DJKR Teaching - Dudjom Tersar Lung - Bhutan

DJKR Teachings – Dudjom Tersar Lung – Bartsham (Bhutan)

Transcription of Review by Lama Sonam Phuntsok (lightly edited)

Teaching #1 – Wednesday 1^st October 2008 – Guru Yoga

I received this Dudjom Tersar, the series of empowerments from Dudjom Lingpa, twice from HH Dudjom Rinpoche, in Kathmandu and in Bhutan.  However, I didn’t receive the Ka Gyé (8 herukas) or the trekchö instructions (which are included within the Sera Khadro).  I consulted with his father and decided not to give these, and I recommend that you receive these from other masters, e.g. Gyatral Rinpoche.

Guru Yoga is the last part of the ngöndro, but since we have been accumulating the 7 Line Prayer, I’ll teach it first.  We have outer/inner/secret guru:

• Outer = the guru who you see, who you can relate to
• Inner = clarity aspect of your mind
• Secret = emptiness aspect of your mind

So the inner and secret are buddha nature.  In Madhyamika, “guru” is named “emptiness free from elaborations.”  In Uttaratantra and Prajñaparamita, “guru” is named transcendental wisdom, tathagatagarbha or “buddha nature.”  In Vajrayana, “guru” is named Guru Rinpoche, Vajrasattva, and Samantabhadra etc.  All these are referring to the same thing, the nature of mind.

When you practice the 7 Line Prayers, at times you should dissolve the guru into you and remain in that state for a while, and look at that state.  When we say “look”, some people expect to see miracles and light.  Other people say they see “clarity”, but this isn’t from experience – they’re just reciting what they read in a book.  This is of no value.  “Gomchen” means “great meditator” – you have to meditate.  There is no need to speak elegantly of your experience.  For example, one of HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s students, a gomchen, was asked to visualise Guru Rinpoche on a lotus.  But he had never seen a lotus, and there were small yellow flowers outside the cave where he was meditating, so he visualised that.  But Guru Rinpoche’s weight was too great, so he fell backwards and exposed his private parts.  When he told HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche about his experience, he was very happy, as this was a real experience, not something memorised from a book. 

Longchenpa said when you meditate, beginners should do it short and many times, else you will get bored and discouraged if you try to do it for too long at the beginning.  If you do it short and often, then you’ll get used to it, and you can gradually extend the length until you are meditating for a long time.  If you were to drink 15 bottles of alcohol all at once, you’d get sick and never want to look at alcohol again.  But if you drink little by little, then eventually you and the alcohol will become inseparable – you’ll become an alcoholic!

Why do we visualise Guru Rinpoche and not the Buddha?  One of the most important aspects of the view is interdependence, and because of this we have the notion of “karmic link”.  Guru Rinpoche is linked to Bhutan and Tibet, the main domains of his activity.  Shakyamuni didn’t visit Bhutan, but Guru Rinpoche did.  And one of Guru Rinpoche’s 5 main consorts was from Bumthang, so even on an outer level there’s a link.  Guru Rinpoche acts as a mirror for us to look into the nature of our minds. 

Why is Guru Yoga the most important practice?  When you die, you can only take 3 things with you: guru, view and yidam.  What does it mean to bring the view?  At the end of the dissolution of the elements, you reach the Chönyi bardo (the bardo of dharmata), and if you have practiced (the view), you’ll recognise Dharmakaya and become liberated.  But this is very hard, as we’re confused and frightened then.  It’s easier to remember and visualise the yidam if you have practiced, but this is still hard.  Easiest of all is to remember the guru, as you have been with your teacher a lot and you have got used to him.  If someone recites the guru’s name into your ear as you die, you’ll easily remember him.

Supreme & ordinary siddhis: When you recite the 7 Line Prayer, you receive siddhis/blessings.  The main kind of blessing that you should ask for (the supreme siddhi) is enlightenment.  Your main and only aim as a practitioner is to be liberated from karma and emotions and to attain enlightenment, and to attain enlightenment you need to remove the 2 obscurations.  And to remove the 2 obscurations, you need to recognise the nature of mind.  So when you ask for blessings when reciting the 7 Line Prayer, you should ask for Guru Rinpoche’s blessings to recognise the nature of mind.

There are also ordinary siddhis/blessings, of 4 kinds: pacifying, increasing, magnetising and subjugating/wrathful.  When ask to receive these ordinary siddhis, what should we ask for?

• Pacifying: we should ask to pacify karma and emotions, not sickness etc (because once you pacify karma and emotions, then sickness etc are automatically pacified)

• Increasing: we should ask to increase merit and wisdom, nothing else.  You need merit so your practice is good and there are no obstacles to your practice, and you need wisdom to realise the nature of mind.  Who cares if your wealth increases or your lifespan increases?

• Magnetising: magnetise means being under control (in this case).  We need to bring under control our inner wind and our mind (Lung Sem – this will be explained later when we discuss developing and completion meditation).  There’s no need to bring under control worldly sponsors, beautiful girls or anything like that!

• Wrathful: we should ask to subjugate our dualistic perceptions, as that is the root of emotions (and emotions are the root of samsara).  It’s not so that your enemies have an accident!

The above instructions are for sangha – those who study and meditate.  For laypeople, it’s good to visualise Guru Rinpoche in the sky in front, and with yearning devotion and confidence to recite the 7 Line Prayer or the Vajra Guru mantra.

Teaching #2 – Saturday 4^th October 2008 – Dharma vs. Tradition / View, Meditation and Action

Today I’m going to give an introduction to the Buddhist view.  It’s very important to know the view in order to know why we are doing all these practices.  If we know the view, we will strive to realise that view.  For example, when we know that gold, silver, jewels, diamonds are precious, we try our best and work really hard to obtain these things.  If we have these precious things, then we can use them for many purposes.  Likewise, we should know the preciousness of the Buddhist teachings.  To know the preciousness of the buddhist teachings, we should know the benefit of practicing renunciation, doing the “cutting through” (chöd) practice, making offerings, doing prostrations, and so on.  If we don’t know the benefit of these things, then we won’t know the preciousness of the teachings.  So we need to understand the Buddhist view.

The difference between dharma and tradition or culture

In order to introduce the Buddhist view, we should first know what is dharma.  There is a difference between dharma and the different traditions of the Buddhist teachings.  When we take refuge in dharma, we don’t take refuge in the Buddhist tradition.  So we need to know how to differentiate between dharma and the Buddhist traditions.  Buddhism has flourished not only in Bhutan but also many other countries, like Korean, Japan, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka and so on.  But there is a big fault in the way those countries follow the buddhadharma, as they mistake the Buddhist tradition with dharma.  And over the course of time, they begin to place more importance on the traditions rather than the authentic buddhadharma.  This confusion between the teachings and the tradition isn’t only seen with buddhists, but also other teachings such as Christianity.  For example, Christians celebrate 25^th December as Christmas Day, and it has become a day of buying gifts and presents, making a tree and decorating it with beautiful things.  They give so much importance to these things and not really to the teachings of Jesus Christ.  And something similar is happening in Bhutan.  I’m not just warning you that this might happen in the future – it has already happened.  We give so much importance to festivals, do masked dances, and make everything beautiful just to show to the tourists.  But people forget the authentic dharma, and instead they give so much importance and emphasis to the traditions.  Actually, traditions are not that bad.  But unlike the dharma, traditions and culture change with time and place.  For example, many aspects of Bhutanese tradition, such as how the Bhutanese dress and how they behave, have changed from the early days. 

But the teachings, what the Buddha taught, will never change.  Buddha said that whether the Buddha appears in this world or not, the true nature of things will not change.  The teachings of the 4 noble truths, 4 seals and so on will never change with time and place.  For example, Buddha taught that all compounded things are impermanent.  All compounded things were impermanent before the Buddha, and even after 2500 years after Buddha came to this earth, nothing has become permanent – everything is still impermanent.  So the teachings of the Buddha, the dharma, don’t change with time and place.  Only the traditions change. 

We don’t become extraordinary as Buddhists just by following Buddha Shakyamuni.  What is extraordinary is that by following the teachings of the Buddha, we can realise the true nature of mind and phenomena.  By realising the true nature of phenomena, we become extraordinary.  We become unique.  And we don’t become extraordinary just by thinking about doing whatever Buddha taught.  You won’t be different from the followers of other faiths by just following the Buddha’s teachings.  You have to practice and realise the view.  Buddha Shakyamuni is the one who taught the true nature of phenomena.  However he is not the creator of the true nature – he did not create emptiness.  Buddha Shakyamuni is the one who taught reality, or the true nature, and how by realising the true nature you become extraordinary.  How he taught is that, for example, if you are dreaming that you’re about to fall down from a high building, you become scared.  If somebody comes out of nowhere and says “no need to worry, don’t be scared, it’s a dream, it’s not real” – then you won’t feel scared, you know it’s a dream, you realise it’s a dream.  That person who teaches you, who shows you it’s a dream, is just like Buddha Shakyamuni, who has taught that what you experience now, all this confusion is like a dream.  It’s not real. 

So Buddha teaches you reality, the true nature.  And if you realise the true nature then you won’t be afraid of samsara.  The person who has taught reality or the true nature is Buddha Shakyamuni.  The point here is that he’s not a creator.  He didn’t create reality – he has taught us about the nature of reality.

In the relative sense, Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini, and then he renounced the world and he practised penance for six years, and at the end he meditated under the bodhi tree, and then he attained enlightenment.  All these things he did for the sake of happiness.  The sole thing, the only thing that all human beings crave is happiness – and the single thing that humans don’t want, every being doesn’t want, is suffering.  Buddha Shakyamuni also renounced the palace and became a renunciant because he wanted happiness. 

What is dharma?  Dharma is something that establishes the truth, the reality.  We need to practice dharma in order to have peace and happiness.  We do all sorts of things for the sake of happiness.  For example, it is not just Buddhists that have so many means to find peace and happiness, but also in Egypt and Greece there were many philosophers who wrote books on how to find happiness.  Even scientists do all sorts of experiments and then reach all kinds of conclusions, for example that the earth is round, and they can also go to the moon, just for peace and happiness.  And when Buddhists examine these things, they conclude that none of these things is a perfect means to gain happiness.  Science, technology, politics, business, everything – all these things – are not the ultimate means to find happiness.  Buddhists also find that none of these things are better than what Buddha said.  We need not just wonder about these things.  We should examine and investigate for ourselves.  If we closely examine what Buddha said, he said all compounded things are impermanent, all emotions are pain, and so on – and if we fully examine this, we’ll find it’s true.  We’ll find that nothing has become permanent, and that no emotions have become happiness or bliss.  Buddha said that if we don’t destroy attachment to self, our self-clinging, then there’s no way that we can attain happiness.  And Buddha said that all compounded things are impermanent: all that is impermanent has the potential to fall down (sak chey), or fall apart.  And that which has the potential to fall apart or exhaust, is suffering.  [Meaning: all impermanent things are manipulated by emotions, and anything manipulated by emotions is intrinsically suffering].  So by clinging to impermanent things, it’s the cause of all suffering – this is what Buddha explained.  But nowhere in the teachings did Buddha say that we have to just accept his teachings just because he said so.  We need to examine his teachings.

Peace and happiness:  Happiness cannot be attained through outer material wealth.  The more material wealth you have, the more suffering it will bring.  Today the world has developed so dramatically in terms of material wealth, but suffering hasn’t decreased.  Instead all this development has increased, enhanced and speeded up suffering.  For example, we now have mobile phones, so if something happens here in Bartsham, in no time you’ll hear about it in Trashigang, and people there will suffer. 

Now I’ll talk about Buddhist view, meditation and action.

1. View

Knowing the view is the most important thing.  Only by knowing the view can we differentiate ourselves from followers of other faiths.  None of the teachings encourages telling lies or harming others – in all teachings they say don’t harm, don’t tell lies, and don’t steal.  Even meditation does not make you unique as a Buddhist practitioner; in Jainism and Hinduism, they also talk about doing meditation.  And practicing the teachings also cannot make you different from the followers of other faiths.  For example, when Hindus go to their holy places, they carry water from river Ganges in a pot and they walk barefoot.  But we Buddhists, if we want to go on pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya, we don’t walk – we drive or we fly.  So they are more serious practitioners than us Buddhists!

So the view is what distinguishes us from followers of other faiths.  And what is view?  View is the way of thinking, how we think.  For example, in Bhutan in the old days, people used to consider those who were fat and shiny to be very beautiful.  Now because of the influence of modern television, people consider slim to be beautiful.  That kind of thinking is view. 

The primary Buddhist view is the view of interdependence or dependent origination.  Everything exists depending on each other thing.  For example, “big” depends on “small” for its existence, etc.  Nothing exists independently as something omnipotent.  It’s very difficult to understand this.  People study all the philosophy texts for many years at shedras, debating and examining the teachings.  All this is done for the sake of knowing the view of interdependent origination.  The text that establishes the view of interdependence is called Madhyamika. 

In order to realise the view, the right view, we need to dispel the wrong views.  To do that, we need to refute wrong views logically, and for that we have Pramana – logic.  There are so many obstacles to realising the view, so in order to recognise or realise the obstacles, like emotions and different kinds of obscurations we have Abhidharma teachings.  And in order to practice the teachings, in order to realise the view, we need to have some kind of discipline – if we have no discipline, we can’t practice.  And to foster discipline, we have the Vinaya.  For instance, when you make tea you need to have a certain discipline – you can’t dump salt, sugar, everything together – if you don’t have discipline, if you add everything into the tea, you can’t have any tea.  Likewise, to practice the teachings you need discipline.  That’s why there is Vinaya.

People study these texts in order to understand the view of interdependence.  Interdependence means that things depend on each other for their existence.  Nothing exists independently.  And when we know that, we know the view. 

2. Meditation

After receiving an introduction to the view, we need to practice in order to realise the view.  If we don’t practice or meditate on the view, then we can’t realise it.  You can’t reach Trashigang by just knowing that it is there – you need to actually go there!  Only then will you arrive at Trashigang.  Just by knowing the view theoretically, you can’t realise it.  You need to practice.

So what kind of meditation should we do?  The main meditation is meditating on compassion, loving kindness, and the aspiration of bodhicitta.  And the teachings on compassion, loving kindness and bodhicitta are dharma.  They are not just Buddhist tradition.

Buddha Shakyamuni was born in India and he was an Indian, but he never said that we should embrace or practice the Indian customs and traditions.  For example, monks’ robes are part of the buddhist tradition, and the colour of these robes changes with time and place.  Buddha said that monks could wear yellow, red and even blue robes.  But in Tibet, King Trisong Detsen and Tri Ralpachen felt that if monks wore blue colours, then it wouldn’t be possible to differentiate lay people and monks, so they said monks should only wear yellow and red robes.  So in Bhutan and Tibet, monks usually wear red and yellow robes.  But in Japan and other places, it’s different – they wear maroon robes and also blue colours.  So the tradition, the culture, changes with time and place.  In fact Buddha taught that monks should wear abandoned clothes, clothes you find in the filth, in garbage.  So that’s why Buddha said even the Vinaya should go according to the time and place.  So Bhutanese monks should not think that monks in other countries that wear different colours are contradicting the teachings of the Buddha.

As I said before, meditation here is meditating on loving kindness, compassion and bodhicitta. 

What is loving-kindness?  It’s the wish for all beings to have happiness.  And that is also not unique to just Buddhism.  Other faiths like Christianity and Hinduism also talk about loving-kindness and giving happiness to other beings.  But there’s no way we can give happiness to each and every being, because the happiness of one being might be the suffering of another being.  For example, we might throw a big party, and eat all kinds of meat and fish – and we might enjoy the party and have happiness, but the cows and fish will suffer!  There is no way we can give happiness to all beings.  But what is unique to Buddhism is giving the root of happiness, the cause of happiness.  The cause of happiness is teaching them to practice virtue.  We have to give that – the cause of happiness. 

What is compassion?  It is to wish that each and every being does not have suffering.  Again, there’s no way to alleviate the suffering of all beings.  So compassion is to give the root of freeing beings from suffering, the cause of cutting suffering. 

What is bodhicitta?  Bodhicitta is unique to Buddhism, to Buddha’s teachings.  Other faiths talk about having happiness, and giving happiness to others.  But they don’t talk about giving enlightenment to others.  Bodhicitta is wishing enlightenment for other beings. 

There’s one thing I need to mention – we Bhutanese and Tibetans think meditation is something to be done by westerners.  We think they should carry a mala, recite, do circumambulations, make offerings – and I have heard from one influential person who heard a westerner was teaching meditation.  She listened to the teachings and said it was really nice, and said she wished we could also have those kinds of teachings.  This shows that we don’t even know that these things originally came from what we have.  We don’t even know that meditation instructions exist in Tibetan Buddhism.  If we don’t practice and get accustomed to the view and meditation, we’ll become like dogs and monkeys.  After a few generations, dogs and monkeys don’t even recognise who is the father, son, or daughter.  If you don’t practice and get used to that, you’ll become like that.  So we have to meditate. 

And moreover, if we don’t practice we won’t have any realisation.  These days we have root and lineage gurus like Guru Rinpoche, Longchen Rabjam, Jigme Lingpa, Dudjom Rinpoche and all that – but after 40-50 years, we’ll have root and lineage gurus like Alex and Wyatt.  I have one very good example.  I was in Japan, and they go to the temple on special occasions, and seven boys with shaved heads were standing, elegant, respectful, and traditional – I was so impressed, but later I found that on that day they used to ordain monks, but they don’t do this any more, so they hired those boys instead.  If we don’t practice, we’ll lose everything – just like that. 

3. Action

Third is action.  The action unique to Buddhism is engaging in the 6 or 10 paramitas.  But they can be abbreviated into not harming others.  By not harming others, we mean not harming others with body, speech or mind.  So even if we can’t benefit or help others, we should not harm others.  For example, we claim that we don’t kill or harm others, for example we don’t engage in warfare, but we are so attached to meat.  For the purpose of getting meat, people take the lives of animals.  And so we indirectly harm them.  Even if we don’t harm others directly, we harm them indirectly.  We should abandon harming others, both directly and indirectly. 

Buddhist meditation and action should be accompanied by the view or based on the view.  The Buddhist view is interdependence or dependent origination.  Interdependence means having all the causes and conditions.  For example to grow a crop we need to have a seed, and all the necessary good conditions, like fertilizer, light, water and so son.  And there should not be any interruptions or obstacles else you won’t have fruit.  So if you have all the requisite causes and conditions, you can’t avoid having fruit.  That is interdependence.  So when we say we should not harm and kill others, we should know that if we harm others, we create certain causes and conditions, and if these are not interrupted, then we’ll have the fruit of our actions.  We’ll reap the fruit of harming others.  If it is not based on the view, all the practices of Buddhist meditation and action will just become tradition or culture.  So we need to understand the view.  And our meditation and action should be based on understanding that view.

Teaching #3 – Sunday 5^th October 2008 – Renunciation

I intend to talk to you gradually about ngöndro, the preliminary practice, and also the development (kyerim) and completion stages (dzogrim) of meditation.  Not only that, I also intend to teach you how to do shamatha meditation and then meditate upon the nature of mind.  Older practitioners (who have received teachings from HH Dudjom Rinpoche or HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche or other teachers) don’t need to hear these teachings.  They will know everything already.  My teaching is meant for the younger monks, nuns and lay practitioners.

Receiving empowerment and lung (reading transmission) is very special.  But if we don’t receive instructions and listen to the instructions, then we won’t know how to accept what is good and abandon what is bad.  We won’t know the essential points of what to abandon and what to adopt, accept and practice.  If you read the elaborate instruction texts, everything is explained in there: How to do visualisation, how to do completion meditation, how to meditate on the nature of mind, etc – everything is written in those instruction texts.  There are not only the instruction texts written by HH Dudjom Rinpoche, but also those of the Longchen Nyingtik and the writings of omniscient Longchenpa, such as the Seven Treasuries.  If you read those texts, all the instructions are given in detail.  However, we don’t have much time, and it is also very difficult to understand the meaning of the words in those great instruction texts.  So it will be easier for you to understand the instructions if I talk about these things instead. 

RENUNCIATION

In our practice, we start with renunciation, or revulsion to samsara.  Renunciation is one of the most essential and important practices.  There are different ways of understanding the meaning of the word “renunciation,” depending on the different elements, different sense faculties and different intelligence of students.  In Bhutan and Tibet we find monks and nuns who have given up the householder’s life.  They wear red and saffron robes, and shave their heads.  Tibetans and Bhutanese identify those people as renunciants. Among Buddha’s disciples, the 4 kinds of disciples, the majority were monks.  Monks give up worldly possessions, wear saffron robes, and also wear abandoned and discarded clothes. 

For those who have greater faculties, the meaning of renunciation may be different.  For example, there was a Buddhist nun in India called Salwa Tsultrim, “pure discipline.”  There was a gender disparity in India at that time.  Females were not considered equal to men, so she thought that being a woman, she couldn’t benefit the dharma very much.  So she gave up her vows, and then stayed with a nobleman, and afterwards she gave birth to Arya Asanga, who brought the five dharmas of Buddha Maitreya.  Because of him, we have the text on the study of Buddha nature.  The nun wasn’t satisfied with that, however.  She wanted to do more for the teachings, so she then stayed with a Brahmin.  And from their union, Vasubandhu was born.  He wrote the Abhidharmakosha and many extensive texts on abhidharma, and revived the teachings of abhidharma.  I’m sure that nun must have been criticised bitterly by other people during her time, because she gave up her nun’s vows, broke the precepts and so on.  But if you think about it deeply, you can see that what she did is also renunciation. 

If you read the biographies of the Buddha and the early masters, you’ll find that they renounced everything, and they went into monasteries and became monks and nuns – that is generally considered renunciation.  But people like King Ashoka and King Trisong Detsen didn’t give up their possessions, yet they greatly benefited, helped and supported the teachings.  If it hadn’t been for King Ashoka, we wouldn’t know about Bodh Gaya or Varanasi.  He built the Bodh Gaya stupa and the Varanasi stupa, and we now have these sacred places.  King Trisong Detsen brought the teachings to Tibet, and that is also renunciation.  So the word “renunciation” can be understood in different ways. 

Many laypeople think that practising dharma is the job of monks, nuns and the sangha – the mantrikas or tantrikas.  That is a wrong concept, because throughout history we have had many lay masters and bodhisattvas.  For example Mañjushri and Avalokiteshvara were not monks.  They were lay practitioners, lay bodhisattvas wearing dhoti – Indian dress.  And they requested so many teachings – the sutras – and many of the sutras are answers to their questions.  And King Trisong Detsen and other great practitioners were also lay practitioners.  Here in Bhutan, lay people practise dharma.  I’m very pleased with that. 

But all the monks and nuns who are supposed to be renunciants are all engaged and attached to building monasteries, dormitories, and residences – including me!  And in this way, we are wealthier than the laypeople!  Monks are always carrying a calculator and calculating how much has been spent.  In actuality we haven’t renounced the world at all. 

So what is renunciation?  In a nutshell, for example – after taking a shit, we don’t care about that – we leave it, we don’t look back – we are not attached to that!  So we should not be attached to worldly affairs, just as we are not attached to the faecal matter.  If you don’t care at all, that is renunciation.  Great Kings like Ashoka, Trisong Detsen, Tri Ralpachen were very wealthy, and had many queens, sons and daughters, but they were ready to give them up at any time.  Monks, nuns and lay tantric practitioners should also practice this – not only them, but even ordinary working people should practice this.  We should all care less about worldly affairs.  If we are not attached to worldly things, that is called renunciation.

For example, when Atisha was in Tibet, one of his disciples was doing mandala practice, and Atisha came in and said “son, practice dharma.”  And the disciple thought practising dharma meant doing prostrations, circumambulations, recitations – and again Atisha came and said, “it’s good you’re doing these things, but practice dharma!”  The student then thought perhaps practising dharma meant doing meditation, so he meditated.  Again Atisha said, “meditation is good, but practice dharma.”  The student thought he had done everything, and there was nothing left for him to do, so he asked Atisha – “I’ve done everything, and still you ask me to practice dharma.  What kind of dharma should I practice?”  And Atisha said “son, renounce this life”. 

Renunciation means not being attached to this life.  Therefore, monks, nuns, tantric practitioners and ordinary working laypeople all have to give up attachment to this life.  When I say this, some people might think they should destroy their house or push their house off a cliff, and go into a small hut.  But they might still have all sorts of desire and attachments to worldly things while staying inside their hut.  That is not renunciation.  However, you can own a car and a house, but without having any attachment – and this is renunciation. 

In order to develop renunciation mind, we must know the value of the teachings, the dharma.  And we should also know that there is no essence in worldly things and samsaric activities.  We should know that all things are dependent on each other.  When we look at things, we don’t see things as interdependent.  We see things as permanent, self-existing, independently existing phenomena.  For example, when we look at our hand, we see it as a truly existing, permanently existing and independently existing phenomenon.  In fact it is not permanent, it does not truly exist and it does not independently exist.  This hand ages, and that’s why it’s impermanent.  Today’s hand is not tomorrow’s hand – it has become older.  And it is also not independent – it depends on other causes and conditions.  We think that our body is independent, but it is not – at any time, a big boulder could crush our body. 

Nothing is independent.  If we don’t know that nothing is independent, then we won’t understand interdependence.  If we don’t understand interdependence, then we will have distorted thoughts (Tib: tsul zhin mayinpé yid jé), i.e. we will see impermanent as permanent, impure as pure, suffering as happiness, and we will think that we have a truly existing “self.”  These kinds of thoughts come when you don’t have the view of interdependence.  The root cause of not having renunciation mind is when we don’t know the value of the dharma.  For example, you know that a Land Cruiser (the most expensive car in Bhutan) is valuable, and that you could drive one here and there and show off.  And in order to get one, you might do all sorts of things like stealing, telling lies, and so on.  Likewise if you know the value of the teachings, then you’ll have this renunciation mind. 

We have to give up attachment to worldly dharmas.  We wish to be praised, and in order to get praise we perform all sorts of rituals to avoid criticism and being put down.  One good example is how when practitioners, monks, nuns and nagpas like us see a sponsor coming from a distance – we straighten our back and raise your eyebrows, pretending to be visualising and meditating.  We are not really practicing dharma – we’re just pretending in order to look good and have praise.  So that’s why it’s very difficult to have renunciation mind. 

There are so many methods to generate renunciation mind.  One of the best ones is praying to the guru.  Recite the Seven Line Prayer, pray to Guru Rinpoche and ask him to bless you so you can have renunciation mind.  Methods like this are for those who are not educated.  For those who are educated, they can study texts like mind training, for example the Bodhicharyavatara.  Study and hearing the teachings is also very important.  Lord Maitreya said that hearing the teachings liberates one’s mind from confusion.  And hearing the teachings is the gateway to enlightenment.  So it’s very important to study and listen to the teachings.  There are so many methods to generate renunciation mind, like the Four Contemplations (the Four Thoughts) to turn one’s mind from samsara to the dharma.  There are so many enumerations like the Four Thoughts, but the main thing is to understand the meaning.  Gampopa said in his prayer:

May my mind enter the dharma

May the dharma be the path

May the path dawn as wisdom

So the main thing is that our mind should enter the dharma.  Similarly, the first Sakyapa Master, Kunga Nyingpo said, “If you are attached to this life, you are not a dharma practitioner.”  So we have to renounce attachment to this life. 

FREEDOM AND WEALTH (PRECIOUS HUMAN BIRTH)

We also talk about freedom and wealth (Tib: dal gyor).  By “freedom,” we mean having a chance or opportunity.  And in order to have this freedom, we need to have all the necessary causes and conditions present.  For example, we can look at the six realms, such as the hungry ghosts.  Even when there is a pile of food in front of them, hungry ghosts don’t know that the food is there, so they go hungry all the time – they don’t have the chance, the opportunity, and the conditions they need to eat the food.  When we do water and torma offerings (Tib: chu tor), in the scriptures it is mentioned you’re not supposed to snap your fingers twice.  The hungry ghosts understand the first snap as “take this, have it.”  But they understand the second snap as “you’re not allowed to eat this,” so you should snap only once. 

If you don’t have the necessary conditions, then even if the guru gives you teachings, you won’t have the chance or opportunity to understand anything.  At worst, you won’t even hear the teachings.  Or if you hear them, you’ll hear them wrongly.  There are countless beings that don’t have the opportunity to hear and listen to the teachings.  Most people in this world have not even heard of the Four Seals or the Four Noble Truths.  Once when HH the Dalai Lama was teaching, there were Muslims in the teachings, and he was teaching about the 12 deeds of the Buddha.  When he talked about how Buddha renounced the palace, their interpretation was that the Buddha was good for nothing, as he couldn’t succeed and so he left and became an unworthy person.  So if you don’t have the right conditions, you won’t have any chance to hear the teachings.  But we have the right conditions to hear the teachings.  At the very least, we have a little bit of devotion, trust and confidence in the teachings and the teacher.  And right now, being able to withstand the sufferings and pains for the sake of the teachings is freedom and wealth.  We should consider this opportunity as very special.  Even if we are only able to think about the rarity and preciousness of our freedom and wealth once a year, we should be very satisfied with the opportunity we have.

However, we have a habit of procrastinating and postponing, thinking “today I might only remember the rarity of freedom and wealth once in a year, but in the future I’ll practice all the time” – so we postpone our practice, and we keep postponing, until we eventually forget everything and end up doing nothing.  We must begin, even if it’s only with the least or the worst practice, and accumulate that.  If we do that, gradually we’ll improve and begin to remember the rarity of our freedom and wealth.  Patrul Rinpoche said that when we practice dharma, we must practice dharma as a hungry yak eats grass.  The hungry yak doesn’t look for something better – if it finds one clump of grass, it eats that.  And then it eats the next clump it sees.  When we practice dharma, even if we’re not able to remember the preciousness and rarity of the freedom and wealth more than once in a year, we have to practice that and acknowledge it.  If we don’t start with small things, there’s no way we can do big things.  We should take the opportunity to engage in every single virtuous practice or virtuous action.  We shouldn’t look down on that. 

We have the power to practice more.  And if we are not diligent, the practice of dharma won’t come easily.  So we have to meditate on impermanence.  We know that we are going to die one day.  But it doesn’t work – just knowing that we’ll die one day doesn’t seem to affect us.  We know we’ll die, but we don’t know when.  Death can come at any moment, to anybody.  Death is impartial.  Impermanence is unbiased.  It comes to kings, queens, lamas, monks, nuns, ordinary beings and animals – all.  It comes without warning.  If you meditate on impermanence, then you won’t make long-term plans.  I may be even worse than most of you, because I already have plans for the next 3 or 4 years! 

As Milarepa said, we need to meditate, thinking that we don’t know which will come first – tomorrow or the next life.  We need to think about this.  When you see a friend, you need to think “today might be the last day I see my friend – I may not see him tomorrow.”  You have to practice and meditate by imagining and reflecting on these things.  You shouldn’t just do what the lama says.  If you reflect and meditate, then you will be more compassionate, and you’ll behave more gently to your friends and to other people.  You won’t harm them.  And other people will see you differently.  And that will also cause some kind of inspiration. 

If we don’t have long term plans, we can achieve the Bhutanese concept of Gross National Happiness.  To achieve happiness, we need to have less attachment and find satisfaction and contentment with whatever we have.  We do not even need to practice all the teachings, such as the Four Seals, but only one of them: All compounded phenomena are impermanent.  That alone can bring you peace, wealth, Gross National Happiness – everything!  Because if you know that everything is impermanent, then you will have satisfaction and less attachment.  For those who want to become wealthy, I have one secret – and that is to find contentment.  If you have contentment, you are rich.  I have a friend who is very rich, and her house has 250 rooms.  Every time I go to her house, I have to ask her for a map.  But her husband was killed, and she was mentally unwell.  I feel that she doesn’t have contentment.  But if you have contentment, you’ll be satisfied with whatever you have.  You can become rich. 

The Four Thoughts also include the disadvantages of samsara and karma.  (Note: Rinpoche taught these in more detail tomorrow.)  The disadvantage of samsara is that everyone who is born in samsara suffers, irrespective of how high, low, big or small they are.  Some people might think that kings and ministers are happy and don’t suffer.  But they have more suffering than common people, as they have to worry about their subjects and their country.  And they have jealousy of each other, not getting promotions and so on. 

Karma is bad and good action, which can bring bad and good results.  If you know that, you will know the concept of karma.  If you meditate and contemplate on that, renunciation mind can take birth in your mind.  You won’t have any long-term plans. 

Teaching #4 – Monday 6^th October 2008 – Refuge

Yesterday I talked about renunciation.  Whatever teachings you practice – the Theravada or Mahayana teachings – it’s very important to train our mind.  Mind training is very important.  Why should we train our mind?  Because our mind is stubborn, and we need to make it workable and user-friendly.  And the principal mind training is training in renunciation.  The instruction texts say “motivated with renunciation mind, do your practice”.  So whatever teachings you practice, the first thing we need to practice is renunciation mind.  All Buddhist practices should be preceded by renunciation mind.  To practice dharma, we must have the intention or motivation to get enlightened.  We must know the value or preciousness of the dharma, the teachings, and also the essencelessness of samsaric activities. 

For example, in order to go to Thimpu, first you must have the motivation, the interest, and the intention to go to Thimpu.  Otherwise you will end up going somewhere else, not Thimpu.  Likewise, in order to practice the dharma, we must have the intention to get enlightened and know the value of the teachings.  If we wish to follow a spiritual teacher or spiritual friend, that also has to be motivated by renunciation mind.  If we follow a spiritual friend, a teacher, with another motivation and not renunciation mind, then we’ll have all sorts of wrong views towards the teacher.  For example if you follow the teacher for the sake of food and wealth and so on, you’re not following the teacher with renunciation mind.  We need to follow the teacher with the intention to get enlightened or liberated.  If we don’t have renunciation mind and revulsion towards samsara, then we’ll have wrong view, wrong perception towards the teacher.  It’s like if you want to go to Thimpu, first you need to have the intention to go Thimpu.  Likewise, to practice the dharma, you first need the motivation, which is renunciation mind.  That’s the end of the teachings on the rarity of finding freedom and wealth, and the impermanence of life.

THE 4 THOUGHTS: KARMA & SAMSARA

Next I will talk about the disadvantage of samsara, and karma (cause and effect).  It’s very difficult to understand the concept of karma, cause and effect.  For example, it is not impossibly difficult to understand Madhyamika, pramana, and other philosophy texts.  If you study, memorise and debate, you can understand them to a certain extent.  But the concept of karma is difficult.  In the beginning, it seems like you understand it, but as you go on hearing and examining the teachings on cause and effect, they become increasingly profound, fine and more detailed.  It is difficult to understand karma completely.  Only the Buddha understands the minutest details of karma, cause and effect.  The concept of karma is one of the main components of the Buddhist view.  It is not that non-virtuous actions and virtuous actions happen to be so just because Buddha said or taught that.  For example, if somebody harms you or beats you, then you’ll experience pain and suffering.  Likewise, if you beat or harm other beings, then they will experience suffering in the same way.  You know that.  And harming others brings harm to both yourself and the other person.  And it’s the same with virtuous actions – if we help others, then they experience happiness just as you experience happiness when others help you.  This is how we can prove the concept of karma by reason. 

Because of the concept of karma or cause and effect, then we have the Vinaya disciplines for monks.  The bodhisattvas also have discipline, and tantric practitioners and nagpas, also have discipline.  Some nagpas think they don’t have discipline like monks, but they actually have even more precepts than monks.  If you practice the Vinaya, bodhisattva or tantric discipline (Vajrayana precepts), then you can accumulate virtue.  Discipline means not killing others, not taking their lives; not stealing; not indulging in sexual misconduct, and so on.  For us practitioners, even if outwardly it seems we are not committing non-virtuous actions, in fact we are directly or indirectly committing non-virtuous actions like continuous rain.  And everyone is governed by karma, irrespective of whether they are high or low, superior or inferior – even the Buddha.  For example, when Buddha was alive, a thorn pierced his foot.  And when Ananda asked him why this happened, he said that in the past he killed the “black man” Minak Dungdung who was about to kill 500 merchants who were bodhisattvas (when Buddha was Depen Nyingjé Chenpo, the great compassionate sea-captain).  So if even the Buddha is not completely free from karma, nothing needs to be said about us!  So we have to be very careful. 

Stealing literally means, “taking what has not been given.”  We have to be very careful about that.  But stealing is not just taking away other people’s belongings, and especially monks and nuns should be very careful.  For example, if you travel, and you don’t pay the car or bus fare, you break your vow and then become a layperson after that.  That is also stealing.  These days, people steal electricity without the knowledge of the council authorities.  For example, people draw electricity from the poles and lines – that’s also stealing.  We think stealing means entering a person’s house at midnight and removing their things without their knowledge – but it’s not just that.  It could be not paying a bus fare or stealing electricity – all these are taking what has not been given.  Monks and nuns, if you steal a thing worth 10 rupees, you break your vow.  You commit a downfall. And if the government pays for your travel and everything, then if you spend unnecessarily, that’s also stealing.  And the Bhutanese and Tibetans consider that monks and nuns break vows if they stay together with members of the opposite sex – that’s the general belief. 

There are other causes for breaking vows, such as extraordinary lies – lies beyond what is common in the human society (e.g. “I had a vision of Guru Rinpoche last night”, with the intention of getting money or offerings from others).  For example, people go to Taiwan and other countries and they do divinations, and they come up with all sorts of things.  They say they have visions, see ghosts harming your family etc, and claim they have special, unusual dreams – and then they collect money!  These are extraordinary lies – and telling lies like this can also break your vows, for example if you are deceiving others in order to get wealth. 

If there is a thief with you, then you are not going to be peaceful – you’re always worried that the thief will take away your things.  If there’s a thief with you, you always have to hold your bag close.  You can’t sleep at night because of worries.  And since there is every chance that you will perform non-virtuous actions, like continuous raining falling, every day – and remembering that, you need to exert and generate renunciation mind. 

For practitioners, monks, nuns and nagpas, you also have to be careful not to misuse offerings (khor).  If people make offerings for you to do prayers, you have to do them properly and completely.  If you don’t do it properly, you might create a karmic residue, lhen chak, and that might follow you later.  These days we talk about many different kinds of obstacles, like sickness, not being able to fulfil your own wishes and so on – these are all because of lhen chak, the karmic residue of things like the misuse of offerings.  Until you have purified that karmic residue, you have to repay that.  Why?  Because karma is undeceiving – until you have repaid it all, you will be affected by it.  When the lhen chak follows you, you have sickness, illness and other such things – all sorts of obstacles.  What is khor?  For example, if a child of a person is sick, and if he goes to the hospital to buy medicine, then if he doesn’t get that medicine, he knows and he sees that he couldn’t get that medicine – and if he offers one rupee to you, the practitioners, to do prayers for that sick boy, if you don’t do the prayers properly and completely he won’t see that, as there’s no sign.  But the lhen chak, the karmic residue is there, even if he doesn’t see it.

HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, HH Dudjom Rinpoche, Gyatral Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Zangpo used to repeatedly instruct us to do prayers for others (e.g. for long life of sponsors, removing obstacles etc) completely and properly, so that we would not be affected by khor.  Even lamas and tulkus, if they misuse offerings, then because of khor they have short life, obstacles to their activities and so on.  The best prayers and practices for us who don’t have the confidence of realisation are Tara puja, burnt offering (sur), smoke offerings (sang), and chutor (water and torma offerings).  If we can do that, they have so much potential to benefit.  To do these things, you don’t have to be highly realised.  You just have to dedicate your merit for the sake of others.  If you’re a good practitioner, if you can do Thröma tsok offerings, then you should visualise yourself as Thröma and make offerings.  That is the best if you can do that.  But for those who don’t know how to do that, the best things are Tara puja, sur, sang and chutor.

So the main point here is we should know the value of the teachings, their preciousness, and contemplate on that again and again.  We need to practice with haste, not postpone. 

REFUGE

Next is taking refuge, the inner ngöndro.  In the texts, it has been taught extensively.  For example Milarepa taught about refuge extensively.  And in the Thröma instructions, there’s an elaborate explanation and refuge.  There are also elaborate explanations in the Kunzang Lama’i Shelung (Words of My Perfect Teacher) and Gampopa’s Dagpo Thargyan (Ornament of Realisation), so you can read those texts.  Now what does it mean to take refuge?

For example, when it rains, you go under an umbrella.  That is taking refuge.  In order to not be affected by the rain, you take refuge in the umbrella.  Likewise, out of fear of samsara, you take refuge in someone powerful who can free you from the fears of samsara.  We take refuge for two main reasons: one is fear of samsara, and the second is having compassion towards other suffering beings.  And there are various objects of refuge:

• The general outer object of refuge is the Three Jewels. 
• The extraordinary inner objects of refuge are the three roots (guru, deva and dakini).
• The secret object of refuge is nadi, prana, and bindu (channel, wind and essence). 
• The innermost secret unsurpassable object of refuge is ngowo rangzhin tukjé sum (essence, nature and compassion): Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya (luminosity), and Nirmanakaya (the inseparability of emptiness and luminosity). 

Outwardly we take refuge in the three jewels out of fear of samsara.  For example, farmers go to temples, make butterlamp offerings, and do prostrations and supplication prayers so they will have timely rainfall, no storms, and so have good harvests.  And some kinds of businesspeople – here Rinpoche mentioned the substance of the musk deer – make offerings so the police won’t catch them.  These are not the kinds of refuge we’re supposed to do.  These are very narrow-minded forms of refuge.  In Buddhist refuge, you first take refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha – the objects of refuge – out of fear of samsara.  That is the general refuge for all Buddhists.  And the bodhisattvas don’t take refuge just for themselves, out of fear of samsara, but also out of fear of nirvana – they don’t want to fall into extremes.  Out of fear of falling into the extremes of samsara and nirvana, they take refuge in the Three Jewels.  They take refuge for the sake of enlightening all other sentient beings.  They don’t care whether they get enlightened themselves or not.  These are the relative ways of taking refuge. 

The innermost secret unsurpassable refuge is the ultimate refuge.  That is recognising that the emptiness aspect of the mind is Dharmakaya, the luminous aspect of the mind is Sambhogakaya and the unceasing inseparability of emptiness and luminosity is Nirmanakaya.  That is the unsurpassable secret refuge.  It is the ultimate refuge.  In order to recognise the innermost secret refuge, then we take refuge in the three roots, three jewels, prana, nadi and bindu.  When you take refuge in the outer objects of refuge, we take refuge in Buddha as the teacher, the guide who shows you the path.  We take refuge in the dharma as the actual path, and the sangha as the friends and companions on the path.  Not only Buddhists take refuge, even followers of other religions also take refuge in superior beings.  The difference is that when non-buddhists take refuge, they don’t take refuge in order for themselves to attain enlightenment.  They just wish to be reborn in the realm where the superior beings are.  But in Buddhism, you take refuge in order to become enlightened yourself.  That is the main difference.  Also when you take refuge in the guru, yidam (deity) and dakini – you take refuge in guru as teacher, deity as path and dakini as the companion/friend.