Details
Approaching the Buddha 2
Teachers:
Collection:
- Sadhanas and Prayers
Location:
- Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling
Translator:
- Heidi Koppl
Length:
- Full Length Session
Features:
- Subtitles ,
- Transcripts
Excerpt
Lama Tenzin Sangpo stresses that the Treasury of Blessings is a profoundly transformative practice when approached with genuine devotion, renunciation, and clear understanding, no matter the practitioner's level. He underscores the importance of deepening the master-student relationship through diligent practice and attentive listening, which allows teachings to fully penetrate and inspire true inner change.
Description
Lama Tenzin Sangpo clarifies that while many practitioners see the Treasury of Blessings as a beginner’s practice, it is in fact profoundly complete and suited to all levels of capacity, depending entirely on the practitioner’s sincerity and readiness. He recounts Milarepa’s story to illustrate that even the most advanced teachings, like Dzogchen, are ineffective without proper preparation and accumulations. Lama emphasizes the importance of genuine faith, renunciation, and understanding impermanence as the foundation for fruitful practice, warning of the pervasive suffering inherent in samsara. He explains that the Buddha’s enlightened qualities provide the basis for focusing on samatha and vipashyana, and that sincere devotion allows us to connect deeply with Buddha’s blessings. Finally, he urges practitioners to stay undistracted, to listen attentively to teachings with bodhicitta motivation, and to actively engage in deeper communication with the guru through real practice, which strengthens the master-student bond.
Related Course Info
- A Treasury of Blessings – The Liturgy of Shakyamuni A complete guide to practicing A Treasury of Blessings, featuring a chanted sadhana with Tibetan and English subtitles, introductory teachings by Khenpo Pema Namgyal, and a full series of in-depth teachings by Lama Tenzin Sangpo, culminating in a profound session with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche on the inseparability of compassion and emptiness.
Video
Audio
01:30:53
So, this morning we have
received already teachings,
so actually there is
nothing more for me to say.
So, my only wish is that we, since we practice The Treasury of Blessings, Shakyamuni practice together, it's very important for me to make you understand that this practice is really, really important, very precious.
So, in my individual perception, it seems to be the case that many people, when they take a look at The Treasury of Blessings, so when they hear about The Treasury of Blessings, that they think it is a practice for beginners, and this may be my own misperception, a wrong view, but this is just the kind of feeling or intuition I have when I converse with others.
Then when we talk about other practices, for instance there kusung tuk a... kunsang tuk tik practice or the single form of vajrasattva, the sādhanā of that, then people get really excited and think, wow, that's really, really profound.
And today Rinpoche pointed out very clearly also whether the dharma is equally profound, but whether or not the dharma becomes profound entirely depends on ourselves.
In short, if we practice the teachings of the great perfection, but in fact we are not a real vessel or recipient for the teachings of the great perfection, it won't help us, it won't be beneficial for us.
Just take the example of Milarepa, before he met his teacher Marpa, he actually met with a teacher of the great perfection, not an ordinary teacher, but a teacher whose realization was as high as the sky.
So what happened when Milarepa met with this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection? What happened was that this teacher taught him the teachings of the great perfection, elucidating that if you practice, meditate on on the teachings of the great perfection during the day, you will be enlightened in this day, you will be a Buddha during this day. If you meditate on it during the night, then during this very night you will become a Buddha. These are the teachings of the great perfection. If somebody meets, somebody who is qualified, who is a proper recipient, meets with these potent instructions of the great perfection, then he or she will be a Buddha immediately.
Even without actually meditating on anything whatsoever, he or she will become enlightened.
And Milarepa was quite an extraordinary person, he knew that he was more intelligent than others.
Also when he was training in sorcery, in black magic, what other students, they needed a couple of months to perfect a certain practice, he only needed a couple of weeks. A single week in fact.
So Milarepa, when he received the teachings from this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection, he thought to himself, well, I'm quite extraordinary when it came to studying the spells of the black magic, and I was better than others also when it came to studying, and my intelligence, and I know I'm really intelligent, so I must be certain that I'm one of these fortunate recipients of the great perfection. That I'm sure I will be able to become enlightened without meditating. So he thought that to himself, and then when it got dark he laid down and slept. In the morning then when he met with his teacher, then the teacher asked him, so how did it go? What kind of experience arose? And then Milarepa said, well, not much, I just slept. And nothing really happened. Then immediately the teacher knew that he is not a proper recipient, a fortunate recipient, a vessel for the teachings of the great perfection, and he sent him then to the teacher Marpa.
And Marpa was the teacher of Milarepa not only in this lifetime, but for many lifetimes before, so they had a really strong, profound, karmic relationship. And therefore Marpa also knew precisely what his student Milarepa needed, then taught him the path of how to gather the accumulations and purify the obscurations. And this is what Milarepa then trained in.
As mentioned already before, when it comes to the Buddha's teachings there is no qualitative difference, there is no better or worse.
But as mentioned already before, whether or not the teachings can actually become or are profound depends on us, on our capacity.
So in the sūtra teachings it is taught abundantly that one practices samatha and vipassanā by focusing one's mind on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha.
So usually one accesses the teachings in a step by step way, in a gradual way. And one does so by practicing the stages of samatha and vipassanā and this is an unmistaken path that leads one to an authentic result. But for individuals of highest capacity who are able, who are proper recipients of the teachings, who meet with a qualified teacher who possesses the nectar, the potent nectar of realization, then something extraordinary can happen. The student needs to possess genuine devotion, overwhelming devotion for his teacher. And then when these two come together, when a qualified teacher comes together with a qualified student, not actually much needs to be transmitted. The only thing that needs to be transmitted is that the teacher merely directs his or her wisdom mind to the student and the entire realization of the teacher can be transferred to the student. Or it can also be by means of a symbol or by means of a few words. If this extraordinary relationship takes place, then the entire realization of the master's mind can be transferred to the student.
So such a student does not need to go through a gradual path. Such a student is called a person with instantaneous capacity, directly crossing over to the result.
So why is a student capable to immediately realize um... the same realization as the teacher? Well, it's not something that suddenly comes about in this life only. It's the result of having trained in many past lives diligently.
So we are all followers of the Buddha's teachings. Um, so we have a connection, a karmic connection with Buddha Shakyamuni.
In the sūtras it's clearly elucidated that there is a time where the Buddha has already appeared and the time where the Buddha has not yet appeared.
In some eons or during certain time, there will not be even the name of a Buddha.
So if the Buddha has not appeared during a certain time, also the Buddha's teachings will not be available.
And if the Buddha's teachings are not available, then we also don't know what to accept and what to reject.
If we don't know what is correct, if we don't know what is incorrect, what should be abandoned, then it's just like the situation that Śāntideva describes in the Bodhicaryāvatāra where he says that although we won't... we don't want to suffer out of ignorance, we accumulate further causes for suffering as if they were our best friends. So we run after them as if they were our best friends. Even though we want to be happy, we really want to be happy, um... we destroy the causes for future happiness as if they were our arch enemy.
So when we hear the term Buddha, we may immediately think of a Buddha as having a saffron colored robe, as being from Asia. Um, but to understand somebody who is Buddhist, that's probably a Buddha, isn't it? But this, I believe, is a mistaken understanding.
Buddhism is a philosophy.
And philosophy is a mental construct.
And to be honest, the Buddha is somebody who is beyond philosophy, beyond mental constructs.
So who is the Buddha? The Buddha is somebody who is free from all mistakes, has purified all mistakes, and is endowed with all good qualities. This person is called the Buddha.
As it says in The Treasury of Blessings, we sentient beings, we live at a time which is called the degenerate age, or in Sanskrit it's called the Kali Yuga. And what are the characteristics of this degenerate age? It is that the five negative emotions are rampant, they are really strong. So there's a lot of, we are prone to feel angry, we are prone to feel jealous, and we are prone to feel undesirous, attached, and proud, stingy, and so forth.
And especially during this time, we are also prone to believe in nihilism, meaning that there is not really any cause and effect.
And as Rinpoche always points out, we live at a really precarious time, in a precarious time, because we could also call it the age of weapons, of warfare, because there's so many amazing, terrible weapons around that can destroy this earth in a single moment.
So this, they are really quite terrifying and frightening, yeah?
But compared to all those weaponry, all those warfare and weapons, we have to say that Rinpoche always points out that the view of nihilism is much more dangerous than all those weapons of mass destruction.
The Buddha in his previous lives made really strong aspiration prayers to be born at this end of this degenerate age, during this time, and to be able to benefit sentient beings in a very vast way. And this is precisely what happened. While the Buddha appeared, he was able to establish countless individuals onto the path of liberation. He guided them to liberation and enlightenment. But also, even now, the teachings of the Buddha are alive They are practiced. So the Buddha's activity, the Buddha's enlightened activity is still available and is still helping us.
So we don't do the Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā just because we need to pay respect to the Buddha because he was just so kind to us. Um, In fact, the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, The Treasure of Blessing, is an extraordinary method that will lead us to perfect enlightenment if we practice it genuinely.
So in Mipham Rinpoche's Commentary on the Treasury of Blessings, it's explained that this practice, this practice of Buddha Shakyamuni is not just to be recited, it's in fact the basis, the foundation for us to be able to develop the meditations of samatha and vipassanā.
So before we begin to practice The Treasury of Blessings, it's very important that we give rise to a faith that knows its own reason.
And it says if you prepare yourself with such a faith that knows its own reason and then begin to focus and visualize Buddha Shakyamuni and then develop and train in samatha and vipassanā Based on focusing on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of Buddha Shakyamuni then all your wishes then all what you want to achieve will be accomplished.
So this is precisely why Mipham Rinpoche says, I will now briefly explain this practice.
So he says briefly, he will explain it, but actually it's not really briefly. I think the commentary has 1,200 pages.
So this morning Rinpoche pointed out many times that unless we possess renunciation, the dharma that we practice will become a mere reflection. It will not be true dharma practice.
So it's important to understand that when we use the quality of, when we talk about the quality of renunciation, it's not that we mean that it's something that we need to look down at things or kind of disparage things, or that we need to throw something away, get rid of things. That's not the meaning.
So personally I think it's really important to develop renunciation. And renunciation doesn't mean to just throw everything that you like into the garbage bin. That's not the meaning. But renunciation should come about understanding that when we feel attached to something, we believe inherently, what is inherent in this belief or in this emotion is that we want the object to be permanent and lasting. And nothing lasts. Nothing stays the same. Because everything is impermanent. So if we have that type of attachment to anything, then when it changes or when it disappears, when we lose it, what happens is that we suffer. And this, understanding this, understanding that everything is in fact impermanent will not last. And therefore it's pointless to be attached to it. That is renunciation.
So if you have renunciation, understanding that everything that you, that... you like, is in fact also impermanent, you will not feel so attached to it. And also when it then changes, you will not become so upset.
And especially if our realization in our mind has become as vast and as high as the sky, then at that time we can also take negative emotions as the path.
But for us, for beginners on the path, it is extremely important to give rise to renunciation.
Because as the masters always point out, all appearances are so skilled in deceiving us, aren't they?
And our mind is so childish and so gullible.
So this is precisely the reason for why we also experience so many hardships, because we always get fooled and deceived by all what we experience. However, if our mind... if our realization has become as vast and as high as the sky, then it's another story.
Then at this time, everything has become great equality. There's nothing really that we can distinguish or say, okay, this is good and this is not good. There is no qualitative difference when it comes to appearances anymore.
So as a practitioner, this is precisely the level that we need to achieve. This is where we need to get at. And in the beginning we need renunciation, but it's not the case that at all levels of the path we need to hold onto tightly or cling onto renunciation. That's not the meaning.
Samsara is as in the commentary, samsara is created or is produced from negative emotions and karma.
Since the cause of the three realms and of samsara is nothing other than negative emotions and karma, the result of that must be also painful.
As the great master Dignāga said, samsara and nirvana are not two. So when you realize the nature of samsara, then this is precisely nirvana. So in our deluded mind, samsara appears in nirvana. There are two things, but this is in fact confusion. This is merely delusion.
In fact, when we suffer, when we have a hard time, it seems so real, but suffering doesn't truly exist.
It is not the case that samsara is something that needs to be abandoned, and it is also not the case that nirvana is something that we need to accomplish or attain. This is confusion.
To illustrate this, let us take in the count example of a nightmare. We all know how it feels like to dream in a terrible way. Sometimes we may dream that there is a dangerous, scary elephant in the room. Sometimes we may dream to be stuck in a terrible traffic accident. While we dream that, we suffer a lot. But when we wake up in the morning, we realize it was just a nightmare. And then we realize that it has never happened, that nothing really bad happened. But isn't it the case that before we fell asleep, there was no real suffering, no real fright... no real terror of...? No elephant. While we had the nightmare, there was no elephant in the room. Also when we woke up, there was no elephant. No? So from this example we can understand that actually suffering is just like that. Suffering also was never really there.
Our life, we spend having a lot of hopes and a lot of fears. Especially if we are not a Dharma practitioner, then this is how we live our life. One hope, one expectation comes after the other, one fear and anxiety after the other.
And if you think well about that, isn't it...? This is what it means to be confused and deluded.
If suffering and pain would be truly existent, then we would have no choice. We will have to experience it.
It's okay, it's acceptable. So this is acceptable here?
Not acceptable. But to experience suffering while it actually does not exist, this is unfair and not really acceptable, isn't it?
So therefore it is 100% our responsibility to clear away and get rid of our own difficulties.
As Mipham Rinpoche says in his commentary, once we are born in samsara, then immediately we are bound by the three types of suffering. We are imprisoned, so to speak, by the three types of suffering.
And he continues to say that we cannot experience any or attain any type of lasting and true happiness within samsara.
For instance, the suffering of suffering is something that inflicts our body, that we experience directly with our physical body.
And the suffering of change, this is something that we can easily understand. We are happy, next moment we are sad. The happiness changes into sadness.
So why do we suffer? We suffer because in the past everything was so good, we felt so good, and then it changed. And now it's suffering, it's so painful.
Or just sickness. Some time ago I was so healthy, it felt so good, I never felt any type of pain. And then suddenly I became sick. And that is so painful.
Everything is impermanent.
So it is explained in the scriptures that we human beings, we experience all three types of suffering, but especially we suffer because of the suffering of change. This is the greatest suffering for us.
And the third type of suffering, all of you have certainly heard about it, it's called the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned. And this is the foundation, actually the foundation for why we can experience the other two types of suffering, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change.
This suffering simply refers to having a body. We have a physical body. And this physical body becomes the basis for so much pain. Somebody criticizes us, somebody slanders us. It's because we are here, we have that physical body. This is why we become an object of aggression for others. Somebody may beat us up. We may become sick because we have that physical body. We become older because we have a physical body. First of all, we get born, we get older, we become sick, and finally we die. This is our suffering.
And because we have that body, we need to go through all these sufferings.
So the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned means that because of the nature of this body, it prepares naturally for future suffering. It becomes the cause for you to produce future suffering.
So for instance, think about somebody whose mind has not turned toward the Dharma, who in addition to that has a character that is not very good, quite a bad character. Then what will such a person do most of the time? He or she will always say something negative to others, so always accumulate a lot of negativity through his speech. When thinking, such a person will most of the time only think in a negative way. And also when doing things will create a lot of harm, perhaps kill other animals or do all kinds of negative behaviors, engage in negative behaviors. So in this very way, such a person creates and produces constantly a lot of causes for future suffering.
So although we may not want to create any harm accidentally, it may just happen. We may go here and there and then suddenly just out of the blue, harm may be created.
So although this may not be a real full blown negative deed that we have created in that way because we didn't intend to do it, nevertheless it will be negative and painful in the future.
Sometimes it is the case that we take a good look at ourselves and say, I'm quite okay, I'm not really doing anything negative, I'm not creating any kind of harm, I'm not engaging in negative deeds, but really take a very careful look at what is happening and what you're doing. It may not be like this at all.
So this is why the siddhas in the past always made the firm aspiration and the wish that may my life and accomplishment become equal.
May my life and practice become equally...
So the siddhas of the past realized how easy it is to commit negative deeds and therefore they made that firm commitment and aspiration that during my life all what I will do is only the Dharma. And my practice is the Dharma and this is how I want to spend my entire life.
So Mipham Rinpoche explains here that the nature of samsara, the three types of suffering. So these are really the ingredients, the very nature, the components what make up samsara. And if we do not manage to become liberated from samsara then we need to circle around within that endless suffering, within that, within samsara without any end. So again and again.
And Mipham Rinpoche explains that it is so rare for us to be born at a time where the teachings of... where the teacher has appeared, the Buddha has appeared. In addition, it is so rare and so difficult for us to attain a precious human body. It's actually as difficult that there are so few people who manage to do that as there are stars during daytime.
We however now have achieved something which is so precious and so rare. This human body endowed with the freedoms and riches. And in addition to that we have access to the Buddha's teachings. They are available to us.
When we talk about the precious human body it means that we possess the causes and the conditions that enable us to practice the Dharma.
So all of us, we possess them.
So although we have achieved something so precious and rare, Mipham Rinpoche says, we have to understand that this life lasts only for a very short time.
Also these days there are so many sicknesses that have come about only now in modern times that are very difficult to cure.
And also our negative emotions are so much stronger than before.
And also there are so few who are able to practice the... the Dharma, the teachings in a wholeheartedly way, like in a genuine way.
So he explains that there are so few individuals who manage to practice the Buddha's teachings in accordance with his instructions.
So many human beings, they are so distracted. They are so distracted by um... wanting to get food, shelter, money, fame, gain and so forth. And being distracted by that and pursuing only that they forget about Dharma practice or they find no time to practice the Dharma. There are others again and many actually, there are many who have not the slightest interest in practicing the Dharma.
If we really think well about the length of our life. This life doesn't last longer than a flash of lightning.
There's nothing really that we can put our trust in while we are alive.
So while our life actually lasts for such a short time, we have that, we have that feeling that it lasts for so long.
Actually, our body has no real essence. It's just like a water bubble.
Things such as our friends, our enemies, all our possessions, all those things. In fact, they are just like appearances in a dream.
If we take a really good look and honest look at everything, we understand that everything is not really truly there. It doesn't truly exist. We cannot really rely on it. It's so unstable.
It's so uncertain.
We have to separate from all those things.
They will become destroyed. They will fall apart. They deceive us.
In fact, they are the perpetuating cause of suffering.
So in fact, they are not things that are reliable. I should not rely on them.
But I didn't know that.
But I thought that everything is so that it will provide me with happiness. And in that way, all those things deceived me.
And thinking in that way and acting in this way, what happens is that we waste this precious human body.
So in that way, we gather more and more causes of suffering and continuously create or engage in actions that are non-virtuous.
So spending our life in this way, then sooner or later we'll have to face death. And death, we cannot run away. We cannot escape.
And while not wanting to die, we have to die.
And when will we die? We don't know. The time of our death is utterly uncertain.
At the time of death, we need to leave everything behind. Our friends, our family, our relatives, all our hard-earned possessions, even this body that we love so dearly, we have to separate from it.
So what will actually accompany us at that very time?
So what will follow us is only the... either the good karma that we have accumulated while we were alive or the negative karma that we have accumulated.
And the working of karma, cause, and effect is infallible. And we cannot cheat it. We cannot deceive it.
So even Arhats and the Buddhas, they still experience karma, the ripening of karma, residual karma that they still have to experience. For instance, when the Buddha passed into Nirvana, it says that the cause of his passing, of his death, was either a thorn from sandalwood that pierced his leg or food poisoning. But whatever it may have been, in fact it was his residual karma that the Buddha still had to purify that caused his death. And the same also for Arhats. They still also... they experience residual karma and have to purify it.
So therefore Mipham Rinpoche continues to say that if beings like the Buddha and Arhats have to experience karma, then it's needless to mention that we, we ordinary beings, that we have to experience our karma, the ripening of our karma.
So although karma, cause, and effect works in an infallible way, there are so few in this world who engage in virtuous deeds and so many that do what is non-virtuous.
If you create a lot of negative deeds and engage in a lot of negative deeds, then the result of that will be rebirth in the lower realms.
If you engage in a lot of virtuous deeds while not embracing these virtuous deeds with bodhicitta, these virtuous deeds will propel you to take birth in the higher realms. But even though you may take birth in the higher realms, there's a lot of suffering that you will have to experience there, especially the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death.
So in this world, for instance, there are so many different types of human beings. Some are extremely wealthy, they have everything, what they can, what they wish for, while others have hardly anything, hardly any clothes, nothing to eat. So there is this stark difference between human beings. But even though some may have everything and some not, all of them have something in common. And what they have in common is that kind of sense of dissatisfaction, discontentment.
In fact, it is sometimes the case that if the individuals are so wealthy, so extremely wealthy, that they experience so much more dissatisfaction and pain and suffering and distress than people who have hardly anything. Because if you have hardly anything and then you suddenly get a warm meal, something good to eat and drink, you feel satisfied and you feel happy. But the individuals who have so much, they feel so... there's so much fear in their mind and so much dissatisfaction, so much discontentment.
So in short, we human beings, while not wanting to suffer, we constantly produce future causes of suffering and in this way our life becomes extremely miserable and painful.
If we want to use an example for samsara, it's just like a fire pit.
Or like a, like a, like a... a nest full of poisonous snakes.
Or an island filled with demons.
Now imagine that we again and again get born in such a horrible place. Again and again we circle around in samsara.
So we circle within samsara like a fire bird where it knows no end. And what needs to happen so that we sentient beings, we become liberated from our endless pain and suffering? So who is it that can protect us? Who is it that can help us? And as Rinpoche already pointed out so clearly today, it is the unsurpassed Buddha that can help us. It is the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma that can protect us. It is the sangha, the unsurpassed sangha that can guide us out of this misery.
So in the commentary it says you need to really, with one pointed confidence, decide that there is no greater object of refuge than the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha. And then fully entrust yourself to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And focusing your mind on the awakened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, you then train in the practices of samatha and vipassanā. And doing so will enable you to awaken, to become an enlightened Buddha.
So as mentioned before, before we begin with the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, it is important to give rise to a faith, a faith that knows its own reason. And having developed this very type of faith, you then train in the yoga, the practice of Buddha Shakyamuni. If you do so, then your practice will become very meaningful and powerful. So below, in the commentary now, what is explained are the qualities, the enlightened qualities of the Buddha. And tomorrow, if everything goes well, I would like to get into them.
Just a brief, some kind, about what means Buddha, and about what I am telling you, we call you a Buddha.
Specifically, who really want to practice Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā. And you need to see his image all the time. And you really do not understand very well. Sometimes you get bored, and sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you think it is too much, this kind... So then, whenever you have some kind hesitations and something, doubt, not comfortable, and that brings disturbance for your meditation. So thereby, you need to set up clear that...
So until the achievement of enlightenment, we need to train in the yoga of Buddha Shakyamuni. That is to say that we need to see the image of the Buddha, visualize the Buddha, really establish a very good communication with the Buddha in this way, with his enlightened body, speech and mind. And what we need to develop is our joy and delight when it comes to the qualities of the Buddha. So when we just merely think of the Buddha or see his form, immediately we should feel joy. And our mind should brighten and become really luminous. Or when we hear about the speech of the Buddha, when we hear anything, any teachings of the Buddha, the same should happen. When we think of the enlightened qualities of his mind, of his awakened mind, again, the same should happen. It should really brighten up our mind. It should make us feel joy. And this joy is that which will really make our practice flourish, deepen and engage, or make us engage in the practice in a very deep way so that it really carries us toward enlightenment.
In short, we need to be our private object.
Anytime you see, you don't have problem. Otherwise, it will be difficult, especially when you do samatha meditation with focus or with object. And then it will be a little more difficult. So I will try to read a little bit for tomorrow for that. Then we try to go in a text. Yeah. So I don't want to spend too much time for this.
So one or two questions?
Okay, thank you, Lama Tenzin. Very, very, very wonderful. I never heard that the Buddha had residual karma. I thought a Buddha had purified all negativities and even the, what do you call it, even the imprints of the negativities. So I have a question about that.
So according to the Theravada system, the Buddha had some residual karma. And this is what was explained here? So because we're talking now karma, then we need to use some variety from Theravada also. Theravada, they claim the Buddha's body is not Buddha. His mind is Buddha.
So for the Theravadas it's only the mind of the Buddha is enlightened, not his body. But the Buddha also clearly said, whoever sees me as a form, whoever sees or perceives me as sound, hears me as sound.
So all of you who do that, you don't really see me. You don't see me at all.
So therefore we need to be very clear when it comes to the Buddha, how to see the Buddha. Sometimes we say Theravada believe like that, but then we are maybe worse than Theravada. So be aware, attentions.
Yeah, one more question.
Yeah, one quick question. Rinpoche mentioned that there are like different paths in Buddhism and according to the capacity we need to choose the path. And the paths are not greater or inferior on their own. But I wonder how do we know which path is best for us. And if it is related with capacity, is the capacity something that we bring by birth or is it something that we cultivate in the process?
So just you take a good look first of all at your own mind and see what you like, what you feel drawn toward. For instance there are some when they hear about the teachings of impermanence then they feel so touched, they feel so really deeply touched by it. When they hear about the practice of guru yoga, they feel deeply touched about the practice of Guru Yoga. And others again feel so inclined to practice samatha meditation. So therefore these are already signs what kind of path that you should really take. But nevertheless like Rinpoche pointed out today, even if you know the whole Kangyur the words of the Buddha by heart, if you are not if you are not accepted by a spiritual teacher... or you do not follow a spiritual teacher, then there is no point. And the spiritual teacher is in fact the one who knows your capacity, who knows your mind and therefore can point out to you which path to take.
So when we talk about the level of enlightenment, the enlightenment itself means that we have to cover a distance. We have to arrive at a certain destination.
And we need to cover the whole distance toward enlightenment, not half, the whole.
For instance in the Nyingma teachings we need to traverse the nine vehicles.
And one single person needs to practice all nine vehicles.
So what we need to practice is in fact the sūtra teachings as well as the tantric teachings.
And this is precisely why we also practice that in the Tara terma of triple excellence.
So from, when practicing the triple excellence the Tara terma of triple excellence then, you are a Vajrayāna practitioner.
But in spite of being a Vajrayāna practitioner you start with the lower vehicles.
So, in short, as Rinpoche pointed out today, the more attentively we listen to the teachings, the greater the teachings will be. Until will feel much more delight and courage and endurance when it comes to teachings us, teaching us, and that this is something that we need to keep in mind.
When we study the teachings or listen to the teachings, it's so important to do so with a proper motivation.
So as Rinpoche mentioned already, we should bring to mind that all sentient beings and myself, we are in the same predicament. We all want to be happy and we don't want to suffer.
So you really think very well about your own needs and then understand that others are just like you.
And when looking at others, I realized that there are so many of them that think, that believe, that the cause of suffering is in fact happiness. They believe what will make them happy, that this will make them happy, but in fact what they then, what it in fact is, is just a cause for future suffering.
So if I were in their place, how would I feel? What will happen?
And then we really sit with that feeling for some time and then the feeling, the intention will come, I must help them.
So in order to truly help them, in order to be able to help them in an authentic way, I must traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis.
And in order to traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis, I must get to know the path really well.
And this is precisely why I'm sitting here listening to the teachings.
And immediately I will, I will apply all the teachings that I'm listening to, that I'm listening to, to my own experience. I will integrate them in my own personal practice.
Not only will I practice them immediately, I will also perfect them immediately.
If you're able to give rise to such a sincere pure motivation from the core of your heart, then the teachings will be so beneficial, will become so that the act of listening to teachings will become so virtuous, so helpful, so beneficial.
For even to listen with such a pure and strong felt motivation, then so much can happen in short time. It is said that many siddhas appeared in the past, many accomplished masters, by just having completed listening to one set of teachings. So they became enlightened just by listening.
There are many individuals, many individuals have reached enlightenment by just listening to the teachings. For instance, now we are receiving the teachings of the heart of the matter. And at the end of the teachings many, in the past at least, it has happened that many became enlightened.
And there's not so much difference between the individuals of the past and of us right now, no? They were human beings and we are human beings as well.
But their way of thinking perhaps differed from our way of thinking, and this is why we end up with different levels.
On an outward level, we both, all of us, we appear as human beings.
But when looking inwardly, then one is a Buddha, the other is just an ordinary sentient being.
When master is alive, and then we need to focus nicely, listen nice, practice nicely, then we have something we can do, communication with masters. That is not just happy, satisfied, just having cup of tea together, or taking pictures, or having meal, and you feel so lucky. Not only that, that we really need to go more deeper communication. Not just say, oh Rinpoche, I miss you so much, I'm so happy, so glad that I could see now, not only that level kind of communication, we need to go really deeper communication. To go deeper communication, we don't practice, there is not much to say, no? So thereby, masters here still will practice. When you practice, then you understand your level knowledge. When you don't practice, it seems like you know, four mind changing, you know, bodhicitta, you know, you know, samatha, vipassanā, all these things, you feel like you know, but when you really go into your personal experience, then you can understand how much you know. Yeah. Then according to that, you can communicate, and maybe you feel also proud, happy to go see Rinpoche, you know, you have something to discuss with your inner experience. And Rinpoche feels also very happy that whatever I dedicate is really like working, they're using, and so and become somehow student and master communications, getting very positive and very energetic way of relationship. So we are all very lucky. And so today Rinpoche said he's very happy. We, you all are listening very sincerely. So and Rinpoche is different form than yesterday. So tomorrow also will happen, if you guys same mood like today. So please listen very well Dharma teachings.
So, my only wish is that we, since we practice The Treasury of Blessings, Shakyamuni practice together, it's very important for me to make you understand that this practice is really, really important, very precious.
So, in my individual perception, it seems to be the case that many people, when they take a look at The Treasury of Blessings, so when they hear about The Treasury of Blessings, that they think it is a practice for beginners, and this may be my own misperception, a wrong view, but this is just the kind of feeling or intuition I have when I converse with others.
Then when we talk about other practices, for instance there kusung tuk a... kunsang tuk tik practice or the single form of vajrasattva, the sādhanā of that, then people get really excited and think, wow, that's really, really profound.
And today Rinpoche pointed out very clearly also whether the dharma is equally profound, but whether or not the dharma becomes profound entirely depends on ourselves.
In short, if we practice the teachings of the great perfection, but in fact we are not a real vessel or recipient for the teachings of the great perfection, it won't help us, it won't be beneficial for us.
Just take the example of Milarepa, before he met his teacher Marpa, he actually met with a teacher of the great perfection, not an ordinary teacher, but a teacher whose realization was as high as the sky.
So what happened when Milarepa met with this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection? What happened was that this teacher taught him the teachings of the great perfection, elucidating that if you practice, meditate on on the teachings of the great perfection during the day, you will be enlightened in this day, you will be a Buddha during this day. If you meditate on it during the night, then during this very night you will become a Buddha. These are the teachings of the great perfection. If somebody meets, somebody who is qualified, who is a proper recipient, meets with these potent instructions of the great perfection, then he or she will be a Buddha immediately.
Even without actually meditating on anything whatsoever, he or she will become enlightened.
And Milarepa was quite an extraordinary person, he knew that he was more intelligent than others.
Also when he was training in sorcery, in black magic, what other students, they needed a couple of months to perfect a certain practice, he only needed a couple of weeks. A single week in fact.
So Milarepa, when he received the teachings from this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection, he thought to himself, well, I'm quite extraordinary when it came to studying the spells of the black magic, and I was better than others also when it came to studying, and my intelligence, and I know I'm really intelligent, so I must be certain that I'm one of these fortunate recipients of the great perfection. That I'm sure I will be able to become enlightened without meditating. So he thought that to himself, and then when it got dark he laid down and slept. In the morning then when he met with his teacher, then the teacher asked him, so how did it go? What kind of experience arose? And then Milarepa said, well, not much, I just slept. And nothing really happened. Then immediately the teacher knew that he is not a proper recipient, a fortunate recipient, a vessel for the teachings of the great perfection, and he sent him then to the teacher Marpa.
And Marpa was the teacher of Milarepa not only in this lifetime, but for many lifetimes before, so they had a really strong, profound, karmic relationship. And therefore Marpa also knew precisely what his student Milarepa needed, then taught him the path of how to gather the accumulations and purify the obscurations. And this is what Milarepa then trained in.
As mentioned already before, when it comes to the Buddha's teachings there is no qualitative difference, there is no better or worse.
But as mentioned already before, whether or not the teachings can actually become or are profound depends on us, on our capacity.
So in the sūtra teachings it is taught abundantly that one practices samatha and vipassanā by focusing one's mind on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha.
So usually one accesses the teachings in a step by step way, in a gradual way. And one does so by practicing the stages of samatha and vipassanā and this is an unmistaken path that leads one to an authentic result. But for individuals of highest capacity who are able, who are proper recipients of the teachings, who meet with a qualified teacher who possesses the nectar, the potent nectar of realization, then something extraordinary can happen. The student needs to possess genuine devotion, overwhelming devotion for his teacher. And then when these two come together, when a qualified teacher comes together with a qualified student, not actually much needs to be transmitted. The only thing that needs to be transmitted is that the teacher merely directs his or her wisdom mind to the student and the entire realization of the teacher can be transferred to the student. Or it can also be by means of a symbol or by means of a few words. If this extraordinary relationship takes place, then the entire realization of the master's mind can be transferred to the student.
So such a student does not need to go through a gradual path. Such a student is called a person with instantaneous capacity, directly crossing over to the result.
So why is a student capable to immediately realize um... the same realization as the teacher? Well, it's not something that suddenly comes about in this life only. It's the result of having trained in many past lives diligently.
So we are all followers of the Buddha's teachings. Um, so we have a connection, a karmic connection with Buddha Shakyamuni.
In the sūtras it's clearly elucidated that there is a time where the Buddha has already appeared and the time where the Buddha has not yet appeared.
In some eons or during certain time, there will not be even the name of a Buddha.
So if the Buddha has not appeared during a certain time, also the Buddha's teachings will not be available.
And if the Buddha's teachings are not available, then we also don't know what to accept and what to reject.
If we don't know what is correct, if we don't know what is incorrect, what should be abandoned, then it's just like the situation that Śāntideva describes in the Bodhicaryāvatāra where he says that although we won't... we don't want to suffer out of ignorance, we accumulate further causes for suffering as if they were our best friends. So we run after them as if they were our best friends. Even though we want to be happy, we really want to be happy, um... we destroy the causes for future happiness as if they were our arch enemy.
So when we hear the term Buddha, we may immediately think of a Buddha as having a saffron colored robe, as being from Asia. Um, but to understand somebody who is Buddhist, that's probably a Buddha, isn't it? But this, I believe, is a mistaken understanding.
Buddhism is a philosophy.
And philosophy is a mental construct.
And to be honest, the Buddha is somebody who is beyond philosophy, beyond mental constructs.
So who is the Buddha? The Buddha is somebody who is free from all mistakes, has purified all mistakes, and is endowed with all good qualities. This person is called the Buddha.
As it says in The Treasury of Blessings, we sentient beings, we live at a time which is called the degenerate age, or in Sanskrit it's called the Kali Yuga. And what are the characteristics of this degenerate age? It is that the five negative emotions are rampant, they are really strong. So there's a lot of, we are prone to feel angry, we are prone to feel jealous, and we are prone to feel undesirous, attached, and proud, stingy, and so forth.
And especially during this time, we are also prone to believe in nihilism, meaning that there is not really any cause and effect.
And as Rinpoche always points out, we live at a really precarious time, in a precarious time, because we could also call it the age of weapons, of warfare, because there's so many amazing, terrible weapons around that can destroy this earth in a single moment.
So this, they are really quite terrifying and frightening, yeah?
But compared to all those weaponry, all those warfare and weapons, we have to say that Rinpoche always points out that the view of nihilism is much more dangerous than all those weapons of mass destruction.
The Buddha in his previous lives made really strong aspiration prayers to be born at this end of this degenerate age, during this time, and to be able to benefit sentient beings in a very vast way. And this is precisely what happened. While the Buddha appeared, he was able to establish countless individuals onto the path of liberation. He guided them to liberation and enlightenment. But also, even now, the teachings of the Buddha are alive They are practiced. So the Buddha's activity, the Buddha's enlightened activity is still available and is still helping us.
So we don't do the Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā just because we need to pay respect to the Buddha because he was just so kind to us. Um, In fact, the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, The Treasure of Blessing, is an extraordinary method that will lead us to perfect enlightenment if we practice it genuinely.
So in Mipham Rinpoche's Commentary on the Treasury of Blessings, it's explained that this practice, this practice of Buddha Shakyamuni is not just to be recited, it's in fact the basis, the foundation for us to be able to develop the meditations of samatha and vipassanā.
So before we begin to practice The Treasury of Blessings, it's very important that we give rise to a faith that knows its own reason.
And it says if you prepare yourself with such a faith that knows its own reason and then begin to focus and visualize Buddha Shakyamuni and then develop and train in samatha and vipassanā Based on focusing on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of Buddha Shakyamuni then all your wishes then all what you want to achieve will be accomplished.
So this is precisely why Mipham Rinpoche says, I will now briefly explain this practice.
So he says briefly, he will explain it, but actually it's not really briefly. I think the commentary has 1,200 pages.
So this morning Rinpoche pointed out many times that unless we possess renunciation, the dharma that we practice will become a mere reflection. It will not be true dharma practice.
So it's important to understand that when we use the quality of, when we talk about the quality of renunciation, it's not that we mean that it's something that we need to look down at things or kind of disparage things, or that we need to throw something away, get rid of things. That's not the meaning.
So personally I think it's really important to develop renunciation. And renunciation doesn't mean to just throw everything that you like into the garbage bin. That's not the meaning. But renunciation should come about understanding that when we feel attached to something, we believe inherently, what is inherent in this belief or in this emotion is that we want the object to be permanent and lasting. And nothing lasts. Nothing stays the same. Because everything is impermanent. So if we have that type of attachment to anything, then when it changes or when it disappears, when we lose it, what happens is that we suffer. And this, understanding this, understanding that everything is in fact impermanent will not last. And therefore it's pointless to be attached to it. That is renunciation.
So if you have renunciation, understanding that everything that you, that... you like, is in fact also impermanent, you will not feel so attached to it. And also when it then changes, you will not become so upset.
And especially if our realization in our mind has become as vast and as high as the sky, then at that time we can also take negative emotions as the path.
But for us, for beginners on the path, it is extremely important to give rise to renunciation.
Because as the masters always point out, all appearances are so skilled in deceiving us, aren't they?
And our mind is so childish and so gullible.
So this is precisely the reason for why we also experience so many hardships, because we always get fooled and deceived by all what we experience. However, if our mind... if our realization has become as vast and as high as the sky, then it's another story.
Then at this time, everything has become great equality. There's nothing really that we can distinguish or say, okay, this is good and this is not good. There is no qualitative difference when it comes to appearances anymore.
So as a practitioner, this is precisely the level that we need to achieve. This is where we need to get at. And in the beginning we need renunciation, but it's not the case that at all levels of the path we need to hold onto tightly or cling onto renunciation. That's not the meaning.
Samsara is as in the commentary, samsara is created or is produced from negative emotions and karma.
Since the cause of the three realms and of samsara is nothing other than negative emotions and karma, the result of that must be also painful.
As the great master Dignāga said, samsara and nirvana are not two. So when you realize the nature of samsara, then this is precisely nirvana. So in our deluded mind, samsara appears in nirvana. There are two things, but this is in fact confusion. This is merely delusion.
In fact, when we suffer, when we have a hard time, it seems so real, but suffering doesn't truly exist.
It is not the case that samsara is something that needs to be abandoned, and it is also not the case that nirvana is something that we need to accomplish or attain. This is confusion.
To illustrate this, let us take in the count example of a nightmare. We all know how it feels like to dream in a terrible way. Sometimes we may dream that there is a dangerous, scary elephant in the room. Sometimes we may dream to be stuck in a terrible traffic accident. While we dream that, we suffer a lot. But when we wake up in the morning, we realize it was just a nightmare. And then we realize that it has never happened, that nothing really bad happened. But isn't it the case that before we fell asleep, there was no real suffering, no real fright... no real terror of...? No elephant. While we had the nightmare, there was no elephant in the room. Also when we woke up, there was no elephant. No? So from this example we can understand that actually suffering is just like that. Suffering also was never really there.
Our life, we spend having a lot of hopes and a lot of fears. Especially if we are not a Dharma practitioner, then this is how we live our life. One hope, one expectation comes after the other, one fear and anxiety after the other.
And if you think well about that, isn't it...? This is what it means to be confused and deluded.
If suffering and pain would be truly existent, then we would have no choice. We will have to experience it.
It's okay, it's acceptable. So this is acceptable here?
Not acceptable. But to experience suffering while it actually does not exist, this is unfair and not really acceptable, isn't it?
So therefore it is 100% our responsibility to clear away and get rid of our own difficulties.
As Mipham Rinpoche says in his commentary, once we are born in samsara, then immediately we are bound by the three types of suffering. We are imprisoned, so to speak, by the three types of suffering.
And he continues to say that we cannot experience any or attain any type of lasting and true happiness within samsara.
For instance, the suffering of suffering is something that inflicts our body, that we experience directly with our physical body.
And the suffering of change, this is something that we can easily understand. We are happy, next moment we are sad. The happiness changes into sadness.
So why do we suffer? We suffer because in the past everything was so good, we felt so good, and then it changed. And now it's suffering, it's so painful.
Or just sickness. Some time ago I was so healthy, it felt so good, I never felt any type of pain. And then suddenly I became sick. And that is so painful.
Everything is impermanent.
So it is explained in the scriptures that we human beings, we experience all three types of suffering, but especially we suffer because of the suffering of change. This is the greatest suffering for us.
And the third type of suffering, all of you have certainly heard about it, it's called the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned. And this is the foundation, actually the foundation for why we can experience the other two types of suffering, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change.
This suffering simply refers to having a body. We have a physical body. And this physical body becomes the basis for so much pain. Somebody criticizes us, somebody slanders us. It's because we are here, we have that physical body. This is why we become an object of aggression for others. Somebody may beat us up. We may become sick because we have that physical body. We become older because we have a physical body. First of all, we get born, we get older, we become sick, and finally we die. This is our suffering.
And because we have that body, we need to go through all these sufferings.
So the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned means that because of the nature of this body, it prepares naturally for future suffering. It becomes the cause for you to produce future suffering.
So for instance, think about somebody whose mind has not turned toward the Dharma, who in addition to that has a character that is not very good, quite a bad character. Then what will such a person do most of the time? He or she will always say something negative to others, so always accumulate a lot of negativity through his speech. When thinking, such a person will most of the time only think in a negative way. And also when doing things will create a lot of harm, perhaps kill other animals or do all kinds of negative behaviors, engage in negative behaviors. So in this very way, such a person creates and produces constantly a lot of causes for future suffering.
So although we may not want to create any harm accidentally, it may just happen. We may go here and there and then suddenly just out of the blue, harm may be created.
So although this may not be a real full blown negative deed that we have created in that way because we didn't intend to do it, nevertheless it will be negative and painful in the future.
Sometimes it is the case that we take a good look at ourselves and say, I'm quite okay, I'm not really doing anything negative, I'm not creating any kind of harm, I'm not engaging in negative deeds, but really take a very careful look at what is happening and what you're doing. It may not be like this at all.
So this is why the siddhas in the past always made the firm aspiration and the wish that may my life and accomplishment become equal.
May my life and practice become equally...
So the siddhas of the past realized how easy it is to commit negative deeds and therefore they made that firm commitment and aspiration that during my life all what I will do is only the Dharma. And my practice is the Dharma and this is how I want to spend my entire life.
So Mipham Rinpoche explains here that the nature of samsara, the three types of suffering. So these are really the ingredients, the very nature, the components what make up samsara. And if we do not manage to become liberated from samsara then we need to circle around within that endless suffering, within that, within samsara without any end. So again and again.
And Mipham Rinpoche explains that it is so rare for us to be born at a time where the teachings of... where the teacher has appeared, the Buddha has appeared. In addition, it is so rare and so difficult for us to attain a precious human body. It's actually as difficult that there are so few people who manage to do that as there are stars during daytime.
We however now have achieved something which is so precious and so rare. This human body endowed with the freedoms and riches. And in addition to that we have access to the Buddha's teachings. They are available to us.
When we talk about the precious human body it means that we possess the causes and the conditions that enable us to practice the Dharma.
So all of us, we possess them.
So although we have achieved something so precious and rare, Mipham Rinpoche says, we have to understand that this life lasts only for a very short time.
Also these days there are so many sicknesses that have come about only now in modern times that are very difficult to cure.
And also our negative emotions are so much stronger than before.
And also there are so few who are able to practice the... the Dharma, the teachings in a wholeheartedly way, like in a genuine way.
So he explains that there are so few individuals who manage to practice the Buddha's teachings in accordance with his instructions.
So many human beings, they are so distracted. They are so distracted by um... wanting to get food, shelter, money, fame, gain and so forth. And being distracted by that and pursuing only that they forget about Dharma practice or they find no time to practice the Dharma. There are others again and many actually, there are many who have not the slightest interest in practicing the Dharma.
If we really think well about the length of our life. This life doesn't last longer than a flash of lightning.
There's nothing really that we can put our trust in while we are alive.
So while our life actually lasts for such a short time, we have that, we have that feeling that it lasts for so long.
Actually, our body has no real essence. It's just like a water bubble.
Things such as our friends, our enemies, all our possessions, all those things. In fact, they are just like appearances in a dream.
If we take a really good look and honest look at everything, we understand that everything is not really truly there. It doesn't truly exist. We cannot really rely on it. It's so unstable.
It's so uncertain.
We have to separate from all those things.
They will become destroyed. They will fall apart. They deceive us.
In fact, they are the perpetuating cause of suffering.
So in fact, they are not things that are reliable. I should not rely on them.
But I didn't know that.
But I thought that everything is so that it will provide me with happiness. And in that way, all those things deceived me.
And thinking in that way and acting in this way, what happens is that we waste this precious human body.
So in that way, we gather more and more causes of suffering and continuously create or engage in actions that are non-virtuous.
So spending our life in this way, then sooner or later we'll have to face death. And death, we cannot run away. We cannot escape.
And while not wanting to die, we have to die.
And when will we die? We don't know. The time of our death is utterly uncertain.
At the time of death, we need to leave everything behind. Our friends, our family, our relatives, all our hard-earned possessions, even this body that we love so dearly, we have to separate from it.
So what will actually accompany us at that very time?
So what will follow us is only the... either the good karma that we have accumulated while we were alive or the negative karma that we have accumulated.
And the working of karma, cause, and effect is infallible. And we cannot cheat it. We cannot deceive it.
So even Arhats and the Buddhas, they still experience karma, the ripening of karma, residual karma that they still have to experience. For instance, when the Buddha passed into Nirvana, it says that the cause of his passing, of his death, was either a thorn from sandalwood that pierced his leg or food poisoning. But whatever it may have been, in fact it was his residual karma that the Buddha still had to purify that caused his death. And the same also for Arhats. They still also... they experience residual karma and have to purify it.
So therefore Mipham Rinpoche continues to say that if beings like the Buddha and Arhats have to experience karma, then it's needless to mention that we, we ordinary beings, that we have to experience our karma, the ripening of our karma.
So although karma, cause, and effect works in an infallible way, there are so few in this world who engage in virtuous deeds and so many that do what is non-virtuous.
If you create a lot of negative deeds and engage in a lot of negative deeds, then the result of that will be rebirth in the lower realms.
If you engage in a lot of virtuous deeds while not embracing these virtuous deeds with bodhicitta, these virtuous deeds will propel you to take birth in the higher realms. But even though you may take birth in the higher realms, there's a lot of suffering that you will have to experience there, especially the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death.
So in this world, for instance, there are so many different types of human beings. Some are extremely wealthy, they have everything, what they can, what they wish for, while others have hardly anything, hardly any clothes, nothing to eat. So there is this stark difference between human beings. But even though some may have everything and some not, all of them have something in common. And what they have in common is that kind of sense of dissatisfaction, discontentment.
In fact, it is sometimes the case that if the individuals are so wealthy, so extremely wealthy, that they experience so much more dissatisfaction and pain and suffering and distress than people who have hardly anything. Because if you have hardly anything and then you suddenly get a warm meal, something good to eat and drink, you feel satisfied and you feel happy. But the individuals who have so much, they feel so... there's so much fear in their mind and so much dissatisfaction, so much discontentment.
So in short, we human beings, while not wanting to suffer, we constantly produce future causes of suffering and in this way our life becomes extremely miserable and painful.
If we want to use an example for samsara, it's just like a fire pit.
Or like a, like a, like a... a nest full of poisonous snakes.
Or an island filled with demons.
Now imagine that we again and again get born in such a horrible place. Again and again we circle around in samsara.
So we circle within samsara like a fire bird where it knows no end. And what needs to happen so that we sentient beings, we become liberated from our endless pain and suffering? So who is it that can protect us? Who is it that can help us? And as Rinpoche already pointed out so clearly today, it is the unsurpassed Buddha that can help us. It is the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma that can protect us. It is the sangha, the unsurpassed sangha that can guide us out of this misery.
So in the commentary it says you need to really, with one pointed confidence, decide that there is no greater object of refuge than the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha. And then fully entrust yourself to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And focusing your mind on the awakened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, you then train in the practices of samatha and vipassanā. And doing so will enable you to awaken, to become an enlightened Buddha.
So as mentioned before, before we begin with the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, it is important to give rise to a faith, a faith that knows its own reason. And having developed this very type of faith, you then train in the yoga, the practice of Buddha Shakyamuni. If you do so, then your practice will become very meaningful and powerful. So below, in the commentary now, what is explained are the qualities, the enlightened qualities of the Buddha. And tomorrow, if everything goes well, I would like to get into them.
Just a brief, some kind, about what means Buddha, and about what I am telling you, we call you a Buddha.
Specifically, who really want to practice Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā. And you need to see his image all the time. And you really do not understand very well. Sometimes you get bored, and sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you think it is too much, this kind... So then, whenever you have some kind hesitations and something, doubt, not comfortable, and that brings disturbance for your meditation. So thereby, you need to set up clear that...
So until the achievement of enlightenment, we need to train in the yoga of Buddha Shakyamuni. That is to say that we need to see the image of the Buddha, visualize the Buddha, really establish a very good communication with the Buddha in this way, with his enlightened body, speech and mind. And what we need to develop is our joy and delight when it comes to the qualities of the Buddha. So when we just merely think of the Buddha or see his form, immediately we should feel joy. And our mind should brighten and become really luminous. Or when we hear about the speech of the Buddha, when we hear anything, any teachings of the Buddha, the same should happen. When we think of the enlightened qualities of his mind, of his awakened mind, again, the same should happen. It should really brighten up our mind. It should make us feel joy. And this joy is that which will really make our practice flourish, deepen and engage, or make us engage in the practice in a very deep way so that it really carries us toward enlightenment.
In short, we need to be our private object.
Anytime you see, you don't have problem. Otherwise, it will be difficult, especially when you do samatha meditation with focus or with object. And then it will be a little more difficult. So I will try to read a little bit for tomorrow for that. Then we try to go in a text. Yeah. So I don't want to spend too much time for this.
So one or two questions?
Okay, thank you, Lama Tenzin. Very, very, very wonderful. I never heard that the Buddha had residual karma. I thought a Buddha had purified all negativities and even the, what do you call it, even the imprints of the negativities. So I have a question about that.
So according to the Theravada system, the Buddha had some residual karma. And this is what was explained here? So because we're talking now karma, then we need to use some variety from Theravada also. Theravada, they claim the Buddha's body is not Buddha. His mind is Buddha.
So for the Theravadas it's only the mind of the Buddha is enlightened, not his body. But the Buddha also clearly said, whoever sees me as a form, whoever sees or perceives me as sound, hears me as sound.
So all of you who do that, you don't really see me. You don't see me at all.
So therefore we need to be very clear when it comes to the Buddha, how to see the Buddha. Sometimes we say Theravada believe like that, but then we are maybe worse than Theravada. So be aware, attentions.
Yeah, one more question.
Yeah, one quick question. Rinpoche mentioned that there are like different paths in Buddhism and according to the capacity we need to choose the path. And the paths are not greater or inferior on their own. But I wonder how do we know which path is best for us. And if it is related with capacity, is the capacity something that we bring by birth or is it something that we cultivate in the process?
So just you take a good look first of all at your own mind and see what you like, what you feel drawn toward. For instance there are some when they hear about the teachings of impermanence then they feel so touched, they feel so really deeply touched by it. When they hear about the practice of guru yoga, they feel deeply touched about the practice of Guru Yoga. And others again feel so inclined to practice samatha meditation. So therefore these are already signs what kind of path that you should really take. But nevertheless like Rinpoche pointed out today, even if you know the whole Kangyur the words of the Buddha by heart, if you are not if you are not accepted by a spiritual teacher... or you do not follow a spiritual teacher, then there is no point. And the spiritual teacher is in fact the one who knows your capacity, who knows your mind and therefore can point out to you which path to take.
So when we talk about the level of enlightenment, the enlightenment itself means that we have to cover a distance. We have to arrive at a certain destination.
And we need to cover the whole distance toward enlightenment, not half, the whole.
For instance in the Nyingma teachings we need to traverse the nine vehicles.
And one single person needs to practice all nine vehicles.
So what we need to practice is in fact the sūtra teachings as well as the tantric teachings.
And this is precisely why we also practice that in the Tara terma of triple excellence.
So from, when practicing the triple excellence the Tara terma of triple excellence then, you are a Vajrayāna practitioner.
But in spite of being a Vajrayāna practitioner you start with the lower vehicles.
So, in short, as Rinpoche pointed out today, the more attentively we listen to the teachings, the greater the teachings will be. Until will feel much more delight and courage and endurance when it comes to teachings us, teaching us, and that this is something that we need to keep in mind.
When we study the teachings or listen to the teachings, it's so important to do so with a proper motivation.
So as Rinpoche mentioned already, we should bring to mind that all sentient beings and myself, we are in the same predicament. We all want to be happy and we don't want to suffer.
So you really think very well about your own needs and then understand that others are just like you.
And when looking at others, I realized that there are so many of them that think, that believe, that the cause of suffering is in fact happiness. They believe what will make them happy, that this will make them happy, but in fact what they then, what it in fact is, is just a cause for future suffering.
So if I were in their place, how would I feel? What will happen?
And then we really sit with that feeling for some time and then the feeling, the intention will come, I must help them.
So in order to truly help them, in order to be able to help them in an authentic way, I must traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis.
And in order to traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis, I must get to know the path really well.
And this is precisely why I'm sitting here listening to the teachings.
And immediately I will, I will apply all the teachings that I'm listening to, that I'm listening to, to my own experience. I will integrate them in my own personal practice.
Not only will I practice them immediately, I will also perfect them immediately.
If you're able to give rise to such a sincere pure motivation from the core of your heart, then the teachings will be so beneficial, will become so that the act of listening to teachings will become so virtuous, so helpful, so beneficial.
For even to listen with such a pure and strong felt motivation, then so much can happen in short time. It is said that many siddhas appeared in the past, many accomplished masters, by just having completed listening to one set of teachings. So they became enlightened just by listening.
There are many individuals, many individuals have reached enlightenment by just listening to the teachings. For instance, now we are receiving the teachings of the heart of the matter. And at the end of the teachings many, in the past at least, it has happened that many became enlightened.
And there's not so much difference between the individuals of the past and of us right now, no? They were human beings and we are human beings as well.
But their way of thinking perhaps differed from our way of thinking, and this is why we end up with different levels.
On an outward level, we both, all of us, we appear as human beings.
But when looking inwardly, then one is a Buddha, the other is just an ordinary sentient being.
When master is alive, and then we need to focus nicely, listen nice, practice nicely, then we have something we can do, communication with masters. That is not just happy, satisfied, just having cup of tea together, or taking pictures, or having meal, and you feel so lucky. Not only that, that we really need to go more deeper communication. Not just say, oh Rinpoche, I miss you so much, I'm so happy, so glad that I could see now, not only that level kind of communication, we need to go really deeper communication. To go deeper communication, we don't practice, there is not much to say, no? So thereby, masters here still will practice. When you practice, then you understand your level knowledge. When you don't practice, it seems like you know, four mind changing, you know, bodhicitta, you know, you know, samatha, vipassanā, all these things, you feel like you know, but when you really go into your personal experience, then you can understand how much you know. Yeah. Then according to that, you can communicate, and maybe you feel also proud, happy to go see Rinpoche, you know, you have something to discuss with your inner experience. And Rinpoche feels also very happy that whatever I dedicate is really like working, they're using, and so and become somehow student and master communications, getting very positive and very energetic way of relationship. So we are all very lucky. And so today Rinpoche said he's very happy. We, you all are listening very sincerely. So and Rinpoche is different form than yesterday. So tomorrow also will happen, if you guys same mood like today. So please listen very well Dharma teachings.
01:30:51
So, this morning we have
received already teachings,
so actually there is
nothing more for me to say.
So, my only wish is that we, since we practice The Treasury of Blessings, Shakyamuni practice together, it's very important for me to make you understand that this practice is really, really important, very precious.
So, in my individual perception, it seems to be the case that many people, when they take a look at The Treasury of Blessings, so when they hear about The Treasury of Blessings, that they think it is a practice for beginners, and this may be my own misperception, a wrong view, but this is just the kind of feeling or intuition I have when I converse with others.
Then when we talk about other practices, for instance there kusung tuk a... kunsang tuk tik practice or the single form of vajrasattva, the sādhanā of that, then people get really excited and think, wow, that's really, really profound.
And today Rinpoche pointed out very clearly also whether the dharma is equally profound, but whether or not the dharma becomes profound entirely depends on ourselves.
In short, if we practice the teachings of the great perfection, but in fact we are not a real vessel or recipient for the teachings of the great perfection, it won't help us, it won't be beneficial for us.
Just take the example of Milarepa, before he met his teacher Marpa, he actually met with a teacher of the great perfection, not an ordinary teacher, but a teacher whose realization was as high as the sky.
So what happened when Milarepa met with this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection? What happened was that this teacher taught him the teachings of the great perfection, elucidating that if you practice, meditate on on the teachings of the great perfection during the day, you will be enlightened in this day, you will be a Buddha during this day. If you meditate on it during the night, then during this very night you will become a Buddha. These are the teachings of the great perfection. If somebody meets, somebody who is qualified, who is a proper recipient, meets with these potent instructions of the great perfection, then he or she will be a Buddha immediately.
Even without actually meditating on anything whatsoever, he or she will become enlightened.
And Milarepa was quite an extraordinary person, he knew that he was more intelligent than others.
Also when he was training in sorcery, in black magic, what other students, they needed a couple of months to perfect a certain practice, he only needed a couple of weeks. A single week in fact.
So Milarepa, when he received the teachings from this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection, he thought to himself, well, I'm quite extraordinary when it came to studying the spells of the black magic, and I was better than others also when it came to studying, and my intelligence, and I know I'm really intelligent, so I must be certain that I'm one of these fortunate recipients of the great perfection. That I'm sure I will be able to become enlightened without meditating. So he thought that to himself, and then when it got dark he laid down and slept. In the morning then when he met with his teacher, then the teacher asked him, so how did it go? What kind of experience arose? And then Milarepa said, well, not much, I just slept. And nothing really happened. Then immediately the teacher knew that he is not a proper recipient, a fortunate recipient, a vessel for the teachings of the great perfection, and he sent him then to the teacher Marpa.
And Marpa was the teacher of Milarepa not only in this lifetime, but for many lifetimes before, so they had a really strong, profound, karmic relationship. And therefore Marpa also knew precisely what his student Milarepa needed, then taught him the path of how to gather the accumulations and purify the obscurations. And this is what Milarepa then trained in.
As mentioned already before, when it comes to the Buddha's teachings there is no qualitative difference, there is no better or worse.
But as mentioned already before, whether or not the teachings can actually become or are profound depends on us, on our capacity.
So in the sūtra teachings it is taught abundantly that one practices samatha and vipassanā by focusing one's mind on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha.
So usually one accesses the teachings in a step by step way, in a gradual way. And one does so by practicing the stages of samatha and vipassanā and this is an unmistaken path that leads one to an authentic result. But for individuals of highest capacity who are able, who are proper recipients of the teachings, who meet with a qualified teacher who possesses the nectar, the potent nectar of realization, then something extraordinary can happen. The student needs to possess genuine devotion, overwhelming devotion for his teacher. And then when these two come together, when a qualified teacher comes together with a qualified student, not actually much needs to be transmitted. The only thing that needs to be transmitted is that the teacher merely directs his or her wisdom mind to the student and the entire realization of the teacher can be transferred to the student. Or it can also be by means of a symbol or by means of a few words. If this extraordinary relationship takes place, then the entire realization of the master's mind can be transferred to the student.
So such a student does not need to go through a gradual path. Such a student is called a person with instantaneous capacity, directly crossing over to the result.
So why is a student capable to immediately realize um... the same realization as the teacher? Well, it's not something that suddenly comes about in this life only. It's the result of having trained in many past lives diligently.
So we are all followers of the Buddha's teachings. Um, so we have a connection, a karmic connection with Buddha Shakyamuni.
In the sūtras it's clearly elucidated that there is a time where the Buddha has already appeared and the time where the Buddha has not yet appeared.
In some eons or during certain time, there will not be even the name of a Buddha.
So if the Buddha has not appeared during a certain time, also the Buddha's teachings will not be available.
And if the Buddha's teachings are not available, then we also don't know what to accept and what to reject.
If we don't know what is correct, if we don't know what is incorrect, what should be abandoned, then it's just like the situation that Śāntideva describes in the Bodhicaryāvatāra where he says that although we won't... we don't want to suffer out of ignorance, we accumulate further causes for suffering as if they were our best friends. So we run after them as if they were our best friends. Even though we want to be happy, we really want to be happy, um... we destroy the causes for future happiness as if they were our arch enemy.
So when we hear the term Buddha, we may immediately think of a Buddha as having a saffron colored robe, as being from Asia. Um, but to understand somebody who is Buddhist, that's probably a Buddha, isn't it? But this, I believe, is a mistaken understanding.
Buddhism is a philosophy.
And philosophy is a mental construct.
And to be honest, the Buddha is somebody who is beyond philosophy, beyond mental constructs.
So who is the Buddha? The Buddha is somebody who is free from all mistakes, has purified all mistakes, and is endowed with all good qualities. This person is called the Buddha.
As it says in The Treasury of Blessings, we sentient beings, we live at a time which is called the degenerate age, or in Sanskrit it's called the Kali Yuga. And what are the characteristics of this degenerate age? It is that the five negative emotions are rampant, they are really strong. So there's a lot of, we are prone to feel angry, we are prone to feel jealous, and we are prone to feel undesirous, attached, and proud, stingy, and so forth.
And especially during this time, we are also prone to believe in nihilism, meaning that there is not really any cause and effect.
And as Rinpoche always points out, we live at a really precarious time, in a precarious time, because we could also call it the age of weapons, of warfare, because there's so many amazing, terrible weapons around that can destroy this earth in a single moment.
So this, they are really quite terrifying and frightening, yeah?
But compared to all those weaponry, all those warfare and weapons, we have to say that Rinpoche always points out that the view of nihilism is much more dangerous than all those weapons of mass destruction.
The Buddha in his previous lives made really strong aspiration prayers to be born at this end of this degenerate age, during this time, and to be able to benefit sentient beings in a very vast way. And this is precisely what happened. While the Buddha appeared, he was able to establish countless individuals onto the path of liberation. He guided them to liberation and enlightenment. But also, even now, the teachings of the Buddha are alive They are practiced. So the Buddha's activity, the Buddha's enlightened activity is still available and is still helping us.
So we don't do the Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā just because we need to pay respect to the Buddha because he was just so kind to us. Um, In fact, the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, The Treasure of Blessing, is an extraordinary method that will lead us to perfect enlightenment if we practice it genuinely.
So in Mipham Rinpoche's Commentary on the Treasury of Blessings, it's explained that this practice, this practice of Buddha Shakyamuni is not just to be recited, it's in fact the basis, the foundation for us to be able to develop the meditations of samatha and vipassanā.
So before we begin to practice The Treasury of Blessings, it's very important that we give rise to a faith that knows its own reason.
And it says if you prepare yourself with such a faith that knows its own reason and then begin to focus and visualize Buddha Shakyamuni and then develop and train in samatha and vipassanā Based on focusing on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of Buddha Shakyamuni then all your wishes then all what you want to achieve will be accomplished.
So this is precisely why Mipham Rinpoche says, I will now briefly explain this practice.
So he says briefly, he will explain it, but actually it's not really briefly. I think the commentary has 1,200 pages.
So this morning Rinpoche pointed out many times that unless we possess renunciation, the dharma that we practice will become a mere reflection. It will not be true dharma practice.
So it's important to understand that when we use the quality of, when we talk about the quality of renunciation, it's not that we mean that it's something that we need to look down at things or kind of disparage things, or that we need to throw something away, get rid of things. That's not the meaning.
So personally I think it's really important to develop renunciation. And renunciation doesn't mean to just throw everything that you like into the garbage bin. That's not the meaning. But renunciation should come about understanding that when we feel attached to something, we believe inherently, what is inherent in this belief or in this emotion is that we want the object to be permanent and lasting. And nothing lasts. Nothing stays the same. Because everything is impermanent. So if we have that type of attachment to anything, then when it changes or when it disappears, when we lose it, what happens is that we suffer. And this, understanding this, understanding that everything is in fact impermanent will not last. And therefore it's pointless to be attached to it. That is renunciation.
So if you have renunciation, understanding that everything that you, that... you like, is in fact also impermanent, you will not feel so attached to it. And also when it then changes, you will not become so upset.
And especially if our realization in our mind has become as vast and as high as the sky, then at that time we can also take negative emotions as the path.
But for us, for beginners on the path, it is extremely important to give rise to renunciation.
Because as the masters always point out, all appearances are so skilled in deceiving us, aren't they?
And our mind is so childish and so gullible.
So this is precisely the reason for why we also experience so many hardships, because we always get fooled and deceived by all what we experience. However, if our mind... if our realization has become as vast and as high as the sky, then it's another story.
Then at this time, everything has become great equality. There's nothing really that we can distinguish or say, okay, this is good and this is not good. There is no qualitative difference when it comes to appearances anymore.
So as a practitioner, this is precisely the level that we need to achieve. This is where we need to get at. And in the beginning we need renunciation, but it's not the case that at all levels of the path we need to hold onto tightly or cling onto renunciation. That's not the meaning.
Samsara is as in the commentary, samsara is created or is produced from negative emotions and karma.
Since the cause of the three realms and of samsara is nothing other than negative emotions and karma, the result of that must be also painful.
As the great master Dignāga said, samsara and nirvana are not two. So when you realize the nature of samsara, then this is precisely nirvana. So in our deluded mind, samsara appears in nirvana. There are two things, but this is in fact confusion. This is merely delusion.
In fact, when we suffer, when we have a hard time, it seems so real, but suffering doesn't truly exist.
It is not the case that samsara is something that needs to be abandoned, and it is also not the case that nirvana is something that we need to accomplish or attain. This is confusion.
To illustrate this, let us take in the count example of a nightmare. We all know how it feels like to dream in a terrible way. Sometimes we may dream that there is a dangerous, scary elephant in the room. Sometimes we may dream to be stuck in a terrible traffic accident. While we dream that, we suffer a lot. But when we wake up in the morning, we realize it was just a nightmare. And then we realize that it has never happened, that nothing really bad happened. But isn't it the case that before we fell asleep, there was no real suffering, no real fright... no real terror of...? No elephant. While we had the nightmare, there was no elephant in the room. Also when we woke up, there was no elephant. No? So from this example we can understand that actually suffering is just like that. Suffering also was never really there.
Our life, we spend having a lot of hopes and a lot of fears. Especially if we are not a Dharma practitioner, then this is how we live our life. One hope, one expectation comes after the other, one fear and anxiety after the other.
And if you think well about that, isn't it...? This is what it means to be confused and deluded.
If suffering and pain would be truly existent, then we would have no choice. We will have to experience it.
It's okay, it's acceptable. So this is acceptable here?
Not acceptable. But to experience suffering while it actually does not exist, this is unfair and not really acceptable, isn't it?
So therefore it is 100% our responsibility to clear away and get rid of our own difficulties.
As Mipham Rinpoche says in his commentary, once we are born in samsara, then immediately we are bound by the three types of suffering. We are imprisoned, so to speak, by the three types of suffering.
And he continues to say that we cannot experience any or attain any type of lasting and true happiness within samsara.
For instance, the suffering of suffering is something that inflicts our body, that we experience directly with our physical body.
And the suffering of change, this is something that we can easily understand. We are happy, next moment we are sad. The happiness changes into sadness.
So why do we suffer? We suffer because in the past everything was so good, we felt so good, and then it changed. And now it's suffering, it's so painful.
Or just sickness. Some time ago I was so healthy, it felt so good, I never felt any type of pain. And then suddenly I became sick. And that is so painful.
Everything is impermanent.
So it is explained in the scriptures that we human beings, we experience all three types of suffering, but especially we suffer because of the suffering of change. This is the greatest suffering for us.
And the third type of suffering, all of you have certainly heard about it, it's called the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned. And this is the foundation, actually the foundation for why we can experience the other two types of suffering, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change.
This suffering simply refers to having a body. We have a physical body. And this physical body becomes the basis for so much pain. Somebody criticizes us, somebody slanders us. It's because we are here, we have that physical body. This is why we become an object of aggression for others. Somebody may beat us up. We may become sick because we have that physical body. We become older because we have a physical body. First of all, we get born, we get older, we become sick, and finally we die. This is our suffering.
And because we have that body, we need to go through all these sufferings.
So the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned means that because of the nature of this body, it prepares naturally for future suffering. It becomes the cause for you to produce future suffering.
So for instance, think about somebody whose mind has not turned toward the Dharma, who in addition to that has a character that is not very good, quite a bad character. Then what will such a person do most of the time? He or she will always say something negative to others, so always accumulate a lot of negativity through his speech. When thinking, such a person will most of the time only think in a negative way. And also when doing things will create a lot of harm, perhaps kill other animals or do all kinds of negative behaviors, engage in negative behaviors. So in this very way, such a person creates and produces constantly a lot of causes for future suffering.
So although we may not want to create any harm accidentally, it may just happen. We may go here and there and then suddenly just out of the blue, harm may be created.
So although this may not be a real full blown negative deed that we have created in that way because we didn't intend to do it, nevertheless it will be negative and painful in the future.
Sometimes it is the case that we take a good look at ourselves and say, I'm quite okay, I'm not really doing anything negative, I'm not creating any kind of harm, I'm not engaging in negative deeds, but really take a very careful look at what is happening and what you're doing. It may not be like this at all.
So this is why the siddhas in the past always made the firm aspiration and the wish that may my life and accomplishment become equal.
May my life and practice become equally...
So the siddhas of the past realized how easy it is to commit negative deeds and therefore they made that firm commitment and aspiration that during my life all what I will do is only the Dharma. And my practice is the Dharma and this is how I want to spend my entire life.
So Mipham Rinpoche explains here that the nature of samsara, the three types of suffering. So these are really the ingredients, the very nature, the components what make up samsara. And if we do not manage to become liberated from samsara then we need to circle around within that endless suffering, within that, within samsara without any end. So again and again.
And Mipham Rinpoche explains that it is so rare for us to be born at a time where the teachings of... where the teacher has appeared, the Buddha has appeared. In addition, it is so rare and so difficult for us to attain a precious human body. It's actually as difficult that there are so few people who manage to do that as there are stars during daytime.
We however now have achieved something which is so precious and so rare. This human body endowed with the freedoms and riches. And in addition to that we have access to the Buddha's teachings. They are available to us.
When we talk about the precious human body it means that we possess the causes and the conditions that enable us to practice the Dharma.
So all of us, we possess them.
So although we have achieved something so precious and rare, Mipham Rinpoche says, we have to understand that this life lasts only for a very short time.
Also these days there are so many sicknesses that have come about only now in modern times that are very difficult to cure.
And also our negative emotions are so much stronger than before.
And also there are so few who are able to practice the... the Dharma, the teachings in a wholeheartedly way, like in a genuine way.
So he explains that there are so few individuals who manage to practice the Buddha's teachings in accordance with his instructions.
So many human beings, they are so distracted. They are so distracted by um... wanting to get food, shelter, money, fame, gain and so forth. And being distracted by that and pursuing only that they forget about Dharma practice or they find no time to practice the Dharma. There are others again and many actually, there are many who have not the slightest interest in practicing the Dharma.
If we really think well about the length of our life. This life doesn't last longer than a flash of lightning.
There's nothing really that we can put our trust in while we are alive.
So while our life actually lasts for such a short time, we have that, we have that feeling that it lasts for so long.
Actually, our body has no real essence. It's just like a water bubble.
Things such as our friends, our enemies, all our possessions, all those things. In fact, they are just like appearances in a dream.
If we take a really good look and honest look at everything, we understand that everything is not really truly there. It doesn't truly exist. We cannot really rely on it. It's so unstable.
It's so uncertain.
We have to separate from all those things.
They will become destroyed. They will fall apart. They deceive us.
In fact, they are the perpetuating cause of suffering.
So in fact, they are not things that are reliable. I should not rely on them.
But I didn't know that.
But I thought that everything is so that it will provide me with happiness. And in that way, all those things deceived me.
And thinking in that way and acting in this way, what happens is that we waste this precious human body.
So in that way, we gather more and more causes of suffering and continuously create or engage in actions that are non-virtuous.
So spending our life in this way, then sooner or later we'll have to face death. And death, we cannot run away. We cannot escape.
And while not wanting to die, we have to die.
And when will we die? We don't know. The time of our death is utterly uncertain.
At the time of death, we need to leave everything behind. Our friends, our family, our relatives, all our hard-earned possessions, even this body that we love so dearly, we have to separate from it.
So what will actually accompany us at that very time?
So what will follow us is only the... either the good karma that we have accumulated while we were alive or the negative karma that we have accumulated.
And the working of karma, cause, and effect is infallible. And we cannot cheat it. We cannot deceive it.
So even Arhats and the Buddhas, they still experience karma, the ripening of karma, residual karma that they still have to experience. For instance, when the Buddha passed into Nirvana, it says that the cause of his passing, of his death, was either a thorn from sandalwood that pierced his leg or food poisoning. But whatever it may have been, in fact it was his residual karma that the Buddha still had to purify that caused his death. And the same also for Arhats. They still also... they experience residual karma and have to purify it.
So therefore Mipham Rinpoche continues to say that if beings like the Buddha and Arhats have to experience karma, then it's needless to mention that we, we ordinary beings, that we have to experience our karma, the ripening of our karma.
So although karma, cause, and effect works in an infallible way, there are so few in this world who engage in virtuous deeds and so many that do what is non-virtuous.
If you create a lot of negative deeds and engage in a lot of negative deeds, then the result of that will be rebirth in the lower realms.
If you engage in a lot of virtuous deeds while not embracing these virtuous deeds with bodhicitta, these virtuous deeds will propel you to take birth in the higher realms. But even though you may take birth in the higher realms, there's a lot of suffering that you will have to experience there, especially the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death.
So in this world, for instance, there are so many different types of human beings. Some are extremely wealthy, they have everything, what they can, what they wish for, while others have hardly anything, hardly any clothes, nothing to eat. So there is this stark difference between human beings. But even though some may have everything and some not, all of them have something in common. And what they have in common is that kind of sense of dissatisfaction, discontentment.
In fact, it is sometimes the case that if the individuals are so wealthy, so extremely wealthy, that they experience so much more dissatisfaction and pain and suffering and distress than people who have hardly anything. Because if you have hardly anything and then you suddenly get a warm meal, something good to eat and drink, you feel satisfied and you feel happy. But the individuals who have so much, they feel so... there's so much fear in their mind and so much dissatisfaction, so much discontentment.
So in short, we human beings, while not wanting to suffer, we constantly produce future causes of suffering and in this way our life becomes extremely miserable and painful.
If we want to use an example for samsara, it's just like a fire pit.
Or like a, like a, like a... a nest full of poisonous snakes.
Or an island filled with demons.
Now imagine that we again and again get born in such a horrible place. Again and again we circle around in samsara.
So we circle within samsara like a fire bird where it knows no end. And what needs to happen so that we sentient beings, we become liberated from our endless pain and suffering? So who is it that can protect us? Who is it that can help us? And as Rinpoche already pointed out so clearly today, it is the unsurpassed Buddha that can help us. It is the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma that can protect us. It is the sangha, the unsurpassed sangha that can guide us out of this misery.
So in the commentary it says you need to really, with one pointed confidence, decide that there is no greater object of refuge than the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha. And then fully entrust yourself to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And focusing your mind on the awakened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, you then train in the practices of samatha and vipassanā. And doing so will enable you to awaken, to become an enlightened Buddha.
So as mentioned before, before we begin with the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, it is important to give rise to a faith, a faith that knows its own reason. And having developed this very type of faith, you then train in the yoga, the practice of Buddha Shakyamuni. If you do so, then your practice will become very meaningful and powerful. So below, in the commentary now, what is explained are the qualities, the enlightened qualities of the Buddha. And tomorrow, if everything goes well, I would like to get into them.
Just a brief, some kind, about what means Buddha, and about what I am telling you, we call you a Buddha.
Specifically, who really want to practice Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā. And you need to see his image all the time. And you really do not understand very well. Sometimes you get bored, and sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you think it is too much, this kind... So then, whenever you have some kind hesitations and something, doubt, not comfortable, and that brings disturbance for your meditation. So thereby, you need to set up clear that...
So until the achievement of enlightenment, we need to train in the yoga of Buddha Shakyamuni. That is to say that we need to see the image of the Buddha, visualize the Buddha, really establish a very good communication with the Buddha in this way, with his enlightened body, speech and mind. And what we need to develop is our joy and delight when it comes to the qualities of the Buddha. So when we just merely think of the Buddha or see his form, immediately we should feel joy. And our mind should brighten and become really luminous. Or when we hear about the speech of the Buddha, when we hear anything, any teachings of the Buddha, the same should happen. When we think of the enlightened qualities of his mind, of his awakened mind, again, the same should happen. It should really brighten up our mind. It should make us feel joy. And this joy is that which will really make our practice flourish, deepen and engage, or make us engage in the practice in a very deep way so that it really carries us toward enlightenment.
In short, we need to be our private object.
Anytime you see, you don't have problem. Otherwise, it will be difficult, especially when you do samatha meditation with focus or with object. And then it will be a little more difficult. So I will try to read a little bit for tomorrow for that. Then we try to go in a text. Yeah. So I don't want to spend too much time for this.
So one or two questions?
Okay, thank you, Lama Tenzin. Very, very, very wonderful. I never heard that the Buddha had residual karma. I thought a Buddha had purified all negativities and even the, what do you call it, even the imprints of the negativities. So I have a question about that.
So according to the Theravada system, the Buddha had some residual karma. And this is what was explained here? So because we're talking now karma, then we need to use some variety from Theravada also. Theravada, they claim the Buddha's body is not Buddha. His mind is Buddha.
So for the Theravadas it's only the mind of the Buddha is enlightened, not his body. But the Buddha also clearly said, whoever sees me as a form, whoever sees or perceives me as sound, hears me as sound.
So all of you who do that, you don't really see me. You don't see me at all.
So therefore we need to be very clear when it comes to the Buddha, how to see the Buddha. Sometimes we say Theravada believe like that, but then we are maybe worse than Theravada. So be aware, attentions.
Yeah, one more question.
Yeah, one quick question. Rinpoche mentioned that there are like different paths in Buddhism and according to the capacity we need to choose the path. And the paths are not greater or inferior on their own. But I wonder how do we know which path is best for us. And if it is related with capacity, is the capacity something that we bring by birth or is it something that we cultivate in the process?
So just you take a good look first of all at your own mind and see what you like, what you feel drawn toward. For instance there are some when they hear about the teachings of impermanence then they feel so touched, they feel so really deeply touched by it. When they hear about the practice of guru yoga, they feel deeply touched about the practice of Guru Yoga. And others again feel so inclined to practice samatha meditation. So therefore these are already signs what kind of path that you should really take. But nevertheless like Rinpoche pointed out today, even if you know the whole Kangyur the words of the Buddha by heart, if you are not if you are not accepted by a spiritual teacher... or you do not follow a spiritual teacher, then there is no point. And the spiritual teacher is in fact the one who knows your capacity, who knows your mind and therefore can point out to you which path to take.
So when we talk about the level of enlightenment, the enlightenment itself means that we have to cover a distance. We have to arrive at a certain destination.
And we need to cover the whole distance toward enlightenment, not half, the whole.
For instance in the Nyingma teachings we need to traverse the nine vehicles.
And one single person needs to practice all nine vehicles.
So what we need to practice is in fact the sūtra teachings as well as the tantric teachings.
And this is precisely why we also practice that in the Tara terma of triple excellence.
So from, when practicing the triple excellence the Tara terma of triple excellence then, you are a Vajrayāna practitioner.
But in spite of being a Vajrayāna practitioner you start with the lower vehicles.
So, in short, as Rinpoche pointed out today, the more attentively we listen to the teachings, the greater the teachings will be. Until will feel much more delight and courage and endurance when it comes to teachings us, teaching us, and that this is something that we need to keep in mind.
When we study the teachings or listen to the teachings, it's so important to do so with a proper motivation.
So as Rinpoche mentioned already, we should bring to mind that all sentient beings and myself, we are in the same predicament. We all want to be happy and we don't want to suffer.
So you really think very well about your own needs and then understand that others are just like you.
And when looking at others, I realized that there are so many of them that think, that believe, that the cause of suffering is in fact happiness. They believe what will make them happy, that this will make them happy, but in fact what they then, what it in fact is, is just a cause for future suffering.
So if I were in their place, how would I feel? What will happen?
And then we really sit with that feeling for some time and then the feeling, the intention will come, I must help them.
So in order to truly help them, in order to be able to help them in an authentic way, I must traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis.
And in order to traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis, I must get to know the path really well.
And this is precisely why I'm sitting here listening to the teachings.
And immediately I will, I will apply all the teachings that I'm listening to, that I'm listening to, to my own experience. I will integrate them in my own personal practice.
Not only will I practice them immediately, I will also perfect them immediately.
If you're able to give rise to such a sincere pure motivation from the core of your heart, then the teachings will be so beneficial, will become so that the act of listening to teachings will become so virtuous, so helpful, so beneficial.
For even to listen with such a pure and strong felt motivation, then so much can happen in short time. It is said that many siddhas appeared in the past, many accomplished masters, by just having completed listening to one set of teachings. So they became enlightened just by listening.
There are many individuals, many individuals have reached enlightenment by just listening to the teachings. For instance, now we are receiving the teachings of the heart of the matter. And at the end of the teachings many, in the past at least, it has happened that many became enlightened.
And there's not so much difference between the individuals of the past and of us right now, no? They were human beings and we are human beings as well.
But their way of thinking perhaps differed from our way of thinking, and this is why we end up with different levels.
On an outward level, we both, all of us, we appear as human beings.
But when looking inwardly, then one is a Buddha, the other is just an ordinary sentient being.
When master is alive, and then we need to focus nicely, listen nice, practice nicely, then we have something we can do, communication with masters. That is not just happy, satisfied, just having cup of tea together, or taking pictures, or having meal, and you feel so lucky. Not only that, that we really need to go more deeper communication. Not just say, oh Rinpoche, I miss you so much, I'm so happy, so glad that I could see now, not only that level kind of communication, we need to go really deeper communication. To go deeper communication, we don't practice, there is not much to say, no? So thereby, masters here still will practice. When you practice, then you understand your level knowledge. When you don't practice, it seems like you know, four mind changing, you know, bodhicitta, you know, you know, samatha, vipassanā, all these things, you feel like you know, but when you really go into your personal experience, then you can understand how much you know. Yeah. Then according to that, you can communicate, and maybe you feel also proud, happy to go see Rinpoche, you know, you have something to discuss with your inner experience. And Rinpoche feels also very happy that whatever I dedicate is really like working, they're using, and so and become somehow student and master communications, getting very positive and very energetic way of relationship. So we are all very lucky. And so today Rinpoche said he's very happy. We, you all are listening very sincerely. So and Rinpoche is different form than yesterday. So tomorrow also will happen, if you guys same mood like today. So please listen very well Dharma teachings.
So, my only wish is that we, since we practice The Treasury of Blessings, Shakyamuni practice together, it's very important for me to make you understand that this practice is really, really important, very precious.
So, in my individual perception, it seems to be the case that many people, when they take a look at The Treasury of Blessings, so when they hear about The Treasury of Blessings, that they think it is a practice for beginners, and this may be my own misperception, a wrong view, but this is just the kind of feeling or intuition I have when I converse with others.
Then when we talk about other practices, for instance there kusung tuk a... kunsang tuk tik practice or the single form of vajrasattva, the sādhanā of that, then people get really excited and think, wow, that's really, really profound.
And today Rinpoche pointed out very clearly also whether the dharma is equally profound, but whether or not the dharma becomes profound entirely depends on ourselves.
In short, if we practice the teachings of the great perfection, but in fact we are not a real vessel or recipient for the teachings of the great perfection, it won't help us, it won't be beneficial for us.
Just take the example of Milarepa, before he met his teacher Marpa, he actually met with a teacher of the great perfection, not an ordinary teacher, but a teacher whose realization was as high as the sky.
So what happened when Milarepa met with this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection? What happened was that this teacher taught him the teachings of the great perfection, elucidating that if you practice, meditate on on the teachings of the great perfection during the day, you will be enlightened in this day, you will be a Buddha during this day. If you meditate on it during the night, then during this very night you will become a Buddha. These are the teachings of the great perfection. If somebody meets, somebody who is qualified, who is a proper recipient, meets with these potent instructions of the great perfection, then he or she will be a Buddha immediately.
Even without actually meditating on anything whatsoever, he or she will become enlightened.
And Milarepa was quite an extraordinary person, he knew that he was more intelligent than others.
Also when he was training in sorcery, in black magic, what other students, they needed a couple of months to perfect a certain practice, he only needed a couple of weeks. A single week in fact.
So Milarepa, when he received the teachings from this extraordinary teacher of the great perfection, he thought to himself, well, I'm quite extraordinary when it came to studying the spells of the black magic, and I was better than others also when it came to studying, and my intelligence, and I know I'm really intelligent, so I must be certain that I'm one of these fortunate recipients of the great perfection. That I'm sure I will be able to become enlightened without meditating. So he thought that to himself, and then when it got dark he laid down and slept. In the morning then when he met with his teacher, then the teacher asked him, so how did it go? What kind of experience arose? And then Milarepa said, well, not much, I just slept. And nothing really happened. Then immediately the teacher knew that he is not a proper recipient, a fortunate recipient, a vessel for the teachings of the great perfection, and he sent him then to the teacher Marpa.
And Marpa was the teacher of Milarepa not only in this lifetime, but for many lifetimes before, so they had a really strong, profound, karmic relationship. And therefore Marpa also knew precisely what his student Milarepa needed, then taught him the path of how to gather the accumulations and purify the obscurations. And this is what Milarepa then trained in.
As mentioned already before, when it comes to the Buddha's teachings there is no qualitative difference, there is no better or worse.
But as mentioned already before, whether or not the teachings can actually become or are profound depends on us, on our capacity.
So in the sūtra teachings it is taught abundantly that one practices samatha and vipassanā by focusing one's mind on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha.
So usually one accesses the teachings in a step by step way, in a gradual way. And one does so by practicing the stages of samatha and vipassanā and this is an unmistaken path that leads one to an authentic result. But for individuals of highest capacity who are able, who are proper recipients of the teachings, who meet with a qualified teacher who possesses the nectar, the potent nectar of realization, then something extraordinary can happen. The student needs to possess genuine devotion, overwhelming devotion for his teacher. And then when these two come together, when a qualified teacher comes together with a qualified student, not actually much needs to be transmitted. The only thing that needs to be transmitted is that the teacher merely directs his or her wisdom mind to the student and the entire realization of the teacher can be transferred to the student. Or it can also be by means of a symbol or by means of a few words. If this extraordinary relationship takes place, then the entire realization of the master's mind can be transferred to the student.
So such a student does not need to go through a gradual path. Such a student is called a person with instantaneous capacity, directly crossing over to the result.
So why is a student capable to immediately realize um... the same realization as the teacher? Well, it's not something that suddenly comes about in this life only. It's the result of having trained in many past lives diligently.
So we are all followers of the Buddha's teachings. Um, so we have a connection, a karmic connection with Buddha Shakyamuni.
In the sūtras it's clearly elucidated that there is a time where the Buddha has already appeared and the time where the Buddha has not yet appeared.
In some eons or during certain time, there will not be even the name of a Buddha.
So if the Buddha has not appeared during a certain time, also the Buddha's teachings will not be available.
And if the Buddha's teachings are not available, then we also don't know what to accept and what to reject.
If we don't know what is correct, if we don't know what is incorrect, what should be abandoned, then it's just like the situation that Śāntideva describes in the Bodhicaryāvatāra where he says that although we won't... we don't want to suffer out of ignorance, we accumulate further causes for suffering as if they were our best friends. So we run after them as if they were our best friends. Even though we want to be happy, we really want to be happy, um... we destroy the causes for future happiness as if they were our arch enemy.
So when we hear the term Buddha, we may immediately think of a Buddha as having a saffron colored robe, as being from Asia. Um, but to understand somebody who is Buddhist, that's probably a Buddha, isn't it? But this, I believe, is a mistaken understanding.
Buddhism is a philosophy.
And philosophy is a mental construct.
And to be honest, the Buddha is somebody who is beyond philosophy, beyond mental constructs.
So who is the Buddha? The Buddha is somebody who is free from all mistakes, has purified all mistakes, and is endowed with all good qualities. This person is called the Buddha.
As it says in The Treasury of Blessings, we sentient beings, we live at a time which is called the degenerate age, or in Sanskrit it's called the Kali Yuga. And what are the characteristics of this degenerate age? It is that the five negative emotions are rampant, they are really strong. So there's a lot of, we are prone to feel angry, we are prone to feel jealous, and we are prone to feel undesirous, attached, and proud, stingy, and so forth.
And especially during this time, we are also prone to believe in nihilism, meaning that there is not really any cause and effect.
And as Rinpoche always points out, we live at a really precarious time, in a precarious time, because we could also call it the age of weapons, of warfare, because there's so many amazing, terrible weapons around that can destroy this earth in a single moment.
So this, they are really quite terrifying and frightening, yeah?
But compared to all those weaponry, all those warfare and weapons, we have to say that Rinpoche always points out that the view of nihilism is much more dangerous than all those weapons of mass destruction.
The Buddha in his previous lives made really strong aspiration prayers to be born at this end of this degenerate age, during this time, and to be able to benefit sentient beings in a very vast way. And this is precisely what happened. While the Buddha appeared, he was able to establish countless individuals onto the path of liberation. He guided them to liberation and enlightenment. But also, even now, the teachings of the Buddha are alive They are practiced. So the Buddha's activity, the Buddha's enlightened activity is still available and is still helping us.
So we don't do the Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā just because we need to pay respect to the Buddha because he was just so kind to us. Um, In fact, the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, The Treasure of Blessing, is an extraordinary method that will lead us to perfect enlightenment if we practice it genuinely.
So in Mipham Rinpoche's Commentary on the Treasury of Blessings, it's explained that this practice, this practice of Buddha Shakyamuni is not just to be recited, it's in fact the basis, the foundation for us to be able to develop the meditations of samatha and vipassanā.
So before we begin to practice The Treasury of Blessings, it's very important that we give rise to a faith that knows its own reason.
And it says if you prepare yourself with such a faith that knows its own reason and then begin to focus and visualize Buddha Shakyamuni and then develop and train in samatha and vipassanā Based on focusing on the enlightened body, speech, and mind of Buddha Shakyamuni then all your wishes then all what you want to achieve will be accomplished.
So this is precisely why Mipham Rinpoche says, I will now briefly explain this practice.
So he says briefly, he will explain it, but actually it's not really briefly. I think the commentary has 1,200 pages.
So this morning Rinpoche pointed out many times that unless we possess renunciation, the dharma that we practice will become a mere reflection. It will not be true dharma practice.
So it's important to understand that when we use the quality of, when we talk about the quality of renunciation, it's not that we mean that it's something that we need to look down at things or kind of disparage things, or that we need to throw something away, get rid of things. That's not the meaning.
So personally I think it's really important to develop renunciation. And renunciation doesn't mean to just throw everything that you like into the garbage bin. That's not the meaning. But renunciation should come about understanding that when we feel attached to something, we believe inherently, what is inherent in this belief or in this emotion is that we want the object to be permanent and lasting. And nothing lasts. Nothing stays the same. Because everything is impermanent. So if we have that type of attachment to anything, then when it changes or when it disappears, when we lose it, what happens is that we suffer. And this, understanding this, understanding that everything is in fact impermanent will not last. And therefore it's pointless to be attached to it. That is renunciation.
So if you have renunciation, understanding that everything that you, that... you like, is in fact also impermanent, you will not feel so attached to it. And also when it then changes, you will not become so upset.
And especially if our realization in our mind has become as vast and as high as the sky, then at that time we can also take negative emotions as the path.
But for us, for beginners on the path, it is extremely important to give rise to renunciation.
Because as the masters always point out, all appearances are so skilled in deceiving us, aren't they?
And our mind is so childish and so gullible.
So this is precisely the reason for why we also experience so many hardships, because we always get fooled and deceived by all what we experience. However, if our mind... if our realization has become as vast and as high as the sky, then it's another story.
Then at this time, everything has become great equality. There's nothing really that we can distinguish or say, okay, this is good and this is not good. There is no qualitative difference when it comes to appearances anymore.
So as a practitioner, this is precisely the level that we need to achieve. This is where we need to get at. And in the beginning we need renunciation, but it's not the case that at all levels of the path we need to hold onto tightly or cling onto renunciation. That's not the meaning.
Samsara is as in the commentary, samsara is created or is produced from negative emotions and karma.
Since the cause of the three realms and of samsara is nothing other than negative emotions and karma, the result of that must be also painful.
As the great master Dignāga said, samsara and nirvana are not two. So when you realize the nature of samsara, then this is precisely nirvana. So in our deluded mind, samsara appears in nirvana. There are two things, but this is in fact confusion. This is merely delusion.
In fact, when we suffer, when we have a hard time, it seems so real, but suffering doesn't truly exist.
It is not the case that samsara is something that needs to be abandoned, and it is also not the case that nirvana is something that we need to accomplish or attain. This is confusion.
To illustrate this, let us take in the count example of a nightmare. We all know how it feels like to dream in a terrible way. Sometimes we may dream that there is a dangerous, scary elephant in the room. Sometimes we may dream to be stuck in a terrible traffic accident. While we dream that, we suffer a lot. But when we wake up in the morning, we realize it was just a nightmare. And then we realize that it has never happened, that nothing really bad happened. But isn't it the case that before we fell asleep, there was no real suffering, no real fright... no real terror of...? No elephant. While we had the nightmare, there was no elephant in the room. Also when we woke up, there was no elephant. No? So from this example we can understand that actually suffering is just like that. Suffering also was never really there.
Our life, we spend having a lot of hopes and a lot of fears. Especially if we are not a Dharma practitioner, then this is how we live our life. One hope, one expectation comes after the other, one fear and anxiety after the other.
And if you think well about that, isn't it...? This is what it means to be confused and deluded.
If suffering and pain would be truly existent, then we would have no choice. We will have to experience it.
It's okay, it's acceptable. So this is acceptable here?
Not acceptable. But to experience suffering while it actually does not exist, this is unfair and not really acceptable, isn't it?
So therefore it is 100% our responsibility to clear away and get rid of our own difficulties.
As Mipham Rinpoche says in his commentary, once we are born in samsara, then immediately we are bound by the three types of suffering. We are imprisoned, so to speak, by the three types of suffering.
And he continues to say that we cannot experience any or attain any type of lasting and true happiness within samsara.
For instance, the suffering of suffering is something that inflicts our body, that we experience directly with our physical body.
And the suffering of change, this is something that we can easily understand. We are happy, next moment we are sad. The happiness changes into sadness.
So why do we suffer? We suffer because in the past everything was so good, we felt so good, and then it changed. And now it's suffering, it's so painful.
Or just sickness. Some time ago I was so healthy, it felt so good, I never felt any type of pain. And then suddenly I became sick. And that is so painful.
Everything is impermanent.
So it is explained in the scriptures that we human beings, we experience all three types of suffering, but especially we suffer because of the suffering of change. This is the greatest suffering for us.
And the third type of suffering, all of you have certainly heard about it, it's called the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned. And this is the foundation, actually the foundation for why we can experience the other two types of suffering, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change.
This suffering simply refers to having a body. We have a physical body. And this physical body becomes the basis for so much pain. Somebody criticizes us, somebody slanders us. It's because we are here, we have that physical body. This is why we become an object of aggression for others. Somebody may beat us up. We may become sick because we have that physical body. We become older because we have a physical body. First of all, we get born, we get older, we become sick, and finally we die. This is our suffering.
And because we have that body, we need to go through all these sufferings.
So the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned means that because of the nature of this body, it prepares naturally for future suffering. It becomes the cause for you to produce future suffering.
So for instance, think about somebody whose mind has not turned toward the Dharma, who in addition to that has a character that is not very good, quite a bad character. Then what will such a person do most of the time? He or she will always say something negative to others, so always accumulate a lot of negativity through his speech. When thinking, such a person will most of the time only think in a negative way. And also when doing things will create a lot of harm, perhaps kill other animals or do all kinds of negative behaviors, engage in negative behaviors. So in this very way, such a person creates and produces constantly a lot of causes for future suffering.
So although we may not want to create any harm accidentally, it may just happen. We may go here and there and then suddenly just out of the blue, harm may be created.
So although this may not be a real full blown negative deed that we have created in that way because we didn't intend to do it, nevertheless it will be negative and painful in the future.
Sometimes it is the case that we take a good look at ourselves and say, I'm quite okay, I'm not really doing anything negative, I'm not creating any kind of harm, I'm not engaging in negative deeds, but really take a very careful look at what is happening and what you're doing. It may not be like this at all.
So this is why the siddhas in the past always made the firm aspiration and the wish that may my life and accomplishment become equal.
May my life and practice become equally...
So the siddhas of the past realized how easy it is to commit negative deeds and therefore they made that firm commitment and aspiration that during my life all what I will do is only the Dharma. And my practice is the Dharma and this is how I want to spend my entire life.
So Mipham Rinpoche explains here that the nature of samsara, the three types of suffering. So these are really the ingredients, the very nature, the components what make up samsara. And if we do not manage to become liberated from samsara then we need to circle around within that endless suffering, within that, within samsara without any end. So again and again.
And Mipham Rinpoche explains that it is so rare for us to be born at a time where the teachings of... where the teacher has appeared, the Buddha has appeared. In addition, it is so rare and so difficult for us to attain a precious human body. It's actually as difficult that there are so few people who manage to do that as there are stars during daytime.
We however now have achieved something which is so precious and so rare. This human body endowed with the freedoms and riches. And in addition to that we have access to the Buddha's teachings. They are available to us.
When we talk about the precious human body it means that we possess the causes and the conditions that enable us to practice the Dharma.
So all of us, we possess them.
So although we have achieved something so precious and rare, Mipham Rinpoche says, we have to understand that this life lasts only for a very short time.
Also these days there are so many sicknesses that have come about only now in modern times that are very difficult to cure.
And also our negative emotions are so much stronger than before.
And also there are so few who are able to practice the... the Dharma, the teachings in a wholeheartedly way, like in a genuine way.
So he explains that there are so few individuals who manage to practice the Buddha's teachings in accordance with his instructions.
So many human beings, they are so distracted. They are so distracted by um... wanting to get food, shelter, money, fame, gain and so forth. And being distracted by that and pursuing only that they forget about Dharma practice or they find no time to practice the Dharma. There are others again and many actually, there are many who have not the slightest interest in practicing the Dharma.
If we really think well about the length of our life. This life doesn't last longer than a flash of lightning.
There's nothing really that we can put our trust in while we are alive.
So while our life actually lasts for such a short time, we have that, we have that feeling that it lasts for so long.
Actually, our body has no real essence. It's just like a water bubble.
Things such as our friends, our enemies, all our possessions, all those things. In fact, they are just like appearances in a dream.
If we take a really good look and honest look at everything, we understand that everything is not really truly there. It doesn't truly exist. We cannot really rely on it. It's so unstable.
It's so uncertain.
We have to separate from all those things.
They will become destroyed. They will fall apart. They deceive us.
In fact, they are the perpetuating cause of suffering.
So in fact, they are not things that are reliable. I should not rely on them.
But I didn't know that.
But I thought that everything is so that it will provide me with happiness. And in that way, all those things deceived me.
And thinking in that way and acting in this way, what happens is that we waste this precious human body.
So in that way, we gather more and more causes of suffering and continuously create or engage in actions that are non-virtuous.
So spending our life in this way, then sooner or later we'll have to face death. And death, we cannot run away. We cannot escape.
And while not wanting to die, we have to die.
And when will we die? We don't know. The time of our death is utterly uncertain.
At the time of death, we need to leave everything behind. Our friends, our family, our relatives, all our hard-earned possessions, even this body that we love so dearly, we have to separate from it.
So what will actually accompany us at that very time?
So what will follow us is only the... either the good karma that we have accumulated while we were alive or the negative karma that we have accumulated.
And the working of karma, cause, and effect is infallible. And we cannot cheat it. We cannot deceive it.
So even Arhats and the Buddhas, they still experience karma, the ripening of karma, residual karma that they still have to experience. For instance, when the Buddha passed into Nirvana, it says that the cause of his passing, of his death, was either a thorn from sandalwood that pierced his leg or food poisoning. But whatever it may have been, in fact it was his residual karma that the Buddha still had to purify that caused his death. And the same also for Arhats. They still also... they experience residual karma and have to purify it.
So therefore Mipham Rinpoche continues to say that if beings like the Buddha and Arhats have to experience karma, then it's needless to mention that we, we ordinary beings, that we have to experience our karma, the ripening of our karma.
So although karma, cause, and effect works in an infallible way, there are so few in this world who engage in virtuous deeds and so many that do what is non-virtuous.
If you create a lot of negative deeds and engage in a lot of negative deeds, then the result of that will be rebirth in the lower realms.
If you engage in a lot of virtuous deeds while not embracing these virtuous deeds with bodhicitta, these virtuous deeds will propel you to take birth in the higher realms. But even though you may take birth in the higher realms, there's a lot of suffering that you will have to experience there, especially the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death.
So in this world, for instance, there are so many different types of human beings. Some are extremely wealthy, they have everything, what they can, what they wish for, while others have hardly anything, hardly any clothes, nothing to eat. So there is this stark difference between human beings. But even though some may have everything and some not, all of them have something in common. And what they have in common is that kind of sense of dissatisfaction, discontentment.
In fact, it is sometimes the case that if the individuals are so wealthy, so extremely wealthy, that they experience so much more dissatisfaction and pain and suffering and distress than people who have hardly anything. Because if you have hardly anything and then you suddenly get a warm meal, something good to eat and drink, you feel satisfied and you feel happy. But the individuals who have so much, they feel so... there's so much fear in their mind and so much dissatisfaction, so much discontentment.
So in short, we human beings, while not wanting to suffer, we constantly produce future causes of suffering and in this way our life becomes extremely miserable and painful.
If we want to use an example for samsara, it's just like a fire pit.
Or like a, like a, like a... a nest full of poisonous snakes.
Or an island filled with demons.
Now imagine that we again and again get born in such a horrible place. Again and again we circle around in samsara.
So we circle within samsara like a fire bird where it knows no end. And what needs to happen so that we sentient beings, we become liberated from our endless pain and suffering? So who is it that can protect us? Who is it that can help us? And as Rinpoche already pointed out so clearly today, it is the unsurpassed Buddha that can help us. It is the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma that can protect us. It is the sangha, the unsurpassed sangha that can guide us out of this misery.
So in the commentary it says you need to really, with one pointed confidence, decide that there is no greater object of refuge than the Buddha, the Dharma and the sangha. And then fully entrust yourself to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And focusing your mind on the awakened body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, you then train in the practices of samatha and vipassanā. And doing so will enable you to awaken, to become an enlightened Buddha.
So as mentioned before, before we begin with the Buddha Shakyamuni practice, it is important to give rise to a faith, a faith that knows its own reason. And having developed this very type of faith, you then train in the yoga, the practice of Buddha Shakyamuni. If you do so, then your practice will become very meaningful and powerful. So below, in the commentary now, what is explained are the qualities, the enlightened qualities of the Buddha. And tomorrow, if everything goes well, I would like to get into them.
Just a brief, some kind, about what means Buddha, and about what I am telling you, we call you a Buddha.
Specifically, who really want to practice Buddha Shakyamuni sādhanā. And you need to see his image all the time. And you really do not understand very well. Sometimes you get bored, and sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you think it is too much, this kind... So then, whenever you have some kind hesitations and something, doubt, not comfortable, and that brings disturbance for your meditation. So thereby, you need to set up clear that...
So until the achievement of enlightenment, we need to train in the yoga of Buddha Shakyamuni. That is to say that we need to see the image of the Buddha, visualize the Buddha, really establish a very good communication with the Buddha in this way, with his enlightened body, speech and mind. And what we need to develop is our joy and delight when it comes to the qualities of the Buddha. So when we just merely think of the Buddha or see his form, immediately we should feel joy. And our mind should brighten and become really luminous. Or when we hear about the speech of the Buddha, when we hear anything, any teachings of the Buddha, the same should happen. When we think of the enlightened qualities of his mind, of his awakened mind, again, the same should happen. It should really brighten up our mind. It should make us feel joy. And this joy is that which will really make our practice flourish, deepen and engage, or make us engage in the practice in a very deep way so that it really carries us toward enlightenment.
In short, we need to be our private object.
Anytime you see, you don't have problem. Otherwise, it will be difficult, especially when you do samatha meditation with focus or with object. And then it will be a little more difficult. So I will try to read a little bit for tomorrow for that. Then we try to go in a text. Yeah. So I don't want to spend too much time for this.
So one or two questions?
Okay, thank you, Lama Tenzin. Very, very, very wonderful. I never heard that the Buddha had residual karma. I thought a Buddha had purified all negativities and even the, what do you call it, even the imprints of the negativities. So I have a question about that.
So according to the Theravada system, the Buddha had some residual karma. And this is what was explained here? So because we're talking now karma, then we need to use some variety from Theravada also. Theravada, they claim the Buddha's body is not Buddha. His mind is Buddha.
So for the Theravadas it's only the mind of the Buddha is enlightened, not his body. But the Buddha also clearly said, whoever sees me as a form, whoever sees or perceives me as sound, hears me as sound.
So all of you who do that, you don't really see me. You don't see me at all.
So therefore we need to be very clear when it comes to the Buddha, how to see the Buddha. Sometimes we say Theravada believe like that, but then we are maybe worse than Theravada. So be aware, attentions.
Yeah, one more question.
Yeah, one quick question. Rinpoche mentioned that there are like different paths in Buddhism and according to the capacity we need to choose the path. And the paths are not greater or inferior on their own. But I wonder how do we know which path is best for us. And if it is related with capacity, is the capacity something that we bring by birth or is it something that we cultivate in the process?
So just you take a good look first of all at your own mind and see what you like, what you feel drawn toward. For instance there are some when they hear about the teachings of impermanence then they feel so touched, they feel so really deeply touched by it. When they hear about the practice of guru yoga, they feel deeply touched about the practice of Guru Yoga. And others again feel so inclined to practice samatha meditation. So therefore these are already signs what kind of path that you should really take. But nevertheless like Rinpoche pointed out today, even if you know the whole Kangyur the words of the Buddha by heart, if you are not if you are not accepted by a spiritual teacher... or you do not follow a spiritual teacher, then there is no point. And the spiritual teacher is in fact the one who knows your capacity, who knows your mind and therefore can point out to you which path to take.
So when we talk about the level of enlightenment, the enlightenment itself means that we have to cover a distance. We have to arrive at a certain destination.
And we need to cover the whole distance toward enlightenment, not half, the whole.
For instance in the Nyingma teachings we need to traverse the nine vehicles.
And one single person needs to practice all nine vehicles.
So what we need to practice is in fact the sūtra teachings as well as the tantric teachings.
And this is precisely why we also practice that in the Tara terma of triple excellence.
So from, when practicing the triple excellence the Tara terma of triple excellence then, you are a Vajrayāna practitioner.
But in spite of being a Vajrayāna practitioner you start with the lower vehicles.
So, in short, as Rinpoche pointed out today, the more attentively we listen to the teachings, the greater the teachings will be. Until will feel much more delight and courage and endurance when it comes to teachings us, teaching us, and that this is something that we need to keep in mind.
When we study the teachings or listen to the teachings, it's so important to do so with a proper motivation.
So as Rinpoche mentioned already, we should bring to mind that all sentient beings and myself, we are in the same predicament. We all want to be happy and we don't want to suffer.
So you really think very well about your own needs and then understand that others are just like you.
And when looking at others, I realized that there are so many of them that think, that believe, that the cause of suffering is in fact happiness. They believe what will make them happy, that this will make them happy, but in fact what they then, what it in fact is, is just a cause for future suffering.
So if I were in their place, how would I feel? What will happen?
And then we really sit with that feeling for some time and then the feeling, the intention will come, I must help them.
So in order to truly help them, in order to be able to help them in an authentic way, I must traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis.
And in order to traverse all the stages of the path and the bhūmis, I must get to know the path really well.
And this is precisely why I'm sitting here listening to the teachings.
And immediately I will, I will apply all the teachings that I'm listening to, that I'm listening to, to my own experience. I will integrate them in my own personal practice.
Not only will I practice them immediately, I will also perfect them immediately.
If you're able to give rise to such a sincere pure motivation from the core of your heart, then the teachings will be so beneficial, will become so that the act of listening to teachings will become so virtuous, so helpful, so beneficial.
For even to listen with such a pure and strong felt motivation, then so much can happen in short time. It is said that many siddhas appeared in the past, many accomplished masters, by just having completed listening to one set of teachings. So they became enlightened just by listening.
There are many individuals, many individuals have reached enlightenment by just listening to the teachings. For instance, now we are receiving the teachings of the heart of the matter. And at the end of the teachings many, in the past at least, it has happened that many became enlightened.
And there's not so much difference between the individuals of the past and of us right now, no? They were human beings and we are human beings as well.
But their way of thinking perhaps differed from our way of thinking, and this is why we end up with different levels.
On an outward level, we both, all of us, we appear as human beings.
But when looking inwardly, then one is a Buddha, the other is just an ordinary sentient being.
When master is alive, and then we need to focus nicely, listen nice, practice nicely, then we have something we can do, communication with masters. That is not just happy, satisfied, just having cup of tea together, or taking pictures, or having meal, and you feel so lucky. Not only that, that we really need to go more deeper communication. Not just say, oh Rinpoche, I miss you so much, I'm so happy, so glad that I could see now, not only that level kind of communication, we need to go really deeper communication. To go deeper communication, we don't practice, there is not much to say, no? So thereby, masters here still will practice. When you practice, then you understand your level knowledge. When you don't practice, it seems like you know, four mind changing, you know, bodhicitta, you know, you know, samatha, vipassanā, all these things, you feel like you know, but when you really go into your personal experience, then you can understand how much you know. Yeah. Then according to that, you can communicate, and maybe you feel also proud, happy to go see Rinpoche, you know, you have something to discuss with your inner experience. And Rinpoche feels also very happy that whatever I dedicate is really like working, they're using, and so and become somehow student and master communications, getting very positive and very energetic way of relationship. So we are all very lucky. And so today Rinpoche said he's very happy. We, you all are listening very sincerely. So and Rinpoche is different form than yesterday. So tomorrow also will happen, if you guys same mood like today. So please listen very well Dharma teachings.
