Sep 16

Kalu Rinpoche | Stages in the Path of Illusion | Lesson 1 (Part 12)

So now your university task is coming.

We have some negative qualities. So what are our negative qualities?

Our negative qualities are ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་གི་དྲི་མ་ལྔ།, means the five opposite qualities. We have five opposite qualities that we have to overcome over time.

So what are the five opposite qualities that we should overcome?

First,

ཚེ་འདི་ལ་མངོན་པར་ཞེན་པའི་དྲི་མ།

It means justifying our life, our current life. Like, extreme attachment to our life. And justifying everything. We say, ‘Oh, yeah, but that’s my life.’ You know. I say ‘Okay, you can do that. You should not kill others, you should not harm others.’ Then you say ‘Oh, yeah, but that’s my life.’ A little bit like justifying your waste of time.

Second,

ལམ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ལ་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས་པའི་དྲི་མ།

Having absolute no understanding, and no belief towards the cause and effect. When I say cause and effect, it doesn’t mean like some kind of interesting energy and changing your life and destiny and things like that. That’s not karma we are talking about.

When we talk about karma, it means when you commit such harmful things, it harms the other sentient beings, it ruins other people’s life, it destroys the other person’s livelihood, such as like that it has a chain reaction. So having that kind of a karmic understanding.

First is justifying our life and wasting our time. Second is justifying our harmful act to others. it’s more or less that. Or not believing the karma. Let’s put it like this if more religious.

Third,

འཁོར་བ་ལ་བདེ་བར་འཛིན་པའི་དྲི་མ།

Means the cycle of suffering. ‘There is happiness in life. You should be happy in life. I know Buddhism is important. I know you’re a Buddhist. But the life is more than that.’ That is justifying the roaming of the samsara. Roaming means the moment in our samsara, justifying our action, our lifestyle of the samsara. ‘I understand you are Buddhist. But you should do it a bit of this. It is absolutely fine.’ Trying to convince others or yourself you.

Forth,

རང་དོན་ལ་གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པའི་དྲི་མ།

Means self-importance above all. Myself importance, myself importance, nobody else, myself importance.

Fifth,

དངོས་པོ་དང་མཚན་མ་ཡང་དག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པའི་དྲི་མའོ།

And then, also having a fixation mind. Attachment, fixation mind.

ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པའི་རྟོགས་པ་ཡང་ལྔ་སྟེ།

So, what are the five positive qualities? We talked about the five opposite qualities and then now what are the genuine five qualities?

The five genuine qualities are :

ཚེ་འདི་ལས་ཕྱི་མ་གལ་ཆེ་བར་རྟོགས་པ། ལས་འབྲས་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པར་རྟོགས་པ།

The future life is more important than this life. And the second, understand and believe the cause and effect. Therefore, I must practice it now in this life.

Like Milarepa. Whether he killed his relatives with his own hand or with a black magic, doesn’t matter, he did, okay? And he could not live with that guilt. And he wanted to practice Dharma for his own liberation. And then he received the teachings from the Marpa Lozawa, then became a legendary figure.

Like an example, Khyungpo Naljor, he was in his 50s. He came to India. The first word he said to his guru, the abbot of the Bodhgaya he said, ‘I’m not afraid of this life, death. I’m afraid of my next life. Because I may not know where I will be born. The things that I may commit such wrong action to harm others.

འཁོར་བ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དུ་རྟོགས་པ།

And seeing the samsara as it is. That’s the Third one.

རང་དོན་བས་གཞན་དོན་གཅེས་པ་རྟོགས་པ།

Self-importance, but other people’s happiness for more importance.

དོན་དམ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་དུ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་སྒྱུ་མར་རྟོགས་པའོ། །

And then also understanding the ultimate truth and the relative truth.

So that’s it. So now, I will ask you that question next time.Okay? And then at least I know that you are committed and dedicated. So I will ask what are the opposite qualities? And what are the not opposite qualities? So that’s the question I’ll ask you for the next time.

So that’s it. So, we have reached to the page number 446. You keep that in mind please, everybody. So that I will not make a mistake.

Okay, so I think I will say thank you to everybody, to our online volunteers and translators and lamas here and to all our participants in Asia and South America and Europe and North America and the rest of Asia. I want to say thank you very much for your dedication to the Dharma and then we will continue our interaction and questioning answer in the next session. Okay, so don’t forget the page number, it is 446.

Okay, and we will make a dedication prayer all together.

[Prayers]
By this merit may we attain omniscience,
And overcome the evil enemies,
May beings, buffeted by the waves of birth, old age, sickness and death,
Be liberated from the ocean of existence.

May Bodhicitta, precious and sublime,
Arise where it has not yet come to be.
Where it has arisen, may it never fail
But grow and flourish ever more and more.

Thank you everyone. Please be safe. Look after your health.
Many good wishes, everybody. Thank you.

 

Kalu Rinpoche
Teaching on Stages in the Path of Illusion, Lesson 1, Part 12【The End】
7th Aug. 2021