Before you start anything, it's very important to visualize, remember in your mind that you're doing, you're receiving teachings on Dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings, so that you can become enlightened like a Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings. That's called the arousal of the bodhicitta. That's very important. for you to do before receiving any teachings about Buddhism. Just visualize that the environment that we're sitting in is like Daochen paradise. It's like sitting in a palace where everything is beautiful, like truly enlightened land. And the lama who we're receiving teachings from is not a usual human being But he's actually Buddha himself, Buddha Shakyamuni himself is actually here. And all lights are emanating from his body.

[01:05]

And the words that he's speaking are the words of the Buddha doctrine. And we ourselves imagine ourselves to be like Manjushri, the proper vessel for receiving teachings. So you visualize that thing now. When we're talking about dharma, actually, well, the Sanskrit word dharma has many meanings. It's also the Tibetan word chö. It can mean teachings or truths about life, about worldly things also. But in particular, the dharma that we're talking about here is called the pure dharma. the holy dharma or something like that, which is, meaning of that is the teachings which were spoken by Buddha himself. It's not a worldly, everyday kind of thing, but it's a spiritual teaching coming from the Buddha himself.

[02:06]

And that's what we mean by dharma. And the essence of that dharma is basically knowing how to stay away from doing the ten sinful actions. and knowing how to do the ten meritorious actions, what they are and how to do them for the benefit of sentient beings. And on top of that, the teachings of really knowing the state of your own mind or your own consciousness. Those three aspects are basically what Dharma is really talking about. Teachings of mind, there are certain things you're supposed to contemplate about. and there are many such topics. The five basic preliminary practices is, number one, the truth of impermanence, and that death will definitely come, and the contemplation on that and what can we do about that.

[03:14]

And also the contemplation on cause and effect. The fact that everything that happens goes by the rules of cause and effect. And the contemplation on the fact that the samsara and the world that we live in is basically a very unsatisfactory, vicious state of samsara. The contemplation on that is another one. And also once you have realized those topics, then you come to the contemplation of compassion and loving-kindness for all sentient beings. That's the basic preliminary practices which are supposed to be contemplated on. And the teachings which Rinpoche has given from the Mundro of the Namsum, which he has already given to you, In that book and in those teachings, none of these topics have been left out at all.

[04:18]

It's a complete teaching on that. So if you're able to think about all of that and know that very, very well, then you'll have at least understood the basic preliminary practices for Buddhism. Sajjep and Hongbo. ...teachings, there are seven different books, I believe, on this subject of preliminary practices. And out of those seven, the one which was written by Kunju Dundrup, the one that we studied here, is the longest one, the most extensive, most detailed teaching. So the fact that you've received that is extremely good. He feels the fact that he was able to tell it to you and to explain it to you, and that you were able to hear it. It's a really good sign, really good omen and this must be a great era when such a thing can happen. And so we should feel good about that fact and also have faith in those teachings that they are quite effective.

[05:21]

And so we have a little confidence from having received that teaching. He's very pleased. I did it, she... All those teachings from the Naṁsūna, etc., if you kind of condense it all into its basic essence, the pre-preliminary practice for that essence are the five pre-preliminary practices of accomplishing a hundred thousand of each, the refuge and the arousing of the bodhicitta and the saying of the hundred-syllable mantra and the mandala, etc. That's the basic essence for the beginning of those teachings. And then the actual practice of the Lamje is, of course, the visualization of Yajura, the Gyerim and Dzogrim, you know, the visualization and the completion stage, the two parts of that. And in order to do that actual practice well, you must have well learned and understood

[06:28]

the 100,000 preliminary practices. If you haven't done them, then you won't really be able to truly understand the actual practice and the meaning and the real knowledge which is there. But if you have done them, and if you have well learned them and understood the preliminary practices, then you've kind of set up a causal connection so that it's kind of the right circumstance that you actually can really practice the actual practice of Elijah. So of all the preliminary practices, it's really good if you can do the refuge first, and finish that first, because the refuge prayer, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, is extremely important. It contains the essence of all the Buddhist teachings, and also one who has done the refuge. Once you have taken refuge in Buddhism, then that means that you yourself are a Buddhist.

[07:34]

That's the kind of whole difference between someone who is a Buddhist and someone who is not a Buddhist, is whether they actually take refuge and hold the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha as their highest ideal. That's the kind of cutting off point. Once you've actually made that decision, that means you are a Buddhist. So that's why it's very important. When the great teacher Atisha, who was from India, came to Tibet, he taught many, many types of teachings, a great amount of teaching when he was there for a long time. But he also, he didn't know Tibetan very well, so he had to speak through a translator. And so many of the Tibetans always were saying, well, he's a great Lama, et cetera, et cetera. So I wonder what is his main teaching. And they were always told by the translator that it's refuge, refuge. You have to learn refuge prayer. He always said it. That's very important. So sooner or later, he became known as the refuge teacher. That was like his name that they referred to him as.

[08:37]

And he thought that that's very, very good that he's called that, because by having that named, and that made his point come through, that refuge is really the basic thing that he's talking about. So therefore, you must do that well. And then, once you've understood that idea, then, you know, you go on to the other hundred-soul mantra, mantra offering, etc. It was the great Sakya teacher named Kumbhasambhu, And when he was getting very old in age, his student asked to write down his life story, his biography. And he said, no, no, there's really nothing much to write. Really, what I've done is I've taken refuge and I've also believed in cause and effect. That's the two main things that I've done in life. There's really nothing else to say but that. And so, He also was known as the great refuge teacher.

[09:40]

And it's not that someone great like Kunda Sambho or Adi Disha didn't know the other teachings, you know, all these tantras, etc. I mean, they knew all of that. It's just that they realized what the essence of all that was, having known it all, that the essence could all be stated as the taking refuge. So that's why they taught it. kind of understood the mantra. So next now we come to the Guru Yoga. Guru Yoga, there are two, there's the ordinary and the special. talk about the special guru yoga now because in order to do the special guru yoga first of all you need to have received many initiations from the lamje teachings and right now you haven't received those things and that's also a very complex type of meditation and requires certain blessing that you receive etc.

[10:49]

there's the inner and the outer of those But we're not going to do that right now. We're going to do the ordinary. I shouldn't say ordinary, but let's say the usual, easier one, something simple. According to the Guru Yoga, just as in any practice, including the hundred syllables or the menda offering, etc., Before you do any of these practices, you always start out with the four-verse prayer of Samgye Chodron, Samgye Chodron, the refuge prayer. You always say that a few times. That's always the beginning statement of your Buddhist practice. So you do that in this case as well. those first four lines, it's not that you just say it, but meanwhile your mind is thinking about all sorts of other things and wandering off. It shouldn't just be from your mouth, but you have to actually think about what you're saying and visualize what you're saying.

[11:51]

And the first two lines, you know, is actually taking refuge, that in the precious Buddha and the precious Dharma and the precious Sangha, you think about what they are, what they mean, and that you're taking refuge in them from starting from right now until you actually become enlightened. You actually take refuge in them. And the second two lines are the arousal of the bodhicitta, saying that anything that you've done is for the benefit of sentient beings. And you have to really feel that and think that. It's not just saying it out of your mouth. You have said now a few verses, a few times of the four-verse prayer that we just were talking about. Then you start on the actual Guru Yoga, which is on page, whatever page it's on. So, you start off... 92. 92. Page 92.

[12:56]

So you start off with visualizing on top of your head, you're sitting there in meditation, and on the top of your head there's a lion throne, a throne which is supported by lions. And on top of that, there is a lotus of many flower, lotus flower on top of that, you know, like that. And on top of that, first there's a sun seat, round sun disk, flat, like a cushion. And on top of that, a moon cushion, flat. And on top of that is sitting your root guru, who is as Dorje Chang. And he says, your root guru, there's two types of gurus in Buddhism. One is the one who taught you the basic precepts of Buddhism according to the sutra. And then one according to tantra. But the one according to the sutra, we don't really call that a root guru. That's like your spiritual friend, per se.

[14:05]

But the one who actually gave you the initiations, the tantric initiations, is your root guru. And of course, if you have received many different initiations from different guru-gurus, then you imagine that all of them are sort of connected into one, having the same essence. In our case, since we received the very high initiations from Sakya Trnza, so probably he would be the one that we would be thinking about. And it's the inner essence of that thing on your head is the guru. and the outer attributes, his actual appearance is that of Dorje Chang. And the reason for that is that if you imagine that the inner essence is of your guru, then it's very efficacious in receiving blessings. And if you imagine that the outer aspect looks like Dorje Chang, then that way the blessings will be quickly

[15:08]

quickly received by you and it kind of makes the whole thing more effective. So that's why you think of the two kind of mixed together. That's the Sakyapa explanation for this. The body of Vajradhara, Dorje Chang, is blue, like the color of the sky. I think a deep blue, deep blue sky. And his His hands are holding a vajra and a bell, like that. I'm sure you've seen the pictures. And he has many jewels on his body, crown, et cetera, decorations, and also bone ornaments on his body. And he's in the Sambhogakaya form. And you know that there's the two, Nirmanakaya and Satsambhogakaya. Nirmanakaya is the form that the Buddha Shakyamuni appears in, which he looks mostly like a human being.

[16:12]

And the Sambhogakaya is the one which has all the decorations and crown, etc. That's a Sambhogakaya with a lot of silk clothing, you know, silk on the head and silk cloths and a lot of jewelry, etc. That's a Sambhogakaya. So in this form, the Vajradhara is in the Sambhogakaya. Then you have to imagine that on that Lama, Vajradhara's head, who's sitting on your head, on his forehead, there's the white letter OM, and in his throat center is the red letter AH, and in the heart center is the blue letter HUNG. And from the blue letter HUNG, lights stretch out, beautiful light rays, and they reach throughout the sky and the space and they touch to all different buddha fields, etc. They touch the heart of all, all the lamas that ever were, all the buddhas, all the bodhisattvas, all the yudhams, all of the gods of wealth, all of the dharma protectors.

[17:23]

And the light brings back the essence of all of those beings so that they all melt and are absorbed into the heart of the Lama who's on your head. And so now you're thinking to this Lama up there, that he, you say, you are, now you are all the Buddhas, you are all the Bodhisattvas, you are all the objects of refuge, all condensed into one on top of your head. It is also the Dalai Lama's son, so and so. And then there are, in the book there are certain prayers to the lama, which you will find. And each four lines is one prayer. And then there's another and another. Each of them are different ones that have been kind of collected here from different sources. So as you see, it's like four lines, each four lines is a different prayer. So you say those. The first three prayers, then there's the prayer to the actual Sakya Lamas and the Sakya lineage, which is in there.

[18:37]

And what that's doing is the Sakya lineage, as you know, actually started in India, and then it came to Tibet. So this prayer is just kind of calling and remembering the names of all the Lamas who are in this lineage. Up to Gaya Dara, they're all Indians. The ones he's saying now are the ones who are in Tibet. The one who just said that the only thing that he did in his life was take refuge and learn about cause and effect. That's him. That's nice.

[19:55]

That was all the names of the Lamas also. called it the Rains of Avalokiteshvara. And the lineage goes up to the teachers of Sakya Chöchen Rinpoche, but not his lineage that he received teachings from.

[21:06]

Because we all have received the Lamje teaching of the Head of Bajo Wang, and then sometime in the future we'll receive the actual Lamje teaching, so we will receive according to that lineage, so therefore that's the one that we're praying to now. For example, when you do the Chenrezig practice, there's a prayer to a certain Lama, the one that he received the Chenrezig teaching from, which was Gawang Lapa. Dorje Chang, Chökyi Lojo, Chayan Chayan Chökyi Chökyi Lojo, Shim Hen Yingbo, who is the guru of the present side of the teaching, all those three he received the Chenrezig teachings from. So therefore when you do the practice, you pray to the lamas of the lineage from which you have received that particular practice. So in this case, we're doing it of the guru-guru yoga lineage. 101?

[22:09]

No, yeah. 101. There's four lines. It starts with, um, the second line is this. Those four lines, after that, those four lines are the, is the prayer that when you're trying to complete a hundred thousand of the Lama Nanja, the Guru Yoga, that's when you keep repeating these four lines. So you keep saying that over and over after you've gone through the whole day of meditation. And the elder Deshon Thurgu, the other student of Galan Lepa, he's the younger and the elder, did that 7,500,000, which means 7,500,000 times he said that. Again, it's not just from the mouth, but it's from your mind and your heart.

[23:11]

You have to be thinking of intense faith and devotion and desire towards you know, having a connection with this Lama who's on your head, and you're, you know, from the depths of your heart, you're actually praying to him as you're saying that. I mean, just by repeating it over and over in your mind, it's not going to really do that much. But when you say it from the bottom of your heart, then you actually get the blessing of this teaching. And after you've finished saying that prayer many, many times, and finally go on to the next page. You visualize that the Lama who's sitting on your head has all dissolved into a round ball of blue light, a very bright, shiny ball of blue light.

[24:14]

And it's a big ball. I thought it was small, but it's like this size or something. And then it kind of dissolves into your head and your body. And it dissolves into the three centers in your forehead. and your throat, and your heart. And by doing that, the forehead corresponds to your body, and the throat corresponds to your speech, and the heart corresponds to your mind. So you imagine that the body, speech, and mind of the Lama, and your body, speech, and mind are thoroughly one. They're not separate. They're the same. And thereby, all your problems and frustrations, et cetera, are all solved. And you attain a high level of wisdom. And you receive these high initiations of all that the Mahayana can give you, are all kind of absorbed into your own being. This subject is very hard to explain.

[25:34]

He's going to try to tell you a few things about it, but it's not something to easily explain. After you've imagined that the Lama dissolves into your body and mind, then you turn your mind inwards and you don't think about the outer objects at all. Like usually we're looking at things outside, seeing things, and you know, our whole mind is directed outwards. But you look inwards and you look at your mind itself. And when you look at your mind, you will find that, first of all, there's no color, no shape, nothing to grasp at at all. In fact, it's basically, it's very clear, there's like a clarity there. And that clarity is the basic characteristic of the mind. And when you look even closer at the clarity, you see that the nature of the clarity, the very nature is void, it's empty. So emptiness and clarity are the two characteristics of the actual state of mind.

[26:43]

Although it can't be seen, it has no color and no shape. But also the clarity and the emptiness are not different from each other. They're both very much part of the same thing, just as a hotly burning fire. of a fire is very hot. So the heat of the fire and the fire itself are not two different things. They're just two different aspects of the same thing. So in the same way the mind, the essence of clarity and emptiness are just two different aspects of the same thing. And so you try to stay in that state when you see the mind in that way. And that state is basically very blissful. restful state of mind, extreme happiness in that state of mind. And of course that's not very easy to come by, but he said, if you pray very hard for the blessing from your Lama, and plus if you try and you make great effort at this practice, that the understanding of mind will slowly come to you.

[27:51]

If you don't make effort, you won't really ever understand it. But if you do, you know, keep trying, then that kind of thing will dawn on you after a while. Meditation. Meditation. There's a certain point when you're seeking meditation. That point in the meditation is very similar to this point too. You just put your mind on your mind, in other words, instead of the state of the mind. When you look at you from the outside... looking at you all when you're all sitting there. It looks very, very good, but you can't really know whether you're really meditating or not. It looks like you're meditating. the content of my teaching.

[29:18]

That is the last of it. So, how much I would use? So, how much you can use? Yes. Christian, the couple of them. Then, you can use. Christian, the number of them. But, according to my teaching, you can send a couple of them. You can send a couple of them. You can send a couple of them. OK, you all go home to your house and think. One said, oh, the mind is white. It seems very white to me. And the second one said, oh, the mind is black. And the third one was crying. He said, so why are you crying? And he said, well, I looked at the mind, and I couldn't see anything at all. There was nothing. I must be very bad. And Lama said, don't you cry. You saw the right thing. The mind is nothing. There's no black, and there's no white, no color. So he got away. Through the Chenrezig meditation, you're supposed to think about the mind.

[30:28]

So you have to really try to do that. But the clarity of the mind that you might see, you mustn't grasp at that clarity and think that that clarity is something real. The clarity itself is empty. So it's not something that you can actually see. So it's very profound. Prayer. So he said, well, now we're finished. We've done the whole mantra. And next week, we'll be able to talk about it again. But basically, he said his work is done now. His work is done.

[31:28]

Yes. practice he'd like to tell you about. When you're thinking about practices and what you do in your lifetime, actually about almost 50 percent of our lifetime is spent sleeping. Like if you live 60 years, about 30 years or so is spent sleeping. So that's a large portion of your life. And so means that during your life, if you do good karma, I mean, everything is karma, what you do, all action is karma. And there's good karma, and there's bad karma, and there's neutral karma. And good karma is when you do good things, and practice dharma, and help others, and don't kill people, etc. And bad karma is when you do bad things, etc. Neutral is when you're just doing things without any great hate or desire, just neutral, and there's neutral karma.

[32:37]

And when you sleep, sleeping is basically a neutral action. However, if when you sleep you have certain hateful thoughts or desirous thoughts or stupid thoughts or passionate thoughts, etc., bad thoughts, then that makes all of your mind, your sleeping time into bad karma. However, if you can turn the time when you're sleeping into good karma, then it has a very good effect on your life, of course. And so there's a special practice. Actually, in general, there's many practices to do when you sleep. And mostly they're kind of a case of, like, if you have a special yidam that you're meditating on, then when you go to sleep and you visualize yourself as that yidam as you sleep, it's a general practice which is done. and there's many of those. However, in the Sakyapa tradition, written by Sakya Pindita, both Sakyapapa and Sakya Pindita wrote this practice, which he himself does every night, which is a very good practice, which is visualizing yourself as Amitabha.

[33:48]

And by doing this, your dreams can be very greatly benefited. And also in your next lifetime, you'll be born in Dalaichen if you do this practice very well. So he would like to teach this to you. He has it now written in his own prayer book. And he'd like to write that out in a printed Tibetan and have that translated into English. And then we'll teach that to you. He's going to give you the lung now. And you have to meditate this afterwards. When you go to sleep, first you make three prostrations to the three precious jewels. And then you think to yourself that For the benefit of all beings, I will become enlightened.

[35:09]

And for that reason, I'm now doing this practice so that I can become enlightened, to help all beings. I think that thought. Then you think that your house where you live and your room, et cetera, is like the pure land of Daochen, Sukhavati. And then in the room there is a huge throne which is made of precious jewels. Then on the throne, there's a lotus and a moon seed. And sitting on that is Amitabha, the Red Buddha, which is sure that you've seen in certain tangas. are sitting there.

[36:25]

And then surrounding the Amitabha are all the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas sitting around him in all their different colors, various colors of their body are all around him. Then there's the mantra that he's now saying in the first line. Namo means I bow to you or I give praise to you. Bhagavate means Bhagavan, the Lord. And Amitabha means I bow to the Lord or the Master, Amitabha. Then you do the mudras for the offerings, flowers, and say, So then in your mind you imagine that you're giving inconceivable numbers or offerings to Amitabha.

[37:57]

Then you say this prayer. You say this prayer which includes making frustrations and offering and confessing of sins and asking the Buddha to stay in the world and to turn the wheel of the Dharma and that you may yourself become enlightened. Do you say that? And also, you're thinking about the meaning of that prayer, which is just like that. Say that three times? Prayer, which basically says, oh, please lead me to Daochen next prayer. That as you're going to sleep, the air coming out of your left nostril, and that air, that wind is mixed with your consciousness.

[39:31]

And that air comes out of your nose and it goes, you know, the Amitabha who's sitting in your room on the throne, that air goes from your nose into his right nostril. And then you imagine that your air and consciousness has gone into his right nose and then it has become mixed with his mind and with his consciousness. So you meditate on that for a while, that your consciousness is mixed with his over there. Your left nostril is right. No, just left to right. His heart center comes out of his left nostril and it comes back into your right one and goes into your heart. You meditate on this just when you're about to fall asleep, not when you've actually fallen asleep already. And not a long time before that either, just when you're drifting off.

[40:47]

A few times. In that process of a few times, imagine the air going out of your lap. into his right nose, into his mind, consciousness, staying there, then the light coming out of his heart center, out of his right nostril, into your left, into your heart and mind. You do that a few times. That light is that multicolored light? That's white light. After you've done that a few times, you imagine that the Amitabha over there has has dissolved into light and then all that light absorbs into your own body and then you yourself become Amitabha sitting on this this huge throne and then you say the mantra which she'll teach you.

[41:52]

No, Amitabha. This is the heart of Amitabha, this mantra, and plus it's the way to get a long life by saying this mantra. So you've said that many times, and you're visualizing yourself to have become Amitabha. It's a prayer. And then after you said that prayer, then you imagine that the Amitabha who entered you goes back to Dawachen. And you yourself are still left there in your bed, but you also are Amitabha. Amitabha, the last one, he goes back to Dala Chen, after you finish saying the prayer, he goes back to Dala Chen, and you yourself also are still Amitabha, in the shape of Amitabha, and you're still going off to sleep now.

[43:16]

So you imagine that on your forehead is Aum, on your throat Ah, in your heart Hum, and then you yourself are Amitabha, and then you fall asleep at this point. Activities, when you, everything you see, you imagine to be part of Dawa Dawa Chen, and you imagine yourself to be Amitabha. Anywhere you go, anything you do, you try to think in those terms. And if you can do this meditation well, you will live a very long life, and you won't be bothered by illness, or demon spirits, or anything like that. And you, Dawa Dawa Chen, should live joyfully. This prayer amongst the great lamas, he says, old men, right? Lagin means old men? It's kind of a joke. All the old men of Sakya always regard this prayer as very effective and very holy type of meditation.

[44:28]

He meditates this all the time, even right now he's meditating. He now has this written out in handwriting in his book, and he'll write it in that printed letters, and then we'll translate it. And then he doesn't know whether you really can do this all the time or whatever, but as much as you possibly can, please try to do this meditation. You'll find great benefit in your lifetime. You won't have much suffering or problems. Many good things will come. So do it as much as you can. If you need that a lot, you cannot heal. ...here for a long time now, and it's been great that he's been able to give you certain teachings, and that, especially those who have stayed in retreat doing meditations on Vajradhāra, and Dakini, and Manjushri, etc., and the girl Abhi did something, she finished with...

[45:38]

Q. You started on Windrow and other people. This kind of thing, he's very pleased that you have all practised this, and now his... what he's done is pretty much finished for now, but he's very glad that all the things that we've been able to do have... and basically that you're practising dharma is a great source of pleasure. You have questions, you know, in the next few weeks or whatever. He didn't say that. He said, slowly, please ask him a question. Think about any question that you have and do ask it. But basically, he's pretty much finished now, what he has to do. We have questions. said, I'm a great siddha, so if you have anything to ask, just ask it. So now he's saying that to you. Anything you have to ask, just ask it. Well, I would like to ask.

[46:42]

I didn't get the point of that. Something about, he said that if you think you're a man, then you're a man. If you think you're a god, you're a god. If you think you're a naga, you're a naga. So they asked him, well, what are you then? And someone said, well, you're just a man. Right? Something like that. Go ahead. What is your question? Also the dharma dhatu, the realm of dharma. Judy, you elaborate a symbol. It's not actually. In other words, the dominant to itself does not have a color. It's just that since blue is an unchanging color, then that's a symbol of the unchanging.

[47:43]

Yes. Three provinces or three areas. There's the central and the western, which is called San, and the eastern portion, which is called Kam. So of those three portions, Gā Nālandepa was not from the central or the western part. He was from the eastern section, Kham. And the area in Kham is called Gābha. And Gābha is the same area that Guru Rinpoche was born in, from the same place. He was born there. And he wasn't born to a very wealthy family. Not an extremely poor family, but a sort of fairly poor, quite poor family.

[48:47]

He thinks that he was the oldest of the six children. Forty-one years have passed. Forty-two years. So he died about forty-two years ago. This monastery is called Tagum Monastery. It has about three hundred monks. Tagum. It's his. We have to change monastery also. There's two different names with the same place. Talam is actually the name of the place, that area, and the name of the monastery. Talam means the path to emancipation.

[49:55]

So that's kind of a nice name that was put on that monastery. But they're actually both the name of the monastery. So you can call it either Talam or Talum. So when he was young, About six or seven, he said that he didn't want to stay in the village anymore, but he wanted to go to the monastery. And the monastery, since there's no cars there, it takes about four hours to get to the monastery. It's quite far. But the child went. About three times, he just went there by himself. And the parents were forced to bring him back to their house. And again, he kept wanting to go to the monastery. He didn't want to stay in the village. He was about nine years old. He studied with a Siddha, a great yogi called Ngaon Shedrup. Ngaon Shedrup. Ngaon Shedrup.

[50:59]

He studied how to read and write and also received many initiations from him and teachings and also the basic idea of renouncing the samsara, he learned with this great yogi Siddhartha. And then at the age of nine, he entered the monkhood in the presence of the abbot of Moore Monastery. Moore temple? Kumbha temple. Kumbha temple dojo. Kumbha temple dojo. That he cut his hair. And he took the Guinean vows. And he also received the Hevajra initiation. [...]

[52:01]

When he was 11 years old he went to Lhasa central Tibet and at that time he was reading the biography and the 100,000 songs of Milarepa. He was very impressed by Milarepa and he thought at this time he'd like to search for Milarepa. Then he yawed at the sheep. He [...] yawed at the sheep.

[53:07]

He yawed at the sheep. [...] He yawed at the sheep time and it's a very far distance and part of the way he went riding on a yak and then he would walk for a way and then he would ride on the yak when his feet really hurt him and during that whole time he kept thinking and thinking about Milarepa all the time and reading his Namtar and thinking about it in his mind. At that time he loved to eat meat, all types of meat, but on that journey a yak was killed for food and he saw them kill it and cut it up and take its dumb stomach out and he got totally sick of the idea of eating meat and he said from now on I'm just not going to eat any meat at all and I think for the rest of his life he never ate meat.

[54:07]

More monastery. He stayed there for two years at More Monastery. And at that time, he studied with Ngawang Lojo Nyingbo. And he studied with him all the different vows, teachings, Bodhisattva vows, the Getsu Genyi. He took the monk vows at that time from this Lama. And the Bodhisattva vows. And the Lamje, the Montreana path of the Lamje. He learned all of that. Then if someone would put meat in front of him,

[55:23]

He would say, well, that's meat. But really, all sentient beings have been your mother and your father at one time. So it's really like eating your own mother. And so I really don't think it's a good idea to eat meat and eat your own mother. So he said that, you know, just no way of eating meat. He received the monk vows at 19, the bhikshu vows. After that time he always, until he was 72 years old when he passed away, he was a very strict monk in that he always, he never ate after noon, which is one of the main monk vows which most people don't follow. And he never ate meat at all during that whole time. And he always was wearing the dharma robes and he always had his begging bowl close to him. He just, he did the whole thing completely correctly.

[56:52]

Retreat now for a while. He was probably practicing Hevajra teachings. Then at that time, Khyentse Rinpoche and Janggong Kongju were very famous in Dergye Monastery. They were leaders of a great religious movement at this time. This was like the late 19th century. And so he walked to Dergye twice from this place. It takes about 20 days. He didn't ride a horse, but he walked and he carried all his things on his back. went to see them twice to receive teachings. That's a later inclination of that one. But yeah, the great Kensei. These ones are in the monarchy of India. This was the late 19th century.

[58:08]

which I was constantly giving wongs and teachings all the time and so Gangawan Lepa tried to receive these teachings but he didn't have any great offerings to give and when he came to the assembly of people who were about to receive an initiation Five different times the Lama told him, he said, that monk from Gabba, please leave. He wouldn't give him initiation or teaching. But during all those five times, he never lost faith and thought, oh, this Lama is bad or anything like that. He just knew that that was his own karma, that he had to work out. And he always had faith the whole time. He was kicked out five times. So then after that, he studied with one of Khyentse's students, and he learned the grammar and different teachings from him.

[59:46]

And then slowly, Khyentse Rinpoche heard of this monk from Gava who was actually very, very smart and had a very good disposition toward Dharma, although he was very poor. And Kintarojya heard about him, how he was a very special student, so then he was invited to receive bongs, etc. And then afterwards he was able to receive many such things from him. This time then he returned to his native land again, and then at this point his father died. And also many of his close friends and teachers other people that he knew all died. And it was a time for great sadness for him. But he went into retreat at this time. And he locked himself into a cave, et cetera. And there was a small hole in which his mother was able to give him food. Other than that, he didn't see anyone or talk to anyone for 15 years, from the age of 37 until 51.

[60:48]

37 to 51 he was in retreat. When Rinpoche was 10 years old he saw him during the time he was in retreat and some people when they're in retreat look very good but this lama evidently was with great effort and great asceticism was trying very hard and so he was very very thin and looked very sort of bad at that time. Do you remember? Because he was 10 years old. 2400,000 of refuge prayers during this time. Did 4300,000 prostrations. That's amazing. 4 million. 300,000 prostrations. And 100 syllable mantra of 1100,000 means 1,100,000. And 1,000,000 mandala offerings. 500,000 of the Lama Nagar.

[62:23]

He had great faith in Sakya Pandita and even saw his face in actuality. Mahakala, he did 100. It means 10 million. The Tara launcher, he did 100 times 100,000. He offered 200,000 of the small butter lamps during the time he was in the retreat.

[63:28]

He never ate any of the butter he got, but he always offered it. $100,000 and $150,000. $100,000 and $150,000. For 15 years to sleep, he always stayed upright.

[64:30]

He came out of retreat at the age of 51. He had become a great Siddha and all the people recognized him to be a very great Lama. He got many disciples and he gave the Lamja teaching nine times. His own experience, he met Biruba, and Jetsun Trapa Gyentsen, and Gurki Gombo, Sargye Pinduta. He had experiences of all of those. See their face, have conversation with him, get teaching from them. In dreams, yeah. In dreams. famous statue of Birbhirbha in Lormat monastery. And he dreamed that he saw that statue and he offered some butter lamps to that.

[65:34]

Then the statue said, Oh, well, I've been here for a long time, but now I'm going to go back to India pretty soon, he told him. But I will come back to Tibet two more times, he said. Had painted a very famous painting of Sakya which is thought to be a very special painting, which is also in Mara Monastery. That painting, he saw that painting in his dream, and he dreamt that he was praying to that four-line prayer of the Guru-Guru Yoga, and when he was saying that, all of a sudden, the painting from the fingers, all sorts of lights were coming out, white lights. And then he prayed more and he said, please give me your blessing. And then the painting shook its head three times.

[66:36]

Yes or no? Yes. He ate this something called the Jaya ribu. Jaya ribu is a small pill which is for jampayon. And he ate three of those. And then he went to sleep and he dreamt that he was given sort of heaps of dough which had the letters OM ARABATANIDHI on it all over them. And he ate those things, and then the mantra was all through his body and glowing brightly. Incredible dreams and experiences that he had. He received three kundusambo pills.

[67:52]

And then he went home. At that time, it was a Buddhist birthday, I think, or a special holiday when he was offering many butter lamps. And so at that time he decided to eat all three of these pills and see what happened. So he ate them and he went to sleep. And this time he dreamt that his, his Lama, Kunga Nyingma, showed him a special statue of Manjushri, which was in a small box, I think. And that special statue also had a, there was a, bar of ink, black ink, which is the kind that comes from China, it's like a solid piece of black thing, which had come out of the statue.

[68:53]

And also there was the eye of his other guru, Shadruth's eye, which had come out, his right eye had come out and was also there in the form of the head bead of a mala, you know, the white thing, the big bead, And all those were given to him in the dream. And that meaning was that by seeing the statue of Manjushri meant that he understood the basic teachings of the Padma Paramita and of the teachings of Manjushri of wisdom teachings. And the black ink meant that he would be able to compose many beneficial teachings for all of the people in Tibet. And the eye meant that he was like the eye of his guru. And he was like the head of the mala, of all the disciples, which are like the beads on the mala. He was the head bead. So it had that symbology to the tree.

[69:57]

One time when he had to travel a far distance, and Tibet travel was very hard because there are many thieves and bandits on the road. And so he prayed to the Gurki Gombo, this figure here, who is a very great protector. He prayed very hard. And then that night in a dream, he dreamt that he saw that very clearly, standing there in the midst of this flame, fire, And he saw that, and then he would sort of fall back to sleep. It was kind of a mixture of a dream and a meditation state. He would kind of pass out, and then wake up again. Then he would see his foot or something, then pass back out. He kept seeing parts of his body. And then again, he saw the whole body. And all that is an extremely good sign of having a kind of dream. of Tibet, and he had many tens of thousands of students.

[71:12]

which was made from special things which had been blessed by many lamas. It was kind of a large pill about the size of half your thumb. And on it were the words, OM MANI PADME HUM. And he went to Minyak, which is a place in Tibet. And to each person that he gave this pill to, he said, I can only give this if you recite, I think it's 10 million or 100 million. 100 million, I think, manis. And it said there were 5,000 who could take that pill. 5,000 people. How many monies? 100 million. 100 million? They promised to do it, but they can't. They will do it. They promised to do it. Was that his way of getting it? Yeah. Then after he was able to have many students and disciples who were very, very rich, and he was able to extremely build a fantastic temple in Dalung Gomba to the point where Rinpoche now says that he's traveled all over Tibet.

[72:58]

He's seen many monasteries, but he's never seen a temple as beautiful as the one as his lama was able to build. And he made many, many statues of Shakyamuni, Sakya Pindita, etc. Rows upon rows of statues of gold and silver and thangkas and incredible wall paintings. He was able to do all this. Plus, he was able to, for the 300 monks who was there, he was able to give each of them a large amount of money. And he really took care of them very, very well and increased the great fortune of that monastery. When he read the book, the Mani Kumbum, which is a very famous book written in the time of Sonsen Gampo about the history of Tibet and about the role of Chenrezig, he got great faith in Chenrezig and he decided to recite at least a hundred million mantras of Chenrezig himself. And so through his life, he was very strong on that.

[74:00]

And he said it many, many times. And he was able to lead tens of thousands of students to that practice and to gain enlightenment in that way. And also, of course, he taught the Sakya teachings to a great extent and the essence of the Sakya teachings. And in particular, the Mani, saying the Manis, he did at least about 5,000 every day just during his regular activities. He would say about 5,000 each day. So when his disciples wanted to know about his next lifetime and his next incarnation, he said that probably he won't come back to the human world. That basically because Sakya Monastery and Lama Monastery are going to be destroyed, that makes him feel very sad that they're no longer going to be there. So he really doesn't feel he could stay in the human world anymore.

[75:03]

But he plans to take his next birth in Dalaichan. And in Dalaichan, the way to get to Dalaichan, there's four basic causes. One is to arouse the bodhichitta very strongly. Second thing is to accumulate a great amount of wisdom accumulations and merit accumulations, which is doing good things and doing your meditation, etc. And the third... then you must meditate on the Daochen land and on Amitabha as much as possible and visualize the whole world. Think about that all the time. And then anything good that you do, you must dedicate all that merit to being born in Daochen.

[76:14]

So anything is dedicated for that reason. So therefore, through those four causes, that's the way that he can manage to be born in Dalai Lama Chan. And he said he'd like to do that very, very much because all of the great Sakya teachers are living there now, like Sakya Pitaka and Chögyam Pabla and Chögyam Tarpagyan Sen, etc., Kunga Nyingpo, etc., all of them are there. And he would like to ask them more questions about Lamje and receive more teachings from them on that. So that was his plan to go through Dalai Lama Chan. after he died, and so that is what he seems to have done. When he actually died, Rinpoche himself was not there. He was in another place, so he didn't see this, but he heard that when he died that morning, he got up, washed his face, had tea, etc., and he sat on his throne. He sat on his throne facing west. They had a thangka of Daochen, and he put that in front of him, and he was facing west.

[77:29]

And then he had a special pills that he gave to some of his students, which have a special blessing on them, for them to eat. And then they were all crying because they knew he was going to die then. And so he said, well, don't cry, don't cry, because if you die and you go to hell, then there's cause to cry. But if you're going to die and go to the Dao Chan, then nothing to feel bad about. So I'm going to go to the Dao Chan, so you don't have to worry. And when you die, then I'll lead you to the Dao Chan also, so you don't have to worry about that. And then he sat back and he did some mantras. And after a few times around, he just kind of He sat back and he just never did that. And he went to Tao Te Ching, he's quite sure. And the temple is down a little bit now, probably the Chinese temple.

[78:31]

He's heard now through letters and stuff. So the whole monastery is finished. to that being destroyed. No, that wasn't a vision. He just kind of knew. It was a prediction. Well, he even told the Shogun that he knew that the Chinese would come and that Sakyan would be destroyed. So therefore, he didn't want to stay in the world anymore. Yeah. That is basically the meditation that he's going to tell us about later. I mean, that he can tell us about tonight. But also being born in Daochen is a way of helping many beings because that means that you've reached the first Bodhisattva Bumi. So it's really kind of the same thing.

[79:33]

So it's not like a selfish wish. I knew that was what you were thinking. I knew it couldn't be selfish, but I wasn't putting it out. It's something that he was saying all the time, these four causes for being born in Deva-Demacan. You arouse the bodhicitta, that you accumulate as much merit and wisdom as possible, that you always visualize Deva-Chan, and that you dedicate all merit to the purpose of being born in Deva-Chan. He said that many times. There's no doubt about the fact that we're all going to die. There's not a single one of us here who aren't going to die. And once you die, we have nowhere to go. We have no home, really, anyway. So what will we do once we die? What's going to happen? So we really have to work hard and try to do something good in order to... We should think about this fact that we actually have no home and nowhere to go.

[80:35]

He was to live till 90, but because of certain obstacles, something happened to him and he lived to 71. I'm not sure I can say his program, so would you please ask him, Sherry, what was the single, to him, what was the most valuable teaching gift that Sherry gave him? Also, of course, he received the Lamje teaching four times. But in general, he was with him, I think, from the age of 10 to around 34. And during that time, he was constantly going in and out of his presence.

[81:42]

He just knew him very well. So we see many, many things from him. Sometimes he wouldn't come for a few days. And people would say, where have you been? Come back. They were together. They were very close. One of the ones who promised to give 100 million of the money. So he's trying to finish it. He's very much finished it now. He's still doing that. Do you imagine him going to hell after he dies? He doesn't think he's going to go to hell at all. He's very afraid of going to hell. Very afraid. If he doesn't feel about it? No, just in general. Well, if he's afraid, we'd better not even think about it. I don't know what's happening. For every bad thought, there is a hell for that hell. Life is not good. He sits many times. by himself worrying about death.

[83:00]

And he doesn't know when he's going to die or how he's going to die. And now he's left his country, and he's here in America. And he doesn't know how to die. And plus, he doesn't know maybe he'll be in a car accident, or maybe he'll be sick, or all sorts of things. He has no idea. And he worries about this very much. He's not happy at all. He's really worried about death. We appreciate worries about his future. The way it is, anyway, you guys do some refuge and say the 100,000 syllable mantra, say some prayers to them. It will be some benefit to you, that's one thing. Could he just say something like, I might go with Dao Chen? I mean, it's sort of inconceivable.

[84:00]

Dao Chen, can you do it? No, it's good. I mean, when you know that it's inconceivable, you say it. But he said you have to, with great effort and with great faith, you have to try very, very hard. It's not, I mean, if you really want to go there, you can. But, you know, it's not something you can do just like that. You have to really try. The realm of the Buddhist Shakyamuni is this world that we're in right here.

[85:03]

So actually he's still here on Vulture Peak in India, but since our karma is very bad, we can't see him. But if our karma was good, we'd be able to see him. This is his realm right here. like the ending prayers, those kind of things. Since we are a Buddhist center, since we are a Buddhist center, you do have to say these, you know, make a r-r-r sound after you do something. So he's going to write these things down for you. Yeah, these sharing prayers, yeah. Certain prayers are very important. You should make sure that you get that in your heart. If he writes it out and we get a chance to read it, we'll get an email. Yeah. I did I don't get in the right you're going to use your cousin or is it is not easy to get on my good need to buy your young to send for them to my seat but not in your hand you buy number I met

[86:21]

I'm going to go on the bill I use on you because I need to know I'm sure you're going to read in there and then I'm going to I'm a team member and I'm going to I'm a long time and I'm sure you didn't know about this. I can't. [...] TASHI YOIN DO WE LA MAI SHU JIE PEN DRA TASHI RA ON TSUL SHI SA YIN KYONG YONG JA WA NYI BAI PA DEN SA JAI PE DEN PA YIN RIN NI PE TASHI YOIN RANG KYONG TSUL SHI JA WA YIN DANG GYEL SUNG SUNG GYI DRO [...] Ye yoy tso tso yong yi yopar shor gyur bay kyi gyi jang tsu yong tsu kong ne kong ri gyun de ten bar san.

[87:30]

Sa cha bay ten bar ji gyur gyi kong gyi gyi gyi de way dor gyi ten bar ten sar gyi gyi se gyi [...] mey bar. GONG ZHONG CHENG LEN NONG KAR NYAM BAR ZHU WEN [...] GONG ZH All of this you need to pray all the time. Their sect will get bigger and spread.

[88:39]

You know, so of course, we, since we're Sakhi, we say to make Sakhi's get bigger, but the Kagyu say, May the Kagyu spread, may the Nyingma, Dunchon Rinpoche said, may the Nyingma spread for some reason. Benefit to that is some blessing too from doing that so we should be able to do it for ourselves. If you go to Sakya Center in India and you hear the Lamja, you will hear them, the little monks, many of them. There's no room for laziness.

[89:42]

We see all the work he does, and we can hardly be lazy seeing everything he does. He's much harder than we are. He works so hard for us that we should try very hard. That's not the way you say it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Very much. Thank you. Che sounded very much like, he didn't know Tibetan of course, but was forced to learn how to say cut, close your mouth and open it. I cried some. He didn't say that much. Thank you. You're welcome. Very much in the moment. For the empowerment of Green Tara. At 7.30. Next Saturday. Saturday night. At what time again? 730.

[91:23]

Next. 730. Yeah. Dorma, jungle camp. September. 19? 19. No. I got the information from Simon, so you can blame him. No? No. He's wrong. We have to retract. And he needs to get the book from the library.

[91:57]

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