“གསུམ་པ་སྤྱོད་ལམ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ལ་བསླབ་སྟེ། ཟས་ཟན་ཡང་རང་བབས་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་ཟ།”
“sum pa chö lam na tsok la lap té zé zen yang rang bap kyi ngang né za”
And just like that, whatever you consume also having some sort of awareness along with it. So that’s something very important.
And I think all of us we talk a lot about “being Buddhist and how to be Buddhist and how not to be a bad Buddhist”. We talk a lot about that. Everybody discuss about, you know, the nature of the mind and “how to be a bodhisattva and loving to all” and all sort of imaginary world, you know, very unrealistic. We have a lot of ideas about how Buddhist should be and should not be and so on, everybody start arguing about everything.
But the first step about being Buddhist is to have a control, not really control, but to have awareness of what we consume. If you don’t have a control of what you put here then you don’t have a control of your life. So what you consume, what you put in your body has to be the first discipline and the first sort of awareness. And that is very important.
In Taranatha’s teaching, in LamRim the “Essence of Ambrosia”, Taranatha he said: “if you have awareness of what you consume, if you have awareness of what you consume, not how you consume, it’s about what you consume, and then you have awareness of your mind. If you have awareness of your mind then you will create a natural solitude mindset. Once you have a natural solitude mindset, some sort of a renunciation attitude will develop. Once you have this kind of a solitude and renunciation attitude is developed, and then desire to be in a solitude retreat and practice, not isolation, a solitude retreat, that desire will strengthened by itself”. You understand?.
So it’s not like you take what you like. You know? It has a natural reaction to it. Many people they like to take what they want, we have so much habit into that. So in the spirituality, it doesn’t work like that. So that’s that.
“ཟས་ཟན་ཡང་རང་བབས་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་ཟ།”
“zé zen yang rang bap kyi ngang né za”
Even you’re consuming, then I mean some people who pretend to be monk, so much you know? They like to eat like this, little bit like a robot. And that’s just pure acting. I don’t call that proper behavior, that is just pretentious, like pretending to be something very pure. That is utter BS.
You consume normal but then you have a sense of awareness with what you when are consuming, with a sense of awareness and sense of appreciation, instead of grasping sensation. So that is called:
“ཟས་ཟན་ཡང་རང་བབས་ཀྱི་ངང་ནས་ཟ།”
“zé zen yang rang bap kyi ngang né za”
Even you consume, you consume in a moderate, you know, how do I say, natural attitude. And then just like that if you’re walking, then with the sense of awareness. And then whatever you talk or say, you also have, you need to apply the awareness.
“གཏམ་སྨྲ་ན་ཡང་རང་བབས་ཀྱིས་ངང་ནས་མ་བྲལ་བར་བྱ་སྟེ།”
“tam ma na yang rang bap kyi ngang né ma drelwar ja té”
Whatever the discussion or topic may be. I like to talk bad about other people, only when I have overwhelming evidence. Until then, even somebody says “this is bad person or terrible person” I say “Ok let’s see”. You know? I always do that. But then when I see overwhelming fact, then I have no guilt of talking of what that person did or said or done. Until then, whatever you hear from others said, then you say “Ok I see, Ok, I understand, I agree with you, yes, yes” so then you kind of. You don’t have to say “I’m so kind, I’m so bodhisattva about it.” You know? you just be neutral. And then when you find overwhelming fact and evidence with your first hand … information, then even if it’s is a negative, some sort of negativeness, you can more or less say it. Until then, I don’t like to talk about, I don’t talk bad about other people. If there’s something bad they have done, based on the fact I have accumulated, then that is the fact I ’will just repeat a little bit here and there. So therefore, I think it’s very important for ourselves to have some sort of awareness as well in that regard.
“གཏམ་སྨྲ་ན་ཡང་རང་བབས་ཀྱིས་ངང་ནས་མ་བྲལ་བར་བྱ་སྟེ། དང་པོར་སྒྲིམ་མི་དགོས་པར་དོ་གལ་ཆུང་བ་རྣམས་ལ་སྦྱངས་པས་མཐར་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་འབྱོངས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།”
“tam ma na yang rang bap kyi ngang né ma drelwar ja té dang por drim mi gö par do gel chungwa nam la jang pé tar tam ché la jong pa yin no”
And then this is a very important teaching. Taranatha he said: “first try to apply all this awareness with a very small matter, not an important matter, very small matter. Then increase this matter to the important matter gradually over the time.” You understand? Remember I said in the morning, when I talked about the renunciation, like don’t try to get approval from the public, that you ’are renounced!. You know? Don’t do that. If you do that, then you’ll go backward afterwards. If you renounced gradually then you’ll never have to go backward and forward, back and forth. So that’s that. So that why Taranatha he says very clearly, try to focus this meditation method, that skillful method, small matters. Not so much emotionally linked to your heart. Small matters and then gradually, even you can expand that. Okay?
Maybe it does not require so much strength from your mind, you know? Like that sort of a small matter. You may not exhaust yourself. You know? You may not need to lead yourself to the exhaustion. You know? So try to practice with the small matter, small renunciation, with a small awareness for the less important matter. And then eventually reaching, and completing all of it.
“འབྱོངས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། དེ་བཞིན་དུ་བདེ་སྡུག་ དགའ་མི་དགའ། ཡང་བག་ཚ་ངོ་ཚ་སྐྱུག་བྲོ་སོགས་མཐོ་དམན་གྱི་རྣམ་རྟོག་སྐྱེ་བའི་ཡུལ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་རང་བབས་སུ་བསྲེས་ཀྱིན་སྦྱང་། ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་སྔར་ལྟར་དགེ་སྦྱོར་གྱི་ངང་དུ་ཚུད་འོང་སྟེ་དམིགས་སྐོར་བཅུ་གཅིག་པའོ།”
“jong pa yin no dé zhin du dé duk ga mi ga yang bak tsa ngo tsa kyuk dro sok to men gyi nam tok kyewé yül tam ché la rang bap su sé kyin jang tam ché kyang ngar tar gé jor gyi ngang du tsü ong té mik kor chu chik pao”
So that’s the eleventh cycle. So that’s that.
“དེ་ལྟར་ན་ཞ་གནས་ལ་དམིགས་སྐོར་བཅུ་གཅིག་གོ།”
“dé tar na zha né la mik kor chu chik go”
So these are the steps, these are the eleven steps of the calm abiding meditation. Okay? So that’s that.
3. Joining Meditation with Various Ordinary Activities – Eleventh Meditation
When eating, eat within natural repose; when walking, train in the same way. When talking, don’t become separate from this natural repose. Begin with light loads that do not provoke any tension in you. Once you’re used to them, you can train in any circumstance.
Thereby, continually train by joining your meditation with anything that causes any positive or negative thought—pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow, fear, worry, embarrassment, disgust, etc.
Everything will become included in your practice of virtue.
These are the eleven meditations of tranquility.
༄༅། །ཕྱག་ཆེན་གའུ་མའམ་རང་བབས་རྣམ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་བཞུགས་སོ།།
“phyag chen ga’u ma’am rang babs rnam gsum zhes bya ba’i khrid”
Instructions for Great Seal of the Amulet Box or The Three Facets of Natural Repose
by Taranata
Niguma’s “Amulet Mahamudra” by Kalu Rinpoche (afternoon session – 29′ 27”)
Kagyu Sukha Chöling – Friday March 11, 2022
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