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Ngondro

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The talk focuses on the foundational Buddhist practice of Ngondro, particularly within the Vajrayana and Mahayana traditions, emphasizing openness and humility as prerequisites for spiritual practice. It discusses three types of suffering: suffering of suffering, change of suffering, and pervasive suffering, within the context of samsaric existence. The discussion also underscores the importance of dismantling ego through practices such as prostration and the symbolic lowering of oneself beneath the teacher to foster genuine understanding and transformation.

Referenced Texts and Teachings:

  • Ngondro (Preliminary Practices): Presented as essential to preparing the mind and heart for advanced Vajrayana and Mahayana teachings, with an emphasis on humility and openness.
  • Mahayana Teaching and Vajrayana Practice: These teachings transform personal enlightenment into benefiting all beings, supported by the concept of the five certainties for mental training.
  • The Three Types of Suffering: Explores concepts of immediate suffering, the suffering of change, and pervasive suffering, illustrating the intricate fabric of samsaric experience.
  • Spiritual Materialism: Discussed as a pitfall of seeking spiritual highs without addressing foundational suffering, emphasizing an authentic start from "the ground."

Key Concepts:

  • Samsara: The cycle of suffering inherent to existence that practitioners must understand and work with.
  • Prostration and Ego: Prostration is described as a practice to combat pride and arrogance, breaking down barriers to spiritual progress.
  • Open Mind and Humility: These are repeated themes, portrayed as necessary for truly receiving teachings and healing from samsaric conditions.

Practical Advice:

  • Reflect on Teachings Daily: It is suggested to review the day's teachings and personal actions daily to enhance understanding and integration of spiritual practices.

AI Suggested Title: Path to Transformative Humility

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Recording starts after beginning of talk.

Transcript: 

Sukhidurji, in this particular context, teacher is Sukhidurji, and one cell into Buddha and Bodhisattvas, and the teaching into Vajrayana teaching, Mahayana teaching, not Niyana, self-liberation for one cell, but for the benefit of liberation of all beings, that is the Mahayana teaching. and the teaching is not happening in one or two times but teaching is happening all the time because the whole nature presented to us is a teaching actually now that's very hard to see but actually the whole every situation to you is a teaching because that's the energy which you can work it in a enlightened head and you can not understood with nippy cookies so And the place is not an ordinary place, but the place is like the pure land of Panasambhava. So that kind of five certainties is an important mental training at the beginning of the Vajrayana practice.

[01:09]

Well, if you can do that or not, it is hard to do that. But if you can do it, it's wonderful. But if you cannot do, then you can just think that everything is open. You're not kind of dressing up. You're just kind of complete openness. That's another approach. But if you come with a pipe, you bring your arrogance, you bring your own neurosis, and you try to dress up those things and start entertaining those things while you're hearing the teaching and being in the mandala of the teaching, then it's not the right thing to do. Now, once that has been developed, that has been understood, then, first of all, with the true sense of openness, you can really see the nature of the life, what one is experiencing now, and one can see the experience of the other beings. We cannot see that if we are caught, indulged into the mist of that neurosis, if we are dwelling into that mist of neurosis, mist of those arabics, mist of that pride, mist of that rest, we can never see what's really happening to us.

[02:13]

The third eye or the wisdom eye is absolutely obscured at that point. It's not open. So in order to open the third eye, in order to open the wisdom eye, one should have that unbiased mind. It's called the mind of unbiased. It's called the mind which goes beyond the extremes of all extremes. So that kind of unbiased mind can see the fact, see the truth, what is really happening, and that kind of mind has the power to heal. That kind of mind has the power to heal all concepts. That kind of mind has power to give the bread. That kind of mind has to give the breading of the bread. That kind of mind has the power to liberate those frozen emotions and concepts. And because it sees the situation very clearly. So first of all, as spontaneous, when that kind of openness is there, you do not have to make it. You do not have to make a compassion state. Mind, the compassion mind will naturally generate.

[03:17]

the compassion mind will spontaneously come at that time, and you will see that life yourself, life yourself is suffering, that life yourself is going through this whole trip, the whole fantasy trip, that every being is going through the same trip. And to bring it very briefly, in all kinds of suffering and pain, there are three kinds of suffering. Now you see, in Buddhist teaching, in Tibet, we work with what we are now, Buddha didn't start giving the teaching how wonderful the Buddha nature is. Buddha started giving the teaching where we are now and what we are going through and how we have to work with the situation now. And if you work with the situation, the next thing will come by itself. If you start thinking how wonderful that state is, you're just going to go, it's just a spiritual trip. That's called spiritual materialism. And then you were just thinking, oh, it's like taking a dope and it's like taking an LSD, then you go through that kind of experience.

[04:20]

That's just a trick. And you cannot trust that kind of situation. So we begin from the ground. We begin from the whole, whatever is on the ground, the dirt or whatever, the dirt and mess is there, we begin from there. And we see that. So first of all, let's see the whole pain, the whole suffering. Being open and being honest to oneself, not being deceptive and superficial and try to neglect. We cannot neglect. You have to see that neglect. It's very important. So when you first start doing the dharma, it doesn't sound very nice sometimes. You start hearing all these things which you have, and you have this immediate rush to overcoming that, and your teacher starts saying the same thing which you're already going, and you start thinking, why doesn't he say something nicer? Why doesn't he say something which can make me high for a while or something? That doesn't work like that, to tell you the truth. There's no such thing as like that wish-fulfilling gem, you know, which can just make you like that.

[05:27]

You have to start from the scratch, that's important. Start from the ground. So, seeing that suffering, now basically in suffering, to make it briefly, there are three kinds of suffering. It's called the suffering of suffering, And the change of suffering and the prevailing suffering. Now suffering of suffering is basically like in the morning you have somebody, a very close friend died and in the evening you have a car accident. one suffering after the next. Or in the morning you have a fight with your friend and you go split and in the evening you lose your job, you know, to get a little bit more stronger. So that kind of situation is called pain after pain or suffering upon suffering. And then there is a change of suffering. And that's, you know, you're perfectly well, you know.

[06:28]

Yesterday, the whole situation was where your job is secure, your friend is perfectly happy with you, and everything seems to be no problem. And then suddenly, you know, something happened, and something happened absolutely out of no big deal, but you see that there was nothing big deal. You just said something that doesn't please your friend very much, and the whole thing flared up, and then your friend left you. And you go through tremendous suffering. The whole situation changed. Or, you know, you eat something right now and you're enjoying a very good delicacy, a gourmet food, and the whole gourmet food turns into a poisonous to you. It happens to you. And you start having dysentery and all kinds of problems. A change of suffering, that's called. Your whole situation becomes absolutely not secure. That's called change. There is no security. There's no security.

[07:29]

And then a pervading suffering. All the time. Now this suffering is from the desire realm to the form realm to the formless realm, into the whole universal dualistic mind experience. There's always a pervading suffering. And that is a fear. That's a fear. All the time a fear that we will lose it. Even you are happy, that suffering never goes away. Your happiness is stained with some kind of emotion, is stained with a fear, and therefore you hardly ever experience a total happiness. It's very hard to experience a total happiness in this confused samsaric mind experience, because all the time there is a fear. If you have, you have the fear that someone might steal it, or you have to pay a high tax on it. Or you have to do something else all the time. And that kind of fear. And if you don't have the fear, you don't have. So it constantly beats you up. The fact is, that's how the samsaric experience is.

[08:35]

Or if you are very well, then you won't be well. So what you should do for that? Maybe you start an insurance, health insurance, because the day when I don't become well, I can be ready for it. You know, kind of that experience. And then the fear that, you know, if you're, and the fear that, you know, everything is fine now, what could turn? Maybe the politics, these days the fear is who is the Bushman going to be? In California, most people in Bay Area is where the Bushman come to power, and that's the fear. Or if Dukkha is also a don't like, there's also another fear. So constantly, every situation, from politics to the whole situation, the whole world to your own self, you know, there is constant fear. And that kind of fear is pervading all the time. Therefore, it's called the samsara being, the suffering spot. It's the part of suffering. The whole illusion. But the whole illusion is being dressed up on that nature.

[09:38]

Therefore it's called all suffering. No matter where you're born in the samsara, it's all likely, it's like the mist of the fire. You cannot find cool in any fire. So it's like all the time there's a fear, there's all the time there's a suffering. So seeing that suffering in oneself, the other being is also going through the suffering. And when you can see that, when you can see your own suffering, I think that's a really great vision. It's a tremendous powerful state to see that. And then you can be able to know how to work with yourself. You can see where the suffering originates, how the suffering originates, what kind of attitude sufferings originate. How can you heal those originations? Then a true step is taken. Your feet is firmly on the ground. And you will know how to work with the other person, those who are also going to listen. But as long as we don't have the open approach to the Dharma, to the teacher, to the teaching, one can never see that kind of situation clearly.

[10:42]

So seeing that suffering, then one comes to understand, now I truly practice like the nectar of the Dharma in this lifetime. Step by step, without any mistake. And I dedicate myself now towards the journey of my true liberation. I dedicate myself to the journey of my true liberation. Because every day we journey anyway. Like, it's not that a person has to make a special journey. It's just the way of your attitude. It's just the way you develop yourself. So in that way, you change your whole attitude with a false deception towards the true open state. Thank you. Right. In this text, at the beginning it explains about the whole preparation, how it should be, the whole samsara.

[11:52]

Then there are later on, then it will become more and more practical, the meditation and everything. So it's very important to know the whole step gradually, because for a true Dharma practitioner one should know this whole thing, otherwise one would never have the true equipment, preparation, how to be like that. So when you hear about this kind of thing, don't get bored. There's also good things coming out. The next part is not approach. Now the action while hearing the teaching. This is it. Now, actually while hearing the teaching, it's very important that one should not sit higher than the teacher while receiving the teaching. The reason is there is no difference. Like in Tibet, when the great teachers meet together, they sit equally on the same seat. There is no difference.

[12:53]

But as a respect, a respect from what? From surrendering one's own pride and surrendering the whole deception, the whole dressed up. So therefore, when we sit down, then there is a sense of humiliation. Humiliation to what? To the ego, to the whole neurosis, to the whole dressed up. So therefore, it's become a skillful interdependence when a person sits lower than the teacher, in the Dharma teaching, then the person has a sense of true opening taking place. This is a very powerful experience. This is how we do. Even in Tibet, I am reincarnated. According to the hierarchical ways, we have our thrones and things, but whenever I hear a teaching, even my teachers are not reincarnated, whatever, I would always sit down. That's how we traditionally respect, and it's very important to approach so that we open up. Our whole problem is coming from our ego, and the point is not to cut through the ego, and then the whole space will open up.

[14:00]

As long as we keep our pride and arrogance, The whole arrogance is built from that pride. And basically in a prostration, when we do the prostration, the forehead symbolizes tremendous pride and arrogance to a person. The person who looks like this thinks, who else is there in this world? I'm the greatest person. And so when a person does a prostration next to it, the whole arrogance is completely dissolved. You dissolve your whole surrendering. You surrender, you humiliate the arrogance. You're humiliating your arrogance. That's the thing. But we don't see that way. Sometimes that's because arrogance keeps itself very tightly. It's tremendous resistance. You humiliate yourself purposely. That's the whole thing. You humiliate your arrogance. You humiliate your neurosis. Because the only way you will do that is next to the teacher. And if you can't do it, then there's no other place to do it. You won't do it to the bakery or the shopkeeper. So it's become only one of the very obvious places to do it.

[15:02]

So therefore you humiliate purposely. You don't do it to the postman also. Now the Japanese Zen style is a little interesting. The Japanese Zen style is, you know, they both kind of do, so you kind of know, if I do, he's also going to do to me. So again, you're keeping your arrogance. But that's not the true Zen style, true Zen's teaching transcends that. But now some people will take it, oh, I can do it, and they do it like that. He bows down to me, I bow down to him, so it's equal. But that's not. In the Vajrayana tradition, no, I'm not good at both. You bow down to the student, so he bows down. But as the teacher has no arrogance at all, if you would not, if you look deeply how much they care and how much they would work for you, I think it's like, it's unimaginable sometimes. So that's how the point of prostitution is completely humiliating the arrogance, humiliating the pride.

[16:12]

And they will be very resistant for that, but that's how we break it on all different levels from the beginning. So it's become an important point. So that's the main point. And there's no other meaning to that. There's absolutely none to that. That's the main thing. It doesn't mean that you become lower, just that you are absolutely disordered, sedentary, and emulating your own ego and your own arrogance. And if I cannot understand, then it's just too bad. And that's not the only way, you know, it's just one of the ways. And if you can, it is good once in a while to accumulate, once in a while to do that. It is tremendously powerful. If you can do it, it will open tremendously. Because you have really break that, you know, you have to break that in many ways. Sometimes, you know, you take the, you take the, you take the, all the bad things what people say.

[17:15]

You take all the bad things from people. And then in that way, with that tremendous, accumulating your own pride inside, it breaks through the whole thing. Very powerful. That's how they truly integrated it down into a practice. That's how it happened. But you can't do those things if you do not integrate it like that. You will never understand what time is. So therefore, there's become a very important point, and there is no other than that. That's the So those are the actions of Dharma, while hearing the teaching, sitting lower, while hearing the teaching, having a respect, while hearing the teaching, absolutely being open. And like hearing, like the patient hears the doctor's words carefully. When the patient hears the doctor's words, then the patient has a tremendous cancer problem, a very serious problem. Then the patient will listen to the doctor very carefully. So same thing, you know, the sickness of the samsara, the samsara experience is tremendously powerful, you know, for healing this thing, one has to have tremendous care and tremendous carefulness, one should listen to it.

[18:31]

So, I guess, We can leave it there tonight. And please work with your, whatever I said, when you go tonight, when you go to bed, you should think like that. One of my teachers used to say, when you go to bed, think what you did from the mornings to the evening. And particularly, think what the teachers have said. That is a very powerful evening. So you should think that when you go to bed, don't just indulge with all kinds of things, you know. Just go back and rethink what you heard today, how you can integrate that. Then there will be some meaning. So work with this, work with all the things, and whatever you don't understand, then later you can ask me a question.

[19:29]

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