19 Great Equanimity & the Paths of Mahayana and Dzogchen

Olaso. So this afternoon we come to the fourth of the four greats, and before giving just a few comments about it, I would like to kind of back up to the culmination of the four immeasurables. And you know what that is, the, this immeasurable equanimity, immeasurable even heartedness. So it’s really actually very profound and we find it again in all of the great wisdom traditions, the great religions of the world including those, but it struck me in relationship to Martin Buber the great German and Jewish existentialist philosopher when he speaks of an I - You relationship where we engage with another sentient being for example another human being, as another subject. That is we’re vividly aware that there’s somebody looking back. That there’s a subject there, and that subject is every bit as real as the subject over here. And as much as I care about my own well being, then so do you. And just being aware of that, I mean just really fully engaging with that reality. So that’s an I - You relationship without going into the I - Thou relationship we’ll show what he highlights as really being a profoundly existential problem. I mean it’s debilitating, it’s dehumanizing, it’s truly horrid, although it can appear okay. And that is an I - It relationship, an I - It relationship. Where we engage with any other sentient being and again I want to emphasize not just human beings. But when we engage with any sentient being as simply an it, a thing, an object, that we regard as appealing or unappealing, tasty or not tasty, attractive or not attractive, pleasant unpleasant, and so forth. But basically just saying well what’s my impression of you and is it pleasing or not? If I don’t, well then I don’t like you or I don’t care about you. But if you give me pleasure, then that’s good, then I like you, then you’re good, you know. This really treating other sentients beings as mere it’s, as if they have no more sentience, no more subjectivity, no more presence from their own side than a cell phone.

[00:02:15] And I would say the cell phone has none, any more than a glass of water. Neither one is any more sentient than the other, to think so is living in a fantasy realm. And so to treat a cell phone as a cell phone, if I want to break it, I break it. It’s my business, it’s got to be stupid to do that but you know, it’s mine. I can do whatever I like with it. But to treat any sentient being as an it, is I mean it’s really quite tragic. It’s hard to find a word heavy enough, it is utterly tragic. To so dehumanize, but that’s just for the human. To deanimalize, and Descartes did this as a matter of principle. It’s astonishing, I find it hard to imagine, but there’s this brilliant man, there’s just no question he was highly intelligent but he regarded, he said he believed that animals were not conscious, that they merely appear to be. They don’t have emotions, they don’t have feelings, they don’t have consciousness. He appeared to believe that. And that trajectory actually had quite an impact on the next 400 years of western science. Jane Goodall, when she started to study chimpanzees, she was a PhD student at Cambridge University. She was told when she began, and this is a brilliant woman, at an outstanding university, there’s just no question. But she was told, by the, you know, top experts, chimpanzees don’t have emotions, they don’t have emotion. Our nearest neighbors don’t have emotions. Can you imagine?

[00:03:40] And these, this is what I call a massive cognitive deficit disorder. If these people were unintelligent, if they had severe brain damage, then we’d understand. But no these are very intelligent, highly educated people and saying chimpanzees have no emotions. Well 30-40 years of research has completely demolished that idea. And she took a pivotal role on that. But just very brief on materialism, because you know my views on it. Not only is it incorrect but I find it is tragic in the sense we were encouraged to believe that people are bodies. As Antonio Damasio says - a human being is a brain carrying a body on its back. And he says that as if this is quite the decent thing to say. It’s a savage thing to think, to say. It is saying that you’re not actually a human being at all you’re just a brain, you’re a cell phone, you’re just a thing. Or, I’ll leave this one anonymous, but a philosopher who is quite renowned, a lot renowned in the United States, I know him quite well, philosopher of mind. He said human beings are animals. There’s nothing more to us, then we’re just animals, we’re animals. Well do you remember what the white people said about the blacks, and some of them still do? They’re not really human, you know, they’re just animals. And of course racism manifests in that, anti semitism, wherever it crops up, it’s cropped up in many places, and I’m not even going to say the words, but we know what they say. We know what they say. It’s here are human beings, and here are Jews, here are human beings, here are Native Americans, here are human beings, here, the part that’s radically other.

[00:05:16] And the amount of suffering, this simple view, it’s just a belief, right. Just a belief, just a belief, the amount of suffering that’s brought on humanity is inconceivable. And now to see it distributed over humanity equally, all human beings are merely animals. Or some will say all are merely robots. Robots are conscious, human beings are robots, human beings are brains, brains are computers. I think we haven’t followed the implications of that, because it’s absolutely devastating. I mean really absolutely devastating. And so coming back on a lighter note, but this is one, one reason I just keep on going around you know, just launching into this view, it’s not just false, it’s devastatingly false. Many things are false. The notion that the universe was created in six days, that’s a silly idea, that’s false. But I don’t go around beating that one up. [laughter] Who cares? Who cares, you know? If you want to believe that have a nice day, I don’t care. If you believe that you know, human beings planted the dinosaur bones to trick other people, okay, I’ve heard that one. [laughter] I’ve heard that one. If you believe that, that’s fine I don’t want to refute you, I’ll just smile, let’s have some tea, you know. Let’s not worry about it. But this one, whether it’s being taken seriously by people at our most prestigious institutions, our most brilliant scientists, some of them advocating it, that really troubles me. That breaks my heart that’s why I keep on talking about it.

[00:06:45] We come back to equanimity, it’s the opposite of that. Just the opposite of that. It’s demolishing the I-It relationship towards any sentient being whatsoever, any sentient being, there’s someone gazing back. Someone who is fundamentally like me. And so the beauty of this and I’m going to be entirely positive, and the beauty of this is that it’s not simply a sterile, antiseptic, empty, aloof, indifference that it’s equally distributed to all sentient beings like equally uncaring. That’s equanimity gone astray, right? Aloof indifference, stupid indifference. So that needs to be remedied. But when it’s correct then it’s filled with all the preceding, it’s filled with loving kindness, filled with compassion, filled with empathetic joy and equally distributed. And so you’re looking through the veneer, the outer appearance of everyone you encounter, and it will be, it will be indefinitely true that some animals are cuter than others, you know. Some are more attractive than others. A cocker spaniel puppy versus a full grown alligator, which would you like to hang out with? [laughter] You know, it’s just going to be that’s the way it is. We’re primates, like to hang out with a rattlesnake or a chipmunk? Hmm you know, you don’t have to think too hard. But it evens all of that. It evens all that into the sheer unconditional open heart and that’s the foundation. That’s the actually the indispensable foundation for bodhichitta. If you don’t have that and you start developing bodhichitta, you’re just starting out lopsided and just sooner or later you have to correct it. But you’ve started out wrong, right. Because you’re developing that bodhichitta for the kind of ones you like but not so much for the other ones, right, which is just more attachment and aversion. That’s all it is with a fancy name you know, bodhichitta, bodhichitta.

[00:08:38] And so we see with this immeasurable, immeasurable equanimity, we’ve come right up to but have not crossed over the threshold into Mahayana, but it’s the foundation from which then great compassion, great loving kindness and so forth can be cultivated, authentically, and come to full fruition. And then we have the four. And then in the sequence that I’ve laid out I don’t see anything wrong with it, although I’ve never really seen this. And that is as in in the brief conversation with Glen the other day starting out with great compassion, which is clearly the root of the Mahayana. We don’t often see great loving kindness highlighted in that fashion, it’s mostly compassion. Compassion, compassion, compassion. It’s got to be great compassion, so I think there’s a good rationale for there to be a sequence there. And now I’d like just to play with this briefly, this is my now, totally my interpretation. So, might be, I find it useful because I just, I just am so, how do you say, committed, living in the field of the notion, the possibility of path, as you know. And so let’s just play with this a little bit. Great compassion, great compassion you know exactly what it is then. And if we map that onto the path, the Mahayana path, consider this. Consider you’re guiding someone, you’re guiding someone to the path, you know. And you bring them to the point where they’ve achieved this immeasurable equanimity and then you lead them right on, achieving shamatha, developing bodhichitta, developing bodhichitta to the point that it’s arising spontaneously, and the bodhisattva and then you just seal that with some fundamental insight into impermanence, dukkha, non self, you seal that with the four applications of mindfulness. And you’ve guided them so they’ve not only reached the bodhisattva path, but they’ve reached that second stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation which is now irreversible, gold like bodhichitta.

[00:10:37] You remember the first one’s earth like bodhichitta. The second one’s gold like bodhichitta, which means they’ll never lose it. They’ll never lose it in all their future lifetimes. They’ll be bodhisattva, bodhisattva, bodhisattva, buddha but never anything lower than bodhisattva. It’s now sealed. If we took the analogy of a doctor, where people had terrible diseases, a whole array of you know, terrible diseases but you treat them to the point that you’re now confident, now just carry on, you’re healed. You’re not going to have a relapse, imagine that. Now you’re going to be fine, the diagnosis is one hundred percent positive. You had terminal cancer, now you don’t. And you’re only going to get better. What would the doctor do? Whew. I won’t forget about you but now I can turn my attention to others. And for that person, that person who is now definitely on the road to recovery or the person who has received irreversible bodhichitta, you know you’ll never ever just wander around in samsara like a blind man on an open plain. You’ll never be there again. You’ll always be on the path. [Alan exhales] What a relief. You’ll never be a non bodhisattva. Every life will be meaningful. Now it’s guaranteed. Long path, short path, but every life will be good. Shantideva says what’s the big deal about it being a long path, every life is good. And they just get better. So what’s the problem with being a long path, every life is meaningful. Every life is the life of a bodhisattva. To my mind I just look at that and then say - whoa that’s freedom from suffering and the causes of suffering, not all of them, but big one. The suffering of having a life with no dharma, never again. In other words this one now is going to be, this one’s going to achieve enlightenment, it’s irreversible, it’s on the path and you’ll never be off the path. So long recovery, short recovery, but you’re taken care of, you’re set, fundamentally no worries, you’re ok. To my mind, you are now, in a very meaningful way, you’re now free of a certain broad spectrum of suffering and the causes of suffering, great compassion, you know. So Mahayana path of accumulation.

[00:12:57] And then we go to great loving kindness. And then what springs to mind of course, and the first one must be rooted in shamatha which of course when you’re resting in shamatha you really have no blatant suffering at all, I mean it’s blissful, it’s luminous and non conceptual. And you can go there whenever you like, you know. So that’s definitely a big, a big step toward freedom from suffering and the causes of suffering. You’re fundamentally sane and on top of that you have spontaneous bodhichitta. You’re really ok now. There’s a lot to go, you have all the past to precede on. But really you’re okay, you’re okay. And then when we think of great loving kindness, great loving kindness, then what springs to mind among the three dimensions of eudaimonia, according to the Buddha himself, this authentic well being, he said the authentic well being, the baseline, the fundamental, the foundational is the eudaimonia or authentic well being stemming from ethics. You remember that one? From ethics, just a sense of well being that your life is rooted in nonviolence and benevolence. There’s a level of benevolence, and then above that there’s the eudaimonia another dimension above that, that arising from samadhi. There’s a bliss born of samadhi and that is not to be feared said the Buddha. This is a bliss that is a symptom of a superbly balanced mind. It’s is a symptom of exceptional mental health and balance. And it’s the eudaimonia of samadhi. It’s a very wonderful kind of mid station there before proceeding to the third and culminating domain or dimension of authentic well being, and that is according to the Buddha himself, it is the genuine well being arising from wisdom. What Saint Augustine called a truth given joy. The highest eudaimonia is a truth given joy. A joy that steams from knowing reality as it is. The bliss that arises from that is just orders of magnitude beyond the bliss of having, you know, the wonderful sanity of shamatha. It’s another order of magnitude, you know.

[00:15:03] And so when I think of them great loving kindness, may you be endowed with the whole spectrum of well being including the culminating one of these bliss and then now straight Mahayana Buddhism, the bliss that arises from vipashyana is another order of magnitude beyond the bliss that arises from samadhi or shamatha. Yeah, it’s another order of magnitude, it’s just deeper, it’s rooted in reality and not simply a temporary sanity, which is really wonderful. But this is rooted in reality. So that’s the bliss of the realization of emptiness that corresponds to the path of preparation. And then we go to mudita , maha mudita . May you never be separated from sublime happiness, sublime well being devoid of unhappiness, and since the path that is utterly captivated me, is the path of Dzogchen, you know, embedded in Mahayana, embedded in vajrayana, but it’s the path of dzogchen, then I can’t help but think but we’re talking now about the bliss, the immutable bliss of dwelling in rigpa which is utterly devoid of suffering and always has been, and may you never be, may you never stray, may you never part, may it never fade, may you simply dwell in that bliss and that bliss is your boat that will take you down that stream to perfect enlightenment. But you just rest there. May you never be parted from that. Then I think of vidyadhara. Mahayana path of seeing on the Dzogchen level, fully ripened vidyadhara, first level vidyadhara, may you never be separated, that’s bliss, that’s really deep bliss, that’s immutable bliss of rigpa itself. Just the way I like to map it, path of accumulation, path of preparation, path of seeing, Dzogchen style, vidyadhara, first level of vidyadhara.

[00:16:55] And then we come to this afternoon’s meditation and we’ll go right to it momentarily now, but this great equanimity, well the, I’ll have to give you the liturgy, although you should have it on your computer right now if you wish to, [?00:17:18 Tibetan phrase] Why couldn’t all sentient beings dwell in equanimity free of attachment to that which is near and aversion to that which is far? That’s a nice literal translation. It obviously lends itself to interpretation because that’s all it says. Attachment to that which is near and aversion to that which is far. Well if we take that from the baseline the near is my family and my friends, my countrymen, my religious people and so forth. And then there’s the other side, the other people, different race, different skin color, different religion, different gender, different species, and so then attachment to my side and aversion to the other, that’s standard, that’s what samsaric people do. And so your basic equanimity about now among the four immeasurables is freedom from that. But now let’s bring this over into the Mahayana, just for fun. We can still keep it right there if you like, you know on a very high level may you be absolutely free, but you’ve actually covered that already. You know that’s the fourth immeasurable, free of any kind of attachment to those who are pleasing, or that you identify my side, my side and then aversion to those who are not on my side, who might actually be a threat to my side. But let’s just kind of up this, up this up to Dzogchen, why not, it’s fun. So what is near? For a person who’s far along the path, far along, a vidyadhara, a vidyadhara, is far along the path. Maybe ventured into the practice of Togal, the direct crossing over is coming to the culmination of the four visions of Togal .

[00:18:54] What is near? Well there’s nothing nearer than your own pristine awareness, that’s as near as it gets, because that’s what you are, that’s your core, that’s near. What is near is your own being, it’s rigpa, it’s buddha nature, it’s your core, it’s who you are, it’s where you rest. It is your primordial resting place. That’s what’s near and it’s of the very nature of immutable bliss. And one could imagine one becoming attached to that, right. That that pristine awareness is aware of nirvana, it’s non dual from dharmadhatu. Dharmadhatu is nirvana. So you’re dwelling in rigpa, in dwelling in rigpa you’re dwelling in nirvana. You’re experiencing nirvana which is emptiness which is dharmadhatu. You’re experiencing that by way of rigpa, by way of primordial consciousness. That’s just classic Dzogchen, right. That’s near. The bliss of realization of emptiness, the immutable bliss of realizing your own rigpa, that’s near, right.

[00:20:01] What’s far? Samsara. All those people wandering around in delusion thinking - I am, I am. Oh she’ll make me happy. Oh he makes me unhappy. And running around, scurrying around trying to find happiness ward off suffering and having so much suffering, basically just in an ocean of suffering. That’s far. That’s far. Everybody else’s reality is far, right. The suffering of samsara is far. The mental afflictions of samsara are far. You in the center of the universe it’s really fine here, you know. But what about reality from other people’s’ perspective? All those around you, people, all sentient beings. What about reality for which they’re in the center of their mandala? How’s that working out, you know? That’s far. Because that’s someone else. You’re fine, you’re set. But in all these myriad overlapping mandalas each sentient being in the center of the mandala, things are not doing so well. And so can you abide in this equanimity which is devoid of any inclination, any preference, any clinging or grasping to, your own place, the nearness of your own pristine awareness? Your realization of emptiness, free of all clinging, all grasping, all identification with any kind of grasping whatsoever. Abiding in such an equanimity that there’s no attachment, not even any preference for that and no disinclination, no preference not to be in samsara. Complete even, it’s called tat nyam, equal purity. It’s called, ro chik, one taste, one taste. Whether you dwell in samsara, whether you dwell in nirvana - one taste. Because you see both of them, the whole realm of samsara with this whole bandwidth and then the profound simplicity and primordial purity of nirvana and you’re seeing both samsara and nirvana equally as displays of pristine awareness and you’re resting in pristine awareness. You’re resting in a ground that is more primal than samsara or nirvana.

[00:22:15] Because it’s the ground of both. And you have such lack of preference that you don’t even prefer to dwell in nirvana versus to come out into and be active in samsara. So why couldn’t all sentient beings dwell in such equanimity free of attachment to the near and aversion to the far? Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, I’m almost certainly it’s in his Enlightened Courage but I haven’t found it, I’ve not looked at the book, but I read it a long time ago. I’m quite certain he wrote this, quite positive actually. He said when, as this great dzogchen master that he was, he says - when an arya bodhisattva comes to the end of the path, this is a tenth stage arya bodhisattva, right on the cusp of stepping across the threshold into perfect awakening. He said when you’re there at the end of the path but you’re still a bodhisattva, he said, at that point you have no preference. You have no preference for nirvana over samsara. And then you slip into non abiding nirvana of perfect enlightenment, where you are simultaneously, inconceivably, and non dually present in samsara and nirvana. But the thresholders have no preference at all.

[00:23:31] Panchen Rinpoche is going to cite Drakpa Gyaltsen, one of the great patriarchs, one of the five great patriarchs of the Sakya tradition and I just wanted to remind myself exactly where he fit. He was the third of the great five. There was Kunga Nyingpo was the first, the founder of the Sakya. Then Sonam Tsemo was the second. Then Kunga Nyingpo’s son was Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, then I believe his nephew, I think if I’ve got it correctly, his nephew was Sakya Pandita. And then I believe it was his nephew that was the Phagpa, the Phagpa the great yogi who was a guru for Kublai Kahn. So those are the five. But when I was reading, you can check it on the Sakyu website, it was quite interesting. This rather long portrayal of Drakpa Gyaltsen life, incredible being. But what kind of leapt out at me as I was reading through it a couple days ago, was that as he was coming to the end of his life, he had these kind of visions that he was you know, getting an invitation to sukhavati. Most people you have to apply [laughter] but you know if you’re Drakpa Gyaltsen you get special invitation. And his response was - I don’t find anything especially appealing about sukhavati or anything unappealing about samsara. And so not yet, I’m in no hurry. And I think he had the request multiple times. Then of course eventually he passed away.

[00:24:56] So you can think of them, this, if you’d just like, if you’d like to play with me on this one - mapping the four greats on these five paths. You can think of this one, this - why couldn’t all sentient beings dwell in such equanimity, it’s like tenth stage arya bodhisattva, such equanimity, they’re not quite enlightened yet, but they’re right there. Where they’re, either way, either way’s fine. Totally equal. That to my mind is great equanimity. No preference. Olaso. The rest of the liturgy you’ve already figured out. So let’s go practice. [sounds of the students getting settled]

[00:26:22] Meditation bell rings three times.

[00:26:52] In the spirit of sublime equanimity, let this be your motivation for settling your body, your speech, your mind in the natural state, which of course for each one is a quality of equipoise, of balance, of evenness.

[00:28:54] And the culmination of this initial settling process is awareness coming to rest in evenness. Not slipping off to the past or the future, not to attention hyperactivity or deficit. Neither caught up in grasping nor distraction. Awareness simply resting in its own ground, holding its own ground. Illuminating and knowing itself. In a way containing its own light, like a bindu of light, where the light is held within the bindu, within the orb.

[00:30:14] Then let the inner glow, of awareness turn itself inside out, let the radiance of your awareness expand out into space, attending to the world of sentient beings above and below and all around, around about in all the directions. Each sentient being the center of his or her own mandala, whether they’re human or any other type of being, just like ourselves, each one having this common ground, each one imbued with buddha nature, each one wishing to find happiness and freedom from suffering. In this regard we’re utterly alike. With this as a starting point then lets mentally bring to mind the first line of four lines of the liturgy for our great equanimity. Why couldn’t all sentient beings dwell in equanimity free of attachment to that which is near and aversion to that which is far? What’s to prevent that? Why couldn’t that happen?

[00:32:22] The Dalai Lama was asked whether sometime come a time when all sentient beings, every single sentient being, has achieved enlightenment. And his answer was, we don’t know. But if you focus on any sentient being, any individual sentient being, there’s no reason why they couldn’t. So let that be the answer if you will. There’s no reason why all sentient beings couldn’t in principle dwell in such sublime equanimity. And if that’s the case then arouse the aspiration with the second line of the liturgy, may it be so. [?33:18 Tibetan phrase ] May we all dwell in such sublime equanimity, blissful equanimity.

[00:33:56] With every out breath arouse this aspiration. With every out breath imagine light flowing out from the orb of light at your heart in all directions. It’s an aspiration that integrates both loving kindness and compassion and maha mudita, may we never be separated from such well being. With every out breath arouse the aspiration may it be so. May we all dwell in such equanimity.

[00:34:57] And attending to the mandala of the universe in which you are at the center, each of us is at the center, attending to this universe, the only one you can attend to, if you will arouse then the intention, the resolve, the pledge - I shall make this so. I shall enable all sentient beings to dwell in such equanimity. From the center of your universe express this pledge in all directions to all beings throughout space, as if the light emanating from your heart were carrying the message, send the message out to all sentient beings. I shall bring you to such equanimity.

[00:36:44] Of course for this we’ll need some help. We need to reach such equanimity ourselves. We need all the help we can get. So we can supplicate all the buddhas, all the gurus, all the enlightened ones. May the gurus and the personal deities, all manifestations of the buddhas, may they all grant their blessing to enable me to do so. As you offer this prayer, this supplication, this request, imagine it immediately being granted. As we’ve done before with each in breath imagine the blessings of all the enlightened ones and very specifically your guru and your personal deity, your yidam. Imagine the light of blessings converging in upon you from all sides filling, purifying, awakening your entire being. As you breathe in and as you breathe out, breathe out this aspiration and this resolve. Imagine the rays of light emanating from your heart reaching out to every sentient being individually and bringing each one onto the path, along the path, and to the end of this path, or the very cusp of the end of the path where they realize for themselves, such sublime and inconceivable equanimity. Let’s continue practicing in silence.

[00:49:59] Release all appearances and aspirations, all visualizations and for a moment simply rest in awareness, self illuminating, self knowing.

[00:50:23] Meditation bell rings three times.

[00:51:23] Olaso. So let’s jump right into the text, let’s pick up where we left off. And just with a brief comment before we begin and that is Anna very kindly brought to my attention that I had missed a little grammatical point, a rather important one. Very early in the text, when I remember I was correcting the text and saying that the translator had spoke of this indivisible, inexpressible realm of the vajra mind. And I was saying no it should be the vajra and dharmadhatu, I missed a little kind of thing there. His translation is fine, so correct my correct, throw out my correction. It’s fine. I hope that will not have thrown you off the path and you’ll be okay.

[00:52:06] So now we pick up with the text again. We’re on, here in this and other statements, Milarepa speaks according to the stages of the path system. In other words, his here and elsewhere, his teachings are utterly in accordance with the lam rim teachings which are core to practices that stem in the, all traditions stemming from Atisha. So there we are. Then we continue in the text. And what I’m doing now is I’m just making my, sometimes real corrections, I think there are actually errors in the translation, it happens. My translations have had errors in them and friends have helped me out and corrected them. And sometimes it’s simply a matter of preference. And because I’m teaching so I like to have terminology I am familiar with. And so we continue. But this is why I’m bringing my computer because I’m making corrections right in the text itself.

[00:52:55] And so we continue with the text here. Panchen Rinpoche writes, also Dakpo Rinpoche, this is Gampopa, Dakpo Rinpoche, the chief follower of the exalted Milarepa and the pioneer in mixing of the two streams of Kadampa and Mahamudra. So before becoming Milarepa’s disciple, Gampopa, also known as Dagpo Lhaje he’s called, Dagpo Lhaje, because he was a doctor. He was a doctor. And he was also trained in the Kadampa tradition before he met Milarepa, I won’t go into his whole life story, it will get us bogged down. But before training with becoming a very close disciple of Milarepa he was trained in the Kadampa tradition stemming back to Atisha which means the lam rim tradition. Lam rim, Atisha wrote the first lam rim, A Lamp For The Path to Enlightenment. So he is trained in that. And then of course he became Milarepa’s disciple and received then the Mahamudra transmission and then Gampopa was the first one to integrate these two. Okay and in a way Panchen Rinpoche is now doing something similar by integrating this Mahamudra tradition right back with the new Kadampa tradition and that is Gelugpa, the authentic new Kadampa tradition which is simply Gelugpa, nothing else. No, nothing more to say. [laughter]Right there. And so he mixed, he integrated, he integrated these two streams, bringing these together. And this is in accord with the Kadam mind training, the Lojong training. In his extensive explanations of the famous four dharmas of Dagpo, Dagpo, it’s being his name. The four dharmas of Dagpo. These are four pith lines that can be, you can spend a year if you wished, really elaborating on this and developing it all. And here it is with some modifications in the translation. And some are actually, they are corrections.

[00:54:53] And so the first of the four is, A mind that goes to the dharma. A mind that goes to the dharma, that’s a good translation, a mind that goes to the dharma. This is just immensely rich with meaning. Because a mind that doesn’t go to the dharma and dharma means again as Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey said, dharma is when you’re viewing, the way you’re viewing reality, engaging with reality, cultivating your mind, is leading to a lasting state of well being, a sustainable sense of well being, which can only be eudaimonia. And that’s dharma. Well many many people not only don’t know the name dharma they don’t have any idea of the meaning of dharma whatsoever. Their notion of the good life, of pursuing happiness is one hundred percent hedonia. And so that’s a mind that doesn’t go to dharma. But sooner or later one would hope that people would become illusioned with this, disillusioned, disillusioned with this never ending dissatisfaction and often miserable ocean of samsara. And they emerge from that in a spirit of renunciation. They emerge from their fixation on hedonia and turn their mind to the cultivation of eudaimonia, they turn their mind to dharma and so that’s a wonderful thing when that happens. That’s an absolute revolution in one’s way of being and engaging with reality. It’s absolutely fundamental. And to my mind it’s the only hope for humanity. I really actually believe that. If we have seven billion people wanting to consume more and more and more, that their whole vision of a good life is hedonia, we’re doomed because the planet just won’t, won’t sustain that, it will not be sustainable in any way. So this is kind of important.

[00:56:36] And of course he’s not referring it has to be buddhadharma. Find the dharma that is suitable to you. But the first step is the mind that goes to the dharma and then the second one is migrate passion. So it’s good to practice dharma. It is very good to practice dharma. But is your dharma practice, whether it’s very basic like four thoughts that turn the mind, or it’s reciting Om Mani Padme Hung, or practicing stage of generation and completion. Is your dharma actually bringing you onto the path? A dharma that, and here’s a different translation, a dharma that arises as the path. It doesn’t go to, it’s arising as, it was a mistranslation. Your dharma arises as the path. So there you are cultivating virtue, abiding by ethics, training your mind, shamatha, vipashyana, the four immeasurables and so forth. Is it going to the path or is it just an array of nice practices? Well you can say well I’ve been practicing dharma, yeah you are, but is it going to a path? Does it, are you going to get the path there? Are you going to reach there? And this is a step beyond merely practicing dharma. And so there it is. I’m a [? 57:43 Tibetan] a proponent of marga. And that’s it right there. And then you’re, as you’re on the path the fourth is a path that clears away confusion, dispels confusion, confusion. Is it working? Is it getting at the root of samsara by dispelling ignorance and confusion, ignorance and delusion? So that’s the third, so it’s really working, you’re on the path and it’s working. The medicine is working. The medicine’s are working, you are irreversibly on the path to full healing from all the woes and afflictions of samsara. And then the fourth one is a definite mistranslation and I’m correcting it here because it’s so interesting. But again it’s not debatable, it was just a mistake.

[00:58:21] And that is the fourth one is confusion that arises as, confusion that arises as, gnosis. And I’m happy to stay with gnosis. I translate it as primordial consciousness. But this is interesting, confusion arising as gnosis, how does that work? Well we’re deep into vajrayana territory here. Where the mental afflictions, delusion, craving and hostility are not simply to be annihilated, wiped out, snuffed out, but you’re taking the energy of each one of these and transmuting it as a great spiritual alchemist. You’re transmuting, as we see in all of the iconography of yab yum, you know, sexual union, what’s that all about? It’s transmuting, something that is a very core type of desire, craving, lust, and so forth, and to use a nice Freudian term - sublimating, it’s a nice term because it makes that which is by nature afflictive, gives rise to all manner of misery and sublimates it, so it gives rise to all, all matter of sublimity, of beauty, of magnificence. So the vajrayana, I mean the core of it is you’re not simply snuffing out or trying to annihilate mental afflictions, you’re sublimating them, bringing them on the path, transforming them with the elixir of vajrayana practice, the elixir of dzogchen practice, such that even the root delusion, of confusion itself gets transmuted and it turns into primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena. You remember that one? You remember on the crown? I mean these have places. If we look at the five buddha families, the five types of primordial consciousness, one is the crown. Right up there, Vairochana. In terms of the five poisons, this one’s delusion and it’s transmuted into one of the five types of primordial consciousness, five types of primordial wisdom, and that is the primordial consciousness of dharmadhatu. So it’s confusion that is transmuted into the realization of ultimate reality, that’s a pretty big transmutation. And that’s what he is referring to here. He’s talking about the culmination of the path. So this is breathtaking, one can imagine spending a lot of time on this. This is really some of the core pith instruction from the whole sakya tradition. It’s quite, it’s truly magnificent. So there it is, but we’ll just leave it right there.

[01:00:37] And so that’s from the great Gampopa, one of the two. There was Rechungpa and Gampopa, those were the two principal disciples of Milarepa. Many great stories about the two of them and a very interesting life story you might want to check out one day. Just Gampopa’s life story, it’s quite stirring, quite inspiring. And then similarly the great Vajra holder, the vajradhara, Dragpa Gyaltsen, Dragpa Gyaltsen as I mentioned he was the third of among the five great patriarchs of the sakya tradition. And he, and then his, perhaps the most famous text, root text, in the whole of the sakya tradition is called the [?01:01:14 Tibetan zhen pa bzhi bral] the parting, the separating from the four clingings, the four types of attachments or clingings. It is very very famous. It was, when I went down to a monastery in Switzerland, after training in Germany, my first lama that was really giving me some teachings there was a sakyapa and this is the text he taught me. Parting From or Separating from the Four types of Clinging. So I’ve retranslated these as well. Sometimes it was simply incorrect and sometimes more of a preference, but I’ll let you know. So in Separating from the Four Clingings, this is again root text four lines that summarizes the path. And so I’m going to even change it right now. [laughter] And I’ve just changed something because in Tibetan and Sanskrit there’s not much use of personal pronouns, not much. It tends to be more just the event rather than having it, putting an agent in it. Like we say one does this, one does that, and they would just say it happens. And so I’m trying, it’s a very literal translation here.

[01:02:23] And so the first one, the first of these four partings, If there is clinging to this life, I had if you cling to this life, but he doesn’t say - you. If there is clinging to this life, that’s a very literal translation. [?01:02:36 Tibetan] If there is clinging to this life, you are not a dharma practitioner. That was not correct what was written. It’s not that it’s not dharma it’s - churpa, dharma practitioner. That’s kind of important. So If there’s clinging to this life you are not a dharma practitioner. Well that’s just, that’s definitional there. And what does it mean clinging to this life? That you want to live, you don’t want to die? And no, it’s clinging to the hedonia, clinging to hedonia. If you’re fixating on, attached to hedonia the allures, the pleasures, the pleasant appearances, pleasant people, pleasant places, and so forth, clinging to that, pursuing that, attached to that then you’re not a dharma practitioner, you’re a hedonia practitioner, but not a dharma practitioner. That’s the first one. If there’s clinging to. If there is clinging to samsara,and now this is the whole bandwidth, the whole bandwidth of samsara, including deva realms and so forth and so on. Including our approximations of it in this lifetime. But he’s speaking of the big picture here. If there is clinging to samsara, that is not renunciation. Renunciation, nge jung, the spirit of definite emergence. Total radical disillusionment with all of the attractions of samsara, that’s desire realm, form realm, formless realm, the entire bandwidth, total disillusionment. This is what, this was what Gautama experienced when he tapped even into the form realm and the formless realm and then walked away. And didn’t just dwell there and spend you know, the rest of his life happily dwelling in samsara, in samsara, in this you know, sublime samadhi.

[01:04:10] He had renunciation that’s why he was not content. Oh yeah. So if there is clinging to anything in the bandwidth of samsara then that’s not renunciation. [?1:04:20 Tibetan]

[01:04:21] And then the third one, If there is clinging to self interest, self interest, this is rang don or bdag don, they’re synonymous. And self interest doesn’t mean that you don’t, that if you’re free of it, it doesn’t mean you don’t care about yourself. Self interest here, it’s technical and it’s very important to have a precise, accurate understanding of what it means. It’s prioritizing one’s own well being over that of others. On the path of a bodhisattva there’s rang don and gzhan don and both are acceptable. Both are integral to the path. The rang don is your self interest, but not the prioritization of one’s own interest over others. And so the culmination of self interest, of realizing your self interest, is this classic Mahayana teaching, is realizing dharmakaya. That’s all you could ever hope for. I mean there’s nothing beyond that you could ever imagine. If you realize that then you are just completely, absolutely, inconceivably satisfied. If you realize dharmakaya. That’s it, right. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Right? But then there’s gzhan don and this is also cultivated and one seeks to perfectly realize gzhan dhun and that is the interest of others, the well being of others, the welfare of others. And you perfectly realize that when you realize sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. And now you know you’re doing everything you possibly can for the sake of others. So that’s integral to the bodhisattva path. It’s not a bad thing to have self interest and other interest. But when he’s referring to self interest in this context we know it’s self interest in the sense of self centeredness. Me first, me first. If there is something good out there, I should have it, or my family should have it, or my side should have it. But basically I should have it. And that’s, so if that’s still operative that is not the awakening mind. That is not bodhichitta. The two cannot coexist in the same mindstream at the same time.

[01:06:19] And then finally as we’ve heard so often now, The first five perfections culminate in wisdom. Well he’s culminating on the theme of wisdom, of the authentic view. If grasping occurs, and grasping, oh that’s a word that [?1:06:35 Tibetan]. If grasping occurs that is not the authentic view, that’s not the view. Well, by saying it’s not the view, it’s not the authentic view, it’s not the view of reality. It’s not a reality based view. And one could spend a month on that one just unpacking the bandwidth of grasping all the way up to, first of all grasping onto the inherent nature of phenomena. Then you don’t have the view of the middle way. That’s easy. But if we go into Dzogchen territory, if you’re still grasping to your own identity even conventionally as a sentient being, even conventionally, if you’re still identifying there, then that’s not the Dzogchen view. Because the Dzogchen view, that there’s the Dzogchen view, meditation a way of life, the Dzogchen view is viewing reality from the perspective of rigpa. And that’s viewing reality from dharmakaya. And if you’re still viewing reality from the perspective of being a sentient being that’s not the Dzogchen view. So you can practice all the open presence you like, you can practice for eternity, and if you’re just sitting there with open presence viewing reality from the perspective of a sentient being you are treading water. You are going nowhere. So that’s kind of an important point. So that’s the parting from the four clingings. And we move right on.

[01:07:55] Having directly taught the four inverted tendencies in negative terms, the inverted tendencies of course clinging to this life and so forth. In negative terms, then you’re not a dharma practitioner etc, he discusses the positive counterparts. Okay what’s the upside? What’s the flip side of this? As the antidote to clinging to this life, and that’s the affairs of this life, the hedonic pursuits of this life, and it’s clinging to, it’s not you know, wanting water when you’re thirsty, that’s fine, it’s the clinging, it’s the clinging, it’s the attachment. As the antidote to clinging to this life a person of, now we’re speaking of, this is lam rim terminology. A person of lesser scopes, you have lesser scope, medium scope, and superior scope or higher scope, classic format of lam rim. Many of you know this like your own address. So, As the antidote to clinging to this life a person of lesser scope should think about the free and favored life. I’m not going to mess with this translation, he knows exactly what it means. A person of lesser scope should think about the free and favored life, impermanence, the suffering of the lower realms, and other topics such as karma. So what’s a free and favored life? Well you know that, anybody who knows lam rim, you know he’s referring to a fully endowed, precious, fully endowed human life, endowed with, or replete with the eight types of freedom and the ten types of endowment. And so it is one of free, as in leisure. Favored in the sense of being richly endowed or having filled with opportunity. Impermanence, especially the impermanence of your own life, your own mortality. The suffering of the lower realms and other topics, other related topics.

[01:09:32] And the idea there, this is classic, classic lam rim. The idea there is to turn away from the prioritization of one’s success in this life for taking the longer view of life after life in the future. And saying you know that goes on forever this could go on for maybe five minutes and I could be dead at any time. So now which is more important? You know, my whole life trajectory, life death, life death trajectory from now on after this life or the issues that are relevant, or of value only within the context of this life? And so within the context of this life there are many things of value, many, many, many, many. Have a lot of wealth is, that’s of value, you can do a lot of cool things with wealth. Having power, the fact that you can use it if you have a good motivation, that could be very useful. Prestige, high status you’re glamourous, you’re famous maybe nobility and so forth. And then all the things you can get with those. The three jewels of the mundane world, wealth, power and prestige. Those really are of value within the context of this life. That’s why people go after them because they are of value. But when you’re facing death they have no value at all. I mean, there’s death, you’re going to be dead in five minutes, do you really care now whether you’re going to die with five dollars in the bank or five billion? Whether you are ruling millions of people with tremendous influence and power or nothing? You have tremendous status or none, do you really care? If you do you’re an idiot. [laughter] Because it then has no value whatsoever for you. You can have a really nice tombstone but you won’t even be there to look at it. [laughter] Other people put flowers on this rock and you won’t even be there. It’s kind of like what’s the point? Why are you offering flowers to a rock? And then saying rest in peace as if this moldering piece of flesh filled with maggots is a person. Rest in peace. Which one? Which maggot? None of them are resting in peace, they’re just eating meat. I mean it’s just you know, we are living in such an era of superstition, it’s crazy.

[01:11:39] But there it is and so shifting he said, okay yes these things are of value taking care of your loved ones, warding off enemies, you know, your side, my side and so forth all of that does have value within this life and they have zero life, zero value at the face of death. And so the question is then okay is anything of value when death is right in front of you, and the answer is, yeah, there is. It’s called dharma, that’s the only thing and it’s really really simple. The only thing that is of value, really of value when you are about to die is dharma. And so it would be good to prioritize that way while you’re still alive and not think OH that’s what I should have done. So that’s a person of lesser scope. And then As the antidote for clinging to samsara a person of middling scope, this is a person who has developed profound renunciation, is aspiring for liberation, this person must know the suffering nature of all of samsara and train in the three trainings of the path, ethics, samadhi, and wisdom.

[01:12:30] So there’s the classic sravakayana kind of motivation and we see this is embraced don’t skip this, don’t look down on this, you would be an idiot. This is really important, this total disillusionment with all the allures of samsara, including devas and so forth and so on. That’s the second one. The third one is, As an antidote to striving solely for personal peace and happiness, your own individual separate peace. You know, getting out while the getting’s good and leaving everybody behind as an antidote for that a person of higher scope should contemplate or cultivate, I would actually say cultivate, you’re not, contemplate suggests to me that you’re thinking about it. And it’s not that. should cultivate love, loving kindness either way, compassion and bodhichitta. So there’s the third one.

[01:13:18] And then we come to the culmination and that is, wisdom. And As an antidote to self grasping this is the reification, the grasping to oneself as autonomous, that is the root of samsara, the type of grasping that is the root of samsara, and that is grasping to your own inherent existence. Such a person must contemplate, or meditate upon the lack of self of persons and phenomena. So that’s extremely rich and full and I’m not going to really elaborate on it right now. But he’s focusing, I just shift the translation a little bit. I’m going to leave it there because it’s not incorrect and most people translate it this way. And he says actually persons and dharmas. But then dharma just means phenomena here, so why not say phenomena? That’s all it means. But the lack of self of persons and phenomena, what he’s talking about is the absence of inherent nature of yourself as an individual and the lack of inherent nature of everything else. Everybody else but also all phenomenon, galaxies, elementary particles, space, time, matter, energy, the emptiness of inherent nature of all phenomena. And I use the word identity, the identitylessness of persons and the identitylessness of phenomena, for a very simple reason, just linguistic in English, nobody thinks that a glass of water has a self. I mean who thinks a glass of water has a self? [Alan asks the glass of water] How are you? It doesn’t answer. There is no self there. Nobody ever thought there was. It’s a glass of water. Does the glass of water have its own identity? Its own nature? And so I think the word bdag here, which can easily be translated and often usually is as - self. Well to speak of the selflessness of a glass of water is kind of like, what? I never thought, I guess I never realized it. I don’t believe this glass of water has a self, yeehee. Accepted, nothing happened. Where as I do grasp onto the glass of water as existing from its own side, by its own nature. And the emptiness of its own existence. By its own nature from its own side. That’s the identitylessness of a glass of water. And so, one needs to contemplate the lack of identity, inherent nature of persons and phenomena. Okay, we move right on.

[01:15:32] Thus all the Indian and Tibetan scholar adepts, pundits, and sidhas who comment authoritatively on the sutras and tantras, rightly praise those paths you see the word path is coming up a lot here, those paths explaining them when they explain the preliminaries, the mundo, the preliminary practices. But here is the point, I love this one. But you should not think that they are only preliminaries, you should not think of the mundo, preliminary practices just as preliminary practices. Preliminary practices when you hear the word means okay let’s get that done and now what? As if we’re finished with that one. Like kindergarten is preliminary to first grade. But you don’t go back and do it again. You’re finished with it, you never look back. You think about then second grade, third grade but you don’t think, oh well let’s keep on practicing kindergarten. Nobody thinks that, that would be crazy. Some people approach the mundo, the preliminary practices as something to get through either joyfully or with boredom or tenacity or enthusiasm, but you get through them. Phew, I’ve finished. I’ve finished all the five hundred thousand, phew. I can tell my lama now. I’ll get an empowerment or a big slap on the back, something, something. He’ll smile, something, you’ve finished them, whoa good for you. Good for you. Except he’s saying don’t do that, that’s stupid. Don’t do that. You should also integrate them. The translation I thought was very like, incomprehensible to me actually. You should also integrate them with the main practice. That’s what the issue of union is, you usually integrate it, unite them with your main practice. And so as you’re practicing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s stage of generation and completion, your practicing Mahamudra Dzogchen, you’re continuing and continuing and continuing, these so called preliminary practices. So don’t think it’s before and after. I’ve finished with those now I can get on to the good stuff. But this is just an ongoing process, until you are you know, you’re coming to the end of the bodhisattva way of life, you’re still purifying. You’re still accruing merit. And so that’s Seven Limb Devotion, that’s a keeper. It’s said that Tsongkhapa when he was very highly advanced, he was well into an illustrious career, great scholar, monk, adept, very accomplished already, he was doing hundreds of thousands of prostrations. So much so that the stone, the rock on which he was doing it, he polished it. He polished it with his prostrations. This is a great adept you know. And so he lived what is being taught here. Just really good advice.

[01:18:09] So you should also integrate them with the main practice. In general directly seeing or having direct perception of the ultimate reality of the mind. The dharmata of the mind. Real nature’s not bad, but I just didn’t know what that meant, ultimate reality I know that’s my translation of dharmata, which is emptiness. Which is dharmadhatu, which is, you know shunyata. Directly seeing or having direct perception of the ultimate reality of the mind depends on having that direct realization of emptiness of the mind, depends on collecting a great extensive collection of merit and purifying vices. I like his translation, vices. Better than my translation as, sin. Sin is just too heavy. Too heavy with, you know, baggage from the West. Vices is good. The vice of killing, stealing, and so forth and so on. So vices and so, directly seeing ultimate reality of the mind depends on collecting a great extensive or vast collection of merit and purifying vices and obscurations. I really don’t think it’s correct to say obstacles. Because that’s another word [?1:19:18 tibetan] means obstacle. [?Tibetan] literally means to obscure, so why not call it obscurations. So you should strive for collection and purification during sessions, in between sessions and at all times.

[01:19:30] That’s good, very clear. In particular the text called The Ornament of the Essence says, According to the rite, the ritual of the procedure of, the practice of the hundred syllable mantra, of course vajrasattva mantra. According to this it should be recited twenty times each day, twenty times since downfalls, breaking of your samaya, breaking of your precepts and so forth, since downfalls and so forth are blessed, they’re blessed. So you have downfalls, you have committed a downfall but then it’s blessed, if you’re just doing twenty recitations of the hundred syllable mantra it will take you a very short time. If you recite that, it prevents this negative imprint, which is like a seed, from growing. It’s said this is one of the four laws of karma. That when you engage in an action and it stores a seed in your mindstream the karmic seed is planted there, then just by nature it starts to grow. It’s like putting a seed in the ground it just starts to germinate and grow. And so karma tends to the, the power of the karma tends to simply grow over time, it’s a natural kind of thing. And if it’s a negative karma you really don’t want that. And so just twenty recitations a day according to tradition, twenty, twenty just twenty recitations a day doesn’t purify the negative imprints from broken precepts and so forth, but it does kind of freeze them, so they don’t grow. So damage control that’s what it is. Damage control. And these negative imprints are blessed by this twenty fold recitation of this purificatory mantra. Since downfalls and so forth are blessed, it is said they will not increase. So these negative karmic seeds will not increase. The supreme adepts, the supreme siddhas explain it thus, so you should practice both during and after sessions and if you recite the mantra, one hundred thousand times the utterly pure quintessence will arise.

[01:21:33] So it’s a very very profound purificatory power in reciting a hundred thousand times. It’s often said, very widely said, that if you recite that mantra a hundred thousand times then all negative imprints, all negative karma from the past will be purified. I imagine there are cases in which that’s true. Who am I to refute it? But I just don’t believe in magic. I just don’t believe in magic. And if one has, you know, led a really rotten life. Imagine a real scoundrel, real, a lot of evil, and then he hears about Mahayana Buddhism and says oh you got me a ticket one hundred thousand how long’s that going to take? A few months, that sounds like a good deal. And so this person who’s you know, has engaged in all kinds of reprehensible behavior, goes off and recites vajrasattva, but you know with a really crappy mind. I mean you try and visualize vajrasattva and it’s kind of a white blur and then you recite the mantra and then you’re supposed to visual, and you’re doing the visual, but it’s kind of like really blurry and vague and you’re wandering off all the time, and there’s not really much faith, and you’re not really bringing much in the way of the four opponent powers of the remorse and so forth, but you’re getting through it because this is a magic, this is magic, here. Recite this mantra, just say the mantra one hundred thousand times just get through it. And then all your negative karma is gone. I don’t believe that for a second. Don’t believe it for a second. This is a vajrayana practice. It’s not a sutrayana practice, it’s a vajrayana practice. Which means if you want the efficacy you should be a qualified vajrayana practitioner. Well for that it would have been really good to have achieved shamatha and have bodhichitta and some realization of emptiness. A really qualified vajrayana practitioners have those qualities. If you fully qualified stage of generation practice. So if you have that, you’re doing the vajrasattva practice with the power of your shamatha, or motivation of bodhichitta, and some insight into emptiness and you do the full visualization with the four opponent powers of remorse and so forth, that would be immensely powerful, purificatory, there I have faith. Without that, I don’t believe in magic. Doing this in a half asset way, I don’t believe it. Why would I believe that? I’m not much good at blind faith and that would have to be blind faith.

[01:24:00] So thus since the quote says, the quote just cited, says that If you recite the mantra just twenty times you prevent an increase in downfalls, that means not that you will not have any downfalls in the future but the karmic potency of the downfalls you’ve committed will not expand, and if you recite it a hundred thousand times you also wash away the root of downfalls. You purify all you know, broken precepts and so forth. You must exert yourself in the recitation, the meditation, recitation and then the full visualization, the full practice of vajrasattva. So he is encouraging this. Moreover you must confess your downfalls hundreds of times while making prostrations. This was missed the first time it came up, it was missed the second time as well. So moreover you must confess your downfalls hundreds of times while making prostrations and strive sincerely to disclose and restrain yourself [?1:24:54 Tibetan] means to disclose and dam means to restrain. I disclose, I confess, I feel remorse, and in the future I won’t do it again. That didn’t come through the translation. So strive sincerely to disclose and restrain yourself from such downfalls in square brackets, via the four opponent powers. Power of remorse, power of reliance, power of the antidote, power of resolve. Then, it’s not therefore, it’s a simple word it’s [?Tibetan 1:25:26] it means then. Then your own triply kind guru triply kind, you remember that? Kind because because the guru,fully qualified vajrayana guru grants empowerment, oral transmission, commentary. Then your own triply kind root guru who is the source of all virtue and goodness here and hereafter in this life and in what follows. And the essence and the guru is the essence of the liberation of all the conquerors, their children, the buddhas and the bodhisattvas and the lordly adepts the great siddhas. So your own triply kind guru should be imagined as being inseparable from the buddhas of the three times.

[01:26:01] Imagine your own guru as the embodiment of, indivisible from, a synthesis of, all the buddhas of the three times. All the buddhas of three times you just imagine all of them converging here and taking on this form. One for all, all for one. Or as the quintessence of the triple gem, imagine your guru as the quintessence of the whole buddha, dharma, and sangha. So the buddha’s mind, is the buddha, the buddha’s speech is the dharma, and the buddha’s body is sangha. All in one. And you should cultivate the so called guru practice or the profound path, guru yoga. Appealing to the guru uninterruptedly again and again this is offering prayers of supplication, appealing is fine, but offering prayers of supplication unto the guru uninterruptedly again and again. From the bottom of your heart is the truly meaningful keypoint this is universally emphasized, especially in vajrayana. When Dromton, Dromton-pa, principal disciple of Atisha, lay person by the way. When Dromton-pa loudly requested of the great jewel, Atisha requested of his guru. Atisha, I request instruction, please teach me. Atisha said - Ha Ha, I have good ears and my instruction is faith, faith, faith. There we are, that’s silly. That’s not a door. Just a little bit more and then we will take our break for two days. So also [?1:27:35 Tibetan], that is Sakya Pandita, says, Those who have received empowerment received empowerment. How do you received it?. Thus people who have received empowerment seeing that the whole triple gem, buddha, dharma and sangha is synthesized in the guru, embodied in the guru, will incur or receive blessings when they appeal to the guru.

[01:27:57] So, if you simply idolize your guru, reify your guru, as this man or woman who is very charismatic, and he’s perhaps very good, very, you know, holy even. But you reify, then you may get the blessings from that guru. If the guru’s like me then you have no blessings to give, so nothing. But if you don’t reify, if you don’t idolize, but you see the emptiness of the guru, you see the emptiness of your guru from his or her own side, and in that illusory apparition of the guru, you view the guru as the embodiment of the buddha, dharma and sangha, then you will receive blessings, and you call for blessings. You’re looking right through almost like holographic image, you’re looking right through that image to the buddha, the dharma, the sangha. Right through that image to all the buddhas of the three times and you’re calling for blessings and you receive blessings from the buddha, dharma and sangha, from the buddhas of the three times. Because that’s who you are making the request to. And not just to somebody who is going to be dead in a little while, which is just a person, you know. So some like Yangthang Rinpoche, great beings like his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and so forth. Gyalwang Karmapa, they’re really holy beings. If you pray to them they’ll give you blessings, they really are sources, like I said, of profound realization. So even if you idolize them you still get real benefit. I mean you’re still delusional but you still get benefit. [laughter] Because they really are holy beings, I mean they really have that power. If you look to somebody like me I’ve got nothing, nothing to give whatsoever. I may give instruction, that’s what I can give. But blessing? Nothing. I’m an empty pot, nothing.

[01:29:40] But if you look through the nothing, and if you look through at me or anybody else, it could be anybody sitting here, you look through that holographic empty image, and your real object of devotion is the buddha, or your yidam, Padmasambhava, Tara, whoever it may be, then even if you move nothing, you still get blessing. Whew, that’s really something, that’s wonderful, it’s good for you, good luck. [laughter] Otherwise you’d be out of luck you’d just get instruction, you might as well turn on the tape recorder. You know. So if I were, if I were a Rinpoche, I’m not, but if I hypothetically, if I were a Rinpoche, I should have to be called Keeso Rinpoche, that would be my choice, keeso. Dogtooth, Dogtooth Rinpoche [laughter] wonderful. One of the best stories and then we’ll end there because it’s such a nice story. One of the best stories in Tibetan Buddhism. Probably true, I think it probably is true. I don’t have any reason to doubt it. But it was years ago probably centuries ago and there was a very very devout old Tibetan woman, very deep faith, very pure soul and she had a son who was a merchant. And he would go periodically to India. And she besieged him, ‘son when you go to India, bring back a sacred relic, bring back something from the Buddha. It’s the holy land, it’s where the Buddha was, you must, you know, you’re a rich merchant you can find it. So please bring back a relic of the Buddha, that will just make my day. It would be a tremendous blessing’. And the son, he’s a businessman, he’s busy, he said sure sure Mom, no problem, no sweat, no sweat, you betcha. He went down to India and he had forgot, he forgot. He’s a businessman, you know, it wasn’t his priority. And so he’s coming back and then he sees this, you know the house is just across the way and then, oh geez I forgot. And she’s going to be really disappointed, she may be really pissed off at me. And so what to do? And he saw a carcass of a dog on the side of the path. A dead dog, it’s just the bones. And he said well she won’t know the difference, she’s you know, old village lady. So he went down to the dog’s skull and plucked out a tooth from the dog’s skull. And then he wrapped it, he had some really nice satin, some really nice silk from India. He wrapped it in brocade and made it really, really pretty. And then - bye bye dog. And then he went off to see him mom. And his mom said son did you bring the relic, did you bring something from the Buddha? A relic of the Buddha? And he said, yes I did Mom, I brought a tooth of the buddha, sacred, I brought it all the way from India. And you know, wrapped in this, you know, he did a good job really wrapped in this beautiful brocade, she was overwhelmed, just so grateful, so profoundly moved by her faith. Imagine with kind of trembling hands, with, I mean really deep reverence. This is really, this is the kind of faith I’ve seen many times in Tibetans. Then she placed this tooth, this sacred tooth of the Buddha on her altar and she started making prayers to it. And then rays of light emanated, emanated from the tooth and she received tremendous blessing. From a dog’s tooth. But she saw it with pure vision, and the dog’s tooth was just a little prop and that was the conduit for the blessing of the Buddha. So some people say when I’m teaching and get blessing, this is the dog’s tooth. [laughter] That’s it, you think I’m being humble, you’re wrong. Just trying to be honest. But you can get blessings even from a dog’s tooth. You’re laughing, I’m not laughing, you notice I’m not laughing at all. Very good.

[01:33:29] So tomorrow is our day just for practice. And obviously people who have your interviews scheduled tomorrow of course they’re going to move it to Sunday. So enjoy the day with nothing to do except practice dharma.

Transcribed by KrissKringle Sprinkle

Revised by Cheri Langston

Final edition Rafael Carlos Giusti

Special Thanks to Jon Mitchell for contribution of partial transcripts.

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