I've been asked to speak this evening about women in Buddhism, specifically the role of women in the experience of women as Buddhist practitioners. And so I'd like to say some brief things about that. But what I have to say will be both entertaining and also useful and important. In general, in the teachings that were spoken by Lord Buddha which we know collectively as the Buddhist tradition, Fundamentally, in their essence, there is no specific distinction typically between men and women, that is to say, in terms of different kinds of treatment. Thank you. The fact that this has become an issue in this particular culture at this particular time, the role of women in Buddhism and the

[01:31]

and women's issues as they pertain to the spiritual path is very much a function of the time and place in which we live. Historically, when the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago in India, the cultural situation was quite different. And we can see historically, if we examine the social situation, that perhaps a great number, perhaps a majority of the people who followed the Buddha's teachings and promulgated them were men. But that was again simply a reflection of the cultural situation at that time and not something that we need to regard as inherent in the teachings as having been prejudiced towards one sex or the other. In fact, the Buddha taught for the benefit of sentient beings, for the benefit of all the different kinds of human beings and men.

[02:52]

And we can see if we examine the historical records of Buddhism in India and other countries, that women played a very strong part even in the monastic tradition, where many nunneries filled with nuns, of course, were all women. That's basically the definition of a nun, is a woman who stayed in the nation. These populations of nuns in nunneries played a very important role. Thank you. In Tibet, in the traditions of Buddhism, the vast majority of Lama's teachers were men. But that does not mean that there weren't women teachers. There were, in fact, many. In my own school, which is known as the Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism, there was a very strong tradition, particularly within my family clan, which is known as the Kun clan.

[03:58]

Many of the women were born into this clan were fine practitioners and teachers in their own right. Certainly in my school, the custom was that if a man or a woman, regardless of their sex, if they wished to undertake practice and develop themselves spiritually, there were no barriers to them doing so. In my family, the blood lineage played a very important part. And so the sons and daughters of the holders of this lineage were regarded as potential teachers from the very fact that they were born into that family. And the both social and legal situation in Sakya was such that the women in our family were accorded equal status with the men in terms of their legal powers, in terms of their ability to practice and develop themselves personally, and in terms of their ability to act as teachers.

[05:11]

As well in the Nyingma school, the most ancient school of Tibetan Buddhism, we find that a number of key historical figures were women. One of the most famous who comes to mind is a woman whose name was Jomo Menmo. She was not only regarded as a fine teacher, but also a The person who discovered very many treasure teachings concealed her hidden teachings, which she revealed for the benefit of the students. So while the vast majority of teachers were men, it's not the case that there were not women teachers, unless somebody doesn't hear as much about them. . And the same could be said for the Kargyu and the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism. There are, if you examine the histories of these schools, women played a very important historical role in the transmission of these lineages. As well, the mere presence of women practitioners in Tibet was a very strong force in the vitality of the religion.

[06:39]

Women were noted for the sincerity and intensity of their practice. Isn't that lovely and cute? Now, it's only natural that people in a culture that is new to Buddhism begin to wonder about different role models and different stereotypes and so forth in accepting a new religion to their culture.

[07:45]

And we must remember that Buddhism is quite new, relatively speaking, to this culture, and people do not have a great deal of previous experience of its teachings. I would suggest to you that if the true spirit of the teachings of Lord Buddha are established in this country, where there is no fundamental distinction made between whether the practitioner is a woman or a man If we approach it from that point of view, then the forms of Buddhism that will evolve in the West will be ones that afford equal opportunity to men and women. And we will see women taking as important a role as practitioners and lineage holders as men. But we must remember that while there are these social issues to be taken into account, fundamentally it depends upon the individual. It depends on your own practice whether or not you become qualified teacher or whether you become an adept practitioner. It really is up to the individual to make that decision. ... [...] For those of you who are

[09:35]

seriously pursuing or seriously interested in pursuing the spiritual path, it's important to remember that it always has to be something you experience directly, personally. There are certain qualities that are absolutely essential, regardless of the particular style or approach of practice that you employ. And in order to really enter into the spiritual path of what in Buddhism is called bodhisattva, the awakening being, A person must develop qualities that are very fundamental, qualities of love and compassion. They must learn to discipline and calm their minds through the practice of meditation. All of this is something that is not to be learned as theory, but something that is applied directly to your own mind, your own heart, and is experienced as something very direct to the person. Because if you don't begin to cultivate these qualities right from the beginning, you don't spend the time and energy necessary to awaken these qualities in yourself, then without that love, without that compassion, without that calmness, the poise of mind, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a person to truly give rise to the attitude, the frame of mind, which is necessary to attain enlightenment.

[11:12]

Okay. And then go home and let's share it with them. It's a good chance, isn't it? It's a good chance to share it with them. And let's share it with them and share it with them. And let's share it with them and share it with them. And let's share it with them and share it with them. One of the values of the biographies and historical records that exist of Buddhism are that they provide us with role models. We can see the kind of dedication that was necessary in order for people in the past to attain those qualities of enlightenment.

[12:20]

If we examine the biographies of great women teachers of the past, such as Yeshe Tsogyal and Manu Lava, we can see the kind of effort they put into purifying themselves, the kind of effort they put into their practice of the meditation. We can see the kind of obstacles they had to overcome, the kind of challenges that they had to meet. And that provides us with inspiration. We realize the nature of the commitment we're undertaking. And if we in the West have courage to meet those challenges, then if we are women, there will be many women great mamas, great jatsunmas, you could say, to borrow terms from the demonstration, great teachers in the West who are living. It's a question of whether the individuals can meet that challenge in their own personal frame of reference. The Yom Kippur plan, the way you did it, [...]

[13:24]

The reason why this is not only a distinct possibility but a certainty in the West is because of an interesting principle that we can see from the time of the Lord Buddha, that the teachings of Buddhism have tended to adopt certain cultural forms, which does not mean that the integrity of the teachings need be lost, but nevertheless, as Buddhism moves to a given culture, it begins to express itself and work within the cultural framework. And in the West, because there is a great deal of emphasis in modern times on equality between the sexes, and upon affording each individual their right to progress or advance as much as they're personally capable of doing so, we can not only expect but predict with certainty that there will be great women teachers in the West.

[14:42]

But the mere fact that we can make this prediction doesn't mean it will happen without that individual effort. It's up to individual women to become enlightened. Then there will be great women teachers. Certainly there will be great women teachers in the West. But it is, again, a question of the individuals putting the effort into that. Instead of continuing at this point, Jetson Khrushchev says, I would like to ask you if you have any personal questions or issues that you would like to discuss. I actually find this very rewarding. More than teaching, more than talking at people, I prefer to get some feedback from them and begin to discuss things.

[15:47]

I don't claim to be omniscient. If I don't know the answer, don't be surprised to hear me say, I don't know, because I'm very upfront about that. If I don't know, I'm not going to pretend that I do. But if I do know, if I can't answer from my own experience and training, then I'd be more than happy to entertain any questions at this point. In fact, I feel that you'll probably get more out of the talk if rather than just listening to me, you actually have a chance to express your own views and get some kind of feedback. It really applies to you more personally. Without language... Here, how are women to know if they're to teach? Sorry, I'm not sure I got that. How do you mean when she is to be a teacher? When she is to be a teacher. Without lineages. Without lineages. I see. Sorry. She says she got it even if I didn't.

[16:48]

Okay. All right. Yeah, as I understand it now, the question is, without lineages in the West, established lineages, how is a woman to know when she's qualified to be a teacher? I think it's part of that. It doesn't have to come from formal structures or more Western influences, meaning that occasionally it isn't coming from formal structures. From a traditional lineage and then from another culture, you mean? Yeah. Do you mean specifically there are no women, lineages of women, or no lineages period in the Bible? Probably both. She took her, and then he [...] took her,

[18:00]

Okay. Okay. As I said previously, we're just pretty laughing.

[19:45]

Did I look confused? Just because, as I said previously, Buddhism is very new to this culture. We have to learn a bit of patience. We can't expect things to establish themselves overnight. That's impractical. So on the one hand, we might say, well, it's very difficult for things to get going immediately. On the other hand, we can't rule out the possibility. In fact, we can't rule out the certainty that there are Western lineages in the process of forming. We may not have the same kind of obvious signs of lineage in this country that are evident in countries that have had a longer historical association with Buddhism.

[20:49]

But there are Western lineages forming. There are Western Lamas, to use the Tibetan term, from the Tibetan side of Buddhism. there are Western Ramas being trained in retreat centers, for example, those which are directed by the Venerable Kala Rinpoche and the teachers who are from traditional Tibetan settings but are very active in the role of establishing Western lineages through their students to whom they can hand over the lineage once there are people who are qualified, once there are people who have been trained and empowered in the traditional manner. Then we will see the not-too-distant future, that there are tangible lineages in the West held by Westerners, men and women, of Sakya, Gelu, Kardyu, Nyingma teachings from the Tibetan, speaking from the Tibetan tradition's point of view. But in order for these lineages, for the actual phenomenon of a lineage, an historical lineage to establish itself,

[21:54]

It is necessary for the future lineage holder to go through a fairly rigorous training. It's also a bit impractical to expect that there are just going to be self-arisen lineage holders who will suddenly pop up and establish a brand new lineage. It's far more likely to be a process of the old tradition handing its knowledge over to the new and making that transition from one culture to another. which means that the same processes that we observed in Buddhist India and we observed in Buddhist Tibet will probably go through for Buddhism in the West. The student will go to a teacher, a qualified teacher, and receive empowerment and teaching and direction, and through their own practice will come to be worthy, at a certain point, of the responsibility of carrying on that lineage. And that will be a very individual thing, as it always has been, where a teacher will assess her or his student's men or women, and decide who is the most capable person of maintaining and transmitting that lineage for future generations.

[23:01]

So we can't rule out the possibility of, for example, the phenomenon of people in the West who might conceivably be the rebirth of someone who was a very high or great teacher in a previous lifetime, a so-called topu or incarnation. It's conceivable that a woman in this culture could be a toku of someone, a reincarnation of someone who was a very advanced practitioner in a previous lifetime, and that such an individual would need far less training than someone who hadn't had that background in previous existences. But I still think it is important that we recognize and respect the importance authenticity, the validity of a process of a student going to a teacher, receiving guidance, empowerment, teaching in the traditional manner. I think that that has played a very important role historically in the transmission of a lineage from one culture to another, and I think it was in the West as well.

[24:03]

One thing I thought, are any of the conferences I believe that one of the things that made him alive was that he wanted to teach him about the Christian faith and how he played with it. It's really inspiring to learn about the Christian faith. The Christian faith didn't exist at that time. None of the leaders of the Christian faith really got involved. No, she wasn't in Amsterdam. Not just in Amsterdam. Where are the places like that? The question then was regarding the ancient lineages for women.

[25:12]

Do those lineages still exist? Do lineage holders who are women, abbesses or great women teachers, are they still alive? American women have access to those teachings? And could they then carry on that role in American culture? Is that the question? Yeah. I don't know if you can hear me or not. I don't know if you can hear me. I don't know if you can hear me or not. So we are saving our race, isn't it? . [...] jīnāyaṁ āniṭhī pūpaṭṭhā pōjāṁ tempaṭṭhī teṁpaṭṭhā jīnāyaṁ āniṭhā pūpaṭṭhā pōjāṁ tempaṭṭhā jīnāyaṁ āniṭhā pūpaṭṭhā [...]

[26:35]

We have a lot of people who want to go to Egypt. We have a lot of people who want to go to Egypt. We have people who want to go to Egypt. They didn't mind. They told me this. She gave up the bed. She gave up the bed, all this.

[27:52]

She gave up the bed, all this. [...] Siddhā yāne, yudhānyā lāma ālīntī tuṭa ṭirāṭṭhī ṭhī, yudhānyā lāma ālīntī tuṭa ṭirāṭṭhī ālīntī tuṭa [...] ālīntī There were a great number of nunneries in Tibet, far more than people might realize.

[29:01]

And the practitioners were very often noted for their level of scholastic achievement and also their depth of meditative experience and the power of their practice. There was not the formal status of abbas as we might think of it in the West. simply because the hierarchical form for investing someone as an abbess, the lineage was never brought from India for whatever reason. It simply didn't exist. was not transmitted across the Indias to Tibet. So there was not the formal investiture ceremony of an abbess the way there was for an abbot. This didn't mean that there weren't heads of nunneries. The head of the nunnery was also a woman and was an extremely fine example of a woman practitioner. But the formal investiture ceremony was never transmitted historically. And for that reason and for that reason alone, to speak of an abbess

[30:04]

is really, technically speaking, not entirely correct. She would have been the head of a nunnery or something like that, but not like a mother superior or an abbess, not in that formal sense of having a title. Judson Kushig says, I myself was a nun in my early life, but I didn't live in a nunnery. I actually chose to live in a monastery. or rather to take my teachings in the monastery. It would have been perfectly okay for me to stay in the monastery, but I chose, again, simply because of my own preferences to practice at home, where I lived with my family. I would go to the monastery with one other nun. The vast majority of people were monks who were taking these teachings, but the two of us would go, and we were freely allowed into the monastery and were not denied or restricted in any way in terms of seeking out teachings and learning how to practice. So in our particular case, we had as free access as did all the monks. And then I would go back to my house, back to my own room in my house and practice there.

[31:05]

Though it would have been perfectly okay in accordance with both the legal situation in my region and also with the religious situation for me to stay in the monastery. As far as the... status of these nunneries and their lineage holders into that i'm afraid i really don't have a lot of information since the military occupation in 59 the situation obviously deteriorated a great deal from what it was before and in terms of exactly who is still alive in which nunneries are still standing and which lineages are still uh extend i'm really not sure i can't give a great deal of advice on that level I do know that a number of these women teachers did come to India and that several, at least, have either moved to the West or have made tours of the West, the Western countries. And as far as the status of being a nun or not, as Bishop said, I might offer my own personal example.

[32:07]

I'm no longer a nun. I am a householder with a husband and children, but I'm still permitted to to teach, and in fact I did teach as much as I can. I gave empowerments. I'm able to transmit lineage, even though I'm no longer formally invested with the nuns' ordination. I chose to give that back at a certain point. As far as Western women or American women being able to receive these teachings and establish these lineages in this country? Yes, definitely, it can be done. But again, it's always a question, the if is always whether there are individual women who are willing to undertake the training. If there are, then there's absolutely no reason why there will not be female lineage practitioners and lineage holders in this country. It is really a question, it does really boil down to whether the individual women can meet that challenge, take the teachings, practice, and gain the realization necessary. . The question concerns children being raised in the Buddhist tradition and beginning young to be exposed to Buddhist teachings.

[33:59]

And the whole question of the Tibetan tradition, which involved largely children going to a monastery or a nunnery to begin their training, vis-a-vis a situation in the West where that's probably going to be the main thrust of things, where is it possible to establish a context for raising children as Buddhists without them being put into a monastery? Put on a It was a very difficult time for us. It was a very difficult time for us. It was a very difficult time for us. It was very difficult for us. When I was young, I used to drink a lot of alcohol. I used to drink a lot of alcohol.

[35:02]

When I was young, I used to drink a lot of alcohol. When I was young, I used to drink a lot of alcohol. When I was young, I used to drink a lot of alcohol. In Tibet, there was a very strong participation on the part of the lay communities in practice and study, but the educational institutions were monasteries.

[36:45]

If a child was not sent to a monastery, then the child would learn basically at home. That would be the method of education. And if the person's parents, the child's parents, were strong and sincere practitioners, then the child would be automatically exposed to those values from a very early age. In the West, I feel that that's very much the way that things are going to develop. Rather than developing something like a monastery where we send kids to be taught, they'll learn in the home. And whether we're talking about Buddhism or Judaism or Christianity or Hinduism or whatever, if the parents are sincere practitioners and put a great deal of energy and sincerity into their study and their practice of their chosen religion, then the child stands a very good chance of being exposed in a very healthy way, in a very organic way, to those teachings. The problem that we immediately realize is that there's not all that many people in this culture who are all that spiritual. A great number of people know nothing, whatever, about religion and couldn't care less.

[37:48]

And that is the kind of value that their children are exposed to, and it's the kind of values that the child learns to espouse. So I really think in the West, it's going to be far more a case of parents providing simply the example and Jessica said, I really feel the best kind of example for teaching, or the best way of teaching others is to provide example without forcing anything on a child, simply to provide a good example, a good role model that a child can appreciate as they grow up. Whether we're talking about spirituality or just being in the world in a very ordinary way, if a person has a good role model to grow up with, and sees that there isn't someone who's hypocritical or someone who's shallow and superficial, but someone who truly is involved in a very, very intelligent way in their religious tradition, then the child has a very good chance of developing those kinds of similar qualities, just a great lot. Thank you.

[38:55]

Is it appropriate to ask Jetsamma to say a few words on her being an emanation of Nityatitara? Who told you that I was an emanation of Tara, Jetsamma? Okay. Okay. When you're like, I'm going to love my dog, I'm going to love my dog.

[40:18]

So he's trying to make sure that I love him, but I can't let him, you know. So people, they ask me, I'm going to let you up, I'm going to let you sleep with me, I'm going to let you sleep with me. [...] Well, I hope you don't think that I'm teaching because I think I'm an emanation, because I think that that gives me some kind of special status that means I should go around teaching and proclaiming myself. I basically teach because I was told I had to, if you want to know the truth. I feel that... I don't feel I'm a particularly special person, except that I had a very fortunate opportunity to meet great teachers, receive teaching, and practice them.

[41:21]

And at a certain point, my teachers told me that I was ready to teach. And they said, now, if people request teachings, you are qualified to give those teachings. But following my marriage with the responsibilities of being a homescriptor and raising a family, I found I had very little time. And so my teaching activities came to a halt. It's only in recent times that I have received directives from my own gurus that I should teach. And the reason that they have given specifically is because I am a woman. I feel that it's extremely important in the West at this time, for women especially, but for everyone in the West, to understand that there are women teachers, that women can practice and do practice and do become enlightened. That it's perfectly possible for a woman, any woman, as well as any man, to practice follow the path of Buddhism and attain realization. So I don't teach because I think I'm realized. I don't teach because I think I'm Tara. I teach because my guru told me to, and I try to follow what my guru tells me to do.

[42:25]

This is considered something rather important, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism, where the relationship between the student and the teacher or guru is a very crucial and very important one. And if your guru... with whom you have this intimate relationship, tells you to do something, you try your best to carry out their instructions because you realize that they have your best interests and other people's best interests at heart. So, because of my connection, my commitment to Samaya with these teachers, I feel obliged to teach as much as I can. Whenever I'm invited to go somewhere, I try to make room in my schedule. No, I don't think any of you should have talked. Right. Right. Right. One of the interesting things about this whole question of who is an emanation of what or who is that it seems anyway that it is possible for a person to be what conventionally would be termed an emanation of Tara or an emanation of Sarasvati or any other family deity or god and not really realize it themselves.

[44:27]

certainly not at this point, that it might require a great deal of training and the realization that awakened for them to really realize it. Because we're all very much in the same boat. Our minds are obscured, our minds are full of afflictive emotions and confusion. And to be actually able to say what someone is, to be able to say what you yourself are in reality, is often very difficult. So she said, I certainly don't discount the strong possibility that there are already emanations of Tara and emanations of Saraswati and whatever in the West. We don't have social forms for formally recognizing or investing those emanations as such, providing titles and roles and so forth. And of course, if anyone stands up and waves their arms and says, oh, I'm an emanation of this or an emanation of that, it's always a little suspect to praise yourself to the sky.

[45:30]

It's always a little suspicious. But we really must remember that nobody has the final word on who anybody is. And so to say there is or there is not an emanation of Tara in this room or there are or there are not emanations of Tara in America, or so-and-so is or is not something. It's very, very difficult. So we have to allow that element of doubt in this situation. Anna. I didn't say this. Yes, definitely. She can host. Thank you. There was something about how to keep the life of a householder and also how to keep the practice going. The question concerns leading the life of a householder but continuing to maintain a practice, a personal practice.

[46:31]

Okay. Do you have children? Let's make it a little easier. She wondered if you were asking personally or just as a general principle. So you're asking more about the general situation of being a householder. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Would you like to speak to personal experience? Yes. Yes, very much so. Yes. When they arrived, they were a good couple.

[47:48]

Anyway, that's how it is. They were talking about, she said to him, oh, wait, I want to talk to you. We have not three years. [...] And then, when I decided to come to Connecticut United, I came up with the name of it. It's a very good story. So one year, they told me, when I went to Seattle, they said, I don't know. I like talking about it. I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to do it. I don't [...] know how to do it. Well, dear, you caught me a bit off guard here.

[48:54]

Yes, and Krishna said, my own experience, my own experience is based upon my situation, which is as someone with a full-time job. So I work nine to five. thereabouts roughly, and also have maintained a practice over the years. What I have simply found is that it is necessary and possible to make the time to practice. I get up earlier in the morning than I might normally and use what time I can for practice in the morning before I go to work. When I come home at night, depending on how tired I am again, I simply make the time. You simply have to develop the intent to make the time necessary for your formal practice. I realize that it's difficult. You men and women who have family responsibilities and jobs and so forth, it is difficult to make the time. It simply has to be made. It can be made, and it simply has to be made. The fact that it's difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.

[49:57]

I understand that there are many demands on your time and energy. There are children, there are jobs. Even when you come home, there's all this talking to be done and all sorts of things to go on in the house. before you feel, well, now I have a bit of time to devote to my practice. But as long as a person is dedicated and sensitive to their own needs so that they don't exhaust themselves, there is always time to be found. And it really boils down to that. My own experience, if you really want to know, is that there's always time to be found if you really care enough to make the time, to find the time. Okay. The question is whether most of Jasmine Huchot's significant teachers have been men, male, and whether she's noticed any difference between women who studied with women teachers as opposed to women who studied with men teachers.

[51:01]

Did I... It's like a sword. [...] She was about two-and-a-half, about two-and-a-half years old. She was about one-and-a-half years old. She was about one-and-a-half years old.

[52:04]

She was about one-and-a-half years old. [...] We have a lot of people who come to visit us. We have a lot of people who come to visit us. We have a lot of people who come to visit us. Jetson Kusha said, as I said earlier, Buddhism tends to adopt the cultural forms and social forms of countries into which it spreads.

[53:38]

Now, what that meant in the Tibetan context was that the vast majority of teachers were male. There were women teachers, but proportionally fewer than the male teachers. In my own particular case, All of my main teachers were men. I did have women teachers, but I did not receive a great deal in the way of empowerment or formal teachings from them. All of the main teachings that I studied and practiced, I received from men. The one exception was my father's sister, my aunt, who, had she chosen, was perfectly qualified to transmit a lineage to me, to transmit a full... cycle, practice, and teaching, but she chose not to, not because she didn't want to teach me in particular, but because she really chose not to teach very much at all. So she was the one exception that might have been one of my main teachers that she chose, because she simply, for reasons of her own, chose not to teach.

[54:40]

So in my own particular case, my teachers were almost exclusively men, not me. As far as whether there's a difference between a woman studying with women and a woman studying with men, I really don't know. But when I think of it, I really don't see that essentially there should be that much difference. I don't see that the teachings of Buddhism as promulgated by men or as promulgated by women would be very different. It certainly would not be the case that a guru would make the decision of which teachings to give based upon whether the student is a man or woman. So I think that whole issue is one that really needs closer examination, that in terms of whether there is a difference between persons of one sex studying persons of another sex or with persons of the same sex, I think it would be something that ultimately depended far more on the qualities of the individual's concern rather than merely on the sex data.

[55:46]

It would be a question of the qualities of the teacher and the qualities of the student, far more than whether the student's being a female or the teacher's being a male. That's what I'm thinking. That's just my take on it. It's an important question. It's going to make it less of a feeling, perhaps. OK, so in her particular case, in particular, relationship she has with her teacher and following instruction with that teacher. Thank you. When I was a baby, ten years old, I decided I wanted to be a doctor.

[57:35]

I wanted to be a doctor. [...] Yes, and Tosho says, in my own personal situation, there are three figures who stand out as really having been my main teachers.

[60:33]

One was a great abbot of a more monastery in Tibet, whose name was Shen Panyinpo, who passed away many years ago. Another one is my brother, Solinas Sakyatris, the head of the Sakyat order. And... I received in their entirety a whole cycle of teachings, which is particular to our school of Sakyabuddhism, which is known as the Lamdre in Tibetan, which literally means path and fruition. And it is connected with the cycle of the Hivajra Tantra. And I received these, requested and received these teachings from my brother, His Holiness. And in the Sakyabuddh tradition, this is considered to be perhaps the most intimate experience and powerful bond that a student can make with a teacher to request and receive this cycle of teachings in the ultimate practice. This cycle of teachings pertains to what we know as Vajrayana, or tantric Buddhism, in which the relationship with the guru is very important, is crucial to one's attainment.

[61:37]

There has to be the wholehearted commitment on the part of the student to view the teacher purely, to view the teacher as a manifestation of enlightenment. In tantric terminology or jargon, we would say you view the teacher as vajradhara, which is a term for the embodiment of the enlightened being. And in your attempt to maintain that relationship with the teacher out of a respect and devotion for what that teacher has given you and shown you, revealed to you, you attempt to follow the instructions of that teacher. There's a great level of trust there. Now, it might sound a little funny to say that my brother is also one of my gurus, but insofar as he is my guru, I don't think of him as my brother, I think of him as my guru. I have committed myself to that discipline of not viewing him just as, oh yeah, my brother, so and so, but my guru, a person who has contributed to my own practice and realizations. Another, the third of my teachers was the very venerable Daishin Rinpoche who passed away in May of last year.

[62:46]

And again, here there's an interesting situation because he had lived with my family, my brother and myself from when we were very young. And so he was a very familiar figure to us. And there's always the tendency that familiarity breeds contempt. And he was saying, oh yeah, so-and-so, we've known him for a long time, just a nice person. But he, again, was one of my gurus. I went to him and formally requested Vajrayana teachings. Received them from him. And out of a recognition of the enormous kindness and grace that he showed me, teaching me what he did, I think of him only as a teacher, not as old so-and-so who's been around the house for so long, who's part of our family for such a long time. So it's an important distinction to make that when you commit yourself personally to Vajrayana teachings, it's not something someone else tells you to do. It's not that someone says, now you have to think of me as enlightened. You undertake the discipline voluntarily. And when you commit yourself to an authentic teacher in Vajrayana, you commit yourself to purifying your view of that individual, ceasing to regard them as an ordinary person, and instead always maintaining an attitude of devotion and respect to them as

[64:05]

an individual who is demonstrating the path to enlightenment to you. And so, whether your guru is your brother, or whether your guru is your sister, or whether your guru is your husband, or whether your guru is your wife, from the Vajrayana point of view, you commit yourself to a discipline where the role as guru transcends the role as husband, wife, brother, sister, old friend. whatever. And this is, I think, something that's important to realize, is that you don't have an ordinary attitude towards your guru, regardless of the social role that that guru might nominally fulfill in your life. It's an important point, I think, because there's a great deal of confusion as to what constitutes a relationship with a guru. For example, we often hear about the love between a guru and student. But that's not ordinary passion or ordinary liking each other as friends or buddies or pals.

[65:08]

That has nothing to do with the context of guru and student. The love is far more profound and transpersonal than just two people liking each other or really enjoying each other's company or really having a lot of fun together. That really has nothing to do with it. So she said, I think this is a really important point to make. When you commit yourself to that specific tantric discipline, for example, if you're visualizing yourself as a deity, such as the Bodhisattva of Compassion in tantric meditation, you visualize your guru as the Buddha Amitabha, as the lord of that family above the crown of your head. Whether the guru is a man or a woman or whatever, whatever social role that guru has in your life, the guru is meditated in a pure form. So there always is this transpersonal or transcendent emphasis in Vajrayana where the guru is to be regarded in a pure way and you guard against the tendency to treat them in your own mind as an ordinary person who's just your brother or just your sister or your husband or your wife or your uncle or whatever.

[66:12]

Yeah, I mean. Thank you. Mike and Scott, this is really hugely important. They're going to build it up to, say, just for example, and we're actually going to have to buy it. We're going to have to buy it. We're going to have to buy it. We're going to have to buy it. So the question is, is not the issue of whether the teacher is normally a man or a woman, but whether there are masculine and feminine principles embodied in the teachings of Buddhism, as there are in other traditions.

[67:19]

Did I get that? Yeah. Just? Yeah. And then we would go to the Kogisho and we would go to the Rippa. We would go to the Kogisho and we would go to the Goyang. We would go to the Goyang. We would go to the Kogisho and we [...] would go to the Goyang. We would go to I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. I am very happy to be here. In the general tradition of Buddhism, there is no overt

[69:34]

distinction between masculine and feminine principles or masculine side, feminine side, that kind of thing. When we begin to encounter the Mahayana teachings on emptiness, which is a fairly advanced level and rather complex and difficult to put in a nutshell, but when we get to that level of teachings, then we hear of the masculine principle of skillful method and the feminine principle of wisdom and emptiness. So there is a distinction between not in terms of separate teachings, but two aspects to the whole of the teachings, the two together constituting the whole of the teachings. On the level of deity yoga in tantra, where there are many so-called yidam, or chosen deities that the person may receive empowerment for and meditate upon in order to cultivate certain qualities and states of realization in themselves, there are... iconographically there are distinctions between masculine deities and feminine deities, thought goddesses, so to speak.

[71:04]

But these are not considered to be in a concretist way. It's not as though women would focus upon a feminine deity exclusively and men on a masculine deity. There are many, many cases of male practitioners who identify with Tara, a feminine deity, or women who identify with Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, a nominally masculine deity. On the level of the deities, masculine and feminine is purely nominal. It has no relationship to the sex of the practitioner or to the particular stage of realization that can be cultivated through that practice. In fact, when one practices the formal meditations... invariably they begin with a phrase or formula that goes something like, all phenomena become emptiness. From this state of emptiness, there emerges the form of the deity, or you emerge as the form of the deity, something like that. What that implies is that in beginning the sadhana, you touch upon a level of being which has nothing to do with male or female.

[72:07]

The emptiness of all phenomena is neither masculine nor feminine, really. It can be nominally designated the feminine principle of wisdom. but that's not an ultimate statement. And neither is our masculinity or our femininity. In the proper practice of Vajrayana, we begin by touching upon the nature of being, which is beyond male and female, which then expresses itself in a nominal way as a masculine or feminine principle embodied in the form of the deity. But while there is a nominal distinction on the level of these archetypes which are used, masculine and feminine, this in no way implies an ultimate distinction between masculine and feminine teachings or masculine and feminine practitioners, male and female practitioners. Can you talk about the question of how family, when you were coming out to your country, how your family dealt with the fact that you were forced to leave and had the experience of being oppressed?

[73:14]

The question is, could Jetson not speak about oppression, particularly in her personal experience of having been forced to, with her family, flee her country and to experience that oppression that so many people do in the world. When I was a child, I used to go to school with my parents. [...] I don't know.

[74:33]

I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Okay. Okay. My Buddhist training and my Buddhist experience leads me to believe that

[75:36]

Oppression is a two-edged sword. There are people who are oppressed and there are people who are oppressed. And this is a manifestation of the karma of both individuals or both parties or both forces. I feel that in large part the reason we lost Tibet was because we didn't deserve it. We didn't deserve to hold Tibet in some sense. Tibet had a previous history of people who were far more dedicated to the cultivation of merit and virtue than perhaps was the case in recent times. And I feel that at least one element in the loss of Tibet was that we were at fault. That was some fault on the part of the Tibetan people. So I don't, in my own mind, place all the blame in the camp of the Chinese communists. But I feel that while they were the oppressors of the situation, we were the ones who created circumstances where we were oppressed. So I feel that there's no blame to be laid in any one direction, ultimately.

[77:04]

Losing my country, when I think about it, losing all that I knew that was familiar to me, my own attitude has not been one of sadness, really. I didn't find very much value in sitting around just being depressed and bemoaning my fate, but rather regarding it as an expression of my own karma, working with it from there. Because there are simply situations where no matter how much we might rail against the situation, it's not going to change. There are many situations where even a country like America, which considers itself extremely powerful, omnipotent, is helpless. In the face of certain problems, even a very powerful force cannot change things. My own feeling about our losing Tibet and how we should proceed from here is very much inspired by the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who said that Tibetans will not really win back Tibet in the true sense by just going and fighting the Chinese and using the same kind of tactics that were used against them, but by becoming a strong, honest, virtuous people.

[78:16]

That is the way Tibetans will really get back Tibet. And so I really feel that it's on that level of individual integrity that a person copes with oppression. That has been my personal experience. Why It is necessary for us to make this distinction between man and woman. And we say that we can both have a different picture of the future. So why don't we have this part nobody else needs? I feel he just handed me a straight line.

[79:20]

You mean, you mean? Are you meaning in as basic as why are they too similar? Why is there sexual polarity at all? Why is the state of being that they experience one of sexual polarity or part of it? Yeah, that was the part that I was wondering about. Yeah, OK. So you're not speaking just in the case of people making distinctions in their minds, but the fact that bodies are shaped differently and function differently. OK. Aha, the nominal distinction between... So the question hinges on this idea of dualism or bipolarity. And given the illusory nature of samsara and the dharma and the deities and all of it, ultimately speaking, why is it necessary for, or why have we come to the point, or why did we find ourselves in the situation where this bipolarity seems to be an integral part of our experience, even...

[80:23]

According to the Greeks, anyway, you know. So you're just looking for something from a Buddhist perspective, Mr. Wai? Yes, I'm looking for something from a Buddhist perspective. So you're just looking for something from a Buddhist perspective, Mr. Wai? Yes, I'm looking for something from a Buddhist perspective, Mr. Wai? Well, good. When I was a child, I used to go to the hospital to see a doctor.

[81:54]

I used to go to the hospital to see a doctor. I used to go to the hospital to see a doctor. If you want to go to the temple, you can go there. [...] What you say in terms of the ultimate level of truth is quite true.

[84:42]

As you said, you understand that very well. Congratulations. But on the ultimate level, there's no distinction to be made, male, female. None of that applies on the ultimate level of truth, the ultimate nature of being. However, on a practical level, we find ourselves as unenlightened beings involved in a world of dualism, this and that. And one expression of that is sexual bipolarity. There are men and women. There are two sexes. There is a tension or energy between those sexes. In terms of personal practice in Vajrayana, since you mentioned that as one of the contexts where this polarity seems to apply, the personal choice of a deity, for example, a yidam, a chosen deity upon which the person meditates, which the person identifies, is an entirely personal and individual thing. Again, as I said before, it has nothing to do with whether you're a man or a woman and the deity is masculine or feminine.

[85:47]

Jetsam Pujuk said, my own personal practice is Vajrayogini, a feminine deity. That is my own personal chosen practice. But it would be equally possible that it could be Vajrabharata. It's a very graphical male or masculine figure For another person, it might be Tara, a very peaceful, feminine figure. Or it might be Hevajra, being a masculine, nominally masculine figure. It really has very little to do with anything other than the individual person's karmic makeup and what they're drawn to, what they feel most attuned to the person. And that's really the only basis on which a person can make a constructive choice in Vajrayana practice. Now, in terms of sexual bipolarity and where it all came from in the first place, she said, I don't even want to speculate on that. Why we ended up with two sexes and why the situation is the way it is now. All that we can identify in the present situation is that a great deal of the problems between the sexes that you again referred to, like so many of the problems in our lives, are due to the individual's concern having minds which are clouded by affective emotions, by ignorance, by confusion,

[87:03]

and therefore merely compounding each other's afflictive emotions, ignorance, and confusion. And until such time as those individuals have realized the basic egolessness of their individual selfhood, there will continue to be afflictive emotions, ignorance, and confusion, and there will continue to be problems. We're extremely fortunate people. She said, I don't know if we realize how fortunate we are to have access to authentic teachers and authentic teachers and to have leisure. to practice and develop our spiritual potential. But again, the context has to be understood as one of the interrelationship between interdependence of ultimate and relative truth. We find ourselves in a bipolar situation, a dualistic situation. But we must understand that that's not the ultimate. statement that can be made about who we are, about the nature of being.

[88:07]

The nature, the true nature, the ultimate nature of being transcends masculine, feminine, transcends the female. Yes. The question is, is it true that prior to the military occupation of Tibet... Yeah, this will be the last question. Is it true that prior to the military occupation of Tibet, that in traditional Tibetan culture, women had equal status with men and were highly regarded? Yes. I am very happy to be able to speak to you. I am very happy to be able to speak to you.

[89:08]

I am very happy to be able to speak to you. [...] It was sitting sitting. What's wrong with this? Well, this is where you do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. Prior to the military occupations about politically speaking, in terms of their

[90:30]

political power in the country, women were in an inferior position on a level of legal and political power. More generally or culturally, in terms of individual family groups, there was far more equality. It is true that women did not hold public office or were not appointed to high government posts. So on that level, there was definitely disparity. There was definitely no governance. But on a level of individual families, there was probably as much range as there is in many other cultures, that you can't make, as you said, I hesitate to make sweeping statements that all Tibetan families were male dominant or female dominant or equal or whatever. Undoubtedly, there were many individual situations. On the level of the teachings, my own experience in my own region was that there was total equality, and in fact, on the political level in my region. But I realize that that may be somewhat unique.

[91:57]

I don't have a great deal of experience.

[91:59]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_41.52