Dromtonpa; Searching For the I

So, that is the attitude to practice tantra, the secret mantra, Vajrayana.

So the Vajrayana practice is based on Mahayana, so it has to be Mahayana. The best one, having realization of bodhicitta, then practice tantra. If not, then at least some feeling, some wish to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, able to generate some wish to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings by reasoning that how sentient beings are suffering, by generating compassion to them, and how sentient beings they’re most precious, most kind, and how much they’re suffering, so generating loving kindness and compassion to them. So by reasoning that you feel, the thought to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings arises when you, by reasoning, those things. So that’s called effortful bodhicitta, jang chub sem ?cho ?min, effortful, uncreative, effortful bodhicitta. Yeah, that one is, sorry, that one is the actual realization of bodhicitta, that without need to think of the reason, need to build up the reason, how sentient beings are suffering, how they’re kind and all that, and that you have responsibility to liberate them from all the suffering and to bring to enlightenment.

So without thinking of all these reasons, twenty-four hours spontaneously you feel, the wish to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, like the mother who has a beloved child and her beloved child fell in the fire, fell in the river and being drowned or fell in the fire, and so the mother twenty-four hours, she will, spontaneously rises, so strongly rises this thought to liberate her child from being burned by fire or being drowned in the water. So, whatever the mother does, eating food or walking, talking, constantly that thought is there and even that to do by oneself. So like that, to free the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment, twenty-four hours this thought spontaneously rising and then without thinking of any reason of their kindness, their suffering, without thinking of any of those reasons, and then thought oneself to achieve enlightenment spontaneously rising, without any effort. So that’s ?cho min, uncreative bodhicitta.

The other one, what I mentioned before, at least we should have. Even we don’t have actual realization, but at least we should a feeling or thought, a wish to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings. Rising this when you think of all those reasons, how sentient beings are so kind, so precious, all those, and then how much they’re suffering, under the control of karma and delusion, all that. Then, that I’ve the responsibility, that’s my turn, I have the responsibility to do all the, to free them from all the suffering and causes and to bring to enlightenment by myself. So I’m going to do it by myself, feeling this, taking the total responsibility on yourself. Then for that, then to achieve enlightenment. So this thought, feeling from the heart, but through reasons, through reasoning, so that’s the ?chö ma, it’s called ?chö ma, jang chub sem ?chö ma, so thought rising, wishing to achieve enlightenment by reasoning, so the creative bodhicitta, or the effortful bodhicitta.

So anyway, so at least ?chö ma jang chub, in the teachings of lamrim, there it says, to practice Vajrayana at least must, should have that, jang chub sem ?chö ma ?chun tse, it means at least by reasoning then you feel to achieve, I must achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.

So, anyway, so this becomes just side-talk. Just, I just went all over. [laughter] I just went , yeah…. So, I’m going back to Tibet. [laughter]

So what I was going to tell before, sorry. So Lama Atisha’s [laughter] the translator, Dromtönpa, embodiment of Chenrezig.  So, served Lama Atisha, because I mentioned that you, by purifying the mind then able to remember so much, able to see, discover so many things, it’s like one example I gave of the methods, doing service to the guru, so therefore, here’s just one example. There are many stories, but….

So, Dromtönpa, so Lama Atisha, when Lama Atisha was in Tibet, so Lama Atisha took the aspect of sickness, so like didn’t have control over the poo-poo, didn’t have control over poo-poo, [laughter] that name which I learnt just recently, [laughter] poo-poo, didn’t have control over, Lama Atisha took the aspect of sickness, then didn’t have control over poo-poo and urine. So Dromtönpa, not only he translated for Lama Atisha but he offered service day and night, looked after Lama Atisha. Cleaned the kaka, poo-poo, with his hands, so offered service day and night, offered his life, sacrificed, dedicated. Because, offered to the guru, who is the most powerful object of merit, so, highest object, the most powerful object of collecting merit and purification, with whom one can purify the most defilements.

So while he was doing this service, then suddenly, cleaning the poo-poo and all these things, so suddenly Dromtönpa he can see, suddenly he got this clairvoyance, fore-seeing knowledge that his mind become so clear, can see, can read even the insects, not only people, but up to eighteen days from where they are, when the eagle flies, which takes eighteen days for eagle by flying, so eighteen days, so that means very far, which takes eighteen days for an eagle to fly, so up to that much, not only people but insects, ant, not aunty, [laughter] ant. [laughter] Ant, those tiny insects. He can read, suddenly he achieved this, the fore-knowledge, fore-seeing knowledge, can see every insect’s mind, up to that much distance that an eagle by flying takes eighteen, not walking [laughter] by flying [laughter] takes eighteen days.  1, 8. So, eighteen days. So suddenly while he’s serving, cleaning, his guru Lama Atisha’s the kaka, poo-poo, all this.

And then [pause], so then so like that. It’s very, most powerful, the guru devotion practice that Dromtönpa did, not only translating but doing services, cleaning, all this, taking care, looking after Lama Atisha, so it purified so much defilements, the pollutions, the obscurations, so mind become so clear. So that means, we have to understand, the potential is there, potential is there, but there’s temporary obscurations, depend on what we do with our body, speech and mind, how we think, mistaken way of thinking and wrong actions, mistaken way of thinking, then pollute, obscure our mind. But here, like Dromtönpa, Lama Atisha’s translator in Tibet, so with his devotion, strong devotion, then offered service then become most powerful purification. So the realization, because all the potential is there, so the realization [snaps fingers], the clarity of the mind, the realization, all those, all other realizations, so all those qualities of mind [snaps fingers] happens. When the obstacle went away, it’s there.

So question about enlightenment is, the question is, the mirror which is covered by dust, it’s a question of wiping out the dust, so then can reflect everything. That small mirror can reflect all the billions of things like in the supermarket, all those, if they put the mirror there they can see everything, all that, who is taking, who is stealing. [laughter] Anyway,  who’s doing what. [laughter] So our mind is like that. There’s everything, the potential, but just need purification. So the people who have a clear mind, a lot of memories, that means can see future, past, all the things, because of that, less pollution, less defilements. So by actualizing the path, higher and higher path then able to see more past and able to see more future, then also the others’ mind or greater distance can see more and more.

And also one day, Lama Atisha has one disciple called Gönpawa, Kadampa Geshe Gönpawa. So Kadampa Geshe Gönpawa he spent time in meditation. So one day Kadampa Geshe Gönpawa thought, Oh, I have a lot of time to meditate, so Dromtönpa so busy translating for Lama Atisha, so he wouldn’t have realization. And the cook, Lama Atisha’s cook, I thought this was a nun but actually I don’t think, I made a mistake, it wasn’t a nun. So A-me, it is called A-me Jangchub so from the name I thought it’s a nun, but however I was wrong. So Ribur Rinpoche clarifies it’s a monk. So Ribur Rinpoche always call Roger, A-me Jangchub, Ribur Rinpoche always called Roger Jangchub, A-me Jangchub, Lama Atisha’s cook. 

So anyway,  then the Gönpawa thought, A-me Jangchub, the Lama Atisha’s cook is only busy cooking, and the translator Dromtönpa always busy translating, no time to meditate. I have so much time to meditate, I must have higher realizations than them. So then the Dromtönpa, when he was thinking this, Dromtönpa realized, Dromtönpa saw what he was thinking, the Kadampa Geshe Gönpawa. Then one day he called Gönpawa and Dromtönpa and the cook, A-me Jangchub. Then Lama Atisha let them to sit, all three in front of them. Then he checked who has higher realization. Then he found out, Lama Atisha found out  no way to compare Gönpawa’s, no way to compare to Dromtönpa’s realizations. Dromtönpa’s realizations are far more higher, generally much higher, compared to Gönpawa, who always try and meditate. Then compared to the cook, the cook is always busy cooking,  so then even the cook’s realization is much higher than [laughter] the one, Gönpawa, always, he thought he has plenty of time to meditate so, I must have higher realizations than them. So when Lama Atisha checked, even the cook’s realization is higher than Gönpawa’s. [laughter]

So also, Pabongka, the author of the Liberation in the Palm in Your Hand, there’s one attendant, who was at Buxa. So when he was in Tibet, when this attendant was in Tibet with the Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, who’s the author of the great lamrim commentary, the Liberation in the Palm in Your Hand, so Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo told this monk, told this attendant, that, this attendant didn’t know how to read and write, besides doesn’t know how to write, can’t read Tibetan text, can’t read texts, he didn’t learn, he didn’t learn the alphabet. But Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo told him, because you are doing service to me, in the future you will be able to read texts by yourself without nobody teaching, Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, the author of the Liberation, told him, in Tibet.

Then when he came to Buxa, when he escaped from Lhasa, Buxa, where I lived eight years, which was concentration camp, where Mahatma Gandhi-ji was imprisoned and Prime Minister Nehru were imprisoned during British times there. So, this Lama Lhundrup told me. So Lama Lhundrup, this attendant, Pabongka’s attendant, and Lama Yeshe and there are a few lamas, the reincarnation of the previous, the reincarnation of the author of the text, Liberation in the Palm in Your Hand, the great enlightened being’s reincarnation, passed away in India, right after geshe, did geshe examination then passed away. So they were living one place way up there on the sloping hill, way up there. So the Buxa, the concentration camp, here, the monastery, I mean, after the monks came it became a monastery, but no change outside, same, all the barbed wires and buildings the same, then monks doing puja, the practice, debate, everything.

So anyway you go down and then go up, then there’s the Sikh, Indian Sikh man, not sick, but the Sikh. [laughter] Punjabi, Sikh. [laughter] Not a sick person but a Punjabi. Who was a general in the second world war or something, so he was the head of the, looking after us, the 5,500 monks anyway. So his house is there, so then you go up, then there’s a few houses that in British time I think maybe the staff, maybe they lived there, better condition house. So there is the most outstanding, the most learned, one of the most learned geshes from Tibet, who was abbot from Tibet, and he was abbot for a long time in Buxa, so Geshe Sopa’s teacher there, Geshe Urgyen Tseten, Geshe Ngawang Dhargaye’s, the Adelaide geshe, ex-abbot, Geshe ?Losang _______. No, no, sorry, I made a mistake. So this geshe, the very famous geshe’s Losang Wangchuk, so he lived there. Then this side of the house, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, my first teacher, who taught, who begin the du-ra, the first, the beginning of the Buddhist philosophy. Then, other house, Geshe Doga’s teacher, Geshe Urgyen Tseten and then the Adelaide, the ex-abbot, then Geshe Doga, Geshe Ngawang Dhargaye, they lived there. Then you go up, then there’s this house where the great enlightened being, Pabongka, author of Liberation in the Palm in Your Hand, his incarnation, who passed away in India, that and then ?geshe’s student, Lama Yeshe, then Lama Lhundrup and the attendant was there.

So the attendant was also past life Pabongka but also attendant of this, the one who passed away in India. So what happened was, during that time because he offered service for a long time, so as Pabongka, the past life, author of Liberation in the Palm, predicted that without nobody teaching you’ll be able to read the prayer, able to read the letters of texts. So exactly happened. So at Buxa he was able to, one day he’s able to read the Lama Chöpa, Guru Puja, with nobody teaching able to read.  So, Lama Lhundrup they lived together there, so Lama Lhundrup told me. So I know also this attendant, Jamyang, his name is Jamyang something, served for many years.

So you can purify the mind, here with the most powerful holy object, the guru, can purify the mind without need other, so once the defilements, which obscures to discover the things, so then you can see, because the mind has all the potentials, so it shows that. Yeah. [pause]

Anyway, I don’t know where, somehow I lost my talk. [laughter] Yeah, so anyway, so going back. I think I was trying to give some idea of this, these verses, the extremely powerful verses, this kar ma rab rib mar me dang, gyu ma zil pa chhu bur dang, mi lam log dang trin ta bur, dü jä chhö nam di tar ta. So it’s a very powerful meditation. Even you just do this meditation every day, especially when you have so much problem in the life, relationship problem or whatever problem, so much emotional problem that tortures you so much, that unable to do, that tortures you so much, that makes the mind kind of sick, even the body, makes the mind so sick and then the body, affects the body, can’t do anything, so depressed, can’t do anything or can’t communicate well to the people when you talk, because focusing on your problem, can’t communicate well, can’t express well, can’t enjoy the life and can’t do properly the work, the job, teaching or something. So however, anyway, turmoil, there’s turmoil, like a war, inside your mind, in your life there’s war, like the outside, war or there’s a tsunami in your mind. [laughter] Attachment tsunami, tsunami of attachment. [laughter] Took over!  Can’t get up,  very strong tsunami of attachment came, took over, so you’re completely covered by the big water of the tsunami of the attachment, the ocean water. Or anger or jealous mind or pride.

So anyway, just to give some idea, yeah, so I gave that, just some example there, how to analyze and what is emptiness, what is the very ultimate nature of the noodle. [laughter] So, anyway, it’s the same thing that, I related with the example, noodle, but it’s the same thing with the I, the self. So like this, yeah, so just brief, to get some idea of the meditation.

So, [pause] so what I was talking before, this belief a hundred percent there’s I inside this body, okay, inside the chest. No doubt! No doubt. But if you look for where is it exactly in the chest, or on the aggregates, association of the body and mind or collections of the five aggregates, aggregate of form, feeling, cognition, compounding aggregates and then aggregate of consciousness. So, collections of the five. So, on this collection of the five aggregates or the collection of the body and mind, can’t find, can’t find anywhere. And, if the inside of this body you look for, can’t find anywhere. In this bumping heart, can’t find there, inside of that heart or anywhere. If you look inside the chest, the inside of this part of the body if you look, where is it? Can’t find, at all.

So, if you can’t find this I, this I that we have been believing every day, so if you cannot find in the body, where we believe there is, so how can you find outside? It’s impossible! No way you can find. As I often say, from the tip of the hairs down to the toes, nowhere, nowhere, outside, inside, nowhere you can find this I. So you look for money in your purse and you don’t find, that means there’s no money there.  So, same, [laughter] so you believe my friend is in the house, then you look in the house, everywhere, so couldn’t find. That means friend doesn’t exist there. So same, look for the I, then don’t find there, it means it doesn’t exist, doesn’t exist. So if you can’t find inside where you believe that there is all the time, day and night, all the time, hundred percent believing it’s there inside this body, when you don’t find there, how you can find outside? So it exists nowhere.

So that is extremely important meditation, extremely important discovery. In reality, in Buddhism or in reality, the most important discovery, if you want to be free from suffering, if one has wish to be free from suffering, free from death, you don’t want any more, you don’t want to die again and again, then that means you have to stop reincarnating again and again. If you don’t want to become old, you don’t want to experience old age, you don’t want to look old,  you don’t want to go through this, you don’t like to go through this life experience, this old age, sicknesses, the relationship problems, first of all, worries, fears, unable to find the object of desire, whether it’s a material possession or friend, companion, so unable to find, worry, fear. Then after one has found, after one has met, then there’s, then another problem started which you didn’t have before, that when you didn’t have that object  you didn’t have that problem. So, after meeting, after having found that object, the material possession or the friend, companion, then there’s worry, fear, to lose, to separate, there’s worry, fear, to separate, to lose, when it’s a material possession, there’s worry, fear to, that others taking away or losing. There’s so many, taxation and there’s worry, fear to lose and other people stealing, and there’s so many things after one has achieved that wealth. There’s so many problems, which you didn’t have before. [laughter] So worry, fears, what to do with it, after you’ve got it. Then that’s also with the friend, then the new problem started which you didn’t have before. So separation and doesn’t like me, doesn’t love me and all that. So anyway, there’s so many new problems.

Then, all these problems, relationship problems, so at the beginning one has a dream, one has all these dreams, fantasy, that it’s going to be unbelievable, all my problems will be stopped. [laughter] If I can live with this person, can meet, then no problem, everything’s, all the problems go, ?never ?think there will be a problem, all the problems gone, there will be only bliss. There will be only bliss.  So, all this expectation. All this visualization. Visualization of this, all this special projection, all these expectations.

Then, after one has met, then have to live together. Then one day goes, two days go, one week goes, two weeks go, then the fantasy, then gradually the interest loses, as the days go, as the weeks go, then find more and more mistakes, the attitude is selfish and this and that, then find more and more mistakes. Then, the mistakes of the mind, all those things, and the shortcomings of the body, as well, then as time goes. However, then, start to, sooner or later start to, then too selfish mind, of course, no way to get along, no way, too selfish mind. So anyway, so as the days go, weeks go, then sooner or later start to fight, quarrel, quarrel, then fight, then after some time become completely got bored, completely got bored. At the beginning you dream to meet, you dream to meet this person, to be with, unbelievable. So there’s all this worry, fear, to not meet, not meeting and not able to live together. Now, so now, all this, then gradually find more and more mistakes  and then become more and more uninteresting, then become object, just the person being there in the house, annoying. [laughter] Annoying, now become a problem. [laughter] Now you think, Oh, what great peace if I can be alone! [laughter] What incredible peace! Now the dream is different. [laughter] At the beginning, you have so much worry, fear, unable to see this person. [laughter] Now here you hate to see the person. [laughter] You wish, pray, wish the person’s not there. [laughter] If you don’t have to see the person, big relief or big peace, liberation. [laughter]

So anyway, this is the nature of samsara. So what I was saying, so, if you don’t want, yeah, so if we don’t want all these problems we should stop reincarnating. [laughter] Reincarnating in samsara. Samsara reincarnation, reincarnating without freedom, under the control of karma and delusions, so we should stop this. If you don’t want to suffer all this then the solution is to stop this, okay.