Chkyi Nyima Rinpoche Saturday Talk * April 7, 2007 * Boudha, Nepal Translator: Andreas Doctor

Teachings on: Taming and Training [Beginning Prayers]

We speak of practicing the Sacred Dharma. We practice the Sacred Dharma in order to purify our mind, to change our mind, to soften our mind, to become full of compassion, to become full of wisdom, to become bright. Thats why we speak of practicing the Dharma.

Whether we use our intelligence or not, whether the Buddha taught the Dharma or not, all sentient beings have as a natural possession the quality of spontaneously present goodness within them. This is each beings basis. We need to know this and we need to develop this. Isnt it?

Whether we investigate or not, whether Buddha teaches or not, we all know that all sentient beings, whoever has mind, they all have one good quality. What is that? They all are loving, caring. Loving, caring, and intelligent. Sentient beings are very intelligent. Specially human beings. There is very dangerous intelligence, and there is helpful intelligence. The dangerous intelligence is when someone misuses ones intelligence. For example, a plane is a plane. Some planes are so nice, you can do everything, eat, sleep, piss, and cross all the way over to another continent. Thats the very beautiful side. Other planes are used for so much shooting, to destroy humans, sentient beings, and even the environment. Who created these all? The devil? Thousands of years before, people loved to believe in god and the devil. So was it the devil who created this horrible killing machines? How does this devil look like? Big? Huge, bigger than a mountain? How many eyes, how many legs and arms? No, devil didnt create those machines! It was humans! Humans created the good, but the bad was also created by humans.

We need to know that whoever has mind, not only humans, but all sentient beings have natural goodness. Its just there! We dont need to investigate or

learn it from the Buddha. It doesnt come about just because Buddha says so. No. Whether the Buddha taught or not, whether we investigate or not, whether we are educated or not, we are all born with a good heart. We are born with the ability to love and care, even without education, nobody taught us, it didnt come from practice or education, but it is natural. Just like water is wet, naturally. The nature of water is wetness. The nature of fire is heat. What is the nature of humans? That they are compassionate and loving. We need to see that value, and we need to feel that value and develop that. We need to really develop that.

Too much talking is of no use, so much investigation is of no use, philosophy, religion, or anything. In this case, what we need to gain is the taming of our mind. No taming, no gaining! Isnt it? If we need to gain, we need to tame our mind. Tame by what? By practice. Therefore we need to practice, because without practice we wont tame our mind, and without taming our mind, we wont gain.

We want to gain something. We want to gain the stage of an Arhant, a Bodhisattva, or a fully enlightened Buddha. That is our wish, our goal, our interest. We love to be like them. That is our journey.

Training oh, we are not so interested in that. Especially, taming, also not so interested in that. Building up our emotions we are interested in. Seeing funny things, we are interested in. We are interested in building up emotions, negative emotions, very attachment objects, very anger objects. People even play computer games, with awful objects and sceneries. It would be good to look at good sceneries, but not many people do that. There are many good sceneries on the computer, but we quickly click, click, click, pass them quickly until we get to the awful sites. We really like the very exciting things, Hah! or romantic things, love stories Hah!, and worse then that Hah, hah, hah! Seeing nature, many beautiful waterfalls, water and trees, leaves falling, the changing of the four seasons, that is beauty, but who will look at that? Think! Yes, there are those sites, but - click we move away from them as fast as possible.

Training Yes, people like to train. What do they like to train in? In this case, training is based on taming. Training taming. Training by itself is a general training. Ugly training is training. Very ugly training is training. There are many

ugly things one can train in. Some love to train in that because its ugly. Because its hurtful and harmful, so they love to train in it. Some training is helpful, serving, caring, helping others. We need be interested in that type of training, in that journey.

Specifically in this case, what should we train in? In taming. Taming what? Our ugly mind! Ugly mind, like what? Our pride and jealousy for example! Because our pride and jealousy create anger, greed, attachment, and the distinction of you and me. When we make this distinction of me and you, then greed, anger, self and you, you and me become very solid and real, and that in turn creates so much uneasiness and so many boundaries. Like the Berlin wall. Now that it is gone, how easy has it become.

Now there is one currency in the European Union, the Euro. How nice! They dont check the visa in every country. How very nice! I was in Europe in 1981. How was Berlin in those days, and how was it after the wall collapsed? Before one had to get many visas and one needed different types of currencies to travel through Europe. But now, we dont need many visas, only Euros, how easy that is!

If we want to know the border between two countries, we need to be aware otherwise we wont see it. Once some of our friends took me by car from Austria to Germany. I asked them to let me know when we cross the border. But after some time they said, Oops, sorry, I think we have already crossed the border. What? I asked. They replied, Sorry, we must have just crossed it. Thats beautiful.

Similarly, compared to a few 1000 years ago, we are living a very luxurious and comfortable life. We have so much technology, so many machines. I heard that a few 100 years ago even in Europe, people didnt wash much their bodies, not only in Tibet. I thought only Tibetans who were not bathing. Whatever. They didnt know how to bath even though they have such beautiful water, natural water. But I did hear that Europeans also didnt take baths in those days.

But the Europeans had more skill. They has already created perfume. They didnt take a bath and put on perfume. But it was ok to be dirty inside. Just put some perfume outside and there was no smell. Or lets say, probably if you really check well, there must have been a mixed smell! [laughs] The upper part smelled like perfume and the under part had another type of smell. [laughs]

Anyway, now things are very developed, we live in modern times, a modern world, modern lives. Things are more and more modern, more and more easy. But just think, how long are we going to last this way? If we dont think much about the future, how long will we last this way?

When will we have a serious shortage of oil and water? If there is no oil, yes, there will be trouble, but if we think, we still can survive, just like people in the past didnt use oil. Yes, we would have a difficult life. We couldnt travel much. Even if we wanted to go from Boudha to the center of Kathmandu, you could only use a bicycle. But thats totally ok. We dont need oil to go by bike. And we dont even have to use a horse thanks to science and inventors. But if we dont think well and if we are not aware well, we will have an oil shortage. Then what kind of life will it be? People might think, Oh, then nothing can function at all! Thats not true. We can function, but it will be difficult. But we still can survive, just things will slow down. Whenever we have a petrol shortage in Kathmandu, life goes on, but it slows down. People complain a bit that there is no oil and everybody just slows down.

But if there is no water, then what to do? What kind of slow-down would that be? It would be terrible slow down! Not a small slow down but a terrible, terrible type of slow down!

Therefore, we need to live in a very intelligent way, moment by moment. That means with a very open heart. We need to live nicely, not only for the next decade but for future generations. That is very important! Now, how the world will end up is up to the present, is in our hands! It is almost too late, but not terribly late. After 40, 50 years it might be very difficult, if we are not aware now. This is not only about global warming. Buddha and many great masters of the past gave this prediction: In the future the five elements will become unbalanced, especially heat will be very strong. In the Abhidharma-Kosha it is mentioned that seven suns will appear. Of course we know that there will be no seven suns appearing. What that means is that the suns heat is going to be sevenfold. What

will we do then? Just think! Where did that come from? Cause and effect. Everything is cause and effect. Will somebody put a powerful battery in the sun? Because then the battery would be the cause. No. The thing about the sun having more heat is the global warming.

Please think on many levels! Right now, people are working very hard to take care of themselves and their children, and the children of the future. That is very beautiful and very important. So we need to really think well! What does civilized mean? How to live nicely now, in the future, and in the very distant future. Its not only about oneself now and not thinking about the distant future, because that is very greedy. For example, if we have many dresses and a lot of food, if we eat all the food at once and wear out all clothes, later what will we eat, what will we wear? How is that? That is a simple example. Similarly, we just use, use, use. Chop down trees, chop, chop, chop, and take, take, take. Therefore, each of us has responsibility. It is our responsibility to live nicely moment by moment. How to do that? This is totally based on mentally. We need to tame ourselves through training. We need to tame ourselves through education. Any kind of education. This education is the teaching, reading a Dharma book, listening to teachings, and thinking about that.

For example, there is one think we really need to think well about. These days, there are many Dharma texts translated. Also here we translate many texts. Erik has translated maybe over 100 texts, some long, some short, and now Thomas, Andreas, and Heidi have also translated books. There is also the Dharmachakra translation group and all of you translators here are translating many wonderful books. What we need to do now is to actually translate the term dharma. Which word would you like to use in English or another European language? These days, we just use the Sanskrit word Dharma, but we dont have a good translation for it. For example, we write in English, and then between many English words there is suddenly the Sanskrit word Dharma, the most important word. That is not a good translation. In Tibetan it is ch, in Sanskrit it is Dharma, it is one of the most important words in Buddhist texts.

How did the Tibetan translators do it in the past? It took them a long time to choose the correct word for Dharma. When you look at old Tibetan translations, old versions, you will even find the Sanskrit word Dharma among the Tibetan words. But then later, the Tibetan translators and Indian scholars sat together and thought and thought and discussed and discussed, and came up with ch. What is ch? Thats a big subject. Is it religion? No. Is it philosophy? No. Is it science? No. Is it psychotherapy, psychiatry, psychoanalysis? No. Then what is ch? How would you put this in English or into another European language? How would it sound in German? What would you like to say? How in Russian, or Israeli, or Japanese? Russian Ani, what would you like to say? [Russian nun:] teaching [Rinpoche:] No, no. This we all know. This is so simple. She-cha is ch, prostrating: Oh, doing ch!, chanting : Oh, doing ch!, meditating : Oh, doing ch!, teachings : Oh, doing ch!, listening to the teachings : Oh, doing ch! So what is really ch? [Student:] How about all life? [Rinpoche:] If we would say that the whole life is ch, that would be a bit too much, because then pissing and all things would be included. How would that sound if people were to say, Oh, shes busy, because she is doing ch , meaning she is in the toilet pissing and shitting. If you want to say that, thats your choice. [laughs]. [26:08] For us it is really very, very important. We translate many Dharma books in many different languages. But we dont have a good word for Dharma, in Tibetan ch. We say we are translating the Dharma, but we didnt find a term for the most important word. The most important word is not translated, but all other words are translated, thats very funny. [Rinpoche asks one translator:] Did you think about this in the past, Catherine? [Catherine:] I only thought about it once you told me. It is so easy to just say Dharma. [Rinpoche:] This is very, very important. Forget about terms like Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya, emergencily we really need to know how to translate ch. We need to find an exact term in a European language. Any European language. If we found an excellent term in one European language, then we can adjust it to others. Maybe German, since is a great language with philosophical terms. Therefore, I have pushed Thomas to translate Uma Tsawa

Sherab Drelwa, the commentary on Nagarjunas Root Verses of the Middle Way, because it explains elaborately about the meaning of ch. All of you, especially translators, must read this book in English and Tibetan, and then think and think how to choose a term! This is very important, in my mind. [Russian student:] Maybe How-to-become-Buddha? [Rinpoche:] You can say that, but we should only find one exact term. If we give a commentary thats easy, but we would like to find one word for ch. Dharma ch Now in English. Religion? No. Philosophy? No. Religion? No way, no, no! Science? No. Truth? Still not. What truth, there are so many truths? [Russian student:] Phenomena? [Rinpoche:] If you just put phenomena then it doesnt make sense at all.

[Student:] Rinpoche, was the Tibetan word ch a new word? [Rinpoche:] Yes, the Tibetan translators and Indian scholars discussed a lot and made that term, as well as Buddha sangye and Sangha gendn.

In Nepal, Newaris are quite old Buddhist followers. They have Mahayana and also Tantric texts in Newari language. In the past, they had the transmission of empowerments, hearing transmission, and oral instructions. But now I dont know. But if you look at texts in Newari, they are worse than English translations, because all Dharma terms are in Sanskrit. English is still a bit better, since they have terms like enlightenment, emotions, negative emotions, etc. In Newari any Dharma term is in Sanskrit. Why didnt they translate those terms? So I have told some Newari philosophers that they must make those terms in Newari.

Sanskrit is very important. But it goes two ways. The same term might have a very different meaning in Hinduism and Buddhism. The way the Hindus explain a term and the way the Buddhist explain that same term is sometimes not the same at all. And, among the Buddhist experts there are not many Sanskrit experts.

One of my wishes is to make a good Sanskrit school. For example, I often ask people who know Sanskrit about gyana (Skrt.) which means yeshe in Tibetan, wisdom in English. General Sanskrit experts will explain this word to be namshe (Tib.), consciousness. But yeshe is much, much higher than even Prajnaparamita, much deeper. Sherab, knowledge, and yeshe, wisdom, have more profound meanings.

Taming is very important. Taming is based on training. We know that. Taming needs to be very skillful, and training needs to be very skillful. It shouldnt ask for hardship, it shouldnt be expensive, and it shouldnt take too long.

My bad English is getting worse and worse. I feel like a stomach problem .

Middle Way. The Buddhas teachings are the middle way. Middle way means we shouldnt do anything extreme, not physically, verbally, nor mentally. Some people are physically so extreme, undergo so much hardship! Beating, hardship, so much hardship! There is no need for that. Ok, do we then not need anything? No! We need something like this: just sit straight like this [Rinpoche sits straight]. Thats not hardship, and if you sit straight, then you wont get back pain and your lungs are opened well. So its logical that this is a good posture. Moreover, even if it is for a short time, cross your legs to form the vajra posture and straighten your arms, letting them be supported on your thighs, then your chest will come out a bit and breathing will be easy. When breathing is easy, every [subtle channel] movement is easy. Thats very logical, very simple, but not extreme. Middle way! Also verbally, teaching, listening, chanting, we should choose the middle way. When we train in mediation, we also should use the middle way. But we are not doing the middle way, and of course we are not doing the extreme part. But also we are really not doing the middle way. Our goal is very big. What do we want? We dont want to be an Arhant but we want to be a Bodhisattva, because we think, An Arhant is low. We dont want to be just a Boddhisattva but a Mahabodhisattva! When? As soon as possible! In one or two years. I cant wait for lives and lives and lives. It has to be this life time and as quickly as possible. If possible, tomorrow! Thats our wish, our goal.

In our training, extremes are not good, I already told you, dont follow that. Here is an example: A car has wheels, if one of them doesnt have air, it is difficult. It wont be able to move well. If you still try to go, it will just get worse and worse. We need balance, all tires need to have air then it will move well. Even feet, if one is long and the other short, it is difficult. Thats very simple. Many things are simple. But it is worse to have only one leg or only one wheel. How can it work? That we call an extreme.

Our extreme is [blows out air] what to say - cute! Because we are not the extreme in hardship, but the extreme in LAZINESS! [laughs] Because we are spoiled! We are spoiled! We are spoiled by philosophy, we are spoiled by teachings, we are spoiled by technique. The technique is very rich. The philosophy is very rich. Because the technique is very logical and very rich, so we think, Ah! We have everything. But to have everything and then to not apply it, thats different. Just like having all kinds of food but not eating it so what?

I have seen that type of people. I saw some rich people, who have so much money, so much food, and the most expensive bottles of wine. Im not talking about a 100$ bottle but a 1000$ bottle. So the rich person offered it to his guests, but he himself didnt take even a sip, saying, I hate wine. Anyone else can have a sip. To open a 1000$ bottle of wine is normal for him, but for us it is, Wow!!!! and for him, Can I please have water. I hate wine!. Actually whoever has everything, for them it becomes nothing.

I have seen parts of the movie Blood Diamonds. It is very sad. Even because of diamonds or jewelry people get so much trouble. But if theres a real water shortage, what kind of trouble will be face? We really need to think about that, because water is quite available. Jewelry, what is that for? For beauty, business, just for wearing, etc. Without jewelry we can live. But without water we cant live!

[A student holds up a water bottle and offers it to Rinpoche.] Thank you, same to you

I request all of you, including myself: We need to practice! We need to apply the teachings! We shouldnt wait until next year, next week, until next week. We shouldnt wait until this afternoon, until evening 6 p.m. and morning 5 a.m. We might think that other times are not our practice time, because thats our job time, or our hang-around time, or our gossiping time, our just normal time. We think that practicing in the morning for half an hour or two hours is so much, and that practicing in the afternoon for an hour is so much. Or we think, I did a three year retreat. or I did a one month retreat. No, no! No, no, no! We need to practice moment by moment! From the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, we need to be aware!

Buddhist practice is when? In our daily life. Daily life means what? During any activity, even in the office. Yes, you need to deal with your office job, but your mind needs to be calm, kind, clear, and tolerant. If your phone is not working, dont beat the phone. If your computer breaks, dont shout at it, because that is normal. Anything that is made will break at one time. Everyone who is born will get sick and die. So if your computer is broken, that means your computer is sick and needs to see the doctor. If it is curable, let it be cured. If it is not curable, then the good news is that theres no need to dig a grave, put it in, and speak some blessings over it, but you can simply throw it away, but of course, we still need to find out where to throw it nicely. [laughs].

Buddhist followers are not really religious. Religious people must function within certain rules and certain behavior and certain times certain time not, and certain time is important. But for us every moment is important. If we do that, then since our goal is big and our wish is big, success will be there!

We need to apply the teachings moment by moment, then we wont waste our life, we wont waste our time. The worst thing is when we followers of Buddhism waste our lives! We know what is good for us, but we still dont do it. That is the most foolish thing in our life! If we dont know what is good for us, then what to do, we ignore it. But if we know what is the most beneficial for us, and then we dont do it if we know very clearly and we see it with our own eyes what is best for us, but we just leave it at an idea without practicing it, then theres no greater loss!

I often remind myself, What am I doing? How many hours did I practice? A few hours in the morning and afternoon? And then I think I am going to get something

before I die? Only from that? Come on! Come on, Chkyi Nyima! [in the sense: Arent you fooling yourself?]

All of us, we need to think. Whom do we love the most? Of course, we love each other, but the most we love ourselves! If that is true, then you must be nice to yourself. Even if you dont wear a nice dress or even if you dont eat good food, you feel its a shame and you feel upset. If you are a little sick and you dont take care of yourself, you whimper, Oh-ho, Im not taking care of the I, the I!

Here is another request for translators: We need to use the word I less in English language. There is also a deep good meaning in this message. How can we do that? How can we do that? Please think! For example, in Sanskrit we say, Buddham saranam gachami. Dharmam saranam gachami. Sangham saranam gachami. And in Tibetan, Sang-gye la gyabsu chi-o. Ch la gyabsu chi-o. Gendn la gyabsu chi-o. Those languages dont mention the word I. But if we translate them in English Refuge in Buddha, refuge in Dharma, refuge in Sangha. everyone would ask, Who? So we translate, I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha. Immediately I comes a lot. Yes, now we have to use it this way, but I think it is possible to change it, if we translators or whoever is good with terminology sit together and talk. But it has to make sense. If we just get rid of I we will just make it worse and more strange. If we say, Take refuge in Buddha. Take refuge in Dharma. Take refuge in Sangha. then is sounds like an order, doesnt it? If we say, I take refuge it sounds like only I. If we say, Take refuge it sounds like an order. But to say, I take refuge in the Buddha only talks about I. You also cant say me like me take refuge.

These things are important. First we need to find a good term for ch. And secondly, we need to reduce I in some areas. Wherever it is necessary, we can leave it, for example, when we talk about exchanging self and others, without the dag [self, I] it wouldnt be good. At that time the I is very important.

We are talking about taming. Taming by what? At best, the top way to tame everything, is by wisdom! No question! We all know that. Ok, if we dont understand intellectually, even, more than that, if we didnt experience gyana, wisdom, if we didnt recognize realization, then is there no other method? No, there is another method! Then we can use loving kindness and compassion. Our

loving kindness and compassion should be impartial. But if my loving kindness and compassion is not impartial, do I have another choice? Yes! You need to develop impartial loving kindness and compassion through partiality. But if caring and loving is very difficult for me, what can I do? I really dont want to love, I really dont want to care. I just want to enjoy myself. I want to have peace! I like peace! Leave me alone! Dont bother me! Dont come near me, dont talk to me. I want to be alone. Please close the door. What to do now? Somebody might ask, Can I bring you a cup of coffee? you scream, No! What about some chocolate? Mommy, no! Can I bring you a beer? No! - What about vodka? hmmmm. Maybe! [laughs] Joking, joking, joking! [laughs] Why? Because I like to drink. Because you like the taste of vodka? No comment. So why do you want to drink vodka? Do your really want to know well? It is because I want to be happy. [laughs] Is that true? Or not? Maybe? Sure! Guaranteed! But after drinking vodka you are either groggy or everyones friend, Ha, ha, ha, everybody friend, friend, friend, eat, eat, drink, drink, ha, ha ,ha, ha. Relaxing is happiness and being uptight is not happiness. Is uptight happiness? [Russian student, a nun is questioning this] [Rinpoche:] For you, being uptight is happiness and relaxing is unhappiness? Wow, thats a very good ani, very good Russian ani.

We really need to live as natural as possible. We shouldnt use so many artificial things. Now we know that artificial things have so many side effects, even face cream. One of my students is a chemist for one of the expensive cosmetics. I dont want to mention it, otherwise Ill get a law suit. He says that there are so many chemicals inside the creams. Whoever makes them would never use them because they have so many side effects. They just put it into a good box, with a good brand name, and some famous persons photo. Sell it expensively.

Live naturally! OtherwiseWhen I was in Europe, one morning a friend said, Sorry, I need to go. I need to drink some coffee, because Im still not awake. But he was talking and sitting nicely [which are signs of not sleeping], still he said he hasnt woken up. So some need coffee to wake up and alcohol to relax. They drink alcohol after their job, or they watch TV or they smoke. We know that. Thats life.

A couple comes into a room. First they tried to stay together, drinking a bit and smoking and talking. Then one started to read a magazine and the other one pushed on the TV. The man started channel hopping, which annoyed the woman so she went into the other room to watch her favorite TV program there. But later they both said, We are not spending enough time together. Who made that? They! The TV didnt say, Please spend time with meeeee! Honey, stay with me! Im lonelyyyyy! and the TV in the other room didnt say, Buttercup, come near me, nobody is with me, come and watch me! Nobody is saying that. But who knows, one day they might make TVs that will say that kind of stuff. So it was their choice to watch TV instead of spending quality time together. But still they complained, we are not spending time together. Whats going on? Dada-da-da-da. We know that well. We are sucked by technology. Mind goes empty. Information is coming, computer information, television information, news information, and it fills our whole day, our whole brain. [Rinpoche holds his head]. And there are not many of our own thoughts left to really think what we would like to understand, what we really would like to do. We are so full of already-put information, actually more than full with information, so we dont know how to handle it.

Therefore, we need to tame ourselves! One taming is: we need to relax. People think, people know they like to relax. So what is relaxation for them? Going on a holiday! Especially where? In a shopping area? No. Then where to go to relax? Near the mountains or near the big ocean. Not a small ocean, but a big ocean. Not a small mountain, but a big mountain. Except in Denmark! Seven or eight years ago, when I was in Denmark, our students and friends said, Rinpoche, please get on this horse, because we need to ride on top of the mountain. So they put me on a horse. I was very excited, Wow, Im going on a mountain! After four minutes they said, Ok, we are on the mountain! Im not exaggerating! It wasnt even five minutes! But four minutes. And the horse went slowly trod, trod, trod - to the top of the mountain. They didnt call it hill but mountain! Later I thought they just wanted to shock me or surprise me, but no, only I laughed. Nobody else laughed. So I felt so strange, nobody was laughing, so I only laughed behind my hand. [laughs]

We need to live moment by moment as calm as possible, as kind as possible, and as clear as possible. Our mind should be clear. Dont drink too much coffee and not too much alcohol. Too much coffee makes you hyper, and too much alcohol makes you dull. Tea is not bad, but dont make it strong. [laughs] Keep things natural. Be as calm as possible. Keep your mind calm. Clam! Be tolerant, kind, and calm!

What is a practitioner? We need to examine ourselves, Am I more calm than before or not? Am I more kind than before or not? Am I more clear in my mind than before or not? More clear means, this morning, where did I go, what did I say? Especially look at your negative sides. Did I harm anyone, did I say bad things, did I react in a bad way? What helpful words did I say? What helpful actions did I do? If you discover that you actually did nice things and said nice words and even just thought about doing nice things, then we must rejoice! Oh! Today I am really a practitioner! I want to be a practitioner. Today I did something! Today I didnt waste time! But if you were angry, jealous, said bad words, and had bad thoughts, then reflect, How ugly I am! I am really wasting my life! How bad I am! Come on! Change! There is no need that I am in that way! I know the technique, I know the remedies. Just use it! So dont fool yourselves! Dont go in the wrong direction!

Teach yourselves! Dont only think, Guru, Guru, Guru bless me, Guru bless me. What can Guru do? and Buddha, Buddha, Buddha! Buddha teaches us. The guru teaches us. We need to apply it! The Buddha said, Come. Go this way. But you dont want to go that way, you just want to think, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha. That doesnt work!

In this world, most religions are based on faith, a cute type of faith. They believe that there is somewhere somebody over there. Somebody powerful and invisible. Almost cannot see. One or two say that they saw someone or half of them saw. That might be true or not. I might some day become one of them, or I might never become one of them. They believe that there is somebody over there, UP there, and very powerful. So if that someone, he or she is happy, then things go well. If he or she is unhappy, then things go wrong. We just need to pray, then your journey will be good, they will pull you up. If you dont, they throw you down. They pull you up, very good, to some paradise and throw you down to hell, very bad, to sometimes permanent hell! Not just hell, but permanent hell. God damn! Who is laughing? [laughs]

So, in some way Buddhists are similar, Buddha! Bodhisattvas! Guru! My lineage Guru! Hoo, hoo! Bless me! What does blessing mean? This we need to know. All religions talk about bless me, but what do they mean by that? Each religion has a different meaning for that. But what do we Buddhists mean by that? Good health? No, just go to the doctor. No need to ask the guru or Buddha. Just go to

the doctor and take some vitamins. You dont need to go to the Guru or Buddha when you are sick. If you have back pain, have some acupuncture and do some special exercise. Theres no need to ask the Guru, he or she cant do anything. [laughs] When I have back pain, I never ask my guru. I know the guru cant do anything about it. [laughs loudly] Oh gosh, what is happening today?

So, the message is: The Buddists are also asking for help from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But what is real help? It is the TEACHINGS of the Buddha, not Buddha. But then of course, without Buddha there are not teachings, they are connected, and the teachings are also related with the Sangha. Without the Sangha, the teachings wont make much sense. However good the Dharma text is, it will be difficult to understand it clearly without a lineage teacher. Therefore, these days people are quite happy with Tibetan Buddhism. Why is that? Because we hold the lineage from India, especially the two monasteries, Nalanda and Vikramashila, the two universities. The way the monks studied and practiced, that lineage went to Tibet and was transmitted from master to student, and to his or her student and to his or her student and to his or her student. I dont need to say much here, many of you have joined the Shedra and also many of you get teachings >from teachers. Even the best text, if you just read it, you wont understand much. But if a teacher explains it, you can understand quite a lot. On top of that, if you think and investigate, and debate and discuss it with students and teachers, debating and discussing, then you will fully understand it. That is the beauty of the Buddha Dharma.

So we need to know what blessings mean. The real blessing is not healing. When you are sick, to suddenly get healed. Its not about when you have a shortage of money that you suddenly make more money. No. These are what we call in Sanskrit loka siddhi [worldly accomplishments]. They are not gyana siddis [wisdom accomplishments]. Loka siddha are very low and only help temporary, long life, happy, prosperity, etc. but if we are only stuck in that, we will never get liberated. This is also mentioned in many religions. Even without religion, we know that if we work hard, we can get some money, and if we take some medicine we can get healthy. But the real blessings, jin-lab in Tibetan, are about gaining realization! Realization needs to be passed on from teacher to student to student to student to student in an unbroken lineage. That realization is the blessing, that is the ultimate blessing. To gain that realization ourselves, we need to pray to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Especially in the Tantric tradition, a guru is important. Why? Because our human mind is very funny. For us, we feel, Yes, Buddha is very special. He lived 2500 years ago, Oh, oh, oh. Gone, gone, gone. Gone! But for me, who is the most close? The guru. Which guru? MY guru. My favorite guru. My dear, favorite guru! So therefore, the connection is much closer. When the connection is more close, the power is

more close. So when you think, My guru has the qualities of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas!, so because of that strong belief or pure perception or devotion, then all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas blessing will be condensed in the guru. That is Tantrics special technique. If we tell that to someone of the Teravada tradition, that person would say, That doesnt make sense! Buddha is Buddha, of course such as special being! And a guru is a human being, nothing special. But in our tradition, the power comes from the pure perception thinking that the guru has all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas realization, compassion, activity, energy, power, etc. condensed. So in that way, if I pray to one guru, I pray to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, so I will receive all the blessings of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Thats true!

[Outside somebody says, Hello. Lhaso.] Hello! Lhaso! They are saying that outside, maybe they are trying to say, Stop! or something.

Be as calm as possible, as kind as possible, and as clear as possible! Please ! We need to live moment by moment happily and kind. Happy means comes from when we have no stress. No stress comes about if we truly appreciate things. For example, look at this flower here, how nice! I like it. I appreciate it. It feels so good. Im quite sure, if each of you look at this flower and think that, then you will also feel that! You dont have a sudden urge that you need to take it, or eat it, or put it into your eye or into your nose. Just looking and thinking, How nice! makes you happy, and the stress will disappear.

Secondly, we all need to feel good about each other, Oh, I really love whoever is here. I really care for whoever is here. I really respect whoever is here. It doesnt matter whether I know them or not, whether they like me or not. It doesnt matter what background they are, I really care for them, I really love them, I really respect them. If you think in that way, you will feel very good, everyone is your friend!

Andsame connection sometimes we dont get along with certain people, at a certain time. So we need to apologize, otherwise there will be stress, worries, pain, and unhappiness. Apologizing is very important. Forgiveness is also very important. If you forgive and apologize, then there will be no stress, and you will have a very happy and very clean mind.

Jealousy is very ugly. Jealousy has many levels. Generally, we are full of jealousy. Our jealousy is endless. Please dont just think in a narrow way, that jealousy only refers to couples or friends. Jealousy is limitless. We look at something, Oh, nice! But I dont have that. and Oh! This sound is better. And Oh, this taste is better! They have better things than me. His nose looks better than mine. Her teeth are better than mine. How is that possible!!! Her hair looks better than mine. Her jewelry is much better than mine. Everything, one after the other, wherever you look, someone better than me. Gosh! That is very unhealthy! It makes you very unhappy. It is one of the worst types of suffering in the world. Therefore: rejoice! Rejoice if somebody has something better than you, Oh, how nice! If somebody has a better perfume than you, Nice! If somebody knows better how to put on make-up, I put the make-up in the wrong place, but she puts the make-up in the right place, How nice! [one student laughs very loudly] Ha ha ha ha! [To one student:] My friend, good! You must wear an American army dress. That will look very good on you. I will make one for you. You like that? Really? And your rank will be a brigadier. I will wear a three-piece suit, and then we go in the forest, [laughs] just you and me. [laughs] You need a gun, a water gun.[laughs] I need a title, universal president [laughs] and your name will be brigadier of the forest. [laughs] [To the audience:] Sorry. [laughs]

[dedication prayers]

[Rinpoche especially says this prayer:]

Sem-chen tham-che de-dang den-gyur chig Ngen-dro tham-che dag-tu tong-war shog Chang-jub sem-pa gang-dar sa-shug p De-dag kn-gi mn-lam drub-par shog

This is very good. Please translate it, Andreas.

May all sentient beings be happy and have the cause of happiness. May all lower realms always be empty. All Bodhisattvas, wherever they exist, May all their wishes be fulfilled!

That is very important.

Sem-chen tham-che de-dang den-gyur chig Ngen-dro tham-che dag-tu tong-war shog Chang-jub sem-pa gang-dar sa-shug p De-dag kn-gi mn-lam drub-par shog

I love that prayer! Thank you. Bye-bye.