WITH AN OBSCURED MIND WE CANNOT REMEMBER PREVIOUS LIVES

[Rinpoche and students chant prayers in Tibetan]

[Rinpoche is having a conversation with somebody] … I believed Karen was there, but suddenly I looked and she was not there. She’d disappeared into something else. Maybe she had manifested somewhere else!

The heart of the Buddha’s advice is this.

Do not commit any unwholesome actions.
Engage in perfect, wholesome actions.
Subdue your mind thoroughly.
This is the teaching of the Buddha.

Although this is just four lines, one stanza, this is a very extensive subject.

[Noise of a plane going overhead.] Now, it’s time to practice patience! That plane is giving us an opportunity. Before the [one-month] courses started, many, many years ago, Kopan was very primitive. Now the course is an eight-star course! Or a nine-star or ten-star course. Before, maybe it was a two- or three-star or something like that. Where you go down, now it doesn’t look like there is much space there, but before I think there was quite a bit of space. The roof was tin sheets, this side of the hill was covered with some very cheap Nepalese cloth sheeting, and bamboo poles were put around. Then, the young monks did the painting, making mountains or people, putting lots of patches on the bamboo.

Maybe about ten courses were done under that sheet. The main door was this side, with another door over there, so that people came in this side, the other people—those who wanted to leave the session, either because they get bored or tired, went out there! So, before the course was done, was there space behind the monastery? [Ani Karen responds]

It was just there but I couldn’t remember it very well! My mind is like that, very obscured. It was just there, but I could not remember. Can you imagine? That shows the defiled obscurations.

Those of us who can’t remember past and future lives, it is like that. It is just there, but I can’t remember. It’s similar to people who do not remember their childhood, how they came out of their mother’s womb. They have no idea. They can’t prove this is their mother because they don’t remember coming from her. It’s just what people have said. They also can’t remember being in their mother’s womb for nine months, and they don’t remember the life before this one, where the consciousness came from. That shows how the mind is defiled, obscured.

When the mind is too obscured, we can’t remember many things that we have done even today, even in the morning. When the mind is very clear, it is different. As the mind becomes clearer, we remember many things. When the pollution or obscurations are more cleared away, we are able to remember many things of this life, of our childhood, even the time when we came from our mother’s womb.

This has happened among students I have met who can remember. Not Tibetan but others, including a student from Saudi Arabia. She remembers coming from her mother’s womb. In the early times, when we began the courses, this subject was very new. Maybe talking about hell was not new. The name was probably not new, hearing about hell, because Christianity talks about hell, so that title was not new, but karma, reincarnation, all these things, were not taught in Western culture or colleges. They were not the main subjects in Western culture. Now, so many years later, we hear people often using the term “karma,” sometimes even people interviewing on TV.

In the early times, in those early courses, we explained about the nature of the mind, things like that. We did not go into details about the different types of mind and the mental factors and so forth, not in that way, but just in general, just a general introduction. We did meditations on that and discussed the mind, doing a three-day brainstorm, like the hailstorm—a brainstorm on the mind, discussing the mind and reincarnation. There was a lot of noise talking about the mind! Then, with more and more understanding, it gradually got more relaxed or more settled!

In those times, we did a very simple meditation like this, meditating that today’s mind or consciousness is the continuation of yesterday’s consciousness and yesterday’s is the continuation of the previous day’s mind. Like that, then from the past year’s, going back to childhood, down to the consciousness as a baby, and then going back to the mother’s womb, trying to trace the memory back to the mother’s womb and the time of conception.

One person who had a clear mind, a mind less obscured, less polluted, could remember that time. Because their mind was very concentrated, remembering the time of conception, they then tried to go back further, tracing before the mind took place on the fertilized egg. At that time, they could remember that they were in Tibet. They could even remember the room and the wooden tea container, the thing you put butter and salt in to churn. They even remembered that and some other things in the room. I’ve met that person but there may be others. I didn’t meet everybody during that course, so I think there may be other people with clear minds who could remember.

Therefore, because we don’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Because our mind doesn’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at all for others in the world. That is illogical. We can’t use our own limited logic, thinking something exists only if we know it exists, but if we don’t know then it doesn’t exist. We can’t define whether something exists or not using this criterion. Subjects like reincarnation, all the new subjects you haven’t come across before coming to this course, you are now discovering, those things which are not taught in Western culture, in education. There are so many things to learn.

By being here, doing the Kopan course, we see our life in depth. Our mind is not limited; the capacity of our mind is not limited. We discover that the potential of our mind is unbelievable, what it can do is unbelievable. Discovering this, we discover our life is not hopeless. Our life is not hopeless. Our life is not just what we have known until now, not just that.

There is so much to learn about our own mind. There is so much to understand. Because of our mind’s potential, the happiness we can achieve is unbelievable. Our mind has the potential to achieve every happiness, not only in this life but every happiness from life to life, up to enlightenment.

As I mentioned before, many people who have a clear mind can remember their own [previous lives] and those of others. I had a picture of a small Indian girl from Punjab. Feeling it was important to have that picture, I kept it for a few years but now I’ve lost it. This happened quite a number of years ago. The girl, a little daughter [of a Punjabi family], who was maybe eight years old, could remember the town of her past life and her previous parents. She alone led this life’s parents to the next town, guiding them to the road where her past life’s parents lived, where she met them. The picture I had was of her with her present life’s parents and her past life’s parents. Of course, her past life’s parents were much older and this life’s parents were younger (and maybe a little bit fat)! I don’t know how I got the picture, but it was a wonderful picture. Somebody had given her some toys, and she was standing, holding a toy. I had this picture for a few years, but now I don’t know where it has gone, maybe in the garbage, I am not sure. I think that story became quite famous. His Holiness Dalai Lama sent somebody to that place with a gift, to meet the daughter. This happens to those with a clear mind.

RINPOCHE’S MOTHER AND FAMILY

In the case of my mother, who I mentioned quite a few times during the teachings, my mother’s incarnation can remember many things. It’s amazing. I think maybe she was late eighties or ninety, something like that. She was ordained with quite a number of Western Sangha, nuns and monks from His Holiness Ling Rinpoche, His Holiness Dalai Lama’s tutor. His Holiness Ling Rinpoche also passed away, now the reincarnation is in South India, but in his past life, he taught His Holiness in Tibet.

So, my mother became a nun. I don’t know at what age, but she was already old when she became a nun in Bodhgaya, where Guru Shakyamuni Buddha achieved enlightenment and where one thousand buddhas of this fortunate eon descend and show the same holy deeds, achieving enlightenment. From the one thousand buddhas, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is the fourth one. There have already been three, and the rest of the thousand buddhas will descend there, showing the holy deeds and achieving enlightenment. Bodhgaya is the center, the most important holy place. It is the blessed place. Because going there to practice and get a blessing from the place blesses the mind, practicing there is very powerful. His Holiness said that whatever practice we do there multiplies eight times.

She was ordained there with many Western monks and nuns. She was extremely devoted and very compassionate. Even when we went by car, if she saw Nepalese people on the road, walking without shoes, she would feel unbearable pity for them because they didn’t have shoes, even though she was from Solu Khumbu, near Mount Everest, where I was born. Now, in the last few years, it has changed, becoming modern, but it is still an extremely primitive area. Even though she was from there and from a very poor family.

I was born in a very poor family, poor even in comparison to others in the village. Even so, she had so much compassion—compassion for the people around who took care of her, so much compassion for the people both near and far away, in other countries. I think that’s not easy to have compassion for people around you. It is easy to have compassion for someone in Africa or very far away! But around you, in everyday life it is difficult to have compassion.

I’m not going to talk too much. She passed away. Once, when she went to Tushita retreat place in Dharamsala, she went down every day to circumambulate His Holiness Dalai Lama’s palace or house. There is a whole hill where His Holiness’ office is, which people circumambulate, going right around the residence, the temple and the mountain. My mother was there for months and she used to go every day. For breakfast she would pack a pancake in her pocket and go down to where there were many beggars in the road. Then, she would give her morning breakfast to them. She had a very compassionate nature.

I talk words of compassion but have hardly any compassion in my heart, but my mother had compassion in her heart. Her heart was compassion; she was living compassion.

When we went on pilgrimage, many families stopped on the road to make their own food. My mother made food and gave it to the other people, so in the end my family didn’t have food! We didn’t have food because she gave it to other people! Then, in the house, I didn’t see my father because he died while I was in my mother’s womb or maybe when I was small, while I was still in the very small bamboo basket where the baby is kept. I have no recollection of what my father looked like. It’s only when people described him, how he had a beard, how he was very tolerant. That didn’t mean he didn’t get angry but that he didn’t get upset immediately. After my father died, since the family owed a lot of money to many other people, I remember when I was three or four, people used to come to get money from my mother. So, it was only her and my sister, who is still at Lawudo, the cave. She was the only one who could help a little bit, taking the animals out (they lived downstairs) in the early morning after the sun rose, putting them on the mountain, and bringing them back. That is what she could do. My mother did all the rest, the cooking, everything. Many children happened after my sister, but they all died. One child was born with a pinnacle like the Buddha but didn’t last. And between her and me there were also other children. Many children died, even before my sister, who is still alive, a nun, living at the hermitage in Solu Khumbu, near to Mount Everest.

When my sister was born they gave her the nickname, Ngawang Samten, which means “blacksmith.” A blacksmith is regarded as kind of low or something, so giving her that nickname was one method to help her survive. She survived and became a nun. Because she was the elder, my mother wanted her to stay at home and hold the family, but from her side she desired to be a nun, [taking ordination] from this great lama, Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, who is also my guru, one of the great Tibetan lamas who had all the qualities to guide sentient beings. Chogye Trichen Rinpoche is now living in Kathmandu. My sister took ordination from him and became a nun.

After me, I think there was one daughter born when I was four or five years old, but she died. She had a small tail. I think she died after I had moved to an even more primitive place called Rolwaling, the hidden place of Padmasambhava. I lived there for seven years to learn reading and to memorize texts with my uncle who was a fully ordained monk at that time. After me, there was also a brother who lives in Kathmandu, between Boudha and Kathmandu. 

When I was there, one of my sisters could take the animals onto the mountain and bring them back, otherwise everything was done by my mother. We completely relied on our mother for food, for everything. Every day she had to go into the forest to get firewood. It was not easy; there was no car or motorcycle to carry things, and it was very steep. She had to go very far into the forest to get the firewood, mostly going up or down.

I remember one night, my mother didn’t come back early. We were all very small. Nobody could make food or make a fire, so there was no fire in the nighttime. We all sat at the door, lined up like birds on a wire, waiting for our mother. The moon came up and we still sat there, chatting and waiting for our mother for food. Many hours later she came alone with a huge load of firewood, and then made the fire. I remember that night.

I also remember once she was sick. She was in so much pain, she was calling out, making a noise, calling her mother, “Ama, Ama!” like that. There was a kind of fixed place we all sat at by the stove—I would normally sit here, my brother there, and my sister and mother on the other side. This time, she must have had so much pain we couldn’t do anything, she was lying down there. There was no food, no fire. I went to her to look, but she was just crying out for her mother, my grandmother, “Ama, Ama!” I watched her but there was nothing I could do. Some of the things still stay in the mind with some impact.

Later, my younger brother became a porter for Western people who came to trek, going to the mountains, carrying luggage. For that, he got money which he gave to the family to buy food or whatever. But my mother gave it away! He obtained the things by carrying heavy loads as a porter, but as soon as he brought them home, my mother gave them away. So, then he said that there was no benefit in bringing anything home! I’m just giving you a rough idea how she was, before talking about the incarnation.

Anyway, she passed away and I built a stupa on the road, situated where you first see the hermitage, the cave, down below road. It helps everybody who goes to Tibet or comes back from Tibet, as well as the people in the different villages who have to pass by. It also benefits all the animals, the yaks and cows. They are all benefited, purifying negative karma and collecting extensive merit for a better life and, especially when they die, ensuring all their future lives are better and better, directing their lives toward enlightenment.

Right after the stupa was completed and consecrated, just as I arrived in Hong Kong, I heard the news that there was the reincarnation of my mother. The great lama, Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche did a divination, from his realization, that showed this was definitely my mother’s incarnation. But before that, another monk who does very accurate divinations divined this many times.

The incarnation’s family lived at another hermitage called Genukpa, which is, I don’t know, maybe fifteen minutes’ walk or something from Lawudo, from our hermitage. When there are a lot of people at Lawudo, we have to get spring water from that hermitage. My sister went to see the incarnation, who was so happy to meet her, and she offered a traditional Tibetan offering scarf. He put the scarf on for seven days and never took it off, day and night! He could recognize all the family members, but with other new people he felt kind of shy or something. Any family member he recognized, he would tell them to sit here, like that. When he came to Lawudo, he behaved exactly as my mother did. He made three prostrations when my brother was there. My brother didn’t get to go early to see him; he went much later. So the reincarnation was waiting for my brother, who was with my mother’s best friend, called Ang Puwa. (Many Sherpas’ first name starts with Ang.)

My brother invited the incarnation to the Lawudo monastery and made some celebration. The incarnation came, did three prostrations, then he paid homage to His Holiness’ throne, which was carved when I was there many years ago, by a Tibetan expert carpenter who built many monasteries. He bowed down to that. Then there was my throne, a very low, small one, and he bowed down to that, then to the altar. He circumambulated the temple seven times. This is what my mother used to do in the past. He behaved in exactly the same way.

When people gave him a scarf as part of the celebration, he gave it back, except for two people, one of whom was his own father. Because in the past, there was some difficulty, I don’t know what, maybe to do with the water, because we had to get water from there in the past. So, there was something there. This shows his connection with the past, how something happened in the past that left an imprint. Nobody explained it to the child but somehow he reacted to the person he had some difficulties with in the past.

During my mother’s time, she collected plastic buttons. She used to take all the buttons from old shirts and save them in a bottle, because in the past, not now, those plastic buttons were very precious, and you couldn’t get them in the country. People also tied spoons together to wear on a string like jewelry. That is a special Solu Khumbu spoon! Spoons, like plastic buttons, were also very precious because nobody made spoons in the country. So, my mother had saved buttons in a bottle and when the incarnation found my sister had made a shirt using those buttons, he immediately said, “These are my buttons.” He could remember.

The Sherpa, Ang Puwa, who was a very close friend of my mother, went to Genukpa to meet the incarnation. As soon as he arrived and sat down, when the incarnation’s mother offered wine or tea, the incarnation immediately mentioned Ang Puwa’s name and said, “Please drink.” The Sherpa was completely astonished, grabbing the incarnation by his leg and crying and crying because the incarnation could recognize him and remember his name. So, there were many things like this.

Many of her things that she used in her life, the incarnate looked for in the kitchen, looking behind things until he found them. There are many memories like that. It is very clear; there is no argument whether this is my mother’s incarnation or not. He himself completely proved it from his own side, from his memory.

One reason this incarnation had such clear memory was because my mother used to recite Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM, all day long. When she came here, Lama Yeshe was here. I think it was probably the year that he went to America for the operation and then passed away. When my mother was here, she used to go onto the roof and chant OM MANI PADME HUM. This is what she did all the time when she was alone; she spent her life chanting OM MANI PADME HUM to develop compassion for all living beings and to bring all the obscured suffering numberless sentient beings to enlightenment. She said, “I used to recite OM MANI PADME HUM 50,000 times every day.” But that year she said she couldn’t do as many. I think maybe she had some health problems at that time.

There was the Kalachakra initiation in Varanasi that I think we sponsored. She was there then, and she passed away during that time. In the morning she went to see His Holiness outside and received a blessing, and then maybe in the nighttime she passed away. She was cremated by the River Ganga at that place.

The main point is that she chanted OM MANI PADME HUM 50,000 times every day, but that year she said she couldn’t do as much as before. That is why she had such a clear memory and why the incarnation had such clear memory. Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM has skies of benefit, like the atoms of the earth. Having a clear memory is one tiny benefit from the oceans of benefits that reciting Compassionate Buddha mantra has.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RECITING OM MANI PADME HUM

Since I brought up this topic, OM MANI PADME HUM, after waiting some time I would like to mention this here.

Anybody who wants happiness, who doesn’t want suffering, must recite OM MANI PADME HUM, must do the Compassionate Buddha meditation and recitation. Anybody who wants happiness, who doesn’t want suffering. I’m talking here for us ourselves, but on top of that, if we want to help others, if we want to benefit others, if we want to bring happiness and peace to others in the world, there is no question, we must chant OM MANI PADME HUM.

I wanted to make a comment, to request or persuade you to do this. It has skies of benefit like atoms of this earth. But the most important purpose of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM is to develop compassion, not only for poor people but also for rich people, for anybody who is suffering, for anybody whose mind is obscured and suffering, unenlightened. To develop compassion for every single human being in this world, for every human being in all the other universes, and there are numberless universes. This is not only according to Buddhist philosophy, even scientists explain numberless universes. And there are human beings in other universes. To develop compassion for every single human being. Not only wishing them to have happiness and to be free from suffering but to take the responsibility on ourselves. This is not wishing happiness but doing nothing, not that, but taking responsibility on ourselves to free them from all the suffering and its causes and to bring them to not only temporary happiness but especially ultimate happiness, peerless happiness, liberation and full enlightenment.

And it is to generate compassion for every being: to generate compassion for the numberless hell beings and free them from all the suffering and its causes, to free them from all the suffering of samsara and bring them to ultimate happiness, especially full enlightenment. That is the purpose of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM.

Similarly, there are numberless hungry ghosts who have unbelievable suffering, the major suffering being hunger and thirst. The worst thirst that we feel is nothing; theirs is a billion times worse. How we feel thirst, if it was expanded a billion times, a million billion times, that’s how much they suffer. There are numberless of them, so we recite OM MANI PADME HUM to liberate them from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to not only temporal happiness and higher rebirth, but to liberation and full enlightenment.

And same with the numberless animals, who have unimaginable suffering, suffering from being extremely foolish or being eaten by another one, being tortured and so forth. Even for animals living with human beings, there is so much suffering, no question if they live in the forest or in the water. We recite OM MANI PADME HUM to liberate them from those oceans of animal realm suffering, the general suffering of samsara and to bring them to liberation and enlightenment.

Then it’s the same with the devas, the suras and asuras, those other sentient beings, they have so much suffering. As you are going through the suffering of samsara: the suffering of pain, the suffering of change—which is samsaric pleasure that is in the nature of suffering—and pervasive compounding suffering, even the sense pleasure they have is only suffering. So, we recite OM MANI PADME HUM to liberate them from all the suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment.

What I was trying to say is that if we are concerned, even wishing happiness for ourselves, wishing ourselves to be free from suffering, we must chant OM MANI PADME HUM, but especially if we want to benefit others, we must chant it to develop compassion. If we develop compassion, if we live our life with compassion for others, that itself is unbelievable purification. We purify many eons of negative karma when we generate strong compassion for somebody, for an insect or a human being. We purify so many eons of negative karma, of defilements, even if it is not strong compassion. There are many stories about this. Each time we generate compassion for somebody, we become closer to full enlightenment. And because we collect so much merit, it purifies the mind and helps us develop wisdom, by the way. It becomes so easy to develop the wisdom realizing emptiness, the ultimate wisdom, to have the direct perception of emptiness.

With compassion, with bodhicitta, the altruistic mind [wishing] to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, with letting go of the I and only seeking happiness for others, we collect limitless skies of merit every second, whatever activity we do with the body, speech and mind. With bodhicitta we collect limitless skies of merit all the time. Without bodhicitta, with only wisdom, even the wisdom directly seeing emptiness, we cannot cease the subtle defilements. We can cease the disturbing-thought obscurations, but we cannot cease the subtle defilements, therefore we cannot complete the qualities of cessation and cannot complete the qualities of realization, the works for others and for ourselves. Therefore, we need the help of bodhicitta. With it we collect unbelievable merit, skies of merit every second. With bodhicitta, whatever activities we do, we collect so much merit, and with the wisdom realizing emptiness with the support of bodhicitta, we are able to cease the subtle defilements. That is why arhats, even though they have removed delusions and the seed of delusion, the cause of delusion, even though they have completely removed that, without actualizing bodhicitta they cannot enter the Mahayana path and achieve enlightenment.

That’s why it is so important to practice the meditation of the Compassion Buddha and recite OM MANI PADME HUM. Normally, I say because they want happiness even the crocodiles, the dogs, the pigs and even the mosquitoes should recite OM MANI PADME HUM. But they can’t, because they don’t have a human body; they are unable to learn how to, but they should, even mosquitoes and cockroaches.

The other thing is that Medicine Buddha, by purifying, is unbelievably powerful for success, fulfilling all our wishes to actualize the path or any activities to help others. So, for these two reasons, it is very, very important to do this practice in daily life. I wanted to pass on that message.

[Rinpoche and students chant the tea offering]

[Nepali music is playing outside. Rinpoche has a conversation about the Nepali wedding season, how the bride and groom are carried in palanquins.]

The purpose I brought up this issue is that, after [you have been carried for] your marriage, the next time you will be carried is when your body is carried to the cemetery! That is the nature of life. At our wedding we are carried, and then the next time is when we die and our body is carried to the cemetery, near the river whenever that happens. And death can happen at any time, so that will be the second time we are carried. Maybe sometimes when a villager is sick they might be carried, but usually it is marriage and then death. However, [for the bride and groom] it might be difficult for them to remember that their next carriage is to take their body to the cemetery! I am not sure, but at that time, I don’t think they have music, unless you are an official or leader or something. I don’t think there is music at that time for common people.

PRAYER TO COMPASSION BUDDHA

There is a prayer to Compassion Buddha composed by the root guru of Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, whose monastery is just behind Mount Everest in Tibet. When he was fifteen or sixteen years old, he wrote this prayer to Compassion Buddha.

[Rinpoche recites a verse in Tibetan]

I don’t remember the verses, but the essence is that, first it talks about the lower realms, the animals and so forth, how they have to experience the most unbearable sufferings without choice, no matter how unbearable it is. Once the karma has ripened, once rebirth has happened in that realm, no matter how unbearable it is, they have to experience it.

[Rinpoche recites a verse in Tibetan]

The next verse relates to human beings. I don’t remember every single word, but it is very moving. Relating to human beings, it says how life goes, how it is just suffering, just hardships, how life is spent just suffering. The work never finishes, whether it is doing business or doing farm work, whatever different lifestyle it is, the work never finishes. We are busy, and then, while we are going through this, suddenly death comes. I don’t remember the whole verse. One after another, we do the samsara activities, specifically working for this life—not samsaric activities for our future lives’ happiness, which is still Dharma, but work for this life’s happiness, which is only for a few years at the longest, or a few months, or a few weeks, or a few days; we are just not sure. We do this never-finishing work, one thing after another.

Then, while we are so busy doing that, suddenly death comes, life is gone, and there is no time to practice Dharma. There is no time to purify the negative karmas causing us to reincarnate in the lower realms and suffer. There is no time to create the cause of a good rebirth in the next life. Besides that, there is no time to practice Dharma to be free from samsara, and no time to practice Dharma to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, nothing. While we so busy like this, while the mind is totally occupied working for this life’s happiness, for our happiness alone, while we are so busy, suddenly death comes and the precious human life is finished.

Before mentioning that, I remember that before that the verse says that not only does life finish by suffering, by while we are alive, there are so many hardships, so many problems. Our mind is always full of worry and fear and our body must face so many hardships.

Even here in Nepal, for the farmers, the villagers, there is no peace. Their lives are so full of hardship; there is so much suffering. They are unable to create any virtue, any peace. And it’s the same in the West; the work for this life never finishes. People doing business are totally involved, working for this life’s happiness, with attachment, with worldly concern, which is only nonvirtue. Their motivation is only nonvirtue, which makes all the activities of body, speech and mind negative karma, twenty-four hours a day. Any action done with this motive, with worldly concern, with attachment clinging to this life, becomes negative karma. Whatever different style of life they have, working so hard, all the travelling they do, building things or whatever, they face a lot of hardships and mental worry and fear. Then, not only does their life finish with problems and hardships, with physical and mental suffering, but whatever activities they do become negative karma because they are done with a motivation that is nonvirtue, mostly with attachment but it can also be with anger.

As I mentioned the other time, with attachment clinging to this life’s happiness, for our own happiness of this life, not future lives, not to achieve liberation from samsara for ourselves, because the motivation is nonvirtuous, all the activities become negative karma. Nothing becomes virtue; nothing becomes the cause of happiness. When the attitude is only like that, our life finishes with so many problems, one after another. We are exhausted by mental and physical problems, with suffering. And not only that, we continuously create negative karma, which does not result in a higher rebirth but only in rebirth in the lower realms. Then, for an inconceivable time, for eons, depending on the karma, we can’t really tell when we will come back to the human realm. And having been born there, there is no opportunity to practice Dharma. If we are born as a cat, a dog, a pig or a chicken, even as an animal living with human beings, there is no opportunity to practice Dharma. With that body, we cannot learn Dharma so we cannot practice it, and we create only negative karma during that life and the next, one after another. In that way, we continuously wander in the lower realms, never sure when we can come back. And this is even just to create enough good karma to be a human being, let aside one with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, with the opportunity to practice Dharma.

The work of this life never finishes and then suddenly death comes, without the opportunity to practice Dharma, to use this most precious human body that has all the opportunities to meet the Dharma, to learn Dharma, where we can achieve every happiness: the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and enlightenment. And on top of that, to cause all the numberless other sentient beings every happiness up to enlightenment: the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, liberation from samsara and enlightenment, all these four levels of happiness. We have no opportunity to do that. Only with this human body do we have that opportunity, but we have missed out.

Then, [in the prayer] the lama makes the request to Compassion Buddha to please pay attention with his compassion. The Tibetan used is nying me,² which means “heartless.” We are heartless in that we go to the next life without having created any virtue in this life, without any realizations, without having practiced any Dharma. We haven’t even made preparations for the happiness of future lives, for a good rebirth, to make it better and better from life to life, to go to enlightenment.

I was translating the Three Principal Aspects of the Path with Jon Landaw, who is very good. He said there is a difference between wise and thoughtful, because in the translation, in the beginning Lama Tsongkhapa says,

The essential meaning of the Victorious Ones’ teachings,
The path praised by all the holy victorious ones and their sons,
The gateway of the fortunate ones desiring liberation–
This I shall try to explain as much as I can.

In the beginning he promises to explain as much as possible. He is being humble; he is not saying he knows everything and can do anything. It’s the opposite to this. Even though Lama Tsongkhapa knows everything, he is humble, which is a sign of being wise, learned. He is humble, without arrogance or pride.

I don’t exactly remember the point, but some translations say “wise” whereas Jon said there is a difference between being wise and thoughtful. He said thoughtful is more being thoughtful with your life, with what you are doing, your attitude, your actions. Wise does not necessarily mean thoughtful. You can be wise in some subjects but not necessarily thoughtful about your life, how it is happening and which direction it is going. Whether you are doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I think he is very good. I think I put both wise and thoughtful together, like putting a patch on top. I think it is the section on bodhicitta in the Three Principals of the Path where it says “…the wise generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.” I think that means wise and thoughtful, something like that.

So here, nying me, heartless, means we should be mindful, thoughtful, in what we do so we don’t waste our life. We must abandon the wrong things that harm us and harm others and engage in what is beneficial to us and to others.

Basically, if we live our life with attachment, with the worldly, nonvirtuous thought clinging to this life, whatever we do in our whole life becomes negative karma, only creating the cause of suffering. That is “heartless,” engaging in all the ten nonvirtuous actions, like having no heart. In daily life we say “mindless” to refer to somebody without compassion, who doesn’t have any sense of other people’s needs, who doesn’t care for others and does terrible things to them. It suggests somebody who doesn’t care, who is very selfish, without the tiniest feeling of compassion or concern for others, who is heartless.

LIVING IN THE DHARMA

On the other hand, when we live in the Dharma, by having a realization of impermanence and death and so forth, based on the perfect human rebirth that we have achieved, we can achieve the three great meanings in life. We are able to see how life is in the nature of impermanence, how death can happen at any time, and how the Dharma is the only thing that can help. Keeping awareness of this and having a realization of this, there is no question that we can free ourselves from the painful mind of attachment to worldly concern, of the clinging grasping to this life. With this worldly mind, we have all these worries and fears, and when our expectations do not happen, we become confused—there is all this stuff. But with our mind living every day in this meditation, we are free from this attachment.

As I mentioned the other night when I talked about the four desirable and four undesirable things, whatever happens doesn’t bother us; we have equalized them in our mind, so there is stability in our life. There is great peace in our heart, whether we are alone on a mountain or in a city with many people around, even in the middle of a war. Our mind is continuously in virtue, in the Dharma, and all our actions become Dharma. Whatever we do with our body, speech or mind—doing a job, meditating, eating—everything becomes the Dharma. Even the many hours we spend sleeping—eight or twenty-four—becomes the Dharma! We might do nothing but eat, sleep and go to the toilet—I guess you have to eat and go to the toilet—but in this way we do it mindfully, wisely.

Then of course, if we can do this in a higher way, even more mindfully, more wisely, we live our life with the renunciation of samsara. Then, whatever we do becomes the cause to achieve ultimate happiness, liberation, the cessation of all suffering and its causes. Whatever we do, not only meditation, whatever activities we do with this pure mind, detached from samsara, from samsaric perfections, from samsaric pleasure, everything becomes the cause of liberation from samsara. Even doing a job, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping—whatever we do. That is being an even more thoughtful being, an even wiser one, with more heart.

In the same way, if we can, we should live our life in the meditation on emptiness, looking at everything as empty, looking at that which appears as truly existent, as not merely labeled by mind, looking at those phenomena as empty. We meditate on the I, action and object, which exist by arising dependently, by being mindful of their nature, how they exist being merely labeled by mind, existing by depending on the base and the thought that labels. They exist in mere name, merely imputed by the mind, which is subtle dependent arising.

Or we can look at the things that appear false. Instead of looking back at them as true, we look back at them as false as they actually are. We meditate on that which is false as false and that which is empty as empty. Again here, this requires a very wise life, a very thoughtful one, with more heart.

We should especially live our life with the attitude of compassion and loving kindness for others, with the thought of cherishing others, with bodhicitta. Whether it is the actual realization of bodhicitta or created bodhicitta, effortful bodhicitta, when we motivate in that way with effort, that is the best life. Living our life with the thought of benefiting other sentient beings is the best life. Then, everything we do—not only meditating and saying prayers but even doing our job, walking, sitting, sleeping—everything becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. That means everything we do becomes the cause of happiness for all the numberless sentient beings. Besides meditation, with the bodhicitta motivation, whatever activities we do becomes the cause of happiness for the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings, the numberless sura beings and asura beings, the numberless intermediate beings—for all sentient beings. Eventually that will become the cause to bring them all to full enlightenment.

In our day-to-day life, when we live our life with that attitude, whatever we do only benefits others, even if we don’t have a realization of bodhicitta, of uncreated [effortless] bodhicitta that naturally cherishes others day and night, seeking happiness for others, without effort. With uncreated bodhicitta, that is how we feel every day, twenty-four hours a day, very stable.

This is like how a mother feels with her beloved child. The only thing for her to cherish is that child, day and night. The only thing she thinks of is that child; whatever she does is for that child, to free her child from problems and to have happiness. Whatever she does is constantly with that attitude, wishing only for the best thing, the best happiness, to happen for the child.

We are exactly like that here for the numberless sentient beings. That covers the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings. We have this attitude, this motivation, for all the obscured suffering sentient beings, cherishing them all and only working to free them from suffering and to cause them to have happiness. In our day-to-day life, we have this attitude every moment of our life. We never do actions that harm others; we only do what is of benefit to others.

DEVELOPING BODHICITTA

Then gradually, that leads to the actual realization of bodhicitta. We become a bodhisattva, where our intention is to bring everyone to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment, the cessation of all the mistakes of mind and the completion of all the qualities, the realizations. This is our motive; this is where our life is totally directed, this is our goal—to free the numberless sentient beings from all suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment. When our life is totally dedicated to this, we have an incredibly joyful mind. It is not a burden but an incredible joy.

No matter how much bodhisattvas suffer while working for sentient beings, because they cherish sentient beings so much, because they feel sentient beings are so kind, so precious, whatever hardships they have to go through is great joy. Even if they have to be born in the hell realm and suffer in hell for the benefit of other sentient beings, for them it is like a swan that feels hot and then enters a cool pond. For a bodhisattva it is like that.

Even if the bodhisattva knows they will get killed working for other sentient beings and have to experience the most unbearable suffering for eons, no matter how long they have to be born in the hells and suffer for the benefit of sentient beings, it is an incredible joy for them.

There was a bodhisattva, Metog Datse (Beautified with a Flower and Moon) who lived in the forest with many other disciples, meditators. He knew that if he went to the king’s palace and taught Dharma to the many sentient beings there, he could save them from the lower realms and liberate them, bringing them to liberation and enlightenment. He saw the benefit but he also saw that he would be killed if he went to the king’s palace to teach. But, because he could see the benefit, he went to the palace and gave the teaching. Without sleeping, he circumambulated the Buddha’s relics all night and in the daytime he gave them teachings. Then, after some time, the king killed him. For the bodhisattva, even though he was killed by the king, because he could benefit those sentient beings, because he was able to liberate them, that was an unbelievable joy.

Even if, to benefit sentient beings, a bodhisattva has to spend eons in hell realm equaling the number of the drops in the Pacific Ocean, they don’t get upset. For them it is an incredible joy. But to achieve liberation for themselves, to achieve the cessation of all the suffering and its causes, for the bodhisattva it is disgusting. In the teachings it is said it is like spitting your snot in the dust. Anyway, it’s like used toilet paper. For the bodhisattva, the incredible bliss that can come from achieving liberation for themselves is so disgusting; it is like used toilet paper, something we would never want to touch or put in our pocket! The attitude of a bodhisattva is like that.

I don’t remember the words, my memory is not good but in the sutra Do dé gyen [Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras] Maitreya Buddha mentioned that a bodhisattva with very strong compassion will never be discouraged even if it takes hundreds of eons to generate one positive thought in the heart of one sentient being. The bodhisattva won’t get discouraged but will tirelessly work for that. This is the example we should take as an inspiration for our practice, to benefit other sentient beings.

So, going back to what I was talking about before. Even though there is no actual realization of bodhicitta, just the motivation of created effortful bodhicitta, by thinking of the reasons, when we live our life like that, whoever puts all their effort in their daily life like this, this is the wisest person, the most thoughtful, the most heartful person. I don’t know if there is such a word in English, but a heartful person. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We are a heartful or mindful person. This is the best life, the best practice.

If we think in business terms, this is the way to make the most profit for ourselves and for the numberless other sentient beings. From this attitude, this bodhicitta, we can achieve all the happiness for ourselves up to enlightenment, and we can cause all the happiness up to enlightenment for all sentient beings.

There is no comparison. Bodhicitta is the most wish-fulfilling thing. It is incomparably more valuable than the whole sky filled with billions of dollars, with gold and diamonds, whatever we think of is precious in our life. Maybe for some people it is not necessary gold or diamonds but old bones or antiques. Maybe old bones are more precious than diamonds for some people! Or some necklace or something, some wings of birds or pearls. Anyway, the sky filled with all that is nothing in comparison.

Among all material possessions, the most precious thing is the wish-granting jewel. By praying to one, we get any material comfort or enjoyment we want, what the wheel-turning kings can get. Even if we could have the whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels, just by having that much wealth, that alone could not stop rebirth in the lower realms. The sky filled with billions of dollars or wish-granting jewels can’t do that, but with bodhicitta we can achieve all the happiness up to enlightenment, and we can cause all the happiness to numberless sentient beings. From our bodhicitta, from our good heart, comes the most precious treasure that is the source of everyone’s happiness.

Bodhicitta doesn’t come just by saying the word. [Rinpoche snaps his fingers] We have to develop it every day, little by little. Every day, we have to practice compassion, the good heart; we have to develop it little by little, becoming better and better each year. Then, we will see that, compared to some years back, our mind is better, less self-centered. Some years before, we were very selfish, our mind was a source of problems for us and others. But now, after some years, our mind is much easier, much softer, with a more compassionate nature, with more thought to benefit others. We have to do it this way.

Whenever we are able to practice compassion to a person, to an insect, to a fish, to a mosquito—even if not to all mosquitoes—each time we practice compassion, that is so precious. That gradually leads to compassion for all sentient beings and that leads to bodhicitta. And from there come all the realizations of the Mahayana path, the five Mahayana paths: the path of merit, the path of preparation, the right-seeing path, the path of meditation and the path of no more learning, then full enlightenment. Every day, whenever we can practice some compassion, that leaves a positive imprint on the mind. Then, as a result, we are able to practice more compassion. That will gradually lead to full enlightenment, with all the perfect qualities, with the cessation of all the mistakes of mind and all the realizations. Even some small compassion we practice for somebody, for some insect or person, is very, very important.

I didn’t want to destroy the program, but I think I’ve already destroyed it!

[General conversation]

What is the time? My watch says “OM MANI PADME HUM.” It’s seventeen minutes after PHAT! This watch was a present from Geshe Sopa Rinpoche, my teacher, a very outstanding teacher from Tibet, one of the most learned. He has been a professor for twenty years at Madison University. Many of the learned monks who are geshes, abbots and ex-abbots in the monasteries are Geshe Sopa Rinpoche’s disciples. Why many of our Kopan monks have a good education in the Dharma is because of those learned teachers who are disciples of Geshe Sopa Rinpoche. So, this was a present from him.

Who is leading Vajrasattva? You can do Vajrasattva now and then have dinner. Is that alright? Vajrasattva first? Whatever you think. So, do Vajrasattva first and then offer dinner to Vajrasattva!

[Mandala offering]

[Rinpoche chants dedication prayers.]

Thank you very much. Please enjoy the nectar of dinner.

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Notes

² This could be an abbreviated form of snying rje med pa (Wylie). [Return to text]