Poison is Medicine, by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

giving us so much of your time and attention and um for teaching from your [Music] newest book poisonous medicine thank you uh it's um um really good to see many people here who are getting younger um i'm a little bit self-conscious because i think there are other people watching us right to the zoom right so we better behave i didn't know that i've been here eight times anyway i consider myself as [Music] a vajrayana practitioner and a lot of that has to do with culture maybe um because i was born and yeah i was born and groomed by culture or country or culture or a family that has [Music] phenomenal um that may be a good thing in one way some people will consider this as a fortunate thing but it could also be it it could also be a veil some sort of uh obstruction in the real path sometimes i look at i think of this um i grew up looking at you know uh pictures and statues of all kind very serene saintly looking shakyamuni buddha and wrathful [Music] skull garland um deities female and male deities in union images of figures that has buffalo head elephant head many many times all together those devilish looking figures and holy looking um and no question is raised in my head and i don't know whether it's a good thing or a not a good thing from the actual vajrayana point of view sometimes i think it's good other times i feel that maybe or this may have [Music] distant myself from actually appreciating the tantric wisdom that the culture ended up hijacking me but i also grow up in a culture and a tradition that if that cherishes reasoning and that actually quite vigorously i would say at least 10 to 15 years of my um [Music] time was spent studying buddhist logic critical thinking analytical thinking where you analyze so much so much so that you deconstruct everything including the buddha and the dharma the sangha everything that we ve needed um just as how buddha himself advised us to do so he he he taught he told he encouraged us to analyze never to take things at face value and i have to say this i have done [Music] and also in the late as as i grow up i have discovered that this kind of appreciation of reasoning and logic and analytical thinking is not only between the indian or tibetan tradition but very much so in the west so i grow up really getting excited and ready appreciating um what do you call it renaissance in no sense or age of reasoning romantics is it romantics age of reasoning yeah um but um i also you know i guess you can say from a dharma point of view from the bhajariana point of view you know i would go to during the summer time i would go to buddhist college to deconstruct everything basically analyze everything and then during the winter break when i was growing up they were you know all my family people and usually you know my family from both sides they're um yogis mahamudra and mahasandhi sort of lineage and [Music] yeah lot of insinuation from both sides that how much i'm wasting my time analyzing things deconstructing things how i'm wasting my life doubting everything how i am so deprived with things like pure perception devotion you know looking back i think it's very fortunate that i have that but you know growing up it was so much confusion winter there's all that [Music] the mountains even you know bow down and the things moved and then there were all these miracles and and during the summer time there were all these campbells like deconstructing everything but anyway um after now 50 years going this and that i i think i can say i have i don't know i have a appreciation evaluation i i don't want to i think it is too arrogant for me to claim that i practice a vajrayana that is too arrogant but i think i can sort of say that that i i aspire i wish i could practice buddha dharma in general and especially bhajaryana not all the time by the way time to time when i'm sober so to speak because you know i you know i really get um very thrilled and very excited and convinced i like the ideas like poison is medicine you know i i just like that it you know it excites me i like when i hear things like you know profane is sacred you know sacred sacred right and i like things like when i hear things like that this this emotion that i have this emotion very ease wisdom i'd like that yeah of course just intellectual level but i mean this is the year 2021 having this kind of statement alive that's that's good you know that's amazing and um not only these are just a statement poison is medicine emotion is wisdom profane is sacred not only these are just a statement oh by the way um if the translators are having hard time i can slow down a little bit so if someone can send a message um not only there's that kind of statement that kind of philosophy or the science if you like but there's actual technique there's actual path that is there that you can actually apply this technique um you know what you call it empiricism right empiricism you know we like to have that isn't it empirical and that's very much so with this this this wisdom of profane is sacred and poisonous medicine and so on and so forth this is something that is empirical this is something that you can actually experience you can actually you can actually find out whether you are this emotion it doesn't matter what kind of emotion it can be very um melancholic sentimental or it can it can be very um destructive even or very dull and depressing but it is possible now to experience that they are actually wisdom this is not just a statement i know it is difficult to sort of accept it but this that's just because you know we are not giving this a chance and if you really give the chance it is possible it's not a myth it's not a story and this kind of practice this kind of tradition and know-how has been there for 2000 years it's not just like recently discovered somewhere in the south beach when someone got excited looking at a sunset this is very much you know tested by many people and um by a lot of people in fact a lot of amazing people um you know scholars and kings queens um some of the greatest leaders in the world right actually this should this should this should tell us something ching is gone oh you know people if i say this people will think he wasn't really uh he wasn't really behaving like a buddhist has has he you know this is the question the people would ask this is interesting question actually because somehow we have put buddhism into the basket of well-behaving basket so yeah that is an interesting but maybe later we can discuss this there were a lot of interesting people jingis khan yeah he was yeah he was a buddhist but quite an interesting person and there was like a king tisong division of tibet yeah of course if you ask a tibetan and especially a ningmappers they will revere him as this great manjushiri incarnate the compassionate they all omnipotent etc etc but history have also said that he was at times like a child like a child like like when he was upset with his ministers he would eat his shoes and he would roll on the ground and he would beat himself up but this is also a king who really rule big time i think it's important that we sometimes go beyond what you call it steady stereotyping alexandra napoleon we always have a studied stereotype you know like big not moving kind of the quality of human beings but anyway there were many interesting practitioner generally buddha dharma and especially vajrayana it it has been tested and practiced and by a lot of people and i have to say there were a lot of charlatans too there were a lot of phony charlatans people who took advantage of mahayana theravada sharva kayana vajrayana all of that that's sort of they what we human beings do you know charlatans makes our life interesting and there has been a lot of that there has been a lot of that there have been a lot of um yeah opportunist and not just because of all these strange controversial people but tantra itself is a controversial controversy tantra itself has always been by the way some may think that this vajrayana buddhism is becoming a controversial thing now no it has always been controversial right from the beginning from the time it started actually obviously someone who our system that says poison is medicine what do you expect that's already asking for trouble isn't it um profane is sacred you're already starting with a controversy here um so tantra definitely is tantra cannot be appreciated by [Music] uh everyone understandably you know uh not only it cannot be appreciated by everyone in fact there were a lot of what you call it people who really condemned tantra more so in buddhism within the buddhist and rightfully so many times um tantra has been looked at with suspicious you know with a lot of suspicion historically um so if you are looking at the tantric history tantra has always been kept i don't like the word secret but it was not exhibited definitely it was it was kept guarded very jealously and carefully um and actually the reason why tantra was kept secretly with a lot of determination is really out of kind out of care and compassion from the people who are stakeholder stakeholder of tantra in the past because not only that we need to save the people from misusing the tantra of course that of course but i think that is just much less and that is a similar what you call it thing to worry in a way but more importantly if [Music] people who are not matured people who are not ready even have a slight doubt to this incredible magical i don't know alchemy if you like you know even if there is a little bit of a doubt this will you know distant and this will distant the person from approaching to the tantra for well according to the buddhist language eons after eons and that is very unfortunate for them so this is why we we always hear this you know like our masters always our masters like my teacher think which incident one one thing he keep on repeating to people like me is like no matter what you do try your best so that someone will not have some sort of a suspicion towards vajrayana which will then really keep them distant distant for many many many lifetimes i will tell you something which may be kind of uh heavy to hear this there are people who um i don't know whether i should say this but i will say it in my early mile i will water down a little bit okay there are people who are so afraid to [Music] believe in reasoning then falling into the hell realm some tantric practitioners they are more worried about that they are more worried about becoming sensible than going to but going to hell we can discuss about this if you if you are [Music] sort of confused what i'm saying but this is this is such a this is such a it's important statement i you know this is a really really important statement um so but actually this is not only in the vajrayana even in the mahayana when asked chandra kitty to whom should we give shuniata teaching he said not he never said oh to those harvard and yale graduates this i made it up but um what i'm saying is not to those who are so smart and so well-read and so reasonable and so educated he never he he never chose them who did he choose he said you one should teach shunyata to those people who just mentioning the name the word shunyata they have a goosebump they have tears in their eyes to these people you should teach shunyata coming from chandrakriti it's quite amazing because if you read chandra kitty he was a really a big time you know reasoning man you know prasangi kamadhyam really big time he was deconstructing everything but at the end went asked to whom to teach sunyata he said this is reserved for those just hearing the name of shunyata you feel goosebumps and if you think about it it's actually quite ascending it's it's quite reason i mean understandable what this these statements i think to be a vessel for teachings like shunyata teachings such as just the intelligence intellect you know sort of being smart is not enough in fact it's not that important what you need is you need i think the english word is a neck right neck you know you have to no neck neck neck neck you have to have the neck neck you have to have that i don't know you just have to um [Music] you know i was looking at this word neck and the english dictionary says some just have special neck for getting into trouble what do you think you know some people just have that neck neck like bent right the other way bend hang hang you just is it hang also some just have that neck and this if you ask me this neck if you ask me what is that i think the buddhist would say it's called married that's the best word i can come in english i can come up with sanam punya and i'm sure you know many of you you know this you know like many of you you are very i don't know for whatever reason you are inspired by half paralyzed half drunk it's at times squeaking person and you are very inspired the other people other people get almost you know other people by looking at um somebody like lady gaga lady gaga and when they look at her meat jacket right he she has she has a meat meat outfit and they almost come to come close to sort of orgasmic situation know you just have that neck you know you have that neck this this happens this this happens i think you know what i'm talking about a neck you know some people have really just so good at realist real estate yeah the housing some are so good at this they just know what to buy and when to buy they're just so i know one person um and when you meet this kind of people then of course no need to keep it secret with this kind of people if not then i think keeping it secret is maybe not the right word like treasure really really you know protect it it's quite important secrecy treasuring it not to reveal it you know just uh openly it's kind of important but tibetans have been so bad with this they are i mean i guess the whole tibet somehow one way or another has this budget in our culture so i guess it was understandable in a place like tibet or bhutan but tibetans just can't keep it keep things secret they just itching to talk and exhibit and this has put brazilian into grave danger especially now you know in pre-1959 tibet and there was no bookshop you know where you can also choose books like kabbalah i don't know there's not much choice there's i don't think there was a bookshelf maybe the only buddhist library now this is so much of this so it's actually quite sometimes i really think this is the blessing of the the buddhas that it's really amazing that images such as the chakra sambara and vajrayogini you you know we have this in the dhamma centers in places like upstate new york where other people also you know come and wow what do they think there's so much tolerance you know tolerance so much maybe the tibetan painting is so abstract they didn't don't really know what's going on maybe but tibetans are not so good with keeping it secret and even me today coming here and you all know most of you anyway most of you all know i'm a vajrayana student right you know that that's already not good actually actually that's already a mistake and i have myself told you just now i am i aspired to practice the bhajaryan i shouldn't have said this especially if there are new people that's how it should be but now this is how it is i told you um hmm anyway as i said i do have aspiration to practice the practice tantra i i don't want to claim i'm a tantric practitioner i'm not saying this out of humility i'm more like um [Music] not to you know more like a you know disclaimer yes i have aspiration to practice the vajrayana and not always okay quite a lot of time i partly i say that i have aspiration to practice vajrayana but not always and not hundred percent and the reason is even after all these years the tantric teachings still surprises me so which means that there's a still a lot of things that i haven't i still you know yet you know yet to discover even as recent as you know in new york when i was in new york somebody gave me a volume of tantric text and just that afternoon since there was nothing much going on i was reading few pages and this text i have read so many times in the past but it's just so surprising there were sentences and phrases that i have read so much but i'm finding out some new information so yes i do have aspiration but i think it can really go much more i still think this is because tantric view is vast and deep and not only that sometimes tantric view is too simple it's so simple that just cannot uh what you call it cannot accept dare not to accept because habit of this logic no pain no gain is so strong in my head just unbelievable when someone says no pain all gain that's just not possible um and not only the view the technique and the skillful means is just infinite dare not accept unfathomable cannot fit in my small mind there are many reasons why why i dare not accept tantra because no matter how i try the theistic theistic you know theistic residual with me is still this is actually quite shocking you know because i grew up studying madhyamika and brahmana and so on and so forth but must be some past life's thing the theistic sort of um you know savior you know relying on a savior somebody will fix me that residual is so strong with me so tantra becomes unfathomable sometimes and not only that sometimes atheist residual is also there that atheist residual is also blocking me to understand and appreciate tantra it's very complicated and and recently of course the temptation to join the what you call it bandwagon that bandwagon wow that is strong temptation to join the bandwagon not a tantric thing to do you know what what's the expression if you are not with us you are with enemy right oh yeah if you are not with us you are against us wow that is strong it really shakes me and when when that shakes you then it it makes you it makes your tantric capacity shaken and then of course i'm so i'm also scared of the wrath of goody-goody liberals this i have to say those who are reading my facebook or whatever this is sort of what they call it my exes you know i i i try to upset them upset the liberals but this is actually what you call it in the psychology what is called reverse psychology or something it just means that i'm so afraid of them i'm trying to i don't know it is very scary the liberal wrath really scary and among other things i'm talking about how i find myself not not a healthy not i mean not strong tantric vessel um i love you know like i love collecting like pencils you know pencil i love collecting i don't know bags yeah bags but those that doesn't matter pencil bag doesn't matter so much worse is i love collecting anti-dots antidotes not good tantric people don't like this my my forefathers their lovers nervous i don't know what they are thinking looking down at me i love collecting antidotes i l and i i think antidotes are cho spring what you calling amber chosen spring they're they're good i consider them as good and then also yeah morality ethic considering them as wholesome but these are all human you know this is how human mind works you know this is how human mind functions you know human mind is complicated we say we like to think out of box out of box not just we say we like to think out of box but we like to also do things out of box i guess but to actually apply that is difficult because we also want to fit fit with other people i told you you know joining the bandwagon so important even if you are if you are craving for a cup of nice coffee if there is some strange you know coffee shop it's difficult to choose that isn't it it's much safer to choose starbucks because you already know what is there latte grand small this you basically know so you feel safe this the adventure full adventure to choose this obscure coffee shop it's difficult so all this basically is um destroy is maybe not the right word but all this is weakening at least the magic the sort of magical net is it magical net you know we lose this what to do um you know poison is medicine that is a magic medicine is also poison that is also a magic and fact that there is no such thing as ultimate poison and ultimate medicine that is also a magic and i think this then i don't know weakens this kind of uh what we call it [Music] net of net of maya illusion magic paradoxy which is something that is always here always there but falling into the trap of poison as a poison only medicine is medicine only then deprive us from actually being able to enjoy the wealth the infinite vast deep wealth of this magic anyway probably magic is already not a acceptable term in this world of what you call it empiricism science technology anyway um okay karmic connection power of cause and condition power of karmic link is so strong that [Music] even what you call it miles and miles away from ganges in varanasi or in this case i think probably it's anyway it doesn't matter miles away from ganges the teachings of the mahamudra mahasandhi coming to this land and brought here by chojimparam and a lot of you here are his children but a student and yes i have a very mixed feeling towards this place this is i don't know whether it's improving but um [Music] so much what do you call it not even thinking about buddha dharma in general there's so much appreciation and in all of what jungkook have brought here if you are looking at i was looking at some of the texts that do you do this sometimes i don't know for many of you what you think but um even the verses like awareness is the body of meditation as is taught whatever arise is fresh the essence of realization to this meditator who rests simply without altering just this message about this versus this this stanza just this stranger having brought here and build a systematic system or i don't know atmosphere culture if you like to really bring this you know this uh this spirit spirit is maybe not the right word this this uh this wisdom it's i don't know if you if you can if one can think about these things it's like um mind-boggling that such a teaching is brought here and not just red over a coffee talked about it but actually you know a lot of you for years spent time cultivating engaging with this kind of wisdom and concepts such as vajrayogini chakra must be so alien the symbol language the whole method but this is still um being carried on and as somebody who's sort of you know um outside observing past maybe 35 years now and lot of challenge you have gone through but still going on things like um tamil ji shiva the word tamil jisheva that is still alive and there are still people who think that tamar jisheva pointing out are important something to sort after something to you know invest your time and energy these are blessings from my point of view and i don't know i feel very encouraged you have to remember it took more than thousand years to really establish buddha dharma in tibet here how many years 200 years 200 maybe and a lot of challenges of course because this is precious the other text i was reading is just incredible like um songs the concept of rigden i don't know what people who are new to this think about is just i don't know it's inexpressible but but profound sub soul is what how do you translate son clear brilliant what profound brilliant just and firm powerful powerful to this one you know never to have any doubt towards this i was talking to some young people today i feel very encouraged and this i want to repeat i was you know i heard that the world of artificial intelligence is coming up more and more so people are going to have identity crisis because of that because you know a lot of jobs and professions are going to be taken over by artificial intelligence which means that who are we are we what are we now what is you know because many times we identify ourselves with a job i guess or some sort of profession and then of course in the modern day we alienate ourselves we have existential existential angst it is at that time if you can just continue a little bit just few more years i would say 100 years i would say yeah if you can just continue all these values of rigden song sin and then there are subsequent stories about how you know some people are scared of this you know rigged and whatever you understand you feel sort of scared and doubtful and then all these cowardly people will arise something like that i don't know how you translate it i'm just reading the tibetan and then then all sorts of bunch of covered people will arise and then what do they do they go and hide in the cave in the forest and in the water i think and then they kill their own kins and eat their flesh this is a letter of ashi is it letter of black ashi i'm just reading in tibetan really badly i'm translating so don't laugh at me too much but it's just incredible if you can just hold on to this just another 100 years this is iphone 12 so when this is in metropolitan museum in about 20 years and when people laugh at this you know what a funky you know clunky thing that they use at that time these words will be the answer to this identity crisis i need you to say this tonight this is this is actually the only thing i wanted to say the all the other thing that i've said earlier just to fill up the sort of the evening this is what i wanted to say for those who are here of course you will have challenge of course then you know you have to you know deal with it and you know sometimes be strong sometimes be very skillful and glide through this but this need to be treasured and i think a lot of people here are doing incredible work preserving this i offer my rejoice i know some people are not having enough even enough time to do some other things but right anyway i won't go through the detail okay so i was told there's a lot of questions i don't know whether we have enough time to answer all but maybe some questions remember hello it's on now okay i will yeah i can't take the mask off these questions have been submitted from people all over and we selected a few to start with these are the difficult questions oh how can you actually tell if a teacher is being abusive acting out of confusion or is acting with skillful means how can you tell this question i don't know where is this question come who is asking this question if because this kind of question should not even be there if you are not studying and practicing tantra vajrayana of course even in the vajrayana um the teacher actually is more responsible in taking care of the student as his or her only child so abusing and harming the student in the vajrayana is fundamentally wrong because the vajrayana is basically based on brati moksha which is you know you know no matter what what kind of tantric practitioner you are you have to practice you have to take refuge to buddha dharma and the sangha and as someone who has taken refuge to buddha dharma and sangha the fundamental practice is not to harm others so even on that level teacher is not supposed to what you call it harm others but having said that in the tantra now if you are consciously and this has been something i have been saying in because of all the recent uh happenings within the vajrayana world i've been saying this in the if you have consciously decide to apply the vajrayana with after a lot of analysis after a lot of thinking after deciding that this is the path that you are going to take this is an adventure that you will join then you have to have the wits and guts and the courage to take lot of things as a not just skillful means but as a wisdom but as i said earlier if this question is coming for generally all buddhism no in the s no this this is [Music] i mean it's it's much more clearer much more black and white in the causal path yes in the vajrayana path it is much more difficult because vajrayana is sort of what you call it individual choice you have to really choose this but again i have to i've been realizing that this question is probably also based on [Music] i don't know where is this question coming from um there's a lot of what you call it background of this question [Music] um okay this may sound not so good for a lot of people but um i think we need to say this um buddhism is never really really its ultimate aim is not really to develop a social structure you know yeah it's never really that and i'm saying this in reference to many other religions i think many other religion is connected to you know social structure morality ethic etc etc buddhism is not really that and this will always emotionally or intellectually i think it ends up conflicting people a little bit so this is where this is why i always encourage people should really um sort of go through some sort of in-depth study i mean one good example i'm always telling this that there's no such thing as a buddhist wedding you know it's a social structure maybe many religion have this or many religion even have things like if you steal somebody's wallet what to do with their hand but you know buddhists don't really have that let's say there is actually a buddhist wedding more likely buddhist would also have a divorce ceremony you know this is how the buddhists think it's not really so [Music] this question is very very vast really vast so if you if this question is coming from some sort of a structure yeah kind of a social structure then it gets really complicated but yes fundamentally this is what i need to tell you if you are a buddhist you are [Music] you have taken refuge to buddha dharma sangha therefore you cannot harm others that is fundamental but harming not harming helping not helping all this also gets so complicated because it's very subjective and also you know like good and bad so subjective i'm sorry i'm not really answering this um but clearly but i can't really clearly explain this for a general uh more than what i just said you know if you since you're since you are a vajrayana if you are a vajrayana guru then this this must mean that you are practicing mahayana and you cannot harm others definitely not in with the intention and action no cannot okay next question okay if vajrayana is so great why are so many long time vajrayana practitioners still totally confused and disconnected from reality but that i think is easier i think well i don't know you know um just because you are in a vajrayana practitioner doesn't mean that you are really practicing it properly that's the one number two maybe he or she is really trying to disconnect from the society and that could be that could be pain in the neck for a lot of people it's very subjective also again i think yeah it's very very subjective maybe you see them as confused and what was it dysfunctional disconnected from reality yeah i'm sure you you may think like that but that's really difficult isn't it i mean okay what did jingle bell um but you know if you're looking at the prayers written by the great masters of the past it's there's a lot of that you know like the way they define a perfect human according to jimmy limbaugh if you are disconnected from a reality reality in the you know humans reality you have achieved your goal you know you have done a good job he has this kind of prayers may what did he say may 100 things that i wish never come true may 100 things that i made thousand things that i dare not wish comes true stuff like that so that is maybe that's again a little difficult to answer i do not i don't want to say that yeah i'm sure there must be a lot of disconnected to reality vajrayana practitioner i mean myself i have to say you know i volunteer as a good example of very much i'm not just saying this very much um uh yeah i told you already in the big you know the half part of what i said earlier there's a lot of schizophrenia kind of element in me you know it's very difficult but when i told my masters what to do with it he said it is it's actually it it actually means that i'm struggling between you know the world of dharma and world of you know material world and he says that that's probably at least you know sort of a beginning stage of good thing he said at least i am at least i'm a schizophrenia at least i'm not totally completely blindly happy with this illusory world i think maybe it's a good thing so it's very very difficult if you want to talk about poison is medicine level of conversation you need to really think like that i don't want to you know like say i can i don't want to put i don't want to tell you okay this is the right thing to do this is a wrong thing dude who am i to say this you know i don't have that kind of you know i'm not a almighty person who can decide this did you want to do okay uh remember i have two questions the first one is i'm really wondering if you could say a little bit more about why it's so bad in the vajrayana to collect antidotes and the second one is if you have any advice of for those of us that deeply in our bones want the letter of the black auche to still be available in a hundred years what can we do now especially when we feel disheartened um the collecting antidote business um you need to hear this that is bad but you should still keep on collecting but you need to hear it this is the thing about tantric path i'm telling you it tells you to do something it says something and it makes you it it it also makes you do something else you know like in the sadhana practice the whole morning it makes you rise as a deity and suddenly within one second you have to dissolve everything stuff like that as for the keeping the why is it bad why we need to hear it's bad but why is it bad because if you have an antidote then you will always have the opposite of antidote and which you don't want right why why would yeah so which means you have a problem so get rid of both uh as for the um you know like the wealth of you know like black ashy the words all of this as i said i think you guys are doing it right now i think you just need to continue continue whatever you are doing probably sometimes we get disheartened because we tend to think that an organization or a board of people who would who should do this and that when they don't do it then we get disheartened but if you're looking at the history of buddha dharma it's always it's always out of nowhere somebody will come and protect it's always like that look at the history of the buddha dharma i mean like wow the mother of uh asanga and um vasubandhu you know india male dominating male chauvinist society you know like men men man all of that and then there's this none this is i think we are talking about about asanga's sixth century even before right i think so before because six yeah fourth century none buddhist none you know she was so disheartened and she really wanted to protect buddha dharma so she really doesn't know what to do because she's a woman india man all that so she just hadn't had an affair with a prince just to make a baby and then came out asanga just imagine india none flirting with her prince wow the scandal she had to go through and then as if this is not enough she jilted the prince and then hang around with the brahmin that's like unacceptable in india and then came vasubandhu who was this through asanga and the vasu bandhu they are like a pioneer of the you know mahayana one you know they're like equal to i would say asanga is equal to nagarjuna so i think from the most unexpected and can come and i think this exists because there are people who are motivated i think this is so true even with the buddha in the in the world today dharma tutti i have noticed this even in you know like in the west many times rinpoches like myself i don't know uh stakeholders we don't do as much as we should be doing but then there's always like a mother of three children no husband work have to work hard she is the one who is cleaning the center making the photocopies i don't know cooking making people come to listen to this teachings work so hard so these people will always hold the thought i feel okay so any more maybe yeah then there are some more questions okay from cyberspace how can you continue to defend the system and the people that have ruined many people's lives i think caused harm what that have caused harm ruin my friends and my lives i don't know again where's this question coming from [Music] if the question is referring to things i have written or said i have always been really talking about how vajrayana needs to be [Music] guarded and defended not really the person if people sort of read it carefully because what's the english expression throw don't throw baby with a bath water yeah i think that is quite important um so even if you are looking at like words like then song then wow you cannot throw this those are important those are going to be beneficial for a lot of people just because certain people who you have a very reasonable or unreasonable expectations and assumptions do not really perform their job or you see it that way if you also discard this it's a loss for i think all of us and this has always been what i've been trying to say because vajrayana is really really precious and yes as i said vajrayana suffered a lot with the controversy stuff because of the me i think many times because of the tantric people you know how they behave how they are not skillful how they i don't know exude themselves but tantra wisdom itself is so precious and so timely and especially for the modern people i think it's so good if you want to be thinking out of the box this is it if you disregard this no way going out of the box i don't think so i have i have thought about this you know for months and months and months um especially during this past two years because of pandemic there was a lot of time to think so yes the vajrayana is incredible and that need to be protected okay maybe one more question and then what would you say to the children of parents who were so focused on getting enlightened that their children experienced neglect or or even abuse these are such a big questions um parenting i i have never been a parent myself so i'm not in the position to really make much comment but what i have been telling my friends who have children is i think it is a sensible common sensical thing to do is never really force and short down the buddhist values and ethics and i don't know teachings even practically speaking the children always seems to do the opposite of what you say so maybe it is not a skillful thing to do instead if you want your children to also follow like let's say buddha dharma ideally if you as a parent keep on doing your practice with the humility compassion kindness just tolerance big mind big vision big view i think children will always be very proud of you children will always look up to you and see you as you know at the you know they say that the parents are your parents at the real school so i think if the parents just keep on doing their i'm assuming that this question is regarding the dharma practitioner parents so if it is if you keep on doing your dharma practice but not really imposing on them sometimes actually deliberately not imposing almost like you know keeping them out a little bit out of skillful means they might want to actually come into you more then you pretend that you know you don't want them right away then they will want more i think something like that probably is the way to go but um uh parenting is difficult i think especially in this modern age where i feel that individualism liberal value so much uh cherished and hyped and now there's all kinds of media that will help you alienate yourself from each other so i don't know how the parents are even going to have any kind of impact i mean the future future parents something to think about um but um there's always going to be a conflict i think between wanting to be wanting to fit in i'm sure all the future generations they will always want to fit in i don't know how they will want to fit in maybe through social media or internet um anyway if the question is regarding as a buddhist parents how do we set how do we deal with our how do we at least not neglect is by practicing the dharma authentically properly and not imposing that to them i think so okay thank you yes uh because i am one of those kids by the way good evening and um i uh met trump bishop when i was five first time i met him and this is true i screamed absolute bloody murder uh my mother was a very young mother she was a single mother 18. um and in some sense and this is kind of true thinking about it i haven't stopped screaming since this is true it it's a penetrating type of energy and what i remember very clearly is it shifted my entire life my mother met this crazy crippled tibetan person and packed me and my half brother up in a truck and drove across the country that's crazy on some in some point of view however i would not trade that for anything absolutely anything it's inconceivable the merit i have for some reason to be able to stand here at all and i did not want to get up and speak tonight i did not didn't want to ask a question but the last question provoked me and what it provokes is it's very important that we cherish our mothers as children our mothers give birth to future buddhas from one perspective so my mother is i'm very lucky he's still alive and she's a she just did a nine month retreat at gampo abbey and they call her sparky was her nickname desi howard some people know her um so remember shay could we possibly perform a magic trick yeah it's going to involve a little bit it's going to involve a little bit of props but it's a true match and i have no attainment or special powers or anything just totally regular guy but i do carry around this stone and this is going to really piss some of the buddhists do not get this at all it really makes them a little insecure they're like what is that guy like larry he's a jewish very intellectual he's like ethan get rid of the damn stone what are you doing with the stone and i'm like larry the stone's not going anywhere it's just a stone but i'm going to show you i'm going to show you a magic trick watch this now a stone larry has a secret magic power what do you think it is it's gravity gravity so now we are in a room of sleeping buddhas and ramshay all we need you to do is just be the buddha for just maybe even like a second if that's possible i mean we're kind of putting our faith in you to be able to handle that part of the equation here so i'm going to make a wish so this stone is a completely ordinary stone in my hand i want everybody to take a look it's just an ordinary stone everybody can see it right it's ordinary this stone is also a wish fulfilling jewel it's priceless i'm going to get it insured in fact i'm looking into talking to some lawyers about this for a million dollars but um so this wish fulfilling jewel i'm making a wish right now and this wish is going to come true and this wish comes from my mother my mother said she does i was down in annapolis royal she said ethan i have these peace gates that i cart around with me for doing bugaku in gagaku and the vidyadhara she told me directly to my face she said ethan the bijatra told john's cell to his face the entire kingdom of shambhala depends on doing this ridiculous dance that's my sorry that's my it's a really excruciating dance gagaku have you ever heard of this from she it's the imperial court dance of japan and what i realized when i was just up in cape breton is my mother is actually a kind of lineage holder then it's important and that lineage comes from togi sensei and the vidyadhara said you have to do this dance because the entire kingdom of shambhala depends on this now he said lots of stuff to lots of people he probably told larry like translation is the most important thing in the universe every text you do has to be translated perfectly i understand that but what i'm doing is i'm creating a wish that in 2023 on september 21st in kalapa valley and i'm going to sponsor i'm going to put in five thousand dollars to pay my mother to take those gates and the beautiful costume and dance gagaku with a live orchestra and there are a few people who know how to play these really far out instruments and then what i'm going to ask is all of the other shambhala artists like who do these flower arranging and even the grumpy ones like gina stick who just like i don't know i think i irritate her more than anybody but um but she when you hold one of her porcelain dishes in your hands you're holding the kingdom of shambhala literally in your hand and it really pisses me off because i don't understand why she seems so grouchy but it's probably me um so i'm making this wish now i found this morning this stone i walked into an antique gallery this morning and i can find objects with this stone it's weird i found a very beautiful boz and it's a shambhala vaz it's kind of like a blessing vaz except for this is from the qing dynasty it's very priceless and i got it for a reasonable price and i would like to auction that off to build a roof for the little hovel up there in calipa valley our palace of kalapa is infested with mice and in fact gary brown the director the director of calipha valley was up there fixing the roof and snakes i kid you not came out of the ceiling snakes out of the ceiling so we need a new roof up there so i'm pledging that in two years i will with this stone with your help and wish we will build a new roof okay okay sorry to take your time and also rimcha you can always gawn me off as you know i'm really um anyways i appreciate all your time and um it is an unbelievable blessing that you are here um thank you thank you no thank you okay um and larry you're gonna meet the stone in person thank you you

Channel: Siddhartha's Intent Livestream

Views: 29,095

Rating: 4.9625468 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: yaXASFZc2Kw

Length: 108min 50sec (6530 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 03 2021