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01:17:29
The Buddha, the Dharma,
and the Sangha are the
objects of refuge for
those who seek liberation.
Liberation from what?
From karma, from the
negative emotions, and
from deluded experience.
It is possible for us to be free,
to be free from these things.
And if we are interested in
doing so, then it is important
to regard the Buddha as our
teacher, the one who guides us.
And through relying upon his
guidance, it is possible through practicing
the path of the Dharma to attain the
state of liberation and omniscience.
What topic can we learn that brings us
to the state of liberation and omniscience?
What is the subject of our learning
that can bring us to that result?
Well, it is understanding
about outer perceived objects to
gain an understanding also
of the inner perceiving mind,
and in particular the path that leads to
the state of liberation and omniscience.
This is so important
and this is what is taught
very clearly in the teachings
of the sacred Dharma.
It is also presented in this way.
Do not engage in any negative actions.
Practice virtue perfectly or
excellently and tame your own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas.
These four lines are
something that we should
repeat to ourselves
again and again and again,
bring to mind again and again,
but also apply them in practice.
That's very important because when we do
that, we become real Dharma practitioners.
That's how we become
real Dharma practitioners.
In general, we should
practice and train in these ways.
But one thing that we
can do in particular is
the first thing when we
wake up in the morning,
we can think to ourselves,
okay, I've woken up today and
I'm not going to engage in
any harm at all, all day long.
Do not engage in any evil actions.
So I won't do anything negative
physically, verbally and mentally.
I will refrain from these
kind of negative actions.
And that is actually what's called the karma
of refraining from the ten non-virtues.
And this itself is virtuous because it
cuts the continuity of negative actions.
When we refrain from
the ten non-virtues,
we're cutting the
continuity of negative karma.
And then the opposite of engaging
in negativity is to engage in virtue.
So then we should engage in
virtue as much as we possibly can.
And with this foundation,
then we can practice
shamatha and we
can practice vipassana.
We can train in the practices of the
generation stage and the perfection stage.
And when we have that kind of
foundation, then when we practice
in these ways, our practice
can be authentic and correct.
We become able to
practice, to engage in these
practices in a way that is
authentic and unmistaken.
And when we do this, then over the
years, as years pass by, as months pass by,
even each day, we change, we
train, we change, we transform.
And this is so important to do this, that
our practice actually changes us every day.
We can learn about the transcendent wisdom.
Remember yesterday I
mentioned transcendent wisdom.
This is the wisdom that knows
emptiness and the absence of self.
And through this kind of practice,
training authentically in the Buddha Dharma
and practicing it authentically,
we can come to realize that,
to attain that kind of wisdom or realization
of emptiness in the absence of a self.
This can be presented
in even more profundity
when we talk about
the state of suchness,
which is free from any type of conceptual
elaboration, free from any extreme.
And that kind of view or
understanding realizes that
everything from form up to
and including omniscience,
the state of omniscience, is not
truly established from its own side.
It's not truly real. And this is something
that we can not only understand,
but we can come to experience
directly through practice.
And then we can get
even more into the profound
practice that is taught
in the Vajrayana,
receiving empowerment,
receiving transmission,
receiving instruction,
pith instructions.
In short, then we can, through
this kind of Vajrayana instruction,
come to recognize the nature of mind, that
the nature of mind of all sentient beings
is nothing other than the realization
of the Buddhas of the three times.
This is something that
we can come to realize
through Vajrayana practice,
instruction and practice.
What's the condition that makes it possible
to come to this realization, though?
The condition is avoiding
the ten non-virtues
and practicing the
ten virtuous actions.
And then on top of that training
in Samatha, training in Vipassana,
training in the generation
stage and the perfection stage,
and through the practice of the
generation and the perfection stage,
together with this training in the practice
of recognizing uncompounded luminosity,
which is our basic nature, receiving
empowerment, receiving transmission,
receiving instructions and pith instructions
and putting these into practice.
And we can gain
realization through doing this,
and we know that this is possible
because it has been done before a lot
by many, many yogis,
male and female yogis, have
practiced and gained
accomplishment this way.
Yes, definitely monks and nuns, of course,
but not just monks and nuns, householders.
Male and female householder practitioners
have through practicing diligently
these kind of precious instructions,
attained accomplishment.
They have attained accomplishment. This is
the special quality of the sacred Dharma,
that there are these kind of instructions,
that if we apply them diligently,
we can attain accomplishment
through their practice.
However, not that many people really
practice these kinds of instructions,
and not that many people really
have the interest in the Dharma.
So all of you should really rejoice
in your own interest in the Dharma.
The fact that you're interested in
practice is something so precious.
You should take joy in that.
You should rejoice in that.
You should take delight in the fact
that you're interested in Dharma practice,
something really precious.
Because if we don't
listen to the teachings,
of course we can't
put them into practice.
When we do hear the teachings,
then, because they are true,
because they are genuine and authentic,
the more we hear the Dharma,
the clearer and clearer it becomes.
And the more and more
profound, the more and more detail
we're able to receive and absorb
through hearing the teachings.
And this brings benefit right now,
and it also brings lasting benefit.
When we hear the Dharma, it
just makes sense, because it's true.
It makes sense very naturally, actually.
And when we hear the teachings,
then, and it makes sense to us,
then of course the result is that very
naturally we feel inspired to practice.
We're interested in
taking up the teachings in
practice, and then we
do it, also very naturally,
because it's something
that makes sense to us.
So it's important for us
first to learn the teachings,
because we have to rely
upon the wisdom that arises
through listening and hearing
and learning the Dharma
in order to then apply the
practice of contemplation
and gain the wisdom that arises
through that type of contemplation.
And then we put that
into practice in meditation.
We have heard, then, that all
conditioned things are impermanent,
and that all defiled phenomena are painful.
They're suffering.
And you said already
yesterday that you believe that,
that that makes sense to you.
I shared this with a group of scientists,
and they too said that they
believe that this is the case.
Then we come to the point
that all phenomena are empty,
the emptiness of all phenomena,
emptiness in the absence of self.
The great Master Nagarjuna said,
There is not a single phenomenon
which is not dependently originated,
and therefore there is not a single
phenomenon which is not empty.
He made this kind of
statement about reality,
and we can't really debate
that because it's true.
It's just simply a statement
of fact, a statement of truth.
It's not something that's just true,
but it's something that
we can experience directly.
We can have a direct
experience of that truth.
When it comes to this question of
emptiness in the absence of self,
the absence of self can be
understood and explained
in lots of different ways, in
many different levels of detail.
And this is why it's so important.
It's such an important
topic to learn about.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms. And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing, then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. Meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence. And All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense? I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? and fresh...
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay.
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death.
In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram.
Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'. 'Fah'. I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms. And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing, then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. Meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence. And All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense? I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? and fresh...
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay.
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death.
In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram.
Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'. 'Fah'. I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
17:28
The Buddha, the Dharma,
and the Sangha are the
objects of refuge for
those who seek liberation.
Liberation from what?
From karma, from the
negative emotions, and
from deluded experience.
It is possible for us to be free,
to be free from these things.
And if we are interested in
doing so, then it is important
to regard the Buddha as our
teacher, the one who guides us.
And through relying upon his
guidance, it is possible through practicing
the path of the Dharma to attain the
state of liberation and omniscience.
What topic can we learn that brings us
to the state of liberation and omniscience?
What is the subject of our learning
that can bring us to that result?
Well, it is understanding
about outer perceived objects to
gain an understanding also
of the inner perceiving mind,
and in particular the path that leads to
the state of liberation and omniscience.
This is so important
and this is what is taught
very clearly in the teachings
of the sacred Dharma.
It is also presented in this way.
Do not engage in any negative actions.
Practice virtue perfectly or
excellently and tame your own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas.
These four lines are
something that we should
repeat to ourselves
again and again and again,
bring to mind again and again,
but also apply them in practice.
That's very important because when we do
that, we become real Dharma practitioners.
That's how we become
real Dharma practitioners.
In general, we should
practice and train in these ways.
But one thing that we
can do in particular is
the first thing when we
wake up in the morning,
we can think to ourselves,
okay, I've woken up today and
I'm not going to engage in
any harm at all, all day long.
Do not engage in any evil actions.
So I won't do anything negative
physically, verbally and mentally.
I will refrain from these
kind of negative actions.
And that is actually what's called the karma
of refraining from the ten non-virtues.
And this itself is virtuous because it
cuts the continuity of negative actions.
When we refrain from
the ten non-virtues,
we're cutting the
continuity of negative karma.
And then the opposite of engaging
in negativity is to engage in virtue.
So then we should engage in
virtue as much as we possibly can.
And with this foundation,
then we can practice
shamatha and we
can practice vipassana.
We can train in the practices of the
generation stage and the perfection stage.
And when we have that kind of
foundation, then when we practice
in these ways, our practice
can be authentic and correct.
We become able to
practice, to engage in these
practices in a way that is
authentic and unmistaken.
And when we do this, then over the
years, as years pass by, as months pass by,
even each day, we change, we
train, we change, we transform.
And this is so important to do this, that
our practice actually changes us every day.
We can learn about the transcendent wisdom.
Remember yesterday I
mentioned transcendent wisdom.
This is the wisdom that knows
emptiness and the absence of self.
And through this kind of practice,
training authentically in the Buddha Dharma
and practicing it authentically,
we can come to realize that,
to attain that kind of wisdom or realization
of emptiness in the absence of a self.
This can be presented
in even more profundity
when we talk about
the state of suchness,
which is free from any type of conceptual
elaboration, free from any extreme.
And that kind of view or
understanding realizes that
everything from form up to
and including omniscience,
the state of omniscience, is not
truly established from its own side.
It's not truly real. And this is something
that we can not only understand,
but we can come to experience
directly through practice.
And then we can get
even more into the profound
practice that is taught
in the Vajrayana,
receiving empowerment,
receiving transmission,
receiving instruction,
pith instructions.
In short, then we can, through
this kind of Vajrayana instruction,
come to recognize the nature of mind, that
the nature of mind of all sentient beings
is nothing other than the realization
of the Buddhas of the three times.
This is something that
we can come to realize
through Vajrayana practice,
instruction and practice.
What's the condition that makes it possible
to come to this realization, though?
The condition is avoiding
the ten non-virtues
and practicing the
ten virtuous actions.
And then on top of that training
in Samatha, training in Vipassana,
training in the generation
stage and the perfection stage,
and through the practice of the
generation and the perfection stage,
together with this training in the practice
of recognizing uncompounded luminosity,
which is our basic nature, receiving
empowerment, receiving transmission,
receiving instructions and pith instructions
and putting these into practice.
And we can gain
realization through doing this,
and we know that this is possible
because it has been done before a lot
by many, many yogis,
male and female yogis, have
practiced and gained
accomplishment this way.
Yes, definitely monks and nuns, of course,
but not just monks and nuns, householders.
Male and female householder practitioners
have through practicing diligently
these kind of precious instructions,
attained accomplishment.
They have attained accomplishment. This is
the special quality of the sacred Dharma,
that there are these kind of instructions,
that if we apply them diligently,
we can attain accomplishment
through their practice.
However, not that many people really
practice these kinds of instructions,
and not that many people really
have the interest in the Dharma.
So all of you should really rejoice
in your own interest in the Dharma.
The fact that you're interested in
practice is something so precious.
You should take joy in that.
You should rejoice in that.
You should take delight in the fact
that you're interested in Dharma practice,
something really precious.
Because if we don't
listen to the teachings,
of course we can't
put them into practice.
When we do hear the teachings,
then, because they are true,
because they are genuine and authentic,
the more we hear the Dharma,
the clearer and clearer it becomes.
And the more and more
profound, the more and more detail
we're able to receive and absorb
through hearing the teachings.
And this brings benefit right now,
and it also brings lasting benefit.
When we hear the Dharma, it
just makes sense, because it's true.
It makes sense very naturally, actually.
And when we hear the teachings,
then, and it makes sense to us,
then of course the result is that very
naturally we feel inspired to practice.
We're interested in
taking up the teachings in
practice, and then we
do it, also very naturally,
because it's something
that makes sense to us.
So it's important for us
first to learn the teachings,
because we have to rely
upon the wisdom that arises
through listening and hearing
and learning the Dharma
in order to then apply the
practice of contemplation
and gain the wisdom that arises
through that type of contemplation.
And then we put that
into practice in meditation.
We have heard, then, that all
conditioned things are impermanent,
and that all defiled phenomena are painful.
They're suffering.
And you said already
yesterday that you believe that,
that that makes sense to you.
I shared this with a group of scientists,
and they too said that they
believe that this is the case.
Then we come to the point
that all phenomena are empty,
the emptiness of all phenomena,
emptiness in the absence of self.
The great Master Nagarjuna said,
There is not a single phenomenon
which is not dependently originated,
and therefore there is not a single
phenomenon which is not empty.
He made this kind of
statement about reality,
and we can't really debate
that because it's true.
It's just simply a statement
of fact, a statement of truth.
It's not something that's just true,
but it's something that
we can experience directly.
We can have a direct
experience of that truth.
When it comes to this question of
emptiness in the absence of self,
the absence of self can be
understood and explained
in lots of different ways, in
many different levels of detail.
And this is why it's so important.
It's such an important
topic to learn about.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms. And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing, then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. Meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence. And All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense? I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? and fresh...
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay.
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death.
In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram.
Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'. 'Fah'. I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms. And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing, then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. Meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence. And All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense? I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? and fresh...
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay.
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death.
In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram.
Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'. 'Fah'. I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
Video
Audio
57:08
The Buddha, the Dharma,
and the Sangha are the
objects of refuge for
those who seek liberation.
Liberation from what?
From karma, from the
negative emotions, and
from deluded experience.
It is possible for us to be free,
to be free from these things.
And if we are interested in
doing so, then it is important
to regard the Buddha as our
teacher, the one who guides us.
And through relying upon his
guidance, it is possible through practicing
the path of the Dharma to attain the
state of liberation and omniscience.
What topic can we learn that brings us
to the state of liberation and omniscience?
What is the subject of our learning
that can bring us to that result?
Well, it is understanding
about outer perceived objects to
gain an understanding also
of the inner perceiving mind,
and in particular the path that leads to
the state of liberation and omniscience.
This is so important
and this is what is taught
very clearly in the teachings
of the sacred Dharma.
It is also presented in this way.
Do not engage in any negative actions.
Practice virtue perfectly or
excellently and tame your own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas.
These four lines are
something that we should
repeat to ourselves
again and again and again,
bring to mind again and again,
but also apply them in practice.
That's very important because when we do
that, we become real Dharma practitioners.
That's how we become
real Dharma practitioners.
In general, we should
practice and train in these ways.
But one thing that we
can do in particular is
the first thing when we
wake up in the morning,
we can think to ourselves,
okay, I've woken up today and
I'm not going to engage in
any harm at all, all day long.
Do not engage in any evil actions.
So I won't do anything negative
physically, verbally and mentally.
I will refrain from these
kind of negative actions.
And that is actually what's called the karma
of refraining from the ten non-virtues.
And this itself is virtuous because it
cuts the continuity of negative actions.
When we refrain from
the ten non-virtues,
we're cutting the
continuity of negative karma.
And then the opposite of engaging
in negativity is to engage in virtue.
So then we should engage in
virtue as much as we possibly can.
And with this foundation,
then we can practice
shamatha and we
can practice vipassana.
We can train in the practices of the
generation stage and the perfection stage.
And when we have that kind of
foundation, then when we practice
in these ways, our practice
can be authentic and correct.
We become able to
practice, to engage in these
practices in a way that is
authentic and unmistaken.
And when we do this, then over the
years, as years pass by, as months pass by,
even each day, we change, we
train, we change, we transform.
And this is so important to do this, that
our practice actually changes us every day.
We can learn about the transcendent wisdom.
Remember yesterday I
mentioned transcendent wisdom.
This is the wisdom that knows
emptiness and the absence of self.
And through this kind of practice,
training authentically in the Buddha Dharma
and practicing it authentically,
we can come to realize that,
to attain that kind of wisdom or realization
of emptiness in the absence of a self.
This can be presented
in even more profundity
when we talk about
the state of suchness,
which is free from any type of conceptual
elaboration, free from any extreme.
And that kind of view or
understanding realizes that
everything from form up to
and including omniscience,
the state of omniscience, is not
truly established from its own side.
It's not truly real. And this is something
that we can not only understand,
but we can come to experience
directly through practice.
And then we can get
even more into the profound
practice that is taught
in the Vajrayana,
receiving empowerment,
receiving transmission,
receiving instruction,
pith instructions.
In short, then we can, through
this kind of Vajrayana instruction,
come to recognize the nature of mind, that
the nature of mind of all sentient beings
is nothing other than the realization
of the Buddhas of the three times.
This is something that
we can come to realize
through Vajrayana practice,
instruction and practice.
What's the condition that makes it possible
to come to this realization, though?
The condition is avoiding
the ten non-virtues
and practicing the
ten virtuous actions.
And then on top of that training
in Samatha, training in Vipassana,
training in the generation
stage and the perfection stage,
and through the practice of the
generation and the perfection stage,
together with this training in the practice
of recognizing uncompounded luminosity,
which is our basic nature, receiving
empowerment, receiving transmission,
receiving instructions and pith instructions
and putting these into practice.
And we can gain
realization through doing this,
and we know that this is possible
because it has been done before a lot
by many, many yogis,
male and female yogis, have
practiced and gained
accomplishment this way.
Yes, definitely monks and nuns, of course,
but not just monks and nuns, householders.
Male and female householder practitioners
have through practicing diligently
these kind of precious instructions,
attained accomplishment.
They have attained accomplishment. This is
the special quality of the sacred Dharma,
that there are these kind of instructions,
that if we apply them diligently,
we can attain accomplishment
through their practice.
However, not that many people really
practice these kinds of instructions,
and not that many people really
have the interest in the Dharma.
So all of you should really rejoice
in your own interest in the Dharma.
The fact that you're interested in
practice is something so precious.
You should take joy in that.
You should rejoice in that.
You should take delight in the fact
that you're interested in Dharma practice,
something really precious.
Because if we don't
listen to the teachings,
of course we can't
put them into practice.
When we do hear the teachings,
then, because they are true,
because they are genuine and authentic,
the more we hear the Dharma,
the clearer and clearer it becomes.
And the more and more
profound, the more and more detail
we're able to receive and absorb
through hearing the teachings.
And this brings benefit right now,
and it also brings lasting benefit.
When we hear the Dharma, it
just makes sense, because it's true.
It makes sense very naturally, actually.
And when we hear the teachings,
then, and it makes sense to us,
then of course the result is that very
naturally we feel inspired to practice.
We're interested in
taking up the teachings in
practice, and then we
do it, also very naturally,
because it's something
that makes sense to us.
So it's important for us
first to learn the teachings,
because we have to rely
upon the wisdom that arises
through listening and hearing
and learning the Dharma
in order to then apply the
practice of contemplation
and gain the wisdom that arises
through that type of contemplation.
And then we put that
into practice in meditation.
We have heard, then, that all
conditioned things are impermanent,
and that all defiled phenomena are painful.
They're suffering.
And you said already
yesterday that you believe that,
that that makes sense to you.
I shared this with a group of scientists,
and they too said that they
believe that this is the case.
Then we come to the point
that all phenomena are empty,
the emptiness of all phenomena,
emptiness in the absence of self.
The great Master Nagarjuna said,
There is not a single phenomenon
which is not dependently originated,
and therefore there is not a single
phenomenon which is not empty.
He made this kind of
statement about reality,
and we can't really debate
that because it's true.
It's just simply a statement
of fact, a statement of truth.
It's not something that's just true,
but it's something that
we can experience directly.
We can have a direct
experience of that truth.
When it comes to this question of
emptiness in the absence of self,
the absence of self can be
understood and explained
in lots of different ways, in
many different levels of detail.
And this is why it's so important.
It's such an important
topic to learn about.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms.
And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing,
then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence.
All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense?
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion
and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay. I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? I'm fresh. and fresh...
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death. In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram. Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'.
I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms.
And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing,
then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence.
All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense?
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion
and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay. I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? I'm fresh. and fresh...
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death. In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram. Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'.
I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
17:25
The Buddha, the Dharma,
and the Sangha are the
objects of refuge for
those who seek liberation.
Liberation from what?
From karma, from the
negative emotions, and
from deluded experience.
It is possible for us to be free,
to be free from these things.
And if we are interested in
doing so, then it is important
to regard the Buddha as our
teacher, the one who guides us.
And through relying upon his
guidance, it is possible through practicing
the path of the Dharma to attain the
state of liberation and omniscience.
What topic can we learn that brings us
to the state of liberation and omniscience?
What is the subject of our learning
that can bring us to that result?
Well, it is understanding
about outer perceived objects to
gain an understanding also
of the inner perceiving mind,
and in particular the path that leads to
the state of liberation and omniscience.
This is so important
and this is what is taught
very clearly in the teachings
of the sacred Dharma.
It is also presented in this way.
Do not engage in any negative actions.
Practice virtue perfectly or
excellently and tame your own mind.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas.
These four lines are
something that we should
repeat to ourselves
again and again and again,
bring to mind again and again,
but also apply them in practice.
That's very important because when we do
that, we become real Dharma practitioners.
That's how we become
real Dharma practitioners.
In general, we should
practice and train in these ways.
But one thing that we
can do in particular is
the first thing when we
wake up in the morning,
we can think to ourselves,
okay, I've woken up today and
I'm not going to engage in
any harm at all, all day long.
Do not engage in any evil actions.
So I won't do anything negative
physically, verbally and mentally.
I will refrain from these
kind of negative actions.
And that is actually what's called the karma
of refraining from the ten non-virtues.
And this itself is virtuous because it
cuts the continuity of negative actions.
When we refrain from
the ten non-virtues,
we're cutting the
continuity of negative karma.
And then the opposite of engaging
in negativity is to engage in virtue.
So then we should engage in
virtue as much as we possibly can.
And with this foundation,
then we can practice
shamatha and we
can practice vipassana.
We can train in the practices of the
generation stage and the perfection stage.
And when we have that kind of
foundation, then when we practice
in these ways, our practice
can be authentic and correct.
We become able to
practice, to engage in these
practices in a way that is
authentic and unmistaken.
And when we do this, then over the
years, as years pass by, as months pass by,
even each day, we change, we
train, we change, we transform.
And this is so important to do this, that
our practice actually changes us every day.
We can learn about the transcendent wisdom.
Remember yesterday I
mentioned transcendent wisdom.
This is the wisdom that knows
emptiness and the absence of self.
And through this kind of practice,
training authentically in the Buddha Dharma
and practicing it authentically,
we can come to realize that,
to attain that kind of wisdom or realization
of emptiness in the absence of a self.
This can be presented
in even more profundity
when we talk about
the state of suchness,
which is free from any type of conceptual
elaboration, free from any extreme.
And that kind of view or
understanding realizes that
everything from form up to
and including omniscience,
the state of omniscience, is not
truly established from its own side.
It's not truly real. And this is something
that we can not only understand,
but we can come to experience
directly through practice.
And then we can get
even more into the profound
practice that is taught
in the Vajrayana,
receiving empowerment,
receiving transmission,
receiving instruction,
pith instructions.
In short, then we can, through
this kind of Vajrayana instruction,
come to recognize the nature of mind, that
the nature of mind of all sentient beings
is nothing other than the realization
of the Buddhas of the three times.
This is something that
we can come to realize
through Vajrayana practice,
instruction and practice.
What's the condition that makes it possible
to come to this realization, though?
The condition is avoiding
the ten non-virtues
and practicing the
ten virtuous actions.
And then on top of that training
in Samatha, training in Vipassana,
training in the generation
stage and the perfection stage,
and through the practice of the
generation and the perfection stage,
together with this training in the practice
of recognizing uncompounded luminosity,
which is our basic nature, receiving
empowerment, receiving transmission,
receiving instructions and pith instructions
and putting these into practice.
And we can gain
realization through doing this,
and we know that this is possible
because it has been done before a lot
by many, many yogis,
male and female yogis, have
practiced and gained
accomplishment this way.
Yes, definitely monks and nuns, of course,
but not just monks and nuns, householders.
Male and female householder practitioners
have through practicing diligently
these kind of precious instructions,
attained accomplishment.
They have attained accomplishment. This is
the special quality of the sacred Dharma,
that there are these kind of instructions,
that if we apply them diligently,
we can attain accomplishment
through their practice.
However, not that many people really
practice these kinds of instructions,
and not that many people really
have the interest in the Dharma.
So all of you should really rejoice
in your own interest in the Dharma.
The fact that you're interested in
practice is something so precious.
You should take joy in that.
You should rejoice in that.
You should take delight in the fact
that you're interested in Dharma practice,
something really precious.
Because if we don't
listen to the teachings,
of course we can't
put them into practice.
When we do hear the teachings,
then, because they are true,
because they are genuine and authentic,
the more we hear the Dharma,
the clearer and clearer it becomes.
And the more and more
profound, the more and more detail
we're able to receive and absorb
through hearing the teachings.
And this brings benefit right now,
and it also brings lasting benefit.
When we hear the Dharma, it
just makes sense, because it's true.
It makes sense very naturally, actually.
And when we hear the teachings,
then, and it makes sense to us,
then of course the result is that very
naturally we feel inspired to practice.
We're interested in
taking up the teachings in
practice, and then we
do it, also very naturally,
because it's something
that makes sense to us.
So it's important for us
first to learn the teachings,
because we have to rely
upon the wisdom that arises
through listening and hearing
and learning the Dharma
in order to then apply the
practice of contemplation
and gain the wisdom that arises
through that type of contemplation.
And then we put that
into practice in meditation.
We have heard, then, that all
conditioned things are impermanent,
and that all defiled phenomena are painful.
They're suffering.
And you said already
yesterday that you believe that,
that that makes sense to you.
I shared this with a group of scientists,
and they too said that they
believe that this is the case.
Then we come to the point
that all phenomena are empty,
the emptiness of all phenomena,
emptiness in the absence of self.
The great Master Nagarjuna said,
There is not a single phenomenon
which is not dependently originated,
and therefore there is not a single
phenomenon which is not empty.
He made this kind of
statement about reality,
and we can't really debate
that because it's true.
It's just simply a statement
of fact, a statement of truth.
It's not something that's just true,
but it's something that
we can experience directly.
We can have a direct
experience of that truth.
When it comes to this question of
emptiness in the absence of self,
the absence of self can be
understood and explained
in lots of different ways, in
many different levels of detail.
And this is why it's so important.
It's such an important
topic to learn about.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms.
And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing,
then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence.
All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense?
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion
and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay. I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? I'm fresh. and fresh...
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death. In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram. Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'.
I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
The sacred Dharma, within the teachings of the sacred Dharma, the Buddha Dharma, it is taught that there is karmic cause and effect. There is such a thing as karmic cause and effect. It's unfailing. And as Buddhists, we accept that there are past lives and future lives. We accept these as true. We accept that there are the three lower realms, and there are the three higher realms, among which is the realm of the gods. We accept that there are pure realms, many, many different pure realms.
And according to the Buddha Dharma, if we engage in the ten non-virtues because we trust and believe that karmic causality is real and unfailing,
then if we avoid the ten non-virtues, what's the benefit? What does it help? How does it help us to avoid the ten non-virtues? Well, the benefit of avoiding the ten non-virtues is that we will not be reborn in the three lower realms. We can be sure that we won't take rebirth in the lower realms when we avoid engaging in the ten non-virtues. And that's because there's no other thing that would cause us to be reborn in the lower realms apart from our own actions. And if our own actions are not non-virtuous, if we are avoiding the ten non-virtues, then we can be sure. We will not be born as a hell-being. We will not be born as a hungry spirit, a Preta. We will not be reborn in the animal realm. And so that is for sure. If you refrain from engaging in the ten non-virtues, you will not be reborn in the three lower realms. If we engage in the ten virtues, the ten virtuous actions, then the result of that is to be reborn in the higher realms.
If you do not avoid the ten non-virtues, if you continue to engage in the ten non-virtues actions, and then while doing so you meditate on the deity and recite some mantra and do some meditation, and then you say, Yeah, I'm not going to the lower realms because I'm doing meditation and reciting mantra and, you know, practicing the deity. Difficult to feel conviction about that fact, right? Because it's not enough to do those things actually. It's not enough just to visualize the deity and recite mantra and practice meditation. You have to stop engaging in non-virtues actions. That's what actually closes the door to the three lower realms. Because, you know, interdependence is unfailing. Karmic causality is unfailing. So if we're engaging in non-virtues actions, the result is going to be rebirth in the lower realms. And so through avoiding the ten non-virtues, we can truly close the door to that rebirth in the lower realms. It's very important to do so. Then the instruction is engage in virtue, right? So physically, verbally and mentally engage in virtue. This brings about rebirth in the higher realms as a god, a demigod or a human being. If on top of that you practice shamatha and vipassana, there's worldly forms of these kind of practices and transcendent forms of these practices. So actually the word maybe is the same, shamatha-vipassana, but if we talk about it in terms of a worldly form of these kind of practices, it is actually possible to attain the highest states within samsara, the very pinnacle of samsara within the formless realms. We talk about these four states of limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither existence nor non-existence. The pinnacle, the summit of samsara, you can arrive at those states by avoiding the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten non-virtues, practicing the ten virtues, and practicing shamatha and vipassana in a worldly sense. You can, through those practices, arrive at the highest point within samsara.
Do not engage in any evil deeds, train in virtue in an excellent way, and tame your own mind. We have to get to the point of taming our own mind. And I mentioned already that shamatha and vipassana can be practiced in both a worldly or a transcendent way. If we don't engage in this kind of meditation, this kind of meditation practice, if we only avoid the ten non-virtues and cultivate the ten virtues, it's not possible to arrive at the summit, the pinnacle of samsara. We have to practice meditation if we want to get to the highest states within samsara. Now, there are different ways of practicing meditation. We can talk about general practice, something that's more profound, extremely profound, very, very profound. There are different levels of practicing meditation. But in short, we can't actually arrive at the pinnacle of samsara without training in some kind of meditation practice because of interdependence.
All of this, though, where we end up through our practice is in our own hands because the practice is something that we actually have to apply ourselves. Just taking refuge and praying to the Buddha and making the aspiration and the prayer, please save me from the lower realms. It's not going to work to just pray and ask the Buddha to save you from the lower realms. Please bring me to take rebirth in the higher realms. Just making that kind of prayer is not enough. Just praying, just making offerings, just paying homage, that's not enough. It's important to do that as well. We also have to train in meditation practice because this is what brings us actually to the result of practice. And the result that we obtain through our practice depends on where we set our sights and it depends on the kind of practice that we do. If we're interested in arriving at the highest point within samsara, then if we practice in that way we could. If we're interested in becoming an arhat, getting out of samsara and becoming an arhat, also possible if we train in that way, or becoming a bodhisattva, or attaining the state of perfect unsurpassed awakening. It depends on our practice. It depends on the way that we practice. That actually determines the result that we obtain through practice. So, if we begin with the foundation of avoiding the ten non-virtues, refraining from them, and then taking up their opposite, which is the practice of the ten virtues, then on top of that, then we can do any kind of practice that we want, depending on what result we're interested in achieving. We should of course pray and we should of course request blessings. It is powerful making prayers and we do receive blessings through that. We do need to make offerings. We do need to practice generosity. All of those things are important, but they're just methods. Those are just methods. The most important part is training our mind. And there's different ways of training the mind. There's more subtle ways and more coarse ways of doing the practice of training the mind. One way that's quite well known is practicing shamatha and practicing vipassana. And then in the tantric systems of practice, we can speak about the practice of the generation stage, the practice of the perfection stage. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a practice together that is actually a training in both the generation and the perfection stage together as a unity. This kind of practice, if you know the key points, that's how it is with Dharma practice, if you know the key points, then you can be really skilled in practicing effectively and gaining very quickly the result that comes from that practice. So if you really know the key points for practicing well, then when we practice, we can reduce the flaws of our body, speech and mind, all of the faults and flaws that are present physically, verbally and mentally can be reduced. And that is what we call purifying obscurations. It's another word for that, purifying our obscurations. And then if we engage in physical, verbal and mental virtue, then again we are creating the conditions that make it naturally easy for us to take up the practice of the ten virtues and the conditions that make it very naturally easy for us to avoid the ten non-virtues. So this is what happens when we train in this way and when that happens, then again the wisdom that arises through listening to the teachings and contemplating them then unfolds more naturally in our mind. We can train in the practice of the generation stage and the perfection stage, also shamatha and vipassana. And when we practice in these ways, then it's not so difficult for experience and realization to arise within our mindstream. That is what happens when we practice the Dharma in these authentic ways. That's why it's so important to know the Dharma generally but in particular to know the key points of practice because when we apply those key points of practice, we're really able to practice in an authentic way so that we do get the result, we do gain experience and realization. Yesterday I talked a little bit about taking refuge and the reasons why we take refuge and the importance of taking refuge and also about bodhichitta. Likewise, the reasons for generating, cultivating the awakened attitude of bodhichitta and the purpose for doing so. We talked about how important it is to remember impermanence again and again and again, to meditate on impermanence. And the reason why this is so important is because if we really contemplate the fact of impermanence repeatedly, then our fixation that things are going to last starts to fall away. And when there is not so much fixation that things are going to last, then that because the idea that this will last is also related to the idea that this is real, when we reduce our fixation on things as being somehow permanent or lasting, then that naturally reduces our fixation on them as being real. And in this way then we are able to practice very genuinely, authentically. So we can talk about this is kind of like a common or ordinary form of knowing or learning wisdom. But there is also transcendent wisdom and great wisdom which I mentioned as well yesterday, right? And in this way, the way of training in this kind of wisdom is just like Nagarjuna said to contemplate the fact that if conditioned phenomena are not truly established then how could the unconditioned be truly established? So that's something that is not as easy perhaps to make sense of, right? We can accept pretty easily, yes, conditioned things are impermanent. That's easier to accept. But to accept that they're not real, it's a little bit more difficult, right? It's easier to say, yes, these conditioned things are just mere atoms. That's easier, but more difficult to say even atoms aren't truly established, even the tiniest particle isn't. So in this way then we come to the statement if conditioned things are not truly established how could the unconditioned be? It also cannot be truly established. So because there are these different ways and levels of detail of understanding the Dharma, it is taught that it is very useful and beneficial to engage in the Dharma step by step actually to enter into each of the vehicles of the Dharma step by step, gradually.
Make sense?
If we look at ordinary worldly experiences with great wisdom then we see that they are like a dream, like an illusion or like a rainbow in the sky. A dream isn't real, right? And so when we dream something once we know that it's a dream then no matter how good or how bad the dream it doesn't really cause us to feel so much happiness or sadness because we're aware that was just a dream. So it doesn't affect us that much, right? Or if there's an illusion, someone's doing an illusion or a magic trick or something and we know that it's an illusion then no matter how nice it is, we just know it doesn't affect our mind that much because we know it's an illusion. We know that it's illusory and therefore not real. Same with a rainbow. A very beautiful rainbow might appear in the sky and we feel that's really nice but we're aware from the start it's going to vanish. That's what rainbows do. We are aware that the illusion is also going to vanish. We're aware that a dream goes away. It doesn't last. It vanishes. And that means that we don't get so caught up in those things. We don't get so attached because we're aware. Oh, it's just a dream. It's just an illusion. It's just a rainbow. It's not going to last. So actually if we have that kind of perception with respect to all of this which appears to us right now from the perspective of great wisdom all of this too is just like a dream, like a rainbow, like an illusion. And the benefit of acknowledging that with respect to these things that appear to us is that when we acknowledge that they are just illusory when we don't fixate on them so strongly as being lasting and as being real the result is that our negative emotions are reduced. Because when we do fixate all of this is going to last, all of this is real then all that does is cause a proliferation of negative emotions. I like this. I don't like this. I don't care. One after the next. One after the next. And we get so caught up in that kind of afflictive emotion
and everything is somehow not okay. If it's there, if I have this it's not okay, if I don't have this it's not okay. Nothing is quite right ever. It's never right. It's never okay somehow to us when we're caught up in that kind of perception, fixation. It's never okay. There's always something wrong. Why? It's because of our fixation on things as being lasting and real that we never feel quite okay. I think all of you, that teaching touches your heart very deeply. How quiet. Check. Very quiet. Very calm. How kind all of you (are with) each other. How clear your mind. So, this is the effect of Dharma. A result of listening Dharma. A result of practicing Dharma. When we listen Dharma teaching, what kind of effect? Less negative emotion. More weak, more aware. It changes.
The more you hear the Dharma, the more peaceful and tame you become. And the more you practice the Dharma, the fewer and fewer afflictive emotions you experience. And you know that, right? Because you experience that.
That means that you've gotten a result from listening to the Dharma. And you have obtained a result from practicing.
It's a group, unknown people together. Different belief, different nation, different culture, different language in one place. Quite like this. It's not easy.
Even if we pay a lot of money, say, please be quiet. It's not working. Even by law, if we punish, it's still not working.
Among of sentients, the worst is the human's mind. It's so difficult to tame.
And sometimes humans are so smart. If they go to the right direction, humans get enlightened. If human mind goes to the wrong direction, it's the devil. Devil is wrong. Only humans, animals will never become devil.
The real devil is humans, right? Humans. If human go mind very, very screwed up, terribly screwed up, one human can harm countless, countless other humans. If one human, if mind go to positive, one human can help and serve countless. Any animal cannot do that. Any other sentient has no power like that. Human has...
Human's life is... Human mind is... If go the right direction, enlightened. Bad direction, oh, so harmful. So I'm very happy, I feel these days is very worth it, to traveling here, there, teaching and making Dharma a center. And now I feel the result is really coming very fast. Result is the calmness. Result is kindness.
And result is really caring, loving, respecting each other.
Different, different, different background. Maybe some of you need translator even.
Different language.
So, believe me, we all very success and we all going right journey. I think I'm leading.
I'm leading quite good. He's lawyer, he also, Lama, did three year retreat he know me 42 years ago. So he always watching me, what he doing, what he saying. Is he a good teacher or no? Check, check, check, check. Finally, finally he think, okay, I obey.
Because lawyer, lawyer is training different.
White or black? There's no middle. Need to be white, is white. Black is black. Mix, no makes sense.
Okay.
If we look... After, after, after this we'll break, okay? I'm fresh. and fresh...
But if on the other hand, we can look at all of this and think, it's just like a dream, it's just like an illusion, it's like a rainbow in the sky, not going to last, not truly there, then what happens to our mind? We really can relax a lot more. We feel so much ease. When we can relate to our experiences like that, and when our mind has that kind of ease, our body also relaxes and feels so much more ease. And this is why it's so important actually for us to contemplate impermanence and the lack of reality of all of this. It's because it brings ease to our body and to our mind. On the one hand, it's reasonable to do this because it's a fact. It's just true that actually all of this is impermanent and unreal. But on the other hand, the other reason why it makes sense to contemplate this again and again is because it transforms us. It changes our mind for the better. Because when we contemplate that, we actually experience a transformation. Otherwise, if we just think to ourselves and have some kind of logic understanding, yes, yes, all of this is impermanent. I know, I got it. Logically, it makes sense that it is. Or logically, it makes sense that this is unreal. That doesn't actually bring about as much of a transformation as if we really meditate on it. That's why it's taught meditate on impermanence. Really meditate on this. Contemplate this again and again and again. The benefit of that is that it changes us.
Okay. I have one experience. Around 15 years ago, I'm in Malaysia, and then the visitors keep coming. And one lady came, and she has a baby, only maybe two years only. Then she keep saying, you know, I'm so attached to my baby. So what to do? I says, oh, what kind of attached? So much attached. Then she talking about how she love the baby, how she like the baby. At the same time, she's squishing. She's squishing. I love, I love, I miss her. Becoming blue. Extremely painful for me. I said, relax, relax! More more (squeezing). We need to ask doctor to come. So mind goes very strange. Love, in the name of love, sometimes attachment. It suffer so much. So, for that reason, detachment is extremely important. Healer. You can have whatever you want, You can have okay. You can enjoy. I like to enjoy good things. But I know impermanent. I learned that. So when the earthquake came, I checked myself, okay. Is everybody okay? Is everybody okay? Then they say, oh, so sorry, your cups, pots, your past lives, past lives cups, this, that. I like those kind of tiny, tiny things. Then I laugh. Then my monks looking very funny to me. I say, oh, this is no. That time I need to handle. No pain, no sad.
All phenomena appear, but they're not truly established. They're not truly existent. And that's just how they are. They really are that way. If you really investigate, are they that way or are they not that way, then the conclusion, the inevitable conclusion is, yes, that is how things are. That is how phenomena are. They appear, but they don't really exist. It makes sense if you investigate. If we don't come to that conclusion, it's just because we haven't checked. It's just because we haven't really looked into it. And scientists investigate, they come to that conclusion. Buddhists investigate, we also come to the same conclusion. And since we're both investigators, scientists and Buddhists, it's good actually to have some kind of dialogue between science and Buddhism. It's important for us to recall impermanence. All phenomena arise from causes. Those causes were taught by the Tathagata. He also taught the way to bring those causes to an end. This is the teaching of the great sage. All conditioned things are like a shooting star, an optical illusion, a flickering lamp, a bubble on the surface of water, a dew drop, a flash of lightning or cloud. Think of all conditioned things, reflect on all conditioned things as being like this. And if we do that, actually, if we really meditate on this again and again and again, what happens is that our fixation to these things as being lasting and our fixation to everything around us as being somehow real is reduced. And what happens when that fixation starts to fall away is that we naturally behave kindly. We avoid the ten non-virtues and we practice the ten virtues very naturally, effortlessly. And that brings about also very natural surge of bodhichitta, this kind of attitude, because we see that all suffering comes from attachment. We see that the suffering of all beings comes from their attachment to all of these things as being somehow lasting and real. And when we see that, when we really see that, there's no choice but to feel compassion. We have no choice. It just happens, not just to people who we like and who care about us, but to even those who perhaps don't like me and I have difficulty with, Still, we naturally, we have no choice but to feel compassion for them because we see that they're in pain. We see that they're suffering and we see that their suffering comes from attachment to things as lasting and real. And so it's so important for us to contemplate actually, that all things are impermanent, all conditioned things are impermanent. This is something that the Buddha taught. It's something that we can establish through logic and reasoning. It's also something that we can receive pith instructions on and meditate on. We have to meditate on this again and again because honestly, unless we are able to really acknowledge that and let go of our attachments and our fixation, you just look around. It's really hard for someone without letting go of that kind of attachment to have even just five minutes where they feel totally relaxed and happy. Just five minutes, right? Just totally at ease, relaxed, happy, all good. Five minutes is hard to find that. It's really difficult and the reason why that's so hard for people is because of attachment. It's because our cleaning, our fixation, our attachment. And once we really know that that's the case, when we really acknowledge that that's true, then we have no choice but to be interested in the Dharma. And once we're interested in the Dharma, then we have no choice not to practice. It's like that.
Then there's no space to doubt. And since this year, I am sort of in dialogued with scientists in Nepal and also in Boston. And one of the scientists that's well known is Francisco Varela. His documentary is available. So I think, I think it's good to show this document.
He was extremely ill when that was recorded, Francisco Varela, on the verge of death. And when talking about the Dharma, mind's nature, he said that there's no other way than this. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think this is good to look. And what it means, what it means. Okay, now short break, and then I will tell one interesting thing. how to, how to, how to, how to be reborn in the pure realms.
If you want to be reborn in Sukhavati, the pure realm of great bliss, how do you do it? Sukhavati is very important. We need to make option one, two, three, four, five. Then very, very wiser mind. It means that. Long,.. what to say? Long term vision. Smart. Today, only, only today! it's dangerous. Only this life. Then what?
People not like to use the words. This is one interesting. Sick and death. In Tibet, the Dharma is really very respected. So, Dharma language is Tibetan language. So there's so much respect to the teachings. So when they see a piece of letter, the words letter is 'na', - sick. 'Shi', is death. When they see that, they put on their head. and put in a nice place. Then they not want to step on, because that is also a teaching. 'Na'. 'Shi'.
The letter 'na', it's a letter of the alphabet, but it means sickness. 'Shi' means death. People have that much respect just for those syllables, because there's a teaching there. In the past, if you see any Dharma text, if no respect, they freak out. They freak out. Why? So much respect. Now changing.
Okay, short break.
Moksha, Mukti, from what? Karma, klesha, bhram. Liberation from what? From karma, from the afflictive emotions and from delusion. Good to, good to learn Sanskrit terminology. That was Sansrkrit, not Tibetan. Dharma knowledge is, Dharma terminology is very beautiful. In this world, the teaching of Buddha, the biggest amount is in what language? Tibetan and Chinese.
Not many in Pali. Not many in Sanskrit. And I keep telling to our translators, one word is so important, Dharma. Pali Dhamma, Sanskrit Dharma. So how to translate?
This is something that we really ought to pay some attention to. Up until now, we haven't figured out how to translate it, right? We just use the Sanskrit word. In India, Saranath, one of the expert Sanskrit professors, he is very expert. So I asked him, we like to translate, the word of Dharma in other languages, like English or German, whatever. Some say the German language is very rich, yes. Then he thinks, he's not saying anything, he just waits. It really took time, I think more than five minutes. Guruji, he says, better not translate.
This is something, yes? But it exists in Tibetan 'Chö', also exists in Chinese. 'Fah'.
I don't know in other language, I don't know. If we say religion it is not matching, spiritual is not right, truth is still not right. What? I don't know. If any of you have a good idea, let me know.
Okay, short break, make fresh and come back.
The Four Seals of the Dharma 3a
Liberation, karma, afflictions, meditation, imperm
Teacher:
Location:
- Gomde Germany-Austria
- Date: September 23, 2023
Description >>
This session emphasizes the importance of practicing the Buddha Dharma to achieve liberation from karma, afflictive emotions, and delusion. It highlights the significance of avoiding the ten non-virtues, engaging in the ten virtues, and practicing meditation, especially shamatha, vipassana, and the Vajrayana stages of generation and perfection. The concept of emptiness, the illusory nature of reality, and the transformative effect of contemplating impermanence are central themes, leading to a reduction in attachment and suffering. By training in these principles and understanding the essence of Dharma, practitioners create the causes for rebirth in higher realms or pure realms and, ultimately, attain liberation or Buddhahood.
