Серия ежедневной практики, курс 10 — Мантра Чже Цонгкапы (Ганден Лхагьяма) (1998), занятие 2

[Speaker 2]
Session 2 Namo nirvana namo nirvana namo nirvana namo namo namo Namo nirvana namo namo namo namo namo namo Namo nirvana namo namo namo namo Today, we'll start to go over the practice that we'll be doing.

[Speaker 1]
It's very important to get it straight, what you're going to do during a retreat. I think not many Westerners get to do retreat, and then when they start a retreat, they don't know what to do, or they just make up something as they go, or something like that. They don't really get good instructions, and then you don't get as much benefit out of it.

I think you know lots of people who have done retreats like that. So we're going to go over the practice that we're going to be doing, and the mantra we're going to be doing. The practice is called the Ganden Hagyama.

Let me see. Do we have those copies? Everybody have the copy?

The title is Lama Nyong'o. Say Lama Nyong'o. Ganden Hagyama.

Okay. Lama means lama, okay? Literally lama means higher.

Like lana mepa means no higher. Neljor means... Oh, and lama is the translation of the Sanskrit word guru.

And I like the word guru. Guru comes from a root called gru. And there's a process called vrdi, which means the u changes to au, so it becomes grau.

And then when it reaches the Western languages, u changes to v. So the word guru is the root of the word gravity, or grave, meaning serious or heavy. And in Sanskrit it means heavy in both senses.

Like not a lightweight, but a heavyweight. So the word guru directly means like some kind of very heavy being, or something like that. Translated in Tibetan they use the word for very high being, okay?

So that's lama. A lama is about as necessary for this as a piano teacher is for learning piano. I really like that example nowadays.

To become almost a concert pianist, to think that you could do it on your own, is about the same as thinking you could do a practice like this without some instruction, or a lama, or something like that. It's just, it's not very likely. I suppose it's possible some Mozart comes along, but, you know, very unlikely, okay?

Ganden is the name of a Buddha paradise. It's like a staging ground for Buddhists who come to this world, all right? And this Buddha, Shakyamuni, that came here, was there before, and then when he left he appointed a, what do you call it, like a regent, or someone to take care of it while he was gone.

And that's Maitreya. So you see in the thangka, that's a thangka of this practice by the way. And you see up above is Ganden paradise.

And then Maitreya is, I think, I can't see it very well, but Maitreya is in the palace there. And this, you're inviting Jetso Kapha and his two disciples to come from the heart of Maitreya here. So Maitreya is like holding that place, and then when Maitreya's time comes, he'll be coming from Ganden paradise.

There's another Ganden which is in this world, in samsara, in the desire realm. And that's another story, I'm sorry, outside the form realm, anyway, in samsara. And there's a, so you might get confused, in the Abhidharma you see, you might see a thing called Ganden, but it's a different one.

This one is the paradise one, which is enlightened, it's called Ganden Yiga Chunzin. Lhagyama. Lhag in this case, lhag can mean a lot of things.

Lhag can mean a worldly spirit, like a powerful worldly spirit who is still suffering. And you can get born there if you do certain kinds of spaced out meditation, but don't hurt anybody. Those are called lhags.

And then lhag can mean an enlightened being. So lhag has two totally different meanings. I use the word angel for the one and worldly deity or something for the other, worldly god or something like that.

I don't like the word deity so much myself personally, because it always refers in English to the supreme being. And I have a problem with that. A lot of people don't like angel, because they see, you know, little cupids and stuff like that.

But I don't think we have another word. Maybe we'll find another word or something like that. Gyama.

Gyama means a hundred. And all the commentaries are careful to say it's just a word for a lot. So you could translate it as zillion or million or thousand or something.

You need to find a word in English that gives you the meaning of a lot. I don't think a hundred does it. People have used mass or things like that.

That's okay. Or host. But host to me is again a Christian word for the bread and the wine and all that.

And hostess on an airplane and stuff like that. Okay. And this is how...

So it's called ganden hangyama. The ma is a feminine ending that's used to name a book. Like they'll take the first line or the first few words and then they'll call it ma.

Like yun den shi gyur ma. And the feminine ending makes it a noun. Like the prayer of the ganden hangyama.

Because the ganden hangyama is the first few syllables of the prayer. And then feminine is important because it means wisdom. And like lam rim chen mo has a feminine ending on it.

Heart Sutra has a feminine ending on it that can never be translated into English very well. Bhagavati is part of its name. All right.

Ganden hangyagungi thukane means from the heart of the protector or the master of ganden. Okay. Tushita in Sanskrit.

Tush in Sanskrit has a totally different meaning. It means to enjoy yourself. Okay.

Tush, tosh, those are all roots that mean to have a good time. Ganden, ga, ga means pleasure or happiness. So out of the heart of the main angel or holy being in Tushita.

Rabgar shosar pungre chintan tse. Rabgar means very very white. Shosar means like fresh curds.

And I like to translate it as pure white snow because you don't go to a model in America who's got nice white skin and say, you know, your skin reminds me of Dan and Yogurt. You know what I mean? That's not the word.

You have to find a word in your own language which expresses purity and whiteness. But the idea is like what we think of when we think of snow. Pungre is the verb for piling up.

Like pungpo means the five skandhas or the five heaps. Pungre chintan tse means, chintan means water holder, which means it's a poeticism for clouds. Tse means on top of them.

So you see a cloud coming out of Maitreya's heart. And then you see Je Tsongkapa and his two... they're called his two spiritual sons, okay?

Chökyi Gyelpo Kunghyen Lozang Drakpa. Chökyi Gyelpo means king of the Dharma. Kunghyen means omniscient.

Lozang Drakpa is the name that Je Tsongkapa was given when he was made a novice monk by one of the Karmapas. He was actually ordained by one of the heads of the Kagyu sect. And he trained very heavily in the Kagyu teachings as a child.

He started his career at three or something like that. We're translating his biography now. It's very beautiful.

And he trained in many of the Jigung Kagyu lineage, which would be the practices in Naropa and things like that. He had already mastered them by the time he was 15, okay? And like that.

Tse Dan Chepa Nindir Shiksu. So Tse Dan Chepa means along with your spiritual sons, meaning on his left, from our point of view, on that side is Gyel Tsub Je. Gyel Tsub Je was one of his main disciples, first holder of his throne after he passed.

And Gyel Tsub means a regent, he who holds the throne. Tsub means like a substitute. Gyel means king.

So Gyel Tsub on Je Tsongkapa's own right side. It's always on Je Tsongkapa's own right side. And if you ever read books about Tibetan art in Tibetan, it's all from the point of view of the figure himself.

So when they say on Je Tsongkapa's right, they're talking about on our left. So if he stretched out his right hand, he would touch Gyel Tsub Je. That's his right-hand man.

And then on his own left is Kedrup Je. Gyel Tsub Je, most famous, I think, in Tibetan monasteries nowadays for his explanation of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara, which you studied, and you studied his commentary. And then for his explanation of logic.

And then Kedrup Je on the left, very famous for his explanations of emptiness, and for his explanations of Tantra. Although they covered all of the subjects. So when you do that prayer, kanchen kye pa'i tsuk yen, Tsongkapa, mudurubi wan chu gyel tsuk je, mudurubi wan chu gyel tsuk je, there's a prayer that you do, which I'll teach you sometime.

Dunga tenpay kedrup je, dapo kedrup je. So, that's a prayer that reflects their specialties. Meaning, Gyel Tsub Je is a master of logic, and Kedrup Je is sort of a tantric master.

Kedrup Je was the second holder of his throne, and was younger than the other two. That's the first... So what's happening in the first line, and this is what your visualization is going to start, you know, you're going to sit down, you're going to go, you're going to do your...

You always do your other preliminaries first, okay? So, there's the Djordje Druk, which is the six preliminary practices, and then there's a Yenlak Dunga, which is the seven-part practice. Okay, this book, Ganesha Yama, is the ultimate Yenlak Dunga.

I mean, this is what glupas use for seven-limb puja, they call it sometimes, or something like that. And limb is a bad translation of part, okay? Seven-part puja, or something like that.

It's not like a tree with limbs or anything like that. It just means seven parts. You do your other Djordje Druk first, you know, you clean up your environment, you do your altar, you do your prostrations, you fix your seat, you get your posture right.

Like, all that comes before. Then you start counting your breaths. So that's a typical warm-up.

And that Djordje Druk has been since the beginning of Buddhism in the Kangyur. You can find books on the six practices, you know, taught by Lord Buddha. So you go through those preliminaries first.

You clean up your room, you get your seat ready, you do your prostrations, do your altar just before that, and then you do your offerings, and then you sit down and you start your breath, okay? Start your breath meditation. Again, breath meditation has become, it was a means and not a goal.

And I think in some traditions it seems to have become a goal in itself, okay? It's taught in the Abhidharma by Vasubandhu, Master Vasubandhu, just for the purposes of calming your mind down, and not as a practice to spend your whole life on, or something like that. Because it doesn't have any virtuous content per se, okay?

So there's a point where you're first learning to meditate, where you learn to breathe, as a preliminary to meditation. Then there's a point in Tantra, a million years later, where breath again becomes important for a different reason. And that's a whole other story.

That's a whole practice of working on your channels with your breath process. And that's something you shouldn't do until you've been well trained in it by a good Lama, okay? People try to do it from reading books and they actually went crazy, okay?

And it's dumb and you hurt yourself. You can learn to do it from a good Lama in a nice way. And it's like learning piano.

That's like trying to shoot a gun without ever having seen one. You know what I mean? It's something you shouldn't try until someone teaches you how to do it, okay?

So what does it mean, you know? There's a very beautiful section in Nguchu Dharma Bhadra's collected works. We took this book.

There were questions and answers that his students gave him. And it was like 250 questions. And we split them all up, so we had to read them all one by one to catalog them in the computer the right way.

Because you can't put Abhidharma mixed up with Tantra and stuff like that. And so we cut them out one by one. We read them one by one.

And there's this question somebody asked him. What's the point of trying to visualize deities coming from some place? How many miles away is Ganden?

And how long does it take them to get here? And how do they know you want them here? And like that.

And then he says, you know, it's more or less just for people to feel comfortable, because it's not like that at all. It's not like they're located somewhere up towards Pluto or something, and then you ask them to come, and then Maitreya's heart has to open, and then they come out on these clouds. And he says, it's not like that.

And if you've studied Madhyamika, you've studied emptiness, I think you can and you should think of it as a different way. If you're a Tibetan yak herder, although we met some pretty amazing ones in Mongolia, you know, it's okay to think that he's living somewhere in the sky, and this cloud comes down, and like that. And that's okay to visualize it that way.

But as you do it, try to appreciate what's really going on. I mean, where is Tushita, and where are the hot hells? They're right here, you know.

And if your karma was... You know now, because of the pen and the water, chumbap, the water thing, the glass of water, right? This could just as well be a hot hell.

This could just as well be a paradise. And due to our own mistakes, we are seeing it as samsara. This room right here, we are seeing it as samsara.

Due to our own lack of knowledge, we are forced to see this place as a lousy realm where nothing works. This is actually a defective realm. It should have been recalled.

It doesn't work. Nothing works here. You know what I mean?

You can try really hard. It won't work. I mean, you can try external things, get more exercise, get more sleep, eat well, be nice, whatever.

It won't work. It still doesn't work. Nothing will work, because your body will still get old and die.

It's a realm that's broken, and it doesn't work right. It can't work right. You have to destroy it, or you have to move out of it by means of wisdom, and by means of keeping your vows, and understanding it.

And then it just transforms. Does it transform all in one day? No.

If you keep your vows really well, and if emptiness is true, which it is, then it slowly starts to change, and things get better and better. And maybe you don't even notice it, because you're living in it. You see what I mean?

You don't remember how bad it was three years ago, or something like that. Or you don't remember how hopeless it was three years ago, because now this is normal for you. And then it gets better and better and better, and then finally you start seeing maybe one deity, and then two, and then four, and then something else changes, and things happen.

And then you're in Ganden, if that keeps up. So you have to... Imagining a being coming from Ganden, or Tushita, and having it really happen are very close.

Having the karma to hear someone talk about Ganden, and then to try to visualize somebody coming from Ganden, which could happen sitting next to you. The person next to you could be coming out of Ganden. You see what I mean?

Imagining it, and then having it happen are very close to each other. And they assist each other. You see what I mean?

Thinking about it over and over again, pretending over and over again that it's happening, creates the karma to make it happen. It's very interesting. This is kīrim.

That is the practice of kīrim. Kīrim's nickname is Takpe Nyonzor. Takpe Nyonzor means the yoga of make-believe, the yoga of imagining, imagination, fantasizing.

So, by fantasizing about it over and over again, that creates the karma to make it happen. It's very interesting. So, it's not some foolish exercise to try to imagine Maitreya.

Try to imagine Maitreya, okay? So, when you start this practice, every session, work very hard on imagining this incredibly beautiful bodhisattva, you know, long, beautiful black hair, beautiful face, sixteen-year-old body, okay? And, you know, dressed in a loincloth, silk-like top, you know, and jewels all over the place, and still looking simple, you know, still looking like not...

doesn't look like the Rockettes or something, you know what I mean? Like, still looking very natural, you know, like very unassuming, very modest, like His Holiness or something. Imagine His Holiness dressed up like that, you know, sixteen years old, and just totally blissed out, you know, and work very hard on imagining their mind state, you know.

Try to imagine what it would be like to be sitting next to this person, you know. They're just, like, extraordinary. They don't have any hang-ups at all.

They don't have any jealousy. They don't know what the word jealousy means. You know, if you said, do you have a problem with jealousy, they'd say...

You know, we translated for CNN television. They threw questions at His Holiness to try to trip him up, you know, and they said, we saw you at a Paris fashion show. He said, yeah.

And they said, what did you think when those girls were walking down the runway? And he says, he says, I don't know. I think the fashion industry is okay, but all that expense, you know, maybe they could use the money for something else.

You know, he didn't even catch the question. You know, I mean, you know, he didn't... It went over his head.

He thought they were talking about the fashion industry, or having shows, or something like that. He didn't even get the, did you have desire for this lady, or something. He didn't even understand the question, you know.

And if you met Maitreya and you asked, what's jealousy? You know, he just... He wouldn't...

Try to imagine a person like that. You know, try to imagine sitting next to a person like that. and so you picture this being, and go through the whole process.

It's not, it's not dumb, okay? You can picture them in the sky, it's okay. You know, up in the sky somewhere, and there's Tushita heaven, and there's this being there, in this beautiful, beautiful palace, crystal palace.

And supposedly every part of that is like, if you walk on the ground, it feels like rubber or something. It's made of lapis, pure lapis. But your karma is that lapis is soft, and not like a rock, you know.

But it has all the other qualities of lapis. And then, then, you know, there's this holy being, beautiful holy being there, and out of this being's heart comes, comes Jetsun Kappa and his two students, okay? So imagine it, okay?

And then try to get Jetsun Kappa's body right, and you can read the commentary by Ken Rinpoche. Okay. They make him really sweet.

It's like pictures of Jesus, okay? We have real pictures of Jetsun Kappa. It's on the cover of that.

It's on, as you walk in from the garage. There's one, I don't know if we have one here. Oh yeah, that's a real, pretty much a real likeness.

That was made during his lifetime. It was destroyed in about 1960. The only likeness of Jetsun Kappa.

He had a big nose. He was called Nachen, Sharken Nachen. His enemies called him Big Nose from the East, you know?

And I think he was short, and he had big ears. Those ears are a little, I think, exaggerated because Buddhas are supposed to have big ears. But he was not a wimpy person.

I mean, he didn't look like that, frankly. He has a very strong face and a very strong character, like very, sort of, beautiful eyes, you know, like doe eyes, and then a very strong nose and very strong face, and powerful, very powerful. Second verse.

So you're inviting them to come and that's all, okay? And don't think, and try to imagine it very well. It has a, it has, it leaves a karmic bhaktak in your mind, and then someday you meet them, okay?

The second verse is, dungyi nanga-sendripende ten. You imagine a throne. I don't see, are there lions under there?

I don't know. I always used to wonder what a lion throne was, you know, like, it's a big disc held on the back of four lions, okay? So they're, it's supported on their backs, and they're sitting there holding it up, okay?

Sertiya means, imagine it like jewels and everything like that, beautiful. Pema means lotus, so there's a huge flower on top, that is the throne, the platform of the throne. And then, dawa is a huge moon, like you take the moon out of the sky and lay it down, and it's soft to sit on, okay?

Like that. Deng, on top of that, jetsun lama, gepe dzungar jen. The important point here is that Jetsun Kapha is very pleased to come, very, very happy.

You ask, he came, okay? I mean, and the minute you ask, mentally they come, okay? You can't see them right away, but you have to believe they came, okay?

And you have to believe they're very happy to be with you, okay? Gyalwa depe sunim shing chok du, tenpa gye chir, kya gyal shuk su su. It says, please stay with me for a hundred eons, meaning billion years, okay?

Somebody should have translated it as billion years or something. Tenpa gye chir means to keep the teaching going in this planet, and sunim shing chok du means to get enlightened, you have to have an object of heavy karma, you have to have someone to relate to who's very heavy karma. Like, if you're nice to a dog for a hundred years, or you're nice to a llama for a hundred years, it's a big difference.

It's not that dogs are less valuable than llamas, but from your point of view, you can collect a lot more karma than that. I was looking at all the Westerners who've done really well, I think, like, I was thinking about Mathieu Ricard, I don't know if you know him, he's a Kagyu monk, but he served his llama unbelievable, like 15 years, and then when his llama passed away, he wrote out his whole collected works, he spent years, 15 volumes, and published them, you know. So now he's walking around France, every time the Dalai Lama comes, he gets to translate for him.

He just put out a book, Discussions with His Father, who's a famous philosopher in France. It hits the number one thing, seeing bestseller in France, like, in a few weeks, you know. Or the lady in Australia, who did some long retreats, and was very devoted to her llama, and then she wrote this little book, and it just suddenly hit the charts in Australia.

And then you see these people like, who, Geoffrey Hopkins served his llama very well, Robert Thurman, people, I don't know, there's some kind of interaction happening there, you know what I mean? You see the people who are really successful, seem to be successful in their practice, and it seems to always relate to having spent years and years serving some llama somewhere. There seems to be an obvious connection between, it's heavy karma to find a llama and serve a llama, okay?

Okay. This, by the way, is asking them to stay. When we do our normal warm-up, it's after, it's at the end of the, right after asking for teaching.

In this particular version, it's done here, because it's natural. You ask them to come, and then you're asking them to stay. The commentaries say, you can also think of your Dharma friends there, you know, people around you who affect you well.

The next verse is a praise of Jetsun Kappa, and the prostration, okay? The part where you do the prostration. When we do our warm-up, first you invite the llama, and then I ask you to think of some kind of great qualities of the llama that you would like to have, or something like that, okay?

If you don't see so many great qualities, then try to imagine some, okay? And in this, in this verse, they are covering Jetsun Kappa's body, speech, and mind, qualities of physical activities, verbal activities, mental activities, and then they're hiding Jetsun Kappa's name in here, alright? ,,Sheje Kyun Gun Jewey Lodur Thug," Sheje Kyun Gun means all knowable things.

,,Jelwa," ,,Jelwa'' is a very unusual word, meaning to weigh or to judge. Here it means, your mind has the capacity to meet them. There's a gel with a different spelling that means to meet.

But anyway, your mind has the ability to understand every noble thing, meaning you are omniscient. Lodro Tuk means that's your state of wisdom, and that describes your mind. Tuk means mind.

These are sometimes called the three diamonds. Kusum Tuk, body, speech, mind. Sometimes the three secrets, Sangwasum.

Okay? Lodro Tuk. So that's your...

your mind knows all things. Kelsang Ngaway Gengyur Lekshe Sum. Kelsang means the common Tibetan name, Kelsang.

And it means people who have the right virtue. Okay? So like, Je Tsongkhapa could come in this room right now and start delivering a lecture, and some people would be bored, some people would be thinking about something else.

Some people would be very excited about it. And that's Kelsang. Kelsang means you have the virtue to hear what's going on.

You know, you can go into a room and explain Tantra, and then the people who don't have Kelsang will go out and just practice something less than that. You know what I mean? It depends on your Kelwa.

So Kelsang means... Kelwa means past virtue. Imprints from your past virtue.

So Kelsang Ngaway Gengyur. Gengyur means... what do you call them?

Earrings. Diamond earrings. So they're talking about Je Tsongkhapa's words are like diamond earrings, if you have Kel.

You know, like, they make you very foxy. Meaning you understand them, you get them, and then you get to wear them around. Meaning you get to do something with them.

Lekshe Sum is the good things you've said. In there is hidden the word Sang. Kelsang.

So far you've got two parts of Je Tsongkhapa's ordination name. Lo Sang. Sumati in Sanskrit.

Good mind. Holy mind. Pure mind.

That's why so many people are named Lo Sang. It comes from Je Tsongkhapa's name. It's very auspicious to name somebody from the name of Je Tsongkhapa.

That's why so many people who are in the Glupa lineage are called Lo Sang. Japa Pelgyur Lama Dze Begur. Japa Pelgyur means...

when people see your body, and they see how you act with you. Like when His Holiness... just the way His Holiness walks around.

When you meet His Holiness, he looks like he's 12 feet tall. You know, and... that's a quality of his karma.

And then, he just moves through a crowd, and people are looking at him, and people can't stop looking at him. That's called Japa Pelgyur. Japa means kirti in Sanskrit.

Like Dharmakirti or Chandakirti means fame, or well-known, or something like that. So that's the second part of Je Tsongkhapa's ordination name. Lo Sang Japa.

Lama means like His Holiness. Lama means like blazing, or something like that. When he walks through a crowd, it's just obvious who he is, or where he is, or...

It's like, metaphorically, he's blazing or shining. Tong tu den pa'i dun nin la chak sel. Tong tu den means...

just to look at you... like if you see His Holiness in a crowd, if you look... you know, you can never get close to him, right?

And you're like... and you catch it... you catch sight of him, it...

it's extremely good karma. Like suddenly, all these bak chaks are put in your mind. Okay?

Then you go to a lecture and you hear him say a few things, or if you meet him and you hear him say a few sentences, that's a big bak chak. And then tenpa means... if you sit at home on your couch and you think about the time you met him, and what he looked like, and what he said, that's called tenpa.

So all of those are good karma for you. Very heavy good karma. Just to...

just to catch sight of this person, or just to catch a few words, or just to think of them at home, is very powerful good karma. Okay? So I bow down to you.

Okay? That's chaksa. That's the bow down part of the preliminaries.

The next verse is offerings. Okay? And here you go through the...

the classic... the classic offerings that we put forth in bowls. Okay?

And here you can learn it. Alright? And you should do it every morning.

It's important to do it every morning. Yīwàng, yīwàng means beautiful. Chīyūn nācō, that's a...

that's a code word for it. Chīyūn means holy water, like, beautiful, holy, sacred water. Okay?

And that represents the first two bowls. Okay? So the first two bowls are...

the first bowl would be for washing feet, washing the feet of the holy being. Okay? When you set out the water bowls.

Okay? And the image is that they are a great king. It's like in the Middle East or in India, that the first thing you do when they come to your home is you wash their feet, and then offer them something to drink.

Okay? So those are called chīyūn. The first two bowls are called water, holy water.

Mettōg is in the next bowl. You put some rice, and then you put some flowers. Okay?

Okay. Tīshīṃ dukpa. Tīshīṃ dukpa means incense.

It's easy to remember that one because it should be in the middle. It should be the fourth one, the fourth bowl, and two sticks of incense coming up. Dukpa nangsel.

Nangsel means a lamp, like a beautiful lamp. And then you put, in the next bowl, the fifth bowl, you put some kind of light. Tīchab means perfumed water that you're smearing on their body.

Okay? Like ointment or something like that, tīchab. So if you, it's like, I'm sorry, argam is drinking water is the first one.

Okay? Pātiṃ is washing their feet. Bhūbī is flowers.

Dhūbī is incense. Dhībhī is a lamp. Gaṇḍī is the perfumed water.

And then Nīdī is naivīdya, means eating something, offer them something to eat. Here they don't have the food, they just say sok, which means and so on, because he ran out of syllables. Who wrote this?

There's a big debate about it. People say it's by Jetsun Kappa. It's obviously not by Jetsun Kappa because he wouldn't write a book, you know, in praise of himself or something like that.

And, you know, it's very frustrating because we needed to catalog it in our database, and we were embarrassed that we didn't know who wrote it. Different people have different theories, you know, there's an idea about who wrote it down the first time, but then we finally went to the world's greatest textual scholar, you know, Gene Smith. It was embarrassing because he's a sākhyā, we're guru-pās, you know.

And I said, who wrote that? And he says, don't ask me, you know. You're getting into very heavy stuff, you know, it's like very, very heavy stuff.

Don't ask me that question, you know. You know, that's a long... You know, it's like, you can't ask me that question, you know.

Meaning, you know, it's like some incredible source of this thing. It's very interesting. It's like the most common glupa prayer and we don't really know who wrote it.

I mean, there's different stories about it. Maybe it came from somewhere else, I think is the point. Okay.

ngūṣāṃ yītuḥ ngūṣāṃ yītuḥ means things really set out, offerings that you've set out. And yītuḥ means anything you can imagine. That's where you fill up the sky with flowers and stuff like that, which would be Samantabhadra's offering.

chūjjin means clouds of offerings. I mean, you can cover the whole sky at this point, okay, with offerings. gyatso de, sunam shinjok, kila-cang-sang, chöpa-bu, so then you do offerings to them.

Okay. shinchok means shing means a field. And the point is if you plant your karmic seeds in them, you get more return for your money, return on investment.

And then people have mistranslated shing, high tone shing, as tree, like offering tree and stuff like that, which is a bubu. Okay. Next verse.

And by the way, we'll do the verses before each session. There's a custom to rush through this thing in 10 seconds and then go on to your next thing, you know, as fast as you can be excited. You know, like that.

We'll try to stop after each verse and visualize it. means whatever bad karmas I've collected from the beginning of time, beginningless time, tokme du-ne. This is the tokme in the Sangha.

Meaning, no beginning. Asang means untouchable, meaning there is no beginning. Your mind has no beginning, so you've been collecting bad deeds.

You know, you have imprints from the past of ignorance that ultimately caused you to do bad deeds. And those were caused by imprints before that, and those were caused by imprints before that, and there's no beginning. So, a lot of bad karma in your pocket.

We talked about it in the Wheel of Life. You have limitless nyi-pa du-je kyi-le, second, untriggered karma, unripened karma, karma waiting to happen, waiting to come back. And then there's chupa-sipa, which is number 10, link number 10, which is triggered karma, loaded, armed karma, and then there's ge-pa-sepa and gupa-lemba, those two mental afflictions just before that that trigger it.

So, the point of enlightenment is that you you go into an enlightened state with lots of bad karmas in your head, but they'll never be triggered. You see, if it were not the case, we'd be in trouble. To try to remove billions of years of bad karma is pretty much impossible.

The point is to make sure it never goes off. You see what I mean? And that's the that's the exercise.

And Arya is on the way out because they've learned how to unactivate or not activate their bad karmas. Okay? lu-nga-yi sum mi-gye chi-gyi dang, whatever bad deeds I've done in body, speech, and mind, kye-pa-do-ma-tsum-gyi mi-dun-chok, and especially whatever I've done to break my three sets of vows, okay, which are what?

Pradyumna-ksha vows, okay? Bodhisattva vows, yeah, and tantric vows, okay? nyi-nye gyur-pa-drapa-so-so-sha, from the bottom of my heart with extreme regret of an intelligent Buddhist who knows what's going to happen if they don't clean it out, I want to purify, I want to admit them, okay?

Admitting is like the most powerful way to get rid of them, actually. To admit that you have them is the first step. But not to have guilt, okay?

Not to have... Guilt to me means something that paralyzes you. Admitting to me means something that empowers you, you know, like, okay, now I know I did those, so how do I stop it, you know what I mean?

Like that. And that's again the normal warm-up that we do. Okay, last one.

nying-mey dun-dir mang-du du-pla-tsun, nying-mey dun-dir... nying-ma means the crap at the bottom of something, okay? So like, if you have a cup of tea and all the grinds go down to the bottom or something like that, or anything, you know, but all the dirty stuff that goes down to the bottom of something is called nying-ma.

And these are called nying-ma-iyan. This is the nying-ma-iyan. Lifespans are very short.

People don't care about Dharma much. You know, these are... People have a lot of desires that can never be satisfied.

This is called the time of nying-ma, the bad days, okay? nying-mey dun-dir mang-du du-pla-tsun means... du-pla-tsun means, you know, these are really lousy times as far as Dharma is concerned, but you, Je Tsongkapa, spent your whole life in the pursuit of knowledge, mang-du du-pla-tsun means, you really tried hard.

And if you read his biography, I mean, he literally walked from East Tibet to Central Tibet at the age of 15, something like that, on his own, to try to find knowledge, you know. And he stopped at every little monastery and talked to the monks there, and debated, and took teachings from those lamas, and by the time he got to Lhasa, he was this extraordinary being, but he... it would be like somebody walking through each of the 50 states of the United States to try to find someone who could teach them.

And he did that at the age of 15, just took off and did that, you know. So, he worked very hard, and even late in his life he would continue to take teachings from his students, you know. If he had a student who was really good at, like Rendawa, Sakya Rendawa, became Je Tsongkapa's student, but then Je Tsongkapa would learn from him what he knew that he had learned from other teachers.

So, he never stopped learning his whole life. Ché gyé pa may dang chö dun yin ché. Ché gyé pa ma means he gave up the eight worldly thoughts, like being upset when you don't get something, being happy when someone praises you too much.

You don't have to get too excited or too sad about anything, because you're getting exactly what you deserve. You know what I mean? So, there's no point to be very...

like to hope that you're going to get something that you probably can't get. The karma is just not there. And to get all excited about something that you did get, it's no big deal because your karma was there.

So, there's no point to get very excited or very sad about anything. You know, if you don't like it, then change your karma. Okay?

That's all. You get... You shouldn't have too high expectations because you...

you're at a certain karmic level and you know what the level is. So, don't hope for too much. You know from your book what you're doing.

So, what do you expect? Something to happen that's outside the laws of karma? You know what I mean?

I mean, from your own book you know what you're doing. So, you know, is God going to break the rules of karma for you and make sure you get more money or make sure you meet this person? And it doesn't work like that.

So, why get so excited about it or so depressed about it? You get exactly what your behavior dictates. And you can look at your book and say, you know, does this person deserve a million dollars?

You know, and does this person deserve to never have a backache or something like that? You know what I mean? Or never have anyone say anything bad to them?

You know, does the person described in my book deserve to have... to meet happy people all day long? Meaning, have you been happy to everyone else all day long?

You know, which is just... So, why get upset or excited about it? You know, if you don't like it, then change...

fix your book. Okay? That's chögye.

That's the eight worldly dharmas. Okay, to get too worried or upset or excited. Karma works relentlessly, gives you exactly what you put in.

You know. gunpo kyu kyi lap chen zepa la Lap chen is a beautiful word. Lap means...

it's the word in Tibetan for a tidal wave or a big wave in the ocean. And lap chen means... You can do dharma work which is helpful for people.

And then you can do dharma work which is extremely helpful. Meaning, it's like finding kinds of dharma activity that have very intense repercussions over a long period of time. You see what I mean?

Like, you can do... When you get to be a good dharma student, it doesn't become a question of whether you're going to do something virtuous or non-virtuous. It becomes a question of which virtuous thing is more powerful to do.

Because you have a choice about three virtuous things to do during the day. So, which is going to be more powerful? Which one...

There's certain dharma activities like teaching or helping spread dharma or working on a dharma place like Fran's been doing here that have very powerful repercussions karmically. You know, if you do this karma, you get a billion percent return on investment. If you do this good karma, it's a hundred.

So, Love Chen means Je Tsongkapa knew very well the best ways to... to create tremendous good karma. He wrote 10,000 pages of scripture.

Those of you who were in Sereme, and we spent four or five hours a day, six hours a day learning his... one of his smallest books, and we got through half of it in a month. We got through...

I think in scripture it would be about 20 pages in a month of intense teachings. I mean, I have photographs of people coming out of that class. You know, and...

Intense. Incredibly intense. Imagine we studied one five hundredth of what he wrote.

You know what I mean? In a month like that. So, I mean, much less understand it.

To write it? To write 10,000 pages like that in... He didn't live that long, in 60-something, you know.

Didn't start writing until he was in his, I don't know, his 30s. So, how did he do that? Okay?

You got to ask that. But he chose that as the way to affect the most people. Dakja Sampadapi, you don't know what it means.

You can get 10% of his virtue by just understanding what he did. You can swipe 10% of his virtue by being happy about it. Just be happy about it.

Okay? I think Je Tsongkapa's teachings will have the greatest effect on the West. They are not very well...

They haven't spread much yet, except in the form of the Dalai Lama. But I believe, personally, that Je Tsongkapa's teachings will ultimately... I believe they're most appropriate for most Westerners.

I don't say everybody. But rational, normal people who can think and appreciate a good explanation of something, I don't think you can do better than Je Tsongkapa. And I think that eventually that will become very widespread in the United States.

Like the whole courses we've done are based on Je Tsongkapa's writings. And thousands of people are ordering them who never heard of anything. You know, they just saw it and they like it and they...

I think Je Tsongkapa, because he's so clear, and detailed, and logical, that it will appeal to Western people. So I think... I think he was setting up something to spread in the Western countries.

Okay. Did I say that was the last one? We'll do two more verses, okay?

And then we'll meditate a little bit. The next is a beautiful... Next is very metaphorical.

Je Tsongkapa Dhammakaya Nam Gyi means, you holy lamas, okay? High holy lamas. And there's a whole explanation of that in the opening pages of the Three Principle Paths, which you can check sometime, okay?

Why they call them high, why they call them holy, okay? Chukukala Khyentse Chintzintse. They're comparing the sky to the Dharmakaya, which is the emptiness of an enlightened being.

Khyentse... khen means knowledge, tse means love, and we'll talk about it later. I'll explain the mantra to you later today, and we'll be talking about those qualities of khyentse.

Say khen. Khen. Tse.

[Speaker 2]
Tse.

[Speaker 1]
Nyu. Nyu. Den.

Khyentse. Khyentse. Nyu Den.

Khyentse Nyu Den. Khyentse Nyu Den. Knowledge, love, power.

You have. Den, okay? And we'll talk about that.

It's important when you do the mantra, you have to be thinking about that. Khyentse Nyu Den. Okay?

Here's two of them. Khyentse... Khyentse Chintzintse.

Chintzint means clouds. Tse means, it's a beautiful word, it means overcast, or something like that. Chikpa, in this case.

So, they're comparing Je Tsongkapa's and all of the Lama's minds to the Dharmakaya, to the sky. So imagine it like the sky, okay? And then, out of the sky comes these clouds of...

form these clouds of love and knowledge. Khyentse. Okay?

So, first there's this empty Dharmakaya, and then love and knowledge clouds start to form in the sky. Jeetar Tsampa Duje Djamala. Jeetar Tsampa is the...

is the punchline. What do you call it? Anyway.

Jeetar Tsampa means as they are ready, means as they are fit, meaning, you can only get the amount of teachings that you're ready to get.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
There's this famous debate in the opening pages of the first Dalai Lama's Abhidharmakaya, and it says, what's wrong with the Buddhists? They're not very compassionate, because they don't show in all times and all places, and teach everyone. They just teach a few people and then run away.

You know, and then he says, Jeetar Tsampa, you know, it's not the Buddha's fault, it's your fault. You know? Buddha's always there like the sun, but certain lotuses only open at night.

You know what I mean? Or, you know, like, that's your... the lotus has to be ready and the sun has to be ready at the same time.

It's not the sun's fault that the lotus is not ready to open. Certain flowers are not ready to open yet. And certain people aren't ready to hear Dharma yet.

You know, you can put Dharma on TV 24 hours a day and probably wouldn't get any ratings at all. You know what I mean? People are just not ready for it.

They don't want it yet. They're not ready for it. It takes a lot of virtue just to be ready to hear Dharma.

So Jeetar Tsampa is sort of the catch. It's sort of a sad... to me it's a very sad phrase.

You know, Jeetar Tsampa means only as much as you can handle. You know? Dhulje Dzimala.

Dzimla means... I think it's the Vasu and Vasubandhu, but Dzimla means the one who holds, the mother who holds, meaning the earth that holds all her treasures. Like that.

So it's a metaphor for the earth. So they're comparing students to the earth, to the planet, and then they're comparing teachers to the Dharmakaya, to the sky, and then the love and compassion, the compassion and the knowledge of the teachers forms clouds in the sky, and then Sabge Chökyi Chöpa Uptu Sul means please let the Dharma rain down on us. Okay?

It's like, you know, please shower Dharma down on us. You know, let the clouds drop rain on us. Okay?

There's a verb in Tibetan called Apa. You know Chumpa, which is the waterfall or the water stream in the glass of water teaching. That teaching is called Chumpa, which means the waterfall or a stream of water.

It's cool in Tibetan that there's an active verb which means Apa. Apa means means to cause rain to fall. Like a rainmaker will Apa the rain.

You see what I mean? There's a verb called to rain it. Okay?

Please rain us. You know what I mean? Meaning that people in Tibet had the power to to make the clouds send rain down.

Okay? Like that. Rain it.

Rain it today? Okay? Like you call somebody, could you rain it today?

You know what I mean? Like that. That's Apa.

It's a beautiful verb. You don't have it in English. Okay.

Page 8. And again, page 7 is, you know, asking for Dharma teachings. And not just from teachers, but from the people around you.

From inanimate objects, you know. Break your leg on something, you learn a lot. Okay?

And you're asking every day for Dharma teachings. And they may not come in the way you expect. They may come from somebody who bothers you.

I mean, if I was really kind and you had a mental affliction, and if I was really kind and I didn't care so much what you thought of me, then I would do something bad to you, just to help you. You see what I mean? I mean, I don't personally have the strength to do that, because I like people to like me.

So, I mean, even when I should correct somebody, I'm like, I avoid it, because I don't like them to hate me, you know. But I think really good lamas, like Ken Rinpoche, they, out of love for you, they see if they can get you angry or upset you, or something like that. You know what I mean?

Because they want to help you. You know, they want... If you really had a kind person as a teacher, then they would try to find out your weaknesses, and then they would try to trigger them, so you could watch yourself.

You know what I mean? And so, you're also asking for Dharma teachings from all the people in your life who bother you, and cause you problems. So please, please try to upset me today.

Okay? Please try to make me jealous today. Okay?

And so, if you pray for that in the morning, and then it happens in the afternoon, you can't complain. Okay? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Why do you get so much Dharma then, you know, so angry? I mean, if the High Lama, you know, tries to trigger my anger, and I fall into the trap, I mean, it's very dangerous, so...

[Speaker 1]
How does the Lama then... I think they just trigger it lightly. You know?

I don't know. But it's very famous. Marpa did it to Milarepa, you know?

Poor guy. You know? Build me a house, and then...

I don't like it. They tear it down, you know? Build me another one, you know?

You know? But I think they have a very profound ability to find your weaknesses, because they... In fact, I would say that the...

I would say that the... What do you call it? The process or the interaction with the Lama is working well when that's happening.

You know? I mean, you should take it as a compliment. That the interaction is going well, if...

And even if they're not intending to do it, see, it doesn't mean they have to. If you have the virtue, you will see them doing that, because it's helpful. It helps you.

So, I would say that your Guru Yoga is going well if it seems like the Lama is picking on you or something like that. You know what I mean? And they might not even want to do it.

They may be totally oblivious to what's going on from their side. But if you have the good karma, then you would see them as actually, you know, hurting you, or attacking you, or trying to bother you, or something like that. You know what I mean?

And that's a very common... What do you call it? It's a common interaction.

It's a sign of the process is going well, because then you'll get stronger and you'll be able to purify yourself. So, the last one is a dedication. ,,Dag ki jin ne sapé gye waan di,,, Whatever virtue I've done...

We normally do this after the meditation. Okay? So, after the whole practice, when we go, ,,Gye waan di, gye waan kun,,, Same thing.

Okay? Whatever good karma I've collected, ,,Ten don droa kun la kan pen nam,,, May I use it to help the teachings and people. ,,Kye pa je sum lo sum drapa yi, ,,Ten mi nyi murun du ser je shok,,, This is a prayer that you somehow play a part in spreading the worldview of Jetsun Kappa in your culture, in your civilization.

And I think we're in a unique place to do so. You know, we have a country of 300 million people who are relatively well-educated, they are materially comfortable, they can think well. You know, they're free to follow whatever religion they want.

So you have like a big fat Dharma opportunity, you know. And then you've got Losantapa, Jetsun Kappa's teachings, which are very persuasive, very logical, very well thought out, very compelling. So, you know, this is a prayer at the end that you say, can I play some part in bringing this worldview to the West?

You know, it's perfect. It's a perfect prayer. What worldview?

I mean, it's that thing that you could bring Maitreya from Ganden Paradise, you know. Not by using your credit card, you know what I mean? Not by the ways that we think you can make things happen, but by just keeping your vows.

That by understanding emptiness, and by keeping your vows, you could change the world, you know. And you don't have to live like this. It's like the ultimate social justice, you know, that you could make everybody in the world have enough to eat, and enough money, and mentally be happy all day long.

That this worldview does that in a way that money and other external factors can't do. Vitamins, and cosmetics, and exercise. You know, it can bring people all those things that they're hoping for without external causes, you know.

But internally, which is really how it happens, because things are empty. So that worldview that you can change the world. You know, I grew up in the 60s, we worked against the Vietnam War, went to jail, you know.

Then went to work with Cesar Chavez for social justice. And this is actually a much more sophisticated and effective form of the same thing, you know. You can give everybody everything they want by following this worldview.

So, you know, at the end you dedicate it to spreading that worldview. Okay. All right.

We'll do some meditation. Then we'll do the mantra later, okay? But that's the foundation of the practice you'll be doing during this retreat, okay?

Actually, I think maybe get up for 5-10 minutes and stretch, okay? And then come back. Have something to drink.

Okay, we'll start. By Jetsun Kappa's time in Tibet, nobody was doing any prayers in Sanskrit that I'm aware of. And Jetsun Kappa himself is working off of translations often.

You know, you'll often see him, those of you who studied Thangye in Sara, you know, he would say, I like this translation better than this translation, or something like that. Meaning he was working mainly from translations. Or he knew his audience was working from translations.

So, I think it'd be kind of auspicious to do it in English this time. Although I really encourage you to do it, to learn it in Tibetan. You know, I think it's good to leave about a half hour a day to memorize things in Tibetan if you can.

And this is probably the first thing you should memorize, actually. And then go on to the Heart Sutra or something like that. And Yintang Shakyamuni.

And then 50 other things. But anyway, we'll try it in English, just because I think it might have more effect on your mind during this retreat. Then we'll stop after each verse and visualize what's going on.

And this is going to be your practice for the next 10 days, so get it right. Okay, later on we won't be reciting it perhaps so often. You should recite it until you get good at it.

And then at a certain point I think recitation becomes a disturbance. You see what I mean? And they also tell you that in the scriptures.

So, we'll recite it for a few days and then after that it'll be automatic, right? So we'll recite the first verse. You ready?

Please come to me, Losantarpa, King of the Dharma, who knows all things. Come with your sons, riding upon the tops of clouds, like mountains of pure white snow. Come, come from the heart of the Lord of a thousand angels, living in the heaven of bliss.

Okay, try to visualize that and then we'll start the second verse. You have to get Maitreya, like a really beautiful Maitreya, okay? And then his heart has to open up.

They say like a crystal door. And then clouds coming out. Then on top of the clouds, Jetsun Kappa and his two students.

Okay, we'll do the next verse. Sit in the air, in front of me, on a throne with cushions of the moon and the lotus. Set on the backs of lions, my holy Lama, with pure white smile, happy with me.

I ask you to stay for a million years, to spread the teaching. Stay, for there is no one higher than you, with whom I may make merit, by goodness of my faith. That's why you ask them to stay, okay?

And throw in all your Dharma friends and people who influence you well, whether they're Buddhists or not. Even could be a Rottweiler or something. Okay, next verse.

Your mind is knowledge that wraps around the entire mass of normal things. Your words are jewels of good explanation, that we the fortunate wear on our ears. Your body shines forth, shines with brightness, shines with the glory the world will see.

I bow to you, just to see you, just to hear you, just to think of you. It brings great things. This part you try to think of good qualities of this Lama.

We can't see all of them, or else we would be them. So imagine them. Okay, next verse.

I make in my mind, and place here as well, an ocean of gifts that could cover the sky. Presents to please all of your senses, every different color of flower, sweetest fragrant incense, lamps of light, perfumes on your body, and other gifts as well, do I offer you. There is no higher with whom I may make marriage.

Then let your imagination go wild. And also offer the best parts of your practice. Things you'd like to do this week, you can offer those.

Futures. Okay, to the next one. From deep within my heart, I am sorry deeply, and openly confess, one by one, the harm that I have done.

My acts or words or thoughts, any and every wrong, kept with me from time with no beginning. Especially what I may have done, against anyone of the three different kinds of us. Then try to think of something specific, okay?

Just one real thing, recently, today, or yesterday, is better than a lot of fuzzy guilt about something you don't remember, okay? Okay, next one. Here in the age of degeneration, you made every effort to gain great learning.

You threw away the eight worldly thoughts, and so made use of your leisure and fortune. Savior, we rejoice. We are glad, happy, deep inside, for what you have done, so good and powerful.

Rejoice in other people's good deeds, and then your own also. Good is something specific that you've done in the last day or so. The easy good deeds are something external, like helped set up this retreat, and the hard good deeds are something internal, like worked on your jealousy or something like that.

Okay, next verse. Holy Lama's high, wrap the sky of your Dharma bodies in massive clouds of knowledge and love, and let them pour upon the earth of your disciples. As we are ready, a shower of rain, the teachings deepen wide.

Okay, next one. May any goodness I have done with this, my prayer, be a help to the teachings and to every living being. I make a special prayer too, that for many years to come, I may carry forth the light, the essence of the word, the teachings of Je Tsongkapa.

Okay, take a short break and stretch, but don't stand up, okay? Give you three, four minutes, stretch. And those are the parts that we normally do every time we meditate, when we go through those.

It's the same thing.

[Speaker 2]
Sangye shindu mikte buwayi Gyokun namda shingla jyotasho Yudham niragamata kamriyatayami Gyelwa di gyelwa Sanam yeshe soso shing Sanam yeshe rejyonghe Dhamma gunito parashur This is the end of session two.