[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] So, what have I gained? I want to focus mainly on things about sardna, but certainly over the years of learning. I've learned quite a lot of things which are now coming into the order quite a bit anyway. So, for instance, I've worked quite a lot with what are called the Four Reminders, which are now fairly commonly known in the order, just reflections which are designed to motivate you to practice the whole, the whole Buddhist path. So, reflecting on the preciousness of human life, just what a fantastic opportunity it is, but then also it's impermanent, it's going to go. And to make the best use of it, you have to build positive karma. And also that the whole of Sanxara is unsatisfactory, even if you produce extremely positive karma and end up in the best of Sanxara still, that's not good enough. It's only the path to enlightenment that is going to be satisfying. I sometimes think that I've appreciated a lot gaining a deeper appreciation of karma from Tibetan Buddhism. I think we've very much played down karma. Certainly up until recently, up until Nagapur's book was published. We've not made much of the law of karma. And maybe there's good reasons for that. Maybe it doesn't play well in the West, as it were. But I sometimes think if I really took on the law of karma, deeply enough, my whole behaviour would completely change. I believe in the law of karma, or I'd be handing out 10-pound weapons, like anything, because it was all going to be down to my goods. I still think I could reflect a lot more and think much more in terms of karma than I currently do. There are also, I think, in Tibetan Buddhism, a lot of methods of developing bodhicitta, which are extremely valuable. And again, some of those are coming into the order. So, low-jung mind training, such as the eight verses of Keshilangri from the seven verse mind training. I think that Tibetan Buddhism is very rich in practical methods for developing bodhicitta. I've also gained a lot, I suppose just from watching in action, people who have, from their mother's knee, been brought up with a deep faith in the Dharma. I think one of the things about Tibetan Buddhism is that it's still very alive with faith in the Dharma. Tremendous devotion. There's devotion to anything which reminds you of the Dharma. So, having been around Tibetan groups, I can watch my Western Buddhist friends sometimes to sort of tossing Dharma books around or leaving them on the floor of their bedroom. And in Tibetan Buddhism, you do not do that, because a Dharma book is sacred, it's valuable, it contains in it teachings about how you can put an end to suffering forever. It contains teachings about the path of liberation and how you can help other people on the path of liberation. So, they treat Dharma books with great kind of care and reverence. I must say personally, I appreciate that a lot. There's also, oh, just tremendous in faith and devotion to teachers and gratitude to teachers. Daya Brimpeche, my friend in Germany. There were times when he talks about his main teacher, Trijang Brimpeche, who died a number of years ago now. He was one of the Dalai Lama's tutors and was perhaps the main fellow teacher for his sort of generation. Daya Brimpeche just started to talk about him. Often, there are just tears that sort of run down his cheeks. A number once, going somewhere where Daya Brimpeche was talking about how he had been doing some tantric initiations in Tibet. He managed to go back to Tibet for a while. And he was giving them to quite a number of people who have known Trijang Brimpeche. And these people have said to Daya Brimpeche, you remind us of Trijang Brimpeche, how you perform that ritual. And Daya Brimpeche, sort of trying to recount this story, was just in floods of tears that anyone could begin to think that in any way, you know, how he did this ritual, was reminiscent of his teacher, Trijang Brimpeche. It was very, very beautiful to watch, very, very moving. Daya Brimpeche was discovered as a talker at the age of about four, and taken off to the monastery, and his teachers, when he was young, had this very much sort of spare the rod and spoil the child attitude. So he used to get whipped every couple of days, not for doing anything at all, just on general principles that it would be good, you know, sort of keep a young talker on the straight and narrow. And he suffered awfully, actually, I mean, listening to his story, it sounds like a tale of awful abuse, you know, he would have been taken into care, you know, in any kind of Western society. But again, he talks about these early teachers without any ranker with great sort of appreciation, and says, well, you know, they had a really, they were really doing their best. But at the same time, Diabrampeche's son was recognized as a talker, and Diabrampeche wouldn't let his son be taken off the monastery, which given that he's on the next one down from the Dalai Lama, and this is his eminent style Brimpeche, and very, very important in the Bill of hierarchy. The fact that he refused to do that was quite a statement. So yes, anyway, there's a tremendous amount of sort of faith that just imbues that whole culture that I really appreciate. I also appreciate the fact that it's a rounded tradition, it's been going for hundreds of years, not thousands yet. And I get some sense of what the order could be like over time. It's like within, say, that Bill of tradition that I've had most connection with, you get people who've been practicing Dharma for 60 years, 50 years, 40 years, 30 years, 20 years. So you get a whole range of people with all different ranges of experience. And people, sort of young, I've met some young tool crews who were like 22, who again have already been studying since they were seven, and you asked them about the Dharma. And they say, well, I'm just a young man, I've not got anywhere yet with my studies. And perhaps in 10 years, I might be able to say something. There's something quite nice about a tradition which has the resources to just let people keep training and training. I sometimes think we throw young order members and even mitterers into the fray to start teaching very, very quickly. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. 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