As I said, you know, sometimes we really don't know who we are praying for whom, whether we are doing a favour for ourselves or not. It will be a favour if it's done openly, but it can be also tricky. It seems to be a way of reaffirming the image by fear. And it can also be, you know, the notion of, in Buddhism, Buddha is not the notion of creator. And also the notion of creator, no matter whether one relates Buddha as the creator or God as the creator or Bhagavan or whatever the source of creator, that also seems to be the notion of escape, it's the notion of escape.

[01:10]

It's the notion of escape, it's the notion of blaming the situation to others, that you do not take direct, that you like to hide somewhere and you want to blame somewhere behind you that that person did the whole thing, that you don't want to come out of your hole, that you want to create a safety nest, some kind of safe nest, under the ground or in the hills or on the trees or wherever, that we are constantly looking for. If someone finds us on the tree, we run down into the stream, and if someone finds us into the stream, we run up on the mountains and make a nest, and if someone finds us on the mountain, then we will go to, and the last thing we will do is we will go to a church and then we will put on the spiritual disguise. So we think that we become invisible, so we always try to search.

[02:15]

I'm not criticizing, I have respect for temples and monasteries and church, but that's exactly the point of temples and monasteries, to liberate the mind. It's not discursing and hiding, it's not a seek and hide place. So we are constantly trying to run away from the situation. So it's not really coming up and saying, here I am, it's a way of, it's a mentality of very poverty and a fearful mentality, which is naturally created by the deception. At the same time, it doesn't have the expression of fearlessness to face the situation. So we could say that we are missing a lot of situations, working with those situations. So it's very important to understand, from the Buddhist point of view, that you are,

[03:31]

you have seen, all of you have seen lots of mandalas, which symbolize one's self, which symbolize one's presence. It's not the presence of that grasping image, it's not the presence of that frame of the space, it's the presence, the mandala symbolizes the liberation of those frames into the space. All kinds of existence, of karmic existence, all kinds of existence of our neurosis, that is the symbolic of the paintings on the mandala, and one's own visualization and working with those particular situations, skillfully, with the wisdom, skillfully and with wisdom together, bringing it together is the work of all those mandalas. And the whole thing is you are the center and the main thing of the mandala. So in that way, you are not playing any more this secret hide. You come up, and there you are, and you work, and you bring your wisdom and your skill,

[04:39]

and you work with that, with the whole situation, which is wonderfully presented to you, which you have, your chaos and your neurosis. You could wonderfully work with that, we have already the material to work with. You're not lacking, you don't have to borrow scriptures, you don't have to borrow ideas or scriptures, you can just wonderfully work at that level. So, that's very important. That is your reference point, that is it, that is the main thing, that is the reference point. So, so I guess we could begin a meditation with our breathing here.

[05:45]

The main thing seems to be the reference point, which is the meditation, skillfulness, working with our situations, all kinds of situations, and that seems to be the most important thing to keep in mind, and to work, that's the reference point of where we begin with, work with. And that's the greatest present from the lineage, the greatest thing for you, which is the greatest present for me also, my teacher with the package. So, now is there any particular questions you have, any questions?

[06:56]

It's a silly question, what you just said, you're saying the reference point is the breath or whatever you saw. Reference point is breath, reference point is visualizations, reference point is the mantras, reference point is all kinds of working situations, even we could have a cup of tea with somebody, the whole life situation becomes a meditation state. And after some time, that whole, even the process of trying to do something, that reference also becomes liberated, and there's a celebration of great liberation, which is the absorption state. In a state of meditation, you don't want to change your reference point, do you? No, you don't want to change, at the same time you change. You don't want to change, but you change. Because it seems like you could just escape, and you could say, oh, this isn't working,

[08:08]

I'll do something else. Yeah, I didn't mean that change, you don't want to change from your reference point of working, but you change in liberation. So you don't want to change, you just change, that's what you call the discipline, doesn't seem to be a hassle anymore, some kind of abundance of, you know, punishment, abundance of some kind of way to uptight you, but it seems to be opening up itself, many possibilities shows up itself, so, and that is the possibilities of liberation. Yeah? So today, today is the very special day for me and all of us, this day that is anniversary of my teacher, His Holiness Bhishma Rinpoche, he passed away about two years ago, and traditionally

[09:18]

it's a day that we do practice, which is a reference point of skillfulness, to make some progress in meditation and action. So, we do traditionally some Gana Chakra practice, and symbolically we offer like candles light, which is an inspiration of light, inspiration of illuminating the mind, and offering of Gana Chakra, which you might not understand, but we could all just do it together this afternoon, and His Holiness, my teacher, has been, has contributed immensely for the whole

[10:25]

humanity, with his entire works, with many different, great deal of teachings from all levels of skillful and wisdom bringing together, from the practice of Hinayana to the practice of Maha Ati, regarded as the greatest teacher of Maha Ati in Tibet. And, so it's a very important, very important to celebrate with that wisdom realized in Buddha. So, this afternoon, we're going to do some Gana Chakra Puja offering, so those who like to sit, we have two rooms, there's other room they can have a sit, and those who like to

[11:29]

come and do the celebration, then you're most welcome, and we can do it together here. And, as mentioning of brief history of His Holiness, he was born in 1904 in Tibet, and there were many extraordinary events took place since he was born. And, naturally, he was regarded as the manifestation of the Padmasambhava, who is the second Buddha himself. Buddha Shakyamuni himself predicted that after eight years of my prayer nirvana, in the lake of Danakosha, which scholars believe to be in Afghanistan today, the Swat Valley,

[12:29]

we're not exactly, precisely clear whether it's Afghanistan or in Pakistan, but many people went and found it is in Afghanistan. But all this Middle East country used to be Buddhist at one time. If you go today, if you go to Iran, and if you go to Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are great monuments of Buddhas still on the mountains. That's what I heard. And I guess some of you might have been there. Have you been? Yeah. So, there are many great things like that. So, predicted by Shakyamuni Buddha himself in the Hari Nirvana Sutra, clearly the reference was there. And these are the historical events that took place in the lives, over the time changes in the mankind. So, during the 8th century, when Padmasambhava came to Tibet, it was Padmasambhava who brought the whole Mahārāti tradition, the Dzogchen tradition, the Vajrayana tradition to Tibet.

[13:34]

Without Padmasambhava bringing this teaching to Tibet, probably, you know, all this thing would not have happened. So, that's a very, he's regarded as one of the greatest kindness in the history of Vajrayana and the history, definitely in the history of Tibet and the history of mankind today, spreading all over. We are able to be ourselves without any, we could completely free ourselves, we could completely liberate ourselves without any source of transcending all kinds of notions, all kinds of phenomena. It's through the teaching of Mahārāti, in connection with the teaching of Mahārāti. So, and at the time of Padmasambhava in Tibet, Padmasambhava concealed many great teachings

[14:40]

which are known as the Therma teachings. The reason for all this concealment was not simply he liked, he had enough of time to and, you know, just hang over and put some of this thing as some kind of magical tricks, but it was purely meant for the preservation of the teaching as it is, because over the time, sometimes, that we know in our world we have all kinds of people. We have people like, who destroy the world like Hitler. And we have people like, in Tibet, there's been a king called Lang Dharma, who destroyed the Dharma in Tibet. Almost, almost he came to the verge of destroying completely. King Lang Dharma was one of the, I think this was in 10th century or something like that. He destroyed the teaching completely, almost completely. And who was able to bring the, survive the teaching was the monkhood was completely, almost destroyed.

[15:41]

Only one monk was left at that time in the whole Tibet. And he, and he let the monks at that time disrespect the monks and he made them like riding on the horse, the monks have to bend down and then he let them, like the bending to support your leg to ride on the horse. I mean, he completely disrespect, totally destroyed the Dharma. Almost destroyed the Dharma. He came to the verge, 10th century. And now who was able to keep the teaching at that time? It was the lay practitioners, those who are called yogis. Outside remaining simple, you know, just like us. We go to North Stone and we go to Macy's and we go to Burger King and we go to McDonald's. You don't look something strange, you don't look anything.

[16:41]

Maybe with my dress, but I don't put on a dress like that. And at that time this great yogi called Thalung Phalke Dorje, his name was Thalung Phalke Dorje, was into the mountains during his practice. And the Yidam did his vision and predicted him that if he doesn't do something, this king is going to destroy the whole Dharma. So then, at that time, at the time when he was dying, Thalung Dharma said, either it has been one year early and two years late. If he still would have lived one more year, he would have completely destroyed the Dharma. And if he would have died two years before, if he would have died before two years ago,

[17:48]

then the Dharma would have survived, more than that. But anyway, the whole teaching was preserved by the lay practitioners, those who were in the mountains. So their power, the yogi's power was incredible with the enlightenment of the wisdom nature that he was not able to destroy the Dharma. So then, things like that, for this many various reasons, the teachings were concealed into the space, into water, into earth, all kinds of things. And they are known as Therma teaching, what we call today rediscovery teaching. And my teacher was one of that lineage holder of Therma, who is called Therton. He was a Therton of this particular century. Each century had different Thertons. And sometimes, I guess, there are more Thertons. But during this most recent time, he was called Therton Lijung Lingpa, who was my teacher. So in his lifetime, he wrote about 22 books.

[18:53]

It was not an author book, the way we would just write by our emotional state, but these are coming from the space of the wisdom to each teaching, each one contains the word of enlightenment, which is called, what we would name as precious Dharma teaching. So all these books, each book contains like 300 pages, 22 books, which is plenty of, plenty. One can read three pages and do it for the whole life practice. And one can find complete realization out of that. So from levels of all kinds of things, from medicine, from visualization, from the highest Mahatma's teaching of Dzogchen. The whole thing, complete set, complete set of teaching.

[19:56]

From the Vinaya practice, to the Bodhisattva practice, to the Vajrayana, Vidyadhara practice. The whole thing complete inside. Incredible, great contribution that someday when you get a chance of reading those things, you may find out more than what I could say here. How do you translate? It's very difficult. I'm translating one book right now, so it's a tough thing, and it takes a long time and it's lots of work to be translated. And it will take, to translate all these things, it will take a couple of hundred years. It's not easy to translate, very difficult to translate. Because if you make one mistake in the word, the person would have absolutely out of the track. So you have to put the meaning in translation, has to go the word and meaning together. It's very important. The word is there, but if the meaning is missing, there's not complete translation.

[21:01]

The meaning, the word, the whole thing has to go together. And that's why it takes a long time. So, he teaches tremendously, and as he was predicted in the Ratna Lingpa, the great term called Ratna Lingpa, and all these teachings, the Therma teachings by Padmasambhava were concealed. They all explain about when Duryodhana Lingpa would be born, and where he would be born. He was born in the place called Pemakur in Tibet, which is pretty close to eastern India or somewhere. It's next to Tibet, it's called Pemakur. And as a matter of fact, there were many extraordinary, powerful events took place when he was born. Sometimes it's hard for us to even believe that things can take place like that.

[22:05]

But however, it was very extraordinary at the age of five. At the age of five, when his Holiness was born, at the age of five, as he began to study his first thing in Tibet, one studied, as everywhere in the world, one studied reading and writing. At the age of five, the Tibetan writing is not like other writing, it's very complicated. The art of Tibetan writing is one of the most difficult things in its beauty, in its calligraphy. It takes sometimes six years to study. I studied for two years, just the writing itself. There are about nine different levels of writing. It is tremendous art, it is. Each moment you move your fingers, basically it doesn't mean much. At the same time, it is a way of art. So however, at the age of five, he completely mastered the whole art of the language,

[23:06]

the whole art of this reading and writing at the age of five, which was very unusual, you know. It was a sign of a total realized being. And at the age of seven, the next day, the wisdom deity, Manjushri, appeared, and his teacher has nothing to teach him. At the age of 13, he gave the greatest initiation, called the Rinchen Terze initiation, which usually takes very lots of preparation, at the age of 13. An extraordinary revelation of teachings, you know, constantly took place all the time. So it's the lineage of those teachings. That's the skilful reference point, actually, all those things. And we all have the same capacity, actually. The whole wisdom space is filled with wisdom. But something needs to be opened up. That's his own picture. There is his own picture over there, who is wearing the eyeglass.

[24:09]

And he traveled to America. He traveled to America. He came, I guess, a couple of times. And there was a center for him in New York. And in 1983, he was going to give a great teaching, a Consoction teaching, which was my first visit to America at that time. I had a so rough time getting my visa with the American Embassy in New Delhi at that time. It's almost like getting through the Bardo state. I think it wouldn't be even difficult getting through the Bardo, as much as getting through the American Embassy in New Delhi. I said, He said, You are a lama. How do I know you are a lama? I said, You have to believe me.

[25:18]

How else I can show you I am a lama? It's not written somewhere, you are born a lama. He thought, I am just one of those guys just going in. So anyway, he looked at me, and he was a little confused. But usually, in India, they don't give visa to people very much. They are very restricted about giving visa to people from those countries. Since I hold an Indian passport, that's a difficult thing. So anyway, finally, he got a little cool. When they give you a visa, then they begin to show cool. But before that, they are immensely in a red from manifestation. He was absolutely in a red from manifestation. He was screaming at me, How do I know you are a lama? So then, he gave me the visa.

[26:21]

And so that was the first time when I came to America. My first exposure to the West. I guess the whole karma, in a way, started to unfold to me at that time. It was unfolding my karma. I came, I spent six months in New York. I came to California to see one of my pental, who was in Palo Alto, for just two weeks. I really liked California after coming from New York. It was like a big space, already a space. No more that pressure of New York City, the police sirens, day and night, which is actually nice, but sometimes you can take a space too. So then, His Holiness gave the teaching there. Those who were able to come for the teaching were very fortunate.

[27:28]

And then, that was about the last teaching I heard from His Holiness. In Nepal, I received many teachings from my teacher. In Nepal, I spent two years with His Holiness. From seven in the morning to seven in the evening, I was the only person who got it. It was a great, very, very fortunate for me, very kind to His Holiness, grace, that I was able to spend the whole day with Him. And I used to get tired after some time, I used to think, now when can I go? He was working like seven in the morning to seven in the evening, writing and doing all these things. He was like about 79 years old. And I get exhausted, he doesn't get exhausted. I was thinking, when can I leave the room? And now I wish I could spend some more, you know, for instance. So, it was a great, rare opportunity. And then, during His life, He gave many teachings.

[28:34]

Many students become liberated. Many students form the realization. And so, in 1986, I guess, 86, 87? Is it 87? 86, 86. His Holiness passed away in France. He was about 82 years old at that time. 82 years old. And I was in Nepal. I was, it was very, it was, when I heard His Holiness passed away, it was very sad, because we were really, the whole world, the whole world became in some sense empty

[29:37]

when a great realized teacher passed away. At the same time, it was a very powerful teaching for all the students to now really to, you know, now to work it on by yourself. It shows that no one will be there all the time. You have to be prepared by yourself. And that's what, you know, we all have to keep in mind, that we really have to prepare ourselves and to work it on. When we have the opportunity, this kind of great opportunity may not happen in the future. I think it's difficult, really difficult. We never know when and how many times, you know, really we will be able to meet and do practice together. We don't know. So when we have the opportunity, we should make it a great use of our opportunity. So then, after that,

[30:39]

I saw His Holiness one time. And then the day... Like they do, you know, many realized teachers from their own level of realization, as I told the story about the Punda Khyampu yesterday, like Milarepa, once you become, find your liberation, there is no fear. It says that wisdom has the power. Even the whole universe is falling down, there is not a single fear. That kind of strength, that kind of realization is there. So... So there is nothing for... There is no need to create some kind of prayers for their peace.

[31:46]

The whole prayer, as a reference point, skillfulness, is to open our inspiration and open skillfully to develop our path and our practice. So it's entirely meant for the student's benefit. It's not meant for the teacher or to him. It would mean for a person's benefit, like someone who needs the support. And who needs the support is someone who is in a chaos, or some kind of difficult situation. Not necessarily a big chaos, some kind of difficult situation. Needs the support, and the support helps, because it's interdependent also in that phenomena. Until the mind absolutely finds liberation, everything seems to be kind of resting. The point is resting. Everything seems to be like something... There is a reference point of resting. There is something of relaxation. We say, could you come and be my company for a while?

[32:50]

You take someone for, you know, go with someone, take a walk or whatsoever, go to see a movie skillfully, and it's given resting. Resting to oneself, resting to death, as long as the mind is absolutely free. But once the mind is absolutely free, that kind of support is not needed. But that kind of support becomes very beneficial as long as we are on the path. That's called the path. We are on the reference point. We have a notion, and the whole notion seems to be important to have some kind of support. And that's the support of the Sangha, and that's the support of your situation, which you create. That's the support which the teacher creates in the situation, and the support which the whole world creates in the situation. Your family creates the situation. Your country creates the support by giving you a passport, identifying you. And the other country gives you support by putting a stamp of visa on it. So things like that, all kinds of situations, which seems to be some kind of resting,

[33:55]

making us more relaxed, more thing, which seems to be good. But at the same time, that's not the rest where we take. We need to find the, as I said, really ultimate state. You know, there's a lot of difference. There's something more deeper than that. So the important thing is to have the clear vision, and at the same time, open. I think it's very important. Otherwise, you're not sure what you're doing for whom, as I said. So... And those... Tonight we will... Today we have new people, and for everyone, those who came today, we would like to show in the afternoon, after the Gana Chakra, we will do our practice again, teaching practice. And then after that, we will go to see

[34:58]

how the process of the whole movement of the life takes place, which includes our death and birth and everything, the whole situation presented to you. And this one is Karmapa's passing of ages, which there is a documentary made, which is called The Lion's Roar, and you can see that in the evening. So... I guess now you can take a break, and please take a walk and refresh yourself. We discussed yesterday... ...that we seem to be the main focal point, ourself. That we are the main...

[35:59]

...reference point, working point. And continuing that... ...continuing that reference point... ...continuing that... It's kind of clear, you know, it's clear that once we are able to see that we are the reference point... ...we can see that in two different ways. Actually seeing oneself as the main,

[37:01]

like the center of the mandala, the main reference point. And... ...at the same time, there is a... ...way of working out of that situation, the situation of samsaric experience. So there is this critical reference point. The reference point of acknowledging oneself as the center of that structure, who creates that structure of whole situation, the whole geographical situation, that we create our own geographical situation. And the reference point, how we can work through that... ...which... ...which is... ...the main reference point

[38:03]

of the skillfulness and wisdom bringing together. And we also come to see clearly that... ...that we create our own geographical structure. We created the geographical structure of our samsaric experience. Whatever, each person's different... ...little different things, your different day, or your own different specialties, or whatsoever, your own geographical things, which we created... ...by ourself. We created our own ego,

[39:03]

our own deception, ... we have made it, we have made it... ...by ourself. No one else did that. No one else has made our ego, our deceptions. So we created the whole geography. And we came to... ...we came to realize that... ...that kind of situation we have...

[40:11]

...created for ourself... ...is not really that wonderful. We created and we try our best to survive. And... ...obviously, things seem to have gone wrong. Somewhere. So...

[41:17]

...it's very painful. Nobody says, nobody proclaims, so nobody says. There is no external thing saying it is wrong. The whole thing itself is just painful, and it's where it hurts. It hurts to us... ...every day. Every day. We say, I'm not happy today. I don't feel good today. I feel depressed today. The whole thing hurts. Something personal experience, something your own experience. And nobody...

[42:30]

...nobody created that. Just... ...oneself. We created. We exist in because of our own. We created those geographical situations. We created those geographical situations. So now... ...the main... ...question... ...comes... ...how we can get out of that mess. Or how we can get out of that... ...obviously, that situation which creates that very personal, hurting situation. How we can overcome, break through that situation. How we can break through that situation. So...

[43:35]

...there's a glimpse of some kind of panoramic view. A student who developed a great deal of practice, or have a clear mind... ...can see the whole situation clearly, or a student begin to see those things step by step. Begin to work. Begin to see the situation one by one. So we... ...start from a fundamental level. So... ...we begin to see how those situations have produced, and how they have manifested. And to work on that level, it's very important to work with the teacher.

[44:40]

Without that teaching, there is... ...perhaps there is no way to find the way out of that situation. There is no way of... ...knowing the situation, and no way of working with the situation. So even you are that center of that mandala, you have created the whole situation there. So the teacher is someone who supports you, who comes and shares with you in the middle of that mandala. In the middle of that mandala. The center of that mandala. He comes and supports you. Supports you on your journey towards liberation.

[45:59]

And shares with you. And creates all kinds of situations for you. From doubt to untouched. From all kinds of situations.

[46:20]

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