Translated by Sangye Khandro
December 29, 2018
[Transcribed from the video by Tara Carreon]
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Wesley was a powerful and moving preacher, and it was an essential part of his message to put his audience vividly in mind of the eternity of agonized suffering in the flames of hell which awaited them, if they did not sincerely repent and resolve to lead a changed life. Some of those who heard this message were terror-stricken and ‘pierced to the heart’. They groaned and cried out, writhing, shuddering, pouring with sweat, struggling in agony of mind for hour after hour in some cases, until they collapsed. They would then come round with a profound sense of release and change. They said that their old sinful ways had somehow lost their hold on them, that they now saw things in an entirely new light and were ready to lead a new life, to adopt values and standards quite different from, and indeed diametrically opposed to, their previous values. Not only had their old patterns of thinking been violently disrupted, but they had evidently become far more suggestible and open to persuasion about the new patterns which should take place.
-- The Mind Possessed: A Physiology of Possession, Mysticism and Faith Healing, by William Sargant
So, just as the dharma is profound, then we should also keep in mind that demonic forces can be just as profound.
So we’re also facing many obstacles that have come up here just recently that all of us need to be careful about. When you think about it these days, you are all disciples of Sogyal Rinpoche, and so were the eight people who put their names on the letter that they issued. But whether they really know it or not, then that was really an attempt to not only disparage the Master, but try to destroy him and everything that he’s done. And that’s something that really, really makes me feel upset, and upsets everyone else, too.
This kind of activity is so completely unnecessary. Why? Because it’s so detrimental to the doctrine. From a spiritual point of view it goes against every aspect of dharma. And from a worldly point of view, it also is so disrespectful and unnecessary. And also instilling doubt and wrong view in the minds of so many disciples, unnecessarily, to the point where they may even turn their minds away from the dharma for good. Imagine that! Imagine doing something that would cause that kind of result, or repercussion.
In fact, it falls into the category of the five heinous nonvirtues: slandering the sangha. And these nonvirtues occurred at the time of Buddha’s life. That’s why they are put into categories and mentioned as the worst crimes of all, the worst sins of all. And all other broken vows became the vows to abstain from.
So just like that, among them all, due to the historical account of what happened during Buddha’s own life, this is placed as one of the five heinous crimes, to slander or cause division in the sangha, to divide the sangha.
So that means what happens is you are causing a disciple of dharma to doubt the grounds and paths of Buddha’s teachings. And it makes an obstacle towards their accomplishment of liberation. And it also causes many, many others to be led away from the path of liberation right along with them.
And so not only that, it makes everyone uncomfortable. It makes everyone unhappy. It’s nothing but negative. And so it is just the poorest choice that they could have made forever.
And so unlike that, I know that all of you have tremendous faith and devotion in the Master. And I can feel it. It’s obvious. And so you must maintain that as much as you possibly can. And try to always use the methods to increase your faith and devotion. That’s very important. Once you rely upon a teacher to the degree that you have all relied, and they did too, you should no matter what happens, you’re supposed to apply the methods of dharma teachings to increase your faith and devotion. Because that’s benefiting you. The teacher is there to benefit you, not himself or herself.
And so in this case, all of this that is happening to the Rigpa sangha, to Sogyal Rinpoche, it is an obstacle for the entire doctrine. Not only just one person, not only just one sangha, but the entire Buddhist doctrine. And it’s really such a shame. So unnecessary.
Matthew was my friend and student. Actually, I really thought of him as having a very good and kind heart. I thought of him as a good person. And I’ve known him for many years. I’ve given him many profound dharma teachings. And of course he’s probably been Sogyal Rinpoche’s student even many more years than that, and received many teachings. So just because he may have thought he was physically harmed on one occasion, and was offended by it, is it really worth it to do what he’s done as a retribution? Is it really worth it?
I think it’s more like it’s so kind of unusually surprising, it’s more like the rising up of the maras, the demonic forces. And this is well known in dharma that these obstacles come when something is going really well. And so I think that it’s somehow the magical play of nonhuman entities more than the humans that we’re pinning it on. There’s more to this.
And also Damcho, in terms of her, she was also close to me. I thought she had an excellent character. She seemed to have tremendous faith in the teacher. And I can’t hear that her name is on this list. It’s impossible to even imagine. How could it be the same person? It’s hard to even believe. Unbelievable! So that’s why I think this is maybe the magical manifestation of non-human entities, trying to destroy the doctrine: in general Buddhism, in particular Nyingmapa, and especially the Rigpa sangha.
And so what we need to do now is neutralize this. Just neutralize. Go into evenness. And with faith towards the Master and dharma, lift ourselves up, and be even stronger than ever before, with faith in this doctrine of the Dzogpachenpo more than ever before. And to inspire others with our example in this way.
This is not a doctrine that’s new. This is thousands of years old. It is time-tested material. It delivers liberation to countless practitioners, and has actually cultivated countless realized accomplished masters and scholars. We can have confidence in every single word of the doctrine.
And so that’s what we need to learn. That’s what we need to practice. That’s what we need to have faith and devotion in. We don’t need to have faith and devotion in some lama coming along and making up his or her own idea, and because you like that, then you have faith for a while. Because that’s going to fall apart. But this is time-tested. This doctrine that you’ve connected to, that Sogyal Rinpoche has connected you to, gives you all the material you need to be liberated, and bring others along that path. So always try to be in harmony with whatever dharma says, and never go off track just following your own whims or the customs of modern society.
And so I’m telling all of you this because I know you have faith. And I’m hoping you will spread the word of what I am saying. And therefore, in this way, it is your responsibility to let everyone know how they should approach this obstacle and deal with it in their own minds and hearts as a sangha community. And anything that makes people unhappy in this and future lifetimes, whatever you do that is negative like that in this life, it will bring you unhappiness. But you can be assured that in the next life the karmic ripening is going to occur. Whatever we do that is negative, if it doesn’t ripen up in this life, it will at some time or another. So we have to be very careful about all of our actions, thoughts, and words.
And so we shouldn’t do things that are harmful to others and that are not beneficial, and that we get nothing from doing. And that’s exactly what they have done. There is no positive result any way you look at it. There’s no benefit, and there’s only a disturbance of thousands and thousands of people unnecessarily. It’s so meaningless.
And so, in order to pacify these demons, then we should practice according to the sutra and mantra tradition to the best of our ability, to hold up this tradition in this life and beyond, with pure aspirations and excellent conduct, the prayer for excellent conduct. We should try our best, at least to be reborn miraculously in a nirmanakaya pure realm, if not liberated before that.
So please think in this way carefully.
And I had all of these thoughts that I wanted to share with you when I got here, and while I’ve been here, too, but because when I’m teaching I don’t mix this kind of thought process with the transmission, now that the transmission is complete, I had the opportunity to share with you sincerely from my heart. I’m sorry if I’ve gone overtime.
[Audience clapping]