ACI 3 «Прикладная медитация», занятие 2

Class Two: Six Preliminaries to Meditation
Febraury 18, 1994
transcribed by: Stephanie Loebs



I didn’t at first believe in these things. I use to just sit down and try to meditate
and they really do work to prepare your mind. I don’t know quite why they
work. And I don’t know how it is, but they really do work if you try. If you
compare Coke and Pepsi. Try and do a meditation without them and then try to
do a meditation with them. They really do make a big difference. They really do
facilitate your meditation. You know I have all these theories why, but I am not
quite sure, but it really does work. So we'll go through those six and through
those seven. We have to go fairly briefly because of all that we have to finish in
six weeks. There is a book (b: Liberation in our Hands, Liberation in the Palm of
your Hands). We happen to have it here also. Downstairs, if you need one let
me know. It’s very long. It contains a very long description of each of these.
You can have one of those or you can get it at the bookstore (unclear). It was
written by Pabongka Rinpoche who is our root teacher’s teacher. He is also the
teacher of the Dalai Lama’s teacher. And it is basically the Lam Rim Chen Mo.
The Lam Rim Chen Mo doesn't have a lot on the Six Preliminaries. In fact what it
has is in your notebooks. And you know that great textbook of Je Tsong Khapa
doesn't have a lot. So when Pabongka Rinpoche wrote his Lam Rim he, I mean
the first third basically is a couple hundred pages on it. And then Je Tsong Khapa
spent a lot of his book on concentration, meditation, and emptiness/wisdom.
And so Pabongka didn’t write that much about it cause Je Tsong Khapa had
pretty much covered it. So we're gonna study meditation from the person who
wrote the smaller presentation. Then we're gonna study the six preliminaries
from the person who wrote the longest presentation. Give or take about a year.
So we will start with the Six Preliminaries.

The first one is what?

(Student: Cleaning up your room)

Yea, Cleaning up your room, which is {metok cheto} and it means this. My
theory is not in the books that I read, but my theory is the it gets you out of bed
and moving physically. In the monastery they are sweeping the floor with this
broom and it doesn't matter if the place is not dirty you still get up and do
something. You know vacuum. I have a feeling its to get you awake and out of
slapper disengaged from your office if you are doing it in the evening, morning
is better if you can. But it gets you up and moving around the house. But also
they say that the act of cleaning that places a cause for your paradise later.
Cleaning up the place acts to create your paradise later. You would understand
that better if you study emptiness. And also the (b: Abhidharma kosha) gives a
very specific list of virtues connected to working physically around the holy
place. Around the stupa, or temple, or your altar. It’s called {Ze le chu le
(unclear)}. So that really has some important meaning. And also as you get to
meditating every day for a long time, say six months, your mind starts to get
more orderly in a way. And you actually feel more comfortable meditating in a
room that is sort of neat. I guess I am not one to talk. It does help. So that’s the
first preliminary. It is very important.

The second one is what?
(Student: offering

Offering. Okay. There are the traditional offering is the seven bowls. And …

(Student: Seven what?)

Seven water bowls of things (unclear). And those represent an offering to the
senses.
The five senses. And they also come from ancient India. And they are the
traditional offering that you would give a king. Or a great person. Like if the
Dalai Lama were to come to your house in ancient India there would be seven
steps by which you would greet him. And that is what those seven bowls
represent. So if you can get a hold of a set of those, somebody from your class
said they know where to get them if you need them. I tried in Delhi the last time
I was there and they are hard to get. Apparently people are selling them in the
United States but they are expensive. More expensive than in India.

(Student: Snow Lion has them)

Yeah? I like the one, there is one made out of bell metal, it is a white metal, it’s
not silver, but it looks like silver. It doesn't get dirty. Those are kind of nice.
These are brass or copper and they get are hard to keep clean.

(Student: you can get them made out of glass too, at a housewares store, it’s real
simple)

That’s nice if you can. You stack them up together and fill the top one up with
water. It should be clean water. And then you pour all but a little into the next
bowl. And set the first bowl on the left side. Okay. So you've got all seven
bowls in your hand and fill up the first one with water, they're stacked, and you
take out the first one and you pour most of it into the next bowl and then you
set the first one down on the left side. And that first bowl represents water for
drinking. It represents a beverage that you give to them, that person who is
visiting you. In India if you been there, you know if you walk into a house after
being outside it is very nice to get something to drink. That       was probably
very common, it was the first thing you would do - give someone a drink of
water. Then you take the second bowl and pour most of it into the third bowl
and put the second bowl down. And that represents {Pud Diem (in Sanskrit)}
{Pud Diem} comes from the word {Pud} which came into Latin as {Ped} which
means what? What is a pedestrian?

(Student: Foot.)
Yeah, “someone on foot”. And it represents water for washing the feet. I think
you see in the Bible people washing people’s feet. It’s considered a very big
offering in a hot country, in the Middle East, and the Asia. Because someone
else’s foot if you have been in India you wear sandals and there is lots of dirty
stuff on the all over on the ground and your feet get dirty and sometimes it is
really bad stuff like cows walk around everywhere and it doesn't matter where
you walk in India you are bound to walk into a cow pie somewhere. They are
not prevented from walking around though the traffic. They walk through the
city and you are not allowed to hurt them. It is very much an act of humility to
wash someone’s feet. I think in the Bible they do it in the same manner. So the
second one is offering water to clean the person’s feet. The third one is called
{Dushpa} means “flower.” You are offering a flower. So the first offering has
been to the sense of taste. And the second offering has been to the sense of
what?
(Silence)
Touch. Now the third one is an offering to the sense of smell and sight. It’s a
beautiful flower. So you put again you pour the contents of the third bowl most
of it into the fourth bowl and set the bowl down. Working your way to the
right-your right. And that represents the flower.. The next one the fourth bowl
is {dhupe} which means “incense”. And that’s sweet to the sense of smell.
The next one is offering lamp. In India it would have been a wick put into oil and
the best kind of oil is from clarified butter. Most expensive. It makes the nicest
light. So that is an offering of light. The next on is called {gandhe} in Sanskrit. It
means some water mixed with holy perfumes that you are offering to the holy
person’s body. It’s like a perfume. That again is to the sense of smell.

(Student: The lamp oil is for the sight?)

Yeah. And then the seventh one is {Newde or (unclear)}which means “fruit”.
An offering of fruit. And there is really an eighth one which is music. You offer
music. And sometime another bowl is set out and sometime you just put your
bell up on the altar. So those are the Seven Offerings. And the eight is sort of
optional. The Tibetans would offer water. You can also and in certain rituals you
fill them up with the actual object. So the first one is actually clean water, the
second one is some kind of perfumed water that you would wash someone’s
feet with, and the third one is you actually put a flower in the bowl, so you can
do it either way. But the Tibetan Lamas the tradition of Tibet would just put
water in the bowls and the idea is that no sane person who is offering water will
feel any hesitation about spending too much. Because it is a very bad deed if you
have to go out and buy incense and a flower, cookies, which are expensive. And
they say that it is a very bad deed if you have any hesitation at all in making the
offering, so water is considered-it’s free. No one who offers water is going to
think, Oh I overspent on water, you know, something like that.
The bowls should be in straight line. And they should be not touching and not to
far apart. They say about the width of a piece of rice. And that’s to … it’s to
represent the way that the tradition should be should never be discontinued.
Teachers and students should always be close enough so that the Dharma should
be continued. And it doesn't mean that if you spread them out too far that you
are not going to meet a lama. It is just that it’s a nice thing to think about while
you are arranging your altar. Again it is because things are empty the more
symbolism you give it and the more you can concentrate while you do it as you
are setting them out it occurs to you that it is very possible that you could live in
world where there are no teachers. Where you never meet anyone who know
enough to help you. That you should think about that in the morning. So that is
a very good thing to think about while you are putting out the offerings. Then
there should be on the altar somewhere a representation of the Buddha’s body.
And a representation of his speech. And a representation of his mind, which you
can cover if you have an image of the Buddha and then some scripture. In fact
the word for altar is a support for the body, speech and mind, for the holy body,
speech and mind. That’s the word for altar in Tibetan {Koos kun se ten}.

(Student: You said water bowls for the five senses, what are the other three
things?)

It doesn't relate to only five of them. Two of them are taste, you know

(Student: I heard it was consciousness)

Yeah, it could be.(unclear) Normally it’s like that. So that’s offering. Try to put
something fresh out every morning. In the evening you take it down the same
way. You start from the left. You pour out the one on the left and then you turn
it over. Then you pour out the next one and lean it up on the first one. Like that.
You don’t stack them on each other you lean them up like this so they are
leaning up on each other. And it was a {kadampa} tradition, the {kadampa}’s
were the early Buddhist, they were like the early Christians, they were the early
fanatic Buddhists in Tibet and they were like the first American Buddhist if you
would. Maybe we can be like them. I think we could be like them. They were
the converts. They were ones who had been something else and were now
Buddhists. So they practiced very well and they were famous. They had a lot of
hardships too because the country wasn't Buddhist at that time. And they had a
lot of hard times. They were just learning everything and it was a very exciting
time. I once tried to draw, I got confused about who was who’s teacher. So I
went through the (b; Blue Annals) which is like this big and I tried to chart who
was who’s teacher and it turned out like a tumbleweed. So it would be like
someone would go to India and learn Abhidharma and come back and someone
else would go and learn Madhyamika. So the guy who learned Abhidharma
would teach his friend Abhidharma and that person would teach him
Madhyamika. People were each others teachers. And it really was a beautiful
time.     And they would practice very hard.          They concentrated a lot on
meditation. Very few books left from those times., only a few. And they would
say you should turn them over at night and put out the water and turn them
over at night to represent that you are ready to die tonight. To die in your sleep,
you know. And that’s the purpose of turning them over. Which means okay I
have finished all my work. If I die an hour from now in my sleep that’s okay.
Sort of to remember your impermanence. And then the water you should
collect in a bowl and they say you should throw it in a place where...it is almost
like holy water and you shouldn't throw it in a place where people might step on
it, like on a roadway or where it’s gonna go straight into the sewer or something
like that. Try to put it in some plants or try to throw it into the ocean a very nice
place to throw it.

(Student: But if you can't, you have no plants?)
(Laughter)

Out the window.

(Student: Out the window! It falls on the street!)

I use to pour it on the wall where it would drip down and not reach the sidewalk.
I lived in place where there was no where else. You see, Improvise! Where
there is a will, there is a way.

(Student: unclear)

I don’t know. I think that’s great. I don’t remember reading that anywhere. We
use to flower our plants (unclear).

(Student: Is it inappropriate to not change the water every day?)

You are suppose to change it every day.

(Student: Does it matter if you don’t?)

It is like offering the Dalai Lama a hard donut.

(Laughter)

And I am the worst! I don’t sleep enough. I don’t want to mess around with
that. It’ not good. Your meditation won't be good. You have to take time with
these things. It is sort of like, especially if you are on a retreat. If you do all the
proper offerings for certain retreats it takes like an hour and a half or two hours
in the morning and its correct to do it. You know it really works. I just say try it.
What you do...what it means is kind of like making a commitment to the
meditation. I think that this meditation is important enough to do it really
powerfully. And I am an offender. I am not kidding you. You really should.
Otherwise the meditation doesn't come out. Actually you pour out the water
and wipe them and before you pour the water in you wipe them. Make them
clean. Even if they don’t look dirty.. It is just a ritual action that you do. I know
that Westerners and myself too, don’t like ritual.             Ritual is synonym for
something mindless. But it is not like that. It really does work. And the
meaning you give it. If you do it mindlessly then I guess it will be mindless. If
you just do it because you have to do it (A.) You won't do it very well. (B.) It
won't help your meditation very much. Unless you really imagine that you are
setting these things out in front of beings you are really going to come. And if
you don’t think so. If you don’t believe that they will come then don’t bother.
Why meditate? The idea is become like a being who is Buddha. And Buddha is
omniscient. If he knows you are wish him to would come, then he is there. In
fact, he can't even premeditate it, that is the nature of a Buddha. He’s just there
when you're ready and you would really like him to be there, he’s there.
Because his nature is mental mostly. And if you don’t believe in all that then
there is not much reason to. In one way logically you have to not believe in it.
We don’t get to the proof of the existence of a Buddha till about our fifteenth
year in the monastery. You don’t really know that they exists. But you have to
some intention. At this point you have to sort of believe that is shy you are here.
(A.) To explore the possibility of getting out of suffering permanently. (B.) Of
becoming a being that could help all other beings perfectly. And you can't
demonstrate that those exist. But you know something exists. So I would say
work from that. Work from your knowledge that you are suffering. And this
claims to be way out. And the description of suffering is so perfect that possibly
these people have some antidote for it. No one else is even describing suffering..
Do you see what I mean? So you are going to the one people in the world who
are saying: Life is very bad. And this is how you get out of that aging process.
The process of everything ever succeeds in your life collapses , which it will.
Your health, your looks, your strength, your mind. Will all deteriorate by their
very nature. There is no other choice. So if someone tells you that truly and you
can corroborate it . And then if they say that they know also the way to fix it
you should at least take interest. So offer them and really do understand that if
there is such a being that he can partake of that. The Buddha’s don’t drink the
water. And we don’t believe they drink the water. They don’t need water! But
it is the action of wishing they could. You try to imagine that they take from that
water what they can get out of that water which is bliss. And which is all
knowledge. And they can. Their experience of the water and you're experience
of the water are a different thing. So there is no thing of you're trying to make
them feel less thirsty or something. They're not. They don’t get thirsty. It’s
from you're side. It is to help you. Not that they need seven little bowls of
water. No Buddhist believes that.           So that ‘s Offering. If you have some
favorite things to offer, that is nice too. And the music. In general music can be
a big distraction to your meditation.. Especially while you are meditating. In
general it can be a real distraction. Like if you can mentally make it an offering
and try to concentrate on that and not fool yourself that you are not just
listening to your favorite song. Then it is a good thing.
What’s the third one?
(Student: You are talking about the Buddha? Is the Buddha-Buddha? Is it
Buddha that we are offering to, Buddhas, or (unclear) Bodhisattvas or what?)
In the text it is all enlightened beings, all beings who are pretty far along the
path. And in the when we do our monks confession twice a month you are
suppose to imagine the offering we do some form of (unclear) you are suppose
to imagine that every being in the world can experience this offering. So I think
you can say that. The text goes:
{Ga Cha num la tru a dum sen ta num la chub pa dum}
so it is both, enlightened beings and you wish that all normal people could also
experience pleasure from (unclear) Each to his capacity.
Next one, next one-third?
(Student: Posture)
Yeah, get down properly on your seat. You can meditate on this right? E-e-e-e-
e-e(laughter).
The text says, Tsong Khapa says, he quotes some text. If you read the reading in
the back of the book which you should have done by next week, okay? You
should have read everything in the back there.
(Student: The back of this one?)
Yeah, the back of the notebook. It describes the Six Preliminaries from Tsong
Khapa (Unclear).
And he quotes some ancient text that say “Press the two together” by which he
means do a full lotus. And we'll get into that later. I mean not into a full lotus
but we'll get into the correct posture later. And then Je Tsong Khapa and the text
say a half lotus is okay too. For those of you like me it I get into a full lotus I
can't get out of it. And it doesn't help me meditate much because I am in such
agony that I can't concentrate. So you should put the left foot up first, that’s
tradition. Put your left foot up first if you can only do a half lotus. A half lotus is
left foot on top of your right thigh, then the other leg not in a full lotus which
would be up on top of your left thigh but rather just straight just down on the
ground. And we will get into all that. It is really important to have a totally,
totally comfortable seat for you. Try different seats. Some people like these
Japanese things. I don’t. I tend to fall over on those. Your bottom, your back is
suppose to be higher then your front. The back of the cushion is suppose to be
higher then the front. And make sure under your legs that there is some
cushion. Even under your legs you know you are sitting on those put another
thin I use this one is good. Put a thin one under the front of your legs because
the circulation will be a lot better. Then you can concentrate a lot better. And
we'll talk about it later. Eventually when you get good at meditating your feet
will fall asleep, your legs will fall asleep, and just let it go. We'll talk about it more
later. Get into some good position. We will talk about the proper position later.
Do going for refuge. That was also part of the third preliminary. We will talk
about refuge. So the third preliminary had three parts to it. Get into the right
posture. Go for refuge. And try to think about bodhichitta. What is refuge?
Anybody have a definition for refuge? Mmmm, who should I pick on? Regina.
What’s going for refuge? Remember the definition from the final? What is it?
(Student: It’s a looking for object to hold on. To put hope...)
Because?
(Student: Because you need help.)
That’s all. Why a kid goes to Mommy. It has some...what are the two causes?
(Student: Fear and...)
Fear...
(Student: ...and hope)
The belief that this thing can help you. So there is actually two states of mind
inside of refuge. And we studied it in great depth last course. But the first one is
fear. If you are not afraid you don’t know what is going on. (Laughter) Okay!
Your condition is very serious. It’s hopeless. I mean you can, we don’t break
down. Some people do. But I think that those people actually recognize what’s
really going on, but you have no...there is no object in your normal every day
life which can give you any help. I told kids. I use to teach this to kids-
Mongolian kids, you know somebody steals something from you who do you
call? The police or somebody. If your house burns you call - you take refuge in
the firemen. If you get sick you take refuge in the doctor. But I live in a temple
and we have a thousand members or so. And everyone shows up sooner or
later. And when they show up is when someone dies. You know, or when they
get very old or sick. They go to other refuges first. They go to worldly refuges.
They go through the gammed of worldly refuges. They go to the police, they go
to the court, they go to the doctor, then they go to the specialist. Then they go
to the most expensive place that they can find. And then they come to the
temple. Because it is obvious that there is no the, nothing left. Last night we had
like at eleven o'clock at night we had two people, two Tibetans came. Their
father died. Haven't seen them for years. You know, they I mean this is refuge.
Refuge means what you do, where you go when you have a fear of, the true
fear which is death. And what will happen after death. So Buddhist refuge is the
first part is fear. You are afraid of what is going to happen when you die. You
could die any time. And the second one is to believe that you this teaching can
help you. Those two components are necessary to help you take refuge. So
really the state of mind of refuge is different then all the daily activity that you
do. Because all the day long you are seeking something. The reason you move
body at any given time is to go look for something. To go get something that
you think is going to give you some kind of happiness. That is why you move at
all ever. You will get up from this class because you will want to go home and
have a dream, and go to bed and watch some TV. That’s what you seek for
happiness. So that’s why you move. Any time during the day. That’s why you
move your arm or your head. You think it will make you feel good. And refuge
is that. You have to, all of those actions are useless. All of those worldly actions,
those daily activities they are not relevant to refuge. They are not refuge. When
you finally do something to help you at death. Then that is the first time you
have ever taken refuge. And that is the first time you qualify as a Buddhist.
That’s a minimum requirement to be a Buddhist. Is that thought finally
occurring to you that I should do something to prepare for my death. You are
not a Buddhist until that happens. Technically you are not a Buddhist.
(Student: But what happens if you are suffering a lot and you want to get out of
that suffering? Would you still be a Buddha?, I mean Buddhist?)
Actually, no. The minimum is to worry about your next life. That’s the
minimum. You know that was in the definition of a lower scope person.
(Student: Even if you have a fear of suffering for this life and next life would that
be...)
And?
(Student: ...and next life. The suffering (unclear) not of death)
What makes it Buddhist refuge is fear of what will happen when you die. And
that is why I object to some, there is Buddhist teachers that try to make
Buddhism out to be something to make you calm in this life. It doesn't qualify as
a Buddhist teaching. It'll be nice if we were calm. We will be calm when we take
care of our death. We will be calm now when we know that we will die well.
But the minimum is to prepare for that time. That’s the object of Buddhist
practice. Minimum object. You can't do much about this life to make yourself
happy. You can't feed yourself so much that you will never have to eat again.
You can't take enough vitamins that you will never get sick and die. It’s too late.
Minimum is for death. And the rest is just sort of psychological satisfaction. I
don’t know if it can even happen. I guess it can if you are a very high
practitioner. Actually something will change. But that is a side effect. Anyway.
So that’s Refuge. Bodhichitta is called {Kun-no Chuno} which means to do this
practice in order to help other people. To go into this meditation to with the
intention that it should help other people.
(Student: What was that? What was the word?)
Bodhichitta. Bodhichitta means desire to become...desire to reach your own
paradise so that you can finally help other people reach that. Something about
that thought. Even if it is so flimsy as
we have it, you know what I mean. I really don’t have any intention to go help
all living beings, you know. Just to imagine it before you meditate. It makes
something happen. Even if you just dryly think about it for thirty seconds which
about all we do. It still makes the meditation really good. It has some
tremendous power . And if you don’t have that thought then you won't be able
to achieve the final goal. That again relates to emptiness. If you understand
emptiness well you have to get this intention. This motivation in order to
achieve . So that is the third one.

What’s the fourth one?
(Student: Unclear)
Yeah, It’s called merit field. What does merit field mean?
(Student: To bring images of emptiness and compassion.)
Yeah. But the word merit field...field here, you say merit field and I think of
gravitational field or something you know. I use to think I don’t know what
they mean by field. Field is better translated as garden, or something. It means
by you bring into the room a being who is so holy that anything you do towards
him has incredible effects. And this is like in the Abhidharma they explain that.
If you give a piece of food to a dog you get a certain good result. If you give
that same piece of food to a human being who has no spiritual goodness in him
much, just a normal person you get a higher virtue then if you gave it to the
dog. Because that person has the capacity to reach nirvana in this life. No matter
who he is except for certain kinds of beings that person is a higher level of being
then the dog because the dog no matter how much you teach him or instruct
him under normal circumstances is it impossible for the dog to learn dharma. So
it is much holier to give it to a normal person. And then if you give it to a
bodhisattva then it is much more powerful then if you gave it to the normal
person.     Because this being has a high likelihood of reaching nirvana or
Buddhahood in this life. And then if you give it to a Buddha then it is greater.
And if you give it to your lama it is greater then that. And if you give it to your
father and mother it’s greater, it is somewhere between, before
bodhisattvas...very high garden, a very high field. They discuss fields as a whole
small section of the Abhidharma. Your parents because of all the energy they
put into keeping you alive after you were born. And taking care of you. So as a
result they are a very high field.
(Student: What happens if your parents not take care of you? And twenty years
later they show up...)
I get this question from many westerners. Many westerners say that they were
mistreated by their parents. Are they still a virtue field? I don’t know your
circumstance or the one you might be thinking of . But I think that most
westerners don’t consider until they have been a parent, I guess, how many
hours and how much thought goes into caring for the child even if you abuse
him later. I mean the first three or four years if you paid the person by the hour.
If you paid him for his mental agony of having to concentrate that this child
shouldn't get into any kind of mortal danger any time of the twenty four hours
of the day. If you paid him for that mental hassle, I mean it would be a big
salary. I mean it is constant attention for that first few years. And I don’t care
how bad they were to you later. That’s the great kindness. You can't match that.
Teaching you to speak. Teaching you to move. Teaching you any kind of
human civility is a great kindness. And they do it. Every parent does it. I can't
imagine many that don’t. Yeah?
(Student: As you so often point out, keeping emptiness in mind even if your
parents were absolutely vile to you, you could still replace that with the mental
ideal of what parents are like and use that couldn't you?)
You could. But what I am saying is that even what you call a bad parent, if there
was a scorecard it would be a billion to one...
(Student: Michael, What about the show on TV where they show these parents
who have eleven kids living in filth with sickness...I mean I wouldn't call those
parents!)
Well, anyway what qualifies them, the main thing that qualifies them as kind
according to the Abhidharma is that they give you a body and a mind which is
capable of reaching nirvana. So once you are conceived or born, they have
already done that.        That the main kindness that they give you, which is the
body and mind that enables you reach beyond death. That according to the
Abhidharma that is the greatest kindness already.
(Student: Yeah but they do it for to give you life...they are not conscious of that!
They do it for pleasure, they do it for to have sex, or they do it because they
want to be taken care of when they are older. They don’t want to be left alone.
The motivation is not there! )
It’s true, it’s true. If your motivation is not one hundred per cent, but you still
save a person’s life you still get much of the virtue from that. Motivation is only
a quarter of a good deed. Motivation could be lousy. But if you happen to save
a person’s life with a lousy motivation. I want to become a hero. Or I want to
get into the newspaper or whatever. Still the virtue is incredible. The virtue of
providing the causes for a being to physically and mentally to reach beyond
death, beyond suffering, is limitless. So that’s all.
(Student: Even if they're not conscious. Because obviously westerners are not .....
(Unclear))
Yeah, yeah.
(Student: I want to know how this ties to the merit field?)
I am explaining the idea of relative merit fields. Every being has a merit field. So
you take the highest one, which is a lama. Which is your root lama, whoever he
is. And root lama is a very interesting thing. You will know the day that you
meet your root lama. You will have some kind of a relation with him. And he
may not be the one who teaches you the most. And it may not be, you know,
the one that you expected. It may not be any kind of monk, lama, Buddhist,
anything. There will be a being in your life that you will understand is your root
lama. And the one who teaches you, who takes you to knowledge and you have
to find this person. And when you know, you'll know. And then you have to
imagine, if you have this root lama you have to imagine that being there. When
you invite the beings there. Frankly, I have studied many, many years. I have
studied most of the great books ever taught in the monastery. Edited them,
translated them, debated them. I can’ visualize all these lamas! I mean the idea
of meditation is to start out with a minimum. It is better to start out with too
little, then try to do five lamas at once. And then for years you don’t get
anywhere. Pick the one lama that you have the best connection with. The one
that comes up in your heart the easiest. And they say make his outline first.
Like a silhouette. You know on the news where at night and they don’t want
you to see the guy’s face and they put a light behind him. And all you see is this
dark. Just see the outline. When you are meditating on this lama in front of you,
put him in space. Make him about this tall. Put him at the level of here. He is at
the same level as here. And then get his outline right. Don’t try to color him in.
And when you get the outline pretty steady, then try to color in the features.
(Student: Michael, you mean the body also?)
Just his outline as he is sitting. Just how he normally sits. They say don’t
meditate on him...if he has some physical defects, you know a wart on his chin,
or a bald head, or whatever. You are suppose to imagine him as perfect and as
young. At the prime of his health. You are suppose to meditate him as that.
(Student: Whether you meet him as young or as old?)
Yeah right. Say I was meditating on Rinpoche I would picture him as, I have a
picture of him when he was in his prime physically. You know you are suppose
to meditate on the lama as (unclear).
(Student: Does it have to be...you said lama is, root lama is somebody you have a
connection with. Does it have to be Buddhist. I mean do you have to
experiences in life where a person teaches you. They don’t even know that they
are teaching you Buddhist principals. But they are! And they have all the
qualities of a Buddhist. But they don’t call themselves Buddhist. Would that be a
lama? )
I won't answer direct. But I will say this. There a commentaries which say that
your root lama is a Buddha. There are proofs that your root lama is a Buddha
And they are pretty long. And they are pretty interesting. And one of them is
that he functions as a Buddha. In other words if he teaches you what? The Three
Principal Paths.      Or if he teaches you the Three Trainings, morality,
concentration, wisdom. If it is person who teaches you that. If he is not the
Buddha, he might as well be. He is the one who communicates it to you. That’s
the teaching. That’s the why you are suppose to consider your root lama as holy
as a Buddha.       As to be kinder then the Buddhas and more holy then the
Buddhas. Because he is your window to the Buddhas. Because if he didn’t exist,
you wouldn't have had any communication with the Buddhas. So he is better
than the Buddhas.
(Student: Does that mean he has to be alive?)
That is a good question. I don’t believe that he has to be. No.
(Student: It seems to me that you have to visualize the merit field before you go
for refuge and generate bodhichitta. Maybe the order is backwards)
Yeah. That’s the way it does though. That’s the way it is presented.
(Student: Should you go for refuge...)
Yeah, Yeah. I think when you go for refuge you automatically already thinking
of that image of that person. And I say minimum. If you have the mental
ability, which frankly I don’t. Visualize all of them is good. And you don’t know
who Nagarjuna was, you don’t know who Asanga was,
Shantideva, and over the time of your study this will become more clear to you.
I didn’t feel anything about Asanga. Nice name, you know. I could tell you two
sentences about his life. And I don’t know anything else about him. And I am
suppose to visualize him and take refuge in him? But once you study The
Perfection of Wisdom then you have a relationship with Asanga. And then you
could put him up there and you can imagine all the things that he is doing for
you. So It'll build up over time. And the same with the higher practices. You
know I use to get confused with all the deities and stuff. And frankly I couldn't
distinguish one from the other. They have different names. I don’t know what is
the difference. If you ask me to write a paragraph about them I can't. I don’t
know anything more about them then their names and what they look like.
And it is very difficult at first. Later there will come a time when you start to
distinguish them because of certain things that go on. But not because, not at the
beginning. So as you study you add the lamas that you will study their works.
And the same with Tsong Khapa, I mean when we start the Seven Ingredients
you are suppose to invite Tsong Khapa. So who is Tsong Khapa? I remember
when I couldn't say his name. And you don’t have any knowledge of who he is.
You don’t have any knowledge of what he is. So start with your root lama.
Whoever that is. If you don’t have one, I think the Dalai Lama is easy. If you
are learning from Rinpoche directly, he is very good. And the Buddha if that is
more comfortable for you. You might find Tara, a lady Buddha easier for you.
You know that is up to you. So that is inviting them. Invite them and really
believe that they are in front of you. Because if they are who they are suppose
to be, they can come. If they are not who they are suppose to be, not much
reason to do all this stuff.

(Student: Michael, first you said you have to some connection with these people.
Now you say that they will come to you. Let’s say you don’t choose the Dalai
Lama, you don’t choose Khen Rinpoche. You don’t choose Tara. And you
choose You! You aren't even a lama. So are we , isn’t that a contradiction, but I
can not (unclear)...)
I am saying from personal experience, don’t struggle with some being you don’t
have any feeling about. It won't come. Find the one that is very comfortable
and natural for you and then exploit that natural feeling that you have for that
teacher or that lama or whoever. Rather then struggling to picture some being
that you don’t know anything about, you have no feeling for, you have no idea
what this being is or what his qualities are or anything. Work with your root
lama.

(Student: When you put a photograph of the Dalai Lama. Is that to help you
visualize or is that for him to mock up his own image or what?)
What other types of images in Buddhism. Some religions don’t allow you make
images of a being, right? Or they get very sticky about it. I think it is obvious
that those pictures are not the beings. You know that the Buddha there is not
the being. When you achieve the Path of Seeing. Which is when?
(Student: When you perceive emptiness directly.)
As you come out of that, by the way that is {Nam Shout}(Laughter) Sorry. No
one gets that wrong. I get that one wrong. I didn’t tell you what that was and it
was on your homework. {Nam Shout} is specifically refers to the period in which
you are meditating directly on emptiness. It is that meditative period in which
you are meditating directly on emptiness. Normally, but not always. {Nam
Shout} means that. Out of those six words for meditation. {Nam Shout} means
that. And it is as opposed to {Je Toep}. {Je Toep} means after you come out of
that meditation, you are no longer in deep meditation, you are not in meditation
much at all. You be in some kind of contact. You are aware of things around
you again. And then in the experience of emptiness, when you come out, you
realize that these pictures really do relate to an enlightened being. You get a
whole different feeling about {Tonkas}.

(Student: What do you mean relate?)
I mean when you see a {Tonka} after that, you realize that this picture was
drawn , this picture was copied by an artist who saw an earlier picture of Tara;
and that picture was copied by an artist who saw an earlier picture of Tara; and
blah, blah, blah. Until you get back to the person who saw Tara and drew her.
So when you actually meet a tonka of Tara and you, in-in after coming out of the
direct perception of emptiness you meet Buddhas directly. You are directly
aware of the existence of Buddha. Then you know that this is a very important
thing. It is not just a piece of art anymore. And you can't really have that feeling
before that. I don’t know if you can really get that feeling before. Intellectually
you understand what I am saying. Intellectually you know that at some point,
someone saw Tara directly and painted one. And try to remember that when
you think about images.

What is the next one?

(Students: (Unclear))
What time is it? I say this is a good place to stop here.

This book it does relate to number five. {b: Psalm bo chin po(unclear)}{Psalmbo
Chen po} is a person’s name. {Sa Monto Badrah} I don’t know if I told you about
that last night. Yeah, okay. {Sa Monto Badrah} Cycle of the Buddha and he is
this prayer is being taught in an exchange between him another disciple.
{(Unclear)} means prayer. It is a very famous prayer. And we recite it often
during pujas, services. And inside this prayer is the Seven Limb Practice. The
original, the very first one. The Seven Ingredients. Which relate to the fifth
preliminary. Okay, so that’s a little tricky. So you go one, two, three, four, five,
six...and number five has seven steps. And those come from the Buddha. Those
come form the time of the Buddha. Those seven steps. So what you have in the
back of your notebook is Tsong Khapa explaining parts of this prayer. He is
explaining the seven parts, the seven ingredients and he is using this prayer. He
is using {Psalmbo (Prayer: Seven Limb)}to explain each part. So those seven
steps in getting ready for meditation were taught by the Buddha. And they are
very famous.

(Student: So the prayer is {(Unclear)}. So what is the {Psalmbo}?
{Psalmbo chinpo} is the name of the disciple who spoke most it under the
influence of the Buddha.
(Student: I am confused, because in the order you gave us...)
I knew you might get confused.
 (Student: Because I thought you said that number five was purifying obstacles.
And (unclear) power of good deeds...)
And that has seven parts.
(Student: Oh! That has seven parts)
And that is what I want you to get straight.          It’s confusing. There are six
preliminaries. And the fifth one is how to get rid of all the negative things and
get a lot of positive energy in you just before you meditate. It has seven parts.
And we are going to do that tonight.           And that is what you are going to
meditate about next. You've finished the six preliminaries. You have been doing
your meditation for the last few days. You've got it memorized hopefully. It’s
very natural to you now. All in the correct order it is suppose to go. Mentally
you can do everything. That is the purpose of meditating on that. So now
you've got to number five. And you are going to have seven steps to that.
The first step is called?
(Student: Steps or Ingredients?)
I call them Ingredients.     It is a translation of (Unclear). {Chak Sa} We talked
about it last time because I got it wrong. I thought it was the first preliminary.
This is prostration. {Chak Sal}. Prostration. In Sanskrit it is {Numb Is} Still in
India they say:{Numb is sky} I {Numb is }to you.
And when they say {Numb Bu daya...Numb mu (unclear)} Then the us changes
to o {(Unclear)} that is what they chant in Sri Lanka or other countries. It is
Sanskrit {Numb mu Bdaya}.

(Student: You are prostrating after you have done the visualization? Gone for
refuge and taken your (Unclear)?)
This is where it comes. And you can imagine. Should you get up a reprostrate?
No. You are prostrating actually before you sit down. So the order is a little
tricky. But you will be reciting at this point a text. And it is important to recite
the text verbally. And I am going to give you a text to recite. By the way if you
already have your own morning practice, it should include these things. If it was
designed properly. The person who gave it you . Like if you are doing
{TunDruk} or you are doing a short {DaKay}. If you don’t know what those are
you shouldn't worry about them. Because you aren't suppose to know.           Then
these things are already in there. And you don’t have to worry about them. If
you don’t have those things, I'll give you one today.

(Student: Does {Sis Session Gurray} incorporate them?)
Yeah it does. Okay so {Chak Sa}. {Chak Sa} is prostration. Before you sit down
in your seat you give three prostrations to the image of the Buddha. And we
talked about it last time. And I said when I first went to India that I had to do
this. I didn’t feel comfortable doing this. And I d didn’t do it for awhile. And if
you want to and you feel uncomfortable do some kind of respect to the image.
And later as you understand more you will feel more comfortable. I don’t know
if it is good to force it. If you don’t feel comfortable then I don’t know if it is
good to force it. When you are ready then do prostrations.

(Student: You are saying that we should do three prostrations as a preliminary?)
Yeah, actually before you sit down. You shouldn't get back up again. It’s like
two and a half, really. Alright?

(Student: It should be in here, I guess.)
In reciting, you will say it again. But you won't have to get up again out of your
position. But in the recitation, you say “I prostrate”. The tradition, these are all
traditions. You know you go down slowly. You are suppose to put your
thumbs inside like that. The idea is that your hands are not empty. This is some
kind of jewel that has meaning. So you bend your thumbs inside. It is tradition
(unclear). In this tradition you go like that.          And then you touch it
here...here...and here. And it means body, speech, and mind of the Buddha. I
wish I could get the way that the Buddha acts, the way that the Buddha talks, and
the way that the Buddha thinks. And that’s not. Again it is symbolic. You know
if you touch here you are gonna start acting like a Buddha? Probably not. But it
is to keep those things in mind. Everything has a meaning. And if you keep
everything having a meaning. It’s not a ritual anymore. It has meaning. So
touch your head, your mouth, and your heart and go down. And when you go
down, you're suppose to go down slowly. You are suppose to touch five points.
Which are your two palms. And they are suppose to be flat on the ground.
That’s suppose to be important. You're two knees, and then your head. That’s
called a five point prostration.

(Student: Can you do it if we move so we can see it?)
Yeah it’s like that. And then you go down on all fours. And then you touch
your head.
(Student: And you still land on all fours?)
You are suppose to do down very slow. And you are suppose to think as you
go down “I hope I don’t go to hell.” Then you get up real fast. And that’s a
tradition. If you really do a prostration properly, that’s it. Does Hell exist? I can't
prove it to you. When you study more a Karma, you will be able to imagine
that it could easily exist.

(Student: Is the head - mind. Or is the heart - mind?)
This is Body, Speech and Mind. The Mind in Buddhist philosophy is related to the
heart, the area of the heart. The brain is here admittable. The real mind is here.
So, Body, Speech and Mind.

(Student: When you do that do you think “Body, Speech and Mind”?)
Yeah. You know how you think, you know how you touch your head and you
say: I wh... And you don’t have to...if you don’t feel comfortable with the
Buddha. It’s inconceivable how a Buddha thinks, you know. So you take the
best person you know. I find that, personally I find that easier. I can't imagine
how a Buddha thinks. But I know how really good people that I know at work
for example. There are people at work you just very naturally very admirable.
And they really don’t dislike anybody. They are very naturally love the people
around them. You I would like to be like that. So you just imagine that body,
speech and mind. That you would like to be like that. You would like to not say
anything bad. When you touch your mouth, you know. Don’t say anything bad
today. (Laughter) You are really suppose to think that. And think that. It is a
good way to start your day. And it is very powerful. And then get down
slowly, come back up quickly - three times.

(Student: And touching the head on the ground that means?)
I can't tell you exactly. I know it is called five points. And they are all suppose to
be touching at the same time. There are many meanings. And you will find
contradictory meanings. But it’s not contradictory. Different lamas have
different teachers and they will teach it differently.

(Student: I heard people, and I think that this is a bit far fetched. But I’ve heard
people say that if you prostrate with your fingers spread you create causes for
lower rebirths in the animal or some other...)
They say that. Books say that. I don’t get into that. I don’t get into that too
deeply. I believe it. I believe that it’s true probably. But I don’t think that you
should

(Student: You spread your hands!?)
Don’t dwell on it I don’t think it’s . I don’t think you have to think too much on
it. If you do down with a good motivation, I have a feeling if you do everything
wrong, it’s probably quite good. (Laughter) I don’t want you to do it wrong. I
want you to do it right. I have a feeling that your motivation is ninety percent of
it. Again when you perceive emptiness directly and you come out of that your
natural reaction is to get up and get down on the ground.

(Student: Unclear)
Yeah ... no. When you touch there then you open them up and go down. And
you know that every country has it’s own way. And that’s specific to that
particular country. You're learning a Tibetan tradition. You're lineage lamas are
Tibetan and Indian, and some Chinese. And you follow that tradition. Don’t
think, obviously don’t go to a Burmese temple and say “Ah, that’s all wrong!
Only we know how to do it right.” Also I don’t suggest that you mix them, you
know what I mean? Stick to one tradition that you are learning. They are all
nice. They are all good. They are like good medicines. But if you get sick and
you take three different medicines from three different doctors, it can kill you.
Much less not help you. So stick to one tradition that you feel close to and follow
it. Don’t mix both ways. Don’t criticize good things about them and don’t mix
up your own practice. You will get confused. So for the time being do it that
way. Your whole life you've been doing it a certain way, then keep it that way.
You know what I mean? Because you come from a Buddhist country and you
have been doing it since you are a baby, so that is good. Keep it. Keep it that
way. If you're American you don’t have it yet. So that is prostrations.

(Student: And three times? And that meaning?)
You can reach three {ratnas}. Long story. Have some refreshments.

(Unclear chatter between a number of students and teacher)

We already had {chupa} number two in the preliminaries. It happens to be the
second one of the seven also.

(Student: So you do it twice?)
This time you are doing it mentally. A lot more fun.

(Student: Are all of these seven mental?)
Yeah. You're down on your feet already. Now you have to think incredibly. I
kind of like to think like this is a, this is a mousetrap for them. When you get
them here, then you give them. You present another one, a {chupa} offering.
And you should read the text about this. The first text. The text about the six
Buddhas.

The third one is {shapa}. Anyone remember {Shapa}?

(Student: Declaring?)
No that’s {Zumba}. {Shapa} is literally refers to if you have ever been in India
again. Firewood is a big pain, a big hassle. You have to have firewood in India.
And you buy these big logs, and you spend like a couple hours every morning
driving wedges into them with a sledge hammer. You see these terribly skinny
guys swinging their sledge hammers.. Resting for minute and then swinging.
And they spend like an hour or two like that. And finally the wood goes “Shak”.
{Shak} means split open. And it means confession. It means to open your heart.
You open yourself and say “Look I did some things wrong here”. I think
Rinpoche doesn’t like the word Confession. He says it has too many bad
connotations. What it really is a purification process. And we can’t go into it
tonight. But there is a lot of steps to it. Basically this is the one of the seven
ingredients that you use to clean yourself. And it is very, very important for a
good meditation. You can not concentrate if you have something on your
conscious. It won’t happen. And I think you will find that when you get better a
{Shapa}. {Shapa} is an art. You get good at it. And then you can really improve
yourself with {Shapa}. When you get good at it you see that your meditation
gets really good.      Mentally you confess to this being that you have this
relationship with. Honestly, openly what you did wrong. Then you get good at
it and then your life. I mean at work you get use to admitting what you did
wrong. And people like it. You’ve protected it for so long. You thought it was
the right thing to do to hide it. If you get into the habit of just admitting when
you are wrong it is very healthy. It is very, very good for your meditation. I
can’t emphasize it enough. It really, really helps your meditation. Before you
start truly, honestly think of what you have done wrong, and try to get this
sense that by admitting it mentally to this being you are pure of it and you
finished it and you got rid of it. That’s very important. Also just before you die
this is very important. So if you die by accident, quickly...try to remember that.
Try to imagine there are all these processes, these practices for it. But at least try
to think mentally, if you have been doing this every morning of your life, you
will be able to do it when you die. The Catholic custom of having a priest there
when you tell him the horrible things that you have done in your life is very
good. And you try to clean yourself of it. Try to imagine that you’re pure of it.
And that is {Shakpa}. It doesn’t mean that you feel guilty, or bad. You should
feel guilty in the sense that they say having drunk a bottle of poison by accident.
I made a big mistake. That’s really the feeling. It’s not so much like ‘Oh, I’m a
bad person’ or ‘I’m no good’. It’s like I made a big mistake. I shouldn’t have
done that. It’s like some kind of strong feeling like having done something
stupid that is going to hurt you.

(Student): You never know when...That’s the problem I run into I always have
people just kind of run over you, you know? I don’t know whether to stand up
for myself and yell back or ...
When you study more you will know what to do. There are times when you
have to be {Shingdo Whatgotten} in Tibetan. Being fierce is a religious reaction if
you do it right. But it takes a lot of wisdom to do it. In the beginning to make
sure that you are not angry. Better to be made a fool, and to be taken
advantage of, then make the wrong reaction. You don’t lose anything by being
taken advantage of. You lose a lot if you react wrongly.

(Student): But we are taught to always bring out the best in us and you said to
admit it in your job. Admit that you made a mistake. You don’t want to
emphasize that! You want to emphasize the good things!

But I think what you will find is that people will find that you are strong enough
to admit your own faults. When if the time comes, you know you could blame it
on the guy when no one would know the difference or you could say actually it
was me and it works.

(Student): I am not suggesting that. That’s no good. What I am saying is you
want to emphasize that...

Well, try it maybe you will become a vice president or something.

(Student): So would this be something like doing a {vadzrasattva} visualization?

Yeah, that’s a {shakpa}. That’s a beautiful {Shakpa}.

(Student): Five prostrations (unclear).

Yeah. There is a whole thing about it. And we’ll do it some day. We can go
through it some day. But I have like six (unclear).
{Udawwa}. {Udawwa} means rejoicing. And I like that translation. You know I
am always picking on translations. That is good one.

(Student): This is rejoicing other people, right?

There is two kinds. One is to...just, just being glad about the good things that
other people do. A. And B. Being glad about the things, the right things that
you have done yourself. Some kind of being very happy about the good things.
It’s taught in many scriptures and I have seen it many times. That if you truly
take joy in other people’s successes, in other people’s good deeds. Which is
against our nature. We tend to be jealous. You can get ten percent of the virtue.
Many scriptures that I have seen quoted the number ten percent. So it must be
somewhere. Maybe nine or eleven. But that is incredible. If you just sit down,
you are sitting there about to go into deep meditation hopefully and you say
‘The Dalai Lama really does a good job! I am glad that he is around.’ I heard that
the man who died in New York yesterday was the financier of the private army
that protected the Dalai Lama while he got out of Tibet. And he came very close
to never getting out to Tibet. So no Nobel Prize. No Arizona teaching. No
{College Shakras}. Be glad that he got out. And be glad about everything he
did. They say you can get ten percent of the power. If you are truly happy
about it you can get a lot of the energy he collected by doing those things. And
that’s immense. The second way is to be glad about what you have done
yourself. And they say that that is even more powerful. They say just to take
joy in the amount of things that you are able to do good in a day. To do right
has a multiplying effect. Everything else you do, if you do a good deed in the
morning and you think about it all afternoon about, okay I finally did something
good it multiplies it expediential. There is something about reviewing it mentally
and being glad about it that’s very powerful. It’s more powerful then rejoicing
in someone else’s
 deeds. And so that is actually, sometime they even add this as a third part of
this fifth practice, fifth preliminary. We are suppose to be cleaning ourselves out
is what the confession does. We are suppose to be collecting good deeds which
the other six do. And rejoicing, sometimes they even separate that out and this
explodes your energy. You know if you are happy about the good things that
you are doing, it just explodes. Good energy explodes. My lama is always
saying that is very cheap, easy way. You know, not much work. You just be
sitting there being happy about yourself. And it builds up. It expands the virtue
you have done. So that’s

(Student): Isn’t there a danger in that, in thinking uh...

Thinking that you are good? Yeah, of course there is a danger. But you can take
a true joy in the good. You know when you have done something good. They
say in Tibetan: The way...when you know it is good is when you feel good. If
you do something really good you know it. You really do know it. You almost
have to be an animal not to know it. You know you do feel good. You’ll know.
There is a danger in getting conceited. But you will know the difference,
hopefully. I’ll make this short.

{Chuka Korwa} {Chuka} means dharma.             And {Kor} means wheel.    Dharma
wheel. And {Chuka Korwa} means to turn the wheel of dharma.               And that
means to teach. To teach.

(Student): Doesn’t {korwa} mean {samsara}?

Yeah. Because it is a circle.

(Student): Oh, so it’s just the circle part of it.
The wheel part of it. The wheel of life.

(Student): Is {korwa} another word for {Chukor}? Or is it two syllables?
It’s the verb. I’m not going to write the whole thing out for you because.
{Chuka Korwa} means to turn the wheel of the dharma. And it means to teach.
This what I think the one that Rinpoche seems to emphasize the most of all of
them. Is asking that being: ‘Will you teach me. Please teach me.’ They say that a
teacher is as I said before is your window to the Buddhas. If there are no, if there
is nobody in the world talking dharma, then you are lost. There is no hope.
Because the Buddha himself says many times in scripture: ‘I can’t do anything for
you except in rare circumstances, except teach you verbally what to do.’ That’s
the big act of a Buddha. The big contribution of the Buddha. He comes and he
talks. And he teaches. And this is to ask him to please come. Please teach me.

(Student): As the window to the dharma?
All other Buddhas. The person who teaches you dharma and it says in many
great scriptures. Many very high scriptures. Therefore he’s more important
then all the other Buddhas. Because he is without him you can not contact him.

(Student): So is this requesting him to teach you?
Yeah, asking him to teach you - mentally. And that teaching can take many
forms. I mean the Buddhas are capable of taking any form. So, that is one of
their qualities. You don’t know who is a Buddha. And you don’t...and they are
teaching you. You don’t know. You have to be careful. And they can teach you
any way.      It is in the scriptures that the Buddha took the form of a tree. The
Buddha took the form of a wave of the ocean. The Buddha took the form of a
bridge.

(Student): How can he teach you as tree?
Maybe if you hit your head when you think you have got patience mastered.
(Laughter) Yeah? Possible, don’t think it is impossible. But normally it is plain
old dharma teaching. When you are ready for that. And before that it is a book.
A novel, or a movie or something that gives you up to.

{Sumga} means requesting. It’s the same word as the last preliminary. Of the Six
Preliminaries.

(Student): Is it spelled with an ‘m’ (unclear)
Yeah, yeah this is a better pronunciation. It’s a little bit subtler. If you do it that
way in Tibetan they will say “Ooo!”. {Sumga} means to request. It specifically
means to request your lama to stay. And not to leave you. Suppose if he is a
Buddha or if he is a holy being, he has the power to stay. And not leave not
break the relationship with you or not die. And a lot of students in the west
have had lamas die. Lama Yeshe passed. Geshe Ruptan passed. Chugdan
Rinpoche passed. So it happens. And you have to be very careful to request that
they not die or pass on. The Buddha himself on this death bed. There’s a
tradition that one of his disciples neglected to ask him to stay and therefore he
died. Therefore he passed. Pretended to die. So it’s important. It’s important.
The relationship is so precious and so rare to run into a good teacher that it’s
important to ask that teacher not to

(Student): You mean, you don’t mean literally. You mean the connection.
Well, in this prayer you are doing it mentally. But if you have a relationship with
some lama you must ask him from time to time please keep the relationship
okay. Don’t leave me.

(Student): Until samsara ends.
(Student): Literally, you have to ask the person? Don’t die!
Yeah. You know when I was learning Tibetan I met Khen Rinpoche who was
the Dalai Lama’s tutor. And I was his driver for a day. And I didn’t know
Tibetan very well. So I said something like “Hey! Don’t die, Okay?” (Laughter)
And everybody started laughing. Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry. People never
let me forget it. Fifteen years later they still remind me of that. But I feel like I
did the right thing. It’s important. We take it for granted but there is many
people who never meet a dharma teacher. There are many people who don’t
meet a dharma teacher who can lead them for very long. There is many people
who...I remember when we were in Arizona and his Holiness was answering
questions. You were there right? And somebody said if you meet your lama
once a year is it okay? Many people live in places where the lama travels
through once a year and gives a small teaching a leaves. It’s rare. It’s hard to
find the real thing, I think. It’s hard to get a long protracted relationship with a
lama. Rinpoche stayed in the same place for twenty years. We soaked it up. We
were very fortunate. So it is very rare.

{Mowa} {mowa} is number seven.

(Student): Michael, please keep teaching. Don’t die! Maybe you should move.
Maybe we should put the Diamond Center in New Jersey. Mowa means
dedication. And dedication means...This is more I should think after the
meditation. It’s one of the preliminaries. But uh, Dedication and there is a
question on your homework. I am going to explain the difference between
{Ludlum} and {Mowa}. {Ludlum} we had before and it meant prayer. It wasn’t
one the seven and it wasn’t one of the six. It was the name of the book, the
original book with the prayer of {Su Matra Badra}. And so there is two. And it
Tibetan books and in Buddhist books in general it is very important to know the
history of {Ludlum} and of {Mowa}. A Dedication and a prayer. Prayer means,
you know I pray that these good things happen. That’s a {Ludlum}. Okay?
That’s a prayer. A dedication is different. In a dedication, you, the main
difference is you have some stuff to dedicate. You have something good that
you did. And {Mowa} means I wrap it up and package it and I think to myself: I
did a good thing and by this power may I become a Buddha. By this power may
I reach paradise. Consciously after doing something right, like that meditation
you just did. Think of it as one good thing that you did, one unit and send it into
the future. And they say that if you do that. That virtue, that good deed is
protected from all you angers, all your hatreds,. They say normally if you get
angry during that day. Even if you had a great morning meditation, you just
destroyed all of it’s power. If you get angry for a short period during the day,
truly angry at someone. Actually the book says many thousands of years,
millions of years that’s kind of scary. Think of it as that morning’s good deeds
that power is totally wasted. If you {Mowa} as you finish your practice you say:
‘I really truly wish that this would bring me to a state of perfect knowledge
where I could really help other people. I’d know what they were thinking, I’d
know what they need, I’d know what their future is.’ And that protects it. That
motivation after you have done that good deed protects it.

(Student): How does that work?
(Student): Is that a one way street? I mean you suddenly get angry and you
wipe out eons of virtue, or is it also: Gee, suddenly you rejoice the right way and
you accumulate or you wipe out eons of non-virtue.
I have never seen it referred as wiping out eons of non-virtue.              There’s
certain...yeah, no, maybe there isn’t a way. The Buddha once met, before he
became the Buddha he met another Buddha. Out of awe for him he hopped
around him on one leg, I don’t know what- for a day or two days or something.
It is some kind of reverential. It is very famous in scripture. And because of that
one deed he shorten his samsara by thousands of eons. It depends. Yeah you
can (unclear) according to scripture you can do it.

(Student): But once you dedicate it you can not destroy it right? Once the
dedication...
Yeah right. It protects it. How does it protect it? I think the power of the
motivation. It’s no longer a worldly, it’s no longer a normal (unclear). It’s no
longer going to produce the normal just simple reaction. How does it work? It
has to do with the Mind Only school. And the perceptions you have as the seed
is planted karmically in your mind. And it is explained. It takes about a month.

(Student): But it takes hatred, not just anger right? His Holiness explained it.
When you just say anger wipes out all your virtue, it is actually hatred, right?
Not anger.
I guess it is the hatred in anger. But the book says anger. Well, yeah there are
virtuous kinds of indignation

(Student): I thought His Holiness explained it as more of a hatred.
Yeah, Shantideva explains it as the root is hatred. It is a form of hatred.

(Student): So if you get angry and you’re not hateful then it doesn’t wipe out
eons of virtue is my understanding.
There’s a lot of...it’s a long story. It’s in the {Mighty Mondonatara}.

(Student): Would you gratefully explain the difference between prayer and
dedication.
Yeah the difference is that in dedication there is a thing that you are. It’s called a
substance in Tibetan. There is some substantial thing that you are using to do, to
dedicate to your future enlightenment. And that substantial thing is the virtue of
the deed you just did. That’s why at the end of this class we always do {Gnowa}

{Gewa di gewa....} That’s the classic {Gnowa}. That’s number seven. That’s the
last thing. Sorry to keep you over. That finishes the Seven Ingredients. Now
we have the Six Preliminaries. And that again is {Sumda}. The same word as
before. Again it is requesting. Or sublimating.

(Student): So I don’t get it. You do it twice in a row?
Ahh, it is a different kind of request. What was it number five? The last request
was asking them not to die. This request is asking them to...this is the Six
Preliminaries. We finished the Seven Ingredients. Okay, everybody got that?
We finished the Seven Ingredients. We finished the Seven Ingredients which are
part of Preliminary number five. Now we are on the last preliminary. The last
thing tonight. This is requesting that that holy being to give you {Gin Luck} {Gin
Luck}.
{Gin Luck}

(Student): Requesting who?
That being that holy being or beings. Ideally you are seeing a lot of lamas in
front of you. And your root lama at the center. {Gin Luck} is a very hard word
to translate. It means, do you the difference between aptitude ... What are those
two kinds of test? Aptitude and ??? There are two kinds of examinations. They
sound similar. This is like western testing like the S.A.T. One is to measure your,
what you actually know. I forget the word. And the other one is to measure
your ability to change. Like the potential in you to knowing something.
[I BELI EVE MI C HAEL I S SEAR C HI NG F OR THE WOR D
COMPREHENSIVE]
(Student): Intelligence.
Intelligence as opposed to aptitude. Aptitude means what you are capable of
learning. Your capability of learning. And the other is intelligence which is how
much you know now. Like you can be unintelligent now, but if you have a high
aptitude if you work hard. So {gin Luck} refers to aptitude. It’s a prayer that
they through their blessings that they change your aptitude.

(Student): Your potential to learn?
Your potential to be holy. Your potential to gain high spiritual goals. {Gin Luck}
is that process. {Gin Luck} means you’re requesting them to give you {Gin
Luck}. {Gin Luck} is translated as blessings. But what it means is through the
relationship you have with them they somehow affect your ability to become
better. And the root, the book says: “I pray that you change my ability from the
very first practice up to the very highest practice’.     The very first practice is
acting properly towards your teacher. Your lama. And the very highest practice
is perceiving emptiness directly. So the prayer is, the {Sumda} is all the from that
beginning practice, which is having a good relationship with your teacher.
Because without that you are not going to learn anything. All the way up to
perceiving emptiness directly. I pray that you change my ability to act right to
all those things. All the {Lam Rim}. All the paths. All the steps of the Path. Now
I have to do. There are a few things on the homework that I didn’t cover. Of the
Seven Ingredients, how many act to purify you and how many act to collect
goodness. There is only one that is solely purification. And that’s the Confession.
And that’s in your reading. This is all in your reading. And the rest of the Seven
act to collect virtue. Positive energy to make your meditation successful. The
other Six.

(Student): Can you say that again?
(Student): One is...
The one ingredient, the one of the Seven Ingredients which is Confession acts to
remove negative energy before your meditation. And the other six act to store
up positive energy for your meditation.

(Student): When someone has {sadna} where they have visualizations of some
kind of light passing through you .

That’s...that’s (unclear) And all good {sadnas} have all Seven Ingredients
imbedded in them. And when you get better you can recognize them.

(Student): That’s too accumulate uh...
Yeah, to store up, good power, good energy. I forgot to mention one thing in
Confession. What you confess if you have been practicing for awhile. Is any
time you have broke one of the three kinds of vows. And I just want to mention
the three kinds of vows. The first kind of vows are vows of morality. Monk’s
vows are those. You can also take lifetime vows without becoming a monk.
That’s the first kind of thing you can confess. The second kind is things when
you broke your boddhisattva vows. If you don’t know what they are don’t
worry. You’ll learn sometime. And the third kind of vows are your secret vows.
Your tantric vows.

And the last, last, last thing. What book are we going to use when reciting the
Seven Ingredients in the morning? And that’s this: [b: Gan-dan lha gya ma].
Now here is the punch line. This is the last thing that I will say. I keep saying
that don’t I. Some one took Tsong Khapa’s analysis of the Buddha’s teaching on
the Seven Ingredients. And made him the object of the prayer of the Seven
Ingredients. So there is a prayer you do in the morning before your meditation
and the one we use called: {Gan-dan lha gya ma}. And it is centered it is focused
on Tsong Khapa himself. He was teaching the Seven Ingredients and then one
hundred years later somebody wrote a Seven Ingredient focused on him. And
that’s the classic one. That’s the one that we use. And that’s in the back of your
notebooks. So in the morning when it comes time to do your Seven Ingredients
you can recite that one. It’s there in English. But it is better if you can do it in the
Tibetan pronunciation, which is also there.

(Student): Why is that better?

You put a seed in yourself to learn it later. {Gandan} is the name of a heaven. It
is the heaven of bliss. {Gandan} means heaven of bliss. {lha} means angel. Angel.
{Gya} means one hundred. {Ma} is again that feminine ending for a very holy
prayer.

(Student): Isn’t it also for mother?

Yeah. In every language. It has been translated as [prayer: The Thousand
Angels of the Heaven of Bliss]. Because the word hundred here just means a lot.
Okay. You could have said million or billion it would have been alright. And in
this prayer. In this visualization Tsong Khapa is coming out of the heart of
Maitreya. And if you would like to see it downstairs there is a big tonka there,
which Margie donated to this center. And that’s a thangka of that process going
on. Tsong Khapa is coming out of the heart of that main angel.

[(Student): So in this really, in the Six Preliminaries we are doing prostrations
twice, once physically and once mentally. And we are doing offering twice.
Once physically and once mentally. Any reason why we do it twice?]

It’s better then once. Before you get up imagine that that holy being shrinks and
goes and stays inside your heart. It’s not good luck, it’s not considered good to
just get up and let him disappear. Shrink him down. He comes in through the
top of your head. And comes down in and stays in your heart and you spend
the day with him or her. Which ever it is. That’s after requesting. And then
they come and stay in your heart. And that’s a very good sign. I requested
Rinpoche to come. I didn’t not teach you{Unclear}. You can recite it because
now you know all the parts of it. Rinpoche has agreed to come and teach that.
That will be after this course ends actually. It will be April 24th Sunday, here.
Hopefully it will be warm enough it can be outside. If not we will have to see.
We might have to find a bigger place. He has agreed to come. And I think it
better to get it from him then from me. (Unclear) So your homework is to recite
that this thing. Memorize the Seven Limbs. And I encourage you that if you
don’t have another practice, recite the {Gandan lha gya-ma} at the back of your
notebook. And then do your meditation practice. How you sit. How you think.
We don’t know it yet. Do it as best you can. And then that’s the next class. We
will talk about the place. The characteristics of the place. Are you ready.
[prayer: dedication]
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Course III: Applied Meditation