When I was young, I used to go to school. [...] I was born in Mongolia. I was born in Mongolia. [...] Yes. He was a very good man.

[01:09]

He was a very good man. He was very good. When I was young, I didn't know how to read. I didn't know how to write. When I was young, I didn't know how to write. When I was young, I didn't know how to write. When I was young, I didn't know how to write. Ma'un pala chiyele gyur rinpoche sanyeke teba dena chiyele tena ke yong jiris. Bena min kha san yong aki cheshi ta wudila kha yinsinba. Lama galur rinpo chege doje dena inji ki loza wa sanga kongi chawe mambo tukun yore.

[02:15]

When the sun was about to set, the sun was about to set. The [...] sun was about to set. Yes. Yes. When I was a child, I used to go to school. I used to go to school when I was a child. [...] Yes, that's right.

[03:24]

That's right. Yes, that's right. That's right. When I was a kid, I used to go to school with my friends. [...] Are we having fun?

[04:45]

Okay. To be historically accurate, The deities, as opposed to the gurus that you see depicted in Tibetan thangkas, are actually painted according to Indian models. So, again, that doesn't invalidate your question, but just to set the record straight, the forms of the deities were imported, as it were, from Buddhist India to Tibet, when Buddhism entered Tibet. If you see thangkas of Tibetan gurus of the past, historical figures such as Sakyapandita, you'll see that they're dressed like Tibetans. But that's because they were dressed like Tibetans when they were around. They wore Tibetan clothing. You'll see that the kind of robes they wore, the kind of clothing they're shown wearing in the paintings, directly reflects the cultural conditions of their time. at the time of their existence, during their lifetime, what they would have looked like hundreds of years ago.

[05:50]

In terms of the deities though, the iconography is something that was more or less brought without adaptation from Buddhist India. The deities were already current in the tantric systems of Indian Buddhism and were simply brought to Tibet and left alone. And there was a certain sense of the sacredness of the forms where they were not tempered with consciously. You can even find that in the texts, while the vast majority of words are translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan, so that it would be directly accessible to the Tibetan people, the mantras which are used were left in Sanskrit. Tibetan script was devised for reproducing the actual Sanskrit. which makes absolutely no sense in Tibetan. It has no grammatical sense in Tibetan the way it does in Sanskrit, but it was considered sufficiently sacred that it was left alone. Now Tibetans are notorious for their mispronunciation of Sanskrit, but they at least tried to keep it in the form of Sanskrit.

[06:53]

We must remember that the Dharma has been part of Tibetan culture and the Tibetan world for over a thousand years. there was a long process of assimilation and a very careful and methodical and patient translation of the ideas and concepts of Dharma into the Tibetan language and the Tibetan milieu. There will be that kind of assimilation process in the West. but there has to be patience. It won't happen overnight. It didn't happen in Tibet overnight. When Buddhism first came to Tibet, everything was in Sanskrit and everything was according to the Indian system. And the people in Tibet trained scholars, trained translators, invited Indian pundits to come and work together, and over a period of some several hundred years, gradually translated the whole corpus of the Dharma into Tibetan, and

[07:56]

assimilated it into their religious culture. Now, although many teachers seem to have come in a very short time in the West, cosmically speaking, the Dharma has only just arrived. The Dharma is very, very new to this culture. And to expect it to immediately take on a Western form is unrealistic. Western Buddhism will evolve, but it will evolve organically and not because someone sits down and thinks, well, I think we should change this because Westerners need this instead of this. It really doesn't happen in that way. but rather through a long process of patient assimilation and patient examination of the teachings and the translation of them and the reworking of them into Western styles of expression and styles of practice, we will see a distinctive form of Western Buddhism evolving. Whether the forms of the deities will change remains to be seen. Again, it won't be a clumsy conscious process where one individual sits down and decides they're going to redesign the pantheon. it will be an organic expression of the needs and also the experiences and realizations that Western practitioners of Buddhism cultivate.

[09:07]

But we can see that what we are doing now as the first generations of Buddhist practitioners in the West is just establishing conditions for the future. This doesn't mean that our practice is not going to benefit us. It simply means that we are involved in a historical process that reaches far into the future. There are many translation projects which are currently going on. The very venerable Kala Rinpoche assembled this winter in Bodh Gaya, assembled a number of his Western students to begin the translation of a major encyclopedic work on Buddhism from the Tibetan point of view. Now, Kala Rinpoche is very old. He will likely not live to see the fruition of that project. reaching far into the future. Perhaps this one text, but certainly not all the texts that he hopes through this project will come to be translated. He's not thinking of his own welfare or the welfare of just a few people who are alive now. He's thinking of the West in the future and what the West in the future is going to need to be able to evolve a viable form of Buddhism.

[10:11]

And so For us as practitioners in the West now, there seem to be difficulties. It's all a bit foreign and these deities, I can't really relate to them and so forth. We can perhaps take heart from the case of one Sakya Lama in Victoria, in Canada, whose name is Tashi Namjel, who went to see the Dalai Lama once, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and he said, you know, there's all this talk in the meditations of the different seed syllables, like Kri for compassion and Om Ah Hung for body, speech and mind and so forth. And Lama Tashi Namjel said, many people come to me and say, can I visualize them in English? You know, H-R-I or O-M-A-H-H-U-N-G. Do I have to visualize them in Tibetan script? And Dalai Lama said, no. Visualize them in English. That's fine. So we don't need to feel ultimately bound to one single language or one single form. But the process by which Western Buddhism will evolve will be a slow, organic, patient process.

[11:18]

Exactly how it's going to turn out, Justin Kushner says, I don't want to speculate. Whether there's going to be, this is going to change or this isn't going to change, I really don't know. But I do know that it will be the result of patient, methodical work by very learned people, very realized people, in response to the spiritual needs of the West. There was somebody over here first. Yes, I have a question about motivation. Mm-hmm. It's based on my own observations of other people, questions I've had for long periods of time that finally resolve themselves, and my own experience within my own practice. And that is that some people who use the words of motivation for helping others in actuality are being very, very egotistical and selfish. Whereas there are others that use extreme words of selfishness, but the way they exist in the world, everything they do for themselves, they are simultaneously doing for everyone else.

[12:28]

They can't do any other thing than that because of what they are within themselves. than observing myself in my own practice. I have to go back and forth between those modes, because if I use the words at some stages of motivation for others, I either become very foolish, downright stupid sometimes, or I start fooling myself, which I don't like doing. Other times, to use the words of selfishness pulls me into selfishness, and I have to be very careful to watch that switch back and forth and to look for it. I have noticed among many other people that it sometimes suddenly switches back and forth. Observing even things that happen here, when a very highly reputed mama is teaching,

[13:28]

and he is either overextended or ill, yet some very humble person in the audience will have so much innate compassion that that person takes care of the problem so that the Lama does not cause harm inadvertently. How are these issues addressed within Tibetan Buddhism at all stages? At the beginning stage of a person beginning to study, at the intermediate stages, or even at the stages of the advanced lamas? How do they monitor themselves? Who monitors them? Who looks at these issues? How do they look at these issues? Okay, the one place I got caught was the case of a high lama overextending themselves and someone preventing the guru from causing harm. Did I hear you right? Something like... Oh, yes, I've observed it many times. I'm not quite sure what you mean. I don't quite follow. Yeah.

[14:30]

I'm not asking for names and dates. I'm just wondering what the principle is, you know. Uh-huh. I'm a bit interested in the concept of a guru sitting, teaching, causing harm. Because of the cross-cultural context, there are many, many ambiguities that happen. The Lama will be ignorant as to what is actually going on here, but the person who is from this place and who is listening attentively will not be. And that person, I have observed many people doing it, not for long periods of time, where they take on the burden so that the discrepancy between the cultures does not end up causing a bigger problem. It usually happens with either minorities or older women. I'm really sorry. I'm not. Yeah. I'm not. I refuse to do that because my words will end up being twisted by the combined react lines.

[15:45]

I'm sorry, my mind does not work the way yours does. I'll only be confused. I confess I am already. I'm sorry. Take the question before that. Yeah, yeah, okay. How do you monitor it for the beginning people? How do you monitor it ongoing? Mm-hmm. I don't know how to explain it. [...] Today, I would like to ask you a few questions.

[16:54]

When I was young, I used to go to Rangden to study. That's where I went to school. [...] I was a teacher at that time. I was a teacher [...] at that time. Yes. Yes.

[18:05]

Yes. [...] She said, could I ask you who your teachers are? Would you volunteer the information or do you feel that's indiscreet? I don't understand the question exactly. You mean why she's asking it? I don't at this time follow a specific teacher. I wear them out too fast. .

[19:06]

Samsoni. And the only one I'm a supporter of. . [...] I don't know. [...] In terms of who can really tell who has true altruistic motivation, the only final monitor is you yourself whether you have and this requires great self-honesty you have to really know whether you in fact have compassion for others or altruistic motivation or whatever because ultimately you really can't judge another one finally you can look at a person and say it seems that they do or they don't have a certain quality but you can't make a flat statement being

[21:01]

an unenlightened person, an unenlightened being. You can only really monitor yourself. Now, Jasangusha said, it seems to me that from what you're saying, you have had a number of teachers, you have examined a number of teachers, and part of your question seems to be how to decide whether a teacher is truly qualified. It wasn't, okay. Because she was going to say better that you yourself keep examining until you're personally satisfied rather than her telling you this is how you do it. No, I was wondering how it was monitored within the whole structure of teaching at the various stages. We are going to take a look at the Drupal board. We are going to take a look at the board. I have a lot of problems with my body.

[22:21]

I have a lot of problems with my body. When I was a child, I used to go to school here. [...] So in terms of who monitors who, really you monitor yourself. And she said, it also seems to me, this is, you know, I just translate literally what she said. She said, it seems to me that you have a certain amount of doubt and I would encourage you to remember that the Buddha did not demand

[23:21]

blind faith from people. He always regarded doubt as something that the individual had to work through in their own way, and that that was a valuable part of their experience. And so he would always encourage his students, if you have doubts, work them through. Don't just believe it because I said it. Work them through. And so that's, I think, a useful, she said, I think that's a useful principle for us all to remember in the face of having doubts, is that we need to address those doubts and work through them in whichever way we feel we can, rather than just assuming, oh, I shouldn't have these doubts, I should just believe in it all or something like that, but to actually say to yourself, okay, I really am having trouble with this and start working with that and working through it. Two more? Okay. Okay. I just wondered how people actually go about the nuts and bolts of constructing. Say you've never done a visualization, why? And you sit down with a sadhana and there's this thing.

[24:30]

And then you sit down and close your eyes and you try to do it. Where do you begin as an absolute beginner with a visualization? Nuts and balls. It's untranslatable. I don't know how to translate it. I don't know how to translate it. When I was young, I used to go to the temple to pray.

[25:42]

I used to go to the temple to pray. [...] To begin with, don't close your eyes. You're not... imploding in that sense. You're simply calling an image to your mind which is albeit a foreign one in the sense that you're not accustomed to using the visualizing capacities of your mind in that way.

[26:44]

If it helps, when you begin working with the deity meditation, very often people will be encouraged to have a small photograph or painting or image of the deity. Alright. What are your names? What's your name? Yes. Well, I know I have a copy on my phone now. Oh, then we'll appear after.

[27:58]

Yeah. [...] But I don't say so. I just never say it. And that's the point. But, yeah, I've got a lot of questions. You know what we're going to do? I'm going to give you a picture. I'm going to stack them up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I'll do this down. Okay. Well, give me another picture. But it's okay. You don't have to go right there on the car. If you get on the road, work with it. If you want to live in it, then it's great. That would be a good thing.

[28:58]

I found it was a good thing. It should be a good thing. It's a very good thing. It's a very good thing. Oh no! You're right. [...] Hey, order.

[29:59]

Yeah, she wants to go. Yeah, I don't have time for you. You're the one I want to talk to. Maybe later. Yeah, maybe later. Do you want to talk to me before you go back home? Oh, you want to talk to me before you go back home? Well, they react soundly, right? They come. All right.

[31:25]

All right. Yeah, we should be doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we should do that. Thank you very much. Oh, sorry.

[32:34]

Yes, you want me to tell you what that is? Well, whatever. No, I can do it. [...] It's not a big deal, but that's what we're trying to do. That's what we're trying to do. Now you're going to go up to the ceiling, but please, if I can share something, I hope that you start something.

[33:35]

I hope that you start something. [...] Hi. You're welcome. Thank you. Right. [...] Oh, my God.

[34:54]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We're in one person too. I know you can't eat that, but I thought maybe, like, Richard, don't eat that. Oh, they're really hard to eat. Yeah, please. That's for you. They'd like to interview you about your son.

[35:54]

They're doing an issue. No, this is the last month issue. This is, yeah. But for the next issue, we would very much like to do an interview. We don't have time. The book is in the library. Oh, very big. Thank you. [...] Thank you very much. I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah.

[37:04]

Great. Yeah. Well, it's not. It's not. It's not. I just wanted to thank you for being down here. I really like to see you. That's a Cal 40. Not changed. Okay, thank you.

[38:05]

Oh, yeah. [...] Both of them like being connected by creation. In fact, we have pennies, pepper, and that's where it's at. I want the phone that had the fish pie. Do you want that? Yeah. I'll take it. I'll take it. Thank you. [...] Do you know what we do now?

[39:48]

I don't know. [...] Alright, ready? They're working there. [...] and just interplay with people.

[41:06]

Are there any comments? That is my only question. Very good. Shut down. That's good. I call up, what can we do? Just, after one, you are going to have to go. Using that, and I told them, never be fucked up. Be here, tour, go.

[42:08]

Are you going to do it now? And they said, no, no. No, then you did. No, then you did. With my mother, you know what I mean? Of course. Thank you. How are you doing? Come here. I... I... I... Yeah. I didn't get the terminology there. Yeah? But it's okay, you're beginning, first time. I did this one, first time too. Nobody's going to cut back on what I do. So then I tell y'all what the fact I told myself. Because I really, really thought there was something wrong.

[43:09]

I snagged out, and what she said, I thought, he's out of luck, and he's just not satisfied. So I said, get him out again. I said, it doesn't matter. This is something to do. Then she's out again. When he's very happy, when he's very depressed, he says, I'm fine. [...] Oh, good. Good. I didn't know.

[44:17]

It's difficult. So this will hang here tomorrow for... I'm glad. Oh, me too. Thank you so much. This has a little dirge in it, though. Yeah, I know. I never saw one like that when I thought I thought of you. Yeah, you were doing weaving last time I talked to you. Weaving? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[45:17]

Don't forget your money. Oh. Oh. Oh. It's a name. Wow. I don't know what it looked like, but it was really sunny and warm there. Was your husband there for a month? It was almost clear. It was very nice to see him. Thank you.

[46:22]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have a chocolate bar? Yes, I do. I don't know.

[48:02]

I don't know. [...] It's a very long journey. It's very long journey.

[49:00]

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