Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour session, Ven Jampa Gendun opens with T.S. Eliot’s lines on the endless cycle of action and ignorance to frame a pointed question: what are we actually going for refuge to? He works through a panoramic list of secular refuges — families, money, politics, sex, divorce, fertility programs — before presenting the Three Jewels as a tested alternative. A guided meditation on breath-counting and rejoicing in one’s own good actions across five time intervals leads into the main subject: the teacher-student relationship. Gendun explains why guru devotion functions not from the teacher’s side but through the student’s own empowering, lists Tsongkhapa’s five qualities of a qualified teacher (ethical conduct, meditative stabilization, wisdom, understanding of emptiness, and great compassion), and describes how to rely on spiritual friends while still searching for such a teacher.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 3PA 2006 08 21.mp3
UUID: 38a849e8-cc57-4646-bdc9-3157ecab49e0
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2006-2007 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2006-08-21
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 126.4 minutes
Words: ~14,361
I can hear it from you. I was always That’s right. Can you hear me in the back? Okay. Thanks.
So we begin by adjusting our motivation. There is a certain, you know, in the west there is a lot of debate and argument and there’s never been quite settled whether this idea of free will and determinism, you know, how how much of choice do we actually have. It depends upon our awareness. The degree that we understand our situation and ourselves. You know, future is not predetermined.
It only comes up to the present. The present is open ended. If we understand our patterns, the way that our thinking runs, begin to understand how we normally react to various situations and people. Then the patterns become vulnerable to interruption, become diminished, to become changed in some way. So the past only determines our lives up to the present.
Within the present moment we can synthesize all that we’ve experienced in the past along with our present understandings and begin to create a kind of a new future for ourselves. So there is a factor of determinism in the sense of neurosis is a chain like repetitive repeating of everything that’s gone before. There is that. But there is an aspect of creativity in the present moment in terms of intention. And why it is that we’re doing what it is we’re doing in the present.
And that begins alter the type of future that we want to experience. So, our experience is dependent upon three things. Our past karma, our various past actions of body, speech, and mind, what we’ve done in the path. But also our present intention along with the immediate experience of that present intention. So our present intention is quite determining.
It’s what we really have to work with. The future is we can’t control it to some degree. All we can work with is the present moment and our mind state at the present moment. But if we work with this then the will take care of itself. It’s workable.
So last weekend we were in this part of our discussion together where we we begin to adjust our motivation. You know sometimes Lama Zopa, hope most of you or all of you met Lama Zopa at some time or another. His picture is the center picture on the altar to your left. I think he used to do we used to call him the meditational guru, the motivational guru, motivational guru also. He used to live in a closet.
I remember. He used to travel with Lama Yeshe who is on the left of the altar. And they used to be like a team. Lama Zopa would talk about the hell realms and Lama Yeshe would joke and laugh and he’d bring everybody’s mind up and then Lama Zopa would come on and bring everybody back down. So there was kind of a, I don’t, I was going to say Mutt Jeff kind of thing but maybe that’s not very respectful.
Anyway, they were quite a great team. You know he still does, he gives a retreat once a year at Kopan, a yearly Lam Rim retreat. And you know the Lam Rim, this graduated path which begins with the the foundation of of reliance upon the Guru or the Lama, working our way through all the various stages coming to the end of, actualizing the wisdom, realizing emptiness and conjoined with the awakened heart, bodhicitta. And normally this is done in progressive stages. And he would, but he would spend, you know, if the meditation course was thirty days he would spend twenty eight days on motivation and then he’d zip through the other and the rest of it in two days, something like that.
That was the great emphasis, the great, importance that he placed on motivation. And I tried to do that in my own personal practice, the little that I do do. Otherwise we can, you know we don’t have so much time to devote to our practice or even if we have the time we, it’s not a priority in our lives. We don’t have enough energy or we have other obligations. And the time that we do have, we want to in some way ensure that it’s going to be a quality time.
It’s going to bring us what we want. It’s going to somehow better our life in some way or another. And the only way that we can be sure that it’s going to be beneficial is not in terms of the practice itself. There’s nothing inherently beneficial about meditation, inherently beneficial about Buddhism in general. It all comes down to why we’re doing what we’re doing, our motivation.
Then, you know, whatever we may do, even if it’s only what what apparently seems like a simple practice of mindfulness of breathing or whether it be meditation as on the graduated path or some exotic tantric practice. And we can be sure it’s going to be beneficial just by the power of our own motivation. And we can do this in our everyday life. It’s not, it’s not constrained to our formal practice but, you know, in terms of our motivation, why do we? You know, there’s you can go to work with grudgingly, wishing poor me, I wish if I only had enough money I’d quit this job or I’d find another job.
If we could adjust our motivation, there is some way we can work with the situation where we can find some positive intention to be doing what we’re doing. If we’re creative, if we look hard enough, if we’re willing to try. And then going to work or whatever, even eating a meal can help us along the path, can help us, can be a method of solving our problems rather than simply being caught up in this cycles of perpetuating our dissatisfied mind in one way or another, which doesn’t get us anywhere but more of the same in our lives. So at least initially for the first some time we spend a lot of time on motivation. I think it’s useful.
So you know, last week we we were talking in terms of adjusting our motivation, trying to begin to gain a sense of what do I want. It is a hard question I think if we’re honest with ourselves. We’ve been we have so many taken for granted truths that we’ve been indoctrinated into that quite often we really don’t know what we want. Even when we go to a restaurant, you look at the menu, oh I really don’t know what I want. You know, we’re so, as in we’re out of touch with ourselves and what we need and what we how we feel.
What what nourishes us? What do we aspire for? So in asking this question is not not meant simply to be a romantic issue or be some idealistic notion. But as I mentioned, it’s really the beginning of a way for ourselves. You know, these questions that we ask ourselves, these difficult questions, what brings meaning to my life?
Is there a meaning in my life? Do I feel connection with anything beyond my own individual ego? What makes me feel feel fulfilled? What gives me a sense of peace? You know, just asking the questions and staying with the tension that these difficult questions evoke within ourselves, remaining in that space.
And then perhaps our own inner teacher can help us with the answers or maybe we can just, you know, these inarticulate whisper ings of our own hearts telling us what we can be and telling us how to how to go about doing that. So last week we were talking about trying to get in touch, trying to determine not what we should do or what we like to do or what we’ve been told to do, but what actually resonates with ourselves, what works for us within our actual lived experience, paying attention to our experience. And beginning to ask ourselves, is this am I heading toward where I want to go? And as my old friend said, the Buddha is your mind and the way goes nowhere. Don’t look for anything but this.
If you point your cart north when you want to go south, how are you ever going to arrive? And once you begin to have a sense of where you like to go, beginning to orientate your life toward that, beginning to orientate all the little details of your life with it so that your whole life energies are moving in in the same directions. You’re not in internal conflict or in conflict with your environment or your situation that you find trying to to organize your life. So it’s directed toward the flow of who you want to become. It’s a quote by, not a quote, it’s a verse by TS Eliot.
It mentions the word God and I hope I don’t confuse some of you. I by that I mean I use these as because they resonate within me. Whether God exists or not I don’t know. But there’s something about them which works for me so I don’t mean to confuse you and bring in concepts which may, be alien to Buddhism but I think they’re worthwhile in communicating some feelings, some ideas. The endless cycle of ideal and action, in this invention, in this experiment brings knowledge of motion but not of stillness.
Knowledge of speech but not of silence. Knowledge of words and ignorant of the word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance. All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, but nearer to death, no nearer to God. Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of heaven in twenty centuries bring us farther from God and nearer to the dust. So in a in this idea of beginning to orientate ourselves, beginning to to understand what it is that we want, really what we’re talking about in some way, and it’s perhaps a foreign term to many of you, at least it is for now, And it was for most of all of us at one point was the idea of going for refuge. But actually the notion, concept of going for refuge isn’t particularly Eastern, it isn’t particularly Buddhist.
We’ve all been going for refuge our entire lives whether we called it that or not, whether we use that particular word or not. In fact in the reality or the practicality of our everyday lives we are all going for refuge. We are refugees seeking some kind of asylum from the human condition. So the our refuge is meant to provide a safe haven for us. It is where we we hope.
We feel that what it is that we want can be found. You know, some people go for refuge to their families. Some people go for refuge to those people they hold dear. Some people go for refuge to money, to material things, to status, to power. Some people go for refuge to to science, to art, politics, to love, to their work, to falling in love, to sex, drugs, rock and roll.
There’s lots of different refuges for all of us. We each have a particular refuge in one way or another. Some people become vegetarians. That’s the way I’m going to be happy. Some people eat some people eat as much meat as they possibly can.
That’s the way I’m going to be happy. Some become celibate. That’s the way I’m going to be happy. That’s my path. Some people have as much sex as they can, possibly can.
That’s the way I’m going to be happy. And some people become religious religious fanatics. And some people think, religion is just, you know, like the Chinese say, it’s just the opium, an opiate of the masses. And they take refuge in dialectical ical materialism. Some people take refuge in in saving up all their money.
Some people take refuge in spending more money than they earn. Some people travel around the world. Some people never leave their front door. Some people have abortions. Some people join or enter into fertilization programs.
That’s their refuge. Some people get divorced. Some people get married to find eternal bliss. So some people become artists, some people become writers, some people become what, marketers. I know a marketer.
What do call a marketer? Marketer. Marketers. Some people become they write children’s books, some people, you know, they’re some people become presidents. Some I don’t know if I wanna do that.
Some people become scholars. Some people become teachers, secretaries, factory workers. Some have become rock and roll stars. Some people try to avoid all of it and wouldn’t just try to find some kind of quiet place and hide away. That’s their kind of refuge.
So these are the kind of refuges that most of us take in one way or another, in one form or another, most of the time. But sooner or later, if we’re going to live our lives intelligently, you know, we have to reflect upon the quality of lives. You know, the unreflected life is hardly worth living. We have to question whether does my, you know, what is my refuge and is it working? You know, it’s really pragmatic, isn’t it?
I think Buddhism is really based upon that. You know, it has a tremendous out far reaching and rich philosophic tradition. But, again, it comes down to experience. Does my refuge deliver the goods? Is it some kind of payoff?
Is it of real use to me in getting what it is that I want and getting rid of what it is that I don’t want? That’s what it comes down to. So, you know, everybody has problems in one sort of another, in one way or another, whether they be major tragedies or whether they be just some minor irritations. So we’re not so much concerned concerned with these, you know, these the many individual events, desirable and undesirable that occurred to us over the course of our life. But but, you know, trying to see the tree, trying to see the forest rather than each of these separate tree, what is the overall felt impression that I have when I when I reflect upon the quality of my life up to now?
You know, do I, you know, do I feel challenged about my life? Do I have a sense of fulfillment? All these questions that we were just talking about previously. Do I feel something, a connectedness with myself, with the world about me, with other people? How do I feel about the world and myself and other people?
You know, sooner or later, when life forces us, it throws at the question, what it has it all been about? You know, I guess, see, I think we can take advantage. I used to think when you got older you became wise. I no longer believed that. You know, used to, when I was very young, I used to, oh, it must be wonderful to be old and know know how the world works and know how to have all this perspective on things and have all this wisdom you bring.
It’s not true, is it? We know that, don’t we? It’s too bad. But anyway, I what I think is if we live our life intelligently, we can learn. And we can learn, you know, like I’m older than most of you, and I can I can sort of tell you, well here’s where I went wrong?
And you don’t have to do the same thing that I did because if you’re intelligent, maybe you’ll actually learn from what I’m saying, and you won’t make the same mistakes. That way we don’t have to we don’t have to reinvent the wheel for ourselves. We don’t have to duplicate it all for ourselves in order to learn these lessons. We can if we listen close enough actually learn from other people, especially from the mistakes. That’s where we learn the most, for ourselves and I think from other people.
So sooner or later, life kind of forces us to confront the reality of what it is that we’re doing, where this is what it’s all been about. You know? I’ve gotten this far in my life or I’ve not gotten far enough. And how what how have I how far have I gotten in my world? What am I living for?
We it’s easy to lose sight, isn’t it? We get caught up in the the busyness of our daily activities. And it’s good if we pause and talk about these issues. And I think there’s some meaning to it. You know, is life simply a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing?
Or does it have actually have some kind of meaning? What should I do now? This is also by TS Eliot. What shall I do now? What what shall I do?
I shall rush out as I am and walk the street with my hair down. So What shall we do tomorrow? What shall we ever do? The hot water at ten, and if it rains, a closed car at four, and we shall play a game of chess, pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock on the door. So is our life simply been reduced to a series of events?
There’s this event today and there was an event yesterday and there was an event the day before. And is what constitutes what we call living up life, a series of events. But sometimes, even even amid all the the the speed and the frenetic pace that we live our lives by, you know, we we begin to recognize or we get some intimation or have some vague sense of these these reoccurring dysfunctional patterns. You know, our life simply begins to get a sense of recycled episodes like on television when they do the reruns. You know, the the props change and the people change and and the scenery changes.
But the scenery changes, the the people change. But the plot, it’s it’s it’s all very much the same. It’s just been adapted for some other actors or some other time or other. You know, we we we find a new partner. We we we get a new wife or a new husband or we find a new therapist or we we find another group or we decide, well, I’m gonna go alone for a while.
Or or we we change our jobs or we change our employer or we change our business, or we change our career, or we take a break from working life for a while. Or we say, or we move to a bigger house, or a smaller house, or a less expensive house, or a more expensive house, or an apartment, or a flat in the country, or in the suburb or in the city. You know, or or or we we take up a new hobby or a new sport or a new, some kind of creative interest or we we, we have another baby, we have another affair, we we have a maybe, you know, maybe some people have a face job, or we don’t know what to do next. We’re beside ourselves trying to figure out, at least for a while. But there’s always there’s always another project.
Lama Yeshe used to emphasize this. He used to call this dissatisfied mind, that we’re going to begin to live our lives tomorrow. It never begins today. There’s always something just around the corner. Just up ahead.
Another roadside attraction. Just down the road a little bit. That we can lose ourselves. We can preoccupy ourselves and we can distract ourselves. If only for just a little while.
And this this endless stream of the endless doings of of human beings. I don’t know why they’re called human beings because she calls human doings. And we do more do we do more doing than we do a being. You know, they did but in spite of all this, the same the same reoccurring problems keep coming back. The same dissatisfactions and disappointments and frustrations.
Pretty much, I think if we’re honest with ourselves, the sense sense of of unmanageability or sense of passengerhood in her life. You know, passenger is just that. It’s going along for the ride. It’s not in control. It’s not doing the driving.
It’s not choosing the course of our life. And we’re all kind of waiting for a knock on the door in some way or another. You know? And and and though at some level we know it’s going to depress us or it’s going to make us despise ourselves or feel guilty about ourselves, we we habitually resort to the same dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving when these uneasy arise, when feelings of depression or fear, sense of insecurity. Automatically, we reach for one of these patterns.
And though it hasn’t worked in the past, and it probably never will, still we reach for it nonetheless. You know, the the nothing seems quite to work. We never quite are able to to shape some kind of permanent refuge for ourselves. You know, things people are coming in and going out of our lives. Things get used up or they wear out or they break and have to replace.
You know, nothing stays the same. Life just kinda keeps moving on at this inexorable pace. One day we are happy with a good family, a group of friends, sensible politic, political and religious views, and a job. The next day one of our children becomes seriously ill. Our political views are shaken by revelations of corruption.
One of our friends turns out to be suing us. We discover that we have suddenly lost heart in an artistic activity that has brought us joy for twenty years. Or we develop a fear of flying that means we cannot keep our jobs. So, you know, it seems as if in all of this, there’s no place that we can you know, in in the bible, in the Christian bible, there’s no place that the son of man can rest his head rest his head. Yeah.
At least not for a long. There’s no it doesn’t seem like there’s any kind of permanent refuge that we carve out for ourselves, some kind of niche, some kind of hideout, some place that we can find lasting security, that we can find some real protection from the vagaries of life. But we but we we still, through it all, we cling to our hopes. There is said to be two great tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.
And we hold out our hopes that these dominant themes, these reoccurring patterns of our present way of thinking and behaving can remain the same, and yet some kind of unexpected happening will come along. You know, that that we can still be acting out of the same dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving. But nonetheless, that our story this time around is going to be different. I have a feeling. I have a good feeling about it this time.
This time around, things are going to turn out better. They’re going turn out the way I really want them to turn out, the way I’ve always wanted to be, what I’ve always wanted to. I think this is going to be it. Somebody or something will bring us the happiness we’re looking for is going to help us to get rid of the suffering that none of us want. You know, the somebody or something.
I don’t know what. Maybe maybe maybe divine intervention, maybe god or or or maybe maybe some maybe some caring sensitive man, some wonderful devoted wife, or maybe a new therapy is going to come along or some they’re going to find some new drug or maybe just something that we don’t even know about at present, some unpredictable x, it, is out there just waiting to straighten out my life, to bring it as bring to me what it is that I actually want. Somebody or something is going to come along and make my life better for me. You know? So we wait.
Used to emphasize this a great deal how we’re all waiting for our life to begin. You know? In one way or another, we’re all waiting, you know, for the letter in the mail, the knock at the door, the telephone call, you know, the life you ordered has arrived. Should we should do you want it delivered or will you come down and pick it up yourself? You know, what is what is it for you?
What is it? That what is that it, that x that’s gonna turn your life around for you? What is the cause, the situation, that that thing or other, that that that factor x that’s going to make you that’s going to save you, that’s going to make your life better for you, turn things around for you. You know, this long awaited refuge that we all have been searching for whether aware of it, whether we use that term or not. At least we occupy ourselves for a while, you know.
At least distract ourselves for a while while we’re waiting for the real x, the real something to come along. So we wait with kind of anxious anticipation, with with with great expectations, not knowing exactly what it is we’re waiting for, but still we wait. And over the course of our of our waiting, all of these hopefully look forward to tomorrows slowly begin to drift down imperceptibly into disappointing todays. And they each in their turn fade into unlived forgotten yesterdays of our life. And our life just kind of keeps on creeping at its petty pace.
Nearer to death but no nearer to life. So, you know, we this is in some way, maybe it’s rather a poetical description of the way most of our lives run, I think. I don’t think we’re all that much different actually. Mhmm. And I just describe my own feelings, my own experience.
And but, you know, there there are alternatives. We we can begin to take control of our lives. We can begin to choose the direction that we want our lives to take. We have that in this we only have it there’s like a crack of opportunity in the present moment where we can synthesize what has occurred in the past and begin to determine the future for ourselves in terms of what we do in the present, how we think and behave, the choices that we begin to make. So the the choice that we can begin to make is where it is that you want to go.
And in terms terms of Buddhism, we begin to describe that. And we’re forming some kind of image about what that might be. And we call that Buddha Dharma and Sangha as a viable refuge, as while alternative to the hollow refuges which have haven’t brought us what it is that we’re looking for. Perhaps this might be what it is that you want in your life. So in this this orientation, this way of pointing one’s card, the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha.
A happy, healthy, loving, sane human being. You know, this embodiment of wisdom, love, and compassion, and personal power, and their their skillful and fearless expression in our daily life. And our our refuge or our direction or what we have to do, what the way how we have to begin to make of our resources in terms of energy and time, our intelligence, our life, is by making use of the Dharma, implementing these, the methods, getting in contact with the truth of things so that we we can begin to actualize this Buddha in fact. Begin to actualize this refuge, this goal that we’re setting for ourselves. And this entire process and we are social beings.
And we are we exist in interrelation with others and the world about us. We aren’t isolated facts, units with a thick line drawn around ourselves. We think of ourselves in that way, but that’s simply not that doesn’t reflect the reality of our situation. This process occurs within the social context of a spiritual community, the Sangha, those who who assist us, who help us, who teach us, who do whatever is they can to help us to realize our refuge, our goal. And we, again and again, try to raise that level of our motivation.
I think this will be our saving grace if we do nothing else with our life, is to learn how to love and to, have more compassion. It’s if any other of all the refuges, we can take we can have greatest trust in this. That the more loving that you are, the more compassionate you are, the better life that you will have now and in the future. And this becomes our our motivation behind all that we do. It’s going for refuge to the Buddha Dharma Sangha.
And therefore, in this way, you know, we can we will. We don’t have to stop waiting. We don’t have to wait to begin our life. It’s a way that we can take control and begin to live the kind of life that we would want for ourselves. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha through my practice of generosity and the other perfections.
May I become a for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am awakened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. Okay.
We are going to meditate. Would you like to stand up for a minute? So we’ve been we’ve been getting we have been beginning our meditation with mindfulness of breathing. And I was mentioning last week there were there are two factors which are fundamental to a successful meditation. These factors are awareness and mindfulness.
Sometimes for awareness, other words are introspection, alertness, watchfulness of the mind. And in terms of mindfulness, words, memory or recollection. And to help us to develop these, we can make use of two of two techniques. I mentioned one last week. In order to help us develop in our mindfulness, and mindfulness simply is the mental factor which holds objects, holds our mind to the breath, prevents it from being distracted to another object.
We can remain focused upon the object by the power of our mindfulness. And we made use of the factor of counting our breaths, you know, breathing in, breathing out mentally, not verbally, but mentally counting one, and out two, and out three, and out four, and out five. Coming back down to the one, one, two, three, four, five, six. If during the course of one of these sequence of countings, you become you aware. It’s one of the mentalist factors.
Introspection awareness, you become aware, imagine your mind is wandering, then begin that particular sequence of counting again, one through five, or one through six, or three through six. The other technique that we can make use of in developing our awareness is simply noting. And noting is, again, it’s a mental noting but I’m going to speak the words, but this would be a mental process. Gently noting what it is that your mind is involved in. What what are you aware of?
What is your mind focused on? Now in the mindfulness of breathing, ideally, you’re you’re you’re focused on, you’re aware of, you are watchful of the breath or the physical sensations associated with the natural breathing. And we can emphasize that fact. We can help to focus our awareness to a smaller area and emphasize what in fact our mind is aware of, what it does know by noting and simply breathing in, breathing out. As you breathe in, knowing that you’re breathing in.
Maybe you don’t know anything else but you know you’re breathing in. That’s quite a lot to know actually. So you note that in. Breathing out, knowing that you’re breathing out, aware of the fact that you’re breathing out, noting out. So now we’re we’re developing a pattern.
In out one, in out two, in out three. Now your mind’s going to wander. Your mind’s going to be distracted. The moment you become aware that your mind has been distracted, note whatever it was. It could be something external like a sound, hearing, come back to the breath.
It could be you get caught up in some I some sinking, simply note sinking, sinking, come back to the breath. Okay? So I’ll show you, not an ideal meditation sequence, I’m going to be speaking this, but this is what the process that would be going on mentally in the mental voice in your own mind. It would be something like in out one, in out hearing, in out one, in out two, thinking, thinking, in out one, in out two, in out three, just thinking, boring, boring, pain, pain, Oh, it hurts. Pain, pain.
You know, don’t don’t don’t get don’t get dramatic. Just a nice quiet noting like that. Okay? I think this will be quite helpful. So a gentle quiet note in your mind, but determine to bring your mind back to the ground.
And I thought we’d we’d also meditate on rejoicing. You know, the the to we we we story our lives. You know, we we in in some ways, we are the biography or the autobiography that we tell ourselves about ourselves and and the the way that we do the way that we tell it to others. So sometimes, you know, we feel a sense of impoverishment, a sense of poverty about ourselves. And simply because we overlook the richness of our life, you know, the idea of our life is is is is full of events like a story.
And there’s certain subplots and certain minor incidents that happened along the story. There’s certain major plots, you know, the major theme of the story. But it’s the way that we connect these up and which ones we focus on. And then we could two people can read the same book, and they come away with a very different impression of what that book’s about, all of them, because they connect up to some of the incidents they are very impressed by. Others they are are seen as insignificant.
And this varies from person to person. To a large extent, we we see ourselves as poor quality, as doesn’t not having what it takes, as as being poverty stricken in some way. Because of the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves. And this is because of what we habitually focus upon in terms of the these events, these episodes of our life. If we begin to focus upon consciously what it is that we do right in our lives, what it is that we do well in our lives, the good that we do, the excellent qualities that we have, we can begin to tell ourselves quite a different story about ourselves and begin to act out a different story in our life.
One one so we can do this with others as well. One reason we get jealous is because we don’t think there’s enough happiness around for us all to be happy. And I’m not happy. And I feel a sense of poverty. I don’t feel a sense of richness that I can allow other people to have happiness because I have I have my own wealth.
It might you know, within within terms of my life. I can allow I can make allowances and allow them to feel the wealth of life also. You know, there’s only we have a sense as a finite. There’s only so much wealth to go around and I’m going to have to keep it all myself. So the, it’s really quite useful simply in your everyday life but also in your, in, to spend some time in terms of your meditation consciously focusing upon what you’re doing right, what’s good about yourself, and being pleased.
This reinforces this. You know, if you feel good about that, you will have a tendency for you to repeat those same actions again and again and again. You know, one of the effects of karma is called the result which is similar in type to the cause in terms of behavior. We have, we repeat the same types of actions again and again, especially when they’re reinforced by feeling good about them. When we feel good about ourselves or having done it, for example.
So we can, and doing it once, another aspect of karma is results similar in type to the cause in terms of experience. That doing it once facilitates doing it again. So if you, if you feel pleased, if you rejoice in what you do, it reinforces that same type of behavior and doing it more will actually facilitate it becoming a part of yourself, a habit, a way of style of living. So it’s it’s useful to to focus upon what you’re doing right and feel good about it, feel pleased with yourself in terms of what, you know, activities, in terms of being benefiting oneself, also in terms of benefiting others, what you what you possess, you know, the intelligence you you know, all the good things that you do and and have, beginning to recognize them because don’t let them go unnoticed. We we we deprive ourselves of of the of feeling good of feeling good of ourselves simply because we have habitually allow what we do good to go unnoticed.
So here we’re consciously trying to reverse that process and take the time and create this space and actually point out to hey, yesterday, that was a good thing I did. I go, I’m okay. You know? That feels good. And then this will facilitate you doing it again.
And also, it’s said to create merit in that way, you know, rejoicing in what you do do good. So, anyway, we’re going to go through this process in different time periods. And we’re going to and we could also do this with others to help us as an antidote to jealousy. The antidote to jealousy is rejoicing, thinking about others, especially in those terms of people who have some difficulties with, who you feel jealous towards. And, you know, working with that problem and rejoicing, that’s the direct antidote.
Okay. So take a comfortable firm posture. And we can begin by relaxing our bodies. Begin at the crown of one’s head, the scalp and the forehead, feeling the wrinkles of the brow beginning to smooth, The facial muscles beginning to relax, becoming soft. Your neck, perhaps you want to turn your neck gently to the side a few times.
Relaxing, softening the muscles, feeling the tension moving down and out of your body. And the shoulders, rolling your shoulders a few times, just relaxing and softening. Your hands comfortable at ease. Your lower arms, upper arms relaxed. Your chest.
Your belly soft, no tension, pelvis, buttocks. Your upper legs, lower legs, and your feet. Your body relax and release. Bring your awareness to any tightnesses, any tensions that you find in your body. And consciously relax, feeling the the solidity, the hardness of that tension beginning to dissolve and disperse.
Your body becoming filled with a sense of physical well-being and pleasure. And then bring your mind to the breath. Just gentle, easy, and not flow the natural breath. If it’s helpful, you’re techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Meditate on rejoicing.
And we’re going to meditate in terms of ourselves. So think of something that you did over one year ago that you feel was beneficial, some way that you helped another or even helped yourself, something you did that you feel good about and value it. Remember it, go into it, and be pleased with yourself. That was wonderful what I did. That was really good.
Feel good about what you did and about yourself, something that you did over one year ago. Now we’re going to think of something that that you did more than one month ago, but less than one year. More than one month ago, but less than one year ago. Something that you feel was beneficial, that you feel good about. Remember it.
Go into it. Feel pleased with yourself. Rejoice about yourself and what you did. Now we are going to do the same again. And now the time period is more than one week ago, but less than one month.
More than one week ago, but less than one month. And again, now the time period is before today, but less than a week ago. So, something that you feel is beneficial that you feel good about that you did before today or less than one week ago. Value yourself in what you did. Be pleased.
And then finally, something that you did today. It doesn’t have to be major, even something very insignificant. The fact that you went to work or you cleaned your room. Something that you feel was useful, beneficial, you feel good about yourself and pleased. Something that you did today.
And then bring your mind back to the breath. And get in touch with your body, feelings, and sensations. So they become aware of what’s going on about you, the sounds and so forth. So last week, we started the text Tsongkhapa’s three principal aspects of the path. And there was three overall divisions of this fourteen verse text.
The pro logue, the actual body of the text, and then the epilogue, the conclusion. In terms of the prologue, the preliminary, we said there were three divisions to that. There was an offering of praise, a pledge to compose, and strong words of encouragement for the students. And we begin with the first of these where Tsongkhapa says, homage to all the foremost holy lamas. So just very briefly, you know, said that all was we were talking about the lineage.
That there’s this unbroken transmission of an awakened world view that has been passed down perhaps from the beginning of this time, historically from Śākyamūni Buddha to our present teachers in transmission from teacher to student. That student integrates it, realizes it, passes on to his or her students. And the important it’s important to to mention this and to value that we, what is being offered or what we are being exposed to is a tried and true test tested method. It’s not it wasn’t invented invented in California a year ago, and it will be superseded by another fad next year. It’s been around for twenty five hundred years.
It’s been refined. It’s been worked with, developed. It’s actually worked. So there’s a great value the sense that becoming an understanding that we are a part of a lineage, rich tradition of experience of these teachings. It is something has has been transmitted all the way from Śākyamūni Buddha down to ourselves or down to our teachers.
We can we can we can I think it’s you know, this process is quite delicate in a way? You know, we we we to open oneself up to change, there has to be a tremendous amount of trust involved, letting down of one’s defenses as it were. There has to be, you know, a sense of surrendering, but in a very healthiest way, very healthiest sense of the word. It’s an intelligence surrendering. And we have to it can’t be superficial.
Superficial. It can’t be faked. We can’t pretend to surrender. It has to be at some very deep level where our being only occurs when we do feel safe. We do have some sense of trust that that this there’s nothing to be afraid of.
This can only be beneficial. And one of those one of the values that whereby we we can develop a sense of trust is an effect of our teachers in the lineage of the teachings. We don’t when people sometimes it almost I almost find it scary when I look at these new age magazines and I see all of the supermarket of possibilities and how confused people must be. And they’re very sincere. They want to do something.
They want to help themselves. And how even if these other people are sincere. And I have I have probably most of the the those who are who are making available all these different methods are sincere to some degree or another. I give them the benefit of the doubt on that. But maybe how do they know it’s actually going to work?
The only way we can know is time. Even within good therapists and in therapies, there are trends and fads down through time over even in the last ten or fifteen years. What to say of spiritual fads and trips and what and so forth. So I think there’s a there’s a great value in in in value in this lineage that we’re being exposed to in the sense that we can it can be trusted. It’s not to say that one should go on.
One should trust it only on words. All of Buddhism should come down to experience. All of it. And even if we can only get a little taste on our tongue, we can extrapolate from that taste and say, well, the little that I have experienced validates in some small way what’s being said, what’s being taught. So I’m going to go a little bit further into this.
You know, to give ourselves over is a very delicate process, And we can’t fake it. We can’t pretend that that’s it’s even silly to try. We have to think. We have to be clear and lucid and intelligent in the way we approach our practice. So anyway, Tsongkhapa is is paying homage to his lineage, the lineage of experience, of transmission, of the teachings.
And he pays homage to his and we began to talk about the Lama. I realized this is a and this is a very difficult subject, much more difficult than I can I can even I could I hope to be able to talk about in a in a meaningful way? But, anyway, I think it’s useful to kind of in my own bumbling way, to try to get across some of the ideas that my teachers have tried to get across with me and that I’ve thought about over the few years that I’ve been in this business. What what a Lama means and the significance of a Lama. And I think we’re going to continue with that tonight.
The first thing we have to understand is that we do need something over and above books. Something, you know, when we when we if we read, I think it’s quite useful. It’s a part it’s a part of the practice and part of study. But we’re always going to interpret. Interpret.
We we bring to that experience our own agenda. We read for our own purposes. We we pick and choose amongst the various ideas presented to us in in the book. But I think with the action of living person, the experience is quite different because, you know, as was mentioned, you see, you have an you you have before you someone who is speaking out of their own experience. It’s not some dry words on a page, a theory of some sort, but a living validation of what’s being said.
And the impact is is significantly greater at some deeper level of your being. We we’re not going to be able to come to a deeper understanding without you know, even as we mentioned, even in the the mundane things of life, if you want to learn how to piano, it’s best you have a teacher to show you where you’re making your mistakes to help you along. Even in all the various crafts, all the various professions, we need a teacher. What to say of development of our own minds that we know so little about? So it is the teacher who inspires us.
It’s terribly important to be inspired. It’s terribly important to have to feel this this you know, to let go of your cynicism. I don’t mean you’re questioning. That’s important. But a cynicism which sees, which rejects simply out of hand, out of fear.
It’s terribly important to have this this tough ego leather of our hearts softened by the compassion of our teacher. Something that touches your heart begins to open, create a space. Your heart begins to open, create a space for your own, which we’re going to begin to we’re going to look at eventually for your own inner teacher to begin to find a space to grow. You know? It’s like, you know, the teacher allows, create some kind of space for this this sprouts of our own wisdom, of our own love and compassion to begin to grow and nourish in some.
We need that kind of place, that kind of space, and then just the teacher who creates that for us. And, you it’s an easy thing. It’s not a matter of simply passing information onto another person in some way. It’s something much more the whole context in which there this is taking place. The the role of the lama is to help us to feel confident that we can do something.
To to to that we can change, that we can go beyond these perpetual cycles of dissatisfaction, that we can that we can grow in compassion, that we can grow in wisdom. The role of the lama is to inspire us to work towards this end. And the role of the lama is to give us the actual techniques, the methods. And the role of the lama is to be a model to model that which we ourselves are trying to become. So we know it’s possible.
It’s just not some dry words. It’s just not a story for fit for children that was told a long time ago. There are people actually living these teachings out or experiencing the result of fruit and sharing it with us. So as I mentioned, the the way that this word the nature of the relationship between student and teacher is there’s a word in Tibetan, it’s den. And it can be it can be translated in in two different ways.
And it it it can be translated as the meaning of depend. You know, like, this glass depends upon the table. That’s pretty straightforward. That’s rational, intellectual thinking. But it also has the connotation or embodies it also encompasses the meaning of devote.
That means there’s also an effective component from our hearts. So it’s not only a ration the relationship between the student and the teacher is not only one of relying in terms of, you know, to get the techniques and passing upon information, but it’s also in terms of a touching of the heart, some kind of devotion. This is a quote by Lama Zopa. It may seem a little funny to say that you need Guru devotion to have these realizations. To the ear of somebody with a certain type of mind who has not accumulated much merit or fortune, who has not planted much seeds of teachings, it may sound a little bit funny when you hear, you need guru devotion for the realization of the path to enlightenment.
It looks like the guru is taking advantage of you by telling you this. The Lama who says this looks like he is admiring himself and asking his disciples to look at him as a Buddha and make offerings. It is very easy to think it’s strange when you hear this. It looks like worldly politics, not Dharma politics but worldly politics. When you hear this for the first time, especially before you begin to practice, it seems very strange and like cheating.
Actually, the proof of how the realizations, development of mind, and experience of the path are dependent upon the very root of strong, stable, guru devotion comes when a person actually practices. The person’s own experience answers his own questions about how important Guru devotion is. He can see the difference in his everyday life between times when the Guru is in the essence of the Buddha and devoting to the Guru in thought and action are not done correctly, incorrectly. When there is no longer devotion, the mind is like a hot desert where nothing grows. Or there may be may be devotion but very weak and about to disappear like very thin clouds in the sky.
The mind is like this, the very root of the whole path does not exist or is like a very thin clouds about to disappear in the sky. Then with all the rest of the paths no matter how many times you repeat the words, no matter what different Lamrim teachings you read, nothing gives you any feeling. There is nothing you feel from your heart. Even if you meditate on impermanence and death, it becomes just words. You feel nothing from your heart.
Even if you meditate on renunciation or bodhicitta, you feel nothing from the heart. And with Śūnyatā, your mind is like a rock. Your experience itself gives you the answer. You can understand from this life stories of the lineage lamas of the lamrim path how they practice guru devotion and had incredible realizations. You can understand guru devotion from this.
But the actual proof comes from your own experience through meditating on the path. Now I I I’m I’m quite positive that quite certain if it weren’t for my teachers and the the inspiration guidance that they’ve given me, I wouldn’t be involved in Buddhism now. I don’t. It is the people it is the them themselves which attracted me, which gave me the willingness to to stay with my to overcome my cynicism, my skepticism, continual supermarket attitude of trying something new continually moving on to something better, bigger, better, and more. It was them who who were the life of the path for me.
All of us are continuing continually empowering people, things, situations, symbols about us. And they, in turn, are able to influence terms of our mind, in terms of our lives. You know you you know, we all we all know this. You know, like, if you’re if you’re when you’re in love and you love her, a little little turning upwards of the corners of the lips when she smiles or he smiles, and how your heart just rises full of joy. And just that, how much you’ve you’ve empowered your lover with just the slight turning up of the lips can can can send you into vaults of ecstasy or or if she frowns or he frowns.
How depressed you become. You’ve empowered her to that same degree. But, you know, some people, like great patriots, you know, you see their flag waving in the sky when yesterday in the Vietnam services that were held, the ceremonies that were held in remembrance of those who the soldiers who died. And then for many of them, when they saw their strained flag waving in the breeze, tears came to their eyes. How much that symbol was empowered by them, and therefore, how much influence it had, how much it moved their hearts.
The the many people’s lives are moved by ideas, the idea of world peace. For example, they some people work their entire lives for that one end. We empower people. We empower things and symbols about us, and we we such that they affect our lives. There’s an investment of energy, of of value that we grant us something because and it becomes extremely real and important for us.
We imbue it with great importance. And in turns, it’s able to influence us. We think that by calling upon this object or having this object or this making use of this object or owning this object or or relating with this person, somehow they’re going to it’s it’s able to bring us what it is that we want. If this if this significance that we we imbue, these objects and people and symbols and so forth, is positive, then we’ll be attracted to them. We’ll we’ll think we’ll we’ll seek to make use of them, to emulate them, to practice them, to become them.
So whether we’re religious or not, whether we are aware of it or not, a great deal of our lives is being led on the basis of faith. The faith that we have in these people, these things, these symbols, these objects about us, and the ideas within our own mind to help us to get what it is that we want to help us to solve our problems. We have faith that by calling upon this person, by owning this object, by living out this idea of my life, I can find happiness. I can find what I can get what I want. We have faith in that.
So it’s not a matter of religion. It’s the way that our minds are working every day of our life. In this way, the lama becomes potent force in our life for positive change. We we need something to help us to break to these these self restricting patterns that we’re caught up in. You know, ego is extremely clever.
It’s it’s extremely intelligent. It can incorporate everything we do almost into simply engrandizing itself, into affirming itself, into enhancing itself in one way or another. And we can do this with the spiritual path as well. It’s called spiritual materialism. So we it’s helpless.
We need something to to shake the system, to disrupt the patterns, to help us to break these, like this chain like repetitive quality of our past actions and our present neurosis. The more I come to reflect on devotion and its place and role in the overall vision of the teachings. This is a quote by The more I come to reflect on devotion and its place and role in the overall vision of the teachings, the more deeply I realize that it is essentially a skillful and powerful means of making us more receptive to the truths of the Master’s teachings. Masters themselves do not need our adoration. But seeing them as living Buddhas will enable us to listen to and hear their message and to follow their instructions with the greatest possible fidelity.
Devotion then is in one sense the most practical way of ensuring a total respect for, and therefore openness to, the teachings, as embodied by the Master transmitted through him or her. The more devoted you are, the more open you are to the teachings. The more open you are to the teachings, the more chance that there is for them to penetrate your heart and mind, and so bring about complete spiritual transformation. But in all of this, we have to understand it’s it is not the ability of the of the lama, of the spiritual teacher to act as a positive force for change in our lives is not is directly proportionate. The the ability of the the teacher to act as a positive force for change in our lives is directly proportionate to the devotion that we show him or her.
It doesn’t exist from his or her own side. There has to be a relation developed over time and empowering. And therefore, we can be in return influenced in a positive way. The Lama’s blessings are not really great or small. It all depends on you.
That is, the Lama’s blessing in itself may be great or small, but the blessing you receive depends on how far you are able to see him as a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, and so on. You know, if you if you see your spiritual teacher, your Dharma, as similar way that you might do a lecturer or a teacher in a classroom situation. To that same extent, you have empowered him or her. And to that same extent, that teacher, regardless of their abilities from their own side, will it will be able to influence you for for the better. And this all the way up to even a little bit more than a lecturer, all the way up to a Buddha.
If it’s proportionate, it’s the ability of the lama to influence positively is in direct proportion to the empowering, the valuing, and the appreciation, the gratitude we have for him or her. It doesn’t exist from their own side, regardless of whatever qualities they they themselves may have. You know, the the the historical Buddha, Śākyamūni Buddha, he died twenty five hundred years ago. We no longer have access to him in that form. He is no longer with us.
So the work of introducing us to this awakened worldview, these teachings, and guiding us in gaining the experience of them has fallen to our teacher. There’s nobody else. Here you have a student, someone who wants to attain what the Buddhas have taught and thus is trying to practice their teachings. When you look around to find the Buddha who is helping to guide you on the path right now, it comes down to your own teacher. If that guide is not your teacher, who else could it be?
There is no one else. So, you know, I I I don’t know. I don’t know what a Buddha is. I don’t know. I I but if I if we were just you know, I don’t want to get mystical or new agey.
But, you know, why most essentially, most simply, some kind of benevolent benevolent intelligence is operating in the universe, trying to lead us out of suffering. How is that benevolent intelligence to manifest to ourselves such that we’re able to relate with it? How can we come to know of it? How can we come how can we come directly under its care? There’s a this is again, this is this is a quote from this is from, you know, it’s a Christian quote.
But I think it’s it’s it’s by way of analogy. Okay? It’s an analogy. So what what I’m trying I’m using this quote. When I say that there is at work in the universe of benevolent intelligence, a force, and how am I how am I to come to know of it?
How can it work for me? How am I to relate with it? How can I come under its carrying influence and guidance in order to go beyond suffering? So this is in the this context of this thought, this idea. Jesus smiled.
Old man who replied, once upon a time there was a marble throne at the eastern gate of an important city. On this throne sat a thousand kings blind in the right eye, a thousand kings blind in the left eye, and a thousand kings who had sight in both eyes. All of them called God to appear so that they might see him, but all went to their graves with their wishes unfulfilled. When the kings had died, a pauper, barefoot and hungry, came and sat on the throne. God, he whispered, the eyes of man cannot bear to look directly at the sun, for they are blinded.
How then omnipotent can they look directly at you? Have pity, Lord. Temper your strength. Turn down your splendor so that I who am poor and afflicted may see you. Then listen, old man.
God became a piece of bread, a cup of cool water, a warm tunic, a hut, and in front of the hut, a woman giving suck to an infant. The pauper stretched forth his arms and smilingly said, thank you, Lord, he whispered. You have humbled yourself for my sake. You became bread, water, a warm tunic, and my wife and son in order that I might see you, and I did see you. You know, the the Buddhists appear in ways that ordinary people like ourselves can deal with.
How else are they different to ourselves? You know, they they appear as neither too sublime nor nor overly commonplace. If they appear too sublime, we would say, we would look at the Buddha as if they were a god. As if they were we wouldn’t be able to identify with that they were simply an extension, an expression of something which is exists within all of ourselves. There would be too great of a gap between what the sublime being that we saw and our little poor little selves.
That we’d be we wouldn’t be able to make any connection between ourselves and them. There’d be too great a gap. There’d be a qualitative difference instead of a quantitative difference. We we we we no matter how extraordinary Buddhas may be, we can still feel that Śākyamūni Buddha was deluded as ourselves in one time, had the same difficulties, had the same problems, the same disruption of patterns as ourselves. And that that his whatever perfect whatever perfection he may have attained, I myself can attain.
That is simply bringing to fulfillment something that exists within a seed in myself now. I can I can connect him with myself? I can’t connect some omnipotent god in the air, you with angels and or we we could get, know, we could get completely hum up, caught up in some kind of of in the supernatural abilities or kind of exotic appearances. You know, we we we get sidetracked. We’d fall into some sort of material spiritual materialism.
You know, We would we would we would it would be more important for us to be able to fly than to develop compassion, for example. We would get diverted from what is really important if they appeared too sublime, I think. Anyway, this is the way I see it, the way I look at And if they appeared overly ordinary or overly commonplace, we would we would we would dismiss them. Dismiss them. We would and overlook their significance.
Their significance would be lost to ourselves. So it seems as if in order to to relate with this benevolent intelligent for it has to be it has to if we’re going to deal with it in some useful manner, which is actually going to help us, it has to be appropriate to where we’re at now. Something that can actually benefit us, neither too sublime or too overly commonplace. The Buddhists appear in forms which are appropriate to where each of us is at. There’s no other way that they can appear.
There’s no other way. So this person in front of you, this my lama, is what is most directly helpful to me in bringing about positive changes in my life. I don’t know if he can fly. I don’t know if he can do supernatural things, but he’s the most useful person in bringing about positive changes in my life. This I could feel.
This I I this I can experience. And in fact, this is what is important. The rest is is a new age trip. And and though and though she may or he may appear very ordinary, it is just that the ways of Buddhas are presently appearing to me in order to be most effective. The most effective way I can be guided.
I said I was gonna leave time to talk to him. I just I can finish this. The two principle attitudes that that we are to cultivate towards our spiritual teacher, you know, we we are we’re doing this for ourselves. We’re not we’re not we’re not devoting ourselves or empowering ourselves or teaching. We’re not devoting ourselves to the teacher for their sake.
All of Buddhism is meant to help us to go beyond our suffering, to fulfill our potential, ultimately for ourselves as well as others. It’s that’s why we’re doing it. It’s as a pragmatic utilitarian basis. It’s not for them. We’re doing it for ourselves.
So in this process of empower empowering, we are to we’re trying to develop two attitudes. One of respect for their qualities and the and the other, a sense of gratitude, a sense of appreciation for all the kindnesses that they are showing us. You know, in all of this is this is the this is the basic. This is the fundamental way of relating. Respect for their qualities and gratitude or sense of appreciation for their kindness.
You know, our lama performs the Buddha’s the work of of the the lama that the the work that the lama performs is equal to the Buddhist. Buddhist simply help people to go beyond suffering. Our lama is helping people to go beyond suffering. They have the same quality from that point of view as all the Buddhists. In the fact of helping helping me to solve my problems, helping me to change for the better.
But but even more than all the Buddhas, Śākyamūni Buddha included, is their kindness because they are the ones who are actually helping me now. Śākyamūni Buddha isn’t helping me now. I don’t at least in that not not in that form. That form is gone. Who is it that I’m directly influencing me for the better?
It is my present teacher. Therefore, they are kinder than than even the Buddhas. All of the practices of Buddhas are Buddhism are met are they’d be seen as a means of benefiting ourselves, including devoting ourselves to the Lama. We should understand that we do not devote ourselves to the Lama for for their sake, but for our own. It’s skillful.
So it’s important to to keep in mind that when we say Lama, the word Lama denotes more of a relationship that we have with the teacher than it does that this what a title that this particular teacher has come to be known by. We shouldn’t enter into this relationship lightly. It should be built up over time. And sometimes in traditional Tibetan teachings they would say ten years is not too long. It should be this relationship is this trust, this devotion.
This is only entered into after a period of examination. No matter how renowned the teacher, no matter, in fact, how qualified the teacher might be, if you are unable to feel any confidence in this teacher, if if if you don’t if you haven’t built up any trust with this teacher, no matter how famous they might be, how in fact qualified, you realize they may be from their side, then how how how in fact capable they may be be, there will be little inspiration for you. There will be little inspiration to practice what it is they teach. And there and it is the practice where the benefit comes. The teacher can help you to inspire you to practice.
And through your practice, making effort, you will gain the result. So no matter who the teacher from their side may be, whatever qualities, however famous, if you cannot, if you if you don’t have a sense of connection, if the then it’s it’s then if you haven’t developed a sense of trust, if there’s a a sense of a resonation with of your hearts and your minds, then they can there’s very little that they can do for you. The the ability to influence you doesn’t exist only from their own side, no matter who they are. So so we have to examine the teacher in a way to we have to to go into entering this relationship intelligently. And the method of examination, for example, in, Maitreya’s ornament for Mahāyāna Sutras, there’s ten different qualities that a teacher should have and describes them at great length.
But in his text, the extensive, the great exposition of the stages of the path by Tsongkhapa, the author of our present texts, three principal aspects of the path. He says there are five principal qualities, five most important. And in listening these, he quotes Geshe Potowa. The first three are the trainings in ethical conduct, meditative stabilization, and superior wisdom. Fourth is understanding suchness, which means the wisdom relies on the nature And the fifth principle quality is great compassion.
Possessing these five indicates that he or she is qualified to be a proper guru. So, going through these very quickly. Tsongkhapa has listed five qualities and, you know, we can we can begin to examine this person, this teacher in terms of these five qualities and to help us to feel a sense of assurity that I can trust this person. This person is qualified and therefore be willing to devote oneself, open oneself to him or her. So, the first one is the ethical Ethical conduct in Sanskrit is Silla.
And Silla literally means to cool, cooling of the fires and the afflictions. Cooling cooling of neurosis. So so a teacher who is qualified in terms of of ethical conduct is is someone who actively restrains expression of their afflictions in terms of their body and speech. They don’t act out. It’s not to say they don’t have the afflictions, but they don’t act them out verbally or physically.
And usually this is done in the in the context vows of discipline precepts in that way. The second quality was meditative stabilization. Meditative stabilization is a serenity of mind. It’s when the very gross afflictions have been calmed. Okay?
So unless unless the the spiritual teacher has developed some level of meditative stabilization, they won’t, they won’t have gained much personal experience in the meditational processes which is necessary to be taught. The third was superior wisdom. Here, wisdom has to do with wrong conceptions, wrong ideas with regard to the nature of the I, the self. So he’s able to give you instruction in the actual nature of the I itself. Fourth was the wisdom that realized the final nature of reality or suchness.
So suchness is another, it’s another word for emptiness. And so this wisdom is that he should understand the highest. There are four tenet systems or philosophic systems that Buddhists group together the teachings. The Buddha taught for forty five years and over this period of time he taught a variety of dispositions and tendencies. He directed his teachers what would be of benefit to each of them.
And so he taught different things to different people. And these over time were grouped according to certain systems or ways of looking at various points of view. And the highest of these is called or the middle way school. And the teacher should be able to have what is called the wisdom risen from hearing. There are three types of, there are many types of wisdom, but one type of of wisdom is in the wisdom risen from hearing, thinking, and meditating.
He should have all the proper knowledge in terms of having heard the teachings on the nature of emptiness in terms of this highest school so that he can she can present it to you. And then, fifthly, the fifth quality is that of great compassion. And this is probably the the most important. Some there are there are other teachers. For example, he says, if a teacher has no other qualities but has great compassion, he or she is worthy of being devoted to.
So if a teacher has great compassion and you sense that, you can feel a sense of assurity that what the teacher teaches and does, he or she does and teaches in order to benefit you. You can feel assured that, and you can begin to open your heart to that benefit. Otherwise, you can’t be assured. So the fifth of these qualities is that a great compassion great compassion. Okay.
So we went through this difficult list, right? This checklist of my Lama, a qualified spiritual teacher. However, Tsongkhapa realizes that such a fully qualified teacher may be difficult to find. Maybe you will find quite readily, but maybe you won’t. But he suggests in in the in the meantime that you rely upon a spiritual friend, someone who can support you in your practice.
You know, And he lists, you know, someone who’s virtuous, who’s reliable, who’s trustworthy. And he actually lists a number of qualities. And these, again, he lists in his text called the great exposition stages of the path. So a spiritual friend, this is like your sangha. People you can who are there for you now.
And you can you can carry on a highly meaningful and successful practice independently working with them while you’re actively investigating, looking for your spiritual teacher. Such a friend possesses, and there’s a number of combination of the following qualities. I’ll just list some of them. The wisdom to distinguish between good and bad. Someone who behaves with discipline, is very interested in the Dharma, is not discouraged, whose faculties are subdued, who speaks in a gentle, harmonious manner, who is generous, possesses great compassion, is willing to bear hardships for the sake of practicing the teachings, and has faith in the Buddhadharma and Sangha.
Okay? So we I’m gonna I’m I’m gonna I’m going to stop in a minute, I just want to bring across one one last point with regard to the lama. The spiritual teacher is important. How but we we don’t have to feel desperate. We, you know, we can we can practice well relying upon our spiritual friends, upon the Sangha.
It is much better to be patient and to take your time. The point is, in mentioning the importance of this teacher student relationship is this relationship should not be entered into lightly, but only after long period of examination, watching, checking up. If you make a wrong choice that you come to regret, you will only do yourself harm. Or at best, you just waste a lot of time and either which would be sad. A student depends upon the insights of their teacher.
If the teacher if the teacher is not speaking from their own reality, from their own inner experience, then the what they say will not penetrate the student’s heart. It won’t have the necessary effect on their mind. Bottom line is we want to change our mind. Somehow Somehow what the teacher says and does has to bring about a change in our mind, has to act as a catalyst for bringing that about. If the teacher teacher is not speaking directly from their own experience, then it won’t have this effect on our mind.
It would be it may it would just be like pouring oil on water. It would simply float there. The teacher teacher would need some kind of inner experience. So we don’t don’t understand that it’s not even though I’ve tried to emphasize the importance of the teacher, we don’t have to rush out to find one. But perhaps you’re fortunate enough to have already found a teacher.
The point is that we should actively look, we should actively look for a teacher. We should not simply dismiss the importance of a teacher nor should we rely solely upon books and so forth. That teacher is important. But once we but we have to enter into this relationship intelligently. We have to time.
So so for the present, I think we should just be aware of the the need for some guidance beyond books and the the need to relate to others to share what it is that you are trying to do and to to be able to receive and to give help to others. So we actively are seeking guidance and we can look look to others for the help that we need in terms of guidance and advice in our practice. But all the while realizing the importance of developing eventually in some intelligent and mature manner, relationship with a qualified spiritual teacher. But when you when you become convinced that you that there that there is some benefit to be gained through devoting yourself to a particular teacher, then we cultivate these two attitudes which I mentioned earlier. Cultivating the attitude of respect for their qualities and appreciation for all the kindnesses that they are showing you.
And this has to be, are these are grounded, intelligent, clear attitudes that we’re trying to develop. So how can we actually do this in fact? To devote ourselves in terms body, of mind and body. So mentally, always focus upon the once you have found someone who you wish to develop a deep relationship of good Lama disciple, spiritual teacher and student. Then you must begin to cultivate a sense of devotion.
Mentally, this is enhanced by focusing upon their positive qualities. This is after the examination you no longer should emphasize that you see negatively. It’s not this is why the examination should be done only after this is why it should only be into into after a long period of time. You want to focus on their positive qualities. You want to see their positive qualities.
And you would want to and try to recollect recollect again and again, remind yourself again and again of their many kindnesses. You know, once a a really great master talked about a connection with many, many westerners, he once said, there’s a there’s a book called the fifty verses of Guru devotion. And there, it’s quite elaborate ways of devoting oneself to the spiritual teacher. And he said, oh, maybe this isn’t quite appropriate for Western. He said, just remember the kindness of your teacher.
All the various sort of way. We we we can’t even begin to imagine imagine the kindness which is being given to us until we actually begin to taste some freedom, some some actual development of our own mind when when we actually experience some of the fruit, then we begin to have a sense of how kind the teacher really is. Without that experience of some of the results of the practice, we can’t really appreciate what what it is that we’re receiving, what the teacher is giving us. So mentally, always focusing upon their positive qualities and again and again recollecting their kindness that they show us. And then physically making offerings, and again this is for your own benefit, material offerings, performing whatever services that you that you can for the teacher.
But best is to actually practice what the teacher teaches. And if the teacher is really worth our devotion, they will be most pleased with our practice over and above anything else we might do. I’m sorry. I kept you a long time. I promise.
No. I won’t promise. Yeah. So we we we dedicate the positive energy that we’ve created. Merit.
May all beings everywhere plagued by suffering, the body and mind, attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creatures suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies that worn with toil be restored on finding repose.
May the tank and find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May the timely rains and bound for harvest.
May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power and may people think of benefiting each other.
Through these skillful actions, may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm. May the supreme jewel, the three principal aspects of the path that have not risen arise and grow, and those that have arisen, may they never diminish but increase more and more. In the land circled by snow mountains. You are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig Tenzin Gyatso.
Please remain until the end of cyclic existence. I’ll try to stop earlier next time. Just wait. Thank you.