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A Student's Notes on Geshe Jinpa Sonam's Teachings Covering

Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand:
A Concise Discourse on the Path to Enlightenment
by Pabongka Rinpoche

Geshe-la began Lam Rim Teachings using Pabongka Rinpoche's Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, on September 24, 2006. Notes that appear here were taken by one of Geshe-la’s students beginning on the second teaching held October 15, 2006. The actual audio of the teaching will be available on the IBC web site very soon.

October 15, 2006

Today’s teaching covered pages 25 - 29

The highlights of this teaching included these important points:

October 22, 2006

Today's teaching covered pages 29 - 30

According to the advice of Pabongka Rinpoche, it is best to have dharma practitioners as friends. Non-virtuous friends create a lot of non-virtuous activities "smiles on their faces." Since our goal is to create virtuous activities, it is most important not to let yourself fall under the influence of negative friends. Recognizing this and changing is most important.

If you can't actually help others, at least visualize helping them. Although we may not be able to help on a physical level, visualizing helping others trains our minds. Then, we will reach a level where we are mentally and physically able to help all sentient beings. According to Shanti Deva, it's a matter of getting used to doing the things you want to do. Buddha's are just like us in the beginning; they trained their minds and eventually became the objects of refuge. How can we make the Buddha nature that is inherent in all of us arise? Practice what is in the text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand.

Geshe-la then reviewed the material from last week's teaching.

Page 29 - We rely on the words of others; however, we need to be looking closer. To see future rebirths, look at the level of the positive activities you have created. Rebirths can be one of the following three:

  1. Positive Rebirth
  2. Liberation
  3. Buddhahood
Each of these rebirths depends on the degree or level of positive activities.

There are also three scopes: Lower, Medium, and Higher. Each of these corresponds to one of the rebirth results listed above as follows:

Page 29 - 30 - We don't know where we will be reborn. Intense negativities result in the hell realms. Very difficult to understand; not something we can understand through the scriptures. We need to use inferential knowledge from the Buddha's scriptures and texts. Even if you have created a lot of negative activities, you can cleanse yourself. There is a refuge you can take in the Three Jewels.

Page 30 - (first paragraph - "fate") - Criminals rely on influential persons to help them. Like them we rely on the Three Jewels. In the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, it is said, "When you are tied in cyclic existence, who can help you?" Not the gods or the goddesses of the higher realms because they, too, are tied to cyclic existence. They might be able to help temporarily, but they cannot free you from cyclic existence.

Page 30 - (remainder of first paragraph) - It is we who must free ourselves.

Seeking the Three Jewels is not enough. We must put the knowledge we have learned to work. We must examine our activities every day.

How buddhas help us is by teaching the path and teaching the truth of suchness. The suffering we experience doesn't need much to ripen. But, to have happiness we must have a big cause. For example, if a cup is already filled with water, one drop will cause it to overflow. This is like suffering. One little thing and suffering kicks in. Another cup is empty (happiness), one little drop doesn't do much.

If you're not getting results from good activities, you need to check the 3 parts and see what you're missing.

October 29, 2006

Geshe-la began the teaching with the importance for setting our intention at the beginning of each teaching. This is important for both the student and the teacher. It is important to have the intention to listen to the teaching for the benefit of all sentient beings and to achieve ultimate enlightenment.

Last week we talked about impermanence.

The stronger your sense of impermanence the stronger your understanding and the more meaningful your practice will be. Understanding impermanence pushes you to become a more serious practitioner and gives you a greater appreciation of your precious human life.

The influence of a sense of permanence becomes a great obstruction to our practice. Grasping to the sense of permanence becomes a great impediment to our practice because we think we still have a lot of time to live so we put off our practice. But, at the time of death, only the practice you have done will help you. So, we must think of our death...that we can die any time...and practice with a sense of urgency.

Even if you have accumulate a mountain of gold, you can't even take one speck of it with you when you die. You can't even take the memory of it with you. As a matter of fact, it may hinder you because you will grasp it. Yet, one recitation of the six-syllable mantra will make lasting imprints on the karma you take with you to your future life.

HHDL often says that most learned scholars find it very difficult to listen to the teachings of impermanence. Either they don't want to listen or they try to avoid it. But for the serious practitioner the understanding of impermanence is the supporting factor. Whether you want to listen to teachings about impermanence or not, we all have to face death. And, when death comes, only the Dharma will help. It is better to prepare now while we can. With a strong understanding of impermanence there will be no regret at the time of death. The strong practitioner will die peacefully. They already know that there will be no problem with the next life because they have prepared. That's why in the text, The Thirty-seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, it says, our body or the aggregate is like a guest house. When you die, your consciousness will leave this body and will enter another body.

The practitioner who is at the lowest level of practice can, with an understanding of impermanence, die with not difficulties...without regret.

Death is so powerful that no one can escape it. It dominates the most powerful human beings. So how can one prepare oneself to escape such a powerful force? Through the Dharma itself we can escape death by attaining enlightenment.

Thus you may feel, 'I shall seek refuge in the Three Jewels in order to be free of the lower realms, and I shall adopt the means to free me from these realms. I shall modify my behaviour according to the laws of cause and effect.' This is setting your motivation on the level of the Lam-rim shared with the Small Scope. (Page 30)

Here the text begins discussing the three different scopes. The intention of a person of the small scope is to free himself from a lower rebirth. Practitioners of the small scope rely on cause and effect precepts.

All the same, is it enough merely to be free of the lower realms? No, it is not. You will only achieve one or two physical rebirths in the upper realms before falling back to the lower realms when your evil karma catches up with you. This is not the ultimate answer, not something in which you can put your trust. We have in fact obtained many rebirths in the upper realm, and afterwards have fallen back into the lower realms. We are sure to fall back the same way yet again. (Pages 30-31)

This tells that being a person of small scope is not enough. Even if you are successful in achieving a higher rebirth, what will happen after that there is every chance that you will fall back into a lower rebirth. So, this is not complete liberation.

We are sure to fall back the same way yet again. In our past rebirths, we took the form of the powerful gods Brahma and Indra and lived in celestial palaces. This happened many times, yet we left these rebirths and had to writhe on the red-hot iron surface of the hells. Again and again this happened. In the celestial realms, we enjoyed the nectar of the gods; then, when we left these rebirths, we had to drink molten copper in the hells. We amused ourselves in the company of many gods and goddesses, then had to live surrounded by terrifying guardians of hell. We were reborn as universal emperors and ruled over hundreds of thousands of subjects; and then we were born as the meanest serfs and slaves such as donkey drivers and cowherds. Sometimes we were born as sun and moon gods, and our bodies gave off so much light that we illuminated the four continents. Ten we were born in the depths of the ocean between continents where it was so dark we could not even see the movements of our own limbs. And so on. No matter what you achieve of this sort of worldly happiness it is untrustworthy and has no essence. (Page 31)

It says here that no matter what we achieve, birth in the cyclic realms is untrustworthy. We need to find something that is reliable.

We have already experienced so much suffering, but as long as we are not liberated from samsara [cyclic existence], we must experience very much more. If all the filth and dirt we have eaten in our past animal rebirths as dogs and pigs were piled up in one place, the dungheap would be bigger than Meru, the king of mountains. Yet we will have to eat even more filth as long as we are still not liberated from samsara. if all our heads cut off by past enemies were piled up, the top of the heap would be even higher than Brahma's realm. Yet, if we do not pu and end to our cyclic existence, we must lose even more heads. In our past hell rebirths, boiling-hot water was forced down our throats - more water than there is even in the great oceans - but we must drink even more while we have not freed ourselves from samsara. (Page 31)

What tells here is that we have done all this in the past. So, this is the time when you have this precious human life...use this rebirth in a good way so you don't have to go through all this again.

So now the text talks about setting our intention on the Lam-rim of the medium scope. So, we finished the small scope

Thus, we should be despondent when we think about the way we wander aimlessly through not having put an end to our cyclic existence. (Pages 31-32)

Yet, leaving this realm is very, very difficult.

Even the rebirths of gods and humans have not transcended the nature of suffering. The human rebirth has the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death; it has the suffering of being separated from the things one holds dear, meeting with unpleasantness, and not finding the things one wants despite searching for them. (Page 32)

This is the very general description of the suffering of human beings.

The demigods also have sufferings, for they are maimed when they go to battle; and they suffer all the time from gnawing jealousy. When reborn a god of the Desire REalm, one suffers because one displays the omens of death. The gods of the [two] higher realms do not have any manifest suffering. However, they are still, by nature, under the sway of the suffering the applies to all conditioned phenomena because they have not gained enough freedom to maintain their state. In the end they will fall, so they have not transcended suffering.

In short, as long as you are not free of samsara for good, you have not transcended the nature of suffering. You therefore must definitely become liberated from it; and you must do so while in your present rebirth.(Page 32)

With the understanding of the three lower realms and the three higher realm, you come to realize that this is the time for you to find the ultimate, eternal happiness.

We normally say, 'We cannot do that in this rebirth,' and make prayers for our next rebirth. But it is possible to do it in this rebirth. We have gained the optimum human rebirth, and this is the most advantageous physical form to have for the practice of Dharma. We have met with the right conditions - we have met with the Buddha's teachings, and so forth. We have all the right conditions, and so if we cannot achieve liberation now, when shall we ever achieve it? (Page 32)

Some might say that this lifetime they will be busy with other things and put off dedication to liberation until another lifetime. How can you say that your next life will be better than this? You have all the needed conditions to liberate yourself now.

Thus you may feel, 'I definitely must liberate myself from samsara, come what may. And liberation is achieved only by means of the precious three high trainings. I will therefore train myself in these three, and gain my liberation from this great ocean of suffering.' This is setting your motivation at the level of the Lam-rim shared with the Medium Scope. (Page 32)

The people of the Medium Scope intend to free themselves from cyclic existence...not only the lower realms.

There are three types of persons. Persons of Small Scope, Medium Scope, and High Scope. Small Scope - want to achieve higher rebirth with the understanding of lower rebirth. This is a very limited objective. The person of Medium Scope is also of General Scope. This means that the intentions of the Medium Scope is general...not specific to the Medium...but, is understood by the Higher as well. Medium Scope intention is to achieve liberation from samsara. They have the understanding that simply achieving a higher rebirth is not enough. They want liberation from samsara. This is also called the liberation of the hearers and solitary realizers.

The higher path also follows the path of the Medium Scope.

When you begin your practice, you start at the Small Scope. When you go on to the Medium Scope, you still have the understanding of the Small. And, when you are at the Highest Scope you should have the understanding of the Medium and Small Scope.

The Small and the Medium are the Foundation for the High Scope. You cannot say, "I want to be a highest scope person." You have to have to have the practice and the understanding from the beginning. Low. Then, Medium. Then, High.

The reason is that the suffering of the Smaller Scope is gross suffering. As one progresses through the Scopes, the suffering becomes more and more subtle. The suffering of the three lower rebirths are very gross. The suffering of the human realm and the higher realms are subtler compared to lower rebirth. In order to understand the subtle suffering you must first understand the grosser suffering.

Now we'll go the intention of the person of higher scope. Read text, last ¶, page 32 and 1st ¶ on page 33.

We will stop here.

November 5, 2006

The very seed for the altruist mind is the great compassionate mind and that compassionate mind is not just the mind of compassion, rather it should be the result of special intention. So, special intention leads to the generation of great compassionate mind. And that great compassionate mind leads to the generation of the great altruistic mind. Whenever you generate that great compassionate mind

One needs to know the seven-fold precepts of cause and effect to attain the altruistic mind. Number 1 = all sentient beings have been your mother.

The Great Compassion of the Mahayana is the result of positive intention which is Number 5 of the 7-fold precepts of cause and effect. You must consider your mothers of past life-times as being as precious as your mother in this life-time. Of course, we must establish an understanding that we've had past lives.

Proven existence of Past Life: The causes/habits have existed before. The more you think of cause and effect the more you will understand the existence of past lives.

Reading from Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, p. 33:

End of the first paragraph sets the intention of the Mahayana practitioners which are the people of the greater scope.

Then, in speaking about the fact that all sentient beings have bee your mother in past life-times, Pabongka Rinpoche says:

Geshe-la: A new born baby when separated from his mother will not recognize her when he grows older. So, just saying you don't recognize someone as your past mother isn't sufficient reason to say they weren't your mother.

There is no difference between the mother of the last life-time and the mother of this life-time.

If you can't attain enlightenment in this life-time, at least appreciate the love and kindness of your parents. The importance of your mother in life-time is that she takes care of the new born baby even when that baby cannot express its needs clearly. If you don't remember these kindnesses, it is considered shameful.

Use this as a foundation to develop an altruistic mind.

Reading:

The only person who can help all sentient beings is the Buddha - that is why we must generate the enlightened state of the Buddha so we can help all beings to learn what they need and are ready to learn.

The question is: Is it possible to achieve this kind of Buddhahood right now? For the answer to this question, wait until the next teaching in two weeks!

November 12, 2006 -

Sunday teachings on November 12 were replaced with the Lha-bab Duechen/Tsok Offering hosted by our precious teacher Geshe Jinpa Sonam.

November 19, 2006

Geshe Jinpa began the teaching with an admonition: do not create any sinful deeds. Understand that the result of sinful deeds is suffering.

Create virtuous or positive deeds with the deep conviction that this will ultimately result in enlightenment especially if you create positive activities with the all three parts.

These are the teachings of the Buddha.

We must learn to control ourselves. Control is in two parts: physical and mental. Start with controlling your physical behavior. If you don't have good physical behavior, you can't have a positive or good state of mind.

Benefitting others is the foundation of the Mahayana altruistic mind. Without physical and verbal control, one is contradicting what he is following. Benefitting others is something we do after achieving enlightenment. Before enlightenment, we have different levels of capabilities [to help others].

Geshe-la then continued with the text on page 35.

We have this precious human body. In the six realms, human is best. Gods and goddesses in the higher realms find it difficult to have renunciation. They cannot generate the path of seeing. For humans it is easy to have renunciation because of the environment. In the realm of desire it is possible to generate the path of seeing.

The six types of constituents refer to six elements. From the father there are three white elements: bone, marrow, and brain. From the mother there are three red elements: flesh, skin, and blood.

We have access to the Buddha's teachings in complete form. This is extremely rare because there were only three Buddhas: Shakyamuni was the 4th, the seventh Buddha, and the 1000th Buddha - the final Buddha. We also have the combined practices of both the sutras and the tantras. We can't know that his will ever be available to us again even if we achieve another human life after this one.

Chandrakirti says if you don't use the opportunity now, we will regret it.

We are wasting our precious human life if we buy into the thinking that "Now is a degenerate time; our timing has been bad."

Continue with reading:

The automatic feeling that now is the time to practice...this is considered the feeling of the Great Scope...and when the feeling is automatic, you have achieved the altruistic mind or bodhicitta.

Continue with reading:

This tells how one should develop intention or motivation: 'I shall listen attentively to the Lam-rim, and then put it into practice.'

It is good to generate a good intention. If we cannot, we can generate a wish for an altruistic mind.

If you do your practice just for a good life, even the practice of secret Tantric practices won't do anything.

For a beginner, it's not enough. We have to think more foundational ideas or thoughts. Think of the suffering of sentient beings - use a sympathetic subject - something or someone who automatically generates compassion. Then, extend the feeling to others...to enemies and neutral people.

Generate good intention at the beginning of every activity like eating, buying clothes, etc. Set your intention for the benefit of all sentient beings.

It might help to use cause and effect precepts or impermanence - there are many ways to generate altruistic mind depending on the individual.

The practice of Buddhism is mainly to train your mind and find happiness. If this doesn't occur, it is important to look at your practice for the cause rather than looking at the Dharma.

We don't have to study to learn hatred, anger, or jealousy.

However, one must follow the correct steps to achieve or learn positive feelings:

  1. Listen
  2. Contemplate - think about what you've heard
  3. Practice what you have learned

November 26, 2006

Geshe Jinpa quoted the Buddha: "A trained mind has happiness; a trained mind generates happiness."

He continued saying that rude, mean people are not happy. We must create positive activities and avoid negative activities.

In ancient India, Dharma referred to making change. The Buddha determined that the then usual method of attaining happiness didn't work.

Finding peace by not letting the mind be controlled by negativity or delusions. This is where the Buddha's teachings fit. We need to eliminate self-cherishing and self-grasping.

It is important to set the motivation for the teaching in order set a goal for helping all sentient beings...that is to eliminate self-cherishing and to establish the foundation for understanding emptiness or the ultimate reality.

Begin reading on page 36 (last paragraph)

One should not consider the Dharma as a way to make money. Even people today use religious teachings to make money...they don't have the proper motivation and therefore are creating an immense sin. Geshe-la actually knows a monk in California who is using the Dharma to make money and found it very sad.

The only way you can train your mind is using the Dharma. When you use the Dharma for other purposes, you are destroying the only means you have for training your mind. It's like using a combustible material to put out a fire...it is counter-productive and destructive. It destroys the house you are trying to save. You're using the fire department (the Dharma) with the wrong intention (combustible material - making money) and therefore destroying the only means you have for saving the house (your mind).

Reading continued p. 37, first paragraph:

This section tells the importance of the teaching itself - it should come from an enlightened person - and then be verified by the great adepts. Otherwise, you may achieve an un-Buddhist result. In many other faiths the founder says, "I've found this way and you must follow it." But, Buddha says, "This worked for me. Try it and see if it works for you."

You must test the Dharma - you must check it out; make sure it is valid and make sure of its lineage. If you study or follow the wrong teachings, no matter how hard you try and no matter how long you try - it will not lead you to enlightenment. In this way, we are very narrow minded. When a dog eats, he just gulps down the food without tasting to make sure it's not poison. We must not do the same with the Dharma.

Continue reading p. 37 (starting with the last paragraph) and then on to p. 38:

You must have the three fundamental understandings before you can even begin the tantra teachings. People often want to go to the highest teaching without first taking time to learn the fundamentals.

Lam-rim was not invented by Je Rinpoche. The teachings come from the Buddha himself. These are not teachings invented by Gelugpa scholars.

There are many texts that do not have the name Lam-rim, but are Lam-rim anyway. They all tell the stages of the path.

Continue reading p. 39, first paragraph:

Atisha's teachings combine both the fundamental and the tantric practices. The Extensive Path was almost disappearing from India. Atisha went to Indonesia to teach, but returned to India to revitalize the Extensive Teachings there (in India).

Page 39, paragraph 2:

The requestor asked Atisha to compose a Lam-rim text to help the common people. Atisha responded by writing Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment. Atisha was so proud of the requestor to be thinking of the common people.

December 3, 2006

Geshe-la began with the observation that in regard to mundane activities, the more you do the that needs to be done. Therefore, there's never enough time to do our spiritual activities. So, why not limit our mundane activities so we can use the time to practice the Dharma?

In Tibet there was a student and a monk. The monk kept his student very busy. There was no time to practice the Dharma. The monk always told his student that when he finished his jobs they would go on a picnic. One day the monk and the student were on the road when a funeral procession carrying a dead body went by. The monk couldn't see, so he asked his student what was happening. The student answered that a man who had finished his jobs was going on a picnic.

This shows the importance of doing a practice that benefits you both in this lifetime and in the next.

Whoever is attached to a small happiness can not achieve a great happiness.

As always, it is good to set your motivation when you listen to a teaching. Please set it to the Mahayana Intention.

The text we are studying originated in India and brought many traditions with it. If you practice according to the text, there will definitely be results. If not, it's the problem of the practitioner, not the text.

Reading from the text, page 39, last paragraph:

Great Je Rinpoche made petitions in his prayers [to the lineage holders of this tradition] by the Lion Rock at Retreng to the north of Lhasa; and there he started to write a book on the path. He had with him a statue of Atisha. It depicted Atisha with his head bent over to one side. Whenever Je Rinpoche petitioned the statue, he received visions of all the gurus of the Lam-rim lineage and they would discuss Dharma with him. Moreover, he had visions of Atisha, Dromtoenpa, Potowa, and Sharawa for a month. These latter three figures finally dissolved into Atisha, who placed his hand on Je Rinpoche's head and said, 'Give this teaching and I shall help you.' This means that it was he who requested Tsongkapa to write the The Great Stages of the Path. Je Rinpoche complete it up to the end of the part dealing with mental quiescence. Venerable Manjushri requested him to complete the book. As a result, Je Rinpoche wrote the section on special insight. Thus, be aware that the book is a veritable treasure trove of blessings, even if we ignore the other people who requested him to compose it. This is covertly taught in the passage of the colophon that begins 'By the amazing good works of the Victors and their Children...'[see p. 787]
Later, he composed The Medium Stages of the Path to summarize the essence of the matter not treated in The Great Stages of the Path. The medium length work deals mainly with the direct oral lineages and older discourse lineages; the two Lam-rims are said to complement each other with different key points from the oral instructions.
You may not know how to integrate these texts into your practice. Je Rinpoche later said:
People who find it almost impossible to understand how to put all these teachings into practice should refer to much shorter texts that tell how to pursue this.
Thus you should refer to the following texts. The [Third] Dalai Lama Soenam Gyatso wrote The Essence of Refined Gold. The great Fifth Dalai Lama wrote the Manjushri's Own Words Lam-rim as a commentary to this. The Panchen Lama Lozang Choekyi Gyaeltsaen wrote The Easy Path, and Lozang Yeshe [another Panchen incarnation] composed its commentary, The Swift Path. Je Rinpoche himself wrote three Lam-rims" The Great, The Medium, and The Small (also known as The Songs from Experience). And, in addition to the above four concise teachings by the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas, Ngagwang Dragpa of Dagpo wrote The Path of Excellent Scripture. These are the eight most famous teaching on the Lam-rim.
You must receive the lineage discourse for these root texts and commentaries separately. It is not sufficient to receive just one of them. Moreover, there are two lineages of discourse on Manjushri's Own Words, one more detailed than the other. One of these was maintained in the Central Province, while the other was upheld in the south; this resulted in the two splitting off from each other. You must also receive the lineage discourses for both separately. Chancellor Tagpugpa and his followers later assessed the lineages of this text. He claimed that if he had read this text earlier, he would not have had so many problems with Lamn-rim meditation topics. And it is as he says: the concise teaching of The Swift Path and the two lines of Manjushri's Own Words go together to make something particularly profound.

It is important to study the two texts together because one is tantric and one is sutra.

Continue reading page 41, paragraph 1:

When our Teacher Buddha taught, there was no tradition of having two lineages--one for the oral transmission and one for the oral discourse. It was only later, when his teachings were no longer fully comprehensible, that discourses were given separately. The discourse that give a detailed discussion of the words in a text have been called 'formal discourses.' The 'concise discourse' refers to oral teachings that do not elaborate much on the words of the text but instead expose the heart of the instruction, much as skilful doctors dissect a corpse in front of their students. The way they point out the five solid organs, the six hollow organs, etc., would give a vivid introduction. In the 'informal discourse,' the lama speaks from his own experience, and the teaching gis designed to have the maximum effect on his disciples mind-streams. The 'practical teaching' is as follows. The disciples stay together in a retreat house. They are taught one topic, which they then begin to meditate on. They are not taught the next topic until they have gained some insight. This type of discourse comes down to us in lineages blessed by insight. They are most beneficial for taming the mind-stream.

The formal discourse gives students the literal meaning. The concise discourse, dissects the text and goes into the deep meaning.

Continue reading to the end of page 41:

The teaching I shall now give is an informal discourse. A few of those present are unfortunate enough only to have the time to attend this sort of teaching once or twice. They are interested in these teachings, although they must later go their separate ways. For their sakes I shall be combining The Swift Path and the two lineages of Manjushri's Own Words. Later on, when we get to that part, I shall give the seven-point mind training on the interchange of self and others.
I have no inhibitions about giving this teaching. It will create root merits for the two departed aristocrats in whose memory this teaching is being given. And when I teach the Lam-rim, I do not have to weigh the benefits or dangers to guru or disciple, something I have to do when I give other teachings, such as initiations. A Lam-rim teaching can only be most beneficial.
All of you, practice what you can; and you must pray on behalf of these two departed noblemen.
Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche gave a short oral transmission of the opening lines of these Lam-rim texts. Then we were free to go.

The completes the Lam-rim Introductory Discourse.

Pages 25 - 41 First Day Teaching deals primarily with motivation. Next we go to the greatness of the authors and the lineage section.

Geshe-la wants to give us the literal meaning of the text rather than the practical meaning. A lama speaks from his experience, but Geshe-la says he doesn't have much experience of his own. He will therefore utilize the informal approach to the teaching.

Continued here.