THE DHARMA IS SOMETHING WE HAVE NOT ENCOUNTERED BEFORE

Good evening to everyone. We are all here this time [for this course]. You all came from very far away, from many countries, at great expense, crossing over the land, crossing over the Pacific Ocean, coming from another planet—from Mars, from Venus, from all those stars!

I remembered saying this once to Tim McNeill, the head of Wisdom Publications, which publishes many different Dharma books, making Buddhism available in the world for people to learn, to awaken their minds, to develop their wisdom and compassion, and ultimately, to achieve cessation of all the suffering and the causes, and achieve full enlightenment. He has been working for Wisdom Publications for a long time. I had arrived in Boston, a very big city in the United States, and Tim was driving me in.

From this huge city, he had come all the way to Kopan Monastery in Nepal, this one particular person. There are millions of people, but this one specific person had come all the way from Boston, United States, to Nepal, a small country, to Kathmandu, to Kopan Monastery. He came all the way to do something new in his life, to have a new insight, a different way of thinking. He wanted a new way of thinking, not living life always with the old way of thinking but a new, healthy way of thinking, a better way of thinking, for a better life, for real happiness, for liberation and enlightenment.

I found it very interesting that this particular person had come here all the way from this big city where there are many millions of people, like he was picked up. A bird or somebody didn’t pick him up, an eagle or something. Or an airplane picking him up! Anyway, I’m joking. That person’s karma from a past life had ripened, to come to this place, to experience Nepal, to experience Kopan and to meet the Buddhadharma. His karma to meet the Buddhadharma had ripened and particularly the karma to come here, to Kopan Monastery, to learn meditation, to strive for liberation and enlightenment.

This is something that had never happened to any of us before from beginningless rebirths, something we had never experienced before. Because of that, we have experienced endless rebirths, being reborn again and again, dying again and again, getting old and being sick again and again, and having all those problems such as relationship problems, depression, unable to find desirable objects, and so on. Even after meeting a desirable object after years of effort, there is still no satisfaction. We can’t get peace and happiness. Our inner life is totally empty, an empty hole filled with dissatisfaction and misery.

All these experiences, these samsaric pleasures or samsaric sufferings, whatever we achieve in this life, there is nothing new; we have experienced them numberless times in the past. Even achieving the perfect meditation, perfect concentration free from the attachment scattering thoughts and sinking thoughts. By achieving that perfect meditation, we attained the form realm numberless times, those god realms where there is no suffering of pain.

All the suffering of samsara comes into three categories: the suffering of pain, which is very gross; and the suffering of change, which refers to samsaric pleasure that is only suffering labeled on a suffering feeling that is too subtle to notice; [and pervasive compounding suffering]. We only feel the suffering of change as suffering when it becomes gross enough to notice, when we feel it is unbearable. While it is unnoticeable as suffering, our mind labels it as “pleasure” and we believe in that label. We do not believe according to reality, that this is pleasure merely labeled by mind. Being merely labeled by the mind as pleasure is the reality, however, after the mind labels “pleasure” onto that feeling, it does not appear back as merely labeled by the mind. It appears back in the wrong way, as a hallucination. That is, it appears back as not merely labeled by mind, not having come from our mind, not created by our mind, not labeled by our mind, and to go more finely, as not merely labeled by mind. That feeling appears to exist from its own side, or even more grossly, as totally existing from its own side. In reality, this is not there at all; there is not even the slightest atom of it. Not merely labeled by the mind but existing from its own side—and not only completely existing but totally existing, that is a projection; that is false.

Then, we grasp onto that, causing attachment to arise. That becomes the immediate cause to reincarnate in samsara. The root is ignorance, but attachment is the immediate cause.

Even at the time of death, what causes us to be thrown into our future rebirth is the karmic seed, craving and grasping. When the craving becomes stronger, it is called “grasping,” and those two cause the karmic seed left on the mental continuum to produce our future rebirth, which is in the nature of suffering. In the realm we are reborn into we again experience all the sufferings that we have experienced already numberless times before. So, you see, the nearest cause is attachment. Craving and grasping are in the nature of attachment, the nearest cause of the next rebirth.

If the negative karma to be reborn in the lower realms is stronger, then attachment, craving and grasping, arises and activates the karmic seed to be reborn in the lower realms. If good karma is stronger, then that causes us to be reborn in the higher realms, in the body of a happy transmigratory being, but again it is the same, craving and grasping activates the seed for this to happen. Just as pouring water on the seeds we have already planted makes them sprout, so the karmic seed produces the future rebirth, as a god or human, which has again all the problems, which again is in the nature of suffering. Although, of course, it is only in the nature of suffering, generally speaking there is much more samsaric pleasure experienced with the body of a happy migratory being compared to the lower realms.

I think you have probably gone through meditations on the cause of samsara, the delusions, recognizing their shortcomings, how they are wrong concepts, ignorance, anger, attachment, and so forth. I think you may have gone through that meditation on how these delusions are wrong concepts and how they are harmful.

ATTACHMENT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IN OUR LIFE

Attachment, in particular, is the foundation of our life’s problems. It is the fundamental problem of our life. No matter how much wealth we have acquired in this world, even if we own the whole world, if we are the only rich person in the world or own the god realms that have hundreds of thousands of times—millions of times—greater enjoyment than all the greatest material comfort and development of the richest country [in our world]. Even if we become king of those realms, there is always the thought of wanting more; we still can’t get satisfaction.

Why do we still have suffering? Why are we still not really happy in our heart? There is no real peace in our heart, in our inner life, no peace, no happiness. There is still a hole missing; we still want more: more power, a greater reputation in the world, more of everything.

That fundamental problem, the whole thing, is because we are continuously dissatisfied. No matter how many friends we can have in this world, how much wealth and reputation we achieve, whatever sensual objects we are able to obtain, in our heart dissatisfaction is always there. We always want better. Even regarding friends, we find one friend but we want better, we want something different, something more. It’s always like this. Whatever samsaric pleasure we have: the pleasure of food, sleep, sex, we always want something more, something better. To get satisfaction we always want more and more and more, but we never reach that point.

This fundamental problem is a very simple thing. Because we follow attachment, we have so far been unable to find satisfaction. We have not been able to find peace in our heart. The mistake is following attachment.

And in the same way, in future, no matter how much we are able to obtain all these sensual objects in the world, we can never get satisfaction—forever. Even if we are able to live for billions of eons in this world, even if we own the whole world and we are the only rich person in the world or whatever, because of following attachment, we can never get satisfaction, never get this inner peace and happiness.

Even if we reincarnate in the god realm, it is the same. As long as our mind follows attachment, we can never get satisfaction, this inner healthy mind, this peaceful, liberated mind. Attachment deceives us, cheats us. It looks nice like ice cream; it looks like it’s helping us, but actually it is deceiving us, cheating us totally. You are taking the eight Mahayana precepts, so you can’t have ice cream or chocolate! People from Switzerland might especially be missing Swiss chocolate!

Attachment looks like it’s helping us, it looks like it loves us, like ice cream, but actually it cheats us completely. Then the result is dissatisfaction, unhappiness, making us always look for more and better.

That is the basis, the foundation of our suffering. Because of this, because the mind of attachment is dissatisfied, we engage in so many negative actions. We engage in killing, harming others, even killing ourselves, committing suicide. Why? Because we cannot get what our attachment wants. Our attachment wants a friend to be with us or it wants money, but it doesn’t get what it wants. Attachment can clearly be related to the self-cherishing thought. It doesn’t get what it wants or it loses it. When we lose the object of attachment and we have nothing more to cling to, grasping so much, suddenly one day, it is lost, and we [want to commit] suicide.

No matter how much education we have, no matter how great a psychiatrist or psychologist we are, no matter how many billions of books or how much education there is, at that time we want to kill ourselves. At that time, when we are suicidal, all these things look like nothing! When we have a problem, it looks like we know nothing. When we encounter a problem in life, it looks like we didn’t learn any Dharma. At that time, when we encounter a problem, instead of our mind having power over the problem, controlling the problem, we are overpowered by the problem. Our mind, our life, is overtaken by the problem.

Recently, there have been tsunamis. Do you know tsunamis? Everybody has become very familiar with tsunamis; they have become very famous in Indonesia, Thailand and India. Even in America, what suddenly happened in the United States was a shock. What was it called? Katrina. It destroyed New Orleans. Before I left the United States, they were still talking so much about that, how some people are still trying to fix it.

Anyway, what I was saying was this. When we encounter a problem, there is an inner tsunami, a tsunami of attachment. Our life is covered by the strong waves of attachment, or like those huge fires always happening. It happened in Australia some years ago and lasted for months and months. In the United States those huge fires are always happening. One after another happens, all the time. Like that, the conflagration, the big fire of anger completely overtakes our life.

It burns us; it burns our happiness; it burns our cause of happiness, our merits; and it also harms others. Getting angry with others makes others get angry with us, which destroys their merits, the cause of happiness. Even the little good karma that has been collected is destroyed.

This inner earthquake, this inner tsunami is much worse than all the external tsunamis that happen in the world. They are nothing in comparison. This inner tsunami of delusions, of attachment, is much more dangerous. We are completely overwhelmed by delusions and by life’s problems.

However, I was talking about having suicidal thoughts. At that time, it looks like all this knowledge [is worthless]. There is no question of having other kinds of knowledge, such as the sciences and this and that, even if we have studied Buddhism and become a great scholar, at that time, if we are not practicing and meditating, if we are not integrating the lamrim meditations, the extensive philosophy of the Buddhadharma, when we encounter problems or when delusions arise, when there is danger, there is no refuge in the mind. There is nothing; the mind is empty. Then, many suicidal thoughts can arise in that minute.

So, going back to what I was saying—this comes from attachment. If we check the source, it is attachment; it is related to attachment. Attachment is the foundation.

Because of attachment, there is dissatisfaction. Then, we engage in killing others, in telling lies, in deceiving others, in stealing others’ possessions and so forth. We have all these problems, such as relationship problems due to sexual misconduct. These are only a few examples.

Because we engage in all these things, on and on, due to attachment, due to the mind being dissatisfied, we end up in court, being sued and having so much debt. Either we get killed or we spend many years in prison or we end up with a bad reputation. This happens many times these days to millionaires and billionaires; they end up in prison or being sued. This even happens to very famous people, people known to the whole world.

This is all due to following attachment. Because they could not get satisfaction, they engage in all these nonvirtuous actions, cheating and harming others. Then, one day they are found out, and they end their life with a terrible reputation and then in prison. This is constantly happening now. You can see this when you watch TV.

The reason is very simple. All these things are basically the shortcomings of following attachment. By following attachment, they have to experience so much suffering, depression, unhappiness—everything that attachment does not want. All these are the shortcomings of attachment.

Loneliness is all to do with the attachment. Because of the mind following attachment, we feel lonely; we can’t stand being alone. Or we are physically with people, living in the family or working at the office, but we feel lonely because our attachment wants everyone to love us, to be attached to us. When that does not happen, we feel lonely. So here you can see that the mental sickness, the root, is attachment. From that loneliness comes the eight worldly dharmas. Maybe you have gone through that. The eight worldly dharmas mean the attachment clinging to worldly concerns, strongly grasping this life’s pleasure.

Of the eight worldly dharmas, when we receive the four desirable objects, that means attachment; when we encounter the four undesirable objects, that means unhappiness, dislike. Basically, with the eight worldly dharmas, when we have attachment to comfort, to pleasure, when that does not happen, the mind becomes so unhappy. It is related.

When there is no attachment to this life’s pleasure and comfort, without grasping, when pleasure does not happen, when there is the opposite, discomfort, it doesn’t bother our mind. If there is no attachment to pleasure and comfort, it doesn’t become important; it doesn’t bother the mind. But when we are attached to this and it is not happening, when there is discomfort, it bothers us, it causes us unhappiness. When we encounter the opposite of pleasure, the mind becomes unhappy. The unhappiness comes because there is attachment to pleasure.

Without attachment, there is no unhappiness when there is discomfort; it doesn’t disturb us. The mind is balanced, equalized. Pleasure and displeasure, comfort and discomfort are equalized in our mind. What this means is that whether or not there is pleasure, it doesn’t bother us because there is no clinging to it. It doesn’t cause our life to go up and down. Life has stability.

Similarly, having a reputation. There is a bad reputation and there is a good reputation! Many people have a good reputation. We can have a good reputation, where many people praise us. When there is attachment to this, it naturally happens that we dislike having a bad reputation; it makes us unhappy. You can see that very clearly. When we let go of the attachment, let go of holding on to reputation, of needing people to talk nicely about us and praise us, when we don’t have that attachment, when we are not being praised or we have a bad reputation, it doesn’t bother us. There is no attachment to that reputation.

So, you can see that suffering and unhappiness are completely related to the attachment. Because of attachment, there is dislike and unhappiness. Without it, when those two—good and bad reputation—are equalized in our mind, whatever happens doesn’t bother us. Without attachment, our heart, our mind, are continuously kept peaceful, secure, stable.

DHARMA IS THE BEST PSYCHOLOGY

Many times every day we suffer from ups and downs because our life is dependent on all these things; we are attached to all this. In one day there are so many ups and downs, so much sadness because of what people say about us, how people behave toward us, whether they respect us or not. All this is because our attachment needs this. Then, our life is filled with problems, problems made by our own mind. Nobody else makes them, just our own concepts.

There is no need to hold on to that attachment, no need to create problems, no need to experience problems. They happen because we do not know and practice meditation; we do not know and practice the Dharma in our daily life. Living in meditation, in the Dharma, in daily life keeps our mind free from this painful attachment, this grasping. But not knowing and practicing this, we feel unhappy and sad, and we get angry, jealous and all these things. Although we don’t need to create and experience problems, we do, because we lack Dharma knowledge, we lack knowing how to meditate, how to practice, how to look after ourselves.

Practicing Dharma, practicing meditation, in our daily life is the best psychology. If we are living in meditation, in Dharma, in the lamrim, that is the best thought transformation. We might be trying to offer psychology to others, but if we ourselves are not living in psychology, if we are not looking after ourselves, protecting ourselves, then we are not loving ourselves. We can use the words, “I don’t love myself” here.

In our daily life, if we live in the Dharma, in the meditation practice, in the best psychology, we are protected from the tsunami of attachment, the tsunami of anger because these delusions cannot come and take over our mind, take over our life. We control the tsunami of attachment and anger, and all the delusions, all the violent thoughts. We are able to protect ourselves from them. That way, we always have security, we always have stability, we always have happiness and peace inside. There is no depression.

One thing is, when we live in meditation, in the Dharma, there is no depression. Not following attachment, because we are free from it, our mind is healthy, peaceful, free. We are not imprisoned by attachment. We are not a prisoner, chained by attachment like the police chain a prisoner’s hands. When we don’t practice Dharma, when we don’t practice meditation in daily life, it is like we are totally living in a prison of attachment, in the eight worldly dharmas, the attachment grasping this life’s pleasure. There is no space to think of others, no space for compassion, no space for bodhicitta. There is only total attachment to our own happiness, to the happiness of this life, not to that of future lives and not to liberation for ourselves, but just for this life. So, we are totally imprisoned, with no space to help others who are suffering; the mind is totally occupied by attachment.

In the West there is so much talk about how we should love ourselves. Here, the definition of loving ourselves, the way to love ourselves, to take care of ourselves, is to live our daily life in meditation, in the Dharma, rather than surrendering ourselves to attachment, becoming its slave, being totally used by it like garbage, like toilet paper. Whatever attachment wants, we totally become its slave.

Instead of that, by the mind living in the Dharma, in meditation, we are free, independent. Independent of that most dangerous enemy, we are happy and peaceful. Then, we are able to engage in many virtuous activities. On that basis, it is much easier to develop compassion for others, to help others. Engaging in virtuous activities is the cause of happiness, not only temporary happiness but liberation and enlightenment.

The other way, as I mentioned before, by constantly following desire, worldly concern, without meditation, without the Dharma, we constantly engage in many negative karmas with our body, speech and mind. We harm ourselves and others so much by doing the ten non virtuous actions. Like the examples I gave and so many others, we harm ourselves and others directly or indirectly, and then we constantly experience problems, one after another. Our life is filled with problems. And life goes on like that. It is very, very sad.

Conversely, when there is no attachment to receiving praise from somebody, when there is no clinging to that, there is no dislike or unhappiness when that does not happen. Being praised or not, even being criticized, does not bother us. Whatever happens, there is stability, which means there is so much peace and happiness in our life; we are independent.

When there is attachment to receiving material things, such as birthday presents or birthday cakes, when we don’t receive them, it becomes a big problem! It becomes a huge issue! The person gave us these things on our last birthday but this time they didn’t! Not receiving material things becomes a huge disturbance, causing dislike and unhappiness.

When there is no attachment to receiving material things, when that does not happen, there is no dislike and no unhappiness. These two are equalized. Whatever happens doesn’t bother us. There is always stability and peace in life.

THE PERFECT HUMAN REBIRTH

By training the mind, in particular in impermanence and death, which is the nature of life, the reality of life, we just meditate. We can relate our meditation on reincarnation to karma, how the result of negative karma is rebirth in the unimaginable suffering of the lower realms. Then, we can begin with the meditation on how this human body is so precious, qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses. It is so unbelievably precious because, with it, we can achieve the three great meanings.

This human body is qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses or endowments. It is translated here as the ten leisures or something like that. It looks the same, the eight freedoms and the ten leisures. There is not so much difference between the first eight and the ten leisures. Here, it is not made very clear.

So I think, with “leisure,” we can have some break by smoking a cigarette, that can be a leisure or break. Or we can have the leisure to go to see a movie or the leisure of not working! Because we have leisure and don’t have to work, we can have a holiday, go to beach, things like that. So, I think the first term, the “eight freedoms,” freedom is stronger. Then, with the ten endowments, there are five things we received from ourselves and five things we receive from outside, from the place, from the teacher, from the people around us, from having teachings exist in our country, things like that.

Even without talking about a human body qualified with the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, with analysis we can see how just being a human being is so precious.

Now, we have the leisure to have tea! So, a short break.

While you are having tea, I am going to recite some protector prayers.

[Rinpoche recites prayers]

So, I will just conclude this part of the talk by saying it’s enough just being a human being without talking about the eight freedoms and ten richnesses or endowments, without talking about the perfect human body. We have a human body that is able to understand words and meanings, that is able to communicate. As a human being, just being able to do that is unbelievably precious.

I often mention that, for example, even animals living with people—pigs and chickens, cows and sheep, not the boat! Not a ship! Of course, a ship is not a sentient being, so it is sheep. Anyway, even animals living with people, such as the dogs and cats that people have as pets—including snakes. Some people keep snakes as pets, or crocodiles! I don’t think anybody has a dragon as a pet or a snow lion as a pet. Some people might have an African lion but not a snow lion. Anyway, I’m joking. Even if we explain to these animals for many eons, for billions of eons, that the cause of happiness is virtue, they cannot understand the words and meaning. If we explain to them the meaning of virtue, the actions that result in happiness, and, to elaborate a little bit, are motivated by non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance, if we explained that to them for billions of eons, even those animals living with people, there is no way they can understand the meaning.

But for human beings, just having this body that can understand words and meanings, when somebody gives a correct explanation of how virtue is the cause of happiness and that virtuous actions result in happiness, motivated by non-anger, non-attachment, non-ignorance , within those few seconds—it doesn’t even take a minute—the cause of happiness, virtue, is understood and the meaning of virtue is understood. So, already we have the wisdom understanding what the cause of happiness is and the meaning of that.

Within a few seconds, we have the wisdom to understand. Because of that, we have total freedom, twenty-four hours a day. Whenever we want, we can create an unmistaken cause of happiness. We just have to work with our mind; we just change our attitude, our motivation for the action, making it pure, unstained by ignorance, anger and attachment. We can do that whenever we want to create the unmistaken cause of happiness. Any time we attempt to create the unmistaken cause of happiness, virtue, we have wisdom. We can learn this within a few seconds.

That shows how this human body is unbelievably precious. Just having a human body, without talking about the eighteen qualities, enables us to do that. It is so unbelievably precious. That means it is so easy to learn Dharma, so easy to learn the path to liberation and enlightenment. That means it is so easy to practice, so easy to achieve realizations. It is so easy to achieve liberation, total cessation of all the sufferings and its cause, karma and delusions, including the negative imprint, the seed of delusion. And it is so easy to achieve great liberation, full enlightenment.

From understanding how it is so easy to learn this within a few seconds, we should also understand that this makes it so easy to develop compassion, generating the path of compassion and developing wisdom so that we can liberate numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, and numberless suras and asuras. We can liberate all the suffering obscured sentient beings. It is so easy to develop the essence of the path, wisdom and compassion, and then so easy to liberate other sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Even concerning benefiting others, it is unbelievably easy. There is so much we can do just by having this precious human body.

With animals, we can explain to them for billions of eons but they cannot understand, no matter how long they live. Turtles can live for a thousand years. I heard that in Hong Kong there was a turtle who lived for a thousand years. I was about to see it but I didn’t get to. Anyway, although they live an incredibly long time, they can’t learn even that very short thing—even for billions of eons, they cannot learn the cause of happiness, virtue and its definition.

When we compare our human body to an animal’s, even if it is not qualified by all the most precious wish-fulfilling eighteen qualities, just having a precious human body, it is as different as the sky and the earth compared to an animal’s body. There is so much we can do for ourselves; we can make so much progress, achieving all this happiness, not only temporary happiness, but liberation and enlightenment. And there is so much we can do to help other sentient beings, causing them to achieve all this happiness, liberating them from all their suffering, all their problems, from all the oceans of samsaric suffering. With this human body, we have the opportunity to hear, reflect and to meditate on the path. It is unbelievable. This is so precious, so unbelievably precious.

Especially, if we have the eight freedoms and ten richnesses, with each freedom and each richness we can achieve any happiness we wish: the happiness of future lives, achieving another perfect human rebirth in the next life so we can again meditate on the path and continue to have realizations, completing the path to liberation and enlightenment and offering extensive benefit to other sentient beings—or we can be born in a pure land and never again be reborn in the lower realms. The quickest way to achieve enlightenment is by being born in a pure land. In our next life, we can also receive a body with the eight ripening aspect qualities that Lama Tsongkhapa highly admired. We must achieve these in order to complete the path to liberation and enlightenment.

Even with one freedom or one richness, we can create the cause of all that or we can achieve a human body which has the seven qualities and then be able to practice Dharma, to develop the mind in the path and to benefit others. With this one freedom, this one richness, we can create the cause and achieve that.

If, in our future lives, we want to achieve a very beautiful body so we can draw many millions of sentient beings to listen to us and benefit them, so we can liberate them from suffering by revealing the path, we can create the cause and achieve it with this one freedom or endowment.

If, in our future lives, we wish to achieve the four Mahayana Dharma wheels, the four very important conditions to develop the mind in the path, we can do that. With one freedom or richness, we can create the cause, and then, with each of them, we can create the cause to achieve liberation from suffering and enlightenment.

Especially, when we have a human body that has all eighteen precious qualities, with each second we can create the cause of all those happinesses up to enlightenment. Therefore, with this human body qualified with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, even each freedom and each richness is unbelievably precious. As I mentioned before, with it, because we can create the cause of all this happiness, it is more precious than the whole sky filled with billions of dollars.

I’ll use the example of money because money is very precious, therefore, it is easy to understand. There is a zillion trillion dollars. Increase that with inflation! (It’s a strong market!) Anyway, each freedom and each richness is more precious than a zillion, trillion dollars. All that is nothing compared to the value of the benefit the happiness we get from even one of these qualities. Being able to create the cause of all this is more precious than the whole sky filled with diamonds, gold, even wish-granting jewels, the jewels owned by wheel-turning kings, those who had so much merit they were able to find the jewels in the oceans. Then, by cleaning them in three ways and putting them on top of a banner on top of a house on the full moon day or on those special days, whatever somebody prayed for would materialize. Whatever material enjoyment they pray for, due to the power of that person’s good karma and the power of the jewel, due to the karma, it gets materialized. This jewel is the most precious thing among material possessions. Although there might be numberless of these filling the whole sky, compared to even one freedom or richness that is nothing. The value of one freedom or one richness is far greater.

We have been born millionaires and billionaires numberless times in the past; we have been born as kings, even in deva realms, numberless times. We had all this wealth numberless times but that didn’t help us become free from samsara; it didn’t help us actualize the path. Being born as a wheel-turning king with all that wealth and power didn’t make us actualize the path and become free from samsara. We have even been nagas, those animals who, in past lives, made so much charity but did not practice morality, causing them to be born as nagas with so much wealth. They always have wish-granting jewels as crown decorations, but that didn’t help them to actualize the path of freedom from samsara. We have been like that numberless times in the past.

Milarepa, the great yogi who achieved enlightenment in one brief lifetime of degenerated time, as well as Gyalwa Ensapa and many other great meditators had nothing, but because they had this precious human body with the eighteen qualities, they practiced Dharma and achieved liberation from samsara and then achieved full enlightenment in that life. Even the subtle negative imprints were purified in that life, and they achieved the state of omniscience in a few short years. Milarepa didn’t have a single dollar or rupee or a jewel with him. Therefore, these freedoms and richnesses are so precious. The whole sky filled with zillions and trillions of dollars or gold, diamonds and wish-granting jewels is nothing in comparison.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama warns us to not become a slave of the machine or material things or money. That means our life should not be used for material gain. These eighteen qualities are much more precious [than anything] material. We should never be careless or take them for granted.

The perfect human rebirth is the first meditation of the path to enlightenment, the very first one. The beginning of the lamrim, the stages of the path, is seeing how precious this is. With this realization, we will only do meaningful things, living a meaningful life and abandoning all meaningless activities.

First of all, just having a precious human body, but then having all eighteen qualities, we must not take this for granted. Why? Because to achieve this, we have practiced morality and charity for so many lifetimes. We have worked very hard for this, living in pure morality. To live in pure morality is not easy; there is a lot of sacrifice. To live in pure morality we need to sacrifice attachment. To even live in one morality purely is not easy; there are so many obstacles. For so many lifetimes, we worked so hard living in pure morality and made prayers, creating so much merit, in order to receive this human body, using this as a boat to cross the river and to practice Dharma. Then, we go beyond, crossing the ocean of samsara and achieving liberation and enlightenment.

WE MUST COMPLETE THE WHOLE PATH

Just about this once, we have this opportunity. We can achieve all these things; we can obtain the three great meanings and have whatever happiness we wish. But this doesn’t last long; this life doesn’t stay forever. Death is definite, and when death will occur is not certain. It can occur at any time: any year, any month, any week, any day, any hour, any minute, any second. Any moment death can happen, and at the time of death there is nothing that can help, only Dharma, nothing else. Only the Dharma can help at that time, only the Dharma can help us to achieve happiness in future lives, nothing else.

This precious human life happens about once and it is extremely difficult to find again. It is so difficult to create the causes, we can understand that. Therefore, we must practice the Dharma. Since we want happiness, we must practice the Dharma. If we want happiness, we have no choice. Happiness only comes from the Dharma, only from virtue, only from positive, pure thought. Therefore, we must only practice the Dharma. Since we don’t want suffering and we want only happiness, we must only practice the Dharma. If our wish is only happiness without the slightest suffering, we must only practice the Dharma. We must practice the Dharma in this life and because death can happen at any time, we must practice right away., The Dharma is the only thing that can help at the time of death.

This is what I was saying before. When death happens, we must make sure to achieve the body of the happy transmigratory being so that we can continue to meet and practice the Dharma, in order to continuously develop our mind in the path to enlightenment. That alone is not enough; we must achieve liberation from samsara. But even if we achieve liberation from samsara, that alone is not sufficient. Achieving happiness for ourselves, even if it is ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, is not the real meaning of life, the real purpose of our life. The real meaning of life is to benefit sentient beings.

In regard to benefiting sentient beings, there are four ways. Causing them the happiness of this life is one thing. More important than that is causing long-term happiness, happiness of all the coming future lives. That is much more important than causing the happiness of this life, which is very short-term happiness. The second service to sentient beings, causing the happiness all future lives, is more important. Now even more important is to cause them to achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from the entire suffering of samsara and its cause, karma and delusions. That service to other sentient beings is much more important than the second one. Now, the most important service we can bring is to bring them to peerless happiness, full enlightenment. That is the greatest benefit we can offer other sentient beings.

Enlightenment doesn’t happen without causes and conditions, therefore we need to actualize the whole path that ceases both the disturbing-thought obscurations and the subtle defilements. The disturbing-thought obscurations are the main obstructions to achieve liberation from samsara, and the subtle defilements, the second type, are mainly the obstructions to achieving the fully knowing mind. We must complete the path that removes all those defilements.

We must complete the whole path. We can learn just one meditation technique in our whole life, like shamatha—calm abiding—or something, but even if we have a realization of that, it can’t do much. We need to achieve all the stages of the path to enlightenment, the whole path. And that whole path needs to be achieved in order, attaining the realizations step by step, without missing one, in order to achieve full enlightenment, to bring each and every single suffering sentient being to full enlightenment.

There are numberless hell beings, and we need to do this for each of these; there are numberless hungry ghosts with so much suffering, and we need to do this for each of these; there are numberless animals with so much suffering; there are numberless human beings with so much suffering. We need to bring each and every single sentient being to enlightenment. That is the real purpose of our life, the real meaning of our life. That is our object or goal; that is what is to be achieved.

So, not only while meditating on the path, but while working, eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, whatever, whatever other activities we do, our attitude should be for others, to benefit all sentient beings, to bring them the highest benefit, to bring them to enlightenment.

From the root, guru devotion, we begin the path, the lamrim, with the perfect human rebirth. This is what makes us complete the rest of the path, successfully actualizing it. The guru devotion practice is the first meditation, correctly devoting with thought and action. After we have analyzed this, after we have discovered this, we do it.

At the beginning of the talk, I was going to say thank you very much to you, but I got carried away! It was meant to be a thank you, but then I got carried away.

I mentioned how amazing it is [that you have come] from those big countries, those huge cities, where there are many millions of people, coming here to Nepal, coming very far to Kopan, to do not just anything that is called “meditation.” There are so many books and so many organizations about “meditation,” but here we are particularly focused on the lamrim, the integration of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha into a very clear, simplified, graduated path to enlightenment that, from our side, if we practice it correctly, we can definitely attain realizations and achieve liberation and enlightenment.

NUMBERLESS PANDITS HAVE COMPLETED THE PATH

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha himself was taught by his gurus and completed the whole path and achieved enlightenment. After that, numberless pandits, yogis from many different countries, not only India, practiced correctly as the Buddha explained. Like stars at nighttime, so many achieved the path to enlightenment, many in caves, exactly as the Buddha explained. In their life stories, it is written how they practiced the Dharma, how they have achieved all the realizations. In Milarepa’s life story, it is explained how he did the practice under the guidance of Marpa, experiencing so many hardships, and how he achieved enlightenment within a few years, obeying his guru Marpa no matter how hard it was, even though Marpa only scolded him, sometimes beating him, never saying anything good to him, never giving him teachings for a long time. Because he was normally alone, he didn’t receive teachings, so one time he went with the students in the group, but Marpa immediately scolded him and kicked him out. He made him build a nine-story tower alone, carrying all the stones himself. His back became bruised and thick-skinned from carrying stones. After he had built it, Marpa told him to tear it down and put the stones back where he got them. Then, he was told to build it again and again tear it down, and again, only ever getting scolded and beaten. It was like this for years.

Marpa’s wisdom mother, his consort, felt it unbearable that Milarepa never got teachings, only scolded and beaten and she pushed Marpa to give him teachings and initiations. So, Marpa did this, but actually Marpa’s own wish was to give Milarepa more hardships for longer. If he had done that, Milarepa would have become enlightened even more quickly.

Anyway, in those years Milarepa never became angry with his guru, Marpa. He never developed any heresy toward him, only devotion, seeing him as the Buddha, followed his advice completely. Because of that, he achieved full enlightenment in a brief lifetime of degenerate time.

There are numberless pandits who have completed the path. There are pilgrimages that many people make, even nowadays, to see the caves of these yogis where they meditated. Milarepa had different caves in Nepal and Tibet where he achieved different realizations, and Lama Tsongkhapa too. There are all these hermitages and monasteries where they achieved attainments. Then, they wrote their life stories, explaining how they practiced and achieved realizations. This is the proof. It’s not just belief. It’s not just being told that if we believe this or that we go to heaven or achieve liberation, whereas nobody has explained how to achieve liberation. It’s not like that.

For example, there is a belief in one Hindu sect that says if you jump into the hole where there is a trident and the [three points of the] trident go there [through your body], then you achieve liberation. But at that time you are dead! There is nobody who did that and then showed how they achieved liberation. Or there is the belief that if you go to war, you go to heaven. Nobody explained that. There aren’t numberless beings who explained that they went to war and were killed and then went to heaven. Nobody has ever written about that experience.

Anyway, here it is not like that. What I am saying is that Buddhism—the path to liberation and enlightenment—is not mere belief. There are so many logical proofs, reasonings, in the philosophical texts. The simple way to explain it is that the lineage lamas and the many great yogis and pandits wrote about their experience, how they meditated and achieved realizations, and as proof we can see the places where they did it.

DECIDING TO COME TO KOPAN WAS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT DECISION

The other proof we can see is that when we have problems such as attachment or anger or something, when we meditate on the lamrim, when we use those lamrim meditation techniques of thought transformation, it works. If we actually meditate, at that time, while our mind is in that state of meditation, while our mind is patient, anger doesn’t arise. Our mind is in patience through meditation using reasoning, which stops anger from arising. Also, through the meditation on compassion, we are able to generate compassion for that person who harmed us, who abused us. Whatever that person did to harm us, we can feel compassion for them. And while our mind is in compassion, anger doesn’t arise.

We can see, even from this little experience, how our mind changes through meditation. That is the proof that we can achieve liberation. From this small experience we have in our daily life, that is the reason. From that small experience, there is the proof that we can achieve enlightenment if we continue to practice the path.

The world is suffering. We can see how much suffering there is. All the wars, all the killing, all the torture—so much is happening. Then, there are the tsunamis, the earthquakes, the disasters of fire and water, all the dangers, bringing harm to not only sentient beings but also to non-living things. With so much suffering, bringing peace in the world requires compassion. Peace in our heart, in our individual life and in the world, comes from compassion. Therefore, we need to learn how to develop compassion. And compassion alone is not enough, we need to also develop wisdom.

Therefore, the essence of what I am saying is that what you are doing, coming here all the way to Kopan to attend this course is the right thing to do. What I am saying is that the decision you have taken is the most important decision in your life, to benefit yourself, to benefit the world and to benefit all sentient beings. That is what I want to say. This is the most important education, the education to develop compassion and wisdom and the whole path to liberation and enlightenment, the education about how to cease the delusions, the cause of suffering, and achieve liberation and enlightenment. There is the education in understanding all this and then the education in gaining the realizations through the practice. This is the most important thing concerning your own happiness now and in the future. This is the most important thing if you want to help all sentient beings and help bring about world peace. This is the most important thing. The more you learn, the more you get experience, the more you will be able to educate other sentient beings. You can offer your experience to others, your education, to liberate the sentient beings from all the suffering.

That’s all my mumbling for now!

DEDICATIONS

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

“Due to all the past, present and future merit collected by me, the three-time merits collected by all sentient beings including the buddhas and bodhisattvas, may bodhicitta—the altruistic mind letting go of the I and cherishing other sentient beings, seeking only happiness of other sentient beings—be generated. Through this bodhicitta, where I can achieve all my temporal and ultimate happiness, may all the happiness that sentient beings wish for be achieved. With this bodhicitta, may the numberless sentient beings receive all their happiness. May this bodhicitta be generated within my heart and in the hearts of my own family members, in the hearts of all of us here and in the hearts of all the rest of the students and their families, as well as all the supporters in this organization and those many students who give up their life to this organization, doing service for sentient beings and for the teaching of the Buddha. All of them and all other sentient beings, may bodhicitta be generated in all their hearts without delay of even a second.” Pray like that. “In whose heart bodhicitta has been generated, may it increase.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

“Due to the three-time merits collected by me, may bodhicitta especially be generated in the hearts of all the leaders of the world.” If the leaders of the world generate bodhicitta, many millions of people in each country are led in the correct way. They are led on the path to be free from suffering and to have peace and happiness. It makes a huge difference to all those millions of people in each country if the leader has bodhicitta, is a bodhisattva. So, that prayer is very important.

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

Then, the third prayer. “May bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of the young and old, in those who are called terrorists, anyone who has thoughts of harming the world, whether they are called terrorists or not. May bodhicitta be generated in their hearts without delay of even a second.” That is the most very urgent prayer.

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

That we have this incredible opportunity to meet Buddhadharma and gain understanding of every single aspect of the Dharma that we learn here every day, and that we can purify so much the cause of the suffering, the defilements, negative karma, every day during this course, and that we can collect every single merit to achieve the cause of happiness of our future lives, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment—all this is due to the kindness of Compassion Buddha, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, through whose kindness, the Buddhadharma, the complete Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, exists in this world. Through that, we are able to learn and we’re able to make our life most fruitful, most beneficial, not only for ourselves but also for all sentient beings. Therefore, we dedicate. “By our merits, may His Holiness have a stable life and may all his holy wishes succeed immediately.”

The existence of Kopan Monastery, the continuity of the courses, all this incredible opportunity is due to Lama Yeshe, who is kinder than all the three-time buddhas. It has happened due to Lama Yeshe’s kindness, whose holy name is extremely rare to mention. Therefore, “May whatever holy wishes Lama Yeshe had in the past be actualized and may his incarnation be able to benefit sentient beings of this world just as Lama Tsongkhapa did.” Pray like that.

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, may all the father, mother sentient beings…” We haven’t yet gone into that subject, how all sentient beings have been our own mother. “May all the father, mother sentient beings have happiness; may the three lower realms be empty forever and may all the bodhisattvas’ prayers succeed immediately—as their prayers are only for sentient beings, may their prayers succeed immediately. And may I be able to cause that to happen.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, for any sentient being, whatever connection they make with me, harming me or helping me, whoever sees me, touches me, remembers me, thinks of me, talks about me, dreams of me, who even just sees my photo, merely by that, may it cause those sentient beings’ negative karma to immediately be purified and may they never be reborn in the lower realm forever. May their sicknesses immediately get healed, may they be free from spirit harm and may they be able to find faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and in karma. May they be able to actualize renunciation, bodhicitta and right view and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
 
“Just by seeing me, touching me, remembering me, thinking of me, dreaming of me, whatever, even if they harm me, disrespect me, criticize me, or help me, whatever, may all this cause them to fulfill all their wishes of happiness according to Dharma.

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, the three-time merits collected by others, by having generated bodhicitta in everyone’s heart in this world, may everyone live their life only benefiting others. May they not cause even a single harm to each other and may they achieve perfect peace and happiness. May war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sicknesses, and the dangers of fire, water and earthquakes, wherever they are happening, be stopped immediately.” Whatever merits we collect here today, as well as those collected in the past, we dedicate to this. “Anywhere that war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sicknesses and fire, water and earthquakes are happening, may they be stopped immediately. May nobody in this world experience any of these sufferings. May no one experience all the undesirable things of this world forever.”

Then the next dedication is my favorite hobby. My hobby or hippy dedication!

“Due to all the past, present and future merits collected by me, which exist but do not exist from their own side, may the I, which exists but which is totally empty from its own side, achieve Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but doesn’t exist from its own side, which is totally empty, and lead all sentient beings, who exist but do not exist from their own side, who are totally empty, to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but does not exist from its own side, which is totally empty, by myself alone, who exists but does not exist from its own side, who is totally empty.

“I dedicate all the merits to be able to follow just as holy Manjugosha and bodhisattva Samantabhadra have realized. I dedicate all the merits in the same way as the three-time buddhas did and the three-time merits collected by others. May Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings, unifying sutra and tantra, be spread in this world in all the directions. May they be actualized in the hearts of all in this world, may they be completely actualized in my heart, in the hearts of all of us here and in the hearts of the students and supporters, all those who gave up their lives to this organization, doing service to sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha, and in the hearts of everyone in this world.”

[Rinpoche and the students chant dedication prayers]

Good night. Thank you very much. I hope to see you tomorrow! Sorry, when I came to give teachings, it became like a mad elephant, like a mad horse. It didn’t go on the road; it went all over the field, like a wild horse!