Kalu Rinpoche | Stages in the Path of Illusion | Lesson 2 (Part 3)

So this is the text I’m reading, okay?

གཉིས་པ་ལམ་རིམ་དངོས་སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་གྱི་བསམ་པ་ལ་བསླབ་པ་ལ། སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆུང་ངུ་དང་ཐུན་མོང་གི་རིམ་པ་ལ་བསླབ་པ། སྐྱེས་བུ་འབྲིང་དང་ཐུན་མོང་གི་རིམ་པ་ལ་བསླབ་པ། སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་རིམ་པ་ལ་བསླབ་པ་སྟེ་གསུམ་ལས། དང་པོ་ལ་སྤྱིར་སྲོལ་ཀ་སོ་སོ་ལ་ཁྲིད་ལུགས་མི་འདྲ་བ་དུ་མ་འདུག་ རྗེ་བཙུན་མར་མེ་མཛད་དཔལ་བཀའ་སྲོལ་གདམས་ངག་འདི་པ་རང་གི་ལུགས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་།

So, སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆུང་བ་ it means the one that has a small capacity of understanding. And then, སྐྱེས་བུ་ means individual, that being. སྐྱེས་བུ་འབྲིང་ means medium, who has a medium capacity of understanding. And སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོ་ means individual who has a vast understanding capacity. So, these are the methods that are applied for small individual with a small capacity, medium with a medium capacity, large with a large capacity. So this is not just instruction for one person but all the different categories

འགའ་ཞིག་འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསམ་པ་ལ་འགོ་འཛིན། འགའ་ཞིག་ལས་འབྲས་ནས་འགོ་འཛིན། འགའ་ཞིག་དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་ནས་འགོ་འཛིན། ཕལ་ཆེར་འཆི་བ་མི་རྟག་པ་ནས་འགོ་འཛིན་པར་མཛད་པ་སོགས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཡོད་ཀྱང་ཐམས་ཅད་གནད་གཅིག་ལ་འབབ། དོན་གྱི་སྟེང་ནས་ཁྱད་པར་མེད། འོན་ཀྱང་སྤྱི་ཁྱབ་གྲགས་ཆེ་བར་མཐུན་པར་དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་ནས་འགོ་བཟུང་ན་དེ་ཀ་མི་རྟག་བསྒོམ་པའི་གཞི་རྟེན་ཡིན་པས༑ མི་རྟག་པ་བསྒོམ་པའི་འགོ་འཛིན་པ་དང་།

So, like in different traditions, some of them they start with reflecting to oneself, the meaning of life, or meaning of samsara, or meaning of death, the meaning of impermanence, the meaning of the cycle of sufferings of the samsara in general. So different tradition has a different way of starting things. But like Taranatha himself, he said, very clearly,

དོན་ལ་ཁྱད་པར་ནམ་ཡང་མེད་པ་ལས་འཕྲལ་འདི་དངོས་རྣམ་བདེ་བར་སྣང་བས་དེའི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་བཤད་ན། འདི་ལ་དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་བསམ་པ། འཆི་བ་མི་རྟག་པ་བསམ་པ། ངན་སོང་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསམ་པ། ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་བསམ་པ་སྟེ་བཞིའོ།

So, it really doesn’t matter because it is the same destination. Whether you think about the reality of the samsara, or whether you think about the meaning of impermanence, whether you think about the preciousness of the human life and all of these things, it really doesn’t matter. Because whether you look on the left or whether you look on the right side, all reach to the same destination.

So first, first way of doing analytical meditation is དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་བསམ་པ།, it means understanding or at least trying to understand the preciousness of human life. So, in that topic, there are different categories within that. So, just keep in mind, okay? This is a good time to write down all the notes so that you have a clear understanding of what are the topics that we’re discussing.

Because I will ask you questions later on. Because in France, I did that. I gave a teaching. And then I make sure that everybody understand. And then I make them write down. And then I ask them questions at the end of the session, what they have understood, you know, from several points. So, you keep that in mind. Otherwise, people when they feel too comfortable, you know, they think of receiving teaching a little bit like going to the spa, that their mind is completely relaxed and gone and ‘There’s always a beautiful teaching. I like this teaching. I like his teaching. I like her teaching. ‘ And then all the key point is not kept in mind. And if we continue like that, it can be a really waste of time.

The first thing at the first part is དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་བསམ་པ།. Thinking about the human preciousness, human life preciousness. And also it will explain slowly over the time, the reason why it is precious. Why should we consider its preciousness? You know, so there will be reason why also. It’s not just to think preciousness.

འཆི་བ་མི་རྟག་པ་བསམ་པ། means thinking about the impermanence and death. It does not mean that you have to be sad and upset about it, it’s just that studying through your mind, and trying to find some meaningful reason out of it, to reflect the truth to yourself.

ངན་སོང་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསམ་པ།

ངན་སོང་ means the fallen place. ངན་སོང་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསམ་པ།, the place of the suffering. Thinking about the place of the suffering, or the reality of the suffering,

ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་བསམ་པ།

The fourth one is thinking about the consequences of the karma and the reality of the karma.

Okay, so the four categories have been explained. And now I will go to the first one.

དང་པོ་ནི། ཕྱག་མཆོད་ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་སྔར་བཞིན་བྱས། གོང་དུ་བཤད་པ་གསོལ་འདེབས་དེ་ཡང་ཅུང་ཟད་བྱ་སྟེ།

So, I hope that everybody listened to the first video of last month so that you understand what I’m trying to explain, especially this one. Because when I say the first cycle of meditation, second cycle meditation, third cycle meditation, when I say that, when the teaching says that, it means that each cycle can be used as a meditation session.

That means, you do the refuge, bodhicitta prayers, the refuge prayers. And then you read this one a little bit, one line or one topic. You analyze. You meditate on that topic. And then you dedicate at the end of the session. So, it can be one hour session or 20 minutes session. So, each topic is considered a session. So, you have to think about it, okay? So, it’s not something that you have to force everything together. It’s more to do with one topic, one session. Second topic, second session. Third topic, third session. So, it can be considered like that.

So, that’s why it says here, that when you start this session, or when you are dedicating yourself in particular topic, you start with ཕྱག་མཆོད་, means prostration, and then also offering flowers or instance to the shrine, ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་, and also the all the prayers, the seven prayers like before. And then གོང་དུ་བཤད་པ་གསོལ་འདེབས་དེ་ཡང་ཅུང་ཟད་བྱ་སྟེ།, making prayers like I have explained to you before.

So, I will repeat one last time so that I don’t have to repeat again. Okay? So, how does the prayer sounds like, right? Like I explained to you last time, the seven posture of Boddhisattva, the basic principle which I don’t have to explain to you. And then you make a prayer, any sort of prayers that includes the offering and confession from the bottom of your heart. And then the actual prayer is this one, with the refuge in front,

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་ན་བཞུགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔག་ཐམས་ཅད་དང་། བླ་མ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཆེན་པོ་བདག་ལ་དགོངས་སུ་གསོལ། བདག་ལ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་དུ་གསོལ། བདག་ལ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་གི་དྲི་མ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཉེ་བར་ཞི་བར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པའི་རྟོགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱེད་པར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་བསྒྲུབ་པ་ལ་བར་ཆད་ཐམས་ཅད་སེལ་བར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ།

So, if I translate correctly, it is this one, ‘ All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten different directions, and also all my great Dharma instructors and teachers, please, I’m asking for you, to be aware of my presence. ‘ Also, བདག་ལ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། ‘ Please bless me, empower me. ‘ བདག་ལ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་གི་དྲི་མ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཉེ་བར་ཞི་བར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། ‘ All the negativity within my emotion, within my mind, let it be distanced or absent from all of these things. And then all the genuine that is not opposite, let it exists over the time and increase that qualities in my mind with your blessing. ‘ ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་བསྒྲུབ་པ་ལ་བར་ཆད་ཐམས་ཅད་སེལ་བར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ། ‘ As I continue in the path of the Mahayana, please bless me to dispel all the obstacles. ‘ So, this is the prayer that you do it. And then after that, you focus on one topic and then you meditate. And then you do dedication. And then you continue the next topic in the next session. So, that’s how it goes.

Now I’ m going back to the current text.

གོང་དུ་བཤད་པ་གསོལ་འདེབས་དེ་ཡང་ཅུང་ཟད་བྱ་སྟེ། དེ་རྗེས་རང་གི་ལུས་དང་གནས་དང་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་གཞིག་འགྲེལ་ཞིག་བཏང་སྟེ་བདག་གིས་ད་རེས་ཐོབ་པའི་མི་ལུས་འདི་འདྲ་བ་ལར་ནས་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ། འདི་དོན་མེད་དུ་མི་གཏོང་། ཆོས་ལ་ཁོལ་བ་ཞིག་བྱེད་དགོས་སྙམ་པར་དམིགས་པའི་གཞི་འདི་སྤྱི་ལྡོག་ནས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་མགོར་སྦྱར་ནས་བསྒོམ།

So, when you are in this meditative state with a very clear mind, and then you say to yourself that, instead of saying I am very fortunate, you say ‘ It is very fortunate that I found something that is very rare. ‘

ཤིན་ཏུ་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ་ means finding something that is rare. འདི་དོན་མེད་དུ་མ་གཏོང་། means I will not waste this life to meaningless journey. ཆོས་ལ་ཁོལ་བ་ཞིག་བྱེད་དགོས་སྙམ་པར་དམིགས་པའི་གཞི་འདི་སྤྱི་ལྡོག་ So therefore, I will make this life meaningful. From the bottom of my heart, I will do it. I will make it meaningful. So, like that. You don’t have to make your everyday meaningful, you know, everyday throughout your life. It’s almost impossible. We have so much burden in our society. But at least once in a while, when we are doing the practice, having that determination. You know, it’s good. It’s necessary.

དེ་ལ་སྡོམ་ནི། དམྱལ་བ་ཡི་དྭགས་དུད་འགྲོ་དང་། ཀླ་ཀློ་ཚེ་རིང་ལྷ་དང་ནེ། ལོག་ལྟ་ཅན་དང་སངས་རྒྱས་སྟོང་།ལྐུགས་པ་འདི་དག་མི་ཁོམ་བརྒྱད།

So, now, why we are fortunate？We say we are fortunate, human life, fortunate, fortunate. Actually, if you look at the life itself, we are not really that fortunate. Because there’s war. There’s disease. There’s hunger. And there’s chemicals around the world and people have been suffering. And that’s one thing in our modern view, you know.

In an ancient view, then it’s like this. དམྱལ་བ། means hell, to be born in hell. And why in hell? We’ll explain later also in the text. ཡི་དྭགས་ means the realm of the hunger ghost. དུད་འགྲོ་ means insect or animal. ཀླ་ཀློ་ means ignorant. ཚེ་རིང་ལྷ་ means the gods who has a long life, who forget about, who lose the touch with the reality. ལོག་ལྟ་ཅན་ means, the one who has an opposite view towards the Buddha’s teaching, no matter the logic, no matter the reason, just extremely opposite view. You know, out of jealousy, out of hatred, for no reason.

སངས་རྒྱས་སྟོང་ means being born in a time or the era that the Buddha did not exist, you understand? Buddha did not exist, the definition of that means Buddha came to this earth, the teaching existed, teaching continued for the next 1000 years and then you know, for a certain amount of time, and then there will be a time that there is no Buddha, there’s no teaching, there’s nothing, you know. There will be a period of time like that, during our humanity, not in our generation, but in the future generations. So, being born in that time is like being born in the Dark Age, you know. We call it, like in civilization, we call the Dark Age, the Bronze Age, the Stone Age and like the Dark Age. The Dark Age means unfortunate time.

ལྐུགས་པ་ means completely ignorant. It doesn’t mean disabled, okay? སྐུགས་པ། means completely choose to be ignorant. Usually when we say སྐུགས་པ། means like disabled, you know. I don’t want to say that. Because all of us, we are disabled in some way, you know. Some of us we cannot see clearly. We cannot hear clearly. We cannot walk properly. We cannot eat properly. We cannot live properly. We are all disabled in some sort of way. So, we cannot say the disabled human beings are less fortunate and then the Buddhist practice they cannot practice at all. It is not right view. Because སྐུགས་པ་means ignorant, not disabled. So, let me just be clear on that.

ཅེས་པ་ལྟར་ལས། ངན་སོང་གསུམ་དུ་སྐྱེས་ན་ནི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དོས་དྲག་པ་དང་། ལུས་དེ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་དུ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ངན་པས་ཆོས་བྱེད་མི་ཁོམ།

So, like when we are born in these three realms, སྟེང་ལྷ་ཡི་སྲིད་པ། བར་མི་ཡི་སྲིད་པ་དང་འོག་ངན་སོང་གསུམ། , then the bottom, the last one is the realm of hell, you know. So, the six realms sometime we count as the three realms. So, the first realm is the gods and the demi-gods, and then the second realm is human, and then the third realm is the hunger ghost and the animal and the hell.

ངན་སོང་གསུམ་དུ་སྐྱེས་ན་ནི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དོས་དྲག་པ་དང་། ལུས་དེ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་དུ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ངན་པས་ཆོས་བྱེད་མི་ཁོམ།

And then, when we are born in the third realm, we have almost no fortune to practice Dharma. Almost we find a lot of distraction, a lot of other things.

འདོད་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་འདོད་ཡོན་ལ་ཆགས་པ་གཡེངས།

And then all the ordinary gods. So, even in the gods, there are different layers. So, let me be clear on that. There’s a demi-gods’ realm. And then there’s gods’ realm. So even in the gods realm, there are stronger gods and weaker gods. And then beyond the god, there is pure consciousness being, you know. They are beyond idea of sensorio, satisfactory realm. They are beyond that. But they are very much fixated with their own idea of meditation. I wouldn’t call it meditation. We call it ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་. So, it’s like some sort of meditation. And they get so fixated with that, that they see nothing else other than that. So, even in the gods realm, there are different layers.

So therefore it’s saying,

གཟུགས་ཁམས་དང་གཟུགས་མེད་ཀྱི་ལྷ་ཕལ་ཆེར་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱིས་མྱོས་པས་ཆོས་ཉན་པའི་སྐལ་པ་མེད།

So, why Taranatha is saying this? It is because some gods, you know, they have some sense of  ‘ I’m the stronger God and that is a weakened God. ‘ And then the higher than them is, they are beyond the body, they are just pure consciousness. གཟུགས་ཁམས་གཟུགས་མེད་ཁམས་ Very subtle level of the idea of appearance. They are pure consciousness. But yet at the same time, they’re very much fixated with their own idea of meditation, not necessarily the true meditation.

And then, like an example, the realm of the demi-gods are ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་ཡང་འདོད་ལྷ་དང་འདྲ་བ་ལས་ལྷག་པས་ངན་སོང་བཞིན་དུ་ལུས་རྟེན་ངན། So, they have such jealousy towards the gods. And they become completely distracted like that.

སངས་རྒྱས་མ་བྱོན་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་སུ་སྐྱེས་པའམ། སངས་རྒྱས་བྱོན་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་ཡང་ཆོས་དར་བའི་ས་ཆ་ནི་རྒྱ་ཆུང་། ཆོས་མེད་ས་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་མཐའ་འཁོབ་ཀླ་ཀློར་སྐྱེས་པའམ། ཆོས་དར་བའི་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སྐྱེས་ཀྱང་ལོག་ལྟ་ཅན་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བའམ།

So, now the next topic is སངས་རྒྱས་མ་བྱོན་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་སུ་སྐྱེས་པའམ། སངས་རྒྱས་བྱོན་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་ཡང་ཆོས་དར་བའི་ས་ཆ་ནི་རྒྱ་ཆུང་།

Even the teachings of the Buddha existed in our realm, in our fortunate realm, let’s put it like this, and where the places, where the Buddha’s teaching existed is very rare. And the places that the teachings of the Buddha did not exist or did not reach is very vast.

ཆོས་མེད་ས་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་མཐའ་འཁོབ་ཀླ་ཀློར་སྐྱེས་པའམ།

And then, all we are born in in a place and that is completely no name of Buddhism, no name of Dharma, no name of spiritual enlightened or so. And actually, this kind of thing still exists in our modern time, you know. We think that we have this internet and then everybody is connected. But nobody’s more connected. It’s more or less remained as the same as before. People definitely have a lot of information. But having a lack of renunciation almost makes no difference at all. So, that’s that.

ཆོས་དར་བའི་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་སྐྱེས་ཀྱང་ལོག་ལྟ་ཅན་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བའམ།

And then, even we are born in a realm where there is a Buddha’s teaching, sometimes we are challenged by the people who are not really Buddhist at all and who kind of giving you the pressure not to be Buddhist and so on.

གླེན་ལྐུགས་སུ་གྱུར་ནས་བླང་དོར་གྱི་གནས་གང་ཡང་མི་གོ་བར་སོང་ན་ཆོས་བྱེད་པའི་སྐལ་པ་མི་འདུག་པ་ལས། བདག་གིས་ད་རེས་མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་ལོག་ནས་ཆོས་བྱེད་ནུས་སུ་རུང་བའི་ལུས་ཞིག་ཐོབ་འདུག་སྙམ་པ་དང་།

So therefore, in this very moment, we are in this special circumstance, which is we are far away from all these unfortunate events or unfortunate places or unfortunate times.

སྡོམ་ནི། མི་ཉིད་དབུས་སྐྱེས་དབང་པོ་ཚང་། ལས་མཐའ་མ་ལོག་གནས་ལ་དད། སངས་རྒྱས་བྱོན་དང་དེས་ཆོས་གསུངས། བསྟན་པ་གནས་དང་དེ་རྗེས་འཇུག། གཞན་ཕྱིར་སྙིང་ནིབརྩེ་བའོ།

So therefore, we need to consider ourselves fortunate because we all have our hands and fingers and arms and legs. And we have a brain that has a logic, that has a common sense, that has a little bit of wisdom. We have all the foundations to ourselves to cultivate the Lord Buddha’s teaching, you know, over the time. So therefore, and also to consider yourself fortunate is because the Buddha was here in this earth, and he gave teaching, and the teaching is still exist, that we can still practice, you know. So, having that kind of appreciative mindset.

ཞེས་པ་ལྟར་ཏེ། བདག་སྤྱིར་མི་ལུས་ཐོབ། དགོས་སུ་ཡུལ་དབུས་ཆོས་དར་བར་སྐྱེས། ཡང་དགོས་སུ་དབང་པོ་སྒོ་ལྔ་ཚང་བས་སྤང་བླང་ཤེས་སུ་རུང་། ཞེ་དགོས་སུ་ལྟ་བ་ལོག་པ་དང་མ་འཕྲད་ཙམ། མཚམས་མེད་ལྟ་བུ་ལོག་པར་ལྟ་བའི་ལས་ཀྱང་མ་བྱས་ཙམ། གནས་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་འདུལ་བ་ལ་དད་པ་སྐྱེས་རུང་བ་ཙམ་དུ་འདུག་པས་རང་གི་འབྱོར་པ་ལྔ་ཚང་འདུག། འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱང་བྱོན་ཟིན། དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱང་གསུངས་ཟིན། བསྟན་པ་ཡང་མ་ནུབ་པར་གནས། ཆོས་ལ་གསར་དུ་འཇུག་པ་ཡང་མང་བའི་སྐབས་སུ་ཡོད། ཆོས་བྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་གཞན་གྱིས་སྙིང་བརྩེ་བའི་སྒོ་ནས། ཟས་གོས་ཡོ་བྱད་སོགས་ཀྱང་སྟེར་བ་པོ་མང་པོ་སྣང་བས་ཆོས་མཐུན་གྱི་འཚོ་བ་འབྱོར་དུ་རུང་བའི་སྐབས་སུ་འདུག་པས་གཞན་འབྱོར་ལྔ་པོ་ཡང་བདག་ལ་ཚང་།

So therefore, we are all fortunate, let’s put it like this, that we all know what are the extreme negatives. And then we all know the basic principles as a human being, as a Buddhist practitioner. And then we are in this very fortunate time where the teachings of the Buddha still exist. And the genuine teachings are still there. And practices are still there. So therefore, considering ourselves as fortunate being, that’s important.

སྐབས་སུ་འདུག་པས་གཞན་འབྱོར་ལྔ་པོ་ཡང་བདག་ལ་ཚང་།

དེ་ལྟར་ན་མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་ལོག། འབྱོར་པ་བཅུ་ཚང་བའི་ལུས་འདི་ལྟ་བུ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྙེད་དཀའ། སྐབས་འདིར་ཆོས་ལ་འབད་དགོས་པར་འདུག་སྙམ་པ་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དྲན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཡང་ཡང་བསམ། རྗེས་ཐུན་མཚམས་ལ་འཇུག་ན་གོང་བཞིན་དགེ་བ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་བསྔོ་།

So this is the second cycle of meditation, okay? So the second cycle of meditation is སྐབས་འདིར་ཆོས་ལ་འབད་དགོས་པར་འདུག་སྙམ་པ་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དྲན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཡང་ཡང་བསམ།

So now, therefore, considering from all the eight unfortunate events and places or time, to the 10 positive places and circumstance that is favorable to me. So therefore, I’m very fortunate and very lucky to be here in this very moment. But my luck and my fortune has to be shift into the direction of training myself to practice dharma. And that is very important. That is very important. That is very important. To think like that. Not like, ‘ Oh, I have to chant Om Ma Ni Padme Hung. Or where’s the empowerment? Or where’s the deity? ‘ Not like that. But rather, ‘ The human life is very precious. I’m born in a very fortunate time, fortunate to receive the teachings from the Lord Buddha’s texts. I’m not in all this unfortunate situation, the extreme negativities. So therefore, I’m very fortunate, fortunate, and fortunate… And I will utilize this fortune, to the spiritual growth, to the practice of Buddhism and the Dharma and the Sangha. I should really maintain in that way, that way, that way…‘ And then you think about that, meditate a little bit, think about that, meditate, think about that, meditate… And that’s the second cycle of meditation.

དམིགས་སྐོར་གཉིས་པའོ།

The second cycle of meditation.

And now going to the second chapter, which is the third cycle of meditation. Maybe it’s a good time to ask what are the four things that we have discussed. You can type it and you can explain maybe.

I said four things, remember? What are the four things? You can type it then I can see whether you understood or not. Precious of human life, okay. Then, what else? Human rebirth. Okay. Impermanence. Reflect the truth. Karma, okay. Suffering, suffering, impermanence, impermanence, suffering. Okay.

Okay, so seems like all of you understood. So that’s good. So I will just repeat the four things, right?

དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་བསམ་པ།

The fortunate of that we are in a fortunate circumstance, number one.

འཆི་བ་མི་རྟག་པ་བསམ་པ།

Reflecting into the meaning of impermanence and life, second.

འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསམ་པ།

Reflecting the meaning of samsara, the meaning of the life or the cycle of life.

ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་བསམ་པ།

Thinking about the karma.

So these are the four things. The first chapter is completed and now we’re going to the second cycle of a way of meditating.

ཡང་སྔོན་འགྲོ་དང་རྗེས་སྔ་མ་བཞིན

So, just like the previous one it says, you know, you make a prayer, refuge, renunciation, and then you do this analytical meditation and then you make a dedication at the end.

So, like now is trying to reflect to the meaning of all the sentient beings.

ཡང་སྔོན་འགྲོ་དང་རྗེས་སྔ་མ་བཞིན་ལས་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ནང་ན་ངན་སོང་གི་འགྲོ་བ་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་།

All the sentient beings that are going towards the samsara is immense, immense immense.

དཔེར་ན་ས་ཆེན་པོའི་རྡུལ་ཙམ། མཐོ་རིས་ཀྱི་འགྲོ་བ་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉུང་།

Those who have reach to the enlightened destination are very very few. Like an example, it’s like a dust on the top of your fingernails. When you have one singular dust on your fingernails in comparison to the all the existence outside, and that is how vast and immense it is. The comparison.

དཔེར་ན་སེན་མོའི་སྟེང་གི་རྡུལ་ཙམ་ཡིན། ཡང་དམྱལ་བ་ནི།

So, like an example. Now, the hell example.

ས་གཞི་ཆེན་པོའི་རྡུལ་ཕྲན་ཙམ། ཡི་དྭགས་ནི་ཁ་བ་ཡུག་འཚུབས་པ་ཙམ།

Account of all the sentient beings in the hell realm is like the every single pieces of sand in this earth. That’s a lot. And I don’t want to even talk.

ཡི་དྭགས་ནི་ཁ་བ་ཡུག་འཚུབས་པ་ཙམ།

So, in the realm of hunger ghosts is like the account of snow, you know, like each snow.

དུད་འགྲོ་བྱིངས་ནི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོར་ཆང་གར་མའི་སྦང་མང་ཙམ།

So, like an example, the animal realm is like the rain, the rain drops, the account of raindrops.

དུད་འགྲོ་ཁ་འཐོར་བ་ནི། ས་གཞི་རི་ཀླུང་བར་སྣང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁེངས་པ་ཙམ།

And then, all the sentient beings, this is a very, very, very intelligent way of describing, you see? The sentient beings existed throughout all the different space, you know.

ས་གཞི་རི་ཀླུང་བར་སྣང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཁེངས་པ་ཙམ།

All the sentient beings, the animal realm, which is true, you know, in a micro level, there are still sentient beings. The microscopic level, there’re still sentient beings. The size doesn’t matter. Whether they are cows, whether they are elephants, whether they are horses, whether they are dogs, whether they are ants, they are all the animals. And these are the things that we can see. Then, there are so many animals that we cannot even witness with our own naked eye. So it’s immense.

When you look, when you reflect, now I just want to share my thought. When you reflect in all these things, and then when you reflect towards your own pride, think of it, how foolish that is. You see all the numbers of sentient beings. The hell realm sentient beings, the amount of all the sentient beings in the hunger ghosts or in the animal realm, right? And you’re there with your pride thinking that that will work out for you.

Think about it, you know, just the magnitude, the size of that sentient beings that exist out there, and you’re there with your pride and say, ‘ Um, I can manage this. ‘ with your pride. You cannot manage anything, you know, with your pride. I mean, over the time when you think about it in life. Of course, it gives you a temporary pleasure, temporary success. But ultimately it doesn’t give you the real solution to be content, and to be in a sense of joy. So that’s just my idea. Because sometimes we are completely distracted and we are looking on the other direction, thinking that is a different solution.

ལྷ་དང་མིའི་འགྲོ་བ་ནི། དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྟོས་ན་སྲིད་མཐའ་ཙམ་ཡིན་པར་འདུག་དེ་ལས་ཀྱང་སྤྱིར་མིའི་འགྲོ་བ་ཉུང་། དགོས་སུ་འཛམ་བུ་གླིང་པའི་མི་ཉུང་།

So it’s saying that, first of all, the human beings is very rare. Especially people who practice Dharma is even more rare.

ཡང་དགོས་སུ་ཆོས་བྱེད་པའི་མི་ལུས་ནི་སྲིད་མཐའ་ཙམ་དུ་འདུག་སྟེ། ད་རེས་ཅིས་ཀྱང་ཆོས་ལ་འབད་དགོས་སྙམ་པ་དང་། དེ་ལྟར་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཡང་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་ནང་ན་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ་ནི་ཆེས་མང་སྟེ་མཐའ་མེད། དགེ་བའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ་ནི་སྤྱི་ཙམ་ནས་ཀྱང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉུང་།

So, first of all, there’s human being among all the sentient beings is the rarest category. And even then, the people who practice Buddhism, who connect with the Buddhism, is even more rare. So therefore, you have to be the one of the individual who reflects to upon themselves and saying, ‘ Oh, I should practice Dharma, I should practice Dharma, I should practice Dharma ‘, you know, having that kind of awareness. You know, you don’t have to think about it every day. But at least just try to think like that every once in a while to motivate yourself.

དགེ་བའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ་ནི་སྤྱི་ཙམ་ནས་ཀྱང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉུང་།

Those who accumulate the positivities are very very rare.

དགེ་བའི་ནང་ནས་ཀྱང་མི་ལུས་འཕེན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བ་ནི་ཆེས་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀོན་པས།

So it’s saying that, first of all, there’s less human being and then less practitioner and genuine practitioner even more less. Like an example, those who have the right discipline. The right discipline does not mean like a military discipline. Discipline, the meaning of the Buddhist discipline means when you have the renunciation, you have the awareness. When you have the awareness, you have the discipline, naturally. The discipline doesn’t have to be taken from somebody else. The ceremonial, yes, I get that. But the true meaning of discipline means understanding of your own reality. That is the meaning of Buddhist discipline.

Like a military discipline is ‘ Oh, I can do this, this is my country, their country, kill this, kill that.’ We have that kind of mentality, nationalist mentality, all around the world, same. And then, like in a Buddhist way of that, the disciplined mentality is having a clear understanding of renunciation.

When you have an understanding of the relative truth, you have an understanding of the renunciation. When you have an understanding and the realization of the renunciation, then you have a genuine discipline. Because you are not creating out of fear. Because some may praise you, some may criticize you. You are doing simply because you know it from the depth of your mind. So that is the genuine discipline.

Somebody said, ‘Talk us something about renunciation. ‘

Renunciation is something that you has to develop over the time, and I will make it very short, just to answer your question. It is that renunciation is something that you must discover on your own. Buddha he had his own version of renunciation. Milarepa he had his own renunciation. Khyungpo Naljor, the Shangpa Kagyu lineage holder, he has his own renunciation. Niguma, just like that. All the great Mahasiddhas and Bodhisattvas just like that. They never copy each other’s renunciation. They inspired by each other. But then they do not copy each other. They understand their own weakness. And they admit to their own wrongdoing. And they understand the cause of their wrongdoing, the essence of their wrongdoing. And then, the more you try to analyze these things, the renunciation comes by itself.

དགེ་བའི་ནང་ནས་ཀྱང་མི་ལུས་འཕེན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བ་ནི་ཆེས་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀོན་པས། དིའི་ཕྱིར་མི་ལུས་རྙེད་དཀའ་བ་ཡིན།

So therefore, with lack of awareness, lack of well-being of oneself and awareness and therefore, there is less human being.

དེའི་སྟེང་དུ་ཡང་འབྱོར་པ་བཅུ་ཚང་ཞིང་ཆོས་དང་མཇལ་བ་ལ་བསོད་ནམས་མང་པོ་གསོག་དགོས་པས་འདི་འདྲ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྙེད་དཀའ་བ་ཡིན་ཡང་སྔོན་སྟེས་དབང་གིས་དགེ་བ་ཆེ་རབ་ཅིག་ལན་གཅིག་བསགས་ཡོད་འདུག་པས་ད་རེས་དལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ལུས་འདི་ཐོབ་འདུག་སྐབས་འདིར་ཆོས་ལ་འབད་པར་བྱ་སྙམ་དུ་བསྒོམ།

And then, once upon a time, in my past, in the karmic life of my past, I may have accumulated one positive thing. So, therefore, I’m born in the human being and very fortunate to be here, So therefore, I must use this for a greater purpose. You know, with that kind of analytical meditation.

So that’s it. So this time we stop here and that’s the third meditation cycle. The page number is 455, okay 455, the 3rd line that’s where we have left for this time.

Now we make a dedication and then we do a little bit of small question and answer.

Dedication

[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.

 

Kalu Rinpoche
Teaching on Stages in the Path of Illusion，Lesson 2，Part 3
26th Sep. 2021