FOUNDATIONS OF THE PATH

Discourses by the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche
delivered in January, 1980 at Assisi, Italy

- Published with the kind permission of Morley Chalmers -

These discourses were given in January 1980 before about 20 students in a private house on the Perugian plains, a few kilometres from Assisi, Italy. There were 10 lectures, one Chenreisig Wongkur, and personal interviews with all who desired them in the course of five-and-a-half days.

The following is an assembled transcript from notes gathered together immediately after the session and is in the sequence delivered. The text has not been re-worked. All of the material in brackets is the editor's. The title, chosen by the editor, is felt to be in keeping with the unified theme of this brief series of classes. The text may not be entirely exact or complete in all respects to what was said, but it is hoped that is faithful to the flavour of the meaning.

The themes covered seemed particularly well suited to those seeking an orientation towards path. Three major subjects recur - calm, giving and non-clinging. Rinpoche discusses giving as a means towards non-clinging, and calm as fundamental to both. Many major Buddhist doctrines are discussed: the Parãmis, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, the Brahma Vihãra, the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-fold Path, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, states of jhãna, as well as right livelihood, discursive thought and dreams.

The text was assembled by Morley Chalmers from notes taken by himself, Robbie Terris, Malcolm Boswell and Joseph Cash. Thanks to Cecilie Kwiat for assistance with the Pali and Sanskrit terms. Appreciation is also due to Beatrice Bottinelli, Susanne Robertson and Richard Clark.

January 1980 Assisi, Italy

VITAKKA-VICARA is discursive thought. And Micchã-ñãna is dream knowledge or conceptual knowledge, fantasy as opposed to direct seeing without a screen of fantasy aspirations. These are the great hindrances to the path. Opposed to these is direct-nana, the real seeing, to see directly. Direct seeing without the screen is Vipassana. Elaborate conceptualising as to what the teaching is doing or what nature it has or what form it will take, is a very fine, subtle form of greed, hatred and delusion wrapped up in fantasy, a projection onto reality. Once you do that you are closing the doors to the new. The future is already prejudiced. To realise the path, abandon discursive thought. The real way to realise the realities of the various vibrations is to eliminate discursive thought. And be sure you have removed them all, not just the obvious grosser forms.

A good way to do this is to get at the speech patterns, the trivia of the mind. Among the precepts is Musavada, the undertaking to train yourself to refrain from lying. But it is much more than simply lying. Contained within Musavada is also mental trivia and unwholesome speech. All conversation should be directed to growth, to enlightenment. If you talk, then let it be directed towards dharma - not necessarily Buddhism - speech which is directed towards growth, science, natural phenomena and so forth. Casual conversation should bring health and harmony, consciously for the benefit of all beings.

Keep a guard on your conversation. If there is no conscious awareness of speech on the outer plane, how can you expect to master speech on the inner? You are what you have heard. You are the conversation. You are what you were.

You sit in meditation and the past arrives. However, there is one thing in your favour; the majority of your nature is positive. My role is only to deal with the negatives in order that the positives may shine through unhindered.

First, on the outer plane, there must be a guard on communication, so as not to associate with fools, in foolish ways. Then not only the actions you perform, but also the states of mind will improve. Speech must impart some sort of information. Ass opposed to being neutral or negative, whatever the conversation, inner or outer, it should be profitable. The path of blessing is to hear dharma. You will come to see that fantasy-making about the path is also not profitable. Come to hear the conversing of the universe, first by hearing the words, then, The Word. Only when your own mind has stopped can the universe actually be heard. If you are talking, you can't become aware of the miracle of language. Open tour awareness to hear the resoundings of the universe. Tracing conversation to its roots brings an awakening.

There are two minds of abandoning: with effort and by choiceless awareness. Eventually there is no effort necessary to abandoning oneself to choiceless awareness, not having to make efforts to drop or unstick. To see by choiceless awareness is to realise that the song or cackle within you is of the universe. What are you doing with your conversation? Perhaps closing the gates. Human ills come from the mouth being open. Shut up. Solitude. It's not a question of not speaking - but the transcending of speaking, to the essence of mind. To shut the inner door is something else. Thought comes so quickly, it's like a shooting gallery.

Your early experiences of jhãnas will be of only a tenth of a second.

The word Koan refers to dead-end speech, the end of speech.

To help you in your efforts to stop the internal chatter, put pressure with your tongue on the top of the palate. Eventually, the pressure of all the withheld conversation will be so great you will be forced to let go. So, let go. Let the speech bubble forth. Then, just before you dose off, repeat the process. Press on the palate, slam the door. This is a way of using the body to your purpose.

But the door is only slammed in conjunction with letting go. Listen to the background experience, to the mind opening, not being trapped therein. Sit in the thicket of bamboo, not stopping the dialogue, but observing it. The point is not to lose awareness of conversation, but to keep the thread, the tantra, and not be caught by it. And eventually, not minding being caught.

In dream life, things that repeat can be an unresolved question or problem, one that diminishes or clarifies anxiety. The mumble is the most dangerous. It's cutting you off. With a new dream image it can either be a statement of the resolved past or a coming question, an opening statement of new work to be done. Seal dreams come as a seal on work past. Why is the consciousness involved in the dream image? The key is to arouse more question about it.

The transcendent experience doesn't happen in the next moment. It happens here and now in this moment. It doesn't even happen in a moment. It is without time. You are attempting to integrate when suddenly with a dreadful thump the thunderbolt annihilates the rock. Yet, what if you were already integrated; that there were only integration? That there were loosening and binding in this very moment?

I see. What is this I? It is that which differentiates and that which integrates. [Hand gestures to emphasise the pun on I-eye.] But if you attempt to find this I you won't find it. It is mine [grinning from ear to ear, making movements of holding something very precious to himself.] Go find your own. My I is everywhere.

Do not apologise for a narrow field of vision. It is inevitable. You were built for this vibration, seeing this and not that, tasting this and not that, on this planet and not another. At least be these limits. Awake to the walls of the house. Work them to the maximum. Then perhaps transcendence. Exploration is getting lost, not saved. The mystic is one who explores and gets lost. Forward into the unknown! God is the eternal unknown, an infinity of unknown that is awakening. God is that which is the completely other, an invisible presence.

Isn't it paradoxical that the more a being treads into the unknown, the more he becomes aware? The more you realise the unknown, the more knowing increases. The last thing that you want to do is "get it together". Those people who "know where it's at, man," they are fools. [Rinpoche speaks out against those who view the attaining of jobs and marriages with satisfaction that they have attained the completed life. He emphasises that he is not against these things in and of themselves but, of the "smugness" that often comes with them.] The human experience is an abandonment. If it's new, explore it. How boring not to have new thoughts, new ways of seeing. When you visit the Tower of Pisa, the only thing to do is gawk.

ONE VIEW of the spiritual life is that it is the restoration of the being to some kind of innate purity, from light to light, or going forward to a predetermined evolutionary push. They speak of the spiritual as opposed to the worldly. In the east this distinction is not made. The ordinary mind is the divine mind. There is no distinction between the ordinary mind and the awakening mind.

Start the spiritual life from the ordinary, in other words, from the sense. [Some people don't have fantastic visions and some do. It is a question of a wet or dry path which is natural to the being. For instance, Julian Huxley does not describe multiple visionary experiences in The Doors of Perception.] If there is a you then the only thing certain is the senses. Let those that have ears hear, those that have eyes, see. These are the doors to heaven. The higher esoteric initiations are an anointing of the senses, the nose, ears, eyes and so forth.

The light that radiates can destroy you or help you. Manifestations can be the work of the Devil or of God. By their fruits you shall know them. If visions and so forth don't lead you to patience, calm, growth and unfoldment, then they are leading you backwards. Do not judge your meditations on whether you have visual or auditory effects but whether they lead the being to a more loving balance. Through the senses a whole universe impinges. To enter the stream of happening is to find the builder. Every second of your life you are receiving sense data of spirits.

Every moment you are being communicated with spirit, many spirits at every point, just as the wind. To distinguish is to name the spirits. You are receiving messages, entertaining angels all the time. The personal god and the impersonal god is neither personal nor impersonal. If there is a personality to be found then the whole universe is a personality.

Angels are radiant presences, a living body with radiances. Entertain angels with awareness, as messengers or angels of God. Extend this view to all material around with non-distinction between personal and impersonal. All is personal. The wind bloweth freely. Freedom isn't further down the road. It is the freedom that is already occurring. Explore the building right to the atoms. We are the ancient of days. Nothing that you've ever been or done is lost to the universe. Every happening. There isn't a sparrow that falls that god doesn't know it.

The question is awakening to the ordinary. The things that you despise are miracles, for instance, washing a plate. That is equal to, say, a vision of St. John of the Cross. The eye of the sparrow is involved. You are that sparrow.

Ordinary events are extraordinary and the extraordinary ordinary. The human mind must transcend clinging for a definitive event. [Rinpoche describes the experience of flames. Through detachment the experience need not be a burning one, but a "cool, quiet totality of experience." Some see flames and immediately assume they must be burning. Pascal and his quote, "fire, fire, fire," is mentioned.] When the emperor speaks all the peasants hasten to obey.

Beings search for the definitive experience. There are however, experiences that can change the structure of consciousness. There is a point in evolution like that of gathering data, like gathering wheat sheaves. Then there is a quantum leap experience.

The new is occurring every moment. This is Mahamudra. Don't just search for high experiences. People think that they have to go off somewhere to get the religious experience. It is already present. The divine is when you can say, "Knock, knock, who's there?" It is you.

See, smell and taste choiceless awareness, not just roses and thorns. In God's garden there are dandelions and weeds and sparrows, not merely falcons. Children only want the roses without the thorns. If you want all you had better see all, hear all, taste all.

IT IS NECESSARY to first establish calm. Work to produce less anxiety in daily life. The result will be an expansion of awareness. Then and only then will you be able to explore feelings and reaction. And finally to look into phenomena. And yet in the west the whole orientation is to begin with phenomena.

There are four foundations of mindfulness, four types of work on awareness: On consciousness of physical movement. Tai Chi is useful in this. On consciousness of the emotional states that lead to that posture. On consciousness of the states of mind which are present, fast, slow, expanded, contracted and so forth. This is not at all the same as the emotions. Finally, on consciousness of the link between states of mind and the physiology of phenomena, on the contents of mind.

All of these things hinge on a base of calm. And Calm is based on a truly moral life. Awareness deepens. Spontaneity arises. You act in a natural, spontaneous way because you are not out for grabs. Establish the non-hystericising of the being, the non-obsessionalising. Practice the conscious practice of awareness until it becomes an unconscious practice of awareness.

The practice of awareness lies between the practice of calm and the practice of insight. Of course, the greater the calm, the greater the possibility of practicing awareness. And the greater the practice of insight, the broader or greater the spectrum of awareness. The practice of both calm and insight is through the practice of awareness. Consider what actions you are doing with the body. Calm is established through a thorough study of morality, the conscious practice of awareness. But establish calm first. Then you can expand awareness by examining all things.

Your selection for awareness is limited. Why is awareness not present, only obsessions? This leads back to moral practice.

Where can you start?

Start with action. Start by ceasing to do evil unwholesome acts. Learn to do good. Start with the body. Stop hitting others and also yourself. Then, stop bad mouthing. And finally, clean up the interior dialogue. At the same time learn to set in motion the good. Start thinking of beings in a nice way, saying nice things, do nice things. This is simple, but, it has extraordinary effects. Eventually, learn to go beyond the practice of good.

You must have a basis of calm. This is fundamental.

[Something about beings in Canada preventing others from coming to this session: an example of "unresolved parental rejection." Rinpoche rejects therapy as a prior condition for setting forth on the path.]

Psychoanalysis attempts to heal the being in the middle of mental disturbances.

But, really beings must first be fed, nourished and work towards health from a positive secure state. Past conditioning is more easily handled from a calm state.

Drop the inner dialogue to help achieve a state of calm. The Buddha warned that you are "painting such a monster that you faint." As you travel along the path there is less need for discursive thought. Conversing, yes. That imparts knowledge. But the vast number of beings spend 80% of their lives in fantasy. The less awakened, the more the inner dialogue. Most of the inner dialogue is not necessary for the well being of the being. It is difficult to put this chat away because it seems to be doing you good. But in reality it is eating away, decaying the being. These thought patterns are going round and round. When was the last time you had a new thought, a ground breaking idea or insight?

First you must have a really good ground of calm before going into insight. Or insight will overwhelm you. Read Through the Looking Glass.

[Rinpoche makes a quote from Through the Looking Glass which no one took down.]

QUESTION: Is meditation directed awareness?

Response: All moments of consciousness are directed awareness. The essence of meditation is the ding aspect, the thread, the tantra, with the emphasis on absorption and calm. The true measure of absorption is the factor of calm present and that it is effortless.

Meditation is not trying to direct the consciousness, but of being directed. Concentrating on a rather dull text book is not really concentration. Real concentration is engrossment in a book. No matter how exciting the murder mystery of the film, when you are really caught up in it you are actually in a great state of calm, of absorption, and it is effortless. True meditation is directed, effortless and a continuum.

A good early meditation is to work with a bowl of flowers, one hand plus four fingers in width, placed away from you one and a half times the length from the finger tips to the elbow.

Concentration exists in every moment, but not love. Love can only be added by living morally. [Rinpoche makes reference to the book At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, by Peter Mathiessen, published by New American Library.]

Any study which is truly interesting is being in a state of love. At any wholesome moment, love is present. Anything joyful, peaceful or interesting is the presence of love. The extent to which these moments are present is the extent of the ability to love.

Love is a very humble moment. It is not the grand passions, most assuredly. It is the sheer quantity of the small moments of love that leads to the passion of love. Love is humility and silence. Mettã is non-discriminating. Practice the presence of love. The Abhidhamma states that there are two types of states of being, those that are common and frequent and those which are not. Mettã is among the latter.

EXPRESSING love has only two aspects, one physical and the other mental.The child should be held physically by its mother so that it may have a feeling of at-one-ment with the universe, of fitting in. The other aspect is the encouragement to explore, to be led into exploration, the classic role of the father.

The child needs not only to be fed, but also to be held. At the same time the child almost immediately reaches out to explore. If the child is not held, then he will tend to turn schisophrenic. If the child is not encouraged to explore, or worse, is prevented, then this becomes the source of neuroses. When was the last time you had a thrilling exploration? The father must work with the child.

All mental illness comes from a withholding of metta. Without a good foundation in these things, there cannot be trusting movement. Only with trust can you dare to yield to innocence. Except as ye become as little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even to exist children must be fed. You are not being the child, but old crones and drones of defence.

[Rinpoche then recommends a book, The Continuum Concept, by Jean Liedloff, published by Warner Books.]

Woe unto them for what they do to little children.

If you think compassionate thoughts, you will be a compassionate being. If you think loving thoughts, you will be a loving being. You are being shaped by every passing thought and by every consciousness with whom you come in contact. You are by no means a finished and finally shaped being. There is indeed great plasticity.

THE FOUR divine abidings - the Brahma Vihara. Brahma, among the Indians, was God the Father, the supreme being, the first class. Vihãra is to live. Therefore, Brahma Vihãra is to live at the highest, to live like the Gods.

Later on in Buddhism, you have four classic meditations: the development of Mettã, Karuiiã, Muditã and Upekkha. Very loosely translated these can be taken to be: Mettã - love, Karunã compassion, Muditã - identifying or sympathetic joy, and Upekkha - detachment or serenity. These are very loose translations as we shall see. The bedrock of the four are Mettã and Upekkha, an unchanging love state and a detached moving state.

Love and compassion are often considered to be equal or identical and often this is true. But here a distinction is being made. Most beings using the phrase, "I love you," mean an excluding love. "We have this thing going." Metta is positive, an interested wholesome state of mind for unfoldment. One ought to pick up the idea of a universal love or a universal consciousness, a loosening state, all embracing, all abiding. It's not necessarily people directed.

It is an abiding, omnipresent state, not a dialogue about people. It could be crafts or running or the flowers or flying or just about anything.

Upekkha is an abiding state whether or not people are present, serene. One aspect is non-discriminative. I'd hate to use the word passive because it does unfold.

The two middle ones are Karuitã and Muditã. They are active, selective, interventive, engage states. When in a state of sympathetic joy and you see beings in joy, you are joyful or happy. When you meet people who are suffering, you suffer. You share their state. The other side, Karui'rã, is insight into the source of their sufferings and to seek means to relieve their state. This is the ever present awareness of whether a wholesome or loving state is present, the basic growth state. With suffering people you feel their suffering and take compassionate action. Sympathetic joy sees the joy of the child and takes part in it. Trying to understand the suffering of another leads to wisdom.

The Four abidings are the feet of wisdom to knowing about all sentient life. The nirvana principle is metta, serene, omnipresent sympathetic joy. The question to be asked is, if compassion is not present, is mettã present? Or are you in a hate state? What is the cause of the hate state? Perhaps instead of trying to be in a state of compassion with clenched teeth we should go for a nice walk or read a book, something to allow the state of mettã to arise. It is from this state that compassion will arise.

Mettã, Karuitã, Muditã, Upekkha, all four are fulfilled in meditation in the same way, and there are three distinct methods. We'll use mettã as an example.

The first method is to start with the unfolding state. You feel or enter the love state. This can be approached through repetition of Aham *Avero Homi, etc.

* This is a reference to a Theravadin meditation:

Ahaip avero homi! abyapajjho homi! anigho homi! sukhi attAnaip pariharami! aharn viya Sabbe sattA avera hontu, abyapajjha hontu, anigha hontu, sukhi attAnaip pariharantu!

May I be free from enmity, ill-will and grief, and may I guard myself happily! May all beings be void of enmity, ill-will and grief, and may they take must first contact mettã. Go for a nice walk. Start with unfolding love in its present state. After an invigorating walk, when you feel good, that is is mettã. Then think of someone, for instance your lama, and desire him to be in this state. Feel good wishes towards him. This is beginning to extend your thoughts outwards from your being.

Then consider your parents, your lovers, your close friends, then acquaintances and last of all, your enemies. In other words, begin with self and then project outwards the state of love in the order of intensity of your relationships towards people in almost a full circle. For some people it will be very difficult to maintain the original feeling of mettã throughout this meditation. The name of the game is not to lose the thread of that love state throughout. Begin by giving encouragement to the positive relationships, then finally the enemies. The idea is to maintain this without blowing your cool. Classically, a student felt closest to his lama. Today the relationship is not the same.

There may be some ambivalence because there is some ambivalence about the parents. He has become a substitute for mommy and daddy. This is not the classic guru relationship. This is the personal path.

The next way is by categories to individual beings, by species say. You can invent the categories, but it should move towards the angels. Even as I am, may others be. Maintain an equanimity of that love of mettã throughout this system as well by going through the Aharn, Avero Homi, etc. To all human beings, mammals, reptiles, amoebas, and on to the radiant beings. Now it becomes more difficult because we are not generally aware of all the radiant beings throughout the universe as the traditionalists may be. There is much more to think about here. This is more depersonalised, more abstract.

care of themselves happily! Appears on page 19 of The Mirror of the Dhamma, A Manual of Buddhist Recitations and Devotional Texts, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Shri Lanka. Available from most metaphysical bookstores.

The third way is a spatial way. It is a mandala practice of loving kindness, the directing of light, first in the four directions, then in the other four, then above and below, the 10 directions, so that the light goes out to all the realms. Imagine a globe of love and light around your being expanding and then brought back. Expand and contract a beatific state of joy, of consciousness. If the light is expanded and contracted and if messages come back, you have a state of at-one-ment. In this state the light must be felt to be expanding, making offerings to all sentient beings. You don't have to think of the word "love" if this light is present. The light pervades the being and the consciousness of it spreads out to all the universe.

The first is personal, then categories or types, and finally spatial. The object is to feel the communion of all beings. A hummingbird is an angel. A dragonfly is an angel, a radiant being. With progress through the yogas your distinctions drop.

Offerings to the Buddhas is a way of acquiring communion with life, the Buddha-nature of all beings. What is Buddha-nature?

[Rinpoche tells of the Zen student who approached his teacher while sitting in a garden and asked this question. The master points and says "that".]

Whatever his eyes or ears were attuned to at that moment.

Mettã is an excellent mediation if you are having difficulty with sleep.

The crux of the matter is whether you yourself are in a state of love. You should first put your own house in order. Cleanse the temple. Read a book or take a walk, establish absorption, a state of love. Charity begins at home. It doesn't matter what you believe but the state that you are in.

Behind hate there is always fear. Fear produces hate. As much fear there is in a being, there is as much hate. The more fear is experienced in life, the more hate. Before totality comes, fear comes. Fear is the opposite of love, not hate. Fear is the closing off. Fear is what paralyses various parts of the body, the most sensitive being the erogenous sones. There is no need to become sex obsessed. They are usually the most sensitive areas. The sense sones are gateways to being. Being subjected to fear the skin becomes dead. It may start with the orifices and then the sense sones.

Fear can be in the doors of the senses, the gateways of your being. Fear is the result of being overwhelmed. Fear may be a sound or a sight. The system doesn't even get to hate. It just shuts down - in a state of fear. This state of shutdown is the system protecting itself. A highly sensitised being can easily be overwhelmed. In trauma there is such an overwhelming fear that the system just shuts down. Catatonia is the ultimate or extreme form of schisophrenia. The system doses down. The system is trying to find a way to deal with the situation. Any system of defence short of death is compassionate. If you have an accident and you go into a state of shock, this is a milder form of the same thing. Note that if the being is in pain, then there has not been an overload because the system has not shut down.

If a negative state exists, accentuate the positive. Discuss fears only in a state 9f trust. If is an error to say "What is troubling you?"

THERE IS no devolution really. We are all on the path towards the light. If we are reborn as wart hogs this is not devolution. We just have something more to learn there.

We can learn as quickly or as slowly as we choose. The original mind is pure. [Rinpoche exaggerates a Japanese monk labouring to speak English.] "Whole universe, utterly pure."

Hail to the wisdom which is ripening. Wisdom is always ripening. It is not accurate to say it has ripened, except perhaps in a relative sense. The deep coursing of transcending wisdom. Purity is not going back to purity.

There is ongoing purity, purifying, identifying with wisdom.

You are not in the past or the future, or between the two. There is no past and no future. There is no in between past and future. There is just now. Wisdom is simply ripening.

Form and emptying are identical. Form is empty. Empty is form. So with purity. There is no distinction to be made between purity and wisdom. Wisdoming is purifying and purifying is wisdoming. They come at the same time for the same reason.

QUESTION: What is the nature of the relationship between teacher and student?

Response: There is no relationship. If there is no relationship, there are no concepts, no preconceptions.

[Rinpoche then instructs to student to go wiggle a child's toy of an ostrich sitting on top of a bookcase.]

That is the relationship of teacher and student.

[Ostrich head and body wobble disjointedly.]

A question about strengthening the ego and diminishing the ego

THE EGO is that which is winnowing, defining, and so forth. But the egotistical person is the ego which refuses to do that. It is resisting its function, overwhelmed. Therefore to strengthen the weak ego is to release the ego from its resistances.

Ego is Latin for "I go' or for "I go out'. The ego is simply the conscious mind, the screener, the judge or handler of events. The strong ego is empirical.

Strengthen the empirical ego by meeting people and events. The strong "I go' goes into events, meetings, exploration. You who toil in the service of the go day and night, know that the master exists not! But what is the range of the ego's handling?

Strengthen by increasing the range.

He that would lose himself shall save himself. And he that would save himself shall lose even that little that he has. To save oneself is dying and stagnation. What is a valuable defence and what a worn out one?

Diminish the self, seif-centredness, by promoting other- centredness. Paradoxically you need to diminish egotisticalness to promote the ego. But don't think that the goal is to obliterate consciousness or awareness. Here you sit thinking, "He knows just what is in my mind!" It is a conceit to think that Rinpoche gives a class just about you. The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang awa.

Rinpoche asks for more questions.

There is a long pause. It becomes evident there won't be any.

TO AROUSE question we must first enter the calm state. While not losing that, have a question come up, not from the negative but from the state of calm. Having entered the calm state and not losing the calm state, wake up th e calm. Then formulate question. First calm awareness, then bright awareness or questioning awareness. Question arises intuitively from the depth. Have a question arise from a state of calm, not from worry or anxiety. The sign of waking up is a question arising from this state of calm. It is imperative that calm brightens to form itself. [Rinpoche tells the story of the Japanese Roshi who had to ask his student to ask a question for a whole year before she could do anything more than draw a blank.]

QUESTIONER: Would you speak on the creative u of deliberate imagination and the use of symbols introduced into meditation?

Response: We are, in a sense, the imagination of God. There are five doors to perception. The information coming in through the sense doors basically comes in the form of shape and it comes in sequence. Creatures sense impressions in an orderly form.

Vibration is form coming in sequence which creates impressions because it interacts with our deep message, the coding impression. The sense impressions are orderly manifestations.

These build all the universe by constantly shaping lines and structures. All the happenings of the universe are shaping. How have you been shaped? The image is more important than the imagination. Throughout nature you see the same shapes and structures over and over again, such as sea shell spirals and crystals. You as a human creature couldn't be expected to be other than an extension of these shapes. Question not your imagination but how you have been imaged. In what image have you been cast? Upon awakening the Buddha said, "I have found you, oh builder." It is important to get the primary message, messages that have shaped your being. Wave forms and shell spirals are related to the DNA spiral.

There are many meditations, particularly arising yogas, that start by seeking what shape or template formed you. You did not form you. It was you that was formed. What was the pattern? It is important in meditation to get past verbalisation and on to the messages which have created your body rising. What was the yoga that created you? What is your binding to the universe? The simple mandala of Chenreisig is three sea shells, Nimitta signs. That is why the sea shell is one of the primordial signs. Some people have the ability to see geometrics.

Others to see shapes. Some will see a circle broken into segments. Others will see an orange.

Where are you when you return your bones to your father and your flesh to your mother? You could say that the flesh is the basic pattern, the basic shape. The flesh is the personalised expression, a fleshing of the bare bones.

Why did you put on hair? Why did eyes come into being? Go down to the sea and study. See the unfolding of the flower upon which Chenreisig is seated.

Imagination could be a great hindrance. What guideline could you have? The important question to ask is: to what extent is it in line with the original shaping of the universe? What do you know about the laws? Once the laws are known, transmutation, change, creation can take place. If there is knowledge of the primary shapings then new shapes can be brought into being, going to more complexity.

You must have a sense of at-one-ment. The first sense of true being is to be not separated from the one cell that divided. Why did the one cell divide into two, one being into two? Duality is never being two. Duality is one being two. This is bedrock dharma understanding. Why do you want to get away from duality? Attraction and repulsion is fundamental to the whole universe. It's not being two, but one being two.

Imaginings from the ego are vain, just telling stories to yourself. If you want to get in touch with creativity, go back to simple coding, shape, form, colour, vibration. You can say events of life have stepped on you.

Fundamentally, that's still law. Everything is built up by law. You are the temple of the law. The temple has been built in silence over eons by the law. There is history behind the marvelous constellation of the body. We are the image and likeness, the imagination of God. We are the imagination. Business as usual for the universe. Just the word of God. You are the god imagining, and from which you can never depart. It is imagining. To many people it means illusion. But imagining doesn't mean that it isn't there.

One way to approach May is to consider the image making in the shifts of sand. Wherever you have shifting you have a desert.

QUESTION: You spoke of meditation producing binding. Could you speak more about binding?

Response: Meditation is a more intense statement of what is coded in the being. You go through life in patterns of tightening and loosening. The practice of non-clinging calm awareness is to watch the rise and fall. Ultimately there would be the non-clinging to tension or relaxation. By putting pressure with the tongue against the roof of the mouth the tension cannot keep up. It will relax. Rather than trying to loosen or going into relaxing exercises, go with the tension, accept it. Tension will eventually give way to relaxation. Rather than battling drowsiness or tension, just accept it as an impermanent state and go on. Without making effort, let the sins liberate themselves. But you often prolong the agony by going into dialogue with it. Don't fight it, but go with it. The greatest of all droppings is the non-argument. Relax if you are uncomfortable. Tension is occurring. Isn't that curious! If you make efforts to come out of lethargy, you get tension. What is the way out? Awareness. Just maintain you cool.

To make progress on the path you need awareness and the developing of interest in a subject in meditation. When reading a book you slip in and out of concentration. You just shrug off the tension. Now, why can't you do the same in meditation? Get involved with the subject of meditation. Enter into contact with the body and go into the tension. Something like a cramp uncurling. Tension will release and gather. Tension vibrates. You can shift your body and go on with the meditation. You are still in it. Don't sit until your legs fall off just to do it.

Did you know that you shrink a quarter of an inch every night? Yes, you do. The muscles of the spine relax through the night. So the sanest thing you can do in the morning is to give yourself a good stretch.

Things arise in meditation to do with the ordinary life. So don't be surprised by what occurs. For instance shaking in meditation is de-armouring.

THAT DETERMINES to what extent the practice of insight brings insight is the practice of the Pãramis. Study them. Rivet them to your mind. Every meditation should be done with other sentient beings. What have you done for others? Have you developed patience? The practice of Mettã and Dana gives the being more energy.

The mastery of one pãrami leads into the next and strengthens the next. But you must start with dana, giving. Eventually, giving loosens clinging. Giving eventually becomes your first nature like the mothering principle. In the practice of Hevajra you make three gifts in the morning and three in the evening. In the practice of the Mahayana it is the pãramis which are central. Why does one pãrami lead into another? You can never have enough pãrami.

Consider, what am I doing to that person? What am I doing to myself? Why am I doing this to myself? You may have too much patience with the wrong thing.

To counteract day dreams you could make a disciplined study of dream yoga. This is not simply writing down your dreams in the morning. It is a process of becoming consciously involved with the dream. Enter the dream. You are in a dream now. Sometimes colour works. However, most people lack the pãrami to be able to deal with the phenomena that result from dream yoga.

THERE ARE dry paths and wet paths. The dry is very analytical. The wet is emotional and given to visionary experiences. There are four forms of liberation:

1. By faith, liberation comes just on contact with dharma, by hearing the word.

2. Body witness liberated, by ecstasy and the jhãnas. The being has a natural ability to visualise. There may be tears, colour, form, body witness.

3. The twice liberated - both by insight and by the jhãnas, ecstasies and dry vision.

4. And by the dry route. These beings may never experience ecstasy, just a continuous drying out of the being, a purging. Just the dark night of the soul all the way.

Perhaps it is cultural conditioning which mitigates the types of liberation. It is important to work with and out of your own milieu.

Your milieu sets your prodivity on the path. This will indicate which trends should be utilised. And it may alter with different periods of life. Understand your fashioning and see if you can work with it in that. See if you can utilise your milieu. What are the virtues of your culture? What are the virtues of your own being, your strengths? Try being in the world but not of the world. It's very easy to see the negatives in your being. What are your strengths? In the jungle every creature has its way of fighting, its strengths.

QUESTION: Do the jhãnas burn out hindrances?

Response: No, no exactly. jhãna is subject to Dukkha. The transcendent is with you all the time. jhãna comes into being and passes away.

jhãna was originally an ordinary word used in everyday conversation meaning that someone was caught up in something, fully engrossed. Listening to Beethovan's 9th is a moment of upliftment. That is the moment to work on form. What absorbs you has a pleasurable state of consciousness.

Jhãna exists in ordinary absorption. It's just a difference in intensity. There are different degrees of absorption. In meditation we use other words with the term jhãna. For instance Rupa Jhãna is full absorption into form. But jhãna does not burn out the hindrances. Only the transcendental path can do that. jhãna is only the result of effort. You water and nurture it. And, therefore jhãnas will also pass away.

Jhãnas are not a sign of great saintliness. There are all kinds of nut cases around who have ecstatic highs who on a day-to-day basis are a mess. You've surely seen such cases. Absorptions do not necessarily bring holiness.

It is purification of action as opposed to just visions that make the saint. The saint in the Catholic church is judged on his actions. Merely doing of good works does not a good person make, nor momentary illuminations, but the indwelling presence of God. There is a vast gulf between illumination and the beatific presence of God. Work, real work, begins alter the jhãna experience. Thana is like an anaesthetic that momentarily removes the pain, just as the dentist uses anaesthetics before removing a tooth. As far as the teaching is concerned the only thing which can eradicate hindrances is the transcendental experience. Path or Satori experience. It has to be like a cosmic consciousness experience.

The first transcendent happening doesn't do anything much. Greed and hatred are not cut down until the second transcendental experience, and only then just cut down, not eliminated. The hindrances that disappear on the first happening are belief in the ego, in rule and ritual, and that the jhãnas can save you. However, you are granted faith and trust in the dharma that you are completely and utterly in the hand of God. There is not faith short of the transcendent experience, just neurotic need. At the second transcendent moment, you diminish, and only diminish, greed and hatred. Habit patterns will continue. At the third, greed and hatred go finally. At the fourth levels the only one of the five I will talk about is that clinging to ecstatic absorptions passes away. One no longer clings to any form of ecstatic absorption.

THERE ARE three levels of Wongkur: permission to begin work, a blessing level to urge forward someone who has already made progress, and the crown level which is permission to teach. Empowerment is given in the mind of the Lama. Very often at wongkur the transmission may only be to one or two individuals, not to all who happen to be present. Each of the six yogas of Naropa has an appropriate initiation.

QUESTION: What is dream yoga?

Response: This is a vast subject. You need the appropriate initiations, permission to begin practice. There are four levels of dreams, somatic understanding, karmic understanding, telepathic and the prophetic level. Westerners have it all back to front in laying the emphasis on the prophetic. You can't possibly begin to understand that level until all the others have been mastered. The somatic is the diagnostic level, the karmic are the energy levels, the prana. The telepathic is meeting with other consciousness. The first level can receive demons. Dredging up dreams a la Freud is not dream yoga, as useful as that exercise may be.

PARAMI must be present so as not to be overwhelmed by karmic insight. If the pãramis are not there the being is in danger of being overwhelmed. You must be supported by wholesome acts. The path must be effortless. For the deep teachings you need the pãramis. Otherwise you could end up in the looney bin. The way out of mental breakdown is through loving acts. Do good for others. Chenreisig helps.

[Rinpoche then tells the story of the beggar thief who stole a horse and, when he was caught, was hanged. But when one farmer stole from another, he was only fined. And when a passing general requisitioned a horse he was not not even charged. In fact he was rewarded.]

And so with the pãramis.

They used to say that when the study is ready, the master will appear. Leave well enough alone. Be ordinary. All these profound deep things that are going to come are ordinary. All happenings on the inner plane should be treated as ordinary happenings, as indeed they are. You don't make an ego reference to it. You shouldn't bat an eyelid. Just, "I wonder what that is?" Naturally, you will be pleased and interested.

To deal with phenomena, be curious. Do not let the ego enter in. The idea is for all happenings to be ordinary, business as usual, so that truth coming in is no big deal but simply a new way of seeing. "I wonder what that is? I wonder what law governs this?" Don't take it personally, even if you were on your death bed. This is possible if you are supported by well developed pãramis.

The seat of anxiety is in the ego. Show me someone in a state of fear and I'll show you someone who is selfish. It's an ego defence. You need to see how common you are and how ordinary.

What do you do about fear? Stop being egotistical. Give to people. Get out of yourself. It's as simple as that. A being who thinks of himself as a Bodhisattva is no Bodhisattva. You don't take the Bodhisattva vow for other people, oh no. You take it for yourself. You need it so that you can come out of yourself. You need it to see how common you are, how ordinary. Even your commonness is common. Your conceit is common too. The best thing for your being is to get out of yourself.

[Rinpoche tells the story of the master who came to a burning house filled with playing children. The master points out to them that their house is burning and urges them to leave off playing and vacate. But no, the children refuse to believe him and persist in their playing even more firmly. Therefore the master is reduced to presenting them with incentives, all manner of toys, elaborate systems and glories, if only they would leave the burning house. This is likened to the Mahayana path.]

You want to talk about systems, but I want to talk about quality of life. If you have the quality, the systems are mere play toys. The bigger the ego, the bigger the system, the smaller the ego the smaller the system.

You don't have to do the technique if you are a good being. It is not possible to fear God, but only the ego, the tricks of the ego. The ego is a nightmare. You ought to go to church occasionally. You would become aware of God if you went into a field at night and became aware of the stars and the grasses and the animals.

THE PURSUIT of the path is an amalgam of direction by the lama and also what the text says, "What strikes your fancy." In other words, interest. If there is no interest there is no joy. No joy, no energy. You remember in the House at Pooh Corner it was Eeyore who loves his brambles, he didn't like honey. Some of you remind me of Eeyore. You should always evaluate a meditation [on arising from it] in terms of interest. In other words, was there investigation present.

QUESTION: Would you like to give a discourse on the Eightfold Noble Path?

Response: Would I? It can be said that if it isn't the Four Noble Truths, then it isn't dharma. You can get very lost in the labyrinths of religion.

The Buddha said that the essential kernel of religion is that beings are suffering and there does exist a path which leads away from suffering. You don't have to get enlightened. You have only to remove that which obstructs.

In a manner of speaking you could say that at a certain point in time enlightenment occurred. But it would be much more accurate to say that at a certain point the obscurations fell away. Therefore you could say that the whole of the path is dedicated to Dukkha, not enlightenment.

The Buddha taught four noble truths. The eightfold noble path is the fourth noble truths.

The first noble truth is the truth of suffering. The entire path is not dedicated to producing awakened beings. The whole motivation is to alleviate suffering.

The second noble truth is the cause of suffering and basically it is clinging, trying to make the impermanent permanent. You can alleviate this by what Krishnamurti calls non-clinging awareness.

The third noble truth - Dukkha Nirodha - is whatever has a cause has an end. Dukkha has a cause. The transcendental has no cause. Transcendent consciousness is the only all-embracing thing, the ground of being. If your mental life has been scarred, it can also be unscarred. Once the suffering has been removed you come to non- clinging awareness which, because it is non-clinging, is bright.

How do you get to non-clinging awareness?

That is the fourth noble truth, by putting one foot in front of the other in an orderly manner on the eightfold noble path.

Right understanding is something to begin with. You must have, you do have, an intuitive feel for the truth. No matter hat you do, you are immersed in universal truth. This intuitive feel is possible because you have never actually been removed from universal truth. That is speaking to you always. Therefore it is always possible that you can have an intuitive grasp of dharma or the voices that are speaking to you every moment - not necessarily well worked out, but nevertheless there.

However, to put things in order for the declared dharma you need the noble eightfold path. The eightfold path is divided into three sections, Sila, Samãdhi, Pafifiã, that which produces a calm, cool state of mind.

The first is action, right action, right speech, right livelihood. The Chenreisig meditation will produce the right state of mind. Sila is the moral behaviour, the karma,the activity, the things that you do with your body, with your speech and your mind. The criterion of every morality is whether it actually cools and nourishes the being. This is the great difference between Buddhism and organised religion. Organised religion is full of taboos. It is a characteristic of ordinary religion from man emerging from the cave right up to the present that religion carries a set of taboos, thou shalt nots, which are frequently revised or re-interpreted or for which exceptions are found.

[Rinpoche uses the example of the Christian attitude to killing, exceptions being found for every war. he related that in ancient Ceylon it was the Mohammedans who were the fishermen and the Christians the butchers.]

By their fruits, ye shall know them. Does it produce a freer, more unfolded being?

Sila literally means cool and is the root of the word serene. When you depart from good moral action, you are closing the door to what you could be.

[Rinpoche speaks of energetic men of the world who have great charisma. He doesn't deny their attributes or their worthiness but wonders what would have become of them if they put that same energy into realising their ground of being.]

One of the reasons you don't sin is that sin is a denial of what you could be. Good is that which is much more profitable. The word sin means to lack, to miss the target - truth - which is the realisation of the ground of being, the highest attainment of a human being. When it is all said and done, you are alone.

What is happening? the basis of the pãramis is virtue, literally, the cool. Coolness doesn't keep. Coolness reveals, moves further. In a cool state of consciousness you see more, hear more. You certainly are not static. From this coolness you go directly into samadhi.

The text is usually translated as right concentration, but I prefer the term total concentration, total immersion. Here you can sort out the energies, to total energy or effort or the unfoldment of energy to totality. There is a continuum of concentration, all embracing and all applicable.

There is not a moment when you are not concentrated. You are as bright in the morning as you are in the evening and vice versa. I prefer the word continuum to totality. Now you can have right effort. When you have brightened the calm you are ready for the last two. There is a total transcendent consciousness at work. Then there is right understanding.

Unless all those factors are together there is no awakening. You can only say you know where it's at, man, when you follow he eightfold noble path. Unless you have fully tried the eightfold path can you talk about the ground of being. You don't need this therapy or that one or the other. Sometimes therapy is a hindrance, though I am not negating it.

The swiftest path is the noble eightfold path. It will remove suffering. It will de-traumatise the being.

INTEREST is the path to health. People in sickness can't get interested in anything. It's so apparent the lack of interest among so many beings.

It's interest which will remove the neuroses. The deadness is lack of interest. Put your interest into something. That is the path. What's the point of doing organised religion in a boring way. Beings cannot get interested in subtle colours or in sounds. Meanwhile the temple is built in silence. Buddha nature is everywhere.

How did the women of the Atlas mountains make this carpet [fingering a hanging behind him]? They are probably nearer to enlightenment than you are. Saying your mantras in a bored way! You are armchair bodhisattvas. When was the last time you were nice to someone outside of the dharma? Just saying the word OM requires two billion changes of consciousness.

Chenreisig, Chenreisig, Chenreisig. Chenreisig will complete the moral basis. Life is like an ant climbing up the mountain. You will eventually get there. There is only one thing for the path and that is right fanaticism. Become fanatically interested in compassion. Compassion, compassion, compassion.

There is no here and now. There is only compassion, awareness.

NIRVANA literally means going out, when the garbage has been cleaned up, burned up. Nirvana is not the result of the process.

Only two things have been uttered about it. It's permanent and it's happy. They are just asking you to trade the impermanent and the suffering. Only in suffering and in the impermanent is there dimension and duration. Heaven is impermanent if it has a time and place. In my father's house there are many mansions. That is, enlightenment.

How can you go from here to there unless you stop clinging to this? How does a woman cease to be a woman? By stopping clinging to it. Or a man. There are many shapes or forms in the universe you could be. You are fooled with the concept that you are a human being. Think of it. A human body and human consciousness for ever and ever? What difference does form and shape make? Did you know that the Fierce Guru is holding a scorpion? There is no difference between the scorpion and himself. What's more the scorpion is a nine-headed scorpion. Did you know that there are nine-headed worms in Burma?

In this teaching you must believe three impossible things before breakfast. How many of you have read Through the Looking Glass?

[Rinpoche asks for a show of hands and makes warm recommendations of Alice.]

The trouble with you is that you haven't had a multi-dimensional vision of the body. You don't want to see any further. You have enough trouble handling two eyes let alone a third eye. Or a third ear. [Rinpoche talks of extending the senses and speaks of the incredible sense of touch of the thousand-armed Chenreisig.] How many fingers would that be?

If you are bored with your own mind, why would I want to read it? Concept, concept, concept. The Buddha said, "I too use concepts, but am not fooled thereby." The human being is an organism in constant transcendence. The first step to awakening is to understand that one enemy you must hit is dinging.

The pictures of Chenreisig are deliberately crude. The first steps are there but in a bizarre form. Further in the levels of yoga Chenreisig is everywhere. The ants are Chenreisig breaking up the earth. The picture of Chenreisig has symbols, keys to the mind.

Don't define opportunities in advance.

[Rinpoche criticises the women's movement for this tendency and at the same time praises it, saying the movement is necessary and desirable.]

Women shouldn't do what men do because men shouldn't.

Come out from the burning house I shouted at them. Mahayana is first talking to the children. Later to really start shouting at them. They've got to get frightened. Finally, to show them the goodies, the meditations. Come out from safety and security. Come out from getting married and settling down. Enter the homeless life, take no thought for the morrow. How do you stop wandering in Sangsara? Wander in Sangsara!

You have worn the cloak of the order from the beginning. Why not wander? He who bides nowhere bides everywhere. The moment you start clinging is the moment of old age, decay and death. Do the Chenreisig meditation. Reflect on what is morality and right speech.

The meditation for morality, ethics, for sila, is Chenreisig. For concentration and meditation problems, Vajrapani. And for wisdom, right seeing, right attitude, Manjusri. These form a triumvirate.

NORMALLY paramattha is translated into English as 'perfection'. Paramattha is used as an adjective in front of sacca, truths, and desana, teachings. Therefore we have truths, such as saying that the sun sets each day when in fact we know that it does no such thing. Therefore there are two levels of teaching, conventional truths, and to the heart of the matter, philosophical truth.

The teaching differentiates between everyday truths and high truths. Real teachings are exact statements. In the most ancient texts there are 10 perfections listed. Later on this was condensed down to six and given more emphasis. This is very central or core teaching. Perhaps we can consider these 10 as 10 qualities that must be present for the being to progress on to Buddhahood, awakening. If they are not present the being will not reach Buddhahood.

Buddhahood is the same, identical, to these 10 perfections.

They are not only nouns, but also verbs. They are not only the perfections, but also that which perfects the being. The moment they are practiced or occur spontaneously the being has advanced. The guide to progress assessment is if one of these pãrami is present. You must only judge through these 10. It's the only safe guideline. Black magicians or sorcerers may have visualisations. Phenomena are not guidelines. Only if a pãrami is present can one say that the experience is wholesome and therefore progress is being made.

Dana - giving, generosity - from which we get the word 'donation.'
Sila - morality
Nekkhamma - renunciation of ego
Paññã - perfection of wisdom
Viriya energy Khanti patience
Sacca - truthfulness Adhiflhana - resoluteness, determination, the decision to work
Mettã - kindness
Upekkha - equanimity, detachment

When these qualities have matured in a being, the being awakens. It is possible to tred the path completely, simply by perfecting the pãramis. There are many, many ways that you can practice the path.

Green Tara is to remove obstructions. White Tara is somewhat leaning back in a relaxed posture with one hand forward, giving. A relaxed posture, relaxing into the transcendental.

Meditation is not strictly necessary if the pãramis are present. What you need to do is to wake the mind up. Just by practicing pãramis the being can awaken. As the being is practicing there is perfecting. Meditation is only to wake the mind up. As there is perfecting there is power. Another way to speak about the pãramis is as powers. The Jataka tales are birth stores about the Buddha, but they are really about the pãramis, the perfecting of pãrami. Some teach that during different lifetimes you are perfecting different pãramis.

It is stated in the Visuddhimagga, the second oldest major text, that if you perfect the Brahma Vihãra, namely Mettã, Karuitã, Muditã and Upekkhã you will in effect have perfected all 10. It is merely a way of teaching. You want order, one step after the other. Really it makes no difference where you begin. Even the four can be reduced to one - non-dinging. The nature of the path is non-dinging. Out of compassion the teachers have elaborated the path. The pãramis are just a skillful means of awakening. The pãramis are a skillful means of teaching.

[Rinpoche compares Catholic saints with these qualities.]

All of the other nine are perfections of dana - giving. And if you perfect any one you will have perfected all 10.

In the Visuddhimagga and in Mahayana scripture the synonym for a Bodhisattva is the Mahãsattva, the great being, as the great beings are concerned about the welfare of all living beings. Bodhisattva means - Bodhi, enlightenment - thus, enlightenment being. All can be considered Bodhisattvas. All of you are destined to awaken. These are great beings who have completed the path and who cannot stand the sufferings of others. We are all Mahãsattvas, increasing wisdom, understanding and stature. These are perfect beings or beings who are being perfected. They are not tolerating the sufferings of beings. They are impartial and just to all beings.

Train yourself in giving. Give gifts to the being regardless of stature. The way of sila as stated in the first precept, paitatipata, is not to kill or to maim. The path is peace, not to harm.

In order to bring morality and peace to perfection they train themselves in renunciation, in other words, or the ego, in order to understand what is beneficial or injurious to beings.

To understand completely they purify, they need clear seeing to perfect the path of giving.

It is not enough to have wisdom. They constantly need to exert energy. They must have energy to bring welfare to beings. They know they have become heroes through it - energy.

They have patience towards the manifold failings of human beings.

Once they have promised to give, they do not break their vow to beings, the Bodhisattva vow. The fulfilling of the vow of giving is the only vow of any god damn use.

They with unshakable resolution, adhilthãna, they work the vow for the health and welfare of others.

With unshakable kindness they are helpful to all without anticipating whether they are worthy or not.

By reason of equanimity, upekkha, they do not expect anything in return. Non-clinging, love detachment. They are not doing it for ego return. It is most compassionate to give joy or happiness.

When the guru appears he says but one word. Samaya discipline, the discipline of giving. The one vow is dana, without reward. Dana must be given with no hope or expectation of reward. But actually you will be rewarded because you will be perfected, by perfection, by awakening. This is not a reward in the conventional sense. If you give to the lama, don't expect special attention. You are giving to yourself perfection.

[Rinpoche compares it to an old German child's coin bank. "As soon as the money goes ker-klink, the soul ascends to heaven."]

Giving can also mean dropping the negative states. If you drop hate states, you are giving to beings. No emotional reward. The silent gift to you is the awakening. Pãrami is the perfected and that which is being perfected. In Mahayana the pãrami occupy a more central place in teaching, instead of practicing monastic meditations. Here is the reduction into the six pãramis.

Dana - generosity
Sila - morality
Khanti - patience
Viriya - energy
Samãdhi - concentration
Paññã - wisdom

In order to make it easier to understand, the 10 were reduced to six. The 10 pãrami end up with non-clinging. The six end up with wisdom. The gift that is giving by giving is the wisdom of non-clinging. These are the two rules to keep your mind free from greed and hatred. And one rule for non-clinging. Just give, give to yourself. Once you have given everything away, innate wisdom can come then because all the hindrances have gone.

[Rinpoche suggests reading the Buddhist Doctrine Of Universality. It has a good section on the pãramis. He also mentions Eric Fromm's book, The Art Of Loving.]

The art of loving is in relation to all beings. It's a revolutionary work. Adhitthãna is absolute fixity of purpose. It is all that is focused upon, the life decision to perfect the pãramis. This is where the being moves from the theoretic plane to work to move from the armchair Bodhisattva to knowing, that is the work. What must I do to complete the Bodhisattva path? Do you or do you not want to awaken in this lifetime?

QUESTION: Would you talk about right livelihood.

Response: Well, it's normally taken to mean your work or your employment. However, it must be understood in a certain context. I prefer a wider sphere of meaning and I have not yet found in English a more suitable term. Perhaps milieu.

You might wonder why speech and action doesn't cover livelihood? The great bulk of your time is given over to getting a livelihood. When a person has a livelihood it takes up such a great portion of time, speech, body, mind, action. Therefore it is a large bulk of your life. What work you do, whether you are gainfully, or ungainfully employed, is a major contributor to your state of mind and a great shaper of your moral standard. Livelihood is your milieu, the on-going background state. Right livelihood also means right milieu - which could be anything from right city, to living in the country, as well as your type of employment, plus possibly even a family. It is a question of creating the right sequential background, milieu, employment. Right livelihood is the key to the two, right speech and right action. If you wonder why you are stuck then, look at your livelihood. Instead of having isolated encounters with people, here you have continuing contact with the same people, over and over again.

[Rinpoche mentions that in scripture the Buddha actually mentioned specific unwholesome activities, such as gun running, butchery and drug dealing.]

Therefore, what sort of milieu should you create? What kind of livelihood should I be doing?

If you don't have the right livelihood, how can you have right speech and right action? Do soul destroying work, and you wonder why you don't have right speech. If you try to clean up your communication, you are going to have difficulty if you don't have a supporting milieu, environment. How can you clean up your interior states of mind if you are not supported by your milieu?

THE ONLY renunciation is renunciation of ego clinging. Ego clinging is an unwillingness to share. Ego is your relationship to the object. It's not that you have possessions, but what is your relationship to those possessions. It's not necessarily a question of giving things away, but of your link. Renunciation is not directed towards objects but to ego clinging. The act of giving can become part of your ego image. Nekkhamma is not merely renouncing material wealth but the ego. In giving the being acquires merit. The whole world loves a lover. If you impoverish yourself there is enrichment.

Upekkhã can be used negatively when joined with hatred. It is a type of hedonic indifference, not wanting to be involved. The point of the story of the good Samaritan is the division between 'what's in it for me' versus the inability to tolerate suffering. If in a state of equanimity and love, you do what you can. You must take the key and develop it. It is imperative to the awakened being to help. To the awakening mind altruism is natural, a communal feeling, an appreciation of all creatures is natural. As you progress along the path you will find that the greatest enrichment is the dropping of the ego.

The Bojjhanga:
The seven factors of enlightenment.

AN EASY WAY to remember this word is to break it into two parts. Boj, which is budding or awakening, and anga or angles or factors. Factors of awakening, some budding factors of the totality of awakening, the factors which birth enlightenment.

There are seven and they are constituents of consciousness. The pãrami are also factors of enlightenment but they have an almost moralistic emotional and subjective flavour to them. The bojjhanga are much more abstract and objective. The pãramis are things that you do. The bojjhanga are the seven mental states that must be present in the mind for awakening to take place.

Sati mindfulness
Dhamma-vicaya investigation of law or truth
Viriya - energy
Piti rapture
Passaddhi - tranquillity, to go higher, go deeper
Samãadhi - concentration, total going
Upekkha - equanimity

These are the resultants within the mind from the practice of the pãramis. The being who has achieved liberation practices the pãramis. But the enlightenment mind has these factors in it. The state of enlightenment is in these seven, the Sombojjhanga. Sam is summary, addition. The factors are the parts to totally awaken.

As you practice these in daily life your state is progressing. These factors lead to enlightenment. The first one, sati, mindfulness, is the pivot, the key, without which the others cannot happen. The seven can be reduced to that one, choiceless awareness. In the practice of mindfulness the seven develop.

Sati has the sense of ever greater levels of awareness until it becomes all embracive. The next six factors can be divided into two types, three active and three passive. The second, third and fourth are considered to be active, the fifth, sixth and seventh as passive.

A being who investigates is in an active state. The same with energy. Piti is translated as rapture or joy. Piti is pleasure, not ecstasies, but the true pleasure principle.

[Rinpoche points out that all down history man has had great difficulty telling the difference between the pleasurable and the non-pleasurable. He uses the example of the feeling of despair so common to cocktail parties.]

Many things that people call pleasurable are a lie. It is hysteria against despair. It is forced and artificial. Interest and piti are synonymous. If you are investigating something you are rewarded. If pleasure and interest are there, energy is there. Pleasure determines the quality of the investigation. Being engrossed is effortless, for instance working in a laboratory, looking through a microscope. If interest is there, hours can go by unnoticed.

Mindfulness is the pivot. On one side are the active and on the other side is tranquillity. Real investigation produces calm. If you look to the inner core of investigation there is tranquillity in the concentration. If you are really engrossed you are calm. Concentration is focused, totally there.

Concentration means resting focus, not forced concentration on a dry book.