have any presence of openness, any presence of trust. It does not have any trust in themselves. They do not trust themselves, they do not trust the other people, they do not trust nobody. And then also, one does not trust oneself also, so we become very hard punishing ourselves. And it's become like, you know, just vulnerable mind. Anyone can do anything. It's like that. It's like we become so vulnerable that we have no power, no strength, that anybody can take advantage out of you anytime. Now once you build the strength of meditation, you have a trust, then you would not be taken advantage easily. And at the same time, you do not build your ego. That's not to say that you build your ego so strongly that no one takes advantage. Ego is always taking advantage. That's the one thing you should never understand, that having a strong ego means that now you are taking the advantage of others.

[01:08]

No, you are deceiving yourself. Thus again the ego comes into the space and splits you and again puts you in a struggle like that which constantly haunts you and constantly again, you know, puts you into the tight, tight stage. So there are many, you see, many ways to watch ourselves. As I said, we have to watch ourselves throughout the days our state of mind is functioning. Because right now, right now, most of the people are living in the realm of karma. This is a very real thing happening to you. You are living in the realm of karma and then therefore you have to watch out for karmas.

[02:09]

And at the same time you have come to the Vajrayana teaching, received many initiations, received many teachings to actualize that now on the path. So you do not live forever in the karma. You do not live forever in the state of this continuation reaction of struggle. You make a cutting through out of the state. And that cutting through comes from the Vajrayana practice or from the practice meditation, whatever you can say. And therefore, you see, it's cutting through from this chain of reaction. But, same time, we have a body which is a burden, actually, which is responsible. And we also kind of, this is a production of the karmic mind.

[03:13]

The mind is production of that mind. So we also treat this body in a very skillful way. So we need the skillfulness. And at the same time, we do not just surrender ourselves completely to the karma, you see. That's what, at this stage, everybody is surrendering to karma. Whether you know the word karma or not, But the nature of that karma is one is completely surrounded, not paying any attention to your one state, you know. And that's how you come to understand when you really understand the Dharma, you see yourself, you have never given any concern for yourself, any concern for what your happiness means, even you never understood it before, you see. And now you, for the first time, you really come to understand what is me. You know, something, really there is something, the way of thinking has been wrong. So you come to see that, you come to analyze, and you, by practice, you see the difference like you're taking the sugar. Now what is the difference?

[04:14]

Those will come by, you know, when you observe yourself and when you do not totally surrender to the karma. One should not surrender to the karma. If you surrender to your karma all the time, you will never get out of the reaction of this change. You have to be brave. You have to be brave now. You have to wake up from this state and you have to make a, you know... You have to be revolutionary. You have to wake up from this karmic chain and you have to break it out. And to breaking it out you have to know the view, meditation and action. The view of your nature of your mind which does not fall into any category of karma. which can allow everything, the space, which does not even have, you know, at certain stage, once you, at a certain time, certain stage, you do not even have the concept, oh, that is negative thing is coming.

[05:19]

It's not like that. He said, The mind, at the beginning, you understand, you recognize the thoughts. It's like the illusion. You recognize the thought. In the middle, it will be released by itself. When you recognize, then it's released. That is how the grasping is strong at this stage. That is how your meditation will be at this stage. You recognize. But it would not release like the twist of the snake. It would not release. Naturally, when it arises, it will not release because you are not completely, you have not break through that. You are still living in that realm of karma in a conscious way, in an unconscious space, close way to the self way. And then finally, it is like the empty room. Finally, it's like the room, you know, where the thief comes go into the empty room, there is nothing to steal, and we just stare and go. That's how the whole habitual grasping to the phenomena is dissolved ultimately into the pure space of Dharmakaya.

[06:22]

Then there is those kind of... Now these are very, you know, one or two, three words, you know. It sounds pretty easy, actually. You know, it requires, you know, it requires some great deal of practice and effort onto the path. But to come to that point, genuinely, one should understand the path perfectly, okay? And therefore I thought really important that, I thought this time teaching the yin things would be very important. Even you do not hear about meditation on this point, though I'm explaining how, what is difference, importance are. But you know, like it's important to pay attention, precious human rebirth. Important to pay, so we know the value, you know. We would know the fundamental value of our body. Fundamental value, we do not make ourselves like a shit. When we have no concern for ourselves, it's like we have no value for ourselves. We take things as granted. Then that is where all the suffering problem begins, when we do not know to value things.

[07:24]

And then even, you know, you receive a teaching from your lama, from your teacher, and you have a very sudden flash of enlightenment experiences, and you know, and then after a few days you just leave it, because you do not know how to value things. And it affects at that stage also to your practice. It will affect to that stage. And for that stage, you know, it was taught from the beginning that, you know, how important to pay respect, to pay attention, value to ourselves. Precious human rebirth is called precious human rebirth. It's not called a body for nothing. We seem to be taking it just like, you know, father and mother makes love and there you are. It's not like that. It requires tremendous karma just to get to the father and mother and all these things. It requires tremendous karma. And then to get to here, to deeply know oneself, it also requires tremendous... You just go outside and you know, you ask somebody, if you ask, are you living in the future?

[08:30]

They will think you're crazy to ask a question just like that, for instance. No. Are you living in your future or are you living in your past? You need to go to a psychiatric hospital because a state of mind is so scared all the time like that. So it is important we have to pay attention to those and understand the differences of the human dream. And there is, there is a human dream, there is an animal dream also. And we can be born into those realms also. Understand that. It's true. It's not that, you know, you are a human, you have the ticket to be human all the time. It's completely the understanding of the mind of fear. You know, which says human will be human. There are certain teachings, certain theistic teaching, which says that human will be human all the time and animal will be animal all the time.

[09:34]

It's a question of karma, you see. If you create certain negative karma, you feel very, very, very bad. You go through tremendous pain and suffering. Now why you have to go through pain and suffering, you know, if you are happy one time, let's put it, relatively happy at one time, and then later on you go through tremendous suffering, why the changes happen? If things are permanent, it should be like that forever. Since it is not permanent, everything is the nature of changing. Karma is due to change. So therefore, when we leave this body, corporal body, you know, this body is just like an element. It's just left and the mind goes out. And then the perception will experience simply like that, like we see in your dream. In your dream, sometimes you see your body differently. You have different forms in your dream sometimes. Some people see from different planets what they are.

[10:38]

Sometimes you see yourself, you know, as very, very funny looking beings. And those are the karma of the past. And if you see, like, especially the butchers, some butchers, those who are extremely, somehow, very negative, when they die, they make the sound of that particular animal they've been killing all the time before they die. So they're already seeing their perception, you know, the whole karma is coming to them to be their state. There have been many stories in Tibet when the butchers died, because in Tibet mostly they eat sheep meat and things like that. They make the sound of the sheep. before they die. It's such an intense karma, you see. And that's how we see things because of our own production of the karma.

[11:42]

And the animal's real. And look at the suffering of the animal's real. We think the animals are perfect. We think, oh, they fish, beautiful fish into those things. You know, they must be so happy inside those things. And because we think we all love them, you know, put some food onto them, you know. And then we think, now let's talk about the animals which are... We do not really think what is really happening inside. in terms of like pets, you know, pets, people have pets. And we think that they're very happy, we feed them. But they're suffering, we're constantly, we don't let them to go out. You know, we're imprisoning them. And they want to go out and we don't let them go out. And besides, we taught them so many languages, you know. We teach them to do like this and to do like that, and we beat them.

[12:51]

And those are the simple suffering, but inside they have their own fear, they have their own problem, duality as we do. They have the same nature of mind. They have desire, they have anger, they have jealousy, they have hatred, they have all the passions, exactly the mind. So the nature of the mind is same. Some people think, oh, animals don't have any feeling. It is not true. It's not, no, have no understanding in a state like that. They do have all the feeling. You love them, they can understand you. And you hate them, they will hate you too. Now what is that? Is it a mine or is it just a piece of stone? If it's a piece of stone, you kick it, it would not do anything back to you. But if it says there's a question of mind is related it will react to the same state because it's a duality state of mind. And then Whether we are born in human dreams, we go through this living in karmic reaction. Whether we are born in an animal dream, they go through this, you know.

[13:55]

And just look at the point. The point is whether we live in human dream, animal dream, the ghost dream, the demigods, the hungry ghost, the hell dream, whatever, the karma, we have intensified, we have created that wherever it projects. that kind of experience we go through tremendously and the chain of reaction of that circle, duality, constantly struggle, living in future, fantasizing, that kind of experience come continuously to us and never able to cut through that. So for that reason a spiritual path is needed. For that reason to get out, we need a medicine to heal ourselves from that thing. And we need the right medicine. So that's why I'm saying good luck, you have the right medicine. True. You really have to experience that.

[14:58]

You have to hear, you have to analyze, and you have to actualize. Those are the complete healing of oneself. By actualizing, we heal totally. It's like taking medicine. When you take the medicine, then you heal. When you do the meditation, then you heal. And once coming into a stage like that, now there are a lot of sidetracks. A lot of sidetracks. It's very important that the both person, there's the Sangha, there's this community, society, this spiritual society, the Dharma friends, each one should help each other, respect each other, and love each other. It's very important. And each one should love and respect with a true understanding It's not that, you know, what we do.

[16:02]

There is one called spiritual friend and one is called the negative friend. There are also, well, this is, you know, I will tell you that, there is. There is the spiritual friend is who will support you to understanding of the realization. and who will cut through the chain, support you to cut through the chain. And the negative friend will, to create your mood chain of the reaction, whether it may be very romantic or whatever it is, it is not very great on terms of enlightenment. So, but it's not that we have to see them as negative, just that, you know, one is cutting through and one is living in the chain of reaction. That is the point. And then complete openness. A very important trust is developed between the two open minds, teacher and the student.

[17:04]

And when that openness takes, the both sides mutually create the situation to manifest and work precisely on the state of enlightenment. And we all know, you read the teachings like Tilopa, Naropa, Pema Sambhava's time to Ishitsogel, to Guru Rinpoche, to all these great lineage teachers, you see, how Milarepa and Marpa went. And when that two meeting of the two minds begins, and it's a complete union, unity into those two minds, both are working on the stage, and it's the work of the doctor, the teacher, to put the medicine when it's necessary, and you're still ready to do it, and you're still... are able to experience that. And that's our tremendous, tremendous state. Trust is built on cutting through. As much as you build a trust in reaction, chain of reaction.

[18:07]

Two people, you know, fall in love, create this very romantic chain of reaction. or whatever, they have a trust into that. As much as trust is needed on the path of spiritual between the teacher and the student, otherwise teacher would not know what to do. If you are not open, we would not know what to do. And like in the case of Milarepa and Milarepa and the Marpa, the Marpa, Milarepa completely opened himself and the Marpa, you know, sometimes He went through all those difficult times. And that's how you may be going through a difficult time also. So watch out. And it's not going to be easy because like a child who liked chocolate all the time.

[19:15]

and how much hard it is for the parents to cut it through. Sometimes they beat them, sometimes they say, now don't take it, buy some toys, you know, show you. So like that, you know, sometimes the Lama give you some, you know, do some teaching and, you know, go with you and do things. And sometimes, again, you know, he may insult you, things like that, you know, that's dirty. And you have to be ready to just face those things. It's true. That's how the total trust, a true trust, trust is. When two people, you know, people love each other, they can take all the endure, they can endure so many pains and suffering. Like that, here what is cutting through, and of course there is no pain and no suffering from the state of the experience, but the way trust is based is something like that. God works on the stage like that. Now, so therefore, understanding it, we are able to, without any difficulty, able to change our attitude and motivation into the right direction.

[20:49]

And we would have the strength to do it. It's not difficult to do it, but the right attitudes and understanding manifests. It seems difficult to commit oneself to practice if one did not understand. But if you understand how, as I said, how this reaction of change, reaction of change is so vicious, then you have no difficulty getting out. And some people, as I put it yesterday, become monks and nuns, and some people are not monks and nuns. And if I see you, you know, really at this stage, why a lot of people, I'm not saying you have to become monks and nuns, you know, they're lay practitioners, great yogis also. But a lot of times, why we're not able to commit oneself, we haven't seen. We haven't really tried to live with the true experience. We always try to escape from the situation, live in a fantasy, create a dream, create a dream of heaven, create a dream in our life. All those things will happen, something wonderfully, and trying to escape from that.

[21:54]

So therefore, never really facing it. Now all the parents who become monk and nun, they face it. That's the great thing. They really face it. They've seen it and they kind of feel it's so disgusting, you know, just to live in this chain of reaction. So they completely renounce it. That is what they have seen. And now it's not that only a monk or nun can liberate. The Vajrayana has so many methods, even a person on the path who is not monk or nun can get liberated also by the profound instruction of the introduction of the nature of the mind. That is the particular quality of Vajrayana, which Hinayana teaching does not have. Though there are Hinayana practitioners also, there are great Hinayana, there have been great Hinayana realized teachings, but particularly this teaching is shown in Vajrayana, without abstaining the material, without abstaining the other side of your life which you are attached.

[23:01]

You are not ready to give up your attachment, but at the same time, a very particular medicine, pitain structure is shown to you by which you are able to liberate yourself. You get liberated unconsciously at that state. Somehow it's more like an unconscious state. Of course you know it, you know it, you do it. But at the same time, your attachment is strong that you're not ready to give up and you just do it and then it simply happens. So it's more like, let us put it that way, unconsciously happening in a way or to a very strong attachment. But of course, it does not happen in a complete unconscious way. It happens in time, that kind of grasping phenomena become less and less and less, then you see yourself clearer and clearer and clearer. It's not like a switch button. Here you have the confused mind, and the next moment is the flash of light. It does not happen that way. It does not happen that way. It happens again also over there in a very speedy recovery, speedy way, but speedy way.

[24:10]

So therefore, but it's a gradual experience. It's a gradual experience in the speed. That's the Vajrayana. Gradual experience with the speed is Vajrayana. Gradual experience without the speed is called Hinayana. It's called Mahayana. Mahayana has much higher speed than Hinayana, of course. But in Mahayana, to get enlightened, it takes three endless eons to go gradual experience. It takes three endless eons to get fully enlightened, that path. And in Vajrayana, we are talking one lifetime. Well, we have that medicine, everything you need in one lifetime, but we are not taking it, you know. We seem to be completely satisfied with the preparation and now not doing it somehow. We seem to be satisfied by seeing the food and not taking it. And then, of course, our hunger is not overcome.

[25:14]

So it's very important to integrate and integrate in life. That is the main thing. So we do not have any problem, you see, if our understanding is clear, then we have no problem in doing it. So, first of all, it's very important to have a true good heart and attitude. It's like the root. If the root is good, then the branch is good, the tree is good, the result is good. If the root is bad, the limb is bad, everything is a poisonous thing. It cannot be any good. So from the beginning, as I said, we generate the compassion mind. We just do it perfectly so that we do not damage anything and everything will be born there, will be medicine-ly. It would not be a limb of poisonous. And whatever the causes are, whatever the seeds we cultivate on the ground, similarly that kind of nature of the seed will manifest.

[26:23]

You can expect an apple fruit out of an orange seed. An orange seed will give an orange fruit, not an apple fruit. And those who do not understand karma, they seem to think that, oh, I can hurt that person and I will be happy. That's totally wrong. If you do that, you will get to the other side. It will hurt yourself. And it's wrong to think that way. Some people think, oh, if I can hurt my enemy, then I will be happy. That's wrong. If you hurt somebody, the chain of reaction will reflect back to you. To put it very simply, go next to the mirror. You smile, it will smile back. You cry, it will cry back. You just pray. And you can do anything. Just think that, oh, if I cry, then it will show me as something smiling.

[27:25]

Never that will happen. That's the power of the nature. And that's how. If you hurt somebody, you will be hurting yourself sooner or later. And of course, there's the basic hurt, which is the basic suffering, the prevailing suffering, called the duality, the prevailing suffering all the time. And the intensity of the suffering will be intensified at a certain stage when the actual karma takes place. There's the psychological karma, the mental karma, and following that mental karma, we engage ourselves in actual karma. And once that actual karma is fertilized on the cultivated ground, then it will come out. And if it's the seed of a negative, the negative will come and the seed of positive will come. No way to escape that. And those you understand through the teaching and you should now integrate that in your life. It's not that you heard the teaching and then you just leave it, you know. And when really a situation arises,

[28:26]

What the dharma teaching is for? For you to relate with the situation. It's not a theory, you know, it's not something, it's not something entertainment, it's to work actualize. When to tolerate when someone is bad on you? That is the time to tolerate, otherwise when to tolerate? And by following that path, by doing such, then in time you understand, insightly you experience, and your world also experiences, the peace. Wherever you go, there is a peace. Wherever you go, there is a communication. That begins because you have manifested. But if you start hating all the time, you start hurting them, and you think you are the winner, it's very wrong. And it's just like, very, very sad.

[29:28]

It's just like you see a violent movies. You see a violent movies and the drug dealers and they have no sense of respect and loss for their life. They kill and just look at themselves, how much pain and fear and suffering they're going through. And they just think that to hurt somebody, kill somebody, will solve all their problem. And it doesn't. Why? Because that is the nature of the karma. And if you do not know that, and you think that, you know, you just go to the, you know, some people believe that they just go to the river. A lot of Indian people believe that if they take a bath on a holy day, they are purified. Or, you know, or you go to the church and you confess next to the priest, say everything what you did, and it's purified. It doesn't happen like that. You have to work it out now. You have to build it and now your work is to do it.

[30:29]

It's your decision. It's your work. Nobody can do it. If you have made it, it is your work to do it. And now the point of the spiritual teacher's relationship, the spiritual teacher will show you the guide. It's a guide. That's all. It's a guide. It will guide you. But it's your decision. If you're not willing to make change, nothing will happen. Nothing will happen. And it doesn't work like that, you see. It doesn't work just like, you just, you know, and not knowing the right cause and effect, completely getting ignored into this nature, we do so many things, which brings a lot of pain and suffering to us in our life. We do so many things. We create pain, we create suffering to us, suffering to our friends, suffering to our society, and it spreads and spreads and spreads and spreads to such... You know, like seeing that movie, I wonder how many people were seeing that particular show, which I see a lot of pain and suffering.

[31:37]

Many millions of people are viewing that, you know, and kind of like that state. And it affects the whole thing. We project suffering, bring pains to our friends, to our family, to our society, and to the country. It's spread all over. It's like an epidemic. It's like an epidemic. And that's all because we do not know how to respect the values of our life and karma. Like they look at the war between Iran and Iraq. They think they can solve the problem by killing each other, but it doesn't end. It never ends. Their children are taught that hate, and their grandchildren are taught that hate, that the Iraqis are the enemy of the Iranians, and the Iranians are the enemy of the Iraqis. Each of their children's country, they think that. And even that problem does not end forever. And that is how the chain of this reaction of pain and suffering, things grows and we are taking birth up and down constantly.

[32:48]

And this is something, you know, truly you can see that how lagged the enlightened state is in this world and how much more confusion is there. And it is our responsibility to work ourselves in an enlightened way. You have to work yourself in an enlightened way Not in a confused way. It is your responsibility for your happiness and for the happiness for all. You should not work it in the ordinary way. And that is the karma. That's very important to understand. And the karma does not happen just... Karma happens by mental karma actualizing and then physical karma actualizing. And it requires tremendous interdependence. It's called the interdependent nature. The cause cannot mature a karma. One needs the cause like a seed. And then we need the secondary condition like the water, the warmth, the care.

[33:52]

So many things collecting together, then one thing happens. Just to have one flower, how much effort is put there? First of all, to find that flower. And then, you know, just that, and to have the gardener, I mean, how much, first of all, how much that gardener has to go through? Giving a birth, studying, understanding, not dead, it is there, you know, I mean, it's tremendous work. And then the place where you can put that flower, and the right climate, And the right thing, I mean, so much thing is inside, if you look, the force of interdependence. And to know the nature of interdependence is so important. If you know the nature of interdependence, you can make your life the way you want it. Then you will know the path, you will know your result, then you can plan it also in that way.

[34:52]

In a relative way also, you can know it. And then also you will know the structural point completely, clearly. You are not caught in your blind belief. You are clear what it is and therefore there's a trust. There's a relative trust and there's an ultimate trust. And now you're not caught, you know, no matter what people say, you know, oh, these are created by somebody else, you know, these are not there, it's just a story, you know, you think. You just bend down easily at that stage. You're not flaky mind. Now you have a, you can see yourself clearly. You would not be, you know, surrendering yourself to all kinds of stories people tell you. You would not be distracted, to put it that way. Distracted. It's a big word. It's not a good word actually, distracted. You would not be distracted to those sights which tells you to think. You have your clear knowledge, eye, to see what is there.

[35:55]

And then, and seeing the nature of the karma, interdependent state, you see. It's so, you know, see ourselves. The way we meet also, it's like a tremendous, amazing, you know, it's an amazing thing inside when we look at each other, the way we meet. It's like an amazing, it's like a really amazing thing how we meet each other. that we all come together. All this karma, so much force, we have put almost so much karma into this, countless karma, to happen this situation. Any situation, take countless karma. And to create the right situation, a state of happiness in a wrong situation, a state of suffering, can be done by ourselves, which we are doing. So we have to know in order to not to get caught into very painful experiences, one should know the karma.

[37:01]

Well, from the ultimate point, there is no difference where you are born, but there is a difference from a relative point. And we have to respect the relatives. And if there is a difference in relative point to be born as a human being and to be born as an animal, there is a big difference. The animal does not have the possibility, does not have the senses to hear and think and to be oneself. And then beside the human power, human being a human being, the human aura, the human energy is much superior than animal energy, so which the humans, you know, use the animal as a pet. And even if you kill an animal, there is nothing. But if you kill somebody on the street, you will go to jail. But if you kill a dog, you know, you won't go to jail. I mean, things like that, the karma, strength of the karma, the energy is so different. So there's a difference.

[38:05]

Being from a relative side is better to have a better karma. But of course you can get stuck in that karma also. It's very important. The highest merit is one who does not get stuck in the karma. One who is able to cut through the reaction of karma has the highest fortunate merit. Does not mean that if someone has a great deal of things that is the greatest merit. So we have to, you know, we have to work. That is called the working. Working means creating karma. And we have to know the right work. And for that, the right understanding is important in order to have the right kind of work. And it is extremely important on the path of spiritual. Because every one of us are spiritual, if you understand. Everyone has one primary goal. What is that? Happiness. Everyone has one primary goal. Whether they believe in spiritual or whether they don't believe in spiritual, there is one primary goal which everyone tends to think for a happiness.

[39:11]

And that is the goal of the spiritual. But to get to that stage, that is the difference. Someone will go to the right way and someone will go to the wrong way. wrong will we end up in a wrong direction, wrong direction, going to the wrong destination. And the right direction, that is what we have to, you know, hear, analyze, and then practice. That is the important. And that is the primary goal of every being, searching for happiness. From the tiniest ants, running up and down. Why? They think because they can find happiness. They don't run up and down just for nothing. They're in search of happiness. Everyone is in search of happiness throughout 24 hours. A search for, search for joy, search for something. But the only one who can have this possibility of enlightenment is the human being. Others do not have that facility, that karma to able to understand.

[40:19]

Animals can understand, you can teach them language. They can't understand. And in the devas realm, it's too pleasure. They cannot even think until they are coming to their death. And then it goes, it's too difficult for them. And the hell realm is too intense pain that you just cannot even think about it. It's such a painful thing. And hungry ghost is constantly, so much hunger is there. There is no possibility. So when all these things are there, and if you do not do it, do not take that opportunity, that is called the ignorant. So Shantideva said, when you have the body, which is like crossing the ocean of suffering from the boat, if you don't use it, then it's difficult. So do not sleep at that stage, he said. And so it shows, you know, We are doing all the time, yeah, to put it that way, okay, you're doing all the time something, right?

[41:22]

So do the right way, to put it easy. Do the right way. And it's very simple, just do it. Just do the right way. And to understand the right way, that's important. We, a lot of people think they're doing the right way, but a lot of time we don't understand what is right. We kill, we hate, you know, we do those things, and those are the wrong way. So do the good things. And then more than that, the insight, we just cannot be doing all the time. The insight of that particular thing is the striking force of meditation, cutting to the reaction. Now that is even more powerful. So that is cause and effect. And... the nature of cause and effect so yesterday we have gone through the four noble truths and this morning we have gone through the cause and effect and so now this afternoon i will explain on the uh the experience of different dreams and uh

[42:38]

and Bodhisattva mind. And then later on it will go much more, you know, preparing the stages. Then we go deeper and deeper into Vajrayana. Then the teachings on the energy, the teachings on the elements, the teachings on those things will be understood at much later stage, by step by step. So then please have lunch. Now we will take a lunch break here. Those are practice of mantra. or the Tantrayana practice.

[43:41]

And the Mantrayana practice works with the cleansing up our impurities from a psychic energy practice. It's more like a psychic force. Works with our winds, channels, and kegle, which is this essential fruit. So those teachings relating with the mantra yana teaching, it will come much later on in Yunten Tzu. But the difference level, just to explain you how does this mantra works, is kind of like a mystic sound. a little bit like a mystic sound. That's what these mantras are. The mystic sound able to purify, able to purify our channels, able to purify our energies.

[44:50]

Now, at this point, what we will go through today, this afternoon, is we will touch two parts. One is the refuge and one is the bodhicitta mind. Now we all know, we all heard a lot of things about refuge and a lot of people have taken refuge. And some people just put the, probably might see the refuge as equivalent to Buddhist baptism. Like when I, in Christianity, early age children take baptism. And some might see that the The refuge as a baptism. I don't know how does that relate to each other, but know what really the refuge means. I don't know what baptism means, but it looks similar in Tibet, because in Tibetan, at an early age, a child takes a refuge and given a name,

[45:58]

So it's similar to a child is given a name in the West by a church priest and then got baptized. And I don't know the meaning of baptized. But the meaning of refuge, the meaning of refuge is the refuge which you take from a lama. There are two kinds of refuge. One is called the refuge of causes. And this one is the refuge of result. The refuge of cause and refuge of result. Now refuge of result is to understand the three kayas nature. The dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya nature. Those three kaya nature is the ultimate refuge. Or to put it straight, to be able to experience the a nature of sanity, the experience of fundamental mind.

[47:04]

That is called the ultimate refuge. And the relative refuge, the causes refuge, is the refuge which you see externally, the Buddha, externally the Dharma, externally the Sangha. the Buddha which you see 2,500 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha, which we protect, at which we receive the refuge. And from the lama, from the tantrayana point, matrayana point, lama becomes the holder of the entire head, holder of the entire entity. So from vajrayana point, the ultimate refuge, I'm sorry, the relative refuge becomes the lama, which is the Buddha. And also the ultimate refuge is experienced by mingling of these two refuges, by mingling of your mind and the now's mind, which in some terms we could call it the meeting of the two minds, the complete initiation process takes place.

[48:12]

That is the ultimate refuge. A communication is built up, an understanding is built by both sides. That is the ultimate refuge. And relative refuge is also the building process. The building process is called the relative refuge. And the completion is called the ultimate refuge. So those are the differences between the relative refuge and the ultimate refuge. Now, taking refuge. Refuge is taken in the Hinayana path. and refuge is taken in the sutra Mahayana and refuge is taken in the Vajrayana also. Now the difference is There is some difference between those stages, how the refuge is taken, but ultimately the refuge is taken from the point so one can reach that goal of emptiness, one can reach that goal of enlightenment.

[49:22]

That is the ultimate view of receiving the refuge. And at the same time, there are also people, those who take refuge not to get enlightened, I'm sorry, not intentionally directed towards enlightenment. Some take refuge so they can free themselves from certain sickness, from certain problems, from certain fear they go through. They take refuge sometimes when people get very scared when they're possessed, or they think that they're going to get possessed. Then they take refuge for such a purpose. And it's called the lowest view of taking refuge. That kind of refuge is called the lowest view of taking refuge. Just simply to escape from the situation, one takes refuge.

[50:24]

And it's the indifference in the three categories, the superior being, the mediocre being and the inferior being. Now superior being and mediocre being and inferior being has nothing to do with how we look like or how strong we are. It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with physical. It has to do with the state of mind. the state of mind which has tremendous heart, in the west what we could say a heart, tremendous heart, who can, who is ready to work for so many people. It's called the superiority. And a person taking refuge on a path so that one would not just simply get out of this samsara for one's own purpose and happiness, but also that one would do something for others.

[51:29]

And that is the superior being refuge. And the mediocre being refuge is to is to work for one's own enlightenment. That is the hinayana refuge for personal enlightenment. Seeing the suffering of the samsara, seeing this tremendous chain of reaction, the circle of tremendous suffering and getting involved in this situation and having a tremendous fear having tremendous understanding that in the future also one could continue to experience such a state, so therefore you dedicate yourself towards such a commitment, so you can, by performing and engaging yourself in such a commitment, you will be able to get out of this state.

[52:32]

That is the Hinayana attitude of taking refuge. And now there's the mediocre being taking refuge. Now the inferior being taking refuge is simply one sees the suffering of the lower realms, one sees the suffering of the animal's realm, one sees the suffering of the, let's put it, hell realm, or other intense experiences in a lower state of, those are called lower realms, kind of intense experiences. And to escape from such a state, seeing that by creating tremendous negative karma one has the possibility to born in such a state, so we commit ourselves not to engage ourselves into those kinds of states. And then by engaging we are able to free ourselves from those lower realms and then able to attain the state of higher realms, which we can say like the human realms and the devas realms, the realms of tremendous pleasure, the realms of tremendous pleasure and tremendous

[53:49]

a joy for a long time, but necessarily mean that it's going to last forever. It would not last forever in the god stream. One has to come back. One has to, one will fall back eventually. There are many levels of god stream. And that is the inferior being taking refuge. Because now taking refuge, one commits oneself, one commits oneself not to kill, not to tell lies, and one does not commit, one does not engage into those actions, those thoughts, those speeches which will put oneself to authority. So a person does the right view, the right speech, the right action, the kind of practices one would engage relatively into a positive situation and then able to reach a state by that kind of performance and commitment.

[54:55]

So that is the lower kind of refuge. So the highest refuge, the most highest refuge is the refuge for oneself and for others, the enlightenment. That is the highest refuge. Or even in the state, in the state of Bodhisattva wine, There are different states of bodhisattva mind. There's a bodhisattva mind like one who does for happiness. First you think that I have to get enlightened, I have to understand myself and then I want to benefit all beings. That is the lowest kind of bodhisattva mind. In bodhisattva mind. It's the attitude like the king. The king thinks that in order to help his subject, first he has to have power and reach and everything.

[56:00]

And once he has the reach and power, then he can benefit his subject. That is the attitude like the king who manifests the compassion. Bodhisattva mind. and a person take refuge in such a state. Now basically refuge is not taken in such a way. That is the difference of bodhisattva mind itself to a bodhisattva. And then there is a bodhisattva like, bodhisattva like want to take care of oneself and others at the same time. Want to take care of oneself and others at the same time. that you want to benefit yourself, at the same time you see that as much as you want to benefit yourself, you want to benefit others. From that point of enlightenment and committing oneself towards that direction, not committing oneself, but simply by seeing the suffering of lower limbs, not from their state. And now the highest...

[57:03]

Attitude of Bodhisattva. This is interesting. Like in Christianity, Jesus said, I'm like the shepherd, you see. The highest kind of Bodhisattva mind is the shepherd attitude. Shepherd attitude, Bodhisattva. Who takes care of the sheep first and think of one later. So, this is very interesting. Very interesting. The shepherd-like attitude. If the wolf comes, the shepherd is ready to protect the sheep from the wolf, for instance. It's similar, you know. So that's how the shepherd-like bodhisattva mind attitude is the highest kind of bodhisattva mind attitude. And it has to be natural. You just cannot try to be something. And you can train yourself on that stage and those are the differences. So anyway, taking refuge from the most superior being point of view is that we take refuge for all the beings to that ultimate true understanding of realization.

[58:20]

not in a dualistic approach, but towards that true nature, which is the non-dual state of the realization mind. So now there are many different explanations on the refuge. One of the explanations is praising the Buddha. It says that all the beings, without exception, they all are caught in the chains of passion, in the chains of neurosis.

[59:29]

A new Buddha is a priest of Buddha. A new Buddha, through your great compassion, through your tremendous strength, you are able to heal them from their sickness of neurosis. Therefore, we take the refuge in it today. So there's a tremendous praise actually to that Buddha nature and actually if you go one word by word it's going to be very complicated. There's no way I can see that we can finish it. I'm trying to figure out.

[61:56]

Now, you see there is... there is... because of... because of so many different experiences people have gone through here in the West, And you have many doubts and many questions sometimes in relating with the hell realms and relating with the hungry ghosts and relating with those kinds of things. And I feel that there has been some kind of questions about those natures. So I'm not explaining much. the differences of the different states of those hell realms.

[63:00]

But it's important to understand that there is a hell realm. In Buddhism, it explains there is a hell realm. I don't understand that word, hell realm. Hell [...] realm. How do you pronounce it? Realm. Realm. Realm. There is, there is, it is explained in Buddhism that there is a hell realm. And the way it is explained, it is explained differently in Hinayana and in Mahayana. In Hinayana, it is explained in the teaching of Abhidharma, which is explained that the hell realm is underneath this ground. There is even a mile, how many miles underneath it? I don't remember, but there is the mile also, the depth, such and such mile underneath this ground.

[64:03]

The difference of the different hell ribs, the lower ones even more deeper than that. But this is a big question. We haven't seen it, you see. So we have to believe it must be true. But from the Mahayana point, we can understand what it means. From the Hinayana, it's very much a technical thing. It even explains meters. It even explains from the depth. Such and such meters down, there is such a place called hell. So it looks very physical. Very physical. It's like almost a direction from here to... India that you take the coast with the east and 8,000 miles or how many thousand miles it is there. And so it's become very hard because in the West, the mind is somehow trained for, it's not, in the West, the mind is very much trained in, we call two kinds of logic.

[65:21]

One is the deductive logic. And one is the immediate logic. The immediate logic is you see the fire and the smoke comes there. You believe that there is a fire. And that is a subtle deductive logic. To see a fire and to see the smoke is a subtle deductive logic. But to see that there is a help, People have problems in this country and in the West to understand it. Because you are condemned by the church so many times that you will probably go down there. So there is a great difficulty in the concept of hell-real. And the concept of heaven seems to be great because you are condemned so much down there and if you get to the top it's regarded as something great. So the intensity, the gap between these two is very big.

[66:23]

I had this feeling in the past. You have a very big gap in this country. So people constantly get problem in thinking is there a hell realm or not. If there's a hell realm, it's terrible because I have to go there because I'm not good. Because there is the original sin, the belief of original sin. So it's something like, it is the way to stop. It's like the restroom for you to, on your life, the next lifetime is like the restroom where you have to go one time anyway. Seems like that. And it's because of the original sin that that kind of fear manifests. And then even, I think from that point, people have a resentment in hearing the hell-rib, I guess. People do not want to hear on this topic, the hell-rib topic. But there is a hell-rib. There is a hell-rib because it's a creation of our mind.

[67:25]

It's not a total physical creation. Neither this world is not a total physical creation. This world is not a total inheritance by itself. It's a general projection. It's a huge projection of tremendous mind. Let's put it that way. It's a very strong projection of a lot of millions and millions of karmic strength. So, and it is as much as we can see this state, there is a hell realm like that state also. And of course, one would not be born in a hell realm state if one does not create the kind of karma to be born there. And if we create the kind of karma to experience that kind of state, then naturally we will experience the hell realm because it's a reflection of our own mind.

[68:27]

The human world is a reflection of our mind. as you see yourself in your dream, the reflection of your own world phenomena in your dream, as much as you can see the reflection of hell realm. As much as you can see the reflection of the cold hell rims, the hot hell rims. There are great descriptions of how the hell rims work. There's the boiling water and the chopping things. I mean, it's just incredible. There's a lot of descriptions of how hell rims. There are 18 classes of hell rims. There are 18 differences. How much difference in Kishin teaching is there? It's just one hell rim. Oh, there it is. The hot hell rims. Yeah, right. Except there's more if you're Catholic. They get X-Men. They get all 18. So this is what I thought about it. Yes. Yeah, Catholics used to have more punishment. It was the original. They're the original.

[69:43]

So, in Buddhist teaching is explained 18 different levels of hell realm. And now it is just the general explanation of the hell realm but internally it was very, very different. each being would have to go through their own different kinds of experience. Right now, in this room, we are about all these people, each one of us going through tremendous different experiences in our mind. Each one people hear teachings into their language, kind of, or something relating with their state of mind. And some may understand the hell realm concept and some may not, or some may just, you know, think it may be right, or whatsoever. But now, how do we come to know there is a hell realm? That is the question. That is something we have to understand. We have to find out.

[70:49]

Now from the Mahayana point, there is no such thing as inherited by itself. There is no origin to things. It is one's own creation of mind and it's a reflection of one's own mind. And by producing that state and engaging into that mental karma and that physical karma, then the whole karma is produced and the whole karma is appeared. We're able to see that thing. So from that stand, we're able to see a hell of a real. It's almost like a physical thing also. We could see that also. So the concept of hell dream, you know, there is no original sin, one thing. And I don't think so you will go to hell if you don't do certain karmas which will lead you to go to hell.

[71:57]

I don't think anyone can condemn you to go to hell. Because it doesn't work like that, simply put it that way. No matter, even one million people tell you go to hell, if you do not pray that karma to go to hell, you won't go to hell. And one million people say, you know, it's very interesting. In India I see this newspaper when people die and some of their family put their names in the, yeah, to our dearest such and such and the soul now pass into the heaven. And how do we know it is in the heaven? But it's a compliment, you know, it's a nice way of putting it. But even if you put it in the newspaper, maybe that's what they do in India, they put it in the newspaper. And even that is read by 300 million Indian people.

[73:00]

India has 750 million people. It's read by at least a couple of million people read that. And even as read by 300 million people, a person won't go to heaven if that person does not create such a karma to experience higher realm experiences or human realm experience or the devas dream experience. One simply would not go because someone said so. It doesn't work like that. If one million people are going to write in a newspaper saying that you are not hungry and you are kept without food for three days, even the whole United States people read that you are full, you will not be full. Just like that. No one can condemn. There is one thing no one can condemn. The decision and the whole thing comes by ourselves. There is nothing anyone can judge or rule over you. And that's very important to understand.

[74:02]

I guess this is why the problem is arising here at church. It does not show personal responsibility, which is the main thing which is happening. And instead, one is told that, you know, in the Christian teaching, one is told that simply because it does not show that it is your responsibility or it is the enlightenment is inside you, the responsibility is yours to make your judgment, your decision. It shows something, you have made something like an alien. And then there is no communication between you and yourself. So I guess there's a lot of things why this kind of confusion arises. I can understand, I guess this kind of discussion, we have to have a great deal of discussion on a topic like that. I just have a question, I don't know if I'm into that. No, no, no. I know sometimes we go and we get blessings from a more realized person, we get blessings, and you said no one else can condemn you.

[75:10]

On the other side, we get blessings. If you get blessings, can't we also get condemnations? No, no, it's different. Blessing is... Blessing is a communication of two minds. It's the meeting of the two minds. The blessing has to be mutually created. Blessing cannot be blessed if the other person is closed. It's a mutual creation. The other person also opens, and the lama also gives the blessing, and then the two meet, the two energies, the two meanings, the two energies completely mingle together, and then a new experience arises. That is called blessing. But it is mutual creation. And condemnation is not mutual creation.

[76:13]

And also it's totally different nature. It's completely different nature. There is completely a different relationship, different nature in condemnation and blessing. It's like communication, the complete absorbing of that energy. When two people like each other, love each other, there's a total communication. That is like a blessing, how that blessing works, like that things work and you are able to both work together, you know. There is a fundamental responsibility, you know, fundamental responsibility that you are able to actualize that blessing, that you are open, that you are willing to work. So therefore, that has become the interdependent state to work it out. and the right causes, the right approach.

[77:18]

You know, that's also, it's a very internal question, this is very internal. And now in a state of condemning, in a state of condemnation, there is no, you know, there is no, it's very strange because, for instance, let's say, let's say, There is no blessing, first of all. There is no blessing because it cannot be done like that, first of all. And I don't think so any enlightened being would condemn somebody, you know, first of all. A condemning will be coming from a state of mind which is not enlightened, which cannot know itself. So I heard that, you know, you go to church and some people, there are some priests, you go to confess and they say, help me three times and shut the door and go.

[78:30]

Something like that. Oh, there are many things that happen like that, you know. And now that... And also, I see that as a political game. Condemning to a state of hell-break is a very political power structure, domination, to put a fear in the mind of people so that people can just be there. There are a lot of fears are given to us. We have to understand that. In many teachings, a lot of fears are given to us. And since the mind is very weak, very vulnerable, do not have any trust in oneself, it's very easy to get afraid. It's like taking refuge in a magic, black magic. Those who are afraid of black magic, have no strength of their realization, will just do what the black magician tells, otherwise they're afraid because they don't trust themselves.

[79:39]

And of course you cannot trust yourself as long as you do not see yourself. So, There is a big difference. Condemnation cannot make a person go to hell. I can tell you that. I can give you a guarantee also. I can guarantee that you won't go to hell. And no enlightened being will condemn also because there is no such thing as condemning from the enlightened point. No such thing as condemning. But it's very important to understand, you know, actually how we manifest our mind, how we produce this karma. If we produce our karma in a very negative state, that creation of that mental energy, the psychic force, will manifest in a gross state, which will reflect the gross phenomena as a hell realm. So simply one will experience through tremendous gross phenomena as physical, almost physical, like this physical.

[80:51]

This is an almost physical. It's not a total physical. It appears to be like very physical. So it's called kunso, relative. There is not even the translation of the right relative, ultimate, what it means in English. There is no such word also in English. Right. There are many things in English that are not words. Relative, I will explain right now what relative in Tibetan means actually. But we use somehow the word relative. And then there is the word like restless. It does not mean that there is, no sorry, fearless. It does not mean that there is less fear. It means in Tibetan it's been chikpa mepa, means complete, beyond the fear, total absence of fear.

[81:52]

But in English it's like fear less. There is a fear but less. There is a fear because that's one original sin. No? It means totalling without fear. Is it? Fearless means without fear. Totalling without fear. It means that you've gone into your fear so that you've not been able to travel. Well, it's going beyond fear. That's what fearless means. You've gone beyond your fear. Yeah, actually this should be going beyond fear. Yes. But the Latin word has certain meanings. If you go to look through the dictionary, probably you've had many Dzogchen teachings, so therefore you're interpreting a lot of things in Dzogchen. No, no. The dictionary, fearlessness, absence of fear. Well, then that is perfect. That is true. But then there are many things like that I found.

[82:55]

A lot of terminology which is not there in the English language. Now in terms of relative. In terms of relative, what does relative mean? Relative. In comparison to something else. Relative to this. In comparison to this. It's like saying in comparison to this. In terms of like what? Absolutely. It has to be compared to something else. It means like relay too. It relays. Relays. Everything is based on relation. I see. It's more like interdependent. Interdependent. And always referencing to something else. It's like, oh, I'm here because that's there. Or I'm me because you're you. Or I'm in this room so I'm me. You know, it's that kind of thing. It's like the fear of falling over relative to the fear of death. Very small. I see, yes. So relative, what is really relative means, in Tibetan it's called kun-zop.

[84:01]

Kun-zop. Means, it's called all, kun means all. All is like all superficial. Facade. Facade. All facade. Yeah, all facade. That's called relative in Tibet. So it appears to be like a physical but not actually the reality is physical. So mind appears to be real but it's not real. The phenomena appears to be real, but not real. The dreams appears to be real, but not real.

[85:05]

is never real because the perception of the people who are perceiving that change that state always. The state is changed by every one perception. This is what we call the Theory of Relativity. Now this, the relative and ultimate is understood the different states. The relative and ultimate in an ordinary state of mind, this is ultimate. For dualistic state of mind, this experience, this present state is ultimate. One cannot understand and even cannot imagine what really ultimate could mean. So this is regarded, the whole experience of this state is like an ultimate experience.

[86:11]

But to a realized mind, this is relative. This is not an ultimate state. This is like, appears to be, it's called, appears to be, appears to be, on facet, facet, how do you say, on facet. It just seems to be like that, but in fact it's not reality. like the dream state. The dream state seems to be there. The houses are there, the mountains are there, the trees are there, you are there, your friends are there, your enemies are there. The whole thing is there, as much as it's there now. But it is in truth, it is there, it is not there. It's a reflection of one's own mind, a reflection of the perception of one's own mind. Similarly, the hell dream also works as much as it works to this phenomena.

[87:12]

The devas dream also works exactly to this kind of phenomena, to one's own perception, reflection. Consciousness reflects to oneself in such a state. So therefore it is called the samsara. You cannot trust something to a state like that. You have to cut through this chain of reactions. That is called the samsara. And therefore it's called the relative state. The whole state is called relative from the dharma point. The whole thing is relative. The old facade, the old facade of it. And living in an all-faceted state and completely taking refuge to an all-faceted style and then completely thinking this is ultimate is the biggest deception. It's the biggest self-deception. But now it seems that we are here, you know, our present experience is we are here and things are very real to you, your relationship with you, with your friends, with your, you know, life, job, everything seems so real facade.

[88:26]

I mean, it's so gross. So it's very hard for you to recognize how this is facade. Now question comes, how this can be facade? You know, it is so real. And it's very hard for you to come to that point, to accept that. Here is my body, you know, and it's so real. I go to next to the restaurant, it's Italian restaurant, there's a Chinese restaurant, it's so real. And that is my car, you know, I can hit the aluminiums and you know, all those things, it's so real. But that is as, in fact, that is as much as real as in the dream. There is as much as real that we experience through, you know, dream state. In the dream state, the car you can hit, the food you can eat, even the smell you can have. Talks, conversations, meetings, decisions, everything is done exact amount as much as you do here.

[89:30]

So there's no difference. Who experienced this dream state phenomena and daylight phenomena? It's your mind. No other than that mind. It's the mind. No other than that mind. But how does the mind get caught in such a state? That is called the attachment. Such a strong attachment we can understand. How strong attachment we have produced to believe this all facade into a reality. It's just attachment actually. Very interesting. Is there a situation of mind where there's no reflection? Without reflection? That can have a state of non-reflection. Yes, there will be state of mind. Unconscious state of mind does not have reflection.

[90:34]

I mean even the awake state of mind, does that mind have a natural reflection? Awake state of mind has a tremendous... its reflection is not in a duality sense, not in a dualistic sense at all. The Buddha nature is completely all the time in Dharmakaya nature. It has nothing to do with the entertainment of the reflection. I would not say reflection at all. I would not say there is any reflection in that state. What is there, there is a spontaneity. Spontaneity, that is the difference. Though the enlightened state itself in the unmoved state of the presence of nowness all the time, the presence of nowness is never distracted and never caught in the reflection. Is reflection what creates the relative?

[91:40]

The reflection creates the duality. Reflection creates the duality, yes. There is a reflection, and once you get excited, it's a reflection. And once you get attracted, and when we try to hold that reflection, we try to grasp that reflection, we try to capture the reflection, and we create our territory. And that is the reflection, yes. There is no reflection in the present state of total nowness. There is no reflection. But as I explained many times before, the present state of nowness is like the sky mind. It allows everything, it has no judgment. And yet the person who experiences tremendous bliss because it's the true nature of the awareness.

[92:45]

It has tremendous bliss and tremendous lightness inside. And all these reflections at the beginning stage appear like bubbles. That is the kind of experience one goes. Appears like bubbles. The old, the old facade bubbles. Reflection is, you see, this is reflection, you see, this is reflection. And the reflection is, you know, now, reflection I'm using from the point, the word reflection also, of course, the unlimited how one can explain, reflection is a duality point. But that does not mean that a Buddha would not see things, you see. It does not mean that in the presence of nowness there is nothing. It's not a question of nothing or something.

[93:47]

It's a question of total dissolving of this bubble-like alpha set. This is like, the dream is like a bubble. And at a certain stage, when a person reaches a certain meditative state, then this bubble-like phenomenon...

[94:08]

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