Teaching Dharma

Dagpo Rinpoche said:

Abandon causing others to give rise to non-devotion and careless conduct.
Abandon hiding your own mistakes and announcing others’ mistakes.

From Trulshik Rinpoche’s root guru Rungphu Sangye, whose monastery was behind Mount Everest:

Even if you are learned in Dharma,
Not being careful in foregoing negative karma:
This is the mistake of a religious person.

Even if you have received great instructions,
Not subduing your mental continuum:
This is the mistake of a religious person.

With skillful means praising yourself,
But with skillful means criticizing others:
This is the mistake of a religious person.

The Jewel Garland says:

In examining your own mistakes, be like a seeing eye;
In examining others’ mistakes, be like a blind eye.

Rungphu Sangye said:

Like that, even though there are now mountains of mistakes in your mental continuum, you don’t see them, but you pay attention to even the atoms of mistakes of others. You keep the works for self as the basis, accomplishing only the method of this life, but then say you are working for others.

In the past you didn’t check your conduct, and because of that you cheated yourself. Your promises are done in Dharma, but your practice is done in negative karma. That is what it is saying.

Therefore, all the time examine again and again your own mistakes, your own hallucinations, then abandon them. This is the practice of the Victor’s Sons, the bodhisattvas. By examining your mistakes, abandon them.

Dromtönpa said that the greatest obstacles for vows, or ordination, are alcohol and women. Here my advice is that for a man it can be both men and women, and for a woman it can also be both men and women. Alcohol is the same for both.

Why do the teachings talk more about the shortcomings of women? Because in India and Tibet in the past most of the disciples were monks. This is why the shortcomings of women are mentioned.

Kadampa Geshe Potowa said:

On the basis of no need, if you obey bad friends and follow the conduct of bad friends, then your plans for this life and future lives go wrong. If you become closer to a dog, it’s like becoming closer to a wound.

Potowa uses this example because a dog has so much infection that easily spreads.

Generally, if a Dharma practitioner, especially one who has renounced the householder life, becomes closer to a childish female (this refers to a childish motivation of clinging only to this life’s happiness), then in this life he becomes closer to a bad reputation, and in his future life closer to the evil-gone realms.

This applies especially to women who make offering not with the devotion seeing the guru as Buddha or with unconditional loving kindness, but with the condition of unbearable attachment, giving material presents with a show of being very happy and loving. At that time, without cheating yourself, you have to be careful and not let yourself be immediately under the control of a tsunami of attachment. If you are not careful, because of the person being so happy and loving, you will totally lose yourself. Then later you will face great difficulties in life.

Here I want to say something: When a woman becomes very attached to you and affectionate to you with desire, you need to pay close attention to that person. You need to be watching and protecting yourself like the police, like your guru, like your doctor, like your parents. You need to be like a psychologist to yourself, to help yourself. You have to behave like this toward yourself.

Kadampa Geshe Sharawa said:

Women increase the three delusions,
Degenerate the activities of listening, reflecting and meditating,
And make you lose loving kindness and compassion.
Abandoning evil friends is the practice of a bodhisattva.

So, now how do you run a center. It should be the same for any FPMT center, from the beginning up to now, from beginning to the end, until sentient beings achieve enlightenment.

It’s opened for the basic lamrim. Its opened for those who want to abandon the causes of suffering and be free from the lower realms and who want to achieve higher happiness. And it is opened for those who want to be free from samsara and achieve the everlasting, ultimate happiness of liberation and for those who want to be free from lower nirvana and achieve great liberation or enlightenment. It is opened for everyone.

Of course, when a particular group comes, you need to introduce Dharma in a skillful way to that group, but that's not for everybody. For example, somebody has generated renunciation, bodhicitta, right view, but teaching is only allowed for secular life. This is an example. There is nothing wrong with the FPMT center being open for everyone. Just teaching those living a secular life and being closed to everything else—where you cannot teach lamrim and all those three capable beings can’t come to listen to lamrim at the center—it is not for that.

I was thinking it’s good to teach for secular life, if you have to go to give a talk in a school or to some group that comes to the center. Then depending on that group, you need to teach the subject which needs to be revealed. You can do that, otherwise the center is kind of closed. His Holiness is not saying, “You can’t teach all other subjects.” He is not saying that.

Thank you very much. 

With much love and prayer ...

My most dear ones,
Thank you very much your kind letter. Yes, thank you for your clear report. Yes, of course, because people are beginners and also they don’t know all the sufferings of samsara, the different realms, that they have been in numberless times from beginningless rebirths and how they have suffered. They don’t remember it at all, and that they will have to suffer again if they don’t practice Dharma and don’t realize ultimate wisdom directly perceiving emptiness which sees delusions and karma, the cause of samsara.

So they have no idea of the past and future; the future they cannot see and the past they cannot remember. Their mind is so polluted, so obscured, unbelievably obscured, so ignorant, so ignorant. If they knew the past suffering of samsara—that they have gone through each realm’s suffering numberless times—then they could not waste even a minute of this life or even a second. They could not waste it at all, without practicing correct devotion to the virtuous friend, renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness, and of course tantra and Highest Yoga Tantra with all the benefits. We can achieve enlightenment in one life with Highest Yoga Tantra; in a brief lifetime of degenerate time we can achieve enlightenment.

So the people’s minds are totally distracted, occupied by distractions of this life, not just this life but attachment to this life, to the comfort of this life. If we accept intellectually past and future lives but we think all that is not of particular importance; that achieving happiness in the future is not so important, then it’s very hard. Even if we intellectually accept it, but we think it’s not very important; we think it is very unimportant and instead think about this life’s happiness and achieving that. We think that is the most important thing—to achieve what our self-cherishing thought wants is the most important thing in the life.

Even if only eight people are coming regularly, that is a great thing. You can’t expect lots of people coming; it’s not like when people come to watch bull fighting, putting the spear in the bull and moving the red flag. So don’t expect that many people who want to watch bull fighting will come to class. There are many things, totally meaningless things that people want to do more, things like bull fighting that cause unbearable suffering, particularly to the bulls.

So eight people attending the Basic Program, that is great, and if people continue, it’s possible they will slowly develop, then slowly more people may come. That is very good, but it’s a higher subject so people might not understand, people might think like that.

Basically it all depends on the merits, how great the merits, and collecting the necessary conditions, the merits for success by the center. When I was there, I was thinking what pujas could be done but I don’t remember if I gave the advice and if so, whether the pujas were done or not.

Among the gurus, Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche was the only one who said don’t lose the centers, but of course we did lose a few centers, four or five a long time ago. Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche advised that six or seven years ago, before he passed away.

Recently I was in Mongolia and Russia. In Mongolia around 1,500 people came to the teachings and then Russia, in Kalmykia, I was invited by Telo Rinpoche. I don’t think you know him, he is supposed to be the incarnation of Tilopa and he is the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Russia. He is the main person who builds the temples in Kalmykia. The first temple was a small one, then the second and third one were bigger. He built them and he inspired the people, so he let many people, as they are Buddhist, be involved in the building of the monasteries and also the statues, so then the people have an incredible opportunity and such an easy way to collect merit and purify and so forth. A long time ago he was at Drepung Gomang Monastery, but he disrobed a long time ago.

He told me when Jhado Rinpoche (ex-abbott of Namgyal Monastery) was there, Rinpoche was giving an initiation and fire puja, and they advertised it quite well but not many people came. Then another lama who was very learned in his past life came from Nepal and did a long-life initiation, and because of past life karma so many people came. He was surprised that during my time in Kalmykia around 1,500 people attended. In Russia there were about eight hundred people. I told Telo Rinpoche that being extremely learned in Dharma is not the only thing; you have to have karma with people. That’s what I said.

I remember when Kyabje Khunu Lama Rinpoche talked in Ladakh* he always began by saying that other religions, Hinduism etc, have mistakes and the Buddha’s teachings are so perfect compared to other religions; the Buddha’s teachings are so perfect. He always started like that in public, so I heard gradually people left the teachings.

There was a couple who lived in Dharamsala and then went to live in Hawaii. They lived in Dharamsala when Lama was in Dharamsala the last time, then they left and offered land in Hawaii to start a center. Lama never went there but I went twice, I think. One time I went to visit the center, the first teaching was in the city, they arranged the talk and many people came, but after that there was going to be a two-day teaching on their land. They had a small house on the land and the teachings were going to be in the small house that they had built. I slept in their house, not in the small house, which was for the teachings,

So when the time came for the two-day teachings, nobody came. I gave two days’ teachings to him and his wife and one of their friends and Roger. The husband was a very good carpenter. He made the best altar and around the altar were all the cupboards to put damarus and bells and things you get from Dharamsala, but it didn’t look ugly, it looked all neat.

The conclusion is, as you know, do everything with a bodhicitta motivation, a good heart; do the teachings and do the works for the center for everybody as much as possible.

I have an incredible quotation on teaching Dharma to even one being, but I could not find it in my notes, so when I find it I will send it to you.

The best happiness of life, contentment, everything, patience, everything, dealing with a hard life, everything is best with bodhicitta, living your life with the ultimate good heart, bodhicitta, even if it’s not the realization but effortful bodhicitta. Then there is not only happiness in this life and even at the deathtime. There is happiness up to enlightenment and this causes enlightenment—the cessation of all mistakes of mind, all obscurations, and the completion of all the realizations—in order to free the numberless sentient beings from each realm from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to buddhahood, peerless happiness, the cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations.

Please give those people my best wishes, greetings and love.

With much love and prayers ...

* [Note: Khunu Lama Rinpoche's biographies do not mention a journey to Ladakh. This could be a reference to teachings given to Ladakhis in northern India or at the Ladakh Budh Vihar in Delhi.]

My very dear one,
I received your very well-written letter, not only with very nice handwriting, but also the subject is very well laid out. Yes, it is a very pleasant letter.

I’m not a buddha with all the qualities, but you have lived a good life as a monk, with good conduct.

Yes, it is OK to go to teach, but check at the same time how it is going; if it is benefiting others.

Lamrim is the best teaching, so you can teach lamrim and Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, that itself has the commentary of Jorchö. There may be other commentaries separately, but they don’t explain lamrim. Here it explains the preliminary Jorchö.

It’s very good teaching, in order to enlighten sentient beings, to free every person from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, and not only that, to bring them to the perfect state, peerless happiness—the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

We have our center there also, and it has very good people. There are many very good members who have been doing courses for quite a number of years with different Sangha. I gave talks there on patience for three days—for the center and of course for anyone who comes along.

Last time I went for picnic—that was my suggestion—to meet everyone, all the ex-Kopan monks and nuns. There are about eighty in New York, and now some ex-nuns have babies. During the picnic I gave the oral transmission of Arya Sanghata Sutra to help them collect merit.

On the second and third picnic more people came and I met them. Many had sicknesses and at the end I wanted to give oral transmission of Calling the Guru from Afar, but there was no time. There were a few babies, so I talked about how to make the babies’ lives meaningful. There is a huge difference [for the children] having Buddhist parents, so I explained this, but because they had to work the next day, I had to stop teaching.

I brought three thangkas, but I didn’t get to explain how precious they are—not because of the art but because they are holy objects. Just seeing them is unbelievable purification, so I brought these three thangkas and they hung behind me. Maybe they thought I brought them for tradition, because I didn’t get to explain how precious they are.

Thank you very much for all your service for so many years. Thank you very much.

With prayers ...

Teaching comes out a little bit better. Teach mainly lamrim, that’s the main thing, and with all the teachings do it with bodhicitta. Emphasize bodhicitta, which should be the main thing to be achieved in this life. Teach and live your life with bodhicitta as much as possible, so everything is done with bodhicitta motivation.

It comes out most beneficial for you to teach. Even for the very new people the emphasis should be on the good heart, helping others, not only human beings—sometimes it seems as if we are always talking about human beings—but even the animals, the insects. For example, not stepping over ants, not fishing, so to stop giving harm to sentient beings.

Then they will have a long life and naturally you will have a long life and success, and all your wishes will succeed, not only in this life, but for many tens of thousands of millions of future lives. So the result goes like this. Your wishes will succeed if you benefit others, therefore you should benefit others as much as you can.

When you teach a course the aim is enlightenment, so even though the subject is the four foundations of mindfulness, the main emphasis should be sem sang-po, the good heart, so people understand that the aim of life is to benefit others. Even though the subject may be the path of the lower capable being, you have to lead the people so they understand they should benefit others. You can begin the subject with the path of the lower capable being, but the aim is to lead them to enlightenment, to benefit sentient beings.

You have to understand how the lam- rim is set up. It has great, great, great meaning. Even though actual bodhicitta comes later, the motivation even from the beginning should be to lead all sentient beings to enlightenment, so it’s very important to understand that eating, sleeping and walking is for others. Otherwise people finish the course and it’s just for themselves.

There is Dharma and not Dharma; [it’s important to understand] what benefits this life, future lives, liberation and enlightenment. The whole course should be going in the direction of benefiting others, whatever the subject is. Then this way there is a connection with the life they are going to live in the West after the course, because that work is now going to be for others. Otherwise if they do the course for themselves the difference is that it’s just for this life or future lives, it doesn’t become a big thing to benefit others.