightened there, so that is a quick way to become enlightened. In the case of Amitabha Buddha pure land, you never get reborn in the lower realms. Although many lamas say you don’t become enlightened there, according to my root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, you can practice tantra there. There are different views from different lamas.

The main point here is to practice some mindfulness with every action with the thought of benefiting others. It would be good that on one day you practice the mindfulness of renunciation, especially of impermanence and death. And then, the next day, bodhicitta, and then one day on the mindfulness of emptiness, so you cover the three principal aspects of the path. You should not only practice mindfulness in the meditation session but also at break times. So, even though there are not many days left, you can somehow to get the idea. Then, later when you do a retreat or even in daily life, you will know how to practice, in the break time and when you are sitting. That is not break time from the Dharma. There is no break time from the Dharma! If you have break time from the Dharma, it is suffering. Without the Dharma, it is suffering. Therefore, there is no break time from the Dharma but break time from sitting meditation.

Even in normal life, without doing a retreat, you can still apply the same methods, one day practicing mindfulness of renunciation, particularly of impermanence and death and things like that, or how samsara is in the nature of suffering. Whatever you see or hear, relate all this to the shortcomings of samsara—all the problems you see on TV or in the newspaper, as well as those you yourself experience. Then on another day, practice the mindfulness of bodhicitta, and then of right view. That is very good.

Sometimes, you can even have a realization in the break time! So many meditators have experiences like that. When you always keep the mind in the Dharma, nothing you do becomes the cause of samsara; it always becomes the antidote to samsara, the cause of liberation, the cause of enlightenment. That means you never waste your life. It becomes highly meaningful.

I think that’s it. I’ll stop. My blah blah has finished.

DEDICATIONS

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

“Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may bodhicitta be actualized within me, within my family members and in the hearts of all the sentient beings without delay even a second. And those in whose hearts bodhicitta is generated, may it be increased.”

Here, we are praying for bodhicitta to be generated by all those in the oceans. When you look from an airplane at the ocean, you see the ocean is vast, but you have remember that in that vast ocean, there is the most unbelievable suffering. There are all these billions of tiny fish. What do you call them? There are billions and billions of them, going around and going round like that. What is their name? [Various suggestions from the group] So many going around. Huh? Anyway, there are so many going around so fast in the huge ocean, it is unbelievable. But then a shark comes and everything gets eaten! I mean, from the airplane it looks kind of very calm, very peaceful, but when you look under the surface, there is such suffering. Sharks eat the small fish. Fish eat each other. One eats another; another eats another, and so on. It’s all like this. That one eats that one; that one eats another one, and so it goes to the tiniest insect. Everything is eaten by some other being. All these beings there in the ocean live in great fear, not only always looking for food but always trying to escape.

We don’t have that fear. It’s unbelievable. You can’t imagine it. We are like in a pure land, we are like in heaven or a pure land. Our life is amazing. What a great life we have. We are unbelievably fortunate not being in constant fear, not having to always try to escape from the enemy wanting to kill us, thinking we can be eaten any time. We don’t have that problem of being eaten at any time. We don’t eat each other! Well, a few might if there is no other food! Anyway, I’m joking.

Anyway, life in the ocean is unbelievable. Penguins, who look like monks wearing coats, are eaten by seals. And then seals get eaten by these things. [Students: Killer whales.] Yeah, seals get eaten by whales. What eats whales? [General noise from students]

Before I came here, I saw on TV that a young American singer from Hollywood went to Japan to protest. She was crying so much. There were baby seals being killed or something. She was crying as she came out of the water, and everybody was demonstrating. Demonstrating, no, protesting.

Anyway, when you look from an airplane at the vast ocean, it looks very peaceful, but with all those numberless beings, big and small, everybody eats everybody else and there is constant fear. It is just unimaginable. So now, when we pray to generate bodhicitta, that includes everybody. We are praying to generate bodhicitta for everyone, including all those fish in the ocean—the really tiny ones we can only see through a microscope and the very large ones, even the largest ones. We are praying to generate bodhicitta in everyone’s heart, the numberless shell animals on the beach, on the rocks, on pieces of stone. There are so many shells piled up like sand. There are so many in just one place. So, we are praying to generate bodhicitta in every single one of those being’s hearts, in every single fly, like the tiny flies on cow dung. There are thousands and thousands like this. When we pray to generate bodhicitta, we are praying to generate bodhicitta in everyone’s heart. You have to remember that.

When we go on the road and see birds, dogs, cats, insects, when we pray, when we do a sadhana for sentient beings, a meditation, that includes everybody. All these beings we see on the road, we are doing our practice for them. When we do a sadhana, in Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism the practice always begins with bodhicitta, to benefit all sentient beings without discrimination. So, when we pray like this, it includes all those beings. There are so many animals who are there to be killed tomorrow, so many animals who are being killed today, who are being killed right now. There are so many human beings who are dying in hospital now or dying at home.

This prayer includes everybody, including our enemy, somebody we hate, somebody who hates us—everybody. All those worms in the ground. When we dig the earth, there are so many worms; when we plant flowers or do things in the garden, this prayer includes everybody, including all those worms, even germs. There are worms in our body, you know, tiny creatures, sentient beings in our body. This prayer includes everybody. We pray to generate bodhicitta in everyone’s heart, and to achieve enlightenment.

With this prayer, jang chhub sem chhog rin po chhe, if we think of all sentient beings, that is an unbelievable prayer, so we should not just make the prayer blah, blah, blah. We should think in the heart about all sentient beings and then meditate on the meaning of the prayer by thinking of all sentient beings, not just chanting the prayer. It is incredible, unbelievable! It covers everybody, every suffering being, every nationality, every human being, not only in this world but every human being in all the other numberless universes. We are praying for everybody. This is a really amazing thing to do in life. Even if what we are doing is just praying, that is an amazing thing. It is said in the sutra teachings, whatever prayer we do, the result will happen. There are two more verses, but I don’t remember. Things can happen as we pray for them. We generate a wish more and more, and it creates the power for it to happen.

The next prayer: “May bodhicitta be actualized in the hearts of all the leaders of the world.” That’s so important. “May bodhicitta be actualized and in the hearts of all the leaders who give so many problems to millions of people in their country, and especially may bodhicitta be actualized in the hearts of the leaders of mainland China without delay.” That’s an extremely important prayer. And then all the other leaders who give so much harm to their own people, torturing them, like in Burma and many places.

Then the next one: “May bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all those people who have thoughts to harm the world” That is so important. It is urgent that they generate compassion in their hearts; it’s an emergency. We must pray very strongly for this to happen from the bottom of our heart.

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

Then, the prayer to fulfill His Holiness’s holy wishes.

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

“Due to the three-time merits collected by me and collected by others, may all the father-mother sentient beings have happiness. May the three lower realms be empty forever. May all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately. May I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may any sentient being who merely sees me, touches me, remembers me, thinks of me, talks about me, hears about me, dreams of me or even sees photos of me, just by that, may it purify all their negative karma, may they never ever be reborn in the lower realms and may it heal all the suffering of body and mind immediately, including sicknesses, spirit harms, everything. May they receive everything they want. May [their life] become wish-fulfilling. Just by seeing me, touching me, remembering me, thinking of me, praising me, even criticizing, beating me or making fun of me, even just dreaming of me, seeing photos of me or whatever, just by that, may it become wish-fulfilling for them, fulfilling all their wishes for happiness according to the holy Dharma. May they realize emptiness, actualize bodhicitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

Please dedicate all the merits collected by you and by others to actualizing bodhicitta in the hearts of everybody in this world.

“May everybody live their life only benefiting each other, without harm. Whatever they do, may it only become the cause to achieve enlightenment. May this world be filled with perfect peace and happiness. May all the projects in this organization succeed, offering service to others, offering food or money and so forth, offering service to the Sangha who preserve the Dharma, who spread the Dharma and build holy objects in different parts of the world, which is the quickest way to purify sentient beings, to collect extensive merits for them and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. Especially, may all the Maitreya statues and all those various social services in different parts of the world be accomplished immediately, by receiving all the funding and whatever they need.

“May all the projects as well as all the centers be most beneficial to all sentient beings. May they become wish-fulfilling for all sentient beings, not only for the happiness of this life and the happiness of future lives, but also for liberation and enlightenment. May they become the cause to generate faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the cause to generate bodhicitta in all their hearts, and particularly to spread Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching, the unification of sutra and tantra, in the hearts of all sentient beings, bringing them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. Whatever projects the centers have, may they be accomplished immediately, including the monastery and nunnery here—whatever projects there are.”

Now, my hobby dedication.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, which exist but which are a mere imputation of the mind, may the I, who exists but who exists as a mere imputation of the mind, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which exists in mere imputation, imputed by the mind, lead all the sentient beings, who exist but exist in mere name, merely imputed by mind, to that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, by myself alone, who exists but who exists in mere name, merely imputed by the mind.

“I dedicate all the merits to be able to follow the holy extensive deeds of the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjugosha as they realized them. I dedicate all the merits in the same way as the three-time buddhas dedicated their merits.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching be actualized in the hearts of all the students and all the benefactors, all those who support the organization and all the projects, and in the hearts of all those people who sacrifice their life for the organization in so many different parts of the world, doing service for sentient beings, for the teaching of the Buddha.

“May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings be completely actualized in this very lifetime in the hearts of all those people who rely upon me, whom I promised to pray for, whose names have been given to me, and in the hearts of everybody in this world. In that way, may Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings flourish forever and spread in all directions.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant in Tibetan]

So, good night!

---

Notes

¹ Rinpoche may be referring to the Heap of Jewels (Skt: Ratnakuta; Wyl: dkon mchog brtsegs pa) and The Jewel Cloud (Skt: Āryaratnameghanāmamahāyānasūtra; Wyl: ’phags pa dkon mchog sprin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo). Go to 84000.co to find these sutras. [Return to text]