Motivation and Conduct 2 – 10/10/2016

Summary: Are we really practising for the benefit of all sentient beings…? The view of purity, The three defects of a pot, Stages of progression, The Samye Ling shedra, The three wheels of dharma

You know, many people have said that they’re scared of me, but maybe now, as I’m teaching so gently, they’re becoming more and more suspicious, thinking, ‘What’s he up to?’ I think that’s got something to do with everyone moving to the back of the shrine room. And the people in the retreat centre in Nepal must be thinking, ‘Wow! Since our lama’s gone abroad, he’s become a true bodhisattva! It seems that being outside of the retreat is better for becoming a bodhisattva, maybe we should go too!’(laughing)

Please listen to the teachings with a good motivation and conduct.

Yesterday then, I said a few things about our motivation. Generally, when we see what the correct motivation is and how it’s taught, we see that it’s about thinking, ‘Now I am going to receive this teaching, or I am going to give this teaching, for the benefit of all sentient beings. I am going to engage in this virtuous activity for the benefit of all sentient beings.’ We see that this is the motivation we need.

Are we really practicing for the benefit of all sentient beings…?

When we say all sentient beings, then we are talking about every being of the six realms. And we say; “Yes, this is what I’m now doing, this is for the benefit of all sentient beings of the six realms,” and it feels quite simple. One feels that is the motivation needed and what one is actually doing. But, when we start to look a bit closer at the details, we see that it’s not simple at all. Why is that? Well, when we think about the teachings on Mahayana Buddhism, the greater vehicle, and what is actually meant by ‘all sentient beings’, we find we don’t believe in the existence of many of those sentient beings. And so, if we’re supposedly working for somebody’s sake, but don’t actually believe in their existence, it’s a bit of a joke, isn’t it? It becomes quite strange, we say; “For their sake,”…, well who exactly are ‘they’…? “I don’t know I don’t believe in them…” It simply does not make any sense.

Which of those sentient beings do we struggle to believe in? It’s the hell beings, the deprived spirits, and the gods. We probably feel these don’t exist, or at least have some doubt about it. Whatever the case, our belief is definitely not firm. And yet, when it comes to our motivation, and generating the attitude for engaging in a positive activity, we still say; “For their sake, for these beings’ sake.” We really need to give this some thought, because to be thinking like that whilst doubting they even exist, is strange. What’s more, in the Mahayana, the way of thinking taught is that all sentient beings have been our parents, and for that reason they have been extremely kind to us. But this is even more difficult for us. We accept the existence of our present body, the existence of our parents of this life. But for many of us, it’s difficult to accept the existence of past and future lives. And as we only accept the existence of this life, that means we also only accept the existence of our present parents, which leaves no way to think about anybody else ever having been our parents. On the other hand, if we accept the existence of past and future lives, then we also accept that we’ve had numerous parents in the past, and will have numerous parents in the future. But this is difficult. If we don’t accept the existence of past and future lives, then we will not accept this statement in the Mahayana dharma that there is not a single sentient being who has not been our parent, as being true.

When we consider all of this, we see that we’re quite strange. We say; “I’m a Buddhist, I have faith in Buddhism,” or; “I am going to become a Buddhist,” and we enter into Buddhism. And no one forced that upon us, no one said to you; “We’ll kill you, or hit you, if you don’t become a Buddhist!” That hasn’t happened to any of us, has it? So we’re doing this of our own free will, thinking, ‘I want to be a Buddhist because I have faith in it, and want to practice.’ And yet, at the same time, we don’t believe in many of the teachings found in Buddhism. What this means is that in our way of thinking and seeing things, there are many contradictions, and areas of conflict. For example, if I said to you; “All sentient beings have been your parents, and so have been extremely kind and good to you, so you should practice for their sake.” You’d all nod your heads and say; “Yes, okay.” And you’d be very sincere in that, feeling, ‘Yes, I will.’ But then, if I was to follow that up with the question; “Do you believe in hell, or in the existence of the gods?” You’d probably shake our heads and say; “No.” And then if I was to ask; “But, didn’t you just say you were going to work for the benefit of those beings in hell, and those in the god states?” Maybe then we wouldn’t have any answer; “…mmmmm…,” and we’d get a bit stuck. And like that, within our way of seeing things, there is this major contradiction. In this way, if we examine ourselves, and look closely at exactly what’s what, we may well find that it’s difficult for us to say we are actually practicing Buddhism. Not only difficult to say we’re practicing Buddhism, but difficult to say we’re even Buddhist!

However, there are many different types of practitioner, and each type has their own difficulties. For example, the difficulties a beginner in the Mahayana might experience are whether there are past and future lives, or whether all sentient beings have been our parents. And if those aspects are difficult to understand, then it’s going to be very difficult to give rise to loving and compassionate thoughts for all sentient beings. The next level of practitioner has now accepted and assimilated those above points without difficulty. They’ve examined and gained certainty in the truth of them, and have further more given rise to relative bodhichitta, the relative awakening mind. So, they no longer experience any difficulty with those, but where do they now struggle? It’s with the teachings connected to the view of the ultimate awakening mind. They have their own particular doubts and difficulties regarding the realization of emptiness, and how clinging and the like are to be abandoned. But, those who are going to have these difficulties are already quite advanced in their learning and practice. Whether other types of sentient beings exist or not, or have been our parents or not, are no longer areas of difficulty for this type though.

The view of purity

Then we have the second area, or type of motivation; vast skill in means, the attitude of the secret mantrayana. And this brings us to that which distinguishes the sutrayana from the mantrayana. This is now sky high. Something very advanced indeed, and something we are probably not going to be able to do. It’s the way of thinking of someone with extremely high practice. What is it that isn’t understood regarding this particular motivation? Well, this particular motivation, or way of thinking, deals with purity. It’s often taught through the way of ‘the five perfections’, which basically is the view that the container, or external environment, the world, and the inner contents, sentient beings and so on, are all essentially pure.

Why is this so difficult? We may well think, ‘I can do that. I’m able to think that the world and all of its contents are pure.’ Well, if it was said, for example, that the entire world, all the buildings, and the ground were made of gold, diamond, or silver; we’re able to conceive of that, and to bring that to mind. We all know gold, probably no one in this room hasn’t seen gold, or doesn’t know what diamonds and silver are. We know what they look like, and we’re able to imagine all of these things being made of them. But, when it’s said that everything is pure, we’re not quite sure what that means. With gold, we can conceive of it and we know what it looks like, so we can imagine what a gold building would look like. But, when it’s said that things are pure, then if we look closely, we see we don’t know what that really means. There’s just nothing there that we can conceive of. And as long as we don’t actually know what that means, when we’re told; “Everything is pure,” then whatever we think of, or bring to mind, is not it, simply because we don’t really know what it is.

Another difficulty is that while it’s easy to see the good to be good, there is no problem there, to see the bad as being good, isn’t so easy. What do we usually mean by the ‘bad’? It would be the impure; for us impure is bad, and it’s bad because it’s only bad. Yes, it can change from being bad to being good, but even then the bad is not good, because it had to change to become good. So, while we accept that a transformation can happen, we don’t accept that the bad is actually good. And, as long as that’s our way of thinking, then the bad will always remain. We will never understand the teaching that everything is pure, or good, as long as we cannot find how that is true. Because, even if it happens that the bad transforms and becomes good, there is still a time we can think of when it was bad, and therefore the bad remains, by its nature. But, when we look at the motivation, or way of thinking in the vajrayana, the mantrayana, it’s that everything is good, all good, everything is essentially pure. That is the way of thinking, and that’s very difficult.

Anyway, those are a few points, using every day language, about why gaining the correct way of thinking, or motivation is not easy. In general regarding this, there is the easier aspect, and behind that is the more difficult aspect. If these things were just difficult through and through, from start to finish, then nobody would ever realize, or be able to understand them. Luckily, there’s always an easier step which is accessible. So we start with that, think about that, and that leads us to the more difficult steps which lie behind, or come after those first steps. So as we become more familiar with the easier steps, the more difficult steps become easier. It is like that with all forms of study, isn’t it?

The three defects of a pot

We will now move on to the conduct, and leave the motivation there for now. Here then, there are two areas; the conduct to be rejected and the conduct to be adopted, or the poison-like conduct to be rejected and the medicine-like conduct to be adopted. Among the different types of conduct to be rejected, we’ll first look at the ‘Three defects of the pot’: the fault of not listening and being like a pot turned upside down, the fault of not retaining and being like a pot with a hole in it, and the fault of mixing with the afflictions and being like a pot with poison in it. These three deal with the way of listening to the dharma.

The first is telling us we should pay close attention and listen well. It literally says we should direct our ears to the teaching. But, there are certain aspects of mind we need to have, to be able to do that. We need enthusiasm, and we need…, it is this word again…, aspiration or devotion and belief. It’s one word in the Tibetan, ‘mupa’, but has all these different flavours. It can also mean interest…, maybe interest would work quite well here. You can see that it really is a very broad term. I will use interest this time. I prefer to use one word, but can’t find one that fits all cases. So, when we lack enthusiasm and interest…, it’s more like devotion maybe…, anyway, when we lack these two, then we’re not able to pay close attention to the teachings even if we wish to. We just find ourselves unable to listen well, or carefully. Even when we do listen, the teachings don’t really invoke any feeling in us. Whereas, when we are feeling enthusiastic, devoted, or interested, then we are able to listen well, and that in turn brings understanding. As we gain more insight into what’s being said, that again furthers our enthusiasm and joy for listening to the teachings, we become more able to see the truth in the teachings, and they become very sweet on the ear.

It’s also taught that we need two qualities when listening to dharma teachings. The first is intelligence, because obviously if we don’t have intelligence it’ll be difficult for us to understand the teaching. If we are slow, or dense, it becomes difficult for us. So naturally, intelligence is very important. The second quality is an honest mind. The texts talk a lot about this, that if our mind is not honest, we will hold steadfastly to our own view, not accepting the view of another. We won’t even be able to examine whether their view is good or bad, correct or incorrect. We simply won’t be able to entertain it, because as soon as we hear their view being presented our own view blocks it, and therefore we won’t see clearly whether it’s a good or poor view. So, these two qualities are very important when listening to the dharma; intelligence and honesty.

When our mind is very honest, true and objective, then we’re willing to entertain another’s view. To use everyday language, we’re able to forbear it. But, if one’s own view is very strong, one simply will not forbear another’s view. As soon as we hear it our own view will bock it. Regardless whether it’s right or wrong, we won’t care, we just can’t forbear, or entertain it. But, if our view is honest and unbiased, then we’re able to hear another’s view. And, as we have forbearance towards it, then using our intelligence we can see whether it has good reasoning to it or not, whether it holds true and makes sense. By using our powers of logical reasoning we’re able to analyze it, and if we see that their view makes sense, we’ll accept it. If it doesn’t make sense, or hold true under our analysis, we won’t. And in this way our intelligence grows.

Stages of progression

Amongst the Buddhist texts, if we look at which ones present the reasoning of Buddhism, and which ones we’re most likely to encounter, it’s the texts that deal with how to practice the path, and how to meditate, that we usually look at, and receive teachings on. We also see a little bit about the result. Mostly what we see though, concerns what we need to do, the meditation, or the practice. Generally, we read and encounter a lot of that side of Buddhism. But, in those texts and writings very little reasoning is presented. What we find is: meditate on this, meditate on that, think this, and do that. There’s not much on why that needs to be done. It’s definitely not the case that what we are doing is without reason. There is very good reason for it. But, the texts we are more often than not reading, are concerned with the practice, rather than the why’s of it.

The texts usually deal with the different stages of progression. So there are those that deal with the very first step for practitioners, which is to ascertain the view. First of all, you ascertain the view, and then you practice the path. These are the two stages. And, it’s in the texts on ascertaining the view that we find all of the reasoning presented. But, it’s these same texts that we don’t encounter very often. If we did study these texts, we’d start to see the reasoning behind what we’re doing, and the truth of it, ‘Yes, this is how it works, why it’s true, and why we do that.’ And once we gain that certainty through our studies, and have ascertained the view, only then do we come to the practice of the path, to implementing it. That’s the order of things.

If you ask what the texts that fundamentally ascertain the view, are? Well, most of us here are practitioners of the Mahayana, so for us those texts would be: The Root Verses of the Middle Way, The Four Hundred Stanzas of the Middle Way, and Entering the Middle Way. Actually, there are many such texts, all with root texts and commentaries. And all these texts teach, is the reasoning and logic behind what we’re doing. However, they are not the type of text you can just have a flick through and understand, because the logic being presented is extremely fine and subtle. A certain amount of effort is needed to learn the way of these texts. But, through our study of them, we build up the tool of our intellect, and our ability to reason and use logic. It’s in these texts that we find the reasoning behind Buddhism, why we do what we do.

In the vajrayana, there are also different kinds of texts. We find the expositional tantras, the root tantras, and many categories of tantras with their commentaries. They are very vast and profound. And by learning these we will come to see the reasoning, the truth, and the logic for these teachings. Then once we’ve understood a little of the reasoning and logic behind the practice, when we encounter the practice texts, the ones we’re often encountering at the moment, we’ll think, ‘This is so true. Yes, this does need to be done, that is the way.’ Our faith will increase, because now we can see the truth of the practice due to our prior study of the reasoning behind it. But, without that first step of studying the logic, we’ll lack that reasoning. This is okay if we have very strong faith. But, we would need to have very strong faith for things to work, because we won’t have any reasoning to fall back on. Our faith is our only ally. If we lack the reasoning to give us confidence in what we are doing, and we lose faith, we’re going to encounter a lot of difficultlies in the practice. The safest is, ‘I am doing this because…,’ and to know the answer. Anyway, that is the situation.

The Samye Ling shedra

A few years ago here in Samye Ling we had a six year shedra programme, a Buddhist college programme. It was only for a short time each year, so it wouldn’t be classed as a real shedra in the grand scheme of things. For one month a year there was one teaching session in the morning and one in the afternoon, and each text we looked at was taught for a month. I think only a handful of people in this room right now attended the whole shedra. The plan was to teach six texts; three texts belonging to the sutrayana, one text that links the sutrayana and the mantrayana, and then two mantrayana texts. Among these texts, two of them deal with the sutrayana; The Root Verses of the Middle Way, and Entering the Middle Way, presenting only the reasoning and logic. It’s not a matter of meditate on this, or think this and that. Those of you who have studied these texts will know that they present logical reasoning for consideration. Then the other text belonging to the sutrayana presents the result, which is: if you realized what the text on logic was getting at, you’ll gain these results. That text was, The Ornament of Realization. Now I’m not very learned, and the students attending the shedra hadn’t previously studied very much, so this one was hard going, because it deals with what’s going to happen, the result.

Next was a text which bridges the sutrayana and mantrayana, called The Highest Continuum, the Utarrashasrtatantra. And again, its manner is not meditate on this, do this, or that. It is purely presenting reasoning, saying; “This is the actual state of things because….” Then we looked at The Profound Inner Meaning, and there’s not much in that about the way of meditating, it’s pretty much all to do with the reasoning; “This is the state of things…, this is the way things are, because…,” and presenting the reasoning. According to our plan, then after that, The Two-part Tantra, The Heyvajra Tantra, would have been taught. But that plan changed, and instead, The Precious Garland of the Sublime Path was taught, which is to do with the manner of practice. It is a Lam-rim text. So of the different texts taught, five presented only the reasoning.

Akong Rinpoche was still alive when that shedra programme finished. He’d approached His Holiness the Karmapa, saying we needed to establish a shedra, and please could you give it a name. So Karmapa gave the name ‘Michopa’, which is Akshobya in Sanskrit. It could also be pronounced Mikyopa. It’s the name of the eighth Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, and of the Karmapas he was the most learned. He wrote commentaries on all of the different subjects of dharma. So it seems that the Karmapa gave this name because it was related to the eighth Karmapa. Then Akong Rinpoche passed away, and because I don’t have much time, the shedra could not be continued. I never did say to Akong Rinpoche that I would continue with the shedra. He asked me to, but I couldn’t commit to that. So anyway, it was discontinued for a while, and during that time His Holiness gave this name.

However we look at it though, retreat and shedra are very important. I spoke to Kateng Lama a lot about this, because both Akong Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe had insisted that Kateng Lama come to Samye Ling. This was a while ago, when he was still in retreat in Nepal with me. He’s here now, but at that point he wasn’t keen to come. I said to him then; “If you do go, then retreat and shedra are where you should put your efforts.” And he asked me to help with that, so I agreed. In brief then, that’s how I came to be involved in Samye Ling, that’s how the connection was made.

Up to now, I’ve taught a little in the retreats, and I taught this six year shedra programme. But then things sort of got left. Now, just recently though, Lama Yeshe has reiterated the need to continue the shedra, saying that it’s very important. And Kateng Lama has said the same to me; “Shedra is very important, because we have to know the dharma.” That’s what we gain from the shedra, we gain learning, and come to know the dharma. Without shedras it’s very difficult to come to know the dharma, and without that learning it’s very difficult to practice the dharma. Of course, just saying that it’s important doesn’t help. Just having a teacher also doesn’t help. There need to be students, participants. Without students, what can the teacher do…, sit there teaching to an empty shrine room? Everybody would think they’d gone mad. But, if the interdependence of the teacher and students comes together, something wonderful can happen.

So, when a shedra is started again, then do your best to give it time, and attend. If you feel, ‘I really need to know the dharma,’ then it’s very important to attend, because it’s where we’ll find the food for practice. The texts we’ll learn will teach us the reasoning; another translation for that would be ‘the proof’, behind dharma, why it works. And, by knowing that, the practice becomes easy. Because when we see the way something works, the proof and reasoning for something, then we gain confidence in it. We see just how profound it actually is. Of course, it’s not guaranteed that if you receive the teachings you’ll understand them and gain that certainty. But what I am saying is that where we find the proof for the dharma is in these major works. That’s the point I am trying to make. It is through the study of these texts that our discernment and intelligence will grow. And, through our study and increased intelligence, our mind will become honest, straightforward, and objective. Once we have gotten into this way of studying, we’ll be able to think about whether something has reason or not, rather than being led along by our attachment and aversion. We’ll be able to take a step back, and using our honest intelligent mind, see for ourselves whether something is true or not, and makes sense. These qualities of intelligence and honesty are absolutely essential when listening to the dharma.

The three wheels of dharma

Any large, decent sized dharma organization, or gompa, these days, must have three things: a retreat centre, a shedra, and the gompa. Among the better Kagyu gompa’s there is not one that lacks these three. Of course, they vary in quality, but almost all have them. What are the functions of these three? Well, the shedra provides the opportunity for learning the dharma. And, having learnt the dharma, what do you then do? You go to the retreat centre, where you mediate and cultivate what you’ve learnt. Having cultivated that, what’s next is to work for the benefit and welfare of sentient beings, and to serve the Buddhadharma. That is how the final step is termed. And the function of the gompa is to serve the retreat centre and the shedra, it’s their servant and helper. It too has a particular name, ‘the wheel of activity’. It’s where all the activity that serves the other two areas takes place. The next wheel is the ‘wheel of study’ and contemplation, where the texts are taught, listened to, and studied, the shedra. Then there’s the ‘wheel of meditative concentration’, where you go off to isolation and practice, the retreat. These are the three wheels a dharma organization must have. That is what is said.

For example, people go to school with the aim to get a good job and make money in the future. And they spend a long time in school, studying to reach that goal. In Buddhism, we learn and we practice, and we spend a long time doing that so we’ll become able to help sentient beings. At least that’s the actual way of it, the true way. Whether we can do that or not, is another matter. More often than not, it becomes for my benefit and happiness, not for the benefit of sentient beings, because that’s difficult. Nevertheless, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. And when we look at the duration of the shedra; well, for the Gelukpas it is about twenty odd years, and for the Kagyupas, Nyingmapas, and Sakyapas there are many different durations; seven, nine, twelve, fifteen years. Different gompas have their own programmes. For the Karma Kagyu gompas of India and Nepal, twelve years is becoming the norm. His Holiness the Karmapa has said it’s not right to just spend a short time studying in this way, so the shedra programme should be twelve years long. And that doesn’t including any time in retreat.

We are the ones then, who are always saying Karmapa Chenno, and our Karmapa gave the shedra its name, Mikyopa. And we all know that the very first gompa in Tibet was Samye, and we are aware of that connection when we talk of Samye Ling. So, the one who gave the name of the shedra was the Karmapa, the one who requested it was Akong Rinpoche, and now we know what the Karmapa has decided the shedra’s duration should be. So then, is it worth us setting a shedra up? Are there any takers? If you are going to attend, please put your hand up so we can see if it’s worth it, or not.

Oh, thank you! That’s a pretty good number…, if you are not lying and being deceptive…, I did notice Lama Rigdzin was filming you… (lots of laughter).

Shedra study really is very important, and I know that you do like studying. Someone just asked if it be twelve years full time? In the programme of the shedras in India and Nepal, there’s a break for the Kagyu Monlam. Then, if in the gompa there is a particular puja taking place, there may be no classes. There are also the Kagyu debates, but even though there are no particular teachings given during that time, they are like a teaching, and so form part of the shedra programme we could say. I think most shedras are continuous for ten months a year, but there may be some that are full time. In the Gelugpa main seats in India and Nepal, there are many western geshemas and geshepas who have graduated from the shedras. Many learned Westerners with good Tibetan and who have completed the shedra programmes in the main seats, graduated and become geshes. But you don’t really see any Western Kagyupas who have graduated from shedra and become khenpos. This you need to be aware of. So, as Samye Ling was the first gompa in the West, it should also produce the first Western khenpos and khenmos.

One of the main aspects of Samye in Tibet was the Dragyur Ling, the translation society that was present there. You may know about this, that the words of the Buddha, and the treatises or commentaries to those words, were mainly translated from the Indian into the Tibetan in Samye. Many learned panditas and lotsawas gathered there and produced a system of translation, along with a vast body of translations. And now here, we are using and holding that name. So we too have to produce many translators and people learned in dharma. We have to produce many decent practitioners, and not ones who merely hold the name. We need to really go for it and work hard.

But I think it would be difficult for the Samye Ling shedra to follow the programme of the shedras of India, Tibet and Nepal. I think the amount of time spent in the shedra over the year will have to be shorter. Due to a number of factors, such as how busy you are, it would be difficult to have a full time shedra. But, feeling that there’s the need to start a shedra, and seeing it to be important, is excellent. To be thinking about it carefully, and thinking long term, is definitely needed. This is especially true for the Samye Ling organization itself. It needs to provide the students with the conducive conditions, and really does have to apply itself and work at that. Just to be thinking we need to start a shedra alone, is not going to make it happen. There are many conditions that need to be brought together and thought about. For example, there is the khenpo. We can’t run one without a teacher. Then there’s providing the students with what’s necessary to participate. Whichever way we look at it, there are many things that need to be put in place for it to happen.

If things go well, then a time will come when khenpos don’t need to be invited anymore. This is the way in any gompa; the gompa initiates the shedra, and then it produces students who become learned, becoming khenpos and khenmos in their own right, and from then on they maintain the shedra. This’s the way the Buddhist world over. I often think that if the Buddhadharma is to take hold in the West, if it is genuinely to be propagated, it has to be done Westerners. Westerners themselves have to work at it, become learned, practice well and become decent dharma practitioners. There is no other way it can happen. So, if you really feel the dharma is of benefit, then it’s you who have to work hard to make sure it happens. For example, the Tibetans did invite others to Tibet to assist in the propagation of the dharma. But, for the sake of inviting Atisha to Tibet, a hundred people gave up their lives. A king and many translators gave their lives for the sake of inviting Atisha, or died with that aim in mind. And because of those who did what was necessary to invite Atisha, the dharma in Tibet was revived and well propagated. It had waned heavily by that time, and he was able to revive it. So, those hundred who died didn’t die in vain. Their giving up their lives served a good purpose, because the dharma took hold. And in this way many people worked hard, and sacrificed a lot to make it happen. It was by the Tibetans’ own efforts that the dharma took hold in Tibet. And it’s going to have to be the same in the West. If the dharma is going to take hold and propagate in the West, it’s going to have to be through the efforts and sacrifices of Westerners. It’s a matter of inviting good lamas, going to a lot of expense, studying and practicing well, and becoming good dharma practitioners. There is no other way it can happen. That’s how it is.

So, if everybody, those above, those below and those in the middle, all pull together and work hard, a shedra can be started. But without everyone pulling together like that, the name may be present, but in truth, to have something of worth will be very difficult. In Tibet there are many monks and nuns in the shedras, but those who become good lamas, or good khenpos, are very few. The majority are not able to. So to have high expectations of many people turning out wonderfully when Samye Ling establishes the shedra is perhaps not very realistic, that’s going to be difficult. But, if everyone does pull together and works hard, the gompa, the khenpo, and the students all work together, really going for it, then gradually one or two really good ones will be produced. And if that happens, that‘s enough, because if one or two khenpos are produced, then the shedra has borne fruit. Because they will bring great benefit to many Westerners, and will be able to maintain the shedra. And even if they don’t maintain this shedra, wherever they go, and in whatever they do, they will be of service to the Buddhadharma and to sentient beings.

Now, whether it’ll be a man or a woman, who’ll turn out well and benefit the dharma, we can’t say. If we consider the Samye Ling sangha itself, then of the female and the male sangha members, it seems that the nuns have the greater activity. They’re doing more and being of more benefit. But, you can never tell who’s going to bring the greater benefit. So, the monks need to think about things. You need to do something that will be of true benefit, to achieve something, rather than just sitting around playing with your beards wondering what Lama Yeshe is thinking or planning. Everyday just shaving your head and beard is not enough. One needs to work at study and contemplation. Not only those here, but also those in Nepal who I can see on the screen here. Just to be shaving today’s growth away, and tomorrow doing the same, is not enough. Doing the odd task that comes your way is not enough to really serve the Buddhadharma and sentient beings. One has to study well, one has to practice well, and one has to mediate well. That’s the way to be of benefit to the Buddhadharma. That’s the true activity of the sangha.

I often say to the sangha members over in Sekhar; “You have to study well, you have to practice well. And when you have done these things well and you head back westwards, what is it that you are supposed to do? You are supposed to teach that which you have learnt, teach that dharma you’ve practiced. Because that’s why you’ve been sent here, so you can pass on what you learn. If you stay here in retreat, learning and practicing, and you go back only to work, well that’s not what you were sent here to learn. If you’re going to go back just to work, you should rather be learning how to work now too, not how to practice. Workers need to know how to work, not how to learn.” This is what I often think, and say to them. They need to learn and practice well, because they need to teach when they go back to the West. You have come here to learn and practice. If you only work when you go back, you will gradually forget what you’ve learnt, forget your practice, and then what good has this time been? If you are going to work when you go back, you should be working now, because then you will gain more work experience which will help you in your future activities. Those, who are there, have come to learn the dharma, and I see that to be important. Therefore I do my utmost to never miss a teaching. If a really urgent activity or job comes up, or I have to go out to teach others, then there’s no choice. But it’s very rare that I’ll miss a teaching. When I’m there, there are teachings every day, there are no weekends, it’s day in day out. And the times I have to miss one are few and far between. I may need medical treatment or something, but basically that’s it. If Thrangu Rinpoche comes to give empowerments, then I wouldn’t usually teach, or if one group of the inner retreatants is ending or going in, on those occasions I’m also not able to teach.

Actually there is so much teaching, and it’s so regular, that the retreatants probably get fed up just at the sound of the word teaching. Just like if you eat the same food everyday and you get fed up with it, the retreatants are probably fed up just on hearing the word teaching. Another teaching…,phhffff…(laughing). Okay we’ll leave it there.

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