Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 102-minute session from a week-long retreat on death and rebirth, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through a structured meditation on impermanence and mortality—a foundational Buddhist practice often avoided but, he argues, essential to meaningful spiritual life. He walks participants through the disadvantages of denying death: procrastination in practice, a mind dominated by worldly concerns, weak or mixed spiritual effort, and unprepared fear at the moment of dying. He then explores the advantages: death awareness becomes a powerful antidote to disturbing emotions, encourages authentic Dharma practice, prevents complacency, and allows for a peaceful death and favorable rebirth. The core reflection uses concrete examples—comparing our approach to death to an animal in a truck approaching slaughter; reflecting that in a hundred years virtually all seven billion people alive today will be gone; recognizing how each day, hour, and moment irreversibly passes. He concludes with practical determination: to remember daily that death is certain, time is short, and therefore protecting the mind from negativity and cultivating virtue is not optional but urgent. An extended Q&A follows, addressing anxieties about rebirth, the role of spiritual masters, and ethical questions around prolonging life artificially—grounded in the teacher’s practical, no-nonsense approach to both traditional doctrine and modern reality. Suitable for practitioners new to Buddhist thought as well as those deepening an established practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 08 11 DB-Death&RebirthRetreat 11082013Med2-3.mp3
UUID: ef0c2100-10a0-4d24-ad10-de3e9bbf6046
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Death & Rebirth (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-08-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 102.4 minutes
Words: ~7,092
So it started in the FPMT, so it’s been about nine years, I think. So I think this is the biggest retreat group ever in many that I’ve done. So that’s great. That’s really great. It’s most of the people at the at the course, in fact.
So that’s that’s especially for such a topic. Such a fun, obviously, a fun topic. Anyway, we’ll start with three prostrations without the mantra that. Oh, just by the way, because some people are new, fairly new, or maybe not so, I don’t teachings when I sit on the throne and people prostrate, people aren’t prostrating to me. Don’t know if I have explained that. You prostrate to the Buddha, you’re not Well, if the person happens to be your Guru, of course you prostrate to the Guru, but I think some people don’t prostrate because they think, Oh, I’m not gonna prostrate to this guy.
So that’s fair enough. But we are prostrating to the Buddha. I forgot to turn it off. Okay. So this session will do a long meditation thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of not thinking about death and the advantages of thinking about death.
So we use the prayer in the prayer book, page ten, if you want to join. I think it’s good to be a little bit familiar with the Tibetan chantings. They’re quite I think can be quite inspiring, although it is important to if you don’t like to say Tibetan, to know the Englishman. But somehow the chantings, if that’s the right word for them, can be very inspired and well composed by great holy beings. So it is on page ten, isn’t it?
I have lost page ten. So we’ll again take two segments. And then this first segment, we’ll think about the advantages and disadvantages. And then we’ll take a three minute break and then think about how death is definite. So, again, we can begin by sitting comfortably in a correct posture as much as possible.
And just briefly moving the awareness through the body just to fine tune the posture. So then, as much as possible, generating strong bodhicitta and motivation for being here today doing this retreat and this particular meditation session. Thinking of the Buddha in front of you as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, Think that the Buddha appears out of great compassion to remind us of our Buddha nature, to encourage us, to inspire us, to realize it. At the same time, try and have a sense of all sentient beings surrounding you, starting with your parents on either side, trying to have that strong awareness of how they are incredibly kind in every possible way, and yet they are suffering. And particularly think how human beings suffer because of not understanding or denying impermanence.
They suffer because of the fear of death and denying their own mortality. So much suffering in life comes from that. And also myself. So how it’s so important for myself to to understand more and more deeply how everything is impermanent. I am impermanent.
I am definitely going to die. So I’m going to meditate on this for my own sake, but especially for the benefit of all kind suffering mother sentient beings. So we’re doing a prayer on page eleven. Sorry. Meditation one.
I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the supreme assembly. By my practice of giving all the perfections, now I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Thinking that Buddha is pleased with our motivation, then imagine the Buddha now comes to our crown seated on just the lotus sun and moon, facing the same direction as ourselves. And for the rest of the session we imagine the Buddha remains there, creating that protective environment and blessing our mind continuously. We don’t have to actively visualize the Buddha anymore, just have that confidence that the Buddha is present.
So they reflect that although it is uncomfortable to think about my own mortality, that I am going to die, I could die at any moment, The disadvantages of not thinking about death are far worse because if I don’t open my heart to this awareness, then I’ll ever really see the need to practice the Dharma in my own life. My mind will be dominated simply by worldly concerns. There may be some superficial interest in the Dharma, but it won’t be anything sincere. I I just won’t see the real need for it because somehow life is know, this life seems to be always going going to be occurring. And so the things of this life will always seem the most important.
So I’ll get lost in those, continue to follow attachment and all the disturbing thoughts, self-cherishing. Just reflect how easy it is that if I don’t think about death, if I don’t have any awareness of death when I wake up, then it’s so easy for the whole morning to be wasted in ordinary things. If I don’t think about death at midday, the whole afternoon gets lost in obsession with the ordinary things of this life. If I don’t think about death in the evening, then the whole evening again, lost to ordinary pursuits. But the point is death is going to occur.
The next life is going to occur. The karmic results of what I do in this life are going to occur. But what if I don’t think about death? None of this seems important. If I do see the value of Dharma, even if I do try to practice it but I lose awareness of my own mortality, then I procrastinate.
Still, Dharma practice doesn’t seem that important. I keep postponing doing what needs to be done. And even if I get around to practicing the Dharma, if I lose sight of my own mortality and that death could happen any time, even if I practice, my practice isn’t very strong, isn’t very pure. It gets mixed with worldly attitudes, worldly concerns. Not really concerned with the future life, but practicing for some benefit just in this life.
So the disturbing thoughts don’t really get touched. If I practice but lose sight of impermanence and death, then when I experience difficulties in my life, difficulties in my practice, I tend to give up. While things are going well and Dharma practice is easy, practice, but if I lose sight that death is coming, next life is coming, when difficulties happen, lose determination, I lose courage. But yeah. So even if I were practicing the Dharma in some way, but I don’t think about continue to think about impermanence and death, then I’ll continue to engage in negative actions.
Because I’ll lose sight of the fact that these actions are going to bring terrible results after this life, when death comes. And the worst result, which is a culmination of all the other disadvantages, is that when death actually comes, which it will, I won’t be prepared at all. I’ll be completely surprised, shocked that it’s occurring. There’ll be no preparation, and therefore a lot of fear, a lot of regrets. Difficult to have a peaceful death and therefore a good rebirth.
Possibly you’ve all heard or read about people who when dying die with a lot of regret of the things they could have done in their life or regretting things they did do. But to die and but that’s just ordinary people. But to die having wasted a precious human rebirth, knowing that we had a precious human rebirth and we didn’t use it properly, that regret will be, you know, even greater. So Then look at the advantages of thinking about death. It seems a difficult thing to do, but if I’m mindful of my own mortality and how my death could occur at any time, then this will encourage me to act meaningfully, virtuously.
So this will bring long term benefits but just by you know, in the mind of acting meaningfully, virtuously, there will be benefit. There will be peace, contentment, and so on in this life. A great advantage is that strong awareness of impermanence and death is a very powerful antidote to all of my disturbing thoughts. So it’ll help me avoid negative actions more and more and all the suffering consequences. And as an antidote helping to subdue the disturbing thoughts, will make all my positive actions, more powerful, more effective.
And consider how mindfulness of impermanence and death has the advantage of pushing me to practice Dharma in the first place, to realize that this is what I have got to do, I have got to take care of my mind. So it will encourage me to start the whole process. It has the advantage of encouraging me to continue Dharma practice even if that practice becomes difficult. And it will have the advantage of encouraging me not to be complacent but to continue and complete the whole path to enlightenment. The greatest advantage which is that accumulation of all the other points is that when death actually occurs then it won’t be a surprise.
There won’t be the fear and regret. My mind will be prepared so it’ll be possible to have a peaceful death, a good rebirth. I’ve laid the foundations throughout my life. Bring this meditation to a conclusion by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in your daily life, that without any fear or aversion to thinking about recognizing impermanence and death occurs, to be mindful, to think about the disadvantages of fearing and not wanting to think about impermanence and death, to be mindful of all its advantages. So we reestablish a comfortable position, posture, just reaffirming, strengthening our motivation.
Think of the Buddha, remember the Buddha above the crown of our head. All sentient beings surrounding us. So try and allow them, the mind, to get a strong sense of death, that I am definitely going to die by thinking how every being who has taken birth on this planet has died. Every embodied being, every human being, every animal of every kind that has taken birth on this planet has died. So why not me?
How can I possibly believe in any rational way that I won’t die? We all die because we have no power to remain on this earth. We have no way just to remain with this body. No sentient being has. Try to get a sense of this as strong as you can.
Let this really touch some deep part of your mind as much as you can by reflecting how even the most powerful human beings who have ever lived on this earth could not use their power to live forever. They couldn’t prevent aging or death by accident or violence or so on or disease. No matter how much power they had, the wealthiest couldn’t prevent it. The most intelligent couldn’t prevent it. The most beloved people couldn’t prevent it.
Even the holiest beings couldn’t prevent it. They all died. How can I think I won’t die? Try to get a sense of it by reflecting how whole civilizations of the past have completely disappeared. The ancient Egyptian civilization has has disappeared for more than two thousand years.
It lasted over a thousand years during which millions of people lived. Not one of them survived. Virtually nothing of their civilization remains. So why do I think I’m going to live? There’s seven billion human beings on this planet right now.
In a hundred years’ time, virtually none of them will be alive. Looking at it in another way, try to get a sense of your own mortality by reflecting how life is passing away each day, each moment, without any way to add to that. Especially consider that this life that I’m experiencing now is the karmic result of actions created in past lives. In past lives, I created the causes to have a human life which will last a particular period of time. That’s the effect of the causes I created.
But I have no way to know how much life created the causes for. But now that the effect is coming, there’s no way I can create more causes for a longer period of life. So day by day, I get closer to death. Nothing I do stops approaching death. Just like an animal that is in a truck being driven to the abattoir, The animal is approaching death every moment.
It may be eating some hay in the truck, but that doesn’t stop the fact that every moment the animal is approaching its death. Our life is like that. No matter what we are doing, it doesn’t stop the fact that every moment we’re approaching death. Reflect how with the passing of the seconds a whole month of our life comes to an end. And with the passing of minutes, an hour goes by, an hour of our life is finished.
With the passing of hours, a whole day of our life is finished. With the passing of the days, a week of our life goes, then a month. With the passing of the months, a whole year of our life is finished. And then with the passing of the years, our life comes to an end. Just reflect how this life seems to be such a solid thing.
We have this solid body in a solid world. Everything seems so concrete, and that somehow seems to guarantee our life, this life, this world. But the only thing that separates us from the next life is our breath. And we have no control over that. And when the breath ceases, this very solid world comes to an end for us.
Reflect how I will definitely come to die because this body is impermanent, because it has arisen depending on causes and conditions. This body is like the sound of a bell. It is decaying irreversibly moment by moment. The mere fact that I was born is proof that I will die. And reflect that I have a precious human rebirth, a very rare kind of rebirth, which is the optimum chance, the best chance to free my mind of suffering.
The optimum chance to achieve enlightenment and help every being free their mind of suffering. And yet, there is so little time even with the precious human rebirth to practice Dharma. Possibly a third of my life wasted in sleep. When I’m young, I’m too young to see the need to practice, too young to be able to practice. When I’m old, I’m too old to practice.
In the middle years, when I’m able to practice, there are so many distractions, so many things I have to do, so many things I don’t have to do, but I do them. So little time to actually practice in this what is already a very short life. So with that strong determination that since I am going to die and there’s so little time left, I must practice the Dharma. Meaning, I must take care of my mind. Meaning, I have to protect my mind from the disturbing thoughts, which can lead to suffering now, suffering in future lives.
I I I need to cultivate the positive qualities of my mind because they’ll they’ll bring well-being now and happiness in future lives. I’ve got to practice the Dharma. So I conclude the meditation by making a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life that I am definitely going to die. So I can’t waste this life. I need to practice the Dharma.
Then you call the Buddha on your crown, imagining the Buddha very pleased, showing this by now dissolving into blissful golden light. And then that light pouring into you, blessing your mind to gain the authentic realization that I am definitely going to die. A realization that turns the mind away from the meaningless negative things of life towards the practice of Dharma. And then we dedicate the merit. Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha, and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state.
May the precious body mind not yet born arise and grow, may I that born of no decline but increase forevermore. Okey doke. So I have a half hour more or less before lunch. So this is meant to be discussion time, question and answer time, your last questions on this topic, please. Some questions.
Oh, okay. So accepting that next time I’m going to die for this life, probably not gonna make it out of saṃsāra this time. Alright. So I’m struggling with trying to work out what possible capacity I’m gonna have to be able to do anything about directing for for what kind of better life. Because the death process will presumably remove all cognitive ability for many.
You know? It’s it’s all gonna go horribly wrong, isn’t it? I don’t I don’t really understand how it’s it’s like I’m basically back to saying, so where’s the mind again? Well, how I don’t really quite understand how the thing that I think of is my mind Mhmm. Relates to the mind that might go on.
I’m not sure if there’s much relationship there. No. I’ve no. I think in one way, I think it’s very simple. It’s very simple.
Do we need to have a break first? No? Only people can just Well, don’t if I’ve got the answer. But I think Yes, of course, generally speaking, I think for most of us, when we die, you know, we’re going to lose all awareness and have no control. But that doesn’t mean, what did you say?
It’s going to go horribly wrong. No. Because the basic point is, the simple point is, that we are putting positive imprints in our mind. And even though we don’t have any control of that, they it takes care of itself. If we put a lot of positive imprints in our mind and especially if we manage to die in the last conscious moments, are able to die in a positive state of mind with some conscious positive imprint in that time.
That will ensure, almost guarantee that you know, these positive imprints will take care of everything. Even though we have no there’s no conscious in you know, control from our side. Because, hey. We’ve got this. We managed to get this rebirth, which is a super duper good one.
And we we didn’t we had no control over it, obvious control, other than at a previous time, we engaged in virtuous actions and bingo, we’ve got this. So it can happen again. That’s true. The teachings say that, and this is what we should meditate on, you study the lamrim teachings, which this DB course is based on, in the teachings on the precious human rebirth, it’s extremely difficult to get another precious human rebirth. It’s difficult to get a human rebirth.
It’s even more more more difficult to get a precious human rebirth. And, but it’s once one’s got one, you know, it’s it’s easier to get another one than another precious human rebirth. That’s, you know, that’s one thing to remember. And, you know, especially if, you know, one of the more than super duper, well, what what is the the, you know, what is it? The cherry on the top of the precious human rebirth, you know, maybe that’s not the best way of putting it, is having a qualified guru.
If you’ve got the real one, if you find, if you connect with the real deal, then and and you you know, you’re a reasonable practitioner in this life, you should be okay because the guru can do lots of stuff. I mean, if the if the if the guru is the real deal Yes. Yes. Yeah. But that will all happen.
Guaranteed. No. You’re sure. Not in the binder, but you yeah. No.
We shouldn’t be complacent. I mean, the teachings are saying we shouldn’t be complacent. But I’ve done at practice is a bit of a juggling act or thinking about it as a juggling act and there’s all these apparently contradictory things, you know, because on the one hand one should think, you know, it’s really really difficult to get a precious human rebirth again because it’s true and bearing that mind that will encourage us to practice. It should. But on the other hand we shouldn’t get into this sort of really gloomy thing and saying you know well I’ve got one now but you know I’m doomed I’ll never have another one or I’m gonna you know yeah especially if one has connected with a real guru or even half connected.
You know, if you’ve got some kind of you can just even say one in a distance, you know. But I don’t know, maybe this doesn’t allow much to some people here. And and I think, you know, my teacher, Lama Zopa, is the real deal for sure. You know? And I’ll just tell you this little story, you know.
Once upon a time actually, this is gonna get long. One of the lamas one of the monks who who was a close disciple of Lama Yeshe who lived at Kopan monastery, which is our main monastery where Lama’s of Rinpochehi, in theory, lives, but is never there. But, anyway, he’s the head of it. It’s his monastery. He started it.
Anyway this monk went to Tibet and brought back a he he found a like a an injured it was one of those kind of like a lynx, a Tibetan lynx, a wild cat, know, quite a large, you know, mountain lion small mountain lion lynx y type animal. And he brought it back. And it it was it was very fond of him, and it would come into the Gompa at Kopan and sit with him and things like that. And at about this time, another and an Italian student who was a close student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s student died. And for some reason, some students started saying that this animal was the incarnation of this Italian student who died.
Right? You’re saying it was already there before. No. That’s not the point. Anyway, I don’t know how this really started.
And then also Rinpoche heard about this, and he said and the point is, you know, this doesn’t make much, you know, impact if one doesn’t know Rinpoche and and knows that he is someone who doesn’t say things. You know, he’s just he’s not someone I I have a lot of faith that Rinpoche doesn’t just say things, you know, without having a lot of reason and knowledge for saying things. And he said, apparently I didn’t hear it, but I heard it from other students that he said, how could you possibly say one of our students would be reborn like that because this Italian monk who died had great faith in the lamas. He said, there’s no way. No.
And I I just to be honest, I’m not aware this monk. This this man who died, he had been a monk. He he was a very, very, very nice man. I I liked a lot. But he disrobed and he’d well, anyway, he’d had he he became a drug addict, to be honest.
And so he died of an overdose of heroin, I think. But no. But this is even the point. The point. But he had a lot a lot of devotion to the lamas and the dharma even though, you know, doesn’t sound like it because he was a heroin addict, but he he, you know, got involved with a girl who was a heroin addict, and so he ended up, you know, in various things like that.
But he had a lot of devotion, a lot of knowledge of the dharma, had a lot of devotion to the dharma, he had a lot of devotion to the lamas. So Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, even this person wouldn’t have a bad rebirth because he had faith. He had genuine faith. Rinpoche doesn’t say things like that. Really believe he doesn’t just say things lightly like that.
I’m encouraging people to become drug addicts, by the way, and it’ll be okay. That’s not the point. Right. Joking aside. Rinpoche could be, but we won’t get into that debate.
I I think the the point is, and I I tried to make this, I think the last last talk or maybe I was saying it the Thursday night talk, I can’t remember, is that one of the things we’re trying to do as an ordinary practitioner is that yes, apart from the good imprints, we do have many negative imprints which can ripen at any time, but and we don’t have any actual conscious control of that but what we can do, even as an ordinary being practitioner, is by basically having faith in the Dharma and practicing, that if we’re able to basically maintain a good mind general with faith and refuge, then this blocks the ripening of those because they need the conditions. And if you keep a virtuous mind, a mind of faith, you block the conditions for the negative things to ripen. Of course, some will always ripen, but that’s what we need to do. And we more or less can do that. Again, we shouldn’t be too complacent, but you have to balance these two things.
Know, it’s all like, it’s, you know, what is it? The carrot and the stick approach you know we have to you know you know have the whip you know we have to whip ourselves a bit in the sense of you know remind about the negative but we also have to you know counteract that with positive aspects which both are valid and true. Yes. What’s the cause of an animal rebirth? Practically anything.
Well, in our teachings about the ten non-virtuous actions of body, speech and mind, it is said, any one of those can become the cause of a lower rebirth. Any one of those ten actions. Right? And so more more specifically, any of those actions done very negatively tells to bring rebirth in the hell realms. If it’s done with a moderate negativity, rebirth is a preta, and with, you know, mild negativity, rebirth is an animal.
But, yeah, so that in general that’s what, you know, more specifically the causes of an animal rebirth can be what? It is said we’re just living a life just following one’s senses, you know, and also allowing one’s mind to become really dumb. Not using one’s intelligence, not wanting to think. Because, you know, animals are kind of dumb. Mean, a lot people like to say animals are, you know, who are we to say that we are better than animals?
But I’m sorry. The Buddha says we are In the sense know, we are because, you know, the mind in a human rebirth, that rebirth is superior to an animal rebirth. Because the mind, the intelligence factor of the mind is functioning far better. And intelligence not just in a very kind of dry sense, but also one one’s emotional intelligence and one’s moral intelligence, but one’s intelligence in general, are all able to function much better than any animal. I mean, some animals aren’t quite intelligent, are more intelligent than some human beings, but a very unintelligent human being.
But they don’t have they have Buddha nature but they don’t have the capacity to use that. So by obscuring the mind, doing anything that’s obscuring the mind and especially the intelligence aspect of the mind is tending to create the cause of, if it’s combined with some other negativity, an animal rebirth. That’s why, you know, His Holiness often says that even if you can’t practice the Dharma very much, use your mind. Use your mind I don’t know what the official one is, but my understanding from various things is that, well, just because we in some way that in any life we have very little memory of this life, what happened in this life. Right?
And there’s more and more studies being made about how the memories we have of this life are highly unreliable anyway. So, you know, we just forget stuff. But, also, one has to reflect. I don’t wanna do do too much with this and freak people out, but the death process itself is kinda can be a pretty traumatic thing. Just the death process can be very traumatic.
There was the Bardo. That is pretty traumatic. And now it is being born even like being born in a womb. You’re stuck in this thing, in this womb, you know, even a human womb for nine months. Not not great.
So, you’re probably doing okay until I start trying to move you to the next bit. That’s the next bit. That is coming out. You know? Can you squash these you know?
Noises. Yeah. Yeah. But I would just actually well, you know, before I get to the noises and light, there’s, you know, going through that little channel. You know?
Not terrific. You know? And all sorts of things go wrong, and then they pull you out and you know? Well, they don’t do that anymore, do they? It’s much nicer, but, you know, they used to do all sorts of things, slap you around.
Existing in fluid to suddenly breathe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s good enough.
You know, you you’re you’re you’re gone. You’ve forgotten everything. You know? Even if our next immediate rebirth is a human one, we wouldn’t remember. But another thing is that if we have come from another realm, a nonhuman rebirth, My understanding is I mean, is just my understanding.
I’m not saying this is the official policy. Is that the human mind, know, this human thing unit can only experience so much suffering and so much pleasure. You know, an an animal can, you know, like a preta, you know, lives for thousands of years without any food. That’s their karma. We can’t.
If we if we haven’t had food after what? How long? Three Gone. When water, three days, four days, we die. But a preta lives for thousands of years with no water, no food.
That’s their karma. Yeah? And the gods have this unbelievable bliss. That’s their we cannot, as a human being, experience as an ordinary human. You know, if we become a highly realized being, that’s another trip.
You know? Forget that. Just as an ordinary being, we we can only experience so much pleasure. That’s it. That’s our karmic lot.
That’s what it means to be a human being. So much suffering, so much happiness. Right? So we there’s no way we we can remember this we could remember the suffering experience of being a preta or a hell being or maybe we could remember some animal rebirth, but but again there’s all that trauma in between. It’s a DB module.
Of theory, yes. In theory, in yes. Because well, the the the you know, in a simple way, you know, the it’s a Sanskrit word that means teacher and, like, in in in India, a guru you can have a like a sitar guru. And and it’s not used in this, you know, silly way now. Everyone’s, you know, like financial gurus and blah blah.
It’s not used in that derogatory or slick kind of way. It’s a extremely respectful word. But of course, then there’s a spiritual guru, which is the, you know, the most common way of using it. And according to the Tibetan tradition, the Tibetan lamas, the word guru literally means what’s the word technically? It means heavy.
The word Guru means heavy and the take on that meaning heavy with wisdom. So a Guru is someone who has lots of wisdom which doesn’t mean information but direct perception of the truth. A real guru is someone who has realizations of the path in their mind, not just an understanding, but a a a lived experience of the truth, of the teachings. There’s levels, many levels of gurus. Of course, one can never know these, but yeah.
Yes. No. It’s it’s it’s it’s a very complicated theory because, you know ideal well you do need someone who has real qualities but you can project onto that person more qualities than they have and it’ll be okay but if you project good qualities on someone who doesn’t have any good qualities, it’s a disaster. That’s why you need to find someone who has the right at least some good qualities. If you project more, that’s a it’s good.
The same is that Guru has qualities and they’re actually practicing in a valid path. Oh, then you’d be in big trouble. Tell her about that. You saying that would be in big trouble serious? No.
You can’t ask. No. But there’s a set of criteria, isn’t it? Yeah. There’s there’s a there aren’t there well, the none of them No.
We’re doing another module, you see, in the but but, anyway, very long in our teaching, as it points out, there are various qualifications that a sūtra guru should have and then a tantric guru should have. But before mentioning some of those, what it doesn’t mention because well, not that I’ve ever heard or read because I think they are just assumed to be so axiomatically vital and important they’re not even mentioned but actually I think they need to be mentioned in these degenerate times what you want in a Guru if you’re following the Buddhist path or trying to or want to follow the Buddhist tradition is two things. The Guru needs to be a Buddhist. They actually have faith in the Buddhadharma and are trying to practice it. That’s vital.
In other words, they’re following a valid path. Yeah, that’s true. Second one, which isn’t ever mentioned because it’s considered so vital, but unfortunately, you know, in these degenerate times it’s gone all wobbly, is that that person needs to have a guru and has needs to have your guru needs to have a guru, and your guru needs to have devotion, unbroken devotion to their guru. There are these days, there are gurus who have big followings who have broken their devotion to the guru. Such a person cannot be of any benefit to anyone.
Some gurus, in addition, and unfortunately I’m talking about people in the Buddhist thing, are teaching their own version of the Dharma, not the tradition. Oh, that’s why she was trying to make it more clear. Your guru needs to be following a Buddhist a Buddhist guru needs to be following the tradition, not their own version of it. Right? And they need to have a genuine devotion to a guru in the tradition who is following the tradition.
Those things are absolutely vital. They’re not even mentioned, but because unfortunately, these days, there are Gurus not following the tradition. You know, they’re claiming to be Buddhist, probably think they’re Buddhist, but they’re not teaching and practicing the tradition. And there are those who don’t have a Guru or have broken their devotion to the Guru. Useless.
Both these two there are some who’ve got both things, totally useless no matter how impressive they may be. So those two things aside, the minimum qualification to take someone as a Guru is that they know more than you do. So then they can teach you something. And so the the pure the view you have of that person, the better it is for you, the more effect it has on you. Our teachings it says, if you see the Guru as an ordinary person, you’ll get the benefit of being taught by an ordinary person.
If you see the Guru as a bodhisattva, you’ll get the benefit of being a bodhisattva. If and and that means really seeing them, not just saying, oh, I think my Guru is a bodhisattva. But if you actually really feel they are, you get the benefit of being taught by a bodhisattva. If you see the Guru as a Buddha, you will get the benefit of being taught by a Buddha, if you really feel that. But there’s a lot of danger of seeing someone as a Bodhisattva, as a Guru, if they’re not.
But there’s protection if they are sincere people following a valid path and protected by themselves having a guru who keeps them in check and they have devotion to that guru. So with all those lot you know? Yeah. This yeah. Because it’s also all about faith and, you know, there are all the stories about you know, that was upon the time sorry.
You asked me a question. I’ll give you a long answer. But now I won’t have anything to say in the DB course on the guru. But that was upon a time a monk went to India, and his mom said, when you get to India, dear, get get a relic of one of those holy saints and bring it back to me. And the monk said, oh, sure, mom.
And on his way back, when he just crossed the border, he remembered, oops, I forgot mom wanted a relic. What am I going to do? So he’s walking along the road, and then there’s a dog bone on the road, and he picks it up and says, I’ll tell mom it’s a relic so she won’t be disappointed. So he wrapped it up in some cloth, nice cloth and everything, and very devotionally gave the his mom this dog bone and said, this is a relic of some holy, holy Buddhist saint. So Mom had huge faith and treated this thing very precious, prayed to it and all sorts of wonderful things happened to her because she had faith.
Faith. No. That’s not yeah. But he Is it such a joke? Yes.
Of course. My guru has incredible devotion. My only guru has lots of gurus. Yeah. Many gurus, including his Holiness Dalai Lama, of course.
Yeah. Nothing. Nothing. Yeah. Your guru is your guru.
Always yeah. Once a guru, always a guru. But it’s really good to choose someone who’s currently alive. Oh, you can’t you can’t choose a guru who’s dead. Yeah.
I know. Yeah. No. You have to have a a no ascended masters, please. Nothing.
That’s yeah. You have to have a human guru. Yeah. In person physically. Yes, yes.
Well, I would say yes, yes. Because the guru is someone who has to have actual interaction with you, some at least, will tell you do this, don’t do that, and who you can ask things of. Otherwise, it’s very abstract. You can benefit, like, for example, thinking of his wholeness as your guru, but if you have no contact with him, you won’t get that far with it. Yeah.
That usually, there’s the you have one main teacher, and you can have many other ones. I think it’d be pretty tricky to have two root gurus. Oh, I can’t say never, but but most people, I mean, even his holiness only had one root guru, which was Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was his root guru, but he had yeah. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has one root guru. I mean, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s root guru was Trijang Rinpoche, but then Lama Yeshe was — he was extremely close to Lam — I mean, it was his, you know, he he you know, I don’t know I don’t know actually if Rinpoche saw Lama Yeshe as as as a as his root guru.
I know he said Trijang Rinpoche was his root guru, whether he included Lama Yeshe as the root guru or just second most important, nearly root guru, I don’t know. Oh, we’re over time. Lunch. This is a very tricky thing to you know, it’s not a simple answer, Shaun, because it’s about whether because it’s kind of like, can you commit suicide or not? Because suicide is considered negative karma, a negative action.
Yeah. True. True. Yeah. Fears have got very complicated, but, yeah, this is leads you to I’m surprised no one has asked this so far.
You haven’t asked many questions about death and dying, you mob. Sorry. Excuse me. You lovely people. But, this is the whole thing of being kept on all these complicated life supports because modern science can do this more and more.
Know that Lama Zopa Rinpoche once said a couple of years ago, much to my surprise because I would have thought Rinpoche would have said the opposite, that actually in cases where people are on their life as being in a sense unnaturally extended by all these complicated medical procedures, but there’s no quality of life. They’re basically in a vegetative state and the medical procedures are costing a lot of money and a lot of problems for family and friends, it is better to pull the plug. And Rinpoche said it would be good to donate the money used to keep a person alive to, you know, dedicate you know, donate that money and dedicate the merit for the good rebirth of that person. Yes. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. I think that’s valid.
Yes. Yes. Which we only have a workshop on soon about how to do a what do you call them? Advance directive. Because I would encourage people, everyone, to do this no matter what your age is, young or old, to get one done ASAP, get your will done, all those things.
There’s more than a advanced directive. Other things as well. Yeah. But as well as advanced direct, there’s medical directives, but there’s also what do you call them? There’s powers of attorneys and all these things very good to do.
Yeah. Yeah. And they vary from state to state at the moment. Yeah. Good to do really.
Yes. They’ll yes. Yeah. Some suggestions. Yeah.
Please take one. Okay. Thank you. That’s it. K.
Y. D. Yeah. The