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

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    The Three Principle Aspects of the Path (Hong Kong,

    2013) by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche,

    transcribed from podcast.

    http://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.html

    THE THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS OF THE PATH (Hong Kong,

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    by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

    http://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.htmlhttp://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.htmlhttp://www.khyentserecordings.org/namo/Podcasts.html
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    One could almost say it is King Trisong Detsens vision and devotion to the

    Buddhadharma that we have managed to save some of the most important

    teachings of the Buddhadharma today. After the first arrival of Buddhadharma to

    Tibet, then came many, many great teachings from India. One of the latest is the

    great Atisha Dipamkara; one who promoted and one who really emphasized on

    kindness, mind-training, compassion, love, tolerance, and so on. Atishas emphasison kindness is just so moving that among all his gurus, he revered the great

    Dharmakirti of Indonesia the most, purely because it was great Dharmakirti, from him

    Atisha learned the art of kindness.

    From Atishas lineage came the great tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa. And personally

    myself I have received this teaching from my root guru, Khabje Dilgo Khyentse

    Rinpoche. I have, knowing that so many of you are here, to make your visit

    worthwhile, I have brought a Buddhas statue so that at least your time is not wasted(laughter). Because even the sight of a wooden Buddha could maybe implant some

    kind of subliminal influence of kindness and awareness within your DNA gene, so I

    put this in front of me. And this is actually carved with, carved in Gandhara tradition;

    and Gandhara, Gandhara style is probably the most ancient style of Buddhist icons.

    And for those of you who dont know, the Gandhara style is very deeply rooted to the

    Greek, Alexander the Great, so on and so forth. Even today, there are lots of

    Gandhara ruins in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

    Okay, now the title is (Lam-gtso rnam-gsum) the Principle Aspects, Three, Three

    Principle Aspects of the Path.Now path, path is a very interesting phenomena. It is

    something that a spiritual eh; it is something that is INDISPENSABLE for a spiritual

    person. But okay, so path is the way; path is the solution, so to speak. But it is also

    important to know that path is a deception and it is ALSO a problem. So juggling

    between how much of this path, how much should we really fall for the path, and how

    much we should not fall for the pathis what makes a spiritual person mature, eh,

    interesting I should say, interesting.

    Do you need a path? This, this questiondo you need a path? It depends. It

    depends on are you having enough fun and what do you mean by fun, anyway? Are

    you having enough fun and if, if so, if you do have funis this REALLY the fun that

    you are envisioning or looking for? Or do you ACTUALLY know what is fun? After

    years and years, centuries of you know like development in this world, have we

    finally come to a conclusion what is ultimate fun?

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    Happiness, you know happinesssame thing. So it really depends on you know, are

    you happy? And what is happy? Is it achievable? Should we just give up looking for

    happiness and that way, maybe we are more happy? So this is something that need

    to contemplate, whether you require a path or not. And YOU and only you can

    decide this individually. And for that you need to contemplate. Contemplation is very

    important. Our world does not contemplate enough.

    Im going to sort of use the text but not you know, sort of in order. I will jump here

    and there, everywhere. Okay here I will read two verses. As you can see, many of

    you, those who have known me past twenty years; now I have to use reading glass.

    Therere so many changesyou know, kind of sad. Im beginning to like tea; thats SO

    SAD (laughter). And Im beginning to like English garden and Im beginning to like

    countryside. Those are not a good sign, Im telling you.

    (Tibetan phrase) So Im reading two verses, somewhere towards the end first. You

    know there is a certain order in our lives. This thing that is in front of me, the glass of

    water - if Im thirsty, by drinking it, it will help me; and thats not going to change.

    Thats not going to change for this life. I dont think so until I, I change my perception.

    Lets say if I become in my next life a fish, THEN that phenomenon, way it appears

    has changed. So there is a certain order, certain unruly is maybe not the right word,

    but theres a certain order in our life; and thats, thats non-deceiving in a way.

    I can use this table as a table today, tomorrow, and maybe even after ten years, I

    use this as a table. And thats how things are usable. Coffee is drinkable, chopsticks

    for Chinese are utensil for picking up food that will not deceive Chinese, and many

    others now. So all of this, all of this that we are experiencing in our day to day life

    love, rejection, anxiety, four plus four is eightall of this, all of this functions. Its

    almost impossible that in about five years time, four plus four will become five. This

    thing functions, this, you, you know the way, our values, our projections; all of these,

    there is an unobstructed function. And many of them are really strongly supported bylogic of cause and condition.

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    THE THREE PRINCIPLE ASPECTS OF THE PATH (Hong Kong,

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    by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

    Expecting or hoping for marigold, if you plant a marigold seed; yes, if everything

    goes well, you will have a marigold, okay. Now its thisnext, next sentence (Tibetan

    phrase); yes everything functions as I have just explained but NONE OF THEM,

    even though they function as how they functionnone of them can be eh, none of

    them can be taken as the ultimate truth. This, okay what hes saying is that the truth

    and the non-truth are just completely together, like the shadow and the light. You

    cannot take out shadow and create a light, vice versa.

    The truth and the deception exist; exist maybe not the right word, but it manifests

    together in one eh, in one, what do you call it?As one. Okay until we accept that

    this two cannot be separated, we will, we have not understood what Buddha is trying

    to teach. All our struggle appears when we separate this two or we attempt to

    separate. Now this needs to be explained a little bit. This is a little difficult to

    emotionally accept. Intellectually it might make sense but emotionally it is difficult to

    accept.

    What Im saying is like the water and the moisture of water these two cannot be

    separated. But Im not also saying that they are one. It is possible to see the water

    but you dont necessarily get wet just looking at water.So in this way, moisture and

    the waterit does seem to appear differently. Likewise, so you see, you cannot, you

    cannot have water that is, that is, you know like independent from moisture. Likewise

    we cannot the truth that got, that is, you know like independent from the non-truth.

    As we look at this flower, it does function for you and me - it does function as a

    flower, projection of the flower, function of the flower, all of this is there. But this does

    not mean that the projection and function of the flower is the ultimate. So this is what

    Im assuming Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that until we know this, kind of magic;

    maybe I should use the word magic. This is the MAGIC of everything. Everything,

    even a grain of rice, is functioning as rice but actually it is not rice. It is functioning as

    this two, the inseparability of this two is the magicand until you know this, you

    have not understood the teaching of the Buddha.

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    I will also use the word mystery. This is the mystery that we miss. This is the magic

    that we ALWAYS miss as we walk in the street. This is not a magic, magic or

    magical power that is, that you can obtain it through mantras or through some kind of

    super, supernatural power. You dont have to obtain, it is THERE, the magicthemagic of inseparability of fake and truth. But as I said, its not; its easier said than

    done.

    As you are about to kiss your beloved one and as you, you know, look into your

    beloved ones face, the feeling, the picture, the sensation and this great ancient

    feelings, all this stupid thoughts like soul matethe realization that this is FAKE is

    not that easy AND okay, first finish that (laughter). The realization that this is also not

    truth is difficult for a lot of people.

    On the other hand, there are people who think; who actually go to the other extreme

    oh, this is fake, complete rejection. See they have lost magic again. They SHOULD

    kiss, you know they should. Because then they are divorcing between this truth and

    non-truth, you understand. And forgetting the magic of this non-truth and the truth

    causes so much problems because it is because of no awareness of this, then as

    you are to embrace your beloved one, hope, fear, plans, jealousy, what next, all this

    arises. By the way, Im picking up this subject a little bit, a little bit; because I know inthis audience therere many who are in love (laughter)and on top of that, traditional

    societies like you and me, we are in a prison. The prison is called Do the right

    thing, and of course this doesnt help.

    Going back to the magicI overuse this example but probably this is really one of

    the best examplesLike, like a rainbow again. Rainbow has a magic. Its there; you

    cannot deny its not there when you see one. But its not there also. This

    inseparability of there and not there is what makes rainbow magical. Just like that,

    everything we experience right nowour fear, our hope, anxiety, all of it has its

    magic.

    (Tibetan phrase) One who follows, one who has decided to follow a path, a journey;

    you know we are talking about the path, by the way, remember path. A person who

    has decided to follow a path has now decided to learn the inseparability of this and

    by learning the in, by accepting the inseparability of this. Of course in the beginning

    you have to have, because you are a beginner, you, you; okay lets say for instance

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    you sit on top of a meditation cushion. There you try to contemplate the inseparability

    of this two but as soon as you get out of the mediation cushion, you forget this. You

    get mingled with all the illusion and forget the inseparability of this two.

    Like when you see something, when you experience something, something nice,

    something not nice, whatever; when youre experiencing, you actually, you have to

    contrive your mind and try to bring in the awareness and mindfulness. But a person

    who has taken this journey, gets accustomed to this slowly, and then one day

    without needing to contrive, as you, the moment you see and experience whatever

    youre experiencing or see whatever youre seeing or hear whatever youre hearing

    the moment you encounter the phenomena, IMMEDIATELY you experience,

    experience the inseparability of this two like watching the rainbow. And this is Lama

    Tsongkhapa said (Tibetan phrase)that is the end of the journey.

    We will take a break, and we will eh, when we come back, you can ask questions if

    you have regarding these two verses because actually these two verses are the,

    probably the most important verses in the text. Theres one more verse that will be

    followed by that, which is also related to this one, which we will discuss after the

    break. Ten minutes.

    To put into a context of path; you see this is after all path laid out in the form of three

    principles. So to put everything what we discussed earlier in the context of path; mm,

    one can safely say the Buddhist path or the path that is presented here has two

    elementsthe wisdom and the method. Wisdom should not hijackthe method.

    Neither should method hijackor imprison the wisdom. Theyre necessary to apply

    twofold, you know wisdom and method, is because of what we have discussed

    earlier, because the truth and non-truth are inseparable.

    This is rather an important statement if you think carefully because one would think

    that if youre following a Buddhist path, you will, you will expect some sort of moral,

    you know, moral, I dont know, line or ground. And we do also, you know I cannot

    deny; or we must; I mean we also do; in the Buddhist path, there are so many ethical

    and moralistic methods regarding outfit, regarding diets, you know Buddhists, being

    Mahayana practitioner, vegetarian, and things like that. But path is not a path if such

    method hijacks the wisdom of the Buddha.

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    arrow, she had no, she just shot aimlessly. Puzzled by this, you know event, Saraha

    asked herwhy are, you know after all that work, you have, you know, after all that

    effort you put, why you do this, aimlessly shoot? And she saidthis is the problem

    of the whole world, because everybody is trying to find the target, and I dont have

    (laughter).

    Even in this story you, you learn that she has mastered the art of combining, not

    really - combining is not the right word; she has learned the art of inseparability of

    you know, the fake and truth. When she makes the arrow, she puts all the effort. Her

    making of the arrow is not hijacked by the knowledge of aimlessness. She was very

    meticulous. This is something you also read in the Vajracchedika Sutra, Diamond

    Sutra. If you recall, those of you who read Vajracchedika Sutra, you will hear Buddha

    put meticulous attention to how he folds the robe and washes his begging bowl and

    sit straight, so on and so forth. And Sutra ends with no Buddha, no form, none of

    that.

    Just to kill the curiosity, the guy who got enlightenment through lying by the way,

    when he was a pathological liar, he just, you know he has to lie, this is his disease.

    When he met his guru, he said - this is your path, dont ever; you have to take a vow,

    NEVER EVER, EVER tell truth to yourself and others (laughter). The explanation is

    quite a lot in fact.

    The master said - you know everything that people say is lie. So actually if you

    consciously lie, you are the ONLY person who is telling the truth (laughter). But I

    dont think Ill recommend this to you. I, I will not recommend this path to you.I mean

    do you know why? - Because we have the burden to apologise. As long as you feel

    that you need to apologise, yes you are bound by, you have, you have divorced

    between the truth and the non-truth. You have no magic basically, yes. But by all

    means, I want you to aspire to become like him.

    You should have aspiration. We should all have aspiration not to be caught up by

    this burden of eh, doing the right thing. Thats a difficult one, you know. I dont know

    whether you know thisto be, to be really free ourselves from the pressure of doing

    the right thing, eh, burden of being good. Burden of being good is a very big burden -

    oh, my goodness. I should let you ask questions. Do you have questions? Yeah, do

    you have questions?

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    Student A: Ah, yes, in your interview, you mentioned we have to educate our

    children to be elegant. This is the second time Ive heard you emphasize elegance.

    What is the significance of elegance in our dharma practice? A few of your behaviour

    look quite outrageous in common peoples eyes such as what you did in Champs-

    Elyses in France. As ordinary being like us, how can we combine elegance and

    outrageous without any conflict?

    Rinpoche: Mm, I think, Im, Im only going to tell you what I know intellectually. The

    practical thing, you know, is inexpressible. I think sometimes that one has to come

    up with, as we go through the experience. And what Im going to say might also

    confuse you but that confusion may be good for you.

    In order to become elegant, I think you need confidence. But confidence also needs

    flavour of naivety. Naivety as always known - not necessarily negative all the way.

    Many times, the children are quite elegant, for instance the kids, the three-old kid

    they do not have to think about writing a will.And I dont know; they can just cry

    anywhere they like. Theres that sense of not giving a damn about what who thinks

    what. Thats a very difficult one again; remember I was talking earlier burden of

    being good. Burden of being good is, is a big problem.

    Again I will bring your attention back to the verses here. This is because we

    constantly lose the magic, magic of everything as it appears. How it appears is not

    how it isTHAT MAGIC, that inseparability of this appearance and the truth. When

    we forget that, we forget our elegance. And more practically, you should do

    vipassana for the elegance. Because when we talk about elegance, physically,

    mentally, you know verbally, in everything; you know in appearance, in

    communicationamount of the time you invest on self-contemplation will make a big

    difference.

    For instance, like vipassana, part one, the bodyjust contemplating on your body,

    accepting as it is, not thinking of your body in reference to a certain trend, certain

    fashion, certain look, certain, I dont know, idol gains confidence. Because the

    moment you think that I should like Tom Cruise, then we have a problem (laughter).

    And, and by the way, thats important to; really, its really important for the modern

    world. Already in Korea, most of the people look similar (laughter). And already in

    Hong Kong, everybodys wearing the same thing, which is SO just not creative. Then

    you become; and of course, the fashion companies, they love it because they donthave to stitch, you know individually. Okay, the next question.

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    Student B: How to overcome the pressure coming from other peoples expectation

    towards me? Im so afraid of the expectexpectations from other people like my

    family, my friends, my parents towards me. As I am afraid that I cannot fulfil the

    expectations, so I feel pressured and nervous.

    Rinpoche: Yes, tell me about that (laughter). (Pause) Logically I should say dont

    make too much promises. I dont think I will say that. Many times, you know the fake

    promises are so good. I would say, mm, motivation is; pure kind motivation and then

    do what is necessary. If you need to promise, I guess you have to and then you will

    find a way to sort of bend the rule.

    As Shantideva said to fulfil the wishes of ignorant sentient beings - just not exist, it

    doesnt exist to fulfil all their wishes. I mean forget many, even one persons many

    days and hours wishes is difficult to fulfil, okay.

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    Student C: I have taken the bodhisattva vow. If my family, family member carries on

    a business in buying and selling alcohol and it is very hard for myself not to do

    anything, to distance myself from it. What should I do to balance the conflict between

    the vow that I have taken and the karma that I will have to face?

    The second question: can lay Buddhists; can lay Buddhist practitioners preach

    Buddhism, for example by holding a public lecture? If the person is not yet

    enlightened and have something wrong and direct people to do the wrong direction,

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    would he or she face any karmic consequences? How do we choose between

    practising by ourselves and spreading the dharma to others?

    Rinpoche: As far as teaching is concerned, theres really no differencebetweenordained or lay. Even in the historical, you know figures, there are probably more lay

    teachers than ordained. Ultimately theres only one perfect teacher, and that is the

    enlightened being. Not even the tenth bhumi bodhisattvas are supposedly perfect.

    But because not everyone is equipped with such kind of merit, situation and so forth,

    it is also good to receive teachings from those who wish well, those who have

    kindness and specially bodhicitta.

    A teacher must teach, a Buddhist teacher must teach a person to one way oranother, to enlighten this person; NOT EVEN to convince a person, not even with

    that reason, he or she should teach - convincing the person to accept your view, so

    to speak. And we will talk about motivation this afternoon, so well have a lunch

    break now.

    Okay, so now Im going through the text, kind of from the beginning. Homage to all

    the venerable Buddhas, I mean venerable gurus; so as it is in the tradition, always

    paying homage to the embodying of all the Buddhas, which is the guru. Concept ofthe guru is very complicated. Guru always gets misunderstood as master. I dont

    know whether master is guru. We dont know yet. I dont think so, most probably not.

    Because I dont know, sometimes the master seems to have a connotation of

    learned one. So it has this, it comes within the context of sort of education,

    accomplished being, kind of, you know from the more like education point of view.

    Guru is not necessarily like that.

    As I said, guru is quite, its a very complex, eh, its very complex; but I think thismight help. Guru is not limited as the master but guru is the path also. Guru is

    everything. Guru is the breeze, breeze; the colour of this grape, the spaciousness of

    this room. But again as I speak like this, there is a danger to categorize guru as

    everything, which is like very abstract. So in this way, guru is also personalized.

    So anyway in the Mahayana and especially in the Vajrayana tradition, guru is

    probably one THE most important method. You know we were talking about wisdom

    and the method; method, probably the supreme-most method - so before we begin,

    homage to the guru. And when we say homage, were not just talking about bowing

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    down but basically some sense of surrender. Its not mere respect but its a total

    surrender. We do this surrender because we are aware of the downfall of ego, ego-

    clinging; so therefore total surrender to the guru.

    (Tibetan phrase)The essence of all the Buddhas teaching, path that is venerated

    by all the bodhisattvas; path or the entrance to the path for those who are seeking

    the liberation. Which excludes, you know which basically if youre saying you are not

    interested in the liberation, this text is useless. You need to; you need to want the

    liberation, liberation from this delusion. Only and only with this kind of desire or

    longing for liberation, for those who have this kind of liberation, eh, those who long

    this kind of liberation, for themthis is an entrance to the path. And I, Tsongkhapa,

    here hes saying, I, Tsongkhapa, I shall try to present as much as I can. And here

    Tsongkhapa, you know, is exuding, demonstrating the great quality of the

    bodhisattva, which is the humility.

    (Tibetan phrase)For those who are already in this existence, in this samsara, but

    basically for those who are already existing or those who are dwelling in samsara,

    but for those who are, who has seen the true colour of this samsara, who has, who

    has had a glimpse of sort of un-repairable fault of this samsara. This line does not

    deny that there is no fun. Basically this does not, this is not denying in samsara there

    are actually some, you know, seemingly you know, pleasurable, I dont know eh,

    desirable situation but fundamentally this is all on the surface. You know on the

    surface, theres something desirable, I dont know something that is something that

    we feel, we like sort of, we cherish. But fundamentally there is incurable, incurable

    fault or a symptom, and therefore even though you see on the surface, you know

    deep down theres something has gone wrong.So for those, for those who have that

    kind of knowledge; hes, hes basically talking about to whom this is presented, so

    thatsone type of person.

    The other type is some of, some of, some of this people who have seen, who can

    see the potential of this human life. The potential of this human, human, human

    body, human life is just so powerful. It is incredible, what do you call it? - Powerful.

    Not merely, you know like animals; you know animals, they cant really plan for the

    next dinner but we can. But thatsnot just, thats, thats nothing. And not, not, not

    even the ability to, the human, human ability to, you know like raise family, lead

    thousands of people, manage big company, finish degrees, negotiate seemingly un-

    negotiable situationseven these, all of these, still we may be not even using one

    percent of the human potential.

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    So some of, some people, seeing this amazing potential of human body and really

    wanting to make most out of it, not waste itfor them, for this kind of people also

    this small booklet is presented - so here Tsongkhapa says, yeah. And also, there are

    other type of people also, those who eh, how should I put it (Tibetan phrase)?Eh,

    those who have the wit to choose the right model. Many of us, we always have a

    model; we always have a reference, a benchmark. We want to look like so and so;we want to act like so and so. We want to talk like so and so; we want to be, I dont

    know, as powerful as so and so. You know we always have that kind of reference.

    Thats what human beings do. We always refer to something.

    And from people like Tsongkhapa orAtisha Dipamkaras point of view, our

    benchmark and our model are very mediocre. Like I want to be as rich as Bill Gates,

    I want to be as creative as Steve Jobs. You know for Tsongkhapa or Atisha

    Dipamkaraokay, why not? You know like well, if you say so; its not, its not that a

    big deal. I want to be as beautiful as one of those anorex, anorexic models. So those

    who have the wit to choose the right model, right example, right reference, right

    benchmark, are those who aspire and those who get fascinated by; okay those who

    get so fascinated by words like, I mean the concepts such as compassion. And so

    much so that they would do ANYTHING, even the most, almost like a childish thing

    they would do in order to hear the word compassion.

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    Shakyamuni Buddha, the one whos sittingnext, in front of me, and I want to tell you

    this because hes touching his ushnisha. In order to hear the, because he just

    LOVES the word compassionso much; you know like some of us like who is, who

    loves hearing like Beethoven or Eminem or Lady Gaga, I dont know you listen this

    again and again and again. And you line up for Lady Gaga in the day, in the rain, in

    the shine, I dont know.Its believed that when ShakyamuniBuddha was a

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    bodhisattva in the past, in order to hear the word of compassion, stood on one foot in

    front of the Lord Dipankara, this is the Buddha Dipankara, not Atisha Dipamkara,

    okay; stood on one foot and placing a, a lamp, butter lamp over his head for seven

    days and nightsjust to hear the word compassion. To illuminate the room of his

    master, Dipankara; he put; you know the light has to be higher raised. So he, the

    highest sort of spot was his head so he put the lamp over his head, seven days andnights.

    So see this, for that bodhisattva, his benchmark, his reference, his value was

    different. The sound of the word such as compassion is what makes him happy.

    Anyway therefore this teaching is also for those who get fascinated and inspired by

    events such as what, what Buddha did in his past life. And this kind of people is what

    he calls, what Tsongkhapa calls fortunate one. To summarize, okay those people

    who are, who have seen the incurable, un-repairable but you know, seemingly kind

    of nice and you know like eh, nice situation but you know underneath something is

    gone wrong. Thats a fortunate one.

    The other one is someone who has seen the potential, human potential SO MUCH,

    and realizing that we are not using even one percent and mean we are wasting time

    fortunate one. And someone who gets fascinated by different kinds of benchmark

    like the word of compassion. These are fortunate ones and these fortunate ones,

    Lama Tsongkhapa says (Tibetan phrase)come here, listen without any judgement

    and open mind; with open-minded, without any judgementlisten.

    (Tibetan phrase) Okay, this is actually the first principle. Hes, hes saying first, and

    most importantly we must look for, search for renunciation mind. And here you will

    notice renunciation; the meaning of renunciation is SO nicely explained. Contrary,

    contrary to many peoples belief, renunciation is not a practice of ascetism; like

    penance, its not a practice of penance.Its not really, you know like giving up

    responsibilities. Its not really, you know eh, surrendering to a severe kind of

    moralistic practice.

    Maybe Im unnecessarily making it complicated but Ill try. Maybe Im making,

    making it a little complicated unnecessarily, but to appreciate the way the teachings

    are presented, Ill, Ill kind of follow some of this, the way it is expressed. You know

    its a bit like this; like nirvana or enlightenment in Buddhism is un-long able, un-

    longing, how do you put it in English? Mm, un-longing, not possible to long basically;

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    you cannot, it is not longing, longing-able (laughter), yeah longing-able; yeah, you

    cannot long. Yes, nirvana is not longing-able (laughter).

    But the problem with us is we long for samsara. Thats why at times we have to

    divert your attention from longing the samsara and say you should long for nirvana

    even though it is un-longing-able. Because remember this morning we say, again

    here samsara and nirvanaMAGIC. It is a magicalvery samsara is the very

    nirvana. You cannot get rid of samsara and try to find nirvana. You cannot get rid of

    water and try to find moisture. Okay so (Tibetan phrase) therefore you need to really

    mm, look at this unreasonable, unreasonable obsessive longing to the samsara.

    Because if you do long for this samsara, this obsessive longing of samsara will

    overshadow your, overshadow, defile your view.

    So thats why as many great masters of the past saidno one wants to suffer, butno one wants to get rid of samsara. But if you dont get rid of the samsara; get rid is

    just for the sake of communication; if you dont sort of do something with samsara, if

    youre, youre still attached to samsara suffering continues and thats something

    you dont want.So basically you know, you are not making sense. Youre, you are

    loving the cause of the suffering and youre hating the suffering; so its a bit like

    contradictory. So this craving for the samsara binds you in this suffering.

    Therefore, first and most importantly, invoke renunciation mind; and how do we do

    that? Here he explains briefly. (Tibetan phrase) Think of this precious human body,this precious human life, this amazing ability that we have, this amazing ability to

    mm, how should I put it? (Pause) Ive already told you about animals, right. Anima ls

    have really almost; they, they have their own ability but you know they cant really

    eh, (pause) compare to us. But lets use the reference god, gods, goddesses, gods,

    heavenly beings. From the spiritual point of view, even the gods dont have, dont

    have the human ability because many, many reasons why the gods are, the human,

    human beings, the human body is just BY FAR more able than gods.

    See this is very interesting. Actually the gods, many of these gods; they even have

    some sort of clairvoyance so they should actually have the ability much more thanus. We dont have, most of us, we dont have clairvoyance. But the main reason, oneof the main reasons - many, many other reasons, huh - one of them is humancondition is totally uncertain. Thats what makes human life, human body so ABLE;so, so, the ability so much whereas gods life is kind of certain; so certainty makesthem weak. They dont think much, they dont need tothink; everything is scheduled,everything is taken care of, so to speak.

    Just if you think of, if you think of what we have and how we have managed to deal

    with our partners mood swings, for instance, just THAT alone if you put it all

    together, this ALONE will show you how we are so good at it, so much ability. Andhow we forget things you know; forgetfulness is such a precious thing, you know

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    because its, you know it. A lot of the grudges you dont have because you have

    forgetfulness. So anyway, human potential is something that we need to

    contemplate. These are all how to, how to generate the renunciation mind.

    If you can think about these things, then you realize our human body, human life isbit like you know, mileage points with an expiry date, you understand. You better useit soon otherwise you know its a waste.You cant even transfer it to someone else.So thats one, one, one way of generating the renunciation mind.

    Then, uncertainty of life: we dont know whats next. Even between you and me, wedontknow all these lovey-dovey situations can go overnight. You dont know mysecrets; I dont know your secrets. Im never going to tell you my real secrets(laughter) and I dont want to hear your secrets. This, this distance is verycomfortable. Some are getting a little bit closer than necessary. The first thing youbegin to notice is smell (laughter) and occasionally, it can be you know, kind ofuplifting and even erotic, but overdose with all those kind of things could also spoilyour life.

    And, yeah, and our values - what we like and what we dont like - changes; ourprinciples, our, all of these changeable; and then eh, most painful fact is you know,we, we all have to just die. And even more painful is, you dont know; even morepainful than the fact that we are all going to die is that we dont know WHEN weregoing to die. Now thinking these things will then make you (Tibetan phrase)this iskind of beautiful word, how to translate? Its like; theres a Tibetan word calledjur buthon par. Jur bu thon par means one that sees this side, one that sees ONLY thisside. Thats, thats, thats the term only. One sees, one that sees only this side.

    So by, by getting accustomed to, you know like precious human body andimpermanence, what it does is it suddenly begins to not only see this side, then youbegin to see other side. And thats beginning to, you know your vision, your view when, when its normal limited to only this side, this life - then you have renunciationmind. So thats why you will see people with begging bowl and you know, veryascetic looking and very renounced looking but theyre only looking at this side still.They are not necessarily renounced person. Anyway we have been told to drink lotsof water which causes lots of results, so lets have a break.

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    by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

    Question: Rinpoche, in the news, we can often see some unjust things, which bringus anger, emotional turmoil, and yet we dont know what to do about it. CanRinpoche please suggest how to handle these situations? When common folks likeus face these unjust, unfair social matterswhat to do?

    Rinpoche: What, what, what? (Laughter)

    Question: There are, there are many news eh, about social unjust, un-justice, unfairthings in the society.

    Rinpoche: Mm, most practical thing, most doable thing is aspiration, I think. Beyondthat, were just not capable and by doing meagre things may not be also helpful. You

    know, of course, I totally understand all these social injustice like rape case, recentrape case in India. These are just unbearable; of course if one can do something,one must. But to really wipe out all these problems, sufferingright now, the bestthing we can do is aspiration; prayers basically.

    The biggest tragedy, the biggest tragic, actually its just not that. From the Buddhistpoint of view, theres a REALLY a big tragic thats happening all the time. The factthat all beings like you and me, and especially those who are walking outside here,you know sentient beingseven though theyre adorned with Buddha-nature, you

    know wherever they go, Buddha-nature goes, they just miss it all the time. And thatis the BIGGEST TRAGEDY. It is so near, you know. Its just so close. Its right infront, its even closer than in front of you, but every, most of us we miss it and thatis the biggest tragedy.

    And even for that, aspiration is one thing we can do. And actually, never one shouldundermine the power of aspiration. It is actually THE most powerful, single mostpowerful, I would say.

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    Question: Rinpoche - doesnt Buddhist disciplines teach us to do the right thing, andhow should we contemplate impermanence in accordance with the text?

    Rinpoche: Yes, the Buddhist tells us to do the right thing and, but its never

    abandoned by the wisdom, which we will be actually explaining; you know the rest ofthe text is about that. But anyway, the person whos asking this question is notcoming back; I would say, in a nutshellyes do the right thing, but at the end, youknow eventually, ultimately, you can never do the right thing until you embrace thatmagic, that we talked this morning. You cannot.

    If you lose that magic of non-duality of wisdom and method, the truth and non-truth,illusion and reality, you know, the inseparability of illusion and reality; if you lose that,mere practice of doing the right thing will just become a burden. It actually becomes

    a BIG problem, a moral problem. It becomes really; when the morality becomes thecause of a problem, it becomes such a biggest problem. I mean cant you see,almost eighty percent of the worlds problems is a religious problem? - This is theRIGHT thing to do. This is the ONLY way to do.

    Question: Rinpochein the case of extramarital affair, how can one transformoneself to see this as an illusion?

    Rinpoche: Until you are caught (laughter and applause). And then another illusionbegins (laughter), okay.

    Question: Rinpoche, in daily life, our mind has many thoughts; even worse, badmemories, confusion, emotions, unrealistic imagination, and the future is full ofuncertainty. How can we settle our mind or heart without trapped by these?

    Rinpoche: Okay, mmm, this is coming from a sutra but Im going to abbreviate, huh.You know potters, when they make pots, they have this spinning wheel. And onceyou start this wheel, then that particular spinning, a bit kind of; okay maybe its a bittoo late, you know when once it is beginning to shape the pot. But what you can dois you can already plan the next spinning. What kind of shape of pot you are going tocreate?

    Eh, what Im saying is whilst beings like us, those who are not on the highest bhumi,the highest stages of the bodhisattva levelwe are bound by our karma, karmicwind, karmic debt, karmic link; so in a way we have almost no choice. I say almost

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    but we can already CREATE OR NOT CREATE for the future generation of thekarma. This is the best thing we could do - One more (question).

    Question: I wish I can follow my guru to do to do retreat practice. However due to

    lack of cause and condition, Im still not able to do so. Can Rinpoche advise whatcan I do to get the cause and condition to make the above come true? He, he wishesfor your blessing too.

    Rinpoche: I think any kind of practice, you can dedicate towards that wish. Okay Ithink we will continue with the text.

    (Tibetan phrase) Okay, so we talk about renunciation mind and one is like byremembering precious human body and impermanence and through that you, youbegin to see the futility of this side of life. And then we should, we contemplate onthe laws, laws of cause and condition. Cause and condition, when theyre gatheredand when theyre not interfered by obstacles, result is guaranteed. You cannot avoidresult. That may be not the ultimate fact but it is the relative fact. You cannot alter it.Its actually kind of related to one of the questions that earlier asked.

    If you plant marigold, if theres all the necessary conditions such as, I dont know,

    fertilizer, you know fencing, enough water, space, sunshine - IF and if there is noobstacleeven if you wish the marigold will not blossom, it will blossom. It will, it willgrow, it will come and it will blossom. Just like that, whatever we do or we think, evena moment of thought has consequences or it gives birth to a certain situation.

    When that wind of cause and condition blows and when there is no interference, aswe have all experienced, things come, things arise, we experience things, and wecannot avoid it. We cannot escape from it. And we, you and I are very muchcontrolled by cause and condition - all of us and every aspect of us.

    Our, our physical circumstance obviously - you cannot rest assured by going to awhole body check-up today and find nothing. And you cannot rest assured - youshould have another one tomorrow, actually every six hours. We never know withinthis short time. We, we dont know what has shifted, what we have accumulated.This MUCH we know even though we try to deny, this much we know; and this isdue to cause and condition. And many of the cause and condition is not visible, itsnot perceivable.

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    And our mental, our mental stateof course, its somuch under the influence ofcause and condition. Basically we, we have no control; cause and condition hascontrol. Thinking this, contemplate on this game of the law or manifestation of thekarma, again, again and again. By contemplating on this, it will then make you have;itll, it will then, you know, you know earlier we were talking about having a certainnarrow outlook towards this life, this side; but by contemplating on the karma, youllalso have a greater view or a greater outlook towards next lifebeyond this life,beyond, beyond this, you know this side. Then suddenly you may even plan muchmore than next life.

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    by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

    And then on top of that, contemplating on this suffering and the anxiety that weexperience, that our realm, six realms altogether, especially hell realm that we haveto have go through. When, so then the day will come that you will not really wish forthe glory and the glittering and the shiny, you know experiences of samsara. You willnot make a big, its not, its not a, its not something that you will long for. In fact, dayand night when you begin to long for something other than this, all this sort ofmaterial gain, then you can consider you have a renunciation mind. Okay, so that isthe First Principle, the Principle of Renunciation Mind.

    (Tibetan phrase) This is important one. EVEN THOUGH you have renunciation mind,if your renunciation mind is not accompanied by bodhicitta - your renunciation, notonly is not a path to the enlightenment, it will only become a cause of depression! Ihad a long conversation with my, one of my teachers, Nyoshul Khenpo, NyoshulKhen Rinpoche, one of the great Dzogchen masters. The conversation was actuallyquite interesting. But it can be, you know like it can almost like really mmm, veryeasy to be misunderstood.

    Once we were having tea and he was saying; you know were talking, you know, I

    know why we were talking about because I was reading a Japanese novel. I think itscalled Golden Temple. This was long timeago; it was written by Japanese author

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    called Yukio Mishima. Anyway like him so our conversation you know led to manyJapanese authors like, theres another one called Yasunari Kawabata. Anyway theyall committed suicide; right, you all know that. So Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche wassaying, kind of like shocking he said - he said the mind-state of those who wish tocommit suicide is very admirable. That was the thing he said. It was kind of likeshocking for me to hear.

    Because hes; you know and then we had; of course, Im cutting down a longconversation very short here. He said something very profound, I think. He saidifyou really think deep, every one of us would like to commit suicide. Because life isjust SO SHALLOW AND MEANINGLESS; its just, just completely what do you callit?Pointless and empty. But most of uswe dont even think of committing suicidebecause were completely blissed out by the fact that tomorrow, you know, it will befixed.

    People who are completely depressed and really wishing to, you know end their livesthey have thought and thought and thought; and they have reached to this levelwhere they are completely desperate. So that much fault of the samsara, so tospeak, they know. But what went wrong with them, this is Nyoshul Khen Rinpochesaying, is because they have no way out. So theyre completely dead-end. And we,this is how he ended the conversation, we, the follower of Shakyamuni, we areblessed by a way out - so there is no reason to commit suicide.

    See people who wish to commit suicidethey got, they lost the magic. They werewatching the rainbow and they just get so depressed by only thinking that a rainbowactually does not exist. Why cant they just watch and enjoy?

    So this is why renunciation mind is not enough. It is one of the most importantPrinciples but it has to be accompanied by bodhicitta. In other words, there is a verygood reason to buy good lipsticks, good moisturizer, eat good food, do exerciseallof that. Instead of this mentality of, you know, pessimism; and HERE AGAIN were

    talking about the union of pessimism and optimismyou have to have both. See itsALL related to what we talked this morningthe illusion and the reality. This, this isreality and illusion TOGETHER!!

    Therefore you path should not be JUST renunciation. Because then you are onlychoosing the illusion bit. Your path has travelled renunciation mind. You know whenyou look at the rainbow or watching a movie, you do have that you know, you enjoy,you know you have thatyoure enjoying but deep down you know that its not reallyhappening. So you have this; you dont sit in the cinema after, when the film is

    finished - you dont mind getting out and do the next thing.

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    So more reasons, why, why bodhicitta? Why not just renunciation? Because see,mmm, the word renunciation has something to do with getting rid of.On the otherhand you need to acquire the wealth of, wealth of bodhisattvawhich is to benefitpeople, benefit beings, benefit oneself and others. To acquire, to accumulate this

    kind of wealth of the bodhisattva, and this wealth of the bodhisattva is not only; itdoes not only make you happyit also is the source of the happiness of others.Thats why ALL THE REASONS to acquire this wealth of the bodhisattva. Thats whyhere he said (Tibetan phrase), thats whythe wise person must strive and generate,to generate the bodhicitta.

    If, you know, you look at samsara, you see the total futility but for the benefit ofsentient beings, you are ready to do anything. You are ready to do ANYTHING - thatyour principle that you used to have, your value that you used to have, rejects. Such

    as maybe in the past you think, you know, professionally being dentist probably themost horrible thing, you know but then huh, if it is benefitingwhat not? Politician,prostitution, businessman, I dont know, soothsayer, tarot card reader, eh, I dontknow; or even including not doing anything and gives space to other people to dothings (laughter). So we, we have to, we, we should try to generate the bodhicitta.

    Eh, sem-kye, its a very beautiful word, sem-kye generating the bodhicitta. Youknow it is something that is you know, creatable, so to speak. It is something thatyou can generate. Basically if you are capable, if you, if you are capable of hating

    someone or getting angry with someone, then you are capable of having bodhicitta.So any, all beings not excludedthey all have the ability to have emotion. Youranger, jealousy, pride, doubt, all of that didnt come out of the blue; you, yougenerate them. In turn, circumstance and the situations help generating them andmaintaining them, nurturing them; then you begin to TEACH others how to generatethese emotions. Just like that, we can also generate bodhicitta. And the main body ofhow creating, creating the bodhicittawe will be doing tomorrow. We, we continuefrom that, this point tomorrow, but meanwhile you can ask some questions today,yes.

    Question: How should we treat the various ethnical and cultural differencesmanifested in different religions, thats right, different regions that conflicts withBuddhist principles? For example some regions practice polygamy, or the womanwould not have a fixed person as her husband. Do any of these practices conflictwith karma? Do they breach the principle of no-adultery?

    Rinpoche: Are you talking about, you know like some parts of the Tibetan region, awoman has like five or six husbands?Must be. And when I was growing up in

    EAST Bhutan, many ladies or what do you call it, wives, they have, I dont know what do you call them? What do you call them - mistresses? No, cant really;

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    officials theyre not really husbands but they are like, theyre like attributesbasically (laughter). Yeah, if you are talking about them - yes, they are cultural, Ithink.

    And I have to say, sadly even in Bhutan, its dying (laughter). I blame it to television.Somehow with the arrival of the television, Ivenotice the girls in Bhutanthey usedto really not hide their breasts. Now they are beginning to wear bra and they arebeginning to sort of cover it; before it was not an issue. So now the Christian value isslowly coming in.

    Eh, this is an interesting question also because we should also remember Buddha,himself, before he sneaked out of the palace, he had many queens. This is whereagain lets go back to the magic that we were talking about. Never hijack the wisdom

    by method, vice versa. This is why again morality that is based on the culture isreally preferred for the Buddhist. Its not most important, its NOT most important. Itis, it is, it is useful tool. Whether it contradicts with the Buddhist precepts; again herethe Buddhist precepts must ALWAYS be based on both wisdom and method, okay.

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    by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

    Question: The more I hope that I can be not to distinguish the phenomena I

    encounter, the more I would become more distinguished and even arise some

    negative thoughts on some very strange and messy thoughts. How to deal with this

    situation?

    Rinpoche: Mm, non, non-discriminationthat, that technique is kind of difficult; I

    would say before you try to attempt these methods, I would suggest you to actually

    try to stabilize and make your mind malleable through techniques such as shamathaor the one-pointed concentration meditation. Okay just one more question.

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    There's a fundamental insecurity that we all suffer from. The insecurity is mainly eh,

    with that; okay, to put it very kind of crudely or very gently, very generic sense - the

    insecurity is two-fold or two kinds. One is more sort of gross which involves in, which

    involves wishing to be happy basically and not finding the right happiness, not finding

    the, not finding enough happiness, not finding eh, long-lasting happiness, so on and

    so forth. And that, that kind of insecurity is really gross kind of insecurity.

    More subtle and probably eh, something we should be really paying more attention

    towards is insecurity of not knowing who we are. You know, in the old sphere of

    outer and inner world, there is one thing that is most important, and that is myself,

    self, me, I. You have, from the time, unless you're in coma, deep sleep; eh, there are

    about five stages which I can't remember everything. One is deep sleep, coma, eh,

    meditative, deep meditative state. Did I mention 'faint'? - Probably not, faint; and eh,

    heightened bliss which is the result of sexual union, meaning organism, if you put it

    very, you know sort of crudely.

    Apart from this, these five; during those five, then probably you don't have idea or

    the; you know, you are not conscious of self. You kind of, you know, eh, there is no

    notion of self. Apart from that, as you experience; and by the way I'm not talking

    theory here, this is quite hands on, this is very practical.

    From the time you woke up this morning, the notion of self, whether it's a conscious

    one or a sub-conscious one - it goes on all the time, all the time. Sense of me, I - this

    is there, ever present. And THIS is the one that we have been slaving. And this is the

    self that we are trying to entertain, trying to make sure that it meets what it wants and

    needs. But even though it is the most powerful, most important entity in the whole

    sphere of our existence, none of us really do have a concrete idea of what the self is.

    It's very clear when we say 'this is flower' - we can point it out. It's very practical, it's

    very clear. There is no, what do you call it? - No loopholes; but what is the self?

    When you say - I am so and so - what are you talking about? What are you saying

    when you say 'I'? What are you saying? You seem to be pointing out to a lot of

    things - sometimes the chest, sometimes the nose, sometimes the toes, sometimes,

    a lot of things, a lot of things. Your feelings, your ideas, your beliefs - what are you

    talking about?

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    So the 'self', most part, the idea of self, as you can experience - is abstract. But you

    can't really sort of not paying attention to this self as something abstract because as

    we talk earlier, it is one that from the time you wake up, from the time you woke up

    from a coma or whatever - it is very much there. So there is that paradox, the really

    STRONGLY present 'self', yet really not being able to point out what it is.

    In trying to really articulate this sort of abstract idea of self, religion has appeared.

    Many times we acquire wealth, education, fame. Many times we are, we try to do

    what we do; even using, even a choice of colour of your shirt, even gel you use to

    straighten your hair, whatever - it's related to, you know, the struggle to articulate

    what the self is.

    In, in the theist, from the theistic approach, we created notion of God so that we

    have; you know it's almost like God, we create a God so that we articulate the

    existence of the self. We create a higher, assumingly we, we create eh, supposedly

    a higher being, who then we believe, we like to believe that this higher being has

    created us. Here again we're, we are trying to prove our existence. And then the

    reward, punishment depending on how you relate to this God; all of this somehow

    helps you, helps you temporarily anyway, to feel your existence.

    And ordinary beings, as I said earlier, we do a lot of things to prove its, its existence,

    but as we have known, as we are experiencing - none of them, all of this matters, not

    really manage to, you know confirm and make this abstract notion of self into

    something tangible. I am telling you all these things because I want to put this text

    that we are doing this time into certain context.

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    So you can say in ancient Indian philosophical system, you can say there are two

    groups of thoughts. One that still try to articulate this abstract self, still cling on to its

    existence, and trying to define this, this self. And within this, within this system, came

    a lot, you know yogas, just a lot of different practices to get in touch with this holy,mystical inner self, so to speak.

    Then there is the other school of thought which does not actually accept the

    existence of the self. So this school of thought - self is just an idea that is created. It

    is a total hallucination. It's a, it's a baseless notion that we just eh, we just got so

    attached to it and based on this attachment, the habit became too strong. And

    Buddhism, the path of the Buddha belongs to this second category.

    And I would say confidently, among all the Indian philosophical systems, Buddhism

    maybe the one that really ruthlessly and firmly negates the notion of the truly existing

    self. Therere, there are other schools, there are other schools also, those, those

    who also are very close to accepting the non-existence of the self, but they tend to

    sort of; okay, theres no really a self as we think but the self is something divine, you

    know. But they always end up talking some kind of existence, a higher self; not the

    self that were referring to - but they talk about a higher self. For Buddhists and

    especially in the Mahayana, not even the higher self exists. For Buddhists andespecially Mahayana Buddhism, pain, release from the pain, pathall these exist

    within the realm of relative truth, nothing else.

    If you are having a nightmare while sleeping on a nice bed, this is what Buddhists

    would say. Before you even slept, the nightmare did not exist - of course notthats

    nothing you know unusual. But what the Buddhists are saying isEVEN as you are

    HAVING the nightmare, while, while you are having the nightmare, actually it is not

    happening. Thats a difficult to chew this one because youre; but I am, I am being,

    you know there isnt earthquake, there isnt monsters about to eat me, all of that.

    But now there is another one thats even more difficult which is after waking up

    from the nightmare, to understand the nightmare that never existed - thats even

    more difficult because that sense of relief from waking up from a nightmare is just

    SO good. So how can you say that there was nothing? But, anyway if you are to

    study and follow the Mahayana path, this is the view that you have to be brave

    enough to accept.

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    Anyway we were talking about you know two thoughts, you know, two thoughts of

    schools - one that kind of believes in a self but not what how we are experiencing

    and therefore a path that, that involves around actually making this self -

    comfortable, liberationthey also speak about liberationso thats that.

    And then one that talks about no-self and understanding the no-self is the liberation.

    So thereretwo thoughts, remember I was talking. The text we are doing obviously

    belongs to Buddhism; therefore it is the second one. But within the, within the

    tradition of the schools of thought that, that accept that there is no truly existing self

    theres also two methods, two paths. One has a greater attitude and the other has a

    lesser attitude; and this one belongs to the greater attitude. Both believe in non-

    existence of self.

    Okay, so now the question is what makes the greater - greater. Both of them accept

    you know non-existence of self. Self is a total deception. It is an illusion but what

    makes Mahayana the greater path? To put it very, sort of in a very common eh,

    language; in the Mahayana, okay, the lesser attitude people see because self is, self

    is hallucination; therefore everything that is related to self is ridiculous. So why

    should we do things that are ridiculous? Thats what the lesser attitude people think.

    But the greater attitude peoplefor them, their attitude is yes, self is a deception; it

    is a hallucination - therefore everything that is related to self is ridiculous BUT lets

    play with the ridiculousness. Lets dwell in it, lets use it because remember we

    talked about water and moisture cannot be separated; likewise ridiculousness and

    what is the opposite of ridiculousness?Meaningful - is actually after all not

    separate. So rejecting something as ridiculous is a burden, they think. And this, by

    the way, is complicated way of expressing what compassion is.

    You know we always talk about unconditional love. Knowing something is so

    ridiculous yet enjoying doing itthat is quite close to being unconditional love. Thats

    what mothers do when they play with their babies. All kinds of ridiculous stuff they

    do; and not only the babies, lovers, family memberswe all do ridiculous stuff

    because we have unconditional love for our beloved one. Things like New Years

    Eve, family dinner, BUT for instance like family dinnersthis has now been invaded

    by burden of custom and traditionthen its no more, no more, its no more what do

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    you call it, unconditional activity. You know all the love. Many of them, Im sure you

    do it just for the sake of doing it.

    Mothers can play this ridiculous game with their kids TIRELESSLY. It never makesthem tired. They are ready to do anything, anytime, twenty-four hours; and joyful, so

    joyful to do those things. And also a lot of what do you call it?Eh, eh, judgement,

    self-judgemental, all of that also goes you know dissipate because your love for the

    child is so strong, it goes off.

    Anyway, just trying to put you into context of this Mahayana path that, which this text

    belongs to. Then if I continued; this all related to what Im about to say anyway. Eh,

    (Tibetan phrase), I think we finished that. (Rinpoche read Tibetan phrases andquotes) - Okay, so we talked about renunciation mind; and that renunciation mind

    must accompany by mind, enlightened mind or the bodhicitta. Therefore the

    bodhicitta needs to be generated.

    And to, to you know convince ourselves more by explaining why we should do that.

    Why should we have bodhicitta? Why should we have compassion to these beings?

    Because these beings; we, we the beingswe are swept by powerful, four powerful

    currents all the time, river current.Therere four currents that are just swaying us,you know like, like if you are in a very strong river, you cannot swim. You can, you try

    but you know the current is so strong, you have no control.

    And those four currents are birth, old age, sickness, and death. And out of this; they

    are like, like eh, the order is birth, old age, sickness and death. So according to the

    order, the first one is the strongest current. You know this is quite interesting

    because we, we fear the death the most and then the sickness, and then the old age

    but we kind of, since we dont reallythink about birth so much. But according to theBuddhas teaching, the,the most powerful current that that sways you, that sweeps

    you here and therebirth - and then followed by old age, sickness and death.

    And when we say birth, of course we are referring to the big birth, you know, the time

    that we came into this earth, of course, but not just that. Every minute, every second,

    every moment, we are stumbling into something. We are coming into existence

    every time, every minute. Or more crudely speaking, every minute, every moment,

    every second, we just cant stay out of problem, out of trouble. You know stay out of

    problem, stay out of trouble, but we cant.

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    We are, we have this attitude of run away, you know eh, criminal, just, just running

    away because youve done something wrong. Youalways hide, trying to find hideout

    even a corner will do. New ideas, new restaurants, new hang, you know hangouts,

    new music, I dont know, newthisalways, always looking for birth; swept away bythe birth, swept away, influenced by new existence, new stumbling into - stumbling I

    think its a good word here.And we voluntarily stumble, try to. And we can, success,

    the indication of success in our life is how, how, how often we actually get, we

    manage to stumble into something.

    Thats the big current, the biggest. Nagarjuna told his friend. He said; well in a

    nutshell, he saidmake sure that you will not be born again. You know, thats a big

    one. You know were all making sure that wewill not die, but we dont really thinkthat the biggest problem is being born again.

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    Then after that, old ageoh, my goodnessVISIBLE! Right in front of your eyes,itshappening. Even as I look at my toes, the nails are not growing kind of properly.

    You know just everything, I dont know. Like right in front of you, this current of decay

    seems to be so strong that it sweeps us. And you know, yes of course the current

    sweeps us to foundation stores and stuff like that; foundation, right?You now,

    moisturizing, eh, stores and stuff like that, but it still sweeps, it still sweeps. Decay is

    SO powerful. Decay, the word decay is like rotten cheese you know. And cheese,

    some of them can be quite expensive when you get preserved - unavoidable this one

    also.

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    And sickness, which is basically eh, imbalance of elementsthats going to happen,

    bound to happen; and the death, of course. And therefore so beings like us, all of us

    we are swept by the current of these four forces.

    If that is not bad news enough, there is another one that is. If, if we get swept by

    currents and (they) really sweep and sweep, and you know like get disintegrated,

    then it doesnt really matter, does it?But NO, unfortunately there is a very strong

    string that still keeps you together. Thats really unfortunate one. Its like very gluey,

    sticky kind of, you know like it keeps, it keeps you intact. Not in a healthy way, but

    just keeps, keeps you so that you can, you get swept by the four currents more. Its a

    really bad, this one and that string is called KARMA.And it just, you know the string,

    the string doesnt let you disintegrate so it sweeps you, you and stumbling more and

    more, decaying more and more, endlessly sort of almost.

    And if that is not worse enough, theres even one thing that is worse. You are bound

    by a net made out of iron which is clinging to the self. So just imagine you are

    bound a net, fishing net or something and you are swept by the current. You cant

    even swim because youre bound. And if you only, if you dont have a karma, at least

    you disintegrate, and then sooner or later youre going to sort of stopped being

    swept. But no!Theres this good glue that keeps you together.

    And then the darkness of emotion invades us all time. We continue again and again

    into this infinite existence. As we continue into this existence, we have suffering of

    suffering, suffering of change and all-pervasive suffering of duality. And all these

    beings, one way, one way or another, we are all related. And when we were related,

    we have done everything that is possible to protect each other. We have sacrificed.

    We have forsaken things to protect each other. But then in our next existence we

    totally forget thats what we have done. And then we, we wage war, we have dispute,

    and we kill and destroy each other. And this repeats again and again.

    Thinking these things, not only a path, not only a bodhisattva who wishes to follow

    the glorious ones must just think of renunciation mind but a bodhisattva has to

    generate the bodhicitta - and this is the Second Principle. Okay, lets take a break.

    Were coming back now to where we actually started yesterday, at the Third

    Principle. In this I, you will; Lama Tsongkhapas Three Principles of the Pathreally

    is such a good sort of birds eye view towards Mahayana path. You, you know it

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    really sort of eh, it really eh, shows us the connection, so to speak, the connection

    between wisdom and method.And youll, you know you will realize what makes

    Mahayana so special; that actually Mahayana is not an extreme path. Its the other,

    its the otherwise. Its a very blissful path. Mm, it is a broad path that can be applied

    by everyone, and everyone who has different capacities, or time or energy.

    Okay so, to again remind ourselves how; to make it cohesive, so to speak eh - we

    need to have, we need to have a longing for something that is not, something not,

    something that is not just this surface, this life, this thing that we have. We need to

    have longing for magic. We need to have longing for something thats inexpressible

    by these very limited tools of expression. We need to have a longing for something

    that is not just, you know money, power eh, possessions, and family. We need our

    longing; our benchmark of longing has to be higher. It should, it should be much

    more interesting than this thing that we have.

    Otherwise mm, (pause) youre subject of all the limitations of samsara or our so-

    called this existence. You have to become Bohemian, spiritual Bohemian. You have

    to become spiritual hippie. Its really about time now that you know Asia such as

    China, Hong Kong of course; its really timeto you know, we have to think different. I

    dont know, maybe how you think but John Lennon, you know being able to sing

    Imagine There Is No Heaven thats, thats a, thats QUITEa benchmark that is

    high. You know thats quite a goodway of contemplation and at that time, in that

    society. Its a really, very advanced thinking.

    Must be quite hard for a, you know then really strong Christian-domineering society. I

    mean imaging, imagining theres no heaven thats kind of okay. But imagine there

    is no hell, now THAT for the religious people, thats really bad. You have to think

    there is hell. So we have, you know; Im going a little bit astray here, sorry.

    We have to have a longing to something not JUST what we have, you know this.

    You can still wear Gucci shoes but you know something, something extra. Gucci

    shoes are finereally no problem but Im just saying you should aim HIGHER. I

    dont know like going barefoot in Parliament; something like that. Mm, and for

    THAT youll need to really watch out this obsessive longing to this mundane world of

    samsara, consumerism, you know this; you know we have to watch out. Watch out,

    really see the fundamental futility of this value, and thats called renunciation.

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    Then renunciation is not enough according to this text. We need compassion,

    bodhicitta, daringness. We need to, we need to care because caring, kindness,

    bodhicittathey are the epitome of common sense, the essence of common sense.

    And object of your compassion should be limitless. It should not be only targeted to

    you know eh, obvious destitute beings. Barack Obama is equally important as an

    object of compassion to some homeless Bangladeshi. Or your Hong Kong leadersthey are equally compassion objects. Taiwanese, Chinesethey walked in and out

    from their office without realizing they have the buddha-nature with them all the time.

    And your aspiration to these guys probably is even more worthwhile because they

    can make difference.

    But now not only is the renunciation not enough, you need the bodhicitta; but

    bodhicitta is not enough, you need wisdom. (Tibetan phrase) Even though you may

    have relative bodhicitta like wishing well, wishing enlightenment for all sentient

    beings, so on and so forthIF you dont have the wisdom of knowing what it is and

    how it is, then you will still, you may able to, you may be occasionally or even to a

    certain period, you may experience calmness, clarity, I dont know,soberness,

    sanity. But if you dont have the wisdom,you still not cut the root of all this problem,

    all this suffering.

    Appearing and even experiencing sanity but deep down if you are insane - can be

    very dangerous. And then more than EVER this world needs to promote sanity,

    sobriety because were just so drunk. We are just so, the only sobriety or sanity that

    we experience is eh, at times our - you know intoxication substance consumption is

    kind of slower or I dont know but theres so much, so much insanity. I, really we

    dont know economic down; you know downturn or decline of economy maybe, could

    be a window of opportunity to invoke sanity, eh sanity and sobriety.

    But its kind of difficult because the sobriety or the sanity is becoming so alien. We

    dont experience so much. Occasionally when we are forced to experience, we are

    so afraid and we, we do EVERYTHING to drink. So therefore the bodhisattva who

    wishes to follow this path must invest time and energy to understand law and the rule

    of or the truth of dependent arising.

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    Dependent - NOTHING is independent; wish, you know like, you know everything is

    dependently arising. A bodhisattva must pay attention, invest time and energy to

    understand that. And by the way, this is the quintessential Mahayana path, AIM of

    the Mahayana path to understand the dependent arising. Wishing, longing, aspiring,

    working hard to understand the dependent arising IS offering to the Buddha. It IS the

    meditation. It IS the generosity. It IS the discipline. It IS what so-called meditation. It

    IS basically Mahayana path - dependent, understand, trying to understand

    dependent arising.

    And here, towards the end of the text, wevealready discussed this but we will do it

    again maybe after, I dont know, maybe afternoon or after few questions and

    answers. Here again we will briefly talk about how to understand this dependent

    arising. But I should let you ask some questions.

    Question: Rinpoche, would Rinpoche consider to conduct Buddhist marriage

    ceremony or set up Buddhist ceremony?

    Rinpoche: Oh, thats mywhat, its what eh, my, what do you call it?Eh, eh Plan B

    of my life (laughter). Its a; Ive, Ive already been experimenting a few guinea pigs

    sitting here actually. I think we have to come out with a good music.

    Question: The vajrayana tradition is first and foremost an oral tradition handed down

    from master to disciple. The association and connection between the guru and the

    disciple is particularly important. As a Dharma Das student, we communicate with

    our teacher through emails. How do we ensure eh, the quality of learning as well as

    the informal connection lead to formation of lineage?

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    Rinpoche: Thats quite a relevant and important question. First of all this is important

    to clarify. Vajrayana primarily is not an oral transmission, oral transmission lineage. It

    is NOT. Just like you know Mahayana and Shravakayana, Vajrayana also has tantric

    texts. You know it also has that tantric lineage text, just like Shravakayana and

    Mahayana. Its not just oral.

    Actually Tantrayana is a whole different world. It is very big. I would say probably

    bigger than Shravakayana and Mahayana put togetherjust the whole culture and

    the textjust everything, study. But Vajrayana has suffered a lot and for good

    reason.

    Suffered eh, for instance okay: historically for instance Nalanda Universities havethree times of attack. And the last one, when the Islamic invasion arrived in India, the

    last one basically destroyed probably ninety-nine per cent of the library and

    unfortunately big, big, big part of the original tantric texts were gone at that time. And

    this is a big loss. And but actually for the vajrayana, this is not the main reason why

    the vajrayana suffered.

    The Tantrayana or the Vajrayana suffered mainly because of its own, what do you

    call it?Nature, so to speak; because tantric concepts are so unacceptable by thecommon people. So that is always, I dont know its very interesting to put it - like

    Tantrayana is its own enemy but Tantrayana likes that because Tantra wants to

    keep itself secret and profound; and in a way, its enemiesits friends, because its

    like a self-defensive mechanism.

    Historically it is very well known that the Shravakayana and the Mahayana always

    look at Tantrayana suspiciously. Even the great master such as Sengcan from

    China, was very suspicious of Tantrayana. This is totally understandable. You knowit is understandable because you know here you aredeity with a consort, skeleton,

    blood, weapons, I dont know, naked bodies, sex its all little you know, dodgy.

    Spiritual path is, should be a process of pulling the rug out of your feet. Thats how it

    should be. JUST as youre feeling comfortable on one rug, pull that rug out and you

    got us, and the Vajrayana is probably the final rug that gets pulled out. And thats not

    always acceptable. Thats always difficult to accept. For instance; so even Buddha

    himself never taught Tantrayana openly.

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    I want to tell you that Vajrayana does have textual lineage. In fact it is more

    important than the lineage of Upadesa which means method - mengakde, pith

    instructions. Pith instructions must always have a base on the tantric text. So mm, for

    instance, okay Ill give you one example.

    In the Vajrayana there are pith instructions such as you must visualize the guru in

    the form of Vajrasattva sitting on the top of your head, I mean sitting on a lotus and

    the moon and then hes sitting on that. Yes, I mean its very colourful. Its kind of

    tangible also. You know lotus, you know what lotus is; and moon, kind of you know.

    So Vajrasattva also doesnt look that far from normal human beings. He has one

    nose, two eyes, and all of that.

    In the Mahayana they will ask you to meditate on emptiness. In the Vajrayana, lets

    say you, you meditate on Vajrasattva and they say, they claim that is emptiness

    meditation. And, and in a way Vajrayana will say thats kind of easier because you

    can visualize things. Of course, it has its own you know, loopholes and traps. So the

    pith instruction is lotus, moon and the guru Vajrasattva BUT this is the important part

    this has to be backed by the theory of the Tantra or even Mahayana text - because

    it actually rings the bell of non-duality.

    Because THINK, you know physically speaking you cant place a moon over a small

    fragile lotus. It wont stand and then on top of that, theres a Vajrasattva sitting, quite

    heavy, probably above fifty, eighty kilos. And here we go - this is a really important,

    this is a skilful way of pulling the rug out of your feet again, asking to do, make things

    that are impossible to do but somehow you still can do it, you know lotus. No one

    asks this kind of question, Can, can lotus really hold, you know moon?

    Anyway, finally answering the questioneh, as far as the Dharma Gar or Dharma

    Das instruction is concerned, whether its becoming authentic and all of thatwe

    cannot guarantee (laughter). But this is your spiritual journey; you have to play with

    the trust and the doubt all the way. After, after twenty years, probably youll have less

    doubt, less doubt - but few doubts you have after twenty years may be VERY, VERY

    POWERFUL doubts. But powerful doubts are like the dawn of wisdom. That is

    wisdom testing you.

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    And by the way, since we are talking about Dharma Das and Dharma Gar - ah, I, I

    think we are repeating this a lot but its important to know that Dharma Gar and

    Dharma Das is not a separate lineage that we are coming up with or new teachings.

    There is no new teaching here. It is a format; it is a formula to discipline yourself, to

    practice at least half an hour or two hours a day. And the instructions, instructors

    occasionally, sort of update and all of thisis to annoy you because you ask us toannoy you (laughter).

    Its like alarm clock. Its like, you know were, you know the instructors are supposed

    to, you know sort of check on you; and say you know are you, are you. You know

    like if you are two hundred hours behind, lets say it does not mean that you are

    now not going to get enlightenment. Of course not; but it is to help your own

    discipline. And disciplines are always like thatyou know, its a reminder. Okay, we

    have lunch (applause).

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    (Recitation of Tibetan stanzas) These stanzas express the wisdom in a nutshell. We

    have already talked about this yesterday morning but we can try using differentjargon or different expression today.

    Eh, okay, lets talk more practically. Do you have an expression in Chinese - getting

    carried away?(Laughter) Getting carried away how do you say it in Mandarin?

    What? (Response from audience) Sorry, say it in Chineseching?(Laughter)

    because I want to know actually word by word what does it mean? No, you just did it.

    You did it quite well. What did you say? Your heart is what? Your heart is robbed

    away by, robbed or carried away by something. How about you, whats inCantonese?

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

    Rinpoche: You ate too much (laughter). How do you say itcarried, carried away?

    In Cantonese, how do you say?

    Translator: Speaking in Cantonese phrases and words...

    Rinpoche: What is that?

    Translator: Carried awaytat yee mong yen.

    Rinpoche: I mean, can you word by word?

    Translator: Eh, eh, you are not yourself; that means you are too excited, you are eh,

    too excited, youre not yourself.

    Rinpoche: I like that, I like that. How do, how do you say it? How do you say in

    Cantonese?

    Translator: (Cantonese phrase)tat yee mong yen.

    Rinpoche: Tat yee mong yen (laughter and applause) I like that.

    We are talking about the second last stanza actually. You know every time we

    experience something; it doesnt matter what a glimpse of colour, shape, smell

    doesnt matter, whatever. Every time when we experience somethingmosquito

    bite, hugging with someone who has arm-pit smell, kissing right after eh, after

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    Listerine or garlic-stuffed Thai food. You better translate this properly (laughter).

    Whatever, whatever you know like, whatever you are experiencin