(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - We've been looking at texts for nearly a year now, and we've slowly progressed our way through to some of the later texts, and particularly in the Vajrayana and Tantric tradition. And these are kind of later schools of Buddhism that particularly draw out making the archetypal language, using symbols and images and even personifications of enlightenment to unravel the spiritual life, to explain the spiritual life, to explain spiritual experience. So we've moved from the actual word of the Buddha, or the reported word of the Buddha, right through Buddhist history. And we now are in about the eighth century, where very, very symbolic language is used, almost dreamlike language is used, to explain reality, to explain the Dharma, and most of all, to explain the experience of the spiritual practitioner. And that's a very quick summary of a year's course, but I think that'll be. So we're looking at texts, yes, that we've been looking at quite a few texts that are actually biographies, and of great Tantric Vajrayana teachers. And we've particularly been looking at some teachers and practitioners in Tibet. We've looked at Pavmasambhava, who's the great guru who came to Tibet in the eighth century to establish Buddhism in Tibet. And last week, we looked at Suri Matigabe to talk about Millarepa, who's a Tibetan practitioner in the 11th century. Yes, good, that was like a guess. So yeah, so now we're gonna backtrack a little bit, and I'm going to give a talk about Pavmasambhava's main disciple, Yeshe Sogiel, and her book, Her Biography, Mother of Knowledge. Which, apart from anything else, is gold, and has a really nice picture on the front, and lots of nice pictures inside. So if you ever feel like buying a book that's gold, I recommend this one. So yeah, I've wanted to do, it's always dodgy to say this, 'cause it might be a rubbish talk. But I've wanted to do this talk for a very long time, because on my first solitary retreat, I was trying to remember when that was. I think I must have been about 20 or 21. And on my first solitary retreat, I read this book. And it, in a way, is completely bonkers, and I really didn't understand any of it. But I had this incredibly strong response to this book. In fact, it almost changed my life, then quite a lot of things changed my life, but this one really did change my life. And particularly, there's one passage in it that always stuck in my mind. And I've read it quite a few times since. And it still has that same emotional response, an emotional response of a complete awe at the Dharma and what the Dharma can do for you, the actual possibilities of spiritual practice and the great bliss that can arise out of spiritual practice. And also a kind of, yes, a kind of gut response of, well, what is the Dharma? What the Dharma is really all about? But the Dharma is not about getting more pleasure. It's not about becoming a really cool dude, which kind of was quite important to me when I was about 20 or 21. But it's really about transformation. It's about transforming yourself to be of service to all living beings. And this book, bonkers though it is, somehow gave me these two very, very strong, yes, gut responses or emotional responses after I read it. And it's written in this really, it's like you get this kind of normal passage that's just like a normal biography of someone's life. And then it just goes bonkers. It just starts talking in this incredibly symbolic and visionary language. This symbolic language just weaves in and out of the narrative seamlessly with no explanation of why we've suddenly entered into this mystical realm. It just suddenly sort of appears in the book as if it's completely normal. As if, you know, Vajras in the sky are completely normal and people flying around on chariots and all sorts of rainbows appearing out of people's mouths. Just completely normal events in the life of practitioner. Which I have to say is proving to be the case, sort of. So nothing is ordinary in this book. And also it does a quite a lot of detailed explanations of practices that I don't do and I never intend to do. So in a way I don't really understand those kind of technical descriptions. But it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter because a very strong sense is built up reading this biography. And in a way it seems to get to the kind of nub of the issue of what spiritual practice is all about. As Padma Sambaa gives the advice to Yeshe Sogail, he says, "Do not let yourself be distracted by ecstasy "or the joys that accompany it. "If you lose the impulse towards enlightenment "it is worse than killing the Buddha. "In no world could you find exoneration." So it's like on one hand you've got all this ecstasy, and bliss and joy and visions and tremendous experience. But at the same time where you've got to cut through to what it all means and keep going to enlightenment, keep going to the transformation, cut through to the transformation. In a way that ecstasy, those visions are not the real deal, the real deal is the transformation. And Padma Sambaa always gets Yeshe Sogail back to the nub of the issue. So there you go, don't get distracted by ecstasy or the joys that accompany it, just in case you might have. So the story starts as it's fitting for an eighth century Tibetan text about a Buddhist practitioner. The story starts in the realm of the Bodhisattvas, the realm of gods and goddesses, where a goddesses decides that now is the time to benefit beings, now is the time to be reborn in the human world. And she decides that she's going to become manifest, she's going to be born in Tibet in the eighth century, a time when the Dharma king, Trix on Decson, is trying to establish the Dharma with the help of the great guru Padma Sambaa. So she decides to come to Padma Sambaa's aid and establish Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth century. She says, and I do like this quote, I have to say, this is a bit like what this text is like. By the radiant light of the tainted, the untainted is realized. The time has come to embrace the play of the most profound and secret great bliss. So remember that, by the radiant light of the tainted, the untainted is realized. So yes, the time has come to embrace the play of the most profound and secret great bliss. So the goddess is born in Tibet, and she's born as Yeshe Sogel, I'm sure you've guessed, who's born, who's the daughter of a ruler of a province of Tibet and his wife. And from the very beginning, this is obvious that this is no ordinary child. Strange dreams accompanied her conception. Coral stoopers, lotuses emitting light rays, coral and shell garlands from which milk and blood flowed. Strange dreams. And when she was born, the earth trembled like a dragon. Heavenly music was heard everywhere, accompanied by the sound of mantras with no obvious source. And flowers were strewn by goddesses who appeared in the sky. So you can kind of get the picture. It's kind of a wonderful understatement at this point where her father goes, hmm, this is no ordinary child. Maybe she will be a saint, or at least the daughter of a king or something like that. And you think, hmm, no kidding. So she's born and from her birth, she showed that she had great mindfulness, great attention onto the objects of her attention, great mindfulness and great eloquence from an early age. In fact, I think from the moment she was born, she could speak, which is pretty impressive. And of course, as these texts always say, she was very beautiful, very, very beautiful, with hair like black, blue-black silk, with teeth like conch shells curling to the right. (audience laughing) And a milky-white complexion. Oh no, sorry. But apparently that was rather attractive in the days of Tibetan Buddhism. And many people from far wide came to admire her beauty. And that was where her problems started. Her problems started with her great beauty, because of course, the rulers of the neighboring provinces, they both wanted to marry Yeshe Sogil. And her parents started to get worried at this point because they thought, well, if we give her to one and not the other, the other one is going to start a war. The other one is going to be displeased. So I've got a great idea. Why don't we just make her run into the mountains and see you catch us her first? Sort of like, you know, for some strange game, you know, with if you catch Yeshe Sogil, you can marry her. So they send her off to a secret location, loaded with many fine silks and servants with her. And basically, someone comes to capture and she legs it, and she legs it into the mountains on her own, because she very, very deeply did not want to get married. But one of the local rulers had sent his generals to capture her and capture her they did. And as she tried to escape, the captors beat her. And she lay bloody on the ground, begging the budders to be released, saying, my mind is white, whiter than the white snow mountains. It will turn dark, darker than rust, contaminated by the minds of these alien demons. Please look upon me with a little compassion. So from an early age, she realized that no matter how beautiful, how accomplished, how learned, how eloquent she was, unless she had good conditions, unless she had the right conditions, she wouldn't be able to spiritually progress. And for a woman in eighth century to bet, marriage to a provincial ruler was gonna be fairly comfortable, but it wasn't good, it wasn't conducive conditions for practicing the Dharma. One might pose the question whether for a woman in 21st century Britain, marriage is a good, conducive condition to practice the Dharma. But I won't say that because I get into trouble. But yes, it wasn't a great deal for her. And so she ran away again, she got captured, but she ran away again. And she got captured by the other suitor. So her parents were now very, very worried because they realized all the war is on the cards now because who's going to lay claim to her? The first person he captured her or the second. So at that time, the king of Tibet saw what was going on, heard from his messengers, what was going on, and he decided to intervene to prevent a war. And he took her as his own wife. I have to say, this is when she was aged 12. So he took her as his own wife. And in a way, it all got sorted out because her sisters were married off to the other suitors, the other provincial rulers. And it looked like everything was going to be okay because the king himself, as I mentioned before, was a Dharma king. And he encouraged, he saw that she had great spiritual potential and he encouraged her in her studies and gave her tutors and treated her very kindly and treated her very well. But the king was a disciple of Pabmasambhava. And one day he was requesting some teachings from Pabmasambhava. So in Tibet, in the old days, if you wanted some teachings from a teacher, what you had to do was you had to give a lot of material wealth to the teacher to show that you found the teachings more important and more precious than any worldly consideration. And so what you do is you just kind of offer as much as you can, you know. And to get the teachings, people used to really, really save up. You know, they used to try and get as much gold as they can, much fine silks or turquoise or whatever they could afford to find their teacher and offer it to their teacher, which I think is something that possibly we should institute again. But the tradition was that you'd give it to the teacher and by most accounts, what ends up happening is, well, they either just throw it in the ground or ignore it or just push it to one side and say, right, thank you, let's get on with it sort of thing. But they don't pay much attention. But in this case, Pabma Sambaver actually did make a request. In order for the king to receive the teachings, he asked for something and he asked for a disciple, a intelligent female disciple. And the king knew exactly who he was talking about. And so he offered Yesheh Sogail to Pabma Sambaver. So Yesheh Sogail was delighted, of course, because here she was, she wanted to practise the Dharma and she had just been given to Pabma Samba, who was the greatest guru of all time. So she was pretty pleased and delighted as she was at the age of 16, she became the disciple of Pabma Sambaver and left the palace to practise the Dharma in secret caves around Tibet. So off she went to the secret caves with Tibet and with Pabma Sambaver. And well, what did she do in these caves? What secret mysterious teaching did Pabma Sambaver bestow on Yesheh Sogail? Well, the next chapter of the book goes into what he bestowed on Yesheh Sogail. The most wondrous, the most marvellous, the most precious teachings. It said it was like one vessel being poured into another. She was completely receptive to this teaching and nothing was left over. And what teachings did he give her? The finest of all teachings. The mindfulness of breathing. The ethical precepts and the four noble truths. So there it was, one vessel being poured into the other. And once she understood, these were the primary teachings he gave her and once she understood the teachings of Karma and Karma Vapaka cause an effect. She asked him for the teachings of the Vajrayana, the esoteric teachings, the quick and mysterious route to enlightenment, teachings that you can only get from a master, teachings you couldn't read in a book, but you could only receive from the master. And moved by her heartfelt request, Pabma Sambaver agreed. And this is what he taught her. The first thing that she needed to learn to become a disciple of the Vajrayana, to become a disciple of the secret esoteric teachings of the Tantra, was she really needed to understand what the precepts really mean in all their depth. Though those most marvelous of Buddhist teachings, he went through them again at ever deeper levels, with ever deeper explanations. And he said to her, externally one should look upon the precepts as one looks upon one's lord, one's parents, and one's best friend. Internally, one should look upon the precepts as one's eyes, one's heart, one's life itself. And secretly, one should look upon the precepts as one's tutelary deities. Therefore, one must never be dishonest, deceitful or cunning, through the gates of body, speech, or mind. So there it was. Now, some of you might be a little disappointed at that, because in a way, when you kind of think about the Tantra, you think about something like really exciting in you. And I think it was Banti said at one point, that if you put the word Tantra in a talk, you definitely get a full house. Because people are expecting something really juicy. And, well, that's the thing. The thing about the Dharma is, in a way, you've got all you need when you go to a beginner's course. If you could really reflect on that, if you could really understand the depth of those teachings on the beginner's course, you might well be enlightened. But the problem is we don't take it deep enough. The problem is that, actually, we don't really penetrate into what those teachings actually mean. And in that way, what we end up doing is we end up taking on more and more teachings to kind of unravel those primary teachings, to draw out the deepest significance of those primary teachings. And it brings me to mind that something that's said about the Dharma and sometimes depicted about the Dharma in various forms is that the Dharma is always fresh and is always youthful, is always vibrant and alive. But what we do is we take it superficially, we harden it, we make it stale and old because we don't reflect on the basics. To quote someone else, Jamion, no, it's not, it's a Jagdish cat up. Well, he says, he's saying this about another sanger, but I think we could apply it to ourselves. He says, we're like a troop of monkeys dancing on a treasure, the value of which we do not understand. And I often remember, I often think of that. Am I just a monkey dancing on a treasure, the value of which I do not understand? And I think that every time I go into a beginner's course, you know, here is a treasure. Do I really value it enough? Or do I have the supreme arrogance to think I know it all before? Another aphorism of sanger esters is no higher teachings, only deeper understandings. So in a way, well, what we need to do in our practice is if we really wanna take on more teachings, if we really wanna practice the Dharma, we need to go back to things like ethics and we need to stop them becoming dry and stagnant. If you feel like you are becoming a bit dry, if you feel like you're losing your inspiration or you're flagging a bit, well, I have a very good suggestion for you and that is that you come and support a beginner's course and you go right back to the beginning and just see, oh, yeah, well, this is what it's all about. And it's a very, very inspiring thing to do. I've never felt like, you know, not this, not the gap again, you know, the five precepts again. You know, can't we go on to the kind of then, I don't know, mantras in the white tarasadna or something like that? No, actually, in a way, it's really good to go back over those old teachings and really reflect on them. As Sangarakshi says, he says, "Make back to the beginning your watchword. "Keep going back to what you think you understand. "What is so straightforward that you never think twice "about it and consider it. "Reflect on how it bears on your experience of life "and practice as a Buddhist." So go back, go back to what you think you understand, go back to what you dismissed of, oh, yeah, I know that, and really reflect on it, consider it, and see how it affects your life and your practice as a Buddhist. And that's what Paramasambha does. He says, okay, you want those higher teachings. Well, you need to go back. You need to go back to the precepts and really understand what they mean. And when she also has higher teachings, he shows her how to view those prehe precepts and the full extent of how the precepts should be practiced. So that's what I'm gonna do this evening, is just go and look at this phrase that he gave her. So he says, externally, one should look upon the precepts as one looks upon one's lord, one's parents, and one's best friend. So I think in a general sense, what we can take from this is that we develop ethics in our social interactions. We need other people to develop ethics. That's the first thing to say. So anyway, maybe we particularly need those slightly irritating beings to perfect our ethics. So we do that in a social sense. We need other people to help us. It's not something that you can really do on your own. You need the testing ground of other beings to really test how your loving kindness is going or whatever. In your practice of generosity, well, it's a bit difficult to practice generosity on your own. I mean, you could try and practice it things like mosquitoes by not killing them, but really it will be better to have other people to practice with. So you need to do it with others. But also you need the support of others. You need the support of others to practice ethics. And I was thinking about this. Well, if you view the precepts as one looks upon one's lord, one's parents and one's best friend, well, how does one look upon one's lord, parents and best friend? And of course, the first issue that arises is that I don't actually have a lord, which is good. So I'm going to take as this as my lord, and I'm sure she won't mind, but hopefully she'll never listen to this talk, is my preceptor, my tree, the woman who ordained me privately and who gave me my name. So she's for the purposes of this evening's talk, she is my lord. Or would it be lady? Not quite sure. Anyway, so she gave me the ten precepts, the ten precepts that you take at ordination. She gave me those precepts at the time of my ordination. She's in fact my preceptor, which someone pointed out to me the other day, does actually mean someone who gives you the precepts. And when I bring my tree to mind, what I write is naturally is a great gratitude, actually, a lot of gratitude to my tree. And what comes to mind is endless walks at T-Rattler Loco, where I kind of spilled out my heart and she listened and offered me sensible advice. And I used to write her these long rambly letters and she used to reply, which was nice and she still does write me letters. And then at one point, she decided, yes, I am ready for ordination. I was ready for ordination. And she took it upon herself to give me the time and energy to help that entry into the order, to witness my readiness for ordination. And introduce me to the 10 ethical precepts. So when I think of her, I'm incredibly grateful to that care that she took over me, because she took of me. And actually for her seeing my potential, that she actually saw what I could become and she related to that potential. So no matter how mad I was, however, in my early 20s, and how many mistakes I made, I mean, sometimes I think of the things that I said to her and it's just so embarrassing. Oh gosh, you know, but she always had faith in me. She always had faith that I could get ordained, I would get ordained and she wanted to help me with that. And it's an interesting relationship with your preceptor 'cause it's not like your buddies or something. It's like, I've never gone to the pub with my tray or watch TV or something like that. It's more like, well, you try and you're, it's a relationship based on your Buddhist practice, your sincere commitment to the spiritual life. And the relationship has that flavor. And in the end, what happens is she brings out, because she can see the best in me, she brings out the best in me. So I'm always very aware, she's very good to my tray, apart from the fact she's very beautiful and she walks in this incredibly mindful way with this amazing posture, which I just think is great. So it encourages me to be mindful, but she's also got very good speech precepts and there's been a number of the times that she said to me, so valgatory, is that actually true? I think it wasn't a hundred people that sang a night, but yeah, no, maybe not quite that many, but you know, the flavor it was true. And, you know, so yes, is that true? She encourages me in my, particularly in my speech precepts and she's given me a lot of encouragement and support over the years. And also she gave me my name. So my name contains two things. It contains a glimpse of my potential, but it also contains a precept that I need to work on, a kind of ethical advice, a piece of advice to help me act in accordance with my potential. So she said to me, I looked this up 'cause she'd written it all down. And she said, "Vajatara has a clarity of mind "and a key in intelligence and a passion for study "in teaching the dharma." So that's the Vajra part. Vajra meaning diamond thunderbolt. And it's a symbol for reality. But her motivation for that is not mainly intellectual. It comes from a strong desire to help alleviate suffering both for herself and others. So that's the tara part. Tara means saviors. So it's a combination of both sort of intelligence, power, clarity, but also in compassion in response to suffering. But what she said to me, she said, "Well, it's very important that the Vajra comes first "because the Vajra describes the tara. "And the way I see that is that the Vajra "is subordinate to the tara." In other words, clarity and intelligence strength and power is used to alleviate suffering and not for its own sake. So there was a little precept in there which is that the response to suffering comes first. That's your job in life. And you can use those qualities of clarity and intelligence and a certain amount of sort of strength in pursuit of alleviation of suffering but not for its own sake. So it was both a precept and a description of my potential. So I'm very grateful to her and she's taught me quite a lot, both about ethics but also about relating to my potential, seeing my potential. And my parents, well, when I bring my parents to mind, again, a lot of gratitude arises. My parents are very, very good people and have a very good relationship with my parents. It's not always easy, but no one's is. But it's very good, it's very positive. And my parents are brilliant because they introduce me to a lot of culture. They really supported me in my education. They introduced me to art, to theatre and poetry from a very early age to music. Our house was always full of music and they're very, very supportive people. But most of all, they taught me that actions have consequences. And I'm very grateful to us. They never protected me from the consequences of my actions. And that's a good thing because I was very naughty. And I was thinking about the 101 incidents I could relate to you, but maybe I'll just keep it to this. When I was 10, I decided to, that was my kind of drinking phase. And I decided with my best friend to go and drink a lot of my dad's wine. And I was exceptionally ill, like really ill. 10-year-old getting drunk and drinking a bottle of wine. Well, actually, two bottles of wine, mostly between two of us, does not make me very well. And what was good about that was after I'd kind of vomited everywhere and shouted and raved. They never punished me for that. They never punished me, they never shouted at me. They just let me stew. And what they let me stew in was my own shame. They knew I had enough of shame to an embarrassment about that event, to not have to shout at me at all, to not have to punish me, but neither did they protect me from the consequences of their actions. They did make me clean up my own vomit. And they made me go and find the wine bottles that I'd thrown into the sewage stream to bring them back to my dad. And yes, they did make me go to summer camp the next day with the most horrendous hangover I have ever had in my whole life. And yes, it did pretty much put me all drinking forever. So they were good like that. When I was arrested for shoplifting, when I was expelled from my school, never did they try and punish me or shout or the other extreme try and protect me for it, make it from it and make it all right. They never made it all right. They just let me know the consequences of my actions and let me stew. And that'd be quite difficult 'cause I'd kind of want to go, oh, no, don't worry about it, you know, children, they do mad things, you know, doesn't really matter, it will sort it out. They didn't do that at all. They just let me stew. And all they ever expected from me was the truth. And the other thing that they did for me was that even through letting me stew in my own shame, they always loved me. I always knew I had their love and support and that they weren't going to abandon me. Through all that, those madness, going to live in a squat, running off with someone who was 15 years old in the me when I was 18, no, they never abandoned me, my parents. They came and picked me up in their car whenever they all went wrong. So yes, they never abandoned me, my parents. And they taught me that actions have consequences. And my best friend, well, my best friend I've known since I was born, well, she was born, is a woman called Claudia. And she always pointed to me my failings even with a great sense of humour and a great directness, she's very direct. And I didn't mind because she could be direct, as direct with me as she liked because I always knew that she loves me and that she see me at my worst, she see me at my best and she continues to love me. And she continues to be proud of me and support me in what I'm doing. Which is a big thing actually because she's not a Buddhist, but she's still very, very supportive. And I remember what she used to say to me, she had this little phrase, which is quite a good phrase, it's probably why I'm a Buddhist. When I was being a bit selfish or moaning or yabbing on about myself, she'd look at me and then she'd go, "Hmm, I see you have a little case "of meitis today." (laughing) So I always quite appreciate that. And sometimes when I catch myself going on and on and on about myself and treating myself as, "Oh, so important." I think to myself, "Oh yeah, I've got a bit "of a case of meitis." So this is what happens when we think of our preceptor, when we think of our parents hopefully, and our best friend. Well, what arises and what arose for yeshae sogail is gratitude and a desire to act our best. Your parents, your best friend, your preceptor, they see you at your best, they relate to your potential and they love you and that makes you want to act your best. You want to act up to your potential. You don't want to let them down. And in Sanskrit, that state of mind is called apotropia. An apotropia means respect for wise opinion. It's not about conforming to other people's expectations. It's not about guilt or fear that they're going to withdraw their love. But it's about living up to the good opinion that the people that we respect have for us. That's what it means. Now, everyone's got a different relationship with their parents and I feel particularly fortunate in my life, but this is the mental state it's getting at. We should look upon ethics as our wise guides, our wise counsel. And, you know, if we act badly, it's not that we should fear punishment or anger, but whether we should feel ashamed when we think of the people who really love us, ashamed when we think of our spiritual friends, because we know that they want us to act out our potential. And if we act out our potential, then they'll be pleased. So, yeah, they're going to be hurt if we don't act out in accordance with our ideals. So that's what apotropia means. It has this respect for wise opinion. And it basically means that it's the people who love us that can help guide us in our ethics. And the precepts are like that. They're wise counsel. They're wise guides in our practice of ethics. So, internally, and internally in this context, means looking at it a little bit deeper. One should look upon the precepts as one's eyes, one's heart, one's life itself. So your eyes, your heart, your life. And Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, emphasizes how precious this human life is. It's very rare among all the creatures that there are in this cosmos, all the ants, all the birds, all the mosquitoes, all the ghosts, all those myriads of creatures that we should be born humans, very fortunate. And human life is very fortunate because it's particularly advantageous for the spiritual life. Being human means that we've got self-consciousness. We can reflect on our experience and because we can reflect on our experience, because we can reflect on the Buddhist teachings, we can see into reality. So human life is the best life to have. It's the best life to have because it's the vehicle by which enlightenment can be realized. And this view of human life is very precious, gives us great confidence that we can use our human experience as a vehicle to enlightenment. In Mother of Knowledge, which is the biography of Yeshe Sogil, the precious human birth is compared to a golden tree, a precious jewel. It means that if you use this body well, it will bestow great riches. And that's the same as ethics. Ethics are a means to our own development. If we use those precepts well, they can take us all the way to enlightenment. They're the golden tree and the precious jewel. But it also means that our life is precious to us because it's essential to us. It's who we are. And viewing ethics as one's eyes, one's heart, one's life itself is saying that ethics are inseparable from us. Ethics are inseparable for a set from a sense of ourselves. And to give up my ethics, to give up my higher values, to give up even those precepts would be to die, either literally or metaphorically. If I couldn't act by the precepts, if I couldn't act by what's of highest value to me, well, in a way, I will be dead. My whole sense of myself will be undermined. And I'll be unsure of what I could do. As Sanger Auchadis says, he says, "I believe that humanity is basically one. "I believe that it is possible for any human being "to be friends with any other human being. "This belief is part of my own experience. "It is part of my own life. "It is part of me. "I cannot live without this belief "and I would rather die than give it up." So in a way, these are ethical principles of who we are. And one should view the precepts as essential to oneself, essential to one's very being. And in the Sanskrit, a sense of this is given in the word hri, which means shame. And it's a shame as a state that arises when our values and our ethical standards comes into contact with the fact that we don't always act up to our ethical standards. And we don't always act out our values. And when that happens, there's collision of those two great forces, our values, our ethical precepts, and our unskillful behaviour. When those forces collide, we feel a sense of shame. And in Buddhism, that's very, very positive, because what it means is that you're more likely to act skillfully in the future. And it's not about guilt again. It's not about fear of punishment. It's about acting out of our own ethical sensibilities. And this is very important, along with Apatrapia, it's known as the guardian of the world. It guards us from unskillful behaviour. And what it shows is that we all have an innate ethical sense. And that's what Buddhism draws out. It draws out our own innate ethical sense. It's not about saying, well, you know, the Buddha said you've got to do all these things and he's right, so you've got to do them. The Buddha was drawing out something that's essential to us, something that's deep within us, and that what we need to do is uncover it and let it shine. And I don't know about other people, but when I first came across Buddhist ethics, what I actually felt was an enormous sense of relief, because I was being given the permission to do something that was very, very important to me. When so much of society is about, you know, buy more, drink more, get more sex, to be told, well, that's not important. What's actually important is that you behave with love and kindness. Well, to hear that was just such a relief because I knew I was hearing the truth. And I knew I was hearing the truth, not because, you know, some Indian bloke two and a half thousand years ago said it, but I knew it was the truth because it was my own, it was reflecting my own deepest values. And that's again and again in the Pali scriptures, what the Buddha draws out. He draws out your own ethical values that are there, but they just need encouragement and they just need to be somewhat polished, I think. So yes, so ethics should be viewed as essential to ourselves, essential to our own development, our very heart, our very life, our very eyes. So, just in case you've got what eyes look like. So going for refuge or commitment to the Three Jewels, this is a quote from Bante, Sangereshta. It's going for refuge or commitment to the Three Jewels is one's lifeblood as a Buddhist, observance of the precepts represents the circulation of that blood through every fiber of one's being. So your commitment is your heart, your heart's value, and the precepts are what circulate the blood from your heart round your body into all aspects of your behavior. So very important. And then secretly one should look upon the precepts as one's tutelery deities. So secretly means in this context at the deepest level, at the very, very foundation, the very secret, the very deepest level. One should look upon the precepts as one's tutelery deities. And tutelery deities, particularly in this tradition of Buddhism is probably a translation of Yiddam. So what that means is that, for example, in our own order, at ordination, you're given a Buddha or a Bodhisattva figure, an archetypal figure to visualize. And as you visualize that figure, what becomes revealed to you is reality itself. So that figure becomes a bridge between you and reality. In a way it demonstrates reality. It reveals reality by its very form made out of light and emerging in a blue sky. And what you do is you visualize this form and you're drawn upwards, you're drawn towards enlightenment and maybe reality starts to be revealed to you through this very symbolic form. Just to bring you in a bit of Sufism. It's a bit like Sufism talks about a veil between you and reality. So reality all at once or reality is beyond words and concepts. It's indescribable. It's too much for us all at once. So what we need is a kind of stage between. We need a veil behind which we can glimpse reality. And that's what a Yiddam is in the Buddhist tradition. It's almost like a veil behind which you can start to glimpse reality. And ethics and ethical precepts are also that veil. Behind those ethical precepts you can start to glimpse reality. They lead you to reality, they demonstrate reality. I remember being on solitary retreat once and I did all this study all day and then I'd go and I'd do my practice of visualizing my tutoring, deity or Yiddam. And what I'd realized that all the study that I had done was being demonstrated in a different way in a more symbolic language, if you like. And maybe ethics also have this. They lead you to reality. They demonstrate reality, but in a different way, in a more practical way. As the Dharma says, Dharmapada says, "Acting ethically, one enjoys the rapturous flavour of the truth." So that's what the precepts are. They're enjoying the rapturous flavour of the truth. Well, what is the truth and what is reality? What are they trying to demonstrate? And I suppose the main principle is interconnectedness, that we're not separate beings. And ethical precepts are all designed to bring you on to the realisation that actually what I do affects not only me, but you also. It affects even the world itself. That we're not separate, we're not isolated, we're not living in a small bubble. And it does matter what I do, both positively and negatively. It's trying to, the ethical precepts, draw you onto this truth that in effect, what we're doing is we're always creating our experience, we're always creating the world we live in, and we're always creating each other, more importantly. So who we are is a product of our own and others ethical behaviour. And our ethical behaviour is constantly creating the world. Maybe we can see that in a small way, that if we act ethically, even in a small way, it has such an incredibly positive effect on those around us. Even smiling at someone when we don't feel like smiling, it has an incredibly positive effect, even deciding to wash up the cups, even when they're not your cups, has a really positive effect on other beings. And in a way, if we can get that in a small sense, just by a practice of generosity and just seeing what effect that practice has, well, we can start to understand how big that process is, how linked we all are and how efficacious all our actions are, what effect they really, really have in reality, in the world around us and on other people. But there's something a little bit more than that. And I really, I have to say, I really hate talking about reality, part of the fact I don't really understand it, but also because how can you explain reality? You know, that's just bombing. But anyway, I was trying to think, I've got a very strong sense of something else, of another part of reality that ethical precepts reveal. And it's something like this, that if I've got potential, if I've got potential to realize enlightenment and by acting ethically, I'll start to realize enlightenment. I'll start to act more in line with my potential. Well, if that's true for me, then it's also true of everyone else. And everyone has got potential. And if everybody act ethically, they would also realize their potential as well as me. So maybe a better way of putting it will be this, that actually ethical precepts come from a vision. They come from a vision of reality that's like this, that all beings can be budders. All beings have the potential for enlightenment. And that's what we essentially are. We're essentially beings in momentum who are always changing, who are always trying to develop towards enlightenment. And that's what life is about. It's about development. It's about change and the potential for change in a positive direction. So, and this is what I'm trying to talk quite a lot about. I don't really understand it, but it's very important. He said that in a way, this is the core of existence. The core of existence is to grow and to evolve and to develop. That's what existence is all about. And it doesn't mean to say that we're always developing all the time, but what it means to say is there's that potential in everything. In everything, there's the potential towards growth. And that's fundamentally what life is about. It's about supporting and developing that potential towards growth. In the mother of knowledge, this vision is shown to Yesheh Soggiel by Padma Samava, who tells her to regard all beings as male and female budders and the world as a heavenly palace. And if you think about it like that, well, what effect would it have on you if you regarded all beings as budders and the world as a heavenly palace? Well, what would happen? And I have had some sense of this, actually, because I used to walk to work doing mantras. And I had this experience at one time where everything seemed to me to be a manifestation of Tara. It was a little odd. But it just seemed very clear to me, oh, yeah, everything's a kind of manifestation of reality. Everything's a manifestation of Tara. And what effect that has is, well, if you saw everything, we're going back to Yesheh Soggiel, if you saw everything as all the world as a heavenly palace and all beings as budders, well, what would you do? You'd have profound reverence and profound care to everyone and everything. You'd treat everything with great amount of attention, a great amount of care, and in a way, even reverence and respect. You'd also have a great desire to serve beings. You'd have a great desire to serve them because they're budders. And so this is what the precepts do in a way. What ends up happening is that you start to serve beings because they have the potential for Buddhahood. And not only do you not want to get in their way of achieving Buddhahood, so part of the precepts is just about not getting in other people's way, not getting in front of other people's development, but it's also about encouraging that development and supporting that development. So ethical precepts enables ourselves and others to grow. It stops getting in the way of other people's growth, and it actually draws on the growth, supports the growth of other people. And what ends up happening is we start to become a very positive force in the universe. We become a very positive force for the good in the universe, a positive force in the universe. And this is called, since we're on a bit of a role with our Sanskrit, this is called the Bodhi Chitta. And the Bodhi Chitta is when one's heart and one's mind is completely absorbed in the development of ourselves and others. We become a force for the good. So that everything you do, every positive action that you make, whether it's cleaning the dirty cups, smiling at someone when you don't exactly feeling it, like it, feel like it, every act of generosity, every act of love and kindness, no matter how small, is actually part of the growth of the universe. It's actually acting in line with reality. It's acting in harmony with reality. It's acting in harmony with the growth of all beings. And not only does it not get in the way of other beings, it actually supports the growth of other beings. So that's what ethics are in a way in their ultimate sense. They're about, they're a positive acting in line with reality, and they're acting as a positive force in the universe, taking part in this kind of flood of positivity in the universe, which finally takes its expression in the Bodhi Chitta. But OK, well, that's when you really, really realize, when you really fully become part of that positive force in the universe. But actually, with every ethical step that you make, you make some small part in that positive force. So yes, ethical precepts are one's tutelery deities. They point out reality to you. They're actions that accord with reality. They're in harmony with reality. And enable, if you act in line with reality, you realize reality. If you act as a Buddha, you become a Buddha. If you act as a Bodhi Sattva, you become a Bodhi Sattva. And a Bodhi Sattva, a Buddha, act in harmony with the way things are. So ethical precepts will do that. They'll draw you onto an understanding of internet connectedness. And they'll draw you onto the Bodhi Chitta. So the main teaching, just to sum up, the main teaching that pamma sambhava gives yeshe sogail is to look deeper. Take those very simple teachings, like ethics, and really examine what they mean in practice. Really examining what they are in reality and what the reality is that they're pointing to. What pamma sambhava is essentially saying to your yeshe sogail is that there's no higher teachings, only deeper understandings. And basic teachings are not basic teachings because they can be left behind, but because they need to be constantly maintained. So I'm just gonna end up by a little poem what I wrote. So I'm not gonna say that it's gonna go in the book of the greatest Buddhist poetry of the 21st century. In fact, I'll probably throw it in the bin when I get home, but it just gives you a bit of a sentiment about how I feel about ethics. And I wrote it on retreat. So this is Vajatara's tantric song of the ethical precepts. What joy could equal this? A priceless treasure, my gracious teacher bestowed on to me. The very heart essence of all the teachings as precious to me as my life itself. Just as my gratitude to my teacher has no bounds, just as my love for my parents has no limit. So I should regard these profound precepts as my dearest spiritual friends. When I think of my yiddam, arising from the mystery of the blue sky, I naturally long for the taste of bliss and marvel at the wisdom sutras revealed. So I should regard these profound precepts as the great son of the dharma banishing the clouds of ignorance. What joy could equal this? The key to reality is found in my hands. - We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
