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GOM A Course in Meditation ALSO BY GELEK RIMPOCHE Books Good Life, Good Death The Tara Box Transcripts Ganden Lha Geyma: The Hundreds of Deities of the Land of Jo Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Guru Devotion: How to Integrate the Primordial Mind Healing and Self-healing Through Tara Je Tsongkhapa’s Three Principles of the Path Karma: Actions and Their Consequences Lam Rim Teachings Lojong: Training of the Mind in Eight Verses Lojong: Training of the Mind in Seven Points Love and Compassion Odyssey to Freedom: In Sixty-four Steps The Perfection of Wisdom Mantra The Practice of Triumphant Ma Self and Selflessness Sem: The Nature of Mind Six Session Guru Yoga Solitary Yamantaka: Teachings on the Generation Stage Three Main Short Vajrayana Practices The Three Principles in A Short Commentary Transforming Negativity into Positive Living Vajrayogini Teachings The Wheel of Existence GOM A Course in Meditation Based on Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo and Lamrim Chungba GELEK RIMPOCHE A Jewel Heart Transcript 2005 Gelek Rimpoche, Gom—A Course in Meditation © 2005 Ngawang Gelek Jewel Heart Transcripts are lightly to moderately edited transcriptions of the teachings of Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche and others teachers who have taught at Jewel Heart. Their purpose is to provide Rimpoche’s students, as well as all others who are interested, with these extremely valuable teachings in a way that gives one the feeling of being pres- ent at the teachings. JEWEL HEART Tibetan Buddhist Center PO Box 7933 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 USA Tel. (1) 734 994 3387 Fax: (1) 734 994 5577 www.jewelheart.org ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the transcription of a Course in Meditation [Tib. gom],1 given by Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche in the New York Jewel Heart Center, in 2004. The course is part of the long- term weekly Odyssey to Freedom teachings. Subject is the development of Shamatha [Skt.] or zhi nay [Tib.], i.e. the way or how to meditate. At the same time Rimpoche gave a course in Ann Arbor, also on a weekly basis, on the Eighth Chapter of the Bodhisattvacharyava- tara, the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, by Shantideva, in which was dealt with the object, the what to meditate on. After finishing the meditation course, Rimpoche gave a brief introduction into mahamudra. Inserted into this are a few pieces of text from Rim- poche’s Lam Rim Teachings as well as a few verses with commentary from the Ann Arbor teachings on the Eight Chapter of the Bodhisattvacaryavatara. A special feature of this transcript is the wonderful series of pictures Meditator’s Journey. The picture, taken from a thangka from the collection of the late Tomo Geshe Rim- poche, shows the story of how one trains in shamatha, what stages one goes through, what powers are used at each par- ticular stage and what effect they have.B esides the total journey in overview, parts of the painting that explain a certain level have been blown up and an explaining com- mentary has been provided. That way the nine stages and six powers, are made clear page by page. Another special feature is the explanation on how to meditate on the mind. The terminology on this topic kept changing during the course, in trying to find the most suitable translations for the original Tibetan. The variety of synonyms used in the process has been preserved in the text, while the final ter- minology is used in the outlines as well as in the Meditator’s Journey. The transcription was done by the New York mandala members. As a help to the reader references to further lit- erature, notes and charts are added. Any mistakes are due to my lack of knowledge. Ann Arbor, June 4th, 2005 Marianne Soeters CONTENTS I Gom 1 II Preparing for Meditation 37 III The Meditative Process 65 IV The Mind as Focal Point 101 V Dealing with Laxity and Excitation 133 VI Attaining Zhi Nay 173 VII Mahamudra 219 VIII Epilogue 283 Appendices 291 Notes 299 Literature 315 About Gelek Rimpoche 317 About Jewel Heart 321 I GOM Welcome everybody to the beginning of our course on meditation.2 Before we go into the meditation itself, I’d like to give you some background information. The Essence of Buddha’s Teaching As many of you know, Tibetan Buddhism is part of the Mahayana tradition. What is the difference between Ther- avada and Mahayana Buddhism? A lot of people will say that it is the difference between having and not having compassion. That is not right. The Theravadin tradition also gives you tremendous compassion. The bottom line really is that in the Mahayana tradition the practitioner thinks, ‘Whatever it may take, I myself, single-handedly will take total responsibility of liberating every single sen- tient being.’ That is the difference. Whether you can do it or not is a different story. In the Tibetan tradition this is called ‘special mind.’ When you take that responsibility, then when you look at your own situation you realize that you are unable even to figure out how to look after yourself, yet you promise to liberate all. So the question is: how do I carry out this responsibility? The answer is: you have to become fully Gelek Rimpoche enlightened, yes! Then you will be able to liberate every- body else. That’s why in the Mahayana practice the goal you are trying to achieve is becoming a buddha. In the Theravadin tradition the goal you are striving for is to become an arhat. An arhat is free of suffering and the causes of suffering, free of the state which is known as samsara. Samsara is a Sanskrit word. In Tibetan it is called khor, which means anything that is circling. The state of being free from samsara is called nirvana in Sanskrit and in Tibetan de, which means‘beyond.’ The combination, khor de 3 means samsara and nirvana. When you look at it, it is fantastic, just these two little words khor and de contain the four noble truths, the first teaching of the Buddha. The Four Noble Truths. These are: 1. The truth of suffering, 2. The truth of the cause of suffering, 3. The truth of the cessation of suffering 4. The truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering. The circling of khor is related to the first two noble truths, the truth of suffering and the truth of the cause of suffering. The cause of suffering is what makes the indi- vidual circle continuously in suffering.S uffering makes the individual run. We are running away from fear and we can’t get away, so we are circling. Fear combined with confusion is the source of suffering. We have had that for so long. We are running but we can’t get away. Why can’t we get 2 G OM away? Because we are sort of hooked in by links. It is like a wheel where the inside runs but the spokes cannot fall apart because of the rim that keeps them together. Exactly like that we are running and we cannot get away because of the twelve links of the system of interdependence. You know about these, I am sure. We have heard and read about it and had teachings about that a number of times.4 These links of the rim, that stops the system from falling apart, keep you running around. When Buddha talks about khor, circling, just that one word gives you the first two noble truths. De, the going beyond, gives you the other half of the four noble truths. The first two are the negative aspects and the second are the positive aspects of the four noble truths. That is why Buddha is really great. In these few simple words combined together he expresses the nature of our life. That’s exactly what it is. We are all running, all the time, physically, mentally and emotionally. That is the life we are in. That is our real- ity. Buddha’s idea of liberation is based on these four. It tells you how people get into it and how they can get out of it. In the Lankavatara sutra 5 Buddha says, Why are people running around and suffer so much? Because they don’t get emptiness straight, the nature of reality, what is really going on. They don’t get the meaning of peace, [Skt. nirvana] straight. That’s why they are circling, life after life. That is very important. Life after life, we’re continu- ously doing the same thing. We may think, ‘Well, I am okay, I am not doing anything terrible and miserable.’ In 3 Gelek Rimpoche one way it is true. We are greater than many others. But on the other hand, we are not liberated, we are not free. That much we know. For me the goal of spiritual practice, spiritual work, is that first we have to liberate ourselves, then help liberate others. Liberate from what? From running around. The fear combined with confusion is traditionally called igno- rance [Tib. marigpa], which might not be exactly ignorance as we understand it. This one beats us so badly. It takes shelter in one of the emotions—it can be hatred or obses- sion. We are running around within that. If you watch carefully, it becomes clear to you whether what you are doing is okay or not. What is your mind really influenced by? Only for a very short time you will find the mind influenced by positive emotions. Most of the time, however, the mind is influenced by negative emotions, such as dislike, dissatisfaction, fear.
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