Details
The Four Seals of the Dharma 2b
Teachers:
Collection:
- Foundations of Buddhism
Location:
- Gomde Germany-Austria
Translator:
- Catherine Dalton
Length:
- Full Length Session
Features:
- Subtitles ,
- Transcripts
Excerpt
It highlights the need for authentic transformation in Dharma practice, focusing on the realization of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness as core elements of spiritual development. It emphasizes the importance of altruism, mental discipline, and the ultimate goal of taming the mind to reduce afflictive emotions and achieve genuine accomplishment.
Description
Rinpoche emphasizes that genuine Dharma practice involves the transformation of the mind, rather than mere outward displays of religious activity. The session explains the Four Seals of Dharma, focusing on the importance of realizing impermanence, the nature of suffering, and the absence of self as the essence of learning. Key teachings from Atisha are presented, highlighting the supreme forms of learning, discipline, quality, conduct, pith instruction, and remedy, all of which center on taming the mind, cultivating altruism, and realizing selflessness. By training in these principles, practitioners prepare for death, ensure favorable rebirths, and ultimately aim for awakening, while avoiding the distractions of worldly concerns and superficial practice.
Related Course Info
-
The Four Seals of Dharma
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche guides us through the essential points of the Four Seals of Dharma:
- All Conditioned Things are Impermanent.
- All Defiled Things are Suffering
- All Phenomena Are Empty and Devoid of Self
- Nirvana is Peace
Video
Audio
01:22:02
Thank you so much.
This is the...
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra. Written by...
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow!
No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Than I drink water than your talk... The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
Translator: Degenerate.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change. And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well. And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. Never satisfied, we always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra. Written by...
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow!
No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Than I drink water than your talk... The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
Translator: Degenerate.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change. And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well. And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. Never satisfied, we always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
17:28
Thank you so much.
This is the...
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra. Written by...
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow!
No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Than I drink water than your talk... The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
Translator: Degenerate.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change. And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well. And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. Never satisfied, we always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra. Written by...
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow!
No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Than I drink water than your talk... The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
Translator: Degenerate.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change. And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well. And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. Never satisfied, we always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
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Thank you so much.
This is the...
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra.
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow! No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change.
And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well.
And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart. The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. We always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra.
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow! No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change.
And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well.
And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart. The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. We always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
17:25
Thank you so much.
This is the...
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra.
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow! No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change.
And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well.
And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart. The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. We always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
Bhagawati Prajna Paramitha Hridaya. It is a sutra. Heart Sutra. Heart Sutra.
We want to pray to world peace also in Ukraine and Russia. The war will end, as soon, as possible. Okay, they wrote by hand. Wow, so beautiful. And they bring from their country, from Ukraine, and see me. They came to see me in Vietnam. They came to Vietnam. They got teaching of phowa. Now coming here, so see, how is their devotion. They are not old, but he is not so healthy health. It is very touching, very touching. Thank you so much. We will pray.
Very, very, very touching.
How much they respect, appreciate the words of Buddha Bodhisattva. They wrote by hand. From there, coming here, difficult time, extremely difficult time. Emotionally, economically, one-pointedly. From Ukraine to Vietnam, Russians and the Ukrainians came there, got teaching, huggling each other. It is very touching. Asking us to pray to soon (have) peace, harmony. How beautiful. The problem is this kind of heart, this kind of pure motivation...
The problem is that not many people have that kind of pure motivation. If many people had that kind of pure motivation, our world would be a very peaceful place.
Now we have no time, no right to say, I am following this religion, that religion, I am West, I am East, I am this and that. The world is one. How? It is interdependent. Interdependent now. It cannot survive without connecting each other. So, extremely important to learn the kindness. Kindness is the source of all the goodness. All the goodness will appear from kindness. All the awful, awful will appear from anger. In the family, in the neighbors, wherever you stay, city or in the country, in the world. So, how important. We are very lucky. We have learning and appreciating about the truth.
Why do we recite? We recite sutras, we recite tantras, we recite or chant Vajrayana rituals. Why do we do that? What's the purpose of doing that? It's to transform our mind. That's why. It's to transform our mind. And if we change our mind, if we transform our mind, then that transforms our speech and our actions. The thing is that the mind is the primary factor. The mind is primary, the body and the speech are subsidiary. And if we don't really transform our mind, even if we act physically or verbally in a particular way, that's fake discipline. That's just the veneer of discipline. It's not the real thing, actually, unless the mind has transformed and leads the body and speech into proper actions. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. That our mind is changed through practice. Otherwise, just showing off by practicing, physically doing something, verbally reciting something, then it's all mixed up with pride. It's mixed up with all kinds of afflictive emotions, just showing off. That's just like a child playing. That's not Dharma. That's not the real Dharma. It's something that might look like the Dharma, but it's not, in fact, the genuine Dharma. So, it's really important that we transform our minds. And that's why it's important that we receive explanation on the seven branches and on refuge and Bodhicitta. That's why we recite these practices and bring these practices to mind and do all of this and learn about it. It's so that we can actually transform our minds. And then, once we have taken refuge and generated Bodhicitta and gone through the practice of the seven branches, then we can bring to mind the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, recite their names, remember their excellent qualities, pray to them, and so on. And then, when we practice, we can practice in a genuine way, in a really authentic way. It's important that when it comes to the Dharma, it is taught correctly by the teacher and the student listens to it correctly, because then it becomes real Dharma practice. Then we can practice correctly. Otherwise, if we're just showing off with our actions of body, speech and mind, our so-called study and reflection and meditation, if it's just for the purposes of showing off to someone else that we're doing that, that's dangerous. That's not Dharma practice. We have to do it authentically, bringing about some kind of mental transformation. So again, this is why it's so important for the teacher to explain the seven branches, to explain refuge and Bodhicitta, and for us to really train in those practices. That's why it's important. In this way then, the practice becomes authentic. And it's important for us to be interested in the Dharma, because when we're really interested in the authentic Dharma, then we will learn the Dharma and put it into practice, and then we can get a result from our practice. The result comes when we really actually apply the Dharma in practice. I like to practice meditation because I have a lot of stress and worry and fear. Only there are reasons for meditating? Shallow! No refuge, no Bodhicitta, no dedication, nothing.
Only say, meditate. And if your mind a little calm, then, oh, it's working, it's working. If not, oh, not working. Are you sure this is your fault or the teaching fault? If teaching fault, then you're not getting teaching proper. You need to check.
Otherwise, if we think, Rinpoche said a little bit about this in English, if we think that the whole purpose of meditation is just to feel a little bit happy and relaxed, right? And then we think, great, that's very shallow. And if we don't feel like it's happening, then we somehow blame the teaching or the teacher or someone's fault. What's the purpose of really practicing? What are we really doing here? We, in the best case, we ought to attain accomplishment in this life. That's the best case. We should do that actually. Like the great masters of the past, we can look to their example. Many, many beings attained accomplishment in a single life. If we look to the example of the masters of the past, in their younger years, sometimes they lived an ordinary worldly life and then later in life really took up the practice of the Dharma and attained accomplishment. So this is, in the best case, we too, should attain accomplishment in this very life. That's what we should do. It's said sometimes that, someone who commits a lot of evil deeds can be tamed by the Dharma, but someone who is jaded to the Dharma cannot, cannot be tamed. So, that means if someone engages in a lot of negative deeds, but then they feel real regret and really apply the teachings and practice, then through that incredible regret for their negativity, then they seek out a genuine teacher, meet a genuine teacher, receive the authentic instructions, put them really into practice sincerely, one-pointedly for years and years and years and then attain accomplishment. Actually, some people it only has taken a few years in that kind of circumstance due to their one-pointed practice of the authentic instructions received from a teacher. On the other hand, it could be the case that someone sort of so-called does Dharma practice for their whole life, right? They recite a lot of texts, they look, you know, you look outwardly at that person and it looks like they're a Dharma practitioner, but inside they're not changing, right? They're not clearly distinguishing between virtue and non-virtue and really taking up the practice of virtue, avoiding non-virtue. They outwardly look like they're practicing but inwardly they're not truly mingling the Dharma with their own experience. Maybe they've heard a lot of teachings, maybe they hear a lot of Vajrayana teachings, extremely profound Dharma teachings, but the mind is so hard, so rigid that the teaching doesn't make its way in. And their mind, they don't apply the teaching directly to their experience and so they don't change. This, the example that we give is like a stone, a river stone. A river stone can be in the river for years and years and years and years and years, right? It's wet on the outside all the time, the whole time. You crack it open, the inside is dry. So we have to be very careful not to be like that, right? Not to just hear the Dharma and let it wash over us so that we don't actually change from within. It's really important because such a person cannot achieve accomplishment, does not achieve accomplishment. We don't achieve accomplishment that way. Then, on the other hand, if we do make a distinction between what is virtuous and what is non-virtuous, then through engaging in a lot of virtuous actions, we can take rebirth as a human being or as a God. Someone who engages in a lot of non-virtue is reborn in the lower realms, the three lower realms. Who determines that? We determine that ourselves. Our own actions determine that distinction. It's said that karma brings about all kinds of worlds. Our karma is actually what creates the worlds that we experience. There is a common experience that sentient beings have within a particular world. Like as human beings, we see mountains and houses and fences and we have this shared experience that's due to our shared karma. But the beings in the ocean don't have the same experience that we do, right? They live under water, they live in the ocean, they have a different experience. The shared experience of certain types of sentient beings is common. Each individual has their own experiences within that. But we do have a shared experience with other humans and so on and other types of beings have that as well. In the best case, our Dharma practice should lead us to accomplishment. In this life. And the only way for that to really happen, is to apply the teachings directly to our experience. It's not enough just to hear them, we have to take them to heart, we have to transform. Our mind has to change.
And in the best case, if we really transform and attain accomplishment, that's excellent. If not, at least we have to change a little bit. There has to be some transformation within our mind so we're not the same as we were when we started. And we talk about getting on the path, right? Entering the path of the Dharma. We at least have to do that in this life. That would be good. Because eventually we're going to die, eventually we're going to die. And when we die, again, best case, we attain accomplishment. If not that, then we should be reborn in a pure realm. We should create the circumstances that allow that to be possible. Religious people accept the existence of heavens and hell realms and so on. In the Buddhist teachings we talk about the experience of all of the six classes of beings, living beings. And they're countless, countless sentient beings. So we should, if possible, if not attaining great accomplishment in this lifetime, be able to take rebirth in a pure realm. But if not that, then we need still to have more options. We have to have options, right? At the very least we ought to be reborn as a human in our next life, at the very least. And we don't want to be reborn into a very wealthy family. The reason why is because we get too distracted by outer circumstances and then don't have the opportunity to take up the practice of Dharma. We don't have the interest in Dharma because of being so distracted. So we don't want that, nor do we want to be reborn in a family which is destitute, which is very poor, because then again we don't have the circumstances for Dharma practice, because we just don't have the conditions that make that possible. So somewhere in between. We want to be reborn into a family ideally with parents, a mother and father who are Dharma practitioners, because that means we will immediately get connected with the Dharma. But if not that, it's also okay, as long as we ourselves develop interest in the Dharma. So we should aspire to this, we should really aspire to have this kind of, one of these outcomes of our Dharma practice, to have an interest, be reborn as a human being, have an interest in the Dharma, meet a realized teacher. That's the definition of a genuine teacher, a realized teacher, a teacher who has realization. And receive the excellent pith instructions from that teacher and put them into practice. That should be, we should at least have the aspiration to do this. If in this lifetime we're not able to gain accomplishment, then may it happen in the next, in that way. So we should make these kind of prayers. It's actually really important that we have this kind of intention and aspiration and pray for this. Because, we are going to die, all of us, each one of us is going to die. It's kind of like the worst thing that happens in this life, but it happens, right? All of the experiences of this life just disappear, they're gone. Our body, our family, our wealth, those who are close to us, our loved ones, we have to leave all of them behind in a single instant. This is something that's important to keep in mind, when someone dies who's close to you, if you want to do virtue, to engage in virtue on their behalf, then do it quickly, soon after they die. That's important because the first 49 days after a person's death are the time, it is said, between the moment of death and taking rebirth. Those are really important, the mind, the consciousness is wandering during that time. And in particular the first two weeks are really important. The first two weeks, the first week and the second week after someone dies are a really important time for gathering virtue on their behalf. Sometimes people wait like two or three years after someone has died and then they want to do something virtuous in that person's name. It's a little bit late then, they've already taken rebirth. So, it's really important, if we want to do something like this to benefit someone when they die to do it right away, especially in the first two weeks. Each seven days after death, the person who has died, the being who has died, experiences the moment of dying again. And so this is why on that day, every seven days, we ask the lamas and monks to do practice, to do pujas, to recite the tantras, to read the tantras or to do tantric ritual practices on behalf of someone. That's the reason, why we make that request, because the moment of death is re-experienced each seven days. And this is explained in quite a lot of scriptures, actually. This is mentioned and described there. And again, we should engage in virtuous practices on behalf of someone quickly after they die. If we wait even into the third and fourth week, it can be too late. So it's good to do it right away when someone has passed. The first two weeks are the most important. All of us are going to die. And when we think about how people relate to death, usually people who are about to die, aware that death is coming, start to feel, Oh, I didn't get to do this. I didn't manage to do this. I didn't get that. I didn't accomplish this. I didn't finish that. Very few people who say, I've done what I needed to do. I'm satisfied. It's gone well. Very rare. That someone dies with that kind of feeling. It can happen. And the person who it happens to would be a Dharma practitioner. It can happen for a Dharma practitioner. For a worldly person, people don't die like that. Oh, I feel good. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm satisfied. It all went well. No problem. It's time to go. No problem. Doesn't happen. And so when people don't have that kind of feeling of satisfaction with their accomplishment in this life, then death becomes something that's difficult, that's painful. We feel sad about encountering that moment of death. If we spend our lives like a wild animal chasing a mirage, physically, verbally and mentally chasing one thing after the next, constantly pursuing the next thing, wanting this, wanting that, and so busy our whole lives chasing something that's just a mirage, and then in the end we die, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives that way. And so how can we do that? Well, we can receive Dharma teachings, we can learn the teachings, we can learn what we are hearing and listening to, we can read Dharma texts, and once we have understood something from that instruction and those teachings, then we can practice it. And we ought to practice right away, immediately, actually. It's important to practice the teachings, so that we gain real experience direct personal experience with the dharma. And when that happens, then we really do become a practitioner and our body, our speech and our mind really does follow the Dharma. And then when we really are transformed in this way, it becomes possible for us to practice under any circumstance, whether we are walking around, or sitting down, or eating, or talking, or lying down, then we can practice under any of those kinds of circumstances. And what makes it possible for us to train in this way is really setting our intention on that. Our intentions matter actually. Otherwise, we live just an ordinary worldly life, just like any other ordinary worldly person, who is not a Dharma practitioner and are constantly and only concerned with the things of this life. And it's important that we don't do that, right? An ordinary worldly person is constantly and only concerned with gaining pleasure and wealth and gain and fame and they are happy, if they get those things and they are unhappy if they don't get those things, right? The eight worldly concerns, constantly caught up in those concerns and constantly caught up in hopes, hopes and fears, one after the next. And then in the midst of that hope and fear, life runs out. So, we need to make sure that we don't live our lives like that. And it's important for us to learn these four seals or summaries of the Dharma. The first one is that conditioned things are impermanent, all conditioned things. And we don't have any doubts about that. We already talked about that yesterday, right? We can resolve that point without any doubt. Someone who is a Dharma practitioner should make the prayer, please bless me that I may take death to heart, that I may really take to heart the fact that I'm going to die and remember that. That's so important. We know that we're going to die, but we need to be able to bring the moment of our death onto the path of our Dharma practice. That's really important, to be able to bring the moment of death onto the path. And actually we have a good chance to train in that every single day, because we fall asleep, right? Each time we fall asleep actually is an opportunity to practice the yoga of dying, every time we fall asleep. In the best case, we would die within the state of luminosity. So training in that is training in embracing the sleep state with luminosity. And the way to do that is to practice just like we practice whenever we remain in meditative equipoise. We cut through the fixation of the six sense consciousnesses and remain immersed within the recollection of rigpa, awareness, wakefulness. We remain within that state, in a state that is utterly free from any type of effort. We remain directly within our basic nature. If we can practice like that, if we can gain that recognition, if we can develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability in that recognition, then we have the opportunity, we gain the chance to be able to practice like that also in the sleep state. The example here that we can give for developing the strength of that recognition, like letting rigpa grow up, it's like when a child grows up, right? A child grows up and they become able to function more and more like an adult. It's like that also with our recognition, that the strength of that recognition is developed so that we gain some stability within that. And if we gain real stability within the practice in that way, if we really gain that kind of, develop the strength of that recognition and gain stability, then we can practice under any circumstance, whatever we're doing in our ordinary daily conduct. And then it becomes possible for us also to embrace the sleep state with luminosity, to really practice within the sleep state as well.
And this is actually the best circumstance to be able to train as we fall asleep and then also to die within that state of recognition. This is the best way of dying. So ideally this would be how we pass away. If not, again, we have to have other options. We need a second option and a third option. The second option for training in the yoga of dying as we fall asleep is to recollect all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and then think that my guru, my teacher, is the embodiment of all of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and receive the blessings of the guru's awakened body, speech and mind. Receive those blessings and then mingle our mind together with the guru's mind and have the real confidence, the faith and the confidence that my mind has been mingled indivisibly with the guru's mind. And if we can have that kind of real confidence, then eventually it will become possible for us to actually train in the yoga of luminosity while sleeping. That kind of confidence and training in that practice again and again makes it possible eventually to be able to do this. Some people find that hard to make sense of or hard to believe. So there's other options too. And the next option is to really give rise to genuine compassion, real compassion. In this case it's not necessary to give rise to intense overwhelming compassion because then you couldn't fall asleep. So then just giving rise to genuine compassion, real genuine compassion, and then to sleep within that state as well. At least though we should fall asleep within a state of detachment, not fixating or holding on to our body, our wealth, our enjoyments, letting go of our attachments and then falling asleep within a state of detachment. This is good. Actually even this is powerful. Even this is powerful and beneficial. So please keep this advice, these instructions in your heart. The biggest worry is the water. Water is the most important for all sentient beings. Now water's quality is becoming worse and worse. It becomes Kali Yoga's water. More and more black, more and more polluted, more and more chemical.
We think, oh this is very clean water. What kind of clean water? Clean, that is true. Water is not really fresh, not really natural. Water is dry water, dead water, dead water. Kali Yoga we drink dead water.
So, if water quality is bad, it's very dangerous. No water, terrible suffering. No water means shortage of water, worse than oil.
So, five elements are becoming very, very polluted.
So, the degenerate earth, degenerate water, degenerate fire, degenerate wind, right? All of these things, space, degenerate, you can have degenerate fire, right? The smell of gas smells really bad, no? There's like a, so even that.
Okay, now I will not talk funny things. It's not really funny things, it's connected.
The first of these four seals of the Dharma is that all conditioned things are impermanent. And it's important for us to recollect impermanence, to really bring it to mind and allow us, and let that allow us to feel a sense of weariness with samsara. Because then we will really genuinely learn the Dharma and contemplate it and train in meditation. So it's so important that we really bring to mind impermanence and feel a sense of weariness with samsara. It's extremely important. It's said that the supreme among all footprints is the footprint of an elephant. And just like that, the most important thought for us, the most important notion to hold in mind is that of impermanence. We need to bring to mind that thought. For a Dharma practitioner, someone who is practicing the Dharma, that's something that we have to do again and again and again, bring to mind impermanence. We have to become capable of really taking impermanence seriously. And when it comes to suffering, the suffering of samsara, we need to understand that samsara actually has the very nature of suffering. That's its nature. Samsara is suffering. And where does that come from? It comes from karma and the negative emotions. Everyone who has a mind, all beings who have a mind, engage in karma and get caught up in the afflictive emotions and therefore suffer. We wander in samsara and experience the pain of samsara. The pain of samsara, there's all kinds of suffering that we experience. But it includes birth, aging, sickness and death for human beings. That's our experience of suffering. It includes also having to encounter those who we don't want to be around, being separated from those who we love, not getting what we want and having to deal with things that we don't want to. We all have that kind of suffering. It's inconceivably painful to have to separate from our loved ones, from our parents, from our family, from our friends, from our partners who we deeply love. It's very painful to have to part from them. And yet that is an experience that we all have to undergo. We have the experience of meeting with things that we do not want to encounter. All kinds of things, sickness, obstacles, we meet many different obstacles in our experiences. And things that we don't like, we have to deal with those things. We encounter that, right? And then we don't get what we want. It's so that our wishes, our hopes are like ripples on the surface of the water, just one after the next, after the next, right? And so is our action, we're always doing one thing, one thing after the next, after the next. It's like they never run out, ripples on the surface of the water, they just never run out. Our hopes, our wishes, our desires, they just never run out. We constantly want one thing after the next and our hopes are never fulfilled, we never feel satisfied. We always want something else. So it's painful, that's a painful situation. And also the situation that we all encounter of aging as we get older, it's difficult, right? The clarity of the five sense consciousnesses, the power of this five sense consciousnesses becomes weaker and weaker. Our body becomes bent over. This is something that we all have to be attentive about and careful about as we get older actually. It's very easy because our body is not as strong as it was in the past, it's very easy to slip and fall and get really hurt in that way. So we have to be very careful going up the stairs, going down the stairs, we have to be more careful, right? Particularly attentive as we get older, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, not to slip and fall everywhere actually. This is something that's really, really important to be very mindful and careful to avoid that. Because if we're not, then there's so many people who inadvertently slip and fall and hit, you know, bang up against something. So it's really important. And the reason why this, one reason why this can happen is because of aging. As we get older our bodies, right, they just don't have the strength that they had before. And also we get sick. There's so many types of illness that we have to experience. And death, as I mentioned, right, it's important that we become capable of bringing death onto our Dharma path. We have to be able to do that. And when does Dharma practice help us? It helps us exactly in all of these circumstances, exactly when we meet all of these kind of difficulties, when we're sick, as we get older, in the moment of death. Dharma helps in those moments. Dharma really benefits us in those moments. That is the time when Dharma practice really brings benefit physically for us and mentally. So it's really important. There are many Dharma instructions, but the great Master Atisha gave some that are particularly helpful and applicable. He said, the supreme form of learning is to realize the absence of self. So if we study the Dharma and we become very learned in both sutra and tantra, no matter how learned we become in the sutras and the tantras, that is not true learning. That's not ultimate genuine learning, Atisha says. What is being truly learned? It is realizing the absence of self. Until that point, that's not ultimate learning. Until we get to that point, whatever we have learned is just the veneer of learning. It's just surface level. We just understand the convention, the words. We're learned in the words, but not in the true meaning. So as Atisha said, the genuine supreme form of being learned is to realize the absence of self. And that means that we have to keep training until that happens. We have to really keep practicing the Dharma until that happens, if we're aware that that's the case. The Buddha said, profound, peaceful, simple, luminous and uncompounded. I've discovered a Dharma that is like this. So profound is a reference to precisely this point. The realization of the absence of a self. Peaceful, a reference to the conduct of not harming. Simple, or simplicity, or the absence of elaboration, refers to the practice that is taught in the perfection of wisdom, those teachings. And luminous here is a reference to the nature of mind, the natural state, which is the mind's nature. But here again, what Atisha said is the supreme form of learning is to have realization of the absence of self. So here's what we should think to ourselves. Okay, I'm learning the Dharma. I've understood something. I get it. I made sense of this. But until I really genuinely realize that there is no self, I have to keep going, actually. Because I haven't really gotten the heart of Dharma. I didn't really get to the heart of the Dharma as long as I haven't realized that there is no self, that I don't have a self. So then, if we understand that, that creates a circumstance for us to move forward in the path to the point until we do gain that realization. So it's very important. This point is really important. And then also Atisha said, the supreme form of discipline is to tame your own mind. So how do we tame our mind? We can tame our mind by recalling impermanence. It's very powerful, actually, to remember impermanence is powerful by bringing to mind the fact that none of this is truly real. Acknowledging that. Also through contemplating the lack of cleanliness. Remembering, bringing to mind the 37 impure substances that are present inside the human body. This also is a very effective form of training. And then cultivating the wisdom that acknowledges the absence of a self, that kind of wisdom. It's really important. If we can overcome the four misconceptions that hold onto things as being lasting, real, clean, and that there is a self. If we can overcome those kinds of misconceptions, then we become capable of taming our mind. That is what really tames our mind. And then when we practice shamatha, and when we practice vipassana, the generation stage, the perfection stage, the mahamudra, the great perfection, any of those kinds of practices, we become capable of doing it correctly. So these are really important points. The supreme form of learning is the realization that there is no self. And the supreme form of discipline is taming our own mind.
The supreme good quality. There are different kinds of qualities. Those that we are naturally born with and those that we gain through learning and training. And what's the best one? The best positive quality that we could possibly have. It's an altruistic mind. An altruistic mind. Because when we have altruism, when our mind is like that, when we want to benefit others, then we become capable of benefiting others quite extensively. So the best, the most excellent or supreme positive quality is altruism, an altruistic intention. And that means, though, not just feeling kind towards those who like me and those who I like in this case. It means towards my enemies, it means towards those with whom I am close, and strangers too. Towards everyone having that kind of altruistic intention, kind mind for all of them. And this is actually the basis for bodhisattva activity, to have this kind of altruistic intention. So this is the supreme good quality is to have an altruistic mind. Each of these points are really important. We should really keep them in mind and take them to heart and understand, consider them to be wonderful. But don't just think this is great, then do it actually. Practice, right? We have to put these into practice. The supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. There's a lot of pith instructions, but the most important one is to always look at your mind. Keep your mind as the watchman, watch person, right? Always looking, always looking with the mind. And this is really important, because if we do that to the mind, then that means our physical conduct and our verbal conduct will also be good, will also be correct. We just have to watch the mind because that affects what we do and what we say. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And that means to be mindful, attentive, attentive to what your body, speech and mind are doing. Always check, see what's going on and don't engage in non-virtue. And do engage in beneficial actions, physically, verbally and mentally. So the best, the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your mind. And always means always, from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, all of the time. If at the beginning it may seem difficult to practice during our ordinary daily conduct. But if you think that that's something important to do, if you understand that that's really important, then you will do it. And you will check what's going on with your conduct, with your mind, your body, speech and mind all the time. And then when we become capable of practicing first in meditation, remaining in equipoise during a session, then it becomes possible to practice doing whatever we're doing, whether we're walking around or sitting down or eating or lying down or talking actually. We become capable of practicing in all of those occasions as long as we put our mind on guard. Keep attentive to what's going on with the mind. Then we can practice in any kind of conditions correctly, whatever the practice is, right? Whatever kind of practice we're doing, we become capable of doing that correctly, authentically and in an unmistaken way. So the supreme pith instruction is to always look at your own mind. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing has any true reality, nothing is truly real. That's important actually. And there are different remedies, we talk about remedies, right? In the general vehicle of Buddhist teachings it's said that there are different remedies for the different afflictions, the three poisons. The remedy to attachment is to contemplate the unpleasant nature of the object of our desire. The remedy for our anger is love and compassion. The remedy for confusion or stupidity is to contemplate the twelve links of interdependent origination, both in their forwards and backwards order. The remedy for jealousy is to contemplate the equality of yourself and others and so on. So there are individual remedies for the individual afflictions. But here in this case, in the context of training in the Mahayana practice, it is said that the supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever has any true inherent nature. So this is the way to practice in the Mahayana. And this statement, remember I talked about emptiness and the absence of self, this can be explained in accordance with the general vehicle of Buddhism, it can be explained in accordance with the vehicle of the perfections, right? The Mahayana, it can also be, it must be applied and explained in the context of Vajrayana as well. And as one progresses through the different vehicles, then the explanation of that point, that very same topic is presented with more and more profundity as I mentioned already before. But in this context, in the context of Mahayana, it's presented this way. The supreme remedy is to know that nothing whatsoever is truly established from its own side or truly real. In the Mahayana, it's taught that samsara is a deluded mind, deluded experience, deluded thoughts. Whatever appears to our mind isn't truly established, it doesn't have any real essence. So don't hold on to thoughts of the past nor pursue thinking related to the future. And with respect to what you perceive in the present moment, know that it doesn't have any true existence from its own side. It's free from any type, relate to it free from any type of conceptual elaboration. So this is the way of practicing in the Mahayana. This is the way of understanding emptiness and the absence of self in this context. And what's the result of our practice? Actually, there should be some result that comes from the practice. So what is the sign of accomplishment? Sometimes people say, oh, he has, I see some signs of accomplishment. He must have gained some kind of accomplishment because he's clairvoyant. And he knows other people's minds. Or he has some kind of, you know, he's gained freedom from the, or gained independence with respect to the five elements, right? He's not burned by fire, he doesn't sink underwater, he can fly in the sky. Yeah, that kind of thing can happen. And if we consider that to be a sign of accomplishment, that's actually not the real sign of accomplishment. You can get that from worldly samadhi, from worldly practices. That's not actually a sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context. The sign of real accomplishment in a Buddhist context is what? It's having fewer negative emotions. Having fewer negative emotions, that is the sign of accomplishing in our practice. And when there are no negative emotions, that's the state of awakening. So we'll leave it here today. It's a little bit late already.
Those verses from Atisha, the lines from Atisha, the last one, the final one is that the supreme conduct is to be in discord with worldly beings, different than worldly beings, worldly people. That's the best form of conduct. And actually, in New York recently, I was talking with some of our former monks and nuns, and they said that, you know, those who had been in the past monks and nuns, and then just other men and women who didn't have that experience of practicing in that way, they have really different views and really different ways of engaging in the world. And when they all get together, right, the former monks and former nuns, and then just other people, men and women, then they start out, just like everyone else, talking about this nice thing, and this happened, that happened, whatever kind of conversation. But then gradually, the dharma practitioners, those who had been monks and nuns, eventually the conversation always ends up at the dharma. They eventually come back, somehow they always come to some kind of dharma conversation. And that doesn't happen for the other people who didn't have that kind of background. And so when they go to a party together, or get together to spend some time together, they start out in one conversation, and gradually by the end of the time, the former monks and nuns are in one conversation, and then everybody else is in a different one. And it's not that they do it on purpose. It just happens naturally. That's what they told me recently. It just happens naturally, and that's true actually. Because people, the conduct of a dharma practitioner, a real practitioner, is different. It's different than ordinary people. They say that even they make the tables, and they put, mix, mix. And the sooner or later, they're separate.
They just kind of naturally end up in different spaces. They just all, one group goes to one side and the other to another.
Because, you know, distraction, laziness, carelessness. Somebody who has studied the dharma and contemplated the dharma, they know, right, the flaws that are connected with those ways of behaving. And they understand the positive qualities of not engaging in that. And so they're careful about that. And somebody who's never studied the dharma and has no knowledge whatsoever, then they just naturally do get caught up in distraction, right, and being careless and so on. It just naturally happens, because they don't have that training.
Okay, thank you! It is a little bit late.
