Robina A Very Simple Presentation of The Lam-Rim FINAL

A VERY SIMPLE
PRESENTATION
OF THE LAMRIM
FROM JUNIOR
SCHOOL TO
POSTGRADUATE
KOPAN
MONASTERY,
KATHMANDU
THE NOVEMBER
COURSE 2019
EVERYONE CAN ACHIEVE BUDDHAHOOD,
THE TOTAL CESSATION OF DELUSIONS
AND THE COMPLETION OF ALL REALIZATIONS.
THIS IS THE VERY MEANING OF THE WORD,
BUDDHA.
LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE
Artist: Denise Griffin
LAMA THUBTEN YESHE, HIS HAND GESTURES SHOWING THAT HE IS SHAKYAMUNI

BUDDHA AND HIS HAT AND IMPLEMENTS SHOWING THAT HE IS
JE TSONGKHAPA, THE FOURTEENTH-CENTURY SOURCE OF THE LAMRIM LITERATURE.
LAMA IS THE FOUNDER, WITH LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE,
OF THE FPMT AND ITS FIRST CENTER, KOPAN MONASTERY
A VERY SIMPLE PRESENTATION
OF THE LAMRIM FROM JUNIOR
SCHOOL TO POSTGRADUATE BY
ROBINA COURTIN THE
NOVEMBER COURSE 2019
KOPAN MONASTERY
A ROUGHLY EDITED TRANSCRIPT, WITH SOME ADDITIONS,

OF A WEEKEND COURSE AT FPMT’S LAND OF MEDICINE
BUDDHA, SOQUEL, CALIFORNIA, IN 2005, WHICH SERVES AS
MODULE 3 OF FPMT’S DISCOVERING BUDDHISM COURSE OF
STUDY
KOPAN MONASTERY
KATHMANDU
CONTENTS
PART ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE BUDDHIST

WORLDVIEW
1. The Lamrim: from Junior School to Postgraduate 10
2. If It’s Mind that Gets Enlightened, We’d Better Know What It Is 19
3. Buddha’s Unique Approach 28
4. Take It All as a Working Hypothesis 32
PART TWO THE PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATIONS

5. We Need a Teacher 40
6. Don’t Waste this Precious Life 51
PART THREE LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR SCHOOL THE

ESSENCE OF WHICH IS CONTROLLING OUR BODY AND
SPEECH
7. Be Ready for Death 56
8. How Death and Rebirth Happen 69
9. We Do Not Want a Suffering Rebirth 87
10. The Solution: Rely upon Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha 107
11. Live According to the Natural Law of Karma 113
12. Entry-level Practice: the Ten Don’ts 120
13. What Defines an Action as Negative? 124
14. The Power of Vows 144
15. There’s no Karma that Can’t Be Purified 153
PART FOUR MIDDLE SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL THE ESSENCE
OF WHICH IS CONTROLLING OUR MIND
16. Overview Before Moving on to High School 172
17. The Four Truths for the Noble Ones 183
18. The Workshop Is in the Mind 188
19. Be Your Own Therapist 197
20. Attachment Runs the Show 201
21. Don’t Believe Our Karmic Appearances 218
22. Distinguish Between Delusions and Virtues 223
23. How Suffering Ends 240
PART FIVE GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY THE ESSENCE OF

WHICH IS PRACTICING COMPASSION
24. Overview Before Moving on to University 246
25. What is Compassion? 252
26. How to Develop Love and Compassion, then Bodhichitta 257
27. Perfect the Compassion Wing: the First Four Perfections 282
28. Moving Towards Wisdom: the Last Two Perfections 302
29. How to Access the Microscope of Our Mind 308
30. Finally, Get Wisdom 314
PART SIX TANTRA/POSTGRADUATE

31. The Psychology of Tantra, by Lama Yeshe 346
PART SEVEN PUTTING IT ALL INTO PRACTICE

32. How to Incorporate Dharma into Your Daily Life 366
GLOSSARY OF TERMS 373

Photo: Piero Sirriani
LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE, THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR OF THE FPMT AND THE FOUNDER,
WITH LAMA YESHE, OF KOPAN MONASTERY.
RINPOCHE TAUGHT THE FIRST KOPAN NOVEMBER COURSE IN 1971
PART ONE
INTRODUCTION TO
THE BUDDHIST WORLDVIEW
1. THE LAMRIM FROM JUNIOR SCHOOL TO
POSTGRADUATE
MOTIVATION
Let’s start with a positive motivation for our time together here,
listening to these teachings.
“May this action, this sitting together listening to Buddha’s ideas
about happiness, about suffering, about how things are, all of the
questions we ask about the meaning of life, help me develop my
amazing potential of buddhahood.
“May I take some tools from this to develop this amazing potential
so that I really can be of benefit to others, eventually leading them to
their own buddhahood.
“May this action of being here together, listening, discussing,
contemplating, be a cause for exactly that result.”
We’ll sing a little prayer, the second two lines of which express that.
The first two lines are expressing our reliance upon the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha, so, if we are Buddhist already we have that in
our heart. If not, that’s cool, we leave it.
Sang-gyä chö-dang sog-kyi chog-nam-la

Jang-chub bar-du dag-ni kyab-su-chi
Dag-gi chö-nyen gyi-pä s0-nam-kyi
Dro-la pen-chir sang-gye drub-par-shog
BUDDHISM: FROM INDIA TO TIBET

One thing marvelous in the Tibetan tradition is the way the Buddhist
teachings have been packaged. And it comes from this person called
Atisha, back in the eleventh century, an Indian master, saint, scholar,
practitioner, meditator. He was invited by the Tibetan king; there is a
very long and marvelous story about how he got there. He lived the
remaining fifteen to seventeen years of his life in Tibet.
THE LAMRIM: FROM JUNIOR SCHOOL TO POSTGRADUATE CHAPTER 1
Well, one of the things that he did was that he wrote this little text
called Lamp for the Path. It’s a deceptively simple little text. He had
been in Tibet for a while and he could see that they had kind of lost the
plot. Buddhism had been there for a few hundred years by then. There
were already these marvelous practitioners in Tibet, extraordinarily
great yogis, holy beings, people getting realizations.
But somehow, if you look at Buddha’s teachings extensively and
deeply, all the philosophy, all the things that Buddha talked about and
experienced, and all the things the Buddhist masters over the
centuries, from the time of the Buddha up to that point, had talked
about and realized, the commentaries on Buddha’s teachings, the
extensive philosophy, the extensive psychology, the extensive esoteric
teachings, it’s an enormous body of knowledge and it’s very easy to get
lost in it. It’s like finding hundreds and hundreds of books on all levels
of cooking, but you can’t find the recipes in there, so it’s very easy to
get confused. He very kindly wrote this little text; and what he did was
he took the essential points from the vast literature of the Buddhist
worldview and presented them in a very orderly way.
WE MYSTIFY RELIGION
But I think we are not familiar with this approach when it comes to
spiritual teachings. We don’t think like that. In other words, we go
searching for a cooking course, but we don’t go searching for a graded
course on how to get enlightened. I mean, getting enlightened is
uncharted territory!
I think we mystify spiritual teachings, religion. The moment we
hear the word “spiritual” we lose our common sense. Really. Then we
necessarily think of spiritual as something beyond ordinary. We think
of it as some special feeling. We think of it as something that happens
when you close your eyes and cross your legs, something mystical, a
vision, a special kind of dream. “Oh, I had a spiritual experience!” we’ll
say. It really is not appropriate. It’s inappropriate to think this way.
We also think of it as completely hit and miss.
The way you present information about cooking is that it has to be
orderly and coherent, and the orderly way has to be in terms of the
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PART ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE BUDDHIST WORLDVIEW
capacity of the cook, the simple stuff first and the more advanced as
you go along. That’s nothing surprising. Anything we’ve ever learned
in our lives, we start in grade one and we eventually graduate. Whether
it’s six-month course or a weekend course, or a twenty-year course,
you start at the beginning and you keep getting better. You can track
your progress can’t you? It’s something we are very, very familiar with.
THE GRADUAL PATH

What we’re going to talk about here is from the point of view of one of
the four main lineages of practice in Tibet called the Gelugpas. Over
the centuries, different great masters have presented, in different
ways, the teachings; and the particular tradition here is known as
Gelug – adherents are Gelugpas – which is starting from Tsongkhapa
in the fourteenth century. He used as his source Atisha’s text. And he
calls this presentation of the teaching, in Tibetan, lamrim.
This lamrim then, what’s it all about? What is it? The word
translates as “gradual path.” We can hear the meaning but we don’t
recognize the concept. But if we say it means “a course,” suddenly it
makes sense. As His Holiness says, it’s like the education system.
The entire course is divided into phases of study and practice and
Tsongkhapa refers to them as the lower scope, the middle scope, and
the great scope. Well, you know what? I like junior school, high school,
university. We get those concepts immediately. I like using them. I will
use them!
LORD BUDDHA
But first, who is Buddha and how did Buddhism get to Tibet? Very
briefly, let’s discuss. It was something like 500 years before Christ, I
think, that Buddha was around. He’d been educated in the philosophy
and psychology prevailing at the time, which was pretty developed. As
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, it was these amazing Indians more
than three thousand years ago who began the investigation into the
nature of self. India was incredibly developed in philosophy,
psychology, spirituality – but we know nothing about it in our Euro-
centric Judeo-Christian traditions. We like the Greeks, don’t we!
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Buddha went as far as he could go and then diverged in his own

direction, specifically in relation to his own experiential findings about
the nature of self.
He was the son of a king; people know roughly speaking the bits of
his story. He was this prince who eventually started to question very
deeply the meaning of life, the meaning of his own present life, his
enormously rich and marvelous life, and realized that somehow he
wanted to understand the nature of reality, he wanted to understand
how to go beyond suffering. He could see that everybody was fraught
with suffering, at one level or another. And so he left his kingdom and
he went off and practiced the various methods that were current at the
time.
He eventually became enlightened, as they say, developed all the
realizations, removed from the mind all the misconceptions – we are
going to talk exactly about that. And then he taught for the remainder
of his life, something like thirty years – he was 80-something when he
passed away.
So, that’s Buddha, very brief.
WE GRADUATE AS A BUDDHA
What is it that we are trying to achieve? What is the result of this
graded path, this lamrim, what’s the result of this course? Well, it’s an
accomplishment called “enlightenment” or “buddhahood.” This term
“enlightenment” is used by lots of people in lot of traditions in lots of
different ways.
The etymology of the Sanskrit word “buddha” is very tasty. It tells
us exactly the result, which in turn tells us exactly the methodology.
“Budh” implies the utter eradication from our mind of all ego, all
neuroses, all the attachment, anger, depression, etc., etc., that we
assume are at the core of our being. For Buddha, they are not, thus can
be removed.
“Dha” implies the development to perfection of all the goodness,
the virtue, the wisdom within us: these are at the core of our being.
According to the Mahayana interpretation, this is the natural
potential of all sentient beings – all “sem-chens”: the Tibetan word
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that we translate as sentient being but which literally means “mind-

possessor.”
GETTING RID OF THE NEGATIVE

This is radical! And there’s no view like that in neuroscience, in
modern psychology. We give equal status to all these parts of us and
just assume they’re normal.
None of us would think we can totally get rid of anger, ego and the
rest because we just assume that we are born a certain way and that’s
just the way we are. You just have to do your best, you know. We don’t
think in terms of growing the positive qualities and getting rid of the
negative.
We do think this way when it comes to cake making, for example,
or any other skill: you are not born as a cake-maker, but you’ve got the
potential and you go learn how to become a cake-maker in a course.
You’re not born as a mathematician, but you can learn it. You’re not
born as Mozart, but, hey, you can become like him. We have courses,
don’t we?
But we don’t have courses on how to become more loving, more
wise, more compassionate. Look at the stunning degree to which we
can learn piano. We are phenomenally brilliant, aren’t we, in the West,
technically brilliant in the things we can achieve, but we don’t have
that level of technical brilliance when it comes to the actual state of
our mind; and that’s Buddha’s specialty. He’s brilliant at helping us
develop to phenomenal degrees our own very mind, which we ought to
be hungry to get.
I mean, the courses on Buddhism should be packed with people. We
mightn’t all want to be mathematicians, and we don’t necessarily
suffer because we are not a mathematician, but hey, we all suffer in
terms of jealousy, and confusion, and depression and the urge to kill
and lie and steal, you get my point here. We should be packing
Buddha’s courses. Buddha’s expertise is the mind, and the capacity of
the human to rid the mind of all the rubbish and develop to perfection
all the goodness.
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DEVELOPING THE GOODNESS TO PERFECTION

“Enlightenment” is the term used to refer to the mind of the person
who has done the job of perfecting their own positive qualities and
absolutely removing the negative. Now those words themselves are
kind of understandable, nothing shocking about the words; but when I
tell you more precisely the qualities of the person who has achieved
this, then it really sounds like science fiction – like “religion.” A mind
that has removed all delusions and perfected all goodness would
necessarily pervade the universe, know that which exists as it exists,
and have infinite empathy with all beings. We’ll get into that later.
BUDDHA NATURE
What Buddha is saying is – this is, just naturally, the potential of every
being. An acorn, for example, just naturally is a potential oak tree. It’s
not as if you come along and you force oak treeness into it and now
suddenly your acorn becomes an oak tree. It is just naturally, by its
existence, a potential oak tree; an acorn in its nature is a potential oak
tree. If you are a living being, you are just naturally a potential
buddha. It’s what defines us, Buddha has found.
ENLIGHTENMENT IS DOABLE
The culmination of this course, this A-Z course to enlightenment, is
this perfection, is this enlightenment. Naturally, you start in junior
school. Then, when you have accomplished this, you go to high school,
and so on and so forth until, eventually, you have achieved it. It is as
practical as that. The Buddha’s approach is that type of practicality.
It’s not this mystical, cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the best sort of
hit-and-miss affair that we think of as spiritual. Do you see what I am
saying? And it’s extremely important to think this way; it’s really a sigh
of relief, actually.
We all know we want to be loving and kind, we all know we don’t
want to be mean and depressed, but we kind of don’t really know how.
We sort of think well, we’ve heard about this thing called meditation
and somehow, if you close your eyes, and put the incense on, and make
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the light low, and the music’s sweet, somehow something will happen
inside called spiritual. You understand what I’m saying?
It’s not like that. The Buddha’s approach is not like that. He says
it’s a really tough job, but it’s a do-able job and you start at the
beginning and you just keep going. You just keep going and you will
get there. We all know practice makes perfect. We all know practice
makes perfect. Well, the saying they have in Tibetan is that “Nothing
gets more difficult with familiarity.” It’s a different way of saying it.
What a relief! The more you do it, the better you get at it. What a
relief! It should give us great courage.
It's good to know as a starting point that the goal of all of this is to
achieve this buddhahood. Because why? Because you’re a living being
and this is the potential of your mind. They say we possess buddha-
nature. We don’t talk like that, right? We don’t say, oh, yes, an acorn
possesses oak tree-nature. But we know exactly the meaning, don’t we?
It’s a quaint way to put it.
Well, you’re a potential buddha. Very simple. That’s what it means:
you possess buddha-nature. It’s not a little Buddha in there, hiding
from you, for you to find. Like there’s not a little oak tree in there that,
when you find it it’ll suddenly explode into life. We know that. You
understand. An acorn is something that when you give it the right
causes and conditions – the sun, the water, the soil, and time and
patience – it will just naturally become an oak tree. The same here.
The same here. It’s something very organic and natural; whereas,
again, we don’t think like that. We think it’s something you’ve got to
force.
WE’LL TOUCH THE SURFACE OF THE MAIN POINTS

Okay, this lamrim, this packaging of Buddha’s teachings, presented in
an orderly and experiential way, is what we will be presenting this
weekend in a very speedy way. One lama in Wisconsin, who is a
professor at the university, he’s retired now, Geshe Sopa – I think
Wisdom Publications has now published the third volume of his
commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo. It is not huge, the
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books, but he took twenty-five years to teach it, twenty-five years!

Gradually, really slowly, really in depth.
We’ll speed through and just touch the surface of some of the main
points in a day and a half or two days or however long a weekend
course is.
Okay, so far, so good? Makes sense? And if we’ve heard it a
thousand times before, does it make even more sense? Because that’s
the point. That’s good. We need to hear this, again and again. Just like
with your piano, you keep practicing the same thing. You don’t say,
“Oh, yeah, I did the c major scale, yesterday. Give me a new one,
please.” You’ve got to keep practicing, don’t you? That’s what we mean
by practice! One piece of practice is to keep hearing.
BE PRECISE
As we already know, when it comes to math and science and making
cakes, we’ve got to be very clear about our terminology. If you check
the cake recipe and it says a half teaspoonful of this, and a gram of
that, you know you’ve got to go check up the meaning of a gram and
the meaning of a half a teaspoon, otherwise you’ll make a mess. We do
understand very naturally in our daily, ordinary life the necessity for
precision, for accuracy.
Again, that’s something we’re not used to thinking about in
spiritual terms. We all bandy the word “enlightenment” about and
assume we’re all speaking the same language. It’s like we all bandy
about the word called “love.” I say I love you, you say you love me, and
we actually think we are communicating. But if we actually defined our
terms, we’ve probably got two completely different meanings.
Buddha is really big on accuracy, he’s big on precision, and the
Tibetans are past masters at this, I tell you. They don’t know how old
they are; they talk about an “arm’s length” – they’re not so clear and
accurate about those things, but any of the ones who have studied,
they know exactly the definition of love, the definition of
enlightenment, exactly this and it’s not this, and it is that, and
therefore this. And that’s not meant to just be intellectual, just like
learning a recipe precisely isn’t merely intellectual; you need it to get
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the cake. The Buddha’s approach very much is that and, as I said, the
Tibetans especially; their incredible monastic university system is
based on the great Nalanda Monastery in India, which flourished up
until the eleventh century.
A BIRD NEEDS TWO WINGS: WISDOM AND COMPASSION

Buddha says a bird needs two wings, wisdom and compassion. Really,
broadly speaking, we can say the wisdom wing is what we call the
Hinayana approach to Buddhism, which is the Buddhism that’s
developed in countries like Burma and Thailand or known very
commonly as Theravadin Buddhism. The other wing is the compassion
wing. These two together, the combination of these two is the
Mahayana path, the Mahayana course, and the goal of that is
buddhahood.
What Buddha is saying is every living being has just necessarily the
potential to achieve buddhahood, enlightenment. The goal of
practicing this course we’re describing this weekend – we won’t get it
by Sunday! Well, we might if we are ripe and ready! – the
accomplishment, the end result, the culmination, is one’s own
buddhahood, one’s own enlightenment.
And what becomes a buddha? Your mind, your consciousness.
Buddha doesn’t talk about a soul or a spirit. His expertise is the mind.
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2. IF IT’S MIND THAT GETS ENLIGHTENED, WE’D
BETTER KNOW WHAT IT IS
THE MIND IS NOT PHYSICAL

As it’s the mind that gets enlightened, we’d better know what Buddha
means by it! What is the mind? Well, “mind” in Buddhism is used in a
much broader way than we tend to use it in our own culture. It is used
synonymously with the word “consciousness.”
Mind isn’t physical. If you’re a Christian or a Muslim, or you talk
about some non-physical part of you, it’s known as the soul. But
Buddha doesn’t use that term at all. He would use the term mind, but
it incorporates concepts, feelings, thoughts, emotions, unconscious,
whatever you want to call it, what you even like to refer to as the
spiritual part of yourself, whatever you like. All of this is your mind.
The whole spectrum of your inner experiences is your mind, and in
Buddha’s terms it is necessarily non-physical. It isn’t the body. It’s not
the brain. From the Buddhist perspective perhaps you could say that
what we observe in the brain is an indicator of what’s going on in our
mind – at least at the grosser level.
SUBTLER LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

It’s clear from all this that Buddha asserts far more refined, more
subtle levels of awareness, or of conscious awareness, of mind, than we
would ever posit as possible according to the philosophical materialist
models.
Using the model of the mind taken from the esoteric teachings,
from tantra, you can say we have gross level, subtle level, extremely
subtle. We live at the grossest level, the sensory, which functions in
relation to this body but which is not the body. This is the crucial
point.
And in the long-term, by using the sophisticated psychological skill
called concentration meditation, we will be able to plumb the depths of
our mind and go to more refined levels of our own capacity for
cognition, sort of like accessing the microscope of your mind, in order

to completely deconstruct all of the nonsense and get in touch with
how things exist, thus removing one’s own suffering, thus enabling us
to benefit others.
A couple of years ago, in New York, His Holiness the Dalai Lama
was participating in one of those many Mind and Life conferences.
Maybe you’ve seen it. You should look on the web; it’s very marvelous.
Over these last fifteen or twenty years he’s been meeting with all the
best brains in the West on these scientific topics about the nature of
the universe and the mind. Most of their discussions have been
published; they’re excellent books to read.
The main topic – I think it was in Boston, or Harvard or somewhere
– the main topic was the capacity of the human mind to concentrate.
Okay, the Western scientists were coming up with their findings that
probably six seconds was the maximum; and they probably defined
what they mean by concentration.
Well, there’s the Dalai Lama and the other Buddhists presenting the
Buddhist case from their own experience: the human mind has the
capacity to concentrate for several months.
This is based on the experience of the meditators who’ve practiced
single-pointed concentration, a psychological skill created by the
Indians well before Buddha came along. We’ll discuss this later.
For us, six seconds is the best we can do because we don’t have such
skills in the West and we don’t posit subtler levels of consciousness.
For us, our conceptuality is very limited in its capacity for memory
as well. But for the Buddha we can refine our minds to an incredible
degree of subtlety and clarity. Because these levels are more subtle,
what they can cognize is more subtle, such as the past, the future, the
minds of others, etc.…
We would say, “Oh, come on, past lives? I don’t remember a past
life. Don’t be ridiculous!” Well, I’m sorry to tell you, you don’t
remember most of today! What are you talking about? Well, we can’t
remember most of today! The fact is, our gross level of conceptuality is
simply not capable of this.
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IF IT’S MIND THAT GETS ENLIGHTENED, WE’D BETTER KNOW WHAT IT IS CHAPTER 2
Now this is a whole realm that we don’t even touch upon in the
West because we don’t assert it. It’s the subtler consciousness that
enables people to have what they refer to as out-of-body experiences,
people have near-death experiences; I mean, it’s universal. There must
be countless people who’ve had similar kind of experience, but, of
course, we can’t accept it in the Western model because it’s not a
function of the brain. How can your brain leave itself, you know? You
see my point. How can you be sitting on the ceiling? How can your
brain sit on the ceiling watching the body down there? We know that’s
not possible. We hear these people have these experiences, but it’s sort
of weird because it doesn’t fit with our very strong conviction that
mind is the brain.
Okay, it fits though, absolutely perfectly with the Buddha’s
proposition that the mind, the consciousness, has the capacity to go to
more refined, more subtle levels of awareness. As I said, we can
achieve that through these concentration meditation techniques. And
these are around for thousands of years. He didn’t invent them; he
took them from the Hindus.
And that level of mind, consciousness, is what we experience in our
dreams. It’s very weird, our dreams. We go to strange places. You’re
fast asleep. You’re not feeling anything with your body, but you have
these very vivid experiences. You’re not seeing things, you’re not
smelling things. Your body, your senses are virtually dead when you’re
in very deep sleep. So, there you are dreaming these vivid experiences.
That’s your mind. How can you say it’s not? That’s your subtle
consciousness.
Now, meditators can access that level, but they have – it’s like they
wake up at that level, but they’re able to be completely controlled at
that level. Whereas for us, we’re kind of dragged along by our nose in
our dreams, aren’t we? It’s rare to have complete control. You see my
point? You go here, you go there, weird experiences, you fly, strange
things happen. And we wake up, you know, like we’ve been dragged
there. We didn’t go there on purpose. You understand my point here?
We don’t have control like we do in our daily life, to the extent that we
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have control. That’s your subtle consciousness, but we don’t know how
to use it. Meditators can go to that level.
In order to get the job done of deconstructing all the elaborate
misconceptions in the mind that Buddha says have been there a long,
long time, which is the way we see the world now – which he says is
completely phony, completely misconception, completely mistaken –
we can only really do that properly at a more refined level. We must
necessarily in our progress on this path, whether it’s this life or the
next, or whatever, we must access this more refined level where we can
really do the work radically. We’ll learn about that when we discuss
single-pointed concentration meditation.
But there’s masses we can do already at the gross level. Don’t think
there’s not. You don’t need to have single-pointed concentration in this
life in order to make enormous progress, psychologically-slash-
spiritually. There’s no question.
MIND IS BEGINNINGLESS
According to Buddha, our mind is not the handiwork of a creator, nor
of our parents. Sure, Mummy and Daddy gave us a body, that’s clear,
but they didn’t give us our mind. We have to think about that!
Well, the Buddha would say that consciousness goes into that egg
and sperm. What consciousness? Whose? Well, previous moments of
that very consciousness that entered into the egg and sperm.
The way to think of your mind is not so much - this box of stuff that
you put things in. It’s more, really the word mind is much more
dynamic, kind of subjective word in Buddha’s terms. It’s the process of
your thoughts and feelings itself. It’s your very experiences
themselves.
When did I begin? Our mind is beginningless, Buddha says. This is
a nutty idea at first! Buddha’s view is that our mind, our
consciousness, comes from previous moments of itself. We don’t need
creating!
You know, you’re either a person who thinks that God made you or,
equally, you’re a person who thinks that your mummy made you,
aren’t you? We all just assume that our mummy and daddy made us.
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You might as well say that they are your creators. That’s what the
materialist world says. You began in your mother’s womb. The one
thing you could say, probably most religious people and most
materialists agree upon, is that you began in your mother’s womb and
somebody else made you. You were a twinkle in somebody else’s eye.
Buddha would say – well, I mean he’s not rude; I’m being very
direct here, he’s very polite – but he would say that’s an insane
concept. He would say it’s just demented. But don’t just believe that,
check it out and find out what’s true, is what he would say. But Buddha
would say that it’s just not on that your parents made you. They give
you a body, no problem. Of course, we say in the West that they make
you because we only say that we’ve got a body. There isn’t any other
part of you.
If you’re a Christian, at the time of conception, God puts the soul in
there, into that egg and sperm, and that’s what turns you into you. If
you’re a materialist, you are only the egg and sperm: they come
together for whatever reason and they stick together, the rest goes
down the toilet, isn’t it? These two stick together and they begin
multiplying and that’s now you.
OUR MIND IS NOT THE HANDIWORK OF A CREATOR, NOR

OF OUR PARENTS
This beginninglessness is crucial to get our heads around; you need to
think about it. The entire Buddhist worldview is based upon it.
Thinking about your mind as this continuity of mental moments,
thinking of it as uniquely your own. That is to say all of the thoughts
and feelings and emotions. We’re going to talk about this a lot in the
middle scope of practice. But we’re so used to thinking now that we are
made by someone else. And I’m angry because she did this, and I’m
jealous because he did that. We sort of disown our thoughts and
feelings and think everyone else put them there somehow. Whereas,
the Buddha’s view here is what’s in here is mine regardless of what
triggered it, it’s mine, it’s my jealousy, my love, my compassion. Then
think of it as sort of habits within this continuity of mental moments,
in this mental continuum.
23
This consciousness is one’s own. This is something that gets deeper

and deeper and deeper as one goes along as a Buddhist. You really
learn to own what you think and feel. It’s yours. It’s your mind.
Of course, if you are a Christian, you know that you track yourself
back to God. If you are a materialist, you track yourself back to your
parents, grandparents, and then back to the monkeys. That’s it, isn’t
it? That’s the two main views on the earth.
Well, Buddha has this third one. He says you can’t be made by
someone else. The consciousness, this river of mental moments, it’s its
own entity, it’s its own entity. And you can trace that river of mental
moments back to a moment before conception, and a moment before
that, and a moment before that.
MEDITATING ON BEGINNINGLESS MIND

The real particular point here to contemplate, and it’s very good to do
a little meditation on this, is to go back in your memory, go back to
yesterday, the day before, the day before, recalling the day before, get
back to when you were two, one. Imagine yourself in your mother’s
womb, and then get to the moment of conception and then, given that
you’re going back in this cause and effect process, links in a chain,
dependent, this existence of this very moment is coming into existence
in dependence upon the previous, just necessarily. It can’t come out of
nothing.
When Buddha talks about cause and effect he’s not talking about
the big capital C cause like a magician or like God. He’s talking about it
in an organic moment by moment sense. This moment is the fruit of
the previous moment. That moment is the fruit of the previous
moment. And you keep going back and you get to the moment of
conception – remember, taking it as a hypothesis. Your mind isn’t
made by someone, it’s got its own continuity, and you can’t go back to
anywhere other than the previous moment, can you? You have to go
back to the previous moment before your mummy’s egg and sperm
meet.
Like I said, we have this deep instinct that there must be a moment
when we began, when someone created us, like a magic wand.
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Whereas, we know perfectly well if we’re looking at this cup we’re not
trying to find the creator of this cup are we, in that same sense. We
have that feeling about ourselves, it’s very curious. Why would we do
this? Whereas a cup, we know from the materialists’ point of view, it’s
a process of cause and effect. You know very well how cups come into
being: “Well, this came from this, the paint came from that, and then
the clay came from the stuff in the earth, and that came from this, and
that came from that.” There’s a logical organic process going back and
back. You don’t look for some creator somewhere that sort of
manifests a cup out of nowhere, which is what we tend to think about
ourselves. Now I’m not being rude about it, we do think about
ourselves that way because that’s the teaching of most religions. Okay,
so Buddha has a different view, that’s all.
The mind is beginningless. Why is it beginningless? Emotionally - a
shocking concept. Because if you are positing the process of cause and
effect, if you’ve got this and it comes from that, if that is there it must
have come from that, and if that is there it must have come from that,
then you can’t have a first “that,” can you? You can’t have a first “that.”
You can’t have a first cause because in the very nature of cause and
effect, cause and effect demands a previous cause. You can’t find the
first one. So, conclusion, Buddha would say: mind is beginningless.
You can’t have anything else, if you posit cause and effect. Such an
interesting point to think about as a preliminary. Just to contemplate
this. Because when Buddha talks about mind and how things happen,
it’s on the basis of this.
MENTAL CONTINUUM, A RIVER OF MENTAL MOMENTS

A term they use a lot is, they call it your “mental continuum.” Because
my thoughts and feelings and emotions – my mind – are existing today
we can deduce logically that they were existing yesterday. If you keep
tracking back, you’ll deduce that there’s an unbroken chain of mental
moments – this one coming from the moment before, that one coming
from the moment before. We go back there.
As I said, if you had perfect memory, that’s what you’d do: you’d
trace this second to the previous to the previous, until all the way back,
25
to your mother’s womb, and then back till the first moment of
conception. What about the previous moment? The egg was in
mother’s body and the sperm was in the father’s, but that moment of
consciousness that entered into the egg and sperm came from a
previous moment of that very consciousness – nothing to do with
mother or father.
A few weeks before that, it was in a previous body; and previous
body before that, and so on.
MIND IS DRIVEN BY THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

What’s the simple law applied here? It’s the law of cause and effect.
Buddha is completely into the law of cause and effect and when he
uses this in relation to beings, it’s called karma. And that’s the
culmination of junior school, we’ll go into the details. But it’s really the
law, according to Buddha, that determines the experiences of all
sentient beings. It’s the creative principal, you could say, in Buddhism.
This cause and effect principal, in general, though, we’re all very
good at it in the West and we understand perfectly well that what we
call a microphone is just effect of a series of causes, isn’t it? This came
from this, which it came from that, the metal, the plastic, and then
this, and then that, then that came together. There’s countless
numbers of conditions and causes that have to come together that
culminate in what we call a microphone. We understand that. It’s a
process. You go back and back and back. Well, the same with the mind:
cause and effect. What is in here is coming from the previous moment.
Simply, even in a technical sense, it comes from the previous moment
and that existed because it came from the previous moment, it’s like
chicken and egg. You keep going back. And, remember, we’re not
talking about anything physical; we’re talking about non-physical
moments of consciousness.
MIND’S ULTIMATE NATURE

Finally, of course, this mind of ours has the potential for perfection,
for buddhahood; it has the potential innately; it’s what defines it, in
fact. It’s not as if this potential is a choice: “Well, I might choose to be
26
a musician, but I think I’d rather be a footballer.” Here it’s like you
don’t have a choice. The very nature of what your mind is is to become
fully developed, to be completely free of nonsense, a buddha. This is
how Buddha is saying. Just like the very nature of what an acorn is,
what defines an acorn is its oak tree nature. You can’t turn it into a
pear tree. You can’t decide, “Oh, I think I’ll turn it into a peanut.” You
can’t. Its nature is to be an oak tree. That’s it. Our mind, its nature is
to become completely free of all the nonsense, totally developed in all
of the positive qualities: buddha.
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3. BUDDHA’S UNIQUE APPROACH
Now let’s discuss the approach that Buddha takes, where he’s coming
from, how he talks. Because I think, already, in the room, if we’ve not
heard this before, let’s say, we’ve got a lot of concepts about what we
mean by spiritual, by what we think what practice means. Maybe we
have heard it, but we’ve still got a lot of concepts. And so let’s see how
Buddha’s talking. Okay?
What he’s saying is – and I’ve already implied it quite a bit, said it
directly, too – is that we’ve got this potential in our minds, in our
consciousness, so what is it, right now, that is preventing me, this
second, why is it, at this very moment I am not a buddha? Why is it I
am not fully developed in the two wings? Why is it my mind isn’t
pervading the universe, seeing everything as it is, encompassing all
beings? What is it? What are the things that are preventing me? Well,
it’s stuff within the mind. Right? The potential of this consciousness of
mine is to be absolutely pure and clear and all-expansive and all-wise
and blah, blah. So, right now, it’s completely polluted. It’s a good
analogy. Buddha’s saying this: it’s polluted by, as I’ve been saying,
deluded, unhappy states of mind, the components of ego.
SPIRITUAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL: THE SAME

Okay, what is the mind? How do we talk in ordinary terms? When we
say the mind, we say the word “think,” “thoughts,” “concepts.” We
understand that very easily. Then we have words called “emotion” and
we sort of point here, the heart, for this. Then we confuse things by
saying there is another part of us called “spiritual.” It’s almost like a
third part. Buddha doesn’t talk like this.
In fact, what he says, what he’s implying “spiritual” means, you’re
being spiritual when you are recognizing and acknowledging and
beginning to change your neuroses and developing your love and
compassion and wisdom. If you’re working on your attachment, if
you’re working on your anger, if you’re working on your jealousy, hey,
BUDDHA’S UNIQUE APPROACH CHAPTER 3
you’re being spiritual. If you’re practicing patience, practicing love,

you’re being spiritual.
Now, we would call that psychological, and we go to a therapist. But
if we want spiritual, we go to a Tibetan lama, and we think that’ll sort
of give us something different, and they’ll give us a mala and we’ll say
mantras and we’ll see buddhas: we think that’s spiritual.
But, if you hear about psychology from Buddha, about anger and
jealousy and depression and love and compassion, we kind of think:
that’s not spiritual. But that’s what Buddha means by spiritual.
Even though when we look at all the pictures in the paintings here:
you’re going to get pictures and malas and prayers until they come out
your ears, so much! But even that is not necessarily only spiritual.
They’re simply a set of tools that one can use, which are actually from
the post-graduate level, from the esoteric level, from the advanced
level, that we can utilize to help to do this constant job of getting rid of
the junk, developing the good.
It’s always psychological; Buddha is only talking psychologically.
It’s just that his view, his assertion of what we can achieve
psychologically is pretty stunning when you hear about enlightenment.
It’s not as if suddenly when you’re just dealing with ordinary
depression, that’s psychological, and when you’re dealing with
enlightenment, that’s not psychological, that’s spiritual. That’s a real
misconception. All of it, as far as Buddha is concerned is psychological
because all of it is all the time to do with the mind – and we know the
word mind is used in context of psychology. It’s just that the word
wasn’t coined back then, was it? You know, Buddha didn’t use the
word psychology. I mean, who invented it? The Greeks; it’s Greek
language. We utilize it. We bandy it about now in our culture.
For Buddha, psychological and spiritual, they’re synonymous. It’s
the same meaning. Because what you’re doing, the job that you are
doing as a Buddhist, is psychological. If you’re working on your mind,
how can you say it’s not psychological? It’s just that his view of
psychology is radical. He is far more outrageous in what he is asserting
we can achieve, psychologically.
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You know, if you talk about buddhahood, like I’m saying; if you go
to your therapist and say, “I want to know how to get enlightened.”
“Well, you better go find a Tibetan lama,” she’ll say. “That’s not
psychological; I’m here to help you with your daily life.” For Buddha
they’re not separate.
The way to say it, really, is we have an understanding of psychology
to some degree in our culture – in fact, there are many models of it –
but they are all very firmly based in the materialist view of the mind
being the brain, of the fact that you are made by someone else, that
you are created by your parents, and it’s not called spiritual. Whereas
for Buddha the practices that we label spiritual are tools to help you
develop psychologically all the way to enlightenment.
BECOMING YOUR OWN THERAPIST

In the first scope of practice, junior school, we’re dealing with even
more fundamental things like body and speech, understanding basic
laws about how things work, the natural law of karma, cause and
effect. When we go to high school, the second scope, we really start
becoming our own therapists, as Lama Yeshe would put it. Not joking,
you know? Not joking. Exactly the point. Deeply understanding this
mind of ours, really beginning to unravel it, really learning very
profoundly how it functions, distinguishing between the so-called
positive and negative, because that’s the real nitty-gritty of the job.
Buddha’s a supreme cognitive therapist. The Buddha’s saying what
we think impacts upon what we feel, which, therefore impacts on what
we do and say, and therefore impacts upon the world, and therefore –
the crucial extra piece – determines our own futures lives, etc., etc. It
all comes down to the mind.
CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK

Buddha has far more radical ways of talking about the mind because
he doesn’t assert a creator, which is a shock if you think he’s spiritual.
As I’ve mentioned already, either we’re philosophical materialists or
we posit a creator. Well, Buddha doesn’t. He doesn’t assert a creator.
He just doesn’t say there isn’t one. He has a way of describing exactly
30
BUDDHA’S UNIQUE APPROACH CHAPTER 3
how things come into being, why I am the way I am, why universes,
why happiness, why suffering. And his “creative principle,” if you like,
is called karma, the natura law of cause and effect, which you learn in
junior school, so we’ll do that tomorrow morning. The understanding
of karma is absolutely based on the understanding of what the mind is.
On the basis of understanding karma, our practice is to do with
changing the way we think. He is saying that our minds are riddled
with misconceptions, but deeply packed away, so deeply that it takes a
long time to unravel them. Because we’ve not looked most of the time
in our life, it’s not part of our culture to investigate what we think and
feel, until it’s too late, until it’s kind of some problem.
The methods that Buddha recommends we use to unpack and
unravel our minds, these very skillful, sophisticated psychological
techniques called meditation – again: they are psychological – enable
one to go very, very deep, to plumb the depths of this mind of ours, to
really become an amazing skillful therapist of your own self. This is
very really, definitely true: I’m using very Western terms, but we
understand these words.
We’re learning to do cognitive therapy, we are learning to radically
de-construct our elaborate conceptual constructions. It is radical,
really, what we’re attempting to do. And it’s as scary as hell, because
we all know that even a little bit of therapy, even a little bit of looking
at our feelings and taking responsibility is painful. We know this.
But, remember, we won’t be looking into our past at what people
have done to us to cause us to be the way we are; that’s not the
Buddhist approach at all. We will be looking deeply into our own
minds in high school, the middle scope, and, first, we’ll be looking into
our own past, into karma, to discover what informs who we are now –
and, the main thing, who we can become: finally, a buddha.
That’s that. Another little piece that’s important, extremely
important.
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4. TAKE IT ALL AS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS
DON’T BELIEVE A WORD BUDDHA SAYS

Buddha, he’ll say “religion,” no problem; religion yes, but not creator,
as I said. His deal is, “Hey, please do not believe a single word you’re
going to hear this weekend.” The whole point of Buddhism is
absolutely not to do with believing something in the way we
understand “beliefs.” I’m not criticizing that approach; I’m just saying
that Buddha doesn’t take it.
For example, I was brought up a Catholic, okay? We all know, as a
Christian let’s say, God is seen as the creator of the universe, the
creator of me, the creator of the laws of morality, and so therefore God
is to be obeyed; God is a punisher and a rewarder. Now, I’m not
complaining about that; I’m just saying that’s not how Buddha talks.
I mean, I was talking to a Catholic priest friend of mine years ago,
and I said what is it that defines something as a sin? – in Buddhist
terminology, a negative action. He said it necessarily is something that
goes against the will of God. Now, that’s very reasonable. If God
created the universe, that means he created the law don’t kill, or don’t
lie. If you do it, what makes it a “bad action” is because you went
against God’s will. That’s totally valid. It fits. But it’s not the Buddha’s
approach. He’s not a creator. Therefore he’s not a punisher, he’s not a
rewarder.
Buddha would say, “don’t kill,” for example, in the junior school
teachings. But he’s not saying don’t kill because he said so. He is
saying don’t kill because he has found, from his own experience, that
the action of killing is something – forget about the harm it does to
others – that because it comes necessarily from a negative place in our
mind, it is leaving a negative imprint or seed in our own mind, which
will then necessarily ripen in the future as my suffering.
So, yes, it’s sort of like, your mother says, “Don’t go near the fire!”
when you’re a kid. And you probably will say, “Why not?” And she will
probably say, “Because I say so.” Well, it’s good enough, it works,
TAKE IT ALL AS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS CHAPTER 4
doesn’t it? It prevents you from getting burned. But eventually you
have to learn, don’t you, that the real reason she says don’t go near the
fire isn’t because she’s said so, it’s because you will get burnt. Now, if
you, for the rest of your life, here you are, 30, 40, or 50, not going near
the fire “because Mummy said so” – you’d hope that by now we’d know
the real reason.
CHECK IT, TEST IT

I’m not being rude about Christianity; but you get my point.
Eventually, you know, and your mummy hopes, you will learn the real
reason not to go near the fire. Buddha is saying don’t kill. Good
enough even to respect that, but what he’s saying is that what we do
and say and think, just naturally, has consequences for oneself. And
he’s saying don’t just believe me; check it out for yourself.
Again in just the same way, we understand very comfortably in our
culture that what we mean by science is not something that we must
believe. We know perfectly well, if I’m Einstein or if I’m Mr. So-and-
so, the apple one – what was his name? Mr. Newton – if I’m Mr.
Newton, and I’ve been telling you about my latest findings about
gravity, you know that I just didn’t have a vision of it last night or that
it was revealed to him in a vision. You get my point here? You’d chuck
me out the door as a bit of a maniac, if that’s the case. You understand
my point?
You check this: we say, “Oh, but it’s scientific.” Excuse me, when
was the last time you checked on gravity? With proof? When was the
last time you checked on E=mc2? When was the last time you verified
Einstein? We really just go around believing Einstein. We say, “Oh, it’s
science.” Well, excuse me, it’s someone else’s science, not yours.
You’re just believing it, just quoting it because someone told you. If
we’re materialists, we say, “Oh, I don’t believe anything, I don’t have
any beliefs.” Well, nonsense! Buddha says our minds are riddled with
beliefs! Yes, some might be valid beliefs, but many are not. But for us,
until we’ve proven them to ourselves, they’re merely beliefs. Think
about this.
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Buddha’s approach is exactly like the scientists’, which is a big

surprise, because we don’t think of religion like that. So, Buddha is not
a creator; he did not invent what is called Buddhism. He didn’t create
it; make it up, in other words. He articulated it, yes, but based on
what? His own experiences; his own observations; so, he’s presented
it. And he doesn’t mind if we don’t like it. You can be rude about
Buddha; he doesn’t mind. He doesn’t take it personally.
Let’s say you’re here tonight and you haven’t heard this stuff before
and you think it’s a load of rubbish. It’s totally reasonable to walk away
and say thanks a lot, goodbye, Buddha. He will not mind. He doesn’t
want you to stuff yourself full of what’s called Buddhism. He wants, he
demands, that you think about it, listen to it, and then eventually
prove it. Get the proof of the pudding, taste it – that’s if you want to –
and then you continue to apply it in your life because it works.
Of course, it takes time to actually experience the truth of many of
Buddha’s assertions about reality, but all the methodology for
whatever Buddha realized himself is there for us to follow.
TAKE IT AS A HYPOTHESIS
So, do not believe a single word you are hearing. Take it, in other
words, like any decent scientist, take it as a hypothesis. We get quite
anguished about reincarnation, for example: it’s huge one in our
culture because it’s just seen as kind of ridiculous. More and more
people these days do talk about it. Lots of people who do call
themselves Christians just naturally, have the view of reincarnation.
But it utterly, when you want to look at the big picture of Buddhism, it
absolutely is at the center. You can’t have Buddhism and the whole
picture, Buddha’s whole deal, without hypothesizing the non-
physicality and the continuity of what’s called mind or consciousness,
which implies reincarnation.
And so taking something as a hypothesis is very reasonable.
Scientists do this. A really good scientist is one who’s got a mind that’s
open enough that can take something that initially is weird and then
work with it. You understand my point? Otherwise, you have tunnel
vision. That’s a really important point. Take it as a hypothesis. You
34
don’t have to squeeze it inside yourself. You don’t have to believe it. No
one’s asking you to do this. But at least give it some thought, you’ve
got to say the words and act as if, in order to follow through on what
Buddha’s saying: if it were true that the mind is this and this, therefore
this, therefore this, therefore this. If it were true.
The Buddha’s approach is that you take that onboard and like
anything, you learn about it first conceptually. Don’t you? You learn
the theory of cakes, first conceptually. It’s got to fit, conceptually. Then
you can get the fruit, then you get the result. Same here. Same here.
And eventually, Buddha says, we can verify it for ourselves, within our
own mind. Eventually. We can.
HEAR THE TEACHINGS AS PERSONAL ADVICE

Another crucial thing is to listen to the teachings as personal advice
just like you’d listen to a recipe: it’s personal advice so you can go and
put it into practice. Well, it’s the same here. Listen to it as personal
advice. Like I said, you mightn’t like the advice, in which case you
don’t take it. You’re the boss, not Buddha. That’s the approach.
Finally, again, the point is, it’s got to be experiential. You’ve got to
see the results. It’s got to be a methods that you’ll use to help you
become a happier, wiser, more compassionate human being. That’s the
purpose of all of this. And then, finally, longterm, to achieve your full
potential, so that you can truly be of just spontaneous benefit to
others.
THE THREE POTS

There’s a very nice, sweet way that the lamas advise for how to listen to
the teachings. They talk about don’t be like the three kinds of pots.
Don’t be like, I forget the order, but don’t be like one kind of pot, or a
mug, or something, that is upside-down. Nothing will go in. Useless.
Waste of your time. Don’t be like the pot that’s got a hole in it, sort of
like in one ear and out the other. And don’t be like a pot that’s full of
dirty, yucky stuff, because whatever goes in gets polluted by it. So, in
other words, be very open, focused, listen, keep it inside, process it,
and really keep the mind very open – that’s the one of not having dirty
35
stuff in there, don’t have the mind all polluted, full of misconceptions
and strong views already, “What do you mean this?” and “What do you
mean that?” “I don’t think that’s true, that’s rubbish.” No scientist
would get very far with a very closed mind like that. Have the mind
wide open, taking it as a hypothesis, thinking it through – to the extent
that we would want to, because we are, finally, again, the boss.
HEAR IT ALL AS ADVICE FOR YOURSELF

Again, reminding ourselves of the way to listen to this is to listen to it
as advice – or to at least to know it is advice. Whether you can put it
into practice, that’s up to you, but listen to it as advice. Not listen to it
as interesting information to fill your head or not listen to it as advice
for someone else. “Oh I wish my husband was here, he needs this!” I
mean he very well might need it, I’m sure we all do, but you’re here, so
it’s advice for you, Okay? Because we love to fix everybody else’s
problems.
What’s going to happen here is we’re presenting, as we have already
so far, how Buddha thinks, presented from the point of view of the way
the Tibetans have been practicing it over centuries, coming from the
lineages of the great masters in India going right back to the Buddha
himself.
----
NOW GO INTO RETREAT MODE

I think that’s enough for tonight. Let’s go into retreat mode, which
means, from the moment you walk out this door, you’re on retreat
mode, which means you mind your own business, you don’t talk to
anybody, you act like you’re here on your own, you look straight ahead,
you go do your own thing, you walk, you go to bed, you lie down, you
look at the sky, you read a book, but don’t talk, okay? Retreat mode is
like that. It’s very helpful. Try to absorb and think about or process
whatever you’ve heard so far, really keep it internal and don’t talk until
breakfast time. That’s really good to do that. Okay?
36
If you are living here and working here, if you’re going to be talking,
just for the energy of everybody else around, try and do it out of the
way, that’s all. It mightn’t be so easy because people who don’t live
here want to go home, so once you get to your room or something,
attempt to do that. It’s not like a law. No one’s going to punish you if
you don’t. It’s a recommendation because it could be useful, that’s all.
It’s a useful technique to help you process this stuff – and the point of
this is to process this stuff. After the end of breakfast, you can chat
away.
SEE YOUR DREAMS AS DREAMS

The other little thing, a bit of homework for tonight, is, before you go
to sleep, make a strong aspiration, as the lamas put it, to “see your
dreams as dreams.” The way they talk, they talk a lot about how
everything is illusion, life is like a dream; so you practice observing
that you’re dreaming as you are dreaming. It’s a very powerful thing to
do. But when you think of dreams, we get very absorbed, as if they
were real, and we wake up and we say, “Oh, it was only a dream, what
a relief or how sad, it was only a dream.” When you’re a little kid, you
had something delicious in your dream, you’re so excited and you wake
up and it’s not there. I remember that.
Our life, it’s the same. We get so absorbed, because of our
delusions, Buddha says. Practicing seeing your dreams as dreams is
very beneficial. We can learn to think of life like that.
WHEN YOU WAKE UP, DELIGHT THAT YOU’RE STILL

ALIVE
And then the other thing to think, for your homework, is to make an
aspiration before you go to sleep that when you wake up – if you do
wake up! Don’t assume you will; a lot of people won’t wake up
tomorrow morning, they will die. So, assuming that you will wake up
in the morning, if you do, the moment you come back into
consciousness, notice that you’re still alive. It’s sounds like a joke,
really, but it’s actually very helpful because it reminds you that
everything changes, everything is impermanent. When you wake up in
37
the morning, you think, “How amazing, I’m still alive in this body with
this life and these conditions and this mind. How fortunate I am! I
must make the most of it. I’ll listen to Buddha’s teachings, think about
the meaning, do some meditation, so I can develop my qualities so I
can be of benefit to others. It’s an amazing way to start the day.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says doing some practice in the
morning, the moment you wake up, puts your whole day into the right
channel. And then make the strong aspiration, regardless of what’s
happening – you might wake up anxious, or depressed, or fearful,
whatever’s there, you know the junk that’s always around – just think,
“Okay, whatever it is, may I make something positive of today.”
DEDICATION
Let’s do a little prayer, dedicating for the benefit of all sentient beings
whatever virtue, whatever positive energy we’ve created today. Buddha
would say there’s no single thought or action or word that we do, say,
or think that doesn’t leave an imprint in our mind. It doesn’t just
disappear into space. May these seeds ripen in the future as my own
enlightenment, no matter how long it takes. Why? I can be of benefit
to all beings, which is my job, no choice.” And the second little prayer
is just making the aspiration that compassion grow and grow in the
hearts of all.
Ge-wa-di nyur-du-dag
La-ma sang-gyä drub-gyur-nä
Dro-wa chig-kyang ma-lü-pa
De-yi sa-la gö-par-shog
Jang-chhub sem-chhog rin-po-che

Ma-kye pa -nam kye-gyur-chig
Kye-wa nyam-pa me-pa-yang
Gong-nä gong-du pel-war-shog
All right. Thank you, everybody! Good night!
38
PART TWO
THE PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATIONS
5. WE NEED A TEACHER THE FIRST PRELIMINARY
CONTEMPLATION
Our lineage lama, the fourteenth century Lama Tsongkhapa, added to

this little package that Atisha created back in the eleventh century a
very important preliminary contemplation before entering the path.
And this is the necessity for a spiritual teacher. And the way, having
found one, as they would put it, to devote oneself to them.
So, why do we need a spiritual teacher and what is one? The
Sanskrit word is “guru” and I believe it implies someone “heavy with
qualities” – who doesn’t need someone like that! The Tibetan
equivalent is “lama.”
Again, when we mystify all of these Asian things, we see all of these
pictures of gurus and people kowtowing and prostrating and all of this
stuff and it seems kind of scary and mystical. Well let’s deconstruct it,
let’s strip it away and look at the very heart of it, at the point of it.
I think if we look at our lives we can see that there’s nothing that we
have learned, nothing, that hasn’t been taught to us by someone else,
or that we haven’t learned from another source like a book or watching
somebody. There’s virtually nothing. Since we were little children, our
mummies taught us how to tie our shoelaces, wipe our little bottoms,
and go to the toilet and get out of bed, put our clothes on, simple little
things.
Since then whatever we have learned has been taught to us by
someone else. And so it’s fairly obvious, it’s the easiest way to learn
something, isn’t it? It’s the most practical. The quickest way to learn
something is go find someone who’s done it before, who’s good at it,
and ask them, “Show me please.” It’s obviously the quickest. It’s silly
and arrogant to think, “I’m going to teach myself.” I mean you will
spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars and many years
researching how to make a cake instead of just asking your mum.
Think my point here: coming up with it myself by experimenting. How
foolish! There’s a lineage of cake gurus out there – it’s called your
WE NEED A TEACHER CHAPTER 5
mummy, your grandma, your great grandma – it just goes back and
back. And that is all a lineage of gurus means.
The Buddhas talk about that a lot. There’s a line of people going
back and back, people who know how to do something who were
taught it by someone before them who, in turn, was taught it by
someone before them. It’s a very reasonable thing, and it’s really
stressed in the Buddhist tradition. The lamas when they give a
teaching, they would say they’ve learned this from their own lama who
got it from the previous lama, and so on. And even when they publish a
book, they give this like whole family tree that goes back and back and
back, tracking right back to the Buddha. This indeed shows the
authenticity of something. It’s very reasonable, it’s very good to see
that something is tried and tested.
HOW TO FIND A TEACHER

I always use this simple example of how I first learned to make a cake,
from my mother, as an example of the benefit of having a teacher and
how it works, and how in the Buddhist approach they would suggest to
you how to go about finding one and the appropriate way to have the
relationship with the teacher. And again just strip it right away, to
make it very practical. Let’s look at it.
The very first thing is you have to know you want to make a cake,
you want to get enlightened; you have to know that. And you can see
we all know, from the time we were children and sent to school we
hadn’t made that clear decision that we wanted to learn math, wanted
to learn to write. Of course we were dragged by our noses and resisted
mightily, because we didn’t make the decision.
I remember a time myself when I was 11 or 12 and made the
decision I wanted to study, suddenly everything changed, because now
I wanted to. I went in, deep in. Because in my mind I had decided, “I
want to learn this.” That, you can see, is a very obvious point; you’ve
got to know you want it.
With me and making cakes, I think I was 26 when I decided I
wanted to make a cake, I wasn’t five. I was living in London and I was
a bit of a hippie and I think I wanted to make a carrot cake. I
41
remember I went home to Melbourne to see my Mum and family and I

said, “Please Mum, show me how to make a cake.” Well I’m sure she
was totally delighted having waited twenty-something years for me to
ask; and knowing my mind, that I’m so proud and arrogant, she hadn’t
tried to force me. She was delighted to show me how to make a cake.
CHECK THE TEACHER’S QUALITIES

Let’s look at that. Why did I ask my mother? Well, believe me, it wasn’t
because I was being kind; I wasn’t so kind. It’s because I knew she
knew how to make cakes. How did I know? Because I tasted them. I
had listened to that lama’s teachings.
CHECK WITH THEIR PEERS

It’s obvious that one of the ways to check is you check with their peers;
within whatever realm that they live you check are they respected as a
teacher by other people who seem to have a good reputation? You have
to get a general sense of this, if you can. You check with her peers; they
said she knew how to make cake. I did all of this intuitively not
thinking about it, but it’s actually what we do. I checked the cakes, I
checked the peers. And you check their reputation in general.
From that point of view it’s fairly easy to check the Dalai Lama isn’t
it? I mean, you ask any Tibetan and you can see immediately that he’s
valued as a very marvelous teacher. Everybody says he’s a great
scholar, he’s a great practitioner. And then you look at the way people
respond to him, and then you look at people who’ve known him over
the years, who have talked to him, who’ve been with him: they see he is
kind, compassionate, he’s consistent, he puts his money where his
mouth is. It’s fairly easy to see because he’s a very well known person.
But maybe not so easy with others who aren’t so well known.
It’s clear, whether you want to learn how to make a cake or whether
you want to go learn how to make a shirt, you’re going to do this kind
of checking, aren’t you? You’re not going to just jump in emotionally
and get all overexcited when you get to hear about some cake-maker
because you think he’s really handsome, “Oh wow, he’s so divine. He
must be a brilliant cake-maker. He makes me so happy.” I mean
42
there’s no logic. Hitler made a lot of people very happy. They got
completely overexcited. Well, look where he led them. You’ve got to
use your common sense not just your emotions.
It’s obvious if you want to make the cake, you’re not going to jump
into some course unless you even check a little bit. It’s just reasonable,
we all do this. This is exactly what Buddha is saying. But again
unfortunately because we mystify religion and get all sort of excited
about it and lose our common sense, we do think of it in emotional
terms. We go to some talk of some teacher and we get all excited,
because he moves our hearts, we get all overexcited and we conclude
he must be a good teacher. I’m sorry there’s no logic there. You’ve got
to check more, and be more grounded and more careful about it.
You’ve got to know that what he is teaching is what you want to learn.
You’ve got to know that he’s valid. You’ve got to check his reputation.
CHECK THEIR STUDENTS

You’ve also got to check his students, that’s a very good way to learn
about his qualities. When it came to my mother, when it came to
finding a cake-maker, a cake guru, I checked my mother’s students,
meaning my sisters, who knew how to make cakes. They could make
good cakes too, and they learned where? From my mother. There’s
some evidence.
Why do you need to do this? It’s very obvious. Because I had no
basis experientially for deciding that when my mother finally said,
“Okay, darling, now get the flour and put the two eggs and do this and
do that,” I had no experiential basis for judging what she’s saying. I
couldn’t tell experientially that she’s right. Do you see my point? It’s
very simple.
But having checked on her, I can be confident from an inferential
point of view, from an intellectual point of view, I can be confident
that what she will tell me is valid. Because I won’t understand it, I
won’t have any way to know experientially whether it’s two eggs or
nine eggs because I don’t know that. You see my point here; it’s an
extremely important point.
43
DON’T MYSTIFY
I think we’re almost more serious about finding a proper cake-maker
then we are finding a spiritual teacher because we mystify it. First we
don’t even think, “Well, why do I need a teacher?” Because we think
spiritual is like feeling, like emotion and something magical
happening. It’s almost insulting. If you’re thinking from the Buddhist
point of view, from the point of view here, what you’re trying to learn
to do is become enlightened. This is uncharted territory. We don’t even
know how to understand our own depression, our own anger, and our
own fears. I mean Buddha would say our minds are riddled with
misconceptions about who we think we are, what’s possible. What he is
suggesting, as we’ve discussed, this potential is pretty incredible, from
an ordinary point of view, so you’d really better check carefully
whether a person is valid in their capacity to lead you to this thing
called enlightenment. You’ve got to really do some checking, oh my
goodness. And there is no hurry.
YOU NEED TO BE CONFIDENT

The crucial point of the checking is that you, you have to be confident.
I had to be confident, when I sat in that kitchen – I remember the
moment, I remember the day, I remember the kitchen, I remember the
house. And I remember the cake: it was an apple and walnut cake, it
wasn’t a carrot cake.
Really it’s very interesting. Why do I remember it so vividly?
Because it was the first time that cakes became real for me. And that’s
the point of a teacher, that’s the simple function of a teacher. It’s the
human component. We all know that we can sit and read books about
Buddhism, but then when we go to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s
teachings, suddenly it becomes real. It’s coming out of the human
mouth, from a person who’s valid, who has the direct experiences. It’s
got some real life, sort of like a switch has been turned on, it becomes
alive. That’s the function of a teacher. It’s not just something
intellectual. Because anyway, we have human hearts, we need to have
our hearts opened, we need to open our hearts.
44
And so to have a relationship with the person who embodies these

qualities, who is valid, this is very, very powerful. But we have to have
the confidence before we can enter into that relationship; extremely
important to be confident. Because when they start saying do this and
do that, you’ve never heard it before, you have no basis for judging
whether it is valid from its own point of view, but you have to have
confidence that this person is leading you in the right direction.
If I had then sat down in this kitchen and my mother had started to
tell me how to make this apple and walnut cake and then I start saying,
“Well what do you mean two eggs? Why not six? And what are you
talking about this amount of flour?” and I start arguing with her, what
a waste of time; my time and her time. I didn’t know how to make
cakes. I checked on her, I wanted to make a cake, everything was set
up so I sat there and I did what she told me.
Then as you go along, you start internalizing your cake guru, you
start internalizing, because your mother has told you how to do it, so
you remember the instructions, and next time you’re able to do it
without her showing you. And you recall that she said do this and do
that. You’re still tentative but now slowly you begin to develop your
own experience of it, and then you begin to verify it for yourself: “Oh,
she was right, if you put too many eggs it’ll go this way. If you put too
much flour, it’ll be that. She’s right, she said this. Look, now I’ve
proved to myself.” That’s when it becomes your own experience.
CHECK YOUR GURU VERY CAREFULLY – BECAUSE YOU’RE

GOING TO END UP LIKE THEM!
I remember I learned martial arts when I was living in New York, in
the 1970s. I had done some before and I chose this teacher because the
particular group suited me, not because the person was a valid teacher.
Well then, for a couple of years I was studying with this teacher. Then
I went to Melbourne and continued studying in a new place, and I had
already gotten a couple of belts in New York. But after my first class
the new teacher put me back to the beginners’ group, the white belts. I
was completely insulted! But I thought about it and I realized that I
had learned wrongly. Because I didn’t use my intelligence to choose, I
45
based my choice of a teacher on the wrong things. I didn’t check

enough. For a year or so I wasted my life learning wrongly, so I had to
go back to square one.
That’s when I realized we need valid teachers and the necessity to
check up on them and be confident. Of course, that was just martial
arts! Here we’re talking about putting ourselves in the wrong direction
of many lifetimes.
As Pabongka Rinpoche says, we need to check our gurus very
carefully – because we’re going to end up like them!
CONFIDENCE: “WITH FAITH”

We need to check very carefully. And until we are confident, until I was
confident, that it was valid, that my mother was valid, until then you
don’t start. Until you are confident – and you have to have a basis for
your confidence.
Look at the word “confident,” its Latin root: “with faith,” “con fide,”
“with trust.” That’s a very interesting word isn’t it? We say faith and it
makes us scared; but when we say confidence, it feels stronger.
Well, faith in Buddhist terms is exactly that: it’s confidence.
Confidence is something based on your own wisdom, your own
assessing. You’re really confident now that that is right, you’re really
confident that person is valid because you have checked up. You have
checked up. You have checked up. That’s the point: because you have
to make the decision.
We run around doing what everyone else says, we just believe what
everyone else says. We think we’re so scientific – but when’s the last
time you checked what was on the package? That there was so much
protein, so much fat, or have scientifically researched your food to
prove that it was right? Of course you didn’t! You believed it. “Oh, it
says right here on the package. Oh but it’s all scientific!” Excuse me,
but you didn’t do the checking; you’re just believing it. Blind faith.
Blind faith.
We live our lives with blind faith, actually, and then we wonder why
we get into trouble. “Some lovely person, he’s gorgeous. . .” and then
we get into trouble; and you deduce logically from this that he must be
46
a nice person. Then six months later you find out he’s a creep. “Oh, I
wish I would have known what he was like six months ago.” Well,
excuse me, it was all in there; you just couldn’t see it because you were
blinded by your own delusions. We’ve got to use our intelligence.
HAVING FOUND A TEACHER, HOW TO DEVOTE ONESELF

Okay, having found our teacher – one can have many – then what is
the way, what is the skillful way to get the best from that relationship?
What is the skillful way? There’re very extensive teachings on this in
the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and if you study this stuff more
extensively you’re going to see this, and it’s very hard to strip away the
way of presenting it to get to the very heart of it.
The most difficult approach to develop, which is said to be the key
to success, broadly speaking, is: the more confidence I can have in my
mother, in other words the more totally open I am to her, which I can
only have if I have checked up and have confidence, the more open I
am, the more I see her as just the best cake-maker in the whole world,
the more likely I am to become a really good cook. If I get my
delusions in there, if I get my own ego and nonsense in the way, it’s
kind of like sitting there and thinking, “She’s a good teacher,” but
thinking “I’m not so sure, I don’t really like the way she teaches me
that, and do you really think she knows what she’s talking about?” and
questioning and arguing – who am I harming? Myself. I’m blocking
myself off from really getting the knowledge.
The more open, the more pure, if you like, the more unstained, the
more clear like a mirror my mind can be, and seeing her in the best
way possible, the more likely I am to become, very quickly, a very good
cake-maker. Now that’s reasonable, we understand that. Now to put
that in these terms here, the way they say it is, the practice is to see
your guru as the Buddha. To see your guru as already fully
enlightened, as perfect. That’s the way it is said, what I just said is,
that’s the way to say it. That sounds very different to us, that sounds
quite difficult.
And one old lama, Ribur Rinpoche, someone who you might know,
said this is the most difficult practice. The way they say it in the text is
47
the basis of all our realizations, the basis of our capacity to develop
and become a buddha. It is this capacity to have this pure attitude
towards our teacher. It’s a really tough one. Tough because in our
world, with our delusions, with our attachment and our neuroses, and
our criticism and our judgment, and our fears and our lack of trust and
all of the nonsense polluting our minds, we see everything through
that filter, we see people through that filter.
If I’ve got a deluded mind, an arrogant mind I’m going to see my
mother and think, “Huh, huh, who does she think she is? What’s she
telling me this for, and what do you mean this, and oh I don’t think
she’s a very good cook, a very good cake-maker.” The more deluded I
am in seeing her, the less likely I am to learn how to make great cakes,
because I’m imputing my own junk on top of her.
With a teacher, having checked, having confidence, then beginning
to practice and then verifying it for ourselves, we increase our
confidence/faith in the practice, in the path, in the teacher. The more
we can imagine this is the Buddha himself manifesting in this human
form, it’s like an embodiment of the Buddha, the more we are able to
think that; whether or not the person from their side is a buddha, the
more I can think that; the more likely I am to succeed, the more likely
I am to get the benefit. That’s the essential point.
Maybe enough for that now, we can talk more and then the more we
say we can refer back to this one.
QUESTION ABOUT FINDING A PATH

Student My daughter couldn’t make it but she really wanted to come.
And she would like to ask this question: how do you choose a spiritual
path and how do you know that you’re on the right path? Which I think
goes along with finding a spiritual teacher.
Ven. Robina Absolutely, it’s exactly the same approach. Okay, let
me ask you the question; this question is for your daughter. Ask your
daughter, How would you choose which music school you would go to.
Just say some practical answers. You answer now, tell me what you
think.
Student This is my other daughter, she can tell you.
48
Ven. Robina Okay, so you answer that. Tell me what you think.
Let’s say you like music, so just give me a little process, imagine the
steps you’d have to take to choose the right music school. What would
you do?
Student You’d research in a book about the school. You’d visit the
school, you’d take a tour, you’d talk.
Ven. Robina And all the time you’re doing this you’re checking up,
aren’t you? “Well is this what I like, is this what I want? Is this the
place? Are these the teachers?” You’re checking all the time, you’re
processing, aren’t you? And then at some point, you’re going to
become quite confident. Do you not think: this is the one I want.
Would you not agree? You’ve done a lot of checking, haven’t you.
It’s exactly the same with a spiritual path. Just that you’ve maybe
got to check more deeply, because it’s not something so well known,
maybe, even in this culture: Buddhism, for example, let’s say you’re
going to factor in the Buddhist school you might like to go to. You’ve
got to check very carefully, but it’s the same process. There’s no
difference. It’s not something to be mystified. You check, you think
about it, you read, you look at things, you go, you think, you talk to
people, until you have some kind of confidence. And that might take
time, but that’s fine. There’s no rush. And as you move along you keep
narrowing options down. Do you see? Would you not agree with this
yourself? Have this discussion with your sister. What’s her name?
Student Suzanne.
Ven. Robina Will you tell Suzanne that. Yes?
Student Will you tell your story about your life, how you chose your
teacher?
Ven. Robina If you want to hear that. It’s just that I won’t tape that.
You see, what this course is meant to be, you see our organization has
this two-year correspondence course called Discovering Buddhism.
This is the third module called Practicing the Path. Practicing the path,
module three. But the trouble is the CD they’re using now, I talk so
fast, the recording was terrible and they couldn’t understand very well.
We thought we’d do it again. I’ve got to stick to the structure and I’m
49
trying my best to do that. Yeah, I can talk about that if you’d like. At
some point. An appendix.
It’s break time now, if you feel like a break. Have a little wriggle.
Take fifteen minutes and walk up and down.
50
6. DON’T WASTE THIS PRECIOUS LIFE THE
SECOND PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATION
Okay, the next one to contemplate that kind of primes our mind to
really begin to practice. . . By the way, don’t think that practice is some
mystical thing that happens when you close your eyes, that that’s
somehow practice, and that listening to teachings and thinking about
it is not practice. It’s a real misconception. Because the more we
understand that what we’re trying to do is change the way we think,
then there are just levels, that’s all, levels of practice in relation to
levels of thoughts, levels of capacity, of our awareness.
Clearly, as I’m saying, in the long term we need to access subtler
and more refined levels of our mind, which we never even touch now,
that are mystical to us now. In order to really pull out the roots of the
misconceptions, to really deconstruct the delusions. But we’ve got to
start where we are, which is at the grossest level. One thinks these
things through, thinks them through. Eventually, with concentration
in meditation, we go to more subtle level of analysis. But we use the
grosser level now. Having thought things through, clarity and
confidence comes.
DELIGHT IN OUR FORTUNATE CONDITIONS

Anyway, the second point to think about to kind of prepare our minds,
to energize us to want to practice, to want to continue to think about
these things and these processes and to develop ourselves, is to
contemplate the preciousness of this human life. Again in the texts it’s
all laid out in a very organized way in terms of eighteen different
points, but I’m just going to talk about it all generally, in an easygoing
way.
The whole point here is this: Atisha is saying – he’s taking it
straight from the Buddha of course. The Buddha’s teachings are saying
that we’ve got this human life, and we know from the Buddhist point of
view it’s not coming from a creator, no one else gave it to us, Mummy
and Daddy didn’t invent us, God didn’t invent us, the Buddha, as we
are saying, is saying that our consciousness is going back and back and
back, and human life is just one option of the many possibilities of
experiences, many possibilities of lives – and we’re going to talk more
in detail about that later.
Human is just one. And the Buddha would say that human is maybe
not the happiest level of life, happiest type of experience, but it’s
certainly the most useful, because we have a few qualities that other
types of lives mightn’t have. For example, an animal is a type of rebirth
– that’s a sentient being, an animal is a sentient being, a mind-
possessor, according to Buddha; and there are all sorts of other beings
that are disembodied that most of us can’t experience, like spirits.
Buddha would say humans, we’re like .000001% of all living beings, us
seven billion humans are a minuscule percentage of all sentient beings.
As humans, we have an enormous number of extraordinary good
conditions, external conditions and internal ones, basically, that we
just totally take for granted. “Oh yeah, I’m human, big deal. Oh yeah,
I’m fortunate.”
Actually, we don’t really think we’re fortunate, frankly. We think
we’re unfortunate, we’re always comparing ourselves to others. We
think others are more happy, others are better, others are more
intelligent, our own innate sense of low self esteem is interpreting in
such a mistaken way.
We should contemplate how extraordinarily fortunate we are from
our own past hard work to have the miracle of a human life. We are
born with a reasonably healthy body, and a reasonably sane mind.
We’ve got reasonable conditions; we aren’t sitting there starving,
grasping, trying to find one grain of rice: you can’t afford to think
about developing your mind when you can’t even develop your body.
We’re not completely overwhelmed by huge delusions, very deeply
ignorant mind full of fury and rage and wanting to kill and steal or
whatever.
And the main thing is that these conditions give us the luxury to
think about the meaning of life. And, most amazing, we have access to
spiritual teachings. When we talk about karma – we’ll go into this and
52
DON’T WASTE THIS PRECIOUS LIFE CHAPTER 6
more detail, but let’s just say here the main point is to contemplate the
preciousness of this life from the point of view of its being an
opportunity to practice.
DON’T WASTE THIS PRECIOUS OPPORTUNITY

The way to think here is: we should be so blissful. The more we
contemplate the preciousness of this human life, various advantages
we’ve got, the more it gives us the energy to not waste it. “I’m so
fortunate, it’s like I’ve won the lottery so I must not waste it, I must
use it to develop my potential.”
That’s the energy that comes from contemplating this point.
53
PART THREE
LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR SCHOOL
THE ESSENCE OF WHICH IS
CONTROLLING OUR BODY AND SPEECH
7. BE READY FOR DEATH LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR
SCHOOL
Thinking about our precious human rebirth leads naturally and

organically to the next point, which is the first point in junior school,
these lower scope teachings. What Atisha’s done is take from all the
extensive teachings of the Buddha on what’s called impermanence,
which is based on the concept of cause and effect. Buddha is basically
saying everything is in a state of flux, everything changes. We kind of
go, “Duh, all right, I know that.” But it’s a major point in Buddha’s
teachings. He talks about it at a gross level and at a more subtle level,
the subtle level is much harder to see and one does indeed need to
realize this.
But the point that Atisha gets us to contemplate here is at the gross
level and in particular the level of our own death. And his reasoning is,
coming organically and naturally from the previous contemplation is,
“Hey, this life is so precious and I’ve worked so hard to get it and now
I’ve got this opportunity and this opportunity and this one, and I’m so
fortunate, I don’t want to waste it.”
Then you begin to contemplate the impermanence of this life
because it could end at any moment. And this will increase one’s wish
to not waste it. That’s the purpose of contemplating here at this point
the impermanence of this life.
Let’s look at how Atisha would recommend we contemplate death,
our own death.
DEATH IS DEFINITE
The first point is that death is definite. You think about, from all the
points of view – although it’s something we intellectually know, which
is very obvious – that whoever comes into being, necessarily dies.
Death is definite, death is definite. Intellectually, he says we know it,
but the point is this that Buddha is saying: emotionally we cling
instinctively, intuitively to a strong to sense of our being permanent,
BE READY FOR DEATH CHAPTER 8
unchanging. Intellectually it’s clear to us; emotionally we’re living in

denial of it. And remember across the board, what Buddha is saying is,
we have within the mind, our mind, a whole series of misconceptions
about how we think things are, but in fact we’re not in touch with how
they are.
And so what Buddha is saying is, “Excuse me what I’m presenting is
how things are” – he doesn’t think that’s being arrogant: he’s telling
you how things are, but he’s not asking you to believe it, remember. By
hearing his approach as to how things are, clearly what it does is, it
smashes in the face of how we think things are, and this is where the
practice is. Seeing how we think things are and taking his view and
learning to think it through until eventually it goes, “Oh I see, it is like
this.” And then the way we think things are will begin to decrease.
Because he says it’s a mistake, but that’s for us to find out.
EVERYTHING CHANGES
How he says things are: everything is impermanent. There’s not a
single thing in the existence of the universe that is a product of cause
and effect that doesn’t change. The very nature of cause and effect is
that it changes. In fact the subtle level of impermanence is the very
coming into being of something implies the passing away of it. You
can’t have one without the other. You can’t have anything that exists
that is within the process of cause and effect that doesn’t change.
Come and go. Come and go.
Okay, death is definite. How you contemplate this, how you think
about this. . . When you hear about somebody dying, your first
response is, “Oh!” We’re so shocked. “But I just talked to them
yesterday!” Do you understand my point? That thought is coming from
the misconception that somehow instinctively we thought that they
were alive, you know. As long as we think, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says,
we think, “I am a living person, I’m a living person. And Mary, I talked
to her yesterday! She was a living person, how could she have died?”
We’re shocked.
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PART THREE LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR SCHOOL
A DYING PERSON
But Aunty Mary in the hospital, “Oh, she’s a dying person.” Look how
we talk about dying people, in hushed tones. We look at them sadly,
“Oh, how are you Aunty Mary?” We talk about Aunty Mary only in
relationship to her dyingness, the sickness; she’s no longer a real
person, is she? She’s a dying person. You don’t even want to include
her in parties. Think about it. And this is because we have this
misconception that somehow this dyingness is something that defines
her, whereas livingness defines me. I mean, what a joke! As Lama Zopa
says: “Excuse me, living people die before dying people every day!”
You see my point? I mean it’s so clear. But we have this misconception
and we dump that onto people.
I mean even when we think of a person who’s dying, we think that’s
permanent. A friend of mine and her husband, they split up, and then
he was diagnosed with some virulent cancer and was going to be dead
in six weeks, so she went back to him to help him die. Well excuse me,
he didn’t die! She kept waiting! He was a dying person, but two
months later, three months later, then six months later he’s still alive.
She had to leave him again. You understand my point? I mean he
didn’t die according to schedule, he was a dying person and he didn’t
die. And now two years later he’s totally alive, he’s a living person, he’s
changed categories. He didn’t die. I mean we are so silly, you see my
point.
Death is definite and it’s something that is just natural. When we
hear that Mary died, it’s no surprise, it reminds us. That’s the way to
think about it. “Wow, Buddha is right. Death is definite, there’s
nothing certain. Wow, look at that.” And the key thing to think is,
“That will happen to me.”
Everything that comes into being necessarily dies. But because of
the ego-grasping, this primordial misconception, because of massive
attachment, the main voice of the ego, we frantically don’t want to
disappear. We want to be me. We can’t bear to think that I will change,
that I will die. We have this big fantasy.
Intellectually it would be silly to argue with it: “Oh of course I’m
not going to die!” We know we will. But emotionally it’s like that. We
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might as well say we’re not going to. That’s why were shocked. Death is
definite.
THE TIME OF DEATH IS UNCERTAIN

The second point, getting closer to home now, is, the time of death is
not certain. Even though we do factor in death to some extent – we
have life insurance and things like this, pensions; and we read all
about old people. We know we’re going to be that eventually – if we’re
not already old people. Still, even if we’re old, we haven’t scheduled
death in, have we? “Well next week is the dentist, and the week after
that is death.” Or even five years’ time. We can plan vacations even in
five years, but we don’t schedule death. No way, because even though
we do know we will die, that death is definite, we don’t like to think of
the time of death is uncertain. Why? Because I still feel like a living
person. How can I be dying next week? Not possible. I feel alive.
Look at the way we talk; it’s an indicator of our misconceptions.
“Oh I feel so alive,” we’ll say. Meaning we feel very good. Well excuse
me, happy people die. You understand? Healthy people die. We might
think, “Well, I’m not going to die yet. I’m not old.” But young people
die. And you keep adjusting that, don’t you? I mean, when I was 40, 61
was old. Now, 80 is old. Where is Betty? Betty is old, she is 75. Aren’t
you?
Betty I’m 74! Unless you add a year for the Tibetan calendar then
I’m 75.
Oh, Betty is old, she’s 74. But she doesn’t think she is old. She
probably thinks somebody who is 85 is old. We all just keep adjusting
because we don’t like to put ourselves into that category. Dying people
are over there, old people are over there, because we have this deep
instinct of grasping at a real living me.
FACE REALITY
We’ve got to face reality. And the fact is, that sounds rather cruel.
“What do you mean: ‘Face reality?’” We think fantasies are nice. Well,
Buddha says fantasies get us into big trouble. That’s a fantasy to think
I won’t die. Not because he’s trying to be cruel and sort of rub our
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noses in death. But he is saying that given that our consciousness is a

continuity that didn’t begin at the time of conception, and given that it
will continue, and given that everything we say, do and think will leave
seeds in the mind that will bring future results that will be my
experiences – this is the view of karma, which we will talk about –
then it just makes a lot of sense that death is an extremely important
moment in your life. Because it’s going to be a transition from this
body to another body. It’s a bit of a scary transition. We should be
used to it, we’ve done it a million times, the Buddha says. But we’re
not mentally used to it because we’re clinging so powerfully to this
present one.
LIVING IN DENIAL
And to cling to anything so mightily, you know that with our
Grandma’s cup: it’s so precious, you’ve got insurance on it and it’s up
there and so dear to you and you look at it every day. I mean you
understand my point? But its nature is to break, you can’t avoid that.
But we live in denial of that because we’ve imposed all of this beauty
and marvelousness and value and permanence onto it.
And so look what happens when it does break. You have a mental
breakdown. You live in denial and you start freaking out. You’ve got to
blame, you’ve got to sue somebody and it’s so painful. And then we
think we’re suffering because the cup broke. We think we suffer
because the person died. It’s not true. We suffer – and this is Buddha’s
point – because we have a fantasy that it won’t break, because we have
a fantasy that she shouldn’t die. In other words, we’re not seeing
reality. Across the board this is how Buddha is talking. We are not
facing reality. We don’t see things as they are. We live in denial of
things. We are not only not seeing how things are, we’re imposing a
fantasy onto it.
This simple meditation here we are trying to do: using Buddha’s
view of what’s real, we’re giving it a go, we’re thinking about how he
says things are and attempting to make that the way we think, in order
to argue with ego’s entrenched mistaken views. It’s a practical reason.
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The time of death is obviously uncertain. We all know we’re going

to die. Even that we can get to face. But then if I ask each one of us,
“Okay, stick it into your schedule. Come on, do a ten-year schedule
now, work out your schedule for your life, your plan. Now factor death
in please.” I mean, what a joke. Don’t be ridiculous.
OF COURSE I WON’T DIE TODAY!

Now even more instinctively of course, we’re going to say, “Of course I
won’t die today. Tomorrow? Of course not. Next week? No, come on,
don’t be ridiculous!” There is this story about this astrologer, actually a
Tibetan astrologer, who had done his own chart or something, and
according to the chart he was going to die today. His own chart. He sat
there thinking, “Where did I make a mistake?” He was totally
convinced he was wrong. And what happened was, while he was trying
to work out where he had made the mistake, convinced that he was
wrong, the story is that he had this pokey thing and he was playing
with it in his ear while he was thinking, sitting by the window with one
of those wooden shutters, and the wind made the shutter banged
against his hand and the pokey thing penetrated into him and he died
– something like that! But the immediate impulse was, “Of course it’s a
mistake. How can I die today?”
And any one of us if we dared to think that thought and really go
into it and make a meditation out of it, to use our creative imagination
like we would use our creative imagination, especially when we were
younger, to think of this gorgeous person and fall in love and have this
beautiful dress and think for hours about it, imagining something, you
see what I’m saying? Some of these contemplations you’re using that
skill, your creative imagination, to imagine that you’re going to be
dead. Imagine four hours time, I’m going to die. . . Forget about it! We
don’t even want to think about it, we can’t see any benefit.
We’ve got good imaginations, we could do it. But it’s too scary to us,
we don’t want to go there, because we can’t bear the thought that we
could die. And then to do the processing we’d have to do, like the
people up on that building on September 11, 2001, think of the vivid
stories, and the wives and husbands talking to each other, and “I love
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you, I love you,” before they were burned alive in that building. I mean
you’ve really got to speed up the process of giving up attachment and
recognizing impermanence when you’ve only got a few minutes. What
Buddha is saying is, we can have the luxury while we’ve got this
precious life to contemplate these things. To recognize the reality that
the time of death really is uncertain.
Most of us, probably Betty can speculate, being 74, that it’s possible
that she could probably die sooner than a 20-year-old. But there is no
certainty. I think I read about that footballer that died, a young man,
you know. Whatever the reason was, he died. Now, believe me, he
didn’t expect to die. “No way, I’m young. No way, I’m healthy. No way,
I’m happy,” we think, fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.
Lama Zopa says, “Best to think, ‘I will die today.’” If you really want
to practice, best to think, “I will die today.” Because then you won’t
waste your life. That’s the point Atisha wants from us by
contemplating these things right here, because it will energize us not
to waste this precious life, not to waste this opportunity.
WITH A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE THERE IS NO FEAR

And that brings us to the third point, the crux of it. At the time of
death, at the moment when this consciousness – and the process of
death I will go into very briefly – at this moment when the mind will
eventually leave this body, what is important at that moment? What is
useful to me in that moment? What will be useful to that
consciousness that will leave this body and take another body,
according to Buddha; what will be useful?
That’s not the way we think of death because we think of death as
the end of this person, and we see a big black hole that we’ll sort of go
into, that no one knows about; and that’s how we think of it. We think
of death from the point of view of the observer. We should think about
death from the point of view of this consciousness moving forward to
another body, another house, you’ve got to go to another house soon.
It’s a bit of a difficult transition. Clearly, the more attached you are to
this house, the more painful it is to move.
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If we never confronted impermanence, our own, and never thought

about death, the definiteness of it, the uncertainty of the time of it,
well then that’s how death will be, death will be a very scary time.
I remember a friend of mine, Lenny, who used to live around here
and worked for years as a hospice worker, she said it’s sort of a given
that most people die with fear. She said the ones who didn’t die with
fear were those who had some kind of spiritual path. My feeling is
there – it’s not because they’re such a high practitioners; you think
about it, the only people who think about death are spiritual people,
because they talk about God or heaven. Nothing wrong, I’m not
complaining. Materialists, why would we think about death? Because
as far as the materialist’s view is concerned you disappear when you
die, there’s nothing left. There’s no reason to think about death. You
see my point? There’s no reason to prepare yourself for that event.
PREPARE FOR DEATH

Whereas if you are a religious practitioner, Catholic let’s say, you are
preparing for that event because you’re going to go to God soon. If
you’re a Buddhist you prepare for that event because you’re going to
move from this body to another one. It’s an important event, it’s a very
important event that’s going to happen in your life: your death. Like
moving from your house, you prepare an awful lot for that. Look at the
simple things we do that will happen in the future that we have to
prepare for. We don’t just say, “Oh, when it happens I’ll deal with it.”
That’s how we think about death. Just don’t want to know about it.
And, of course, when you’ve prepared for something like death, there’d
be no fear. That’s the point.
I mean, we prepare in the most elaborate ways for the smallest
things that are going to happen in the future. Especially if you don’t
know how to do it. Like your driving test. You don’t just say, “Oh,
when I get to the driving test I’ll manage it then.” Don’t be ridiculous!
You’ve got to train now, you know, it’s obvious. It’s such a simple
point. If you think of death in this sense, not as some black hole that I
will go into, but as simply a transition. This is the Buddhist approach.
From this body to the next. Clearly a very important event to prepare
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for. And I’m not talking about having your nice coffin, the way people
prepare, and the nice plot in the cemetary, all the external things.
We’re not discussing that. That’s just for your body. By the time your
consciousness leaves your body it’s just a piece of ka-ka, so don’t worry
about it. The main point from Buddha’s point of view is to prepare
your mind.
HOW TO PREPARE?
And how do you prepare for death? It doesn’t mean you’ve got to
imagine when you’re dying, although that’s helpful. You’re not
preparing for death by thinking about death. You’re preparing for
death by knowing about impermanence now. How do you prepare for
your driving test? By driving a car now. You see my point, it’s obvious.
How do you prepare for death: by thinking about impermanence in
this way. Bringing yourself to face the reality of it.
A WAKEUP CALL
The conclusion from this is it wakes you up. It’s a wakeup call. It’s a
wakeup call. And that’s the point that Atisha’s stressing here: to
prepare ourselves. In other words change the way we think now and
therefore change the way we live our lives. That’s how you prepare for
death, that’s how you prepare for this event. You put all the steps in
place. Like you prepare for the wedding, you prepare for the driving
test. You do the steps now and so when the day comes it’ll just ripen in
a natural way.
AT THE TIME OF DEATH, WHAT IS USEFUL?

This third point is, at the time of death what is it useful to me? Well,
given Buddha’s assertion that this consciousness of mine didn’t begin
at conception and goes back and back and back, and that it will not
end at death, will continue just naturally – it’s indestructible this
consciousness of ours, Buddha would say; given that whatever I have
said, done, and thought in this life, and in infinite previous ones,
necessarily leaves seeds in my mind that just doesn’t disappear; and
given that seeds ripen in the future, as one’s own experiences – so that
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you can quite literally say that Buddha is saying we are the creator of
ourselves: what I’m experiencing now is the fruit of my past actions,
and the more I do, say, and think now, produces my future experiences
and actions; and all of the seeds I’ve already planted but haven’t yet
ripened – this is karma – will ripen as my future experiences.
So, given that negative states of mind – we haven’t discussed this
yet but we will – necessarily leave seeds in my mind that will ripen as
suffering – it’s just a natural law, Buddha says. Buddha is saying that
there is this natural relationship between my suffering and my
negative states of mind, and there is just this natural relationship
between my happiness and my positive states of mind; it’s not
punishment or reward, it’s just something very organic.
And given that my positive seeds, my positive actions of body,
speech, and mind – the word “karma” actually means “action” – leave
a seed in my mind that will ripen as my happiness in the future. And
given that my negative seeds will ripen as my suffering in the future
just naturally. And given that I don’t want suffering – I realize that, I
know that by looking at my present suffering: I don’t want any more
please. And given that I do want happiness, then, finally, it follows
logically doesn’t it: at the time of death the only thing that is of any use
to me is the positive seeds in my mind. That’s it. The body will finish,
the body is useless. All there is is my mind.
PRINCESS DIANA
Princess Diana died at 36. I always think of her. This gorgeous
aerobiced body, totally in love, everything is perfect, blissful, blah,
blah, blah. She died. At that moment, the only thing that was any
benefit to her were the seeds in her mind sown as a result of her virtue,
her goodness, because they are what will cause her mind to take a
reasonable human rebirth, with reasonable conditions, after her mind
left her present body. The very minimum is this.
CONCLUSION: START PRACTICING NOW

If that’s true, then I had better prepare now by living my life in a
reasonable way: by trying to remove the negative seeds that I have
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already planted and by trying to develop the positive ones. This is

reasonable, based on these assumptions. At the time of death, when it
comes, I must be ready, I have to be prepared. And the way to be
prepared is by having thought about it, therefore, when it comes I’m
not shocked because I know it’s natural that I die. And I’m prepared
because I’ve lived my life by continuing to move on the path and
practice. The main point here to realize at the time of death is the
thing that really is of benefit to me is my virtuous imprints. The
negative ones are worse than useless: they will ripen as suffering.
OUR USUAL ACTIVITIES ARE ESSENCELESS

The things that I now see as most important in life, Buddha would say
– and you analyze it according to his view and it’s clear – they are
totally essenceless. The things we do take as the purpose of life, you
ask most people, it’s almost like a mantra: health and family are the
main point of our life. Everyone will say that’s the point of life.
Well, the Buddha would say we are missing the point by saying that,
because at the time of death if they were so crucial they would be a
benefit to us, but they are useless. Your family, your husband, your
children, your possessions, your nice house, your nice body, your
health, your reputation, money in the bank, all the things we spend all
our time believing are the most important things – they’re gone like a
dream when we die.
At the time of death all the things you spend your life thinking are
important and are sustaining and upholding you are of no use. They
crumble. There’s nothing. We all say at the time of death you can’t take
it with you, it’s a very profound statement actually, but we kind of treat
it like a joke.
What does this mean? We don’t have to be fundamentalist about it
and chuck out the husband, and chuck out the kids, and chuck out the
reputation, and chuck out our money, no, no, no. Just change the way
you see them. Change your attitude towards them. That’s the real
point, that’s what practice is, and we’re going to discuss that. Give up
attachment to the house, the family, the body; give up the jealousy, the
fear, the neuroses, the blaming. Because those imprints in your mind
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will be there when you die and you do not want those. But you do want
your virtue and your kindness and your generosity and your patience
and your non-attachment seeds to ripen.
You don’t wait until then to do it, it’s too late. Start sowing now.
That’s how you lead your life. By recognizing that it’s going to change,
that it is definite, the time of it is completely uncertain, so you might
as well be ready when it does come unexpectedly. It won’t give a
warning: “You’ve got ten more breaths left Robina, you better get
ready.” We might have; we’d be lucky. It’s actually very fortunate, if
you get sick before you die, because you’ve got time to prepare. That’s
actually really the Buddhist approach. You’re very fortunate if you’re
on death row – don’t misunderstand me. I mean, from this Buddhist
point of view. You’re forced, hopefully, to prepare. Although many of
my friends on death row all agree, they still grasp at themselves as
permanent, all the time hoping they’ll get out, still living in the fantasy
of being a living person.
A QUESTION ABOUT DEATH

Student When you mentioned concentrating on impermanence, like
within four hours I might be dead, and then say I do that, and all of a
sudden here it is Monday morning – and this is also about attachment
and give up the house and all the things we work for – and it’s Monday
morning and I’ve got to go to work. Can you address the reality of
living in this world and giving up attachment, the house. . .
Ven. Robina Yes but Sweetie Pie, the crucial point here is, excuse
me you have a name not just Sweetie Pie.
Student Catherine, but Sweetie Pie is fine.
Ven. Robina Okay Catherine this is the point, if you could get such
realizations from that realization of impermanence and thinking about
it you could very well, like the Buddha, give up his family, give up the
kingdom, go off to the mountains and use that time to get enlightened.
He suddenly focused and didn’t want to waste time. That’s great! But
we don’t all have the appropriate conditions in place to do that. But
you don’t have to do that in order to give up attachment. At the time of
death, Catherine, let’s say, has got a life, and a family and money in the
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bank and she has all these things, but if she thought about
impermanence, she sees it as a grain of salt. She sees it as essenceless.
You’ve got it because you use it, but when you die you can give it up
easily. You’re going to have to give it up then, whether you like it or
not, but you don’t have to fight about it, fight yourself because you’ve
practiced giving up, grasping at it. You’ve practiced giving up clinging
to it. You’ve practiced giving up the jealousy in relation to the husband
because you realize it can change at any moment. You live life seriously
but it’s like living it very lightly. But seriously at the same time.
Because you're not grasping at it as real and permanent. That doesn’t
mean you have to move an inch out of your house. You keep doing
what you have to do. It’s internal, the real practice is internal. You see
my point?
Student I’m so often not even aware of the attachment.
Ven. Robina No, we’re not, Catherine; that’s the interesting point.
When everything is going nicely in our life, normal life, ordinary life,
we don’t think of it as attachment; we just think it’s a normal life and
it’s called pleasure, reasonable. But when you lose a piece of it, check
out what happens – we’re going to go into this in more detail later
that’s the real powerful testing point. When we lose the thing, then
freak out.
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8. HOW DEATH AND REBIRTH HAPPEN
At the time of death, by the time you’ve thrown off all of the Robina-
ness and the human-ness and the Australian-ness and all of the
female-ness and all the other things we identify as being the real me,
by the time you get to the point before the consciousness leaves the
body, that package has finished, gone. Human, Robina, Australian,
female has gone, finished. There’s only the consciousness left with all
the imprints, all the seeds that I have planted as Robina and indeed all
the seeds I’ve planted in the past that haven’t yet ripened, so that all,
that’s left is your extremely subtle consciousness, they call it the clear
light consciousness. This explanation, by the way, is from tantra, the
postgraduate level of teachings, but it’s good to know about it here.
And, it’s like the repository of all the karmic imprints, or, if you
like, it’s your consciousness programmed of whatever you have said,
done and thought. Let’s just go through now the death process,
roughly speaking, in order to then talk about how the mind, at the time
of death as it leaves the body, can take different types of rebirth and
just the way it might be able to take, let’s say, an animal rebirth or a
spirit rebirth or a hell rebirth. Because, that’s the context of this
particular contemplation here you see.
Okay, roughly speaking – and these teachings about the process of
death are actually, the way it’s described, is taken from, I could keep
using the analogy, from the postgraduate teachings, which is tantric
teachings, the most esoteric teachings, the most advanced
sophisticated teachings, where they deal very much with the subtlest
physical energies as well as the subtler mind and so on and so forth.
This little approach about the death process is taken from there.
They describe the death process roughly in terms of eight stages.
And various things occur at each of these stages. The aim of this type
of explanation would be for when you’re really an advanced
practitioner, these great yogis who are able to access their subtler
levels of mind using concentration meditation and are very much able
to harness the energy at the more refined level of their physical

energies as well as their mind; they’re able to completely take control
of this process. Finally when they pass away, they are able to pass away
with absolute control going through the stages of death and choosing
their new rebirth. They’ve got this power. And one is able to develop
these skills. What is this process that the body and the mind go
through?
GROSS CONSCIOUSNESS AND GROSS BODY CEASE

Various things occur at each of the eight stages of this death process..
They call this dissolution, the dissolution of the different levels of our
energy, they finish, they cease.
By the way, this is what’s most interesting, that this process that’s
described is exactly what happens every time we go to sleep. The
tantric teachings describe in detail this process of the physical energies
dissolving, ceasing to function, the various levels of our sensory
capacities ceasing to function, the various levels of our mental capacity
ceasing to function, is described in great detail in the teachings; we’re
just doing it briefly here. But it’s what occurs every time we go to
sleep. Because it’s seen as something very natural. Tantra, or the
Vajrayana, is describing in detail these energies that we’re talking
about.
1. VISION OF A MIRAGE
The eight stages are named in terms of a subtle vision that only the
great yogis can cognize as they’re going through the process of death.
Earth element ceases The first thing to cease functioning is your
earth element. That we can see when we’re wide awake and wound up,
the earth element has the function of the weight and the heaviness and
the strength of the body. You can all see when you’re beginning to
become tired your body gets very heavy, doesn’t it? It feels very heavy.
And so what occurs at the time of death – this occurs at sleep too but is
more radical at the time of death – the earth element ceases to
function. And so physically, or experientially, the feeling here is of the
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HOW DEATH AND REBIRTH HAPPENCHAPTER 8
body becoming very heavy, like sinking into the bed, sinking into the
earth. We have that feeling when we go to sleep.
Eye consciousness ceases At the same time, the eye
consciousness ceases to function. Now you check this. You’re sitting
there talking to someone and you’re becoming very tired and you’re
struggling to stay awake as they’re talking to you, right. And your eyes
are open but you’re really struggling but you’re not really seeing them
are you? You understand? Because what is happening is your eye
consciousness is ceasing to function, it’s absorbing inwards.
If you look at the whole experience of becoming very tired, there’s
this very powerful impulse to go in, you just can’t resist it. You want to
sink into that unconsciousness, don’t you? You see what I’m saying?
It’s a very powerful thing. What’s occurring is the eye consciousness is
ceasing to function; you can see this. You’re struggling to stay awake in
your eyes. You know when you’re driving, you’re struggling to keep
your eyes open but it’s really, really, hard and you can’t focus on what
you’re seeing because all of the energy is absorbing inward. This is
what happens at death. The difference is when you’re in your car you
can stop and walk around and wake up again. But when death is
coming you can’t reverse the process because the karma has now
finished and death is coming.
This occurs by the way, this process, for everybody but sometimes
it’s super quick like if you die in a car accident. Other times it’s more
slow. And the ideal is to have it be more slow because if you’re a
practitioner you want to be aware of this at least. Only the great yogis
really are aware of it, that these stages are occurring. It happens for us,
but it’s very spontaneous. The more we can be aware, the better we can
die, the more peaceful we can be at the time of death.
The mirror-like wisdom ceases Then at the first stage also
what is occurring is the ceasing of other parts of the mind as well. They
talk about a certain capacity of the mind to be aware of many things at
once. This ceases. That’s clear isn’t it? When you’re nodding off to
sleep and trying to listen to that person, trying to see them even, you
can’t even hold anything that’s going on. Your mind cannot hold it.
You’re just absorbing in very deeply. It’s hard to resist that isn’t it?
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The various parts of the mind and body are ceasing to function.
They’re dissolving as they say. That’s the first stage.
The vision of a mirage occurs Now there’s a subtle thing that
occurs that only the great yogis are aware of but it’s very helpful for us,
and we do this in meditation; we go through this process imagining it,
in the beginning that’s how you practice. You imagine now, at the first
stage there’s this very subtle sign that’s an indicator for yourself that
this occurred, and that is you have this vision of, like a mirage, it’s very
subtle. When you faint this also happens. It’s like a mirage.
Most of us when we go to sleep we’re not aware of all this, just kind
of boom all suddenly. Eight hours later you just wake up, you don’t
even notice the process. But it’s all there for us to be aware if we’re
practitioners. There’s this mirage that occurs that’s an interplay of
water and earth, because right now the earth element has ceased and
now the most prevalent is the water element.
2. A VISION OF SMOKE
Next, the water element ceases The liquid in the body begins to dry
up. If you look at the opposite end of the spectrum when you wake up
in the morning, all of your elements come back into place, at first your
body feels very heavy doesn’t it? Because you’re earth element hasn’t
come quite back into play yet. Your eye consciousness, your eyes when
you wake up are kind of all dry aren’t they, and you want to have a
drink because the water element is only beginning to come back. It’s a
bit slow to come back into life again, from sleep. All of the elements
have got to do their thing, as well as the senses have all got to wake up.
And after a bit, we get all sharp and awake again.
The ear consciousness ceases We have that experience when
we’re tired. I’m listening to a friend but suddenly I lost that last fifteen
seconds; I have no memory of what she said because I didn’t hear it.
We all have that experience. This is what’s occurring: your ear
consciousness is ceasing to function.
The wisdom of equanimity ceases At the same time there is
this capacity of the mind to distinguish between pleasure, pain,
and indifference. When you’re nodding off to sleep, who cares?
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Normally this very vivid capacity we have to be able to distinguish in

daily life when were wide awake is not so clear now, it’s ceased to
function.
And also what occurs is the, it’s a subtle sign here, it’s like smoky.
When you think about it, it’s a bit like the interplay between water and
the next one which is fire. That’s how they say it’s a subtle sign of
smoke.
3. THE VISION OF FIRE SPARKS

The next stage, third, and this is a seamless kind of experience, now
the nose consciousness ceases to function.
The wisdom of discriminating awareness ceases The
capacity to distinguish between this and that and now, in particular,
between friends, enemies, and strangers. Aunty Jane over there, whom
you adore. And mean old cousin Fred over there, you couldn’t care
less. Whereas in life, very vivid: enemies, friends, strangers, very vivid.
The mind’s very sharp when we’re in the awake mode, the live mode.
Here, everything is absorbing. The mind is narrowing, narrowing,
throwing off aspects of this package.
The fire element ceases The nose element, the nose
consciousness, the smell, and the fire element now, the heat in the
body begins to cease.
A vision of fire sparks And the subtle sign here is, what you see
is sparks. It’s like an interplay between fire and air. They say it’s like
fireflies, sparks in a fire.
By now you can’t hear, you can’t see, your earth element has ceased,
your body’s like lead and can’t move, the water element, the heat
element, they’ve ceased. Robina is gradually deconstructing, ceasing.
The pieces are gradually all falling apart. Because there are many
pieces that all come together to form a person, aren’t there? Like many
pieces have to come together to form a cup.
4. THE VISION OF A FLAME

Now, the next stage, fourth, is the breathing stops. Even through this
process, the breathing is getting heavier, the out breaths are getting
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longer, the in breaths are getting shorter and now what happens is the
breath goes out and no longer comes in. The air element ceases.
The tongue consciousness, taste, ceases. And the tongue now
turns blue at the root and gets very short. As Geshe Rabten said: “This
tongue, which spent its life gossiping, is now useless.”
The tactile consciousness ceases to function. You check when
you’re asleep and someone taps you, you can’t feel it. Okay, if they
punch you really hard you’ll come back awake again. But, the senses
have ceased. Isn’t it? And if you’re in a very deep sleep there’s no
hearing, there’s no smelling, and there’s no tasting. They’ve ceased.
Your mind is absorbed in this darkness of sleep.
Now the tongue element, the taste consciousness, ceases. The air
element ceases, the breath stops and the tactile consciousness.
The all-accomplishing wisdom ceases The capacity of mind to
even know who you are, what’s important, in other words this whole
sense of Robina, who I am, all this stuff we hold so strongly to when
we’re wide awake and alive, and our memory is very sharp. There is
this very elaborate story we have about who I am, and what I think,
and my politics and my music, you understand. All this sense of me
and my life, this is finished. No longer any sense of who you are, the
importance of anything. Forget it, all gone. You’ve like completely lost
your memory is a way to put it in our way of saying it.
IN THE WEST, NOW READY FOR THE BODY BAG

By now you’re ready for the body bag, as far as the West is concerned;
you’re dead. But you’re not dead yet, according to Buddha. Please
leave the body alone. This is one of the really important things if you
want to help people at the time of death. The Tibetan Buddhist
approach – in different traditions they talk in different ways – it’s
really important to make the situation as conducive as possible for a
peaceful death, for the person dying. That doesn’t just mean having
their bodies look all nice. It really means keeping the environment
very appropriate, not having rubbish and rabbiting on and talking and
gossip in the place, bringing all your own junkie emotions to the
person. It’s completely their experience. To have it very quiet, if they
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are a practitioner, you’d have people saying their prayers for them,
because when you’re in that process you can’t remember anything.
Unless your own practice is very deep inside you, you won’t be able to
access it.
I mean my friend, the one I mentioned before who had virulent
cancer who got together with his wife again, and then they separated
and then again he was very sick with his cancer, I’d ring him again
every now and again and say his prayers to him because he couldn’t
hold it himself. He was on morphine anyway, it was very difficult you
know.
HELPING OTHERS AT THE TIME OF DEATH

It’s really marvelous if you’re a practitioner to have people around you
doing your practice for you. Or you can even have a CD where you hear
the chanting, where you hear the stuff. The Buddhist approach in
general is anything we hear or experience through our senses leaves a
very powerful imprint on the mind.
Helping animals And this is a very marvelous way to help
animals at the time of death, too. They don’t understand the Buddha’s
teachings or the Dalai Lama talking about this or that, or the mantra,
but it leaves a very strong karmic imprint in their mind. And also for
an animal, it’s very important to allow them to die peacefully, not just
to kill them when they get sick. We’ll talk about this when we talk
about karma actually. But it’s very helpful for the animal to die in a
peaceful state of mind, where it can feel confident, where your
presence makes it feel less fearful, where it can hear positive things,
and leave a positive karmic imprint in the mind, same with the person.
The best thing you can offer a person.
Bby the time you stop breathing, it could be a couple more days
before your consciousness leaves. Now, your gross consciousness and
the body that comes along with the gross consciousness, which is like
the vehicle of that consciousness, the grosser level is ceased
completely.
And that’s what happens with sleep, but obviously it’s not that
subtle at sleep because the breath is still there. But it’s the same
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process, it’s just that death is more dramatic, the breath completely
ceases, the earth element completely ceases and you can’t reverse it.
SUBTLE CONSCIOUSNESS AND SUBTLE BODY

Now then the subtle consciousness is there and, if you’re a
practitioner, you’ll be very conscious and aware at this point. I think
even when you’re not a practitioner, you could still be conscious and
aware. That’s why it’s very appropriate not to just dump the body in a
bag now and chuck it in the ground. You’d leave it for a couple of days.
It’s really important not to disturb the person. You’d have prayers
happening, you’d have people doing their practices, you’d almost treat
it like a shrine room, very respectfully for this person.
What’s going on during this process is very slowly, gradually, the
subtle consciousness ceases, one keeps throwing off. . . There are
detailed descriptions of this in a book called Death, Intermediate State
and Rebirth. A very excellent book that describes this process. They
might have it in the shop, I think. It goes into more detail; more
technical, it goes into more detail about the different levels of the
mind.
Here the subtle consciousness just gradually ceases to function. At
the same time the subtler physical energies cease – they talk about, in
tantric terms, like in yoga, they talk about the wind energies and the
liquid energies, what they call the kundalini, the red one, the white
one; the grosser levels of these are like the blood and the sperm that
are in the male and female bodies.
And we have a subtler nervous system, they talk about 72,000
subtle channels in this nervous system. They’re not visible to the eye
but they are subtle physical energies. And the way they talk in tantric
terms is the consciousness rides in these channels. When we’re wide
awake and all the energies are existing, all awake, our consciousness is
going through these various channels along with wind energy. As we’re
dying or going to sleep, it absorbs and all coming gradually out of all
the other channels into the central channel.
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5. THE WHITE VISION

Now all of the energies have gathered into the central channel and,
through the stages of becoming ever more subtle, they talk about the
white kundalini, which is mainly residing here at the crown chakra,
gradually goes down to the heart chakra. They also say that the so-
called eighty superstitions, various states of mental consciousness,
gradually cease to function, and continue through the next stages. And
this is the fifth stage, there’s some subtle signs there that the yogis
can recognize, like a vast white sky, they say.
6. THE RED VISION

Then the red kundalini, which is residing at the navel chakra, which is
the source of all the heat in the body, rises up, comes to the heart
chakra; then there is like a vision of red sky. Very simply, how they
talk. This is a gradual process. And then the mind just keeps getting
more subtle, more subtle, more subtle.
Then, like I’m saying, the great meditators are able to go through
this whole process with complete control. They do it in their
meditations. A person who is deeply absorbed in single-pointed
concentration is effectively doing what occurs naturally in sleep and
death but they are in control of it. And they are able to follow through
with their consciousness, all the way to an ever more subtle degree,
being conscious as they get more subtle and more subtle. Whereas, by
the time we stop breathing, we’re snoring, and unconscious for a few
hours. Occasionally we might wake up, mightn’t we, into our subtle
consciousness where we have a few dreams, but there’s no control, we
can’t work with any of it, whereas the great yogis can.
Gradually the mind gets more subtle, more subtle, more subtle, the
white vision, the fifth sign, the sixth one is the red one, and then the
two come together at the heart chakra, where they talk about the
extremely subtle consciousness residing.
7. THE DARK VISION

And then, the seventh one is like when they’re [the white and red
energies] covered somehow, they say. And it’s now like dark, like a
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complete unconscious state; like a faint, very subtle, subtle. And then
there is just this black vision if you like.
EXTREMELY SUBTLE CONSCIOUSNESS AND EXTREMELY

SUBTLE BODY
8. THE CLEAR LIGHT VISION

And then finally, the final stage occurs. This is when the mind is now
ready to leave the body. They call this the extremely subtle
consciousness. It’s the subtlest level of your conscious being, beyond
which it can’t be subtler. It’s known as the clear light consciousness.
And we’ve completely lost the plot by then, no awareness whatsoever,
completely finished. Robina is totally finished, all the package, all the
pieces of Robina, like Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall, completely
deconstructed, finished, all gone.
All that is left is the extremely subtle consciousness linked
inextricably with the so-called extremely subtle body, the wind energy.
They join the indestructible drop at the heart chakra, the red and white
kundalini that came from the parents at conception.
And so, what happens now is the mind is now ready to move out of
the body and move into its new rebirth, propelled spontaneously,
naturally, by the force of one’s own karma. There’s no concept of any
one up there judging and putting me from here to there. It’s just a
natural, logical natural process, as Buddha would say, very organic.
AT DEATH THE KARMA THAT DETERMINES YOUR NEXT

LIFE IS TRIGGERED.
Okay, go back to the point before you stopped breathing. At that point,
already the mind is more subtle. I mean, when you’re very, very sick –
I remember one time in India, I had a fever, a very high fever, and I
had hepatitis and malaria together, right. I was very sick and one lama
said I was close to death, actually. And I remember I was still
conscious, I was still alive and conscious, but it was like I was going
towards death, because I recall that my mind was very, very sort of
sensitive and I just had to think of somebody who was living in London
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and I knew what they were thinking. Because that’s what happens.
Buddha would say clairvoyance, the capacity to access our more
refined level of awareness, the ability therefore to see the minds of
others, to see the past and the future, to see beyond the gross sensory
capacity, is a natural consequence of practice. This would occur, and
this occurred for me at that time, I recall it. When my energies were
becoming more subtle, my mind, the subtler mind, was more vivid,
therefore was unencumbered by the grosser senses, which is what
prevents us from seeing the minds of others. You understand.
You could say a person in this life has got clairvoyance, even just
random moments of it, it’s because of some past meditation where
we’ve accessed the more refined level which is capable just naturally of
seeing other minds and seeing the past and future. It’s just a more
refined level of awareness. Do you understand? By the time you stop
breathing, already your mind is pretty subtle and already by now too,
very powerful grasping is rising even if you’ve practiced. There is a
very powerful grasping, which is just so strong, that then activates the
karmic seed that is most prevalent from the way you have acted in your
life that will be the main cause of your next rebirth.
IF THE MIND VIRTUOUS AT DEATH, A GOOD REBIRTH

Just roughly speaking, you could say that if you spend your life being
aware, being conscious, practicing like what we’re talking here, being
aware of impermanence, giving up attachment, giving up delusions,
doing some practice, purifying your karma, then you could say that
virtue is very prevalent. You’ve practiced virtue. Just like if you have
practiced driving, when you get to the driving test you spontaneously
drive, because you’ve practiced it. It’s just obvious.
If you’ve practiced morality, and practiced giving up harming, and
practiced giving up lying and practiced all these things we’re talking
about, then at the time of death that virtue will be natural for you; a
very powerful morality karmic seed will ripen. Morality in Buddhist
terms is defined as an action that doesn’t harm another. Or even more
proactively in the compassion wing, which we’ll talk about, the love
and compassion wing, where you actively benefit others. If you’re in
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the habit of doing all this, you’ve programmed yourself. By the time
you’re dying morality will just naturally ripen; then it will be
encouraged to ripen because you won’t have so much fear.
IF THE MIND IS FEARFUL AT DEATH, AN UNHAPPY

REBIRTH
When fear is there, and we’ll talk more about this, fear is linked
naturally to the ignorance in the mind, the delusions. If fear is there,
because you’ve never thought about death, and you haven’t practiced,
you just followed your depression, and followed your jealousy, and
followed your anger, and followed your badmouthing, and followed
your gossiping, I’m not talking about being Hitler here, and this is
going to very powerfully activate one of the negative seeds in the mind,
of which we have countless, from countless past lives, that aren’t
ripening in this life.
It’s all ripe and ready. And the negative seed will ripen and that will
throw your consciousness, on autopilot, and it will find its way to one
of these suffering realms like a lion mummy’s womb, strong aggression
from having killed in this life, from strong harming others. Very
powerful negative karma will ripen and it will throw your
consciousness on autopilot into a lion mummy’s womb, or into
whatever the type of experience might be due to the karma you have
created. If it’s a virtue, your consciousness will find its way to another
human realm, for example.
THE INTERMEDIATE STATE AFTER THE MIND LEAVES

THE BODY
What occurs before that is your consciousness enters what they call an
intermediate state, which really is just like a dream state; it’s just the
same type of experience as a dream. And we know with dreams they
can either be very nice, or they can be very scary. In general, we can’t
control them. You kind of get thrown about in your dreams all over the
place, you fly, you go down here, weird things happen, nice things
happen. It’s rare that you feel you’ve got complete control over your
dreams. The great yogis are able to do this.
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For most of us what will happen is, you’re propelled by the force of
your past karma, the one that ripened before you stopped breathing –
let’s say it is morality, that powerful virtuous karma – what will occur
is your consciousness is now on autopilot, you go completely
unconscious, you get the clear light mind and suddenly you wake up in
a dream, you wake up in the intermediate state, the bardo. Just like
you do when you go to sleep, you wake up in this strange experience.
But now there’s just this instinctive sense – Robina is gone, Robina
is finished – but there is still this powerful sense of identity, because
that’s ego-grasping, there’s a strong sense of I-ness, but there’s no
longer a basis to grasp at, Robina is finished. There is an enormous
amount of, they say, terror and fear and a very powerful grasping,
instinctive grasping, to find another basis for the I to plonk itself on.
It’s almost like you are frantically looking around for another rebirth.
And so, let’s say it’s strong morality, and they say this bardo can
last up to seven human weeks. If a human being were observing, from
the point of view of the experience of seven weeks, it would be seven
weeks human time, it could be up to that, before that consciousness
takes another rebirth; or it could be just a second, it depends on the
person and their karma.
If you’ve got the karma to be born a human, well it’s kind of hard to
find a human rebirth, it’s very rare. Again, just do the numbers. If
we’re talking about trillions of mosquitoes and ants and rats and all
the creatures we can see and the vast majority of all creatures that live
in the ocean; so there’s an awful lot of possibilities out there of being
reborn as an animal, a fish. I remember watching one of those animal
shows, and I remember one of these creatures is a little insect under
the earth. She was basically a baby machine. She gave birth to millions
of creatures in her lifetime. Now if you’re human, if you’re lucky, some
people had twenty babies, it’s rare, isn’t it? It’s obvious, just from the
numbers point of view, it’s harder to find a human rebirth than it is to
get a mosquito rebirth. It’s just kind of clear.
I remember one lama, in a very nice book called The Art of Tibetan
Parenting that Wisdom Publications published, talking to the Tibetan
mothers and how they approach rebirth and how they approach
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getting pregnant and how they do when they have the babies, it’s a
very interesting book actually.
I remember in there one lama was quoted as saying, at the time of
two human beings in sexual contact, obviously male and female human
beings in sexual contact, billions of consciousnesses are all hovering
about trying to get in. It’s kind of a hilarious prospect, isn’t it? But
billions, clearly from all the realms of existence.
And so we’ve got a human rebirth, I mean even just that alone is
just so mind blowing for me. We’ve got a decent one, we’ve got a
human rebirth, we won the lottery. I mean it’s just stunning. Because
the Buddhist view would be, if you compare with all the options, like
I’m saying before, this human one, is the result of enormous merit.
Even though we look at the human realm and it’s pretty crummy. I
mean, look at what we do with this precious birth, look at what the
humans are doing. Nevertheless, to just get one is the result of
enormous morality.
And, we’re going to talk about that when we talk about karma.
We’re coming to it, leading up to it.
QUESTIONS ABOUT BEING DISTURBED AT THE TIME OF

DEATH
Student I what’s in a situation where a man who was working on
property in a retreat center that I was managing collapsed one day.
They took him to the hospital and they CAT-scanned him and saw
something, so they immediately admitted him, so he was already on
life support, then and then they were planning to give him an MRI and
get a better look at what was going on in his brain. And before they got
him into the MRI he had a massive brain stem hemorrhage and went
brain dead. But they decided to keep him on life support until his
family could arrive to be at his bedside before they pulled him off the
life support. And to make a long story short, that took four days
because they were emigrating from Mexico and it was hard to get them
up here. And in the meantime, other relatives and friends were
showing up and there was so much disturbed emotion around him
while he was on life support and I didn’t have much input into the
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whole decision but it was so disturbing. I’m just wondering if that

process damaged his mind?
Ven. Robina First of all, if you can just imagine yourself, happening
to yourself. What’s happening too is we look like we’re brain dead
because we define life by the presence of brain activity, but if you’re
using the Buddha’s view, you define life by the presence of
consciousness there. The grosser level of consciousness for sure has
ceased. In a coma means being like asleep, but we know that when
you’re asleep you can have dreams. No doubt a person like that is
vividly, their dream mind is very vivid and it also means you can be
very vividly aware of your surroundings.
I remember a time doing a retreat, in fact, when I would go to sleep
after lunch and I would be in the dream state vividly dreaming, but I’d
be totally aware of all the things going on as well. It was a very
interesting experience. I’ve never had it before or since. Totally aware
of all the noise, the people talking, everything that was happening, but
completely dreaming at the same time.
Now that can be very common for people who are so-called brain
dead. Their consciousness is there and they’re hearing what is going on
and seeing what is going on, as well as having all these weird dream
experiences so they’re very vividly aware. Of course, there they are
freaking out. Not quite knowing what’s going on, but sort of being
aware of it.
And I’ve heard even evidence of somebody who told these
experiences after he was unconscious, told in detail all the things the
doctors did, what they said, because that’s exactly what’s happening.
This is why, from the Buddha’s point of view, it’s so important to treat
the place so purely and to give them confidence and to do their
practice and to allow them to be calm because if you’re not practiced,
your freaking out right then. And you’re thinking what the hell is going
on. You’re in panic mode. You can’t talk to anybody, you don’t know
what’s happening, and everyone is all screaming and crying, your
mother’s there, your husband’s there, your wife’s there, oh my god
your mind’s in a freak out mode, isn’t it? Of course it can be
disturbing, extremely disturbing for this person. Whereas if the person
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is aware of this then you’d be even speaking to them and saying

positive things and giving them positive things and so their mind can
calm down so they can die with peace when they pull the plug on them.
Student I noticed the nurse whispering and encouraging.
Ven. Robina Good! There you go. Very good! Perfect.
Student I felt the need to leave.
Ven. Robina Of course they should have left. But people are not
aware of this, you know. We’re just kind of completely self-centered.
“Oh my God, my husband’s dead!” You know, like, excuse me back
away. It’s his gig, you know. Give him a break. Absolutely, you’re very
right. It’s very important.
In that sense there’s so much you can do for the person when
they’re dead, when they’re so-called dead, brain-dead. And even when
they are actually dead, the body with the breathing stopped, their
consciousness is still there. That’s why from the Buddhist view it’s so
important to make it so appropriate, so peaceful, so conducive,
because it’s so powerful for the mind, especially if the person is not
prepared for this death. It’s a huge shock to have this thing happen, it’s
a big shock to us, of course it is.
Yes?
IMPORTANT NOT TO DISTURB THE BODY EVEN AFTER

THE BREATH HAS STOPPED
Student My question kind of dovetails after yours. I work in an
emergency room and oftentimes we have people die suddenly,
traumatically, and just the environment has limitations. A Buddhist
man dying suddenly and the priest came, he couldn’t burn incense
because it would put out the fire alarm and then we have bed
availability issues. I was just wondering about the two days beyond the
body dying, how important is environment in terms of allowing,
supporting the consciousness?
Ven. Robina Well, you know, the ideal scenario is that one. That’s
why we’ve been trying to start here a hospice. The little two rooms are
meant to be for people that come here to die. I don't know if we've got
people in it at the moment, so that they can have that kind of
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approach. But one friend of mine’s father passed away and the wife,
they’re both Buddhists, but she sort of freaked out of course, and rang
the hospital so that the ambulance came and put him into down here
somewhere. And so we came in and we started right then, we were
with him before he stopped breathing so we were doing all these
prayers, which is what he wanted, talking about Buddhist.
Then we couldn’t take him home, unfortunately, because already
he’d been gone to the hospital. The daughter and I, we made sure that
the ambulance didn’t move him very roughly, took him very carefully
in the body bag into the mortuary and then we worked out with the
mortuary a way to leave him there as long as possible. They wouldn’t
let us go overnight and do prayers and things, so they kept him all day,
then we put him in the fridge and they agreed to play some CDs of the
Gyutoto monks chanting in the fridge, along with the other bodies. We
assume they did it.
Then they allowed just a few more hours the next day for people to
come along and do prayers. You just stretch the law as much as you
can. In the hospital no, but in the mortuary they didn’t mind doing it.
But it had to be within twenty-four hours, there was some law that it’s
got to be not more than twenty-four hours out of the fridge, so the
fridge part didn’t count. We added our hours from the first day and the
second day, so it almost went to the two days. The best you can do. But
the best, of course, is what many people do now is to die at home. And
so what they do is they just don’t call the hospital, they don't call the
ambulance for two days. They don’t call the doctor. Just let the person
alone, you know.
Student What’s the story about, you’re saying, the different realms.
I mean the dimensions. You’re saying as a Buddhist you check that out,
check everything out.
Ven. Robina Think about all this yes, check it out. You mean think
about all this stuff?
Student Well yes, where is the proof of other dimensions.
Ven. Robina I understand.
Student That is why we choose our guru carefully.
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Ven. Robina Let me talk about this when we talk about karma. It’s a
totally perfect question, but let’s talk about that after lunch.
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9. WE DO NOT WANT A SUFFERING REBIRTH
OVERVIEW SO FAR
PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATIONS
Let’s continue. Reminding ourselves again of this packaging that we’re
talking about. We’ve very briefly looked at the preliminary things to
get our heads around in order to really prime our minds to want to
practice.
The first was the beginningless of this mind, its nature, not being
created by others, and its potential. Some sort of a starting point is
important.
Then we looked very briefly at the whole approach to finding a
spiritual teacher, a lama, a guru, the necessity for this, and then the
way, I mentioned just very roughly, I mentioned the appropriate way
to get the benefit from that relationship.
And then we looked at this point that Atisha recommends we
contemplate again and again to energize us to want to practice:
thinking about the preciousness of this life that we worked so hard
to get and have all these marvelous conditions that at the moment we
take for granted because we don’t really see them as a result of causes
and conditions, but are so beneficial if compared to other types of
rebirth. Even within this human realm we are so fortunate. Look at the
enormous suffering of so many humans, no chance to practice the
spiritual path. The whole point of thinking about this precious human
rebirth is to give us the energy to not waste it, which means to use it to
develop our marvelous potential.
JUNIOR SCHOOL, LOWER SCOPE

Then we entered the first part of the first scope of practice, junior
school, where we think about death and impermanence, one of
Buddha’s major teachings. But the way Atisha presents it is in the
context of, it follows naturally from thinking about the preciousness of

this life, because we then contemplate how yes, indeed, it is precious
but, hey, it is impermanent. It is definite it will stop, it will end, this
life. The time of when it will end is completely uncertain, no one
knows, although our fantasies think it’s a long way off in the distance.
And then the third point being, what is the point, at the time of
death is to have the mind completely ready, having given up
attachment, given up all the neurosis, letting go of all the grasping and
all these things, so the positive seeds in the mind can ripen at the time
of death, carrying our consciousness along to the next life so that we
can continue bopping along our path.
----
NOW, THINK ABOUT THE SUFFERING OF THE LOWER

REALMS
This leads us to the next contemplation, which again is helping us to
get some context and to prime our minds to really want to begin to
practice, to put our money where our mouth is, which is the
culmination of junior school, the first scope, which is where we abide
by the laws of karma, which we’ll talk about and will come to in a
minute.
Here we now contemplate, given that I could die at any moment,
and given that my consciousness goes back and back and back and
back, and it’s had countless past lives, and given that there are
delusions in my mind, ego-grasping and the other delusions, it follows
logically that there are countless negative seeds in my mind that I have
created from my past lives, not to mention those of this life, that I
haven’t pulled out of my mind, that I haven’t pulled out, that I haven’t
uprooted. And that these could ripen as terrible suffering lives in the
future.
Given this, I should contemplate a little bit the likely possibility of
suffering realms of rebirth in order to get a very strong sense of not
wanting them.
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WE DO NOT WANT A SUFFERING REBIRTH CHAPTER 9
This is where Atisha takes from all of Buddha’s extensive teachings

on, I suppose you’d call it cosmology, on the way the universe is, how
the universe is structured, the kind of lives, the possibilities, the
realms of existence, all of this. What Buddha is asserting, in general, is
a whole spectrum of possibilities of mental experiences, just one of
which is the human.
In Christian teachings, for example, it’s just humans who have a
soul. You’re born as a human and then when you die, only you have got
a soul. There are also animals, we all can see this, but according to
Christian teachings they are made by God but they don’t have a soul
and they’re really there for the benefit of humans, which is why it’s
fine in most cultures to kill them.
But the Buddhist approach is they’re sentient beings like you and
me, they are sem-chens, they are mind-possessors. Which is they
possess the same potential, their minds, too, are beginningless, their
minds, too, have the potential to be enlightened. It’s the nature of
every mind that exists and in Buddha’s terms, like I mentioned this
morning, humans are just a tiny, tiny percentage of all sem-chens, of
all minds that exist.
SUPERIOR BEINGS AND ORDINARY BEINGS

And as I said, there’s this whole spectrum of possibilities, of types of
mental experiences, rebirth as we would call them, realms of existence.
Uou could divide the whole universe into two kinds of minds: those
that are the superior minds, those that have realized emptiness all the
way up to buddhahood, highly advanced spiritual practitioners, they’re
known literally as superior beings – except Buddhism we put plural on
that, not singular. Superior beings, and there’s levels of them all the
way to buddhahood, all the way to perfection.
And then you’ve got ordinary beings, those in samsara as they call
it – and the defining characteristic of an ordinary being is this
primordial ignorance is still within their minds. The defining
characteristic of an arya being is the removal of the seeds of that
primordial ignorance, meaning the realization of emptiness.
And we’ll discuss this point later, in university.
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THREE REALMS OF EXISTENCE OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS

Within samsara, those minds that possess this primordial ignorance,
propelled by this ignorance to do all of the crazy things that we do,
then you can say there are three realms of existence. The most
advanced level within this, having ignorance still, so being ordinary
beings, not out of samsara in other words, they are called formless
beings. They have no gross physical energy and beings born like that
are in this state as a result of a lot of concentration meditation, but not
used skillfully because they have not removed the delusions from their
minds. This lasts for a long time, and they talk in terms of eons. But
it’s sort of a useless type of rebirth, because eventually the virtuous
karma runs out, the gas tank runs out, and then grosser levels of
suffering happen again.
Further along the spectrum you’ve got form beings, slightly
grosser with some of the grosser physical energies, but still pretty
subtle beings. And they are also the result of some meditation.
Then the third level you’ve got what they call the desire realm.
And that’s divided into six, and we are in that one. And all these are
states of mind; it’s not like places you could fly an airplane to get to.
They’re what we call dimensions, I suppose, if we speak in science
fiction terms, the dimensions, the levels of existence. And they’re all
consciousnesses. Buddhist view would say there’s not an atom of space
where you won’t find sentient beings. There are countless, countless
trillions of consciousnesses, all manifesting in one form or another.
THE SIX TYPES OF SENTIENT BEINGS IN THE DESIRE

REALM
The gods Within the six, within the desire realm, which is a grosser
level of rebirth, you have got six. And the peak of those, the best
suburb in the desire realm, if you like, is called the god realms. And
that really is, the closest thing to say about that is it’s the equivalent of
what the Muslims call paradise, the Christians call heaven and so on.
And in Buddhist terms it’s the result of karma; you get born there, no
one puts you there. There’s no concept of creator, there’s no concept of
being sent somewhere by someone else, judging you, you’re good,
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you’re bad. Karma takes care, as Lama Yeshe says. It’s a natural law,
Buddha says.
Beings in this god realm, they’re very blissful beings; the result of a
lot of virtue you get born there. Subtle light bodies. We have this
physical energy and it manifests in different ways. When a lot of
morality and virtue has been created and doing a lot of good to others,
your mind just naturally will be born as a god. This is like paradise; it’s
like heaven, very blissful, extremely blissful. Because the grosser
energy is very subtle, the mind is more subtle, and it’s the fruit of
virtue so it lasts a very long time. But this is where Buddha would
argue that that type of rebirth, he would argue with the Christians and
Muslims, they would say that type of rebirth is the culmination where
you’re in heaven with god. Buddha would say you’ve got a blissful
experience of god realms yes, but it’s not the end result. You haven’t
removed ignorance from your mind yet and that eventually will run
out, the virtuous karma will run out, the gas tank will empty, and
you’ve still got ignorance so you’ll be born in the suffering realms
again. This is Buddha’s point.
Human beings Further on the spectrum you’ve got a couple of
those god realms, then you have the human realm. Buddhism would
say there’s more than one, but here we are in one of them, so whatever.
This is still the result of virtue, it is the fruit of virtue, to be born as
human is the fruit of virtue. But in general you could say it’s of less
virtue then those born in the god realms. But the Buddha’s point
would be, nevertheless, it’s a much better rebirth from the point of
view of wanting to practice. Because you haven’t got such bliss, you’re
not so blissed out, to be caught up in the thrall of all this bliss, not
realizing you’ve still got the delusions in the mind but they’re not
manifesting so you don’t notice it, and that when the bliss runs out,
you’re back to the lower realms.
It’s just like for us now, even relatively speaking, if we’ve got a fairly
good life in this human realm, we call that happiness, and we get all,
“Isn’t this great, isn’t this wonderful, I have this lovely husband,
everything, I have no reason to do anything, why should I want to
practice the spiritual path? I haven’t got any suffering.” But suddenly
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he drops dead on you or goes and chooses a younger model, leaves you
and chooses a younger one. Suddenly now the pain and suffering is
evident and painful, and that’s because of attachment which blinds us
from seeing that happiness is not really happiness.
The human realm is a marvelous one to have if you want to pull
yourself together, if you want to practice, if you want to realize,
develop amazing love and compassion, all these marvelous qualities. If
you want to realize wisdom and get rid of all the delusions it’s the best
rebirth to have.
Animals Then further along the spectrum you have the animal
realm, which we can see is a very occupied realm of existence. You
probably have more mosquitoes in one summer then you have beings
in the entire human realm on any one given moment. Clearly there are
countless beings, sentient beings, born as a mosquito, as an ant, as a
tiny creature, as little creatures in your body. I’ve heard recently that
under your arm pit you can’t imagine the number of sentient beings
that are there, which is really quite shocking to us. Not to mention the
elephants and the giraffes and the birds, I mean there’s an awful lot of
them isn’t there? It’s very obvious.
Spirits Then further along the spectrum you’ve got an even worse,
even more painful suffering realm called the spirit realm. And we are
familiar with this from the point of view called the poltergeists and you
see those movies, and the people being possessed and all that stuff.
There’s an advertisement on television for the latest one. There are all
kinds of these beings, spirits and intensely suffering beings. Some very
powerful, some very manipulative; and this is a very occupied realm of
existence.
There is a whole group of them they call hungry ghosts. The
suffering in general of the animal realm, the main delusion is the one
of the really profound ignorance, deep, deep ignorance, which is the
root of all of the ego for all of us. The animal way of experiencing is
extreme suffering, very narrow, we’ll talk about this a bit, narrow,
narrow state of mind, very deeply suffering state of mind. The
prevalent energy of the spirit realm, of all the kinds of spirits is this
huge attachment, huge grasping.
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Many people can see spirits. I remember in England years ago, I

met a lot of spiritualists, a group of people called spiritualists that
were really prevalent around Lancaster. I think spiritualists developed
from there from the Victorian times. And I remember this one lady
could see these weird dog spirits, all the time seeing other beings.
From people’s experiences we can see they exist.
But of course it doesn’t fit in the Western materialist model; we just
think these people are wacko and take no notice. But the Buddha
would agree that there all are all kinds of beings.
Hell beings And even further along the spectrum from happiness
to suffering, we have the hell realms, they’re called the hell realms. The
energy of which is mainly the enormous suffering of anger. It is
interesting if we look over the centuries at the different spiritual paths,
there are very many similar points here: they talk about heaven, they
talk about hell, it’s obviously people’s experience to observe these
beings, coming from high beings experiences, of seeing these different
realms.
Clearly, Buddhist approach has a different way of explaining the
levels of them and how you get born there. That’s the crucial
difference. The Buddha would say all sentient beings have a
beginningless continuity of consciousness, not one of them is created,
no such concept. And every single one of them at any given moment is
experiencing, just necessarily, the fruits of one’s own past actions. We
put ourselves in our different realms of existence. We create our own
reality, Buddha says, by our own actions. And we’re going to talk about
that in detail when we get to karma.
Right here, coming to the point now, the main contemplation, the
main thing to think about, having thought about impermanence and
death, having thought about this precious human rebirth – they kind
of follow on – you think about human rebirth: “Wow, I must not waste
this because it’s so precious, I must use it to practice.” Then you think
about how it can change any moment and you could die. Oh my
goodness, you’re even more energized to practice. And then you think
about, “Well now, look at the options for me when I do die, if I were to
die now. Look at all the negative seeds in my mind due to the countless
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past lives and I could get an enormous suffering life, like an animal
birth for example.”
Okay, this is a brand new concept for us. Most people who even
think about reincarnation don’t think it’s possible to be anything other
than a human because we identify with this package. But the Buddha is
saying there is nothing innately human or male or female or dog or
anything else about any of us.
HOW WE GO FROM HUMAN TO ANIMAL, FOR EXAMPLE

Now let’s talk about how you get reborn as a lion, because now this
brings us to the contemplation here to think about the suffering of the
lower realms as a wakeup call for us not to want that type of rebirth, in
order to go to the next contemplation, to think, “Okay, what am I going
to do about this?” We’re taking ourselves step by step through each of
these points.
All right, so, let’s just say we wasted our life. We’ve had a really
precious human rebirth from our past morality but we had various
karmic imprints that caused us to continue to kill and to lie and to
bad-mouth and to get depressed and jealous – and again, not talking
about Hitler here, I’m talking about a lot of ordinary humans like all of
us. We got the decent life from the past but then we also got all the
various imprints from the past, which we just take for granted, so we
just follow them. Which is how we mostly do; we don’t try to change
ourselves.
Most people in the world, with respect to all of us, whatever is in
our mind we just take it as the status quo and we follow it. You’ve got a
tendency to be jealous, you get jealous. You don’t think you can change
it. You’ve got a tendency to be angry, you get angry. You don’t think
you can change it. You’ve got a tendency to kill, it’s okay to kill. We
just follow all our negative imprints. Of course, by the time of death –
we’ve never thought about it, so the mind is freaking out – the negative
seeds ripen very strongly, especially the killing one, which is the most
intense negative action, it’s the most harmful.
That’s going to ripen and what will it do? It will put your mind on
autopilot and before you know it, you get to the intermediate state. But
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not for very long; you have not much waiting around here, because
there are plenty of lion wombs available, or panther wombs or tiger
wombs, very aggressive powerfully harmful animals, with respect to
them. And suddenly you find your mind now. . .
Okay, what happens in the intermediate is most interesting. You’re
in this bardo, intermediate state, driven by attachment, in a sense
desperate to get another basis for another I; it's all kind of instinctive,
no volition here. And then because of your karma, suddenly – they say
it’s almost like you have a vision of the mummy and daddy in sexual
union so here we’re talking lion. Because of the karma, the karmic
imprints, and secondly because you’ve got a strong connection with
these two particular lion mummy and daddy, you’ve got strong karmic
connections with those consciousnesses – from twenty-two lifes ago,
when you were born together, who knows what, it’s highly complex. No
one’s running this show, by the way; karma takes care. It’s a natural
law. It’s just the way things are, Buddha says.
What happens is you have this powerful vision of mummy and
daddy lion in sexual union and because this is your karma due to your
very strong aggressive killing karma to ripen, you will be attracted like
a magnet. It will look really delicious, and you will run like a magnet to
them. Then your consciousness joins their egg and sperm and you will
get reborn in that womb.
Now, your extremely subtle consciousness, along with your
extremely subtle physical energies goes from the bardo into the lion
mummy’s womb and the very subtle wind energy, which is just
inextricably linked to your mind, will now mix with the egg and sperm
of the lion mummy and daddy.
Then your consciousness will begin to develop: all the karmic
imprints will take on lion-type imprints and the body will join with the
lion, you will turn into a lion, your wind energy will grow and develop
into the lion physical energy, so you end up with a big hairy body and
big claws. I mean, look at the claws, ready-made for what? For killing.
As His Holiness says, “Look at our hands, they’re made for affection.”
But lion claws, they’re ready made for ripping the guts out of buffaloes
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for breakfast. And it’s very soon that little baby lions will be just
naturally doing that.
But, all the imprints are in there. The karmic imprints that were in
the mind from the past, that you begin to develop as a human that
were there from the past as well, now hugely manifest as this lion.
“Lion” is just the fruit of past actions. She’s got this very powerful
grasping, which we all have, but in the lion a million times more
powerful, animals a million times more powerful. The energy of this
ignorance is literally this very profound deep instinctive sense of self.
It gives rise to huge attachment to getting what she wants, huge
aggression as a tool to use to get what she wants, huge jealousy or
whatever it is you can look at psychologically that lions manifest.
BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY REFERS TO ALL LIVING BEINGS

Buddhist psychology refers to all living beings, by the way, not just
humans. It doesn’t take too much to look at a cat and a dog and by
using the same words – and this is not, what is the word,
anthropomorphizing, it’s not doing that one. The Buddha would say,
the way he talks about the mind, is what we all have. We can see
aggression in our lives, we can see attachment; attachment is this
manipulation to get what you want; we can see the methods we use to
get what we want, which is harming others. You can see this in a lion
but kind of to the nth degree. And that is a lion’s nature, the karmic
imprints are so powerful and she doesn’t have a choice, that’s the
tragedy of a lion, an animal rebirth.
The miracle of a human, if we’re lucky, is we’ve got access to a few
other options, because that’s the good thing about a human rebirth.
We call that making choices. We call it virtue, the ability to empathize.
We can see how hard it is to make choices, but we’ve got it. Mummy
lion, you can tell her a thousand times a day that the buffalo doesn’t
like to have its guts ripped out for breakfast. Mummy lion can’t hear
you. She doesn’t have the capability.
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THE SUFFERING OF A LION’S MIND

Now what’s interesting, her consciousness is like ours insofar as it’s
beginningless, endless, nonphysical, not created, and possessing
Buddha nature. But while she is a lion, she can’t access her virtuous
states of mind. They are like totally buried under the forest of weeds of
aggression and ego and all the other stuff. And they are the only option
she has, because karma, more than anything is like habit – we are
going to talk about this – but she is just totally programmed to do
what a lion has to do.
And, therein is the suffering, that’s the suffering. We’re not just
talking the suffering of the buffalo here. We’re talking the suffering of
being an animal, at this deeper level. Okay, you can look at the
suffering of being an animal, just in terms of it being used as a servant
of humans, of its having no choice: the poor cow out there can’t go get
a nice warm house; the poor sheep can’t go get its dinner. I mean the
limitation of having an animal birth.
But at this deeper level looking at the suffering of the mind of an
animal, this is how the Buddha would talk. The suffering of your cute
little doggie woggie, whom we are so attached to, the suffering of your
little cat’s mind. Okay, we fantasize, and perhaps Buddha would say
it’s fantasizing, how our animals are so cute and so gorgeous and so
special and, “Oh, my cat sits with me every time I meditate, and it’s so
this and it’s so that,” you know. Whatever.
But you know, put us all in a worst scenario and you’re going to see,
not the real person, but you’re going to see the delusions. When hubby
leaves me, then watch what arises, the pain, the hurt, the jealousy –
but at least we can work with it. You put a cat in a situation where it’s
got a little mouse, I’m sorry, your little cute cat who likes to meditate
with you is gone out the window. You now have this vicious little
creature who delights in harming the mouse. Now that’s called a
suffering mind, I’m sorry to say.
Look at the dog. It’s a very cute little dog, so loyal and so devoted.
But look at the dog when it hears a weird noise outside, look at its eyes
when it’s screaming and barking in paranoia. It hasn’t got enough
intelligence to know it’s just somebody coming home. I mean they’ve
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got other qualities, they’re quite sensitive with their senses, but we’re
talking the mental consciousness here.
The Buddha’s view is, hey, to be born as an animal is an acute, an
enormous suffering. And the vast majority of sentient beings that we
can see on this planet, for example, seem to be having that rebirth, due
to their past karma.
The whole point here is – and I’m just talking the animals. Sure
have compassion, which is coming later in the more advanced level,
but right here, right now, this is not the way we think at all. This is a
strange approach to have this: “Oh my goodness, look at this suffering.
I do not want that, thank you very much, I no way want to be reborn
like that when I die.”
It’s really priming your mind: from having thought about precious
human rebirth, thinking how I must not waste it, then thinking, “Oh
my goodness, it could change at any moment, I better not waste it even
more.” And then thinking, “What are the options when I die? Well I
better not waste it at all!”
QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO REBIRTH, EVOLUTION, ETC.

Student I’m only going to ask this and you promise not to jump all over
me, it’s that kind of question.
Ven. Robina You’re really serious? You want me to promise that
first? No, I’m sorry you have to not ask then.
Student Okay I’ll ask it anyway. You talk about the human rebirth
as being the rebirth where you have choices, where you can attain
enlightenment, and I’m reading an interesting book right now where
it’s talking about our evolution and it mentions some people, Darwin,
to a point where through fossils and scientific research we have
evolved, whether it’s from the ocean. How did rebirth occur before, if
there is such a thing as evolution and we weren’t human at one point
and it’s quite obvious as a species will probably become extinct: 99.9%
of the species vanish from the earth so how can, can you speak on
that?
Ven. Robina You mean how to reconcile Buddha’s view with this
view?
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Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Okay, good. Okay, if we look at the materialists view,
which is the one you just described, you’re speaking from the external
point of view of shapes and forms and universes. It’s like looking from
the outside we can see this is this, then it grew to this, and then it
became this, and then soon it will all disappear. There’s no
contradiction. Buddha has detailed teachings on universes and how
they come into being and the types of beings that occupy those
universes and that particular form will finish and then that and that.
But here we’re talking internal evolution. That is a brand new
concept as far as the materialist world is concerned. There’s no talk
like this. Also, with respect, there’s no talk like this in Christian terms
because there’s no talk of, you know you didn’t exist before you were
born. We’re talking from an internal point of view. If you think of it
this way, you’ve got billions of consciousnesses, forget this universe
now, there’s billions of consciousnesses and they are all doing and
saying and thinking things depending on what type of form they’ve got.
And each one of those actions, and that’s the meaning of karma – and
we’re coming to that, this is really part of that – leaves a seed in that
consciousness.
Then that consciousness is conjoined with a certain level of physical
energy. Like I’ve been describing, the very subtle wind energy with the
very subtle consciousness and then propelled by the karma or the
habits of that consciousness, it will go to a certain type of birth in a
certain realm of existence.
Here we’re talking the ones we can know about, that we look in
front of us, we can see humans and animals don’t we? They are the
ones, the only two that we can see, it seems like. There’re trillions of
tiny little creatures and big fat ones like giraffes, and so on, and then
so called human.
But if you think of it in this internal way, it’s just a shape. A human
is just a form that consciousness has created from past actions. The
hands, these hands, they’re the fruit of virtue because, look, they don’t
have claws. We can have very long claws, but even our very long claws
can’t rip, we know how they break all the time. I mean, I know when I
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used to have long red nails, no matter how strong they were they
would just snap. You couldn’t rip the guts out of anybody with them!
KARMA’S LIKE PERSONAL EVOLUTION

That is an evolutionary thing karmically, not an external evolution.
Internally, morality ripened in this consciousness, so it propelled that
consciousness towards a human realm that happened to be on this
piece of thing we call Earth, it’s not the only one Buddha would say.
And my wind energy and my mind conjoined with Teddy and Agnes’s
egg and sperm, and then my mind went into a human body. But it’s
just a shape, it’s a shape. And so in Buddha’s view, a human shape is
the fruit of some virtue and a lion’s shape with claws is the fruit of a lot
of aggression and negativity.
In time, these shapes will disappear from this earth. But hey, minds
are beginningless and minds are constantly creating karma, so we’re
constantly creating new universes all the time. Yes indeed we can look
externally and see that maybe at some point on this particular piece of
earth there weren’t anything as we call it humans but we were all
bopping away in other realms, if we were human in past lives.
The “we” here isn’t the way we talk in the West about the “we” like
in terms of family lines, or the “we” in terms of like “we” were a
monkey in the past. If you’re a human you weren’t a monkey. A
monkey is an animal birth. But maybe what you can say is the shapes
on this earth gradually evolved and so then eventually it got to a point
where the shape was a reasonable human, and then what we call
human consciousnesses started getting born into this shape, and then
it started developing into humans. You understand what I’m saying a
bit? That’s the way, how to fit the Buddhist view with the external
view. Does that make sense?
Student Yes.
WE KEEP CREATING OUR OWN UNIVERSES

Ven. Robina Eventually, of course, this piece of earth, it will
degenerate and finally explode and be nothing left, but as long as the
karma exists, as long as consciousness exists and we’re creating karma
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and we’ve got delusions, we’re going to keep creating our own
universes.
“Hell” for example, it always sounds so shocking; as Lama Yeshe
said, hell is not some place where the devil is waiting saying ha, ha I’m
waiting for Lama Yeshe. Hell is a type of experience of enormous
suffering created by that sentient being, it’s the manifestation of the
negativity of that sentient being. We, in that sense, literally create our
own universes.
When I talk about karma after lunch, one of the ways our karma
manifests is called environmental karma, meaning the physical world
we occupy. It’s not made by God or superior beings, it doesn’t just pop
out of a big bang. The energy that determines the shape even of this
world, whether it’s beautiful, or ugly, or polluted, or volcanic, or
whatever, is the sentient beings who occupy it and experience it. We
are the creators of that by our past negative karma that we are born in
a place where everything is going to explode.
And then eventually this universe will cease, but as always, as long
as there’s consciousness, which is endless and beginningless, but so
too is physical energy endless and beginningless. If you talk in terms of
the earth, air, fire, water the beginning of this universe is just subtle
physical energy, subtle wind energy, and then gradually it develops
into this universe not from a superior being doing it, not from its own
side, but propelled by the force of the karma of the sentient beings who
have created the cause to have this planet. We’re the creators of it,
karmically, in an evolutionary sense. Do you see?
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Yes?
Student I was just going to say about this comment then that the
scientists that come up and say that the human form has come from
previous animals, they don’t really look at consciousness at all.
Ven. Robina No precisely, that’s the point. We only see it as an
external, that’s exactly right.
Student It’s something that they don’t even look at.
Ven. Robina No. We have mostly. . . we have been taught science. . .
they don’t have to contradict, but it’s such a huge view and we in the
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West believe we have almost found the truth, and all these stories of
evolution; it’s quite shocking if you’ve got that view and you’ve seen it
as the truth and you’ve taken that assumption for so long to begin to
change it. It’s very scary.
It’s very interesting even now, there’s a lot of talk, isn’t there,
people who are strongly Christian and believe in a creator, they say
evolution just can’t fit with that. That’s why they’re talking about
trying to bring the Christian teachings back in, and the God one, and
scientists will mostly say that you can’t believe in God if you really
believe in science. And in a sense it’s true, because they’re so
contradictory.
All it is I’m saying as a Buddhist, I don’t deny that there’s so-called
evolution. But if you have a view of karma it’s an added component,
that’s all. It doesn’t contradict the evolution of this realm at all. But it
has a few series of very basic assumptions that are quite different. It
takes time for the mind to get around all the stuff.
Student Because the scientists are looking mainly at something
that’s physical.
Ven. Robina That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And that’s
why, it’s so interesting, that many scientists see that the world is so
amazing and their conclusion is that it must be created by somebody.
Many scientists go towards the creator one. But people, I think, like
Einstein go more towards the one, the Buddhist one, which is cause
and effect, interdependent arising. It’s very interesting.
Yes?
DISAPPEARING SPECIES
Student This discussion has answered a question I’ve always had about
cosmology, about there’s all these beings wanting to be born into
better rebirth there’s only so many humans but the human population
is booming and the animal population isn’t doing so well on this
sphere. I don’t have to worry about that too much because there are
other things going on …
Ven. Robina It’s a tiny, tiny part of it.
Student But okay so that’s the result type thing.
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Ven. Robina But this is the point of it, only a few animals are
ceasing, only a few species. There’s millions of fishes and insects, don’t
worry about them, there’s plenty of them.
Student Mosquitoes for sure. And fleas.
Ven. Robina And cockroaches. And bacteria, there you go.
Student I think the thing that’s always troubled me is that
meditating on the precious human rebirth, I always really have to
focus on the preciousness of the situation of the human rebirth
because I look around and I just see so many humans that don’t have a
clue. I have a hard time reconciling that I need to concentrate on that,
as one of these stepping stones.
Ven. Robina It seems to me that something even like nuclear
energy, this amazing energy, can be harnessed and used for good. But
it can be used for bad. We don’t have to be fundamentalists and chuck
it out. Well the same with the human. Just because humans can make
a mess of this life doesn’t mean that a human birth itself is bad. We
can certainly, by finding one example of one good human, like Mother
Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, one human being that’s
enough for us to see, okay, there’s a possibility there. The fact is it’s
the potential of the human mind that is the thing you want to strongly
have. The potential, the capacity to change, that’s the miracle. Of
course we use it, unfortunately, to do harmful things but it’s not
concrete, doesn’t have to be this way.
Student It seems so odd that so many beings would push so hard to
get into the human rebirth and then just squander it.
Ven. Robina We don’t push so hard to get into it. We don’t even
think about it. We just get it. We just get it and then because we have a
view of self-existence, because we have a view that doesn’t understand
cause and effect, and that’s the big tragedy – when we talk about
karma we’ll talk about that one – that’s huge. And this is the reason
eventually to have enormous compassion for sentient beings.
----
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DEDICATION
Now let’s have some lunch. We can finish with a little dedication
prayer, thinking:
Okay, we’ve listened so far to
• the concept of a continuity of consciousness, its beginningless,

• therefore not created,
• the clear nature of mind, that it’s nonphysical,
• its potential, especially of buddhahood.
• We've contemplated needing a teacher and how to check them
and judge them and how to devote oneself.
• We’ve looked very briefly at the thought of this perfect human
rebirth and how to be energized not to waste it.
• We then thought about therefore, on from this, how it could finish
at any moment, so thinking about death and impermanence.
• We looked at the death process itself.
• And we looked at the concept of given that I could die at any
moment and given that I’ve got countless karmic imprints, the
potential for future rebirth, and we looked particularly there at
suffering of being born as, say, as an animal, as one of the lower
realms, so as to get a strong sense that, thank you very much, I do
not want that.
All these thoughts have sown seeds, so may they ripen as quickly as
possible in the development of my own amazing potential so I
really can be of benefit to all suffering mother sentient beings.

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BLESSING AND OFFERING OUR LUNCH

One last little thing is just the way to think about our food. We’ll call it
a blessing, whatever you like. But instead the usual way we think about
it; we see it there, we think, “Oh I like that, I don’t like this” and it’s
just attachment and we just shove it in, politely of course, but just
wanting it. It's for ourselves.
Here we think of it differently. We first imagine that there is just
oceans of food there, not just a little tiny bowl, think about the loaves
and fishes, we imagine it’s just multiplied to vast oceans of food, and
then we just think, just imagine, using your creative imagination, all
beings of the universe, the whole of the universe full, all the buddhas,
all the holy beings, all the suffering sentient beings, trillions of them
all of them, all of them experiencing the joy of receiving this food.
We’re so happy to offer it to them, imagine this.
La-ma sang-gyä la-ma-chhö

De-zhin la-ma ge-dün-te
Kün-gyi je-po la-ma-te
La-ma nam-la chhö-par-bül
Then, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, having blessed the food and
offered it like this, the bigger your stomach, the better! Pease enjoy.
DISCUSSION GROUPS
isten, after lunch, get into groups of like four people. Just grab three
other people, sit anywhere you want, go where you would like and for
an hour take any one of these pieces of information that you’ve heard
so far. We’ve touched on about seven topics. Don’t discuss karma yet
because we haven’t talked about it. But discuss the one of the lower
realms, the possibility of this, discuss, maybe beginningless mind is
really good, the mind being nonphysical and no creator. Take that one
and just discuss and just jump in there and all talk and all bring up
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something and come to some conclusions and then bring any

questions.
Are you all hearing me over there? It’s really useful. You don’t have
to be all serious; you can talk about the weather and the gossip, as you
want. But make even lunchtime useful and talk about this stuff. Make
it fun, I don’t care, but use the time as much as possible. This is really
making the most of your time. And then we can talk more when I see
you back.
I always remember what my philosophy teacher, Geshe Tekchog,
told us: twenty-five percent of what we get from the teachings comes
from listening; seventy-five percent comes from discussion – they call
it debate in the monasteries – thinking about it all, and meditating on
it.
Thank you very much, everybody!
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10. THE SOLUTION: RELY UPON BUDDHA,
DHARMA, AND SANGHA LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR
SCHOOL
SO NOW, WHOM CAN I TURN TO?

And that brings us to the next thing to contemplate. “Oh my goodness!
Whom can I turn to?” Whom can I turn to give me the methods to
avoid this type of intense suffering? Which I do not want, thank you.
I mean, we don’t think like this at all. But we’re tracking this very
carefully step by step. Organically, each point leads to the next, leads
to the next. The next point here would be to contemplate what is
simply called Refuge. Refuge in what? Go for refuge they say.
Well, the term also used is reliance, you rely upon. Let’s say
someone tells you that smoking cigarettes can cause you to get cancer.
I mean, at my most excessive I would smoke eighty a day – Marlboros!
Totally attached to cigarettes. I couldn’t care less about lung cancer.
Because I was so wanting my cigarettes, so totally in the moment
wanting that quick fix.
It’s conceivable, and this is what happens to quite a few of us, that
you then hear about the suffering the cigarettes cause and so you’re
prepared to look at pictures of the ruined lungs, and if you’re really
skillful and you’re brave enough, you’ll say, “Oh my God, I don’t want
that.” Won’t you? You could say, okay you’re using fear tactics. But
when you’re so attached to something, so caught up in something, we
need to use fear tactics to help our minds get a bit of common sense.
First, let’s say, if you’ve never heard of cancer, you’d think, “Oh
don’t be ridiculous, cigarettes cause cancer? Oh come on.” Then they
show all the evidence, they show the movie, they show the cancerous
lungs and the sickness and you think, “Oh my god, I don’t want that.”
Then you think, “Well, whom can I turn to? Where’s the doctor who
can give me the antidote to this?” You understand the point here, the
thinking. This is the thinking here in relation to the suffering of certain
rebirths, as we’ve discussed.
The next step is whom are we going to turn to to give me some

methods to show me how to prevent this type of gross suffering. We’re
not even discussing compassion yet here. We’re not even discussing
attachment. We’re discussing what we do with our body, our behavior.
This is why it’s called Junior School.
Here, we’re turning to the Buddha, the Buddha is our doctor.
TAKE REFUGE IN THE THREE JEWELS

What’s a buddha? Here we’re talking in particular about Mr.
Shakymuni Buddha, the person two and a half thousand years ago who
brought what’s called “Buddhism” to this world at this particular time.
In Buddha’s terms he’s not the first Buddha and he won’t be the last;
he’s known as one of the founding buddhas.
What we’re taking refuge in, what we rely upon, is the Buddha; we
think about him: who he is, his qualities, his capacity. Then we look at
his teachings, because if he’s a decent person he’s giving reasonable
teachings. We look at his methods, his teachings, the Dharma; they
use the Sanskrit word, Dharma, which is referring to the spiritual
teachings. And that’s the stuff we actually put into practice. And we
also rely on the spiritual community, the Sangha.
Just very briefly on refuge. They talk about ultimate Buddha,
relative Buddha; ultimate Dharma or absolute Dharma, relative
Dharma; absolute Sangha, relative Sangha.
ABSOLUTE BUDDHA AND RELATIVE BUDDHA

Actual “buddha” is when you have become fully developed. An
enlightened mind has three essential qualities: infinite wisdom,
infinite compassion, infinite power. This enlightened mind is free of all
the pollution and the goodness is developed to perfection.
A buddha has three essential defining characteristics.
Infinite wisdom The fully developed person, fully developed in
wisdom, has achieved omniscience – literally. This is the natural
potential of all minds, Buddha says. As discussed, the result of
removing all delusions from the mind and developing virtue and
wisdom to perfection is omniscience: the effortless capacity to see how
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THE SOLUTION: RELY UPON BUDDHA, DHARMA, AND SANGHA CHAPTER 10
things exist, without mistake. This implies the entire approach of

Buddhist practice.
This omniscient mind pervades space, because finally how can
something non-material be confined by space or time or matter? It
cannot be. Just think about it conceptually. Necessarily when you’re
fully developed, your buddha consciousness, your enlightened
consciousness, your mind, which is the continuity of this very mind
now, stuck in this body, when it’s fully enlightened it necessarily is
knowing wherever there are things to be known. Meaning it is
pervading the universe. It can’t be confined. It is everywhere. The
mind of a buddha, the awareness, unpolluted, seeing things as they
are.
Infinite compassion and the wish to benefit others Then
there’s the compassion wing. When that’s fully developed, you have
infinite empathy with all living beings. The misconception of a
separate self has been eradicated. Not a fraction of distinction, not a
fraction of discrimination; infinite compassion, love, affection for
every being, equally. Which is, again, pretty insane. We find it hard to
love even one person well!
This is cultivated, of course, from countless lives of practicing and
perfecting love and compassion, affection for others. Love is “may you
be happy”; love is just delight and affection for others and a wish they
be happy. Compassion is empathy with their suffering that developed
to an amazing degree of a sense of responsibility that it’s my job to
make others happy, it’s my job to take away their suffering. And we
will discuss this in university, the great scope. Fully developed in this,
beyond which you can’t be developed further. Infinite empathy, love,
compassion for every living being equally. Your mind will be full of
this.
Infinite power to benefit others But there’s another quality,
too: infinite power: the effortless ability to do whatever needs to be
done to benefit all living beings – based on compassion and wisdom –
including manifesting in countless bodies throughout countless
universes for countless eons to benefit countless sentient beings.
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This all-knowing, all-compassionate, all-powerful unmaniest

consciousness pervades all existence, just naturally.
Sounds like God, right? But not the creator part – that’s massively
different. And it’s the natural potential of all minds.
Relative Buddha Now as far as being useful to sentient beings is
concerned, absolute buddha is useless to us because we’re not subtle
enough to experience that mind. We can’t communicate with that
mind. Out of great kindness and compassion, the Buddha manifests in
a form, in forms, for the benefit of others. That’s the relative buddha.
Here, we’re talking about the buddha of our time, Shakyamuni
Buddha, a person we can see, we can hear. That’s the relative Buddha.
The form that the buddha consciousness takes.
ABSOLUTE DHARMA AND RELATIVE DHARMA

Then you’ve got the absolute Dharma. That is the actual
realizations, the actual knowledge or realizations in the mind of a
buddha and other so-called superior beings. From the moment you
first realize emptiness, from the moment you first have a non-
conceptual realization of emptiness, all the way on up to a buddha:
they are superior beings. The knowledge or experiences of the Dharma
within their minds, their realizations, that is the absolute Dharma, the
actual Dharma.
Relative Dharma But again, we can’t access that knowledge.
We’re not subtle enough. Out of kindness these holy beings express
their realizations in words, which then get written down: that’s called
books. How kind they are. It’s like Bach: the music’s inside him, isn’t
it? It’s his own realizations of all the music. Well, you know he can sit
there smiling at you, but you’ll never know how to become your own
Bach unless he expresses his music in sounds and writes it all down in
the musical language. That’s the relative Dharma, the words in the
books, the recordings, etc.
That’s our real Refuge, the thing we need most. You could have
twenty-two Buddhas in front of you, smiling at you. No use. But they
give you words, that’s the medicine. The Dharma is the real thing you
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THE SOLUTION: RELY UPON BUDDHA, DHARMA, AND SANGHA CHAPTER 10
rely upon, it’s the medicine, that’s what you take. You can go to the
doctor but until you take the medicine nothing changes.
ABSOLUTE SANGHA AND RELATIVE SANGHA

Then you’ve got the absolute and relative Sangha. The absolute
Sangha, the spiritual community, are simply those arya beings, those
superior beings. But you won’t recognize them, it could be the
homeless person down on the corner on Ocean Street. You see this
smelly old homeless person, you don’t know if it’s an arya being; you
can’t tell because we’re not clairvoyant.
Relative Sangha The relative sangha is monks and nuns, those
who are living in the fullness of the vows expressed in the Vinaya. The
existence of the sangha is crucial. Buddha would say that the presence
in one place of four fully ordained people is the criterion for the
presence of the Dharma, the living Dharma, in one place. The ordained
monks and nuns represent the living Dharma. That’s the relative
sangha.
Broadly speaking we can say here is our spiritual community,
ordained or not. But in order for the Dharma to be alive, it’s dependent
upon the presence of four fully ordained monks and nuns. This is why
in the Asian tradition, which is where Buddhism came from, there’s a
great appreciation for the sangha.
In fact there’s a story in Tibet about some wicked king destroying
the Dharma in the country – I don’t know when. And there were only a
few monks left and there weren’t enough to hold further ordinations.
They were so desperate to keep the Dharma alive in Tibet by keeping
up the number of sangha in Tibet that they managed to get a Chinese
monk to snuck over the border, thus making up the quota and hold
ordinations. And out of respect – they must have worn blue – we have
this blue thing on here on our donka, the shirt Tibetan monks and
nuns wear. Out of respect, to honor that Chinese monk.
That’s Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.
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FORMALLY TAKING REFUGE

A person can formalize their commitment to being a Buddhist in front
of somebody, a teacher, a very short little ceremony. On the basis of
having checked that the Buddha is a valid source, having checked the
teachings carefully and therefore having confidence in their validity to
the degree that we’re capable, and on the basis of clearly knowing that
we’re sick of suffering and want methods to stop creating the causes
for it, we then decide “I’m formally a Buddhist.” You take refuge, you
commit yourself.
Then at the same time, or later, you commit yourself to a series of
vows. Buddha loves his vows! We will discuss this later, when we talk
about karma.
This is very briefly what refuge is about.
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11. LIVE ACCORDING TO THE NATURAL LAW OF
KARMA LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR SCHOOL
Now we’ve decided we’re going to rely upon the Buddha, Dharma,
Sangha by taking their medicine, their advice, in order to stop future
suffering. What’s the medicine? Simple. Stop creating the causes of
future suffering by giving up the causes. Not complicated.
Here, for the Buddha, we get to the crux of his view about suffering
and its causes. All the thinking up to now – perfect human rebirth,
impermanence and death, suffering of the lower realms, refuge, etc.,
etc. – is priming us, logically leading us, step by step, internally,
logically, leading us to now want to practice. Okay, I’m relying upon
the Buddha, I’ve seen he’s a valid guy, I want to do what he says. What
does he say? He says, “Honey, abide by the laws of karma.”
WHAT’S KARMA?
“Karma” means “action,” in Sanskrit. Buddha is saying everything we
do, say, and think, every microsecond of what we do, say, and think is
a karma, an action, which leaves a seed in our consciousness, our
mind, which necessarily, being a seed, ripens in the future as our
experiences.
In this sense, quite literally, we can say from moment to moment
we are sowing the seeds of our future experiences and from moment to
moment we are experiencing the fruit of our past seeds. We are the
creators of ourselves, Buddha says. His Holiness says you could say
that karma is “self-creation.” No one did us to us. The more you take
the Buddha’s view of the mind, consciousness, our own, no creator,
karma, the more you see what Buddha’s saying: that we are the
creators of ourselves. No one made us – that’s a bizarre concept for
Buddha, the ultimate in the victim mentality; that we’re the handiwork
of someone else. Which is what we actually think!
A NATURAL LAW
There are many ways of talking about karma. It’s a law. As I said about
Mr. Newton and the apple, the gravity thing, he didn’t invent gravity.
We know perfectly well that he didn’t create gravity, he didn’t make it
up; he didn’t have it revealed to him in a dream; he didn’t have a
vision of it. This is what we think about spiritual stuff. It’s so bizarre.
Someone has a vision and they go out and say, “This is the truth.”
Excuse me! We’d check out Mr. Newton and Mr. Einstein if they said
this. We know they’ve done a lot of work in observing things and
they’ve come up with some conclusions and have articulated it. And
then it’s up to us to go prove it’s true. What Buddha says is that karma,
cause and effect, is a natural law, like gravity.
If you sow the seed, you’ll get the fruit One of the things
about this law is that you sow a seed, you get the fruit. And you know
what?
If there’s the fruit you must have sown the seed. Sounds so
simple. Quite powerful when it comes to experiences. Because that’s
not how we think. And also we can see logically using the analogy of
seeds, seeds multiply.
One small seed can bring many fruits These are some simple
principles about karma. The energy expands.
NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND SUFFERING, POSITIVE

THOUGHTS AND HAPPINESS
Another fundamental law of karma – and again this is something
absolutely natural and organic, this is not a moralistic statement, and
because we’re used to thinking about it this way, it’s hard to hear it,
what Buddha is saying. As I said before, Buddha is saying there’s this
really natural relationship within me and my life and my mind
between my negative imprints, my negative tendencies and my own
suffering. There’s just this natural relationship. It’s not punishment,
it’s not unfair, it’s just how it is.
And there’s a very natural relationship between positive seeds,
positive imprints, positive states of mind, positive actions and my
happiness. In fact, Buddha says, negative actions ripen as suffering,
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LIVE ACCORDING TO THE NATURAL LAW OF KARMA CHAPTER 11
positive actions ripen as happiness. Not punishment and reward, it’s

just how it is, Buddha says, from his observation.
THE FOUR WAYS THAT KARMA RIPENS

One way to talk about karma is to present the four ways that our
karmic actions from the past ripen in the present, or, indeed, the four
ways that our present actions ripen in the future. Because there’s
nothing much we can do about the ones that are ripening now, except
understand them as a basis for protecting us for the future. You learn
from the weeds in your garden now.
1. THE FULLY RIPENED RESULT

The main way that karma ripens is the realm of existence that you get
born into. We discussed the process of the sentient beings who led,
who followed their delusions, followed the killing, followed the
badmouthing, and then dies with a lot of fear, the anger rises strongly
at death, that killing karma ripens and it throws their consciousness
on autopilot into a lion mummy’s womb. The fully ripened result is the
first way that karma ripens, it’s the type of rebirth we get.
In our case, we can deduce that a very powerful virtuous karmic
seed – specifically, non-killing karma – ripened at the time of our past
death, nourished most likely by lots of very powerful aspirations,
which is all they mean in Buddhism by a prayer, strong aspirations to
get a good life, strong aspirations to have reasonable qualities and a
reasonable future perfect human rebirth so we can continue to
practice, and practiced no doubt in the context of keeping vows of
morality. The very powerful virtuous karmic seed, triggered at the time
of our past death, drove us to our present mother’s womb. Even just
getting an ordinary human rebirth is the fruit of non-killing. The
perfect human rebirth component is all the other good qualities and
conditions that we have in this life.
Now, Mother Teresa and Hitler had human bodies, didn’t they?
They’re both human with noses and eyes and legs, and they speak and
have intelligence and so on. But that’s about where the similarities end
isn’t it? If they both sat in chairs all of their lives and didn’t open their
115
mouths and didn’t act, you’d see okay, one has a funny mustache and
the other one’s the nice skinny old lady, but you wouldn’t see much
difference between them, right? It’s when they speak and act that you
can start to see the other ways that their karma has ripened. First way
that karma ripens is just in the form you get born into. In the case here
we’re talking human birth. The karma was an action of non-killing.
2. ACTIONS SIMILAR TO THE CAUSE

Then the second way that karma ripens is in terms of the personality
and tendencies that we have. This is called actions similar to the cause.
Actions, meaning karma, “similar to the cause”: hear the words. If you
look into your mind and you see you have a tendency to be angry, well
that is an action, a karma, similar to the cause. Which is what? This
moment of anger is similar to the cause, which is previous anger. In
other words this is a way of describing your tendencies. Very simple.
Look into your mind and you see you’re a bunch of tendencies, a
bunch of habits: generous, kind, loving, mean, fearful, depressed,
angry, want to kill, want to lie, want to play football, want to play
music – you name it, we’re a bunch of tendencies. Now this is what we
call our personality isn’t it? Of course in the West, we think mummy
made it this way or God gave us this personality.
Well, Buddha says, “You made you, sorry, you made you. Your
mummy didn’t make you, your daddy didn’t make you.” For sure, she
and Daddy gave us a body, but they didn’t give us our mind, our
tendencies.
The commonest thing we say is, “I’m like this because my daddy’s
like this, I’m like this because my mummy’s like this.” Buddha would
say, “Not true.” You can be similar but the reason you’re similar is
because you each have created similar causes in the past and then you
come together to be parent and child. Then of course her acting in that
way brings up those tendencies in you. But if you didn’t have a
tendency to be angry, you can have an angry mummy until the cows
come home, it won’t make you angry. Anger has to be a tendency in
you in order for you to be responding to someone else’s anger. In this
sense, quite literally Buddha is saying our mothers and fathers don’t
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create us. Clearly they play a major role. There’s no doubt about that.
They’re not the main one, that’s the point, and we will go into this in
more detail in high school.
The entirety of our personality, in other words, is a bunch of habits
that we have brought with us from having practiced them in the past.
It’s something very reasonable. If you play piano well, you’re not
surprised that you’re good at it because you know you’ve practiced it
for ten years. When I was a little girl, if I were brought up as a
Buddhist I wouldn’t be surprised by my tendency to be angry because
I’d know I must have practiced it really well.
Another friend of mine, I always quote this story. We live around
children and we can see that they stomp on the snails and harm the
creatures, “Oh well, they’re just kids. They’ve got to be taught
otherwise.” Nonsense! A friend of mine with a three-year-old son, she
was taking the lice out of his head and he was in tears. “Mummy,
Mummy, leave them alone, don’t hurt them, it’s their home.” He was
begging his mother to leave the lice alone and not harm them. She
didn’t teach him this. My mother didn’t teach me anger. They were
tendencies in our minds. This poor little Mr. BTK man, this awful man
who did these awful things. What’s his name?
Student Carl Rader. [Dennis Rader is the serial killer who called
himself BTK – Bind, Torture, Kill – who tortured and killed many
people in Wichita, Kansas from the 1970s onwards].
Ven. Robina That gentleman, you know who I’m talking about. Mr.
BTK, that poor man. The Buddha said he’s not some guy who is
innately evil and should go to hell forever, which is what everybody
thinks. He has got these incredible, appalling tendencies in his poor
little mind since his conception. Now where did he get these? You
check the animal realm. You check those animal shows that we think
are so fascinating, “Oh this is nature.” And then you see it from this
point of view, from the Buddha’s point of view, not being mean about
them, having compassion, you look at how they torture each other. You
look at how monstrous all those creatures are to each other. I mean it’s
a nightmare. It is torture all the time, ripping each other up into
pieces, alive. Unbelievable suffering. We never think of it this way. But
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that’s what it is. And they’re habits, tendencies, from having done it
before.
This Mr. BTK obviously brought those tendencies with him very
vividly into this life such that, when he’s a little boy even he’s torturing
and harming. Of course he has to hide it, the world doesn’t approve.
He has ego, he wants to be loved by everybody, so doesn’t want to go
around shouting he tortures and kills people. It’s a powerful tendency
in his mind. Just like Mother Teresa’s tendencies are powerful
tendencies in her mind from her past practice of positive things.
In this sense we are literally the creators of ourselves, Buddha says.
We bring with us a few of our tendencies, some positive, some
negative. We’re fortunate, aren’t we, that ours are pretty minor
negative ones. But even then we look into our minds and we feel so
ashamed of so many strange things that pop up in our minds, people’s
weird fantasies and things. We’re scared to talk about them. We don’t
know where they come from. “This is me,” we think. They’re a bunch of
tendencies from the past, whatever they might be.
3. EXPERIENCES SIMILAR TO THE CAUSE

The third way our karma ripens is called the experiences similar to the
cause and this is all the stuff that happens to you, that people do to
you. How people see you, how they treat you, they kill you, they lie to
you, they steal from you, they love you, they give you money, they take
care of you, they protect you, they save you, they harm you, whatever it
might be.
There’s not a single experience any sentient being has that isn’t the
fruit of their own past karma. This is a fundamental law according to
Buddha. And this is not how we think!
4. ENVIRONMENTAL KARMA
The fourth one is environmental karma. Even the way we experience
our external environment, not even meaning the trees; whatever it is,
this room, we collectively are experiencing probably fairly reasonable
harmonious karma, non-harming karma. The walls aren’t dripping
with mold, the temperature is not so outrageous, the sound is
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relatively quiet, so it’s quite peaceful environmentally. This is the

collective result of this particular group of our own past actions of
morality.
NOTHING IS RANDOM
Now if we were sitting in a house full of noise, stinky smelling stuff,
ugly stones and rocks, smashed up things, violence, that’s the fruit of
negative karma. Nothing is accidental, nothing is random, according to
Buddha. It can’t be. In just the same way that we understand this when
it comes to what we call science. Gardens, we know perfectly well,
every single tiny, weird thing growing in that mass of green stuff in
that garden has a cause. There’s a logic to it, there’s a science to it,
there’s a law to it. It’s not just random.
Just because we don’t know what the cause is, we can’t just say,
“Ah, well, there’s no cause, it’s just the way gardens are.” We’ve got a
handle on cause and effect when it comes to science. We’re useless
when it comes to internal, when it comes to cause and effect from
Buddha’s point of view.
So: the way the environment impacts upon you is a result of your
past actions. The way other people see you and treat you is a result of
your past actions. Your own tendencies and habits are the result of
your past actions. And the very form you have is the result of your past
actions. You’re the creator. Not in the magic wand sense as we think
about a creator or a magician. Not like that. In an evolutionary sense.
We might say Mr. Smith of Smith’s Microphones that creates the
microphone, but we know it’s not just some magical thing. It’s process
of cause and effect, you take this, and put this, and process this and it
goes to this, intricate putting together of many causes and conditions
is what produces the microphone. Well the intricate coming together
of many causes and conditions is what produces Robina. She’s not
some invention of somebody. Buddha says that is superstition.
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12. ENTRY-LEVEL PRACTICE: THE TEN DON’TS
Now, what is a negative action? Besides the five vows that you might
take when you take refuge (we talk about these later), there’s a simple
packaging of the ten nonvirtuous actions – the ten don’ts – Buddha
would recommend we avoid doing. This is our most urgent level of
practice, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says. And why? Because harming others
brings harm to ourselves.
We’re not discussing compassion yet, this is coming later; we’re not
even beginning to discuss compassion. The reason at this stage is that
we’re totally caught up in is our own happiness. Don’t underestimate
that. We get so holy: “Oh that doesn’t sound very spiritual, I’m
supposed to benefit other people blah, blah.” Buddha says you can’t
begin to benefit others until you can benefit yourself, and you can’t
begin to benefit yourself until you know why you’re suffering and what
causes you happiness. This is what we’re very occupied with here, in
the wisdom wing.
He’s recommending there are ten things at this level of practice, the
basic level, already profound, there are ten things we should attempt
to avoid doing, getting involved in, to protect ourselves from future
suffering. There are some of the body, some of the speech and some
of the mind.
The mind is the bottom line when we go to high school and get into
the second scope, we’re really beginning, like I said, to become our
own therapist, to begin to look deeply into the mind because there,
right there, are the sources of the suffering and the sources of
happiness. We become deeply familiar with our mind.
Here we’re not deeply going into the mind but we’re looking at the
general laws of karma and learning to avoid misusing our body and
speech and indeed beginning to protect our mind to some extent.
ENTRY-LEVEL PRACTICE: THE TEN DON’TS CHAPTER 12
ZIP YOUR LIP AND KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF

But the very first level of practice here is mainly zip your lip and keep
your hands to yourself. It’s to do with the body and the speech. The
great Kadampa masters and all the students in the generations after
Atisha in the eleventh century in Tibet, they have this lovely saying:
“When you're with others, watch your behavior” – just like our
grandmas used to tell us. “And when you’re on your own, watch your
mind.” Because the very first level of practice – and here in the junior
school we’re talking this level of practice, very first level – is you’ve got
to control your body and speech.
Look at this world. It’s body and speech that create the problems,
isn’t it? We can deduce, and we will discuss this, that the mind is the
source but we can see the actual doers of the problems are the body
and the speech. And you can imagine that if this world could have this
understanding, that there are implications to oneself of one’s own
actions, thus control our body and speech, what a blissful world we
would live in. Can you imagine? Never a harmful word, never a
harmful action. What an amazing paradise we would live in. Can you
imagine? And this is the first level of practice. Oh my goodness.
Now again if the real job of the wisdom wing is in high school in the
second scope when we become our own therapist, to deeply learn
about our own mind – and we’re going to talk about that – how can I
possibly begin to become familiar with my anger if I can’t control the
crazy speech? I mean, it’s impossible, isn’t it? If you can’t control your
body and speech, there’s no way you have any skill to observe what’s
behind it. Because they are such a loud noise, the body and speech are
the grossest level of our being. If that’s totally berserk, forget about
seeing your own mind. Impossible. In order to even begin to do some
meditation to start looking into your own mind, to become your own
therapist, you’ve got to control your body and speech. If you have
berserk body and speech you can’t even sit for more than thirty
seconds, right? You go berserk, you go even more berserk.
The first level of practice is just control your body and speech. This
much alone, amazing. I can’t describe how incredible. It’s for your
benefit but, hey, look at the lucky rats and roaches: they get a life if
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you stop killing. It benefits them. They’re sort of the indirect

beneficiaries of the practice of the wisdom wing, you’re the direct
beneficiary. And that’s perfect. But it benefits others if you don’t lie,
others benefit. If you don’t kill, others benefit.
The main purpose here is because this will protect you from future
suffering. And we’re trying to get in touch here with our own suffering,
with what causes it. We don’t want the future suffering right,
remember we talked. To protect ourselves, like those cigarettes, once
you establish the result of smoking cigarettes, you’ll stop smoking
cigarettes. Maybe you haven’t given up your attachment to cigarettes
yet, which is in your mind. No worries. First stop putting the smoke
inside.
THREE NEGATIVE ACTIONS OF THE BODY

1. Don’t kill any sentient being. Best.
2. Don’t steal, or, as the Tibetans say, don’t take the ungiven. So
clear.
3. Don’t jump on the wrong partner – sexual misconduct,
and that usually means don’t take someone else’s partner and don’t
cheat on your own. And His Holiness says, don’t rape.
FOUR NEGATIVE ACTIONS OF THE SPEECH

4. Don’t lie.
5. Don’t engage in idle talk – don’t go just blah, blah, a load of
rubbish, with no concern of whether the person wants to hear it; don’t
just rabbit on about nothing. We spend most of our lives doing this.
6. Don’t abuse people. Don’t use harsh language.
7. Don’t badmouth behind their backs, making trouble,
making divisions between people, divisive talk.
We can see we mightn’t run around doing too much harm with our
bodies but we sure use our mouths. We do a lot of harm with our
mouths. Don’t you think? Really protect your mouth.
Just refraining from these actions of body and speech alone,
already you’d be an incredible person. You wouldn’t harm others,
you’d be subdued, you’d be disciplined, you’d be content in yourself.
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ENTRY-LEVEL PRACTICE: THE TEN DON’TS CHAPTER 12
Remember, at this stage of practice, what drives our wish to not

harm others is that we do not want future suffering. That’s crucial.
But not only are we the beneficiaries of non-harming. As Rinopche
says, all the rats and roaches will have a party because we leave them
in peace!
THREE NEGATIVE ACTIONS OF THE MIND

The mind, it is the beginning of working on your mind; really, it’s just
a way of presenting avoiding what they call the three root delusions:
ignorance, attachment and aversion. The three root delusions and
we’re gonna talk about this in more detail in high school.
8. Craving Here the commitment is to not have strong craving, to
refrain from strong craving, that really unhappy, obsessive hunger,
craving for something else, for something, either somebody else’s or
something. It’s just really painful. It’s an exercise of attachment that is
not helpful to us.
9. Ill-will Wed need to refrain from this heavy level of anger; ill-
will is wanting to harm others in the mind on the basis of anger. This
one’s so heavy. You just can’t let go of the anger and you even want the
person to suffer. That’s not even saying to dealing with anger, just to
refrain from ill-will.
10. Wrong views And the third one is a very gross level of
ignorance. This very superstitious, narrow-mind, like an eye for an
eye, a really ignorant mind that’s functioning very strongly in the
world. So many ways. Really deep kind of ignorance, of understanding
of things. Just backing away from these a little bit.
Simply abiding by these ten don’ts, Buddha would say, is a perfect way
to live your life. Without even going into it much more deeply, if you
just lived your life this way: blissful. You’ll be more blissful, you’ll be
more relaxed, you’ll be more calm, and you’re sowing all the most
positive seeds in your mind that will ripen in the future as happiness
so you can keep on bopping on your spiritual path. Just this, this is the
first level of practice. And you’ll leave sentient beings in peace!
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13. WHAT DEFINES AN ACTION AS NEGATIVE?
WHAT IS A SIN FOR CHRISTIANS?

Let’s go a bit further into this now, analyzing just why a negative
action even is negative. If I’m a Christian, by definition, a sin is doing
what God said not to do. I’m not criticizing; that’s the Christian view.
If you have faith in a creator, it fits. It’s reasonable. Obeying God’s law.
WHAT IS A NEGATIVE ACTION FOR THE BUDDHA?

But it’s not the Buddha’s view. Broadly speaking, Buddha would say,
“Don’t harm others” – the same as any reasonable ethical person. And
the reason is, “They don’t want to be harmed.” Check yourself, it’s very
obvious. In other words, a negative action at this level of practice is
one that harms another. But this is not the reason that Buddha exhorts
us not to do it. This is a crucial difference. It’s got nothing to do with
Buddha – it’s a natural law. He’s a not a creator, he’s not the boss. He’s
merely an advisor. He’s seen from his observation that sentient beings
don’t like being harmed.
But, crucially, at this level of practice he’s exhorting us not to harm
others because it brings consequences to ourselves. Doing negative
actions brings us our future suffering.
Of course, harming another is not the only negative action; it’s the
heaviest. Doing any action motivated by a delusion is a negative action
insofar as you create negative karma, which results in suffering for
yourself. But here we’re talking about the heaviest ones: the ones that
harm others.
THE FOUR CONDITIONS IN PLACE FOR A NEGATIVE

ACTION TO BRING THE FULLY RIPENED RESULT
All right. Let’s talk a little bit more then about the mechanics of how
we do actions, how we create karma. “Create” is a difficult word
because we put magical meanings onto it. What’s this process of
WHAT DEFINES AN ACTION AS NEGATIVE? CHAPTER 13
sowing karmic seeds? How does it work? There’s many ways of talking
about this but I find this a quite useful way.
In order for any action we do, let’s say an action of killing that ant,
I always use that example, let’s say there’s an ant on my kitchen sink,
in order for the action of killing that ant to leave a seed in my mind
that brings the fully ripened result of future rebirths, in this case,
suffering rebirth and indeed many as a result of that, because
remember one seed brings many fruits, karma expands; in order for
that action to bring a fully ripened result, that is to say for it to ripen at
the time of my death and to throw me into a lower realm, there need to
be four conditions in place when I do the action. It’s more detailed
than this, but here’s a rough idea:
1. The object There has to be the object, in this case a living ant.
2. The mind involved in the action There are two parts: The
first is the mind engaging in the decision to kill: intention: actually it
is synonymous with the word “karma”: mental action.
Action, intention. Of course, we use our body and speech to carry
out that intention, don’t we? The first one that needs to be in place is
the intention to do it.
The second part is the motivation: the key thing, what propels us
to actually do it.
But we experience these as virtually the same thought; they come so
quickly, we don’t notice.
MOTIVATION: THE REASON BEHIND THE INTENTION

Intention to kill, for example, and the motivation that compels it, so
utterly come together that we don’t analyze it, as I said. But if we do
break it down we will see very obviously that if I have an intention to
kill an ant, there must be a reason I’m going to kill the ant. And the
obvious reason mostly is what? “How dare that ant be on my kitchen
sink.” What’s that state of mind? That is called aversion, which is the
state of mind that is, when it’s more volatile, called anger.
Now you wouldn’t think you’re being angry with the ant but that’s
basically what it is. Aversion is the direct opposite of attachment.
Attachment is the craving to get what I want. We’re going to go into
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this in high school. Aversion is the direct opposite. “How dare that ant
be on my kitchen sink.” Aversion is the response, in fact, when
attachment doesn’t get what it wants. And that’s aversion. Expressed
strongly, it’s anger. Okay, I mightn’t smash the little ant with fury and
rage, but there’s certainly aversion there, meaning dislike of that ant,
and it’s based on attachment. “How dare it by on my kitchen sink,
disturbing my peace.” That’s aversion.
Now that’s a pretty intense state of mind. It’s far more powerful
than attachment. Attachment is the source, but aversion, and therefore
anger, is the most violent, therefore the most harmful, therefore the
deepest negative karma. Just naturally. The motivation, the reason I
want to kill the ant, the reason I intend to, is because of aversion. It’s
obvious.
Motivation is most important. The motivation is the most
important one. The motivation determines, in fact, the actual quality
of the action and determines the karmic result, the quality of the
karmic result.
3. The action Then there has to be the action, in this case killing
the ant.
4. The result And then there has to be the result, in this case the
death of the ant. Roughly speaking. Actually they say the death has to
occur, for it to be a fully ripened result it has to occur before you die;
technically.
We’ve now sown a negative seed in our mind that, unless we purify
it, will multiply and then manifest as many suffering rebirths.
There are other factors involved, but I’m keeping it simple here.
Anyway, let’s look further into karma and how it works.
WHAT’S INVOLVED IN DOING NEGATIVE – OR POSITIVE –

ACTIONS
But let’s look into it more intricately. It’s clear that killing is harmful;
it’s very obvious, no being likes to get killed, no being likes to be lied
to, no being likes to be stolen from. This is fairly evident.
But that is not enough in order to determine whether the action you
did leaves a negative imprint in your mind. This is a really crucial
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point. It’s extremely important. In general, Buddha would exhort us all

don’t kill, don’t harm, don’t badmouth, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t this,
don’t that. And at this first level of practice there’s no wriggle room:
simply don’t kill, not lie, etc. etc. Because you don’t want to pollute
your own mind with these habits. That’s clear.
But if you want to get more deeply into really understanding the
mechanics of it – and I think it’s extremely important, we must do
that, to see why he says it – we can look into these things and see what
it is that makes something negative. We’re going to do this more
intricately when we look at the mind in high school coming after
karma.
NO INTENTION: NO KARMA
Let’s take an example of Paula. Let’s say Paula has an ant on her
kitchen sink but let’s say she has no idea it’s there. She’s chatting to
her little daughter and being kind and giving her daughter her dinner
and she mistakenly kills an ant. She has no intention to kill, right?
Therefore no motivation to kill. But the object is there, she does an
action, and the ant dies. But there’s no intention. You could argue she
creates virtually no karma, good or bad. You see my point here? It’s
very obvious. Karma is intention and motivation and then followed
through with the body and speech.
Whereas my ant: I intend, I see it, I have aversion, “Who do you
think you are! Kill!” Now as far as the ants are concerned, they
couldn’t care less whether you know or don’t know. They’re both dead,
right? From the point of view of objectively looking, two ants are dead;
but from the point of view of the doer, very different karma created.
And it makes sense from this point of view. It’s very interesting isn’t
it? Paula creates virtually no karma because your mind didn’t engage
in it.
Student The being of the ant, depending on the degree of sentience,
it would register the difference.
Ven. Robina No and that’s not the issue here. I doubt very, very,
very much. Let’s leave this for a minute. No questions for a sec, let me
finish the little picture then we can talk about it.
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Okay, in general the point I’m trying to express here most of all is
how we as individuals create our karmic actions and this is what we
really need to be aware of in order to protect ourselves. This is the
main issue here. We’re not discussing the ant here. That’s okay, your
point is fine, but the issue here is the karma that we create and how we
determine what karma we do create and how we begin to protect
ourselves.
KILLING WITH A GOOD MOTIVATION

Another scenario could be Jennifer’s got an ant on her kitchen sink
and this little ant has got its legs mangled because she has somehow
hurt it by accident. And there she is reaching out with compassion:
“Oh this poor little ant, I can’t believe it, I’ve hurt this little ant, look at
it, suffering.” Her little heart is opening up with compassion. Then she
thinks, like a lot of us do: “Oh I must kill it and stop its suffering.”
then she has an intention to kill, right? There’s an object there,
the ant, she does the action and the ant dies. But look at her
motivation. Again a third ant is dead, it doesn’t care, it knows no
difference. Three ants, three dead ants. From an observer’s point of
view, three murders over there: Paula, Jennifer and Robina.
But from the point of view of each of our minds: one had no
motivation and no intention, one had a pure motivation and one had a
lousy motivation therefore, karmically each of our actions leaves a
different type of seed in the mind and will ripen in different ways.
Karma is not punishment, is not reward, it’s an organic, natural
law. If there’s complete un-knowledge in your mind you can almost say
you create no karma. If there’s compassion in your mind you could say
you create some good karma. And aversion is mine, I create bad
karma. Meaning: our intention and motivation are what leaves seeds
in our mind. We are the doers of that thing.
Again, in general we can assert, Buddha would say, don’t kill, that
killing is labeled a negative action. That’s a correct statement. But you
can see when it comes to the person who kills, you don’t know, mind
your own business, back off and don’t judge. But when it comes to
yourself, you can learn to see deeply. This is extremely important.
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COMPASSION IS NOT ENOUGH

An interesting issue with Jennifer’s scenario, from Jennifer’s point of
view, she even probably created some good karma because her
compassion was so strong and her wish to save this ant from suffering
was so strong. But, as His Holiness says, “Compassion is not enough”
– or Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “Meaning well, is not enough.” We
need wisdom.
WE NEED WISDOM
What does that mean? Well in this case, that means you have to have
the wisdom. . . Okay, let me use an example. Normal ordinary life, we
know perfectly well if there’s some kind of action we’re going to take,
we need to know the consequences of it, don’t we? Before we take the
action we need to know the consequences. We need to be well
informed.
Let’s say you go up in the mountains of Nepal, a lot of people have
got cataracts up there. And you go: “Oh my goodness, these people
with cataracts, I can’t believe it, I’ve got so much compassion, I wish I
could help them.” Right? Now then you rush off with your scalpel,
starting to cut their cataracts out – but you didn’t check that you’re not
a surgeon yet.
Now we would never do that, would we? We are not so stupid that
we wouldn’t realize, we’re not capable of helping. Our heart is
breaking, we’d like to help but you’re not informed. You haven’t got
the wisdom to know how. They’ll thank you for leaving them with their
cataracts. We would never do that. We understand that really well,
don’t we?
Now when it comes to killing an ant, because we’re not used to
thinking that an ant has got a continuity of consciousness, and we’re
not used to thinking of ants with karmic imprints in their minds, and
we’re not used to thinking that its future life is determined by what is
arising in its mind at the time of death. We’re not used to thinking this
way, but this is the Buddha’s view. An ant is just like us. If it dies with
a freaked out mind then we can fairly much deduce that if it’s already
got its little legs mangled, its poor little mind is freaking out and then
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Jennifer comes along and kills it, then it’s going to be freaking out
even more. It’s more than likely that its fearful mind at that moment is
going to trigger a negative karmic seed, which will cause it to go from
the frying pan into the fire, to an even worse life.
If you’re thinking in that point of view, then just to kill it is just a
self-serving action. Not trying to be mean about it. We all do this. We
mean well, but we haven’t got the wisdom to know if it really will
benefit that sentient being and that means of course in terms of its
future life, which is the Buddhist idea. It’s a big issue really.
KILLING OUR GRANDMA OR OUR DOGGIE

And this is the same with killing your grandma too, or putting your
little doggie down, as we call it – putting it down or going to sleep, all
these euphemisms. It’s the same issue. You’ve got to have enough
wisdom. In fact, often in the teachings Buddha would say before you
really know how to benefit sentient beings, which is the compassion
and love wing, you’ve got to have clairvoyance. Which is a shocking
concept, but this is very much how Buddha talks. You’ve got to have
the skill to really actually see the mind and the karma of those sentient
beings before you really know how to benefit deeply.
But of course it’s a relative thing. If you’re not a doctor, but you
know some small thing you can do to help a person with their
cataracts, you do that much. The deeper your wisdom, the more you
can benefit. The same here. You mightn’t need to have clairvoyance
but you have enough sensitivity because maybe you’ve got some
confidence from karma that you know better to protect the ant and put
it in a safe place and blow a mantra and protect it at least so it can die
a fairly peaceful death without being eaten up by another creature.
That’s the best you can do. If you can have more knowledge, then you
act more. This is the approach here.
MOTIVATION BEHIND ALL OUR ACTIONS

The point I’m really making here though is, in terms of the actions we
do every split second, every one of them is motivated by something.
Just naturally. Your intention is always motivated by something. The
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trouble is when it comes to stuff that we’re very habituated to do, the
usual stuff we do, the negative stuff especially, because we’re so
hardwired to do it from much practice, we don’t even break it down.
We don’t even notice we have the intention; we don’t even notice we
have a motivation, it’s just all on autopilot. And this is why we need to
slow the whole process down and begin to observe our mind very, very
deeply, which is why you have to do concentration meditation, so you
develop the skill to see yourself really clearly and to deconstruct your
motives, your intentions, why you do things and begin to change it.
This is what you’re supposed to do. It’s a very intelligent process,
actually. We’ll discuss being our own therapist in high school –
because this is when we really begin to practice.
Motivation is the key factor that actually determines the quality of
the action in terms of the karmic result that we will get, not someone
else judging you, nothing to do with it. I can think of some of our
friends in prison – I know from discussions with them, those who’ve
told us what they’ve done and we never asked them – but like one guy
I know who’s killed. And when he talked about it – I’ve known him for
years now, he’s a very sweet guy and enormous good heart but very
foolish – and so actually he ended up killing somebody in defense of
someone else. And you could even tell from how he talked about it,
there wasn’t too much anger there but there wasn’t really a wish to
harm; to defend. It was a dumb action, you know. Now he’s got a life
sentence. Se’s called a killer, he’s a murderer, and anybody who thinks
about him is going to wish he goes to hell, and so on and so forth.
But you know his motivation wasn’t so severe. It wasn’t really to
harm, it wasn’t brutal. As far as the world is concerned, a killer is a
killer is a killer but each person is different. Each person has got a
different set of reasons, and a set of motivations. Until we know that
person intimately, we can’t afford to say too much. We can’t afford to
judge, we don’t know.
WHEN ACTIONS ARE HABITUAL

There’s another thing under the heading of intention, another factor
that plays a major role in the karma we create, and that is the extent to
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which it’s habitual. And this is a very powerful one. Why most of us
don’t even notice what we’re intending, much less motivating, for
many of the things we do, is because we’re on autopilot doing them.
They’re just second nature.
Look at the last time you killed a mosquito in the summer – let’s
say we used to do this maybe. Even while you’re just chatting away
being friendly; you don’t sit there having this intention, “I’m going to
kill that mosquito. I hate that mosquito with great passion.” Not that
kind of high peak loathing. It’s just spontaneous. If someone said,
“What a cruel person, you are so angry.” “I’m not angry, Robina.” It’s
just habit. It was so spontaneous it was second nature.
THE FISHERMAN
One of the examples I often think of is a woman I met whose son was a
fisherman all his life. Since he was a little boy she said he was attracted
to the water like a magnet. He even called himself Salmon. All his life
he was a fisherman. For him, because he had this deep habit to kill
that he brought with him from past lives because it was so habitual he
didn’t ever think of it as bad.
I’ve told the story many times before actually. This woman, Jess,
came to see me when I was in Kopan, in 1992, our monastery in Nepal,
and she came into my room crying. She had been hearing the teachings
of karma from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and she was in tears because she
said just recently was the fifth anniversary of the passing away of her
beautiful boy who died five years before, when he was 29. He died
scuba diving. And he was a fisherman. She was just getting over the
grief of this. She’d tried to console herself initially by thinking, “Oh
well, he died doing what he liked.” But now she’s hearing about karma,
the way Buddha talks, and it’s all a very different view, and it made her
completely miserable. She was in tears of grief for this boy that he
could be in the suffering realms.
It was interesting. She talked about this boy and how since he was a
little tiny boy he had this strong tendency to kill, to fish. He ran to the
river like a magnet, he even called himself Salmon. He loved fishing;
he was in heaven in his boat. He became a professional fisherman, for
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thirteen years a professional fisherman. And then he died scuba diving

when he was 29.
It’s interesting to use him as an explanation of how karma works.
On one hand, due to past morality he gets born as a human and a
really good life. He has very good experiences similar to the cause,
good family, good friends, good environment; many good tendencies,
kind, compassionate, wise boy, a lovely human being. But he had this
unfortunate tendency to kill, like so many people.
And then, it’s in a culture that doesn’t fault killing, in paticular fish.
Most of our religions condone killing of one kind or other, and
certainly killing animals is seen as okay because they don’t have a soul.
He doesn’t see any fault in it.
Also, because it’s a habit, and because he was attached to it, he can’t
see the suffering of the fish: that’s the tragedy, that means you can’t
stop – because why would you? You’re propelled by the force of your
karmic habit and the pleasure that comes from it.
There he is, he goes fishing and he’s a successful fisherman, quote
unquote, because all the fish come. If the fish didn’t come he would
have stopped, because he wouldn’t want to keep going out there and
get no fish and get no money and he’d starve to death. Getting the fish
was the sign of success, as far as he was concerned – whereas, as we’re
talking here, all the fish coming is the karma of the fish to be killed by
him; it’s very personal karma.
WHEN WE’RE ATTACHED TO SOMETHING WE CAN’T SEE

THE SUFFERING WE CAUSE
Because the world sees it as good, he saw it as good; because he had
the habit, he couldn’t see the suffering he was causing. And this is an
interesting point: his mother, who didn’t have any tendency to kill, she
wasn’t a fisherperson, she went fishing with him just once to please
him. She said it was so distressing in this boat, seeing these fish clearly
really unhappy. To her it was clear the suffering they were
experiencing. Of course she didn’t want to say anything, he’d just think
she was stupid, and he wouldn’t have heard her anyway.
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But he couldn’t see that suffering, and this is the point I’ve made
before. One of the tragedies of the habit to do something negative is
you’re so caught up in doing it, you’re so enthralled by it, you’re so
attracted to doing it, it gives you such pleasure, it blinds you from
seeing the harm you’re doing to others. And that’s the tragedy of it. He
couldn’t see the suffering. For thirteen years, for all his life, for
probably twenty-five years of his life seeing flapping fish, never seeing
them as sentient beings, never seeing it as suffering, therefore never
stopping. You understand? Not criticizing, but this is the tragedy of all
of us.
In this life, due to past non-killing, he’s born with a human body.
But he also has this very powerful tendency to kill, which is the fruit of
the habit, it’s the habit of past killing, which he brings with him. He
then lives near a river so he runs to the river, finds it attractive
because of past connections; loves to go fishing. Then he kills and kills
hundreds of thousands of fish, never sees it as doing harm, so never
regrets it, never sees the suffering, blinded by it, never seeing all the
karmic seeds he’s planting in his own mind that will ripen as future
suffering for him, never seeing this because we don’t think like this.
Then the karma of past killing ripens for him and he dies young.
Using killing as one example of the four ways that karma ripens,
remember? If killing ripened at the time of his past death he would
have got a lion rebirth or the fish rebirth or something, but he got a
human rebirth; so we can deduce from this that the virtue of non-
killing was the throwing karma that brought the fully ripened result, in
this case a human life.
But then he had the other three kinds of karma. He had the first
one: the tendency to kill, which is the action similar to the cause. He
spontaneously followed that because it was a habit in his mind, never
questioning it. Secondly, when he was 29, he got the experience
similar to the cause of killing, which is you die young, or you get killed,
or you get sick. Well, he died young and he got killed. Probably the fish
ate him up, who knows what happened down there. This is the result
of past killing. The habit to kill is the result of past killing.
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The environmental result, he didn’t have that, the environmental

result of killing is that the food is really polluted, the water is polluted,
whatever you eat doesn’t nourish you, it makes you sick; the
environment itself is opposite to nourishment. That’s the karmic result
of killing, from the environmental point of view.
Clearly, he had the two: the habit to kill, which continued to
increase his habit, just deepened and deepened and deepened and
deepened his habit to kill; and secondly he died young, he drowned
scuba diving.
WE DON’T THINK ABOUT CAUSE AND EFFECT LIKE THIS

He’d never thought about impermanence, like the rest of us, never
thought that killing was negative, like the rest of us. There he was, no
doubt, in the water freaking out down there, drowning. Who knows
how he died?
Then the karma of killing, which was so strong a tendency, would
have easily ripened as the main karma, which would have thrown him
into suffering lives. She asked me where do I think he had been
reborn. I suggested he go see Geshe Lama Konchog, this lama and
great yogi and master who lived at Kopan who passed away a few years
ago, a great meditator, very realized, they say. And so I said go and see
him, just ask him. They very rarely tell you what they see, these holy
lamas, many of them are clairvoyant.
She mentioned the name of her boy to him and just wanted to know
what had happened to him when he passed away. He kind of accesses
his inner computer and he said, “Ah yes, first he was born in the
animal realms and now he’s in the hell realms.”
“Oh, my God, what will I do for him?” she said. He smiled sadly and
said, “What do you mean, for him? For everybody!” Because there are
countless sentient beings suffering in the lower realms. And that was
very strong for her mind, to have this compassion for all sentient
beings.
Actually, I saw her years later, and she said it was helpful to hear
this. These lamas never tell us these things – but Geshe-la chose to.
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It’s interesting. It’s a really good example of how karma works.

Take it or leave it, you don’t have to believe it, I’m just telling you
someone’s experience.
FISH SUFFER!
I remember watching something on Fox television, one of those dudes,
one of those very volatile people on Fox television. I’m not
complaining about Fox television, I’m just saying about one of these
people. I don’t know what his name was but he was very volatile and
very conservative. And he was interviewing one of the PETA (People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) people, about how they’re now
finding evidence that fish suffer.
Well this guy was just absolutely panning the PETA man for
aubsurdly suggesting that fish suffer and daring to talk about
protecting fish.
Well, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to check a fish’s
behavior. I saw on the television recently, listen to this one,
somewhere in China where the need to have the freshest fish is
paramount so there’s this big fish, they cook the fish without killing it.
They serve it on the plate and it’s being eaten, alive. And its little
mouth is going [open and shut, silently], because all it can do is do
this. Now if it was a pig, a pig would make a very big noise and you’d
be embarrassed to eat it alive because it would be so disturbing to your
mind. But because fish don’t make a sound and its little body can’t
move very much, its mouth is just going [open and shut]. It’s being
eaten alive.
The thing is, bad enough that the fish is suffering, that it can’t
express it, but our ignorance is the worst thing – that we can’t see that
that is suffering. Even the guy who told the story on the American
television channel, most people would laugh. Because there’s
unbelievable ignorance in our mind about what a sentient being is and
how it suffers. It’s amazing isn’t it? It’s fascinating.
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HABIT BLINDS US
Ignorance is incredible because that’s coming from the habit. When
the habit is so strong to do anything, including good, you do it
spontaneously. This little boy, age three, having compassion for the
lice: that stands out for us because it’s so unusual. That means he had
compassion habitual in his mind from past practice. Just
spontaneously compassion at the age of three.
Most of us: the opposite. This is the worst part about bad habits –
you don’t even know what you’re doing. And this is the tragedy about
negative karma, negative karma is that the more habitual the negative
action is, the more easy it is to do it, naturally, the more you meet the
conditions, the more you meet the fish in other words, to kill. And
therefore the more blinded you are from even seeing the fish is
suffering, because this is how the mind works; and it’s very
fascinating. We’re again going to go more deeply into this in the
second part about the mind.
DRAWN TO THE ACTION

One of the consequences of the habit to do something, when we’re
attached to doing it, one of the consequences is, because what we do
with habit is what gives us pleasure, we go towards it like a magnet.
Whatever you go towards like a magnet because of the past habit and
because it triggers a good feeling in your mind, pleasure, then
attachment arises, which exaggerates the deliciousness of the action,
which blinds you from seeing the suffering.
I used to get really angry, harm people with my mouth because I
was so caught up in my own righteousness, you understand, we all
know that one, that you don’t even notice that you harm that person
until afterwards when you calm down and you feel mortified. Someone
else with patience is standing right next to you and they can see the
suffering of the person you’re shouting at, but at that time you can’t
see it. We’re all familiar with this. And this is the killer of the habit to
do negative things. It blinds us even from seeing the harm we’re doing
because we’re so caught up in our own stuff, our own junk, our own
righteousness, our own attachment.
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BTK, exactly this one. He knows what he was doing was wrong, but
as he said it was his sexual fantasies. I’m talking about the mind more
now but we’re going to go into this. We do what we are attracted to
doing. It happens to be that for some people they get their kicks from
torturing. Animals get this. We get our kicks from having sex with
people or enjoying our chocolate cake, the “normal” stuff and we don’t
get criticized for this. And that’s okay, I’m not criticizing anybody. But
some poor people bring these animal tendencies with them and then of
course, they’re the ones that we think are evil monsters.
But BTK couldn’t stop doing it because he got such a pleasure from
it. That’s not an excuse. Check yourself last time you couldn’t stop
getting angry. Joan talks about her depression. It’s there like a
constant tune in her mind. It’s not a question of not stopping it, it’s
just there all the time because it’s so strong, some karma from the
past. It’s just there.
This is where Buddha’s view, of understanding karma very clearly,
understanding objectively what is morality and what is killing, what is
lying, why is it bad and then you have it as a basis and you use that to
look at yourself. Then you start to see what your own tendencies are
and you realize you do have a tendency to kill and you see how you go
towards it like a magnet. And you have a tendency to lie, and get
depressed, and do this, and do that, so objectively you realize, okay, I
don’t want to do this, it’s an old habit so I’m going to slowly start
planting the new seeds. You don’t make it go overnight but it’s an
effort to go against it. As we all know, that point where these two meet,
that’s practice.
WE FOLLOW OUR TENDENCIES

To practice you’ve got to go against the status quo. You’ve got to look
at the status quo and see what is valid, what is not. Because you also
might have a strong tendency to be generous. Don’t stop that, increase
it. But you’ve got to have a good reason to. The good reason we use
now for continuing to do something is because it’s our personality and
therefore we think it’s good. We use the wrong logic. It’s good if it’s
beneficial to others and it’s motivated by a pure reason. Generosity,
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keep doing it. Fantastic! Anger and lying, stop because it’s not
fantastic.
It needs a lot of precision and a lot of analysis and intelligence to
really see your mind carefully. This is how karma works, it’s very
interesting. And every sentient being, from your lions, to your humans,
to your giraffes, to your BTK’s, to your Hitlers, to your Stalins, to your
Mother Teresas, all are driven by the same law. A bunch of tendencies
and so we follow our tendencies. We think this is who I am, I was
made this way, I didn’t ask to get born, okay that’s cool. The naughty
ones you try to hide because no one will like you but you keep doing
them, then you have guilt and so we just keep going in circles. It’s
crazy. It’s incredible.
MOST PEOPLE KILL

Look at the human world: most people kill something. People in the
wars, snipers, multi-murderers, they have the tendency to kill, humans
in this case. We think it’s okay if you’re in an army, you’re given the
right to kill. But my ex-gangster friends, the Mexicans in the prisons,
they are not given the right so they’re called gangsters, their called
evil. But the guys, the snipers in the Army, they’re given medals.
In Buddha’s terms, karmic terms, we’re so arbitrary. You’ve got the
karma there, you could say that a person who is in the army, who is a
sniper, who’s got the karmic tendency to kill and is very good at it gets
a medal. That’s the experience similar to the cause of good reputation.
They kill, which is a tendency, which will cause them to have enormous
suffering, even though it’s legal. But they’ve got the karma to be
respected for it; that’s a separate set of karma.
A person in prison who’s a gangster who’s killed a few people, I
know a few of them, they’ve got the tendency to kill but they’ve also got
the bad reputation because they’re called a gangster. It’s outside the
law. They’ve got the bad experience similar to the cause, a bad
reputation, and they’ve got the tendency to kill. And they’re not
respected for it. But the killing is the same.
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REMEMBER: THE FOUR THINGS IN PLACE TO QUALIFY AS

A COMPLETE ACTION
The point I’m making here is the four things that need to be in place in
order for an action we do to bring the fully ripened result. Killing:
there has to be the object, the mind involved in doing it, the action, the
result. If it’s a negative motivation and it’s a habit, then you’re just in
the mode of killing. This is why most people kill mosquitoes, kill rats,
kill roaches, kill fish, kill bears.
QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVATION

WHAT DETERMINES WHETHER SOMEONE IS VIRTUOUS?
Student When you talk about cultural differences, just playing devil’s
advocate again here. Just for an example, say there were these
villagers in South America and now the missionaries come and they
want to put their ways, Christianity or whatever. Well these villagers
maybe for them stealing wasn’t an issue, because there was a knife for
the village and when someone needed it, they took it and they used it
for a while and then when someone else needed it, it wasn’t my knife.
When these missionaries come and the villagers say, “Oh, that’s a
really nice knife over there, so I’m just going to take it or use it for a
while.” And the missionary might think, that’s stealing, and punish
them.
Ven. Robina What’s the point you’re asking?
Student What I’m saying is, the villagers they steal or whatever it is,
but for them it’s not stealing.
Ven. Robina What’s the point you’re asking?
Student Is that just not for the villagers, they’ve not in their own
mind, have not sinned or created any bad karma, but from the
missionary it’s a different view, so are they creating bad karma or
what? I guess my question is how do we distinguish between you say
when something’s feels bad or when you’re harming somebody, that’s
bad karma? Creating bad karma.
Ven. Robina No, no. We talked about it yesterday. What
determined whether you create bad karma, it was intention and
motivation. What’s your question?
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Student Where did we come up with what is harmful and what is

not?
Ven. Robina Who’s we?
Student In our society, the culture. . .
Ven. Robina I don’t know about that. You have to ask the
Christians. The answer, I said it before, according to Christians, what
is bad is what God said is bad. Whom are you asking about? It depends
on who you’re asking about. That’s the Christian answer. That’s the
Muslim’s answer, I think the same. I’ve given you the Buddhist answer.
How you determine what is good or bad in general, in the Buddhist
view is what is harmful in general is what harms others, that’s a
negative action. But whether you do a negative action is based on your
intention and motivation for doing it. That’s how you determine.
Even if you could say I could give you some money, which in
general is called a good action, but my motivation might be really
manipulative. Because let’s say you’re rich and I’m really manipulative
and really sneaky, and I’m pretending to be kind to you, and actually
my motivation is really mean and ugly, I don’t create any good karma
at all. You get money, you’re fine. I don’t create any good karma by
giving you money. I create negative karma because my motivation was
so manipulative. There’s no good karma there at all. It looks like one,
it’s phony.
Her action of killing the ant with no intention, no motivation, looks
negative but is not because her mind. . . This is the intricate point that
Buddha is making is to do with motivation and intention. That’s what
determines it.
How did Buddha “come up with,” as you put it, that harming
another is a negative action: well it’s fairly logical. Just do some
market research and ask people, do they like being harmed. Hundred
percent answer no. That’s enough proof. That’s a negative action; it’s
very clear, simple. It’s based on sentient beings’ wishes. They don’t like
being harmed. That’s a really valid thing. To use that as your basis:
just don’t harm others. It’s fantastic. It’s incredible and it’s logical, it’s
not religious, it’s logical. That’s the Buddha’s view.
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HOW DO WE DETERMINE THE VALIDITY OF A

MOTIVATION?
Student I watched a program last night on DVD on Tibet and what
happened. In the Chinese eyes, they were brainwashed propaganda
into believing that they came into Tibet to help the Tibetans. Wasn’t
there a feudal system, the way they were treating their own. I’m just
saying the people who immigrated to Lhasa in Tibet were thinking they
were doing a good thing.
Ven. Robina Those were the words they were saying, but if we look
into, I think, without too much clairvoyance you can look into the
actions of the Chinese and I would say their words are those, but the
motivation was anger, violence. With respect, you could say these
Muslim terrorists, who really believe it is good to kill infidels. Sure
their reason says this and this, but it’s pretty empty. The real one is
violence. You see their anger, there’s enormous anger there. It’s
evident; they’re not even pretending it’s not anger. It’s enormous
anger. That’s the real reason. That’s psychologically what’s happening.
We put philosophical and political words on top of that. Like my
gangster friends in prison. Their philosophy was it was good to kill
your enemies. The reality was internally, violence and anger. Words is
one thing. What’s really happening, motivation is internal,
psychological. It’s fairly easy to distinguish it. You see what I’m
saying?
We believe our own propaganda, you know. Because I think if
you’ve got a karmic imprint to do something, you’ve got to call it good.
For a while when I was a bit of an old hippie and a political activist I
decided I’d start stealing. The karmic reason is the karmic imprint
from having stolen in the past, it was a negative one, it was greedy, it
was to do with myself, but I had to call it good. I said it was good. I
said, “Oh political, these rich people, blah, blah, blah,” and so I felt
justified. But it was a fantasy I put on top of the reality, which is
simply the karmic imprint to harm others, to take what I want. See
what I’m saying?
For ourselves, that’s what we have to look at. I think without being
arrogant about others, we can deduce it fairly quickly. Just look at the
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faces of those Israelis and those Palestinians. That’s not kindness.

They’re not compassionate, they’re not feeling calm. They might have
their politics but that’s built on top of their delusions. They’ve made it
“right” to kill others, to harm others because of this and this. Politics is
just words and we’re all political and we believe our own garbage
propaganda. It’s terrible.
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14. THE POWER OF VOWS LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR
SCHOOL
When we take refuge we can also – at the same time or later – take all
or some of the five layperson’s vows.
A vow is what? A vow is a strong decision to refrain from doing or
saying certain things – vows are not about the mind; they’re always
about behavior. We can see the benfit in our own lives of making a
strong decision. You can go, “Oh I must go on a diet, I must eat less,”
but you keep eating too many chocolate cakes. Nothing ever changes.
But one day you say: “I will go on a diet.” That’s all. Then you’ll do it.
Look how it protects you. Once you’ve made that decision, then you’ll
do it.
But for the Buddha a vow is way more powerful. It’s said in the
Hinayana teachings that a vow in the mindstream of a person is a
subtle physical form visible to clairvoyants.
Lama Zopa Rinopoche says that a person merely keeping purely
their vow not to kill and not doing much other practice accomplishes
infinite more purificaiton and creates infinite more merit than another
person who doesn’t have a vow but who does bucket-loads of practices.
Why? This is crucial to understand. When we discussed how we
create karma we showed that when there is intention in the mind – the
intention to do or not do something – that’s when a seed is left in the
mind. Without intention, normally speaking, there’s no imprint, no
seed, so no karma created.
Well, in order to simply get another human rebirth after death we
need masses and masses of delicious, rich seeds from intentional non-
killing in our mindstream so that it’s easy for one of them to be
triggered before we stop breathing. We discussed it in the death
process.
Throughout our normal daily life, when would we be creating lots
of strong, intentional karmic seeds of non-killing? Only when we
decide to not kill. And the only time we decide that is when there is a
THE POWER OF VOWS CHAPTER 14
creature – or our ex-husband! – right in front of us and we have to

consciously decide “I will not kill.” That’s what leaves an imprint in the
mind.
When we’re merely leading our normal lives and not thinking about
not killing, we’re not creating any karma of not killing. Useless.
But with vows – easy! Buddha says – and this is why Rinpoche said
what he said above – that vows are so potent that every second you are
keeping them, even when we’re not thinking about them, twenty-four
hours a day, even while we’re sleeping, we are creating masses of
virtuous karma of not killing, therefore purifying our minds of those
habits, and therefore also creating merit.
As Rinpoche says, being good is not enough. We need to live in
vows.
This is the power of vows. And it’s an easy way to practice, to
accumulate virtue and to purify negative karma.
THREE SETS OF VOWS

There are three sets of vows according to three levels of the path.
First, the vows of individual liberation, or pratimoksha in
Sanskrit: the five lay vows, for example, which I’ll discuss in a minute,
and the vows of monks and nuns. These are related to the wisdom
wing, junior school and high school: how to help us discipline our body
and speech in order to achieve our own liberation from suffering and
its causes.
Second, bodhisattva vows; and third, tantric vows. Clearly,
these are related to the compassion wing level of practice, university
and post-graduate.
THE FIVE LAYPERSON’S VOWS

1. Don’t kill Of course, this means with intention, because the reality
is we’re killing all the time. Just breathing you’re breathing in sentient
beings; driving, walking, eating your veggies. All those little creatures
have died growing and picking the veggies. Even if you’re a vegetarian,
countless beings have died just by your presence. It’s unavoidable, we
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can’t help it. The vow here is to not kill with intention; you intend not
to kill sentient beings.
And this is really stunning. It’s a rare and precious thing, you’re like
a jewel on this earth. Because you can even see with most religions
they say it’s okay to kill non-humans, and it’s okay to have wars in
certain circumstances. But the Buddha would say – and this is why the
Dalai Lama is an amazing example for this Earth – just don’t kill. It
can’t benefit. It’s only harmful. It comes from a delusion. The vow
never to kill for the rest of this life is an incredible and marvelous
commitment. You are like a precious jewel on this earth.
The rest are 2. Don’t steal , 3. Don’t lie, 4. Don’t engage in
sexual misconduct and 5. Don’t take intoxicants.
That’s five vows, you can take any or all of these.
BREAKING VOWS IN MAJOR AND MINOR WAYS

1. Killing We break in a major way, which means breaking the vow at
the root, which means we need to take it again with someone. when we
intentionally kill a human being. We break in a minor way when we
intentionally kill another sentient being.
2. Stealing We break in a major way when we take something of
value and in a minor way when we take anything that hasn’t been
given to us.
3. Lying We break in a major way when we lie about our spiritual
attainments and in a minor way when we lie in other ways.
4. Sexual misconduct In the texts there are several things they
describe, but keeping it simple we break it by cheating on our partner
or taking someone elses’, by raping, etc. There’s no discussion of major
or minor.
5. No intoxicants Basically this means don’t take substances that
make a mess of your senses.
We can keep our vows strong by doing the purification practice
every night, the four opponent powers.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT KARMA

Okay now a few questions about karma before dinner. Yes?
Student I remember an example of a man I think it was World War
II, he didn’t want to kill but he ended up being a soldier and he knew
in this particular situation that if he didn’t kill a small number of
enemy soldiers that hundreds of his own would be killed.
Ven. Robina Okay let’s analyze it. He had the intention to kill right?
There were objects there, living beings. He did the action and they
died. Now, what was his motivation? Try and imagine.
Student To protect his own people.
Ven. Robina Now what’s George Bush’s motivation for killing the
Iraqis? Just keep looking at it, I’m not trying to be smart or anything.
Let’s analyze it carefully. What would be George Bush’s motivation for
killing the Iraqis? What do you think? Give him the benefit of the
doubt, what’s his motivation? What’s his motivation from the good
point of view? To protect Americans.
Student Or his way of life.
Ven. Robina Whatever it might be. What would be the motivation
of the Israelis to kill the Palestinians? To protect their people. And
what would be the motivation of the lion to kill the tiger? To protect its
people.
Now, what’s new? That’s why people all kill each other. Now the
thing is in the Western world we would say defending others is a
reason to kill. But the Buddha would make it more subtle and he would
say it’s not enough. Everybody kills for that reason. You have
attachment for this group, so you defend them. You hate that group, so
you kill them. That’s not virtue. That’s delusion. That’s how come the
Dalai Lama doesn’t kill anybody. Because it doesn’t help.
Okay then, there are infinite variations on that variation you just
gave and we can discuss that more carefully but in general here, the
main thing that makes an action of killing virtuous is the motivation,
compassion – not for someone else, but for the person you’re about to
kill. Now that’s a rare thing. You see my point? That’s what the
compassion is. Not for someone else, everyone has that. Osama bin
Laden has enormous compassion for his people. I think he’s an
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amazing person but he has this immense rage towards the Americans
and all the infidels, so that’s not compassion. You just destroy your
compassion. Unfortunately that’s the level of compassion we all have
now.
When I was a political activist I had enormous compassion for all
the poor people, but to that extent I hated all the rich. I had enormous
compassion when I was a feminist for all the women, but I hated all
the men. You just can’t do that, you know? You look at a man who
kicks a dog, you have enormous compassion for the dog. Next second
you want to punch the guy in the face. And it’s the victim mode. Real
compassion, which is the one the Dalai Lama is talking about, which is
Buddha’s one, you’ve got to have compassion for the person in front of
you and then maybe there’s some benefit because it’s for their benefit.
Otherwise it’s not for their benefit.
Now that guy in the army, it would seem to me from hearing the
story you just said, he was reluctant. He didn’t want to harm anybody.
But you see he can probably even kill people reluctantly, so you say he
probably didn’t create that much karma because his mind wasn’t full of
aversion. You’ve got to see what’s in the mind. It’s not superstition. He
didn’t have aversion really for those people. From what you just said, it
doesn’t sound like it. To that extent, he didn’t create very negative
karma. Every person is different we’ve got to look at it so carefully.
THE KARMA OF EATING THE FLESH OF AN ANIMAL

Yes Joan?
Student What about your karma if you eat something that someone
else has killed?
Ven. Robina Let’s analyze the action. There in front on your plate is
a piece of flesh, right? That we know was the body of an animal one
time. Let’s look at it. Did you have the intention to kill?
Student No.
Ven. Robina Was there a living being there, in front of you right
there?
Student No.
Ven. Robina Did you kill a sentient being?
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Student No.
Ven. Robina Did you ask someone to do it?
Student No.
Ven. Robina But it was done along there somewhere. Someone else
did it, right? At some point.
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Did the animal die before you?
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Okay, so that one’s in place but the other three aren’t.
Now this doesn’t mean that everything we do doesn’t have some
karmic result. You can’t say it doesn’t because everything really is
interdependent. There’s no question. And if we look at say for
example, let’s take for example in India. Tibetans have always eaten
yaks and things, meat. There were very rarely vegetarian.
But in India though, when they all lived down in the monasteries
there, many of the local shopkeepers started killing animals in order to
provide the meat for the Tibetans. His Holiness was almost in tears,
someone told me. “This has to stop, you cannot do this.” That would be
really heavy. If you’re literally helping create an industry where you
can see it so starkly where there wasn’t one because – most Hindus
don’t eat meat – where they actually started killing the goats so the
Tibetans could get their meat, this was really, really heavy and His
Holiness said absolutely this is wrong. Not being like the Pope or
anything, but just giving them advice as their father. In that case, you
could say, it would be quite heavy karma; where literally beings are
getting killed directly for you.
Now various things are in place here. Another factor would be this,
a friend of mine in Australia, a monk in Dharamsala, an Australian
called Max, he was a member of one of the biggest butcher families in
Australia. Mega rich from what? Killing probably hundreds of
thousands of animals. He never did it but he got all of his riches and
his good life and his education and his nice sports cars from it. Lama
Yeshe said to him when he became a monk, “You never touch meat. No
way.” Because he had such a strong connection with killing, that for
him to eat meat would have been a heavy action.
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Now you could say that someone else who’s got no karma with
killing and no tendency to kill and never kills and has never had
anything to do with killing might eat meat sometimes, no big deal.
There are so many variations. Many factors you’ve got to take into
consideration.
Student It’s in the butcher shop anyway.
Ven. Robina That’s not the point. That’s still not the point, we’re
not talking about that, we’re talking more about our own self and the
role we play and the karma we have and the tendencies we have. That’s
the main issue. Yes, that is another factor. Let’s say in the West, you
could probably say, that if you eat meat or don’t eat meat, it’ll make
virtually no difference to the industry. Of course if it’s the power of
numbers and suddenly five million people stop eating meat, it would
make a difference. It’s true. If we live in India, that one monk stopped
eating meat made the man go out of business. You could say it had a
big impact. there are so many variables. Again, there’s no saying that
there’s not some karmic responsibilities. There always is for everything
we do, there’s some result, there’s some connection. In general they
say the further away you are from the killing, the weaker the karma.
Equally with something good, the further away you are from the
action, even though you’re connected, the weaker. For example, the
atomic bomb. There’s a lot of history recently, stories about those
atomic bomb guys on Hiroshima. The closer you are to the action, the
actual bombers, the pilots, the heavier the karma. The further away,
the little secretary who worked over there in the thing that processed
the letters that came from the people, the scientists, blah, blah, blah,
she was still connected but much weaker karma. Everything is relative,
everything is important for us to look into it and take responsibility,
everything is related to what our tendencies are, ourself and our own
particular position in the thing. There’re many factors involved.
THE KARMA OF THE FISH TO BE KILLED

Now another important factor, which we never think of in the West, is
even if we all stop eating meat, it might not impact upon the industry
one bit because animals have the karma to be killed so strongly that
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they’re are always going to meet a killer. It’s a real interdependent

scenario. That fisherman, since he was a little boy when he went to the
river with his strong intention to kill based on his past karma, the fish
were lining up with their little mouths open because they had the
karma with him, to be killed by him.
I went fishing, wanted to impress a boyfriend who was a fisherman.
He was pulling them in every minute. I couldn’t get one. I had an
intention but I didn’t have any karma with sentient beings to have the
karma to be killed by me. I got no fish.
The thing is, probably you could say if we stopped eating meat,
which is the usual reason in the West to why we should just stop the
industry, which is great, it’s a fantastic motive, it’s a pure motive even
if it doesn’t stop, it’s a pure motive, it’s an amazing thing to do, but
don’t be fooled into thinking it will stop, because animals still have the
karma to be killed and fishermen have a very powerful karma to kill.
You talk to some fishermen, not criticizing, looking at karma,
there’s this immense addiction to doing something. Even fishermen go
fishing and they put the fish back. They’ve got to do the process of
getting the fish. The fish will still have the karma to get killed and you
end up with a glut of fish no doubt. Which is okay, it’s not the point
here. Killing or not killing them is not the point here. It’s depending on
the tendency we have.
The more strong your compassion to think I must stop eating meat
because of compassion for those creatures, that’s amazing karma for
you. Someone else might stop eating meat because they don’t like the
red blood in their body. It’s just completely attachment. That’s nothing
virtuous. Some people will be vegetarian but, excuse me, they’ll have
even organic vegetables that. . . they’re going to bring in this creature
to kill that creature so they can have nice pure veggies. That’s actually
heavier than eating meat. Using sentient beings to harm each other so
you can have pure veggies. Excuse me, how sinister can you get.
There’s many ways to see all this.
The bottom line is first, we’re talking about not harming others;
then we’re talking about based on what’s in our mind the karma we
create in relation to the actions we do. It’s quite intricate. It needs a lot
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of internal looking, it’s not some absolute answer to everything. Like

fundamentalists black and white. Not like that at all.
----
BLESSING AND OFFERING OUR DINNER

It’s time for dinner. Think about dinner, it’s going to be vegetarian but
don’t think you’re so holy because there’s no meat there, because
thousands and thousands and thousands of insects have died in the
picking and the growing of these veggies. Let’s remember those
sentient beings who gave their lives for us to have nice fresh veggies,
as well as think of the people who cooked it and all the kind people
who’ve done it, who shopped and everything and drove there and to
and from and all the rest. Think of all the kindness of all the beings.
And think of this food as oceans of nectar, not one little plate, and
then think of very happily offering it. Now just imagine a whole
universe full of all the buddhas and all the holy beings and all the
suffering sentient beings, all the humans and gods, animals, pretas,
hell beings, bardo beings and all of them experiencing the joy of
receiving this food which we happily offer.

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15. THERE’S NO KARMA THAT CAN’T BE PURIFIED
MOTIVATION
Let’s continue about how karma works and about how to purify it. But
first, remind ourselves of our motivation: “We want to do this action of
listening to the teachings about karma, to do this meditation on
purification, so that we can develop our qualities, so we really can be
of benefit to others, no matter how long it takes.”

THERE’S NO KARMA THAT CAN’T BE CHANGED

Buddha’s view is there is nothing that isn’t a product of the law of
cause and effect, causes and conditions, and therefore there’s nothing
that can’t change. Nothing is set in stone.
Again, you could say there are similarities between the Christian
views, for example of other realms, insofar as when you die you might
go to a pleasing experience called heaven and an unpleasant
experience called hell. The difference in Buddhist terms is they don’t
last. Karma is sort of like how much gas you put in the tank is how
much mileage you get; so how much karmic energy you put in your
tank is how much result you get. A lot of generosity karma ripens in
receiving lots of things, having lots of things, getting things when you
need it. Morality might be the cause of getting a human life but that’s
just a human life. The cause for having anything at all on this earth,
having even one cent to call your own, this is the fruit of generosity, of
giving. The extent of the generosity karma is the extent of the ripening
of the karma. Like we think in terms of money and things like this, it’s
a very practical energy. This amount of energy put in gives you this
amount of stuff.
KARMA RUNS OUT

The Christian view of heaven is it’s forever, it’s the end result. Buddha
would argue with that there’s no experience in samsara that lasts
forever. It will end, and as long as you haven’t cut the root, ego-
grasping, you will continue to have rebirth. The same with the
suffering rebirth, it’s not forever. Karma runs out, finishes.
The same with our own life: we might have something go really
well, a relationship works for a certain while. Everything is going along
and we think it’s permanent: “Oh, I found my soul mate, the love of my
life,” and then before you know it five years later, ten years later, it all
finishes and you’re just stunned. You can’t believe it. It’s finished. No
matter how hard you try you can’t make it happen again. Karma
finished. There’s nothing left. It’s like the gas tank ran out, there’s
nothing left. Karma is like that. Something that could last a long time,
it could last a short time. Things change.
We can see this. One day you’re really rich and famous the next day
you want to kill yourself because you’re the worst in the world. I mean
look at these people going to prison now, being rich and famous and
successful and now the bottom of the pile, accused of fraud. A couple
of these guys got twenty-five years, the Tyco guy and the other one, the
Enron person. Twenty to twenty-five years in prison. Effectively
they’re going to die in prison. Things change. Karma ripens.
You could say that the experience is similar to the cause of being
seen as very successful and of being respected lasted for a while and
now the other karma is ripened. You can have all these different things
happening in one life; we can see this. Just because you’ve had it for a
while doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever. Things change.
THERE ARE CAUSES FOR EVERYTHING

As I was saying before, there are causes for everything we have. It’s not
just a random thing. Suddenly we get money, “Oh I’m so lucky, I won
the lottery.” No such concept. “Oh I’m unlucky, I got stolen from.” No
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THERE’S NO KARMA THAT CAN’T BE PURIFIED CHAPTER 15
such concept. Being stolen from is the experience similar to the cause
of having stolen. Winning the lottery is the karmic result of having
been generous. People not paying their debts is the result of having
stolen. Whatever it is we experience we can look at the action and we
can look at the experience and it’s not too difficult to see the karmic
cause of it. What it might have been. They say that one of the causes of
being beautiful, being seen as very pleasing, is patience. The cause of
having anything is having given. The cause of people trusting your
words, even if you’re lying, is having spoken the truth in the past. The
cause of people not trusting your words, even if you’re telling the
truth, is you’re having lied in the past. It’s got an obvious sort of logic.
WHY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE

Again, remember, in this life itself, there are three different ways your
karma ripens. There is 1. Your tendencies; 2. how people see you
and treat you; and there is 3. the way you experience your
environments. You could have one really good one, like living in a
very peaceful, beautiful peaceful environment but everyone hates you.
You could be living in a really disgusting environment but have a really
good reputation. You could be very rich but have no one ever pay their
bills. You could be very poor but people give you things. They don’t all
fit, it doesn’t fit that you have that good experiences similar to the
cause along with the good action similar to the cause. It can be a
mixture. This is why bad things happen to good people and good
things happen to bad people.
MY MIND IS MY OWN
The general thing to get our heads around, the thing we need to get
used to, is the idea that my mind is mine, that whatever I say, do and
think leaves a seed in my mind that will ripen in the future, and that
whatever I experience now is the fruit of my past actions. There are
many causes and factors that have to come together to produce
anything, just like we know with the microphone. It’s not just one
thing. Countless things have had to come together, the work of many,
many people have had to come together in what’s called a microphone.
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The same with this person. Many, many, many factors involved, many
conditions, many causes, many things have had to come together in
order to produce this person and in order to produce my experiences.
Not just one thing. Whereas you think about how we look now, we
think it’s one person’s fault why something bad happens. We’re very
tunnel-visioned. There are many factors that come together.
The main emphasis here is on wanting to avoid our own future
suffering, so we want to learn to abide by the laws of karma, know
what to do. This is where we begin to practice: abide by the laws of
karma: don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t badmouth, don’t gossip,
don’t this, don’t that, because you don’t want the future suffering.
This is the wisdom wing, remember, which has to do with one’s own
benefit, we’re not discussing compassion yet, we’re not discussing
benefiting others yet. That’s advanced, that comes eventually. That’s
the compassion wing, that’s university and, like I said, we are still in
junior school. And it’s very step by step.
IT’S NOT HIT AND MISS

In other words, the beginning of recognizing karma is already pretty
incredible; it’s developing this very strong confidence that you are the
producer of your own future experiences. Rather than this view – even
if you do think of reincarnation – we think it’s just kind of pot luck, hit
and miss, no one really knows why, what; you just kind of cross your
fingers and hope for the best. I mean, you don’t think of your garden
like that. It would be very superstitious, wouldn’t it? You have to know
what seeds to plant and you can predict what fruits you want. In fact,
the very wanting of those fruits determines the choice of your seeds.
It’s exactly the same here. There is not a fraction of difference. Same
principle applies.
PULL OUT THE SEEDS ALREADY PLANTED

The most urgent level of practice, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche points out,
is to refrain from harming others, in other words refrain from creating
causes for future suffering.
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The next level is this one: purification. We need to pull out the
seeds that we have already planted before they ripen as my suffering.
Given Buddha’s view that our consciousness is a beginningless
continuity that’s going back and back and back, and it’s had countless
lives – and it goes without saying, in Buddha’s view anyway, we’ve had
all kinds of suffering lives and done all kinds of negativities, been
animals before, been lions before, been dogs before, harmed others
before – so there’s lots of karmic seeds in our minds that haven’t yet
ripened. And so obviously, while we’ve got this decent human life, we
can make some choices to refrain from harming others. We can also
use the opportunity to pull out the seeds we’ve already planted before
they ripen. This is common sense.
PURIFICATION: THE FOUR OPPONENT POWERS

There are four steps in this process of purifying negative karma. And
really it’s a psychological process; it’s your mind engaging in a certain
way. Very much that. As one of my friends in Adelaide calls it, you can
say it’s the four Rs: Regret, Reliance, Remedy and Resolve. It’s
called the Four Opponent Powers.
As Lama Yeshe says, “What purification is is the power of your
regret, the power of reliance, the power of the remedy, the power of
the resolve.” It’s the intensity of your own mind engaging in these four
steps that purifies the karmic seeds you have planted in your mind.
If I’m a Christian, God made me, so therefore the purification of my
sins is dependent upon God’s forgiving me. It’s a crucial point. Here
it’s got nothing to do with that. Of course Buddha forgives, he’s a nice
guy; he’s compassionate, of course he’s going to forgive you, but that
isn’t the issue here. That’s not the point. That’s not the point at all.
1. REGRET OUR NEGATIVE ACTIONS

The point is you engaging in this process of first regretting, taking
responsibility for having said and done and thought, or said and done
first this and this and this action. What you do is – like we’re going to
do tonight – is you check your day. You check back on your day what
you said, what you did with your body and speech that might have
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harmed others. Let’s say we had a fight with somebody, we can really
look at something there. Really regret that we said those words and did
that thing. But what is really, really important here to cultivate – and
this is an attitude that we do not have, so it really takes us time to
consciously cultivate this – is this very appropriate attitude of regret.
NOT GUILT
Right now, because we’re still caught up in ego very strongly, because
we’re so caught up in the huge attachment to be loved by others and to
be approved by others – this is a very deep one and we will talk about
this tomorrow – then we have enormous attachment to how people see
us. Therefore we have guilt. And guilt is mixed with the aching sense
that we did do something wrong, but the guilt is like a very hopeless
attitude that beats ourselves up and feels very impotent and is very
mixed with this fear of being rejected and all of this kind of thing, fear
of what other people think of us, and we’re desperate for them to tell
us it’s okay so we will feel relieved. We’re desperate for this. Unless we
get forgiveness from somebody, we never really feel any better. We’re
very reliant upon someone else telling us we’re okay.
And the Buddha would say. . . well, the attitude here is not that one
anyway. It’s very much to do with yourself. His Holiness one time was
asked the difference between guilt and this regret. He said, “Guilt is
looking into the past and saying, ‘I did this and this and this and this
and I am a bad person.’ Beating yourself up and we all know this very,
very well. We recognize we did this and this and this, but we usually
make it worse than it is. We exaggerate it and we feel so bad, but we
feel so hopeless. We stay stuck in it, like impotent. It’s not useful; it’s a
useless state of mind. It drags us down. And really in a sense you can
say, it’s actually not taking responsibility at all. Because we’re addicted
to guilt, we’re addicted to self-blame. It’s very interesting. That’s
ironically a function of ego.
Regret, as His Holiness says, is very simply it’s recognizing yes,
indeed, “I did this and this and this,” but then you think, “And what
can I do about it?” It’s a hopeful attitude. It’s a courageous attitude
because you’re taking responsibility, you’re acknowledging you did in
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fact say those words and you did in fact do that action and you did do
this and you did do this. “You’re right, I did!” But the regret here is so
specific.
LIKE TAKING POISON

What it is here is this: it’s just like if you’ve just eaten your dinner and
someone says, “There’s poison in it.” The attitude of regret that you
would have then is exactly the attitude of regret that we have to
cultivate here. In other words, you say, “Oh my God, what a fool! I
can’t believe I’ve taken poison! Quick, where’s the doctor?” You rush
off to do something about it. You don’t sit there going, “Oh, I’m a bad
person, I ate poison, I’m so stupid, I ate poison.” Every day you’re
getting sicker and sicker and, “Oh, I’m such a bad person, I ate
poison.” I mean, how useless right? You’ve got to do something about
it.
ALL OUR ACTIONS BRING CONSEQUENCES TO

OURSELVES
We have no sense in our life, emotionally and mentally, no sense that
there are any consequences to myself of what we do, say and think. We
know it when it comes to food we eat and cigarettes we smoke and
things we do that affect the body – are you hearing my point here? We
know there’s a consequence to myself of eating bad food, we know
there’s a consequence to myself smoking cigarettes, but we don’t really
know that there’s a consequence to myself of lying and stealing and
killing. We kind of think if we get away with it and no one sees us it’s
okay. It’s a bit like that, this attitude. We don’t notice there are
consequences to ourselves of what we do and say with our body,
speech and mind in terms of our own happiness and suffering. This is
the view of karma.
BLAME OR DENIAL
It’s a very marvelous view actually. It’s sort of something very organic.
It’s very powerful, because it demands you take responsibility. Because
the usual mode we have is this guilt or this blame. “What do you mean,
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I ate poison? It’s his fault!” “Go to the doctor, Robina.” “No! I didn’t do
it. It’s his fault!” That’s how stupid we are. Guilt is just as stupid. We
also have the other one, we have denial. “What do you mean I took
poison? I did not!” We either have guilt, blame or denial. I mean, how
useless.
This one is: acknowledging it, as painful as it is, but recognizing it’s
just an old karmic habit, recognizing that it doesn’t define you – this is
extremely important – but it’s nevertheless a habit. And that the doing
of it is what deepens it in your mind and thus causes you to continue to
have suffering. And you know what, you’re tired of suffering, you’re fed
up with suffering. Actually this attitude of regret is not beating
yourself up at all. It’s a really healthy attitude that acknowledges there
are consequences to yourself from what you do, say and think and it
actually acknowledges a very sound sense of self-respect. Because you
know you don’t want more suffering, and you are tired of suffering. “I
deeply regret this from the depths of my heart. I regret killing others. I
regret killing. I regret lying. I regret stealing from others. I regret
harming them – because I don’t want the future suffering of the seeds
that will ripen in my future.”
You’re not looking at others yet. This is the second step here; we
look at compassion in the second step of this practice. This first one we
have to cultivate, it’s like compassion for yourself, based on the
recognition that what you do and say and think produces your happy
or suffering experiences. Its quite tasty, you know. It’s very grown up.
Take responsibility. But for kindness, not the usual habit of beating
ourselves up. We have to consciously change the words. Say these
words: “I regret this because I don’t want the future suffering.”
Regret, in and of itself, has no meaning. Why do you regret?
Usually it’s because someone won’t like us anymore, because we’re
fearful of being rejected, it’s totally self-centered. Here, it’s because
we’re taking responsibility. It’s something we have to cultivate. You
really could say that it does demand, doesn’t it, that you have a good
relationship with yourself, a respectful relationship. It’s extremely
important. This is the first step. It’s so important.
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If you can’t acknowledge you’ve taken poison you can’t do any of

the future steps. You can’t find the doctor. You can’t take the remedy.
And you can’t resolve to never do it again. You’ve got to first
acknowledge that you’ve done it, said it, thought it.
REGRET ACTIONS OF BODY AND SPEECH

The first thing you do, we contemplate just the things we said and did
today with our body and speech that harm others.
Regret actions we don’t remember Tthen, of course, if it
makes sense to you, you can regret whatever you must have done the
rest of this life that you don’t remember. Most of the things we’ve done
in this life we have no memory of. “Whatever I’ve done,” you think,
“that has harmed sentient beings in this life with my body and speech I
regret from the depths of my heart, because I don’t want those seeds to
ripen as my suffering.”
Regret past life actions And then of course you can think,
“Whatever I’ve done since beginningless time with my body and
speech in countless past lives that have left karmic seeds in my mind
now, that I don’t remember, of course I don’t, but given that my mind
is a continuity I must have sown a lot of seeds so I regret them from
the depth of my heart. Anything I’ve ever done to harm any sentient
being with my body and speech; and all the delusions and the
ignorance and all the delusions, I regret these from the depths of my
heart.” Very strongly. Acknowledging, regretting for my own sake.
Regret actions of our mind, our delusions Then we think the
old ancient old habits, the attachment, the anger, etc. “I deeply regret
having all this nonsense in my mind. Whatever I did in the past that
caused me to have this habit, I regret it from the depths of my heart
because I don’t want future suffering. I’m exhausted. I know that.”
2a. RELY UPON THE BUDDHA

Then the second step, reliance. “Whom can I turn to, to give me the
methods that I can use to purify my mind?” This is reliance. It’s got
two parts: the first part is called Refuge. This is the attitude, we
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mentioned it already, of relying upon the Buddha and so on and so

forth: reliance.
But let me describe this again, be very clear about it. If we are
Buddhists already we bandy this term about. “Oh yeah, I took Refuge
last week.” “Oh yeah, I’m a Buddhist, I took Refuge.” What does it
mean? Let’s use the poison analogy again. Let’s say you haven’t taken
poison but you’ve heard about some amazing doctor in Timbuktu who
can cure every poison possible, who’s got every antidote. You hear
about this doctor right. And you go, “Oh, that’s interesting, yeah sure.”
And then you’ll forget all about it. You don’t really care because you
haven’t taken poison, because you don’t need him.
Now watch what happens when you need him, when you’ve taken
poison. “Oh my God, who’s that doctor again?” And you’ll do anything
to get there, you don’t care. Now you’ll absolutely listen to every word
he says, you’ll take his words seriously and you’ll totally rely upon him
because now you need him. Why? Because you don’t want suffering.
Well this exactly is the attitude of Refuge, a person who’s wanting
to take Refuge, rely upon the Buddha. Why would you want to rely
upon the Buddha? I mean, what do you want the Buddha for? Think
about it. Not because he’s just some nice handsome guy. The reason
you want to rely upon the Buddha and practice what he’s saying is
because you’ve heard about his teachings on karma, and it makes some
kind of sense, and you know you don’t want suffering, so you know
that you need his methods.
He doesn’t purify you, he doesn’t make it go away. You do. You
need him because of his methods, like you need the doctor. But you do
the work. In that sense you rely upon the Buddha. This first part of the
practice, and we’ll do it tonight, you visualize in this case, above your
head the Buddha in a certain way, blah, blah, blah, reminding yourself
of your reliance upon the Buddha whose practices you wish to use to
purify your mind.
2b. RELY UPON SENTIENT BEINGS

The second part of reliance is where you develop compassion
for sentient beings. Why is that called reliance? It sounds curious.
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“Reliance” in the sense that you’re trying now to develop compassion –

this is now the compassion part – you’re now wanting to develop
compassion for sentient beings, to think about their suffering. Not
your own, that’s the first one, regret. Now you think about their
suffering, you think about those you have harmed – and, if you can,
you think about those who have harmed you – and your heart is
reaching out to others now. You have empathy for them.
Insofar as you’re trying to develop huge compassion for others, you
need sentient beings, don’t you? You need suffering sentient beings.
They’re like grist for the mill. In that sense, it’s a quaint way to say it,
you rely upon sentient beings because you need the presence in your
life of suffering sentient beings in order for you to generate, to
activate, this strong compassion. Compassion isn’t some abstract
things in your heart. You’ve got to see suffering beings in order for the
compassion to come. In that sense, you rely upon suffering sentient
beings.
As one old lama, Geshe Sopa, said, bodhisattvas, these highly
advanced practitioners, “They need their enemies.” To develop such
compassion you need enemies. We’ll talk about this when we go to
university tomorrow.
You think this way, you contemplate that, the suffering of others
and you make the determination, “I must purify myself for the sake of
sentient beings.”
3. TAKE THE REMEDY

The third one is the remedy, you take the medicine. You apply the
antidote – it’s often called that. Really you could say in this tradition
there is a whole medicine cabinet of medicines that you can select. The
particular practice we’ll do tonight, the visualization of the Buddha in
the aspect of Vajrasattva, and the recitation of his mantra, is said to be
a very potent medicine. All the Tibetan lamas really praise it as a very
powerful medicine. But, anything here could be the remedy: going off
and helping others, saving the lives of animals, helping the sick, doing
something good for others: everything you do that’s the opposite is the
antidote; that’s something that purifies.
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The particular practice is of course said to be quite powerful;

mantras are said to be very powerful so why not conjoin those with
something else. Often you can see in your own life you’ve got the old
habit to lie, you can do your purification but in your daily life you can
resolve to tell the truth. But now let’s say you kill. Let’s say you want to
purify killing from having killed in the past, from having an abortion
or killing fish or killing all the ants and the roaches or whatever. You
regret, you do the purification, you do the practice, but particularly in
your own life you’d make the effort to go and save the lives of a few
animals. Go buy some worms and pop them into the earth instead of
having them killed for fish bait. That’s very powerful, I tell you, very
powerful.
If you’ve got sickness – sickness karmically is the fruit of having
harmed others in the past, it’s the experience similar to the cause of
having killed in the past – so by purifying your karma plus going and
helping others, helping sick people, can be a powerful direct antidote
to that type of action. You do the practice.
4. RESOLVE TO CHANGE
The fourth one, as one lama said, is really the most important. It’s the
resolve to change. Here I think you can say it’s like the first step, it
really does demand that you have a good relationship with yourself, a
sense of self-respect, and here particularly a sense of recognition, a
confidence, that you can change. I think when we look at ego we’re so
stuck in this sense of hopelessness. “I’m stuck with this, this is who I
am. What can I do?” Much anguish because of this. Well, Buddha is
simply saying it’s just not true. We can change. It is what’s happening
now, but we can change. That’s part of the reason so many of us are
feeling so hopeless. We don’t think we can. This fourth step is very
much understanding the process of karma again and the power of the
mind, power of intention.
We all know, like I mentioned before, you want to go on a diet but
you don’t really make a decision to, and so you keep eating too much.
Until one day you finally decide, then you make this strong
determination to change. That’s this fourth step. That’s resolve. You
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take hold. Based on your confidence that you know you can change
you, realistically. . . the things that are really ancient habit, take it in
small steps, you be very realistic with yourself.
Let’s say you have a habit to be angry and speak bad words, shoot
your mouth off. You know you can’t say, “For the rest of my life I’ll
never be angry, I’m determined.” You can’t say this. You can’t even
maybe say for twenty-four hours. But you maybe can say for five
hours; or if you’re going to go to bed after you do the practice maybe
you can say for eight hours, because you’ll be asleep and you won’t get
angry. You’ll keep your vow, won’t you? It’s very realistic and you’ll
feel in the morning very confident because you’ve kept your vow and
the next day maybe you can take it for ten hours. Step by step you take
yourself very realistically, you don’t just be in panic mode. We’re
usually in panic mode. “Oh my God, I’m angry again, I’m so bad, I
can’t stand it.” We get all freaked out. We’re not really realistic about
it.
If you’ve taken Refuge and if you’ve taken vows, then you would
definitely reiterate your vows as well as we can: “I will never kill again,
I will never lie again.” Now, we might be scared to say that because we
think well how can I be sure? But the point is this: it’s like when you
do AA, you’re really doing it for twenty-four hours. Every twenty-four
hours you’re reiterating that you won’t lie, kill, steal for the rest of
your life. Every time you do that it’s like doing pushups every day. You
keep getting stronger. You keep strengthening that very
determination. That’s how it grows. It’s not stuck in stone that you’re a
killer forever more, or angry; you can change. And so by saying, I will
never do again you keep reiterating that, you strengthen that capacity.
MOLD YOUR MIND INTO THE SHAPE YOU WANT

And that is what protects you from doing and saying it next day, just
like that vow not to eat too much food, you know. It protects you.
When you go to eat the piece of cake again you remember your
commitment, so you keep it and your hand stays in your lap. That’s
how vows work. That’s how this resolve, this determination to change
works. It’s based on confidence in yourself, courage, determination.
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And it is what makes you change. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “We
can mold our minds into any shape we like.” It’s very powerful.
And when we begin to taste this capacity, it is very empowering,
because we start to realize I can do something with myself. I’m not a
victim of circumstances. I’m not produced by other people. I can make
choices. And that gives enormous confidence, enormous courage. It’s a
very powerful practice actually. It’s a very, very powerful one. But
you’ve got to give yourself the space and time to do it and to think
internally, and, as I said, to develop this relationship with yourself: a
kind relationship, a confident relationship, a courageous relationship.
It’s a very powerful practice, I tell you. That’s what we’ll do.
QUESTIONS ABOUT PURIFICATION OF KARMA

Would you like to ask some questions about karma, any kind for just a
few moments? We can answer those and then we can do the practice.
Student I do have one question.
Ven. Robina What, Sweetie Pie?
Student The purification, is it of the karma from today or is it for
past karma as well? Or can’t we do anything about that?
Ven. Robina Well if you look back at what I was saying, Joan, about
regret. From what I said there, what can you deduce from that, do you
think? How does it sound, what does it sound like I’m saying? What
do you think?
Student For everything.
Ven. Robina But can you see. . . what was I saying about regret?
Tell me what you heard, with regret. What was I saying? It’s
interesting to hear what you heard. What did you hear me saying when
it came to regret? The first step.
Student I’m not quite sure. I heard so much today to be quite
honest.
Ven. Robina Okay. Regret is the acknowledging of various things
we might have said or done today, today for a start, that have harmed
others; then of this life. If you can think of things that you’ve done to
harm others in this life? Not to be personal about it, but yes, can you
for example?
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Student Oh yes. Backstabbing. . .

Ven. Robina You don’t have to confess; I’m not asking you to
confess! I’m just asking, you can imagine there are some things in your
past in this life, even yesterday, day before, day before last week, last
year, ten years ago, that you might have done to harm others? You can
remember some of those things?
Student Of course.
Ven. Robina Right. Remember, if the karmic thing is the way
Buddha says, every time you did that you sowed that seed in your
mind. And as long as you haven’t taken it out it’s growing, and
growing, and strengthening and getting stronger, and it’s going to
manifest as the habit to keep doing it, or manifest as that kind of thing
happening to you. You understand my point here?
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina It’s like a seed you have planted in your mind. Right?
Now if you can imagine you’ve had countless lives, let’s say, as Buddha
says you have, and you’ve been animals and you’ve killed many beings
in the past and you’ve done all those kind of actions too, let’s imagine.
Then you’ve sown those seeds in your mind, and unless we’ve pulled
those seeds out, unless we’ve purified those seeds, they’re working
away inside us getting stronger and stronger and will one day manifest
as suffering.
This is a simple way of talking. Now, you don’t want suffering in the
future do you? You know that because you don’t want your present
suffering right? The attitude of regret is acknowledging that you’ve
said and done and thought this thing and this and this and this and
acknowledge your old stuff and then you say, “I regret having done this
because I don’t want the future suffering.” You’re acknowledging it,
you’re owning it. It’s the first major step. Do you understand my
point?
You acknowledge whatever the seeds are in your mind that you
haven’t yet pulled out. You mightn’t remember them, but it doesn’t
matter. You see my point Joan? We’re thinking of all the countless past
seeds that haven’t yet ripened, that are waiting to ripen. You can’t
purify the seeds that have already ripened, it’s too late; it’s grown. But
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we regret the things that haven’t yet ripened. Part of this process is
owning it, taking responsibility, acknowledging I did do this, and I
have done that, and I do do this, and I’ve got this old habit. Rather
than all the guilt and the denial and the blame and all the other
rubbish we have. You hear my point?
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Okay, so that’s the first step.
Then you think, “Well, whom can I turn to to give me some
methods that I can use as the medicine here.” In this context we’re
talking about the Buddha being our doctor. You with me? That’s the
second step.
And then you begin to think about compassion for others, also part
of the second step; regret is like compassion for yourself. You with me?
You have compassion for others now, those you have harmed. Even by
just being the way we are now, we’ve harmed others, even without
intention. All the ones we’ve harmed, so we have compassion for them.
And we have compassion for those who’ve harmed us, which is
tougher, but very important. Why? Because they are going to suffer in
the future for the harm they’ve done to us. We have compassion for
them. We think we must purify ourselves for their sake – the first one
is for our own sake.
Then the third step is you do the practice. It’s like the medicine
you take.
And the fourth step is you make the determination to change.
That’s like sowing the new seeds in the garden. You with me?
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Does it make sense now?
Student Absolutely.
HOW AND WHEN SEEDS RIPEN

Ven. Robina Okay. Go on sweetheart.
Student On one level it seems like a very simple thing like a give-
and-take type of thing where it seems like a very balanced thing, if you
steal from somebody then you will be stolen from and that type of
thing. But then on another level it seems like a rather complex thing,
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because in the grand scheme of our lives, I was just wondering how do
certain seeds become placed where they are placed?
Ven. Robina Sure. It’s sort of like talking about the simple
principles of botany: you grow a seed, you have the earth, you give it
water, the sun has to shine and then it will grow. That’s fairly easy to
understand; if you’ve never heard of botany before, that’s a good start,
isn’t it? That’s the principle of how botany works.
Well, karma is like that; we speak about it in a simple way. But if
you want to start working out exactly why and when, and this amount
of temperature, and that amount of sun, and that particular time on
that particular thing, with the soil this way and turned that way, it’s
highly complex. The mechanics of it. Right? Same here. We don’t even
discuss the mechanics. We’re discussing the principle. That’s enough
for us. I think so. As we advance, we see it more intricately.
----
DEDICATION
Now we finished with a dedication, thinking, “How fantastic:
throughout the day listening to all these things, trying to process it,
analyze it, think about it, aspire, have courage in my potential, wish to
benefit others, all of this, how marvelous.”
“We dedicate all of this, the sowing of all these seeds, for the sake
of sentient beings. And when we do become a buddha who else will we
benefit? Other sentient beings. This is for them. Long term, that’s why
we’re sowing the seeds.
“And may compassion,” we think, “grow and grow in the hearts of
all.”
RETREAT MODE
Now let’s finish for the day. There are three things I want you to do.
First, go into retreat mode. This is really good; it’s really excellent
to do this, this one night; absolute silence for your own sake. Decide to
look just straight ahead. They say yogis and yoginis look straight
ahead. Like you’re here on your own, that’s the best way to think.
You’re here on your own, even if you’re sharing a room; you’re on your
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own. There’s no need to be polite. No need to chatter away. Just that

we feel nervous sometimes, we feel we have to. But act like you’re on
your own. Watch your mind, relax, read, go to sleep, go for a walk or
whatever you want to do, you’re on your own. That’s the way to think.
And retreat mode is also thinking you’re on your own, acting as if
there’s no one else around. It’s the best way, it’s perfect, very freeing
for the mind. Just be with yourself.
SEE YOUR DREAMS AS DREAMS

Second, when you hit the pillow, make strong aspirations to see your
dreams as dreams, to be aware of your dreams as you’re dreaming. Not
so much remember them when you wake up – and that’s okay, too –
but to be conscious while you’re dreaming that you’re dreaming. It’s a
good practice.
DETERMINE TO MAKE THE MOST OF THIS PRECIOUS LIFE

Third, as soon as you wake up – if you’re so fortunate as to wake up! –
notice that you’re awake, be amazed and delighted recognizing that
you’re totally impermanent, you have no idea when you’re going to die,
it could have been today but it wasn’t. Delight that you didn’t wake up
in a lower realm, as Lama Zopa says. How fantastic!
Then decide to make the most of this precious life, these marvelous
conditions that I worked so hard to get so I can keep listening to
Buddha’s views, think about the meaning, aspire to practice for my
sake and the sake of other sentient beings. In the morning you do this.
Then be silent again until the end of the first session. Helpful to be
this way, it makes the most of the time. Like a little retreat.
That’s it. Thank you everybody. Good night.
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PART FOUR
MIDDLE SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
THE ESSENCE OF WHICH IS
CONTROLLING OUR MIND
16. OVERVIEW BEFORE MOVING ON TO HIGH
SCHOOL
MOTIVATION
Good morning. Well here we are again. Please notice you’re still alive.
Did you remember to do your homework this morning and notice it
when you woke up? It does sound funny to us, doesn’t it, but it’s very
practical. Let’s just be delighted here: we mightn’t feel it but let’s start
by thinking it.
“Delighted that we are still alive, that this gas tank of intentional
non-killing that we spent so much energy and time and effort filling
last life, which is the main cause of the even why our breath continues
to go out. You’re not alive because you’re young or healthy, they’re not
the main reasons, they’re secondary reasons. The main reason is past
morality, and the main cause of our having a life and the main cause of
our having a wish to practice a spiritual path is from incredible
practice in the past: many aspirations, many wishes, a strong
understanding of morality, of benefiting others. And this is why we are
sitting here right now thinking of more than merely eating, sleeping,
and going to the toilet – which if you break down most of life, that’s it,
that’s the summary of it.
“How amazing, how fortunate! And how tragic to waste this
opportunity, how tragic to waste it. How to get the essence from it, as
they would say, is to use it, as Lama Tsong Kapa says, to use it as a tool
for enlightenment.”
Now sing our little prayer, the first two lines expressing our
reliance upon the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, so if you feel you are a
Buddhist then you reiterate that in your heart. And the second two
lines expressing this altruistic motivation, this wish to use this life – to
make an altruistic motive – use it for enlightenment, which means: “So
I can become a buddha. So why? So I can be of spontaneous benefit to
others, to fully develop my true nature of empathy and love for others:
this is what we really are, mixed with wisdom: the compassion that
OVERVIEW BEFORE MOVING ON TO HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER 16
wants to benefit others mixed with the wisdom that knows how. This is
what a buddha is. And this is our nature, our potential.
“May the action of continuing to listen to Buddha’s teachings, this
lamrim, cause exactly that.”

Now let’s remind ourselves of what we’ve discussed so far.
NATURE OF MIND
The first one was to get some background for us, which we need
especially in our culture because we have such different view about
what the mind is, about what the mind is, to understand this: in
general, that it is something that is not our body, that it is not
something created by others, it is something that is absolutely our
own. It’s a name given to all the contents, thoughts, feelings, emotions,
unconscious, subconscious, intuition, instinct, you name it. This is
mind, consciousness.
That it’s beginningless, because it’s a product of cause and effect.
This is the law that Buddha says everything that exists functions
according to. It’s a natural law. And everything, not just flowers and
trees and moons, which is how we think in the Western world, but
everything, especially all our thoughts, feelings, emotions and
experiences, are all to do with cause and effect within the mind
itself. Thus the mind keeps going back and back and back. The
continuity of it itself is a product of cause and effect. If it’s cause and
effect then it can’t have a first moment. This mind of ours is
beginningless. As soon as you say it began then, which means it began
out of nowhere, then it’s not cause and effect. Then the whole thing
collapses. Given the hypothesis of cause and effect, then mind is
beginningless. There’s no other option.
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PART FOUR MIDDLE SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
But also it’s extremely important to understand its potential. What

is the mind in its nature? What is mind in its nature? It’s potentially
a buddha. That’s what our mind is. “What’s an acorn, Mum?” “Oh
darling it’s a potential oak tree.” That’s what it actually is, isn’t it? It is
brown, it is small, it is cute, you can shine it up and use it as jewelry,
it’s true, but it’s not what it really is. We are human, we are this, we
are female, we are Australian, and we are that, we are something, we
are a nun, but that’s not what we really are. What we finally are is a
potential Buddha. That’s our job. We become a nun, we are Australian,
we are female, we are this, we are that in order to help us become a
buddha. Because that’s what we really are, finally. That defines us.
This is how Buddha talks. It gives us some courage.
Because Buddha would say our mind is naturally pure, meaning
this. It’s like water. When you say water you mean that pure, clear
stuff. You don’t mean the pollution in it, that’s not water, is it? That’s
an additive, it doesn’t belong. Well that’s here. The virtues, if you like,
the positive qualities, they are who we really are. They are our nature,
they are what defines us, and their full development is what a buddha
is. The delusions, they’re there, loud and clear: check it out. But they
don’t define us; they’re like pollution, they’re additives. This is a
crucial point to get our heads around, that Buddha is making.
Confidence to move even one inch forward and our life is based on this
idea. We thought about that.
FIRST PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATION: THE NEED FOR A

SPIRITUAL TEACHER
The next point we think about is the one that Lama Tsongkhapa
inserted into this packaging that Atisha developed in the eleventh
century; he put this point in in the fourteenth century. He said it’s
really important to think about the need for the teacher. In the texts,
it’s presented very formally and in very great detail, about the need for
a guru and how to find one and then how to devote oneself. We just
touched very broadly on the main points: the necessity for a teacher
and how we go about looking for one. Then the general point having
found one, based on our strong confidence this person is valid, is
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worthy, is valid, can lead me to enlightenment, and then developing

the attitude this person is the Buddha. They are the Buddha. And to
this extent, I will progress. To the extent of my capacity to do this. One
old lama, Ribur Rinpoche, said it’s the most difficult practice.
SECOND PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATION:

PRECIOUSNESS OF THIS HUMAN LIFE
Then we went into Atisha’s point to prime our minds to really begin to
practice, to think about the first step, which is impermanence. He says
think about the preciousness of this human life and have a sense of
not wishing to waste it, which gives us the energy to even want to
practice. We talked about that. This life, we’ve got so many
advantages; and we just do some market research and compare with
just other humans, how fortunate we are.
Born in a country that’s relatively free, we’ve got a relatively good
life, relatively good health, relatively good mind, good conditions,
friends, support, leisure, the time to think about other things than
eating, sleeping and a going to the toilet or killing others or all the
stuff that preoccupies the world. How fortunate we are.
Don’t waste this life How tragic to waste this precious
opportunity. Because all it is – really you think about the perfect
human rebirth, this so called perfect human rebirth, it’s a resource.
And we all know the meaning of a resource: it’s something you use to
get something. To think of yourself like this, we don’t normally do,
because we’re so caught up in the ego, so caught up in “I.” We can’t get
a sense of what the purpose of our life is.
Not knowing who we are Thinking of it this way, you think of
yourself as the fruit of an awful lot of morality, so you kind of created
this marvelous thing, yourself, and then we spend the rest of life
worrying about it. It’s like having a knife and getting anxious and
shining it and keep shining it and keep sharpening it and keep looking
at it and putting it away and taking it out and thinking what’s the
purpose of a knife and what’s the meaning of it and putting it away,
doing this, doing that, playing with it, never quite getting what the
purpose of a knife is. We kind of waste our lives like this. What am I?
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Who am I? What’s the purpose of my life? We shine ourselves up and

make ourselves fat, change the shape here, and get that and put this
and have another house and put ourselves in it and do all these things,
preoccupied with the thing itself. It’s so obsessive, so narrow-minded.
Get some space. We are this marvelous resource, this marvelous tool
that we created, so let’s use it skillfully.
Wasting this resource Right now we use it to eat, sleep and go to
the toilet, when you break it right down. Well, dogs are much better at
it than we are actually. They’re very skillful, they don’t waste much
time and it doesn’t cost any money. Really and truly they’re very, very
skillful at eating, sleeping and going to the toilet, which is what we do
when you break it all down, if we’re not using our lives skillfully. They
don’t have to have a house; they just lie down and go to sleep. Then
they stand up again, it’s so unattached if you think about it. But we
create entire universes. They say that bedrooms are getting bigger and
bigger these days, more grand, more magnificent. Scientists develop
mattresses now, just so you can sleep.
These great yogis don’t sleep at all. According to a Ven. Roger,
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendant, for Rinpoche sleeping is “a
disgusting waste of time.” He doesn’t need a mattress, he doesn’t need
a bed.
We spend all that time sleeping and all that time having to go to
work. . . getting educated first so that we can go to work so that we can
get money so we can buy food, basically. And build a house to keep this
thing in, isn’t it? Not joking, it’s sort of true. And then of course, that’s
the best we can do in this life, so we make it more and more important.
The type of work we do gets higher and higher, that’s the peak of this
society, to have a really good job, a really good profession, being really
respected doing this and this and this, and when it finally comes down
to it in this commercial world we live in, scientists are building
mattresses, scientists make toilet paper, scientists develop advertising
on screens for toilet paper. All the skills we use are turning into things
to wipe our bottoms and things to put in there that go out into the
toilet and so you have to wipe your bottom when it’s finished. I mean,
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think about it. Break it all down. It’s kind of harsh but you can’t say it’s
not true.
Well, it’s kind of a waste of this life. Buddha would say what a tragic
and tragic and terrible waste. Sure, wipe your bottom, okay, nothing
wrong; keep clean, nothing wrong, but have a bigger purpose to life.
Remember our true nature When you remember your true
nature, remember your potential, when you know what your nature is,
you know what your potential is, then you use your life to develop that
potential. It’s very obvious, so simple you know? That doesn’t mean
you’ve got to be all holy and go to the mountains, you don’t have to.
You can if you want to, it’s great. That’s the way to go quickly.
Reason for existing Meanwhile stay in your nice house, keep
your bottom clean and do all those things and eat yourself nice food
and have a good education, but have a bigger reason for it. I’m doing
this, why? I can develop myself, so I can have space and time to hear
the teachings so I can get enlightened. I can benefit others. That’s your
long-term goal. His Holiness in general says do what is most
beneficial. Always. And if you have to choose between short-term
benefit and long-term benefit, choose the long-term, if you can. And of
course, in this context, future lives, your long term potential.
Then you enjoy the process. You can have your food and you can
have your nice pleasure and you can have your nice house, but that’s
not the purpose, which is what attachment says: that’s the purpose of
life, family, this, this. No, something bigger is the purpose. It’s a very
reasonable view. If you get so caught up in junior school that this is the
purpose of life, if you forget you’re getting into junior school so you
can go to high school, you lose track don’t you? You get obsessed with
grade one. You’re doing grade one, great, you’ve got to do it. But it’s
gone soon and you move to the next step. Why? Because you’re moving
to the next one. Why? You’re moving to the next one. Why? So you can
graduate. You have a long-term perspective there. That’s how we’re
thinking here. Get some perspective.
For this reason lift ourselves up out of the misery and the fears and
the panic and the worries and the dramas and the toilet paper and all
the rest and have this bigger view – because that’s our true nature.
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That’s why, it’s something practical, not something holy, it’s practical.
Because we won’t be happy until we’ve totally removed all the
nonsense from our minds and become who we’re really are. Who we
really are is a buddha. Not it yet. Like an acorn is not an oak tree yet,
but it’s so tasty to say, it’s as if the oak treeness is there bursting to get
out. It’s like that. When we have that view, we’ve got a long-term
perspective. We need that. Thinking about this precious human rebirth
gives us that idea and causes us to have the energy to want to not
waste this precious resource. It’s a precious resource, don’t waste it.
JUNIOR SCHOOL: DEATH AND IMPERMANENCE

Then that primes our mind ready to enter grade one, where we start to
contemplate impermanence. Atisha takes from Buddha’s extensive
teachings on the nature of how things are in their nature: changing.
Death Is definite He takes the particular point about death, our
own death, and we contemplate the definiteness of death, the certainty
of death. The very nature of coming into life implies death. Death is
part of life. We see it as something alien and separate but it’s part of
life. Should be factored in, it’s something natural; we’ve got to factor it
in, you know; do things in the context of the definiteness of my death.
The time of death is uncertain And then of course, the second
point is the uncertainty of the time of death. “Oh my goodness, I better
be ready just in case.” Just like you’ve got your driving test coming up
but they’ve told you we don’t know when it’s going to be, we’ll let you
know. You’ve got to be ready just in case it comes tomorrow. It’s very
obvious, it’s very simple. It’s an example we understand so easily, all
the things we prepare for and plan for. Isn’t it? We can understand it.
You know you’re not sure when the appointment is going to be, you
know you’ve got to be ready, because it could come tomorrow, boom.
Now I’m ready.
It’s the same with death. You don’t even get a warning with death.
Well, not likely. You’re lucky if you do. You’re fortunate if you do get
warning, doctor says. But even then there’s no guarantee you’re going
to die in the six months they give you. Like my friend, he didn’t die in
the six months. He stayed alive. And another friend of mine on death
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row is preparing for his death but also going through all these appeals
to try to get out, get out, get out and he dies of leukemia; comes from
behind, grabs him; wasn’t prepared for it. Friend of mine went to Los
Angeles to help his father die of cancer and he got better. They’re are
all cheering and having parties and he dies of a heart attack the next
day.
These aren’t jokes, they all sound so cute. They only sound so cute
because we’re so entrenched in the view of permanent me, undying
me, living me. We’ve got to shake that. Come to terms with reality, and
then there’s something natural, no longer fear, just natural. So be
prepared for death. Knowing I could die at any moment.
What’s important at the time of death Then the crux of it is
knowing what’s important at the time of death. Or given this perfect
human rebirth, given this stuff we’re talking here, this whole
viewpoint, then what’s important clearly is the virtuous imprints in my
mind. That’s it, that’s all that matters at that time. Nothing else.
Negative imprints are worse than useless. The house, the family, the
toilet paper, the gorgeous mattress, the husband, the babies, that’s
useless at that time, at that moment they’re no help to you. What’s a
help to you at that moment, given that your mind continues, is your
virtuous imprints. You better start storing them away now. Very
practical.
JUNIOR SCHOOL: SUFFERING OF THE LOWER REALMS

We then moved to the next point in thinking that, “Given I could die at
any moment, given that I’ve had countless lives, and I’ve had countless
suffering lives where I’ve created very much negative karma. . .” it’s
just the way it is, we’re all like it, Buddha says, join the universe. Every
living being is like this, what with these countless of imprints. Just a
few of the positive ones have ripened to be this package for this life;
just a few of them, just a few of our good qualities, as well as a few of
our bad.
But we’ve got masses of other negative ones there, from all the
heavy past actions we’ve done; it’s just how we all are. If they do ripen,
they’re going to ripen as quite acute suffering. And so we looked a little
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bit, taken again from Buddha’s teachings about the whole universe and
the realms of existence, we looked a little bit at the suffering of the
lower realms.
The suffering of animals Atisha says we need to contemplate, to
think about, the suffering of beings, just even an animal which is one
we can see. Hell beings and spirits sound too abstract for us, but
animals, right in front of our face. Use them as a contemplation, use
them as a meditation and think differently. Take Buddha’s view about
what an animal is and just look at it differently, instead of the usual
view we have, just remove our own view, because Buddha is saying our
view is incorrect – and that’s for us to find out, okay? He is saying
what an animal is, a lion, a tiger, a dog, generally speaking to get that
type of a rebirth, at the time of death is the fruit of a very negative
karma ripening. Depending upon the quality of the negative karma,
you’ll get that type of life. A lion, you can see, has much more
aggression than say, what are some animals that aren’t very
aggressive? Maybe there aren’t that many.
Student An elephant.
Ven. Robina An elephant is not aggressive? Excuse me! You see
elephants when they’re angry? They’ll destroy anything in its path.
Student A bunny rabbit.
Student A deer.
Ven. Robina Deer don’t fight when they’re angry? Look at those big
antlers! They fight with each other over the girls, don’t they?
Student A rabbit.
Ven. Robina Rabbits don’t fight?
Student Penguins.
Ven. Robina Penguins they don’t fight? They don’t hurt each other?
Well there you go. That’s all of it, there you go, join the club. They have
anger. Any animal that doesn’t, is not aggressive? Can we think of one?
Anyway it’s an interesting thought.
Student Ants.
Ven. Robina Ants aren’t aggressive? Look up close, they’re
monstrous. They eat each other alive, they do terrible things. They get
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their dead brother over there, they can’t wait, they start eating him
before it’s even dead.
Anyway never mind. We can kind of see there are some, maybe a
little more passive than others. They’re not all predators like the lion
are they? Like that anyway, in that way. So, never mind, the point here
was, depending on the negative karma, born as different kinds of
animals.
How do animals suffer? Looking at just the animal as an
example. How to understand an animal’s suffering? There’s the
obvious one, the very obvious one, of just having not much choice,
especially the animals that are used by humans. Forget the others,
forget the wild animals; even just those animals being used. But really
if you look at even the animal that hasn’t got much control over its life.
It can’t go get its breakfast if it hasn’t got food, if it’s locked up in a pen
somewhere, it can’t do much, they’re pretty hopeless.
The general thing about an animal is the prevalence of incredible
ignorance. The same ignorance as ours, this primordial clinging to a
sense of self, but multiplied a million times, such that they mainly
function on delusions, they are completely programmed by their
delusions. There’s very little virtue. A virtuous state of mind,
remember – and we’re now going to go to deeply into this today in
high school, we better hurry we’re running out of time we’ve got high
school and university to do yet; okay, I’ll speed up on this one. We
went through the animal birth we’ve talked about that. I won’t carry on
about that. We think about the suffering of the animals so that we can
think wow, thank you very much, I don’t want that.
JUNIOR SCHOOL: REFUGE

Then think whom can I turn to to give me the methods to not be born
this way. We turn to the Buddha, we take refuge, we rely upon the
Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as we said.
JUNIOR SCHOOL: KARMA

Now we began to look at what Buddha says, what are his instructions,
what is his medicine; now we begin to put our money where our mouth
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is. Now we begin to practice, we abide by the laws of karma. This

is Buddha’s deal. Karma: cause and effect. Karma is meaning cause
and effect, when he refers to sentient beings. Cause and effect is the
law as far as Buddha is concerned: we know this in the West from our
science, we accept that. Buddha is referring to it in relation to the
mind and sentient beings’ experiences, and when he refers to that he
calls it karma, and it means “action,” as we talked.
Every single thing that we say, do and think is an action that brings
a reaction. It leaves a seed and brings a fruit. Necessarily
everything. There’s nothing that isn’t a karma. Nothing we do, say or
think that isn’t a karma. Everything necessarily is. Its nature is that, its
nature is that it will leave a reverberation or a seed that will bring a
type of experience in the future.
Karma expands. Tiny seeds bring many fruits. If you sowed the
seed, you’ll get the fruit. If the fruit is there you must have sown the
seeds. Simple points, but if we can start to apply it, it’s very powerful
in our life.
Then we touched very briefly on the ten nonvirtues, using this as
a little guide for living your life. Minimally, at this stage of practice
refraining from doing the negative things. Already this is sublime,
level of practice, sublime. Harnessing our energy first, beginning to
control the body and speech and, to some extent our mind, in this first
scope.
The consequence of this, and if we just practiced this first stuff, if
we left school after junior school, if we really take karma away with us,
based on thinking about the other things, and abided by the laws of
karma – didn’t harm, didn’t bad-mouth, didn’t lie, didn’t kill, didn’t
steal, controlled your mind a bit – you’d be a blissful person. And, you
wouldn’t harm others. They’d be happy. It’s an amazing way to live
your life. Minimal level, junior school.
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17. THE FOUR TRUTHS FOR THE NOBLE ONES
But we can go further. We move into high school. We’ve got some
control over our body and speech now and a little bit over our mind
and now we start to look more deeply into the causes of suffering. We
go into the mind itself.
One way you could present this second scope of teachings, the
second scope of practice, this high school, is the Four Noble Truths –
actually, the truths aren’t noble; they’re the four truths, the four facts,
for the noble ones, those who’ve realized them.
We’d look more deeply here at what is suffering, the first noble
truth is there’s suffering. Looking into what is suffering in a
deeper way and then looking at the causes of suffering, the
second, based on the recognition that we can be free of it, which
is the third noble truth. And the fourth, doing the job of
getting rid of suffering and its causes.
We’re getting more deeply here now into suffering. The first level
we just talked about the suffering of the lower realms. Here we’re now
looking at the suffering of even having this life, and the suffering of
being caught in attachment and the other ridiculous delusions. Let’s
look at this one.
FIRST NOBLE TRUTH: THERE IS SUFFERING

The first noble truth is that there is suffering, Buddha says. There are
three kinds.
Suffering of suffering The first kind is the gross kind of
suffering. First, this refers to the lower realms, which we briefly
discussed.
But also in this human life, this suffering is referring to the
unhappy things happening: starving, being hungry, living in a war
zone, people being mean to you, all the things we call ordinary daily
life suffering. And if you think about it very simply, it’s when you get
what you don’t want or when you don’t get what you want. That’s what
we mean by suffering. In our ordinary daily life. Our life is fraught
with that. It’s very clear.
The suffering of change: what we call happiness. This refers
first to upper realm rebirths. In comparison with the lower realms,
they’re blissful, they’re happy. But Buddha says they’re also in the
nature of suffering, because they end and we go again to the lower
realms.
But, again, this suffering also refers to our experiences in this
human life. It’s more subtle. We don’t even call it suffering, and this is
where we really begin to look more sophisticatedly now at the way the
mind works and we become our own therapist.
This second kind of suffering Buddha calls it simply the suffering of
change. It refers actually to what we mean by happiness. All Buddha is
saying is this, the happiness we have now is like a honey-covered razor
blade. It’s actually in the nature of suffering. Because, simply speaking,
when we get it, it doesn’t last and then it eventually changes into what
we mean by suffering, the suffering of suffering.
There’s a third, even more subtle level of suffering, all-pervasive
suffering. But we won’t go there now.
THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH: THE CAUSES OF SUFFERING

To understand this more deeply we need to go into the second noble
truth, which are the causes of suffering. What are the causes? Because
if the third noble truth is that we have the potential to be free of
suffering, then we better know what suffering is, so we can
acknowledge it and recognize it. We’d better know, crucially, the
causes of it.
TWO MAIN CAUSES OF SUFFERING

For the Buddha there are two main causes of suffering – there are
countless causes and conditions in general, but he focuses the two
main ones, such that when we remove those, we can quit suffering.
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THE FOUR TRUTHS FOR THE NOBLE ONES CHAPTER 17
They’re the ones that if we change those, that’s the source, that’ll help
everything else crumble, and we can get out of suffering.
Both causes are in me! And these two, Buddha says, are both
inside ourself, which already is shocking for us. Because “Why are you
suffering, Robina?” “It’s Joe.” I mean we think totally that and “I’m an
innocent victim, aren’t I? How dare you do that to me?” Check how we
feel. It’s very deep inside us, this innocent “I.” “Self-pity me,” as Lama
Yeshe calls it. Quite cruel almost, but you check it. It’s very true.
In other words, we don’t factor ourselves into anything when it
happens. We don’t factor ourselves into anything in the experience of
the chocolate cake. We just think: “What can I do, this delicious
chocolate cake out there. Look at it. It’s vibrating deliciousness at me,
begging me to eat it. I’m just an innocent victim, I can’t help it.” You
check, it’s how it feels, isn’t it? It’s how it feels.
Innocent victim That’s how we think about suffering as well. I’m
this innocent victim and things happen to me, things get done to me. I
mean, my life got done to me, didn’t it? Someone did it to me. That’s
how we think. That’s the ego mind. That’s delusion, Buddha says, it’s
victim. It’s fantasy, it’s not accurate. He says we can be free of
suffering. There are many factors and causes for it, but there are two
main ones we have to focus in on. And if we change these ones, hey,
that’s the source of enlightenment, it’s the cause of enlightenment. The
two are both inside myself.
FIRST CAUSE OF SUFFERING: PAST KARMA

We’ve looked into karma already.
Let’s say, out of the blue, Joan punches me in the nose. Our first
response is shock, “Why me?” We don’t have an answer for that on our
earth usually. “Why me?” We never can find the answer to this. “Why
me?” Buddha has an answer. He says it’s your past action, Robina.
Twenty-two lives ago, when Joan’s consciousness and yours knew each
other, and who knows what the relationship was because that’s how
come you even are together again now; there’s no way you’re going to
meet a person if you haven’t got a karmic connection with them, it’s
not possible. It’s not random. There is a cause for everything.
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Secondly, why she harms you is because you have harmed her.
Simply speaking. Remember, if the fruit is there you must have sown
the seed. The fruit is: being punched. I must have sown the seed. If the
fruit is in your garden you must have sown the seed. You don’t think,
“Who sowed that seed in my garden? Look at that fruit, it is not mine!”
Of course it is! If it’s in your garden, it’s your fruit, you must have
sown it. This is in my garden, it’s my punch, if I get punched it’s my
garden, it’s my fruit, I must have sown the seed. It’s logic. The first
cause of my suffering is my past action, my past karma. I set myself up
to be punched.
I AM THE CAUSE OF MY HAPPINESS TOO

This is the same for happiness, by the way. But we never ask, “Why do
good things happen to me?” Do we? You check this. “Why do bad
things happen?” Because the ego in us is obsessed with all the bad
things, obsessed with the victim, obsessed with “poor me.” We never
ask why the good things happen; we don’t even think there’s a reason.
We don’t care. We just grasp at it and want more. You understand? It’s
very interesting.
But we should ask. And that’s what should blow our minds. The fact
that we’re just sitting here right now in this group, relatively
harmonious, a peaceful environment, and everything’s kind of fairly
pleasing in this nice place, and nice food and people taking care and
the pleasant garden and no ugly noises, no ugly smells, this is like a
miracle. This is the fruit of phenomenal virtue on the part of every
single one of us, and we must have created it collectively because here
we are experiencing the fruit collectively. This is a collective karma,
meaning each of us has created the cause to be here together
discussing this type of thing in this environment from way who knows
back when. We should be weeping in tears of gratitude at our past
virtue, every time even the smallest good thing happens. But you know
what we do instead; we grasp at it and have attachment. “It’s my right,
gimme.”
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THE FOUR TRUTHS FOR THE NOBLE ONES CHAPTER 17
WE ARE THE CREATORS

This shows how bizarre we are, Buddha says. No sense of
responsibility, no sense of cause and effect. The karmic view puts you
squarely in the center of every experience you have. You are the
creator of it, you’re the main cause. Many factors, yes; but you are the
main cause, not Joan. It’s a very powerful view actually. Takes time
really, because our view now is absolutely different. It’s the exact
opposite.
SECOND CAUSE OF SUFFERING: DELUSIONS

Now the second cause of my suffering, which really is the main one:
the delusions that impel the past action. And if it’s a punch, let’s say, it
must be anger. My past karma, an action: the punch; and my past
delusion, anger. The two causes of my present suffering. Simple.
If we understood this, we’d stop the karma growing right there. But
we don’t. We feel like the innocent victim, get angry, and punch right
back. That keeps the ball rolling. That’s samsara, and it never ends.
We talked about how to tackle the first causes back in junior
school: stop doing negative actions now and purify the past actions
before they ripen.
Here we’re dealing with the main causes, the delusions. And the key
delusion to understand here is attachment.
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18. THE WORKSHOP IS IN THE MIND MIDDLE
SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
MENTAL AND SENSORY CONSCIOUSNESS

What are the delusions? What are delusions?
Let’s look at the mind again, in general.
First of all you’ve got mind. Then within mind you can say you’ve
got the two ways it functions. This is important. You’ve got mental
consciousness and sensory consciousness. They’re all a function
of the physical, as far as the modern view of the mind is concerned, but
not for Buddha. What Buddha is saying, there’s consciousness, and
there’s body. Two separate things but linked together.
Mental consciousness, which is thoughts and feelings and
emotions, intellect. Then one is sensory, which is the experiences of
the mind through the medium of the body. This is the way to say it.
Technically, in Buddhist terms, eyeball is not what sees things. The
eyeball is just the physical medium through which the mind, that part
of our mind, eye consciousness, functions in order to perceive shape
and color. It’s not just splitting hairs; it’s a major point. Ear
consciousness is that part of our consciousness, mind, that functions
through the medium of our ear, through the drum and all that
business, in order to perceive sound.
THE SENSES ARE LIKE DUMB ANIMALS

The sensory consciousness is really very limited. It’s got a very limited
capacity. But we make the body the boss, as Lama Yeshe says. Big
mistake. For example, we will say, “Oh wow, look at that delicious
chocolate cake.” And we will say, “We see a delicious chocolate cake.
We smell a delicious chocolate cake.” Technically not true, according
to Buddha. Eye consciousness perceives only shape and color. It has no
more capacity, it doesn’t know. . . the word “know” or “cognize” are the
same meaning, and that’s the function of mind. Mind cognizes,
THE WORKSHOP IS IN THE MIND CHAPTER 18
consciousness cognizes, and it cognizes in various ways, knows in

various ways.
Eye consciousness cognizes only two things: shape and color. Ear
consciousness, it can’t hear divine Miles Davis. I’d say, “Oh wow, that’s
Miles, I can hear Miles there,” because I’m a big fan of Miles Davis.
But ear consciousness doesn’t know that. It only knows or perceives or
cognizes sound. They’re very dumb animals, they’re like dumb
animals, the senses; they’re very limited, very limited level of capacity
of awareness.
But we give them so much more power because we don’t have such
a good understanding – this is using Buddha’s approach – to how the
mind works. As Lama Yeshe says, “We make the body the boss.” He
says we have the senses, yes we do, you see they’re very powerful.
They’re the interface between me and the world, aren’t they? Without
the senses we have no way of experiencing anything because this is the
level we function at. We’re living in a sensory universe now. Buddha
calls it the desire realm. We have this gross body that’s the interface
between us and others, it’s very gross. So, senses are limited.
THE WORKSHOP IS IN THE MIND

Then we have mental consciousness. Actually what’s happening
when we meet the chocolate cake is a whole pile of things. I’ll use this
as an example in a minute of how the mind works. Okay, we’ve got
sensory consciousness, which have very little capacity – and I’ll
explain the relationship in a minute – then we have mental
consciousness. And that’s where the workshop is, as Rinpoche says;
that’s where the workshop is. That’s what we have to become familiar
with, that’s what we have to get to know deeply, and that’s where we
have to be our own therapist. And that’s what we have to change,
because that’s where the potential for enlightenment is. And that’s
where all the potential for suffering is. This is the point.
Even knowing the sensory is not your mental consciousness is
already powerful. You don’t get fooled by what the senses tell you. It’s
an extremely important point to really become a good practitioner.
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Now let’s leave the senses alone, now let’s look at the mental. I’ll
come back to the senses in a minute and the function they play in
relation to the chocolate cake.
THREE CATEGORIES OF STATES OF MIND

Now, within the mental consciousness you could say there are three
components, broadly speaking: positive states of mind, negative and
neutral. That’s it, no fourth category, very simple.
I like to call the so-called neutral states of mind the mechanics
of our mind. They’re not neutral insofar as they’re not important. It
means they’re neither negative nor positive, virtuous nor nonvirtuous
– we’ll talk about them in a minute.
The mechanics of our mind include discrimination, concentration,
alertness, good memory, etc., etc., and whether you’re a murderer or a
meditator, you need these. They enable us to function.
NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE STATES OF MIND

The negative and positive states of mind are our business; this is now
where we are really beginning to move along on this path, now we’re
getting into the real nitty-gritty of the real work of being a practitioner.
All the time abiding by the laws of karma, that’s fundamental, but here
we begin to look into the nitty-gritty, really look deeply into the
mechanics of the cause of all our happiness and all our suffering,
which is our own mind. Now we’re beginning to see how it works.
WE GIVE EQUAL STATUS TO GOOD AND BAD

In the West, when we look at who we think we are, at our very nature
of self, at the person, we give equal status, you check this, we give
equal status to the negative and the positive qualities. We give equal
status as far as the person is concerned, the very nature of the self, to
anger, love, jealousy, all the good and all the bad. We say, “Well I
didn’t ask to get born. We all start in our mother’s womb, somebody
else made us, and we don’t really know why we’re like this. It’s just the
way we are. We’re all like this, it’s just the way we are.”
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Buddha disagrees as you can see. We bring it with us, we do have

these things, but he is saying the positive qualities, they are who we
really are, they are innate to us, they are the core of our being and the
negative ones aren’t. It’s a very interesting point. It needs a lot of
thinking about. It gives us all the encouragement to want to do
something about it.
If it’s true I can be free of suffering, and if it’s true, I now know
what suffering is, then I better know what causes it. If it’s true my
water will be free of pollution and if I now can recognize what
pollution is, I have to mainly know what causes it, because then I can
stop doing it. That’s the crucial one.
NOT MORALISTIC
We talked a bit yesterday when we talked about karma how Buddha
sees this. Not as something moralistic, not as some statement from on
high that Buddha has decided, “That’s a good thing and that’s a bad
thing, and you better do this and not do that because I say so,” which
is the Christian view. Not criticizing again, just stating. I mentioned a
discussion with a Catholic priest friend of mine years ago: what is a
sin, what is a negative action, what defines it? He said, “It’s that which
goes against the will of God.” Now that’s perfect if there’s a creator,
that’s correct. You shouldn’t question. It’s correct; do what God says.
Perfect. Perfect.
NEGATIVE ACTION: THAT WHICH HARMS OTHERS

But that’s not the story here. Buddha says, like we talked, a heavier
negative action is something, simply speaking, that harms others. It’s
very simple, that’s what defines it, in general. Remember we talked?
But then of course, we looked at how we create karma, and just
because a negative action is that which harms others, it doesn’t follow
that when you do that action that you’ve created negative karma – and
the example being when you had no intention to kill the ant. The ant
died, so it is yes technically a negative action, but you didn’t create a
negative action, because there was no intention. We looked at that part
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which is really important again to understand. But in general here,

how you define a negative action, karma, is in that way.
FIRST INTENTION, THEN MOTIVATION

Then, we can say when it comes to a negative action that harms
another, there’re various things playing a part. There’s your mind
mostly, first of all, which is the intention, and then the motivation.
Where the motivation comes in, that’s the negative state of mind. In
the case of the killing, the aversion, that’s the negative state of mind.
Everything we do with our body and speech is propelled by the mind.
Okay, in the case of killing the ant it wasn’t because there’s no
intention there, it was an accidental thing. But in general, when we do
negative actions they’re propelled by a negative state of mind, which is
the motivation.
MUST KNOW THE NEGATIVE

The negative states of mind, therefore, are the ones we have to learn to
understand, because they’re the ones we’re trying to change. By
knowing the way the negative states of mind function, it tells us what
the positive states of mind are. But here we’re still in junior school and
high school, in the wisdom wing, we’re still focusing on understanding
the negative, we’re still focusing on refraining from the negative.
There’s no big talk yet about doing the positive. That actually is
more advanced: the love and the compassion, which we’re coming to,
is university, because that’s on the basis of harnessing and controlling
and knowing our own mind and our own body and our own speech,
which is this one. We are understanding here how to not harm with
our body and speech, we’re learning how to understand the negative
states of mind.
GET OUR HANDS DIRTY

We need to understand this, just like when Buddha tells you your
water can be depolluted, you’ve got to start now getting your hands
dirty, don’t you? Wading into that disgusting water, testing out what it
is, finding out the nature of the pollution. You’re not just sitting there
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thinking, “Oh yes, it’s nice pure water, don’t talk about pollution, I
don’t want to talk about pollution.” You’ve got to taste the pollution,
you’ve got to get in there and really get yourself dirty in order to
understand the nature of the pollution and to know what causes it, so
you can remove it. You’re preoccupied with the pollution. Are you
seeing my point? You’ve got to be.
Why though? You see your reason why: so you can finally have pure
water. And then the compassion wing is like you even purify more the
pure water and develop love and compassion and all the positive
qualities. We are preoccupied here with the negative ones, which is
why often when we get caught up in this we can get very depressed.
“Oh God, Buddha goes on about suffering all the time and negative
states of mind all the time, can’t we talk about something nice please?”
But we’re still working out all the pollution here, we’ve got to know
about it deeply. You can’t just pretend it’s not there. Do you see my
point people? Are you seeing my point?
WHAT IS A NEGATIVE STATE OF MIND?

Okay, let’s look at then what is a negative state of mind. Well, there are
various synonyms, as I said. One is “disturbing emotions.” There’s very
many terms: there’s destructive emotions, disturbing emotions, mental
afflictions, there’s all these different terms, you might see them. There
are all referring to the same thing: negative states of mind.
NEGATIVE STATES OF MIND CAUSE US TO BE MISERABLE

There are two main characteristics that these negative states of mind
have. And one is indicated by this term disturbing emotion. Even if
we became familiar with just this, it would give us great courage to
want to go beyond it because this is what suffering is. Just the
suffering of being angry, just the suffering for yourself of being jealous,
being depressed, being this, being that. It’s so obvious, isn’t it, it’s so
clear that it’s so painful for you. Not discussing anyone else here. It’s
painful, it’s painful, it’s a disturbing emotion. That’s the same as a
negative state of mind.
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As soon as we hear “negative” we kind of get guilty. But don’t think

like that, be brave. Just hear it okay?
NEGATIVE STATES OF MIND CAUSE US TO BE

DELUSIONAL
Another characteristic, and this is a really tasty bit, another
characteristic that these negative states of mind have is indicated by
another term, another synonym, delusion. Delusion. If someone
accused you of being delusional, like if someone said to Joan, “God,
you’re so delusional Joan,” she’d be really hurt. “I’m not insane, I’m
not delusional!”
But actually – again using Joan as an example because she’s talked
about her depression, or me talking about my anger – then Buddha
would say the extent to which we’re caught up in the depression or
we’re caught up in the anger is the extent to which we are delusional.
You look at yourself when you’ve got your depression. Everything is so
fearful, isn’t it? You’re fearful, you’re scared, you’re panicked. It’s like
the world is this awful place. Then when you’ve calmed down it looks
quite different, right? While you’ve got your depression or while I’m in
my anger and freaking out and shouting at this person who’s feeling so
hurt, the world appears a very bizarre place. Monstrous and out there
against you and suffocating and the heart is beating. Well that’s just
plain old delusional. Excuse me; you’re insane while you’re doing that.
I mean if someone said to me or Joan you’re insane, we’d be very
hurt. But Buddha is saying that. He is saying that being caught up in
any one of these negative states of mind, to whatever extent and for
however long, to this extent we are insane. To this extent we are
delusional. To this extent we are out of our mind, all these words we
say.
WE’RE ALL DELUSIONAL: IT’S JUST A QUESTION OF

DEGREE
In our culture, we just take as a given that everyone has a bit of anger,
a bit of this, a bit of that, and we call that normal. We bring in the
delusions into our normality. Buddha just has a more radical, more
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refined view of what is insane, what is delusional. Are you seeing my

point? He says we’re all delusional; we’re all insane, it’s just a question
of degree. And that really is the best way to say it.
Which is quite shocking, because what it also implies is the level to
which we can be amazing. If we just take as normal a bit of anger, a bit
of jealousy, a bit of this, a bit of that and that’s a rounded normal
person, then you can’t really move very far from this, you’re stuck with
that. By saying that all attachment, anger, pride, jealousy is delusional
is also saying that we can get rid of it. He is more subtle in his
assessment of how we are crazy and he is more subtle in his
assessment of how we can be so amazing. You see my point? That’s the
flip side. It’s very interesting, what he is saying.
NOT SEEING THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE

Delusional simply means, you’re out of touch with reality, you’re not
seeing things as they are. It’s very obvious, when Joan’s caught up in
her depression and her fears, you can’t see past your own nose, can
you? You’re just freaked out about “I,” isn’t it? This overwhelming
sense of I, and that’s the point about the negative states of mind.
IGNORANCE: THE ROOT DELUSION

Because they’re rooted in the main delusion, this one called ignorance.
This primordial, deeply instinctive misconception about the very
nature of our self, so instinctive that we don’t even know it’s there, we
can’t even label it, we don’t even name it, because it’s just constantly
there. It’s like a constant pain that’s there; we’re never free of it so we
just assume it’s normal. And that is this ignorance, the deepest one,
the root of all our suffering; psychologically speaking the root even of
any of the other ones: attachment, depression, anger, fear, they’re are
all just variations on the theme. They’re all the voices of this ego-
grasping, this ignorance, known as ego-grasping.
IN SAMSARA
And this is what Buddha means by being “in samsara”: having this
ordinary. . . and this second kind of suffering. . . the first kind, we
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don’t have the first kind of suffering too much in relation to say, war
zones or starving countries, you see what I’m saying? We’ve got a very
happy life in comparison – and this is the point that Catherine was
making earlier. And this is Buddha’s point about the second kind of
suffering: we don’t think we have much suffering if we hear the word
suffering. But when we hear the second kind of suffering - even having
the happiness we have, and the sign that it’s suffering is when it goes –
look how you feel: total panic, total freak out, when he leaves you.
When you’ve got him, you don’t even think you’ve got an attachment –
and we’re going to talk about attachment more – you don’t even think
you’re suffering. But when he leaves you it’s unbearable pain.
Well, the Buddha is saying that the one that we call happiness,
which is having him and having all the happiness, is actually totally
linked to the other one, because if you didn’t have attachment, when
he left you wouldn’t have any pain. The happiness we have now is
completely linked to the suffering we have now. We are swaying
between both.
And if you look at daily life, a thousand times a day, you get
happiness, the green light comes, “Oh I’m happy!” you know? The red
light comes, now you get suffering. Each is linked to the other.
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19. BE YOUR OWN THERAPIST MIDDLE
SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
IDENTIFY DELUSIONS
In relation to the two main causes of my suffering there are two levels
of practice. The first one we already talked about, the karmic one: stop
creating more suffering by refraining from harming others; and pull
out the karmic seeds, in the long-term, all the ones that I’ve planted up
until now, we have to do the job of doing the practice of purification;
pulling out the seeds before they ripen.
But the most immediate level of practice now is, referring to the
second cause of suffering, the delusions that drive our actions: we need
to identify them, and harness them. The most urgent level of practice,
as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, is to work on the mind. First work on
your body and speech, refrain from the action. Now, work on the mind.
Like I said yesterday, this is more sophisticated than working on
the body. The working on the body is the first level, at least don’t
punch. Refrain from punching, even if your mind is boiling. Simply
speaking here, don’t respond with a punch because at least you don’t
harm someone and sow heavy negative seeds in your mind.
BE YOUR OWN THERAPIST

Then, in this second scope, in high school, the nitty-gritty, tasty, tasty,
tasty level of practice is learning to be your own therapist. Seeing your
mind, noticing the anger rising and learning to work with that and
change it. That’s the real immediate practice to do. And this is what’s
so difficult.
To even see what’s in our mind is already difficult for us. Right now
in our culture because we’re not used to looking at our mind, it’s not
part of our education, we’re brought up and educated to wipe our
bottoms, tie our shoelaces, do this, do that, go to school, learn math.
We use our intellectual capacity to an incredible degree in this culture,
but we don’t learn emotional things. We don’t learn how to see our
mind. We don’t learn techniques where we can look into the mind and
understand it, be our own therapist. No way.
The way we think of therapy in the West, the way we think of
psychology in the West, is we’re all born this way, you do your best,
you struggle along, and if things get so bad then you have to go and
find a therapist. The very nature of going to a psychologist or a
therapist means you really feel bad about it because you’re such a
disaster area now. It’s sort of like we’re just brought up to just hop into
a car and get onto the freeway: no one teaches you to drive; it’s just the
way life is, you don’t drive. And then if you have a crash, you have to
go find someone to help you. Well, it’s a bit backward isn’t it? If you
learn how to drive, how skillful, you can avoid the crashes when they
come.
That’s all Buddha is saying. From day one, start to know your mind.
Be taught about your mind. Be taught about your body and speech, be
taught about your mind. It’s your mind, it’s your anger, it’s your
jealousy, darling, it’s your love, it’s your compassion. You have this
potential so then can you imagine being brought up with this, plus the
capacity to see what you’re feeling and thinking well before the crash.
Well, by the time we’re 20, we’re going to be an amazing human being,
aren’t we? Can you imagine? Not to mention 60 and 70 and 80.
VICTIMS
All this undealt-with, garbage inside us, which we’ve never known how
to process, which we’ve never seen, and then we spend our lives
blaming everybody else for it, then we blame someone for making us.
Talk about victims! Buddha doesn’t use this word but, oh my
goodness, it’s a perfect description. Everything is done to us. And then
if we don’t know we can change, we’re stuck with it. No wonder we feel
guilty. No wonder we have panic every day. Because we’ve buried it
comfortably or we’ve pushed it away mightily. For those of us who
have a lot of depression or fears, it’s because we’ve buried it all and
have been terrified of looking, because we haven’t been taught. It’s all
pushed away there. It’s got to come out somewhere, so it manifests as
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panic and fears and all the stuff that we have; depression, all these
internalized things, repressed, packaged, shoved in.
It’s kind of interesting. I can see a person like myself who’s very
volatile in my life. I didn’t suppress, you know? Okay, I did. We all
suppress so much. We all don’t see so much of what is going on inside
of us, that’s clear. The advantage for me was: I didn’t repress too much
so I didn’t go crazy – I probably made everybody else go crazy!
I’m thinking of myself, you know. I don’t have depression, I’ve not
had that or loneliness, that kind of thing. At a subtle level, we all have
it; Buddha is saying this is how we all are. I’m just talking at a grosser
level. But I’ve had lots of explosive energy, that’s what I’ve had to
control, my explosiveness and my harming others with my mouth and
so on. You see my point?
I can see with some other people who say have fears and
depression, maybe they’re very kind people and aren’t angry and don’t
harm others; but the flip side for themselves is whatever is arising in
there, because you need to be a good person and a kind person, they’ve
pushed it down. You see what I’m saying? You recognize, don’t you
Joan? It makes sense what I’m saying, doesn’t it? It’s interesting. I’m
only saying Joan because she’s talked about it. You can see with Joan
she’s got a very kind, friendly persona, friendly approach, she probably
doesn’t go about shouting and yelling at people.
We’re all cut out from the same thing, we are just different shapes
that’s all. We’ve all got some kind of fears, depression, anxiety, love,
hate, this, that. This is the Buddha’s deal. Each of us has got our own
particular kind of recipe.
In general, the point here is to begin to own what happens to us.
Why does Joan harm me? Past karma. Owning that already is very
powerful; it causes me to be less fearful in the response because, when
you really internalize the karmic one, already just that is a cause for
not being angry.
A friend of mine who was in Tibet, was tortured, abused, his father
murdered, his brother murdered, he finally escaped. Incredible
suffering. And I said, “Do you ever get angry?” He kind of laughed and
said, “Angry, what for?” That’s a shocking answer, isn’t it? Even more
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shocking what he said then. He said, “What for? It’s our own fault.” All
he meant was: it’s karma. But he has so integrated the view of karma
in relation to both the good and the bad that for him it’s just
something natural, in the bones of his being, like innocent victim is in
ours.
If you really know that you create the causes for something, why
would you be angry? Because anger is, “How dare you do it to me. I’m
an innocent victim.” You see my point? It’s very interesting. When
you’ve really internalize the workings of karma, already that
psychologically is profound for you. You don’t feel such a victim.
Because you own the fact that you’re part of this scenario. Where
something went wrong, where the person harmed you and the person
stole from you.
As Lama Zopa says when we really get this, we see what happens to
us as our own karmic appearance; we don’t see it as something out
there that we’re an innocent victim of, that we didn’t create the cause
for. And when it’s the good stuff, it’s just the same. We own the good
stuff as well. This both lessens attachment and lessens anger. Because
you feel a part of it, you feel connected to it, rather than an innocent
victim outside of it, which is what we feel now, both with the bad
things and the good. This is how ego works. Kind of interesting.
Looking into the two causes of suffering and then of course working
upon both, doing the purification of the karmic seeds from the past
and then learning to know your mind well, become your own therapist.
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20. ATTACHMENT RUNS THE SHOW MIDDLE
SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
There are three main delusions, Buddha says. The main one this
ignorance, which is the root, root, root, the mother of them all, this
primordial grasping at this sense of self and the sense of everything as
having an inherent nature, like we talked, out there, existing
causelessly from its own side. That’s how we think about self. We can
refer to it as ego-grasping.
ATTACHMENT IS A LIAR
The main voice of that ignorance is attachment. Let’s look at
attachment because effectively, in the four noble truths, attachment is
the main cause of all our suffering. Let’s look at that.
The two main characteristics all the delusions have: one is the
disturbingness, they are disturbing when you’ve got them, and two is
they’re delusional, they’re liars, they’re liars. Another way to say, as we
talk is, when you’re caught up in it, you’re seeing things that aren’t
true. When Joan has got her depression, things appear in a way that
isn’t accurate. It’s like she’s put her really dark, ugly glasses on:
everything looks horrible. Same with anger, same with pride, same
with jealousy, same with all of them. They’ve all got their own flavor.
They’re all liars, they’re all voices of the primordial ignorance, they’re
all voices of ego-grasping, and they’re all liars. And then we believe in
the lie and we follow it. That’s samsara.
Let’s look at the root one, not the root, root, but the root one
effectively for day to day life, and that’s called attachment. And this is
really difficult because when we use even this word in our culture we
use it interchangeably with the words love, happiness, joy, pleasure.
Please, throw out all your definitions, all your assumptions now and
listen to this view, because Buddha used this word in a very specific
way.
ATTACHMENT EXAGGERATES
In general all the delusions, another way of describing it, is they
exaggerate, distort certain aspects of their object. And so equally when
attachment is in the mind, the function of attachment is to exaggerate
the delicious qualities of something. When attachment is in the mind,
the thing or the person or the situation that you’re attached to, that
you’re hankering after, appears more delicious than it really is. And
attachment also exaggerates the role of the object in making me happy.
When anger is there, the state of mind of aversion, the thing, the
person, the situation appears more ugly than it really is; and anger
exaggerates the role of the object in making me suffer.
THE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Let’s use the chocolate cake as an example. What’s extremely hard here
now – because we’re so on autopilot with this process, with this mode
we’re into, it’s so ancient within us, we’re so brainwashed to be caught
up in these delusions – they all happen spontaneously. We have
practiced them literally to perfection from life after life after life, so to
deconstruct this is extremely difficult. You need to really have the
microscope of your mind onto it. And that means you’ve got to have
concentration meditation, because you’ve got to look so carefully, so
carefully; and you can’t even do that unless you’ve even heard the
teachings about what these all are so that you’ve got a label for what
you’re seeing. Like you can’t do gardening until you know the names of
what you see, you’ve got to study botany first. Well, here we’re talking
Buddha’s botany.
WHAT’S INVOLVED IN EATING THE CHOCOLATE CAKE

what’s happening with the chocolate cake is a bit like this, there’s a
whole bunch of things going on, and we’re going to include the senses
here, too. The normal way is like this. Inside us, we have this aching
kind of neediness, and this is the energy of attachment by the way, but
we just take it for granted. There’s always a sense of wanting
something more, always a sense of something missing, always a sense
of not sure, maybe there’s something missing, there’s this aching
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feeling and it usually manifests as low self-esteem, and I’m hopeless,

and I’m no good. Do you understand my point? There’s this constant
aching kind of neediness for something and it manifests itself in a
million ways. That’s attachment. It’s real subtle actually. The word
attachment sounds so simple. “Oh I love chocolate cake!” That’s just
the tip of the iceberg. It’s coming from this aching sense of missing, of
lacking, of not having. And so it manifests as incredible neediness,
yearning, neediness in a neurotic sense. And it’s just there all the time.
Depending upon the kind of karmic imprints you have, the kind of
habits you have with certain kinds of phenomena and things from past
lives, that will then attach itself to that type of thing.
ATTACHMENT SELECTS ITS OBJECTS

Beauty We watched a movie last night, I was supposed to be doing my
retreat but I was watching a movie. I watched that one, have you ever
seen De-Lovely, that Cole Porter picture? Have you seen that? It’s kind
of interesting because you could see this rarified, in a worldly sense,
world he lived in, very rich, he was always surrounded by beauty. He
seemed a very lovely man, very kind, very patient, very sweet, he didn’t
get angry, but this massive attachment, we’d say in Buddhist terms
this massive, aching, yearning, neediness, for something. Never
satisfied with just one person, he had this one and that one, and this
one and that one. But always attached to beauty, needing, hungry for
beauty and nice pleasing things around him. But this aching missing
something inside of him, you could see it very clearly.
Heroin Now a junkie has dumped their attachment on to heroin.
That’s got a certain kind of consequences, look at it. Another person is
constantly needy for people to love them. “Oh she’s so needy,” we’ll
say, this little emotional needy person who needs other people to
approve of them. Frankly, that’s the one we’ve all got deeply. They say
the need to be approved of or known, approved of, is the deepest
attachment of all. They talk about the yogis in the mountains, who’ve
given up sex, drugs, and rock and roll, they’re still thinking about what
the people down in the village are thinking about them. It’s
interesting, but that can be very strong for some people.
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Furries Some other people it’s money, for others it’s power, for the
Furries it’s their stuffed toy. Have I talked about that in this class? I’ve
been reading about it. There’s a whole lot of people now calling
themselves Furries, Plushies, all these sort of words; their main object
of sexual engagement is their stuffed toys. And they identify
themselves as animals, but in a cute cartoon-like way, as animals. They
all have these conferences in hotels and they all wear their raccoon
tails and they are Joey Raccoon, Mary Fox and they do all these things.
If you think of it karmically, which we don’t in the West, but the
Buddha’s explanation, you think of the preoccupation we have, and
especially since the Thirties and Forties and Fifties, with cartoons.
What are cartoons? The personification of animals. That’s the function
of attachment: we’ve embellished and exaggerated to an insane degree,
which we think is harmless and just a fantasy, the concept of a mouse
and a duck and a fox, all these animals, right; we’ve personified them,
so it’s this cutesy thing that everybody, all children, we think it’s
wonderful.
KARMIC IMPRINTS FROM THE PAST

Well the Buddha’s explanation – this is me speculating, but using
karma as the logic. One of these boys, when he talked about his own
experience when he was six years old or seven, he was at the sports at
school and he got turned on by the Mickey Mouse mascot, not by all
the girls kicking their legs in the air. Of course, he thought he was
weird, he didn’t know why he’s like this.
And it’s the same for BTK, I’m sorry for that gentleman, since past
lives torturing animals, harming, he brings his strong imprint with
him to where he gets his intense pleasure. . . his attachment is to
harming people. You see my point? It’s the same logic.
A person like this little boy, who gets turned on by Mickey Mouse
mascot, meaning attachment sees a shape – ears, a big mouth, big
eyes, right? All it is is a piece of cloth cut in a certain shape, which we
now with familiarity call “Mickey Mouse” because we’ve been
brainwashed into Mickey Mouse. I’m not blaming Mr. Disney here, I’m
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just talking how karma works. It’s a form that has a very real form and
shape.
You can imagine from past lives a lot of incredible attachment to
fantasy, which we even think of as creativity. As a child preoccupied
for hours thinking about and wanting and yearning your little Mickey
Mouse, and your little bear, and your little tiger, and your little this,
and it’s leaving powerful imprints in the mind.
Next life, attachment so strong we call it sexual, that’s all.
Attachment is attachment is attachment. Very strong involvement in
certain activities, yearning for, attracted to doing it, it develops into
this huge attachment next life. It multiplies from life to life like a
million times. And the stronger the attachment, the stronger the
pleasure. There’s this little boy turned on now, his little thing stands
up, when he sees Mickey Mouse now.
ATTACHMENT TO FEMALE FORMS

Now my friend, when he was six years old, my Greek friend Panos, in
Athens, who’s totally into sex – he says I’m allowed to talk about it. I’d
always feel guilty when I’d mention it, but he says, “Please, you have
my permission, Robina.” He said when he was six, walking along the
street in Athens with his mummy and he sees a naked lady on a poster
in the cinema and he said, “Mummy, why is my penis standing up?”
Same for him. It wasn’t Mickey Mouse mascot, it wasn’t torturing, it
was a lady’s body: that shape. Now we call that normal and with
respect, we call that a gift from God; we call it a sacrament, we call it a
special gift from God. I’m not being rude now, but the Christians
would say that this one of sexual union is a gift from God.
Well, Buddha would say it’s attachment. Much so, from so many
lives he’s programmed his mind in liking female forms, seeing them as
far more delicious than they really are – because if you really analyze
it, it’s just two pokey things up there and a hole down here and two
legs. You get my point? You really dissect it like the Mickey Mouse
mascot. You understand my point here? Attachment is such, that now
he just sees it and everything works its little job, the little thing stands
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up and things happen. This is how karma works, this is how

attachment works.
INSTINCT IS JUST HABIT

Then you make it far more than it is, that’s how attachment works; we
are breaking it down. Of course, because we are born with it and it’s
“instinctive” as we would say – and all instinct is, in Buddha’s terms, is
the habit of thinking and thinking and thinking from past, past, past
that something is a certain way to the point now where it happens
spontaneously. That’s all instinct is. And then we take it as true, we see
it as true.
The guy who loves the Mickey Mouse mascot, he always thought he
was weird, now he’s suddenly gone on the web and found thousands of
people all over the world, especially in this country, who all agree with
him. Suddenly now because it’s what he feels, he says, “Now I’ve finally
found who I really am.” But that’s how we all feel about everything. We
take it as real.
ATTACHMENT TO VIEWS
I remember when this young white supremacist boy talked about how
when he first read Hitler, “Finally I found who I really was, finally I
found the truth. He spoke all the words that I knew were true and that
were in me, now I’ve found it.” Because he had karmic imprints, that’s
all. He had karmic imprints from those types of thinking, so it comes
together and this life, he’s got those instincts rising up, all those
thoughts, and then he reads Hitler and it becomes real for him.
That’s how we are all. But because what we are born with is
instinctive, and because it’s instinctive, and because we believe
someone made us like this, and “Mummy and Daddy made us” and “I
began in Mummy’s womb,” which reinforces the view of no cause and
effect, we reinforce that view, we think this is who I am, it feels good,
so it must be right.
So the Furry feels good about having sex with his Mickey Mouse
toy, or whatever it is. BTK felt good because even though he knew it
was wrong, the karmic imprint so powerful he couldn’t say no to it.
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Why? Because he got so much intense pleasure from it, so called

pleasure. Now we all do this and that’s why Buddha is saying the
pleasure we get now is the junkie mind, basically. We’re addicted to
certain things. BTK was addicted to torturing and killing. Little Mickey
Mouse man was addicted to his Mickey Mouse, seeing it more than it
really was, seeing it as good. We’re addicted to a female form or male
form, or whatever it might be, or food, or this or that, or whatever the
object might be. And then, because it’s so strong in us and comes
spontaneously, it feels so real, we believe it’s true, we have to follow it.
Right? This is samsara.
JUST BECAUSE IT FEELS GOOD DOESN’T MEAN IT’S RIGHT

The point the Buddha is making is: yes, we have these instinctive
things due to past actions, but we’ve got to step back, look in the first
stages when you’re learning in junior school about karma: What is
right? What is wrong? Why is it? What is this? What is this? You have
a basis now, you have a basis of what morality is, and then you refer to
that to where you’re at. Then you notice you want to torture people or
even just want to get angry: you recognize this is not appropriate, but
you see it’s a karmic imprint. You don’t beat yourself up; you know
you’ve got some work to do so you start to change. But you’ve got to
have a reference point.
The reference point we use now is, for whether something is good
or bad, is “Oh, it feels good.” I mean how childish can you get? If
you’ve got good imprints from past virtue and you are naturally
generous or naturally kind, that will make you feel good. Now please
go for it! Don’t do it because it feels good, do it because you’ve checked
against your basis of morality and you know it’s a valid action. Are you
seeing my point here? You want to be very rational about it. Then we
have to refer to where we were at in relation to that, and not get guilty
like we do now. “Oh I’m so bad, I’m this, I’m that.”
DON’T BELIEVE OUR STORIES

Okay, Joan’s story, from past karma, some reason, whatever the cause
are, this depression, these fears come. It isn’t who I really am, it is just
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there, they’re negative actions, they are coming from ego, don’t put
yourself down, it’s just the way I am, but it’s not who I really am, I can
grow new little seeds in me. And so meanwhile, you bear the pain but
you don’t follow it. As Lama Zopa says, you don’t believe in it. Meaning
you don’t believe in the story it tells you: that the world is horrible and
it is awful and it is this; that the Mickey Mouse mascot is divine, the
chocolate cake is so gorgeous, that I must have it, which is what
attachment is saying. Frantic. And then the energy of neediness is
strong there, and the story is on top of it, so you’re ready-made to
shove the cake in.
BELIEVING I’LL GET HAPPY WHEN I GET THE OBJECT

The other lie with attachment, the big lie that attachment tells us, is
when I get it, then I’ll get happy. That’s the killer. When I follow it,
then I get happiness. Then there’s this deep instinctive belief that
when I get the cake, when I do the torture, when I get the Mickey
Mouse mascot, when I have sex with that girl, then I’ll get happiness.
We have to have the object; the energy of the attraction is so violent,
isn’t it, when it’s a very strong attachment. All this is attachment. The
energy is so intense, meaning, we’re propelled by the force of our
karma. It’s like this force behind us pushing us towards doing the
torture, towards eating the cake, towards having sex with the object,
towards whatever it is that we’re attached to. That force we feel, like
we’ve got no choice.
A friend of mine in prison who now got a life sentence in California,
where they’ve got the three strikes thing: the third felony you get
arrested for, even petty theft, stealing the video, the third one – life
sentence, mandatory. It was even upheld in a referendum last year; all
the people in California voted to keep it in. During one of his thefts, he
said “I saw myself walking into this house. I didn’t want to steal that
television. I saw myself taking this television, I didn’t want to take it.”
No one believes that. Everyone goes, “Oh you cheat, liar, you’re just a
thief.” But that’s how karma works.
Look at us and our own pathetic habits, such as eating too much
cake. You don’t want to eat a second piece, but you’re propelled
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towards it, aren’t you? That’s how karma works. When you understand
and use karma as your reason for explaining it, it at least gives you
some ability to bear it. Rather than the one we usually have, “Oh my
God this is who I am, I don’t know how I got born this way, this is just
how I am and I can’t do nothing about it.”
Again, the way attachment works is from the past karma, the
imprint, the habit of doing it. It causes you then to meet those types of
things and people and experiences again, it causes you to see them as
more divine than they really are, coming from. . . then this hankering
and this empty sense of missing something, which is the energy of
attachment. The more that, the more divine it looks, therefore the
more you believe it, “When I get it, then satisfaction will come. It will
relieve the pain of the emptiness.”
THE MORE WE GET, THE MORE WE WANT

But you know what? That’s the junkie mode. We all know, as my
mother used to say to me, “The more you get, the more you want.”
That’s the Buddha’s point. That’s the tragedy of attachment. We truly
believe that when I get it then the satisfaction will come. It’s like an
ache, a pain and I’ve got to get that thing to assuage the pain. That’s
the junkie mode. We’re all junkies, it’s a question of degree. We’re all
deluded; it’s a question of degree. We’re all insane; it’s a question of
degree. This is how Buddha’s talking.
IF NO ATTACHMENT, NO ANGER
And attachment, this one, is the one that’s the main one. If we didn’t
have attachment, there’s no way we would have anger. Because anger
is the response when attachment doesn’t get what it wants. If you’re so
hugely driven towards getting that thing – look at a child, the
attachment comes and like little three-year-olds, they’re sort of naked,
there’s no control over their emotions yet.
We’re much the same, but we at least control the way we appear, we
sort of do it politely. But we’re still like a three-year-old in there. And
so when the three-year-old, when someone else, Johnny her brother,
comes to take the cake, she bursts into tears, stomps and yells, because
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she didn’t get what she wanted. That’s anger. And we’re still doing it,
look at us. But we justify it philosophically now, we justify it
psychologically. Anger is the response when attachment is thwarted.
Attachment is beneath even anger. There would be no anger if there
were no attachment. No way, not possible. It’s very interesting.
DELUSIONS ARE LIARS, ARE HABITUAL

The function of all these delusions is they are liars, they are strongly
imprinted in us, they’re habitual. They are liars in the sense that they
make the thing seem more delicious than it is. They’re liars in the
sense that they make us believe that if I get it or do it, I’ll get happy.
The energy of attachment is this ache, this pain – you look at even
when it’s just the cake, you’ve got to put it in your mouth, it’s so
painful, you feel so distressed. We shove it in. But we all know that it’s
not happiness, because the more we do it the more miserable we get –
not to mention fat and everything else. That’s the junkie mind. This is
the attached mind. It’s very interesting isn’t it, you’ve got to admit.
QUESTIONS ABOUT ATTACHMENT

It’s time for a break but let’s just have a few questions about this
business.
EXPECTATIONS
Student I’m still trying to grasp the attachment.
Ven. Robina Alright, Sweetie Pie. Go.
Student If someone creates an expectation. . .
Ven. Robina What do you mean?
Student Say they were going to do something and then they don’t
do it, then your response to that is?
Ven. Robina I’m sorry, I’m confused now. You’re talking about
someone else or yourself? What are you talking here?
Student It seems like there’s expectations. . .
Ven. Robina But Sweetie, are you talking about yourself or someone
else? What are you talking about now?
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Student Let’s say there’s someone who says they’re going to do

something for you or with you, and they don’t do it. They don’t follow
through, and your response to that could be anger, disappointment,
confusion. Is all of that. . .?
Ven. Robina Of course, that’s a sign of attachment, Sweetie. Of
course it is! That’s the point. In other words, our ordinary life is
suffused with attachment. Ordinary things that we take as ordinary,
that we take for granted and assume it’s normal, Buddha is saying is
mental illness. We’ve got to adjust our view of mental illness. We’re all
mentally ill. Yes, you’re mentally ill, that’s right. You get depressed,
you get sad, you get upset, you get disappointed, you’re mentally ill
Babe. That’s what Buddha is saying. You’re right, yes.
In other words he’s saying it’s possible to not be like that. That’s the
marvelous point he’s really making. It’s possible to be not angry, not
depressed, not jealous, not upset, not freaking out, not attached.
That’s the thing that’s so shocking to hear, and that’s all Buddha is
saying. Take away all the religious terminology – that’s what he is
saying. We have the potential to be absolutely free of suffering, that’s
his point.
We don’t factor ourselves in: we’re innocent victims. Innocent
victims get angry, innocent victims have resentment, and depressed,
and how dare you and we have expectations. I’m this innocent thing,
“Wow, how dare you don’t turn up! What right do you have? Who do
you think you are, not to turn up for our appointment at six o’clock.”
Like I’m an innocent victim. “You did it to me.” That’s how we are.
That’s samsara.
Student You were just saying that right now our mind is more like a
soup.
Ven. Robina What I meant was, right now for us, all our emotions
and our thoughts and our concepts are all just mixed together in a big
confusion, because we’ve never looked, we’ve never distinguished,
we’ve never even had a thought that we could. Right now, we start to
look, it’s very hard to see one bit from another. It’s hard to distinguish
until it’s very, very loud. Right now we don’t even know we’re angry
until the words are vomiting out the mouth. Joan doesn’t really notice
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her depression – well, she does, because it’s there most of the time –
but often a person won’t even know they’re depressed until one day
you can’t get out of bed. But what I’m getting at is, it’s been going on
for so long, so deep, so down, and so far so many tiny millions of
things happening, and because we’re never looking down there, we
only notice it when it’s really loud. It’s like you don’t even know you
can’t drive until the crash is about to come. How stupid. Right now it’s
impossible to see one bit from another.
CHANGE TAKES TIME

Student But my question is how do we go about doing this?
Ven. Robina Darling that’s the job! That’s what I’m talking about all
day!
Student I know, but the thing is we’re so unconscious with what
we’re doing, how do we…?
Ven. Robina Okay, let me ask you a simple question. You’ve got a
great big fat garden there, absolutely entangled in weeds and this and
that and flowers and roses, and it’s a great big fat mess. You can’t see
one piece from another, right? And you know no botany. And you’ve
assumed this is normal. And every day you look at it and you get
depressed, and miserable and guilty and hopeless, and what to do and
I can’t do anything, and I don’t know what to do. Well, how would you
start going about changing it? You tell me. What are the steps?
Practical, what are the steps?
Student The only thing I know from a practical point of view is
when a negative. . .
Ven. Robina Talk about the garden please. Use that as the example.
Tell me simply what would you start, the very first step, what is your
very first step?
Student If I could recognize the weeds, see that’s the problem.
Ven. Robina Okay, now wait. One step at a time. How would you
learn to recognize the weeds? What would you do?
Student I’d have to ask somebody.
Ven. Robina You’d go to botany school dear! That’s your first step,
isn’t it? But even before that, you’ve got to know it’s possible, that you
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can weed this garden and to change it and turn it into something
marvelous. We don’t even know that right now. Right now the status
for us is, we’ve got this great big entangled garden, full of weeds,
overgrown stuff, inside us. We assume this is who I am, we assume it’s
normal. We feel the pain of it every day, we never even look at it – why
would we? – we assume it’s normal. This is what life is.
Suddenly one day you hear that you can start to change it into some
marvelous garden, and the very first step is, “Oh wow, it’s possible!”
That’s your first step. Then you have to go, learn to know how to
recognize what you are seeing, because you’ve never looked, because
it’s looked so ugly, you can’t bear to look at it. You’ve got to start now
investigating it. Just looking at it is not enough, you’ve got to go to
botany school where you learn the names. Now when you look,
because you’re now brave to look, because now you know you can
change it, and you’ve got some courage now, you can start labeling all
the pieces. But you’ve got to do a lot of work first.
That’s my point here. When we hear attachment and love now, we
hear them as the same thing. Right now, I’m looking in there and I
can’t see a rose from a weed because I think they’re the same, they look
so similar. I keep making the mistake about what it is, it’s good, it’s
good. Then I suddenly learn, “One is a herb and one is a rose, a weed
and a rose,” I start to learn by writing them down separately and
thinking about it and learning it and memorizing at theory school,
“That is what a rose is and that is what. . . I see, it’s got these
characteristics.” Now I look again and I begin to see, “Oh, I see, that’s
attachment, that’s love. They’re different.”
It takes time. It’s a very intricate job I’m talking about. Then you
keep doing that. And then part of the process here is, bearing. . . once
you begin to understand you can change it, now you look at the same
old garbage, you don’t mind so much anymore. Before, we were
hopeless and couldn’t bear it so it was painful to look. Now we’re brave
to look because we know we can change it. You start by going to botany
school – and here we’re talking Buddha’s psychology, not Jung not
Freud. They all use the same words, but my goodness, there’s a
different understanding of them. That’s up to you. If you want
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Buddha’s, you’ve got to listen to Buddha’s teachings on the mind,

you’ve got to listen to the Buddha’s model of the mind. And then
you’ve got to start meditating on it and thinking about it, and thinking
about it, and thinking about it, and slowly, slowly, slowly you’ll get
more and more skill. But every time you look, you’ll see more clearly.
It’s a very gradual step-by-step, intelligent, disciplined process.
Do you see? That’s how you do it. But it’s not magic overnight. We
are so attached to being happy that when we hear spiritual practices,
when we get attached to meditation and some fantasy that when I do
it, it will all go away. It’s just the same as attachment to chocolate
cake. I’m not saying that you’re saying that. I’m just saying. It’s a long-
term thing, we’re in for the long haul. But it’s a precise, clear,
intelligent, disciplined activity I’m talking about.
WE CAN CHANGE OUR MIND!

Student The specific thing I was thinking about was motivation
actually. I think about my own motive, my reason for wanting
something, I can never really clarify why it is I’m doing something.
Ven. Robina Well, don’t worry. You don’t have to accept the status
quo; you change your motivation, you make it what you want it to be.
It’s your mind, you can decide what you like. Just because the status
quo is you’re confused about what your motivation is, who cares what
it was. Decide what you want it to be. It’s very simple. What do you
want it to be? What do you want your motivation to be?
Student To be helpful.
Ven. Robina Right.
Student I don’t know if by doing a particular task that particular
task that I’m thinking of, is really helpful.
Ven. Robina Sweetie Pie, there’s two things there. A bird needs two
wings. Compassion is the wish to be helpful. That’s what compassion
is. Compassion is defined as when you see someone suffering, you see
it and you feel their pain. And then the bigger one is, “May I do
something about it.” You’re saying that. How marvelous! That’s
compassion wing.
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But compassion is the wish to help others, but compassion is not

what gives you the skill to help others; that’s wisdom. Wisdom is what
you’re doing when we’re talking right here. What we’ve talked up until
now is all the wisdom wing. You put yourself together: the more clear
you can be, the more clear you can understand your mind, and your
nonsense, and your confusion, the more clear you can be about
yourself and put yourself together. That informs your compassion
because what wisdom gives you is the ability to see. . . your heart
reaches out, that’s compassion. But wisdom, which is the work you do
on your own mind, removes all the junk from your own mind so you
can see past your own nose now, which means you can see what would
help. And you do that. But that comes from wisdom, not compassion.
MOTIVATION, MOTIVATION
You have to have the motivation. That’s why we always start
everything with a pure motivation. What’s my motivation? You state it,
you’re making a new motivation: “I am doing this, I am doing that, I
want to do this so I can develop my qualities, so I can be of benefit to
others.” That becomes your motivation and that informs everything
you do. And then you develop the wisdom: by getting rid of your own
junk you get two things: 1. your own happiness, and then 2. you get
wisdom, you get clarity, you see what’s going on. That gives you the
ability to choose, “I know with confidence this will help”: one word,
one action – or doing nothing. That’s wisdom. That’s what gives you
the ability to know. Your motivation is the wish to help. Your wisdom
is the skill to do it. They’re two things.
Student I guess I’m in too much of a hurry to get the skill.
Ven. Robina And that’s called attachment. No. That’s attachment.
Student I see.
Ven. Robina That’s attachment. That’s what makes us feel anxious
and in a hurry. It’s like attachment to see the plant grow, you’re kind
of anxious every day that it’s not coming up. I’m sorry, it’s got its own
laws and it will come when it’s ready. You feed it, you do the right
thing, you do all the causes and conditions, it will come when the time
is right. That’s what patience is.
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Student Yes.
Student I’m thinking of how to apply this. When you talked about
first of all stemming the karmic habit in body and speech, refraining
from the habit. To me at that point, if I have a habit of attachment or
aversion and I recognize that, then it can be a signal there’s some
delusion at the root of it.
Ven. Robina Well the delusion is the attachment and the aversion,
so what do you mean besides that?
Student What I mean is not acting out of the aversion or
attachment and looking inwards: “Why am I reacting this way” or
“Why do I want to react this way? What is the actual delusion.”
Ven. Robina What you mean is what you’re looking at is the
attachment and trying to understand how it functions? That’s the way
to say it.
Student Yes.
Ven. Robina Yes, that’s your job.
Student Instead of acting it out. . .
Ven. Robina Yes, that’s your job.
Student But when something is really subtle and I can’t tell whether
it’s attachment or love, if I could ask myself that question of: “If I don’t
get this, am I going to be disappointed?”
Ven. Robina That’s right. Good point. That’s a good test. Yes that’s
right, a good way to do it.
She’s saying that when she sees the impulse to follow attachment or
follow aversion, she doesn’t want to follow it with her body and
speech, and then she wants to look inside and check it out. It is good to
check. . . the test if it’s an attachment, “If I don’t get it, how would I
feel?” That’s a good way to think. Because then you know that’s
attachment.
But the point in this is also: we need to be doing this job all the
time – this is being your own therapist – an ever deepening
knowledge, an ever deepening skill at it. But at the same time we’ve got
to be. . . like when you’re in a relationship with a person and there’s
enormous affection there and you love the person very much, it’s
inevitable there’s attachment, too, and it’s impossible to expect
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yourself to be in that relationship and have no attachment, just like

that. You’ve got to be brave to know you’ve got to engage in the
relationship, and engage in the thing, and engage in the activity with
the pure motivation, and then you catch the attachment when it comes
and you work with it.
Sometimes, if it’s really heavy attachment to something like heroin,
you can’t do that. The object is so intense it will destroy you: best to
say no. Cut right away. But some objects, it’s okay to be with them,
because it’s a good person, you understand my point here? Don’t be
scared of attachment, because you mitigate it with the love and the
constant good motivation. Don’t be scared of the attachment, don’t
treat it fundamentalist, “Oh God I’m a sinner, look at me.” You’re
going to have it for a long, long time, but be in the middle of it, but
constantly grow the love, and grow the patience, and grow the
generosity, and motivate purely, and then purify as well – and then by
having it you learn about it.
Student That’s very helpful. . .
Ven. Robina Don’t avoid, don’t be scared. I mean if it’s a
destructive thing, like a really heavy action you’re attached to, best to
absolutely say no. No choice there. We’ve got to say no to some,
definitely, for our own sanity. Like torturing: just don’t do it. We’ve got
to have enough skill to know to say no.
Ven. Robina If the person is a good person and a good relationship
and there’s something good there, it’s going to come with the junk. By
having it you’ll learn about the junk, so real grist for the mill. Go for it.
Do you want a quick break? Ten minutes, or fifteen.
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21. DON’T BELIEVE OUR KARMIC APPEARANCES
THE CHOCOLATE CAKE: BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS

Now, let’s get back to the chocolate cake. What’s happening here is
this.
You see the cake: the eyes see the shape and the color. That’s
instantly – like I mean this is all happening in sort of a millionth of a
second, all this stuff, it’s so perfectly programmed inside us, we do it to
perfection – the eye consciousness perceives shape and color, that
triggers instantly the mental consciousness where the memory is
stored from having eaten and seen and touched and tasted this thing
before.
Up comes the label “chocolate cake” and it’s accurate. It’s fine: this
is a chocolate cake. You even could be a professional cook and just by
looking at it, triggering your memory and your knowledge, you
could actually deduce that it’s a really good chocolate cake. That’s a
relative reality; nothing wrong with that. That’s a fact. It triggers in
you because you’ve eaten it before and because you’ve had pleasure,
because it’s triggered pleasure before – and again the key word is it
“triggers” the pleasure, technically. Right now we think it’s the main
cause of my pleasure; we think the pleasure comes from the chocolate
cake. This is not correct. You could say that the chocolate cake is
merely a catalyst. It triggers your capacity to experience pleasure.
That’s the way to say it.
NO DELUSION YET
That memory is there. You recall having had pleasure. All of this is
fine. None of this is delusion yet. None of these little thoughts that
have arisen all so instantly in the mind, they’re not delusion. This is
fact: It’s a fact it’s chocolate cake; it’s a fact its shape is a round thing;
DON’T BELIEVE OUR KARMIC APPEARANCES CHAPTER 21
it’s a triangle; it’s this, it’s a good one; you’ve had it before; it triggered
pleasure – none of that is a mistake. None of that is delusion.
NOW ATTACHMENT ARISES
But, the trouble is what also is triggered instantly along with all of this,
is attachment. The second the pleasure arises, attachment kicks in.
And it’s so powerful it permeates all the other things, so the overall
experience is attachment. And that means instantly you see it, it
appears self-existent, out there, having this inherent deliciousness,
like as if deliciousness is inherent in the cake, as if when you made it,
you put a spoonful of deliciousness along with the chocolate and the
eggs. It’s like, in other words, you check, it looks delicious to you out
there, doesn’t it? It looks delicious, like it is delicious, in itself
delicious. And you believe it a hundred percent, right? You believe it.
You don’t ever doubt that. And you believe the cake is delicious. . . In
other words, you don’t think for one split second that the delicious
cake is a story that your mind is making up. We don’t think that.
“CHOCOLATE CAKE” IS AN ELABORATE STORY

But that’s what Buddha’s saying. That’s what Buddha’s saying. That
actually, we are making up an elaborate story. We can’t argue that it’s
not a cake. It is a cake, relatively speaking, there’s a relative level here.
It is a cake, it’s not a toilet. It is delicious, it’s not an ugly one. If you
are a professional cake-maker, you can relatively speaking, say that.
These are facts. There’s no argument about that at a relative level.
But, the energy, the experience we have of it, is mainly informed by
the ignorance, which sees it as inherent, not just inherent delicious,
but inherent cake – that’s an even harder one to see. We see it as
inherently delicious if we have attachment there.
Let’s say you have aversion to chocolate cake; let’s say you get really
sick if you eat chocolate cake. When that person sees it, it’ll be a whole
other story, the eye consciousness perceives shape and color, it will
trigger the label called chocolate cake, it will trigger the memory of
having had it, it will trigger the disgust and the horrible experience
that was triggered by the having of it. Right? The overall experience
that you will have will be then formed by the aversion that is triggered
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instantly. Now the cake appears to you as something disgusting. It

appears from its own side out there, inherently in and of itself,
disgusting, as if you put a spoonful of disgusting-ness into it when you
made it. That’s how it appears to you.
Each of us believes our own picture, don’t we? It’s a picture because
clearly the cake can’t be simultaneously disgusting and delicious, can
it? Like it can’t be simultaneously chocolate and carrot cake. It’s either
chocolate or carrot cake. We’ve both got it correct. Check, check, it is
chocolate cake. We’ve got that right. But, then one person puts a lie
onto it and says it’s ugly, another person puts another lie onto it and
says it’s delicious – and they are the stories made up by the mind.
Even more subtle, we can even say that we’re projecting chocolate
cake onto it. But, actually there’s no chocolate cake from its own side:
that’s a deeper one. We’re looking at our attachment as a liar now; but
seeing that one tells us how even ignorance is a liar, and that’s another
discussion. Attachment or aversion are liars, how they project their
own story coming from our own experience, our own story, and our
own stuff.
You know when a racist sees a certain person of a certain race, they
see somebody disgusting. When a person of that same race sees that
person, they see a person who is lovely. Again, as our mothers would
tell us, all these secret little Buddhist clichés that our mothers have,
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Deliciousness is in the eye of the
beholder. Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. It is so obvious. It’s
profound, that statement, but we just say it like a cute thing. But, it’s
absolutely the point.
Of course we don’t think it’s like this. We can hear it now,
rationally. But, because we’re brainwashed into attachment, we just go
into it, automatic, default mode. There’s no questioning. We’re
brainwashed. We’re totally programmed to see it like this. And then of
course – this is the point, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says – “Bad enough
that you see it in a way. . .” that it’s not, meaning gorgeous, delicious,
or ugly, whatever it might be, the story you project – “Bad enough you
see it this way, but the worst part is you believe it’s true.”
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DON’T BELIEVE OUR KARMIC APPEARANCES CHAPTER 21
That’s the point. That’s what keeps us locked into samsara. That’s
the trick, to catch that and, as Rinpoche says, “Everything is your own
karmic appearance.” For someone like me who’s got the habit of being
angry, then people will appear to me as very annoying and ugly and
horrible and destructive and this and that. Bad enough I see them this
way, but it’s because of my karmic appearance, from my habit, but the
worst part is, if I believe I’m right. Then, I’ll hold on to it. And look at
the world, that’s why we have wars.
DON’T BELIEVE IN OUR KARMIC APPEARANCES

The practice is to see the old habit coming strong, you keep seeing
these ugly, awful people but, when you are practicing, you then catch
yourself and think: “It’s true, I see them this way and I’m feeling
furious.” And when you can calm down a bit, you can start to say, “But
it’s not true, Robina. Things don’t exist how you see them. This is just
your anger talking. They’re not really like that from their own side.”
That doesn’t mean they didn’t harm you; that’s another discussion,
too. We are not saying they didn’t harm you. But, anger is the
response, it’s a certain way of interpreting a person who harms you.
Attachment is a certain response to a cake believing that it makes me
happy. Buddha’s not saying when you put the cake in your mouth it
doesn’t trigger some pleasure. He’s not arguing with that. What he’s
arguing with, is this over-exaggerated view of it, that it’s from its own
side delicious and when I get it, it is the main cause of my happiness.
In other words, the junkie mind, that interpretation, he’s arguing with
that. And, even just this, to distinguish these two things is quite
difficult.
And, I’ll say well, “What do you mean? He did harm me.” Buddha’s
not saying that. He’s not saying the person didn’t harm me. He’s
saying my anger, my over-exaggeration of his ugliness, my saying he’s
this, he’s the cause of my suffering – that is not true. That’s what’s not
true.
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ATTACHMENT LIES
It is true it’s chocolate cake. It is true that relatively, when you put it in
your tummy it will trigger pleasure. That’s not a lie. But, the rest of it
is a lie. From this we make it more than it is, from this we say, “It is
the cause of my happiness and when I get it, I’ll get this and then I
must do this. . .” and we manipulate to get it, and then we freak out
when we don’t. All that is the lie. It’s like we over-exaggerate the whole
thing. That’s how delusions work and that’s what we have to catch.
This is how we have to see things. This is being your own therapist.
WATCH OUR MIND LIKE A HAWK

It’s like you’ve got to be on the case all the time. It’s not just every now
and again, sitting on your cushion, being holy. This is your full on day-
to-day job, because delusions are occurring all the time. Being your
own therapist is what you are supposed to be doing all the day. That’s
the point. And like any job we start to do, it’s difficult in the beginning.
You just stumble and you feel very tired doing it, but eventually you
get used to it, and do it naturally and that’s when you’re really
beginning to practice. . . Not beginning, that’s when you are really
getting some more experience from the practice, when you really can
see your mind, have the courage to see it, change it right there, or
struggle with it, work with it, and move forward. That’s practice.
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22. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DELUSIONS AND
VIRTUES MIDDLE SCOPE/HIGH SCHOOL
Here we are again, and we’re in high school mode here, talking about
the mind. Looking in the context of the four truths for the noble ones,
in particular looking at what suffering is, and looking very briefly at
the second one, which is the causes of suffering.
THE SUFFERING OF CHANGE

The first type of suffering is the gross kind: getting what you don’t
want. The second kind is getting what you do want, but through the
medium of attachment. Because let’s face it, it’s the only way we get
happy now, isn’t it? It is the getting of what we want. We’re living in a
junkie world where we’re forced to get the junk, and that’s what we call
happiness. Suffering is when you don’t get the junk and happiness is
when you do.
All Buddha’s pointing out is even the getting of the junk is in the
nature of suffering – and we know this when we think of junk. We
don’t know it when we think of chocolate cakes and people and life,
because we say that’s “normal”: of course that’s happiness. We take it
as a given that you have happiness when you get the things you want,
and you get sadness when you don’t. We think that’s life. Buddha’s
saying that’s suffering, and we can go beyond it. We can get more
profound level of happiness if we can give up attachment.
Of course it’s like when you go to botany school and you learn about
that weed and you do drawings of it and it’s just on a page on its own,
it’s easy to see it and identify its qualities. If you go to your garden and
you try to identify it when it’s mixed up with the other things, it’s very
hard, isn’t it? When we have love and attachment right now, it’s
extremely hard to distinguish, because for so long we think of them as
the same. Here we are trying to see it in a new way.
There you are in this relationship: the child, the friend, the
husband, whatever it might be. Like we’re saying, don’t back away
from it because you “shouldn’t have attachment.” You’ll do nothing

and you’ll be paralyzed, you just become frozen and you’ll cut your
heart off. We’ve got to be brave and know that, given that we do have
attachment, we can’t expect it to go overnight. Then, we choose a
reasonable relationship, a reasonable job, good friends, at least friends
who won’t harm you. In other words, if you are attached to a person
who beats you up every day, that’s kind of dumb. It’s like being
attached to heroin, you’re hurting yourself.
But, if you’ve still got attachment, you might as well at least choose
an object that won’t be that destructive. In the end, you’ve got to go
beyond, in the sense of attachment, going beyond attachment. But, at
least if you’ve got a friend who is kind and is loving and who’s working
on their mind too, well that’s a reasonable relationship. Nothing
wrong; go into that.
GLAD TO SEE ATTACHMENT

Of course, you’ve got attachment, but then you use the relationship to
help you distinguish, and every time they do what you don’t want,
every time they don’t get up on time, every time they don’t meet you
on time, every time they eat their breakfast too loudly, every time they
do the tiniest things that annoys you, then you know that you are
grateful, because that’s showing you your attachment.
ANGER: NOT GETTING WHAT ATTACHMENT WANTS

Because “annoyance” is just a simple little sweet word for “aversion.”
We say “annoyed,” “frustrated,” “irritated”: that’s called anger. Let’s
give it its proper name. Just a mild version of it, that’s all. Because
aversion is a response when attachment doesn’t get what it wants.
Because what you want is to hear no sound when he’s eating his
breakfast. That’s what you want. You are attached to getting no sound
and then if you hear slurping, it’s irritating, right?
I mean I can’t imagine how you all sleep with people every day, and
they fart and they snore. I mean no wonder you have aversion for your
partner! It’s asking too much of yourself to keep thinking of them as
divine and gorgeous when they fart and snore! I think you should have
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DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DELUSIONS AND VIRTUES CHAPTER 22
your own room. Really, I think people really demand too much, you
demand too much of yourself in relationships, living one inch away
from this person. You’re demanding too much.
I mean the guys in prison, they kill each other when they are in
their cells in the Security Housing Units, I mean I don’t blame them.
I’d kill somebody if I was sitting in an eight-foot by ten-foot cell,
twenty-three hours a day, years on end! It’s too much, you are
expecting too much of yourself, I think. When we have so much
attachment and irritation and neuroses, no wonder relationships all
break up. No wonder sixty-five percent of American relationships –
and that’s the ones that are called marriage legally – break up. I’m not
surprised.
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM YOUR ATTACHMENT

This is something interesting, too. The more you know your own mind,
the more you know the extent of your attachment, your irritation, your
annoyance, your this, your that, your own delusions, then you protect
yourself. You give yourself an appropriate condition that doesn’t
exacerbate them too much. It’s just common sense. It’s being practical.
You don’t beat yourself up because you are attached if you are living
with a person every day. I mean you wouldn’t expect an alcoholic –
hear the words carefully – to give up attachment to alcohol while
continuing to drink alcohol. You wouldn’t. You know it’s insane.
A person who’s aware enough of their own mind knows that they
need to remove themselves from the object if they can’t handle it. This
is extremely important. Conditions play a major role. Your mind is the
main thing, we’ve got to start giving it power; but, it’s not the only
thing. The condition called the alcohol, the drink, is a major condition
that activates your attachment, and it’s so intense that you must
remove yourself from it.
Now, in some relationships we need to do the same thing. Some
people they say, “Oh, we love each other so much but we can’t live
together.” That means you’ve got so much attachment and so much
aversion you fight all the time because your attachment is so intense,
and therefore your aversion is so intense, you are always in each
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other’s faces. Well, then you can’t live together. You’re right. Separate,
much better, more healthy.
BLAME YOUR ANGER

The person you fight with so much at work: maybe it really is just best
you leave, because you can’t handle the amount of anger you have. And
you don’t blame yourself, you just know you can’t handle it. And you
don’t leave it, because you think that person’s a creep. That’s the usual
way we leave. “He is so horrible. I must leave the job.” Don’t blame
him. Blame your own anger. He might be a creep but your anger is
what’s causing you so much suffering and your anger is what causes all
the problems, not his being a creep. That’s his problem. Your problem
is your anger.
CONFUSING MY THOUGHTS AND THE PERSON’S ACTIONS

And this is the business about karma and about your own mind, this
incredible clarity we have to develop that enables us to see this clearly,
to enable us to see this, to distinguish myself from the other person, to
distinguish my part of it, to see my part, my thoughts, my feelings, my
emotions, my junk and to distinguish it from that person’s. Right now
with the delusions, we’re locked into the other object. We’re so caught
up, we can’t see that what I’m thinking. . . we think that what I’m
thinking is his stuff, and we can’t even distinguish between what he’s
doing and what I’m thinking. We think it’s the same thing and that’s
what delusions do. They absorb into the object. Attachment so absorbs
into the object that you can’t distinguish yourself from the object.
That’s the one; that’s the killer of attachment.
Student When you were talking about your Tibetan friend, he
definitely could say, “Yes, I was harmed.”
Ven. Robina Yes, my Tibetan friend who was tortured in Tibet and
in 1987 participated in some of the demonstrations there. All the
monks and nuns were demonstrating and he got arrested, got tortured.
Then he left the country, and his father and brother were murdered.
There’s no argument, of course, he knows he was harmed. But, the
point is because he had the view of karma deep in the bones of his
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being – it’s just what he sees as the truth, like we see the opposite is
the truth – even as it’s happening to him, he completely knows he’s
part of that; he’s an interdependent part of that scenario, that due to
past suffering, he has now created the cause to be harmed. He just
knows that. As it’s happening even, he knows it. There’s not a problem
in his mind interpreting it in this way. Because that’s his
interpretation of it, he doesn’t get angry. Because anger – you look at
the words of anger. Look at the words. “How dare they do that to me?”
Now, that means I didn’t do anything to create it, doesn’t it? It means I
didn’t do anything to deserve it. Do you see my point?
A FEW LIVES BETWEEN PUNCHES

I remember years ago, in London, when I was a very radical feminist,
when blokes in the street would say something to me about my body,
I’d punch them in the nose, or other places, and abuse them verbally.
I’m serious, I did! I remember this particular man: he punched me
back! I was very surprised because they usually didn’t do that. It was
very interesting! There I was running down the street and he was
running after me after I’d punched him in the nose – I remember, his
fish and chips went flying! – and he caught me and then he hit me
back!
Now, let’s just say someone hadn’t seen me hit him first. . . . Or,
let’s just say people did see me hit him and then they saw him hit me
back, and then, if I started saying, “Who does he think he is? Who do
you think you are? How dare you hit me?” They would have all
laughed, right? “But, Robina, you hit him first. What are you talking
about?” Do you see? Well, that’s karma. It’s just that it was two and
half lives ago. That’s the problem.
Student He could go through the suffering of being harmed
physically.
Ven. Robina He would feel the pain. He would feel the pain, yes.
Student And he doesn’t feel the added psychological damage of the
anger.
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Ven. Robina No anger. That’s exactly right. That is the point, and
that’s what’s shocking because we think they come together, because
we all have the view of the innocent victim.
I remember again, two years ago in New York I was participating in
a conference with a whole bunch of ex-prisoners that Richard Gere’s
foundation had invited, also His Holiness was also invited; all of them,
all the people who had worked with Buddhism during their
incarceration. A couple of people like me, were invited as well. And
what was very interesting, they all had their own experiences, their
own dramas, their own sufferings, struggling with their racism and
different things, really in the same way as all of us, lots of anguish and
drama and suffering and “Why?” and all this painful stuff we all have –
using the Buddhist explanation - because we don’t have an
understanding of why it happens. That’s the major reason we have so
much anguish. Why? Do you see?
There also at the conference were two young Tibetan nuns who
totally had this Buddhist view, in their minds, in their hearts, it invests
their practice, it informs their practice. So, there they are talking about
their experience of being tortured daily, physically, sexually brutalized
daily in prison, for however long; I don’t know the details, I don’t
remember. Now, it was really clear to look at them, to hear them, first
that their suffering was far worse than everybody else’s. It was also
really clear that they weren’t angry. They weren’t full of anguish. Their
eyes weren’t tortured and full of pain and “Why?” and drama. They
weren’t on serotonin, they weren’t seeing psychiatrists, they weren’t
having mental breakdowns, they weren’t depressed – because the view
is, because the view of karma.
And they even had compassion for their torturers – “because we
knew we must have harmed them in the past,” one of them said. And,
of course, because he will suffer in the future because of the harm he
has done to them.
BECAUSE OF KARMA, WE CAN BEAR THE SUFFERING

The karma is the basic one. It explains why you have a situation. You
are able, therefore, to bear it because you know you’re not an innocent
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victim, because you’re brave enough, it’s a confident view. A victim is

not confident. Because you have this view. . . you don’t want the
suffering; you please would rather walk out the door. It’s not
comfortable to be tortured, for God’s sake. But, you don’t have all of
this other psychological junk on top of it. Because they had their
practice and they had their compassion and they had their stuff,
they’re able to, it gave them courage and strength to bear it. And they,
even, because of the view of karma, had compassion for their torturers,
as I said.
THE WAY WE LABEL

I mean that’s a very different way of seeing things. In other words, this
is what Buddha is saying: everything is to do with how you see it. The
chocolate cake, look at the example: it’s how you see it. Even the
prison, even the torture, it’s how you see it. Finally, that is emptiness
actually: that, from its own side, nothing has an inherent nature this
way or that. Everything, Buddha says, is our own projection. Our own:
from imprinting, from habit, from interpreting according to delusions,
things that come to us, we meet them, the harm comes. We interpret it
that way and we keep reinforcing it that way. That keeps deepening
samsara. But, everything has come from our own past experiences and
everything even is interpreted by our own minds.
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche said to several people who write to him
from prison, he writes back to some of them, he said to one, “It’s how
you label it.” People in Tibet spend years attempting to find a little,
smelly, dark cave locked away on their own, locked away on their own,
and they call it heaven, they call it hermitage. Okay, it’s not quite the
same when there’s lots of noise in a prison, where it’s very angry and
violent. But, it’s how you label it. If you look at all the labels, you label,
you believe you’re a criminal, you believe this, you label yourself, that
you are labeled “in prison,” and somebody else is doing it to you. All
this elaborate stuff we have. Well, of course, it’s suffering. Of course,
it’s pain. All of our lives we’re like this, we’re all these victims in these
self-imposed prisons, that we think other people do to us.
Student Your Tibetan nun friend would be much free-er…
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Ven. Robina Darling, it’s called deluded mind. I’m not being mean
about us now. It’s just simply called having attachment, anger, anxiety,
fear, that’s all it is. And it’s a question of degree. All these things we
call the manic-depressive label, the bipolar label. It’s simply having
attachment and aversion. We have a thousand bipolar episodes a day.
When you get what you want, the mind gets all over-excited. When
you’ve really got a very extreme mind, you get very over-excited and
you think you’re Mozart, you think you can fly in the sky. That’s the
really up-mode of the maniac attachment gone berserk with no
thermostat.
And then, where does it go? It’s an inflation, it’s not an accurate
state of mind to think you’re Mozart and that you can fly in the sky. Do
you see that’s a really extreme level of attachment? Eventually, where
can it go? It can only bubble up and burst. It can’t go anywhere but
deflate. Down to “Oh, my God.” The higher you go, the further down
you go. When you get the green light, you get the up mode of the
bipolar. When you get the red light, you get the down of the bipolar.
We have a thousand mini bipolar episodes a day. You see my point
here? I’m not trying to make it simplistic. Using Buddhist psychology,
all the experiences we have can be explained, by utilizing, by talking
about these states of mind.
Here in the second scope we’re looking at. . . the first scope we look
mainly at the karmic one, leading up to karma, and we have to see
cause and effect: that what we do, say, and think will produce results.
We look particularly at the doing, saying and thinking of negative
things: harmful things to others result in future suffering for us. We
don’t want suffering, so we back away from doing harmful things to
others. We aren’t even analyzing it much on the first level of karma.
You’re not going into it too deeply.
You are looking at it fairly reasonably and realizing that doing
things that harm others with your body, speech, and mind are what
will bring harm to you. What comes around goes around, as we all say.
Because you don’t want further suffering, you start to control yourself.
You start to watch your body, speech, and mind.
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Now, we move to the second scope where we start to look in a more

sophisticated way, having got a bit of a handle on our body and speech,
we’re looking at a more sophisticated way, at the deeper causes of even
the karma, which is the mind itself, the delusions themselves. We are
looking at what the characteristics are of these delusions.
The liars, the misconceptions. . . and why they are called negative
because they cause us, okay, why they are called negative is because
they are coming even from the powerful sense of self, powerful me,
inherent from my own side, this separate, lonely, bereft I-ness, which
then gives rise to strong neediness to make that I happy, which then
causes us to manipulate this and that, to get this and that, to shove it
in to make me happy, which then causes me to get angry when we
don’t get what we want, and causes us to get angry and to harm the
people who thwart us, who thwart our attachment, which is called
anger and aversion. And then brings us to depression, which is
internalized aversion, which brings us to pride which is an over-
inflated sense of who I think I am, and all these other delusions. They
all come like this.
And these are the source of our actions of body and speech, which
sow the seeds in the mind, but ripen as future suffering and so the ball
keeps rolling. We try to understand deeply the workings of the mind
here. And, this is really the day-to-day job, incredible.
Attachment is this over-exaggerated, distorted, neurotic
misconception that sees the thing or the person or the event as more
than it really is. Out there, from its own side, such that if I get it, I’ll
get happy. And then, such that if I don’t get it, I get angry. That’s what
anger is. Aversion is thwarted attachment, basically, to whatever
degree you have it.
PRIDE AND LOW SELF-ESTEEM

Let’s look at a couple of other delusions just for a bit of help. We hear
the word pride quite a bit, arrogance. If we’re accused of being
arrogant, it’s not very comfortable, is it?
It’s difficult when we hear this because we think, “I don’t have
pride. I have low self-esteem. I think I’m terrible.” We all have low
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self-esteem. In fact, His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he heard about
the extent of low self-esteem in our culture, he said, “That’s a mental
illness.” And it’s true. We have enormous low self-esteem, self-
loathing, guilt. But, it’s a bit painful to hear it, but it’s the flip side of
pride. Low self-esteem is the down mode of when you feel like you’re
being deflated, when someone hurts you or insulted you. But the fact is
we wouldn’t have low self-esteem if we didn’t have arrogance and
pride. This is a very curious thing. You check, it’s very true.
First of all, any of the unhappy states of mind, any of the delusions,
any of the misconceptions – the delusions are misconceptions – have
this component of being emotionally disturbing, right? Any of the
disturbing emotions, any of the misconceptions or delusions, their one
main thing is they’ve got the very loud voice: I. There’s a better way to
say it: they are the voices of I, but the neurotic, fearful, grasping,
fantasy I. And the energy of I is fear. The energy of this neurotic I is
fear. And the more we look into all our delusions, the more we’ll see
they’re completely based in fear. Fear of I not getting what it wants. I
has to get what it wants. I being insulted, I being less than I really am,
I am not that, “I,” that fearful, panic I, that’s the neurotic I that we
grasp at one million percent as real, which Buddha says is a complete
fabrication. And this is a very hard thing to see.
I’m not talking about that I yet, because of this, we have the other
things: attachment, anger and then pride. Pride or arrogance is a
delusion, a delusion we are talking about here, not a virtue; it’s the
state of mind that is based on the over-exaggerated I and is the
attitude that “I am more than I actually am.” It’s an over-inflated sense
of your being better at something or more important at something.
And, it works in a very subtle way and it’s quite pervasive actually.
And, it’s like in terms of whether you are more beautiful, more tall,
more short, more whatever it might be; it could be the tiniest thing.
When it’s in the mind, it’s always referencing everybody else in
relation to this. And when there’s that type of mind, when we see other
people who are more happy, and more beautiful, and more rich, what
does that bring? “Oh, I must be no good.” That’s what low self-esteem
is. We’re always looking at others and always comparing with others.
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Then because we think they are more happy, and more famous, and
more beautiful, and more thin, and more this, and more intelligent, so
then low self-esteem comes. “I am no good.” But, it’s nonsense. Both
the feeling that you are more important and the feeling that you are
less important, are both distortions. They’re both delusions. They’re
the flipside of the same coin.
We think of low self-esteem as some kind of a virtue almost. But,
it’s not. It’s an appalling state of mind. It’s awful. But, it’s the same
quality as arrogance. Arrogance is looking in the mirror and saying,
“Oh, I’m so beautiful.” Low self-esteem looks in the mirror and says,
“Oh, I’m so ugly.” The reference for both is I and they’re both a
mistake. Do you see? They’re both exaggerations. All delusions
exaggerate. Pride exaggerates your beauty. Low self-esteem and self-
hate exaggerate your ugliness. They’re both distortions. They’re both
not accurate. Do you see my point? And, low self-esteem is the result
of deflated pride. It is deflated pride. If you didn’t have arrogance, you
wouldn’t have low self-esteem. This is a very interesting point.
PRIDE AND SELF-CONFIDENCE

We say confident, self-confidence, for example. And, we say humility.
Humility is almost like a dirty word because it seems like you lower
yourself even more. Having humility seems like low self-esteem to us
and then, having self-confidence sounds like pride. Then we think
we’ve got to give up pride, we’ve got to give up self-confidence. Then to
have humility means we’ve got to have low self-esteem. We make it all
confused. But, let’s look at these.
A simple little example, you could think of two people, let’s say
coming into a crowded room, they’re both gorgeous, both beautiful.
One has self-confidence, let’s say, and one has pride, let’s say. Because
self-confidence is not deluded. It’s not based on the neurotic I. It’s not
comparing. It’s not fearful. It’s simply content with what you are.
Don’t think of it as arrogant. We think self-confidence and arrogance
are the same. But, self-confidence is being content with who you are
and it’s not based in fear. You understand? You are happy with who
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you are. You’re content with it, and it’s not comparing with others.
You’re content in yourself.
Okay the two people who are so totally gorgeous let’s say they are
best in their field or something, let’s say. And one has got not much
arrogance and is very self-confident and very contained in themselves
and very relaxed. That means that person walks into the room and
they are very un-self-conscious. They are happy to meet other people.
They are happy to meet people who are more beautiful than they are.
They delight in this person. They want to learn something from this
person. They have no fear of what people think. They’re content. And,
that very contentment – and this is again a characteristic of non-ego –
is like when you are not self-conscious, when you are un-self-
conscious. You understand? When it’s just natural, and you are not
thinking of me. You are actually thinking of others, in a very natural,
un-self-conscious way.
The arrogant person is walking in utterly absorbed in “I,” fearful,
panic-stricken, worried about meeting someone who’s better, worried
about what people are thinking. That’s pride. And terrified of being
seen as less, almost waiting for the insult, and then when they discover
someone more beautiful or when someone says, “You are not so
beautiful”: devastated, collapsed into low self-esteem. I am so bad. You
understand? That’s pride.
The delusions are linked, they are the voices of the neurotic I and
their energy is fear and they’re self-conscious. There’s a sort of vivid I-
ness. But the virtues, there’s no sense of self-conscious “I.”
VIRTUES ARE PEACEFUL

In fact, virtue it’s very interesting. If the two main characteristics of
the delusions are: one, they are disturbing, that is when you have them
you are very uncomfortable, and two, they are delusional, they’re liars,
then, the two characteristics of the virtuous states of mind are simply
that they are not disturbing and they are not delusional. Their not
being disturbing means when there is more love in your heart for
another, even for a moment, than there is attachment; you’re not
disturbed, you’re feeling quite peaceful. In its nature, virtuous states of
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mind makes us peaceful, make us relaxed, calm. Nonvirtuous states of

mind make us fearful, panicked, unhappy.
If let’s say Joan and I are chatting away and having a friendly talk
and each of us is listening to the other and we’re saying yes, yes, and I
laugh when she tells me a nice story and she delights in something that
happened to me – that means, you could say, at that moment we’re
loving each other. I mean it sounds more dramatic than we would
think, because we think love is lovey-dovey, huggie-feely; attachment,
in other words. But, love really means I’m delighting in Joan’s
happiness. Love really means she’s delighting in mine. That’s it and it’s
very un-selfconscious and very kind of friendly.
When love is more prevalent between us, just in that sense, what
would be the experience? There’s no vivid sense of me. I’m noticing
Joan. She’s got no vivid sense of her. She’s more noticing me. There’s
not a vivid sense of she and me. There’s more a sense of we. You
understand? And, it’s very harmonious, very friendly, easy-going, no
dramas.
Now, watch what happens when we start to argue. Suddenly, the
“we” has gone out the window. There’s now a vivid Joan and a vivid
Robina, isn’t there? I’m feeling all hurt and I, I, I, and she’s feeling all
hurt and I, I, I. She’s saying, “You did this, Robina. You, you, you,” and
I’m saying, “You did this to me, Joan. You did this.” We’re all suddenly
dumping on each other. There’s a separateness and it’s painful and
disturbing, isn’t it? You see?
Again, the characteristics of the delusions is they’re disturbing and
it’s coming from the neurotic I. It’s I, I, fearful, painful, embarrassed,
self-conscious, and it’s delusional, lies, fantasies. The characteristics of
the virtues is that they’re not disturbing and – you know what? –
they’re not delusional, which is an interesting point. It means they’re
not liars. And, why is that? Because Buddha’s saying everything
anyway is interdependent; everything anyway is existing
interdependently. When you’ve got virtue in your mind, there’s a sense
of interdependence, isn’t there? A sense of connectedness.
Well, that’s how things are. That is how things are. To some extent,
not fully yet, because we haven’t realized emptiness, to some extent
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when you’re being kind and harmonious and peaceful and friendly and
generous and loving, even a small amount, to that extent you are
seeing things as they are. There’s a sense of connectedness,
interdependence.
As soon as the delusions kick in, there’s a sense of separateness,
concrete, separate, inherent, me-ness, she-ness, bad-ness, good-ness.
It’s delusional. Do you see?
HUMILITY AND SELF-CONFIDENCE

The person who’s got self-confidence has the quality of humility.
Humility is what? Humility is delighting in someone else’s qualities,
praising someone else, happy to see their good qualities. It’s very
interesting. I remember years ago watching on the television in
Australia a program, before I was a Buddhist, a program about some
famous people. There were interviews with two people, an Australian
cricketer – cricket is huge in Australia like in England and India and
Pakistan and those countries, all the British Empire. Cricket is huge –
so, this cricketer called Donald Bradman, he’s famous in Australia,
he’s like your Babe Ruth or your Michael Jordan, back in the 1930s.
And then there was another, this famous English ballet dancer called
Margot Fonteyn, right? I was totally into ballet when I was a kid, and I
loved her.
I remember watching both of them and it was clear that first of all
they were at the top of their field; they are seen as the best, but it
struck me that they were both incredibly humble; really kind, un-
arrogant, friendly, praising other people. And, you could tell everybody
adored them. They had such a good reputation.
I remember reading about another person who’s a really brilliant
actor, and it’s clear he’s not angry. He’s kind and polite and people
adore that person, too. It’s interesting – arrogance and anger really are
closely linked. Atisha has this saying and I always get them mixed up
but they both work. He said, “The best patience is humility.” He might
have said, “The best humility is patience.” I think they both work
perfectly. You check. They really go together.
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Humility is a good quality and it comes with self-confidence. Low

self-esteem is a lousy quality and it comes along with arrogance, the
flip side of arrogance. It’s very interesting to think of it this way. And
it’s painful because we all have low self-esteem. But, it’s linked to the
concrete “I” and that’s how we suffer: this concrete I-ness. All the time
we’re referring ourselves to others and we keep seeing, as I said,
people more happy, more beautiful, so that makes us that much more
miserable because we always sort of see it in reference to ourselves and
it’s meaningless. It’s absurd. That’s how ego works.
HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ATTACHMENT AND

ASPIRATION
Yeah? Go, Sweetie.
Student You say that there’s a difference between attachment and
preferring something or having desire for it.
Ven. Robina Well the words “desire” and “attachment” in Buddhist
psychology are synonymous, so ordinary words in English, let’s say “to
want” something “to aspire to” something they’re completely different.
Student The difference is, or how to distinguish whether it’s
attachment is your reaction to it. . .
Ven. Robina Well that’s a good way for us to see it because we can’t
see it while we’re in it.
Student If you have something you’re aspiring towards and it
doesn’t happen, if you feel disappointment, is that attachment?
Ven. Robina That’s right; that’s a sign of attachment, yes.
Student Not to have attachment you just let it go and not have any?
Ven. Robina No, it’s far more subtle than that but they’re good
enough words. Attachment is unbelievably pervasive, it’s
extraordinarily subtle, it goes so deep down into our psyche, way more
than we would ever think of when we use the word attachment. We
just see the grossest levels of it, when we think of the chocolate cake or
something. It’s extremely subtle. To be really free of attachment you’d
be a highly realized person, you’d be a very evolved being. Do you see
what I’m saying? The energy of attachment is that. The expectation: as
soon as I think I want it, we expect it to happen, we manipulate to
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make it happen, we talk about “control freaks”: that’s attachment.

Expectation: that’s attachment; manipulating to make it happen: all of
that’s attachment. They would say now we’re mainly motivated by
attachment. It sounds a bit depressing, but it’s so subtle within us.
Yeah?
Student With attachment, if you’re in a relationship and you break
up or your mother dies, is there a normal sadness or a normal. . .
without it being really attachment?
Ven. Robina I understand. Again remember we’re talking about
attachment here at a incredibly subtle level. The reference point being
here the freedom from all delusions. If you were to meet a person who
is free of all delusions and that means would have the compassion
wing fully developed, would have enormous love, compassion,
empathy for others, that would be a stunning person. I’d imagine, let’s
say, I think I used the example of the Dalai Lama. He is said to be a
highly evolved being, I can’t prove he is. . . but whatever, so that
means he has no attachment, no anger, no pride, no jealousy, no
delusion, no ego-grasping, has enormous love and compassion for
others. Okay, let’s assume he’s like this. When he talked about his
mother dying, he cried.
Now, when we cry, because we strongly grasp at I, and we therefore
have attachment and all the others, even to a minor degree, it’s still “I”
based. When he cried it’s probably out of compassion. There’s no
grasping at any sense of “I.” When you’ve given up attachment you
don’t walk around looking indifferent and cold. You’re full of love and
affection and warmth, and he’s in tears daily with all his Tibetans
coming, suffering, he cries with compassion for others when he sees
their suffering. But there’s no neurotic “I” involved in it at all.
Student And only he would really know that it was either
compassion or attachment?
Ven. Robina What do you mean only he would really know? In our
own minds, you mean? No, we need to learn to know, that’s what
wisdom is.
Student He would know his own mind. . .
Ven. Robina Yes, he would know himself, yes. Absolutely, yes.
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Student I would know which it is I’m doing.

Ven. Robina This is why this job here of being your own therapist,
as I’m talking, which we’re really learning in high school here, in the
second scope of practice, where we learn about the causes of suffering,
we learn about the delusions. We need to listen and listen and listen to
the way Buddha talks about them, think and think and think more and
contemplate more the difference between the positive and the
negative, recognize and distinguish between them.
It’s not how we talk in the West; and it’s a very marvelous
approach, and it just takes time, processing and the more you know it
well, like anything – when you’re really a great musician, a very
intricate knowledge you can have. You just keep learning it, keep
thinking it, keep studying it, keep meditating on it and your knowledge
and your awareness keeps growing, keeps growing, keeps growing, and
you keep uprooting at ever more sophisticated levels, the way the
delusions function.
Right now it’s like we’re this one big soup of emotions. Not only are
there chunks of soup, we’re puréed soup. You can’t even distinguish
one piece of something from another. Love and attachment for us are
virtually synonymous right now. Anger and righteous trying to make
something better are synonymous for us right now; we can’t
distinguish. We’ve got to do a lot of inner checking, inner looking, and
not be scared about it, not be fundamentalist about it. It’s just a very
marvelous thing to do, to have this level of self-awareness. This is all
Buddha is talking about.
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23. HOW SUFFERING ENDS MIDDLE SCOPE/HIGH
SCHOOL
Let’s remind ourselves of the first noble truth – there is suffering; and
the fourth – how to stop suffering and its causes.
There are three kinds of suffering. We looked at the first two.
The bigger level of this one is the lower realms; we went into that a
little. But in this life we can say that it’s getting what you don’t want,
being in a war zone, people being mean to you, having cancer, being
sick, so a very obvious sense, that’s clear.
The second kind we looked at, is the suffering of change,
which, at the bigger level refers to the upper realms, including the
human. But in this life it is what we think of as the happiness, which is
the happiness of a junkie. The happiness that comes when we get
the attachment object, which is nothing other than suffering, because
it doesn’t last and leads inexorably to the suffering of suffering.
The third one, the most subtle, that we don’t ever consider, which
is unique to the Buddha’s approach to life, is called all-pervasive
suffering.
Using the junkie analogy: the gross suffering is the suffering the
junkie gets when they can’t get the junk: extreme, intense pain. Subtle
suffering is when you get the junk, it’s the illusion of happiness, but
all it is is a brief respite from the gross pain. And every time you get
the junk it increases your need to get more junk. The lie of attachment
is when I get the object I’ll get happy, but in reality what you get. . . as
my mother said, “The more you get, the more you want.” Actually what
you’re doing is increasing your attachment, which is the killer. This is
the second kind of suffering.
The subtlest suffering is like you’re born with a body and a mind
that are the body and mind of a junkie, so in order to simply exist, you
are forced to ingest junk, which is the entire world we live in, the
objects of the five senses.
HOW SUFFERING ENDS CHAPTER 23
Being locked into that scenario, that’s all-pervasive suffering.

Being born with this mind, these delusions, into a desire realm – and
basically the world is the five sense objects – being forced to ingest
them in order to even survive. That is the third level of suffering, all
pervasive suffering, like no choice. With this, suffering realms never
end.
HOW TO STOP THE THREE KINDS OF SUFFERING

By refraining from harming others, you cease the suffering of
suffering. That’s the suffering of the lower realms and, even in the
human life, the bad things that happen. We stop this by the junior
school, the lower scope of practice.
By subduing attachment, you cease the suffering of change, and
that is the higher rebirths, such as human and gods and, in this human
life, when the good things happen. We stop this by the high school, the
middle scope of practice.
By realizing emptiness you cease all-pervasive suffering. In the
Mahayana presentation of the teachings, emptiness – which itself is a
high school, middle scope, teaching – is presented in the framework of
the six perfections of the bodhisattva. That’s university, the great
scope of practice. We’re going there now.
Student Could you recap that again please?
Ven. Robina Gross suffering is the lower realms and, in this life,
when you get bashed up and harmed and raped and hurt and don’t get
enough money and live in a war zone and starving: the gross suffering.
By giving up harming others, you stop this one. This is junior school
practice. That’s the method.
The second one, more subtle, by giving up attachment, you stop the
second kind of suffering: the suffering of change. This is high school
practice.
By realizing emptiness, by giving up ignorance, the root delusion,
you stop the third one. Altogether, that’s liberation, nirvana, the
cessation of suffering and its causes.
And all this is the accomplishment of the wisdom wing.
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Now we need to develop the compassion wing, realize bodhichitta,

practice the six perfections, and become a buddha.
EVERYTHING IS CREATED BY THE MIND

Again, remember this is Buddhist religion, but call it psychology,
because there’s not a single thing that we’ve talked about here that
isn’t about the mind. Do not pretend it’s not the mind we’re talking
about here. It’s just that Buddha’s got a far more different and maybe
more radical, I would say, more sophisticated view, of just what mind
is and what its capability is. Do you see my point? Then when we think
of it as mind, we are forced to bring it on the earth, not just lah-de-
dah-de-dah. Not just hear it’s something we better believe. You’ve got
to do it, you know. It’s extremely important to hear it like this.
END OF HIGH SCHOOL

Okay, that’s the second scope, this is high school. Already you’re
becoming a pretty amazing person. You’ve controlled your body,
speech and mind, you’ve really harnessed it, you’ve got incredible
confidence in yourself, you know that what you experience is the fruit
of your own past actions, you’ve really got a harness on your delusions,
you’re not giving power to them, you’re learning to be already an
amazing human being. You’d be an amazing human being if you’ve
accomplished even a little bit of all of this. Step by step, we are moving
forward, psychologically progressing.
-----
SEE OUR LUNCH DIFFERENTLY

It’s lunch time. Let’s think of our lunch differently. The status right
now because of being brainwashed for countless lives, is it’s something
out there, delicious from its own side that I’m craving to put into my
mouth, because I’m hungry. It’s just mindless attachment. We want to
make a different action. We’re still going to be attached, but we make
it different before we put it in. We don’t believe in appearances, so we
think of it as empty. We think of it as having no inherent nature, it’s
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HOW SUFFERING ENDS CHAPTER 23
just like the chocolate cake: it’s a projection of our minds because of
habit, so we then see it this way. We don’t believe it. It doesn’t have an
inherent nature, in fact.
Now imagining, we transform it in our minds into an ocean of
blissful nectar, an ocean of it, in the sky. And then we think of offering
this to all the holy beings, all the Buddhas, all the bodhisattvas, all the
holy beings. And then we think of all the suffering, sentient beings,
and all the realms of existence, all the gods, humans, animals, pretas,
hell-beings, all the suffering beings, all ignorant of cause and effect, all
causing themselves unbearable suffering, all not knowing why, all
suffering so intensely and continuing to harm each other. Such
compassion for them. We make this aspiration that they all delight in
this and get everything they need, all the happiness they need and that
it removes all of their suffering. Delighting in this. So happy to do this.

The bigger your stomach, the better now! Enjoy it!
DEDICATION
Now, we just dedicate this thinking, this talking, this aspiring, this
analyzing, this contemplating we’ve just done since this morning, how
marvelous.
“All these seeds we’ve planted in our minds. May they ripen – we
remind ourselves of our motivation – may they ripen in the future as
quickly as possible in the development of my marvelous potential, my
buddhahood so I really can be of benefit to countless living beings.
May this be the result of this action.”
Please enjoy your lunch and see you very soon.
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PART FIVE
GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
THE ESSENCE OF WHICH
IS PRACTICING COMPASSION
24. OVERVIEW BEFORE MOVING ON TO
UNIVERSITY
MOTIVATION
Okay why are we doing this? What do we want our motivation to be?
Why are we doing this? We know we want to develop our qualities, we
know we want to be more happy, less neurotic, less miserable. We
know that, and we’re beginning to get confidence that it’s possible.
Isn’t this marvelous? And then we look at others and we see they’re in
the same boat. We know they want the same, so we want the same for
them. That’s compassion.
Think:
“On the basis of developing our own qualities finally all the way to
buddhahood, may we be able to benefit every single sentient being.
How amazing! For this reason we listen to these teachings, process,
think about, all the rest.”

THE PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATIONS

Alright. We’ve been through, we’ve looked at the nature of our
mind, the fact that it’s got this marvelous potential to be perfect, to
become Buddha, is its natural state. We must develop into it, we must
become it. We can do that because it’s changeable. The virtue’s
inherent within us, virtues are innate, they are like at the core of our
being, they are who we really are. And the negative qualities aren’t.
Our mind is our own, it’s nonphysical. It doesn’t come from a
creator, doesn’t come from parents, is our own. What’s in our mind is
ours and it goes back and back and back, and it’s the process of cause
and effect, chicken and egg, and it will continue to move forward.
OVERVIEW BEFORE MOVING ON TO UNIVERSITY CHAPTER 24
Then we looked at the necessity for a teacher to show us how to

do this job; a person who is qualified, who is valid. We need to check
very carefully, very stably, in a very grounded way, check on the
qualities, check on the path, check on the teachings, check on the
students, check on the reputation, check on all this, until we become
very confident that first this is the path you want and these are the
teachers and we are prepared to trust them to lead us to
enlightenment. Then, seeing them as the Buddha, practicing this.
Then, moving to the next point that Atisha asks us to contemplate,
which is the preciousness of this marvelous opportunity we
have right now: this life, this leisure, this space, this time, this
intelligence, this healthy body, this situation that we’re in. It’s not
random; it’s the fruit of enormous merit on our part. We set ourselves
up to have this marvelous opportunity so let’s not waste it. Let’s use it
as the resource that it is to help us get enlightened. How incredible.
JUNIOR SCHOOL: THE LOWEST SCOPE

Death and Impermanence Then we contemplate: “Yes indeed, it is
precious, but my goodness, it could end at any moment.” It will in
fact end at any moment, the time of our death is completely
uncertain, and at the time of death the only thing that is of any
use to us is our positive qualities, not the negative ones, not all of
our possessions, not our reputation, not our money, not all of this stuff
that we spend so much energy on.
Suffering Rebirths Then we contemplate even more that we will
die at any moment and all of these negative karmic imprints from
countless past lives could very well ripen as extremely suffering
rebirths, causing us to completely lose the plot, completely lose it
into all sorts of suffering experiences, thus no way we can practice, no
way we can transform ourselves.
Refuge We don’t want that kind of suffering so we turn to the
Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. We utilize these tools in our life
to help us develop our qualities. And so then we finally begin to
practice.
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PART FIVE GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
Abiding by the Laws of Karma The culmination of this first

scope, this junior school level of practice, already profound, is to abide
by the laws of karma. We listen very carefully to Buddha’s teachings
on what to not do and to what to do, what to avoid and what to actually
practice.
We learn the basics of the ten nonvirtuous actions, to refrain
from these; and just living this way already, marvelous. You won’t
harm others, they benefit and you benefit directly. Because the
negative seeds won’t ripen, that when you die, because you thought
about it, your mind will be happy, the habit of practicing virtue will
naturally ripen the virtuous karma, it will throw your mind on
autopilot into a really good rebirth where you can continue to practice
your spiritual path. Very practical.
Just like if you’re a gardener and you can decide what seeds you
plant because you know the fruits of those seeds and so you can even
have a plan of fifty years time. You can show me your empty ground
now and say, “Look Robina, in fifty years I will have this and this and
an oak tree here and a peach tree there and roses there.” And I’ll say,
“Oh, wow, you’re clairvoyant!” But you’ll say, “No, no, no, I just know
botany, that’s all, no big deal.”
Well the same here, the laws of cause and effect. It’s a law, it’s
practical like that. If you want to have a really good life, you practice
morality: don’t harm others, don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t kill. If you
want to have people trust your words, then don’t lie. If you want to be
born with a very fine healthy body then don’t kill. If you want to be
born and have people trust what you say then don’t lie, as I said. If you
want to be born with enough things to have in your life so you can keep
on practicing, you’d better be generous. It’s really practical, bring it
down to earth. Stop mystifying all this stuff.
We’re so mystical, so confused. Buddha says it’s practical: you learn
to know what to do, so that you get that result; you learn what not to
do so you don’t get that result. Just like you do with food, with
gardening, all the things we understand in the ordinary physical world;
we live by these laws. But when it comes to our spiritual practice, when
248
it comes to goodness and badness, we completely lose the plot, and live
in fear, you know. So silly.
HIGH SCHOOL: THE MIDDLE SCOPE

Then we moved to the second scope, we moved to high school now and
we started looking more deeply, more sophisticatedly at the deepest
causes of suffering, which is in the mind, which is even the cause of
why we create karma: the mind, the mind itself. We need to
understand the mind.
We began to look a little bit at this, understanding positive states of
mind, negative states of mind. Understanding how the negative ones
cause us suffering, are disturbing, and are deluded. How they
function, how they are liars, how they lead us up garden paths, and
how the tragedy is because they are so familiar, we are so familiar with
them, we believe in what we’re seeing. As Lama Zopa says, “Everything
is our karmic appearance”: the people we meet, how we see them, how
they treat us, has all to do with our past actions. We get sucked into it.
Then we feel like a big victim, “They did this to me, they did that to
me, not fair, poor me, I didn’t ask to get born, it’s not my fault.”
We begin to grow up here, we begin to get more mature, we begin to
grow up. We get courage to see ourselves, to take responsibility, and
all the time the reference being our own marvelous potential. Just
seeing your own negative qualities in and of themselves will make you
depressed; we spend our lives doing that. To see negative qualities in
the context of the fact that you can change them and become positive:
wow! That’s fantastic.
We looked more deeply at how even the nature of this life is
suffering, too. Not just having the grosser level of suffering but even
the subtle level of suffering, this one of that even this happiness we
have now is nothing other than suffering, because it’s motivated by
attachment. It’s like the happiness of a junkie, it’s polluted.
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OUR POTENTIAL TO BE FREE OF SUFFERING, FULL OF

HAPPINESS
Whereas what Buddha is saying – this concludes this high school –
Buddha is saying, actually, if we look at the Third Noble Truth, if we
look at our potential, the potential we have for happiness, very simply,
is phenomenal, phenomenal. Far more radical in his view of what we
can achieve then we ever think possible in our ordinary Western world.
He says you can’t imagine the levels of contentment, fulfillment, bliss,
clarity, joy, happiness that we can achieve. Not in a hysterical sense of
happiness like we think about it; but we can’t even find words for it
because it doesn’t even come into our experience at all.
But if you can even just imagine not having a fraction of
attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, fears, confusion, being
unbelievably courageous, being extremely wise, seeing the minds of
others, being very blissful, very joyful, your mind absolutely under
your control, no crazy thoughts, no crazy nonsense, no deluded
emotions, being very relaxed, very funny, very blissful, very kind, very
loving, very compassionate, can you imagine? We understand the
words. Buddha says we can become this.
RENUNCIATION OF SUFFERING AND ITS CAUSES

Following this contemplation in this second scope of practice in high
school, what we get is an even deeper, more powerful wish to go
beyond suffering. They call this renunciation. We’ve finished the
wisdom wing now. The culmination of this all together is a very
profound renunciation.
Simply speaking as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, you’ve got
renunciation, you’ve accomplished it when “just the thought, just the
thought, of another moment of attachment is so disgusting it’s like
being in a septic tank.” In other words, when we’re so advanced and
our understanding is so refined, even just a moment of attachment, the
thought of it even, is so revolting because we’ve so deeply understood
how it causes so much pain and suffering to ourselves and how it
causes all the other delusions and all the gross suffering in the end.
That’s the source. It’s pretty amazing.
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THE MIRACLE OF RENUNCIATION

Another way to say it, is the wish to give up – not happiness, never
think this; it’s such a mistake – but to give up suffering. But crucially,
by finally now understanding that the delusions and karma, my
delusions and my past actions, are the cause of my suffering, now I
have some confidence to know how to change it. That’s the miracle of
renunciation.
If you were to complete just this wing, graduate at high school,
you’d achieve nirvana. You’d meditate on emptiness, you’d cut the root
of even the deepest delusion, the self-grasping, the ego-grasping, and
you would achieve liberation from suffering. No longer need to be
reborn; finished, achieved enormous bliss, your own liberation, as they
call it.
But here on the Mahayana path the culmination of the middle
scope, high school, is renunciation: two things: being fed up with
suffering and knowing its causes. We know what suffering is and we
know why we’re suffering. That’s the miracle.
And now we can look out there and see the world and realize that
we’re all in the same boat, we’re all suffering, so we want to go on to
university. We want to develop the compassion wing as well.
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25. WHAT IS COMPASSION? GREAT
SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
Now we can see suffering everywhere. Look at all the suffering of

suffering, suffering of change. Look at all these people harming each
other. Why? Because they think others are the cause of their suffering.
And look, they don’t realize that what they’re doing now is going to
harm themselves in the future. This alone, this ignorance of karma
alone, is such a profound reason to have compassion for others. You
never had that until you have compassion for yourself, which you get
from thinking about karma in the first and second scopes.
In general, compassion means seeing the suffering of others, or
seeing that what they’re doing will cause them suffering, and your
heart reaching out. That’s compassion. Love is seeing others and
wishing them to be happy, delighting in their happiness, wanting them
to be happy; that’s love.
WISDOM WING IS THE BASIS

The entire compassion wing is the development of love and
compassion, to degrees that we can’t even conceive of as real. Why?
Because Buddha would say, once we have grounded ourselves in the
first two scopes, junior school and high school, and we’ve got such a
profound understanding now of what causes suffering, what causes
happiness, for ourselves, of course it applies to all beings. Now we can
open our hearts, beginning to expand our consciousness to encompass
others and continue all the way to opening your heart until eventually
you’ve encompassed all beings without exception, see their minds
perfectly and only wish, spontaneously, to benefit them as long as
samara exists.
A BIRD NEEDS TWO WINGS: WISDOM AND COMPASSION

It’s all to do with love and compassion, this is the point. And this is the
action wing. It’s like the wisdom wing is where you put yourself
WHAT IS COMPASSION? CHAPTER 25
together. Like wisdom is you go to school and learn how to become a

surgeon. Compassion wing is the action of cutting out the cataracts.
You can have compassion but you can’t do that without the wisdom.
You’ve got to have both. You can’t have one wing. You need both
wings. Wisdom wing is not enough, just becoming liberated yourself
from suffering is not enough. You’ve got to also have the one of
wanting to help others, because we’re all in the same boat. Once you
put the mechanics of it all together in the first and second scope, easy
to do the compassion wing now. You’ve got a sound basis.
WHAT IS COMPASSION?
Let’s just, in general, look at compassion right now and look at what
we mean by it in the ordinary world. Based on our assumptions that
things happen unfairly, of evil people over there and nice people over
here, monsters over there, victims over here, this is the view we have
of the world.
With this view, look at the people we have compassion for now: we
have compassion for those we’re attached to; we love them, too. And
we have compassion for the victims, don’t we? If you’re a fanatic
Osama bin Laden person you’re very compassionate for your people,
and they’re the victims. To that extent, you have hate for those who do
it to you, because your philosophy tells you that they cause it. Then,
you feel righteous in dropping bombs on them, killing them, collapsing
buildings, killing as many as possible, calling it a noble action. This is
the wicked thing about religion: how we turn it into something as a
tool to suit our own delusions. It’s so naughty, you know.
Equally, you get some fanatic American, Christian, I don’t care
what label you have, who truly believes that Americans are these
victims and these monster Iraqis and these monster Osama bin Ladens
are these evil people, and we must drop bombs on them, so therefore
they justify it with their Christianity, calling it good. You have
compassion for the victims called America and to that extent you hate
the oppressors.
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Look at the world, look at your own life, look at rats and dogs and
cats, we all do it. This is the view of the world, and Buddha is arguing
with this view.
WE’RE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT

Having done the first and second scopes, having looked at karma, the
law of cause and effect, and at the way the mind works, we then are
very comfortable in taking responsibility for our own stuff and really
developing ourselves and really growing up. It’s easy now to look at the
whole world, all the victims, all the oppressors and see them all in the
same boat: this life as a victim, next life you are the oppressor; the
oppressors of this life are the victims of a past life, and will be the
victims of the future; the victims of this life are the oppressors of past
life and will be the oppressors of the future. We just go round and
round and round. You hit me, then I’ll hit you. “Oh, but she hit me!”
“Oh no, then you hit me back.” “But she hit me, it’s her fault.”
Look at us all, never taking responsibility! That’s the reason to have
compassion for sentient beings, that’s the Buddha’s point. Not because
you’re attached to this group and you feel sorry for them. That’s not
really compassion at all. It’s better than nothing. But it’s not much
help because in the end the aggression, the anger towards the
oppressors, and the wrong philosophy that they are the main cause of
the suffering of the victims, that’s what puts you deeper and deeper
and deeper into the bigger hole of samsara. Because Buddha would say
it’s a misconception.
COMPASSION FOR THE HARMERS

What is real compassion? Well, compassion has to be equal for all
beings, for it to be genuine compassion. Compassion is simply seeing
that others are suffering or – this is the point – that others are causing
themselves suffering by doing stupid things. From this point of view –
it sounds shocking to say this for the world, but you check – actually
you’d have more compassion for the pilots on September 11 than you
would for the victims.
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WHAT IS COMPASSION? CHAPTER 25
In one way you can see this, in this sense: the victims are
experiencing the fruits of their past harming, the extent of their
suffering – you can only imagine the extent of the causes; who knows
what life, when? – that caused that suffering. They now have just
finished that suffering by having that terrible result, they’ve purified
that. The very having of suffering is the finishing of those seeds. That’s
logical. The fruits that fall off the tree, that’s the finishing of that seed,
isn’t it? If you have suffering, that’s the fruit of your past negative
karma. Then if you have it, it’s now finished. This is one attitude to
have very much and we’ll talk about it in this wing, the compassion
wing. This is a very marvelous attitude to have towards your suffering:
it’s the fruit of your own junk coming past, coming up, now you
experience it: “Oh great, what a relief.”
There was this rabbi, a Kabbalah rabbi that I was in a conference
with a few years ago in Florida – because he said they have a view of
karma also – he said they have this saying: that every time something
bad happens you think, “Great, one less debt to repay!” It’s a really
good view, you know.
That’s the view here. That’s how come those nuns can be so stable
in the face of that suffering, those Tibetan nuns. They know it is their
own seeds ripening, so then you bear them; that gives you the courage
to bear them and even to be grateful that it’s now finished.
Then you have the pilots, coming with their huge philosophy, of
justifying enormous rage, justifying killing as many people as possible,
as being a religious action and a cause for them to go to heaven – I
mean talk about deluded! I would argue. You would have more
compassion for them because their suffering is going to be infinitely
worse than the suffering of those victims, in the future; they set
themselves up for unbearable suffering in the future.
THE LOGIC OF COMPASSION

Then of course, it includes the ones who are victims, because of course
you have compassion for the victims. Of course you have compassion
for the dog who’s being kicked – but again this is the point – the
reason you have compassion is because that dog out of ignorance set
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itself up to be a dog and to be harmed because of its past actions.

That’s the reasoning for the compassion. Like the mother for the
junkie kid, everyone else can’t stand them, but she sees what he is
doing to himself, she knows that he is suffering because of his own
habits, that he is harming himself.
This is the real one, because you got this in the wisdom wing in
relation to yourself; you’ve really got this one down. You’re not falling
into the dualistic trap of victims and oppressors; when you know why
you’re suffering and are fed up with it – that’s like compassion for
yourself – then easily you’ll have compassion for the guy who kicks the
dog, because out of his ignorance he doesn’t realize that he’s causing
himself to have future suffering. When we’ve got this attitude, which
we can all only get from the karmic one, and when we understand
delusions, which is in the first two scopes, you have a basis now, a
sound basis for very solid profound expansive compassion.
Trying to develop compassion without the wisdom wing is
developing the deluded view of compassion, which we have now, which
is only for those who we are attached to and only for the victims.
You’re still not even beginning to address the anger, the blame, all the
nonsense, the wrong philosophy. This is the approach here, you see.
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26. HOW TO DEVELOP LOVE AND COMPASSION,
THEN BODHICHITTA GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
I’m going to go through now a little packaging of eleven different

points, eleven things to contemplate, again in a psychologically orderly
way, one leading to the next, which leads to the next, that culminate in
the development of what is called bodhichitta, the eleventh.
The recognition of karma is the culmination of the first
scope and the recognition you don’t want future suffering.
The culmination of the second scope is this deep
renunciation.
The third scope – there’s two actually: the one of bodhichitta and
also the one of realizing emptiness (we’ll talk about that) – but the one
of bodhichitta is the culmination of this incredible development of
love and compassion.
What bodhichitta is is an aspiration, actually. The words go like
this: “I must become a buddha as quickly as possible because the
suffering of sentient beings is unbearable.” Bodhichitta is the
aspiration that you must become a buddha as quickly as possible and
it’s based on the development of this phenomenal love and compassion
that you’ve got. It’s this driving force, it’s like the force that drives you
now to become enlightened as quickly as possible. It becomes a single-
pointed focus for you.
And it also has the component of wanting only to benefit others,
every second.
They say from the first moment of accomplishing this bodhichitta
in your mind, the first moment you accomplish that quality, there’s no
longer the thought of the usual neurotic “I” arising in the mind.
Already you are beyond “I.” No longer the thought of “I,” only the
thought of others.
These eleven steps, meditations, are a combination of two methods
for developing bodhichitta. One is the six causes and one effect
technique and the other is exchanging self for others.
1. EQUANIMITY
What’s the very first step we need to. . . apart from the wisdom wing;
on the compassion wing itself, what is the very first practice we need to
do? It’s called equanimity.
All these words we all know, they’re all just English words, whereas
Buddha is big on defining his terms. Like, if you learn math you’ve got
to define “seven,” you’ve got to define “two,” you can’t just make up
your own definition, you’d be very confused. Here we’ve got to be
really clear about the definitions of these terms.
In this context, what equanimity is is, again, a very specific state of
mind. And what it is is the heartfelt – when you’ve achieved it, when
you’ve accomplished it – it’s the heartfelt recognition that enemies,
friends, and strangers – and let’s face it, there’s no fourth category –
enemies, friends and strangers are equal, are equal.
Now, from what point of view? We’re not all equal in terms of being
fat or thin or long-necked; we’re not all equal in terms of intelligence.
All sentient beings all equal in their wish to be happy and their wish
not to suffer. Check this out. Even thinking about this statement we
can begin to see how it makes sense.
ENEMIES, FRIENDS, AND STRANGERS

But right now of course, we don’t see this emotionally, because our
world is made up of enemies, friends and strangers. And who are they?
They are the objects of our three main delusions, the three root
delusions.
Ignorance, and the object of this ignorance – and the way it
functions here is just this deep indifference – is what we call strangers.
The object of our aversion are called enemies.
The object of our attachment, they’re called friends.
Friends, enemies and strangers, isn’t it? And you won’t find a
fourth category. You think about it.
ATTACHMENT FOR FRIENDS

There are those you like, whom you are attached to. And who are they?
Simply, they’re the ones that do what you want. Not being mean or
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HOW TO DEVELOP LOVE AND COMPASSION, THEN BODHICHITTA CHAPTER 26
anything, that’s just it. They do what you want, they suit you, they
agree with you, they like what you like, they appear pleasing to you
therefore, and so they’re the ones you can afford to love. They’re the
ones you can say “Okay, I want you to be happy.”
You do love them, it’s true, we do have some love, but as Lama Zopa
says our love right now is unstable or, as we would say, it’s got strings
attached. Very nice statement. Because why? Because it’s only for
those we’re attached to.
Look at animals for us, look at how we relate to animals. It’s very
obvious. You can have incredible compassion for that little cute
poodle. Remember a few years ago – was it San Jose somewhere? –
some road rage bloke got out of his car and went over and stuck his
hand in and grabbed his little poodle off the front seat and chucked it
into the traffic, and it died. Now he was practically hanged.
Now, if that had been a rat, people would have called him a hero.
You see my point? Look at the difference. The Buddha would say,
“Excuse me, rat or poodle, they’re both sentient beings, they both want
to be happy, they both deserve being loved,” but because we’re
attached to poodles, we call the man a naughty man. Because we hate
rats we call him a nice man. I mean, how arbitrary can you get? Isn’t
this very bizarre? Isn’t it?
We say we are attached to certain types of people, we’re attached to
what we call our husband – or maybe not, who knows! We’re attached
to our children, or we’re attached to whoever the person is, generally
speaking because they suit my needs. A thing called a poodle, if I like
poodles, they suit my needs so I become so attached to it. Then what
do I do? I impute all sorts of qualities onto that poodle, which, excuse
me, it just doesn’t have. Like with the chocolate cake. You make the
poodle far more gorgeous than it really is. Look at it. Our pets, it’s
embarrassing what we do. We call it love, we call it compassion, we
call it helping animals.
Even PETA, who love animals and don’t want them to be harmed, I
bet they don’t care about the insects. I don’t think they care about the
insects. I don’t think so. There are many people who are very pure
vegetarians, who don’t care about the insects: they will use them to kill
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each other so they can have nice healthy veggies. You see my point?
Not to mention the millions of creatures who die when we plant and
grow veggies, etc., etc.
We always limit whom we love and whom we don’t. The Buddha’s
deal is, there’s not a single sentient being on this earth whom we
shouldn’t have compassion for and love for, and not just humans, it’s
not just a few animals, it’s every single sentient being. It’s a very big
basis: all the mind-possessors, because they’re all in the same boat.
They’re all being born human one life, animal the next, spirit the next,
hell being the next, they’re enemy the next, they’re friend the next, but
fundamentally there’s some things that we all share: the wish to be
happy, the wish not to suffer. Have to establish this, think about it, see
how it’s logical, first.
HOW TO MEDITATE ON EQUANIMITY

Then practice. You visualize in front of you, imagine in front of you,
right in front, eyeball to eyeball, your enemy, the person at the
moment you don’t like – and usually, it can easily be our Mum or our
Dad or ex-husband; it’s often a person who’s been our friend; now it’s
our worst enemy; the person whom just when we look at their face
appears so uncomfortable to us, makes us feel miserable, makes us feel
all distressed, or guilty, or angry, or hurt. So, fantastic: the more you
dislike this person the better for this meditation!
These types, all of these meditations we’re taking about, by the
way. . . it’s very surprising, because we think of meditation as some
trippy thing where you close your eyes and you visualize something
like a buddha, or you watch your mind or something. But – and we’re
going to talk about this in a minute – you do concentration meditation,
and then you go to the second mode of meditation and you do analysis.
This is all you’re doing. You’re taking these things you’ve heard and
you think them through in a very careful, clear way in order to trigger
a feeling for them. That’s meditation. We’ll talk about this in a minute,
it’s coming.
Equanimity, essentially as I said, it’s the attitude that, when you’ve
really got it, heartfelt, a genuine, easy recognition that in fact enemy,
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friends and strangers are equal in wanting happiness and not wanting
suffering. The method you use to come to this conclusion, you use all
sorts of arguments just to argue with ego’s view, ego’s entrenched
view: real enemy out there, real friend, real stranger.
USE LOGIC TO ARGUE WITH EGO’S MISCONCEPTIONS

There’s all sorts of things you can do. You can look at the enemy and
you can think okay, you look at your catalog of reasons why now you
call them enemy, why now you have anger towards them: because they
did this, this, this and this; we use all this logic. Well, like we’ve been
talking already, Buddha’s really basically saying, “Excuse me, Robina,
just because someone is mean to you is no logical reason to hate them.
It’s completely unnecessary.” Which is so shocking to us, because we
absolutely believe that’s logical. The world lives this way.
In other words, in this equanimity meditation what we’re trying to
do is get a bit of space between ourself and these three people. See
them separately from me. Right now we see them as extensions of
myself: the friend is an extension of me, so my friend, whom I want to
be happy, whom I totally adore, we can’t even separate them from
ourself. Aversion the same. We see people only in terms of what they
do or don’t do to me. A friend is a person who helps me, an enemy is a
person who harms me, and a stranger is a person who does neither.
You think, very simple.
How do we feel about each? We have attachment for the one who
suits my needs. We have aversion for the one who harms me. And we
have a profound uncaring and indifference towards 99.9999% of all
the rest of them who are the strangers. Why? Because they don’t affect
my life. Who could care? Can’t even look at them, they’re so boring.
Isn’t it?
ENEMIES, FRIENDS, AND STRANGERS KEEP CHANGING

This is how it is, this is how we are. And these groups keep changing.
The delusions stay the same. The stranger of yesterday is now the
friend of today. The stranger of yesterday is now the enemy of today.
The friend of yesterday is now the enemy of today. The enemy of
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yesterday is now the friend of today. We can see, we constantly go back

and forth, because things change.
And then we believe in that latest label. The one we were totally
adoring six months ago, made us faint with pleasure, now he leaves us
cold as ice; hate him. Look at him, “If only I’d known what he was like
six months ago.” Isn’t it? Just because our eyes are now seeing
something different. We’re so silly aren’t we, it’s embarrassing.
Basically to get this equanimity, you put in front of you these three
people, and they can be different people at different times, and you
just go through, enemy first and you go through different things. “It’s
not permanent, Robina, six months ago he was my friend. How could
he inherently be an enemy? It can’t be like this.” You try to argue with
yourself to sort of shake your very entrenched view. “Yes, he did do
this to me, he did do that to me, but what’s that got to do with it? That
doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be happy.” When you loved him, you
knew he wanted to be happy and you tried to make him happy. He has
not changed. You just use logic to argue with yourself to see how this
entrenched position is mistaken in its assessment. This is what you’re
trying to do, get away a bit, get some space.
FRIEND
You look at the friend; the same type of logic applies. You look at this
person, you think she’s a lovely person because she does this, this, this
and this for me. “Of course she’s a lovely person. She is a lovely
person, that’s why I like her, because she’s lovely.” I mean, excuse me,
you just have to find a few things about her that you know that she
does, that is mean to other people. We don’t care about this because
she’s not mean to me. We even would defend her and what she does.
You look at every group of people who support each other, who are
friends. They all agree on the same group of enemies and they all
support each other in that view. But it should be enough to blow your
mind, to prove that there can’t be an inherent friend. If some people
dislike this person then there can’t be an inherent friend there. Like
there can’t be the cake, delicious and ugly simultaneously. They’re
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both projections of the mind. Enemy and friend are projections of the
mind.
Use simple arguments to break down ego’s entrenched view. You
think for example this person whom you totally adore, whom you’re in
love with, and he smiles and he’s so happy and you know he’s happy
because you make him happy. Wow, amazing isn’t it? Incredible
feeling. All you’ve got to do is practice, just think: he’s happy
tomorrow and you look at him being happy, and then you notice that
he’s happy now because she makes him happy, not me. He’s still
happy. You should be so happy for him. But instead you want to kill
him, because suddenly someone else is making him happy. He’s
smiling now. . . the same smiling as yesterday or the week ago, or the
month ago, or the six years ago when he smiled at you and was blissful.
Now he’s smiling, still blissfully, but it’s no longer you who’s causing
it. But he’s still happy. If you really want to have love, may you be
happy. Of course it’s so painful: oh my God.
ENEMY
Look at the enemy. You just have to argue to see how he’s not
inherently an enemy; you just have to remember that he’s got a nice
girl friend who thinks he’s gorgeous. He’s got some kids who love him.
His boss thinks he’s great. You know this, but you don’t want to think
this. It’s not comfortable; because they’re stupid too: they can’t see the
real person like you can. We don’t like to think of that, but it’s very
profound logic.
STRANGER
We can see our mind is so limited by attachment, aversion and, of
course, indifference. You hear about a stranger, a person who you
don’t know, means who neither harms nor helps you: you just don’t
care. Totally can’t even look at them, can’t even spend long enough to
read the story in The New York Times about this particular country
whose name you can’t even say, about the particular suffering; you go
to the page and look at the football scores or something, because they
are strangers to you. They’ve neither harmed nor helped. But many
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Americans will look avidly at all the Iraqi news because the Americans
are in there, you see. It’s attachment and aversion, friends and
enemies.
WE ALL THINK WE’RE SPECIAL

Look at the Israelis and Palestinians, it’s amazing. Israel is so tiny you
could jog across it without getting too puffed out. Look at the energy
there of the people who occupy that piece of Earth, all believing it’s
their land, fighting over it, hating each other, and then putting all their
philosophies onto it. Frankly – I’m not being rude about anybody –
but I think if you think you’re the chosen people, already you’re in big
trouble. I mean really, I think you’ve got to be in big trouble if you
start to think this. I don’t care whether you call yourself Christian,
Jewish, Hindu or Muslim, or Buddhist for that matter. That’s really a
very difficult statement: the chosen people. Oh my God. But everybody
thinks this, they all think they’re special. Mormons think they’re
unique and special, the Seventh Day Adventists completely convinced
that they’re right. The Catholics totally believe they’re right. No doubt
fundamentalist Buddhists are completely believing they’re right.
Everybody has this concrete, fixed view we’re right and these poor
people down there who aren’t. I mean, it’s crazy.
Equanimity is this attitude that moves yourself away from these
three a little bit, using a logical arguments to break down ego’s illogic.
There’s no inherent enemy, friend or stranger, there are just
projections of your delusions. That objectively, these people are the
same.
If I put up here in front of you my enemy, my friend, and my
stranger, you won’t notice any difference, you can’t tell. There’s no big
“E” engraved on the forehead of the enemy. There’s no wings on the
friend. You’ll put your own projections onto them. They have noses
and arms and legs and toes and fingers, they all want to be happy, they
all go to the toilet, they all get depressed, they all get constipation.
There’s equality there, it’s very easy to see it, but we’re so tunnel vision
in our views, believing in our own karmic appearances.
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2. EVERYONE HAS BEEN MY MOTHER

On the basis of the recognition that all are equal in the wish to be
happy, you now have a sound basis for wanting them to be happy,
which is what love is, and a sound basis for wanting them to not have
suffering, which is what compassion is.
If you don’t really see that all beings want to be happy and don’t
want to suffer, you don’t have a basis for loving them and having
compassion for them, because love is: may you be happy. Love is: may
you be happy. And compassion is: may you not suffer. Then you have
the space to begin to love enemies and love strangers and have
compassion for them. Now, no space; no logic. This is the logic.
The next one is outrageous, it’s really getting your head around the
numbers: given that Buddha says we’ve all got continuity of
consciousness, every single sentient being, every single sem-chen is a
mind-possessor, a living being, their consciousness necessarily is
beginningless. Just do your numbers, it follows logically. If it were
true, then every single sentient being, we would bump into them
countless times. It just goes without saying. If you just do a few little
numbers on your computer. If there are countless living beings, and
we’ve all had countless lives, you’d be able to compute quite quickly
that we’ve all bumped into each other countless times, even they’d
been my mother countless times.
Actually I put this to a mathematician, and he thought it was
ridiculous! I don’t remember his thinking now.
“Mother” is just a choice here because mother is considered to be a
person who’s been very kind to us. For many of us this seems like an
oxymoron. We’ve got to do extra hard work and seeing even how our
mother is kind and we’ll do that in a minute. So, good enough this one,
you just get your head around the numbers one, which, again, is so
expanding for the mind. And to see it as logic based on the hypothesis,
remember, that Buddha says our mind is beginningless, that Buddha
says there are countless sentient beings, all of whose minds are
beginningless. It follows logically that they’ve all been my Mum. I
mean it’s insane, but it fits with the logic.
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3. THE KINDNESS OF THE MOTHER

Then you think of their kindness. The mother is kind. Now how is the
mother kind?
Now this is a very interesting point, because my feeling is, you
check now, with our usual narrow view of attachment and all the rest,
what we even mean by “kind” is really faulty. You check what we mean
by kind. I go to the café and I order chocolate cake and I get it and she
gives me a discount and a bigger piece: “Oh, you are so kind!” She
gives me a small piece or gives me carrot cake: I do not call her kind.
In other words, a person’s only kind when they do what I want. You
check. That’s what we mean by it; it is so wicked.
Now you know yourself, when you work hard at your job and the
boss is really mean and ugly and doesn’t thank you because you don’t
do what they want, you are mortified and feel so sad because you know
you worked so hard, but he doesn’t thank you, because you haven’t
satisfied him. He doesn’t call you kind at all, but you’ve been very
kind, in fact: you’ve struggled away; you’ve done your job.
Whether you get the cake you want or not, doesn’t matter. That
little waitress, “Hello, my name is Sarah, I’m your wait-person,” and
takes your order and writes it on a little note, and goes to the cook and
hangs it up, and he puts the thing on the plate and she – this is in
Denny’s anyway, I watched them – and she comes over, and gives you
a knife and fork wrapped in the napkin, she gives you water with ice –
all that work, for carrot cake or chocolate cake: same work, same
kindness. She’s worried about her own problems, worried about her
constipation. She’s kind, either way. Kindness has got nothing to do
with whether you get what you want, excuse me.
Already hearing this, we can see our mothers are kind. I don’t care
how neurotic, how ugly, how maniac, how deluded they are; we’ve all
got mummies like this, to some degree. Join the human race – duh.
Mummies are cut out of the same cloth as you, they’re called deluded
sentient beings.
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WE BLAME OUR MOTHER

But again, it’s very interesting; we have this view that Mummy made
me, we have this view that Mummy created me. Already it’s not
surprising we blame our mothers. I think you should blame your
mother, quite frankly, if she did really make you. If it is really true
what we say in the West, that she literally created you, your mummy
and daddy, let’s say – if you really look at the implications of it, it’s
quite profound – then I think it is absolutely right that if a person who
is deluded, paranoid, jealous, angry, limited, selfish dare to make me
with my anger and my jealousy – because it’s their fault, they made me
– and then throw me out on my own in this world and say, now it’s my
responsibility. I mean we should be up in arms. We should be killing
every one of our mothers, I agree!
In our psychology, we love to blame our mums, but we feel bad
about it because we know we turn into mums eventually as well. But
actually, I think if your mother really did make you, you are right to
blame her. Think this point through, it’s very interesting. How dare
she! I mean it’s a fascist thing to do; to make me with all my delusions
and give me a lousy life.
But the fact is Buddha says she didn’t make you, Robina. She is
sitting there having sex with your daddy and you come along. She’s
minding her own business and you come along. Don’t blame her! You
set yourself up, honey child, from countless past lives with this person,
to have this mother who’s mean and paranoid and ugly and depressed
and hurts me.
I was just having a conversation recently with this person about her
mummy – and we’re all the same because we’ve all got mummies like
this. At some point we hate our mothers and see their delusions so
vividly. I remember the day, I remember the moment my mother fell
off her pedestal for me. Do you understand what I’m saying? The
moment when she stopped being like this perfect goddess, like you
think your mummy is when you’re little. I remember the moment I
started seeing that she was an ordinary human being and I found fault,
and it was devastating. But that’s what we do, we put them up there
like they are God, just like we think of God, I swear, as the creator.
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We daren’t blame God, but we love to blame our mothers. Now this
is not saying that our mother isn’t deluded, isn’t angry, isn’t jealous;
more than likely we are right: she is. But there is no reason to not
thank her for her kindness, for the effort she made. That means we’ve
got to start searching the things that she has done, that have been
supportive of me, that have helped me. You don’t have to be a rocket
scientist to do that. Excuse me.
HOW IS SHE KIND?

Even if your mother gave you away at birth, you have every reason to
continue to weep with gratitude at her kindness. You know what? She
didn’t kill you. There are probably millions of abortions every year,
millions. I’ve heard figures somewhere. You could even probably argue
that there are more sentient beings, more humans who get conceived,
who die before they’re born than those who get born. I bet.
Now, we are very fortunate; look at us, still alive. And the first
cause of this is our mother’s decision not to abort us, the first cause,
the main cause. Not the main, the main one really is our past morality,
but here we look in terms of the relative reality and try to look at our
mother and see a reason to see how she’s kind, that it didn’t occur to
her to abort her daughter. I know I had an abortion, when I was 23. I
was unquestioned about it. I did no way want this kid. I didn’t think of
it as a kid.
Someone I know when she was 17, she got pregnant and she
decided she wouldn’t have an abortion. I even encouraged her to. Me
and my sisters said, “Come on, have an abortion.” She didn’t want to;
back in the 60s. She was brave, she had the daughter, and then she had
it adopted.
She decided not to have an abortion. In spite of encouragement by
everyone else, she decided she would have this daughter. She had the
daughter, she gave it away because she figured she wasn’t qualified,
she was 17, it was difficult, whatever the reasons but her motives were
pure. Now this daughter, because she’s so fixated on her mean mother
who gave her away at birth, so obsessed with that, she can’t really see
the real story: that her mother was kind. She did what she felt was
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best, and she’s never forgiven her and the mother’s heart breaks even
though she’s 55 now, her heart breaks still. She’s worked with it, but
her heart breaks at this rejection, for this child she spent her life trying
to find and truly she does have a strong affection for. That’s
heartbreaking. That’s from a mother’s point of view, you know. It’s
very interesting.
SURE, SHE’S DELUDED

Our mother, who’s angry and deluded and neurotic and dominating
and all these things, right, you’re absolutely right, she is those things.
But it’s only because we feel such victims – and I’m not being mean
about it – because we feel so enslaved, so fearful, that all her
delusions, all they do is trigger our own. You know, it’s our fears, it’s
our stuff, it’s our inability to know what we think and feel. We blame
her for it, of course. And we’re right in what we’re seeing, but her
suffering appears so much worse to us because we haven’t dealt with
our own suffering. When we’ve dealt with our own suffering in the
wisdom wing, it’s easy to see your crazy mother, your deluded Mum
and you have such compassion, because you’re no longer enslaved in
that victim role, because you’ve put yourself together. Then we can
easily see the mother, the kind things she’s done.
SHE TOOK CARE OF US

She fed us, she sent us to school, she showed us how to wipe our
bottoms and tie our shoelaces. Even you could say there’s more reason
to think of her kindness, because if she is deluded, is mean, is angry,
and is paranoid, she put up with me when I was squalling as a kid, and
wiped my dirty bum. That was much harder work for her then if she’d
been a compassionate, kind person. To make an effort to get out of bed
when she was thinking about herself and all miserable. How grateful
we should be to our mother. It’s so clear, really.
Because of our own delusions we can’t do it, it’s too painful for us.
And when you’re deluded yourself, that is like you put your deluded
glasses on and all that does is attract whatever delusions there are in a
person, all we see are their delusions. The more deluded we are, the
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more we see other people’s delusions, it goes without saying. The more
virtuous we are, the more we put our good glasses on, the more we can
see, the virtues come to the fore. What we see in a person is a
reflection of our mind, not what’s there. It is there with them, but
we’re not seeing the whole picture. That’s the point. When we see
friend, we’re blinded. We only see the gorgeous things, all sparkly, we
can’t see their delusions. When we see enemy, we can’t see their
virtues; all we see is their delusions. It’s our doing, you see.
4. REPAY THE KINDNESS OF THE MOTHER

So, our mothers are kind. If all sentient beings have been our mother,
then it follows logically that all sentient beings are kind. Then it
follows logically, “Of course I must repay their kindness.” The more
you think of a person’s kindness, the more you have the wish to repay
it. This is clear. When you really see a person’s kindness, when they’ve
done a big favor for you, you really want to do something to repay their
kindness. When we start to think about the kindness of the mother, we
want to repay the kindness. Not just to the Mum of this life, which we
think about, but now we’re talking about all sentient beings: we must
repay their kindness. Oh my goodness.
Clearly, this is a very radical process; step by baby step we do this
type of thinking in meditation, as well as in sour daily life, shifting all
the misconceptions from the mind now that we believe are the truth:
slowly, slowly. Then our heart naturally begins to open, open, open,
open. This whole compassion wing is a continuous opening of this
mind to encompass all others, finally. Step by baby step.
EXCHANGING OURSELVES FOR OTHERS
5. OTHERS ARE EQUAL TO ME

Then we continue – I might get these steps a bit mixed up, but never
mind. As a sort of a background for this, in general you can say in the
wisdom wing the main obstacle, the main problem, is attachment. But
here, in the compassion wing you can say the main obstacle to the
development of compassion, love, and finally bodhichitta, is what they
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call simply self-cherishing. We cherish self most. It’s self-cherishing,

or as we would simply call it, selfishness – which is so painful to hear,
that word – means putting me first.
Now, the next one we think about is how we try now. . . like we did
in the very beginning, we tried to see our enemy, friend and stranger
are equal, now we try to see how all others are equal to me. Same type
of thinking, but now the reference is myself.
That all sentient beings – and we’ve now thought about them as all
wanting to be happy, all been our mother countless times, their
kindness, want to repay their kindness – now we begin to actually be
even more radical now and we move into a whole set of practices that
is called exchanging self for others. It’s an amazing, radical, quick way
to help us quickly develop incredible levels of love and compassion.
Now, exchange self for others.
A SEPARATE SENSE OF SELF

Now, this is just natural and instinctive as long as we grasp at the self.
The very grasping at the self, which is the primordial misconception, is
even what gives us a sense of being a separate person from others,
which is what then causes us to even invent enemies, friends and
strangers out there, separate from me. It’s a complete delusion. So
naturally, having this view, we obviously put self first automatically,
instinctively, naturally, automatically. And so we’re trying to conquer
that. Here, we are trying to exchange self, I, for others, meaning
beginning to develop love and compassion for others more than one’s
self.
Now this whole approach is very interesting, because if we come to
this approach with a lot of self-loathing, a lot of low self-esteem,
having not done much work on the wisdom wing, then we’re going to
mis-hear this. There’s a little exchanging-self-for-others text called
The Eight Verses, and in one of those verses it says, “When you’re with
others, think of yourself as the lowest of all.” Well, like we’ve already
talked, already we do that. “Well excuse me, Buddha, I already hate
myself, what do you want me to do? I already do this! What do you
mean?” Cearly the person who wrote that text, Langri Tangpa, talking
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from this point of view of this exchanging-self-for-others approach,

doesn’t mean that.
A SUITABLE VESSEL
It’s obvious, as Pabongka Rinpoche, the author of one of the lamrim
texts that we all use quite a bit called Liberation in the Palm of Your
Hand, what he says is that in order to hear these types of teachings,
this exchanging-self-for-others teachings, in the appropriate way, you
need to be a suitable vessel. And all he means by that is a person who’s
done the work of the wisdom wing; a person who’s put themselves
together in the wisdom wing: understood karma, taken responsibility,
developed therefore an amazing sense of your own self, a lot of self-
confidence, an ability to know that you can change, a sense of
responsibility. It’s only that person who can hear this instruction
properly: put yourself as the lowest of all; exchange yourself for others.
It’s an outrageous thing to say.
MOTHERS DO IT
What are some examples of this, because we don’t normally think like
this on our Earth. But I think mothers are a good example. Sure,
they’re totally motivated by attachment, but they do, on the basis of
that, still have massive love and compassion for their babies, there’s no
doubt. I remember watching a movie years ago, a documentary, about
all the outrageous things that mothers would do in order to save their
children: I mean, jumping into floods, running into burning houses,
lifting up entire cars, doing the most insane things. Do you see my
point here?
Now if you think about that for a second, if you think about the
state of mind of that person, running into a burning house, there is no
way a person with fear and timidity and low self-esteem could do that;
think about it for a second. You’ve got to be a very courageous person,
even for five minutes, don’t you? You’ve got to be really not thinking of
yourself because if you start to think, “Oh my God, I’m running into a
fire,” that’s the end of you. You back away. You see my point here? For
that mother, at that time, so overwhelmed by the suffering of that child
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in that fire, literally not thinking about herself for that few minutes.
You think about it, it has to be this way, doesn’t it?
Well, that is what here is being talked about as the capacity that
we’ve all got, eventually when we truly have exchanged ourselves for
others, when we become a bodhisattva. When truly it is only others we
ever are thinking about. I mean it’s hard to think even this is possible.
It’s so out of the realms of what we think is possible psychologically.
We would not trust that if we heard that a person was like this all the
time. We wouldn’t believe it’s true. You see my point? Because we
don’t think it’s possible, because we factor in self-centeredness as
something natural and normal, whereas Buddha says we can go
beyond it.
SEE THE LOGIC OF EXCHANGING SELF FOR OTHERS

This whole exchanging self for others – and this begins with this
particular technique, and there are a few more after this of this eleven
– this is from this approach; this radical, paradigm shift, complete
shift, in the whole way you see everything. You’re beginning in this one
to truly practice seeing others as more important than you. It’s as
scary as hell to even begin to think about it, especially if we have so
much self-clinging already, which we do. But at least we can begin to
think about it, to see the logic of it, because it’s the quickest way to
smash self-cherishing, but even the self-grasping; it quickens, it
hastens the whole process of removing the misconceptions of I. The
whole point of it here is to radically shift our emphasis away from this
instinctive sense of self and doing what it wants all the time to doing
what others want, to seeing others, to putting them first.
TWO IS MORE THAN ONE

There’s all these little kind of techniques they use, of ways of thinking,
of practicing. Like you think for example, it sounds so silly but they’re
small little things you use in your mind to try to see the logic of this. If
you have the choice between $1.00 and $2.00, one apple and two, in
general we’d prefer two. If you want to buy one house or two houses
for the same money, of course you’d take two. You’d get excited; you’d
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feel like you got good value for your money. Then, two sentient beings
is more than one, isn’t it? I’m one, there’s two over there. Conclusion:
they’re more important.
Now it’s so ridiculous, it’s so simple, you can’t fault it, but it’s too
hard for us. It’s like, “Excuse me, what are you talking about?” You
can’t even hear it properly, because we’re so overwhelmed just
naturally by the ego-grasping that clings to me as self-existent, which
brings the attachment and the selfishness and all this stuff that just
naturally arises in us, that we think is normal. We’re talking something
pretty incredible here.
We’re trying to shift others to be more important, so we begin to
think this one. Begin to see others at least first as equal to me in
wanting to be happy – and this you can’t refute. That’s fairly easy to
prove. Then we start to exchange self for others after we’ve done the
first one. First, in your meditation you practice this, and then, in your
daily life when a situation arises and you want your way about
something, you practice giving the other person their way. We’re not
talking big high things up here, we’re talking little tiny baby little
incremental steps. This is how you grow anything, isn’t it? You go from
grade one, not from grade one to grade twelve, you go to grade two
first. You step up organically, logically. You practice in your daily life
actually trying to put others first.
PUTTING OTHERS FIRST, BUT MIXED WITH ATTACHMENT

Now this is interesting because a lot of us do this already, but you
know what, it’s mixed with a lot of attachment. A lot of us have very
much a lot of vested interest in benefiting others, as our means for
getting what we want ourselves. And again I’m not being mean about
it, but a lot of people are much more self-centered and truly go into
what they want and just go ahead and do it. Other people have the
same attachment but they’re attached to other people loving them so
deeply, attached to being seen as a good person so strongly, they will
run around sacrificing their lives for others. But this is not healthy, it’s
not healthy. Do you see my point here? Does it make sense what I’m
saying?
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We’ve got to know our own mind well. You could say, for example,
in a relationship where a person has really been a victim and she’s
married to say some brutal guy who beats her and does all these
things, it’s very common in relationships of all kinds. She is really like
running around constantly putting him first, trying to make him happy
because she’s terrified that he’ll blow his top again, you know. But it’s
not really coming from a pure place, and she’s terrified, and she’s not
looked at herself. She’s got enormous aversion in there for him, but
she never expresses it – until one day, she goes berserk and shoots
him.
That’s not healthy, that’s not what’s being recommended here.
We’ve got to know our own minds well. And maybe, if you’re that kind
of person, what you need to do is speak up; that’s what you need to
learn to do. Speak up, establish some courage. We’ve got to be careful
in understanding this really properly. Exchanging self for others,
seeing others as more important.
Because if you have low self-esteem and you think others are more
important, you’ve got a problem. That’s not what’s being said. You
have to be a confident, together, brave, courageous person who takes
responsibility, who is not a victim, that kind of person, that’s how we
have to be. Then, the putting others first is really profound. Letting go
of your own stuff, “Oh sure, of course, please, you’re right. Of course,
please, you have it.” Tiny baby things like this. That’s a perfect
example of putting others first. Giving up self-cherishing. Giving up
self-centeredness.
6. THE DISADVANTAGES OF CHERISHING MYSELF MORE

THAN OTHERS AND
7. THE ADVANTAGES OF CHERISHING OTHERS MORE

THAN ONESELF
The various contemplations here, then, are to contemplate the
suffering to yourself of being self-centered and then contemplate the
benefits to yourself of cherishing others. Just little things like this to
really just remind yourself, for your own benefit still. His Holiness
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often says things like: “You want to benefit others? Practice

compassion. You want to benefit yourself? Practice compassion.” Or he
says: “You want to be selfish? Be wisely selfish, benefit others.” Very
good point.
TONGLEN: GIVING AND TAKING
8. TAKING UPON MYSELF THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS:

PRACTICING COMPASSION, AND
9. GIVE AWAY ALL MY HAPPINESS: PRACTICING LOVE

You keep moving through all these little techniques, and they
culminate in the practice that really is at the heart of this approach, of
exchanging self for others. And this is a simple little practice,
technically; emotionally, unbelievably difficult to do it really well, to
really get the result. And it’s called, in Tibetan, tonglen. It means
simply giving. . . tong means giving, len means taking.
THE UNIQUE CHARACTERISTIC OF BODHISATTVA’S LOVE

AND COMPASSION
Here we are trying to develop an even more profound level of love
where we say: “Hey, it’s my job to do it, to make them happy.” That’s
the unique characteristic of this bodhisattva path, this extraordinary
level of not only do I want people to be happy but I say it’s my job to
do something to make it happen. You make it your responsibility. His
Holiness calls this universal responsibility.
Then we’re trying to develop compassion, which is, “May you not
suffer,” but you go to the next level which is called great compassion
and that is: “It’s my job to take away their suffering.” This is the one of
the bodhisattva, this incredible sense of responsibility.
If you’ve achieved nirvana on the wisdom wing and you have cut the
root of samsara, you’ve gone beyond the delusions, when you die you’ll
just zap into bliss for a few eons; you won’t get reborn again, because
your motivation has been,”I must get out of samsara, I must get
liberated.” If you’re a bodhisattva, you do the same work but your
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motivation is, “I must become a buddha for all sentient beings,” so

even when you don’t need to take rebirth, you’re going to get reborn
spontaneously, because your motivation has said, “It’s my job to take
away their suffering, it’s my job to make them happy.” It’s the unique
one, it’s very amazing.
This tonglen is a method for developing this.
SMASH PUTTING SELF FIRST

What it is really is a little technique that you’re using to help you
smash your own self-cherishing, to help you radically smash putting
self first. Practicing imagining totally taking upon yourself the
suffering of another and giving them all your happiness; you’re
practicing doing this.
Now, hear this carefully. The aim of this meditation is not to take
on the suffering of another, it is not to give them your happiness; you
can’t do that. But it’s imagining you’re doing it as a technique to help
you radically get rid of self-cherising and hugely develop genuine love
and compassion. Now, does that make sense? Maybe you should ask
me questions before we continue about that if you want to. Any
questions so far?
HOW TO DO TONGLEN
What is this practice? It’s very easy. You visualize in front of you – let’s
say your dearest friend at first, the person you adore, the person you
love very much, even very attached to – and you imagine them with
some suffering. They might actually have some suffering but you
imagine them with some suffering.
This technique: please hear it carefully, because we often
misunderstand it. What it is is a method for developing love and
compassion. That’s it, love and compassion. What is love again,
remember? Love is the wish that others be happy.
What you’re doing is you’re using your breath, real simple. One way
to do it is you imagine a rock at your heart and that’s your self-
cherishing, that’s your concrete self-centered, “poor me” in there, and
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you want to try and smash it. It’s just a little technique you’re using, a
way of thinking, visualizing, creative imagination.
FIRST, BREATHE IN THE SUFFERING

Then you use your breath, you breathe in first, you do the taking first
and you imagine all their suffering, like a headache let’s say, you just
think when you’re breathing in, you’re breathing in all their headache,
all their yuck and it comes like yucky smoke, and it comes into your
nose. And you’re imagining as you’re doing this. . . you’re not thinking:
“Oh, I’m taking on their suffering, oh I better get ready for it,” all
clenching like that. That’s not what you’re concentrating on. You’re not
thinking of I at all, like the mummy and the fire. You’re thinking of the
person’s suffering. You’re doing this, but you’re focusing on the
person: “Oh, what a relief they’re free of suffering now. I can’t believe
it. I’m so happy they’re free of suffering now.” As you take it away,
you’re thinking, “Oh, what a relief, look, they’re free of suffering, their
headache is gone, I’m so happy.”
You see my point? That’s what you’re thinking. Meanwhile, like the
mother, you’re almost not even noticing – “Hey, I can handle it, don’t
worry. I can handle it”: smash your rock. You’re thinking about, “Isn’t
it marvelous, they’re free of suffering.” Just like it was your most
precious child. Many parents say, “Rather me than them.” That’s what
you’re thinking here. You’re imagining this, so happy that they’re free
of suffering – and meanwhile you bring it into you and it smashes your
self-cherishing.
SECOND, BREATHE OUT THE HAPPINESS

Then you think, “May I give them happiness now. I’m going to give
them whatever I’ve got: my health, my wealth, anything.” You just
imagine it, imagine it, breathe out blissful white light. And you
imagine them receiving it. “Oh, so happy that they’re happy now.”
I mean, this is how we think about ourself, it’s very interesting. We
know how to think this when we alleviate our pain; we are so happy
our pain has gone, right? We know how to think that. And when we get
something wonderful we’re so delighted, aren’t we? Well, we are trying
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to think exactly this – for others. That’s it. We know how to think like
this for ourself: so, exchanging yourself for others. It’s so simple.
NEED TO PRACTICE IT
Of course we have to practice this. Even if we do have people we love
enormously, we don’t love them to that extent. I don’t think I love
anybody that when they’re happy, I’m so blissful like when I’m happy.
I don’t think I’ve ever had that. Does anybody have that experience?
You understand what I’m saying here? Especially if you have
incredible suffering for so long, the relief, the bliss of no longer having
it – that’s what we’re trying to have for others. But the difference is,
one extra piece here, is we’re saying, “I can bear it, I can do it, I can
take it.” That’s the technique.
The aim of this, eventually when you’ve done this again and again,
and again and again, and again and again and again, is you just keep
getting better at it, until eventually don’t be surprised that you will be
able to give your car, give your money, even give your life for another if
you needed to, because you’ve practiced it.
Student It’s like, fake it till you make it.
Ven. Robina Fake it till you make it! Everything is fake it till you
make it. Learning everything is faking it until you make it, but that’s
all we’re doing here. We’re using these simple little ways of thinking,
kind of like you’re brainwashing yourself into becoming compassionate
and wise. Nothing wrong with that. You see my point?
Because Buddha finally says it’s all to do with how you see things.
We’ve brainwashed ourselves for countless lives to the point where the
views we have of the world now are instinctive – we don’t think they’re
even views. But we’re trying to shift those and replace them with these
views: this attitude, this one of wisdom, the one of compassion, the
one of love, the one of karma, the one of emptiness, the one of all this
other business – a different way of seeing the world; that’s all we’re
doing really, it’s nothing mystical. The culmination of this is you will
become a buddha, infinite compassion for all sentient beings, infinite
wisdom, no fraction of ego left, you’ll see their minds perfectly and
you’ll never stop benefiting them. That’s the point. And that’s what’s
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attainable. And this is the method of how to get there. It’s grounded,
doable, it’s down to earth.
Yes, the results are pretty mystical. You can say this, if you were to
meet a person who was a buddha and could see all their qualities, it
would be mind blowing. Yes, you could say it’s mystical, but the
methods are practical, the methods are practial. That’s tonglen, that’s
the heart of all this stuff. All these little ones up till now, which you
contemplate again and again, you come to this one and this is where
you do the radical, paradigm shift.
10. GREAT COMPASSION

The conclusion of this is extraordinary compassion for others, such
that you for sure only want to take their suffering away; and complete
affection, enormous affection. The beginning of love is simply the
thought: may you be happy, but as you keep developing it, it grows
into enormous affection, it grows into feeling. Right now we’ve grown
jealousy and anger and all these into feelings, haven’t we? We’re trying
to change that. We develop loving and compassionate feelings; but the
feeling is the result of thinking it, and thinking it, and thinking it, and
thinking it, until eventually it’s spontaneous, where it becomes
automatic.
11. BODHICHITTA
Then, from this, bodhichitta comes. Because realize now that your
compassion and love are so enormous now, and you see the suffering
of all sentient beings, you see them causing themselves suffering, its
unbearable, like they’re your most precious children. But you realize,
you check, ”I want to take away their suffering but am I qualified? I’m
not.”
Here now is bodhichitta. There are two parts: one: “I must only
benefit others; no choice.” And, longterm, “I must become
enlightened, I must become enlightened as quickly as possible because
the suffering is so unbearable.”
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NOW WE HAVE EXCHANGED SELF FOR OTHERS, BUT

THERE’S MORE WORK TO DO
Right now, we try to have bodhichitta as our motivation, but it’s a
phony one. Of course it is, it’s faking it. We’re talking here now, when
we get it, actually, when it’s an experiential, direct, actual,
spontaneous drive, and from that moment forward there’s no longer
the thought of the usual self-centered I. You’ve been letting go second
by second all the way up here, but finally no longer a thought of I, no
longer a thought of I. You truly have exchanged self for others. You
truly now exist for the sake of others, but you’ve got more work to do.
You haven’t finished, you don’t become a buddha yet. You’re pretty
stunning but you haven’t become a buddha yet, so you’ve got more
work to do, more work to do, more purifying to be done, more
obscurations to remove from your mind, more realizations to develop.
But it’s a pretty major sign post, milestone.
We can’t even begin to count the qualities of a person with
bodhichitta. . . If it were Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching, he’d keep us
here for a week, because he is limitless in his experiential knowledge of
bodhichitta.
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27. PERFECT THE COMPASSION WING: THE FIRST
FOUR PERFECTIONS GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
We’re still in university here. We might not have time for postgraduate
today. I’ll mention it in passing.
Having achieved bodhichitta, we move to the next level of practice:
the six perfections of the bodhisattva, essentially perfecting the two
wings of the bird. With the first four we perfect the compassion wing
and with the last two we perfect the wisdom wing. End result?
buddhahood.
The first one is called generosity; the second is called morality;
the third is called patience; the fourth is called enthusiasm or
enthusiastic perseverance, or joyful effort; the fifth is called
concentration, the sixth one is called wisdom. Let’s go through
these.
FIRST FOUR: PERFECTING COMPASSION WING

You can say that the first four are where you finally perfect the
compassion wing; it’s all the work you do in relation to others. The
compassion wing is totally to do with working with others. You can do
this in your meditation as well, in the mountains, but the focus is
others.
LAST TWO: PERFECTING THE WISDOM WING

In the wisdom wing the focus is yourself. In the wisdom wing you are
not thinking about others, you’re thinking about yourself, but in a
really healthy way. Taking responsibility, stopping blaming others,
you’re backing away from others, you’re looking at your mind, you’re
knowing it very deeply, you’re becoming your own therapist, you’re
controlling your body and speech, all for your own benefit. The focus is
I, necessarily, the correct way to see it. And it’s for your benefit. The
second one, the focus is others. You’re thinking of others, they’re the
PERFECTING THE COMPASSION WING: THE FIRST FOUR PERFECTIONS CHAPTER 27
reference point for everything your thinking: others. This is the

compassion wing.
The first four are where your perfecting the compassion wing, the
last two are actually you perfecting the wisdom wing. It’s taught in this
way here. If you were just doing the wisdom wing only, you’d do the
concentration and wisdom there and you’d finish that. But here it’s
taught as the last two perfections of the bodhisattva.
Basically, the bodhisattva is bopping around from life to life dealing
with sentient beings, doing all these things of practicing these first
four and then in their meditation practicing the last two. Perfecting the
wisdom wing where they finally cut all the misconceptions, all the
delusions, the root delusion from the mind by realizing emptiness; and
then in the first four they’re constantly working in relation to sentient
beings developing this generosity, developing patience, developing the
others. Let’s talk about those now.
1. GENEROSITY
The first one, generosity, is very interesting. Lama Tsongkhapa, the
fourteenth century lama, says in one of his lovely lamrim texts, very
poetic little verse text called Songs of Experience, and he says,
“Generosity is the wish-fulfilling jewel with which you can fulfill the
hopes of all sentient beings. It’s the basis of the activity of the
bodhisattvas in that it develops the selfless and undaunted courage to
lead all sentient beings to enlightenment.” That seems like a lot of
generosity. What does it mean? It means that it’s the doorway to
connecting with others. Giving.
Because right now we don’t give much at all. We only give anything
to people we’re close to, and then usually only what we don’t want, or
what’s easy to give. What we’re doing here is a major way to smash the
I, you think about it, break down the barriers between yourself and
others; really have this very profound sense of responsibility to give
sentient beings what they need. According to your ability of course, but
you keep developing this.
There’s different levels of giving. Giving material things. Then
there’s a second level, which is more profound but often for us we find
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it easier, is giving advice, giving spiritual advice. We love doing

that. We are great at doing that. We’ll give anybody advice! But give
five dollars? Not so sure.
Giving is this way; when you practice seeing others and seeing what
they need and, if you can, you give. And you practice it, you
consciously practice giving. And it’s a powerful way to break down the
barrier between self and others, it’s powerful. Because of attachment,
one of the functions of attachment, of course, is what we call
possessiveness: this is mine; and we identify that thing, that person,
that house, those possessions, that money in the bank, it’s like an
extension of me, isn’t it? It’s the nature of attachment, it’s what it
does. Of course, I’m not going to give “mine” away. If I’ve got extra of
it, fine. If there’s anything left over – we think in terms of money – if
there’s anything left over at the end of the month after I’ve paid my
phone and paid my cable and bought my food and bought this and
been to the movies and done that and have a massage and given money
to my friends and this and that, then I might give something. That’s
how we think.
But maybe the way we’ve got to think – giving money is very hard
for us in the west because we concretize it so powerfully. One Tibetan
Lama said once, “You’re very generous in the West but not with
money.” Very curious; kind of interesting. Money is the thing we know
so well. We reconcile everything at the end of the month. If we
reconciled our good and bad karma every month, we’d be Buddha by
now! We have no clue how many negative karmas we’ve created, or
positive. We all know how many cents we’ve spent or how many we’re
owed. It’s the thing we can get our head around, the numbers.
MONEY IS THE FRUIT OF GENEROSITY

Well, “money” is a name we give to the fruit of generosity from past
lives. That’s all. That’s it. It’s the name we give to the fruit of
generosity. It’s having the resources to do things for ourselves; and all
of that is the fruit of generosity. When we even understand this we will
be sad not to give, because all we’re doing is using up the money in the
bank and not investing more. Because being generous creates more
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seeds for you to continue to get. Okay, you don’t do that only for that
reason, but when we understand that we would be sad not to give,
because we are just using it all up, using up our merit. How sad. They
say bodhisattvas when they give something they feel like we feel when
we get something. So happy to give.
Giving, it’s obvious, is a major way to open your eyes and connect
with others, and then to have a sense of responsibility.
The commonest way we think about homeless people, we’d rather
avoid them. We have this long thought, “Maybe they’re junkies, and
maybe they’ll buy alcohol, maybe they’ll buy guns, maybe they’ll buy
heroin. . .” If we do give money, we want them to buy what we want
them to buy, like a banana or something. We practically want a
contract with them before we give them anything. They might not do
what we want! How dare they!
Well maybe you have an open mind and you decide in advance,
before you go downtown, you bring, not your dollars, excuse me, not
even your fives, maybe a few tens: fives would have been twenty years
ago, hundred years ago, fifty years ago, would have been generous. But
you just decide.
BUDGET GIVING INTO YOUR LIFE

First of all, one of the attitudes to have, is you budget giving into your
life. You don’t wait until, “If I have enough left. . .”; you just decide,
like the Mormons, they give ten percent. I think it’s very powerful to
do this. You just decide, “I’m going to give something.” Like anything,
it’s painful in the beginning, of course it is. But you start. You factor it
into your life, “Okay, I’ll decide I’ll give fifty a month to homeless
people,” whatever I want, just decide. It’ll be nervous in the beginning,
but be practical, but really see your resistance to it, really see the pain
it causes you, the panic that comes. We all feel so poor. We all feel so
poor.
HAPPY TO PAY OUR DEBTS

Another point that I think is amazing to practice generosity – and this
is not talked about in the Buddhist teachings because there were
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probably a few debt collectors then, but you look at our lives now,
everything is based on debt, isn’t it? Everybody has credit cards,
everything we do you pay with credit cards now. You get your service
and at the end of the month you pay for it. Your cable, your phone,
everything, all your utilities, everything you do is paying at the end of
whatever it is.
I think an amazing way to practice generosity, before you even
begin to give extra, you start practicing – and I’m serious – being
happy to pay your debts. It’s an amazing way to start changing your
attitude. I’m not even asking you to give more. I’m asking you to really
develop the habit of thinking, “I’m so happy to pay my Visa bill. Aren’t
these people kind, they’ve given me the opportunity for one month,
they’ve given me credit for one month.” Of course, they’re making
money out of it, but from your point of view, isn’t it marvelous that
you can get money just like that.
I know when we need money for the prison project, I’ll use my
credit card. I’m so happy I can borrow five thousand dollars, borrow
two thousand dollars. Aren’t they generous?
Poor homeless people, how come they’re on the street? Why they’re
on the street is because they have no credit. No one trusts them. Most
people live in far more debt than most homeless people. But they’ve
got credit because they have a good reputation. They can afford to be
living in ten, twenty, fifty thousand dollars worth of debt. Homeless
people have no debt. But they can’t even get credit. That’s how come
they’re on the street. I’m not on the street because of the kind of Visa
company, because of the kind bank, for whatever reason they trust me.
You should be weeping in tears of gratitude to the bank, to these
people, these institutions, for trusting you enough to lend you their
money. You should be so happy to pay this debt plus their twenty-two
percent, whatever they want. I’m serious.
But you check our mind: resentful, paying our bill. Resentful to pay
the phone bill, resentful, we hate paying bills, because we are not
generous, because we don’t like giving. We’re happy to take their
service: the phone, the T-mobile, their company, their thing, their this,
their that, we’re happy to have all this, it’s our human right, but we
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don’t like to pay our debts. I mean, excuse me, no wonder we’re
miserable, no wonder we’ve got poverty mentality, no wonder we don’t
get any money. I’m not even asking you to give more, just be happy to
pay what you owe every month: your mortgage, your this, your that, be
happy to pay it, generous, so grateful. I tell you, that alone is amazing
practice. You begin to relax now and start to give more. Because it’s
our mind, that is the problem; it’s our mean, tight, greedy, grasping,
poverty-mentality that’s the problem. We all think we’re poor. It’s
unbelievable.
Student Since we’re supposed to have countless debts with sentient
beings and you said it’s very easy to give things we’re not attached to,
but if there’s something very precious, whatever it is?
Ven. Robina What are you talking about? What’s the question?
Student When you’re thinking in meditation of sharing everything
with sentient beings, it’s really hard to think, “I’ll give, gladly, my car
or my house.”
Ven. Robina What’s the point then? What’s the point?
Student I don’t know. . . How far to do you go with that?
Ven. Robina I’m not saying that you do that though. I’m not saying
to do that. Why don’t you just start being happy to pay what you owe?
That’s what I’m saying. Be happy to do this. Start where you are and
then you progress naturally. There’s no point in thinking things that
you can’t think yet, like you can’t carry a weight that’s too heavy. I’m
not trying to say you think. . . you can say that if you like, if you want
to, you could. Nothing wrong with that, if you want it, that’s fantastic.
You give something, but I’m saying two different things. Budget in
some giving, but really begin to think differently, all you have to do is
think differently. And remembering that giving now, the present now
giving nourishes your past giving seeds, which will ripen as getting. I
swear. I swear.
GIVING IS THE CAUSE OF GETTING

Our prison project – we’ve been going for nine, nearly ten years now –
we’ve never had any money, but we’ve developed and I’ll say the
courage, in our prison project, to say not, “Oh, we can’t do that, we
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can’t help those prisoners, we haven’t got any money,” which is the
usual view. We say, “We must do it,” and then we find the money to do
it. And I swear, nine years, we’ve not gone broke yet. Every month
we’ve never known if we’ll have enough money to survive. We now
have a budget of eighteen to twenty thousand dollars a month, we have
benefactors, we have five, six, seven staff, we pay some salaries. We’re
doing so many things. That’s one point.
The second point, what we do, we are basically a Dharma center,
Liberation Prison Project, but our guys are in prison, that’s all. We get
300 letters every month, we’ve got 300 people banging on our door
desperate every month for Dharma. And they can’t just receive a
poster and then come to a course. We have to find out their address,
find out what kind of books they can have. We have this very
complicated database because it’s so difficult to serve prisoners: you
have to know what weight paper, whether they can have staples,
whether they can have hardback, whether they can have this, five
books, two books, you have to have an invoice, you have to pay for it,
so much complex information about every single one. Then we have to
buy books from all the publishers, we’ve got 300 titles, we have a
person fulltime wrapping the books, going to the post office, sending
the books. We give them away. We are generous, unbelievably
generous. We never think for one second about getting anything in
return.
I think our generosity alone is a cause for why we receive anything.
I’ve really learned this. And I feel very confident in saying what I’m
saying. We never beg. I don’t ask people, I know people who’ve got
money, I don’t ever beg, ever, ever. It’s up to them to want to offer.
Often you see people who aren’t so rich, give lots of money, but people
who even have quite a bit of money might give you a hundred dollars.
But you thank them, you’re so grateful, you’re not being mean, never
not grateful.
But you can see that generosity has got nothing to do with having
anything. Poor people give us sometimes a thousand dollars. Prisoners
send us five dollars; they get fifty cents an hour. Themselves, they send
us money. They’re so grateful. The one thing is as an organization we
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never beg, and we continually give. So far, we’ve still survived, I’m
amazed.
GENEROSITY OPENS US TO SENTIENT BEINGS

Generosity is an attitude, and it’s a way to open yourself to sentient
beings. Because we think about money all the time, but for myself,
only for myself, for me and mine, that’s it. Not being mean about it,
I’m only talking from my own experience, that’s how I can say it.
THE SIGN OF HAVING ACCOMPLISHED GENEROSITY

Oh, by the way, when you’ve perfected generosity – we’ve just talked
about one kind – you can give your life for another. Blink of an eye.
That’s the level of generosity that they’re finally talking about. As Kirti
Tsenshab Rinpoche said one time: For a bodhisattva who sees a
starving animal, the action of cutting off their hand and offering it to
the animal “is as inconsequential as a leaf falling off a tree.” Now that’s
insane, isn’t it?
The logic of this is such compassion, such empathy with the
suffering of others, like a starving animal, to feed a starving animal –
and clearly there’d be no butcher shop around the corner; they
wouldn’t cut it off if there were, that’d be silly; bodhisattvas aren’t
stupid – but if there’s no other food, “No worries mate: eat.” And it’s
“as inconsequential as a leaf falling off a tree.” One, because they’ve
practiced all this compassion; but two, because they’ve got wisdom.
There’s no way in the world, if you’re still grasping at an inherent I,
and you haven’t realized emptiness, that you could do this.
With ego, compassion’s got a really low ceiling. Beyond ego,
compassion can soar limitlessly. That’s the level to which we can
develop giving, generosity. Even this body is meaningless, who cares
because there’s no longer an identity; ego-grasping, I: finished.
There’s a story of one of the past lives of the Buddha where he saw a
starving tiger, and the tiger mummy, she was about to eat her babies,
she was so hungry. And he gave his own body to the mummy because
he had such compassion for her, for the negative karma she would
create by killing her own babies. Without a second thought, his entire
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body. Many stories in the lives of the great saints, the great
bodhisattvas, of giving their bodies completely, not a problem. Gone
beyond ego, so gone beyond self-cherishing, this is the level of which
Buddha says we can develop.
2. MORALITY
The next one is called the practice of morality. Well actually, from day
one, all we’re talking about is morality, but there are two kinds of
morality. There’s the morality of the wisdom wing, which is
refraining from harming others, and that’s the main emphasis of
the wisdom wing.
The second one, in compassion wing, is actively benefiting others.
Already just refraining from harming, like I said, that’s a pretty
stunning practice. When you stop killing, you’re helping yourself
because you’re not creating negative karma, but my goodness, the
lucky rats and roaches get their lives. Cheers all around.
Here we’re talking mainly now the practice of morality, continuing
to do this of course, but now actively benefiting others. Whom do you
benefit? Well you benefit the poor, you benefit the sick, you benefit
those in prison, you benefit the crazy, you benefit whoever needs to be
benefited. That’s called helping others. It’s very simple.
Like with generosity, you don’t have to panic and think, “Oh my
God, I’ve got to give everything away, I’ve got to give away all the
things I can’t give.” No, you start where you are, but you begin to think
differently; you think it first. You’ve got to train in your mind first
before you do something, same with giving.
BUDGET HELPING OTHERS INTO YOUR LIFE

Like with generosity, also how about factoring in, how about budgeting
in some morality time, some helping time into your life. Again we will
always say, “When I’ve done this and I’ve done that and had a massage
and my meals and done this and paid this and gone to work, then if
there’s any time left, I might help somebody.” Budget it into your life.
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HELPING A STRANGER, HELPING A FRIEND

And of course, we love to help our friends; we love to help our lovers,
and our friends and our families and all that. That’s okay, but like with
generosity, as one lama said, “Giving a hundred dollars to your best
friend or giving five rupees to a smelly beggar – giving five rupees to a
smelly beggar is an infinitely superior action, because it was difficult
for you.” Helping your friend is great. Well how about helping
strangers? How about helping enemies, if you can?
But meanwhile, start where you are. Reach out of yourself, that’s
what all of these are about; reaching out of the self-cherishing to see
others. The generosity is about that and the morality is about that:
helping others. You decide a certain amount you do every week or
every day, or you keep your eyes open and you see who needs helping,
you notice and you reach yourself out of yourself, and you do that.
That’s it, practice it, practice it, practice it. Morality, benefiting others.
3. PATIENCE
The next one is patience, and this is very interesting. In fact, there’s a
whole level of practice in the exchanging-self-for-others stuff, back at
tonglen, there’s a whole approach to practice called transforming
problems into happiness. We can talk about it here because it really is
the practice of patience. Let’s look freshly at patience, because we have
such misconceptions about it.
Mostly now, I think, what we mean by patience is what we really
mean by irritation and frustration, kind of waiting for that horrible
thing to go away. That’s not patience, that’s irritation. Patience is
really a very powerful state of mind, a very courageous state of mind,
believe me.
WHAT’S IMPATIENCE?
Let’s look at impatience, let’s look at anger, even just aversion or
impatience or anger or irritation or annoyance, all these variations.
Let’s look at those. Really look at it carefully and you’ll see that it’s the
response to something that you just can’t bear. Really, it’s like panic
mode comes, you just can’t bear this thing. This thing’s going to
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destroy me if I have it. It’s like a big fear. The red light, “Oh my God,
this red light, I can’t stand it!” Or the person being mean, not to
mention things like being tortured, forget that one; we’re just talking
ordinary little baby daily examples.
You think like this, you look at ordinary daily life: a thousand times
a day you’re going to meet something that you don’t want: the red
light, the mean person, the unkind thing, the ugly noise the husband
makes when he eats his breakfast. I mean, baby, baby little things,
we’re not talking big major things yet. And just notice your response,
and we never really even think of this. We’re always getting irritated,
getting annoyed, and that means in the mind, “Oh this wretched thing,
why is it like this, it shouldn’t be this way, who does he think he is?”
We mightn’t be expressing big anger, but we don’t think it’s anything
terrible. We just say, “Oh well, it’s just normal life.” We’re doing it a
thousand times a day. That’s called anger. It’s the opposite to patience.
PATIENCE IS BRAVE
What’s patience? Patience is not just gritting your teeth, waiting for
that mean thing to go away. Patience actually is a really brave,
courageous attitude that welcomes that thing; that doesn’t just put up
with it, “Oh, all right then,” passively, which is how we think about
patience. “Be patient, come on!” Put up with something. No, no, no.
It’s an active, active state of mind that says, “Great! Great!” You
welcome it. Why? Very simple. Not because you’re a masochist, but
because it’s the most powerful way to purify attachment. Because
attachment is the neediness to get that green light, get what you want.
Welcoming the opposite, welcoming the carrot cake when you
ordered chocolate cake, not just putting up with it, and cursing under
your breath, actually actively greeting it, going into it, welcoming it,
being happy it’s there. This is amazing, as Lama Zopa says: it’s like we
need to learn to like problems, like we like ice cream. Not just putting
up with it, actively welcoming it. I mean, it sounds a bit crazy but it’s a
very profound and it’s the quickest way to change your mind. It’s the
quickest way to really be happy. I mean it, it’s amazing, it’s amazing.
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If we can be brave enough, once a day, try it. Not just put up with it,
welcome it. Because the fact is, remember, aversion, irritation,
annoyance, upset, all these things, anger, are all responses to thwarted
attachment. If attachment, as Buddha is saying, is the real source of
our suffering, and we talked a lot, enough about it before, then we
should be so happy when we get an opportunity to purify it. And you
purify it when you don’t get what attachment wants. It’s very simple.
It’s so simple.
PUTTING UP WITH THE PAIN

I think this attitude of transforming problems, it’s just like Lance
Armstrong, it’s like all these amazing sports people. Lance Armstrong
loves problems, he loves the high mountains, he loves the pain. He’s
not a masochist. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be a good cyclist. You see my
point here? If he didn’t welcome that tough pushing against his
muscles, which is called pain, it’s very simple; if he didn’t welcome
that and see it as a good sign, if he resisted it and hated it, he would be
insane and he wouldn’t even be a cyclist. He wouldn’t go that far, he’d
stop. Are you seeing my point?
EMOTIONAL PAIN
We understand this when it comes to things like achieving being a
cyclist or I read about years ago in San Jose, this group of young guys
who were getting ready for their IPO (Initial Public Offering), of their
start-up. They worked for nine months, eighteen hours a day, seven
days a week. That was called pain, that’s called being tired, exhausted,
worried, anxious, that’s extreme suffering. But they were happy to do
it because they knew the result would be fantastic. Lance Armstrong
was happy to have that pain. I remember reading in the New Yorker
about the level of pain that he experienced, an article about him;
amazing. It would be like torture. He welcomed it, he didn’t just put up
with it; he went into it and was glad. Why? Because it was countering
his weak muscles, which is why he couldn’t be a cyclist, so he needed
that pain to go up against in order to be a better cyclist. It’s so simple.
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WE CAN’T BEAR EMOTIONAL PAIN

Here we are talking emotional pain. Now this is the one we can’t bear.
We’re like babies in response to what we don’t like. Then we get angry,
we blame other people, we sue, we do all these things. We’ve just got to
learn to welcome the problems. Now Buddha has a wonderful saying –
Shantideva says it, I think, “If you can change something, hey, change
it, no worries; if you can’t, why bother? Give up, why care?” If you can
change something, you don’t have to sit there and be a masochist and
have pain, if you can change it, great. But if you can’t – and I tell you
much of the time we can’t; the red light is a simple example. If you
could just with some magician mind go click and turn it to green,
please do so, don’t worry, do it. But we mostly can’t, so then you might
as well be patient for those two minutes. And that’s not – like we think
of it in the world, as I said – passively putting up with it. That’s a weak
mind. It’s delighting.
Okay, if you don’t even notice the red light because you’re busy
chatting away, you have no practice to do; it doesn’t matter, there’s no
problem. But if you see yourself getting all tight – and that’s why by
the end of the day we are so exhausted because we’re going from the
attached mode to the aversion mode a thousand times a day. We’re
resisting, and we curse, and we hold on, and we try not to get angry,
and then we’re kind of tight and tight and tight. No wonder we’re
exhausted by the end of the day! Our mind is doing all this nonsense.
We have to practice first seeing the thoughts and then reversing,
changing the thoughts, just changing the words. In the beginning you
don’t believe the words: that you’re happy that the light is red. But
eventually you will, believe me, if you say it often enough. It’ll be
something that you get good at, you get courageous at. Like the tough
cycling, like working eighteen hours a day, seven days a week; you get
used to it.
And then really, you become brave. It is a brave attitude, it’s a very
courageous attitude. Welcoming problems, dealing with problems: the
problems that come from people being mean to you and the problems
that come from obstacles in your life. We have all these. We don’t need
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to ask for problems, they come on our head like rain every day. It’s a
very profound state of mind, patience. It’s amazing.
THE SIGN OF HAVING ACCOMPLISHED PATIENCE

They say in one of the texts that you’ve accomplished patience – this is
again pretty insane level – you’ve accomplished patience, you’ve
perfected patience, when “in the face of even everyone on this earth
harming you, lying to you, stealing from you, even killing you, you
happily work in response to that harm for their benefit.” That’s the
test.
I mean just even think of one person, the person as it says in the
Eight Verses, that person whom you’ve been so kind to, when they’re
mean to you, when you can bear that and be happy knowing you’ve
purified your karma, and it’s made you stronger and wiser, and you
welcomed it. That’s amazing, I tell you, incredible.
So much of our daily suffering is from so much anger, no patience
in the way we’re talking here. No brave mind, we’re not brave, we’re
like children. And then because we have the victim mode we totally get
into the suing, blaming mode. We’re full of so much anger and ill-will,
not just impatience, anger and ill-will, wanting others to suffer. It’s
terrible, look at the world, so shocking.
We’re talking here mental, we’re talking here mind, we’re talking
here thoughts, we’re talking here cognitive. This is cognitive therapy
we’re talking here. Huge.
4. ENTHUSIASM, JOYFUL EFFORT, ENTHUSIASTIC

PERSEVERANCE
The fourth one is called enthusiasm, joyful effort, enthusiastic
perseverance. This is very interesting, this one. And it’s really
interesting to look at it in the context of the opposite states of mind:
and that is simply called laziness. This is quite surprising, but you’ll
understand it when I talk about it.
Okay, enthusiastic perseverance, what’s that? As I said, the
opposite is laziness so let’s look at the three kinds of laziness.
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THE FIRST KIND OF LAZINESS: CAN’T BE BOTHERED

The first one is what we all mean by laziness: can’t be bothered, too
much effort, got to have a sleep, got to have a rest. Let’s look at those
guys who worked eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. If they had
this first kind of laziness, they wouldn’t have made their IPO in time.
They had to go against their deep impulse to have to sleep. Because
they were so focused on their goal, they bore the suffering, which is
patience, but they persevered through the tiredness. They didn’t give
up, they kept going even though they were exhausted; they kept going
and kept going and kept going, dragging themselves out of bed every
day – in other words, enthusiastically doing it, because they could see
the benefit. That’s enthusiasm.
Even the first kind of laziness, we can see we have that one so
deeply, because we’re such children, we’re such babies: as soon as we
feel a bit tired, we have a mental breakdown. Really, we almost
collapse. We panic, we’re going to have stress and anxiety, and we’re
going to burn out, all these things. We’ve got to relax and have a
massage, and be calm and look at the trees, and go away for the
weekend and go trekking, because you can’t bear the thought of being
tired.
HAPPY TO BE TIRED
I mean, excuse me, check when you’re really attached to somebody,
when you’re younger, into drugs and having parties all night: you went
all night spacing out, dancing, smoking, exhausted in the morning, but
really happy, right? Your body was exhausted but your mind was
happy. It just proves what you can do. Those guys ended up tired,
exhausted, but somehow part of their mind was happy because they
knew they were achieving their result. That’s enthusiasm. Who cares
tired?
I used to do kung fu, our Chinese teacher – we would do pushups
on our knuckles, practically dying on your knuckles – he said, “Relax!
It’s just your body. Relax! It’s just your body.” Because when your
mind is strong, the body is just this, you know? It gets tired, who
cares? It’s not your mind that gets tired. Okay, your mind, because it
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depends upon the body, if your body’s exhausted, of course our mind is
spaced out; it’s true. But if you really can train and be happy with it,
and really train your mind to stay focused, and be happy even though
your body’s tired.
SLAVES TO OUR BODIES

You see, we’re such slaves of our bodies, the moment we have a pain,
we have a mental breakdown, the moment we have tiredness, we have
a mental breakdown, because we’re so terrified of pain, which is
attachment, desperately wanting to feel good. But if we’re really
courageous, Lance Armstrong, don’t tell me he didn’t feel exhausted.
He had enthusiasm. He joyfully made effort to go against the tiredness
and the exhaustion, because he wanted the goal.
It's clear, if your mind is strong, your body will do anything. This is
the attitude to develop. Like I said of those IPO guys, if they just gave
into their need to sleep every night, “Oh I have to have my eight hours
sleep, otherwise forget it,” they wouldn’t have made their IPO, they
would have been a failure. They had no choice, they had to go without
sleep. If you really want to achieve something, then you will do that.
The point we’re talking here is the in the context of the great
bodhisattvas, who have enormous compassion for sentient beings, and
so for whom the thought of sleep, as I said before for Lama Zopa
Rinpoche, is a disgusting waste of time. Because every time they’re
sleeping they’re not doing anything to help sentient beings. I know it
sounds like a joke, but they have that level of compassion.
GESHE LAMA KONCHOG

Now there’s a great yogi, Geshe Lama Konchog, and I’ll tell a couple of
stories about him. He was an amazing practitioner from the time he
was a kid. Just an extraordinary being. And then he went off to the
mountains and meditated for twenty-five years. For years he didn’t eat
and he didn’t sleep. Now this is possible. First of all these guys who are
so highly developed, they’ve got such control over their subtle energies
and their mind, plus so full of enormous compassion, bodhichitta, a
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high being basically, gone beyond ego, incredibly developed in all

these things we’re talking about.
For him, his first few years in this little cave up in the mountains,
six feet of snow in the winter, where Milarepa used to meditate, didn’t
even have a front on it, it was so small, only four feet high, couldn’t
stand up in it. He did his own meditation practices on his particular
deity, Vajrayogini, from two in the morning until eight at night. A few
breaks, I suppose, in between. And then from eight at night until two
in the morning he would prostrate. He didn’t sleep.
HE LIVED ON THE ENERGY OF THE AIR

And, there’s this practice: the Tibetan doctors make this type of
medicine, they call it chu-len, they get all the essence from the rocks,
and the flowers, and all those things and they mix it, and it’s especially
blessed and all this, and the great yogis especially live on these. You
just eat this stuff; “taking the essence” it means. You drink it with
water and that’s it. You get very skinny but very strong. He didn’t even
live on that chu-len, he lived on wind chu-len, he was able to live on
the essence of the air. He ate the air basically!
He didn’t eat and he didn’t sleep. I mean, it’s insane in our ordinary
terms. That indicates for him the level of his realizations: the level of
his bodhichitta, the level of his compassion, and therefore, without
doubt the level of his enthusiastic perseverance, not to mention
patience, not to mention morality, not to mention generosity, not to
mention all the wisdom wing. Step by step.
It’s really good, I think, for us to really look at what we can achieve.
Sure we can’t do it yet, but don’t panic. The five-year-old kid who goes
to see Michael Jordan or whoever the latest basketball star is, is totally
inspired. He can’t even bounce a ball yet, but he holds that vision of
his potential and he never gives up. That’s enthusiasm. That’s
enthusiasm
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THE SECOND KIND OF LAZINESS: I’M TOO BUSY, I’LL DO

IT LATER
The second kind of laziness is real scary, it’s really depressing. “Oh,
I’m too busy. I can’t do it, I’m too busy.” In other words, it’s
procrastination. And I think we are all masters of procrastination. And
what do we procrastinate? Forget about spiritual practice; look at our
daily lives. We put off doing the things we don’t like to do, that take
too much effort. We go towards the things we prefer to do. Bone lazy
basically, but this is a subtle level of laziness.
You might work really hard. . . (In terms of spiritual practice. . .)
You might not have the first level of laziness, you might work really
hard, but you’re doing things you want to do, you’re doing the things of
eating, sleeping and going to the toilet and making money and doing
all of this. “Oh, my practice? I’m too busy; I’ll do it when I have time.”
We’re talking in terms of our spiritual practice now. It always comes
last. That’s the second kind of laziness. But in general, we recognize it
as procrastination. And what do we procrastinate about? The things
we don’t want to do. We’ve got to really watch our minds. This is a real
subtle kind of laziness. Because you will never achieve the goal, ever, if
you have that.
THE THIRD KIND OF LAZINESS: NOT POSSIBLE! I CAN’T

ACHIEVE THAT
The third one is even more sneaky, even more subtle, more pervasive,
and it’s the one that truly, deeply ingrained in the ego believes, “Oh, I
can’t do that.” We almost think of it as a virtue. It’s like two kids go to
the basketball, they see Michael Jordan, amazing basketball, “Wow
amazing, amazing,” or whoever it might be, your great hero, Tiger
Woods or somebody, he’s golf, and you watch and you watch, and you
think amazing, and you go home and one kid says, “I’m going to
become like that, I can do it.” They can’t even bounce the ball, can’t
even pick up a golf stick, they don’t care, they know they can do it.
They persevere through the gross kind, they learn to practice, to
focus, to go against the tiredness; they learn to put it first, they don’t
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procrastinate, they don’t put it off, they keep doing it, believing they
can do it. That’s the three kinds of laziness conquered.
The other kid goes to the gym for a while, gives up. Can’t be
bothered, too much effort, need a sleep, no time. And then he says I’m
too busy at school, I can’t do it. And then he’s really saying, “Oh, I
can’t do it, I can’t be like Michael Jordan, that’s just Michael Jordan.”
Well, excuse me, we recognize these don’t we? The three kinds of
laziness.
Therefore conclusion: no enthusiasm, no perseverance, no effort,
no joyful effort. We’re desperate to stay in our comfort zone. It’s too
scary for us to move. We’d rather just be comfortable, which is
basically attachment. Desperate to be comfortable, to have a nice
comfy money in the bank, do a few nice things, and think a few nice
thoughts, and maybe go to a class if I feel like it, every now and again,
and maybe meditate when I feel comfortable, maybe read a book every
now and again, and maybe give a few people something, only when it’s
comfortable, only when it’s comfortable. We’re desperate to not get
outside our comfort zone.
PRACTICE IS GOING BEYOND OUR COMFORT ZONE

But practice, by definition, is going beyond your comfort zone.
Practicing anything, basketball, cycling, practicing Dharma. Going
beyond the status quo.
And the trouble is we’re so wicked, we lie to ourselves. We say, “Oh,
I did my practice.” But it’s like going to the gym and you decide you
want to do pushups, because someone says you’re going to get really fit
and healthy if you do pushups. You start doing pushups, or you go on
the thing at the gym, and then as soon as it gets uncomfortable, you
stop. “Oh good, I went to the gym. Yeah, I went to the gym today.” But
in fact, you know perfectly well, if you stop doing pushups the moment
it hurts, your muscles will never, ever change.
Well that’s what we’re like with our practice. No wonder we don’t
make progress, no wonder we still get angry and jealous and neurotic,
because we don’t push against the stuff. We don’t push up against our
junk and go beyond it. We don’t test ourselves, really. We don’t taste
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the pain, because we’re terrified, because we’re lazy in these three
ways. You understand? We all recognize. In other words, we hold
ourselves back.
Therefore we have these terrible regrets. Our head is full of ideas,
what we want to do, but we just can’t put it into practice because of
these three kinds of laziness. The putting off one especially, and the
one most of all: “Oh, I can’t do it anyway. It’s just not possible.”
Single-pointed concentration? “No, I can’t do that.” We’re such babies.
Practice is going beyond what we can do already to something we can’t
do. It’s just nature, it’s what it means.
We love to say all the prayers: “Oh may I become a buddha to
benefit all sentient beings.” It’s so easy to say this. But when it comes
to being patient or doing a little job for somebody that we feel we can’t
do: “Oh, no I can’t do that.” Then we say our prayers: “Oh, may I
benefit all sentient beings.”
That’s enthusiastic perseverance, just a little.
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28. MOVING TOWARDS WISDOM: THE LAST TWO
PERFECTIONS GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
Now we come to the last two perfections: which are concentration

meditation, using it to finally cut the root of all problems and get
insight into how things exist ultimately. The method used to get
insight, based on concentration, is called analytical meditation.
“Analyze” is a fancy word for “to think about.”
Across the board here you can see how Buddha’s talking, is this:
he’s saying: “Hey guys, from my own experience I have found it to be
so, that things change, death is definite, your consciousness is
continuity, you could possibly be born in the suffering lower realms,
you have this, you do this, karma is the law that determines whatever
happens, all the experiences you have are the result of your past
actions, the delusions are the main cause, attachment is this. . .” – all
these things, all of this is a series, I’ve been presenting all weekend, a
series of words: presenting Buddha’s view about the mind, about
happiness, about suffering, about how to achieve happiness, about how
to remove from suffering; it’s a series of techniques. I’ve been telling
you all these recipes, basically. It’s a bunch of recipes you’ve been
hearing.
Of course the puzzle for us is always, “How do I put these recipes
into practice? How do I internalize this information? How do I make it
my experience? This is what we often are puzzled about.
First we listen, then we contemplate the meaning, then we realize it
all in meditation.
WHAT IS MEDITATION?
Well, the word meditation in Tibetan, gom, means “to familiarize.”
That’s it. When Tibetans say “meditate, meditate” they’re saying
“familiarize your mind, familiarize your mind, familiarize your mind.”
That’s what they say: familiarize. That’s the word they say: gom,
familiarize.
MOVING TOWARDS WISDOM: THE LAST TWO PERFECTIONS CHAPTER 28
Familiarize with what? You’re working on your mind, remember?

Meditation is a function of your mind. Remember your mind is your
consciousness, your thoughts, your mental consciousness. You’re
familiarizing your mind with what?
FAMILIARIZING OUR MIND WITH HOW THINGS ARE

Well, two ways of saying it. With how things actually are, remembering
that the attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, fundamentally the
ignorance, all are not seeing things as they are. First you can say we
need to familiarize our mind with how things are. And how? By
listening to Buddha’s presentation, thinking about it, discussing it, and
eventually internalizing it in meditation.
FAMILIARIZING OUR MIND WITH THE POSITIVE

Another way to say it, is to familiarize your mind with virtue, with the
positive qualities. That implies, doesn’t it, that our minds at the
moment are familiar with delusions. And it implies that we are
familiar with the nonvirtues right now, with the delusions, with the
negative states of mind, the anger, fears, depression, jealousy, blame,
ignorance, this, that. We need to practice virtue and give up practicing
nonvirtue.
ACCESSING THE MICROSCOPE OF OUR MIND

In order to be capable of familiarizing our mind with how things exist,
especially this, and especially here - ultimate reality emptiness - we
need to train it to be focused. We need to access the subtler, more
capable levels of our consciousness. We need to develop the
microscope of our mind. Then it’s easy.
The technical term in Tibetan translated as “calm abiding.” It’s
called shiné in Tibetan, samatha in Sanskrit. The culmination of this
kind of meditation is that you have accessed the subtler level of your
consciousness, which we don’t even posit as existing in our culture,
remember? When you’ve used these tools, these meditation
techniques, you’ve developed a very subtle, more refined level of
awareness that’s absolutely effortlessly able to focus, effortlessly able
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to focus, and therefore penetrate at ever deeper levels the way things
are.
If you look at our minds right now, they’re all over the place, aren’t
they? We just assume this is natural. The moment you wake up, your
mind’s off on a thousand different journeys. And we feel like we’re
being dragged by our nose in all those different directions. We don’t
even tend to think we can have any control over those directions; we
really think like someone else in there is pulling me along, isn’t it,
because our minds are so uncontrolled. We have never tried to control
them. And we don’t even think we can, in our culture. We don’t get
taught techniques at school how to control our minds, because we
don’t understand.
This technique is from the amazing Indians, Buddha didn’t invent
this. It’s a very skillful psychological technique. It’s got nothing to do
with what we think of as religion. It’s a really practical technique that
enables us to focus the mind and then to really plumb the depths of
this mind of ours, go way beyond the conceptual, which is all we think
as existing, and the sensory, to a far more refined level of awareness.
WITH THE FOCUSED MIND WE CAN GET INSIGHT INTO

REALITY
The reason to do this isn’t just to feel good. The reason to do this, it’s
sort of like you’ve now sharpened, honed your mind to this amazing
tool. Like any tool, you’ve got to use it for something. What do we use
this sharpened, focused mind for? In the second mode of meditation,
which you can call insight meditation. This is the meaning of the word
vipassana.
Buddha teaches various vipassana meditations. One is, the one
that’s well known, is a way of focusing on sensations of the body in
order to develop insight into impermanence. But we’re not discussing
that here. We’re talking about developing insight into emptiness.
First of all, this capacity in the first mode to focus the mind is
pretty amazing. When you’ve really accomplished this, or if you saw a
person who had accomplished this, they would look as if they were
dead: virtually no breath, no activity at all. Because their mind has
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gone to a much more refined level of awareness that we don’t even

think of as existing, in the West, because in the West we only talk
about the conceptual and the sensory. That’s it. But the Buddha is
asserting, as I’m saying, there’s far more refined levels.
SUBTLE CONCEPTUALITY
When you’re at this very subtle level, when you’ve got single-pointed
concentration, or even a reasonably refined level, you can choose to
use it conceptually, in the second mode of meditation, in order to get
insight; it’s super skillful.
COMBINING THE TWO

Well, your concentrated mind is absolutely still, and it’s also razor-
sharp. In the clear state of concentration you then conjure subtle
conceptuality and analyze whatever it is you want to analyze –
dependent arising, let’s say – in order to trigger an insight into
emptiness. That’s called analytical meditation.
This skillful level of subtle conceptuality is like a fish that is able to
move through the water and not even make one tiny ripple. That’s the
capacity of conceptuality at a far more refined level, when it’s
completely in control, this amazing level of mind, this capacity we have
to analyze things in the second mode, in the most incredible
sophisticated way, very quickly, to cut through all the misconceptions,
all the crazy thoughts, all the nonsense, all the misconceptions of
anger, attachment, and fear, finally all the misconceptions of
ignorance that cling to this self-existent solid primordial me-ness.
In concentration meditation you’re training the mind to cease
going completely berserk all over the place, following all the nonsense
thoughts. Ideally, go to the mountains for a couple of years and you’ll
achieve this calm abiding, this single-pointed concentration. Whether
you do that or not, still you keep progressing in this way.
The more subtle your mind is able to get to, the more refined, more
capable it becomes, the more easily you can do the second mode,
which is where you do the actual work of changing the way you see
things, by doing subtle analysis. And it triggers the insight.
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WE NEED INSIGHT INTO KARMA, IMPERMANENCE,

EVERYTHING
What’s in the meaning of the word insight? Look at it very simply. We
don’t talk like this in a daily way, but if you’re sitting there listening,
when you’re a little girl and the math teacher is telling you about
arithmetic and she explains how you add things and subtract things. In
the beginning, it’s a bit puzzling isn’t it? You’re kind of listening and
listening. And then at some point you’ll go: “Oh, I get it!” That’s an
insight. You heard some information, you process it intellectually, and
then suddenly you’ve got a feeling for it. It means you got it, the light
went on. That is insight. Are you hearing me? It’s very simple.
All we’re talking here in general, throughout our entire Buddhist
practice, is the need to get insight into karma, impermanence, and all
the points of Buddha’s worldview. The classical way you would take
this information in your formal meditation session would be this: one,
you would sit down, do your focusing to the extent that you’ve got it;
two, you go to the insight mode, you’d take the topic you want to think
about, meditate on in other words – impermanence, death is definite,
those three points remember – you’d take that and you’d focus and
you’d think through, analyze, the various points until eventually you
understand it, get insight into it.
And at some point – you keep doing this, your mind gets more
subtle – you’re going to get deeper and deeper insight into the truth of
this, just like you do with the math or anything else. There’s nothing
mystical. You see my point here? It’s very practical, it’s not mystical.
And the same with all these meditations on equanimity, seeing the
mother as kind, love, compassion, tonglen. It’s exactly the same. The
stronger your clarity, your concentration, the deeper your insight, the
more easy it is to go through the different things, the more easy it is to
visualize the enemy, the friend, the more easy it is to think through the
things – you’re with me? – the more easy it is to trigger the genuine
feeling of that, to get the insight into it.
In your meditation session, when from your analysis a feeling of the
topic is triggered, you stop the analysis and you concentrate on the
insight. You hold that feeling. When that wanes, you go back to the
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analysis. Like that, back and forth, until eventually you develop
genuine insight.
FINALLY, INSIGHT INTO EMPTINESS

Of course, here, at the sixth perfection, we’re talking specifically about
insight into emptiness. They say eventually you go evermore deep,
evermore deep, evermore deep, and eventually when you’re meditating
on emptiness, you finally get the insight intuitively, directly, non-
conceptually, into the meaning of emptiness. You finally get it. Then if
you focus on that and you perfect that, you keep focusing on that until
eventually it becomes completely oneness with your mind. Do you
understand the process I’m describing here? It’s very, very simple. We
mystify it with all these words, that’s the problem: “meditation,”
“visualization,” “insight,” all this stuff.
FIRST, INTELLECTUAL; THEN, EXPERIENTIAL

In other words, speaking simply, concentration and insight are things
we know already, all the time, whether you’re learning math or you’re
learning how to make a cake. It’s just you don’t sit down like this,
cross-legged, do you, and think about the recipe. Because you’ve got to
use your hands, you see? But any knowledge, if you want to get it
experientially. . . Mathematicians, they know it first intellectually, then
they know it experientially – then they can really be very creative with
their math. You’ve got to have concentration; if you can’t concentrate,
you can’t do anything. We’re talking here concentration at a much
deeper level and then we can get the wisdom, the insight, into how
things are finally.
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29. HOW TO ACCESS THE MICROSCOPE OF OUR
MIND GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
Let’s look a little bit at how to develop single-pointed concentration.

The process is described in nine stages. It’s this gradual process of
developing, as I said, a very sharp, focused attention. Why? So that we
can unpack and unravel the mess in our mental consciousness and get
to see reality as it is.
So in concentration meditation you’re developing this
concentration to be absolutely clear, sharp and still – and I’m talking
as I’ve said many times – to a degree that we don’t even posit as
existing in our Western culture. It’s uncharted territory for us. But let’s
hear the words, it’s interesting.
EXCITEMENT AND DULLNESS

The process of developing this, as I said, is described in nine stages. I
won’t present that here. I’ll speak simply about it. They say that the
two main obstacles that we have to overcome in order to get
concentration are the tendency of the mind to get over-excited, all over
the place, scattered, when the mind is over agitated, over thinking,
over conceptual, blah, blah, blah, excited mind. And that’s attachment
energy, essentially.
And the other obstacle? The mind that is dull, spaced-out, sleepy.
In meditation, these are the two main obstacles. The excitement one is
simply the mind that’s over-agitated, you can’t keep it quiet; we all
know that. The other extreme in meditation, you sit down and you
close your eyes, and you try to meditate, and within three minutes you
space-out, even fall asleep. That’s the other extreme, that’s the really
gross level of what they call dullness. Are you hearing what I’m saying?
The mind is all dull and spaced out and it’s not clear about anything.
That’s a disaster, that’s useless; it’s the opposite to concentration.
But when the mind is over-bright and sharp and going all over the
place here and there, and can’t keep still, it’s insane, you can’t keep it
HOW TO ACCESS THE MICROSCOPE OF OUR MIND CHAPTER 29
quiet. It’s like a busy kid. The whole process of developing

concentration is the process of going between these two. Bringing it
away from all the crazy over-excited to make it become quiet, and
bringing it away from the dullness, to be sharp.
When you’re doing the practice, it’s a constant thing of bringing the
mind back from being over-excited, and then as soon as you do this
you get the mind to be calm. But as soon as you get the mind calm, the
mind becomes dull. Then you have to bring it back from being dull,
and as soon as you do this, the mind’s over excited. It’s constantly
bringing the mind to find this invisible spot between these two.
It’s a very colloquial way of talking about it, what concentration is.
And so when you’re doing, very purposefully, this type of meditation to
get this concentration, it takes enormous effort.
Venerable René, if any of you have a chance to go to his teaching,
he is resident over at Vajrapani, and he's a meditator, has been, for
twenty years. I remember interviewing him years ago in Mandala
magazine about his meditation; he did a year-and-a-half retreat one
time in order to get single-pointed concentration. Basically he’s a
professional retreater, since the eighties he’s been doing this. He’s a
very special person, very holy, very humble. He leads retreats, too.
He said that you need incredible discipline and must make great
effort.
HAPPINESS IS OUR NATURAL STATE

Also, one of the things that’s very interesting about this, it’s just an
interesting point to make: you know how all the time talking about
how Buddha says our good qualities are our natural state; that’s who
we really are, they’re at the core of our being and that they have a
natural relationship with happiness. Buddha is really saying we’ve got
to the potential to be really phenomenally happy, peaceful, joyful,
content, fulfilled, whole, whatever words you want to use. This is just
something very natural to mind, Buddha says.
This is what’s interesting: happy mind, happiness, in the sense
we’re talking here, of being a peaceful mind, is the extent to which
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your mind is not caught up with anger, attachment, fear, neurosis,

worry, all the dramas.
And so we can see that even when our mind is relatively peaceful,
there’s still this residual anxiety there. We don’t really feel very
peaceful states of mind, because the mind is always there with the over
conceptual nonsense, right.
Venerable René also said that maybe he just touched upon the fifth
of the nine stages of meditation in that retreat. This is very
encouraging, isn’t it? And he said there’s no question, and I’m
paraphrasing, that the bliss, the joy, the contentment, whatever words
you want, that his mind experienced, even at that level, was superior to
any pleasure he’d ever experienced through his senses.
Aall that points to is when the mind, even temporarily in
meditation, is free of all the neurotic thoughts, it’s extremely peaceful
and blissful. Are you hearing me? It’s nice to have a person you know
who experienced this.
They talk about when your mind gets more subtle in meditation,
what you’re just necessarily doing is you’re subduing all the crazy
thoughts. You literally get to a point in your concentration meditation
when there’s no such thing as a thought just arising spontaneously like
we do now; crazy stuff just constantly comes, doesn’t it? We just think
it’s natural; and it’s always attachments or fears or worries or anger or
jealousy or resentment, all the stuff. If you really could slow-motion
your mind down, you’d be able to see the character of each of those
thoughts. And it always has to do with the I and all those worries, you
understand.
This is technical, it’s not some hit and miss thing. What Buddha is
saying is when you’ve gone beyond all delusions and perfected your
mind, you will never have neuroses again, it truly is gone completely,
this is what he’s saying we have the capability to achieve.
But even just saying temporarily, if you have a good focused
meditation, your mind is naturally peaceful, joyful. Naturally.
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ADVANTAGES OF CONCENTRATION
As well as the joy, having developed just single-pointed concentration
– not even describing realizing emptiness yet, we’re not even
describing getting rid of all your delusions yet – as Lama Yeshe puts it,
you have an extraordinary sense of well being. Also, you really have
gained control over the delusions to a huge degree. You can put your
mind exactly where you want, how you want, really down to the tiniest
thought. It’s like this effortless thing that you’ve accomplished, which
is a stunning idea. It’s an amazing idea actually. But this is what
Buddha is saying we can achieve.
All this means is that your mind is crystal clear. We can’t even
imagine having such states of mind all the time, not just occasionally,
out of the blue. It’s constant. You’re in charge. And as Lama Yeshe puts
it, you also experience an extraordinary kind of physical pliancy, they
call it. Your body is as light as a feather.
And you’d experience bliss, literally, as I said – the natural state of
our mind when the delusions are not functioning.
And you’d have clairvoyance, the capacity to cognize more subtle
phenomena, such as the past, the future, the minds of others, etc. This
is natural. Buddha says we need this in order to really benefit others.
Pleasure is not the aim of meditation; it’s a bonus. The purpose of
gaining concentration, and therefore these qualities, is so that we can
use this microscope of our mind to realize reality.
PREREQUISITES
There’s a whole series of prerequisites to indicate to yourself that
you’re ready to go to the mountains to do this, speaking
metaphorically – well, it usually is going to the mountains, because
then you can have a really conducive environment. They say one of the
things to be even ready to go off to do single-pointed concentration,
and it could take a couple of years, it depends on the person, you’ve
got to be really already well practiced in all the stuff we’ve been talking
about so far. Really subdued your delusions, really comfortable with
whatever you’re given, have no society responsibilities, not care
what food you eat, not care what clothes you have, really very
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content. You have an unbelievably content mind, with no worries

about food or this or that. Because if you’re sitting up in the mountains
trying to meditate and you’re worried about everyday things of course
it’s a joke, you can’t. You’ve got to be way beyond all that.
You’ve got to have an environment where it’s really peaceful, very
pure, the water is clean, and the food is good and you’ve got good
support of friends who can cook for you and support you, because
it’s the best you focus just on your meditation. Best, they say, to be in a
place that’s been blessed by the presence of holy beings, been blessed
by the presence of other great meditators. It gives something at a more
subtle level, meditators really are aware of this, it makes a very big
difference to the place.
BLESSED BY THE PRESENCE OF HOLY BEINGS

I remember again Venerable René, when I interviewed him I was
interviewing him at our monastery in Nepal in Kathmandu, Kopan, in
the valley there, and it’s up on a hill, and it’s relatively peaceful but it’s
quite busy really and you can hear the stuff, can’t you; down in the
valley you hear all the Hindus waking up in the morning with their
four-, five-thirty a.m. prayers; and you hear all the monks chanting,
and the dogs barking, you hear lots of noise, you hear stuff going on.
He did his year-and-a-half retreat at our center up in the
mountains near Granada, in Spain, where Lama Ösel was born. It’s a
holy place, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has blessed it and everything.
But he said, when I interviewed him at Kopan, he said his mind
became more subtle more easily at Kopan. Because it’s said to be a
very holy place. That’s something you mightn’t see at an obvious level;
you look at Kathmandu, it’s a totally polluted place. But they all say,
the holy beings say it’s a very blessed, special place, even though it’s
polluted. At a subtler level it’s very, very potent with blessings. This is
something interesting. They say especially if it’s a place where lots of
meditators have been before it’s a really perfect place to do some
practice.
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CONCLUSION
As you can hear, it’s a very technical thing we’re talking about. I say
even a communist could do it, technically you’re right, but the
prerequisite for doing this – and this is the point, the main one – is if
you haven’t even begun to look at your delusions and look at your
anger and look at your jealousy, and you’re overwhelmed by all the
garbage, forget about trying to get concentration. You’re not ready to
go to the mountains yet – you’re ready to start practicing in your own
house, but forget about achieving it. You’ve got to have gotten to a
certain degree of renunciation and not caring about the ordinary
worldly things, really have gone beyond that, and not to be caught up
in the usual junk of lots of the anger, jealousy and fears and dramas. If
you have all that, forget about going to the mountains. But we must
start somewhere, right?
Anyway, no time here to go through the nine stages. It’s all in the
lamrim books, so you can read them there.
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30. FINALLY, GET WISDOM GREAT
SCOPE/UNIVERSITY
UNDERSTANDING EMPTINESS, GETTING WISDOM

Now we perfect the sixth perfection: we get insight into how things
exist finally, ultimately. What does this mean? As you can see, across
the board, we’ve been talking about how Buddha is saying: “Hey guys,
you see the world this way, this way, this way, as permanent, someone
created you, Mummy and Daddy made you, you began in your
mother’s womb, you think your suffering and happines aresomebody
else’s fault. . .” But he’s saying, “I don’t agree with you. I think it’s like
this” – and he presents his way of seeing how the world is: karma, the
mind, delusions and virtues, etc., etc., etc.
Being a Buddhist means you listen to what Buddha says, you think
about it, and then you keep processing it yourself, attempting to verify
what he’s saying, initially intellectually. That’s what you have to do.
We’re trying to “get insight” into what he’s meaning until eventually
it’s experiential for us, until we’ve eventually familiarized our mind
with it.
In other words, Buddha is saying that we’ve got it wrong about how
the world is. We’re mistaken in our views, he says. And because we
have these mistaken views we therefore suffer. That’s the point. Being
a Buddhist doesn’t just mean filling your head with Buddhist
philosophy and psychology so that you can pass your exams. No, the
reason to fill your head with Buddha’s views is to attempt to verify for
yourself his assertion that our misconceptions are the cause of our
suffering.
In other words, the extent to which our minds are caught up in the
nonsense is the extent to which we suffer and is the extent to which we
harm others. We have to try and get in touch with reality.
Here, though, the final thing we absolutely have to get insight into,
which is what cuts the root of all the nonsense, finally, is this one
FINALLY, GET WISDOM CHAPTER 30
called understanding emptiness, developing wisdom. It’s the

culmination of the wisdom wing, in other words.
THE KING OF LOGICS

Paraphrasing Lama Tsongkhapa, Lama Yeshe says that dependent
arising is the “king of logics” to prove emptiness.
All of Buddha’s teachings, from grade one to graduation, are based
upon the assumption of emptiness, and are leading us to emptiness.
Emptiness is implicit in all the teachings. This is the unique
characteristic of Lord Buddha’s view.
You could say that the view of self-existence – which is what
Buddha argues with, which is exactly the opposite view of emptiness –
is the assumption of the views of samsara. All the views – my mother
and father made me, or a creator made me, I didn’t ask to get born, it’s
not my fault, I’m just the body – are all based upon the assumption of
self-existence, and this is the exact opposite of the Buddha’s view. The
exact opposite.
And so, the point of it all is, as always with Buddha, we need to
make it experiential. I mean, we can read all about emptiness, we can
squeeze our brains, as Lama puts it, we can get all very excited when
we hear about emptiness, but unless we understand how to internalize
it, it’s just filling your head with words.
Let’s try to unpack it, demystify it, and see how it applies to our
daily life. Because if it doesn’t, it’s completely useless.
EVERYTHING IS A VIEWPOINT
One way of describing what Buddha’s saying is that everything in our
mind is a viewpoint, an opinion, an attitude, an interpretation of the
people and things and events that fill our lives.
Things exist, and we can even agree on their bare existence – cups,
toilets, love, omniscient mind – but it’s how we interpret them,
understand them, their causes, etc., etc., that distinguishes the
different views. There are the samsaric views, the Christian views, the
scientific views – they’re all viewpoint. And, of course, Buddha has his
own very specific views about how things exist.
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For example, Buddha uses the term “superior being.” Well, we all
know from being Christians that’s exactly how they talk about God.
The same term, superior being. You hear the characteristics of God:
omniscient, all-knowing, all-powerful, pervading the universe, seeing
everything. Well, Buddha agrees with this: there is omniscient mind, it
pervades the universe, it knows everything, it is infinite compassion.
You could say they agree on this. But the difference is in the view, the
interpretation of how that omniscience exists, its causes, etc. The
Christian teaching, the Muslim teaching, etc., is that it’s self-existent,
it exists from its own side, it’s intrinsic, inherent, it doesn’t have
causes. The Buddha, however, says that, just like everything that
exists, it’s a dependent arising, and he also says that every being
possesses the potential to become a Buddha. And, of course, the
creator religions say that this superior being is the creator of
everything. Buddha disagrees utterly. We don’t need creating, he says;
we already exist.
WE’VE GOT IT WRONG

Christianity would interpret the world one way, materialism interprets
it another way, Buddha interprets it in yet another way. It has to do
with interpretation, it has to do with view.
What Buddha is saying is that we do not see correctly how things
exist. We get things right to the extent that we can say, “I’m Robina
and you’re Fred,” “That’s a cup and not a knife.” That’s cool. Correct.
But we don’t get much right, other than that. We get it wrong, he says.
Things do exist in the world. Things exist. But as Lama Zopa
Rinpoche puts it, the delusions in our mind, the neuroses, the
misconceptions, the wrong views, the negative states of mind, what
they do is decorate on top of what does exist layers upon layers upon
layers of characteristics that simply don’t exist there.
And the point of all this? Buddha says that all these wrong views in
our head are why we suffer. And correcting these views, cultivating the
correct views about how things exist, is the method to stop suffering.
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DON’T BELIEVE A WORD BUDDHA SAYS

Buddhism is basically Buddha’s own direct findings, his own
experiences about how things exist and what’s possible. And of course
he would say confidently that his views are the correct view. He’s
allowed to say that; anyone can say that. But you have to back it up
with your findings, your proof, etc., etc.
Buddha’s like Einstein. If I were Einstein here, and I start telling
you about E=MC2 and I say, “This is the truth!” well, you would hope I
would be confident that it is true! If I’m sitting here saying, “Well, I’m
not sure if it’s true,” you’re laughing and you tell me to shut my mouth,
don’t confuse you. If I’m not confident, keep quiet.
We want Buddha to be confident that he is right. But he’s not
asking us to believe him: this is a crucial point that we’re not used to
hearing when it comes to spiritual teachings. He’s asking us to check
out his findings, to discover the truth of them – or not! – for ourselves.
It’s up to us; we’re the boss, not Buddha.
Like with Einstein, we need listen to what Buddha says and then,
with confidence, decide to use his views as our working hypothesis in
order to discover the truth of them for ourselves. How else can you
work with something if you don’t propose it? Working with Buddhist
ideas has nothing to do with believing it, squeezing it inside yourself,
not like that at all. And it’s got nothing to do with liking it or not liking
it. It’s either true or it’s not. And we have to find out. That’s the
Buddhist approach.
Also, like Einstein, every word that Buddha says is from his own
direct experience, his own findings. He didn’t make it up; he’s not
speculating; he didn’t have a vision or a dream about it; it wasn’t
revealed to him.
That’s why you need to check the Buddhist centers carefully, check
the Buddha’s teachings carefully, check the people who teach, check
the Dalai Lama, that he’s a valid person who represents Buddha’s
teachings. If not, be careful! Don’t confuse yourself.
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WISDOM MEANS SEEING THINGS AS THEY ACTUALLY

EXIST
We hear a lot about “wisdom” in Buddhism, but it’s not some special
holy word, all high and fancy. “Wisdom” simply means being correct.
If there’s one cup on my table and I say there are two, that ain’t
wisdom, honey, that’s ignorance.
Of course, the wisdom Buddha’s saying we can accomplish is a
pretty outrageous level of wisdom: seeing the universe as it exists
without mistake. That’s the level of wisdom we can accomplish; he
calls it omniscience. I mean, my Catholic mother was shocked by that!
It’s quite radical.
What sees how things exist is the mind, and that’s Buddha’s
expertise. According to the Buddha’s model of the mind in our mental
consciousness we have positive, negative and neutral states of mind;
there’s no fourth category. And these are technical terms, not
moralistic.
NEGATIVE STATES OF MIND ARE NOT IN SYNC WITH

REALITY
The negative states of mind have two main characteristics: they’re
disturbing and they’re delusional. They’re liars, they’re not in sync
with reality. The virtuous states of mind have the characteristic of
being peaceful – just check the last time you were loving, kind,
generous; you felt peaceful. And, there’s a sense of interdependence
there. You’ve got a sense of connectedness with others, which means
you’re in sync – to some extent – with interdependence, which is
reality.
When you’re caught up in anger, depression, jealousy, it’s a
nightmare, isn’t it? It’s like hell. These states of mind are deeply
disturbing and they’re delusional. You’ve got this vivid, vivid sense of a
separate, unhappy self-pity me, as Lama Yeshe calls it – lonely, bereft,
not fair, poor me, things are done to me, me. Hungry, needy, wanting
something more, resentful, angry, hurt, low self-esteem – this is
samsara, being caught up in this junk, that’s samsara.
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UNAWARENESS
And the root, the mother, of all these lies in the mind, these neurotic
emotions, these wrong views, is simply called “ignorance.” Like all
these words, it’s got a very specific definition. “Ma-rig-pa” in Tibetan;
“unawareness.”
Unawareness of, finally, how things actually exist. Or, as they say in
Buddhist language, the ultimate way, that things exist. This ignorance
causes us to be utterly blind to this reality. As His Holiness the Dalai
said recently, this ignorance has two functions: the first one is the
mere ignorance of how things are, just merely not knowing; but that’s
not the main problem. This ignorance also has an added problem of
having made up its own fantasy story, and that’s the one we’re
believing in now, which is the story, the belief, that everything exists in
and of itself, from its own side, intrinsically, which is precisely the
exact opposite of reality. This is so abstract for our minds.
Before we even go into the meaning of what ignorance is – you
know, what ignorance thinks: that everything exists out there, from its
own side, in and of itself, without depending on anything – let’s just
look more broadly at how things do exist conventionally, because that
leads us to understand their ultimate reality.
THE TWO TRUTHS

Buddha talks about how things exist in two ways – well, many ways,
actually. But this particular way of presenting it, he calls the two
truths: conventional truth, the way things exist conventionally; and the
way things exist finally, or ultimately. Initially when we hear these,
they seem totally contradictory. But in reality, they are like flip sides of
the same coin, and our job is to get to see that, to understand that, first
intellectually.
The shorthand for how things exist conventionally is “dependent
arising,” or “dependent origination.” Things exist interdependently.
Things exist in dependence upon this and that, conventionally. And
then ultimately, the shorthand is “emptiness”: “emptiness” is the
nature of reality ultimately. This is the way they talk.
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Let’s unpack these ideas, let’s look at the use of these words,
because part of our problem is we don’t even know how these words
are used. We can’t get our head around the general concepts. You
know, thirty years of hearing Buddhism, we still haven’t got a clue
what emptiness is because we haven’t even technically got ourselves
sorted out, how to use this terminology. We mystify it.
THE WORD “EMPTINESS”

Let’s look at the word “emptiness” itself. In the most simple sense, it
means “absent,” doesn’t it? It means “not there.” If I say, my cup has
no water in it, we would simply say, “My cup is empty.” What we mean
is, there is no water in my cup; it is empty of water; water is absent
from my cup.
EMPTY OF WHAT?
Clearly, Buddha’s not telling us that things are empty of water. So,
what is he saying? What is he saying things are empty of?
Okay. If you’re not colour-blind, let’s say, you’re going to agree this
white cup is not red. You agree, don’t you? This cup is not red. We
would simply say, “You’re right, Robina, it’s not red.” The Buddha
would say, using this language, “the cup is empty of being red.” It’s a
fancy way to talk, but we can hear the meaning very simply, can’t we?
It’s just that we don’t speak like this. We don’t say, “The cup is empty
of being red,” but the use of the word there is exactly the meaning. The
cup is not red.
And why would he tell us it’s empty of being red – I mean, it’s
empty of being lots of things. The point is, he would only tell a person
who is colour-blind that it’s empty of being red because that person
thinks it’s red, because their mind is making a mistake, is seeing it
wrongly. This is crucial to understand.
ESTABLISHING WHAT DOES EXIST

Okay. You can see the cup is white, right? Well, you could say, “White
exists on this cup.” It’s a quaint way to talk, but you understand the
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meaning, don’t you? “There is white on this cup.” White is a

phenomenon that exists on the cup.
Now, because of that we can see there’s no red on this cup. We can
also say, “The absence of red exists on this cup.” Would you agree with
that? That on this cup, wouldn’t you agree, there is an absence of red?
Let’s discuss.
There is a good reason for talking this way. In Buddhist philosophy
there are several synonyms for “that which exists” – and Buddha is all
about our discovering “that which exists.” That’s his big thing. Because
he says we’re in la-la land right now, believing in things that don’t
exist.
Whatever does exist is necessarily a phenomenon, an object, an
existent. The definition of an existent is “that which can be cognized by
mind,” a valid state of mind, obviously – and there are precise ways of
defining what is valid and what is not. And what we’re attempting to
do in this pursuit of wisdom is to eventually cognize all existents
precisely as they exist, no more and no less: that’s omniscience.
So, you agree, right, that there is an existent, a thing that can be
cognized by the mind, called white? And it exists here on this cup, yes?
Would you agree with that? White does exist here on this cup, doesn’t
it? It is something that your mind can cognize.
Okay, how do we know it exists? Well, we have to first establish it
conventionally. We need to label it, define it, then check that it fulfills
the definition and make sure there are no other valid cognitions of it
that contradict this. Then we can all shake on it and agree that this
object, this phenomenon called white, exists here on this cup.
COGNIZING THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING

As I mentioned, let’s say I am colour-blind and when I look at white I
see red. I’m making a mistake, aren’t I? Remember, we’ve established
the existence of this conventional phenomenon called white by
defining, etc., etc., and agreeing upon that – that’s what
“conventional” means: by convention it’s called white.
When I see a red cup when you show me a white one, I am making a
mistake. I am seeing something that doesn’t exist, but which I totally
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believe does exist. You can’t just bully me into believing it; you have to
help me to see the truth. And how do you do that? You help me correct
the mistakes: you check my eyes, my glasses, the lighting, the various
dependent arisings. You fix the problem. Then I look again at the cup
and what will I see?
Well, interestingly I will not see white, at least not initially. Because
I’m so used to seeing red, I’ll get a big shock – “Oh my God, the cup is
not red!” In other words, what I see is the vivid phenomenon called
“the emptiness of red.” I will cognize the absence of red on that cup.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
When we hear “emptiness,” we tend to think of it as meaning
“nothing.” But the “emptiness of red” is a very vivid thing that does
exist, isn’t it? But for whom? It’s obvious that this is only relevant to
someone who always saw red when white was in front of them. Now,
having fixed the problem, that person will see the absence of the thing
they always thought was there.
ABSENCE OF KEYS
Let me give you another example. Let’s say you are running late and
you rush to the front door and on the way you open the drawer where
you always keep your car keys. You know the keys are there, you
totally expect the keys in the drawer. But when you open the drawer
you get a big shock. “Oh my God! No keys!” What did you just see in
the drawer? The absence of keys, the emptiness of keys. It’s a very
vivid thing, isn’t it?
Now, if I look into your drawer and I’m not expecting keys, all I will
see is a boring drawer with nothing in it. I see nothing. But you see
something very vivid – the absence of a thing that you thought was
there. And that’s the idea about emptiness. And the only person who
will see that vivid thing called emptiness of keys is the person who
expects keys to be there, who believes keys are there. Seeing nothing is
nihilism.
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ABSENCE OF $10,000
An even more vivid example. Let’s say you have been saving your
dollars: every day your savings account grows and finally reaches ten
thousand dollars. You know it’s there with such certainty.
But one day you open up your bank statement online and all there
is there is zero. But believe me, you won’t see zero dollars! You will
vividly, shockingly see the absence of your precious ten thousand
dollars! The emptiness of ten thousand dollars is a very vivid thing for
you.
ABSENCE OF THE INHERENT SELF

Buddha is saying, “Robina, you need to cognize the emptiness of the
self-existent I.” Why? Because for eons I have been imposing on my
self – the conventional self that does exist – a characteristic that
doesn’t exist there. The mistake we make – our ignorance makes – is
seeing an inherently existent self where there isn’t one. And we do this
with everything. We see an inherently existent cup where there isn’t
one, an inherently existent dog where there isn’t one, an inherently
existent everything, where there isn’t one. We’ve been decorating on
top of what does exist – a conventional I, a conventional cup – the
characteristic called inherent existence, which doesn’t exist and never
has. Buddha wants us to see that absence, that emptiness.
And where does that absence of an inherently existent I exist? On
the conventional I does exist. Just like the absence of the red cup
exists on the white cup that does exist, and the absence of ten
thousand dollars exists right there in the bank account of zero dollars.
THE BIG MISTAKE

Buddha’s saying that for eons we have been believing in this big
mistake. Where did you learn this? We didn’t. We’ve believed it since
beginningless time. And all of our suffering, all our attachment, all our
anger, all our pride, all the wars, all the dramas, all the rebirths – all
are the consequence of this misconception. This misconception is the
primordial misconception that is the source of all suffering.
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But we can’t see it, because it’s totally assumed as the truth. It’s the
default mode in our minds. We can’t even begin to comprehend the
meaning of “I see myself as inherent.”
“Seeing emptiness” is a very meaningful way to say it. It’s the
emptiness of the fantasy “I” that you thought was there. And, just like
with the keys, or the dollars or the red, the person who’d see the
absence of the inherent I is, of course, the person who always believed
it was there.
You would see the absence of your inherent I only if you had clung
to and believed in an inherent I, in the first place. It has nothing to do
with vacuous space, vague nothingness. It’s a very vivid, vivid thing,
when you can get it.
When you see a zero in your bank statement but totally expected
$10,000, you won’t see zero dollars, for sure! That’s nihilism, which
we often mistakenly think is the meaning of emptiness: as if we
chucked all the dollars and ended up with nothing. No! It’s not like
that! You will vividly see the absence, the emptiness, of ten thousand
dollars.
As His Holiness says, it’s not as if when we search for the inherent
I, the I that we think exists, that we throw out everything and end with
nothing. Not at all. When we search for the I among the aggregates,
our parts, what we find is the massive thing called the absence, the
emptiness of the I that we always thought existed.
Of course, the emptiness of this inherent I is far more radical than
the emptiness of red or ten thousand dollars; red can exist, ten
thousand dollars can exist, but that kind of I could never exist.
Buddha’s telling us that we need to cognize the emptiness of the
inherent I, it is not some fancy religious trip he’s putting on us; it’s not
some abstract construct. It’s utterly experiential.
And the realization of it is what cuts the root of suffering.
WHAT DOES INHERENT MEAN?

Let’s talk about what it means, “inherent I,” “intrinsic I,” “self-existent
I,” “I that exists from its own side,” “I that exists in and of itself.” For
the Prasangika-Madhyamakas, they are all synonyms for the mistake
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our mind makes, for the mistake that this ignorance in the mind
makes.
If something existed inherently, it would necessarily not depend on
anything else. And this is Buddha’s fundamental point. If we think
even roughly, we’ll see there is nothing that exists that doesn’t depend
on something for its existence.
THE MIDDLE WAY

In the Buddha’s teachings, there’s different levels of understanding
emptiness, and each of them removes a little bit more of what they
think doesn’t exist until eventually you get to the highest view, the
Middle Way, and within that the view called the Consequentialists, or
Prasangika, which is Buddha’s actual intent. His Holiness talked about
this recently: when we finally have the true view, according to
Nagarjuna, who claried this fifteen hundred years or so ago – I don’t
remember when – it sounds so radical, so scary: that there is nothing
from the side of the cup, the I, the table, the mala, the flower, there is
nothing from the side of a thing that makes it that thing.
We think there is, and we desperately cling to there being
something inherent – something in the “thing” that makes it the thing.
That’s what we think. That’s what this ignorance thinks, and we
desperately want this. We cling to this, because our deep instinct is to
think that there being nothing from the side of the thing means
nihilism. And that’s why it’s so tricky.
The moment we hear that there is nothing from the side of the
thing that gives it its thingness, we immediately hear it as, “Oh, there’s
nothing there.” Nihilistic. We chuck the baby out with the bath water.
Instantly, we hear it this way. We can’t help but hear it this way.
Buddha says that’s one of the extreme views deep in our minds. We go
too far, we chuck too much out.
And then as soon as we hear about dependent arising, that things
exist in dependence upon this and that, we don’t hear that properly
either. We hear it as, “Ooh, what a relief!” and grasp. “Thank goodness
there is something there after all!” We reify it. We put too much onto
it.
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These are the two extreme views that our mind lunges between like
drunken sailors a thousand times a day.
DEPENDENT ARISING MEANS EMPTINESS AND

EMPTINESS MEANS DEPENDENT ARISING
What Lama Tsongkhapa says we need to do, is every time we hear
“emptiness” – that there is nothing from the side of a thing that makes
it a thing, there’s nothing in and of itself that is making it that, there is
no I from its own side, there is no intrinsic, inherent me in there that
makes me, me – instead of instantly going to the nihilistic view and
chucking the baby out with the bath water, we need to consciously
bring ourselves toward the Middle Way and say to ourselves – which is
counter-intuitive for us – “Aha, Robina. My “I” being empty means it
is a dependent arising I. There is an I: there is an I that exists in
dependence upon this and this.”
And then every time we hear about dependent arising, that there is
an I existing in dependence upon this and that, instead of clinging
onto it and exaggerating it and reifying it, we will again go towards the
Middle Way and say, “Aha, Robina, that means it is empty of existing
from its own side.”
Right now, these are opposite to us. Because what Buddha’s saying
and what Tsongkhapa really runs with is, that when you think
“emptiness,” it should remind you it means “dependent arising.” And
when you think “dependent arising,” it should remind us that that
means “emptiness.” They in fact are the two sides of the same coin. In
fact that’s the true Middle Way. That when you think “emptiness,” you
think “dependent arising,” and when you think “dependent arising,”
you think “emptiness.”
WE MUST KNOW THE RIGHT WORDS

We have to practice thinking this, because intuitively we go to the two
extremes. And this is very meaningful, this is very tasty, experiential.
It’s not just intellectual clever stuff. This is why it is crucial to have the
right words. Buddha’s main gift is his words. If you can’t put it into
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words, then we’re just being lazy. We have to practice, because words
are how we communicate.
There’s an old Danish guy in the Santa Cruz called Age, he’s ninety-
something now, and he was a friend of Lama Yeshe’s, and he is a
Taoist. Lama asked him one time, “Tell me what you think, what your
philosophy is?” and he said, “Oh, no, it’s beyond words. You can’t
describe it.” And Lama said something like, “Ah, you’re just being
intellectually lazy. You’re cheating. If you can’t describe it, then what
good are you to sentient beings? How can you help?”
He took this to heart, and he said he spent twenty years thinking
through the entire philosophy and writing a book, explaining it to
people, making it coherent.
Because if you don’t have words, how can you hear Buddha’s
teachings? It’s not possible. We have to have words and the words
have to be correct. If I just sit here and bliss out to you about how
amazing, how special the taste of the cake is, wow, it’s beyond words –
how mean of me! I have to give you the recipe, don’t I? And that’s
words. Then you can get the taste.
Buddha’s main gift is his words. Words are deadly serious, because
they lead you to the taste. So get your words right. That’s why you need
to listen to authentic teaching. Check carefully before you read, there’s
so much junk around, you know, that’s called Buddhism. Be very
careful what you listen to, whom you listen to. You should check. You
know, we all love His Holiness, for example; we think, “Oh, isn’t he
wonderful, he makes me feel good.” Well, I’m sorry – Hitler made
people feel very good! No logic. Check up on your facts, you know;
don’t just go by feeling. Have some confidence, have some certainty.
ESTABLISH THINGS AS EXISTING CONVENTIONALLY

If things exist in dependence upon various factors, and if they’re empty
of inherent existence, then we need to think about it, we need to prove
that it’s true. And to do that, as I said before, we have to start by
establishing something in order to discuss how it exists. How do we do
that? Well, we start with the name, and then we have to define it. A
definition has two parts.
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“Mummy, what’s a cup?”

“Well, darling, it’s that flat-bottomed clay container with a handle
on it.” I can see it, can’t I? “But Mummy, what does it do?” “Oh, it
holds my tea, sweetheart.”
The first part of the definition tells you its conventional
characteristics, its substance, and the second part tells you its job,
what it does, its function. “It holds my tea.”
But I’m not confident yet. I can’t just believe what you tell me. I
now have to check that it does, in fact, fulfill its function. I pour tea
into it and if it holds the tea, then it does the job we said it does. But
there’s more: we now need to check that there are no other valid
cognitions in the minds of anyone else that contradict that. And if
there aren’t, then we’ve established a cup, haven’t we? And then we all
shake hands on it and agree.
That’s conventional reality in general. It’s a cup literally “by
convention,” by agreement. And Buddha says that that’s how
everything exists.
FIRST, THINGS EXIST IN DEPENDENT UPON CAUSES AND

CONDITIONS
Let’s look at the different levels of dependent arising, taking it one step
at a time, leading us to the subtlest level. The first way in which things
exist is in dependence upon causes and conditions; they come into
existence in dependence upon countless causes and conditions. And
when it comes to the thing called a person, that’s called karma, isn’t it?
When I first learned this from Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Tegchok,
who was the abbot of Sera Je monastery for seven years, he was the
abbot of our monastery in France for ten years and my philosophy
teacher in England in the late 70s. He used the example of the object
called “Robina.” He said that it can be said, that everything in the
universe up to the first moment of Robina is validly a cause and
condition for the existence of Robina.
I’ll never forget it, and at the time it sounded pretty cosmic. But
let’s look at the logic of it. It’s scientifically true. You can start
anywhere you like. Let’s discuss this cup here. Let’s say Mrs. Smith
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was the designer of this nice cup. We can say, obviously, one of the
first causes of this cup is Mrs. Smith, isn’t it? Her mind imagining,
conjuring up this design. We can say that, can’t we? Very clear. We
know it didn’t fall out of a tree like this. A human mind created it. So,
Mrs. Smith had a mother, didn’t she? And if Mrs. Smith didn’t have a
mother, there could not be Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith’s mother had a
mother, and then you can’t help but say Mrs. Smith’s mother had a
mother, and where can you find the first mother? Because as soon as
you posit one, you’ve got to posit the previous one, which is the simple
logic of cause and effect. That’s the simplest level of dependent arising.
As soon as you posit a thing, it has to have a cause.
Then you’ve got another angle – you think of the clay. Well, clay
came from a mountain and that came from previous something and
that turned into something else. Then you think of the paint.
Everything you look at about this cup – once you start, you cannot do
anything but keep going back and back. Of course, we are desperate to
find the first cause – but logically, given cause and effect, such a thing
cannot exist.
It’s fascinating: we always want a first cause. As His Holiness said
one time in his conversations with scientists: “Big bang? No problem!
Just not the first big bang, that’s all!”
This is a result of having in the depths of our mind the view of self-
existence. This is the view that is actually manifesting in the
philosophies that assert a creator – that there is a “first cause” and it’s
called “God.” Buddha says it’s irrational and illogical. If you posit a law
of cause and effect you cannot have an effect without a cause. There is
nothing we can point to, that exists, that didn’t come from something a
moment before. (But you can have a cause without an effect: if you
have an egg, you don’t have to get a chicken, you can break the egg any
time you like. But of course, if there’s a chicken, it has to have come
from an egg; and you know that that egg has to have come from a
chicken, and so forth.)
If there is an effect – and everything that exists at this moment is
itself an effect, isn’t it? – it assumes a previous cause, so you will never
find a first one. But we frantically want there to be a first cause. “But,
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but, but there must be,” we’ll say. We ask the question: “When did it
begin? When did delusions begin? When did suffering begin? When
did karma begin? When did everything begin?”
We’ve got this view because we cling to self-existence, because we
have this misconception deep in the bones of our being. We assume
there has to be a first cause, because grasping at self-existent me,
grasping at “self-existent anything” is the opposite to cause and effect.
The first level at which things exist interdependently is in terms of
their existing in dependence upon causes and conditions.
KARMA IS THE FIRST LEVEL OF DEPENDENT ARISING

FOR THE OBJECT CALLED ME
Karma is a marvelous example of this. Let’s look at the phenomenon
called me or self or I. So, right now, we can see we cling to a sense of
self that’s very vivid, that’s very solid, separate, lonely, bereft, self-pity,
self-conscious, angry, depressed, fearful – all the drama. We live in the
bubble of this sense of a separate, lonely me, don’t we? There’s me,
and there’s everyone else. This is the biggest lie. This is the
experiential, emotional consequence of believing in “inherent I.”
Like I said, we don’t think we believe “in inherent I,” we don’t even
know what it means. But this is the experiential consequence of it.
Fear, drama, anxiety, anger, depression, low self-esteem, loneliness,
poor me – these are the experiential consequences of this primordial
mistake.
The deepest assumption about this me is, that there are no causes
coming from me; I didn’t ask to get born, it’s not my fault, everything
is done to me, things seem to happen randomly, unfairly. There’s this
deepest, pervasive feeling of being an innocent victim, that whatever
happens to me has nothing to do with me – including the good things!
But we don’t mind them, we don’t mind if there are no causes: just give
me more please!
We don’t want the ugly things done to me, so we have huge
aversion and anger and push it away, and we do crave the lovely things
so we have attachment. Attachment and aversion are the consequences
of this ignorance, the natural outcropping of ignorance, because we
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assume an I to have things for. We assume an I that doesn’t want

suffering. It’s an assumption deep in the bones of our being. This is the
experiential consequence of this mistake that our ignorance makes.
But thinking about how I am the result of past karma, I’m the result
of past actions – you hit me because I hit you before, you’re generous
to me because I must have been generous to you before – it loosens the
grip of this lonely, bereft self-pity me. We can begin to realize that I
am in fact an interdependent scenario, not some lump of poor me
plonked on this earth by someone else. That’s why to talk about karma,
to think about karma is the most marvelous way to loosen the grip of
the “self-pity me,” to loosen the grip of the ego, of the ignorance. It
takes time, of course.
The first level of dependent arising is that things exist in
dependence upon causes and conditions. There is a cup that does exist
– in dependence upon countless causes and conditions. But you will
not find a cup among any one of those causes and conditions. This is
the first level to think about. And what this means is, you think about
this and what it brings – this is the point – is the conclusion: “Oh, I
see! Therefore there’s no cup from its own side.” You see the absence
of the inherent cup: emptiness.
HOW TO APPLY THE LOGIC OF DEPENDENT ARISING TO

UNDERSTAND THE EMPTINESS OF THE CUP
How do we get to realize the emptiness of the cup? Am I supposed to
just sit there and think, “The cup is empty, the cup is empty, the cup is
empty,” waiting for some vision to come. Ridiculous! In a sense you
can say that you don’t sit there thinking about emptiness; you sit there
thinking about dependent arising. And that thinking, that logical
analysis, triggers the conclusion, “Oh, I see – therefore, there’s no cup
from its own side, therefore the cup is empty of existing from its own
side.”
Emptiness is the conclusion you come to, having thought about
dependent arising. It’s a very practical thing. It’s not cosmic, because
very simply, if you think about how the cup exists interdependently,
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this proves that it is absent of existing independently. Obvious –

they’re the opposite.
If it is empty, if it is interdependent, it is empty of being
independent, isn’t it? If it is interdependent, it is empty of being
independent. Independent and interdependent are opposite. If it is
interdependent, it lacks being independent. Simple. That’s the simple
way of talking.
And here we’re talking about the simplest level of dependent
arising: that things are empty of existing independently of causes and
conditions. You keep looking for the cup but all you find are the causes
and conditions of the cup, which is what triggers the insight,
“therefore there is no cup from its own side.”
SECOND, THNGS EXIST IN DEPENDENCE UPON PARTS

Now, the second way the cup exists in dependence upon various
factors is, that it exists in dependence upon its parts. There is a cup,
but you won’t find cup apart from its parts. But we think there is, and
our language cheats us. Our language is really tricky. It reinforces self-
existence.
Back in the seventh century, Chandrakirti, this Indian great
commentator on Nagarjuna’s teachings on the Middle Way, which are
at the heart of all the teachings on emptiness in Tibet, he talked about
using the example of a chariot. “Well,” he said, “ in order to look for
this inherent chariot that we think is there, let’s break it down into its
component parts, to search for this inherent chariot.” You won’t find
anything left over after you have dismantled all the parts, and
instinctively we think we will.
Of course, the very tasty example is the self, the I. So, we can do
this little meditation. First, remember, you have to establish the
existence of the self, conventionally: label it, define it, check that it fits
its definition, that’s there’s no valid cognition that contradicts it. Then
you’d do an analysis in your mind, you’d do it very rigorously. You
would start to break down the component parts of your own self – just
like with the chariot – and you’d put them all out there in little piles.
All the hard bits and the soft bits and the mucky bits and all the bits of
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your mind – the negative states, the positive ones – as many piles as
you want. Keep stripping it away, deconstructing this I into its
component parts in this rigorous search among the parts of the self for
the inherent self, which we’re so convinced is in there somewhere.
We believe totally that we’ll end up with this naked self-conscious
little I that’s now been exposed, that’s the owner of all the parts. We
talk like this: “I did not do this.” “I am a special person.” “I am so fat
and ugly.” “I am not this.” “How dare you say that about me!” We
really believe there’s a component in there called I or self that is, as my
friend Pende puts it, walking hand in hand with the other components,
the parts, the mind, the body, etc., etc. We believe there is this me in
there that kind of runs the show, a mini-me, a landlord, the boss.
Even conventionally, the Consequentialist Middle Way view says
you won’t find that one. Let’s do an exercise to prove it. Okay. My table
has a cup, a clock and a vase. Can you see this? So, how many
phenomena did I mention? Four. My table, the cup, the clock, the vase,
right? Four phenomena. We’re talking conventionally here, nothing
tricky. If it’s a true statement that I just made, you must point out four
separate, distinct phenomena: you have to point out a table that is not
a cup, not a vase, and not a clock, right? A clock that is not the table,
the cup, the vase. Etc. You have to point out four separate phenomena.
There’s a table, there’s a cup, there’s a clock, there’s a vase. You agree,
don’t you? And we can do that, can’t we? Easy enough.
Okay then. Another statement: I have a nose. You agree? And I
have a foot. And I have a hand. How many phenomena? Three? No.
There are four phenomena, aren’t there: I, nose, foot, hand. Do you
agree? Same discussion. If those four phenomena do exist
conventionally, you have to find four separate, distinct phenomena,
each of which is distinct, is not the other, don’t you agree? Same as
before.
Well, there’s my foot – cut it off! There’s my nose – you can have it!
There’s my hand. Now, where’s the I? Where is the I that is not the
nose, not the hand, and not the foot. Oh dear. . . Most annoying, isn’t
it? You can’t find a separate I.
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It’s just the same with the cup. Cup has a handle and a base –
there’s the base, there’s the handle. Where’s the cup that isn’t the base,
that isn’t the handle? Where’s the I that isn’t the nose, the foot?
THREE LEVELS OF DEPENDENT ARISING

The grossest level of no-self that Buddha initially argues with is the
view that there is a permanent, partless self separate from everything
else: unchanging and unitary. The lower Buddhist schools of thought
take this view as gross selflessness.
The next level of selflessness, which is subtle selflessness for all the
lower schools, is that there is no substantial, self-sufficient self. But
they all end up positing that there has to be something there among
the parts that is called I, each of them positing something different.
The Consequentialist Middle Way view says no, there isn’t; there
doesn’t need to be. For them, the truth is that there is no inherent I;
that from the side of the parts – because there is nowhere else there
could be an I – there is not an iota of anything that makes it that self.
Everything exists like that, they say.
This is the most radical, the scariest view! And it’s what leads to the
subtlest level of dependent arising, that the self is merely labeled. And
it’s said that you don’t realize this subtle dependent arising until you
have realized the complete lack, the total absence, the emptiness of an
inherent I among the parts.
THIRD, THINGS EXIST IN DEPENDENCE UPON THE MIND

THAT LABELS THEM
Cup is merely a name the mind imputes upon the parts, which is the
valid base for that label: the handle, the base, the clay, the this, the
that.
“Robina” is a name we impute upon the parts of Robina: the
aggregates: the body and mind.
Our instinct is almost to then think, “Oh, good there are the parts,
there is something!” No. Body is a name imputed by the mind upon its
parts; mind is a name imputed upon its parts. Same discussion – you
can’t find a handle among the parts of the handle, because “handle” is
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merely a name imputed on its parts. You can’t find a hand among the
parts; it is a hand, it does hold a cup, but it’s merely a name imputed
by mind upon the valid base, which is the fingers and the thumb and
the palm and the wrist, etc.
Everything exists like this. Prison is made up by our mind; love,
anger, jealousy, hell, enlightenment: they all exist in dependence upon
the mind calling them that, buying into their being that.
But nevertheless they do function as that: as prison, a cup, a self,
anger. They must in order to establish them as conventions. You can’t
call a cup a knife, just because you feel like it. You have to establish it
conventionally, and it has to function, and we have to agree to it. But
ultimately you can’t find it. But these two together is the tricky job to
be done.
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, “When we have realized emptiness,
realized how things actually exist, it’s as if there is nothing there, but
there is. But what exists is so subtle it’s as if it’s an illusion, it’s as if it
doesn’t exist.” Or, as we’d say in the West, “It’s all smoke and mirrors.”
WHEN WE KNOW EMPTINESS, THERE IS NO FEAR

When we have realized the emptiness of that fantasy I, as Lama Zopa
says, “Then there is no fear.” Fear is finished, because fear is the main
emotion of all the delusions, in particular ego-grasping. This ignorance
is known colloquially as ego-grasping, and its main job is fear. Fear
and panic.
Rinpoche is a Sherpa and was recognized when he was very small
as the reincarnation of a previous yogi called Kunsang Yeshe up in the
mountains in the Mount Everest region of Nepal. He was a lay
meditator called Kunsang Yeshe. Eventually he left home and went to
this little hole-in-the-wall in the mountains, which is now known as
Lawudo. I think it was where they stored the radishes or the onions;
“Lawudo “ means “radish” or “onion,” I can’t remember which.
Anyway, he pulled out the radishes and moved in, and that became his
little home for the last twenty-five or whatever years of his life. He got
to be known as the “Lawudo Lama.” And so when he died, like all the
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great yogis he had complete control over the process and could choose
his rebirth.
From the time Rinpoche was a tiny boy, apparently, when his
mother would go outside to chop the wood, little Zopa (he wasn’t
called that then; I can’t remember his name) would be gone, you know.
He’s crawling up the hill towards the cave. And from the time he could
talk, he’d always be going up that hill, always. He’s relentless, very
determined. And his mother would say, “Come home!” He’d say, “No!
That is my home,” pointing up to the cave.
From the time he could play games, his sister said, he’d always play
the role of being a lama, sitting on a throne and having a pretend bell
and dorje, and leading pujas and making mud pie torma offerings.
He’d say, “All my benefactors are coming” and he’d mention the names
of his benefactors from his past life!
His mother, of course, decided she’d better check with the local
lamas, who decided, yes, he seems to be the reincarnation of Kunsang
Yeshe. Then he became known as a Rinpoche, “Precious One.”
Anyway, years later Rinpoche told the story about when he was
eight years old and up in the mountains with his manager at a
monastery. There was this big river and on the other side of the river
he could see these “strange, pale-faced people with straw-coloured
hair” – Anglo-Saxons! He really wanted to meet these people. There
was this little rickety bridge, it seems, and his manager kept saying,
“No,” but he insisted. There he was, holding a little bowl of potatoes –
being a Sherpa, you know, you bring your gift of potatoes – and when
he was halfway across the bridge he fell in the water – they don’t learn
to swim up there!
In retelling the story Rinpoche said, “The head was bobbing up and
down.” Not even “My head” – “The head”: a very objective statement.
He said he noticed his manager running along the river bank, shouting
and yelling. Then, Rinpoche said, “Hm, the thought occurred to me,
‘the person known as the Lawudo Lama is about to die’” – this very
clear, rational observation as he’s going up and down for air. And then
he told us, “I didn’t know anything about emptiness, but there was no
fear.”
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What we can deduce from this, in my opinion, is that he already

had in his mindstream the realization of emptiness: that’s why there
was no fear, that’s why he would think, “the person known as the
Lawudo Lama. . .” instead of the huge massive panic-stricken thought
of “I!!!” that normal people have.
Of course, in our culture, we would find this utterly inconceivable.
You’d be called mentally ill if you proposed this possibility to Western
psychologists! Because Western psychology is based – like I said, not
just the religious teachings but the materialist teachings as well –
based on the assumption of a self-existent I. We say it is natural to
have fear. We call it “instinct for survival.” We assume fear, jealousy,
anger, paranoia, upset, depression, all the rest are normal behavior.
Animals have it. Humans have it. Everything is based upon the
assumption of this as reasonable mental health.
To hear that Buddha says you can remove all these neuroses from
your mind and go beyond all fear, and develop infinite wisdom and
infinite compassion for all sentient beings: there’s no concept like this
in our contemporary views of the mind and what’s possible to achieve.
Sor someone to be drowning and to observe what’s going on with a
clear mind, and for the thought to occur that he was about to die, and
to have no fear: all this fits the behaviour of a person who has seen the
truth of emptiness; who knows there is no self to cling to.
It’s easy for us to say these things in nice religious terms – nirvana,
buddhahood – but we need to hear it as real, doable, actual
psychological possibility.
This ignorance, this ego-grasping – this deep, deep primordial
delusion – this default mode, this ancient, aeons-old habit that we
come programmed with from countless lives, along with its branches
called attachment and anger and all the rest – this is what we call
normal in the world. But Buddha says we’re all mentally ill. We’re all
living in a mental asylum in our own head.
All the delusions see something that isn’t there. Attachment
projects a delicious, divine cup – the mistake called “attachment,” the
delusion, the lie; aversion – another lie – projects “ugly, revolting
cup.” Ignorance informs both and it projects a self-existent beautiful
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cup, a self-existent ugly cup on the dependent-arising cup. In other

words, ignorance underpins all the other delusions. It’s the deepest
assumption underneath attachment, aversion, depression, jealousy
and all the rest. Once you remove that underpinning, all the other
samsaric views collapse in a heap of nothingness.
The deepest assumption, the deepest mistake is this belief in the
“inherent me.” Like I said, it’s so subtle, we don’t realize we think it.
No one taught us this. It’s just the default mode. We were born with it.
It’s in fact the motor that propels us to even take a rebirth in the first
place. So, it’s pretty primordial.
Once we understand the branch delusions – how they misconceive,
how they exaggerate – then we can begin to understand the root
delusion, the ignorance that clings to the self-existent I, the ego-
grasping.
Once we’ve seen the emptiness of the fantasy I, we’ve pulled out the
root and then, of course, the others collapse, the branches die. There’s
no longer anything to be attached to, or to be angry about, or to be
depressed about.
And then we’re well and truly on the road to enlightenment!
ANY INHERENTLY EXISTING PHENOMENA?

Student Is there any phenomenon that has inherent existence?
Ven. Robina No. Buddha says it’s a contradiction in terms. You
cannot have such a thing. If something were inherent, it would mean it
existed without depending on anything. And that is simply an
impossibility. Everything that exists necessarily exists
interdependently. By definition, all existents are dependent arisings.
This is where Buddha disagrees with the eternalistic view of
“creator” and “soul.” They’re unnecessary. But we have instinctive
need to hold onto something, as if somehow “inherent” is above
everything else. And that’s very much the feeling. I remember talking
to a friend of mine – she’s a Buddhist now, but she was a Christian,
and very sincere Christian – and she said she had a real struggle when
she heard that a Buddha was ordinary first, and then became Buddha.
That seemed to diminish buddhahood. Whereas she was more
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comfortable with the idea, which is the Christian one, which is that
God is always above everything. And has always been. And doesn’t
exist in dependence upon anything. It sounds like it’s diminishing
God.
But Buddha would say if you analyze very carefully, you’ll see
something that is inherent can’t exist. It’s the opposite to existence.
In fact, things exist because they are empty of existing from their
own side. Because they’re empty, they can exist.
Student You just blew my mind…
Ven. Robina Okay, good! You see, our instinct is to think “empty “
means “nihilistic,” so we hear the opposite. It kind of splits our head
open! We’ve got to keep remembering, emptiness means dependent
arising, dependent arising means emptiness.
HOW TO MOVE FROM INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING

TO EXPERIENTIAL
Student I was wondering, do you have any advice for taking our
understanding of emptiness from the intellectual to the experiential.
Ven. Robina Yes, let me tell you how. It’s not difficult. Have you
ever learned anything you didn’t know before? A certain science or a
skill? Give an example. What is it? What have you learned? Okay,
you’ve learned piano. Okay. When you first began, it was merely
intellectual knowledge, don’t you agree? Wasn’t it? And even then,
when you looked at those weird looking notes on the sheets of music,
you thought, “What is this stuff?” You couldn’t get head around it,
even intellectually, could you? Then you started learning the theory,
didn’t you? And then slowly you started putting your hands on the
piano and you could gradually translate that boring intellectual stuff
into something experiential. What was the main that thing you did
every day?
Student Practice.
Ven. Robina And then guess what happened? It became
experiential, didn’t it? That’s how we learn everything. Nothing
special. Well, this is how you get enlightened. There’s nothing special.
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You just have to do it: start with the words, the theories, then through
thinking and meditating, they eventually become your experience.
If you had the wrong ideas about Bach’s music, this theories, you’d
never play it right. You’ve got to have the right words, and then you
just think about them every day, you analyze, you meditate on it, you
think about it, and gradually, slowly, over years, months, years, the
penny begins to drop, until eventually it becomes your direct
experience. It’s exactly the same process. You just have to be patient
and persistent. Do you see what I’m saying? That’s the answer.
Then, of course, in Buddhism, especially in Tibetan Buddhism,
you’ve got all these kit of tools that hugely help this process happen.
Which seem to be the more religious side of things. The delusions, in
our mind, the misconceptions, the obstacles are so strong, so huge,
that without these extra tools we can’t get far.
My analogy is this: Let’s say you see Michael Jordan getting all
these balls in the hoop. (I’m probably twenty years out of date, but I
always think of Michael Jordan.) And you go, wow, I’d like to do that.
You go to him and you say, “Hey, man, please show me how to get the
ball in the hoop.” Right? Looks easy, doesn’t it? You go boom, boom,
boom, you get the ball in the hoop. Because you can see, with
basketball, the essence of it is getting the ball in the hoop.
Now, he will tell you, “Okay, good. First I want you to go off for ten
years, study basketball theory, go on a special diet, do lots of jogging,
build up muscles, train in this and train in that. . .”
And you say, “No, no, no – you didn’t hear me. How do I get the
ball in the hoop?” And he’ll repeat his answer. Why? Because
obviously, even though getting the ball in the hoop looks so easy, you
have to have amazing skills and training and years of practicing other
things that don’t seem directly related to getting balls in hoops before
you can do it effortlessly.
Same with your mind. The idea of familiarizing our minds with
these new ideas until they’re our own direct experience is the job, but
we need to do many other practices to prime our minds to be able to
do it.
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The Tibetan Buddhist call them “preliminary practices.” You’ve got

to purify your mind. You’ve got to create masses and masses of
virtuous karma that prepares your mind to do the actual job of being
your own therapist every day and getting the realization of emptiness.
All the prostrations, all the water bowls, all those different things that
seem so abstract and so disconnected from practice, that seem so un-
psychological, so “religious.”
But when we understand their function – and we have to think
about this carefully – they’re the ones that prime our minds, that
enable us easily to get the realizations. Then we can realize emptiness.
THE BEHAVIORAL IMPLICATIONS OF WORKING WITH

THE CONCEPT OF EMPTINESS
Student Say I’ve learned to understand the concept of emptiness.
How does that next make the leap to feeling less fear, guilt…
Ven. Robina I understand. Initially, it doesn’t seem evident to us,
doesn’t it? This is why you’re asking the question. That’s why another
way to put emptiness is to see things as interdependent.
Remember the example of the young Tibetan nuns who were
tortured? Now, if with the usual view that we have of “I didn’t ask to
get born, it’s not my fault, I don’t deserve this. . .” we experienced what
they experienced, we would literally have a mental breakdown,
wouldn’t we? And we’d be angry, we’d be freaking out, we’d be raging,
we’d want to blame, we’d want to sue – look at the mental torture we’d
have in relation to those kinds of things.
But they said, “Of course, we had compassion for our torturers
because we knew that we must have harmed them in the past.” This is
essentially the view of the first level of dependent arising of the self:
that we created the causes for our own reality; that this self is nothing
other than the coming together of all the past causes. That there can’t
be such a thing as a self that experiences things that the self didn’t
cause it the past. Karma is dependent arising, and dependent arising is
the flipside of emptiness.
Because, if you look at the normal ego response, the way we have
ego now, – Lama Yeshe calls it “the self-pity me” – and I’m not trying
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to be cruel, now. But it is the way we suffer. And if we analyze, if we

unpack self-pity, unpack anger, you see it is “poor me, I didn’t do this,
I don’t deserve this, why is this happening, there is no cause, I don’t
understand it, why me, what did I do to deserve it.” Would you agree
this is the way we think about suffering now? That is coming from the
philosophy of “I didn’t ask to get born.” That’s coming from the
philosophy of “no cause and effect,” of “no karma,” of being an
“innocent victim.” That’s the philosophy of the world. That’s why we
suffer so terribly in the face of bad things happening.
If you have the view of karma, it causes you to own responsibility
for this thing that’s happening: you’ve made your bed and now you’re
lying on it; which means there’s no fear, which means you’re
confronting it, which means you’re accepting it, and then it even
means you can have compassion, like those nuns.
That’s a very different way of interpreting a situation, isn’t it? And
all of this is implying: therefore this is not existing from its own side,
therefore it isn’t causeless. Because the way we have ego now, it’s all
causeless. “Why is this happening?” and panic and fear. And that’s
because we are grasping primordially at “innocent victim me” who
didn’t ask to get born.
That’s a way of expressing emotionally how it feels to have ego;
whereas if you have this other one, it’s more spacious. You recognize
why. You know you did it. It’s more spacious and it’s linked to
interdependence, which is the flipside of emptiness. One has to think
about it again and again and again. It’s a practical thing, you know. It
sounds so abstract, to hear about “understand emptiness.” It really
means to see interdependence, and karma is a perfect example of how
things exist in dependence upon various causes and factors and things,
you know. It makes us so brave, so fearless.
Does it make sense a little bit? So, thinking about interdependence
is the way to put it.
Saying “emptiness” seems a bit abstract, because interdependence
is the flip side of emptiness, because the way ego is, “grasping at the
self-existent me” – this is the label for it – is the one of thinking
there’s no cause, thinking it’s not my fault, thinking “poor me” and
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therefore the panic and the fear and the rage and the guilt and the
shame and all the junk that arises when bad things happen. Does it
make sense a bit?
And so finally, after years and years of much analysis and logic and
thinking and meditating, one finally gets the direct insight into
emptiness. That’s when we finally have seen directly the absence of
this fantasy “I” that we’ve been clinging to for so long. That’s when you
cut the root of delusions. Because there’s no longer the misconception
of the I. Therefore there’s no longer fear, no longer anger, no longer
attachment. We have a way to go before we completely finish it all and
become a buddha, but we’ve made this major shift when we’ve realized
emptiness.
That’s the real purification. That’s when we cut the root of suffering
and its causes.
The teachings in this chapter were given in Missoula, Montana, at the

FPMT center, Osel Shen Phen Ling, in 2011.
ONE STEP AT A TIME

One keeps doing these things, all these steps, you keep perfecting,
keep perfecting, until you’ve completely perfected each of the first four
perfections and then you perfect your concentration and then perfect
your insight into emptiness. Finally, you perfect the six – generosity,
morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom – and
you have now removed even the subtlest imprints from your mind, the
delusions, even the subtlest smell of them, and you finally become a
buddha.
This is it, speaking very simply.
Going this route, the paramitayana, the perfection vehicle, it’ll take
a few eons, apparently. But because the suffering of sentient beings is
so unbearable to us by now, we would speed up the process by entering
into the Vajrayana, tantra, postgraduate.
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PART SIX
TANTRA/POSTGRADUATE
31. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TANTRA, BY LAMA
YESHE TANTRA/POSTGRADUATE
Lord Buddha taught his path to enlightenment at many different

levels, according to the needs and capabilities of the many different
sentient beings. His most advanced teachings, given in his esoteric
aspect, Vajradhara, are known as Tantrayana or Vajrayana. Tantra is
the quickest vehicle to buddhahood, full enlightenment.
According to Lord Buddha’s Sutrayana teachings, the cause of
human beings’ problems is desire, so it must be avoided. According to
tantra, however, this very desire is used on the path to enlightenment.
On the basis of strong renunciation, the great compassion of
bodhichitta, and the right view of emptiness, practitioners take the
resource of their own pleasure energy and, in the deep concentration
of samadhi meditation, unify it with the wisdom realizing emptiness.
Eventually this leads to simultaneously-born great blissful wisdom,
which in turn leads to enlightenment.
PLEASURE, NOT PAIN

In tantra we are dealing with pleasure, not with pain, you must
understand. The person who is qualified to practice tantra is someone
who can cope with pleasure, who can experience pleasure without
going berserk. This is the tantric personality. If a person is always
miserable, tantra does not work for them because there is no resource
of pleasure to be utilized.
We are dealing with energy that we already have. The human body
is the gold-mine of tantra. It is tremendously valuable, our most
precious possession. From the tantric point of view, our pleasure
resource is composed of the six distinctive characteristics of a human
being: the four elements (earth, water, fire, and air), the channels of
our subtle nervous system, and the blissful kundalini drops existing
within them.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TANTRA, BY LAMA YESHE CHAPTER 31
What we need is a skillful method to harness this powerful energy

so that we can achieve more and more satisfaction in our everyday
lives, until we discover total satisfaction, the highest happiness of
enlightenment.
This bliss that we talk about is not just sentimental pleasure. It is a
profound experience beyond our ordinary imagination. And it
concerns the serious business of bringing the energy of the entire
nervous system into the central channel.
These techniques are really something for the Western mind, I tell
you. You people like to work with material, with energy, don’t you?
You like to play with it, fix it, change it, manipulate it. Well, tantra
helps you do exactly that – but here we are talking about inner energy,
your own pleasure resource.
TANTRA IS ACTIVE
Tantra is very serious, very profound, and we do need it. I tell you, we
need it badly. In fact, without tantric practice, enlightenment is not
possible. In this twentieth century, there is a tremendous explosion of
delusion. It is our karma to have so much distraction. Good things are
happening in our lives, but many bad things are happening too. We
need the super-atomic energy of these techniques to lift us out of this
confused, materialistic situation that we are caught up in.
In the lam-rim, you see, we present the philosophy and methods
intellectually. To some extent I can convince you intellectually, but this
conviction is like clouds in the sky. When the intellectual conviction is
strong, you say, “Oh, yes, I’m convinced.” Then the clouds disappear,
and you think, “Oh, now I don’t know any more. What can I do?” You
are discouraged, and your spiritual practice becomes weak.
Tantra is active, and I like that. You act and you get something
immediately. Inner fire is very quick; it will surprise you. With other
meditations it may be very difficult to achieve any result, but with
these, suddenly you feel that something is happening. You might even
shock yourself. They are a sensitive, quick way to convince yourself
that you are improving.
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WE HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL

“How can I meditate like this?” you might think. “I am not a great
meditator. I’ve just come to this course, and what does this monk
expect from me? Suddenly I’m being forced to meditate. Anyway, I
have created so much negativity, how can I do advanced practices like
these?” You should not think this way, okay?
I tell you, you never know what you can do. We cannot see our own
potential. Maybe in a previous life you were a great meditator. You
never know. Right now your mind might be completely distracted,
then suddenly one day your potential opens, and you have a good
meditation. This happens.
Look at Milarepa. I don’t think that you people have created more
negative karma than Milarepa. How many people did he kill? Do you
remember? He was a criminal, wasn’t he? He admitted it. But he had
strength. He created heavy negative karma, but he was also able to
have perfect renunciation, perfect bodhichitta, perfect right view. He
said good-bye to samsara.
For me, Milarepa is a good example for us. Look around in the
world. Sometimes those who create strong negativity, who create big
samsara, have big liberation-success. And those who don’t have
success in samsara don’t have any liberation-success either; they are
just numb. You understand, don’t you!
My point is, you never know with human beings. You never know
what you can do. Everybody should try as much as possible to do the
inner fire meditation. Try! Be brave! Even if you are not successful, at
least you get some experience, and that is good enough.
BE INSPIRED
Sometimes it is good to think about the lives of the great yogis so that
you know what you have to do. Even after learning lam-rim, there are
times when you are still not clear. If you look at their lifestyles, at the
way they practiced, many things become clear.
We can see from their stories that intellectual knowledge of
Dharma alone is not enough – we have to practice. There are many
stories of learned people asking for guidance from someone who has
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not studied any of the vast treatises but who has really tasted the few
teachings he may have studied. I remember His Holiness Trijang
Rinpoche saying many times in his teachings that when it comes to
practicing, many intellectuals have to go to beggars on the street and
ask, “Please tell me how to practice Dharma.” Even though these
scholars may have learned the entire sutras and tantras and may teach
them to many students, still they are empty when it comes to practice.
His Holiness was saying that this is happening in the Tibetan
community – and it is good for you people to keep in mind, too, isn’t
it? Can you imagine spending twenty or thirty years learning the entire
Dharma and still not getting any better in yourself, not even knowing
how to begin to practice Dharma? You think that is not possible, don’t
you? I’m sure you think that sounds totally stupid, yet it is happening.
NOT JUST PHILOSOPHICAL

You understand, then? These meditations are not something
philosophical. You have to act, to transform. Something has to happen.
I think it is a good idea that when you know even a little bit of
something practical, as much as you can, you act. Then it becomes
real. Take karma, for instance. When we talk about karma, we
intellectualize so much. We need to come down to earth. Karma is not
something complicated or philosophical. Karma means watching your
body, watching your mouth, watching your mind. You try to keep these
three doors as pure as possible. That is karma, isn’t it?
In Dharamsala, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives, there are
many monks who are, perhaps, not so learned, who stay on the
mountain for many years leading an ascetic life, meditating and doing
retreat. On the other hand, there are those who are greatly learned,
who don’t want to live ascetic lives. I don’t know why this is. Those
who are not so learned stay there on the mountain really trying to taste
something. I think they get the chocolate, while those famous learned
ones don’t. They miss the chocolate. It doesn’t matter who you are, if
you want to taste something, you have to go to the taste-place.
It is exactly the same in the West. Many people have incredible
intellectual understanding of Buddhism; this is not difficult for them.
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But it is dry, intellectual understanding and does not fertilize the

heart. I think this is a problem, definitely. There are professors, for
example, who have studied Buddhism for years. They have high
degrees and have published books on the lam-rim and tantra. Yet
many of them are not Buddhists at all. I’m not putting them down;
they admit it. They can read Lama Je Tsongkhapa’s lam-rim so fast
and translate it using such incredible words, but they say, “I am not
Buddhist” – which means they don’t actualize what they write about.
For them it is just theory. To me this is shocking. I can’t understand it.
I am confused. True!
On the other hand, there are those who have heard only the lam-
rim – let’s say, heard about the negative mind – and they begin to look
inside themselves and begin to meditate. They begin to watch. Slowly,
the lam-rim becomes part of them. But those intellectual people think
that the negative mind is somewhere else, way up on Mt Everest. “It
doesn’t refer to me,” they think, so they don’t care.
Many of my students who are interested in learning more ask me,
“Lama, should I learn Tibetan?” I say to them, “If you want to learn
Tibetan, learn it. If you don’t want to learn it, don’t. There’s enough
information available in English and other languages.” I have my
reasons for answering them this way. I’m sympathetic to Western
students, and I’ve been watching you. Many of my students have
learned Tibetan, but after they have learned it, they seem to practice
Dharma less. I am shocked. This doesn’t make sense to me. The
Tibetan language is not a holy language. In every culture you learn a
language. It’s part of samsara; you’re learning a samsaric trip. In
learning Tibetan, instead of learning a Western trip, you learn a
Tibetan one. I am not so interested in my students learning the
Tibetan language. What’s important is to taste the chocolate. It does
not matter how small a piece you get - as long as you taste it, you are
satisfied. That is all. I think that is all Buddhism can do.
I remember His Holiness the Dalai Lama saying one time that,
when he visited some Kagyu monasteries, he saw many monks who
were not so learned but who were practicing seriously, doing retreat,
leading ascetic lives and experiencing many hardships. His Holiness
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said that these monks studied something, a small part of a

commentary perhaps, then immediately put great energy and effort
into meditating on it. And then there are some Gelugpa monks, for
example, who are very learned but who are not putting so much energy
into their practice. I’m quoting the Dalai Lama’s words, okay, I’m not
giving my own interpretation. His Holiness expressed the wish for
balance between those Kagyupas who put incredible energy into
practicing meditation without much learning and those Gelugpas who
are incredibly learned but do very little practice. I am sure His
Holiness is not joking. He has no sectarianism. He was impressed by
those Kagyu retreaters.
I will make my point again. As soon as you understand one subject
clearly, put it into your heart and practice it, then you will get the
chocolate. Is that clear? I want you to understand this. For example,
when someone has shown you exactly how to make pizza from the
beginning to the end – how to combine the tomatoes, the mozzarella
cheese, the herbs – that is enough for you to make it and eat it and
enjoy it. But Western people are easily confused. If someone comes
along and says, “Oh, you don’t know much! You can’t make pizza
because you don’t know how to make curry,” you will think, “Wow!
Now I can’t practice at all.” Of course, I am not saying that you should
not learn. Learn the essential things clean-clear, then put them in your
heart and integrate them.
WE NEED THE TEACHINGS

According to the great Sakya Pandita, someone who has not received
the teachings but still tries to meditate is like a person without arms or
legs trying to climb up a rocky mountain. This needs to be interpreted
in the right way. It means that if you don’t get the information about
making pizza, trying to make pizza is a disaster. But you cannot say
that people who don’t know how to make curry cannot actualize pizza.
That is nonsense. Many people make big mistakes in this area.
There are other misconceptions. Lama Je Tsongkhapa has said that
first you have to study extensively; next, you must understand how to
practice the teachings; then you should practice day and night. When
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you see the words, “first this, second this, third this,” you may
interpret them as meaning that you have to study for thirty or forty
years before you even start to meditate. We do have such conceptions.
Let’s pretend that I am such a Gelugpa man. I say to one of my
students, “How long have you studied Buddhadharma?” He answers,
“Ten years.” Then I say to him, “Ten years? You can’t practice
anything! Ten years’ study means nothing. In order to be able to
practice you have to study at least thirty or forty years, because first
you have to study for a long time, then you have to understand
everything, then finally you must practice day and night. Lama Je
Tsongkhapa said so.” It is easy to be misled.
Can you imagine? For twenty or thirty years you should only study;
you cannot practice. You have to study! Then for another twenty years
you just think about everything, checking it. Then for the next twenty
years.... I mean, what is this? Misunderstanding in this way is like
putting Lama Tsongkhapa in the bathroom, isn’t it?
When you understand the three negativities of body, the four
negativities of speech, and the three negativities of mind, this is
enough for you to learn to avoid them. To practice the ten moralities,
you don’t need to learn the entire sutras and tantras, do you? I want
you to understand this. It is essential that we bring right
understanding of Buddhism into the Western world, not an
understanding bound by cultural chains. When everything is clean-
clear in your own mind, nobody can create obstacles for you. All right!
When Lama Tsongkhapa was still a teenager, he did a retreat on
Manjushri. Relatively speaking, he had not yet studied anything, but
he went into retreat and had many experiences. What do you think
about that? Lama Tsongkhapa’s way of practicing unifies listening,
analytical checking, and meditation. Then sutra and tantra are also
unified, and this does not mean just mouth-unity of sutra and tantra.
THE MEANING OF INITIATION

Lama Je Tsongkhapa mentions that before giving Gampopa teachings
on the higher subjects, Milarepa asked him, “Have you received
initiation?” Gampopa replied that he had, so Milarepa gave the
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commentary. And there is another quotation here that says that

initiation is essential, that it is the root of realizations, and that
receiving tantric teachings without an initiation causes both the
teacher and the disciple to go to the lower realms. By showing that all
the perfect lineage gurus gave initiation, Lama Tsongkhapa proves that
it is necessary.
Now, what is initiation? It is the beginning of the experience of
meditation and concentration, the beginning of the activation of
penetration into the nature of reality of all phenomena. Initiation leads
you into the mandala of the deity, the totality of the experience of the
deity. It is an antidote to the dissatisfied, samsaric, fanatical, dualistic
mind. During initiation you should completely let go of your
preconceptions and fixed ideas of yourself as this or that. You are so
attached to your limited self-image – that’s your problem. Instead,
identify with the wisdom-mind of the deity: your own perfect
potential.
In the teachings there is much emphasis on great bliss as the basis
of the initiation experience. Of course, if you don’t have blissful
experiences in your daily life, then it is difficult to experience bliss in
your meditation, isn’t it? But you do have! Buddhist tantra is realistic,
scientific. It explains that we all have some experience of happiness, of
bliss. Tantra is not asking us to have some kind of supernatural belief.
We learn to work with and expand our natural physical and mental
resources of pleasure, then we take this energy and unify it with the
wisdom understanding emptiness, thereby achieving liberation.
Don’t think that initiation means that this monk gives you some
incredible power. No, you should not look at it this way. You already
have the qualities of profound wisdom and great loving-kindness
within you; initiation simply activates them.
The quality of the initiation you receive is not dependent on a
Mickey Mouse teacher like me. It depends on you. It has to do with
your own individual transformation. I am not qualified according to
the Buddhist tantra point of view, but superficially I have received the
initiation and commentary and have done the retreats.
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When you receive initiation from someone like me, although I am

just a confused monk, if you can, without pushing, visualize that you
are receiving it from Guru Heruka, who has an infinitely blue, radiant
light-body. Then, with the motivation for self-growth so that you will
be able to benefit others as much as you can, you should ask me
sincerely to give you the initiation. If you think about this in a
profound way, you will become profound.
The important thing is to have to some extent a dedicated attitude.
In fact, according to Buddhist psychology, unless you have, you will
never be satisfied. Instead you will be bored and lonely. It is logical
psychology that dedication to others brings you the satisfaction that
you crave. To receive an initiation to achieve some kind of power for
your own ego is not good, but to request initiation in order to dedicate
yourself to others and thereby achieve something for yourself is
sincere and totally truthful.
Even though a hundred people might participate in an initiation,
you don’t all receive the same energy, the same experience. That too
depends on you – and not just on your bodily participation. Receiving
the inner experience of initiation depends on the participation of your
mind and on your ability to let go. Each of you experiences the
initiation according to your own skill and level of development.
INITIATION IS NECESSARY
Initiation is a serious business. Naropa had to wait twelve years to
receive an initiation, and he had to do outrageous things before Tilopa
would give it to him. But you are very lucky: I let you do normal
things! And in ancient times initiation would not be given in public
like this, to a hundred people, the way we often do in the Tibetan
Buddhist tradition nowadays. There would be only a few people at a
time. And you would not receive it all at once like we do now. You
would receive the first part, for example, then you would go away and
digest it and practice and reach that particular level, then come back
for the second part, and so forth. It is interesting, isn’t it? It is easy for
us now. Lama Tsongkhapa emphasizes that as much as possible we
should go slowly: penetrate, meditate, concentrate. And we shouldn’t
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be too concerned if our meditation during initiation seems to be only

at the level of imagination and not our actual experience. That is still
good enough – don’t think it is not. Simply to imagine the experience
plants seeds in the field of your consciousness, and slowly these seeds
will grow. Just like the hamburger: first someone had to imagine it,
then slowly it manifested in the American culture.
At the end of an initiation, feel, “Good, now I am enlightened!”
Make the determination: from now on I will not project the
hallucinations, the concrete conceptions, of my self-pitying mind, the
resource of misery. Instead I will identify with my divine wisdom-
energy, the resource of pleasure, and offer this to all people.
And remember, as long as you maintain mindfulness and don’t lose
your head, it doesn’t matter how much blissful pleasure you have,
whether you call it samsara or whatever. With the right attitude, the
right motivation, our pleasure becomes liberation, absolute okay-ness.
SEEING YOURSELF AS A DIVINE BEING

All right now. I want you to understand that you need to strongly
identify yourself as a deity, a buddha; you need to have intensive
awareness of your body as the deity’s body, your speech as the deity’s
mantra, and your mind as great blissful wisdom.
The reason you see yourself as a deity, the appearance of
simultaneously born blissful wisdom – and the environment as a
mandala – is to transcend mundane appearances and mundane
actions. You have to actualize this transformation.
Normally when we receive this commentary, there are many rituals
to do, such as tormas to offer and prayers to say to the lineage gurus.
There are a lot of things that are usually done, but this time we give
them up. The most important thing, however, is to continuously
visualize ourselves as a deity – and that I’m not going to give up. And
because this is a retreat situation, we should practice strongly. It is
very important. This is our style.
Why do we have so many different deities in tantra? Because each
deity arouses different feelings and activates different qualities within
us. Choose for your practice whichever deity feels more familiar to you.
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DIVINE PRIDE
If you find it a bit of a culture shock to see yourself as a deity as they
are depicted in the drawings, or with a Tibetan face, don’t worry. Your
body is already beautiful and handsome, so leave it as it is and just
change color. Actually, seeing yourself as a deity has nothing to do
with Tibetan culture. When you project your usual self-pitying image,
you think you are not involved with a culture, but you are. Instead of
seeing yourself in that way, transform yourself into blissful, radiant
light and cultivate strong divine pride. This is important.
The characteristic of all the deities is universal love and
compassion. We need love, don’t we? We need compassion, don’t we?
We are craving for someone to love us and take care of us, aren’t we?
They manifest our archetypal ideal so that we can identify ourselves
with the energy of universal love and compassion, actually become
universal love and compassion. And then your worries about whether
or not somebody loves you dissolve. From the Buddhist point of view,
psychologically it works that way. When you generate the strength of
love and wisdom, this unhappy energy disappears.
You can see how this works in your everyday life. If you are full of
self-pity, crying and having nervous breakdowns, people don’t come
near you, do they? They are scared to be around you. But when you are
strong in love and compassion, you can’t keep people away from you!
This is natural. Because we are looking for happiness, who wants to go
to a miserable place, who wants to look at a miserable man or woman?
I don’t! You understand?
Tantra believes that we need powerful transformation. Identifying
with such profound qualities as a deity’s and seeing yourself as
infinite, radiant light are powerful methods for eliminating self-pitying
concepts and garbage-imagination.
What is our problem? Our problem is that we think, “I am the worst
person in the world. I am impure. I am full of hatred, full of desire. I
am ignorant.” These concepts of yourself are totally negative. You must
purify them. From the time you were born until now, you have been
carrying your self-pitying view: cry, cry, fear, fear, emotion, emotion.
Always, you are aware of your shortcomings and apply tremendous
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pressure on yourself. You regard yourself as worthless. You punish

yourself. You project yourself as ugly – but nobody makes you ugly;
other people think you are beautiful.
Tantra says that the nucleus of each human being is divine, pure.
This is why it is important to identify yourself so strongly as a deity, to
identify yourself as completely developed. It is very important. Instead
of seeing your body as something miserable, transform it into a radiant
light-body. Outwardly this might seem strange, but inwardly there is
meaning. The moment you visualize this light, your dualistic concepts
break down, your concrete concepts are no longer believed in.
The radiant light of the deity helps us to touch reality. This is the
most important thing in the world, isn’t it? Most of us are unaware; we
don’t touch reality. Even though we walk on this earth, we don’t touch
the reality of this earth. The deity’s mandala expresses inner and outer
reality rather than a fantasy world of projections.
Western actors explain that when they are playing a certain person
in a movie, they have to go through some experience as that person in
order to express his feelings and actions realistically. Because of his
training, somehow deep inside the actor is the person he is portraying,
even when he is not acting. This is a good example for when you
become the deity. Your psychic energy has to transform convincingly
into the blissful, radiant light-body.
THE DEITY IS ALREADY WITHIN YOU

Westerners often have a problem with deities. “Why should I see
myself in this way? This is just another fantasy, another delusion. It is
difficult enough just to be a man or a woman. I have enough trouble in
this world with my complicated views of who I am and of how to relate
to a man’s world or a woman’s world. Now I have to change my
appearance. I have to wear another mask.” No! When you visualize
yourself as the deity, it is not to show another manifestation. The deity
is the manifestation of the profound qualities you already have within
you. They are within you. To recognize and comprehend that, you
visualize yourself as the deity rather than identifying with the feeling,
“I am ugly. Nobody wants me.”
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Tantra considers it very important to knock out such symptoms of

ego. There is no point in holding garbage-concepts of yourself.
Everyone is perfect – you just need to recognize it. In tantra,
perfection is not something coming next year; or if you are religious
and do good in this life, maybe next life you will go to heaven. Heaven
is now! You bring heaven into everyday life. Your home is heaven, and
everyone you see is a god or goddess. To ask why you need to manifest
as Heruka means that you don’t understand that the quality of the
deity is the quality of your own being.
YOU ARE YOUR MIND, NOT BODY

Remember, your face is not you, your blood is not you, your bones are
not you. The nucleus of you, of your life, is your consciousness, your
mind, your psyche. Your body is just like a robot pushed around by a
computer; it is the manifestation of the computer of your
consciousness. From the Buddhist point of view, your consciousness is
the essence of you.
From the time you were born until now, you have manifested in so
many different ways, sometimes angry like a monster and sometimes
so peaceful and beautiful. These manifestations – angry-looking,
jealous-looking, loving-kindness-looking, great compassion-looking,
great wisdom-looking – do not come from your blood and bones; they
manifest from the power of your consciousness, the power of your
psyche. In the West we think that the body is the boss, don’t we? We
are overwhelmed by it and intoxicated by its pleasures, and we put the
mind in the garbage. We end up with our mind as the slave of the
body. But it’s our mind that puts us in a miserable concentration
camp, not our body.
The point is, the mind is powerful and can manifest anything. And
when you can convincingly see yourself as handsome or beautiful, your
self-pitying concepts will vanish. You will become the manifestation of
your own profound qualities. Everyone can do this.
Actually, we have two bodies, as we will discuss soon: our physical
body and a more subtle psychic body. Your consciousness does have
the ability to manifest as a radiant light-body, and when you
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understand the quality of the subtle body, you can learn to manipulate
the energy of your inner nervous system and to control your blood-
and-bone body.
NOT JUST PRETENDING

Feel that you actually are the deity: youthful, beautiful, full of
kundalini. Some people think that you should only pretend to be the
deity. This is no good. You are not pretending. The more strongly you
identify yourself as the deity, the more the transformation comes and
the more you extinguish fear and uncontrolled emotion. We say that
we do not like to waste time, but we do waste time when we participate
in self-pity and the fearful “I.” Kick out self-pity by having the strong
divine pride of being the pure, divine deity. Do not pretend. Be
convinced inside. If you feel unified with the deity, transformation
comes naturally. When you are out of the meditation session, you may
be surprised to find that you are still the deity.
And remember that all appearances are illusory and non-dual in
nature, and all the illusions are empty. Recognize that all the empty
illusions are blissful in nature. Bring your attention inside to this
blissful state.
WE MUST PRACTICE
It is important to have a firm practice. Sometimes students who have
listened to Dharma teachings for many years say, “I am confused! I
don’t know where to start. I’ve received so many teachings from so
many lamas, but I don’t know who my teacher is or what meditations
to do.” Even though these students have studied many subjects and
have received a hundred meditation techniques, still they are lost. This
shows that something is wrong, doesn’t it?
The beautiful thing about Tibetan Buddhism is that we have a
clean-clear structure from beginning to end. We have a clear list that
shows us how to check up. Perhaps you people find all this structure
boring, but Tibetan Buddhism is alive today because of its clear
structure. All four traditions have a clean-clear way to enquire, to
judge. From my point of view, this is to be appreciated very much. If
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there are ten stages involved in going from here to there, and if some
information is missing, you cannot go all the way, can you? If you have
a firm structure, you don’t get lost.
Since you claim to be Buddhists, since you claim to be meditators,
you should know that the principal concern of Buddhism is the mind.
The mind is the nucleus of samsara and nirvana. Whatever experiences
we are having in our lives manifest from our minds, remember? Since
we are getting a Buddhist education, we should be aware of what we
need and what we lack. In Buddhism we say that the human being is
great, automatically great, because when we really want to see, we can
– with our inner wisdom. I think I trust this lam-rim explanation of
the human being.
To some extent, you do know what you need. When you are hungry,
you know you are hungry so you search for food, don’t you? When you
are thirsty, you know that if you drink something you will solve the
problem. It’s the same when you feel any kind of dissatisfaction: you
simply try to solve the problem. Deal with the gross levels first, then
slowly, slowly, the more subtle. Be practical. Use your inner wisdom –
and act!
Remember, we are all responsible for our own lives. Don’t think
that this Tibetan monk will give you enlightenment and make you
powerful. It is not like that. Just think, “At this time in my life I have
come together with this monk, and I will judge him realistically. I will
not just accept what he says but will check up on whether it is right or
wrong. I will debate with him for the rest of my life. And as much as
possible I will try to be mindful. I will take responsibility for my life
and dedicate it for others by growing in the strength of loving-
kindness and great wisdom. Therefore, I will serve others as much as
possible. This is my motivation. Whether this monk benefits me or not,
my motivation takes care.”
Try to be reasonable in the way you grow. Don’t ever think it is too
late. Even if tomorrow you die, as long as today you keep yourself
straight and clean-clear, a happy human being, that is the main thing.
It is never too late. If you can keep your situation happy today, you can
follow the middle way to reach the greatest happiness.
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Now, I want you people to understand and be technically clean-

clear, then I want you to practice. It is so worthwhile. For many years
you have been working on evolutionary yoga, but as I said, it is a bit
like dreaming. Now you are not dreaming. You are in the real
situation. If again you just go blah, blah, blah, it is not good. This time
we are not joking. If you mistake the button, you are going to go to the
wrong place, so be careful. This time you are really doing something.
Everybody should try. If you never try all these meditations, you
can never be successful. If you try, you might surprise yourself, so I
want all of you to meditate. If you do not, you should be ashamed for
inviting me here! Okay. I want you to understand that I did not come
here just to get mozzarella cheese. I am not hungry for mozzarella
cheese; I can still get satisfaction from Indian things.
Remember I told you that if you want to practice, you should expect
hard work. I want everybody to be a hard worker; in fact, I made it a
condition at the beginning of the course that you should expect to
meditate. These meditations are not just for writing down on pieces of
paper, for intellectualizing about. It is important to hear the teachings,
but then you must meditate and have experiences. I don’t want this to
be intellectual. That is not my interest.
I want you to be inspired to get something from all this. I am also
responsible, aren’t I? I have a responsibility to do something for you. If
you do not do a good job, then I cheat you, you cheat me, we cheat
each other – it is quite heavy karma. Because, I tell you, this time we
are doing a very serious thing. If you are not serious, it is extremely
shameful.
So, please practice. It is a very simple thing. It is not complicated, it
is not philosophical, it is not some kind of psychology. It is very
simple: you just do it. If you want me to be happy and to live a long
life, you should try to do the meditations. That is all.
Milarepa and the others like him had so much renunciation. For
many years they lived on the mountains like animals, eating nettles
and grass. And remember all the effort Naropa put into running after
these teachings - he almost died twelve times! We have such a
comfortable life here in this nice, well-heated house. If we don’t
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meditate, we are shameful. Milarepa is the right extreme; we are the

wrong extreme.
This is such a profound teaching, so as much as possible we should
use it in a meaningful way. Then you are satisfied and I am satisfied. It
is so worthwhile. I want everybody to taste some satisfaction, to have
to some extent a profound experience. Everybody. Then you can share
with others; by simply being yourself, you share with others.
I am not worried about whether we cover all the subjects in this
text. Even if we get only half way through, I don’t care! The most
important thing is that you really touch something inside yourself, that
you are doing something. Then I have no doubt that some
transformation will happen.
If you don’t have any experiences now, during the course, I am
almost certain that you won’t have any later; when you go home, you
will go back to your old habits. But if you meditate strongly now, you
will really taste the practice and be convinced, and then when you go
back home, you will be inspired to continue your meditations.
THE RIGHT MOTIVATION

It is important to have the right motivation. Mental attitude is very
important when you interpret your life and your world. Wrong
motivation brings pain, disappointment, and the extreme side of life.
Again, think like this: “For the rest of my life, it is my responsibility to
grow in mindfulness and happiness. Each day I will expand the loving-
kindness I already have. When I wake up each morning, I will open my
wisdom-eye and see more and more deeply the inner universal reality.
And I will serve others as much as possible. I make the determination
that this will be my way of life.”
WE WILL MEET AGAIN

If we are successful, then I would like to teach you again and again and
again. I cannot help but do it again. When I started teaching Western
people, I saw that you responded well. Most of the time when I tell you
to meditate, whether you are capable or not, you try to do it. This is the
beauty of the West. I opened my eyes and saw that the Buddhadharma
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helped Western people, and that’s why I became interested in you. I

got so much energy to teach you. If you practice well, I would like to
give another course. I pray.
Excerpted from The Bliss of Inner Fire, Wisdom Publications.
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PART SEVEN
PUTTING IT ALL INTO PRACTICE
32. HOW TO INCORPORATE DHARMA INTO YOUR
DAILY LIFE
Okay, so let me just talk now a little bit about how to set up a daily
practice, how to internalize all this stuff. I’m sorry to use always
simple examples but it’s so important. If you are trying to become this
amazing, sophisticated gardener, who knows everything very deeply,
you’ve got to do an awful lot of intellectual work first, don’t you?
You’ve got to go to university, to botany school, and learn all these
things, and study hard, and memorize it all, and really become familiar
intellectually before you can do a decent job. You do it gradually, you
do both study and practice.
STUDY FIRST
Well it’s the same here. Spiritual practice needs the same steps. If you
really want to become this amazing buddha, which Buddha says finally
is your potential – and many people who are Buddhists aren’t
necessarily aiming for that but we’re talking that way here; many
people who are Buddhists think of Buddhism as just a way to calm
their mind down and watch their breath. I’m not criticizing that, but
that’s sort of like a tiny part of grade one. That’s fine, better than
nothing. But this deal here, which is the tradition in the Tibetan
monasteries, the monastic universities, which comes from the great
monastic universities in India, takes the whole caboodle, from A to Z,
all the way to omniscience, to enlightenment.
That’s very much the tradition in Tibetan Buddhism. If you
recognize that’s your goal, and you want to aim for that no matter how
long it takes, then you’ve got a lot of work to do. You’ve got to hear the
teachings, the information, then familiarize your mind with it by
studying, analyzing, thinking, debating, memorizing.
HOW TO INCORPORATE DHARMA INTO OUR DAILY LIFE CHAPTER 32
THEN INTERNALIZE
But then what you do is you have to learn how to know how to
internalize it all, to make it your own experience. And that’s where the
techniques of meditation come in as a very marvelous tool.
Another way to say it, your job is finally to bring your mind into
sync with how things are. Here we’re talking about the way Buddha
says how things are and what a Buddhist is is obviously a person who
concurs with Buddha. You see my point, otherwise you wouldn’t be
doing it, so take that as a given here.
What you’re doing, even as you go along familiarizing your mind
with what Buddha says, part of the process is not just blindly believing
it as you go along, filling your head with the knowledge, you’re
processing it. Just like with botany. You’re not just blindly believing it,
you’re checking it out. They tell you do this and then you find out from
your own experience: “Oh wow, it is that way.” You test it, you taste it,
you make it real for you. What practice is is this constant ongoing
listening to what Buddha said, thinking about it, meditating on it, and
doing other practices that support that until you get: “Oh I get it, that’s
what he said, I see now, that’s how it is, right, I get it, I verify it.”
A PROCESS OF VERIFCATION
I’m talking about looking at the process of how to internalize all this,
which is the process of verification. What you do is you listen to the
teachings, you come home, you write in your book, you think about it
and then you start putting your hands on in the garden and then you
test it, don’t you? You say, “Oh wow, that’s true.” Don’t you do that?
And if you discover it’s really wrong then you will stop. You won’t
do it. That’s what the Dalai Lama says you should do with Buddhism.
It’s a gradual process. You can’t prove reincarnation straight away. It’s
only when you get clairvoyance from meditation that you develop a
subtler mind that you finally can see the past; it’s really finally then
that you’ve verified experientially. But you’ve got an awful lot of stuff
to do intellectually, conceptually before there, which can be very, very
reaffirming.
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I can say to you I haven’t got clairvoyance but I can certainly say
whatever thinking I’ve done and clarifying and putting into practice
what makes sense to me up until now: so far, so good. I’m comfortable
to say so far, so good. I’m comfortable to say for me, no contradictions
yet. Because it’s a process.
It’s like trying to prove that E=mc2. Well, maybe you’re only at
grade five, but so far, so good. The multiplication works, the addition
works, the subtraction works, the algebra works. It’s an ongoing
process of verification. That is what practice is.
When you can think about karma – I can’t prove past lives yet, but
all I can say to you is this, for my mind: that the presentation of cause
and effect, the presentation of karma, the presentation of mind being
nonphysical, the presentation of there being no creator, the
presentation of not being created by my mummy and daddy, the
presentation of all of that experientially for me has already had an
enormous impact. So far, so good, why should I complain? Keep
moving and as long as I keep moving, the very process of moving
through it is the verification of it for yourself.
Just like with math, you go to all your math classes, you just don’t
bring it all home and memorize it blindly, do you? You don’t just learn
only every single thing in the math teacher says – in the beginning you
do, you learn your tables or whatever you do; but eventually you are
really working with it experientially, creatively, aren’t you? Do you see
what I mean? Then you’re making it real for yourself. That’s how you
progress. The same with music, the same with cakes, and the same
with Buddha’s teachings. You make it real for yourself based on the
fundamental principles you’ve learned.
LISTENING, THINKING, MEDITATING

Practice hugely consists of listening, thinking about it, listening,
thinking, and then finally, in your concentrated meditation when you
get that – and it might not even be in this life, and that’s okay – you
directly realize it as the truth. You’ve got to go according to your own
level, you keep moving gradually step by step by step, according to
your own pace.
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PRELIMINARY PRACTICES, PRIMING OUR MIND

Another way to talk about the whole thing, about practice, is this: the
heart job, like I’ve been saying, of being a Buddhist is working on your
own mind, changing your mind, finally comes down to being your own
therapist, like we talked, right? But then you’ve got all these other
practices like prostrations, and water bowls and all the holy things, all
the stuff that you think, “Oh, God where does that fit in? What’s that
got to do with it?” Very often we can think that’s practice: “Oh I’ll do
my prostrations, that’s practice. Hearing the teachers now, that’s not
practice.”
We kind of get all confused and can’t put all the pieces together. But
if you think of it like this, another good analogy for my mind is this:
what is the essence of basketball? It’s getting the ball in the hoop.
Finally, everything comes down to that, if you think about it, doesn’t
it? You get the highest score, the number of times you get the ball in
the hoop. But look at the complication of what basketball is and all the
things you’ve got to do. You’ve got to learn to bounce the ball, and be
fit and have this, and eat this way, and do jogging and do this, you’ve
got an enormous amount of work, and then be part of the team. All of
this is why? You can get the ball in the hoop. But if you start losing the
plot a bit and you start thinking that basketball is simply bouncing the
ball or basketball is simply jogging, you’re losing the plot.
Getting the ball in the hoop is changing your mind into seeing the
truth. That’s it. That’s the bottom line. You can say all the other things
you do – let’s say you went to Michael Jordan. “Hey man, please show
me how to get the ball in the hoop.” That’s the idea, right? Get the ball
in the hoop. And he’ll say, “Okay, for five years you’ve got to develop
discipline, do this jogging, eat this food, and do this, and bounce the
ball a thousand times, and do your skipping rope.” And you say, “No,
no, no man, you didn’t hear me, I want to get the ball in the hoop.”
And he will repeat his answer.
Are you hearing my point here? You need to work a long time to
prime your body and mind to be able to what seems so simple: get the
ball in the hoop.
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Same here: our minds are ready to even lessen attachment much
less realize emptiness. We need to prime our mind with years of good,
hard, disciplined practice: the various purification practices such as
water bowl offerings, prostratoins, mantra recitations, etc., etc., etc. By
doing thesepractices you will find that you can begin to work on your
mind, get the ball in the hoop. You have to prime your mind to enable
it to change. It takes masses of purification and massses of merit!
You’ve got to take those on as and when you feel comfortable. Don’t
just jump into prostrations or jump into water bowls, it might have no
meaning. But they’re things that are actually said to be very powerful
purification practices that can help you really deeply remove the junk
from your mind that makes it easier next day to control your anger.
There’s many ways of working on your mind, many levels of
working on your mind. Do you understand what I’m saying? We take
on those practices as and when we’re ready. That’s up to us; we’re the
boss, not the Buddha. Do you see?
MORNING PRACTICE
Okay, morning practice. Your practice in a day consists of some formal
practice because it really helps our mind to have a discipline, a formal
practice where you focus on something morning and night; it’s really
good. His Holiness says it starts your whole day and the right direction
if you do something in the morning.
Morning, you could have an altar and do some water bowls: a good
way to start the day: it reminds you of your path, your purpose, it
connects you to the buddhas.
Don’t think, “Oh well, when I have my breakfast, when I do this,
then I’ll do it.” Because before you know it, you won’t do it. It’s a really
good discipline, I’ve found, to do it before you do anything else major,
before you have your breakfast, before you do anything. If you live in a
house with other people or with children especially, it might be more
difficult but it’s just like anything, once you decide and it does need
discipline it doesn’t come naturally, you don’t want to. But it’s really
excellent even if it’s ten minutes.
370
And I think the components of a good meditation, you could do a

visualization type one, we didn’t do any of these this time. You could
do visualizing Tara, the female Buddha, or Chenrezig. You can do
something like that very simply, short, or you could do something like
just visualize the Buddha, take refuge. Just read a few things, say a few
mantras of om mani padme hum, and then finish. Even just something
small to begin the day with. To have a good combination of some
concentration even for two minutes try to focus on your breath, some
thinking about something, like you take something to read, you read it,
you process it, in the quiet of your own seat. And then you dedicate.
That’s it. I swear. That’s the simple way to start.
EVENING PRACTICE
And then night time you finish with the four opponent powers. If you
did just this much at night you’ve done a marvelous thing. I tell you,
it’s the most profound practice, it’s incredible practice, the four
opponent powers with Vajrasattva. And as Lama Zopa says, we are
insane not to do it every day.
Then of course you can develop that, grow your practice, you would
take refuge and the five layperson’s vows.
Eventually as you move along you could take the bodhisattva vows
– we didn’t go into them. And then you would take initiations in the
first stages of tantra.
You keep adding components to the basic structure of a daily
practice. Start with something short in the morning, or long it’s up to
you, but be consistent. To do one hour one day then do nothing the
next is not helpful. Better to do ten minutes every day and then you
build it up solidly. Does that make sense?
Go one step at a time, according to your capacity.
RETREAT FROM TIME TO TIME

It’s excellent to go off on retreat from time to time, even for a
weekend. It helps everything go in deep.
371
----
DEDICATION
Okay let’s dedicate again. Let’s just think, “How fantastic, all been
together, all this virtue we created – virtue is just a word, meaning
good qualities that’s all –listening, thinking, analyzing, being
harmonious, talking together, sowing very marvelous seeds in our
minds, how fantastic. May they ripen as quickly as possible, as quickly
as possible, so I can become a buddha so I can really truly be of benefit
to others no matter how long it takes. Keep this as your long-term
goal. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It’s amazing.

Okay. That’s it everybody! Thank you so much, very kind.
372
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
afflictions. See delusions.

anger. Aversion. A delusion that exaggerates the unpleasant qualities
of a person, object, event, etc., which arises when attachment doesn’t
get what it wants.
attachment. Desire, craving, clinging, grasping. On the basis of the
root delusion, ignorance, the main cause of samsara, a delusion that
exaggerates the pleasant qualities of a person, event, action, object,
etc., including the self and one’s own body, based on the assumption
that the having or doing of it causes happiness, thus giving rise to
expectation, possessiveness, and fear of losing it; one of the main
causes of suffering at the time of death.
aversion. See anger.
beginningless. All minds, as well as the four elements that constitute
the physical world, being governed by the law of cause and effect –
this moment of mind or matter being the product of a previous
moment of that mind or matter – necessarily cannot have a causeless
first moment, a beginning. See karma.
bodhichitta (Sanskrit; awakening mind or attitude). The effortless
and continuously present wish in the minds of bodhisattvas to (1)
only benefit others, and (2) never give up perfecting themselves and
becoming a buddha solely for the sake of others. In tantra, also
refers to drops. See compassion; Mahayana.
bodhisattva (Sanskrit; awakening person). One who has
accomplished bodhichitta. See Mahayana.
buddha (Sanskrit). Enlightened being. A person who has achieved
enlightenment; when capitalized, refers to Shakyamuni Buddha. See
bodhichitta; deity; Mahayana.
buddhahood. See enlightenment.
clear light. Extremely subtle mind, very subtle mind. According to
Vajrayana, the subtlest level of mind, linked inextricably with the
extremely subtle wind, which occurs naturally at the eighth stage of
the death process, then leaves the body and goes to another life.
Accomplished yogis and yoginis can meditate on emptiness with this
mind at the time of death, even becoming enlightened then. See
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
extremely subtle body and extremely subtle mind; gross body and
gross mind; subtle body; subtle mind.
compassion. Empathy with the suffering of others, and the wish that
they be free from it and its causes, which gives rise to the wish, “I
myself will free them from suffering,” known as great compassion,
the unique characteristic of the compassion of the bodhisattva; this,
in turn, gives rise to bodhichitta.
concentration. When accomplished in meditation, a deep state of
focus at a level of mind far subtler than the level of consciousness of
the day-to-day mind, a level of cognition not posited in
contemporary psychology. The fifth of the six perfections of a
bodhisattva.
consciousness. See mind.
death process. As explained in Vajrayana, the gradual breakdown of
the physical and mental components of a person, described in eight
stages, from the gross to the subtle to the extremely subtle, that
culminates in the extremely subtle mind and wind leaving the body,
going to the intermediate state, and then to another life determined
by the karmic seeds triggered during the process. See clear light;
gross body and gross mind; reincarnation; subtle body; subtle mind.
delusions. Afflictions. Within the categories of positive, negative, and
neutral states of mind that constitute the mental consciousness,
negative states that necessarily distort or exaggerate or embellish
whatever they cognize, which are adventitious and therefore can be
removed. With karma, the cause of samsara. See anger; attachment;
ignorance; liberation; suffering.
dependent arising. Every phenomenon exists – “arises” – in
dependence upon (1) causes and conditions (impermanent
phenomena only), (2) its parts, and, most subtly, (3) the mind
labeling it, and therefore is empty of existing from its own side; the
way things exist conventionally. See emptiness; karma.
desire. See attachment.
desire realm. A realm of rebirth within samsara, which, in turn,
includes six realms: those of gods and demi-gods, humans, animals,
spirits (often referred to as hungry ghosts, one category of spirit),
375
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
and hell beings. See form and formless realms; lower realms;
samsara.
Dharma (Sanskrit). Refers here to Buddha’s teachings; the second of
the three jewels. See refuge.
eighty superstitions. The conceptual states of subtle mind that
dissolve during the fifth through seventh of the eight stages of the
death process.
emptiness. Because everything that exists – a self, the aggregates, a
thing, an event, an action, etc. – is a dependent arising, it is
therefore empty of existing from its own side; the absence in
everything that exists of this impossible way of existing. See arya
bodhisattva; ignorance; liberation; meditation.
enlightened being. See buddha.
enlightenment. Full enlightenment, buddhahood. In the Mahayana,
the enlightenment of a buddha, the state of having removed all
delusions and their imprints from the mind and having
accomplished all virtues, forever; characterized by three essential
qualities: (1) omniscience, (2) compassion for all sentient beings,
and (3) the power to do whatever needs to be done to benefit them;
according to the Mahayana, the potential of every sentient being.
existing from its own side. Existing inherently, truly-existent. The
way every phenomenon appears to exist, that is, without depending
upon (1) causes and conditions (impermanent phenomena only), (2)
parts, and, most subtly, (3) mind labeling it; an impossible way of
being that the root delusion, ignorance, grasps at as real, which gives
rise to attachment and the other delusions and causes the sufferings
of samsara. See dependent arising; emptiness; liberation;
meditation.
extremely subtle body and extremely subtle mind. Very subtle
body and very subtle mind. The extremely subtle wind inextricably
conjoined with the subtlest level of mind, which at conception in the
mother’s womb mixes with the white drop from the father and the
red drop from the mother in the indestructible drop at the heart
chakra, where it resides throughout life until it leaves the body at the
time of death and continues to another life, propelled by past karma.
376
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
See clear light; death process; gross body and gross mind; subtle
body; subtle mind.
five sense consciousnesses. The gross consciousness, or mind, that
functions through the medium of the five sense bases, which are
subtle physical energy, of the (1) eyes, (2) ears, (3) nose, (4) tongue,
and (5) touch. See gross body and gross mind; mental consciousness.
form and formless realms. Two of the three realms of existence
within samsara – the third being the desire realm – which are
achieved as a result of deep meditative absorption. See
concentration; meditation.
four opponent powers. See purification.
FPMT. Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.
The name given by Lama Yeshe in 1975, at Kopan Monastery, to his
growing network of Tibetan Buddhist centers worldwide. FPMT, Inc.
is now established as a non-profit corporation in Portland, Oregon,
with which some 160 centers and projects worldwide are affiliated,
and of which Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director.
full enlightenment. See enlightenment.
Gelug (Tibetan). One of the four main traditions of Tibetan
Buddhism, founded by Lama Tsongkhapa in the early fifteenth
century; the others are Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya.
geshe (Tibetan; spiritual friend). The title conferred on graduates of
the ten-to-twenty-year program of philosophical and psychological
studies at Gelug Tibetan monastic universities. See Lama
Tsongkhapa.
gods and demi-gods. Occupants of the two highest of the six realms
of the desire realm, whose experiences are blissful and whose bodies
are made of light; the result of virtuous karma. Occupants of the
form and formless realms can also be “gods.” See samsara.
great compassion. See compassion.
gross body and gross mind. The blood, bones, sense organs, and so
forth that make up the body of a human being (and most animals),
which serve as the basis of the gross mind: the five sense
consciousnesses and the grosser level of conceptual thoughts. See
377
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
extremely subtle body and extremely subtle mind; mental

consciousness; subtle body; subtle mind.
guru (Sanskrit; heavy with knowledge). Lama (Tibetan). A person’s
spiritual teacher. See guru devotion.
guru devotion. Confidence that the guru is the buddha, the deity,
expressed in thought and action, formalized in such practices as
Guru Puja and other deity practices.
happiness. The result of virtuous karma. See karma; motivation;
suffering.
hell. See lower realms.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin
Gyatso, born in 1935, is the fourteenth in this line of reincarnated
lamas, revered as the manifestation of the Compassion Buddha; the
spiritual and, until 2011 when he resigned, political head of Tibet.
hungry ghost. See lower realms.
ignorance. The delusion that grasps at everything, including the self
and the five aggregates, as existing from its own side, gives rise to
attachment and all the other delusions, is the root cause of the
sufferings of samsara, and is eradicated by realizing emptiness. See
dependent arising; liberation; meditation.
imprints. Karmic seeds, or potentials, left in the mind when actions
of body, speech, and mind are done, which ripen as future
experiences. See karma.
inherent existence. See existing from its’ own side.
intermediate state (Tibetan: bardo). A state of existence that a
person takes the moment their extremely subtle mind leaves the
indestructible drop at the heart chakra at death until taking another
life in samsara, lasting anywhere from a moment to forty-nine days;
said to be similar in experience to a dream. The intermediate state
body is subtle and has no resistance to matter and is similar in
appearance to the body of the next life. See death process; extremely
subtle body and extremely subtle mind; reincarnation.
karma (Sanskrit). Compounded action, action, intention. The
intention (mental action), underpinned by a motivation, to think or
do or say something that impels an action of body or speech, which
378
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
leaves imprints or seeds in the mind that, unless eliminated, will

result in the future as (1) a type of rebirth in samsara; (2) the habit
to keep thinking or doing or saying it; (3) an experience similar to it;
(4) an environmental result. Used loosely to refer to the natural law
of cause and effect – that negative karma produces suffering and
virtuous karma produces happiness – that plays out in the minds
and lives of all sentient beings. See negative karma; purification;
reincarnation; virtuous karma.
karmic appearances. The way things, people, events, etc., appear to
sentient beings – as pleasant, unpleasant, etc. – according to their
past karma.
Kopan Monastery. The monastery established in 1970 by Lama
Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Nepal, five miles northeast of
Kathmandu, where now some 350 monks study the full range of
topics of the main Gelug monastic universities, such as Sera Je, one
of the colleges of Sera Monastery, with which it is affiliated. Its
sister monastery of 350 nuns nearby, Kachoe Ghakyil, follow the
same course of study, with a newly established branch of 20 nuns in
Sarnath, India. Kopan also holds courses throughout the year for
visitors from other countries, including the annual November
Course, the first of which was in 1970, taught by Rinpoche.
lama. See guru.
Lama Tsongkhapa (1357–1419). Scholar, yogi, and teacher, founder
of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism; author of many texts,
including Lamrim Chenmo.
Lama Yeshe (1935–1984). Lama Thubten Yeshe; the guru of Lama
Zopa Rinpoche since he was 14. Born in Tibet and educated since
childhood at the Je college of Sera Monastery in Lhasa; escaped into
exile in 1959 and settled in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1967; founded,
with Rinpoche, the FPMT in 1975 after they started teaching Dharma
to people from the West at Kopan Monastery in 1970.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The spiritual director of the FPMT, which he
founded with Lama Thubten Yeshe. A Sherpa, Rinpoche is
recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama.
379
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
lamrim (Tibetan; graded path). Path to enlightenment. Coined by

Lama Tsongkhapa. Buddha’s sutra teachings, based on Lamp for the
Path by Atisha (982–1054), presented as a course of study and
practice according to three levels of capability: (1) lower, motivated
by the wish to not be reborn in the lower realms; (2) middle,
motivated by the wish to not be reborn in samsara; and (3) great,
motivated by the wish to become a buddha. Practitioners of the
Lesser Vehicle practice the first two levels; those of the Mahayana
practice all three. See Lamrim Chenmo.
Lamrim Chenmo (Tibetan; The Great Treatise on the Stages of the
Path). The most extensive of Lama Tsongkhapa’s commentaries on
the lamrim.
Lawudo Lama. See Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
liberation. (Sanskrit: nirvana.) Liberation from samsara; liberation
from suffering and its causes. Achieved when the delusions and their
imprints, the obstacles to liberation, have been removed from the
mind, thus eliminating the causes of samsara; the goal of the Lesser
Vehicle practitioner. See emptiness.
lower realms. Three realms of rebirth among the six of the desire
realm: those of (1) the animals, (2) the spirits (often referred to as
hungry ghosts (Sanskrit, preta), one type of spirit), and (3) the hell
beings; the result of negative karma and each characterized by their
own particular sufferings. The vast majority of all sentient beings are
said to exist in the lower realms. See reincarnation; samsara.
Mahayana (Sanskrit; Great Vehicle). The path of the bodhisattva, the
goal of which is the enlightenment of a buddha; includes
Paramitayana and Vajrayana.
mantra. A series of Sanskrit words and/or syllables, some of which
are recited in conjunction with the practice of a particular deity that
are the verbal expression of the qualities of that deity.
meditation. In Tibetan, gom, to familiarize. A process of
familiarizing the mind with (1) that which is virtuous and (2) that
which is true. There are two types of formal meditation techniques
(taught in the Mahayana as the fifth and sixth of the six
perfections): the goal of the first, calm abiding, is to gain single-
380
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
pointed concentration; and the goal of the second, special insight (or
wisdom), is to gain a realization of emptiness, which is induced by
the concentrated mind precisely and logically analyzing, for example,
dependent arising. In Vajrayana, concentration by the yogi or
yogini on themselves as the deity is combined with insight into
emptiness. Realizations of any of the points of the path to
enlightenment can be gained by combining concentration and
analysis.
mental continuum. Mindstream. The beginningless and endless
continuity of mind of individual beings.
mental consciousness. The various conceptual states of mind as
well as subtle mind and extremely subtle mind. See five sense
consciousnesses; mental continuum.
mind. Consciousness. Defined as that which is formless, or clear, and
which can cognize or know; includes both mental consciousness and
the five sense consciousnesses. See beginningless; extremely subtle
body and extremely subtle mind; gross body and gross mind; mental
continuum; sentient being; subtle body; subtle mind.
morality. Virtue; ethical; positive action or thought. See positive
karma.
motivation. Usually used to refer to the attitude that underpins an
intention to think or do or say something: a negative motivation
causes the karma to be nonvirtuous and the result suffering, a
positive motivation causes the karma to be virtuous and the result
happiness. See negative karma; virtuous karma.
negative action. See negative karma.
negative karma. Negative action, negative karmas, nonvirtuous
action, nonvirtuous karma. With delusions, the main cause of
suffering. See purification.
nirvana (Sanskrit). See liberation.
nonvirtuous thought. A delusion, such as anger, jealousy,
arrogance, etc. See karma; motivation.
omniscience. See enlightenment.
381
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Pabongka Rinpoche (1871–1941). An influential Gelug lama of the

Me College of Sera Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet; the main guru of the
Senior and Junior Tutors of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Paramitayana (Sanskrit; Perfection Vehicle).
Perfection Vehicle (Sanskrit: Paramitayana). The Mahayana sutra
teachings.
purification. The weakening of negative karmas and imprints, often
accomplished by doing practices such as Vajrasttva and the Thirty-
five Buddhas in conjuction with the four opponent powers: (1) regret,
(2) reliance, (3) the remedy, and (4) resolve.
realization. An understanding of any of the points of the path to
enlightenment gained through the union of the two kinds of
meditation.
realms. See samsara.
rebirth. See reincarnation.
refuge. Heartfelt reliance upon the three jewels, Buddha, Dharma,
and Sangha, on the path to enlightenment.
reincarnation. Rebirth. The natural process of continuous birth and
death within the various realms of samsara that all sentient beings,
propelled by the force of their past karma, have been going through
since beginningless time and will go through until they achieve
liberation. Buddhas choose to be reborn in the various realms for the
benefit of others, for as long as suffering exists.
renunciation. The wish to be liberated from samsara, based on the
understanding that the happiness that comes from attachment is in
the nature of suffering, and that suffering is caused by karma and
delusions.
Rinpoche (Tibetan; Precious One). An honorific when addressing or
referring to reincarnated lamas and one’s own guru or other lamas.
samsara (Sanskrit; cyclic existence). Being caught up in the process
of death, the intermediate state, and rebirth in the desire, form, and
formless realms, propelled by past karma. Also used to refer to the
aggregates of a person going from one life to the next in the various
realms. See death process; ignorance; liberation; lower realms;
reincarnation.
382
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Sangha (Sanskrit; spiritual community). The third of the three jewels.

A group of at least four fully ordained Buddhist monks or nuns; often
refers to Buddhist monks and nuns in general.
seeds, karmic See imprints.
sense consciousness. See five sense consciousnesses.
sentient being. In Tibetan, sem-chen, mind-possessor. Refers to all
beings other than buddhas.
Shakyamuni Buddha (563–483BC). The fourth of the one thousand
founding buddhas of this present world age, Lord Buddha was born a
prince of the Shakya clan in North India, renounced his kingdom,
achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, and then taught the
paths to liberation and enlightenment until he passed away at the
age of eighty.
six perfections. Final stages of the bodhisattva path: (1) generosity,
(2) morality, (3) patience, (4) perseverance, (5) concentration, and
(5) wisdom, or realization of emptiness.
spirit. See lower realms.
subtle body. The system of channels, winds, and red and white drops
inextricably linked with the subtle mind. See death process;
extremely subtle body and extremely subtle mind; gross body and
gross mind.
subtle mind. The eighty superstitions and the minds of white
appearance, red appearance or red increase, and dark, or black,
appearance that occur during the final four stages of the death
process. See extremely subtle body and extremely subtle mind; gross
body and gross mind.
suffering. The various levels of experience of sentient beings in the
three realms of samsara, caused by karma and delusions: (1) the
suffering of suffering, (2) the suffering of change, and (3) pervasive,
compounded suffering. See ignorance.
sutra (Sanskrit). The Lesser Vehicle and Perfection Vehicle discourses
of Buddha; a scriptural text and the teachings and practices it
contains.
tantra (Sanskrit). The teachings and practices of the Vajrayana; a
text containing those teachings.
383
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Ten nonvirtuous actions. (1) killing, (2) stealing, (3) sexual

misconduct, (4) lying, (5) harsh speech, (6) divisive talk, (7) idle talk,
(8) craving, (9) ill-will, (10) wrong views.
true existence. See existing from its own side.
Vajrayana (Sanskrit). Tantra. The more advanced of the two stages of
the Mahayana path to enlightenment.
virtuous karma. Positive karma. An action of body, speech, or mind
driven by a positive motivation, which causes happiness.
virtuous thought. Positive thought. A virtuous state of mind such as
love, compassion, etc. See motivation.
vows of individual liberation (Sanskrit: pratimoksha).
winds. According to Vajrayana, various subtle air energies that flow
in the channels of the body, which enable the body to function and
which are associated with the different levels of mind – it is said that
“the mind rides on the winds” – and which, with the channels and
the drops, constitute the subtle body. See extremely subtle body and
extremely subtle mind; gross body and gross mind.
yogi and yogini (Sanskrit). Accomplished Vajrayana male and
female meditator respectively. See meditation.
384

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A VERY SIMPLE

LAMA THUBTEN YESHE, HIS HAND GESTURES SHOWING THAT HE IS SHAKYAMUNI

A ROUGHLY EDITED TRANSCRIPT, WITH SOME ADDITIONS,

PART ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE BUDDHIST

PART TWO THE PRELIMINARY CONTEMPLATIONS

PART THREE LOWER SCOPE/JUNIOR SCHOOL THE

PART FIVE GREAT SCOPE/UNIVERSITY THE ESSENCE OF

PART SIX TANTRA/POSTGRADUATE

PART SEVEN PUTTING IT ALL INTO PRACTICE

GLOSSARY OF TERMS 373

Sang-gyä chö-dang sog-kyi chog-nam-la

BUDDHISM: FROM INDIA TO TIBET

THE GRADUAL PATH

Buddha went as far as he could go and then diverged in his own

that we translate as sentient being but which literally means “mind-

GETTING RID OF THE NEGATIVE

DEVELOPING THE GOODNESS TO PERFECTION

WE’LL TOUCH THE SURFACE OF THE MAIN POINTS

books, but he took twenty-five years to teach it, twenty-five years!

A BIRD NEEDS TWO WINGS: WISDOM AND COMPASSION

THE MIND IS NOT PHYSICAL

SUBTLER LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

cognition, sort of like accessing the microscope of your mind, in order

OUR MIND IS NOT THE HANDIWORK OF A CREATOR, NOR

This consciousness is one’s own. This is something that gets deeper

MEDITATING ON BEGINNINGLESS MIND

MENTAL CONTINUUM, A RIVER OF MENTAL MOMENTS

MIND IS DRIVEN BY THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

MIND’S ULTIMATE NATURE

SPIRITUAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL: THE SAME

you’re being spiritual. If you’re practicing patience, practicing love,

BECOMING YOUR OWN THERAPIST

CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK

DON’T BELIEVE A WORD BUDDHA SAYS

CHECK IT, TEST IT

Buddha’s approach is exactly like the scientists’, which is a big

HEAR THE TEACHINGS AS PERSONAL ADVICE

THE THREE POTS

HEAR IT ALL AS ADVICE FOR YOURSELF

NOW GO INTO RETREAT MODE

SEE YOUR DREAMS AS DREAMS

WHEN YOU WAKE UP, DELIGHT THAT YOU’RE STILL

Jang-chhub sem-chhog rin-po-che

All right. Thank you, everybody! Good night!

Our lineage lama, the fourteenth century Lama Tsongkhapa, added to

HOW TO FIND A TEACHER

remember I went home to Melbourne to see my Mum and family and I

CHECK THE TEACHER’S QUALITIES

CHECK WITH THEIR PEERS

CHECK THEIR STUDENTS

YOU NEED TO BE CONFIDENT

And so to have a relationship with the person who embodies these

CHECK YOUR GURU VERY CAREFULLY – BECAUSE YOU’RE

based my choice of a teacher on the wrong things. I didn’t check

CONFIDENCE: “WITH FAITH”

HAVING FOUND A TEACHER, HOW TO DEVOTE ONESELF

QUESTION ABOUT FINDING A PATH

DELIGHT IN OUR FORTUNATE CONDITIONS