Kalu Rinpoche | Stages in the Path of Illusion | Lesson 1 (Part 9)

༄༅།།རྒྱལ་བའི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རིམ་པ་སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གི་མན་ངག་གི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཉིང་ཁུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། །

So ,the text is this one.

རྒྱལ་བ། means the one who have overcome, the one who is enlightened.

རྒྱལ་བའི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།

The one, basically this is a guideline for individual who are looking towards the path of the Enlightenment. Those who are different practitioners. There may be some with a lower capacity, a medium capacity, or more profound capacity, and how they reflect to themselves also matters. And what you teach to them also matters.

So, this also explain about Theravada, Mahayana and then also about the Vajrayana a little bit at the end of the text. And in the beginning it’s a very beautiful teaching. So that’s that.

མན་ངག་means a guideline teaching. ཁྲིད་ཡིག། means written guideline teaching. བདུད་རྩི་means nectar. ཉིང་ཁུ།means the essence of the nectar. བདུད་རྩིའི་ཉིང་ཁུ། means, this is present, the essence of the nectar.

ན་མོ་བུདྡྷ་བོ་དྷི་ས་ཏྭ་བྷྱཿ
༄༅།།རྒྱལ་བའི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རིམ་པ་སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གི་མན་ངག་གི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཉིང་ཁུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། །དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

So, of course, the refuge, same thing. I don’t have to explain that again.

ཡོན་ཏན་དུ་མའི་ནོར་གྱིས་བརྗིད་པ་ཡི། །བརྒྱུད་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་བླ་མ་ལ་བཏུད་ནས། །མར་མེ་མཛད་དཔལ་བཞེད་གཞུང་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན༑ །ཤིང་རྟ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་མཆོག་འདིར་བཤད་བྱ། །

So, his refuge and prayer to his guru and the lineage and everything and in order to continue with the wheel of the Dharma to benefit all the sentient being, with that in mind, I will write this text. That’s Taranatha saying it.

དེ་ལ་འདིར་དུས་གསུམ་དུ་བྱུང་བའི་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔག་དང་རང་རྒྱལ་དང་ཉན་ཐོས་སུ་བཅས་པ་ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་འཕགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལམ་འདི་ཉིད་བསྒོམས་ཏེ། ཐར་པ་དང་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་གོ་འཕང་མཆོག་བརྙེས་པ་ལགས་ཏེ།

So all the Buddhas, all the bodhisattas, རང་རྒྱལ་ means the self-Buddha, the individual Buddha. The distinction between our Buddha Shakyamuni and the thousands of Buddha Shakyamuni to the self-Buddha is basically there is no bodhichitta. You know, there is a compassion. There’s definitely compassion. There’s a definitely loving kindness, but there is no bodhichitta. So that’s the distinction

All the students of the Buddha, means the one who listens the teachings of the Buddha, and all the three yanas, the Theravada, Mahayana, Trantriyana, all the different branches and all the different categories of practitioner or enlightened, who have reached ultimately to the real enlightened state have practice these guidelines. That’s what he’s saying.

ཐར་པ་དང་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་གོ་འཕང་མཆོག་བརྙེས་པ་ལགས་ཏེ། ཆོས་ཚུལ་འདི་ལ་བསྟན་པ་འཇུག་པའི་རིམ་པ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གྱི་ལམ་རིམ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །

So, it can be called by different names. Like you can call this, it doesn’t have to be the Lamrim. It can be called as a ，those who want to enter towards the path of the Buddhahood, you know, the path to the Buddhahood, let’s put it like this, the practice of the path of the Buddhahood.

བསྟན་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རིམ་པ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །

So the manual scrip to those who are willing to make a progressive approach in the path of the Buddha.

སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གྱི་ལམ་རིམ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །

Or you can call it Kyepusumgye lamrim. Kyepusum means the profound practitioner or the so so and then a little bit of less capacity. So, basically all the different guidelines.

བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །

So, this is also you can call it the path of the bodhicitta.

ཤིང་རྟ་ཆེན་པོའི་འཇུག་ངོགས་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ། །

Or you can call it the great Dharma wheel.

ཆོས་འདི་སྟོན་པ་བྱེད་པ་ལ། །

So these are the different right variety of names that you can choose and express in whatever you like to say. It doesn’t matter, really.

ཆོས་འདི་སྟོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་ལ། །ལམ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པ་དང་། །

In order to receive this teaching, you need to have an instructor. There’s a difference between instructor and guru. Okay? Instructor is something that in the beginning you receive teachings again and again and again and again. And then over time when you have developed some sort of realization quality, then that instructor becomes your guru. You know, nobody becomes a guru from the beginning. That individual or all the phenomenon becomes guru. Like an example, anything that reflects you to the truth is guru. Truth to what? Truth to liberation.

Not just the ordinary truth, but rather a truth of overcoming your illusion and then in the path of enlightenment. Anything that discover that path of truth or that kind of truth is your guru.

So, guru does not have to be somebody with an impressive figure, or with ornament and everything. Yes, that’s just one of the figure, but it should not be limited to that.

Like an example, the nature of the mind is a guru. The reflection, the meaning of impermanence, is a guru. Like an example, when you sit in the garden, or in the park, and then you see the leaves falling down from the tree. And then you look at that. If you’re ordinary being, you just say, ‘Oh, that’s autumn’. Fall, Autumn, new season. If you’re a practitioner, then you see every birth has the death and all of these is impermanence, then you reflect upon yourself . So, that is also a guru. The indicator, the reflector of the truth.

ལམ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་བསྟེན་པ་དང་། །

So you need to have an instructor. So, in this very moment, I am your instructor. Your translator is your instructor because they are translating the teachings of the Lord Buddha. I do not hold these teaching to myself. These are not my property. So, all your translator is your instructor. I am your instructor. And I should not hold too much attachment to that. They’re all instructors. Instructors should only viewed themselves as a transmitter, transmitter of the teachings of the Lord Buddha. So that’s how I view myself. That’s how they view themselves, all the Lamas and our translators here.

ལམ་རིམ་དངོས་སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གྱི་བསམ་པ་ལ་བསླབ་པ་དང་། དེ་ལས་འབྲས་བུ་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལ་སྦྱོར་ཚུལ་ཏེ་གསུམ་མོ། །

So, there’s a few things here. First, ourself settling down with a mindset of, you know, the three possibilities or the three progressive paths. And then by having a conclusive result and then having a bodhicitta over time. So there’s three different categories.

དང་པོ་ནི། དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་གྱི་མཚན་ཉིད་དང་དེ་ལ་གུས་པ་བསྟེན་ཚུལ་ཁོང་དུ་ཚུད་པར་བྱས་ནས།

So, Taranatha is saying that he will not explain too much about what are the requirements of the instructor. Basically he’s saying he assumes that you understand.

So, like I am assuming that you understood that I’m just simply a transmitter, just like our Lamas and translators here. So we have no attachment to this teaching as my own property. So that’s that.

མཚན་ཉིད་དང་དེ་ལ་གུས་པ་བསྟེན་ཚུལ་ཁོང་དུ་ཚུད་པར་བྱས་ནས།

So having a sense of genuine dedication to the Dharma is already the respect to the to the instructor. You don’t need to have a separate thing. If you have a genuine respect to the Dharma, then you have a genuine respect to the instructor. You understand the gravity and the importance of that person. He or she or social status doesn’t matter.

 

Kalu Rinpoche
Teaching on Stages in the Path of Illusion, Lesson 1, Part 9
7th Aug. 2021