CHANTING Chant Chant Satsang with Mooji For people who have just arrived, there's some space on the floor over here.

[01:38]

Thank you. So for this afternoon's session, we'll be taking a look at what is a fairly standard practice of Vajrayana Buddhism, of introductory Vajrayana, the meditation and recitation connected with the deity known as Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, and going through the different stages of this.

[03:10]

When I was young, I used to go to Khamro. I used to go to Khamro with my children. [...] Lama Genresi, Lama Upa Mencheni, Soshin Rangitungi Nangala, Gatuchinbu, Medobemagi, Mpompochela, Silki, Chukidawara, Nimata, Dawagi, Denche, Tegidawara, Rangitawara Lama, Mwotawara Lama Yimbala, Genresi, Genresi, Upa Mencheni, Yes. Yes. A practice of this nature, like any formal Buddhist practice, begins with the taking of refuge.

[04:47]

Now, in terms of the visualizations and recitations employed, the taking of refuge can be done in either a fairly elaborate or extensive manner or a very condensed, very concise manner. The approach which is the most concise is that which is known as the jewel method, in the sense that a single figure, a single symbol, is used as the epitome of all of the sources of refuge, just as a jewel has many facets. This particular figure, in this case, for example, the deity Chenrezig in Tibetan, or Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, represents for the practitioner... the embodiment of all the different sources of refuge. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Guru, Deity, Dharma Protector, all of these different sources of refuge for the Vajrayana practitioner are condensed in that single symbol.

[05:51]

So in a meditation such as this one, you would begin visualizing in front of you, meditating in front of you, the Tso, Tsogichila, Tsogichila. That first there is a vast lake, vast body of water in the center of which is growing a lotus flower on a stem which actually rises up out of the water so that there is an elevated lotus upon which there is a throne of gold and precious metals, precious stones. upon which sits the figure of the deity Avalokiteshvara or within this context it would be perfectly appropriate to visualize Amitabha, the Buddha Amitabha. But one of these figures would be visualized on that throne in the space in front of you as the practitioner with the idea that the mind of the deity

[06:53]

The mind that the deity represented was the jewel of Buddha. The speech principle that the deity represented is the jewel of Dharma. And the form of the deity represents the principle of Sangha. So again, the different sources of refuge are seen as different aspects of this unique symbol, rather than separate things, separate entities. And so your attitude towards such a symbol used in practice is that it represents the union of all Buddhas, the union of all sources of refuge in this single symbol of the deity. This process of taking refuge is quite standard in all deity meditations. Those of you who've had exposure to other techniques probably recognize a very familiar pattern.

[07:54]

Regardless of the particular practice, the function of taking refuge at this stage and the format is very similar from one sadhana, from one text to another. As you take refuge, not only are you meditating upon the source of refuge in front of you, but also upon yourself with your parents in this life, your father and mother, whether or not they're still living, your father and mother in this life on either side of you, and all beings, the six realms of cyclic existence behind you in a vast crowd.

[08:58]

Now, practically speaking, it's usually most efficient and most straightforward to just think of an enormous crowd of people. rather than trying to visualize beings in all different shapes and forms and so forth, different kinds of animals and hell beings and so forth, simply to think of a... bring to mind the image of a vast crowd of people, of human beings, representing again all beings throughout the universe, all of whom are joining with you in taking refuge. Yes. Taking refuge with the Buddha, with the Buddha, So while practically speaking you are sitting alone perhaps in your shrine room or meditation room reciting the text and performing the visualization, the mental context is of all beings joining with you physically in showing respect to the sources of refuge, verbally in reciting the refuge prayer, and mentally joining with you as one body, as one speech, as one mind,

[10:44]

in focusing upon the sources of refuge with a sense of faith and devotion. So the particular words of the liturgy will vary from text to text, but that is the context within which they are recited. Uh-huh. If you are performing a more elaborate visualization, where instead of using this so-called jewel method, you instead visualize distinctly the different sources of refuge, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, then you shift your attention, of course, as you're reciting the prayers, I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha, your attention would shift in the visualization.

[11:49]

But again, that's simply a question of style, a question of approach, whether you're using a more extensive, more elaborate treatment or a more concise one. Following the recitation of the refuge prayer as many times as you wish to, to begin the session, you also recite a prayer invoking the blessings of your gurus, of the three jewels, of the sources of refuge. On behalf of all sentient beings, there is a request at this point where you invoke the blessings of body, of speech, and of mind for you and for all beings. You also formulate aspiration at this point that through the blessings of body, speech and mind received from the sources of refuge, your own mind will turn towards practice of Dharma, that your practice will become your path, will become a path for you, that your path will eliminate confusion,

[13:10]

and that confusion instead will dawn as wisdom within the basic space of primordial experience. And so at this point you formulate the resolve which sets out the path in front of you, that your mind initially will turn to Dharma, to the practice, that that will become your path, that the path will eliminate confusion, and that confusion will rather be pacified and arise as wisdom. In addition to this four stage aspiration, you invoke the blessings of the sources of refuge to eliminate, dispel from your mind thoughts that are counterproductive to the spiritual path and rather aspire that qualities such as love and compassion and the enlightening attitude of bodhicitta begin to awaken and increase in you and that you and others swiftly come to the omniscient state of Buddhahood.

[14:31]

When I was a child, I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to pray. The next stage of the practice is the arousal of bodhicitta, the enlightening attitude of altruistic and compassionate resolve. And so, as you recite the words of the liturgy, which will again vary from text to text, the impulse behind this is that in recognition of the fact that each and every living thing has been at some point in some lifetime your mother, that you have had that intimate connection with each and every living being, for their sakes, for the sake of all of those beings, of all of those mothers, you will attain the unsurpassable goal of enlightenment.

[15:51]

And for that purpose, you remind yourself you are undertaking this profound path of meditation. Following the recitation of this stage of the liturgy, the taking of refuge and the arousal of bodhicitta, the practitioner, the individual practitioner, simply meditates then that all of the other beings in their meditation who have joined with them in the taking of refuge, in the arousal of this enlightening attitude of bodhicitta, that all of them simply vanish. They return to their own basic nature. And that the sources of refuge, or source of refuge, depending on how elaborate the visualization is, that all of that is dissolved into light, which is absorbed into you as the practitioner.

[17:02]

Yes. Following this, there is recitation of a particular mantra, the import of which is that all phenomena, all that is seen and heard and so forth, all of our tangible phenomenal experience is understood in its basic emptiness. And from the point of view of the meditation, this implies a dissolving of all mental constructs so that the sense of the environment in which you're sitting, the room in which you're sitting, your own physical body, all of those habitual mental constructs simply fall away and the mind is left in a state of bare awareness without any conceptual overlay, a direct experience of the emptiness of all phenomeno.

[18:04]

Uh-huh. This state of primordial experience, free from all limitations and extremes, is sometimes referred to as dharmadhatu, the basic space of phenomenal experience, sometimes referred to as emptiness, shunyata.

[19:17]

From that formless state of awareness, the particular structure of the visualization begins to emerge. And in the case of this particular practice, you would be called upon to visualize in a process of self-identification with the deity, having purified the sense of your normal physical body, your ordinary mind body. Rather, there emerges from that state of primordial emptiness first a jeweled throne, a throne created of precious metals and substances, which is a symbol for wish fulfillment. It is a symbol for the wish-fulfilling potential of this fundamental nature of being. Upon that throne there is a lotus flower in full bloom, which again is a symbol, an expression of the stainless, faultless, inherently immaculate quality of that fundamental nature.

[20:26]

And above that is a disc, which is in the form of a full moon, a white radiant disc forming a kind of seat on top of the lotus flower. And again, the moon here, the full moon, is a symbol for the inherent radiant luminous clarity of being. Mahabharata. Above this assemblage of throne, lotus, and moon disk, you conceive of a particular syllable, mantric syllable, in this case the syllable Hri, the Hri Karpura, which is white in color, Hri, H-R-I, or H-R-I-H, or whatever script you're using, and it's white in color.

[21:47]

And it is the seed, the germinal syllable from which the full-blown form of the deity emerges. And your attitude in meditation towards this syllable is that it is the principle of your own consciousness, your own individual mind expressing itself in the form of this syllable, which then transforms into the full form of the deity. Now, when you're visualizing a deity in this way, It's important that your attitude towards the form is one of its immaculate purity, its brilliant presence, brilliant clarity, but its transparent subtlety, its lack of solid or corporeal nature. And the image is a very aesthetic one, a very beautiful or pleasing one, which you call to mind, but it should have all of these characteristics, that it is at one and the same time stainless, flawless, that it is immaculately pure, that it is brilliantly present, yet very subtle and transparent, as though it were composed of light and not solid matter.

[23:01]

The form of the deity in this particular meditation, the deity Avalokiteshvara, has one face with two eyes. The expression on the face is of a gentle, charming smile. The eyes are the eyes of compassion. They symbolize the activity of compassion, enlightened compassion, viewing in the sense of being aware of suffering in any of its manifestations throughout the universe. This particular form has four arms. The first pair of hands are clasped at the heart or folded at the heart in prayer.

[24:35]

And this again is a symbol, a symbolic gesture of the invoking of the activity of enlightened being for the welfare of unenlightened beings. The other two hands, the right hand, the lower right hand, holds a crystal rosary or mala, a string of crystal beads, and is telling the beads. And the left hand holds a white lotus flower by the stem. . The two legs of the deity, of this particular deity, are crossed in a full, what is called a full vajra posture, in which the left foot is on the right thigh and then the right foot is placed on the left thigh.

[25:43]

And the form is adorned, clad in silken garments, beautiful flowing silks and adorned with many jewels and so forth. The hair of the head is a deep, rich jet black in color and is bound up like a top knot with long tresses, long strands of hair flowing down over the shoulders and down the back. Above the crown of the head of this figure of Avalokiteshvara, as you, in this visualization you would meditate yourself in this form, above the crown of your head is the form of the Buddha Amitabha.

[26:50]

Now again, this is a symbol which is a symbol for the union of the enlightened awareness of all Buddhas, of all enlightened beings, expressed in this symbolic form of the Buddha Amitabha. In meditation, when you visualize this figure above the crown of your head, this is essentially your guru, the presence of your guru. On the level of nominal form, the symbol which expresses that is the form, the red form of the Buddha Amitabha. . The function of this particular figure above the crown of the head, this particular figure is referred to as the lord of the family in the sense of the central principle of one of the particular Buddha families of deities in Vajrayana.

[27:56]

And so in meditating upon this expansive, smiling, delightful form above the crown of your head, you're invoking the presence of what is technically called the lord of the family or the master of the family. Mm-hmm. We have a lot of people in the village. We have a lot of people in the village. We have a lot of people in the village. I have a lot of friends. [...] When I was a child, my father was a monk.

[29:07]

When I was a child, my father was a monk. [...] He was a customer there. In the past, I was a big shareholder. In the past, I [...] was a big shareholder. When you visualize a form of a deity such as this one, for example, if you visualize yourself manifesting in, identifying with the form of a deity such as this one, it's crucial that you treat the whole thing as being like a reflection in a mirror.

[30:29]

That is to say, there is brilliant appearance, brilliant presence without tangible corporeal substance. So, just like a reflection in a mirror, there is brilliant clarity, brilliant presence, without anything really being there tangibly, materially. There is a simultaneity of clarity and emptiness that is a very important, very crucial attitude in Vajrayana to cultivate towards the form of such a deity. It is a very fundamental mistake to treat the whole thing as very solid and attempt to create a very solid, real, in a naive sense, impression of the deity, of oneself as the deity or whatever. There are a number of stories from the Tibetan tradition illustrating the pitfalls of such an approach. There is one individual who is meditating upon a deity known as Vajrabhairava, which is a very wrathful figure with many heads and many arms and so forth.

[31:32]

So the story goes, this fellow wasn't such a good meditator, and so in order to aid his meditation, he had a number of either papier-mâché or plaster heads made up and sort of stuck them on his own head and would try and ape the deity in a very, very concrete, clumsy sense. And... The story goes that he so reinforced this very solid impression of having many heads and many protuberances and so forth, that in his next life he was born in a somewhat demonic form with all kinds of warts and tumors and goiter and everything all over his body.

[32:35]

The point here being, when you're practicing Vajrayana, be careful. Do approach it with some intelligence. You're not attempting to create a solid body. monolithic sense of the deity as something tangible, something solid and physical, but rather as something like a reflection, like the union of appearance and emptiness, like a reflection in the sense that there's brilliant presence without substantial or corporeal nature at all. Jetson Kushuk said at this point, when she got to this point, she was saying, all she could think of was to say, be careful in English. She said one of the pitfalls of living in another country is you start to forget your own language and it's easier to use the native language in the place you're staying. And so as you'd say in the West, be careful. Just exercise caution, exercise intelligence when you undertake Vajrayana practice because it's possible to make some fairly fundamental mistakes unless you listen carefully to what you're taught and carry it out properly.

[33:37]

At this stage in the practice, when you have generated the form of the deity in meditation, it's useful to simply rest in the experience of that form, that mind form, for a short period of time, and to feel some sense of identification. I am Avalokiteshvara, not in an ordinary egotistic sense, but of totally identifying your being with that of the deity. This is what is known as divine pride, not ordinary arrogance or pride, but divine pride, identifying totally with the deity. Mm-hmm. When I was young, I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray.

[34:39]

I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray. I used to go to the temple to pray. Following this, you again shift your attention in this particular sadhana to the form of Amitabha above the crown of your head, to this embodiment of the wisdom and compassion of all Buddhas in this particular form of Amitabha. And you direct a supplication to your guru in this form, your guru and the sources of refuge in this particular form, invoking their blessings, invoking the blessing for the... That's what's going on, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Again, the emphasis of the supplication at this point is an invocation of the blessings of your gurus and the three jewels, the sources of refuge, so that you may purify the obscurations and negative karma in your makeup, increase and cultivate the positive qualities of merit and wisdom, develop authentic states of meditative absorption, and swiftly come to the personal experience of enlightenment yourself.

[36:33]

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. At these different stages of the practice, it's important to devote time and care repeating the prayer over and over again and contemplating its meaning rather than just kind of ripping through it from one stage to the next, but actually taking time, for example, at this stage to recite the supplication over and over again to really generate that sense of supplication, the sense of invoking blessing.

[37:53]

Following that, the text goes on to focus the mind in the following way. All of the phenomena that constitute the ordinary state of conditioned existence that we call samsara, and the enlightened state of existence that we call nirvana. All of these phenomena, which permeate these two levels of being, the root of all of these is the individual's mind, the mind that experiences either samsara or nirvana. If you examine the true nature of that mind, There's no color, there's no form, there's no shape. There is no tangible characteristic that you can ascribe to mind in and of itself, as opposed to its contents. Because there is no thing there that we can say is mind, it is this or it is that, we are speaking of a situation where there is an emptiness, in that the mind is empty of

[39:06]

any essential nature as being one thing or being many at the same time. Due to the fact that the mind is empty of self-nature in the sense of being one thing or being many things, of being something tangible.

[40:12]

We cannot speak of the mind as having any origin at any one moment, like something that is born or brought into being, nor of it ceasing at any point, like something that dies or passes away or is destroyed. Nor can we localize it. We cannot speak of awareness, pure and simple, as being located here or there. But even though we cannot speak of the mind or conceive of it ultimately in these ways, nevertheless there is the brilliant presence of the phenomena in our experience which arise in a very unimpeded way. But the ultimate nature of mind is one in which all conceptual elaborations have been pacified. And that nature of mind which is total and complete peace or pacification of conceptual overlay is the supreme state of experience which is beyond any limits and extremes, beyond any limiting definitions.

[41:20]

So at this point when you recite the words of the liturgy and call this experience to mind, you then simply allow your mind to relax in a totally free, spontaneous state of awareness without any mental constructs at all, without any attempt to think of anything. Then, he came to me and said, I want to go to the temple. [...] Thank you. Following this period of formless meditation you again call to mind this image of the deity this time with

[42:43]

an assembly of the mantra in the heart. That is to say, in the center of the form of the deity, at the heart region, you bring to mind the image of a lotus flower with a moon disk forming a seat or a throne upon a support upon which there is standing upright this white syllable Hri, which is the seed syllable of the deity, surrounded by the six syllables of the mantra. In the case of this particular deity, the mantra is Omani Padme Hum. And so these six syllables are arranged clockwise, facing inwards, around the outer rim of the moon disk. And As you focus your awareness upon this aspect of the visualization, you meditate upon light going out from it and returning. And as the light extends in all directions and is drawn back into the mantra and the seed syllable in the heart, it performs a dual function of invoking the blessings and the compassion of enlightened being and returning this to the thread of your own consciousness.

[44:14]

and of purifying the obscurations of other beings and encouraging that same enlightening experience in them. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. At this stage in the meditation, you begin to recite the mantra.

[45:22]

Again, in the case of this particular practice, the mantra is Om Mani Padme Hum, and this is recited over and over again with the corresponding visualization of this light going forth and performing these dual, these two functions, this dual function of purifying other beings and establishing them in an experience of enlightenment and in invoking the blessings of enlightened being and infusing the thread of your own consciousness with those blessings. And so, in practical terms, as you're reciting the mantra, the image, the mental image is of white light, in the case of this particular practice, the color mentioned is white, light going forth and returning, going forth and returning, pulsing as it were in this way back and forth, and performing these two functions over and over again. And so as many mantras as you're doing in that session of meditation, you keep your mind focused upon this dynamic visualization of the light going out and coming back as many times and as clearly as you can.

[46:30]

In choosing the meditation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, to explain today. This is based partly upon the... My decision to do so is based partly upon the fact that historically the Bodhisattva of Compassion has played an enormously important role for Tibet and for Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan people really feel that their chosen deity, that their patron deity, as it were, is the Bodhisattva of compassion. So on an historical and social level, there is a very strong connection between this particular deity and the Tibetan schools of Buddhism.

[48:17]

Witness the fact that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the head of all of the schools, is a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of compassion in human form. So pervasive was this practice in Tibetan culture that it was very often the first words that a child would speak would be the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM, often without ever being taught them. The child would just pick it up from the environment, would just pick it up from hearing it said around her or around him, and it would be the first words that would come to their lips when they began to speak. The form of the deity is the expression of a symbol in which the compassion of all Buddhas converges. It is the spontaneous or natural expression of that quality of compassion of enlightened being. Normally speaking, when you're going to receive teaching on a deity practice and put it into practice, you first receive what is termed an empowerment.

[49:20]

or an abhisheka, a formal investiture by a qualified teacher, and then you go through a process of learning the practice. So that would normally be the context. But Jetson Khrushchev said, my own feeling in the particular situation is twofold. One is that I know that people are interested in what the whole process of deity meditation is like, what is it like and what is it about. I feel that many people here have probably already received a number of empowerments from a number of teachers, but even if you have not received the empowerment for this particular practice, that's not a particular problem. The practice of Chenrezig is so fundamental to the schools of Tibetan Buddhism that it is not necessary to receive an empowerment in the formal sense. To simply have the meditation explained to you by someone who holds lineage of that teaching is appropriate, is perfectly appropriate and is adequate for beginning practice. And so she says, I hope that what I have to say is of benefit, and in choosing the particular practice that I did, I chose one that is so basic, so fundamental to the Tibetan methods of meditation, that we're not in any danger of violating any traditional rules of, you know, first you have to have this, then you can get this, and so forth.

[50:41]

It's a very universal practice. It can be discussed quite openly. Yes. Yes. At the conclusion of a session of meditation such as this one, there is what is known as the dissolution phase. where the entire form of the visualization that has been created and maintained in the mind is simply dissolved. In the way that it would be done in this particular meditation, following the recitation of the mantra, you would visualize your form as the deity beginning to dissolve into light from the lotus seat beneath and from the crown of the head above, converging in the

[51:57]

Cree syllable, the seed syllable, which is visualized in the center of the heart. And so you would reduce the entire form of the meditation to that single syllable, which then would be conceived of as growing finer and finer, smaller and smaller, until it simply vanished, the way a rainbow fades in the sky, simply fading from your awareness. so that your mind is left again in the experience of emptiness, the experience of a formless state of non-conceptual awareness. And again, this isn't something you maintain for long periods of time. You simply touch upon that fundamental experience for a few moments in order to conclude the meditation. I am very happy to be able to do this. [...]

[53:00]

I am very happy to be able to do this. From that context of emptiness, when you arise from that in the sense of completing the meditation in a formal way,

[54:05]

you conclude with the dedication, what is called placing the seal on the practice with the dedication of the virtue that you have generated, so that it is directed towards not only your own self-benefit, but the benefit of others as well, so that each and every living thing can come to the experience of enlightened being as represented by this particular deity. And so again, the symbol of the deity expresses the more fundamental wish for the enlightenment of all. If a practitioner uses a meditation such as this one on a regular basis as their main focus for practice, even as they move through the day in different activities, their attitude towards everything they see, everything visual that they come into contact with, that they perceive, that that is an expression of the form of the deity. That everything that they hear is essentially an expression of the mantra. And that everything they think is essentially a dynamic expression of this fundamental emptiness, which is the true nature of being.

[55:12]

Now this is ideally the way a person would go about this practice, but even if one is not capable of addressing that kind of level of practice at the moment, nevertheless to use free time during the day for this meditation, for this recitation of the mantra, as an expression of your altruistic and compassionate motivation for others, is an enormously powerful vehicle for spiritual transformation. One should always understand that the context, the attitude with which this is done is a true sincere concern for the welfare of others. Then it is very, very powerful. But the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is one of the most, single most effective that exists in the whole tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism. On the one hand, it is very practical. It's easy to learn. It's very short. There's very little to recite. There's not a great deal to memorize. It goes easy on the tongue. It's not hard to recite.

[56:16]

On the other hand, it embodies a great deal of blessing. And when used properly, is an enormously effective tool for purification of self and others. Any of you who met one of my principal teachers, the late Deshun Rinpoche, will know that this was his main practice, that every day he would recite thousands of these mantras. Anytime he was doing anything, he would have his mala, and he'd be reciting this mantra over and over again. So any of you who have had the personal experience of meeting him before his death would have been aware of this. You couldn't miss it, because it was definitely his main practice. Okay. So at this point, if people have any questions, if you have further issues you'd like to discuss... The whole practice, not just the mantra, but just repeating the...

[57:36]

Oh, right. The question is, this is for the tape, the question is, wouldn't you ultimately reach a state of mind where you didn't need to keep repeating the mantra and repeating the practice over and over again in a formal way? Yes. When I was a child, I used to go to school. I used to go to school. I used to go to school. When I was a child, I used to go to school. I used to go to school. Yes. Is that all there was to the question? I've noticed that many people have calendars on their wallets, and I remember when I was a student at Benjamin Pache, he mentioned that his own teacher, while on my part, I'm not sure about the number, he said a long thing, 10 million calendars.

[58:56]

I wonder if people remember what that figure was, and if she knows how many times, approximately, David Ricochet said it. How many millions? Because this is, I don't know. People do know how many, you know. Interesting thing, a lot of the great lamas kept count. When I was young, I didn't know how to do it. When I was young, I didn't know how to do it. I was very young. I was very young. When I was young, I didn't know how to do it. When I was young, I didn't know how to do it. When I was a child, I used to go to school with my friends.

[60:43]

I used to go to school with my friends. I used to go to school with my friends. When I was a child, I used to go to school with my father. [...] In terms of how exactly how many Desi Rinpoche recited, how many times he recited this mantra in his lifetime, I'm not sure.

[62:11]

He never said himself. I know that he, I know from personal experience that he recited many, many of the mantras every day, but exactly how many, he never said and I never asked. And so I'm afraid I can't answer that question with any accuracy except to say that they It was a vast number of these mantras. There is one interesting story that I recall of an individual, a layman who was a Tonka painter, an artist, who lived in Sedong, which is the area in which my brother, His Holiness Sakya Trism, was born. And this... painter is said to have recited the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum 600 million times in his life, which is quite a phenomenal feat. And he used to go and, oh, and one remarkable thing about this painter was at one point, one of his teeth started to grow a kind of protuberance, a new tooth, a new extrusion of enamel started to grow on his tooth.

[63:13]

And it had to be extracted. But when it was extracted, the family kept it in a little box. And many relics were discovered in the box afterwards that had propagated from this tooth. And the other thing, another part of the story that I recall was that he used to go, as was a custom in Old Tibet, to do circumambulation of a stupa, in the monastery in that area. And the old custom was that as you were making these circumambulations, you would pile stones up, kind of cairns. And this was not keeping score or anything. It was a kind of offering. There is what is known as the mandala offering in Tibetan Buddhism, where you offer the universe in a symbolic form. by piling piles of grain or semi-precious stones on a plate or a tray, conceiving of it as the wealth of the universe being offered. And so as this old gentleman would make his way around the stupa, he would pile these stones on these cairns as a form of offering. And the story goes that one day he was walking around and he had a particularly large stone on his mandala plate that he was going to offer onto this cairn.

[64:23]

And as he approached the mandala, of this cairn that he was going to add the stone to, he perceived a white radiance, a white aura or radiance emanating from it. And because his particular deity practice was Avalokiteshvara, he simply thought, well, this is the presence of the deity. This is a sign of the deity's presence. And with an attitude of pure devotion, he tossed the rock that he had in his hand and it stuck against the side of one of the other rocks, kind of defying gravity. It just affixed itself there. And she said people could go there and still see it long into the future after he had done this. They could still see this rock hanging there with seeming nothing holding it up. So that's one story of someone whose main practice was Avalokiteshvara and who recited a fairly vast number of these mantras.

[65:28]

He wasn't a particularly special person. It wasn't like he was a famous teacher. It wasn't like he was a great great realized yogi. He was an ordinary layperson. He received empowerment from his teacher and training in this meditation. He probably only used to do the actual meditation once a day for a short time. And he spent the rest of the day reciting the mantra and trying to maintain the view of the meditation throughout his daily activities. But even though he wasn't anybody special in a hierarchical or formal sense, nevertheless, he experienced a real fruition in his practice. I find a lot more Uh-huh.

[66:37]

So the question, or maybe not question, but the statement you're making is, is the difference between direct involvement versus involvement from a distance through meditation and the relative effectiveness of the two. Well, and the concept of the distance is so much so. Uh-huh. And the real challenge is when you're doing these things, as they are embedded in people, maybe every day. Okay, I think maybe you're oversimplifying the process of meditation, but okay. So the question is basically the difference between the two approaches and the relative effectiveness. Your opinion seems to be that direct involvement is more effective, yeah? Okay.

[68:08]

I'm still looking for a question. I'm not sure if there's anything you want me to actually transmit, because I'm just in case you understand the English, but if there's something that needs clarifying. And then there is the question of the value of just doing that. Just doing the practice in an isolated way. In a particular monastery, you're just looking at the people, and you say, I don't want all that. Mm-hmm. I don't know. [...] Yes, that's right.

[69:09]

When I was a child, I used to go to school with my grandmother. I used to go to school with my grandmother. When I was a child, I used to go to school with my grandmother. I used to go to school with my grandmother. I was very happy. [...]

[70:09]

When I was a child, I used to go to school with my parents. I used to go to school with my parents. When I was a child, [...] I used to go to school with my parents. I used to go to school with my parents. I used to go [...] to school with my parents. In either case whether a person was in the world or whether they were in retreat, in solitude,

[71:31]

From the Buddhist point of view, the question of whether or not they're truly benefiting others would depend upon whether their mind was motivated by compassion. The mere fact of being either in the world or in retreat is secondary to whether their basic motivation is one of altruism. There are two ways in which we can help in the world. When we say, oh, when I'm in the world, I can really help people directly and effectively. There's two ways that can go. If you are just extending yourself, as I said previously, to the people you like or the people who are close to you and intimate with you, that alone is not the definition of compassion. It's too selective. Whereas if you truly meet everyone in the world... that you meet, whether you like them or you don't like them, whether they respond to you kindly or not, if you truly meet them with compassion, then you're really understanding what compassion is all about, and then your practice can flourish.

[72:54]

Whereas if you act towards someone in a more ordinary way of compassion, where you think, well, if I'm nice to them, they'll be nice back to me. there'll be some reward coming from that. Then, Justin Pritchard said, I would suggest that a person has missed the point of compassion here and missed the point of what it really means to benefit someone. Because to benefit someone in this sense does not just mean to make them happy so they'll make you happy. It's not a question of reward, of mutual reward. It's a question of being able to meet every situation, even the negative ones, even the unpleasant people, even the ones who show no gratitude, show no sense of caring about what you're trying to do. You still will always work for their benefit. If a person's able to maintain that in the world, then this is a very effective means of practice. Similarly, if a person goes into retreat, Merely being in retreat, merely going to the top of the mountain, means nothing.

[73:57]

You might feel very holy, or I've gone to the top of the mountain, I live here all alone. And basically you're no different from the animals that live on that mountain. If that's supposed to make one enlightened, then presumably all those animals are enlightened, because they just hang out on the top of the mountain all the time. So simply going into solitude is not the point. you go into solitude to really apply the teachings of the Buddhist path or whichever path you're following as thoroughly and completely as possible and really apply them to your own direct experience of yourself and the world around you. And then a person is able to truly benefit as well. So again, it's not so much a question of short-term benefit within a narrow framework. One can be effective on that level, but what we're really talking about here is a more thoroughgoing attitude that motivates your life, whether you're in retreat or in the world, and the greater consequences that that kind of thoroughgoing attitude has for the people around you, the beings around you.

[75:04]

The other advantage of spiritual practice as a factor in your life is that you are not only beneficial to yourself and others in this lifetime, but from a Buddhist point of view, one must always consider the continuity of being beyond death. And that the future rebirth that you and others will experience will be a better one for your efforts in this life. So the other ramification of sincere spiritual practice is that it affects not only your own and others' experience in this life, but in future existences as well. So she said it might sound a little odd to be thinking always in terms of good rebirth, you know, what's my next rebirth going to be, that kind of thing. But it's not really as simplistic as that. It's the idea that there's a continuity beyond death that will be affected by what you do in this lifetime. Uh-huh. Part B. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. To remain alone in retreat.

[76:35]

Will you still benefit other people? Will that benefit more than that special group of people? When you were a child, did you have to go to school to study? Yes, I did. When you were a child, did you have to go to school to study? Yes, I did. When I was a child, I had to go to school to study. I had to go to school to study. The proviso is that if you are in retreat, in solitude, for your own welfare, that's really about the only benefit you'll accomplish. But if your motivation for being there is truly to help others, it will help others. It will be of benefit. As long as they're included within your attitude.

[77:38]

Yeah. It's really a question of the different strengths in the attitude. The difference that is often drawn between Hinayana and Mahayana attitude is that while it is perfectly okay to say, I'm doing this for my own benefit, there's nothing wrong with that, how much greater, how much vaster a scope it is to say, I'm doing this for everyone's benefit.

[78:41]

And in doing something for one's own benefit, one benefits oneself. In doing it for the benefit of others, truly for the benefit of others, for the welfare of others, it does benefit them. That's really the fundamental principle upon which the whole Mahayana tradition is based. the idea that nothing less than the benefit of all is a worthy goal, is a worthy motivation. So the whole underpinnings of the Mahayana approach is that your whole reason for even becoming involved is not just a selfish one, but to benefit all beings. There's a gentleman here, and then we'll get to you, Mark. This is really an action of... Which is? The benefit for others that occurs through your practice, that arises through this interdependence. Yeah. Yeah, basically that's it. The fact that there is that interdependent connection between all phenomena.

[79:45]

Does that answer your question? Basically, that is the principle, yeah. Mark. Yeah. On what? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The difference between then a role model such as Mother Teresa, someone whose vehicle for expressing their path is through working very directly with the suffering in the world, going out and relieving suffering, as opposed to someone who locks themselves away in a cloistered environment and practices on that level.

[81:24]

how interdependence works in both of those cases, or just how the one who's in solitude is possibly doing any benefit as compared to the one who's out in the world. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Do you have any advice for young people who want to learn more? When I was a child, I used to go to school with my parents. [...] What do you think is the most important thing in your life?

[82:41]

I think it's the most important thing in your life. I think it's the most important thing in your life. For a long time, it seemed to me, I am very happy to be able to speak to you. I am very happy to be able to speak to you. I am very happy to be able to speak to you. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It depends on the character, doesn't it?

[84:00]

The difference might be between short-term results and long-term results too. One of the One of the issues that we have to take into consideration is that helping someone in the immediate situation who's suffering and relieving their suffering a bit is laudable. There's no doubt about it. No attempt is being made here to denigrate work in the world as being directly beneficial to people. The other thing that the meditator is trying to focus on too is the future of establishing conditions in their own and other people's experience that will be conducive to future benefit. And so one of the disadvantages of the benefit that comes about through meditation is it's not as direct, it's not as immediate, but it creates circumstances

[85:57]

through the power of mind, basically, through the force and power of mind developing or cultivating states of meditation, that can directly influence others in perhaps a less tangible way and a more long-term way, but as effectively in its own way as Mother Teresa working with the lepers. Which isn't to say that one is good and one is bad, or you should only think of the long term and not of the short term. But we do have to realize that there are different contexts here. Is it possible for a meditator to sit on a mountain and help a leper dying? In that immediate context, probably not. But if the person who is meditating and developing their spiritual potential is praying for the future welfare of that suffering person, that will definitely and directly help them. So there is a different context here. Mother Teresa is doing what she's doing as an expression of bodhicitta. She is helping beings. But it is equally possible that someone who's in retreat could be helping beings.

[87:00]

It's unfortunate that there isn't the same, we can't use the same parameters to judge them because one is direct, immediate, and tangible, is empirically verifiable, and the other is more, is less tangible in a physical sense. It is creating energy and creating conditions which will improve, depending on the scope of the person's meditation, will improve the lot of themselves and other beings quite definitely. Gosh, how do you translate 100th monkey into Tibetan? I understand the principle myself, but I've never tried to translate it. That's right. [...]

[88:02]

That's right. That's right. Thank you very much. Mr. Consul, I would like to ask you a few questions. He says that she's not heard the the case of the 100th monkey before, in that particular example.

[89:05]

But she says, that's the kind of principle we're talking about, where group consciousness begins to accelerate and influence other members of the group. There was somebody here, I think. . I remember I read one of the sutra nations, and she always gave me help and whatever, asked me, is that the education that if one practice can be and get realized, so you get that one moment, it goes everywhere, can't be everybody. Yeah. The question concerns a particular sutra that this gentleman was reading in which the reference was made to the fact that Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion, extends help wherever it is asked for, is a source of universal help for beings. Does that imply that a person, through personal practice, is working towards a state where they can themselves provide that universal help?

[90:13]

Is that the question? In the beginning of the 19th century, the people of Genesee were very, very strong. They were [...] very strong. If you have that kind of scope, that kind of motivation to attain that kind of lofty goal, then yes, you can. If you think, I'll never be able to make that, then no, you won't. But yes, depending on your attitude, you can attain that kind of goal, that kind of very lofty goal.

[91:20]

Sir, there's a gentleman here. What are the roadblocks that we run up against in getting visualization? is an awareness on my part that the deities seem to really come from very, very specifically Tibetan cultural history. I find it very, very difficult to coming from a context of being a Western and not at all experiencing the old world going back those centuries and having those particular subtleties involved, the dead and deities, to be able to put a universal sense on it coming from my particular Western, you know, world view, Western looking, Western seeing, And what I've always wondered is, is it always necessary for the Western or to, in a sense, immerse themselves into the subtleties of the Tibetan, you know, deity visualization of all the various tie-ins that they have with specific Tibet and Tibet culture, the energy, you know, involved in that?

[92:45]

Or... has, in a sense, you know, with kind of like the Tibetans being now kind of like in the West for 35 years, it's happening and doing some thinking as to how it could be more, in a sense, internationalized. You know, and like the specific beings were just so, so specifically presented. Yeah, okay. You realize that historically they're actually Indian, if anything. I mean, just to get the historical record straight, they were adopted by Tibetans from Buddhist India. Now, that doesn't mean your question isn't a good question. I just mean, just to get the facts straight, the Tibetans adopted Indian forms. But then they put very specific Tibetan things over the history, too. What are you thinking of? Can you give me an example? I'm just wondering if, I'm not sure that they did in the case of the deities.

[93:45]

Well, I'm just even thinking in terms of the lining words itself, you know, the saying in Tibetan. Oh, okay, the necessity of reciting in Tibetan and so forth. Aha, okay. So the question concerns, as I understand it, the question concerns the essence of the teachings versus the cultural trappings. And is it necessary for Westerners to adopt the cultural trappings and the linguistic trappings along with the essence of the teachings, or could we work towards something more universal or more, as you said, international? First thought that occurred to me is who would design the wardrobe, you know? We could have a contest. As well, not just the language that it's coached in, but the actual forms that you're called upon to visualize. Okay. When I was a child, my father was a monk.

[94:58]

He was a monk. [...]

[95:04]

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