Vanavās with

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

12th – 14th March, 2017

Vana | Dehradun | India
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Day 1 | 12th March, 2017
MORNING SESSION

So, Veer insisted that this is a space for a retreat – it is not a spa!
(Laughter) I have to share the sentiment because many people, when
they say the word ‘mindfulness’, it troubles me a little bit – it has
become exactly like a spa! So Veer’s insistence is right, and actually, I
have an empathy with the word ‘retreat’.

‘Retreat’ is a very important tradition in the dharma, even during the

Buddha’s time. For instance, there was a tradition of a rainy season
retreat, which was very important. When we talk about a retreat,
we always talk about a boundary. I think the English word retreat is
maybe not doing justice. In Tibetan, we call it ‘tsam’, which means a
boundary. So you create a boundary. There are so many paradoxes in
Buddhism, just like many of the Indian thoughts and wisdom. You can
never really figure it out, have a fixed idea and say that ‘this is it’. This
is the beauty of Indian thinking, too.

Ideally, anyway, in the Buddha-dharma, we have to go beyond the

boundary. Boundary-less. I believe, there’s an Amitabha in Vana – in
the cave nearby. Amitabha is also translated to ‘boundless light’, but it
actually refers to someone who is ‘boundary-less’. No boundaries. In
order to reach that ‘beyond-boundary’ stage, kids like us – we have to
somehow reach it, with some sort of boundary! We need toys, we need
references, we need encouragement, we need means. So, when we
talk about a boundary in Buddhism – the word ‘tsam’ for retreat – we
realize that the highest boundary – and this is very important, and I’d
like to share this as this is a very intimate setting, which is good. When
I’m teaching large audiences, I sometimes forget what I’ve been saying!
At one point, one of the people was listening to one of my teachings
in the car, they were driving me, and I couldn’t understand what I was
saying! (Laughter) So it’s not cohesive, but I like small groups. I would
also like to take this opportunity to experiment because I have done

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this one in Hong Kong, and that was a pretty big group. It wasn’t that
successful there, but I want to present this here again.

Anyway, what I’m going to share is really rooted in the classical

Buddhist texts although some of the means, for example, for the
metaphors that I use will be modern, easy to understand, more
simplified. But I will make sure that I don’t go astray from the
Buddhist sutras and shastras, because if I do that, then I’d fall into that
department of ‘mindfulness’, the department of the ‘spa’. (Laughter)

So, when we talk about a ‘retreat’, we’re talking about a boundary. You
may have heard of Tibetan Lamas doing a three year retreat, or doing
a month – six month, or even a lifelong retreat! There are people
who will stay inside the room, and once they’re inside, they will build
bricks on the door, wall it up and never go out! I have encountered
more than 500 people still doing this kind of retreat. Very admirable,
I have to say. But anyway, when we do a retreat for a month, we
usually have a boundary – such as, I am not going to go out of this
fence. I will not speak to more than this and that amount of people,
maybe close friends or family members, or a doctor, or a plumber
or whatever. I will not read magazines or newspapers. I will not read
emails. You can basically create your own discipline.

This is something quite important in Buddhism, as the teachers usually

don’t create the discipline. You create it, and on the first day, you take
a vow that this is going to be your discipline. Depending on what kind
of time you have, experience you have, you’ll carry it out. I know of
people who will not meet anyone, who will not go out of their rooms.
I know this one person in New York who has done a 3-year retreat in
her flat! Something like the 25th floor. It must be very tough, but you
can do that.

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We usually create boundaries, and some of them are very decorated!
Usually, this is not a good sign because people who put so much
emphasis on these things – you know, I’m doing a retreat, setting a
boundary and so on – actually, they end up doing less of practice
because they put so much emphasis on outer rituals. Anyway, the
point that I am trying to make is that in Buddhism, the real boundary
is between the past thought and the future thought. That is your
boundary. Now if you can do that, you can be in a nightclub, dancing
and crazy – all sorts of wheeling, dealing in business or whatever – but
still, there will be Yogis who will not go beyond the boundary of the
past thought and the future thought – meaning, to be in the present.
Always in the present. Whatever you are thinking right now, being in
this present.

For instance, now. You hear rustling, air conditioner, maybe you’re
thinking of yesterday and tomorrow, whatever it is. Simply knowing
that, being aware of it – but not really thinking about the past
or future, and not judging – never judging! You may be thinking
something so hideous, or something so wholesome – but you must just
simply be aware. That is actually the king of retreats.

You might ask, what is the point of doing this? Is the point to be a
vegetable? It feels like that – you have to think about it, you have to
be creative – how can you just watch whatever is happening right now,
this thought – just being aware of what’s happening, what’s the point?

I’m doing a big re-definition of your place here, eh? (Laughter) What’s
the point of doing this, why do we do that? Then comes the wellness
part. Wellness is so important! Outer wellness, inner wellness, sacred
wellness, and the innermost, most sacred wellness is so important!
And how do you become not well? How do you get sick? Insane?
Unhealthy, basically? Well, the moment you go outside of the past
thought and future thought, the past mind and the future mind.

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The moment you judge, the moment you think about things – I’m
sure we do this all the time. Many times, we have expressions like
this – drifting, getting worked up, getting entangled, lost in thought,
daydreaming – all that! They all have a little bit of a different meaning,
but are basically similar. Getting worked up is kind of more wrathful.
Daydreaming is I guess more sentimental, more romantic, but
nevertheless, actually, sort-of, not healthy. I should rephrase that – it’s
not being well.

Real wellness is just being in the present. Whatever it is. I hope that in
these few days, I can convince you how important being in the present
is. Many of these teachings are now coming from spas! You may end
up thinking this is one of those new-age techniques, but no – this
technique came from the Shakyamuni Buddha, 2500 years ago from
India, from places like Sarnath, Rajgir and Vaishali! This was not only
taught, but was also practiced, analyzed, discussed.

And not only that! Being in the present is taught in many forms such
as ritual, prayers – like what we did today. For instance in Japan –
you must know the Japanese Tea Ceremony. The first time was very
good, because it was new and all that. But after a point…perhaps it’s
because we haven’t been trained in those, sitting like that, or there’s
a lack of mindfulness. Anyway, you can see that this ceremony is all
about grabbing hold of the present moment, appreciating the present
moment. The tea itself – it’s sometimes disgusting! (Laughter) It’s not
like, after all the rituals, the tea tastes any good. By then, you are so
tired, you really want to drink some.

Anyway, you must know these – they are very, very elaborate. You
have to do lots of things, the mixing of the tea, the color, the way you
open – but all of this technique is designed to keep you in the present.
Similarly, Japanese ikebana – the flower arrangement – balancing the

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flower between heaven, earth and whatever – I don’t know, its ikebana.
This is also to put you in the present.

But in Tibet, you know, they are losing this. Not the technique!
Most of the youngsters, they don’t know that these have to do with
Buddhism – they think this is art. In fact, many temples don’t even
know about Zen Buddhism. Zen is a Buddhist practice, derived from
the Chinese word ‘ch’an’ that has come from the Sanskrit word
‘dhyan’.

Then, they have guido – archery. The whole practice of archery,

its technique is all for mindfulness. I want to tell you this because
the moment I tell you the word ‘meditation’, I know what you are
thinking. You are thinking about the meditation cushion! You are
thinking about sitting straight. You can never imagine, that I could do
chapatti meditation – you know, chapatti making? You could actually
do this – from the time where you mix the flour, the kneading of the
dough – you could make something very elaborate.

You should know that not everything about Buddhism needs to be

so silent, so serious, so meticulous…so, like in the Japanese way!
The Indian way is fantastic – you know, flowers everywhere, balloons
everywhere – that in itself is its beauty. The point is to try, and grab
and maintain the present moment.

I also want to share that we should go beyond meditation. The

moment we hear meditation, most people think in terms of sitting
straight, isn’t it? Well, I want to say that sitting straight does have some
benefit – because chances of you being in the present in a hammock
with a margarita are a little difficult! Your chances are improved with
a hard cushion, sitting straight – because these techniques have been
passed down by the great yogis and the practitioners of the past. They
have been tested. You are supposed to do meditation under the tree.

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This actually does help sometimes! You are supposed to practice in
the forest. You have this – metaphorically, Vana. You are supposed to
meditate in front of a river. All has its own effects – a river, I think,
brings sadness. In Buddhism, we say that the genuine heart of sadness
is priceless. It makes you a fuller human. As a human, you should
always have a little bit of sadness, and you then become a more
complete sort of human.

There are all sorts of conditions like going into and meditating in
the cemeteries. But one thing I want you to know is that – as long as
you are in the present, you can practice meditation anywhere! In the
kitchen, in the shower, while driving. This is important, otherwise
your spirit and heart, and your day to day life will never mingle.
Anyway, maybe you meditate half-an-hour in the morning, and the
rest of the 23 hours you spend in the chaos – it’s not going to do
much. You need to be able to relate to a moment by moment life –
and really, this is a big thing in Buddhism. If I just spill this out a little
– no technique is ever rejected. If you go deeper into the Tantra, all
emotions are used as a tool. As an attribute. Nothing is rejected.

Did you prepare some Basho? Maybe tomorrow? We were discussing

about this poet – I want to tell you this. Poetry, for instance. You need
to think, to be creative. The practice of haiku, in the Zen tradition of
Japanese Buddhism – and it is also practiced in Tibetan, but it’s sort of
dwindling now – but the Haiku is a very good method. I’m no Haiku
master, but I love Basho. It’s basically noticing. You can notice three
things that you hear, taste, see, feel – now, in this very moment, and
jot it down, and you can actually create a beautiful, short, precise, to
the point haiku of this moment. It really expresses this moment!

I’ve really said enough about the benefit of being in the present. I was
talking about wellness, complete wellness. Complete wellness, if I put
it from another angle, is when you actually realize the truth. Today is,

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for Buddhists, a very special day. There are four special days in a year,
and the first of the four happens to be today. It’s called miracle day.

If you read the sutras and the shastras, you will not find too many
mentions of the Buddha’s miraculous powers like flying, manifesting
food, drink, curing people – you don’t actually hear a lot of that. In
fact, you hear the opposite. For instance, the very famous story of a
mother whose child died. She goes to the Buddha asking for help, to
make the dead child come back to life. Buddha asks her to look for a
sesame seed, or a mustard seed from seven families who have never
had the experience of death, and of course, she couldn’t even find one,
let alone seven. This is one classic example – always about the truth.

When the Buddhists talk about the miracles of the Buddha, it is always
to do with the most powerful realization of the Buddha: the realization
of the truth. Such as the four noble truths.

I have to say, even from my childhood – I remember this very clearly.

My grandfather used to have this very mischievous attendant who
somehow had this strange sort of power – maybe power isn’t the
right word – he had a strange technique. Where he got it from I don’t
know, I’ve seen this with my own eyes.

We eat rice in the morning and sometimes, he’d flatten the cooked
rice like a chapatti and put it on the fire to roast. When one side was
roasted – he way always busy, always practicing – and he’d go like this
(make a gesture), and the rice would flip! He probably tricked me
or something, but I’ve seen this several times because I would always
ask him to do it! He would do so many things. For instance – you
should hear this one – ordained monks, their robes aren’t like these.
Their robes are hollow, and round – and they wear it a certain way.
My grandfather was very strict. Whenever he wanted an attendant

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to come, he would make this rapping noise, and they would have to
quickly go in and attend to him.

This is so funny. So this mischievous man was one monk – my

grandfather had two attendants. The other was the main attendant.
There was a room where they slept, that had a pillar within. It has to
hold the roof. While the other monk was sleeping, this mischievous
monk put the robe outside the pillar, out of reach. Then the monk got
up and he couldn’t get his robes. He was angry, and he also got late in
the morning, getting scolded.

What I want to tell you is, that my grandfather scolded this man a lot.
He was never supposed to do this! I would pester him to do it, and
only then he’d actually agree. One time, he actually caught a snake.
He pretends to chant a mantra – I don’t know whether he chants or
not – and blow air on his hand, and then he held a snake. Only when I
would ask, without my grandfather’s knowledge, he’d do these things,
and he’d get scolded severely.

Even I would be scolded – you’re never supposed to do this, who do

you think you are, you’re supposed to learn, you know, the four noble
truths – this is the real power. These kinds of shamanistic powers
would only ruin other people and yourselves. So, from my experience,
I learnt that Buddhist are never really fascinated by the power – the
truth is the most important. When we talk about the truth, we’re
not talking about any exotic truth. We’ve talked about this in Delhi.
It’s not exotic, divine, supernatural – we’re talking about some very
simple truth, such as: All compounded things are impermanent. All
thoughts in your mind, whatever discursive thoughts that you have –
because of their uncertainty, it takes you to anxiety, suffering, pain. I
don’t need to give you logic to prove it.

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All compounded things are impermanent. You don’t need logic to
know that! Nothing is permanent, you know. All your thoughts,
your ideas, your principles – are never ever certain. They’re going
to change. What’s next? We can assume that tomorrow, we’ll be
celebrating Holi. This is only an assumption! We can never be certain.
So there’s always an anxiety. That’s the second truth.

Even the third one is very simple. The third truth is, whatever you
project – its only your projection, and it is not the real thing. Also,
there is nothing that you do not project. Emptiness, Sunyata – see? It is
very simple. I want to tell you this because what we will be discussing
is not spa mindfulness. If you ask me, If this is so simple, why are we not
understanding it? Because of habit. Habitual patterns are what stop us
from facing the truth.

We have them coming all the way from our ancestors, our culture,
books, teachers, opinions. Democratic, individual opinions. All these
opinions, they make your habits so strong. What do you need to
know? The truth. What is stopping you? This habit. Who is feeding
this habit? This is a strategy, this is almost like a war. We know that
the culprit is the habit, and that we need to do something about it.
We need to plan, set an economic embargo upon it, to starve this
habit. To uproot this habit, to weaken it, to derail and discontinue, and
disorganize these organized habitual patterns. This is what you need
to do. So who is feeding this habit? I don’t need to use logic, you can
experience this. Never being able to be in the present.

Try now. Always thinking about something, and never being able to
think about what you are thinking, or what you are doing. Basically,
drifting, getting worked up. This is the food of habit. Whatever you are
thinking right now, not knowing that. I’m not telling you to think about
something wholesome, am I? I haven’t told you this. What am I saying?
Whatever you are thinking, just know it. That’s it. As simple as that.

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What is the benefit of this? The benefit of just knowing whatever
is happening will not feed the habitual patterns. It will not drive, it
will not lead to other thoughts. More thoughts mean more actions.
More actions meant that you are planting these seeds really well, with
fertilizer – you are ploughing, fencing and everything! The result – of
course, anxiety will grow, it is the harvest! That is called karma.

Do you want to work with karma? Do you really want to? This is
the one difference between Buddhism and Hinduism because in
Buddhism, karma can be manipulated. Now, this very moment? How?
By being in the present.
By being in the present, you are not judging, drifting. You are burning
the seed of karma. Of course, at the moment, you may be able to be in
the present for a bit. The next moment, due to our habits, you might
drift. Of course you have to practice. You need to step out of the
meditation cushion. Everything.

There was this French movie called ‘diva’ – a really beautiful film.
There’s this really nice scene which I cannot forget. This guy is chopping
onions and he has designed this big goggle – and he wears this goggle
while he’s chopping the onion because he’s practicing Zen. The onion
generates tears, so he wears it while doing that. Cooking, talking – in a
heated argument with somebody. In the middle of the heated argument,
if you are able to be in the present it would help you immensely.

It’s like a train coming in, sort of unhooked – and then it will become
wobbly. What do you want? You want our train of thought to become
wobbly. That’s what the Buddhists wants. We ordinary samsaric beings
want all our thoughts organized in one place – that is very very difficult.

I’ve talked too much, I want you to experiment with this now. Don’t
sit straight or anything, just sit however you are right now. Scratching,
yawning, whatever. But be in the present. Have you done it? You know

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what you are doing? No need to be all I’m going to do this. No need to
do that. That’s already – you’ve wasted three seconds. Just do whatever
you are doing.

For instance, I was just thinking of asking Veer to tell me the timetable,
and I was happy that by the end of it, I knew what I was thinking. For
example –
I just now, noticed that my finger was like this. I was happy with that,
and you should be also. Whatever you are thinking, just knowing
that. Believe me, this is the mother of all wisdom. Why? You can see
yourself. The moment you judge, you have become numb. When you
are daydreaming, totally worked up, your mouth open, saliva, drooling
– probably one fly even has the time to go in and come out! (Laughter)

You get so stuck, fixated. That very moment, you are completely
aware. In the process of doing this, you think: Am I doing this? Have
I done it? Just know that that’s what you are doing! You’re asking. It is
this simple.

Simplicity is the biggest challenge of the Buddha-dharma. It is too

simple! People don’t like it. They say they want something simple, but
it’s a lie. I’ve come to a conclusion that they don’t mean it. They want
a totalitarian, dictatorial stuff – things like don’t eat chicken, don’t do
this, don’t wear this and so on – they love it! They call it ‘direction’!
(Laughter) Me too! I like this also! This is so difficult – you always keep
asking am I doing it? You ask a meditation master, and if the master is
good – and you say, I’ve been doing this for a year, and all I’ve managed
after all this is simply asking myself Am I doing this, am I doing that.
I managed to feel guilty for not doing it. A good master would say,
Fantastic. At last, you’ve managed to become a spiritual person!

In fact, my teachers, they are more happy that I worry about not
practicing the dharma rather than me stating I’ve practiced this much

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dharma! And it makes sense. When you worry that you are not in the
present, it is the most beautiful gift! It’s the best gift! You should have
this guilt. You should feel bad for not being in the present. The more
you feel bad, the more frustrated you feel, you manage to do it. You
know that you are distracted.

What’s the time? Am I okay? Okay, let’s take a break – I think a break
is important.

Tea Break

Means, techniques are very tricky. Risky also. But, there’s no choice.
You have to have it. Every time you are taking a path, you have to take
a risk. Especially if the means for the technique is beautiful – and
especially if the means is making sense! It is so dangerous if it makes
sense! Making sense is so dangerous, it can confine you, imprison you
for generations.

Maybe you should bring a Taoist master over here. Tao is good, you
know. I don’t know much, but I read a little bit – it was so good! But,
means are so difficult – for instance, like the word nirvana. We have
to use this word. We do this consciously sometimes – we make it into
something so colorful, and it’s different for different regions! In China,
nirvana is so lofty –swimming pools, swans, water buffalos (laughter)
– stuff like that. Tibetans – they’ve never seen the lotus, but they
have such ideas of the lotus! They have lotuses everywhere in nirvana.
Words like nirvana, samsara – they’re means, they’re language. It’s so
risky to use, but we have no choice.

The real nirvana is when you can be in the present all the time. How
can we do this? How can we ever cook an omelette being in the

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present? It’s almost unfathomable, isn’t it, to you? How can we write
a story? You know, to write a story, I basically have to get creative,
get lost in the word of the story! Then I can write it down. You just
cannot fathom, that you can do it. Why? Because, you’ve never had
the habit of being in the present, you have the habit of never being in
the present. It’s very simple. This is the present state, and this is the
past and the future. You always go from here to there. That’s why you
cannot fathom to be here all the time – you think it’s the stage of being
a vegetable, being in a coma – being comatose. Completely frozen.

No, not at all! Being in the present makes you the most generous.
Why? What is generosity? This is when you have no clinging. No
stinginess. When you are in the present, how can you be clingy? The
more you invest in being present – you may not necessarily open
your charity box and donate to the world – because that’s not real
generosity anyway. That is when you have no fixation, stinginess – and
that happens by being in the present.

What’s the next one? Discipline? What is discipline? The word is

almost torturous – the moment you hear this word, anything to
do with routine, we don’t like this. Buddhists have very interesting
definitions of discipline. It’s the Sanskrit word – shila. What’s the
meaning of ‘shila’? Don’t we have a Sanskrit expert here? Well, I’ll just
pretend that I am one! (Laughter)

Shila has the connotation of cooling, and not stressed. Our notion of
discipline is different – we tell ourselves, we need to go to the gym, we
should do mindfulness! (Laughter) Most of this sort of mindfulness,
it causes constipation. (Laughter) You are prone to getting distracted.
The core, the essence of discipline is no stress. How do we achieve
that? By being in the present. How else? When you are in the present,
you are like a child. Totally stress-free. I’m doing a run-down of the
classic Buddhist virtues – generosity, discipline. What’s next?

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Patience, tolerance. ‘Mithon’ (unclear), tolerance is when you have
non-aggression. We need to write this down, because that’s what
Buddhists mean when they talk of non-violence. When you are
non-violent, then not understanding the word ‘patience’ – this is
why there are things like political correctness. When there is a lot of
political correctness, then there are all these liberals, and they end
up producing people like Trump. (Laughter) I’m trying to provoke
here. It’s not aggression – some of us, Buddhists, Jains and so on –
our so-called non-violence can be quite violent. It’s aggressive! Non-
violence and looking down at violent people. Any such ideas are actually
violent. General rights, all the good-sounding values – animal rights,
dog rights, cat rights – how come there’s no such movement for cats?
Don’t humans treat cats badly? I’ve seen some cats being badly treated.

Anyway, there’s some sort of violence – tolerance to everything instills

patience. Now how do you achieve that? Not going to the past, not going
to the future, but being the present is tolerance. So on and so forth.

Okay, what is compassion? Compassion is a very big…you know,

hashtag? (Laughter) Selling point of Buddhism? What is the
quintessence of compassion? Compassion is not oh, the poor guy,
sympathy, teary, all those touchy-feely things. No. You can call that
compassion, but that’s not the real thing. Real compassion is when
you are in the present, when you are not judging. To put your feet in
someone else’s shoes is so easy, then. Being in the present is the core
essence of compassion. It is love, it is joy. Basically, there isn’t any
reason why you should not practice being in the present.

It’s a tragedy if you don’t do it. You don’t have to buy it, download
it – you have it. You don’t need to be qualified, you don’t need to be a
special person. All you need is the mind, and I believe you have it. You
are not a pebble, a stone, a piece of wood. You have the mind. If you
have a mind, you are bound to be distracted. You will go to the past,

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you will go to the future if you have a mind, and if it’s not tamed, of
course. If that’s the case, then you can be in the present too.

Let’s go back. What is being in the present? Without sitting properly

or whatever. We will do it in two days – lets first do a very casual,
spontaneous one. Whatever you are doing – such as reading a book.
Yes, that’s it. Be happy with this. I’m not saying you should only do
this one – continue, by all means, but know that this is Samadhi.
The word ‘samadhi’ is supposed to refer to something so exotic, so
profound, so long-winded and so foreign – but that’s what you just
did. Because you’re not thinking of the past or the present.

Let’s listen to music now, and try being in that present.

Beautiful. You don’t have to have any kind of sensation, or any kind
of feeling. Just hear. We were talking about wellness. How would you
become well? When you let your senses do their job in complete
form – we’re not letting them do their job completely. Some of you
didn’t even know what you were drinking, coffee or tea, because you
were thinking of something else, you were talking about something, or
thinking of the biscuit you were eating – I don’t know! Just so busy –
business, getting worked up.

I can understand these spa people talking about this stress-free kind of
thing. That is the bonus of this! You can be free from outer stress – not
get excited or whatever, but that’s not what the end is when we use
Buddhist meditation, or the path. Who cares whether you’re stressed or
not, happy or not, getting a good sleep or not? We don’t care about that.
We care about seeing the truth, and that’s the only miracle we want.

That’s nothing exotic – everything is impermanent, temporary, all that

we are thinking about is projected, it’s not real – what’s the benefit of
knowing that? Well, all kinds of unnecessary and unfair expectations
then disappear. If you see an oasis in the dessert and you know it’s

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not real – you’ll still enjoy it, because it’s a beautiful mirage! You can
even take a photo if you want, and that’s it! Just enjoy it. Let us do a
traditional, seated one – which is also important, you know?

Let’s start. Just know whatever is happening in your mind. No need to

visualize anything, no need to think about lights, sensations.

So I heard a crow – in Japan, there are so many crows, actually, and

it’s quite nice. Old Japanese movies, like Ozu – especially Ozu, there’s
the sound of so many crows! It gives you a haunting feeling. Because
of that crow, my mind went to Ozu while I was sitting, exposing to me
how I was distracted, and then it made me think of my film which was
being shown in Osaka. That led me to thinking, that the producers are
arriving today in Delhi, and they need to be picked up. Entanglement,
getting worked up? Getting distracted? But, somewhere, when my
mind was at the Indira Gandhi International airport, my mind quickly
came back. So there was nothing to regret. I don’t have to punish
myself thinking that my mind is so distracted.

Do you want to ask some questions? We have, like 10 minutes.

Q: Sorry Rinpoche, but I’m asking the first question. On

this point of how you got from crow to the arrival of the
producer. This often does lead to a productive thought that
one needs to do.

It would be even more productive if you can be in the present and

think about it. But this is what I was saying, that this is something
unfathomable right now, because you don’t do it. It’s a bit like – I
don’t drive cars and it’s fascinating when people drive! They use their
feet, hands, this mirror that mirror, the front – and now, lipsticks,
sms, text, phone call! It’s amazing! I cannot even think of it. By the
way, I’m supporting what I’m saying – I’m not making these things

19
up, and there’s a word for this. In English, it’s translated to ‘effortless,
spontaneously arising awareness’. Yeah.

When you read the Buddhist sutras, there are mentions of these –
some of these very high Bodhisattvas. 10 people can ask him or her a
question at one go, and he or she will hear all of them and give each of
them different answers. When you read that, you’ll of course see that
it’s a supernatural being – a special being giving answers – but that’s
exactly like the driving case!

According to the Yogachara (Chittamatra) Buddhist school, we are

not even using – let’s say, if the mind is divided into – what’s one
and eight zeroes – one million? A hundred million? So if the mind is
divided into those parts, we are not even using one percent – the rest
is just sitting there, totally useless. We’re not using it. How do you use
it? Instead of learning a lot and bragging, come back to the present!
By coming to the present, at last, you are giving a chance to your
mind to function! This is a classic question. I’m not bragging here,
but 20 years ago, when I was reading A thousand years of solitude with
20 different uncles, and all those names – I couldn’t make out which
uncle was talking about! Now try being in the present and doing it –
it’s impossible! I have to make sense of the story, I have to be in the
present, not possible.

After a while, I have to say, a little bit of carelessness slipped in when it

came to the characters, but making sense of the story was easier – and
isn’t that the measure of understanding anyway, and if I practice this,
then I can read ten varieties of ten thousand years of solitude types of
books all in one go, and make sense of it!

This is the key. Creativity, compassion, generosity, leadership – these

are all big Bodhisattva things. How to lead. The core essence of
leadership is coming back to the present! The general has to sit on

20
the general’s throne, and then you can pretend that you cannot see
these things – the way to lead. We aren’t even touching the subject of
Sunyata, which is next I guess, but this will do for now, or it will be too
much information.

Q: You spoke about creativity, Rinpoche. I wanted to ask you

as a storyteller, yourself – the idea is to get lost in your idea,
or be taken away with your thoughts. Then being mindful and
staying in the present through all of it. I was wondering if you
could tell us a bit about how we can do both together?

I think you can consciously get lost, isn’t it? Yes? I think so, and that’s
much better! If you’re not consciously lost, I don’t think you’re being
creative yet. You’re stuck. But I can understand it. If you have the
fear of stumbling and getting stuck, you can consciously be in the
present. You can be here in any way – there is no past thought and
future thought! You know we were talking about boundaries? How
not to go to the past, or to the future. I was bluffing, actually! Not me,
Buddhism. (Laughter) There’s no past, or future actually – it’s all here!
When we talk, we have to talk like that.

And anyway, you also believe in the past don’t you – as a human
being? That’s good news for you, because the future, the past, when
you’re writing – is all in the present. Then you have more opportunity
because you will not be stuck in any angle. For example, think about
this one from Basho:

In my new robe, this morning – someone else.

So good!

Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey.

Really, this testifies that you can do both. Nowadays, it’s all about
means that lead back to the wisdom, and that’s a sad thing.

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Any questions?

Q: Rinpoche, is it possible to reflect on the past while being in

the present?

Yes, yes – that is what I mean. Anyway, there is no past and no future.
It’s always in the present. We are really talking in a very deep way of
the Buddhist idea of illusion. It’s amazing isn’t it? There is no past
and there is no future, and yet we’re so caught up by these concepts!
There’s also no present – but that we’ll talk about in another time. We
should first grind this one!

No present – whoa – well, just to give you the names – these teachings
are taught in the Mahamudra, or the Mahasandhi. Yes. Those are
beautiful teachings. Some of them are just so powerful. There’s one
called “Mahamudra by the Ganges” (Tilopa’s pith instructions on the
Mahamudra). It’s amazing. Then there’s the Mahasandhi. When the
Mahasandhi was taught, it was hard to take for many Buddhists, even
– because Buddhists love ‘sensible’ things. The Mahasandhi is beyond
sense, and senselessness! They think you’re crazy when you’re stuck
with being sensible! But that’s for another time.

Q: So actually I have two questions, but I think I’ll put one of

them first. For example, we are here today to learn something
new which is born out of an aspiration. I am aspiring ‘to be’
something in the future – with mindfulness or whatever. Then
I have to plan, thinking about the future so that I learn better
now, and execute whatever I have learnt. So I’m trying to link
it to what you’ve been saying – when you’re talking about
being in the present, are we talking about units of time, or
something else?

Very good! Really, very good! Actually, not. But before that, I want
to say – thanks for reminding me of this – we need to discuss the

22
Bodhicharyavatara one of these days, and the – do
we have it? This is the prayer of aspiration. Actually, in the Mahayana
Buddhism, the real aspiration is this – being in the present.

I will give you the character of Mahayana Buddhism. The general

character of Buddhism is believing in the four seals – but if you ask me
for Mahayana in particular, there are three.

The view is Sunyata – emptiness. The path is ‘characteristic-less’.

The result is beyond aspiration. Having said this, I will now quote
Shantideva – whom I love to quote all the time. He says, “For the time
being, as a practitioner, we allow you to have one ignorance. What’s that?
Thinking, that there is enlightenment.”

Why should you have that? Because you don’t want to suffer. That’s
Shantideva’s answer. So, aspirations – you can just make believe! It’s
important! The path is make-believe, it has be sensible make-believe.
It’s called visualization, by the way.

Q: Rinpoche, just wanted to ask you about being in the

present while at work. Sometimes, you have to respond to
people and other such – where is that ‘presence’ coming
from, which emotion?

You need to get used to this one. I would suggest that you guys put
this into practice, and I don’t mean that you need to limit yourself
by thinking, I need to practice at a certain time. No, you don’t only need
to practice this next to a beautiful vista, or a shrine, or a room. You
need to begin this practice without ritual and other such – don’t limit
yourself to a time in the morning and the evening.

Don’t think that, while sitting on the toilet, I must not do this. It is too
holy to do this! Not at all! You can’t think that. You have to do it all
the time. Grab the chance, grab the chance all the time. And then,

23
after a while, this will become a habit. When you are talking to your
colleague, and you are having a heated argument with somebody, you
will have the present-ness. When you have it, you’ll probably think
everything is humorous! Or, probably, you’ll instill this little bit of
carelessness that is there in a warrior’s attitude, and you’ll also do
things with more confidence. I think. Should we eat?

My mind is not working – Dhrupad? That is really challenging, when

it comes to being in the present! The Gundecha Brothers? They will
really take you elsewhere, and usually, their recitals last for hours! It’s
amazing!

Further chatter about the Gundechas – End

POST LUNCH SESSION

Do you want to start off with some questions? After lunch, the mind
is a little drowsy, dull. But, based on what we have discussed this
morning, we should realize that there’s nothing wrong with that! Just
being dull, and drowsy, and being conscious and aware of that. No
need to stop, no need to be so – tough with yourself. This is taught,
especially to the gandharvas by the Buddha himself, when they were
stressed about being very dull and drowsy, and murky and sleepy.
Gandharvas – they’re supposedly a bit like ghosts, they have an
inclination towards dullness. I don’t want to go – I always get carried
away by these things.

If you read a sutra, there’s so many interesting things one can learn,
one can make notes about. The varieties of Buddha’s disciples
are interesting. There were gandharvas, Rakshasas, kings, queens,
merchants, monks – that’s important! This is what I would say – the
Tibetans, after the lamas became very influential in Tibet, and I believe

24
that it was the beginning of the decline of Buddhism, when lamas
became powerful. You know? Buddhism was never, ever meant to rule!
It’s not like other religions. This is probably one of the reasons why
Buddhism will never really become so popular. This is not to say the
Buddhism isn’t interested in social things – it’s like pure mathematics,
or science – it just talks about the truth.

You know, the expounders and the practitioners of this – some

of them, or almost all of them are human beings, and one of the
weaknesses of humans is trying to convince others. In the process
of convincing others, some become successful, and success is never
enough. In Tibet, when the lamas became very influential, successful –
politically, influentially – then that was when the decline of Buddhism
began.

The reason why I said this is because – well, there are two different
kinds of lamas. Those who are Yogis, and then there are those who
are ordained monks. Somehow, the ordained ones end up choosing
the references of monks! That’s what we do usually. If you believe in a
certain philosophy, you always refer to someone who thinks similarly.
The Tibetan scene is so monk oriented, and that is not so good. In a
way, that has really contributed in a different way – and that’s to put it
mildly.

You see, the Buddha taught to merchants, butchers – this is one thing
I’ve always wanted to say – even when a butcher asked him, that it is
his job to kill, for survival, so does he have a way? The Buddha said
yes – why not take a vow, of never killing after sunset, till sunrise?
Of course it’s got the Buddha giving him a license to kill – it is the
beginning of a discipline, the beginning of awareness. Of present-ness.
This is something that needs to be revived.

25
Mahayana Buddhism has contributed a lot to the Buddhist world,
but, I cannot ever deny – Theravada Buddhism, or Shravakayana
Buddhism – this is in Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand – has also
contributed immensely. Shravakayana followers have images of the
Buddha’s life and other such; that is the model they follow. Mahayana
Buddhists have idols, with robes, earrings, attributes, consorts – you
have the Vimalakirti, isn’t it? You can read his character, it’s just
fascinating! Very spoilt, overfed – a guy who basically after all that, was
a Bodhisattva!

If you look at the disciples of the Buddha, their job, their origin –
their faculties are different. When I talk about the Buddha and his
disciples – the nagas, the gandharvas, the Rakshasas – they may sound
like fairy tales. Monkeys, and birds used to listen to his sermons. In
the Mahayana, many teachings are metaphorical. We all have a little
bit of gandharva in us – We are all a kind of ghost. What is a ghost in
Buddhism? Basically, beings that do not have a certain place to dwell.

Do we have a place to dwell? Well, we all have an address – but that’s

not really certain, is it? When the karmic wind blows, then we just
transmigrate – if not physically, definitely mentally. We have that ghost-
like element. One aspect of that element is dullness. Dull, drowsy, not
clearly thinking. A little bit slow – such as we are, after lunch, this
afternoon. (Laughter)

We must be going through the gandharva stage at this moment. By

the evening, we’ll probably moving towards the more human stage.
Even in the late afternoon – more desire, more sentiment, and more
romance – so on and so forth. Any kind of stage of mind, is good. You
cannot say – I’m drowsy, I cannot meditate. I want to see this – it’s
unfortunate that people don’t meditate because of all these conditions
– sitting straight, closing one’s eyes and on a cushion. Yes, that’s one

26
method – a really good method – but yes, be drowsy, ask me questions
and be aware of what you are asking, if you can.

Q: Rinpoche, when we started the session after the first tea

break in the morning – your first words were, we always want
to do something. We want to fill up our time – you made some
such comment. Could you say something more about that?
And, should one refrain from doing that? Is it okay to do that,
is it beneficial to do that?

Again – as long as you can throw in, or insert this ‘being present’
moment, then I won’t be judging it. It could be good, it could be very
beneficial! It could be. But if you don’t have the present-ness, then…

I always want to go to the source, because I don’t want you to think

that you’ve heard something very ‘new-age’. It’s to do with the
teachings. The reason why we always feel the need to do something
(this is very technical probably) is that when you don’t do anything,
what happens? When you are totally retreating from all that, what
happens is that you become alone, and naked. Pure, like a baby. This
is something ordinary people, who are so habituated, cannot bear.
We have to pinch ourselves, so to speak – to tell ourselves that we are
alive, we are not dead. The pure, pristine state is unbearable. So we
like to keep ourselves busy.

Here my answer is: Yes, you can keep yourself busy, but put the
present-ness of being into your awareness.

Because the other doctrine is: The idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Sometimes, the devil finds that empty mind – and to share for myself,
I find that harnessing the mind; not from cluttering – that’s different
from being engaged – and green – I find the presence of green, like
the one in Vana – also helps improving your consciousness, making

27
now your friend – it helps a lot. So I’m just getting confirmation of
whether I’m going down the right track.

Actually, strictly speaking, if you read the scriptures, Buddhists really

don’t have the words ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. They have something called
‘valid’ or ‘not valid’ – and in Pali they say something like ‘good’ – but
not the good or bad kind of good – it’s like, maybe I’m being too
technical here but – in this context, it fits perfectly – that’s what it
means. Like, at this moment – when Tara asked me what she should
bring, I said coffee because that’s seems like a fitting drink for me
now. It’s more like ‘fitting’ – just make it fitting. As for the green, well,
Shakyamuni Buddha chose the tree to sit and meditate under. He said,
that for different faculties and different atmospheres – different means
are good, but trees seem to be very important.

Buddhists love trees – they keep mentioning the Sal tree, the Bodhi
tree and so on. In Sri Lanka, if you go to a Buddhist monastery, the
first thing they lead you to is a tree. Then, if you’re not convinced
– then they take you to a stupa. That’s a mound that represents the
Buddha’s mind. If you’re not satisfied still, because it’s a mound and
you cannot really go and sit inside it, and you really want something
more - then they take you to the temple, with the Buddha’s statue.

I thought that’s a good thing, but now it’s going the other way. People
like the temple more. First thing, the tourists go to the temple, and
only when they have enough time, they go to the tree. Isn’t this
a Bodhi tree? The one in this room? So yes, trees are a big thing.
The Sal tree is very important, this was where the Buddha achieved
parinirvana – which is even more important than the Bodhi tree.

Q: I hope I am able to ask this properly. When one does an

action, and one is aware of the action in the present moment,

28
how does it relate to the exhaustion of its karma? Is that the
beginning?

Generally, it’s the beginning of the exhaustion but after a point, it may
be furthered, and for some Yogis, it might be wrapping up with the
karma altogether. Okay, the karma is a bit like this.

Say we’re like a hand phone. The phone needs to be charged. We

need charging too. We, as a samsaric being – what charges you? It’s
this fidgety action, you know! Doing. Doing is what charges you. Even
not doing is doing in this context. Thinking, this is not good is also
charging you. This is good, I need to do this – charging you. Now, when
you’re in the present state – no charging. I sound a bit strange, but as
a Buddhist, you want to exhaust all the battery – you don’t want to be
a phone anymore!

You don’t want to receive calls, you don’t want to be connected, and
you want to be free. Connected means someone’s going to know
where you are. It’s a bit like that. Any kind of doing, poking – it’s a
good word – poking, rearranging, repositioning – these are classic
words in the sutras by the way – immediately charges you. All this
is karma. Karma in hindi is ‘kaam’ – what does that mean? Work,
action? Something that produces an effect, something that has a
reaction and so on. I guess Buddhists don’t like that, because it means
uncertainty. You have become a subject to whatever you have done and
by doing that, you are now a subject of whatever the outcome of your
actions is! Buddhists don’t like that. Freedom, liberation is really from
both cause and result, not just the result.

We’re not only trying to be free from suffering – that is actually

a bonus. We’re trying to end the cause of the suffering, so that it
discontinues.

29
Q: Rinpoche, being in the present – the last time you also
mentioned that – what is free from fear and hope, which
means having a state of mind which is free. What I really
want to understand is the process of really reaching the
present. Because, to me, what it really appears to be is that
people who are in the present, are always in the present.
Now all these three times are mixed together – so unless I
see my present clearly, I can’t see my past and my future.
The question is that how does one get that present moment
extracted from this? If I’m in the sea, I cannot see the sea – I
have to come out of it to see the ocean.

A very practical thing I’ll tell you. The moment you say that “I want
to practice”, you’ve already taken one step. The next step onwards,
you are not practicing – you’re just rearranging. This is what I’d said
earlier! Good job, you took the first step but after that…yeah, well,
you’re good, but most of the time you’re slowly hijacked by ritual. The
ritual of sitting, and all of that. But, I’m really talking from the most
profound level – if there’s someone I’m supposed to lead, then I’d say
yes, please sit. Face the east. And so on.

We’ve even recently come up with an act called finding Bodh Gaya!
(Laughter) It’s necessary – I’m really learning a lot! Next I’m going
to suggest some dietary restrictions – some vegetables, I’m thinking.
Then, an outfit! People like that stuff. That’s the new age now, this
stuff – but it’s only a method. It just seems more practical.

Well, and the present. There’s no such thing as the present – and
you’re talking from the ultimate level here. So, okay – just now, think
this. There’s one thing in the entire universe that knows itself, and
that’s the mind. The mind knows other things too – but only the mind
knows itself! Just check now – not specific things like my mind is blue,

30
or red or whatever – but check – now! Of course, a moment later it
becomes a story but that doesn’t matter – what about right now?

You can feel it. You’re cognizing yourself – nothing external, but
yourself just now. It’s cognition all the time. This is why also Buddhists
love lamps! Lamp offerings. Because they say that the lamp is one
thing that really represents the mind – it eliminates everything, like
the darkness, but without it, it can’t even see itself! So the lamp
illuminates others and itself. This is why mediocre, distracted disciples
like myself, when we do meditation – instead of banking of being in
the present, we bank on gaining merit through making an offering of
the lamp! I’ve done a lot in Bodh Gaya, especially there, every year, we
take hundreds and thousands of them till the point where my mind
becomes like a lamp – illuminating all, and illuminating itself.

Now, it’s not like you will make the mind illuminate itself and others
– it is. The Maitreya – and not just the Maitreya, the Buddha himself
said that there is nothing to illuminate, and there is nothing to add.
Just know itself – just cognize itself, do not add anything. Other than
that, you have nothing to do.

By the way, we’re kind of coming from a higher level here. I was
thinking that maybe tomorrow, we’d talk about this. This is another
thing. Actually, in the West, as the West is very individualistic, it
sounds very nice. Oh, the mind is already illuminating itself and others
– I don’t need a guru, or some shiksha, and I don’t need to have all these
rituals coming from the East – all these Indians and Tibetans coming in
with their culture, I don’t need them – this is also very wrong. Very, very
wrong.

If you read the Buddha’s most profound teachings, like the Vajrasekhara
sutra, that the beauty of Buddhism is – no ritual is rejected! Do it all,

31
it will all help you. It’s good, and for beginners, it’s more helpful than
lying in a hammock, definitely – and the margarita, remember?

In the Tantra, this is the other way round. You must lie down on the
hammock. You must have margaritas. These are the practices, but
we don’t talk about these to the general public. You know why? The
general public likes the Buddha as a serene man, with a begging bowl
– this savior image, you know? He has no house, no address, very
trustworthy – he doesn’t want anything, he doesn’t need anything. We
have that kind of image of the Buddha.

In the Tantra, however, we have Vajradhara and so on – all these tantric

deities. The image is totally different. I want to say that margaritas are
not really rejected – but I’m not encouraging it either! I don’t want
you to quote me and say you’re going to practice margarita from now
on. Whatever it is.

Q: Rinpoche, I had a question about security. We were

talking about it before, and notionally, one understands
impermanence and non-attachment. But as human beings, we
are wired to do action towards creating value and creating
security. We look for relationships to meet expectations,
especially for women in India. We look for security – physical,
financial security – how do you reconcile that with the
awareness that this is all transient?

Hmm. Not just that, actually? What do you mean?

Well, it’s really about building something. It’s about building

something beyond you, something that lasts. That’s what you connect
with – music lasts, ideas last. But then the idea that we are here, we
live in the world – and we are here because some of us can afford it.
So the reality is the roti-kapda-makaan thing. How do you reconcile
the need for security? The need for a palace or a hut? We look for

32
relationships whether they are platonic or non-platonic because we
want to feel safe, we want to feel accepted. I think we can notionally
understand and respect the four truths and it resonates with me, but I
don’t quite know how to reconcile them with security.

Well, we’ve really been talking from a very high level. There are the
teachings on the lojong – mind training. This is what I meant by
cohesive. First, more practical – we need to go step by step and we
need to habituate ourselves. Different kinds of habituation. Even in
the Mahayana sutras – an example – it praises the Bodhisattvas who
can give their limbs, flesh and bone, to hungry tigers. But then, in the
same sutra, Buddha and the Bodhisattvas have prohibited doing the
very same action to the young Bodhisattvas because if they try to even
do that, it may result in them turning away from the path because you
need – you think you need this kind of security. The body, dwelling,
relationships – you know, references! But no. The Bodhisattvas now
have to gradually learn to really, slowly – depending on the faculties
of people – some Bodhisattvas are quite fast, some are very slow and
calculated – you have to learn to have a different definition of what is
‘need’ and what is ‘secure’.

This morning, I was talking about the Mahamudra teaching by the

Ganges. One of the people that I can quote – so beautiful – the
great Tilopa, a fisherman by the way, an Indian, torturing his student
Naropa. Again and again, for 12 years supposedly. I think the Indians
exaggerate sometimes – from back then, they say, you understand? This
so and so palace, some 500 plus miles and whatnot – some room or
something.

A yojana.

What is that? Is it like time? What is it?

It’s a unit of distance, a measure.

33
So how much is it?

Nobody quite knows. 21 miles I think. One measure said 21 miles.

Really? Well, can never have a proper cup of tea, eh? Anyway, Tilopa,
suddenly, dragged Naropa and said, listen, you – and so began the
teachings – the Mahamudra of the Ganges.

Son, it is not the appearance that is binding you – it is the attachment of

the appearance that is binding you.

So this is your answer. When we say we need this, a house, a car, a

vacuum cleaner, a dishwasher, a lock and so on – well, it’s basically
making a big deal out of them! That is what binds you. That’s
something that we need to learn. When you finally learn that these
aren’t a big deal, they’re uncertain, they’re illusory – then you are
spontaneously secure. You understand? This is a very different kind of
security that comes in. I don’t need to tell you much – in this country
itself, you can see it! All those great wandering sadhus, I was just
thinking about those Bauls of Bengal. They seem very secure, and
don’t seem to have many things to be afraid of, they sing songs…

Bauls? What does that mean?

Wanderers.

Wanderers. Ah. Is there any other culture that venerates wanderers?

Apart from India? I mean, in Tibet, there is, but that came from India.

Gypsies? Didn’t they come from India? Well not from India, but…
Gypsies are looked down upon, really.

India used to really – well Indians treat wanderers like Harvard

research officers. (Laughter) Very important people, you know. Those
who deal with the truth, you’d like to give them food, bananas, fruits.
You want to offer them whatever – and they take what they get! Tilopa

34
and Naropa, they’re wanderers. Padmasambhava. All wanderers.
Actually, you should maybe try to do that!

There is a practice. Not immediately, but you should have the

aspiration. It’s really good! I’m not suggesting you do it eternally,
maybe for a week or so? There’s a discipline, you know? Even the
wanderers have a discipline. You are supposed to go to a place, and the
moment you feel quite familiar with the place – you know, this road
leads there and so on, this is the way to the next 7/11, since we’re
talking about the modern wanderer – there’s a bank, ATM machine
– bang, you move! That’s what you’re supposed to do. This is actually
a discipline – especially if someone gets to know you and so on, then
you definitely move on!

But, that method is all to bring you to the present moment. When you
are wandering, when you have no nest, so to speak, then it brings you
to the now and I don’t see any reason why you can’t do that driving a
limousine too! Just for three years, maybe? Or 6 days. 9 days. You can
do it, and India is a good place to do this.

In America, you’d probably get arrested for this! (Laughter) You’re not
supposed to have a plan, by the way. One of my tutors disappeared,
totally. He received this very important teaching on wandering, and
afterward, everybody kind of knew that this man would take off any
day. He became my tutor for about 6-7 months. One morning, he had
disappeared, and had left everything. No bag, nothing – everything
was left behind. We don’t know if he’s dead – he’s probably dead, he
was already about fortyish around that time, and this was 40 years ago.
I actually remember the night before he disappeared. He came to see
me, and was sort of quiet – with more eagerness, somehow. But these
practices are slowly going.

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Oh! But yes, the wandering attitude you can practice without actually
ever leaving home. You can practice that.

Can you please elaborate on that?

Oh…yeah… (Laughter) One thing I can elaborate on is that it makes

the person a pain in the neck for others. Not really answering properly,
you know? I’m talking about things like, when asked Where are you
going? The answer is like Can’t you see? Where did you come from? What?
The bank? That kind of thing.

Q: Where does the role of families and loved ones feature

in the practice that you’re asking us to do – with a direct
correlation, or maybe…about the practice of being in the
present. How do we link that?

Well, the role is so much! This is actually a very important question!

I’ve heard, from so many people, that this practice helped develop
the appreciation of one’s family so much more! Because, well, you
might still argue and fight or whatever – but because you’re being in
the present, at the very least, you can look at them like this is the last
time you’re ever going to see them! Usually, you always take them for
granted – a lot of assumptions, no appreciation, stuff like that. At the
least, this. But more? As I said this morning, present-ness is the key to
empathy. It’s difficult, and very contrived otherwise – so much labor.
But being in the present opens that up easily.

One thing I want to tell you guys is, you have two big challenges. You are
not going to trust that this is the real key – because this is too simple.
This is your challenge. We always think that the path has to be more
complicated. Yes, Buddhism has 84000 complicated things – if you
want, and you do want! And we should! Apply mantras, and mudras, and
chants. Never reject them. But this one is too simple! My grandfather
always talks of it like the eyelashes – too close, you never see it.

36
And when you actually do it, you’ll never trust that you have done it!
Because you think proper meditation is when you weren’t thinking
about pizza, you were thinking about something else, but the color,
shape, light, I don’t know – but, you won’t trust your own meditation
which you have done perfectly. As I said, the chances of you having
done a meditation is – well, you might have done it actually! Then,
the beginning of not doing is happening. You should still do it, I’m not
stopping you from doing that – what all these practices will do for you is
that it will bring more frustrations in the future, which is good, isn’t it?

So yes, time it. A timer, a beeping sound – whatever is necessary. Like

rupas – the images of Buddhas, the statues, they’re supposed to exist
for that. Otherwise, there weren’t any images before – Buddhism
doesn’t need a carrot – it’s just a reminder. All these methods, means,
are very – they became a problem after a while! The statue of the
Buddha in the corner of your room doesn’t remind you of anything
after a while. The statues become bigger and bigger in places like
Bhutan, and they do less and less meditation. (Laughter) They see
the real Buddha less and less, and then they try to put gold. As if that
helps! Of course, loud blabbering, amplifying the sound of the mantras
– it is happening!

Q: Can you just explain, to the lay person, what Tantra is? My
younger brother over her aspires to become a Tantric now, so
how can we lead him in the right direction?

Hahahahahahaha. Well, Tantra, just briefly. Tantra actually means

continuity, or a continuum. In the Sanskrit language, of course. I know,
Tantra is also often associated with sex nowadays, which also has its
reasons obviously. The real meaning of Tantra is ‘continuous’ – what
Tantric Buddhism is saying is that you should just continue! You are
perfect, and that there is nothing to change. You have to continue as it
is. Even in the Mahayana, they say – Tathagatha – as it is.

37
For the Tantra, you are the mandala. You are the deity. Maybe I should
speak a little bit about this – we’re going to do the fire puja, which is
a tantric ritual by the way. You are a deity. Buddhists don’t believe in
an external god, but they say that you are the deity. Your essence is the
object of refuge. It is the object of offering. It is very daring. In fact,
it is so daring that even the general Buddhists shun them a lot. Tantra
had a lot of problems from other Buddhists, yes.

So can we learn?

I would say, that this is the one thing that the Tibetans have kept quite
well. This is the one thing we have to give them credit for. Tantra
teaches present-ness in the most direct, raw form. So the tantric
says if I eat this with the complete confidence of being a deity – let’s say
you invite many Buddhas, and call them and invite them in for three
months. Every day you offer them things – must have a lot of merit.
The tantric would say eating one seed of cardamom with the pure
confidence of being a deity – that has more merit than all these things.

Tantra is very daring. The reason why it is related to sex – there are
other things by the way, other situations – where yawning, sneezing
and so on – even on a mundane level, brings you the closest to the
present moment. Someone was telling me about surfing – when he
was surfing, there was a moment where he felt like he was in the
present. Why not?

So where does sex come in all this?

Because, as I was saying, because as I was saying – it takes you to the

most non-judged moment. Especially, during the climax. There’s no
bad, good, no judgment – you understand? Okay, not even sex! Love,
for instance. When you are in love with somebody, what happens?
Reasons – gone! (Laughter) What are reasons? Reasons are judgment.
It means the past and the future. When there is love, even the bad

38
smells fine! Whatever it is – the most pathetic words coming from the
other side sound so nice! Stuff like that. There are used like tools to
accentuate the present moment. As you can see, it is quite dangerous.
If you give time to the wrong person, or time is being given by a wrong
person – it could really mislead you. Basically, the tantric would say
– wisdom is like the fire, and emotions are like wood. More wood,
means there will be a bigger fire. But – if your fire is this small, and
you put a heap of wood, the fire is dead! When the fire is big – then
put as much wood as possible! More fire! A little bit of wisdom –
anger, jealously, pride, suspicion – they all lead to more wisdom. This
is why Tantra is kept secret. Not that it is embarrassing or something.

So are you saying only a few people can learn it?

Well, a few people who are daring can. For instance, the tantric
concept of a guru is unlike any other concept of a guru. Guru-shishya
parampara in the Tantra is quite tough. It’s just like, the guru is just
there to pull the rug from under you, wherever you are sitting or
standing. You are hiring somebody to do that. Guru-shishya parampara
in this level is the most sophisticated human relationship ever. If
you want to have this, there are so many beautiful images to show it.
Hindu Tantra has the images like – a Devi cutting her own head and
offering it to the guru, and stuff like that.

Shall we have tea?

Q: Rinpoche, continuing this question…

You’re a bit worried, aren’t you? (Laughter)

Not the Tantra per se. But the pre-requisite for Tantra, is quite
difficult to reach in itself. Because it is clearly said that to
practice Tantra, the realization of emptiness, and Bodhichitta
is needed. Without that, people can really go haywire.

39
Generally speaking. But, you could have the faculties from the past life.
Merit. You get it?

But that’s also transmitted – whether it is from the past or the

present. There needs to be a ground for this.

This is similar to Chandrakirti’s answer – he was asked, to whom

should we teach emptiness? You know, the Buddhist Sunyata stuff?
Maybe to those who’ve graduated from Oxford or Cambridge
(laughter), but he didn’t say that. He said those who merely by uttering
the word Sunyata, they get goosebumps, have tears in their eyes – yes, to
them you should teach emptiness, because they will understand.

In Buddhism logic is so important, but parallel to that, teachers always

make a mockery of logic. In fact, I read that Logic is one of the most
sophisticated ways to make you an idiot! (Laughter)

Okay, another thing. When we talk about meditation, sadly, we have

narrowed it down to things to do with the mind – mindfulness, I
mean, the word itself contains that. So it’s always something to do
with sitting, and watching and directly connecting it to the mind. But
this is not true!

You can meditate with all five senses. I’ve asked them to give you
something to eat, because I thought maybe, the vision – what you see
– actually, we can do that too. Because it doesn’t have to be special.
Okay, so this time, the posture is up to you. You don’t have to sit
straight, you don’t have to do anything special. You don’t necessarily
have to look, or see – you got that? But whatever is appearing to
your eye-consciousness, being in that present – it doesn’t have to be
interesting. You should become like a camera basically. The cameras
don’t think about what they’re going to cut or anything. Whatever is
happening, is there. We’re really learning what production design – its
highest level – is all about. So please do that. Just try- for instance, I

40
see this – this beige color. The moment I think carpet, then I’m losing
a little bit.

Just look – using the wrong word – don’t look, don’t see, whatever
is appearing to your eye-consciousness – I shouldn’t think these are
the rose petals. This is a big deal, by the way. You are a human being.
You have a mind. You want to consciously live, or you might as well be
dead. We’re talking about really, consciously living right now.

That’s it. Do this in your room, or whatever. Whatever is appearing in

the sphere of your eye-consciousness – let me use the wrong word in
this context – have you ever seen your doorknob, of your toilet? Have
you really seen it? Probably not, because you’re always busy closing
and locking it. Have you ever seen your kitchen sink, the ceiling, the
edge of the blanket, soggy towels or I don’t know, all kinds of things
– vision, light. Sound we did this morning, tomorrow we will also do
more – tomorrow we will bring this strange music. Good music is very
tough, because it can really take you away.

We can listen to some outdated trance music! (Laughter) So now,

again, the other senses – the tongue, for taste. You can eat something
and try being in the present. No judging, no confirmation, no
acknowledgement. Actually, wasabi would have been good! (Laughter)
You know, something you cannot escape! By the way, you can do
together – for instance, listen to the sound of this biscuit. Look – not
just at the biscuit, but at its shape. The second thing is to taste it now.
Again, taste it. I was asking Veer – maybe Vana should do orioke? It’s
very difficult, you have to chew a morsel of food for like 52 times or
something. These are all forms of a discipline – do it here, and chew it
about a 100 times! (Laughter)

Im not making it up, it’s in the Zen tradition. When you undress,
or tomorrow morning, when you dress – so on and so forth. Do a

41
meditation on packing! Have you done it? I pack a lot, I pack all the
time. It’s terrible. Going round the world, realizing, bringing all sorts
of useless things that you haven’t even used once in 6 months, I haven’t
even seen that thing in my suitcase. You know, they used to ask at the
airport – have you packed your bag yourself? I don’t know why they
don’t do that anymore. I proudly used to say, yes, I packed it myself.

These metaphors may sound kind of new, invented – no. Yes, the
metaphor may be different, but it has its roots elsewhere. Shantideva,
in the Bodhicharyavatara has instructions on how to wash one’s hand!
These are not cultural! This should never become a cultural thing. This
is not like a code of conduct, it is a means to cultivate awareness. If
it doesn’t, it is the real culprit. Means and methods are supposed to
bring you towards wisdom, but very often, the means and methods
take you away from wisdom because you end up getting too worked up
with the method.

Thank goodness, that Shantideva’s instructions on how to wash hands

never became a part of ‘Buddhist culture’, otherwise you’d have a big
problem! It’s a very strange way of washing hands. Again, don’t ask me
why it is like that – it is just a method! You can do that too, but the
instruction was given just to bring the awareness. Along the line, many
people think this is a Buddhist code of conduct, something to do with
ethics and so on – but this is not true. Then, there are other things
like pointing towards any direction with all your fingers and so on –
there are many things in the shastras. Readers should not take them as
cultural codes of conduct.

Why do the monks shave their hair? It’s not like if you have shorter
hair, you’ll have a faster enlightenment. Nothing like that! It’s a
discipline, supposed to take you closer to the present moment. If the
Buddhists are so much into shaving, what about the yogis? They’re
supposed to keep their hair! Not cut it at all! Tantric yogis have

42
such long hair, after a while they cannot wash them, they become
dreadlocked. One of my teachers, he had such big, long dreadlocks!
So smelly! (Laughter) Really dirty. Whenever I used to go to receive
teachings from him, the smell – it was so tough. Shaving hair to
dreadlocks – it’s a paradox. That’s why it’s difficult for Buddhism to
flourish. It should flourish, actually, it has quite a few options. But I
told you, people don’t like options. People like instructions – do it
this way, this way, everybody must follow this. Then, it’s simple. Buddhist
methods comprise of too many things.

I was thinking of talking about shamatha and vipassana but I think

we should do that in the morning. Probably more fresh – too much
information today. We’re going to do a fire puja. Today is supposedly a
very special day. The principal deity of the fire puja is Avalokiteshvara.
Again, as I said earlier – in Tantra, the real deity is yourself but
sometimes, in order to see how you look – you look at the mirror. So
we create a mirror image of you, which is going to be Avalokiteshvara.
Buddhists believe that you have all the Buddha qualities within
you, and that there’s nothing missing – nothing at all! You could be
roaming around in this filthy samsara for a long time, but it’s not like
any of your Buddha qualities have gone rusty or have decayed. You
have to have that confidence. When you wash your sup, you have the
confidence that the stain is going to go, isn’t it? Just like that.

So how do you do that? How do you develop this kind of confidence?

One method is visualizing the deity in front of you. Your mirror image,
basically. So today, your deity will be within the fire that we will create.
Now this is getting complicated. Avalokiteshvara represents peace,
compassion, harmony and balance. This is a ‘wellness retreat’. Balance
is key. So, we are invoking that energy especially. Also, supposedly,
according to astrology – towards around now till the sunset – its
supposed to be prosperity oriented. You know, Buddhists never reject

43
anything! Do you have a lot of superstitions? Perfect! You are then a
really good vessel for this. Remember, lotuses never grow in clear water
– they always bloom in the muddy water. The muddier the better.

All these hang-ups, superstitions – Buddhists anyway think everything

is a superstition. Even 4+4 = 8 is a superstition! It’s a label, an
assumption, decided by a bunch of people long time ago, and we are
just sucked into that! Who knows, maybe its 9! Ask these architects!
(Laughter) But we won’t give this up, would we? 4+4 is 8! It is
difficult to think it is 5, or something.

Anyway, as a tantric practitioner you have to go a little bit beyond.

Remember, if I told you – 4+4 is 1, then you at least should think
– Maybe, who knows? Could be. Then you’re good! No! This is only 8!
Then, you’re a reason follower. You are not in love! You’re not a good
vessel. You’re following, you’re dictated by reasoning and logic.

Anyway, in the center of the fire is the deity Avalokiteshvara. It is red in

color. Red is magnetizing, and has passion. He holds a red lotus, and
then we make offerings. Offerings of all kinds of substance. Especially
– do we have red wine? Yeah, okay. Especially intoxicating substances.
We offer that. I’ll tell you the reason why. When you deliberately,
consciously use intoxicating substances as an offering – you realize that
the habitual mind is intoxicated already, and it’s a bit like homeopathy,
which is like poison. Your habitual mind is already intoxicated – and
intoxication here means you are not thinking straight.

Do you all think this is a room? Well, from the Tantric point of view,
you are not thinking straight! This is not a room! Room is imputed,
labeled. You’ve been brainwashed to think like this. What is a room
anyway? You are intoxicated! So now we intoxicate the intoxicated
mind! Then what happens? You become sober! Finally, you are making
sense now. We will be using a little bit of intoxicating substances,

44
so please don’t get alarmed. Don’t brandish it – Buddhism is using
intoxicants and so on.

There are actually other substances that we haven’t yet gathered – but
we don’t need to get into that right now. (Laughter)

So, later on, you can also participate by putting things into the fire,
like petals. You can think that this petal is everything. Mountains,
rivers, planets – everything. Shopping malls - whatever you think is
good! Gold, and silver and so on – garbage, trash – and things that you
don’t like too! I don’t know, whatever. Things that are remarkable, like
Donald Trump. A very good substance! Something people are talking
about, you throw it in the fire as an offering to Avalokiteshvara.

I said this morning, you can keep one ignorance of thinking there
is enlightenment – just like that, you can beseech for a blessing. I
think you should beseech for the blessing to remain in the present
moment, to be compassionate, loving, harmonious – beseech for the
surroundings to be peaceful, the people to be peaceful so that people
will understand non-duality and so on.

Also, beseech for common blessings like longevity, dispelling inner

and outer obstacles – health problems, family problems – everything,
including problems are to be burnt as an offering. Everything can be
an offering. Then, if you want to elaborate – the red light. Circles,
animated become bigger, and bigger and dissolve into you. At the end
of the puja, the front deity, Avalokiteshvara dissolves into you, and you
and the deity become inseparable, staying in that state for some time.

I will give you guided instructions at that time. We begin with the good
motivations of doing this – everything, all the tantric rituals, practices,
we begin with the right attitude. We do it for the benefit of all sentient
beings. That’s it. Maybe you should put on something warm.

45
Concluded by Samantabhadra’s Prayer of Aspiration

NIGHT GUIDED MEDITATION

So, this is going to be a short, guided meditation. But I cannot stop

myself from talking a little bit. We have been talking about the present
moment. This is taught in many ways. We talk about the ‘retreat’ being
in the past and future and never move to the past or the future. This
present moment is sometimes referred to, in Tantrik Buddhism is also
called Bardo. If I loosely translate the word Bardo, it means the ‘in-
between gap’.

So I’m using this guided meditation and some of you may, while I’m
talking, do what we did in the morning. But if you can just follow
my instructions, may be interesting for some of you. Anyway, this
comes from which is a very important text in the Tantrayana; so, based
on that I’m going to speak now. In Buddhism, everything happens
between a gap. But this is all relative teaching by the way. There is no
past; there is no future, so there is no gap actually.

Remember, you don’t know these profound realities. We have to use

tools. One of the tools is language, metaphors and also you and I;
we use this reference of ‘past’ and ‘future’. Even though the past is
gone, we don’t have it, future is not yet here, so we don’t know, it’s
not material. But yet, we plan or use memory with a past memory
or a future plan by assuming or imagining. Everything happens ‘in-
between’, and this ‘in-between’ thing is so important. There are so
many ‘in-betweens’. For instance, today is, 12th March 2017, this day
whatever happened, happened in-between, the time you woke up this
morning and still continued till you’ll be sleeping.

So, what is happening is happening ‘in-between’; this is the truth.

As you slowly fall into sleep you’ll then go into another section of

46
‘in-between’; this is the ‘waking-up’ state until you wake-up in
the morning. This is called the ‘dream state’ or the ‘dream gap’.
Everything that is happening is happening between a gap. Now, this
whole life of yours, as a pilot, a cook, a barber, all that is happening,
sleeping, waking up, whatever happens between the time you are born,
and I wish you live long, until you die, that is one whole big gap, one
whole big present.

Then when you die, you go into another gap, and this gap is called
‘Bardo’ which is a big subject in the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’
and is often used to study the present moment. When you die, your
senses look, hear, are not going to work as they are working now. Your
elements are going to fall apart so therefore your sense consciousness
is going to disintegrate. But that doesn’t mean you will become sort of
stupid, it is the other way.

In fact, according to Tantrik Buddhism, you become much more astute

and very sharp because at the moment your mind only functions
through these translators, like your eyes, ears, so there are a lot
of filters. After you die, no more filters. So there is a lot of direct
cognition, and because of this direct cognition, you will also have fear,
it’s a strange experience. White, is probably billions times more white.
A small breeze, may feel like a typhoon or a desert storm. And as this
process goes on, gender, that’s gone, as that is all physical related.

Of course, you don’t have to buy all of this. But probably might as
well hear this, in case it is true; then you can at least refer to this
(laughter). So, gender means nothing, nationality means nothing. You
will have less and less and less reference. The less reference you have
is actually good because you are becoming more pure; this something
you can try to grab hold of. And when you grab hold of all of this, it’s
like liberation.

47
So, try to sit comfortably. Breathe in and out. And I shall call you
all Children of the Noble Family. I’m going to read this text. We
are called the Children of the Nobel Family because as we spoke
many times today, you are by nature, the Buddha. You are by nature,
noble. Relax. The instructions I’m reading is composed by the most
respected Tukiny Yuki ni of Tibet.

Tibetans chanting as Rinpoche reads further instructions for

meditation.

Okay so this was just a brief exercise for the technical retreat to take
advantage of a gap. And since we are going to sleep now, I guess, very
briefly, there are two things you can do. One, when you go to sleep,
have the motivation to, in case you dream, to know you are dreaming.
If you can manage to do this, very good. Just imagine, you are falling
from a building, like the 50th floor and suddenly you realise you are
dreaming, then you might want to fly and take a tour! Because it is a
dream, and you can’t hurt yourself.

The other exercise and this is something you should do. When you
go to sleep tonight, please think “I’m waking up” and then sleep.
And tomorrow morning, think that “now I’m going to sleep, this is
all a dream. I’m dreaming that I’m in Dehradun. This is not really
happening. This is my dream.” Can you try and do that? Reverse that,
if you want. This was just a glimpse of what we call ‘dream yoga’.
There is an exercise called the 6 yogas of being in the ‘retreat’, the
present. Just that this is a ‘retreat center’ (laughter).

Today, we talked quite at length about being in the present, which is

the most important, the basis of everything. Then we talked about
death. Then we talked briefly about ‘dream yoga’. I will not give
too much information, because as soon as you know, you cannot

48
forget. Like If I told you about ‘Wednesday’’, you will know about
‘Wednesday’. Then you won’t be able to forget.

So, likewise, I should not tell you anything more now. I should not
give out too much information. That way, you are pure, clean and you
can find. It’s better to experience. It’s like when you’re on top of a
mountain, when you walk and discover the way, the huts, goats cows
and all kind of things. If I can tell you there is golden flower on top of
the mountain, all you will think of is that golden flower. You will miss
the cows and goats, and that will be unfortunate.

That’s it! Wish you a good sleep. Shall we go to wake up!

Session concludes.

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Day 2 | 13th March, 2017
MORNING SESSION

Commencing with the Prajnaparamita Sutra

We will just begin with, out of a lack of words – sitting for a few
minutes. I have to say sit, but I will explain a little more after we sit for
a few minutes.

Thank you.

Dhyan. Samten. Yamja. In Chinese, they say it is Ch’an. In Japanese it

is Zen. Anyway, dhyan is one of India’s most beautiful, most profound
gifts to the world. Now the Indians must try to recharge this a little
bit. Dhyan is translated at nyamja, or gom in Tibetan. Let me talk a
little bit of nyamja – nyam means equal, equality, unbiased or non-
duality. Non-duality is the heart, the spine, the eyes, the brain of
Buddhism. Lose non-duality, and Buddhism is just another theistic,
superstitious – it becomes just religion. If you have non-duality, then
yes, it is a religion but it is so many other things!

The Heart Sutra – it says no this, no that about so many things. It is

just about one page. The longer version has 8000 verses. You want
more? There’s 20000 verses. You want more? There’s a 100000
verses. These were revived by the great Nagarjuna, abbot of Nalanda
University. And how many commentaries? So many. It’s so big! I don’t
want you to go back thinking that Buddhism is just sitting and being in
the present.

No. Being in the present is just one technique. The Prajnaparamita,

the Madhyamika – it’s really big. You can include everything there.
Leadership. Management. Parenting. Gardening. I don’t know, home
decorating. Everything. If you have non-duality, success is guaranteed.

For instance – I remember Ganesha. Tantric Buddhism also has stuff

like Ganesha. They have stuff like Jambala, Kubera, Vasudhara and all

51
that. You can practise it – there’s sadhanas, fire pujas, everything. The
essence of that is non-duality – it is the highest prosperity. When you
realise it, there is nothing to put in the trash-can, you understand?
Everything becomes valuable. Everything is equally – good, bad?
There’s no good or bad. Perfect, basically.

In order to achieve this, there are techniques like practising

contentment and so on. Then there are mantras, and all those things –
they aren’t rejected, not at all. Well, I’m going everywhere, this is my
problem – I have to come back to nyamja.

Nyam means equal – in fact, even the gesture represents this. There
are two types of gestures for this, and the hands are equally placed
together. Then there is the tantric – more like the Nyingma tradition,
they also sit like this. Now, more importantly within our context is
the word ja. The Tibetan word ja is very rich. Of course, it has been
translated from Sanskrit. Ja – I don’t know how to say this – this
has the connotation of leave it alone. You understand, leave it alone?
(Gesticulation)

This one is very important. They think we just don’t have the habit
of leaving things alone and letting them be. We’re just so itchy, we
have to poke and rearrange and paint stuff. Again, going back to Zen
Buddhism – this is a big thing in their practise. Their temples are very
minimalist. The beautiful thing about this is that minimalism is also
ja, but a chaotic Tibetan temple is also considered ja. You can be ja in
both ways – the minimalist, or that with blinky, colourful lights and so
on. The attitude, ja.

This is not only the arrangement of the room, but just the body
language. I can say that I’ve been lucky to have met some of the
great masters who are now in extinction. During those days, when
we were young, we never paid attention, but I can recall that their

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whole presence is ja. It is continuously just leaving things alone. Never
pausing. Sometimes when they do pause, you can tell that they are
laughing at themselves. You know, like this kind of pausing? (Gestures)
But they’re laughing at themselves, and it is so good! So relaxed.

These spa people have stolen and plagiarised words like relax.
Normally he word relax is this. (Gesture) But yogis don’t think this
is ja. This is just another pose. You just have to psychologically,
emotionally, intellectually in every way – remain ja. You can use this
for parenting, and you can actually lead the whole world with this
attitude of ja. Leaders will really benefit from this. But you know,
I have to say – whatever we have been saying all this while, we’ve
been talking about technique. Technique is all very good, but then
us, as individuals have our strength of habit formations, and how
good we are at handing these habits – this will determine the kind of
elaboration or simplicity you need.

For instance – in the Japanese Zen tradition, the first thing they teach
you is shikan taza. This means to ‘just sit’. They teach you this the
first time you go into their temple – just this, and nothing else. Nine
years later, they are still teaching this. But after 9 years, the word ‘just’
has become very very different. Right now the word ‘just’ means not
writing, not eating, not drinking, not dancing – just sitting – the word
‘just’ eliminates all else.

After 9 years, the word has become so profound. After 9 years,

the practitioner is doing shikan taza, but his ‘just’ means a lot. He
probably is not even meditating – the word ‘just’ has eliminated the
burden of meditation. Meditation is a burden you know – all paths are
a burden! But yes, of course, this technique is probably not suitable for
Indians. They have different faculties.

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Tibetans too, maybe this is not so suitable. Tibetans love chanting.
Equally reverent – chanting, prayer, circumambulating a statue. This is
where the word ‘gom’ comes – it means ‘habituating’. Right now, you
don’t have the habit of being in the present, you have the opposite. You
have the habit of immediately rushing to the past or the future – that
is your habit. How much willingness do you have to combat that? How
clever are you? How much time can you put? How much energy are
you willing to invest to combat this? Are you even willing to do it?

Probably yes, but maybe your willingness wavers from yes to no. It’s a
pity, actually, that we don’t have that kind of willingness to habituate
ourselves from being in the present. We don’t have the opportunity
too. But it really gives you bliss, and saves you from all sorts of
trouble. It’s not as if you never habituate yourself with anything – all
the habits that you have, you’ve learnt! You’ve been practising those
very diligently. You have become a perfect samsaric being, because
you practised hard, and those things are not giving you complete
satisfaction. Yes, here and there you have the bliss of ignorance. Those
things cost you emotionally, financially. Many of those things you
cannot do at all times.

But being in the present is economical, easy. There’s really no reason

as to why you should not do it! But it is not easy, because there are
just a lot of strange habits we have. For instance, we’re like a – what
do you call it, a pack rat? A pack rat who collects everything. You just
open your suitcase, or your house – so many things! A pack rat, who
longs for some sort of space but you’re the one who does this pack rat
kind of practise. We have that kind of habit and you just love troubles!
We love it! We just can’t stay out of trouble. We love troubles, and
we love hanging around with people who give us trouble. Like those
with bad habits. We like them, somehow – you resonate with them!
(Laughter)

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There’s six of them, which I don’t remember at the moment – these
are from Maitreya. We human beings usually like the wrong view, as
intellectual as we think we are. So rational, blah blah. No. Many of
our so called right views are permeated, sweetened and salted with the
wrong view. We basically love being eternalists or nihilists. Yeah, we
love being fundamentalists, extremists. There’s something in us. That’s
why Sunyata, or emptiness – which is nothing to do with extremes, is
very difficult to choose. It is useless, basically. From the Buddhist point
of view, the definition of the spiritual path is totally useless from the
worldly point of view. The worldly point of view looks at ‘usability’, so
it is useless.

When I was travelling near Ajanta-Ellora – where is it? Andhra

Pradesh? Maharashtra. In the middle of nowhere, there’s a gate! On
the mountain, just like that. For me, that is spiritual. Now, the gate has
to be useful. It should have the facility to close, some sort of a check
post and so on. Do you understand?

Have you seen a stupa? It is useless! You can’t go in – if there’s rain,

there’s nowhere to go in. A house is useful. From the worldly point of
view, you’re wasting so much time doing dhyana! What is that – Dow
Jones – all those stocks are going up and down and what are you doing
here, wasting so much time!

Contemplation. This is what I was going to share with you today, a

little bit. What we have been talking about is quite – you know, I was
representing it in a simplified, general way. I wanted you to have a taste
of the value of cognizance, of mindfulness. But to really get into that,
all the foundation practices, the mind training practices are important.

For instance, shamatha and vipassana. Shamatha is very common

meditation. Vipassana is exclusively Buddhist. Nowadays we’re losing
that knowledge. Shamatha is basically, to put it really simply – the

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technique makes you realise…how should I put it? Okay, very simply
speaking – it makes you realise that you cannot meditate. That’s it!
That’s the whole purpose of shamatha. To put it in a more classical
way, shamatha makes your mind more malleable, more workable.

For example, if I say, for five minutes, get very angry with me –
you cannot do it! Say you are angry with somebody now – and I
countdown and tell you to stop NOW – you cannot do it! Why?
Because, your mind is like a pebble. Rigid, like a stone. Remember,
your train of thought? You just have to follow that speed. You have
to follow that and see that we have no control – but shamatha is to
make you gain control. I think the earlier explanation is easier to
understand. It is to make you realise that you cannot meditate, or
concentrate.

Choose your object. It could be the back of somebody’s head, if you’re

sitting behind somebody. It could be breathing – maybe the floor can
be too straining. The wall? Many times they ask you to concentrate on
the space underneath your nose – that’s it. Just concentrate on that
and nothing else. I’m looking at the tripod for instance, and only that.
The moment you realize that you are distracted, come back to the
object.

Most probably, a moment later, your mind is somewhere else. You try
to come back several times, and you keep on going. That’s shamatha.
This is complete, and you keep on doing that. You end up knowing
that you are always distracted. If you know what you should not be
doing, it is the same as knowing what you should be doing, you know?
Buddhists say that if you know what ignorance is, 90% of the job is
done – you will have wisdom soon.

The benefit of doing this – just this, looking at the doorknob, or the
pen and the paper – it’s probably not as beneficial looking at the

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light or the television – but by doing all this, all your gross, discursive
thoughts will settle. Gross aggression, gross jealousy – all emotions will
settle. But know that this is very dangerous! This is not liberation! The
mud has settled, it is underneath. Anytime, someone can stir it and
instantly, the clear water can get muddy. But this is good – very good,
actually.

So what do we do to take out, uproot all the mud? This is the big
question, and this is where vipassana comes in. Vipassana is endless.
You already did one. We’ve been doing it, being in the present is one
way – the way in which I was guiding you yesterday. This meditation
has more of shamatha, and maybe five percent of vipassana – other
meditations have more of vipassana and not so much of shamatha.
That’s a little dangerous. That’s really grabbing the mud and stirring it.
You want to get rid of the mud as soon as possible and Tantra? That’s
working with the mud itself.

I will not advise too much for those who are beginners. This is very
dangerous. It’s like this – Buddhism, the dharma, has too many
techniques. There are those that teach us how to solve a problem
with the solution and the problem being the total opposite, which is
easier for beginners. Oh? Problem? Black? Solution – white! Then
there are others – the higher, the more profound the technique, the
gap between solution and the problem is narrower. In the Tantra the
solution is the problem and the problem is the solution – they are one.
Don’t go into that now, those who are new. It is easier to follow the
other methods. Maybe not yet in the hammock, with the margarita,
eh? Later, why not?

Maybe I will take one question, and then a break?

Is Vipassana about non-duality?

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Well yes, vipassana is about that. Shamatha is not so much about it in
the sense that yes, you just know that you cannot meditate but at the
same time, we push you to meditate. Vipassana is altogether different.
That has non-duality.

Question from another participant

This is what I was saying earlier. The experience of settling all the gross
emotions has many, many benefits. Let me tell you about them. Forget
vipassana – when you’re so good at it that your gross thoughts have
gone down, and I’ve seen it too. Let’s say, usually you eat five plates of
rice. After you do shamatha for say, three weeks, and if your shamatha
has reached a certain level, five spoons will do! You will not feel that
hungry because hunger is related to the mind. It’s about emotion,
about addiction, about – it’s a bit like shopping. It’s like we need to
give ourselves a present. Buy things, gadgets. Food. Shamatha does
that.

Then, your body will always feel very light. And then, this is also
why people get so attached to shamatha, and this is also what a lot
of Buddhist gurus warn us about – but by doing it, your intuition
becomes so big! By just looking at someone, you can tell what they
are thinking because there is not so much of a filter. Then people
like that clairvoyance, and this is very dangerous! Because this is not
liberation. Buddhists don’t care about whether you’re stressed or not,
clairvoyant or not, being able to fly or not – we want to see the truth.
And this taste of being so relaxed, 5 spoons of rice yet being satisfied,
not needing to sleep so much – and this is good! Buddhists really earn
a lot here – it’s called the ‘Bliss of Samadhi’. That’s very identical to
enlightenment also, at a glance.

Question from a participant

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Yes, yes you can. Oh, many! A lot of people today – who do to
vipassana but actually just end up doing shamatha, they sit for 9
hours! Burma – everywhere! I did it once in Burma. I was incognito,
and joined for a few days and volunteered to chop vegetables for the
monastery. Anyway, 9 hours is the standard Burmese way. Everybody
says this – those who say that they cannot even sit for 10 minutes, I’ve
met them later and they have been sitting for days, and what a fantastic
experience it was, and blah blah blah. But then, a real Buddhist master
has to shake it up and condemn all those experiences. You think this
is great? This is nothing! There are many volumes of that. For the
inexperienced ear, it is very discouraging, the scolding you may get
because you’ve had a meditation experience. I carry one with me, it’s
written by Jigme Lingpa. From the first page to the last, it is full of
scolding, warnings. Okay, one more and we go to our break?

Question from a participant

That’s why – the Tibetans – and I’m going to speak like a typical
Tibetan Buddhist now, they will say that you need to hire somebody
who will dismantle you. We’re talking about a guru. Or at least,
you need to carry this book which will discourage you and your
achievement. What do you think you are? Who do you think you are?
You think you’re omniscient? You think you’re a clairvoyant? All those
categories are nothing. One of the great masters, Jigme Lingpa said
– a small insect eating wood (termites), they sit inside the space they
create in the wood. Now the termite thinks that the space is the sky!
And so on – you get the idea.

Okay, let’s take a break.

Tea Break

Sweet to someone who has never tasted sweet – yet, we know that
only through letting this person taste the sweet, it will be his only key

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to attaining liberation. It is very important that we tell them what
sweet is, but we don’t know how to say it to someone who has never
tasted it. There’s no reference!

I would say that all the Buddhist teachings are trying to talk about
Sunyata – trying to talk about sweet, let’s say. But, by giving you salt,
chilli, masalas, turmeric, ginger, and saying each time – This is not it.
This is not the sweet. So there’s a lot of deconstruction. That’s why
you hear in the heart sutra – na (not) this, na that. It’s so funny to hear
the heart sutra in different nations. For instance, in Japan they use the
word ‘mu’, which is ‘na’ in Sanskrit and Hindi. I think Chinese is ‘wu’
and in Tibetan it is ‘me’ - na me, che me, lü me, yid me, zug me, dra me,
dri me, ro me, reg ja me, chö me do.

You know Osho Rajneesh? Yeah, Osho. He is so funny – he’s quite

good, you know, brilliant. He said that the Buddhist no is a very special
no, because in the no there are a hundred thousand ‘yes’. (Laughter)
So that’s it! The Buddhist ‘na’, the Buddhist ‘mu’ – it’s very rich, very
full. Instead of negation. But then you may ask, why do we choose the
word ‘no’?

Why not positive language? Actually we do also choose positive

language. There’s a whole school of Buddhism, in fact, bigger – very
big, one that flourished in China, Japan and so on – they use more
positive (maybe positive is not the right word) language. You see,
you’re hearing Tibetan at the moment – this is coming from the
tradition of Nagarjuna. The Nagarjuna Company talks about no, no,
no. Maitreya or Asanga talk more about luminosity. This means exactly
the same thing, by the way.

I need to tell you this: Remember that we were talking about the
truth? This is nothing supernatural or divine. It is very simple
– all compounded things are impermanent and so on, especially

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all projections – whatever your project does not exist externally,
inherently – that’s a big one. If you know that not intellectually –
actually, even intellectually – after 50 years of marriage to someone,
someone told you that your wife or husband or whatever, your partner
has a tail, have you seen it?

You understand what I mean? Wow! Your attitude will change. You will
want to see it, right? At least! Your partner – what were they doing all
this time? You’ll try to catch a glimpse of her, or him in the bathroom,
and everything will change. Let me see the tail! Even a look-alike
changes the whole dimension.

So even if it’s intellectual at the moment, you will go wow – all these
are my projections at the moment, and projections aren’t really there.
It will do something to you. You know, like the dream? You’re falling
from a cliff, or a building, but you realise that it wasn’t real. You
understand that truth.

Okay, now, there’s many ways. The best, the highest, and the simplest
way is if the student (shishya) is totally surrendering, taking refuge in
this truth. Not only intellectually but also from the heart. Just as what
happened during the Mahamudra of the Ganges teaching where Tilopa
tortured Naropa for 12 years! Hit him with his shoes on his head, and
so on – and the dimension changed, shifted. Bengali, right, Naropa?
Isn’t it? Prashant? Your fellow Bengali. Totally changed him with a
slap on his head! No teaching, nothing! Before that, everything just
– he did all sorts of strange things. Asking him to steal people’s soup,
pinching the bottom of a princess during a procession and getting beat
up – all sorts of things!

Let me describe the shift. There’s a description: Right now, the size of
your palm and the size of the sky are very different. A big difference.
A shift occurs, where size means nothing! A kilo of gold and a kilo of

61
dust – right now, there’s a big difference. A shift occurs – everything
changes. This lineage is so important. Naropa taught this to Marpa,
who taught it to his disciple and so on and so forth. This teaching went
on all the way to the court of the Chinese Emperor. Many emperors
actually became disciples. Today, this is one of the most revered
lineages – you’re familiar with the Karma Kagyu? The Karmapa
Lineage.

This is just one of them that I’ve talked about. There’s so many things
like that – Virupa. Another great Nalanda guy who practised his
mantras for a long while. Finally, he was so frustrated, asking What is
the point? I have gained nothing, there is nothing to gain from this. He
was so angry, he packed up his rosary and threw it in the toilet. At that
moment, a shift happened! Now that lineage, at the moment is held
by the Sakyapa people – the Sakya Lineage. The toilet guy. (Laughter)
There’s many lineages like that.

The great Saraha. So special, Saraha – guru of Nagarjuna, the dean

of Nalanda university – a big deal! The great Indian kings and queens
and merchants of those days venerated Nalanda, and he was the dean,
the boss of the university, heading all these monks. He wasn’t satisfied
with his academic merits either. So he went searching for another
guru, despite being so accomplished and learned himself. He finally
found his guru – part prostitute, part arrow maker, a woman. When
he first saw her, she was making arrows and shooting them towards
empty space – no target to aim for. That struck him, and he asked her
– Don’t you need some sort of target to see whether your arrow is crooked or
not? Then her reply was – This is your problem. You have a target, while I
have none. From there, came another lineage. All these lineages are still
alive, by the way.

Most of them – so many Tibetans, translators and practitioners died

bitten by mosquitoes, snakes, clashing with Indian dacoits – despite

62
that, managed to import the religion into Tibet, which is now being
re-imported to India. The doha of Saraha – Osho has a teaching on
that. He did quite a good explanation, I must say. A doha is like a –
have you heard of the Bauls of Bengal, they sing something like a doha,
it’s an explanation of their realisation. Anyway, why am I saying these
things?

Right, non-duality – the lineage of non-duality. So what is non-duality?

It’s difficult, because language is not good enough. There’s many
ways to experience it. I’m sorry to say this, but I’m not Tilopa, and
I’m kind of assuming that you’re not Naropa. So you are safe, I’m
not going to use my shoes, it will not work! You understand? Because
you’re not totally surrendering, and if you surrender, I’m not willing
to take responsibility. (Laughter) People surrendering, oh it’s quite a
thing – immediately I will have to bring my lawyer and tell you to sign
this disclaimer. Very dangerous, these days, and that’s something I will
not do.

Then what can we do? The next thing? All that we can do is reasoning.
Deconstruction, deduction. Reasoning. You have the Madhyamika,
prajnapramita – hearing the argument, and so on – this is why there’s
all this Buddhist study. Volumes after volumes. If you meet someone
like Tilopa and you have the Naropa attitude – no need! All this
is a waste of time! All you need to do is wake up, and shift. Don’t
tell me the shift is not possible, it is! Drink margaritas! You’ll have
a shift won’t you? But of course, this kind of shift is temporal, you
get addicted to do that substance, and it is soon going to go away.
This kind of shift will make you dull and will give you a little bit of
superficial confidence, and that’s it. I’m just telling you that it’s not as
if the shift is not possible.

Margaritas can do it, mushrooms can do it, peyote can do it – all

you need is a shift. Okay, back to non-duality. You of all the people,

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especially you Indians should be at home with non-duality. I always say
this, I really mean it. You guys are people who can accept that Ganesha
rides on a mouse. There, that’s a really good description of non-
duality. A big deity riding on a mouse, how is that possible? All your
deities sitting on a lotus – try sitting on a lotus! They will be squished,
flattened! But all your deities’ lotuses are intact, beautiful. Stuff like
that.

Instead of talking about non-duality, let us talk about why non-duality

is not fitting in our head. Even though it always happens – stay in Vana
for a week or something, it will feel like one or two days – but let’s
spend an hour or so in jail? Prison. You will feel it has been a year or
something. Time goes very slowly. Ah, non-duality, see? Where is long
and short? Beauty, ugliness – none of your projections exist inherently.
Big, small, good, evil. Um, wholesome, divine. Everything is relative.
Nothing truly exists as to how you experience it, or how you project it.

Did I tell you this? I was coming back from Goa, on a plane full of –
what do you call them? Hari? Eunuchs? No, not – hijadas? A plane
full of hijadas! I was so fascinated, I was like where are you guys going?
They were all beautifully adorned. One of them said, that they were
invited at a big wedding to bless the bride, or the groom or something.
All this while, I was thinking – I was brought up thinking that the
Indians look down upon them as inauspicious! Ah, non-duality. You, of
all the people should be at home with it.

You know, something bad is suddenly good, and vice-versa! Do we

have hijadas visiting us today? Okay. But I think no other country is
really managing to chew and digest, and swallow it. Yes, when we teach
emptiness, Sunyata and the prajnaparmita in Oxford, Cambridge, San
Francisco, you know, westerners are intellectually aligned. They like
it, they can sense the logic. They can really appreciate it. But for it to

64
seep into their bones, and blood and DNA – it is a little bit difficult.
But this is how it is. Everything is like that, actually.

You know we were talking about the Vimalakirti sutra, there is a

section – and even in Buddhism, there is a yana or a vehicle called
the Sharvakayana where the practise is like vinaya. You know, monks,
nuns – don’t touch a woman – all that, hierarchy and so on. But
in the Vimalakirti sutra, there is a section where Shariputra, the
great monk, the right hand man of the Buddha visits the house.
There’s Vimalakirti’s maid, and she herself is also very powerful, and
miraculously turns Shariputra into a woman. This monk. And he
was freaking out, Oh, I’m a woman, what am I to do? Then, there’s a
conversation between him and this woman – who asks What do you
mean by gender? I don’t see any woman. Who are you talking about? What
is gender? There’s a whole chapter on that.

People who’re talking about women and gender equality? They

should read the Vimalakirti sutra. People who talk about this still have
dualistic notions of man and woman – they need to read this. They
talk about the real equality of gender. What is woman? What is man?
This is an illusion! This is a very non-academic way of understanding
non-duality.

There are other things – like the reflection of your face in the mirror.
Every morning, you go to the toilet and you see your reflection in the
mirror. Everyday, you see your face, right? But never once, did you
see a banana or something! (Laughter) Every time you look at it, you
see your face. But even though it has always been unfailing, that does
not prove that the person in the mirror is real. Time does not make
it real. Consistency does not make it real. Function – the reflection in
the mirror gives a lot of function. You can fix things, you can put stuff
on your face correctly, straighten your ties correctly. But none of this
proves that the thing in there is real. It is an illusion.

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But an illusion does not mean it does not exist. The word ‘na’, ‘mu,
‘me’ does not mean that it is an illusion, it just means that it does
not have an inherent existence. Like the reflection of the moon in
the water – it is beautiful, bright, but that does not mean it is real.
That’s how the Buddhists see you and me. It’s not that we are not
here, but we are not inherently here, in the way we project ourselves
to be. That’s about all I can do for now. If you want to study this
further, there are other books you can read – the Madhyamikakarika,
the Mulamadhyamikakarika – oh, 60-70 verses, so many books,
arguments…

Maybe I should let you ask more questions.

Q: There are moments during meditation, where I just go

blank.
Is that alright?

Yeah, yes – you just have to aware of that, it is just an experience. Just
be aware, and if you can do that, good. Blankness is not more special
than discursive thought. It’s just another wave. You cannot go to the
beach and say this wave is good, this wave is not good, because they are
all one. They will come back again in different forms.

Question from a participant

I used the word deity, yes. That’s a big one. Okay, what is the subject
of the heart-sutra? It is a discussion between the Avalokiteshvara and
Shariputra. It is actually a big conference held on the peak of Rajgir.
It’s like a…what do you call it? G-summit? G-20? It’s a bit like
that, very important. How to solve the problem, just like those G-20
people.

So there were a lot of big people there – 500 something maha-sattvas,

maha-arhats and so on. Anyway, the conclusion is one problem, and

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that’s thinking that there is an inherent self. So what is the self? This is
the deductive logic. There’s no I, no form, no feeling, no this, no that
and so on…So, there’s no self!

So if you ask a Buddhist, the self is just an illusion. Now coming back
to your question. The question of deities. That non-self is sometimes
practised as a deity, as that emptiness. Remember? I’ve been telling
you that the Buddhist no is not a pure negation.

This is a little difficult, this will take some time to understand. Ten
more minutes, and then I want to go and change. I don’t want people
thinking that I don’t have colour! It’s already red.

Question from a participant

Yes, you’re talking about Advaita and Shankaracharya. You’re talking to

a Buddhist by the way. Me. (Laughter) so what I’m saying is, because
the pre-Shankaracharya – the purva-mimamsa, the nyaya – they don’t
have non-duality. Then there is speculation that Shankaracharya
himself got it from Nagarjuna, this non-duality – it is a widely known
thing because in Buddhism, non-duality started from day one. From
Varanasi, Saranath. After hearing that, I would say this. When we study
Buddhist philosophy, we also study our opponents – our honourable,
very appreciated opponents. Not like the Shias and so on – it is a good
discussion, and it is not a fight for territory! There’s no communal
problems, it’s all about philosophy. It’s wonderful. The discussions
between nyaya and the Buddhists is tough. It’s just amazing, and it’s all
about non-duality. What I would say is, in Buddhism, as much as we
talk about non-duality, the aspect of duality is never rejected. As you
saw last night at the fire puja.

This exists even in the sutras, like the Vajracchedik  sutra – there’s a
commentary by Mr. Rajneesh – the Diamond sutra, it is called. If you
read it, you’ll see the meticulousness of the Buddha – how he washes

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his robes, folds them, washing the begging bowl, the table blah blah –
all that, and then suddenly, there’s discussions about there’s no such
thing as the Buddha. Because what is the Buddha? What is form? If
you see the form of the Buddha, you have a mistaken idea and so on
and so forth.

So the relative, is never rejected. This is where the Buddhists talk about
compassion. In fact, non-duality and compassion is synonymous in
Buddhism. We are now opening a very big subject, I don’t know if we
should go there. Compassion – actually the English word compassion
is not doing justice to karuna, and so on. I think the word compassion
is derived from the Abrahamic concept of having a God, and all those
kinds of things. Forgiveness, sin – I think those religions believe in the
original sin, and if you trust the God, you will gain absolution.

In the Mahayana, instead of believing in the original sin, you are

originally perfect, you are the Buddha. Remember the cup? Why do
you have confidence when you wash this cup? It’s really looking dirty,
so dirty – you want to throw away the cup! You know you can clean it,
the dirt is removable. The cup is you.

Let’s say it is clean. Neither clean nor unclean, it is just a cup. Clean and
not clean only came because there’s a stain of coffee in there, which has
nothing to do with the cup! When you bought it, it did not come with
the stain, nor did the potters make it with the stain of coffee. IT is not
one. This understanding is really important in connection with non-
duality because we’re talking about real compassion.

Let’s put it in a very Californian language okay? Having compassion

for others? It’s important, but having compassion for yourself is even
more important! And how do you do that? By having the confidence
of the Buddha nature. For instance, like a Bodhisattva – let’s say you
are one. Your job is to enlighten all these beings. As a Bodhisattva, you

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look at them – angry, greedy, stingy – all that. But how you look at
them is with the nature of unpolished gold, or nuggets – that’s what
you see. So it’s like you have all the raw materials here. When a gold
businessman looks at gold, they don’t even see the dust or other things
– they just see the gold and know it for what it is. Now you can do
something, and that is compassion.

It gives you courage. If you need to turn dirt into gold, it is a

guaranteed disappointment. You cannot. So that is quite important to
realise. Okay Badri, what is it? We’ll have this discussion and then we
will change – you don’t need to, you’ll go like that.

Question from a participant

A layperson’s. First of all, the conventional truth and the ultimate

truth are both within the conventional truth. In relation to the
darkness, you have to find the light. How should I put it…this is
a very big subject, can we discuss this later? Can you remind me?
Because this is quite important, especially if you’re studying Buddhist
philosophy. Because – a lot of the Buddha’s teachings, actually 99% of
them – he taught them, but he didn’t really mean it.

Do you get what I’m saying? Really, it is serious – I’m serious. It is like –
the Cinderella story. You want to put the baby to sleep, what do you do?
You tell stories. Your aim was to put someone to sleep. Skilful means. A
lot of Cinderella. The Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Vimalakirti
sutra – they are what he means.

Okay, if you ask me – what are these Cinderella teachings of

Buddhism? This is where he said, there’s good and bad. Don’t do
bad things. Do good things. Samsara, Nirvana – you don’t want to
go into there, you want to go into here.
All these are Cinderella teachings. Sunyata, non-duality – these are
not Cinderella.

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Actually, again, this is another Indian nuance. Very Indian. I read some
Jain teachings – they also teach like that. For instance, if you’re talking
to Stephen Hawking – even as he talks about the Big Bang, he doesn’t
differentiate things by saying, ultimately, I’m saying this. They don’t
talk like that. It’s all ultimate, basically, isn’t it? There’s only a few
relative teachings like the Cinderella stories. It’s all ultimate.

This is the Indian way of talking, by the way. They have two ways –
one, they mean it – the other, they don’t mean it. (Laughter) I’m
serious! The whole thing is like that! We know it! Have you heard of
the Pure Land school of Buddhism? Most of those teachings there –
they didn’t really mean it. When the Buddha says, Oh, once I was a
monkey in my previous life blah blah – all luring towards the ultimate
truth.

I guess we need to go now.

Concludes with Samantabhadra’s Prayer of Aspiration

TEAM SESSION AT THE BODHI TREE

So Veer insisted that this is not a spa – this is what, a wellness retreat?
Just a retreat? Okay. I must say, I sympathise with this. I have been
to several places that promise to rejuvenate the spirit, body mind
and emotions. I actually know a few people who run these things in
Thailand, Bali – but I have to say, this is quite special. I have said this
in different places too because I think, you have some kindness. That’s
the key. Kindness, to make people well, and sane, and sober.

Maybe many of you don’t know – there was a Buddhist master,

Atisha, coming from Bengal – now Bangladesh, actually. He was very
respected – he went to, and died in Tibet. The 12th century I think.
Every time he talks about his gurus, those in India, he would fold his

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palms like this every time he mentioned their names. But there is this
one guru – I think his name is Dharmakirti in Sanskrit, but I think
he’s called ‘Serlingpa’ in Tibetan, which means ‘the man from the
golden island’. Anyway, every time Atisha spoke of Dharmakirti, he
would fold his palms way over his head and cry. That’s what happened.

So one day, Dromtönpa – he was Atisha’s chief disciple – asked him,

you have so many gurus, but when you speak of this one, you fold your
palms like this – you make a big deal out of him. Why is that? Atisha
said – and he is considered to be very, very kind, and he put a lot of
emphasis on kindness and tolerance. He brought a Bengali friend who
was supposedly very annoying on his journey to Tibet, just to teach
himself patience and tolerance. He said, if you can trace even a little bit
of kindness in me, it is all because of Dharmakirti, because kindness is the
most important.

By the way, Dharmakirti is from Indonesia – and there’s a beautiful

story of how Atisha went to Indonesia by boat. The boat faced many
thunderstorms and a lot of difficulties, but he went all the way there
searching for Dharmakirti and learnt the lesson of kindness. Atisha
used to have headaches – and all the physicians couldn’t do much –
he used to ask Dromtönpa to touch him – wherever it didn’t matter
– because he said, you are a kind man. Dromtönpa also ended up
becoming very kind, I guess. Being touched by kindness will heal
me, he said, and it cures my headache. I’m telling you this because
you have so much kindness – within the staff, administration, all the
people who do the therapy – and that, I think, you should maintain
and somehow your Vanavasis will not forget this. They might forget
consciously, but unconsciously they will remember this.

We forget things because life has too many things like this – but during
their last breath, they will remember that they have been taken care
of with kindness. In my own experience, because I’ve travelled at lot

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during my teachings – I usually stay at people’s homes, but sometimes
I have to stay in inns, hotels – all kinds of places. I have to say, that
there are some places where people are so kind. I know this one bed
and breakfast in London, and even if I stay there, I just have to go and
experience the warmth and the kindness – they don’t have much, they
only serve breakfast. Really good breakfast. There’s this lady who’s
just so kind. I think this is something you already have. Individually,
collectively, you seem to have it and I would like to remind you
to maintain this. Touch people with kindness, open the door with
kindness, play the flute, sing songs, put on your uniform – everything
that you do, do with kindness.

You’ll be very surprised with how this get delivered and received.
Unconsciously, but many times, even consciously. Other than that, if
you have something to ask me, I’ll say it – whatever you want.

I guess – taking today’s example, we have always thought of

Vana as a place of healing and restoration but as importantly,
eventually, a place of transformation and learning. Now those
aspects of transformation and learning are getting stronger.
So sometimes, there could be a bit of a butting of heads
between the two. So, I’d just like to share that.

I don’t know how I should put it. Are you talking about things like
your creative activities, or going to places like Gaya? For learning?
Vidyaloke?

Also here. We don’t wish for Vana to become a place where

you come to feel only relaxed and safe, and maintain status
quo. We feel that our job is to also provoke and push you, and
make you evolve.

I think that’s happening, isn’t it? That’s a very big task, of course but
that’s part of the healing and wellness too. Evolving, and creativity

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is a very important part of wellness. I don’t even want to think of
wellness as just sitting on a sofa, and breathing normally, and having
no headache or whatever – that of course, but it is also confidence,
building confidence. That’s actually the main part of wellness. So
creating that situation, facilitating it through art, arrangement and so
on – all these things are happening here. Installations. Pujas. Making
a mess sometimes, cleaning stuff sometimes – all that will strengthen
you guys, definitely, but also vanavasis.

Even in Bhutan, they are finally waking up. Bhutan is this sort of a
tourist destination and now they’ve realized that tourists aren’t just
satisfied with pictures of the scenery, or fresh air and trees – they
want to be provoked! Cultural tourism, I think it is called. So I think
provoking, stirring, is a big part of Vana which is also quite special. It’s
not just a place to sleep and rest. I’m sure you guys are cooking up a
lot of things, isn’t it? (Laughter)

Rinpoche, last year, when Phra Paisal was here, he spoke

of constantly working on us – developing this culture of
excellence. And today you spoke about ‘ja’, about letting
things be – this could be in a chaotic way, or in other ways.
How can we, as individuals (collectively, we somehow do
it) develop our culture of excellence, our discipline, our
mindfulness and awareness in being of service to others?

This is a really difficult question. You know, you gave me that book.
Wabi sabi? That Japanese book – actually, that’s quite important and
precious. After all, what is excellence? Wabi sabi basically states that
things can be beautiful because they are temporal. Like these flowers
– they are plucked, separated, and we know it is not going to last for
long – maybe 24 hours at best, but it’s because of that it is beautiful.

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Wabi sabi is actually quite vast, I can’t really talk about this in five
minutes, and it’s really a big one. This actually came from Zen
Buddhist philosophy. The other aspect of it is beauty in imperfection.
Certain things are not perfect, but they still can be so beautiful –
the Japanese are quite good at that, as you can see. Extracting and
appreciating the beauty from temporariness and imperfection – I think
that could bring about some excellence. What do you think? But you
have to really appreciate this stuff. India is quite good at that, no? The
chaos.

Going with what Mr. Singh was saying – if one’s intention is

to benefit oneself, then it is quite different. But when it is to
do something to help others and for the benefit of others,
when we feel like there are certain imperfections that should
be directed – so how does one help that person, and so on?

I understand. You should treat Vanavasis like children. They’re so

precious, and to a certain extent we should let them be, but after a
point, you also have to guide them, isn’t it? A great educator – I forget
her name – she said it is so unfortunate that we have to educate children.
Educating is brainwashing, basically, and ideally you don’t want to do
that.

But this is the reality, and you have to pay bills and so on, and the
children can’t just be left alone all the time – you have to guide them.
Maybe, you should get some children here – some kids. Spoilt kids,
some of them. Many of them like the princess and the pea. Like
nothing satisfies them? You can cater to them to a certain extent, but
then you can have some sort of boundary, some toughness – which
they will appreciate, I think.

Rinpoche, you had mentioned that whatever we perceive

is actually a projection. I wanted to clarify something. You

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feel that there is no amount of reality to certain situations?
Suppose I have been treated badly by him, and day after day
we have these confrontations to resolve things, and every
time when I feel that way, I say I have to forgive him, I have to
accept things and so on. Is that a projection, or…?

It is a projection, but you need to manipulate things for the sake of

harmony. Of course. You know, it’s like telling a bedtime story to a kid
– we know that it’s not really happening, but we also know that that’s
the only way. So you still need to have some sort of guidelines and
leadership.

In our daily lives, to add value to each other and to promote

harmony and everything – we know we need to be more
disciplined, we know what our shortcomings are and so on –
we do it for a few days, and then we let go. We make excuses
for ourselves. How can we become more responsible towards
ourselves by having this discipline?

I think admitting and acknowledging a lack of discipline is already

a good beginning. I would not have anything more. Keep on
acknowledging, keep on admitting that you need to discipline yourself.
You don’t need to have extra discipline. That is also humility, and it is
needed to have kindness.

One of the things that always troubles me is that we get

to have so many teachings, from so many masters and
so on – but when it comes to practice, we can’t just get
out of the teaching hall and apply it. We find ourselves in
confrontational situations, with the world around us, and it is
a source of sorrow for so many of us. So I would like to know
if there is a way where we can bridge the gap between what
we receive as teachings, and how we act in general.

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That’s where the discipline comes in. I can suggest something. You
should allocate a certain time – not to narrow it for a particular
hour, something like – everyday, altogether, I will contemplate for
10 minutes. These can be divided into many parts. It can be in the
morning, for a few minutes, the afternoon, and before you sleep, for
a few minutes. Then, do this, don’t do it for too long. But it should
be consistent – after a month or two, it will become really boring.
Anything that is routine, you will lose inspiration in – but you have to
force yourself. Do it consistently, and you don’t have to do it for long
– I always give this example – if you have never drank alcohol, and you
force a bottle down for the first time, you will never want to see the
sight of it again.

But if you drink one spoon every day, after a few months, you’ll be
a very good drinker! Just like that! You have to be persistent and
consistent. That’s the best way. Most enjoyable, economical and most
effective. The spiritual path is actually the easiest, but because of its
easiness, it becomes very difficult. It is also very related to the mind.
When you’re going to the gym three times a week, after a while you
don’t want to – but there’s discipline you need.

But I would say, 7 minutes – at least three times a week, if not every
day. We’re talking about habituation. All the negativity you have, it is
basically a bundle of habit – and how did you get that? By doing it for
a little bit at a time – the same tactics apply here to overcome it.

Rinpoche, you talked of habit – how can I recognize if it is a

habit, or an attachment?

From the Buddhist point of view, they are very similar. Many habits
end up becoming an attachment. You can say habit is the cause, and
attachment is the result – they’re almost like fire and heat. They’re
kind of the same, but a little bit different too.

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So that means that I would need to be in a constant
discussion with myself?

Yeah, but instead of constant, I was saying 7 minutes – every day, for
three times a week. But everyday meaning, even it out during the
day. Morning, afternoon, and before you go to sleep. Short is very
important. Precise. And during that time, during that contemplation,
you will have some insights – wow, so that’s how it is. Don’t get excited
and do it for longer! You understand? That’s dangerous. Just do two
minutes, even if it’s very nice, do something else. Eat something, read
a book, talk to someone – whatever. Even if you’re dull, uninterested,
uninspired, don’t really want to do this – Do it!

You have to balance gentleness on one side and discipline on the other,
always. You should have the art of balancing the life – gentle, firm,
gentle firm and so on.

Many of us go through the conflict of being a professional

manager – or a people’s person – by which I mean we’re
taskmasters. We’re assigned to do a certain thing, which we
must accomplish. At certain times, it may be tough for the
team members and the people you are working with. But
the task is for a larger purpose and for the overall good.
Sometimes, they may not appreciate it – but by being more
precise and stern, and by driving them we may accomplish
the task, and in the process, the team themselves may
develop. What I mean to say is that, at heart, we have the
good of people, for whom we are responsible for. Also, for
the team members – but in order to drive them, we might not
be the most kind when we drive them, and when we express
ourselves. So how do we derive that balance?

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I don’t think it’s not being kind. You’re just being skillful. You’re being
strict, straight, you’re raising your voice a little bit – being firm – not
necessarily not being kind. Being kind is actually quite a visionary
thing. You’ve been talking about it you know? Because at the end, it
is going to be productive – for the team, and the individual. So that’s
quite a good vision. Yes, sometimes you are stressed because of time,
because of a certain situation.

I have to run monasteries you know? And yes, it’s a very tough task.
The situation there is, I cannot fire anyone! (Laughter) They’re stuck
with me forever! It’s terrible. Then also – no one can fire me too!
That’s terrible too! And you know what – I cannot even resign! It’s the
worst! I cannot resign – to which department do I send my resignation
letter? There’s no such thing.

Can I just remind everybody that you have 20 more minutes

with Rinpoche – I cannot believe that there’s a single person
in this room that does not have a question related to their
development, emotional development or their personal
situation. So please use these 20 minutes very preciously and
put forth whatever is in your mind. Please.

We all want to be very mindful and aware. And to be in the

flow, no matter how many distractions we have. There could
be 50 things in our mind, something that we may want to do.
So how do we make that a universal thing, how do we bring it
about?

I think kindness is a very important thing. You are exuding this.

I would only ask you to maintain that. That’s the key, that’s the
universal caring. Basically, your job is the sort that cares. You’re
basically making somebody well by spiritually, emotionally caring
for them. I think that caring can be demonstrated through all sorts

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of things – like even where you put the dustbins. Or, I don’t know,
whatever you do! I’m not talking about caring aesthetically (that also,
of course) but this is what I’m saying – subconsciously, people will
appreciate it. As I age, I realize this more.

Even when I went to Japan, for instance. If you go to a shopping mall

and you need to go to the washroom – basically, in any public place
like that, a toilet is just about 20 steps away. That’s so caring – that’s in
the design of the building. Stuff like that really makes a difference.

When I went to Taiwan, or the other day, in Delhi – I went there,

I had to meet somebody (Select Citywalk) A shopping circuit or
something. Whatever. I had to go to the washroom, and I had to go
here, and there, and the signs were bad, and finally I found it. There’s
no caring. They just want to sell things. They are not caring about your
bladder, I guess. (Laughter)

So, I think that kind of caring works – even if it is a fake one, it works.

Rinpoche, today’s times are very stressful. I believe

meditation really helps a person to overcome their stress.
But when a person sits to do it, there are so many thoughts
that keep coming. We try to concentrate on our breath, or
something – what according to you is the most important
thing when someone sits in meditation?

Well, as you said, just concentrating on your breath is very popular as a

technique, and it works. The breath that you breathe in and out is very
well connected to your thoughts. Buddhists believe that your body,
your nadis and your veins are like a maze, and your breath (prana) is
like a blind horse. Your mind is like the handicapped rider. It’s not
the best road – there’s no signs, it’s a maze, it’s very complicated.
The way we eat, we handle ourselves, no exercise, not sitting straight
and so on – the poor blind horse, just guessing its way through. The

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rider, handicapped, is just going wherever the horse goes – he is not in
control! You cannot reign it in.

So, coming back to breathing – sitting is good, if you have the chance.
Breathe in and out. When you breathe out, only breathe out. When
you breathe in, only breathe in. When you breathe out, only breathe
out. Don’t huff and puff halfway. That’s supposedly the technique. By
sitting the road is little bit straightened. And suddenly, the blind horse
has much better orientation, and the rider has an easier time.

Rinpoche, I feel that in today’s times, we have a lot of

conflicting thoughts. We want to get rich, and stay young
forever. But when it comes to kindness, we can only think of
charity and so on – so how can a person think of kindness in
other ways, for society? By doing a steady task and so on.

There, you might want to have slightly extra information. From time
to time, we get these opportunities that we must take – where else
can we have these kinds of discussions? About more inner stuff?
Emotional, spiritual stuff? That discussion is important. Banks,
restaurants, government offices, schools – the people, if they begin
their day with one moment of contemplation and if they end their day
with another moment – a discussion, even – it would help a lot, but
people don’t really think of these things.

There’s no need to do this every day too – maybe even once a week
would do. More discussions on spiritual stuff – most of the time
we’re always talking about the external. How much money we can
make, what brand of car we should buy and so on. But a very few
people talk about – is what I see really there? Stuff like projections,
no one wants to talk about. If the politicians talked like this in their
parliamentary discussions, just for one or two minutes, it may really

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help. Supposedly, dialogues are very important right, in the human
realm?

It doesn’t have to have a conclusion – there will never be one, and

that is not the point. And kindness – if you’re only talking about
what’s in front of you, things taken at face value, then kindness is the
most useless! The people of Wall Street will think that talking about
kindness and thinking about kindness is like – while the index is going
up and down, you’re wasting time! You better read the newspaper, you
better think about the index, right? Buy and sell, buy and sell!

The selfishness – when we are happy, we are being selfish.

Where does this selfishness - when we say selfish, we’re
referring to ourselves and when we say the community, the
kindness which we’re talking about, it conflicts with that part.
When we say we are happy, there’s a selfishness there when we
are doing kind acts, like charity and so on – it’s not like for
general happiness.

Very good. I understand. You can be selfless here, but you have to
train your mind. If the forest is on fire, you cannot save the tree,
you know? You need to protect the forest instead of protecting the
tree. We have to think of the long term, the whole. Even that, as you
say – in the end, it’s benefiting you. But that way, it’s a good benefit
because it’s not harming anybody, in the very least. Right now, if you
concentrate on one tree, you’ll harm the others, and eventually, you’ll
harm yourself. If you want to really talk about selflessness especially
from the Buddhist point of view, then we’re talking about another
level of philosophy, because the Buddhists think that the self is also a
projection.

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But I think on a more relative level – thinking big, being visionary is
very close to being selfless. This kind of strategy is accepted and should
be applied.

Sometimes, we come across a situation where we want to

speak the truth – but we don’t, because the other person
might not want to hear it. And sometimes, you know that it
will benefit that person eventually. So how does one approach
such a person who does not want to hear the truth?

I guess this is a case-by-case scenario. Many a times, you should just

say it. For other times, depending on the situation – you can say it
in a different way, you can ask someone else to say it for you, you
can wait until that person is in a better state so that he can listen
and hear, but I understand. Sometimes you have to say things within
these two minutes, and you know, you have a deadline – and it can
be difficult. You don’t have to micro-manage too much. Come back
to the kindness, come back to being the visionary, the bigger picture,
the group. If what you’re saying these things out of kindness, then
subconsciously, the other person will also not really mind, at the end.
We experience these kinds of things, and many a time, we have to
put things directly – this may not be soothing to hear, but you kind of
respect and love them – and then they don’t mind that.

If it is for a long time, then I tend to keep things to myself.

Then it maybe not so good. Then, you should find a way. All sorts of
gestures exist too – bring a flower and say it. This is actually described
in the Buddhist texts – a flower, glass of water – whatever. Make fun?

Q: Normally it says that you should be happy but that

happiness should not have a reason because you should not
depend on reason in your life – so how can we achieve that
kind of happiness?

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You can have reasons to be happy, but sometimes, you can be happy
seemingly without reason. Right? I think, you’re talking about
contentment. When people are content, they seem to be happy no
matter what. So, you don’t necessarily need a specific reason to be
happy, and that’s probably what you’re talking about. That’s a very
important aspect of the Bodhisattva path. Contentment in everything.
I think that’s a good lesson to learn. For instance, when you’re going
to bed – you should celebrate that you have lived this long. Wow, I’ve
actually managed to go through the whole day – because that actually
could not have happened. You could have been killed by a falling
branch or something. You understand? Anything. Celebration – that’s
needed. Then, according to the classic Buddhist thought – thinking
about the impermanence of life.

When you say good night, or good bye, or how are you to your friend,
maybe sometime bring in this awareness – that this is it! This may
be my last time saying good night, or good bye, or how are you. That
brings in preciousness, and this kind of exercise develops contentment.
It’s a bit like – maybe you have a friend that has a sickness which
guarantees that they will only live 6 months. Let’s say you’re a very
fussy person – who cares about whether the room is clean and so on –
but knowing that this person is here on Earth for only 6 months, you
are not going to make a big deal out of it! That kind of thing.

Q: I have a question – you said caring, even if it is superficial,

makes a difference. So I wanted to understand that.

Ideally, you should be genuine, of course. But when it comes to the

superficial – now this is Buddhist training, I’m not making this up:
but even a superficial caring can lead to genuine caring. There are a
lot of techniques like that – some people who suffer from a lack of
confidence, there is an exercise that tells them to think and talk like
kings or queens in their privacy. Then, if you’re very stingy – this is

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by Shantideva by the way – a Gujarati man, and this is advice from
Gujarat – he says you should exercise by giving things from one hand
to the other. Then, begin to give things like water to other people –
that are not too expensive and so on. Once that habituation becomes
perfect, you will not even think twice if someone’s asking for your
neck! You’ll say please, have it. The strength of habit – good and bad –
is great.

Thank you so much for caring for me, personally, every one of you.
I’m very happy to be here.

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Day 3 | 14th March, 2017
MORNING SESSION

You can say this is one of the most important things. If you’re a serious
Buddhist student, you learn something called ‘pramana’ which is
Buddhist logic – these are simply tools. There, you find all the tools
to be critical – critical to the teacher, critical to the teaching, all
kinds of things. The purpose is to excel, basically. The real reason,
the real purpose of Buddhist logic is to defeat the logic by logic. But
this doesn’t happen all the time, it is difficult. You always fall prey to
the trap of logic. Logic is very convincing. Conviction is a very big
defilement; you know? Once you get convinced, you will not have the
courage to leap. But anyway, this is something that we study – not
everybody. Just those who really wish to study.

Here and there, though, you will have a glimpse of this logic – if
you try to study it. There’s another subject called the Abhidharma.
Very important, that one, I would say. There you study things like
mental factors – you can almost say it’s like the metaphysics and
the psychology of Buddhism. There you study definitions. It’s very
interesting, I have to say, Buddhist metaphysics. For instance, when
we talk about negative emotion, we hardly think doubt would we a
negative emotion. Not in the normal situation. But in the Abhidharma,
doubt is a very important emotion. It is one of the vicious ones. There
are quite a lot of interesting things, and deconstructions there. I mean,
Burma, Sri Lanka – the guys over there put so much emphasis on that.
You know those biochemists (those who study fungus and so on), and
microbiologists assisting me – and there’s one of them I know, who is
so trained in that science that she sees bacteria everywhere! Even in
places like Canada she buys so much toilet paper and so on – I don’t
know what she will do if she comes to places like India, or Burma. But
this Abhidharma is like that – people who study it then begin to relate

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to things like the hand not being one single unit. It’s skin, bone, blood
– things that will disintegrate.

There are also a lot of mental factors. Remember, one night we

talked about death and Bardo? Those who practice that, also relate
it to metaphysics. We also study projection, which we talked about
in Delhi. The 6 realms? Remember the 6 realms? The 6 realms are
basically a projection. So you could be godly at the moment. You could
be in heaven right now, but after lunch you might be an animal. As in
dull, like that. That’s one study.

Then, there another study called Vinaya. That’s for those who want
to take the path of the Bhikshu, the renunciant. They study this, but
it’s actually really interesting. Lawyers would really enjoy this. What
is the concept of Buddhist ethics and morality? In Buddhism, ethics
and morality are always secondary – the wisdom is what is more
important, always above – because if you have morality and ethics
without wisdom, then it causes constipation. Puritanical thoughts.
You understand? You’ll think oh, I’m a vegetarian – you eat donkey’s
meat! Things like that, there’s prejudice. In Buddhism, hence, they are
always secondary.

So it doesn’t make sense when people say oh you must be a Buddhist,

you don’t eat meat – then I don’t understand! Oh you must be Buddhist,
you’re not that violent! Well, okay, but there’s a lot of room for
interpretation for this one.

Anyway, the study of Vinaya is actually very interesting. Just to give

you an example, you know, to entertain you. First of all, the Buddhist
ethic is based so much on motivation! Action is secondary, you know.
Truth, primary – ethics, secondary. So when we talk about ethics –
motivation is more important than the action. So, you can only judge
yourself – unless someone is omniscient, they can never really know

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what motivations the others have! You are your judge – the Buddha
hence said you are your own master, who else can be your master and so on
and so forth.

So let’s say an ordained monk – a monk’s (bhikshu) vow dictates that

if he does one of these four things, it will destroy his position as a
monk. His vow is broken. One of them is killing a human being. So
let’s say, I want to kill this person and I have a knife in my hand. My
motivation is to kill some person, and I’m going at him with the knife,
but I end up killing some other person. Still a monk! Of course you’ve
done a lot of bad things – you’ve killed someone – but the action is
not yet complete.

Another one is a monk, holding a knife – stabbed the right person,

okay? But it could also happen that the monk dies before that person!
He will die as a monk. He hasn’t broken his vow yet because the life of
the other has to discontinue to complete the definition, to qualify it as
killing.

The Vinaya is a very big study. The root text itself has 18 volumes. I
didn’t study it because, only the fully ordained people get this. We
have to study it a little bit regardless. But I always thought, Oh, the
Indians are talking like this 2500 years ago. This is so sophisticated.

Let’s say the killer is a little bit crazy – this is also not counted as a
broken vow. I was talking about this with my lawyer friends, they’re
very fascinated by it.

So these three – Buddhist logic, metaphysics and the code of

conduct are the supplementary studies. The most important studies
are actually the prajnapramita and the Madhyamika. The prajnaparamita
is the heart, and you’ve been reading it every day – so I wanted to
tell you what it is.

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If I may share a glimpse about the contents of the heart sutra: As I said
yesterday, it was a very important summit, and it is a very important
subject. A conference, about how to solve the problems of the world
– of course, always. Then, the root of the cause of suffering is clinging
to the self. What is the self? The self is only a label. A label given to the
five aggregates. This is why no form, no feeling, thought or choice – there
are so many different translations. Whose translation is this? I see.
Basically, the five aggregates – no form, feeling, karmic consciousness,
and whatever is left.

The five aggregates are the base from which we label ‘me’. We then
deconstruct individually – what is form? The eyes. Then, we say
no eyes. The form also we deconstruct. This is really in depth. It’s
actually quite a difficult subject. Let’s say – well, I’m borrowing from
Chandrakirti. Chandarkirti used a chariot, but I’m going to use this
table.

Well, the table is a label. It has four legs, a flat surface and the fact
that I put some things together, suddenly, out of nowhere, I’ve made
a ‘table’. You understand? If my butt is here – then it would be like
he’s sitting on a strange chair! Suddenly, the same thing has become a
chair. The label that you give to anything is just a label. Then you can
declare other things. This is not a table, nor is this a table. The colour,
the shape and all those things are not a table, nor are the components.
This is how we deconstruct, and you will find that there is no
inherently existing thing called a table.

Just like that, our so-called self, ‘me’, that we cherish so much is
exactly like this. Of course, you will not hear this so comfortably –
because of habit! If somebody steps on your toe, you’re startled. The
toe is not you! You also have fingers – isn’t that you? Your nose? It’s
all very arbitrary. Your self is very arbitrary, and flexible. But very

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strong too! This is just a glimpse of an introduction to the heart sutra’s
approach.

Let us now actually begin by just sitting. This time sitting straight. I
am going to apply a little bit of the traditional method. Not for too
long, just for 2-3 minutes. Traditional means – I am going to give
you some discipline. And discipline, remember, is only a tool. It’s
necessary. There are two-three things that you are allowed to do – you
can blink your eyes, swallow your saliva, breathe. Other than that, for
that period, no scratching, yawning, coughing – nothing. No sitting on
your hands suddenly and so on. When you feel like coughing, clearing
your throat – instead of doing that, just watch the feeling. If nothing
is happening, just pick something – for instance, if you’re wearing
spectacles and earrings, just notice that. Have you been doing that?
Perhaps not. Or hardness of the softness of the ground, the space
touching your skin, your face – just be in the present. You may cough
or yawn now. (Laughter) Okay? And, this time, since we’re trying to be
strict, we will do three minutes of this. And please, try to completely
be in the present. If you have a headache too, just watch it. If you have
nothing too, just know that. Let’s start.

Okay, thank you. Just three minutes. I would highly recommend you
to do this, as much as you can. Three times a week, or even every day
is good. During that time, those 3 minutes, if a phone rings, don’t
attempt to switch it off, let it ring. If you suddenly think something is
boiling in the kitchen, don’t attempt to go there, just let it be. Keep
on doing this. If you do it every day, I would say, in one year – let’s say
you’re this kind of person who irons your underwear. You know? In
about one year, you will not iron it. That’s a little bit of enlightenment,
I tell you! Maybe after 9 years, you may not even wash it – maybe
that’s not such a good idea! (Laughter) It’s not good inspiration either.

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But someone was asking me, what is enlightenment. Enlightenment
is basically when you’re free from – nirvana is basically freedom
from obsession. When you are obsessed, when you are not worked
up. Remember wabi sabi? When you see beauty in imperfections,
when you see beauty in temporary stuff. Indians are quite good at
seeing beauty in imperfections, but they’re not so good at seeing it in
temporary stuff. What do you think? It’s something to analyze.

Okay now, next just do a few seconds of being in the present. No need
to sit, no specific posture – just be aware. Yes that’s it, good. Now,
let’s just see things. Maybe seeing is better – no need to look, just see.
Colors, shapes. Okay, now back to the mind again. Just observe what
your mind is thinking, at this very moment. Good enough. Have you
done it? Let’s try again. Whatever you’re thinking or not thinking,
doesn’t matter. Yes, that’s it. Very good.

Okay, now we’ve had so much beautiful music – now I’m going to play
something strange. Just hear it. No need to like it, or anything.

Music plays

Whatever you’ve been thinking. Just observe it. I was thinking it would
be nice if someone came out with Listerine made out of cinnamon and
cloves. Just that. Okay, you can ask some questions. You should really
consider this as a Samadhi – this is all in the sutras and the shastras.
My job is to protect the buddha-dharma – to prevent it from going
astray. Sometimes, the nuances of language, culture and so on always
go on hijacking this. Then, you hear the word meditation – you think
it’s to do with sitting down, having a quiet time and so on, which is
really very sad, because you may not have that kind of quiet time. You
will not sit, I know. But it’s not like this, I’m not making this up – the
culture of this is dangerously overtaking the dharma, especially now
that the spa people are interested. The spa people are not interested

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in the dharma, the spa people are not interested in the heart sutra –
nothing to sell, you know? Doesn’t make them feel good. So please
ask. Is this about relative truth? No? Okay.

Yes, I think we talked about this a little bit. Was it here? You know, I’ve
been teaching at so many places, I can’t remember what I’ve taught
where! I think we covered a little bit of this – being in the present is
generosity. Not grasping is generosity? What does it say? Not clinging?
Okay, not grasping. When you are in the present, where is the
grasping? Only when you are day-dreaming, there is grasping. When
you think about the past and the future there is immediate grasping.
Every time you go to the past and the future, you are like water. The
moment it falls on the ground – mixes with the dust. When you are
in the present, you are like mercury – mix it with shit for a thousand
years, it will not mix. You will remain as you were, pure.

The next one? Can you read that again? It’s interesting. Not remaining
meaning – I actually like that word, remaining, I think this is a good
translation. Not remaining means – usually, discipline and morality
always has this connotation of needing to keep something. Needing to
keep something as precious. When you are in the present you are not
keeping anything. IT is actually the most important letting go. When
you let go, it becomes the core lesson of morality and ethics. What’s
next?

Guarding. Not losing control. No aggression. I think that should be

easy to understand, and then? Diligence. Okay, yes, in the present,
what are you trying? Another translation I would suggest is, joy is
diligence. When you are in the present, you are joyful. Okay? Yeah, that
one – thinking – it’s a little bit dangerous. It’s a correct translation,
but it is a little bit difficult. We need to be careful here. People who are
in a coma are not necessarily doing any samadhi. They’re not thinking

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– one needs to be careful here. Basically not going to the past and the
future is samadhi, and then?

Ah ha. That’s a good one. Saraha, remember? The arrow? Not

grasping. Anyway, what’s your next question?

Question from a participant

Very practically – being non-distracted is the effort. That is the real

diligence, isn’t it? But to get there, all the other effort is not rejected.
I’ve got an idea. Maybe it’s good to have in the future – to have a show
on one of these masters.

Like Shakya Shri. Let me tell you about Shakya Shri. A great master.
Not too long ago, by the way – only a 100 years ago. My grandfather’s
teacher basically. He went to Tibet – I mean, he went from east
Tibet to central Tibet, and there is a statue of guru Rinpoche
(Padmasambhava). It’s supposedly very precious. He went there with
his wife, his children and his disciples. In the presence of this statue,
he told his children and wife and disciples – okay, this statue is just
like Guru Rinpoche – no difference at all, if you believe it. In the
presence of this statue, you must now take a pledge. Whatever you
can do. Some will do 100000 prostrations, some of you will chant
these mantras and so on. All his disciples did it one after another, with
him bearing witness. At the end, when it was his own turn – he had
a rosary in his hand with which he chanted mantras. So he faced the
statue and said, till today I thought chanting and praying is the thing
to do and I realized that this is my hang-up. Today I will pledge that I
will not do one more prayer, or utter one more mantra. He then took the
rosary and threw it at the statue. This is a very important teaching.

He was a very important man. My grandfather – my mother’s

father, by the way – he walked all the way from Bhutan to east Tibet
in search of him. For 4 years, he never received a single word of

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teaching. My grandfather was quite a handyman with his knives and
other such. Many Bhutanese are like that. He was always asked to do
things. Finally, the Shakya Shri gave him a bone – the leftover bone
after eating meat – as a gift. He boiled this for many days and drank
the soup of the bone. Anyway, he received the teaching that actually
traces back to Naropa, the Bengali man. But being a handyman never
stopped him. Shakya Shri decided to renovate the Baudha stupa in
Nepal, so my grandfather ended up being the foreman of this activity.
My grandfather was also kind of close to the second king of Bhutan.
The king of Bhutan contributed, sponsored the renovation. So my
grandfather waked from Kathmandu to Thimphu – Bhutan, you know?
I think several times! A month’s walk, each time – that’s a long walk,
isn’t it? The effort of these people sounds like fairy tales now. When I
was 13, I went with my grandfather to Nepal – he used to remember a
lot of things that had been – trees and so on. Things changed a lot for
him.

Anything else?

This quotation is everywhere, in many sutras it is like that.

Have you ever been offended?

Offended? Well not so much during the teachings or something –

but I can give you a list of my annoyances. (Laughter) Yes. Requests
for endless photos together – especially with the Tibetans and the
Chinese. This way, that way, in group, single, with me holding this – all
kinds of things! That, I get tired of, I say enough.

Ah yes, when Barcelona and Real Madrid is playing: even if you ask me
if I want water, or juice – I’d say what are you talking about?! Don’t tell
me all these things! Interruptions during a football match. But yeah,
Veer was there. The last time, in Brazil actually. I had the opportunity
to watch it on the field. It was a really big match actually – France vs.

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something. I had a really good seat, and as part of the arrangement –
they have restaurants, isn’t it? Like free of charge, everything. They
serve drinks and so on. I was very thirsty, so they offered this really
nice looking, full of ice, lemons, some green stuff in this – what is it
called? Cachaça? Caipirinha, yes! That’s what. I drank that completely!
(Laughter – it’s hard liquor) For thirty minutes, I could only hear
random things! I was a little angry at myself also, for drinking that – I
missed half the game, even though I was sitting right there.

Stuff like that. Small, stupid reasons, endling up becoming a big deal, I
guess.

Question from another participant

Oh many. Sitting straight, all the things that we did. Hearing sounds,
chopping onions and so on. Motivation? Okay, you say I’m going to
chop an onion but this time I’m going to do it with present-ness. This
is the means. A means – one has to make it into means. This is why in
the tantra, there is nothing that cannot be a means.

Question from another participant

A very important question, this one. First of all, the dosage. The
dosage of wisdom and skillful means. How much do you have?
Wisdom? If you have quite a good amount, then you should push it a
little bit more. Let me illustrate this. If you have less, or no wisdom,
but a little bit of knowledge as concerns the method, then let’s say
you are dealing with annoying people, then remember the fake smile.
In the worst case, avoid the situation. Because of your training, if you
have more wisdom, then involve yourself! Argue. Maybe I shouldn’t
say this, but if necessary, beat the person! Really, this is tantra we’re
talking about. The amount of wisdom you have should give you the
confidence to apply skillful means. I think parents usually demonstrate
this very well.

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I know many people who are really stern and serious. When
they become parents, and play with their kids, they become kids
themselves. They have to! They have to be skillful. They have to build
sand-castles. They have the knowledge that this is not true, so they
have the confidence to play more with it. If you as a parent think the
sand castle is probably a real thing, then you are in trouble. Then the
kids will overpower you.

Question from another participant

Yeah, that’s why motivation is needed. I know we’ve been talking

about the present moment, or wisdom a lot – but for the beginners,
motivation is quite important. Try to have a good motivation as you
begin. Then even if you get lost in the planning and the scheduling and
all that, because it has begun with a good motivation, it has a greater
chance to go to the right direction. That’s why the bodhichitta practice
is very much encouraged.

Is that what you’re talking about?

Question from another participant

Yeah, for the time being, it is going to be difficult. Benefitting oneself

is a very powerful habit. With enough training, you slowly begin to
appreciate and cherish others more. And then one day, you will realize
that the only thing that makes you happy is making others happy.
Then you’re becoming quite a seasoned Bodhisattva, there are a lot of
people like that.

Question from another participant

Ah, okay. You have opened up a very big question. That’s related
to what we did one evening – the Bardo state. This is big. What do
you have? You have head, feet, body, family, you have feeling, you
have references, names, a job – but out of all that, what is the most

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important? The mind – that’s what Buddhists think. Now if you try to
see what the mind is – that’s actually the core practice of Buddhism.
The essence of the mind is supposedly Buddha, according to the
Buddhists. Shakyamuni, who was born in Kapilavastu, who went to
Gaya and so on – he’s symbolic, historical. Very precious, very good.
But the real one, is your own nature of the mind, which you have, I
have – okay? Everyone has it.

But for you and I, the full function of this Buddha nature is not
happening because of so many filters. Many things, like name,
culture, education, body. And even more than that, eyes, ears, nose,
tongue. Let’s say I’m thinking about cloves – the taste of cloves.
That’s my mind thinking, but I’m borrowing the tongue. So there are
interpreters – the middle man, the tongue is doing it’s job too.

When you die – not because you’re such a great practitioner – the
force of nature will bring about the decline of these interpreters, these
middlemen. So you are forced to face reality in the naked state of
mind. Especially in Tantric Buddhism, there is the Tibetan Book of the
Dead – this is actually my job. I go to these places in Bhutan and Tibet
– hospitals, where people die and then I have to sit in front of them,
and I have to tell them – Okay, you are dying. But we all have to die,
not just you – don’t think that it is unfair and so on. We begin like this.
Then we say, as a husband, as a wife, as a father and as a mother, you have
done a great job. This is it! Now don’t think about it too much. Relax. We
have this talk. We tell them not to think of their possessions, and stuff
like that.

Ideally, a master, or a monk, or a yogi will sit through this, look at

the dying person and say your elements are now dissolving. We also do
it in front of healthy people, that’s what we did the night before. It is
also not wrong to do that because you are dying anyway. You can say
things like – you can confess, and expose all the bad things that you

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have done. Don’t keep it in. We call it the shapa – which is to expose
it. Exposing is forgiveness – it is not really a Buddhist thing – more
appropriate is to understand, and so on. You can expose it mentally.
We say things like you’re getting close to the Buddha mind, grab it, take it,
don’t go astray. Things like that.

Question from another participant

This is very difficult, because you and I will always use the middleman
to talk about it. I am using my mouth, you are using your ear. But, like,
what we have been doing – one day, through your merit, through your
wisdom, a shift happens and you will know that this is it. But you will
never be able to speak. This is what the doha of the tantra says – you
will be like a dumb mute, eating a sweet – you know what it is, but
you cannot really say it. Inexpressible, basically. This is not an excuse,
by the way.

Let’s take a break.

Being well, I think is important. It has obviously many different

meanings. I don’t need to explain at length that being mentally well
is utmost important – I’m sure all of you know that. If you’re not
mentally well, and I don’t mean, not being crazy, nuts or a romantic
and all that. That could be included too, why not? Just, being well,
drinking a cup of tea and really drinking that – really being able to
drink that cup of tea, and not getting caught up will all kinds of other
things. That’s a wealth. The Tibetan word for yogi, is rnal ‘byor. This
is quite a beautiful translation, I’ve always thought – ‘byor means
‘wealth’. Prosperity. ‘rnal’ means normal, genuine, as it is, present,
unaltered, unfabricated, fresh, uninhabited and therefore elegant, and
also, while being elegant, never losing the aspect of outrageousness.
That wealth of being in the present, of being in the present moment is

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key to wellness. And more than ever, we should pay attention to that
wellness, because that is the key.

Actually, it is easier than being well physically. Physically being well

is a little difficult, you know? You have to breathe this air – who
knows what somebody next to you might be doing to it, you know?
(Laughter) We never know. You cannot really control it. You have to
wear things, you have to travel. You can’t travel completely padded, in
a secure situation all the time, because you’ll lose your fun. Being able
to mentally be well is easier. You just have to get used to this, you need
to have the consistency, and the joy to develop that kind of wellness.

The world does not contemplate enough, especially contemplate on

this moment. We contemplate too much on the future. Even when
we talk about visionary – you hear these talks about being a leader,
management, being a visionary. Usually, a visionary is someone who
is always thinking about the future isn’t it, in reference to the past,
which is fine. But, along with that, I think you become much more
visionary if you can really collect this wealth of wellness by being in
this moment. As I said, when you are drinking a cup of tea, just drink
that. When you’re brushing your teeth, just do that.

Since I’m a Buddhist, as by ow you must have guessed (Laughter) I

can’t help but talk about Buddhism because this is all I know anyway.
The Buddhist teachings can be summarized through three statements:
Try not to do harmful things to yourself and to others. On top of
that, if you want to do more – try to do good things to yourself, and
to others. That’s the second one. But good and bad are very relative.
We never know, if you meet a martian, you’ll have to beat him up as a
greeting. If you don’t, they may be annoyed. So we don’t know good
and bad. Fundamentally, the last statement of the Buddha is know your
mind and tame it because it is all essentialized into knowing your mind.
Books, teachers, symbols, chants, prayers, the environment, all can

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help. But the main tools and techniques to know your mind is just
using what the mind does the best – knowing. That’s what the mind
does, the mind knows. We spend so much time knowing other things,
the environment, the politics and so on. Why not know the mind?

Knowing the mind is nothing like you think – something exotic,

supernatural, colorful, no not at all! You have to have a mind, don’t
you? You’re not a piece of stone, are you? Your mind must be, at the
moment thinking of something, not thinking of something, not being
conscious of something – I don’t know, whatever it does. Just, simply,
know that, for a few moments, that is equivalent to the study of many
academic years – it’s just that. It’s nothing exotic, nothing religious,
nothing dogmatic, nothing moral or ethical, just – even if you’re
thinking of something hideous, and something bad – we don’t know
that’s what we’re thinking, and you get entangled in that, and that’s
when you get into trouble.

Even when you think of something hideous, I’m not saying we should
stop it or something. Just know that this is what you were thinking.
Just simply knowing when you’re thinking something bad will change
the way you think about these things. You may still breathe hard, you
may be shaking your hands, shouting, yelling – but – the definition,
the function of the so-called hideous mind will change. I can’t think of
a really wholesome example, I have something really crude. But this is
the only example that I can think of at the moment.

Let’s say that you are peeing. Okay? Suddenly, somebody looks at you
from the front! What do you do? You’re still peeing, but there’s a
different definition now. A whole new approach to your peeing now!
(Laughter) For instance, while you’re peeing, and your cat walk in.
Doesn’t matter, does it? It doesn’t know that you’re peeing, and all
that paraphernalia. But if your master walks in, then you’re in trouble!
Then you will forget a lot of things.

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This is what knowing does. The moment you know what you are
thinking – when you are not knowing but only thinking, that’s like
peeing. The moment you know, there is knowing – I didn’t say you
should stop peeing – but the way it will be manifested will be different.
That is the key to wellness. A healthy mind, a well mind is confident.
That’s also compassion, kindness, forgiveness, that’s a broad mind,
that’s visionary. That endeavour of knowing and taming the mind – the
third statement of the Buddha – is something that we should pay some
attention to.

Other than that, I have nothing much to say – if you have any
questions, then I can answer them.

Q: Talking about the mind – in Buddhism it is said that the

mind is beginning-less and endless. I really find it difficult
when this topic is really being discussed. In some places it
is mentioned that we can’t really take the mind back (the
expression is beginning-less) so logically this doesn’t seem to
make sense.

Okay, remember we talked about this is Bir – I was joking but not
really joking? (Laughter) It’s unfortunate that the finding of time being
relative truth, that time is relative – modern people have attributed
this to Einstein. You Indian people should really protest this. Long
before Einstein, Shakyamuni Buddha taught that time is relative, it
doesn’t exist. For a follower of the Buddha, beginning, end, genesis,
Armageddon – all! The concept all, what does it mean?

All doesn’t really have a meaning. It could be 1, it could be 10, it

could be 2, or 100,100 – all, infinite. Very. Beginning. End. Stuff like
that – if you really want a practical answer, the beginning is now and
the end is now. Together. Yeah, so – this is why, in Buddhist doctrine,
the concept of evolution and genesis – long, long ago, this is what had

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happened is not that important. IF you insist, relatively, they will say
things like Shakyamuni came 2500 years ago. And that actually is so
pertinent a habit of Indians.

Indians are really aren’t so good with jotting down the manufacturing
date. The Mahabharata, always long, long ago. They’re not like the
Egyptians or the Chinese that carve, or write everything down. This
is how Indians like Nagarjuna think. The Egyptians, they carve – we
don’t carve. But really, who knows whether to trust one or the other.
Because the mind of whoever is carving, who knows what state he or
she is in, probably drinking too much grape juice! So she could be
carving something wrong, so you are stuck with that. At least this kind
of long, long ago you can’t really go wrong! (Laughter)

That’s how it used to be. Not so much anymore. I grew up learning

everything by heart. Our masters, they used to scold us for leaving it
on paper – we were not supposed to make notes! If you make notes,
it’s like a manifestation of laziness. They say that if you make notes,
you already mentally say I’ll do it later. You have to know everything by
now. The tradition of the master speaking and the student listening,
one at a time – that also backfired massively – nowadays, there’s really
know clarity. Sharvaka people say one day, theravadans say something,
the Mahayana people say something else. If you hear the tantric
people, oh my god, they say completely different things!

But that never was an issue, until Buddhism became the subject of
study in places like Oxford. Oxford people, they really want a date,
a proof. I’m always arguing with these academics. You know the
scientists they always say they need proof. The Buddhist argument is,
proof means you are talking about the knower of the proof. Meaning
that it is subjective, and it really doesn’t work. This is one example.
You give two pieces of a stick to a Chinese person and they will use it
as a chopstick. You give it to some remote Bhutanese village, they will

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use it as kindling, to make fire. Never even think of it as a chopstick!
And I’m sure the English, in the 1800s, they would be offended if they
had two sticks instead of all those weapon like cutlery pieces – spoons
and stuff like that. But that’s how it is.

Q: Rinpoche, we’ve been speaking of the wellness of the

mind. I’m curious about the unwell mind. The mind which
you’ve mentioned in the morning as being a little crazy, or
sometimes being a little lunatic. I’m curious on the take on
that.

Very important, this question, I would say because in the process of

talking about wellness, we forgot to talk about the unwell mind. I can
only give you a Buddhist answer, again. The Buddhist answer for the
unwell mind is the mind that is distant from the truth. So let’s say
you’re going to a shopping mall and you buy things as if you’re going
to live another 1000 years. That’s a little bit of an unwell mind. Let’s
say you are making schedules. Okay, 2019 let’s meet in St. Petersburg,
so and so date! Little bit of an unwell mind.

The Buddhist answer is this. Should you do it? Yes, make schedules
until like, I don’t know, 2050! But always keep in mind that these
things may not happen. Maybe tonight may not happen, I may not go
to the room. This is the last time I may see trees. Look, this is it – you
better look at the trees now! That is getting closer to the truth. So the
Buddhist concept of the unwell mind depends on how close, or how
far you are from the truth.

So who decides what’s the truth?

Again, primarily, you have to use your own hearing, contemplation and
analysis. To have a tool to help you with that, you have the dharma and
the teachings. They are all there in that, to provoke you. To really argue

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and deconstruct your decisions. That’s your study of the Madhyamika
and all that. I mean that’s an important question.

So there are two ways. One way is through hearing the truth, that
way you can decide what the truth is. What we call hearing and
contemplation. The more important is samadhi – meditation. These
three – hearing, contemplation and meditation are like the tools in
Buddhism. Amongst themselves, there is a challenge – the hearing
people and the contemplators, they get so entangled within that, that
they never manage to go into samadhi. Sometimes that happens.

Sometimes, some people go immediately into samadhi and they don’t

do enough hearing and contemplation which is also dangerous because
suddenly, after years and years of meditation, you might still feel like
something’s wrong – it can be something so small, like a long-lasting
pimple on your bottom, or something – then your meditation isn’t
working! That’s when you need contemplation and hearing. These
three you need.

Q: Rinpoche, this was a question from yesterday’s group. The

question was, if there is no soul – an ever, eternal soul – then
what stays and what goes through the Bardo state? What
transmigrates?

Hahahah. Okay. The soul is a new term for Buddhists. This is very
technical, again. The Buddhists believe in an imaginary continuity.
Again, you have to pay attention to words like imaginary. Forget about
the next life, and after death – between yesterday and today, are you
the same person? You can’t really say that you’re the same, or you can’t
really say different. Let’s say you committed a crime yesterday. Today,
this different being is going to prison! That’s unfair, you understand.
If you say you’re the same, then no need to change, you know? Don’t
eat, for instance. You never go hungry, you know? But then there is

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an imaginary continuity. That’s all there is. That’s what the Buddhists
would say.

Just like yesterday and today, today and tomorrow – the past life, this
life and the next life – these are all imaginary. When I say the word
imaginary, I’m sure most of you think that it’s not a big deal. No,
it’s a very big deal. Nightmares are a big deal, you know? This is an
important question, I want to elaborate on this a little bit. You must
have heard words like nirvana. Samsara? This is how it is.

You are sleeping here right now. On a comfortable bed, a cushion–

nothing is happening. You’re just sleeping. Then you’re having a
nightmare. A spider biting you. Before you sleep, there is no spider
waiting outside. During your nightmare, there is no spider biting you.
After you wake up, it’s not like there’s a spider that went out of the
window. You got that?

But during the nightmare, you go through all the panic. All the anxiety
and you cry, and whatever. This is samsara. Nirvana is a name given to
a relief. Let’s say your friend sees you, that something is wrong and he
sees your state, and gets you awake by throwing a bucket of water on
you. Your guru, okay? Your guru. You wake up. Then, there’s a sense
of relief from that nightmare, that’s nirvana.

The most important thing that you need to know is that both are
fake. The spider is fake, remember? If the spider is fake, how can the
absence of a spider be real? So nirvana is also fake. So what is really,
what are we really trying to achieve? What is the real nirvana? Let’s
call it the real nirvana? The bed. The cushion. That’s what you need to
actualize. So samsara and nirvana are really a game that you play – now
you have to finish it, if you want. If you’re bothered by spiders that is,
and I would say you are. That’s what is the samsara-nirvana concept of
Buddhism. It’s all about basically shifting knowing – knowing the truth.

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In the middle of the dream – that the spider is just a dream, you will
not panic. That state is called the ‘yogi’ state. It is not real, but you
still haven’t woken up yet. Which just means that you still under the
conditions. We want you to wake up completely – parinirvana they call
it. So no spider in the beginning, in the middle, no absence of it later–
therefore no relief of the spider. This is what you need to know.

Q: This was a question from a group earlier. We spoke quite

a lot about – sort of an adult concept – what can we do to
prepare our children for this path, and also guard their naked
mind that they are brought into this world with?

The second part I didn’t hear.

So when children come into this world, we all recognize that

they are untainted, and with time, they become tainted – for
want of a better word. So what can we as parents or people
working with children do to prepare them or guard them?

Actually, I’m not so good at this, but I’ve been contemplating about
this recently. Actually, we teachers, we teachers, parents – I think we
just need to have that acceptance that we are brainwashing them. You
understand what I mean? That’s the fundamental thing – saying okay,
I’m brainwashing them. Then, if you have that, then you sort of go by
the book. There’s many experts on how to talk, and how to educate
children – love, compassion, kindness and other such values would be
good, but a basic understanding of you influencing them is needed.

As a Buddhist teacher – one of the teacher’s training nowadays, which

are fading out – knowing that you are sort of imposing upon them, that
this is an imposition. Knowing that they don’t really need this, but they
may have told you they need this – and now you’re pompous and are
giving them this, all this awareness you need. If you have that then both
the parents and the children are safe.

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But it’s quite difficult – even making tomato soup is difficult, and at
least, it has a standard recipe and procedure. Children, they are all
different. You know, many children are too padded these days with
safety and stuff. I don’t know – maybe they need to get bruised and
bitten by insects, and stuff like that – to become human – they have
to face the world! Girls, for instance – young girls, wow, so much
stress! Such as there’s too many choices for lipstick – that’s what they’re
going to face when they grow up? And now, then the world is not so
understanding with gender issues? So many problems. Individually,
though, we can create a lot of good things.

Q: Excuse my ignorance in asking this. But you talked about

nirvana right now as a relief from the fake spider. From
what I understand is – is nirvana the ultimate relief, or is it
something you can experience in your day to day life as well?

I’ll give you two nirvanas – one is the fake one that we usually talk
about. Then, there is the one we want – which is the bed, which most
of the people don’t even think about.

So nirvana is something one can experience in one’s day to

day life as well, and not just as the ultimate sense of relief?
Is that what it would be? The second question which came
from our group discussion yesterday was – nirvana versus
moksha – is it the same, or?

It’s different for different things. For instance, the Japanese have
the concept of ‘satori’. This morning, we talked about how, after 3
minutes of meditation a day, you will not care so much about whether
your underwear is ironed or not? That’s kind of you know, a little bit
of satori there – so in that sense yes, it happens in day to day life.

But as an academic, strictly speaking, then nirvana has a lot of

definitions. This is also where both the cause and the result of the

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suffering, is stooped. That what nirvana means. That’s more technical.
More correct. If you want to be more metaphorical, it is the end of
obsession. It is a release, liberation.

But as long as you live, every action will have a cause,

everything will have an effect – so how can you really end
everything? Because every action will have a cause!

Very good! So that’s why we have been talking about being in the
present. The moment you are in the present, you are not being able
to cut it – this is already confusing the order and speed of the chain
of thoughts. This powerful train coming, this train of habit and you
are damaging it’s speed and rhythm by being in the present. Already
confusing it. Remember we were talking about not poking, leaving it
alone – the Tibetan word ‘ja’ – just leave it alone. The moment you
do, you are not charging the battery. This includes a lot of things by
the way, it could be both good and bad.

Of course, leave alone the bad things, but also the good things! Just
simply leave it alone. Just for three minutes as a practitioner. After a
few years, you can do more, and more, and more. So collectively – this
is hypothetical okay? – if you can manage to be in the present or leave
it alone for 6 hours a day – out of 24 hours, the Mahayana Buddhists
will classify you as someone who is about to be a first-bhoomi
Bodhisattva. Then so on and so forth – when you can remain there
for 24 hours continuously, you are about to finish the tenth-bhoomi
Bodhisattva stage and say goodbye to the path. But, I have to remind
you that all the other practices like chanting, prayer, are never rejected.

They can only help you – if you don’t chant, you’ll be doing something
else anyway! Those things are skillfully designed to alienate you from
certain distractions such as – if you’re chanting, you’ll be alienated
from talking about something bad, because your mouth is busy. Now

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if you’re sitting straight, that’s already retreating you from doing
something else.

The whole purpose of the technique is to retreat you, alienate

you from the distractions, or being in the present. Even a flower
arrangement. Remember? Like a Zen tea ceremony – tea making. I
think somebody should come up with several of these. The Indians
don’t need to learn Japanese tea making – there’s several other
practices. There’s something called – I forgot the name –

When you are making a halwa, you have to concentrate on

doing that for 30-35 minutes, just stirring it –

Yes, like that. Orioke? Probably, if Veer hears about this, he might want
to do it. You chew like 100 times, or 50 times or something like that,
and all that sitting, and looking at the food, and all that – but you
don’t have to do that – you can do halwa-making, samadhi – watching
it, wearing a dhoti, washing meditation, cooking meditation, brushing
teeth meditation. It helps to create a ritual – human beings need
ritual. It accentuates things. Let’s say you’re doing the chapatti making
as samadhi – you have to see things like how you hold the chapattis,
how you place it on your hand, and then look – and things like that.

How you open your laptop. How you enter your passwords. Stuff like
that. And by the way – this is the problem, I should tell you. Suddenly,
I have the samadhi in working – placing the computer like that,
and bowing. Or the more Indian way – the Indian mercenaries, you
know – they work and they touch their heads. All those actions with
mindfulness. The problem is, if this technique becomes successful,
let’s say, 100 disciples are doing this – then in about 50 years, this will
become a school. The Buddhist Laptop School or something like that.
And then, this school will have a conflict with some other tradition.
This is the human problem. Always something like that.

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Then, talking about mindfulness – no, no it is not this way, it is this
way. Stuff like that. Debate amongst the disciples. So we always have to
come back to the mindfulness.

Q: Rinpoche, about guidance based on gender – is there

anything specific that men and women individually should
focus on to enhance their journey – or does that guidance not
exist in the spirit of non-duality?

There’s no specifics – especially in the Mahayana and definitely not

in the tantra. Not in the Buddhist – as we spoke yesterday, in the
Vimalakirti sutra. But in the Tantra, male represents the means or
the method. And the female represents the wisdom. Left represents
wisdom – right is method. The female has some sort of a spaciousness,
and tolerance. You know? And male is more of attributes – color,
shape. That’s why there’s harmony between these two.

Also, depending on different practices, if you’re thinking specifically

then – Tara, Tantra, Vajrayogini tantra, Vajravarahi Tantra, then you
know – I practice some of these Vajrayogini tantra. Especially in the
morning. I am always trying – it’s not really compulsory, but I have
to try – I have to imagine being a woman. It is very important. I have
to feel like a woman, act like a woman – it is very important. In this
practice, the dedication is may I always, until all sentient beings are
totally enlightened, may I never be reborn as a male. Tantra, you know,
you’re talking about shifting everything.

As I said earlier, human culture – Chinese, Indians – the patriarchal

societies – they sort of hushed these things up, they don’t talk about
these much. Even if they do talk, they talk about them in a symbolic
way. Yeah. But, as we spoke this morning – the prajnaparamita sutra
– the wisdom of it is emptiness. The other name for emptiness – you
know, we have it on the gate in Deer Park – anyway, the other name

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for emptiness is the ‘mother’. So we know what we are talking about.
Yum Chenmo. Yum means mother, chenmo means ‘the great’ – the
maha mother. The grand mother. It is the wisdom, the emptiness, that
supposedly produces all the Buddhas.

So in the Mahayana, it is the feminine, that gender – has the highest

sort of regard, so to speak. But this is also a technique to work with the
patriarchal habitual pattern.

Q: Rinpoche, I just have a simple and practical question.

Between two moments of practicing being in the present
moment – as a lay practitioner whose mind is not used to
accepting that time is relative, and it’s always result-oriented –
how does one inspire patience during that in-between period?

Are you talking about wanting to keep it longer? Is that what you are
saying?

No, one gets lost in the in-between period. So you have to be

patient, tell yourself not to worry.

Ah, yes. Now you’re talking about trusting the simplicity, isn’t it?
That’s a difficult one. That’s not going to happen that easily. Try to
treat distractions as alarm sounds, if you can. Actually, for people like
you and me – beginners and ordinary people – when we are distracted,
we realize we are distracted because ‘oh’, it’s a good thing!

In fact, there’s a doha by a mediocre practitioner – not the best, not

the worst – sort of small time yogis – it’s a beautiful doha – I can’t have
enough distractions, come on – make me realise that I am not distracted,
come on, where are you? Today I feel blank, like I’m in a coma – you, the
distractions are not coming. Come on! Because I want to know that I’m
distracted!

Something like that.

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Q: My question is about sadness. Being in the present.

Same thing – Sadness, joy. Actually easier to be in the present when

you are sad. When you are happy it is so difficult, because you are
excited. You are much more distracted. Sadness will force you to be in
the present! Bad news is much more easier to notice. Good news we
always want more!

Q: I have a similar Question. What is the purpose of despair,

hopelessness. What purpose does it serve?

You can make it like it has a purpose. Like what the Buddhists would
say; purpose or not, it is so much to do with your intention. Purpose
of these statues can only be if you use it with an intention and action
for it to become purposeful. It can be very magical if you know how to
use it.

Have you been to Bali? If you go to Bali, the whole place is magical. It
is not because of the 7-star spas, as you will see those places in Hawaii
or whatever – those places are not magical, they’re just nice. Bali is
magical because the Hindus there, they do endless pujas. Every corner,
every turn you will see a shrine, some sort of an offering, flower,
incense. This motivation creates that magic, I think.

So, despair, sadness, they just bother you, torment you and make
you feel not good if you do not have the right kind of motivation.
With the right motivation, the Buddhists would say, I think there is
a term in Buddhism, called the ‘genuine heart of sadness’. It a very
important wealth or attribute of a Bodhisattva, practitioner, to have
some sort of sadness, to really make life full. It will make you feel that
you appreciate more – like you can have a friend and think that it is
the last time together, you’re aware – yes, it has sadness! You know
because knowing the truth, goes against the ignorance, the habit and
usually they (ignorance and habit) don’t like it so it becomes despair.

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You have to somehow learn to appreciate the truth, but you don’t have
to get carried away by sadness and despair because then it becomes a
problem as you will get addicted to that.

Q: What in Buddhism is skillful means and how do we keep

shades of self-loathing away from it?

Skillful means in Buddhism must always have or accompany wisdom,

only then it is a skillful mean, otherwise it is just a ritual. It is just
a game. If whatever you do, be it elegant, refined, or outrageous,
primitive, comb you r hair properly, whatever. If it is accompanied
with wisdom, in other words, it is done with the intention of taking
oneself and others closer to the truth, then it is called skillful means.
And that’s priceless. But always remember, skillful means is not the
end, like the finger, don’t look at the finger, look at the moon. Finger
is not that important, it is necessary. It is important, as it helps you.
Skillful means should not actually become a tradition. Skillful means
once applied, it has done its job. But having said that, some skillful
means such as sitting straight has been ongoing as it does help because
of its function. I’ve been talking to people here that chances of you
being mindful by sitting straight is higher than lying in a hammock
with a margarita. (Laughter) That’s possible! You can do it! But
chances are better sitting straight. Skillful means. If I’m teaching in
Mexico with a bunch of rowdy, barhopping youngsters who detest
the idea of sitting straight, then I would say yeah let’s all lie down in
a hammock! And let’s mix some drinks, and think that this drink may
never reach our stomach because we could die. Stuff like that! That we
could do!

Okay. Anyway. Thank you listening to all these things. I hope we

have managed to create some sort of curiosity about truth, illusion,
life, wellness, not-wellness and all of that. If it happened, it is good
because then it has a so called merit and this merit we will dedicate

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to everyone including Donald Trump so that he can bluff all the way!
Completely! Even himself! Also dedicate it to world peace, harmony,
your own wellness, others’ wellness so on so forth.

Concludes with Samantabhadra’s Prayer of Aspiration

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