Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life

SHANTIDEVA’S Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way Of Life An oral explanation of Chapter Four: Conscientiousness

Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche Teachings 1998 – 1999 Ann Arbor, Michigan

Jewel Heart Transcript

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is a moderately edited transcript of oral explanations given by Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche on Chapter Four of Shan- tideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Rimpoche gave these teachings on Tuesday nights in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from April 1998 through April 1999. Rim- poche’s teachings on Shantideva’s text have continued to the present; he has now reached Chapter 7. Transcripts of Chapters Five through Ten will be issued in separate volumes as they are completed. The transcripts on Chapters One, Two and Three are already available. Throughout this transcript, Rimpoche uses the English translation by Stephen Batchelor, published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Since Rinpoche frequently makes reference to Tibetan words and phrasing, the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit original is included in Wylie transliteration. Rinpoche did not introduce a traditional extensive outline in giving this teaching. For those interested, an outline of this sort may be found in Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s Meaningful to Be- hold. The headings and subheadings in this present volume have been added by the editor for ease of reference, and to help de- lineate changes of topic. A brief bibliograpy is included. For a glossary, see the previous volumes in this series. The transcription of these teachings from tapes was done by Hartmut Sagolla and Jayapushpa. It has been my great good fortune to be able to work on this volume. Errors in this transcript are solely due to my careless- ness or lack of knowledge. Please let me know about any you may find in order that we may improve future editions.

May this work be of great benefit to all who read it or even hear about it! Jang chub sem chog rin po che May the precious bodhimind Ma kye pa nam kye gyur chig Not yet born arise and grow. Kye pa nyam pa may pa yang May that born have no decline, Gong nay gong du pel war shog But increase forever more.

AnneWarren Cleveland, Ohio Oct. 26, 2002

Contents

INTRODUCTION 1 1

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS 23 23 Verse 1 23 Questions and Answers 27 Using Our Minds 29 Verses 2 and 3 34 Verse 4 38 Verse 5 39 Questions and Answers 42 What is Buddhism all about? 46 Questions and Answers 58 Verse 6 62 Questions and answers 67 Verse 7 69 Questions and Answers 73 Using conscientiousness 79 Verse 8 84 Verse 9 90 Verse 10 92 Verse 11 94 Questions and Answers 98 Why conscientiousness is important 104 Verse 12 110 Verse 13 114 Verse 14 116 Verse 15 122 Verse 16 131 Questions and Answers 137 Verse 17 to 20 140 Verses 21 and 22 144 Questions and Answers 154 An important point about karma 158 Verses 23 to 25 168 Verses 26 to 28 174 Questions and answers 199

Verse 29 214 Verse 30, 31 and 32 216 Verse 33 218 Verse 34 223 Verse 35 228 How to make spiritual practice count 232 Questions and Answers 237 Verse 36 242 Verse 37 244 Verse 38 249 Questions and Answers 252 Verse 39 254 Verse 40 255 Verse 41 258 Verse 42 259 Verse 43 264 Verse 44 271 Verse 45 274 Verse 46 275 Verse 47 278 Verse 48 283 TIBETAN TEXT (transliterated) 289 289

GLOSSARY 297 297

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 321

About Gelek Rimpoche 323 323

About Jewel Heart 324 324

INTRODUCTION

Tibetans have a saying: “When something is important, repeat it to make sure people understand. For important Dharma, repeat it one hundred times!” So I am going to repeat a lot of things I have said before. Basically, we need to look at ourselves. I have said many times that I don't care who I am or who I was. A lot of people want to know who they are or were, but it is very difficult from the background of reincarnation. Every time you reincarnate, you change your identity, so “Who am I?” becomes a rather silly question because you may be this, you may be that. Knowing it doesn't make much difference.

Our future is in our hands It is more important for us to ask, “What do I need to do? What will happen to me? What will I be in the future?” Basically, whatever our past was, on the one hand it is all just history, but on the other hand it is guidance for us how to function at the present. How we function at present is shaping our future. We learn from the mistakes we have made, and we also learn what is right to do. By looking at the result, we know what is right to do. Whatever experience we have right now is the result of what we did before. According to Buddha, we encounter nothing good or bad that we did not create the causes for. Whatever we do now determines our future with-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE in this life or next lives or whatever it may be. The present shapes the future. Think about what I am saying. This is an important point. Who makes my future? Nobody else except me. I am the only one. Good or bad, it is my own deed. Whatever I do, I am responsible. I can neither blame anybody else nor wash my hands. Nor is it somebody else's fault or achievement, it is my own. Once you begin to realize this, you begin to get the fundamental basic idea about karma.

Karma depends on conditions People talk a lot about karma and sometimes think that when it is karma, they can do nothing. That is not true. It is karma because you can do something. You know why? Karma is a dependent arising; it arises on the basis of conditions. When the conditions are right, nobody can do anything to prevent it, it materializes. When the conditions are not right, it cannot materialize because the conditions are not right. Because karma depends on conditions, there is room for everything. You can have the room to cleanse, purify, do, and undo. Even miracles can take place, because karma depends on conditions. That is the basic principle in life and that's exactly how you see it. When the conditions have ripened, nothing can be done. No Buddha can come round and divert the thing from happening. That is why Buddha said that enlightened beings cannot wash our negativities by water, nor they can remove our pains by hand, nor can they transfer their spiritual development to us. They can only share their experience, and if we put efforts in, that can make a difference for us. We have to understand this as a basic foundation of individual karmic evolution.

We are responsible for ourselves The fact that our lives are gov- erned by our karma is the base for us to build our spiritual foundation. We are not looking at some kind of miracle, some mystical, mysterious development, though that can happen sometimes somewhere. If you are looking for that,

Gelek Rimpoche go ahead and do so, but if you really find a solid one, do come and tell me! Miracles do happen, mystical things do happen, but that is not going to lead you anywhere unless the individual puts efforts in. That's why a lot of things can be acknowledged as spiritual practice, because when you look in that way, there are countless ways of functioning as long as there is the basic principle of taking responsibility for our deeds. Actually, whether we take responsibility for our deeds or not, they are going to come home to us. We are not going to escape; there is no way. Our karma is going to get us, good and bad both. The good ones are getting us because we are enjoying our life, and the bad ones equally getting us because we do have ups and downs, particularly emotional stuff. Whether you take responsibility or not, we are responsible for what we did.

How can we help ourselves? Knowing that, what can we do now to make ourselves better and happier? This is a big spiritual question to me. We have a lot of choices: meditations, tsoh offerings, saying mantras, doing circumambulations, going on a pilgrimage, eating brown rice or drinking wheat grass juice. We can do these, or we can be vegetarians, which is a great thing because it contributes to decreasing the killing of animals. The other day I took a cab in New York and the driver happened to be Indian. I speak Hindi and Urdu and Punjabi, and we conversed in all the three as he changed from one to the other. Then he looked at me and said, “What are you?” I told him I was from India, and he said no, I must be from Japan. I told him I was from Darjeeling side. He looked a bit confused and then he asked whether I am a Tibetan. I said yes, and he said that Tibetans cut the animals and eat them. That really made me think. When you go to the super- market and buy beef or pork or chicken you don't notice. When it is cooked in your meal you enjoy and don't think about it. When he was showing me the cutting gestures with

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE his hand, I really didn't know what to say! I was dumbfound- ed for a while, but it really made me think. Of course, we don't literally cut or kill animals. Tradi- tional teachings say that so long as you don't do it yourself, or have somebody else do it especially for you, it is okay. I don't think it is okay; I think it means there is not so much negativity of personal involvement, but if you really think in terms of the whole meat production system, then each and every individual contributes because we are living in the world of supply and demand. It is not the good old Tibetan style where each family would get a certain amount of meat each year. There are lots of things to be aware of.

True crazy wisdom An old story popped up in my head just now. One of my father’s previous incarnations, maybe three reincarnations before him, known as the Mad One or Crazy One, was very fond of hunting on the mountainside. An Amdo lama who happened to be there felt rather disgusted about this. The Crazy One contacted the Amdo lama and invited him to go deer hunting, but the Amdo lama rejected his invitation. Finally he killed a deer and they cut it up and ate it, leaving only the bones and skin. He collected all the bones and stitched the skin together and put his mala inside. The deer came back to life, and ran away. Sometimes this does happen, and I believe we call this crazy wisdom. The true crazy wisdom sometimes can happen that way. But these are exceptional cases. This does not justify persons like us making excuses for whatever we do because it is crazy wisdom. I think that is not right at all.

Avoiding negativity As I mentioned, if you just eat and don't think about it probably you don't see much. If you think about it or meet somebody like the Indian taxi driver, it makes you think. Negativity is violence; it harms and hurts another living being. Negativity will have negative results. Positivity will have positive results. When you are not directly involved in an action, it is a little bit lighter and better than very heavy involvement. When I do it myself, for me then it

Gelek Rimpoche becomes a little more difficult. When it is done collectively, there is collective karma, but it is not as direct as if we did it for ourselves by ourselves. Sometimes we also have to balance the preciousness and importance of this life we have and our need to maintain that life properly. When we Tibetans say food offerings, sometimes we say the same verse we use in Jewel Heart1 but at the end add another verse that says, “I consume this food as medicine without attachment and hatred. I am eating just to sustain my life, not to get fat or to look good.” I was saying to Jay and Drakpa-la that we have been lying all the time. He said I have been lying all the time because I was asking them to eat to grow bigger! Actually we all eat not just to sustain our lives, but for the sake of eating, and also we have attachment and anger too sometimes, because the likes and dislikes can be very strong. There is a lot of positivity and negativity in everything we do, even eating food, or thinking, sleeping, or walking, each and every step we take. Though we may not be able to see, recognize or realize these positivities and negativities directly, they are somehow recorded and are there. When the conditions are right, they will pop up, and we will experience the consequences, good or bad. I think this is the meaning of being responsible for our own deeds. It is time to remember this and be conscientious and think carefully.

Why awareness or conscientiousness is important This is why some Buddhist traditions say that awareness is everything. Aware- ness makes you think and realize. It is the same as what I told you about the beef or lamb. If you think it is just a nice little piece of beef or lamb, it is good and you enjoy it, but if you are aware it was part of somebody else's body, then the feeling is different. Somebody's body has been cut out with knife and put on your plate. That makes a big difference! That is how awareness works. Awareness itself will correct us by acknowledging that an act is violent or harmful. It does not have to be actively physical or verbal, since passive-aggression is also violence.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

People say, “He was very angry and I kept my cool, and did not lose my temper, and pushed his buttons a little more!” That is passive aggression. Anything that hurts anybody is negativity. The result will be exactly what you have committed, so when we hurt people through passive-aggression, we will have the same thing happen to us. If you realize this, then even when it comes to the tip of your tongue, you are able to think and correct and swallow it back. That is really how you conduct your spiritual life. Most people get angry a lot of the time anyway. They may control themselves just to show you, but they are still angry. Very few people will burst out, yell and scream. But when you keep your anger controlled without looking into it and without giving yourself the opportunity to observe, when you keep it for too long, it becomes hatred, and then it is much more difficult to deal with. So you have to be aware, but that doesn't mean you have to yell and show your temper tan- trums all the time! Awareness makes things work better. You may be thinking that I am saying not to entertain your anger, jealousy, attachment or fear when it comes up. Yes, I am saying don't entertain, but that is not the only answer. If all you do is refuse to entertain it, it doesn't go away. It may be reduced for a little while, and after a little while it may be better. But it is not the not entertaining but rather the time that has passed.

Like water for a dying flower It is important to acknowledge this when we don't actually have anger, attachment or fear and notice the difficulties they have brought us and will bring us. You have to well informed and reminded very often of the consequences of negative emotions. You have to bombard yourself with the effects and consequences of negative emotions and actions! When you are able to program that in at a time when you are not engaged with those negative emotions, it builds the basis within your mind: it connects to the beauty nature of the human being, It is almost like giving water to a dying flower! You can call this meditation: just like that, connecting

Gelek Rimpoche your own consciousness and the nature of good human nature, and bringing in information and reminding yourself of the consequences of negative emotions. If you want to sit with crossed legs and do whatever gesture, you can do that and call that meditation. Or, you can sit on your desk or table and watch television and think about that, you can call that thinking, but that is also meditation. You are focusing on the point. Here I am trying to throw out subjects you can think about. When you do that, the influence and imprint comes on your own consciousness. When that happens, it works like the water for a dying flower. You wake up and become better. Then whenever you have one of those anger-attacks, or attachment-attacks, you find they are weakened, and don't last very long, at least not as long as they used to. That is exactly how you have to help yourself.

Do a good Dharma practice! In the eleventh century the great Indian teacher Atisha came to Tibet and gave a great number of teachings. Many disciples were doing many different things. Some did circumambulations and went to see Atisha. He told them, “This is great, but I wish you would do a good Dharma practice.” Somebody else sat and meditated and Atisha told him, “This is great, but I wish you would do a good Dharma practice.” Somebody else told Atisha he was chanting one hundred thousand OM MANI PEME HUNG’s. Atisha told him, “This is great, but I wish you would do a good Dharma practice.” And similarly somebody practiced mandala offerings, and Atisha said the same thing. Somebody did prostrations, and Atisha said the same thing.

Conscientiousness works as a filter Good Dharma practice is truly making a difference in your own consciousness, in your own mind. The emotions, the thoughts we have, maybe the brain effects, come up, and without awareness, these emotions take over our consciousness. These thoughts and emo-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE tions pop up saying, “I am here!” This goes on all the time, and then these thoughts somehow filter in and get through to our mind stream. At that point, conscientiousness acts as some kind of filter or judge of what to accept or reject. Once it accepts or starts to fun2ction in that manner, that pushes the individual both physically and mentally to execute whatever the thoughts come up. I think that is exactly how it functions. For the spiritual practitioner, as I see it, the point is not so much that those emotional thoughts do not arise, because they will arise. They rise very often, but we are able to make the distinction, and do not let them influence us. We do not act on this principle of the emotional thoughts that come out. Real conscientiousness should be able to judge. Spiritual practice acts on that level. It is not that you want different thoughts. That is a little dull way of doing it. Even Buddha accepted that. He said if you do not know how to deal with that sort of thing, than don't think about it, don't look at it. That is why some monks have rules that they cannot look five feet this way or five feet that way. It is a kind of discipline. But if you are able to handle it, you don't have to follow that sort of discipline. It is really the filter we have. Many times I have described consciousness or mind as being like a clear clean crystal lampshade. When you change the light bulbs inside to red, yellow, or green, the shade takes on that color due to the influence of the bulb. That is exactly how we are functioning. Whatever thoughts come up and how much we go deep down within ourselves, is entirely our own control. When you don't have control, it is sort of goes up and down for a while. But it is possible to make your own judgment about what pops up. Don't think that if you are a spiritual practitioner, you won't have thoughts popping up in your head! Anger, hatred, jealousy, will pop up even more than usual. It looks like since I begin observing I have much more of anger and attachment! But it is not new; it was always there, it is just that you begin to recognize it now. Awareness or conscientiousness can stop it at the thought level and leave it there. Do not get

Gelek Rimpoche that deep down inside your own consciousness. Conscious- ness should not have that influence. That is where you can make difference to your life. From the bottom of our heart, we decide that the actions that we take will not have those influences. That is how we maintain ourselves. That is the way we keep our heads above water. That doesn't mean you don't ever lose your temper, or don't have any attachment. We do, yet we are able to keep our heads above water. When you are able to do that, our actions influenced by the negative emotions are much less. When it becomes much less, the consequences we will be responsible for will be less, and it will be better.

Understand, investigate and actualize What you are really building is your own stock, the positive stock. The value of your own deeds are higher than Dow Jones.3 This is how it works and this is where the key lies, within yourself, not an external one. Understand, investigate and actualize: these are three most important things. Understand what you do, what you want to do, how you shape your future; investigate the things you have, the message you get; and once you realize it is correct, actualize it. I don't see any other way, whether it Vajra- yana, Mahayana, Theravada, Elder's Way, Younger's Way or Junior's Way, or Senior's Way, or whatever it might be, to affect the individual beside that. The main message, the bottom line message is help yourself. Just help yourself. I try to share with you how you can help yourself. You have all these choices for your spiritual path. You can learn, you can practice, you can meditate, you can analyze or you can just believe it. Everything is fine. Normally I don't like the believing system at all. I hate to just believe; personally, I don't like it. But the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism won’t let you down, even if you just believe, because the Buddha has shared his personal experience which has been confirmed by many great teachers in between. Therefore it is safe, and that's why I used the word believe, but believing is the last choice. You don't really want to just have to believe it, unless you are very strange like

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE some believers who believe no matter what is happening, even when they see it is wrong, they would like to believe that way. That is strange and different. For normal people like us, when we try to believe something, and somebody else tells us we are absolutely wrong, then we begin to think, “Am I wrong?” This is the problem. That is why I don't like the believing system at all, but if you can't do anything else, just believe the Buddha’s teachings, you are safe. That is all I can say.

Changing our habits The best thing for you is to pick up the points and information and to analyze by yourself. As the students do their homework and understand, the same way here. I don't like to call this homework, but do analyze. Think about it. By analyzing, you begin to understand what you are doing, thinking, or talking about. You begin to understand how that affects the individual. Once you begin to understand and get it, and then you have to meditate and concentrate. That is how you change your normal habits. Otherwise we can't change our habits. Our habits are so strong. When you have a very strong habit of attachment, attachment goes everywhere, to any single person or beautiful thing you see. It has no control, and you have no control because you have been guided by your attachment. Anger is the same, and if you are irritated, it becomes anger, and then hate and it keeps on burning within you rather than clearing. These things are the points you have to see. What did the Buddha really share in the total Buddhist practice? Buddha never said, “If you sit there, I will bless you, and you will get it!” He never said that because it is not going to happen. Blessing is there, yes, but blessing is blessing, not scientific. Blessings may make some difference, or make things a little bit easier, but it is not going to deliver the goods. The same thing with miracles. Miracles do happen all the time. They can make life a little easier, but can never deliver the goods. It totally depends on ourselves. Whatever I do, good or bad, I am totally responsible. Actually speaking,

Gelek Rimpoche you are the one who is really governing your life. You are the one who is making it right or wrong. The real point is that you are responsible to yourself.

Ideas precede actions What makes me responsible? It is my deeds, my acts, my thoughts. Where are they coming from? How do I act normally? I have an idea first, then I translate the idea into action. Don't we do that? We think we need to get up, then we get up. You think we need to put your pants on, and then you put them on. If you think you need to take it off, you take it off. The idea or thought comes first, and that makes the individual act. A number of times, with or without realizing or noticing the ideas that come up, we will function automatically without even a second thought. We just do whatever comes up in our head. Lots of people do that. The difference between a fool and a wise person lies there. The wise person normally can see these different ideas and then see whether can do or cannot do, implement or not, or good or bad, and then function accordingly. A lot of us fools don't think things through but just act, so we will have lots of good actions and bad actions both. When we execute each and every one of them, we are creating a karma, good or bad. When the good karma materializes it will give me a nice, comfortable, good life; the bad karma will give me a miserable, horrible, difficult life. That is how Buddha saw that we are responsible to ourselves. Whenever we want to have something good for ourselves or for the group, family or for everybody, how we attain it depends on the actions we take, the mental, physical, spiritual, emotional actions that we indulge in. First the idea comes up and between the idea and implementation, that is the room for you to see, filter, accept or reject. A number of you probably think, “Yes, but when I have emotional problems, even when I don't want it, I can't help it, it is there.” True, you can’t help it right at that moment, because it is your habit. We are so used to it, it looks like it is automatic, because we have been doing that so long, carrying those negative emotions, such as unnecessary depressions

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE and all these types of things. For no reason you get depressed and sad and all of them, because we are so much in the habit of doing that. This is our habit, we have so many habitual patterns which lead us to negativity, to negative actions. When you are a spiritual practitioner, what you do? In- tervene in that. Don't let it run through without any obstacles. Try to put a brake wherever you can on those negative emotions. At the beginning level, it is not that difficult. When you are getting really seriously into it, you have a lot of stronger problems, and after a little while, you will conquer them, too. That is the normal procedure. At the beginning you may think that you don't want to think about that, or want to forget about it but still do remember. Better late than never! When you begin to take it seriously, the problem on the other side seems to get much stronger. It is not really stronger, but they push lots of negative forces. It is almost overwhelming, and becomes difficult, but at that moment you have to put your efforts together and try not to lose ground. Hang in there and keep on working! It will make the difference.

Spiritual step number one In essence, to me spiritual practice really means that our habit of doing the negativity is changed. We change that habitual pattern of running to negativity. That is spiritual step number one. I don't go so much for worshipping and praying, singing and chanting, mantra saying. That is all fine, good and it has its own purposes. I have nothing against it. But the real spiritual path is to make the individual different than whatever they were before, a better person. That is the essence of the spiritual practice to me. Nothing else is. The purpose of spiritual practice is to make yourself better, a better person, a kinder person, a gentler person. That is the whole purpose. Whatever method it takes, whatever works for the individual, whether meditation or mantra saying, will be fine. The most important thing is to analyze yourself. Pick up your anger, recognize; or attachment, recognize. After a little while, you will recognize the face and even the

Gelek Rimpoche smell of attachment or anger. When it comes from the distance, you begin to smell it, and can take action. Then when you have done this for years together, sometimes something happens and you lose it totally. Don't worry. Lots of people often say, “Oh I lost it!” Yes, fine, because you have something to lose. One good thing is that you recognize your loss, you recognize that it is wrong, and that itself is a tremendous help. That itself is progress. Don't worry that you are lost after thirty years of practice. If we had nothing to lose, we would be a Buddha by now, and we are not.

Crazy monkey mind The most important point is don't give up! If you give up, you get nowhere. You have to have constant awareness; that’s what really counts, not how many prayers you say, or meditations you do. At this moment your consciousness is like a four year old monkey lost in the mu- seum inside your body. If you don't have awareness, it will break anything, so that is why awareness is important. It is almost the key. But if without your realizing, the monkey breaks a few antiques here and there, don't freak out! It is all right, fix them up. Get some crazy glue and join them together! Whatever it takes, try to fix them up. In exactly the same way: our habitual patterns will automatically say bad things, and anger will rise over nothing. Did anybody see Larry King Live last night? Two lawyers from the OJ Simpson trial started getting angrier and angrier and finally they were almost screaming at each other. If you have awareness you won’t show that temper on Larry King Live! Habitual patterns make you do that. Anger changes your personality and makes you look like the monkey back- wards. When you do not have awareness you go crazy and that was what happened to them.

Use your understanding Always bring awareness and conscientiousness. It is not so much you have to be disciplined. Dis- cipline is one way of doing it. The whole purpose is to think differently, to perceive differently, to act differently. Whether

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE you are going to do this by discipline or by understanding, I will choose the later one. By understanding is the intelligent way. We each have a tremendous wonderful human mind. The Buddha tells us that only human life can bring Bud- dhahood because the human mind is unimaginable. Look at human achievement. You may call it scientific achievement or Einstein's production, but it is human achievement. Each and every human being has this capacity, maybe not equal, but great capacity. If you can utilize your mind, you can make a big difference for your journey. We have taken on a lot of lives here and there. You know I believe in reincarnation so I am coming from that perspective, otherwise I lose my rimpoche title! Then the question would come, “If you are not a reincarnate lama, who are you?” That is why I must protect my title and be a believer in reincarnation! I am just joking. Truly I just buy reincarnation. We have been cats and dogs and cockroach and human beings. If you want to break the journey, only this human life can make it, because of the unlimited mental capacity. Computers do not have minds, but are made by human minds. That is why they don’t go haywire unless you do, or make mistakes unless you do. The human mind is capable of making things right or making mistakes.

The key and the total purpose In the spiritual path, we utilize that very mind to reverse our normal bad habits of associating ourselves with negativity. We reverse that and associate ourselves with positivity. That is the key and that is the total purpose. Teachers tell you how to meditate, or talk to you on The Three Principles, or The Foundation of All Perfections, or Lam Rim or give you initiations. The whole purpose of all these is to make that switch. Every single thing is meant for that. A lot of people will look up to initiation and lose the ground of making this switch. People tend to forget that, and when this happens all the whole initiation and commitment is wasted. Or, maybe not wasted but the purpose is defeated.

Gelek Rimpoche

Every level of the spiritual path is for one purpose, for switching our negative bad habits to positive. Is it easy? Cer- tainly not! If you are in the habit of sleeping in the morning not getting up till twelve or one, when you have to get up at nine it is very difficult, almost impossible because of habit. If you try to go to bed earlier, even if you force yourself you won’t sleep, so when you change that it is not easy. You lose lots of sleep, but it is changeable, you can change it, and you know it. Just like that, the negativities we create are mostly done through addiction to anger, attachment or jealousy: that is what we need to change. That is the whole purpose, whatever you do. Take initiation but do not lose your purpose, do not lose your own point! That is important. People take initiations and they think they are in a different atmosphere, or completely different stage, so they lose the whole ground. Don't forget where you are coming from, and what your purpose is.

The two vehicles What happens when you follow the Buddha's path? The Buddha's path means his personal experience. It is basically divided into categories known in the West, as the three yanas. Yana is a Sanskrit word meaning vehicle. It is like whether you have a BMW, or Rolls Royce or Mercedes. We used to call the three vehicles Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, though Vajrayana is really the secret part of the Mahayana. Maha means big, and Hina is small, so that is the small and big vehicle, which is the basic division. It is comparative. The small compared with the big makes small; and the big compared with the Small, makes big. Tibetans are very proud of being Mahayana, A-number 1! When we came to India after being kicked out of Tibet in 1959, we began to talk with the Indian scholars. Professor Upedeya, a great Indian scholar, was a department head at Sanskrit University, the real seat of Hindu tradition in Vara- nasi. He is a true Kashi Pandit meaning he would never eat or drink even a drop of water before taking his bath. Also he could never let a low-caste person walk upwind from him. As

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Kashi Pandit, you have to wear spotless white dress every day, clean and spotless. He is a great being. These are not qualities of a great person, but he does that. He sat down and looked at all of us Tibetans and then he said, “Mount Everest is very high, and we know it is so because we can measure from the ground. If the ground were not there, you could not measure how high Everest is.” True. Mahayana is great, but if there were no Hinayana base, who would know that Mahayana is great? So he said you have to accept Hinayana in order to accept Mahayana. Any- way, he was absolutely right. We just looked at each other and did not know what to say. In the Buddha's traditional teaching, Maha and Hina is measured because of their interdependent relationship, their interdependence. One brings the other, and that is why it is measured in that. Then somehow you got carried away, and lost the fundamental basis on which you go and then you lose; that is what happens. The foundation within individual is the Theravadan or Hinayana path. That is the basic foundation teaching for us. Having said that, one may wonder whether Mahayana is that great and therefore not as important as Hinayana. That is not true. Mahayana is equally important but without the Hinaya- na foundation you cannot reach the Mahayana level at all. That's the point. You measure how high the Mount Everest is from ground level. If you don't have the ground level, you will never know the uniqueness and qualities of the Mahaya- na. You can simply hear, or read about it and believe it, but you will not really know beyond that. Truly, simply hearing about something is not a valid reason. If you have heard, so what? How do you know it is the truth? We hear about Monica Lewinsky, Clinton, Starr, but we don’t know what is the truth. The fact that you heard something is not a valid reason to prove your point. “I have read it,” is not also a valid reason to prove the point is right, because you can read all the gossip magazines, the National Enquirer or Time or Newsweek. Just hearing or reading some-

Gelek Rimpoche thing is not a valid reason, unless you can substantiate with a valid proof. In America people easily believe what they read in some printed material. Yet we also know that anybody can write and print anything they want. When I was in India, the Indi- ans would say the Americans came for three days, and go back and write a thick book on India! They always say that and it may be valid too. Why? Because I noticed that in myself. After being in China for only two weeks I began to analyze and figure out the Chinese policy and tell everybody about it. This is exactly like what they said about Americans in India. Maybe it is the American air or water! That itself will tell us that not everything written or printed is necessarily right or true. If it is something like the Clinton-Lewinsky- Starr business, it doesn't really matter, whatever the truth may be. As long as there is no undermining of the constitution it really doesn't matter.

Know what you are doing and where you are going These sorts of spiritual things do matter because we are the ones who are putting energy, efforts, and time to do something right, to bring some spiritual result. If we don’t know what we are doing, it is traveling on a dark road with no map. Or there is a map but there are no good road signs. China is worse than India. In China, if you go to Beijing, you can't find what road it is because there is no road sign except for one or two in Chinese. You almost have to remember and visualize where the ring road is and all these. If you don't the taxi driver will bring you round until he gets forty yuan or more! Without a good map, we are taking a big risk. It is a big risk because we want to make sure that the efforts we put in are worthwhile, and not wasted. That is necessary because we have very limited time. If we put our energy in the wrong direction then we are going to be a big loser. That is why it is important to know something about it. That is why it is not enough, if somebody wrote about it, or I just heard it. At least you should have a very strong and convincing idea and thought yourself.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

I am talking to people who are intelligent and educated. For those few who are mentally challenged there is no other choice but just to believe it and make through. For them it is fine. Simply we can rely on this path because people like the Buddha and all his disciples followed it and landed in the same enlightened area, so if you follow the same footsteps you will not be let down. That much you have to hold.

The division between wise and foolish But intelligent, educated people have this great mind, with unlimited capability, intelligence and wit too. All these thoughts are popping up in our head, all the time. We are capable enough to select and perceive and also screen the popping thoughts into consciousness. You can judge whether you are wise or foolish. If you are able to screen your thoughts and reject or accept or receive certain things, you are a wise person, even if you don't have a white Chinese beard! If you cannot screen your thoughts and you automatically act when your mind is influenced by them, then you are foolish. You know yourself and can judge for yourself. Don't judge others, judge yourself. That is how you make the division between wise and foolish. Let us presume we are wise. When we are wise, then we have to have reasons behind whatever we accept or reject. It is not just “Because I feel like it.” That doesn't make sense. You may feel anything anytime anywhere, so it is not a valid reason at all. You may feel like robbing a bank even at the age of fourteen, but you can't. So then, what is there? Try to make sense of the path and what can it accomplish. Who gains what and who loses what? After all we are all human beings. Something good for people in general, I have also the chance of it being good for me. Pick up the spiritual path in that manner, rather than on the basis of love-and-light. It is beautiful, love is wonderful and light too, but that is very shallow. You need better than that. You need something solid. When you pick up a spiritual practice, it is almost like being in a war with negativity, a war you only want to win. We have all lost a number of times repeatedly and that is why

Gelek Rimpoche we are here today. Actually, today we have better conditions, with better weapons, better consciousness, better understanding, and we have B2 Bombers, so today we have a better chance to win.

Human quality On what basis are we fighting the war? Our basis is the fundamental strength of the human quality, which is better than anything else. When you see the human quality a lot of people will say, “I am a human being, so what? I have quality, so what?” This is not the point. Let’s say that I am a cat, what level of intelligence will I have today? How much I can communicate? If I am too hot, I can only meow and same thing when I am too cold or hungry. It shows the limitations. Many people tell me their cat is more intelligent that them. I used to joke and say, “Give your car keys to your cat and let it buy your groceries.” You cannot see your human quality, but if you look at the other side and visualize switching your body with a cat you will see it. If you are a cat and you try to come into somebody's house they will chase you and throw stones at you, and you cannot say anything, and you cannot even think that much. We have better capacity than that because we have this human body and the mind which occupies this beautiful rented apartment is also extremely capable. There is a tremendous amount of relationship between mind and body. That is why we have better capacity and that is why we are better equipped to fight the war against negativity. We are better equipped this time, and we have the chance to win the war. We are much better prepared, we are on better ground, we have better equipment and better facilities. If we lose this time, it is a big loss. That is why we have to make sure we don't lose. That is why we rely on persons such as Buddha and their experience and lineage, because they have won the war, so if we follow them, why won't we win? There is no reason why. That is reason why we follow the Buddha's shared experience.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Hinayana and Mahayana Basically I told you there are two vehicles, Hinayana and Mahayana. The first yana is called Hina because the principle they work for is self-liberation, each individual getting freedom from their own negativities and samsaric conditions. The principle theme is to get freedom for yourself, freedom from neuroses such as attachment, anger, hatred or our addictions to all these, and from ignorance. Seeking freedom for me by me, so it becomes narrow compared to the other one. In the Mahayana, you are already supposed to have gained freedom, you already liberated yourself, so your concern is not only yourself but all beings. That is why it is called big or Maha. A lot of people say Hinayana is narrow self- interest and Mahayana is for all mother beings. This is just another bla bla bla, without value. The Hinayana is narrow in the sense that the principle concern is self-liberation. Libera- tion is really truly a birthright for us. We can gain that. So how can I gain that liberation which is mine? The major focus on that is called Hina. It is not that Maha is better and Hina is smaller, but people do sometimes think it means that. Even Jack Korn- feld told me once when people talked about Hinayana they changed the name to Theravadayana. Whatever title is fine, it is okay. Jack Kornfeld told me that people started having funny interpretations of self-liberation so he wanted to call it Theravada or The Elders’ Way. The label does not matter, the purpose does. In order to reach the Mahayana, oriented to universal love and compassion, you have to have self-establishment. If you cannot help yourself, how can you help others? If you are helpless and hopeless, how can you give help and hope to others? One brings the other. Self-liberation, self-freedom which is called Hinayana is the fundamental ground. Once you have that solid ground built, then you are safe, sound, can manage. But then you ask, “What about the person that I love and care about?” Here you start to turn your thoughts out to persons other than yourself. You begin to observe and commit yourself to help them. Then you begin to have com-

Gelek Rimpoche passion for all beings not only humans alone. The strong compassion should be able to help to develop strong love and care.

What do others really need? Now this is a very interesting point and many of you may not like what I am going to say. We all have compassion, and we all feel it. When we see an animal that is hurt or something, we feel like touching them, picking them up and patting them. We do that, and it is good, but it is not enough, definitely not enough. It is like offering a chocolate to a crying child and asking him or her not to cry. It is almost to that level. You can give physical comfort, there is nothing wrong, it is great, but that is not enough. You really have to help them with what they need. What they need is the same thing you need. Your need is the same as their need. I need freedom, joy, pleasure and so do they; I don't need misery and helpless hopeless situation, and neither do they. There is no difference between what I need and what they need. Therefore, if I am going to help them I must bring them joy, freedom, liberation, wisdom. That is a more important help than physical patting on the shoulder. When you have such a desire and commitment, you are unable to bear the sufferings you see. When we see an animal run over by a car, and it is lying in pain, we can't help it, we really have to feel and do something. So now we feel the same thing with others, all beings, and then we commit ourselves to help, to bring them total liberation, freedom once and for all from sufferings. That is why we say May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. May they remain in joy and never be separated from the joy that knows no suffering. At that moment you begin to commit yourself to be able to do that. You first pray it may be. Second you try to act and execute. And third, you make sure it will be done. That is how it works. So you begin with the praying, second taking action and third you make sure it happens. That is how the spiritual love compassion steps work. When you commit yourself and pray it is not going to be answered just like that, so you pray harder and think,

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

“What can I do, I have to do something!” You start looking at what you are capable of doing, and whether you know the path on this particular point. Then you begin to see that you have no knowledge on this, so how can you function? Then you ask, who can do it? Buddha is supposed to be able to. In order to fulfill all my commitments to sentient beings, I must become a Buddha. That is how you generate these thoughts of committing yourself for the service of all sentient being. You desire to have the highest possible spiritual development because that way you can help all beings. This is the morality of committing yourself, helping yourself and helping others. It is the morality we are looking for. I am not concern about the normal morality, your sexual orientation or anything like that. Spiritual morality is your own motivation, and your own reasons why you are doing it, and your commitment to other beings and your commitment to yourself. These are your moral principles in your spiritual life. Once you have that mind of seeking Buddha level of capability for all beings, then you are called a Bodhisattva. The first level is liberating yourself, seeking freedom. The second level is the way of the Bodhisattva. If you are a Bodhisattva, how would you like to function? When difficult questions pop up, how do you manage? How do you disen- tangle your problems and how do you solve them? If somebody brings their problem to you, how are you going to solve the problem? The Bodhisattva's way of thinking, functioning and interacting with other beings, is the Bodhisattva's way of life. This was put in poetry form by an Indian teacher, Shan- tideva4. This work, The Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, is important in all the Tibetan tradition whether Sakya, Nyingma, Kargyu or Gelug. All read the Bodhicaryavatara5; they all use it. Otherwise the Gelugpa uses Lam Rim, the Sakya call theirs Lam Dre; the Nyingmas use another different name, and the Kargyus use Jewel Ornament of Liberation. In all the four traditions, the Bodhicaryavatara is used with the same name. There- fore it is important both historically as well as usage. It is also very practical, dealing with our life.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

The subject of Chapter Four We are now on Chapter Four, an important chapter. In Stephen Batchelor's translation, it is titled Conscientiousness. What does this conscientiousness do? This thought or this idea wants to make sure you remain free from attachment, hatred, and influence of ignorance and that you remain enthusiastic all the time. It protects your mind from being lazy. In Tibetan it is bak yö6, which is awareness that is focused in detail on making sure you don’t go wrong. It is not just awareness of what's going on, but more than that. It is watching to keep yourself free from attachment and hatred and ignorance. It does not let you be lazy. This is an extremely important one for us.

Verse 1 Having firmly seized the Awakening Mind in this way, Conqueror’s Children must never waver; Always should they exert themselves To never stray from their practice. As I mentioned, the Awakening Mind or Bodhimind means committing yourself not only to free yourself but also to make everybody else free in the same way since you care for

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE everybody. If you grow Bodhimind within you, it is fine and great, but even if you don't, according to the tradition you can take vows, you can firmly seize the Awakening mind.7 Taking vows will help you to build conscientiousness because you are more conscious of what you are doing. You say, “I can't do that, it’s against my vow!” It is like when you wear a wedding ring, it helps to bring conscientiousness. It is the same things with monks; if they wear robes, it brings conscientiousness. If they wear a suit coat and pants, they lose the conscientiousness. The Bodhisattva vows help in that way. It says here firmly seized: either through the meditative level you become an actual Bodhisattva or you take vows and act like a Bodhisatt- va. You are not a Bodhisattva yet just because you take the vow, but you act like one. You are given opportunity to behave like a Bodhisattva. Conqueror’s Children must never waver; Always they should exert themselves. In other words, this says that when you become a Bodhisatt- va, you become a child of the Buddha, a Conqueror’s Child; you are earmarked to be a Buddha one day. Just like the children of a family one day will become the head of the family or somebody in it. Even the word son does not really mean literally son or daughter; son means here that it is born, grown and developed out of the mind of enlightened beings. All our spiritual development is born out of the thoughts and minds of enlightened beings, and gives birth to enlightenment by moving us towards contemplating enlightenment. That is why Bodhisattvas are called sons of the Buddhas or children of the Buddhas. What should these Bodhisattvas do? They should definitely hold very tightly and strongly both relative and absolute Bodhiminds. Relative Bodhimind is actual Bodhimind. Absolute Bodhimind is something more than Bodhimind.8 That is what is meant by never waver.

Gelek Rimpoche

Why we need conscientiousness How can you be sure to never waver? By keeping your commitments and vows intact. If you lose your commitments and vows, you are losing ground slowly. If you are not losing ground, you can be stable, steady and you can make it. What helps you not lose your commitment? Conscientiousness is the main thing. It will protect you so that you do not lose your commitment. Conscien- tiousness is the base to build your mindfulness, to build enthusiasm. It is the base on which you can build morality. Conscientiousness can bring you wisdom. It is fundamental and important in our life, in our mind level. This chapter is so important! Shakyamuni Buddha himself said that people who are conscientious like Shariputra will reach ultimate enlightenment. They will remain with Bodhimind. Those who are conscientious can fulfill all their wishes. If you don't have conscientiousness, then you lose everything gradually. Forget about enlightenment, you cannot even liberate yourself! When you cannot liberate yourself, forget about becoming a Buddha! Here is a quote from a sutra: This is the foundation on which you can build morality; the foundation on which you can learn; the foundation for generosity and patience. It is the foundation on which you can build positivity and this is the root of all. That is why Buddha said one should appreciate knowledge of conscientiousness. It is important. One should be as happy as though one has found a treasure, or won a lottery.

What is conscientiousness? Remember the principle of this is to be free from attachment, hatred and any influence of ignorance. It is possible to be free from attachment and hatred, but very difficult to be free of ignorance right now, but still we should try. Everyday in our life we should try, whether dealing with other people in public, or in private sitting by yourself. Wherever you are, it is so important to see what

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE your own mind is up to. If it is up to something, then how do I win or how do I defeat? Notice if you are thinking, “How do I win for myself and my dearest and nearest? How do I defeat others?” If you have these questions, your conscientiousness should be able to detect them and make you think, “Wait a minute, what I am doing is something wrong.” And when you see that your motivation is good and your action is fine, and you don't have strong attachment or hatred when it is going through, then you know you are doing fine. Go ahead. That is the job of conscientiousness, and it becomes so important. Conscientiousness is more than what we normally call awareness. Awareness is simply knowing but it does not do anything more than that. Conscientiousness not only knows but corrects. If you are not conscientious, you cannot be mindful at all. It is the foundation in which you build mindfulness. Mindfulness in the Mahayana tradition is not simply sitting there and watching.9 That is a blank mind, not mindfulness. Mindfulness must be mind full; it cannot be blank. If you keep a blank mind you get relaxation no doubt. You make yourself so busy physically mentally and emotionally most of the time, that if you can get some time to just sit and blank your mind you get a little relief. Somebody was telling me that day that after their prayers they have to cry a lot. Naturally if you look at the person's actions and they have completely kept themselves absolutely busy, giving no opportunity for the mind to even to breathe, when they have the commitment to pray, automatically it gives a little rest. The mind will share the sadness and difficulty you go through so naturally you cry. I told the person it is a good thing because occasionally you can air it out. That is why the person is doing fine. If there is no opportunity to air it out one day the person could collapse and be injected with morphine, and land in the MHA Hospital. So be a little conscientious even saying prayers and commitments so that you can air out the mental and emotional difficulties. That way you won't have a big problem of becoming cuckoo, completely crazy or hospital-

Gelek Rimpoche ized. If you have strong conscientiousness, you will never be cuckoo. Questions and Answers Student: [Regarding feeling of ‘I just felt like it’ and feeling based on analyzing] Rimpoche: There are probably two types of feelings: the feeling which is developed by understanding, analyzing, and feeling without anything but ‘I just feel like it.’ The feeling that you gain by analyzing and understanding is a reliable feeling. The feeling that you get just because you felt it is unreliable. I am not putting down feeling but making the point that what you can really rely on is analyzing and understanding; it is better than feeling. Feeling that arises from analyzing and understanding is more reliable than the feeling of ‘I just felt like it.’ That is all I am saying, there is no mystery in that.

Student: You talk about giving a child or animal who is suffering what you need when you are suffering. Rimpoche: I mean that what you need is what they need. You need comfort, you need joy, and that is their need, too. Just patting and giving physical comfort is not enough. For compassion like this you have to look even beyond that. Look at yourself and think, ‘What do I need? I need freedom, to be free from negativity. I need joy, the joy that never knows misery. I need great equanimity.’ That is what they need too. I am not talking about normal life level here. I am talking about how the mind of a spiritual person should be set up. When you see that they need total freedom, total enlightenment, and total equanimity, then simply just giving a pat on a child’s shoulder is not enough. I am not saying it is bad. Don't misunderstand, it is great! It is wonderful, but not enough. That is what I am saying about being a Bodhisattva.

Student: What does that say about taking care of oneself? Rimpoche: If you don't know how to take care of yourself, your hope of taking care of others is completely gone. So you

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE have to take care of yourself, but that doesn't mean you have to abandon the other one either.

Student: How do you determine what they need? Rimpoche: Whatever I want they also want, that is how you determine their need. I want happiness, you want happiness. I don't want misery, you don't want misery. This is common.

Student: What can I offer my spouse to make her happy? Rimpoche: A peaceful mind, and a mind that doesn't have so much disturbance, craziness, and pressure; a little bit of relaxation; maybe a little bit happy-go-lucky! A little bit happy- go-lucky is not bad, I am telling you. But you have to be sharp. You have to be able to put a little time to get what you want. Find ways and that way you maintain seriousness. At the same time you have a little happy-go-lucky which will relieve the pressure from today's society. So sharpness, quickness, plus happy-go-lucky, is the key for happiness or success.

Student: [Question regarding rebirth and evolution] Rimpoche: That is a very good question. Neither you nor I know. Really true, but we can almost guess. We can almost say there is life after life, or life after death, but we don't have certain proof there yet. For a Buddhist such as myself, we are saying that because we rely on the Buddha's word. And also we see many points almost there but we can't explain. That is number one. I will not be surprised if scientists discover something about the continuation of life, but they will only tell you when they know how to explain it. There are a great number of scientists from Harvard who know about this. They told us clearly that unless they can make sense to other people, they cannot come out publicly, but they do not rule out the possibility. That is exactly what is going on. We are on a journey that does not necessarily go steadily upwards. As a kid I used to play a game called Path and Stag- es.10 To play the game, you throw the dice, and your piece

Gelek Rimpoche lands here and there. One number leads you to another, and in the middle suddenly zoom! You go down, right to the beginning where you started. Just like that, that is supposed to be how our life is functioning. So there is a possibility that you can shoot down from that angle. I am just saying it is a game. No one knows it is not, and no one knows it is. We are better off being open-minded. The possibilities are always there. This is my honest straightforward answer. I could say there are past and future lives and remain serious, but it won't do any good. Using Our Minds The Bodhicaryavatara is actually the Bodhisattva's way of life. Here we are studying how the Bodhisattvas function, because they have made it and we want to make it as they do. That is why if you follow the same footprints you will make it and if you don’t follow, you won't. That is simple. We don’t know much about the spiritual path, though we have tremendous technological knowledge. What is happening with us is either we believe the spiritual path or we don't believe it. So far in this country and Europe people more or less function on a faith basis rather than any solid reasoning or understanding. In New York recently I was talking about how enlightened beings function. I said that enlightened beings have different qualities than we do. We have a body and mind functioning separately. We can touch and feel with our body, but body cannot hear, and see. So it is for the eyes; they can see but it would be difficult to feel. These are our limitations. Enlightened beings have gone beyond this limitation and wherever their mind is, the body is. That is why I said at the enlightened level body and mind function together, same frequency. And I said that is the reason why the Catholics say God is everywhere. One of the audience said they are not supposed to ask that question why God is everywhere, you just have to buy it. Maybe that is true, that people try to get by on belief alone.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

On the spiritual path, if you start driving on faith, if you are lucky, you are okay. If you are not lucky, then you are just going to follow Jim Jones! As educated human beings we must use our minds, check and crosscheck.

What does all this have to do with me? For instance, ask, “It is great how wonderful the Bodhisattva way of life is, but what has that got to do with me here in downtown Ann Arbor?” That is our question. It is important because whatever spiritual path you follow, must be within your life, and within yourself. You can't leave the spiritual path in the temple or church or synagogue or center, and you the individual run off somewhere else. That doesn't work. Traditional lamas and teachers will tell you when you follow a spiritual path, the path and your mind are mixed together, oneness. There should not be gap where the horses can run. If the horse is running in between you here, and the spiritual path there, it becomes a dry academic explanation or historical presentation. Artists can do far better than that. They can write, or draw or sing with their feelings, and get themselves in there and present it in art form. We should not be here as an academic to learn theory. We are here to find out what Bodhisattvas do and if I do that will that make a difference in my life right here in downtown Ann Arbor. That is our concern, our spiritual path. If we are going to follow it, we have to do that investigation. If we just have to believe, we can believe anybody anywhere and anything doesn't matter whatever it is. Here what we are trying to do is based on Buddha’s teachings, which are based on his experience. From there we are looking at them and seeing what we can take. Sometimes it may not be that urgent to take everything whatever is in there. You know what I mean? If you can take everything it is great, but sometimes may not be possible. We have to take out what is important for us. From the Bodhicaryavatara, where we are right now is on the chapter of conscientiousness. The whole chapter is on conscientiousness and it is important. What is conscientious-

Gelek Rimpoche ness and what are you conscientious about? it may be interesting to look the other way round. Can one say ‘unconscientious’?

What does it mean not to be conscientious? In Tibetan we have both, ba yö and ba may. yö is positive and may is negative. Ba may means lack of conscientiousness. If you understand the lack of conscientiousness, then you know what conscientiousness is. The bottom line here we are not talking about awareness. When Buddha talked about lack of conscientiousness, he was not talking specifically about awareness. I have a very good example today to show the lack of conscientiousness. I am now in the middle of a retreat and I am very much behind my schedule, much slower than what I expected to cover. This morning I was thinking that after 11:30 or 12:00, I would go and do my session. I turned on the television and saw a program about the Democrats and Re- publicans in the House of Representatives, all of them really snapping at each other. I kept on watching that for two to three hours, and that is a true example of lack of conscientiousness! By the time I realized, I had less than an hour, because my next session was at 4 o'clock. The 4 o'clock people turned up at 3:30 too. The lack of conscientiousness need not necessarily be negative, but it is unconsciously wasting time. Wasting time is a big question. A lot of people think that they are wasting their time if they not doing anything directly spiritual. They think, “I want to have a good easy job that you can work four hours a day, and have more than enough money, with all good benefits and so forth.” I don't blame you, we all look for that! But the point is, we always curse ourselves, thinking, “My job is not right for me, because I am not doing anything spiritually, not contributing to anybody else, and not even for myself.” Lots of people think this way. Many people even think, “I am wasting my time,” and many think, “I have great opportunity, great life, spiritual path, yet I am spending all my life to try and make a couple of bucks.”

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Doing your job is not wasting time There may be some truth in that, but the most important thing you also have to realize is that you are not really wasting your time. You are doing something, serving somebody, helping somebody. You are earning your living. And I tell you one thing, the trick or technique whatever you are doing over here, depends on your motivation. If you simply think just to make two dollars an hour you have to flip the hamburger, then you just flip hamburgers. But if you think “I am here to serve people who have to eat, and I will cook the hamburgers well so that they don't get E-coli.” So you cook them well and turn them over three times. If you are doing with that conscientiousness then whatever you are doing becomes positive karma because your motivation is to be good, helpful, of service to others. Feeding people and preventing them from getting sick is good service. That way it becomes positive and you are not wasting your time. You do the same job, earn the same money. You put in one effort but benefit spiritually as well as earning your living. The same goes for any job we do, unless you are a slaughterer, or are producing B52 Bombers or atomic bombs or doing something else that is negative by nature, then it is a different question. Otherwise, if it is by nature not harming, not negative, your positive motivation is good enough to make whatever job you are doing spiritual.

What makes any action spiritual? Here spiritual means creating positive karma, not negative. This may or may not be sacred. I don't know whether all spiritual practice and path has to be sacred or not. If it is sacred, it is good. Even if it is not sacred, it can be spiritual path if it helps ourselves. The way the Buddha draws the line between what is spiritual or non- spiritual is whether it is positive karmic creation or negative karmic creation. If your action creates positive karma, it is spiritual. If it creates negative karma it is non-spiritual. Before Shakyamuni Buddha died, he took off all his clothes and sat up and asked the disciples to look at his body, the body of a Tathagata, which is rare to see again. Then

Gelek Rimpoche many of those great disciples started dying one after another, like flies dropping because they didn’t want to see him die. Buddha had to make a rule to stop this. He said it was time for him to leave, but they had to stay. They said, “Well you are going to go and we have been asking you what to do, but now, who should we follow and what should we do?” Buddha himself said, “Wherever I have said it is a good and right thing, when an incident arises see where it fits. Is it closer to the right side or the wrong side? If you are on the right side, follow it because it may be right. If it is on the wrong side, don't follow it, it will create misery.” So that is where the Buddha drew the line, because negative karma creates suffering and positive karma creates joy. That is the reason why we draw the line there on what is spiritual and what is not. When we talk about lack of conscientiousness and conscientiousness, conscientiousness refers to the individual who is creating a positive karma. And whoever has laziness, not necessarily negative, has a lack of conscientiousness.

Conscientiousness is a tool Basically conscientiousness is a mental tool for every one of us to be able to do what we need to do and want to do, whether on a spiritual path, business, or anything, even flipping hamburgers, selling Coca Cola or cleaning shoes. If the person is conscientious, they will clean your shoes well. If they have a lack of conscientiousness maybe they will put black shoe polish on your brown shoes. I once experienced this. I had mustard colored shoes, and when I had them polished at the airport; they put brown polish on it. I only realized afterwards and thought, “What happened to my shoes?!” According to Buddha, conscientiousness makes the individual work towards the positive karmic side. The lack of conscientiousness will not push you or help you. It will not inspire you but almost you have to force yourself. A number of people complain that to me here especially when you have big long commitments. Hours they have to sit down and recite and they have to force themselves. It is like the exam-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE ple given by the Tibetan teachers of the dead-tired donkey going uphill with a heavy load. Why does this happen? Because of the lack of appreciation, and also your own priority. When you don't have priority, every thing will come and take over. If you have no control by the time you realize it is too late. That is the lack of conscientiousness. So Bodhisattvas pay attention to conscientiousness, because this is the basis on which they are going to make it or going to fail. Sometimes people tell me that they are afraid they are going to fail and fail miserably. If you don't have conscientiousness, you may. If you are conscientious, then you will not fail. This is the example to show why the Bodhisattva has to have the conscientiousness and why it is important. We can read this text but the reality is, the bottom line here is that conscientiousness is the basis on which you are creating positive or negative karma. Verses 2 and 3 In case of reckless actions Or of deeds not well considered, Although a promise may have been made, It is fit to reconsider whether I should do them or not. How can I ever withdraw From what has been examined by the great wisdom Of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, And even many times by me myself? Normally, if you agree to do something without thinking about it properly, of course you can change your mind or your statement. You can do all that in normal situations; as long as you do not get into legal trouble, it is okay. People accept and forgive that too. Even if you have promised

Gelek Rimpoche something before, but you didn't really think about it carefully enough, if it was not well considered, you can go ahead and change your mind. In normal cases, you can change your mind or reconsider, but here you cannot have second thoughts about your commitment to love and compassion, your commitment to help all beings including yourself. Why not? Because not only you but all the great ones like Buddhas or enlightened beings by their great wisdom thought very well, checked a number of times, and did every possible examination and found it is right. Even you yourself have a number of times said you would like to be loving and compassionate. You have adopted it yourself even though you are unable to put all things together yet. Still this will not fall in the category where because you don't have the full information available to you, you would like to change your mind. This you shouldn't do. Are you with me? Even though you do not have all the information you have selected that path and commitment, and you cannot be wrong, because the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have checked a number of times and they have all the information and great wisdom. Through that they decided that it is best for all beings, not just for you but for all beings including themselves. In other words, we don't have better knowledge and information than those enlightened beings. In one unanimous voice they have recommended that it is good for people to have love and compassion. So you should not change your mind because they have very strong reasons why love and compassion is good for everybody. That is what verse 3 is telling you.

Helping ourselves and others Here we never appreciate or rec- ommend a spiritual path that tries to give ourselves a kind of superior power over you, meaning the other person. We are not looking for that. If you are looking for that, you are in the wrong place! It is not a question of me over you, it is a question of helping me and you. That is what I try to share with you here.

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Whenever you look at any spiritual path, if that spiritual path tries to show you how to make yourself better or greater than others, if you see anything like that, it is not the path accepted by the Buddha. Somebody else may accept it, I don't know. But what the Buddha normally tells you is when you are looking at the spiritual path that makes “Me better than you,” or “Me over you,” or “I have more power,” or “I have control over you,” or “I twist you on my finger tips,” any such spiritual path with such purpose is not good, so don't follow it. It is a question of me helping me and you, and everybody. That is important. That should not be compromised; we should not let it go. We are talking about conscientiousness, and we need to be conscientious of not losing that commitment to help people, to help myself. One should not lose the commitment to have love and compassion no matter what. No excuse should ever be accepted. In normal cases, you can say, “I did not think very carefully, I was reckless, but now it is clear for me, I can't do that.” Yes, it may be true that you can’t do it right now, but don't give up. That is what the Buddha is saying. You may not be able to do it right this moment but you should try, because this is important, and there is no substitute; this is true. I am not saying there is no substitute for Buddhism, but I am saying there is no substitute for love and compassion. If you try to give up love and compassion to do some power trip or ego building, to make you feel better, look better, or have power to control other people, what are you going to get out of that? Nothing. You may gain power over somebody for a few days and after that they will change their mind too, as long as they are intelligent enough. So what do you gain? Nothing, and ultimately you are going to lead everybody to the wrong place, misleading them. There is no alternative to love and compassion. This is what these verses are talking about. Do not use the excuses that, “It has been my reckless action,” or “I didn't think carefully, so I just went along with that; the wind blew that direction,” and so forth.

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A lot of people have these difficulties in another way. People think, “I can't take this anymore! I've tried enough and I failed miserably!” Some people will think that way though they know very well they never failed. But they would like to say, “I failed miserably.”

If you don’t give up, you can’t fail There is no way to fail in this, unless you decide not to try. If you decide that love and compassion is the wrong path, that you shouldn’t love anybody else or have compassion for anyone or if you only want to be a power monger, then you have failed miserably. If sometimes you can't cope with it, that doesn't mean that you failed. You can't cope because of your mental situation, you may be depressed or under pressure or anything. People think, “Oh I did something wrong two years ago, or ten or twenty years ago in and I am terrible!” But look around you; is there any single being who does not make any mistakes? You are never going to find anyone; some have more, some have less for sure, but each and every person has lots of mistakes and problems. Many of them we do reckless- ly without realizing. Many of them we did under the influence of many things such as drugs, or alcohol or attachment or hatred. Each and every one of us has these problems. If you don't have problems, you must be an enlightened being! But as far as I am concerned, I am not, and I am sure you would say the same too for yourself. We do have lots of problems and mistakes in our background, but that doesn't mean we have failed. If you have conscientiousness you should be aware that we should not go back, that we will not go back. If you do not have conscientiousness, you may slip back one or two times or maybe ten or fifteen times. Even then, the idea is not to give up! Never say never. Didn't James Bond say that? That is what they are telling you here. You may think, “I made a mistake, I didn't know enough; I did not know how difficult it is; I did not know what problems I have, so that is why I made this mistake.” But the Buddha says that is no excuse. Besides you, these great

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE wisdom minds have examined this thoroughly, turned it upside down and inside out and looked very carefully at what they may have to do. They checked and found this is the best, so you do not have any excuse. It is not like other things where you can change your mind. Verse 2 says you can change your mind because that is normal, but in verse 3, it is different. You can't do it because great wisdom has already checked carefully. Unless you think you have better wisdom than the Buddha or anybody else, then go ahead, jump from the cliff, fine! Verse 4 If, having made such a promise, I do not put it into action, Then by deceiving every living being, What kind of rebirth shall I take? This verse talks about Bodhisattvas, or Bodhisattva wanna- be’s who have taken Bodhisattva vows, who say, “I am here to help all sentient beings. I volunteer to help all sentient beings”. They have given this commitment, made such a promise. If you promise but don't do it, then what happens? In normal cases when someone says he or she will do something for you, but doesn’t do it, what happens? The person would have let you down. In other words here it says, if I have made the commitment, but I won't do it, then I am letting everybody down. This is terrible. If I say in the presence of all enlightened beings that I would like to help all sentient beings and then let them down, what kind of person would I be? What kind of consequences will I have? What kind of responsibility will I have? When it says here what kind of rebirth will I take it is very Buddhistic point. It is really saying, “What happens to my responsibili- ties?” Not only am I being irresponsible, I am letting people down. This is why you have to have strong conscientiousness to push yourself, and to give you the support, and give yourself the reinforcement for your commitment, particularly

Gelek Rimpoche with regards to giving up the path of love and compassion. This is because you have no better alternative even for yourself, and at the same time you are letting everybody down. In taking the Bodhisattva vow, we have given our commitment, our promise to all sentient beings. We have given this commitment in the presence of the Buddhas and Bodhi- sattvas. If even after giving the commitment and taking vows, you do not work enthusiastically, then you are letting all sentient beings down. You are deceiving every living being. You are letting down the people who look up to you. Then it is very interesting. If you have a big commitment and you don't want to do it, that is letting them down. Verse 5 gives an example. Verse 5 If it has been taught (by the Buddha) That they who do not give away The smallest thing they once intended to give Will take rebirth as hungry ghosts: In the West, everybody accepts that generosity is a great thing. Nobody questions and nobody doubts this. When we take Bodhisattva vows, we even take the commitment of giving everything: our body, our possessions, whatever is helpful. But when you have to literally give something, even a dirty old undershirt or something, we hesitate or think twice sometimes. In the West, particularly America; people are so generous. They give whatever they can to help. In the East, no matter how wealthy, they don't give you anything. They somehow think they will need it for themselves in future. Here we do the same thing with things we collect, things we keep in the garage, basement or closet. You think you are going to need it and maybe you need it once, two seconds in five years, but still you don't let it go. We have committed to

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE be generous but we can't let our things go. This is the example how we have problem being generous. Bodhisattvas can give even their lives without any hesitation. One of those great disciples of Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, had only one eye. Somebody asked him for his eye and he gave it. That is how the Bodhisattvas function. Look at the Buddha's life story: when he was a Bodhisattva, he fed a starving tigress and her cubs, by cutting his own wrists and letting them drink his blood so they could become strong enough to eat him! Buddha had that degree of commitment, and if we want to follow that, we have to let our things go. It may be a little difficult. I do not have that problem for myself; I throw away things very often. Not only I throw away mine, others as well! When I was at Cherry House I threw away so many things on Tuesdays and repeatedly on Satur- days. I got everything onto the truck and went to the dump. Somebody saw his old bicycle and came chasing me! If you have conscientiousness you will not have those problems. Really, most of our problems are due to lack of conscientiousness, particularly when we have to put in time to practice, meditate, and say your mantras. When the choice is between the television and your meditation session, if you choose the television program over your session, it is a lack of conscientiousness. This verse of the Bodhicaryavatara, The Bodhisattva's Way of Life, tells us how to think about this. When the Bodhisattvas can let go of their eyeballs without any hesitation, then why can't I let it go of my little extra shirt? It has been taught, Bud- dha himself said, if we are stingy what consequences will we have? What causes individuals to be reborn as hungry ghosts?

The consequences of stinginess There are six realms in Tibetan Buddhist tradition and ten in the Chinese tradition. One of these is called the hungry ghost realm,11 a very difficult one where you are hungry all the time. It is a terrible life there. The pretas’ stomachs are big like a mountain and their throats are as thin as a hair straw, so it is impossible for the food to go through and fill up the stomach. Some of them can’t even

Gelek Rimpoche get anything to eat. These are the reasons they are called hungry ghosts. There are many stories about them. What is really the direct cause for such a rebirth? Stinginess. On the other hand if you are generous, generosity brings wealth. If you want to be wealthy, be generous!12 If your conscience is aware of that, it will cause you to be generous, not necessarily to make yourself rich but just be generous. That itself helps. If karmic law is true then it is bound to help. But if karmic law is not true, even then it would be a good thing to do. It helps people and doesn't make you lose so much. It is also true you get much more. Conscientiousness does that. If you are a bad person you won’t want to share without it, but even if you are a good person who wants to share, if you lack conscientiousness, you will say, “Not today, not tomorrow, not this, not that.” That is how we delay, and things do not get done.

Conscientiousness, appreciation and joy Conscientiousness is important for everything, for positive karma and particularly when you have to do your commitment every single day. Conscientiousness brings the appreciation, appreciation brings joy, and if you have appreciation and joy in your practice you don't have to drag yourself like a dead tired donkey. When you find this within yourself, it is the lack of appreciation. When Buddha said that generosity is so important and people should have great generosity, what does that generosity really mean? It is actually dealing with our minds. We have lots of attachment and cannot really let things go.

Generosity benefits in two ways Generosity works in two ways. You benefit the people to whom you give and share, but you yourself benefit more because it helps with your strong attachment. We like to collect and hold things. Do we have lots of things in the garage? The things we collect simply tell you how strong attachment is. The things we collect will be useful sometimes, maybe once in five years we may need it

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE for one second to do something, but at the same time you keep it for five years, not letting it go. The simple examples are little things like the screwdriver, or measuring tape, or maybe that old dress? You mean the blue one?13 These are examples, the symptoms by which we can really see how hard it is for us to let go. Attachment for a screwdriver does not mean anything. But attachment for blue dress may mean something! It is a symptom that tells you there is a bigger and stronger attachment which we cannot let go. Holding on, unable to let go, sticking there - that is our problem.14 Gen- erosity helps to cut that attachment and that is how it helps you better. That is why the Buddha goes to such extremes. Bodhisattvas should be able to give their eyeballs if somebody asks for them. That is how extreme they go. That tells you that the purpose of generosity is not only helping the person to whom you give. The main purpose is to help yourself, to cut your attachment, to cut your holding on. The Buddha says stinginess, not letting go, holding on, is the cause for taking rebirth as a hungry ghost. Stinginess, not generosity, will make me poor and hungry. Holding on, not letting go, makes me poor; makes me hungry. Buddha says that when you decided to give something to somebody, even the smallest thing, and later when you were asked by the person for the thing which you thought you were going to give, if you change your mind, that will cause you to take rebirth in the hungry ghost land. Then verse 6 gives the conclusion to this.

Questions and Answers Student: When conscientiousness brings appreciation, what is the appreciation for? Rimpoche: Number one, we are appreciating our life. How wonderful that I am alive, how wonderful this life is. If you look in this training of the mind, which we called lam rim, the first and foremost important point is embracing life, appreciating this life that we have.

Gelek Rimpoche

Any other kind of life has limitations. If we think that al- iens have better intelligence than we do, we could be very wrong! Our life is extremely capable. We know it. I always say that Einstein was a human being and so was Buddha. That really demonstrates the human quality that we have to be able to understand, communicate and make a difference for ourselves. Other lives have so many limitations. Look at cats, dogs, cows, or monkeys. You may see a dog drive a car in a movie but in reality dogs can’t drive but we can. If you think your dog is so intelligent, give it your car keys and ask it to do your grocery shopping! Animals can’t match human development, that is why our life is different from any other lives you see. You are grounded. Compare yourself to snakes, dogs, cats, monkeys - or elephants if you want a big one. Compare these and see the capability. That is what we appreciate. This is just the basic level. As a spiritual person, you not only appreciate that your life is capable of doing things but also capable of making difference in the journey of your spiritual path. You can make a much bigger difference than other lives. Number two, appreciate the opportunity you have. Somehow, like a miracle, we have such a great life and great path, with enough of everything we need. Judeo-Christian,, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, all are available including even black magic. We have opportunity to do whatever we want to do. The time, the life and the opportunity. There are lots of things for us to appreciate. Finally, and this is purely Bodhisattva propaganda, now is great opportunity for you to be able to practice Mahayana, the way of the Bodhisattva. If I were a dog today, even if I wanted to practice, I couldn’t; all I could do is bark, nothing else. That is where you can appreciate.

Student: The Buddha said that sufferings come from passion. Should we get rid of our passions then? What about love? Rimpoche: So, you do not want to give that up, do you? Good idea. I don't know whether Buddha said suffering comes

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE from passion. Buddha said sufferings come from negative actions, negativities. Passion is questionable. It is very difficult to make the distinction between attachment and pure love, but to cut it short and make it simple, the distinction is whether you are harming or hurting anybody. If you are hurting somebody, it is negativity. What- ever it may be, passion, attachment, or even pure love, if it hurts people then it becomes negativity. It is easy for me to tell you that the sticky stuff is attachment, and pure stuff is love, but it doesn't mean anything. It can be interpreted in any way. The way I look at sexual misconduct is when it hurts people. The number one sexual misconduct is rape or killing. I am not looking at the type of activity, but rather whether it is hurting anyone, including a third person, never forget that. They are human beings too. If you are hurting a third person, that is another problem there. All of those you have to consider. The biggest sexual misconduct is rape, for sure. We have to look into things like sexual misconduct. We cannot take straightaway a statement given by the Buddha two thousand five hundred years ago. There are zillions of great masters who interpret in this way and that way. Today what we really need is essence of that relevant to our life and not letting down the individual people who try to follow that. That is important.

Student: [Question about dealing with having too much stuff.] Rimpoche: You know what I used to do? If I keep on looking at things one by one, and ask if I need this, my answer will be yes, I need this. I can think of reasons why I might need black tape to put two wires together and cellotape to stick my letter together. That is because of our habit. We want it, we can't let it go. But if you think, “All this junk is a big problem for me – out with it!” then that is how you get rid of it.

Student: Can you be generous without being wealthy? Rimpoche: Yes, definitely. You can be very generous without being wealthy. Generosity does not necessarily depend on

Gelek Rimpoche giving money, or giving anything. You can be very generous in terms of kindness, patience. Generosity is a mental attitude, rather than what you are really cashing out. You can sit over there and look at beautiful McDonald's farm, and say, ‘I am giving this to all the sentient beings in the world.’ But don't give it in writing, you get into problems! Why not? If you look in the Six Session Yoga, it says, in the long version, whether it is owned or unowned, I am over here to give to you. All the things I possess and what is not mine, what is actually placed here and what I mentally create. You need to have a generous mind, but when it comes to actual giving, you should not give the yellow part of the vege- table or the blue part of the butter. That is a Tibetan saying. When your vegetables is yellow, better give it away, share it! Not a big deal, huh! When you butter is becoming blue with mold, share it! That is not generous at all.

Student: In Ann Arbor there are lots of people asking for change in the street. I feel they are genuine and need some help, but a lot of times I find they don't bother me anymore, I am tired of them being here all the time. When I give them something, I don't feel that is really generosity actually because I harbor a kind of resentment in my heart and that actually creating negativity. Rimpoche: Could be, could very well be. But it is more or less generosity because you don't really have hopes of getting anything back. You are sort of open-minded, and that is the important point. But on the other hand, you have been hit on all the time, and you probably dislike it, so then, just don't give. It is not being stingy where you don't want to create negative karma within you. Remember, generosity cannot function without wisdom. If you find somebody who is addicted to some substance, and give the person a quarter, then it becomes a disservice.

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No matter how hungry they might be, they won’t buy food but whatever they are addicted to. It may be a disservice for the person, but on the other hand, though it is a disservice for them, it may still be generosity for you. That is where you need wisdom. Wisdom should recognize that while it is an act of generosity for you, it is a disservice for them, and then you draw the conclusion whether you want it to be good for him and good for you, or good for you and bad for him. That is where you wisdom comes in.

Student: You can take him to restaurant obviously. Rimpoche: If you buy them a sandwich, they will throw it away. I am quite sure. What is Buddhism all about? What is Buddhism all about? Buddhism was developed by the Buddha in India, so it should have all the Indian culture influences, but it adapted to Tibetan culture and became very Tibetanized, and also adapted to Japanese, Chinese, Thai culture and so on. Buddhism has the capability of adapting to any culture because the essence of Buddhism is not based on culture but on how we handle our problems. That is the main thing. It is not so much about physical problems. Of course we do talk about physical health and there is tremendous connection and relationship between the mental and physical. It is important that we remain healthy and have longevity and healing. Buddhism acknowledges all this and has lots of related activities, but the main emphasis in Buddhism is how each and every individual can make themselves better people. Buddha was looking for a betterment of life. Buddha was brought up in a special palace with only young and beautiful men and women and wonderful music playing twenty-four hours a day. His life was pleasant and easy. He had a scented bathing pool. All these were artificially built to be able to keep that little boy in the household of the ruler. It was forbidden for him to go outside of the palace, so he knew nothing of the sufferings outside. He kept wonder-

Gelek Rimpoche ing what was out there where he could not go. Allen Gins- berg used to have a poem “When I was young, I wondered what was behind big tree in my backyard. When I was ten years old, I went out there and found it was a glue factory.” It was the same way for the Buddha!

The suffering of old age, sickness and death When he was big enough to bully his way round, he pushed his horse cart driver and went out of the palace. He found not glue but suffering – the suffering of old age, illness, and death. Suddenly he thought, “Will I be subject to these or will I be immune because I am a ruler?” The answer came, “You are not immune. You will have the same problems; you will become old, you will look terrible, you will get sick and you will die.” These are the answers he found. Then naturally he thought, “Is there a way out for me? Is there any escape for me?” Here he experienced not only physical pains like aging, sickness and death, but at the same time a tremendous amount of mental pain equal to that if not more. And of course, we are experts not only in the physical pain but especially in mental pain, too. Next, naturally this young Buddha who was taking responsibility for the subjects of his kingdom thought, “If I am subject to that, how can I help my subjects and protect them? Is there a way out for them?” This is really how Bud- dhism began truly speaking –.“Is there a way out?” Lots of people tell me that Buddhism is a religion of suffering. No, it is a religion of reality, because this is truly what we have. Whenever we separate ourselves for a year and when we get together we feel very happy, but then after a little while when we share our experience it is nothing wonderful but the pain that we went through. That is reality. If you are together you have pain, if you are separated you have pain. It is absolutely true. It is nothing strange, it is nothing unusual, it is the same with everybody. I can show each and every one of you it is not unique for you alone. Absolutely each and every one of us has that because it is the nature of reality. That is what Buddha discovered.

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Buddhism came from there, from Buddha asking himself, “How I can help myself and others?” That was the main question of the young man who became the Buddha. Natu- rally he became totally preoccupied with this main theme; his mission or purpose in life was to try to find an answer for that. Trying to become free of pain does not mean we fly away to some pure land where there is no pain. There may be pure lands, but. that is not what Buddha discovered and that is not how Buddhism works What he really discovered about how we get free of pain is only by changing the way we perceive. But don't cheat yourself! Sometimes the moment I say this about perceiving, you may try to fool yourself and others and say, “I don't have pain. Ouch! I don't have pain.” That is cheating yourself and others and won't work. Perceiving free of pain means that even if you are supposed to have a huge pain, somehow you really don't experience that. That is the beginning of freeing yourself from pain. You know what I mean? It is not the mind telling you that you don't have the pain. That may help a little bit somewhere but that is not the main point. The point is when you are supposed to have a huge pain but it is painless for the individual for a variety of reasons. It is not that you perceive you don't have pain. You do have pain, but it doesn't bother you so much. That is where you begin. So the Buddha began to look at how he could get free of those pains, and how could he help his subjects to get free. The way he found was different than what we do in the West. Here when someone experiences pain, we throw some chemicals on that, see how the person feels, block some neu- rological connections and try to numb them up, so that they don't feel the pain. I was told that is how anesthesiologists and neurosurgeons work. The Buddha did not do that. He was looking for a cure, not a temporary block. He found that if you work with the symptoms you can have a temporary block. That is a great help no doubt, but not good enough for the Buddha. What he needed was a

Gelek Rimpoche permanent cure: how to help himself and others permanently, once and for all He searched his mind through meditation and also learned from other teachers at that time. Buddha went through a very strict discipline without much food for six years. He remained on the banks of the Varanasi river, meditating, fasting, and trying to overcome for six years. He found that extreme deprivation is also not the answer. A farmer's daughter who came by could not figure out whether he was alive or a ghost! When she realized he was a human being, she went back and brought milk for him. He drank it, and the five other seekers who followed him were so upset they walked away. They thought after all the six years, now Buddha was giving up because of the farmer's daughter's offering. What the Buddha really discovered was that being too extreme was not right. Even if it is discipline, too extreme won't work. That is one reason it is the Middle Path.

Work at the causal level The Buddha found that you can work at the causal level. If you can work at the causal level, it is bound to give a perfect result. Even logically we can understand this. We can shape tomorrow if we have plans to do something today. We know that very well. The cause determines the result. The pain and pleasure of what we are going through now is the result of what we did before. What the Buddha discovered is that there is no point fighting against the result where you can do nothing. You know people like us, when we experienced the result, we don't like it. So we fight at that level, but we never think carefully beforehand. That is what the Buddha discovered, not to do that but to work at the causal level. We call this the Four Noble Truths discovery, and the first is the Truth of Suffer- ing, which is the reality we have. All the pain we go through is the Truth of Suffering, and we always have that. The second is the cause of Suffering. This is where you have room to do everything. This is where we can make ourselves whatever we want to because we are responsible for ourselves. Whether we have a good life, bad experiences or

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE good experiences, it is our own deed. We are responsible, no one can change that; nobody else. We are responsible for whatever what we do, we experience the results of that. Knowing that, Buddha said that at the causal level you can do whatever you want to, whether to eliminate your pain, or intensify your pain or transform your pain. The Buddha said that he found the way out, and it is at the causal level. Simple. What does causal level mean? What I do today which will shape me tomorrow. Today is tomorrow's cause. How do I work with the causal level? This is where the whole teaching of Buddhism comes in. This is the Fourth Noble Truth, the truth of the path, which really means how I work, what do I do. Spiritual practice is almost like a road you travel on. We all have some interest in the spiritual path or else we wouldn’t be reading this. Ask yourself why you are interested? Is a spiritual path necessary for me or not? If so, what kind? Different people will have different answers. Some will say they have difficulties handling the problems in their lives. Some will say their girlfriend is interested so they want to find out what is in there. Some will say they want to follow the fashion because so many Hollywood people are involved. If that is your reason, you are reading the wrong book! Watch a Steven Segal video!

Spiritual materialism The spiritual path here is the path Bud- dha chose to follow and the path he experienced. If we are not careful, spiritual materialism can cheat us, and it is everywhere. Spiritual materialism is a big problem for practitioners. That occupies almost eighty per cent, if not ninety per cent in the spiritual path, and not necessarily just in the West, but also in the East. There is a long Tibetan story from the 1400’s, when there were a lot of great teachers including Tsongkhapa the founder of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat sect. A protector called Pehar, which was somehow related to that official government protector, helped a lot and played lots of tricks too, by giving people tricky gifts. Somehow Pehar was help-

Gelek Rimpoche ing but in one way was not. Pehar presented a pen to Bo- dong, a great being, and Bodong became so busy writing that he finished almost one hundred and fifty volumes during his lifetime. The poor fellow spent all his life writing! He had four secretaries at the four corners of the stupa, and as he circumambulated, he dictated to the secretaries at each corner - astrology to the one in the east, medicine to the one in the south, philosophy to the one in the west, and history to the one in the north. It is a great work and great help no doubt, yet it is spiritual materialism, whether you like it or not, because instead of helping yourself, freeing yourself, you have been engaged in that. Whether Bodong Rimpoche was under control of spiritual materialism or not, I can't say, but he showed that to guide us not to do such a thing. That was spiritual materialism because you spent more time publicizing yourself, though he may not be. But expressing his ideas and thoughts more or less focused out, that is why it is spiritual materialism. A great thing, but it is still spiritual materialism. There are a number of other stories. The bottom line is like Milarepa said: When the essence of your mind is totally based on Dharma, rely on that, then even if you become an absolute beggar who has not a penny to your name you will be happy enough to live. Even if you die as a beggar, you should not have any regret or hesitation whatsoever. Even if you die between rocks, even then you should not have hesitation. Milarepa did not own anything. His niece came to visit and saw he was naked, felt embarrassed and worked hard to get a piece of cloth for him. She asked him to cover himself de- cently next time. Milarepa cut the cloth into pieces and covered his fingers instead! That is absolutely true dharma person, totally free of all spiritual materialism. If we could do that, great, but the chances of us doing that is one in a billion,

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE because we have ego-grasping, ego-protecting which is so strong and we could never hope to be like Milarepa.

What is possible for us? What is feasible for us in the twenty- first century? If you behave like Milarepa today, you will land in jail. Look at the essence of Buddhism. How do I work with Buddhism, and how does Buddhism work with me? It is not going to work with our physical bodies so much, though you cannot rule out the martial arts, there is hatha yoga and so forth, but still the essence is the mind part. You are divided into body and mind, and that is all we have, nothing else. Body is temporary, and mind is permanent. We want the spiritual path working permanently with us, not temporarily. If you built spiritual path on your body, you can built it up to twenty-five or something, but after that it goes down no matter whatever you do. After all we leave this body that I always refer to as a rented apartment. We have to leave and go. That’s why we don't want to base our path on the physical. The main spiritual path we must build up on our mind. Why? Very simple. Every action that we take is creating our karma. The causal level is the actions that we take. The mind dictates every action that we do. The thoughts that pop up in our head, the mind that perceives the thoughts and accepts the suggestions dictates the actions. That is the job of the mind. The thoughts pop up like bubbles in the water; everywhere, then the mind accepts or rejects certain thoughts. If you can reject and accept and make decisions, you are a wise person. If you cannot make distinction and accept every thought that comes up, then you become a foolish person. Wise and fool are divided on this basis. We have a saying in Tibetan tradition, if it is not good, if it is bad, even if it is a tooth in your mouth, you should throw it out. That is old Tibetan saying. It has a spiritual value and teaching. Ac- tually it is the mind that makes the distinction. Working with the spiritual path is only with the mind, not with the physical at all; only with the mind. When you are dealing the mind it cuts down tremendously dealing with

Gelek Rimpoche spiritual materialism. Spiritualism materialism is when you are looking somehow for some kind of acknowledgement, some kind of accomplishment or achievement, which is in a way great encouragement in normal Western culture. Everywhere you have to encourage people by giving prizes or numbers; you do that in school and on the job. It is utilizing the materialism policy to give encouragement to individuals to work better and harder. But in spiritual path it becomes spiritual materialism, and it is not necessarily that good. That is why a number of spiritual practitioners find no encouragement, no acknowledgment, so it is difficult. But you must avoid spiritual materialism. How do work with your mind? That is very simple. Number one, what is a good mind and what is a bad mind is within ourselves. Mind is like a clean crystal lampshade. When you look from a distance, it is a crystal lampshade, which has no color. Then if you place a red light bulb in there, like anger, then this lampshade becomes red. When you look it becomes a red lampshade. That we all know. If you have green bulb in there, the lampshade looks green. If you have a natural light, it looks natural. That is how thoughts function. When anger pops up in our head and our mind accepts anger, the mind looks like red lampshade. Or, jealousy or hatred, all of them will change that. So we have to handle our mind. All the negative thoughts that come up, you have to realize. Now you look like a red lampshade, now I look like green lampshade, now I look like milky lampshade, now I look like muddy lampshade; all these. So try to change that. Try to be normal and not influenced by those negative emotions. Of course you will say, “I’d love to have that, but I can't help it. It comes and overpowers me completely, I can't help it.” That is not your fault, we all do that, but try have to have awareness; you have to have your mind set up that you would like to be pure, nice. Motivation is very important.

Check your motivation Number one, when people ask me where to begin, and what to do, the first little thing I know to

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE do is to watch your motivation. Work with your motivation. If your motivation is to build some kind of name or fame for yourself, or to become a spiritual teacher, or something of that type, then it does become a problem. If your motivation is to be of help, help yourself number one and then help others, then it is a correct motivation. That is the best motivation we can have, so then encourage that. If you don't have it, try to build that up. If you can't help yourself, nobody can help you. That is number one. Two, if you can't help yourself, you can't help anybody else. One and two are the Buddha's points to us. That is the Buddha's principle for the bigger vehicle and the smaller vehicle, that is what Mahayana and Hinayana. People sort of look at Mahayana as bigger and Hinayana as smaller, it is a total mistake. Though Mahayana is big, they are not talking about bigger and better vehicle, or Hinayana as smaller and narrower vehicle. They are pointing out focal point of purpose.

Points one and two Focal point number one is helping yourself. If you cannot help yourself, how can you help anybody else? You can’t. That is Buddha's number one point. Helping yourself is the focal point number one, and it is the Thera- vadan principle. If you can help yourself, on that basis you can help others, focal point number two. It is not that one is bigger, and one is better, no. We misunderstand that all the time. Remember how Professor Upedeya said that though Mount Everest is very high and wonderful, it is measured from the ground level.15 Without the ground level, you cannot measure how high Mount Everest is. It may be very high but you cannot measure it. So without the basic Hinayana principle, we can’t see how great Mahayana is. It is true what Buddha said: first and foremost, help yourself. The way you help yourself is to begin with your motivation. Then, understand your pain and don't think it is unique for you. Don't think it is something unusual. No matter what kind of difficult pain or physical illnesses, mental situations, whatever it may be, it is never unique for you.

Gelek Rimpoche

There are many other people having the same problem as you. And, it is impermanent. It is changeable, you can always change. It is only you and you yourself can change. The motivation of helping yourself is number one, and two, helping others. Remember if you can't help yourself, you can't help others. If you want to help others whether it is all sentient beings or single being, if you can't help yourself, you can never help others. Neither Buddha nor the great masters could do that. If they cannot help themselves, they can never help others. That is point number one to remember. Tibetan Buddhism talks about love compassion for all sentient beings. Before you generate love compassion for all sentient beings, you must do so for yourself. Charity begins at home. The spiritual path begins with myself, helping myself. That is where you begin. That is where you think. Check your motivation, and make sure your motivation is free of materialism. Pure, helping yourself and then, helping others. Begin with Four Noble Truths, begin with suffering. Don't deny, work with it.

Be conscientious! There is always a way out, no matter whatever it might be. There is always a way out. But be conscientious. If you think there is always a way out but do not do anything, then it doesn't help. Like myself, I am a diabetic, and I know I can help myself, and I know it for sure. It is absolutely clear for me. But when you don't have the conscientiousness, you know you can help yourself, but you don't help yourself. I am talking about myself. I know I have to eat less and to exercise. I know it and can see it for myself that if one day I eat less, my sugar level goes down, and if I can walk on top of that, definitely I feel better. But due to the lack of conscientiousness, I don't do it. That is exactly how it works. Attachment to the food, the taste, the sumptuous dinner, the sumptuous momos I had before coming here, all of those attractions. These are the material attractions that draw your attention at that moment. The tastes that you enjoy

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE melting in your mouth will make you forget your sugar level! That is the lack of conscientiousness. When you are unconscientious, even though you know there is a way out, you can't help yourself. And one day it will be too late, and we know that very well. It is the same thing with the spiritual path. You know it, you have to look your motivation and all these, yet your priority is different, so we make so many excuses.

That is exactly how both laziness and lack of conscientiousness overtake our spiritual life. And that is how spiritual materialism take over our spiritual life. And that is how we lose. Geshe Beh was a traditional Tibetan Buddhist teacher before Tsongkhapa. He was once a robber, but in the end he became one of the greatest persons. He said: I was a robber, and I know how to be alert when the travelers come so that I can attack them and kill them and rob them. Now I use the same method. I am holding a spear at the door of negative emotions. The moment the negative emotions become alert, I become alert. When they are relaxed, I am relaxed. That is how he used to work. That is where your spiritual path begins. It is not necessary that you have some mantras to say, though if you can do that, great. If you are alert, then bring your conscientiousness in and work with yourself. That is meditation. Whether you are sitting cross-legged with closed eyes or chatting with somebody, walking through downtown, still it is meditation. To draw the conclusion now, where is the spiritual path? It is within you, you have to work within your mind. First and foremost, work with your motivation. Once you have worked with your motivation of helping yourself, then work for helping all other beings. If you cannot help yourself, you cannot help anybody else, not even a single being. Once you are able to help yourself on that very basis, on that very step

Gelek Rimpoche you help others. That becomes experience of sharing your development with others; it is not academic teaching, it becomes experiential. That is why when you can help yourself, you can help others.

What are our real problems? What is your problem? Your problem is the neuroses, your negative thoughts, your negative addictions to anger, to attachment. Attachment is not love, attachment is attachment. If you find jealousy within what you think is love, then it is attachment. If you find it is free of jealousy, it might not be attachment. I cannot say black and white here, might not be. If there is jealousy, there is attachment, these always go together. If there is jealousy there will be anger; and if there is anger, there will be hatred. That is how our negative emotions work so this is our problem. The spiritual path is like going through a war with your enemy, the negative emotions. You can win with conscientiousness and alertness, with understanding, with mindfulness. That doesn't depend on a temple or center or image. That depends on ourselves, no matter where we are. Wheth- er you are in the temple, or center or bazaar, or solitary retreat, your opponents are always there. Even when you are alone, they are there. You may be at the peak of Mount Ev- erest, or the bottom of the ocean, our enemy of negative emotions is always with us, so we need alertness and awareness.

Do not lose your freedom The bottom line is not to submit yourself to your negative emotions. Don't, no matter whatever it takes! Do not lose your freedom. Early Tibetan teachers used to talk about the yak’s rope. In Tibet, people would make a hole in the yak’s nose and put a little piece of wood through with a rope attached, so that if the yak wanted to go to the right, they could pull it to the left, and it would have to go to the left because of the pain. If you are a good spiritual practitioner, don't let someone else pull that rope, hold it and put it on your own horns! Go wherever you want to go,

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE don't lose your freedom. That is the traditional advice is absolutely relevant today. That is what we should follow. Number one, recognize your own problem, which is your enemy, the negative emotion addictions. Divert them, get out of it, and eradicate them, whatever it might take. That is the spiritual path. When you cut down your attachment, the positivity you gain out of that is your spiritual development. When you cut down your anger, the positivity gained is your spiritual development. You build that up and then get to the level of enlightenment. That is where you begin and that is what you do everyday. Questions and Answers Student: Sometimes it is difficult for me to recognize when negative emotions have arisen. It takes my kind friends to point it out to me at times! Sometimes I don't want to admit when they point to me that I am jealous, angry or whatever. Rimpoche: I was watching the Batman movie where Uma Thurman played Poison Ivy. When she kissed someone, that person died. Batman told Robin not to kiss her, and he fought and argued back. So when you said that, I sort of thought of that! Always our mind works in such a way thinking, ‘I have been deprived of such a great opportunity!’ In reality the person is helping you, however there are moments where you think he is jealous, or he wants to be better, or he wants it for himself. But better late than never: when you recognize, acknowledge.

Student: Many times I know negative emotions have arisen, and I recognize them as negative. I know it is wrong and I'll be thinking ‘I shouldn't feel like this.’ I try to think of antidote thought, ‘Oh, they try to be happy for me and I should cherish others.’ But even as my thought is thinking that, my heart is still feeling the negative emotion. It seems to be very much with me and part of me even though I recognize it and keep saying all these things. So I wonder how much benefit there is in just being aware, and what more there is. You always teach that the antidote will purify but I still feel like I

Gelek Rimpoche am having a lot of negative karma with all this anger, and jealousy. Rimpoche: Some people accuse me of not saying ‘Purify, purify’. I don't talk about one hundred thousand Vajrasattva and this and that. I am much less on that, much more on the practical level. What you have is intellectual knowledge, understanding, that is incapable of translating into your actual mind stream. Therefore you can have the understanding but still see it is going on. You are struggling. Unless and until this becomes part of your mind stream, this problem will continue. How- ever knowledge, understanding, acknowledgement, your daily practice, praying, all these are building up. It will take over one day and when it becomes part of your mind stream, then it becomes extremely easy to handle. Until it becomes a part of you, it is a struggle there. But never give up, no matter how many times you fall down! Three hundred times you fall, you get up. One day the negative emotions will lose, because you see all the faults everywhere. That is the difference between the person with the spiritual understanding and with no spiritual understanding. For a person without spiritual understanding, he will never see this as a problem at all. Never see it, but think, ‘Yes, I am jealous, so I must cash that out. I must use my anger as steam, run my engine faster to defeat the other person and get it for myself!’ That is how those people will think. People in the spiritual path will think, ‘This is my problem and I will not submit myself to the suggestion of this, forcing me, dou- bling my effort to serve my anger, or attachment, or to satisfy my ego.’ That is the big difference. You see it. So you have come from there and reach here. You are on the way.

Student: You explain that there is suffering and the cause of suffering. And you said there are negative emotions, and they are your enemy. Rimpoche: That is your cause of suffering.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Student: Can you explain a bit the connections between your negative emotions and suffering? Rimpoche: Very good. Negative emotions bring suffering, we know that very well. But also from the causal point of view, why do we commit negative actions? Because we have negative thoughts. Why do we kill somebody? Because I have the thought of killing. Why I have the thought of killing? Be- cause I have anger. Why do I have anger? Because I cannot bear it, tolerate, or I am jealous. This thought will cause you to act. This thought will say bring the killing. So the killing thought will go and then you say, ‘No, I can't do that.’ It is against the law. I will get into trouble. I should not do it.’ Or, ‘No, I can't help it. I should do it.’ These are all the pull and pushes. And at the end one day something happens and you don't think twice, you just kill the person. That is how the negative emotions bring the negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts bring negative actions. That is exactly how it works. Very simple, straightforward, I am trying to be on the ground. Ground level talking rather than going through beautiful philosophical language, which in the first place I don't even know. And secondly even if I know a few words it is of not much use. Straightforward, that is how it works. Liberation is within the mind; the negative is within the mind. That is how it works.

Student: How do you control your anger? A lot of people say take several deep breaths. What is your suggestion? Rimpoche: Throw a bucket of cold water!

Student: There are so many times I just flare up and get mad at somebody. Rimpoche: I believe those are what we called irritations. If you get more and more irritated, it will bring anger. Little things like driving here and there, giving few pumps on the horn, raising your finger round, those are not good but might not necessarily be that bad either. You will know true anger if you see it. It takes over the individual completely. You will see the person miserable, and literally shaking, shivering for

Gelek Rimpoche days and months together. This has nothing to do with raising your finger or honking the horn; it is more than that.

We are talking about conscientiousness. I told you even on the first day, if you have lack of conscientiousness, you don't know what you are doing. Lots of things happen without you realizing, without knowing what the consequences are. If there is enough conscientiousness, there is nothing to be squeezed by Starr!16 That is a simple example of the lack of conscientiousness, applicable to every one of our delusions whether attachment or hatred. We really get into all our problems because of lack of conscientiousness. Due to the lack of conscientiousness we got ourselves in, and we are caught in it. Sometimes we drive ourselves crazy within certain things all because of lack of conscientiousness. That is what it is. It also says here that the lack of conscientiousness is the doorway to our problems. With conscientiousness you have control, you can manage. We are going slowly through this Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of life, but we will manage. When I was a kid, we used to receive lots of oral trans- missions from different teachers. One of our teachers was Kyabje Labsum Rimpoche. In an oral transmission normally they just read it and you just listen to the words. Kyabje Lab- sum Rimpoche went extremely slowly, and he had volumes to read, he went even slower. One time it happened in my own house in Lhasa, a number of people requested him to give the oral transmission on the Five Root texts at a private teaching. The first day when he started there were about fifty people. For public teachings there would be thousands. He read a few pages, and fell asleep. Then he woke up, read a few more verses and fell asleep. Then they asked me to wake him up and politely I did. Then he woke up and said slowly, ‘This Rimpoche told me I am falling asleep,’ and he went back to sleep. He read some two pages, and after a little while he fell asleep a number of times and I had to wake him up. The next time I woke him up, he said, ‘This Rimpoche told me that I had fallen asleep. I don't remember where I

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE stopped, so let me begin right from this page,’ and he went back. Normally the oral transmission would have been done in two days, but it went on like that for twenty-seven days. At the end of it, there were hardly five people there! Verse 6 Then if I should deceive all beings After having sincerely invited them To the unsurpassable bliss, Shall I take a happy rebirth? Verse 5 says that letting someone down or being stingy can result in a hungry ghost rebirth, so if I invite all beings as my supreme guests, to help them to become a Buddha and attain unsurpassable bliss, and if I keep on saying “I will liberate those who are not liberated,” or, “I will help those not helped” - if then I let them all down, if I deceive them, what kind of future I am going to get? That is why they say, “Don't give up.” It is really saying not to give up because you can be helpful to others, not only that you will have a bad result for yourself, but if you give up, then it is very difficult not only for them but for you too. It is important for us to think carefully about this. It is not talking about whether you are saying your prayers, or going to the temple, retreating or meditating but about your commitment to help other people, your commitment for love and your commitment for compassion. The spiritual path is not about some temporary gain. As I told you earlier “me becoming better than you” is not a spiritual path. How shallow, how superficial, how unkind that is. You shouldn't follow a spiritual path which promotes “me better than you”. That is questionable for the motivation, actions and consequences. That is the essence of what the six verses we have read so far we tell us.

The only way to fail is to give up There are two points on spiritual path. One, what kind of spiritual path should be? And then

Gelek Rimpoche what kind of alertness we should maintain? Within alertness sometimes we feel we have failed, and there if you look carefully nobody failed because nobody got anything either. How can you fail? Traditional teachers tell you that even sometimes if you miss your practice but don't have the mind of “I am not going to do it,” it is sort of okay. It is questionable, but for emergency purposes, it is okay. When you are determined that “I am not going to do it,” then it is a big thing; it is letting yourself down. They talk about all sentient beings, but actually you are letting yourself down and that is important.

What do we do when we take Bodhisattva vows? We say, “Hey, I would like to liberate you completely! I would like to make every sentient being a Buddha, and I am going to do it. Those who cannot breathe, I will help you to breathe. Those who are not liberated, I will help you be liberated.” We say that all the time. I wish I know it in English. You said that every day at the end of the Vow Taking.17 Normally we say I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha until I obtain enlightenment. By practicing generosity and other perfections, may I gain enlightenment in order to help all beings. That is the commitment of ultimate love and compassion Love wishes everybody to be happy, that is the purpose of love. When you say, “I love you,” that should mean, “I wish you to be happy.” Compassion is, “I would like to free you from pain.” The Bodhisattva vow means you are making a big commitment to help everybody, to separate them from their pain, help them to have joy all the time and liberate them. That is the essence of great love and compassion, to be able to bring that to everybody. When it is individualized love that is what it is; if it is individualized compassion that is what it is. If it is for everybody, that is what it is. The essence is that we are hoping that we can be the instrument to bring that joy and that freedom from suffering. That is our commitment and if we don’t keep it, it is a big problem. Take the example of a great chieftain in an In-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE dian village who invites everybody to a feast the next day, “Come and be my guest, I am going to have a big feast, come and join me!” Then the next day there is nothing, no feast for anyone! What would they think of that chieftain? He can't say it was April Fool’s Day because there was no such thing in India. This is what verse 6 is talking about when it says, If I should deceive all beings. It is almost like what all the politicians do today. They give big promises but not so many people deliver, maybe somebody else does sort of bring the deficit down, but then they have another problem too. I believe that is samsara. Maybe a nonpolitician can deliver better. If we deceive all beings after sincerely inviting them, what will happen? We are like that village chief. We tell every sentient being, “I will help you to be liberated. I am generating Bodhimind, committing myself to help you,” and so forth. Then when the actual time comes, we do nothing. Not only do nothing, but give up our commitment and say, “I am not even going to try.” That is what they are talking about, giving up your commitment. If you can't do it, that doesn't matter, but if you are giving up your commitment, that is bad. Remember right from the beginning of this chapter, it said you can’t have second thoughts and change your mind; you can't do that for so many people who totally rely on you to help. You will let a lot of people down. Bodhisattvas cannot change their minds and give up their commitment because it will let a lot of people down, like the example of the chief inviting everybody for dinner and not providing anything to eat. If you let people down, what kind of person are you? What kind of future can you expect? Not one or two people, but I am letting down all sentient beings. What kind of person will I be, what kind of karma I have? What kind of future will I get? Let's say I made the commitment that I will help every sentient beings. We all do that, we say, I take refuge to the Bud- dha, Dharma and Sangha until I obtain enlightenment. For the benefit

Gelek Rimpoche of …..... We say that every morning, and just now we said, May all beings be free from suffering. We say the words and hope that our thoughts will follow and correspond with the words we say so that we can build actual love and compassion. If you do that it becomes powerful. Putting together the sound you make and the thought you have is the source of power you get. That is the commitment, that is the pushing we have. If you say, “Guess what, I changed my mind,” that is a bad downfall from the religious or spiritual point of view; it is letting the people down. From your own point of view, you can do nothing worse than letting people down. I am not talking about disappointing someone by not showing up for a date. Here you really have a big commitment building up all your total spiritual practice on that basis and then suddenly you say, “Hey, guess what? I changed my mind!” It won't work. This verse asks what kind of future will I have? Not a good one, because this is a heavy negativity. Shall I take a happy rebirth? Certainly not!

Know your own limits Having said that, now, please be very practical. A lot of Western people particularly, not so much the Eastern, will say, “Yes, I have a commitment and therefore I have to help everybody right now!” I am thinking particularly of one friend who said, “Yeah, I have my commitment, so I have to help this drug addict who wants to stay with me forever. How can I kick him out of my house? I would be failing in my Bodhisattva commitment.” You know what I am talking about? People do that very often. “If I don't do everything, then I am letting people down.” As a matter of fact, it is not letting people down. If you let yourself down to please or to save one single person, in a way it is great. But if you go down, if you destroy yourself or your ability to help, you are letting a million other people down too. I want you to remember that.

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A lot of people will say, “I committed to help all sentient beings, and this is one sentient being, so I must help them.” It is in a way very good, kind, compassionate act. True. But the question arises can you as an individual person do it? Can you help that person without getting yourself dragged down? Can you? That question you must ask. If you don't, instead of helping that person, you are dragging and pulling yourself down, and if you do that, you are letting other people down. You must think of that. Somehow, nobody thinks, “I can't help that person.” Always you think, “I can help that person. I can do something for that person.” With or without realizing you are losing your own ground. A number of people do that. You don't know what you are getting yourself in to and if that happens, you are letting all other sentient beings down. Wis- dom is called for. If you can help without getting yourself damaged, by all means you should. If you are getting yourself damaged, such as “It is okay, I can let myself go, let myself down, but I will help these people,” the result is you are neither helping the other people nor yourself. That is not the Bodhisattva's way, not a wise person's way. It is the way of foolish people. This is very important to remember. We don't have much of this problem in the East because more or less whether you are Tibetan, Chinese or Indian, they won't look back, they will run away! But in the West, they like to try to pick up. One reason people do this is as an excuse for themselves. Really what they really like is they want to do that same thing, and the excuse is that they are doing it to help the other person. That is the excuse a number of people we know use. “I am smoking because I want to help this person to stop smoking so I go along with that, and after a little while, I will stop.” That is a total excuse. If you put that naked out on the plate, that is what it is. Some people sincerely wish to help but are unable to, and then drag themselves down. If you do that, then it is a total waste of your life. Your purpose of life is defeated, your

Gelek Rimpoche opportunity is wasted, so a lot is at stake for yourself. You have to think about that very carefully.

Questions and answers Student: I have moths in my house and I don't like them but I feel bad about killing them. Rimpoche: I am glad you feel bad about it, and I am glad you did not let them continue either. I tell you the truth, straightforward: we live in such a world there is no way we can be totally free of negativity. If we try to be so righteous we won't make it; it is not even possible. Human life is extremely important and precious, and you can achieve tremendous benefits for yourself and others, and maybe for the bugs, too. But if insects become an obstacle for human life, even obstructing a day's work it is bad enough. Probably it will come second or third life after that. It should say even you disturb a Bodhisattva's day's work it is very harmful for living beings. It says that in here in the text of love and compassion.18 Human life is so precious, and if it becomes obstacle to that it is more harmful than the negativity of killing a bug. It is a choice we have to make. We should help in whatever way we can, and avoid whatever harm we can, but we cannot be too extreme. We should think. And I do have an extermination service, though I always hope they come before the bugs, so that they stay away because of the smell. I am sure lots of people may not agree. You have the right not to agree, and you have every right to make up your own mind. Do you have negativity by killing the bugs? Sure you do. But can you avoid it? Maybe not. So what do you do? Purify. You are never doomed. You know if you try to be so much righteous, it never works. If it works, wonderful, cannot be better, but it won't work. As a consequence of that, you just get a worse result.

Student: I am curious to know what is your opinion as to how things are unfolding with the president thing.

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Rimpoche: I am glad Clinton told the truth. My stupid opinion if he lies to the Grand Jury, it goes against Constitution and if it does, it goes against the country, and that becomes serious. So I am glad he came out with the true statement. I am a Buddhist and what Buddha says is you purify. When you purify you can become pure. By nature it doesn't become a dark spot for human being. It was a dark spot for him for a while, when he lied about this and that. But on the other hand, all politicians lie anyway. Those who are politicians and journalists who call them liar, they are all lying. And everybody is lying truly, and if you are looking from a different eye, that is what it is. It is a matter of some people got away with it and some didn’t. But on the other hand, if it hurts the country and the people, then it is not good. If you compare what happened with Watergate and with Whitewater, there is a big difference. I mean Clinton did not lie to the grand jury yesterday. It is not so serious as with Watergate but it is bad. I am glad he didn't lie. Whether people forgive or not it is up to them, but I am quite sure people forgive. Everybody lies all the time, and somebody is caught and gets a red face, embarrassed. It was a big punishment to tell you the truth, to go up there and testify! I know a lot of people lies all the time and get away with it for a while. Am I right or wrong? If you know how to lie, you won't get caught. Nobody will call you liar. They might tell you it is national security or something.

Student: [question about attachment and ignorance – inaudi- ble] Rimpoche: Are you clipping the branches? Perhaps you are chopping the fingers, not only the finger nails but the fingers. Did you hear me? Or, maybe you are just cutting the finger- nails too. If you do not deal directly with ignorance, it is difficult. So when you are cutting the attachment and hatred, these are the by-products. It is the extended arms of ignorance that you are chopping down.

Gelek Rimpoche Verse 7 Only the Omniscient can discern The manner of the action of those Who give up the Awakening Mind but are freed; It is beyond the scope of (ordinary) thought. I have to tell you a story here, otherwise you will not get this. They say if you give up the Awakening Mind, meaning your commitment to help others, you are not going to take a good rebirth. Buddha had two monk disciples, who you can often see standing beside him in thangkas.19 One is Mogallana the magical guy; and the other, Shariputra, the wisdom guy. Shariputra was supposed to be a Bodhisattva. Don’t take these stories literally. They are all Bodhisattvas dramas, acting for the purpose of teaching. Shariputra was a Bodhisattva once in a past life, practicing a tremendous amount of generosity. Once he was a king who gave away all the wealth of his kingdom to each and every one. A devil disguised as a human being came to him and said, “If you are so generous, I don't want your wealth. I want your right hand.” So Shariputra chopped off his right hand and gave it to him with his left hand. The guy said, “What an insult. Your dirty hand had given me, so I am not going to take it!” The reason the left hand is considered un- clean it that they don't use toilet paper, they use water and their left hand. Shariputra was very upset and thought, “It is impossible for me to do this; I will give up my Bodhimind right this moment!” Yet, he became Shariputra and was once of the arhats. So then they say if you give up Bodhimind and it is so heavy, what happened to Shariputra? Shantideva said only the Buddha knows, we don't know. That is what it is. Only the Omniscient can discern The manner of the action of those 69

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Who give up the Awakening Mind but are freed. I don't know how they got freed, only the Buddhas know. This says that it is beyond the scope of ordinary thought. If I don't tell you the story, and this verse comes here, you may not know what they are talking about.

Obstacles I am not going into theoretical points about this, but these are the things we called obstacles. We are not talking about headaches, or emotional effects, or cold symptoms. A lot of people will like this as another excuse, “Yeah, this is my obstacle.” How many people say that? “Every time I try to do this, I have this and that problem; and got beaten up.” “I fight with my roommate, I got into trouble. These are my obstacles, right? I am purifying myself, right?” Truly speaking you are not, you are not purifying anything. You are picking a fight with your roommate because of your usual bad habit. Truly speaking, a lot of people would like to use that again as an excuse. You don't recognize. I can say things like this to you when you are together, without pointing to any individual and saying “Hey, what you are doing is either you are becoming more crazy or picking up your bad habits or all these.” That is the beautiful way of presenting Dharma. When somebody else individually tells me, “This is my obstacle, right?” I have to say “Yeah.” I can't say, “You are getting crazy. Or, hey, it is not your obstacle; it is your bad habit coming up again.” If I say that, people are going to be upset and have more troubles. In the group, we can say it. When you experience this sort of thing, recognize, “This is my problem, my bad habit coming up; this is not my obstacle.” Really when you are talking about obstacles, this is the real obstacle – when you cut off your right hand and give it with the left, and the person says, “How dare you give with your dirty hand!” That is a real obstacle! Other problems are not really obstacles, but a reflection of your bad habit, lack of conscientiousness, lack of awareness of other people who are involved.

Gelek Rimpoche

Fortunately or unfortunately we live in an interdependent world, and we have actions and reactions all the time. When we start bombing, we are bound to have reactions and counter reactions. We are hoping the terrorists will totally be scared and shivering, and do nothing, which is not likely. Maybe they will be a little handicapped; they may not be able to do it for three months, four months or maybe a year, They may not be able to do anything, because their finances and weapons have been chopped down, but the reactions are bound to be there and they are not going to forget, even if it takes twenty years. It is like that everywhere whatever we do. There are all these problems. But do we have another choice without bombing? Maybe not. Maybe yes, maybe not. But is this right thing to do? Certainly not. Though we are too fond of it. We really liked the Gulf War, don't we? Lots of people did; they enjoyed it. They thought it was like a video game, and were well entertained by CNN. It was presented like a video game, and people did not have the grief that some people were losing their lives, people were getting killed. I think we need a little awareness on this interdependent relationship, always. You and me and everybody else, there is always action and reaction. This is the whole country we are talking about, but it is the same between two persons, you take action and the other reacts. This is the life we are in. You don't give up love and compassion, but you don't subject yourself to such a condition. Always remember the action and reaction is always involved in the level of state or country and the level of individual.. Even with little insects you deal with, even they will do the same thing. You see the ants running around, and if you try to kick them, first they will try to run and if they can't then they will come with their force. They will not be able to do too much, but that is what they do. That is how our life is functioning. Bodhisattvas are expected to understand that. Conduct your life on that principle of interdependence, principle of awareness, principle of conscientiousness. Not necessarily

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE moral point. It is great that you have great morality. I was watching the other day Bill Bennett who wrote that new book. He was literally very angry on a Larry King show about Clinton. Truly angry while he was talking about morality! Maybe lot of people will accept that, but to me it is not right. You know what he was talking about? That Clinton did not really ask for the forgiveness, but maybe he is trying to do his best, so we have to forgive him. Forgive and what? Forgive and yet, it is always given with a punishment. That shocked me.

There is no need for punishment Maybe certain people will think because of their tradition, “Yes, you forgive but you have to punish.” But if you have to punish, who are you to punish the person? From the Buddhist point of view, you try to take over karma’s job. From the Christian point of view, you try to take over God's job. Who are you to punish anybody including yourself? If you punish, then there is nothing forgiving about it. The judgment is given and the sentence too. The person is put into jail, they serve there for twenty or thirty years or for life whatever, after that they come out. That is not forgiving, they are paying for it. That is my understanding. I don't like the word punishment. I like to look at everything as helping. I like to look the jail as some kind of place where you can help people to build up their lives and change their bad habits, to help them rather than punish them. May- be I am wrong. If I am wrong, I am sorry I said it, but that is how I look at it Who has the power to forgive? According to Buddha you can forgive yourself, nobody else. I really don't think anybody else, nobody, neither the judge, nor the president, not the moral authority can really judge or forgive another on the moral basis. How can one individual catch other person in the true spiritual path? If you break a federal or local law you can see it. According to that, if you break that law, this is your result, this is your consequence. Sure we accept that. But on the true moral level, who can do such a thing? Who is

Gelek Rimpoche that person? According to the Buddha, only you can forgive or whatever you want to do to yourself, you alone can do it. You are the authority; it is in your own hand. From the Judeo-Christian point of view, I think it is God who has that power, nobody else. Rremember, you are the one who can either forgive or punish or whatever you do for yourself, according to Bud- dha. You are the one who makes a difference to yourself, nobody else. The way you make the difference for yourself or others is through compassion and love, and sincerely caring. These are the principles by which you guide your life.

Enjoy your good fortune And then enjoy everything; it is your own karmic result - the good weather, the nice beautiful lake, the beautiful town, the beautiful companion, the beautiful city, the beautiful countryside. Wherever you go, whatever you do, enjoy it! That is your good fortune. You did it, you deserve it. You should enjoy that. Do not torture yourself unnecessarily. Lots of people do. “If I enjoy this I waste my karma,” some people say. Some people say, “If I do this I am taking away somebody else's good fortune.” No, you are not; just enjoy life! Enjoy your summer, whatever that is left there. Looks like autumn to me. So conduct your life in the principle of love and compassion, and enjoy everything. You may make mistakes here and there but don't worry about it. People always make mistakes; you cannot be too righteous. If you try to be too righteous, you will be never right, and you will always have difficulties. Don't try to be too righteous, and don't try to be completely loose either. Re- member the middle way, that is the way you function.

Questions and Answers Student: When we see somebody suffering we want to help them and give them what they need. Like if a baby is crying, or an animal is hurt, we want to help. How do we do that and yet not damage ourselves?

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Rimpoche: I think it is a question of wisdom. Let’s say if you see a wounded animal, if you are not going to endanger yourself, by all means go and help. If you are going to endanger yourself, better escape it because you may waste your life. If you think there is someone else who knows how to handle the wounded animal, who has the technique and idea, then you should try to get that person, and help. That is genuine help. If you don't know how to handle it, let’s say you want to help a poisonous snake who has been injured, if you don't know how to catch it, you are going to endanger your life. Instead, try to get somebody who knows how to handle it, or call the Humane Society. That is wisdom. Don't endanger yourself whether it is your life or your spiritual life.

Student: If you are not talking about an animal but a person, and what they want is something you don't think is good for them. They think help is to give them what they want, but to you, help is giving something healthier than what they want. Then what do you do? Rimpoche: Same thing. You have a friend who wants to eat junk food, and you want to give him healthy food. So what would you do? Would you insist that he should eat healthy food, or would you compromise?

Student: What if they don't want to compromise? Rimpoche: Well, you go as far as you can go. And if you can't go, you have to give up.

Student: You have to give what they want? Rimpoche: Well, I am a diabetic, and when I want sugar, if you give me sugar you are harming me. But you will not do it, even if I want it I don't think you should. That is really the line you draw, you quit. It is not quitting like you give up the person, but it is more realizing that in this condition at this moment you can do nothing.

Student: Why do you say ‘helping all sentient beings’ instead of ‘helping all people. Does that imply that there are sentient

Gelek Rimpoche beings who are not people, or people who are not sentient beings? Rimpoche: I don't think all sentient beings are people. Would you like to put that ant in the category of people? All people are sentient beings, but not all sentient beings are people. There are sentient beings who are not people, and if you ask which one I will say that dog over there. Cockroaches are not people but they are sentient beings.

Student: What about plants? Rimpoche: Plants, it depends. There was a big debate early in India, around the Buddha's time or a little after. Lots of Bud- dhists said plants do not have life and others said that they are sentient, because they close their leaves at night and go to sleep, and in the morning they get up and open them. So they have minds. The other Buddhists said that plants have life but not mind. Who knows? We can ask some plants, and I don't think they will answer!

Student: Sometimes parents try to do everything for their child, and yet the child acts in terrible ways. In situations like that it almost seems like the parents want to be conscientious, to do everything one can to help the child. Where does the parent draw the line versus the child? Obviously the connection between the child and parent is also the child has some karma. How does the parent decide when is the time to say enough, step back and say this is your life? I see a lot of friends and families but I have no idea what to say. Rimpoche: I believe this is a very important question and very difficult to handle, because if you are over pushy, the children will hate you. If you are not pushy enough, you may be letting child down. It is easier to look after them at ten or eleven or below, but when they become thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen, twenty, then it becomes a big problem, because halfway they have grown up, halfway they have information though not full information but they always think they have total information. The parents always think they know nothing, and the

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE kids will think they have full information, so in between that you have problems. I don't know. I think you have to go as far as you can go, and after a little while, if you have a hopeless situation for yourself, maybe you can't help anymore. I think one has to recognize that and withdraw the pushing, so that they don't hate you and get anger unnecessarily. This is number one. Number two, whatever the parents think is the right thing to do might not necessarily be right. That also has to be in con- sideration. Nor is what the kids think necessarily right. Nei- ther the parents or the kids are hundred per cent right. But the most important point whatever you have here is the love connection between the parents and the kids. The basis of holding together is the love, and that should not be jeopard- ized.

Student: I think a lot of times, however deluded the parents may be, they are giving all the love they can give to the child, and the child is just like slapping their face constantly and won't even accept the love, even to the point of being on drugs or going to jail or something. The parents are still trying to give, but at which point they just have to say ‘I just can’t.’ Where is the line drawn? Rimpoche: Well, the giving part is a good quality of the parents, and the wisdom calls for asking whether that helps or harms the kid. As long as it is not harming from the parents point of view, giving is fine. If it is harming, then you have to withdraw.

Student: What if it is harming themselves? Rimpoche: Harming themselves, then it is bad. But then it is very hard. I have been saying here ‘Bill Bennett cannot make judgments and punishment,’ and now we try to judge and see where the parents and the kids should draw the line. It may not be right. You have to look at each situation. I am sorry, but that is what I think. You cannot judge really.

Gelek Rimpoche

Student: I was reading about a book that said ‘Vigilance is the ally to wisdom.’ Are love and compassion also allies in that way? Rimpoche: I believe so. Love, compassion, awareness, mindfulness, enthusiasm, all of those, are sort of allies there. Speaking about meditation, Tibetan Buddhist meditation has lots of visualizations. Visualization is one of the most powerful techniques to get the message to the consciousness, the principal mind. Last night I saw a TV show about how great visualization is and how it can have a huge impact. There were saying that this is a great scientific discovery, and yet we Tibetans have been doing this for a thousand years! I thought it was good; it is confirmation how visualization makes an impact on your mind. It is so important. Two things came up for me, ‘Oh yeah, we knew this for hundreds or thousands of years, already,’ and at the same time, ‘Yeah, it is right. It is important. Tibetan Buddhism has something unique.’ Really, it is true, every time when you go through. I am not saying this for propaganda. Every time you go through you see a lot of things what the scientist discover, they noticed that and they gave lots of reasons. The person who discovers that comes on television tried to explain what the impact is on you. We knew that and maybe we should have gotten a copyright!

Student: If you have been doing things which you thought were conscientious but apparently they weren't and then you realize that, then you make changes, forgive yourself, and you die, can you have upper rebirth? Rimpoche: No matter how heavy the negativity may be, you always have ways and means of purifying it. When you purify, it purifies and it doesn't bring a bad result. In one principle in Buddhism, we don't want to die with that sort of heavy negativity. That is why we always try to purify every day. At least we say ‘I purify all my negativities.’ We try to purify so we don't die that way.

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Student: [Question about generosity] Rimpoche: Materialistic generosity is limited. But if you look at giving information or education, if you look at providing guidance, these are very often open to benefit unlimited numbers of people. If you simply looking at giving a single material thing, then it is limited. Now, the Buddhas shared their experience and this helps the Bodhisattvas and all other spiritual practitioners to help themselves better and that information helps to benefit unlimited people. I think that is the example I can think of.

Student: How does our visualization affect other people's consciousness? Rimpoche: I don't think it does. It affects your own consciousness. Pictures give a stronger message, a stronger impact to the mind than words. That tells you visualization give you stronger impact on your mind than something else.

Student: What about you have a thought, and somebody has the same thought" Rimpoche: So what? It may be a coincidence or maybe somebody read your mind. So what? No big deal. Don’t make a big deal out of that sort of thing. This is important There are lots of coincidences and lots of people read people's minds or maybe they don't read their mind but somehow they have connected, they have the feeling, they have the same dream and connect at the dream level. This kind of thing happens. To make yourself grounded, pay no attention. If you pay no attention, you lose nothing. If you try to pay attention, and try to grab it you will be neither up there nor here nor there. People will look at you twice and say, “Hey, are you okay?” So pay no attention to those types of things. The spiritual path is not a mystical path. It is a mystical path when you know how to handle the mystical point. If you don't and you try to do this, you fly in the air. Some people when they fly it is so difficult to be grounded. You know it, I know it, we all know it. We have tried that already, really.

Gelek Rimpoche

Using conscientiousness All kinds of different ideas pop up in our head all the time - good, bad, wonderful, very nice, sincere, very manipulative, very mean, very kind - all sorts. Are you are going to just accept every thought that comes up or are you are going to discriminate, decide that some thoughts you like to pick up, some thoughts you don't like to pick up? Most of us will discriminate. If you do act according to every thought that comes up probably you will be labeled as crazy. Your principal mind discriminates between the thoughts and ideas, “This is good, this is not good. This I should follow, this I should not follow.” That principal mind makes the decision. We all know this; it is nothing new. Sometimes we call that discriminating wisdom, but whether it is wisdom or no wisdom, everybody does that. I believe the practice we want to do is the same thing. Without utilizing the principal mind, we cannot really do the practice properly. If you want to practice Buddha's teachings or Buddhist ideas, or any idea for that matter, you have to use the principle mind discriminating, accepting or rejecting all kinds of crazy thoughts. That is why the understanding of mental functioning, the functioning of the secondary mental faculties and the principal mind is very important. Without this, probably you do not really know how to practice.

Be a smart spiritual shopper If you look at what is happening in this country, people just pick up the idea of spirituality without discriminating; you simply buy everything. You don't buy every academic thing, you check it out, but as long as there is some level of spiritual practice whatever it may be, people just simply buy it. They just want to experiment and do it. You don't use your principal mind for whether this should be accepted or rejected. In one way, you don't have much information on what basis you are going to accept or reject, but there is some information now. A few years ago there was virtually nothing. When somebody comes up and say, “Hey, this is a great teaching,” it is just good enough. We have no basis on which we take it or reject.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Traditional Buddhism says to follow the Buddha's path because it is safer. Buddha and his followers have followed a certain path, and if you follow that, you are going to get the same result. Though we call it spiritual and not scientific, I think how it works for people is very scientific, truly speaking. When it works for one person and you do the same thing, the same result is bound to happen. That is why Bud- dhism insists for us to follow the path that somebody has traveled and completed before. The way we try to follow that is important because we don't want to land somewhere strange area. When you are looking at a spiritual path, it has to be accepted by great mahasiddhas and mahapandits who have learned and experienced and developed. You should follow on that basis and not just simply follow because somebody can write or present it well. It also has to be experienced by the great mahasiddhas. It should not just be somebody else's delusion that may be easy and very strange. I have an example. We worked out the medium Ya- mantaka sadhana, and it worked well and a lot of people have that practice and now we are trying to do a similar version of Vajrayogini practice. We are just stuck on a single line. I looked through various commentaries, and tried to find out exactly what it means. Because you know when you want to make it easier to say in English at least the word I have to make sure it is clear to my mind that it is conveying the message, rather than this word is for this. That doesn't make sense. I tried to find out and couldn't make it. I asked a number of great teachers who came by and they didn't answer or tell me anything. And as I was looking I found something fantastic in there, really something fantastic in there. And then I can go on and on, and then I asked myself, “How do I know this is not my delusion?” It is so easy when you are completely limited by the available information, and nobody else can tell you anything more, and when you are stuck and whatever information you get you are not satisfied, and you keep on thinking on that. I might have spent ten months or maybe a year on that, then I

Gelek Rimpoche begin to see something beautiful and fantastic in there, and I say “Ah, that is what that means!” Now the question arises in my head, “How do I know this is not my delusion manifest- ing here and there. I can bet it sounds beautiful and fantastic, but how do I know it is not my delusion?” The spiritual path is really like splitting a hair. It is very difficult to know right and wrong, correct or not. It is so hard, and if you don't make it not only you yourself are doomed but you also mislead a number of people in that. That is why the spiritual path becomes so important and we must rely on people like Buddha. It doesn't have to be Bud- dha himself because it is not possible that Buddhism is the only right thing and all others are wrong. Each individual has its own truth, and its own way.

Authenticity is important But the spiritual path has to be authentic, and people who traveled that path made it through and reached the goal, not only one but a number of them. That is why the authenticity of the spiritual path is absolutely necessary, otherwise anybody can dream some fantastic thing. It can be a complete delusion and yet look completely perfect and wonderful. Because of the importance of the spiritual path, you really have to make sure. You cannot afford to waste this life you have on a delusion. A spiritual path is important, and it helps a lot of obstacles to that life. If you look at life, there are more obstacles than help. There is more possibility of shortening the life than extending life, so it is really important to make sure it is right. Do you have the capacity to check by ourselves whether this is the right thing or the wrong thing we are doing? Ninety per cent of people won't have it even though we think we do. Just last week in New York a Chinese girl called me up. She came to Jewel Heart a couple of times in New York. She told me she is looking for a teacher, a master who is faultless, and exactly what she wants to be. She says she has a problem finding that and asked what I could do for her. I said, “Noth- ing. You are not going to find exactly what you want. Looking

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE for exactly the master you want is looking for Cinderella or Prince Charming. It is not going to happen.” So it is very difficult. In a way she is right when she said she has this life which is very important and wonderful and opportunity, and she has the time, she has everything; but she lacks a faultless master she can follow. She comes from traditional Chinese values and so she said she wants a master who is a full- fledged monk, who has capability like me who can explain and guide. But she said I am there and I am not a monk. She wants a monk with all the points that I have. It is a good way she expressed and that is right but it is very difficult to get it. But on the other hand it is so important to follow the right thing. It is not necessary that the masters or teachers counted as important no doubt, but tradition itself is necessary too. This is because somebody can dream of something and make it a beautiful thing. Yesterday I saw a TV show about this American guy who portrayed himself as a Tibetan oriental spiritual master called Rama. He talked well, wore a three-piece suit, and did workshops in New York and California. They charge hundreds and thousands of dollars and people who join in pay ten per cent of their salary. The people are getting better jobs and the organization is getting bigger and stronger. I was looking at this person and trying to see what he does. Actual- ly he gives you good meditation and concentration power, so that you can concentrate on your job and be an efficient worker and make more money, and the organization becomes richer. Unfortunately the guy committed suicide, jumped in a lake with a dog collar on his neck! He said he was the eighth reincarnation of some Tibetan thangka painting he had. That is why I was saying we have one life to live, rather than thinking of eight reincarnations. Well who knows? It is better to make sure whatever happens, happens in this life, so that we can see it, feel it, touch it and be grounded. You are not going to expect to change into a golden orange looking Buddha in this life. That is not going to happen like the movies or

Gelek Rimpoche television where you go brrrr!. It is not going to happen. To think it is going to happen is naive.

What are our goals? What can really happen? You can become a better person, kinder, gentler, more honest, more sincere, less manipulative, and have less of ME ME ME! Mindfulness changing into mindfulness, as Aura was saying this afternoon. That sort of thing, changing into less mean, a little more gentle, kinder - that change you can expect and that is what we are looking for. We are not looking for you to change yourself into a golden Buddha. It is not going to happen. The spiritual path doesn't really count on the external but the internal, definitely internal not external. External can be anything. Electronically we can make some very beautiful experience but if you get away from the electrical effect, then you go back. Same thing with the chemicals. This is the important point. When you look for the spiritual, according to the Buddha, it is the change of the individual, changing from a negative habitual pattern to a positive pattern.

Changing our addictions We all have a strong addiction to attachment which gets us into trouble. Even Clinton got into trouble because of attachment, am I right or wrong? He is unfortunate that he was caught but otherwise everybody has the same problem in the same place, in the same office, and might be the same time. The habit is so powerful, addiction is so powerful. Look at Clinton, he had so many problems with attachment before, yet he still got involved with Monica! This tells you how addiction can even drive you knowing that you are going to get into trouble, and yet you can't help it. Unfortunately this happened to be sexual addiction, but that is what any addiction does. So what does dharma do? Change the addiction. That is what it is. It is easy to talk and laugh about Mr. President up there. Let's change the picture and look at each and every one of ourselves, make ourself the object of our own personal investigation. We all have the same patterns functioning,

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE unless you are Mr. Morality like Bill Bennett or something! Otherwise we all have the same patterns and same problems all within ourselves. This is exactly where the dharma comes in the picture, seeing our patterns and addictions functioning and trying to change that. When you are able to do that, you have a practice, you have spiritual path. You use whatever method needed, if it helps you, meditating, or saying prayers, or saying mantras, or being mindful, or praying in the church, or temple, do whatever helps you, even singing. Whatever helps you, that becomes dharma practice, because it is changing the negative habits and addiction what we have into positive ones. That is true dharma. True dharma does not rely on shaving your hair, or making your hair longer. All of those changes are done through mental concentration, mind awareness. That is why we are on the subject of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is applicable in both ways, in the spiritual path which we follow, and in our everyday life. Conscientiousness can follow in the society which we live, and can be applied to the politics on which we lead the country. We can apply this conscientiousness on Bill Clinton as well as Governor Engler and Kenneth Starr. If you look in Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan or the Middle East, and if you look in United States, there is big difference of functioning. We function differently, right? We function not with the bullet but with the ballot box. I just want to remind you to vote. Be conscientious all the time. Verse 8 This, for a Bodhisattva, Is the heaviest of downfalls, For should it ever happen, The welfare of all will be weakened. What is the heaviest downfall for a Bodhisattva? Giving up Bo- dhimind. The idea of giving up, thinking that I cannot make

Gelek Rimpoche it, I cannot do it, that is the biggest downfall for a Bodhisatt- va. It does not matter if you cannot do it right now. Don't give up; that’s the idea. Once you begin to give up, it is not great. Then you do not make it, you lose everything by giving up. There is no endurance, no enthusiasm.

What are the causes for giving up? What can make you give up? Difficulties like we mentioned earlier in the example about Shariputra. Discouragement and lack of enthusiasm is the real cause of giving up. We have that a lot in our path, particularly in the West we have tremendous amount of it! It is amazing, when I used to come here as a visitor in the mid-eighties, Sandy and Aura were almost alone this path. One time when they were driving me to the airport to go back to India, one of them said, “There are no other Va- jrayana practitioners for a hundred miles in any direction!” That was what they said in the mid-eighties, and now we have a roomful here! It is very very remarkable and admirable that one can continuously function under such circumstances. Probably future generations of Americans (and present ones) have to say thank you to both of them! We do have a tremendous amount of discouragement because we wonder why one has to think about this, why not be completely a yuppie, or hippie for that matter. Why do we have to fall in between? Neither yuppy nor hippie, in between that. All society's ways of functioning become a discouragement. Also we have very few role models. And for every role model you can find, one or two will have disappointment in the end or in between, or here and there. This is bound to happen because they are human beings, not Buddha here. There are going to be disappointments here and there; it is bound to happen.

Encourage yourself So with all of those factors, there is a lot of discouragement. Not having a role model is difficult; encouragement is very little, except that you and yourself alone have

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE to think, “Hey it is not a simple thing for me and me alone. I should be changing from mindfulness into mindfulness.” You have to give yourself encouragement otherwise there is none. We face a lot of difficulties and discouragement. When we have difficulties sometimes, a very few times, it becomes an advantage; most of the time a disadvantage. Gungtang Jampelyang, a great Amdo lama in the seventeenth century said, When your stomach is filled up and you are warm with sunshine, then you remember your mala and say your OM MANI PEME HUNG and you look like a dharma practitioner, but whenever difficulties come, you are worse than anybody who does not know dharma. Whenever difficulties come, it becomes an obstacle for us. Difficulties can be anything from pain to a full-fledged pleasure, anything. Many things we consider as greatness sometimes can become obstacles in life: our job, with its busy- ness, tremendous amount pressure and competition, and our companion, children, parents. These are great things in one way but can be obstacles in another way. We have endless obstacles but not so much support except yourself and within the sangha each supports each other for their betterment. Within the sangha, within the family, among ourselves we do help each other, yet the support is very little, but obstacles are tremendous. The chances for giving up are much more than those for enduring. Yet, if you give up the Bodhisattva vow, the vow of committing yourself for altruistic activity, for helping sentient beings, that precious mind of compassion and love, that is considered the biggest downfall, even bigger than the five unlimited downfalls of killing your mother, father or an arhat, trying to harm a Buddha or causing a schism.. That giving up is more harmful to the individual. Sin-wise, if you kill somebody you have sinned. From that point it is heavier, but more harmful to the individual is

Gelek Rimpoche the giving up. If you give up, you cut out completely. So the chances of making it right is much more worse. That is why it is more harmful for the spiritual practitioner to give up. This is talking in terms of a Bodhisattva, which is the example here. But even when we are talking about ourselves, our commitment is to be able to hold on the path of spiritual and make it to the level of enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. If you give up that it is more harmful to ourselves than actually killing or any other heavy negativities we indulge because we are coming from the background of reincarnation.

Rebirth or reincarnation A background of reincarnation makes lots of difference here, because we don’t just live this single life. When I talk about my life and lives, I really am talking about my life and lives! You have the same thing. When you talk about the lives, you are not only talking about this life but also your future lives, your past lives. So really when you talk about yourself, you are talking from this right extreme to that left extreme, not from birth to death or not this narrow gap. It is the true reality whether you like it or not. It is reality because what is happening in this life is nobody made it except ourselves. Where did we make what's happening here? We made it there in our past. Whatever we make over here at present, we will function in our future. Whatever we do here will function there. This is how the reincarnation comes, truly speaking. Who is going through from here to here, it is me. I am one who is going through. Who is experiencing suffering here? Who is enjoying the joy here? It is me, nobody else. This goes for every one of us. We don’t necessarily recognize that “I am here and now I am moving there”; we don't even know what is going on here from today to tomorrow. We forget what happened yesterday. We forget what happened even today. If you do not expect tomorrow, you remember all these times. We forget. We don't move knowingly but we do move, whether

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE we like it or not. Even if you die tonight, tomorrow comes. Tomorrow you are dead! We don’t have much choice. Who is the culprit pushing this? It is me. And who designs it? It is me, nobody else did it. Who is responsible for this mess we are in? It is me. As Clinton says, “I am the only one to be blamed.” I am responsible, I made a mess, I catch the consequences.

Letting ourselves down Knowing that, keeping that in the picture, we talk about helping sentient beings, but whether I am helping sentient beings depends on whether I am helping me or not. So when I try to help you, all you sentient beings, indirectly I am helping me. I am doing my work to make me perfect. So do we, each and every one of us. It is not bad when we are contributing something. The practice of generosity is a big thing in this country. Lots of people do everything, and we contribute a lot with in accord- ance with the interest that we have. We don't contribute just because everybody says “Gimme, gimme!” Even Bill Gates will not be able to give to everyone. You give where you have an interest, such as I have interest in your work, so I contribute, or I have interest in the Democratic Party, so I contribute to DNC, Democratic National Committee, and if I have interest in the Republican Party, I contribute to the RNC. That is what we do, we contribute to the party but for our interest. People do that all the time; we do that. Likewise, when you are helping all other people or sentient beings, indirectly you are helping yourself. Remember the level where we begin is seeking freedom from our neuroses. Then the question arises “What can I do?” I keep on repeating to you people don't just sit there saying that. You go and ask what can I do. I used to quote President Kenne- dy's speech the wrong way round. You remember that? You now ask, “What can I do for you?” You do it for the others with total dedication and its effects come to you with total credit for yourselves when you put total dedication. If you do it halfway through, you get halfway credit.

Gelek Rimpoche

When you just ask “What can I do for me”, over and over again; then you can do nothing. You can't help it, you go into depression. That is exactly what it is. The idea of “what can I do for you” with total dedication and never giving up is the idea of devoting yourself on the spiritual path which is helping yourself, nothing else. This is the grounded one, not flying in the air, not some mystical way, because you never know where you will land.

Choosing a grounded path The spiritual path can easily be mis- understood and can mislead people. You can have very interesting funny names like Rama or whatever, but don't even know what the names mean, or whether they are Tibetan, Sanskrit, Hindi, Hebrew or Egyptian or Latin! That is so important to know because this life is valuable and short, so you cannot afford to waste your life trying to do this and that; it doesn't work very well. We have the New Age, we have a lot of experiments, it is a great country. We have had the sixties which brought great contributions and also bad ones, sort of everywhere and everything. Almost nobody obtains enlightenment by New Age path. There are lots of them but the best person available is Ram Dass, but he is great. It is not that all New Age people are bad, but on the other hand that doesn't really give you a profound ground. It is so important to be grounded and hold on a path that not only one person but number of people one after another followed and become enlightened. Earlier I quoted, It is the essence experience of great beings which is continuously coming through and not somebody’s made up crazy mind in between. This is the highway which leads you to total enlightenment. It is not a road that will push you down and fail you. We never know until we fall. When we fall it is too late for us. After all, we have this one life to live right now. Really true. That is why it is important not only to follow a ground-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE ed path but also not to give up. While there are lots of difficulties as we travel, we have to learn to bear them. Verse 9 And should others for even a single moment Hinder or obstruct their wholesome (deeds), By weakening the welfare of all, There will be no end to their rebirth in lower states. Verse 8 talks about the heaviest downfall, that of giving up Bo- dhimind: for should it ever happen, the welfare of all will be weakened. Not only is that a downfall, but even if we disturb the positive activities of a Bodhisattva, if we hinder or obstruct their wholesome deeds, we also have equally unwanted heavy negativities. If you disturb someone doing positive work, even for a short period, for a single moment, what will happen and what will be the consequences of that? That little single moment’s disturbance is not only a single moment disturbance, yet it is a hindrance, and when it obstructs or hinders Bodhisattva activities lots of merit is lost. It also becomes an obstruction to yourself and to your own development as well, when you obstruct another Bodhi- sattva. Why? The person you are obstructing is a Bodhisatt- va. The work you are disrupting is benefiting all other beings: you are weakening the welfare of all. Naturally it makes you weaker and lower category; and it destroys that work and as a consequence of that we have a heavy downfall. In addition to being a downfall, it might be able to bring not only a simple lower rebirth once, but may continuously bring into the lower rebirth constantly: there will be no end to their rebirth in lower states. I believe that is what verse 9 is talking about. In other words, not only is it not good to give up Bo- dhimind, you should not disturb anyone who has Bodhi-

Gelek Rimpoche mind. If you do so, this will be the consequence. Is this too academic? I am trying to make it as simple as possible. To make it clearer, there is a sutra on this. In it, the Buddha was asked that if one were to make great offerings to all enlightened beings of the ten directions and empty spaces, and all the people on the ground be made liberated, freed from samsara, how would this positive karma compare with the positive karma of helping a single Bodhisattva to do a single activity: which makes more yield in the long run? Of course the Buddha said helping a single Bodhisattva to do a single thing yields much more positive karma than trying to make a world full of people become arhats. By saying that you have this much benefit by helping a Bodhisattva to do a job, indirectly it is saying if you harm or obstruct a Bodhi- sattva from doing a single job, it is even more negative than try to destroy a world of people of arhat level. That is an extreme statement, however, it is reality, because of Bodhimind. This is a particularly important mind, extremely important; because of that it becomes very sensitive, good and bad, positive and negative levels, everything becomes very sensitive and powerful because of the power of Bodhimind. That is the simple reason; nothing else. When you read the translation, you may not get it, but when you explain it, that is what you are going to get. Therefore, the conclusion of this particular verse is that if you obstruct any Bodhisattva, it becomes a big downfall. That is an established fact.

Do not pass judgments At this moment what we are supposed to do? We are not supposed to interrupt or disturb or pass judgment on anybody else. Why? Because you never know who really is a Bodhisattva and who is not. We do not know whether Bodhisattva John is or is not a Bodhisattva, and that goes for each and every single person. You don't know if the person sitting on your left, front or back is or is not a Bodhi- sattva, though they may look not like a Bodhisattva. It is not for us to figure out. They may look absolutely crazy or absolutely reachable or very stubborn which most of them do

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE anyway. We deny but actually we are really stubborn! But we do not know who is and who is not a Bodhisattva, and therefore we have to be careful not to pass judgment, It is important not to criticize, and not to obstruct what people are doing. Here in the Bodhicaryavatara, it says you have this benefit and you have this downfall. Fine, good. No one calls themselves a Bodhisattva, except Bodhisattva John. But when you look at each and every person, we have that question within our mind. We never know! The person may be wearing a leather jacket and driving a Harley Davidson; you cannot say whether that person is a Bodhisattva or is not. Nor can you say someone is a Bodhisattva because the person carries a mala and wears a red, yellow or orange jacket. Even Daniel Otega wears an orange jacket! So in other words this tells us not to judge another person, particularly people whom you deal with or spend time with. You never know! You think you know better than that person; nobody else knows better. It is that way. Therefore it is best in our everyday life to make no judgments of other persons. When you look at The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life and read the verses, don’t only read, but try to understand what the verses are trying to tell you about what a Bodhisatt- va is supposed to do, and also as an individual what you are supposed to do. Verse 10 For if my being is impaired By destroying the joy of even one creature, Then what need is there to mention Destroying the joy of creatures vast as space? Actually this verse supports verse 9, saying why it is a heavy negativity to obstruct a Bodhisattva’s activity. Forget about all sentient beings, even a single sentient being’s well being, the joy of even one creature no matter how small, how tiny it

Gelek Rimpoche might be, if you destroy it, what will the consequence be? That will destroy my own future joy and my happiness. By destroying my joy and happiness, I will have miserable suffering continuously, and continuous miserable rebirth. That is what this verse is talking about. If you destroy a single being's happiness, the consequence is you destroy your own joy and happiness. Then if you destroy the joy and happiness of so many, of creatures vast as space, do we have to doubt what consequences we will face? This supports verse 9, which says if you disrupt a Bo- dhisattva's activity you have the heaviest of downfalls, because you destroy or weaken the welfare of all. A Bodhisattva's job is to liberate all sentient beings, so if you disturb one single Bodhisattva’s activity you may be destroying the well being of so many other people. That is why it is not good.

The fault of judging others This is the same thing as if you think you are better than others and judge them. Whether it is our companion, our parents or family member, or children, whoever it may be we are in the habit of making judgments. And also we are very proud of making judgment of other people! The point really is one should not do it. There are a number of people whose job is to make judgment of other people, like Starr. But if you are a judge, then you have to; or if you are on a jury, then you have to, but that is different. That is different from passing a judgment when you are with somebody, different than judging your peer or companion, parents or mother in law. This is one heavy negativity which we often don't even recognize. We are very good at putting people down. If you are not careful with that, you never know who is or is not a Bodhisattva. The person who acts crazy might not be crazy. A person who acts extremely intelligent and wonderful might not be that intelligent and wonderful. We get lots of distorted pictures of other persons. We are quick and easy at making judgments and that is a problem. Not only a problem for ourselves but also for others. We do that in society. We

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE blame other people and make lots of judgments. That makes blaming each other become a habit.

Peace begins at home Actually, peace and friendship really begin between two people, within the family, within the close circle. If it does not begin there, and you try to get something called world peace, it is not going to happen. It may create more sufferings if you do not know how to handle it. We see that everywhere today, in every part of the world. Sometimes we try to make it more effective, try to force people to come to terms for peace, and sell world peace, but instead we just create more sufferings, and call it peace and help! Just look at the economic situation in South- east Asia. The IMF imposes rules, and tries to push all in the name of peace and help. They tell the Indonesians that they cannot function and make them take loans from IMF. What is really happening is the terms and conditions that IMF wants, if you look very carefully. What does that do to the poor guy who doesn't have any bread to eat the next day, or any food to feed the hungry children? They are not going to have anything. You may have millions of dollars in there but that’s going in to pay the country’s debts back. That is exactly what it is. We sell them that and if they do not accept that then they are not allowed into the monetary community. We do it for our own monetary system, for the sake of our own idea of peace. All those situations come out of these judgments that we have. When we say don't make judgments, if everybody will buy that, they say all the things are good, that's fine. But we will think our judgment of he’s a good person or he’s a bad person. We think that way. It goes beyond that, much more than that. Passing judgment really goes too much beyond that. And it is happening with the economic situation throughout the world because of the judgments that we have. Verse 11 Thus those who have the force of

Gelek Rimpoche

an Awakening Mind, As well as the force of falling (from it), Staying revolving within cyclic existence And for a long time are hindered in reaching the Bodhisattva levels.

Not only that, another point rises here. Suppose we say, “All right, we got the downfall, we accept it, that's fine. We got a downfall, we passed judgment on people; we meant to be good but we got it wrong. But that's okay.” Actually, if you meant to be good but you got it wrong, it is not so bad, but if you are very manipulative, very well planned and calculated, and saying that “I am going to judge you,” and if you plan it that way and mean to do something that hurts people, that is not that great. If you listen to Mon- ica Lewinsky's statements, you can see it absolutely clearly. Hours and hours they didn't let her talk to her lawyer, nor her father or mother. The way they did it was a mean calculated way intending to hurt. Hurting people in a calculated way is a much greater negativity and bigger downfall than if you really meant well but inadvertently hurt the person in the process, or somehow people got hurt. That is different. That is not that great, but it is better than the really mean calculated way of doing. But anyway, whatever it might be, okay we hurt somebody, we get a downfall, that is okay since we can purify ourselves, isn’t it? We can purify and go on with business as usual. So why don’t I just do that? That is the question. Verse 11 says yes, you can purify and take the Bodhi- sattva vows again and then develop Bodhimind again, and you have another powerful Bodhimind, you have a powerful downfall purified and develop another powerful Bodhimind, and again and again and again. The question here is what does

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE that do with us individual people who are traveling through the journey of samsara, what's happening to us? The example given is like a pull and push or tug-of-war contest. You know how children pull a big rope together with a bunch of them on this side, and a bunch on the other? If there is equal amount of power on both sides, you are not going anywhere. The traditional example they give is of an old Chinese palanquin carried by about eight people, so if four pull this side and four that side, that person would not go anywhere. That’s what I think they are talking about. Thus those who have the force of an Awakening Mind There is a reason they say Thus, it is saying ‘just like that’. Just like what? Just like what I said earlier about giving up Bodhimind. The English seem backward:. in Tibetan it says Those who have a powerful downfall of giving up Bodhimind, as well as those who have the force of taking, rejuvenating Bodhimind. So you have two things, when you are looking at samsara, revolving within cyclic existence.

Continuing to cycle When you are in samsara, if you have one powerful downfall and you pick up, and another one, you pick up, and you keep on in succession, you are not going anywhere. You become pure, you are okay, you fall, you are not okay, you become pure; you fall, you are not okay, you become pure, you are not okay. If you keep on doing in succession, you are not going anywhere. Then you remain stuck in the tug of war. So that is exactly what is happening. That is why this verse 11 reinforces, and again at the end it says And for a long time are hindered in reaching the Bodhisattva level. Actually what they are talking about it is the Bodhisattva bhumi. It is a Sanskrit word. In Malaysia the citizens are called bumiputra, son of soil, or son of the landlord. Here they have translated as level for the word bhumi. That is why they called it Bodhisattva levels here. It is also called Bodhisattva ground. Grounded Bodhisattva sounds totally different than leveled Bodhisattva! But the real meaning is you have the first, second levels up to tenth level, and at the eleventh you become a Buddha. That is the Buddhist hierarchy. That is what they are talking

Gelek Rimpoche about, and you will not get to that level there if you keep on having this pull and push; you will not be able to climb up to that level. It is good that you can purify, fine, you can do that. If you keep on doing that, you will remain here. You will remain like five year olds playing your tug of war and not go anywhere. In other words what they are telling you is it is almost impossible for you to get to levels one and two, and to become a Buddha is impossible. If you keep on staying at that level, you are not going to become a Buddha, never. So don't play at that!

Better late than never On the other hand, our habitual pattern is that we always make judgments. We always accuse people, we always blame people, we always point our fingers outside rather than inside; we do that. This is our habit. So what do we do? Better to purify rather than remain with our downfall, even though purifying is like pulling and pushing. It is better late than never, so might as well do it. Why? Because we have opportunity to do it, we can do it. Even if we have a downfall, it is never the end of it. In Buddhism there is a big freedom. Everybody will have downfalls. Why not? We all do. We can do whatever we want to do, and that is fine. We get downfall that is also true. But every downfall we get, we can purify too. There is no negativity that we cannot purify at all. You remember I told you the story of Angulimala, the person who cut nine hundred and ninety nine thumbs and put them on a string and hoped to be liberated? His teacher was what they call a non-virtuous friend, a friend who can guide you to the wrong direction. It is definitely better to purify negativity than remain in there. In our habit we are going to have the pull and push for a long time. Once you get of that, things will go a little faster. But to get out of this for some people is a lifelong effort, really, because our usual mind is such that it is always there. Our perception and wrong perception, all of these will make you do that, always thinking of me and mine. We have huge amount of ‘mine, mine, mine’ there; my integrity, my pres-

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE tige, my power, my capability - all of these are very strong so we will have these powerful pulls and pushes. We will be stuck there for a long time. Basically we are in samsara and we are trying to go somewhere. We try to take off but we can't. We are unable to take off either because the battery is not working or I don't know whatever the reason is. Perhaps this is why, because we have the pull and push going on. Buddha tells you not to make judgments because you never know who is a Bodhi- sattva or not. In case you do make judgments because of your habitual patterns, purify. It is better late than never. But is that great? No, it is not that great because you have that pull and push. That is what these verses 9, 10 and 11 are telling you.

Questions and Answers Student: [Question about Padmasambhava killing two beings in order to give teachings] Rimpoche: You started with a really abstract idea and raised very important question. You started with Padmasambhava, an enlightened one, killing two people and then a kind of very funny abstract idea came out with a very important question. “Would Shantideva, who is full of Bodhisattva business we are talking about here, stop Padmasambhava from killing these two? I don't know - what do you think?

Student: No. Rimpoche: He will not interfere and let Padmasambhava kill these two guys whoever these two guys might be?

Student: Well you got so many enlightened beings the same way that if ..(Laughter) Rimpoche: If you have so many enlightened beings in the room, you never know who is going to kill another one either! I’d rather get out of there! I don't know how to explain. You raised a very important question. Sometimes people talk about skillful means or crazy wisdom or all those types of hocus pocus excuses. It may be

Gelek Rimpoche true to certain extent for some people, but for us who have so much trouble even to kick ourselves off the ground, flying in the air is different and difficult. To really start and make our journey on the spiritual path, to really start moving, we already have so many difficulties. So for us that type of crazy wisdom, or skilful ways, or wise way of doing doesn’t apply. Who knows what the enlightened beings are doing, whatever it is, it is wrong perception, duality or whatever this and that, it is for me personally uncalled for. We don't need that at this moment. You will have more confusion.

We are not mahasiddhas We have the problem of grounding ourselves, and going on the straightforward road. If you bring those ideas in, it becomes more difficult. It is not that you have to have it, and it is not that it is a quick and wonderful path, and that we are taking the longer way. Certainly not. When we get to the level where we can handle it, it will be there. But when you are trying to get to that level, we neither get there nor we get here. In between that, we will waste our total life. That is why I used the word uncalled for. Again we have been saying that we don't make judgments, but it might not be relevant for us right this moment. If you look at the mahasiddhas’ stories they do and say all sorts of things, but that is that level, not our level. We can simply watch and wonder and that is about it. We are better off not to be involved in that. You don't mind I said that?

Student: No. Rimpoche: I am glad you raised that issue. It is important. It needed to be raised, and we needed to be reminded, and that way it helps everybody. If we don't talk about it, then it is not good. Sometimes we need to talk about it, because lots of people like to talk only from the mystical and mystery point of view. Mystical and mystery has to be totally based on perfect grounding. When you have perfect grounding, then you have mystery and mystical viewpoint. When you don't have perfect grounding, then it becomes a big problem. Then it becomes shaky ground, an ice castle.

GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE

Student: [Question about blaming people because we don’t understand karma] Rimpoche: Not every karma is bad karma, there are lots of positive karma. Positive karmas are not necessarily dharma, and the dharma is not necessarily positive karma. But you cannot say karma is negative part and dharma is positive part. I think that idea is wrong. Basically Buddha has a tremendous amount of karma. If Buddha does not have karma, Buddha cannot become Bud- dha. Being enlightened is being rich in positive karma, knowing all things. Enlightened means knowing everything. En- lightened being are full of positive karma. Nobody can get away from karma, neither positive nor negative, because karma is karma.

What is enlightenment? We talk a lot about enlightenment, but what is it? What is it all about? To me it is knowledge, not simply accumulated knowledge, but knowledge which has the key for everything. You know you read book after book and build your knowledge, I don't think I am looking for that. Enlightenment is knowledge that is really the key which opens everything. If you are a professional and have a sophisticated complicated subject, and you make it simple and express it in simple form, then you really learn. If you are a musician and have sophisticated, wonderful music and can direct and translate and put it out in a simple way, people understand. I think that is knowledge. That gives you idea of how we learn, how we function in the normal life whether it is music or mathematics or whatever it may be. I think it is the same thing with the spiritual. If the person cannot be simple and bring it to a simple level where people can understand and get it, and if you remain in the overly sophisticated manner, it does not really do any good. I learned that myself. When I talk about whatever I understand, I can simply put in my simple English, make people understand that and work along with that. And when I don't know well and deep enough, then I have to use so many

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Gelek Rimpoche sophisticated, complicated things which is probably how I try to pick up at the level. When I present that sophisticated complicated thing, nobody really gets anything and I don't know whether I said the right thing or not. That is what happens. So I think enlightenment is the knowledge of knowing everything yet having a simple way of presenting. I think if you saw Buddha today, the way Buddha would teach every thing would be very simple and would reach to all. To me enlightenment is knowledge of simplicity, and knowing everything in simple way and getting it out. I am sure Buddha today would not talk about complicated things but on the level which we understand and perfectly makes sense and gives us the total message of mystical point of enlightenment in a simple everyday language to everyday people surviving in the world. That is what I look at as enlightenment. It is very funny, and that is my strange thought, because your question made me to think that way. I didn't even answer your question.

Student: There is a mole in the garden, but as a Buddhist I don’t want to kill it. Rimpoche: Well, if you catch the mole and take it away, what is wrong with that?

Student: That is a long way around. I think judgment is lack of understanding of karma. For other people maybe I am a mole. Rimpoche: They may kill you. You won't like it and we won't like it that either. The killing is not good. We all agree with that. No problem with that. But can we live without killing? No, it is not possible. Otherwise we have to live with cockroaches and mice and all these. The human life has its value and its advantages and disadvantages, and its allergies, and all of those are there. So you have to take care of that on the one hand. To tell you the truth, it is extremely complicated.

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Student: Isn't it true that we live between these paradoxes? We live on one hand seeing enlightenment possibility, and on another hand there is no way out, you are going to die, you are going to hurt people or get hurt, and this is an incredible paradox, there is no way out. You have two eyes, ultimate and relative view. Rimpoche: Truly, truly the idea of no way out is wrong. There is a way out.

Student: A way that transcends karma? Rimpoche: Again, I disagree with that. Don’t look at karma as only negative, then you don’t need to transcend. I look as it as transformation of negative karma into positive karma.

Student: And they do just write it off? Rimpoche: They do and they don't. This they do; and it is not there is no way out. No way out is not right. We are definitely caught in that for sure, but there is a way out.

Student: So you kill the mole? Rimpoche: I suggest you catch it and take it away.

Student: I think so too. Maybe I can show my neighbor how I caught the mole and am taking away from my garden. Maybe this example of showing I am not going to kill this mole, I am not going to poison it, do what I can to save this mole by taking it away. Is that kind of like stage to enlightenment? Rimpoche: Maybe the neighbor might like to have it as a pet!

Student: I guess it is all because my neighbor use electronic device that drove the moles out of his garden to mine. Student: It is sort of a different subject but is true emptiness love because love is selflessness? Rimpoche: Very interesting thought. Emptiness is love, love is selflessness. I don't know. Emptiness might not be empty.

Student: Of course there is something there like an empty cup. So is that love? Rimpoche: Very good idea. Empty cup, empty cup.

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Student: The cup is void, which is love... Rimpoche: Empty is empty. So empty cup has both, empty side of it and cup side of it.

Student: Nothing, nothing is different. You have nothing and you have empty. Empty is somehow positive. Rimpoche: If your cup has beer in it, what do you want?

Student: Add more to it! Rimpoche: Anyway, good thought, good idea. I suggest you think about it and explore. I think it is easier for you to think about love rather than empty of something. Lots of people in the West like to think about emptiness, like to talk about it, like to find out about it. That is a great and wonderful thing but the possibility is that we will misunderstand about 99.9 per cent. There is only 1 per cent possibility of understanding until we really know existence, how we exist. If you really want to look into emptiness, look into existence. How do I exist? What makes me be here? Is it enough that I am here or be here? Or, do I have to have somebody acknowledge that I am here? If you think about all these questions, then it will help to know what emptiness means. When we were kids, in the monastery they taught us the definition of existence, what it means to exist. To exist is to be accepted by a perfect mind. If you have been accepted by a perfect mind, you are fulfilled with the point of existing. So to exist, it is not enough that I am here, but I have to be perceived and acknowledged by a perfect mind. Second question, what is a perfect mind? The mind which will not be contradicted by another perfect mind. What is another perfect mind? Eye, ear, nose, thinking or seeing direct perception. If it is contradicted by another you know it is not reliable. When you look into emptiness, you look in that way rather than look what is empty, how is it empty, what makes it empty. We look opposite direction. How do we exist? What makes us exist? What is the definition of being empty here? What does that require? That is how it goes.

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Student: So be in relationship. Rimpoche: Interdependent relationship.

Student: Do you think one of the root delusions is more dominant than the others? Rimpoche: Yes, ignorance is dominant completely and creates all other negative thoughts and ideas and emotions.

Student: That is not pride? Rimpoche: Pride is one of them, but ignorance is more important. Without ignorance, there can be no pride. Pride hides under the shadow of ignorance. Ignorance gives them a shadow to hide under.

Why conscientiousness is important This chapter is labeled Conscientiousness, but then we took out of that the normal understanding of conscientiousness together with some kind of moral discipline. In a way, thinking about what is morality is a very important question. It is very important, but I don't mean that you have to follow the black and white lines that Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell or Mr. Morality Bill Bennett talk about!

Morality is an individual thing Morality is very important and is very much an individual thing. I don't think you can say con- cretely or absolutely, “This is moral, this is immoral.” Some- body making judgments of someone else is totally not right. It is very much an individual thing. You cannot overpower individual freedom and individual rights whatever you want to do, and no matter whatever you know or think you know. That judging of others is not the type of morality we are looking at here. We are talking about how, if you really look, you choose your own morality, and if you do not, if you become immoral, you become terrible, you lose. That is what it is. This morality really doesn't depend on somebody laying it out “This is morality so you have to follow this.” For some people, eating meat is immoral. To be vege- tarian is great morality; forget about from the health point of

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Gelek Rimpoche view. Just from moral point of view, it is great morality, but you cannot go and tell the other person who eats meat, “Hey, you are a cannibal.” Just because you eat at McDonald's or Burger King or something that doesn't make you a cannibal. If you look in the moral point of view as being all laid out in black and white and lay out as such, this can happen. That is not right and we all know it. Those of us who eat at Mc Donald's are not necessarily immoral. I have been spending lots of time thinking about morality. Each tradition has its own way of describing morality and it changes from time to time. Even for Buddhism, just before Shakyamuni Buddha himself died he said, “These are the rules I mentioned and these are based on the times and conditions of what the people needed. When the times and conditions change, you change them accordingly.” The Buddha never said he set those rules in stone and we have to follow them literally. Generations change, the times change, conditions change, and so the structure of morality will change.

Freedom of choice It is so important for us to have the freedom of choice on sexuality or whatever it may be. In my personal opinion, if you are homosexual it is fine; if you are hetero- sexual it is fine. You can't call that other one immoral. You might like to but that is a different matter; you cannot; it is not right. Basically when I talk or think about morality, I really look very often at the freedoms we have. Recently we were looking back to the sixties and what had happened then. Not everything that happened in the sixties was necessarily all that great, but that doesn't mean everything that happened then was bad. Today we have such open minds, like we have a roomful of people here, every Tuesday night, listening, watching and talking about it. Where did these open minds come from? If the sixties had not happened, people would not have opened up. You would not be here today. You have to give credit. So much emphasis was made back then on freedom and choice. Freedom and choice are very important, and I think that is morality too, not immoral at all. But the

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE moment you say conscientiousness, people are liable to link up with the morality or moralizing business. That is why I am making these statements.

What conscientiousness means here Anyway, here the conscientiousness being talked about is more awareness, knowing what you are doing. If you don't know what you are doing, better not do it because you never know what you are doing. Do what you know. That doesn't mean you cannot experiment. When you are experimenting, you are not really doing it, you are experimenting. Am I right or wrong? Knowing what you are doing is also particularly important on the spiritual path. People have a great feeling for spiritual things; people love the spiritual path. They really want it and they have a desire to be spiritual. It is simple, it is right feeling, it is good. Why? Simply because nobody wants problems. Everybody wants some kind of happiness and joy and that is the reason why people have an interest in the spiritual path. Simply because you begin to realize that the materialistic point or even scientific points are unable to answer all our questions. They are unable to satisfy our curious minds, and unable to fulfill our desires. They are unable to relief our sufferings completely and that's why people starts to look for the spiritual path. As simple as that. It is the same thing when we take medicine. When you have headache or cold or something, take two aspirins and you get good relief. And four hours you take another two, and you go on doing that and it is great thing. It is wonderful thing. But after a little while you begin to realize it doesn't work anymore, and you have to take some antibiotics. And when you take antibiotics for a ten-day course, if that doesn't work, then you have to take another ten-day course. Then you begin to turn to alternative medicine. You begin to think what about some kind of natural flower antibiotic or some remedy or something like that, people begin to turn to because they see the limitations of even antibiotics. I am talking about myself of what happened last two weeks. I normally like Western medicine better than Tibetan

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Gelek Rimpoche or aryuvedic or homoepathic. But when you see that the antibiotics don't work, this thing happened and that thing happened, then you begin to look into it, “If that doesn't work why do you have to kill everything within your body, the good and bad, whatever it may be?” When you take antibiotics you take acidophilus, right? You keep on taking yoghurt or acidophilus, so you begin to raise the question why you have to kill everybody and keep on taking acidophilus. So you begin to look into the alternate remedies. In the same way, people begin to look into the spiritual path because the materialistic points, money, wealth, everything including the science, are unable to answer and fulfill our desire completely. Relieving suffering is our desire. Be- lieve me we don't have big desire there for material things. Nobody really has big desire except a few greedy business people, but most of the people don't have that much. So that is why we look into the spiritual path.

Know what you are doing For us, the spiritual path is unknown. Since it is unknown, we really truly don't know what we are doing. So it is very important to find out what you are doing. Recently, Clinton had a press conference in Beijing with Xiang Zhe Min. I saw it. Xiang Zhe Min asked Clinton what is in this Tibetan Buddhism or lamaism. He said, “In the West you have fully developed the ultimate scientific achievements available, yet when I went to Europe everybody was running towards Lamaism. I am so curious what is in there. Forgive me, my background is communism and am atheist. I can't figure out what is in there.” That is what he asked but I don’t know whether Clinton answered or not. He raised that question. In Asia there are large number of people devoted to the spiritual path, but the majority of people particularly those who have had some kind of Western education are definitely looking much more for the scientific answers as we all do even today. We are all looking much more for scientific than for spiritual answers. However when we cannot get a scientific answer, then we really have to turn to the spiritual path.

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The purpose is simply just to relieve our pains. That is exactly what it is. I was remembering how Allen Ginsberg once pulled me up on the stage and asked me, “What is the purpose of the poetry and music?” All of a sudden Allen did that. So I thought about it and said that the purpose is to relieve suffering. It is. Why did I think that? I had reasons. In the offering visualizations when they describe the musicians and music offering, all kinds of musical instruments and music are provided to make beautiful sounds and poetry too, and hearing that relieve the sufferings of body and mind. That is how traditional Tibetan Buddhism describes music, musicians and poetry as well. That is what it is. Anything whatever we do whether it is an artistic person trying to present art, or spiritual person trying to provide spiritual service, the purpose is to relieve suffering and to gain some kind of harmony. In other words to relieve the pains and sufferings that we have in our mind and body. The moment you reduce that you get relief and harmony. The whole of them are geared towards that. That is what it is. There is no other reason. So I am not sure whether we are trying to relieve your sufferings here or try to make you into pumpkins! But that is what is supposed to be. The spiritual path which is unknown to us is still supposed to relieve suffering. When I first came to United States I never thought people here would be that adaptable for meditation, particularly in the American Midwest! It could be possible in the East Coast or West Coast, but not in the middle of it, especially in Nebraska, you know! In that sort of area you never expect that. However the moment we talked about meditation, what do people do? They immediately adjust their sitting and get into a posture as though they got into trance or something. I wondered what was going on and what they were doing. They thought that was meditation and how you meditate. Why did they do that? Because they saw somebody making a big deal out of doing that. People just sort of

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Gelek Rimpoche adopted it because they had no idea what to do and just did everything.

What can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing In a way it is good and in a way it is funny. During my lifetime I once saw a very simple person called Dharmacabri, a Tantric College guy. He was a mudra and artwork expert. In the monasteries, sometimes the learned geshes have to lead the mudras, but the geshes mostly learn the essence of Buddha's teaching rather than the gestures and hand implements, which are taught mainly in the Tantric Colleges rather than in the monasteries. So when geshes come to the monastery they are expected to lead but do not know how to do it. So the geshe asked this guy “Could you please show me what to do?” He said, “Look at me and just made sure you follow me,” and then he went on like this and that. After a little while there was one point where he had to do something this way but he did the other way and then he put his finger to his mouth, and the geshe did the same thing! Then he realized he was being fooled. The deputy abbot in-charge of discipline saw this guy put his finger to his mouth and he looked around to see who he was fooling. When he saw it was the geshe, he pretended not to know anything. He just sat there, otherwise it could have caused him big trouble. If you are taught by somebody who doesn't really know what to do you will be doing the same thing. Maybe you put the arm here and say that is how we meditate. Since it is unknown thing, it is important to know what you are doing. There is this good old American advice that says “Don't do something if you don't know what you are doing.” It is important; that is not a joke, it is an important point. On spiritual path also you need to know what you are doing. That is why we read this. That is why we study the Bodhisattva's way of life, what they do, and how they handle things. That is why one of the main points is conscientiousness.

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Verse 12 Therefore just as I have promised Shall I respectfully accord my actions. If from now on I make no effort, I shall descend to lower and lower states. This verse emphasizes actions. In other words, to make no effort, to remain here in status quo to is not that great. If simply sometimes you become pure, sometimes impure, that is not right. You need to put in efforts not to remain status quo. If you don't put efforts in, then even maintaining status quo is difficult, and if you cannot maintain that, you will lose. When you lose it will take you down and further down: I shall descend to lower and lower states. That is basically what they are talking about. You committed and promised to commit yourself to the total efforts of helping all sentient beings into enlightenment. Therefore just as I have promised, just as you have committed yourself or promised to help, to liberate all beings, it is not simply just a little promise or commitment, it is almost like taking a vow. The word dam chay20 is giving a solemn commitment; in other words it is taking a vow. Now what you really need is action. You don’t just want to stay at status quo saying, “Well yeah, I have committed myself, I want to be pure, I really want to do something.” If you never do anything but just keep on saying that you will someday do something, you get nowhere. There are a number of people who wish like that but do nothing, and then life passes by. That reminds me of the autobiography of Gungtang Jampelyang, a seventeenth century great Tibetan master, scholar and saint. When his disciples asked him for his autobiography to inspire them, he said, “Well I don't think you need it.” And they said, “No, no, no we do need it!” and they

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Gelek Rimpoche begged him for it. So then he said, “It is very easy, I will give it to you.”

I thought for twenty years, ‘I am a child, I am a child,’ and twenty years passed For the next twenty years I thought, ‘I will do something, I will do something,’ and the next twenty years passed. And then I thought, ‘It is too late, it is too late,’ for another twenty years. That is how I wasted my life. That is my autobiography. So if you don't do any actions and just say, “I want to do something, I want to do something,” twenty years will go very easily. It is already October, can you believe it? We just had New Years very recently! Kathy gave me some papers to sign and date and I wrote 68! My mind is still back at 68, not 98. Our minds trick us that much! The time is actually going is 98, thirty years later: therefore just as I have promised Shall I respectfully accord my actions. I like to remind you respectfully you need to take action. I myself have to remind myself that I have to take actions. That is what it is. If I take the commitment and the vow and I don't do anything, I am not fulfilling my vow and commitment. I am simply sending my good thoughts, making a good gesture and that is not good enough. It’s what we call lip service. How helpful is that? Not very. Better than scolding or objecting, but still it doesn't do that much good. Therefore we do not want to just spend all our time saying, “I will do something, I will do something,” but we really have to act.

Don’t be lazy! If we don't take any action, the chances are that we will lose. That is why this says I shall descend from lower to lower states. This message is telling you, “Don't be lazy, be active.” Also, it reminds you that you took a solemn vow, you gave a commitment, so don't just sit idle.

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Laziness is very distracting and takes your time completely away from you without realizing. Eastern and Western laziness differ slightly in my personal opinion. Eastern laziness is doing nothing, just sitting there, being a couch potato. For me, if I get a nice cup of tea and sit somewhere in a corner and read a nice book, or watch television, I naturally enjoy it. That is why I become a diabetic! But on the other hand, Western people don't really stay that way. Most Ameri- cans are busy-lazy rather than lazy-lazy. The busy-laziness is an important point. You don't do the things you are supposed to do. You do something else and make yourself so absolutely busy you don't even have the time to take a cup of coffee. You make yourself absolutely busy just to avoid things you are really supposed to do. Am I right or wrong? A friend of mine told me the other day that they really wanted to go to work and finally got into the car, but still drove round and sat in the parking lot. You just don't want to do things you are supposed to do. We do have a friend who is supposed to write a PhD thesis and never did and kept herself busy by volunteering in every organization and committing herself to anything and made herself absolutely busy from hour to hour back to back so she won't have to write her thesis. People do that, and that is laziness. Every- body will say we have no time, and that is the usual familiar rhetoric, but you have time for everything, for gossip, going to bars, dancing, and that busy person you find everywhere. Every place you go they pop up four times a day, and four times an hour you encounter that person. That shows it is absolutely true we don't have time but we make ourselves lazy in the form of business. We don't give ourselves the opportunity to do what we need to do, to take action, to fulfill our commitment. We have taken the commitment to help all sentient beings, but we don't let ourselves do it, by making ourselves absolutely busy.

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Setting priorities Having said that, what I really want you to do is to have a conscientious time for your own needs and spiritual journey or whatever you want to call it. You really need to put efforts and you really need to give some time. Again, having said that some people may think, “Oh my job is such a useless job. It is just a job I have to do. It doesn't benefit me, it doesn't benefit anybody else. That is not right and I am going to quit. I am going to look for another job where I can have my practice done.” A lot of people say or think that. That is another laziness coming in there. That is just using spiritual practice as an excuse to quit the job you are doing, because you don’t like it. Never use that as an excuse to build laziness. Many people don't like working, so they are looking for any opportunity or any excuse that comes. Who loses out in the end? Of course, if you lose materially and gain spiritually, that is great, wonderful! You can be like Milarepa, and we will all admire and with folded hands give you our best respect. But the chances are that is not going to happen. What will happen is that you will neither have a job nor a spiritual practice. We have a Tibetan saying meaning you couldn't pick up cow dung on the other side of the mountain, nor you are going to get the basket to carry it, so you lose both the basket and the cow dung. If you lose your job and your spiritual practice as a consequence of that laziness, you gain nothing, yet you still think you are a lion. You have neither personal benefit nor benefit for others, neither material nor spiritual benefit, but you still think you are a lion. Where does that lead the individual? Nowhere! You must maintain your own life. There is no way you can run away in America without paying bills. Right? A lot of people will think, “All right, I will cut my bills down.” We all think we want to cut our bills down, but they grow bigger and bigger all the time. How can we expect not to pay our bills? When we have to pay our bills, where is the money going to come from if we don't work? Well if you inherited a huge something then that is different; you are a lucky person. But people like us, if we don't work, where are you going to

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE get the money from? We cannot function like a street person, and we don't even want to. Not only you cannot, but you really don't want to function that way. That is the important point.

Linking the spiritual and material together I told you a number of times that the earlier Tibetans used to be very proud of how the temporal and spiritual system functioned together. I always wondered about this and thought it referred to His Holiness the Dalai Lama being the temporal and spiritual head of Tibetans. I thought this was somehow linked and that was why it was very nice. I also read a book that states this system was started by the Fifth Dalai Lama in the six- teenth century, 1642. Then I realized how foolish I was. They are talking about how one human being can and must have the dignity of the material life and the dignity of spiritual path together. That combination was what they have been so proud of. Politically it might be in that level, but individually one individual to maintain both the material as well the spiritual dignity combined together. If you lose one side you are not going to have that other thing. You have to maintain both. We must have both the material and the spiritual world together in our life. If you are very yuppie, that is not good enough; if you very hippie that is not good enough. Both must mix together. That doesn't mean the wife has to be a yuppie and husband has to be a hippie! But within one individual both the qualities of yuppiness and hippiness must be there. When you have that, you can maintain the dignity of the spiritual and material life. It provides the base for us to function in our daily life. And when they say you take action, that is the action which is called for. Are you with me? Verse 13 Although for the benefit of every creature Countless Buddhas have passed by,

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Yet I was not an object of their care Because of my own mistakes. The poem, in Tibetan as well as English, says mistakes but actually it is laziness. What mistake do we make? Laziness! “I will do it tomorrow,” but tomorrow never comes. You go to bed tonight and you wake up, and that is today. When Kathy tells me I have to do something today, I tell her I will do it tomorrow! That’s what it is. Because of that laziness from the spiritual point of view, the countless Buddhas have come one after another, and have gone, and we are still here. From the material point of view, opportunities have come one after another: they too are gone, and we are still stuck in the same condition. People often look at their lives and say, “I am stuck.” Of course you are stuck, because you are lazy! I get stuck on this chair, and can’t get up because I am fat. Why I am fat? Because I am lazy, I don't want to walk. This is the direct consequence of being lazy. In the same way, my laziness holds me back from becoming a Buddha. If my goal is to make money, laziness holds me back from making my money. Aura and I have a friend who has been waiting for a million dollars as long as I have known him, maybe thirty years. He always says it is about to come next week or tomorrow or next month, always. For people who are simply waiting to become a million- aire, but doing nothing, it is not going to happen you know. The same thing applies when you think, “I didn't make it, I didn't make it.” Of course you didn't make it because you don't work hard enough for long enough. That is the simple reason both in the material and spiritual world. Laziness is the worst thing that holds us back. That is why this verse 13 says, Buddhas have gone, Buddhas have come, for the benefit of every creature countless Buddhas have passed by, and yet I am stuck. Opportunities come, but we don’t take advantage. Whose fault is it?

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE Verse 14 And if I continue to act like this, Again and again shall I undergo (Suffering) in unhappy realms, sickness, bondage, Laceration and the shedding of blood. The Tibetan says: If you continue to do the same things, you will encounter sickness and death. Bondage is not there in the text, but it is there in a commentary. I looked up laceration in the dic- tionary it says ‘torn and rugged wound’; that is fine. The other one is not shedding of blood, but in Tibetan it says amputation, cutting off your limbs. This scares us, right? This verse is not threatening, not trying to make us afraid but vividly shows the sickness and death, laceration and bloodshed so that people will become active. Laziness is so difficult to overcome. We take any excuse whatsoever to make ourselves lazy: I am too busy, I am down or up; all of those are laziness. Some of them even drag you and physically immobilize you. Lots of people say, “I can't move; I am numb, frozen, I can't do anything, I have to lie down, and I just had to sit on the bed, I can't move.” In a way, it is true, it is real, it is what's happening, but on the other hand, if you have to move, you can move. If you decide not to move, then you can stay. If you start moving, you can move; you are not really frozen, that is why you can feel. Your mind is tricking you. Your mind really wants to make you absolutely lazy. When you are fighting with it, it uses the biggest weapon to challenge you to bring you to the level of immobility.

Never give up! The point here is not to give up: no matter whatever happens don't give up! If you give up, you lose and go down and down, lower and lowest. Here they talk about the unhappy realms and so forth, but remember, the problem is laziness. Recognize, acknowledge and never submit to that! When laziness is weak, you can definitely fight it. When lazi-

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Gelek Rimpoche ness is very powerful, sometimes it becomes overwhelming then it takes the shape of highs and lows, depression, and so forth. All of that is again caused by laziness. Being lazy means not using awareness. Once when I was sleeping at Cherry Street, I had a little trouble; I woke up and couldn’t move. It was miserable. I thought I was having a stroke or heart attack, I didn’t know which, but I presumed I had something like that. I didn't want to be paralyzed, so I tried to find out. I started to move my right hand and it moved; and I moved my left arm, it moved. Then I moved my left leg, it moved, and my right leg, it moved. When I started to get out of bed, I thought I was going to fall so I held onto the bed, and got up. Then I took the first step it was okay, then the second one it was okay, then the third one and then I went to the toilet, and started to throw up there terribly. After that I called Aura and she wanted me to see the doctor. They rushed me from the doctor's table to the ambulance, and put me in intensive care unit hooked up to all kinds of machines. Actually nothing had happened and after four days they discharged me. I said to the nurse, “So what I am supposed to do?” and she said, “Whatever you were doing before.” This is just a little thing that happened to me. When you think you are completely paralyzed, start moving a little bit. Never give up! Will power is such a powerful thing. I used to be a very heavy smoker, as my friends know. For thirteen years I used to smoke one and a half packets of cigarettes a day, that terrible Indian cigarette called Panama. Then one day I decided to stop because I had to go to Ladakh with a big rimpoche. Somebody told me to stop after I finished the packet I had, but I said, “No, if I am going to stop, I am going to stop right now and not even to finish the little one that I have.” I was lucky not to have any withdrawal symptoms at all. I decided not to do it then and there. That's it. I also used to drink a lot too. I cut that out easily without any problems. I did not go through twelve steps or AA. Will power alone can do it, it is possible.

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How to handle laziness We all do have laziness, so use your conscientiousness, awareness, and understanding to handle it very wisely, not so pushy but not so relaxed. Function completely relaxed but don't give up completely. Go slowly and persist, and that way you will make it. That is the way to handle your laziness. This book is telling us that laziness causes trouble and how we can handle it. This conclusion tells us to cut out our laziness. Challenge it! The best tool you have is conscientiousness, awareness and diligence. Don't overuse or it will backfire, but don't underuse it either. You must always know how to maintain that: not to do too much and not too little. Just remember a drop each day will fill up the bucket!

Laziness and fear Laziness will not probably freeze you, but fear will freeze you. A friend of ours from New York called me in the middle of the night and said, “Oh, I am so glad you are there!” I asked what was the matter and he said, “There is a mouse here!” I could hear how scared he was and asked him, “Where are you?” He said, “I am standing on the table - there is a mouse here!” He was absolutely terrified. I told him to just sit down on the table since I was afraid he would fall because he was so scared. Then after a little while I asked, “Do you see the mouse anywhere? Look to the right and look to the left.” He said no, so I told him, “Put your right leg down gradually and if the mouse comes back, you can pick it back up. So try.” Finally I got him to put both legs on the ground. No matter what you are afraid of, fear makes you ‘round’ - you have no legs, no hands, but completely become one piece, one big lump! You can only overcome fear by testing it. But don’t test yourself by going to downtown Detroit at mid- night! When you realize you don’t have to be afraid, you can get through. Like kids when they are so afraid that the monster under the bed is going to jump out at night. Their parents will go in to reassure them that there is no monster under the bed and say they looked three times; then the child will go to sleep.

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What really overcomes fear is understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. But fear can be linked up with any other negative emotion including laziness. That makes people into one big lump. Only knowledge, experience and understanding can cut that. So how you can do it? Test it. Afraid of the monster coming? Just open your eyes, open the closet and look. There won't be any monster!

Linking verses 13 and 14 In the root text we study for Prajna- paramita, which is Transcendental Wisdom, Maitreya Buddha wrote (or spoke and somebody else recorded it) that even if the king of heaven started pouring down showers of rain, if we don't have good seed, we will not collect a good crop. Likewise the Buddha might have come and gone but if we are not fortunate enough, we will not connect. When we are not connected, it will not help at all, no matter what is happening out there. If it does not connect inside, it doesn't happen. This supports verse 13, Although for the benefit of every creature Countless Buddhas have passed by, Yet I was not an object of their care Because of my own mistakes. In Tibetan it does not really say mistake but I believe it can be translated as mistake. It really should say due to my own unfortunate situations or circumstances, I have not been the object of their care. The other way round, this says that if we don't have the fortunate karma or luck to connect with the path to liberate ourselves, we cannot connect with anything. We have to think very carefully about how we can connect with the path, the practice, and how we have to have a positive karmic store to be able to do that. If you don't have that, no matter what you do, the Buddhas will come and will go, but you will be left out. What Bodhisattvas are expected to do is to create positive karma so that whenever opportunities come, they are connected. This is what the Bodhisattva’s way of life is all about. Does that make sense? I believe that covers verse 13.

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And then comes verse 14. The link between these two verses is this: all right, earlier that was what happened to me, Buddhas have come and gone, I have not been the object of their care, fine, but, in future I will be different. I will be the object of their care. But if you have been unable to connect, if you don't have the karma to connect, even the future is difficult. So this says: If I continuously act in that way, so that I don't have any connection, again and again shall I undergo all this. Not only have you been left, not the object of their care, but if I continuously do this, if I don't put efforts, and continuously waste my time under the influence of laziness again and again, then I have no alternative except to continue to falling into the lower realms and having tremendous amounts of sufferings. Sickness and death not only happen in the lower realms, but even if you take birth as a human being, or birth in some good life, even then you have tremendous amounts of sickness and untimely death. Emotionally beat up, physically beat up and mentally beat up - all kinds of sufferings. If we subject ourselves to laziness and don’t put efforts in, we will lose the good future rebirth, and even if we gain a good rebirth, we will have such huge amounts of problems. We have this laziness now, and that is there, the side effect. Therefore it is advisable for us to put some efforts; we must! If we do, what will happen? In the Peace Sutra, Buddha tells Manjushri that if a human being makes zillions of offerings to countless Buddhas, as many as grains of sand on the Ganges, and if he or she offers them jewels that fill up the whole universe, and makes these offerings for hundreds of eons, no doubt he or she will collect tremendous amounts of wonderful merit. But, it is far better than that if anyone listens to this Bodhisattva's Way, how Bodhisattvas should think, how Bodhisattvas should behave, and how Bodhisattvas should act, even they try to listen or think about it, and especially if they try to follow it, they have zillions of times more merit than filling entire uni- verses with jewels as offerings to countless Buddhas. In other words, this tells you to do something. If you don't, you are

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Gelek Rimpoche going to be subject to this and that suffering, and it has all happened before.

What should we be doing? The question arises, “What am I supposed to do?” First, you are supposed to think, supposed to read, supposed to listen, supposed to learn what Bodhisattvas do, how Bodhisattvas should deal with their lives, and what that is about. And if on top of listening, and thinking and if possible understanding and integrating, you can follow this way of life, it is far better than giving offerings to Buddhas of the universe filled up with jewels. You get it? In addition, the Buddha has said that particularly in this degenerate age, which the Hindus call Kali Yuga or bad time, if you take one single commitment of the Bodhisattva, that benefit one builds up is beyond what we have mentioned. In principle, the action Bodhisattva commitment is to be helpful to others, and if you cannot help, at least not harm them. Even if you can keep it for twenty-four hours, the merit is more than the generosity of offering a universe of jewels to countless Buddhas. It is so important to do at this moment, at this time, while we can benefit because we have the opportunity. We are very rich this moment with our human capacity. We may not be that rich with money. If we can utilize our opportunity it is very helpful. If we cannot, and miss this opportunity, Bud- dhas come, Buddhas go, and we are left out. It has happened before and it will continuously happen and if we waste our opportunity, it will become worse and worse. That is what this Bodhisattva's Way of Life is talking about. Now we move to verse15. Those of you who have done the lam rim know there are three outlines on human life: embracing human life, and you not only recognize the qualities of human life but also realize that it is difficult to find. Re- member? Here they are talking about it not only from the nature reality point of human life but also this tells you how difficult it is to find.

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE Verse 15 If the arising of a Tathagata, Faith, the attainment of a human body And my being fit to cultivate virtue are scarce, When will they be won again? What is this talking about? A lot of people think, “Well I didn't get it this time, I didn’t manage so well, but this life will soon be over. Next time around when I have a good life, I will try again.” But who knows whether our next life will be easy or difficult? Number one, it is very difficult to find the sort of life we have now. Really, it is very hard to get. Right now we don't appreciate our life so much. Not only that, sometimes we even hate ourselves. A number of people hate themselves. A number of people misuse their precious body. Some like me keep on eating. To me, whether I am hungry or not is not an issue: the issue is lunch, dinner and breakfast and snacks in between! That is physical abuse of the body; that is why I become fat and diabetic. Others are even worse than that. They abuse their body for some kind of kinky purposes. Often we couldn't care less for our physical being, ourselves and others, and persons that we care about. Many do take care of their bodies very well but many ignore and abuse it. In one way, it is your body, it is absolutely your right, whatever you want to do it. You have total freedom; you can do whatever you want to do. But you need to know what you are wasting. That is important. If you do not know what you are wasting, and you keep on doing it, then that is not very good.

We waste and misuse our bodies and minds Allen used to say, “If I had known I was going to live this long, then I would have taken much better care of myself!” It is true. We do abuse our body just for a little kick, so we drink or use excessive

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Gelek Rimpoche amounts of everything - that is abuse we do for our physical purpose. We also waste our minds, which are so important and valuable, tremendously. Our mind has so much capacity and so much possibility but what do we do? We really waste lots of time on things we are not supposed to do. If we continuously do that, where are we going to end up? There will never be an end, but it will become worse and worse. We can see how it works with addiction problems; if you don't take care, it will get worse and worse. We know that and we have seen it. So Bodhisattvas do have to keep on saying you become worse and worse and you go to hell - they are almost saying that in verse 14, and it is true when you have been abusing your mind and body. You have every right to abuse but you need to know what you are abusing.

We live in the time of light In this verse, it says, If the arising of a Tathagata in other words, if you look in the time period, don't look the time we are born and die, this is a very short period. Hindu-Buddhist mythology calls the time from when Bud- dha was born to the total disappearance of Buddhism the time of light. Why? Because the Buddha have appeared and shared their path and experience so that there is opportunity for people to be able to cut their continuation of suffering. Any eon when a Buddha has appeared is an eon with light, and the eon in between is the dark eon. The eon of light is very short, and the dark gap is very, very, very long. A Buddha appearing as official Buddha21 is extremely rare, like the utumwara flower that formed buds when Bud- dha was born, started to grow big when Buddha became a fully enlightened Buddha, opened when he started giving teaching and finally died when the Buddha passed away. The Buddha’s life, and also Buddhism itself, was compared by Hindu-Buddhist mythology point to that utumwara flower, so rare and so short lived.

Five qualities of this time If we look at our own life, the Bud- dha tells us it has ten special qualities or endowments. What are those? Five of ourselves and five of the period. It is the

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE time of light, and it is the period where the Buddhas share their experience still in life; Buddhism is active. To list the five qualities of our time: 1. Buddha appeared, 2. Buddha taught, sharing his experience, 3. Buddha shared his experience, and that teaching still exists and flourishes. 4. Buddhism still active in life; the way we handle our life based on the Buddha’s experience is still around. 5. There are followers continuously working just like you do, just like you want to do. There are helpers and persons who can help you.

These are the sorts of five qualities we have, from the time or circumstances point of view. In general, human qualities are tremendous. We have understanding, and are capable of communicating. Truly speaking, no other sort of life can do that. A lot of people look to UFOs for help and form societies and run around doing all kinds of things, but the point is that the intelligence or wisdom they are looking for over there is within us, according to the Buddha's message. Even enlightenment, the Buddha stage, is not external, it is within ourselves. It is not an external thing.

Buddha was a human being, and so were all the great spiritual masters that we encounter in our history. All the scientific geniuses including Einstein did not come out of UFOs, did they? The Buddha did not come out of a UFO, nor did Prophet Mohammed, nor did Jesus, nor Einstein. I having nothing against UFOs, don't misunderstand, but it is not worthy of wasting our life and energy, hoping for something special from them. Maybe they have it, maybe they don't. If there is, they will come out. But we know we have it but we are not spending time and energy to reveal what we have within ourselves. That is the sad part of it or the good part of it. We have it but we don't recognize. You can say, “I looked at myself

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Gelek Rimpoche from head to toe and found no wisdom.” Fine, but we don't expect to find by looking from your hair tip to your toe. You are not going to find wisdom in there. You have to look inside, deep inside, at your deeper self-existence, deeper self- functioning, deeper mental functioning. You are going to find all the wisdom you need in there. That we don’t do that is the problem. In other words, this verse says that what you are wasting and abusing now is the rising of the Tathagata - the period where the Buddha’s teaching experience shines on you. That phrase points to one of the five external qualities.

The five internal qualities Next the verse mentions faith, linking the five external qualities and the five internal qualities.. 1. I am a human being; that is number one. 2. I am born in the center of a country where there is Dharma. This is traditional Buddhism, so this comes with the package, just as earlier we said it is a time when the teachings of Buddha shine. Little bit of propaganda here and there! 3. I am born with a mind and body that function well. 4. I haven’t committed any of the five immediate negativities 5. I have faith in my abilities and the Buddha’s experience.

I am a human being, and that has tremendous value over the dog, cat, bird, horse, or monkey. We may think monkeys, dogs and so forth are intelligent, but we are more intelligent than they are. If you think your cat is intelligent then give it the car keys and let it do your grocery shopping! That tells you that I as a human being have a superior quality wit over any other life that you see today, forget about the ghost and UFO guys. You don’t know anything about ghosts, but if you get to know them, you will be better than them for sure. Even ghosts are extremely afraid of you, just like a tiger or bear is afraid of human beings. They will attack you for their protec-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE tion because their instinct tells them before you get them, they better get you. That is what it is. They are very scared. You can become a ghost buster without any problem. You don't need those machines in the movie! Go with your good conscience and clear mind, and you can bust them all out. If you cannot go with a good clear mind, they will bust you out. But they are equally afraid of you and they will do the same thing, what you can do to them - kick them out. They try to kick you out, that is all. So really if you look at human life, its value and capacity is tremendous. Remember, the bottom line is that the Bud- dha was a human being. All these great masters were human beings- great scientist, musician, painter - everybody was a human being. There is not one non-human being there. When faith is mentioned here, it is having faith in human capacity, having faith in reality, true nature. You have attained the human body which makes you a human being and have faith in the human capacity. You can destroy your human capacity by picking up the funniest thoughts such as thinking fifteen steps ahead of anything that will happen, and making yourself absolutely crazy. You can do that, but it is abuse of your human mind. Not looking after the body and making it fat like me is abusing the human body. Even taking excessive caffeine can be part of abusing the physical body and mind. The rest you can figure out. Look at the value on one hand, and if you abuse yourself what happen? You have an intelligent mind and if you abuse, it is so easy to flip out. Making sure that does not happen to ourselves is an important practice of the Bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas have to know how to look after themselves physically and mentally. You may think this is after all my body and I can abuse it. Fine, but if you do so and become cuckoo you cannot help anybody else including yourself. With such a body and mind, according to the Buddha, you are free from the business in the hell realm that is suffering, in the hungry ghost realm hunger and thirst; in the animal realms ignorance, in the demi-god realm jealousy; and in the god realm attachment and bliss.22 The human realm is

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Gelek Rimpoche free of those and we have the intelligence to be able to understand what is suffering and what is joy. These are the human qualities. That is why having faith in this human value and human body capacity, human mind capacity and capacity to be able to cultivate virtue which is very rare. When will there be such a birth again? It is so important not to waste this type of thing – the time, opportunity, and life. There is no bigger non-virtue than wasting that. Sutras tell us that to have Buddha appear as Buddha and share his experience is extremely difficult and very rare. Hav- ing the human life, being able to understand, to think, to make a difference, is very rare. One sutra says Buddha appears very rarely - once in a blue moon, so do not waste your life. Put your efforts in just like an evenly flowing river. Don't do too much in one day and don't let a day go by without anything. It should continuously running.

Practice slowly, constantly, continuously You can try to overtake laziness by putting up too much effort today, do everything right now and then run down over there, forget about tomorrow as though you ran out of gas. That gets you nowhere. Put in efforts slowly, constantly, continuously. Not too much at the beginning, go very slowly, smoothly. This is the way to do it, like a stable river that doesn't increase much, doesn't decrease much but always runs in all four seasons. Put in this sort of effort, because if you put too much in at first and then are not able to do anything, it is all gone. Maitreya Buddha says, It is so rare to get a human life. It is even more rare to have a Buddha appear as an official Buddha. It is even more rare for a Buddha to appear and to connect with us. It is so rare to have Bodhisattvas around. You may never find these conditions for hundreds of eons. But you have it now, so do not waste your life. Do not waste the Buddha’s experience. Do not waste the

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Bodhisattva’s efforts. Keep your enthusiasm up. Sometimes we talk about always having awareness. Aware- ness of what? Awareness of being a human being, awareness of having this rare opportunity with you, awareness of Bud- dha's experience with you. That is how you have to function in your life. Does that make sense? The essence of verse 15 is that one has to be very much aware of life, because it is very difficult to find. The life we have right now has so many qualities. We talked about human life in general having tremendous amounts of quality but in addition to this, our particular life has lots of additional qualities that not every human life has. For example, we have the benefits of the arising of the Tathagata, and of faith, not necessarily blind faith. The moment we talk about faith, people will immediately try to pick up some kind of belief system such as having faith in God or Buddha or something But I don't think this is what this is talking about here.

Intelligent faith I always say faith is important but we need intelligent faith not just blind faith. Blind faith is great for some people and I have nothing against those people. But really we cannot stake our life on blind faith at all. That is a very difficult point. Here Buddha emphasizes so much using your common sense, your intellectual capacity and the precious mind that you have. Use that to find out what is right for you and what is not right for you. It is so important. Traditionally some teachers would point to the west and say, “This is east!” And people like to say, “Yes Sir, this is east.” We can't do that. We had lots of trouble with cults like Jim Jones just because everybody simply accepted what they were told. That is the problem, and that comes out of blind faith. Blind faith can work when you have a perfectly tested proven path where nothing can go wrong. On that level it worked in the seventh century and in the fourteenth century. It might or might not have worked in the seventeenth century, but you cannot expect it will perfectly function in the 1990s and it will not happen after the

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Gelek Rimpoche year 2000, because human beings are too witty and too clev- er, and can play a lot with everything. At this sort of time and with human mind at that level, blind faith doesn't work. Really you should have intelligent faith. Without faith you cannot function. The Buddha even said that faith is like a mother who gives birth to a child. Faith functions in that way, but that has to be intelligent faith, with understanding and then it works perfectly. To be able to have not only a Buddha is arising, but also to have intelligent faith, a life like this where we can really act and achieve is so difficult to find it. Mind you, even with this kind of life, this much education and understanding, how many cults flourish and how many people follow blindly for nothing. If I remember correctly, a few years ago, some radio station in Texas kept on saying ‘Send money, send money’ without giving any reason, and lots of money was sent to that radio station! That is how easily the human mind can be per- suaded. Therefore it is so important for us to utilize our own intelligent mind, that intellectual capacity we have. You are all educated persons. Why an educated person should want to behave like someone uneducated, illiterate and stupid? There is no reason why except you may be absolutely lazy. You don't want to think about what to do. You simply like to be told what to do, and that is a big problem socially and spiritually. Socially that is big problem because you let yourself be abused by anybody else because you like to be told and do not want to do and think about it. This is a stupid mistake in the spiritual path. As a consequence of that, you can waste your life. This is why you have a mind! Use it and function like a human being, don't function like a robot! That is the faith we are talking about and it is important. It tells you this life has the capability and without this life you cannot do it. The thinking capacity of the human being cannot be challenged by any other beings anywhere.

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Human life is more useful than a god’s life Even in Buddhism you have the six realms of existence. Human is not the best or most pleasant, there is the small-g gods realm. Even on that level the capacity to think is worse than on the human level because they have too much joy and are remaining high all the time. The capacity to think and understand is weakened. For example during the Buddha’s lifetime, one of Bud- dha’s most important disciples was called Shariputra, the wisdom guy. He had a disciple who followed him, respected him and understood him perfectly. This guy died suddenly. Shariputra saw that he took rebirth in the small-g god realm, so Shariputra thought he would go there and continue to help him cut through samsara. He went up there. You have to know one thing. The small-g gods know their past, their future and their present. All these normal heavens we talked, like the Thirty-three heavens, and this and that- those of you who are familiar with the Chinese culture, they talked about the thirty-three heavens, all of them are included in the small-g god realm. You find quite a lot of them there. Some are wonderful places - samsaric delights, like beautiful picnic spots there. Some are not so comfortable, a little misery there too. So all of those are there. Shariputra went up there thinking his student would come running towards him, so that he could continue teaching him, but that didn’t happen. He simply raised his finger as a mark of respect and ran away all the time. Shariputra got quite upset and disappointed and went back to Buddha and told him what happened, "I went there a couple of times and was not able to draw his attention at all. He just raised his finger and ran away. So what can I do?" So Buddha said, “Don't you know this is samsara?” That is what it is. In that sort of god realm, in some ways they have much better intelligence capacity than human beings but somehow they are so high, they are out of touch with suffering, so they do not understand the need of cutting through the causes. We do not have the best or highest life from the point of numbers, but it is best for us because in this life we have the

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Gelek Rimpoche capacity to understand suffering, and joy and the capacity to understand and communicate which is very important. Many of us we don't have it, even among ourselves. Even among human beings many of them do not have the opportunity, but we do. That is why this life is more important for us. A number of people may think, “Well in this life I have many good things, and many bad things. I have experienced many things, but now I can start all over again.” Forget it, it is not going to be that easy. This statement is constantly repeated by the Buddha again and again, and also by Shantideva in these verses. Therefore I think it is important for us to recognize how important this life really is. Verse 16 Although today I am healthy, Well-nourished and unafflicted, Life is momentary and deceptive; The body is like an object on loan for but a minute. If you borrow a shirt from somebody, the person can say, “That's my shirt, give it back. I want it now.” He can take it any time, right? I used to say our body is just like a rented apartment. It is on loan for but a minute. Think about it. We really have such a valuable life. We also have time. We tell ourselves we have no time but believe me we have time. Really we do. You are going to find time if you really want to. We have time for everything else except for our own benefit. We have time for gossip, for entertainment, for everything - holiday visits, being mischievous, creating trouble, for everything we have time. And today, I am healthy and have no shortage of food or clothes. I don't really have any direct threat to my life right at this moment – I am unafflicted. But my life is like the river flowing towards a cliff; running all the time. I do not have the power to hold back even a single minute. In reality my life is unreliable to me. It can go any minute any time, anywhere. It

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE is momentary and it is deceptive. That is what verse 16 is telling you. In other words, we see everything as nice, and wonderful. Business as usual, no threat. But it is momentary. You never know when that is going to go. Therefore wasting my time and my energy, not making use of this great opportunity, and taking for granted that this will continue for the next two hundred years is a lie. We do not even have any guarantee that we will remain tomorrow. Who knows which will come first, tomorrow or so-called future life? Nobody ever planned to die, nobody. All these people who died in car or plane crashes, they did not plan to do that way. A moment, a second makes the difference in life. If you think about it, we are all on that verge as well. Can we afford to waste our time? What the Tibetan really says is today I don't have any illnesses or shortage of food or harm to myself but I cannot take this for granted. In English it says Although today I am healthy, well nourished and unafflicted. I think you have to read it other way round.

Impermanence and death Today I don't have any illnesses or shortage of food, shelter or clothes. Today I don't have any severe physical pain, but this moment is not permanent: I can be deprived of it at any minute, it is momentary. Traditional teachings compare life to a waterfall. When water gets near the waterfall it doesn't take any time, in a single moment it goes down...zoom! Life is like that. We cannot take life for granted, it is very unreliable and deceptive. Anything can change any minute, anything. Human mind changes, human nature changes, human body changes, everything can change any minute. Not only that, we can go any minute. There is no warning or special preparation for dying. When the time comes, we go, and nobody knows when the time is coming, right? As the Seventh Dalai Lama said, The moment we are born we have not a single minute to ourself to be able to hold back; we are running towards death like a

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galloping horse. Galloping towards death, minute after minute we are decreasing our life. I used to watch that soap opera Days of Our Lives; like sands through an hourglass – that’s it! That is exactly the condition of our life. A number of people think, “Well, my life is bad enough, it doesn't matter. Maybe if I die, it is okay. I should go.” You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to do anything, the sand is running out all the time without any rest. Minute by minute we are getting older, getting some extra wrinkles and some extra gray hair here. One of my great teachers, Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche, at the age of eleven wrote in his grammar homework The invitation of death is coming. You receive the invitation of death in the form of snow on your hair. We don't have to rush to make it quicker. We don't have to abuse our body by using different substances, it is going by itself, decaying by itself as fast as it can go.

Don’t just be a couch potato Life is unreliable. So what? Do something, that is what this is telling you. Don't just sit there and be a couch potato. Don't be lazy or busy lazy. Do something that affects your life. Do something that affects other people as well, because we have the capacity. Remember even our political leaders go on saying, “One person can make a difference.” Every person not only can make a difference to himself or herself but also to society in general. In particular, you can make a difference in your own circle. If you try to do something good, that will help every other person who is in your circle. If you are near a precious gold mountain, then nearby everything has the gold effect and may become gold. There is a chance of getting much more gold there. And if you are rotten poison everything nearby will be terrible. A poisonous effect will be there.

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That is how even one single person makes the difference. You may think, “This is my life, and it doesn't matter what I can do.” Sure, it is your life, you can do whatever you want to do, but it will affect your friends, your companion, your children, your parents, your circle, your sangha and your fellow citizens. We live in this interdependent world where move- ment of a butterfly’s wings in China makes a difference in the United States. Your behavior or functioning will definitely make difference to your roommate and companion. If you are a messy person and if you expect your roommate to be tidy, it will be a little difficult in the beginning. Maybe weeks later, months later it is going to be more and more messy because you are providing a good example there. Even if they don't want to and decide not to, unconsciously it will affect them. If you are drinking and the other person isn’t, if you keep on constantly drinking there in a few months that one person will take one or two six-packs here and there. If you are a smoker, the same thing will happen. If you are nice, kind and compassionate, that will also affect your roommate, however that will be more difficult.

Changing habits Somehow it is easier to connect with the negative patterns we have already, but the positive patterns are difficult to build. That's why we have to work hard, we have to push ourselves. We have almost to force ourselves to be kind, to be compassionate. We don't have to force ourselves to develop jealousy or to get angry. Number one, we don't have to go to school to learn to get angry. Number two, we don't have to go for training on how to get angry. We don't have to go on retreat to learn how to develop anger! It is automatic with us, our negative addiction. Why is it hard to change? Because we have been doing it for so long. Life after life, we have gotten so used to it. We are so used to attachment, to anger. That is why we don't have to go to school to learn how to get angry or how to get attached, because it is our habit. You know how a person who has been smoking all the time automatically reaches out

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Gelek Rimpoche to the cigarette and picks it up and lights it. Not to do that takes effort and to do that doesn't. We know this very clearly, it is addiction. To go against that we need lots and lots of effort and sometimes we lose our will power. We don't want to do it. We have no encouragement. We don't have motivation. We don't have role models even. It is difficult. That is why this book tries to give you the motivations and train you how to think. That is Bodhisattva's way of life, training you how you to think. If you can think in this direction, you will not waste your life. All these meditations on impermanence, death and dying are not threats to make you afraid. It is not a sword they hold to your neck. The point is to try to motivate you. Right now it is important, because everything is in our hands. We may have difficulties. Because of our negative habits, funny thoughts will come up. We like to be naughty here and there, and thoughts will pop up whenever you want to do something. That is natural because after all we have so many addictions, they will pop up at least every few days. Don't worry about it.

Don’t entertain negativity Just don’t entertain those funny, naughty thoughts that come up. Because you are intelligent, because you are educated you have to screen it, and you must know how to say no to them. You can't say, “Yes, Sir,” all the time. The basic human quality gives you this. The principle mind will be screening all our thoughts. Thoughts pop up in our heads all the time. Think about the popcorn machine at the movies, the popcorns going pop, pop, right? We have a machine in our minds here going pop, pop, pop all the time, so then our principle mind has to look in there and screen, rejecting some of them and accepting some of them. That is the human quality and human capacity and human value. Having thoughts popping up is not a problem. If you entertain them that it is a problem. Sometimes you may even entertain without realizing. Even then, better late than never.

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Correct yourself. That is the value of this life. That is what these verses are reminding you of. Do something! The spiritual path is nothing but a war between the positive and negative. We are fighting negativity , and building positivity. Negativity and positivity are interesting words, but truly speaking it is anger, attachment, jealousy and ignorance: those negative emotions are the target of spiritual practice. A spiritual person tries to get rid of those negative emotions. That is our job. This is our goal, our purpose. That is what we are doing. If we reduce and eradicate those negative emotions, that is called liberation. We are seeking freedom from those negative emotions. Whatever it takes, you have to challenge that. That is the spiritual path, whatever you might be - Catholic, Protestants, Presbysterian, or Buddhist. Forget about Gelugpa, Nyingmapa, Sakyapa, or even Tibetan Buddhist, or non Buddhist, whatever you might be, we human beings have capacity to help ourselves and others. I went through examples on how to help yourself and how to help others through various ways such as setting up examples, try to affect the other person’s way of thinking, way of functioning. That is how we help each other. The best is way to help is through communication. This is the human value, we can communicate and understand. We can talk to each other, we can make or break deals, we negotiate, we can do all these. Monkeys, dogs and cats cannot do that. That doesn't mean dogs and cats do not have value in their life; they do very much. They are also sentient beings but they do not have that capacity. When you look in that way, you appreciate your life comparing with that. By chance we happen to be human beings, truly speaking. We could have been the roach that we sprayed with Raid the other day. We could have been the other person, but by chance we happen to be this one. By sheer luck we have this value. So appreciate this value and make the best use of it. Make the best use of it in both lives, spiritual as well as material lives.

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Have the benefit of both lives Nowadays we don't have many people who think that if you work for material benefit, there is something wrong, and that you are not a spiritual person. Truly speaking you are not taking from anybody else. If you cannot manage, too bad, it is bad luck, too bad for you. You have to have the benefit of both lives. Why can't you have the best of both material life and best of the spiritual life? You deserve it, you have the capacity, but our laziness, lack of conscientiousness is our problem. We don't have the drive. Laziness cuts drive out of the person, and that is the problem. If you look at the Buddha's life story, the people with him were not all hippies, there were lots of yuppies too. Right? Lots of kings, queens, ministers - all those were there too at that time. It has constantly continuously been that way. We deserve the best of both lives. Why do we have to de- prive ourselves? We are not taking away from anybody else. Well if somebody else is really doing better because you are not, fine. That is worthwhile but that is not true. So that is why we have to have the best of both lives.

Questions and Answers Student: I’ve heard that when His Holiness the Dalai Lama first became aware of the level of self-deprecation and self- hatred that Westerners struggle with he was quite surprised. This negative habit of self hatred can misuse the knowledge that we have a precious life, we should not be wasting time, that we should be moving forward and taking the advantage of the advice and teachings that have been given to us and shared with us. We can actually fall into a secondary negative habit of chastising ourselves for failure to follow through on the positive advice that has been given to us. Rimpoche: I don’t know whether the Dalai Lama was surprised, but I really did have that shocking surprise again and again, one person after another, all the time and every time. It is surprisingly true in the Western mind. However the main problem here is using your own knowledge, your own understanding not to help oneself to

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE build confidence and self respect, but instead you are turning it against yourself like what we Tibetan lamas used to say ‘The yaks grow their horns to their own protection but sometimes the horns grow crooked and poke their own eyes.’ People very often act that way too, and that is also big surprise to me. Human beings do that a lot. One problem is becoming over-enthusiastic, trying to do everything at once, and two, no patience, wanting everything right now, and three, always wondering ‘What can I do? How can I get better, this way or that way? Maybe I better stand up, or better sit down, this way, that way. Maybe I do this, maybe I do that.’ That is exactly how mind drives the individual in that manner. Then what happens is that the information and education you have instead of helping becomes a fuel for your anxiety to feed on, so instead of helping, it becomes harmful. That is because of over-anxiety and the lack of patience and so much push of ‘What can I do!?’ This is much more with Western than with Eastern people, that’s for sure. But it also comes with what we called the modern development of life, with the competitiveness, and pull and push, and how can I get the edge over my competition. That is so much on the minds of people – ‘I need things to happen and I need it right now! I haven’t a single minute to wait! How can I do what will make that happen? Is it better for me to get up, is it better for me to sit down, is it for me to breathe, or meditate, or analyze, say my prayers, say my mantras? What is better, what is better?’ At the end of all that anxiety you have nothing. This is a big problem with lots of people, I am not referring to you as an individual. It is so important to recognize what is driving me, what is happening, what is pushing me, who am I, who am I going to go. Sometimes I used to say to people, ‘I am not going anywhere, relax, sit down, we are not going anywhere.’ Actually it is true we are not going anywhere; as it says a couple of verses earlier, it becomes pull and push which gets you nowhere.23 I think this is an important point. We should remember it and think about it.

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It is helpful to think when we have control in our hand. It is extremely important to maintain control. Maybe control is a bad word, but manage yourself by you, nobody else. Re- member if you are a good spiritual practitioner, you keep your own rope on your own horn. In Tibet, yaks used to have ropes tied to a stick in their noses and when people pulled the rope they had to go this way or that way. If you are a good practitioner, keep the rope on your nose tied on your own horn, and don't let anybody catch it! So that is an important point, I think.

Student: Could I ask for clarification? You spoke about striving for enlightenment, so how does one moderate one's striving going back to your reference to the competitive nature of the Western world? And secondly I would like to hear your thoughts on when one is or has some relative thoughts and aspirations towards gaining a relative understanding of enlightenment, and yet we don’t have the will power to perform even the simplest task which have been outlined by teachers as been useful to cultivate. Rimpoche: Enlightenment is my goal, and I am not competing with anybody else. I love looking forward to when I get it, and I am putting all my efforts all the time in that direction. I am not in a hurry, I am not competing with anybody. When- ever it gets me, fine. That is what I do. The second question is what? Can you help me?

Student: Whenever we have less will power…. Rimpoche: That's right. And the will power for what?

Student: The will power to maintain stability and will power to carry out simple practices that have been outlined to us as useful, and I am not even talking specifically about regular performance of sadhanas or qualitative things. I am talking about will power in that sense. And the last piece of that is how does one distinguish between the language of spiritual materialism and what you are talking about. Maybe we fall to

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE the place of spiritual materialism without an awareness we are falling to it Rimpoche: It is better late than never. Better wrong than never have. I think spiritual materialism and pure spiritual thing is very important, no question, but at this moment, I don't think it is the issue, number one. Number two, will power. If you have great interest for enlightenment every effort is driving towards that direction. Without putting strong efforts it is already directed through motivation, through your way of thinking, way of functioning, rather than trying to make it in that way or this way. At every point where you generate your motivation try to shape it in that way, try to guide it that way. What you really have to do is generally motivate yourself towards that direction, put your every effort towards that direction, and dedicate for that direction. That is how we go on keeping in principle mind of Buddha’s principle in life. When you function that way everything will go that way automatically rather than having to focus on each and every point where you have to put efforts and trying to push this way, and trying to think, ‘Am I going this way or that way, or should I go the other way?’ This is the anxiety which pushes through, and this is the ‘I want to have it right now’ that pushes through. In general, function in a relaxed way but hold tight to the principle. That is how I normally function my life. I don't want put every effort into worrying about each little thing, ‘If I do this is it good? If I stay in this place will that help me or anybody else?’ I am not worrying about that. I am taking care about my general motivation, my general mind set up and my general attitude. That I will correct and I will not do anything specifically for any point for anything. If I have to do that, I will be nowhere. Verse 17 to 20 And with behavior such as this, I shall not win a human body again, And if this human form is not

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attained, There will be solely wrongdoing and no virtue. If when I have the chance to live a wholesome life My actions are not wholesome, Then what shall I be able to do When confused by the misery of the lower realms? And if I commit no wholesome deeds (there), But readily amass much wrongdoing, Then for a hundred million aeons I shall not even hear the words “a happy life.” For these very reasons, the Buddha has said That as difficult as it is for a turtle to insert its neck Into a yoke adrift upon the vast ocean, It is more difficult to attain the human state. That’s exactly what it is. If you do not take advantage of this great life, but still continuously let laziness and jealousy take over, and abuse yourself both spiritually and materially, what are you going to get? With behavior such as this I shall not win a human body again. Some people may think that when this life is over, they can start all over again. Well, if it is already in your hand and you cannot manage, hoping there will be another one like this is hoping against hope. Is it going to work? The chances are no. Ninety nine per cent sure it is not going to work. While it is in our hand we better make use of it. If you are an animal, what is the biggest problem? The greatest suffering of being an animal is ignorance and also

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE they eat each other. Only a few of them are vegetarians. They kill and eat each other so the negativity increases, and the positive action decreases, so how can we hope to have such a wonderful life again? It is not possible when confused by the misery of the lower realms. That is what they are talking about. With behavior such as this it is not possible to obtain a precious human life like this. Not every human life has as much precious value as ours. This may be Buddhist propaganda but it is reality. That is why this has been talking about the Bud- dhas coming, the opportunity available, the teachings available and you can make difference to your life once and for all. All of those are special qualities which not every human being has. I am sure many of you have friends you would like to have come to teachings and learn and discuss, but they simply won't come because they are not interested. They think it is just hocus pocus, that it has no value, no meaning. That is how they are deprived of the opportunity for themselves to be helped, when that happens. Even if you try your best to drag the person here, it won't help.

Don’t try to force others It is not out of place to mention here that one should not drag or try to force other people in. If they are interested, they are welcome, but you don't want to grab them or drag them in. You don't want to force anybody else for anything. This may be of great interest to you, and you may see this helping you and making a difference in your life, but other people have to see for themselves. I always say that we are not missionaries, Jehovah’s Witness people, or Hare Krishna people. If people are interested, if they want to come and observe, fine. There is nothing to hide. But don't try to force anybody, don't push anybody, don't try to drag anybody in. You can help other people by putting yourself as an example. Improve your way of thinking; improve the way you deal with people. If you give them the cold shoulder all the time, try to change that a little bit. If other person notices, they may be interested. That is a great way of serving that person, and helping that person -

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Gelek Rimpoche using yourself as example of improvement and becoming a better person. Truly that is how it is. It is one human being to another, affecting the other person not by pushing the person but by showing an example, making improvements in your way of thinking and dealing with people, difficult situations or any conditions by your own way of dealing with negativities, your anger. That is what you can show if you want to help the other person. Then the person will definitely be interested. That is how you can help, not by dragging or forcing, “If you don't come with me tonight to the talk, I am not talking to you.” That won't work. You don't want to twist people’s arms and that’s really not our job, either. After all, the spiritual path is to help yourself, and if you can, help others through being an example. If you can't help others, at least help yourself and don’t harm others. That is where you draw the line. It is not your mission to go and do something. You know some people say, “I have to help you, it is my job.” If you try to force someone, you don't know where to draw the line. Remember that everybody is a human being and everybody has feelings. If you push yourself and force that way probably you are doing more disservice than service.

The causes for human rebirth I shall not win a human body again: if I don't explain this, it sounds funny and threatening. There is a very strong reason here. To get a human body, though your parents produce it, takes tremendous amounts of positive karma. It does not just happen. It is in a way, but on the other hand, everybody cannot become a human being, otherwise there would be no cockroaches left! We don’t just become a human being automatically. What are the causes for being born as a human being? It takes tremendous amounts of efforts. Number one, the fundamental basis for obtaining a human life is perfect morality. That is the ground and on top of that you have to master the six paramitas: generosity, morality, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom. On top of that, you also have to

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE have a perfect conjunction of prayers and dedications. Since you need all of those factors, it is not easy to get this type of life. This also makes us appreciate what we have. Do we have perfect morality? Should we ask Monica Lewinsky? That's a joke. Again I want to remind you that morality is something very individual. It is not a collective or black and white morality. The commitment to our freedom is also morality; individual liberty, individual freedom is also morality for us. My morality and your morality differ. My commitments and your commitments differ. It is definitely individual. It is so important not to lose individual freedom under some collective umbrella called morality. Otherwise we all go and sit in front of Bill Bennett, and learn our morality in ten days! Morality is definitely connected to individual freedom. Look at the prisons. I see the prison as a correction center, not as punishment or torture. Really it is not. Prison should be a correction center where opportunity is given to those addicts to correct and prisons keep them away from harming the rest of society. To me that is the purpose of the prison. That is the way to correct, giving opportunity for ways to correct rather than punishing them. No one can punish anybody. Can you? I don't think so. Who am I to punish you? And who are you to punish me? Nobody, cannot. We can help each other to correct, and I think that is our basic human morality. Nobody can punish anybody else. We have been through the kings and king- doms, and subject sand slavery, and we didn't like it. We changed it to a system of freedom. Verses 21 and 22 If even by the transgression of one instant An aeon may be spent in the deepest hell, Then because of the transgressions I have gathered since beginningless time,

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What need to mention my not going to a happy realm? Yet having experienced merely that (rebirth in hell) I shall still not be liberated; For a while it is being experienced, Other wrongdoing will be extensively produced. When people die they don’t disappear. What happens is that your consciousness is no longer able to function in that same old physical body, so the time has come for you to change the identity. To make it simple, it is just like changing your driver’s license every five years. In another way, you are no longer associated with that particular person that you normally are because of the change of identity. Communication is lost. The person cannot function as before. Basically, the person gets a new identity that could be any particular shape. There are six realms and within that there are fifty-two levels.

Helping someone who has died How can we contribute to a person who has gone? How does that person function? Basical- ly, in the same way as we do, but there is a different identity. If we can purify ourselves, we cut our negativities down. When that happens, the consequences of the negativities are cut down. That is one way. Then, if we have accumulated the causes of merit, that helps to build up. So there are two ways: purifying and building merit. While we are alive, that is what it is. When we die it is the same thing. We purify our negativities and build up our merit. How can I contribute to the benefit of a person who has gone? Only through practice, saying mantras, doing everything in a positive way, like generosity, morality, patience, etc., and dedicating all that to the person who has passed away. From your side, what you can do is to dedicate your positive karma. Try to help the dead or dying person to puri-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE fy their negativities, and dedicate your own positive karma. They need those two things, purification and accumulating merits, so you are filling both their pockets. Then the question will rise? How can I purify for that person? His karma is his karma, and my karma is mine. So how can I contribute? However, there is a connection. The line of contact has not been cut. After some time, that line of contact goes away. As long as that line of contact is there you can have a connection. In the traditional Tibetan system, when a person dies, we do a lot of different prayers, ask a number of different monks and monasteries to do prayers and pujas. All that is requested by making offerings. The offerings are made from the possessions of the deceased person, their money or whatever it is. Through that, the person’s own collected wealth is used for his benefit. We are counting on that connection. For example, you can say one hundred mantras each of OM, OM MUNI MUNI MAHAMUNIYE SOHA, OM MANI PADME HUNG, OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA. One hundred MIGTSE- MAs take a little more time. In your visualization there are a number of things you can do. When you say OM MUNI MUNI MAHAMUNIYE SOHA those who are authorized24 can generate themselves in the form of Buddha Shakyamuni. Those who are not authorized, you cannot do that. It would create problems for yourself. From yourself as Buddha, lights go out and reaches to that person. If you don’t know what that person looked like, you just visualize a human being and think that this is that person. Even if you cannot imagine a physical identity, you can just visualize a letter HE or SHE. That will help and is quite commonly used. In the traditional Buddhist system, when no physical picture has been drawn for the purpose of purification, we will draw instead a letter N from the alphabet. In Tibetan the syllable NI can be put after anybody’s name. Now, in the English language, instead of that we can use HE or SHE. The light you have sent out goes through that letter, purifies

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Gelek Rimpoche all negativities just by the light from you as Buddha or Ava- lokitesvara or Tara. Further, the luck and fortune of all the enlightened beings in the form of light are given to that person. That is one of the easiest things to do. Do it with pure thoughts, pure motivation and good concentration.

What are we trying to accomplish here? We are talking here about the Bodhisattvacharyavatara. Aura asked for me to do this. We have reached the middle of Chapter Four. I am trying my best to present this teaching to you and you try to learn. Why are we all doing this? We are trying to benefit all of us and in particular yourself. I don’t use the term benefit in the sense that we are somehow building something up and it will be okay. That is not right. A lot of spiritual paths will wash their hands white in that way. Somebody is counting something up there in the clouds where nobody can see it. Some people say, “Your benefits are added up in your akashic records. That’s why you will be better off.” Great, I have no criticism for that. It is fine, but it is not good enough for me - definitely not!

Making a difference in life and death What I want is for the practice to make a difference to me whether I am alive or dead. It has to make a difference. In your life, it should make a difference in how you think, how you act, how you perceive, how you deal with everything and with people and yourself. We need to improve. There is tremendous room for us to improve. We are good, we are not bad. We are open-minded. We want to be helpful to ourselves and to others, but we are not faultless. We have a tremendous number of problems. Each and every one of us has that. If we were perfect we should be somewhere up there rather than down here! Normally, we ourselves don’t recognize our own faults, but others will. Unfortunately, our two eyes look outside, not inside, so we see everybody else’s faults, but not our own. Each and every one of us has that problem. From the other perspective, there are zillions of eyes looking at you and these zillions of eyes will pick up each and every fault that we have.

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The improvement we have to make is to see our own faults as best as we can and then change and correct them. Somebody else may think there are faults when there are none and that does not matter, but when you yourself see your faults, you should change them. That is what makes a difference to you, improves you and helps you. That is what we need. We don’t need somebody up there in the sky, counting our numbers or brownie points. There is not much use in saying that we have improved and trying to believe that. At the end there will be a big surprise and won’t work. Believe me, that happens. We don’t need that. It does not help. Trungpa Rimpoche used to call that love-and-light. Love-and-light is great, no doubt. Everything is beautiful and wonderful - a lot of light up there, but that does not help you. It may look nice for the time being, but then you get all those different surprises right in your face. When that happens, you start freaking out. That shows it did not help. We do that all the time. Gungtang, a great master in the 17th century, said, When your stomach is filled up and when the sun is shining, you are a great spiritual practitioner. But as soon as you face any problem, you behave worse than the worst person. When some people, though they may be strange, have a problem, they can at least work it out somehow, figure it out. You are spiritual practitioners, but when you get some bigger problem, you get a big surprise. You are shocked and scared and can’t handle it. This happens. That is why Gungtang Rimpoche is warning us not to do it like that. If that is happening to you, something is wrong. You want to make sure that this does not happen to you. The only way to prevent that is to see our problems and correct them.

What are faults, really? How do I see my own faults? What are faults really? You have to work that out because otherwise

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Gelek Rimpoche you can walk around full of faults and still think, “I am the living Tara!” In Vajrayana you actually do that. You visualize yourself as a fully enlightened yidam and all other people you encounter are themselves different male and female yidams and all sounds are mantra, but it is a little early for us to do that practice. Some of the sounds that you perceive don’t come as OM MANI PADME HUNG, but as all sorts of strange sounds! So it is a little too early to function that way. When you try to visualize that a certain person is a wonderful enlightened being, that person may well approach you and hit you on the head! Again, you could say “I am a wonderful enlightened person,” but if you watch yourself, you will find that you have so many mean, manipulating and calculating thoughts in your mind. If you notice that, it is a sign that it is a little too early for us. Keep that point in mind. Okay, we are not in that category. We haven’t reached there yet. So where are we? We are a normal, basic human being, with all kinds of goodness and badness. They are always bubbling up, one trying to take over the other within ourselves. To do something good and then challenge that and to do something wrong, that is the normal, basic human nature. That is where we are. We have both badness and goodness fighting within us over who is going to control my mind stream. Who knows who is winning the fight? Who can make a difference in it? You. You are the only person who can make a difference. You the one who knows when negative thoughts are coming, when positive thoughts are coming. You know how they are clashing. You have all kinds of funny suspicions and doubts, wanting to believe, but being afraid that your belief is going to be wrong. Within ourselves there are all these thoughts.

Things are bound to go wrong In particular, we have a lot of fears. We are afraid that things are not going to go smooth and easy in our life, that something may go wrong. Actually it is true. Something is going to go wrong somewhere - it is bound to happen. This is because basically we are in samsara. Believe me, if everything functioned absolutely smoothly and

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE wonderfully as we want it, Buddha would not call that samsara. The meaning of samsara is - and I don’t give you the direct translation here - a place where you suffer. That is the bottom line. The formal definition of samsara is: continuation of contaminated identity25, but the bottom line is that it is the place where you suffer. So, since we are in samsara, something is going to go wrong, for sure! If nothing goes wrong, it is not samsara. Freedom from suffering would be nirvana. Things are going to go wrong, no doubt about that. We are all going to die. We are going to get ill. But the one thing we have to make sure is that we are not going to go crazy. We have the con- trols in our hands. You may think, “I am a genius, I am great. That is why my thoughts and those of others are not matching up!” If you think that, you are wrong. If five or six people are con- tradicting your thoughts one after another, that is a signal for you to watch your own mind. Otherwise, you actually don’t know if you are going crazy. People who are crazy don’t know it. When nobody agrees with you and everybody pulls a little bit away, watching you a little more that is the indica- tion that you are going crazy. I am not even joking. We all know people who are wonderful but have a few more screws loose than usual. We know that, but they don’t. That is the example. We don’t know how many screws we have loose, but others know. So when others pull away a little bit and give the impression of thinking, “He is strange, what is going on?” that should be the signal for us to watch ourselves. If one person is against you, maybe it is through jealousy, that could be all right, but if it is three, four, five, and so on, you have to acknowledge that everybody cannot be wrong and you alone be right. It is not possible. This is the signal to look out for. If you recognize that then it is easy for you to handle. Believe me, it is easy. You just have to bring in awareness and mindfulness. You have to be aware of what you are doing. Bring some awareness within your life. That will take care of it, if you recognize the problem early enough. If you have too

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Gelek Rimpoche many screws loose, it is difficult to put them back in. I don’t know why I mentioned that. It came out accidentally.

Study your own mind If you want to find out what is right and wrong, good and bad, there is nothing else to measure that against except our delusions or neuroses such as anger, attachment, hatred, jealousy. Put them out in one little area and study them. When you are angry, what do you act out? It is very important to study yourself. How do I act when I am very afraid? How do I act when I am very angry? What are my thoughts, what is my physical appearance? Study yourself. It is very important. If you are very angry, make sure you take a look in the mirror. Really study yourself. You will see that you look different. Some people’s eyes get a little bigger, some people’s a little smaller. Individually there are signs. The face gets red or dark or moody, or whatever. Study that. When you see that, it is again the sign that the thought called anger is very active within you. If you see that you are angry, it is a tremendous help. When you see that you are over-zealous or over- attached, you will see that changes in your physical appearance and the mental thoughts popping up come together. When you see that in the mirror next time, recognize that as the sign and try to correct it. If you do that two or three times you will begin to know it. These physical symptoms are sometimes extremely helpful. When you have high blood pressure you will know it. Many people have experienced that. When it gets a little further you will feel your veins in the face pumping up. Through that you know that your blood pressure is a little too high. If you study your physical symptoms individually, you will know them. Now what you have to study is the mental and physical symptoms of the neuroses within you. Tell yourself that this is your problem and that you need to correct that. How do you know? That is where the information is needed. The information can tell you, “This is anger and this is your jealousy and so on. This will have a certain result and that will

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE have such and such a result. This is a good thought and that is a bad thought.” On that basis you judge yourself. Don’t let anybody else judge you. But if you fail to judge yourself, others will judge you. Then it is too late. This goes for the neuroses and even for your craziness. If you don’t judge yourself early enough, others will judge you. When others judge you it is too late. Please look within yourself. That is how you can help yourself and make a difference. This Dharma on the first level is information. Then, when you have got the information, deal with that within yourself. That makes the difference in your life. By making a difference in your life it will also make a difference at the time you die. You need the results when you are alive as well as when you are dying. You cannot presume that somebody else up there is counting on your behalf and you are okay. If you do that, you will get a big surprise. This grounded spiritual practice is what I want you to establish if you are interested in helping yourself. If you are not, you are not. The occasional flickering interest will not help much. It will have some benefit, but not so much. When you go deeply enough and seriously deal with it, it makes a difference. People think that they have to spend so much time. Es- pecially, when they watch those who have practice commitments and spend forty-five minutes on that, they will think, “Oh my God, I can’t do that!” That is all right. You don’t have to, but you can afford to give yourself five minutes here and there. You have got to do that. Otherwise nothing happens.

Don’t waste this opportunity The opportunity which you have here is something rather unusual these days. The information that I have brought is actually a thousand years worth of experience of Tibetan teachers. That also does not come to you in a very strange way, but in the form of a normal human being, just like you. It is a good opportunity. Try to pick up the information and try to see what difference that can make in your life. Even if you only cut your

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Gelek Rimpoche neuroses down a little bit it is a great help. That is what meditation is good for. Meditation cuts the neuroses down. Even if you don’t do anything else but simple concentrated meditation, it cuts the neuroses down. When the neuroses are cut down, their physical symptoms are also reduced. That is why even hospital people these days are busy teaching meditation. Almost every hospital now is introducing meditation as treatment. Why? Because it cuts down the neuroses and the physical symptoms. Aura and I went to Washington. There was a conference and so many doctors were explaining on the basis of charts and so on, trying to tell everybody what difference meditation makes. It is a scientific discovery now. When doctors on a million dollar grant come out with some charts, then it is scientific proof and every hospital will accept it and introduce meditation! Anyway, the reality is that you can help yourself. You may think, “Oh yeah, Buddhism is love and compassion- oriented and I have to help everybody else.” That is true. But if you don’t know how to care for yourself you will never be able to care for others, believe me. If you can’t help yourself, you can’t help anybody else. The person who tries to help others but cannot help himself is helpless. Maybe not hopeless, but helpless. So if you are in love with love and compassion, in order to develop that love and compassion for others and care for them, you need to know how to care for yourself. That is the first step. When we are talking about the Bodhisattva’s way, we are talking about caring for others. But within that - those of you who have been studying it will know - it is repeatedly mentioned that first you have to take care of yourself and then you take care of the others. If you eat only junk food and then tell everybody to eat healthy food, will that work? I don’t think so. These days we have the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” That won’t help. That is wrong. You have to say what you mean and mean what you say. That is the basic principle. If you say something and don’t do it yourself, it becomes

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE phony. Really true. At best it is academic, but it is not spiritual. In the spiritual way you say what you mean and you mean what you say. You may not be perfect, but nobody expects you to be perfect.

Questions and Answers Student: You sometimes talk about aversion. Can you explain what you mean by that? Rimpoche: Aura, what is aversion? Aura: It is in the category of turning away from, trying to distance yourself from something.

Student: Why is that bad? Aura: Look for yourself and see whether it is bad or not. Rimpoche: We often talk about aversion and attachment together. In that context aversion has an additional meaning from just getting away.26

Different categories of practitioners Between last Tuesday and today I went to California, where I attended a conference on Tibetan Buddhism and the spiritual path. Bob Thurman was there and quite a few others who have studied Tibetan Bud- dhism for a long time. Allan Wallace was there, who first graduated from Harvard and then lived in Dharamsala almost for thirty years, doing Buddhist studies. He has now come back to the US and is a professor. He gave a talk and put people into three categories as far as Tibetan Buddhism goes. The first was love-and-light. Then there is the category of faith and devotion. Then he called the third category ‘real’ Tibetan Buddhism In the love-and-light category people think everything is wonderful and beautiful. Then the second category was that of devotion and faith and almost every Dharma practitioner was lumped into that one. Then came the ‘real’ Tibetan Bud- dhism’ and that is a very comprehensive, philosophically- minded study. Every single statement has to be completely established, backed up and supported by logical reasons and by scriptural quotes of so-called undisputed teachers. That

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Gelek Rimpoche refers to the early Indian scholars and the very early Tibetan scholars, the ones up to the seventh century, except maybe one or two in the eleventh century and that is about it. So the authenticity was absolutely necessary. I had to speak after that and I just gave some brief reasons why neither all love-and-light-type Buddhism nor all the faith and devotion-based things are necessarily that bad. If you have strong logical back up and support, and can base that on quotations from undisputed teachers it is wonderful, no doubt. But on the other hand, the category of human beings is such that not everybody can be a philosopher or learned scholar. Not everybody can do without having faith and devotion. As for the love-and-light statement, maybe Wallace is right. The love-and-light approach will probably not get you anywhere. You may have a nice, wonderful time. You may enjoy that, joke and laugh. The laughing itself may actually give you some happiness. There is apparently a new spiritual path coming out of India now called ‘laughing’. Everybody gets together and all they do is laugh. It was started by some Gandhi-followers in India and is coming up quite strongly now. That might give some people some help. But when we talk about spiritual paths, I don’t think that can substitute for a good spiritual path. Laughing can help you relax and it gives you quite good relief. Somebody told me that through laughing you get the old air out of your system, so that may be helping. But I mentioned in my talk at the conference that a spiritual path needs to deliver some benefit to the individual. It should be making a difference in your life right now as well as in your future lives. When I said that somebody raised a question. The question was, ‘If you take the reincarnation away from Tibetan Buddhism or any other Buddhism, then the whole Buddhism would collapse, just like if you take the concept of God away from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The whole house of cards is going to collapse.’ What do you people think?

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Student: Maybe the concept of karma could still work in the sense that you can help each other. Rimpoche: What about Dharma?

Student: Dharma is a dance. Rimpoche: I thought Dharma and karma go together. I remember, once in New York, where I was giving a teaching at the Omega Center, a famous Jewish teacher was in a little canoe by himself in the water. Suddenly I noticed that his oar was floating away in the water. I said to him, ‘Simon, your oar is going.’ He quickly grabbed it and said, ‘Oh, it is nice that I got that, otherwise I would now have the karma without the Dharma.’

Student: Perhaps, when you are enlightened and have transcendental vision, there is nobody left to incarnate. If one becomes empty of self, who is there to incarnate? Rimpoche: What do you mean by ‘empty of self’?

Student: There is just the naked mind. Rimpoche: What does that mean?

Student: No self. Rimpoche: What does that mean?

Student: Can one tell another person that? Rimpoche: Am I getting something wrong or what is happening?

Student: Trying to describe an absolute, ultimate view, we have to fall silent - I guess. I am not sure that I can debate it, but I think.... Rimpoche: I am not trying to debate either. I am just trying to get what you are saying.

Student: From the relative view karma and reincarnation are functioning.

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Rimpoche: No problem. But even from the absolute view karma and reincarnation exist. How can you deny? Karma continues.

Student: That means suffering will continue? Rimpoche: No, but karma will continue.

Student: I am not totally enlightened so I don’t know if Bud- dha still has karma. Rimpoche: Yes, yes, yes. Buddha has positive karma. I say that a lot. If Buddha did not have positive karma, there would be no positive result left. You have to see that there is both positive and negative karma. The more you reduce negative karma the more you build up positive karma. The more you lose positive karma, the more the negative karma builds up. It is interesting. Karma is a very important question. A lot of people think that karma is associated only with bad things and they think that when all the bad things are finished the karma is finished. But there is positive karma and negative karma, so it is a battle between positive and negative karma within me. When I lose my negative karma more and more I gain more and more positive karma. The positivity I am getting is my spiritual gain. There is no spiritual gain outside the karmic system, the karmic situation. Otherwise the whole thing would collapse. The gain in the positive karma and the cutting off of the negative karma is the spiritual gain of the individual. That builds up and becomes stronger and stronger and more and more powerful. I don’t think you can find any spiritual development separate from your positive karma. Any spiritual development is going to be positive karma. When you look into karma, it is very strange. There may be grey areas, but in general it is only positive and negative karma. There are grey karmas but we are mainly faced with the question of positive and negative karma. What does negative karma do to the individual? It brings suffering. What does positive karma do? It brings joy and happiness. There- fore spiritual practitioners are only looking at gaining positive

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE karma and cutting down negative karma. That is why they try not to give you any room for love-and-light. That is probably one of the most important points.

An important point about karma Let it be understood - and I want to make it very clear - that any spiritual path that you think may get you somewhere only works through positive karmic gains. Not every positive karmic gain is spiritually that great, but every great spiritual development is totally a positive karmic gain. Let there be no misunderstanding. This is an important point. There are people indeed and even Tibetan teachers who say that on the third Mahayana path, the path of seeing, when you realize emptiness, you are free of karma. That is supposed to enable you to do whatever you want to do. There are some people who say, “I am free of karma. There- fore I can do anything I want to.” These people think they can put a sacred image of Buddha under their beds without getting any consequences. I am not talking about any hollow statue, but images in temples, which have been worshipped for hundreds of years. Some also think it is fine for them to pack up Buddhist sutras in a box and sit on top of it. They do that and say to their followers, “I am free of karma, so I can do that.” Other teachers who observed this happening criticized it tremendously. After seeing emptiness, things are much easier - there is no doubt about that. But that does not mean that you are free of positive and negative karma at all. Even Buddha experienced karmic results during his lifetime. One day there was a war between his clan, the Shakyas, and another clan, just like these days in Bosnia where the Serbs attacked the Croats. It was the same in India 2500 years ago. Another clan started a huge war and tried to destroy the whole Shakya clan one day. One of Buddha’s disciples called Maughalputra or Maudghalyana27 had magical powers. He saw in his meditative state that a huge number of the Shakyas were going to be killed in this battle, so he went to Buddha and said, “Look, these people are starting a war and they are going to kill so

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Gelek Rimpoche many Shakyas today. Right now I could pick out one of my hairs and tie up all these soldiers with that and put them back five hundred miles and leave them there so that they can’t come here. Should I do that?” Buddha said, “No. Everyone has to experience his or her own karma. Even if you move these attacking soldiers five hundred miles away, the people that are supposed to die are going to die, no matter what. If you don’t believe me, let us pick up three Shakya kids and try to protect them. I will leave one of them with Brahma in a heaven for safekeeping. You can take one and hide him behind some mountain. The last one I will keep with me right here. By sunset we will call all three of them together and see what has happened.” So that is what they did. By the evening thousands of Shakyas had been killed. When they looked for the three kids they found that all three of them were also dead. It was not this other clan that had kicked them, wounded them and killed them but something else had happened. They were all three dead. Buddha explained that this is how karma works. It is extremely powerful. But it is we who create it ourselves. We are responsible for it.

Karma is like a mechanism It is just like the Washington impeachment machinery. Once it is put into gear you can’t stop it. It runs by itself. It may look like it is in the hands of the Senate or the House of Representatives. That may apply to a certain time and period, but if you go beyond that it has its own little spin and you cannot help it. As we have seen yesterday, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want to continue with the impeachment, but they don’t know how they can stop it. The Republicans have tremendous difficulties to dismiss the case, because they think the House people are getting very upset. Their conservative wing, of course, would get extremely upset, so they don’t know how to stop it, yet they don’t have the sixty-four votes in the Senate needed to remove Clinton. The Democrats would like to dismiss the impeachment, but they don’t have the fifty-one votes

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE needed to do that. So both are stuck and have to go on talking and hoping something will happen to get them out of the predicament. They have their own little machine running! Likewise, karma is the same thing. We create, we put down the deposits, we safeguard, we maintain our karma. When it connects with the conditions it starts to pick up its own momentum and nobody can stop it. Even though you have created it yourself you won’t be able to handle it.28 That is your karma. During the conference in California somebody asked me, “What do you think happened to the Tibetans? They were people living on such a perfect, ideal spiritual path. How come they had to lose their country to the Chinese and so many of them were killed? What is that about?” My answer was that obviously it is karma. It is not that Tibetans had only pure actions. Definitely not! There was also a tremendous amount of negative karma and at some point that takes its own little spin and that is what you get. That is seen from one angle. From another angle, it is the collective karma of the whole world. Otherwise, this great spiritual path the Tibetans have, would have been certainly remained locked behind the Himalayan mountains. There would be nobody else except Heinrich Harrer who would know about it. Perhaps Brad Pitt would also come - as Heinrich Harrer.29 But otherwise it would have been completely locked away, pure and wonderful and the benefit that is available to the rest of the world now, would not have happened. So we must be very grateful for Mao and we should pray for him. There is nothing wrong with praying for the poor guy wherever he is. So we have two types of karma spinning in different directions. One is the powerful negative karma that has been created by the Tibetans and which just has to end up in destruction. Another positive karma comes spinning in from all the other people. As a consequence of that all this is happening. Really, karma is like that.

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We are constantly creating karma Every thought, every action that we take by ourselves in our daily lives, with or without realizing, like waking up in the morning, taking a shower, having breakfast, driving our car up and down for fifty or hundred miles, sitting in the office or whatever job we are doing, running round, digging in the ground or filling it up, doing the laundry, cleaning or painting the house, shoveling snow, shopping, talking on the phone, having lunch, drinking coffee, drinking beer, smoking a cigarette or a joint, taking an afternoon nap, being busy doing anything, coming here and listening, going somewhere else watching a movie, going to a disco or bar, sleeping alone or with a companion, dreaming positive or negative dreams, waking up again - I forget one thing: sitting on the throne - with all of these things, with or without realizing, we are creating karma. Every thought that pops up in our head, like, ‘I do this, I don’t do this, I will say this, I won’t say that, I should go there, I should not go there, I should read this, I should not read this, etc,’ - all these thoughts, each and every one of them is creating karma. It may be complete or incomplete. That is a different matter. But in any case you are creating karma. In order for something to be a powerful karma, be it positive or negative, it has to have a motivation. It has to have action and it has to have completion. Then it will become powerful, whether it is positive or negative. When you quickly think about something and then forget it, you are creating incomplete karma which is not that powerful, but still, it is karma. You know, we do that very often. We suddenly think about doing something, but then we forget. In- stead we find ourselves somewhere else, perhaps in the year 2000, or in June 2003 in downtown Tokyo. This is how our mind works. Such incomplete thoughts create incomplete karma. People do that all the time. When you see Henry Hyde talking on TV, you get angry. When Clinton’s lawyers start talking, that makes some other people angry. Then suddenly, your thoughts go somewhere completely else. So all of these thoughts and action create negative or positive karma within ourselves - every day, every minute of our life.

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When we want to develop awareness in ourselves, we need the awareness of ourselves. We have to be aware that these karmas make a difference to us, even if they are incomplete. If it is good karma it will have incomplete positive results, and if it is bad karma it will have incomplete negative results. If it is powerful it will give you quick results and if it less powerful the result comes some time later, but it will come. When you are on the spiritual path one very important thing is awareness: awareness of our mind, our actions, our deeds. When I say awareness, you don’t have to continuously think, “I have to be aware of my action, I have to be aware of my action,” and so on. If you do that other people will tell you that you are crazy or getting senile!

How to build awareness How does awareness work in your mind? Now this is a trick, a very important trick. All the teachings will tell you that you have to cultivate a tiny portion of your mind which watches you. Many teachers will tell you that you should focus all your thoughts on whatever you are thinking or meditating about. Then you pick up that little mind of awareness which moves within your main mind like a little fish moves through water. The fish does not disturb the water, it goes through without creating any movements and bubbles in the water. The teachings tell us that and we get very impressed. To tell you the truth, in the beginning there is no way that you can do that. What you really do is put your focus on something but from time to time generate the thought, “Am I really focusing?” When you do that, you will lose the focus. However, you have to do it. It is very easy to give the example of the fish swimming in the water without disturbing it. It is a good example. We can see how it works, especially if you have one of these wonderful, colorful aquariums! But when you try to do it, you won’t be able to focus. What is happening is that you have to change the focus. You keep the major emphasis on the main mind. Lets say you leave the focus of the camera on

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Gelek Rimpoche the major mind. Then you suddenly say, “Do I have the right focus on the camera?” At that time your focus of the camera may loosen a little bit, however, you are training your mind to be able to watch the mind. Eventually there will come a time when you will be able to focus the camera as well as check whether you are really focusing or not. It is not that difficult, but in the beginning it is not easy. Similarly, in your Dharma practice you try to be very positive and nice without going to any extreme. You know we have criticized love-and-light. Likewise we criticize being too intense all the time. You can see what kind of result that brings. You don’t have to have any doubts about that.

Don’t be overly intense! It is over-emphasis and over- nervousness, it is almost being over-zealous, a bit like those young Republican House managers who have managed to get the whole US government involved and bogged down. Somehow they bulldozed the minority in the House, got Clinton impeached and brought the case into the Senate and in the process totally suspended all three branches of government for week after week. Now they don’t know how they can get out of it. For a conviction sixty-four votes are needed and for a dismissal fifty-one votes are needed, so they are stuck. The legislative branch is stuck, and the judiciary is stuck too, since the Supreme Court judge sits there and can only say, “No objection - so ordered.” And the President, no matter how he tries to function outside, he is stuck too. In reality, all three branches of government are stuck just because of the over-zealousness of a few young right wing conservative managers. Likewise, if you are over-zealous with your spiritual practice, then not only you, but your companions, your own family, will be caught up in this terrible, intense atmosphere that you have created. If you try to bring your whole life twenty-four hours a day into that, you are over-zealous. Eve- rything must be done in a very relaxed manner, as though nothing is happening. And truly, nothing is happening. The sky is not falling down, the ground is not cracking, so take

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE everything day by day and point by point. What a big deal! You know you can’t be over-worrying and becoming too tense. A few years ago, one of our friends got stopped by a policeman for speeding and worried so much that now her insurance was going to go up, that she would have to go to court, and all sorts of things were going to happen - you know the whole thing. And in the end the policeman just gave her a warning and let her go. So don’t be overzealous! Nothing is going to happen. The sky is not going to fall down, the ground is not going to crack and you are not going to fall in between. I guarantee you that. Something may happen, somebody may get upset, so try to explain it and make it right. If it does not work, let it go. Don’t hang on. The time will pass, it will change. When somebody is angry and you demand that you have to sit down and try to explain it, talk about it, nothing good is going to happen, you just create more trouble. We know that very well. Don’t we? The other side will see it as a threat that you are trying to pin them down or eat them up, swallow them and pass them through. You from your side want to explain and debate and make sure that they have lost and make sure that they are embarrassed and accept your apology and agree to whatever you say. Remember, during the last presidential election Ross Perot was asked, ‘How are these people going to agree on anything?’ He said, “I know what to do. I would lock them into one room and not let them out until they negotiated some settlement!” In reality you cannot function that way - even if you are Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan leader. Each person has his or her own way of adjusting. You have to be aware of that and give them time, give them opportunity. Nothing bad is going to happen. The sky is not going to fall down, the ground is not going to crack. If you push your way, then instead of helping it creates a tremendous amount of harm. If you don’t get on well with someone, let it go, let there be some air in between, let time heal it. After some

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Gelek Rimpoche time, the hot air will be down a little bit and then you can talk again and things will function. That is how you bring awareness. You have to watch that you are not completely relaxed, doing nothing. The same awareness will warn you if you get overzealous, pushing too much. That is the job of awareness.

Training awareness in meditation and daily life For that to work, you need a little training. It would not be a bad idea, in order to train awareness, to set an alarm during your meditation session. Set it for every second minute. Then, the moment the alarm goes off, remember your awareness. Watch whether your mind is on the point that you are supposed to be focusing on or whether it is somewhere else. If you keep on watching that every other minute, somehow your mind will pick up that training and will begin to know how to watch. The point is to bring in this awareness without disturbing your major focus. It is the same way in life too. That is the way you can function every day, with every chore you have to do. It is very easy for me to say and very easy for you to listen to. But if you have to do it, it is almost impossible. So why don’t you give yourself half an hour to train your awareness like that, just half an hour every other day or once a week. Keep on watching your mind in that half hour. You may lose it three thousand times, you may have to re-start the process three thousand times. Even in a minute you may have to restart three hundred times. It is not a big deal. It is nothing bad. It is very common. Awareness will help you to protect yourself from creating negative karma. Awareness will help you to guide yourself in the right direction. Awareness helps you in leading you to the right way of thinking.

The purpose of this teaching We are studying here the Bodhisatt- vacharyavatara, the Bodhisattvas’ Way of Life. Did we talk about patience yet? In this chapter we have been talking about conscientiousness in a positive way, not in a disciplinarian sort of

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE way. We have talked about the awakened mind. We have talked about purification or what Stephen Batchelor calls Disclosure of Evil or purification. What else did we talk about? Look, our awareness is such that we have to turn around the pages of the book to find out what we have been talking about! We did Full Acceptance of the Awakening Mind or taking the Bodhisattva vow. Next we will have chapter five, Guarding Alertness. Within the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, try not to forget that we are seeking freedom and love and compassion. We are seeking freedom from our negative emotions. They are what creates negative karmas, period. If you don’t have the negative emotion of anger, you are not going to hurt anybody else. If you don’t have the negative emotion of jealousy, you are not going to hurt yourself, and if you don’t have the negative emotion of attachment, you are not going to get into trouble at all. When you have awareness, you will be aware of negative karma and negative emotions. The purpose of spiritual practitioners is to become free from negative emotions. That is your number one goal. Spir- itual practice does not center around questions like “Will I have a little better life tomorrow?” “Will I have a little more money tomorrow?” “Will I be more beautiful than what I am today?” These are not spiritual goals at all. A spiritual goal is to seek freedom from negative emotions. If you are interested in spiritual practice you have to be interested in getting freedom from these negative emotions. Negative emotions are very hard to get rid of. Anger is comparatively easy, since nobody would like to hang on to anger and hatred, but attachment is very difficult. You like to have attachment to your success. You like that attachment to your life, to your looks, to your appearance. You like to have attachment to people liking you. You like to have attachment to your companions. That is the hard part. It is very hard to let it go. I would like to have success in my work. I do not want to let go of my attachment to success. It is very hard. Did you hear me? Success in work. I should like to be famous. I should become a known person. Everybody should

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Gelek Rimpoche appreciate my writing. People should say good things about me. People should appreciate me. I should be able to sell a house for a million dollars. Seeking freedom from that type of attachment is very hard. Giving up attachment to that sort of thing does actually not mean that you have to give up trying to sell a million dollar house. You don’t have to give up trying to become a very well known writer. It does not mean that your book can’t be on the New York Times bestseller list. It simply means that you are free of it. You are no longer its slave. There is happiness and there is joy. It does not block you from doing these things. You have to bring in that kind of awareness. And since we are talking about the Bodhisattva’s Life, let us talk about caring. We not only need the mindfulness of seeking freedom for ourselves, but we should care for other persons. Don’t think of all sentient beings somewhere else, but think of that person sitting next to you, whose face is against your face right here. That is where you begin to have caring and compassion. It is very easy to think that there is somebody else called all sentient beings - nameless, faceless dots that fill up the whole ground. It is very easy to become a caring and loving person for them. But it is very difficult to be a caring and loving person for somebody who is sitting right in the middle of your life - a big, fat face right in front of you, all the time, in the morning, in the evening, at night, the whole day and the whole night! That is difficult. Caring and loving should start right there. Then it won’t become abstract. Along with loving and caring, anger and hatred will come. Love and hate come together. One brings the other. It is as simple as that. Here is the opportunity for us to go through. Pull back for a minute. Think about it. Why are you so hateful? The bottom line - I have to tell you again - is that we totally misunderstand. We operate like this, “You care for me, I care for you and we fought.” That is what our fights are about. Most of the fighting within the family is because of

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE that: “You like me, I like you, so we fight.” It does not make sense, but that’s what it is. Love is there, hate is there. So pull back and bring in awareness. Don’t be stubborn. Don’t go on controlling, pushing, roller coasting and bull- dozing people. That brings the bad side of the person out even though its origin is from a good motivation, a caring and loving motivation. The end becomes a disaster. This is not even about Buddhism and Dharma, it is just our everyday life experience. That is how it is. If you bring the dharmic essence into it, be aware, have understanding. Pull back for a minute and change your face. Make your eyes a little smaller. If you would draw your face, draw a smiling face, not one with the mouth downward. That is how you change. Aware- ness should bring that about. If you do that, you lay the seed to developing Bodhimind. Verses 23 to 25 So if, when having found leisure such as this, I do not attune myself to what is wholesome, There could be no greater deception and there could be no greater folly. And if, having understood this, I still foolishly continue to be slothful, When the hour of death arrives Tremendous grief will rear its head. Then if my body blazes for a long time In the unbearable flames of hell, Inevitably my mind will be tormented By the fires of unendurable

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remorse. The word this in the first line refers to the verses above, like 15 and 16, telling us that we have such a wonderful life, which can make a tremendous difference to ourselves. It is absolutely true! No matter how much we may think that we have a terrible life, and no matter how much we underestimate its value, this is a human life. Compare it with any other kind of life that you see around. Compare it with the beautiful deer, the huge elephant or the tiny, little cockroach, the bird flying in the air and the fish swimming in the water. There is a big difference, we all know. No matter how terrible you think you are or your life is, you can still do and undo things - no matter how bad you think you are yourself. We are very good at beating ourselves up, saying, “I am sinful, I am shameful. I am terrible, I have blown it.” We have been talking about the preciousness and opportunity of our life. If you really understand the tremendous preciousness of this life - it has got its pressures too - then I can move on. The point is that we don’t understand that very well. We are stuck. We know that the life is important. We know that it is great and good and capable. But whenever we have difficulties we cannot take advantage of the preciousness of this life. I believe that is our problem. That is why we are still hanging around here, circling like a vulture, over this subject. It is the point where we have to get to. In life we have ups and downs, good and bad. There is nice, kind and compassionate aspects, yet there are difficulties. When the difficulties come, we don’t behave well. Re- member the quote from Gungtang, When our stomach is filled up and the sun shines and it is warm, we behave like spiritual practitioners. But whenever we have difficulties, we are worse than the worst person.

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That is happening in our life as long as we have not understood the value and preciousness of the life. We just cannot handle it. If you do understand that, you won’t have much of a problem when difficulties arise. We also have to understand that problems are temporary. They are impermanent. They come because we are in samsara. At the same time we will also see ourselves as responsible for our deeds. The verses from verse 23 to 33 are all telling you about the same thing. They elaborate much more than what we have been saying.

Don’t be lazy and don’t freak out! The main thing you have to understand is that we have to overcome our laziness because of the impermanent nature of life. You have to understand that the difficulties come in our life because it is the samsaric nature. At the same time, you have to appreciate this life. Not only should you appreciate it, but through that you should be able to handle the difficulties that come in. If you can do all this I will be happy to jump the next ten verses! However, the bottom line is that we should be able to handle the difficulties when they come. There are bound to be some problems here and there. When the problems come, don’t freak out! It is the nature of life. So long as you are born in samsara, you are bound to have problems here and there. You are going to get sick, you are going to get hurt, wounded, your heart is going to break. Everybody is going to get it at one time or another. It might not be that bad for some people, but a little heartbreak here and there is bound to come. That is human nature. If you don’t have that, you are not a human being. But when you get those difficulties, you should be able to handle them and not freak out. The purpose of all spiritual practices is to help you handle whatever difficulties come up in life. You should handle them through accepting and understanding, not through rejecting, avoiding, denying or ignoring them. Let’s say you have found out that you have an incurable disease that is going to kill you sooner or later. That is bad

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Gelek Rimpoche news. The question is how you are going to handle it. Are you going to worry more and freak out completely? Are you going to scream, yell and hit the ceiling? You will do it for a while. Everybody will do that for a while - except Allen Ginsberg didn’t. He said, “I helped the doctor to tell me. I asked him if it was incurable. And the doctor said ‘Yes.’ “ So for him, the doctor only had to say ‘yes’. But in general people will freak out. You have the right to freak out a little bit, but if you freak out all the time then it is useless. You will have additional problems, additional worries, additional sufferings. You have to understand and think, “Somewhere, someone always has this problem and it happens to be me this time. Not only that, by me having this problem, may that substitute for so many others having that problem.” Try to utilize this type of terrible disaster in life. Try to make the best use of it. We can do it. It is another opportunity.

Turning camels into opportunities You know the camel can go without water for a very long time. At some stage it was introduced to Tibet, which is a very dry country - no doubt about it, even though there is water available here and there. Unfortunately, the Tibetans thought that the camel was a sign of some terrible evil and didn’t like them, so they kicked all the camels out of Tibet and left them to the next-door neighbors, the Mongols. The Mongols took them to be a sign of good luck and made the best use of them. They recognized how good they were for transportation through the Gobi desert. Usually nobody wanted to do anything in this desert. Now of course they are finding oil there, but that is a different story. The Mongols found the camels to be very useful animals. We can do the same thing. Before I gave the very bad example of being diagnosed with an incurable disease. It is true, it is terrible. On the other hand though, you have think that those of us who have not been diagnosed with such a disease are also going to die. You never know who is going to die first. People may think that those with cancer, AIDS,

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE or whatever, are going to go soon and we are going to go later, but many times you can find that some very healthy people go very fast and some chronically ill people can last forever. That happens. Understand that sort of thing and try to handle anything that happens in your life, good and bad. It is not going to be only good things in life, never ever.

Dissatisfaction Even the good things that come will be accompanied by dissatisfaction. I have not mentioned it for a long time, but I used to say this: If you are being selected to be Miss America, you will say, “This is very nice, but...” There is always this ‘but’. So you say, “It is very nice to be selected as Miss America, but I wish I could be Miss Uni- verse!” It always goes that way. There is no full satisfaction in life by anything for anybody. You may think that there are some people who have achieved total satisfaction in life, for example the Rockefel- lers, but they have their own big problems. You know, one of the biggest problems they are facing is shortage of money. Really! The Rockefellers are used to having a lot of money, but now the family has become so big and the value of their money has gone down, so nowadays many of the Rockefel- lers think that they don’t have any money. O course, they have zillions more than we do, still, they have dissatisfaction. The suffering of dissatisfaction is a dependent arising. In ancient Tibet or ancient India there were kings who pos- sessed whole states, but they were not satisfied. They were still hungry and wanted more. On the other hand there are beggars who are sleeping very comfortably under torn blankets, fully satisfied and happy. In reality of course, the king is the richest of all, but some beggar can be happier and more satisfied with life than a king. There was once a beggar who found a bag full of gold. After he had this bag of gold, everybody was after him. So he told everyone, “I am going to give my gold to the poorest of the poor.” He asked the king to assemble all the people of the villages together so that he could give his gold to the poorest of them all. When all were assembled he walked up

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Gelek Rimpoche and down from one to the other for a long time. Then finally he walked up to the king and said, “You are the poorest person here, so I give my gold to you.” The king got insulted: “I am happy to have your gold, but how can you say that I am the poorest person?” The beggar said, “You are the most dissatisfied person, therefore you are the poorest.” Happiness and suffering is fifty percent external and fifty per cent on the mind level. If you have satisfaction in your life with whatever you have, there is nothing better than that. No matter however other people may interpret you, you are happy. That is important - provided that you have not gone cuckoo. If you crack up, you may think that you are happy, but you may not be. I am talking about a sane person. A couple of loose screws don’t matter. We all have that. But if you have a lot of loose screws or if you have lost a lot, then that is a big problem.

Learning to handle our sufferings So this is the important thing that Shantideva tells us. We need to truly have a good understanding of life and appreciate it. We should be able to handle any difficulties that may come. If you cannot treat them like some kind of help or gift to you, then at least you should be able to handle them as problems that you face. You don’t practice the spiritual path just to have come pleasure and enjoy life. We do spiritual practice to help ourselves when we have suffering. We talk a lot about how to remove the suffering of future lives, but what we have to deal with directly is the suffering of this life. There are tremendous amounts of sufferings and losses. There is the breakup of relationships and all kinds of sufferings. If you really look very carefully, who created these sufferings? Of course we like to find other people to blame, but in reality it is ourselves. Though there is a lot of contribution from the other side too. If there was no contribution from the other side you could not even clap your hands. There is no sound if you clap with one hand. There are always two sides although everybody will tell you that you were wrong and they were okay. Both are wrong. Not only I am wrong. I

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE contributed and they also did. It is never just a one-sided problem, although we always interpret it to be the other person’s problem. I contribute fifty per cent and you contribute fifty per cent. This is how problems come. We don’t want to acknowledge that. The spiritual work you do is to be able to understand that and work with it. Don’t let yourself suffer. Remember the quote If you can correct it, go ahead and correct it. If you can’t, why worry? If you worry you just get additional suffering. I am giving you some basic ideas how to handle problems when they arise. Everybody will have problems in their lives, whether they are young, old, healthy, or sick. Everybody will face problems sooner or later and will face them again and again. When one problem is over, you will get another one. It is like with President Clinton. When the House of Representatives problem is over, it starts in the Senate. When that is over, Ken Starr will indict him on criminal charges. It will continue. That is the problem. That is no surprise, because it is samsara. If these things did not happen, it would not be samsara. This is the attitude that spiritual practitioners should have. Verses 26 to 28 Having found by some coincidence This beneficial state that is so hard to find, If now, while able to discriminate I once again am led into the hells, Then as though I were hypnotized by a spell I shall reduce this mind to

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nothing. Even I do not know what is causing me confusion; What is there dwelling inside me? Although enemies such as hatred and craving Have neither arms nor legs, And are neither courageous nor wise, How have I, like a slave, been used by them? These enemies, although they have neither arms nor legs, and are neither courageous nor wise, how come they could use me like a slave? This is pointing out the boss inside of us who is using certain tools to control us. If we leave the problems on the level of negative emotions it might be restricted to psychologist language. But from the spiritual or religious point of view you should not only use the term negative emotions, but also the term afflictive emotions. In other words, the bottom line, straightforward, is sin - like the Christian sin. That is the point we have been missing. The verse is pointing out that these emotions are using us like slaves. Also verse 27 links up with that. It is not that somebody is hypnotizing us or putting us under a spell, but we have this problem because of the thoughts or emotions of hatred and craving and so on dwelling inside us.

What is attachment? Not everything you want or desire is necessarily attachment. The differences between love, affec- tion, attachment, pure love, are very, very subtle. Attachment means that there is a desire to have something by me, for me. What I want is of contaminated nature, whether things or beings. From the point of view of the object I want, it has to have the contaminated nature. From the mind point of view, my mind is also contaminated nature. If you look at the desire to be enlightened compared with the desire to have a

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE particular watch or fur coat or anything else, both are desire. With one you see the purity, a nice quality. With the other you see a little mushy moodiness. It is very difficult to point it out, but if you observe your own mind you will notice it. Here is an example that may or may not work well. Somebody may have the desire for life-long companionship. Somebody else has the strong desire to have company for forty-five minutes - you know what I mean? There is a difference in quality. When you look at the nature of that mind, there is a quality and a pureness on the one hand and on the other hand the person just wants to screw around! You see the difference, right? That is what we know. This is very clear to us. Similarly, when you take that as an example, look more carefully at all the other objects of your desire. You can see the difference in quality in the mind. One has some important value, the other just really does not have any value, but is only messing around. Use such an example and then look within your mind. Both are desire, but the purpose is different. The way you want it is different, the reason you want it is different. If you use that example you may begin to see the difference between love and attachment. Otherwise it is very grey and difficult to make a distinction in the beginning. In our feelings there may not be much pure love. There is perhaps attachment mixed with love. I wanted to share that with you. But when it comes up, it is time for us to catch it. I purposely used a pretty low example, but it is familiar with us. We know it, so we don’t have to learn about it. With that as an example, observe any other desire that comes up. Attachment does not have to be attachment to people only. It can be attachment to a sweater or security blanket. Apparently not only babies use that, but also people in their twenties, thirties and forties. The object does not have to be expensive or cheap. Some people will have less attachment if the object in question is expensive, some people will have more. It depends on the person. There is no set rule that says that for there to be attachment the value must at least be over a hundred dollars! It can be worth a wooden nickel and

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Gelek Rimpoche you can still have attachment. It can be worth millions of dollars, but it is totally useless for some people. Attachment cannot be measured by monetary value nor by whether the object is a being or a thing. You measure it at the level of the perceiving mind. It is within ourselves; it depends on what this mind is seeking. We have to judge by ourselves, knowing our own mind. Our own mind is not a secret to us. It may be a secret to other people, but it is certainly not a secret to us. We might have forgotten, but it is not a secret. The text talks about hatred and craving or anger and attachment. The Tibetan text also says, et cetera or and so forth which is not shown in the English translation. A number of things are included in et cetera, for example ignorance. There are six very powerful, important negative emotions. Besides anger and attachment there are four others.30 One of them is ignorance. These are our enemies, but not like normal enemies. We have a way of handling these normal enemies that can run, they can chase you, or you can run and chase them. The negative emotions have no arms or legs, nor do they have vehicles or horses, so they cannot chase you. Usual enemies will catch you, and then shoot or hit you or tie you down, but these ones don’t have hands, so they can’t do that, yet they have been successful in using us like slaves. We are happily working for them. By happily, joyfully, voluntarily, enthusiastically working for them we create a tremendous amount of suffering for ourselves. It is a very important point of the spiritual practice to be able to understand this, realize this, hold ourselves back from and put a stop to being used as a slave by those negative emotions. We have to talk a little bit more about the negative emotions, otherwise we will be missing the boat. What makes us remain in this cycle of lives with good, bad, wonderful, terrible experiences, continuing the suffering? Whether just in this life or in lives after lives, it is all because of those negative emotions.

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Life after life Samsara is the continuation of lives, just like we have the continuation of the days, weeks, months and years. Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds are known to us. We don’t know the continuation of lives after lives, because there is a block, a gap which is called death and rebirth. Because of that we are unable to see it, talk about it or produce accounts of what happens. It is because of the discontinuity, the change of identity, change of space, of area, of body, the change of consciousness, there is a discontinua- tion of a certain, particular life and that is why we are unable to account for the process. We can see from so many viewpoints that there is continuation. One is our memory. If you look at children you can see that they have a memory of a life before. Look what a child knows and what it does not know, what you are hid- ing from them and yet they know better than you do. That is a clear sign. There are so many examples. From the Buddhist point of view, rebirth is a major point. From our point of view it does not matter, as long as we don’t completely deny that there is reincarnation. We should always give it the benefit of doubt. All of us here I think are giving it the benefit of doubt, because we really don’t have any scientific, black and white proof that it is or isn’t true. We cannot say that in a previous life this person was me, or I was that person. There is no scientific proof, but somehow today it is clearer to us than ever that it is the case. You may think that reincarnation is something great and, for example, I myself am labeled a reincarnated lama of Tibet. On the other hand Nagarjuna has said, Try not have reincarnation. You cannot achieve anything better than that. Reincarnation is a terrible thing, really! It means that things are continuing, not only in this life, but in all lives. Look at all the creatures we see today, including lobsters. There is no such life that we can point to and say, “I have never been a creature like that.” We have all been lobsters sometimes, and

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Gelek Rimpoche cockroaches, dogs, cats, mice, rats. These are the ups and downs of life. It is just like the ups and downs of this life with good days, bad days, good feelings, bad feelings. What is the cause for all of this? Attachment. The bottom line is ignorance, but the process happens through attachment. Without attachment, there will be no rebirth, that is for sure. Why? One of the great Indian teachers, Dharma- kirti, said, If there is no attachment, no negative karma can give you any result, because there will be no conditions to make negative karma materialize. We talk a lot about karma. Somehow, at the moment, when I think of karma I think of a dog! Yael, one of our students from Cleveland is a very good child psychologist who has a hospital identification card which says Yael Crawford, child psychologist, PhD, and she also has a card for a certain ther- apist called Karma, D.O.G.. I asked her what that was, thinking it was some degree, and she said, “Rimpoche, that is my dog, Karma!” People often think of karma as if it was some kind of independent dictator, a huge monster. You don’t hate it as much as you would a monster, because you have some attachment to the Buddhist teachings, but you look at it almost like some kind of god who is not particularly kind. You say, “This is my karma. That is why I have to suffer.” It appears to be some kind of monster and you cannot do anything to it, but it can do things to you. That view is totally wrong. Karma is not a monster. It is dependent arising. In order to materialize any karma, good or bad, you need conditions. The conditions of bad karma are met by our attachment. When you don’t have attachment, you will not meet any conditions and so there will be no suffering. This is so important. When there is attachment, the moment attachment grows, the negative karmic consequences come back. In the case of anger, more so than irritation or displeasure, everybody will say, “I don’t like it.” But when we

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE talk about attachment, we have some kind of soft feeling. We want to keep it there, protect it. We will not make a bold statement like we do with anger. Everybody has some sort of soft feeling for attachment. It is because we enjoy it, we take pleasure in it. This shows you how powerful and harmful it is. Anger is hot air that comes, bursts and disappears. At- tachment is smooth, soft, gentle, like lukewarm water and remains there all the time. It is very difficult to realize it is dangerous.

Why are negative emotions negative? Before we even talk about anger and attachment, we have to talk about negative emotions. What does that mean? When these emotions rise within ourselves, we lose the peacefulness, the gentleness of our mind. Our mind becomes aggressive. It is no longer gentle, wonderful and peaceful. That is basically what all negative emotions do, including attachment. It looks like attachment gives you a little pop-up, a little pep talk, some suggestions, it gives you some hope, but in the end it creates another powerful suffering.

How attachment focuses, perceives and projects Tibetan Buddhist teachings tell you that attachment focuses on contamination. It could be beings or things. We misperceive any contaminated objects as something wonderful and beautiful and we then seek that. So the process is seeing a contaminated object, misperceiving it as beautiful and seeking it. When you seek it, you want to own it, so that it is ‘mine, and mine alone.’ There is the sense of belonging and control. Such a mind basically is called attachment. I am trying to give you here a picture of what attachment is focused on, how it feels, what it wants. To repeat: the object has to be a contaminated one, you have to perceive that as wonderful and beautiful, and you have to have the desire to make it yours, either through buy- ing it, earning it, robbing it or owning it through any other

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Gelek Rimpoche way. In these three ways attachment looks, perceives and projects. This is one of the most difficult neuroses. It is easy to identify anger but very hard to identify attachment. Anger is just like any other stain. It is like some ink has got onto your shirt. You can wash it and get rid of the stain. Attachment when it catches you is like an oil stain on paper. When a sheet of paper is soaked in oil it is so difficult to get rid of without destroying the paper. Right? So the pain caused by attachment is much more painful than the pain caused by anger. It is harder to get rid of. This is really true. If you check with yourself you will know it. Attachment does not have to be attachment to something else. There is also something called attachment to self. You cannot forget that.

How anger focuses, perceives and projects Now aversion, hatred, or anger. They are almost the same. If you go into microscopic detail you may be able to see a distinction, but more or less they all come under the same direction. What does anger focus on? Mostly focuses on beings, oneself or others, not so much on other things. Most people don’t get angry with rocks or doors. It is the cause of suffering of oneself and others and then there are the consequences of suffering. Finally, what does hatred want? It focuses on the sufferings, their causes or consequences and it dislikes them. It is saying, “This one has made me suffer, this one is making me suffer, this one will make me suffer, and therefore I hate him or her.” Nagarjuna says in the Ratnamala: There are nine different objects of hatred: This one harmed me, is harming me, will harm me. This one has harmed my friend, is harming my friend, will harm my friend. This one has been good for my enemy, is good for my enemy, will be good for my enemy.

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So there are nine different points on which hatred focuses. Hatred not only makes our mind not smooth, but also has the desire to harm and wants to stop experiencing suffering oneself. Because somebody has harmed you or your friend, or helped your enemy, or is doing so, or will do so in future, you think you have to stop, finish and destroy them. I have talked a lot about anger everywhere, so I am going to make this short. Anger and short temper are slightly different. Short temper is also some form of anger. You can’t say “She is short-tempered, but not angry,” but when people get a little upset or angry, it is not as bad as the hatred and anger we are talking about here. We are talking about powerful anger which burns up a lot of positive karma and is very expensive. That is real hatred. That does not mean that having a short temper is okay. But then, so many people have short temper. It is not so bad, as long as you know how to handle your temper. You have to make sure that your temper should not harm or hurt anybody including yourself. Most importantly, make sure it does not become hatred. In one way, it is better that if people dislike something, they should say it straight away. It is better than being cunning and manipulative. In Asia we do that. We may be very angry, but we will give you a big smile. I think the Japanese have exhibited that here quite clearly. They came to make money, to collect American dollars, so they came and bowed to people. In Japan, everywhere you go people are bowing. It is not indicating that they respect you, but it is the culture. So they will use that to get your dollars. In the same way, some people get angry, but in order to hurt you more they keep on smiling at you. That is not very good. In that case, if you are upset, it would be better that you scream and hit the ceiling until it falls down on the ground. But remember the three points: don’t hurt yourself, don’t hurt others, make sure it does not become hatred. That is the main point I am trying to raise here. That does not mean that a short temper is okay. If we have it we should

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Gelek Rimpoche know how to handle it. If we handle it, it is still not okay to have it. What does anger do? It destroys your happiness, your peace, your pleasure, your harmony. It makes sure the suffering will continue.

Pride In this context you have to include pride. In the normal sense we sometimes say it is good to have pride. But what is pride really? It makes you think, “I am better than that other person.” You are projecting yourself to be superior to others. These negative emotions don’t have to have any valid reason at all. You can be proud of anything. You could feel, “I am very proud that my nose is so big.” Why not? The effect is that you will disrespect others. You will not see the qualities of others. You will ignore their qualities, because you always perceive yourself as superior and better than others. You are projecting yourself as a big daddy, observing all the kids and making judgments about who is doing better. The lojong or mind training teachings tell you that, no matter whom you meet, regard yourself always as less important and lower than anybody else. Always think that the other person has some knowledge and understanding. Let’s say a group of people are sitting together, discussing something. Whoever in the group has pride will talk a lot and tell everybody what is right and wrong and give their opinion first. Whoever has respect for others, they always like to listen to the other people first. They think, “I probably don’t know anything about it, so let me hear it.” After hearing the other people’s points you compare it with your knowledge and then you make a statement later. When you get in first and give your opinion, people may listen to you but you show your quality too. Pride will also cause you to not watch your mouth when you are in a group. Generally, the spiritual advice is this: When you are alone, observe your mind. When in a gathering, watch your mouth.

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Anybody who has gone to see the Dalai Lama over the last forty years since he went into exile, whether that person is a very important political person or a simple hippie, can tell you that His Holiness always comes to the door and receives that individual with total respect. He leads you to the place where you are going to sit and makes you sit down. Then he will talk to you. He may scold you during the conversation. He is very good at scolding, especially if he knows the person well. Then he will see that person off with all respect, no matter whoever that person may be. One of his older private secretaries who came with him from Tibet said to him one day, “It is very good how you treat people, but you should have some dignity. You don’t really have to go and do that with everybody, do you? Maybe it is all right for some very politically, economically or spiritually important persons.” He thought it would diminish the dignity of His Holiness. He wanted him to give audiences, sitting up there, giving blessings, like the 13th Dalai Lama used to do, without moving, without looking down. But His Holiness said, “You don’t get it. In the mind training teachings it says that you should treat any person you meet as more important than yourself. Give them respect. Who gets the benefit of that? You, not the other person. Treat everybody like a wish fulfilling jewel. Regard yourself as lower.” That does not mean that you make yourself a doormat. Give people physical respect. Number one, it gives you spiritual benefit, good karmic benefit. Number Two that person will like you better than as if you said, “Hey, who are you? What do you want? Get out of here!” Also, if a person of the status of the Dalai Lama gives you respect, you probably like it too. It builds tremendous benefit. The Chinese always criticize His Holiness. They say that he is cheating everybody by folding his hands and bowing down. The Chinese don’t like what he is doing. I don’t think he is doing that for political reasons. He has been doing that ever since he came to India and is still continuing to do it even today. No matter who comes, he will stand up, receive them himself and make them sit down. We can’t even do

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Gelek Rimpoche that. Sometimes we don’t manage to get up, even if we want to, especially when we know the person who is coming quite well. You think it is quite okay. But His Holiness never does that! It shows you what difference giving respect to others and having pride makes in your life. So try to be nice to people, be kind and gentle! I am not suggesting that you follow the Dalai Lama and fold your hands and bow down. That is not even in our culture to do that. If you try to do that, the other people will think, “What is he doing? Is he crazy?” Or they think that you are just behaving funny. Maybe they even think that you have gone cuckoo! But I am suggesting to give respect to everybody, no matter how stupid that person might be, no matter how young or how crazy that person might be. If you give them respect it helps. It helps them and yourself and everybody. Respect has to come from your heart, with sincerity. It should not be like the Japanese bowing business. If I remember correctly the Japanese came first in the 70s. They started to become popular. When the little Honda was introduced I happened to be in America. There were advertise- ments saying, See America in a Honda Civic. They used to sing that and then bow down three times, with the Honda car behind. People liked that. Then when they dealt with them, the cars got more and more expensive and more and more bows would come. Anyway, that is not what I am talking about. Don’t do it as a cultural expression, but with real respect. No matter how stupid the other person might be, he or she has qualities, some knowledge inside somewhere. No matter how angry the person might be, he or she has a soft side somewhere. There is kindness inside somewhere. No matter how crazy the person might be, within the craziness there is some message making sense. That is what you can give respect to. Maybe you will learn something out of that. Maybe you don’t learn anything, but, if you treat people well, there are benefits.

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I have a friend in New York, an African-American lady. One day she gave me a big, fat, wet kiss and said, “Thank you!” I said, “What for?!” She said, “People are treating me better these days. I used to go to the grocery and to the su- permarket and I always had to fight with the people at the counter.” I asked her why and she said, “They always thought I was cheating or not telling the truth. Somehow they kept on arguing with me. Over time I learned to respect them and since then they respect me. Now, whenever I come, they say, ‘Good morning’, or ‘Good evening’, or something like that. They never fight with me. So I thank you.” She thanked me but it was not me, it was her. Somehow she managed to let go of whatever she was holding against people. She learned to trust people. She probably thought that they were going to cheat her all the time. She must have been thinking that they were ready to take even an extra penny from her if they had the chance. When she let it go, in reciprocation people began to respect her. These problems come up because of pride. You can give respect to people. That does not give them the message that you are worse than them. Don’t miss the point. No matter how many qualities you have, if you give respect to others, you will get benefit. If they don’t give you respect, on the other hand, don’t bow to them. Challenge them. Be firm, but don’t fight. That is how you have to work. In other words, do not submit to pride.

Faults are temporary, but persistent Who are these enemies who have neither legs nor arms, but are able to use us like slaves? The other day we talked about hatred, attachment and pride. There is a verse in Tibetan: The nature of the mind is luminous. All faults are temporary. The faults just pop up. This verse has been used by a number of people to say that every human being is by nature wonderful and so on, even to the extent that Buddhahood is already

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Gelek Rimpoche there. They are trying to say that the primordial mind is already pure and enlightened in nature. Somehow these negative emotions are supposed to stick to the mind later. They interpret it like that, but Tsongkhapa does not agree with these interpretations. He is saying that Buddha nature is within us, but it an immature Buddha state, it is at the seed level, not really enlightened already. When we keep on thinking very carefully and analyze how things happen within ourselves, how we think, how the emotions rise, whether negative or positive, how they affect the individual, for me at least it is very hard to see how there could be an enlightened nature already in there. Then something else is supposed to have happened to the pure, enlightened mind and for some reason the negative emotions like anger and hatred have arisen. This is very hard for me to even imagine. Some people may think “When I am not angry, I am okay. It is only when anger arises in me, that I find it difficult to handle myself. Then I have to run away or do something else. I have to retreat, drink or smoke dope, or whatever.” They try to find an escape. They think that when anger is not there, the mind is pure at that time. That also does not make sense to me. I am not saying that it does not make sense to retreat. If it helps you I don’t care. But what does not make sense to me is that if the mind were really pure, there would be no reason for negative emotions to come up. When the negative emotions are not active the mind may be peaceful and in harmony, but that is not the enlightened level. It may be the balancing point between negative emotions or even positive emotions, but it is not the level of the enlightened mind. Still some people think that when negative emotions are not present, the mind is pure. This argument, however, does not make sense, because if you were totally free of negative emotions they should not rise again. You are putting in all your efforts to disconnect yourself from the negative emotions, to remove them. You want total disconnection. If that did not work with you, that means that you were not discon-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE nected totally. That means that you don’t have full enlightenment and never did. Saying that the nature of mind is luminous does not mean that the mind is free of negative emotions and is naturally enlightened. Through common sense and through the normal use of our mind we can clearly understand that this is not what is meant. What does it mean to say that the nature of mind is luminous? Mind itself and ‘nature of the mind’ are different. The moment you say ‘nature of the mind’, it becomes static, it becomes permanent. The nature of the mind is the emptiness of the mind, the emptiness based on mind. The emptiness of mind is static, it is permanent. The mind itself is not permanent, but its emptiness is. When it is permanent, that means it does not grow. It does not increase, it does not decrease. It does not go and does not come. It does not move. So the moment you say ‘nature of the mind’, it changes into that.31 The particular verse that says The nature of the mind is luminous does not refer to the nature of the mind in the sense of emptiness but to the mind nature, the mind itself. This is complicated. I don’t know why I am talking about this. The mind is an impermanent, changeable, dependent arising. Mind is luminous in the sense that it is free of coloring. It is naturally free of negativity or positivity, free of virtue or nonvirtue. It is neither virtue or nonvirtue. It is in a neutral state. I don’t want to say that it is a pure state, but it is a neutral state, neither positive nor negative, neither virtuous nor nonvirtuous. It is sort of colorless. My example of the mind is that of a colorless lampshade. I mention that very often. So in that sense, when it says that mind is luminous, it means that it is free of any color, free of any filter, free of any association, any connection to either anything positive nor negative. It is very important to notice that. Many people think that the mind has some ultimate quality and that once you see that, you are liberated. People talk and teach and write books about it, but I think this is a big

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Gelek Rimpoche mistake. My mind is known to me and this goes for everyone of us. We know what kinds of thoughts come up, how the mind reacts. It is true that we don’t pay attention to it. That is the problem. We use every bit of information that is available within us, our education, we use our training in the general education. We study mathematics and so on. We use our mind all the time to solve whatever problem we perceive. We try to find out “Should I do this? Will that be better for me? Should I go here or should I go there? Should I indulge in this business or in that business? Should I hire this person or should I not hire this person?” In this sense we really utilize our mind and our knowledge and information. We are trying to solve whatever presents itself to us as a challenge. We do that every day. We ask ourselves, “Should I go to bed or should I watch the news? Should I put on some music or should I have a bath? Should I light some candles? Should I turn off the elec- tric light? Should I eat a pizza or a hamburger? I did not have any proteins today, maybe I should go for a hamburger or perhaps that is not a good idea. I should have brown rice instead.” For all this we utilize the mind and bring all the information in. However, we never watch what our mind does and how it functions. It is so automatic. Somebody may call you in the middle of the night. You may be half asleep. Automatically you get up and put on some clothes, jump into the car and drive on the road - all without thinking. People do that, right? Just like that, we automatically use our mind all the time to solve whatever we think is a problem.

We function on automatic It is automatic that I have to get up in the morning and have breakfast. Should I have an orange or an apple? Or should I have yogurt? Maybe the yogurt is not good. So maybe I should have toast or perhaps a bagel? Oh, no, I just had a bagel. And so it goes on. But we never watch how the mind works. That is why the mind is unknown to us and we think there is some kind of big mystery in there. But once I know my mind face to face, I am okay.

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My thinking is that we know our mind very well, but we simply don’t pay any attention to it. We let it function automatically. It reminds me of my childhood. I could memorize things. I could stand there, actually be asleep and say the memorized text from A to Z. It could take forty-five minutes or an hour, maybe two hours or three hours. I could be asleep and yet say it. There was somebody else reading along with the book, checking if it was right or wrong and it would go through without any mistake. That is how we utilize our mind. In reality I used to be asleep during the whole recitation! Just to keep me awake they used to stand me up in a window frame on the third floor of a three-story building, but somehow I even learned to lean against that window frame and still go to sleep and say the text. That is not a joke! Then, when it was over, the guy would come and pick me up from that window and I used to be totally asleep and did not know when they put me to bed or where I was. I had no idea until I woke up the next morning. That is what happened. This really tells us that we can use our mind in that way. That is why the people working with dreams will tell you that everybody dreams and that you can recognize your dreams. You will recognize them if you tell yourself “I would like to observe my dream tonight.” If you keep on thinking that for a couple of nights constantly, reminding yourself that you want to do that, then you actually will remember, you will remember the dream. Whether the dream is right or wrong is a different question, but you will remember it. That is the capability of the mind. It works. If you try to tell yourself tonight that you want to remember your dreams and then you wake up tomorrow and don’t remember anything, don’t blame me. You know why? You are so used to just dreaming that you probably need to remind yourself at least fifteen to twenty times. Do it for a week or two constantly and then you will remember. It is something to learn, you can pick it up. It is the mind’s capability.

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However, we don’t use that. We never watch how the mind works. It just functions automatically and what happens automatically is our addictions - our anger, attachment, pride, etc. This is what happens automatically. These things have taken over our positive emotions completely. The mind is completely clouded over by the negative emotions. We have a very strong addiction to them and there are so many conditions out there that help raise our anger, get our attachment. There is the tendency to perceive everything that goes on out there as ‘anti - me’. You definitely perceive that, because you are so addicted to it. Whatever you encounter externally becomes a condition to raise the negative emotions which therefore completely overcrowd the mind. The mind automatically works that way. The verse that I quoted earlier said that the nature of the mind is luminous and all faults are temporary, yet these faults are constantly popping up. As a consequence of that, the mind itself is now clouded with the different colors of the emotions. That is why even though they have neither legs nor arms and are neither courageous nor wise, they have been able to utilize me, the person, to work for them as their slave. That is a very sensitive area of our functioning. It is sort of a master mechanism. In one of the Star Trek movies, when they go around and try to explore the universe, they come across some me- chanical machine that has been working for some generations. They were looking for some kind of powerful person, a dictator issuing orders and it turned out to be a machine which had been constructed two generations before and it began to malfunction. Just like that, the automatic mechanism in this case is the functioning of the mind which is completely occupied by the various addictions to certain ways we have. So although the mind is by nature clear, it can completely reflect the different emotions. Whatever we are doing, we are acting under the direction of our mind. We could be the director of our mind but we are not. We leave that to some kind of automatic mechanism which is the functioning of the addictions which are the

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE results of our previous actions. These reflect in our mind. All the things we do are meant to protect us, however, they end up hurting ourselves and others. The other day I mentioned that any ideas and emotions that rise which make our mind un-peaceful, disturbing the harmony and peace, are negative emotions. Any arising thoughts that make you unhappy, unpeaceful, agitated, those minds or states of mind are negative emotions. It can be anything, even regret. It could even be sleep. I am not saying that all sleep is negative. Some sleep can be negative, some can be positive. Some regret can be negative, some can be positive. Some analyzing can be negative, some can be positive.32

Distinguishing negative and positive Basically, when you find you have any emotions that disturb your peace and make your mind un-smooth, whatever that may be, that is negative. I am trying to tell you what is negative and what is positive. When it is hurting somebody, including yourself, then it is negative. When it is not hurting it might not be negative. Otherwise it is very hard to say what is good or bad. What is good for the Chinese can be bad for the Tibetans and what is good for the Tibetans can be bad for the Chinese. What is good for India can be bad for Pakistan. Similarly, what is good for the Serbs can be bad for the Croats. From the point of view of emotions, if it disturbs your peace and harmony, it is negative. It could come in the form of attachment, anger, depression, or being too high - whatever it might be. When you are losing the balance and the smoothness of the mind is disturbed, then it is on the side of the negative emotions. Almost all alcoholic drinks will do the same thing. If you limit that, it may not be that bad. Those who have gone over the limit cannot keep to it, so they better not have it. We talked about attachment. When you have attachment, you focus on the contaminated nature of beings or things. Uncontaminated desire exists too, for example the desire to become a Buddha or the desire to become free of

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Gelek Rimpoche all negative emotions. That might not be attachment, although it is desire and wanting. It is not counted as attachment, because attachment has to do with the contaminated nature. If you are dealing with the uncontaminated nature it might not be attachment. The difference between pure love and attachment perhaps lies here.

The meaning of contaminated and uncontaminated Contaminated and uncontaminated are big words and buzz words. Every- body uses them without knowing what it really means. The meaning has gotten lost. I am trying to remember one verse. Contaminated things make contaminated things grow. The contaminated mind makes contaminated mind grow. When you get on the path and see reality, the contamination is disconnected. When you look at the five paths, on the third level or path of seeing you become free of contamination. Before that you don’t, no matter what you do, even if it is positive. Even if it is virtue, it is contaminated virtue. It is hard to figure out. In particular it is very hard to make the distinction between pure love and attachment. We can hide behind the words and put up a shield and shelter and talk about it. When somebody criticizes you, you can hide behind certain words, but when you go to the bottom line and cut out all the bull, then it is hard to say. For example take attachment. On what does it focus? What projection does it have? What kind of aspiration do you have? What do you want to get out of that? You have to take all this into pieces and look. Then the Buddhist information based on Buddha’s experience will tell you that attachment is focused on contaminated nature, whether beings or things. The mind of attachment itself is also contaminated. The mind of wanting itself is contaminated. What is contaminated? It is difficult to make a distinction. The problem lies there. Basically we all have contami-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE nated nature - according to the Buddhist teachings, you and me and everybody and everything in samsara is contaminated nature. That does not mean that we are dirty, filthy or something, but that we very much enjoy the subject of attachment. We have a lot of picnic spots in samsara. But the bottom line really is that whatever you get out of that is some sticky stuff rather than something pure. Therefore it is contaminated. People, things, money, wealth, everything. In the end the conclusion is that something is always not right. In the beginning you may think that it is such a wonderful thing, that nothing better could ever happen. However, dissatisfaction will come up. In the end you draw a sorry conclusion. Everything in our life is contaminated nature. If you have a strong attachment to old Chinese porcelain cups - which I used to have - the end of it is that the cup breaks. Then you have to bring in the crazy glue and put the pieces back together, but there will be no value left. You may think that there is nothing contaminated in this old Chinese porcelain cup, but there is very much so. It is going to hurt you. Whatever I am talking to about contaminated nature is technically not correct, but practically that is what we can have. Any desire we have for whatever object - a beautiful body, a beautiful person, man or woman, a beautiful antique, a beautiful new thing - whatever raises desire that is what we are talking about. Such a desire also serves to satisfy my ego. This desire fills my ego. We think it is good for us but it is the ego which we feed first. That happens very often. Attachment makes us blind. Blindness makes the mind work for ego. The mind would otherwise not work for the ego. I would not go to work for my ego if I were not blinded.

More about pride That should be enough about attachment and also about anger. Let us talk more about pride. What does pride really mean? What does it focus on? This is interesting. The word on which pride focuses is called jig ta33 in Tibetan. Jig ta is the abbreviated version of jig tsoh la ta wa -

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Gelek Rimpoche for those of you who know Tibetan. Jig actually stands for fear as well as impermanence. Fear and impermanence are tremendously connected. Very often we have a tremendous amount of fear for no reason. Impermanence is nature. We are afraid of that all the time. We build up so much, completely ignoring the nature of impermanence. We build up everything, accumulate money and so on. Then all of a sudden we realize that it is gone. I am not talking about the stock market crash, but about everything we have been collecting and then one day it is going to be gone and under somebody else’s control and we don’t even have a word to say about that. This is because we don’t recognize the nature of impermanence. We don’t take any precautions in between. We pretend to be managing well even though we are not. When all of a sudden everything is gone we get a tremendous shock. It is unbelievable, but it has happened a number of times in our lives. Even in this life alone I myself have had a few experiences. I was okay in Tibet in the 1950s - quite well to do. I had a jeep, an Italian Fiat and a truck. In addition, I had two mo- torcycles and a number of bicycles of course, but one day it was all gone. I had to walk through the mountains - no car, motorcycle, jeep or truck. It is shocking and surprising, but somehow - I believe because of the Dharma information I had - it was okay. I just thought that I would probably never again put my foot into a salon car. When I reached across the Indian border, in Tawang, I got a lift from a garbage truck. I was sitting in the corner holding on and it was bumping like hell. However, I was very happy to get a ride in those Hima- layan foothills, thinking that was probably the end of ever owning a salon car or sedan car, whatever it is called. This fear is with us because we lost everything so often, we are so used to losing. This fear is always there, tapping into our experiences of losing. There is some very interesting poetry by a 17th century Tibetan teacher. I remember one example from that The aged person who is looking so closely at the ground is not searching for needles,

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but afraid of falling. The old man whose hand is shaking all the time is not trying to grab someone else’s property, but is afraid of losing whatever he has in his hand. All of these verses refer to fear. This fear is so much connected to losing, which again is due to impermanence. My hat, my head, my face, my moustache. It is the collective of ‘mine’- so many collected impermanent things. That is the meaning of jig tsoh - collection of the impermanent or transitory collection. And yet you can look at your impermanent collection and feel very proud! When you get that pride, on top of that you lose respect for others. You think that you have so much when in fact what you really have is just a collection of impermanent things. The consequence of not respecting others is that they will not give you respect. It goes both ways. It is definitely connected. So again, you get suffering, because you will then think that the whole world is your enemy. Whatever you perceive is your enemy. You must either retreat or disappear. All that just comes from pride. American society tells you that you can be proud. Yes, you can be proud, but don’t develop pride that disrespects others! If you respect others, you have no problem. No matter how small, how poor or how bad a person may be, he or she has good qualities. You must respect that. And you can lose that just because you have a collection of impermanent things and feel proud about that. That is the problem. Pride is further connected with ego. Everything is about ‘Me’, “I did it, I said so, I told you!” We have seen enough of that during the impeachment process. Every one of these senators got up and said, “I predicted that last year,” and, “I said so last July,” and, “As I said it, it has happened.” Each one of them did that and it was all ‘I, I, I’. A lot of these egomaniacs were coming forward one after another, yapping all over the place. Being proud of yourself is different from the kind of pride which we try not to have here. Pride here means losing respect of others, thinking, “I know better than you, I am

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Gelek Rimpoche better than you.” That idea itself is the basis of all trouble. If you know something, you know it, it’s okay. It is your quality. If you don’t have pride, you are not going to lose that. If you blow your own horn - although it seems to working in Amer- ica quite often - generally speaking the people with qualities will look down on you. That always happens. So pride is another problem, another cause of suffering. We suffer because we have been insulted, we have been put down, we have not been given enough recognition, we did not receive due respect which we deserved and earned. That makes us unhappy, in our own circle, in our family, in society, among your friends and among your enemies too. It puts another filter over the mind, which makes you perceive everything as insulting you and everybody as your enemy. That is all included in this verse 28.

Ignorance The next is ignorance. Normally people talk about that in terms of not knowing and wrong knowing. When you look very carefully, ignorance really is not knowing and wrong knowing and even wrong doubts. There are people who are over-careful and want to really find out whether there are any future lives or not. In a way it is a good doubt, but within the limitation of our own capacity we will never directly find that out. We are never going to find it. So that is also ignorance. According to Buddha it falls under ignorance. This doubt can become a basis on which negative emotions can grow. So ignorance really means to provide a base on which negative emotions can grow. That is the function of ignorance. It gives shelter to the negative emotions. It gives the benefit of doubt to the negative emotions. From the wisdom point of view ignorance is some kind of stupidity. It is stupid even though there is also some high level, very witty sort of stupidity, not stupidity in the sense of not knowing anything. I always want to use the term ‘immoral wisdom’. How- ever, it does not really capture what I am getting at. I have been unable to communicate that quality. It is some kind of immoral wisdom. It looks like wisdom, but it destroys you, it

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE provides the basis for negative emotions. It makes the individual a loser, rather than a winner. On the surface it can look like wisdom. It looks like a very intelligent, witty sort of mind. But the bottom line is that the individual loses rather than gains. It appears to be intelligent and careful, trying to clear out all the doubts and questions, however it makes you lose. Ignorance is not only not knowing and wrong knowing but exists also on the level of doubts and there is a lot of it. Really it covers everything from A to Z. It is almost like you see anger and attachment and pride everywhere. In the same way you see ignorance everywhere. For us usually ignorance looks like a little symbol which you can put in a little box, label that as ignorance and bury it somewhere in a dark basement. But that is not the case. It is all over the place. It is everywhere. Almost every thought, every idea is pervaded by it. In any case, whether it is not knowing, wrong knowing or doubt, the antidote to all of that is true wisdom. There is no question about it. It is very difficult to actually figure out what ignorance really is. If we could, we would be much better off.

Negative doubt I would hate to stop for today while discussing ignorance, so I am going to add up the negativity of doubt. This particular negative doubt is saying, “Is there such a thing as truth?” “Is there relative and absolute truth?” “Is there such a thing called cause and effect?” “Is there such a thing called karma?” There are even certain people who doubt that there is such a thing called ‘mind’. A lot of Ameri- cans think that there is no mind, believe it or not. I was a little shocked when I learnt that. The television box told me that the other day. It is amazing. That is also doubt. Then of course, we doubt that there are future lives. We would like to accept that, but if you dig deep down, there is doubt, for sure. Not every doubt is negative, but doubt is counted as a negativity here because certain doubts will prevent you from getting involved in positive functioning and also block you from seeing the truth. People who see the truth have no

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Gelek Rimpoche doubt, naturally. Doubt can be harmful because it destroys the opportunity for you to do the right thing.

Questions and answers Student: Can you give an example of what you mean by immoral wisdom? Rimpoche: I can give you a very good example. A very straightforward capitalist yuppie will tell you, ‘Making money is what counts in life. I don’t think that anything like good or bad actually exists - including God who I don’t think is there.’

Student 2: This immoral wisdom is not the same as what you often call ‘wild wisdom’? Rimpoche: Yes, that is what I have been thinking of before. Today I called it ‘immoral wisdom’.

Student: You used to call it ‘corrupt wisdom’. Rimpoche: Okay, from that I went to wild wisdom and now it is immoral wisdom! It is deteriorating!

Student: I think that corrupted wisdom is also wrongly used knowledge. Rimpoche: It is very similar to the question from before where I gave the example of the yuppie. Take for example the production of the atomic bomb - the one used for destruction, not the one for peaceful purposes which Indira Gandhi used to talk about after India exploded one!

Student: Can you talk about ignorance as one of the negative emotions in the way you have just talked about anger and attachment? Rimpoche: If there is no ignorance inside me, there is no room for anger and attachment to function. Since I do not know better, I give this anger and attachment all the opportunities to function within me. If I knew better I would not have given them the opportunity. That is how ignorance really functions within us. Ignorance provides the base, the foundation, the shelter, for attachment, aversion, hatred, and so on.

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It is confusion, not understanding and giving the negative emotions room to function. Since you don’t know anything better to help yourself you think you might as well take the gun and shoot, right? Not knowing that such actions harm ourselves we engage in all kinds of negative things in order to hurt other persons. Look at all the toxic things around the earth, like DDT. Many years ago we didn’t know that it was harmful and it is still used in the so-called underdeveloped nations. It is supposed to be the best protection from the rats, mice, cockroaches, mosquitoes, ants, and so on. In India we even use DDT to spray the houses, everywhere, in the rooms, under the beds, making sure that the cockroaches don’t come. That is how ignorance plays in us. By not knowing, we let all the available weapons loose in ourselves, attachment to make us happy, anger to protect ourselves. At least now we know that the anger does not really protect us. Instead, it hurts us. We know that now. So that much wisdom we do have. The more wisdom we have in ourselves, the less we use these things. You know what is going through my head? I saw on television two days ago that in 1886 or 1887 the House of Rep- resentatives members came over to the Senate and beat one of the senators up, because the House Managers were pushing them and the senator would not listen. They almost beat him to death. At least today they don’t beat them up, but just argue! So the ignorance is less now. We call that more civi- lized. There is less ignorance or less medieval-ness.

Student: Is it the Chinese ceramic vase which is contaminated or is it our view of the cup? Rimpoche: Both. The vase itself is contaminated, my attachment to it is contaminated and when it breaks I cry.

Student: Why is the cup contaminated? Rimpoche: Because it is the product of the First Noble Truth and because it is impermanent in nature and because it brings attachment, hatred, anger, jealousy, and sadness.

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Student: But the cup has no intention. Rimpoche: I know that. But it has the capacity to provide all of that.

Student: So if I see such a cup in a store, should I better not buy it then? Rimpoche: That is a good question. You know, I was in San Francisco last weekend. There was an Asian antique show and there I saw a cup just like that cup of mine which had broken. I asked how much it was and it was $450. So I thought about it, went around and finally said, ‘I already had one and that broke. I don’t want to buy another one and break that too!’

Student: Back to the contaminated cup. What about perfect view? Let’s say Tsongkhapa had a begging bowl. That bowl cannot be the cause for him to stay in samsara. Rimpoche: There is nothing wrong with having the object, but don’t let the object use you. If you use the object that is fine, but if you let the object use you, it becomes different.

Student: So even if you manage to avoid being used by the object, is it in itself still contaminated? Rimpoche: Oh yes, but so what? We are not Brahmins who are not allowed to touch the untouchables!

Student: So is it in the nature of objects to be contaminated? Rimpoche: That is true.

Student: Then how do you get around it? Rimpoche: You don’t have to get around it, you just don’t get attached. You actually can’t get around it. Remember, quite in the beginning of this teaching we talked about the example of a person wanting to walk on the ground smoothly. One option was to cover all the ground with leather. But there is not enough leather to do that, so the best option is to make shoes.

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Student: Is there anything besides a cup and cars that you feel you have lost when you had to flee Tibet? Rimpoche: I don’t think I felt much loss about the cars except when I was bumping along in that Indian garbage truck.

Student: But there must have been a lot of other important things that you would have lost. Rimpoche: Yes, and some of them I got back. My brother has brought a few things to me. People, of course, you can’t get back. But I got a few things back and you know what, truly speaking, they didn’t look as good when I got them back. They are nice, but not as good as I projected. For example, in the last initiation you might have seen some new silver plates. They are quite nice. But my projection of them was that they would be bigger and better. When they actually arrived they were a little smaller than I thought they would be and a little older!

Student: When you were talking about death, I have been struggling with those kinds of doubts since I was a kid. They still come up and I really struggle. What is the best way to cut them? I know it is a habit, no question. It is deeply ingrained. Rimpoche: You know what you can do? You can go: Eeny meeny meiny mo - catch the tiger by the toe!34 If you want you can also throw a coin. Or you can do what the Tibetan kids do. They close their eyes and bring the outstretched index fingers of both their hands together in front of them, wondering if they can make them meet. I am sorry, I am joking. I will talk to you about that next week.

Student: I want to defend a little bit those who say that the true nature of the mind is the total naked awareness which can see all things. This is the universal mind which sees the meaning of all things, good or bad, and how they integrate in past, present and future. Rimpoche: The nature of the mind is emptiness. In that way what you have said is correct. But the mind itself is not all- knowing. The small mind and the big mind is another differ-

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Gelek Rimpoche ent matter you are talking about. I think right now we are talking about a deeper level than we are able to comprehend. Your idea of small mind and big mind sounds like the clear light nature. That level of mind is totally different from anything we are able to comprehend when we talk about mind itself.

Student: I want to get to that broken cup again. Such a cup could remind you of a relationship with a loved one who died and when that cups breaks you experience a greater loss than just the cup. How can you come to terms with such a loss? Rimpoche: You want the bottom line answer to that, if you don’t mind? I don’t think you can do anything. People don’t want to hear that. They want to hear that they can do something. That kind of loss is something that will remain with you. The memory will remain with you. You may be able to contribute something to help the soul or consciousness of the departed through a karmic connection. But there is no way of substituting for a lost loved one. No new cup, pet, or even children can substitute for the one who is gone. They are new things and new beings. That is why I say that you virtually can do nothing.

Student: So it just shows us the impermanence of our physical state. Rimpoche: Definitely. Plus, if you look from the perspective of reincarnation, somewhere, somehow during our busy journey through our lives, we will come across the other person, but we will not know who we are and where we come from and who the other person is and where that person comes from. Still, certain karmic links are somehow bound to connect again. There is no question, whether you are enlightened or not enlightened. That sort of thing you can count on. Oth- erwise, nothing can be done. If you look for a replacement, that will be different.

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Student: But we should be able to appreciate joyful moments even though they are impermanent, perhaps even more before they disappear. Rimpoche: That is absolutely true. But you wanted to know what to do afterwards.

Student: I am still not clear about the difference between what you call the nature of the mind and the mind nature. Rimpoche: The mind nature is the mind. The nature of the mind is the emptiness of the mind. In English there is no distinction through the language, but in Tibetan there is. One is sem gyi dön dam35 ultimate mind [its emptiness] the other is sem gyi chü nyi [mind nature]. Sem [mind] itself is not the same as sem gyi chü nyi. In English it does not make sense. You have to say that the nature of the mind is permanent, but the mind-nature is impermanent [or constantly changing]. That makes it very difficult for people.

Student: I thought the distinction is between the conventional nature of the mind and the ultimate nature of the mind. Rimpoche: That is two different things again. That in Tibetan is kun tsob sem gyi chu nyi36 [conventional nature of the mind] and dön dam sem gyi chü nyi [ultimate nature of the mind]. That is different. Actually, dön dam sem gyi chü nyi is sem dön dam. Just don’t bring these new terms in. That makes it more confusing.

Student: I still want to get another shot at it. So the mind nature is the process in which mind operates? Rimpoche: No. The nature of the mind is the emptiness of the mind itself. Mind nature is mind itself. The nature of the mind is permanent, while the mind nature is impermanent. It is complicated. Don’t get into that. We don’t need that. It is a philosophical problem. Let the philosophers worry about it.

Student: But I have a philosophical question. You have said that the primordial mind is in a neutral state. Does that mean that the enlightened mind is in a positive state?

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Rimpoche: Sure. It is interesting that you raised that question. Technically this is not correct, but practically, sure. The enlightened state is a totally virtuous, permanently positive state. It is called the all-knowing state, because there are no more obstructions or delusions or blocks. Everything is cleared. It is a very positive state and it is permanent. Again, this is a philosophical problem. Sangye, the state of Bud- dhahood, is permanent and static. On the other hand sangye pag pa, Arya Buddha or the person who is a Buddha, is impermanent [or constantly changing]. It is confusing.

Student: My understanding is that luminous mind is perfect. Rimpoche: I have a big problem with that luminous mind. When we look at our own mind as luminous in the sense of having an all-knowing nature, I think that is a big problem. When our own mind is joined with the all- knowing mind, at that time what you have said will be true, but our current level of the mind has faults and advantages. Again, in itself the mind may not have these faults but they have been projected on to it by the emotions. In other words, right now it is the struggle between the positive and negative emotions about who is going to take over. By the time you are enlightened, the positive emotions have completely taken over. It is the constant continuation of positive influences, one after another, without any interruption.

Student: I have another question about the contaminated cup. The mind of the person making that cup knowing that it is an object of desire, is that contaminated? Rimpoche: Not necessarily. The person who made it probably did so for artistic reasons as an object to be appreciated by a large number of people. Maybe some king also forced him to make it and chopped his head off after he completed one cup. That happened in history all the time. When you go back in medieval history, whether in the East or the West, that was done all the time. Some king would commission a great artist to do some beautiful art work and when it was done, in order to make sure that nobody could get something

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE like that they cut off the head of the artist. It is really sad how human beings have behaved a couple of centuries ago. I was watching a show on TV last night about the mammoths and how they disappeared. It blamed human beings for completely destroying the whole species. The human beings are just another species of animals but they have more power. So the medieval kings had more power and negative emotions. In short, anything in samsara is contaminated, and there are very few things which are not. Even certain parts of our wisdom are also contaminated, a lot of them. I am not here to give you bad news, but it is true. Not all types of wisdom are necessarily great. I am tempted to say that there is something you could call not only wild wisdom but even corrupted wisdom. But perhaps it is better to call it contaminated wisdom or immoral wisdom. There are two reasons to call it immoral wisdom. Moral and immoral has become a big issue. People have a certain idea of morality which they project, a projection of their own, a big agenda. They almost make out that it has got something to do with sexual orientation. Whatever Mr. Morality wants to make moral, becomes moral, and if Bill Bennet does not want it to be moral, it becomes immoral. It is happening in this country.

Morality is keeping your vows When you deal with that very carefully, the bottom line is that morality is not about sexual orientation at all. It is basically your commitments, your vows - whatever vows you have taken and whatever tradition it has come from. If you break your vows, you become immoral. If you take a vow of not killing and you kill, that becomes a broken vow and immoral. It has nothing to do with sex or sexual orientation. If you take a vow of not stealing and then steal, you are breaking your vow. It is about time people understood what really moral and immoral is. People always just look through one window. They like to say, ‘If you are straight, you are moral, if you are crooked you are immoral.’ They don’t say crooked, do they? Just us-

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Gelek Rimpoche ing the word ‘crooked’ gives you the wrong impression. I have not thought about it. When you talk about contaminated, on the other hand, even many of our positive actions are contaminated. Con- taminated and immoral to me is slightly different, but I can’t say too much about it because I am not sure about the language. This language is a foreign language to me. I am not good at it. I somehow picked it up through chit chatting with people. That is why I have a problem with reading it. If I can read a word I can pronounce it better. Actually, having to read the Bodhisattvacharyavatara out in English has helped me a little bit. It also forced me to put some effort in. Otherwise I would not put any effort into reading English. Usually, if I try to read one line and can’t get through it, I forget about it and read the Tibetan. In the time it takes me to read one line of English I can read a whole page in Tibetan and focus on what it says. Are there any more questions?

[Rimpoche notices somebody putting their hand up] You over there, do you have a question? You have a very nice hat. Student: Yes, it is a crown. An African-American friend made it for me. It has two birds on it too. Rimpoche: Oh, do they fly? Yes it looks like a crown. It is funny, the Tibetans also have a thing for hats. For example the Karmapas are famous for their black hat. Historically, it is said that unless he holds the hat with his hand it will fly away because it is made of the hair of a hundred thousand dakinis. You know, in a two thousand-year history you can have anything! Some of you, perhaps one or two, might have seen the Karmapa. He used to give audiences and appear with that black hat which he held. Then he would say OM MANI PADME HUNG A hundred times and the trumpets would blow. It is a ceremony that started with the 10th Karmapa and the one who died a few years ago was the 16th Karmapa. There have been seven generations of the Karmapa lineage who hold their hats so they don’t fly off. That is why I asked if your hat will fly away when you mentioned that there are birds on it.

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Critics say that one of the Chinese emperors gave that hat to the 11th Karmapa as a title and that it is actually knit- ted from some Chinese animal’s hair. These critics were also from that same century. The 15th, 16th, 17th century critics also said the same thing. It has always been the same hat. They put that hat in a heavy box, keep it under lock and key and it always has to be carried by four monks. It is true! I have seen it. Then, when they open the lock, the trumpets will blow, they will hand the hat to the Karmapa who puts it on his head and holds it while saying one hundred OM MANI PADME HUNGs. Then the four monks will take it back, put it in the box, lock it and carry it around.

Student: No one ever tried to let go of it for even for a second to see whether it really flies? Rimpoche: I was told that one wealthy Chinese businessman offered one hundred thousand dollars as a security if the Karmapa would let it go, but the Karmapa rejected that pro- posal! I don’t know whether that was a joke or whether somebody made that up, but I heard that. But let’s hear your question now. Forget about the hat.

Student: In relation to the mind nature you mentioned last time, I am trying to connect that with the example of the lampshade. If the candle inside the lampshade is just white light but the lampshade of anger is red, does that make the candle light itself also red or does that stay white? In other words, can you make a decision to change it? Rimpoche: I don’t think you can make a decision to change at our level, because it happens automatically. We have no control. The mind itself is colorless. When red light comes in it affects the mind, it influences it. I don’t know whether or not it penetrates it or not. Penetrating is a strong statement. It is more like when you have a glass of milk and a drop of ink falls in. I don’t think the emotions actually penetrate inside the nature of the mind, but somehow they influences and change it. That is reality. It has changed the reality from the

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Gelek Rimpoche colorless, neutral level into the nature of emotions, whether positive or negative. I am not willing to accept that the nature of the mind is luminous. This is a poetic word. Poets use such words to convey certain images, but that does not necessarily mean that you can take it literally. You won’t see anything luminous and there is nothing to illuminate. But the mind can be influenced by any other color, because it is free of color. Very often we call that clean-clear. Poetically you can say it is luminous. Literally luminous means shining and emitting light, radiating light. If that quality was there it would be very difficult to be influenced by anything else. It would have its own little color, its own little agenda. This is an issue for those people who have been involved in the spiritual path for a long time, because somehow they have been thinking on those lines and they probably think that if they can encounter their minds they will become enlightened. I personally don’t think so. We do know our own mind quite well. If we don’t know our mind, who else does? We know how sensitive our mind is, how gentle it is and how wrathful it is. What we don’t know is the nature of the mind which is its emptiness.

Student: I have a question about verse 28. It starts with the enemies of hatred and craving and you then said that there are four further enemies. You mentioned ignorance, pride and doubt. Have I missed one? Rimpoche: No, I don’t think so. There are actually many ways of counting them. There are six root delusions, twenty secondary ones, and so on.37 When you start talking about principal and secondary minds, it can go into fifty-two types of thoughts and emotions. Eleven of these are considered positive ones. Actually they tell you about the negative ones and the opposites of those are the positive ones. There are also four changeable mental factors, sleep, regret, two kinds of analysis, five confirmed mental factors and so on. Then there are five followers. Altogether there are fifty-one. This comes

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE from the original Buddhist teachings and these days psy- chologists have picked it up. So in verse 28, the word etc. carries all of those. We have talked about ignorance and also fear. We did not discuss wrong view, the sixth of the six root delusions.

Wrong view Wrong view very simply expressed means that there are things in existence which we believe don’t exist - for example, cause and effect or enlightenment, different lives apart from the human and whatever else we can see. Or we deny for example that human beings can become perfect or enlightened. All these are considered to be wrong views. Particularly it is wrong view if we misunderstand emptiness. The ultimate Buddhist view is that of emptiness, no question about it. A misunderstanding of emptiness would be for example: ‘I am empty, I am not here. I am gone.’ So many people try to impress me. They say, ‘When I am meditating, I can feel it that I am not there.’ A number of people tell me that and all I can say in reply is ‘Very fine’. I can’t say, ‘You are wrong, you are stupid.’ But when we talk in a group together like this I can say it, because I am not particularly addressing any individual, however if there is anybody who thinks that way, they will get the message. Some people really think that way. They say, ‘It is like space. I am gone. There is nothing left of me. I can really merge, I become part of that space. Then suddenly, I can collect myself together again!’ They say that. You know in the sadhanas it always says, All is empty. From emptiness rises...... So these people get their ideas from that and then they write books about it and talk about it . We have a teaching about the rainbow body. When you are practicing that and start to develop it, the test to check your progress is to get a stick and start hitting yourself a little bit slowly. If the stick strikes you that means you don’t have the rainbow body. When you really have developed the rainbow body the stick will go right through you with nothing to block it. All the particles of the body have become part of a rainbow. In the same way, if you meditate and you feel that

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Gelek Rimpoche you are going to merge into empty space, get a stick and hit yourself as hard as you can and if you feel pain you know that you have not merged! Mind is such a thing that you can suggest anything and it will be happy to accept. Any type of meditation, visualization, imagination, anything which we can think about and make seem very attractive, we can sell to you. If you try that, you will be happy to buy that. It sounds attractive, peaceful and wonderful. If you keep on suggesting that to the mind it works. The mind takes to it to a certain extent, but it does not become anything. That is why authenticity is so very important. Any valid practice must have been used by many people and tested and confirmed. Our mind cannot really judge. It is color-blind - remember? Any emotions that come up will be accepted and change the mind into their nature. So the mind will buy any beautiful ideas you sell to it. There are some people wo follow some kind of practice where they sit and mentally travel, sometimes seven layers under the ground, sometimes three hundred layers above the sky. They mentally go there and do all kinds of things. They sit there for twenty or thirty minutes, do all kinds of things and then come back. There is no effect whatsoever on the person’s mind. I mean it is probably beautiful. You sit there and your mind goes traveling, on a journey.

Student: Astral traveling? Rimpoche: Whatever it is called. It does not get you anywhere. We could do the same thing. We could visualize that we are sitting in a Northwest plane taking off from New York, going to Detroit, flying above that beautiful cloud. Then you can turn that cloud into different things. You can imagine that sometimes the cloud looks like a lotus, sometimes like a rabbit or a horse. You can do all kinds of beautiful things. As a matter of fact, if you fly between Beijing and Ulan Bator, the clouds do change into all these things. Really, I have seen it with my own eyes, I am not exaggerating. There were clouds looking like lotus flowers opening, coming right up to the window of the airplane. Then the clouds would change

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE their shapes, looking like horses, elephants, tigers. Then, if you keep on imagining more, the clouds will do more. You can do that kind of visualization for an hour and forty-five minutes. That is how long it takes go fly from La Guardia to Detroit. You can do all that but it does not get you anywhere. The purpose of the spiritual practice has to be cutting down of the negative emotions, because these are the cause of all troubles. Whether a practice does have an effect or not, that is where you can measure it.

Student: As a Bodhisattva you wish to free all living beings from their suffering. On the other hand it is said that not even the Buddhas can free beings from the consequences of their actions. There is the practice where we try to take on the suffering of others, called Tonglen. Can you talk about how all that lines up? Rimpoche: That is a good question. Can you take somebody else’s suffering? It is very difficult. I think if you are on a certain level, if you are perfect, you could. At our level we can never do it. I think there are translations of Milarepa’s biography available. I have never read it in English, only in Tibetan. I read it when I was nine or ten, and I used to cry, because he got beat up all the time. Near the end, a Geshe came and put poison in his yoghurt. Milarepa got very sick. The Geshe then got very regretful of his action and went to Milarepa to apologize. He said, ‘If I could take your pain away from you, I would not hesitate.’ Milarepa said, ‘Even if you wanted to, you would not be able to take it. I show you. I can free myself from the pain by transferring it to the door over there.’ At that moment the door began to shake and make screech- ing noises. Then Milarepa said, ‘Now I will give you one percent of that pain on the door.’ Suddenly the Geshe started screaming and he begged Milarepa, ‘Please, take it back. I don’t want it any more!’ This gives you a little bit of a glimpse that it can be done on a certain level. But can that make that individual free of pain? Probably not.

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There are a lot of questions in that regard. Let me first answer the question you asked. What about wanting to free everybody from their suffering? Yes, that is our goal. That is our purpose. We would like to do that. We would like to help them to get themselves free.

How can healing work? The great healers do connect the individual’s positive karma with positive conditions, so that the negative karma which is connected with negative conditions will be over. How do you provide these positive conditions to connect with the positive karma? If you are a highly developed healer, you can provide the conditions. If you are not that highly developed you can contribute to that. If you are even less developed you hope something will happen by injecting your own energy touch, massage, or whatever. You are hoping it will have an effect. It is the same way with mantras, with meditation, with laying hands on. So you have an A level, B level, C level. Within that you can have A+, B+, C+, and A-, B-, C-. Most of the healers would probably not even fall into the A- category, perhaps B or B+. The majority will be C or C+. They are merely hoping that something will happen. They probably try to visualize and do all kinds of things. It t may or may not contribute. But it is a karmic gift to the individual, interceding in their energy flow. It can make a difference. The highly developed healers can do this by choice and it works. The less developed ones can pray and hope. Even lower than that, these healers feel they are doing something to help, honestly, straightforwardly, and it works - to a certain extent. If any individual healer develops some kind of physical attraction to their patient, their healing never works. That is the funny thing. Even if it worked before, as soon as you develop some sexual attraction, it does not work any more. It does not even have to be direct sexual attraction, but some kind of physical fantasy or whatever. You know the mind does these funny things. In that case, the healing does not work. However, in the case of an A class healer, even that does not matter. It will work. For them it does not matter. It

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE will disturb only the ones on the B and C levels. Attraction will throw them off the game. Tong len, the ‘give and take’ meditation is particularly helpful for healing.

Student: Does the healer on the lower level feel the pain of the person? Rimpoche: I don’t know. You can see the massage people every now and then shaking their hands, indicating that they get rid of some negative energy.

Student: But can the healer be harmed by that negative energy? Rimpoche: I don’t think so. I don’t think it does any harm to the healer or the person to be healed unless there is some involvement by bad spirits. In that case it can be harmful. There are ghosts and spirits of deceased people who could not let go. This is a totally unknown field. Most of the people who are traveling in that area are traveling blind. They are trying to do something, but there are hundreds and thousands of different spirits around who can cross and intersect. All kinds of things can happen. That is why I personally pre- fer to be solidly on the ground, rather than mystically flying around here and there. Verse 29 For while they dwell within my mind At their pleasure, they cause me harm, Yet I patiently endure them without any anger; But this is an inappropriate and shameful time for patience. The word shameful has been added by the translator. This verse tells us that our enemies, the negative emotions, have taken over, they are living within my mind. They are not only taking shelter in my mind but have taken it over completely

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Gelek Rimpoche and they are dragging me down. They cause me harm. They are creating the causes and conditions for me to suffer in lower realms, like the animal, hungry ghost or hell realms. They are trying to develop a future hell for me and they are actually dragging me down to hell already in this life. The great teachers say it is like those birds that land on the heads of cows and other big animals. What can the poor animals do? They keep on shaking them off, but the birds just fly up and then come back down. These birds stay on your head and start pecking your eyes out. When you try to do something about it, they go away and then come back. Just like that, the negative emotions not only occupy my mind but they start creating big trouble for me, dragging me into the lower realms. Still, I don’t even get upset or angry with them. I try to be patient. Is this a good thing to do? No, this is an inappropriate and shameful patience. Not only that, but this is the point where the enlightened beings, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will say that it is terrible and a disgrace. It is the wrong patience. It is the suffering which you can’t give up. It is negative and the enlightened beings will be displeased. This behavior is very common to us. We have that sort of endurance. No matter how much pain it causes us we have to try for more. That is not necessary. In the West we do it very often. We develop that sort of endurance. You know, people like sacrifices. I don’t mean it in the sense of burning yourself or something like that, but somehow people like punishment. Can you believe it? They like to think that with that punishment justice is done. To me, two wrongs don’t make one right. Lets say somebody did something wrong. Then, in the name of justice, you punish the person. Now two wrong things have been done. It is not going to make one right. We do that very often to ourselves. There are people who say, “If you have a fever, bear it. It is good to burn it off.” Maybe there is some truth in it, I don’t know, but I will take aspirin, for sure!

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If something is harming us, then to be patient and to endure it is not a good act. It is not good because it is harming us, so that is the wrong time for patience. Many people need to get this message. For example, there are family members who are subject to abuse, and they keep on taking it, hoping something will happen. In the end they may even get killed. Don’t do that! According to the Buddha, you are not supposed to do it. It is the wrong place and time for patience. Verse 30, 31 and 32 Should even all the gods and demi-gods Rise up against me as my enemies, They could not lead or place me in The roaring fires of the deepest hell. Yet the mighty foe, these disturbing conceptions, In a moment can cast me amidst (those flames) Which, when met, will cause not even the ashes Of the king of mountains to remain. All other enemies are incapable Of remaining for such a length of time As can my disturbing conceptions; The enduring enemy has neither beginning nor end. The word translated as demi-god can also mean anti-gods or titans.38 What the verse says is absolutely true. What can ex-

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Gelek Rimpoche ternal enemies do to me, even spirits and ghosts and all the other enemies in the world, no matter how many there are? At most they can kill me. Can they make me disappear? No, if they kill me I will be reborn. I will be back! So what can they do? Nothing. They can hold me as long as I have this physical identity. The worst they can do is destroy that particular identity, but that does not destroy my consciousness. They cannot make me have a miserable future life. They cannot lead me into the middle of the burning fires of the hot hells or into the cold hells. You can get the total picture of the cold hell if you think of those mammoths frozen in the ice of Siberia. External enemies cannot do that: they are incapable. But these particular enemies that now occupy my mind are capable of doing this. No matter how many other enemies you have, they cannot hurt you too badly, but the enemy of the delusions, the mighty foe, can! Any other enemy you have, particularly the various sufferings that we experience, may be very painful. However, those sufferings cannot destroy you. The cause of suffering, however, which is the negative emotions, can really destroy you completely within a minute. If you really want to freak out and if you really want to do something, protect yourself from the negative emotions! What I call negative emotions are here called disturbing conceptions. All other sufferings come and go and they end, but the negative emotions continue, with neither beginning nor end. Anger, jealousy, hatred, and so on continue; Sometimes high, sometimes low, they remain with you. No other enemy can remain that long. If you have a terrible illness like AIDS or cancer, the disease ends when your body is destroyed. You don’t carry your cancer or AIDS with you to your next life, but the negative emotions continue. That is why you have to be so very careful with them. External enemies cannot destroy me. At most, they can separate me from this particular identity. But these negative emotions, these disturbing conceptions, are so powerful that they can even destroy mountain-like virtues which I have collected, can reduce them to ashes in a minute. Anger can burn all

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE the positive karma that you have built. That is what this verse is really talking about. External enemies cannot give anybody a bigger punishment than killing them. Even at the end of the torture they kill you. The negative emotions within me are much more powerful. They can make me helplessly do things that I never thought or dreamt of doing, creating tremendous negative karmas. When I meet with such a negative karma, even mountains will be reduced to ashes.39 These are the powerful negative enemies which I am protecting and keeping and sheltering. They can destroy me in a matter of seconds, yet the enemy is within, there is nothing external. Verse 33 If I agreeably honor and entrust myself (to others), They will bring me benefit and happiness, But if I entrust myself to these disturbing conceptions, In future they will only bring misery and harm. With enemies, you can negotiate; you can talk to them. You can talk to the communists and communism can collapse, but you cannot entertain the negative emotions, these disturbing conceptions. They will harm you. There is nothing to be negotiated. There is nothing to be adjusted. There is nothing to enjoy. If you get closer, if you entrust yourself, to them, they will hurt you.

Don’t play with fire It is almost the same as with fire. If you get too close it will burn you, but if you don’t get that close you can enjoy and have a nice feeling and atmosphere. You get some heat. But with the negative emotions you cannot do that. If you try to get closer, they will only bring misery and harm. You cannot go close to them at all.

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Normally, if you try to be friendly with anybody in the world, after a while there will be some benefit for each other, no matter how bad a person might be. Therefore, the text says, If I agreeably honor and entrust myself (to others. You have to agree with the other person and you have to honor the other person as well. Does that mean making yourself a doormat for others? Maybe you don’t have to go that far. Anyway, Bodhi- sattvas are Bodhisattvas. They are adaptable. They are very easy to deal with. If you know any Bodhisattvas, they are quite easy to deal with! It is not that difficult to honor and agree with people. If you do that, even a bad person, no matter how bad they are, will improve. They will say, “Hey, this person is not that bad, I can’t trouble them that much.” They will come round and start doing something that is beneficial. But you can’t overdo that either, or you will lose a lot of your precious time. It is not difficult for the person you are dealing with but for yourself. Such precious, important opportunities are very limited and when they are wasted it is a big waste. When we are dealing with the disturbing conceptions we are dealing with the Second Noble Truth, the Truth of the Cause of Suffering, that has two aspects. One is karma and the other is the thoughts, ideas and mental states which create karma, in other words, negative emotions. Here in this verse they are called disturbing conceptions. In some parts they are called afflictive emotions. In some places we call them delusions. Sometimes we name them directly: anger, attachment, hatred, jealousy. In the case of the disturbing conceptions, no matter how much you try to agree with them, try to honor them and do whatever, they will only harm you more and more and more. They bring only misery. These negative emotions are our true enemy. If you give shelter to them with the idea of having patience with them, hoping that something will change, you get yourself in big trouble. Remember, earlier we said that they will remain on your head and poke your eyes out! It is very similar here. As long as we remain in samsara they remain with us and continue to harm us so much that

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE we remain constantly, continuously, in a state of suffering. That is their job, their function to make sure that we are suffering: in the future they will bring only misery and harm. Their pro- fession is to punish us. We keep the anger, pride and attachment with us. Actu- ally we are keeping our punishers with us, sheltering them. We see them as something that cherishes us, protects us, services our ego. Each one takes a form that suits our consciousness. When you recognize that they are not good for you, you are not going to give them shelter any more. You will get rid of them, recognizing them as bad rubbish, although they have come as good looking, as protection, for your service.

Wrong perception Our problem is that we don’t recognize them as the things that are punishing us. The job of these negative emotions is to ensure that we constantly and continuously suffer. Otherwise, where would our suffering come from? God did not provide it. We don’t want it. It does not just grow out of nowhere. It is simply coming from there. If we don’t realize this, that is where we go wrong. That is wrong perception. Wrong perception is like muddy water that shelters mosquitoes which then breed and multiply. With wrong perception, we provide these muddy waters for the negative emotions. Every time when something bad happens to us and we wonder what went wrong, there is no big mystery. The problem is giving shelter to the negative emotions. That is what went wrong. These negative emotions are worse than normal enemies. If you do something good for normal enemies, month after month, year after year, as I said earlier, they will change their minds. They can become your friends. But with these particular enemies you can never do that. If you try, you lose. They function in the manner of addictions. You know how difficult it is to get rid of addictions to cigarettes and alcohol. You have to go to Alcoholics Anonymous and things like that and even then, a lot of people don’t make it.

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And then, even if you think you have made it, you can still reverse back. That is how addictions work.

Our worst addictions These negative emotions function within ourselves as addictions. You know it if you watch yourself. Get rid of them, don’t give them shelter! When you want to get rid of them, you need constant, continuous efforts. It is not enough to sit down here a couple of time, roll your eyes a few times. That will not help. Traditional teachers give you this example. Say you are very sick with leprosy, losing almost all your fingers, arms and legs, if you occasionally take a few pills, will that help? A few pills are not going to cure that type of illness. The negative emotions have gone on so long in our minds, they have affected us so badly. They have destroyed our lives, one after another, have dragged us down into the lower realms all the time. Whenever you get the chance you may sit down and meditate and roll your eyes a little bit. That may pull you up for some time, but then these negative emotions come again and pull you down. Therefore it is so important to have the antidote actions. The first thing is not to deny it is happening. You need to give recognition. You have to acknowledge. Then you have to try and correct that as much as you can. Correction is really Dharma. True spiritual practice is correcting negative addictions. You will never find any other good spiritual path apart from that. The purpose of a spiritual path is to benefit the individual. The way to benefit yourself is to cut your suffering. The way to ensure that is to cut the cause of suffering, which is the negative emotions. Cutting the negative emotions is the major job of spiritual practice that guarantees the individual will become free from suffering.

What spiritual materialism is The opposite of that is allowing the negative emotions to be in charge. They guarantee us continuous suffering. Knowing that and making the choice to correct the addictions is Dharma practice. If you find a so- called spiritual path which does nothing to get rid of the neg-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE ative emotions, then it is nothing but spiritual materialism. If you do it just to feel good, then it is not spiritual but true spiritual materialism. The purpose of spiritual practice is to help yourself, or better still, to help others and yourself. But remember, if you can’t help yourself, you can’t help others. Forget it! First comes first. I am first of all responsible for myself. Put your finger on your own nose. When you can’t do anything for yourself and then pretend you want to help all sentient beings, it is just bullshit. Sorry, but it is really true. I always give the example of consuming brown rice and wheat grass juice. You can call it spiritual if you want to. It gives you good health - I hope - but it will do nothing to reduce the negative emotions. To me personally, that is not a spiritual path. Sometimes the application of the label spiritual becomes so widely used that anything non-physical becomes spiritual. I think that is a little too much. The bottom line is: “Will it cut down my suffering or not?” If I cannot cut down my own suffering, I cannot cut down anybody else’s suffering. You may say, “Brown rice and wheat grass helps me, it cuts down my physical suffering.” You have a point there. Another example the great teachers used to give is this: Our mind is like a tree that has remained under the dirty water for a long time. It has been soaked so much in the liquid of the negative emotions for millions of years. If you suddenly try to pick that up and apply some perfume to make it smell good, that will not help. It will not change the look and will not change the smell. Just like that, our mind has soaked for so long in these negative emotions. Applying a drop of good quality here and there is not going to get you that far. It is absolutely true. How many times do we cry? I know every one of you has cried many times. Anything goes wrong and you cry. What makes you cry is these ones, the negative emotions that have

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Gelek Rimpoche provided the sensitive buttons. When anybody pushes them it is painful and you scream. Our sufferings come from our negative emotions - the sufferings we experience continuously, one after another, related or unrelated. They are making sure that the sufferings continue. That is what is happening in our life. Emotional, physical and mental sufferings must be coming from somewhere. They do not come from nowhere, nor has God provided us with them. It is simply ourselves making sure through our delusions that we continue to have sufferings. The problem lies here.

What Buddha discovered Listen to me: this is the discovery of the Buddha. This is where Buddha found the problem. You cannot find the problem outside. It is inside. It is here. You cannot go any deeper than this or beyond this. You have to recognize them - not deny, but acknowledge them, and then change them, one by one, bit by bit, hour by hour, day by day. It is a struggle, but a struggle for good. It is not easy. It is difficult, because our negative emotions are so complicated. We also like them, we are in love with them! We treat them like the most precious thing in ourselves, yet they happen to be our most harmful and important enemy. Occa- sional correction, change and application of antidotes will not help. You need to do that constantly. Remember the two examples: The person suffering from leprosy and the old, rotten piece of wood that has been soaking in the pig shit of the Calcutta slums. I am sorry, I am using funny words today. Verse 34 When in cyclic existence, how can I be joyful and unafraid If, in my heart, I readily prepare a place For this incessant enemy of long duration, The sole cause for the increase of all that harms me?

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The only cause for all harm is the negative emotions which are remaining in my heart, the essence of my mind. How can I be happy? How can I be joyful and unafraid? Naturally, we are afraid. We don’t know what we are afraid of, but we are afraid because we have been hurt so much for so long. That is why fear is so powerful in us. We have been hurt constantly, over and over and over for so long because we cherish these negative emotions within our heart. When I talk about negative emotions, you probably just project that anger is over here, hatred over there, but that is not right. Anger is in myself, I mean really strong self- cherishing anger. Real anger includes the fear that somebody is going to hurt and attack me. It is the fear that somebody is pushing me down. Anger does not come like an enemy, but in the form of a friend who wants to protect me. We have to see that. Attachment is a little easier. But still, it is something that I believe so much I can’t afford to lose. I must have it and secure it and a deal must be done so it is mine and mine alone! It is there for my pleasure. To me, when I look from my own window, it is very hard to see anger as anger. It appears to be some kind of protector who is helping me. When it is said that it remains in my heart for a long time, we are not necessarily only talking about the heart as an organ, but the heart as essence.40 It is in the essence of me as a person that there is this anger and this attachment. It is very easy for me to talk about negative emotions and you can say, “Yes, that is anger and it is over there. There is Mr. Anger, Mrs. Attachment, etc.” If you project it that way it does not help at all. We have to understand that it is within the essence of ourselves. It can even go to the extent that I am angry with myself. Of course, I love myself, I care for myself, I have very strong self-cherishing. Yet you can very strongly say, “I am angry with myself.” That shows you how powerful anger is. It looks as if it is protecting you, but it is actually harming you, so much so that you can even

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Gelek Rimpoche hate yourself. The anger within you can do that. I think that is the main point.

Remembering the value of this life That is why going back to the precious human life is so important. It is a great opportunity for us to separate ourselves from that anger which has been utilizing us throughout life after life. This is just one life, but there have been zillions of them, one after another in which anger has utilized us. This anger has made us suffer. Attach- ment has made us suffer. Hatred has made us suffer. The real enemies within ourselves are these negative emotions. They are the total cause of all the suffering that we have ever experienced in our lives and will be the total cause of suffering in future and they are the cause of all the suffering that we experience today. All the suffering comes as consequence of the negative emotions, not from other persons. When it is me and my negative emotions combined with him and his negative emotions it is even more powerful! These negative emotions are fighting to gain control over me. My anger is trying to get me to act according to it, trying to protect myself from you.

Do I actually need to protect myself from you? No, I need to protect myself from my own negative emotions. That is the misunderstanding we have all the time. We think that we have to protect ourselves from some scary guy out there or from Miss Lewinsky!

Like feeding a cobra The negative emotions are our true enemies and not only enemies, but incessant enemies. If you try to help them, you know what that looks like? The traditional teachers give an example. If you have a cobra, this poisonous snake, and if you keep on feeding that cobra with milk, it will become bigger and bigger. Because of that you put yourself in greater and greater danger. This is exactly what we are doing. The negative emotions are the sole cause for all that harms me and I keep them and feed them with whatever they want, like feeding a cobra with milk.

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I readily prepare a place for them to remain, in my head, in my mind, in my heart. Naturally, we get afraid all the time. People get afraid for nothing, because of this. The negative emotions have destroyed our joy and happiness time and again. They have destroyed our life again and again, and yet we are still treating them as our friends. Readily we prepare a place for them in our heart and we follow them and do whatever they want. Our intellectual mind may tell us, “I want to do this and that.” Then there is something else telling us, “But I don’t want to do it.” You know we have this push and pull. Where is it coming from? Now you know. There are fears which we have constantly, without knowing what they are about. Children are afraid of a monster under the bed, or a monster coming out of a closet. We older, grown-up people are afraid and don’t know what we are afraid of. The fear that dominates our life day after day, week after week, hour after hour is coming from here, from the negative emotions and if you feed them you are feeding cobras. That is what Buddha tells the Bodhisattvas. That is the message I am passing on. It is your choice. If you want to feed your cobra, go ahead! Tomorrow morning, make sure that the cobra is not in your slippers or boots, otherwise it will bite you. This is the true exposure we have to the negative emotions which we consider to be so dear and so helpful. Now you begin to see where our fears come from. Now you begin to see why we cry all the time. At least you have some rough idea. Now you begin to see why you have this pull and push between your knowledge and your habit. That makes it hard in life. It makes it hard to cut the negative addictions. It shows the weakness of the person. Your light side is weaker than the darkness. The light cannot pull you out of the darkness, because your addiction will pull you back. Remember, that is within ourselves. There is no one to blame but our own ego. This is not the individual person, but the ego. This is the real enemy within us who is using us like a total slave, making us give shelter to it, making us follow its orders and

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Gelek Rimpoche instructions, making sure that we continuously suffer, making sure that we are frightened. This is the opportunity for us to know about it and make a change. We never knew that. Did I know that before? Did you? No. We used to think that if we suffered it was because somebody else did something or because we had bad luck. We thought it was the mother-in-law’s fault or our mother’s fault. We thought it was perhaps the bearded uncle’s fault. But what we thought was wrong. It was the fault of the ego within us, the fault of the weak person that I am, unable to stand up to this dominating monster within myself. That is where the weakness is, that is where the fault is. That is where the lack of understanding is, that is where the lack of clarity is. That is where we are confused. Once we are confused, every single damn thing we do is confused, everything. It is crystal clear. If you want to help yourself, you have to understand this. If you don’t want to deal with your negative emotions, it does not make a difference to me, not at all. If you make it I will be happy, if you don’t make it, I will be sad. But to me it does not make a wooden nickel’s difference. It does not matter to me. It does not matter to the enlightened beings. It does not matter to the Almighty One. The one who it matters to is you. If you are not going to help yourself, no one can help you. We know that. That is the point. Buddhas will come, Buddhas will go. Friends will come, friends will go. Teachers will come, teachers will go. Information will come, and information will go. Books will come, books will go. Who is staying? Me. The river comes and goes but the pebbles and rocks underneath will remain there. During the summer there is a big river flowing. In the dry season the water dries out, but the rocks are still there. During the winter the river is covered by ice and snow, but the rocks are still there. In spring, the snow melts, but the rocks are still there. In autumn the dust will blow onto the river, but the rocks are still there. So you have the opportunity. If you don’t help yourself, no one can help you.

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE Verse 35 And how shall I ever have happiness If, in a net of attachment within my mind, There dwell the guardians of the prison of cyclic existence, These (disturbing conceptions) that become my butchers and tormentors in hell?41 The job of the negative emotions is to make sure that our pains grow and develop further. They are what makes all this continue. No other enemy can make sure that we suffer continuously. Even Ken Starr does not have the power to make Clinton suffer continuously! Even George Bush cannot make sure that Saddam Hussein or Noriega remain suffering continuously - unless George W. Bush becomes president.42 The negative emotions are the only ones that can make us suffer continuously, because of cause and effect. Because I am responsible for myself, whether I enjoy life or suffer depends on my deeds. The negative emotions are within my mind, in my heart, dictating to me from inside, telling me what to do according to their own agenda. How can I expect to be free from fear? How can I expect to enjoy myself, to have happiness? It is impossible. Not only here, but also in the lower realms, if I ever get reborn there. If they manage to take me down there, they will be my destroyers, my terminators, my butchers and tormentors.

Think about this and use it I want you to think about how the negative emotions function, what they do to us, what we can do for ourselves. Just think about it. Don’t forget this information you just picked up. Today I went to a Chinese restaurant and got a fortune cookie, which said, You are the holder of the wisdom of the ages! Whether or not I am a holder of the wisdom of the ages, what I have been telling you is the wisdom of all those peo-

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Gelek Rimpoche ple from Buddha onward. I am happy to share it with you, but it is up to you to decide what you want to do with it. Remember, we are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. We don’t come up to you and say, “It is my job to help you!” I don’t come knocking on your door. We share the information with you. It is up to you whatever you want to do. As I told you earlier, “It makes no difference to me what you do with this, but it makes a hell of a difference to you.”

Cutting through spiritual materialism Your butcher is in your mind. It is your ego. Who really torments and traumatizes you? Not somebody from outside, but the ego in your own mind. If you don’t recognize that, but think that something external has to come and hit you on the head, and you suddenly develop spiritually, that is just stupid. You are not going to find a person more stupid than that. That is why cutting through spiritual materialism becomes so important. First there are not many who have any spiritual interest at all. In the United States, look at what people are interested in. How many people have any interest in any spiritual path and how many people have none? Compare it and you will know. That already gives you a message. Even among the people who are interested in a spiritual path or religion, how many of them have an understanding how it functions? The majority of these people will just go to church on Sundays, thinking if they are God’s good boys, they will be okay. Look further. How many of those who are a little more open-minded than that are under the influence of spiritual materialism? There are only a tiny percentage of people who are interested in a spiritual path and among those, how many are hoping for the intervention of the Almighty, or Buddha, or Tara? How many are consulting some healers or ancestors or some 16th or 17th century doctors or somebody like that Russian guy Rasputin? All that is spiritual materialism. I don’t think any real intervention is going to come from that - unless Dr. Jack Kervorkian intervenes!43 People are losing the true ground of the spiritual path. I have been talking about this and every verse of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara is

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE confirming it more and more, especially the chapter of conscientiousness, talking about bringing in awareness, and having discipline.

Who is harming me? According to these verses, who is harming me strongly, powerfully? It is my ego. It makes sure that I have a constant, continuous variety of sufferings. It makes sure that I am stuck tight to samsara. In other words it has put me in the prison of samsara and it will never let me out. Who is protecting this prison, making sure that I can’t get out? It is my ego, my jailer. While in there, I am tortured and tormented by all types of suffering. We say that in the hell realms there are human beings, birds, dogs, and others and all of those will come and kick you, bite you, eat you, burn you, but who is the agent doing this? Nobody else except my own ego. It is my true enemy, however I treat it as so important and keep it inside my mind. I even protect it within the net of my attachment. How can I have leisure if all this is happening? It reminds me of the movie called Airforce One with Har- rison Ford. He totally trusted the guard who was doing everything for him. The President trusted him to protect him; he was the President’s bodyguard, but he was actually trying to destroy him. That is exactly how we trust our own ego and keep it in our principal network and never even suspect it. Even the last, single gun the President got in his hands he handed over to this guard. That is exactly how we treat the ego in our system. In the case of the President, unless and until this guy was shot, the President could never be saved. Even the Airforce One plane went down because of that person. This is exactly what our ego does to us. Our body will go down anyway, and so will our mind but our soul can be saved if we destroy that ego. During the Buddha’s lifetime, when he gave teachings he had a lot of kings and queens among his followers. One of these kings had some difficulties. He went to explain to Buddha, “I have this huge enemy who gives me such a headache.” But Buddha said to him, “No, that enemy is very

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Gelek Rimpoche small, but you do have a big enemy.” He kept on saying that. One day the king turned to Buddha and said, “You have been saying that my enemy is small and yet I have had such difficulty in dealing with that person and finally I gained control over him. But tell me, who then is the big enemy and when is he going to come?” Buddha replied, “This great, big enemy is called the ego-grasping, deluded mind. We have that right from the beginning and it has continued with us all the time.” It is important here not only to recognize that the ego is the source of big problems but also to recognize the negative emotions, which are the consequences or products of the ego. You may call them neuroses or delusions or whatever you want to. The name is only a label. But what they are is attachment, hatred, jealousy and all these kinds of emotions. They are harmful and we need to know how this is happening if we want to become spiritual persons. The moment the negative emotions grow in your mind they give you delusions, they make you confused. Attachment, hatred, whatever it may be, the moment it grows it confuses us. It will draw our attention to the opposite direction of what we should be thinking. It will give us wrong information. It will also make sure that these delusions will continue. This is the job of the negative emotions. One negative emotion will bring another one. Attachment will bring anger and anger will bring attachment. Attachment will bring jealousy and jealousy will bring hatred. Anger will bring hatred. This is making sure that it continues, one after another. That is their job, making it impossible for the individual to think straight. They continuously give you confusion and make sure that attachment and hatred last forever. Because of that, harm is done not only to ourselves, but to others as well. That makes sure that we keep on suffering continuously, physically and mentally. It even makes sure that our next life is going to be worse than the one we have now. In other words, it takes you away from liberation, from nirvana, from virtue and joy. It makes sure that we continue to have this

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE zigzag type of life in samsara, with a little bit of joy, a little bit of fear, a little bit of everything. Maitreya Buddha said, The delusions destroy me, they destroy all sentient beings, our morality. They make us suffer. The Buddhas despise them. They make you controversial (in a bad way). They keep you absolutely busy, so that you will have no time to help yourself. Any spiritual development which you have obtained will be destroyed. Ultimately it gives you a very painful mind. This is the fault of the delusions, the ego products.

How to make spiritual practice count The line between who is a Bodhisattva and who is not is drawn on the basis of whether you have Bodhimind, the ultimate, unlimited, unconditioned love and compassion which is willing to go beyond your limitations and serve all beings. In order to be able to serve all beings one would like to achieve the ultimate spiritual development which is called the level of a Buddha. Bodhimind is a two-pronged mind. One aspect is totally dedicated to helping others, the other aspect seeks enlightenment to be able to fulfill the first wish. Every one of us would love to be a Bodhisattva, but we are not. Even if you are a dedicated spiritual practitioner, that does not make you a Bodhisattva at all. As a matter of fact, one who would like to seek freedom from suffering and the cause of suffering, up to the level of saying, Samsara is suffering and nirvana is peace, is not even a Mahayana practitioner. Samsara means an unplanned, uncontrolled life which runs by itself and which we cannot do much about, a life with all its illnesses, death and so on. These things come by themselves, we cannot plan and control them. Nirvana is peace, as one of the Buddhist statements or seals says. There is no suffering in that state, but I was told that it is an extremely boring place! No excitement! Certain practitioners

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Gelek Rimpoche begin to think, “Nirvana is a very joyful place, but very boring, a lukewarm place. Even if I get there, I can’t do very much to help my friends and companions. I am not interested in that.” When you reach that level you start looking for something better than Nirvana alone. At that point love and compassion become the principle in your activities because you are going beyond the goal of just freeing yourself from suffering. You care for others and begin to work with activities that help them. You are shifting to a different track. You not derailed, but you have shifted and uplifted so that the track you are moving on is now the track of caring and love and compassion as a principle. When that has happened, you are beginning to move towards the Bodhisattva path or Mahaya- na path, the compassion path. At that point your spiritual practice has become upgraded because you have become qualified.

Like the frequent flyer system! It is like the airline mileage system. When you first begin saving your miles you may get a free trip here and there, but when you get a few miles more you become a preferred traveler. At that level you can pay a little or give a couple of your mileage certificates and you may be able to upgrade again. Then you become a gold card holder. At that level you are almost treated like a first class traveler, even though you may only buy the cheapest ticket. Just like that over here, at first you work on your own spiritual path, trying to cut down the negativities, build up positivity. That is like saving up the mileage. You get an extra twenty thousand miles and you get a free trip! Just like that, you accumulate some positive karma and through that you may get one life that is better. After a while you become a preferred member and you not only get one better life, but you can buy a better life simply by using a little bit of positive karma or giving a mileage certificate. In that way you can maintain better lives, one after another. Then you shift your track and upgrade to gold cardholder. Even if you buy the cheapest ticket, you can go First Class. Just like that, even if

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE you only put in very little effort, by virtue of being a gold cardholder all your positive karma becomes so powerful. That is how the spiritual path works in relation to the airline mileage system! You can use any airline, but you have to stick to it, otherwise it may not work. It is the same thing. If you really do a positive work within the basic principle of non-violence, virtue, dedication, service-oriented action and compassion, it works, but if you start doing something else it may not work. I have nothing against other spiritual systems, but if your principles are not based so much on positive and negative karmic systems, but just on focusing or flying in the air or astral traveling, if you shift and change, the airline is not going to honor your mileage. I don’t mean that you have to stick with Jewel Heart, but if you stick with the system of virtue and non-virtue, positive and negative karma, it helps. If you do a sudden 180-degree turn and do something else, I don’t think your miles will be honored.

The levels of spiritual progress So that is how it works with the first, second and third level. You may also call it the first, second and third path, or the first, second and third principle. You may call it the first, second and third yana. You may call it Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. It is within the system that the enlightened beings are working and if you do it in that manner, that is how it works on the spiritual path. If you think that the spiritual path means flying in the air, staying under the ground or remaining under the water, you are mistaken. Birds fly in the air, fish stay under water, worms and moles remain under the ground, and so do groundhogs. Anyway, that is not the way to become enlightened. Many people think that way, however. They will think that a certain person must be enlightened because he stayed for nine years in some cave without light. They think that is great, and it is fine, if it helps you to make a dent in your ego. Then it is great. If you don’t make any dent in your ego, but as a matter of fact even increase it, then you can remain un-

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Gelek Rimpoche der the ground for nine or even for eighteen years and it does no good for anybody. There are people who think that if you restrain yourself from certain things, it is something great spiritually, but not necessarily. Disciple is a useful applied method, but if you have lost the purpose of the discipline, it is not good. There are people who refuse to eat. They think it is a great spiritual achievement to die through not eating food. There are people who think that if you throw yourself on a trident and die that way, you become enlightened: this was a traditional practice in India even during the Buddha’s lifetime. There are people who think that if you burn certain physical body parts you become purified and then enlightened. Even in some Buddhist orders there are people who put cloth over one of their fingers, soak that in oil and let it burn like a butter lamp offering. That is painful, no doubt, but you do not necessarily obtain enlightenment doing that. And those monks who burnt themselves during the Vietnam War: their motivation might have been great but the method was violent. That is not right. If Buddha was alive he would not approve of that. We are not criticizing those monks who did that in the sixties, but the method was violent and not right. It also leaves a terrible impact on certain people’s minds. A year ago we almost received a nice big meditation place in New York, but the local people there said, “We don’t want any Buddhists here, especially not the ones in yellow and red robes. Maybe they will burn themselves in the street.”44 That is the impression people get and it is not that unreasonable either. It did happen.

The purpose of spiritual practice Violence against yourself is not necessarily a spiritual path at all. It does require a tremendous amount of discipline. What stronger discipline than burning yourself to death or burning your finger? How can anyone bear it? However, not every discipline is necessarily a great spiritual practice if it is self-sacrifice, torture, violence and misses the purpose.

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The purpose is to make a dent in your ego, to change your way of functioning, your way of looking at things, how you deal with people, how you deal with yourself, how you deal with the world. That is what you really have to change. These strange, violent practices may instead even boost the ego. There are a number of people who go into three-year retreats or even into three three-year retreats and come out of their caves with big, inflated egos, saying, “I did it!” What a big deal: the same big, fat mole that went in, lost a little bit of weight and came out again! On the other hand there are others who do not do anything like that, but work hard, try to improve their minds, try to change the ego perception of life into a positive dharmic perception, without sitting in retreat for even a single week. These people are great. It is not how much you work, but what kind of method you apply. Some people almost work for twenty-four hours a day, but only make $18,000 a year, and then there are people who can think and plan and hardly work five or six hours a day and make millions. That is what we see in general life. Likewise, in spiritual practice it is the same. What counts is how much difference you can make, not how much you have worked. You could put in tremendous amounts of efforts and yet your achievement could be really small. But it is possible for you to put a little effort in and have a really good achievement. That is really great. So it is not how much you work, but how you work and what results you get. It is the bottom line. In the material world it is how many dollars you make. In the spiritual world it is how big a dent you can make in the ego. The Bodhisattva way is considered to be the best way and within that, the Vajrayana way is considered to be the best. But you cannot just jump into the Vajrayana without any groundwork. The groundwork to be able to jump into Vajrayana is the sutra Bodhisattva way. That is what we are talking about here. This chapter on being conscientiousness says a lot about not harming anybody, including yourself. It says that from

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Gelek Rimpoche the beginning to the end. Then it says, “Who is hurting you? It is the ego. Your enemy is not outside, it is within you, inside you. You are protecting your own enemy with your net of attachment!” So the best way to have discipline, the best way to achieve something is to hit the ego. That is your enemy. Kick him out, throw him out, throw his belongings through the window! It is like people who cannot pay their rent. I see it sometimes when I drive around. Suddenly one day somebody’s belongings will be out there on the street and you feel sorry for them. Before they can come and pick up their belongings, somebody else probably comes and takes them. You are not only being thrown out of the house but your belongings are also grabbed by other people with trucks. Just like that, you should evict the ego. The bottom line message you should get is that the cause at the root of all the problems is not you, but your ego. If you want to use discipline, make sure you hurt the ego. Don’t hurt yourself. That is what we heard in verse 35. Questions and Answers Student: I can’t understand how one can experience nothingness? Rimpoche: May be we are not nothingness. Maybe we are here, maybe this is real - real life. Think about it once for a change. I can see that your beard is a real beard.

Student: I just read a Buddhist book, and I thought.…. Rimpoche: I read all sorts of funny things too. I read Lobsang Rampa45 too. I read how Lobsang Rampa flies from the Potala!

Student: So is there no such thing as nothingness? Rimpoche: There is, but the point is: the nothingness of what? What is not there?

Student: Is that emptiness?

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Rimpoche: I don’t know. What I heard about it is that emptiness is fullness.

Student: Earlier you said that the negative emotions make us cry. I was wondering whether that could include crying with empathy caused by the suffering of others? Rimpoche: It could, it is possible in both ways. You asked if it could and I said, yes, it could. But does it happen? I don’t know. It could happen due to compassion and compassion can definitely mix with the emotions. I have seen many people do that.

Student: But would that be considered as an afflictive emotion? Rimpoche: I think you can go through and sort it out. The action of an individual could include a number of different emotions, positive and negative can be combined together.

Student: Once we have identified particular negative emotions, how do we go about fighting them? Rimpoche: Good question. There is no short answer. We have been giving a lot of information on this issue for a long time here and more will continuously come. For example, if you find anger within you, the antidote is patience. If you find pride as a source of problems, then the antidote is to be a normal person, don’t be a superhuman being. First you need to find out what the problem is and then you need to apply the antidote. Applying the antidote once will not do, two applications will not do. Remember the two examples.46 It is a matter of constantly and continuously applying the antidotes, again and again, again and again. Then you can destroy them. Every time you add up another nail in their coffin and you hammer it in!

Student: What about the emotion of fear? Rimpoche: We talked about that the other day, remember? When we keep this dictator, this horrible person, this ego, inside ourselves, how can we be free from fear? We talked about that in verse 35. We keep this enemy in ourselves, give 238

Gelek Rimpoche it shelter and then it comes out and pokes our eyes out. As long as we keep that in there, how can we be free of fear? That is why we are afraid all the time, not knowing what it is. This provides the opportunity for negative emotions to grow. Fear serves as a medium of the ego, communicating to us, threatening us. That is fear - the medium of threat by the ego, overpowering us. It is our fault. We give it shelter. We put it on our heads. Then, when you want to catch it, it flies up and comes back down, even between your big horns and starts poking your eyes out.

Student: I have this negative emotion but I cannot recognize which one it is. It gives me a lot of suffering. There is a lot of stress, not being able to do all these things that I am supposed to do or that I want to do. There are all sorts of re- quirements and deadlines that cause a lot of stress and un- happiness. I can’t recognize which negative emotion is causing this. Rimpoche: Very good question. There might not be a negative emotion causing it. It may simply be over- zealousness. Our life is also designed in such a way that we always find ourselves in competitive situations. From the level of students to the business level, from the editorial to the executive level, even up to the presidential level you have that. Even Presi- dent Clinton has to think of Kenneth Starr all the time! It is human nature that provides the pressure. It might not necessarily be the consequence of negative emotions. At the same time there may be attachment, jealousy, and even anger involved. We are good at utilizing them to make sure that the other side has enough pain. How many people are playing out a guilt trip! Why are they doing this? Because they want to hurt the other person. They want to make them feel it a little more, even if it is their own best friend. They want to make them feel the pain, so they use the guilt trip. That is how we create our own suffering. Our life is designed in that way. Society is built in that way, absolutely and truly. Every- body wants to get you.

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Student: I have recently come out of a relationship and I can see how my actions are putting me through what I am going through right now. I don’t want to stay in the place of pain that I am in, but I don’t know how get out of that attachment, let alone being able to have another relationship which is free of such pain. Rimpoche: [pauses for a while and then: ] Good luck! [everybody laughs]. The pains which we experience with attachment are the consequences of attachment itself. With that I don’t mean attachment to the other person but attachment to ourselves. It is like this: I have a strong attachment to myself, so I cannot be wrong. Whatever wrong things are going on, it is his or her doing, not mine. You think, ‘I am not here to take the blame, it is all done wrong by you. I want you to accept this. I want you to accept this right here, right now. Say it is your fault.’ So your own attachment would like to have that. You want to hold the person, shake them and make them accept your version of the events. But the person will not accept that. That is the problem. That is where all the pains come from. It is the attachment to oneself. When the other person refuses to accept, the attachment changes its color. You think, ‘I must protect myself, otherwise it will repeat all the time. He (or she) is a terrible person. I thought he was good person, but he has changed. He is bad, I disagree with him, I hate him’. You say to the person, ‘I don’t want to see you again, get lost.’ You see, the anger comes in. Then, you suddenly see the person talking to somebody else and you think, ‘Why not me? Why is he talking to her? I have done this, this and that for him and he has no appreciation whatsoever.’ Now the jealousy comes in. You wish them harm, not only that person but everybody around them. It is like a poisonous snake, darting its tongue at everybody. At the end of all that, when everything is over, you are completely tired and exhausted, beat up, painful, you have lost everything and you are miserable. These are the consequences of negative emotions. When you are looking for

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Gelek Rimpoche relief by substituting one attachment for another, I don’t think it will work. You should substitute it by understanding how the negative emotions work. A new relationship should be built on understanding and appreciation, rather than attachment and false love. This is the old man’s advice to a young guy. Okay? Thank you.

Student: How do you get rid of anger? Rimpoche: I put it in the washing machine! I am always trying to make a little bit of a distinction between anger and a temper tantrum. It is hatred that is the worst rather than losing your temper here and there. People have the usual habit of losing their temper very often. Trying to get rid of it is not very simple. It is important to recognize it and not deny it. Very often people will say, ‘I am not angry, but it is for your own good. Listen to me!’ That is what you tell the children. With your spouse it goes a little different: ‘I am not angry, but I want to make it clear once and for all, you have got to admit right at this moment that you have done this!’ We talked about that the other day. This behavior causes more trouble than understanding. It only works with a few exceptional people. I have friends who do that very often. She will say to him, ‘I need to talk to you right now. Drop whatever you are doing and come upstairs.’ Somehow they have been able to get along. They are still continuing. There are a few exceptional people who can function that way. Otherwise, getting people to admit their own problems is very difficult. The negative emotions safeguard themselves under denial. We all have the tendency to deny rather than acknowledge or admit. The first step therefore is recognition rather than denial. The second step is to recognize the faults of anger. There are five or six reasons you can raise. You can say that anger makes you look terrible. Your physical appearance looks terrible. If you recollect, I mentioned that the face of an angry person looks like a monkey’s backside. I talked about it earlier and I think you can read about it in the transcripts called Transforming Negativities. So

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE there are a number of reasons why anger does you no good. If you are confronted with seven or eight different reasons, then at the end you have to make your own choice. Verse 36 Therefore as long as this enemy is not slain with certainty before my very eyes, I shall never give up exerting myself (towards that end). Having become angry at someone who causes only slight and short-lived harm, Self-important people will not sleep until their (enemy) is overcome. This verse says to be like those who will not go to sleep until the enemy is overcome. That is the Bodhisattva way. Think, “I must destroy my enemy, the negative emotions and their causes, the seeds that make it possible for anger and so forth to rise again and again!” It is not only a matter of getting rid of anger alone, but also the cause of anger. When I see that with my own eyes, unless and until I destroy that, unless and until I win the day, I will not rest. I will continue to work and try to bring in the antidote against anger and the other negative emotions, attachment, jealousy, ignorance. I will not give up! For example, in usual life, if someone has slandered you or constantly attacked and challenged you, you would normally go against that person until the matter is settled. In the days the Bodhisattvacharyavatara was written, it was probably done in the cowboy way. Someone would challenge somebody, and next thing they would start shooting each other, until one of them would fall down. If you do all that in the face of one small enemy, compare that to the huge enemy you have within, who gives you trouble all the time, making sure that you continue to suffer, who continuously keeps you under its control, gets you into

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Gelek Rimpoche trouble at every opportunity, and prevents you from freeing yourself. If that is not a bad enemy, who else is? If the normal custom is to challenge even small enemies, why are you letting this one go? If we cannot overcome Milosevec who is responsible for the killing of so many Albanians, how can we overcome the negative emotions? If you cannot let go of Saddam Hus- sein, how can you let go of your negative emotions? The harm that Saddam and Milosevec cause it no comparison to the harm the negative emotions cause. They are causing all our trouble. The Kosovo question is a very difficult one. If you ask me whether I am for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia the answer is that I am certainly not for it. But if you ask me what else can be done, I don’t know. It is a terrible situation, but I personally believe that two wrong things don’t make one right. It is a sad situation, and it is also caused by negative emotions, the negative emotions of the Serbs and of the Albanians. They could not settle their differences and have to go and kill each other. Ethnic cleansing is very bad. Can you even imagine? But is the answer to that the NATO bombs? Certainly not. Personally I don’t think so. However, I cannot offer any other alternative. Even though I am not for the war, I cannot say what else to do. But what is being done now is wrong. Look at all the troubles between different groups, between Kurds and Turks, between Hutus and Tutsis, between Tibetans and Chinese, between Muslims and Hindus. All these religious and ethnic troubles are caused by these fellows called negative emotions. Attachment and hatred come in the form of service, of devotion, pride, prejudice. Along with that come things like a superiority complex and so on. All these are due to negative emotions. Troubles between religious traditions, between races, between nations, between families, between husband and wife, children and parents, neighbors, etc., all problems come from here. The egos of the Serbs and the egos of the Albanians are hurt. Their egos become more and more powerful until they

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE no longer fight by mouth, but by hand. Then NATO comes and throws more bombs on top of it. This is what is called the samsaric melodrama. And we sit here, enjoy our coffee, watch CNN and giggle. There are people dying. We see the laser bomb going, hitting at the right spot, a little black smoke goes up. We sit there and watch. We may not be saying, “Well done!” but we don’t scream either. We somehow just sit there and watch. That is the melodrama of the world today. We can see it right in our face, right under own nose. Recognize that, acknowledge that. Spend a little time analyzing what the cause of that is. It is all because of the egos of different groups and people. It is all because of the negative emotions. Now we are in there because of NATO. Even if Clinton would like to withdraw now, he couldn’t. What would he say, “Excuse me, I was drunk!?” So he has to have something, it is another pumping up of negative emotions with the idea of saving the Albanians. Even though it is with a good motivation, it is mixed up with negative emotions and so they go there, saying, “We have to teach him a lesson.” Now they can’t withdraw. If you are a spiritual practitioner, if you are open- minded, if you know what you are doing, here you can see the real cause of trouble which we are keeping within ourselves. Determine not to rest until you have done something against that. It is just like war. Verse 37 And if while engaged in a violent battle, The vigorous desire to conquer those whole disturbing conceptions will naturally bring them suffering at death, Men disregard the pain of being pierced by spears and arrows And will not withdraw until the

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day is won; In order to destroy this ego, no matter whatever sacrifices you have to make, any difficulties that you have to have are worth going through. Challenging your ego is like being in a war. When you are at war, facing your enemy, you are not going to run away. Even if you have some cuts and wounds, get pierced by spears and arrows, you are not going to be a coward. Just because of seeing a little blood, you are not going to run away. A coward, when he sees somebody else’s blood, will run away. If you are a hero, then when you see your own blood, you get more ferocious and you stand there and fight. A little cut here and a would there will not make you run, otherwise you would have to run away even from cats. When they come and scratch you, or if a dog snaps at your heels, you would have to run away. In order to defeat the delusions, you not only have to be brave, you have to be a hero. This is a powerful enemy. If you encounter this enemy, until you finish it off, you can’t run away. Spiritual practice is almost like a battle between the ego and ourselves. Until now we have been used like a slave by the ego. It is time for us to stand against that, to stand on our feet, to stand our ground and challenge that bully. We have to do it, otherwise we will be a doormat all the time. We have been that doormat life after life. Should we continue to do that? It would guarantee that we are going to be a doormat forever. This important life now is our opportunity. We have wisdom and understanding, we have this great mind, the mind that Buddha had, the mind that Einstein had. If we cannot utilize this we are useless. There would be no difference between a dog and a human being. Remember, in the lam rim we tell you how precious and important this life is because we can think, we can understand, we can make a difference. Here we have the opportunity, we have this great mind, we have the understanding and we have this great information. If we can’t use it, it is nobody else’s fault but our own.

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Even if you have to make some sacrifices and endure a little bit of inconvenience, is it worth it. You are going to make a total difference in your lives - I purposely used the plural. It is the junction where you are facing the choice between upwards and downwards. It is the junction where you have to go either to the right side or the wrong side. It is the time for us to make an important decision which will make a difference in our lives. It is entirely in our own hands, nobody else’s. That is why this life is important, this opportunity, the ability to understand, is important. This is it. If you miss it, you lose another hundreds of lives. I believe that was Buddha’s message. Just like war, we are now facing our worst enemy, the ego. We have reached that level whether we like it or not. We are here. We can see the faults, we know who is the real culprit. We have really gone into the battlefield against our own ego. Shantideva is saying, “Don’t run away, don’t be a coward!” Are you with me, or are you running away? In other words, you have to be well prepared; you should have good protection. When you are face to face with the enemy you have to be very strong and brave. Otherwise you will be nowhere. They will really chase you, you will become a doormat! You have no place to run to anyway, since the enemy is within you. You have no alternative but to fight. Those who are called brave people, they will disregard a few cuts and wounds and they will get the enemy, right? That is how to get rid of anger.

Overcoming anger It is not some little, nice, compassionate pat on the shoulder that will get rid of anger. We have heard that love and compassion is the antidote to anger. Yes, it is, but at the same time, love-and-light alone will never be able to do it. Not only that, but love-and-light will never be able to challenge anger at all. Otherwise, all these love-and-light people would be already in heaven, but they are not. They are all over the place!

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You really have to go to war against anger. At that time you can get wounded. People get burned and want to run away when they work with the negative emotions. They say, “I am shocked. I have been burned!” You probably have got a little scratch from the ego’s cat. You got shocked and you have run away. Such a person will never be able to get rid of anger. Such a person will never be able to get rid of ego, attachment, or any negative emotions. That person will simply sit in the corner with a long face and will say, “I don’t want to talk about it. Get out of here!” If you do that, you will remain there, year after year, life after life, century after century, eon after eon. Ego likes that. It may lose one cover which is called denial. Then the second shelter it has is that one: “I have been burned!” Being burned or burned out really means that the person is weakened. The person loses their determination. That is why we need the example of war. Somebody throws a spear at you and doesn’t really get you. You stretch your hand out and it cuts you a little bit and you go “Ow,” and you scream. If you try to challenge the negative emotions on such a level, forget it. You are not prepared. If you go and sit in the corner, we simply have to say, “Goodbye, good luck. See you in 200 eons!”

The three kinds of enthusiasm This is telling you to be diligent. If you remember in the lam rim, when we talk about enthusiasm or diligence, there are three types.47 One of them is the armor-like enthusiasm. You will be prepared. You remember the old movies where they show battles and the soldiers have these shields. Every knife that is thrown at them gets held off by that shield and the soldier can continue to fight back. You need the self-protection in that way. Remember the story of Ram Dass and the arrows that were thrown at him. He said that his brother was throwing arrows at him.48 Ram Dass was calmly picking up all the arrows and putting them on his plate in front of him. This story you will also find in the transcript Transforming Negativi- ties. Remember also the demonstration which we have seen

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE in one of our winter retreats. It was between Ma Peng Kong and David Jacobson. That story you will also find in Trans- forming Negativities.49

The true training is to battle your own ego The six paramitas or perfections, generosity, morality, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom, are technical methods for handling our practice. In one way it is practice, in another way it is sort of a technicality how you maintain your practice. Never think of practice as reading from a little booklet, saying a few mantras and rolling your eyes! That is not necessarily practice. The true training is how to engage in the battle with your own ego. The six paramitas are your advantage points in that battle. Apply each and every one of these six with every practice you do. Whenever you challenge you ego, anger, attachment, apply all six of them. It is not the recitation of OM MANI PADME HUNG or OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA, but the thought and the engaging in the thoughts and processes and ideas, understanding and seeing what is and what is not which is the true practice. If you can do that, your total practice could just be OM AH HUNG. If you cannot, then no matter how many mantras you say, it does not make a difference, it is just sound and is almost like giving a curse to people.

Superficial practice won’t help When it is just superficial, then as soon as some difficulties come, like illnesses or death, you become terribly weak and afraid. It is obvious. You have got a lot of information about future lives. You know something is going to come up but you don’t know what. You have done a lot of different things in your life, like the Judeo- Christian tradition, then you may have tried the Hindu- Buddhist traditions, then this and that and you don’t really know what the truth is. You don’t even know where you are and what is going to happen and so you are going to get tremendously scared. All that is because you are going through the practice superficially.

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Right now you people are young, healthy, interested, educated, and this is the time where you have to go a little deeper, unless you are stupid. If you are in fact stupid, tell yourself, “I am stupid. I can simply go on faith, nothing else.” That probably will not let you down. It is good enough, if you have the right guide. You can settle for that. But as long as you don’t admit to being stupid, if you think that you are intelligent enough, it is the time for you to use your great mind, your intellectual capacity, to get into it deeper. If you don’t, you will regret it at the end. You don’t know what is going to happen in future, you don’t know what right or wrong you have done before. You are almost in a helpless situation and naturally you are going to be very afraid. You may be so afraid that you can’t breathe properly. You might not be able to eat properly or drink a glass of water peacefully because of anxiety. To avoid those things, right now is the time to put efforts in. Use all six paramitas, not just enthusiasm. It is not just some kind of label, but the six of them are tools that you can use on any level, according to your capacity. So use them, challenge the ego, challenge the negative emotions! Then you will not get burned out, you will not get defeated. Verse 38 Then what need to mention that I should not be faint-hearted and slothful, Even if I am caused many hundreds of sufferings When now I strive to definitely overcome my natural enemies, (These disturbing conceptions) which are the constant source of my misery? This verse simply reinforces that you should continuously apply the fourth paramita of enthusiasm or perseverance. By directly telling you that, it indirectly tells you to apply all six paramitas.

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If you are missing any paramita in any application, you have a problem.50 If you don’t have generosity, the meager- ness or stinginess will not go. A number of those who claim to be good spiritual practitioners can no longer let go of anything: their clinging is lack of generosity. Many spiritual practitioners have a tremendous amount of difficulties and obstacles when they want to do certain things. They just don’t get it done: this is lack of morality or discipline. Many practitioners cannot put efforts in continuously, but get tired and burn out so quickly: this is lack of patience. Many practitioners cannot put in efforts, and laziness takes over: this is lack of enthusiasm. There is almost no interest. Remember, the example is that of the dead-tired donkey struggling uphill with a full load. That is lack of enthusiasm. When there is no interest, you lose all purpose and you get defeated. You are no longer interested. In one way, in American society we like to treat ourselves to whatever we feel like doing, wherever our interest lies. When we like it, we pursue it and do it. On the other hand, for our personal gain, we need to have the spiritual interest, the interest in overcoming our negative emotions, the interest in overcoming ego. We must maintain this. If we lose this, we are actually pulling the carpet from under own feet. Remember that! This is how laziness will take you over. Then, if you don’t have focus or concentration, you will try to do something, then something else, and so on, and you will get nowhere. It is like going to five different doctors and getting five different prescriptions. If you try all of them, it will physically make you crazy. You go to a Chinese doctor for acupuncture, then you try massage therapy, then go to a homoeopathic doctor, then go to the allopathic doctors for drugs and so on. That way you will go nowhere. You will probably take some pills for two days and then switch and try something else for two days. In the spiritual path it is just like that. First you may get the idea to do some Zen. Then you change your mind and go to church to pray. Soon you will go to a temple to do some chanting. Or maybe do some Hindu thing for a while, mum-

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Gelek Rimpoche bling mantras. Then you think, “Maybe I should go to the Tibetans and ring the bells.” After that you decide that you should have some brown rice and wheat grass juice. You change your mind and go for some fish, but then a hamburger looks more attractive. How are you going to get anywhere like that? Constant, persistent, continuous effort is a must, otherwise our challenge to the ego will fail. This enemy is very persistent, very well organized and you are already under its control. The task is extremely difficult. You can only win by fighting within yourself. You can never win by running away. The other night I was watching a TV series about the cold war and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. They were talking about East Germany. There were always people trying to escape from East to West. Remember those days? Many got killed, a small number of people were able to get through. Then, when Gorbachev introduced perestroika, East Germany almost collapsed, the border opened and so many people rushed out. Yet a group of people decided to stay inside East Germany and continue to fight in the oppo- sition itself and that was finally able to see Honaker out of power and bring about the introduction of democracy in East Germany. This reminded me that the enemy, the ego, is within ourselves. As long as you keep on running, you will never be able to challenge it and you will never be able to win the war. If you run, the ego goes with you, no matter wherever you run to. The Albanians fleeing from Kosovo can at least leave the Serbs behind. But here we are running away along with our ego, our enemy which we carry within us. Remember that chocolate chip commercial where they carry this huge, fat guy on their shoulders? Just like that we are carrying that huge ego on our shoulders and running around all over the place. Wherever you go, you are carrying that ego around with you, so where are you going to run? It is time for us to stop running. Sit down and settle yourself. Start fighting. Ground yourself. That is why right from the beginning, ten years ago, I have been saying,

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“Ground yourself, don’t fly.” If you cannot ground yourself, how can you fight? There is no way. You can hope for the best, try to be a little nice and kind, have a little bit of compassion, but still the struggle goes on. Sometimes our flag is up, sometimes it is down. Right now that is how we are managing. The real point here is to settle down and challenge the ego. Questions and Answers Student: Can you talk some more about doubt? You talked about running from one spiritual tradition to the next. Rimpoche: It was more in the sense that if you try too many different things for just a short time you will get nowhere. Whatever you pick up, you should put constant effort into and let it have its own effect for some time. So don’t fly. We are not here to build up some mileage. We are here to get something done. You raised a question about doubt. Doubt has good and bad qualities. The good quality is that it will give you ample opportunity to examine and challenge and select. The bad part is that if you are under the control of doubt you may go on doubting everything until the day you die. You need wisdom to find out where to draw the line.

Student: A few weeks ago I think you said that the mind is really not luminous, but its nature is to be colorless, permanent and static. Attachment means coming always back to the same thing. If the mind is permanent like that, it would be very difficult to die without attachment. Rimpoche: But you know that mind is not permanent, it is not static. You know it changes, you know that yourself very well. Don’t you change your mind?

Student: Yes, I do. Rimpoche: Good, that shows you that it is not permanent. So your first point, that mind is permanent, has been disproved. Mind is changing, it is not static and permanent. I have seen a lot of stubborn minds, but I have not seen any static ones

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Gelek Rimpoche yet. Mind is colorless, without shape. The scriptural reference says that mind is luminous and that all faults are just adventi- tious, but it is not actually luminous in the sense of radiating light. I have never said that mind is permanent. I might have said that it is a continuation of discontinuity. That does not make it permanent.

Student: When it comes to working with behavioral patterns, is it useful to take like a snapshot of a particular pattern, like for example liking some particular person and disliking another person? Rimpoche: I don’t know. If you keep on collecting snapshots one after another, you will get nowhere. I remember one incident during Buddha’s lifetime. One of the Indian rulers had a dream. He went to see Buddha the next day. He said that he had a terrible dream the previous night and feared that it meant something terrible for his kingdom. He said that in the dream he saw a bunch of monkeys stuck in a heap of shit. All of them had that stuff on their bodies. Everybody was pointing their finger at other monkeys, saying, ‘Look at him, he has got shit all over his body!’ but nobody saw themselves at all. The ruler said that this must have been a bad dream. Buddha, however, replied that this had nothing to do with his kingdom. He said, ‘It has probably to do with my disciples in the degenerate age.’ Probably at this moment it is very difficult for us to see what the pattern of our own negative emotions really is. To take a snapshot is extremely difficult. We may be thinking that we are taking a snapshot, but we are not, really. What is really required is to get out of our system, go out of our bodies and look at us from outside - something which we cannot do. But we can look in the mirror. There we can see our body. It is similar to the Rudi and Bertolucci. They came to see me when they were working on the script to the film Little Buddha. They had great difficulties about how to prove to the father of the Seattle boy that this boy was a reincarna-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE tion. Rudi said that he had written a lot of movie scripts, but never had such difficulties as with this one. I told him, ‘You have to get out of your Buddhist suit and wear a normal, every day movie writer’s suit. Completely forget about the Buddhist suit and write. It will work.’ Just like that, in order to see the pattern of our negative emotions, we have to really get way out there and watch it. Otherwise it is extremely difficult and whatever we find will be misleading.

Student: To apply what you were talking about in view of the nine bullets51, is that stepping out that far? Rimpoche: With the nine bullets you are shooting from quite far away, it is quite a distance away. However, you have to go even beyond that, to tell you the truth. It is not that impossible, but it is really hard. When we think we are in control, to 99.9% we are not. We are fooling ourselves. So we say to each other: ‘Good luck!’ Verse 39 If even scars inflicted by meaningless enemies Are worn upon the body like ornaments, Then why is suffering a cause of harm to me While impeccably striving to fulfil the great purpose? In the Tibetan text the word meaningless comes first. Meaning- lessly, people get upset and fight. If you get wounded, you like to show off the wounds or scars, as though they were ornaments. It is like somebody showing you their battle scars and telling you, “Oh, that happened when I was in Vietnam.” Vietnam might not be the right example. George Bush Sr. used to say, “I was wounded in World War II.” Likewise Bob Dole used to show off his injured hand. It sounds like a joke, but in a way it is true. People do that, they show you that.

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They show off their scars as though they were diamond neck- laces! Bodhisattvas point out that people proudly exhibit these meaningless cuts and wounds. In comparison, in order to become enlightened, when you have a few difficulties here and there, when you have fights with the delusions and negative emotions, the sufferings we have endured during this period, why can’t we wear that as a great ornament and show it off? If we have difficulties while working for a great purpose, why can’t we show them off like those people who went to the war and tell you about that as some kind of great achievement or accomplishment? We, on the other hand, while fighting against our negative emotions, suffer quite a lot. Why can’t we show our suffering that we have endured while fighting against the negative emotions - the amount of tears that we have shared, the amount of difficulties that we have gone through, all the pull and push! Even if you have to suffer, you can show it off! These are achievements. Indirectly, this is telling us that we normally are prepared to do our spiritual practice only provided that it does not give us trouble. If it is giving us a lot of trouble we don’t want to deal with it. But this verse is telling you that it is worth the suffering. It helps, it is great. If you get the ultimate achievement, it is far better than the achievement you get from fighting in a war, fighting against some enemies. Your suffering of battling the negative emotions is much more valuable than the cuts and wounds you receive during fighting. The next verse will intensify this. Verse 40 If fishermen, hunters and farmers, Thinking merely of their own livelihood, Endure the suffering of heat and cold, Why am I not patient for the sake of the world’s joy? 255

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In the Tibetan it talks about fishermen, butchers and farmers.52 These people are happy to endure the suffering of heat and cold, just in order to make money to pay the bills. Their purpose of making money is not that important, but our situation is not like this. We over here, for the benefit of all beings, would like to become a Buddha. The verse says, for the sake of the world’s joy, which means you want to serve all beings by becoming a Buddha. In order to serve all sentient beings, in order to become a Buddha, why can’t we bear some little difficulties here and there? I would like to digress from the text a bit. The sign of not falling back is that the Bodhisattvas will be happy to sacrifice their lives for a teaching, for the sake of Dharma. It is considered as one of the signs of reaching a spiritual level that you cannot fall back from any more. When we are talking about the willingness to sacrifice your life, any other difficulty becomes insignificant.

A modern example It is not out of place to mention a true story here. During the Cultural Revolution in Tibet there was a deputy abbot of the Lower Tantric College. A deputy abbot is the person who is confirmed to become the next abbot after three years. So this was a Mongolian guy, very learned and highly respected. During the period of the Tibetan uprising a number of incarnate lamas and abbots became very strongly anti-Chinese. There were a couple of Mongolian scholars, very learned sages who did not get involved in the uprising. They looked at that as a political problem between the Tibetan minority and the Han Chinese majority. Alt- hough the Mongolians themselves were a minority in Tibet, these people had been in Tibet for a long, long time. Howev- er, they did not get directly involved. Three or four years later, however, the Cultural Revolu- tion started and one of the first and foremost tasks of the revolutionized culture was to go against spiritual practice. The root of the spiritual practice was the great teachers. For example the great Kyabje Ling Rimpoche, the senior tutor of the Dalai Lama and particularly, Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche,

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Gelek Rimpoche the junior tutor, were like symbols of the religion’s standing in Tibet in the 1950s. His Holiness, although he was the Da- lai Lama, was still young, not really in gear yet. It also became clear that if people were going to be as devoted to His Holi- ness as we are today, it depended on the two tutors. If they said that His Holiness was great, the chances that people were going to follow him were much greater. If their re- sponse was lukewarm, the Dalai Lama was going to be more or less just a political figure, rather than a spiritual-political combined figure. So the biggest problem the Chinese had was really Tri- jang Rimpoche. They wanted to make people rebel against Trijang Rimpoche, although by that time he had already escaped to India, so the Chinese did their best to discredit him. They tried to create scandals; they cooked something up, paid a couple of women to say that they went to bed with him, as well as making allegations of corruption and so on. The Chinese told this Mongolian deputy abbot that they wanted him to denounce Trijang Rimpoche, but he completely refused to do it. The Chinese began to give him public beatings, they beat him as hard as they could, but he kept on saying, “I am not going to speak against my own spiritual master, no way!” After some time they hit him and kicked him but he did not budge. He was dripping blood from ears and nose, but he did not change his mind. Finally, he said, “Thank you very much for that. I came from a long distance, from Mongolia. I came here to practice Dharma. Today you have given me a great opportunity, so I thank you. Even if had millions of dollars to pay someone for this opportunity they would not have been able to do it, so I am very happy. Thank you.” After that he did not speak any more, no matter how much they beat him. They tied up his hands, finally put him in jail in solitary confinement. He did not eat anything and died two weeks later. Rilbur Rimpoche could tell that story further, because he was there during that period. Things like that indicate to you what the Bodhisattvacharyavatara is talking about. That Mongolian considered that to be a wonderful opportunity,

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE something that you are looking for but normally don’t get. Things like that tell you that a few difficulties here and there that we face are nothing compared to that. Yet we get burned out so very easily. A simple little headache caused by your companion or your parents or anything can easily lead to burnout. We are not patient, we lack forbearance or endurance. This is what this verse is talking about. This particular verse tells you about the negative consequences which we suffer due to the negative emotions. We are willing to almost sacrifice our joy and happiness for the sake of our negative emotions. In other words, to satisfy our ego, how much suffering will we endure? We go through tremendous amounts of torture due to emotions, illnesses, difficulties, being busy, being lazy. We make ourselves so crazy, running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. We run after this and that, try to catch this one and that one - for what? For the satisfaction of our ego, for the service of our negative emotions. For that we are not even upset. We exhibit that - like Bob Dole! But with a few pains that come up while we are trying to get rid of the causes of suffering once and for all we have a lot of difficulties and we burn out easily. The next verse emphasizes the commitment that we have taken on. Verse 41 When I promised to liberate all beings Who dwell in the ten directions as far as the ends of space From their disturbing conceptions, I myself was not yet free from mine. I have committed myself to liberate the countless living beings from their negative emotions, their disturbing conceptions. When I generated Bodhimind I took that vow. I very proudly pro-

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Gelek Rimpoche nounced that I would liberate all those not liberated, that I would help those would not helped, that I would help those breathe who could not breathe. Particularly those of us who have the Bodhisattva vows repeat that all the time. So how am I going to fulfill such a vow? In particular, I am a single, almost stupid sentient being myself, under almost the complete control of the negative emotions, not yet free from them. I don’t have freedom myself. I am under the control of somebody else. The power is held by my negative emotions. Forget about all sentient beings, but I am not even in a position to help one sentient being! I am not even in the position to help myself! I cannot even make my own ends meet. Verse 42 Thus unaware of even my own capacity, Was it not somewhat crazy to have spoken like that? Yet as this is so, I must never withdraw From vanquishing my disturbing conceptions. I cannot even help myself, a single sentient being. How then can I help all sentient beings? I don’t even understand what I am thinking. I cannot even judge myself. I don’t even know what I am capable of. I am unaware even of my own capacity. I just simply said, “I will liberate all beings!” It seems as if I have completely gone crazy. First and foremost, I have to make sure that I am not under the control of my delusions, my own negative emotions. Unless and until I help myself, I cannot help others. It is very simple and straightforward. I have committed to help all beings, but if I can’t help myself, I can’t help others. If I continue to say, “I will help you” but don’t know how to even help myself, it is like being crazy to keep on saying that. Therefore I have to help myself. The way to do that is to cut

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE down and make a dent in my negative emotions. I have to take the control away from my negative emotions and give it to myself. If I can do that I will be okay. I must make sure that I don’t withdraw from vanquishing my disturbing conceptions. I must continue, I will not retreat. That is what the Bodhisatt- vas tell us to do. We like to help, but first we have to help ourselves. The most important help we can give to all beings is to free them from their negative emotions. In order to do that, I need to be free from them myself, so that I can show them how to do it. Otherwise, it is like the blind leading the blind. If I don’t know anything about handling my own negative emotions, but try to tell you to do this and that, it is meaningless. If you don’t know how to handle your own negative emotions, it will be extremely difficult to try to tell somebody else how to handle theirs. Even if you do it, you are simply guessing or pretending or hoping it will work. Somebody like that cannot be considered to be a guide. You cannot be a facilitator and not a teacher and certainly not a spiritual master. In order to do that it is absolutely necessary to help yourself first.

Symptoms of withdrawing from the task Make sure that you do not withdraw from the task! The early symptoms of withdrawing are there when you say, “I am burned out.” That will be followed by “Not today,” and that will be followed by “I cannot do it. I must withdraw. I have been defeated. I let you down, I lost, I cannot make it.” An earlier symptom that I forgot to mention is what people commonly say and that is “I am stuck. I am unable to do it.” All that indicates a little difficulty. Let’s say anger comes. You get a little upset. You don’t want to talk to anybody else. You withdraw completely from society, you run away. You put your face down. Don’t run away! Even if you get a little defeat from the negative emotions, if you submit to the control of anger and fight and argue in a temper tantrum, it is better than running away. Running away is a symptom of

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Gelek Rimpoche withdrawal, of defeat. Know those symptoms, and when any of them come up, be prepared. It makes a great deal of sense. When you look into the American culture, the American way of life and thinking, and particularly the early American cowboy culture, Trungpa Rinpoche’s warrior ideal makes a great deal of sense. The spiritual practitioner is a warrior fighting a war with the negative emotions. Of course, Trungpa intensified that idea a little more giving people the names of heroes an so on. That may have been a little exag- gerated or maybe Trungpa Rimpoche had a little extra sake. But it actually the idea of being a hero or a warrior, a stable person who can stand their ground no matter whoever or whatever is going to hit you, makes a lot of sense. You are like a sumo wrestler. No one can shake or throw you off the mat. So be aware of symptoms. Be prepared. When you begin to indulge in spiritual practice, first comes the love-and-light phase. Everything seems wonderful. Some people spend their whole lives in that and will not get anywhere. Intelligent, educated, serious people such as yourselves will go a little deeper and will get a lot of struggles that manifest in all kinds of ways, family problems or anything else. We tend to take every emotional, mental or physical struggle as some kind of defeat. Actually they are opportunities to train ourselves, but we will not take that opportunity. We will become a funny person. Remember what Gungtang said, When you have had enough to eat and there is sunshine, you look like a spiritual practitioner. But when any difficulties come, you behave worse than an eight year-old kid. These are the weapons thrown at you by the negative emotions, threatening you to give up. They want you to give up challenging them, give up challenging your own ego. Remember, in verse 37 of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, it said something like this:

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When you are standing face to face with the enemy, those who are cowards, when they see somebody else’s blood, will run away five hundred miles, without looking back. Those who are brave, when they see their own blood, will get more angry and forceful and fight harder. If you withdraw, you become a silly goose. This is how the Bodhisattvas talk, this is how they are encouraged, this is how they are asked to live their lives. Once you begin to challenge your negative emotions, you cannot afford to withdraw. If you do, you will be defeated badly and you won’t have another opportunity for a very long time. When you think that way, it makes sense for the Bodhisattvas. They don’t even have an interest in self-liberation. Although they want to become Buddhas, it is for the benefit of all sentient beings. They know that samsara is suffering and nirvana is peace, however, Bodhisattvas have no interest in going to nirvana. Nirvana is simply a peaceful picnic spot, free of negative emotions, free of suffering, no doubt about it, but Bodhisattvas don’t want it. At the same time, Bodhisattvas are not afraid of negative emotions, whether they are root negative emotions or secondary negative emotions. Bodhisattvas will not even withdraw from the negative emotions. They challenge them and fight with them; they do not retreat. But Bodhisattvas really turn their back on nirvana. They stop nirvana. You know, compassion in Sanskrit is karuna. In Tibetan, that means de gor53 which means to stop joy, or stop peace. The words Heruka or Chakrasamvara have also the same meaning. By stopping themselves from getting interested in nirvana, Bodhisattvas will be able to obtain the great joy of enlightenment. In other words, the ordinary freedom is the freedom just for yourself, which means being free from all sufferings. If you indulge in that, it is not that great. I give you an example. In America you don’t have that experience, but we Ti- betans do. When your country is under occupation from

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Gelek Rimpoche another country, you will have collaborators who simply get some extra title or a few extra dollars. For the sake of this little pleasure, they sacrifice their whole country and their whole race. That is not considered to be nice. In that sense compassion is talking about stopping joy.

Freeing oneself from samsara and nirvana Bodhisattvas go much further than the arhats who simply free themselves from negative emotions. They go far beyond that. From the Maha- yana point of view there are two extreme points. You have to be free from both extremes, the extreme of peace and the extreme of suffering. We know that any extreme is no good. But it is not because of that, but the reason is that even nirvana is not such a great thing. You are capable and you have the commitment to help all beings, so how can you do something that benefits yourself alone? It is a great achievement, no doubt, but it is not good. Compassion really brings you to that point. That is why nirvana is not recommended as a goal in Mahayana. You can do better than that and yet you don’t have to worry or be worried about negative emotions, whether they are root or secondary emotions. You deal with them. You are not saying, “Hey, attachment is not good, I don’t want attachment, I better run away from attachment.” If you do that, the attachment will catch you. Even if you were able to stop attachment, you would not be able to help so much. It is better to deal with attachment, to work with it, to fight with it and to gain victory over it. The same goes for anger. When you look into Vajrayana, the purpose of Vajrayana actually is to change the nature of the negative emotions into positive nature. That is why Vajrayana is so great, but unless we have a good grounding, a good foundation, we can do nothing. We can simply introduce Vajrayana to you, give you the Six Session Yoga or a sadhana to say. That will be just simply reading about it. You still have to mainly focus on the level where we are coming from. When you really get it, that is what it is all about. It even goes beyond the Bodhisattvas’ way

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE of handling it, yet even the sutra Bodhisattva teachings tell you not to run away, not to be afraid. We would like to retreat from anger and attachment. That is our way of handling it. That is okay, you can retreat, but that is not your best shot. You can do better than that. First, you understand, secondly, you know the consequences, thirdly you can really deal with it. Understand how it works. Then change yourself within that. The tantras talk about it in that way. The example is the worms which eat into a tree. The worms which attack the tree from the outside will not be able to destroy the tree that much. But the worms which eat the tree from inside out are able to kill the tree completely. Likewise here: You get into your negative emotions and destroy them from inside out. That is what is called ‘transforming negativities’, rather than disciplining yourself and hitting the negativities the hard way, trying to stonewall and lock yourself inside. This is not the wise Bodhisattva way. It is not any Bodhisattva way at all. It is the big difference between the Theravada and the Mahayana. The Mahayanists call the Theravada Hinayana, which means ‘small vehicle’. The Theravadins don’t like that. Anyway, it does not matter. This is what this particular verse is telling us. The next verse tells us more about how to do this: Verse 43 And to do this will be my sole obsession: Holding a strong grudge, I shall meet them in battle! Yet disturbing conceptions such as these Destroy disturbing conceptions and (for the time being) are not to be (abandoned). Here it says that to do this will be my sole obsession. That means that I have to have a real interest, quite a strong investment in that. Otherwise, it will be simply a casual activity that you

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Gelek Rimpoche sort of do by the way. That is not a great thing. You really have to have an obsession with it. The obsession is to hold a strong grudge. If you have a strong grudge against somebody you will be in a position to challenge that person at every opportunity you can get. You will be happy to confront the person face to face. Last year a certain person said to me, “I would not mind encountering Kenneth Starr in a back alley at night!” This person must have had quite a strong obsession and investment in that! Unless you have a strong investment, you cannot have a strong obsession. It is not enough to think occasionally, “I don’t really like my negative emotions, so if I could get rid of them without too much effort, I would not mind.” That will not do, it will not deliver the goods. The feeling has to be stronger than that. It has to be so strong that you want to meet them face to face in the battlefield!

Remembering the cause of all our problems I have a little difficulty with the English translation. In the Tibetan version the first two lines tell us that we should have a very strong dislike for those negative emotions, knowing that they are the cause of all our mental, physical and emotional sufferings throughout our lives. Even in this life they are the cause of any difficulties that we have with our companions, friends, parents, rela- tions, etc. Sometimes people point to drugs, saying that their problems are caused by drugs. They say that the drugs made them oversleep or that the drugs did not work properly, causing them to go crazy and then they lost their job and their friends, got kicked out of their apartment and the car has been repossessed. All of that they blame on the drugs. But if you look one step further you have to acknowledge that the drugs don’t come walking into your mouth, neither does the injection needle fly into your veins. It is not like in the movie called Shadows, where you have daggers flying around. No, we go out of our way to find the drugs, mix up the right mixture, then put a bandage around the arm, then find a vein, etc. We are willing to endure that

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE much pain just because of the desire to get a certain feeling which of course is only going to get weaker and weaker all the time, because it is not a true feeling. But you actually cannot blame the drugs. It is the desire to have the drugs. It is not the alcohol, but the desire to have the alcohol. That is how the negative emotions work with us. It is not that we want to fight with somebody. It does not make us happy to fight with people, but the anger, the hatred, the unbearable challenge to the ego, forces us to do that. First you give a particular look, then you may give the other person the finger, then you give them the cold shoulder. If none of them works, then you punch, right? All this because of the unbearable insult to your ego. You get upset and hurt. All our problems, even physical illnesses, come from that. It is desire or anger. I can tell you from my own experience. I have such an attachment to sugar and go on eating and eating it. I have told you that as a kid I went to sleep with a big rock candy in my mouth and the next morning I would wake up with my pillow, pajamas and blankets sticky with sugar. Even when I first came to the United States in 1986 or 87, Aura and Sandy used to give me these nice, healthy cookies, but they were not sweet enough for me at all. I had to have Amy Joy doughnuts! I remember, in Cleveland I used to work in the university and I would go there via Little Italy where I would stop and eat twelve Amy Joy doughnuts. I would order another twelve to be packed in a box and then later share them with friends at Chunden-la’s place’. The late Mrs. Yutok would take two but I would have another six. So naturally I became a diabetic. If I did not become diabetic, then there should not be any diabetics at all. In addition to that I am fat - I eat all sorts of things. So this illness is mainly caused by attachment to sugar. Likewise, each and every one of our problems is caused by our negative emotions. Anger comes because we find the challenge to our ego unbearable. You hand out a couple of punches. That may not be successful. The other person may hit you back harder, or they may become passive-aggressive.

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So if your punching is not enough you take out a knife and stick it into that person. If you have a gun, you shoot them in the back. Even killing is done because of anger. It can be done because of attachment, too. For example, we like meat. Animals get killed because of that. Or, you want money. In order to make money, some people become butchers. Wherever you look, it is like that, including the present bombardments of Yugoslavia. It was supposed to be saving lives - according to President Clinton. But we can hear it all the time: The reputation of NATO is at stake. The power of the United States is at stake. The United States’ control, the President’s credibility, is at stake. What are we hearing there? On the one hand it is supposed to be done to save lives. On the other hand - they cannot bear it to lose name, prestige, credibility, power. So here we go. From the small level of individual difficulties, where two people can no longer pull together, can no longer agree, up to the level where huge, big nations don’t agree with each other and throw bombs on each other, all the troubles are caused by negative emotions. We may like to call it compassion. So you get compassion bombs! How does that sound? A compassion bomb falling on Sarajevo or wherever! In short, every single difficulty, illnesses, death, separa- tion, sufferings, dissatisfaction, sense of loss, suspicion, jealousy, all come out of negative emotions. When you realize that, you will get a strong grudge against them. If you have that, you may be able to challenge them and go through with it. The last two lines of verse 43 say, But disturbing conceptions such as these Destroy disturbing conceptions and (for the time being) are not to be (abandoned). The words for the time being have been added up by the translator. They are not in the original Tibetan text. Again, at the end the word abandoned have been added up. If you just said and are not to be it would not make sense in English, so they have to put something in.

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Now you may say, “If I develop a strong grudge against the negative emotions and get such a dislike against them, I am bound to have a strong attachment to their antidote. So I am trying to get rid of hatred and attachment, but in fact I am building up another hatred and another attachment. Is this the way it is supposed to work?” I think the translator has also added up the word disturbing in the line But disturbing conceptions such as these. The Tibetan only says conceptions such as these. It may look like attachment, etc., however it is not attachment, it is awareness and alertness. That is why I don’t want to call them disturbing conception, but just conceptions.

Distinguishing awareness from attachment and hatred We say that we should have a grudge against the delusions, so of course we will like the antidote to the delusions. This is not attachment, although it looks like it. In reality it is awareness and alertness. Similarly, it is not hatred, but acceptance of the true reality. You may build up a grudge, but it is not hatred. I have difficulty with the translation of this line as disturbing conceptions. The translator wanted to make things clearer and added up disturbing. This is a problem. These conceptions are not a disturbed mind, they are not negative emotions, although you have attachment or appreciation and liking for the antidotes of the negative emotions and dislike the negative emotions. But that is not hatred, it is simply that you don’t like them and don’t appreciate them. You certainly don’t want them. In Tibetan, in this verse disturbing conceptions is repeated twice. The reason is that these latter disturbing conceptions are not part of disturbing conceptions which are negative emotions, but they may disturb - they are conceptions. They are part of the antidote to the negative emotions. The translator has added up that for the time being these conceptions are not to be abandoned. Although the root text actually does not have that in it, a number of commentaries do. So the translator has probably brought that in from the commentaries, meaning that although it is attachment, it is

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Gelek Rimpoche not to be abandoned for the time being. But that is not at all what it means. Certain commentaries will indeed tell you for the time being, but what does that really mean? It means that when you get rid of all the negative emotions, at the end you don’t have to challenge them face to face, because they are already defeated by then. That is what is meant. It may sound like you don’t have to abandon them for the time being, but you will have to abandon them later, but you won’t have to. These are in fact positive emotions, like awareness, alertness, mindfulness, remembering which are not to be abandoned, not now and not in future. Because the translator added for the time being I had to read two different commentaries this afternoon. Those commentaries say that these negative emotions are not necessarily to be abandoned this moment, because you have to take rebirth. In order to take rebirth, you need attachment, they say. This refers not just to the antidotes, but even to the negative emotions themselves. But that is a different point, and even that commentary is wrong. Another commentary goes on arguing that if you need attachment in order to be reborn your rebirth will be impure. It quotes Nagarjuna and goes back almost to Buddha himself in order to prove that to be reborn in samsara you do not need attachment. Aryas or special beings take rebirth in samsara not on the basis of attachment, but on the basis of compassion and love and other positive activities. They are not controlled by negative emotions or negative karma. Here you see the difference between pure love and attachment. Here comes the difference between the feeling of pity and compassion. So that is not a simple mistake, it is a big mistake. It is not only about whether something has to be abandoned now or later, but it is a misunderstanding of claiming that in order to take rebirth in samsara you need attachment. There are different commentaries and some mention that the negative conceptions should be abandoned, some say that they should not be abandoned. I don’t know why I bring all this up - probably just to confuse you!

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Attachment is blind; real love is not The easiest for you to understand this passage is to just delete the words for the time being. The reason why these particular conceptions are not to be abandoned is that they are not negative emotions. They may be love, but they are not attachment; there may be a grudge, but it is not hatred. They are awareness, alertness. They are positive emotions which challenge the negative emotion of attachment. Normally, attachment arises without awareness, without alertness. Attachment really blinds the individual. You don’t see it, you don’t understand, you don’t get it. It has blindness. Alertness and awareness remove that blindness. Attachment problems are taken care of on various different levels by awareness and alertness. It is very simple to understand. Look at your own experience. When you have the strong pull of attachment between two people, and if there is no alertness and awareness, you won’t take simple precautions. You are happy to overlook them. With alertness and awareness you will take these precautions. I am thinking about usual things like condoms and so forth. That is on a very gross level. Then you go a little bit deeper and you think about the consequences. What is going to happen thereafter? Then you go an even more subtle level and you have awareness of the faults and so on. Even on the level of our daily chores we can see three or four different levels of depths of attachment and how awareness and alertness work within that. Next you will say, “All right, if I have to get rid of the negative emotions, I am bound to get a lot of problems with that. I am going to face tremendous amounts of challenges. What should I do? If I am a Bodhisattva, what am I supposed to do?” It is not easy to get rid of negative emotions. We are so used to them, right from the beginning. Our life is totally controlled by them. We have a tremendous amount of suffering, but underneath we keep on doing these things, life after life, and it is getting worse every time, every day, every

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Gelek Rimpoche hour, every minute. Even then, we continue to do them. So to get rid of them is very difficult. Can we bear it? Truly speaking, we can. No matter how much torture the negative emotions give us in life after life, we have been bearing it. Now the opportunity has come to challenge them and we complain that we can’t bear it and that we are burnt out! The Bodhisattvas have been asked what to do and the answer is given in the next verse. They make a really strong statement: Verse 44 It would be better for me to be burned, To have my head cut off and to be killed, Rather than ever bowing down To those ever- present disturbing conceptions. The Tibetan original sounds much stronger than the translation. It says, From now on, whatever happens, I will never give in to the will of my enemies, the negative emotions. Rather than to give in to the negative emotions, it would be better to be burned alive, like they did to so many women in the European medieval culture. They did that just because they didn’t weigh enough!54 If you were not heavy enough to sink you would be declared to be a witch and burned alive. There are still exhibits in Holland and Belgium and everywhere how they used to do it. We should really appreciate our life today, since all that is not there! How much people’s hatred used to work! Even in this century, in the 1930s and 1940s, how these things happened to the Jews. Today, things are supposed to be better, but again, look what is happening to the Albanians and Serbs - call it racial hatred or religious hatred. Even in this country, look how the blacks have been treated - and the Asian Americans! Actually they are not treated that badly, I don’t know why. That is how human mind works.

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If we were involved in building up such hatred, it would be better for us to lose our life rather than indulge in it, looking from our natural human, compassionate, kind point of view. Looking from the spiritual point of view, if you get killed for not indulging in hatred, so what? You lose one life, you gain another life. Everything will change. You gain another life. You end a life which has the possibility of creating such a strong hatred against a large number of people. You simply get out of that registration and go and find another life. The verse is not saying that it is easy to get burned alive or have your head chopped off, but it is easier than enduring the consequences of committing non-virtues. Why is that? Because you only lose one life and nothing has gone wrong for you. But if you indulge in negativities, your future rebirth will be full of tremendous suffering and you will also facilitate the suffering of so many others. And so you develop the strong determination that thinks: “No matter whatever happens, I will not entertain these negative emotions, these disturbing conceptions.” That is the advice for you if you are a Bo- dhisattva.

Don’t be over-zealous Look at all the hatred in this world today. Many are called religious wars, but I am sure that those religions did not tell people to kill everybody else. It is the people interpreting and translating the religions who are over- zealous and over-enthusiastic. That is why those cults come up. It is over-zealousness and over-enthusiasm. You can see it. When you talk to some of these operators, they go literally by the book and it is like talking to a machine rather than a human being. On the other hand, there are people who can do things differently. They don’t function literally according to the words. Particularly, if you are new, the first day on the job, so to speak, if you are nervous and over-zealous, it never works. The mind does not work that way. I have an interesting story to share with you. Once I was flying Northwest airlines. They could not take off because of

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Gelek Rimpoche some technical problem, but they did not want the passengers to get off the plane. Two people were using cell phones. One of the stewardesses was determined to enforce the rule that no one should use a cell phone on board a plane. She was more senior than the other stewardesses and started to scold them, telling them to stop these people from using the cell phones. In the end she passed by these passengers herself, told them not to use it and continued to go through to the end of the plane. She stayed at the back for a little while and then came back, only to see that one of these guys was still using his cell phone. At the end of that she went to these people and started chasing them. They still would not stop, and one of them was ready to fight with her – literally! The other one got up and went towards the door of the cabin. She chased after him, but he chased her back. Since then, Northwest announces every time that you can use your cell phone until the door is closed. I think something happened because of that incident. That person was determined to challenge her. So that happens because of over-zealousness.

Changing perceptions I have another very interesting example to share. It happened last time when I was in New York. I was sleeping at night in my little apartment. There is a little window but you can see nothing - it has a very nice industrial view - meaning that there is a huge apartment block right in front of it. All you can see is air conditioning units. Suddenly I had difficulty breathing. So I told myself, “How stupid you are. This is not a terrible industrial view. It is wonderful. These units produce heat and cold, these machines are capable of adjusting our needs of temperature!” I imagined that these machines could have been wonderful sunflowers - and suddenly I could breathe again. I no longer felt that I had to get out of there. It changed. That is how our mind works. This is just a fresh experience. It only happened last weekend, actually. This is how perception gives you a feeling, mentally, physically and emotionally. When you don’t think about the industrial view, you don’t have any problems, you enjoy that place.

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In other words, if you lose your life that way, you did not lose, you changed. You changed your life for the better. One should never give up for the sake of the negative emotions. One should never lose to the control of anger. You have to say, “I will never be under the control of attachment! I will never be under the control of jealousy or hatred!” So now you are resisting, you are challenging, you are not giving in. But can you really get rid of the problem that way? The answer is in the next verse. Verse 45 Common enemies, when expelled from one country, Simply retire and settle down in another, Though when their strength is recovered, they then return. But the way of this enemy, my disturbing conceptions, is not similar in this respect. If you have human enemies, common enemies, you can defeat them and kick them out of the country. They will go somewhere else and then come back to challenge you again: they then return. That is the normal system. But these negative emotions, these disturbing conceptions, don’t work that way. If they are defeated, they are defeated once and for all. They don’t come back. There is no return. When you defeat the negative emotions, they cannot go and take shelter in another country or place. Remember, these negative emotions only function if you give them room. When you don’t give them any room to manipulate your mind, they can do nothing. They are gone forever, they never ever come back. They cannot possibly return because you have not entertained them. You have not given them room and shelter. You have understood the difference between you and your ego. They can no longer manipulate you. Therefore you can definitely get rid of them. The way to

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Gelek Rimpoche get rid of them is to stop entertaining them. Stop giving them shelter! That is how you get rid of them relatively. How you deal with them absolutely is mentioned in the next verse. Verse 46 Deluded disturbing conceptions! When forsaken by the eye of wisdom And dispelled from my mind, where will you go? Where will you dwell, in order to be able to injure me again (later)? Weak-minded, I have been reduced to making no effort. When we talk about deluded conceptions, what does deluded mean? It is not a really true, but a confused state. It is a deluded mixture, it is somehow fake. In other words, it is a delusion, it is not real, you are confused, you are not seeing it. It is wrong perception. The negative emotions are called deluded, because they are not true because they are wrongly conceptualized. If you really look at very strong attachment to a beautiful cup, when you really look a that cup that you are so attached to, at the design, the inside and the outside, and so on, you have two ways of looking. One view is like this: “How wonderful it is, how antique, how beautiful the drawings on it are!” That perception increases the desire and you want it more. It is like taking the measurement of a human body and building up your attachment more. On the other hand you could just look at the cup and say, “Just a piece of china, not even that well made. It looks crooked. The drawings are not good” - all the antiques are like that, right? “The lines are crooked, it is not that great. So what?” Thinking like that, attachment goes down. In the same way, if you think about a beautiful person and imagine that you remove the skin which looks so beautiful, what do you see underneath that? What is in there? When you dig down, what are

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE you going to find inside your stomach, what are you going to find which comes out of your body at the end? The deluded mind is the one which perceives something contaminated as beautiful. That may be relative truth. How- ever, beyond that, if you really dig deeper, there is really nothing wonderful in there. If you look deeper what is going on in your stomach, at the end of process you are going to find the things that you pass out. You get a handful of that and that is about it! So what is so wonderful about that? That is why such a mind is called a deluded mind, a deluded conception. It is not reality at all. It is simply the paint that we put on. Don’t take this personally! Such delusional perception is actually cheating, lying, it is mistaken comprehension, misperception. You have a manipulated object and a manipulated subject. If you have a wisdom eye, with even a glance from your wisdom eye you can see deep down inside that handful of stuff that you are supposed to pass out! One look of the wisdom eye can destroy all the cheating and lies of the negative emotions. The deluded negative conceptions actually misrepresent and cheat you. That is why this verse says when forsaken by the eye of wisdom and dispelled from my mind, where will you go? I don’t know how it works in English but in Tibetan we say that when the wisdom eye gives one look at the negative emotions, they cannot stand it. They cannot uphold the misrepresentation which they are giving us. That is why they are called deluded minds. Are you with me? That is what it really is. Since deluded view is based on wrong conception, presented wrongly, when the wisdom eye gives it one look, the deluded conceptions cannot withstand the observation of the wisdom eye. They cannot tolerate that, they lose ground and disappear. Wisdom understands what the truth really is. If you give the delusions one look, it is enough. They completely disappear. When I kick them out of my mind by the power of wisdom, where will they go? They have no other place to go to. The negative emotions’ job and the foundation of their survival is to confuse us, to make sure that we understand wrongly,

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Gelek Rimpoche then they can keep us circling round. They will do whatever it takes, divide and conquer. Once you start to expel these delusions from your mind, they have nowhere else to go. They will not take refuge somewhere else, rebuild their power and come back and attack you again. This was said in the last verse and is emphasized here again. This is the absolute way of looking at it. However, our mind is weak. The negative emotions in reality are weak, but our minds are equally weak and doubtful. We don’t put any efforts in and that is the reason why they keep the upper hand over us. We don’t make a dent in them. This verse gives you the true, absolute statement.

Recognize your negative emotions I do want to say this: when you recognize your negative emotions and label them as negative emotions, it makes it much easier not to entertain them. For example, if we recognize a thief among us, we point the finger at him, saying “He is a thief.” We will talk about how we are going to stop him or punish him. Under those circumstances, it would be very difficult for the thief to continue to steal and function. Likewise, here we recognize the negative emotions. That is why recognition works. That is why we say, “Don’t deny, acknowledge!” It is like shouting, “Hey, you are a thief,” when you have caught him in public, not in private. We have to recognize them as negative emotions and find wisdom. We say, “We are going to look through the wisdom eye.” It is not that difficult to find that wisdom eye. You only have to look within you and ask, “What is the cause within me that brings these difficulties?” When you look like that, you are not going to find anybody else but these negative emotions. You people at least, by now, should be able to do that. A brand new guy who just walked in here from the street may not be able to get it. You have heard so much and if you start looking within you, you will not find anything else except this.

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Building the wisdom eye You have to meditate, you have to look within you and search for the causes. Recognizing and finding them is itself the building of the wisdom eye. The delusions are based on the wrong points. The conception is wrong, the perception is wrong, the presentation is wrong. That is how to expose the negative emotions. When they are exposed they can no longer manipulate you. That is how you get rid of them. Verse 47 If these disturbing conceptions do not exist within the objects, the sense organs, between the two nor elsewhere, Then where do they exist and how do they harm the world? They are like an illusion - thus I should dispel the fear within my heart and strive resolutely for wisdom. For no real reason, why should I suffer so much in hell? The negative emotions and the negative thoughts and ideas that we have been talking about all the time actually do not exist. I explained in verse 46 that we should look with the wisdom eye and the problem will be cleared. In other words, the negative emotions can only be cleared by wisdom.

Wisdom is the only thing that can get totally rid of the negative emotions - not love and compassion. Love and compassion are great, no doubt, but they are not the direct opponent of ignorance or ego or whatever you may call it. Ultimately all the negative emotions are ignorance. That does not just mean not knowing, but wrong knowing also. Theoretically it may not be right, but for all practical purposes, for the time being it is good enough to say that it is our ego that is the creator of all our delusions. It is very difficult to get hold of

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Gelek Rimpoche what ego really is. The word in Tibetan is dag dzin or den dzin55 which mean self-grasping and truth-grasping respec- tively. For practical purposes right now, however, we can say that the ego is the cause of all our sufferings. All our delusions are coming out of ego. If there is no ego, then how can your ego get hurt? When the ego does not get hurt, there can be no anger, jealousy and so on. All these things come up because our ego gets hurt. Basically, all our sufferings come from there. Theoretically, we have to call it ignorance. Then we have to say that this means not knowing as well as wrong knowing. Deep down, the ego is the grasping at ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’. From the grasping at ‘Me’ comes the grasping at ‘My’. It is fine to say ‘My arm, my head, my leg’, but when it goes on and goes further, the insisting on ‘Me’ and ‘Me first’ produc- es anger, hatred, attachment, and so on. Then it really becomes poison. Hatred starts to come in and works within you for a long period. It will poison your mind and blind your wisdom eye. You only see in one direction when you are tremendously angry or have powerful hatred. The same goes for attachment. We say that attachment exaggerates. Why is that? Because it pictures an idea in the way it suits your desire. It does not matter what the reality of that person is. Your attachment would like to fit the person according to your ideas, shape them the way you want. This attachment then remains until you realize that it has been a total delusion. Until then you will re-shape the person and no matter what that person does she will have this ‘Madame Positive’ look and touch. You make them into something which they really are not but into something that suits you. That is how you cheat yourself. It is a delusion. You enjoy that for a while, but when you begin to realize that it is not the real stuff, you begin to feel the pinch and then you get all the usual troubles. You will call the person, hang up and call again, hang up and call again. We do that, right? We keep on playing these games. That is attachment and the symptoms of attachment

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE hurting you. The projection that you give yourself is false. That is true for everybody, no matter who it is. Are you okay there? What is your name?

Student: Jess. Rimpoche: Now I learned who you are, but perhaps that is a delusion again! Are you really Jess? Maybe it is only a label. When you were born, did your mother announce that Jess was born?

Student: I don’t remember! Rimpoche: So you might not be Jess! We perceive you as Jess. You look like Jess. Your identity tells us that you must be Jess. So we perceive you as Jess. We have been talking about the ego and the negative emotions or afflictive emotions. There are all these different labels which you can apply. I don’t know what understanding you get from that. It is meant to give you a picture - just like the one we get when we perceive ‘Jess’. The moment we say ‘Jess’, we get a picture of a guy with that hair up there and who did or did not shave. We have to picture that because of the label ‘Jess’. Sometimes the labeling works, but sometimes it gives you the wrong information. That shows you that you are not really a label. The negative emotions are the same thing. You label them, but somehow they are not real. It is interesting. It says in verse 46: Deluded disturbing conceptions! When forsaken by the eye of wisdom And dispelled from my mind, where will you go? and in verse 47: If these disturbing conceptions do not exist within the objects, the sense organs, between the two nor elsewhere, ...

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That is what we are talking about: we are talking about Jess, the label. You stick the label onto the identity. What is the identity? Your body, your physical appearance. On that you put the label ‘Jess’. Then when somebody says, ‘Jess’, we all look at you and say, ‘Yes, that is Jess’. The idea of perceiving ‘Jess’ is based on the label and the identity together. There- fore your label is not you. Your identity is not you either. If you were synonymous with your identity, then when your identity changes - for example if you go to a plastic surgeon and have a sex change - then you as a person would have got lost, but you don’t. That is why your identity is not you. That is also the absolute wisdom eye’s way of looking at the negative emotions. You say, the disturbing emotions are not my sense organs, neither are they inside nor outside, nor are they in between. So truly, they are nowhere. But in another sense, they are real for our mind, they are functioning, they are controlling us in life after life. I did give you examples of delusions, how they are exaggerating and projecting, and how, when you realize that what you have been projecting is not really there, it becomes really painful. Likewise, hatred will project things too. It is probably not the other person’s fault at all, but you keep on projecting that the other person did this and that and all sorts of things. You change the person into a totally negative monster. You will run away from that person, thinking that if you remain there, you will surely get killed. Fear will drive you to the edge and push you over. But if you trace that back, where is that delusion? What and where really is it? Naturally, the delusions actually do not exist. So how can they harm me and all beings? Simply because we have been allowing them to harm us. We have been submitting ourselves to the total control of these delusions. We have been making ourselves available to serve the ego twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I vaguely remember, about a year ago, Colleen was reading out a booklet to me by Deepak Chopra about the return of Merlin. In there it says that some kind of magician is com-

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE ing and he will kill everybody. The whole kingdom is destroyed and everybody is getting killed, although none of it is real. If you look deeply, really it is not there, but you cannot deny it either, saying it is not there. It is really functioning, the pains we are experiencing, are real pains. Today for example, when we are not facing an actual problem, when we are not talking directly about our own individual problem, we can laugh. But when you yourself are going through with this pull and push, it is painful. You can no longer laugh. It is not a joke. It is real and it is painful.

Relative truth and absolute truth Buddha keeps on saying that there are two truths, relative and absolute truth. This here is relative truth. The pain we experience, the difficulties we have, in absolute reality - forget about the emptiness point of view - even if you look really deep inside, it is no big deal. At the most, you have a situation where two people don’t get along well together for a while. So what? That is not the end of the world for either side. The guy can pick up so many girls that he wants, the girl can pick up so many guys that she wants. What a big deal! That is our usual life, but we don’t see that. We experience a lot of pain, thinking, “I am determined not to lose this argument, I am determined to make this person admit that they have done wrong - right now!” Then, if he or she admits it, you get satisfaction and relief. If he or she does not admit it, you have to work hard and point it out and pinpoint it. We have to do that. Why? It is all delusional melodrama, controlling our life. That is how the negative emotions control us and give us pain. Right here in our personal experience we can see it. That is how negative emotions cause us suffering. It is neither the fault of this or that individual. It is the negativity, negative actions and emotions that give pains to both sides.

How wisdom destroys the negative emotions When you are looking for the source of trouble you don’t have to go back three hundred thousand years. It is right there. Is it real? No, it is false.

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However, it gives you real pain. Our suffering is real. In absolute reality it is not there, but it is good enough to give us pain. It is strong enough, it exists enough to give us pain. When you realize that, it will disappear, because it is neither inside in any organs, whether sex or sense organs, nor is it out there somewhere. It is only this great, kind, wonderful, compassionate person called Mr. Ego who has provided it and put us under that spell! When you realize that, it is like turning on the light in a dark room. The darkness is gone without a trace. That is how wisdom destroys the negative emotions. Love and compassion? Yes, that contributes, it helps you to clear the negative emotions, but it is not the direct opponent, it is not the light that destroys the darkness. It supports you, it probably provides the electricity coming to the bulb. It probably works as the wire, as the switch, as a supply. But it is not the light. That is why it says in verse 47: They are like an illusion – thus I should dispel the fear within my heart and strive resolutely for wisdom. For no real reason, why should I suffer so much in hell? There you are. This is the truth. It is easy to say, but difficult to practice. That is how it goes. So this covers the absolute way of looking and the relative way of looking. I am not going to go into very much detail about wisdom here, because towards the end a complete wisdom chapter will come. We will be able to talk more then. I just want to give you an idea. Actually, if you are counting on love and compassion or mantras to destroy the delusions, all that will contribute to it, but is not the direct opponent at all. If you say mantras within the wisdom nature, it is different. But we know very well, neither you nor I can do that. Now let’s read the last verse Verse 48 Therefore having thought about this well, I should try to put these precepts into

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practice just as they have been explained. If the doctor’s instructions are ignored, How will a patient in need of cure be healed by this medicine? It is very easy to talk about this - we have talked and talked! How many months did it take us to talk about this chapter? Probably two semesters, if not three! So we talked and talked, we read, we joked, we explained, we tried to give examples, we talked directly and indirectly. It seems like we are giving a presentations or a lecture, like we are reading and you are listening. Why have we been doing this? This is not like a big commemorative university lecture where they bring in a speaker to give a nice presentation. You listen to this guy’s ideas and that is the end of it. We are not doing that. We have been talking and giving examples, trying to see how it is relevant to our lives. The total conclusion, here in this verse, is that whatever we have been talking about here is for each of us to see whether it is of any use in our daily life, and then to bring it in and make it part of our life. When we do that, it is like taking the medicine for curing a chronic disease.

This is not show biz! If you don’t do that, if you are just listening to someone nice or miserable sitting here, it is totally useless. A number of people will say about Gelugpas, “These people just talk and talk about philosophy and so on, but they don’t give you meditation.” Or they say, “They just talk, but they don’t give you a real practice, real religion.” Well, you judge for yourself. From my point of view, when I keep on talking about all this, even if you don’t get the total image or message, at least you have some comprehensive information in there. That information is meant for you to meditate on, to practice, to make it part of your life. It is not for show biz. Last weekend I was in Cleveland to do a Tara work- shop. There were a couple of press interviews and I was also on a local television show. It was the morning show and it

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Gelek Rimpoche was mixed with jazz, because there was a jazz festival going on. In between these jazz guys I was also interviewed. The way they introduced it was like this, “Famous persons like Richard Gere and Oprah Winfrey are into Tibetan Bud- dhism. Famous Hollywood media people are into it. Let’s find out what really is in there.” Then they introduced me and the first question was, “What is it? Some kind of religion, philosophy or a way of life?” I said, “All of the above. When His Holiness the Dalai Lama came here recently, he was interviewed on Larry King Live, he was followed by Richard Gere. The same question was asked of Richard Gere and he said the same thing, ‘All of the above’ and I am here to con- firm that.” So it is philosophy, it is religion, it is a way of life. It is meditation; it is practice. That is how you get into it. That is what makes your life rich, that is how Dharma influences you, that is how you improve yourself. It is not the idea that you have to be a so-called Buddhist. I am not even sure that the name ‘Buddhism’ is a true name given by Buddha or his followers. It could have been coined by early British imperial- ist (that is a joke!) missionaries, or by Tibetologists and Buddhologists. Aura was telling me that she read in a book by Stephen Batchelor that such a thing as Buddhism is not even known in Asia. It is a Western name. Anyway, the bottom line does not depend on how you dress, what name you take, how you look, whether you are male or female, black or white, but on how you think, how you function, how you conduct yourself, how you help yourself, how you develop your potential to help others. That is the information given to you. Remember, it is great to help. Americans are very fond of helping. You can see on television all these refugees coming out of Kosovo. It is so difficult for them. I am possibly the only person in this room who has the personal experience of being in that situation. These young Tibetans here were born later, though I am sure some of your parents had a similar type of experience. My personal experience was even worse than what we see today on television, but it is sort of

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE very familiar. It really reminds me of what it was like. When you are at the receiving end, it is tremendously helpful, because you just don’t know when you going to get your next meal. You don’t know where you are going to find a pair of pants or a shirt to put on, or a blanket to wrap your body in, so when somebody gives you a blanket, a pair of pants or socks, or shoes - whether they fit or not, does not even matter - it is a great help. It is fantastic! It makes a lot of difference. That is why kindness works. That is why compassion works. It helps. Yet, remember, we always say that true generosity is without conditions. The moment you have some strings attached, to have it this way and that way, it is not true generosity. Even if it is only ten dollars worth, if you try to have your name mentioned or your label put on, that generosity has some problems. I was saying before that the Americans are very kind and give generously, they are wonderful. I am American myself now, so I can thank myself! Americans are very eager to help, as soon as you ask, they get their check- books out! That is not the point here. Of course it is good to give food to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, medicine to the sick. All that is great and wonderful. But that is not the only thing we can help with.

The ultimate help The ultimate help is to help people free themselves from the control of their egos. You can only do that if you know how to help yourself. If you don’t help yourself, and you want to help, it becomes helpless. All you can do is say, “I would like to help, tell me what to do.” With that, we cannot really do much. We don’t know how to help. It is so important to help yourself first and then help others. Atisha said, Unless and until you tame your mind you can never even attempt to tame others’ minds. The first and most important thing is to destroy your own ego, make a dent in it, challenge it. Do not submit to your

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Gelek Rimpoche ego! The struggle is very hard, because that ego has controlled you for life after life. All of a sudden, here you begin to challenge it. The ego cannot accept and digest that. You have this big fight within yourself in addition to family difficulties, and all kinds of other things. Your family members may think that since you come here to listen, you have joined some Jim Jones or Waco Texas type of cult or maybe Heaven’s Gate! These are additional difficulties. All these struggles you go through are real and each and every one of us has to go through with this. That is where we can support each other, help each other.

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TIBETAN TEXT (TRANSLITERATED)

1. RGYAL BA'I SRAS KYIS DE LTA BUR, BYANG CHUB SEMS RAB BRTAN BZUNG NAS, G-YEL BA MED PAR RTAG TU YANG, BSLAB LAS MI 'DA' 'BAD PAR BYA,

2. BAB COL BRTZAMS PA GANG YIN PA'AM, GANG ZHIG LEGS PAR MA BRTAGS PA, DE NI DAM BCAS BYAS GYUR KYANG, BYA'AM BTANG ZHES BRTAGS PA'I RIGS

3. SANGS RGYAS RNAMS DANG DE YI SRAS, SHES RAB CHEN POS GANG BRTAGS SHING, BDAG NYID KYIS KYANG BRTAG BRTAGS PA, DE LA BSHOL DU CI ZHIG YOD,

4. GAL TE DE LTAR DAM BCAS NAS, LAS KYIS BSGRUB PA MA BYAS NA, SEMS CAN DE DAG KUN BSLUS PAS, BDAG GI 'GRO BA CI 'DRAR 'GYUR

5. DNGOS PO PHAL PA CUNG ZAD LA'ANG, YID KYIS SBYIN PAR BSAM BYAS NAS, MI GANG SBYIN PAR MI BYED PA, DE YANG YI DAGS 'GYUR GSUNGS NA,

6. BLA NA MED PA'I BDE BA LA,

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BSAM PA THAG PAS MGRON GNYER NAS, 'GRO BA THAMS CAD BSLU BYAS NA, BDE 'GROR JI GA 'GRO 'GYUR RAM,

7. MI GANG BYANG CHUB SEMS BTANG YANG, DE DAG THAR BAR BYED PA NI, LAS TSUL BSAM GYIS MI KHYAB STE, THAMS CAD MKHYEN PA KHO NAS MKHYEN,

8. DE NI BYANG CHUB SEMS DPA' LA, LTUNG BA'I NANG NA LCI BA STE, 'DI LTAR DE NI BYUNG GYUR NA, SEMS CAN KUN GYI DON LA DMAN,

9. GANG GZHAN SKAD CIG TZAM YANG 'DI'I, BSOD NAMS BAR CHAD GEGS BYED PA, SEMS CAN DON LA DMAN GYUR PAS, DE YI NGAN 'GRO MU MTHA' MED,

10. SEMS CAN GCIG GI BDE BA YANG, BSHIG NA BDAG NYID NYAMS 'GYUR NA, ,NAM MKHA' MA LUS MTHA' KLAS PA'I, ,LUS CAN BDE BSHIG SMOS CI DGOS,

11. DE LTAR LTUNG BA STOBS LDAN DANG, BYANG CHUB SEMS STOBS LDAN PA DAG , 'KHOR BAR RES KYIS 'DRE BYED NA, SA THOB PA LA YUN RING THOGS,

12. DE LTAS JI LTAR DAM BCAS BZHIN, BDAG GIS GUS PAR BSGRUB PAR BYA, DENG NAS BRTZON PAR MA BYAS NA, 'OG NAS 'OG TU 'GRO BAR 'GYUR,

13. SEMS CAN THAMS CAD PHAN MDZAD PA'I, SANGS RGYAS GRANGS MED 'DAS GYUR KYANG, BDAG NI RANG GI NYES PAS DE'I, GSO BA'I SPYOD YUL MA GYUR TO,

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14. DA DUNG DE BZHIN BDAG BYED NA, YANG DANG YANG DU'ANG DE BZHIN TE, NGAN 'GROR NAD DANG 'CHING BA DANG, BCAD DANG GSHEG SOGS MYONG BAR 'GYUR,

15. DE BZHIN GSHEGS PA 'BYUNG BA DANG, DAD DANG MI LUS THOB PA DANG DGE GOMS RUNG BA DE LTA BU, DKON PA NAM ZHIG THOB PAR 'GYUR,

16. NAD MED NYI MA 'DI LTA BU, ZAS BCAS 'TSE BA MED KYANG NI, TSE NI SKAD CIG BSLU BA STE, LUS NI THAD CIG BRNYAN PO BZHIN;

17. BDAG GI SPYOD PA 'DI 'DRAS NI, MI YI LUS KYANG 'THOB MI 'GYUR, MI LUS THOB PAR MA GYUR NA, SDIG PA 'BA' ZHIG DGE BA MED,

18. GANG TSE DGE SPYAD SKAL LDAN YANG, DGE BA BDAG GIS MA BYAS NA, NGAN SONG SDUG BSNGAL KUN RMONGS PA, DE TSE BDAG GIS CI BYAR YOD,

19. DGE BA DAG KYANG MA BYAS LA, SDIG PA DAG KYANG NYER BSAGS NA, BSKAL PA BYE BA BRGYAR YANG NI, BDE 'GRO'I SGRA YANG THOS MI 'GYUR,

20. DE NYID PHYIR NA BCOM LDAN GYIS, RGYA MTSO CHER G-YENGS GNYA' SHING GI, BU GAR RUS SBAL MGRIN CHUD LTAR, MI NYID SHIN TU THOB DKAR GSUNGS,

21. SKAD CIG GCIG BYAS SDIG PAS KYANG, BSKAL PAR MNAR MED GNAS 'GYUR NA, THOG MED 'KHOR BAR BSAGS SDIG GIS, BDE 'GROR MI 'GRO SMOS CI DGOS,

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22. DE TZAM KHO NA MYONG GYUR NAS, DE NI RNAM THAR MI 'GYUR TE, 'DI LTAR DE NI MYONG BZHIN DU, SDIG PA GZHAN DAG RAB TU SKYE,

23. 'DI 'DRA'I DAL BA RNYED GYUR NAS, BDAG GIS DGE GOMS MA BYAS NA, 'DI LAS BSLUS PA GZHAN MED DE, 'DI LAS RMONGS PA'ANG GZHAN MED DO,

24. GAL TE BDAG GIS DE RTOGS NAS, RMONGS PAS PHYIS KYANG SGYID LUG NA, 'CHI BAR 'GYUR BA'I DUS KYI TSE, MYA NGAN CHEN PO LDANG BAR 'GYUR,

25. DMYAL ME BZOD DKAS DUS RING DU, BDAG GI LUS LA BSREGS GYUR NA, 'GYOD PA MI BZAD ME 'BAR BAS, SEMS GDUNG 'GYUR BA GDON MI ZA,

26. SHIN TU RNYED DKA' PHAN PA'I SA, JI ZHIG LTAR TE RNYED GYUR NAS, BDAG NYID SHES DANG LDAN BZHIN DU, PHYIR YANG DMYAL BA DER KHRID NA,

27. SNGAGS KYIS RMONGS PAR BYAS PA BZHIN, BDAG LA 'DIR SEMS MED DU ZAD, CIS RMONGS BDAG KYANG MA SHES TE, BDAG GI KHONG NA CI ZHIG YOD,

28. ZHE SDANG SRED SOGS DGRA RNAMS NI, RKANG LAG LA SOGS YOD MIN LA, DPA' MDZANGS MIN YANG JI ZHIG LTAR, DE DAG GIS BDAG BRAN BZHIN BYAS,

29. BDAG GI SEMS LA GNAS BZHIN DU, DGA' MGUR BDAG LA GNOD BYED PA, DE LA'ANG MI KHRO BZOD PA NI, GNAS MIN BZOD PA SMAD PA'I GNAS, 292

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30. GAL TE LHA DANG LHA MIN RNAMS, THAMS CAD BDAG LA DGRAR LANGS KYANG, DE DAG GIS KYANG MNAR MED PA'I, ME NANG KHRID CING 'JUG MI NUS,

31. NYON MONGS STOBS CAN DGRA 'DIS NI, GANG DANG PHRAD NA RI RAB KYANG, THAL BA YANG NI MI LUS PA, DER BDAG SKAD CIG GCIG LA 'DOR,

32. BDAG GI NYON MONGS DGRA BO GANG, DUS RING THOG MTHA' MED PA LTAR, DGRA GZHAN KUN KYANG DE LTA BUR, YUN RING THUB PA MA YIN NO,

33. MTHUN PAR RIM GRO BSTEN BYAS NA, THAMS CAD PHAN DANG BDE BYED LA, NYON MONGS RNAMS NI BSTEN BYAS NA, PHYIR ZHING SDUG BSNGAL GNOD PA BYED,

34. DE LTAR YUN RING RGYUN CHAGS DGRAR GYUR PA, GNOD PA'I TSOGS RAB 'PHEL BA'I RGYU GCIG PU, BDAG GI SNYING LA NGES PAR GNAS 'CHA' NA, 'KHOR BAR 'JIGS MED DGA' BAR GA LA 'GYUR,

35. 'KHOR BA'I BRTZON RA'I SRUNG MAS DMYAL SOGS SU, GSOD BYED GSHED MAR GYUR PA 'DI DAG NI, GAL TE BLO GNAS CHAGS PA'I DRA BA NA, GNAS NA BDAG LA BDE BA GA LA YOD,

36. DE LTAR JI SRID BDAG GIS DGRA 'DI MNGON SUM DU, NGES PAR MA BCOM DE SRID BDAG 'DIR BRTZON MI 'DOR, RE ZHIG GNOD BYED CHUNG NGU LA YANG KHROS GYUR PA, NGA RGYAL BDO RNAMS DE MA BCOM PAR GNYID MI 'ONG, 293

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37. RANG BZHIN 'CHI BAS SDUG BSNGAL GYUR PA'I NYON MONGS DAG G-YUL NGOR MDAR TSE NAN GYIS GZHOM PAR 'DOD PA YANG, MDA' MDUNG MTSON GYIS PHOG PA'I SDUG BSNGAL KHYAD BSAD NAS, DON MA GRUB PAR PHYIR PHYOGS 'BYER BAR MI BYED NA,

38. RTAG TU SDUG BSNGAL KUN GYI RGYUR GYUR PA, RANG BZHIN DGRA DES GZHOM BRTZON BDAG LA DANG, SDUG BSNGAL BRGYA PHRAG RGYUR GYUR GANG GIS KYANG, YI CHAD SGYID LUG MI 'GYUR SMOS CI DGOS,

39. DON MED DGRA YIS RMA SROL BTOD PA YANG, LUS LA RGYAN DANG 'DRA BAR SREL BYED NA, DON CHEN SGRUB PHYIR YANG DAG BRTZON GYUR PA, BDAG LA SDUG BSNGAL CI PHYIR GNOD BYED YIN,

40. NYA PA GDOL PA ZHING PA LA SOGS PA, RANG GI 'TSO BA TZAM ZHIG SEMS PA YANG, GRANG DANG TSAL SOGS PA'I GNOD BZOD NA, ‘GRO BA BDE PHYIR BDAG LTA CIS MI BZOD,

41. PHYOGS BCU NAM MKHA'I MTHAS GTUGS PA'I, 'GRO BA NYON MONGS LAS BSGRAL BAR, DAM BCAS GANG TSE BDAG NYID KYANG, NYON MONGS RNAMS LAS MA GROL BA,

42. BDAG GI TSOD KYANG MI SHES PAR, SMRA BA JI LTAR SMYON PA MIN, DE LTAR NYON MONGS GZHOM PA LA, RTAG TU PHYIR MI LDOG PAR BYA,

43. 'DI LA BDAG GIS ZHEN BYA ZHING, KHON DU BZUNG NAS G-YUL SPRAD DE, 294

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RNAM PA DE 'DRA'I NYON MONGS PA, NYON MONGS 'JOMS BYED MA GTOGS SO,

44. BDAG NI BSREGS TE BSAD GYUR TAM, BDAG GI MGO BO BCAD KYANG BLA'I, RNAM PA KUN DU NYON MONGS PA'I, DGRA LA MDUD PAR MI BYA'O ,

45. THA MAL DGRA BO YUL NAS PHYUNG YANG NI, YUL GZHAN DAG TU GNAS SHING YONGS BZUNG NAS, NUS PA BRTAS NAS DE NAS PHYIR LDOG GI , NYON MONGS DGRA TSUL DE DANG 'DRA MA YIN,

46. NYON MONGS NYON MONGS SHES RAB MIG GIS SPANG, BDAG YID LAS BSAL GANG DU 'GRO BAR 'GYUR, GANG DU GNAS NAS BDAG GNOD BYA PHYIR 'ONG, BLO ZHEN BDAG LA BRTZON PA MED PAR ZAD,

47. NYON MONGS RNAMS NI YUL NA MI GNAS DBANG TSOGS LA MIN PAR NA'ANG MIN, DE LAS GZHAN NA'ANG MIN NA 'DI DAG GAR GNAS 'GRO BA KUN GNOD BYED, 'DI NI SGYU 'DRA DE PHYIR SNYING LA 'JIGS SPONGS SHES PHYIR BRTZON PA BSTEN, DON MED NYID DU BDAG LA DMYAL SOGS RNAMS SU CI STE GNOD PA BYED,

48. DE LTAR RNAM BSAMS JI SKAD BSHAD PA YI, BSLAB PA BSGRUB PA'I CHED DU 'BAD PAR BYA, SMAN PA'I NGAG MA MNYAN NA SMAN DAG GIS, BCOS DGOS NAD PA SOS PA GA LA YOD,

BYANG CHUB SEMS DPA'I SPYOD PA LA 'JUG PA LAS, BAG YOD BSTAN PA ZHES BYA BA STE LE'U BZHI PA'O

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296

GLOSSARY

ABSOLUTE TRUTH see TWO TRUTHS ACTION FORM see BODHIMIND ABIDHARMA (chos.mngon.pa) The general name for the Buddhist teachings presented in a scientific manner, as a fully elaborated transcendental psychology. As one of the branches of the canon (tripitaka or three baskets) it corresponds to the discipline of wisdom, whereas the sutras correspond to meditation and the vinaya to morality. ACCUMULATION OF MERIT see MERIT AGGREGATES (Skr. skandha, Tib. phungpo) see: SKANDHAS AKASHAGHARBA (Tib. nam mkha’i snying po) A great Bo- dhisattva, after whom a sutra is named. ANANDA (Tib. kun dga’ o) A major disciple of the Buddha; his personal attendant. The other two most famous disciples awereShariputra and Maudgalyayana. ANALYTICAL MEDITATION (Tib. dbyad sgom) Using reasoning to explore a meditation topic, engaging oneself in it mentally and emotionally, until one reaches either a conclusion (as in the meditation on death ) or a positive mental state (as in meditations on love and compassion); one then con- centrates on what one has reached.

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ANGULIMALA A spiritual seeker who, following the advice of an unreliable teacher, killed 999 people in one week. Yet when Shakyamuni Buddha taught him the true path, he purified himself and became an Arhat. ARHAT (Tib. dra.bcom.pa) 'Enemy destroyer' or 'foe destroyer'. One who has overcome the delusions or negative emotions and attained liberation from cyclic existence; the spiritual ideal of Hinayana Buddhism. The two types of Arhats are Shravakas (Hearers) and PratyekaBuddhas (Solitary Realiz- ers). ARYA ('phags.pa) Title meaning 'noble one'. One who has attained the third of the five paths, the path of insight (mthon- g lam) by directly perceiving the nature of reality. ASANGA (Tib. thogs-med) (fourth century) Extender of the chittamatra or 'mind-only' school of tenets. The lineage of vast or widespread activities (method) was transmitted from Maitreya Buddha to Asanga. AVALOKITESHVARA or CHENREZIG (spyan ras gzigs) Embodiment of the love and compassion of the Buddhas; a yidam in the family of Amitabha Buddha. Of great importance in Tibet as special protector of the religious life of the country. The Dalai Lama is considered to be a incarna- tion of Avalokiteshvara. In China he is known in female form as Kwanyin, protectress of women, children and animals. BARDO (Tib; Skt. anubhava) Intermediate state. The state of consciousness between death and rebirth. It begins the moment the consciousness leaves the body and ceases the moment the consciousness enters the body of the next life. One remains in that state anywhere from a moment to forty- nine days. BARDOA A being in the intermediate state BHAVAVIVEKA (500-570 CE) A student of Nagarjuna. One of the founders of the Madyamika Svatatrika school.

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BHUMI (Tib. sa) Ground. The ten bhumis or the ten grounds or the ten bodhisattva stages are the realizations of superior or Arya Bodhisattvas: very joyful, stainless, luminous, radiant, difficult to overcome, approaching, gone afar, immovable, good intelligence, cloud of dharma. They are realizations on the Mahayana paths of seeing and meditation. See: Paths BIKSHU (Skt; Tib. dge slong) Buddhist mendicant monk. Bikshuni (dge slong ma) is the female counterpart. BLESSING (Tib. byin rlabs) The transformation of our mind from a negative state to a positive state, from an unhappy state to a happy state, or from a state of weakness to a state of strength through the inspiration of holy beings such as our Spiritual Guide, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas. BLISS An extremely pleasurable, comfortable and joyous feeling; in highest yoga tantra the very subtle clear light mind experiencing great bliss is focused on emptiness. BODHIMIND (Tib. byang.chub.sems.; Skt.bodhicitta) The altruistic motivation of a bodhisattva: a mind that is directed towards the attainment of Buddhahood, for the sake of all living beings; the fully open and dedicated heart. Once one has generated bodhimind, one enters the first bodhisattva path, the accumulation path (tshogs.lam). See: PATHS. Bo- dhimind is divided into the prayer form, the wish to become enlightened for the sake of others, and the action form, in which one undertakes the activities of a Bodhisattva in ac- cordance with Bodhisattva vows. Bodhimind is also divided into relative, which is what is usually considered bodhimind, and absolute or ultimate, which is the direct perception of emptiness under the influence of relative bodhimind. BODHISATTVA (Tib. byang.chub.sems.dpa') Also called 'child or heir of the Buddha' A living being who has generated bodhimind, the commitment to attain unexcelled, perfect enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. The term Bo- dhisattva refers to those on many levels: from those who have generated aspiration to enlightenment for the first time

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE to those who have actually entered the bodhisattva path, which is developed through the ten stages (bhumis) and culmi- nates in enlightenment, the attainment of Buddhahood. See: BHUMI BRAHMA (Tib. tshangs pa) Creator-lord of a universe; a title of a deity who has attained supremacy in a particular universe, rather than a personal name. A king of the gods who dwells in the form realm. At the time of Buddha Sakyamuni, Indra and Brahma requested Buddha to turn the wheel of dharma for the sake of all sentient beings. BUDDHA (Tib. sangs-rgyas) . Title of one who has attained the highest attainment, who has completely purified (sangs) all the defilements and completely extended (rgyas) and perfect- ed, his understanding. A fully enlightened being is perfect in omniscience and compassion. Every being has the potential to become a completely enlightened Buddha. There are countless Buddhas. This eon is to have one thousand Bud- dhas. Shakyamuni Buddha is the fourth Buddha in this eon. The first three were Krakuchchanda, Kanakamuni and Kashyapa. The fifth Buddha will be Maitreya, the eleventh Buddha is predicted to be Je Tsong khapa and as the last one of the thousand of this eon Roca is mentioned. BUDDHAPALITA (circa. 470-550 C.E.) A great Madh- yamika master, elucidator of a major work of Nagarjuna. Because of this, he was later regarded as the founder of the Prasangika sub-school. BUDDHISM 101 and BUDDHISM 102 Gelek Rinpoche uses these terms to refer to the lower and middle scopes (B101) and the higher scope (B102). In other words, 101. is determining to free oneself from the suffering of cyclic existence, and 102. is committing oneself to attain enlightenment in order to free all beings from this suffering. CAUSAL VEHICLE see SUTRAYANA COLLECTIVE KARMA see KARMA

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COMPASSION. (Skt. karuna Tib.snying rje) The wish to free others from their suffering. See: Great compassion. CONCENTRATED MEDITATION (‘jok gom) placing one’s mind stably on an object. CONTAMINATED PHENOMENON A contaminated phenomenon is any phenomenon that gives rise to delusions or that causes them to increase. DAKAS and DAKINIS. (Tib. mkha’ ‘gro; mkha’ ‘gro ma) Male and female 'sky-goers'; beings who help arouse blissful energy in a qualified tantric practitioner. Also uses to refer to Vajrayana practitioners, the Vajrayana Sangha. DEDICATION Refers to the bodhisattva's constant mindfulness of the fact that all his actions of whatever form contribute to his purpose of attaining enlightenment for the sake of himself and others, i.e. his conscious dedicating, offering, giving away of the merit that comes from any virtuous actions. DEGENERATE AGE (Skt. kali yuga) That period when the traditions of Buddha's teachings are no longer pure and the world situation makes it difficult to properly practice the dharma. DELUSION (Skt.klesha, Tib.nyong mongs) see NEUROSES. A thought, emotion or impulse that is pervaded by ignorance, disturbs the mind and initiates actions (karma) which keep one bound within cyclic existence. That which makes the mind impure. Some synonyms are afflictive emotions, neuroses, harmful attitudes, negativities. DEPENDENT ARISING Dependent arising or interdependent origination or dependent existence or interdependent relationship. (Skt. Pratityasamutpada. Tib. Rten ‘bjung or rten ‘bral) Any phenomenon that exists in dependence upon other phenomena is a dependent-related phenomenon. Sometimes dependent-related is distinguished from dependent-arising with the latter meaning arising in dependence upon causes

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE and conditions. However, the two terms are often used inter- changeably. DETERMINATION TO BE FREE The first of the three principles of the path enumerated by Je Tsongkhapa: resolving to free oneself from the suffering of cyclic existence through purification, accumulation of merit and wisdom. Also called RENUNCIATION or SEEKING FREEDOM. DEVADATTA A cousin of Buddha Shakyamuni who was his persistent antagonist throughout all his lifetimes. DHARMA (chos) Buddha's teachings and the realizations that are attained in dependence on them. One's spiritual development. That which holds one back from suffering by correcting what is not helpful. DHARMAKAYA (chos.kyi.sku) Truth Body. The mind of a fully enlightened being, which remains meditatively absorbed in the direct perception of emptiness while simultaneously cognising all phenomena. See: KAYA DHARMAKIRTI Great Indian master logician who lived around 630 CE.; author of Pramanasiddhi, Pramanavartika and other works. DREPUNG MONASTERY One of the three main monasteries of the Gelug tradition along with Ganden and Sera. The monastery Gelek Rinpoche lived in.. DUALISTIC VIEW Ignorant view characteristic of the unenlightened mind in which all things are falsely conceived to have concrete self-existence. To such a view the appearance of an object is mixed with the false image of its being independent or self-existent, thereby leading to further dualistic views concerning subject and object, self and other, this and that, etc. EIGHT WORLDLY DHARMAS (Tib. 'jig.rten chos brgyad) eight wordly concerns. 1) labha; rnyed pa gain, finding, obtaining, profit, acquirement.2) alabha; ma rnyed pa loss, not- finding, disappointment, disprofit, damage. 3) yasa; snyan pa/fame, glory, celebrity, reputation. 4) ayasa; mi snyan pa dis- 302

Gelek Rimpoche honour, disgrace, infamy, disrepute, 5) prasamsa; bstod pa praise, laud, commendation, renown. 6) nynda; smad pa blame, abuse, reproach, reproof, censure, reviling, dagrada- tion. 7) sukha; bde ba well-being, happiness, prosperity, pleasure. 8) dukha; sdug bsngal/ misery, pain, distress, trouble. EMPTINESS (Skt. shunyata, Tib. stong pa nyid) Voidness, specifically the emptiness of absolute substance, of truth, of identity, of intrinsic reality, of self or inherent existence of all persons and things in the relative world. ENLIGHTENMENT (Skt. bodhi, Tib. byang chub) The realisation achieved by a Buddha. EON (Skt. kalpa Tib. bskal pa) An immensely long period of time, described as the time it takes a dove to exhaust a mountain of grain the size of the Mount Everest by removing one grain every thousand years. EQUANIMITY (Skt. upeksa, Tib. btang snyoms) The basis for compassion and love: an unbiased state of mind affected by neither attachment nor aversion towards others. In meditation, a balanced state of mind upset by neither excitement nor sinking. ETERNALISM (Tib. rtag.lta) Belief in an unchanging ego or self-nature in either persons or phenomena. One of the two extremes to be avoided; the opposite of nihilism. FIELD OF MERIT In general a field of merit is any basis on which one can collect merit, just as a farmer’s field is the basis on which you can grow crops, the quality and amount of the crops depending on the nature of the field. FIRST PANCHEN LAMA Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen (Pan chen Blo zang chos kyi rgyal mtsan),1570-1662, a very influential figure in the Gelug tradition, author of the Lama Chöpa Guru Yoga FIVE LIMITLESS NON-VIRTUES Literally sins of immediate retribution, which cause immediate rebirth in hell following bardo: killing one's father, killing one's mother,

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE killing an Arhat, causing dissension among the Sangha and trying to kill a Buddha. FOUR ANTI-DOTE POWERS or FOUR POWERS OF PURIFICATION 1. Power of the base: if enlightened being then take refuge; if non-enlightened being then meditate love-compassion. 2. Power of action: generally any virtuous action; the two most powerful are generating bodhimind or meditating on emptiness. 3. Power of regret. 4. Power of repentence or resolving not to repeat the action. FOUR BODIES The four bodies of a Buddha are the Nature Truth Body, the Wisdom Truth Body, the Complete Enjoyment Body and the Manifested Body. The first two are the DHARMAKAYA, the second two the RUPAKAYA which includes the SAMBHOGAKAYA and the NIR- MANAKAYA. FOUR IMMEASURABLES Immeasurable equanimity, immeasurable love, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable joy. These are called immeasurables because we practice them by taking as our observed object all living beings whose number is immeasurable. FOUR INITIATIONS The four initiations of Highest Yo- ga Tantra are vase, secret, wisdom and word. FOUR KARMIC PRINCIPLES 1. Karma is definite. 2. Karma increases over time. 3. If you don’t do an act, you won’t see its result. 4. The karmic consequences of an act won’t just disappear. FOUR MARAS or FOUR EVILS nyunmong pai du (nyon mongs pai bdud) the evil of the delusions, shi da gi du (‘chi bdag gi bdud) the evil of death, lhai pui du (lhai bu yi bdud),the heavenly evil pung poi du (phung po’i bdud) the evil of the aggregates. In Sanskrit, they are called the four Maras, also translated as the four evil forces or the four devils. FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (Skt. catuh-arya-satya, Tib. ‘phags pai bden pa bshi) 1. The truth of suffering; 2. The truth of the causes of suffering. 3. The truth of the cessation of suf-

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Gelek Rimpoche fering. 4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering. They are called ‘noble’ truths because they are supreme objects of meditation. Through meditation on these four objects we can realize ultimate truth directly and thus become a noble, or superior being, an arya. GELUGPA The tradition of Tibetan Buddhism established by Je Tsong Khapa and also known as the New Kadam, also sometimes named Ganden Kagyu. The name Gelug means: wholesome way or: virtuous tradition. The three great Gelug monasteries are Ganden, Drepung and Sera. The other main traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are the Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu GOD (Skt. deva Tib. lha) refers to all kind of deities: samsaric and non-samsaric. see: SAMSARIC GODS GREAT COMPASSION (Skt.mahakaruna, Tib.snying rje chen po) The wish for all living beings to be free of suffering forever. Great compassion is accompanied by the clear awareness that ultimately there are no such things as living beings, sufferings, etc. Thus it is an unlimited sensitivity that does not entertain any dualistic notion of inherently existing subject and object. GREAT LOVE (Skt.. mahamaitri. Tib. byams pa chen po) The firm and spontaneous resolve to endow all sentient beings without exception with the real, lasting happiness that knows no suffering. GYELTSAB JE rGyal tshab Dar ma rin chen (1364-1432). The elder of Tsongkhapa’s two foremost disciples. Second throne holder of Tsongkhapa (dGa' ldan khri pa). HINAYANA (or THERAVADA) The 'small vehicle' of Buddhism, taught by the Buddha for those unable immediately to conceive the spirit of enlightenment, as a means for them to attain personal liberation. It includes the sravaka-yana, the hearer- or disciple vehicle, and prateyekaBuddha-yana, the solitary-realizer vehicle. It is a contrast to the Mahayana or 'great vehicle' or bodhisattva-yana, which is taught as a means

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE for living beings of an altruistic aspiration, to attain the liberation of self and others through simultaneous perfection of wisdom and compassion, that is called Buddhahood. I or EGO The self-centered, deluded self. Rinpoche often refers to this one as ‘I rinpoche’, ‘the Big Boss inside’, the ‘Queen Bee’ or ‘Dictator I’. Buddhism does not accept the existence of an independent, self-existent, unchanging ego or self, because if such were to exist, a person would be unchanging and would be unable to purify himself of fettering passions and attain Buddhahood. There is acceptance of a relative, impermanent, changeable, conscious entity, which is the continuation of life, linking one’s former lives to this life, and this life to future lives. IGNORANCE (Skt. avidya Tib. ma rig pa) The root cause of cyclic existence; not knowing the way things actually are and misconstruing them to be permanent, satisfactory and inherently existent. It gives rise to all other delusions and the karma they motivate. Ignorance can be eradicated by the wisdom of emptiness. IMAGE (Skt. Buddha rupa, Tib. sku gszugs) The image of a Buddha represents the Body or pure conduct of an enlightened bering. INITIATION or empowerment (dbang pronounced wong) Transmission received from a tantric master allowing a disciple to engage in the practices of a particular meditational deity, usually done in the form of an elaborate ritual. INTERDEPENDENT ORIGINATION see DEPEND- ENT ARISING KADAMPA MASTERS (bka'.gdams.pa). The Kadampa lineage was founded in the eleventh century by the teacher Dromtonje, Atisha's chief disciple. The Kadampa masters carry the lineage of Atisha's teaching. KAGYU One of the main Tibetan Buddhist traditions, founded by Marpa, teacher of Milarepa..

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KANJUR (Tib. bka’ ‘gyur) Literally 'translation of (Buddha's) words'. The Tibetan collection of the Tripitaka: the sutras, the vinaya, and the abhidharma, in one hundred and eight volumes. The collection of commentaries is called Tanjur. KARMA (las) Generally it means 'work' or 'action', which determines present experience and will determine future existences. By the infallible ripening of karma (like seeds) beings experience misery and happiness. Collective karma is the karma we create when we act in association with others. Those who create the karma together also experience the effects together. KAYA (sku) A 'body' or aspect of a Buddha; see FOUR BODIES KEDRUB JE ( Mkhas grub rje dGe legs dpal bzang po) (1385- 1438), the younger of Tsongkhapa’s two heart disciples Third holder of the throne of Tsongkhapa (dGa' ldan khri pa). The other heart disciple is Dar.ma Rin.chen, better know as Gyäl.tshab je, rGyal.tshab rje (1364-1432). KSITIGHARBA (Tib. sai sning po) A great Bodhisattva, one of the Eight Close Sons of Shakyamuni Buddha. LAM RIM The stages of the path to enlightenment in Su- trayana. In Tantrayana, the stages of the path are called Nag Rim (sNgangs rim) LAMA (bla ma; Skt. guru) the spiritual teacher. Literally it means the one without superior, the highest. The lama's principal quality is that of leading disciples from the beginning of their quest all the way to the attainment of Bud- dhahood. Before leaving the earth, Buddha said that he would appear in the form of lamas for those who would in the future desire to follow his teachings. A direct guru is any spiritual guide from whom we have received teachings in this life, a lineage guru is any spiritual guide who has passed on the lineage of teaching received by our own direct gurus. Our principal spiritual guide is also known as our root guru.

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LAK TONG (Tib. lhag mthong, Skt. vipasyana) Special or penetrative insight. The meditative realization of impermanence, selflessness and emptiness that overcomes ignorance and leads to liberation. LOVE (Skt. maitri, Tib.byams pa) The wish for others to be happy. LOWER REALMS (ngen ‘gro) Out of the six realms of samsaric existence the realms of animals, hungry ghosts (pretas) and hell beings. See: REALMS MADHYAMIKA (dbu.ma.pa). One of the two main schools of Mahayana tenets (the other one being the Cittamatra or Mind-only school). The madhyamika view was taught by Buddha in the Perfection-of-Wisdom sutra (prajna- paramitasutras) during the second turning of the wheel of dharma and was subsequently elucidated by Nagarjuna and his followers. It has two divisions: madhyamika-svatantrika and madhyamika-prasangika, of which the latter is Buddha's final view. MAHAYANA (Tib. theg.chen) 'The great vehicle', called 'great' because it carries all living beings to enlightenment or Bud- dhahood. It is distinguished from Hinayana, which only carries each person who rides on it to their own personal liberation. MAITREYA (Byams.pa) The embodiment of the loving- kindness of all the Buddhas. At the time of Buddha Shakyamuni he manifested as a bodhisattva disciple. Predict- ed by Buddha Shakyamuni to be the next Buddha. He pres- ently resides over Tushita heaven. Maitreya received from Buddha Shakyamuni the teachings of compassion, the lineage of extensive deeds, which lineage he transmitted to Asanga. MANJUSHRI also MANJUGOSHA The eternally youthful crown prince, the embodiment of the wisdom of all enlightened beings. From Manjushri the lineage of the profound view of emptiness was handed down to Nagarjuna.

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Manjushri incarnated in human form is called Manjunatha ('Jam mgon), an epithet for Tsongkhapa. MARPA (sGra.bsgyur Mar.pa Lo.tsa.ba) A great Tibetan yogi of the eleventh and twelth century, disciple of Naropa and teacher of Milarepa, the founder of the Kagyu tradition. MEDITATION (Skt. bhavana, Tib. sgom pa) Literally ‘getting used to’. The process of controlling, training and transforming the mind that leads one to liberation and enlightenment. The process of becoming thoroughly familiar with positive attitudes and accurate perspectives through both analytical investigation and single-pointed concentration. MERIT (Skt.punya Tib.bsod nams) The wholesome tendencies implanted in the mind as a result of committing skilful actions. That positive energy results in happiness and good qualities. MERIT FIELD In general, a field of merit is any basis on which one can collect merit, like a field of earth is the basis on which you can grow crops, the crops depending on the field. A supreme field for accumulating merit are the holy beings, to which we can offer the seven limbs of our practice, the holy beings acting as a field in which we plant and nourish our seeds of virtue. METHOD Skillful means or liberative technique (Skt upaya Tib. thabs). This expresses the great compassion of the Bud- dha and Bodhisattvas. Wisdom and method go together as the two wings of a bird crossing the ocean of samsara. MIGTSEMA (dmig.rtse.ma), originally a hymn to Rendawa (Red.mda'.pa) written by Tsongkhapa. Rendawa (1349-1412), one of the most important teachers of Tsong Khapa be- longed to the Sakya (Sa.skya.pa) school. Rendawa reversed the Mig-tse-ma into a hymn in praise of Tsongkhapa. MILAREPA (rJe.btsun Mi.la ras.pa bZhad.pa rdo.rje) 1040-1123. A Tibetan yogi who achieved budhahood in one lifetime. He was the disciple of Marpa and his biography is a favorite

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE example of hardship undertaken in order to attain enlightenment. MINDFULNESS (Tib. dran pa) In everyday life, being mindful is to remember one’s motivation and correct one’s thought and actions to be in accord with it. MOTIVATION The underlying reason or purpose for one’s actions of body, speech and mind. The recommended highest motivation is bodhimind, the wish or intention to become a Buddha to serve or benefit others. NAGA (glu) Mythical dragon-like beings who inhibit and have influence over the waters of the world. In Buddha's time they listened to the teachings and took them to their own world, where they preserved them. See: Nagarjuna. NAGARJUNA (klu.sgrub) Saint, scholar and mystic of Bud- dhist India who lived about four hundred years after the Buddha. Discoverer of the Mahayana scriptures, the lineage of wisdom, according to the myth handed over to him by the nagas. He is author of the fundamental Madhyamika texts. NEUROSES (Skt. klesha, Tib. nyong mongs) see DELUSIONS Often translated as delusions or as afflicted emotions. A thought, emotion or impulse that is pervaded by ignorance, disturbs the mind and initiates actions (karma) which keep one bound within cyclic existence. That which makes the mind impure. Delusions are mental factors. The three root delusions or the three poisons: ignorance, attachment and hatred; from these, many others arise. NIRMANAKAYA (sprul.sku) Emanation body. Form in which an enlightened being appears in order to benefit ordinary beings. See: FOUR BODIES NIRVANA (mya ngan las ‘das pa) The state of complete liberation from samsara; the goal of the practitioner seeking his or her own freedom from suffering. 'Lower nirvana' is used to refer to this state of self-liberation while 'higher nirvana' refers to the supreme attainment of the full enlightenment of Buddhahood.

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NYINGMA The 'old sects' of Tibetan buddhism, that adhere to the scriptural translations made prior to the eleventh century. The founder of this tradition was Guru Pad- masambhava OMNISCIENCE This refers to the gnosis of the Buddha, the state of being totally aware of everything ORAL TRANSMISSION. (Tib. lung) The passing of a pure, unbroken oral lineage. A disciple is not considered to have received a teaching until he or she has heard all the words from the mouth of a qualified spiritual guide. A teaching that has been received in this way carries the blessings of all the lineage gurus who transmitted the same teaching in the past. PABONGKHAPA Je Pabongkhapa (1878-1941) , Trinley Gyatso, was the root-guru of both the Senior and Junior Tutors to the Dalai Lama and holder of many sutra and secret mantra lineages. PARAMITAS (pha.rol.tu.phyin.pa) Perfections or transcendences. The main categories of the bodhisattva's activities: giving (skt dana), morality (skt.sila), tolerance or patience (skt. ksanti), joyous effort (skt.virya), meditation (skt.dhyana) and wisdom (skt.prajna) PATHS in Mahayana (Tib. theg-chen-gyi lam). Internal paths that lead us to our ultimate destination, full enlightenment. The five paths are: 1. path of merit or path of accumulation (tshogs lam); 2. path of preparation (sbyor lam); 3. path of seeing or path of insight (mthong lam); 4. path of meditation (sgom lam); 5. path of no-more-learning (mi slob lam). The first two paths are the paths of ordinary bodhisattvas, the following two paths are the paths of arya bodhisattvas, on the fifth path the Bodhisattva has become a Buddha. PRAJNAPARAMITA (Tib. shes.rab.kyi.pha.rol.tu.phyin.pa) Per- fection of wisdom. Transcendental wisdom, the profound non-dual understanding of the ultimate reality of all things. As a goddess, she is worshipped as the 'Mother of all Bud- dhas'

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PRAJNAPARAMITASUTRA (Tib. phar phyin) Perfection of Wisdom sutra. The scripture with those teachings of Sakya- muni Buddha in which the the transcendental wisdom, the wisdom of emptiness and the path of the bodhisattva are set forth. There are nineteen versions of different lengths, rang- ing from the Heart Sutra of a few pages to the Hundred- Thousand. Verses. PRATYEKABUDDHA Someone who achieves personal liberation in a period when no Buddhas are present, without having a teacher in his last life. see ARHAT PURIFICATION The process by which one can avoid experiencing the effects of negative karma, first by preventing the ripening of karmic effects, then by totally removing the delusions and even their subtle imprints. See FOUR POWERS. REALMS In samsara three main realms are distinguished: the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm. They are also known as the three worlds. I. Realm of desire (kama- dhatu). The environment, land or sphere of hell-beings -eight hot hells, eight cold hells, two nearby hells-, hungry ghosts (pretas), animals, humans and demi-gods are all included in the desire realm, because beings in this realm have very strong desirous attachment. The environments of gods exist in all three realms. REFUGE Taking refuge is turning one's mind towards a valid source of protection from the sufferings of samsara. In Buddhism this involves entrusting oneself to the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha RELATIVE BODHIMIND see BODHIMIND RELATIVE TRUTH see TWO TRUTHS RENUNCIATION see DETERMINATION TO BE FREE (Tib. nges ‘byung) The realisation of detachment from all of samsara, having understood its faults. Also called: determination to be free. ROOT GURU See: Lama 312

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SAKYA Tradition of Tibetan buddhism founded in the mid-eleventh century by Drog-mi the translator. One of the most eminent Sakya teachers was the Sakya Pandita. SAMANTABADRA (Tib. kun tu bzang po) A great Bodhi- sattva (or Buddha appearing in Bodhisattva form) famous for his way of mentally multiplying offerings by billions of times. SAMBHOGAKAYA (Tib. longs.spyon.sku) Enjoyment body. Form in which the enlightened mind appears in order to benefit highly realised bodhisattvas. It can only be seen by those who are highly realized, who are aryas. See FOUR BODIES. SAMSARA (Tib. 'khor.ba or srid.pa) The continuation of contaminated identity. The cycle of existence, of birth and death in the three realms of suffering existence: the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm. See: Realms. SAMSARIC GODS (lha) Samsaric gods are samsaric beings dwelling for the moment in an extremely pleasant state. SANGHA As object of refuge it is the community of arya beings those who have achieved spiritual aims and are able to help. In daily life, it is the community of those on the spiritual path, traditionally a group of more than four monks or nuns. SEEKING FREEDOM see DETERMINATION TO BE FREE, THREE PRINCIPLES SELF-CHERISHING The self-centred attitude of consid- ering one's own happiness to be more important than everyone else's. The main obstacle to be overcome in the development of bodhicitta. SELF-GRASPING A conceptual mind apprehending inherent existence that arises from ignorance of the true nature of phenomena. It gives rise to all other delusions and is the root of all suffering. SENTIENT BEING (Skt. sattva, Tib. sems can) Any being who possesses a mind that is contaminated by delusions or

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GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE their imprints. Both ‘sentient being’ and ‘living being’ are terms used to distinguish beings whose minds are contaminated by any of the two obstructions from Buddhas, whose minds are completely free from these obstructions. SEVEN-LIMB PRACTICE A brief practice recommended by enlightened beings as a way to generate, multiply and protect positive energy (or merit) and purify negative actions. The seven steps are 1. Praising and seeking to emulate enlightened beings. 2. Making actual and imagined offerings. 3. Purifying negativities. 4. Rejoicing in positive actions. 5. Requesting wise and timely teachings. 6. Requesting teachers to remain. 7. Dedicating positive energy. SHAKYAMUNI (Tib. sa kya thub pa) 'Sage of the Sakyas', name of the Buddha of our era, who lived in India around 563-483 BC. He was a prince from the Sakya clan. He taught the sutra and tantra path to liberation; founder of what came to be known as Buddhism. His mundane name was Siddharta Gautama. SHANTIDEVA (Tib. Zhi ba lha) (c.687-763) A great Indian Buddhist teacher, meditator and scholar, most famous for his masterpiece, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. SHRAVAKA or Hearer. Someone who achieves personal liberation by following a teacher. See Arhat. SIDDHI (dgnos.grub). achievement, attainment. SIX SESSION YOGA (Tib. thun drug) A daily practice through which those who have taken Highest Yoga Tantra initiation maintain their vows. SKANDHAS (Tib. phungpo) Aggregates. Literally meaning 'pile' or 'heap'. The five basic constituents of psycho-physical existence, of great importance as a scheme for introspective meditation in the abhidharma. They are: (1) matter or form (skr. rupa), (2) feeling or sensation (skr. vedana), (3) perception or discernment or discrimination or intellect -the sense of verbal, conceptual intelligence- (skr.samnja), (4) volition, mo-

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Gelek Rimpoche tivation, habits, compositional factors, formative elements or conditioned activities (skr. samskara) and (5) consciousness or primary mind or pure awareness (skr. vijnana). Associated together they make up most living beings. SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT Term used by Gelek Rinpoche for the realized or internalised Dharma; the extent to which one has decreased one’s negative qualities and in- creased one’s positive qualities. SPIRITUAL FRIEND (Skt. Kalyanamitra Tib. bshes gnyen) see: SPIRITUAL MASTER SPIRITUAL MASTER (Skt. guru, Tib. lama) The spiritual teacher who can lead disciples to the attainment of Bud- dhahood. Before leaving the earth Buddha said that he would appear in the form of lamas for those who would in the future desire to follow his teachings. A direct guru is any spiritual guide from whom we have received teachings in this life, a lineage guru is any spiritual guide who has passed on the lineage of teaching received by our own direct gurus. One's principal spiritual guide is also known as one's root guru. Levels of looking at the lama: On the Hinayana-level one sees the lama as teacher. In the Mahayana-level one sees the spiritual teacher as a spiritual friend. In tantric practice one sees him as an enlightened being; the guru's body is seen as the sangha, his speech as the dharma, and his mind as the Buddha. SUTRA (mdo) The open discourses of the Buddha, the spiritual text and the teachings they contain. STUPA (Skt. stupa or caitya, Tib. mchod rten) A reliquary that represents the Mind or purified thought of the Buddha and enshrines his physical relics. SUTRAYANA The openly taught vehicle or path of Bud- dhism, leading to the attainment of full enlightenment over three counless eons through the practice of the six perfections; hence also called the perfection vehicle (paramitayana)

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TANTRA (rgyud). Means 'method' in general. Another name is: secret mantra. The secret teachings of Buddha in the form of Vajradhara The essential practice of tantra that distin- guishes it from sutra is bringing the result into the path. The practice involves identification of oneself with a fully enlightened deity. There are four classes of tantras: kriyatantra (bya ba'I ruyd), caryatantra (spyad pai rgyud), yogatantra (rnal 'by- or ba'I rgyud) and the annutarayogatantra (rnal.'byor bla na med pa'I rgyud). The fourth is the highest and often called highest yoga tantra. The tantric stages of the path are called nag rim (sngags rim). Tantra consists of an important body of literatu- re dealing with a great variety of techniques of advanced meditations, incorporating rituals, mantra and visualisations. TANTRAYANA: The post-sutra vehicle of Buddhism, capable of leading to the attainment of full enlightenment within one lifetime; hence also called the lightning vehicle; equivalent terms are VAJRAYANA, MANTRAYANA TARA (Tib. sgrol.ma). Female meditational deity. 'She who can free us'. Compassionate savior goddess. She was born from a tear of Avalokiteshvara and vowed to help him to liberate all beings from samsara. Referred to as the mother of the Buddhas of the past, present and future. There are twenty- one Tara forms. TEN DIRECTIONS. These consist of the eight points of the compass, straight up and straight down. As a conventional formula it means 'all directions'. TENGYUR (bstan ‘gyur) The collection of the traditional commentaries on Buddha’s teachings. THERAVADA Buddhism of 'the elder tradition' as practiced in Ceylon etc. Rinpoche uses this as equivalent to HINA- YANA THREE HIGHER TRAININGS Ethical discipline or morality, concentration, and wisdom. These are the principles themes of the Tripitaka, the three baskets of scriptures, and they are the very substance of the Hinayana path.

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THREE JEWELS (Skt. triratna, Tib. dkon mchog) The three objects of spiritual support as viewed within a buddhist framework: Buddha, dharma and sangha. In the Tibetan tradition, the guru or lama, is also mentioned, but rather than being a fourth object of refuge, he is the 'three-in-one'. THREE REALMS (Skt.tri-dhatu, Tib. khams gsum) the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm. They are also known as the three worlds. See: REALMS THREE MORALITIES 1. Keeping one’s vows, and thus refraining from negative actions. 2. Doing good actions. 3. Helping others. THREE PRINCIPLES OF THE PATH: determination to be free, bodhicitta or the altruistic mind, wisdom. Title of a famous poem by Je Tsongkhapa. TONG LEN The practice of giving and taking, described in Lojong texts. One takes on the bad deeds, obscurations and sufferings of others and gives them all one’s happiness and virtues. This reverses and destroys our normal tendency to self-cherishing. TSOH (Tib. tshogs) A tantric feast offering. May be done in conjunction with the Lama Chöpa, in which case all may attend, or with a tantric saddhana, in which case only those with that initiation may attend. TSONGKHAPA (rje tsong kha pa blo zang grags pa) (1357- 1419) A great fourteenth-century scholar, yogi, and teacher restored the purity of Buddhadharma in Tibet, thus founding the Gelug tradition. His many treatises finalized the work begun by Atisha of clarification and synthesis of the vast body of Indian scriptures and schools of practice into a uni- fied exposition of sutrayana and tantrayana paths. He wrote several lam rims, the most well known one is Great exposition on the Stages of the Path, Lam rim chen mo. On the stages in tantra he wrote the Great exposition of secret mantra, sngags rim chen mo. He is regarded a full enlightened being and along with Long-chen Rab-jam-pa (1308-1363) and the Sakya

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Pandita (1182-1251) an emanation of Manjushri. That is why he is called 'Jam mgon, lit.'gentle lord', indicating that he and the deity Manjughosa (a form of Manjushri) are of one essence. He is regarded as the synthesis of Manjushri, Avaloki- teshvara and Vajrapani and therefore regarded as the embodiment of the wisdom, compassion and power of all the Buddhas. The name Tsongkhapa literally means ‘the one from Tsongkha’ (Tsongkha means something like ‘Onion county’) TURNING THE WHEEL OF THE DHARMA Term referring to the three categories of teachings in which Shakymuni Buddha shared his experience and knowledge. In brief, the first turning taught the four noble truths, the second turning interdependence and wisdom and the third turning method. TWELVE LINKS OF INTERDEPENDENT ORIGINA- TION An explanation of how the cycle of suffering existence is perpetuated. The twelve links are 1. ignorance, 2. conditioned karma, 3. consciousness, 4. name and form, 5. six senses, 6. contact, 7. sensation, 8. wanting, 9. grasping, 10. existence, 11. birth, 12. old age and death. TWENTY-TWO BODHICHITTAS According to the Per- fection of Wisdom sutras (Prajnaparamitasutra)they are: like earth, like bright gold, like a new moon, like blazing fire, like a great treasure, like a jewel mine, like a great ocean, like a vajra, like a mountain, like medicine, like a virtuous spiritual friend, like a wish-granting jewel, like the sun, like a pleasant song of dharma, like a king, like a treasury, like a highway, like a chariot, like spring water, like a pleasant sound, like a river, like a cloud. TWO TRUTHS All objects of cognition have two modes of existence, called 'truths'. The truth of appearance or relative truth or conventional truth (skr. samvrtisattya) is the aspect of existence according to worldly convention and expression. And the absolute truth or ultimate truth (skr. paramarthasatya) is the voidness of all phenomena, the mere absence of in-

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Gelek Rimpoche herent existence, the reality of existence. So, the absolute or ultimate truth is emptiness; all other levels belong to the relative or conventional truth UMBRELLA (Skt. chatra, Tib. gdugs) A traditional Indian symbol of royalty and protection. UTUMVARA FLOWER (Skt. Udumbara) A sacred flower that blooms very infrequently and for a very short time, symbolizing extreme rarity and impermanence. UTPALA A precious blue ‘lotus’, associated especially with different forms of Tara and Manjushri. VAJRA (Tib. rdo r.je) Diamond scepter; indestructible like a diamond and powerful like a thunderbolt. In the context of tantra it means the indivisibility of method and wisdom., or when used with a bell, the bell is wisdom, the vajra is method. VAJRA-MASTER Teacher who is qualified to perform the task of a tantric guru. VAJRADHARA (Tib. rdo r.je chang), holder of the diamond scepter. Male meditational deity. The form through which Sakyamuni Buddha reveals the teachings of secret mantra. He symbolizes the attainment of enlightenment through the union of simultaneous great bliss and emptiness. VAJRASATTVA ( Tib. rdo r.je sempa) Diamond Being. Male meditational deity. Recitation of his mantra is a major tantric purification practice for removing obstacles created by negative karma and the breaking of one's vows. VAJRAYANA (rdorje thegpa) secret mantra vehicle. The advanced means to quickly achieve Buddhahood -within one lifetime- for the sake of all sentient beings. Also called TANTRAYANA. VAJRAYOGINI (Tib. rdo rje rnal ‘byor ma) A female meditational deity of the maha-annutara yoga tantra, associated with Heruka Chakrasamvara; a mother tantra.

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VINAYA (Tib. ldul.ba) The first of the three major divisions or baskets of the Buddhist canon, the tripitaka. It also refers to the code of behaviour contained in this vinaya basket, followed by those who have taken the vows of the buddhist order. VOID See EMPTINESS VOWS Promises to refrain from certain actions. The three sets of vows are the Vows of individual liberation, the Bo- dhisattva vows, and the Vajrayana vows. WISDOM (Skt. prajna, Tib. she rab) The sixth of the six transcendences or paramitas. The unmistaken understanding of things; specifically the insight into emptiness: the actual way in which things exist; Wisdom is the antidote to ignorance. It is symbolized by Manjushri YAMANTAKA A yidam; in maha-annutara-yoga tantra a wrathful manifestation of Manjushri, to overcome hindrances; a father-tantra. YANA Vehicle; the means whereby a practitioner is led to his or her desired spiritual attainment (sutrayana, tantrayana). YIDAM (Tib. yi dam, sometimes lha) Also called meditational deity or tutelary. An enlightened being embodying a particular aspect of full enlightenment, used as the focus of concentration and identification in tantra. YOGA (Tib. rnal 'byor) endeavour, application, practice. YOGI, YOGINI Resp. male or female practitioner of yoga; a tantric adept. ZHINE (Tib. zhi gnas, Skt. samatha) Mental quiescence or meditative equipoise; a very high degree of concentration. The tranquil, single-pointed settling of the mind on an object of meditation for a sustained period of time. A degree of concentration characterized by mental and physical pliancy or ecstasy.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

English Translations (from either the original Sanskrit or the Tibetan translation): Santideva. The Bodhicaryavatara. Translated with introduction and notes by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Translated from the San- skrit with footnotes on where the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts differ. Includes an introduction on Shantideva and his world by Paul Williams. Santideva. A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Translated from the Sanskrit and Tibetan by Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publica- tions, 1997. Shantideva. A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Translated by Stephen Batchlor. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibet- an Works and Archives, 1979. Reprints 1981, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1998. This is the translation that Gelek Rinpoche uses in this commentary. Shantideva. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bo- dhicharyavatara.Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Translation Group. Boston: Shambhala, 1997. (A very beautiful and poetic translation.)

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Commentaries: Kelsang Gyatso, Geshe. Meaningful to Behold: The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Tharpa Publications, 1980, fourth edition 1994. This is a detailed commentary on Shantideva’s Bodhisatt- vacharyavatara. It does not include a separate translation but has the translation interwoven in the commentary. Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche checked the Tibetan text of this commentary. Roach, Geshe Michael, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Part I, II and III; Course X, XI and XII. New York: The Asian Classics Institute, no date given. These courses include tapes of Michael Roach’s lecture commentary on selected verses, plus study materials taken from traditional Tibetan sources. Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama. A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Transla- tion Group. Boston: Shambhala, 1994. The Dalai Lama’s commentary on selected verses of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara. Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama of Tibet. Transcendent Wis- dom: A Teaching on the Wisdom Section of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Translated, edited and annotated by B. Alan Wallace. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1988, second edition 1994. The Dalai La- ma’s commentary on the ninth chapter of the Bodhisatt- vacharyavatara. Wisdom: Two Buddhist Commentaries on the Ninth Chapter of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara (Khendchen Kunzang Palden, The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech. Minyak Kunzang Sonam, The Brilliant Torch.) Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Transla- tion Group. Peyzac-le-Moustier, France: Padmakara, 1993.

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ABOUT GELEK RIMPOCHE

Born in Lhasa, Tibet, Kyabje Gelek Rim- poche was recognized as an incarnate lama at the age of four. Carefully tutored by Tibet’s greatest living masters, he received specialized individual teaching at Drepung Monastery, the nation’s largest monastery. In 1959, Gehlek Rimpoche was among those forced into exile, fleeing the Communist Chinese who had occupied Tibet since 1951. While in India, Rimpoche as a member of a group of sixteen monks, was chosen to continue specific studies with the great masters who had escaped Tibet, including the Dalai Lama’s personal tutors. At the age of twenty-five, Rimpoche gave up monastic life. In the mid-70’s, Gelek Rimpoche was encouraged by his teachers to begin teaching in Eng- lish. Since that time he has gained a large following throughout the world. Coming to the U.S. in the mid-80’s, Rimpoche later moved to Ann Arbor, MI and in 1987 founded Jewel Heart, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture and Buddhism. Today, Jewel Heart has chapters throughout the U.S. and in Malaysia, Singapore and the Netherlands. A member of the last generation of lamas to be born and fully educated in Tibet, Gehlek Rimpoche is particularly distinguished for his understanding of contemporary society and his skill as a teacher of Buddhism in the West. He is now an American citizen. Gehlek Rimpoche’s first book, the national bestseller, Good Life, Good Death, was published in 2001.

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ABOUT JEWEL HEART

Jewel Heart is an educational and cultural center whose doors are open to all. Its purpose is to transmit the essence of Tibetan Bud- dhism in an authentic and accessible form. Jewel Heart provides guidance and practical methods to anyone interested in spiritual development, as well as to those who wish to follow the traditional Buddhist path. The name Jewel Heart was chosen to represent the organization because the heart is the essence of the human being, and the jewel something of great value – considered precious. Through embracing the preciousness of our life and developing our qualities, inner peace will grow, and our actions will be influenced by compassionate concern for others. It is to this end that Jewel Heart dedicated its efforts. The Jewel Heart logo contains three graphic elements: the spinning jewel wheel, the lotus, and the flame. The central wheel symbolizes the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha represents our potential for enlightenment. The Dharma is the spiritual development within each individual. The Sangha is the community of those individuals, who have developed wisdom, act as guides. In nature, the lotus rises from the mud, yet remains pure. Similarly, we are capable of rising above ordinary conceptions and putting love and compassion into action in daily life. The flame that surrounds the jewel wheel represents the fire of wisdom, consuming all obstacles and bringing insight.

JEWEL HEART Head Office 1129 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 USA Phone (1) 734.994.3387 Fax (1) 734.994.5577 www. jewelheart.org [email protected]

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JEWEL HEART Chapters  USA: Ann Arbor MI, Chicago II, Cleveland OH, Lin- coln NE and New York NY.  Malaysia: [email protected]  The Netherlands: Nijmegen, Den Bosch, Tilburg, Utrecht. www.jewelheart.nl - [email protected]

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JEWEL HEART TRANSCRIPTS

1. Gelek Rimpoche. Ganden Lha Gyema; The hundreds of deities of the land of Joy.* 1991, revised 1999. | A commentary on guru-yoga in the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa. 2. Gelek Rimpoche. Karma; actions and their consequenses. 1991; revised 2004 half-size format. An introduction to the concept of karma and how to deal with it in daily life. 3. Gelek Rimpoche. Love and Compassion. 1992; revised 1997 The altruistic mind and the Six Perfections 4. Denma Lochö Rinpoche. The Wheel of Existence. 1992; revised 2004 half-size format. Explanation of the cyclic nature of existence following from ignorance and neurotic patterns. 5. Gelek Rimpoche. Six-session Guru Yoga.* 1 992; 3rd and extended edition 2003. The guru yoga as a requirement for the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra 6. Gelek Rimpoche. Self and Selflessness. 1993; third edition 1998 The nature of the Self in Buddhist philosophy 7. Gelek Rimpoche, Lam Rim Teachings; teachings 1987- 1991, 4 volumes. 1993; revised 2005. Comprehensive teachings on the Graduated Path to Enlightenment in the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa.

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8. Gelek Rimpoche, Transforming Negativity into Positive living. 1994, half-seize format 2004. Practical advice on how to deal with negative emotions in daily life 9. Gelek Rimpoche, The Three Principles of the Path by Je Tsongkhapa,1994; revised 2003, 2004. Detailed Commentary on the Three Principles of the Path: Determination to be free; Altruism, the Perfect View 10. Gelek Rimpoche, The Three Principles of the Path – a Concise Commentary; 2006. Totallly renewed edition in half-size format of the 1995 Three Principles. 11. Gelek Rimpoche, Healing and Selfhealing through Tara.* 1996; revised and extended edition 1999. Healing practices based on the deity Tara, a manifestation of the active aspect of the compassion of all enlightened beings 12. Gelek Rimpoche, Three Main Short Vajrayana practices.* 1997; 2nd and extended edition 1999. Commentaries on: Six session yoga, Short sadhana of Solitary Hero Yamantaka, Short sadhana of Vajrayogini. 13. Gelek Rimpoche, Guru Devotion: How to integrate the primordial mind.* 1997, extended edition 2003. Commentary Lama Chöpa, Offering to the Spiritual Master. 14. Gelek Rimpoche, Solitary Yamantaka teachings on the generation stage.* 1997; 2nd edition 1998. Comprehensive commentary on the Generation Stage of the Solitary Hero Vajrabhairava, including reviews and discussions. 15. Gelek Rimpoche, Odyssey to Freedom; in sixty-four steps. 1998; 2nd edition 2001; revision/extension in action.

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The Graduated Path to Enlightenment in easy-to- practice form. 16. Gelek Rimpoche, The Perfection of Wisdom Mantra. 1998. The Perfection of Wisdom Mantra and the Five Paths of the Mahayana 17. Tarab Tulku, Nearness to Oneself and Openness to the World. 1999. Four selected topics. 18. Gelek Rimpoche, Lojong, Training of the Mind in Eight Verses. 2000. Commentary on Mind Training based on the root text by Langri Tangpa. 19. Gelek Rimpoche, Lojong, Training of the Mind in Seven Points. 2000. Commentary on the Mind Training based on the root text by Geshe Chekawa. 20. Gelek Rimpoche, Vajrayogini Teachings* 2000; 3rd revised and extended edition 2003/2005. Comprehensive commentary on the Generation stage of Vajrayogini. 21. Gelek Rimpoche, Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Chapter-volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2000-03. Detailed Verse by Verse Commentary on Shantideva’s Famous Work 22. Gelek Rimpoche, The Practice of the Triumphant Ma. 1996, revised edition 2002, half-size format 2004. Healing practices based on the Deity Tara, a manifestation of the active aspect of compassion of all enlightened beings. This transcript can be read by the general public, no requirement of an initiation. 23. Gelek Rimpoche. Ganden Lha Gyema; The hundreds of deities of the land of Joy. 1991, revised 2002. A guru-yoga practice for the general public. No initiation requirement. 329

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24. Tarab Tulku, Unity in Duality; the inter-determinate nature of all that exists. 2003. 25. Gelek Rimpoche, GOM – A Course in Meditation. 2005. 26. Gelek Rimpoche, SEM – The Nature of Mind. 2005. 27. Gelek Rimpoche, The Four Mindfullnesses. 2007. 28. Gelek Rimpoche, Cittamani Tara – Extensive Commentary*. 2007 29. Gelek Rimpoche, The Four Noble Truths. 2010. 30. Gelek Rimpoche, The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, 2010.

* Must have Highest Yoga Tantra Initiation to read. If you want to read the restricted transcripts and be able to understand them properly, it is important that you receive a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation from a qualified teacher.

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Notes

1 I and my circle, throughout all of our lives,may we never be separated from the protection of the Three Precious Jewels. By continu- ally making offerings to the Three Precious Jewels may their blessings be obtained. Buddha, the peerless Master, Dharma the peerless Protector, Sangha the peerless Helper: we make these offerings to the three precious Protectors. OM AH HUM OM AH HUM OM AH HUM 2 3 This was true even in 1998, when this was written at the height of the stock market boom. It is certainly true in 2002 when it is being edited! 4 For more about Shantideva’s life, see Gelek Rimpoche’s commentary on Chapter One of The Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. 5 This work is sometimes called the Bodhicaryavatara, sometimes Bodhisattvacharyavatara. 6 Bag yod. Geshe Michael Roach calls this ‘learning to be careful’. Once you form the intention to live like a Bodhisattva, you must take good care of that frail newborn ability.. Other translations of the word include carefulness, attending to, awareness and vigilance. 7 Preparing for and taking the Bodhisattva Vows is the subject of Chapter Three of The Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. 8 Absolute Bodhimind is the direct perception of the nature of reality by a Bodhisattva. 9 The Tibetan word translated as mindfulness is drenpa. It can also be translated as remembering or recollection, holding something helpful or positive in one’s mind and not forgetting it. 10 Like what Americans play as Chutes and Ladders or Snakes and Ladders. 11 Hungry ghosts or craving spirits are called pretas in Sanskrit and yidak (yi dwags) in Tibetan. 12 Cast your bread upon the waters, and it will return to you a thou- sandfold. 13 Probably referring to the blue dress Monica Lewinsky saved, that proved Clinton had an affair with her. 14 Attachment is what glues us to samsara. 15 See page 7.

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16 Referring to the special prosecutor who was assigned to investigate President Clinton. 17 In the long version of the sadhanas or initiations. 18 See verse 9. 19For biographies of Shakyamuni Buddha’s two foremost students, see Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy, by Nyanponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker, Boston: Wis- dom Publications, 1997. 20 Dam bcas 21 Shakyamuni is the official Buddha of our time. Within our fortunate eon or eon of light, one thousand official Buddhas will appear, of which Shakyamuni is the fourth. Buddhas also manifest continuously in other ways. 22 In addition to the ten qualities, human life has eight freedoms: being free from life as a hell-being, preta, animal or long-lived god, from living in a barbaric place or a place where no Buddha has taught, from having a defective mind, and from having wrong views such as the conviction that one’s actions don’t matter. 23 Refers to verse 11. 24 Meaning those who have taken Highest Yoga Tantra initiation. 25 Or the continuation of involuntary rebirth of contaminated aggregates. 26 Both attachment and aversion perceive things inaccurately. At- tachment thinks that something is really good and can bring happiness and doesn’t want to lose it. Aversion thinks something is really bad and can cause suffering and wants to get away from it. 27 Also known as Mogallana. He was one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s two chief disciples, along with Shariputra. 28 Rimpoche has compared it to a golem or Frankenstein’s monster. 29 Rimpoche is joking about the book and the film Seven Years in Tibet. When Rimpoche was a boy in Lhasa, he met Heinrich Harrer, who was probably the first European he had seen. 30 See Geshe Rabten, Treasury of Dharma (Switzerland: Editions Rabten, 1997), for a clear and simple discussion of the six root delusions, attachment, anger, pride, ignorance, negative doubt and mistaken views. 31 See the questions following this section for more on the distinction Rimpoche is making between ‘mind nature’ and ‘nature of the mind’. 32 The four variable factors are sleep, regret, general investigation and precise analysis. They can be positive or negative.

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33 ‘jig lta,’jig tshogs la lta ba sometimes translated as ‘the view of the transitory collection’ or ‘the fearful view’. 34 There is a Tibetan divination activity called Mo. 35 Sems kyi don dam, sems kyi chos nyid. 36 Kun dzob is translated as relative or conventional, as in relative truth kun dzob bden pa, as opposed to ultimate or absolute truth don dam bden pa. 37 These are all discussed in many texts includings Geshe Rabten, Treasury of Dharma (Switzerland:Editions Rabten, 1997). 38 lha ma yin in Tibetan means ‘not-god’ or ‘anti-god’. Just the Titans of Greek mythology fought the Olympians, they constantly make war against the samsaric gods who live on Mount Meru. 39 Even the king of mountains, Mount Meru, cannot stand against such negativity. 40 As in English, the Tibetan word for heart (snying) can also mean essence, as when we talk about ‘the heart of the matter.’ 41 When reading the verse in English, Rimpoche first pronounces the word ‘tormentors’ as ‘terminators’. 42 This talk was given in 1999! 43 A doctor in Michigan who practices euthanasia. 44 That was also in reference to the self-immolation of a Tibetan man in New Dehli in 1998 which was broadcast on the news. 45 An Englishman who claimed to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama, who wrote a number of rather odd books. 46 First example: a person with leprosy has to take medicine for a long time to be cured. Second example, a log saturated with stinking water cannot be made to smell sweet with only a little perfume. 47 Three types of enthusiasm (also called perseverence or joyful effort): 1. You are totally committed to helping others. 2.You are able to bear anything, your perseverance is like armor. 3. You are totally committed to virtuous activities, to practicing the paramitas 48 Ram Dass was on LSD at the time. During a family dinner in which his brother was speaking to him in a hostile way, Ram Dass experienced his words as arrows aimed at him. 49 Ma Peng Kong, a Malaysian martial arts practitioners invited David to deliver a blow to his head from behind. David did that, but although he used full force could not hurt Peng Kong’s head. 50 Rimpoche briefly mentions five of the six here. Wisdom is spoke of in more detail in the commentary on Verses 46 and 47. 51 See Gelek Rimpoche;s transcript Lojong: Training of the Mind in Seven Points, p. 35 and following.

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52 In Shantideva’s India, these were all lower caste people. In Tibet, they were considered less fortunate because their livelihoods involved killing. 53 Tibetan spelling not found. 54 Probably Rimpoche is referring to the ‘witch test’. The woman in question would be thrown in a river. If she drowned, she was obviously not a witch. If she did not drown, she must have used witch- craft to stay afloat, so she was burned alive. 55 Bdag ‘dzin and bden ‘dzin

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