Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. An airplane analogy — likening Tibet’s four Buddhist schools to different aircraft models all governed by the same aerodynamics — captures one of Khensur Rinpoche’s key points in this 89-minute public talk at Buddha House: that the Nyingmapa, Sakyapa, Kagyupa, and Gelugpa traditions share identical aims despite surface differences. He first lays historical groundwork, tracing Buddhism’s entry into Tibet through Songtsen Gampo and the scholar Tömi Sambhota, who devised the Tibetan alphabet. He then explains the Sanskrit meaning of “Dharma,” distinguishes mental from physical happiness, and presents love and compassion as the foundation of non-harmful conduct. The session closes with a sustained, practical analysis of anger — illustrated by the story of a man named George and his unwitting benefactor Mary — and frames mind training as the path to lasting happiness. Ideal for newcomers to Tibetan Buddhism.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 1988 10 23 PT Tibetan Buddhism.mp3
UUID: 8594af00-89a0-4b88-ac14-15358956421c
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks 1988-2003 (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 1988-10-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 89.1 minutes
Words: ~6,031
So we’ve we’ve all come from a far distance. You’ve come from your various parts various areas and come to Buddha House. And likewise, I’ve come a long distance and we’ve come together. We’ve gathered together here on this occasion. And this is brought about our coming together through the kindness of the all the volunteer workers of Buddha House.
So today, the subject that we’re going to discuss is the the Dharma as it was practiced in Tibet, the Buddhism of Tibet. So with respect to the Buddhism as it’s being practiced in Tibet, we can discuss it from various points of view. For example, we can discuss it from the point of view of the earlier and later disseminations, from the early translations, the later translations, and also from the point of view of the four schools. So within Tibet, there are three main areas or districts, provinces. And these have the the uncommon names of the province of the Dharma, the province of humanity, and the province of horses.
And throughout these three main provinces the doctrine of Buddha spread like the rising of a sun. And so these rose through the two main periods of dissemination, the early period and the later period of dissemination. So the earlier dissemination was begun with Songtsen Gampo. Songtsen Gampo. Who is a manifestation of Chenrezig or Avalokiteśvara.
So previous to Songtsen Gampo, who began the early dissemination, Buddhism did not exist in Tibet. So it was two princesses from the kingdoms of China, early China and early Nepal were invited to marry with the king and they brought with them their respective traditions of Buddhism. And they also brought with them as offerings two images of the Buddha, very important images, which were placed in the one was placed in the main cathedral which is now in Lhasa, and the other was brought to Lhasa also but is not existent any longer. These were the offerings that they brought with them. These were the first images the Buddha ever brought to Tibet.
The king then began to send emissaries to India in order to begin to that they could train in the language of India, in the language of the Dharma, which was Sanskrit. So they began to study the Sanskrit language and they began the transmission through the process of translation into the Tibetan language. So one of the greatest of scholars during this period was — his name was Tömi Sambhota. And he was a minister of the king and the king sent him to India to learn the various Sanskrit languages. And he actually came back and formed the Tibetan alphabet which previous to that point had never had a written alphabet.
And subsequent to that, having formed this new alphabet, they could actually begin the transmission through translation of the teachings. Up to that point, the written teachings had never been able to be translated or transmitted. And then began the flow of great scholars and translators and adepts to Tibet after this period with such masters as Kamalaśīla. And they began to the transmission of all the discourses of the Buddha such as the discourse on Avalokiteśvara, the sūtra of Avalokiteśvara. The various tantric and secret mantra texts began to flow to Tibet.
During this the transmission of the teachings to Tibet, two of the greatest supports in this process were the thirty-seventh king whose name was Trisong Detsen, and the forty-first king who was Tri Ralpachen, who was an emanation or a manifestation of vajrapani. And it’s through their efforts that all the various the the various the teachings of the Buddha himself and all the Indian commentaries were finally brought to Tibet and translated. It was through the efforts of this the latter king, Tri Ralpachen, that the monastic tradition began to grow. He actually instituted a tradition whereby each monk was supported by seven families to provide all the necessities. But they followed a very an evil king, the forty second king, whose name was Langdarma.
And he caused he sought to suppress the Buddhism in Tibet. And due to his activities, the Dharma degenerated to the point where the Dharma was almost nonexistent. The teachings were almost nonexistent. And he had many monks killed and they had the monasteries dissipated, destroyed. Buddhism was on decline due to his intervention.
But there was one great bodhisattva whose name was Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje, who took it on into his own hands to kill this king with a bow and arrow. Subsequent to that, there began re establishment of the monastic tradition. One of the innovators, initiators of this re-establishment of the monastic tradition was Lama Gongpa Rabsel. And he, two other monks, were able to re establish what was almost the lost tradition of the monastic lineage in Tibet. So if we go to the various schools which are now current in Tibet, the various traditions, there are the Nyingmapas, the Sakyapas, the Kagyupas, and the Gelugpas.
So, when we were discussing the origin of the Nyingmapa, means the old school. And the origin of the old school is in accordance with the earlier and later translation schools. When the original teachings of the Buddha were brought to Tibet and translated, they were known as the early translation school. The great master Padmasambhava was invited from India to Tibet. And there he translated volumes of texts and he gave vast teachings on both sūtra and tantra.
And, in dependence upon his tradition that he established his teachings and his translations, It is in accordance with the translations of the early translation school and they became known as the Nyingmapas or the old school. So roughly the the the years that differentiate the early translation school and the later translation school are anything up to approximately the year eight seventy eight was up to that point is considered the early translation school and after that period is considered the later translation school. At this period, with the commencement of the early translation school, this was instituted by the great translators such as Rinchen Sangpo and the translator Marpa Lotsawa. So this accords with the emergence of the three later schools of present day Buddhism. That is the Sakyapas, the Kagyupas, and the Gelugpas.
So with the in in the year ten twelve with the In the year ten twelve, the great translator Marpa began his was born and he eventually journeyed to India three times in order to get various teachings and the transmissions. And he received teachings from the great masters of India such as Naropa, Matripa, and then he returned to Tibet. And there he meditated and attained great realizations. And he passed on his realizations and teachings to such students as Milarepa. Then in the year of ten thirty four, the master Khön Könchog Gyalpo was born.
He also journeyed to India and there received the various transmissions, empowerments and teachings and returned to Tibet, meditated and attained great realizations. He began to teach to his various disciples passing on the lineage transmission from the five great earlier masters, that tradition. in dependence upon him, the Sakyapa tradition was founded. And then the great scholar, Adept Tsongkhapa, was born in the year thirteen fifty seven. And he too, through listening to the various teachings, reflecting upon them and meditating, attained great realizations.
And then he spread his lineage and his teachings to his various disciples, among the foremost of which was Gyaltsab Je and Khedrup Je. And in dependence upon him, the tradition or the school of Gelukpa was founded. So some people these days have the opinion that the four different schools which currently exist within Tibetan Buddhism are in some way in disagreement with one another. So they’re somehow in conflict with one another. This not at all the case.
All of the sources for all of the teachings within these four great traditions of the schools currently of Tibetan Buddhism have their source from the teachings of Buddha himself. So this is where all their lineages originated from, from Buddha himself. This is where it began. And within the middle of this period of transmission they all relied on the great Indian masters who practiced and achieved in accordance with the original teachings of the Buddha. Their teachings, the lineage of these teachings and their various commentaries, their thoughts upon these teachings were translated both from the sources of sūtra and tantra into Tibetan.
So and then these were practiced as they actually were without any fabrications added. And had that’s the traditions as they’re now found in Tibet were in a direct lineage without any additions or omissions from the teachings of the Buddha himself. So, you know, we can liken the difference between these schools of Tibetan Buddhism to the different models of airplanes which exist today. You know, the various designs, they have various colors, various shapes, they have various differences in internal workings, their operation. But essentially these variations are minor to the fact that they all depend upon the laws of aerodynamics.
They all depend upon some sort of combustion engine. Therefore, though they have all these various minor variations, still the basic the foundation of design is very much the same. This holds true for the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. They all have though they all vary according to having difference in terminology, difference in the skillful methods employed, they all have the same aims and the same essential practices and the meanings of the teachings are the same. Some other people have the mistaken idea that what is being practiced in Tibet is something which is called Lamaism.
They see it as some sort of fabrication which has nothing or very little to do with actual Buddhism. Well this too is not the case. In fact, all of the teachings which are current in Tibet, which are made use of, which are practiced, all have their source, their foundation within the actual teachings of the Buddha as their original source. And the various commentaries and explanations according with the Indian Panditas who practiced them and realized them. And then these were exactly as they were taught, were translated, transmitted to Tibet and they’re being practiced and taught exactly as they were given by the Buddha and the various Indian pandits.
So if we discuss a little bit about what we mean by the Dharma. The word Dharma comes from Sanskrit. Word Dharma is Sanskrit. Sometimes it’s translated as truth or doctrine or teachings. It’s a Sanskrit word which literally means to hold or to lift up.
And it said that there So it’s said that the Dharma is like nectar in its benefit. Now within it’s said that there are three types of nectar. There is the nectar of deathlessness, which is to say the type of nectar which brings long life. And then there’s the nectar of sickness — sickness, I don’t have to make up any word.
Which is the nectar of medicine. Then the nectar of non misery, which is the nectar of the uncontaminated nectar. So the Buddha was born into a patrician family near the Indian border. And he was raised in royal setting, but at an early age he renounced his household and he went forth. And he spent six years involved in ascetic practices.
And then finally at Bodh Gaya he attained Buddhahood. And upon having attained Buddhahood, he said, I have found the nectar of Dharma, but others will not be able to understand what I have found. Therefore, I I will not show it to others. So now what is the function of Dharma? What is the ability of the Dharma?
It’s said that the Dharma is that which is able to eliminate dissatisfaction and bring happiness. So, Buddha said, you know, I have found a nectar which would, at present, no one can understand. He had made some discovery. What Dharma was he talking about? And this was he had found the truth of emptiness.
So the reason that dharma is so important is that it has the ability to eliminate our dissatisfactions and bring us the happiness that we want. So no matter who the person may be, no matter whether they’re people or animals in fact, they are all the same and wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer. So with respect to happiness, there are two types. There’s the physical happiness and mental happiness. So there are various ways we can bring about our happiness.
Within the various types of happiness there are various varieties. There’s, you know, the different degrees of happiness, great happiness, subtle happiness. There are profound happiness, superficial happiness. Where do we find happiness? We won’t find you know, where does happiness actually exist?
It doesn’t exist within various material objects such as stones, etcetera. It exists within those objects which possess mind, which possess feeling. So there are different methods by which we can bring about the happiness that we’re looking for. For example, with respect to the happiness with respect to physical happiness, when we’re if we’re hungry, we can eat food. If we’re cold, we can warm ourselves.
If we’re hot, we can drink cool water. So this is a way this this is a method whereby we can eliminate we can bring about physical happiness. But this ability to bring about physical happiness to this degree is found amongst all types of sentient life, sentient beings, even animals, for example. You know, if they’re hot, they will go to some place where it’s cool. If they’re hungry, they’ll eat some food.
Therefore, even animals are able to attain this type of physical happiness. But, you know, we as humans, we have superior abilities to go beyond this this mere level of finding coarse physical happiness. You know, have intelligence which surpasses that of animals. Can become skilled in various fields of knowledge and understanding. So this is really excellent to be able to bring about such types of physical happiness.
But such a way of if we merely rely upon such methods to find all our happiness then we aren’t going to really find the happiness that we’re ultimately seeking. These types of happiness are excellent, but these methods of bringing that type of happiness cannot actually bring us what is a greater type of happiness that is the mental happiness. Now the method by which to bring about mental happiness is through a type of spiritual practice. If we bring about the happiness to the mind, then this will indirectly bring about physical happiness, whereby the reverse is not true. By bringing about physical happiness, it does not necessarily follow that we’re going to experience mental happiness.
Between the mind and body, the mind is the principal source of our well-being. If the mind is happy, then in general the being is happy. The physical happiness will follow upon mental happiness. So within the tradition of Buddhism, the methods for bringing about mental happiness are subsumed under two classes, view and conduct. So within the view, what we essentially mean is dependent arising.
That is the the understanding of emptiness. And when we talk about conduct, essentially we’re talking about not bringing harm. So in order to bring in bringing about the in instituting conduct, that is involving ourselves in the practice of non harm, this involves the development of love and compassion. In what way does love and compassion involve us in the Institute? It puts us in the practice of not harming others.
When we talk about compassion, means the feeling which arises when we look at others and we see them undergoing some difficulties, some suffering. We think to ourselves, Oh, I wish they weren’t suffering. By generating such a thought, there’s no way we’re going to think to harm others, where in fact we’re thinking that we wish that they’d be separated from harm. When we talk about love, we’re talking about the thought which initially we direct toward ourselves in the fact of wishing ourselves to have happiness. But we look to others and we wish them the thought arises, Oh, I wish they were happy.
Wish they had whatever they wanted, whatever bring them any joy. With this wish is what we call love. If we were to develop these two minds in conjunction with each other, the compassion which seeks to has the thought to separate others from their suffering, and the love which wishes that others have happiness, then there’s no way that we’re going to harm others. In fact, we’re going to work to benefit them. So, such a way of thinking brings about harmony amongst people in general.
But, you know, we can take the case of a husband and wife. If the husband wishes the wife that she wasn’t suffering, that in fact that she was happiness, then the wife is naturally going to like the husband. And likewise, if the if the wife wishes the husband happiness and not to suffer, there’s going to be harmonious relationship between them. So likewise we can extend this not only from individuals but to groups of individuals to to regions. You know, we can extend it to even parts of the country and and ultimately to the entire world where the various countries where develop the thought that wishing happiness and to So, thinking in this way, wishing others happiness and not letting others be harmed, and creating a harmonious atmosphere, Not only is oneself going to be happy, be made happy, but others will be made happy.
Not only in such a relationship that So, we will in thinking in such a way, we’re going to develop skillful ways of relating with others. We’ll have various types of excellent conduct and developing harmonious relationships. And in this way. So, those who possess love and compassion are highly regarded by others. They’re looked on as being noble minded people, being a great minded person.
So in this way we will not only have happiness in this life, will have happiness in the next life, and all the lives after that will be happy. So this is the benefit to be derived from the development of love and compassion. So this is the result of all the various aspects of the Buddha Dharma that is not only in the case of love and compassion whereby we’re going to be happy in this life and future lives but all the such practices as generosity, patience, etc. All these are aspects of the Dharma and all have the same similar fruits of happiness now and in the future. So if we were to take this to its fullest measure, that is, the thought of love and compassion, this is found in the awakening heart, the bodhicitta.
Merely We can have the thought not to harm others, but this does not necessarily entail that we seek their benefit. Whereas with mind, with the awakening heart, the mind of enlightenment, we not only will not harm others, but we’re going to do everything we can to bring about their happiness to be able to benefit them. So, with respect to the other main aspect of dharma, that is the view, The view is dependent arising. If we take the example of the flower, the flower is dependent upon the aggregation of causes and conditions. That is to say, it arises in dependence upon a seed, earth and water, for example.
When these come together, their in dependence upon those conditions, a flower develops. If we can understand dependent arising, then we can realize emptiness. Dependence upon understanding emptiness, can attain Buddhahood. So, we’ve just said a few words about emptiness just now. Just hearing about these few words about emptiness is a great benefit.
Has a great meaning. So the adverse of love is anger. And the various states the negative states such as anger, desire, attachment, pride these various negative states actually bring about our own harm. So these various afflictive emotions such as anger, pride, etc, arise continually within our mind. And they not only bring ourselves unhappiness, but they cause those around us unhappiness, you know, our wife or our husband, for example.
But not only that, with the in dependence upon that, the very area that we’re around the people in that area brought unhappiness. And this extends not only to the area but to the country and finally to the world. So just as we can understand that the various external objects that are about us, some are able to bring us happiness, some are able to bring us physical happiness, some are cause us physical suffering. Likewise, from that, we can understand that there must be objects which bring us mental happiness and objects which bring us mental suffering. So the method that we can begin to practice is that we may have to begin to recognize what types of mind bring us happiness, what types of mind are in fact suffering.
There’s these various minds which are continually rising throughout our everyday life. So we have to begin to identify what is a happy mind, what is a suffering mind, what causes a happy mind, what causes a suffering mind. Begin to develop the mind training, through mind training to develop those more and more and increase the frequency and the power of happy states of mind and to begin to decrease the power and frequency of negative or unhappy states of mind. So, you know, we can take we can try to find one example and recognize one example of a type of mind which causes us suffering and begin to train ourselves into lessening the frequency of the ability of that type of mind to arise and finally cease it altogether. So, for example, if we take the example of the negative mind of anger which in no way brings us happiness.
So, if we take this example of anger, now, in what way does anger arise? How does anger arise? It arises in dependence upon an object. If we take a person and we look at this person and we think to ourselves, This person really caused me a lot of trouble last year. And they’re still causing me trouble.
They’re going to keep causing me trouble in the future. Dependence upon that, we’re going to develop anger. We’re going to develop this negative state of mind. Likewise, if we can think, Oh, this person caused my family a lot of trouble last year, then they’re still causing my family a lot of trouble. And perhaps in the future, they’re gonna cause my family trouble.
Likewise, we can develop anger and say, you know, we had you know, we’ve been talking about this one enemy whose name we’ll say is George. Okay? It’s George over here. He’s the guy that’s causing us all this trouble. And now, there’s somebody that we actually like whose name is Mary.
But Mary keeps helping George, who is our enemy. And we keep seeing George become happier and being benefited by Mary. Our enemy is actually progressing more than we are, becoming happy. So slowly, slowly we’re going to begin to dislike Mary. Mary is going to become our enemy.
So we can begin to we have to begin to recognize, identify the cause which brings about our anger. You know, when anger begins to arise in our mind, it can arise to become so powerful that, in fact, we have no we are completely enslaved to it. We have no freedom from the anger. And, almost against our will, our will we will try to hurt another person no matter who that person might be. It could be a member of our family, someone who we a friend.
It’s as if we’re powerless and we have no freedom and we will hurt this person through our words or physical actions. So, you know, when we get to this state where where anger has arisen in our mind, you know, the whole area as if becomes appears red to us. You know, we’re not we cannot sit contently. We have to get up and we have to do something with our body. We become agitated.
You know, if we try to sleep, can’t sleep. But when we try to eat, even if it’s tasty food, usually tasty food, it has we’re not able to enjoy the flavor. So these are all the negative qualities that arise through for ourselves when we ourselves get angry. So, you know, with the rising of anger, we become hostile towards others. And even those who were good friends before can come to blows, can begin to fight each other.
This anger causes conflicts between nations and ultimately brings about the world conflicts. So, you know, by the force of anger, all the various positive energy that we may have created can be destroyed. The force of anger destroys our mental and physical happiness, not only of this life but in future lives. So we can all see this directly for ourselves. So, you know, when we think about this, if we reflect upon it, we can we can understand this directly for ourselves in our own experience.
So those who have studied the awareness and knowledge, which is one particular text which lists the various states, various divisions of mind, understand that in this one example that we’ve given with respect to anger, that there are many, many similar negative states of mind which also inflict us in the same way. We should have to develop the initiative to be able to, the moment that we realize anger is arising in our mind, to be willing to apply a proper antidote by which to overcome it and not allow it to rise any further. So, you know, we should be able to develop the alertness where to these the various states of mind which arise and be able to identify them. It would be, for example, if we knew that some untrustworthy person was coming to visit you that you who had a reputation of being a thief. That when this person walked in your house, you’d watch them very carefully.
So this is the When we talk about the Dharma, we’re talking about When we talk about the Buddha Dharma, we’re actually talking about the ways to transform our mind that is, ways in which we can involve ourselves in mind training. This is the foundation of the Dharma. So, we all have a mind within us. And within these various within this mind, there are continually arising negative states of mind and positive states of mind. So, we have to become an expert with regard to the various states of mind which are arising, which involves actually training in the nature of the mind, understanding how it operates.
Just like in, you know, being able to observe, just as in the case of watching a thief when he comes in your home. If can develop ourselves in this way, then gradually, slowly we can begin to increase the force the frequency of positive states of mind and begin to be able to decrease the force and the frequency of negative states of mind. And thereby we’re going to in this way we can bring about the happiness that we desire and eliminate the suffering that we don’t want. So if we can practice in such a way developing the positive states and decreasing the negative states of mind, then we can arrive at the point where even if we didn’t want to be happy, we would have no choice about it. Would be as if forced upon us.
But if we don’t practice in this way, if we remain in this allowing the negative states to consistently arise their frequency and force, then even though we want happiness, it’s not going to come to us. So, there’s an account of a great master who lived in Tibet. And he had trained himself very well in the practices of mind training, in developing the positive states of mind and decreasing the force of negative states of mind. Throughout his entire life, he used to pray that he might be reborn in hell in order to benefit the beings who lived there. At the time of his death, he realized as he was dying that his wish was not going to come true, but in fact he was going to be reborn in a divine celestial land.
It’s said that if we are cultivating a field and we plant a good seed, give it the best of fertilizer, we give it plenty of water, then even having done that, even if we were to pray with all our heart that a bad crop that we won’t get a bad crop, our prayer will not be answered. We’re going to there’s going to arise a good crop. On the other hand, if we plant, you know, defective seeds, if we don’t add fertilizer, if we don’t give enough water, and if we pray with all our heart, Oh, may I have a good crop? May I have a good crop? There’s no way we’re going to get a good crop.
If we create and gather together skillful causes, then it’s definite that the skillful causes are not going to go to waste, that it’s going to arise a positive effect. On the other hand, if we don’t gather the skillful causes together, positive causes, then even if we were to pray for a beneficial effect, it’s not going to arise. So we ran out of time and we had hoped that there would be time left for some questions, but it’s getting late, so you won’t have questions. Rinpoche appreciates very much that you’ve come and you’ve listened you’ve come all this way and that you’ve listened so well to this talk. The prayer we’re going to do now just to dedicate the merits — we run side two.
[Side two from the right hand side.] Thanks so much everybody for coming and being so patient. It is unusual to work through a translator, but in fact, we’re terribly lucky that Tibetan lives in an easy language. And in fact, in the fifty centers associated with Buddha House, we’re the only one with the with the native born English speaker. And the message that the Lama gives is really so worthwhile that even we can just be aware of it at the agitation of our mind and the discomfort even just sitting while the there’s the transmission.
We can can check the condition of our mind. But what I wanted to say was that tomorrow is it tomorrow? Tomorrow morning. Yes. Tomorrow morning, we’re starting daytime teachings at ten o’clock.
If people have time, they might like to come. There’s a nominal charge for all the teachings. We try to keep the cost here as low as possible. And then on Tuesday and Thursday night, he gives other teachings. The Tuesday night ones are particularly appropriate for new students, but anybody could come on either night.
If you the essence of the whole thing is combining a little bit of meditation with reading and coming to teachings. In this way, the Tibetan Buddhism was really all about working with the mind to cut through the illusion of the the delusions and the kind of grasping for happiness to get a very calm kind of base on which we can get to know ourselves and make choices for our lifestyle so that we, in fact, through Buddhism, we have a richer life, a life when we go you know, when we die, we don’t look back filled with regret. And it’s particularly appropriate to vast societies, you know, where the emphasis is always on material possessions and so and our relationship with them. And if we work to come with the mind, so we get benefit in the way that Rinpoche was about to outline. And what he was teaching today was really just the kind of the well — it’s like a human body — the top little chunk of my finger.
So that the teachings are much more specific about the method to be happy and the method to work to calm the mind. And I think anyone who hasn’t put their name on the newsletter can do so, and you’ll get the program for six months. There’s never been a Tibetan Lama living in Adelaide before. Lama Lhundrup was here for six months, but some of that time was in the States. A fantastic opportunity. We’ve waited five or six years for him to come for Lama to come.
He’ll we hope he’ll be here for a while, but exactly how long the opportunity will present itself, we’re not sure. Jampa is a highly qualified teacher — Jampa Gannon is his ordained name — he’s lived for thirteen years in the east, and he’s taught himself Tibetan, which is a fair indication of his dedication. And he gives talks on Friday night, very thorough talks from a Western point of view. Gradually, Australian Buddhism will develop. And although the prayers and putting the mind in the right clarity is very [important], But gradually, as the years go by, already, there’s quite a development of an Australian kind of ethos in the whole thing, so people should be aware of that.
Tonight’s a free talk. We’re terribly grateful that you could come. We we found out that the first one cost two hundred and fifty dollars a panel, and getting the Lama here cost us about six thousand dollars. We’re a very small group. And if people would like to contribute, there’s some donation bowls I put there, It’s I’m asking more of necessity than being greedy.
I hope so. We we we we try to offer many free programs here, and if people actually wanna get started, on Monday night at quarter to six every Monday, there’s how to meditate. You can pay a lot of money to learn to meditate, but we as a community service, we try to offer that freely. And once you’ve been once or if you can already meditate, can come come on Sunday at ten o’clock. We have an hour of med about an hour of meditation, and that’s free.
All the meditation programs here are free. So if everybody here contributed three or four or five dollars or a bit more, we would pay for the advertisement. It would be very much appreciated. But if it isn’t free, there’s no obligation, and we’re very grateful that you could come and share this evening with us. The the cost of the courses are there’s a concession rate and but the if you’re employed and wealthy, it’s still just a small sum involved.
Is there anything else? Tea. So I’d really like to invite you to have a cup of tea. If anybody we have a lot of books here. The books the books are a really private way.
Buddhism itself is a private way of med mental growth because you don’t have to reveal anything. We don’t know your name. You don’t and all your problems. It’s something you work. It’s something you don’t have to reveal your problems is what I’m saying.
This method is working with the mind so only you know what’s happening. It’s a very intimate kind of method, and reading is a vital part. And so we have quite a display of wisdom books there. And if anybody who’s disappointed they couldn’t ask a question, they could see me or one of the other students, or maybe I we can advise on a book. But there’s a cup of tea out there, and thank you once again so much for coming.
And, please, if you could help us with the cost of the ad, I’d be very grateful. Thank you.