What is the spiritual path, and what is the spiritual teaching, and what, after all, what we are doing, to simply put it, what we are doing. Now throughout the ages, throughout the times, there have been many spiritual teachings. And there have been spiritual teachings, those who believe in spiritual, and those who do not believe in spiritual. But however, these both kind of people, one who believes in spiritual teachings and one who does not believe in spiritual teachings, both are trying to look for happiness. Both are trying to escape from their stress, and suffering, and pain.

[01:06]

So this is being shared by both, whether one believes in a spiritual path or whether one does not believe in a spiritual path. And we try to, one who believes in a spiritual path will go to escape from one's situation, to go to a temple, to go to a church, to go to a monastery. And one who does not believe in a spiritual would take a vacation, would go to a movie, go to Reno. So there is a basic understanding, a basic experience we share on both sides that we

[02:09]

look for happiness, that both sides look for happiness, whether one believes or whether one does not believe. But a lot of time, from the point of seeing and trying to discover that happiness, it's almost like everything is spiritual in a way. Whether one believes or whether one does not believe, in an ordinary sense one could call it spiritual, because looking for happiness is called spiritual. But now there is quite a different understanding of what is a true spiritual. Because the person who does not believe in a particular religion which appeared in this world, we call them not spiritual.

[03:11]

And people, those who are just looking for their happiness, everyone is looking for happiness. Every action is being directed towards happiness, whether one steals it or whether one kills somebody or whether one does anything by the state of ignorant mind, but fundamentally looking for happiness, there is an equal kind of motivation, same, exactly similar motivation as far as wanting for happiness, to escape from the trance, take a vacation, go and rest. All these are primarily meant for to see and find a space and a happiness. But how we find it or not, that requires a wisdom, that requires a tremendous deep knowledge and a wisdom. So we cannot say that the other person who does not believe in a religion or does not

[04:20]

believe in a particular level of spiritual, that person does not have a spiritual quality at all, that person does have a spiritual quality and the inner essence of the happiness to look towards the direction that is called spiritual is exactly the same, whether one believes or whether one does not believe. And now the question of real spiritual is something very few people have understood. Very rare people have experienced what truly means spiritual. Mostly our state of mind, we always try to escape from the situation and that escape has never led a person to experience the true happiness. So when I miss real spiritual, it is almost like to try to cover and try to forget the

[05:32]

problem and tend to run away or to paint something on that color, on a white color you paint red and yellow so you won't see the white color or you don't want to see the black color, you want to paint a white on top of it. But when you wash it, again that color will manifest underneath. Similarly many of our spiritual practice has been like that and due to many great deal of ignorance and great deal of confusion in our state of mind. Now it's very important in Buddhism, the spiritual path begins by first of all acknowledging oneself, particularly in the teaching of Dzogchen, which is a complete opening state, a challenging state for oneself, a courageous, a fearless mind, a kind of that state of mind to face

[06:41]

and accept, acknowledge oneself needs a tremendous vision. A person needs the knowledge of vision inside himself, a clarity to see oneself and that vision is the vision of wisdom, the vision of knowledge and through that vision of knowledge we gain the experience of wisdom. So in acknowledging oneself it's very important to see first of all that fundamentally one thing I would like to say is that in Buddhism one has to see, acknowledge oneself and one has to accept that we are lonely, we are alone and it doesn't sound very good because we

[07:42]

always like to be cuddled and we always like to be embraced and always like to feel that there is somebody for us, my special one, or whatever we think. And that kind of trying to escape from the situation has caused a person completely lost from his own basic sanity, the strength, the capacity we have. So we do not accept that we are alone, therefore we do not, we become very hard on ourselves. We become hard because subconsciously we felt, we know that we are alone but we don't want to think about that, we don't want to accept that fact that we are alone and we feel it,

[08:45]

we know that we are alone and that has been one of the striving, the endless restlessness in our state of mind, we are filling all the space constantly so we can entertain and forget that it's like we are taking a drug all the time to see something else, we are forgetting the reality and we are trying to see something else is there so that we will keep ourselves busy. It's called illusion. So from that point there has been a big illusion, very big illusion from a very ordinary person's style towards a person who believes in the spiritual also, there has been a kind of illusion. Because even a person who believes in the spiritual still try to escape, I don't blame

[09:46]

to a person who has never done a spiritual practice would have more problem, but even a person who has done a spiritual practice, they do try to escape from this fact that not accepting the fact, that is the point, not accepting the reality that we are alone, so that we will cover it up by all kinds of means, but one thing in Dzogchen tradition, one never try to get the escape and for that reason yesterday I was explaining, we would not ask a prayer to be done by somebody else sometimes, a Dzogchen practitioner, because one has to face the fact instead of always trying to fill in the gap. Because once a person is set on the path of Dzogchen, it is like accepting the acknowledgement of working with oneself, it is a personal experience and you have to do it personally. So there has been a great deal of support for our confusion, we have supported our confusion,

[11:07]

we have supported our fear in all respect, in the name of spiritual, in the name of every different thing, but that does not mean that it is wrong to do, it is more like a skillful mean, but it can also, if a person does not have the courage, as I put it yesterday in the state of negotiating, we do not negotiate in meditation, but we negotiate in post meditation. In post meditation we are in the path of Dzogchen also, but one does not surrender in negotiation, one should have the courage to overcome that. Our mind has produced this body, gross body, and you have to negotiate by eating food,

[12:12]

and if you don't eat food, pretty soon we will be leaving from this planet, and yet the karma is not over, so one needs all kinds of skillfulness, truly to really experience the true nature of oneself, it requires a tremendous profound knowledge and vision in oneself. But a lot of times our spiritual practice, without the understanding of Dzogchen teaching, having really some kind of, or without understanding of true spiritual teaching, has been a kind of feeding to our confusion, feeding to our fear, the hunger of fear, because nature of fear is hunger, trying to attract you, trying to distract that, trying to distract you from the situation, from the reality, from the state of purity of the state of mind, trying

[13:17]

to distract a person, that creates a hunger in us, and hunger creates the feeling in the space completely, claustrophobic. So what we do, many times we have not accepted the fact that we are alone, and we go to churches on Sunday, we go to, we may do a meditation in front of a lama, a person may do anything in the name of spiritual, if one did not understand the true spiritual, then one tries to hide the fact that one is alone, and you have the fear, and your fear needs to be entertained, so the God, and the Buddha becomes who is going to entertain your fear. You go to church and there a person sits and sings the beautiful hymn, that vibration is extremely pleasant for the fear to be entertained.

[14:19]

It's extremely pleasant for a Buddhist, a person who is a Buddhist label, to go to his lama, and sit next to the lama, and to feel how beautiful, because you cannot deal with your own fear, you do not accept your own fear, you try to escape from your fear, and you go next to him and sit, and now think it's so great, you have lost the main spiritual. You did not, if you could have been strong, you could have sit there when it was happening, then you could have dealt with it, you could have been there, that presence, had been an enlightened presence, that moment has been an enlightened moment, but we have escaped from that. So again, again trying to fill in the gap, again distracting oneself, distracting in the name of spiritual. Now that does not mean that you don't have to go to hear the teaching, or you don't have to be with the lama. One has to hear the teaching, one has to understand the view correctly, one has to know the view

[15:27]

accurately, precisely, and once we have known the view precisely, then we should do it. One should simply do it. Don't be afraid, that's a very important thing. A true sense of spiritual would not be entertaining you. It is to completely breaking up from that distraction. Fear is a distraction. Seeing everything is a distraction. Because we are distracted, we like to see, we do not want to accept our own self, so we like to always try to forget our part, and trying to look something externally. So, we have missed something, and when we hear like that, we do not like that, because constantly our whole habit pattern has been learning to be distracted, have been trying

[16:33]

to feed our hunger of fear, and that's what we have always been doing it, and we are into that, and we like to hear how to be entertained. So, it's not very pleasant for the fear, not very pleasant for the hungry mind to hear like this kind of teaching, to hear that there is no entertainment. We would like to hear promising, we would like to hear miracles, we would like to hear great lights manifesting from ten directions, and absorbing into you, and you become bliss and rainbow. But to experience that rainbow, one has to experience oneself. One has to be strong, one has to be courageous, one has to overcome one's fear by accepting oneself, but we would not be able to come to that state by that kind of mind which is

[17:39]

trying to escape. You see, you would not reach anywhere, nowhere, not even the corner of enlightenment with that attitude of it's trying to escape all the time. Not even the door of enlightenment will creak, it would not even sound, the creaking sound would not be made. So, and to experience something, one has to be very practical, one has to be really strong and do meditation, and then one will see that oneself is a tremendous richfulness. The reason why we see garbage all the time, so much mess, why we are so hard on ourselves, why we become so pushy on ourselves, why we cannot understand our life, why we cannot

[18:46]

understand our life means why we cannot always understand the light, always we have to live in a confusion, always we have to live in a darkness, it's because we constantly try to escape. We have constantly never acknowledged ourselves, never given the space to ourselves, never given a space to breathe, never given a space to relax, never given a space to move, constantly pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. It's like someone coming behind you with a stick, and when the animals are drawn, a human being come after with the stick and we beat and beat and the animal has no control. It's like that, we become pushy to ourselves. So, there is no time, we have never given a space and a time to ourselves. That is one of the reasons why when we do meditation, we are giving the space to ourselves,

[19:51]

to breathe at least, the poor guy, to breathe, to at least heal something from that being so hard, from that pushiness. And then in time, one will discover that there was nothing wrong in ourselves. It was simply the distraction, it's simply the fact that we did not see what qualities we have. We have never seen the qualities we have, very glimpse of qualities we have seen in ourselves. Very little glimpse, therefore we call it glimpse. The reason why we call it glimpse is because we have seen so little. It does not mean that we have seen every part of us. And that glimpse is something one can trust. The glimpse is something, you know that there is something great deal in you, which is not

[20:53]

something poverty-stricken, you know, something garbage or mess. It's something great, a great sweet juice is there inside you. It's not something rotten inside. But we would not see this sweet juice in ourselves as long as we do not acknowledge and give the space and taste it. We will never see that. We will always live in this rotten state. Feeling the guilt, always being hard and trying to think something else is going to be beautiful, which is your own fantasy, which is your own distraction. So, it's become very hard. One has to be strong enough not to escape.

[21:55]

And it requires a tremendous, it will of course need support, but you cannot always rely on a support. You have to be yourself. You have to learn to be yourself. You have to learn to be yourself. And when you learn to be yourself, then you start to know that we have a tremendous ritual nature. And in terms of enlightened state, those ritual nature is based as like the three kaya state, dharma kaya, sambhoga kaya, and nirmana kaya. The mind which is completely free from all the fears. The mind which is totally free from all the fabrications. We have the richness in all of us. We have a state of mind which is not distracted. That capacity, that glimpse we have once in a while, that is the trust. We can trust it and we can, it's like that you have seen what is there and by the trust

[22:59]

on that glimpse, you can progress on the path. It's not based on a blind belief. It's based on a clarity. The glimpse is the clarity. The glimpse is the wisdom which is introduced by the teacher to you that there is the wisdom mind and you can see that wisdom mind. But it's not a gift from the teacher. It is you have fundamentally. It wasn't created when the Buddha came or it wasn't created when the Jesus came. The karmas were not created when these enlightened beings came. The glimpse, they are fundamentally by nature is there. Same thing, the state of mind which is our enlightened state of mind is fundamentally there. And we can recognize by introduction. And when we recognize, when we have an experience of that glimpse, on that glimpse we base our trust.

[23:59]

And we can experience a dignity, a kind of, there is a respect for that and there is openness and a tremendous space and a relief, tremendous relief because of knowing the truth who we are. So, so that shows, that shows very clearly, that shows very clearly that a person on a spiritual practice, on a spiritual path who is truly sincere and honest to oneself should not try to escape. One should be strong. Maybe sometimes you may need to cancel your vacation. You don't have to surrender all the time. You have to, you know, make some kind of, you have to sometimes be a rebel to your fears.

[25:09]

We have never been a rebel to our fears. We have always listened to them and always been kind of slave of our fears, listening to everything. And the point of spiritual path is like being a rebel to our fear. You do the opposite what the fear will tell you. And kind of state of mind like that requires in different state so that one could break that barrier. And once you break one, and you break two, and you break three, then you will know exactly what it is. Then you will gain the confidence, you will see yourself more. And then afterwards your fears will become less and less and you become the main conqueror, the dominator. Not the fear tells you what to do. So all we are working, whether we are believing in spiritual or whether we people don't believe in spiritual,

[26:17]

all are striving for the happiness. But all are striving for my happiness in a lot of different ways, always trying to escape. And it's very sad to see that, how everybody are really, truly, they are sincere to themselves in wanting that happiness. But somehow they do not have the vision, the wisdom to see how the happiness can be understood. Happiness is not something small. Happiness means a complete liberation of the state of the mind. A complete liberation of the state of the mind is not something one can get by trying to go for a vacation in Hawaii, or go to a nice sunny beach of Bhutan. And when you come back you may find more problems if you do that, because now you miss the sun tan, you miss the beach, you miss the beautiful drizzling rain in Hawaii or whatever.

[27:24]

You may get more problems. And like this, hundreds of thousands of things happen one after another. We start so many things, some things we start, we never finish. We do things continuously all the time, and we never know how to end up. And there is a dissatisfaction eventually, all the time. Most things ended up in a dissatisfaction thing, never things ended up in a satisfaction thing. There are very rare things which ended up in a satisfaction thing. And even you are satisfied, then sometimes you may think that, Oh, I could have done it a little bit longer, or something like that. Or then you want to start something again, or you want to change your dissatisfaction into another style, and you would do something else with it. So it's a question of continuous, continuous suffering.

[28:30]

And that is all because we did not know this mind. All because we haven't known ourselves. The whole question comes, we haven't known ourselves. We haven't seen our mind. We haven't know how to deal with ourselves. And that's all, whether you call spiritual or whether you don't call spiritual, names are not important. The point is still we have to know ourselves. And when we know ourselves, then that is where you can sing a song. And until that time, there are a lot of confusion, a lot of tracks which can be sidetracked. And people, since the state of mind is so weak, that we always like to be entertained, and there is a lot of distraction in our life. Our whole life is a journey, a lot of distraction in our life.

[29:36]

Because very few times you would have the strength to challenge the truth. You would have the strength to be in the truth. Mostly we are distraction. There is tremendous distraction if you watch. Very few moments you can be. And how much you have to strive at this moment to be in that moment. It is not easy for us at this point just to be in our truth, just to be in our true sanity. We have to strive hard to be in our spirit. But to be in the distraction is like ten directions they are waiting. And that is what we are learning in meditation, in the practice, so we can be ourselves. And once we be ourselves, we don't have to do meditation afterwards. No Buddha does meditation at this stage. The state of the mind, that mind which is free from that confusion, trying to escape,

[30:46]

that complete confusion, that is called the enlightened mind. What else is enlightened? There is no other enlightenment than that. You may think that when a person becomes enlightened there will be 20 feet of light coming from the sky and getting into it. That is escape, if you are thinking that. That you try to escape, not seeing that you are not seeing your path, not seeing your state of richness, the clarity which you have. So you are seeing yourself as a garbage and trying to see something externally as something great. And so we think that, oh, when we see, most of the time, look at that light so beautiful. Look at that thing so beautiful. The lights are beautiful. Lights are beautiful, but there is something more beautiful inside than that. And most of the time when we present that, it is automatically, it is automatically we do not see our potential, the richness.

[31:52]

So we have a tendency to look at something better outside. And we cannot see our good path because we try to escape all the time. All the time we try to escape. So you can see that to be a Dzogchen practitioner, you may need some changes in your way of thinking. You may need some changes in your way of relating with life. That you do not surrender to being escaped. And that is the main thing in Dzogchen. And that is where the essence will be in that. And one would need, but that also one needs to learn this vision, this skillfulness.

[32:59]

For that I am saying in meditation we do not negotiate. In post meditation we negotiate at the moment. But after some time you do not even have that notion of negotiating or not negotiating at all. But at the present moment those things are very important. So we can see that we have been trying to escape all the time. Truly to connect to a real spiritual has been very rare. It's called the star of the day. The confusion is like the star of the night where there are millions. That's how in Tibet many of the great practitioners, they have been wandering yogis, wandering yoginis, or they have been in the mountains for some time,

[34:02]

being most ordinary. Some of them have been like in 84 Mahasiddhas of India. Some of them are just like ordinary persons ploughing the fields like that. They are different manifestations. And it does not mean that a spiritual person has to wear a particular dress or be in a temple that is spiritual. Being in a temple and the person is trying to escape is entertaining oneself. Whether one calls it spiritual or not, it's the same old thing. It's the same escape. No matter what name we would put it. It's the same old thing. And if one really faces the true sense of not to escape, really acknowledges oneself,

[35:04]

then even one may be being in the worst place which we would consider not as spiritual, but his essence is completely pure. So it's a place we cannot judge. Therefore Buddha himself said, do not judge unless the person has the same realization that one could see the depth level of the other person's mind. Then one can judge, otherwise one should not judge. Because mostly our judgment comes from the external level of the mind, the gross level. It does not come from the subconscious level. It does not come from the secret level. Of course, just leave it behind. But even from the subconscious level we understand very limited. But subconscious level there is certain understanding, as I said. When two persons stay together they do have some kind of understanding in the subconscious level. They would not be staying just with a smile, you see.

[36:07]

Two persons smiling, they would not be ready to spend time, stay for a while whatsoever. At least they got to know themselves. It would be something very dramatic kind of person to live like that. So most of our judgment comes from a very external source. So one should not judge what is spiritual and what is not spiritual. Of course, we know that to kill and to do something bad is not spiritual at all. That we know clearly. But at the same time, when we have a clear realization, when we have a clear realization in our mind, whether we are in a spiritual group, a labeled spiritual group or not labeled spiritual group,

[37:10]

our wisdom can manifest into their part. Because they have the same nature, they are looking for the same thing, and both can share it totally. That's how bodhisattva comes in communication with beings. Those who did not have understanding of that true realization, but they come in time understanding it. That is the communication base, because both share the same thing. And a lot of time, because of our limitation, we try to escape, saying, oh, those people are not this, and they are different than us. They are not different than us. Everybody is the same. Everybody has the same attitude, motivation to be happy, to be enlightened. Whether they believe in the word enlightened or not, they are looking for that enlightenment.

[38:14]

And nihilism also look for that enlightenment. Whether they believe in an enlightenment or not, they look for happiness. And that happiness, they are not joking for a half happiness, they want a hundred percent happiness. And that hundred percent happiness is called the enlightenment. So, everyone is same in our planet. Every beings, human beings, animal, and when we understand that our compassion will grow, and our wisdom, whatever we have, knowledge, will be a benefit for everyone. And before we really do absorption, one has to understand, that is how the absorption practitioner has to be. You can't do absorptionism, that you are trying to escape from the situation. Absorption is not escaping from this.

[39:17]

It's not a transcendental kind of transcending meditation. It's not a meditation where you just go into a different world, a different planet, and then forget about what's happening on this planet, and then you try to think that now you are in a beautiful place. That's not called meditation. I would not call it a spiritual meditation. That's the same old style in a different style. It's the same things we do, but it's another style of doing it. There's a war movie, and there's a romantic movie, and there's all kinds of movies, but they are all movies. It's a different style. So, so you, you know, and being on the path of absorption, the mind, the true nature of our mind, which is called the awakening mind,

[40:25]

or in English, I guess the best word is like awakening mind. When one, one should always be in the presence of the awakening, because that is the mind which is not escaping from any situation. It is the mind which is facing the reality. It's not the mind which is trying to escape from the situation. So, but we may always think that my reality is this life, and then to sit there, you know, to meditate, how I can escape from the reality? And that is, again, we are getting distracted. That is what now we need to, you know, we have to trust our glimpse.

[41:30]

We have to see, one can see, one can understand what that means, and then you give the space and you develop, then in time you overcome that confusion, that notion of escape. It's a fearless, therefore it's called fearless mind. Then you overcome all the confusion by overcoming the fear. It's not called a mind of fear. All trance, trance meditation are called fear meditation, I would call it. It's a kind of meditation which is trying to find a safety nest for it, a resting spot. We do need a resting spot also, that's another conversation. But Dzogchen mind is, there is no resting spot. It is the total resting, not resting, it's not a resting nest of a fear. It's a resting nest of fearlessness. It's a resting state of fearlessness, the waking mind. So, you know, to think about, to experience that, it shakes us up.

[42:39]

It shakes us up, it shakes the world. We can see that how much time we have wasted. We can see that how much energy we have wasted. Always trying to escape, always trying to escape. Never trying to face the fact, you know, the point of being, and therefore it's called the cyclic existence of confusion. The cyclic existence of samsara, because we always try to escape, never acknowledging oneself. And now going to the inner part of this confusion, as I recall yesterday, it is the excitement to our energy being attracted. We get attracted to our excitement. We get excited to our energy. And when we get excited to our arising energy, we get attracted and it freezes there. And that freezing develops progressively, and the freezing produces all these phenomena.

[43:42]

Each person has their own personal phenomena, by one's own freezing, particular freezing experience. Being a human being, we share in general a particular type of excitement. To be human. To be frozen into the state of mind, and to develop into a state of human, and to manifest as a human being. But in particular we all have our personal phenomena, by one person can be seen as a father of somebody, that person is a son of somebody, that person is a husband of somebody, that person is an enemy of somebody, that person is a president of a country, or is the enemy of a country, is a teacher of somebody, it's like everything, unlimited way. It could be like the biggest karmic, biggest debt holder from another being planet, you know,

[44:46]

which he would be waiting to experience that. Kind of like that. All these excitements create this makeup. It's like we are completely a makeup beings. We are fabricated, therefore it's called a fabrication. Nothing substantially, inherently is there, everything comes due to the makeups. Therefore we go through changes, birth, old age, sickness, death, they come step by step, because it's not substantial, it is something, development of makeup. When the makeup changes, when we say the life changes means, certain kind of karmas are over, and certain new things are coming, which means new developments of makeups, new models are coming on. So, but the thing is,

[45:48]

we have trusted this makeup more than necessary. We have put so much effort, so much energy, so much time in trying to make this makeup so beautiful all the time. We got so attached to our makeup. So attached that we could not even give this time for ourselves. We have completely surrendered to our makeup. We have never given the space to oneself. Everything has become part of a contradiction. Either something you think, oh now I should paint something there, and no this paint should be a little bit lighter. Now who, actually who wants that happiness? It's the state of mind which wants to feel the happiness. But it's not there because we have trusted an insubstantial nature.

[46:51]

It's not that we have trusted our fearless, substantial nature. It's the fearless mind. The mind which is free from the escape state. That is the one we should be trusting. But we have never kind of paid attention to that state, and we have completely lost ourselves, and given all this effort, energy, time, and then become very crazy. Craziness happens because trusting into that makeup so much, and confusion. So now you see the endless things happening like that. Now what we have to do, now what we have to do is to really to know which to trust. Am I going to trust my makeup now? Or am I going to trust my state of mind which is free from the notion of escape, the state of fearless, that awakened mind. So you have to make that choice.

[47:54]

And you have to be serious making that choice. You can't be saying that, oh, I want that awakened state, and then just try to do it for a couple of days. Or just to kind of be a 50-50 person. When you do 50-50, then the result is 50-50. When you completely go for it, you get it. And you have to make those big decisions there. So this is the question you have to ask yourself. Very important. What do I want to do? How can I bring an end to my suffering, and how can I make a change in myself? It depends on which mind you trust now. The awakened mind or the escape mind.

[49:00]

If you are going to let yourself under the escape mind, then there is no end to be happy, to be enlightened, to be liberated. No matter what we think, that will never happen. And to follow a spiritual path, that's a very honest question. A very honest question one has to ask oneself. Which mind do I want to trust? And if you think that I'm going to trust, I'd like to be entertained, I want to escape, then you could do the old habit style, but it would not benefit you. You're not being wise and clear about yourself. You're deceiving yourself.

[50:03]

And if you decide that, okay, I'm going to trust my awakened mind, and I can see that very clearly, and now it's something I can't joke about it, I have to be serious, then you have been great to yourself. And from that time, you have to actualize that awakened mind now. And you have to press the button of the awakened mind. You switch off the escape mind and switch on the awakened mind. And actualizing is very important. Switching on that awakened mind. And when you do that, then there is a result. The result has come in the past to all the great teachers, like the great Milarepa, Marpa, all the great teachers in India, Tibet, in the world, all those great teachers were same beings like us.

[51:08]

They were the same person. They do have the same state of mind. There is not one minute lacking in between a Buddha and a Christ, or any one of them. Not one single minute is less inferior in us, and one minute is superior in them. Not a single difference. Equally, we have the state of the realization. But we have trusted our useless thing, the kind of mind which is trying to escape all the time. So we are here. We are still roaming in a wildness, confusion, uncertainty. We do not know. Now at a point, if you really look, it's so disgusting, we do not know what to trust. California is a place, you know, where the earthquake may happen. We do not know what to plan for the next two, three years. And even we plan, we do not know what could happen.

[52:13]

A Russian may come and attack. Or something terrible, if there is a fire danger. There is all kinds of things. But yet we keep on doing, keep on doing. Does not mean that one should not do. One has to live the life. You know, one has to negotiate, one has to live. But main thing, you have to make a change inside, that which is the most important. The spiritual path does not mean you leave your home, you leave your house, trying to go somewhere. And that does not mean spiritual path. It has many different ways. Some become monks, some become nuns. It's another lifestyle. But there is also path. It's not limited. The realization, the escape. The whole point is to overcome the escape. And monk is another style in overcoming an escape. And if you can deal it insightly,

[53:15]

you don't have to be a monk or you don't have to be a nun. You are just yourself and you do not completely surrender to your escape. And then you can overcome it completely in time. And that's the whole point of being a monk or nun. Does not mean that someone who is not a monk or nun, you know, and that's inferior. Wherever the awakened state is there, that is the greatest truth. It's the same thing. So the whole thing is to, you see, it shows a person, it shows a person not to escape. Ultimately not to escape, but at the same time, there is certain skillfulness which may appear like an escape sometimes, but there has been a realization ultimately with a true understanding. Even when one takes a monk vows in Buddhism,

[54:15]

there is a particular mistake in a monk which is called the Tsultrim Tultrim Chosin, to think that I am a monk, I am very special, you know, I am really great. And that, one cannot hold that. A monk who holds that cannot develop the true realization. And that is called the extreme of that thing because one is trying to escape, that one sees everything as something inferior and oneself as something superior. Where one does not see that one is, from the Dzogchen point one does not know that one is getting distracted to one's own energy, one is freezing oneself towards that point. Now this excitement, energy freezing, all Dzogchen nature, these are not shown into those other yanas, into those other schools. So you can be anything, but you should need a very sincerity in your way of dealing with your mind. You should not surrender.

[55:19]

You have to be fearless. You have to learn to be fearless. You have to be courageous. As I said, you eat everything. A Dzogchen practitioner does not praise a particular thought saying, oh, this is something I like and this is something I don't like. It's not a picky mind. Once you become a Dzogchen practitioner you are not a picky mind. It's only in the lower teachings where you have some kind of pickiness. But once you come to Dzogchen, it's called the teaching for the superior being, the courageous mind. It's the teaching for the courageous mind. It's the teaching for the fearless mind where you do not, it's very different. And when your mind is not fearless, when you do not have the courage and then you try to do Dzogchen, then it would not work very well.

[56:23]

You have to be courageous extremely very much into that. It shows so much in oneself, revealing of one's own nature, revealing the true nature of qualities within ourselves, of the full capacity of the state of enlightened mind. That's how the Dzogchen teaching manifests. So one does not give any chance for the escape of distraction no matter how pure or impure. When you do meditation, even you do not get distracted for devotion. You can be making a devotion while you do meditation. And also if you get devotion, if you get freezes, that is again another freezing in devotion. But that is like the now, in post-meditation, a skillful means to develop where we generate the devotion, where we hear the teaching, where we make, you know, we do not become crazy human beings. We should be good human beings living on the earth. One should know both ways. But you do not try to be too good.

[57:25]

We don't have to be diplomats for that. We just be honest and sincere, respectful to each other. That's very important. Not necessary that, you know, oh, you smile where you just superficially smile. Or you do things where you don't feel like doing and just trying to do. Maybe very few moments once in a time, you know, a person would not have this kind of notion at all if one has really experienced a true sense of sanity, that everything is a true compassion, a true sanity, a true patience. It's not a diplomatic patience. Sometimes you can make a mistake between a bodhisattva and a politician. So... A lot of times it happens.

[58:29]

So we have to be something very honest. And we have to be very, very honest, as I said. Very, very honest and sincere and respectful. It's the kind of world we are sharing. We have to understand that not everyone understands the enlightened nature. And not one shall also fully have developed within the stage. One is on the path to. And one should be very skillful in helping each other, respecting the environment. Those things are very important. Those are the teachings of the enlightened beings. That how we can heal and help and realize and liberate oneself. Does not mean that the Dzogchen practitioner eats everything and acts crazily, you see. That does not mean. One has to have a respect. And it's one of the most important things. Because if you act crazy, then... Because first of all, you will not be acting crazy if you really have a true sense of wiseness and wisdom. Or unless you want to manifest

[59:35]

some crazy wisdom, it's a different thing. But then you have a tremendous vision to see that, how it can connect. And that can be understood. So it's important that we should have a respectful and consider everything. But we do not surrender. We do not surrender. Insightly, you're eating us. All the time, you're eating me. But skillfully, you're also skillful in dealing with things. Because not everyone is in that state. So you've got to speak in their language. Like the bodhisattva yesterday, you know, who was taking that boon. Skillfully. Inside, he was not surrendering to such a state. He was eating up everything coming on. But externally, it's a skillful meal of communication. So all the practice, like what we're doing the fire practice, those are all skillful communicating with beings. So that they will have a tremendous

[60:35]

relief. And relief from their suffering also. And without a great sense of sharing and understanding, it is hard to understand the nature of their mind. It needs the support of the merit, which I said yesterday. But fundamentally, you see, inside, you have to be very strong. Externally, it's spontaneous. One even does not have to manifest. But one should be on the path. As negotiation, learn to be respectful. It's very important. Really, really respectful. And by being there, we share something in good. And person will feel, because most people are not in the state of free from feeling, free from emotion. Everyone is living in the realm of emotion. Everyone is living in the realm of thing. Even the person who does the practice on the path is living in emotion. Even a bodhisattva have subtle emotion also. But bodhisattva

[61:39]

have subtle emotion. Bodhisattva do not have a gross emotion. Bodhisattva have a subtle emotion. It's like a cup of a coffee. If the coffee is like the gross, which is the main substance of samsara, now coffee is not there. But you smell it, there is a smell of a coffee. But that smell would not last long. That is like the emotion of a bodhisattva. They have thrown out all the grossness. There is nothing left. Very light transparency is there. And something similar, you see, that in ordinary state, every being is a gross, so one should be skillful not to hurt beings. And those are all taught, the skillful, skillful, why skillful? Who need the skillful? Because we got to be skillful where people don't have, where living in feeling, you got to show, you have to express and have a concern for them, in that way you can also lead them on the step of liberation.

[62:39]

We have to think other beings also. What inside you are eating up, that is, you have to find that out. Inside you are eating everything, personally. Externally you learn to be respectful, but not that too respectful, trying to be too good. That's, no, we're not talking about that. So to understand really the nature of their mind, we can see that how much confusion and how much suffering is there, and how much bewilderment in our state of mind is happening, and restlessness. And the main thing is we're escaping all the time, and we have leaving each time we try to escape, each time we have missed our enlightened state. Every situation actually gives the opportunity for the enlightened state, but we don't see

[63:41]

that every situation. We just miss every time, because we escape all the time. So don't be escaped sometimes, just sit there, and then you will have a different experience. And that's what we're now beginning to discover, we're beginning to discover. But usually every time we escape, never given the opportunity, the space and time, let's put it time, the space and time to ourselves. Never given the space to ourselves, always stuffing it up, stuffing it up, busy, filling, filling, filling, stuffing, and all that kind of thing. So therefore we are stressed, we are tired, we are tensioned, we are frustrated, we are nervous, name it. There are a lot more names we can create, a lot of new vocabularies. And it would, even this whole room will be filled more than that. So,

[64:44]

so therefore we need to give the space and time, and and we have to now to balance, you know, balance, and to now to know the mind. And today again the same thing, as I taught meditation yesterday, in meditation it's very important to sit in a correct posture. You know, posture is very important. Without the correct posture, without the correct posture, the posture is the main strength. Posture has a tremendous blessing. A lot of people seem not to understand that, what a

[65:46]

posture can do. We just, you have to learn. You see, of course now we have to start somewhere. So we have to start, that's the thing. We have to start in the awakening style. So when sit in a, when you do meditation every day, it would be wise to have a open gown, like Japanese style. Those are very good, Japanese style. They have those long clothes, very relaxed. Tight pants make your muscles tense and it creates uncomfortableness. We do not need any uncomfortableness happening. That space is for you to be yourself, completely relaxed. So you put something very light and however is comfortable, convenient. And then you sit. And then you sit. And you let all your

[66:47]

senses, all the communications, the main communicator to our external world is our five senses. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, the feeling, objects, things, good and bad and good and bad sound, good and bad smell, and taste, which you like and which you don't like, and neutral, all kinds of things are communicated from our upper part. So therefore we have more tension in our upper part than the lower part. All the stress comes on the back part, in the upper part because the main communicators are on the upper part. If we have our eyes here and nose here, we would have more problems here. Since the communicators are here, therefore we feel the more pressure here on that part. And we did not know how to work with the mind. Everything

[67:49]

is experience of mind. There is not one single thing beside the mind. Not one single thing. And we did not know how to work. We call workshops. We did not know how to workshop with our mind. We did not know how to be ourselves. So the point of meditation is to learning to being ourselves. So you relax very gently. You relax all your senses. And then there is nothing extraordinary way of thinking you need in meditation. You do not need any extraordinary vision or light or something to be focused on. You just work simply by the state. For that, it's like I put yesterday, one glass of water. If you fill with the earth and if you shake the earth, then the water will be murky. That's how we are shaking our mind all the time. We are

[68:50]

making it disturbed. We are arousing that mind being disturbed. We are arousing many other things. We are arousing tension. We are arousing nervousness to come here. It's like invitation. The world restless state of the mind is invitation for other restlessness. So what we do, all those mental activity, all those arising phenomena become crazy when we get distracted and attracted to them. When we get excited to them, they become the main cause of our tension and stress and pain, dissatisfaction. So now one begins to discover and learn oneself in meditation that you let them free. You do not possess them. You do not dominate them. Our world's

[69:53]

concept of good and bad has been also a question at this point. What we think good as something being possessed by good. We like to believe good which is favorable to our style. And that style is again the style of makeup. And what we believe bad is again something which we dislike. So we reject that kind of phenomena. We accept certain kind of phenomena and we reject certain kind of phenomena. Constantly there is an accepting and a rejection and there is a neutral. But that neutral is not the state of the awakened mind. It is still a part of that confusion, rejection. It's something you just leave there and maybe someday you could use it back. So all the state of the mind we constantly interfere, constantly we try to hold them, constantly we make use of them.

[70:54]

Make the best take. That's the greed, the hungry mind. The state of the fear. Constantly use. Constantly make the use. Even your spiritual state at this time, at the beginning sometime. It's make the best out of it. The question of making the best out of it all the time in the restlessness. Heaven given us the space. We have missed the real essence of our happiness again there. So what you do in the meditation? You're completely relaxed. Even you're relaxed by the sense that whether you're relaxed or not. Whether you're happy or tensioned. Nervous or whatever. You don't give any seriousness or any deal. A big deal or anything to them. You completely let them free.

[71:55]

Because by dominating, by conquering, by trying to make a certain kind of rule and a certain kind of fence did not make us anything better. So now how one discover the nature? By not shaking it. And then you let your mind completely relax and let them free. And when you free them, there is something more than a word can express. You will have a genuine experience that how we can experience our true space. The mind which is free from being escaped. Something that's tremendous depthness which will come by step by step. Step by step and keep on doing. Step by step it will come. Day by day it will become clearer and clearer. The more space you may experience, the more clarity it will arise because you have not created that intervention, the invasion, the disturbance in the mind. So naturally

[72:56]

all comes and they are all liberates. Therefore it's called moment it arises, the moment it dissolves. Moments it liberates. There is no way. It's like trying to catch something in the sky. In an open sky, no matter what you throw, nothing is stuck there. So it's like free. You can paint a sky. You go and paint a sky. You can do it, you know, but it is just like that. Same thing. Everything comes. No karma because you've never given the distraction for that. No karma for the future. Everything is complete in its three kaya state. Total clear and clarity and openness. Therefore you can breathe. Then you can really express yourself fundamentally, your full capacity and strength. So the point at this point is one thing. You have to stay and this is very beneficial for you. I would not say

[73:59]

that immediately you will see the true awareness, the awakened state completely, but you will see in stage, if you keep on doing every day, your mind will become clearer and clearer and clearer and all the tensions and they will all dissolve. When the tensions and stress are the very source of phenomena of karma, all karma dissolves. The whole karma liberates into the space. Whatever word we use, dissolve, liberates, that's the same thing. They are they will all dissolve. Maybe at the beginning you may experience that they are coming and dissolving after sometimes the moment they arise, the moment they liberate. And this is how one should begin. you got to be, the way you sit, very relaxed. And then you do not disturb your mind, you do not try to interfere with your mind, you do not try to possess your mind, you just sit and just let them clean.

[75:01]

It's called the cleansing. We cleanse all our frozenness. We melt our frozenness in a way. We are letting our mind be in its pure state of openness. And then, instead you will have experience. So now please go out. Please go out and sit in the comfortable state and don't look at the sun. In meditation one should not look at the sun. When you look at the sun, the sun rays will come into your eyes and that will suppress a certain kind of openness. So one should face this back, back to the sun and look into the blue sky. When you look into the blue sky with the sun, after sometime you cannot the sun strength is so strong that you will not be able to radiate that amount of light from your side. So first we begin by facing the back side. And then in the middle

[76:02]

a certain strong concept which you are not able to deal with. Say a very strong peh! Cut it through. Peh! Very strong. And then one time, two time, three time. If you are not able to cut it first time second or third time you will definitely completely liberate that space. So it does not become a seed of confusion for the next stage. This is how we develop. So please go and sit relaxedly outside. If it's very cold then come inside. But if it's comfortable then be outside. I guess everyone has a lot of experience. And there will be many kinds of experience. And the technique

[77:04]

itself at this point is very essential. The technique is the wisdom which which liberates the state and eventually the techniques become the reality. And one should make the effort in the technique and one should not lose the awakening view. The view of the awakening should be well established. It should not be lost. The presence of that view is of the awakening state itself is that wisdom nature. When we lost that awakening state then again we are back into the old same habit, into the world, into the confusion world. So one should not lose the awakening

[78:04]

state of the mind. Now when we do meditation you see because we are so used to get distracted every experience we try to we try to reassure, we try to get excited. We say oh I have this vision, I have that vision, I have this kind of light, I have this kind of things I've seen, sound be here kind of things. And it sounds wonderful to have some to something to be seen. And we will see because the mind is ceaseless experience. It's not something we would not see. We would always see things which we have never seen, we will hear things which we have heard and which we have never heard. And

[79:04]

we can start that. And nothing is wrong in that at all. But a lot of time when we do meditation we are complete we are fully devoted into the discovery of the same language, discovery the preciousness of our awakened state. It's so precious because it has the strength of that greatest happiness, it has the capacity, the liberation space into itself, so it is the most precious. It releases all our suffering, it releases all our pain, it releases all the confusion. One sees oneself, one is completely oneself and one becomes simple and open and light. If there is a light it is awakening state.

[80:06]

And it will come when we begin to actualize that awakened state. But if we do not actualize that awakened state we would not experience that awakened state. And a lot of time we think that mind is something we do meditation and we look for the mind we look for the wisdom we look for the enlightenment we look for the happiness something externally we think it is there something you can search in this space, external space something you can look outside and you can find that's a lot of time it happens and one cannot find at all. It is

[81:11]

simply a restless an invitation for restless. The mind is basically by itself open and free by its nature its spaciousness why people use the word emptiness somehow the word emptiness does not sound very good in the western language because most people have preconceived idea what empty means. But by nature a tremendous openness, a tremendous spaciousness is called empty which is unobstructed by nature that is called emptiness. And that is by nature free, by nature it is expressive and release, liberated, expressive and liberated in its nature. So

[82:12]

it is so in a way it is simple and in a way it is the most complicated to me. Sometimes we have a saying, it's like the damaru clack clack one side and the other side. Just we need to do is to clack the other side, the vacant state. And there it is. But somehow we have the clack here and we are stuck here. And now with the meditation we are making the force to clack that side. And so it's not something we can find out. Looking for outside is not there. Fundamentally the essence is there. So when we do meditation the ceaseless energy which arises is primordially fundamentally is the nature

[83:13]

of the mind. The nature of the mind is not an empty something it's not something empty without nothing. The idea of empty what ordinary concept has like the empty of the space of this room or empty of the glass or empty of anything that's not called the emptiness. It's called the nature of three kayas in words. Means it has a tremendous light or tremendous energy spontaneously and that energy is nature by free. It's nature by wisdom nature. Nature itself is a wisdom ritual state of wisdom nature. So it's a ceaseless arising energy. So

[84:15]

in meditation when we leave our mind into its own state there is not one single thing which is negative. Everything is a by its arising it's liberated at the same time. But we because of our duality of excitement to our own energy we create that separation and once that separation has been created then we see many different things and then we get excited and we play with our own energy. We give them different names there are names of six realms there are names of three realms the desire realms to form realms to formless realms from the gods realms to the lowest hell realm to a better state of mind to a worse state of mind all kinds of things are simply

[85:16]

excitement getting frozen there actually. It's no more than that. Therefore those kind of excitements create so many different worlds so many different worlds spread out many layers of phenomena out of that. So we simply experience our general phenomena and personal phenomena of human being and even in our dreams we do experience that presentation of human. So there is no substantially as a human but simply our mind manifests as something like that. So now in meditation Tilopa 12 to Naropa Oh Sun You would not be caught by appearance you would be caught by grasping.

[86:18]

We don't get caught by our energy that's me but we would be caught by our interference and getting excited and getting frozen there that is grasping that grasping is produces that world confusion and freedom so therefore release the grasping release the grasping and experience do come in the meditation if there is sometimes your mind may tell you or is this right or is that wrong that itself is the energy you release that, that itself there that is the state of liberation so this is how we don't, what I mean don't shake the mind every spontaneous ceaseless arising energy we do not try to fabricate them fabrication is the grasping

[87:23]

and when we leave them to its natural state then the true clarity in time will manifest the capacity of the enlightened mind will manifest stronger and stronger in time because at the moment the full capacity we have a glimpse but we would not have full it's like the little bird who has a wing but cannot fly completely up in the sky by actualizing in time then one can fly completely up in the sky and that's how we are doing our different practices like purification, visualization and meditation all are like the practice so we could develop the wings of our awakened mind and we can fly by our awakened mind all over the space one can see the whole universe so

[88:24]

in a way it's simple, nothing to grasp Naropa told Naropa O son, you would not be caught by appearance but caught by grasping therefore release the grasping means every energy arises we get caught by the excitement and we get frozen if we don't let that frozen naturally that is the state of now-ness of Buddha nature but then again immediately right after that that glimpse is so little we may think that glimpse is for one second, not even for one second it is there, it is a fraction of a second immediately there is a sense now what's next, again you get frozen so one has to continue continue in time and then afterwards presence, clear from clear to clear and you can remain in that which is strong and strong

[89:24]

that's it thank you thank you

[89:41]

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